this way to the egress by andrew fetler he heard children's voices, but there couldn't be any children--not in that terrible place! [transcriber's note: this etext was produced from worlds of if science fiction, january 1963. extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the u.s. copyright on this publication was renewed.] "in the middle of the night," the man said to the landlady over a soft-boiled egg and a slice of toast. "right under my window." he leaned forward. "you know how children talk to themselves?" "was it the same voice you heard the first two nights?" mrs. tilton asked. "i'm not sure now about the first night. might have been another voice that first night." "and now it was a child?" "yes." mrs. tilton rose to get the coffee. "are you quite sure?" "you don't think i'm imagining?" "we have no children," she said. "a neighbor's, no doubt." "there isn't a child in the whole village, mr. coat." "that's what puzzles me. don't you think we ought to report it?" "i'll get your coffee," she said, and went into the kitchen. "i didn't actually _see_ the child," he called to her. "but i'm sure i heard the voice." the woman brought the cup of coffee; she had poured it in the kitchen. the first two mornings, he remembered, she had set the coffee pot on the table. "aren't you having any?" he asked. "i had mine, thank you. will you want anything else?" he could see past her into the kitchen--the corner of a large wood-burning stove and a row of brass pots. the floor was flagstoned and a hand pump stood over a sink. "do you really grow your own strawberries?" he asked. "yes. would you like some?" "very much." mrs. tilton went to get the berries. she had forgotten to serve cream with the coffee. the coffee had a bitter taste and a faint smell of iodine. but he was not used to natural coffee. and without cream. he took another sip and slowly stretched his stiff legs. in the window he saw lilac bushes in bloom. "picked this morning," mrs. tilton said, setting a bowl of strawberries before him. "oh, thank you." he sniffed at the berries. "they smell of earth," he said, smiling at her. "you might like a walk after breakfast," mrs. tilton suggested. "then you can have a restful nap at noon." "good idea," he said. "excuse me, but the coffee seems bitter." mrs. tilton looked at the old man as if she did not understand. "i'm afraid i'm a nuisance," he apologized, "but i take cream with my coffee." "i'm sorry, i forgot." she brought a small cream pitcher. * * * * * the old man turned the pitcher in his hand. it was lopsided and made of inferior clay "do you make your own pottery, too?" "such as it is." "charming." he set down the pitcher and leaned back with a sigh. "you know, i pretended i did not want a rest, but i could hardly wait to see the country again." "you weren't born in the city?" "i was born in a village no larger than this. of course it's all gone now, swallowed up by the city. but in those days it was an hour's heliride from the city. i remember a thing or two." mrs. tilton watched him drink the coffee. "not many people left who remember those days," he said. "for instance, did you know that unadjustables--they called them criminals then--were actually electrocuted? strapped down to a horrible chair--" "don't you want the strawberries, mr. coat?" he looked down at the strawberries in the bowl. "just imagine--" but he forgot what he had wanted to say. the woman went into the kitchen. he had just finished drinking the coffee when he heard the child's voice in the lane outside the window. the same voice. he crossed to the window and looked out. the lane was empty. "mrs. tilton!" he heard no answer. he went into the kitchen. the door to the garden stood open. he saw her working in a vegetable patch. "pst ... pst!" she looked up. "did you see the child?" he called. "it must have turned into the garden." mrs. tilton straightened herself, holding her back with both hands. "the child?" "the voice, i just heard it again." "i'll be with you in a moment, mr. coat." he looked round the kitchen--the antique flagstones, the brass pots, the stove, the hand pump. there was only one anachronism: on the wall by the door, stuck behind a cluster of radishes, was a world union telegram. out in the vegetable patch, he saw mrs. tilton was looking about for something. on an impulse he took down the telegram, and read: recoat if voices persist to third morning proceed euthanasia suggest using coffee formula two advise office of chief psych wma he stuck the telegram behind the radishes and looked out the door. mrs. tilton was coming with a basket on her arm. "you heard the child again, mr. coat?" "perhaps ... i was mistaken." "strange, i saw nobody." she put the basket on the kitchen table; it was filled with peas. "did you have enough coffee?" he nodded. "aren't you feeling well?" "i ... am fine. yes." the executioner looked as if she could not make up her mind about him. then she smiled. she brought out a wooden bowl, and sat down at the table to shell the peas. "why don't you take your walk now? you'll enjoy our little market place." "yes." such a nice day, he thought, shuffling to the window. spring. * * * * * he had enjoyed the market yesterday until he had noticed that there were no children about. no children at all. only adult primitives and a few well-trained functionaries like mrs. tilton. in the sky in the window he saw a rocket cutting a thin line as it left the atmosphere. "i'll have your bed ready for your noon nap," she said. he turned from the window. "noon?" "you'll want a nice restful nap then." he had imagined the poisoned coffee would work faster. his heart beating, he said, "those are peas, aren't they?" she nodded. her hands were busy shelling. "i hung your cane on the coat rack," she said. "if you don't mind, mrs. tilton, i'd rather not go out today. i'd very much like to try shelling peas for you." "why, of course. pull up that chair, why don't you?" sitting down, he reached his trembling hands into the basket and came up with a handful of the green wonders. mrs. tilton moved the basket nearer him. "after a while i'll go up to my room," he promised. "i feel a little tired already." "certainly." he split a shell and slid his thumb under the peas. they rolled into his hand. he counted nine. he dropped them in the bowl, then put one in his mouth and chewed. it had a sweet taste. "thank you, mrs. tilton." "not at all, mr. coat." i, executioner by ted white and terry carr i am the executioner of the law, terrible in my majesty. the doomed felon is--myself! [transcriber's note: this etext was produced from worlds of if science fiction, march 1963. extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the u.s. copyright on this publication was renewed.] i always shook when i came out of the arena, but this time the tension wrapped my stomach in painful knots and salty perspiration stung my neck where i had shaved only a little over an hour earlier. and despite the heavy knot in my stomach. i felt strangely empty. i had never been able to sort out my reactions to an execution. the atmosphere of careful boredom, the strictly business-as-usual air failed to dull my senses as it did for the others. i could always _taste_ the ozone in the air, mixed with the taste of fear--whether mine, or that of the condemned, i never knew. my nostrils always gave an involuntary twitch at the confined odors and i felt an almost claustrophic fear at being packed into the arena with the other nine hundred ninety-nine citizens on execution duty. i had been expecting my notice for several months before it finally came. i hadn't served execution duty for nearly two years. usually it had figured out to every fourteen months or so on rotation, so i'd been ready for it. a little apprehensive--i always am--but ready. at 9:00 in the morning, still only half awake (i'd purposely slept until the last minute), vaguely trying to remember the dream i'd had, i waited in front of the arena for the ordeal to begin. the dream had been something about a knife, an operation. but i couldn't remember whether i'd been the doctor or the patient. our times of arrival had been staggered in our notices, so that a long queue wouldn't tie up traffic, but as usual the checkers were slow, and we were backed up a bit. i didn't like waiting. somehow i've always felt more exposed on the streets, although the brain-scanners must be more plentiful in an arena than almost anywhere else. it's only logical that they should be. the scanners are set up to detect unusual patterns of stress in our brain waves as we pass close to them, and thus to pick out as quickly as possible those with incipient or developing neuroses or psychoses--the potential deviates. and where else would such an aberration be as likely to come out as in the arena? i had moved to the front of the short line. i flashed my notification of duty to the checker, and was waved on in. i found my proper seat on the aisle in the "t" section. it was a relief to sink into its plush depths and look the arena over. once this had been a first-run broadway theater--first a place where great plays were shown, and then later the more degenerate motion pictures. those had been times of vicarious escape from reality--times when the populace ruled, and yet the masses hid their eyes from the world. many things had changed since then, with the coming of regulated sanity and the achievement of world peace. gone now were the black arts of forgetfulness, those media which practiced the enticement of the citizen into irresponsible escape. now this crowded theater was only a reminder. and a place of execution for those who would have sought escape here. * * * * * perhaps thirty people were sitting on the floor of the arena, where once there had been a stage. they sat quietly in chairs not so different from mine, strapped for the moment into a kind of passive conformity. i looked at them with interest. strangeness has as much attraction as the familiar at times. as usual, most of them were young--from about ten to the early twenties. but at whatever age, they were rebels. they were potential enemies of society. criminals. probably some of them hadn't yet realized it. but they were on the verge of anti-social insanity, and the brain-scanners had singled them out. they were so young.... how long does it take a boy to become neurotic, psychotic, dangerous? a flurry of movement at the gates caught my eye. apparently at least one of them was a full-fledged rebel. he struggled furiously, and the three proctors were having an awkward time carrying him into the arena without hurting him. then, as they moved into the floodlights, i saw with a faint shock that it was a girl. she was dressed in man's clothing, but betrayed by her neurotic and unsanitary long hair. long, blonde hair. for a moment i forgot where i was, and allowed myself to revel in this nearly forbidden sight. the soft waves fell halfway down her neck, disarrayed now. the floodlights shined on it, a strangely gentle mockery of sunlight. something within me stirred, and i almost remembered.... then they were strapping her into one of the chairs, carefully pulling the soft leather straps with their attached metal electrodes around her, pinioning her. one set joined her arms to the armrests, another her legs to the specially devised footrests. her tunic was opened, and a third set was passed around her chest, the metal plate fastened just under her left breast. and then she was alone. i stared at her, drawn at first to her hair, and then, as my vision focused across the distance, to her eyes. strange eyes; light blue irises, surrounded by a ring of dark blue, and flecked with gold. they were shining. she had been crying. her eyes seemed to melt, like a pool of clear water growing deeper; i could almost see into them, into the darkness beneath. i was no longer aware of the chair in which i sat ... only of her, alone before me, so close. her eyes widened for just an instant when she recognized me. "_bob._" "_hello, rosebud._" "_i knew you'd be here. i knew._" "_it's been a long time.... i think i was trying to forget._" "_don't,_" she said. "_don't ever forget._" * * * * * sun drenched me, and i was rocked back into time. "hey, you pushed me!" i shouted at her. "yes," said a faint voice, and then, "i'm sorry," the little golden-haired girl said. i sat up. mother was going to be mad at me again, i knew. i wiped the seat of my pants with my hand, and then stared at the muddy hand with interest. "look," i said to her, and showed her my hand. when she stepped forward to look closely at it, i pushed it at her, and smeared mud onto her face. then i laughed.... * * * * * my laughter faded, blending with hers ... and then ... and then we were no longer standing separately in the sun. it was a dark night, the air fresh and cool to my skin, and the leaves of the trees which stretched over us rustled with a faint wind. i laughed again, a soft girlish sound that brought discomfort to the boy's face before me. "your mother says. your father says. don't you ever say anything for yourself, bob?" "look, rosalie, i'm sorry. maybe i just don't think the way you do. my father says sex at our age is just another escape from reality. you've got to face yourself as an adult first. he--" "your father is a bigger nincompoop than you are!" i shouted at him. "i thought you said you loved me. i thought you had some _feelings_ buried under that so-called rational mind of yours! or does your father say you're too young to _love_ somebody?" he tried to say something, but i was right. he pressed his lips together and looked away. i was almost enjoying it now; with deliberate coolness i buttoned up my tunic, feeling the soft fibers on my skin. "how long does it take to love somebody?" i said, but my voice was beginning to tremble. i turned away from his still figure in the night, and began the slow walk back along the path to the house. tears stung my eyes, and spilled onto my cheeks; i started to run through the dark. i slammed the door when i ran in, and went directly to my room. at one end of it was a small studio, where an easel was lit coldly by a fluorescent light. almost blindly i began beating my fists on the still-wet canvas, blurring and then ripping the nearly finished portrait of a young man. * * * * * i was crying quietly when the low, calm voice stopped me on the street. "just a moment, miss." i felt the sudden skip in my heart which signaled danger, and when i turned i saw the light green uniform of a proctor in the vague street light. my eyes were still blurred with tears. i couldn't make out his face. "i'm sorry, but i'll have to ask you a few questions." shielding my face from the light, i tried to make my voice calm. i hoped my homesick tears were hidden, that my cheeks wouldn't glisten in the light. i wanted very badly for him not to see i had been crying. "yes?" "i'll have to know why you're out on the streets at this time of the morning," the proctor said. "there's a curfew, you know. unless you can show cause...." oh god; i had completely forgotten the city's curfew! "i--i'm sorry, officer. i'm new to the city and i didn't realize...." "you're transient? where are you staying?" "the statler dormitory for women," i answered meekly. "and why are you out at this hour, so far from the dorm? that's down near 34th street, almost thirty blocks south." "i know. i couldn't sleep--" his eyes narrowed at that; had i made a mistake? i plunged on: "--and i wanted to see central park. i didn't realize there was any harm...." "i guess not this time, miss, but you'd better get back to your dorm. take this pass." he scribbled a few words on a pad and then detached a slip of green paper for me. "you can take a train down to 34th street. now." "i'd just as soon walk, sir." he stared at me for a moment and then i turned and started for the nearest subway entrance. it had been horrible, those first few days in the dorm. i'd never dreamed that a sane society could be so ... not cruel, but _unthinking_. back home in woodstock we were all supposed to be sane too, but neither father nor mother had ever forced any rigid rules on me. they had let me roam the woods, scuffing the dry leaves in autumn, drinking water from the creeks in my cupped hands. they hadn't objected when i was gone for hours. usually i was just sitting on a log and staring into the sky, and what harm was there in that? they had encouraged my painting. "it's supposed to be a sign of escapism," dad said, "but there are a lot worse ways of escaping." he made an easel for me, and i used tubes of house-paint tint-colors and stretched canvas and burlap over frames dad made. he even gave me a book of reproductions of the old masters that he'd saved. life in woodstock had been pleasant for me, i realized now, even if it had often seemed lonely. i couldn't have told the proctor that i'd really woken up from a dream about bob before i'd gone out walking. i'd seen bob's face so clearly, standing in the night, unable to say anything to me. suddenly it had seemed that my voice was stopped too, and i'd woken up gasping.... i boarded a local train, not caring that an express would be much faster, and began the trip back to my cubicle at the statler dorm. if only they hadn't taken my parents.... * * * * * i had succeeded in setting up a makeshift easel in my room at the dorm, and was working on a painting, wearing some of dad's old clothes, when the proctors broke in. one of them pointed a small indicator at me, glanced at it and nodded. "she's the one. instability and escapism. and look at the kind of clothes she wears." "what are you doing?" i whispered. this was how they'd taken my parents! "you're under detention as a criminal against society. miss," one of the proctors said. "we're all sorry." another one stepped forward and held out a hand to me as one might a child. "come along now." "_no!_" i backed away from them, and when they trapped me in the corner i kicked and screamed at them. "leave me alone, leave me alone! you're killers!" one of them grabbed me and held me around my waist, my arms pinned to my sides. "we're not killers, miss," he said, and his voice was incredibly calm. "we have nothing to do with it." i twisted free and struck at him, tearing skin from his face with my nails. "_weren't my parents enough?_" one of them pointed another device at me, and i blacked out. * * * * * when i came to, i was being carried by three proctors through a door and down a hall. my head was fuzzy and throbbing. i caught a glimpse of a stenciled sign in the corridor, lettered neatly over an arrow pointing in the direction we were going. the words leaped out at me: _execution arena floor_. one of the proctors saw that i was conscious and looked down at me pleasantly. "no sense struggling now," he said. "it'll be over soon." i stared back at him for a moment, not understanding. but then the kindness in his face became clear. he pitied me! the proctors were carrying me as gently as possible, as though i were a dog with a broken leg. i felt incredibly sad, and so tired that i was sure i must suddenly weigh twice as much. but they carried me through the door and out onto the floor of the arena, and there were a thousand people up in the dark waiting for me. there were floodlights on the chairs where the others of the condemned were strapped. they sat quietly, dully, as though they were the executioners and the people above were waiting for _them_ to press the buttons. but it was insane! how could they take it so calmly----were they dead already? did they _want_ to die? or was i really insane? where _was_ the sanity in this arena? i couldn't lie still while they carried me to that chair. i was frightened. i was terrified! they were all so silent, so calm, so kindly. as though nothing at all were happening--nothing at all! i struggled, trying to fight my way free. i kicked and screamed; i had to make some noise in that black silence. but they held me, and strapped me into the chair. and still there was no sound in the arena. i felt a shock, a tension, and i looked up. there, in the audience, sitting before his little panel with the blue light and the red executioner's button, was a young man staring at me. i could feel his stare, like a cool hand touching me. it drew me up, into the dimness.... i felt my eyes widen with recognition. "_bob_," i said. his reply sounded deep inside my mind, "_hello, rosebud._" "_i knew you'd be here_," i said, and then i drew him close to me. "_it's been a long time._" "_don't ever forget_," i said, and opened myself to him at last. * * * * * the lights in the arena dimmed, rose, dimmed again. the first signal i pressed against the straps, but they were firm and unmoving. yet i--we--leaned forward, and watched the panel with its blue light. our stomach was knotted like tight leather cords. the blue light flashed. i reached out a hand to the small red button. the straps bit into our flesh. the panel was dim, ghostly beneath the glaring lights from the dark above. a thousand hands touched a thousand red buttons. one of them was the first to touch the button, the first to complete the circuit. no one knew who he was. no one even knew if every button was connected, but someone touched a button and somewhere the circuit was completed. _shock!_ pain jerked our body rigid! we _screamed_; our skin blistered as hair singed and fell away. and there was a greater shock, a pain somewhere else, as our images cleaved and i fell away from her. i reached out my hand to her, and almost felt her touch ... but my hand was on the button, and she was slumped in her chair on the floor of the arena. i jerked my hand away from the button as though it were hot electricity. my whole body was moist with perspiration. i stared about me, suddenly and deeply frightened. which of us had screamed? i'd felt it surging up in me, felt it tearing at my throat, bursting from my mouth--but next to me the others were unconcernedly waiting for me to rise from my seat so that we could file in an orderly fashion from our places in the arena. they had noticed nothing. when i stood up my legs were trembling. i could still feel where the leather straps had bitten into them. i stepped carefully up the stairs and went out into the morning sunshine. though the floodlights had been bright in the arena, still the sunlight hurt my eyes. i paused at the door, and looked at my ring-watch. it was nine-thirty. only half an hour had passed. how long does it take to destroy a few spoiled lives? it was over. i forced my breathing into a more normal rate and stepped onto the sidewalk. don't think about it, i told myself. after all, it had been years earlier that i had really lost her.... i had almost made it to the corner when i felt the tap on my shoulder, began to turn, saw the green-sleeved arm extending toward me a familiar black indicator, and heard the proctor say: "this is the one. definite case: schizoid condition, latent telepath." "we're all sorry," said another of them. and they led me away to face it again. the recruit by bryce walton it was dirty work, but it would make him a man. and kids had a right to grow up--some of them! [transcriber's note: this etext was produced from worlds of if science fiction, july 1962. extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the u.s. copyright on this publication was renewed.] wayne, unseen, sneered down from the head of the stairs. the old man with his thick neck, thick cigar, evening highball, potgut and bald head without a brain in it. his slim mother with nervously polite smiles and voice fluttering, assuring the old man by her frailty that he was big in the world. they were squareheads one and all, marking moron time in a gray dream. man, was he glad to break out. the old man said, "he'll be okay. let him alone." "but he won't eat. just lies there all the time." "hell," the old man said. "sixteen's a bad time. school over, waiting for the draft and all. he's in between. it's rough." mother clasped her forearms and shook her head once slowly. "we got to let him go, eva. it's a dangerous time. you got to remember about all these dangerous repressed impulses piling up with nowhere to go, like they say. you read the books." "but he's unhappy." "are we specialists? that's the youth board's headache, ain't it? what do we know about adolescent trauma and like that? now get dressed or we'll be late." wayne watched the ritual, grinning. he listened to their purposeless noises, their blabbing and yakking as if they had something to say. blab-blab about the same old bones, and end up chewing them in the same old ways. then they begin all over again. a freak sideshow all the way to nowhere. squareheads going around either unconscious or with eyes looking dead from the millennium in the office waiting to retire into limbo. how come he'd been stuck with parental images like that? one thing--when he was jockeying a rocket to mars or maybe firing the pants off asiatic reds in some steamy gone jungle paradise, he'd forget his punkie origins in teeveeland. but the old man was right on for once about the dangerous repressed impulses. wayne had heard about it often enough. anyway there was no doubt about it when every move he made was a restrained explosion. so he'd waited in his room, and it wasn't easy sweating it out alone waiting for the breakout call from hq. "well, dear, if you say so," mother said, with the old resigned sigh that must make the old man feel like superman with a beerbelly. they heard wayne slouching loosely down the stairs and looked up. "relax," wayne said. "you're not going anywhere tonight." "what, son?" his old man said uneasily. "sure we are. we're going to the movies." he could feel them watching him, waiting; and yet still he didn't answer. somewhere out in suburban grayness a dog barked, then was silent. "okay, go," wayne said. "if you wanta walk. i'm taking the family boltbucket." "but we promised the clemons, dear," his mother said. "hell," wayne said, grinning straight into the old man. "i just got my draft call." he saw the old man's adam's apple move. "oh, my dear boy," mother cried out. "so gimme the keys," wayne said. the old man handed the keys over. his understanding smile was strained, and fear flicked in his sagging eyes. "do be careful, dear," his mother said. she ran toward him as he laughed and shut the door on her. he was still laughing as he whoomed the olds between the pale dead glow of houses and roared up the ramp onto the freeway. ahead was the promising glitter of adventure-calling neon, and he looked up at the high skies of night and his eyes sailed the glaring wonders of escape. * * * * * he burned off some rubber finding a slot in the park-lot. he strode under a sign reading _public youth center no. 947_ and walked casually to the reception desk, where a thin man with sergeant's stripes and a pansy haircut looked out of a pile of paperwork. "where you think you're going, my pretty lad?" wayne grinned down. "higher i hope than a typewriter jockey." "well," the sergeant said. "how tough we are this evening. you have a pass, killer?" "wayne seton. draft call." "oh." the sergeant checked his name off a roster and nodded. he wrote on a slip of paper, handed the pass to wayne. "go to the armory and check out whatever your lusting little heart desires. then report to captain jack, room 307." "thanks, sarge dear," wayne said and took the elevator up to the armory. a tired fat corporal with a naked head blinked up at tall wayne. finally he said, "so make up your mind, bud. think you're the only kid breaking out tonight?" "hold your teeth, pop," wayne said, coolly and slowly lighting a cigarette. "i've decided." the corporal's little eyes studied wayne with malicious amusement. "take it from a vet, bud. sooner you go the better. it's a big city and you're starting late. you can get a cat, not a mouse, and some babes are clever hellcats in a dark alley." "you must be a genius," wayne said. "a corporal with no hair and still a counterboy. i'm impressed. i'm all ears, dad." the corporal sighed wearily. "you can get that balloon head ventilated, bud, and good." wayne's mouth twitched. he leaned across the counter toward the shelves and racks of weapons. "i'll remember that crack when i get my commission." he blew smoke in the corporal's face. "bring me a smith and wesson .38, shoulder holster with spring-clip. and throw in a skelly switchblade for kicks--the six-inch disguised job with the double springs." the corporal waddled back with the revolver and the switchblade disguised in a leather comb case. he checked them on a receipt ledger, while wayne examined the weapons, broke open the revolver, twirled the cylinder and pushed cartridges into the waiting chamber. he slipped the knife from the comb case, flicked open the blade and stared at its gleam in the buttery light as his mouth went dry and the refracted incandescence of it trickled on his brain like melted ice, exciting and scary. he removed his leather jacket. he slung the holster under his left armpit and tested the spring clip release several times, feeling the way the serrated butt dropped into his wet palm. he put his jacket back on and the switchblade case in his pocket. he walked toward the elevator and didn't look back as the corporal said, "good luck, tiger." captain jack moved massively. the big stone-walled office, alive with stuffed lion and tiger and gunracks, seemed to grow smaller. captain jack crossed black-booted legs and whacked a cane at the floor. it had a head shaped like a grinning bear. wayne felt the assured smile die on his face. something seemed to shrink him. if he didn't watch himself he'd begin feeling like a pea among bowling balls. contemptuously amused little eyes glittered at wayne from a shaggy head. shoulders hunched like stuffed sea-bags. "wayne seton," said captain jack as if he were discussing something in a bug collection. "well, well, you're really fired up aren't you? really going out to eat 'em. right, punk?" "yes, sir," wayne said. he ran wet hands down the sides of his chinos. his legs seemed sheathed in lead as he bit inwardly at shrinking fear the way a dog snaps at a wound. you big overblown son, he thought, i'll show you but good who is a punk. they made a guy wait and sweat until he screamed. they kept a guy on the fire until desire leaped in him, ran and billowed and roared until his brain was filled with it. but that wasn't enough. if this muscle-bound creep was such a big boy, what was he doing holding down a desk? "well, this is it, punk. you go the distance or start a butterfly collection." the cane darted up. a blade snicked from the end and stopped an inch from wayne's nose. he jerked up a shaky hand involuntarily and clamped a knuckle-ridged gag to his gasping mouth. captain jack chuckled. "all right, superboy." he handed wayne his passcard. "curfew's off, punk, for 6 hours. you got 6 hours to make out." "yes, sir." "your beast is primed and waiting at the four aces club on the west side. know where that is, punk?" "no, sir, but i'll find it fast." "sure you will, punk," smiled captain jack. "she'll be wearing yellow slacks and a red shirt. black hair, a cute trick. she's with a hefty psycho who eats punks for breakfast. he's butchered five people. they're both on top of the undesirable list, seton. they got to go and they're your key to the stars." "yes, sir," wayne said. "so run along and make out, punk," grinned captain jack. * * * * * a copcar stopped wayne as he started over the bridge, out of bright respectable neon into the murky westside slum over the river. wayne waved the pass card, signed by captain jack, under the cop's quivering nose. the cop shivered and stepped back and waved him on. the olds roared over the bridge as the night's rain blew away. the air through the open window was chill and damp coming from slumville, but wayne felt a cold that wasn't of the night or the wind. he turned off into a rat's warren of the inferiors. lights turned pale, secretive and sparse, the uncared-for streets became rough with pitted potholes, narrow and winding and humid with wet unpleasant smells. wayne's fearful exhilaration increased as he cruised with bated breath through the dark mazes of streets and rickety tenements crawling with the shadows of mysterious promise. he found the alley, dark, a gloom-dripping tunnel. he drove cautiously into it and rolled along, watching. his belly ached with expectancy as he spotted the sick-looking dab of neon wanly sparkling. _four aces club_ he parked across the alley. he got out and stood in shadows, digging the sultry beat of a combo, the wild pulse of drums and spinning brass filtering through windows painted black. he breathed deep, started over, ducked back. a stewbum weaved out of a bank of garbage cans, humming to himself, pulling at a rainsoaked shirt clinging to a pale stick body. he reminded wayne of a slim grub balanced on one end. the stewbum stumbled. his bearded face in dim breaking moonlight had a dirty, greenish tinge as he sensed wayne there. he turned in a grotesque uncoordinated jiggling and his eyes were wide with terror and doom. "i gotta hide, kid. they're on me." wayne's chest rose and his hands curled. the bum's fingers drew at the air like white talons. "help me, kid." he turned with a scratchy cry and retreated before the sudden blast of headlights from a cad bulleting into the alley. the cad rushed past wayne and he felt the engine-hot fumes against his legs. tires squealed. the cad stopped and a teener in black jacket jumped out and crouched as he began stalking the old rummy. "this is him! this is him all right," the teener yelled, and one hand came up swinging a baseball bat. a head bobbed out of the cad window and giggled. the fumble-footed rummy tried to run and plopped on wet pavement. the teener moved in, while a faint odor of burnt rubber hovered in the air as the cad cruised in a slow follow-up. wayne's breath quickened as he watched, feeling somehow blank wonder at finding himself there, free and breaking out at last with no curfew and no law but his own. he felt as though he couldn't stop anything. living seemed directionless, but he still would go with it regardless, until something dropped off or blew to hell like a hot light-bulb. he held his breath, waiting. his body was tensed and rigid as he moved in spirit with the hunting teener, an omniscient shadow with a hunting license and a ghetto jungle twenty miles deep. the crawling stewbum screamed as the baseball bat whacked. the teener laughed. wayne wanted to shout. he opened his mouth, but the yell clogged up somewhere, so that he remained soundless yet with his mouth still open as he heard the payoff thuds where the useless wino curled up with stick arms over his rheumy face. the teener laughed, tossed the bat away and began jumping up and down with his hobnailed, mail-order air force boots. then he ran into the cad. a hootch bottle soared out, made a brittle tink-tink of falling glass. "go, man!" the cad wooshed by. it made a sort of hollow sucking noise as it bounced over the old man twice. then the finlights diminished like bright wind-blown sparks. wayne walked over and sneered down at the human garbage lying in scummed rain pools. the smell of raw violence, the scent of blood, made his heart thump like a trapped rubber ball in a cage. he hurried into the four aces, drawn by an exhilarating vision ... and pursued by the hollow haunting fears of his own desires. * * * * * he walked through the wavering haze of smoke and liquored dizziness and stood until his eyes learned the dark. he spotted her red shirt and yellow legs over in the corner above a murky lighted table. he walked toward her, watching her little subhuman pixie face lift. the eyes widened with exciting terror, turned even paler behind a red slash of sensuous mouth. briefed and waiting, primed and eager for running, she recognized her pursuer at once. he sat at a table near her, watching and grinning and seeing her squirm. she sat in that slightly baffled, fearful and uncomprehending attitude of being motionless, as though they were all actors performing in a weirdo drama being staged in that smoky thick-aired dive. wayne smiled with wry superiority at the redheaded psycho in a dirty t-shirt, a big bruiser with a gorilla face. he was tussling his mouse heavy. "what's yours, teener?" the slug-faced waiter asked. "bring me a crusher, buddyroo," wayne said, and flashed his pass card. "sure, teener." red nuzzled the mouse's neck and made drooly noises. wayne watched and fed on the promising terror and helplessness of her hunted face. she sat rigid, eyes fixed on wayne like balls of frozen glass. red looked up and stared straight at wayne with eyes like black buttons imbedded in the waxlike skin of his face. then he grinned all on one side. one huge hand scratched across the wet table top like a furious cat's. wayne returned the challenging move but felt a nervous twitch jerk at his lips. a numbness covered his brain like a film as he concentrated on staring down red the psycho. but red kept looking, his eyes bright but dead. then he began struggling it up again with the scared little mouse. the waiter sat the crusher down. wayne signed a chit; tonight he was in the pay of the state. "what else, teener?" "one thing. fade." "sure, teener," the waiter said, his breathy words dripping like syrup. wayne drank. liquored heat dripped into his stomach. fire tickled his veins, became hot wire twisting in his head. he drank again and forced out a shaky breath. the jazz beat thumped fast and muted brass moaned. drumpulse, stabbing trumpet raped the air. tension mounted as wayne watched her pale throat convulsing, the white eyelids fluttering. red fingered at her legs and salivated at her throat, glancing now and then at wayne, baiting him good. "okay, you creep," wayne said. he stood up and started through the haze. the psycho leaped and a table crashed. wayne's .38 dropped from its spring-clip holster and the blast filled the room. the psycho screamed and stumbled toward the door holding something in. the mouse darted by, eluded wayne's grasp and was out the door. wayne went out after her in a laughing frenzy of release. he felt the cold strange breath of moist air on his sweating skin as he sprinted down the alley into a wind full of blowing wet. he ran laughing under the crazy starlight and glimpsed her now and then, fading in and out of shadows, jumping, crawling, running with the life-or-death animation of a wild deer. up and down alleys, a rat's maze. a rabbit run. across vacant lots. through shattered tenement ruins. over a fence. there she was, falling, sliding down a brick shute. he gained. he moved up. his labored breath pumped more fire. and her scream was a rejuvenation hypo in his blood. * * * * * she quivered above him on the stoop, panting, her eyes afire with terror. "you, baby," wayne gasped. "i gotcha." she backed into darkness, up there against the sagging tenement wall, her arms out and poised like crippled wings. wayne crept up. she gave a squeaking sob, turned, ran. wayne leaped into gloom. wood cracked. he clambered over rotten lumber. the doorway sagged and he hesitated in the musty dark. a few feet away was the sound of loose trickling plaster, a whimpering whine. "no use running," wayne said. "go loose. give, baby. give now." she scurried up sagging stairs. wayne laughed and dug up after her, feeling his way through debris. dim moonlight filtered through a sagging stairway from a shattered skylight three floors up. the mouse's shadow floated ahead. he started up. the entire stair structure canted sickeningly. a railing ripped and he nearly went with it back down to the first floor. he heard a scream as rotten boards crumbled and dust exploded from cracks. a rat ran past wayne and fell into space. he burst into the third-floor hallway and saw her half-falling through a door under the jagged skylight. wayne took his time. he knew how she felt waiting in there, listening to his creeping, implacable footfalls. then he yelled and slammed open the door. dust and stench, filth so awful it made nothing of the dust. in the corner he saw something hardly to be called a bed. more like a nest. a dirty, lumpy pile of torn mattress, felt, excelsior, shredded newspapers and rags. it seemed to crawl a little under the moon-streaming skylight. she crouched in the corner panting. he took his time moving in. he snickered as he flashed the switchblade and circled it like a serpent's tongue. he watched what was left of her nerves go to pieces like rotten cloth. "do it quick, hunter," she whispered. "please do it quick." "what's that, baby?" "i'm tired running. kill me first. beat me after. they won't know the difference." "i'm gonna bruise and beat you," he said. "kill me first," she begged. "i don't want--" she began to cry. she cried right up in his face, her wide eyes unblinking, and her mouth open. "you got bad blood, baby," he snarled. he laughed but it didn't sound like him and something was wrong with his belly. it was knotting up. "bad, i know! so get it over with, please. hurry, hurry." she was small and white and quivering. she moaned but kept staring up at him. he ripped off his rivet-studded belt and swung once, then groaned and shuffled away from her. he kept backing toward the door. she crawled after him, begging and clutching with both arms as she wriggled forward on her knees. "don't run. please. kill me! it'll be someone else if you don't. oh, god, i'm so tired waiting and running!" "i can't," he said, and sickness soured in his throat. "please." "i can't, i can't!" he turned and ran blindly, half-fell down the cracking stairs. * * * * * doctor burns, head of the readjustment staff at the youth center, studied wayne with abstract interest. "you enjoyed the hunt, seton? you got your kicks?" "yes, sir." "but you couldn't execute them?" "no, sir." "they're undesirables. incurables. you know that, seton?" "yes, sir." "the psycho you only wounded. he's a five-times murderer. and that girl killed her father when she was twelve. you realize there's nothing can be done for them? that they have to be executed?" "i know." "too bad," the doctor said. "we all have aggressive impulses, primitive needs that must be expressed early, purged. there's murder in all of us, seton. the impulse shouldn't be denied or suppressed, but _educated_. the state used to kill them. isn't it better all around, seton, for us to do it, as part of growing up? what was the matter, seton?" "i--felt sorry for her." "is that all you can say about it?" "yes, sir." the doctor pressed a buzzer. two men in white coats entered. "you should have got it out of your system, seton, but now it's still in there. i can't turn you out and have it erupt later--and maybe shed clean innocent blood, can i?" "no, sir," wayne mumbled. he didn't look up. "i'm sorry i punked out." "give him the treatment," the doctor said wearily. "and send him back to his mother." wayne nodded and they led him away. his mind screamed still to split open some prison of bone and lay bare and breathing wide. but there was no way out for the trapped. now he knew about the old man and his poker-playing pals. they had all punked out. like him. the furious rose by dean evans illustrated by thorne [transcriber's note: this etext was produced from galaxy science fiction january 1952. extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the u.s. copyright on this publication was renewed.] this world was a setup for any man who wanted to get along--provided one had enough victims to toss to the wolves! the master clock on the black desk in the office of _federal executions_ made a quiet blipping sound. immediately the lights lowered to emote neutral. long, probing shadow fingers snaked here and there across the floor, and a silence that should have been restful--and wasn't--descended on the place. tony radek leaned back in his chair and frowned. one-fifteen in the morning. at one-fifteen in the morning no man, no matter who, should be going to his neg-emote. why not hang a man instead? or electrocute him? or gas him the way they used to back in the old days? in those old days his grandfather used to talk about, where twelve ordinary citizens said the word that peeled the life off a man like skinning an onion. he sighed softly and folded his hands across a tiny paunch that was just beginning to show. tony radek was getting old. he was a "safe" now. that meant he needn't worry about the war any longer. he was a nice, mild, peaceable gentleman who stayed at home and thought beautiful thoughts about the younger men out in space. a man his age didn't feel anger and hate and retribution and lust and treachery any more. he was just a little old fat guy. he was the federal executioner. he frowned again and leaned forward and touched a nacre button on the desk top. that lit up the screen on his left. not the master screen, which was the one on his right. this was the other, the one that could tell him what was going on outside the office, outside in _portal waiting_, where certain peculiar ghouls who derived a measure of excitement from the executions were allowed by the gracious state to hang out. he stared at the screen. his frown deepened. _portal waiting_ should be bare and vacant at this hour, but it wasn't. this was the third night in a row that it wasn't. there was a girl out there. a quiet girl, a girl who looked about as ghoulish as one of the nice red ritual roses over in the cooler built into the wall. _damn the dame, why didn't she go home?_ tony radek's upper lip lifted a little, showing small angry teeth. at once the emote neutral lights in the office flickered wildly. tony pulled his eyes from the screen and glared up at the lights. that's progress for you. let a man go on one little momentary emotional binge, like this, and right away spies in the joint start screaming. in a moment now, the one on his right--the master screen--would blink into life and old hell-hips himself would start poking around asking questions. just see if it didn't. he turned his head to the right, stared at the master screen and waited. the screen blazed into life. a narrow-faced man with washed-away eyes that looked as though they'd seen sin and hadn't liked it peered angrily over toward tony behind the desk. "_mr._ radek!" he had a thin, thin voice that sounded like a sheet of paper slitting down the middle. "what's going on down there? can't you control your own office? or maybe you'd like to be back in training?" the eyes squinted sharply. tony worked up an innocent look. he spread his hands on the black surface of the desk, smiled, and said mildly: "out of your mind. my lights have been as steady as old emote neutral herself. probably that blonde you got central direction kidded into thinking you need as an assistant--probably you sneaked up on her when she was in personal lok and...." "what?" the master screen trembled a little and the narrow-faced man's eyes seemed to jerk out of registration for a moment. "look here, radek, i've stood just about enough of your insinuations!" "look who's making the lights flicker now," said tony calmly. he waved an arm around the office. emote neutral was flickering rapidly as though controlled by an interrupter switch. "central direction should see this," he observed. he stared briefly at the contorted face on the screen. that face was working convulsively now, getting red like the ritual roses over in the cooler. he snorted disgustedly, reached forward and touched the matswitch which threw the master screen into visi-lok. at once the screen darkened and all sound left the office. that was more like it. let old hell-hips up in supplies and control stew if he wanted, there wasn't anything in the constitution--not even the old constitution--that said a man had to sit and look at him. "_central direction to radek!_" a hard voice rapped out of the alternate speaker over in the corner. tony radek jerked, spun around. he swallowed quickly, said nervously: "yes, sir?" "radek, you're violating ordinance six, code 325, division of security! unlock that visi-screen at once!" "yes, sir." tony's hand flew to the matswitch, pulled it. "sorry. elbow must have hit it accidentally. didn't know it was locked...." "radek, there's a war on. that visi-lok must be used only in emergency. you know that." "yes, sir. like i said...." "i heard. in the future, be a little more careful. and, radek--" "yes, sir?" "ready cell two. execution at one-twenty-seven. john edward haley. convicted of mass interference of morale, city of greater new denver, as outlined under congressional act of april 12, 2250. decision rendered equally on all three final master machines." "no appeal?" asked tony very softly. "no appeal. and, radek--" "yes, sir?" "the condemned is married. check with supplies and control for bill of divorcement. his wife is a young woman, will have to marry again in the morning as outlined under congressional act of may 28, 2211. got that?" "yes, sir." the master screen went dead. tony blinked. bill of divorcement. will have to marry again in the morning as outlined under congressional act. by god, that's progress for you! he sat staring at the master screen for a long time. then he sighed, punched the button on supplies and control. "hell-hips!" he growled. "snap it up. execution at one-twenty-seven. bill of divorcement." the narrow face peered sourly out at him from the master screen. it didn't have much emotion in it now. it was almost blank, like the face of a humanoid robot somebody'd left something out of. "been hittin' the bottle again, huh?" said tony. "my name is clacker, _mr._ radek. arthur jared clacker. kindly keep that in mind when you address me." "sure, sure. nice name. lovely name. sounds like a stone-boat going over ground glass. whip up that bill of divorcement." "it's ready, _mr._ radek. _been_ ready for the last half hour. i suggest that if there were a little of my own well known and demonstrated efficiency in _your_ office, perhaps executions would be something to be proud of. instead of what it is. instead of the foul-smelling, sloppily run, lice-infested...." tony's hand reached out for the button on supplies and control. "watch those lights," he said tiredly. * * * * * he got up from the desk, stretched a little and went across the office to the cooler in the opposite wall. his feet made no noise; he had that quiet tread that all cats, a few men and some women achieve. his hand interrupted the automatic cellgard and a tiny, almost hidden door in the wall swung wide. he reached up, poked his hand in the cooler, felt around. a little smile came into his eyes. he took his hand out of the cooler, got up on tiptoes and looked inside. no roses. not even one rose. not even _half_ of a rose. chuckling, he went back to the desk and jabbed a finger at the button over supplies and control. "hell-hips!" he rapped. "where's all that well known and demonstrated efficiency i've had to rake out of my ears?" the narrow face lit up the master screen once more. it looked bored now. "_mr._ radek, there was something?" "yeah. something." tony's voice dropped, got deadly soft. "how many weeks since you checked the cooler, boy? there aren't any ritual roses." "there--there aren't any?" "that's right, mr. clacker. now get away from that screen. i'm reporting this to central direction." his finger jammed down on the supplies and control button. he watched the master screen go blank and grinned. he thought, "shake a little, mr. clacker, shake a little," because he didn't dare even whisper to himself. he sat down at the desk again and thought of something. his finger went out, touched the button on the screen on the left--the _portal waiting_ screen. she was still there, hunched up in one of the chairs like a small child somebody had left in an interplanet waiting room and then gone away and forgotten. tony frowned once more. damn that dame, she was spoiling his nights. he got up, crossed the office on silent feet, opened the door of executions, went down a bare, silent hall. at the levelators he waited a moment for the platform, took it down, got off again at _portal waiting_, and crossed to the foyer. she was there, just as she'd been on the screen upstairs, only clearer, more vivid, something witnessed instead of second hand, something with dimension to it. she was in a big chair that could have accommodated two like her. she had her legs tucked under her and her brown eyes that looked up at tony's approach weren't any larger than two full moons. he said, "are you mrs. john haley?" the girl nodded. "they--they've got johnny...." "i know." tony dropped into a chair opposite the girl. "it's late," he said softly. "you shouldn't be here this time of night, mrs. haley." the girl thought about that. "you're mr. radek, aren't you? in the execution office?" "call me tony, mrs. haley." "all right, tony. yes, it's late. i hadn't noticed, but i suppose you're right." "you should go home, mrs. haley." he stopped, then lied a little. "they'll let you know. you don't have to worry." _you don't have to worry. they're bringing the guy up now, little girl, but you don't have to worry. old hell-hips is getting a ritual rose now, little girl, but you don't have to worry._ as if he'd deliberately telepathed the thought, the girl said suddenly: "tony, is--is it true about the furious roses? i mean, if a man is found guilty, do they--?" "the 'furious' roses, mrs. haley?" he smiled. "i see. you mean because they're so red. yes, it's true. ritual roses, we call them, but that's nothing. nothing at all. a custom only. a symbol handed down. it means nothing." "i know." the girl nodded again. "when we were children, we always called them the furious roses because they were a furious red. we always used to say that if an innocent man was executed, the furious red rose would right away turn white, tony. to show they'd been wrong about him." he shrugged. "bedtime stories, mrs. haley." "not--not that it means anything to me, tony. they'll find johnny innocent, of course. all three machines. the final machines." _innocent? oh, sure._ "a man," said tony with a vague motion of his hands. "what's the difference what man a woman has? in the morning there's always another--and another name. what's the difference?" he smiled a small toy smile with eyes half closed so the girl couldn't look too closely into them. but it was all right, she hadn't heard. at least she wasn't balling those big eyes of hers at him. she was looking down into her folded hands. he continued, "there's a war on, mrs. haley. it seems there's always a war on, somehow. and everybody--you, me, the guy down the street who skins ships for a living--we all have to remember that. and yet some of us don't. some of us go off on a tangent and try to sell out our country and then there's hell to pay. and if we're found guilty, we get the execution. the neg-emote." the girl's lips began to tremble. she looked up. "does it hurt, tony? i mean...." "physically? no, of course not." a corner of his mouth curled. "we're humane nowadays, hadn't you heard? we just strap a man in a chair and press a button and down comes a metal hood over him. we press some more buttons and pull a switch or two, and that's that. no feeling, nothing. the man's as good as new except he has no emotions any more. no emotions whatever except personal physical pain, such as he'd need in case somebody stepped on his toe or jabbed him with a pin. the state wants us to protect ourselves, you see. it wouldn't want us getting hurt because we don't feel anything." he stopped because it was getting harder to continue. "we used to call it 'stripping,' but that was long ago before the humane boys decided the term was a little cruel. now it's just neg-emoting. but the same thing. just a fancy title." her big eyes were suddenly eating into his. "what do they do with them, tony?" he shrugged again. "send 'em off to training. some can be taught this, some that, but a living death nevertheless. what else can a traitor expect?" the girl began to tremble all over. "not johnny! they can't do that to johnny! he's innocent, tony--he didn't do anything! tony, tell them that! tell them to let him go...." he put his teeth together hard. what do you say to a woman who sits across from you, waiting the long, long wait? what do you say to a woman like this when you see the terror--and something else--in eyes like hers? "you like the guy, mrs. haley?" he asked gently. "that's old-fashioned as hell, you know. we all learn that way back in primaries." but the woman wasn't listening again, wasn't caring what he'd said. she began to whisper very softly: "in the nights i used to be frightened. i used to lie there asleep and dream of the ships coming down and spraying the house with the burn-waves. and i could hear the roaring thunder of the jets and the house would start to shake and i'd try to yell, but i couldn't. something inside would be choking me. and just when the burn-waves would be coming hot through the window and licking at the walls inside the room, i'd scream myself awake and jump up in bed and the sweat would be pouring off me." tony stared, incredulous, into the big balls of fright that her eyes had become. "and then the lights would come on again, and there would be johnny lying next to me smiling a little, and his curly hair would be all tousled from sleep, and he'd say to me, 'baby, you've been dreaming again. don't you know i'm here? don't you know i'll always be here? don't you know that, baby?' and then it would be all right, and the roaring jets would be only the dawn shift going out on security patrol. and then i could go back to sleep again." she stopped. _portal waiting_ had become a gray ghost of a thing with nothing living in it, only the clouds of memory like smoke veils swirling, drifting here and there, soon gone. and then: "they'll let him go, tony. he's innocent, you know. they have to let him go." he didn't look at her. he got up from his chair, put his hands rigidly at his sides. then he did look, just once, and very hard. "get out of here!" he growled. "no, tony." he took a deep breath, turned, went across the foyer to the levelators. as he passed under the huge master screen, her voice came again, but quite thin: "you'll let me know, tony? you'll let me know as soon as you get word?" he didn't answer, didn't look back, didn't do anything except keep going to the levelators. he went upstairs, found the door of executions, opened it, went through, let it slam shut. * * * * * things started to happen. the master clock over on the black desk made a quiet blipping sound and the emote neutral lights went out. at once the office was flooded with amber official, the working lights. then the master screen glowed and a narrow-faced man with washed-away eyes looked out at him. "condemned is waiting, _mr._ radek," the narrow-faced man said acidly. "cell two is getting dusty waiting for you, _mr._ radek. very dusty." tony looked up. his heart wasn't in it, but he said it anyhow: "go chase your blonde some more, hell-hips." he went over to the desk, banged the supplies and control button, held it down. master screen darkened. he looked at the small square of white paper on the black desk top. a bill of divorcement. like that. so in the morning the kid downstairs could go out and get herself another mate and then she could go back to bed again and dream some more about the roaring jets and the burn-waves. he reached up and wiped at his forehead. she didn't have to see it happen. nothing in the constitution--old or new--stated she had to see it happen. he looked down at the matswitch that controlled the visi-lok on the master screen. he clamped his teeth together and his hand went out and flipped the switch. the office went dead. maybe nobody'd notice. maybe he'd have time to slip into cell two and get it over with before anybody noticed. he started across the room on fast, silent feet. "_radek!_" the alternate speaker over in the corner blasted out. he froze solid. "radek, don't move! stand where you are!" don't move? he couldn't have moved if he'd had jets on. and then the hard voice went on again: "central command to supplies and control. use emergency visi-relay. unlock the master screen! this is command 419, regulation four. signed, countersigned." almost at once the master screen flickered into life and a hard, severe-looking face appeared there. "radek, turn around! face the screen!" "yes, sir." tony turned. "second violation, radek. why?" tony forced a blank face. he lifted his shoulders, said: "i was over here on my way to cell two for the execution. how could i--" "that will be all, radek! clear your desk. prepare for judgment on final machines." tony swallowed. he didn't move because he couldn't move. "well, radek?" he fought his face clean, kept his hands rigid at his sides. sweat was rolling down his back, but that was all right; central command couldn't be expected to see sweat roll down a man's back under his clothing, though a lot of people thought so. "a suggestion, sir," he said at last. "what?" hard eyes bored into his own. he let a little anxious look creep over his face. not a guilty look--he hoped--but the kind of anxious look a worried but innocent man might have in a spot like this. he said quickly: "about that visi-lok. i suggest it might have gone into lock by itself. you see, it's one of the old-fashioned kind, the type they used to have that worked with solenoids. we've had trouble with them before." that brought a little silence. the hard eyes in the screen said at last: "central command to supplies and control. is the visi-lok in executions controlled by a solenoid? was it never changed to relay?" tony gulped. he looked into the master screen, but he remained frozen to the floor, hardly breathing. and then a very thin voice answered nervously: "i--i believe that's correct, sir. i believe executions does have the old-fashioned solenoid. it seems there hasn't been time to change it. i've been intending to...." the voice was cut off. the hard eyes came back to tony. "decision!" the hard voice said. "yes, sir?" "exonerated, radek! carry on with execution in cell two." the screen went blank. tony shuddered. a close one. a damned close one. that was the war for you. even a man's breaths are counted. he went on shaky feet over to the cooler, reached in, got out a ritual rose, left the office end shuffled down the hall to cell two. john edward haley. the condemned. a thin man, tony thought. well, sure, there aren't many fat men any more. not in ordinary circumstances, that is. the man was sitting tensely in the chair. there was no one else in the cell, which was as it should be, of course. witnesses, yes--the master screen up on the wall--but not here, not visible. tony went across the cell. "john edward haley," he said. the man moved a nervous tongue over dry lips. "john edward haley, you have been sentenced for execution. now hear these final words of the state as directed by presidential order from responsibility official in the city of greater new denver, this night." he took two small steps toward the man in the chair. he held out the red rose, put it in the hand of the other. then he stepped back two steps until his toes were just touching a small plaque built into the floor. he looked down, read from the plaque: "the giving of this rose. a symbol for the red of the blood of your brothers that you have let by treason and/or treachery. a symbol that as the rose is red, so are the unclean acts of your own hand, of your own mind. the state has so spoken." he looked up. a nice way to kiss a guy off. might as well tell him he bit his brother's finger, too, when he was a kid. "have you anything to say?" he asked. the man's nervous tongue worked again. he said quickly: "yeah. look, guy, just one thing. just one favor. i don't give a damn what happens to me. sure, i'm guilty. so you caught me, and so i take it. so what? a guy expects that. but the wife...." tony's teeth came together hard. "... but the wife, see? she's down in _portal waiting_. been there for three nights now. i don't want her to witness this. i don't want her to look into that master screen down there and see it. that's all i'm asking, guy, and it ain't much. just a flick of a switch is all i'm asking. it ain't much. it ain't, is it?" _it ain't, hey? by god!_ "when the hood comes down, she'll see it. she's bound to," the thin man went on fast. "she'll see the flash in the screen and she'll know it's me, and she's never done anything to deserve that. that's all i'm asking, guy. that's all i'm asking." the silence in the cell was a thick thing. tony could feel the sweat rolling down his back again. but a different kind of a sweat now--not a sweat for himself, a sweat for somebody else. just one finger touch on that visi-lok matswitch would do it. just one finger, and the small woman downstairs in _portal waiting_ wouldn't know, would have one more instant of waiting, of hoping against hope. of suspense. of breathing in the air we all breathe in, of being alive, sentient; and knowing that her man, the thin fellow with the tousled, curly hair, was still sentient, too. "well, guy?" tony wet his lips. "sorry, haley. petition refused." the hood came down. the master screen up on the wall blazed into life. * * * * * tony sat at his black desk with his hands folded, fingers laced. that's executions for you. and this is war. there's a war on. don't forget that. he looked down at his hands, sighed. then he reached out and touched the supplies and control button. "hell-hips!" he growled. he looked at the screen. it wasn't hell-hips. it was a blonde. not a young blonde, a scarecrow blonde. an old wretched piece of living mechanism like himself. "where's clacker?" he asked. "mr. clacker is no longer with us, mr. radek." "huh? what happened to him?" "mr. clacker has been taken to the three final machines for trial and judgment. i am now taking over here. my name is hortense. g. welker hortense." tony looked at the blonde. crude, undisguised lights were coming from the woman's eyes. promotion-happy. he said at last: "sorry as hell about that. the solenoid thing, i suppose. i didn't mean to get the guy in trouble. i sure didn't mean that." "he'd been ordered to change it. it was no one's fault but his own. you were only doing your duty, i'm sure. and duty comes above everything." "yeah. yeah, sure. i know." he sighed once more. "get me an airbrush and a bottle of white paint." "what?" "i want an airbrush and a bottle of white paint. i want to paint my nice little ritual roses. i don't like red any more. i want all white ones." "mr. radek...?" tony glared. "do i get that paint or don't i? don't just stand there!" his fist banged down on supplies and control button. the master screen went blank, and then flashed into motion again fast. the blonde again. nasty now. a chip off the old block. another hell-hips, but this time with skirts. "request not granted! this is entirely against regulations, mr. radek! specifically, against ordinance 1991, of the code of...." "oh, can it," he growled wearily. "for god's sake, don't give me any more of that." the blonde stiffened. "well! after all, i'm only doing my duty, mr. radek. as head of supplies and control, i have certain well-defined and inflexible...." tony blacked her out. he held her blacked out till he was sure she wouldn't come on again. duty. the master clock made a quiet blipping noise. amber official lights dimmed and emote neutral came on. long, probing shadow fingers snaked here and there across the floor, and a stillness that should have been restful descended eventually on the place. "_radek!_" the hard eyes. the hard voice. tony looked into the screen. "yes, sir?" "radek, that woman is still downstairs in _portal waiting_! we can't have her hanging around all night. why hasn't she been given her bill of divorcement and sent home? my god, man, where's your feelings? she's at least entitled to that." "right away, sir. i was just going." he picked up the square of white paper. he pushed back his chair, got to his feet, went across the office taking those peculiar, quiet little steps of his. yes, sir. just going, sir. on my way, sir. because, sir, as you've pointed out so clearly, sir, she's at least entitled to that. a witch in time by herb williams _if historians have ever pondered that eerie and magical transformation of abigaile goodyeare, that "faire young maide" who aged so before the disbelieving eyes of gallows witnesses, mayhaps herein lies the answer...._ [transcriber's note: this etext was produced from worlds of if science fiction, february 1955. extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the u.s. copyright on this publication was renewed.] _i saw this faire young maide, abigaile goodyeare, standing yonder on ye gallows and shee saith againe and againe that she was no witch, although the jury had founde her guilty of ... familiarity with satan, the grand enemie of god & man; and that by his instigation and help ... afflicted and done harm to the bodyes and estates of sundry of his majesties subjects...._ --witchcraft in early america volume ii, chapter 4 nat lyon looked nervously at the girl huddled in the corner of the time machine. there were white streaks down her face where recent tears had washed off the grime of several days spent in a primitive jail. her almost jet black hair was a tangled mess, hanging in strings to her shoulders. he wrinkled his nose in distaste at the odor filling the small compartment. there was romance in history, he thought, when viewed in the abstract, but not when one faced history in the person of a female who had languished several days in an unsanitary prison. "pray, sir," she asked slowly, and so softly he scarcely heard her, "art thou the lord? or one of his angels?" nat started to laugh, but she looked so pitiful he checked himself. "no, i'm a human being, just like yourself--except that i've never been accused of witchcraft!" a look of fear crossed her face. "verily, i testify unto thee that i am no witch, but have the fear of god before mine eyes." she was almost frantic in her statement. she cringed farther into the corner. nat noticed the raw wounds on her wrists where the irons had chafed her. "sure, sure, i believe you," nat said sharply. "they won't hang you now!" then he added glumly, "but they'll probably do worse to me if they find out what _i've_ done!" she looked up at him, wonder in her deep blue eyes, her long lashes blinking slowly. even her bedraggled appearance and the dirt that literally covered her could not hide from nat the beauty of her eyes. "then perhaps thou art an emissary of the evil one, though thou hast a kind look to thy features that seemeth not to come of the devil." this time nat laughed. he had read the ancient records known as _books_ but hearing someone talk in archaic _book_ fashion was too much. "that was quite a speech, pretty eyes. but get it through your head that i'm a normal human who had a momentary lapse and did an abnormal thing. i used the paralysis ray on wide range, stopped the show and hauled you off the gallows. right now we're in a time machine headed for ... i'm not sure where." the girl forgot her fear in momentary puzzlement. "paralysis ray?" she repeated slowly, "stop the show? time machine?" "oh, skip it," he said. "what we need right now is a chance to get you cleaned up--and i think i know just the place. there's a pretty beach in 18th century mexico. it's warm, and there's a fresh water stream running into the ocean. you can wash off some of that prison grime." * * * * * the sun beat down on nat's blonde head as he sat on a rock overlooking a river mouth and several miles of mexican beach. abby--he'd finally discovered that her name was abigaile goodyeare--was behind a clump of bushes beside the stream, vainly trying to wash her voluminous clothing. now that the shock and humor had passed, nat was deeply worried. he couldn't take abby back to his own time and announce that he hadn't the heart to see her hanged, on the other hand, he simply could not take her back to 17th century new england to be hanged for witchcraft. if he dropped her off in any other time, they'd think she was insane. nat had been making a routine historical survey, part of the work on his thesis about life in 17th century new england. and on his first venture into time, he had ended up committing one of the most serious crimes possible in his society--time meddling. earlier in the day, just before leaving earth university in the 25th century, tall, ascetic anton bor, chief of the time inspection corps, had impressed on him the penalties for time meddling. fixing nat with cold grey eyes, bor had recited the familiar warning in calculated tones: "at no time, and under no circumstance, are people in past ages to know they are being observed." it was nat's first solo adventure into time, and his indoctrination, as thorough as it was, had not prepared him for the shock he experienced a few hours later. he had been completely unprepared for the scene that lay before his eyes as he came out of the thick woods into a clearing. a gallows had been erected on a mound in the center of the cleared space and a large crowd had gathered to watch what seemed to be an execution. checking his invisibility shield, nat moved closer. a tall, gaunt man, with a look of righteous wrath on his face was reading from a scroll. except for his clothing, the man looked exactly like anton bor, chief of the tic. nat shook his head in disbelief, but strained his ears to hear what the man was reading. "... she was found guilty of felonyes and witchcrafts whereof she stood indicted and sentence of death accordingly passed that she be hanged by the neck until she be dead...." nat tore his eyes from the man with the scroll and looked at the _witch_. he gasped audibly at what he saw, so that several people nearby looked curiously around. realizing his error, he stood completely still until the people he had disturbed turned their attention back to the gallows. again he looked at the woman. she was no half insane old hag, a busybody who had meddled her way into a witchcraft trial, but a bewildered, fearful young woman who couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years old. her hands were tied behind her back, pulling her bulky dress tight across her bosom. her tangled, matted, black hair, the dirt on her face, her wrinkled disheveled clothing could not hide a great natural beauty. but what affected nat most, was the look on her face. it was that of a frightened, helpless animal, cornered by a vicious, heartless predator. the self-righteous bearing of the tall man, the lack of sympathy and idle curiosity mirrored in the faces of the crowd infuriated nat. impulsively he had used his paralysis ray, an instrument that was designed only as a last resort when a time traveler needed to beat a quick retreat unnoticed. while the entire gathering was in a suspended state, he had carried abby away from the gallows, and clocked away in the time machine. now, completely confused, he was sitting worriedly in the warm sunshine of 18th century mexico, wondering what to do. abby's approach broke his reverie. she seemed almost lost in one of his spare one-piece coveralls. she was carrying her own garments, dripping wet, on her arm. in modesty she had put her own quaint shoes on again. her dark hair curled wetly about her shoulders, and the exertion of bathing and washing her clothing had left a becoming flush on her cheeks. "feel better, abby?" he asked in a light-hearted manner he didn't feel. "verily, thou art a strange one," she answered, lowering her eyes in an almost obsequious manner. "though the way thou useth the diminutive of my name is pleasant to my ear." "well, your pretty face is pleasant to my _eyes_, but it's certainly gotten me into a lot of trouble," nat answered gruffly. she looked downcast. "truly i'm contrite if i have caused thee trouble." the penitent look on her face melted nat's irritability. "let's eat," he said quickly. "you must be hungry. and while you eat, i'll try to explain what happened and maybe figure out what to do." a week passed, and nat still was undecided. he was puzzled by a strange restlessness that nagged at him constantly. that is, he was puzzled until the first time he kissed her. the difference in their backgrounds was vast. they were separated by centuries of time. but now, thrown together, facing a common fear of the past and the future, there could be only one outcome. at the end of the first week, they were sitting on opposite sides of a beach fire. a soft breeze, blowing off the water, added a chill to the evening air. abby rose to put another log on the fire. nat stood up quickly to help her. "let me lift that, abby," he said with an air of protection. "it's pretty heavy." "please, no," she answered in her quaint way. "'tis nothing. i have lifted heavier burdens than this many times." he put his hand on her wrist. it was the first time he had touched her since he had carried her from the gallows. for the past week he had been so preoccupied he had hardly noticed her as she had gone quietly about their impromptu camp, cooking the wild game and fish he had caught with his paralysis ray. the feel of her soft, warm wrist in his hand thrilled him. his voice suddenly left him, as he consciously realized for the first time how beautiful she was. her fresh innocence, her complexion, freshly tanned by the southern sun, seemed to fill his entire being. he drew her close, kissed her full lips. because of her puritan heritage, she exhibited surprise. "verily, nathanial lyon, my people would frown on an embrace like this." then she whispered, "but i find it most pleasant, because i have grown so very fond of thee." with that she threw her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. time lost its meaning, and they stood for uncounted minutes. at last she shivered. "i feel a chill, dear nat." "no wonder, darling," he whispered. "we've been standing here so long the fire has gone out." that night nat made his decision. "i can't take you back to be hanged, abby," he said tenderly. "but at the same time i can't go back to my own time, they'd do worse than that to me." "i understand not this time travel," abby said thoughtfully. "if thou canst send this device to any time of thy choosing, couldst thou not spend months, or even years away and _still_ get back to your own time when thou art expected?" "that's it, abby, that's it!" nat shouted, jumping to his feet. "we'll stay away a lifetime. and when we take the machine back, they won't be able to do anything that matters because we'll have had our life together! or better yet, we'll never go back at all!" suddenly he sobered, dropped back to the ground beside her, taking her hands in his. "that is, if you'll marry me, abby darling." "why, nathanial," she answered without a flicker of a smile. "that was all settled when first i yielded to thy embrace." nat's mouth dropped open, then he laughed, as he remembered his studies of the customs and morals of abby's time. "abby, verily thou art priceless," he said delightedly in her own speech. she gave her opinion of him, silently ... with her lips. "abby," nat finally whispered, "i'm going to give you the best honeymoon a woman ever had." "honeymoon? of a truth, i know not of what thou speakest." nat chuckled, then kissed the end of her pert nose. "you'll see, my love, you'll see. but first we have to make you mrs. nathanial lyon. there was a time, right after the third world war, when marriage was easy, with no questions asked. so right now, it's off to the disorganized world of the late 20th century." and so began one of the strangest honeymoons in the history of earth's human race. nat and abby were unseen observers when pericles ruled greece. they visited the court of charlemagne, walked through the streets of rome at the height of its splendor, viewed the glories and wickedness of babylon and baghdad, watched the artisans of old cathay. but fate chose their honeymoon as the time of their undoing. nat had believed they would be safe for the rest of their lives. he knew that detection of the time machine was virtually impossible unless their full dimensional destination were known to the tic ... assuming that he had been missed in the 25th century, which he believed unlikely. sealed chronometers, installed by the tic, would give him away if he ever returned the time machine to base. but premature discovery need be the only worry now. as he had explained to abby, "the power plant in these things gives off traceable radiation, provided the tracer gets close enough. but right now, tracing us would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. all we've got to watch out for is another time machine with someone aboard who might have reason to be suspicious of us." and it happened just that way as they sat watching the original first night of a shakespeare play. another time machine controlled by an arts student from earth university appeared in an adjoining balcony. nat flicked his machine to full power--too late! the student, an acquaintance of nat's, had nodded in recognition. clocking away, nat couldn't avoid a glum comment. "well, the tic probably will be after us in full force now." abby studied nat's face. "darling," she said, "let's settle down. why need we travel at all?" her calm erased nat's concern. "we'll do it!" he exclaimed, confident again. * * * * * nat parked his new model t ford in the garage. he walked quickly into the kitchen, kissed his wife. it was no perfunctory peck so much the practice in the times in which they lived, but a tender, passionate embrace, as if it might be their last. "nat, there's been someone around the house today. i'm worried," abby finally said. the muscles in his stomach tightened. "maybe they've traced us. what did he look like?" "he was tall, severe, in fact he could almost pass for old jonathan borden, the man who was in charge of my execution, the man who read the charges against me." "anton bor!" nat said hoarsely. "the head man of the tic!" abby threw her arms around nat, buried her head in his shoulder. her arms held him with desperation. "oh darling, we've been so happy these past five years. they can't separate us. i'd rather die first!" he tipped her head back, kissed the tears that had trickled down each cheek. "if they catch us, we'll probably both die. but at least we're ready for them." he was interrupted by a knock on the door. through the front curtains he glimpsed a car in front of the house. a hasty look out the back revealed another one parked in the alley. "quick, abby, into the basement before they use a paralysis ray," he whispered. aloud he shouted, "just a moment!" to the person at the front door. with nervous fingers nat unlocked a heavily reinforced door in the basement. he heard a crash upstairs as the front door was battered in. at almost the same instant he swung the door open and they stepped into the time machine. with movements they had practiced many times, he tripped the activating lever and the machine vanished, leaving the hiding place nat had built around the machine after they had bought the house several years earlier. they weren't a moment too soon, for both felt the slight tingling of a paralysis ray. their departure had occurred just at the split second when one of bor's tic men had pushed the firing stud. even so, it clouded nat's vision, slowed his reflexes. "another second and they'd have had us, abby," he said aloud, after he had returned to normal. she pressed her lips to his. "i hated to leave 1925, but we can start over again wherever you say," abby whispered. * * * * * the surf crashed and boomed on the coral reef. nat lay in the shade of a cocoanut palm, watching the white clouds scudding by overhead. abby came walking down the beach towards him, tanned a deep brown from head to foot, dressed as the polynesians had dressed before captain cook had discovered them. "you're every bit as beautiful as the women described in the old tales of the south sea islands," nat said as she sat down beside him. "and you're as big a flatterer as any sailor who ever told those stories," she answered, although she was pleased by his admiration. she lay back, stretched her hands over her head with a happy look on her face. "i'm 30 years old and don't compare to our young neighbors on the other islands." nat rolled over, putting an arm across her waist, kissed her tenderly. "i'm the luckiest man in the world," he whispered. she looked up, her blue eyes serious. "you don't regret giving up all you had in your own time?" "i didn't know what true happiness was," he answered firmly. "people in the 25th century are automatons, hemmed in by rules, regulations, regimented by necessity because there are so many billions on the planet." he kissed her again, as the warm trade winds ruffled her dark hair--and they forgot about time. but they didn't have real peace of mind. fear of the tic and the tenaciousness of anton bor was always present. nat and abby had learned the language thoroughly through the time machine's hypno-translator, then picked an uninhabited little island in the atoll. after weeks of sun bathing, they had let themselves be discovered by the natives in their outrigger canoes. the natives quietly accepted nat and abby as slightly different, but members of their informal society, for it was inconceivable to them that any but their own kind could be living on one of the atolls. "this is a heavenly life," abby sighed, stretching out on the sand one day. "cocoanuts, breadfruit, seafood, all for the taking. i'll hate to leave it." "but i'm afraid we must," nat said slowly, "and soon, too. we don't dare stay too long in one place." from the islands, nat and abby drifted on from century to century, usually stopping in post-war periods when both governments and populations were preoccupied with constructive social progress. it was during the american reconstruction period following world war iii that they again were tracked down by the tic. nat was an engineer, rebuilding shattered seattle, when one day he spotted a tall, angular mechanic, newly hired on the project--and unmistakably anton bor! ten years before, nat and abby had cached the time machine a hundred miles away. now, as they winged through the night in their private helicopter, nat groaned at the futility of matching wits with scientists of century twenty-five. "i don't understand it, abby! there's atomic radiation lingering here from the war. we're working on a reactor for the city's power plant, yet bor and his tic manage to track us down." "perhaps, dear nat," abby said, lapsing into her original old new england speech, as she often did when thinking deeply, "he followeth us by inductive methods rather than through his science." there was a moment's silence. nat broke it to say, "we've been doing the obvious. well then, our next stop _must_ be different!" they cruised silently toward the hiding place of their time machine until they saw the faint glow of a radioactive crater. a missile missing its target, had gouged a large hole in the mountainside. nat had hidden the time machine in a cave as close as possible to the crater to lessen the chance of detection by the tic or casual explorers. "just in case they _have_ spotted our machine, and someone is waiting for us, we're going to take the last few miles on foot," nat said, checking his paralysis gun. he set the heli down in a clearing and they started cautiously forward on foot, working their way up the mountainside, with all the tension of a hunter stalking game. a hundred yards from the cave entrance, they spotted a campfire. they approached stealthily, and finally were able to make out the shadowy form of an old man, apparently a war hermit who had set up a mountain retreat. at the very outset of the third world war, the expression "take to the hills" had become a reality to many. afterwards, when a prostrated world had begun painful reconstruction, lone men and women, and sometimes couples, continued to roam through the forests and deserts of earth. fugitives from fear in the beginning, many had held to the nomadic existence, liking their new individuality. "he may be a tic agent in disguise," nat whispered. "why not use thy paralysis ray now?" abby whispered back, "and not take chances." nat nodded, and silently they crept forward. when they finally were in range, nat raised his weapon and pressed the stud. the hermit didn't move a muscle. the dancing flames of the fire cast strange shadows over the camp site, reflecting off his shelter half, lighting the coffee pot sitting on a rock. swiftly, without fear of detection, nat and abby strode forward, towards the cave and their escape. as they reached the entrance they heard a derisive laugh. whirling sharply, they saw the "hermit" rising slowly to his feet, a late 20th century weapon in his hand. horror stricken, nat glanced at the paralysis ray in his own hand, the thought flashing across his mind that the tiny atomic battery had given out. "no, your weapon is still good! you just didn't count on our thoroughness!" the man laughed, using the vernacular of nat's own time. "i've been waiting here a year, while bor combed the whole area for you." "lord, abby!" nat gasped hoarsely. "they've developed a neutralizing field, something they were experimenting with when i left." the agent laughed coarsely in agreement. "just come away from the cave while i put in a call to inspector bor!" they moved towards the fire, and it was then that the agent got a good look at abby. his eyes moved slowly from her head to her feet, taking in every detail of her full figure. "some dish you have there lyon. i'm beginning to understand why you checked out on us!" nat was surprised at the agent's obvious lechery. such animal reaction had been largely overcome by the 24th century. the agent snickered, recognizing nat's surprise. "you asked for it, lyon, when you tried to paralyze me! there's still a little problem to be solved in this matter of neutralizing a paralysis ray. right now i'm morally drunk, haven't an inhibition in the world." he licked his lips. "come here, girl. i want to see you close up--real close!" abby had drawn back, horrified, but now she leaned toward nat and started talking in the ancient greek they had learned during their honeymoon. "let me try to seduce him, nat. maybe we can get away before bor gets here!" "what's she mumbling about?" the agent demanded suspiciously. "she's talking greek," nat explained. "she doesn't understand the anglo-oriental combination we speak in the 25th century." the agent's eyes flitted back to abby, noting her dark hair, her even features, moving hungrily over her figure again. "come here!" he ordered huskily, motioning with his hands. abby stepped hesitantly forward, a perfectly simulated look of puzzlement on her face. nat stepped forward at the same time, hoping to get closer to the guard. "stay where you are," the agent snarled, waving his weapon at nat. abby looked around at nat with a cautioning expression on her face as the agent moved slowly towards her. careful to keep the gun pointed at nat, the agent put out a hand, slid his arm around her waist. nat could tell by her quivering shoulders that abby was revolted by the man's touch, although she managed a faint, inviting smile. nat was poised, ready to move in when the agent dropped his guard. then he suddenly felt stark terror as he saw the man pull out a small paralysis gun. "i think i'll immobilize you, lyon, while i get better acquainted with your girl friend," he rasped. nat jumped, but the ray gun caught him in mid-air. * * * * * his thoughts as he regained consciousness later were an agony of confusion. feeling the familiar sensation of a time machine in motion, he filled in the blank about what must have happened to abby. sick with resignation he opened his eyes, then sat up quickly, blinking in disbelief, for abby was sitting at the controls of the machine. her blouse was soiled and ripped, her hair mussed and nat thought he saw blood on her skirt. but she was humming a tune as she checked the dials. "abby," nat cried. "are you all right?" her smile said more than words. "you seem to forget, my dear husband," she said happily, coming over to him. "we tender new england pioneers learned a few things about self protection." "what happened?" abby shuddered. "it wasn't pleasant, having that beast paw me, but my apparent willingness threw him off guard. about the time he started ripping my clothing off, i used the little dagger we picked up in renaissance italy." suddenly a sob broke through her artificial gaiety and she was in nat's arms, her control completely gone. her body racked with sobs, tears streaming down her face. "they're getting closer each time, abby," nat said reflectively. "next time they probably will get us." "but we're still together," abby said fiercely. "and, if we're careful, they may never find us again." years passed. nat and abby's youthful happiness flowered into the contentment of those who have lived their allotted years in wisdom. nat had retired many years before, and he and abby were content with simple pleasures. evenings they sat together on the porch of their florida cottage, enjoying the ocean breeze and each other's presence. it was on such an evening that their world came to an end. while they sat as usual, reminiscing, nat wondered aloud if anton bor still lived. he scarcely had uttered the question before the grass on the lawn seemed to shimmer slightly, and a time machine materialized before their startled eyes. its door burst open and three men sprang out with weapons ready. after them came the halting, decrepit figure of an ancient anton bor, a paralysis gun wavering unsteadily in his shriveled hands. the shock was so great that nat and abby sat completely unmoving and the full power of bor's weapon caught them where they sat. * * * * * nat and abby stood before the judgement tribunal in the 25th century. mere punishment had long since passed out of existence. a law breaker had his case reviewed by a board of psychiatrists, lawyers, sociologists, even historians. a person's past was laid bare, in an effort to find out _why_ aberrant action had been taken. the board recommended remedial action that varied greatly from case to case. "we find you guilty," the spokesman finally stated, "of time meddling, an offence that can have the gravest consequences. in this case, our problem is two-fold. first, we must correct the original action. second, we must do all in our power to discourage actions such as you have taken. "with this in mind, you, personally, will see corrective measures carried out. anton bor, who worked so self-sacrificingly over so many years to bring this case to a close, will supervise the correction." this time nat was prepared. the scene was exactly as he remembered it. but now the gallows was empty, the spectators frozen statues. "the paralysis ray's effects last for a little more than five minutes," bor said with the coldness of a machine. "we have that much time to accomplish our job." bound and helpless, nat heard bor bark a command. he saw an assistant pick up the paralysed form of his wife, dressed again in 17th century style, and walk out across the valley. he placed abby on the gallows, put the rope around her neck and moved quickly back to the woods. "now we'll watch it," bor said with cold finality. "i think my ancestor out there, jonathan borden would be proud of me," he added with a trace of smugness. * * * * * "_... as we watched, it seemed suddenly our vision blurred and there was the smell of brimstone in the aire and when we could see againe, there in the place of comely young abigaile goodyeare, was a wrinkled gruesome crone, more like unto a spectre, with gray hair and wrinkled visage, whose true age could only be guessed at._" --witchcraft in early america volume ii, chapter 4 transcriber's note: this etext was produced from if worlds of science fiction april 1956. extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the u.s. copyright on this publication was renewed. the executioner [illustration: _illustrated by kelly freas_] _the vote was three to two for death! jacques had no choice. he was a public servant with a duty...._ by frank riley "... continued fair weather and the unusual circumstances of the execution promise a turn-away crowd of more than 100,000 spectators by court time. all unreserved tent space has been sold out for several days. next news at...." [illustration] sir jacques de carougne, lord high executioner for the seventh judicial district, spun the dial on the instrument panel of his single-seater rocket, but the vidcasts were over for another hour. he cursed, without too much vigor, and wished he had troubled to look at a vidcast or faxpaper during his vacation. but then he shrugged his massive shoulders. what did it matter? after a thousand executions, everything was instinct and reflex. some died hard; some died easy. some fell to their knees, too paralyzed with fear to fire their own shots. others fought daringly, even with a degree of skill, but always the end was the same: a broken body bleeding and twitching in the dust; the blood-happy spectators shrieking in the ecstacy of release from the humdrum of their pushbutton lives; the flowers, the scented kerchiefs and the shreds of torn garments showered on him by screaming women, who always seemed to find him more satisfactory in the arena than in his tent. as the skyline of new chicago shimmered into view, jacques flipped on the 'copter mechanism. his air speed braked, and the needle-nosed little craft drifted lazily down the eastern shore of lake michigan, then veered westward over the tinted glass rooftops of the spotless city. jacques stared glumly down at the city that had been so much a part of his life, from the long-ago years of his training and youth to the professional years of his most famous executions. farther to the west, out beyond the eternally green landscaping and the precise, functional homes of the residential suburbs, jacques saw the crude stone parapets of the chauvency judicial arena, surrounded by acre after acre of colorful tents and pavilions. his powerful, jutting nose wrinkled with disgust, but his eyes widened at the number of tents. there must indeed be something unusual about today's execution. he hadn't worked before that big a crowd for years. the federal bureau of internal tranquility should be happy about this one! jacques sighed, still struggling against the despondency that had been within him since the vacation interlude with the brunette government worker in curaçao had ended as unsatisfactorily as all the rest. someday it would be his body bleeding in the dust, smashed at last by the soft-nosed bullets from le pistolet du mort. then the flowers and adulation would go to the condemned man, and the bureau would add his name to the plaque at the base of the towering statue on the washington mall. so be it. he had played a long roll of the dice, and the stakes had been high. but if only once, just once before it ended.... the bell on his instrument panel told him that the servo-pilot in the tower below had taken over for the landing. he sniffed with disgust again, but this time the disgust was for himself. god, but he was in a foul humor today! he released the controls and stared at his strong hands, grimly admiring them. there was still speed as well as strength in these fingers. his lips twisted into a thin smile, cold and confident. whoever he was to meet at joute à l'outrance, let him try to match twenty years of training and skill! his rocket cradled with scarcely a jar into the small landing space at the north end of the arena, between the two replicas of 15th century towers, reproduced so faithfully by 22nd century technicians. jacques squeezed his huge frame through the door of the small craft and looked dourly around. a squire, in scarlet leggings and tunic, his long black wig slightly askew, came running toward him and knelt three paces away, as prescribed by the judicial code of heraldry. "oh, sire!" he panted, "thanks be that ye have arrived! the hour is well past noonday, and we had begun to fear...." "time enough," jacques growled. he gestured impatiently, and the squire clambered to his feet, bowing again. "this way, your lordship!" the squire led him to the lower room in the north tower. it was the usual room of monastic simplicity--whitewashed stone walls, a single window, two wooden benches and a low couch on which his garments for the occasion had been carefully arrayed. after the execution, he would be moved to his black silk tent in the center of the camping grounds. while the squire fluttered around him, eager to be of help, jacques removed his short-sleeved dacron shirt, kicked off his sandals and stepped out of the comfortable shorts he always wore for traveling. the squire gaped with awe at the sight of his muscular body. "m'lord, truly thou art a powerful man!" jacques looked down at him with mixed contempt and amusement. the squire was a thin, pale little man, with the pinched look of nearsightedness about his eyes. his wig and tunic were much too big for him. "what do you do, squire?" jacques inquired, not unkindly. the man looked hurt, as if the question reflected somehow on his ability to serve as a squire to the lord high executioner. "computer development," he muttered. "resonating pentode circuits." then he drew himself up defensively, with not a little pride. "but i placed at the top of the list in the bureau's test for squires!" "that's fine," jacques commented drily. "now hurry, let's see what you learned...." "dress him handsomely, squire!" boomed a taunting voice from the doorway. "our lord high executioner faces a rare challenge this day!" jacques recognized the voice of guy de archambault, the court bailiff, whose bilious nose he intended to grind into the dust one of these fine days. but his anger at the bailiff's intrusion was overbalanced by curiosity. "what's all the excitement about?" he demanded. "who's on the docket, anyway?" the bailiff grinned mockingly. "forsooth, m'lord, restrain thy impatience! in the court's good time wilt ye learn...." "oh, knock off that drivel, will you! court's not in session yet...." the bailiff's huge belly shook with laughter. "have it your own way, jacques, m'boy! but in any vernacular the meaning's the same--you're in for quite a surprise, if rumor has it right!" "out with it, then! i can see you've been waiting to tell me." the grin broadened on the bailiff's puffy lips. "you can bet your last sou on that! it would have broken my heart not to be the first to tell you...." jacques took a threatening step toward him. "i'll break more than your heart if you don't answer my question...." "patience, pa--oh, all right!" the bailiff hastily interrupted himself as jacques took another step in his direction. "you've got a woman to shoot down this time--and that's just half the story!" jacques' craggy features hardened into immobility. "what's the rest of it, fool?" "there's gossip going around that she's a page out of your past--maybe several pages, or even a whole chapter!" jacques leaped the rest of the distance to the door and grabbed the bailiff by his lace collar, twisting it until his round, fat cheeks swelled and reddened. "who is it?" "l-lady ann--of--coberly!" jacques thumped his head against the side of the doorway. "i told you to knock off that drivel." "but--but that's all i know--i swear it! i just got here this morning, too, and took a quick peek at the calendar when i heard all the rumors out among the tents...!" jacques shoved him out into the hallway, and stalked back into the room. the bailiff straightened his collar, but made no move to leave. "m'lord," he jibed, breathing heavily, "there's also a rumor that you have no stomach for executing any woman. can that be true?" jacques only scowled in reply, but he knew that _this_ rumor, at least, was true. the last woman had been back in the fifth judicial district. a flint-faced murderess with the shoulders of a man. but the horror of firing the coup du mort into her naked, contorted body still came back to haunt his dreams. for weeks afterwards he hadn't been able to touch the women who came so eagerly to his tent during the wild execution night festivals. the bailiff's coarse voice continued to prod at him: "i'm sure you'll remember this one, once you see her! i've just come from watching her being dressed for court!" the bailiff's bloodshot right eye winked suggestively. "my duty, y'know, to protect their judicial highnesses by checking for concealed weapons." "get out of here!" the bailiff fell back a step, but continued talking. "i'd say she's your type all right--full of fire! too bad you have to kill her instead of...." jacques ripped the white tunic from his squire's trembling hands and hurled it into the bailiff's face. guy de archambault waddled back out of danger, then finding that he was not followed, poked his head around the edge of the door. "prithee, sir jacques, have ye any message for their judicial highnesses?" "yes, damn you! tell them to get someone else for this infernal execution--and be quick about it!" with a gleeful chuckle, the bailiff disappeared again. the little squire picked up the white tunic and brushed it off dejectedly. if he missed this opportunity to serve as squire to the lord high executioner, his name would rotate to the bottom of the list and he might not have a chance to serve again before it was time to make up new lists. jacques strode to the window. lady ann of coberly. the name could mean anything or nothing, according to the whimsy of the lower courts. lady ann.... ann! but it couldn't be her--or could it? jacques looked far down the years to a youngster just out of training, eager to prove himself in the execution arena. there had been an ann then, and she had left one morning taking a young man's heart with her, leaving behind only the unfathomable look of reproach and disappointment that he had come since to know so well. but it couldn't be that ann! he tried to create the image of her face, but saw only the acres of spectator tents, their bright pennants snapping in the wind, and the open squares teeming with spectacular costumes copied from medieval history books by an atomic age which found in the pageantry of execution-day its one escape from safe, sanitized, prescribed living. the arthurian song of a strolling minstrel drifted up to him.... "to the fairest of all maidens, to argante, the queen, most beauteous elf, she will make my wounds all sound, and with a healing draught make me full well...." jacques clenched his great fists. no, he wouldn't do it. seniority entitled him to some consideration. if necessary, he'd put a call through to the bureau. they'd understand. his record was good. he'd always performed faithfully, meeting death every session, dealing it out to young and old alike. but not to a woman; certainly not to a woman who might have meant a great deal to him! during the long spartan years of his training, the isolated years of monastic living at a time when youth burned strongest in him, the image of woman had become a haunting dream, unreal as the moonlight streaming through his curtainless window, untouchable as the mist of a summer morning. a sense of that image and unreality still persisted, even after all the women who had come to him so willingly and had left with that undefinable look of unhappiness deep in their eyes. since that woman back in the fifth district, he'd been lucky with his executions. not too many women drew the death penalty, and the few times women had been on his docket he had learned of it sufficiently in advance to pretend illness or make up some plausible excuse for emergency leave. but today had taken him totally by surprise. the squire shuffled up behind him, and begged, "please, your lordship, shall we not don these garments now?" jacques shook his head so impatiently that the squire scurried back in fright. and then the bailiff's voice intoned sonorously from the doorway: "his highness, chief justice of the seventh judicial district!" jacques turned in time to see the bailiff bow low. the chief justice entered with a swish of ceremonial robes. he was followed by a tall, thin man, dressed in knightly costume. the bailiff made a second bow, and spoke again: "his excellency, sir mallory, representing the federal bureau of internal tranquility!" jacques felt suddenly relieved. it was good to have someone from his own bureau here. these judges were too cold, too impersonal. the chief justice was carrying his wig, which was not yet fully powdered. his heavy jowls quivered with indignation. "what's this nonsense, sir jacques?" he demanded imperiously. "court is ready to convene--we have no time to get another executioner!" "i'm sorry, your highness, but i must ask your indulgence this one time." "impossible!" sir mallory stepped forward and smiled in a conciliatory manner. "perhaps sir jacques does not understand all the circumstances," he said soothingly. "you see, sir jacques, this execution is very important to fbit. there hasn't been a first-rate execution in nearly three years, and this is the only release we've had to offer the public in all that time. of course, the court still must decide in its own wisdom whether there are any grounds for setting aside the verdict, but we would not want any of our bureau personnel to be responsible for disappointing the public." "i've always done my duty," jacques protested. "but this one time--" "the fbit is well aware of your splendid record," sir mallory interrupted, striking a hearty note of sincerity. "your services have been deeply appreciated in these difficult times. yet, we must always take the long view! particularly 'this one time', as you say. technology has rushed us into a world without need for strife or conflict, but man has not yet matured enough for such a world--and he needs release to prevent dangerous explosions. believe me, sir jacques, it would not be wise to postpone today's execution!" the chief justice cleared his throat angrily. "and it's not wise to stand here talking while my court is waiting to convene," he snapped "sir mallory, can't you remind this man of his oath, his duty, and be done with it?" jacques felt his own anger rising. "i know my oath," he growled, "but--" "of course, of course," murmured sir mallory, "and the fbit shares your feelings. we also deplore--naturally--the idle gossip that is circulating to build such interest in this execution. but circumstances are beyond our control, sir jacques. as public servants, we must serve...." the chief justice shook his wig in jacques' face. "your answer, man!" he demanded. "are you or are you not going to perform your duty?" sir mallory stepped back, spreading out his hands as if to show jacques there was nothing more he could do about it. jacques stood tautly erect, impassive, while his mind reeled on a hairline balance between defiance and submission. he knew that more than this one issue would be decided by his next words. his entire professional life was involved, everything he had trained and fought for since he had been selected for the service at the age of thirteen. a wrong word, and he could be dismissed by the bureau. the rest of his years would be spent in a cubicle in some atom-powered plant, where he'd have his own button to push for two hours every day. the monotony would be intolerable after the way he had lived! but to send his bullets smashing into the body of a woman who might be ann.... sweat trickled down the chiseled furrows of his cheeks. beside him, the little squire was a study in still life, poised with one foot forward, the white tunic still draped on his outstretched arm. "sir jacques, we are waiting for your reply," prompted the cold voice of the chief justice. a turbulent voice within jacques urged him to turn his back on all of them, but prudence counseled that he play for time. from sir mallory's oily manner, he could very well have made up and circulated the gossip about his supposed past relationship with this condemned woman. it might be wise to wait a bit before making a decision that could be so final. jacques bowed, and said hoarsely. "i await the orders of the court, your highness." if the chief justice noted that jacques said "await" instead of the more correct "will obey", he gave no sign of it. "very well," he said. "court will convene in five minutes." he turned so abruptly that he almost bumped into the bailiff, who was making a poor effort to cover his disappointment. sir mallory smiled at jacques, and said warmly: "the fbit is proud of you!" when they had left the room, the still frightened squire stuttered: "s-shall we d-dress, sire?" jacques walked without answering to the couch and sat down on the edge of it. "get a move on!" he ordered. his feelings were in turmoil: he was desperately eager to see this lady ann, yet he dreaded the moment. if this was the ann.... fingers trembling, the squire anointed each muscular shoulder with three drops of perfumed oil, after which he drew over jacques' head and upper body the white tunic--white to symbolize the purity of motive in entering the execution arena. next came the black breeches and hose--black for the eternal remembrance of death. over the tunic came the flaming red jupon, blazoned on the sleeves with gules and on the back with a lion rampant argent. on his left shoulder, the squire fixed a lace of white silk, representing a deed not yet accomplished. following the execution, a woman who had won the honor in her plant lottery would cut it off. after lacing on jacques' boots, the squire stepped back, snatching an instant to admire his handiwork. "well done, squire," said jacques. "now, let's be off!" the squire flushed and beamed in gratitude. he picked up the silver case containing the two pistolet du mort, one for jacques, one for the condemned person. * * * * * court was on a portable platform in the center of the judicial arena. as soon as the execution was confirmed, it would be wheeled out of the way. when jacques stepped from the tunnel and strode toward the platform, an abrupt hush choked off the babbling and laughter in the stands. most of the hundred thousand capacity crowd was already seated. behind jacques, the squire straightened his narrow shoulders with pride. this was the highpoint in a life spent among the tapes, circuits and feedback problems of computer research. jacques mounted the platform, bowed to the crowd and took his seat in the black-draped, carved oak chair to the left of the bailiff. his squire stood proudly behind him. the bailiff murmured: "an imposing entrance for one who had only five minutes to dress! your fair victim isn't here yet." jacques stonily ignored him. an explosive cry from the stands brought the bailiff to his feet. "here she comes!" he announced with a grin of anticipation. "take a good look, sir jacques--it's worth while!" though it was the hardest thing he had ever done, jacques refrained from looking until the woman and her two jailers had nearly reached the platform steps. and then he looked straight at her, and the shock of it was a physical blow. this was ann, all right. even after all the years there was no doubt about it. she was as tall as he remembered her, and there was the same softness and warmth in the curve of her sun-brown shoulders. he suddenly felt the old ache for her. she held a velvet robe around her shoulders, but she held it loosely, disdainfully. under it, she was already dressed in the translucent death gown. her thick, blond hair, much longer than the fashion of the day, fell nearly to her shoulders. on her feet were the silver sandals she would later remove, along with the velvet robe, just before stepping up on the pedestal in the execution circle. the two jailers, each in skull cap and long black sleeveless robe, led her to the prisoner's bench below the dais where the judges would sit. the sight of her was a torment to jacques, the ripping open of an old scar. he knew that in a moment their eyes would meet, but there was not enough strength in the corded muscles of his neck to turn his face away. time had been kind to her, jacques thought in one corner of his numbed brain. there were signs of its passing, around her mouth and her eyes, but it had given her what youth could not. there was a knowing in the curve of her lips, and he wondered what her eyes would tell him now. but she glanced first, with some amusement, at the two jailers, who held their crooked staffs at the alert position. next, her eyes contemptuously swept the semi-circle of empty judicial chairs. they passed by the bailiff so quickly that he looked cheated, and then they stopped full on jacques. he read in their calm appraisal the knowledge that she had expected him to be here, and that she was not surprised at what the years had done to him. perhaps she had seen his pictures in the faxpapers, or even watched some of his executions. but he wanted to know more than this, and he tried to look deeper into the light and shadows of her eyes. it was still there, he discovered, feeling a selfish sense of pleasure that she had not found what he hadn't been able to give her. the endless seeking, the search for something never put into words, the want unfulfilled--all this was still there. he knew that she was reading him in the same way, but he could not tell what she found. finally, it was she who looked away first, not in retreat, rather to appraise him thoughtfully. he felt her eyes on the knotted muscles of his cheeks, on his arms, on the whitened knuckles of his scarred hands, on his boots, now grey with dust from the walk across the arena. when her eyes came back to his, her unpainted lips parted in a faint smile. she knows, thought jacques. she knows i don't want to kill her! and then the torment in him became unbearable. what irony that out of all the years of their lives they should come back together at this moment. an impulse tugged at him to snatch his pistols from the squire's silver box and try to take her from the arena, daring any to stop them. then he realized that the bailiff was standing again, that the hundred thousand spectators were surging to their feet. trumpet fanfare blasted from the main tunnel, signalling the arrival of the judges. instinct brought jacques to his feet. ann remained seated, and rose only after the jailers nudged her with their curved staffs. "oyez, oyez, oyez!" cried the bailiff into a microphone concealed in a carved boar's head."'tis now two of the clock at aftir noone, and yon heralds bearing trumpets of devise give in knowledge unto all gentilmen, ladyes and gentilwoomen the cooming of this high and most honourable court! remain at standing until said court is seated!" the chief justice, regally stern, led the procession of judges, clerks and pages across the arena. they mounted the platform, stepping in cadence. when the robed and bewigged judges were all seated, the bailiff raised his staff and the crowd settled down with a buzz of anticipation. high atop one of the north towers, hidden cameras picked up the scene and vidcast it around the earth, and to the satellites and lonely planet outposts. one of the clerks picked up five rolls of parchment, untied the scarlet ribbon on each, and passed them around to the judges. the chief justice went through the pretext of scanning his, then nodded to the bailiff to present the prisoner. with a sly wink at jacques, the bailiff took ann firmly by the arm and guided her three steps forward. the chief justice coughed the nervousness from his throat, and asked: "is this the lady ann of coberly?" before the bailiff could make the correct response, ann gave her own impatient answer. "i am badge no. 7462883, transistor division, coberly precision products, ltd." the chief justice frowned at this breach of court etiquette. "have ye not been properly instructed?" ann shrugged, and the loose robe slipped lower on her shoulders. "i suppose so, but is it necessary to waste all this time? you've got the record in front of you!" the judges exchanged significant glances, and a delicious shudder swept through the stands. jacques felt time running out on him. at best the chances of a reprieve for any prisoner were small, and in face of ann's attitude.... the chief justice's expression congealed into judicial impassiveness. "ye are charged with taking the life of a man," he began solemnly. "that's not true!" ann interrupted. her unexpected words brought a startled gasp from the spectators. the judges leaned forward alertly. "according to the evidence ..." the chief justice began again. "he wasn't a man!" ann cried scornfully. her glance flickered across at jacques. "there are no more men." ponderously, like a slow moving river that would not be diverted from its course, the chief justice returned to the facts of the case: "ye speak in riddles, lady ann! the evidence makes it full clear that the victim was a man...." "evidence!" ann gestured toward the breathless stands. "there is your evidence! ask those women what they are doing here! ask them what their great, great grandmothers were doing at the ancient wrestling matches!! ask them if they have ever known a real man--or ask your own wives!" the chief justice's impassiveness was shattered. his cheeks puffed out indignantly. a strange, tense silence gripped the women in the stands; the men drew back their padded shoulders, and shouted in reproof: "shame! for shame, lady ann!" "why don't you ask them?" ann persisted. yes, ask them, jacques thought, with a sudden, overpowering anger of his own. ask them! maybe their answers would tell why he, too, of all men, should have failed so many of them. "hold thy insolent tongue, woman!" roared the chief justice. "there remains before this court only one issue--did ye or did ye not strike a man to his death in the full view of scores of gentilmen and gentilwoomen of coberly?" ann shook her long hair in defiance. "it wasn't a man i struck with that casing, and all the fbit's heraldic mockery can't make him a man! i struck a bloodless slide-rule, a cold filing cabinet full of equations, a set of dull geometric patterns, an automaton that tried to treat a woman like a punched holrith card! he was no more a man than this...." she brought her elbow up so sharply that the paunchy bailiff was toppled off balance and nearly fell. he looked frightened. "ye admit to the killing, then?" demanded the chief justice. "i'm proud of it!" "and ye claim no special circumstances?" "how would you understand them?" the crowd exploded into a frantic, unintelligible babble, and the chief justice slammed down his gavel. he turned to his fellow judges. two were staring at the prisoner with an indignation that exceeded his own. the other two, both very old men, sat with heads bowed and hands fumbling with their robes. jacques felt his pulse leap with a hope that had seemed impossible. could it be that after all...? ann turned toward him, faltering for the first time, and they stared into each other's eyes. at a curt nod from the chief justice, the bailiff, still trembling, began to poll the court. the first two judges angrily raised their hands to signify that they were voting to uphold the death sentence of the lower court. the third judge hesitated, then held out both hands, palms down. this brought an outburst of applause from the stands. the first palms-down vote always evoked such a demonstration, for a one-sided execution was a comparatively dull affair. but the applause was choked off as the fourth judge slowly extended both hands, palms down. a scattering of boos and catcalls started. an ugly undercurrent rippled close to the surface. was this woman going to win a reversal, in spite of all her insolence? if she did, the whole holiday would be spoiled, since there were no other executions on the docket. better to have stayed home and watched films of old executions on the fbit's nightly vidcast! jacques looked away from ann to watch the chief justice. the lines in jacques' face were like gouges in a metal casting. acutely aware of his role, the chief justice stood up and drew his robe about him with great dignity, taking care to face toward the tv cameras on the north tower. and as the bailiff called for his deciding vote, the chief justice solemnly raised his right hand. three to two for death! a hundred thousand spectators leaped to their feet, hysterically waving their arms. three shots for the lord high executioner! two for lady ann! what a day this was going to be after all! here was a truly great joute à l'outrance! ann swayed a little, then smiled. jacques closed his eyes. ritual and habit took over where jacques' will could not function. his squire stepped forward, opened the silver box and offered the pistolets du mort to the bailiff. the weapons sparkled in the sunlight. they were a modern adaptation of an ancient design, and had become official death weapons after earlier experiments had convinced the fbit that few 22nd century men were strong enough to handle the swords and lances of chivalry. the bailiff loaded one gun with two shells, the other with three. then he replaced both in the silver box, closed the lid and put the box on the bench in front of the chief justice. already the judicial platform was wheeled to one side of the arena; the twin pedestals were being rolled to position in the execution circle. they were thirty inches high, and were positioned precisely sixty feet apart, each on a line with the open ends of the stands so that wild shots would not strike a spectator. next came the ceremony of confrontation, intended to symbolize that the lord high executioner was acting only under the compulsion of duty, without malice or any base motive. moving mechanically, jacques stepped toward ann. the jailers crossed their staffs two paces in front of her. it was the closest jacques would be permitted to approach until the ceremony of the spirit, when he would kneel beside her shattered body in the dust of the arena. he also was supposed to kneel now, and silently speak a prayer for both their souls. he knelt, but could not bow his head. ann looked down at him, and the faint, unfathomable smile returned to her lips. "it's all right," she said softly. "you don't have to speak to me with words." the natural, warm scent of her body came through the fragrance of the oils with which she had been anointed in her death cell. it was a remembered scent that once again drove jacques to the brink of madness. her voice, husky and steadying, came down to him: "for two like us there is no other way, jacques. don't fail me again." he rose stiffly, backing away, staring into the mystery of the lights and shadows in her wide eyes, groping for the meaning of her words. a friar moved up to take his place, and the jailers dropped their staffs. but ann dismissed the friar with a quick shake of her head. the code now called for jacques to leave the platform and walk with measured steps around the arena before mounting his pedestal in the execution circle. a signal from the trumpets started him on his way before he was aware of what he was doing. the habits of a thousand executions demanded obedience. women in the front rows leaned far over the railing. some reached their hands down to him, offering flowers and kerchiefs, hoarsely begging him to wear their favors during the execution. others sat still, transfixed, lips parted and moist. the men beside them shrank back in their seats, looking at him as a sparrow would look at a coiled snake. vendors of ribbands and souvenirs, cakes and drink, stood silent as he passed before them. the flutes, citterns and cymbals, the melodic voices of the minstrels, picked up the brooding death chanson: "farewell my friends, the tyde abideth no man, i am departed from hence, and so shall ye; but in this passage the best songe that i can is requiem eternam...." the walk around the arena was an eternity, and then it was over and done with, and he had mounted his pedestal. * * * * * a low crescendo, like the roll of faraway surf, swept across the stands. ann was at the edge of the platform. she stepped out of her slippers, unfastened the velvet robe, handed it to one of the jailers. the crescendo grew, matching the surge of blood in jacques' temples. a breeze swept the translucent death gown tight against her bare body, and she walked steadily down the steps, across the arena. her feet stirred little puffs of grey dust that twisted and whirled away. the friar followed a few paces behind. at the pedestal, he offered her his hand. she refused it, stepped up without assistance. bowing his head, the friar walked back to the judge's platform. jacques' squire and a page boy appeared almost immediately. they walked part way across the arena together. each bore one of the pistols on a black satin pillow. at the edge of the execution circle, their paths forked toward each of the pedestals. the trembling page offered ann her pistol first. "do ye remember your instructions?" he asked in a quavering voice that was picked up for the vidcast by the microphone hung under his frock. "yes, thank you." ann held the pistol loosely at her side, and looked toward jacques, across the abyss of sixty feet. with frozen fingers, jacques accepted the other pistol from his squire, and knew that he was out beyond the point of no returning. but he did not, could not, know what he would do once the signal for the execution was given. "do not fail me again," ann had pleaded. but what had she meant? even at this final moment her smile was as enigmatic as ever. the page and the squire retreated to their stations at the side of the arena, this time moving hastily. the bailiff raised his black staff and pennant, held it poised until the chief justice nodded, then lowered it with a flourish. a trumpet sounded one high, clear note. the signal had been given. jacques remained motionless, waiting for a sign from ann. but she, too, waited, her chin slightly lifted. what was she waiting for? what did she expect from him? in the stands, the breathing of a hundred thousand people was a rasping sound. and then ann moved, so quickly that the surprise was complete. her pistol flashed up, fired while still in its arc. the bullet blasted the air beside jacques' ear, so close that for a fraction of a second he thought he had been hit. ann's voice drifted across to him, across the stunned silence, and it contained both a taunt and a plea: "i won't miss next time, jacques!" and he knew she would not. he had seen too many guns fired not to recognize technique. if she had learned to shoot that well, there was no doubt she could have hit him the first time. jacques still couldn't fathom her motive, but there was no longer any chance to consider it. his conscious mind wanted to let her fire again, to put an end to this terrible dream. but the instinct of self-preservation was too strong; the lessons at the fbit academy had been taught too well. numbness went out of him, and he watched her eyes for the telltale flicker that would give a split-second warning of her next move. the warning came, and he was ahead of it. his shot struck ann high on the right shoulder. her second and last bullet ploughed into the dust midway between them. she twisted around from the force of the impact, and half slipped, half fell from the pedestal. but she kept herself erect, bracing against the pedestal with her left hand. a red blotch was spreading from her shoulder to her breast and down her side. there was shock and pain in her eyes, but the half-smile was still on her lips. "une!" shouted the crowd, counting his first shot. jacques no longer needed a will of his own. the momentum of a thousand deaths swept him along, overpowering everything else. "deux!" screamed the hundred thousand voices. "deux! deux!" his second shot struck ann well below the left shoulder, knocking her away from the support of the pedestal, sprawling her in the dust. yet so indomitable was her will that she brought her hands together and raised herself to her knees. her entire upper body was covered with dust and spreading fingers of crimson. "trois!" shrieked the maddened crowd. "trois! trois!" women tore away pieces of their clothing and waved them with savage abandon. "trois! trois! trois!" the third shot could barely be heard. ann was lifted from her knees and hurled backwards. she rolled over twice, then lay face downward, her fingers digging in the hard earth. with his last shot, the fierceness drained out of jacques. he blinked like a man awakening from a horrible dream. he stared at ann's shuddering body, not believing he could have done this. he cried out to her, and ran to her side with great, lunging steps. his body shook with dry sobs. he turned her over tenderly, smoothed back the tangled hair from her forehead, tried to wipe some of the dirt and bubbles of red from her lips. an fbit man rushed toward them with a microphone. with one terrible look, jacques sent him scurrying back. "ann ... ann ..." he cried. "what have i done?" her glazing, pain-filled eyes cleared for a moment, and drew him closer. in them, for all the pain, there was peace at last. no reproach, no disappointment. only peace. and he knew then, what he should always have known: that when a man lived as one with death, he could not give less to any person, nor expect more. ann's fingers crawled through the dust and touched the toe of his boot. her quivering lips twisted in a final grimace of ecstacy. and out of the lonely void of the dying came the words he had always hoped to hear, and would never hear again: "good night," she whispered. "you--were wonderful--my lover--my husband." _the headswoman_ _by the same author_ the golden age dream days pagan papers the bodley head [frontispiece: "now that we have been properly introduced allow me to apologise"] the headswoman _by_ kenneth grahame _with illustrations in colour and woodcuts by_ marcia lane foster [decoration] _london_ _john lane the bodley head limited_ _new york john lane company_ _first published 1898_ _illustrated edition 1921_ _printed in great britain by r. clay & sons, ltd., bungay, suffolk._ _list of illustrations_ "now that we have been properly introduced allow me to apologise" _frontispiece_ _facing page_ "you see i am familiar with the routine.... good-morning, gentlemen!" 8 "au revoir, sir! if you should happen to be in the market-place any morning" 28 endeavouring to convey the tardy prisoner to the scaffold 32 "nay, pardon me, sweet one, 'twas but a jest of mine" 36 but at this point a hubbub arose at the foot of the scaffold 42 "now, mark my words, you miserable little bladder-o'-lard, see if i don't take this out of your skin presently" 44 an invitation arrived, backed by an escort of half-a-dozen very tall archers 46 _the headswoman_ [illustration] i it was a bland, sunny morning of a mediæval may,--an old-style may of the most typical quality; and the council of the little town of st. radegonde were assembled, as was their wont at that hour, in the picturesque upper chamber of the hôtel de ville, for the dispatch of the usual municipal business. though the date was early sixteenth century, the members of this particular town-council possessed considerable resemblance to those of similar assemblies in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and even the nineteenth centuries, in a general absence of any characteristic at all--unless a pervading hopeless insignificance can be considered as such. all the character in the room, indeed, seemed to be concentrated in the girl who stood before the table, erect, yet at her ease, facing the members in general and mr. mayor in particular; a delicate-handed, handsome girl of some eighteen summers, whose tall, supple figure was well set off by the quiet, though tasteful mourning in which she was clad. "well, gentlemen," the mayor was saying, "this little business appears to be--er--quite in order, and it only remains for me to--er--review the facts. you are aware that the town has lately had the misfortune to lose its executioner,--a gentleman who, i may say, performed the duties of his office with neatness and dispatch, and gave the fullest satisfaction to all with whom he--er--came in contact. but the council has already, in a vote of condolence, expressed its sense of the--er--striking qualities of the deceased. you are doubtless also aware that the office is hereditary, being secured to a particular family in this town, so long as any one of its members is ready and willing to take it up. the deed lies before me, and appears to be--er--quite in order. it is true that on this occasion the council might have been called upon to consider and examine the title of the claimant, the late lamented official having only left a daughter,--she who now stands before you; but i am happy to say that jeanne--the young lady in question--with what i am bound to call great good-feeling on her part, has saved us all trouble in that respect, by formally applying for the family post, with all its--er--duties, privileges, and emoluments; and her application appears to be--er--quite in order. there is, therefore, under the circumstances, nothing left for us to do but to declare the said applicant duly elected. i would wish, however, before i--er--sit down, to make it quite clear to the--er--fair petitioner, that if a laudable desire to save the council trouble in the matter has led her to a--er--hasty conclusion, it is quite open to her to reconsider her position. should she determine not to press her claim, the succession to the post would then apparently devolve upon her cousin enguerrand, well known to you all as a practising advocate in the courts of this town. though the youth has not, i admit, up to now proved a conspicuous success in the profession he has chosen, still there is no reason why a bad lawyer should not make an excellent executioner; and in view of the close friendship--may i even say attachment?--existing between the cousins, it is possible that this young lady may, in due course, practically enjoy the solid emoluments of the position without the necessity of discharging its (to some girls) uncongenial duties. and so, though not the rose herself, she would still be--er--near the rose!" and the mayor resumed his seat, chuckling over his little pleasantry, which the keener wits of the council proceeded to explain at length to the more obtuse. "permit me, mr. mayor," said the girl quietly, "first to thank you for what was evidently the outcome of a kindly though misdirected feeling on your part; and then to set you right as to the grounds of my application for the post to which you admit my hereditary claim. as to my cousin, your conjecture as to the feeling between us is greatly exaggerated; and i may further say at once, from my knowledge of his character, that he is little qualified either to adorn or to dignify an important position such as this. a man who has achieved such indifferent success in a minor and less exacting walk of life, is hardly likely to shine in an occupation demanding punctuality, concentration, judgment,--all the qualities, in fine, that go to make a good business man. but this is beside the question. my motive, gentlemen, in demanding what is my due, is a simple and (i trust) an honest one, and i desire that there should be no misunderstanding. it is my wish to be dependent on no one. i am both willing and able to work, and i only ask for what is the common right of humanity,--admission to the labour market. how many poor, toiling women would simply jump at a chance like this which fortune, by the accident of birth, lays open to me! and shall i, from any false deference to that conventional voice which proclaims this thing as 'nice,' and that thing as 'not nice,' reject a handicraft which promises me both artistic satisfaction and a competence? no, gentlemen; my claim is a small one,--only a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. but i can accept nothing less, nor consent to forgo my rights, even for any contingent remainder of possible cousinly favour!" there was a touch of scorn in her fine contralto voice as she finished speaking; the mayor himself beamed approval. he was not wealthy, and had a large family of daughters; so jeanne's sentiments seemed to him entirely right and laudable. "well, gentlemen," he began briskly, "then all we've got to do, is to----" "beg pardon, your worship," put in master robinet, the tanner, who had been sitting with a petrified, bill-the-lizard sort of expression during the speechifying: "but are we to understand as how this here young lady is going to be the public executioner of this here town?" "really, neighbour robinet," said the mayor, somewhat pettishly, "you've got ears like the rest of us, i suppose; and you know the contents of the deed; and you've had my assurance that it's--er--quite in order; and as it's getting towards lunch-time----" "but it's unheard of," protested honest robinet. "there hasn't ever been no such thing--leastways not as i've heard tell." [illustration: "you see i am familiar with the routine.... good-morning, gentlemen!"] "well, well, well," said the mayor, "everything must have a beginning, i suppose. times are different now, you know. there's the march of intellect, and--er--all that sort of thing. we must advance with the times--don't you see, robinet?--advance with the times!" "well, i'm----" began the tanner. but no one heard, on this occasion, the tanner's opinion as to his condition, physical or spiritual; for the clear contralto cut short his obtestations. "if there's really nothing more to be said, mr. mayor," she remarked, "i need not trespass longer on your valuable time. i propose to take up the duties of my office to-morrow morning, at the usual hour. the salary will, i assume, be reckoned from the same date; and i shall make the customary quarterly application for such additional emoluments as may have accrued to me during that period. you see i am familiar with the routine. good-morning, gentlemen!" and as she passed from the council chamber, her small head held erect, even the tanner felt that she took with her a large portion of the may sunshine which was condescending that morning to gild their deliberations. ii one evening, a few weeks later, jeanne was taking a stroll on the ramparts of the town, a favourite and customary walk of hers when business cares were over. the pleasant expanse of country that lay spread beneath her--the rich sunset, the gleaming, sinuous river, and the noble old château that dominated both town and pasture from its adjacent height--all served to stir and bring out in her those poetic impulses which had lain dormant during the working day; while the cool evening breeze smoothed out and obliterated any little jars or worries which might have ensued during the practice of a profession in which she was still something of a novice. this evening she felt fairly happy and content. true, business was rather brisk, and her days had been fully occupied; but this mattered little so long as her modest efforts were appreciated, and she was now really beginning to feel that, with practice, her work was creditably and artistically done. in a satisfied, somewhat dreamy mood, she was drinking in the various sweet influences of the evening, when she perceived her cousin approaching. "good-evening, enguerrand," cried jeanne pleasantly; she was thinking that since she had begun to work for her living she had hardly seen him--and they used to be such good friends. could anything have occurred to offend him? enguerrand drew near somewhat moodily, but could not help allowing his expression to relax at sight of her fair young face, set in its framework of rich brown hair, wherein the sunset seemed to have tangled itself and to cling, reluctant to leave it. "sit down, enguerrand," continued jeanne, "and tell me what you've been doing this long time. been very busy, and winning forensic fame and gold?" "well, not exactly," said enguerrand, moody once more. "the fact is, there's so much interest required nowadays at the courts that unassisted talent never gets a chance. and you, jeanne?" "oh, i don't complain," answered jeanne lightly. "of course, it's fair-time just now, you know, and we're always busy then. but work will be lighter soon, and then i'll get a day off, and we'll have a delightful ramble and picnic in the woods, as we used to do when we were children. what fun we had in those old days, enguerrand! do you remember when we were quite little tots, and used to play at executions in the back-garden, and you were a bandit and a buccaneer, and all sorts of dreadful things, and i used to chop off your head with a paper-knife? how pleased dear father used to be!" "jeanne," said enguerrand, with some hesitation, "you've touched upon the very subject that i came to speak to you about. do you know, dear, i can't help feeling--it may be unreasonable, but still the feeling is there--that the profession you have adopted is not quite--is just a little----" "now, enguerrand!" said jeanne, an angry flash sparkling in her eyes. she was a little touchy on this subject, the word she most affected to despise being also the one she most dreaded,--the adjective "unladylike." "don't misunderstand me, jeanne," went on enguerrand imploringly: "you may naturally think that, because i should have succeeded to the post, with its income and perquisites, had you relinquished your claim, there is therefore some personal feeling in my remonstrances. believe me, it is not so. my own interests do not weigh with me for a moment. it is on your account, jeanne, and yours alone, that i ask you to consider whether the higher æsthetic qualities, which i know you possess, may not become cramped and thwarted by 'the trivial round, the common task,' which you have lightly undertaken. however laudable a professional life may be, one always feels that with a delicate organism such as woman, some of the bloom may possibly get rubbed off the peach." "well, enguerrand," said jeanne, composing herself with an effort, though her lips were set hard, "i will do you the justice to believe that personal advantage does not influence you, and i will try to reason calmly with you, and convince you that you are simply hide-bound by old-world prejudice. now, take yourself, for instance, who come here to instruct me: what does _your_ profession amount to, when all's said and done? a mass of lies, quibbles, dodges, and tricks, that would make any self-respecting executioner blush! and even with the dirty weapons at your command, you make but a poor show of it. there was that wretched fellow you defended only two days ago. (i was in court during the trial--professional interest, you know.) well, he had his regular _alibi_ all ready, as clear as clear could be; only you must needs go and mess and bungle the thing up, so that, just as i expected all along, he was passed on to me for treatment in due course. you may like to have his opinion--that of a shrewd, though unlettered person. 'it's a real pleasure, miss,' he said, 'to be handled by you. you _knows_ your work, and you _does_ your work--though p'raps i ses it as shouldn't. if that blooming fool of a mouthpiece of mine'--he was referring to you, dear, in your capacity of advocate--'had known his business half as well as you do yours, i shouldn't a bin here now!' and you know, enguerrand, he was perfectly right." "well, perhaps he was," admitted enguerrand. "you see, i had been working at a sonnet the night before, and i couldn't get the rhymes right, and they would keep coming into my head in court and mixing themselves up with the _alibi_. but look here, jeanne, when you saw i was going off the track, you might have given me a friendly hint, you know--for old times' sake, if not for the prisoner's!" "i daresay," replied jeanne calmly: "perhaps you'll tell me why i should sacrifice my interests because you're unable to look after yours. you forget that i receive a bonus, over and above my salary, upon each exercise of my functions!" "true," said enguerrand gloomily: "i did forget that. i wish i had your business aptitudes, jeanne." "i daresay you do," remarked jeanne. "but you see, dear, how all your arguments fall to the ground. you mistake a prepossession for a logical base. now if i had gone, like that clairette you used to dangle after, and been waiting-woman to some grand lady in a château,--a thin-blooded compound of drudge and sycophant,--then, i suppose, you'd have been perfectly satisfied. so feminine! so genteel!" "she's not a bad sort of girl, little claire," said enguerrand reflectively (thereby angering jeanne afresh): "but putting her aside,--of course you could always beat me at argument, jeanne; you'd have made a much better lawyer than i. but you know, dear, how much i care about you; and i did hope that on that account even a prejudice, however unreasonable, might have some little weight. and i'm not alone, let me tell you, in my views. there was a fellow in court only to-day, who was saying that yours was only a _succès d'estime_, and that woman, as a naturally talkative and hopelessly unpunctual animal, could never be more than a clever amateur in the profession you have chosen." "that will do, enguerrand," said jeanne proudly; "it seems that when argument fails, you can stoop so low as to insult me through my sex. you men are all alike,--steeped in brutish masculine prejudice. now go away, and don't mention the subject to me again till you're quite reasonable and nice." iii jeanne passed a somewhat restless night after her small scene with her cousin, waking depressed and unrefreshed. though she had carried matters with so high a hand, and had scored so distinctly all around, she had been more agitated than she had cared to show. she liked enguerrand; and more especially did she like his admiration for her; and that chance allusion to clairette contained possibilities that were alarming. in embracing a professional career, she had never thought for a moment that it could militate against that due share of admiration to which, as a girl, she was justly entitled; and enguerrand's views seemed this morning all the more narrow and inexcusable. she rose languidly, and as soon as she was dressed sent off a little note to the mayor, saying that she had a nervous headache and felt out of sorts, and begging to be excused from attendance on that day; and the missive reached the mayor just as he was taking his usual place at the head of the board. "dear, dear!" said the kind-hearted old man, as soon as he had read the letter to his fellow-councilmen: "i'm very sorry. poor girl! here, one of you fellows, just run round and tell the gaoler there won't be any business to-day. jeanne's seedy. it's put off till to-morrow. and now, gentlemen, the agenda----" "really, your worship," exploded robinet, "this is simply ridiculous!" "upon my word, robinet," said the mayor, "i don't know what's the matter with you. here's a poor girl unwell,--and a more hard-working girl isn't in the town,--and instead of sympathising with her, and saying you're sorry, you call it ridiculous! suppose you had a headache yourself! you wouldn't like----" "but it _is_ ridiculous," maintained the tanner stoutly. "who ever heard of an executioner having a nervous headache? there's no precedent for it. and 'out of sorts,' too! suppose the criminals said they were out of sorts, and didn't feel up to being executed?" "well, suppose they did," replied the mayor, "we'd try and meet them half-way, i daresay. they'd have to be executed some time or other, you know. why on earth are you so captious about trifles? the prisoners won't mind, and _i_ don't mind: nobody's inconvenienced, and everybody's happy!" "you're right there, mr. mayor," put in another councilman. "this executing business used to give the town a lot of trouble and bother; now it's all as easy as kiss-your-hand. instead of objecting, as they used to do, and wanting to argue the point and kick up a row, the fellows as is told off for execution come skipping along in the morning, like a lot of lambs in may-time. and then the fun there is on the scaffold! the jokes, the back answers, the repartees! and never a word to shock a baby! why, my little girl, as goes through the market-place every morning--on her way to school, you know--she says to me only yesterday, she says, 'why, father,' she says, 'it's as good as the play-actors,' she says." "there again," persisted robinet; "i object to that too. they ought to show a properer feeling. playing at mummers is one thing, and being executed is another, and people ought to keep 'em separate. in my father's time, that sort of thing wasn't thought good taste, and i don't hold with new-fangled notions." "well, really, neighbour," said the mayor, "i think you're out of sorts yourself to-day. you must have got out of bed the wrong side this morning. as for a little joke, more or less, we all know a maiden loves a merry jest when she's certain of having the last word! but i'll tell you what i'll do, if it'll please you; i'll go round and see jeanne myself on my way home, and tell her--quite nicely, you know--that once in a way doesn't matter; but that if she feels her health won't let her keep regular business hours, she mustn't think of going on with anything that's bad for her. like that, don't you see? and now, gentlemen, let's read the minutes!" thus it came about that jeanne took her usual walk that evening with a ruffled brow and a swelling heart; and her little hand opened and shut angrily as she paced the ramparts. she couldn't stand being found fault with. how could she help having a headache? those clods of citizens didn't know what a highly strung sensitive organisation was. absorbed in her reflections, she had taken several turns up and down the grassy footway before she became aware that she was not alone. a youth, of richer dress and more elegant bearing than the general run of the radegundians, was leaning in an embrasure, watching the graceful figure with evident interest. "something has vexed you, fair maiden?" he observed, coming forward deferentially as soon as he perceived he was noticed; "and care sits but awkwardly on that smooth young brow." "nay, it is nothing, kind sir," replied jeanne; "we girls who work for our living must not be too sensitive. my employers have been somewhat exigent, that is all. i did wrong to take it to heart." "'tis the way of the bloated capitalist," rejoined the young man lightly, as he turned to walk by her side. "they grind us, they grind us; perhaps some day they will come under your hands in turn, and then you can pay them out. and so you toil and spin, fair lily! and yet, methinks, those delicate hands show little trace of labour?" "you wrong me, indeed, sir," replied jeanne merrily. "these hands of mine, that you are so good as to admire, do great execution!" "i can well believe that your victims are numerous," he replied; "may i be permitted to rank myself among the latest of them?" "i wish you a better fortune, kind sir," answered jeanne demurely. "i can imagine no more delightful one," he replied; "and where do you ply your daily task, fair mistress? not entirely out of sight and access, i trust?" [illustration: "au revoir, sir! if you should happen to be in the market-place any morning."] "nay, sir," laughed jeanne, "i work in the market-place most mornings, and there is no charge for admission; and access is far from difficult. indeed, some complain--but that is no business of mine. and now i must be wishing you a good-evening. nay,"--for he would have detained her,--"it is not seemly for an unprotected maiden to tarry in converse with a stranger at this hour. _au revoir_, sir! if you should happen to be in the market-place any morning----" and she tripped lightly away. the youth, gazing after her retreating figure, confessed himself strangely fascinated by this fair unknown, whose particular employment, by the way, he had forgotten to ask; while jeanne, as she sped homewards, could not help reflecting that, for style and distinction, this new acquaintance threw into the shade all the enguerrands and others she had met hitherto--even in the course of business. iv the next morning was bright and breezy, and jeanne was early at her post, feeling quite a different girl. the busy little market-place was full of colour and movement, and the gay patches of flowers and fruit, the strings of fluttering kerchiefs, and the piles of red and yellow pottery, formed an artistic setting to the quiet impressive scaffold which they framed. jeanne was in short sleeves, according to the etiquette of her office, and her round graceful arms showed snowily against her dark blue skirt and scarlet, tight-fitting bodice. her assistant looked at her with admiration. "hope you're better, miss," he said respectfully. "it was just as well you didn't put yourself out to come yesterday; there was nothing particular to do. only one fellow, and _he_ said he didn't care; anything to oblige a lady!" "well, i wish he'd hurry up now, to oblige a lady," said jeanne, swinging her axe carelessly to and fro: "ten minutes past the hour; i shall have to talk to the mayor about this." "it's a pity there ain't a better show this morning," pursued the assistant, as he leant over the rail of the scaffold and spat meditatively into the busy throng below. "they do say as how the young seigneur arrived at the château yesterday--him as has been finishing his education in paris, you know. he's as likely as not to be in the market-place to-day; and if he's disappointed, he may go off to paris again, which would be a pity, seeing the château's been empty so long. but he may go to paris, or anywhere else he's a mind to, he won't see better workmanship than in this here little town!" "well, my good raoul," said jeanne, colouring slightly at the obvious compliment, "quality, not quantity, is what we aim at here, you know. if a paris education has been properly assimilated by the seigneur, he will not fail to make all the necessary allowances. but see, the prison-doors are opening at last!" [illustration: endeavouring to convey the tardy prisoner to the scaffold.] they both looked across the little square to the prison, which fronted the scaffold; and sure enough, a small body of men, the sheriff at their head, was issuing from the building, conveying, or endeavouring to convey, the tardy prisoner to the scaffold. that gentleman, however, seemed to be in a different and less obliging frame of mind from that of the previous day; and at every pace one or other of the guards was shot violently into the middle of the square, propelled by a vigorous kick or blow from the struggling captive. the crowd, unaccustomed of late to such demonstrations of feeling, and resenting the prisoner's want of taste, hooted loudly; but it was not until that ingenious mediæval arrangement known as _la marche aux crapauds_ had been brought to bear on him that the reluctant convict could be prevailed upon to present himself before the young lady he had already so unwarrantably detained. jeanne's profession had both accustomed her to surprises and taught her the futility of considering her clients as drawn from any one particular class; yet she could hardly help feeling some astonishment on recognising her new acquaintance of the previous evening. that, with all his evident amiability of character, he should come to this end, was not in itself a special subject for wonder; but that he should have been conversing with her on the ramparts at the hour when--after courteously excusing her attendance on the scaffold--he was cooling his heels in prison for another day, seemed hardly to be accounted for, at first sight. jeanne, however, reflected that the reconciling of apparent contradictions was not included in her official duties. the sheriff, wiping his heated brow, now read the formal _procès_ delivering over the prisoner to the executioner's hands; "and a nice job we've had to get him here," he added on his own account. and the young man, who had remained perfectly tractable since his arrival, stepped forward and bowed politely. "now that we have been properly introduced," said he courteously, "allow me to apologise for any inconvenience you have been put to by my delay. the fault was entirely mine, and these gentlemen are in no way to blame. had i known whom i was to have the pleasure of meeting, wings could not have conveyed me swiftly enough." "do not mention, i pray, the word inconvenience," replied jeanne, with that timid grace which so well became her. "i only trust that any slight discomfort it may be my duty to cause you before we part will be as easily pardoned. and now--for the morning, alas! advances--any little advice or assistance that i can offer is quite at your service; for the situation is possibly new, and you may have had but little experience." "faith! none worth mentioning," said the prisoner gaily. "treat me as a raw beginner. though our acquaintance has been but brief, i have the utmost confidence in you." "then, sir," said jeanne, blushing, "suppose i were to assist you in removing this gay doublet, so as to give both of us more freedom and less responsibility?" "a perquisite of the office?" queried the prisoner with a smile, as he slipped one arm out of its sleeve. a flush came over jeanne's fair brow. "that was ungenerous," she said. "nay, pardon me, sweet one," said he, laughing: "'twas but a poor jest of mine--in bad taste, i willingly admit." [illustration: "nay pardon me, sweet one, 'twas but a jest of mine."] "i was sure you did not mean to hurt me," she replied kindly, while her fingers were busy in turning back the collar of his shirt. it was composed, she noticed, of the finest point lace; and she could not help a feeling of regret that some slight error--as must, from what she knew, exist somewhere--should compel her to take a course so at variance with her real feelings. her only comfort was that the youth himself seemed entirely satisfied with his situation. he hummed the last air from paris during her ministrations, and when she had quite finished, kissed the pretty fingers with a metropolitan grace. "and now, sir," said jeanne, "if you will kindly come this way: and please to mind the step--so. now, if you will have the goodness to kneel here--nay, the sawdust is perfectly clean; you are my first client this morning. on the other side of the block you will find a nick, more or less adapted to the human chin, though a perfect fit cannot, of course, be guaranteed in every case. so! are you pretty comfortable?" "a bed of roses," replied the prisoner. "and what a really admirable view one gets of the valley and the river, from just this particular point!" "charming, is it not?" replied jeanne. "i'm so glad you do justice to it. some of your predecessors have really quite vexed me by their inability to appreciate that view. it's worth coming here to see it. and now, to return to business for one moment,--would you prefer to give the word yourself? some people do; it's a mere matter of taste. or will you leave yourself entirely in my hands?" "oh, in your fair hands," replied her client, "which i beg you to consider respectfully kissed once more by your faithful servant to command." jeanne, blushing rosily, stepped back a pace, moistening her palms as she grasped her axe, when a puffing and blowing behind caused her to turn her head, and she perceived the mayor hastily ascending the scaffold. "hold on a minute, jeanne, my girl," he gasped. "don't be in a hurry. there's been some little mistake." jeanne drew herself up with dignity. "i'm afraid i don't quite understand you, mr. mayor," she replied in freezing accents. "there's been no little mistake on my part that i'm aware of." "no, no, no," said the mayor apologetically; "but on somebody else's there has. you see it happened in this way: this here young fellow was going round the town last night; and he'd been dining, i should say, and he was carrying on rather free. i will only say so much in your presence, that he was carrying on decidedly free. so the town-guard happened to come across him, and he was very high and very haughty, he was, and wouldn't give his name nor yet his address--as a gentleman should, you know, when he's been dining and carrying on free. so our fellows just ran him in--and it took the pick of them all their time to do it, too. well, then, the other chap who was in prison--the gentleman who obliged you yesterday, you know--what does he do but slip out and run away in the middle of all the row and confusion; and very inconsiderate and ungentlemanly it was of him to take advantage of us in that mean way, just when we wanted a little sympathy and forbearance. well, the sheriff comes this morning to fetch out his man for execution, and he knows there's only one man to execute, and he sees there's only one man in prison, and it all seems as simple as a b c--he never was much of a mathematician, you know--so he fetches our friend here along, quite gaily. and--and that's how it came about, you see; _hinc illæ lachrymæ_, as the roman poet has it. so now i shall just give this young fellow a good talking to, and discharge him with a caution; and we sha'n't require you any more to-day, jeanne, my girl." "now, look here, mr. mayor," said jeanne severely, "you utterly fail to grasp the situation in its true light. all these little details may be interesting in themselves, and doubtless the press will take note of them; but they are entirely beside the point. with the muddleheadedness of your officials (which i have frequently remarked upon) i have nothing whatever to do. all i know is, that this young gentleman has been formally handed over to me for execution, with all the necessary legal requirements; and executed he has got to be. when my duty has been performed, you are at liberty to reopen the case if you like; and any 'little mistake' that may have occurred through your stupidity you can then rectify at your leisure. meantime, you've no _locus standi_ here at all; in fact, you've no business whatever lumbering up my scaffold. so shut up and clear out." "now, jeanne, do be reasonable," implored the mayor. "you women are so precise. you never will make any allowance for the necessary margin of error in things." "if i were to allow the necessary margin for all _your_ errors, mayor," replied jeanne coolly, "the edition would have to be a large-paper one, and even then the text would stand a poor chance. and now, if you don't allow me the necessary margin to swing my axe, there may be another 'little mistake'----" [illustration: but at this point a hubbub arose at the foot of the scaffold.] but at this point a hubbub arose at the foot of the scaffold, and jeanne, leaning over, perceived sundry tall fellows, clad in the livery of the seigneur, engaged in dispersing the municipal guard by the agency of well-directed kicks, applied with heartiness and anatomical knowledge. a moment later, there strode on to the scaffold, clad in black velvet, and adorned with his gold chain of office, the stately old seneschal of the château, evidently in a towering passion. "now, mark my words, you miserable little bladder-o'-lard," he roared at the mayor (whose bald head certainly shone provokingly in the morning sun), "see if i don't take this out of your skin presently!" and he passed on to where the youth was still kneeling, apparently quite absorbed in the view. "my lord," he said firmly though respectfully, "your hair-brained folly really passes all bounds. have you entirely lost your head?" "faith, nearly," said the young man, rising and stretching himself. "is that you, old thibault? ow, what a crick i've got in my neck! but that view of the valley was really delightful!" "did you come here simply to admire the view, my lord?" inquired thibault severely. [illustration: "now mark my words you miserable little bladder-o'-lard, see if i don't take this out of your skin presently."] "i came because my horse would come," replied the young seigneur lightly: "that is, these gentlemen here were so pressing; they would not hear of any refusal; and besides, they forgot to mention what my attendance was required in such a hurry for. and when i got here, thibault, old fellow, and saw that divine creature--nay, a goddess, _dea certé_--so graceful, so modest, so anxious to acquit herself with credit---well, you know my weakness; i never could bear to disappoint a woman. she had evidently set her heart on taking my head; and as she had my heart already----" "i think, my lord," said thibault, with some severity, "you had better let me escort you back to the château. this appears to be hardly a safe place for light-headed and susceptible persons!" jeanne, as was natural, had the last word. "understand me, mr. mayor," said she, "these proceedings are entirely irregular. i decline to recognise them, and when the quarter expires i shall claim the usual bonus!" v when, an hour or two later, an invitation arrived--courteously worded but significantly backed by an escort of half-a-dozen tall archers--for both jeanne and the mayor to attend at the château without delay, jeanne for her part received it with neither surprise nor reluctance. she had felt it especially hard that the only two interviews fate had granted her with the one man who had made some impression on her heart should be hampered, the one by considerations of propriety, the other by the conflicting claims of her profession and its duties. on this occasion, now, she would have an excellent chaperon in the mayor; and, business being over for the day, they could meet and unbend on a common social footing. the mayor was not at all surprised either, considering what had gone before; but he was exceedingly terrified, and sought some consolation from jeanne as they proceeded together to the château. that young lady's remarks, however, could hardly be called exactly comforting. [illustration: an invitation arrived, backed by an escort of half-a-dozen tall archers.] "i always thought you'd put your foot in it some day, mayor," she said. "you are so hopelessly wanting in system and method. really, under the present happy-go-lucky police arrangements, i never know whom i may not be called upon to execute. between you and my cousin enguerrand, life is hardly safe in this town. and the worst of it is, that we other officials on the staff have to share in the discredit." "what do you think they'll do to me, jeanne?" whimpered the mayor, perspiring freely. "can't say, i'm sure," pursued the candid jeanne. "of course, if it's anything in the _rack_ line of business, i shall have to superintend the arrangements, and then you can feel sure you're in capable hands. but probably they'll only fine you pretty smartly, give you a month or two in the dungeons, and dismiss you from your post; and you will hardly grudge any slight personal inconvenience resulting from an arrangement so much to the advantage of the town." this was hardly reassuring, but the mayor's official reprimand of the previous day still rankled in this unforgiving young person's mind. on their reaching the château the mayor was conducted aside, to be dealt with by thibault; and from the sounds of agonised protestation and lament which shortly reached jeanne's ears, it was evident that he was having a _mauvais quart d'heure_. the young lady was shown respectfully into a chamber apart, where she had hardly had time to admire sufficiently the good taste of the furniture and the magnificence of the tapestry with which the walls were hung, when the seigneur entered and welcomed her with a cordial grace that put her entirely at her ease. "your punctuality puts me to shame, fair mistress," he said, "considering how unwarrantably i kept you waiting this morning, and how i tested your patience by my ignorance and awkwardness." he had changed his dress, and the lace round his neck was even richer than before. jeanne had always considered one of the chief marks of a well-bred man to be a fine disregard for the amount of his washing-bill; and then with what good taste he referred to recent events--putting himself in the wrong, as a gentleman should! "indeed, my lord," she replied modestly, "i was only too anxious to hear from your own lips that you bore me no ill-will for the part forced on me by circumstances in our recent interview. your lordship has sufficient critical good sense, i feel sure, to distinguish between the woman and the official." "true, jeanne," he replied, drawing nearer; "and while i shrink from expressing, in their fulness, all the feelings that the woman inspires in me, i have no hesitation--for i know it will give you pleasure--in acquainting you with the entire artistic satisfaction with which i watched you at your task!" "but, indeed," said jeanne, "you did not see me at my best. in fact, i can't help wishing--it's ridiculous, i know, because the thing is hardly practicable--but if i could only have carried my performance quite through, and put the last finishing touches to it, you would not have been judging me now by the mere 'blocking-in' of what promised to be a masterpiece!" "yes, i wish it could have been arranged somehow," said the seigneur, reflectively; "but perhaps it's better as it is. i am content to let the artist remain for the present on trust, if i may only take over, fully paid up, the woman i adore!" jeanne felt strangely weak. the official seemed oozing out at her fingers and toes, while the woman's heart beat even more distressingly. "i have one little question to ask," he murmured (his arm was about her now). "do i understand that you still claim your bonus?" jeanne felt like water in his strong embrace; but she nerved herself to answer, faintly but firmly, "yes!" "then so do i," he replied, as his lips met hers. * * * * * executions continued to occur in st. radegonde; the radegundians being conservative and very human. but much of the innocent enjoyment that formerly attended them departed after the fair châtelaine had ceased to officiate. enguerrand, on succeeding to the post, wedded clairette, she being (he was heard to say) a more suitable match in mind and temper than others of whom he would name no names. rumour had it, that he found his match and something over; while as for temper--and mind (which she gave him in bits). but the domestic trials of high-placed officials have a right to be held sacred. the profession, in spite of his best endeavours, languished nevertheless. some said that the scaffold lacked its old attraction for criminals of spirit; others, more unkindly, that the headsman was the innocent cause, and that enguerrand was less fatal in his new sphere than formerly, when practising in the criminal court as advocate for the defence. [illustration: the end] the augustan reprint society bernard mandeville, _an enquiry_ into the causes of the frequent executions at _tyburn_. (1725) _introduction_ by malvin r. zirker, jr. [illustration] publication number 105 william andrews clark memorial library university of california, los angeles 1964 general editors richard c. boys, _university of michigan_ earl r. miner, _university of california, los angeles_ maximillian e. novak, _university of california, los angeles_ lawrence clark powell, _wm. andrews clark memorial library_ advisory editors john butt, _university of edinburgh_ james l. clifford, _columbia university_ ralph cohen, _university of california, los angeles_ vinton a. dearing, _university of california, los angeles_ arthur friedman, _university of chicago_ louis a. landa, _princeton university_ samuel h. monk, _university of minnesota_ everett t. moore, _university of california, los angeles_ james sutherland, _university college, london_ h. t. swedenberg, jr., _university of california, los angeles_ corresponding secretary edna c. davis, _clark memorial library_ introduction the _enquiry into the causes of the frequent executions at tyburn_ was originally published as a series of letters to the _british journal_. the first letter appeared on february 27, 1725;[1] just twelve days before, jonathan wild, self-proclaimed "thief-catcher general of _great britain_ and _ireland_," had been arrested and imprisoned in newgate. thus the _enquiry_ had a special timeliness and forms a part of the contemporary interest in the increasingly notorious activities of wild. wild's systematic exploitation of the london underworld and his callous betrayal of his colleagues in criminality (he received £40 from the government for each capital conviction he could claim) had created public protest since at least 1718 when an act (which mandeville cites in his preface) directed against receivers of stolen goods was passed, most probably with the primary intention of curtailing wild's operations. wild's notoriety was at its peak in 1724-5 after his successful apprehension of joseph blake ("blueskin") and jack sheppard, the latter figure becoming a kind of national hero after his five escapes from prison (he was recaptured by wild each time).[2] the timeliness of mandeville's pamphlet extends, of course, beyond its interest in jonathan wild, who after all receives comparatively little of mandeville's attention. the spectacle of tyburn itself and the civil and moral failures it represented was one which londoners could scarcely ignore and which for some provided a morbid fascination. mandeville's vivid description of the condemned criminal in newgate, his journey to tyburn, and his "turning off," must have been strikingly forceful to his contemporaries, who knew all too well the accuracy of his description. "tyburn fair" was a holiday. apprentices deserted their posts, pickpockets, dram-dealers and other free-lance caterers, prostitutes, grub-street elegiasts armed with dying speeches or commemorative verses, went to theirs, to swell the enormous and unruly holiday mob, a mob given a certain tone by the presence of the respectable or aristocratic curious (boswell says "i must confess that i myself am never absent from a public execution") who came in their coaches or even rode along with the condemned in his cart. the mob at tyburn reached enormous proportions. thirty thousand people witnessed an execution in 1776; eighty thousand an execution in moorfields in 1767.[3] richardson, in _familiar letters on important occasions_ (letter clx) refers to the "pressure of the mob, which is prodigious, nay, almost incredible." when such popular madness was climaxed by the generally unrepentant criminal's drunken bravado (richardson's criminals "grew most shamefully daring and wanton.... they swore, laugh'd and talked obscenely"[4]), and by their glorification by the mob (according to fielding the criminal at tyburn was "triumphant," and enjoyed the "compassion of the meek and tender-hearted, and ... the applause, admiration, and envy, of all the bold and hardened"[5]), serious-minded men rightly wondered what valid end the execution of the law served. and of course it was not merely that the criminal died unrepentant or that the spectators remained unedified and undeterred. the scene at tyburn also reflected society's failure to utilize a significant portion of its "most useful members," a failure disturbing to the dominant mercantile attitude of the time which valued "the bodies of men" as potential sources of wealth (mandeville's concern with the usefulness of the lower class is obvious throughout the first part of the _fable of the bees_ and in the _essay on charity, and charity-schools_). mandeville's subject, then, was one familiar to his readers and one whose importance they recognized. his attitude toward his subject was for the most part a thoroughly conventional one. for instance, his primary assumption that the penal code must be harsh since its function is to deter, not to reclaim, pervades eighteenth-century thought on the subject and is clearly reflected in the number of offences carrying the death penalty (160 when blackstone wrote; 220 in the early nineteenth century). its logical culmination may be found in arguments such as george ollyffe presented in 1731. ollyffe, noting that the frequency of the death penalty was not deterring criminals, suggests that more horrible forms of punishment be devised, such as breaking on the wheel, "by which the criminals run through ten thousand thousand of the most exquisite agonies ... during the unconceivable torture of their bruised, broken, and disjointed limbs," or "twisting a little cord hard about their arms or legs," which would produce the "keenest anguish."[6] ollyffe's public-spirited ingenuity should be a warning to modern readers who assume that mandeville's attitude is unusually harsh and unfeeling. most of mandeville's specific proposals too may be paralleled in the many pamphlets of the time concerned with the criminal and the lower class. to point out some of the similarities between mandeville's and fielding's proposals (which he states most fully in _an enquiry into the late increase of robbers_, 1751) is not to posit direct influence but to suggest the uniformity of opinion on these matters during many years. both mandeville and fielding argue for closer control over receivers of stolen goods, against advertising in the paper to recover stolen goods, against the false compassion of the tender-hearted who fail to prosecute or of juries which fail to convict the guilty, against the indiscriminate imprisonment of young with old, hardened criminals with first offenders, men with women, and against frequent pardons. they agree in demanding that the condemned should meet his death, soberly, shortly after his conviction.[7] mandeville's suggestion that the bodies of the executed be turned over to surgeons for dissection is not to be found in fielding's pamphlet. it does, however, become a part of the "act for preventing the horrid crime of murder" (25 geo. ii. c. 37), an act for which fielding is often given credit.[8] this suggestion, and that in chapter vi to trade felons into slavery (which as far as i know is mandeville's own), clearly stem from the impulse to increase the deterrent power of the law by making it more terrible. what distinguishes mandeville's pamphlet (in addition to the characteristically hard-headed bluntness of its author) is a quality present in one degree or another in all his work: an exuberant delight in creating scene. throughout the _fable of the bees_, for example, but especially in the first part, the argument is punctuated by vivid scenes in which an idea is acted out or illustrated. invariably these scenes have a merit and interest beyond that owing to their function in the argument. they are lively, vivid, picturesque, humorous or touching in their own right. the reader can scarcely doubt that mandeville enjoyed composing them--he admits as much in the preface to the _enquiry_ when he acknowledges, in defending the "lowness" of his subject, the "pleasure there is in imitating nature in what shape soever." the gusto and vitality of the description of the events at tyburn well illustrate mandeville's art. he puts us on the scene, lets us see and hear the various actors, gives us telling detail: a bully rolling in the mire; a putrified wig; a drunken old woman on a bulk; refuse flying through the air; trollops in rags; a gin seller "squeez'd up in a corner"; carcasses of dogs and cats. the scene is filled with objects and has movement as well: the mob is a torrent which "bursts through the gate," a "floating multitude." there is "jostling," "kicking dirt," "rolling"; peddlers "stir about," and one who has "ventured in the middle of the current" is "fluctuating in the irregular stream." the air is filled with "oaths and vile expressions," and "loud laughter"; a peddler "tears his throat with crying his commodity." mandeville orders his scene spatially and chronologically, and he enforces its vividness by relating the action in the present tense. its basic unity, however, is owing to the evaluation and control provided by the various tones of the narrator's voice, which is alternately scornful and disgusted ("abandoned rakehells") and almost playfully ironic ("he is the prettiest fellow among them who is the least shock'd at nastiness"; "their darling cordial, the grand preservative of sloth, jeneva"). for one reader at least mandeville is eminently successful in capturing what must have been the appalling uproar and the dismaying quality of the events at tyburn. his vivid, circumstantial realism sets the _enquiry_ apart, as far as i know, from all other pamphlets dealing with this sorry subject. if his views for the most part are conventional, his style and technique are not, and in this respect the _enquiry_ is best compared not with other pamphlets but with hogarth's portrayal of the demise of the idle apprentice (plate xi of the _industrious and idle apprentice_, 1747), in which hogarth represents visually many of the same details which mandeville reports and in which he conveys a comparable sense of the violent and brutal activity of the tyburn mob. footnotes to the introduction [footnote 1: see "a note on the text" below.] [footnote 2: a useful account of wild's career and fame appears in william r. irwin's _the making of jonathan wild_ (new york, 1941), pp. 3-32.] [footnote 3: the figures are taken from leon radzinowicz' _a history of english criminal law_ (new york, 1948-56), vol. i, p. 175, n. 45.] [footnote 4: compare the hero of swift's "_clever_ tom clinch _going to be hanged_" (1726), "who hung like a hero, and never would flinch." he "rode stately through _holbourn_, to die in his calling," and adjured his friends to "take courage, dear comrades, and be not afraid, / nor slip this occasion to follow your trade."] [footnote 5: henry fielding, "an enquiry into the causes of the late increase of robbers," _works_, ed. henley (london, 1903), vol. 13, p. 122. fielding might have added that the criminal-hero also enjoyed the amorous admiration of the fair: when clever tom clinch rode by "the maids to the doors and the balconies ran, / and said, lack-a-day! he's a proper young man"; according to mrs. peachum "the youth in his cart hath the air of a lord, / and we cry, there dies an adonis!"] [footnote 6: george ollyffe, _an essay humbly offer'd, for an act of parliament to prevent capital crimes, and the loss of many lives; and to promote a desirable improvement and blessing in the nation_, second edition, (london, 1731), p. 8.] [footnote 7: fielding's and mandeville's positions may be compared to that of an anonymous pamphleteer writing in 1701: "i might add, that it were not amiss, if after condemnation they were allowed nothing but bread and water; a good way to humble them, and bring them to a sense of their condition, as to a future state, and to put a stop to their murthering their keepers, and attempting to break gaol. and it were well, if a particular habit (black the most proper colour) were assigned them, at least at their executions; and that they might not be suffered to make their exits in gay clothes (as they sometimes do like men that triumph) but rather as becomes those, who are just going to undergo the curse of the law, and that are intended to be a warning to others." r. j., _hanging not punishment enough, for murtherers, high-way men, and house-breakers_, p. 21.] [footnote 8: both the criminal and the "mob" detested the anatomists. in the british journal of march 20, 1725--one of the issues in which mandeville's letters appeared--a captured murderer is reported to have said "d----n my soul; but i desire i may not be anatomiz'd." in the same issue is recorded a mob's assault on a doctor whom they suspected, rightly it seems, of grave-robbing. he was forced to flee for his life and his stable was "pulled down."] a note on the text the letters (which mandeville tells us were composed before wild's capture) appeared in nos. 128-133 of the _british journal_ (feb. 27, mar. 6, mar. 13, mar. 20, mar. 27, and apr. 3, 1725). the differences between the text of the newspapers and that of the pamphlet have some significance, for what alterations there are suggest that mandeville was a fairly careful editor. the preface to the pamphlet is entirely new--its addition is one of several changes mandeville made to put the articles in pamphlet form. he also, for example, added a table of contents, and gave headings to each chapter and, in one instance, changed "papers" to "chapters." throughout minor changes (not clearly purposeful) in punctuation, italicization, and capitalization occur, and occasionally a word is changed ("holland" becomes "leyden," p. 27) or a word is inserted ("none of them should" becomes "none of them likewise should," p. 13), but only three changes may be called substantial. (1) in the first newspaper article the following sentence appeared in the text in brackets after the footnoted sentence on p. 3 of the pamphlet: "here i beg leave to observe, that the greatest part of this treatise was wrote some months before jonathan wild was apprehended; and that as nothing was said of him, but what may be equally applied to any one, who either now follows, or shall take upon him the same employment, i keep to the original manuscript, imagining the reader will be better pleased to see the author's sentiments concerning jonathan, and the trade he drove before his commitment, than any alterations that might be expected from what has happen'd since." (2) the phrase on p. 17, "with applause, and repeated with impunity," corrects the newspaper version "with impunity, and repeated with applause." (3) on p. 25, lines 3 through 17 appear only in the pamphlet, the newspaper version reading merely "... of course, we seldom meet with any thing that is edifying, or moving." the pamphlet is reproduced from the copy at the huntington library. an enquiry into the causes of the frequent executions at _tyburn_: and _a_ proposal _for some_ regulations _concerning_ felons _in_ prison, _and the good effects to be expected from them_. to which is added, a discourse on transportation, and a method to render that punishment more effectual. by _b. mandeville_, m.d. _oderunt peccare mali formidine poenæ._ _london_, printed: and sold by _f. roberts_ in _warwick-lane_. mdccxxv. [illustration] the preface the design of this small treatise, is to lessen if not prevent the common practice of thieving, and save many lives of the loose and indigent vulgar, of which now such great numbers are yearly lavish'd away for trifles. in order to this, i have endeavour'd to set in a true light the destructive consequences of _theftbote_, and the damage the publick sustains from the trade that is drove by thiefcatchers, and the various ways now in vogue of compounding felonies, by which the safety as well as maintenance of thieves and pilferers are industriously taken care of, and the laws that enforce prosecution altogether eluded. to the same purpose i have pointed at the licentiousness and other disorders of _newgate_, arising from the wrong method we have of treating common felons in prison. i have describ'd the transactions of execution day, with the procession to _tyburn_, and demonstrated what small advantage they are of, as well to the condemn'd themselves, whose grand affair it is to prepare themselves for another world, as to their companions who should be deterred, or the rest of the spectators, who should be struck with the awfulness of the solemnity. i have likewise searched into the origin of courage, and the wrong judgments that are differently pass'd on the dying behaviour of malefactors, shew'd the ill consequences as well as absurdity of our mistaking drunkenness for intrepidity, and a senseless deportment for undauntedness; and touch'd on the several neglects and mismanagements that are accessary, and one way or other contribute to the encrease and support of felons, and consequently, the frequency of executions. afterwards i have in a chapter by it self offer'd some proposals for a better usage, and more proper treatment of common felons in confinement, and made a pathetical representation of the good effects we might probably expect from such wholesome regulations. to these i have added a discourse on transportation, and a method of rendering that punishment not only more effectual on the criminals, but likewise advantagious to the publick in the most extraordinary manner. i am not so vain as to place any merit in the performance, or promise my self the applause of many: on the contrary, i expect to be censur'd, and perhaps deservedly, for the uncouth decorations i have intermix'd with my subject. men of taste and politeness will think themselves very little oblig'd to me for entertaining them with the meanest and most abject part of low life, for almost a whole chapter together; and tell me that the inside of _newgate_, either on an execution day, or any other, is not a scene they ought to be troubled with; and that the exactness of a picture among the judicious is of little worth where the noble manner is wanting. to this i could answer that, if i have trespassed against the laws either of elegance or formality, i was forc'd to it by what is superior to all laws, necessity. when a man is to inspire his readers with an aversion to what they are unacquainted with, he can never compass his end without furnishing them first with a general idea of the thing against which he wou'd raise their indignation: i could add that, when a piece is lively and tolerably finish'd, the good-natured critick will pardon the meaness of the design, for the sake of the colouring and the application of the master. but if neither of these excuses are thought sufficient, i must plead guilty, and confess that the pleasure there is in imitating nature in what shape soever is so bewitching, that it over-rules the dictates of art, and often forces us to offend against our own judgment. as there are in this city not a few men of business and good understanding, whose leisure allows them not to read much beyond the publick news, and most of them are concern'd in the contents of this pamphlet, i caused the several chapters of it to be printed in as many papers of the _british_ journal; imagining that its having been dispers'd, and, as it were, advertis'd in that manner, could give no offence to the more curious, who would chuse to have it entire by it self, and peruse it in a character less troublesome to the eyes. in the first chapter i should have taken notice of a clause in an act of parliament that was made in the fourth year of his present majesty, and is call'd, _an act for the further preventing robbery, burglary, and other felonies_, &c. the candid reader i hope will pardon the neglect, occasion'd by the small acquaintance i have with the law, and give me leave in this place to repair that omission. the words are these. and whereas there are several persons who have secret acquaintance with felons, and who make it their business to help persons to their stollen goods, and by that means gain money from them, which is divided between them and the felons, where-by they greatly encourage such offenders: be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that whenever any person taketh money or reward, directly or indirectly, under pretence, or upon account of helping any person or persons to any stollen goods or chattels, every such person so taking money or reward, as aforesaid (unless such person doth apprehend, or cause to be apprehended such felon who stole the same, and cause such felon to be brought to his trial for the same, and give evidence against him) shall be guilty of felony, and suffer the pains and penalties of felony, according to the felony committed in stealing such goods, and in such and the same manner, as if such offender had himself stole such goods and chattels, in the manner and with such circumstances as the same were stollen. since the printing of these chapters, in the paper aforesaid, i have likewise been inform'd; that, as receiving money for assisting others in the recovery of their stolen goods, is by this act made felony; so by the known rules of law, whoever is aiding and assisting thereto is of course guilty as an accessary, and to incurr the same punishment as the principal: and it cannot be doubted; but that he, who pays money on such an occasion, is accessary to the receiving of it; which well deserves the reflection of those who make no scruple of redeeming the goods that had been stolen from them; as likewise does another thing, which is, that if he who takes money for stolen goods is a principal felon, and that he who pays it is a felon, as being accessary, then he who by publick advertisements with promises of secrecy, and that no questions shall be asked, invites others to commit felony, is guilty of a great misdemeanour, tho' it produce no effect; but, if it do, the person publishing such advertisement will be an accessary likewise. [illustration] the contents. chap. i. of theftbote; _or, the crime of compounding of felony_. page 1 chap. ii. _of the ill consequences of_ theftbote, _and the licentiousness of felons in_ newgate. 9 chap. iii. _of execution day, the journey to_ tyburn, and _a word in behalf of anatomical dissections._ 18 chap. iv. _of the wrong judgments that are pass'd on the dying behaviour of malefactors._ 28 chap. v. _of regulations concerning_ felons _in prison, and the good effects to be expected from them._ 37 chap. vi. _of_ transportation: _and a method to render that punishment more effectual._ 46 [illustration] [illustration] chap. i. _of_ theftbote; _or, the crime of compounding of felony._ the multitude of unhappy wretches, that every year are put to death for trifles in our great metropolis, has long been afflicting to men of pity and humanity; and continues to give great uneasiness to every person, who has a value for his kind. many good projects have been thought of to cure this evil, by sapping the foundation of it: a society has been set up to reform our manners; and neither workhouses, nor discipline on small crimes, have been wanting: an act has been made against prophane cursing and swearing; and many charity schools have been erected. but the event has not answer'd hitherto the good design of those endeavours. this city abounds as much with loose, lazy, and dishonest poor; there is as much mischief done by ordinary felons; and executions for theft and burglary are as frequent, at least, as ever: nay, it is believed, that _london_ is more pester'd with low villany than any other place whatever, the proportion of bigness between them not left unconsider'd. as there is no effect without a cause, so something must be the reason of this calamity. i have long and carefully examined into this matter, and am forced to ascribe the mischief complained of to two palpable evils, distinct from those we have in common with other large overgrown cities. one regards prosecutions; the other the treatment that is given to malefactors after they are taken. i shall begin with the first: i mean the neglect of them, occasion'd by our shameful negotiations with thieves, or their agents, for the recovery of stolen goods, by which, in reality, we become aiders and abetters to them. the law of _england_ is so tender of mens lives, that whoever justly prosecutes, and convicts a person of a capital crime, has nothing to answer for to his conscience, but, on the contrary, has done a service to his country, without offence to god, or the least breach of charity to his neighbour. but as every body has not strength of mind and resolution enough to perform duties that are repugnant to his nature, so, making allowances for human frailties, i could excuse the backwardness of a meek home-bred person, who should complain, that to appear in open court, and speak before a judge, are terrible things to him. but i think it unpardonable, that a man should knowingly act against the law, and by so doing powerfully contribute to the increase, as well as safety and maintenance, of pilferers and robbers, from no other principle, than a criminal selfishness, accompany'd with an utter disregard to the publick: yet nothing is more common among us.[9] as soon as any thing is missing, suspected to be stolen, the first course we steer is directly to the office of mr. _jonathan wild_. if what we want is a trinket, either enamel'd, or otherwise curiously wrought; if there is painting about it; if it be a particular ring, the gift of a friend; or any thing which we esteem above the real value, and offer more for it than mr. _thief_ can make of it, we are look'd upon as good chaps, and welcome to redeem it. but if it be plain gold or silver, we shall hardly see it again, unless we pay the worth of it. some years ago, it is true, a man might, for half a piece, have fetch'd back a snuff-box that weigh'd twenty or thirty shillings: but this was in the infancy of the establishment. now they are grown wiser, and calculate exactly what such a thing will melt down for: to offer less is thought unreasonable; and unless mr. _thief-catcher_ stands your friend indeed, if you have it, you will seldom save any thing but the fashion. if in this place you can hear no tidings of your goods, it is counted a sign, that they are in the hands of irregular practitioners, that steal without permission of the board. in this case we immediately put in an advertisement in some news-paper or other, with a promise, that such a reward will be given, and no questions asked. i own, that in the printing of these short epistles there is no manner of harm, if we abstract the act itself from the concern the publick has in it. the tenor of them is rather benevolent than injurious: and a panegyrist on the present times might justly say of them, that in no performances the true spirit of christianity was so conspicuous as in these: that they were not only free from calumny and ill language, but likewise so void of reproach, that speaking to a thief, we never call'd him so in those charitable addresses: that in them the very catalogues of injuries receiv'd, were penn'd with as little heat, or resentment, as ever tradesman shew'd in a bill of parcels directed to his best customer: that here we are so far from hating our enemy, that we proffer him a recompence for his trouble, if he will condescend to let us have our own again; and leaving all revenge to god, to shew that we are willing to forgive and forget, we consult, in the most effectual manner, the safety of a person that deserves hanging for the wrong he has done us. yet, notwithstanding the kind constructions that may be put on these civil offers, they all tend to the _compounding of felony_, and are the occasion of a double mischief: they invite the indigent and lazy to pick pockets, and render the negligent more careless than probably they would be, was this practice abolish'd. a pocket-book, or memorandum, may be stole from a man that is of vast concern to him, and yet of no use but to the owner: if this be taken by a regular thief, a listed pilferer, it is easily recover'd for a small reward. i don't suppose any one so silly, that therefore he would go to places, and into companies, on purpose to have his pocket pick'd; but i can't help thinking, that if those things were never to be heard of again, and the loss irretrievable, many young rakes, and other loose reprobates, would be under greater apprehensions, and more upon their guard, at least when they had such a charge about them, than the generality of them now are. and again, if nothing could be made of letters, papers, and things of that nature, such as have no known worth, and are not readily turned into money, the numbers of whores and rogues, young and old, that are employ'd in the diving trade, would decrease considerably; many of them, from a principle of prudence, refusing to meddle with any thing else. for as on most of the things now spoke of, no real value can be set, the punishment would be inconsiderable, if any, should the things be found upon them, or themselves be taken in the fact. most men will agree to all this, whilst unconcern'd; but when private interest is touch'd, it soon stifles these considerations. i should be a fool, says one, when a thing of value is stolen from me, not to get it back, if i can, for a trifle. if i lose a sword, or a watch, i must have another; and to save the fashion in these things is considerable: it is better to lose the half than the whole. i have nothing to do with the thief, says another, if i have my own again, it is all i want: what good would it do to me to have a poor fellow hang'd? a third, more compassionate, will tell us, that if he knew the thief, he would not meddle with him; and that he would lose ten times the value of what has been taken from him, rather than be the occasion of a man's death. to these i reply, that the legislators seem to have known how the generality of men would argue, and what excuses they would make; they had an eye on the frailty of our nature; consider'd, that all prosecutions are troublesome, and often very expensive; that most men preferred their own interest, their ease and pleasure, to any regard of the publick; and therefore they provided against our passions with so much severity. _compounding of felony_ is not prohibited under a small penalty, or attoned for by a little fine; it is next to felony; and the most creditable citizen, that is convicted of it, ceases to be an honest man. the offence in our law is call'd theftbote; of which my lord chief justice _coke_ says, "that it is an offence beyond misprision of felony; for that is only a bare concealment of his bare knowledge: but that it is theftbote when the owner not only knows of the felony, but takes of the thief his goods again, or amends for the same to favour or maintain him, that is, not to prosecute him, to the intent he may escape. the punishment of theftbote is ransom and imprisonment." theftbote (as described by act of parliament) _est emenda furti capta absque consideratione curiæ domini regis_. sir _matthew hale_, in his _pleas of the crown_, says, "that theftbote is more than a bare misprision of felony, and is, where the owner doth not only know the felony, but takes his goods again, or other amends, not to prosecute." this rigour of the legislature is a full demonstration, that they thought it a crime of the most pernicious consequence to the society; yet it is become familiar to us; and our remissness in several matters, relating to felons, is not to be parallell'd in any other civiliz'd nation. that rogues should be industriously dispers'd throughout the city and suburbs; that different hours and stations should be observ'd among them, and regular books kept of stollen goods; that the superintendent in this hopeful oeconomy should almost every sessions, for a reward, betray, prosecute, and hang one or more of this his acquaintance, and at the same time keep on his correspondence amongst the survivors, whom, one after another, he sends all to their triangular home; that magistrates should not only know and see this, but likewise continue to make use of such a person for an evidence, and in a manner own that they are beholden to him in the administration of justice; that, i say, all these things should be facts, is something very extraordinary, in the principal city, and the home management of a kingdom, so formidable abroad, and of such moment in the balance of _europe_, as that of _great britain_. the mischief that one man can do as a thief, is a very trifle to what he may be the occasion of, as an agent or concealer of felons. the longer this practice continues, the more the number of rogues must hourly encrease; and therefore it is high time that regular book-keeping of stolen goods should cease, and that all gangs and knots of thieves should be broke and destroy'd as much as is possible, at least, none of them suffer'd to form themselves into societies that are under discipline, and act by order of a superior. it is highly criminal in any man, for lucre, to connive at a piece of felony which he could have hinder'd: but a profess'd thief-catcher, above all, ought to be severely punish'd, if it can be proved that he has suffer'd a known rogue to go on in his villany, tho' but one day, after it was in his power to apprehend and convict him, more especially if it appears that he was a sharer in the profit. chap. ii. _of the ill consequences of_ theftbote, _and the licentiousness of felons in newgate._ often, when i have spoke against _theftbote_, after the same manner as now i have been writing, i have heard men of worth and good sense come into my sentiments, who yet, after all, would tell me, that if i had lost any thing myself, they believ'd that i would be glad to have it again with as little cost and trouble as i could. this i never denied, and am still willing to own. we are all partial and unfit judges in our own cause; but the most that can be made of this, is, that in that case neither i nor any body else, that has had any thing stolen from him, ought to be consulted about the matter: we are ill qualified, and therefore incapable of determining any thing rightly concerning it. i have another reason why this ought to be referred rather to those who never lost any thing by thieves and pilferers, than others who have been sufferers that way: rogues, it is true, have a thousand stratagems, and a person may be very careful, and yet have his pocket pick'd, if ever he appears in the street, or a crowd: yet, if we divide mankind into two classes, that the one will be more exempt from those misfortunes than the other, is undeniable. a man, who is always upon his guard in the streets, and suspects all crowds; that is temperate in his liquor; avoids, as much as is possible, unseasonable hours; never gives ear to night-walkers; a man that abroad is always watchful over himself, and every thing about him, and at home takes care of his doors and bolts, his shutters, locks, and bars; such a one, i say, is in less danger than others, who are unthinking, and never mind what companies they thrust themselves into; or such as will be drunk, go home late in the dark unattended, and scruple not to talk and converse with lewd women, as they meet them; or that are careless of themselves as well as of the securing and fastening of their houses. it is evident then which class would yield the most proper judges; whom if it was left to, i don't question but the sober, careful, and wiser part of the nation would agree, that the practice in vogue, and method made use of to recover stolen goods, even tho' there was no express law against it, is, on many accounts, mischievous to the publick, and visibly destructive to the interest of honest property, and our security in the enjoyment of it. there is no greater encouragement for men to follow any labour or handicraft, than that they are paid as soon as they have done their work, without any further trouble. it is from such a consideration as this, that to encrease the publick security, the law not only punishes stealing, but likewise makes it felony, knowingly to buy stolen goods; and moreover perpetuates honest property, and renders the right of it inalienable from the injured owner, who seizes his goods in what hands soever he finds them. these two additional precautions are of admirable use in hampering common villains, and strengthening the law against theft. from the first, a rogue, after he has made himself liable to be hang'd, may be still disappointed, and miss his chief aim; for as money is what he wants, if no body will purchase what he offers, he is never the nearer. the second makes that he is never safe, tho' he is rid of the goods, and the money in his pocket; for tho' they are gone through half a dozen hands, as soon as the right owner lays claim to the things stole, every one is oblig'd to discover where he had them; and by this means it is seldom difficult to find out the thief, or the receiver of stolen goods. to leap these two barriers, and free himself at once of the trouble there is in finding a safe purchaser, and all apprehensions of future danger, a rogue could not wish or imagine any thing more effectual than that he might lodge what he has stole in the hands of the owner himself, and so receive a reward for his pains, and, at the same time, a pardon for his crime, of him, whose prosecution was the only thing he had to fear. it is evident then, that the friendly commerce, and amicable negotiations, now in vogue, between thieves and those that are robb'd by them, are the greatest encouragement of low villany that can be invented, and as sure a way to keep up the breed of rogues, and promote the interest of them, as either our fishery or the coal trade are constant nurseries for sailors. i am not ignorant, that in the present conjuncture, as cases might be stated, it would be very harsh, and seem to be the height of injustice, if we should hinder people from redeeming stolen goods on all emergencies whatever. a man may be vigilant and careful, and his servants the same, and yet, their eyes being one moment turn'd from the counter, a shop-book may be snatched, and carried off, perhaps, a month before _christmas_. this may put a tradesman of good business in great distress: must he lose it? i say, yes, if the publick is to be preferr'd to a private interest. in the mean time, i know very well what every body would do in that case: but that the whole suffers by the redemption, i prove thus: let us say, that this year twelve shop-books are stole, that are all recover'd for two or three guineas apiece got for them, and no body punish'd. you may expect that next year you will have forty or fifty stole, and in a few years nothing will be more common. and again, let us suppose that last year an hundred shop-books were stole; but, by vertue of some effectual law for that purpose, not one redeemed. the consequence, in all probability, would be, that the next year you would hardly have ten shop-books stole; and if, thro' the strict observance of the law, none of them likewise should be redeem'd, you would hear no more of that practice. besides, when a man steals what is of no value but to me, and can have no other view than that i should redeem it, and be his pay-master myself, the felony becomes, in a manner, a compound action, in which, as soon as i comply, i join with the thief: and if we consider that the changing of property from one man to another, is seldom of any consequence to the publick, and that all the mischief that can befal it from theft, that is, the loss of goods that way sustain'd by private persons, consists in this, that those who committed it, gain their point, and come off with impunity, let who will be the thief, or the receiver; if, i say, we consider these two things, it will appear, that in the case i have mentioned, myself, who for my own ends assisted the thief with money, and secured him from prosecution, had the greatest share in the transaction, and consequently was, of the two, the most injurious to the civil society. without me the rogue would not only have been disappointed, but likewise, whilst he continued in possession of the thing stole, remained in the perpetual dread of being prosecuted for what he never had any benefit from; and it is not probable that a man who had been twice so served, would ever make such another attempt. these things well deserve the consideration of wise men, and i desire the compassionate part of mankind to reflect on what daily experience teaches us of common felons, and they will easily find out, that unseasonable pity may prove the greatest cruelty. the oftner a young rogue steals with impunity, the sooner he'll be a thorough-paced villain, that will venture on more hazardous undertakings; and the more numerous the examples of such are, the more loose people will enter into the fraternity, of which, whether it be great or small, very few ever arrive to a middle age. some are cunning enough never to be taken in a fact; but no subtlety can save them from the impeachment of others. a licens'd practitioner may be skreen'd and protected some years, if he sticks to discipline, and pays the greatest part of his earnings for his security; but if he rides resty, and squabbles about the contribution required of him, he is in a dangerous way. it is possible that a dextrous youth may be esteemed, and be a favourite to the superintendent a great while; but when he grows very notorious, he is hunted like a deer, and the premium on his head betrays him. he may baffle his prosecutor, find a flaw in an indictment, elude the force of an evidence, come off once or twice, be reprieved, break goal, or be pardoned, the gallows will be his portion at last. the wretch that is train'd up to stealing, is the property of the hangman: he can never entirely leave off his trade: many, after transportation, have, with great hazard of their lives, found the way back again to _newgate_. a thief bred must be hang'd if he lives. from all which appears, what i undertook to prove, that remissness as to prosecutions, occasion'd by the bare-faced compositions of felony, is one of the grand causes of that lamentable complaint, the frequency of executions; and should we compare the droves that are carried to _tyburn_ for slaughter, with those others that are sent to _smithfield_ for the same purpose, we would find the modern thief-catcher subservient to the executioner in the same manner, as the wealthy grazier is to the needy butcher; and that of the cattle in either sense, few are kill'd by the one that were never cherish'd by the other. i am now come to the second cause, which is the treatment felons receive after they are taken, both in _newgate_ and their journey from thence to the gallows: first, it is wrong to suffer such numbers of them to be and converse together; for nothing but the utmost corruption can be expected from a company of forty or fifty people in a prison, who, every one of them, singly consider'd, were all the worst of thousands before they met. secondly, it is an encouragement to vice, that the most dissolute of both sexes, and generally young people too, should live promiscuously in the same place, and have access to one another. for the rest, the licentiousness of the place is abominable, and there are no low jests so filthy, no maxims so destructive to good manners, or expressions so vile and prophane, but what are utter'd there with applause, and repeated with impunity. they eat and drink what they can purchase, every body has admittance to them, and they are debarr'd from nothing but going out. their most serious hours they spend in mock tryals, and instructing one another in cross questions, to confound witnesses; and all the stratagems and evasions that can be of service, to elude the charge that shall be made against them; or else in reading lectures on some branch or other of their profession, the various arts and methods of stealing, or the glory, as well as usefulness of invincible impudence on all offensive and defensive emergencies. as villainous pawn-brokers, and all receivers of stolen goods, have good reasons to be liberal to those they have dealt with, when in this distress, so no felons are here in want, and reduced to the allowance of the prison, but novices and silly creatures, that have the least deserved to be punish'd; whereas the veteran rogues, and such as have been great traders, are well provided for. this keeps them up in debauchery; and many, after condemnation, persist in their riotous courses, and pampering their bodies, whilst the care that is taken of their souls is very mean. for such is the noise and confusion all around them, that even the best dispos'd have not sufficient opportunities to prepare themselves for another world; and the helps they receive in spirituals are, all things consider'd, no better than the accounts we have of them after every session. chap. iii. _of execution day, the journey to _tyburn_, and a word in behalf of anatomical dissections._ when the day of execution is come, among extraordinary sinners, and persons condemned for their crimes, who have but that morning to live, one would expect a deep sense of sorrow, with all the signs of a thorough contrition, and the utmost concern; that either silence, or a sober sadness, should prevail; and that all, who had any business there, should be grave and serious, and behave themselves, at least, with common decency, and a deportment suitable to the occasion. but the very reverse is true. the horrid aspects of turnkeys and gaolers, in discontent and hurry; the sharp and dreadful looks of rogues, that beg in irons, but would rob you with greater satisfaction, if they could; the bellowings of half a dozen names at a time, that are perpetually made in the enquiries after one another; the variety of strong voices, that are heard, of howling in one place, scolding and quarrelling in another, and loud laughter in a third; the substantial breakfasts that are made in the midst of all this; the seas of beer that are swill'd; the never-ceasing outcries for more; and the bawling answers of the tapsters as continual; the quantity and varieties of more entoxicating liquors, that are swallow'd in every part of _newgate_; the impudence, and unseasonable jests of those, who administer them; their black hands, and nastiness all over; all these, joined together, are astonishing and terrible, without mentioning the oaths and imprecations, that from every corner are echo'd a about, for trifles; or the little, light, and general squallor of the gaol itself, accompany'd with the melancholy noise of fetters, differently sounding, according to their weight: but what is most shocking to a thinking man, is, the behaviour of the condemn'd, whom (for the greatest part) you'll find, either drinking madly, or uttering the vilest ribaldry, and jeering others, that are less impenitent; whilst the ordinary bustles among them, and, shifting from one to another, distributes scraps of good counsel to unattentive hearers; and near him, the hangman, impatient to be gone, swears at their delays; and, as fast as he can, does his part, in preparing them for their journey. at last, out they set; and with them a torrent of mob bursts thorough the gate. amongst the lower rank, and working people, the idlest, and such as are most fond of making holidays, with prentices and journeymen to the meanest trades, are the most honourable part of these floating multitudes. all the rest are worse. the days being known before-hand, they are a summons to all thieves and pickpockets, of both sexes, to meet. great mobs are a safeguard to one another, which makes these days jubilees, on which old offenders, and all who dare not shew their heads on any other, venture out of their holes; and they resemble free marts, where there is an amnesty for all outlaws. all the way, from _newgate_ to _tyburn_, is one continued fair, for whores and rogues of the meaner sort. here the most abandon'd rakehells may light on women as shameless: here trollops, all in rags, may pick up sweethearts of the same politeness: and there are none so lewd, so vile, or so indigent, of either sex, but at the time and place aforesaid, they may find a paramour. where the croud is the least, which, among the itinerants, is no where very thin, the mob is the rudest; and here, jostling one another, and kicking dirt about, are the most innocent pastimes. now you see a man, without provocation, push his companion in the kennel; and two minutes after, the sufferer trip up the other's heels, and the first aggressor lies rolling in the more solid mire: and he is the prettiest fellow among them, who is the least shock'd at nastiness, and the most boisterous in his sports. no modern rabble can long subsist without their darling cordial, the grand preservative of sloth, _jeneva_, that infallible antidote against care and frugal reflexion; which, being repeated removes all pain of sober thought, and in a little time cures the tormenting sense of the most pressing necessities. the traders, who vent it among the mob on these occasions, are commonly the worst of both sexes, but most of them weather-beaten fellows, that have mis-spent their youth. here stands an old sloven, in a wig actually putrify'd, squeez'd up in a corner, and recommends a dram of it to the goers-by: there another in rags, with several bottles in a basket, stirs about with it, where the throng is the thinnest, and tears his throat with crying his commodity; and further off, you may see the head of a third, who has ventur'd in the middle of the current, and minds his business, as he is fluctuating in the irregular stream: whilst higher up, an old decrepit woman sits dreaming with it on a bulk; and over against her, in a soldier's coat, her termagant daughter sells the sots-comfort with great dispatch. the intelligible sounds, that are heard among them, are oaths and vile expressions, with wishes of damnation at every other word, pronounced promiscuously against themselves, or those they speak to, without the least alteration in the meaning. as these undisciplined armies have no particular enemies to encounter, but cleanliness and good manners, so nothing is more entertaining to them, than the dead carcasses of dogs and cats, or, for want of them, rags, and all trompery that is capable of imbibing dirt. these, well trampled in filth, and, if possible, of the worst sort, are, by the ringleaders, flung as high and as far as a strong arm can carry them, and commonly directed where the throng is the thickest: whilst these ill-boding meteors are shooting thro' the air, the joy and satisfaction of the beholders is visible in every countenance and gesture; and more audibly express'd by the great shouts that accompany them in their course; and, as the projectiles come nearer the earth, are turn'd into loud laughter, which is more or less violent in proportion to the mischief promis'd by the fall. and to see a good suit of cloaths spoiled by this piece of gallantry, is the tip-top of their diversion, which they seldom go home without enjoying: for tho' no people in their senses would venture among them on foot, in any tolerable dress, yet there are young rakes of fortune, who care not what they lavish, or destroy: of these the maddest sort will often, after a night's debauch, mix with crowds, and thrust themselves in the midst of the most abominable rabble, where they seldom fail of meeting with such adventures. tho' before setting out, the prisoners took care to swallow what they could, to be drunk, and stifle their fear; yet the courage that strong liquors can give, wears off, and the way they have to go being considerable, they are in danger of recovering, and, without repeating the dose, sobriety would often overtake them: for this reason they must drink as they go; and the cart stops for that purpose three or four, and sometimes half a dozen times, or more, before they come to their journey's end. these halts always encrease the numbers about the criminals; and more prodigiously, when they are very notorious rogues. the whole march, with every incident of it, seems to be contrived on purpose, to take off and divert the thoughts of the condemned from the only thing that should employ them. thousands are pressing to mind the looks of them. their _quondam_ companions, more eager than others, break through all obstacles to take leave: and here you may see young villains, that are proud of being so, (if they knew any of the malefactors,) tear the cloaths off their backs, by squeezing and creeping thro' the legs of men and horses, to shake hands with him; and not to lose, before so much company, the reputation there is in having had such a valuable acquaintance. it is incredible what a scene of confusion all this often makes, which yet grows worse near the gallows; and the violent efforts of the most sturdy and resolute of the mob on one side, and the potent endeavours of rugged goalers, and others, to beat them off, on the other; the terrible blows that are struck, the heads that are broke, the pieces of swingeing sticks, and blood, that fly about, the men that are knock'd down and trampled upon, are beyond imagination, whilst the dissonance of voices, and the variety of outcries, for different reasons, that are heard there, together with the sound of more distant noises, make such a discord not to be parallel'd. if we consider, besides all this, the mean equipages of the sheriffs officers, and the scrubby horses that compose the cavalcade, the irregularity of the march, and the want of order among all the attendants, we shall be forced to confess, that these processions are very void of that decent solemnity that would be required to make them awful. at the very place of execution, the most remarkable scene is a vast multitude on foot, intermixed with many horsemen and hackney-coaches, all very dirty, or else cover'd with dust, that are either abusing one another, or else staring at the prisoners, among whom there is commonly very little devotion; and in that, which is practis'd and dispatch'd there, of course, there is as little good sense as there is melody. it is possible that a man of extraordinary holiness, by anticipating the joys of heaven, might embrace a violent death in such raptures, as would dispose him to the singing of psalms: but to require this exercise, or expect it promiscuously of every wretch that comes to be hang'd, is as wild and extravagant as the performance of it is commonly frightful and impertinent: besides this, there is always at that place, such a mixture of oddnesses and hurry, that from what passes, the best dispos'd spectator seldom can pick out any thing that is edifying or moving. here i must observe, that the possibility of pardons and reprieves, that often come very late, and which, with or without grounds, most criminals continue to hope for, 'till they are hang'd, is another great clog, that keeps attach'd to the world those that are less abandon'd, and more relenting than the generality of them; and who, without that hindrance, would, in all probability, prepare themselves for certain death, which overtakes many whilst they are still doubting of it. the ordinary and executioner, having performed their different duties, with small ceremony, and equal concern, seem to be tired, and glad it is over. the tragedy being ended, the next entertainment is a squabble between the surgeons and the mob, about the dead bodies of the malefactors that are not to be hanged in chains. they have suffer'd the law, (cries the rabble,) and shall have no other barbarities put upon them: we know what you are, and will not leave them before we see them buried. if the others are numerous, and resolute enough to persist in their enterprize, a fray ensues: from whence i shall take an opportunity of saying something upon the occasion of it. i have no design that savours of cruelty, or even indecency, towards a human body; but shall endeavour to demonstrate, that the superstitious reverence of the vulgar for a corpse, even of a malefactor, and the strong aversion they have against dissecting them, are prejudicial to the publick; for as health and sound limbs are the most desirable of all temporal blessings, so we ought to encourage the improvement of physick and surgery, wherever it is in our power. the knowledge of anatomy is inseparable from the studies of either; and it is almost impossible for a man to understand the inside of our bodies, without having seen several of them skilfully dissected. kings and princes are open'd, and have their hearts and bowels taken out, and embalm'd. it is not then ignominious, much less offensive to the dead body, which may be interred with as much decency, after dissection, as if it never had been touch'd. but suppose that many of our common thieves were not to be buried at all, and some of them made skeletons; and that several parts of others, variously prepared, should be preserved for the instruction of students? what if it was a disgrace to the surviving relations of those, who had lectures read upon their bodies, and were made use of for anatomical preparations? the dishonour would seldom reach beyond the scum of the people; and to be dissected, can never be a greater scandal than being hanged. the university of _leyden_ in _holland_ have a power given them by the legislature to demand, for this purpose, the bodies of ordinary rogues executed within that province; but, with us, it is the general complaint of all professors of anatomy, that they can get none to dissect: where then shall we find a readier supply; and what degree of people are fitter for it than those i have named? when persons of no possessions of their own, that have slipp'd no opportunity of wronging whomever they could, die without restitution, indebted to the publick, ought not the injur'd publick to have a title to, and the disposal of, what the others have left? and is any thing more reasonable, than that they should enjoy that right, especially when they only make use of it for commendable purposes? what is done for the common good, every member of the society may, at one time or other, receive an advantage from; and therefore quarrelsome people, that love fighting, act very preposterously and inconsistent with their interest, when they venture to have their bones broke, for endeavouring to deprive surgeons of the means to understand the structure of them. chap. iv. _of the wrong judgments that are pass'd on the dying behaviour of malefactors._ having finish'd the picture i proposed to draw of modern executions, and the crowds that usually attend them, i shall make some remarks on the judgments that are commonly passed on the dying behaviour of our ordinary felons. in a rich and potent kingdom, where worldly glory is not in contempt, and to think meanly of our selves seldom taught by example, whatever it may be by precept, nothing is counted more provoking, or less to be born with patience, than to be called a coward. the vilest rogues, and most despicable villains, may own a thousand crimes, and often brag of the most abominable actions; but there is scarce one, who will confess that he has no courage. our general esteem for valour, which is demonstrable from what i have said, as it is of great use to a warlike nation, is very commendable; and fortitude ought ever to keep its place amongst the cardinal virtues: but the notions which the vulgar have of courage, as well as honour and shame, are full of dangerous errors. compliments, as well as reproaches, when ill applied, are often the causes of great mischief; and i am persuaded, that the perverseness of opinion now reigning amongst us, both in applauding and discommending the conduct of criminals in their last hours, is an accessary evil, that very much contributes to what is the subject of our grand complaint, the frequency of executions. to explain my self on this matter in the clearest manner i am able, i beg leave to begin with it from the bottom. in all living creatures, that fall under our senses, we perceive an instinct of self-preservation; and the more sensible they are, the greater aversion they discover to the dissolution of their being. man, the most perfect of them, sets an inestimable value on life, and knows no fear equal to the horror he has against death. this is to be understood only of man, in the state of nature, before he has made reflections on himself, and what he sees of the creation; but when, after that his reason demonstrates to him that there must have been a first cause; that the world is govern'd by an intelligent being; that himself, a compound of soul and body, is indebted to that being for all he enjoys, and that there is a strong probability of a life after this: when, moreover, he considers himself as incorporated in a community of vast numbers, that all together make one body politick, the welfare of which he finds universally esteemed, as a concern superior to all others: when, i say, he finds and reflects on all this, he plainly sees, that the fear of death, must, on many accounts, be prejudicial to the publick good and common security, in which he has a share. it is a virtue then to conquer it; and if we inspect into the early oeconomy of all nations, we shall find, that the most powerful motives made use of to induce man to lessen this fear, and moderate the fondness which nature has given us of life, had their origin from religion, or a publick spirit; that is, in other words, from a representation of his duty either to god or his country. thus holy martyrs have suffer'd with fortitude for their faith, and, in confidence of eternal happiness, hasten'd to death with alacrity, and even rejoiced in the midst of flames. and thus there have been valiant men, in all ages, that have exposed themselves to the greatest hazards, in defence of their laws and liberties, and, animated by a zealous love for their country, sacrific'd their lives to the publick welfare. as men of this sort have every where deservedly gained the general applause, and the virtue they are possess'd of has been honoured by the name of courage; so, on the contrary, the fearful and pusillanimous, that ever prefer their own safety to all other considerations, and are therefore never to be relied upon, are as justly despis'd, and the ignominious word, by which we reproach the vice that enslaves them, is cowardice. from what has been said it is evident, that the original reason why courage is generally esteemed, is, because it is taken for granted, that both the principle we act from, and the end we labour for in conquering our fears, are praise-worthy, and have a visible tendency, either to the good of others, or our own spiritual felicity. nothing, therefore, is more unjust, than that we should continue our esteem for valour when it degenerates, and both the motive men set out with, and the scope they aim at, are palpably destructive. anger, pride, envy, and several other passions, are capable of subduing fear. but, as these principles are evil in themselves, so it is impossible that the end to be obtain'd by them should be commendable. what perverse and miserable judges are we then, that applaud a person's intrepidity in fighting a duel, when in the act itself, we see him willfully violate the laws of god and man? but should human honour here break in upon me, and my reasoning, how right soever, be overpower'd by the irresistable clamour of the fashionable world, what can be said for the senseless intimidity of a vulgar rogue, who not only professes an utter disregard to honour and conscience, but has likewise, at his first setting out, as a preliminary to his business, disclaim'd all pretences to common honesty? why should we delight in the intrepidity, tho' it was real, of a villain in his impiety? why should christians be pleased to see a great sinner give up his ghost impenitent; or imagine that he dies bravely, because he bids defiance to heaven, and boldly plunges himself into an abyss of eternal misery? yet nothing is more common amongst us: and the further a man is removed from repentance, nay, the more void he seems to be of all religion, and the less concern he discovers for futurity, the more he is admired by our sprightly people: whereas, he who shews but the least sorrow for his sins, or, by his tears, or dismality of gestures, lets us know that he is under apprehensions of the divine wrath, is a weak silly creature, not worth looking at: and he only, in the opinion of many, dies like a man, who, in reality, goes off most like a brute. but some of my readers, perhaps, will have nothing to do with christianity. suppose, then, we lay by that consideration; i grant, that to subdue the terrors of death is a manifest token of intrepidity, and promise to pay homage to true courage wheresoever i can meet with it; only let us not be imposed upon, but try the valour of this undaunted hero, whether it be genuine. no man can conquer the fear of death, but by something superior to it: what is the power that supports him in the conflict, and what principle does he act from? it is not his innocence, for his guilt is publick, and his crimes are proved upon him. it is not zeal for religion, nor the love of his country: he pretends to neither. yet it must be some mighty principle of vast force and efficacy; for if he acts consistently, he despises not only death, but the wrath of omnipotence, and a punishment just at hand, that shall be everlasting. will you say that he firmly believes that there is no god, nor life after this, and that man is wholly mortal? suppose it; that's no support against death itself: but look narrowly into him, and you will alter your opinion, even as to that. the enthusiasm of atheists has other symptoms; deplorable as it is, the appearance of it is more sedate, and they make some pretences to reasoning: but what probability is there, that a poor rascal, who was brought up in ignorance, and perhaps cannot read, one who never troubled his head with thinking, much less with thinking on abstruse matters, and metaphysicks, should so far lose himself in the mazes of philosophy, as to become a speculative atheist. since, then, we can find no principle from which it is possible a common villain should derive his undauntedness, it is evident that what we see is spurious, and the bravery we admire only counterfeited, and false at bottom. the terror of death inwardly excruciates him; but his fear of shewing this, of being called a coward, and laugh'd at by his companions, has some command over his outward appearance; therefore, (not to be found out,) sometimes he swears or scoffs at religion; at others he mixes forc'd laughter with the vilest language, and trys all the strength of brutality to keep down a struggling conscience, and appear more atheistical and obdurate than, to his sorrow, he feels himself to be. but his impudence would soon fail him, and his inexhaustible stock be but a weak match for the agonies he suffers, if he took not refuge in strong liquors. these are his only support, and drunkenness the cause of his intrepidity. should i be told, that in many of them no signs are seen either of fear or ebriety, it would be of no force against my assertion: as great fear sinks, so hard drinking raises the spirits: they are two enemies, that, when equally match'd, may, by mutual conflict, easily disarm and hinder the operations or each other. let a curious observer mind the continual changes of the prisoner's unsettled behaviour, the wild manner of his actions, and, above all, the greedy haste, with which he throws down every thing potable and intoxicating, and he will soon perceive that our sham-hero drinks neither with comfort, nor for pleasure, and seems to expect no other benefit from it, than that it may take away his senses, and hinder him from thinking. are not they fine judges, who are imposed upon by such pusillanimous wretches, that are so far from having conquer'd the fear of death, that they go out of the world without having ever dared one moment soberly to think of it; and of whom it can only be said, that they died hard and unmov'd, because they were senseless, and with the courage of a stone suffer'd themselves, without thought, to drop into eternity? the mischief that these patterns of impenitence, together with the applause that is given them, must produce in a vast and opulent city, will appear from the following consideration. it is necessary to the publick peace and security, that burglary, robbing in the streets, or on the highway, and all those crimes where violence is mix'd with injustice, should be capitally punish'd: but considering on the one hand, how much more prone men are to ease and pleasure, than they are to industry and labour; and, on the other, the generality of human wants, and the unequal distributions of fortune to supply them, it must be acknowledg'd, that where men are without shame and education, and consequently not affected with the ties either of honour or religion, poverty itself is a strong temptation to thieving, when opportunities offer. the greatest charity, therefore, and compassion we can shew to our fellow-creatures, is an extraordinary severity, and never-ceasing watchfulness in a government against the first approaches of dishonesty. it is with this view that the provision of the legislature, that such offenders should be punish'd with death, is to be vindicated; tho' the punishment is greater than the laws, framed by god himself for the _jewish_ commonwealth, inflicted; or what natural justice, proportioning the punishment to the crime, seems to require: for it is not the death of those poor souls that is chiefly aim'd at in executions, but the terror we would have it strike in others of the same loose principles: and, for the same reason, these executions are little better than barbarity, and sporting away the lives of the indigent vulgar, if those valuable sacrifices we are obliged to make to the publick safety, are render'd insignificant. if no remedy can be found for these evils, it would be better that malefactors should be put to death in private; for our publick executions are become decoys, that draw in the necessitous, and, in effect, as cruel as frequent pardons; instead of giving warning, they are examplary the wrong way, and encourage where they should deter. the small concern, and seeming indolence of the condemn'd, harden the profligates that behold them, and confirm to them, by ocular demonstration, what they encourage one another with in viler language, (low, as it is, permit me to mention it,) _that there is nothing in being hang'd, but awry neck, and a wet pair of breeches._ chap. v. _of regulations concerning_ felons _in prison, and the good effects to be expected from them._ what has been said in the foregoing chapters, in relation to common _felons_, has pointed at the evil customs, mismanagements, and perverse opinions, that prevail amongst us. i shall now conclude what i proposed to publish on this subject with offering some proposals towards a better usage of them in prison; and the good effect such alterations, in all probability, would produce. all which, without arrogance or presumption, i submit to better judgment. _first_, i would have every one of the malefactors lock'd up by himself; and they should never be suffer'd to converse together. it would not be a very great expence (where chimneys, convenient windows, order, and beauty would be out of the question:) to build an hundred small rooms, perhaps, of twelve foot square, that would be strong, beyond the possibility of being forced by naked hands; and, to prevent all hopes of breaking goal, i would have it a custom made, to search, suspected or not, all prisoners, and the places they are in, every night before bed-time. the rooms i speak of, i would rather have obscure, than otherwise; and the small light they had, far beyond reach. they, should all have such conveniences, that those, who were shut up in them, should, during their stay, have no occasion to stir out of them on any account. thus we might secure prisoners, without galling them with irons, before we are sure that they deserve to be punish'd at all. _secondly_, i would have a law made, to fix a certain number of days, after which the condemned should not have the benefit of pardons or reprieves, tho' they might be obtain'd. this time elaps'd, they should have one day to bid farewell to friends and relations: after which, they should have three times four and twenty hours allow'd them, for no other purpose, than to make their peace with heaven, and prepare themselves for death. during this time, they should be inaccessible to all but a sober keeper, to take care of them, and a clergyman, to assist them in spirituals. and here i beg leave to observe, that men of reputation, who live in credit, and by their learning, or exemplary lives, have acquired the publick esteem, are fitter for this task, than others of small parts, and no repute; that, labouring under narrow circumstances, for a poor salary, and some miserable perquisites, take upon them this weighty province, as a livelihood and business, to be constantly follow'd. the more respect and reverence are paid to divines, and the higher their dignity is, the greater opportunity they have of making themselves serviceable in every branch of their function, but more especially that part of it now under consideration. in other protestant countries, beyond sea, the ministers of the national church perform this office, either by turns, or as the criminal, and sometimes the magistrate, desire it. in most employments use makes perfectness, but here it incapacitates: and was a man, even of the greatest prudence and watchfulness over himself, always to converse with rogues, and do nothing else but instruct and attend malefactors in their last hours, the very habit he would contract from it, would spoil him for that purpose: and it is impossible, but constant practice wou'd, in a little time, wear out, or at least take off the greatest part of that earnestness and concern, which ought to be inseparable from the charge i speak of. the greater provision we made for the souls and future happiness of these short-liv'd sinners, the less indulgence we should have for their bodies and sensual appetites: and i would have it strictly observed, that from the moment their death was fixed, 'till their execution, they should receive nothing for sustenance but bread and water; and of either what they would. i would, moreover, have it enacted, that every year a certain number of dead bodies, not under six, should be allowed to physicians and surgeons, for anatomical uses, not to be made choice of till after death, in such a manner, that no felon could be sure this would not be his lot. if they should complain, that the miserable diet they were confined to, was a severity that disturbed their thoughts, and hinder'd their devotion, it would be a sign, that their minds were not yet turned the right way: but this grievance, a short time and necessity will never fail to cure. the harsher that article may seem, the more efficacy it would be of, in deterring rogues from mischief: for i do not doubt but most of them would look upon the wholsome regulations in prison here mentioned, as the most considerable part of the punishment they were to suffer; though, i confess, that what i have in view by this low diet, chiefly regards the eternal welfare of those unhappy people, as it would be instrumental to an early repentance. when, free from fumes of food, and all intoxicating comforts, the serious thoughts of a criminal shall be obliged to dwell upon his wretched self, and behold the prospect of a future state so near, so certainly to come, the loosest and most abandon'd will be brought to reason. death being unavoidable, and nothing upon earth to save him, self-defence will make him turn his eyes elsewhere: his continued abstinence will help to clear his understanding; then searching after truth, he will be soon convinced of the folly and weakness of those arguments, by which he had been used to harden his conscience, keep out remorse, and fortify his steadiness in guilt. when a man thus wean'd from the world, and all the hopes of life, should be drawn forth from his dark and solitary dungeon, once more enjoy the open air, and see himself exposed to gazing multitudes, there met on purpose to feed their curiosity at his expence; when the paleness of his countenance, and the shaking of every limb, should, without disguise, reveal the motions of his heart; and his spirits neither confounded, nor buoy'd up by inebriating liquors, should discover their real condition and incapacity to uphold their trembling tenement; the spectacle would be awful, and strike the hearts of the beholders: when seated on the ignominious cart, by his restless posture, the distortion of his features, and the continual wringing of his hands, he should disclose his woe within, and the utmost depth of sorrow: when we should hear his shrill cries and sad complaints interrupted with bitter sobs and anxious groans, and now and then, at sudden starts, see floods of tears gushing from his distracted eyes, how thoroughly would the concurrence of so many strong evidences convince us of the pangs, the amazing horror, and unspeakable agonies of his excruciated soul! common stubbornness and stupidity could not be proof against all this; and the licentious rabble of both sexes, that make now the most considerable part of those dismal processions, would not attend in such tumultuous crowds. few profligates would be able to stand the shock of sounds and actions so really tragical: many would run away for fear of rouzing the lion kept chain'd within, and waking a guilty conscience from the lethargy they have thrown it in with so much labour. they would not follow long to behold a scene so little to their purpose; and whatever multitudes of them might set out with these penitents, they would drop off, and dwindle away by degrees; even the most obdurate would sicken at such a sight, and turning from it to less displeasing objects, seek after more suitable diversions. the absence of so many rake-hells, that only take delight in mischief, would render these tragedies more solemn, and, at the same time, make room for spectators of a better sort, and lesser sinners, on whom, in all probability, they would have a more desirable effect. it is not to be express'd, what lasting and useful impressions such shews would make: many that are conscious of their frailty, and the small power they have of conquering their passions, would take an opportunity from them of adoring the divine mercy, for having preserved them hitherto from falling into such crimes; even the voluptuous, that in the enjoyment of youth and vigour, are enamour'd with life for the sake of pleasure, would be startled at them, and thank god that this was not their case; and several by the fear of death only, become more serious and reflecting. thus much we should gain, at least, in behalf of religion, from every execution, even of the most sorry felons, who, void of sense and goodness, only grieve because they are to die, and go they know not where: but it is more than probable, that some of them would become good christians, and make exemplary ends. when the condemn'd should, in every respect, receive the treatment i have requir'd, and by this means, undisturb'd by earthly cares, have leisure, in sober sadness, to review their past life, and examine into the multitude, as well as enormity of their offences; then, after thorough contrition, and an open confession in behalf of justice, animated by faith, betake to constant prayer; we ought to believe that thus exerting themselves in the work of salvation, by the good guidance of able divines, and their own unwearied endeavours, many of them would find favour in the sight of the almighty; and that several, even as they went to death, would be regenerated, and comforted from above with a strong assurance of forgiveness. what a visible alteration would it not make in them, when they should perceive their spirits, that the moment before were overwhelm'd with grief, or fill'd with black despair, cherish'd and enlighten'd by the powerful beams of heavenly grace and clemency: transported with the prospect of approaching bliss they then would wish to die, and rejoice that they should be made examples to frighten evil-doers from their ways. but when they should consider, what acts of devotion and unfeigned piety, what works of superlative charity would be necessary, if they were to live, to atone for the heinous crimes and manifold transgressions they had been guilty of against god and their neighbour, how would it rouze their souls, and how eager would it not render them, in the most profitable manner, to spend the small remains of life! sometimes they would deter the wicked and in the same breath solicite heaven for their conversion: at others, reasoning from the changes they had experienced within, they would combat impiety with vehemence, and conjure unbelievers no longer to doubt of an everlasting futurity: they would paint to them, in the strongest colours, the horrors they had felt from an accusing conscience, and the abyss of misery they had been plunged in, whilst yet labouring under the dire reflection on eternal vengeance; and thus, mixing fervent prayers with strenuous exhortation, they would employ the few moments, that were left them, in exercises intirely spiritual and holy. how such conversions would affect the minds of all that saw or heard them, cannot be better imagin'd than by examining our selves. when we had seen an half-starv'd wretch, that look'd like death, come shivering from his prison, and hardly able to speak or stand, get with difficulty on the slow uncomfortable carriage; where, at the first rumbling of it, he should begin to weep, and as he went, dissolve in tears, and lose himself in incoherent lamentations, it would move us to compassion. but with what astonishment would it not fill us, to behold the same creature, near the fatal tree, become lively, glow with zeal, and, in strength of voice and action, excell the most vigorous preachers! all this we might expect; and that those of wit and genius, as certainly there are among them, would often light on new and convincing arguments to warn the sinner: nay, some of them prove stupendious orators, that would not only spread amazement all around them, but likewise find uncommon ways to reach the heart with violence, and force repentance on their hearers. it is stupidity to doubt the vast use such executions would be of, to compass happiness both here and hereafter; and should we regard the first only, it would be no exaggeration to assert, that one of them would be more serviceable to the peace and security of this immense city, than a thousand of those that are now so frequent among us. chap. vi. _of_ transportation: _and a method to render that punishment more effectual._ when i concluded the last, i thought not to have tired the reader any longer with the subject of malefactors: but it has been remonstated to me since, that what i had wrote, would seem very defective, and this treatise be, in reality, imperfect, if i said nothing of transportation; which, for some years last past, on many occasions, has been substituted, and inflicted in the room of capital punishment; and having, at the same time, been furnish'd with a hint concerning this affair, that may be of admirable use, i cannot forbear imparting it to the publick. there is no doubt but the design of transporting felons, instead of hanging them, when their crimes were not very enormous, was just and commendable, and it was reasonable to expect that it would have proved a powerful remedy against the grand evil i have all along complain'd of, and which has been so often repeated. but our subtle criminals have found out means hitherto to render it ineffectual: some have made their escape in the voyage itself; others, condemn'd to this punishment, never have been put on board; several have reach'd the plantations, but been return'd again by the first shipping, and great numbers have been come back before half their time was expir'd. those that are forced to stay, do very little service themselves, and spoil the other slaves, teaching the _africans_ more villany and mischief than ever they could have learn'd without the examples and instructions of such _europeans_. we have loud complaints from all the islands, that we send such numbers, and they know not what to do with them. as they come from _england_, and are to serve _english_ men, their colour, as well as country and language, plead for them; and the masters that complain of them, are to blame themselves for treating them with less severity than they do the innocent, as well as unfortunate blacks, and more remisly than they ought, if they consider'd that these country men of theirs are sent thither on purpose to work, and are condemn'd to hard labour, as a punishment for their crimes. the mild usage our felons receive beyond sea, and the many examples of such as come back before their time, with impunity, have quite destroy'd the end which transportation was design'd for. the criminals have no dread against it, remain as they were themselves, and do no service to others. to redress this, there is an expedient that may immediately be put into practice, and is, to my thinking, every way unexceptionable; for it would effectually prevent the returning of the felons, make them serviceable in the most extraordinary manner, and, at the same time, be terrible beyond expression. the use i would put them to is, the redemption of slaves, that in _morocco_, as well as _tunis_, _algiers_, and other places on the coast of _barbary_, groan under a miserable servitude. should it be objected, that such abandon'd people would turn mahometans, and our selves become accessary to their eternal ruin, i would ask what surety we had for those that were there already. amongst our seafaring men, the practice of piety is very scarce: abundance of them lead very bad lives, who yet, as to the love of their country, and the _meum & tuum_, are very honest fellows. there are not many that are well grounded in the principles of their religion, or would be capable of maintaining it against an adversary of the least ability; and we are not certain, that under great temptations, they would remain stedfast to the christian faith. the danger then of apostacy being the same in both, we must be manifestly the gainers, when we change lazy cowardly thieves, and incorrigible rogues for brave, laborious, and useful people. it would be no difficult matter to enter into negotiations with the several powers of _barbary_ for this purpose; neither is it reasonable to imagine, that they would scruple to take our felons on account of the bad lives they had led, or refuse any for their impudence, wickedness, or aversion to labour. they consider and manage their slaves as we do our cattle; and it is their age, their health, the soundness of their limbs, and their strength, they examine into, with little regard to their temper or their morals: they are ever watchful over them, without trusting to their honesty, or expecting any voluntary obedience from them. if bought servants are able, masters there have sure ways to make them work. they laugh at stubborness and refractory spirits, and their steady severity is a sovereign remedy against sloth, and all other failings of the will: from all which it is highly probable, that a barbarian would be glad to change an elderly honest man, pretty well worn, and above fifty, for a sturdy house-breaker of five and twenty: and as to those that might be pretty equal, as to years and abilities, what if we should give them three for two, or two for one? i am sure we could be no losers. those likewise that are known to be in quality superior to common sailors, might be redeem'd by still a greater number of felons; or, at the worst, they could be no sufferers by the exchanges of the others. what i am speaking of, i confess would be a very severe punishment for felony; but i cannot imagine, how we can think on the rigour of it, without reflecting, at the same time, on the inhumanity we are guilty of in the small concern we often shew, for many years, for the captivity of those who have deserv'd no punishment at all. the greater the calamities are of that cruel bondage, the more reasonable it is, that the guilty should suffer it rather than the innocent. it is unpardonable not to deliver from the yoke of infidels, when it is in our power, our fellow subjects, whom we have no complaint against. when sufficient sums cannot be rais'd to redeem them with money, what should hinder us from doing it at the expence of miscreants, whom it is injustice not to punish, and who, out of chains, cannot be otherwise than noxious to the publick? if this be duly weigh'd, i doubt not, but what, at first, seems to be the greatest objection to this proposal, would, on further reflection, be found an unanswerable argument why we should embrace it. there would likewise be room always, with fresh supplies of felons, to release those, who might be cured, or, at least, thought to have been sufficiently punish'd; and, to prevent all tricks and escapes, this service might be perform'd by men of war instead of merchant men, or transports. this effectual manner of transportation, as felons are treated, and things are managed now, would be more dreadful than hanging, whilst it was only talk'd of; but when it came to the push, and criminals came near, and under the gallows, there would be very few, if they were sober enough to think at all, that, before the cart drove away, would not change their minds, put off the evil hour if they could, and chuse slavery, or any thing else, to avoid immediate death. but then, if the regulations i have offer'd in the foregoing chapter were likewise to be put in practice, the forc'd abstinence, and unavoidable sobriety in prison, with the other preparations before detail, and the journey from _newgate_ to _tyburn_, without hopes of pardon or reprieve, would strike great terror even at a distance; by which means, the thoughts of either would be insupportable, and there would be no great purchase in the choice. the horror loose people would conceive against such proceedings, would be of inestimable consequence to the nation, and thousands that are yet unborn would, deterr'd by the rigour of those laws, turn their hands to honest labour, and die in their beds in their own country, that without them, and things remaining as they are, will either be hanged, or transported long before the end of this century. but if what i propose should not lessen the number of felons so much as ought to be expected, it would clear us at least from the blame of not having endeavoured it; and from transportation we should have the satisfaction, that the kingdom would not lose so many inhabitants by it as it does now, though the same numbers were sent abroad. but, what is infinitely more valuable, that punishment likewise would rid without slaughter, or probability of return, the country of the vermin of society, that, perpetually nibbling at our property, destroy the comforts of secure and undisturb'd possession, at the same time that it would furnish us with an opportunity of performing the most charitable action in the world; for such i will not scruple to call the redeeming and restoring to their friends, without their cost, industrious mariners, that lost their liberties, and became sufferers in an honest calling, and were led into dreadful captivity by infidels, whilst, in promoting the interest of commerce and navigation, they were labouring for the safety, the wealth, and glory of their country. i shall be told by some of my readers, that they are ready to contribute to the redemption of unfortunate captives with their purses; but that among christians, free-born subjects ought never to be made slaves for any reason, or at any rate whatever. but this is a singularity peculiar to _englishmen_, more built on an excess of good-nature, than any sound reason. _france_ and _spain_ make use of malefactors in their gallies, and the _hugonots_ of the first would never have complained of that punishment, had it never been inflicted on any but thieves and villains. but these are _roman_ catholick countries, and arbitrary kingdoms: of _holland_ you can say neither, and yet the great cities of it have all work-houses for criminals. at _amsterdam_ there is one, where felons are kept constantly employ'd in rasping of _brasil_ wood: to earn at this as much as they spend is not to be done without excessive labour, though they fare as hard as they work; yet they are obliged to get more than their maintenance costs considerably. they have a task set them, which if they do not perform, the neglect of their hands is reveng'd on their bellies; and they are stinted in their allowance in proportion to the deficiency. in this place a very strict hand is kept over them; no offences are left unpunished, and they are often drubb'd even for ill language. the periods of time, for which felons are condemned to this rasp-house, are vastly different, according as their great crimes, or slighter trespasses deserve this tuition, and themselves are young or old offenders, and judged to be more or less incorrigible, from six weeks to ninety nine years. these are not called slaves; but such is their abode, their diet, and their discipline, that of those who were to be confined there for any considerable number of years, i don't believe there ever was one who would not have thought it a glorious preferment, if, instead of it, he might have taken his chance, and been sold for a slave in _turky_. we have, i own, no open enemies in _africk_ more than any where else at present; and our most gracious sovereign has, by his clemency and powerful influence over the emperor of _morocco_, procured liberty to those of his subjects that had been taken in _english_ ships: but it is wrong from thence to infer, that there are no slaves in _turky_ of the _british_ nation. among those that are brought up to the sea, there are many, that, by several accidents, are left ashore in foreign parts, and are necessitated to enter themselves on any ships they can meet with. if this be done in time of peace, and when they are not summoned to serve their own country, they are guilty of no fault. but as all mariners, as well as soldiers, share the fate of those on whose side they engage, so many of our sailors are slaves in _turky_, that were taken in _french_, _dutch_, and other ships, and are consequently not reclaimable by any treaty made with _great britain_. tho' these might not deserve the same regard altogether with those that were taken in ships of the _british_ nation; yet, as they are our countrymen, and have committed no crime, their redemption ought not to be deferred one moment, if they might be had in exchange for others, whom we have judged not worthy to live amongst us. besides, as we are at peace now with all those rovers, so half a year hence, some or other of them may fall out with us; their friendship is not much to be depended upon: let the provision but be made, and felons kept at hard labour, and under strict discipline at home, till they are wanted abroad, and we shall find, that the institution it self, the very name of it, will be of vast use, before the thing itself is put into practice. _finis._ footnote: [footnote 9: _this was wrote some months before_ jonathan wild _was apprehended_.] the augustan reprint society _publications in print_ =1948-1949= 16. nevil payne's _fatal jealousy_ (1673). 17. nicholas rowe's _some account of the life of mr. william shakespeare_ (1709). 18. "of genius," in _the occasional paper_, vol. iii, no. 10 (1719); and aaron hill's preface to _the creation_ (1720). =1949-1950= 22. samuel johnson's _the vanity of human wishes_ (1749) and _two rambler_ papers (1750). 23. john dryden's _his majesties declaration defended_ (1681). =1950-1951= 26. charles macklin's _the man of the world_ (1792). =1951-1952= 31. thomas gray's _an elegy wrote in a country church yard_ (1751); and _the eton college manuscript_. =1952-1953= 41. bernard mandeville's _a letter to dion_ (1732). =1953-1954= 45. john robert scott's _dissertation on the progress of the fine arts_. (1800). =1954-1955= 49. two st. cecilia's day sermons (1696-1697). 51. lewis maidwell's _an essay upon the necessity and excellency of education_ (1705). 52. pappity stampoy's _a collection of scotch proverbs_ (1663). =1958-1959= 75. john joyne, _a journal_ (1679) 76. andré dacier, _preface to aristotle's art of poetry_ (1705). =1959-1960= 80. [p. whalley's] _an essay on the manner of writing history_ (1746). 83. _sawney and colley (1742) and other pope pamphlets._ 84. richard savage's _an author to be lett_ (1729). =1960-1961= 85-86. _essays on the theatre from eighteenth-century periodicals._ 87. daniel defoe, _of captain mission and his crew_ (1728). 90. henry needler, _works_ (1728). =1961-1962= 93. john norris, _cursory reflections upon a book call'd. an essay concerning human understanding_ (1690). 94. an collins, _divine songs and meditacions_ (1653). 95. _an essay on the new species of writing founded by mr. fielding_ (1751). 96. _hanoverian ballads._ =1962-1963= 97. myles davies, _athenae britannicae_ (1716-1719). 98. _select hymns taken out of mr. herbert's temple_ (1697). 99. thomas augustine arne, _artaxerxes_ (1761). 100. simon patrick, _a brief account of the new sect of latitude-men_ (1662). 101-102. richard hurd, _letters on chivalry and romance_ (1762). william andrews clark memorial library: university of california, los angeles the augustan reprint society general editors r. c. boys university of michigan maximillian e. novak university of california, los angeles earl miner university of california, los angeles lawrence clark powell wm. andrews clark memorial library _corresponding secretary_: mrs. edna c. davis, wm. andrews clark memorial library the society's purpose is to publish reprints (usually facsimile reproductions) of rare seventeenth and eighteenth century works. all income of the society is devoted to defraying costs of publication and mailing. correspondence concerning subscriptions in the united states and canada should be addressed to the william andrews clark memorial library, 2205 west adams boulevard, los angeles, california. correspondence concerning editorial matters may be addressed to any of the general editors. the membership fee is $5.00 a year for subscribers in the united states and canada and 30/for subscribers in great britain and europe. british and european subscribers should address b. h. blackwell, broad street, oxford, england. copies of back issues in print may be obtained from the corresponding secretary. the publications for 1963-1964 are in part subsidized by funds generously given to the society in memory of the late professor edward n. hooker, one of its co-founders. publications for 1963-1964 samuel richardson, _clarissa_: preface, hints of prefaces, and postscript. introduction by r. f. brissenden. thomas d'urfey, _wonders in the sun, or the kingdom of the birds_ (1706). introduction by william w. appleton. daniel defoe, _a brief history of the poor palatine refugees_ (1709). introduction by john robert moore. bernard mandeville, _an enquiry into the causes of the frequent executions at tyburn_ (1725). introduction by malvin r. zirker, jr. john oldmixon, _an essay on criticism_ (1728). introduction by r. j. madden, c.s.b. the augustan reprint society william andrews clark memorial library 2205 west adams boulevard, los angeles, california 90018 make check or money order payable to the regents of the university of california. my experiences as an executioner. [illustration: james berry] my experiences as an executioner by james berry _edited by h. snowden ward._ london: percy lund & co memorial hall, ludgate circus, e.c. copyright in united states and british isles. printed by [publisher's mark] percy lund and co., bradford. copyright in united states and british isles. contents. page introduction 7 chapter i. the executioner at home 11 chapter ii. how i became an executioner 16 chapter iii. my first execution 23 chapter iv. my method of execution--calculations and apparatus 30 chapter v. my method of execution--the proceedings 45 chapter vi. other methods of execution 50 chapter vii. two terrible experiences 59 chapter viii. how murderers die 66 chapter ix. from the murderer's point of view 95 chapter x. on capital punishment 106 chapter xi. hanging: from a business point of view 117 chapter xii. the press and the public 124 chapter xiii. incidents and anecdotes 132 appendix. the trouble with "answers" limited 141 introduction. the intention of both the author and the editor of this little book has been to set forth, as plainly and as simply as possible, certain facts and opinions with regard to what is undoubtedly a most important subject--the carrying out of the ultimate sentence of the law. while facts have not been in any way shirked or misrepresented, much that is horrible in detail has been suppressed; so that people who may be tempted to take up the book in search of ghastly descriptive writing, are warned at the outset that they will be disappointed. it is believed that a publication of mr. berry's experiences will correct many errors and misconceptions as to the way in which capital sentences are carried out in england; and that it will lead to a consideration of the whole subject, from a practical, rather than from a sentimental, point of view. the management, and, if possible, the regeneration of the criminal classes, is one of the most serious tasks that civilisation has to face; and those who undertake such a task require all the light that can possibly be thrown upon the subject. the public executioner has many and special opportunities of studying the criminal classes, and of knowing their attitude and feelings with regard to that capital punishment which civilisation regards as its strongest weapon in the war against crime. when, as in the case of mr. berry, several years' experience in various police forces can be added to his experience as an executioner, the man who has had these exceptional opportunities of studying criminals and crime, must necessarily have gathered much information and formed opinions that are worthy of attention. therefore, this book has a higher aim than the mere recording of the circumstances and incidents of the most painful business in which a man can engage. the recording is necessary, for without the facts before them, readers could not form their own opinions; but it is hoped that the facts will be read with more than mere curiosity, that the readers will be led to take a personal interest in the weak and erring brethren who form the criminal classes, the canker-worm of our social system. * * * * * an explanation of how this book was written may not be out of place. the statements are _entirely_ those of the author, though in many cases the words are those of the editor, whose task consisted of re-arranging and very greatly condensing the mass of matter placed in his hands by mr. berry. the narrative and descriptive portion of the work is taken from a series of note-books and a news-cuttings book kept by mr. berry; who includes the most minute particulars in his diaries. one chapter--"my first execution"--is word for word as written in the diary, with the exception that a few whole pages of descriptive detail are omitted, and indicated by points (thus....) the chapter "on capital punishment," and portions of other chapters, were not written out at length by mr. berry, but were supplied in the form of full notes, and the principal portions dictated. in every case, however, the opinions are those of the author, with whom the editor is by no means in entire personal agreement. chapter i. the executioner at home. by h. snowden ward. james berry, though regarded by some people as a monster, and by others as a curiosity, is very much like any other working-man when one comes to know him. he is neither a paragon of perfection, nor an embodiment of all vice--though different classes of people have at times placed him under both these descriptions. his character is a curious study--a mixture of very strong and very weak traits, such as is seldom found in one person. and although one of his weak points is his yorkshire open-hearted frankness, which he tries to control as much as possible, the man who has only been with him a few days has not by any means got to the depths of his character. his wife has said to me more than once:--"i have lived with him for nineteen years, but i don't thoroughly know him yet," and one can quite understand it, as his character is so many-sided and in some respects contradictory. this partly accounts for the varying and contradictory views of his personality which have been published in different papers. his strongest point is his tender-heartedness. perhaps this may be doubted, but i state the fact from ample knowledge. mr. berry's occupation was not by any means taken up from a love of the ghastly, or any pleasure in the work. even in his business as executioner his soft-heartedness has shown itself, for though it has never caused him to flinch on the scaffold, it has led him to study most carefully the science of his subject, and to take great pains to make death painless. of this trait i have had many proofs. for instance, i know that on some occasions when he has been due to start for a place of execution, his repugnance to the task has been so great that his wife and her mother have been obliged to use the greatest possible force of persuasion to prevent him shirking his duty. another instance of this characteristic appeared when i was overhauling his manuscript and cuttings for the purpose of this book. i came across a copy of a poem "for one under sentence of death," and made some enquiry about it. i found that the lines were some which mr. berry had copied from a dorchester newspaper, and that for a long time it had been his habit to make a copy of them, to send to the chaplain in every case where a prisoner was sentenced to death, with a request that they should be read to the prisoner. this was continued until the governor of one of the gaols resented the sending of such a poem to the chaplain, and intimated that in all cases the chaplain was best able to judge of what was necessary for the condemned man, and did not need any outside interference. after this mr. berry sent no more poems, but he kept one or two copies by him, and i think that it may interest the reader. lines for one under sentence of death. my brother,--sit and think, while yet some hours on earth are left to thee; kneel to thy god, who does not from thee shrink, and lay thy sins on christ, who died for thee. he rests his wounded hand with loving kindness, on thy sin-stained brow, and says--"here at thy side i ready stand, to make thy scarlet sins as white as snow. "i did not shed my blood for sinless angels, good and pure and true; for hopeless sinners flowed that crimson flood, my heart's blood ran for you, my son, for you. "though thou hast grieved me sore, my arms of mercy still are open wide, i still hold open heaven's shining door, come then--take refuge in my wounded side. "men shun thee--but not i, come close to me--i love my erring sheep. my blood can cleanse thy sins of blackest dye, i understand, if thou canst only weep." words fail thee--never mind, thy saviour can read e'en a sigh, or tear; i came, sin-stricken heart, to heal and bind, and died to save thee--to my heart thou'rt dear. come now--the time is short, longing to pardon and to bless, i wait; look up to me, my sheep so dearly bought, and say, "forgive me, e'er it is too late." e. b. c. the soft-heartedness of mr. berry's nature would quite unfit him for his post if it were not that he possesses a strong resolution, and can control his feelings when he finds duty warring against inclination. in personal appearance he is a kindly-looking man, thickset and muscular, with a florid complexion and sandy hair. he stands 5ft. 8½in. high, weighs 13 stones, and does not look the sort of man to willingly injure anyone. the appearance of his right cheek is somewhat marred by a long, deep scar, extending downwards from the corner of the eye, which has given rise to one or two sensational stories from the pens of imaginative newspaper men. the scar was caused by the kick of a horse which he attempted to ride when he was a boy about ten years old. the horse was young, unbroken and vicious, and its kick narrowly missed being fatal. across his forehead is another great scar, the result of a terrible blow received when arresting a desperate character in a bradford public-house. the man was one of a gang of six, and his comrades helped him to violently resist arrest, but berry stuck to his captive until he was safely locked in the bradford town hall, and the six men all had to "do time" for the assault. mr. berry was born on february 8th, 1852, at heckmondwike, in yorkshire. his father was a wool-stapler, holding a good position in the district. young berry's education was obtained at the wrea green school, near lytham, where he gained several prizes for his writing and drawing. his writing ability was useful to him later in life, when he was employed by a lithographer, to write "copper-plate" transfers. in 1874 he was married, and has had six children. of these, two boys and a girl died while young, and two boys and a girl are living. the "executioner's office," as mr. berry likes to call it on his official communications, is a house just off city road, bradford. it is one of six owned by mr. berry. when he first took the position of executioner some of his neighbours were so prejudiced against the work, that they refused to live "next door to a hangman," and as landlords naturally object to losing two or three tenants for the sake of keeping one, mr. berry was obliged to move once or twice, and came to the conclusion that he had better be his own landlord. the prejudice which then existed has been lived down, and there is now no difficulty in letting neighbouring houses to respectable tenants. the house in bilton place is furnished just the same as hundred of other houses in the district that are occupied by better-class artisans, and there is nothing at all gloomy or gruesome about the place. in fact, there is no indication of the business of the occupant. there are, in the front room, two frames of small photographs, which are really portraits of some of the murderers who have been executed by mr. berry, but the frames bear no inscription. in a glass-fronted sideboard, too, there are a few handsome electro goblets, cruet stands and similar articles that have been given to mr. berry by some of his admirers, but no one would connect them with his business. in drawers and cupboards about the place there are (or were, for they have now gone to madame tussaud's) a large number of relics and mementos of executions and other incidents. amongst them is the great knife, once used by the executioner of canton for the beheading of nine pirates. this was obtained in exchange for a rope with which several persons had been hanged. these relics were all stowed well away, and were not by any means "on show," though the executioner did not object to producing them if a personal friend wished to see them. in conversation mr. berry is fluent, apt in anecdote and illustration, and full of a subtle yorkshire humour which he cannot entirely shake off even when talking on serious subjects. he has a very good memory for facts, and is very observant, so that he is always ready with a personal experience or observation on almost any topic. his tastes are simple. his favourite occupations are fishing and otter hunting, of both of which sports he is passionately fond. frequently when going to an execution in a country town he takes his rod and basket, and gets a half-day's fishing before or after the execution. he seems to like the sport on account of its quiet and contemplative nature, and says that he enjoys the fishing even if he never gets a nibble. at home mr. berry devotes himself largely to mechanical pursuits. at the present time he is working a patent which he bought recently, and has the topmost room of his house fitted as a mechanic's workshop, with lathe, bench, etc. in spare time he devotes a good deal of attention to his pigeons and rabbits, for he is an ardent fancier, and keeps a large number of live pets. chapter ii. how i became an executioner. it has been said by some of those goody-goody moralists who are always anxious to point out sad examples of the depravity of man, and who are not very particular about the genuineness of the "facts" with which they support their theories, that i was fond, even as a boy, of revelling in the revolting details of crime, and that i was a reader of all the police literature that i could obtain. such statements are absolutely false. as a boy i was not a great reader on any subject, and the proceedings of the courts and the careers of criminals were in no wise interesting to me until i became a member of the bradford borough police force, in 1874. when a policeman i strove to do my duty as well as any man could, and often wished that i could make some better provision for my wife and family, but i never so much as dreamed of becoming an executioner, or took any interest in the subject of hanging. one day, when i called at a friend's house that was on my beat, it happened that mr. marwood was staying there, and i was introduced to him, and a few days later i again met him and spent an evening in his company. he was a quiet, unassuming man, kindly and almost benevolent in his manner, who was in no way ashamed of his calling, though very reticent about speaking of it, excepting to those whom he knew well. he keenly felt the odium with which his office was regarded by the public, and aimed, by performing his duties in a satisfactory manner, and by conducting his private life respectably, at removing the stigma which he felt was undeserved. at times the attitude of the public towards him was very keenly felt, and i well remember one time when this subject was the topic of conversation at the supper table, that he remarked to a gentleman present, "my position is not a pleasant one," and turning to me, repeated with emphasis, "no! it is _not_ a pleasant one." the words seemed to come from the depths of a full heart, and i shall never forget their pathos and feeling. altogether, mr. marwood never encouraged me in any way to think of his calling with feelings of envy, and though he did give me all particulars of his methods and apparatus, it was merely because i asked all sorts of questions from natural curiosity. it was only when in company with mr. marwood, with whom i became quite friendly, that i ever contemplated the question of capital punishment. at other times it was far from my thoughts. my application for the post, which was left vacant at his death, was, therefore, in no way the result of a personal desire for the work or of a pre-conceived plan. i was simply driven to it by the poverty-stricken condition of my family, which i was unable to keep in reasonable comfort upon my earnings (i was then engaged as a boot-salesman, at a small salary). i knew that in the line on which i was then working there was no prospect of a material improvement in my position; i knew that i was a man of no extraordinary ability, so that my chances of rising were few, and i looked upon the vacancy of the executioner's post as being probably my one chance in life, my "tide in the affairs of men." personally i had a great distaste for the work, though i did not consider it in any way dishonourable or degrading, and i had to weigh my family's wants against my personal inclination. it seemed to me at the time that my duty was clear, so i made application for the vacant position. it may be said that i decided to better myself without any regard to the means of that betterment, or to my fitness for the position; but when i carefully considered the matter, in the few days before sending in my application, i was convinced that i could do the work as well as anyone, and that i could make practical improvements in some of the methods and somewhat improve the lot of those appointed to die. this last consideration finally decided me. i made application to the sheriffs of london and middlesex in september, 1883. there were some 1400 applicants for the post, but after waiting some time i received the following letter intimating that i was one of the few from amongst whom the final choice was to be made:--- london. the sheriffs of london and middlesex will be at the old bailey on monday next, the 24th instant, at 2 o'clock p.m., for the purpose of seeing the selected applicants for the post of executioner. if you (as one of those selected for consideration) are disposed to attend at the above time and place you are at liberty, at your own expense, to do so. 19th september, 1883. to mr. j. berry. of course, i kept the appointment, was duly examined, amongst some nineteen others, and was told that the chosen executioner would be communicated with. my action in applying for the post was not at all in accordance with the wishes of my relatives, who did everything they possibly could to prevent my obtaining it. some of my friends and neighbours wrote, either through solicitors or personally, to the sheriffs. certain members of my own family petitioned the home secretary to dismiss the application, on the ground that if the appointment was given to me, a hitherto respectable family would be disgraced. i believe that it was mainly in consequence of these representations that i was passed over, and the post given to mr. bartholomew binns. upon myself the opposition had an effect that was not intended. it made me devote considerable thought and care to the details of the work of an executioner, and made me determine that if ever the opportunity again offered i should do my best to secure the work. during the four months that mr. binns held the appointment i had consultations with some eminent medical men, and when, much earlier than i expected, a new executioner was wanted, i was very well grounded in the theory of the subject. it was in march, 1884, that the magistrates of the city of edinburgh wanted a man to execute vickers and innes, two poachers. the sheriffs of london and middlesex gave me a recommendation, and i addressed the following letter to the magistrates of edinburgh:- _march_ 13_th_, 1884. 52, thorpe street, shearbridge, bradford, yorkshire. to the magistrates of the city of edinburgh. dear sirs, i beg most respectfully to apply to you, to ask if you will permit me to conduct the execution of the two convicts now lying under sentence of death at edinburgh. i was very intimate with the late mr. marwood, and he made me thoroughly acquainted with his system of carrying out his work, and also the information which he learnt from the doctors of different prisons which he had to visit to carry out the last sentence of the law. i have now one rope of his which i bought from him at horncastle, and have had two made from it. i have also two pinioning straps made from his, also two leg straps. i have seen mr. calcraft execute three convicts at manchester 13 years ago, and should you think fit to give me the appointment i would endeavour to merit your patronage. i have served 8 years in bradford & west riding police force, and resigned without a stain on my character, and could satisfy you as to my abilities and fitness for the appointment. you can apply to mr. jas. withers, chief constable, bradford, also to the high sheriff for the city of london, mr. clarence smith, mansion house buildings, 4, queen victoria street, london, e.c., who will testify as to my character and fitness to carry out the law. should you require me i could be at your command at 24 hours' notice. hoping these few lines will meet with your approval. i remain, sirs, your most obedient servant, james berry. to the chief magistrates, borough of edinburgh, scotland. p.s. an answer would greatly oblige as i should take it as a favour. a brief correspondence followed, and on march 21st i received the following letter from the magistrates' clerk: city chambers, edinburgh, _21st march, 1884._ sir, with reference to your letters of the 13th and 15th instant, i am now directed by the magistrates to inform you that they accept the offer you have made of your services to act as executioner here on monday, the 31st march current, on condition (1) that you bring your assistant with you, and (2) that you and your assistant arrive in edinburgh on the morning of friday the 28th instant, and reside within the prison (at the magistrates' expense) till after the executions are over. the magistrates agree to your terms of ten guineas for each person executed and 20s. for each person executed to your assistant, with second-class railway fares for both of you, you finding all necessary requisites for the executions. i am, sir, your obedient servant, a campbell, deputy city clerk. mr. james berry, 52, thorpe street, shearbridge, bradford, yorks. p.s. please acknowledge receipt of this letter immediately.--a. c. of course, my reply was to the effect that i accepted the engagement, and although i felt many misgivings between that time and the day appointed for the execution, the work was carried through satisfactorily. [illustration: calton gaol, from calton hill.] chapter iii. my first execution.[a] on the 21st march, 1884, i received a letter from the magistrates' clerk, city chambers, edinburgh, appointing me to act as executioner on 31st march, 1884, at calton gaol; and that i was to provide all necessary appliances for carrying out the same. i undertook the duties; and on thursday, march 27th, 1884, i departed from my home, bradford, and made my way to the midland station, and booked 3rd class for edinburgh, to carry out the execution of the gorebridge murderers. i arrived at waverley station 4-20 p.m., and i hired a cab to drive me to the gaol. on arrival at the prison i was met at the doors by a good-looking warder, dressed in ordinary prison garb, and very courteous; and on entering the large portal gate, was asked my name, and after entering it down in the prison book, time, etc., he pulled a string, which rang the governor's bell, and in a few moments i was confronted with the governor, a very nice gentleman, of military appearance, and very good looking. after passing the usual conversation of the day, and the weather, and what kind of journey i had up from bradford, he said after such a long journey i should require a good, substantial tea; and as soon as i had washed, and combed my hair, the tea was there, everything that could be desired. i sat down, and quite enjoyed my first scotch meal in bonnie scotland.... [an examination of himself and his apparatus by the governor, and his own inspection of the scaffold, are then described at length.]... i returned to my room, and stayed in during the daytime. i spent the thursday night smoking and reading. at 10-0 o'clock p.m. i was escorted to my bedroom, a round house at the back part of the gaol, about 40 yards from the back entrance, a snug little place, and was informed that the last man who slept inside that room was wm. marwood, five years previous to my visit. he was then there for the same purpose as myself, but the culprit in his case was a poisoner. the chief warder, whom i spoke to, seemed to touch upon the subject with great reluctance, and said that he felt quite upset concerning the two culprits, and that he hoped they would get a reprieve. i could see in his countenance a deep expression of grief, which was making him look no better for his occupation.... i sat me down on my bed after he had gone, locked my door, and could hear the trains depart from the station under the prison wall. i looked out of my window at the mail taking its departure for the south.... i then knelt down and asked the almighty to help me in my most painful task, which i had undertaken to carry out.... [the night was much disturbed by the persistent smoking of the chimney.]... at 8-0 a.m. on the morning of the 28th, friday, my breakfast was brought into my room, consisting of toast, ham and eggs, and coffee.... at 10-0 a.m. on friday morning, 28th march, 1884, i was introduced to the magistrates and those responsible to see the execution carried out. i exposed my ropes and straps for their inspection, and, after a long and careful investigation of all points, they retired, quite satisfied with their visit. after that we paid another visit to the scaffold; the builders, not having finished the contract, were making a final touch to the new-erected shed to keep the execution private, and so that nobody outside could see. after testing it with bags of cement, same weight as the prisoners, and calculating the length of drop and its consequences, and other details, the committee departed. after, i filled my time walking about the prison grounds, and thinking of the poor men who were nearing their end, full of life, and knowing the fatal hour, which made me quite ill to think about. my meals did not seem to do me good, my appetite began to fall off, nothing felt good to me, everything that i put into my mouth felt like sand, and i felt as i wished i had never undertaken such an awful calling. i regretted for a while, and then i thought the public would only think i had not the pluck, and i would not allow my feelings to overthrow me, so i never gave way to such thoughts again. at 1-0 p.m. my dinner had arrived. i went up to my room, and sat down to pudding, beef, and vegetables, scotch broth, and cochrane & cantrell's ginger ale. at that time i was a total abstainer; and i think it is the safest side, since what i have seen brought on by its sad consequences of taking too much alcoholic liquor.... after tea, i had a chat with the warders coming off duty for the day. as they passed through the wicket gate, one remarked, "he looks a nice fellow for a job like that;" another says, "but he has a wicked eye," and he would be sure i could do it.... i was left smoking in the lodge with the gate-keeper and one (warder) who stayed behind to see what he could hear me say; but i looked him over, and could see by the look of his face that i was not to say much in his presence, as he was built that way.... i was left alone with the gate-keeper, and he looked like a straight, honest man, and he was like myself. he said, "i am glad you never began to say anything in the presence of that man, as he would stop until morning."... saturday morning, 29th.... after breakfast, had another interview with the magistrates, and made the final arrangements. i tested the scaffold in their presence, with the ropes i was going to use on the monday morning, with bags of cement, each bag being placed in the same places as was marked for the criminals; vickers, weighing 10 stones and over, 8 feet (drop); and innes, 9 stones, 10 feet. one bag represented one, and the other bag the other. i tested the ropes by letting off the traps, and down went the bags, and i got my calculations from that point, after seeing the ropes tested with the weight of cement. they all looked quite satisfied with the results. the rope was of italian silk hemp, made specially for the work, 5/8 inch in thickness, and very pliable, running through a brass thimble, which causes dislocation and a painless death if rightly adjusted.... after dining, i had the honour of having a drive in an open carriage (provided by the governor) for a couple of hours, ... which i enjoyed, after being inside the prison gates since my arrival on thursday.... i gave my friend another night's visit at the lodge gate. we chatted on different topics of the day, and spent a nice, jovial evening together, smoking our weed; when a voice came to the door from a visitor from the offices of the town, that a reprieve was refused, and the law was to take its course, and i had a paper sent, with the words in full, gorebridge murderers, no reprieve, which made me feel as bad as the condemned men for a time. but, what with the jolly gate-keeper, and another of the warders, i drove it out of my mind for a while.... i retired to bed as usual at 10-0 p.m., after reciting my prayers, and thinking only another night and i shall be back with my wife and children. saturday night i was very restless, and i did not feel so much refreshed for my night's sleep, as i was thinking of the poor creatures who was slumbering their hours away, in the prison cell, just beyond where i was laid, thinking of the dreadful fate that awaited them in such a short space of time. two men, in full bloom, and had to come to such an untimely end, leaving wives and large families. one poor woman, i was informed, her mind was so affected that she was removed to the asylum, she took it so to heart.... i retired to my day-room at the front entrance, where i only partook very sparingly of the nice and tempting ham and poached eggs put before me. i spent most of the forenoon looking round inside the prison, while the prisoners was at chapel, until dinner time. my dinner did not arrive until 4-0 o'clock, which is called late dinner, consisting of rice pudding, black currants, chicken, vegetables, potatoes, bread, and the usual teetotal beverages. i tried to make the best of it, but all that i could do was to look at it, as my appetite was gone; but i managed to eat a little before going to roost for the last night.... i retired at 10-0 on sunday, but only had cat naps all night, one eye shut and the other open, thinking and fancying things that never will be, and which is impossible. i was dressed and up at 5-0 a.m.; and felt more dead than alive as i had such a responsible part to play in the programme for the day. i fancied the ropes breaking; i fancied i was trembling, and could not do it; i fancied i fell sick just at the last push. i was nearly frantic in my mind, but i never let them know. 6-0 a.m. arrived. i heard the sound of the keys, clattering of doors, sliding of bolts. breakfast had to be served earlier than usual. no prisoner allowed out of his cell until all was over. the public had begun to assemble on calton hill in groups. 7-0 a.m. arrived. i made my way to the scaffold, made my arrangements secure, and cleared the scaffold shed, the principal warder locking the door, not to be opened again until the procession enters for the great event of the day.... at 7-45 the living group wended their way to the prison, and into the doctor's room, ready for the last scene of the drama. the prisoners were brought face to face for the first time since their conviction. they kissed each other; and the scene was a very painful one, to see mates going to meet their end on the gallows. they were conducted to the room adjoining the doctor's room, and were in prayer with the two ministers in attendance after 8-5. i was called to do my duty. i was handed the warrant, which was made out by the judge who condemned them to die. i then proceeded to pinion the prisoners, previously shaking hands, bidding good-bye to this world. both men seemed to feel the position very much. the procession was formed, headed by the high bailiff, the chaplain reading the litany for the dead. both the prisoners walked without assistance to place of execution; they was at once placed under the beam on the drop, where everything was done as quick as lightning, and both culprits paid the highest penalty of the law.... the magistrates, and doctors, and even the pressmen, admitted that the execution of the two men had been carried out in an humane manner as possibly could be, and that the poor fellows had not suffered the slightest pain in going through the execution; doctors giving me a testimonial as to the skilful way i had carried out the execution. 9-0 a.m., my breakfast arrived; and i was so much affected by the sad sight i had witnessed, that i had no appetite, but just merely drank a cup of coffee; but eating was out of the question. * * * * * as this was my first execution, i was naturally anxious to have an assurance from my employers that it had been satisfactorily carried out. the magistrates, the governor, and the surgeons all signified their satisfaction, in the following terms:- city chambers, edinburgh, _1st may, 1884._ we, the magistrates who were charged with seeing the sentence of death carried into effect, on the 31st march last, on robert f. vickers and william innes, in the prison of edinburgh, hereby certify that james berry, of bradford, who acted as executioner, performed his duties in a thoroughly efficient manner; and that his conduct during the time he was here was in every way satisfactory. george roberts, magistrate. thomas clark, magistrate. h.m. prison, edinburgh, _31 march, 1884._ i hereby certify that mr. james berry, assisted by mr. richard chester, carried out a double execution in this prison on this date, and that the whole of his arrangements were gone about in a most satisfactory and skilful manner; and, further, that the conduct of messrs. berry and chester, during the four days that they resided here, has been all that could be desired. j. e. christie, governor of h.m. prison. edinburgh, _31st march, 1884_. we hereby certify that we have this day witnessed the execution of vickers and innes, and examined their bodies. we are of opinion that the execution of these men was admirably managed; and that the executioner berry and his assistant conducted themselves in a cool, business-like manner, to our entire satisfaction; death being instantaneous. james a. sidey, m.d., surgeon to h.m. prison of edinburgh. henry d. littlejohn, m.d., surgeon of police. i fear it seems like self-praise to publish these "testimonials," but my work is so often maligned in common conversation, that i feel that it is a duty to give the opinions of a few of the men on the spot, who are most competent to judge of the matter. i believe that in every case where i have conducted an execution, the authorities have been perfectly satisfied, and i could produce numerous letters to that effect, but i will content myself with one, from the prison where i have had the greatest number of executions. it is dated a few years ago, but it would be endorsed now, and such testimony is very gratifying to me. strangeways prison, _11th june, 1887_. during the period mr. james berry has been public executioner he has always given satisfaction at this prison in carrying out capital sentences, and his conduct has been marked by firmness and discretion. j. h. purton, jr. chapter iv. my method of execution. calculations and apparatus. my method of execution is the outcome of the experience of my predecessors and myself, aided by suggestions from the doctors, and is rather the result of gradual growth than the invention of any one man. the drop. the matter which requires the greatest attention in connection with an execution is the allowance of a suitable drop for each person executed, and the adjustment of this matter is not nearly so simple as an outsider would imagine. it is, of course, necessary that the drop should be of sufficient length to cause instantaneous death, that is to say, to cause death by dislocation rather than by strangulation; and on the other hand, the drop must not be so great as to outwardly mutilate the victim. if all murderers who have to be hanged were of precisely the same weight and build it would be very easy to find out the most suitable length of drop, and always to give the same, but as a matter of fact they vary enormously. in the earliest days of hanging it was the practice for the executioner to place his noose round the victim's neck, and then to haul upon the other end of the rope, which was passed through a ring on the scaffold pole until the culprit was strangled, without any drop at all. after a while the drop system was introduced, but the length of drop given was never more than three feet, so that death was still generally caused by strangulation, and not by dislocation, as it is at present. one after another, all our english executioners followed the same plan without thought of change or improvement, until mr. marwood took the appointment. he, as a humane man, carefully considered the subject, and came to the conclusion that the then existing method, though certain, was not so rapid or painless as it ought to be. in consequence he introduced his long-drop system with a fall of from seven to ten feet, which caused instantaneous death by severance of the spinal cord. i was slightly acquainted with mr. marwood before his death, and i had gained some particulars of his method from conversation with him; so that when i undertook my first execution, at edinburgh, i naturally worked upon his lines. this first commission was to execute robert vickers and william innes, two miners who were condemned to death for the murder of two game-keepers. the respective weights were 10 stone 4 lbs. and 9 stone 6 lbs., and i gave them drops of 8 ft. 6 in. and 10 ft. respectively. in both cases death was instantaneous, and the prison surgeon gave me a testimonial to the effect that the execution was satisfactory in every respect. upon this experience i based a table of weights and drops. taking a man of 14 stones as a basis, and giving him a drop of 8 ft., which is what i thought necessary, i calculated that every half-stone lighter weight would require a two inches longer drop, and the full table, as i entered it in my books at the time, stood as follows:- 14 stones 8 ft. 0 in. 13½ " 8 " 2 " 13 " 8 " 4 " 12½ " 8 " 6 " 12 " 8 " 8 " 11½ " 8 " 10 " 11 " 9 " 0 " 10½ " 9 " 2 " 10 " 9 " 4 " 9½ " 9 " 6 " 9 " 9 " 8 " 8½ " 9 " 10 " 8 " 10 " 0 " this table i calculated for persons of what i might call "average" build, but it could not by any means be rigidly adhered to with safety. for instance, i have more than once had to execute persons who had attempted suicide by cutting their throats, or who had been otherwise wounded about the neck, and to prevent re-opening the wounds i have reduced the drop by nearly half. again, in the case of persons of very fleshy build, who often have weak bones and muscles about the neck, i have reduced the drop by a quarter or half of the distance indicated by the table. if i had not done so, no doubt two or three of those whom i have executed would have had their heads entirely jerked off,--which did occur in one case to which i shall again refer. in the case of persons with scrofulous tendencies it is especially necessary that the fall should be unusually short, and in these cases i have at times received useful hints from the gaol doctors. until november 30th, 1885, i worked to the scale already given, but on that date i had the awful experience above referred to, which caused me to reconsider the whole subject and to construct a general table on what i believe to be a truly scientific basis. the experience referred to is dealt with in another chapter. the man with whom it occurred was robert goodale, whom i executed at norwich castle. he weighed 15 stones, and the drop indicated by the first table would therefore be 7 ft. 8 in., but in consequence of his appearance i reduced it to 5 ft. 9 in., because the muscles of his neck did not appear well developed and strong. but even this, as it turned out, was not short enough, and the result was one of the most horrible mishaps that i have ever had. as will be seen from the full report of this case, in another chapter, the coroner exonerated me from all blame and testified to the careful way in which i had done my work; but i felt that it was most necessary to take every possible precaution against the recurrence of such an affair. i, therefore, worked out a table of the striking force of falling bodies of various weights falling through different distances; which table i give on page 34. working with this, i calculate that an "average" man, of any weight, requires a fall that will finish with a striking force of 24 cwt., and if the convict seems to require less, i mentally estimate the striking force that is necessary, and then by referring to the table i can instantly find the length of drop required. to see how this new table works out we may take the case of robert goodale again. as he weighed 15 stones his striking force with a drop of 2 feet would be 21 cwt. 21 lbs., or with a drop of 3 feet 26 cwt. 7 lbs., so that if he were a man of ordinary build the drop necessary would be 2 ft. 6 in. as i estimated from his appearance that his drop ought to have been about one-sixth less than the standard, i should have given him, working on this new table, about 2 ft. 1 in. instead of the 5 ft. 9 in. which was actually given. this is an extreme case, with a very heavy man, but all through the table it will be found that the drop works out shorter than in the first table. for instance, vickers and innes, the two edinburgh murderers previously referred to would have had their drops reduced from 8 ft. 6 in. and 10 ft. to 5 ft. 6 in. and 7 ft. respectively if they had been treated according to the present revised table. on august 20th, 1891, at kirkdale gaol, liverpool, at the execution of john conway, an attempt was made to dictate to me the length of drop, and a most unfortunate scene ensued. from seeing the convict, conway, i had decided that the drop ought to be 4 ft. 6 in., a little under the scale rate; and i was surprised and annoyed at being told by dr. barr, acting, i believe, under authority, that i was to give a drop of 6 ft. 9 in. i said that it would pull the man's head off altogether, and finally refused to go on with the execution if such a long drop were given. dr. barr then measured off a shorter drop, some ten or twelve inches shorter, but still much longer than i thought necessary, and i reluctantly agreed to go on. the result, everyone knows. the drop was not so long as to absolutely pull off the victim's head, but it ruptured the principal blood-vessels of the neck. scale showing the striking force of falling bodies at different distances. +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ |distance| | | | | |falling | 8 stone | 9 stone | 10 stone | 11 stone | |in feet | | | | | | zero | | | | | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | |cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.| | 1 ft. | 8 0 0 | 9 0 0 |10 0 0 |11 0 0 | | 2 " |11 1 15 |12 2 23 |14 0 14 |15 2 4 | | 3 " |13 3 16 |15 2 15 |17 1 14 |19 0 12 | | 4 " |16 0 0 |18 0 0 |20 0 0 |22 0 0 | | 5 " |17 2 11 |19 3 5 |22 0 0 |24 0 22 | | 6 " |19 2 11 |22 0 5 |24 2 0 |26 3 22 | | 7 " |21 0 22 |23 3 11 |26 2 0 |29 0 16 | | 8 " |22 2 22 |25 2 4 |28 1 14 |31 0 23 | | 9 " |24 0 11 |27 0 12 |30 0 14 |33 0 23 | | 10 " |25 1 5 |28 1 23 |31 2 14 |34 3 4 | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ |distance| | | | | |falling | 12 stone | 13 stone | 14 stone | 15 stone | |in feet | | | | | | zero | | | | | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | |cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.| | 1 ft. |12 0 0 |13 0 0 |14 0 0 |15 0 0 | | 2 " |16 3 22 |18 1 12 |19 3 2 |21 0 21 | | 3 " |20 3 11 |22 2 9 |24 1 8 |26 0 7 | | 4 " |24 0 0 |26 0 0 |28 0 0 |30 0 0 | | 5 " |26 1 16 |28 2 11 |30 3 5 |33 0 0 | | 6 " |29 1 16 |31 3 11 |34 1 5 |36 3 0 | | 7 " |31 3 5 |34 1 22 |37 0 11 |39 3 0 | | 8 " |34 0 5 |36 3 15 |39 2 25 |42 2 7 | | 9 " |36 0 16 |39 0 18 |42 0 19 |45 0 21 | | 10 " |37 3 22 |41 0 12 |44 1 2 |47 1 21 | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ |distance| | | | | |falling | 16 stone | 17 stone | 18 stone | 19 stone | |in feet | | | | | | zero | | | | | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | |cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.|cw. qr. lb.| | 1 ft. |16 0 0 |17 0 0 |18 0 0 |19 0 0 | | 2 " |22 2 11 |24 0 1 |25 1 19 |26 3 9 | | 3 " |27 3 5 |29 2 4 |31 1 2 |33 0 1 | | 4 " |32 0 0 |34 0 0 |36 0 0 |40 0 0 | | 5 " |35 0 22 |37 0 16 |39 2 11 |41 3 15 | | 6 " |39 0 22 |41 2 16 |44 0 11 |46 2 5 | | 7 " |42 1 16 |45 0 5 |47 2 22 |50 1 11 | | 8 " |45 1 16 |48 0 26 |51 0 8 |53 3 18 | | 9 " |48 0 22 |51 0 23 |54 0 25 |57 0 26 | | 10 " |50 2 11 |53 3 1 |56 3 19 | 60 0 9 | +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ i do not know who was really responsible for the interference with my calculation, but do not think that the long drop was dr. barr's own idea, as the drop which i suggested was on the same system as he had previously commended, and was almost identical with the drop that would have worked out on the basis of his own recommendation in a letter to the _times_ some years ago. dr. barr's letter to me, written in 1884, was as follows:- 1, st. domingo grove, everton, liverpool, _sept. 2nd, 1884_. sir, in compliance with your request i have pleasure in giving you a certificate as to the manner in which you conducted the execution of peter cassidy in h.m. prison, kirkdale. i may now report the statement which i gave in evidence at the inquest, "that i had never seen an execution more satisfactorily performed." this was very gratifying to me. your rope was of excellent quality; fine, soft, pliable, and strong. you adjusted the ring, directed forwards in the manner in which i have recommended in my pamphlet, "judicial hanging." you gave a sufficient length of drop, considering the weight of the culprit, and completely dislocated the cervical vertebræ between the atlas and axis (first and second vertebræ). i have reckoned that the weight of the criminal, multiplied by the length of the drop, might range from 1120 to 1260 foot pounds, and i have calculated that this _vis viva_ in the case of cassidy amounted to 1140 foot pounds. the pinioning and other details were carried out with due decorum, i hope, whoever be appointed to the post of public executioner, may be prohibited from also performing the part of a "showman" to gratify a depraved and morbid public curiosity. james barr, m.d., medical officer, h.m. prison, kirkdale. to mr. james berry. a few days after conway's execution i received a letter from a gentleman in the south of london, shortly followed by a second letter, and as they throw some useful light upon the subject i give them in full--omitting the writer's name, as he does not wish it to be published. _august 22nd, 1891._ _re_ the execution at kirkdale. sir, as the accident attending the execution on the 20th inst. at kirkdale may be falsely, and very unjustly, charged to your account, and at the same time be brought forward by a mass of misguided people as a reason for the total abolition of capital punishment, i think the following remarks on the subject of hanging may not be out of place. some years ago, dr. james barr, medical officer at kirkdale gaol, published a letter in the _times_ regarding what he considered the proper length of drop. he said that the length of drop ought to be such as to produce a momentum of 2600 lbs., meaning by "momentum," the convict's weight multiplied by the velocity of his descent at the end of the fall. now, in estimating the convict's weight, i conceive that you ought to leave out the weight (as far as you can guess it) of his head, because the weight of his head is supported by the noose when the jerk takes place, and, therefore, cannot affect the amount of pull, or strain, on the neck. from what dr. barr says regarding the 2600 lbs. momentum, it is easy, by a little mathematics, to deduce the following rule. to find length of drop in feet, divide the number 412 by the square of the convict's weight of body in stones. by the above rule i constructed the following table:- weight of body without head. length of drop. 15 stones 1 ft. 10 in. 14 " 2 " 2 " 13 " 2 " 6 " 12 " 2 " 11 " 11 " 3 " 5 " 10 " 4 " 2 " 9 " 5 " 1 " 8 " 6 " 6 " 7 " 8 " 5 " convict conway's weight, you are reported to have said, was 11 stones 2 lbs. leaving 1 stone for the weight of his head, which is perhaps more than sufficient, his hanging weight would be 10 stones 2 lbs, so that a drop of 4 feet and a few inches[b] would have been, according to the doctor's rule, quite enough for him. regarding the value of the rule, i am, of course, unable to speak; nor do i know, from what i remember of the doctor's letter, that he meant the 2600 lbs. momentum to apply in all cases. much depends on the convict's build, strength of neck, etc. yours truly, x. y. (second letter.) _august 25th, 1891._ _re_ the execution at kirkdale. sir, in constructing the table i sent you two days ago, i find that i have made an absurd mistake. it arose from my carelessly taking a stone weight as 16 lbs., instead of 14 lbs., which i beg you to allow me correct. instead of the number 412, i ought to have given the number 539. the corrected rule based on dr. barr's momentum of 2600 lbs. is, therefore, as follows:--length of drop, in feet, is found by dividing the number 539 by the square of the number of stones in weight of convict's body, exclusive of the weight of his head. thus, if a convict weighs 11 stones altogether, and we take his head as 1 stone, we have length of drop = 539/100 = 5·39 feet (5 ft. 5 in. nearly). the table, corrected, stands thus:- weight of body without head. length of drop. 15 stones 2 ft. 5 in. 14 " 2 " 9 " 13 " 3 " 2 " 12 " 3 " 9 " 11 " 4 " 6 " 10 " 5 " 5 " 9 " 6 " 8 " 8 " 8 " 3 " 7 " 11 " 0 " in allowing, in the case of convict conway, who weighed 11 stones 2 lbs., 1 stone for the head, i may be allowing too much; it is a mere guess. if his head weighed 9 lbs., the drop ought to have been 4 ft. 10 in. yours truly, x. y. p.s.--a mistake of 3 or 4 lbs. in estimating weight of head makes, you will see, a considerable error in calculating the drop. it will be seen that this calculation, which does not include the weight of the head in a man's hanging weight, works out the drop to a rather greater length than my own table, but the difference is only small, and i have always found my own table give quite sufficient drop. the rope. the apparatus for carrying out the extreme penalty of the law is very simple. the most important item is the rope, which must necessarily possess certain properties if the death of the condemned person is to be instantaneous and painless. for successful working the rope must, of course, be strong, and it must also be pliable in order to tighten freely. it should be as thin as possible, consistent with strength, in order that the noose may be free running, but of course, it must not be so thin as to be liable to outwardly rupture the blood vessels of the neck. before undertaking my first execution i gave careful consideration to the question of the most suitable class of rope, and after trying and examining many varieties, i decided upon one which i still use. it is made of the finest italian hemp, ¾ of an inch in thickness. before using a rope for an execution, i thoroughly test it with bags of cement of about the weight of the condemned person, and this preliminary testing stretches the cord and at the same time reduces its diameter to 5/8 of an inch. the rope consists of 5 strands, each of which has a breaking strain of one ton dead weight, so that it would seem unnecessary to test it from any fear of its proving too weak, but the stretching and hardening which it undergoes in the testing makes it far more "fit" and satisfactory for its work than a new, unused rope would be. it has been said that i use a rope with a wire strand down the centre, but the notion is so ridiculous that i should not refer to it if it were not that many people seem to believe it, and that more than once it has been stated in the newspapers. a rope with a wire strand would possess no possible advantage that i can see, and it would have so many practical disadvantages that i do not think anyone who had studied the matter would dream of using such a thing. at any rate i have not done so, and i know that neither mr. binns nor mr. marwood ever did. mr. marwood used ropes of about the same quality and thickness as my own, while mr. binns used a much thicker rope (about 1¼ inch diameter after use), of a rougher and less pliable class of hemp. until the commencement of 1890 i supplied my own ropes, some of which, however, were made to order of the government, and i was able to use the same rope again and again. one i used for no less than sixteen executions, and five others i have used for twelve executions each. these are now in the possession of madame tussaud. at the beginning of 1890 a new rule was made under which a new rope is ordered to be supplied and used for most of the executions in england, and to be burned, together with the clothes of the person executed (which were formerly a perquisite of the executioner) by the prison officials immediately after the execution. in scotland and ireland i still provide my own ropes. the rope i use is thirteen feet long and has a one-inch brass ring worked into one end, through which the other end of the rope is passed to form the noose. a leather washer which fits the rope pretty tightly, is used to slip up behind the brass ring, in order to prevent the noose slipping or slackening after it has been adjusted. in using the rope i always adjust it with the ring just behind the left ear. this position i never alter, though of course, if there were any special reason for doing so, for instance, if the convict had attempted suicide and were wounded on the side of the throat, death could be caused by placing the ring under the chin or even behind the head. the position behind the ear, however, has distinct advantages and is the best calculated to cause instantaneous and painless death, because it acts in three different ways towards the same end. in the first place, it will cause death by strangulation, which was really the only cause of death in the old method of hanging, before the long drop was introduced. secondly, it dislocates the vertebra, which is now the actual cause of death. and thirdly, if a third factor were necessary, it has a tendency to internally rupture the jugular vein, which in itself is sufficient to cause practically instantaneous death. pinioning straps, etc. the pinioning arrangement, like the rest of the arrangements for an execution, are very simple. a broad leathern body-belt is clasped round the convict's waist, and to this the arm-straps are fastened. two straps, an inch and a half wide, with strong steel buckles, clasp the elbows and fasten them to the body-belt, while another strap of the same strength goes round the wrists, and is fastened into the body-belt in front. the legs are pinioned by means of a single two-inch strap below the knees. the rest of the apparatus consists of a white cap, shaped somewhat like a bag, which pulls down over the eyes of the criminal to prevent his seeing the final preparations. [illustration: plan and elevation of the drop.] the scaffold. until recently, the scaffolds in use in the various gaols differed very much in the details of their construction, as there was no official model, but in each case the local authorities followed their own idea. in 1885, however, a design was drawn, in the surveyors' department of the home office, by lieut.-col. alten beamish, r.e. before being finally adopted, the design was submitted to me; and it seemed a thoroughly good one, as, indeed, it has since proved to be, in actual practice. the design is supplied to the authorities of any gaol where a scaffold is to be erected, from the engineers' department at the home office; and, with a slight alteration, has been the pattern in general use to the present day. the alteration of which i speak, is a little one suggested by myself, and consists of the substitution of a slope, or a level gangway, in place of the steps. i had found in some cases, when the criminals were nervous or prostrated, that the steps formed a practical difficulty. the slope, or gangway, was approved by the home office, and was first used on april 15th, 1890, at kirkdale gaol, for the execution of wm. chadwick. it was a simple improvement, but it has turned out to be a very useful one. at most of the gaols in the country the scaffold is taken to pieces and laid away immediately after use, but in newgate, wandsworth, liverpool, and strangeways (manchester), it is kept standing permanently. the essential parts of the scaffold are few. there is a heavy cross-beam, into which bolts terminating in hooks are usually fastened. in some cases this cross-beam stands on two upright posts, but usually its ends are let into the walls of the scaffold house. of course, the hooks fastened to it are intended to hold the rope. the scaffold proper, or trap, or drop, as it is variously called, is the portion of the structure to which most importance is attached, and of which the government furnishes a plan. it consists of two massive oaken doors, fixed in an oak frame-work on a level with the floor, and over a deep bricked pit. the plan and section will explain the arrangement. the two doors are marked a a and b b on the plan. the door a a is hung on three strong hinges, marked c c c, which are continued under the door b b. when the trap is set the ends of these long hinges rest on a draw-bar e e, as shown in the plan. the draw-bar is of iron, 1¼ in. square, sliding in strong iron staples, f f f, which fit it exactly. when the lever d is pulled over in the direction of the little arrow, it moves the draw-bar in the opposite direction, so that the ends of the long hinges drop through the openings h h h, and the two doors fall. to set the trap the door b b has to be raised into a perpendicular position, until the other door is raised and its hinges placed on the draw-bar. the arrangement is a very good one; as both doors must necessarily fall at exactly the same moment. their great weight--for they are of three inch oak--causes them to drop very suddenly, even without the weight of the criminal, and they are caught by spring catches to prevent any possibility of rebound. [illustration: newgate.] chapter v. my method of execution. the proceedings. the hour fixed for executions is 8-0 a.m. in all the prisons, except wandsworth and lincoln, where it is 9-0 a.m. of course, the scaffold and rope are arranged, and the drop decided, beforehand. i calculate for three minutes to be occupied from the time of entering the condemned cell to the finish of life's great tragedy for the doomed man, so i enter the cell punctually at three minutes to eight. in order that my action in hanging a man may be legal, it is necessary that i should have what is known as an "authority to hang," which is drawn up and signed by the sheriff, and handed to me a few minutes before the time for the execution. its form varies a good deal. in some cases it is a long, wordy document, full of the "wherefores" and "whatsoevers" in which the law delights. but usually it is a simple, official-looking form, engrossed by the gaol clerk, and running somewhat as follows:- _to james berry._ _i, ----, of ----, in the county of ----, esquire, sheriff of the said county of ----, do hereby authorise you to hang a---b----, who now lies under sentence of death in her majesty's prison at ----._ _dated this ---day of ----, ----._ _-------, sheriff._ this is folded in three, and endorsed outside. _re a---b----._ _authority to hang._ _-------, sheriff,_ _----shire._ when we enter the condemned cell, the chaplain is already there, and has been for some time. two attendants, who have watched through the convict's last nights on earth are also present. at my appearance the convict takes leave of his attendants, to whom he generally gives some little token or keepsake, and i at once proceed to pinion his arms. as soon as the pinioning is done, a procession is formed, generally in the following order:- chief warder. warder. warder. warder. { chaplain. } warder. { convict. } executioner. principal warder. principal warder. warder. warder. governor and sheriff. wand bearer. wand bearer. gaol surgeon and attendant. in some few cases, where the prisoner has not confessed before the time for the execution, i have approached him in the cell in a kindly manner, asking him, as it can make no difference to his fate, to confess the justice of the sentence, in order that i may feel sure that i am not hanging an innocent person. in most cases they have done so, either in the cell, or at the last moment on the scaffold. of course, the confidences reposed in me at such moments i have never divulged, and it would be most improper to do so; but i am at liberty to state, that of all the people i have executed, only two or three have died without fully and freely confessing their guilt. on the way from the cell to the scaffold the chaplain reads the service for the burial of the dead, and as the procession moves i place the white cap upon the head of the convict. just as we reach the scaffold i pull the cap over his eyes. then i place the convict under the beam, pinion the legs just below the knees, with a strap similar to the one used for the elbows, adjust the rope, pull the bolt and the trap falls. death is instantaneous, but the body is left hanging for an hour, and is then lowered into a coffin, made in the prison, and carried to the mortuary to await the inquest. the inquest usually takes place at ten o'clock, but in some few places it is held at noon. after the inquest the body is surrounded by quick-lime and buried in the prison grounds. in the carrying out of the last penalty of the law, everything is conducted with decorum and solemnity, and so far as i can see there is no way in which the arrangements at an execution can be improved, unless it is in regard to the admission of reporters. in years gone by a large number of reporters were often admitted, some of them with probably little or no real connection with the papers they professed to represent. occasionally also there would be one or two feather-brained juniors who seemed to have no proper idea of the solemnity of a death scene, and whose conduct was hardly such as serious persons could approve. the result has been that in many prisons the admission of press representatives has been very rigidly curtailed, and in some cases admission has been absolutely refused. it seems to me that the admittance of a large number of spectators, and the absolute refusal to admit any, are alike mistakes. i speak in this matter as a man whose own work comes under the criticism of the press, and although so far as i am personally concerned, i am perfectly satisfied if i can satisfy the governor or high sheriff, i know that there is a large section of the public that thinks the exclusion of the reporters must mean that there is something going on which there is a desire to hush up. i am a servant of the public, as also are the sheriffs, the governor, and the other officials connected with an execution, and the public, through its representatives on the press, ought to have some assurance that the details of each execution are carried out decently and in order. the presence or absence of the press, of course, makes no difference in the conduct of the execution, but it makes a good deal of difference to a certain section of the public. if the governor of the gaol or the sheriff were to give three admissions for each execution, with the understanding that any representative suspected of not being _bona fide_ would be refused admission even if he presented his ticket, i think that every real objection would be met. after the execution is over the fact that the sentence of the law has been carried out is announced to the public by a notice fixed to the door of the prison. the form of this notice varies somewhat, but i append one of which i happen to have a copy. county of oxford. execution of charles smith for murder. (the capital punishment amendment act, 1868.) copies are subjoined of the official declaration that judgement of death has been executed; and of the surgeon's certificate of the death of charles smith. thomas m. davenport, under-sheriff of the county of oxford. 9th may, 1887. official declaration. we, the undersigned, do hereby declare that judgement of death was this day, in our presence, executed on charles smith, within the walls of her majesty's prison at oxford. dated this ninth day of may, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven. thomas m. davenport, under-sheriff of oxfordshire. h. b. isaacson, governor of the prison. j. k. newton, chaplain of the prison. j. riordon, chief warder of the prison. henry ives, sheriff's officer. thos. wm. austin, reporter, _oxford journal_. robert brazies, reporter, _oxford chronicle_. joseph henry warner, reporter, _oxford times_. j. lansbury, warder. surgical certificate. i, henry banks spencer, the surgeon of her majesty's prison at oxford, hereby certify that i this day examined the body of charles smith, on whom judgement of death was this day executed in the said prison; and that, on such examination, i found that the said charles smith was dead. dated this ninth day of may, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven. henry b. spencer, surgeon of the prison. chapter vi. other methods of execution. from time to time people raise an outcry against the english mode of putting criminals to death, and there are many englishmen who have a firm conviction that hanging is the very worst and most unscientific form of capital punishment. the prejudices of these people seem to be based on an utterly wrong idea of how an english execution is conducted, and i hope that the chapter dealing with my method will form the basis for a truer judgment. [illustration: english axe and block, now in the tower of london.] of methods of execution that have been suggested as substitutes for hanging, there are some which hardly deserve consideration, because there is no considerable number of people who would approve of them. the various methods of beheading are hardly likely to be ever in favour with englishmen generally, for they want executions to be as free as possible from revolting details. the old headsman's axe and block which are still to be seen in the tower, are in themselves sufficient argument against a revival of their use. apart from the fact that beheading under the best conditions is revolting, we must further consider that from the very nature of the office, the executioner who has to hack off his victim's head must be a brutal and degraded man, and the chances are that he will not be so skilful or so careful as he ought to be for the performance of such a task. even amongst races which are not so highly civilised as the english, and where it is easier to obtain headsmen of proportionately better standing, we occasionally hear of more than one blow being required to cause death, and such a state of things is very horrible. in china decapitation has been reduced to almost a science, and the chinese executioners are probably the most skilful headsmen in the world. i have in my possession a chinese executioner's knife, with which the heads of nine pirates were severed in nine successive blows, and a terrible knife it is, and well fitted for the purpose. yet even with such a weapon, and with the skill and experience which chinese executioners attain from frequent practice, the blow sometimes fails, as was the case in one of the last batch of chinese executions reported in the english newspapers. [illustration: executioner's sword, canton.] even the guillotine, which is often spoken of as the only perfect and certain method, has been known to fail, and we have cases in which the knife has been raised and dropped a second time before causing death. in any case, whether the guillotine, the axe, or the chinese knife is used, and whatever care may be taken to render the death painless and instantaneous, there is a horrible mutilation of the sufferer that must be revolting to all sensitive people. [illustration: the guillotine.] the spanish and spanish-american method of execution, by means of the garotte, has been much praised by some advocates of reform. the prisoner to be garotted is placed in a chair, to the back of which an iron collar is attached in such a manner that it can be drawn partly through the chair-back by means of a heavily weighted lever. when the lever and weight are raised the head can be passed through the collar, and by dropping the weight the collar is drawn tight and causes strangulation. this method is certain, but i do not consider it so good as the present english system of hanging, because death by strangulation is much slower and more painful than death by dislocation. in one form of the garotting chair this fact has been recognised, and an iron spike is placed immediately behind the neck, so that when the pressure is applied the spike enters between two of the vertebræ and severs the spinal cord. this i consider worse than our own system, because the iron spike must cause a certain amount of bleeding, which the english method avoids. [illustration: the garotte.] the american system of hanging, which has been recently superseded by electrocution, was but a slight modification of the ancient system of jack ketch, or the time-honoured method of judge lynch. in these older systems the convict stood upon the ground while the rope was placed round his neck, and the other end passed over the arm of the gallows, or the limb of a tree. then the executioner and his assistants hauled on the other end of the rope, until the victim was swung clear off the ground and was gradually strangled. in the improved american method the place of the executioner was taken by a heavy weight which was attached to the rope and which rapidly ran up the convict to a height of some feet. in some few very extreme cases of heavy bodies with frail necks this may have caused dislocation, but as a rule strangulation would be the cause of death. [illustration: old methods.] when the use of electricity for executions began to be talked of as a practical possibility, i naturally took much interest in the subject. as the result of all the enquiries i was enabled to make, i concluded that although electrocution--as the americans call it--is theoretically perfect, it presents many practical difficulties. the experience of the authorities in the case of the wretched man, kremmler, who was executed by electricity in new york, fully proves that as yet we do not know enough about the conditions under which electricity will cause painless and sudden death. when particulars of the method that was to be adopted for executions in new york were first published, i was with a small committee of gentlemen in manchester who were investigating the subject. they made all arrangements for experiments to test the reliability of the method. two animals were obtained that had to be killed in any case, namely, a calf and an old dog of a large breed. in the case of the calf the connections were made in the manner prescribed, and the current was turned on. this was repeated twice, but the only result was to cause the calf to drop on its knees and bellow with fear and pain, and the butcher at once killed it in the ordinary way with his poleaxe. when the shock was applied to the dog he fell down and seemed to be paralysed, but it was some time before life was extinct. the latest reports of american executions say that the deaths were instantaneous and painless, but the value of such statements is lessened by the fact of reporters being excluded. the total exclusion of the press at any rate seemed like an admission of the authorities that they had no confidence in the certainty of the method they were using. altogether, after a careful consideration of all the principal modes of execution, i am convinced that our english method as at present in use is the best yet known, because it is absolutely certain, instantaneous and painless. it may be interesting to close this chapter with a list of the principal methods of execution in use in foreign countries. austria hanging, public. bavaria guillotine, private. belgium guillotine, public. brunswick axe, private. china sword or bow-string, public. denmark guillotine, public. france guillotine, nominally public; but really so surrounded by cordons of gens d'armes, &c., as to be virtually private. germany sword or hanging, private. hanover guillotine, private. italy no capital punishment. netherlands hanging, public. portugal hanging, public. prussia sword, private. russia rifle shot, hanging or sword, public; but capital punishment is practically abolished except for political offences. spain garotte, public. switzerland fifteen cantons, sword, public. two cantons, guillotine, public. two cantons, guillotine, private. united states new york state, electric shock, private. other states, hanging, private. [illustration: wandsworth gaol (after an execution).] chapter vii. two terrible experiences. the whole of the duties of an executioner are unpleasant, but there are exceptional incidents occurring at times, which stand out upon the tablet of one's memory, and which can not be recalled without an involuntary shudder. i have had two of these experiences, and as people should always learn by their failures, have turned them to practical account as lessons for the future. the first was the attempted execution of john lee, which resulted in the home office making an investigation into the arrangements for executions in the different gaols, and eventually to their issuing an official plan for the drop, which has been used in all prisons where scaffolds have since been erected. the second of these experiences was at the execution of robert goodale, when the length of the drop caused the head to be severed from the body. this taught me that the long-drop system then in use, and introduced by mr. marwood, was faulty in some cases, and caused me to work out my present table of lengths of drop, as explained in the chapter on "my method of execution." there are so many erroneous ideas afloat about the details of these two cases that i think a good purpose may be served by giving the actual particulars, especially as no true explanation has ever been published of the difficulty which occurred in the case of lee. lee was found guilty of the murder of miss keyse, in whose house at babbacombe he was employed as a servant. eight o'clock on monday, february 23rd, 1885, was the time fixed for his execution. the scaffold and its arrangements had not been used for a previous execution, in their then position, though the drop had been used once, for the execution of mrs. took, but it was then fixed in another place. on the saturday i examined this drop, and reported that it was much too frail for its purpose, but i worked the lever and found that the doors dropped all right. on the monday morning, at the appointed time, i brought out the prisoner in the usual way, pinioned him and adjusted the noose. he was perfectly calm, almost indifferent. when the noose was adjusted i stood back and pulled over the lever. the noise of the bolts sliding could be plainly heard, but the doors did not fall. i stamped on the drop, to shake it loose, and so did some of the warders, but none of our efforts could stir it. lee stood like a statue, making no sound or sign. as soon as we found our efforts useless we led the condemned man away. we tried the doors, which fell easily; then lee was placed in position again, and again the doors refused to fall. then the prisoner was taken away, and eventually his sentence was commuted. perhaps it would be well to state here that the report to the effect that lee has been since executed, and another report to the effect that he has been liberated, are both equally false; for he is still in prison. various reasons were given to account for the failure of the workings, but it was most generally believed that it was caused by the doors being swollen with the rain which fell on the sunday night. that this was not the cause is proved, firstly, by the fact that the doors fell all right when the weight of the prisoner was not on them, and secondly, by the fact that they would not fall with the prisoner on them, even when we had chopped and planed down the sides where it was supposed that they stuck. the governor of the gaol, and the under-sheriff, who were present, were terribly upset about the failure of the attempted execution, and the prolonged and terrible suspense in which the prisoner was kept. they were almost frantic about it, but nothing could be done in the matter. the under-sheriff asked me to write out a brief statement of the facts, together with my opinion of the cause of the difficulty, and i give a copy of my letter below. executioner's office, 1, bilton place, city road, bradford, yorks., _4th march, 1885._ _re_ john lee. sir, in accordance with the request contained in your letter of the 30th inst., i beg to say that on the morning of friday, the 20th ult., i travelled from bradford to bristol, and on the morning of saturday, the 21st, from bristol to exeter, arriving at exeter at 11-50 a.m., when i walked direct to the county gaol, signed my name in your gaol register book at 12 o'clock exactly. i was shown to the governor's office, and arranged with him that i would go and dine and return to the gaol at 2-0. p.m. i accordingly left the gaol, partook of dinner, and returned at 1-50 p.m., when i was shown to the bedroom allotted to me which was an officer's room in the new hospital ward. shortly afterwards i made an inspection of the place of execution. the execution was to take place in a coach-house in which the prison van was usually kept. two warders accompanied me on the inspection. in the coach-house i found a beam about four inches thick, and about a foot in depth, was placed across the top of the coach-house. through this beam an iron bolt was fastened with an iron nut on the upper side, and to this bolt a wrought-iron rod was fixed, about three-quarters of a yard long with a hole at the lower end to which the rope was to be attached. two trap-doors were placed in the floor of the coach-house, which is flagged with stone, and these doors cover a pit about 2 yards by 1½ yards across, and about 11 feet deep. on inspecting these doors i found they were only about an inch thick, but to have been constructed properly should have been three or four inches thick. the ironwork of the doors was of a frail kind, and much too weak for the purpose. there was a lever to these doors, and it was placed near the top of them. i pulled the lever and the doors dropped, the catches acting all right. i had the doors raised, and tried the lever a second time, when the catch again acted all right. the governor was watching me through the window of his office and saw me try the doors. after the examination i went to him, explained how i found the doors, and suggested to him that for future executions new trap-doors should be made about three times as thick as those then fixed. i also suggested that a spring should be fixed in the wall to hold the doors back when they fell, so that no rebounding occurred, and that the ironwork of the doors should be stronger. the governor said he would see to these matters in future. i spent all the sunday in the room allotted to me, and did not go outside the gaol. i retired to bed about 9-45 that night. the execution was fixed to take place at eight o'clock on the morning of monday the 23rd ultimo. on the monday morning i arose at 6-30, and was conducted from the bedroom by a warder, at 7-30, to the place of execution. everything appeared to be as i had left it on the saturday afternoon. i fixed the rope in my ordinary manner, and placed everything in readiness. i did not try the trap-doors as they appeared to be just as i had left them. it had rained heavily during the nights of saturday and sunday. about four minutes to eight o'clock i was conducted by the governor to the condemned cell and introduced to john lee. i proceeded at once to pinion him, which was done in the usual manner, and then gave a signal to the governor that i was ready. the procession was formed, headed by the governor, the chief warder, and the chaplain followed by lee. i walked behind lee and 6 or 8 warders came after me. on reaching the place of execution i found you were there with the prison surgeon. lee was at once placed upon the trap-doors. i pinioned his legs, pulled down the white cap, adjusted the rope, stepped on one side, and drew the lever--but the trap-door did not fall. i had previously stood upon the doors and thought they would fall quite easily. i unloosed the strap from his legs, took the rope from his neck, removed the white cap, and took lee away into an adjoining room until i made an examination of the doors. i worked the lever after lee had been taken off, drew it, and the doors fell easily. with the assistance of the warders the doors were pulled up, and the lever drawn a second time, when the doors again fell easily. lee was then brought from the adjoining room, placed in position, the cap and rope adjusted, but when i again pulled the lever it did not act, and in trying to force it the lever was slightly strained. lee was then taken off a second time and conducted to the adjoining room. it was suggested to me that the woodwork fitted too tightly in the centre of the doors, and one of the warders fetched an axe and another a plane. i again tried the lever but it did not act. a piece of wood was then sawn off one of the doors close to where the iron catches were, and by the aid of an iron crowbar the catches were knocked off, and the doors fell down. you then gave orders that the execution should not be proceeded with until you had communicated with the home secretary, and lee was taken back to the condemned cell. i am of opinion that the ironwork catches of the trap-doors were not strong enough for the purpose, that the woodwork of the doors should have been about three or four times as heavy, and with iron-work to correspond, so that when a man of lee's weight was placed upon the doors the iron catches would not have become locked, as i feel sure they did on this occasion, but would respond readily. so far as i am concerned, everything was performed in a careful manner, and had the iron and woodwork been sufficiently strong, the execution would have been satisfactorily accomplished. i am, sir, your obedient servant, james berry. henry m. james, esq., under-sheriff of devon, the close, exeter. the other miserable experience which lingers in my memory was, as before stated, the execution of robert goodale. he was condemned to death for the murder of his wife, and on november 30th, 1885, i was at norwich castle to conduct the execution. at that time i was working with my original table of lengths of drop, which i had based upon mr. marwood's system. this table, and some particulars of goodale's case, or rather, of the new calculations which i made in consequence of the lesson then learned, will be found in the chapter on "my method of execution." he weighed fifteen stones, and the calculated drop for a man of that weight, according to the old table, was 7 ft. 8 in. as goodale did not seem very muscular, i reduced the drop by about two feet--in fact, as closely as i could measure it, to 5 ft. 9 in. the rope that i used was one made and supplied by the government, and i had used it seven days previously for the execution of john williams, at hereford. the drop was built on a plan supplied by the government, and had been used before. in fact, everything was in perfect working order. the governor of the gaol had been specially anxious that everything should be right, and had taken all possible precautions to avoid a hitch. he had personally tested the drop on the thursday morning before, and on the saturday had again tested it, in company with an engineer. the whole of the arrangements were carried out in the usual manner, and when i pulled the lever the drop fell properly, and the prisoner dropped out of sight. we were horrified, however, to see that the rope jerked upwards, and for an instant i thought that the noose had slipped from the culprit's head, or that the rope had broken. but it was worse than that, for the jerk had severed the head entirely from the body, and both had fallen together to the bottom of the pit. of course, death was instantaneous, so that the poor fellow had not suffered in any way; but it was terrible to think that such a revolting thing should have occurred. we were all unnerved and shocked. the governor, whose efforts to prevent any accident had kept his nerves at full strain, fairly broke down and wept. the inquest was a trying ordeal for all concerned, and it was a great comfort to me to find that the governor and the gaol surgeon both gave evidence as to the care with which every detail had been carried out. in the evidence i mentioned that i had hanged one heavier man previously, namely, joseph lawson, who weighed 16 stones 8 lbs., and to whom i gave a drop of 8 feet. in his case there was not even abrasion of the skin of the neck. when i finished my evidence the coroner said:--"i am bound to say, before you leave the room, that as far as the evidence has gone there seems to be nothing to throw any blame upon you, either from want of skill or being in an improper condition." after this the evidence of the gaol surgeon was taken, and the jury returned a verdict to the effect that "robert goodale came to his death by hanging, according to the judgment of the law; and that no one was to blame for what had occurred." * * * * * in the foregoing i have spoken of _two_ terrible experiences, and some of my readers, with the execution of conway, at kirkdale, fresh in their memories, will ask why it is not mentioned. the fact is, the foregoing was written before conway's execution took place, and as the mishap which occurred on that occasion was in no way due to my own ignorance or carelessness, but was exactly what i expected would happen in consequence of my arrangements being interfered with by others, the shock that i received was by no means so great as on the two other occasions. particulars of this execution will be found in the section headed, "the drop," of the chapter on "my method of execution." chapter viii. how murderers die. as one of my objects in writing this book is to give the public a solid basis for the formation of a sound public opinion upon the subject of capital punishment, it is necessary that the present chapter should be a long one, and that many of its details should be painful--because they are true. if i glossed over the facts i should signally fail in my duty to my readers, but i have endeavoured, so far as possible, to avoid revolting details. to the ordinary englishman a murderer is a murderer and nothing else. he is a vile creature who has taken life, and who by law, divine and national, must die because of his deed. he is a creature different from the rest of humanity, a fiend, a monster, who has outraged justice, and must die like a dog. to me, a murderer is a study. he is a man who has done an ill deed, who may or may not be naturally vicious; who may or may not be really responsible for his actions; who may or may not be devoutly penitent. my own ideas on capital punishment are given in another chapter. i believe, honestly, and from long study of the subject, with unique opportunities of judging, that with a certain low class of the human brute, the fear of death is the only check that can in any way curb their lusts and passions. but i have sometimes thought that amongst those whom i have executed, for crimes which they have undoubtedly committed, there were men to whom their crime was a trouble more terrible than death; men who had not premeditated murder, who had taken no pleasure in it and expected no profit from it, and who, if they could by any means have been set at liberty, had within them the making of model citizens. logically, and as a matter of conviction, i feel that if one sheddeth man's blood, by man should his blood be shed; but as a matter of sentiment, i sometimes feel sorry that certain murderers can not go free. the power of reprieve is, of course, often exercised, and very rightly so, and yet it sometimes seems as if murderers who have been wilful, deliberate and thoroughly vicious in their acts and characters are reprieved because they possess interesting personalities or influential friends, while others are executed who have a better plea for mercy, but no one to present it. the whole subject is a very difficult one; i must lay the facts before my readers and let them draw their own conclusions. but i may say that the executions which have given me the most trouble have not been those in which the convicts were violent or hysterical, not those in which they struggled and fought and cursed, or doggedly and stubbornly resisted; but the few cases in which they have been devoutly penitent, and almost seemed to welcome death as a release from a burden too heavy to be borne and an expiation for the sin which they deplored. in such cases the executioner's task is, indeed, a painful one. the conduct of the condemned in the cell and on the scaffold throws much light upon the various phases of human character, and to me it has always been an interesting study. _robert f. vickers and william innes._ the first two men whom i executed, though strong chums and partners in crime, were totally different from each other in their conduct. they both showed deep emotion, although they belonged to a low type of humanity, and they both attentively listened to the chaplain as often as he was willing to visit them, and to such outside ministers as took any interest in their fate, but i believe they did this with the view of making the best of a bad job--if any "best" were possible--rather than from any deep conviction of the sinfulness of their offence. beyond this, their demeanour was totally different. vickers was buoyed up with hope throughout, and continually asked if "the reprieve" had come. even when i was introduced to him on the morning of the execution he had not despaired, and his hope rendered him almost cheerful. even when we were on the scaffold he was convinced that he was not to die, and seemed to listen as people on the scaffold did in olden times, for the horseman wildly dashing across the court-yard and crying, "reprieve! reprieve!" at the very last moment. it was not until the noose touched his neck that he realised that his execution was to be an actual solemn fact, and when the dread reality burst upon him, he fainted. his companion in crime and death stood unmoved upon the scaffold, resigned and calm, without either hope or fear. the white cap was over his face when vickers fainted, and no sound from the bystanders gave him any hint that vickers was overcome. the fainting man was supported for a moment, then a touch on the lever, and it was necessary to support him no longer. the gorebridge murder, for which these men were executed, caused a great sensation at the time. [illustration: mary lefley.] _mary lefley._ my next execution, in which the condemned person was a woman, was a very different experience. mary lefley, the culprit, was before her marriage a companion of priscilla biggadike, who was executed at lincoln for poisoning her husband. mary lefley committed the same crime, poisoning her husband by inserting arsenic in a rice pudding. after the sentence of death, even up to the time of the execution, she expected a reprieve, and to the last she protested her innocence; though on the night before she was very restless and constantly exclaimed, "lord! thou knowest all," and prayed fervently. she would have no breakfast, and when i approached her she was in a nervous, agitated state, praying to god for salvation, not as a murderess but as an innocent woman. on my approach she threw up her hands and shrieked, "murder! murder!" and she had to be led to the scaffold by two female warders, shrieking wildly all the time. she died as she had lived, impenitent and untruthful, denying her guilt to the last. _joseph lawson_, the principal actor in the butterknowle tragedy, when sergeant smith was murdered, was a terrible combination of craven fear and reckless bravado. during the last few days of his life he was dull and despondent, and during the night before his execution his sleep was frequently broken by fits of terror and nervous exhaustion, when he shivered like one in an ague. on the morning of the last day he arose at six o'clock, and tried to appear cheerful or even jovial. in the pinioning-room he saluted the warders with a cheerful "good morning," and on his way to the scaffold laughed hilariously at a stumble of his own. then he commenced using foul, blasphemous language, and not ceasing even when the white cap was drawn over his face. his oaths drowned the voice of the chaplain who was reading the usual burial service, and with awful words on his lips he was launched into a dark eternity. _peter cassidy._ my very next case was a strong contrast to the foregoing. the condemned man was peter cassidy; his offence, wife-murder. it was one of those cases in which it is difficult to know whether the man should be most pitied or blamed, whether he was not more sinned against than sinning. that he committed the murder, in a fit of drunken frenzy, was undoubted--he did not deny it; but that he had received great and frequent provocation is certain. both he and his wife were addicted to drink--which was most to blame for it i do not know--but on the day of the murder his wife was away from home for some time without his consent or knowledge of her whereabouts. when she returned she was drunk, so was he, and in the quarrel that ensued he slew her. but when he was sober again, his remorse was as deep as his drunken passion had been violent. he realised the gravity of his offence and the justice of his death sentence. to the ministrations of the rev. father bonté, the roman catholic chaplain, he paid great attention, and on his last day on earth he seemed peaceful and resigned. he walked to the scaffold with a free, firm stride. the morning was dark and gloomy, but just as we passed across the prison yard a thin bright gleam of sunlight pierced the leaden clouds and rested for a moment upon the little procession. in that moment of sunshine cassidy breathed convulsively, but the sky clouded over almost instantly and he regained his composure. on the scaffold he entered into the roman catholic service, which father bonté was reading, repeating the responses firmly and fervently, in fact, he was so engrossed in the service that i do not think he knew that i pinioned his legs. he continued his prayers as i adjusted the white cap over his eyes, but when the rope touched his neck he blushed crimson to the very roots of his hair, and his lips twitched. intense shame and sorrow were never more plainly expressed by any man. a very large proportion of murders are directly traceable to drink, and in almost every case where a murderer has said anything about the motive for his crime he has blamed the drinking habit. [illustration: moses shrimpton.] _moses shrimpton_. as a rule, it is the first offender--there are many murderers whose great crime is their first offence--who is most affected by the terrible nature of his position when condemned to death. the old and practised criminal, though he has a great dread of the scaffold and the rope so long as he is at large, and though he usually takes more interest in his trial and uses greater efforts for his acquittal than the novice in crime, is usually resigned and indifferent as soon as the sentence is passed. as a rule, he pays but little heed to the ministrations of the chaplain, or the condolences of his friends. he is neither piously inclined, nor hysterically fearful, nor abusively rebellious--he simply waits his fate. a kind of hard stoicism seems to keep him quiet; he has played a desperate game with his eyes open, has played for high stakes--and lost. i say that this is generally the case with the gaol-bird; and yet there are exceptions, and amongst such exceptions in my own experience, moses shrimpton was notable. his life, almost from the cradle to the grave, was one long career of crime and punishment. he was a man of strong character and much determination of purpose, a leader amongst the ruffians of his district. he was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for poaching in february, 1848, and from that time until his execution in may, 1885, he was seldom out of prison for many months together. he gloried in his success as a poacher, and told the tales of his desperate adventures in a most interesting manner to the warders in worcester gaol, where he was a well-known and frequent inmate. he was sentenced to death for the violent and brutal murder of a policeman, who arrested him red-handed when fowl-stealing. he expressed no surprise or sentiment of any kind when he found that he was condemned to death, but to the astonishment of all who knew him, he appeared to be entirely changed in character by the thought of death. those who administered spiritual consolation to him during his last three weeks of life were persuaded that his repentance and amendment were real, and certainly his actions appeared like those of a man who was really convinced. he paid great attention to the chaplain who visited him, and he read the bible hour after hour. certain passages that puzzled him he carefully noted down, and asked for an explanation at the chaplain's next visit. when the time for his execution came he was confident, almost defiant, and walked to the scaffold erect and firm. as he stepped on to the drop he glanced downwards and drew his feet together to assist me in fixing the strap that pinioned his legs. before i pulled down the white cap he looked around as if to see the last of the world, and then, nodding to signify that he was ready, awaited the adjusting of the noose. _rudge, martin and baker._ some more ordinary examples of the deaths of hardened criminals were presented in the cases of rudge, martin and baker. it will be remembered that these men committed a jewel robbery at netherby, in cumberland, and afterwards murdered police-constable byrnes and made a murderous attack on other policemen, while endeavouring to escape arrest. these men, when once their sentence was passed, had no further interest in life; and i believe that if the choice could have been offered to them they would have preferred to walk straight from the dock to the scaffold, rather than to have had the three weeks' grace which is given to condemned men. in the case of almost all habitual criminals i believe this is so--they do not fear death and they do not repent of their crime. so long as there is a ghost of a chance of acquittal or reprieve, they cling to life, but as soon as the death sentence is passed they become indifferent, and would like to "get it over" as soon as possible, mainly because the prison life bores them. of the three men i have instanced, rudge was the only one who seemed to care to take any interest in life. he spent a good deal of his time in writing a statement of his views upon the present system of penal servitude, for the information of the home office. as he had undergone two long sentences he knew his subject thoroughly from the inside. with his attendants he talked freely, both about himself and about other matters of interest. he insisted that there was something wrong with his head, which had caused him trouble several times in his life. he did not ask for any reprieve on this account, but he begged the prison chaplain to examine his brain after death, and repeated the request almost the last thing before the time for the execution. martin and baker spent most of the three weeks in bed. they would neither talk nor do anything else. rudge and martin were baptised roman catholics, whilst baker had received some protestant education, but none of them seemed to care for the ministrations of the priest or the gaol chaplain. to them it seemed cowardly and unreasonable to ask god for mercy simply because they were condemned to death, when they knew very well that they would have been living in defiance of god and man if they had remained free. after some time they yielded to the counsel and entreaties of their spiritual advisers so far as to listen to all they had to say. baker appeared to attend carefully to the chaplain's ministration, and partook of holy communion an hour before the execution. baker was troubled about the welfare of his sweetheart, nellie, and spent part of the night before his execution in writing a long letter to her. in this letter he assured her of his love and constancy, and begged her to keep in the path of right. all the three men walked firmly to the scaffold, where they shook hands all round, saying, "good-bye, old pal, good-bye"--nothing more. the drop was already chalked with their names--martin in the centre, with rudge on the right and baker on the left. the men stepped at once to their places and gave all the assistance they could in the final pinioning and in the adjustment of the nooses. just before the drop fell baker cried, "keep straight, nellie!" and then the three men died together, without a word of fear or even a quiver or a pallid cheek amongst them. the youth and manly bearing of baker, and the strong affection of which he was capable, as shown by the way in which his nellie was always uppermost in his thoughts, affected me very much. his execution was one of the saddest of my many experiences. [illustration: mrs. britland.] _mary ann britland._ i have said that the people who are most cruel and callous in their murderous deeds are often most cowardly after conviction. the class of cruel and callous murderers is quite distinct from that of the violent murderers, like rudge, martin and baker. these men, fighting against the law, fight fairly according to their lights. they take risks and meet the consequences in a straightforward manner. but the cruel and callous class show a cowardice and selfishness of which rudge, martin, and baker were incapable. an instance of this occurs to me in the case of mary ann britland, whom i executed at strangeways gaol, manchester. she was an example of the class of persons to whom the three weeks' respite before death is the greatest possible cruelty. she was condemned for the murder of a woman who had befriended her, and in whose house she was living as a guest at the time of the murder. she was also proved to have murdered her own husband and daughter by the same means, namely, poison. it seems hard to conceive of any adequate motive for such a series of crimes, extending over a considerable time, but a theory was advanced, and supported by her confession, to the effect that she desired to marry the husband of her latest victim. to accomplish this object she first killed her daughter (for what exact reason is not clear, unless she feared that the girl had some suspicion of her design upon the others), then her husband, and finally her friend, who had pitied her lonely and widowed circumstances, and given her food and shelter. the husband of the third victim was tried, with a view to bringing him in as an accomplice, but the investigation showed that he had never shown any friendliness for mrs. britland, and that it was clearly impossible that he could have had any connection with the murders. at her trial she was completely unnerved, not by remorse, but by fear. when the verdict was announced, and she was asked if she had anything to say why sentence should not be passed, she burst into tears. during the passing of the sentence she incessantly interrupted the judge with cries for mercy, but finding such appeals of no avail, she screamed to heaven in tones of the greatest agony. even after she had been removed to the cells, her screams could be heard for a long time by people outside. during the time that elapsed before her execution she was partly buoyed up by the hope of a reprieve, and protested her innocence almost to the very last. in spite of her hope, she could not shut out the terrible fear that the reprieve might not come, and the dread of death was so heavy upon her as to reduce her in three weeks to a haggard wreck of her former self. she prayed long and apparently earnestly for god's help, but did not acknowledge her guilt until almost the last moment, when she saw that there was no hope of reprieve. when the morning of the execution came, she was so weakened as to be utterly unable to support herself, and she had to be practically carried to the scaffold by two female warders. for an hour before the time of the execution she had been moaning and crying most dismally, and when i entered her cell she commenced to shriek and call aloud. all the way to the scaffold her cries were heart-rending, though her voice was weak through suffering, and as the white cap was placed over her head she uttered cries which one of the reporters described as "such as one might expect at the actual separation of body and spirit through mortal terror." the female warders held her on the drop until the noose was fixed, then their places were taken by two male warders who stepped quickly back at a signal which i gave them, and before she had time to sway sideways or to collapse the drop fell and the wretched woman was dead. [illustration: james murphy.] _james murphy._ some condemned persons are unconsciously humorous, whilst others that i have met with have shown an unconcerned and designedly humorous disposition, which is surprising when one considers the grave nature of my business with them. james murphy, whom i executed at york, in november of 1886, for the murder of police-constable austwick, of barnsley, seemed to look upon his sentence and death rather as a joke than otherwise, and perhaps partly as a matter of pride. he never seemed to think that it was a very serious matter, and the principal reference that he made to the subject was a frequent assurance to his attendants that he would die firmly and show no fear on the scaffold. i was introduced to him by the governor of york castle the day before the execution, while he was at dinner. he was told that "a gentleman from bradford" had come to see him, but he feigned not to understand my identity, and muttered, "bradford! bradford!--i have no friends at bradford." then it was explained that the gentleman in question was his executioner, and he smilingly replied, "oh! of course!" but continued picking the mutton bone on which he had been engaged when we entered. in the last letter that he wrote, speaking of this incident, he said:--"i am in good spirits the governor brought your letter to me at dinner time and the hangs man with him. i shaked hands with the hangs man and he ast me to forgive him and i did so. _but i eat my dinner none the worse for that._" the same statement might also apply to his supper, and his breakfast next morning, for during the whole of his imprisonment his good humour and resolution never deserted him for a moment. he was perfectly contented with the arrangements made for him by the prison authorities; but the roman catholic priests in attendance could get no satisfaction out of him whatever. he parted from his brother, wife, and daughter without any sign of emotion, in the light-hearted manner of a working man who was starting for his day's labour. he did justice to his last meal, and when it was finished asked for a "pipe of bacca," the only request that he made with which the governor was unable to comply. he seemed to take a great interest in the pinioning process, and helped me as well as he could. his request was that i would execute him quickly and painlessly, and this favour i was able to grant. _edward pritchard_ was hanged in gloucester prison on february 17th, 1887, for the murder of a boy at stroud. the object was robbery, for the boy was carrying money to pay wages, from the bank. pritchard practically pleaded guilty, and appeared to be sincerely sorry for his deed. he was not anxious to escape death, but took great pains to secure the forgiveness of the firm whose money he had taken, and of the parents of the boy whom he had murdered in order to get it. to the father of the lad he wrote a letter, earnestly begging for his forgiveness; and mr. allen, who was a good, kind-hearted man, journeyed to gloucester to convey an assurance of that forgiveness in person, and to pray with the murderer. owing to a prison regulation pritchard was unable to receive mr. allen's visit, but the fact that the visit was made seemed a great consolation to the prisoner. while waiting for execution pritchard frequently showed much emotion and it was feared that there might be a "scene" at the last moment, but when the time came, he was composed. there was no reckless bravado, but a quiet submission. he walked uprightly to the scaffold and stood motionless upon the drop. for a second his glance wandered round the prison-yard, and in that second he seemed to comprehend everything. he saw his grave, ready dug, in a corner, and heaved a sob, but this was his only demonstration of feeling whilst in my hands. [illustration: walter wood.] _walter wood._ another man who was apparently truly penitent was walter wood, executed at strangeways, manchester, on june 30th, 1887, for the murder of his wife. when the sentence of death was pronounced he was calm, and so he remained up to the time of execution. he did not falter even when visited by his mother and his two sons. he neglected no means of showing his contrition and making his peace with god, and on the day before his execution he attended the prison chapel, occupying a screened pew, where he paid careful attention to the service and appeared much solaced by a portion of the sermon which was introduced for his special benefit. on the morning of his last day he was awake early and spent the time with the good chaplain of the gaol. as i entered the cell the poor fellow was slowly repeating the responses to the prayers read by the chaplain, and he continued to do so during the pinioning. the chaplain was assiduous in his attentions and did not weary of his good work even when on the scaffold, but continued to comfort and solace the doomed man with an earnestness that indicated the depth of his sympathy. at the last moment the calm, but wretched, culprit raised his head, drew a deep breath, and said in a deep, solemn, unshaken tone, "lord have mercy upon me. lord receive me." and so he died. this execution affected me deeply. the man was fully conscious of the hideousness of his crime, and sincerely repented. he assured the chaplain that he beheld the world and all things in a totally new light, and that the consciousness of his crime had changed his whole character. what would have been the fate of such a man if he could have been allowed to go free. [illustration: alfred sowrey.] _alfred sowrey._ one of the worst cases i ever had to deal with was that of alfred sowrey, hanged at lancaster castle on august 1st, 1887, for shooting the girl to whom he was engaged to be married, at preston. he was impenitent, violent, and half-dead with fear by the day of execution. at the time of his trial he glared about in such a mad way that those who stood near the dock feared for their personal safety. during the time between sentence and execution he became seriously ill through sheer terror, and it was thought that he could not possibly live to the day appointed for his execution. the efforts of the gaol chaplain to bring sowrey to a calmer and more reasonable state of mind seemed utterly unavailing, the prisoner was too terrified to take much notice of anything that was said to him. on the morning of the execution he took his breakfast as usual, but rejected the chaplain's ministrations. from the cell to the scaffold he had to be partly pushed and partly carried by two warders, in whose strong arms he struggled violently. his groans and cries could be heard all over the prison. his teeth chattered, and his face was alternately livid and deathly white. every inch of ground over which the procession passed was violently contested by the criminal, who had to be bodily carried up the steps and placed on the drop. as he saw the beam above him a wilder paroxysm of fear seemed to seize the miserable youth, and four warders were required to hold him in position. even with this assistance i had the greatest possible difficulty in pinioning his legs, and while doing so i received a nasty kick which took a piece of bone out of my shin, and has left a mark visible even to-day. after the completion of the pinioning process he still resisted the placing of the noose, throwing his head violently from side to side, and he continued his struggles until the drop fell. during the whole of this terrible scene the chaplain, who had taken much interest in his ungrateful charge, and who had done everything he could for sowrey, continued reading the beautiful prayers for the dying; but sowrey paid no heed. [illustration: dr. cross.] _dr. philip henry eustace cross._ my first execution in 1888 was that of dr. philip henry eustace cross, who poisoned his wife by slow degrees, administering doses almost daily for a long time. dr. cross was a retired army surgeon, of good family. his medical experience gave him a great advantage in the commission of his crime, and he was evidently convinced that there was not the slightest fear of discovery. after conviction he protested his innocence until he received the message to the effect that there would be no reprieve but that the law must take its course. he then relapsed into a mournful condition, and turned his attention entirely to the bible. the last few days before his execution he was greatly prostrated, and on his last night of life he did not retire to bed until twelve o'clock. his sleep was restless and fitful. in the morning, however, he was resolute. he told his attendants that he did not fear death, for he had met it face to face more than once on the battlefield. he died unmoved, without a word. _joseph walker._ a sorrow-stricken face that often haunts me is that of joseph walker, executed at oxford in november, 1887. he had murdered his second wife, after great provocation. her reckless drinking habits and jealous disposition, developed soon after the marriage, had made the home absolutely miserable. on several occasions she threatened her husband with a knife, and the only way in which he could defend himself without injuring her was by seizing her wrists and holding her down on the floor until her fury abated. the climax was reached when one of walker's sons by his first wife, who had been driven from home by his step-mother, committed suicide. the father attributed this to the step-mother's cruelty. she went to croydon, where the suicide was committed, to attend the inquest, and instead of returning home remained in london until her husband went to fetch her. up to this time he had been steady, but after the return from london he gave way to excessive drinking and neglected his work. on the day of the murder there was a violent quarrel between the man and his wife, and when he fell into a drunken sleep she rifled his pockets of a considerable sum of money. at night walker cut his wife's throat, killing her with one terrible blow, and then, sobered by his act, called a neighbour to witness what he had done, and surrendered to the police who had been fetched to the house. the verdict of "guilty" was brought in by the jury, but a strong recommendation to mercy was at the same time handed to the judge. in consequence of the great provocation which had been received by walker, strenuous efforts were made to induce the home secretary to commute the death sentence to one of penal servitude, but without avail. the condemned man was perfectly willing to die, and his earnest repentance greatly touched the chaplain who laboured early and late to comfort him. walker spent much of his time in fervent prayer, not for himself, but for his children. he prayed continuously that his sin might not be visited on them, for he knew how our christian country usually treats those who have the burden of a dishonoured name to bear. he besought both god and man to treat his children kindly, and to lead them in the way of sobriety and honesty. for himself, while confessing the murder, he denied any premeditation of the matter. at the time of execution he was perfectly composed, and walked calmly to the scaffold, but he seemed to see nothing--his thoughts were far away--and even after death his face wore the same expression of sad composure. walker was a heavy man, weighing over sixteen stones, and received a drop of 2 ft. 10 in., the shortest i have ever given. _john jackson_, whose daring murder of warder webb and escape from strangeways gaol, as well as his success in hiding from the police, caused immense interest to be taken in his case, was executed by me in the same gaol in which his crime occurred. although he was commonly supposed to be incapable of feeling, his emotion at the prospect of his own fate was so touching that the official who had to tell him that reprieve was refused was very loth to break the news. on hearing it, he bowed his head and burst into tears, for, strange as it may seem, he had hoped that the death sentence would not be carried out. his grief continued to the last, and to the last he maintained that he had only intended to stun, and not to kill the warder. on the night before his death he did not sleep two hours, and when i entered his cell in the morning he was engaged in fervent prayer. he shook hands with me in a manner that was most affecting, and submitted quietly to the pinioning. he walked resignedly to the scaffold, and died without uttering a sound. [illustration: john jackson.] _charles joseph dobell and william gower._ one naturally expects a hard indifference from an old criminal, but it saddens me to see it in the young, and yet two of the youngest men--or rather, boys--that i have executed were callous to the last degree. they were charles joseph dobell (aged 17) and william gower (18), executed in maidstone gaol for the murder of a time-keeper at a saw-mill in tunbridge wells some six months before. so carefully was the crime committed that the police could obtain no clue, and it was only found out by the confession of the lads to a salvation army officer. there is reason to believe that the lads' natural taste for adventure had been morbidly stimulated by the reading of highly sensational literature--"penny dreadfuls" and the like. they seem to have conducted themselves with a sort of bravado or courage which, if genuine, would have done credit to a patriot or martyr sacrificing himself for country or for faith, or to one of their backwoods heroes fighting against "a horde of painted savages," but which was distressing in two lads, almost children, sentenced to death for their crime. after they were sentenced they paid careful attention to the chaplain's words, but they showed no sign of emotion, and it was said that "it is doubtful whether at any time they fully realised the serious nature of their position." they walked to the scaffold in defiant manner, more upright than was their wont, and neither of them looked at or spoke to the other. there was no farewell, no word of repentance or regret, merely a brief supplication to god to receive them. _samuel and joseph boswell._ it is a terrible trial to have to execute men who firmly believe, and apparently on reasonable, even if not correct grounds, that they are suffering an injustice. the worst instance that i remember of this kind was in the case of samuel and joseph boswell, executed in worcester gaol for the murder of a game-keeper on the estate of the duc d'aumale, at evesham. three men, the boswells and alfred hill, were found guilty of the murder, and the only difference which the jury could find in their guilt was that hill was, if anything, the worst of the three. an application for a reprieve was made, apparently on the ground that though the men were guilty of poaching, they had not intended to commit murder. the home secretary responded to this application by reducing the penalty in hill's case to penal servitude for life. this action fairly astounded the people of evesham, who thought that there was no possible reason for making any difference in the fate of the three culprits. the vicar telegraphed to the home secretary that his decision was "absolutely incomprehensible;" the mayor, on behalf of the borough, telegraphed to the effect that "universal indignation" was "expressed by the whole community in evesham and by county gentlemen." several other similar messages were sent from other bodies, and the vicar of evesham was dispatched to london to interview the home secretary. the news was communicated to hill but not to the boswells, and as the feeling amongst outsiders was so strong, it can be imagined that the two men who had to suffer the punishment were shocked with a sense of injustice when they met on the morning of the execution and found that hill had been reprieved. when they met on that fatal morning the brothers kissed each other, and, looking round, they enquired simultaneously, "where's hill?" on being answered, they seemed utterly broken down with the feeling of the injustice of the arrangement. they asserted that hill was the real murderer, whilst they were only accomplices. the men had been much troubled during their imprisonment by the thought of what would happen to their wives and children, and were in a terribly harassed and nervous condition. i put the white caps on their heads before leaving the cells, and a few steps from the door of the house in which the scaffold stood i pulled the caps over their eyes. this i always do when men are not quite firm and determined, before they see the scaffold. in the case of samuel boswell this simple act caused him to fall back into the arms of one of the warders in a state of collapse, and he had to be almost carried on to the scaffold. he moaned several times, until he heard his brother's voice give the response, "lord, have mercy upon us," when he again drew himself together and answered, "christ, have mercy upon us." then joseph piteously cried, "oh, my poor, dear wife," "yes," answered samuel, "and my dear wife and my poor children." joseph turned his head a little and said, "good-bye, sam," to which his brother answered, "good-bye, god bless you, joe boy. oh! dear, dear," joseph continued: "i hope everybody will do well," and as he finished speaking the drop fell, and together the brothers expiated their crime. _richard davies._ another case in which "the one was taken and the other left" was the crewe murder case, in which richard and george davies were found guilty of the murder of their father, with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of their youth. so far as could be made out, there was absolutely no difference in the degrees of their guilt; but the sentence of george was commuted to penal servitude simply because he was the younger. at this there was great excitement throughout the country, and thousands of telegrams and petitions were poured into the home office, begging that the leniency might be equally extended to both since the guilt of both was equal. but all to no purpose. the condemned lad protested, to his last moments, that although he took part in the murder, he never struck his father nor handled the hatchet with which the deed was done. he wrote most affectionate letters to his mother, brothers and sisters; who seemed to fully believe the truth of his statements with regard to his share in the crime. ten minutes before his death he wrote out the same declaration and handed it to the chaplain. he stated that he had no wish to live, but that he hoped and expected to meet his relations in heaven. when i entered his cell he was pale, but calm. after pinioning him his face seemed still paler and his mouth worked convulsively as he strove to keep back his emotion. along the corridor he walked firmly, with bent head, but when we reached the yard where a fresh breeze was blowing and the blue sky was visible, he raised his head and eyes for a last look at the world and the sky. he died firmly, with a brief prayer on his lips. * * * * * in both the cases last described the action of the home secretary was very severely commented upon by press and public, and it seems to me that such occurrences are the strongest possible arguments in favour of the re-arrangement of the law which i suggest in the chapter on "capital punishment." it is decidedly injurious for the public to have the idea that the life or death of a man depends upon the urgency of the petitions in his favour and the amount of sympathy expressed for him, rather than upon the justice of the case. moreover, it seems to me that by singling out special cases, and attacking the decision of the home office, the press and the public place themselves in a thoroughly illogical position. if they object to the system of leaving the matter in the hands of the home secretary, surely it is the system, and not the man, that should be attacked. on the other hand, if they are satisfied that the home secretary is the proper tribunal, they ought surely to rest content with his ruling, remembering that he has far better opportunities of judging the merits of the case and the whole of the evidence than any outsider can possibly have, and that his responsibility in the matter makes him more careful in his enquiry than any outsider possibly can be. * * * * * the melancholy interest of the subject allures me to continue, yet the details of murderers' deaths at the best are ghastly and grim, and i fear that my readers will shudderingly wish me to stop. two more experiences, and i will close the sad record. _mary eleanor wheeler_, better known as mrs. pearcey, was a woman of decidedly strong character. her crime is so recent and aroused so much interest that i need not go over the circumstances. the night before her execution was spent in the condemned cell, watched by three female warders, who stated that her fortitude was remarkable. when introduced to her i said, "good morning, madam," and she shook my proffered hand without any trace of emotion. she was certainly the most composed person in the whole party. sir james whitehead, the sheriff of the county of london, asked her if she wished to make any statement, as her last opportunity for doing so was fast approaching, and after a moment's pause she said:--"my sentence is a just one, but a good deal of the evidence against me was false." as the procession was formed and one of the female warders stepped to each side of the prisoner, she turned to them with a considerate desire to save them the pain of the death scene, and said, "you have no need to assist me, i can walk by myself." one of the women said that she did not mind, but was ready and willing to accompany mrs. pearcey, who answered, "oh, well, if you don't mind going with me, i am pleased." she then kissed them all and quietly proceeded to her painless death. [illustration: mrs. pearcey.] _john conway_, who murdered a boy of ten years old, at liverpool, was a case that was most difficult to understand. his previous record did not indicate any quarrelsome or murderous tendency, though he was known to get drunk occasionally; and there seemed to be absolutely no motive that could be assigned for the crime. his confession was made privately, to the priest, the day before his execution, with instructions that it should be read as soon as he was dead, but it left the matter of motive as mysterious as ever. it was as follows:--"in confessing my guilt i protest that my motive was not outrage. such a thought i never in all my life entertained. drink has been my ruin, not lust. i was impelled to the crime while under the influence of drink, by a fit of murderous mania, and a morbid curiosity to observe the process of dying. a moment after the commission of the crime i experienced the deepest sorrow of it, and would have done anything in the world to undo it." conway was a very superstitious man, a believer in omens, witchcraft and all sorts of supernatural powers, and he had a firm idea that if one good man could be induced to pray for him he would be saved from execution. he was sure that his own prayers would avail nothing, and he thought that he was not fit to receive the sacrament of his church; but he attended the service at which the sacrament was administered, and begged that one of his fellow-prisoners, who partook of the rite, should pray for him. as he reached the scaffold conway stared wildly around and cried out that he wanted to say something. the priest interfered to induce me to stop the execution for a few seconds, and i did so, but the convict merely thanked the gaol officials and his father confessor for their kindness. and so he died. [illustration: john conway.] * * * * * does the reader think that i have spun out this chapter too much? does he think that i have unnecessarily harrowed his feelings? if so, let me assure him that i would not have given this chapter, i would not have written this book if i had not had what i believe to be good purposes in view. i have tried to avoid sensationalism, but i want to make every reader _think_. i want to make him think that murderers are, after all, men and women, with human sympathies and passions. i want to make him think that there are degrees of murder, that justice, and not spasmodic leniency should be the aim of our laws, and a few other thoughts that will occur to the reader without any suggestion of mine. [illustration: lancaster castle.] chapter ix. from the murderer's point of view. burns sang, and we are fond of repeating his singing:- oh! wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us; but i never heard anybody utter the opposite aspiration, for the gift to see others as they see themselves. and yet i am not quite sure that this gift is not as desirable as the other. at any rate, if we are to legislate wisely and well for any class of people it is absolutely necessary that we should be able to see things from their own point of view. it is with much hesitation that i start this chapter, for i know that my power to analyze thought and character is not great enough to enable me to deal with the subject on broad lines. but if i can induce a few people to consider the question of murder and its punishment from the murderer's point of view, the chapter will do good. on the whole, i think that our attitude towards murderers is based too much on sentiment and too little on reason. many people pity all murderers, whether they deserve it or not; many others condemn them body, soul and spirit, without considering to what extent they are the result of circumstances. if i can induce my readers to consider that a murderer has as much right to judge the state as the state has to judge him, i think this book will have achieved one good purpose. i do not wish to work out an argument, but will just give a few of the expressed ideas of the murderers, in the hope that they may give rise to fruitful trains of thought. i would point out, however, that many of the people who have died on the scaffold have lived in such deplorable circumstances--assailed by every sort of temptation, surrounded by an atmosphere of gay and hollow vice, cradled in misery and educated in wretchedness and sin, with little of the good and the beautiful entering into their lives to raise them, but with the accursed facility for obtaining drink to lure them down--in such deplorable circumstances, i say, that even an angel could hardly keep himself unspotted from such a world. when men commit a horrible crime it is our duty to exact the penalty; but it will do us no harm to consider whether we are in any way responsible for the conditions which may have driven them to crime; and whether we cannot do even more than we are doing for the prevention of crime by the improvement of the conditions. besides the conditions of life, the mental status of the wretched culprits should be worthy of attention, and i think we might ask ourselves whether it would not have been better for some of the murderers, as well as for society, if they had been placed under life-long restraint years before their careers reached the murder stage. there are many other questions which will naturally occur to the thoughtful reader, and which i need not indicate. _arthur shaw._ amongst my earlier executions was that of arthur shaw at liverpool. shaw was a tailor, thirty-one years of age, who lived in manchester. he was married, but his married life was not happy, for his wife seems to have drunk heavily, and he himself was not steady. on november 3rd, 1884, they quarrelled, and fought for some time, and shortly afterwards the woman was found dead--killed, according to the doctors, by strangulation. shaw did not deny the murder, but pleaded that it was unintentional, and that he had been greatly provoked by his wife's long-continued dissipation. the jury strongly recommended him to mercy. immediately before meeting his fate, in a last conversation with the chaplain, the man admitted his guilt but earnestly insisted that he had never intended to cause his wife's death. he stated that he was not drunk at the time of the murder, but that he had been driven to drink by his wife's drunkenness and neglect of the home, which was always miserable; and that her drunkenness and neglect exasperated him until he was perfectly wild. he concluded by saying: "when we were having the scuffle i had no idea i was killing the poor woman." _thomas parry_, hanged in galway on january 20th, 1885, for the murder of miss burns, wrote a long statement, which he handed to the governor to be read after his death. the gist of it was given in the following paragraph:--"i wish to assure the public and my family and friends that i was of unsound mind for a week previous to the murder and for some time afterwards. i am happy to suffer for the crime which i committed, and confident that i shall enter upon an eternity of bliss. i die at peace with all men, and hope that anyone that i have ever injured will forgive me." _george horton_, of swanwick, poisoned his little daughter; for the purpose, it is supposed, of obtaining the sum of £7 for which her life was insured; and was executed at derby on february 1st, 1886. it is difficult, or impossible, for an ordinary person to understand such a man's frame of mind. one would think him absolutely callous, yet he wept over the body of his child when he found that she was dead, and wrote most affectionate letters to his other children when he was in prison. a portion of his last letter to his eldest daughter was as follows:- you must be sure to pray to god to gide you all you life through and you must pray for your brothers and sisters i do pray to god to gard you all you life through. so my dear daughter you must think of what i have told you. you must always tell the truth & when you are tempted to do wrong you must pray to god for his help and he will hear you. always remember that my dear children, and you must tell the others the same, you that is your brothers and sisters god has promised to be a father to you all ways, remember that he sees all you do and all you think, then if you do his will while here on earth he will receive you to his throne in glory where all is peace and rest. so my dear children you will be able to meat all your brothers and sisters and your poore dear mother in heaven, and by the help of god i shall meat you there to.... may god help you all and bless you and keep you all your lifes through. he will do it if you pray to him and ask him. you no you must take every think to god in prayer for you no you will have no one els to help you now. so no more from your loving father, george horton. may god bless you all. kisses for you all. [illustration: edward pritchard.] _edward pritchard_ was an instance of how "evil communications corrupt good manners," and a striking example of the unfortunate uselessness of our reformatory system. at twelve years of age he was convicted for being an "associate of thieves," and sentenced to two years in a reformatory. for three years after leaving the reformatory he managed to keep out of prison, but when seventeen he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment for shop-breaking, and after this he was frequently in gaol. about a year before the murder he appeared to have reformed, attended sunday-school and chapel, and took an active part in religious work right up to the time of committing the murder. he murdered a small boy of fourteen who was in the habit of regularly fetching money from the bank to pay the wages at a large factory, and stole from him the wages money, amounting to over £200. the evidence of the deed was absolutely conclusive and overwhelming, and pritchard had no hope of reprieve. a day or two after his conviction he wrote a letter to one of his sunday-school teachers, in which he professed to have seen the error of his ways, urged all his companions to shun bad company, drinking and smoking, spoke of the delight with which he remembered some of the sunday-school hymns, and anticipated the pleasure of soon singing them "up there." all through his life there seems to have been a struggle between good and evil, with an unfortunate balance of power on the side of evil. it is difficult to believe that he would have devoted his spare time for a year to religious work if he had not felt strong aspirations for the higher life. after conviction he said but little about himself, and made no formal statement or confession, but a letter which he wrote to the father of the murdered boy will throw some light upon his mental state. in this letter pritchard distinctly affirms that he was led to commit the crime by the instigation of a companion, and though the statements of a convicted murderer must always be received with caution, it is possible that there was some ground for this assertion. if the crime was really suggested and the criminal encouraged by the influence of another, and probably a stronger mind, we may well ask ourselves how much of the moral blame attaches to the instigator, and how much to the weak tool. the letter was as follows:- her majesty's prison, _monday, feb. 14th_. sir, i write these lines to you to express my deep sorrow for the dreadful crime i have done to you and to your master. i write to ask you if you and your wife will forgive me for killing your boy, and please ask the master if he will forgive me for taking his money from him. it would not have happened if i had not been incited to do it, and it was by no other person than -------, who was a witness against me. he persuaded me to do it, and said he might do it himself if i did not; so i done the unhappy affair. i am very sorry i ever met with ---at all, but it cannot be called back now. i have cried to god for mercy; i must still cry, and i hope i shall gain a better home. i have asked him to forgive me and blot out all my sins, and wash me in my saviour's precious blood; and i think and feel he will do it. i'm going to receive the holy communion on wednesday, and i should like to hear from you by wednesday, before i go to be partaker of that holy feast. if you will forgive me, i shall be more at peace. i am very, very sorry indeed, for what i have done. there is nothing that can save me from my doom, which will be on thursday, but i can ask god to have mercy on my poor soul. i have no more to say at present, only that i was a great friend of poor harry, and i went nearly mad about it the first few nights, and could not sleep; but now i find comfort in jesus. good-bye, sir. please send me an answer by return of post, and i hope we shall meet in heaven. from edward pritchard. gloucester county gaol, gloucestershire. a few particulars of pritchard's last moments are given in "how murderers die," p. 78. [illustration: alfred scandrett.] _alfred scandrett_, another young man--only just twenty-one years old--was another example of the result of bad influences. his father deserted the home when alfred was about ten years old. his mother was a hard-working woman who contrived to support her family by mangling and by selling papers in the streets, in which latter work she was assisted by alfred and several other children. the lad was fond of hanging round street corners and public-houses, and his mother found it impossible to keep him at home like the other children. he continually made resolutions, but again and again he was led away by his companions, and at twelve years of age he was convicted for stealing cigars from a shop, but discharged with a caution. a month later he was charged with another offence and sentenced to 21 days. other imprisonments followed, then five years in a reformatory, but punishment was no cure. his love for his mother was his one redeeming feature, and if she had not been forced by grinding poverty to work almost day and night at her mangling and paper-hawking she might have succeeded in saving him from himself. he tried to break away from his evil associations, and at one time begged his mother to find money to take him to canada, but she was utterly unable to scrape together enough to pay the passage. a youth called jones, who was hanged with scandrett, was his companion in his final crime--a burglary, ending in murder. although attached to his mother, who said he had always been "a good lad" to her, scandrett could not bear the idea of living at home when he was engaged in crime, so that almost the whole of the last eight years of his life was spent, when out of gaol, in common lodging-houses. after his conviction for murder and sentence to death, his great anxiety was for his mother. and well might he be anxious, for the poor woman suffered sadly for his sin. as soon as it was known that she was "the mother of a murderer," her customers--to their eternal disgrace be it said--withdrew their patronage to such an extent that her mangling earnings dropped from 12s. or 14s. to 2s. a week, and her newspaper trade fell away to nothing. she was even "hunted" and insulted in the streets when she went to her accustomed corner to sell the papers. to get from her home in birmingham to hereford gaol for a last interview with her son, she was obliged to pawn her dress, and even that only raised enough money to pay the fare one way, so that she had to trust to chance for the means of getting back again. some of the prison officials, more humane than her "friends" at home, subscribed enough money to pay the return fare. the last meeting was a very affecting one. scandrett comforted his mother by assuring her that they would meet in heaven, and said, "pray daily and hourly, mother, as i have done, and then we shall meet in heaven." _arthur delaney._ the number of men who are driven to crime through drink is something terrible, and i should think that no temperance worker could read the real histories of the murderers who have come under my hands without redoubling his efforts to save men from the curse of drink. a case in point was arthur delaney, executed at chesterfield on august 10th, 1888. it may be said that he was naturally a bad, violent man, but surely he would never have become a murderer if he had not consistently made himself worse and worse by hard drinking. his victim was his wife, to whom he had been married four years, and who was spoken of as a respectable, hard-working woman. not very long after the marriage, in a drunken fit, he violently assaulted her, for which action the magistrates imposed a fine and granted a separation order. his wife, however, forgave him, and in spite of his bad behaviour continued to live with him. a few days before the murder he was unusually violent, and treated his wife so brutally that she was obliged to again appeal to the magistrates, who again imposed a fine. this raised delaney's anger to such an extent that the next time he got drunk he battered his wife so violently that she had to be removed to the hospital, where she died. like many other culprits, delaney saw the cause of the mischief when it was done; and a letter written after his sentence, has a ring of simple earnestness about it that makes it worth preserving. it was written to some good templars who had tried to reform him. h.m. prison, derby, _august 8th, 1888_. my dear friends, i write you farewell on this earth, but hope with gods great mercy to meet you all there, were there will be no more sorrow or temptation. i do sincerely thank you for your kindness to me, and hope that my fall will be the means of, with god's help of lifting others up from a drunkard's grave. had i followed your advise my poor wife would been alive now, and we should have been happy, for she was a faithful and good wife to me. god knows that i should not have done such a dreadful crime if i had kept my pledge, but hope it will be a warning to those that play with the devil in solution. will you tell ----to give his heart to god, and he will be safe from his great curse, the drink. bid him and his wife farewell for me, and tell him to put all his powers to work to help the noble work of temperance onward, for it is god's work. oh! do implore them that is playing with the drink to abstain from it, for it is a national curse. now farewell to you all, and may god prosper your noble work. from your unfortunate friend, arthur t. delaney. what proportion of murders is directly traceable to drink it would be very difficult to say, but time after time we find that murderers who write to their friends state that drink, and drink only, has caused their ruin. _elizabeth berry._ although i am endeavouring in this chapter to give a few ideas of the motives for murder as seen by the murderers themselves, i am not by any means condoning their crimes. my main object is to induce people to look more into the pre-disposing causes of crime. i want them to consider whether in many cases prevention is not better than cure, and whether more can not be done to remove the causes. undoubtedly drink has to answer for the largest number of such crimes. after drink comes lust and jealousy, though these almost invariably reach the murder climax through drink. the other main motive is the love of money, which has led to many of the most heartless, inhuman deeds that it has been my lot to avenge. i have given one or two instances of parents who murdered their own children for the sake of a few pounds of insurance money, and such instances could be multiplied. in fact, so apparent did the motive become a year or two back, that the government was obliged to pass a law regulating the insurance of the lives of infants. if such an act, or even a further-reaching one, had been in existence earlier, elizabeth berry might have been alive now instead of lying in a felon's grave. mrs. berry poisoned her daughter, aged 11. at the time of the murder the child's life was insured for £10, for which mrs. berry was paying a premium of 1d. per week. the murderess had also made a proposal for a mutual insurance on her own life and the child's by which £100 should be paid, on the death of either, to the survivor. she was under the impression that the policy was completed, but as a matter of fact, it was not. it seems almost impossible that a woman should murder a child for the sake of gaining even the full sum of £110; and we might be justified in believing that there must be some other motive if it were not for the fact that infanticide has been committed again and again for much smaller sums. from the point of view of the murderers of children it would seem that a few pounds in money appears a sufficient inducement to soil their hands with the blood of a fellow-creature. it is well, therefore, for the sake of child-life that the temptation should be removed. [illustration: mrs. berry.] chapter x. on capital punishment. one of the questions which is most frequently put to me is, whether i consider capital punishment is a right and proper thing. to this i can truly answer that i do. for my own part i attach much weight to the scripture injunction, "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," and i think that the abolition of capital punishment would be a defiance of the divine command. therefore i would not abolish capital punishment altogether, but, as i shall explain later, i would greatly alter the conditions under which it is imposed. perhaps many of my readers will say that the scriptural command should have no weight, and others will say that it was a command given under the "dispensation of law," while we live under the "dispensation of grace." therefore i would argue that, quite apart from any consideration of a religious nature, capital punishment is absolutely necessary for the checking of the greatest criminals. in the discharge of my duties as a policeman, both in the nottingham, in the bradford, and in the west riding police force, i have had many chances of studying the ways of life and thought of the criminal classes, and i have paid a great deal of attention to the subject. as the result of my experience i can safely say that capital punishment, and "the cat," are the only legal penalties that possess any real terrors for the hardened criminal, for the man who might be called a "professional" as distinguished from an "amateur" ruffian. such a man does what he can to keep out of prison, because he dislikes restraint, and routine, and sobriety, but this dislike is not strong enough to deter him from any crime which offers even a chance of escaping scot-free; and i do not think that the fear of imprisonment ever occurs to him when he has once got criminal work actually in hand. penal servitude, even for life, has no very acute terrifying influence, partly because no criminal ever believes that it will be a reality in his case, as he feels sure that he will get a commutation of sentence; and partly because, even if he were sure that the imprisonment were actually for life, he knows that prison life is not such a dreadful fate, after all--when one gets used to it. but when it comes to a question of a death sentence it is quite another matter. death is a horrible mystery, and a death on the scaffold, a cold-blooded, pre-determined, and ignominious death is especially horrible to the criminal mind. as a rule the most desperate criminals are those who are most terrified by the thought of death at the hands of the executioner, possibly, because the most desperate men spring from the most superstitious class of the community, and have the greatest dread of that "something" after death which they cannot define. the criminal classes do not neglect their newspapers, but keep themselves pretty well posted, either by reading or conversation, upon the subjects that are of most direct interest to them, and follow all the details of the most important criminal trials. in this way they always keep more or less before them the thought of the nature of capital punishment, and i believe that it will be found that the number of capital crimes in any given period is inversely proportionate to the number of capital punishments in the immediately preceding period. whenever there is a series of executions, without reprieves, the number of murders decreases, and on the other hand, after a period in which several persons have been tried for murder and acquitted, or reprieved after sentence, the number of crimes appears to increase. i do not think that this rule can be demonstrated forcibly and convincingly by a reference to the mere numbers of murders, convictions, reprieves, and executions during the past few years, because there are many considerations which bear upon the significance of an execution or reprieve; but i think that anyone who has given attention to the subject will bear me out in my contention. undoubtedly the fear of death is a great deterring power amongst abandoned men, and the fear is most powerful when the death seems most certain and the hope of reprieve most remote. this consideration leads me to think that the deterrent value of the death sentence would be greatly increased if it could be made absolutely irrevocable. considering capital punishment as a moral power for frightening criminals still at large, i think it would be much better, if in all cases where there is the slightest possible chance of reprieve, the sentence were suspended for a time. i advocate that the sentence of death, once passed, should be a sentence which the doomed man, as well as his friends and sympathisers who are still at liberty, should regard as quite irrevocable. at the same time i do not advocate an increase in the number of executions--just the reverse. as the best means to this end i think we ought to have a considerable alteration in our criminal law as it relates to murder cases. i think that the jury should have more power over the sentence, and for this purpose i think that they ought to have the choice of five classes of verdict, namely:- 1. not guilty. 2. not proven. 3. murder in the third degree. 4. murder in the second degree. 5. murder in the first degree. in the case of a verdict of "not guilty" the prisoner would, of course, be acquitted, and would be a free man as he is with such a verdict at present. in the case of the verdict of "not proven" it should be within the power of the judge to remand the prisoner, pending the further investigation of any clues that might seem likely to throw light upon the case; or to release him, either with or without bail or police supervision. a verdict of "murder in the third degree" would be brought in in cases where there was undoubted proof of the crime being committed by the prisoner, but in which the circumstances were such as to make it extremely unlikely that the prisoner would ever again commit a violent crime. this would cover the cases of people who shoot their friends and then plead that they "did not think it was loaded," and would be a much better verdict than the "accidental death" which is generally returned at present. when the jury find this verdict of murder in the third degree it should rest with the judge to impose a term of imprisonment, long or short, according to the circumstances. "murder in the second degree" would embrace cases in which the murder was fully proved but in which there was not premeditation or intent to murder. under this head would come a number of deaths resulting from rows, brawls, and assaults without intent to kill. the judge would have the power to pass a sentence of death or of penal servitude for life. "murder in the first degree," in which both intent and result had been murder, would be a verdict leaving the judge no option but to impose the death penalty. another question which ought to be considered in this connection is the question of appeals. at present appeals are made to the home secretary. he is really assisted by a number of other gentlemen, who examine most thoroughly into the original evidence, and any additional evidence that may have turned up, but this is a tribunal not legally appointed, and the public notion is that in cases of appeal the reversal of the sentence lies in the hands of one man. i do not think that even the most abandoned wretches would impute any unfairness to the english home secretary, but i know that in many quarters there is an idea that the home secretary is "a very kind gentleman," who will "let 'em off" if he possibly can, and such an idea seems to be a very mischievous one. a court of appeal would appear less personal, and would be far less likely to be suspected of leniency if it consisted of three judges, one of whom should be the judge who had originally tried the case. to such a bench of judges i would allow appeals to be made, and would give them power to re-open cases, refer them back to the juries, or to modify sentences, but not to reverse a jury's verdict. this would mean that in the case of a verdict of "murder in the first degree," the only way in which the execution could be prevented would be by referring the case back to the jury, and this should only be done on the production of new evidence pointing to a miscarriage of justice. in the extreme case of evidence turning up at the last moment, the home secretary should have power to grant a stay of execution for such length of time as would allow the bench of judges to re-open the case. the drawing up and presentation of petitions by people who are in no way connected with the case, would to a great extent be done away with under such a system as i have outlined, but in order to provide for cases where the system might not have this effect, i would make it a punishable offence to attempt to influence the decision of the judges or jurymen, by an appeal to any consideration other than the evidence. this advice i give because in so many, nay, in most cases, the appeals contained in petitions are based upon considerations other than the justice of the case. if the condemned person is an interesting character, or if there is any sort of excuse upon which an appeal can be based, there are always a great number of people who have no special knowledge of the case, and who, perhaps, have not even read the newspaper reports, who are ready to get up petitions, collect signatures, and stir up a lot of sympathy for one who too often deserves nothing but execration and contempt. such agitations lead to much misrepresentation of facts, and often to sweeping condemnations of the judge and jury. they tend to infuse, in the minds of young people especially, an incorrect notion that the administration of the law is uncertain and ineffectual, even if it is not unjust and corrupt. the mere fact of the extent to which the consideration of loathsome crimes and their punishment is brought under the notice of children by this system of petitions, is in my mind sufficient argument for its complete suppression. one case i might instance, in which the masters of two public schools led the whole of the children under their charge through an ante-room in which a petition was lying, and made them all sign it in turn. this kind of thing occurs whenever a petition praying for a sentence of death to be reversed or commuted is in the course of signature, and surely such a thing should not be possible. in many cases the people who draw up these petitions are people who object on principle to all capital punishment, but unfortunately the principle is entirely lost to sight when dealing with individual cases. the fact of big petitions being presented in one case, while no effort is made in another case with similar features, naturally leads uneducated people to think that there is uncertainty and injustice about the whole affair. there is still one other respect in which i think that our law with reference to murder and the death penalty ought to be altered, and that is with regard to the length of time allowed to elapse between sentence and execution. in the interests of all concerned i would reduce the time from three clear weeks, as at present, to one week only. no doubt many readers will cry out against this as an unnecessary cruelty to the condemned, but i say that i would do it in the interests of _all_ after full consideration and an unusually full knowledge of the ideas of the condemned upon the subject. it is not a shorter time that would be a cruelty--the present long time is where the real cruelty comes in. so far as i know, the three weeks' "grace" given to the condemned man is intended as a time for repentance and for attending to the affairs of the soul. therefore, the question of allowing a long or short time is to a great extent a religious one, and dangerous for me to tackle, so i will confine my remarks as far as possible to matters of fact and mere common-sense considerations. if the only purpose of the time allowed between sentence and execution is to admit of conversion and a preparation for heaven, it is fair to ask of anyone who wishes to continue the present system, whether it serves the purpose. if not, there would seem to be no valid argument in favour of its continuance. personally, i am convinced by long experience, that the hope of regeneration during three weeks in the case of murderers is absolutely vain. there are many instances in which the criminal becomes "penitent," as it is sometimes termed, and these penitents may be divided into two classes. firstly, there is the class of those who have committed murder without intent or premeditation. in a fit of frenzy or under peculiar circumstances they have killed a human being. it may be a half-starved mother who has killed the baby she could not feed, or a man who in a whirlwind of temper has killed the unfaithful and miserable wife whose conduct has made his life a hell upon earth for years. it may be many another similar case which under the scheme of five possible verdicts, propounded above, would be returned as murder in the second or third degree. under such a law the extreme penalty would not be imposed; but while we are under our present law, and supposing that these persons are condemned, without chance of reprieve, we may fairly ask whether the three weeks' grace is an advantage to them. such criminals are truly repentant, or rather, remorseful. as a rule, the enormity of the crime bursts upon them in the first calm moment after its commission. they recoil in horror from the deed they have done and would gladly sacrifice anything, even life itself, to undo that deed again. there is true repentance, which i take it is the key to forgiveness, even before their apprehension and condemnation. everything that can be done on earth by or for such poor souls, can be done in a week, and they would not ask for more. their repentance is sincere, their horror of their crime is greater than their dread of death, which they welcome as a means of expiation. is any good purpose served by keeping such people for three weeks in agony? the second class of "penitents" consists of a horrible section of humanity--the cowardly desperadoes. these are usually men whose crimes have shown a refinement of cruelty and callousness that is positively revolting. they are the "hardened" or professional criminals whose hearts are devoid of pity or remorse, and equally devoid of the least spark of courage. they are the miserable men whose lives have been spent in defying and blaspheming god, but who, when they see death before them, whine and howl, and beg for the intercession of the chaplain or any other godly person they may meet with, not because they repent of their sins, but because they are frightened almost to death by the thought of a fiery hell, which has been painted before their imaginations in glowing colours. to such men as these i am sure that the shortening of the waiting time would be the greatest possible mercy, for the longer time only gives them opportunity to work themselves into an almost demented state. at the end of three weeks they are often so broken down and hysterical as to be incapable of correctly understanding anything, and their only remaining feeling is a wild, frantic dread of the scaffold. besides the two classes of penitents, there only remains the class who are not penitent at all. they are mostly men who have been long acquainted with crime, who have made it the business of their lives. they look upon the law and its officers much as a business man looks upon a clever and unscrupulous competitor; and upon a sentence of death as one of the business risks. life ends for them, not at the scaffold, but in the dock, when sentence is pronounced. from that time they sink into a state of sullen indifference, or take up any occupation that may offer, merely to kill time. in some cases they take to bible reading and prayers, because they think "it can't do any harm, and may do a bit of good," and because they have nothing else to do. no one can say that such men are penitent, since on release they would return to their vicious ways. they would not be likely to reach any better state if they were allowed to live three months instead of three weeks, for the only regret that they can be brought to feel is personal and purely selfish. it is founded on fear of hell, and is not a contrition for having committed the crime, but a regret that the crime carries with it a punishment in the next world. convicts of this class, when they have no hope of reprieve, do not thank us for the three weeks of "life" that are given to them. if they could have their own choice, they would prefer to walk straight from the dock to the scaffold, and to "get it over" at once. in every case if the matter is thoroughly inquired into, on lines of common sense instead of mere sentiment, i think the conclusion will be that the three weeks allowed are no advantage whatever to the convicts. in most cases their position would be decidedly improved by reducing the time. there are other distinct advantages to be gained by reducing the interval. in the first place it would greatly improve the moral effect of the death sentence. retribution following directly after conviction is a distinct object lesson, and the shorter the time between, the more obvious is the connection between the crime and the punishment. when even three weeks elapse the connection is often lost. in the second place, the alteration i advocate would greatly prevent the stirring up of false sentiment in favour of convicts who happen to have an interesting personality. it would put a stop to the petition signing which is often indulged in by people who know nothing of the case, but who are worked upon to express sympathy with the convict, and want of faith in the justice of our system of trial. if only a week elapsed between sentence and execution, the facts of the trial and details of the evidence would remain fresher in the public mind, and people would be less liable to be led to mistrust the justice of the sentence. to all the people who have charge of the convicts before execution, a shortening of the time would be a great blessing, for such a charge is often a soul-harrowing experience. the chaplains especially, whose experiences are often most unpleasant; and whose earnest efforts meet with such disappointing return, would, i think, welcome the change. [illustration: norwich castle.] chapter xi. hanging: from a business point of view. i have stated in chapter ii. the reasons which led me to take the office of executioner. the reader will remember that i then claimed no higher motive than a desire to obtain a living for my family, by an honest trade. i am not ashamed of my calling, because i consider that if it is right for men to be executed (which i believe it is, in murder cases) it is right that the office of executioner should be held respectable. therefore, i look at hanging from a business point of view. +-----------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | james berry, | | _executioner_. | | | | | | _bradford,_ | | _yorkshire._ | | | +-----------------------------------------------+ when i first took up the work i was in the habit of applying to the sheriff of the county whenever a murderer was condemned to death. i no longer consider it necessary to apply for work in england, because i am now well known, but i still send a simple address card, as above, when an execution in ireland is announced. in the earlier days i made application on a regular printed form, which gave the terms and left no opening for mistake or misunderstanding. of this form i give a reduced reproduction on opposite page. i still use this circular when a sheriff from whom i have had no previous commission writes for terms. the travelling expenses are understood to include second-class railway fare from bradford to the place of execution and back, and cab fare from railway station to gaol. if i am not lodged in the gaol, hotel expenses are also allowed. as a rule the expenses are not closely reckoned, but the sheriffs vote a lump sum which they think will cover it; and if the execution has been satisfactory the sum granted is generally more than enough to cover what i have spent. +--------------+ |quote | _bradford, ........ 189_ |_no._ ........| yorks. +--------------+ _sir_ _i beg leave to state in reply to your letter of the .................................... that i am prepared to undertake the execution you name of .................................................... at .................. on the ....................... i also beg leave to state that my terms are as follows: £10 for the execution, £5 if the condemned is reprieved, together with all travelling expenses. awaiting your reply, i am, sir, your obedient servant, james berry. the high sheriff, for the county of ............................._ there are, on an average, some twenty executions annually, so that the reader can calculate pretty nearly what is my remuneration for a work which carries with it a great deal of popular odium, which is in many ways disagreeable, and which may be accompanied, as it has been in my own experience, by serious danger, resulting in permanent bodily injury. it will be seen that the net commission is not by any means an exorbitant annual sum, considering all the circumstances of the office; and that it does not approach the amount which some people have stated that i was able to earn. of course, my earnings are entirely uncertain, since they wholly depend upon the number of executions, and this arrangement, by which my livelihood depends upon the number of poor fellows condemned to die, is, to me, the most repugnant feature of my work. it seems a horrible thing that i should have to peruse newspaper reports in the hope that a fellow-creature may be condemned to death, whenever i wish to feel sure that "business is not falling off;" and that i should have to regard as evil days and hard times those periods when there seem to be lulls in the annals of crime, and when one might reasonably hope that a better state of things was dawning in the land. these considerations, and the more selfish but still perfectly natural wish to be certain of my income and of my ability to give my children a fair start in life, have led me to strongly approve of the suggestion that the executioner's office should be a government appointment, with a fixed salary instead of an uncertain commission. when the lords' committee on capital punishment was sitting, early in 1887, i expressed my views on this matter in a letter addressed to the president of the committee, lord aberdare. i am not without hope that a change in the arrangements for regulating the office of executioner will ere long be made, and the lines on which i think that it might be most reasonably and satisfactorily done, are set forth in the letter to lord aberdare, which i append. 1, bilton place, city road, bradford. _february, 1887._ my lord, i have been for some time past in correspondence with mr. howard vincent, m.p. for sheffield, with reference to alteration in the mode of remunerating my services, in carrying into effect the sentence of the law upon criminals convicted of capital crimes. mr. howard vincent has suggested that i should address myself to the honourable committee on capital punishment, through your lordship as their president. i would therefore respectfully point out to your lordship and your honourable committee that the present mode of payment for my services is unsatisfactory and undesirable, and that a change is needed. as your lordship is doubtless aware, under the existing arrangements i am paid the sum of £10 together with travelling and other incidental expenses for each execution conducted by me. there are, on an average, roughly speaking, 25 executions yearly. what i would respectfully suggest is, that, instead of this payment by commission, i should receive a fixed salary from the government of £350 per annum. i may say that since accepting the appointment i have never received less than £270 in any one year. i am informed that in determining a fixed salary, or compensation in lieu of a payment by commission, the average annual amount received is made the basis for the calculation. it will be apparent to your lordship that an offer of a _less_ sum than the former average would not be sufficiently advantageous to induce me to exchange the old system for the new. i may further, with your lordship's permission, draw attention to the peculiar social position in which i am placed by reason of holding the office before referred to. i am to a great extent alone in the world, as a certain social ostracism is attendant upon such office, and extends, not to myself alone, but also includes the members of my family. it therefore becomes extremely desirable that my children should, for their own sakes, be sent to a school away from this town. to do this of course would entail serious expenditure, only to be incurred in the event of my being able to rely on a fixed source of income, less liable to variation than the present remuneration by commission alone. i am also unable for obvious reasons to obtain any other employment. my situation as boot salesman held by me previous to my acceptance of the office of executioner, had to be given up on that account alone, my employer having no fault to find with me, but giving that as the sole reason for dispensing with my services. my late employer will give me a good reference as to general character, and the governors of gaols in which i have conducted executions will be ready to speak as to my steadiness and also my ability and skill on performing the duties devolving upon me. in conclusion i should be ready to give and call evidence on the points hereinbefore referred to (if it should seem fit to your lordship and your honourable committee), on receiving a notification to that effect. under these circumstances i trust that your lordship will be able to see the way clear to embody in your honourable committee's report a recommendation to the effect that a fixed annual sum of £350 should be paid me for my services rendered in the office of executioner. i have the honour to be your lordship's obedient humble servant, james berry. to the right honourable lord aberdare. president, capital punishment committee, whitehall, london, s.w. p.s. if your honourable committee has an alternative to the foregoing proposal i would respectfully suggest that i am permanently retained by the home office at a nominal sum of £100 a year, exclusive of fees at present paid to me by sheriffs of different counties and the usual expenses. in connection with this subject i should like to point out that in asking for the office of executioner to be made a recognised and permanent appointment, i am not suggesting any new thing, but merely a return to the conditions in force not much more than fifteen years ago. up to 1874 the executioner was a permanently established and recognised official. mr. calcraft, the last who occupied this position, was retained by the sheriffs of the city of london, with a fee of £1 1s. 0d. per week, and also had a retainer from horsemonger lane gaol. in addition to his fees he had various perquisites, which made these two appointments alone sufficient for his decent maintenance, and he also undertook executions all over the country, for which he was paid at about the same rate as i am at present, but with perquisites in all cases. in 1874 he retired, and the city of london allowed him a pension of twenty-five shillings a week for life. mr. calcraft's successor was mr. wm. marwood, who had no official status. he had a retaining fee of £20 a year from the sheriffs of the city of london, but beyond that he had to depend upon the fees for individual executions and reprieves. in his time, also, there were considerable perquisites, for instance, the clothing and personal property possessed by the criminal at the time of his execution became the property of the executioner. these relics were often sold for really fancy prices and formed no mean item in the annual takings. but the sale and exhibition of such curiosities were only pandering to a morbid taste on the part of some sections of the public, and it was ordered by the government--very rightly, from a public point of view, but very unfortunately for the executioner--that personal property left by the criminals should be burned. in many other countries the post of executioner is permanent. in some cases it is hereditary, as in france, where it has remained in the deibler family, passing from sire to son, for a great length of time. even in british territory at the present time a permanent official hangsman is not entirely unknown, for in malta the post is a definite appointment, to which a salary of £30 is attached. in england the sheriff is the officer appointed to carry out the executions, and though he is allowed to employ a substitute if he can find one, it would fall to him to personally conduct the execution if no substitute could be obtained. in certain cases, in days gone by, there has been very great difficulty in securing anyone who would undertake the unpleasant duty, though i do not remember any recorded instance of the sheriff being absolutely unable to engage an executioner. chapter xii. the press and the public. i might almost head this chapter, "my critics," for both press and public are constantly criticising my doings. the criticism is generally friendly, though often based on incomplete knowledge of the facts. of the press-men i must say that they usually seem most kindly disposed, and certainly many of them go to great trouble to extract from me a few statements which they can spin out into an "interview." as a rule i dislike these interviews, for i know that my employers very strongly object to any more sensationalism than is absolutely necessary being imported into the accounts of executions. unfortunately, with many of the papers, sensationalism is the one thing needful, and when i meet with a really energetic reporter attached to such a paper my position is a very difficult one. if i say little or nothing in answer to his questions, he may spin a fearful and wonderful yarn out of his own head, and out of the gossip and rumours which seem to be constantly afloat, started, i imagine, by needy penny-a-liners. on the other hand, if i submit to the interview as the best way of keeping it within bounds, the "touches of colour" which the interviewer generally thinks it necessary to add, are pretty sure to land me in bother and misunderstanding. in several instances statements which were calculated to seriously injure me professionally have been published; and though i believe they were inserted with no evil intent, i have been obliged to employ my solicitors to secure their contradiction. the instance which annoyed me, perhaps, more than any other was the reporting of a supposed interview in the _essex county chronicle_. it was said to be from "an occasional contributor." the interviewer in question tackled me in the hotel where the sheriff pays the execution fee; entering the room immediately after i had been paid, and just as the sheriff was driving off. he asked me two or three questions about private matters, which i answered truthfully and straightforwardly, though i was somewhat annoyed by the man and his manner. the "interview" which appeared quite shocked me. several of the statements were utterly wrong, but what troubled me most was the following paragraph, which was quite at variance with the actual facts, and with the statements which i had made:- "and what do your friends think of the profession you have taken up?" i asked. "it killed my mother and brother," he mournfully replied. "when marwood died i was appointed in his place, and directly my mother knew of it she was taken ill. my father's solicitor then wrote to the home office, informing the authorities of this. the result was that i gave up the position, and binns got the appointment. my mother died soon afterwards, though, and then, when i saw the way in which binns was going on, i came to the conclusion that he would not hold the place long, and i again wrote to the home office stating that my mother was dead and that there was nothing now to prevent my accommodating them if my assistance should be required. soon after that i was engaged to hang two men at edinburgh, and i have carried out nearly all the executions since then. my brother had married a girl with plenty of money, and his pride received a blow on my appointment. that was the cause of his death. he was a liberal and in favour of abolishing capital punishment, but i am a conservative through and through. altogether i have buried my mother, two brothers, and two aunts within the last three years." this was a false and cruel paragraph, the actual facts with regard to the deaths of my relatives being as follows:--1. my aunts died before i took the office, or thought of doing so. 2. my mother died from cancer on the liver, from which she had been suffering for a long time before i applied for the post; and she died between the time of my first application and the time of second application, when i was appointed for the double execution at edinburgh. 3. my brother died of low fever, after i had held the office of executioner for about four years. i do not wish to deny that my choice of the calling of executioner was a disappointment and annoyance to my family; but to say that it caused, or hastened the death of any one of them is to say that which is not true. if i thought that it had really had any such disastrous effect, i hope i am not such a callous and hardened wretch as to make the matter the subject of discussion with a stranger. one would almost have thought that such statements as the one extracted above would bear their refutation on their face, and that there would be no need to contradict them; but the matter was seriously taken up by the _daily news_, which made it the subject of a leader, and other papers all over the country extracted from, or commented upon the matter in the _daily news_. of course, i put the matter into the hands of my solicitors, who took steps to stop the original libel, but they were naturally unable to stop its circulation through the country. another affair which caused me much annoyance at the time arose in hereford, from the greed for interesting and sensational "copy" shown by a member of the staff of the _hereford times_. he got up some sensational matter to the effect that after the execution of hill and williams i retired to a neighbouring hotel where a smoking concert was in progress, and there held a ghastly levee. the worst of this report was that it was based on some foundation of fact, and that a mere colouration of the report made a reasonable and perfectly innocent entertainment appear as if it was something shameful. the actual facts were that after the execution i was in company with alderman barnet, mayor of worcester, and a detective sergeant, both of whom were personal friends of mine. with alderman barnet i was invited to a social evening held by some of his friends. it was a perfectly private party, and was decorously conducted in every way. when the _times_ representative appeared, as he was known to the gentlemen present, he was invited to join us, simply as a friend. the report of the party was much talked about at the time, and sir edwin lechmere, m.p. for hereford, made it the subject of a question in the house of commons. from time to time a very great number of incorrect and exaggerated statements have been made in the press with regard to almost every detail of my work, and i suppose that so long as the public have a love for the marvellous, and so long as press-men have treacherous memories or vivid imaginations, it will continue to be so. my enormous income is one of the subjects on which the papers most frequently get astray, and it has often been asserted that my earnings amounted to a thousand a year. i only wish that it might be so, if i could make it from an increase of fee rather than an increase in the number of executions, but the reader has in other places correct statements of what my income really amounts to. i never bear malice against my friends of the press for these little distortions of fact, for i know that they mean no harm, and on the whole they have always used me very well. with regard to the public, their curiosity to see me is much greater than my desire to satisfy it. i have no wish to be followed about and stared at by a crowd, as if i were a monstrosity, and in many cases i have had to go to some trouble to baulk them. this i can do to a certain extent by travelling by other trains than the one i am expected by. in some cases where there are two or three railways into a town, one of which is the direct line from bradford, i take the direct line to some local station, and there change into a train of another line or into some train running on some local branch line, and so arrive unobserved. at newcastle, after the execution of judge, there was a big and enthusiastic crowd waiting to see me and my assistant depart. there were one or two men in the crowd who knew me by sight, and they knew the train by which we were to travel, so they made a raid on the station, and in spite of the efforts of the railway officials and police to keep the place clear they burst through the barriers with a howl of exultation and filled the platform. the plan by which we evaded them was very simple. we walked over the river to gateshead, and booked from there to newcastle. arriving by train in the midst of the people who were looking for us, we attracted no attention whatever, because the folks who knew me were near the entrance gates, expecting us to come into the station in the ordinary way. as we had our tickets for bradford with us, we simply crossed the platform to our own train, and in due time steamed southward, leaving the disappointed crowd under the firm impression that we had not entered the station. the first time that i went to swansea there was a large crowd of people waiting to see me, but they were disappointed, for i had made a little arrangement which completely upset their calculations. it happened that i travelled from shrewsbury to swansea with a gentleman who is well known in the latter town. in the train we entered into conversation, and i found that his carriage was to meet him at the station. i therefore asked him if he could recommend me to a good hotel, and was delighted when he said that he would drive me to one, which was just what i wanted. he did not know who i was, and the little crowd that was watching never imagined that the executioner would be riding in their townsman's carriage. of course, i did not want to stay at the hotel, because i was to lodge in the gaol, but i thanked my friend for the lift, walked into the hotel for a glass of beer while he was driving away, and then walked up to the prison without anyone suspecting my errand. whenever i have been in actual contact with crowds in england, their attitude has been friendly. in ireland such knots of people as may gather are usually the reverse. in england, if there is any sort of demonstration, it is a cheer; in ireland it is hooting and groaning. but it is seldom, in england, that i meet with any personal demonstration. the crowds that assemble outside the gaols when executions are in progress, are interesting studies. they hail the hoisting of the black flag with a cheer or a groan, that indicates their opinion of the merits of the case. it is curious to notice how the sympathies of this section of the public lean one way or the other, often without any apparent reason. this thought occurred to me very forcibly at the executions of israel lipski and william hunter, who were hanged within a few months of each other. [illustration: israel lipski.] at lipski's execution the crowd was the largest i have ever seen, many of the people remained hanging about for hours. the excitement was intense, but there was no sympathy for the prisoner. there were many jews in the crowd, and wherever they were noticed they were hustled and kicked about, and insulted in every imaginable manner; for the hatred displayed by the mob was extended from lipski to his race. when the black flag was hoisted it was received with three ringing cheers. altogether, the crowd showed the utmost detestation of the murderer. and yet his crime was no worse than the majority of murders, and there were many things connected with it, and with the circumstances of the miserable man's life, both before and after, which i should have expected to excite some little sympathy; at any rate, amongst people in a similar station of life. hunter's execution was the next but one to lipski's, and his crime was one which has always seemed to me about the most heartless i ever heard of. hunter was a striker in a foundry by trade, but a tramp by choice. he left his wife and two children and went on tramp, eventually striking up a sort of partnership with a scotch woman who had six illegitimate children. one of these, a little girl between three and four years of age, went tramping with them, and of course, the poor wee mite was utterly unfit for the exposure and the many miles of walking which they made her accomplish daily. hunter and the woman were both cruel to the child, and carried their cruelty to such an extent that on one occasion at any rate, they were remonstrated with, and eventually turned out of a common lodging-house on account of their conduct. at last, one day after a long tramp, the little mite began to cry from weariness, and hunter, to stop her crying, beat her with a switch. later, for the same purpose, he thrashed her with a stick that he picked up in the road. still later in the day he continued his ill-treatment until he had beaten the life out of the poor little creature. in justice to the man--or brute--it should be said that when he found that the child was insensible (it was really dead), he fetched water to bathe its poor battered head; and when he realised that it was dead he cut his own throat and very nearly killed himself--but these considerations seem very little extenuation for the harsh brutality of his conduct. one would have thought that the man who had thus heartlessly tortured to death a helpless child would have been execrated by all men; yet the crowd that assembled at hunter's execution wore quite a holiday air. there were some 1500 people, most of whom laughed and jested. when the flag was run up there was no demonstration, perhaps the carlisle people are not demonstrative. however that may be, the contrasted conduct of the crowds at the two executions struck me forcibly; and though it is sad that men should rejoice at the death of a fellow-man, if the cheers had been given at hunter's death which greeted the death of lipski, i think they would have been more natural and more english than light jests and laughter. chapter xiii. incidents and anecdotes. as is always the case when a man attains any prominence or notoriety, a number of utterly groundless stories have got afloat about my doings and adventures. others, which were originally founded on fact, have been so modified and altered that i do not recognise them when they come back to me again. altogether i have been credited with being the hero of so many surprising adventures that i am afraid the few little incidents which have really occurred to me will seem tame by the side of the fictions. one of the most striking incidents that ever occurred to me was on the journey from lincoln to durham, after executing mary lefley, in 1884. at doncaster we changed from the great eastern to the great northern railway. i looked out for a carriage with a vacant corner seat, and got into one containing three rough-looking men. when the train had started they began to talk amongst themselves, and to look at me, and eventually began to chaff me. of course i pretended not to understand their allusions to the execution that morning, and was indignant at their supposing me to be an executioner, but they were confident that they were right, and began offering to bet amongst themselves as to which of them i should get first. i was glad to get to york, where i parted from their company. two years afterwards i met the same three men under very different circumstances. they were at carlisle, condemned to be executed for the netherby hall burglary, and i carried out the sentence of the law. their names were rudge, martin, and baker. i always try to remain unknown while travelling, but there is a certain class of people who will always crowd round as if an executioner were a peep-show. on the journey above mentioned, after changing at york, i got into a carriage with a benevolent-looking old gentleman. a little crowd collected round the door, and just as we were starting a porter stuck his head into the window, pointed to my fellow-passenger, and with a silly attempt at jocularity said:--"i hope you'll give him the right tightener." the old gentleman seemed much mystified, and of course i was quite unable to imagine what it meant. at darlington there was another little crowd, which collected for a short time about our carriage. fortunately none of the people knew me, so that when the old gentleman asked them what was the matter they could only tell him that berry was travelling by that train and that they wanted to have a look at him. the old gentleman seemed anxious to see such an awful man as the executioner, and asked me if i should know him if i saw him. i pointed out a low-looking character as being possibly the man, and my fellow-traveller said, "yes! very much like him." i suppose he had seen a so-called portrait of me in one of the newspapers. we got quite friendly, and when we reached durham, where i was getting out, he asked for my card. the reader can imagine his surprise when i handed it to him. this little story has been much warped and magnified, and has even been made the subject of a leading article which takes me to task for "glorying in my gruesome calling," and shocking respectable people by giving them my cards. another little anecdote which has been greatly distorted is what i call the toothache story. it happened in 1887, when crossing from ireland, that there was one of the passengers who was terribly ill with mal de mer and toothache combined. he was rather a bother to several travellers who were not sick, and who wished to enjoy the voyage, and he must have given a lot of trouble to the stewards. i think that one of the latter must have told him that i could cure him, for he came and begged me to tell him what was the best thing for his complaint. i admitted that i was in the habit of giving drops that would instantaneously cure both the toothache and the sea-sickness, but assured him that he would not be willing to take my remedy. still he persisted, so i handed him a card, and as he was a sensitive man it gave his nerves a shock that was quite sufficient to relieve him of the toothache, and me of his presence for the rest of the voyage. as the card which i then used has often been mentioned in the newspapers, i give a fac-simile of it. the wording was in black, with the fern in green, and the border in gold. i now use a perfectly plain card, as reproduced on page 117. [illustration] a sad little incident in connection with the murder of warder webb by john jackson will always remain in my memory. i had been to strangeways gaol once or twice before on duty, and webb had always been my personal attendant during my residence, so that we were quite friendly. at the execution previous to jackson's--that of john alfred gell, in may, 1888--we had two or three long chats, and webb was most anxious that i should go to manchester to spend a half-day or a day with him in the city, when he could get leave of absence. he hoped it would be a long time before they should see me there again professionally, but said that they would always be glad to see me if i were in manchester on other business, and could call. then, turning to the subject of executions, he began wondering who would be the next that i should have to go there for, and who would be the victim, and shaking his head sadly, he said, "a body never knows who will be next." the poor fellow little thought that he would be the next victim, and that the very next time i visited strangeways would be no friendly call, but a visit to avenge his own death. of course, my duties take me about the country a great deal, and i have met a great many interesting people in the course of my travels. as a rule, i do not make myself known unless i have some good reason for doing so, because i have no fancy for making myself into a cheap show. on one occasion i travelled from coventry to warwick with the reporter of one of the coventry papers. he knew nothing of my identity, and does not seem to have recognised me at the execution; but while writing out his report the connection between the gentleman in the train and the executioner in the gaol seems to have dawned upon him, and he wrote the following, which amused me greatly when it appeared in his paper:- after writing this report and describing the hangman's features and dress, it dawned upon the writer for the first time that the description was that of a gentleman with whom he had travelled from coventry to warwick on the previous afternoon. on reflecting upon all the circumstances of the journey, he felt quite certain of the fact; and although amused at the thought of having travelled and conversed with an executioner without knowing it, he was a little chagrined that he had not given the conversation a "professional" turn, which he would have done had he been aware who his fellow traveller was. the incident is sufficient to show that persons travelling by rail occasionally get into singular company without having the slightest knowledge of the fact. in 1887 when i had to go to dorchester, to hang henry william young for the poole murder, i stayed at bournemouth, and took a room in a temperance hotel. during the evening i got into conversation with the landlady, who was much interested in the subject of executions, and who appeared to like to discuss it. she was decidedly "down on" berry, "the hangsman," and expressed herself very freely as to his character and disposition; amongst other pleasant things, saying that he was a man without a soul, and not fit to have intercourse with respectable people. of course, i smilingly agreed with everything that she had to say, and chuckled quietly to myself about a little surprise that i had in store for her. the surprise came off at bed-time, when she handed me my bedroom candle, and in return i handed her my card. the good lady nearly fainted. it is not often that i feel frightened, for i am pretty well able to take care of myself, but i once had a little adventure in the train, coming from galway to dublin, that gave me one or two cold shivers. it was at a time when ireland was much disturbed by agrarian outrages, and i knew that amongst some of the lower classes there was a feeling of hatred against myself on account of my occupation. of this i had an example when going down _to_ galway, and as it led up to, and somewhat prepared me for the other incident, i may as well mention it. my journey to galway was undertaken for the purpose of hanging four men who were condemned to death for moonlighting. it was an exciting journey altogether, for four men who were in the same compartment as myself from dublin to mullingar got into an excited discussion upon some political subject, and just as we left killucan they began to fight most violently, using their sticks and fists to such an extent that all their faces were soon covered with blood. as the train drew into mullingar the fury cooled as quickly as it had begun, they all began to apologise to each other and wipe the blood from one another's faces. at mullingar i got out for a drink, to steady my nerves, for the fight at such close quarters had somewhat upset me, although i took no part in it. on the platform two villainously rough-looking characters spoke a few words to the men who had got out of my compartment and then followed me into the refreshment room, where they seemed anxious to make my acquaintance, and so forcibly insisted that i should have a drink with them, that i had to consent for fear of causing a row. they asked me where i was going, said that they were going to galway, and in what seemed to me a peculiarly significant tone, asked me if i knew whether mr. barry, the hangsman, was really in the train or not. they followed me on to the platform like two shadows, and got into the same compartment of the train. all this made me feel rather uncomfortable, for though i was well armed, there is nothing in life that i dread so much as the possibility of having to kill a man in self-defence and of being tried, and possibly convicted, for murder. i was, therefore, very pleased when two plain-clothes men whom i knew belonged to the royal irish constabulary, got into the other half of the carriage, which was one of those in which there are two compartments divided by a low partition. i do not know whether my two rough companions even noticed that there was anyone in the other half of the carriage, to which their backs were turned. their conduct, indeed, seemed to show that they thought we were alone, but i could see that the r. i. c. men were regarding them with interest and taking note of every word they said. all the way from mullingar to athenry the two fellows plied me with questions, and tried by all means in their power to draw me into discussion, and the expression of opinion. i answered them as briefly as i could without being uncivil, but took care that they should not gain much solid information from my answers. at athenry they shuffled into the far corner of the compartment, and in stage whispers, which they evidently thought i could not hear, argued as to whether i was "barry" or not. one of them got quite excited, pointed out that i was an englishman, that i came from the north of england, that there was no one else in the train that looked like an executioner, that my tale about being a poultry-buyer was "all a loie," and finally that i had a scar on my cheek which "proved it intoirely, begorra!" the other fellow said that "shure the gintleman in the corner was a gintleman, and not a murtherin, blood-thirsty, blagyard of a hangman," which opinion at last seemed to be shared by both. as we steamed into galway i used my handkerchief, and then rested my hand on the window-ledge with the handkerchief hanging out. this was the signal arranged with my police escort, who were on the platform, and who managed to be just opposite the door when the train stopped. as i marched off amongst those strapping fellows, i looked round to see my two travelling companions gesticulating wildly, and abusing each other for having been deceived, and for having treated "the very blagyard we went to meet." i never knew whether they had intended me any harm, but the constabulary men told me that they were two of the roughest characters in galway. the four men who were condemned to death were reprieved, one after the other, as the days fixed for their executions drew near, so that i was not required to carry out my painful duty after all. but i was kept waiting more than a week in galway gaol, with nothing more lively to do than to read the newspapers, and to walk about in the dreary prison yard, because the governor did not consider that it would be safe for me to venture outside. i was heartily glad when the last reprieve arrived and i was free to return home. to avoid observation as much as possible, i took the midnight train, and as there were very few passengers i secured a compartment to myself, and made all snug for a sleep. i was not disturbed until we reached mullingar, when i noticed a man who looked into my compartment, then walked the whole length of the train, and finally came into my compartment, although there were others in the train quite empty. he at once began to talk to me in a friendly sort of style, with a strong american twang, but i did not like his looks at all, so pretended to want to go to sleep. as i sized him up from my half-shut lids i set him down as a "heavy swell" yankee. he wore a big slouch hat and cape coat, carried an elaborately silver-mounted handbag, and his coat pocket showed the unmistakable outline of a revolver. he plied me with all sorts of questions on irish politics, asked me where i lived, what was my business, where i was going to stay in dublin, and a host of other questions which i evaded as far as i decently could. i did tell him, amongst other things, that my name was aykroyd, and that i lived in the north of england, but not very much beyond this. after a while he pulled out his revolver and commenced examining it in a careless sort of fashion. as i did not like this turn of affairs, i pulled out my own weapon, which was built for business and twice the size of the one carried by the stranger, and made a pretence of looking it over very carefully. the stranger asked me to let him examine my "gun," but i told him that it was a weapon that i did not like to hand about for fear of accidents, and after a final look at the charges, i put it back into my coat pocket in such a position that it covered the stranger, and kept my finger on the trigger until we reached dublin. the american tried to keep up a conversation all the way, but i was not very encouraging, and i thought that by the time we reached dublin he would be heartily sick of my company. but when i got out of the station and was driving off to my hotel, i was surprised to find that he jumped on to the same car, and said he would go to the same hotel as i did. after having a wash i came down into the breakfast room and heard the american asking the waitress if she knew mr. berry, to which she replied that she did; and then if mr. berry was there that morning, to which she replied that she had not seen him. as a matter of fact she had not, and i slipped along the passage to tell her, as she went to the kitchen, that my name, _pro tem_, was aykroyd. i found in the coffee room that there was a letter addressed to me, on the mantel-piece. the stranger was examining this, and asked me if i knew the hangman by sight. when it was nearly time to catch my boat the stranger still stuck to me, and at the last moment he suggested that we should have a drink together. we went to mooney's, where i was known to the bar-tender, to whom i tipped a vigorous wink as we went in, which showed him there was something in the wind. after ordering our drinks the american asked him if he knew berry, the hangman, to which he truthfully replied that he did. the american then asked if he knew whether berry had come from galway by the night mail, adding "he was expected to travel by that train, but mr. aykroyd and myself came by it and we saw nobody like him, though i carefully looked along the whole train." the bar-tender of course knew nothing, so we drank up, and i went out to my car, the american shaking hands with me and wishing me a pleasant voyage. i had run it rather close, and quick driving only just brought us to the quay in time for me to get aboard. as the ship swung out from the quay-side, a car, driven at red-hot speed, came dashing along, and the passenger, whom i recognised as my american, gesticulated wildly, as if he wanted the vessel to stop. but we swung out with steam and tide, and he drove some distance along the quay-sides wildly but vainly waving his hands. the next time i was at mooney's i heard some further particulars. the stranger had gone back for another drink, and after chatting for a few minutes, the bar-tender told him that his friend mr. aykroyd was the very berry for whom he had been enquiring. on hearing that, he rapped out half-a-dozen oaths, rushed for a car, and drove off in mad haste. i have never seen him since, nor has the bar-tender, and i never knew what were the motives for his peculiar conduct. appendix. the trouble with "answers" limited. early last year (1890) i felt compelled to bring an action for libel against the "answers" newspaper co., ltd. as the case was fully reported at the time, i think that a report condensed from the columns of _the bradford observer_, of march 17th, 1890, may be more satisfactory than my own statement of the case. i, therefore, give it, in the form of an appendix, rather than in the chapter--"the press and the public"--to which it belongs. in this action mr. waddy, q.c., m.p., and mr. waugh (instructed by mr. j. j. wright) appeared for the plaintiff, mr. james berry, the public executioner, of 1, bilton place, bradford; and mr. cyril dodd, q.c., appeared for the defendants, the "answers" newspaper company, limited. the plaintiff claimed £500 for libel, which was printed and published in the periodical called "answers;" the defendants admitted the printing and publication of the libel, and by way of mitigation of damages they withdrew all moral imputations against berry's character and paid a sum of 40s. into court, and apologised for the words used. mr. waddy said in behalf of the plaintiff--and he thought the observation would commend itself to their judgment--that no man in the kingdom, whatever he might be, and whatever calling he might follow, as long as he followed the duties of his calling in honesty and integrity, ought to be deliberately insulted and flouted for any reason whatever; and he believed that when they heard what kinds of falsehoods were printed concerning berry they would agree with him that mr. berry, although he was the common executioner, being a sober and respectable man, was entitled at their hands to be protected from wanton insult. he would tell them what the facts were. it appeared that some time in september or october of 1889 a man named white came to him representing himself to be a correspondent of an american newspaper, and told mr. berry that he was anxious to hear his views upon the very interesting subject of executions by means of electricity, and that his opinion, in view of his experience at executions, was of very great importance. he offered mr. berry a fee of £3 if he would give him the interview which he desired; and that fee was paid, and mr. berry did discuss the question with him. he did that on the promise, both by word of mouth and in writing, that whatever he said should not be published in this country. mr. waddy then read the article which had appeared in "answers," from which i need only give extracts. he is a powerful, thick-set man, of about medium stature, and his countenance is not an unpleasant one at a first glance, though upon closer study one discovers that the face reveals the lack of several moral elements in the man's composition, which seems to indicate that the creator designed him especially for the ends he serves. a critical observer would probably say that his eyes are too close together, and that their brilliancy is that of the codfish rather than the eagle, while, though the mouth and chin indicate determination, the forehead gives the impression of lack of balance. a phrenologist would perhaps find that the cranial bumps that indicate sense and shame, pity and sympathy, are not particularly well developed upon the head of mr. berry. * * * * * "have you ever been threatened by the friends of criminals whom you have hanged?" "often," replied mr. berry, "but i don't pay no attention to them. i'm a doin' o' my duty, and i'm protected by th' government." "it was said that if mrs. maybrick had not been reprieved a mob would have been formed in liverpool to prevent your hanging her." "they'd never have seen me," said mr. berry, "i'd 'a been in th' jail and 'anged her before th' mob knew i was about, and i'd been on th' train and on my way back 'ome before they knew she was dead. why when i 'anged poole in dublin, who murdered informer kenny--o'donnell, who murdered th' other informer, carey, having been 'anged at newgate th' day before--there was a great mob in dublin to prevent my getting into th' prison, and nobody outside knew poole was 'anged until i was on th' boat a steaming away for holyhead." "how do you manage that?" i asked again. "i'll tell you," said mr. berry in a burst of confidence. "i shaves off my whiskers and i puts on women's clothes. that's th' way i got into dublin jail, with my ropes and straps under my clothes, and that's th' way i've done many a job." berry never did such a thing in his life as put on women's clothes. he never had occasion to put them on, and there was not the slightest shadow of foundation for the statement. the people mentioned in the article as having been hanged by berry were not hanged by him at all. this libel was printed upon november 23rd, 1889, and an action was commenced at once. the defendants now stated in mitigation of damages that they denied that the words bore the construction which the plaintiff had put upon them, withdrew all imputations, and admitted that any such were unfounded, and apologised for the matter complained of. but the apology and the withdrawal appeared upon the pleadings only. from that day to this, with 158,000 of their papers going out every week, there had net been one single word in the paper apologising for their action. it was open to them with a view to mitigation of damages, to have taken this course, but they had done nothing but put their apology upon the record, and paid into court the majestic sum of 40s. as, in their opinion, sufficient to atone for the wrong. mr. berry was then put into the box and supported mr. waddy's statements. mr. waddy then spoke upon the whole case. for the defendants mr. dodd said that the owners of the newspaper which he represented were as anxious as anybody could be that reasonable justice should be done. of course, berry did not suggest that there was any actual money out-of-pocket loss. then another feature of such a case was the question of whether the paper was one of that class which feeds on personal attacks. he submitted that the general character of the paper, a point to which juries were apt to pay some attention, was good. the articles in question were copied from an american paper, and the proprietors of "answers" were in the position of having been misled, just as the proprietors of the _new york sun_ had been misled by the large imagination of mr. white. berry seemed to be very quick in his methods, for his writ was served within a very few days of the appearance of the article, and without any opportunity being given to his clients to try and make some kind of apology to suit him. his clients had endeavoured to meet the case in a perfectly reasonable way. they did not for a moment express any doubt that they were dealing with an honest, a decent, and an experienced man, they withdrew all supposed imputations, and had had no intention of making any; and he contended that the highest testimonial possible was one from a person who had said something derogatory to him. berry had suffered no monetary damage whatever beyond the actual costs of the action. he suggested, therefore, that the jury should give such a verdict as would show that the plaintiff was quite right in bringing the matter into court, but that they were of opinion that the defendants had done everything that they could to mitigate the mischief and annoyance occasioned by the publication of the libel. his lordship then summed up, and the jury found for the plaintiff, with £100 damages. finis. footnotes: [a] this chapter is taken verbatim from mr. berry's note-book. elisions are marked....--ed. [b] the length of drop you, yourself, thought sufficient, as i read in the _standard_. transcriber's note: every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible including some inconsistent hyphenation. some minor corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made. italic text has been marked with _underscores_. html version by chuck greif [illustration: image of the book's cover] [illustration: on the instant he recognized that no common interview lay before him (page 61)] dark hollow by anna katharine green author of "the house of the whispering pines," "initials only," "that affair next door," etc. with four illustrations by thomas fogarty [illustration: colophon] new york dodd, mead & company 1914 contents book i the woman in purple i where is bela? ii was he living--was he dead? iii bela the redoubtable iv "and where was i when all this happened?" v "she wore purple" vi across the bridge vii with her veil down viii with her veil lifted ix excerpts x the shadow xi "i will think about it" xii sounds in the night book ii the house and the room xiii a bit of steel xiv all is clear xv the picture xvi "don't! don't!" xvii unwelcome truths xviii reflections xix alanson black xx what had made the change? xxi in the court room xxii before the gates xxiii the misfortunes of my house xxiv one secret less xxv "what do you think of him now?" xxvi the telegram book iii the door of mystery xxvii he must be found xxviii the first effort xxix "there is but one thing to do" xxx tempest lodge xxxi escape xxxii the vigil xxxiii the curtain lifted xxxiv dark hollow xxxv sunset illustrations on the instant he recognised that no common interview lay before him after one look he assumed some show of his old commanding presence and advanced bravely down the steps silence! not even heaven spoke "tell me what this means," said he, but he did not turn his head as he made this request book i the woman in purple i where is bela? a high and narrow gate of carefully joined boards, standing ajar in a fence of the same construction! what is there in this to rouse a whole neighbourhood and collect before it a group of eager, anxious, hesitating people? i will tell you. this fence is no ordinary fence, and this gate no ordinary gate; nor is the fact of the latter standing a trifle open, one to be lightly regarded or taken an inconsiderate advantage of. for this is judge ostrander's place, and any one who knows shelby or the gossip of its suburbs, knows that this house of his has not opened its doors to any outsider, man or woman, for over a dozen years; nor have his gates--in saying which, i include the great one in front--been seen in all that time to gape at any one's instance or to stand unclosed to public intrusion, no, not for a moment. the seclusion sought was absolute. the men and women who passed and repassed this corner many times a day were as ignorant as the townspeople in general of what lay behind the grey, monotonous exterior of the weather-beaten boards they so frequently brushed against. the house was there, of course,--they all knew the house, or did once--but there were rumours (no one ever knew how they originated) of another fence, a second barrier, standing a few feet inside the first and similar to it in all respects, even to the gates which corresponded exactly with these outer and visible ones and probably were just as fully provided with bolts and bars. to be sure, these were reports rather than acknowledged facts, but the possibility of their truth roused endless wonder and gave to the eccentricities of this well-known man a mysterious significance which lost little or nothing in the slow passage of years. and now! in the freshness of this summer morning, without warning or any seeming reason for the change, the strict habit of years has been broken into and this gate of gates is not only standing unlocked before their eyes, but a woman--a stranger to the town as her very act shows--has been seen to enter there!--to enter, but not come out; which means that she must still be inside, and possibly in the very presence of the judge. where is bela? why does he allow his errands--but it was bela, or so they have been told, who left this gate ajar ... he, the awe and terror of the town, the enormous, redoubtable, close-mouthed negro, trusted as man is seldom trusted, and faithful to his trust, yes, up to this very hour, as all must acknowledge, in spite of every temptation (and they had been many and alluring) to disclose the secret of this home of which he was not the least interesting factor. what has made him thus suddenly careless, he who has never been careless before? money? a bribe from the woman who had entered there? impossible to believe, his virtue has always been so impeccable, his devotion to his strange and dominating master so sturdy and so seemingly unaffected by time and chance! yet, what else was there to believe? there stood the gate with the pebble holding it away from the post; and here stood half the neighbourhood, staring at that pebble and at the all but invisible crack it made where an opening had never been seen before, in a fascination which had for its motif, not so much the knowledge that these forbidden precincts had been invaded by a stranger, as that they were open to any intruding foot--that they, themselves, if they had courage enough, might go in, just as this woman had gone in, and see--why, what she is seeing now--the unknown, unguessed reason for all these mysteries;--the hidden treasure or the hidden sorrow which would explain why he, their first citizen, the respected, even revered judge of their highest court, should make use of such precautions and show such unvarying determination to bar out all comers from the place he called his home. it had not always been so. within the memory of many there it had been an abode of cheer and good fellowship. not a few of the men and women now hesitating before its portals could boast of meals taken at the judge's ample board, and of evenings spent in animated conversation in the great room where he kept his books and did his writing. but that was before his son left him in so unaccountable a manner; before--yes, all were agreed on this point--before that other bitter ordeal of his middle age, the trial and condemnation of the man who had waylaid and murdered his best friend. though the effect of these combined sorrows had not seemed to be immediate (one month had seen both); though a half-year had elapsed before all sociability was lost in extreme self-absorption, and a full one before he took down the picket-fence which had hitherto been considered a sufficient protection to his simple grounds, and put up these boards which had so completely isolated him from the rest of the world, it was evident enough to the friends who recalled his look and step as he walked the streets with algernon etheridge on one side and his brilliant, ever-successful son on the other, that the change now observable in him was due to the violent sundering of these two ties. affections so centred wreck the lives from which they are torn; and time, which reconciles most men to their losses, had failed to reconcile him to his. grief slowly settled into confirmed melancholy, and melancholy into the eccentricities of which i have spoken and upon which i must now enlarge a trifle further, in order that the curiosity and subsequent action of the small group of people in whom we are interested may be fully understood and, possibly, in some degree pardoned. judge ostrander was, as i have certainly made you see, a recluse of the most uncompromising type; but he was such for only half his time. from ten in the morning till five in the afternoon, he came and went like any other citizen, fulfilling his judicial duties with the same scrupulous care as formerly and with more affability. indeed, he showed at times, and often when it was least expected, a mellowness of temper quite foreign to him in his early days. the admiration awakened by his fine appearance on the bench was never marred now by those quick and rasping tones of an easily disturbed temper which had given edge to his invective when he stood as pleader in the very court where he now presided as judge. but away from the bench, once quit of the courthouse and the town, the man who attempted to accost him on his way to his carriage or sought to waylay him at his own gate, had need of all his courage to sustain the rebuff his presumption incurred. one more detail and i will proceed with my story. the son, a man of great ability who was making his way as a journalist in another city, had no explanation to give of his father's peculiarities. though he never came to shelby--the rupture between the two, if rupture it were, seeming to be complete--there were many who had visited him in his own place of business and put such questions concerning the judge and his eccentric manner of living as must have provoked response had the young man had any response to give. but he appeared to have none. either he was as ignorant as themselves of the causes which had led to his father's habit of extreme isolation, or he showed powers of dissimulation hardly in accordance with the other traits of his admirable character. all of which closed inquiry in this direction, but left the maw of curiosity unsatisfied. and unsatisfied it had remained up to this hour, when through accident--or was it treachery--the barrier to knowledge was down and the question of years seemed at last upon the point of being answered. ii was he living?--was he dead? meantime, a fussy, talkative man was endeavouring to impress the rapidly collecting crowd with the advisability of their entering all together and approaching the judge in a body. "we can say that we felt it to be our dooty to follow this woman in," he argued. "we don't know who she is, or what her errand is. she may mean harm; i've heard of such things, and are we goin' to see the judge in danger and do nothin'?" "oh, the woman's all right," spoke up another voice. "she has a child with her. didn't you say she had a child with her, miss weeks?" "yes, and--" "tell us the whole story, miss weeks. some of us haven't heard it. then if it seems our duty as his neighbours and well-wishers to go in, we'll just go in." the little woman towards whom this appeal--or shall i say command--was directed, flushed a fine colour under so many eyes, but immediately began her ingenuous tale. she had already related it a half dozen times into as many sympathising ears, but she was not one to shirk publicity, for all her retiring manners and meekness of disposition. it was to this effect: she was sitting in her front window sewing. (everybody knew that this window faced the end of the lane in which they were then standing.) the blinds were drawn but not quite, being held in just the desired position by a string. naturally, she could see out without being very plainly seen herself; and quite naturally, too, since she had watched the same proceeding for years, she had her eyes on this gate when bela, prompt to the minute as he always was, issued forth on his morning walk to town for the day's supplies. always exact, always in a hurry--knowing as he did that the judge would not leave for court till his return--he had never, in all the eight years she had been sitting in that window making button-holes, shown any hesitation in his methodical relocking of the gate and subsequent quick departure. but this morning he had neither borne himself with his usual spirit nor moved with his usual promptitude. instead of stepping at once into the lane, he had lingered in the gateway peering to right and left and pushing the gravel aside with his foot in a way so unlike himself that the moment he was out of sight, she could not help running down the lane to see if her suspicions were correct. and they were. not only had he left the gate unlocked, but he had done so purposely. the movement he had made with his foot had been done for the purpose of pushing into place a small pebble, which, as all could see, lay where it would best prevent the gate from closing. what could such treachery mean, and what was her neighbourly duty under circumstances so unparalleled? should she go away, or stop and take one peep just to see that there really was another and similar fence inside of this one? she had about decided that it was only proper for her to enter and make sure that all was right with the judge, when she experienced that peculiar sense of being watched with which all of us are familiar, and turning quickly round, saw a woman looking at her from the road,--a woman all in purple even to the veil which hid her features. a little child was with her, and the two must have stepped into the road from behind some of the bushes, as neither of them were anywhere in sight when she herself came running down from the corner. it was enough to startle any one, especially as the woman did not speak but just stood silent and watchful till miss weeks in her embarrassment began to edge away towards home in the hope that the other would follow her example and so leave the place free for her to return and take the little peep she had promised herself. but before she had gone far, she realised that the other was not following her, but was still standing in the same spot, watching her through a veil the like of which is not to be found in shelby, and which in itself was enough to rouse a decent woman's suspicions. she was so amazed at this that she stepped back and attempted to address the stranger. but before she had got much further than a timid and hesitating madam, the woman, roused into action possibly by her interference, made a quick gesture suggestive of impatience if not rebuke, and moving resolutely towards the gate miss weeks had so indiscreetly left unguarded, pushed it open and disappeared within, dragging the little child after her. the audacity of this act, perpetrated without apology before miss weeks' very eyes, was too much for that lady's equanimity. she stopped stock-still, and, as she did so, beheld the gate swing heavily to and stop an inch from the post, hindered as we know by the intervening pebble. she had scarcely got over the shock of this when plainly from the space beyond she heard a second creaking noise, then the swinging to of another gate, followed, after a breathless moment of intense listening, by a series of more distant sounds, which could only be explained by the supposition that the house door had been reached, opened and passed. "and you didn't follow?" "i didn't dare." "and she's in there still?" "i haven't seen her come out." "then what's the matter with you?" called out a burly, high-strung woman, stepping hastily from the group and laying her hand upon the gate still standing temptingly ajar. "it's no time for nonsense," she announced, as she pushed it open and stepped promptly in, followed by the motley group of men and women who, if they lacked courage to lead, certainly showed willingness enough to follow. one glance and they felt their courage rewarded. rumour, which so often deceives, proved itself correct in this case. a second gate confronted them exactly like the first even to the point of being held open by a pebble placed against the post. and a second fence also! built upon the same pattern as the one they had just passed through; the two forming a double barrier as mysterious to contemplate in fact as it had ever been in fancy. in gazing at these fences and the canyon-like walk stretching between them, the band of curious invaders forgot their prime errand. many were for entering this path whose terminus they could not see for the sharp turns it took in rounding either corner. among them was a couple of girls who had but one thought, as was evinced by their hurried whispers. "if it looks like this in the daytime, what must it be at night!" to which came the quick retort: "i've heard that the judge walks here. imagine it under the moon!" but whatever the mysteries of the place, a greater one awaited them beyond, and presently realising this, they burst with one accord through the second gate into the mass of greenery, which, either from neglect or intention, masked this side of the ostrander homestead. never before had they beheld so lawless a growth or a house so completely lost amid vines and shrubbery. so unchecked had been the spread of verdure from base to chimney, that the impression made by the indistinguishable mass was one of studied secrecy and concealment. not a window remained in view, and had it not been for some chance glimmers here and there where some small, unguarded portion of the enshrouded panes caught and reflected the sunbeams, they could not have told where they were located in these once well-known walls. two solemn fir trees, which were all that remained of an old-time and famous group, kept guard over the untended lawn, adding their suggestion of age and brooding melancholy to the air of desolation infecting the whole place. one might be approaching a tomb for all token that appeared of human presence. even sound was lacking. it was like a painted scene--a dream of human extinction. instinctively the women faltered and the men drew back; then the very silence caused a sudden reaction, and with one simultaneous rush, they made for the only entrance they saw and burst without further ceremony into the house. a common hall and common furnishings confronted them. they had entered at the side and were evidently close upon the kitchen. more they could not gather; for blocked as the doorway was by their crowding figures, the little light which sifted in over their heads was not enough to show up details. but it was even darker in the room towards which their determined leader now piloted them. here there was no light at all; or if some stray glimmer forced its way through the network of leaves swathing the outer walls, it was of too faint a character to reach the corners or even to make the furniture about them distinguishable. halting with one accord in what seemed to be the middle of the uncarpeted floor, they waited for some indication of a clear passageway to the great room where the judge would undoubtedly be found in conversation with his strange guest, unless, forewarned by their noisy entrance, he should have risen already to meet them. in that case they might expect at any minute to see his tall form emerging in anger upon them through some door at present unseen. this possibility, new to some but recognised from the first by others, fluttered the breasts of such as were not quite impervious to a sense of their own presumption, and as they stood in a close group, swaying from side to side in a vain endeavour to see their way through the gloom before them, the whimper of a child and the muttered ejaculations of the men testified that the general feeling was one of discontent which might very easily end in an outburst of vociferous expression. but the demon of curiosity holds fast and as soon as their eyes had become sufficiently used to the darkness to notice the faint line of light marking the sill of a door directly in front of them, they all plunged forward in spite of the fear i have mentioned. the woman of the harsh voice and self-satisfied demeanour, who had started them upon this adventure, was still ahead; but even she quailed when, upon laying her hand upon the panel of the door she was the first to reach, she felt it to be cold and knew it to be made not of wood but of iron. how great must be the treasure or terrible the secret to make necessary such extraordinary precautions! was it for her to push open this door, and so come upon discoveries which-but here her doubts were cut short by finding herself face to face with a heavy curtain instead of a yielding door. the pressure of the crowd behind had precipitated her past the latter into a small vestibule which acted as an ante-chamber to the very room they were in search of. the shock restored her self-possession. bracing herself, she held her place for a moment, while she looked back, with a finger laid on her lip. the light was much better here and they could all see both the move she made and the expression which accompanied it. "look at this!" she whispered, pushing the curtain inward with a quick movement. her hand had encountered no resistance. there was nothing between them and the room beyond but a bit of drapery. "now hark, all of you," fell almost soundlessly from her lips, as she laid her own ear against the curtain. and they hearkened. not a murmur came from within, not so much as the faintest rustle of clothing or the flutter of a withheld breath. all was perfectly still--too still. as the full force of this fact impressed itself upon them, a blankness settled over their features. the significance of this undisturbed quiet was making itself felt. if the two were there, or if he were there alone, they would certainly hear some movement, voluntary or involuntary--and they could hear nothing. was the woman gone? had she found her way out front while they approached from the rear? and the judge! was he gone also?--this man of inalterable habits--gone before bela's return--a thing he had not been known to do in the last twelve years? no, no, this could not be. yet even this supposition was not so incredible as that he should still be here and silent. men like him do not hold their peace under a provocation so great as the intrusion of a mob of strangers into a spot where he never anticipated seeing anybody, nor had seen anybody but his man bela for years. soon they would hear his voice. it was not in nature for him to be as quiet as this in face of such audacity. yet who could count upon the actions of an ostrander, or reckon with the imperious whims of a man mysterious beyond all precedent?--he may be there but silent, or-a single glance would settle all. the woman drew the curtain. sunshine! a stream of it, dazzling them almost to blindness and sending them, one and all, pellmell back upon each other! however dismal the approach, here all was in brilliant light with every evidence before them of busy life. the room was not only filled, but crammed, with furniture. this was the first thing they noticed; then, as their blinking eyes became accustomed to the glare and to the unexpected confusion of tables and chairs and screens and standing receptacles for books and pamphlets and boxes labelled and padlocked, they beheld something else; something, which once seen, held the eye from further wandering and made the apprehensions from which they had suffered sink into insignificance before a real and only too present terror. the judge was there! but in what a condition. from the end of the forty foot room, his seated figure confronted them, silent, staring and unmoving. with clenched fingers gripping the arms of his great chair, and head held forward, he looked like one frozen at the moment of doom, such the expression of features usually so noble, and now almost unrecognisable were it not for the snow of his locks and his unmistakable brow. frozen! not an eyelash quivered, nor was there any perceptible movement in his sturdy chest. his eyes were on their eyes, but he saw no one; and down upon his head and over his whole form the sunshine poured from a large window let into the ceiling directly above him, lighting up the strained and unnatural aspect of his remarkable countenance and bringing into sharp prominence the commonplace objects cluttering the table at his elbow; such as his hat and gloves, and the bundle of papers he had doubtless made ready for court. was he living? was he dead?--stricken by the sight of so many faces in a doorway considered sacred from all intrusion? no! the emotion capable of thus transforming the features of so strong a man must have a deeper source than that. the woman was to blame for this--the audacious, the unknown, the mysteriously clad woman. let her be found. let her be made to explain herself and the condition into which she had thrown this good man. indignation burst into words, and pity was beginning to voice itself in inarticulate murmurs which swelled and ebbed, now louder, now more faintly as the crowd surged forward or drew back, appalled by that moveless, breathless, awe-compelling figure. indignation and pity were at their height when the strain which held them all in one common leash was loosed by the movement of a little child. attracted possibly by what it did not understand, or simply made fearless because of its non-comprehension of the mystery before him, a curly-haired boy suddenly escaped its mother's clutch, and, toddling up by a pathway of his own to the awesome form in the great chair, laid his little hand on the judge's rigid arm and, looking up into his face, babbled out: "why don't you get up, man? i like oo better up." a breathless moment; then the horrified murmur rose here, there and everywhere: "he's dead! he's dead!" and the mother, with a rush, caught the child back, and confusion began its reign, when quietly and convincingly a bluff and masculine voice spoke from the doorway behind them and they heard: "you needn't be frightened. in an hour or a half-hour he will be the same as ever. my aunt has such attacks. they call it catalepsy." iii bela the redoubtable catalepsy! a dread word to the ignorant. imperceptibly the crowd dwindled; the most discreet among them quite content to leave the house; others, with their curiosity inflamed anew, to poke about and peer into corners and curtained recesses while the opportunity remained theirs and the man of whom they stood in fear sat lapsed in helpless unconsciousness. a few, and these the most thoughtful, devoted all their energies to a serious quest for the woman and child whom they continued to believe to be in hiding somewhere inside the walls she had so audaciously entered. among these was miss weeks whose importance none felt more than herself, and it was at her insistence and under her advice (for she only, of all who remained, had ever had a previous acquaintance with the house) that the small party decided to start their search by a hasty inspection of the front hall. as this could not be reached from the room where its owner's motionless figure sat at its grim watch, they were sidling hastily out, with eyes still turned back in awful fascination upon those other eyes which seemed to follow all their movements and yet gave no token of life, when a shout and scramble in the passages beyond cut short their intent and held them panting and eager, each to his place. "they've seen her! they've found her!" ran in quick, whispered suggestion from lip to lip, and some were for rushing to see. but miss weeks' trim and precise figure blocked the doorway, and she did not move. "hark!" she murmured in quick admonishment; "what is that other sound? something is happening--something dreadful. what is it? it does not seem to be near here yet, but it is coming--coming." frightened in spite of themselves, both by her manner and tone, they drew their gaze from the rigid figure in the chair, and, with bated breaths and rapidly paling cheeks, listened to the distant murmur on the far-off road, plainly to be heard pulsing through the nearer sounds of rushing feet and chattering voices in the rooms about. what was it? they could not guess, and it was with unbounded relief they pressed forward to greet the shadowy form of a young girl hurrying towards them from the rear, with news in her face. she spoke quickly and before miss weeks could frame her question. "the woman is gone. harry doane saw her sliding out behind us just after we came in. she was hiding in some of the corners here, and slipped out by the kitchen-way when we were not looking. he has gone to see--" but interesting as this was, the wonder of the now rapidly increasing hubbub was more so. a mob was at the gates! men, women and children shouting, panting and making loud calls. breathlessly miss weeks cut the girl's story short; breathlessly she rushed to the nearest window, and, helped by willing hands, succeeded in forcing it up and tearing a hole in the vines, through which they one and all looked out in eager excitement. a motley throng of people were crowding in through the double gateway. some one was in their grasp. was it the woman? no; it was bela! bela, the giant! bela, the terror of the town, but no longer a terror now but a struggling, half-fainting figure, fighting to free itself and get in advance, despite some awful hurt which blanched his coal-black features into an indescribable hue and made his great limbs falter and his gasping mouth writhe in anguish while still keeping his own and making his way, by sheer force of will, up the path and the two steps of entrance--his body alternately sinking back or plunging forward as those in the rear or those in front got the upper hand. it was an awful and a terrifying sight to little miss weeks and, screaming loudly, she left her window and ran, scattering her small party before her like sheep, not into the near refuge of the front hall and its quiet parlours, but into the very spot towards which this mob seemed headed--the great library pulsing with its own terror, in the shape of the yet speechless and unconscious man to whom the loudest noise and the most utter silence were yet as one, and the worst struggle of human passion a blank lost in unmeaning chaos. why this instinctive move? she could not tell. impulse prevailed, and without a thought she flew into judge ostrander's presence, and, gazing wildly about, wormed her way towards a heavily carved screen guarding a distant corner, and cowered down behind it. what awaited her? what awaited the judge? as the little woman shook with terror in her secret hiding-place she felt that she had played him false; that she had no right to save herself by the violation of a privacy she should have held in awe. she was paying for her temerity now, paying for it with every terrible moment that her suspense endured. the gasping, struggling men, the frantic negro, were in the next room now--she could catch the sound of the latter's panting breath rising above the clamour of strange entreaties and excited cries with which the air was full; then a quick, hoarse shout of "judge! judge!" rose in the doorway, and she became conscious of the presence of a headlong, rushing force struck midway into silence as the frozen figure of his master flashed upon the negro's eyes;--then,--a growl of concentrated emotion, uttered almost in her ear, and the screen which had been her refuge was violently thrust away from before her, and in its place she beheld a terrible being standing over her, in whose eyes, dilating under this fresh surprise, she beheld her doom, even while recognising that if she must suffer it would be simply as an obstacle to some goal at her back which he must reach--now--before he fell in his blood and died. what was this goal? as she felt herself lifted, nay, almost hurled aside, she turned to see and found it to be a door before which the devoted bela had now thrown himself, guarding it with every inch of his powerful but rapidly sinking body, and chattering defiance with his bloodless, quivering lips--a figure terrible in anger, sublime in purpose, and piteous in its failing energies. "back! all of you!" he cried, and stopped, clutching at the door-casing on either side to hold himself erect. "you cannot come in here. this is the judge's--" not even his iron resolve or once unequalled physique could stand the sapping of the terrible gash which disfigured his forehead. he had been run over by an automobile in a moment of blind abstraction, and his hurt was mortal. but though his tongue refused to finish, his eye still possessed its power to awe and restrain. though the crowd had followed him almost into the centre of the room, they felt themselves held back by the spirit of this man, who as long as he lived and breathed would hold himself a determined barrier between them and what he had been set to guard. as long as he lived and breathed. alas! that would be but a little while now. already his head, held erect by the passion of his purpose, was sinking on his breast; already his glazing eye was losing its power of concentration, when with a final rally of his decaying strength, he started erect again and cried out in terrible appeal: "i have disobeyed the judge, and, as you see, it has killed him. do not make me guilty of giving away his secret. swear that you will leave this door unpassed; swear that no one but his son shall ever turn this lock; or i will haunt you, i, bela, man by man, till you sink in terror to your graves. swear! sw--" the last adjuration ended in a moan. his head fell forward again and in that intense moment of complete silence they could hear the splash of his life-blood as it dropped from his forehead on to the polished boards beneath; then he threw up his arms and fell in a heap to the floor. they had not been driven to answer. wherever that great soul had gone, his ears were no longer open to mortal promise, nor would any oath from the lip of man avail to smooth his way into the shadowy unknown. "dead!" broke from little miss weeks as she flung herself down in reckless abandonment at his side. she had never known an agitation beyond some fluttering woman's hope she had stifled as soon as born, and now she knelt in blood. "dead!" she again repeated. and there was no one this time to cry: "you need not be frightened; in a few minutes he will be himself again." the master might reawaken to life, but never more the man. a solemn hush, then a mighty sigh of accumulated emotion swept from lip to lip, and the crowd of later invaders, already abashed if not terrified by the unexpected spectacle of suspended animation which confronted them from the judge's chair, shrank tumultuously back as little miss weeks advanced upon them, holding out her meagre arms in late defence of the secret to save which she had just seen a man die. "let us do as he wished," she prayed. "i feel myself much to blame. what right had we to come in here?" "the fellow was hurt. we were just bringing him home," spoke up a voice, rough with the surprise of unaccustomed feeling. "if he had let us carry him, he might have been alive this minute; but he would run and struggle to keep us back. he says he killed his master. if so, his death is a retribution. don't you say so, fellows? the judge was a good man---" "hush! hush! the judge is all right," admonished one of the party; "he'll be waking up soon"; and then, as every eye flew in fresh wonder towards the chair and its impassive occupant, the low whisper was heard,--no one ever could tell from whose lips it fell: "if we are ever to know this wonderful secret, now is the time, before he wakes and turns us out of the house." no one in authority was present; no one representing the law, not even a doctor; only haphazard persons from the street and a few neighbours who had not been on social terms with the judge for years and never expected to be so again. his secret!--always a source of wonder to every inhabitant of shelby, but lifted now into a matter of vital importance by the events of the day and the tragic death of the negro! were they to miss its solution, when only a door lay between it and them--a door which they might not even have to unlock? if the judge should rouse,--if from a source of superstitious terror he became an active one, how pat their excuse might be. they were but seeking a proper place--a couch--a bed--on which to lay the dead man. they had been witness to his hurt; they had been witness to his death, and were they to leave him lying in his blood, to shock the eyes of his master when he came out of his long swoon? no tongue spoke these words, but the cunning visible in many an eye and the slight start made by more than one eager foot in the direction of the forbidden door gave miss weeks sufficient warning of what she might expect in another moment. making the most of her diminutive figure,--such a startling contrast to the one which had just dominated there!--she was about to utter an impassioned appeal to their honour, when the current of her and their thoughts, as well as the direction of all looks, was changed by a sudden sense common to all, of some strange new influence at work in the room, and turning, they beheld the judge upon his feet, his mind awakened, but his eyes still fixed--an awesome figure; some thought more awesome than before; for the terror which still held him removed from all about, was no longer passive but active and had to do with what no man there could understand or alleviate. death was present with them--he saw it not. strangers were making havoc with his solitude--he was as oblivious of their presence as he had been unconscious of it before. his faculties and all his attention were absorbed by the thought which had filled his brain when the cogs of that subtle mechanism had slipped and his faculties paused inert. this was shown by his first question: "where is the woman?" it was a cry of fear; not of mastery. iv "and where was i when all this happened?" the intensity of the question, the compelling, self-forgetful passion of the man, had a startling effect upon the crowd of people huddled before him. with one accord, and without stopping to pick their way, they made for the open doorway, knocking the smaller pieces of furniture about and creating havoc generally. some fled the house; others stopped to peer in again from behind the folds of the curtain which had been only partially torn from its fastenings. miss weeks was the only one to stand her ground. when the room was quite cleared and the noise abated (it was a frightful experience to see how little the judge had been affected by all this hubbub of combined movement and sound), she stepped within the line of his vision and lifted her feeble and ineffectual hand in an effort to attract his attention to herself. but he did not notice her, any more than he had noticed the others. still looking in the one direction, he cried aloud in troubled tones: "she stood there! the woman stood there and i saw her! where is she now?" "she is no longer in the house," came in gentle reply from the only one in or out of the room courageous enough to speak. "she went out when she saw us coming. we knew that she had no right to be here. that is why we intruded ourselves, sir. we did not like the looks of her, and so followed her in to prevent mischief." "ah!" the expletive fell unconsciously. he seemed to be trying to adjust himself to some mental experience he could neither share with others nor explain to himself. "she was here, then?--a woman with a little child? it wasn't an illusion, a--." memory was coming back and with it a realisation of his position. stopping short, he gazed down from his great height upon the trembling little body of whose identity he had but a vague idea, and thundered out in great indignation: "how dared you! how dared she!" then as his mind regained its full poise, "and how, even if you had the temerity to venture an entrance here, did you manage to pass my gates? they are never open. bela sees to that." bela! he may have observed the pallor which blanched her small, tense features as this name fell so naturally from his lips, or some instinct of his own may have led him to suspect tragedy where all was so abnormally still, for, as she watched, she saw his eyes, fixed up to now upon her face, leave it and pass furtively and with many hesitations from object to object, towards that spot behind him, where lay the source of her great terror, if not of his. so lingeringly and with such dread was this done, that she could barely hold back her weak woman's scream in the intensity of her suspense. she knew just where his glances fell without following them with her own. she saw them pass the door where so many faces yet peered in (he saw them not), and creep along the wall beyond, inch by inch, breathlessly and with dread, till finally, with fatal precision, they reached the point where the screen had stood, and not finding it, flew in open terror to the door it was set there to conceal--when that something else, huddled in oozing blood, on the floor beneath, drew them unto itself with the irresistibleness of grim reality, and he forgot all else in the horror of a sight for which his fears, however great, had failed to prepare him. dead! bela! dead! and lying in his blood! the rest may have been no dream, but this was surely one, or his eyes, used to inner visions, were playing him false. grasping the table at his side to steady his failing limbs, he pulled himself along by its curving edge till he came almost abreast of the helpless figure which for so many years had been the embodiment of faithful and unwearied service. then and then only, did the truth of his great misfortune burst upon his bewildered soul; and with a cry which tore the ears of all hearers and was never forgotten by any one there, he flung himself down beside the dead negro, and, turning him hastily over, gazed in his face. was that a sob? yes; thus much the heart gave; but next moment the piteous fact of loss was swallowed up in the recognition of its manner, and, bounding to his feet with the cry, "killed! killed at his post!" he confronted the one witness of his anguish of whose presence he was aware, and fiercely demanded: "where are the wretches who have done this? no single arm could have knocked down bela. he has been set upon--beaten with clubs, and--" here his thought was caught up by another, and that one so fearsome and unsettling that bewilderment again followed rage, and with the look of a haunted spirit, he demanded in a voice made low by awe and dread of its own sound, "and where was i, when all this happened?" "you? you were seated there," murmured the little woman, pointing at the great chair. "you were not--quite--quite yourself," she softly explained, wondering at her own composure. then quickly, as she saw his thoughts revert to the dead friend at his feet, "bela was not hurt here. he was down town when it happened; but he managed to struggle home and gain this place, which he tried to hold against the men who followed him. he thought you were dead, you sat there so rigid and so white, and, before he quite gave up, he asked us all to promise not to let any one enter this room till your son oliver came." understanding partly, but not yet quite clear in his mind, the judge sighed, and stooping again, straightened the faithful negro's limbs. then, with a side-long look in her direction, he felt in one of the pockets of the dead negro's coat, and drawing out a small key, held it in one hand while he fumbled in his own for another, which found, he became on the instant his own man again. miss weeks, seeing the difference in him, and seeing too, that the doorway was now clear of the wondering, awestruck group which had previously blocked it, bowed her slight body and proceeded to withdraw; but the judge, staying her by a gesture, she waited patiently near one of the book-racks against which she had stumbled, to hear what he had to say. "i must have had an attack of some kind," he calmly remarked. "will you be good enough to explain exactly what occurred here that i may more fully comprehend my own misfortune and the death of this faithful friend?" then she saw that his faculties were now fully restored, and came a step forward. but before she could begin her story, he added this searching question: "was it he who let you in--you and others--i think you said others? was it he who unlocked my gates?" miss weeks sighed and betrayed fluster. it was not easy to relate her story; besides it was wofully incomplete. she knew nothing of what had happened down town, she could only tell what had passed before her eyes. but there was one thing she could make clear, to him, and that was how the seemingly impassable gates had been made ready for the woman's entrance and afterwards taken such advantage of by herself and others. a pebble had done it all,--a pebble placed in the gateway by bela's hands. as she described this, and insisted upon the fact in face of the judge's almost frenzied disclaimer, she thought she saw the hair move on his forehead. bela a traitor, and in the interests of the woman who had fronted him from the other end of the room at the moment consciousness had left him! evidently this intrusive little body did not know bela or his story, or-why should interruption come then? why was he stopped, when in the passion of the moment, he might have let fall some word of enlightenment which would have eased the agitated curiosity of the whole town! miss weeks often asked herself this question, and bewailed the sudden access of sounds in the rooms without, which proclaimed the entrance of the police and put a new strain upon the judge's faculty of self-control and attention to the one matter in hand. the commonplaces of an official inquiry were about to supersede the play of a startled spirit struggling with a problem of whose complexities he had received but a glimpse. v "she wore purple" the library again! but how changed! evening light now instead of blazing sunshine; and evening light so shaded that the corners seemed far and the many articles of furniture, cumbering the spaces between, larger for the shadows in which they stood hidden. perhaps the man who sat there in company with the judge regretted this. perhaps, he would have preferred to see more perfectly that portion of the room where bela had taken his stand and finally fallen. it would have been interesting to note whether the screen had been replaced before the mysterious door which this most devoted of servants had protected to his last gasp. curiosity is admissible, even in a man, when the cause is really great. but from the place where he sat there was no getting any possible view of that part of the wall or of anything connected with it; and so, with every appearance of satisfaction at being allowed in the room at all, sergeant doolittle from headquarters, drank the judge's wine and listened for the judge's commands. these were slow in coming, and they were unexpected when they came. "sergeant, i have lost a faithful servant under circumstances which have called an unfortunate attention to my house. i should like to have this place guarded--carefully guarded, you understand--from any and all intrusion till i can look about me and secure protection of my own. may i rely upon the police to do this, beginning to-night at an early hour? there are loiterers already at the corner and in front of the two gates. i am not accustomed to these attentions, and ask to have my fence cleared." "two men are already detailed for the job, your honour. i heard the order given just as i left headquarters." the judge showed small satisfaction. indeed, in his silence there was the hint of something like displeasure. this surprised sergeant doolittle and led him to attempt to read its cause in his host's countenance. but the shade of the lamp intervened too completely, and he had to be content to wait till the judge chose to speak, which he presently did, though not in the exact tones the sergeant expected. "two men! couldn't i have three? one for each gate and one to patrol the fence separating these grounds from the adjoining lot?" the sergeant hesitated; he felt an emotion of wonder--a sense of something more nearly approaching the uncanny than was usual to his matter-of-fact mind. he had heard, often enough, what store the judge set on his privacy and of the extraordinary measures he had taken to insure it, but that a man, even if he aped the hermit, should consider three men necessary to hold the public away from a two hundred and fifty foot lot argued apprehensions of a character verging on the ridiculous. but he refrained from expressing his surprise and replied, after a minute of thought: "if two men are not enough to ensure you a quiet sleep, you shall have three or four or even more, judge ostrander. do you want one of them to stay inside? that might do the business better than a dozen out." "no. while bela lies above ground, we want no third here. when he is buried, i may call upon you for a special to watch my room door. but it's of outside protection we're talking now. only, who is to protect me against your men?" "what do you mean by that, your honour?" "they are human, are they not? they have instincts of curiosity like the rest of us. how can i be made sure that they won't yield to the temptation of their position and climb the fences they are detailed to guard?" "and would this be so fatal to your peace, judge?" a smile tempered the suggestion. "it would be a breach of trust which would greatly disturb me. i want nobody on my grounds, nobody at all. has not my long life of solitude within these walls sufficiently proved this? i want to feel that these men of yours would no more climb my fence than they would burst into my house without a warrant." "judge, i will be one of the men. you can trust me." "thank you, sergeant; i appreciate the favour. i shall rest now as quietly as any man can who has met with a great loss. the coroner's inquiry has decided that the injuries which bela received in the street were of a fatal character and would have killed him within an hour, even if he had not exhausted his strength in the effort he made to return to his home and die in my presence. but i shall always suffer from regret that i was not in a condition to receive his last sigh. he was a man in a thousand. one seldom sees his like among white or black." "he was a very powerfully built man. it took a sixty horse-power racing machine, going at a high rate of speed, to kill him." a spasm of grief or unavailing regret crossed the judge's face as his head sank back again against the high back of his chair. "enough," said he; "tread softly when you go by the sofa on which he lies. will you fill your glass again, sergeant?" the sergeant declined. "not if my watch is to be effective to-night," he smiled, and rose to depart. the judge, grown suddenly thoughtful, rapped with his finger-tips on the table-edge. he had not yet risen to show his visitor out. "i should like to ask a question," he finally observed, motioning the other to re-seat himself. "you were not at the inquiry this afternoon, and may not know that just as bela and the crowd about him turned this corner, they ran into a woman leading a small child, who stopped the whole throng in order to address him. no one heard what she said; and no one could give any information as to who she was or in what direction she vanished. but i saw that woman myself, earlier. she was in this house. she was in this room. she came as far as that open space just inside the doorway. i can describe her, and will, if you will consent to look for her. it is to be a money transaction, sergeant, and if she is found and no stir made and no talk started among the force, i will pay all that you think it right to demand." "let me hear her description, your honour." the judge, who had withdrawn into the shadow, considered for a moment, then said: "i cannot describe her features, for she was heavily veiled; neither can i describe her figure except to say that she is tall and slender. but her dress i remember to the last detail, though i am not usually so observant. she wore purple; not an old woman's purple, but a soft shade which did not take from her youth. there was something floating round her shoulders of the same colour, and on her arms were long gloves such as you see our young ladies wear. the child did not seem to belong to her, though she held her tightly by the hand. i mean by that, that its clothes were of a coarser material than hers and perhaps were a little soiled. if the child wore a hat, i do not remember it. in age it appeared to be about six--or that was the impression i received before--" the sergeant, who had been watching the speaker very closely, leaned forward with a hasty, inquiring glance expressive of something like consternation. was the judge falling again into unconsciousness? was he destined to witness in this solitary meeting a return of the phenomenon which had so startled the intruding populace that morning? no, or if he had been witness to something of the kind, it was for a moment only; for the eyes which had gone blank had turned his way again, and only a disconnected expression which fell from the judge's lips, showed that his mind had been wandering. "it's not the same but another one; that's all." inconsequent words, but the sergeant meant to remember them, for with their utterance, a change passed over the judge; and his manner, which had been constrained and hurried during his attempted description, became at once more natural, and therefore more courteous. "do you think you can find her with such insufficient data? a woman dressed in purple, leading a little child without any hat?" "judge, i not only feel sure that i can find her, but i think she is found already. do you remember the old tavern on the rushville road? i believe they call it an inn now, or some such fancy name." the judge sat quiet, but the sergeant who dared not peer too closely, noticed a sudden constriction in the fingers of the hand with which his host fingered a paper-cutter lying on the table between them. "the one where--" "i respect your hesitation, judge. yes, the one run by the man you sentenced--" a gesture had stopped him. he waited respectfully for the judge's next words. they came quickly and with stern and solemn emphasis. "for a hideous and wholly unprovoked crime. why do you mention it and--and his tavern?" "because of something i have lately heard in its connection. you know that the old house has been all made over since that time and run as a place of resort for automobilists in search of light refreshments. the proprietor's name is yardley. we have nothing against him; the place is highly respectable. but it harbours a boarder, a permanent one, i believe, who has occasioned no little comment. no one has ever seen her face; unless it is the landlord's wife. she has all her meals served in her room, and when she goes out she wears the purple dress and purple veil you've been talking about. perhaps she's your visitor of to-day. hadn't i better find out?" "has she a child? is she a mother?" "i haven't heard of any child, but mrs. yardley has seven." the judge's hand withdrew from the table and for an instant the room was so quiet that you could hear some far-off clock ticking out the minutes. then judge ostrander rose and in a peremptory tone said: "to-morrow. after you hear from me again. make no move to-night. let me feel that all your energies are devoted to securing my privacy." the sergeant, who had sprung to his feet at the same instant as the judge, cast a last look about him, curiosity burning in his heart and a sort of desperate desire to get all he could out of his present opportunity. for he felt absolutely sure that he would never be allowed to enter this room again. but the arrangement of light was such as to hold in shadow all but the central portion of the room; and this central portion held nothing out of the common--nothing to explain the mysteries of the dwelling or the apprehensions of its suspicious owner. with a sigh, the sergeant dropped his eyes from the walls he could barely distinguish, and following judge ostrander's lead, passed with him under the torn folds of the curtain and through the narrow vestibule whose door was made of iron, into the room, where, in a stronger blaze of light than they had left, lay the body of the dead negro awaiting the last rites. would the judge pass this body, or turn away from it towards a door leading front? the sergeant had come in at the rear, but he greatly desired to go out front, as this would give him so much additional knowledge of the house. unexpectedly to himself, the judge's intentions were in the direction of his own wishes. he was led front; and, entering an old-fashioned hall dimly lighted, passed a staircase and two closed doors, both of which gave him the impression of having been shut upon a past it had pleasured no one to revive in many years. beyond them was the great front door of colonial style and workmanship, a fine specimen once, but greatly disfigured now by the bolts and bars which had been added to it in satisfaction of the judge's ideas of security. many years had passed since judge ostrander had played the host; but he had not lost a sense of its obligations. it was for him to shoot the bolts and lift the bars; but he went about it so clumsily and with such evident aversion to the task, that the sergeant instinctively sprang to help him. "i shall miss bela at every turn," remarked the judge, turning with a sad smile as he finally pulled the door open. "this is an unaccustomed effort for me. excuse my awkwardness." something in his attitude, something in the way he lifted his hand to push back a fallen lock from his forehead, impressed itself upon the sergeant's mind so vividly that he always remembered the judge as he appeared to him at that minute. certainly there were but few men like him in the country, and none in his own town. of a commanding personality by reason of his height, his features were of a cast to express his mental attributes and enforce attention, and the incongruity between his dominating figure and the apprehensions which he displayed in these multiplied and extraordinary arrangements for personal security was forcible enough to arouse any man's interest. the sergeant was so occupied by the mystery of the man and the mystery of the house that they had passed the first gate (which the judge had unlocked without much difficulty) before he realised that there still remained something of interest for him to see and to talk about later. the two dark openings on either side, raised questions which the most unimaginative mind would feel glad to hear explained. ere the second gate swung open and he found himself again in the street, he had built up more than one theory in explanation of this freak of parallel fences with the strip of gloom between. would he have felt the suggestion of the spot still more deeply, had it been given him to see the anxious and hesitating figure which, immediately upon his departure entered this dark maze, and with feeling hands and cautious step, wound its way from corner to corner--now stopping abruptly to listen, now shrinking from some imaginary presence--a shadow among shadows--till it stood again between the gates from which it had started. possibly; even the hardiest of men respond to the unusual, and prove themselves not ungifted with imagination when brought face to face with that for which their experience furnishes no precedent. vi across the bridge it was ten o'clock, not later, when the judge re-entered his front door. he was alone,--absolutely alone, as he had never been since that night of long ago, when with the inner fence completed and the gates all locked, he turned to the great negro at his side and quietly said: "we are done with the world, bela. are you satisfied to share this solitude with me?" and bela had replied: "night and day, your honour. and when you are not here,--when you are at court, to bear it alone." and now this faithful friend was dead, and it was he who must bear it alone,--alone! how could he face it! he sought for no answer, nor did he allow himself to dwell for one minute on the thought. there was something else he must do first,--do this very night, if possible. taking down his hat from the rack he turned and went out again, this time carefully locking the door behind him, also the first gate. but he stopped to listen before lifting his hand to the second one. a sound of steady breathing, accompanied by a few impatient movements, came from the other side. a man was posted there within a foot of the gate. noiselessly the judge recoiled, and made his way around to the other set of gates. here all was quiet enough, and sliding quickly out, he cast a hasty glance up and down the lane, and seeing nothing more alarming than the back of a second officer lounging at the corner, pulled the gate quietly to, and locked it. he was well down the road towards the ravine, before the officer turned. the time has now come for giving you a clearer idea of this especial neighbourhood. judge ostrander's house, situated as you all know at the juncture of an unimportant road with the main highway, had in its rear three small houses, two of them let and one still unrented. farther on, but on the opposite side of the way, stood a very old dwelling in which there lived and presumably worked, a solitary woman, the sole and final survivor of a large family. beyond was the ravine, cutting across the road and terminating it. this ravine merits some description. it was a picturesque addition to the town through which it cut at the point of greatest activity. with the various bridges connecting the residence portion with the lower business streets we have nothing to do. but there was a nearer one of which the demands of my story necessitate a clear presentation. this bridge was called long, and spanned the ravine and its shallow stream of water not a quarter of a mile below the short road or lane we have just seen judge ostrander enter. between it and this lane, a narrow path ran amid the trees and bushes bordering the ravine. this path was seldom used, but when it was, it acted as a short cut to a certain part of the town mostly given over to factories. indeed the road of which this bridge formed a part was called factory on this account. starting from the main highway a half mile or so below ostrander lane, it ran diagonally back to the bridge, where it received a turn which sent it south and east again towards the lower town. a high bluff rose at this point, which made the farther side of the ravine much more imposing than the one on the near side where the slope was gradual. this path, and even the bridge itself, were almost wholly unlighted. they were seldom used at night--seldom used at any time. but it was by this route the judge elected to go into town; not for the pleasure of the walk, as was very apparent from the extreme depression of his manner, but from some inward necessity which drove him on, against his wishes, possibly against his secret misgivings. he had met no one in his short walk down the lane, but for all that, he paused before entering the path just mentioned, to glance back and see if he were being watched or followed. when satisfied that he was not, he looked up, from the solitary waste where he stood, to the cheerless heavens and sighed; then forward into the mass of impenetrable shadow that he must yet traverse and shuddered as many another had shuddered ere beginning this walk. for it was near the end of this path, in full sight of the bridge he must cross, that his friend, algernon etheridge, had been set upon and murdered so many years before; and the shadow of this ancient crime still lingered over the spot, deepening its natural gloom even for minds much less sympathetic and responsive to spiritual influences than judge ostrander. but this shudder, whether premonitory or just the involuntary tribute of friend to friend, did not prevent his entering the path or following its line of shadow as it rose and dipped in its course down the gorge. i have spoken of the cheerlessness of the heavens. it was one of those nights when the sky, piled thick with hurrying clouds, hangs above one like a pall. but the moon, hidden behind these rushing masses, was at its full, and the judge soon found that he could see his way better than he had anticipated--better than was desirable, perhaps. he had been on the descent of the path for some little time now, and could not be far from the more level ground which marked the approach to long bridge. determined not to stop or to cast one faltering look to right or left, he hurried on with his eyes fixed upon the ground and every nerve braced to resist the influence of the place and its undying memories. but with the striking of his foot against the boards of the bridge, nature was too much for him, and his resolve vanished. instead of hastening on, he stopped; and, having stopped, paused long enough to take in all the features of the scene, and any changes which time might have wrought. he even forced his shrinking eyes to turn and gaze upon the exact spot where his beloved algernon had been found, with his sightless eyes turned to the sky. this latter place, singular in that it lay open to the opposite bank without the mask of bush or tree to hide it, was in immediate proximity to the end of the bridge he had attempted to cross. it bore the name of dark hollow, and hollow and dark it looked in the universal gloom. but the power of its associations was upon him, and before he knew it, he was retracing his steps as though drawn by a magnetism he could not resist, till he stood within this hollow and possibly on the very foot of ground from the mere memory of which he had recoiled for years. a moment of contemplation--a sigh, such as only escapes the bursting heart in moments of extreme grief or desolation--and he tore his eyes from the ground to raise them slowly but with deep meaning to where the high line of trees on the opposite side of the ravine met the grey vault of the sky. darkness piled itself against darkness, but with a difference to one who knew all the undulations of this bluff and just where it ended in the sheer fall which gave a turn to the road at the farther end of the bridge. but it was not upon the mass of undistinguishable tree-tops or the line they made against the sky that his gaze lingered. it was on something more material; something which rose from the brow of the hill in stark and curious outline not explainable in itself, but clear enough to one who had seen its shape by daylight. judge ostrander had thus seen it many times in the past, and knew just where to look for the one remaining chimney and solitary gable of a house struck many years before by lightning and left a grinning shell to mock the eye of all who walked this path or crossed this bridge. black amid blackness, with just the contrast of its straight lines to the curve of natural objects about it, it commanded the bluff, summoning up memories of an evil race cut short in a moment by an outraged providence, and judge ostrander marking it, found himself muttering aloud as he dragged himself slowly away: "why should time, so destructive elsewhere, leave one stone upon another of this accursed ruin?" alas! heaven has no answer for such questions. when he had reached the middle of the bridge, he stopped short to look back at dark hollow and utter in a smothered groan, which would not be repressed, a name which by all the rights of the spot should have been algernon's, but was not. the utterance of this name seemed to startle him, for, with a shuddering look around, he hastily traversed the rest of the bridge, and took the turn about the hill to where factory road branched off towards the town. here he stopped again and for the first time revealed the true nature of his destination. for when he moved on again it was to take the road along the bluff, and not the one leading directly into town. this meant a speedy passing by the lightning-struck house. he knew this of course, and evidently shrunk from the ordeal, for once up the hill and on the level stretch above, he resolutely forbore to cast a glance at its dilapidated fence and decayed gate posts. had he not done this--had his eyes followed the long line of the path leading from these toppling posts to the face of the ruin, he would have been witness to a strange sight. for gleaming through the demolished heart of it,--between the chimney on the one side and the broken line of the gable on the other--could be seen the half circle of the moon suddenly released from the clouds which had hitherto enshrouded it. a weird sight, to be seen only when all conditions favoured. it was to be seen here to-night; but the judge's eye was bent another way, and he passed on, unnoting. the ground was high along this bluff; almost fifty feet above the level of the city upon, which he had just turned his back. of stony formation and much exposed to the elements, it had been considered an undesirable site by builders, and not a house was to be seen between the broken shell of the one he had just left, and the long, low, brilliantly illuminated structure ahead, for which he was evidently making. the sight of these lights and of the trees by which the house was surrounded, suggested festival and caused a qualm of indecision to momentarily disturb him in his purpose. but this purpose was too strong, and the circumstances too urgent for him to be deterred by anything less potent than a stroke of lightning. he rather increased his pace than slackened it and was rewarded by seeing lamp after lamp go out as he approached. the pant of a dozen motors, the shouting of various farewells and then the sudden rushing forth of a long line of automobiles, proclaimed that the fete of the day was about over and that peace and order would soon prevail again in claymore inn. without waiting for the final one to pass, the judge slid around to the rear and peered in at the kitchen door. if mrs. yardley were the woman he supposed her to be from the sergeant's description, she would be just then in the thick of the dish-washing. and it was mrs. yardley he wished to see. three women were at work in this busiest of scenes, and, deciding at a glance which was the able mistress of the house, he approached the large, pleasant and commanding figure piling plates at the farther end of the room and courteously remarked: "mrs. yardley, i believe?" the answer came quickly, and not without a curious smile of constraint: "oh, no. mrs. yardley is in the entry behind." bowing his thanks, he stepped in the direction named, just as the three women's heads came simultaneously together. there was reason for their whispers. his figure, his head, his face, were all unusual, and at that moment highly expressive, and coming as he did out of the darkness, his presence had an uncanny effect upon their simple minds. they had been laughing before; they ceased to laugh now. why? meanwhile, judge ostrander was looking about him for mrs. yardley. the quiet figure of a squat little body blocked up a certain doorway. "i am looking for mrs. yardley," he ventured. the little figure turned; he was conscious of two very piercing eyes being raised to his, and heard in shaking accents, which yet were not the accents of weakness, the surprised ejaculation: "judge ostrander!" next minute they were together in a small room, with the door shut behind them. the energy and decision of this mite of a woman were surprising. "i was going--to you--in the morning--" she panted in her excitement. "to apologise," she respectfully finished. "then," said he, "it was your child who visited my house to-day?" she nodded. her large head was somewhat disproportioned to her short and stocky body. but her glance and manner were not unpleasing. there was a moment of silence which she hastened to break. "peggy is very young; it was not her fault. she is so young she doesn't even know where she went. she was found loitering around the bridge--a dangerous place for a child, but we've been very busy all day--and she was found there and taken along by--by the other person. i hope that you will excuse it, sir." was she giving the judge an opportunity to recover from his embarrassment, or was she simply making good her own cause? whichever impulse animated her, the result was favourable to both. judge ostrander lost something of his strained look, and it was no longer difficult for her to meet his eye. nevertheless, what he had to say came with a decided abruptness. "who is the woman, mrs. yardley? that's what i have come to learn, and not to complain of your child." the answer struck him very strangely, though he saw nothing to lead him to distrust her candour. "i don't know, judge ostrander. she calls herself averill, but that doesn't make me sure of her. you wonder that i should keep a lodger about whom i have any doubts, but there are times when mr. yardley uses his own judgment, and this is one of the times. the woman pays well and promptly," she added in a lower tone. "her status? is she maid, wife or widow?" "oh, she says she is a widow, and i see every reason to believe her." a slight grimness in her manner, the smallest possible edge to her voice, led the judge to remark: "she's good-looking, i suppose." a laugh, short and unmusical but not without a biting humour, broke unexpectedly from the landlady's lips. "if she is, he don't know it. he hasn't seen her." "not seen her?" "no. her veil was very thick the night she came and she did not lift it as long as he was by. if she had--" "well, what?" "i'm afraid that he wouldn't have exacted as much from her as he did. she's one of those women--" "don't hesitate, mrs. yardley." "i'm thinking how to put it. who has her will of your sex, i might say. now i'm not." "pretty?" "not like a girl, sir. she's old enough to show fade; but i don't believe that a man would mind that. she has a look--a way, that even women feel. you may judge, sir, if we, old stagers at the business, have been willing to take her in and keep her, at any price,--a woman who won't show her face except to me, and who will not leave her room without her veil and then only for walks in places where no one else wants to go,--she must have some queer sort of charm to overcome all scruples. but she's gone too far to-day. she shall leave the inn to-morrow. i promise you that, sir, whatever samuel says. but sit down; sit down; you look tired, judge. is there anything you would like? shall i call samuel?" "no. i'm not much used to walking. besides, i have had a great loss to-day. my man, bela--" then with his former abruptness: "have you no idea who this mrs. averill is, or why she broke into my house?" "there's but one explanation, sir. i've been thinking about it ever since i got wind of where she took my peggy. the woman is not responsible. she has some sort of mania. why else should she go into a strange gate just because she saw it open?" "she hasn't confided in you?" "no, sir. i haven't seen her since she brought peggy back. we've had this big automobile party, and i thought my reckoning with her would keep. i heard about what had happened at your place from the man who brought us fruit." "mrs. yardley, you've seen this woman's face?" "yes, i've seen her." "describe it more particularly." "i can't. she has brown hair, brown eyes and a skin as white as milk; but that don't describe her. lots of women have all that." "no, it doesn't describe her." his manner seemed to pray for further details, but she stared back, unresponsive. in fact, she felt quite helpless. with a sigh of impatience, he resorted again to question. "you speak of her as a stranger. are you quite sure that she is a stranger to shelby? you have not been so very many years here, and her constant wearing of a veil in-doors and out is very suspicious." "so i'm beginning to think. and there is something else, judge, which makes me suspect you may be quite correct about her not being an entire stranger here. she knows this house too well." the judge started. the strength of his self-control had relaxed a bit, and he showed in the look he cast about him what it had cost him to enter these doors. "it is not the same, of course," continued mrs. yardley, affected in a peculiar way by the glimpse she had caught of the other's emotion unnatural and incomprehensible as it appeared to her. "the place has been greatly changed, but there is a certain portion of the old house left which only a person who knew it as it originally was would be apt to find; and yesterday, on going into one of these remote rooms i came upon her sitting in one of the windows looking out. how she got there or why she went, i cannot tell you. she didn't choose to tell me, and i didn't ask. but i've not felt real easy about her since." "excuse me, mrs. yardley, it may be a matter of no moment, but do you mind telling me where this room is?" "it's on the top floor, sir; and it looks out over the ravine. perhaps she was spying out the path to your house." the judge's face hardened. he felt baffled and greatly disturbed; but he spoke kindly enough when he again addressed mrs. yardley: "i am as ignorant as you of this woman's personality and of her reasons for intruding into my presence this morning. but there is something so peculiar about this presumptuous attempt of hers at an interview, that i feel impelled to inquire into it more fully, even if i have to approach the only source of information capable of giving me what i want--that is, herself. mrs. yardley, will you procure me an immediate interview with this woman? i am sure that you can be relied upon to do this and to do it with caution. you have the countenance of a woman unusually discreet." the subtle flattery did its work. she was not blind to the fact that he had introduced it for that very purpose, but it was not in her nature to withstand any appeal from so exalted a source however made. lifting her eyes fearlessly to his, she responded earnestly: "i am proud to serve you. i will see what i can do. will you wait here for just a few minutes?" he bowed quietly enough; but he was very restless when once he found himself alone. those few minutes of waiting seemed interminable to him. would the woman come? was she as anxious to see him now as she had been in the early morning? much depended on her mood, but more on the nature of the errand which had taken her into his house. if that errand was a vital one, he would soon hear her steps; indeed, he was hearing her steps now--he was sure of it. those of mrs. yardley were quicker, shorter, more businesslike. these, now advancing through the corridor, lingered as if held back by dread or a fateful indecision. he would fain hasten them, but discretion forbade. they faltered, turned, then, in an instant, all hesitation was lost in purpose and they again advanced this time to the threshold. judge ostrander had just time to brace himself to meet the unknown, when the door fell back and the woman of the morning appeared in the opening. vii with her veil down on the instant he recognised that no common interview lay before him. she was still the mysterious stranger, and she still wore her veil--a fact all the more impressive that it was no longer the accompaniment of a hat, but flung freely over her bare head. he frowned as he met her eyes through this disguising gauze. this attempt at an incognito for which there seemed to be no adequate reason, had a theatrical look wholly out of keeping with the situation. but he made no allusion to it, nor was the bow with which he acknowledged her presence and ushered her into the room, other than courteous. nevertheless, she was the first to speak. "this is very good of you, judge ostrander," she remarked, in a voice both cultured and pleasant. "i could hardly have hoped for this honour. after what happened this morning at your house, i feared that my wish for an interview would not only be disregarded by you, but that you would utterly refuse me the privilege of seeing you. i own to feeling greatly relieved. such consideration shown to a stranger, argues a spirit of unusual kindliness." a tirade. he simply bowed. "or perhaps i am mistaken in my supposition," she suggested, advancing a step, but no more. "perhaps i am no stranger to you? perhaps you know my name?" "averill? no." she paused, showing her disappointment quite openly. then drawing up a chair, she leaned heavily on its back, saying in low, monotonous tones from which the former eager thrill had departed: "i see that the intended marriage of your son has made very little impression upon you." aghast for the moment, this was such a different topic from the one he expected, the judge regarded her in silence before remarking: "i have known nothing of it. my son's concerns are no longer mine. if you have broken into my course of life for no other purpose than to discuss the affairs of oliver ostrander, i must beg you to excuse me. i have nothing to say in his connection to you or to any one." "is the breach between you so deep as that!" this she said in a low tone and more as if to herself than to him. then, with a renewal of courage indicated by the steadying of her form and a spirited uplift of her head, she observed with a touch of command in her voice: "there are some things which must be discussed whatever our wishes or preconceived resolves. the separation between you and mr. oliver ostrander cannot be so absolute (since whatever your cause of complaint you are still his father and he your son) that you will allow his whole life's happiness to be destroyed for the lack of a few words between yourself and me." he had made his bow, and he now proceeded to depart, severity in his face and an implacable resolution in his eye. but some impulse made him stop; some secret call from deeply hidden, possibly unrecognised, affections gave him the will to say: "a plea uttered through a veil is like an unsigned message. it partakes too much of the indefinite. will you lift your veil, madam?" "in a minute," she assured him. "the voice can convey truth as certainly as the features. i will not deny you a glimpse of the latter after you have heard my story. will you hear it, judge? issues of no common importance hang upon your decision. i entreat--but no, you are a just man; i will rely upon your sense of right. if your son's happiness fails to appeal to you, let that of a young and innocent girl lovely as few are lovely either in body or mind." "yourself, madam?" "no, my daughter! oliver ostrander has done us that honour, sir. he had every wish and had made every preparation to marry my child, when--shall i go on?" "you may." it was shortly said, but a burden seemed to fall from her shoulders at its utterance. her whole graceful form relaxed swiftly into its natural curves, and an atmosphere of charm from this moment enveloped her, which justified the description of mrs. yardley, even without a sight of the features she still kept hidden. "i am a widow, sir." thus she began with studied simplicity. "with my one child i have been living in detroit these many years,--ever since my husband's death, in fact. we are not unliked there, nor have we lacked respect. when some six months ago, your son, who stands high in every one's regard, as befits his parentage and his varied talents, met my daughter and fell seriously in love with her, no one, so far as i know, criticised his taste or found fault with his choice. i was happy, after many years of anxiety; for i idolised my child and i had suffered from many apprehensions as to her future. not that i had the right to be happy; i see that now. a woman with a secret,--and my heart held a woful and desperate one,--should never feel that that secret lacks power to destroy her because it has long lain quiescent. i thought my child safe, and rejoiced as any woman might rejoice, and as i would rejoice now, if fate were to obliterate that secret and emancipate us all from the horror of it." she paused, waiting for some acknowledgment of his interest, but not getting it, went on bitterly enough, for his stolidity was a very great mystery to her: "and she was safe, to all appearance, up to the very morning of her marriage--the marriage of which you say you had received no intimation though oliver seems a very dutiful son." "madam!"--the hoarseness of his tone possibly increased its peremptory character--"i really must ask you to lay aside your veil." it was a rebuke and she felt it to be so; but though she blushed behind her veil, she did not remove it. "pardon me," she begged and very humbly, "but i cannot yet. you will see why later.--let me reveal my secret first. i am coming to it, judge ostrander; i cannot keep it back much longer." he was too much of a gentleman to insist upon his wishes, but she saw by the gloom of his eye and a certain nervous twitching of his hands that it was not from mere impassiveness that his features had acquired their rigidity. smitten with compunction, she altered her tone into one more deprecatory: "my story will be best told," she now said, "if i keep all personal element out of it. you must imagine reuther, dressed in her wedding finery, waiting for her bridegroom to take her to church. we were sitting, she and i, in our little parlour, watching the clock,--for it was very near the hour. at times, her face turned towards me for a brief moment, and i felt all the pang of motherhood again, for her loveliness was not of this earth but of a land where there is no sin, no--there! the memory was a little too much for me, sir; but i'll not transgress again; the future holds too many possibilities of suffering for me to dwell upon the past. she was lovely and her loveliness sprang from a pure hope. we will let that suffice, and what i dreaded was not what happened, inexcusable as such blindness and presumption may appear in a woman who has had her troubles and seen the desperate side of life. "a carriage had driven up; and we heard his step; but it was not the step of a bridegroom, judge ostrander, nor was the gentleman he left behind him at the kerb, the friend who was to stand up with him. to reuther, innocent of all deception, this occasioned only surprise, but to me it meant the end of reuther's marriage and of my own hopes. i shrank from the ordeal and stood with my back half turned when, dashed by his own emotions, he bounded into our presence. "one look my way and his question was answered before he put it. judge ostrander, the name under which i had lived in detroit was not my real one. i had let him court and all but marry my daughter, without warning him in any way of what this deception on my part covered. but others--one other, i have reason now to believe--had detected my identity under the altered circumstances of my new life, and surprised him with the news at this late hour. we are--judge ostrander, you know who we are. this is not the first time you and i have seen each other face to face." and lifting up a hand, trembling with emotion, she put aside her veil. viii with her veil lifted "mrs.--" "you recognise me?" "too well." the tone was deep with meaning but there was no accusation in it; nor was there any note of relief. it was more as if some hope deeply, and perhaps unconsciously, cherished had suffered a sudden and complete extinction. the change this made in him was too perceptible for her not to observe it. the shadow lying deep in her eyes now darkened her whole face. she had tried to prepare him for this moment; tried to prepare herself. but who can prepare the soul for the return of old troubles or make other than startling the resurrection of a ghost laid, as men thought, forever. "you see that it was no fault of my own i was trying to hide," she finally remarked in her rich and sympathetic voice. "put back your veil." it was all he said. trembling she complied, murmuring as she fumbled with its folds: "disgrace to an ostrander! i know that i was mad to risk it for a moment. forgive me for the attempt, and listen to my errand. oliver was willing to marry my child, even after he knew the shame it would entail. but reuther would not accept the sacrifice. when she learned, as she was obliged to now, that her father had not only been sentenced to death for the worst crime in the calendar, but had suffered the full penalty, leaving only a legacy of eternal disgrace to his wife and innocent child, she showed a spirit becoming a better parentage. in his presence, and in spite of his dissuasions (for he acted with all the nobility one might expect) she took off her veil with her own hands and laid it aside with a look expressive of eternal renunciation. she loves him, sir; and there is no selfishness in her heart and never has been. for all her frail appearance and the mildness of her temper, she is like flint where principle is involved or the welfare of those she loves is at stake. my daughter may die from shock or shame, but she will never cloud your son's prospects with the obloquy which has settled over her own. judge ostrander, i am not worthy of such a child, but such she is. if john--" "we will not speak his name," broke in judge ostrander, assuming a peremptory bearing quite unlike his former one of dignified reserve. "i should like to hear, instead, your explanation of how my son became inveigled into an engagement of which you, if no one else, knew the preposterous nature." "judge ostrander, you do right to blame me. i should never have given my consent, never. but i thought our past so completely hidden--our identity so entirely lost under the accepted name of averill." "you thought!" he towered over her in his anger. he looked and acted as in the old days, when witnesses cowered under his eye and voice. "say that you knew, madam; that you planned this unholy trap for my son. you had a pretty daughter, and you saw to it that she came under his notice; nay, more, ignoring the claims of decency, you allowed the folly to proceed, if you did not help it on in your misguided ambition to marry your daughter well." "judge ostrander, i did not plan their meeting, nor did i at first encourage his addresses. not till i saw the extent of their mutual attachment, did i yield to the event and accept the consequences. but i was wrong, wholly wrong to allow him to visit her a second time; but now that the mischief is done--" judge ostrander was not listening. "i have a question to put you," said he, when he realised that she had ceased speaking. "oliver was never a fool. when he was told who your daughter was, what did he say of the coincidence which made him the lover of the woman against whose father, his father had uttered a sentence of death? didn't he marvel and call it extraordinary--the work of the devil?" "possibly; but if he did, it was not in any conversation he had with me." "detroit is a large city and must possess hundreds of sweet young girls within its borders. could he contemplate without wonder the fact that he had been led to the door of the one above all others between whom and himself fate had set such an insurmountable barrier? he must have been struck deeply by the coincidence; he must have been, madam." astonished at his manner, at the emphasis he placed upon this point which seemed to her so much less serious than many others, she regarded him doubtfully before saying: "i was if he was not. from the very first i wondered. but i got used to the fact during the five months of his courtship. and i got used to another fact too; that my secret was safe so far as it ran the risk of being endangered by a meeting with yourself. mr. ostrander made it very plain to us that we need never expect to see you in detroit." "he did? did he offer any explanation for this lack of--of sympathy between us?" "never. it was a topic he forbore to enter into and i think he only said what he did, to prevent any expectations on our part of ever seeing you." "and your daughter? was he as close-mouthed in speaking of me to her as he was to you?" "i have no doubt of it. reuther betrays no knowledge of you or of your habits, and has never expressed but one curiosity in your regard. as you can imagine what that is, i will not mention it." "you are at liberty to. i have listened to much and can well listen to a little more." "judge, she is of a very affectionate nature and her appreciation of your son's virtues is very great. though her conception of yourself is naturally a very vague one, it is only to be expected that she should wonder how you could live so long without a visit from oliver." expectant as he was of this reply, and resolved as he was, to hear it unmoved, he had miscalculated his strength or his power of concealment, for he turned aside immediately upon hearing it, and walked away from her towards the further extremity of the room. covertly she watched him; first through her veil, and then with it partly removed. she did not understand his mood; and she hardly understood her own. when she entered upon this interview, her mind had been so intent upon one purpose that it seemed to absorb all her faculties and reach every corner of her heart; yet here she was, after the exchange of many words between them, with her purpose uncommunicated and her heart unrelieved, staring at him not in the interest of her own griefs, but in commiseration of his. yet when he faced her once more every thought vanished from her mind save the one which had sustained her through the extraordinary measures she had taken to secure herself this opportunity of presenting her lost cause to the judgment of the only man from whom she could expect aid. but her impulse was stayed and her thoughts sent wandering again by the penetrating look he gave her before she let her veil fall again. "how long have you been in detroit?" he asked. "ever since--" "and how old is reuther?" "eighteen, but--" "twelve years ago, then." he paused and glanced about him before adding, "she was about the age of the child you brought to my house to-day." "yes, sir, very nearly." his lips took a strange twist. there was self-contempt in it, and some other very peculiar and contradictory emotion. but when this semblance of a smile had passed, it was no longer oliver's father she saw before her, but the county's judge. even his tone partook of the change as he dryly remarked: "what you have told me concerning your daughter and my son is very interesting. but it was not for the simple purpose of informing me that this untoward engagement was at an end that you came to shelby. you have another purpose. what is it? i can remain with you just five minutes longer." five minutes! it only takes one to kill a hope but five are far too few for the reconstruction of one. but she gave no sign of her secret doubts, as she plunged at once into her subject. "i will be brief," said she; "as brief as any mother can be who is pleading for her daughter's life as well as happiness. reuther has no real ailment, but her constitution is abnormally weak, and she will die of this grief if some miracle does not save her. strong as her will is, determined as she is to do her duty at all cost, she has very little physical stamina. see! here is her photograph taken but a short time ago. look at it i beg. see what she was like when life was full of hope; and then imagine her with all hope eliminated." "excuse me. what use? i can do nothing. i am very sorry for the child, but--" his very attitude showed his disinclination to look at the picture. but she would not be denied. she thrust it upon him and once his eyes had fallen upon it, they clung there though evidently against his will. ah, she knew that reuther's exquisite countenance would plead for itself! god seldom grants to such beauty, so lovely a spirit. if the features themselves failed to appeal, certainly he must feel the charm of an expression which had already netted so many hearts. breathlessly she watched him, and, as she watched, she noted the heavy lines carved in his face by thought and possibly by sorrow, slowly relax and his eyes fill with a wistful tenderness. in the egotism of her relief, she thought to deepen the impression she had made by one vivid picture of her daughter as she was now. mistaking his temperament or his story, classing him in with other strong men, the well of whose feeling once roused overflows in sympathetic emotion, she observed very gently but, as she soon saw, unwisely: "such delicacy can withstand a blow, but not a steady heartbreak. when, on that dreadful night i crept in from my sleepless bed to see how my darling was bearing her long watch, this was what i saw. she had not moved, no, not an inch in the long hours which had passed since i left her. she had not even stirred the hand from which, at her request, i had myself drawn her engagement ring. i doubt even if her lids had shut once over her strained and wide-staring eyes. it was as if she were laid out for her grave--" "madam!" the harsh tone recalled her to herself. she took back the picture he was holding towards her and was hardly surprised when he said: "parents must learn to endure bitterness. i have not been exempt myself from such. your child will not die. you have years of mutual companionship before you, while i have nothing. and now let us end this interview so painful to both. you have said--" "no," she broke in with sudden vehemence, all the more startling from the restraint in which she had--held herself up to this moment, "i have not said--i have not begun to say what seethes like a consuming fire in my breast. judge ostrander, i do not know what has estranged you from oliver. it must be something serious;--for you are both good men. but whatever it is, of this i am certain: you would not wilfully deliver an innocent child like mine to a wretched fate which a well-directed effort might avert. i spoke of a miracle--will you not listen, judge? i am not wild; i am not unconscious of presumption. i am only in earnest, in deadly earnest. a miracle is possible. the gulf between these two may yet be spanned. i see a way--" what change was this to which she had suddenly become witness? the face which had not lost all its underlying benignancy even when it looked its coldest, had now become settled and hard. his manner was absolutely repellent as he broke in with the quick disclaimer: "but there is no way. what miracle could ever make your daughter, lovely as she undoubtedly is, a fitting match for my son! none, madam, absolutely none. such an alliance would be monstrous; unnatural." "why?" the word came out boldly. if she was intimidated by this unexpected attack from a man accustomed to deference and altogether able to exact it, she did not show it. "because her father died the death of a criminal?" she asked. the answer was equally blunt: "yes; a criminal over whose trial his father presided as judge." was she daunted? no. quick as a flash came the retort. "a judge, however, who showed him every consideration possible. i was told at the time and i have been assured by many since that you were more than just to him in your rulings. such a memory creates a bond of gratitude, not hate. judge ostrander"--he had taken a step towards the hall-door; but he paused at this utterance of his name--"answer me this one question. why did you do this? as his widow, as the mother of his child, i implore you to tell me why you showed him this leniency? you must have hated him deeply--" "yes. i have never hated any one more." "the slayer of your dearest friend; of your inseparable companion; of the one person who stood next to your son in your affections and regard!" he put up his hand. the gesture, the way he turned his face aside showed that she had touched the raw of a wound still unhealed. insensibly, the woman in her responded to this evidence of an undying sorrow, and modulating her voice, she went on, with just a touch of the subtle fascination which made her always listened to: "your feeling for mr. etheridge was well known. then why such magnanimity towards the man who stood on trial for killing him?" unaccustomed to be questioned, though living in an atmosphere of continual yes and no, he stared at the veiled features of one who so dared, as if he found it hard to excuse such presumption. but he answered her nevertheless, and with decided emphasis: "possibly because his victim was my friend and lifelong companion. a judge fears his own prejudices." "possibly; but you had another reason, judge; a reason which justified you in your own eyes at the time and which justifies you in mine now and always. am i not right? this is no court-room; the case is one of the past; it can never be reopened; the prisoner is dead. answer me then, as one sorrowing mortal replies to another, hadn't you another reason?" the judge, panoplied though he was or thought he was, against all conceivable attack, winced at this repetition of a question he had hoped to ignore, and in his anxiety to hide this involuntary betrayal of weakness, allowed his anger to have full vent, as he cried out in no measured terms: "what is the meaning of all this? what are you after? why are you raking up these bygones which only make the present condition of affairs darker and more hopeless? you say that you know some way of making the match between your daughter and my son feasible and proper. i say that nothing can do this. fact--the sternest of facts is against it. if you found a way, i shouldn't accept it. oliver ostrander, under no circumstances and by means of no sophistries, can ever marry the daughter of john scoville. i should think you would see that for yourself." "but if john should be proved to have suffered wrongfully? if he should be shown to have been innocent?" "innocent?" "yes. i have always had doubts of his guilt, even when circumstances bore most heavily against him; and now, as i look back upon the trial and remember certain things, i feel sure that you had doubts of it, yourself." his rebuke was quick, instant. with a force and earnestness which recalled the court-room he replied: "madam, your hopes and wishes have misled you. your husband was a guilty man; as guilty a man as any judge ever passed sentence upon." "oh!" she wailed forth, reeling heavily back and almost succumbing to the shock, she had so thoroughly convinced herself that what she said was true. but hers was a courageous soul. she rallied instantly and approaching him again with face uncovered and her whole potent personality alive with magnetism, she retorted: "you say that, eye to my eye, hand on my hand, heart beating with my heart above the grave of our children's mutual happiness?" "i do." convinced; for there was no wavering in his eye, no trembling in the hand she had clasped; convinced but ready notwithstanding to repudiate her own convictions, so much of the mother-passion, if not the wife's, tugged at her heart, she remained immovable for a moment, waiting for the impossible, hoping against hope for a withdrawal of his words and the reillumination of hope. then her hand fell away from his; she gave a great sob, and, lowering her head, muttered: "john scoville smote down algernon etheridge! o god! o god! what horror!" a sigh from her one auditor welled up in the silence, holding a note which startled her erect and brought back a memory which drove her again into passionate speech: "but he swore the day i last visited him in the prison, with his arms pressed tight about me and his eye looking straight into mine as you are looking now, that he never struck that blow. i did not believe him then, there were too many dark spots in my memory of old lies premeditated and destructive of my happiness; but i believed him later, and i believe him now." "madam, this is quite unprofitable. a jury of his peers condemned him as guilty and the law compelled me to pass sentence upon him. that his innocent child should be forced, by the inexorable decrees of fate, to suffer for a father's misdoing, i regret as much, perhaps more, than you do; for my son--beloved, though irreconcilably separated from me--suffers with her, you say. but i see no remedy;--no remedy, i repeat. were oliver to forget himself so far as to ignore the past and marry reuther scoville, a stigma would fall upon them both for which no amount of domestic happiness could ever compensate. indeed, there can be no domestic happiness for a man and woman so situated. the inevitable must be accepted. madam, i have said my last word." "but not heard mine," she panted. "for me to acknowledge the inevitable where my daughter's life and happiness are concerned would make me seem a coward in my own eyes. helped or unhelped, with the sympathy or without the sympathy of one who i hoped would show himself my friend, i shall proceed with the task to which i have dedicated myself. you will forgive me, judge. you see that john's last declaration of innocence goes farther with me than your belief, backed as it is by the full weight of the law." gazing at her as at one gone suddenly demented, he said: "i fail to understand you, mrs.--i will call you mrs. averill. you speak of a task. what task?" "the only one i have heart for: the proving that reuther is not the child of a wilful murderer; that another man did the deed for which he suffered. i can do it. i feel confident that i can do it; and if you will not help me--" "help you! after what i have said and reiterated that he is guilty, guilty, guilty?" advancing upon her with each repetition of the word, he towered before her, an imposing, almost formidable figure. where was her courage now? in what pit of despair had it finally gone down? she eyed him fascinated, feeling her inconsequence and all the madness of her romantic, ill-digested effort, when from somewhere in the maze of confused memories there came to her a cry, not of the disappointed heart but of a daughter's shame, and she saw again the desperate, haunted look with which the stricken child had said in answer to some plea, "a criminal's daughter has no place in this world but with the suffering and the lost"; and nerved anew, she faced again his anger which might well be righteous, and with almost preternatural insight, boldly declared: "you are too vehement to quite convince me, judge ostrander. acknowledge it or not, there is more doubt than certainty in your mind; a doubt which ultimately will lead you to help me. you are too honest not to. when you see that i have some reason for the hopes i express, your sense of justice will prevail and you will confide to me the point untouched or the fact unmet, which has left this rankling dissatisfaction to fester in your mind. that known, my way should broaden;--a way, at the end of which i see a united couple--my daughter and your son. oh, she is worthy of him--" the woman broke forth, as he made another repellent and imperative gesture. "ask any one in the town where we have lived." abruptly, and without apology for his rudeness, judge ostrander again turned his back and walked away from her to an old-fashioned bookcase which stood in one corner of the room. halting mechanically before it, he let his eyes roam up and down over the shelves, seeing nothing, as she was well aware, but weighing, as she hoped, the merits of the problem she had propounded him. she was, therefore, unduly startled when with a quick whirl about which brought him face to face with her once more, he impetuously asked: "madam, you were in my house this morning. you came in through a gate which bela had left unlocked. will you explain how you came to do this? did you know that he was going down street, leaving the way open behind him? was there collusion between you?" her eyes looked up clearly into his. she felt that she had nothing to disguise or conceal. "i had urged him to do this, judge ostrander. i had met him more than once in the street when he went out to do your errands, and i used all my persuasion to induce him to give me this one opportunity of pleading my cause with you. he was your devoted servant, he showed it in his death, but he never got over his affection for oliver. he told me that he would wake oftentimes in the night feeling about for the boy he used to carry in his arms. when i told him--" "enough! he knew who you were then?" "he remembered me when i lifted my veil. oh, i know very well that i had not the right to influence your own man to disobey your orders. but my cause was so pressing and your seclusion seemingly so arbitrary. how could i dream that your nerves could not bear any sudden shock? or that bela--that giant among negroes--would be so affected by his emotions that he would not see or hear an approaching automobile? you must not blame me for these tragedies; and you must not blame bela. he was torn by conflicting duties, and only yielded because of his great love for the absent." "i do not blame bela." startled, she looked at him with wondering eyes. there was a brooding despair in his tone which caught at her heart, and for an instant made her feel the full extent of her temerity. in a vain endeavour to regain her confidence, she falteringly remarked. "i had listened to what folks said. i had heard that you would receive nobody; talk to nobody. bela was my only resource." "madam, i do not blame you." he was scrutinising her keenly and for the first time understandingly. whatever her station past or present, she was certainly no ordinary woman, nor was her face without beauty, lit as it was by passion and every ardour of which a loving woman is capable. no man would be likely to resist it unless his armour were thrice forged. would he himself be able to? he began to experience a cold fear,--a dread which drew a black veil over the future; a blacker veil than that which had hitherto rested upon it. but his face showed nothing. he was master of that yet. only his tone. that silenced her. she was therefore scarcely surprised when, with a slight change of attitude which brought their faces more closely together, he proceeded, with a piercing intensity not to be withstood: "when you entered my house this morning, did you come directly to my room?" "yes. bela told me just how to reach it." "and when you saw me indisposed--unable, in fact, to greet you--what did you do then?" with the force and meaning of one who takes an oath, she brought her hand, palm downward on the table before her, as she steadily replied: "i flew back into the room through which i had come, undecided whether to fly the house or wait for what might happen to you, i had never seen any one in such an attack before, and almost expected to hear you fall forward to the floor. but when you did not and the silence, which seemed so awful, remained unbroken, i pulled the curtain aside and looked in again. there was no change in your posture; and, alarmed now for your sake rather than for my own, i did not dare to go till bela came back. so i stayed watching." "stayed where?" "in a dark corner of that same room. i never left it till the crowd came in. then i slid out behind them." "was the child with you--at your side i mean, all this time?" "i never let go her hand." "woman, you are keeping nothing back?" "nothing but my terror at the sight of bela running in all bloody to escape the people pressing after him. i thought then that i had been the death of servant as well as master. you can imagine my relief when i heard that yours was but a passing attack." sincerity was in her manner and in her voice. the judge breathed more easily, and made the remark: "no one with hearing unimpaired can realise the suspicion of the deaf, nor can any one who is not subject to attacks like mine conceive the doubts with which a man so cursed views those who have been active about him while the world to him was blank." thus he dismissed the present subject, to surprise her by a renewal of the old one. "what are your reasons," said he, "for the hopes you have just expressed? i think it your duty to tell me before we go any further." it was an acknowledgment, uttered after his own fashion, of the truth of her plea and the correctness of her woman's insight. she contemplated his face anew, and wondered that the dart she had so inconsiderately launched should have found the one weak joint in this strong man's armour. but she made no immediate reply, rather stopped to ponder, finally saying, with drooped head and nervously working fingers: "excuse me for to-night. what i have to tell--or rather, what i have to show you,--requires daylight." then, as she became conscious of his astonishment, added falteringly: "have you any objection to meeting me to-morrow on the bluff overlooking dark---" the voice of the clock, and that only! tick! tick! tick! tick! that only! why then had she felt it impossible to finish her sentence? the judge was looking at her; he had not moved; nor had an eyelash stirred, but the rest of that sentence had stuck in her throat, and she found herself standing as immovably quiet as he. then she remembered. he had loved algernon etheridge. memory still lived. the spot she had mentioned was a horror to him. weakly she strove to apologise. "i am sorry," she began, but he cut her short at once. "why there?" he asked. "because"--her words came slowly, haltingly, as she tremulously, almost fearfully, felt her way with him--"because--there--is--no--other place--where--i can make--my point." he smiled. it was his first smile in years and naturally was a little constrained,--and to her eyes at least, almost more terrifying than his frown. "you have a point, then, to make?" "a good one." he started as if to approach her, and then stood stock-still. "why have you waited till now?" he called out, forgetful that they were not alone in the house, forgetful apparently of everything but his surprise and repulsion. "why not have made use of this point before it was too late? you were at your husband's trial; you were even on the witness-stand?" she nodded, thoroughly cowed at last both by his indignation and the revelation contained in this question of the judicial mind--"why now, when the time was then?" happily, she had an answer. "judge ostrander, i had a reason for that too; and, like my point, it is a good one. but do not ask me for it to-night. to-morrow i will tell you everything. but it will have to be in the place i have mentioned. will you come to the bluff where the ruins are one-half hour before sunset? please, be exact as to the time. you will see why, if you come." he leaned across the table--they were on opposite sides of it--and plunging his eyes into hers stood so, while the clock ticked out one slow minute more, then he drew back, and remarking with an aspect of gloom but with much less appearance of distrust: "a very odd request, madam. i hope you have good reason for it;" adding, "i bury bela to-morrow and the cemetery is in this direction. i will meet you where you say and at the hour you name." and, regarding him closely as he spoke, she saw that for all the correctness of his manner and the bow of respectful courtesy with which he instantly withdrew, that deep would be his anger and unquestionable the results to her if she failed to satisfy him at this meeting of the value of her point in reawakening justice and changing public opinion. ix excerpts one of the lodgers at the claymore inn had great cause for complaint the next morning. a restless tramping over his head had kept him awake all night. that it was intermittent had made it all the more intolerable. just when he thought it had stopped, it would start up again,--to and fro, to and fro, as regular as clockwork and much more disturbing. but the complaint never reached mrs. averill. the landlady had been restless herself. indeed, the night had been one of thought and feeling to more than one person in whom we are interested. the feeling we can understand; the thought--that is, mrs. averill's thought--we should do well to follow. the one great question which had agitated her was this: should she trust the judge? ever since the discovery which had changed reuther's prospects, she had instinctively looked to this one source for aid and sympathy. her reasons she has already given. his bearing during the trial, the compunction he showed in uttering her husband's sentence were sufficient proof to her that for all his natural revulsion against the crime which had robbed him of his dearest friend, he was the victim of an undercurrent of sympathy for the accused which could mean but one thing--a doubt of the prisoner's actual guilt. but her faith had been sorely shaken in the interview just related. he was not the friend she had hoped to find. he had insisted upon her husband's guilt, when she had expected consideration and a thoughtful recapitulation of the evidence; and he had remained unmoved, or but very little moved, by the disappointment of his son--his only remaining link to life. why? was the alienation between these two so complete as to block out natural sympathy? had the separation of years rendered them callous to every mutual impression? she dwelt in tenderness upon the bond uniting herself and reuther and could not believe in such unresponsiveness. no parent could carry resentment or even righteous anger so far as that. judge ostrander might seem cold,--both manner and temper would naturally be much affected by his unique and solitary mode of life,--but at heart he must love oliver. it was not in nature for it to be otherwise. and yet-it was at this point in her musing that there came one of the breaks in her restless pacing. she was always of an impulsive temperament, and always giving way to it. sitting down before paper and ink she wrote the following lines: my darling if unhappy child: i know that this sudden journey on my part must strike you as cruel, when, if ever, you need your mother's presence and care. but the love i feel for you, my reuther, is deep enough to cause you momentary pain for the sake of the great good i hope to bring you out of this shadowy quest. i believe, what i said to you on leaving, that a great injustice was done your father. feeling so, shall i remain quiescent and see youth and love slip from you, without any effort on my part to set this matter straight? i cannot. i have done you the wrong of silence when knowledge would have saved you shock and bitter disillusion, but i will not add to my fault the inertia of a cowardly soul. have patience with me, then; and continue to cherish those treasures of truth and affection which you may one day feel free to bestow once more upon one who has a right to each and all of them. this is your mother's prayer. deborah scoville. it was not easy for her to sign herself thus. it was a name which she had tried her best to forget for twelve long, preoccupied years. but how could she use any other in addressing her daughter who had already declared her intention of resuming her father's name, despite the opprobrium it carried and the everlasting bar it must in itself raise between herself and oliver ostrander? deborah scoville! a groan broke from her lips as she rapidly folded that name in, and hid it out of sight in the envelope she as rapidly addressed. but her purpose had been accomplished, or would be when once this letter reached reuther. with these words in declaration against her she could not retreat from the stand she had therein taken. it was another instance of burning one's ships upon disembarking, and the effect made upon the writer showed itself at once in her altered manner. henceforth, the question should be not what awaited her, but how she should show her strength in face of the opposition she now expected to meet from this clear-minded, amply equipped lawyer and judge she had called to her aid. [illustration: after one look he assumed some show of his old commanding presence and advanced bravely down the steps.] "a task for his equal, not for an ignorant, untried woman like myself," she thought; and, following another of her impulses, she leaped from her seat at the table and rushed across to her dresser on which she placed two candles, one at her right and another at her left. then she sat down between them and in the stillness of midnight surveyed herself in the glass, as she might survey the face of a stranger. what did she see? a countenance no longer young, and yet with some of the charm of youth still lingering in the brooding eyes and in the dangerous curves of a mobile and expressive mouth. but it was not for charm she was looking, but for some signs of power quite apart from that of sex. did her face express intellect, persistence and, above all, courage? the brow was good;--she would so characterise it in another. surely a woman with such a forehead might do something even against odds. nor was her chin weak; sometimes she had thought it too pronounced for beauty; but what had she to do with beauty now? and the neck so proudly erect! the heaving breast! the heart all aflame! defeat is not for such; or only such defeat as bears within it the germ of future victory. is her reading correct? time will prove. meanwhile she will have confidence in herself, and that this confidence might be well founded she decided to spend the rest of the night in formulating her plans and laying out her imaginary campaign. leaving the dresser she recommenced that rapid walking to and fro which was working such havoc in the nerves of the man in the room below her. when she paused, it was to ransack a trunk and bring out a flat wallet filled with newspaper clippings, many of them discoloured by time, and all of them showing marks of frequent handling. a handling now to be repeated. for after a few moments spent in arranging them, she deliberately set about their complete reperusal, a task in which it has now become necessary for us to join her. the first was black with old head-lines: [illustration: crime in dark hollow] crime in dark hollow ---algernon etheridge, one of our most esteemed citizens, waylaid and murdered at long bridge. --- a direct clue to the murderer --- the stick with which the crime was committed easily traced to its owner. the landlord of claymore tavern in the toils. he denies his guilt but submits sullenly to arrest. particulars followed. "last evening shelby's clean record was blackened by outrageous crime. some time after nightfall a carter was driving home by factory road, when just as he was nearing long bridge one of his horses shied so violently that he barely escaped being thrown from his seat. as he had never known the animal to shy like this before, he was curious enough to get down and look about him for the cause. dark hollow is never light, but it is impenetrable after dark, and not being able to see anything, he knelt down in the road and began to feel about with his hand. this brought results. in a few moments he came upon the body of a man lying without movement, and seemingly without life. "long bridge is not a favourite spot at night, and, knowing that in all probability an hour might elapse before assistance would arrive in the shape of another passer-by, he decided to carry his story straight to claymore tavern. afterwards he was heard to declare that it was fortunate his horses were headed that way instead of the other, or he might have missed seeing the skulking figure which slipped down into the ravine as he made the turn at the far end of the bridge--a figure which had no other response to his loud 'hola!' than a short cough, hurriedly choked back. he could not see the face or identify the figure, but he knew the cough. he had heard it a hundred times; and, saying to himself, 'i'll find fellers enough at the tavern, but there's one i won't find there and that's john scoville,' he whipped his horse up the hill and took the road to claymore. "and he was right. a dozen fellows started up at his call, but scoville was not among them. he had been out for two hours; which the carter having heard, he looked down, but said nothing except 'come along, boys! i'll drive you to the turn of the bridge.' "but just as they were starting scoville appeared. he was hatless and dishevelled and reeled heavily with liquor. he also tried to smile, which made the carter lean quickly down and with very little ceremony drag him up into the cart. so with scoville amongst them they rode quickly back to the bridge, the landlord coughing, the men all grimly silent. "in crossing the bridge he made more than one effort to escape, but the men were determined, and when they finally stooped over the man lying in dark hollow, he was in their midst and was forced to stoop also. "one flash of the lantern told the dismal tale. the man was not only dead, but murdered. his forehead had been battered in with a knotted stick; all his pockets hung out empty; and from the general disorder of his dress it was evident that his watch had been torn away by a ruthless hand. but the face they failed to recognise till some people, running down from the upper town where the alarm had by this time spread, sent up the shout of 'it's mr. etheridge! judge ostrander's great friend. let some one run and notify the judge.' "but the fact was settled long before the judge came upon the scene, and another fact too. in beating the bushes, they had lighted on a heavy stick. when it was brought forward and held under the strong light made by a circle of lanterns, a big movement took place in the crowd. the stick had been recognised. indeed, it was well known to all the claymore men. they had seen it in scoville's hands a dozen times. even he could not deny its ownership; explaining, or trying to, that he had been in the ravine looking for this stick only a little while before, and adding, as he met their eyes: "'i lost it in these woods this afternoon. i hadn't anything to do with this killing.' "he had not been accused; but he found it impossible to escape after this, and when at the instance of coroner haines he was carefully looked over and a small red ribbon found in one of his pockets, he was immediately put under arrest and taken to the city lock-up. for the ribbon had been identified as well as the stick. oliver ostrander, who had accompanied his father to the scene of crime, declared that he had observed it that very afternoon, dangling from one end of mr. etheridge's watch-chain where it had been used to fasten temporarily a broken link. "as we go to press we hear that judge ostrander has been prostrated by this blow. the deceased had been playing chess up at his house, and in taking the short cut home had met with his death. "long bridge should be provided with lights. it is a dangerous place for foot passengers on a dark night." a later paragraph. "the detectives were busy this morning, going over the whole ground in the vicinity of the bridge. "they were rewarded by two important discoveries. the impression of a foot in a certain soft place halfway up the bluff; and a small heap of fresh earth nearby which, on being dug into, revealed the watch of the murdered man. the broken chain lay with it. "the footprint has been measured. it coincides exactly with the shoe worn that night by the suspect. "the case will be laid before the grand jury next week." * * * * * "the prisoner continues to deny his guilt. the story he gives out is to the effect that he left the tavern some few minutes before seven o'clock, to look for his child who had wandered into the ravine. that he entered the woods from the road running by his house, and was searching the bushes skirting the stream when he heard little reuther's shout from somewhere up on the bluff. he had his stick with him, for he never went out without it, but, finding it in his way, he leaned it against a tree and went plunging up the bluff without it. why he didn't call out the child's name he doesn't know; he guessed he thought he would surprise her; and why, when he got to the top of the bluff and didn't find her, he should turn about for his stick instead of hunting for her on the road, he also fails to explain, saying again, he doesn't know. what circumstances force him to tell and what he declares to be true is this: that instead of going back diagonally through the woods to the lone chestnut where he had left his stick, he crossed the bridge and took the path running along the edge of the ravine: that in doing this he came upon the body of a man in the black recesses of the hollow, a man so evidently beyond all help that he would have hurried by without a second look if it had not been for the watch he saw lying on the ground close to the dead man's side. it was a very fine watch, and it seemed like tempting providence to leave it lying there exposed to the view of any chance tramp who might come along. it seemed better for him to take it into his own charge till he found some responsible person willing to carry it to police headquarters. so, without stopping to consider what the consequences might be to himself, he tore it away by the chain from the hold it had on the dead man's coat and put it in his pocket. he also took some other little things; after which he fled away into town, where the sight of a saloon was too much for him and he went in to have a drink to take the horrors out of him. since then, the detectives have followed all his movements and know just how much liquor he drank and to whom, in tipsy bravado, he showed the contents of his pockets. but he wasn't so far gone as not to have moments of apprehension when he thought of the dead man lying with his feet in dark hollow, and of the hue and cry which would soon be raised, and what folks might think if that accursed watch he had taken so innocently should be found in his pocket. finally his fears overcame his scruples, and, starting for home, he stopped at the bluff, meaning to run down over the bridge and drop the watch as near as possible to the spot where he had found it. but as he turned to descend, he heard a team approaching from the other side and, terrified still more, he dashed into the woods, and, tearing up the ground with his hands, buried his booty in the loose soil, and made for home. even then he had no intention of appropriating the watch, only of safe-guarding himself, nor did he have any hand at all in the murder of mr. etheridge. this he would swear to; also, to the leaving of the stick where he said. "it is understood that in case of his indictment, his lawyer will follow the line of defence thus indicated." * * * * * "to-day, john scoville was taken to the tree where he insists he left his stick. it is a big chestnut some hundred and fifty feet beyond the point where the ravine turns west. it has a big enough trunk for a stick to stand upright against it, as was shown by inspector snow who had charge of this affair. but we are told that after demonstrating this fact with the same bludgeon which had done its bloody work in the hollow, the prisoner showed a sudden interest in this weapon and begged to see it closer. this being granted, he pointed out where a splinter or two had been freshly whittled from the handle, and declared that no knife had touched it while it remained in his hands. but, as he had no evidence to support this statement (a knife having been found amongst the other effects taken from his pocket at the time of his arrest), the impression made by this declaration is not likely to go far towards influencing public opinion in his favour. "a true bill was found to-day against john scoville for the murder of algernon etheridge." * * * * * a third clipping: "we feel it our duty, as the one independent paper of this city, to insist upon the right of a man to the consideration of the public till a jury of his peers has pronounced upon his guilt and thus rendered him a criminal before the law. the way our hitherto sufficiently respected citizen, john scoville, has been maligned and his every fault and failing magnified for the delectation of a greedy public is unworthy of a christian community. no man saw him kill algernon etheridge, and he himself denies most strenuously that he did so, yet from the first moment of his arrest till now, not a voice has been raised in his favour, or the least account taken of his defence. yet he is the husband of an estimable wife and the father of a child of such exceptional loveliness that she has been the petted darling of high and low ever since john scoville became the proprietor of claymore tavern. "give the man a chance. it is our wish to see justice vindicated and the guilty punished; but not before the jury has pronounced its verdict." "the star was his only friend," sighed deborah scoville, as she laid this clipping aside and took up another headed by a picture of her husband. this picture she subjected to the same scrutiny she had just given to her own reflection in the glass: "seeing him anew," as she said to herself, "after all these years of determined forgetfulness." it was not an unhandsome face. indeed, it was his good looks which had prevailed over her judgment in the early days of their courtship. reuther had inherited her harmony of feature from him,--the chiselled nose, the well-modelled chin, and all the other physical graces which had made him a fine figure behind his bar. but even with the softening of her feelings towards him since she had thus set herself up in his defence, deborah could not fail to perceive under all these surface attractions an expression of unreliability, or, as some would say, of actual cruelty. ruddy-haired and fair of skin, he should have had an optimistic temperament; but, on the contrary, he was of a gloomy nature, and only infrequently social. no company was better for his being in it. never had she seen any man sit out the evening with him without effort. yet the house had prospered. how often had she said to herself, in noting these facts: "yet the house prospers!" there was always money in the till even when the patronage was small. their difficulties were never financial ones. she was still living on the proceeds of what they had laid by in those old days. her mind continued to plunge back. he had had no business worries; yet his temper was always uncertain. she had not often suffered from it herself, for her ascendency over men extended even to him. but reuther had shrunk before it more than once--the gentle reuther, who was the refined, the etherealised picture of himself. and he had loved the child as well as he could love anybody. great gusts of fondness would come over him at times, and then he would pet and cajole the child almost beyond a parent's prerogative. but he was capable of striking her too--had struck her frequently. and for nothing--an innocent look; a shrinking movement; a smile when he wasn't in the mood for smiles. it was for this deborah had hated him; and it was for this the mother in her now held him responsible for the doubts which had shadowed their final parting. was not the man, who could bring his hand down upon so frail and exquisite a creature as reuther was in those days, capable of any act of violence? yes; but in this case he had been guiltless. she could not but concede this even while yielding to extreme revulsion as she laid his picture aside. * * * * * the next slip she took up contained an eulogy of the victim. "the sudden death of algernon etheridge has been in more than one sense a great shock to the community. though a man of passive rather than active qualities, his scholarly figure, long, lean and bowed, has been seen too often in our streets not to be missed, when thus suddenly withdrawn. his method of living; the rigid habits of an almost ascetic life; such an hour for this thing, such an hour for that--his smile, which made you soon forget his irascibility and pride of learning; made up a character unique in our town and one that we can ill afford to spare. the closed doors of the little cottage, so associated with his name that it will be hard to imagine it occupied by any one else, possess a pathos of their own which is felt by young and old alike. the gate that never would latch, the garden, where at a stated hour in the morning his bowed figure would always be seen hoeing or weeding or raking, the windows without curtains showing the stacks of books within, are eloquent of a presence gone, which can never be duplicated. alone on its desolate corner, it seems to mourn the child, the boy, the man who gave it life, and made it, in its simplicity, more noted and more frequently pointed at than any other house in town. "why he should have become the target of fate is one of the mysteries of life. his watch, which aside from his books was his most valuable possession, was the gift of judge ostrander. that it should be associated in any way with the tragic circumstances of his death is a source of the deepest regret to the unhappy donor." * * * * * this excerpt she hardly looked at; but the following she studied carefully: "judge ostrander has from the first expressed a strong desire that some associate judge should be called upon to preside over the trial of john scoville for the murder of algernon etheridge. but judge saunders' sudden illness and judge dole's departure for europe have put an end to these hopes. judge ostrander will take his seat on the bench as usual next monday. fortunately for the accused, his well-known judicial mind will prevent any unfair treatment of the defence." * * * * * "the prosecution, in the able hands of district attorney foss, made all its points this morning. unless the defence has some very strong plea in the background, the verdict seems foredoomed. a dogged look has replaced the callous and indifferent sneer on the prisoner's face, and sympathy, if sympathy there is, is centred entirely upon the wife, the able, agreeable and bitterly humiliated landlady of claymore tavern. she it is who has attracted the most attention during this trial, little as she seems to court it." * * * * * "only one new detail of evidence was laid before the jury to-day. scoville has been known for some time to have a great hankering after a repeating watch. he had once seen that of algernon etheridge, and was never tired of talking about it. several witnesses testified to his various remarks on this subject. thus the motive for his dastardly assault upon an unoffending citizen, which to many minds has seemed lacking, has been supplied. "the full particulars of this day's proceedings will be found below." * * * * * we omit these to save repetition; but they were very carefully conned by deborah scoville. also the following: "the defence is in a line with the statement already given out. the prisoner acknowledges taking the watch but from motives quite opposed to those of thievery. unfortunately he can produce no witnesses to substantiate his declaration that he had heard voices in the direction of the bridge while he was wandering the woods in search of his lost child. no evidence of any other presence there is promised or likely to be produced. it was thought that when his wife was called to the stand she might have something to say helpful to his case. she had been the one to ultimately find and lead home the child, and, silent as she had been up to this time, it has been thought possible that she might swear to having heard these voices also. "but her testimony was very disappointing. she had seen nobody, heard nobody but the child whom she had found playing with stones in the old ruin. though by a close calculation of time she could not have been far from dark hollow at the instant of the crime, yet neither on direct or cross-examination could anything more be elicited from her than what has been mentioned above. nevertheless, we feel obliged to state that, irreproachable as her conduct was on the stand, the impression she made was, on the whole, whether intentionally or unintentionally, unfavourable to her husband. "some anxiety was felt during the morning session that an adjournment would have to be called, owing to some slight signs of indisposition on the part of the presiding judge. but he rallied very speedily, and the proceedings continued without interruption." * * * * * "ah!" the exclamation escaped the lips of deborah scoville as she laid this clipping aside. "i remember his appearance well. he had the ghost of one of those attacks, the full force of which i was a witness to this morning. i am sure of this now, though nobody thought of it then. i happened to glance his way as i left the stand, and he was certainly for one minute without consciousness of himself or his surroundings. but it passed so quickly it drew little attention; not so, the attack of to-day. what a misfortune rests upon this man. will they let him continue on the bench when his full condition is known?" these were her thoughts, as she recalled that day and compared it with the present. there were other slips, which she read but which we may pass by. the fate of the prisoner was in the hands of a jury. the possibility suggested by the defence made no appeal to men who had the unfortunate prisoner under their eye at every stage of the proceedings. the shifty eye, the hang-dog look, outweighed the plea of his counsel and the call for strict impartiality from the bench. he was adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentence called for. this was the end; and as she read these words, the horror which overwhelmed her was infinitely greater than when she heard them uttered in that fatal court room. for then she regarded him as guilty and deserving his fate and now she knew him to be innocent. well, well! too much dwelling on this point would only unfit her for what lay before her on the morrow. she would read no more. sleep were a better preparation for her second interview with the judge than this reconsideration of facts already known to their last detail. alas, when her eyelids finally obeyed the dictates of her will, the first glimmering rays of dawn were beginning to scatter the gloom of her darkened chamber! x the shadow bela was to be buried at four. as judge ostrander prepared to lock his gate behind the simple cortege which was destined to grow into a vast crowd before it reached the cemetery, he was stopped by the sergeant who whispered in his ear: "i thought your honour might like to know that the woman--you know the one i mean without my naming her--has been amusing herself this morning in a very peculiar manner. she broke down some branches in the ravine,--small ones, of course,--and would give no account of herself when one of my men asked her what she was up to. it may mean nothing, but i thought you would like to know." "have you found out who she is?" "no, sir. the man couldn't very well ask her to lift her veil, and at the tavern they have nothing to say about her." "it's a small matter. i will see her myself to-day and find out what she wants of me. meanwhile, remember that i leave this house and grounds absolutely to your protection for the next three hours. i shall be known to be absent, so that a more careful watch than ever is necessary. not a man, boy or child is to climb the fence. i may rely on you?" "you may, judge." "on my return you can all go. i will guard my own property after to-day. you understand me, sergeant?" "perfectly, your honour." this ended the colloquy. spencer's folly, as the old ruin on the bluff was called in memory of the vanished magnificence which was once the talk of the county, presented a very different appearance to the eye in broad daylight from what it did at night with a low moon sending its mellow rays through the great gap made in its walls by that ancient stroke of lightning. even the enkindling beams of the westering sun striking level through the forest failed to adorn its broken walls and battered foundations. to the judge, approaching it from the highway, it was as ugly a sight as the world contained. he hated its arid desolation and all the litter of blackened bricks blocking up the site of former feastings and reckless merriment, and, above all, the incongruous aspect of the one gable still standing undemolished, with the zigzag marks of vanished staircases outlined upon its mildewed walls. but, most of all, he shrank from a sight of the one corner still intact where the ghosts of dead memories lingered, making the whole place horrible to his eye and one to be shunned by all men. how long it had been shunned by him he realised when he noticed the increased decay of the walls and the growth of the verdure encompassing the abominable place! the cemetery from which he had come looked less lonesome to his eyes and far less ominous; and, for a passing instant, as he contemplated the scene hideous with old memories and threatening new sorrows, he envied bela his narrow bed and honourable rest. a tall figure and an impressive presence are not without their disadvantages. this he felt as he left the highway and proceeded up the path which had once led through a double box hedge to the high, pillared entrance. he abhorred scandal and shrank with almost a woman's distaste from anything which savoured of the clandestine. yet here he was about to meet on a spot open to the view of every passing vehicle, a woman who, if known to him, was a mystery to every one else. his expression showed the scorn with which he regarded his own compliance, yet he knew that no instinct of threatened dignity, no generous thought for her or selfish one for himself would turn him back from this interview till he had learned what she had to tell him and why she had so carefully exacted that he should hear her story in a spot overlooking the hollow it would beseem them both to shun. there had originally been in the days of spencer's magnificence a lordly portico at the end of this approach, girt by pillars of extraordinary height. but no sign remained of pillar, or doorway--only a gap, as i have said. towards this gap he stepped, feeling a strange reluctance in entering it. but he had no choice. he knew what he should see--no, he did not know what he should see, for when he finally stepped in, it was not an open view of the hollow which met his eyes, but the purple-clad figure of mrs. averill with little peggy at her side. he had not expected to see the child, and, standing as they were with their backs to him, they presented a picture which, for some reason to be found in the mysterious recesses of his disordered mind, was exceedingly repellent to him. indeed, he was so stricken by it that he had actually made a move to withdraw, when the exigency of the occasion returned upon him in full force, and, with a smothered oath, he overcame his weakness and stepped firmly up into the ruins. the noise he made should have caused deborah's tall and graceful figure to turn. but the spell of her own thoughts was too great; and he would have found himself compelled to utter the first word, if the child, who had heard him plainly enough, had not dragged at the woman's hand and so woke her from her dream. "ah, judge ostrander," she exclaimed in a hasty but not ungraceful greeting, "you are very punctual. i was not looking for you yet." then, as she noted the gloom under which he was labouring, she continued with real feeling, "indeed, i appreciate this sacrifice you have made to my wishes. it was asking a great deal of you to come here; but i saw no other way of making my point clear. come over here, peggy, and build me a little house out of these stones. you don't mind the child, do you, judge? she may offer a diversion if our retreat is invaded." the gesture of disavowal which he made was courteous but insincere. he did mind the child, but he could not explain why; besides he must overcome such folly. "now," she continued as she rejoined him on the place where he had taken his stand, "i will ask you to go back with me to the hour when john scoville left the tavern on that fatal day. i am not now on oath, but i might as well be for any slip i shall make in the exact truth. i was making pies in the kitchen, when some one came running in to say that reuther had strayed away from the front yard. she was about the age of the little one over there, and we never allowed her out alone for fear of her tumbling off the bluff. so i set down the pie i was just putting in the oven, and was about to run out after her when my husband called to me from the front, and said he would go. i didn't like his tone--it was sullen and impatient, but i knew he loved the child too well to see her suffer any danger, and so i settled back to work and was satisfied enough till the pies were all in. then i got uneasy, and, hearing nothing of either of them, i started in this direction because they told me john had taken the other. and here i found her, sir, right in the heart of these ruins. she was playing with stones just as peggy dear is doing now. greatly relieved, i was taking her away when i thought i heard john calling. stepping up to the edge just behind where you are standing, sir--yes, there, where you get such a broad outlook up and down the ravine, i glanced in the direction from which i had heard his call--just wait a moment, sir; i want to know the exact time." stopping, she pulled out her watch and looked at it, while he, faltering up to the verge which she had pointed out, followed her movements with strange intensity as she went on to say in explanation of her act: "the time is important, on account of a certain demonstration i am anxious to make. you will remember that i was expecting to see john, having heard his voice in the ravine. now if you will lean a little forward and look where i am pointing, you will notice at the turn of the stream, a spot of ground more open than the rest. please keep your eyes on that spot, for it was there i saw at this very hour twelve years ago the shadow of an approaching figure; and it is there you will presently see one similar, if the boy i have tried to interest in this experiment does not fail me. now, now, sir! we should see his shadow before we see him. oh, i hope the underbrush and trees have not grown up too thick! i tried to thin them out to-day. are you watching, sir?" he seemed to be, but she dared not turn to look. both figures leaned, intent, and in another moment she had gripped his arm and clung there. "did you see?" she whispered, "don't mind the boy; it's the shadow i wanted you to notice. did you observe anything marked about it?" she had drawn him back into the ruins. they were standing in that one secluded corner under the ruinous gable, and she was gazing up at him very earnestly. "tell me, judge," she entreated as he made no effort to answer. with a hurried moistening of his lips, he met her look and responded, with a slight emphasis: "the boy held a stick. i should say that he was whittling it." "ah!" her tone was triumphant. "that was what i told him to do. did you see anything else?" "no. i do not understand this experiment or what you hope from it." "i will tell you. the shadow which i saw at a moment very like this, twelve years ago, showed a man whittling a stick and wearing a cap with a decided peak in front. my husband wore such a cap--the only one i knew of in town. what more did i need as proof that it was his shadow i saw?" "and wasn't it?" "judge ostrander, i never thought differently till after the trial--till after the earth closed over my poor husband's remains. that was why i could say nothing in his defence--why i did not believe him when he declared that he had left his stick behind him when he ran up the bluff after reuther. the tree he pointed out as the one against which he had stood it, was far behind the place where i saw this advancing shadow. even the oath he made to me of his innocence at the last interview we held in prison did not impress me at the time as truthful. but later, when it was all over, when the disgrace of his death and the necessity of seeking a home elsewhere drove me into selling the tavern and all its effects, i found something which changed my mind in this regard, and made me confident that i had done my husband a great injustice." "you found? what do you mean by that? what could you have found?" "his peaked cap lying in a corner of the garret. he had not worn it that day." the judge stared. she repeated her statement, and with more emphasis: "he had not worn it that day; for when he came back to be hustled off again by the crowd, he was without hat of any kind, and he never returned again to his home--you know that, judge. i had seen the shadow of some other man approaching dark hollow. whose, i am in this town now to find out." xi "i will think about it" judge ostrander was a man of keen perception, quick to grasp an idea, quick to form an opinion. but his mind acted slowly to-night. deborah scoville wondered at the blankness of his gaze and the slow way in which he seemed to take in this astounding fact. at last he found voice and with it gave some evidence of his usual acumen. "madam, a shadow is an uncertain foundation on which to build such an edifice as you plan. how do you know that the fact you mention was coincident with the crime? mr. etheridge's body was not found till after dark. a dozen men might have come down that path with or without sticks before he reached the bridge and fell a victim to the assault which laid him low." "i thought the time was pretty clearly settled by the hour he left your house. the sun had not set when he turned your corner on his way home. so several people said who saw him. besides--" "yes; there is a besides. i'm sure of it." "i saw the tall figure of a man, whom i afterwards made sure was mr. etheridge, coming down factory road on his way to the bridge when i turned about to get reuther." "all of which you suppressed at the trial." "i was not questioned on this point, sir." "madam,"--he was standing very near to her now, hemming her as it were into that decaying corner--"i should have a very much higher opinion of your candour if you told me the whole story." "i have, sir." his hands rose, one to the right hand wall, the other to the left, and remained there with their palms resting heavily against the rotting plaster. she was more than ever hemmed in; but, though she felt a trifle frightened at his aspect which certainly was not usual, she faced him without shrinking and in very evident surprise. "you went immediately home with the child after that glimpse you got of mr. etheridge?" "yes; i had no reason in the world to suppose that anything was going to happen in the ravine below us. of course, i went straight on; there were things to be done at home, and--you don't believe me, sir." his hands fell; an indefinable change had come over his aspect; he bowed and seemed about to utter an ironic apology. she felt puzzled and unconsciously she began to think. what was lacking in her statement? something. could she remember what? something which he had expected; something which as presiding judge over john's trial he had been made aware of and now recalled to render her story futile. it couldn't be that one little thing--but yes, it might be. nothing is little where a great crime is concerned. she smiled a dubious smile, then she said: "it seems too slight a fact to mention, and, indeed, i had forgotten it till you pressed me, but after we had passed the gates and were well out on the highway, i found that reuther had left her little pail behind her here, and we came back and got it. did you mean that, sir?" "i meant nothing; but i felt sure you had not told all you could about that fatal ten minutes. you came back. it is quite a walk from the road. the man whose shadow you saw must have reached the bridge by this time. what did you see then or--hear?" "nothing. absolutely nothing, judge. i was intent on finding the baby's pail, and having found it i hurried back home all the faster." "and tragedy was going on or was just completed, in plain sight from this gap!" "i have no doubt, sir; and if i had looked, possibly john might have been saved." the silence following this was broken by a crash and a little cry. peggy's house had tumbled down. the small incident was a relief. both assumed more natural postures. "so the shadow is your great and only point," remarked the judge. "it is sufficient for me." "ah, perhaps." "but not enough for the public?" "hardly." "not enough for you, either?" "madam, i have already told you that, in my opinion, john scoville was a guilty man." "and this fact, with which i have just acquainted you, has done nothing to alter this opinion?" "i can only repeat what i have just said." "oh, reuther! oh, oliver!" "do not speak my son's name. i am in no mood for it. the boy and girl are two and can never become one. i have other views for her--she is an innocent victim and she has my sympathy. you, too, madam, though i consider you as following a will-o'-the-wisp which will only lead you hopelessly astray." "i shall not desist, judge ostrander." "you are going to pursue this jack-o'-lanthorn?" "i am determined to. if you deny me aid and advice, i shall seek another counsellor. john's name must be vindicated." "obstinacy, madam." "no; conscience." he gave her a look, turned and glanced down at the child piling stone on stone and whimpering just a little when they fell. "watch that baby for a while," he remarked, "and you will learn the lesson of most human endeavour. madam, i have a proposition to make you. you cannot wish to remain at the inn, nor can you be long happy separated from your daughter. i have lost bela. i do not know how, nor would i be willing, to replace him by another servant. i need a housekeeper; some one devoted to my interests and who will not ask me to change my habits too materially. will you accept the position, if i add as an inducement my desire to have reuther also as an inmate of my home? this does not mean that i countenance or in any way anticipate her union with my son. i do not; but any other advantages she may desire, she shall have. i will not be strict with her." "judge ostrander!" deborah scoville was never more taken aback in her life. the recluse opening his doors to two women! the man of mystery flinging aside the reticences of years to harbour an innocence which he refused to let weigh against the claims of a son he has seen fit to banish from his heart and home! "you may take time to think of it," he continued, as he watched the confused emotions change from moment to moment the character of her mobile features. "i shall not have my affairs adjusted for such a change before a week. if you accept, i shall be very grateful. if you decline, i shall close up my two rear gates, and go into solitary seclusion. i can cook a meal if i have to." and she saw that he would do it; saw and wondered still more. "i shall have to write to reuther," she murmured. "how soon do you want my decision?" "in four days." "i am too disturbed to thank you, judge. should--should we have to keep the gates locked?" "no. but you would have to keep out unwelcome intruders. and the rights of my library will have to be respected. in all other regards i should wish, under these new circumstances, to live as other people live. i have been very lonely these past twelve years." "i will think about it." "and you may make note of these two conditions: oliver's name is not to be mentioned in my hearing, and you and reuther are to be known by your real names." "you would--" "yes, madam. no secrecy is to be maintained in future as to your identity or my reasons for desiring you in my house. i need a housekeeper and you please me. that you have a past to forget and reuther a disappointment to overcome, gives additional point to the arrangement." her answer was: "i cannot take back what i have said about my determined purpose." in repeating this, she looked up at him askance. he smiled. she remembered that smile long after the interview was over and only its memory remained. xii sounds in the night dearest mother: where could we go that disgrace would not follow us? let us then accept the judge's offer. i am the more inclined to do this because of the possible hope that some day he may come to care for me and allow me to make life a little brighter for him. the fact that for some mysterious reason he feels himself cut off from all intercourse with his son, may prove a bond of sympathy between us. i, too, am cut off from all companionship with oliver. between us also a wall is raised. do not mind that tear-drop, mamma. it is the last. kisses for my comforter. come soon. reuther. over this letter deborah scoville sat for two hours, then she rang for mrs. yardley. the maid who answered her summons surveyed her in amazement. it was the first time that she had seen her uncovered face. mrs. yardley was not long in coming up. "mrs. averill--" she began in a sort of fluster, as she met her strange guest's quiet eye. but she got no further. that guest had a correction to make. "my name is not averill," she protested. "you must excuse the temporary deception. it is scoville. i once occupied your present position in this house." mrs. yardley had heard all about the scovilles; and, while a flush rose to her cheeks, her eyes snapped with sudden interest. "ah!" came in quick exclamation, followed, however, by an apologetic cough and the somewhat forced and conventional remark: "you find the place changed, no doubt?" "very much so, and for the better, mrs. yardley." then, with a straightforward meeting of the other's eye calculated to disarm whatever criticism the situation might evoke, she quietly added, "you need no longer trouble yourself with serving me my meals in my room. i will eat dinner in the public dining-room to-day with the rest of the boarders. i have no further reason for concealing who i am or what my future intentions are. i am going to live with judge ostrander, mrs. yardley;--keep house for him, myself and daughter. his man is dead and he feels very helpless. i hope that i shall be able to make him comfortable." mrs. yardley's face was a study. in all her life she had never heard news that surprised her more. in fact, she was mentally aghast. judge ostrander admitting any one into his home, and this woman above all! yet, why not? he, certainly, would have to have some one. and this woman had always been known as a notable housekeeper. in another moment, she had accepted the situation, like the very sensible woman she was, and mrs. scoville had the satisfaction of seeing the promise of real friendly support in the smile with which mrs. yardley remarked: "it's a good thing for you and a very good thing for the judge. it may shake him out of his habit of seclusion. if it does, you will be the city's benefactor. good luck to you, madam. and you have a daughter, you say?" * * * * * after mrs. yardley's departure, mrs. scoville, as she now expected herself to be called, sat for a long time brooding. would her quest be facilitated or irretrievably hindered by her presence in the judge's house? she had that yet to learn. meanwhile, there was one thing more to be accomplished. she set about it that evening. veiled, but in black now, she went into town. getting down at the corner of colburn avenue and perry street, she walked a short distance on perry, then rang the bell of an attractive-looking house of moderate dimensions. being admitted, she asked to see mr. black, and for an hour sat in close conversation with him. then she took a trolley-car which carried her into the suburbs. when she alighted, it was unusually late for a woman to be out alone; but she had very little physical fear, and walked on steadily enough for a block or two till she came to a corner, where a high fence loomed forbiddingly between her and a house so dark that it was impossible to distinguish between its chimneys and the encompassing trees whose swaying tops could be heard swishing about uneasily in the keen night air. an eerie accompaniment, this latter, to the beating of deborah's heart already throbbing with anticipation and keyed to an unusual pitch by her own daring. was she quite alone in the seemingly quiet street? she could hear no one, see no one. a lamp burned in front of miss weeks' small house, but the road it illumined (i speak of the one running down to the ravine) showed only darkened houses. she had left the corner and was passing the gate of the ostrander homestead, when she heard, coming from some distant point within, a low and peculiar sound which held her immovable for a moment, then sent her on shuddering. it was the sound of hammering. what is there in a rat-tat-tat in the dead of night which rouses the imagination and fills the mind with suggestions which we had rather not harbour when in the dark and alone? deborah scoville was not superstitious, but she had keen senses and mercurial spirits and was easily moved by suggestion. hearing this sound and locating it where she did, she remembered, with a quick inner disturbance, that the judge's house held a secret; a secret of such import to its owner that the dying bela had sought to preserve it at the cost of his life. oh, she had heard all about that! the gossip at claymore inn had been great, and nothing had been spared her curiosity. there was something in this house which it behooved the judge to secrete from sight yet more completely before her own and reuther's entrance, and he was at work upon it now, hammering with his own hand while other persons slept! no wonder she edged her way along the fence with a shrinking, yet persistent, step. she was circling her future home and that house held a mystery. and yet, like any other imaginative person under a stress of aroused feeling, she might very easily be magnifying some commonplace act into one of terrifying possibilities. one can hammer very innocently in his own house, even at night, when making preparations to receive fresh inmates after many years of household neglect. she recognised her folly before reaching the adjoining field. but she went on. where the fence turned, she turned, there being no obstruction to her doing so. this brought her into a wilderness of tangled grasses where free stepping was difficult. as she groped her way along, she had ample opportunity to hear again the intermittent sounds of the hammer, and to note that they reached their maximum at a point where the ell of the judge's study approached the fences. rat-tat-tat; rat-tat-tat. she hated the sound even while she whispered to herself: "it is just some household matter he is at work upon;--rehanging pictures or putting up shelves. it can be nothing else." yet on laying her ear to the fence, she felt her sinister fears return; and, with shrinking glances into a darkness which told her nothing, she added in fearful murmur to herself: "what am i taking reuther into? i wish i knew. i wish i knew." book ii the house and the room xiii a bit of steel "when are you going to judge ostrander's?" "to-morrow. this is my last free day. so if there is anything for me to do, do tell me, mr. black, and let me get to work at once." "there is nothing you can do. the matter is hopeless." "you think so?" there was misery in the tone, but the seasoned old lawyer, who had conducted her husband's defence, did not allow his sympathies to run away with his judgment. "i certainly do, madam. i told you so the other night, and now, after a couple of days of thought on the subject, i am obliged to repeat my assertion. your own convictions in the matter, and your story of the shadow and the peaked cap may appeal to the public and assure you some sympathy, but for an entire reversal of its opinion you will need substantial and incontrovertible evidence. you must remember--you will pardon my frankness--that your husband's character failed to stand the test of inquiry. his principles were slack, his temper violent. you have suffered from both and must know. a poor foundation i found it for his defence; and a poor one you will find it for that reversal of public opinion upon which you count, without very strong proof that the crime for which he was punished was committed by another man. you think you have such proof, but it is meagre, very meagre. find me something definite to go upon and we will talk." "discouragement; discouragement everywhere," she complained. "yet i know john to have been innocent of this crime." the lawyer raised his brows, and toyed impatiently with his watch-chain. if her convictions found any echo in his own mind, he gave no evidence of it. doubtfully she eyed him. "what you want," she observed at length, with a sigh, "is the name of the man who sauntered down the ravine ahead of my husband. i cannot give it to you now, but i do not despair of learning it." "twelve years ago, madam; twelve years ago." "i know; but i have too much confidence in my cause to be daunted even by so serious an obstacle as that. i shall yet put my finger on this man. but i do not say that it will be immediately. i have got to renew old acquaintances; revive old gossip; possibly, recall to life almost obliterated memories." mr. black, dropping his hand from his vest, gave her his first look of unqualified admiration. "you ring true," said he. "i have met men qualified to lead a forlorn hope; but never before a woman. allow me to express my regret that it is such a forlorn one." then, with a twinkle in his eye which bespoke a lighter mood, he remarked in a curiously casual tone. "talking of gossip, there is but one person in town who is a complete repository of all that is said or known this side of colchester." (the next town.) "i never knew her to forget anything; and i never knew her to be very far from the truth. she lives near judge ostrander--a quaint little body, not uninteresting to talk to; a regular character, in fact. do you know what they say about her house? that everything on god's earth can be found in it. that you've but to name an object, and she will produce it. she's had strange opportunities for collecting odds and ends, and she's never neglected one of them. yet her house is but a box. miss weeks is her name." "i will remember it." mrs. scoville rose. then she sat down again, with the remark: "i have a strange notion. it's a hard thing to explain and you may not understand me, but i should like to see, if it still exists, the stick--my husband's stick--with which this crime was committed. do the police retain such things? is there any possibility of my finding it laid away in some drawer at headquarters or on some dusty shelf?" mr. black was again astonished. was this callousness or a very deep and determined purpose. "i don't know. i never go pottering about at headquarters. what do you want to see that for? what help can you get out of that?" "none probably; but in the presence of defeat you grasp at every hope. i dreamt of that stick last night. i was in an awful wilderness, all rocks, terrific gorges and cloud-covered, unassailable peaks. a light--one ray and one only--shone on me through the darkness. towards this ray i was driven through great gaps in the yawning rocks and along narrow galleries sloping above an unfathomable abyss. hope lay beyond, rescue, light. but a wall reared its black length between. i came upon it suddenly; a barrier mighty and impenetrable with its ends lost in obscurity. and the ray! the one long beam! it was still there. it shone directly upon me from an opening in this wall. it marked a gate,--a gate for which i only lacked the key. where should i find one to fit a lock so gigantic! nowhere! unless the something which i held--which had been in my hands from the first--would be found to move its stubborn wards. i tried it and it did! it did! i hear the squeak of those tremendous hinges now, and--mr. black, you must have guessed what that something was. my husband's stick! the bludgeon with whose shape i was so familiar twelve years ago! it is that and that only which will lead us to the light. of this i feel quite sure." a short and ironical grunt answered her. mr. black was not always the pink of politeness even in the presence of ladies. "most interesting," he commented sarcastically. "the squeak you heard was probably the protest of the bed you were reclining on against such a misuse of the opportunities it offered you. a dream listened to as evidence in this office! you must have a woman's idea of the value of my time." flushing with discomfiture, she attempted to apologise, when he cut her short. "nevertheless, you shall see the stick if it is still to be found. i will take you to police headquarters if you will go heavily veiled. we don't want any recognition of you there yet." "you will take me--" "the fact that i never go there may make my visit not unwelcome. i'll do it; yes, i'll do it." "mr. black, you are very good. how soon--" "now," he announced, jumping up to get his hat. "a woman who can take up a man's time, with poetry and dreams, might as well have the whole afternoon. are you ready? shall we go?" all alacrity, in spite of the irony of his bow and smile, he stood at the door waiting for her to follow him. this she did slowly and with manifest hesitation. she did not understand the man. people often said of her that she did not understand her own charm. there was one little fact of which mr. black was ignorant;--that the police had had their eye on the veiled lady at claymore inn for several days now and knew who his companion was the instant they stepped into headquarters. in vain his plausible excuses for showing his lady friend the curiosities of the place; her interest in the details of criminology was well understood by sergeant doolittle, though of course he had not sounded its full depths, and could not know from any one but judge ostrander himself, her grave reasons for steeping her mind again in the horrors of her husband's long-since expiated crime. and judge ostrander was the last man who would be likely to give him this information. therefore, when he saw the small, mocking eye of the lawyer begin to roam over the shelves, and beheld his jaw drop as it sometimes did when he sought to veil his purpose in an air of mild preoccupation, he knew what the next request would be, as well as if the low sounds which left mr. black's lips at intervals had been words instead of inarticulate grunts. he was, therefore, prepared when the question did come. "any memorial of the etheridge case?" "nothing but a stick with blood-marks on it. that, i'm afraid, wouldn't be a very agreeable sight for a lady's eye." "she's proof," the lawyer whispered in the officer's ear. "let's see the stick." the sergeant considered this a very interesting experience--quite a jolly break in the dull monotony of the day. hunting up the stick, he laid it in the lawyer's hands, and then turned his eye upon the lady. she had gone pale, but it took her but an instant to regain her equanimity and hold out her own hand for the weapon. with what purpose? what did she expect to see in it which others had not seen many times? she did not know, herself. she was simply following an impulse, just as she had felt herself borne on by some irresistible force in her dream. and so, the three stood there, the men's faces ironic, inquisitive, wondering at the woman's phlegm if not at her motive; hers, hidden behind her veil, but bent forward over the weapon in an attitude of devouring interest. thus for a long, slow minute; then she impulsively raised her head and, beckoning the two men nearer, she directed attention to a splintered portion of the handle and asked them what they saw there. "nothing; just stick," declared the sergeant. "the marks you are looking for are higher up." "and you, mr. black?" he saw nothing either but stick. but he was little less abrupt in his answer. "do you mean those roughnesses?" he asked. "that's where the stick was whittled. you remember that he had been whittling at the stick--" "who?" the word shot from her lips so violently that for a moment both men looked staggered by it. then mr. black, with unaccustomed forbearance, answered gently enough: "why, scoville, madam; or so the prosecution congratulated itself upon having proved to the jury's satisfaction. it did not tally with scoville's story or with common sense i know. you remember,--pardon me,--i mean that any one who read a report of the case, will remember how i handled the matter in my speech. but the prejudice in favour of the prosecution--i will not say against the defence--was too much for me, and common sense, the defendant's declarations, and my eloquence all went for nothing." "of course they produced the knife?" "yes, they produced the knife." "it was in his pocket?" "yes." "have they that here?" "no, we haven't that here." "but you remember it?" "remember it?" "was it a new knife, a whole one, i mean, with all its blades sharp and in good order?" "yes. i can say that. i handled it several times." "then, whose blade left that?" and again she pointed to the same place on the stick where her finger had fallen before. "i don't know what you mean." the sergeant looked puzzled. perhaps, his eyesight was not very keen. "have you a magnifying-glass? there is something embedded in this wood. try and find out what it is." the sergeant, with a queer look at mr. black, who returned it with interest, went for a glass, and when he had used it, the stare he gave the heavily veiled woman drove mr. black to reach out his own hand for the glass. "well," he burst forth, after a prolonged scrutiny, "there is something there." "the point of a knife blade. the extreme point," she emphasised. "it might easily escape the observation even of the most critical, without such aid as is given by this glass." "no one thought of using a magnifying-glass on this," blurted out the sergeant. "the marks made by the knife were plain enough for all to see, and that was all which seemed important." mr. black said nothing; he was feeling a trifle cheap;--something which did not agree with his crusty nature. not having seen mrs. scoville for a half-hour without her veil, her influence over him was on the wane, and he began to regret that he had laid himself open to this humiliation. she saw that it would be left for her to wind up the interview and get out of the place without arousing too much attention. with a self-possession which astonished both men, knowing her immense interest in this matter, she laid down the stick, and, with a gentle shrug of her shoulders, remarked in an easy tone: "well, it's curious! the inns and outs of a crime, i mean. such a discovery ten years after the event (i think you said ten years) is very interesting." then she sighed: "alas! it's too late to benefit the one whose life it might have saved. mr. black, shall we be going? i have spent a most entertaining quarter of an hour." mr. black glanced from her to the sergeant before he joined her. then, with one of his sour smiles directed towards the former, he said: "i wouldn't be talking about this, sergeant. it will do no good, and may subject us to ridicule." the sergeant, none too well pleased, nodded slightly. seeing which, she spoke up: "i don't know about that, i should think it but proper reparation to the dead to let it be known that his own story of innocence has received this late confirmation." but the lawyer continued to shake his head, with a very sharp look at the sergeant. if he could have his way, he would have this matter stop just where it was. alas! he was not to have his way, as he saw, when at parting he essayed to make a final protest against a public as well as premature reopening of this old case. she did not see her position as he did, and wound up her plea by saying: "the public must lend their aid, if we are to get the evidence we need to help us. can we find the man who whittled that stick? never. but some one else may. i am going to give the men and women of this town a chance. i'm too anxious to clear my husband's memory to shrink from any publicity. you see, i believe that the real culprit will yet be found." the lawyer dropped argument. when a woman speaks in that tone, persuasion is worse than useless. besides, she had raised her veil. strange, what a sensitive countenance will do! xiv all is clear "this is my daughter, judge ostrander, reuther, this is the judge." the introduction took place at the outer gates whither the judge had gone to receive them. reuther threw aside her veil, and looked up into the face bent courteously towards her. it had no look of oliver. somehow she felt glad. she could hardly have restrained herself if he had met her gaze with oliver's eyes. they were fine eyes notwithstanding, piercing by nature but just now misty with a feeling that took away all her fear. he was going to like her; she saw it in every trembling line of his countenance, and at the thought a smile rose to her lips which, if fleeting, lent such an ethereal aspect to her beauty that he forgave oliver then and there for a love which never could be crowned, but which henceforth could no longer be regarded by him as despicable. with a courteous gesture he invited them in, but stopping to lock one gate before leading them through the other, mrs. scoville had time to observe that since her last visit with its accompanying inroad of the populace, the two openings which at this point gave access to the walk between the fences had been closed up with boards so rude and dingy that they must have come from some old lumber pile in attic or cellar. the judge detected her looking at them. "i have cut off my nightly promenade," said he. "with youth in the house, more cheerful habits must prevail. to-morrow i shall have my lawn cut, and if i must walk after sundown i will walk there." the two women exchanged glances. perhaps their gloomy anticipations were not going to be realised. but once within the house, the judge showed embarrassment. he was conscious of its unfitness for their fastidious taste and yet he had not known how to improve matters. in his best days he had concerned himself very little with household affairs, and for the last few years he had not given a thought to anything outside his own rooms. bela had done all--and bela was pre-eminently a cook, not a general house-servant. how would these women regard the disorder and the dust? "i have few comforts to offer," said he, opening a door at his right and then hastily closing it again. "this part of the house is, as you see, completely dismantled and not--very clean. but you shall have carte blanche to arrange to your liking one of these rooms for your sitting-room and parlour. there is furniture in the attic and you may buy freely whatever else is necessary. i don't want to discourage little reuther. as for your bedrooms--" he stopped, hemmed a little and flushed a vivid red as he pointed up the dingy flight of uncarpeted stairs towards which he had led them. "they are above; but it is with shame i admit that i have not gone above this floor for many years. consequently, i don't know how it looks up there or whether you can even find towels and things. perhaps you will go up first, mrs. scoville. i will stay here while you take a look. i really, couldn't have a strange cleaning-woman here, or any one who would make remarks. have i counted too much on your good-nature?" "no; not at all. in fact, you simply arouse all the housekeeping instincts within me. i will be down in a minute. reuther, i leave you with the judge." she ran lightly up. the next instant they heard her sneeze, then they caught the sound of a window rattling up, followed by a streak of light falling slant-wise across the dismal stairs. the judge drew a breath of relief and led reuther towards a door at the end of the hall. "this is the way to the dining-room and kitchen," he explained. "i have been accustomed to having my meals served in my own room, but after this i shall join you at table. here," he continued, leading her up to the iron door, "is the entrance to my den. you may knock here if you want me, but there is a curtain beyond, which no one lifts but myself. you understand, my dear, and will excuse an old man's eccentricities?" she smiled, rejoicing only in the caressing voice, and in the yearning, almost fatherly, manner with which he surveyed her. "i quite understand," said she; "and so will mother." "reuther," he now observed with a strange intermixture of gentleness and authority, "there is one thing i wish to say to you at the very start. i may grow to love you--god knows that a little affection would be a welcome change in my life--but i want you to know and know now, that all the love in the world will not change my decision as to the impropriety of a match between you and my son oliver. that settled, there is no reason why all should not be clear between us." "all is clear." faint and far off the words sounded, though she was standing so near he could have laid his hand on her shoulder. then she gave one sob as though in saying this she heard the last clod fall upon what would never see resurrection again in this life, and, lifting her head, looked him straight in the eye with a decision and a sweetness which bowed his spirit and caused his head in turn to fall upon his breast. "what a father can do for a child, i will do for you," he murmured, and led her back to her mother, who was now coming down stairs. a week, and deborah scoville had evolved a home out of chaos. that is, within limits. there was one door on that upper story which she had simply opened and shut; nor had she entered the judge's rooms, or even offered to do so. the ban which had been laid upon her daughter she felt applied equally to herself; that is for the present. later, there must be a change. so particular a man as the judge would soon find himself too uncomfortable to endure the lack of those attentions which he had been used to in bela's day. he had not even asked for clean sheets, and sometimes she had found herself wondering, with a strange shrinking of her heart, if his bed was ever made, or whether he had not been driven at times to lie down in his clothes. she had some reason for these doubtful conclusions. in her ramblings through the house she had come upon bela's room. it was in a loft over the kitchen and she had been much amazed at its condition. in some respects it looked as decent as she could expect, but in the matter of bed and bedclothes it presented an aspect somewhat startling. the clothes were there, tossed in a heap on the floor, but there was no bed in sight nor anything which could have served as such. it had been dragged out. evidences of this were everywhere; dragged out, and down the narrow, twisted staircase which was the only medium of communication between the lower floor and this loft. as she noted the marks made by its passage down the steps, the unhappy vision rose before her of the judge, immaculate in attire and unaccustomed of hand, tugging at this bed and alternately pushing and pulling it by main strength down this contracted, many-cornered staircase. a smile, half pitiful, half self-scornful curved her lips as she remembered the rat-tat-tat she had heard on that dismal night when she clung listening to the fence, and wondered now if it had not been the bumping of this cot sliding from step to step. but no! the repeated stroke of a hammer is unmistakable. he had played the carpenter that night as well as the mover, and with no visible results. mystery still reigned in the house for all the charm and order she had brought into it; a mystery which deeply interested her, and which she yet hoped to solve, notwithstanding its remoteness from the real problem of her existence. xv the picture night! and deborah scoville waiting anxiously for reuther to sleep, that she might brood undisturbed over a new and disturbing event which for the whole day had shaken her out of her wonted poise, and given, as it were, a new phase to her life in this house. already had she stepped several times to her daughter's room and looked in, only to meet reuther's unquiet eye turned towards hers in silent inquiry. was her own uneasiness infectious? was the child determined to share her vigil? she would wait a little longer this time and see. their rooms were over the parlour and thus as far removed as possible from the judge's den. in her own, which was front, she felt at perfect ease, and it was without any fear of disturbing either him or reuther that she finally raised her window and allowed the cool wind to soothe her heated cheeks. how calm the aspect of the lawn and its clustering shrubs. dimly seen though they were through the leaves of the vines she had but partially clipped, she felt the element of peace which comes with perfect quiet, and was fain to forget for awhile the terrors it so frequently conceals. the moon, which had been invisible up to this moment, emerged from skurrying clouds as she quietly watched the scene; and in an instant her peace was gone and all the thronging difficulties of her position came rushing back upon her in full force, as all the details of the scene, so mercifully hidden just now, flashed again upon her vision. perched, as she was, in a window overlooking the lane, she had but to lift her eyes from the double fence (that symbol of sad seclusion) to light on the trees rising above that unspeakable ravine, black with memories she felt strangely like forgetting to-night. beyond ... how it stood out on the bluff! it had never seemed to stand out more threateningly!... the bifurcated mass of dismal ruin from which men had turned their eyes these many years now! but the moon loved it; caressed it; dallied with it, lighting up its toppling chimney and empty, staring gable. there, where the black streak could be seen, she had stood with the judge in that struggle of wills which had left its scars upon them both to this very day. there, hidden but always seen by those who remembered the traditions of the place, mouldered away the walls of that old closet where the timorous, god-stricken suicide had breathed out his soul. she had stood in it only the other day, penned from outsiders' view by the judge's outstretched arms. then, she had no mind for bygone horrors, her own tragedy weighed too heavily upon her; but to-night, as she gazed, fascinated, anxious to forget herself, anxious to indulge in any thought which would relieve her from dwelling on the question she must settle before she slept, she allowed her wonder and her revulsion to have free course. instead of ignoring, she would recall the story of the place as it had been told her when she first came to settle in its neighbourhood. spencer's folly! well, it had been that, and spencer's den of dissipation too! there were great tales--but it was not of these she was thinking, but of the night of storm--(of the greatest storm of which any record remained in shelby) when the wind tore down branches and toppled down chimneys; when cattle were smitten in the field and men on the highway; when the old bridge, since replaced, buckled up and sank in the roaring flood it could no longer span, and the bluff towering overhead, flared into flame, and the house which was its glory, was smitten apart by the descending bolt as by a titan sword, and blazed like a beacon to the sky. this was long before she herself had come to shelby; but she had been told the story so often that it was quite as vivid to her as if she had been one of the innumerable men and women who had crowded the glistening, swimming streets to view this spectacle of destruction. the family had been gone for months, and so no pity mingled with the excitement. not till the following day did the awful nature of the event break in its full horror upon the town. among the ruins, in a closet which the flames had spared, they found hunched up in one corner, the body of a man, in whose seared throat a wound appeared which had not been made by lightning or fire. spencer! spencer himself, returned they knew not how, to die of this self-inflicted wound, in the dark corner of his grand but neglected dwelling. and this was what made the horror of the place till the tragedy of the opposite hollow added crime to crime, and the spot became outlawed to all sensitive citizens. folly and madness and the vengeance of high heaven upon unhallowed walls, spoke to her from that towering mass, bathed though it was just now in liquid light under the impartial moon. but as she continued to survey it, the clouds came trooping up once more, and the vision was wiped out and with it all memories save those of a nearer trouble--a more pressing necessity. withdrawing from the window, she crept again to reuther's room and peered carefully in. innocence was asleep at last. not a movement disturbed the closed lids on the wax-like cheek. even the breath came so softly that it hardly lifted the youthful breast. repose the most perfect and in the form of all others the sweetest to a tender mother, lay before her and touched her already yearning heart to tears. lighting a candle and shielding it with her hand, she gazed long and earnestly at reuther's sweet face. yes, she was right. sorrow was slowly sapping the fountain of her darling's youth. if reuther was to be saved, hope must come soon. with a sob and a prayer, the mother left the room, and locking herself into her own, sat down at last to face the new perplexity, the monstrous enigma which had come into her life. it had followed in natural sequence from a proposal made by the judge that some attention should be given his long-neglected rooms. he had said on rising from the breakfast table--(the words are more or less important): "i am really sorry to trouble you, mrs. scoville; but if you have time this morning, will you clean up my study before i leave? the carriage is ordered for half-past nine." the task was one she had long desired to perform, and would have urged upon him daily had she dared, but the limitations he set for its accomplishment struck her aghast. "do you mean that you wish to remain there while i work? you will be choked, judge." "no more than i have been for the last two days. you may enter any time." and going in, he left the door open behind him. "he will lock it when he goes out," she commented to herself. "i had better hasten." giving reuther the rest of the work to do, she presently appeared before him with pail and broom and a pile of fresh linen. nothing more commonplace could be imagined, but to her, if not to him, there underlay this especial act of ordinary housewifery a possible enlightenment on a subject which had held the whole community in a state of curiosity for years. she was going to enter the room which had been barred from public sight by poor bela's dying body. she was going to see--or had he only meant that she was to have her way with the library--the room where she had already been and much of which she remembered. the doubt gave a tremulous eagerness to her step and caused her eye to wander immediately to that forbidden corner soon as she had stepped over the threshold. the bedroom door was open;--proof that she was expected to enter there. meanwhile, she felt the eye of the judge upon her and endeavoured to preserve a perfect composure and to sink the curious and inquiring woman in the diligent housekeeper. but she could not, quite. two facts of which she immediately became cognisant, prevented this. first, the great room before her presented a bare floor, whereas on her first visit it had been very decently, if not cheerfully, covered by a huge carpet rug. secondly, the judge's chair, which had once looked immovable, had been dragged forward into such a position that he could keep his own eye on the bedroom door. manifestly she was not to be allowed to pursue her duties unwatched. certainly she had to take more than one look at the every-day implements she carried to retain that balance of judgment which should prevent her from becoming the dupe of her own expectations. "i do not expect you to clean up here as thoroughly as you have your own rooms up stairs," he remarked, as she passed him. "you haven't the time, or i the patience for too many strokes of the broom. and mrs. scoville," he called out as she slipped through the doorway, "leave the door open and keep away as much as possible from the side of the room where i have nailed up the curtain. i had rather not have that touched." she turned with a smile and nodded. she felt that she had been set to work with a string tied round her feet. not touch the curtain! why, that was the one thing in the room she wanted to touch; for in it she not only saw the carpet which had been taken up from the floor of the study, but a possible screen behind which anything might lurk--even his redoubtable secret. or had it another and much simpler explanation? might it not have been hung there merely as a shield to the window. the room must have a window and there was none to be seen elsewhere. it would be like him to shut out light and air. she would ask. "there is no window," she observed, looking back at the judge. "no," was his short reply. slowly she set down her pail. one thing was settled. it was bela's cot she saw before her--a cot without any sheets. these had been left behind in the dead negro's room, and the judge had been sleeping just as she had feared, wrapped in a rug and with uncovered pillow. this pillow was his own; it had not been brought down with the bed. she hastily slipped a cover on it, and without calling any further attention to her act, began to make up the bed. conscious that the papers he made a feint of reading were but a cover for his watchfulness, she moved about in a matter-of-fact way and did not spare him the clouds of dust which presently rose before her broom. she could have managed it more deftly,--would have done so at another time, but it was her express intention just now to make him move back out of her way, if only to give her an opportunity to disturb by a backward stroke of her broom the folds of the carpet-rug and learn if she could what lay hidden behind it. but the judge was impervious to discomfort. he coughed and shook his head, but did not budge an inch. before she had begun to put things in order, the clock struck the half-hour. "oh!" she protested, with a pleading glance his way, "i'm not half done." "there's another day to follow," he dryly remarked, rising and taking a key from his pocket. the act expressed his wishes; and she was proceeding to carry out her things when a quick sliding noise from the wall she was passing, drew her attention and caused her to spring forward in an involuntary effort to catch a picture which had slipped its cord and was falling to the floor. a shout from the judge of "stand aside, let me come!" reached her too late. she had grasped and lifted the picture and seen-but first, let me explain. this picture was not like the others hanging about. it was a veiled one. from some motive of precaution or characteristic desire for concealment on the part of the judge, it had been closely wrapped about in heavy brown paper before being hung, and in the encounter which ensued between the falling picture and the spear of an image standing on a table underneath, this paper had received a slit through which deborah had been given a glimpse of the canvas beneath. the shock of what she saw would have unnerved a less courageous woman. it was a highly finished portrait of oliver in his youth, with a broad band of black painted directly across the eyes. xvi "don't! don't!" in recalling this startling moment, deborah wondered as much at her own aplomb as at that of judge ostrander. not only had she succeeded in suppressing all recognition of what had thus been discovered to her, but had carried her powers of self-repression so far as to offer, and with good grace too, to assist him in rehanging the picture. this perfection of acting had its full reward. with equal composure he excused her from the task, and, adding some expression of regret at his well-known carelessness in not looking better after his effects, bowed her from the room with only a slight increase of his usual courteous reserve. but later, when thought came and with it a certain recollections, what significance the incident acquired in her mind, and what a long line of terrors it brought in its train! it was no casual act, this defacing of a son's well-loved features. it had a meaning--a dark and desperate meaning. nor was the study-wall the natural home of this picture. an unfaded square which she had noted on the wall-paper of the inner room showed where its original place had been. there in full view of the broken-hearted father when he woke and in darksome watchfulness while he slept, it had played its heavy part in his long torment--a galling reminder of--what? it was to answer this question--to face this new view of oliver and the bearing it had on the relations she had hoped to establish between him and reuther, that she had waited for the house to be silent and her child asleep. if the defacing marks she had seen meant that the cause of separation between father and son lay in some past fault of oliver himself, serious enough for such a symbol to be necessary to reconcile the judge to their divided lives, she should know it and know it soon. the night should not pass without that review of the past by which alone she could now judge oliver ostrander. she had spoken of him as noble; she had forced herself to believe him so, and in profession and in many of his actions he had been so, but had she ever been wholly pleased with him? to go back to their first meeting, what impression had he made upon her then? had it been altogether favourable and such as would be natural in one of his repute? hardly; but then the shock of her presentation to one who had possibly seen her under other and shameful conditions had been great, and her judgment could scarcely have full play while her whole attention was absorbed in watching for some hint of recognition on his part. but when this apprehension had vanished; when quite assured that he had failed to see in the widowed mrs. averill the wife of the man who had died a felon's death in shelby, had her spirits risen and her eyes cleared to his great merits as she had heard them extolled by people of worth and intellectual standing? alas, no. there had been something in his look--a lack of spontaneity which had not fitted in with her expectations. and in the months which followed, when as reuther's suitor she saw him often and intimately--how had she regarded him then? more leniently of course. in her gratification at prospects so far beyond any she had a right to expect for her child, she had taken less note of this successful man's defects. peculiarities of conversation and manner which had seemed to bespeak a soul far from confident in its hopes, resolved themselves into the uneasy moods of a man who had a home he never visited, a father he never saw. but had she been really justified in this easy view of things? if the break between his father and himself was the result of nothing deeper than a difference of temperament, tastes or even opinions, why should he have shrunk with such morbid distaste from all allusions to that father? was it natural? she may have looked upon it as being so in the heyday of her hopes and when she had a secret herself to hide, but could she so degrade her judgment now? and what of his conduct towards reuther? had that been all her mother heart could ask of a man of his seemingly high instincts? she had assured his father in her first memorable interview with him that it had been perfectly honourable and above all reproach. and so it had been as far as mere words went. but words are not all; it is the tender look, the manly bearing, the tone which springs from the heart which tells in great crises; and these had all been lacking. generous as he attempted to show himself, there was nothing in his bearing to match that of reuther as she took her quiet leave of him and entered upon a fate so much bitterer for her than for him. this lack of grace in him had not passed unnoted by her even at the time, but being herself so greatly in fault she had ascribed it to the recoil of a proud man from the dread of social humiliation. but it took another aspect under the strong light just thrown upon his early life by her discovery in the room below. nothing but some act, unforgivable and unforgettable would account for that black mark drawn between a father's eyes and his son's face. no bar sinister could tell a stronger tale. but this was no bar sinister; rather the deliberate stigmatising of one yet loved, but banned for a reason which was little short of--here her conclusions stopped; she would not allow her imagination to carry her any farther. unhappy mother, just as she saw something like a prospect of releasing her long-dead husband from the odium of an unjust sentence, to be shaken by this new doubt as to the story and character of the man for whose union with her beloved child she was so anxiously struggling! should it not make her pause? should she not show wisdom in giving a different meaning from any she had hitherto done, to that stern and inexorable dictum of the father, that no marriage between the two could or should ever be considered? it was a question for which no ready answer seemed possible in her present mood. better to await the time when some move had to be made or some definite decision reached. now she must rest,--rest and not think. have any of us ever made the like acknowledgment and then tried to sleep? in half an hour mrs. scoville was again upon her feet, this time with a determination which ignored the hour and welcomed night as though it were broad noon day. there was a room on this upper floor into which neither she nor reuther had ever stepped. she had once looked in but that was all. to-night--because she could not sleep; because she must not think--she was resolved to enter it. oliver's room! left as he had left it years before! what might it not tell of a past concerning which she longed to be reassured? the father had laid no restrictions upon her, in giving her this floor for her use. rights which he ignored she could afford to appropriate. dressing sufficiently for warmth, she lit a candle, put out the light in her own room and started down the hall. if she paused on reaching the threshold of this long-closed room, it was but natural. the clock on reuther's mantel had sent its three clear strokes through the house as her hand fell on the knob, and to her fearing heart and now well-awakened imagination these strokes had sounded in her ear like a "don't! don't!" the silence, so gruesome, now that this shrill echo had ceased, was poor preparation for her task. yet would she have welcomed any sound--the least which could have been heard? no, that were a worse alternative than silence; and, relieved of that momentary obsession consequent upon an undertaking of doubtful outcome, she pushed the door fully open and entered. a smother of dust--an odour of decay--a lack of all order in the room's arrangements and furnishings--even a general disarray, hallowed, if not affected, by time--for all this she was prepared. but not for the wild confusion--the inconceivable litter and all the other signs she saw about her of a boy's mad packing and reckless departure. here her imagination, so lively at times, had failed her; and, as her eye became accustomed to the semi-obscurity, and she noted the heaps of mouldering clothing lying amid overturned chairs and trampled draperies, she felt her heart grow cold with a nameless dread she could only hope to counteract by quick and impulsive action. but what action? was it for her to touch, to rearrange, to render clean and orderly this place of unknown memories? she shrank with inconceivable distaste from the very idea of such meddling; and, though she saw and noted all, she did not put out so much as a finger towards any object there till--there was an inner door, and this some impulse drove her to open. a small closet stood revealed, empty but for one article. when she saw this article she gave a great gasp; then she uttered a low pshaw! and with a shrug of the shoulders drew back and flung to the door. but she opened it again. she had to. one cannot live in hideous doubt, without an effort to allay it. she must look at that small, black article again; look at it with candle in hand; see for herself that her fears were without foundation; that a shadow had made the outline on the wall which-she found herself laughing. there was nothing else to do. she with thoughts like these; she, reuther's mother! verily, the early hours of morning were unsuited for any such work as this. she would go back to her own room and bed--but she only went as far as the bureau where she had left the candlestick, which having seized, she returned to the closet and slowly, reluctantly reopened the door. before her on the wall hung a cap,--and it was no shadow which gave it that look like her husband's; the broad peak was there. she had not been mistaken; it was the duplicate of the one she had picked up in the attic of the claymore inn when that inn was simply a tavern. well, and what if it was!--such was her thought a moment later. she would take down the cap, set it before her and look at it till her brain grew clear of its follies. but after she had it in her hand she found herself looking anywhere but at the cap. she stared at the floor, the walls about, the desk she had mechanically approached. she even noticed the books lying about on the shelves before her and took down one or two, to glance at their title-pages in a blind curiosity she could not account for the next minute. then she found herself looking into a drawer half drawn out and filled with all sorts of heterogeneous articles: sealing-wax, a roll of pins, a pen-holder, a knife--a knife! why should she recoil again at that? nothing could be more ordinary than to find a knife in the desk-drawer of a young man! the fact was not worth a thought; yet before she knew it, her fingers were creeping towards this knife, had picked it up from among the other scattered articles, had closed upon it, let it drop again, only to seize hold of it yet more determinedly and carry it straight to the light. who spoke? had any one spoken? was there any sound in the air at all? she heard none, yet the sense of sound was in her ear, as though it had been and passed. when the glance she threw about her came back to her outstretched hand, she knew that the cry, if cry it were, had been within, and that the echoes of the room had remained undisturbed. the knife was lying open on her palm, and from one of the blades the end had been nipped, just enough of it to match-was she mad! she thought so for a moment; then she laid down the knife close against the cap and contemplated them both for more minutes than she ever reckoned. and the stillness, which had been profound, became deeper yet. not even reuther's clock sounded its small note. the candle fluttering low in its socket roused her at last from her abstraction. catching up the two articles which had so enthralled her, she restored the one to the closet, the other to the drawer, and, with swift but silent step, regained her own room where she buried her head in her pillow, weeping and praying until the morning light, breaking in upon her grief, awoke her to the obligations of her position and the necessity of silence concerning all the experiences of this night. xvii unwelcome truths silence. yes, silence was the one and only refuge remaining to her. yet, after a few days, the constant self-restraint which it entailed, ate like a canker into her peace, and undermined a strength which she had always considered inexhaustible. reuther began to notice her pallor, and the judge to look grave. she was forced to complain of a cold (and in this she was truthful enough) to account for her alternations of feverish impulse and deadly lassitude. the trouble she had suppressed was having its quiet revenge. should she continue to lie inert and breathless under the threatening hand of fate, or risk precipitating the doom she sought to evade, by proceeding with inquiries upon the result of which she could no longer calculate? she recalled the many mistakes made by those who had based their conclusions upon circumstantial evidence (her husband's conviction in fact) and made up her mind to brave everything by having this matter out with mr. black. then the pendulum swung back, and she found that she could not do this because, deep down in her heart, there burrowed a monstrous doubt (how born or how cherished she would not question), which mr. black, with an avidity she could not combat, would at once detect and pounce upon. better silence and a slow death than that. but was there no medium course? could she not learn from some other source where oliver had been on the night of that old-time murder? miss weeks was a near neighbour and saw everything. miss weeks never forgot;--to miss weeks she would go. with instructions to reuther calculated to keep that diligent child absorbed and busy in her absence, she started out upon her quest. she had reached the first gate, passed it and was on the point of opening the second one, when she saw on the walk before her a small slip of brown paper. lifting it, she perceived upon it an almost illegible scrawl which she made out to read thus:- for mrs. scoville: do not go wandering all over the town for clews. look closer home. and below: you remember the old saying about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. let your daughter be warned. it is better to be singed than consumed. warned! reuther? better be singed than consumed? what madness was this? how singed and how consumed? then because deborah's mind was quick, it all flashed upon her, bowing her in spirit to the ground. reuther had been singed by the knowledge of her father's ignominy, she would be consumed if inquiry were carried further and this ignominy transferred to the proper culprit. consumed! there was but one person whose disgrace could consume reuther. oliver alone could be meant. the doubts she had tried to suppress from her own mind were shared by others,--others! the discovery overpowered her and she caught herself crying aloud in utter self-abandonment: "i will not go to miss weeks. i will take reuther and fly to some wilderness so remote and obscure that we can never be found." yet in five minutes she was crossing the road, her face composed, her manner genial, her tongue ready for any encounter. the truth must be hers at all hazards. if it could be found here, then here would she seek it. her long struggle with fate had brought to the fore every latent power she possessed. one stroke on the tiny brass knocker, old-fashioned and quaint like everything else in this doll-house, brought miss weeks' small and animated figure to the door. she had seen mrs. scoville coming, and was ready with her greeting. a dog from the big house across the way would have been welcomed there. the eager little seamstress had never forgotten her hour in the library with the half-unconscious judge. "mrs. scoville!" she exclaimed, fluttering and leading the way into the best room; "how very kind you are to give me this chance for making my apologies. you know we have met before." "have we?" mrs. scoville did not remember, but she smiled her best smile and was gratified to note the look of admiration with which miss weeks surveyed her more than tasty dress before she raised her eyes to meet the smile to whose indefinable charm so many had succumbed. "it is a long time since i lived here," deborah proceeded as soon as she saw that she had this woman, too, in her net. "the friends i had then, i scarcely hope to have now; my trouble was of the kind which isolates one completely. i am glad to have you acknowledge an old acquaintance. it makes me feel less lonely in my new life." "mrs. scoville, i am only too happy." it was bravely said, for the little woman was in a state of marked embarrassment. could it be that her visitor had not recognised her as the person who had accosted her on that memorable morning she first entered judge ostrander's forbidden gates? "i have been told--" thus deborah easily proceeded, "that for a small house yours contains the most wonderful assortment of interesting objects. where did you ever get them?" "my father was a collector, on a very small scale of course, and my mother had a passion for hoarding which prevented anything from going out of this house after it had once come into it,--and a great many strange things have come into it. there have even been bets made as to the finding or not finding of a given object under this roof. pardon me, perhaps i bore you." "not at all. it's very interesting. but what about the bets?" "oh, just this. one day two men were chaffing each other in one of the hotel lobbies, and the conversation turning upon what this house held, one of them wagered that he knew of something i could not fish out of my attic, and when the other asked what, he said an aeroplane--why he didn't say a locomotive, i don't know; but he said an aeroplane, and the other, taking him up, they came here together and put me the question straight. mrs. scoville, you may not believe it, but my good friend won that bet. years ago when people were just beginning to talk about air-sailing machines, my brother who was visiting me, amused his leisure hours in putting together something he called a 'flyer.' and what is more, he went up in it, too, but he came down so rapidly that he kept quite still about it, and it fell to me to lug the broken thing in. so when these gentlemen asked to see an aeroplane, i took them into a lean-to where i store my least desirable things, and there pointed out a mass of wings and bits of tangled wire, saying as dramatically as i could: 'there she is!' and they first stared, then laughed; and when one complained: 'that's a ruin, not an aeroplane,' i answered with all the demureness possible; 'and what is any aeroplane but a ruin in prospect? this has reached the ruin stage; that's all.' so the bet was paid and my reputation sustained. don't you find it a little amusing?" "i do, indeed," smiled deborah. "now, if i wanted to make the test, i should take another course from these men. i should not pick out something strange, or big, or unlikely. i should choose some every-day object, some little matter--" she paused as if to think. "what little matter?" asked the other complacently. "my husband once had a cap," mused mrs. scoville thoughtfully. "it had an astonishingly broad peak in front. have you a cap like that?" miss weeks' eyes opened. she stared in some consternation at mrs. scoville, who hastened to say: "you wonder that i can mention my husband. perhaps you will not be so surprised when i tell you that in my eyes he is a martyr, and quite guiltless of the crime for which he was punished." "you think that?" there was real surprise in the manner of the questioner. mrs. scoville's brow cleared. she was pleased at this proof that her affairs had not yet reached the point of general gossip. "miss weeks, i am a mother. i have a young and lovely daughter. can i look in her innocent eyes and believe her father to have so forgotten his responsibilities as to overshadow her life with crime? no, i will not believe it. circumstances were in favour of his conviction, but he never lifted the stick which struck down algernon etheridge." miss weeks, who had sat quite still during the utterance of these remarks, fidgetted about at their close, with what appeared to the speaker, a sudden and quite welcome relief. "oh!" she murmured; and said no more. it was not a topic she found easy of discussion. "let us go back to the cap," suggested deborah, with another of her fascinating smiles. "are you going to show me one such as i have described?" "let me see. a man's cap with an extra broad peak! mrs. scoville, i fear that you have caught me. there are caps hanging up in various closets, but i don't remember any with a peak beyond the ordinary." "yet they are worn? you have seen such?" a red spot sprang out on the faded cheek of the woman as she answered impulsively: "oh, yes. young mr. oliver ostrander used to wear one. i wish i had asked him for it," she pursued, naively. "i should not have had to acknowledge defeat at your very first inquiry." "oh! you needn't care about that," laughed deborah, in rather a hard tone for her. she had made her point, but was rather more frightened than pleased at her success. "there must be a thousand articles you naturally would lack. i could name--" "don't, don't!" the little woman put in breathlessly. "i have many odd things but of course not everything. for instance--" but here she caught sight of the other's abstracted eye, and dropped the subject. the sadness which now spread over the very interesting countenance of her visitor, offered her an excuse for the introduction of a far more momentous topic; one she had burned to introduce but had not known how. "mrs. scoville, i hear that judge ostrander has got your daughter a piano. that is really a wonderful thing for him to do. not that he is so close with his money, but that he has always been so set against all gaiety and companionship. i suppose you did not know the shock it would be to him when you asked bela to let you into the gates." "no! i didn't know. but it is all right now. the judge seems to welcome the change. miss weeks, did you know algernon etheridge well enough to tell me if he was as good and irreproachable a man as they all say?" "he was a good man, but he had a dreadfully obstinate streak in his disposition and very set ideas. i have heard that he and the judge used to argue over a point for hours. and he was most always wrong. for instance, he was wrong about oliver." "oliver?" "judge ostrander's son, you know. mr. etheridge wanted him to study for a professorship; but the boy was determined to go into journalism, and you see what a success he has made of it. as a professor he would probably have been a failure." "was this difference of opinion on the calling he should pursue, the cause of oliver's leaving home in the way he did?" continued deborah, conscious of walking on very thin ice. but miss weeks rather welcomed than resented this curiosity. indeed she was never tired of enlarging upon the ostranders. it was, therefore, with a very encouraging alacrity she responded: "i have never thought so. the judge would not quarrel with oliver on so small a point as that. my idea is, though i never talk of it much, that they had a great quarrel over mr. etheridge. oliver never liked the old student; i've watched them and i've seen. he hated his coming to the house so much; he hated the way his father singled him out and deferred to him and made him the confidant of all his troubles. when they went on their walks, oliver always hung back, and more than once i have seen him make a grimace of distaste when his father urged him forward. he was only a boy, i know, but his dislikes meant something, and if it ever happened that he spoke out his whole mind, you may be sure that some very bitter words passed." was this meant as an innuendo? could it be that she shared the very serious doubts of deborah's anonymous correspondent? impossible to tell. such nervous, fussy little bodies often possess minds of unexpected subtlety. deborah gave up all hope of understanding her, and, accepting her statements at their face value, effusively remarked: "you must have a very superior mind to draw such conclusions from the little you have seen. i have heard many explanations given for the breach you name, but never any so reasonable." a flash from the spinster's wary eye, then a burst of courage and the quick retort: "and what explanation does oliver himself give? you ought to know, mrs. scoville." the attack was as sudden as it was unexpected. deborah flushed and trimmed her sails for this new tack, and insinuating gently, "then you have heard--" waited for the enlightenment these words were likely to evoke. it came quickly enough. "that he expected to marry your daughter? oh, yes, mrs. scoville; it's the common talk here now. i hope you don't mind my mentioning it." deborah's head went up. she faced the other fairly, with the look born of mother passion, and mother passion only. "reuther is blameless in this matter," she protested. "she was brought up in ignorance of what i felt sure would prove a handicap and misery to her. she loves oliver as she will never love any other man, but when she was told her real name and understood fully what that name carries with it, she declined to saddle him with her shame. that's her story, miss weeks; one that hardly fits her appearance which is very delicate. and, let me add, having once accepted her father's name, she refuses to be known by any other. i have brought her to shelby where to our own surprise and reuther's great happiness, we have been taken in by judge ostrander, an act of kindness for which we are very grateful." miss weeks got up, took down one of her rarest treasures from an old etagere standing in one corner and laid it in mrs. scoville's hand. "for your daughter," she declared. "noble girl! i hope she will be happy." the mother was touched. but not quite satisfied yet of the giver's real feelings towards oliver, she was not willing to conclude the interview until she understood her small hostess better. she, therefore, looked admiringly at the vase (it was really choice); and, after thanking its donor warmly, proceeded to remark: "there is but one thing that will ever make reuther happy, and that she cannot have unless a miracle occurs." "oliver?" suggested the other, with a curious, wan little smile. deborah nodded. "and what miracle--" "oh, i do not wonder you pause. this is not the day of miracles. but if my belief in my husband could be shared; if by some fortuitous chance i should be enabled to clear his name, might not love and loyalty be left to do the rest? wouldn't the judge's objections, in that case, be removed? what do you think, miss weeks?" the warmth, the abandon, the confidence she expressed in this final question were indescribable. miss weeks' conventional mannerisms melted before it. she could no more withstand the witchery of this woman's tone and manner than if she had been a man subdued by the charm of sex. but nothing, not even her newly awakened sympathy for this agreeable woman, could make her untruthful. she might believe in the miracle of a reversal of judgment in the case of a falsely condemned criminal, but not of an ostrander accepting humiliation, even at the hands of love. she felt that in justice to this new friendship she should say so. "do you ask me?" she began. "then i feel that i must admit to you that the ostrander pride is proverbial. oliver may think he would be happy if he married your daughter under these changed conditions; but i should be fearful of the reaction which would certainly follow when he found that old shames are not so easily outlived. there is temper in the family, though you would never think it to hear the judge speak; and if your daughter is delicate--" "is it of her you are thinking?" interrupted deborah, with a new tone in her voice. "not altogether; you see i knew oliver first." "and are fond of him?" "fond is a big word. but i cannot help having some feeling for the boy i have seen grow up from a babe in arms to a healthy, brilliant manhood." "and having this feeling--" "there! we will say no more about it." the little woman's attitude and voice were almost prayerful. "you have judgment enough for two. besides the miracle has not happened," she interjected, with a smile which seemed to say it never would be. deborah sighed. whether or not it was quite an honest expression of her feeling we will not inquire. she was there for a definite purpose and her way to it was, as yet, far from plain. all that she had really learned was this: that it was she, and not miss weeks who was playing a part, and that whatever her inquiries, she need have no fear of rousing suspicion against oliver in a mind already dominated by a belief in john scoville's guilt. the negative with which she followed up this sigh was consequently one of sorrowful acceptance. she made haste, however, to qualify it with the remark: "but i have not given up all hope. my cause is too promising. true, i may not succeed in marrying reuther into the ostrander family, even if it should be my good lot to clear her father's name; but my efforts would have one good result, as precious--perhaps more precious than the one i name. she would no longer have to regard that father as guilty of a criminal act. if such relief can be hers she should have it. but how am i to proceed? i know as well as any one how impossible the task must prove, unless i can light upon fresh evidence. and where am i to get that? only from some new witness." miss weeks' polite smile took on an expression of indulgence. this roused deborah's pride, and, hesitating no longer, she anxiously remarked: "i have sometimes thought that oliver ostrander might be that witness. he certainly was in the ravine the night algernon etheridge was struck down." had she been an experienced actress of years she could not have thrown into this question a greater lack of all innuendo. miss weeks, already under her fascination, heard the tone but never thought to notice the quick rise and fall of her visitor's uneasy bosom, and so unwarned, responded with all due frankness: "i know he was. but how will that help you? he had no testimony to give in relation to this crime, or he would have given it." "that is true." the admission fell mechanically from deborah's lips; she was not conscious, even, of making it. she was struggling with the shock of the simple statement, confirming her own fears that oliver had actually been in the ravine at the hour of etheridge's murder. "not even a boy would hide knowledge of that kind," she stumblingly continued. then, as her emotion choked her into silence, she sat with piteous eyes searching miss weeks' face, till she had recovered her voice, when she added this vital question: "how did you know that oliver was in the ravine that night? i only guessed it." "well, it was in this way. i do not often keep my eye on my neighbours (oh, no, miss weeks!), but that night i chanced to be looking over the way just at the minute mr. etheridge came out, and something i saw in his manner and in that of the judge who had followed him to the door, and in that of oliver who, cap on head, was leaning towards them from a window over the porch, made me think that a controversy was going on between the two old people of which oliver was the subject. this naturally interested me, and i watched them long enough to see oliver suddenly raise his fist and shake it at old etheridge; then, in great rage, slam down the window and disappear inside. the next minute, and before the two below had done talking; i caught another glimpse of him as he dashed around the corner of the house on his way to the ravine." "and mr. etheridge?" "oh, he left soon after. i watched him as he went by, his long cloak flapping in the wind. little did i think he would never pass my window again." so interested were they both, the one in telling to new and sympathetic ears the small experiences of her life, the other in listening for the chance phrase or the unconscious admission which would fix the suspicion already struggling into strong life within her breast, that neither for the moment realised the strangeness of the situation or that it was in connection with a crime for which the husband of one of them had suffered, they were raking up this past, and gossiping over its petty details. possibly recollection returned to them both, when mrs. scoville sighed and said: "it couldn't have been very long after you saw him that mr. etheridge was struck?" "only some twenty minutes. it takes just that long for a man to walk from this corner to the bridge." "and you never heard where oliver went?" "it was never talked about at the time. later, when some hint got about of his having been in the ravine that night, he said he had gone up the ravine not down it. and we all believed him, madam." "of course, of course. what a discriminating mind you have, miss weeks, and what a wonderful memory! to think that after all these years you can recall that oliver had a cap on his head when he looked out of the window at his father and mr. etheridge. if you were asked, i have no doubt you could tell its very colour. was it the peaked one?--the like of which you haven't in your marvelous collection?" "yes, i could swear to it." and miss weeks gave a little laugh, which sounded incongruous enough to deborah in whose heart at that moment, a leaf was turned upon the past, which left the future hopelessly blank. "must you go?" deborah had risen mechanically. "don't, i beg, till you have relieved my mind about judge ostrander. i don't suppose that there is really anything behind that door of his which it would alarm any one to see?" then, deborah understood miss weeks. but she was ready for her. "i've never seen anything of the sort," said she, "and i make up his bed in that very room every morning." "oh!" and miss weeks drew a deep breath. "no article of immense value such as that rare old bit of real satsuma in the cabinet over there?" "no," answered deborah, with all the patience she could muster. "judge ostrander seems very simple in his tastes. i doubt if he would know satsuma if he saw it." miss weeks sighed. "yes, he has never expressed the least wish to look over my shelves. so the double fence means nothing?" "a whim," ejaculated deborah, making quietly for the door. "the judge likes to walk at night when quite through with his work; and he doesn't like his ways to be noted. but he prefers the lawn now. i hear his step out there every night." "well, it's something to know that he leads a more normal life than formerly!" sighed the little lady as she prepared to usher her guest out. "come again, mrs. scoville; and, if i may, i will drop in and see you some day." deborah accorded her permission and made her final adieux. she felt as if a hand which had been stealing up her chest had suddenly gripped her throat, choking her. she had found the man who had cast that fatal shadow down the ravine, twelve years before. xviii reflections deborah re-entered the judge's house a stricken woman. evading reuther, she ran up stairs, taking off her things mechanically on the way. she must have an hour alone. she must learn her first lesson in self-control and justifiable duplicity before she came under her daughter's eyes. she must-here she reached her room door and was about to enter, when at a sudden thought she paused and let her eyes wander down the hall, till they settled on another door, the one she had closed behind her the night before, with the deep resolve never to open it again except under compulsion. had the compulsion arisen? evidently, for a few minutes later she was standing in one of the dim corners of oliver's musty room, reopening a book which she had taken down from the shelves on her former visit. she remembered it from its torn back and the fact that it was an algebra. turning to the fly leaf, she looked again at the names and schoolboy phrases she had seen scribbled all over its surface, for the one which she remembered as, i hate algebra. it had not been a very clearly written algebra, and she would never have given this interpretation to the scrawl, had she been in a better mood. now another thought had come to her, and she wanted to see the word again. was she glad or sorry to have yielded to this impulse, when by a closer inspection she perceived that the word was not algebra at all, but algernon, i hate a etheridge.--i hate a. e.--i hate algernon e. all over the page, and here and there on other pages, sometimes in characters so rubbed and faint as to be almost unreadable and again so pressed into the paper by a vicious pencil-point as to have broken their way through to the leaf underneath. the work of an ill-conditioned schoolboy! but--this hate dated back many years. paler than ever, and with hands trembling almost to the point of incapacity, she put the book back, and flew to her own room, the prey of thoughts bitter almost to madness. it was the second time in her life that she had been called upon to go through this precise torture. she remembered the hour only too well, when first it was made known to her that one in closest relation to herself was suspected of a hideous crime. and now, with her mind cleared towards him and readjusted to new developments, this crushing experience of seeing equal indications of guilt in another almost as dear and almost as closely knit into her thoughts and future expectations as john had ever been. can one endure a repetition of such horror? she had never gauged her strength, but it did not seem possible. besides of the two blows, this seemed the heaviest and the most revolting. then, only her own happiness and honour were involved; now it was reuther's; and the fortitude which sustained her through the ignominy of her own trouble, failed her at the prospect of reuther's. and again, the two cases were not equal. her husband had had traits which, in a manner, had prepared her for the ready suspicion of people. but oliver was a man of reputation and kindly heart; and yet, in the course of time this had come, and the question once agitating her as to whether reuther was a fit mate for him had now evolved itself into this: was he a fit mate for her? she had rather have died, nay, have had reuther die than to find herself forced to weigh and decide so momentous a question. for, however she might feel about it, not a single illusion remained as to whose hand had made use of john scoville's stick to strike down algernon etheridge. how could she have when she came to piece the whole story together, and weigh the facts she had accumulated against oliver with those which had proved so fatal to her husband. first: the uncontrolled temper of the lad, hints of which she was daily receiving. secondly: his absolute, if unreasonable, hatred of the man thus brutally assailed. she knew what such hatred was and how it eats into an undeveloped mind. she had gone through its agonies herself when she was a young girl, and knew its every stage. with jealousy and personal distaste for a start, it was easy to trace the revolt of this boyish heart from the intrusive, ever present mentor who not only shared his father's affections but made use of them to influence that father against the career he had chosen, in favour of one he not only disliked but for which he lacked all aptitude. she saw it all from the moment his pencil dug into the paper these tell-tale words: i hate old e to that awful and final one when the detested student fell in the woods and his reign over the judgment, as well as over the heart, of judge ostrander was at an end. in hate, bitter, boiling, long-repressed hate, was found the motive for an act so out of harmony with the condition and upbringing of a lad like oliver. she need look for no other. but motive goes for little if not supported by evidence. was it possible, with this new theory for a basis, to reconstruct the story of this crime without encountering the contradiction of some well-known fact? she would see. first, this matter of the bludgeon left, as her husband declared, leaning against the old oak in the bottom of the ravine. all knew the tree and just where it stood. if oliver, in his eagerness to head off etheridge at the bridge, had rushed straight down into the gully from ostrander lane, he would almost strike this tree in his descent. the diagram sketched on page 185 will make this plain. what more natural, then, than for him to catch up the stick he saw there, even if his mind had not been deliberately set on violence. a weapon is a weapon; and an angry man feels easier with something of the kind in hand. armed, then, in this unexpected way, but evidently not yet decided upon crime (or why his nervous whittling of the stick) he turned towards the bridge, following the meandering of the stream which in time led him across the bare spot where she had seen the shadow. that it was his shadow no one could doubt who knew all the circumstances, and that she should have leant just long enough from the ruins to mark this shadow and take it for her husband's--and not long enough to see the man himself and so detect her error, was one of those anomalies of crime which make for judicial errors. john skurrying away through the thicket towards claymore, oliver threading his way down the ravine, and she hurrying away from the ruin above with her lost reuther in hand! such was the situation at this critical moment. afterwards when she came back for the child's bucket, some power had withheld her from looking again into the ravine or she might have been witness to the meeting at the bridge, and so been saved the misery and shame of believing as long as she did that the man who intercepted algernon etheridge at that place was her unhappy husband. the knife with the broken point, which she had come upon in her search among the lad's discarded effects, proved only too conclusively that it was his hand which had whittled the end of the bludgeon; for the bit of steel left in the wood and the bit lost from the knife were to her exact eye of the same size and an undoubted fit. [illustration: map] oliver's remorse, the judge's discovery of his guilt (a discovery which may have been soon but probably was late--so late that the penalty of the doing had already been paid by the innocent), can only be guessed from the terrible sequel: a son dismissed, a desolated home in which the father lived as a recluse. how the mystery cleared, as she looked at it! the house barred from guests--the double fence where, hidden from all eyes, the wretched father might walk his dreary round when night forbade him rest or memory became a whip of scorpions to lash him into fury or revolt--the stairs never passed--(how could he look upon rooms where his wife had dreamed the golden dreams of motherhood and the boy passed his days of innocent youth)--aye, and his own closed-up room guarded by bela from intrusion as long as breath remained to animate his sinking body! what was its secret? why, oliver's portrait! had this been seen, marked as it was for all men's reprobation, nothing could have stemmed inquiry; and inquiry was to be dreaded as judge ostrander's own act had shown. not till he had made his clumsy attempt to cover this memorial of love and guilt and rehanging it, thus hidden, where it would attract less attention, had she been admitted to his room. alas! alas! that he had not destroyed it then and there. that, clinging to habits old as his grief and the remorse which had undoubtedly devoured him for the part he had played in this case of perverted justice, he had trusted to a sheet of paper to cover what nothing on earth could cover, once justice were aroused or the wrath of god awakened. deborah shuddered. aye, the mystery had cleared, but only to enshroud her spirits anew and make her long with all her bursting heart and shuddering soul that death had been her portion before ever she had essayed to lift the veil held down so tightly by these two remorseful men. but was her fault irremediable? the only unanswerable connection between this old crime and oliver lay in the evidence she had herself collected. as she had every intention of suppressing this evidence, and as she had small dread of any one else digging out the facts to which she only possessed a clew, might she not hope that any suspicions raised by her inquiries would fall like a house of cards when she withdrew her hand from the toppling structure? she would make her first effort and see. mr. black had heard her complaint; he should be the first to learn that the encouragement she had received was so small that she had decided to accept her present good luck without further query, and not hark back to a past which most people had buried. xix alanson black "you began it, as women begin most things, without thought and a due weighing of consequences. and now you propose to drop it in the same freakish manner. isn't that it?" deborah scoville lifted her eyes in manifest distress and fixed them deprecatingly upon her interrogator. she did not like his tone which was dry and suspiciously sarcastic, and she did not like his attitude which was formal and totally devoid of all sympathy. instinctively she pushed her veil still further from her features as she deprecatingly replied: "you are but echoing your sex in criticising mine as impulsive. and you are quite within your rights in doing this. women are impulsive; they are even freakish. but it is given to one now and then to recognise this fact and acknowledge it. i hope i am of this number; i hope that i have the judgment to see when i have committed a mistake and to stop short before i make myself ridiculous." the lawyer smiled,--a tight-lipped, acrid sort of smile which nevertheless expressed as much admiration as he ever allowed himself to show. "judgment, eh?" he echoed. "you stop because your judgment tells you that you were on the point of making a fool of yourself? no other reason, eh?" "is not that the best which can be given a hard-headed, clear-eyed lawyer like yourself? would you have me go on, with no real evidence to back my claims; rouse up this town to reconsider his case when i have nothing to talk about but my husband's oath and a shadow i cannot verify?" "then miss weeks' neighbourliness failed in point? she was not as interesting as you had a right to expect from my recommendation?" "miss weeks is a very chatty and agreeable woman, but she cannot tell what she does not know." mr. black smiled. the woman delighted him. the admiration which he had hitherto felt for her person and for the character which could so develop through misery and reproach as to make her in twelve short years, the exponent of all that was most attractive and bewitching in woman, seemed likely to extend to her mind. sagacious, eh? and cautious, eh? he was hardly prepared for such perfection, and let the transient lighting up of his features speak for him till he was ready to say: "you find the judge very agreeable, now that you know him better?" "yes, mr. black. but what has that got to do with the point at issue?" and she smiled, but not just in his manner nor with quite as little effect. "much," he growled. "it might make it easier for you to reconcile yourself to the existing order of things." "i am reconciled to them simply from necessity," was her gentle response. "nothing is more precious to me than reuther's happiness. i should but endanger it further by raising false hopes. that is why i have come to cry halt." "madam, i commend your decision. it is that of a wise and considerate woman. your child's happiness is, of course, of paramount importance to you. but why should you characterise your hopes as false, just when there seems to be some justification for them." her eyes widened, and she regarded him with a simulation of surprise which interested without imposing upon him. "i do not understand you," said she. "have you come upon some clew? have you heard something which i have not?" the smile with which he seasoned his reply was of a very different nature from that which he had previously bestowed upon her. it prepared her, possibly, for the shock of his words: "i hardly think so," said he. "if i do not mistake, we have been the recipients of the same communications." she started to her feet, but sat again instantly. "pray explain yourself," she urged. "who has been writing to you? and what have they written?" she added, presuming a little upon her fascinations as a woman to win an honest response. "must i speak first?" if it was a tilt, it was between even forces. "it would be gentlemanly in you to do so." "but i am not of a gentlemanly temper." "i deal with no other," said she; but with what a glance and in what a tone! a man may hold out long--and if a lawyer and a bachelor more than long, but there is a point at which he succumbs. mr. black had reached that point. smoothing his brow and allowing a more kindly expression to creep into his regard, he took two or three crushed and folded papers from a drawer beside him and, holding them, none too plainly in sight, remarked very quietly, but with legal firmness: "do not let us play about the bush any longer. you have announced your intention of making no further attempt to discover the man who in your eyes merited the doom accorded to john scoville. your only reason for this--if you are the woman i think you--lies in your fear of giving further opportunity to the misguided rancour of an irresponsible writer of anonymous epistles. am i not right, madam?" beaten, beaten by a direct assault, because she possessed the weaknesses, as well as the pluck, of a woman. she could control the language of her lips, but not their quivering; she could meet his eye with steady assurance but she could not keep the pallor from her cheeks or subdue the evidences of her heart's turmoil. her pitiful glance acknowledged her defeat, which she already saw mirrored in his eyes. taking it for an answer, he said gently enough: "that we may understand each other at once, i will mention the person who has been made the subject of these attacks. he--" "don't speak the name," she prayed, leaning forward and laying her gloved hand upon his sleeve. "it is not necessary. the whole thing is an outrage." "of course," he echoed, with some of his natural brusqueness, "and the rankest folly. but to some follies we have to pay attention, and i fear that we shall have to pay attention to this one if only for your daughter reuther's sake. you cannot wish her to become the butt of these scandalous attempts?" "no, no." the words escaped her before she realised that in their utterance she had given up irretrievably her secret. "you consider them scandalous?" "most scandalous," she emphatically returned, with a vivacity and seeming candour such as he had seldom seen equalled even on the witness-stand. his admiration was quite evident. it did not prevent him, however, from asking quite abruptly: "in what shape and by what means did this communication reach you?" "i found it lying on the walk between the gates." "the same by which judge ostrander leaves the house?" "yes," came in faint reply. "i see that you share my fears. if one such scrap can be thrown over the fence, why shouldn't another be? men who indulge themselves in writing anonymous accusations seldom limit themselves to one effusion. i will stake my word that the judge has found more than one on his lawn." she could not have responded if she would; her mouth was dry, her tongue half paralysed. what was coming? the glint in the lawyer's eye forewarned her that something scarcely in consonance with her hopes and wishes might be expected. "the judge has seen and read these barefaced insinuations against his son and has not turned this whole town topsy-turvy! what are we to think of that? a lion does not stop to meditate; he springs. and archibald ostrander has the nature of a lion. there is nothing of the fox or even of the tiger in him. mrs. scoville, this is a very serious matter. i do not wonder that you are a trifle overwhelmed by the results of your ill-considered investigations." "does the town know? has the thing become a scandal--a byword? miss weeks gave no proof of ever having heard one word of this dreadful not-to-be-foreseen business." "that is good news. you relieve me. perhaps it is not a general topic as yet." then shortly and with lawyer-like directness, "show me the letter which has disturbed all your plans." "i haven't it here." "you didn't bring it?" "no, mr. black. why should i? i had no premonition that i should ever be induced to show it to any one, least of all to you." "look over these. do they look at all familiar?" she glanced down at the crumpled sheets and half-sheets he had spread out before her. they were similar in appearance to the one she had picked up on the judge's grounds but the language was more forcible, as witness these: when a man is trusted to defend another on trial for his life, he's supposed to know his business. how came john scoville to hang, without a thought being given to the man who hated a. etheridge like poison? i could name a certain chap who more than once in the old days boasted that he'd like to kill the fellow. and it wasn't scoville or any one of his low-down stamp either. a high and mighty name shouldn't shield a man who sent a poor, unfriended wretch to his death in order to save his own bacon. "horrible!" murmured deborah, drawing back in terror of her own emotion. "it's the work of some implacable enemy taking advantage of the situation i have created. mr. black, this man must be found and made to see that no one will believe, not even scoville's widow--" "there! you needn't go any further with that," admonished the lawyer. "i will manage him. but first we must make sure to rightly locate this enemy of the ostranders. you do detect some resemblance between this writing and the specimen you have at home?" "they are very much alike." "you believe one person wrote them?" "i do." "have you any idea who this person is?" "no; why should i?" "no suspicion?" "not the least in the world." "i ask because of this," he explained, picking out another letter and smilingly holding it out towards her. she read it with flushed cheeks. listen to the lady. you can't listen to any one nicer. what she wants she can get. there's a witness you never saw or heard of. a witness they had never heard of! what witness? scarcely could she lift her eyes from the paper. yet there was a possibility, of course, that this statement was a lie. "stuff, isn't it?" muttered the lawyer. "never mind, we'll soon have hold of the writer." his face had taken on a much more serious aspect, and she could no longer complain of his indifference or even of his sarcasm. "you will give me another opportunity of talking with you on this matter," pursued he. "if you do not come here, you may expect to see me at judge ostrander's. i do not quite like the position into which you have been thrown by these absurd insinuations from some unknown person who may be thinking to do you a service, but who you must feel is very far from being your friend. it may even lead to your losing the home which has been so fortunately opened for you. if this occurs, you may count on my friendship, mrs. scoville. i may have failed you once, but i will not fail you twice." surprised, almost touched, she held out her hand, with a cordial thank you, in which emotion struggled with her desire to preserve an appearance of complete confidence in judge ostrander, and incidentally in his son. then, being on her feet by this time, she turned to go, anxious to escape further embarrassment from a perspicacity she no longer possessed the courage to meet. the lawyer appeared to acquiesce in the movement of departure. but when he saw her about to vanish through the door, some impulse of compunction, as real as it was surprising, led him to call her back and seat her once more in the chair she had so lately left. "i cannot let you go," said he, "until you understand that these insinuations from a self-called witness would not be worth our attention if there were not a few facts to give colour to his wild claims. oliver ostrander was in that ravine connecting with dark hollow, very near the time of the onslaught on mr. etheridge; and he certainly hated the man and wanted him out of the way. the whole town knows that, with one exception. you know that exception?" "i think so," she acceded, taking a fresh grip upon her emotions. "that this was anything more than a coincidence has never been questioned. he was not even summoned as a witness. with the judge's high reputation in mind i do not think a single person could have been found in those days to suggest any possible connection between this boy and a crime so obviously premeditated. but people's minds change with time and events, and oliver ostrander's name uttered in this connection to-day would not occasion the same shock to the community as it would have done then. you understand me, mrs. scoville?" "you allude to the unexplained separation between himself and father, and not to any failure on his part to sustain the reputation of his family?" "oh, he has made a good position for himself, and earned universal consideration. but that doesn't weigh against the prejudices of people, roused by such eccentricities as have distinguished the conduct of these two men." "alas!" she murmured, frightened to the soul for the first time, both by his manner and his words. "you know and i know," he went on with a grimness possibly suggested by his subject, "that no mere whim lies back of such a preposterous seclusion as that of judge ostrander behind his double fence. sons do not cut loose from fathers or fathers from sons without good cause. you can see, then, that the peculiarities of their mutual history form but a poor foundation for any light refutation of this scandal, should it reach the public mind. judge ostrander knows this, and you know that he knows this; hence your distress. have i not read your mind, madam?" "no one can read my mind any more than they can read judge ostrander's," she avowed in a last desperate attempt to preserve her secret. "you may think you have done so, but what assurance can you have of the fact?" "you are strong in their defence," said he, "and you will need to be if the matter ever comes up. the shadows from dark hollow reach far, and engulf all they fall upon." "mr. black"--she had re-risen the better to face him--"you want something from me--a promise, or a condition." "no," said he, "this is my affair only as it affects you. i simply wished to warn you of what you might have to face; and what judge ostrander will have to face (here i drop the lawyer and speak only as a man) if he is not ready to give a more consistent explanation of the curious facts i have mentioned." "i cannot warn him, mr. black." "you? of course not. nobody can warn him; possibly no one should warn him. but i have warned you; and now, as a last word, let us hope that no warning is necessary and that we shall soon see the last of these calumniating letters and everything readjusted once more on a firm and natural basis. judge ostrander's action in reopening his house in the manner and for the purpose he has, has predisposed many in his favour. it may, before we know it, make the past almost forgotten." "meanwhile you will make an attempt to discover the author of these anonymous attacks?" "to save you from annoyance." obliged to make acknowledgment of the courtesy if not kindness prompting these words, mrs. scoville expressed her gratitude and took farewell in a way which did not seem to be at all displeasing to the crusty lawyer; but when she found herself once more in the streets, her anxiety and suspense took on a new phase. what was at the bottom of mr. black's contradictory assertions? sympathy with her, as he would have her believe, or a secret feeling of animosity towards the man he openly professed to admire? xx what had made the change? "reuther, sit up here close by mother and let me talk to you for a little while." "yes, mother; oh, yes, mother." deborah felt the beloved head pressed close to her shoulder and two soft arms fall about her neck. "are you very unhappy? is my little one pining too much for the old days?" a closer pressure of the head, a more vehement clasp of the encircling arms, but no words. "you have seemed brighter lately. i have heard you sing now and then as if the joy of youth was not quite absent from your heart. is that true, or were you merely trying to cheer your mother?" "i am afraid i was trying to cheer the judge," came in low whisper to her ear. "when i hear his step in the study--that monotonous tramp, tramp, which we both dread, i feel such an ache here, such a desire to comfort him, that i try the one little means i have to divert him from his thoughts. he must be so lonely without--" "reuther, you forget how many years have passed since he had a companion. a man becomes used to loneliness. a judge with heavy cases on his mind must think and think very closely, you know." "oh, mamma, it's not of his cases our judge is thinking when he walks like that. i know him too well, love him too well, not to feel the trouble in his step. i may be wrong, but all the sympathy and understanding i may not give to oliver i devote to his father, and when he walks like that he seems to drag my heart after him. mamma, mamma, do not blame me. i have just as much affection for you, and i suffer just as keenly when i see you unhappy. and, mamma, are you sure that you are quite happy to-day? you look as if something had happened to trouble you--something more than usual, i mean." they were sitting in the dark, with just the light of the stars shining through the upper panes of the one unshaded window. deborah, therefore, had little to fear from her daughter's eye, only from the sensitiveness of her touch and the quickness of her ear. alas, in this delicately organised girl these were both attuned to the nicest discrimination, and before the mother could speak, reuther had started up, crying: "oh, how your heart beats! something has happened, darling mother; something which--" "hush, reuther; it is only this: when i came to shelby it was with a hope that i might some day smooth the way to your happiness. but it was only a wild dream, reuther; and the hour has come for me to tell you so. what joys are left us must come in other ways; love unblessed must be put aside resolutely and forever." she felt the shudder pass through the slender form which had thrown itself again at her side; but when the young girl spoke it was with unexpected bravery and calm. "i have long ago done that, mamma. i've had no hopes from the first. the look with which oliver accepted my refusal to go on with the ceremony was one of gratitude, mother. i can never forget that. relief struggled with grief. would you have me cherish any further illusions after that?" mrs. scoville was silent. so, after all, reuther had not been so blind on that day as she had always feared. "oliver has faults--oh, let me talk about him just for once, darling mother," the poor, stricken child babbled on. "his temper is violent, or so he has often told me, coming and going like a gust of--no, mamma, don't make me stop. if he has faults he has good traits too. he was always gentle with me and if that far-away look you did not like would come at times and take him, as it were, out of our world, such a sweet awakening would follow when he realised that i was waiting for his spirit to come back, that i never minded the mystery, in my joy at the comfort which my love gave him." "my child, my child!" "mother, i can soothe the father, but i can no longer soothe oliver. that is my saddest thought. it makes me wish, sometimes, that he would find another loving heart on which he could lean without any self-reproach. i should soon learn to bear it. it would so assure his future and rid me of the fear that he may fail to hold the place he has won by such hard work and persistence." a moment's silence, then a last appeal on the part of the mother. "reuther, have i ever been harsh to you?" "no, no." "then you will not think me unkind or even untender if i say that every loving thought you give now to oliver is hurtful both to yourself and to me. don't indulge in them, my darling. put your heart into work or into music, and your mother will bless you. won't it help you to know this, reuther? your mother, who has had her griefs, will bless you." "mother, mother!" * * * * * that night, at a later hour, deborah struggled with a great temptation. the cap which hung in oliver's closet--the knife which lay in the drawer of oliver's desk--were to her mind positive proofs of his actual connection with the crime she now wished to see buried for all time in her husband's grave. the threat of that unknown indicter of mysterious letters, i know a witness, had sunk deep into her mind. a witness of what? of anything which the discovery of these articles might substantiate? if so, what peril remained in their continued preservation when an effort on her part might so easily destroy them. sleep, long a stranger to her pillow, forsook her entirely as she faced this question and realised the gain in peace which might be hers if cap and knife were gone. why then did she allow them to remain, the one in the closet, the other in the drawer? because she could not help herself. instinct was against her meddling with these possible proofs of crime. but this triumph of conscience cost her dear. the next morning found her pale--almost as pale as reuther. was that why the judge surveyed her so intently as she poured out the coffee, and seemed more than once on the point of addressing her particularly, as she went through the usual routine of tidying up his room? she asked herself this question more than once, and found it answered every time she hurried by the mirror. certainly she showed a remarkable pallor. knowing its cause herself, she did not invite his inquiries; and another day passed. with the following morning she felt strong enough to open the conversation which had now become necessary for her peace of mind. she waited till the moment when, her work all done, she was about to leave his presence. pausing till she caught his eye, which seemed a little loth, she thought, to look her way, she observed, with perhaps unnecessary distinctness: "i hope that everything is to your mind, judge ostrander. i should be sorry not to make you as comfortable as is possible under the circumstances." [illustration: silence! not even heaven spoke] roused a little suddenly, perhaps, from thoughts quite disconnected with those of material comfort, he nodded with the abstraction of one who recognises that some sort of acknowledgment is expected from him; then, seeing her still waiting, added politely: "i am very well looked after, if that is what you mean, mrs. scoville. bela could not do any better--if he ever did as well." "i am glad," she replied, thinking with what humour this would have struck her once. "i--i ask because, having nothing on my mind but housekeeping, i desire to remedy anything which is not in accordance with your exact wishes." his attention was caught and by the very phrase she desired. "nothing on your mind but housekeeping?" he repeated. "i thought you had something else of a very particular nature with which to occupy yourself." "i had; but i have been advised against pursuing it. the folly was too great." "who advised you?" the words came short and sharp just as they must have come in those old days when he confronted his antagonists at the bar. "mr. black. he was my husband's counsel, you remember. he says that i should only have my trouble for my pains, and i have come to agree with him. reuther must content herself with the happiness of living under this roof; and i, with the hope of contributing to your comfort." had she impressed him? had she played her part with success? dare she lift her eye and meet the gaze she felt concentrated upon her? no. he must speak first. she must have some clew to the effect she had produced before she risked his penetration by a direct look. she had to wait longer than her beating heart desired. he had his own agitation to master, and possibly his own doubts. this was not the fiery, determined woman he had encountered amid the ruins of spencer's folly. what had made the change? black's discouraging advice? hardly. why should she take from that hard-faced lawyer what she had not been willing to take from himself? there must have been some other influencing cause. his look, his attitude, his voice, betrayed his hesitations, as he finally remarked: "black is a man of excellent counsel, but he is hard as a stone and not of the sort whose monitions i should expect to have weight with one like you. what did he put in the balance,--or what have others put in the balance, to send your passionate intentions flying up to the beam? i should be glad to hear." should she tell him? she had a momentary impulse that way. then the irrevocableness of such a move frightened her; and, pale with dismay at what she felt to be a narrow escape from a grave error of judgment, she answered with just enough truth, for her to hope that the modicum of falsehood accompanying it would escape his attention: "what has changed my intentions? my experience here, judge ostrander. with every day i pass under this roof, i realise more and more the mistake i made in supposing that any change in circumstances would make a union between our two children proper or feasible. headstrong as i am by nature, i have still some sense of the fitness of things, and it is that sense awakened by a better knowledge of what the ostrander name stands for, which has outweighed my hopes and mad intentions. i am sorry that i ever troubled you with them." the words were ambiguous; startlingly so, she felt; but, in hope that they would strike him otherwise, she found courage at last to raise her eyes in search of what lay in his. nothing, or so she thought at first, beyond the glint of a natural interest; then her mind changed, and she felt that it would take one much better acquainted with his moods than herself to read to its depths a gaze so sombre and inscrutable. his answer, coming after a moment of decided suspense, only deepened this impression. it was to this effect: "madam, we have said our say on this subject. if you have come to see the matter as i see it, i can but congratulate you upon your good sense, and express the hope that it will continue to prevail. reuther is worthy of the best--" he stopped abruptly. "reuther is a girl after my own heart," he gently supplemented, with a glance towards his papers lying in a bundle at his elbow, "and she shall not suffer because of this disappointment to her girlish hopes. tell her so with my love." it was a plain dismissal. mrs. scoville took it as such, and quietly left the room. as she did so she was approached by reuther who handed her a letter which had just been delivered. it was from mr. black and read thus: we have found the rogue and have succeeded in inducing him to leave town. he's a man in the bill-sticking business and he owns to a grievance against the person we know. deborah's sleep that night was without dreams. xxi in the court room about this time, the restless pacing of the judge in his study at nights became more frequent and lasted longer. in vain reuther played her most cheerful airs and sang her sweetest songs, the monotonous tramp kept up with a regularity nothing could break. "he's worried by the big case now being tried before him," deborah would say, when reuther's eyes grew wide and misty in her sympathetic trouble. and there was no improbability in the plea, for it was a case of much moment, and of great local interest. a man was on trial for his life and the circumstances of the case were such that the feeling called forth was unusually bitter; so much so, indeed, that every word uttered by the counsel and every decision made by the judge were discussed from one end of the county to the other, and in shelby, if nowhere else, took precedence of all other topics, though it was a presidential year and party sympathies ran high. the more thoughtful spirits were inclined to believe in the innocence of the prisoner; but the lower elements of the town, moved by class prejudice, were bitterly antagonistic to his cause and loud for his conviction. did the judge realise his position and the effect made upon the populace by his very evident leaning towards this dissipated but well-connected young man accused of a crime so brutal, that he must either have been the sport of most malicious circumstances, or a degenerate of the worst type. the time of judge ostrander's office was nearly up, and his future continuance on the bench might very easily depend upon his attitude at the present hearing. yet he, without apparent recognition of this fact, showed without any hesitancy or possibly without self-consciousness, the sympathy he felt for the man at the bar, and ruled accordingly almost without variation. no wonder he paced the floor as the proceedings drew towards its close and the inevitable hour approached when a verdict must be rendered. mrs. scoville, reading his heart by the light of her recent discoveries, understood as nobody else, the workings of his conscience and the passion of sympathy which this unhappy father must have for misguided youth. she began to fear for his health and count the days till this ordeal was over. in other regards, quiet had come to them all and less tempestuous fears. could the judge but weather the possible conviction of this man and restrain himself from a disclosure of his own suffering, more cheerful days might be in store for them, for no further missives were to be seen on the lawn, nor had anything occurred for days to recall to deborah's mind the move she had made towards re-establishing her husband's innocence. a week passed, and the community was all agog, in anticipation of the judge's charge in the case just mentioned. it was to be given at noon, and mrs. scoville, conscious that he had not slept an hour the night before (having crept down more than once to listen if his step had ceased), approached him as he prepared to leave the house for the court room, and anxiously asked if he were quite well. "oh, yes, i'm well," he responded sharply, looking about for reuther. the young girl was standing a little behind him, with his gloves in her hand--a custom she had fallen into in her desire to have his last look and fond good morning. "come here, child," said he, in a way to make her heart beat; and, as he took the gloves from her hand, he stooped and kissed her on the forehead--something he had never done before. "let me see you smile," said he. "it's a memory i like to take with me into the court room." but when in her pure delight at his caress and the fatherly feeling which gave a tremor to his simple request, she lifted her face with that angelic look of hers which was far sweeter and far more moving than any smile, he turned away abruptly as though he had been more hurt than comforted, and strode out of the house without another word. deborah's hand went to her heart, in the dark corner whither she had withdrawn herself, and when she turned again towards the spot where reuther had stood, it was in some fear lest she had betrayed her understanding of this deeply tried father's passionate pain. but reuther was no longer there. she had fled quickly away with the memory of what was to make this day a less dreary one for her. morning passed and the noon came, bringing deborah an increased uneasiness. when lunch was over and reuther sat down to her piano, the feeling had grown into an obsession, which soon resolved itself into a definite fear. "what if an attack, such as i once saw, should come upon him while he sits upon the bench! why have i not thought of this before? o god! these evil days! when will they be over!" she found herself so restless that she decided upon going out. donning her quietest gown and veil, she looked in on reuther and expressed her intention; then slipped out of the front door, hardly knowing whither her feet would carry her. they did not carry her far,--not at this moment at least. on the walk outside she met miss weeks hurrying towards her from the corner, stumbling in her excitement and so weakened in body or spirit that she caught at the unresponsive fence for the support which its smooth surface refused to give her. at sight of deborah's figure, she paused and threw up her hands. "oh, mrs. scoville, such a dreadful thing!" she cried. "look here!" and, opening one of her hands, she showed a few torn scraps of paper whose familiarity made deborah's blood run cold. "on the bridge," gasped the little lady, leaning against the fence for support. "pasted on the railing of the bridge. i should never have seen it, nor looked at it, if it hadn't been that i--" "don't tell me here," urged deborah. "let's go over to your house. see, there are people coming." the little lady yielded to the other's constraining hand and together they crossed the street. once in the house, deborah allowed her full apprehension to show itself. "what were the words? what was on the paper? anything about--" the little woman's look of horror stopped her. "it's a lie, an awful, abominable lie. but think of such a lie being pasted up on that dreadful bridge for any one to see. after twelve years, mrs. scoville! after--" but here indignation changed suddenly into suspicion, and eyeing her visitor with sudden disfavour she cried: "this is your work, madam. your inquiries and your talk of john scoville's innocence has set wagging all the villainous tongues in town. and i remember something else. how you came smirking into this very room one day, with your talk about caps and oliver ostrander's doings on the day when algernon etheridge was murdered. you were in search of information, i see; information against the best, the brightest--well, why don't you speak? i'll give you the chance if you want it. don't stand looking at me like that. i'm not used to it, mrs. scoville. i'm a peaceable woman and i'm not used to it." "miss weeks--" ah, the oil of that golden speech on troubled waters! what was its charm? what message did it carry from deborah's warm, true heart that its influence should be so miraculous? "miss weeks, you have forgotten my interest in oliver ostrander. he was my daughter's lover. he was my own ideal of a gifted, kind-hearted, if somewhat mysterious, young man. no calumny uttered against him can awaken in you half the sorrow and indignation it does in me. let me see those lines or what there is left of them so that i may share your feelings. they must be dreadful--" "they are more than dreadful. i don't know how i had strength to pull these pieces off. i couldn't have done it if they had been quite dry. but what do you want to see them for? i'd have left them there if i had been willing to have them seen. they are for the kitchen fire. wait a moment and then we will talk." but deborah had no mind to let these pieces escape her eye. sick as she felt at heart, she exerted herself to win the little woman's confidence; and when deborah exerted herself, even under such adverse conditions as these, she seldom failed to succeed. nor did she fail now. at the end of fifteen minutes she had the torn bits of paper arranged in their proper position and was reading these words: the scene of oliv der's crime. nothing could be more explicit nothing more damaging. as the glances of the two women met, it would be difficult to tell on which face distress hung out the whiter flag. "the beginning of the end!" was deborah's thought. "if after mr. black's efforts, a charge like this is found posted up in the public ways, the ruin of the ostranders is determined upon, and nothing we can do can stop it." in five minutes more she had said good-bye to miss weeks and was on her way to the courthouse. this building occupied one end of a large paved square in the busiest part of the town. as deborah approached it, she was still further alarmed by finding this square full of people, standing in groups or walking impatiently up and down with their eyes fixed on the courthouse doors. the case which had agitated the whole country for days was now in the hands of the jury and a verdict was momentarily expected. so much for appearances outside. within, there was the uneasy hum, the anxious look, the subdued movement which marks an universal suspense. announcement had been made that the jury had reached their verdict, and counsel were resuming their places and the judge his seat. those who had eyes only for the latter--and these were many--noticed a change in him. he looked older by years than when he delivered his charge. not the prisoner himself gave greater evidence of the effect which this hour of waiting had had upon a heart whose covered griefs were, consciously or unconsciously, revealing themselves to the public eye. he did not wish this man sentenced. this was shown by his charge--the most one-sided one he had given in all his career. yet the man awaiting verdict had small claim to his consideration--none, in fact, save that he was young and well connected; facts in his favour with which the people who packed the courthouse that day had little sympathy, as their cold looks proved. to deborah, who had succeeded in getting a seat in a remote and inconspicuous corner, these looks conveyed a spirit of so much threat that she gazed about her in wonder that so few saw where the real tragedy in this room lay. but the jury is now seated, and the clatter of moving feet which but a moment before filled the great room, sinks as if under a charm, and silence, that awesome precursor of doom, lay in all its weight upon every ear and heart, as the clerk advancing with the cry, "order in the court," put his momentous question: "gentlemen of the jury, are you ready with your verdict?" a hush!--then, the clear voice of the foreman: "we are." "how do you find? guilty or not guilty?" another hesitation. did the foreman feel the threat lurking in the air about him? if so, he failed to show it in his tones as he uttered the words which released the prisoner: "not guilty." a growl from the crowd, almost like that of a beast stirring its lair, then a quick cessation of all hubbub as every one turned to the judge to whose one-sided charge they attributed this release. again he was a changed man. with the delivery of this verdict he had regained his natural poise, and never had he looked more authoritative or more pre-eminently the dominating spirit of the court than in the few following moments in which he expressed the thanks of the court to the jury and dismissed the prisoner. and yet, though each person there, from the disappointed prosecutor to the least aggressive spectator, appeared to feel the influence of a presence and voice difficult to duplicate on the bench of this country, deborah experienced in her quiet corner no alleviation of the fear which had brought her into this forbidding spot and held her breathless through all these formalities. for the end was not yet. through all the turmoil of noisy departure and the drifting out into the square of a vast, dissatisfied throng, she had caught the flash of a bit of paper (how introduced into this moving mass of people no one ever knew) passing from hand to hand, towards the solitary figure of the judge who had not as yet left his seat. she knew--no one better--what this meant, and instinct bade her cry out and bid those thoughtless hands to cease their work and let this letter drop. but her discretion still held, and, subduing the mad impulse, she watched with dilating eyes and heaving breast the slow passage of this fatal note through the now rapidly thinning crowd, its delay as it reached the open space between the last row of seats and the judge's bench and its final delivery by some officious hand, who thrust it upon his notice just as he was rising to leave. the picture he made in that instant of hesitation never left her mind. to the end of her days she will carry a vision of his tall form, imposing in his judicial robes and with the majesty of his office still upon him, fingering this envelope in sight of such persons as still lingered in his part of the room. nemesis was lowering its black wings over his devoted head, and, with feelings which left her dazed and transfixed in silent terror, deborah saw his finger tear its way through the envelope and his eyes fall frowningly on the paper he drew out. then the people's counsel and the counsel for the defence and such clerks and hangers-on as still lingered in the upper end of the room experienced a decided sensation. the judge, who a moment before had towered above them all in melancholy but impressive dignity, shrunk with one gasp into feebleness and sank back stricken, if not unconscious, into his chair. was it a stroke, or just one of his attacks of which all had heard? was he aware of his own condition and the disturbance it caused or was he, on the contrary, dead to his own misery and oblivious of the rush which was made from all sides to his assistance? even deborah could not tell, and was forced to sit quiet in her corner, waiting for the parting of the group which hid the judge from her sight. it happened suddenly and showed her the same figure she had seen once before--a man with faculties suspended, but not impaired, facing them all with open gaze but absolutely dead for the moment to his own condition and to the world about. but, horrible as this was, what she saw going on behind him was infinitely worse. a man had caught up the bit of paper judge ostrander had let fall from his hand and was opening his lips to read it to the curious people surrounding him. she tried to stop him. she forced a cry to her lips which should have rung through the room, but which died away on the air unheard. the terror which had paralysed her limbs had choked her voice. but her ears remained true. low as he spoke, no trumpet-call could have made its meaning clearer to deborah scoville than did these words: "we know why you favour criminals. twelve years is a long time, but not long enough to make wise men forget." xxii before the gates had she not caught the words themselves she would have recognised their import from the blighting effect they produced upon the persons grouped within hearing. schooled as most of them were to face with minds secure and tempers quite unruffled the countless surprises of a court room, they paled at the insinuation conveyed in these two sentences, and with scarcely the interchange of glance or word, drew aside in a silence which no man seemed inclined to break. as for the people still huddled in the doorway, they rushed away helter-skelter into the street, there to proclaim the judge's condition and its probable cause;--an event which to many quite eclipsed in interest the more ordinary one which had just released to freedom a man seemingly doomed. few persons were now left in the great room, and deborah, embarrassed to find that she was the only woman present, was on the point of escaping from her corner when she perceived a movement take place in the rigid form from which she had not yet withdrawn her eyes, and, regarding judge ostrander more attentively, she caught the gleam of his suspicious eye as it glanced this way and that to see if his lapse of consciousness had been noticed by those about him. would the man still in possession of the paper whose contents had brought about this attack understand these evidences of apprehension? yes; and what is more, he seems to take such means as offers to hide from the judge all knowledge of the fact that any other eyes than his own have read these invidious words. with unexpected address, he waits for the judge to turn his head aside when with a quick and dextrous movement he so launches the paper from his hand that it falls softly and without flurry within an inch of the judicial seat. then he goes back to his papers. this suggestion, at once so marked and so delicate, did not fail of its effect upon those about. wherever the judge looked he saw abstracted faces and busy hands, and, taking heart at not finding himself watched, he started to rise. then memory came,--blasting, overwhelming memory of the letter he had been reading; and, rousing with a start, he looked down at his hand, then at the floor before him, and, seeing the letter lying there, picked it up with a secret, side-long glance to right and left, which sank deep into the heart of the still watchful deborah. if those about him saw, they made no motion. not an eye looked round and not a head turned as he straightened himself and proceeded to leave the room. only deborah noted how his steps faltered and how little he was to be trusted to find his way unguided to the door. it lay to the right and he was going left. now he stumbles--isn't there any one to--yes, she is not the sole one on watch. the same man who had read aloud the note and then dropped it within his reach, had stepped after him, and kindly, if artfully, turned him towards the proper place of exit. as the two disappear, deborah wakes from her trance, and, finding herself alone among the seats, hurries to quit her corner and leave the building. the glare--the noise of the square, as she dashes down into it seems for the moment unendurable. the pushing, panting mass of men and women of which she has now become a part, closes about her, and for the moment she can see nothing but faces,--faces with working mouths and blazing eyes,--a medley of antagonistic expression, all directed against herself;--or so she felt in the heat of her self-consciousness. but after the first recoil she knew that no such universal recognition could be hers; that she was merely a new and inconsiderable atom caught in a wave of feeling which engulfed all it met; that this mob was not raised from the stones to overwhelm her but him, and that if she flew, it should be to his aid, and not to save herself. but how was she to reach him? he would not come out by the main entrance; that she knew. where look for him, then? suddenly she remembered; and using some of her strength of which she had good measure, and more of that address to which i have already alluded, she began to worm herself along through this astounding collection of people much too large already for the ordinary force of police to handle, to that corner of the building where a small door opened upon a rear street. she remembered it from those old days when she had once entered this courthouse as a witness. but alas, others knew it also, and thick as the crowd was in front, it was even thicker here, and far more tumultuous. word had gone about that the father of oliver ostrander had been given his lesson at last, and the curiosity of the populace had risen to fever-heat in their anxiety to see how the proud ostrander would bear himself in his precipitate downfall. they had crowded there to see and they would see. were he to shirk the ordeal! were he to wait for the square to be cleared--but they knew him too well to fear this. he will come--nay, he is coming now--and coming alone! no other figure looms so grandly in a doorway, nor is there any other face in shelby whose pallor could strike so coldly to the heart, or rouse such conflicting emotions. he was evidently not prepared to see his path quite so heavily marked out for him by the gaping throng; but after one look, he assumed some show of his old commanding presence and advanced bravely down the steps, awing some and silencing all, until he had reached his carriage step and the protection of the officers on guard. then a hoot rose from some far-off quarter of the square, and he turned short about and the people saw his face. despair had seized it, and if any one there desired vengeance, he had it. the knell of active life had been rung for this man. he would never remount the courthouse steps, or face again a respectful jury. as for deborah, she had shrunk out of sight at his approach, but as soon as he had ridden off, she looked eagerly for a taxicab to carry her in his wake. she could not let him ride that mile alone. she was still fearful for him, though the mass of people about her was rapidly dissolving away, and the streets growing clear. but an apprehension still greater, because more personal, seized her when she found herself behind him on the long road. several minutes had been lost in obtaining a taxicab and she feared that she would be unable to overtake him before he reached his own gates. this would be to subject reuther to a shock which the poor child had little strength to meet. she could not escape the truth long. soon, very soon she would have to be told that the man who stood so high in her esteem was now regarded as a common criminal. but she must be prepared for the awful news. she must be within reach of her mother's arms when the blow fell destroying her past as well as her future. were minutes really so long--the house really so far away? deborah gazes eagerly forward. there is very little traffic in the streets to-day and the road ahead looks clear--too clear, she cannot even see the dust raised by the judge's rapidly disappearing carriage. can he have arrived home already? no, or the carriage would be coming back, and not a vehicle is in view. her anxiety increases. she has reached the road debouching towards the bridge--has crossed it--is drawing near--nearer--when, what is this? men--women--coming from the right, coming from the left, running out of houses, flocking from every side street, filling up the road! a lesser mob than that from which she had just escaped, but still, a mob, and all making for one point--the judge's house! and he? she can see his carriage now. held up for a moment by the crowd, it has broken through, and is rolling quickly towards ostrander lane. but the mob is following, and she is yet far behind. shouting to the chauffeur to hasten, the insistent honk! honk! of the cab adds its raucous note to the turmoil. they have dashed through one group;--they are dashing through another;--naught can withstand an on-rushing automobile. she catches glimpses of raised arms threatening retaliation; of eager, stolid, uncertain and furious faces--and her breath held back during that one instant of wild passage rushes pantingly forth again. ostrander lane is within sight. if only they can reach it!--if only they can cross it! but they cannot without sowing death in their track. no scattered groups here, the mob fills the corner. it is packed close as a wall. brought up against it, the motor necessarily comes to a stand-still. balked? no, not yet. opening the door, deborah leaps to the ground and in one instant finds herself but a mote in this seethe of humanity. in vain her efforts, she cannot move arm or limb. the gate is but a few paces off, but all hope of reaching it is futile. she can only hold herself still and listen as all around are listening. but to what? to nothing. it is expectation which holds them all silent. she will have to wait until the crowd sways apart, allowing her to--ah, there, some heads are moving now! she catches one glimpse ahead of her, and sees--what does she see? the noble but shrunk figure of the judge drawn up before his gate. his lips are moving, but no sound issues from them; and while those about are waiting for his words, they peer, with an insolence barely dashed by awe, at his white head and his high fence and now at the gate swerving gently inward under the hand of some one whose figure is invisible. but no words coming, a change passes like a stroke of lightning over the surging mass. some one shouts out coward! another, traitor! and the lifted head falls, the moving lips cease from their efforts and in place of the great personality which filled their eyes a moment before, they see a man entrapped, waking to the horror of a sudden death in life for which no visions of the day, no dreams of the night, had been able to prepare him. it was a sight to waken pity not derision. but these people had gathered here in a bitter mood and their rancour had but scented the prey. calls of "oliver!" and such threats as "you saved him at a poor man's expense, but we'll have him yet, we'll have him yet!" began to rise about him; followed by endless repetitions of the name from near and far: "oliver! oliver!" oliver! his own lips seemed to re-echo the word. then like a lion baited beyond his patience the judge lifted his head and faced them all with a fiery intensity which for the moment made him a terrible figure to contemplate. "let no one utter that name to me here!" shot from his lips in tones of unspeakable menace and power. "spare me that name, or the curse of my ruined life be upon you. i can bear no more to-day." thrilled by his aspect, cowering under his denunciation, emphasised as it was by a terrifying gesture, the people, pressing closest about him, drew back and left the passage open to the gate. he took it with a bound, and would have entered but that from the outskirts of the crowd where his voice had not reached, the cry arose again of "oliver! oliver! the sons of the rich go free, but ours have to hang!" at which he turned his head about, gave them one stare and fell back against the door. it yielded and a woman's arms received him. the gentle reuther in that hour of dire extremity, showed herself stronger than her mother who had fallen in a faint amid the crowd. xxiii the misfortunes of my house to one who swoons but seldom, the moment of returning consciousness is often fraught with great pain and sometimes with unimaginable horror. it was such to deborah; the pain and horror holding her till her eyes, accustomed to realities again, saw in the angel face which floated before her vision amid a swarm of demon masks, the sweet and solicitous countenance of reuther. as she took this in, she took in other facts also: that there were no demons, no strangers even about her: that she and her child were comparatively alone in their own little parlour, and that reuther's sweet face wore a look of lofty courage which reminded her of something she could not at the moment grasp, but which was so beautiful. at that instant her full memory came, and, uttering a low cry, she started up, and struggling to her feet, confronted her child, this time with a look full of agonised inquiry. reuther seemed to understand her; for, taking her mother's hand in hers, she softly said: "i knew you were not seriously ill, only frightened by the crowd and their senseless shoutings. don't think of it any more, dear mother. the people are dispersing now, and you will soon be quite restored and ready to smile with us at an attack so groundless it is little short of absurd." astounded at such tranquillity where she had expected anguish if not stark unreason, doubting her eyes, her ears--for this was no longer her delicate, suffering reuther to be shielded from all unhappy knowledge, but a woman as strong if not as wise to the situation as herself--she scrutinised the child closely, then turned her gaze slowly about the room, and started in painful surprise, as she perceived standing in the space behind her the tall figure of judge ostrander. he! and she must face him! the man whom she by her blind and untimely efforts to regain happiness for reuther, had brought to this woful pass! the ordeal was too bitter for her broken spirit and, shrinking aside, she covered her face with her hands like one who stands detected in a guilty act. "pardon," she entreated, forgetting reuther's presence in her consciousness of the misery she had brought upon her benefactor. "i never meant--i never dreamed--" "oh, no apologies!" was this the judge speaking? the tone was an admonitory, not a suffering one. it was not even that of a man humiliated or distressed. "you have had an unfortunate experience, but that is over now and so must your distress be." then, as in her astonishment she dropped her hands and looked up, he added very quietly, "your daughter has been much disturbed about you, but not at all about oliver or his good name. she knows my son too well, and so do you and i, to be long affected by the virulent outcries of a mob seeking for an object upon which to expend their spleen." swaying yet in body and mind, quite unable in the turmoil of her spirits to reconcile this strong and steady man with the crushed and despairing figure she had so lately beheld shrinking under the insults of the crowd, deborah was glad to sit silent under this open rebuke and listen to reuther's ingenuous declarations, though she knew that they brought no conviction and distilled no real comfort either to his mind or hers. "yes, mother darling," the young girl was saying. "these people have not seen oliver in years, but we have, and nothing they can say, nothing that any one can say but himself could ever shake my belief in him as a man incapable of a really wicked act. he might be capable of striking a sudden blow--most men are under great provocation--but to conceal such a fact,--to live for years enjoying the respect of all who knew him, with the knowledge festering in his heart of another having suffered for his crime--that, that would be impossible to oliver ostrander." some words ring in the heart long after their echo has left the ear. impossible! deborah stole a look at the judge. but he was gazing at reuther, where he well might gaze, if his sinking heart craved support or his abashed mind sought to lose itself in the enthusiasm of this pure soul, with its loving, uncalculating instincts. "am i not right, mother?" ah! must she answer that? "tell the judge who is as confident of oliver as i am myself that you are confident, too. that you could no more believe him capable of this abominable act than you could believe it of my father." "i will--tell--the judge," stammered the unhappy mother. "judge," she briefly declared, as she rose with the help of her daughter's arm, "my mind agrees with yours in this matter. what you think, i think." and that was all she could say. as she fell again into her seat, the judge turned to reuther: "leave your mother for a little while," he urged with that rare gentleness he always showed her. "let her rest here a few minutes longer, alone with me." "yes, reuther," murmured deborah, seeing no way of avoiding this inevitable interview. "i am feeling better every minute. i will come soon." the young girl's eye faltered from one to the other, then settled, with a strange and imploring look upon her mother. had her clear intelligence pierced at last to the core of that mother's misery? had she seen what deborah would have spared her at the cost of her own life? it would seem so, for when the mother, with great effort, began some conciliatory speech, the young girl smiled with a certain sad patience, and, turning towards judge ostrander, said as she softly withdrew: "you have been very kind to allow me to mention a name and discuss a subject you have expressly forbidden. i want to show my gratitude, judge ostrander, by never referring to it again without your permission. that you know my mind,"--here her head rose with a sort of lofty pride which lent a dazzling quality to her usually quiet beauty,--"and that i know yours, is quite enough for me." "a noble girl! a mate for the best!" fell from the judge's lips after a silence disturbed only by the faint, far-off murmur of a slowly dispersing throng. deborah made no answer. she could not yet trust her courage or her voice. the judge, who was standing near, concentrated his look upon her features. still she made no effort to meet his eye. he did not speak, and the silence grew appalling. to break it, he stepped away and took a glance out of the window. there was nothing to be seen there; the fence hid all, but he continued to look, the shadows from his soul settling deeper and deeper upon his countenance as each heavy moment dragged by. when he finally turned, it was with a powerful effort which communicated itself to her and forced her long-bowed head to rise and her troubled mind to disclose itself. "you wish to express your displeasure, and hesitate on account of reuther," she faltered. "you need not. we are quite prepared to leave your house if our presence reminds you too much of the calamity i have brought upon you by my inconsiderate revival of a past you had every reason to believe buried." his reply was uttered with great courtesy. "madam," said he, "i have never had a thought from the first moment of your coming, of any change in the arrangements we then entered into; nor is the demonstration we have just witnessed a calamity of sufficient importance to again divide this household. to connect my high-minded son with a crime for which he had no motive and from which he could reap no benefit is, if you will pardon my plain speaking at a moment so critical, even greater folly than to exculpate, after all these years, the man whom a conscientious jury found guilty. only a mob could so indulge itself; individuals will not dare." she thought of the letter which had been passed up to him in court, and surveyed him with an astonishment she made no effort to conceal. never had she felt at a greater disadvantage with him. never had she understood him less. was this attempt at unconcern, so pitiably transparent to her, made in an endeavour to probe her mind or to deceive his own? in her anxiety to determine, she hesitatingly remarked: "not the man who writes those anonymous letters?" "letters?" involuntarily his hand flew to one of his inner pockets. "yes, you have found them, have you not, lying about the grounds?" "no." he looked startled. "explain yourself," said he. "what letters? not such as--" again his hand went to his pocket, but shrunk hastily back as she pulled out a crumpled bit of paper and began to smooth it out for his perusal. "what have you there?" he cried. "such a letter as i speak of, judge ostrander. i picked it up from the walk a day or so ago. perhaps you have come upon the like?" "no; why should i?" he had started back, but his eye falling involuntarily upon the words she had spread out before him, he rapidly read them, and aghast at their import, glanced from the paper to her face and back again, crying: "he means oliver! we have an enemy, mrs. scoville, an enemy! do you know"--here he leaned forward, and plunged his eye, now burning with many passions, into hers--"who this enemy is?" "yes." softly as the word came, it seemed to infuriate him. seizing her by the arm, he was about to launch against her the whole weight of his aroused nature, when she said simply: "he is a common bill-poster. i took pains to find this out. i was as interested as you could be to discover the author of such an outrage." "a bill-poster?" "yes, judge ostrander." "what is his name?" "i do not know. i only know that he is resolved upon making you trouble. it was he who incited this riot. he did it by circulating anonymous missives and by--forgive me for telling you this--affixing scrawls of the same ambiguous character on fences and on walls, and even on--on--" (here terror tied her tongue, for his hand had closed about her arm in a forceful grip, and the fire in the eye holding hers was a consuming one) "the rails--of--of bridges." "ah!" the cry was involuntary, but not so the steady settling of the lips which followed it and the determined poise of his body as he waited for her next word. "miss weeks, the little lady opposite, saw the latter and tore it off. but the mischief had already spread. oh, strike me! send me from your house!" he gave no token of hearing her. "why is this man my enemy?" he asked. "i do not know any such person as you describe." "nor i," she answered more quietly. "a bill-poster! well, he has done his worst. i shall think no more about him." and the burning eye grew mild and the working lip calm again, with a determination too devoid of sarcasm to be false. it was a change for which deborah was in no wise prepared. she showed her amazement as ingenuously as a child, and he, observing it, remarked in a different tone from any he had used yet: "you do not look well. you are still suffering from the distress and confusion into which this wretched swoon has thrown you. or can it be that you are not yet convinced of our wisdom in ignoring this diabolic attack upon one whose reputation is as dear to us as our own? if that is so, and i see that it is, let me remind you of a fact which cannot be new to you if it is to others of happier memories, that no accusation of this kind, however plausible--and this is not plausible--can hold its own for a day without evidence to back it. and there is no evidence against my son in this ancient matter of my friend etheridge's violent death, save the one coincidence known to many, that he chanced to be somewhere in the ravine at that accursed hour. a petty point upon which to hang this late and elaborate insult of suspicion!" and his voice rang out in a laugh, but not as it would have rung, or as deborah thought it would have rung, had his mind been as free as his words. when it had quite ceased, deborah threw off the last remnant of physical as well as moral weakness, and deliberately rose to her feet. she believed she understood him now; and she respected the effort he was making, and would have seconded it gladly had she dared. but she did not dare. if he were really as ignorant as he appeared of the extent of the peril threatening oliver's good name; if he had cheated himself during these long years into supposing that the secret which had undermined his own happiness was an unshared one, and that his own conduct since that hour he had characterised as accursed, had given no point to the charges they had just heard hurled against his son, then he ought to be undeceived and that right speedily. evidence did exist connecting oliver with this crime; evidence as sure, nay, yet surer, than that raised against her husband; and no man's laughter, no, not even his father's--least of all his father's--could cover up the fact or avail against the revelations which must follow, now that the scent was on. honouring as she did the man before her, understanding both his misery and the courage he displayed in this superhuman effort to hide his own convictions, she gathered up all her resources, and with a resolution no less brave than his, said firmly: "you are too much respected in this town, judge ostrander, for any collection of people, however thoughtless or vile, to so follow the lead of a low-down miscreant as to greet you to your face with these damaging assertions, unless they thought they had evidence, and good evidence, too, with which to back these assertions." it was the hurling of an arrow poisoned at the point; the launching of a bomb into the very citadel of his security. had he burst into outbreak--gripped her again or fiercely shown her the door, she would not have been astonished. indeed, she was prepared for some such result, but it did not come. on the contrary, his answer was almost mild, though tinged for the first time with a touch of that biting sarcasm for which he had once been famous. "if they had not thought!" he repeated. "if you had said if they had not known, then i might indeed have smelt danger. people think strange things. perhaps you think them, too." "i?" the moment was critical. she saw now that he was sounding her,--had been sounding her from the first. should she let everything go and let him know her mind, or should she continue to conceal it? in either course lay danger, if not to herself and reuther, then to himself and oliver. she decided for the truth. subterfuge had had its day. the menace of the future called for the strongest weapons which lie at the hand of man. she, therefore, answered: "yes; i have been thinking, and this is the result: you must either explain publicly and quite satisfactorily to the people of this town, the mystery of your long separation from oliver and the life you have since led in this trebly barred house, or accept the opprobrium of such accusations as we have listened to to-day. there is no middle course, judge ostrander. i who have loved oliver almost like a son;--who have a daughter who not only loves him but regards him as a perfect model of noble manhood, tell you so, though it breaks my heart to do it. i cannot see you both fall headlong to destruction for lack of understanding the nearness or the depth of the precipice you are approaching." "so!" the ejaculation came after a moment of intense silence--a silence during which she seemed to discern the sturdiness of years drop slowly away from him. "so that is the explanation which people give to my desire for retirement and a life of contemplation. well," he slowly added, with the halting utterance of one to whom each word is an effort, "i can see some justification for their conclusions now. i have been too self-centred, and too short-sighted to recognise my own folly. i might have known that anything out of the common course rouses a curiosity which supplies its own explanation at any cost to propriety or respect. i have courted my own doom. i am the victim of my own mistake. but," he continued, with a flash of his old fire which made him a dignified figure again, "i'm not going to cringe because i have lost ground in the first skirmish. i come of fighting blood. oliver's reputation shall not suffer long, whatever i may have done in my parental confidence to endanger it. i have not spent ten years at the bar, and fifteen on the bench for nothing. let the people look to it! i will stand by my own." he had as completely forgotten her as if she had never existed. john scoville, his widow, even the child bowed under troubles not unlike his own, had faded alike from his consciousness. but the generous deborah felt no resentment at the determination which would only press her and hers deeper into contumely. she had seen the father in the man for the first time, and her whole heart went out in passionate sympathy which blinded her to everything but her present duty. alas, that it should be so hard a one! alas, that instead of encouraging him, she must point out the one weakness of his cause which he did not or would not see, that is, his own conviction of his absent son's guilt as typified by the line he had deliberately smeared across oliver's pictured countenance. the task seemed so difficult, the first steps so blind, that she did not know how to begin and stood staring at him with interest and dread struggling for mastery in her heavily labouring breast. did he perceive this or was it the silence which drew his attention to her condition and the evils still threatening him? whichever it was, the light vanished from his face as he surveyed her and it was with a return of his old manner, that he finally observed: "you are keeping something from me--some fancied discovery--some clew, as they call it, to what you may consider my dear boy's guilt." with a deep breath she woke from her trance of indecision and letting forth the full passion of her nature, she cried out in her anguish: "i have but one answer for that, judge ostrander. look into your own heart! question your own conscience. i have seen what reveals it. i--" she stopped appalled. rage, such as she had never even divined spoke from every feature. he was no longer the wretched but calmly reasoning man, but a creature hardly human, and when he spoke, it was in a frenzy which swept everything before it. "you have seen!" he shouted. "you have broken your promise! you have touched what you were forbidden to touch! you have--" "not so," she broke in softly but very firmly. "i have touched nothing that i was told not to, nor have i broken any promise. i simply saw more than i was expected to, i suppose, of the picture which fell the day you first allowed me to enter your study." "is that true?" "it is true." they were whispering now. drawing a deep breath, he gathered up his faculties. "upon such accidents," he muttered, "hang the fate and honour of men. and you have gossiped about this picture," he again vociferated with sudden and unrestrained violence, "told reuther--told others--" "no." the denial was peremptory,--not to be disbelieved. "what i have learned, i have kept religiously to myself. alas!" she half moaned, half cried, "that i should feel the necessity!" "madam!"--he was searching her eyes, searching her very soul, as men seldom search the mind of another. "you believe in the truth of these calumnies that have just been shouted in our ears. you believe what they say of oliver. you with every prejudice in his favour; with every desire to recognise his worth! you, who have shown yourself ready to drop your husband's cause though you consider it an honest one, when you saw what havoc it would entail to my boy's repute. you believe--and on what evidence?" he broke in. "because of the picture?" "yes." "and the coincidence of his presence in the ravine?" "yes." "but these are puerile reasons." he was speaking peremptorily now and with all the weight of a master mind. "and you are not the woman to be satisfied with anything puerile. there is something back of all this; something you have not imparted. what is that something? tell--tell--" "oliver was a mere boy in those days and a very passionate one. he hated etheridge--the obtrusive mentor who came between him and yourself." "hated?" "yes." "hated?" "yes, there is proof." "of his hate?" "yes, judge." he did not ask where. possibly he knew. and because he did not ask, she did not tell him, holding on to her secret in a vague hope that so much at least might never see light. "i knew the boy shrank sometimes from algernon's company," the judge admitted, after another glance at her face; "but that means nothing in a boy full of his own affairs. what else have you against him? speak up! i can bear it all." "he handled the stick that--that-" "oliver?" "yes." "never! now you have gone mad, madam." "i would be willing to end my days in an asylum if that would disprove this fact." "but, madam, what proof--what reason can you have for an assertion so monstrous?" "you remember the shadow i saw which was not that of john scoville? the person who made that shadow was whittling a stick; that was a trick of oliver's. i have heard that he even whittled furniture." "good god!" the judge's panoply was pierced at last. "they tried to prove, as you will remember, that it was john who thus disfigured the bludgeon he always carried with pride. but the argument was a sorry one and in itself would have broken down the prosecution had he been a man of better repute. now, those few chips taken from the handle of this weapon will carry a different significance. for in my folly i asked to see this stick which still exists at police headquarters, and there in the wood i detected and pointed out a trifle of steel which never came from the unbroken blades of the knife taken from john's pocket." fallen was the proud head now and fallen the great man's aspect. if he spoke it was to utter a low "oliver! oliver!" the pathos of it--the heart-rending wonder in the tone brought the tears to deborah's eyes and made her last words very difficult. "but the one great thing which gives to these facts their really dangerous point is the mystery you have made of your life and of this so-called hermitage. if you can clear up that, you can afford to ignore the rest." "the misfortunes of my house!" was his sole response. "the misfortunes of my house!" xxiv one secret less suddenly he faced deborah again. the crisis of feeling had passed, and he looked almost cold. "you have had advisers," said he. "who are they?" "i have talked with mr. black." the judge's brows met. "well, you were wise," said he. then shortly, "what is his attitude?" feeling that her position was fast becoming intolerable she falteringly replied, "friendly to you and oliver but, even without all the reasons which move me, sharing my convictions." "he has told you so?" "not directly; but there was no misjudging his opinion of the necessity you were under to explain, the mysteries of your life. and it was yesterday we talked; not to-day." like words thrown into a void, these slow, lingering, half-uttered phrases seemed to awaken an echo which rung not only in his inmost being, but in hers. not till in both natures silence had settled again (the silence of despair, not peace), did he speak. when he did, it was simply to breathe her name. "deborah?" startled, for it had always before been madam, she looked up to find him standing very near her and with his hand held out. "i am going through deep waters," said he. "am i to have your support?" "o, judge ostrander, how can you doubt it?" she cried, dropping her hand into his, and her eyes swimming with tears. "but what can i do? if i remain here i will be questioned. if i fly--but, possibly, that is what you want;--for me to go--to disappear--to take reuther and sink out of all men's sight forever. if this is your wish, i am ready to do it. gladly will we be gone--now--at once--this very night if you say so." his disclaimer was peremptory. "no; not that. i ask no such sacrifice. neither would it avail. there is but one thing which can reinstate oliver and myself in the confidence and regard of these people. cannot you guess it, madam? i mean your own restored conviction that the sentence passed upon john scoville was a just one. once satisfied of this, your temperament is such that you would be our advocate whether you wished it or no. your very silence would be eloquent." "convince me; i am willing to have you, judge ostrander. but how can you do so? a shadow stands between my wishes and the belief you mention. the shadow cast by oliver as he made his way towards the bridge, with my husband's bludgeon in his hand." "did you see him strike the blow? were there any opportune shadows to betray what happened between the instant of--let us say oliver's approach and the fall of my friend? much can happen in a minute, and this matter is one of minutes. granted that the shadow you saw was that of oliver, and the stick he carried was the one under which algernon succumbed, what is to hinder the following from, having occurred. the stick which oliver may have caught up in an absent frame of mind becomes burdensome; he has broken his knife against a knot in the handle and he is provoked. flinging the bludgeon down, he hurries up the embankment and so on into town. john scoville, lurking in the bushes, sees his stick fall and regains it at or near the time algernon etheridge steps into sight at the end of the bridge beyond dark hollow. etheridge carries a watch greatly desired by the man who finds himself thus armed. the place is quiet; the impulse to possess himself of this watch is sudden and irresistible, and the stick falls on etheridge's head. is there anything impossible or even improbable about all this? scoville had a heart open to crime, oliver not. this i knew when i sat upon the bench at his trial; and now you shall know it too. come! i have something to show you." he turned towards the door and mechanically she followed. her thoughts were all in a whirl. she did not know what to make of him or of herself. the rooted dread of weeks was stirring in its soil. this suggestion of the transference of the stick from hand to hand was not impossible. only scoville had sworn to her, and that, too, upon their child's head, that he had not struck this blow. and she had believed him after finding the cap; and she believed him now. yes, against her will, she believed him now. why? and again, why? they had crossed the hall and he was taking the turn to his room. "enter," said he, lifting the curtain. involuntarily she recoiled. not from him, but from the revelation she felt to be awaiting her in this place of unguessed mystery. looking back into the space behind her, she caught a fleeting glimpse of reuther hovering on a distant threshold. leaving the judge, without even a murmured word of apology, she ran to the child, embraced her, and promised to join her soon; and then, satisfied with the comfort thus gained, she returned quickly to where the judge still awaited her, with his hand on the curtain. "forgive me," said she; and meeting with no reply, stood trembling while he unlocked the door and ushered her in. a new leaf in the history of this old crime was about to be turned. * * * * * once within the room, he became his courteous self once more. "be seated," he begged, indicating a chair in the half gloom. as she took it, the room sprang into sudden light. he had pulled the string which regulated the curtains over the glazed panes in the ceiling. then as quickly all was gloom again; he had let the string escape from his hand. "half light is better," he muttered in vague apology. it was a weird beginning to an interview whose object was as yet incomprehensible to her. one minute a blinding glimpse of the room whose details were so varied that many of them still remained unknown to her,--the next, everything swept again into shadow through which the tall form of the genius of the place loomed with melancholy suggestion! she was relieved when he spoke. "mrs. scoville (not deborah now) have you any confidence in oliver's word?" she did not reply at once. too much depended upon a simple yes or no. her first instinctive cry would have been yes, but if oliver had been guilty and yet held back his dreadful secret all these years, how could she believe his word, when his whole life had been a lie? "has there ever been anything in his conversation as you knew it in detroit to make you hesitate to reply?" the judge persisted, as she continued speechless. "no; nothing. i had every confidence in his assertions. i should have yet, if it were not for this horror." "forget it for a moment. recall his effect upon you as a man, a prospective son-in-law,--for you meant him to marry reuther." "i trusted him. i would trust him in many ways yet." "would you trust him enough to believe that he would tell you the truth if you asked him point-blank whether his hands were clean of crime?" "yes." the word came in a whisper; but there was no wavering in it. she had felt the conviction dart like an arrow through her mind that oliver might slay a man in his hate,--might even conceal his guilt for years--but that he could not lie about it when brought face to face with an accuser like herself. "then i will let you read something he wrote at my request these many years ago: an experience--the tale of one awful night, the horrors of which, locked within his mind and mine, have never been revealed to a third person. that you should share our secret now, is not only necessary but fitting. it becomes the widow of john scoville to know what sort of a man she persists in regarding innocent. wait here for me." with a quick step he wound his way among the various encumbering pieces of furniture, to the door opening into his bedroom. a breathless moment ensued, during which she heard his key turn in the lock, followed by the repeating sound of his footsteps, as he wended his way inside to a point she could only guess at from her knowledge of the room, to be a dresser in one of the corners. here he lingered so long that, without any conscious volition of her own,--almost in spite of her volition which would have kept her where she was,--she found herself on her feet, then moving step by step, more cautiously than he, in and out of huddling chairs and cluttering tables till she came to a stand-still before the reflection (in some mirror, no doubt) of the judge's tall form, bending not over the dresser, as she had supposed, but before a cupboard in the wall--a cupboard she had never seen, in a wall she had never seen, but now recognised for the one hitherto concealed by the great carpet rug. he had a roll of paper in his hand, which he bundled together as he dropped the curtain back into place and then stopped to smooth it out over the floor with the precision of long habit. all this she saw in the mirror as though she had been at his back in the other room; but when she beheld him turn, then panic seized her and she started breathlessly for the spot where he had left her, glad that there was so little light, and praying that he might be deaf to her steps, which, gently as they fell, sounded portentously loud in her own ears. she had reached her chair, but she had not had time to re-seat herself when she beheld him approaching with the bundle of loose sheets clutched in his hand. "i want you to sit here and read," said he, laying the manuscript down on a small table near the wall under a gas-jet which he immediately lighted. "i am going back to my own desk. if you want to speak, you may; i shall not be working." and she heard his footsteps retreating again in and out among the furniture till he reached his own chair and sat before his own table. this ended all sound in the room excepting the beating of her own heart, which had become tumultuous. how could she sit there and read words, with the blood pounding in her veins and her eyes half blind with terror and excitement? it was only the necessity of the case which made it possible. she knew that she would never be released from that spot until she had read what had been placed before her. thank god! the manuscript was legible. oliver's handwriting possessed the clearness of print. she had begun to read before she knew it, and having begun, she never paused till she reached the end. * * * * * i was fifteen. it was my birthday and i had my own ideas of how i wanted to spend it. my hobby was modelling. my father had no sympathy with this hobby. to him it was a waste of time better spent in study or such sports as would fit me for study. but he had never absolutely forbidden me to exercise my talent this way, and when on the day i mention i had a few hours of freedom, i decided to begin a piece of work of which i had long dreamed. this was the remodelling in clay of an exquisite statue which had greatly aroused my admiration. this statue stood in a forbidden place. it was one of the art treasures of the great house on the bluff commonly called spencer's folly. i had seen this marble once, when dining there with father, and was so impressed by its beauty, that it haunted me night and day, standing out white and wonderful in my imagination, against backgrounds of endless variation. to copy its lovely lines, to caress with a creative hand those curves of beauty instinct, as i then felt, with soul, became my one overmastering desire,--a desire which soon deepened into purpose. the boy of fifteen would attempt the impossible. i procured my clay and then awaited my opportunity. it came, as i have said, on my birthday. there was no one living in the house at this time. mr. spencer had gone west for the winter. the servants had been dismissed, and the place closed. only that morning i had heard one of his boon companions say, "oh, jack's done for. he's found a pretty widow in the sierras, and there's no knowing now when we'll drink his health again in spencer's folly:" a statement which wakened but one picture in my mind and that was a long stretch of empty rooms teeming with art treasures amid which one gem rose supreme--the gem which through his reckless carelessness, i now proposed to make my own, if loving fingers and the responsive clay would allow it. what to every other person in town would have seemed an insuperable obstacle to this undertaking, was no obstacle to me. _i_ knew how to get in. one day in my restless wanderings about a place which had something of the nature of a shrine to me, i had noticed that one of the windows (a swinging one) overlooking the ravine, moved as the wind took it. either the lock had given way or it had not been properly fastened. if i could only bring myself to disregard the narrowness of the ledge separating the house from the precipice beneath, i felt that i could reach this window and sever the vines sufficiently for my body to press in; and this i did that night, finding, just as i had expected, that once a little force was brought to bear upon the sash, it yielded easily, offering a free passage to the delights within. in all this i experienced little fear, but once inside, i began to realise the hazard of my adventure, as hanging at full length from the casement, i meditated on the drop i must take into what to my dazed eyes looked like an absolute void. this taxed my courage; but after a moment of sheer fright, i let myself go--i had to--and immediately found myself standing upright in a space so narrow i could touch the walls on either side. it was a closet i had entered, opening, as i soon discovered, into the huge dining-hall where i had once sat beside my father at the one formal meal of my life. i remembered that room; it had made a great impression upon me, and some light finding its way through the panes of uncurtained glass which topped each of the three windows overlooking the ravine, i soon was able to find the door leading into the drawing-room. i had brought a small lantern in the bag slung to my shoulders, but i had not hitherto dared to use it on account of the transparency of the panes i have mentioned; but once in the perfectly dark recesses of the room beyond, i drew it out, and without the least fear of detection boldly turned it upon the small alcove where stood the object of my adoration. it was another instance of the reckless confidence of youth. i was on the verge of one of the most appalling adventures which could befall a man, and yet no premonition disturbed the ecstasy with which i knelt before the glimmering marble and unrolled my bundle of wet clay. i was not a complete fool. i only meant to attempt a miniature copy, but my presumption led me to expect it to be like--yes, like--oh, i never doubted it! but when, after a few minutes of rapturous contemplation of the proportions which have been the despair of all lesser adepts than the great sculptor who conceived them, i began my work, oh, then i began to realise a little the nature of the task i had undertaken and to ask myself whether if i stayed all night i could finish it to my mind. it was during one of these moments of hesitation that i heard the first growl of distant thunder. but it made little impression upon me, and i returned to my work with renewed glow,--renewed hope. i felt so secure in my shell of darkness, with only the one small beam lighting up my model and my own fingers busy with the yielding clay. but the thunder growled again and my head rose, this time in real alarm. not because of that far-off struggle of the elements with which i had nothing to do and hardly sensed, but because of a nearer sound, an indistinguishable yet strangely perturbing sound, suggesting a step--no, it was a voice, or if not a voice, some equally sure token of an approaching presence on the porch in front. some one going by on the road two hundred feet away must have caught the gleam of my lantern through some unperceived crack in the parlour shutters. in another minute i should hear a shout at the window, or, perhaps, the pounding of a heavy hand on the front door. i hated the interruption, but otherwise i was but little disturbed. whoever it was, he could not by any chance find his way in. nevertheless, i discreetly closed the shutter of my lantern and began groping my way back to my own place of exit. i had reached the dining-room door, when the blood suddenly stopped in my veins. another sound had reached my ear; an unmistakable one this time--the rattling of a key in its lock. a man--two men were entering by the great front door. they came in on a swoop of wind which seemed to carry everything before it. i heard a loud laugh, coarsened by drink, and the tipsy exclamation of a voice i knew: "there! shut the door, can't you, before it's blown from its hinges? you'll find everything jolly here. wine, lights, solitude in which to finish our game and a roaring good opportunity to sleep afterwards. no servants, no porters, not a soul to disturb us. this is my house and it's a corker. i might be away for a year and"--here there was the crackling of a match--"i've only to use my night-key to find everything a man wants right to my hand." the answer i failed to catch. i was simply paralysed by terror. should their way lay through the drawing-room! my clay, my tools were all lying there, and my unfinished model. mr. spencer was not an unkind man, but he was very drunk, and i had heard that whisky makes a brute of the most good-natured. he would trample on my work; perhaps he would destroy my tools and then hunt the house till he found me. i did not know what to expect; meantime, lights began to flame up; the room where i stood was no longer a safe refuge, and creeping like a cat, i began to move towards the closet door. suddenly i made a dart for it; the two men, trampling heavily on the marble floor of the hall were coming my way. i could hear their rude talk--rude to me, though one of them called himself a gentleman. as the door of the room opened to admit them, i succeeded in shutting that of the closet into which i had flung myself,--or almost so. i did not dare to latch it, for they were already in the room and might hear me. "this is the spot for us," came in spencer's most jovial tones. "big table, whisky handy, cards right here in my pocket. wait, till i strike a light!" but the lightning anticipated him. as he spoke, the walls which surrounded me, the walls which surrounded them, leapt into glaring view and i heard the second voice cry out: "i don't like that! let's wait till the storm is over. i can't play with such candles as those flaring about us." "damn it! you won't know what candles you are playing by when once you see the pile i've got ready for you. i'm in for a big bout. you have ten dollars and i have a thousand. i'll play you for that ten. if, in the meantime, you get my thousand, why, it'll be because you're the better man." "i don't like it, i say. there, see!" a flood of white light had engulfed the house. my closet, with its whitewashed walls flared about me like the mouth of a furnace. "see, yourself!" came the careless retort, and with the words a gas-jet shot up, then two, then all that the room contained. "how's that? what's a flash more or less now!" i heard no answer, only the slap of the cards as they were flung onto the table; then the clatter of a key as it was turned in some distant lock and the quick question: "rum, or whisky. irish or scotch?" "whisky and irish." "good! but you'll drink it alone." the bottles were brought forward and they sat down one on each side of the dusty mahogany table. the man facing me was spencer, the other sat with his back my way, but i could now and then catch a glimpse of his profile as he started at some flash or lifted his head in terror of the thunder-claps. "we'll play till the hands point to three," announced spencer, taking out his watch and laying it down where both could see it. "do you agree to that?--unless i win and your funds go a-begging before the hour." "i agree." the tone was harsh; it was almost smothered. the man was staring at the watch; there was a strange set look to his figure; a pausing as of thought--of sinister thought, i should now say; then i never stopped to characterise it; it was followed too quickly by a loud laugh and a sudden grab at the cards. "you'll win! i feel it in my bones," came in encouraging tones from the rich man. "if you do"--here the storm lulled and his voice sank to an encouraging whisper--"you can buy the old tavern up the road. it's going for a song; and then we'll be neighbours and can play--play--" thunder!--a terrific peal. it shook the house; it shook my boyish heart, but it no longer had power to move the two gamesters. the fever of play had reached its height, and i heard nothing more from their lips, but such phrases as belong to the game. why didn't i take advantage of their absorption to fly? the sill above my head was within easy reach, the sash was open and no sound that i could make would reach them in this hurly-burly of storm. why then, with all this invitation to escape, did i remain crouched in my dark retreat with eyes fixed on the narrow crack before me which, under some impulse of movement in the walls about, had widened sufficiently for me to see all that i have related? i do not know, unless i was hypnotised by the glare of expression on those men's faces. i remember that it was my first glimpse of the human countenance under the sway of wicked and absorbing passions. hitherto my dreams had all been of beauty--of lovely shapes or noble figures cast in heroic mould. henceforth, these ideal groups must visit my imagination mixed with the bulging eyes of greed and the contortions of hate masking their hideousness under false smiles or hiding them behind the motions of riotous jollity. i was horrified, i was sickened, and i was frightened to the very soul, but the fascination of the spectacle held me; i watched the men and i watched the play and soon i forgot the tempest also, or remembered it only when my small retreat flared into sudden whiteness, or some gust, heavier than the rest, toppled the bricks from the chimneys above us and sent them crashing down upon the rain-soaked roof. the stranger was winning. i saw the heap of bills beside him grow and grow while that of his opponent dwindled. i saw the latter smile--smile softly at each toss of his losings across the board; but there was no mirth in his smile, nor was there any common satisfaction in the way the other's hand closed over his gains. "he will have it all," i thought. "the claymore tavern will soon change owners;" and i was holding my breath over the final stake when suddenly the house gave a lurch, resettled, then lurched again. the tempest had become a hurricane, and with its first swoop a change took place in the stranger's luck. the bills which had all gone one way began slowly to recross the board, first singly, then in handfuls. they fell within spencer's grasp, and the smile with which he hailed their return was not the smile with which he had seen them go, but a steady grin such as i had beheld on the faces of sculptured demons. it frightened me, this smile. i could see nothing else; but, when at another crashing peal i ducked my head, i found on lifting it that my eyes sought instinctively the rigid back of the stranger instead of the open face of spencer. the passion of the winner was nothing to that of the loser; and from this moment on, i saw but the one figure, and thrilled to the one hope--that an opportunity would soon come for me to see the face of the man whose back told such a tale of fury and suspense. but it remained fixed on spencer, and the cards. the roof might fall--he was past heeding. a bill or two only lay now at his elbow, and i could perceive the further stiffening of his already rigid muscles as he dealt out the cards. suddenly hard upon a rattling peal which seemed to unite heaven and earth, i heard shouted out: "half-past two! the game stops at three." "damn your greedy eyes!" came back in a growl. then all was still, fearfully still, both in the atmosphere outside and in that within, during which i caught sight of the stranger's hand moving slowly around to his back and returning as slowly forward, all under cover of the table-top and a stack of half-empty bottles. i was inexperienced. i knew nothing of the habits or the ways of such men as these, but the alarm of innocence in the face of untold, unsuspected but intuitively felt evil, seized me at this stealthy movement, and i tried to rise,--tried to shriek,--but could not; for events rushed upon us quicker than i could speak or move. "i can buy the claymore tavern, can i? well, i'm going to," rang out into the air as the speaker leaped to his feet. "take that, you cheat! and that! and that!" and the shots rang out--one, two, three! spencer was dead in his folly. i had seen him rise, throw up his hands and then fall in a heap among the cards and glasses. silence! not even heaven spoke. then the man who stood there alone turned slightly and i saw his face. i have seen it many times since; i have seen it at claymore tavern. distorted up to this moment by a thousand emotions,--all evil ones,--it was calm now with the realisation of his act, and i could make no mistake as to his identity. later i will mention his name. glancing first at his victim, then at the pistol still smoking in his hand, he put the weapon back in his pocket, and began gathering up the money for which he had just damned his soul. to get it all, he had to move an arm of the body sprawling along the board. but he did not appear to mind. when every bill was in his pockets, he reached out his hand for the watch. then i saw him smile. he smiled as he shut the case, he smiled as he plunged it in after the bills. there was gloating in this smile. he seemed to have got what he wanted more than when he fingered the bills. i was stiff with horror. i was not conscious of noting these details, but i saw them every one. small things make an impression when the mind is numb under the effect of a great blow. next moment i woke to a realisation of myself and all the danger of my own position. he was scanning very carefully the room about him. his eyes were travelling slowly--very slowly but certainly, in my direction. i saw them pause--concentrate their glances and fix them straight and full upon mine. not that he saw me. the crack through which we were peering each in our several ways was too narrow for that. but the crack itself--that was what he saw and the promise it gave of some room beyond. i was a creature frozen. but when he suddenly turned away instead of plunging towards me with his still smoking pistol, i had the instinct to make a leap for the window over my head and clutch madly at its narrow sill in a wild attempt at escape. but the effort ended precipitately. terror had got me by the hair, and terror made me look back. the crack had widened still further, and what i now saw through it glued me to the wall and held me there transfixed, with dangling feet and starting eyeballs. he was coming towards me--a straining, panting figure--half carrying, half dragging, the dead man who flopped aside from his arms. god! what was i to do now! how meet those cold, indifferent eyes filled only with thoughts of his own safety and see them flare again with murderous impulse and that impulse directed towards myself! i couldn't meet them; i couldn't stay; but how fly when not a muscle responded. i had to stay--hanging from the sill and praying--praying--till my senses blurred and i knew nothing till on a sudden they cleared again, and i woke to the blessed realisation that the door had been pushed against my slender figure, hiding it completely from his sight, and that this door was now closed again and this time tightly, and i was safe--safe! the relief sent the perspiration in a reek from every pore; but the icy revulsion came quickly. as i drew up my knees to get a better purchase on the sill, heaven's torch was suddenly lit up, the closet became a pit of dazzling whiteness amid which i saw the blot of that dead body, with head propped against the wall and eyes-remember, i was but fifteen. the legs were hunched up and almost touched mine. i could feel them--though there was no contact--pushing me--forcing me from my frail support. would it lighten again? would i have to see--no! any risk first. the window--i no longer thought of it. it was too remote, too difficult. the door--the door--there was my way--the only way which would rid me instantly of any proximity to this hideous object. i flung myself at it--found the knob--turned it and yelled aloud--my foot had brushed against him. i knew the difference and it sent me palpitating over the threshold; but no further. love of life had returned with my escape from that awful prison-house, and i halted in the semidarkness into which i had plunged, thanking heaven for the thunder peal which had drowned my loud cry. for i was not yet safe. he was still there. he had turned out all lights but one, but this was sufficient to show me his tall figure straining up to put out this last jet. another instant and darkness enveloped the whole place. he had not seen me and was going. i could hear the sound of his feet as he went stumbling in his zigzag course towards the door. then every sound both on his part and on mine was lost in a swoop of down-falling rain and i remember nothing more till out of the blankness before me, he started again into view, within the open doorway where in the glare of what he called heaven's candles he stood, poising himself to meet the gale which seemed ready to catch him up and whirl him with other inconsequent things into the void of nothingness. then darkness settled again and i was left alone with murder;--all the innocence of my youth gone, and my soul a very charnel house. * * * * * i had to re-enter that closet; i had to take the only means of escape proffered. but i went through it as we go through the horrors of nightmare. my muscles obeyed my volition, but my sensibilities were no longer active. how i managed to draw myself up to that slippery sill all reeking now with rain, or save myself from falling to my death in the whirling blast that carried everything about me into the ravine below, i do not know. i simply did it and escaped all--lightning-flash and falling limb, and the lasso of swirling winds--to find myself at last lying my full length along the bridge amid a shock of elements such as nature seldom sports with. here i clung, for i was breathless, waiting with head buried in my arm for the rain to abate before i attempted a further escape from the place which held such horror for me! but no abatement came, and feeling the bridge shaking under me almost to cracking, i began to crawl, inch by inch, along its gaping boards till i reached its middle. there god stopped me. for, with a clangour as of rending worlds, a bolt, hot from the zenith, sped down upon the bluff behind me, throwing me down again upon my face and engulfing sense and understanding for one wild moment. then i sprang upright and with a yell of terror sped across the rocking boards beneath me to the road, no longer battling with my desire to look back; no longer asking myself when and how that dead man would be found; no longer even asking my own duty in the case; for spencer's folly was on fire and the crime i had just seen perpetrated there would soon be a crime stricken from the sight of men forever. in the flare of its tremendous burning i found my way up through the forest road to my home and into my father's presence. he like everybody else was up that night, and already alarmed at my continued absence. "spencer's folly is on fire," i cried, as he cast dismayed eyes at my pallid and dripping figure. "if you go to the door, you can see it!" but i told him nothing more. perhaps other boys of my age can understand my silence. i not only did not tell my father, but i told nobody, even after the discovery of spencer's charred body in the closet so miraculously preserved. with every day that passed, it became harder to part with this baleful secret. i felt it corroding my thoughts and destroying my spirits, and yet i kept still. only my taste for modelling was gone. i have never touched clay since. claymore tavern did change owners. when i heard that a man by the name of scoville had bought it, i went over to see scoville. he was the man. then i began to ask myself what i ought to do with my knowledge, and the more i asked myself this question, and the more i brooded over the matter, the less did i feel like taking, not the public, but my father, into my confidence. i had never doubted his love for me, but i had always stood in great awe of his reproof, and i did not know where i was to find courage to tell him all the details of this adventure. there is one thing i did do, however. i made certain inquiries here and there, and soon satisfied myself as to how scoville had been able to come into town, commit this horrid deed and escape without any one but myself being the wiser. spencer and he had come from the west en route to new york without any intention of stopping off in shelby. but once involved in play, they got so interested that when within a few miles of the town, spencer proposed that they should leave the train and finish the game in his own house. whether circumstances aided them, or spencer took some extraordinary precautions against being recognised, will never be known. but certain it is that he escaped all observation at the station and even upon the road. when scoville returned alone, the storm had reached such a height that the roads were deserted, and he, being an entire stranger here at that time, naturally attracted no attention, and so was able to slip away on the next train with just the drawback of buying a new ticket. i, a boy of fifteen, trespassing where i did not belong, was the only living witness of what had happened on this night of dreadful storm, in the house which was now a ruin. i realised the unpleasantness of the position in which this put me, but not its responsibility. scoville, ignorant that any other breast than his own held the secret of that hour of fierce temptation and murder, naturally scented no danger and rejoiced without stint in his new acquisition. what evil might i not draw down upon myself by disturbing him in it at this late day. if i were going to do anything, i should have done it at first--so i reasoned, and let the matter slide. i became interested in school and study, and the years passed and i had almost forgotten the occurrence, when suddenly the full remembrance came back upon me with a rush. a man--my father's friend--was found murdered in sight of this spot of old-time horror, and scoville was accused of the act. i was older now and saw my fault in all its enormity. i was guilty of that crime--or so i felt in the first heat of my sorrow and despair. i may even have said so--in dreams or in some of my self-absorbed broodings. though i certainly had not lifted the stick against mr. etheridge, i had left the hand free which did, and this was a sufficient occasion for remorse--or so i truly felt. i was so affected by the thought that even my father, with his own weight of troubles, noticed my care-worn face and asked me for an explanation. but i held him off until the verdict was reached, and then i told him. i had not liked his looks for some time; they seemed to convey some doubt of the justice of this man's sentence, and i felt that if he had such doubts, they might be eased by this certainty of scoville's murderous tendencies and unquestionable greed. and they were; but as scoville was already doomed, we decided that it was unnecessary to make public his past offences. however, with an eye upon future contingencies, my father exacted from me in writing this full account of my adventure, which with all the solemnity of an oath i here declare to be the true story of what befell me in the house called spencer's folly, on the night of awful storm, september eleventh, 1895. oliver ostrander. witnesses to above signature, archibald ostrander, bela jefferson. shelby........november 7, 1898. xxv "what do you think of him now?" this was the document and these the words which deborah, widow of the man thus doubly denounced, had been given to read by the father of the writer, in the darkened room which had been and still was to her, an abode of brooding thought and unfathomable mystery. no wonder that during its reading more than one exclamation of terror and dismay escaped her, as the once rehabilitated form of the dead and gone started into dreadful life again before her eyes. there were so many reasons for believing this record to be an absolute relation of the truth. incoherent phrases which had fallen from those long-closed lips took on new meaning with this unveiling of an unknown past. repugnances for which she could not account in those old days, she now saw explained. he would never, even in passing, give a look at the ruin on the bluff, so attractive to every eye but his own. as for entering its gates--she had never dared so much as to ask him to do so. he had never expressed his antipathy for the place, but he had made her feel it. she doubted now if he would have climbed to it from the ravine even to save his child from falling over its verge. indeed, she saw the reason now why he could not explain the reason for the apathy he showed in his hunt for reuther on that fatal day, and his so marked avoidance of the height where she was found. then the watch! deborah knew well that watch. she had often asked him by what stroke of luck he had got so fine a timepiece. but he had never told her. later, it had been stolen from him; and as he had a mania for watches, that was why, perhaps-god! was her mind veering back to her old idea as to his responsibility for the crime committed in dark hollow? yes; she could not help it. denial from a monster like this--a man who with such memories and such spoil, could return home to wife and child, with some gay and confused story of a great stroke in speculation which had brought him in the price of the tavern it had long been his ambition to own--what was denial from such lips worth, though emphasised by the most sacred of oaths, and uttered under the shadow of death. the judge was right. oliver--whose ingenuous story had restored his image to her mind, with some of its old graces--had been the victim of circumstances and not john scoville. henceforth, she would see him as such, and when she had recovered a little from the effect of this sudden insight into the revolting past, she would-her thoughts had reached this stage and her hand, in obedience to the new mood, was lightly ruffling up the pages before her, when she felt a light touch on her shoulder and turned with a start. the judge was at her back. how long he had stood there she did not know, nor did he say. the muttered exclamations which had escaped her, the irrepressible cry of despair she had given when she first recognised the identity of the "stranger" may have reached him where he sat at the other end of the room, and drawn him insensibly forward till he could overlook her shoulder as she read, and taste with her the horror of these revelations which yet were working so beneficent a result for him and his. it may have been so, and it may have been that he had not made his move till he saw her attitude change and her head droop disconsolately at the reading of the last line. she did not ask, as i have said, nor did he tell her; but when upon feeling his hand upon her shoulder she turned, he was there; and while his lips failed to speak, his eyes were eloquent and their question single and imperative. "what do you think of him now?" they seemed to ask, and rising to her feet, she met him with a smile, ghastly perhaps with the lividness of the shadows through which she had been groping, but encouraging withal and soothing beyond measure to his anxious and harassed soul. "oliver is innocent," she declared, turning once more to lay her hand upon the sheets containing his naive confession. "the dastard who could shoot his host for plunder is capable of a second crime holding out a similar inducement. nothing now will ever make me connect oliver with the crime at the bridge. as you said, he was simply near enough the hollow to toss into it the stick he had been whittling on his way from the oak tree. i am his advocate from this minute." her eyes were still resting mechanically upon that last page lying spread out before her, and she did not observe in its full glory the first gleam of triumphant joy which, in all probability, judge ostrander's countenance had shown in years. nor did he see, in the glad confusion of the moment, the quick shudder with which she lifted her trembling hand away from those papers and looked up, squarely at last, into his transfigured visage. "oh, judge!" she murmured, bursting into a torrent of tears. "how you must have suffered to feel so great a relief!" then she was still, very still, and waited for him to speak. "i suffered," he presently proceeded to state, "because of the knowledge which had come to me of the scandal with which circumstances threatened us. oliver had confided to me (after the trial, mind, not before) the unfortunate fact of his having been in possession of the stick during those few odd minutes preceding the murder. he had also told me how he had boasted once, and in a big crowd, too, of his intention to do etheridge. he had meant nothing by the phrase, beyond what any body means who mingles boasting with temper, but it was a nasty point of corroborative evidence; and heart-breaking as it was for me to part with him, i felt that his future career would be furthered by a fresh start in another town. you see," he continued, a faint blush dyeing his old cheek ... old in sorrow not in years ... "i am revealing mysteries of my past life which i have hitherto kept strictly within my own breast. i cannot do this without shame, because while in the many serious conversations we have had on this subject, i have always insisted upon john scoville's guilt. i have never allowed myself to admit the least fact which would in any way compromise oliver. a cowardly attitude for a judge you will say, and you are right; but for a father--mrs. scoville, i love my boy. i--what's that?" the front door-bell was ringing. in a flash deborah was out of the room. it was as if she had flown with unnecessary eagerness to answer a bidding which, after all, reuther could easily have attended to. it struck him aghast for the instant, then he began slowly to gather up the papers before him and carry them back into the other room. had he, instead, made straight for the doorway leading to the front of the house, he would have come upon the figure of deborah standing alone and with her face pressed in anguish and unspeakable despair against the lintel. something had struck her heart and darkened her soul since that exalted moment in which she cried: "henceforth i will be oliver's advocate." when the judge at last came forth, it was at reuther's bidding. a gentleman wished to see him in the parlour. this was so unprecedented,--even of late when the ladies did receive some callers, that he stopped short after his first instinctive step, to ask her if the gentleman had given his name. she said no; but added that he was not alone; that he had a very strange and not very nice-looking person with him whom mother insisted should remain in the hall. "mother requests you to see the gentleman, judge ostrander. she said you would wish to, if you once saw the person accompanying him." with a dark glance, not directed against her, however, the judge bade her run away to the kitchen and as far from all these troubles as she could, then, locking his door behind him, as he always did, he strode towards the front. he found deborah standing guard over an ill-conditioned fellow whose slouching figure slouched still more under his eye, but gave no other acknowledgment of his presence. passing him without a second look, judge ostrander entered the parlour where he found no less a person than mr. black awaiting him. there was no bad blood between these two whatever their past relations or present suspicions, and they were soon shaking hands with every appearance of mutual cordiality. the judge was especially courteous. "i am glad," said he, "of any occasion which brings you again under my roof, though from the appearance of your companion i judge the present one to be of no very agreeable character." "he's honest enough," muttered black, with a glance towards deborah, for the understanding of which the judge held no key. then, changing the subject, "you had a very unfortunate experience this afternoon. allow me to express my regret at an outbreak so totally unwarranted." a grumble came from the hall without. evidently his charge, if we may so designate the fellow he had brought there, had his own ideas on this subject. "quiet out there!" shouted mr. black. "mrs. scoville, you need not trouble yourself to stand over mr. flannagan any longer. i'll look after him." she bowed and was turning away when the judge intervened. "is there any objection," he asked, "to mrs. scoville's remaining present at this interview?" "none whatever," answered the lawyer. "then, mrs. scoville, may i request you to come in?" if she hesitated, it was but natural. exhaustion is the obvious result of so many excitements, and that she was utterly exhausted was very apparent. mr. black cast her a commiserating smile, but the judge only noticed that she entered the room at his bidding and sat down by the window. he was keying himself up to sustain a fresh excitement. he was as exhausted as she, possibly more so. he had a greater number of wearing years to his credit. "judge, i'm your friend;" thus mr. black began. "thinking you must wish to know who started the riotous procedure which disgraced our town to-day, i have brought the ringleader here to answer for himself--that is, if you wish to question him." judge ostrander wheeled about, gave the man a searching look, and failing to recognise him as any one he had ever seen before, beckoned him in. "i suppose," said he, when the lounging and insolent figure was fairly before their eyes, "that this is not the first time you have been asked to explain your enmity to my long absent son." "naw; i've had my talk wherever and whenever i took the notion. oliver ostrander hit me once. i was jest a little chap then and meanin' no harm to any one. i kept a-pesterin' of 'im and he hit me. he'd a better have hit a feller who hadn't my memory. i've never forgiven that hit, and i never will. that's why i'm hittin' him now. it's just my turn; that's all." "your turn! your turn! and what do you think has given you an opportunity to turn on him?" "i'm not in the talkin' mood just now," the fellow drawled, frankly insolent, not only in his tone but in his bearing to all present. "nor can you make it worth my while, you gents. i'll not take money. i'm an honest hard-workin' man who can earn his own livin', and you can't pay me to keep still, or to go away from shelby a day sooner than i want to. i was goin' away, but i gave it up when they told me that things were beginnin' to look black against ol ostrander;--that a woman had come into town who was a-stirrin' up things generally about that old murder for which a feller had already been 'lectrocuted, and knowin' somethin' myself about that murder and ol ostrander, i--well, i stayed." the quiet threat, the suggested possibility, the attack which wraps itself in vague uncertainty, are ever the most effective. as his raucous voice, dry with sinister purpose which no man could shake, died out in an offensive drawl, mr. black edged a step nearer the judge, before he sprang and caught the young fellow by the coat-collar and gave him a very vigorous shake. "see here!" he threatened. "behave yourself and treat the judge like a gentleman or--" "or what?" the bulldog mouth sneered. "see here yourself," he now shouted, as the lawyer's hands unloosed and he stood panting; "i'm not afeard o' you, sir, nor of the jedge, nor of the lady nuther. i knows somethin', i do; and when i gets ready to tell it, we'll just see whose coat-collar they'll be handlin'. i came 'cause i wanted to see the inside o' the house ol ostrander's father doesn't think him good enough to live in. it's grand; but this part here isn't the whole of it. there's a door somewhere which nobody never opens unless it's the jedge there. i'd like to see what's behind that 'ere door. if it's somethin' to make a good story out of, i might be got to keep quiet about this other thing. i don't know, but i might." the swagger with which he said this, the confidence in himself which he showed and the reliance he so openly put in the something he knew but could not be induced to tell, acted so strongly upon mr. black's nerves, that he leaped towards him again, evidently with the intention of dragging him from the house. but the judge was not ready for this. the judge had gained a new lease of life in the last half-hour and he felt no fear of this sullen bill-poster for all his sly innuendoes. he, therefore, hindered the lawyer from his purpose, by a quick gesture of so much dignity and resolve that even the lout himself was impressed and dropped some of his sullen bravado. "i have something to say to this fellow," he announced, looking anywhere but at the drooping figure in the window which ought, above all things in the world, to have engaged his attention. "perhaps he does not know his folly. perhaps he thinks because i was thrown aback to-day by those public charges against my son and a string of insults for which no father could be prepared, that i am seriously disturbed over the position into which such unthinking men as himself have pushed mr. oliver ostrander. i might be if there were truth in these charges or any serious reason for connecting my upright and honourable son with the low crime of a highwayman. but there is not. i aver it and so will this lady here whom you have doubtless recognised for the one who has stirred this matter up. you can bring no evidence to show guilt on my son's part,"--these words he directed straight at the discomfited poster of bills--"because there is no evidence to bring." mr. black's eyes sparkled with admiration. he could not have used this method with the lad, but he recognised the insight of the man who could. bribes were a sign of weakness, so were suggested force and counter-attack; but scorn--a calm ignoring of the power of any one to seriously shake oliver ostrander's established position--that might rouse wrath and bring avowal; certainly it had shaken the man; he looked much less aggressive and self-confident than before. however, though impressed, he was not yet ready to give in. shuffling about with his feet but not yet shrinking from an encounter few men of his stamp would have cared to subject themselves to, he answered with a remark delivered with a little more civility than any of his previous ones: "what you call evidence may not be the same as i calls evidence. if you're satisfied at thinkin' my word's no good, that's your business. i know how i should feel if i was ol ostrander's father and knew what i know." "let him go," spoke up a wavering voice. it was deborah's. but the judge was deaf to the warning. deborah's voice had but reminded him of deborah's presence. its tone had escaped him. he was too engrossed in the purpose he had in mind to notice shades of inflection. but mr. black had, and quick as thought he echoed her request: "he is forgetting himself. let him go, judge ostrander." but that astute magistrate, wise in all other causes but his own, was no more ready now than before to do this. "in a moment," he conceded. "let me first make sure that this man understands me. i have said that there exists no evidence against my son. i did not mean that there may not be supposed evidence. that is more than probable. no suspicion could have been felt and none of these outrageous charges made, without that. he was unfortunate enough not only to have been in the ravine that night but to have picked up scoville's stick and carried it towards the bridge, whittling it as he went. but his connection with the crime ends there. he dropped this stick before he came to where the wood path joins factory road; and another hand than his raised it against etheridge. this i aver; and this the lady here will aver. you have probably already recognised her. if not, allow me to tell you that she is the lady whose efforts have brought back this case to the public mind: mrs. scoville, the wife of john scoville and the one of all others who has the greatest interest in proving her husband's innocence. if she says, that after the most careful inquiry and a conscientious reconsideration of this case, she has found herself forced to come to the conclusion that justice has already been satisfied in this matter, you will believe her, won't you?" "i don't know," drawled the man, a low and cunning expression lighting up his ugly countenance. "she wants to marry her daughter to your son. any live dog is better than a dead one; i guess her opinion don't go for much." recoiling before a cynicism that pierced with unerring skill the one joint in his armour he knew to be vulnerable, the judge took a minute in which to control his rage and then addressing the half-averted figure in the window said: "mrs. scoville, will you assure this man that you have no expectations of marrying your daughter to oliver ostrander?" with a slow movement more suggestive of despair than any she had been seen to make since the hour of her indecision had first struck, she shifted in her seat and finally faced them, with the assertion: "reuther scoville will never marry oliver ostrander. whatever my wishes or willingness in the matter, she herself is so determined. not because she does not believe in his integrity, for she does; but because she will not unite herself to one whose prospects in life are more to her than her own happiness." the fellow stared, then laughed: "she's a goodun," he sneered. "and you believe that bosh?" mr. black could no longer contain himself. "i believe you to be the biggest rascal in town," he shouted. "get out, or i won't answer for myself. ladies are not to be treated in this manner." did he remember his own rough handling of the sex on the witness stand? "_i_ didn't ask to see the ladies," protested flannagan, turning with a slinking gait towards the door. if they only had let him go! if the judge in his new self-confidence had not been so anxious to deepen the effect and make any future repetition of the situation impossible! "you understand the lady," he interposed, with the quiet dignity which was so imposing on the bench. "she has no sympathy with your ideas and no faith in your conclusions. she believes absolutely in my son's innocence." "do you, ma'am?" the man had turned and was surveying her with the dogged impudence of his class. "i'd like to hear you say it, if you don't mind, ma'am. perhaps, then, i'll believe it." "i--" she began, trembling so, that she failed to reach her feet, although she made one spasmodic effort to do so. "i believe--oh, i feel ill! it's been too much--i--" her head fell forward and she turned herself quite away from them all. "you see she ain't so eager, jedge, as you thought," laughed the bill-poster, with a clumsy bow he evidently meant to be sarcastic. "oh, what have i done!" moaned deborah, starting up as though she would fling herself after the retreating figure, now half way down the hall. she saw in the look of the judge as he forcibly stopped her, and heard in the lawyer's whisper as he bounded past them both to see the fellow out: "useless; nothing will bridle him now"; and finding no support for her despairing spirit either on earth or, as she thought, in heaven, she collapsed where she sat and fell unnoticed to the floor, where she lay prone at the feet of the equally unconscious figure of the judge, fixed in another attack of his peculiar complaint. and thus the lawyer found them when he returned from closing the gate behind flannagan. xxvi the telegram "i cannot say anything, i cannot do anything till i have had a few words with mrs. scoville. how soon do you think i can speak to her?" "not very soon. her daughter says she is quite worn out. would it not be better to give her a rest for to-night, judge?" the judge, now quite recovered, but strangely shrunk and wan, showed no surprise, at this request, odd as it was, on the lips of this honest but somewhat crabbed lawyer, but answered out of the fulness of his own heart and from the depths of his preoccupation: "my necessity is greater than hers. the change i saw in her is inexplicable. one moment she was all fire and determination, satisfied of oliver's innocence and eager to proclaim it. the next--but you were with us. you witnessed her hesitation--felt its force and what its effect was upon the damnable scamp who has our honour--the honour of the ostranders under his tongue. something must have produced this change. what? good friend, what?" "i don't know any more than you do, judge. but i think you are mistaken about the previous nature of her feelings. i noticed that she was not at peace with herself when she came into the room." "what's that?" the tone was short, and for the first time irritable. "the change, if there was a change, was not so sudden as you think. she looked troubled, and as i thought, irresolute when she came into the room." "you don't know her; you don't know what passed between us. she was all right then, but--go to her, black. she must have recovered by this time. ask her to come here for a minute. i won't detain her. i will wait for her warning knock right here." alanson black was a harsh man, but he had a soft streak in him--a streak which had been much developed of late. where he loved, he could be extraordinarily kind, and he loved, had loved for years, in his own way which was not a very demonstrative one, this man whom he was now striving to serve. but a counter affection was making difficulties for him just at this minute. against all probability, many would have said possibility, deborah scoville had roused in this hard nature, a feeling which he was not yet ready to name even to himself, but which nevertheless stood very decidedly in his way when the judge made this demand which meant further distress to her. but the judge had declared his necessity to be greater than hers, and after mr. black had subjected him to one of his most searching looks he decided that this was so, and quietly departed upon his errand. the judge left alone, sat, a brooding figure in his great chair, with no light in heart or mind to combat the shadows of approaching night settling heavier and heavier upon the room and upon himself with every slow passing and intolerable minute. at last, when the final ray had departed and darkness reigned supreme, there came a low knock on the door. then a troubled cry: "oh, judge, are you here?" "i am here." "alone and so dark?" "i am always alone, and it is always dark. is there any one with you?" "no, sir. shall i make a light?" "no light. is the door quite shut?" "no, judge." "shut it." there came the sound of a hand fumbling over the panels, then a quick snap. "it is shut," she said. "don't come any nearer; it is not necessary." a pause, then the quick question ringing hollow from the darkness, "why have your doubts returned? why are you no longer the woman you were when not an hour ago and in this very spot you cried, 'i will be oliver's advocate!'" then, as no answer came,--as minutes passed, and still no answer came, he spoke again and added: "i know that you are ill and exhausted--broken between duty and sympathy; but you must answer me, mrs. scoville. my affairs won't wait. i must know the truth and all the truth before this day is over." "you shall." her voice sounded hollow too and oh, how weary! "you allowed the document you showed me to remain a little too long before my eyes. that last page--need i say it?" "say it." "shows--shows changes, judge ostrander. some words have been erased and new ones written in. they are not many, but--" "i understand. i do not blame you, deborah." the words came after a pause and very softly, almost as softly as her own but which had sounded its low knell of doom through the darkness. "too many stumbling-blocks in your way, deborah, too much to combat. the most trusting heart must give way under such a strain. that page was tampered with. i tampered with it myself. i am not expert at forgery. i had better have left it, as he wrote it." then after another silence, he added, with a certain vehemence: "we will struggle no longer, either you or i. the boy must come home. prepare reuther, or, if you think best, provide a place for her where she will be safe from the storm which bids fair to wreck us here. no, don't speak; just ask mr. black to return, will you?" "judge--" "i understand. mr. black, deborah." slowly she moved away and began to grope for the door. as her hand fell on the knob she thought she heard a sob in those impenetrable depths behind her; but when she listened again, all was still; still as if merciful death and not weary life gave its significance to the surrounding gloom. shuddering, she turned the knob and paused again for rebuff or command. neither came; and, realising that having spoken once the judge would not speak again, she slipped softly away, and the door swung to after her. when mr. black re-entered the study, it was to find the room lighted and the judge bent over the table, writing. "you are going to send for oliver?" he queried. the judge hesitated, then motioning black to sit, said abruptly: "what is andrews' attitude in this matter?" andrews was shelby's district attorney. black's answer was like the man. "i saw him for one minute an hour ago. i think, at present, he is inclined to be both deaf and dumb, but if he's driven to action, he will act. and, judge, this man flannagan isn't going to stop where he is." "black, be merciful to my misery. what does this man know? have you any idea?" "no, judge, i haven't. he's as tight as a drum,--and as noisy. it is possible--just possible that he's as empty. a few days will tell." "i cannot wait for a few days. i hardly feel as if i could wait a few hours. oliver must come, even if--if the consequences are likely to be fatal. an ostrander once accused cannot skulk. oliver has been accused and--send that!" he quickly cried, pulling forward the telegram he had been writing. mr. black took up the telegram and read: come at once. imperative. no delay and no excuse. archibald ostrander. "mrs. scoville will supply the address," continued the poor father. "you will see that it goes, and that its sending is kept secret. the answer, if any is sent, had better be directed to your office. what do you say, black?" "i am your friend, right straight through, judge. your friend." "and my boy's adviser?" "you wish that?" "very much." "then, there's my hand on it, unless he wishes a change when we see him." "he will not wish any change." "i don't know. i'm a surly fellow, judge. i have known you all these years, yet i've never expressed--never said what i even find it hard to say now, that--that my esteem is something more than esteem; that--that i'll do anything for you, judge." "i--we won't talk of that, black. tell mrs. scoville to keep me informed--and bring me any message that may come. the boy, even if he leaves the first thing in the morning, cannot get here before to-morrow night." "not possibly." "he will telegraph. i shall hear from him. o god! the hours i must wait; my boy! my boy!" it was nature's irrepressible cry. black pressed his hand and went out with the telegram. book iii the door of mystery xxvii he must be found three hours later, an agitated confab took place at the gate, or rather between the two front gates. mr. black had rung for admittance, and mrs. scoville had answered the call. in the constrained interview which followed, these words were said: "one moment, mrs. scoville. how can i tell the judge! young ostrander is gone--flew the city, and i can get no clew to his whereabouts. some warning of what is happening here may have reached him, or he may be simply following impulses consequent upon his personal disappointments; but the fact is just this--he asked for two weeks' leave to go west upon business,--and he's been gone three. meanwhile, no word has come, nor can his best friends tell the place of his destination. i have been burning the telegraph wires ever since the first despatch, and this is the result." "poor judge ostrander!" then, in lower and still more pathetic tones, "poor reuther!" "where is reuther?" "at miss weeks'. i had to command her to leave me alone with the judge. it's the first time i ever spoke unkindly to her." "shall i tell the judge the result of his telegram, or will you?" "have you the messages with you?" he bundled them into her hand. "i will hand them in to him. we can do nothing less and nothing more. then if he wants you, i will telephone." "mrs. scoville?" she felt his hand laid softly on her shoulder. "yes, mr. black." "there is some one else in this matter to consider besides judge ostrander." "reuther? oh, don't i know it! she's not out of my mind a moment." "reuther is young, and has a gallant soul. i mean you, mrs. scoville, you! you are not to succumb to this trial. you have a future--a bright future--or should have. do not endanger it by giving up all your strength now. it's precious, that strength, or would be--" he broke off; she began to move away. overhead in the narrow space of sky visible to them from where they stood, the stars burned brightly. some instinct made them look up; as they did so, their hands met. then a gruff sound broke the silence. it was alanson black's voice uttering a grim farewell. * * * * * "he must be found! oliver must be found!" how the words rung in her ears. she had handed in the messages to the waiting father; she had uttered a word or two of explanation, and then, at his request, had left him. but his last cry followed her: "he must be found!" when she told it to mr. black the next morning, he looked serious. "pride or hope?" he asked. "desperation," she responded, with a guilty look about her. "possibly, some hope is in it, too. perhaps, he thinks that any charge of this nature must fall before oliver's manly appearance. whatever he thinks, there is but one thing to do: find oliver." "mrs. scoville, the police have started upon that attempt. i got the tip this morning." "we must forestall them. to satisfy the judge, oliver must come of his own accord to face these charges." "it's a brave stock. if oliver gets his father's telegram he will come." "but how are we to reach him! we are absolutely in the dark." "if i could go to detroit, i might strike some clew; but i cannot leave the judge. mr. black, he told me this morning when i carried in his breakfast that he should see no one and go nowhere till i brought him word that oliver was in the house. the hermit life has begun again. what shall we do? advise me in this emergency, for i feel as helpless as a child,--as a lost child." they were standing far apart in the little front parlour, and he gave no evidence of wishing to lessen the space between them, but he gave her a look as she said this, which, as she thought it over afterwards, held in its kindly flame something which had never shone upon her before, whether as maid, wife or widow. but, while she noticed it, she did not dwell upon it now, only upon the words which followed it. "you say you cannot go to detroit. shall i go?" "mr. black!" "court is adjourned. i know of nothing more important than judge ostrander's peace of mind--unless it is yours. i will go if you say so." "will it avail? let me think. i knew him well, and yet not well enough to know where he would be most likely to go under impulse." "there is some one who knows him better than you do." "his father?" "no." "reuther? oh, she mustn't be told--" "yes, she must. she's our one adviser. go for her--or send me." "it won't be necessary. there's her ring at the gate. but oh, mr. black, think again before you trouble this fragile child of mine with doubts and questions which make her mother tremble." "has she shown the greater weakness yet?" "no, but--" "she has sources of strength which you lack. she believes absolutely in oliver's integrity. it will carry her through." "please let her in, mr. black. i will wait here while you tell her." mr. black hurried from the room. when his form became visible on the walk without, deborah watched him from where she stood far back in the room. why? was this swelling of her impetuous heart in the midst of such suspense an instinct of thankfulness? a staff had been put in her hand, rough to the touch, but firm under pressure, and she needed such a staff. yes, it was thankfulness. but she forgot gratitude and every lesser emotion in watching reuther's expression as the two came up the path. the child was radiant, and the mother, thus prepared, was not surprised when the young girl, running into her arms, burst out with the glad cry: "oliver is no longer in detroit, but he's wanted here, and mr. black and i are going to find him. i think i know where to look. get me ready, mother dear; we are going to-night." * * * * * "you are going to-night?" this was said after the first moment of ebullition had past. "where, reuther? you have not been corresponding with oliver. how should you know where to look for him?" then reuther told her story. "mr. ostrander and i were talking very seriously one day. it was before we became definitely engaged, and he seemed to feel very dispirited and uncertain of the future. there was a treatise he wanted to write, and for this he could get no opportunity in detroit. 'i need time,' he said, 'and complete seclusion.' and then he made this remark: 'if ever life becomes too much for me, i shall go to one of two places and give myself up to this task.' 'and what are the places?' i asked. 'one is washington,' he answered, 'where i can have the run of a great library and the influence of the most inspiring surroundings in the world; the other is a little lodge in a mountain top above lake placid--tempest lodge, they call it; perhaps, in contrast to the peacefulness it dominates.' and he described this last place with so much enthusiasm and weighed so carefully the advantages of the one spot against the other for the absorbing piece of work that he contemplated, that i am sure that if we do not find him in washington, we certainly shall in the adirondacks." "let us hope that it will be in washington," replied the lawyer, with a keen remembrance of the rigours of an adirondack fall--rigours of which reuther in her enthusiasm, if not in her ignorance, appeared to take little count. "and now," he went on, "this is how i hope to proceed. we will go first to washington, and, if unsuccessful there, to tempest lodge. we will take miss weeks with us, for i am sure that i could not, without some such assistance, do justice to this young lady's comfort. if you have a picture of mr. ostrander as he looks now, i hope you will take it, miss scoville. with that and the clew to his intentions, which you have given me, i have no doubt that we shall find him within the week." "but," objected deborah, "if you know where to look for him, why take the child? why go yourself? why not telegraph to these places?" his answer was a look, quick, sharp and enigmatical enough to require explanation. he could not give it to her then, but later, when reuther had left them, he said: "men who fly their engagements and secrete themselves, with or without a pretext, are not so easily reached. we shall have to surprise oliver ostrander, in order to place his father's message in his hands." "you may be right. but reuther? can she stand the excitement--the physical strain?" "you have the harder task of the two, mrs. scoville. leave the little one to me. she shall not suffer." deborah's response was eloquent. it was only a look, but it made his harsh features glow and his hard eye soften. alanson black had waited long, but his day of romance had come--and possibly hers also. but his thoughts, if not his hopes, received a check when, with every plan made and miss weeks, as well as reuther, in trembling anticipation of the journey, he encountered the triumphant figure of flannagan coming out of police headquarters. his jaunty air, his complaisant nod, admitted of but one explanation. he had told his story to the chief authorities and been listened to. proof that he had something of actual moment to tell them; something which the district attorney's office might feel bound to take up. alanson black felt the shock of this discovery, but was glad of the warning it gave him. plans which had seemed both simple and natural before, he now saw must be altered to suit the emergency. he could no longer hope to leave town with his little party without attracting unwelcome attention. they might even be followed. for whatever flannagan may have told the police, there was one thing he had been unable to impart, and that was where to look for oliver. only reuther held that clew, and if they once suspected this fact, she would certainly become the victim of their closest surveillance. little reuther, therefore, must not accompany him on his quest, but hold herself quite apart from it; or, better still, be made to act as a diversion to draw off the scent from the chief actor, which was himself. the idea was good, and one to be immediately carried out. continuing on to his office, he called up miss weeks. "are you there?" he asked. yes, she was there. "alone?" yes, reuther was home packing. "nobody around?" nobody. "no one listening on the line?" [illustration: "tell me what this means," he said. but he did not turn his head as he made this request] she was sure not. "very well. listen closely and act quickly. you are not to go to--i will not mention the name; and you are not to wait for me. you are to start at the hour named, but you will buy tickets for atlantic city, where you must get what accommodations you can. our little friend needs to be taken out of town,--not on business you understand, but to escape the unpleasantness here and to get such change as will distract her mind. her mother cannot leave her duties, so you have undertaken to accompany the child. the rest leave to me. have you understood all this?" "yes, perfectly; but--" "not another word, miss weeks. the change will do our little friend good. trust my judgment, and ask her to do the same. above all, do not be late for the train. telephone at once for a cab, and forget everything but the pleasant trip before you.--oh, one minute! there's an article you had better send me. i hope you can guess what it is." "i think i can." "you know the city i am going to. mark the package, general delivery, and let me have it soon. that's all." he hung up the receiver. at midnight he started for washington. he gave a political reason in excuse for this trip. he did not expect to be believed; but the spy, if such had been sent, had taken the earlier train on which the two ladies had left for atlantic city. he knew every man who got on board of the same train as himself; and none of them were in league with police headquarters. xxviii the first effort leaves from alanson black's note-book, found by reuther some months later, in a very queer place, viz.: her mother's jewel-box * * * * * at the new willard. awaiting two articles--oliver's picture and a few lines in the judge's writing requesting his son's immediate return. meanwhile, i have made no secret of my reason for being here. all my inquiries at the desk have shown it to be particularly connected with a certain bill now before congress, in which shelby is vitally interested. perhaps i can further the interests of this bill in off minutes. i am willing to. the picture is here, as well as the name of the hotel where the two women are staying. i have spent five minutes studying the face i must be able to recognise at first glance in any crowd. it's not a bad face; i can see his mother's looks in him. but it is not the face i used to know. trouble develops a man. there's a fellow here who rouses my suspicions. no one knows him;--i don't myself. but he's strangely interested in me. if he's from shelby--in other words, if he's from the detective bureau there, i've led him a chase to-day which must have greatly bewildered him. i'm not slow, and i'm not above mixing things. from the cairo where our present congressman lives, i went to the treasury, then to the white house, and then to the smithsonian--with a few newspaper offices thrown in, and some hotels where i took pains that my interviews should not be too brief. when quite satisfied that by these various and somewhat confusing peregrinations i had thrown off any possible shadower, i fetched up at the library where i lunched. then, as i thought the time had come for me to enjoy myself, i took a walk about the great building, ending up with the reading-room. here i asked for a book on a certain abstruse subject. of course, it was not in my line, but i looked wise and spoke the name glibly. when i sat down to consult it, the man who brought it threw me a short glance which i chose to think peculiar. "you don't have many readers for this volume?" i ventured. he smiled and answered, "just sent it back to the shelves. it's had a steady reader for ten days. before that, nobody." "is this your steady reader?" i asked, showing him the photograph i drew from my pocket. he stared, but said nothing. he did not have to. in a state of strange satisfaction i opened the book. it was greek, if not worse, to me, but i meant to read a few paragraphs for the sake of appearances, and was turning over the pages in search of a promising chapter, when--talk of remarkable happenings!--there in the middle of the book was a card,--his card!--left as a marker, no doubt, and on this card, an address hastily scribbled in lead pencil. it only remained for me to find that the hotel designated in this address was a washington one, for me to recognise in this simple but strangely opportune occurrence, a coincidence--or, as you would say,--an act of providence as startling as those we read of in books. * * * * * the first man i accosted in regard to the location of this hotel said there was none of that name in washington. the next, that he thought there was, but that he could not tell me where to look for it. the third, that i was within ten blocks of its doors. did i walk? no, i took a taxi. i thought of your impatience and became impatient too. but when i got there, i stopped hurrying. i waited a full half-hour in the lobby to be sure that i had not been followed before i approached the desk and asked to see mr. ostrander. no such person was in the hotel or had been. then i brought out my photograph. the face was recognised, but not as that of a guest. this seemed a puzzle. but after thinking it over for awhile, i came to this conclusion: that the address i saw written on the card was not his own, but that of some friend he had casually met. this put me in a quandary. the house was full of young men; how pick out the friend? besides, this friend was undoubtedly a transient and gone long ago. my hopes seemed likely to end in smoke--my great coincidence to prove valueless. i was so convinced of this, that i started to go; then i remembered you, and remained. i even took a room, registering myself for the second time that day,--which formality over, i sat down in the office to write letters. oliver ostrander is in washington. that's something. * * * * * i cannot sleep. indeed, i may say that this is the first time in my life when i failed to lose my cares the moment my head struck the pillow. the cause i will now relate. i had finished and mailed my letter to you and was just in the act of sealing another, when i heard a loud salutation uttered behind me, and turning, was witness to the meeting of two young men who had run upon each other in the open doorway. the one going out was a stranger to me and i hardly noticed him, but the one coming in was oliver ostrander (or his photograph greatly belied him), and in my joy at an encounter so greatly desired but so entirely unhoped for, i was on the point of rising to intercept him, when some instinct of precaution led me to glance about me first for the individual who had shown such a persistent interest in me from the moment of my arrival. there he sat, not a dozen chairs away, ostensibly reading, but with a quick eye ready for me the instant i gave him the slightest chance:--a detective, as certainly as i was black, the lawyer. what was i to do? the boy was leaving town--was even then on his way to the station as his whole appearance and such words as he let fall amply denoted. if i let him go, would another such chance of delivering his father's message be given me? should i not lose him altogether; while if i approached him or betrayed in any way my interest in him, the detective would recognise his prey and, if he did not arrest him on the spot, would never allow him to return to shelby unattended. this would be to defeat the object of my journey, and recalling the judge's expression at parting, i dared not hesitate. my eyes returned with seeming unconcern to the letter i was holding and the detective's to his paper. when we both looked up again the two young men had quit the building and the business which had brought me to washington was at an end. but i am far from being discouraged. a fresh start with the prospect of reuther's companionship, inspires me with more hope for my next venture. xxix "there is but one thing to do" a night of stars, seen through swaying tree-tops whose leaves crisping to their fall, murmured gently of vanished hopes and approaching death. below, a long, low building with a lighted window here and there, surrounded by a heavy growth of trees which are but the earnest of the illimitable stretch of the adirondack woods which painted darkness on the encircling horizon. in the air, one other sound beside the restless murmur i have mentioned,--the lap, lap of the lake whose waters bathed the bank which supported this building. such the scene without. within, reuther seated in the glow of a hospitable fire of great logs, talking earnestly to mr. black. as they were placed, he could see her much better than she could see him, his back being to the blaze and she, in its direct glare. he could, therefore, study her features, without offence, and this he did, steadily and with deep interest, all the while she was talking. he was looking for signs of physical weakness or fatigue; but he found none. the pallor of her features was a natural pallor, and in their expression, new forces were becoming apparent, which give him encouragement, rather than anxiety, for the adventure whose most trying events lay still before them. crouching low on the hearth could be seen the diminutive figure of miss weeks. she had no time to waste even in a solitude as remote as this, and was crocheting busily by the firelight. her earnestness gave character to her features which sometimes lacked significance. reuther loved to glance at her from time to time, as she continued her conversation with mr. black. this is what she was saying: "i cannot point to any one man of the many who have been about us ever since we started north. but that we have been watched and our route followed, i feel quite convinced. so does miss weeks. but, as you saw, no one besides ourselves left the cars at this station, and i am beginning to hope that we shall remain unmolested till we can take the trip to tempest lodge. how far is it, mr. black?" "twenty-five miles and over a very rough mountain road. did i not confidently expect to find oliver there, i should not let you undertake this ride. but the inquiries i have just made lead me to hope for the best results. i was told that yesterday a young man bound for tempest lodge, stopped to buy a large basket of supplies at the village below us. i could not learn his name and i saw no one who could describe him; but the fact that any one not born in these parts should choose to isolate himself so late in the year as this, in a place considered inaccessible after the snow flies, has roused much comment." "that looks as if--as if--" "as if it were oliver. so it does; and if you feel that you can ride so far, i will see that horses are saddled for us at an early hour to-morrow morning." "i can ride, but will oliver be pleased to see us at tempest lodge. mr. black, i had an experience in utica which makes it very hard for me to contemplate obtruding myself upon him without some show of permission on his part. we met--that is, i saw him and he saw me; but he gave me no opportunity--that is, he did not do what he might have done, had he felt--had he thought it best to exchange a word with me." "where was this? you were not long in utica?" "only one night. but that was long enough for me to take a walk down one of the principal thoroughfares and it was during this walk i saw him. he was on the same side of the street as myself and rapidly coming my way, but on his eye meeting mine--i could not mistake that unconscious flash of recognition--he wheeled suddenly aside into a cross-street where i dared not follow him. of course, he did not know what hung on even a momentary interview. that it was not for myself i--" the firelight caught something new to shine upon--a tear on lashes which yet refused to lower themselves. mr. black fidgeted, then put out his hand and laid it softly on hers. "never mind," he grumbled; "men are--" he didn't say what; but it wasn't anything very complimentary. "you have this comfort," said he: "the man at the lodge is undoubtedly oliver. had he gone west, he wouldn't have been seen in utica three days ago." "i have never had any doubt about that. i expect to see him to-morrow, but i shall find it hard to utter my errand quick enough. there will be a minute when he may misunderstand me. i dread that minute." "perhaps, you can avoid it. perhaps after you have positively identified him i can do the rest. we will arrange it so, if we can." her eyes flashed gratitude, then took on a new expression. she had chanced to glance again at miss weeks, and miss weeks was not looking quite natural. she was still crocheting, or trying to, but her attitude was constrained and her gaze fixed; and that gaze was not on her work, but directed towards a small object at her side, which reuther recognised from its open lid to be the little lady's work-box. "something is the matter with miss weeks," she confided in a low whisper to mr. black. "don't turn; she's going to speak." but miss weeks did not speak. she just got up, and, with a careless motion, stood stretching herself for a moment, then sauntered up to the table and began showing her work to reuther. "i've made a mistake," she pettishly complained. "see if you can find out what's wrong." and, giving the work into reuther's hand, she stood watching, but with a face so pale that mr. black was not astonished when she suddenly muttered in a very low tone: "don't move or show surprise. the shade of the window is up, and somebody is looking in from outside. i saw his face reflected in the mirror of my work-box. it isn't any one i know, but he was looking very fixedly this way and may be looking yet. now i am going to snatch my work. i don't think you're helping me one bit." she suited the action to the word; shook her head at reuther and went back to her old position on the hearth. "i was afraid of it," murmured reuther. "if we take the ride to-morrow, it will not be alone. if, on the other hand, we delay our trip, we may be forestalled in the errand upon which so much depends. we are not the only ones who have heard of the strange young man at tempest lodge." the answer came with quick decision. "there is but one thing for us to do. i will tell you what it is a little later. go and sit on the hearth with miss weeks, and mind that you laugh and chat as if your minds were quite undisturbed. i am going to have a talk with our host." xxx tempest lodge "what's that?" "that's the cry of a loon." "how awful! do they often cry like that?" "not often in the nighttime." reuther shuddered. mr. black regarded her anxiously. had he done wrong to let her join him in this strange ride? "shall we go back and wait for broad daylight?" he asked. "no, no. i could not bear the suspense of wondering whether all was going well and the opportunity being given you of seeing and speaking to him. we have taken such precautions--chosen so late (or should i say so early) a start--that i'm sure we have outwitted the man who is so watchful of us. but if we go back, we cannot slip away from him again; and oliver will have to submit to an humiliation it is our duty to spare him. and the good judge, too. i don't care if the loons do cry; the night is beautiful." and it was, had their hearts been in tune to enjoy it. a gibbous moon had risen, and, inefficient as it was to light up the recesses of the forest, it illumined the tree-tops and brought out the difference between earth and sky. the road, known to the horses, if not to themselves, extended like a black ribbon under their eyes, but the patches of light which fell across it at intervals took from it the uninterrupted gloom it must have otherwise had. mr. sloan, who was at once their guide and host, promised that dawn would be upon them before they reached the huge gully which was the one dangerous feature of the road. but as yet there were no signs of dawn; and to reuther, as well as to mr. black, this ride through the heart of a wilderness in a darkness which might have been that of midnight by any other measure than that of the clock, had the effect of a dream in which one is only sufficiently in touch with past commonplaces to say, "this is a dream and not reality. i shall soon wake." a night to remember to the end of one's days; an experience which did not seem real at the time and was never looked back upon as real--and yet, one with which neither of them would have been willing to part. their guide had prophesied truly. heralded by that long cry of the loon, the dawn began to reveal itself in clearness of perspective and a certain indefinable stir in the still, shrouded spaces of the woods. details began to appear where heretofore all had been mass. pearl tints proclaimed the east, and presently these were replaced by a flush of delicate colour deepening into rose, and the every-day world of the mighty forest was upon them with its night mystery gone. but not the romance of their errand, or the anxiety which both felt as to its ultimate fulfilment. this it had been easier to face when they themselves as well as all about them, were but moving shadows in each other's eyes. full sight brought full realisation. however they might seek to cloak the fact, they could no longer disguise from themselves that the object of their journey might not be acceptable to the man in hiding at tempest lodge. reuther's faith in him was strong, but even her courage faltered as she thought of the disgrace awaiting him whatever the circumstances or however he might look upon his father's imperative command to return. but she did not draw rein, and the three continued to ride up and on. suddenly, however, one of them showed disturbance. mr. sloan was seen to turn his head sharply, and in another moment his two companions heard him say: "we are followed. ride on and leave me to take a look." instinctively they also glanced back before obeying. they were just rounding the top of an abrupt hill, and expected to have an uninterrupted view of the road behind. but the masses of foliage were as yet too thick for them to see much but the autumnal red and yellow spread out below them. "i hear them; i do not see them," remarked their guide. "two horses are approaching." "how far are we now from the lodge?" "a half-hour's ride. we are just at the opening of the gully." "you will join us soon?" "as quickly as i make out who are on the horses behind us." reuther and the lawyer rode on. her cheeks had gained a slight flush, but otherwise she looked unmoved. he was less at ease than she; for he had less to sustain him. the gully, when they came to it, proved to be a formidable one. it was not only deep but precipitous, descending with the sheerness of a wall directly down from the road into a basin of enormous size, where trees stood here and there in solitary majesty, amid an area of rock forbidding to the eye and suggestive of sudden and impassable chasms. it was like circumambulating the sinuous verge of a canyon; and for the two miles they rode along its edge they saw no let-up in the steepness on one side or of the almost equally abrupt rise of towering rock on the other. it was reuther's first experience of so precipitous a climb, and under other circumstances she might have been timid; but in her present heroic mood, it was all a part of her great adventure, and as such accepted. the lawyer eyed her with growing admiration. he had not miscalculated her pluck. as they were making a turn to gain the summit, they heard mr. sloan's voice behind them. drawing in their horses, they greeted him eagerly when he appeared. "were you right? are we followed?" "that's as may be. i didn't hear or see anything more. i waited, but nothing happened, so i came on." his words were surly and his looks sour; they, therefore, forebore to question him further, especially as their keenest interest lay ahead, rather than behind them. they were nearing tempest lodge. as it broke upon their view, perched like an eagle's eyrie on the crest of a rising peak, they drew rein, and, after a short consultation, mr. sloan wended his way up alone. he was a well-known man throughout the whole region, and would be likely to gain admittance if any one could. but all wished the hour had been less early. however, somebody was up in the picturesque place. a small trail of smoke could be seen hovering above its single chimney, and promptly upon mr. sloan's approach, a rear door swung back and an old man showed himself, but with no hospitable intent. on the contrary, he motioned the intruder back, and shouting out some very decided words, resolutely banged the door shut. mr. sloan turned slowly about. "bad luck," he commented, upon joining his companions. "that was deaf dan. he's got a warm nest here, and he's determined to keep it. 'no visitors wanted,' was what he shouted, and he didn't even hold out his hand when i offered him the letter." "give me the letter," said reuther. "he won't leave a lady standing out in the cold." mr. sloan handed over the judge's message, and helped her down, and she in turn began to approach the place. as she did so, she eyed it with the curiosity of a hungry heart. it was a compact structure of closely cemented stone, built to resist gales and harbour a would-be recluse, even in an adirondack winter. one end showed stacks of wood through its heavily glazed windows, and between the small stable and the west door there ran a covered way which insured communication, even when the snow lay high about the windows. the place had a history which she learned later. at present all her thoughts were on its possible occupant and the very serious question of whether she would or would not gain admittance to him. mr. sloan had been repulsed from the west door; she would try the east. oliver (if oliver it were) was probably asleep; but she would knock, and knock, and knock; and if deaf dan did not open, his master soon would. but when she found herself in face of this simple barrier, her emotion was so strong that she recoiled in spite of herself, and turned her face about as if to seek strength from the magnificence of the outlook. but though the scene was one of splendour inconceivable, she did not see it. her visions were all inner ones. but these were not without their strengthening power, as was soon shown. for presently she turned back and was lifting her hand to the door, when it suddenly flew open and a man appeared before her. it was oliver. oliver unkempt and with signs upon him of a night's work of study or writing; but oliver!--her lover once, but now just a stranger into whose hand she must put this letter. she tried to stammer out her errand; but the sudden pallor, the starting eyes--the whole shocked, almost terrified appearance of the man she was facing, stopped her. she forgot the surprise, the incredulity of mind with which he would naturally hail her presence at his door in a place so remote and of such inaccessibility. she only saw that his hands had gone up and out at sight of her, and to her sensitive soul, this looked like a rebuff which, while expected, choked back her words and turned her faintly flushing cheek scarlet. "it is not i," burst from her lips in incoherent disclaimer of his possible thought. "i'm just a messenger. your father--" "it is you!" quickly his hands passed across his eyes. "how--" then his glance, following hers, fell on the letter which she now remembered to hold out. "it's the copy of a telegram," she tremblingly explained, as he continued to gaze at it without reaching to take it. "you could not be found in detroit and as it was important that you should receive this word from your father, i undertook to deliver it. i remembered your fondness for this place and how you once said that this is where you would like to write your book, and so i came on a venture--but not alone--mr. black is with me and--" "mr. black! who? what?" he was still staring at his father's letter; and still had made no offer to take it. "read this first," said she. then he woke to the situation. he took the letter, and drawing her inside, shut the door while he read it. she, trembling very much, did not dare to lift her eyes to watch its effect, but she was conscious that his back and not his face was turned her way, and that the moment was the stillest one of her whole life. then there came a rattling noise as he crushed the letter in his hand. "tell me what this means," said he, but he did not turn his head as he made this request. "your father must do that," was her gentle reply. "i was only to deliver the letter. i came--we came--thus early, because we thought--we feared we should get no opportunity later to find you here alone. there seem to be people on the road--whom--whom you might feel obliged to entertain and as your father cannot wait--" he had wheeled about. his face confronted hers. it wore a look she did not understand and which made him seem a stranger to her. involuntarily she took a step back. "i must be going now," said she, and fell--her physical weakness triumphing at last over her will power. xxxi escape "oliver? where is oliver?" these were reuther's first words, as, coming to herself, she perceived mr. black bending helplessly over her. the answer was brief, almost indifferent. alanson black was cursing himself for allowing her to come to this house alone. "he was here a moment ago. when he saw you begin to give signs of life, he slid out. how do you feel, my--my dear? what will your mother say?" "but oliver?" she was on her feet now; she had been lying on some sort of couch. "he must--oh, i remember now. mr. black, we must go. i have given him his father's letter." "we are not going till you have something to eat. not a word. i'll--" why did his eye wander to the nearest window, and his words trail away into silence? reuther turned about to see. oliver was in front, conversing earnestly with mr. sloan. as they looked, he dashed back into the rear of the house, and they heard his voice rise once or twice in some ineffectual commands to his deaf servant, then there came a clatter and a rush from the direction of the stable, and they saw him flash by on a gaunt but fiery horse, and take with long bounds the road up which they had just laboured. he had stopped to equip himself in some measure for this ride, but not the horse, which was without saddle or any sort of bridle but a halter strung about his neck. this was flight; or so it appeared to mr. sloan, as he watched the young man disappear over the brow of the hill. what mr. black thought was not so apparent. he had no wish to discourage reuther whose feeling was one of relief as her first word showed. "oliver is gone. we shall not have to hurry now and perhaps if i had a few minutes in which to rest---" she was on the verge of fainting again. and then alanson black showed of what stuff he was made. in ten minutes he had bustled about the half-deserted building, and with the aid of the dazed and uncomprehending deaf-mute, managed to prepare a cup of hot tea and a plate of steaming eggs for the weary girl. after such an effort, reuther felt obliged to eat, and she did; seeing which, the lawyer left her for a moment and went out to interview their guide. "where's the young lady?" this from mr. sloan. "eating something. come in and have a bite; and let the horses eat, too. she must have a rest. the young fellow went off pretty quick, eh?" "ya-as." the drawl was one of doubt. "but quickness don't count. fast or slow, he's on his way to capture--if that's what you want to know." "what? we are followed then?" "there are men on the road; two, as i told you before. he can't get by them--if that's what he wants to do." "but i thought they fell back. we didn't hear them after you joined us." "no; they didn't come on. they didn't have to. this is the only road down the mountain, and it's one you've got to follow or go tumbling over the precipice. all they've got to do is to wait for him; and that's what i tried to tell him, but he just shook his arm at me and rode on. he might better have waited--for company." mr. black cast a glance behind him, saw that the door of the house was almost closed and ventured to put another question. "what did he ask you when he came out here?" "why we had chosen such an early hour to bring him his father's message." "and what did you say?" "wa'al, i said that there was another fellow down my way awful eager to see him, too; and that you were mortal anxious to get to him first. that was about it, wasn't it, sir?" "yes. and how did he take that?" "he turned white, and asked me just what i meant. then i said that some one wanted him pretty bad, for, early as it was, this stranger was up as soon as you, and had followed us into the mountains and might show up any time on the road. at which he gave me a stare, then plunged back into the house to get his hat and trot out his horse. i never saw quicker work. but it's no use; he can't escape those men. they know it, or they wouldn't have stopped where they did, waiting for him." mr. black recalled the aspect of the gully, and decided that mr. sloan was right. there could be but one end to this adventure. oliver would be caught in a manifest effort to escape, and the judge's cup of sorrow and humiliation would be full. he felt the shame of it himself; also the folly of his own methods and of the part he had allowed reuther to play. beckoning to his host to follow him, he turned towards the house. "don't mention your fears to the young lady," said he. "at least, not till we are well past the gully." "i shan't mention anything. don't you be afeared of that." and with a simultaneous effort difficult for both, they assumed a more cheerful air, and briskly entered the house. it was not until they were well upon the road back that reuther ventured to speak of oliver. she was riding as far from the edge of the precipice as possible. in descent it looked very formidable to her unaccustomed eye. "this is a dangerous road for a man to ride bareback," she remarked. "i'm terrified when i think of it, mr. black. why did he go off quite so suddenly? is there a train he is anxious to reach? mr. sloan, is there a train?" "yes, miss, there is a train." "which he can get by riding fast?" "i've known it done!" "then he is excusable." yet her anxious glance stole ever and again to the dizzy verge towards which she now unconsciously urged her own horse till mr. black drew her aside. "there is nothing to fear in that direction," said he. "oliver's horse is to be trusted, if not himself. cheer up, little one, we'll soon be on more level ground and then for a quick ride and a speedy end to this suspense." he was rewarded by a confiding look, after which they all fell silent. a half-hour's further descent, then a quick turn and mr. sloan, who had ridden on before them, came galloping hastily back. "wait a minute," he admonished them, putting up his hand to emphasise the appeal. "oh, what now?" cried reuther, but with a rising head instead of a sinking one. "we will see," said mr. black, hastening to meet their guide. "what now?" he asked. "have they come together? have the detectives got him?" "no, not him; only his horse. the animal has just trotted up--riderless." "good god! the child's instinct was true. he has been thrown--" "no." mr. sloan's mouth was close to the lawyer's ear. "there is another explanation. if the fellow is game, and anxious enough to reach the train to risk his neck for it, there's a path he could have taken which would get him there without his coming round this turn. i never thought it a possible thing till i saw his horse trotting on ahead of us without a rider." then as reuther came ambling up, "young lady, don't let me scare you, but it looks now as if the young man had taken a short cut to the station, which, so far as i know, has never been taken but by one man before. if you will draw up closer--here! give me hold of your bridle. now look back along the edge of the precipice for about half a mile, and you will see shooting up from the gully a solitary tree whose topmost branch reaches within a few feet of the road above." she looked. they were at the lower end of the gully which curved up and away from this point like an enormous horseshoe. they could see the face of the precipice for miles. "yes," she suddenly replied, as her glance fell on the one red splash showing against the dull grey of the cliff. "a leap from the road, if well-timed, would land a man among some very stalwart branches. it's a risk and it takes nerve; but it succeeded once, and i dare say has succeeded again." "but--but--if he didn't reach--didn't catch--" "young lady, he's a man in a thousand. if you want the proof, look over there." he was pointing again, but in a very different direction now. as her anxious eye sought the place he indicated, her face flushed crimson with evanescent joy. just where the open ground of the gully melted again into the forest, the figure of a man could be seen moving very quickly. in another moment it had disappeared amid the foliage. "straight for the station," announced mr. sloan; and, taking out his watch, added quickly; "the train is not due for fifteen minutes. he'll catch it." "the train south?" "yes, and the train north. they pass here." mr. black turned a startled eye upon the guide. but reuther's face was still alight. she felt very happy. their journey had not been for naught. he would have six hours' start of his pursuers; he would be that much sooner in shelby; he would hear the accusation against him and refute it before she saw him again. but mr. black's thoughts were less pleasing than hers. he had never had more than a passing hope of oliver's innocence, and now he had none at all. the young man had fled, not in response to his father's telegram, but under the impulse of his own fears. they would not find him in shelby when they returned. they might never find him anywhere again. a pretty story to carry back to the judge. as he dwelt upon this thought, his reflections grew more and more gloomy, and he had little to say till he reached the turn where the two men still awaited them. in the encounter which followed no attempt was made by either party to disguise the nature of the business which had brought them thus together. the man whom mr. black took to be a shelby detective nodded as they met and remarked, with a quick glance at reuther: "so you've come without him! i'm sorry for that. i was in hopes that i might be spared the long ride up the mountain." mr. black limited his answer to one of his sour smiles. "whose horse is this?" came in peremptory demand from the other man, with a nod towards the animal which could now be seen idly grazing by the wayside. "and how came it on the road alone?" "we can only give you these facts," rejoined the lawyer. "it came from tempest lodge. it started out ahead of us with the gentleman we had gone to visit on its back. we did not pass the gentleman on the road, and if he has not passed you, he must have left the road somewhere on foot. he did not go back to the lodge." "mr. black--" "i am telling you the absolute truth. make what you will of it. his father desires him home; and sent a message. this message this young lady undertook to deliver, and she did deliver it, with the consequences i have mentioned. if you doubt me, take your ride. it is not an easy one, and the only man remaining at the lodge is deaf as a post." "mr. black has told the whole story," averred the guide. they looked at reuther. "i have nothing to add," said she. "i have been terrified lest the gentleman you wish to see was thrown from the horse's back over the precipice. but perhaps he found some way of getting down on foot. he is a very strong and daring man." "the tree!" ejaculated the detective's companion. he was from a neighbouring locality and remembered this one natural ladder up the side of the gully. "yes, the tree," acknowledged mr. sloan. "that, or a fall. let us hope it was not a fall." as he ceased, a long screech from an approaching locomotive woke up the echoes of the forest. it was answered by another from the opposite direction. both trains were on time. the relief felt by reuther could not be concealed. the detective noticed it. "i'm wasting time here," said he. "excuse me, mr. black, if i push on ahead of you. if we don't meet at the station, we shall meet in shelby." mr. black's mouth twisted grimly. he had no doubt of the latter fact. next minute, they were all cantering in the one direction; the detective very much in the advance. * * * * * "let me go with you to the station," entreated reuther, as mr. black held up his arms to lift her from her horse at the door of the hotel. but his refusal was peremptory. "you need miss weeks, and miss weeks needs you," said he. "i'll be back in just five minutes." and without waiting for a second pleading look, he lifted her gently off and carried her in. when he returned, as he did in the time specified, he had but one word for her. "gone," said he. "thank god!" she murmured and turned to miss weeks with a smile. not having a smile to add to hers, the lawyer withdrew. oliver was gone--but gone north. xxxii the vigil when mr. black came into shelby, he came alone. he was anxious to get back; anxious to face his enemies if he had any; anxious to see deborah and explain. miss weeks and reuther followed on more slowly; this was better for them and better for him, and better, too, for deborah, who must hear his story without the distraction of her daughter's presence. it was dark when he stepped on to the platform, and darker still when he rang the bell of judge ostrander's house. but it was not late, and his agitation had but few minutes in which to grow, before the gate swung wide and he felt her hand in his. she was expecting him. he had telegraphed the hour at which he should arrive, and also when to look for reuther. consequently there was no necessity for preliminaries, and he could ask at once for the judge and whether he was strong enough to bear disappointment. deborah's answer was certainly disconcerting. "i've not seen him. he admits nobody. when i enter the library, he retreats to his bedroom. i have not even been allowed to hand him his letters. i put them on his tray when i carry in his meals." "he has received letters then?" "unimportant ones, yes." "none from oliver?" "oh, no." a pause. "deborah?" another pause. the echo of that name so uttered was too sweet in her ear for her to cut it short by too hasty a reply. when she did speak, it was humbly, or should i say, wistfully. "yes, mr. black." "i am afraid he never will hear from oliver. the boy gave us the slip in the most remarkable manner. i will tell you when we get inside." she led him up the walk. she moved slowly, and he felt the influence of her discouragement. but once in the lighted parlour, she turned upon him the face he knew best--the mother face. "did reuther see him?" she asked. then he told her the whole story. when she had heard him through, she looked about the room they were in, with a lingering, abstracted gaze he hardly understood till he saw it fall with an indescribable aspect of sorrow upon a picture which had lately been found and rehung upon the wall. it was a portrait of oliver's mother. "i am disappointed," she murmured in bitter reflection to herself. "i did not expect oliver to clear himself, but i did expect him to face his accusers if only for his father's sake. what am i to say now to the judge?" "nothing to-night. in the morning we will talk the whole subject over. i must first explain myself to andrews, and, if possible, learn his intentions; then i shall know better what to advise." "did the officer you met on your return from tempest lodge follow you to shelby?" "i have not seen him." "that is bad. he followed oliver." "it was to be expected." "oliver is in canada?" "undoubtedly." "which means--" "delay, then extradition. it's that fellow flannagan who has brought this upon us. the wretch knows something which forbids us to hope." "alas, yes." and a silence followed, during which such entire stillness rested upon the house that a similar thought rose in both minds. could it be that under this same roof, and only separated from them by a partition, there brooded another human being helplessly awaiting a message which would never come, and listening, but how vainly, for the step and voice for which he hungered, though they were the prelude to further shame and the signal for coming punishment. so strong was this thought in both their minds, that the shadow deepened upon both faces, as though a presence had passed between them; and when mr. black rose, as he very soon did, it was with an evident dread of leaving her alone with this thought. they were lingering yet in the hall, the goodnight faltering on their lips, when suddenly their eyes flashed together in mutual question, and deborah bent her ear towards the street. an automobile was slowing up--stopping--stopping before the gates! deborah turned and looked at mr. black. was it the police? no, for the automobile was starting up again--it was going. whoever had come had come to stay. with eyes still on those of mr. black, whose face showed a sudden change, she threw her hand behind her and felt wildly about for the door-knob. she had just grasped it--when the bell rang. never had it sounded so shrill and penetrating. never had it rung quite such a summons through this desolate house. recoiling, she made a motion of entreaty. "go," she whispered. "open! i cannot." quickly he obeyed. she heard him pass out and down the walk, and through the first gate. then there came a silence, followed by the opening of the second gate. then, a sound like smothered greetings, followed by quickly advancing steps and a voice she knew: "how is my father? is he well? i cannot enter till i know." it was oliver!--come from some distant station, or from some other line which he had believed unwatched. tumultuous as her thoughts were, she dared not indulge in them for a moment, or give way to gratitude or any other emotion. there were words to be said--words which must be uttered on the instant and with as much imperiousness as his own. throwing the door wide, she called down the steps: "yes, he is well. come in, mr. ostrander, and you, too, mr. black. instructions have been given me by the judge, which i must deliver at once. he expects you, oliver," she went on, as the two men stepped in. "but not knowing when, he bade me say to you immediately upon your entrance (and i am happy to be able to do this in mr. black's presence), that much as he would like to be on hand to greet you, he cannot see you to-night. you may wish to go to him--but you must restrain this wish. nor are you to talk, though he does not forbid you to listen. if you do not know what has happened here, mr. black will tell you, but for to-night at least, and up to a certain hour to-morrow, you are to keep your own counsel. when certain persons whose names he has given me can be gotten together in this house, he will join you, giving you your first meeting in the presence of others. afterwards he will see you alone. if these plans distress you,--if you find the delay hard, i am to say that it is even harder for him than it can be for you. but circumstances compel him to act thus, and he expects you to understand and be patient. mr. black, assure mr. ostrander that i am not likely to overstate the judge's commands, or to add to or detract from them in the least particular--that i am simply the judge's mouthpiece." "you may believe that, mr. ostrander." young ostrander bowed. "i have no doubt of the fact," he assured her, with an unsuccessful effort to keep his trouble out of his voice. "but as my father allows me some explanation, i shall be very glad to hear what has happened here to occasion my imperative recall." "do you not read the papers, mr. ostrander?" "i have not looked at one since i started upon my return." mr. black glanced at deborah, who was slipping away. then he made a move towards the parlour. "if you will come in and sit down, mr. ostrander, i'll tell you what you have every right to know." but when they found themselves alone together, oliver's manner altered. "one moment," said he, before mr. black could speak. "i should like to ask you first of all, if miss scoville is better. when i left you both so suddenly at tempest lodge, she was not well. i--" "she is quite recovered, mr. ostrander." "and is here?" "not yet. i came back quickly--like yourself." involuntarily their glances met in a question which perhaps neither desired to have answered. then oliver remarked quite simply: "my haste seemed warranted by my father's message. five minutes,--one minute even is of great importance when you have but fifteen in which to catch a train." "and by such a route!" "you know my route." a short laugh escaped him. "i feared the delay--possibly the interference--but why discuss these unimportant matters! i succeeded in my efforts. i am here, at my father's command, unattended and, as i believe, without the knowledge of any one but yourself and mrs. scoville. but your reason for these hasty summons--that is what i am ready now to hear." and he sat down, but in such a way as to throw his face very much into the shadow. this was a welcome circumstance to the lawyer. his task promised to be hard enough at the best. black night had not offered too dark a screen between him and the man thus suddenly called upon to face suspicions the very shadow of which is enough to destroy a life. the hardy lawyer shrunk from uttering the words which would make the gulf imaginatively opening between them a real, if not impassable, one. something about the young man appealed to him--something apart from his relationship to the judge--something inherent in himself. perhaps it was the misery he betrayed. perhaps it was the memory of reuther's faith in him and how that faith must suffer when she saw him next. instantaneous reflections; but epoch-making in a mind like his. alanson black had never hesitated before in the face of any duty, and it robbed him of confidence. but he gave no proof of this in voice or manner, as pacing the floor in alternate approach and retreat, he finally addressed the motionless figure he could no longer ignore. "you want to know what has happened here? if you mean lately, i shall have to explain that anything which has lately occurred to distress your father or make your presence here desirable, has its birth in events which date back to days when this was your home and the bond between yourself and father the usual and natural one." silence in that shadowy corner! but this the speaker had expected, and must have exacted even if oliver had shown the least intention of speaking. "a man was killed here in those old days--pardon me if i am too abrupt--and another man was executed for this crime. you were a boy--but you must remember." again he paused; but no more in expectation of or desire for an answer than before. one must breathe between the blows he inflicts, even if one is a lawyer. "that was twelve years ago. not so long a time as has elapsed since you met a waif of the streets and chastised him for some petty annoyance. but both events, the great and the little, have been well remembered here in shelby; and when mrs. scoville came amongst us a month or so ago, with her late but substantial proofs of her husband's innocence in the matter of etheridge's death, there came to her aid a man, who not only remembered the beating he had received as a child, but certain facts which led him to denounce by name, the party destined to bear at this late day the onus of the crime heretofore ascribed to scoville. that name he wrote on bridges and walls; and one day, when your father left the courthouse, a mob followed him, shouting loud words which i will not repeat, but which you must understand were such as must be met and answered when the man so assailed is judge ostrander. have i said enough? if so, raise your hand and i will desist for to-night." but no movement took place in the shadow cast by oliver's figure on the wall before which mr. black had paused, and presently, a voice was heard from where he sat, saying: "you are too merciful. i do not want generalities but the naked truth. what did the men shout?" "you have asked for a fact, and that i feel free to give you. they shouted, 'where is oliver, your guilty son, oliver? you saved him at a poor man's expense, but we'll have him yet.' you asked me for the words, mr. ostrander." "yes." the pause was long, but the "yes" came at last. then another silence, and then this peremptory demand: "but we cannot stop here, mr. black. if i am to meet my father's wishes to-morrow, i must know the ground upon which i stand. what evidence lies back of these shouts? if you are my friend,--and you have shown yourself to be such,--you will tell me the whole story. i shall say nothing more." mr. black was not walking now; he was standing stock-still and in the shadow also. and with this space and the double shadow between them, alanson black told oliver ostrander why the people had shouted: "we will have him yet." when he had quite finished, he came into the light. he did not look in the direction he had avoided from the first, but his voice had a different note as he remarked: "i am your father's friend, and i have promised to be yours. you may expect me here in the morning, as i am one of the few persons your father has asked to be present at your first interview. if after this interview you wish anything more from me, you have only to signify it. i am blunt, but not unfeeling, mr. ostrander." a slight lift of the hand, visible now in the shadow, answered him; and with a silent bow he left the room. in the passageway he met deborah. "leave him to himself," said he. "later, perhaps, you can do something for him." but she found this quite impossible. oliver would neither eat nor sleep. when the early morning light came, he was sitting there still. was his father keeping vigil also? we shall never know. xxxiii the curtain lifted ten o'clock! and one of the five listed to be present had arrived--the rector of the church which the ostranders had formerly attended. he was ushered into the parlour by deborah, where he found himself received not by the judge in whose name he had been invited, but by mr. black, the lawyer, who tendered him a simple good morning and pointed out a chair. there was another person in the room,--a young man who stood in one of the windows, gazing abstractedly out at the line of gloomy fence rising between him and the street. he had not turned at the rector's approach, and the latter had failed to recognise him. and so with each new arrival. he neither turned nor moved at any one's entrance, but left it to mr. black to do the honours and make the best of a situation, difficult, if not inexplicable to all of them. nor could it be seen that any of these men--city officials, prominent citizens and old friends, recognised his figure or suspected his identity. beyond a passing glance his way, they betrayed neither curiosity nor interest, being probably sufficiently occupied in accounting for their own presence in the home of their once revered and now greatly maligned compeer. judge ostrander, attacked through his son, was about to say or do something which each and every one of them secretly thought had better be left unsaid or undone. yet none showed any disposition to leave the place; and when, after a short, uneasy pause during which all attempts at conversation failed, they heard a slow and weighty step approaching through the hall, the suspense was such that no one but mr. black noticed the quick whirl with which oliver turned himself about, nor the look of mortal anguish with which he awaited the opening of the door and his father's entrance among them. no one noticed, i say, until, simultaneously with the appearance of judge ostrander on the threshold, a loud cry swept through the room of "don't! don't!" and the man they had barely noticed, flashed by them all, and fell at the judge's feet with a smothered repetition of his appeal: "don't, father, don't!" then, each man knew why he had been summoned there, and knowing, gazed earnestly at these two faces. twelve years of unappeased longing, of smothered love, rising above doubts, persisting in spite of doubts, were concentrated into that one instant of mutual recognition. the eye of the father was upon that of the son and that of the son upon that of the father and for them, at least in this first instant of reunion, the years were forgotten and sin, sorrow and on-coming doom effaced from their mutual consciousness. then the tide of life flowed back into the present, and the judge, motioning to his son to rise, observed very distinctly: "don't is an ambiguous word, my son, and on your lips, at this juncture, may mislead those whom i have called here to hear the truth from us and the truth only. you have heard what happened here a few days ago. how a long-guarded, long-suppressed suspicion--so guarded and so suppressed that i had no intimation of its existence even, found vent at a moment of public indignation, and i heard you, you, oliver ostrander, accused to my face of having in some boyish fit of rage struck down the man for whose death another has long since paid the penalty. this you have already been told." "yes." the word cut sharply through the silence; but the fire with which the young man rose and faced them all showed him at his best. "but surely, no person present believes it. no one can who knows you and the principles in which i have been raised. this fellow whom i beat as a boy has waited long to start this damnable report. surely he will get no hearing from unprejudiced and intelligent men." "the police have listened to him. mr. andrews, who is one of the gentlemen present, has heard his story and you see that he stands here silent, my son. and that is not all. mrs. scoville, who has loved you like a mother, longs to believe in your innocence, and cannot." a low cry from the hall. it died away unheeded. "and mr. black, her husband's counsel," continued the father, in the firm, low tones of one who for many long days and nights had schooled himself for the duty of this hour, "shares her feeling. he has tried not to; but he does. they have found evidences--you know them; proofs which might not have amounted to much had it not been for the one mischievous fact which has undermined public confidence and given point to these attacks. i refer to the life we have led and the barriers we have ourselves raised against our mutual intercourse. these have undone us. to the question, 'why these barriers?' i can find no answer but the one which ends this struggle. succumbing myself, i ask you to do so also. out of the past comes a voice--the voice of algernon etheridge, demanding vengeance for his untimely end. it will not be gainsaid. not satisfied with the toll we have both paid in these years of suffering and repression,--unmindful of the hermit's life i have led and of the heart disappointments you have borne, its cry for punishment remains insistent. gentlemen--hush! oliver, it is for me to cry don't now--john scoville was a guilty man--a murderer and a thief--but he did not wield the stick which killed algernon etheridge. another hand raised that. no, do not look at the boy. he is innocent! look here! look here!'" and with one awful gesture, he stood still,--while horror rose like a wave and engulfed the room--choking back breath and speech from every living soul there, and making a silence more awful than any sound--or so they all felt, till his voice rose again and they heard--"you have trusted to appearances; you must trust now to my word. i am the guilty man, not scoville, and not oliver, though oliver may have been in the ravine that night and even handled the bludgeon i found at my feet in the recesses of dark hollow." then consternation spoke, and muttered cries were heard of "madness! it is not we who are needed here but a physician!" and dominating all, the ringing shout: "you cannot save me so, father. i hated etheridge and i slew him. gentlemen," he prayed in his agony, coming close into their midst, "do not be misled for a moment by a father's devotion." his lifted head, his flashing eye, drew every look. honour confronted them in a countenance from which all reserve had melted away. no guilt showed there; he stood among them, a heroic figure. slowly, and with a dread which no man might measure, the glances which had just devoured his young but virile countenance passed to that of the father. they did not leave it again. "son?" with what tenderness he spoke, but with what a ring of desolation. "i understand your effort and appreciate it; but it is a useless one. you cannot deceive these friends of ours--men who have known my life. if you were in the ravine that night, so was i. if you handled john scoville's stick, so did i, and after you! let us not struggle for the execration of mankind; let it fall where it rightfully belongs. it can bring no sting keener than that to which my breast has long been subject. or--" and here his tones sank, in a last recognition of all he was losing forever, "if there is suffering in a once proud man flinging from him the last rag of respect with which he sought to cover the hideous nakedness of an unsuspected crime, it is lost in the joy of doing justice to the son who would take advantage of circumstances to assume his father's guilt." but oliver, with a fire which nothing could damp, spoke up again: "gentlemen, will you see my father so degrade himself? he has dwelt so continually upon the knowledge which separated us a dozen years ago that he no longer can discriminate between the guilty and the innocent. would he have sat in court; would he have uttered sentences; would he have kept his seat upon the bench for all these years, if he had borne within his breast this secret of personal guilt? no. it is not in human nature to play such a part. i was guilty--and i fled. let the act speak for itself. the respect due my father must not be taken from him." confession and counter-confession! what were they to think! alanson black, aghast at this dread dilemma, ran over in his mind all that had led him to accept oliver's guilt as proven, and then, in immediate opposition to it, the details of that old trial and the judge's consequent life; and, voicing the helpless confusion of the others, observed with forced firmness: "we have heard much of oliver's wanderings in the ravine on that fatal night, but nothing of yours, judge ostrander. it is not enough for you to say that you were there; you must prove it." "the proof is in my succumbing to the shock of hearing oliver's name associated with this crime. had he been guilty--had our separation come through his crime and not through my own, i should have been prepared for such a contingency, and not overwhelmed by it." "and were you not prepared?" "no, before god!" the gesture accompanying this oath was a grand one, convincing in its fervour, its majesty and power. but facts are stubborn things, and while most of those present were still thrilling under the effect of this oath, the dry voice of district attorney andrews was heard for the first time, in these words: "why, then, did you, on the night of bela's death, stop on your way across the bridge to look back upon dark hollow and cry in the bitterest tones which escape human lips, 'oliver! oliver! oliver!' you were heard to speak this name, judge ostrander," he hastily put in, as the miserable father raised his hand in ineffectual protest. "a man was lurking in the darkness behind you, who both saw and heard you. he may not be the most prepossessing of witnesses, but we cannot discredit his story." "mr. andrews, you have no children. to the man who has, i make my last appeal. mr. renfrew, you know the human heart both as a father and a pastor. do you find anything unnatural in a guilty soul bemoaning its loss rather than its sin, in the spot which recalled both to his overburdened spirit?" "no." the word came sharply, and it sounded decisive; but the ones which followed from mr. andrews were no less so. "that is not enough. we want evidence, actual evidence that you are not playing the part your son ascribes to you." the judge's eyes glared, then suddenly and incomprehensively softened till the quick fear that his mind as well as his memory had gone astray, vanished in a feeling none of them could have characterised, but which gave to them all an expression of awe. "i have such evidence," announced the judge. "come." turning, he stepped into the hall. oliver, with bended head and a discouraged mien, quickly followed. alanson black and the others, casting startled and inquiring looks at each other, brought up the rear. deborah scoville was nowhere to be seen. at the door of his own room, the judge paused, and with his hand on the curtain, remarked with unexpected composure: "you have all wondered, and others with you why for the last ten years i have kept the gates of my house shut against every comer. i am going to show you." and with no further word or look, scarcely even giving attention to oliver's anguished presence, he led them into the study and from there on to that inner door known and talked of through the town as the door of mystery. this he slowly opened with the key he took from his pocket; then, pausing with the knob in his hand, he said: "in the years which are past, but two persons beside myself have crossed this threshold, and these only under my eye. its secret was for my own breast. judge what my remorse has been; judge the power of my own secret self-condemnation, by what you see here." and, entering, he reached up, and pulled aside the carpet he had strung up over one end of the room, disclosing amid a number of loosened boards, the barred cell of a condemned convict. * * * * * "this was my bed, gentlemen, till a stranger coming into my home, made such an acknowledgment of my sin impossible!" xxxiv dark hollow later, when the boards he had loosened in anticipation of this hour were all removed, they came upon a packet of closely written words hidden in the framework of the bed. it read as follows: * * * * * whosoever lays hands on this ms. will already be acquainted with my crime. if he would also know its cause and the full story of my hypocrisy, let him read these lines written, as it were, with my heart's blood. i loved algernon etheridge; i shall never have a dearer friend. his odd ways, his lank, possibly ungainly figure crowned by a head of scholarly refinement, his amiability when pleased, his irascibility when crossed, formed a character attractive to me from its very contradictions; and after my wife's death and before my son oliver reached a companionable age, it was in my intercourse with this man i found my most solid satisfaction. yet we often quarrelled. his dogmatism frequently ran counter to my views, and, being myself a man of quick and violent temper, hard words sometimes passed between us, to be forgotten the next minute in a hand-shake, or some other token of mutual esteem. these dissensions--if such they could be called--never took place except in the privacy of his study or mine. we thought too much of each other to display our differences of opinion abroad or even in the presence of oliver; and however heated our arguments or whatever our topic we invariably parted friends, till one fateful night. o god! that years of repentance, self-hatred and secret immolation can never undo the deed of an infuriated moment. eternity may console, but it can never make me innocent of the blood of my heart's brother. we had had our usual wordy disagreement over some petty subject in which he was no nearer wrong nor i any nearer right than we had been many times before; but for some reason i found it harder to pardon him. perhaps some purely physical cause lay back of this; perhaps the nervous irritation incident upon a decision then pending in regard to oliver's future, heightened my feelings and made me less reasonable than usual. the cause does not matter, the result does. for the first time in our long acquaintance, i let algernon etheridge leave me, without any attempt at conciliation. if only i had halted there! if, at sight of my empty study, i had not conceived the mad notion of waylaying him at the bridge for the hand-shake i missed, i might have been a happy man now, and oliver--but why dwell upon these might-have-beens! what happened was this: disturbed in mind, and finding myself alone in the house, oliver having evidently gone out while we two were disputing, i decided to follow out the impulse i have mentioned. leaving by the rear, i went down the lane to the path which serves as a short cut to the bridge. that i did this unseen by anybody is not so strange when you consider the hour, and how the only person then living in the lane was, in all probability, in her kitchen. it would have been better for me, little as i might have recognised it at the time, had she been where she could have witnessed both my going and coming and faced me with the fact. john scoville, in his statement, says that after giving up his search for his little girl, he wandered up the ravine before taking the path back which led him through dark hollow. this was false, as well as the story he told of leaving his stick by the chestnut tree in the gully at foot of ostrander lane. for i was on the spot, and i know the route by which he reached dark hollow and also through whose agency the stick came to be there. read, and learn with what tricks the devil beguiles us men. i was descending this path, heavily shadowed, as you know, by a skirting of closely growing trees and bushes, when just where it dips into the hollow, i heard the sound of a hasty foot come crashing up through the underbrush from the ravine and cross the path ahead of me. a turn in the path prevented me from seeing the man himself, but as you will perceive and as i perceived later when circumstances recalled it to my mind, i had no need to see him to know who it was or with what intent he took this method of escape from the ravine into the fields leading to the highway. scoville's stick spoke for him, the stick which i presently tripped over and mechanically picked up, without a thought of the desperate use to which i was destined to put it. etheridge was coming. i could hear his whistle on factory road. there was no mistaking it. it was an unusually shrill one and had always been a cause of irritation to me, but at this moment it was more; it roused every antagonistic impulse within me. he whistling like a galliard, after a parting which had dissatisfied me to such an extent that i had come all this distance to ask his pardon and see his old smile again! afterwards, long afterwards, i was able to give another interpretation to his show of apparent self-satisfaction, but then i saw nothing but the contrast it offered to my own tender regrets, and my blood began to boil and my temper rise to such a point that recrimination took the place of apology when in another moment we came together in the open space between the end of the bridge and dark hollow. he was in no better mood than myself to encounter insult, and what had been a simple difference between us flamed into a quarrel which reached its culmination when he mentioned oliver's name with a taunt, which the boy, for all his obstinate clinging to his journalistic idea, did not deserve. knowing my own temper, i drew back into the hollow. he followed me. i tried to speak. he took the word out of my mouth. this may have been with the intent of quelling my anger, but the tone was rasping, and noting this and not his words, my hand tightened insensibly about the stick which the devil (or john scoville) had put in my hand. did he see this, or was he prompted by some old memory of boyish quarrels that he should give utterance to that quick, sharp laugh of scorn! i shall never know, but ere the sound had ceased, the stick was whirling over my head--there came a crash and he fell. my friend! my friend! next moment the earth seemed too narrow, the heavens too contracted for my misery. that he was dead--that my blow had killed him, i never doubted for an instant. i knew it, as we know the face of doom when once it has risen upon us. never, never again would this lump of clay, which a few minutes before had filled the hollow with shrillest whistling, breathe or think or speak. he was dead, dead, dead!--and i? what was i? the name which no man hears unmoved, no amount of repetition makes easy to the tongue or welcome to the ear!... the name which i had heard launched in full forensic eloquence so many times in accusation against the wretches i had hardly regarded as being in the same human class as myself, rang in my ear as though intoned from the very mouth of hell. i could not escape it. i should never be able to escape it again. though i was standing in a familiar scene--a scene i had known and frequented from childhood, i felt myself as isolated from my past and as completely set apart from my fellows as the shipwrecked mariner tossed to precarious foot-hold on his wave-dashed rock. i forgot that other criminals existed. in that one awful moment i was in my own eyes the only blot upon the universe--the sole inhabitant of the new world into which i had plunged--the world of crime--the world upon which i had sat in judgment before i knew-what broke the spell? a noise? no, i heard no noise. the sense of some presence near, if not intrusive? god knows; all i can say is that, drawn, by some other will than my own, i found my glance travelling up the opposing bluff till at its top, framed between the ragged wall and towering chimney of spencer's folly, i saw the presence i had dreaded, the witness who was to undo me. it was a woman--a woman with a little child in hand. i did not see her face, for she was just on the point of turning away from the dizzy verge, but nothing could have been plainer than the silhouette which these two made against the flush of that early evening sky. i see it yet in troubled dreams and desperate musings. i shall see it always; for hard upon its view, fear entered my soul, horrible, belittling fear, torturing me not with a sense of guilt but of its consequences. i had slain a man to my hurt, i a judge, just off the bench; and soon ... possibly before i should see oliver again ... i should be branded from end to end of the town with that name which had made such havoc in my mind when i first saw algernon etheridge lying stark before me. i longed to cry out--to voice my despair in the spot where my sin had found me out; but my throat had closed, and the blood in my veins ceased flowing. as long as i could catch a glimpse of this woman's fluttering skirt as she retreated through the ruins, i stood there, self-convicted, above the man i had slain, staring up at that blotch of shining sky which was as the gate of hell to me. not till their two figures had disappeared and it was quite clear again did the instinct of self-preservation return, and with it the thought of flight. but where could i fly? no spot in the wide world was secret enough to conceal me now. i was a marked man. better to stand my ground, and take the consequences, than to act the coward's part and slink away like those other men of blood i had so often sat in judgment upon. had i but followed this impulse! had i but gone among my fellows, shown them the mark of cain upon my forehead, and prayed, not for indulgence, but punishment, what days of gnawing misery i should have been spared! but the horror of what lay at my feet drove me from the hollow and drove me the wrong way. as my steps fell mechanically into the trail down which i had come in innocence and kindly purpose only a few minutes before, a startling thought shot through my benumbed mind. the woman had shown no haste in her turning! there had been a naturalness in her movement, a dignity and a grace which spoke of ease, not shock. what if she had not seen! what if my deed was as yet unknown! might i not have time for--for what? i did not stop to think; i just pressed on, saying to myself, "let providence decide. if i meet any one before i reach my own door, my doom is settled. if i do not--" and i did not. as i turned into the lane from the ravine i heard a sound far down the slope, but it was too distant to create apprehension, and i went calmly on, forcing myself into my usual leisurely gait, if only to gain some control over my own emotions before coming under oliver's eye. that sound i have never understood. it could not have been scoville since in the short time which had passed, he could not have fled from the point where i heard him last into the ravine below ostrander lane. but if not he, who was it? or if it was he, and some other hand threw his stick across my path, whose was this hand and why have we never heard anything about it? it is a question which sometimes floats through my mind, but i did not give it a thought then. i was within sight of home and oliver's possible presence; and all other dread was as nothing in comparison to what i felt at the prospect of meeting my boy's eye. my boy's eye! my greatest dread then, and my greatest dread still! in my terror of it i walked as to my doom. the house which i had left empty, i found empty; oliver had not yet returned. the absolute stillness of the rooms seemed appalling. instinctively, i looked up at the clock. it had stopped. not at the minute--i do not say it was at the minute--but near, very near the time when from an innocent man i became a guilty one. appalled at the discovery, i fled to the front. opening the door, i looked out. not a creature in sight, and not a sound to be heard. the road was as lonely and seemingly as forsaken as the house. had time stopped here too? were the world and its interests at a pause in horror of my deed? for a moment i believed it; then more natural sensations intervened and, rejoicing at this lack of disturbance where disturbance meant discovery, i stepped inside again and went and sat down in my own room. my own room! was it mine any longer? its walls looked strange; the petty objects of my daily handling, unfamiliar. the change in myself infected everything i saw. i might have been in another man's house for all connection these things seemed to have with me or my life. like one set apart on an unapproachable shore, i stretched hands in vain towards all that i had known and all that had been of value to me. but as the minutes passed, as the hands of the clock i had hastily rewound moved slowly round the dial, i began to lose this feeling. hope which i thought quite dead slowly revived. nothing had happened, and perhaps nothing would. men had been killed before, and the slayer passed unrecognised. why might it not be so in my case? if the woman continued to remain silent; if for any reason she had not witnessed the blow or the striker, who else was there to connect me with an assault committed a quarter of a mile away? no one knew of the quarrel; and if they did, who could be so daring as to associate one of my name with an action so brutal? a judge slay his friend! it would take evidence of a very marked character to make even my political enemies believe that. as the twilight deepened i rose from my seat and lit the gas. i must not be found skulking in the dark. then i began to count the ticks measuring off the hour. if thirty minutes more passed without a rush from without, i might hope. if twenty?--if ten?--then it was five! then it was--ah, at last! the gate had clanged to. they were coming. i could hear steps--voices--a loud ring at the bell. laying down the pen i had taken, up mechanically, i moved slowly towards the front. should i light the hall gas as i went by? it was a natural action, and, being natural, would show unconcern. but i feared the betrayal which my ashy face and trembling hands might make. agitation after the news was to be expected, but not before! so i left the hall dark when i opened the door. and thus decided my future. for in the faces of the small crowd which blocked the doorway, i detected nothing but commiseration; and when a voice spoke and i heard oliver's accents surcharged with nothing more grievous than pity, i realised that my secret was as yet unshared, and seeing that no man suspected me, i forebore to declare my guilt to any one. this sudden restoration from soundless depths into the pure air of respect and sympathy confused me; and beyond the words killed! struck down by the bridge! i heard little, till slowly, dully like the call of a bell issuing from a smothering mist, i caught the sound of a name and then the words, "he did it just for the watch;" which hardly conveyed meaning to me, so full was i of oliver's look and oliver's tone and the way his arm supported me as he chided them for their abruptness and endeavoured to lead me away. but the name! it stuck in my ear and gradually it dawned upon my consciousness that another man had been arrested for my crime and that the safety, the reverence and the commiseration that were so dear to me had been bought at a price no man of honour might pay. but i was no longer a man of honour. i was a wretched criminal swaying above a gulf of infamy in which i had seen others swallowed but had never dreamed of being engulfed myself. i never thought of letting myself go--not at this crisis--not while my heart was warm with its resurgence into the old life. and so i let pass this second opportunity for confession. afterwards, it was too late--or seemed too late to my demoralised judgment. my first real awakening to the extraordinary horrors of my position was when i realised that circumstances were likely to force me into presiding over the trial of the man scoville. this i felt to be beyond even my rapidly hardening conscience. i made great efforts to evade it, but they all failed. then i feigned sickness, only to realise that my place would be taken by judge grosvenor, a notoriously prejudiced man. if he sat, it would go hard with the prisoner, and i wanted the prisoner acquitted. i had no grudge against john scoville. i was grateful to him. by his own confession he was a thief, but he was no murderer, and his bad repute had stood me in good stead. attention had been so drawn to him by the circumstances in which the devil had entangled him, that it had never even glanced my way and now never would. of course, i wanted to save him, and if the only help i could now give him was to sit as judge upon his case, then would i sit as judge whatever mental torture it involved. sending for mr. black, i asked him point-blank whether in face of the circumstance that the victim of this murder was my best friend, he would not prefer to plead his case before judge grosvenor. he answered no: that he had more confidence in my equity even under these circumstances than in that of my able, but headstrong, colleague; and prayed me to get well. he did not say that he expected me on this very account to show even more favour towards his client than i might otherwise have done, but i am sure that he meant it; and, taking his attitude as an omen, i obeyed his injunction and was soon well enough to take my seat upon the bench. no one will expect me to enlarge upon the sufferings of that time. by some i was thought stoical; by others, a prey to such grief that only my duty as judge kept me to my task. neither opinion was true. what men saw facing them from the bench was an automaton wound up to do so much work each day. the real ostrander was not there, but stood, an unseen presence at the bar, undergoing trial side by side with john scoville, for a crime to make angels weep and humanity hide its head: hypocrisy! but the days went by and the inexorable hour drew nigh for the accused man's release or condemnation. circumstances were against him--so was his bearing which i alone understood. if, as all felt, it was that of a guilty man, it was so because he had been guilty in intent if not in fact. he had meant to attack etheridge. he had run down the ravine for that purpose, knowing my old friend's whistle and envying him his watch. or why his foolish story of having left his stick behind him at the chestnut? but the sound of my approaching steps higher up on the path had stopped him in mid-career and sent him rushing up the slope ahead of me. when he came back after a short circuit of the fields beyond, it was to find his crime forestalled and by the very weapon he had thrown into the hollow as he went skurrying by. it was the shock of this discovery, heightened by the use he made of it to secure the booty thus thrown in his way without crime, which gave him the hang-dog look we all noted. that there were other reasons--that the place recalled another scene of brutality in which intention had been followed by act, i did not then know. it was sufficient to me then that my safety was secured by his own guilty consciousness and the prevarications into which it led him. instead of owning up to the encounter he had so barely escaped, he confined himself to the simple declaration of having heard voices somewhere near the bridge, which to all who know the ravine appeared impossible under the conditions named. yet, for all these incongruities and the failure of his counsel to produce any definite impression by the prisoner's persistent denial of having whittled the stick or even of having carried it into dark hollow, i expected a verdict in his favour. indeed, i was so confident of it that i suffered less during the absence of the jury than at any other time, and when they returned, with that air of solemn decision which proclaims unanimity of mind and a ready verdict, i was so prepared for his acquittal that for the first time since the opening of the trial, i felt myself a being of flesh and blood, with human sentiments and hopes. and it was: "guilty!" when i woke to a full realisation of what this entailed (for i must have lost consciousness for a minute, though no one seemed to notice), the one fact staring me in the face--staring as a live thing stares--was that it would devolve upon me to pronounce his sentence; upon me, archibald ostrander, an automaton no longer, but a man realising to the full his part in this miscarriage of justice. somehow, strange as it may appear, i had thought little of this possibility previous to this moment. i found myself upon the brink of this new gulf before the dizziness of my escape from the other had fully passed. do you wonder that i recoiled, sought to gain time, put off delivering the sentence from day to day? i had sinned,--sinned irredeemably--but there are depths of infamy beyond which a man cannot go. i had reached that point. chaos confronted me, and in contemplation of it, i fell ill. what saved me? a new discovery, and the loving sympathy of my son oliver. one night--a momentous one to me--he came to my room and, closing the door behind him, stood with his back to it, contemplating me in a way that startled me. what had happened? what lay behind this new and penetrating look, this anxious and yet persistent manner? i dared not think. i dared not yield to the terror which must follow thought. terror blanches the cheek and my cheek must never blanch under anybody's scrutiny. never, never, so long as i lived. "father,"--the tone quieted me, for i knew from its gentleness that he was hesitating to speak more on his own account than on mine--"you are not looking well; this thing worries you. i hate to see you like this. is it just the loss of your old friend, or--or--" he faltered, not knowing how to proceed. there was nothing strange in this. there could not have been much encouragement in my expression. i was holding on to myself with much too convulsive a grasp. "sometimes i think," he recommenced, "that you don't feel quite sure of this man scoville's guilt. is that so? tell me, father." i did not know what to make of him. there was no shrinking from me; no conscious or unconscious accusation in voice or look, but there was a desire to know, and a certain latent resolve behind it all that marked the line between obedient boyhood and thinking, determining man. with all my dread--a dread so great i felt the first grasp of age upon my heart-strings at that moment--i recognised no other course than to meet this inquiry of his with the truth--that is, with just so much of the truth as was needed. no more, not one jot more. i, therefore, answered, and with a show of self-possession at which i now wonder: "you are not far from right, oliver. i have had moments of doubt. the evidence, as you must have noticed, is purely circumstantial." "but a jury has convicted him." "yes." "on the evidence you mention?" "yes." "what evidence would satisfy you? what would you consider a conclusive proof of guilt?" i told him in the set phrases of my profession. "then," he declared as i finished, "you may rest easy as to this man's right to receive a sentence of death." i could not trust my ears. "i know from personal observation," he proceeded, approaching me with a firm step, "that he is not only capable of the crime for which he has been convicted, but that he has actually committed one under similar circumstances, and possibly for the same end." and he told me the story of that night of storm and bloodshed,--a story which will be found lying near this, in my alcove of shame and contrition. it had an overwhelming effect upon me. i had been very near death. suicide must have ended the struggle in which i was engaged, had not this knowledge of actual and unpunished crime come to ease my conscience. john scoville was worthy of death, and, being so, should receive the full reward of his deed. i need hesitate no longer. that night i slept. but there came a night when i did not. after the penalty had been paid and to most men's eyes that episode was over, i turned the first page of that volume of slow retribution which is the doom of the man who sins from impulse, and has the recoil of his own nature to face relentlessly to the end of his days. scoville was in his grave. i was alive. scoville had shot a man for his money. i had struck a man down in my wrath. scoville's widow and little child must face a cold and unsympathetic world, with small means and disgrace rising, like a wall, between them and social sympathy, if not between them and the actual means of living. oliver's future faced him untouched. no shadow lay across his path to hinder his happiness or to mar his chances. the results were unequal. i began to see them so, and feel the gnawing of that deathless worm whose ravages lay waste the breast, while hand and brain fulfil their routine of work, as though all were well and the foundations of life unshaken. i suffered as only cowards suffer. i held on to honour; i held on to home; i held on to oliver, but with misery for my companion and a self-contempt which nothing could abate. each time i mounted the bench, i felt a tug at my arm as of a visible, restraining presence. each time i returned to my home and met the clear eye of oliver beaming upon me with its ever growing promise of future comradeship, i experienced a rebellion against my own happiness which opened my eyes to my own nature and its inevitable demand. i must give up oliver; or yield my honours, make a full confession and accept whatever consequences it might bring. i am a proud man, and the latter alternative was beyond me. with each passing day, the certainty of this became more absolute and more fixed. in every man's nature there lurk possibilities of action which he only recognises under stress, also impossibilities which stretch like an iron barrier between him and the excellence he craves. i had come up against such an impossibility. i could forego pleasure, travel, social intercourse, and even the companionship of the one being in whom all my hopes centred, but i could not, of my own volition, pass from the judge's bench to the felon's cell. there i struck the immovable,--the impassable. i decided in one awful night of renunciation that i would send oliver out of my life. the next day i told him abruptly ... hurting him to spare myself ... that i had decided after long and mature thought to yield to his desire for journalism, and that i would start him in his career and maintain him in it for three years if he would subscribe to the following conditions: they were the hardest a loving father ever imposed upon a dutiful and loving son. first: he was to leave home immediately ... within a few hours, in fact. secondly: he was to regard all relations between us as finished; we were to be strangers henceforth in every particular save that of the money obligation already mentioned. thirdly: he was never to acknowledge this compact, or to cast any slur upon the father whose reasons for this apparently unnatural conduct were quite disconnected with any fault of his or any desire to punish or reprove. fourthly: he was to pray for his father every night of his life before he slept. was this last a confession? had i meant it to be such? if so, it missed its point. it awed but did not enlighten him. i had to contend with his compunctions, as well as with his grief and dismay. it was an hour of struggle on his part and of implacable resolution on mine. nothing but such hardness on my part would have served me. had i faltered once he would have won me over, and the tale of my sleepless nights been repeated. i did not falter; and when the midnight stroke rang through the house that night, it separated by its peal, a sin-beclouded but human past from a future arid with solitude and bereft of the one possession to retain which my sin had been hidden. i was a father without a son--as lonely and as desolate as though the separation between us were that of the grave i had merited and so weakly shunned. and thus i lived for a year. but i was not yet satisfied. the toll i had paid to grief did not seem to me a sufficient punishment for a crime which entailed imprisonment if not death. how could i insure for myself the extreme punishment which my peace demanded, without bringing down upon me the full consequences i refused to accept. you have seen to-day how i ultimately answered this question. a convict's bed! a convict's isolation. bela served me in this; bela who knew my secret and knowing continued to love me. he gathered up these rods singly and in distant places and set them up across the alcove in my room. he had been a convict once himself. being now in my rightful place, i could sleep again. but after some weeks of this, fresh fears arose. an accident was possible. for all bela's precautions, some one might gain access to this room. this would mean the discovery of my secret. some new method must be devised for securing me absolutely against intrusion. entrance into my simple, almost unguarded cottage must be made impossible. a close fence should replace the pickets now surrounding it--a fence with a gate having its own lock. and this fence was built. this should have been enough. but guilt has terrors unknown to innocence. one day i caught a small boy peering through an infinitesimal crack in the fence, and, remembering the window grilled with iron with which bela had replaced the cheerful casement in my den of punishment, i realised how easily an opening might be made between the boards for the convenience of a curious eye anxious to penetrate the mystery of my seclusion. and so it came about that the inner fence was put up. this settled my position in the town. no more visits. all social life was over. it was meet. i was satisfied at last. i could now give my whole mind to my one remaining duty. i lived only while on the bench. march fifth, 1898. there is a dream which comes to me often: a vision which i often see. it is that of two broken and irregular walls standing apart against a background of roseate sky. between these walls the figures of a woman and child, turning about to go. the bridge i never see, nor the face of the man who died for my sin; but this i see always: the gaunt ruins of spencer's folly and the figure of a woman leading away a little child. that woman lives. i know now who she is. her testimony was uttered before me in court, and was not one to rouse my apprehensions. my crime was unwitnessed by her, and for years she has been a stranger to this town. but i have a superstitious horror of seeing her again, while believing that the day will come when i shall do so. when this occurs,--when i look up and find her in my path, i shall know that my sin has found me out and that the end is near. 1909 o shade of algernon etheridge, unforgetting and unforgiving! the woman has appeared! she stood in this room to-day. verily, years are nothing with god. added later. i thought i knew what awaited me if my hour ever came. but who can understand the ways of providence or where the finger of retributive justice will point. it is oliver's name and not mine which has become the sport of calumny. oliver's! could the irony of life go further! oliver's! there is nothing against him, and such folly must soon die out; but to see doubt in mrs. scoville's eyes is horrible in itself and to eliminate it i may have to show her oliver's account of that long-forgotten night of crime in spencer's folly. it is naively written and reveals a clean, if reticent, nature; but that its effect may be unquestionable i will insert a few lines to cover any possible misinterpretation of his manner or conduct. there is an open space, and our handwritings were always strangely alike. only our e's differed, and i will be careful with the e's. her confidence must be restored at all hazards. my last foolish attempt has undone me. nothing remains now but that sacrifice of self which should have been made twelve years ago. xxxv sunset "i do not wish to seem selfish, oliver, but sit a little nearer the window where i can see you whenever i open my eyes. twelve years is a long time to make up, and i have such a little while in which to do it." oliver moved. the moisture sprang to his eyes as he did so. he had caught a glimpse of the face on the pillow and the changes made in a week were very apparent. always erect, his father had towered above them then even in his self-abasement, but he looked now as though twenty years, instead of a few days, had passed over his stately head and bowed his incomparable figure. and not that alone. his expression was different. had oliver not seen him in his old likeness for that one terrible half-hour, he would not know these features, so sunken, yet so eloquent with the peace of one for whom all struggle is over, and the haven of his long rest near. the heart, which had held unflinchingly to its task through every stress of self-torture, succumbed under the relief of confession, and as he himself had said, there was but little time left him to fill his eyes and heart with the sight of this strong man who had replaced his boy oliver. he had hungered so for his presence even in those days of final shrinking and dismay. and now, the doubts, the dread, the inexpressible humiliation are all in the past and there remains only this,--to feast his eyes where his heart has so long feasted, and to thank god for the blessedness of a speedy going, which has taken the sword from the hand of justice and saved oliver the anguished sight of a father's public humiliation. had he been able at this moment to look beyond the fences which his fear had reared, he would have seen at either gate a silent figure guarding the walk, and recalled, perhaps, the horror of other days when at the contemplation of such a prospect, his spirit recoiled upon itself in unimaginable horror and revolt. and yet, who knows! life's passions fade when the heart is at peace. and archibald ostrander's heart was at peace. why, his next words will show. "oliver"--his voice was low but very distinct, "never have a secret; never hide within your bosom a thought you fear the world to know. if you've done wrong--if you have disobeyed the law either of god or man--seek not to hide what can never be hidden so long as god reigns or men make laws. i have suffered, as few men have suffered and kept their reason intact. now that my wickedness is known, the whole page of my life defaced, content has come again. i am no longer a deceiver, my very worst is known." "oliver?"--this some minutes later. "are we alone?" "quite alone, father. mrs. scoville is busy and reuther--reuther is in the room above. i can hear her light step overhead." the judge was silent. he was gazing wistfully at the wall where hung the portrait of his young wife. he was no longer in his own room, but in the cheery front parlour. this deborah had insisted upon. there was, therefore, nothing to distract him from the contemplation i have mentioned. "there are things i want to say to you. not many; you already know my story. but i do not know yours, and i cannot die till i do. what took you into the ravine that evening, oliver, and why, having picked up the stick, did you fling it from you and fly back to the highway? for the reason i ascribed to scoville? tell me, that no cloud may remain between us. let me know your heart as well as you now know mine." the reply brought the blood back into his fading cheek. "father, i have already explained all this to mr. andrews, and now i will explain it to you. i never liked mr. etheridge as well as you did, and i brooded incessantly in those days over the influence which he seemed to exert over you in regard to my future career. but i never dreamed of doing him a harm, and never supposed that i could so much as attempt any argument with him on my own behalf till that very night of infernal complications and coincidences. the cause of this change was as follows: i had gone up stairs, you remember, leaving you alone with him as i knew you desired. how i came to be in the room above i don't remember, but i was there and leaning out of the window directly over the porch when you and mr. etheridge came out and stood in some final debate on the steps below. he was talking and you were listening, and never shall i forget the effect his words and tones had upon me. i had supposed him devoted to you, and here he was addressing you tartly and in an ungracious manner which bespoke a man very different from the one i had been taught to look upon as superior. the awe of years yielded before this display, and finding him just human like the rest of us, the courage which i had always lacked in approaching him took instant possession of me, and i determined with a boy's unreasoning impulse to subject him to a personal appeal not to add his influence to the distaste you at present felt for the career upon which i had set my heart. nothing could have been more foolish and nothing more natural, perhaps, than the act which followed. i ran down into the ravine with the wild intention, so strangely duplicated in yourself a few minutes later, of meeting and pleading my cause with him at the bridge, but unlike you, i took the middle of the ravine for my road and not the secluded path at the side. it was this which determined our fate, father, for here i ran up against the chestnut tree, saw the stick and, catching it up without further thought than of the facility it offered for whittling, started with it down the ravine. scoville was not in sight. the moment was the one when he had quit looking for reuther and wandered away up the ravine. i have thought since that perhaps the glimpse he had got of his little one peering from the scene of his crime may have stirred even his guilty conscience and sent him off on this purposeless ramble; but, however this was, i did not see him or anybody else as i took my way leisurely down towards the bridge, whittling at the stick and thinking of what i should say to mr. etheridge when i met him. and now for fate's final and most fatal touch! nothing which came into my mind struck me quite favourably. the encounter which seemed such a very simple matter when i first contemplated it, began to assume quite a different aspect as the moment for it approached. by the time i had come abreast of the hollow, i was tired of the whole business, and hearing his whistle and knowing by it that he was very near, i plunged up the slope to avoid him, and hurried straight away into town. that is my story, father. if i heard your steps approaching as i plunged across the path into which i had thrown the stick in my anger at having broken the point of my knife-blade upon it, i thought nothing of them then. afterwards i believed them to be scoville's, which may account to you for my silence about this whole matter both before and during the trial. i was afraid of the witness-stand and of what might be elicited from me if i once got into the hands of the lawyers. my abominable reticence in regard to his former crime would be brought up against me, and i was yet too young, too shy and uninformed to face such an ordeal of my own volition. unhappily, i was not forced into it, and--but we will not talk of that, father." "son,"--a long silence had intervened,--"there is one thing more. when--how--did you first learn my real reason for sending you from home? i saw that my position was understood by you when our eyes first met in this room. but twelve years had passed since you left this house in ignorance of all but my unnatural attitude towards you. when, oliver, when?" "that i cannot answer, father; it was just a conviction which dawned gradually upon me. now, it seems as if i had known it always; but that isn't so. a boy doesn't reason; and it took reasoning for me to--to accept--" "yes, i understand. and that was your secret! oh, oliver, i shall never ask for your forgiveness. i am not worthy it. i only ask that you will not let pride or any other evil passion stand in the way of the happiness i see in the future for you. i cannot take from you the shame of my crime and long deception, but spare me this final sorrow! there is nothing to part you from reuther now. alike unhappy in your parentage, you can start on equal terms, and love will do the rest. say that you will marry her, oliver, and let me see her smile before i die." "marry her? oh, father, will such an angel marry me?" "no, but such a woman might." oliver came near, and stooped over his father's bed. "father, if love and attention to my profession can make a success of the life you prize, they shall have their opportunity." the father smiled. if it fell to others to remember him as he appeared in his mysterious prime, to oliver it was given to recall him as he looked then with the light on his face and the last tear he was ever to shed glittering in his fading eye. "god is good," came from the bed; then the solemnity of death settled over the room. the soft footfalls overhead ceased. the long hush had brought the two women to the door where they stood sobbing. oliver was on his knees beside the bed, his head buried in his arms. on the face so near him there rested a ray from the westering sun; but the glitter was gone from the eye and the unrest from the heart. no more weary vigils in a room dedicated to remorse and self-punishment. no more weary circling of the house in the dark lane whose fences barred out the hurrying figure within from every eye but that of heaven. peace for him; and for reuther and oliver, hope! the end proofreading team. the red axe by s.r. crockett 1900 contents i. duke casimir rides late ii. the little playmate comes home iii. the red axe of the wolfmark iv. the princess helene v. the blood-hounds are fed vi. duke casimir's familiar vii. i become a traitor viii. at the bar of the white wolf ix. a hero carries water in the sun x. the lubber fiend xi. the vision in the crystal xii. eyes of emerald xiii. christian's elsa xiv. sir amorous is pleased with himself xv. the little playmate settles accounts xvi. two women--and a man xvii. the red axe is left alone xviii. the prime of the morning xix. wendish wit xx. the earth-dwellers of no man's land xxi. i stand sentry xxii. helene hates me xxiii. hugo of the broadaxe xxiv. the sortie xxv. mine host runs his last race xxvi. prince jehu miller's son xxvii. another man's coat xxviii. the prince's compact xxix. loves me--loves me not xxx. insult and challenge xxxi. i find a second xxxii. the wolves of the mark xxxiii. the flight of the little playmate xxxiv. the golden necklace xxxv. the decent servitor xxxvi. ysolinde's farewell xxxvii. captain karl miller's son xxxviii. the black riders xxxix. the flag on the red tower xl. the trial of the witch xli. the garret of the red tower xlii. princess playmate xliii. the trial for witchcraft xliv. sentence of death xlv. the message from the white gate xlvi. a woman scorned xlvii. the red axe dies standing up xlviii. hugo gottfried, red axe of the wolfmark xlix. the serpent's strife l. the dungeon of the wolfsberg li. the night before the morn lii. the headsman's right liii. the lubber fiend's return liv. the crowning of duke otho lv. the lady ysolinde saves her soul lvi. helena, princess of plassenburg the red axe chapter i duke casimir rides late well do i, hugo gottfried, remember the night of snow and moonlight when first they brought the little playmate home. i had been sleeping--a sturdy, well-grown fellow i, ten years or so as to my age--in a stomacher of blanket and a bed-gown my mother had made me before she died at the beginning of the cold weather. suddenly something awoke me out of my sleep. so, all in the sharp chill of the night, i got out of my bed, sitting on the edge with my legs dangling, and looked curiously at the bright streams of moonlight which crossed the wooden floor of my garret. i thought if only i could swim straight up one of them, as the motes did in the sunshine, i should be sure to come in time to the place where my mother was--the place where all the pretty white things came from--the sunshine, the moonshine, the starshine, and the snow. and there would be children to play with up there--hundreds of children like myself, and all close at hand. i should not any longer have to sit up aloft in the red tower with none to speak to me--all alone on the top of a wall--just because i had a crimson patch sewn on my blue-corded blouse, on my little white shirt, embroidered in red wool on each of my warm winter wristlets, and staring out from the front of both my stockings. it was a pretty enough pattern, too. yet whenever one of the children i so much longed to play with down on the paved roadway beneath our tower caught sight of it he rose instantly out of the dust and hurled oaths and ill-words at me--aye, and oftentimes other missiles that hurt even worse--at a little lonely boy who was breaking his heart with loving him up there on the tower. "come down and be killed, foul brood of the red axe!" the children cried. and with that they ran as near as they dared, and spat on the wall of our house, or at least on the little wooden panel which opened inward in the great trebly spiked iron door of the duke's court-yard. but this night of the first home-coming of the little playmate i awoke crying and fearful in the dead vast of the night, when all the other children who would not speak to me were asleep. then pulling on my comfortable shoes of woollen list (for my father gave me all things to make me warm, thinking me delicate of body), and drawing the many-patched coverlet of the bed about me, i clambered up the stone stairway to the very top of the tower in which i slept. the moon was broad, like one of the shields in the great hall, whither i went often when the great duke was not at home, and when old hanne would be busy cleaning the pavement and scrubbing viciously at the armor of the iron knights who stood on pedestals round about. "one day i shall be a man-at-arms, too," i said once to hanne, "and ride a-foraying with duke ironteeth." but old hanne only shook her head and answered: "ill foraying shalt thou make, little shrimp. such work as thine is not done on horseback--keep wide from me, _toadchen_, touch me not!" for even old hanne flouted me and would not let me approach her too closely, all because once i had asked her what my father did to witches, and if she were a witch that she crossed herself and trembled whenever she passed him in the court-yard. now, having little else to do, i loved to look down from the top of the tower at all times. but never more so than when there was snow on the ground, for then the city of thorn lay apparent beneath me, all spread out like a painted picture, with its white and red roofs and white houses bright in the moonlight--so near that it seemed as though i could pat every child lying asleep in its little bed, and scrape away the snow with my fingers from every red tile off which the house-fires had not already melted it. the town of thorn was the chief place of arms, and high capital city of all the wolfmark. it was a thriving place, too, humming with burghers and trades and guilds, when our great duke casimir would let them alone; perilous, often also, with pikes and discontents when he swooped from the tall over-frowning castle of the wolfsberg upon their booths and guilderies--"to scotch the pride of rascaldom," as he told them when they complained. in these days my father was little at home, his business keeping him abroad all the day about the castle-yard, at secret examinations in the hall of judgment, or in mysterious vaults in the deepest parts of the castle, where the walls are eighteen feet thick, and from which not a groan can penetrate to the outside while the duke casimir's judgment was being done upon the poor bodies and souls of men and women his prisoners. in the court-yard, too, the dogs, fierce russet-tan blood-hounds, ravined for their fearsome food. and in these days there was plenty of it, too, so that they were yelling and clamoring all day, and most of the night, for that which it made me sweat to think of. and beneath the rebellious city cowered and muttered, while the burghers and their wives shivered in their beds as the howling of duke casimir's blood-hounds came fitfully down the wind, and duke casimir's guards clashed arms under their windows. so this night i looked down contentedly enough from my perched eyrie on the top of the red tower. it had been snowing a little earlier in the evening, and the brief blast had swept the sky clean, so that even the brightest stars seemed sunken and waterlogged in the white floods of moonlight. under my hand lay the city. even the feet of the watch made no clatter on the pavements. the fresh-fallen snow masked the sound. the kennels of the blood-hounds were silent, for their dreadful tenants were abroad that night on the duke's work. yet, sitting up there on the wolfsberg, it seemed to me that i could distinguish a muttering as of voices full of hate, like men talking low on their beds the secret things of evil and treason. i discerned discontent and rebellion rumbling and brooding over the city that clear, keen night of early winter. then, when after a while i turned from the crowded roofs and looked down upon the gray, far-spreading plain of the wolfmark, to the east i saw that which appeared like winking sparks of light moving among the black clumps of copse and woodland which fringed the river. these wimpled and scattered, and presently grew brighter. a long howl, like that of a lonely wolf on the waste when he calls to his kindred to tell him their where-abouts, came faintly up to my ears. a hound gave tongue responsively among the heaped mews and doggeries beneath the ramparts. lights shone in windows athwart the city. red nightcaps were thrust out of hastily opened casements. the duke's standing guard clamored with their spear-butts on the uneven pavements, crying up and down the streets: "to your kennels, devil's brats, duke casimir comes riding home!" then i tell you my small heart beat furiously. for i knew that if i only kept quiet i should see that which i had never yet seen--the home-coming of our famous foraying duke. i had, indeed, seen duke casimir often enough in the castle, or striding across the court-yard to speak to my father, for whom he had ever a remarkable affection. he was a tall, swart, black-a-vised man, with a huge hairy mole on his cheek, and long dog-teeth which showed at the sides of his mouth when he smiled, almost as pleasantly as those of a she-wolf looking out of her den at the hunters. but i had never seen the duke of all the wolfmark come riding home ere daybreak, laden with the plunder of captured castles and the rout of deforced cities. for at such times my father would carefully lock the door on me, and confine me to my little sleeping-chamber--from whence i could see nothing but the square of smooth pavement on which the children chalked their games, and from which they cried naughtily up at me, the poor hermit of the red tower. but this night my father would be with the duke, and i should see all. for high or low there was none in the empty red tower to hinder or forbid. as i waited, thrilling with expectation, i heard beneath me the quickening pulse-beat of the town. the watch hurried here and there, hectoring, threatening, and commanding. but, in spite of all, men gathered as soon as their backs were turned in the alleys and street openings. clusters of heads showed black for a moment in some darksome entry, cried "u-g-g-hh!" with a hateful sound, and vanished ere the steel-clad veterans of the duke's guard could come upon them. it was like the hide-and-seek which i used to play with boldo, my blood-hound puppy, among the dusty waste of the lumber-room over the hall of judgment, before my father took him back to the kennels for biting christian's elsa, a child who lived in the lower guard opposite to the red tower. but this was a stranger hide-and-seek than mine and boldo's had been. for i saw one of the men who cried hatefully to the guard stumble on the slippery ice; and lo! or ever he had time to cry out or gather himself up, the men-at-arms were upon him. i saw the glitter of stabbing steel and heard the sickening sound of blows stricken silently in anger. then the soldiers took the man up by head and heels carelessly, jesting as they went. and i shuddered, for i knew that they were bringing him to the horrible long sheds by the red tower through which the wind whistled. but in the moonlight the patch which was left on the snow was black, not red. after this the crooked alleys were kept clearer, and i could see down the long high street of thorn right to the weiss thor and the snow-whitened pinnacles of the palace, out of which duke casimir had for the time being frightened bishop peter. black stood the gate port against the moonlight and the snow when i first looked at it. a moment after it had opened, and a hundred lights came crowding through, like sheep through an entry on their way to the shambles--which doubtless is their hall of judgment, where there waits for them the red axe of a lowlier degree. the lights, i say, came thronging through the gate. for though it was moonlight, the duke casimir loved to come home amid the red flame of torches, the trail of bituminous reek, and with a dashing train of riders clattering up to the wolfsberg behind him, through the streets of thorn, lying black and cowed under the shadows of its thousand gables. so the procession undulated towards me, turbid and tumultuous. first a reckless pour of riders urging wearied horses, their sides white-flecked above with blown foam, and dark beneath with rowelled blood. many of the horsemen carried marks upon them which showed that all had not been plunder and pleasuring upon their foray. for there were white napkins, and napkins that had once been white, tied across many brows. helmets swung clanking like iron pipkins from saddle-bows, and men rode wearily with their arms in slings, drooping haggard faces upon their chests. but all passed rapidly enough up the steep street, and tumbled with noise and shouting, helter-skelter into the great court-yard beneath me as i watched, secure as god in heaven, from my perch on the red tower. then came the captives, some riding horses bare-backed, or held in place before black-bearded riders--women mostly these last, with faces white-set and strange of eye, or all beblubbered with weeping. then came a man or two also on horseback, old and reverend. after them a draggled rabble of lads and half-grown girls, bound together with ropes and kept at a dog's trot by the pricking spears of the men-at-arms behind, who thought it a jest to sink a spear point-deep in the flesh of a man's back--"drawing the claret wine" they called it. for these riders of duke casimir were every one jolly companions, and must have their merry jest. after the captives had gone past--and sorry i was for them--the body-guard of duke casimir came riding steadily and gallantly, all gentlemen of the mark, with their sons and squires, landed men, towered men, free junkers, serving the duke for loyalty and not servitude, though ever "living by the saddle"--as, indeed, most of the ritterdom and gentry of the mark had done for generations. then behind them came duke casimir himself. the eastland blood he had acquired from his polish mother showed as he rode gloomily apart, thoughtful, solitary, behind the squared shoulders of his knights. after him another squadron of riders in ghastly armor of black-and-white, with torches in their hand and grinning skulls upon their shields, closed in the array. the great gate of the wolfsberg was open now, and, leaving behind him the hushed and darkened town, the master rode into his castle. the wolf was in his lair. but in the streets many a burgher's wife trembled on her bed, while her goodman peered cautiously over the leads by the side of a gargoyle, and fancied that already he heard the clamor of the partisans thundering at his door with the duke's invitation to meet him in the hall of judgment. chapter ii the little playmate comes home but there was to be no session in the hall of judgment that night. the great court-yard, roofed with the vault of stars and lit by the moon, was to see all done that remained to be done. the torches were planted in the iron hold-fasts round about. the plunder of the captured towns and castles was piled for distribution on the morrow, and no man dared keep back so much as a brandenburg broad-piece or a handful of bohemian gulden. for the fear of the duke and the duke's dog-kennels was upon every stout fighting-kerl. they minded the fate of hans pulitz, who had kept back a belt of gold, and had gotten himself flung by the heels with no more than the stolen belt upon him, into the kennels where the duke's blood-hounds howled and clambered with their fore-feet on the black-spattered barriers. and they say that the belt of gold was all that was ever seen again of the poor rascal. hans pulitz--who had hoped for so many riotous evenings among the fat pigs of thorn and so many draughts of the slippery wine of the rheingan careering down the poor thirsty throat of him. but, alas for hans pulitz! the end of all imagining was no more than five minutes of snapping, snarling, horrible pandemonium in the kennels of the wolfsberg, and the scored gold chain on the ground was all that remained to tell his tale. verily, there were few achans in duke casimir's camp. and it is small wonder after this, that scant and sparse were the jests played on the grim master of the wolfsberg, or that the bay of a blood-hound tracking on the downs frightened the most stout-hearted rider in all that retinue of dare-devils. going to the side of the red tower, which looked towards the court-yard, i saw the whole array come in. i watched the prisoners unceremoniously dismounted and huddled together against the coming of the duke. there was but one man among them who stood erect. the torch-light played on his face, which was sometimes bent down to a little child in his arms, so that i saw him well. he looked not at all upon the rude men-at-arms who pushed and bullied about him, but continued tenderly to hush his charge, as if he had been a nurse in a babe-chamber under the leads, with silence in all the house below. it pleased me to see the man, for all my life i had loved children. and yet at ten years of age i had never so much as touched one--no, nor spoken even, only looked down on those that hated me and spat on the very tower wherein i dwelt. but nevertheless i loved them and yearned to tell them so, even when they mocked me. so i watched this little one in the man's arms. then came the duke along the line, and behind him, like the shadow of death, paced my father gottfried gottfried, habited all in red from neck to heel, and carrying for his badge of office as hereditary justicer to the dukes of the wolfmark that famous red-handled, red-bladed axe, the gleaming white of whose deadly edge had never been wet save with the blood of men and women. the guard pushed the captives rudely into line as the duke casimir strode along the front. the women he passed without a sign or so much as a look. they were kept for another day. but the men were judged sharp and sudden, as the duke in his black armor passed along, and that scarlet shadow of death with the broad axe over his shoulder paced noiselessly behind him. for as each man looked into the eyes of casimir of the wolfsberg he read his doom. the duke turned his wrist sharply down, whereupon the attendant sprites of the red shadow seized the man and rent his garment down from his neck--or the hand pointed up, and then the man set his hand to his heart and threw his head back in a long sigh of relief. it came the turn of the man who carried the babe. duke casimir paused before him, scowling gloomily at him. "ha, lord prince of so great a province, you will not set yourself up any more haughtily. you will quibble no longer concerning tithes and tolls with casimir of the wolfmark." and the duke lifted his hand and smote the man on the cheek with his open hand. yet the captive only hushed the child that wailed aloud to see her guardian smitten. he looked duke casimir steadfastly in the eyes and spoke no word. "great god, man, have you nothing to say to me ere you die?" cried duke casimir, choked with hot, sudden anger to be so crossed. the elder man gazed steadily at his captor. "god will judge betwixt me, a man about to die, and you, casimir of the wolfmark," he said at last, very slowly--"by the eyes of this little maid he will judge!" "like enough," cried casimir, sneeringly. "bishop peter hath told me as much. but then god's payments are long deferred, and, so far as i can see, i can take him into my own hand. and your little maid--pah! since one day you took from me the mother, i, in my turn, will take the daughter and make her a titbit for the teeth of my blood-hounds." the man answered not again, but only hushed and fondled the little one. duke casimir turned quickly to my father, showing his long teeth like a snarling dog: "take the child," he said, "and cast her into the kennels before the man's eyes, that he may learn before he dies to dread more than god's judgment seat the vengeance of duke casimir!" then all the men-at-arms turned away, heart-sick at the horror. but the man with the child never blanched. high perched on the top tower, i also heard the words and loved the maid. and they tell me (though i do not remember it) that i cried down from the leads of the red tower: "my father, save the little maid and give her to me--or else i, hugo gottfried, will cast myself down on the stones at your feet!" at which all the men looked up and saw me in white, a small, lonely figure, with my legs hanging over the top of the wall. "go back!" my father shouted. "go back, hugo! 'tis my only son--my successor--the fifteenth of our line, my lord!" he said to the duke in excuse. but i cried all the more: "save the maid's life, or i will fling myself headlong. by jesu-mary, i swear it!" for i thought that was the name of one great saint. then my father, who ever doted on me, bent his knee before his master: "a boon!" he cried, "my first and last, duke casimir--this maid's life for my son!" but the duke hung on the request a long, doubtful moment. "gottfried gottfried," he said, even reproachfully, "this is not well done of you, to make me go back on my word." "take the man's life," said my father--"take the man's life for the child's and the fulfilling of your word, and by the sword of st. peter i will smite my best!" "aye," said the man with the babe, "even so do, as the red axe says. save the young child, but bid him smite hard at this abased neck. ye have taken all, duke casimir, take my life. but save the young child alive!" so, without further word or question, they did so, and the man who had carried the child kissed her once and separated gently the baby hands that clung about his neck. then he handed her to my father. "be gracious to helene," he said; "she was ever a sweet babe." now by this time i was down hammering on the door of the red tower, which had been locked on the outside. presently some one turned the key, and so soon as i got among the men i darted between their legs. "give me the babe!" i cried; "the babe is mine; the duke himself hath said it." and my father gave her to me, crying as if her heart would break. nevertheless she clung to me, perhaps because i was nearer her own age. then the dismal procession of the condemned passed us, followed by my father, who strode in front with his axe over his shoulder, and the laughing and jesting men-at-arms bringing up the rear. as i stood a little aside for them to pass, the hand of the man fell on my head and rested there a moment. "god's blessing on you, little lad!" he said. "cherish the babe you have saved, and, as sure as that i am now about to die, one day you shall be repaid." and he stooped and kissed the little maid before he went on with the others to the place of slaughter. then i hurried within, so that i might not hear the dull thud of the red axe, on the block nor the inhuman howlings of the dogs in the kennels afterwards. when my father came home an hour later, before even he took off his costume of red, he came up to our chamber and looked long at the little maid as she lay asleep. then he gazed at me, who watched him from under my lids and from behind the shadows of the bedclothes. but his quick eye caught the gleam of light in mine. "you are awake, boy!" he said, somewhat sternly. i nodded up to him without speaking. "what would you with the little maid?" he said. "do you know that you and she together came very near losing me my favor with the duke, and it might be my life also, both at one time to-night?" i put my hand on the maiden's head where it lay on the pillow by me. "she is my little wife!" i said. "the duke gave her to me out in the court-yard there!" and this is the whole tale of how the little playmate came to dwell with us in the red tower. chapter iii the red axe of the wolfmark just as clearly do i remember the next morning. the little playmate lay by me on my bed, wrapped in one of my childish night-gowns--which old hanne had sought out for her the night before. it was a brisk, chill, nippy daybreak, and i had piled most of the bedclothes upon her. i lay at the nether side clipped tight in my single brown blanket. it was perishing cold. out of the heaped coverings i saw presently a pair of eyes, great and dark, regarding me. then a little voice spoke, sweetly and clearly, but yet strangely sounding to me who had never before heard a babe speak. "i want my father--tell him to send grete, my maid, to attend on me, and then to come himself to sit by the bed and amuse me!" alas! her father--well i knew what had come to him--that which in the mercy of the duke casimir and in the crowning mercy of the red axe, i had seen come to so many. the dogs did not howl at all that morning. they, too, were tired with the hunting and sated with the quarry. all the same, i tried to answer my companion. "little maid!" said i, "let me be your maid and your father. i will gladly get you all you want. but your good father has gone on a weary journey, and it will be long ere he can hope to return." "well," she said, "send lazy grete, then. i will scold her soundly for not bringing the sop of hot milk-and-bread, which, indeed, is not food for a lady of my age. but my father insists upon it. he is dreadfully obstinate." now there was no one but our old deaf hanne in the kitchen of the red tower. she stayed only for cooking and keeping the house clean. my father never paid her wages, and she never asked any. she did her work and took that which she needed out of the household purse without check or question. it was long before i guessed that hanne also owed her life to my father's care. i had noticed, indeed, when he had upon him the red headman's dress, which fitted him like a flame climbing up a tall back log on the winter's fire, that old hanne trembled from head to foot and shrank away into her den under the stairs. many a time have i seen her peeping round the corner of the kitchen-door and tottering back when she heard him come down the stair from the garret. and i guessed so well the reason of her fear that i used to cry to her: "come out, good hanne; the red axe is gone." then would she run, pattering like a scared rabbit over the uneven floor, to the window, and watch my father stalking, grim and tall, across the open spaces of the yard towards the judgment hall of duke casimir, the men-at-arms avoiding him with deft reverence. for though they hated him almost as much as did the fat burghers, they feared him, too. and that because gottfried gottfried was deep in the confidence of the duke; and, besides, was no man to stand in the ill-graces of when one lived within the walls of the wolfsberg. so this morning it was to the ancient hanne that i ran down and told her how, as quickly as she might, she must bring milk and bread to the little one. "but," said she, "there is none save that which is to be sodden for your father's breakfast and your own." "do as you are bid, bad hanne!" cried i, being, like all solitary children, quickly made angry, "or i will tell my father to drive you before him when next he goes forth clad in red to the hall of justice." at which the poor old woman gave vent to a sharp, screechy cry and caught at her skinny throat with twitching, bony fingers. "oh, but you know not what you say, cruel boy!" she gasped. "for the love of god, speak not such words in the house of the red axe!" but, like an ill-governed child, i was cruel because i knew my power, and so made sure that hanne would do what i asked. "well, then, bring the sop quickly," said i, "or by peter-and-paul i will speak to my father. he and i can well be doing with beaten cakes made crisp on the iron girdle. in these you have great skill." this last i said to cheer her, for she loved compliments on her cooking. though, strange to tell, i never saw her eat anything herself all the years she remained in our house. when i was gone up-stairs again i looked about for the little playmate. she was not to be seen anywhere. there was only a tiny cosey-hole down among the blankets, which was yet warm when i thrust my hand within it. but it was empty and the top a little fallen in, as if the occupant had set her knee on it when she crawled out. a baby stocking lay outside it on the floor. "little maid!" i cried, "where are you?" but i heard nothing except a hissing up on the roof, and then a great slithering rumble down below, which boomed like the distant cannons the margraf sent to besiege us. i listened and shuddered; but it was only the snow from the tall roof of the red tower which had slipped off and fallen to the ground. then i had a vision of a slender little figure clambering on the leads and the treacherous snow striking her out into the air, and then--the cruel stones of the pavement. "little maid, little maid!" i cried out again, beginning to weep myself for pity at my thought, "where are you? speak to me. you are my playmate." then i ran to the roof, and, though the stones chilled me to the bone and the frost-bitten iron hasps of the fastenings burned me like fire, i opened the trap-door and looked out. there above me was the crow-stepped gable of the red tower, with the axe set on the pinnacle rustily bright in the coming light of the morning--all swept clean of snow. but no little maid. i ran to the verge and peered down. i saw a great heap of frozen snow fallen on its edge and partly canted over, half covering a deep red stain which was turning black and horrid in the daylight. but no little maid. then i ran all over the house calling to her, but could not find her anywhere. i was just beginning to bethink me that she might be a fairy child, one that came at night and vanished like the dream gold which is forever turning to withered leaves in the morning. at last i bethought me of my father's room, where even i, his son, had never been at night, and indeed but seldom in the day. for it was the hereditary justicer's fancy to lodge himself in the high garret which ran right across the top of the red tower, and was entered only by a little ladder from the first turning of the same staircase by which i had run out upon the leads. i went to the bottom of the garret turnpike. the little barred door stood open, and i heard--i was sure that i heard--light, irregularly pattering footsteps moving about above. it gave me strange shakings of my heart only to listen. for, though i was noways afraid of my father myself, yet since i had never seen any man, woman, or child (save the duke only) who did not quail at his approach, it was a curious feeling to think of the lonely little child skipping about up there, where abode the axe and the block--the axe which had done, i knew so well what, to her father only the night before. so i mustered all my courage--not from any fear of gottfried gottfried, but rather from the uncertainty of what i should see, and quickly mounted the stair. i shall never forget what i saw as i stood with my feet on the rickety hand-rail of the ladder. the long dim garret was already half-lighted by the coming day. red cloaks swung and flapped like vast, deadly, winged bats from the rafters, and reached almost to the ground. there was no glass in any of the windows of the garret, for my father minded neither heat nor cold. he was a man of iron. summer's heat nor winter's cold neither vexed nor pleasured him. so it was no marvel that at the chamber's upper end, and quite near to my father's bed, lay a wreath of snow, with a fine, clean-cut, untrampled edge, just as it had blown in at the gable window when the storm burst from the east. my father lay stretched out on his bed, his head thrown back, his neck bare--almost as if he had done justice on himself, or at least as if he waited the stroke of another red axe through the eastern skylight which the morning was already crimsoning. his scarlet sheathings of garmentry lay upon a black oaken stool, trailing across the floor lank and hideous, one of the cuffs which had been but recently dyed a darker hue making a wet sop upon the boards. all this i had seen many a time before. but that which made me tremble from head to foot with more and worse than cold, was the little white figure that danced about his bed--for all the world like a crisped leaf in late autumn which whirls and turns, skipping this way and spinning that in the wanton breezes. it was the little playmate. but i could not form a word wherewith to call her. my tongue seemed dried to the roots. she had taken the red eye-mask which came across my father's face when he did his greater duties and tied it about her head. her great, innocent, childish eyes looked elfishly through the black socket holes, sparkling with a fairy merriment, and her tangled floss of sunny hair escaped from the string at the back and fell tumultuously upon her shoulders. and even as i looked, standing silent and trembling, with a little balancing step she danced up to the red axe itself where it stood angled against the block, and seizing it by the handle high up near the head she staggered towards the bed with it. then came my words back to my mouth with a rush. "for the holy virgin's sake, little maid, put the red axe down!" i cried, whisperingly. "you know not what you do!" then even as i spoke i saw that my father had drawn himself up in bed, and that he too was staring at the strange, elfish figure. gottfried gottfried, as i remember him in these days, was a tall, dark, heavily browed man, with a shock of bushy blue-black hair, of late silvering at the temples--grave, sombre, quiet in all his actions. but what was my surprise as the little maid came nearer to the bed with her pretty dancing movement, carrying the axe much as if it had been an over-heavy babe, to see the duke's justicer suddenly skip over the far side of the bedstead and stand with his red cloak about him, watching her. chapter iv the princess helene "what devil's work is this?" he said, frowning at her severely. and i confess that i trembled, but not so the little maid. "do not be afraid, mannie," she said, laying down the axe on the stock of the couch, against which its broad red blade and glass-clear cutting edge made an irregular patch of light. "come and sit down beside me on your bed. i shall not hurt you indeed, mannie, and i want to talk to you. there is nothing but a little boy down-stairs. and i like best to talk with men." "i declare it is the dead man's brat i saved last night for hugo's sake!" i heard my father mutter, "the maid with the girdle of golden letters." presently a smile of amusement struggled about his mouth at her bairnly imperiousness, but he came obediently enough and sat down. nevertheless he took away the heavy axe from her and said, "put this down, then, or give it to me. it is not a pretty plaything for little girls!" the small figure in white put up a tiny fat hand, and solemnly withdrew the red patch of mask from before the wide-open baby eyes. "i am not a little _girl_, remember, mannie," she said, "i am a princess and a great lady." my father bowed without rising. "i shall not forget," he said. "you should stand up and bow when i tell you that," said she. "i declare you have no more manners than the little boy in the brown blanket down-stairs." "princess," said my father, gravely, "during my life i have met a great many distinguished people of your rank; and, do you know, not one of them has ever complained of my manners before." "ah," cried the little maid, "then you have never met my father, the prince. he is terribly particular. you must go _so_" (she imitated the mincing walk of a court chamberlain), "you must hold your tails thus" (wagging her white nightrail and twisting about her head to watch the effect), "and you must retire--so!" with that she came bowing backward towards the well of the staircase, so far that i was almost afraid she would fall plump into my arms. but she checked herself in time, and without looking round or seeing me she tripped back to my father's bedside and sat down quite confidingly beside him. "now you see," cried she, "what you would have had to put up with if you had met my father. be thankful then that it is only the little princess helene that is sitting here." "i think i had the honor to meet your father," said gottfried gottfried, gravely, again removing the restless baby fingers from the red axe and laying it on the far side of the couch beyond him. "then, if you met him, did he not make you bow and bend and walk backward?" asked the playmate, looking up very sharply. "well, you see, princess," explained my father, "it was for such a very short time that i had the honor of converse with him." "ah, that does not matter," cried the maid; "often he would be most difficult when you came running in just for a moment. why, he would straighten you up and make you do your bows if you were only racing after a kitten, or, what was worse, he would call the court chamberlain to show you how to do it. but when i am grown up--ah, then!--i mean to make the chamberlain bow and walk backward; for you know he is only taking care of my princedom for me. oh, and i shall have you well taught by that time, long man. it is cold--cold. let me get into your bed and i will give you your first lesson now." so with that she skipped into my father's place and drew the great red cloak about her. "now then, first position," she commanded, clapping her hands like a sultana, "your feet together. draw back your left--so. very well! bend the knee--stupid, not that one. now your head. if i have to come to you, sir--there, that is better. well done! oh, i shall have a peck of trouble with you, i can see that. but you will do me credit before i have done with you." in a little while she tired of the lesson. "come and sit down now"--she waved her hand graciously--"here on the bed by me. though i am a princess really, i am not proud, and, as i said, i may make something of you yet." my father came forward gravely, wrapped himself in another of his red cloaks, and sat down. i shivered in my blanket on the stair-head, but i could not bear to move nor yet reveal myself. this was better than any play i had ever watched from the sparred gallery of the palace, to which gottfried gottfried took me sometimes when the mummers came from brandenburg to divert duke casimir. "my father, the great prince, took me for a long ride last night. there was much noise and many bonfires behind us as we rode away, and some of the men spoke roughly, for which my father will rate them soundly to-day. oh, they will be sick and sorry this morning when the prince takes them to task. i hope you will never make him angry," she said, laying her hand warningly on my father's; "but if ever you do, come to me and i will speak to the prince for you. you need not be bashful, for i do not mind a bit speaking to him, or indeed to any one. you will remember and not be bashful when you have something to ask?" "i will assuredly not be bashful," said my father, very solemnly. "i will come and tell you at once, little lady, if i ever have the misfortune to offend the most noble prince." then he bent his head and raised her hand to his lips. she bowed in return with exquisite reserve and hauteur; and, as it seemed to me, more with her long eyelashes than with anything else. "do you know, black man," she said--"for, you know, you are black, though you wear red clothes--i am glad you are not afraid of me. at home every one was afraid of me. why, the little children stood with their mouths open and their eyes like this whenever they saw me." and she illustrated the extremely vacant surprise into which her appearance paralyzed the infantry of her native city. "i am glad my father left me here till he should come back. do you know, i like your house. there are so many interesting things about it. that funny axe over there is nice. it looks as if it could cut things. has it ever cut anything? it is so nicely polished. how do you keep it so, and can i help you?" "i had just finished polishing and oiling it before i fell asleep," answered gottfried gottfried. "you see, little princess, i had very many things to cut with it last night." "what a pity the prince had not time to wait and see you! he is so very fond of going out into the forest with the woodman. once he took me to see the tallest tree in all our woods cut down with just such an axe as that--only it was not red. have you ever seen a high tree cut down?" "i have cut down some pretty tall ones myself!" said the duke's justicer, smiling quietly at her. "ah, but not as tall as my father! it is beautiful to see him strip his doublet and lay to. they say there is not a woodman like him in all our land." helene looked at my father, whose arms were folded in his great cloak. "but you have fine strong arms too," she said. "you look as if you could cut things. did my father ever see you cut down tall trees?" "yes," said gottfried gottfried, slowly, "once!" "and did he say that you cut well?" the little maid went on, with a strange, wilful persistence in her idea. "he neither said that i did well nor yet that i did ill," replied gottfried gottfried. "ah!" said helene, "that was just like the prince. he was afraid of flattering you and making you unfit for your work. but if he said nothing, depend upon it he was pleased." "thank you, princess," said my father. "i think he was well enough pleased." just then there came a noise that i knew--a sound which chilled every bone in my body. it was the clear ring of a steady footstep upon the pavement without. it came heavily and slowly across the yard. the outer hasp of our door clicked. the door opened, and the footstep began to ascend the stair. there was but one man in the world who dared make so free with the red tower and its occupant. our visitor was without doubt the duke casimir himself. for the first time i saw my father manifestly disconcerted. the little maid's life might be worth no more than a torn ballad if duke casimir happened to be in evil humor or had repented him of his mercy of the past night. i saw the red axe look aimlessly about for a hiding-place. there was a niche round which certain cloaks and coverlets were hung. "come in here," he said, abruptly. "why should i hide, whoever comes?" asked the little playmate, indignantly. "it is the duke casimir," whispered my father, hurriedly, stirred as i had never seen him. "come hither quickly!" but the little maid struck an attitude, and tapped the floor with her foot. "i will not," she said. "what is the duke casimir to me that am a princess? if he is good, i will give him my hand to kiss!" but at this point i rushed from the ladder-head, and, taking her in my arms, i sped up the turret stairs with her out upon the leads, my hand over her mouth all the time. and as i ran i could hear the duke trampling upward not twenty steps in the rear. i opened the trap-door and went out into the clear morning sunshine. and only the turn of the stair prevented casimir from seeing me go up the narrow turret corkscrew with my little white burden. then i heard voices beneath, and i knew, as if i had seen it, that my father stood up straight at the salute. presently the voices lowered, and i knew also that the duke casimir was unbending as he did to none else in his realm save to the hereditary justicer of the wolfmark. but i had my hands full with the little princess. i dared not go down the stairs. i dared not for a moment take my palm off her mouth. for as like as not she would call out for the duke casimir to come and deliver her from my cruelty. so i stuck to my post, even though i knew that i angered her. the morning was warm for a winter's day in thorn, and i pulled open my brown blanket and wrapped her coseyly within it, chilling myself to the bone as i did so. it seemed ages before the duke strode down the stair again, and took his way across the yard, with my father, in black, after him. for so he was used to dress when he went to the hall of judgment, to be present and assist at the discovery of crime by means of the minor and extreme questions. then, so soon as they were fairly gone, i took my hand from the mouth of the little playmate, and carried her down-stairs; which as soon as i had done, she slapped my face soundly. "i will never, never speak to you any more so long as i live, rude boy--common street brat!" she said, biting her under-lip in ineffectual, petulant anger. "listen, never as long as i live! so do not think it! upstart, so to treat a lady and a princess!" and with that she burst into tears. chapter v the blood-hounds are fed but the princess-playmate spoke to me again. i was even permitted to call her helene. me she addressed uniformly as "hugo gottfried." but neither her name nor mine interfered with our plays, which were wholly happy and undisturbed by quarrelling--at least, so long as i did exactly what she wished me to do. on these terms life was made easy for me from that day forth. no longer did i wistfully watch the children of the street from the lonely window of the red tower. they might spit all day on the harled masonry at the foot of the wall for aught i cared. i no longer desired their society. had i not that of a real princess, and if my companion was inclined to be a little wayward and domineering--why, was not that the very birthright of all princesses? helene and i had great choice of plays within the walls of the solemn castle. so long as we kept to the outer yard and did not intrude upon the duke's side of the enclosure, we were free to come and go at our pleasure. for even casimir himself was soon well accustomed to see us run about like puppies, slapping and tumbling, and minded us no more than the sparrows that pecked in the litter of the stable-yard. indeed, i think he had forgotten all about the strange home-coming of the little playmate. the kennels of the blood-hounds especially were full of fascination for us. that fatal deep-mouthed clamoring at morn and even drew us like a magnet. helene, in particular, never tired of gazing between the chinks of the fence of cloven pine-wood at the great russet-colored beasts with their flashing white teeth, over which the heavy dewlaps fell. and when my father, with his red livery upon him and a loaded whip in his hand, once a day opened the tall, narrow door and went within, we thought him brave as a god. then the way the fierce beasts shrank cowering from him, the fashion in which they crouched on their bellies and heaved their shoulders up without taking their hind quarters off the ground, equally delighted and surprised us. "your father is almost as great a man as _my_ father," said the princess helene, who, however, was rapidly forgetting her dignity. indeed, already it had become little more than a fairy-tale to her. and that was perhaps as well. one day, when i was about thirteen, or a little older, my father came out with a new short mantle in his hand, red like his own. "come hither, hugo gottfried!" he said, for he had learned the trick of the name from helene. i went to him tardy-foot, greatly wondering. "here, chick," he said, in his kindly fashion, "it is time you were beginning to learn your duties. come with me to-day into the kennels of the blood-hounds." but i hung back, shifting the new mantle uneasily on my shoulders, yet not daring to throw it off. "i do not want to go, father," said i, edging away in the direction of the playmate. "what, lad!" he cried, slapping me on the shoulder; "they will not hurt thee with that cloak on. they know their masters better--as their fathers and mothers knew our fathers. have we, the gottfrieds, been the hereditary justicers of the wolfmark for six hundred years to be afraid now of the blood-hounds that are kept to hunt the duke's enemies and to feed on the duke's carrion?" "it is not that i am afraid of the dogs, father," i made answer to him. "i would quickly enough go among them, if only you would let me go without this scarlet cloak." my father laughed heartily and loudly--that is, for him. a quick ear might have heard him quite three feet away. "silly one!" he exclaimed, "do you not know that even the duke casimir dares not set foot in the kennels--no, nor i myself, save in the garb they know and fear--as indeed do all men in this state." still i hung my head down and scraped the gravel with my foot. "haste thee," said my father, roughly. "once it is permitted to a man to be afraid; to fear twice, and fear the same thing, is to be a coward. and no gottfried ever yet was a coward. let not my hugo be the first." then i took courage and spoke to him. "i do not wish to be executioner," i said; "i would rather ride a-soldiering far away, and be in the drive of battle and the front of danger. let me be a soldier and a man-at-arms, my father. i am sure i could become a war-captain and a great man!" gottfried gottfried stared blankly at me, and his blue-black hair rose in a crest--not with anger, of which he never showed any to me, but in sheer astonishment. he continued to rub it with his hand, as if in this manner he might possibly reach an explanation of the mystery. "not wish to be hereditary executioner? why, are you not a gottfried, the only son of a gottfried, the only son of his father, who also was a gottfried and hereditary red axe of the wolfmark? why, lad, before there was a duke at all in the wolfsberg, before he and his folk came out of the land of the poles to fight with the ritterdom of the north, we, the gottfrieds of thorn, wore the sign of the red axe and dwelt apart from all the men of the mark. for fourteen generations have we worn it!" "but," said i, sadly, "the very children on the street hate me and spit on me as i pass; the maids will not so much as speak to me. they scyrry in-doors and slam the wicket in my face. think you that is pleasant? and when as a lad of older years i set out to woo, whither shall i betake me? for what door is open to a gottfried, to him who carries the sign of the red axe?" "ah, lad," said my father, patiently, "life comes and life goes. it is nigh on to forty years since even thus my father held out the curt mantle for me. and even so said i. time eats up all things but the hearts of men. and they abide ever the same--yearning for that which they cannot have, but nevertheless accepting with a sharp relish the things which are decreed to them; even as do the duke's carrion-eaters yonder, which, by-the-way, are waiting most impatiently for their meal while we thus stand arguing." he was about to move away when his eye fell on helene. at sight of her he seemed to remember my last words, about going a-wooing. he considered a moment and then said: "you are young yet to think of courting, hugo, but have no fear either for the love-making or the wedding. sweet maids a many shall surely come hither. why, there is one growing up yonder that will prove as fair as any. i tell you the gottfrieds have married great ladies in their time--dames and dainty damsels. they have had princesses to be their sweethearts ere now. come, then, lad--no more words, but follow me." and for that time i went after him obediently enough, but all the same my heart was rebellious within me. and i determined that if i had to ran to the ends of the earth, i should never be hereditary executioner nor yet handle the broadaxe on the bared necks of my fellow-men. we went in among the dogs--great, lank, cowering, tooth-slavering brutes. i followed my father till we came to the feeding-troughs. then he bade me to stand where i was till he should set their meat in order. so he vanished behind, the barriers. then, when he had prepared the beasts' horrid victual, though i saw not what, he opened the narrow gate, and the howling, clambering throng broke helter-skelter for the troughs, cracking and crunching the thigh-bones, tearing at the flesh, and growling at one another till the air rang with the ear-piercing din. and outside the little helene flung herself frantically at the split pines of the enclosure, crying, bitterly, "take off that hateful mantle, hugo gottfried! i hate it--i hate it! take it off!" my father stood behind the dogs, whose arched and bristling backs i could just manage to see over the fence of wooden spars, and dealt the whip judicially among them--at once as a warning to encroachers and a punishment for greed. then all unharmed we went out, and as soon as my father had gone up to his garret-room in the tower, i tore the red cloak off and trampled it in the dirt of the yard. then i went and hid it in a little blind window of the tower opposite the foot of the ladder which led to my father's room. for, because of my father's anger, i dared not destroy the badge of shame altogether, as both helene and i wished to do. day by day the little playmate (for so i was now allowed to call her--the princesshood being mostly forgotten) grew great and tall, her fair, almost lint-white hair darkening swiftly to coppery gold with the glint of ripe wheat upon it. old hanne followed her about with eyes at once wistful and doubtful. sometimes she shook her head sadly. and i wondered if ever the poor old stumbling crone, wizened like a two-year-old winter apple, had been as light and gay a thing as our dainty rose-leaf girl. one day i was laboring at the art of learning to write, along with friar laurence--a scrawny, ill-favored monk, who, for good deeds or misdeeds, i know not which, was warded in a cell opening out of the lower or garden court of the wolfsberg, when i heard helene dance down the stairs to the kitchen of the red tower. "hannchen!" she cried, merrily, "come and teach me that trick of the broidering needle. i never can do it but i prick myself. nevertheless, i can fashion the red axe almost as clearly as the pattern, and far finer to see." friar laurence raised his great, softly solid face, blue about the jowls and padded beneath the eyes with craft. "that little maid is over much with old hanne," he said, as if he meditated to himself; "she will teach her other prickings than the needle-play. the witch-pricking at the images of wax was what brought her here. aye, and had it not been for your father wanting a house-keeper, the holy office would have burned the hag, and sent her to hell, flaming like a torch of pine knots." now this was the first i had heard with exactness of the matter of old hanne's having been a witch. and now that i knew it for certain i began to imagine all sorts of unholy things about the poor wretch, and grew greatly jealous of helene being so often in the kitchen. whereas before i had thought nothing at all about the matter, save that hannchen was a dull, pleasant, muttering, shuffling-footed old woman, who could make rare good cream-cakes when you got her in the humor. and that was not often. chapter vi duke casimir's familiar i mind it was some tale of years later that i got my first glimpse below the surface of things in the town of thorn, and especially in the castle of the wolfsberg. duke casimir continued to move, as of yore, in cavalcade through his subject city. the burghers bowed as obsequiously as ever when they could not avoid meeting him. there were the old lordly perquisitions--thunderings at iron-studded doors, battering-rams set between posts, and the clouds of dust flying from the driven lintels, the screams of maids, the crying of women, a stray corpse or two flung on to the street, and then the procession as before, arms and legs, with a mercenary soldier between each pair, fore and aft. all this was repeated and repeated, till the dull monotony of tyranny began to wear through the long teutonic patience to the under-quick of wendish madness. it chanced that one night i could not sleep. it was no matter of maids that kept me awake, though by this time i was sixteen or seventeen and greatly grown--running, it is true, mostly to knees and elbows, but nevertheless long of limb and stark of bone, needing only the muscle laid on in lumps to be as strong as any. i had begun to steal out at nights too--not on any ill errand, but that i might have the company of those about my own age--'prentice lads and the wilder sons of burghers, who had no objection to my parentage, and thought it rather a fine thing to be hand-in-glove with the son of the red axe of thorn. and there we played single-stick, smite-jacket, skittles, bowls--aye, and drank deep of the city ale--the very thinnest brew that was ever passed by a bribed and muzzy ale-taster. all this was mightily pleasant to me. for so soon as they knew that i had determined to be a soldier, and not the red axe of the wolfmark, they complimented me greatly on my spirit. well, as i lay awake and waited for the chance to slip down a rope from my bedroom window, whose foot should i hear on the turret stairs but that of my lord duke casimir! my very heart quailed within me. for the fear of him sat heavy on every man and woman in the land. and as for the children--why, as far as the baltic shore and the land of the last ritters, mothers frightened their bairns with the black duke of the wolfsberg and his red axe. so now the duke and the red axe were to be in conference--as indeed had happened nearly every day and night since i could remember. so that people called my father the duke's private devil, his familiar spirit, his evil genius. but i knew other of it--and this night, of all nights in the year, i was to know better still. it was a summer midnight--not like the one i told of when the story began, white with snow and glittering with the keen polish of frost. but a soft, still night, drowsy yet sleepless, with an itch of thunder tingling in the air--and, indeed, already the pulsing, uncertain glow of sheet-lightning coming and going at long intervals along the south. i crouched and nestled in the hole in the wall where i had long ago hidden the hated red cloak, pulling my knees up uncomfortably to my chin. and great lumps of bone they were, knotted as if a smith had made them in the rough with a welding hammer and had forgotten to reduce them with the file afterwards. at that time i was thoroughly ashamed of my knees. but no matter for them now. duke casimir passed in and shut the door. "gottfried," i heard him say, "i am a dead man!" these words from the great duke casimir startled me, and though i knew well enough that michael texel, the burgomeister's son, was waiting for me by the corner of the jew's port, i decided that, as i might never hear duke casimir declare his secretest soul again, i should even bide where i was; and that was in the crevice of the wall among the old clothes, which gave off such a faint, musty, sleepy smell i could scarcely keep awake. but the duke's next words effectually roused me. "a dead man!" repeated casimir. "i have not a friend in all the realm of the mark besides yourself. and there is none of all that take my bounty or eat my bread that is sorry for me. see here," he said, querulously, "twice have i been stricken at to-day--once a tile fell from a roof and dinted the crown of my helmet, and the second time a young man struck at my breast with a dagger." "did he wound you, duke casimir?" asked my father, speaking for the first time, but in a strangely easy and equal voice, not with the distance and deference which he showed to his lord in public. "nay, gottfried," replied duke casimir; "but he bruised my shirt of mail into my breast." and i heard plainly enough the clinking of the rings of chain-armor as the duke showed his hurt to my father. presently i heard his voice again. "and the bishop has touched me in a new place," he said. "he declares that he will lay his interdict upon me and my people--ill enough to hold in hand as they are even now. when that is done they will rise in rebellion. my very men-at-arms and knights i cannot depend upon--only upon you and the black riders." "in the matter of the bishop's interdict, or in other matters, do you mean that you can trust my counsel, duke casimir?" asked my father. "'tis in the burial of the dead that the shoe will pinch first with these burghers of thorn and among our soldiers at the wolfsberg. for mass, indeed, they care not a dove's dropping--but that the corpse should be carried to a dog's grave, that they cannot away with. red axe, i tell you we shall have the state of the mark about our ears in the slipping of a hound's leash--and as for me, i know not what i shall do." "listen, and i will counsel you, duke casimir! care you not though the east wind brought bishop peters whirling over the mark, as many as the january snowflakes that come to us from muscovy. i, gottfried gottfried, tell you what to do. in every parish of the mark there is a parson. every clerk of them hath a presbytery, in which he dwells with those that are abiding with him. bid you the soldiers that are obedient to you to carry all the corpses of the dead to the presbytery, and leave them there under guard. then let us see whether or no the parsons will give them burial. what think you of the counsel, duke casimir?" i could hear the duke rise and pace across the floor to where my father sat on his bed. and by the silence i knew that the two men were shaking hands. "red axe," said the duke, much moved, "of a truth you are a great man--none like you in the dukedom. these beard-wagging, chain-jingling gentry i have small notion of. and would you but accept it, i would give you to-morrow the collar of gold which befits the chancellor of the mark. none deserves to wear it so well as thou." my father laughed a low scornful laugh. "because i bid you teach the parsons their own religion, am i to be made chancellor of the mark? a great gray wolf out of the forest were as suitable a chancellor of the mark as gottfried gottfried, the fourteenth hereditary red axe of thorn!" then i heard him reach over his bed for something. i stole out of the hole in the wall and crouched down till my eyes rested at the great latchet hole through which the tang of leather to lift the bolt ordinarily goes. i could see my father sitting on his bed and the red axe lying across his knees. he took it in hand, dangling it like an infant. he caressed it as he spoke, and ran his thumb lovingly along the shining edge. "ah," he said, "my beauty, 'tis you and not your master they should make high chancellor of this realm. 'tis you that have held the power of life and death, and laid the spirit of rebellion any time these twenty years. and well indeed wouldst thou look with a red robe about thee" (here he reached for a cloak that swung from the rafters contiguous to his hand); "a noble presence wouldst thou be in a tun-bellied robe and a collar of shining gold! bravely, great state's chancellor of the wolfmark, wouldst thou then lead the processions and preside at the diets of justice--as indeed thou dost mostly as it is." and he made the red axe bow like a puppet in his hands as he swept the cloak of red out behind the handle. i could see duke casimir now. he had drawn up a stool and sat opposite my father, with his elbows on his knees. one hand was stroking the side of his head, and his haughtiness had all fallen from him like a forgotten overmantle. he looked another man from the cruel, relentless prince who had ridden so sternly at the head of his men-at-arms and looked so callously on at the death of men and the yet more bitter agony of women. he stared at the floor, absorbed in his own gloomy thoughts, while my father regarded him with his eyes as though he had been a lad in his 'prenticing who needed encouragement to persevere. "duke," he said, steadily, "you have borne the rule many years, and i have stood behind you. have i ever advised you wrong? make peace with the young man, your nephew; he is now only the count von reuss, but one day he will be duke otho. and if he be rightly guided he may be a brave ruler yet. but if not, and he gather in his hand the various seditions and confused turbulences in the dukedom, why, a worse thing may befall." "you advise me," said the duke, lifting his head and looking at his justicer, "to recall my nephew and risk all that threatened us ere he fled to the prince of plassenburg--karl, the miller's son." gottfried gottfried continued to run his thumb to and fro along the edge of the red axe. "even so," he replied, without raising his head; "give him the command of the black riders of the guard, who, as it is, adore him. let him try his 'prentice hand on bamberg and reichenan. and if he offend, why, then it will be time to apply for further advice to this chancellor in the red robe, whose face so shines with wisdom." the duke rose. "well, on your head be it!" he said. "nay," said my father, "i but advise, it is for you to decide, my lord. if duke casimir sees a better way of it, why, then the words of his servant are but as the tunes that the east wind whistles through the key-hole." and at the mention of key-holes i imagined that i saw my father's eyes rest on the latchet crevice. so i bethought me that it was time for me to be retiring to bed. to my room, therefore, i went straightway, tiptoeing on the points of my hose. and with ears cocked i heard my father attend the duke to the door, and on across the yard, lest any night-wandering traitor should take a fancy to make a hole in the back of duke casimir of the wolfmark. presently came my father in again, and i heard his foot climb steadily up to my room. the door opened, and never was i in so deep a sleep. he turned down the coverlet to see that i was undressed--but that i had seen to. whereat he departed fully satisfied. nevertheless this interview left me with a great feeling of insecurity. if the duke casimir were thus full of fears, doubts, misgivings, whence came the fierce and cruel courage with which he dominated his liege burghers and harassed the country round about for a hundred leagues? the cunning of a weak man? say, rather, the contrivance of a strong servant to hide the frailty of a weak master. then first it was that i saw that my father gottfried gottfried was the true ruler of the wolfmark, and that the man who had carried me on his shoulders and played with the little helene was--at least, so long as duke casimir lived--the greatest man in all the dukedom and first councillor of state, whether the matter were one of peasant or kaiser. chapter vii i become a traitor much was i flattered, and very naturally so, when michael texel made so manifest a work about pleasing me and having me for his comrade. for though i was now nineteen, he was five years my senior, and his father, being both burgomeister and chief brewer, was of the first consideration in the town of thorn. "hugo," said michael texel, "there be many lads in the city that are well, and well enough, but none of them please me like you. it may be that your keeping so greatly to yourself has made you passing thoughtful for your age. and whereas these street-corner scraps of rascaldom care for nothing but the pleasing of pothouse gretchens, we that are men think of the concerns of the state, and make us ready for the great things that shall one day come to pass in thorn and the wolfmark." i nodded my head as if i knew all about it. but, indeed, in my heart, i too preferred the way of the other lads--as the favor of maids, and other lighter matters. but since one so great and distinguished as michael texel declared that such things were but useless gauds, unworthy of thought, i considered that i had better keep my tongue tight-reined as to my own desires. i shall now tell the manner of my introduction to the famous society of the white wolf. from the very first time that ever i saw him, michael texel had much to say about a certain wondrous league of the young men of thorn and the wolfmark. he told me how that every man with a heart in him was enrolled among them: the sons of the rich and great, like himself; the sons of the folk of no account (like myself, doubtless); the soldiers of the duke--nay, it was whispered very low in my ear, that even the young count otho von reuss, the duke's nephew and heir, had taken high rank in the society. i asked michael what were the declared objects of the association. "see," he cried, grandly, with a wave of his hand, "this city of thorn. it lies there under the wolfsberg. with a few cannon like paul grete, the margrave's treasure, duke casimir could lay our houses in ruins. therefore, in the meantime, let us not break out against duke casimir. but one day there will come an end to the tyrant duke. tiles will not always break harmless on helmets, nor the point of steel always be turned aside by links of chain-armor. as i say, an hour will come for casimir as for other malefactors. and then--why, there is the young otho. and he has sworn the vows of the white wolf to make of thorn a free city with a stadtholder--one with power and justice, chosen freely by the people, as in other baltic cities. is there a man of us that has not been plundered?--a maid that does not go in fear of her honor while casimir reigns? shall this thing be? not surely forever. the white wolf shall see to it. she has many children, and they are all dear to her. let the duke casimir take his count with that!" so, as was natural, i became after that more than ever eager to join this most notable league of the white wolf. one night i had sat late talking to the little playmate, who was now growing a great maid and a beautiful--none like her, so far as i could see, in all the city of thorn--a circumstance which made me more ready to be of michael texel's opinion with regard to any flighty and irresponsible courting of the maids of the town. for had i not the fairest and the best of them all at home close by me? on this night of which i speak it was almost bedtime when i heard a knocking at the outer port, and went to open the wicket. and lo! there was michael texel come all the way to the red tower for me, though it was by his own trysting that we had agreed to meet at the inn of the white swan. nevertheless there he was. so there was nothing for it but to bring him in. i presented him in form to the little playmate, who had quite forgotten her princess-ship by this time in the sweetness of being our house-angel of the red tower. i saw in a moment that michael texel was astonished at helene's beauty, as indeed well he might be. but she, on her part, hardly so much as glanced at him, though he was a tall and well-grown youth enough, with nothing remarkable about him save pale hair of much the same color as his complexion, and a cut on one side of his upper lip which in certain lights gave him a sneering expression. but to helene he spoke very carefully and courteously, asking her whether she ever went to any of the guild entertainments for which thorn was famous. and upon her saying no--that my father did not think it fitting, michael said, "i was sure of it; none could forget if once they had seen. for never in the history of thorn has so fair a face graced burgher dance or guild festival, nor yet has a foot so light been shaken on the green in any of our summer outgoings." now this was well enough said in its way, but only what i myself had often thought. not that the playmate took any notice of his words or was in any degree elated, but kept her head bent demurely on her work all the time michael texel was with us. presently there entered to us, thus sitting, gottfried gottfried, who had come striding gloomily across the yard in his black suit from the hall of judgment, and at his entrance michael instantly became awkward, nervous, and constrained. "i must be going," he said; "the burgomeister bade me be early within doors to-night." "is the noble burgomeister lodging at the white swan?" asked my father, with his usual simple directness, as he went hither and thither ordering his utensils without heeding the visitor. "no," said michael, startled out of his equanimity; "he bides in his own house by the rath-house--the sign is that of the three golden tuns." the red axe nodded. "i had forgotten," he said, indifferently, and stood by the great polished platter-frame over the sideboard, dropping oil on the screws of a certain cunning instrument which he was wont to use in the elucidation of the greater question. i could see michael turning yellow and green, but whether with anger or fear i could not tell. helene, who loved not the tools of my father, had, upon his entrance, promptly gathered up her white cobwebs and lace, and had betaken herself to her own room. "i must be bidding you a fortunate evening and wishing you an untroubled sleep," said michael, with studious politeness, rising to his feet. yet he did not immediately move away, but stood awkwardly fingering his hat, as if he wished to ask a question and dared not. "it is indeed a fine place for a sound sleep," said my father, nodding his head grimly, "this same upper courtyard of the wolfsberg. there are few that have once slept here, my noble young sir, who have ever again complained of wakefulness." at this moment the hounds in the kennels raised their fierce clamor. and, without waiting for another word, michael texel took himself off down the stairs of the red tower. nor did he regain his composure till i had opened the wicket and ushered him out upon the street. then, as the postern clicked and the familiar noises of the city fell on his ear--the slapping flat-footed lasses crying "fried fish," the sellers of "hot oyster soup," the yelling venders of crout and salad--michael gradually picked up his courage, and we proceeded down the high street of thorn to the retired hostel of the white swan. "frederika," he cried, as he entered, "are the lads here yet?" "aye, sir, aye--a full muster," answered the old mild-faced hostess, who was busily employed knitting a stocking of pale blue in the porch, looking for all the world like the sainted mother of a family of saints. michael texel walked straight through a passage and down a narrow alley, the beautiful apple-cheeked old woman following us with her eyes as we went. our feet rang suddenly on hollow pavement as we stooped to enter a low door in the side wall, almost concealed from observation by an overgrowth of ivy. "halt!" cried a voice from the dusk ahead of us, and instantly there was a naked sword at each of our breasts. we heard also the click of swords meeting behind us. i turned my head, and lo! there at my very shoulder i saw the gleam of crossed steel. my heart beat a little faster; but, after all, i had been brought up with sights and sounds more terrible than these, and, more than that, i had within the hour seen michael texel, the high-priest of these mysteries, turn all manner of rainbow colors at the howling of our blood-hounds and a simple question from my father. so i judged that these mighty terrifications could portend no great ill to one who was the son of the formidable red axe of the wolfsberg. sometimes it is a mighty comfortable thing to have a father like mine. i did not hear the question which was asked of my guide, but i heard the answer. "first in charge," said michael texel, "and with him one of the wolf's litter." so we were allowed to proceed. but in the bare room which received us i was soon left alone, for, with another question as briefly asked and answered, the click of swords crossed and uncrossed before and behind him, and the screechy grind of bolts, michael passed out of sight within. while as for me, i was left to twirl my thumbs, and wish that i had stayed at home to watch the nimble fingers of the playmate busy at her sewing, and the rounded slenderness of her sweet body set against the light of evening, which would at that hour be shining through the windows of the red tower. nevertheless, it was no use repining or repenting. here was i, hugo gottfried, the son of the red axe, at the inner port of a treasonable society. it was certainly a curious position; but even thus early i had begun to consider myself a sort of amateur of strange situations, and i admit that i found a certain stimulus in the thought that in an hour i might have ceased to be heir to the office of hereditary justicer of the ducal province of the wolfmark. presently through the door there came one clothed in the long white garments of a brother of pity, the eye-holes dark and cavernous, and the eyes shining through the mask with a look as if the wearer were much more frightened than those who looked upon him. "child of the white wolf," he said, in a shaking voice, "would you dare all and become one of the companions of the mysteries?" but the accent of his voice struck me, the son of gottfried gottfried, the dweller in the enclosure of the red tower, as painfully hollow and pretentious. i had looked upon real terror, even plumbed some of the grimmer mysteries of existence, and i had no fears. on the contrary, my spirits rose, and i declared my readiness to follow this paltering, knock-kneed brother of pity. we stopped and went through another narrow passage, in the midst of which we were stayed by thin bars, which were shot before and behind us, and by a cold point of iron laid lightly against my brow. in this constrained position my eyes were bandaged by unseen fingers. the starveling brother of the wolf took me by the hand and led me on. then in another moment came the sense of lights and wider spaces, the rustle of many people settling down to attention; and i knew that i was in the presence of the famous secret tribunal of the white wolf, which had been set up in defiance of the authority of the duke and against the laws of the mark. chapter viii at the bar of the white wolf "who waits at the bar with you, brother?" said a voice which, though disguised, carried with it a suggestion of michael texel. the announcement was made by the officer who brought me in. "'tis one hugo gottfried, son of gottfried gottfried, hereditary executioner to the tyrant." i could hear the thrill of interest which pervaded the assembly at the announcement. and for the first time i thought almost well of the honorable office to which i had been born. "and what do you here, son of the red axe, in the place of the sacred fehme of the white wolf?" the question was the first addressed directly to me. "i came," said i, as straightforwardly and simply as i could, "with michael texel, because he asked me to come. and also because i heard that there was good ale to be had for the drinking at the white swan of thorn, where we are now met." a low moan of horror went about the assembly at the frivolity of my answer, which plainly was not what had been expected. "daring mocker!" cried a stern voice, "you speak as one unacquainted with the dread power of the white wolf, which has within her grasp the keys of life and death--and has suckled great empires at her dugs. beware, tempt not the all-powerful to exercise her right of axe and cord!" "i do not tempt any," answered i, boldly enough--yet with no credit to myself, for i could have laughed aloud at all this hollow pretence, having been brought up within the range of that which was no mockery. "i am willing to become a loyal member of the society of the white wolf for the furtherance of any honest purpose. all things, i admit, are not well within the body politic. let us, in the city of thorn, strive after the same rights as are possessed by the free cities of the north. if that be your object, the son of the red axe is with you--with you to the death, if need be. but for god's sake let us take off these masks and set ourselves down to the tankard and the good brown bread with less mummery--a sham of which others have the reality." "peace, vain, ignorant fly!" cried the same speaker, one with a young voice, which he was trying, as i thought, to make grave and old; "terror must first strike your heart, or you cannot sit down with the society of the white wolf. you stand convicted of blasphemy against this our ancient and honorable institution--blasphemy which must be suddenly and terribly punished. hugo gottfried, i command you--make your head ready for the striker. bare the neck and bow the knee!" but i stood as erect as i could, though i felt hands laid upon my shoulders and the breathing of many close about me. "knights and gentlemen," said i, "i am not afraid to die, if need be. but ere you do your will upon me, i would fain tell you a tale and give you a warning. here i am one among many. i am also of your opinion, if your opinion be against tyranny. but for god's sake seek it as wise men and not as posturing knaves. as for michael texel--" "name not the mortal names of men in this place of the white wolf!" said the same grave voice. at which i laughed a little. "if you will tell me what to say instead in the language of the immortals, i will call my friend by that name. till then michael texel, i say--" i was pulled by force down upon my knees. "your pleasure, gentlemen," said i, as coolly as i might; "you may do with me as you will, but give me at least leave to speak. your meetings here at the white swan are known to the red axe, my father, and therefore to the duke casimir." a low groan filled the wide hall. i could feel that my words touched them on the raw. "also this very night i saw one of your noblest members tremble with alarm--for the society, not for himself, i warrant--when gottfried gottfried spake lightly of your meetings here as of a thing well known. i am not afraid of my life. in the sight of my father i went forth from the red tower in the company of michael texel. he knew of your place of meeting. and well i wot that if i am not within the precincts of the red tower by midnight, the officers of duke casimir and his judgment hall will come knocking at these doors of yours. i ask you, are you ready to open?" "rash mortal!" said the voice again to me, "you mistake the white wolf if you think that she or her children are afraid of any tyrant or of his officers. you yourself shall die, as has been appointed. for none may speak lightly of the white wolf and live to tell the tale!" "so be it," i replied, calmly; "but first let me recount to you the story of hans pulitz. not for the hiding of a belt of gold, as men say, was he condemned. but because he had plotted against the life of the duke and of his minister of justice, the red axe. would you know what happened? i will tell you briefly: "ten men, accounted strong, held hans pulitz. ten men could scarce lead him through the court-yard to the chair on which sat duke casimir. i saw him judged. was he not of the white wolf? did the white wolf save him? have her teeth ravened for those that condemned him? or have you that are of that noble society kept close in your halls and played out your puppet shows, while poor hans, who was faithful to you to the end, went--whither?" a sough of angry whispering filled the room, rising presently into a roar of indignation. "traitor! murderer! spy!" they cried. "nay," said i, "'fore god, hugo gottfried was more sorry for the poor deceived slave than any here. for, in the presence of the duke, i cried out against the horror. but being no more than a boy, i was stricken to silence by the hand of a man-at-arms. then i saw hans pulitz cast loose. i saw him seized by one man--even by the red axe--raised high in the air, and flung over the barriers among the ravening and leaping blood-hounds. i heard the hideous noises that followed--the yells of a man fighting for his life in a place of fiends. i shut my ears with my hands, yet could i not shut out that clangor of hell. i shut my eyes, closer than you have shut them for me now. i fled, i knew not where, terror pursuing me. and yet i saw, and do now see, the duke sitting with crossed hands as if at prayers, and the red axe standing motionless before the men-at-arms, pointing with one hand to the duke's vengeance! shall i tell you now why i am not afraid?" after hearing these words it was small wonder that they cried yet more against me. "death to the traitor--bloody death--like that which he has rejoiced in!" "nay, my friends," said i, "it was because of the death of hans pulitz and that of others that i would strengthen the hands of liberty and make an end of tyranny. but not, an' it please you, with child's plays and the cast-off garmentry of tyrants. what can you do to me in the inn of the swan that can equal the end of poor hans pulitz--of whom they found neither bone nor hair, took up no fragment of skin or nail, save the golden chain only, tooth-scarred and beslavered, which he wore about his waist. and the belt you may see for yourselves any day if you give me your company within the red tower." now, as may well be understood, if the society of the white wolf was angry before, it was both angry and frightened now, which is a thing infinitely more dangerous. "let him die straightway! let the taunting blasphemer die!" they cried. and again, for the third time, the hollow voice pronounced my doom. "it is well," i shouted amid the din. "it is thrice well. but look ye to it. by the morrow's morn there shall not be one of you in your beds--aye, and those whose heads are rolled in the dust shall count yourselves the fortunate ones. for they at least will escape the fate of poor hans pulitz." now sorely do i wonder, at this distance of time, that they did not slay me in good earnest. but i have learned from that night in the inn of the swan that when defiance has to be made, it is ever best to deal in no half-measures. and, besides, coming from the red tower of the wolfsberg, their precious society of the white wolf, with its mummery and flummery, filled me with a hot contempt. "kneel down!" cried the judge; "lay your head on the block! it has often been wet with the blood of traitors, never with that of a blacker traitor than hugo gottfried!" so with that those about me thrust me forward and forced my head down. i was obliged to clasp the block with both my hands. as i did so i felt it well all over. then i laughed aloud, with a laugh that must have appeared strange and mad to them. for this their mock tribunal could not deceive one who had been brought up within the hum of judges of life and death, and with a father who as his daily business propounded the greater and lesser questions. and their precious block, as smooth as sawn and polished timber, with never a notch from side to side, could not take in hugo gottfried, who had made a playmate and a printed book of the worn blocks of a hundred executions--to whom each separate chip made by the red axe had been a text for gottfried gottfried to expatiate upon concerning his own prowess and that of his fathers. nevertheless, it certainly gave me a strange turn when ice-cold steel was laid across my neck-bone. it burned like fire, turning my very marrow to water, and for the first time i wished myself well out of it. but only for a moment. for there came a loud rattling of arms without, a thunderous and insistent knocking at the door, which disturbed the assembly. "open, in the name of the duke!" cried, clamorously, many fierce voices without. i heard the rush and scuffle of a multitude of feet. the hands that had held me abruptly loosened their grip, and i was free. i raised my bound wrists to my brow and tried to push the bandage back. but it was firmly tied, and it was but dimly that i saw the hall of the white wolf filled with the armed men of the duke's body-guard, boisterously laughing, with their hands on their sides, or kicking over the mock throne covered with white cloth, the coils of rope, the axes of painted wood, and the other properties of this very faint-hearted fehmgericht. "but what have we here?" they cried, when they came upon me, bound and helpless, with the bandage only half pushed off my eyes. "heave him up on his pins, and let us look at him," quoth a burly guardsman. "i trust he is no one of any account. i want not to see another such job done on a poor scheming knave like that last, when the duke casimir settled accounts with hans pulitz!" "ha! ha!" laughed his companion; "a rare jest, i' faith; 'tis the son of our own red axe--a prisoner of the white wolf and ready for the edge. we came not a moment too soon, youngster. what do you here?" "why," said i, "it chanced that i spoke slightingly of their precious nonsense of a white wolf. but they dared not do me harm. they were all more frightened than a giggling maiden is of the dark, when no man is with her." then i saw my father at the end of the hall. he came towards me, clad in his black tribunal costume. "well," he said, quaintly, like one that has a jest with himself which he will not tell, "have you had enough of marching hand-in-glove with treason? i wot this mummery of the white wolf will serve you for some time." i was proceeding to tell him all that had passed, but he patted me on the shoulder. "i heard it all, lad, and you did well enough--save for your windiness about liberty and the free cities--which, as i see it, are by far the worst tyrannies. but, after all, you spoke as became a gottfried, and one day, i doubt not, you shall worthily learn the secrets, bear the burden, and enlarge the honors of the fourteen red axes of the wolfmark." chapter ix a hero carries water in the sun with all which adventuring and bepraisement back and forth, as those who know nineteen will readily be assured, i went home no little elated. for had i not come without dishonor through a new and remarkable experience, and even defied the mystery of the white wolf, at perhaps more risk to myself than at the time i had imagined. for, as i found afterwards, there were those among the company at the swan that night of sterner mould and more serious make than michael texel. but, at all events, home to the red tower i strode, whistling, and in a very cocksure humor. the little helene was going about her house duties silently and distantly when i came down from my turret room on the forenoon of the morrow. she did not come forward to be kissed, as had been her wont every morning ever since i carried her, a little forlorn maid, up to mine own bed that chill winter's night. "a good-morrow, little playmate!" i bade her, gayly. for my heart was singing a good tune, well pleased with itself and willing to be at amity with every one else--counting indeed, as is the wont of brisk hearts, a gloomy face little less than a personal insult. but the maid did not answer, neither indeed did she seem to have heard me. "i bade you fair good-morning, helene," said i, again, stopping in my walk across to my breakfast platter. but still she was silent, casting sand upon the tiled floor and sweeping it up with great vigor, all her fair body swaying and yielding to the grace, of movement at every stroke. strange, it seemed she was now just about the age when i developed those nodosities of knee and elbow which troubled me so sore, but yet there was nothing of the kind about her, only delicate slimness and featly rounded grace. i went over to her, and would have set my palm affectionately on her shoulder. but she escaped, just as a bird does when you try to put your hand upon it. it does not seem to fly off. it simply is not there when your hand reaches the place. "let be," she said, looking upon me haughtily. "by what right do you seek to touch me, sir?" "sweetheart," said i, following her, and much astonished, "because i have always done it and you never objected before." "when i was a child, and when you loved me as a child, it was well. but now, when i am neither a child nor yet do you love me, i would have you cease to treat me as you have done." "you are indeed no longer a child, but the fairest of sweet maids," i made answer. "i will do nothing you do not wish me to do. for, hearken to me, helene, my heart is bound up in you, as indeed you know. but as to the second word of accusation--that i do not love you anymore--" "you do not--you cannot!" she interrupted, "or you would not go out with michael texel all night to drinking-places, and worse, keeping your father and those that _do_ love awake, hurting their hearts here" (she put her hand on her side), "and all for what--that you may drink and revel and run into danger with your true friends?" "sweetheart," i began--penitently. the little playmate made a gesture of infinite impatience. "do not call me that," she said; "you have no right. i am not your sweetheart. you have no heart at all to love any one with, or you would not behave as you have done lately. you are naught but a silly, selfish boy, that cares for nothing but his own applause and thinks that he has nothing to do but to come home when his high mightiness is ready and find us all on our knees before him, saying: 'put your foot, great sir, on our necks--so shall we be happy and honored.'" now this was so perilously near the truth that i was mightily incensed, and i felt that i did well to be angry. "girl," i said, grandly, "you do not know what you say. i have been abroad all night on the service of the state, and i have discovered a most dangerous conspiracy at the peril of my life!" for i thought it was as well to put the best face on the matter; and, besides, i have never been able, all the days of me, to hide my light under a bushel, as the clerks prate about. but i was not yet done with my adventuring of this eventful day. and in spite of my father setting me, like a misbehaving bairn, to the drudgery of the water-carrying, there was more in life for me that day than merely hauling upon a handle. for that is a thing which galls an aspiring youth worse than any other labor, being so terribly monotonous. as for me, i did not take kindly to it at all--not even though i could see mine own image deep in the pails of water as they came up brimming and cool out of the fern-grown dripping darkness of the well. aye, and though the image given back to me was (i say it only of that time) a likely enough picture of a lad with short, crisped locks that curled whenever they were wet, cheeks like apples, and skin that hath always been a trouble to me. for i thought it unmanly and like a girl's. and that same skin of mine is, perhaps, the reason why all my days i never could abide your buttermilk-and-roses girls, having a supply about me enough to serve a dozen, and therefore thinking but little of their stock-in-trade. now in the wolfmark this is the common kind of beauty--not that beauty of any kind is over-common. for our maids--especially those of the country--look too much as if they had been made out of wooden pillows such as laborers use to lay their heads on of nights--one large bolster set on the top of two other little ones, and all three well wadded with ticking and feathers. but i hope no one will go back to the wolfmark and tell the maids that hugo gottfried said this of them, or of a surety my left ear will tingle with the running of their tongues if there be any truth in the old saw. it was three of the clock and the sun was very fierce on the dusty, unslaked yard of the wolfsberg, glaring down upon us like the mouth of a wide smelter's oven. fat fritz, the porter, in his arm-chair of a cell, had well-nigh dissolved into lard and running out at his own door. the playmate's window was open, and i caught the waft of a fan to and fro. i judged therefore that my lady knew well that i was working out there in the heat, and was glad of it--being a spiteful pretty minx. then i began to wonder who had given her that fan, for it was not like my father to do it, and she knew no other. "ah!" i said to myself, as a thought struck me, "could it possibly be michael texel? he is rich, and helene may have known him before. the cunning, dark-eyed little vagabond--to take my introduction yester-even as if she had never set eyes on the fellow before, while here it is as clear as daylight that he had all the time been giving her presents--fans and such like." so i raved within me, half because i believed it, and half because she seemed so comfortable up there, with her feet on a stool and a cool jug of curds at her elbow, while i sweated and labored in the sun. very decidedly it must be texel; devil fly up with him and scratch him among the gargoyles of the minster! the fan wagged on. it looked distractingly cool within. but then my father--filial obedience was very distinctly a duty, and, also, gottfried gottfried, though kind, was a man not to be disobeyed--even at nineteen, and after defying the white wolf. it was, as i have said, about three by the sundial on the wall, the arch of which cast a shadow like jet on the scale, that my father came out through the narrow door from the judgment hall, opening it with his own key. for he had the right of entrance and outgoing of every door in the palace, not even excepting the bedchamber of duke casimir. "hugo," he said, "come hither, lad. i did not mean to keep you so long at work in the sun. you must have filled all the cisterns in the place by this time!" i thanked him sincerely, but did not pursue the subject. for, indeed, i had not worked quite so hard as in his haste my father had supposed from my appearance. "go within," he said; "don quickly your saint's-day dress, and betake yourself down to the house of master gerard von sturm, the city chamberlain, and tell him all that he asks of you--readily and truly." "but, father," said i, "suppose he asks of me that which might condemn one who has trusted me, what am i to say?" "tut, boy," said my father, impatiently, "you mean young michael texel. fear not for him. he was the first to inform. he was at master von sturm's by eight this morning, elbowing half a dozen others, all burning and shining lights of the famous society of the white wolf. you are the hero of the day down there, it seems." "and lo! here i am flouted by a stripling girl, and set to carry water by the hour in the broiling sun!" i said within myself. i possessed, however, though without doubt a manifest hero, far too much of the unheroic quality of discretion to say this aloud to my father. "i thank you, sir," i said, respectfully. "i will go at once and put on my finest coat and my shoes of silk." my father smiled. "you need not be particular as to the silk shoes. 'tis to see master von sturm, not to court pretty mistress ysolinde, that i asked you to visit the lawyer's house by the weiss thor." but i was not sorry to be able to proclaim my destination as loud as i dared without causing suspicion. "hanne," i cried down the turret stairs, "i pray you bring me the silken shoes with the ribbon bows of silk. i am going down to master von sturm's house; also my gold chain and bonnet of blue velvet with the golden feather in it which i won at the last arrow-shooting." i saw the fluttering of the fan falter and stop. a light foot went pattering up the stairway and a door slammed in the tower. then i laughed, like the vain, silly boy i was. "mistress helene," i said to myself, "you will find that poor hugo, whom you flouted and despised, can yet pay his debts!" so i put on the fine clothes which i wore on festal days and sallied forth. now, though the lower orders still hated my father and all that came out of the red tower, or indeed, for the matter of that, out of the wolfsberg, with hardly concealed malice--yet there were many in the city, specially among those of the upper classes, who began to think well of my determination to try another way of life than that to which i had been born. for i made no secret of the matter to michael texel and such of his comrades as joined us in our gatherings. indeed, now, when i come to think of it, it seems to me that my father was the only person of my acquaintance who did not suspect that i was resolved never to wear either the black robe of inquisition or the crimson of final judgment. yet it wore round to within two years, and indeed rather less, of the time for my initiation into the mysteries of the red axe, and still i remained at home, an idle boy, playing at single-stick and fence with the men-at-arms, drinking beer in the evening with my bosom cronies, and in the well-grounded opinion of all honest people, likely enough to come to no good. but i, hugo gottfried, had my eyes and my books open, and knew that i was but biding my time. so it came about that i carried no taint of the dread associations of the wolfsberg about me as i went down the bustling street to the weiss thor to call on that learned and well-reputed lawyer, master gerard von sturm. so great was the fame of master gerard that he was often called in to settle the mercantile quarrels of the burghers among themselves, and was even chosen as arbiter between those of other towns. for, though accounted severe, he had universally the name of a just and wise man, who would not rob the litigants of all their valuables and then decide in favor of neither, as was too often the way with the "justice" of the great nobles. as for duke casimir of the wolfmark, no man or woman went near him on any plea whatsoever, save that of asking mercy or favor. and unless my father chanced to be at hand, mostly they asked in vain. for, as i now knew, he had to keep up the common bruit of himself throughout the country as a cruel, fearless, and implacable tyrant. besides, his fears were so constant and so great, perhaps also so well-founded, that often he dared not be merciful. chapter x the lubber fiend at five of the clock i lifted the great wolf's-head knocker of shining brass which frowned above the door of master gerard von sturm in the port of the weiss thor. hardly had i let it fall again when a small wicket, apparently about two feet above my head, opened, and a huge round head with enormous ears at either side peeped out. so vast was the head and so small the aperture that one of the lateral wings of the chubby face caught on the sill, and the owner brought it away successfully with a jerk and a perfectly good-humored and audible "flip." "who are you, and what do you want?" said a wide-gashed mouth, which, with a squat, flattened-out nose and two merry little twinkling eyes, completed this wonderful apparition. the words were in themselves somewhat rude. on paper i observe that they have an appearance almost truculent. but spoken as the thing framed in the window-sill said them, they were equal to a song of brudershaft and an episcopal benediction rolled in one. "i am hugo gottfried of the red tower, come to see master gerard," i replied. "who may you be that asks so boldly?" "i'll give you a stalk of rhubarb to suck if you can guess," was the unexpected answer. as i had never in my life seen anything in the least like the prodigy, it was clearly impossible for me to earn the tart succulence of the summer vegetable on such easy terms. "i should say," i replied, "if the guess savor not of insolence, that one might be forgiven for mistaking you for the fool of the family!" the grin expanded till it wellnigh circumnavigated the vast head. it seemed first of all to make straight for the ears on either side. then, quite suddenly, finding these obstacles insurmountable, it dodged underneath them, and the scared observer could almost imagine its two ends meeting with a click somewhere in the wilderness at the back of that unseen hemisphere of hairy thatch. "pinked in the white, first time--no trial shot!" cried the object in the doorway, cheerily. "i am the fool of the family. but not the only one!" at this moment something happened behind--what, i could not make out for some time. the head abruptly disappeared. there was a noise as of floor-rugs being vigorously beaten, the door opened, and the most extraordinary figure was shot out into the street. the head which i had seen certainly came first, but so lengthy a body followed that it seemed a vain thing to expect legs in addition. yet, finally, two appeared, each of which would have made a decent body of itself, and went whirling across the street till the whole monstrosity came violently into collision with the walls of the house opposite, which seemed to rock to its very foundations under the assault. a decent serving-man, in a semi-doctorial livery of black cloth, with a large white collar laid far over his shoulders, and cuffs of the same upon his wrists, stood in the open doorway and smiled apologetically at the visitor. he was rather red in the face and panted with his exertions. "i ask your pardon, young sir," he said. "that fool, jan lubber fiend, will ever be at his tricks. 'tis my young mistress that encourages him, more is the pity! for poor serving-men are held responsible for his knavish on-goings. why, i had just set him cross-legged in the yard with a basket of pease to shell, seeing how he grows as much as a foot in the night--or near by. but so soon as my back is turned he will be forever answering the door and peeping out into the street to gather the mongrel boys about him. 'tis a most foul lubber fiend to keep about an honest house, plaguing decent folks withal!" by this time the great oaf had come back to the door of the house, and now stood alternately rubbing his elbow and rear, with an expression ludicrously penitent, at once puzzled and kindly. "ah, come in with you, will you?" said the man. "certes, were it not for mistress ysolinde, i would set on the little imps of the street to nip you to pieces and eat you raw." the angry serving-man held the door as wide as possible and stood aside, whereat the lubber fiend tucked his head so far down that it seemed to disappear into the cavity of his chest, and scurried along the passage bent almost double. as he passed the door he drew all the latter part of his body together, exactly like a dog that fears a kick in the by-going. the respectable man-servant stirred not a muscle, but the gesture told a tale of the discipline of the house by the white gate at times when visitors were not being admitted by the main door, and when mistress ysolinde, favorer of the fool lubber fiend, was not so closely at hand. it was a grand house, too, the finest i had ever seen, with hangings of arras everywhere, many and parti-colored--red hunters who hunted, green foresters who shot, puff-cheeked boys blowing on hunting-horns; a house with mysterious vistas, glimpses into dim-lit rooms, wafts of perfume, lamps that were not extinguished even in the daytime, burning far within. all in mighty striking contrast to the bare stark strength of our red tower on the wolfsberg with its walls fourteen feet thick. as i followed the serving-man through the halls and stairways my feet fell without noise on carpets never woven in our bare-floored germany, nor yet in england, where they still strew rushes, even (so they say) in the very dining-rooms of the great--surely a most barbarous and unwholesome country. nevertheless, carpets of wondrous hue were here in the house of master gerard, scarlet and blue, and so thick of ply that the foot sank into them as if reluctant ever to rise again. as i came to the landing place at the head of the stairway, one passed hastily before me and above me, with a sough and a rustle like the wind among tall poplar trees on the canal edges. i looked up, and lo! a girl, not beautiful, but, as it were, rather strange and fascinating. she was lithe like a serpent and undulated in her walk. her dress was sea-green silk of a rare loom, and clung closely about her. it had scales upon it of dull gold, which gave back a lustrous under-gleam of coppery red as she moved. she had a pale, eager face, lined with precision enough, but filled more with passion than womanly charm. her eyes were emerald and beautiful, as the sea is when you look down upon it from a height and the white sand shines up through the clear depths. such was ysolinde, daughter of gerard von sturm, favorer of lubber fiends and creator of this strange paradise through which she glided like a spangled orient serpent. as i made my way humbly enough across to master gerard's room his daughter did not speak to me, only followed me boldly, and yet, as it seemed to me, somewhat wistfully too, with her sea-green eyes. and as the door was closing upon me i saw her beckon the serving-man. but i, on the inner side of the door, and with master gerard von sturm before me, had enough to do to tell my tale and answer his questions without troubling my head about green-eyed girls. master gerard was as remarkable looking to the full as his daughter, with the same luminously green eyes. but the orbs which in the maid shone as steadily clear as the depths of the sea, in the father glittered opalescent where he sat in the dusk, like the eyes of grimalkin cornered by dogs in some gloomy angle of the wolfsberg wall. as soon as i had set eyes on him i knew that i had to do with a man--not with a walking show like my lord duke casimir. it struck me that for good or evil master gerard could carry through his intent to the bitter end, and that in council he would smile when he saw my father change his black vesture of trial for the red of beheading. the doctor gerard was little seen in the streets of thorn. many citizens had never so much as set eyes on him. nevertheless his hand was in everything. some said he was a jew, chiefly because none knew rightly what he was or whence he had come. thirty years had gone by since he had suddenly appeared one day in the noble old house by the weiss thor, from which grã¤tz the wizard and his wife had been burned out by the fury of the populace. twenty years of artistic labor had made this place what it now was. and the little impish maid who used to break unexpectedly upon the workmen of thorn from behind doors, or who clapped hands upon their shoulders in dusky recesses, scaring them out of their wits with suggestions of witch-masters long dead and damned, had grown into this maid of the sea-green eyes and silken draperies. "a good-day to you, hugo gottfried!" said master gerard, quietly, looking at me keenly across the table. he wore a skull-cap on his closely cropped head. one or two betraying locks of gray appeared under it in front, but did not conceal a flat forehead, which ran back at such an angle that, with the luminous eyes beneath it, it gave him the look of a serpent rearing his yellow head a little back in act to strike. this was a look his daughter had also. but in her the gesture was tempered by the free-playing curves of a beautiful throat and the forward thrust of a rounded chin--advantages not possessed by the angular anatomy and bony jaw of the famous doctor of law. master gerard, clad in a long robe of black velvet from head to heel, sat bending his fingers gracefully together and looking at me. his head was thrown back, i have said, and the lights of the colored windows striking on his gray hair and black skull-cap, caused him to look much more like some lean ascetic ecclesiastic and prince of the church than the chief lawyer of the ancient capital of the wolfmark. "you were present at this child's play yester-eve in the hostel of the white swan?" he asked, boring into me with his uncomfortable, triangular eyes. "aye, truly," said i, "and much they made of me!" for since my father said that i was accounted a hero in this house, i had determined not to hide away my deeds in my leathern scrip. i had had enough practice in playing at modesty in the tower of the red axe. master gerard shook his shoulders as though he would have made me believe that he laughed. "you were over many for thorn, i hear great silly fellows--children playing with fire yet afraid to burn themselves. why, since ten this morning i have had them all here--stout burgomeister's sons, slim scions of the burghershaft, moist-eyed corporation children, each more anxious than another to prove that he had nothing to do with any treason. he had but called in at the white swan for a draught of frederika's famous stone ale, and so--well, he found himself somehow in the rear, and, all against his will, was dragged into the lair of the white wolf!" he looked at me quietly, without speaking, for a while. "and you, master hugo, did you go thither to distinguish yourself by breaking up their child's folly, or, like the others, to taste the stone ale?" it was a question i had not expected. but it was best to be very plain with master gerard. "i went," i replied, "along with michael texel, because he asked me. i knew not in the least what i was to see, but i was ready for anything." "and you acquitted yourself on the whole extremely well," he nodded; "so at least they are all very ready to say, hoping, i doubt not, for your good offices with the duke when it comes to their turn. you flouted them right manfully and defied their mystery, they told me." at this moment i became conscious that a door opposite me was open and the curtain drawn a little way back. there, in the half-light, i saw mistress ysolinde listening. she leaned her head aside as though it had been heavy with its weight of locks of burned gold. she pillowed her cheek against the door-post, and let her dreamy sea-green eyes rest upon me. and the look that was in them gave me a sense of pleasure strange and acute, as well as a restless uneasiness and vague desire to escape out under the blue sky, and mingle with the throng of every-day men on the streets of the city. *** chapter xi the vision is the crystal master gerard, however, did not seem to be aware of her presence, for he continued his catechism steadily. "you mocked at their terrors, did you not, and told them that you, who had seen the teeth of the duke's hounds, had nothing to fear from the bare gums of the white wolf?" "i knew that they but played," i answered, "and that i had little to fear." for with ysolinde von sturm watching me with her eyes i could not for very shame's sake make myself great. "you told them more than that," the girl cried, suddenly flashing on me a look keen as the light on a sword when it comes home from the cutler. "you told them that you too desired a freer commonwealth!" "i did," said i, flushing quickly, for i had thought to keep my thumb on that. nevertheless i was not going back on my spoken word, even in the presence of duke casimir's inquisitor. besides which i judged that my father had influence enough to bring me out scathless. "that is well and bravely said!" he replied, smiling with thin lips which in all their constant writhings showed no vestige of teeth within; "but the sentiment itself is somewhat strange in the son of the red axe and the future executioner of justice in the wolfmark." then for the first time i permitted my eyes to rest on the lithe figure of the girl in the doorway. methought she inclined her head a little forward to catch my answer as if it had been a matter of interest to her. "i am indeed son of the red axe," said i, "but my own head would underlie it rather than that i should ever be hereditary justicer of the mark." a smile that was meant for me passed over the girl's face and momently sweetened her lips. she straightened her body and set a hand more easily to her waist. a certain kindness dwelt in her emerald eyes. "never be duke's justicer!" cried master gerard, looking up with his hand on a skull. "this is unheard of! are not you the only son of gottfried gottfried, right hand of duke casimir, highest in favor with his grace? and within two years, according to the law of the headsman, must you not also don the red and the black and stand at the duke's left hand, as your father at his right, when he sits in judgment?" i bowed my head for answer. "even so," said i; "but long before that time i shall be either in a far country waging the wars of another lord, or in a country yet farther--that to which the men of my race have directed so many untimeously." "have you at all thought of the land or the lord to whom you would transfer your allegiance?" said gerard von sturm, carelessly rapping with his fingers on the bare white of the skull before him. "i have not," i replied as easily. he looked down a moment, and drew his black robe thoughtfully over his knee as if turning the matter over in his mind. "what think you of plassenburg and the service of prince karl?" he said at last. "the place is too near and the man a usurper," i replied, brusquely. "i am not so sure," master gerard mused, slowly, "that it might not be advantageous to bide near home. duke casimir is mortal, after all--long and prosperously may he live!" (here he inclined his head piously, while naming his master.) "but who knows how long he may be spared to reign over a loving people. and after that, why, there may be more usurpers. for by the name 'usurper' the ignorant mostly mean men of the strong heart and sure brain, who can hold that which they have with one hand and reach out for more with the other." while he spoke thus he looked at me with his green eyes half closed. "but," said i, calmly enough, though my heart beat fast, "i am but a lad untried. i may never rise beyond a private soldier. i may be killed at the first assault of my virgin campaign." master gerard looked up quickly. he beckoned to his daughter. for though by no faintest gesture had he betrayed his knowledge of her presence, he had yet clearly known it all the time. "ysolinde," he said, "bring hither thy crystal!" the maid disappeared and presently returned with a ball in her hand of some substance which looked like misty glass. "i have been looking in it already," she said, "ever since hugo gottfried came out of the red tower." her voice was soft and even, with the same sough in it as of the wind among poplar-trees which i had heard in the rustle of her silken dress as she came up the stair. "and what," asked her father, "have you seen in the crystal, child of my heart?" he looked up at me with some little shamefacedness, or so i imagined. "i am a dry old man of the law," he went on, "dusty of heart as these black books up yonder--books not of magic but of fact, of crime and pain and penalty. but this my daughter ysolinde, wise from a child, solaces herself with the white, innocent magic, such as helps man and brings him nearer that which is unseen." the maid knelt by her father's knee, and held the crystal ball in the hollow of her hands against the sable of his velvet robe. she passed one hand swiftly twice or thrice over her brow, as though to clear away some cobwebs, gossamer thin, that had folded themselves across her vision. then, in the same wistful, wind-soft voice, she began to speak. and as she spoke all that i had loved and known began to pass from before me. i forgot my father. i forgot the red tower. i forgot (god forgive me, yet help it i could not!) the little princess playmate and her sweetest eyes. i forgot all else save this lithe, serpentine maiden with the massive crown of burned and tawny gold upon her head. "i see," she began, "a long street and many men struggling on it--the wolf of the wolfmark, the eagle of plassenburg are face to face. i see red karl the prince. the young wolf has the better of it. he bites his lip and drives hard. the prince is down. he is wounded. he is like to die. the wolf will drive all to destruction. "but see--" she sighed, and paused the while as if that which she saw next touched her--"from the swelter in the rear comes a young soldier. he has lost his helmet. i see his head. it is a fair head with crisp curls. he has a sword in his hand and he lays well about him. he cuts a way to the prince--he bestrides his body. "give way there, scullions, that i may see more!" she cried, impetuously, and waved her hand before her eyes, which were fixed expressionless on the crystal. "i see him again. well done, young soldier! valiantly laid on. it is great sword-play. bravo! the wolf is down. the eagle of plassenburg is up--i can see no more!" and suddenly she dropped the ball, which would have rolled off her father's knee had he not caught it as it fell. ysolinde kept her head on master gerard's lap for a long minute, as if, after the vision of the crystal, she could not bear the common light nor speak of meaner things. then, without once looking at me, she rose, gathered her skirts in her hand, and glided out of the doorway in which she had stood. when she was quite gone her father reached a bony hand across to me. "that is a great fate which she has read for you--never have i seen her so moved, nor yet her vision so clear and unmistakable. surely the sooner you seek the service of the prince of plassenburg the better." "but," said i, "how do i know that he will accept me? he may not wish to retain in his service the son of the red axe of the wolf mark." master von sturm smiled subtly at me. "i cannot tell," he said, "why it is that i have an interest in you. but i desire to see you other than that which you are. i have, strange as it may seem in one of such humble degree here in the city of thorn, whom all may consult without fee or reward, a certain influence and place in the councils of the reigning prince of plassenburg. if, therefore, you will take service with him, i can give you such an introduction as will guarantee you a place, not as man-at-arms, but as officer, so that your way may lie before you clear from the first. also in this promotion you shall have a good sufficient reason to give those who may accuse you of changing your service." i could not answer him for gladness. the hope seemed so unbelievable--the fortune too grateful to be true. i was overcome, and, as i guess, showed it in my face. for twice i essayed to speak and could not. so that master gerard rose and glided over to me, patting me kindly enough on the shoulders and bidding me take courage, saying that he loved to see modesty in this untoward generation, in which there was little virtue and no gratitude at all. so i grasped him by the hand and kissed his thin, bony fingers. "bide ye, bide ye," he said; "one day i may kiss yours an you be active. the wide spaces of destiny lie before you, though i shall not live to see it. but you must bestir you, for i am an old man, and have not far to travel now to the place from which one leaps off into the dark." he conducted me to the door of his chamber and gave me his hand again with the same inscrutable smile on his thin face, and his skull-cap pushed farther back than ever over the flat, ophidian brow. "when you have all things ready," he said, "come to me for the letter of introduction, and also for that which may obtain you a worthy outfit for your journeying to plassenburg. or, if you are already sir proud-heart, you can repay me one day, with usury if you will. i care not to stand on observances with you, nor desire that you should feel any obligation to a feeble old man." "i am not proud," i said, "and my sense of obligation is already greater than ever i can hope to discharge." "i thank you, my lad," he said. "often have i wished for a son of the flesh like you as you passed the window with your companions--but go, go!" and with his hand he pushed me out upon the stair-head and shut the door. for a space i knew not where i stood. for what with the turmoil of my thoughts and the myriad of impressions, hopes, fears, visions, regrets to leave the red tower, the city of thorn, the hope of seeing again that high-poised head of burned gold of the lady ysolinde, i paused stock-still, moidered and dazed, till a light hand touched me on the shoulder and the soft, even voice spoke in my ear. "master hugo," said the lady ysolinde, bending kindly to me, "i am glad, very glad--aye, though you have made my head ache" (here she nodded blamefully and laid her hand upon her heart as if that ached too)--"it is the best of fortunes, and sure to come true. because have i seen it at six o'clock of a thursday in the time of full moon." "come hither," she said, beckoning me; "we shall try another way of it yet, in spite of the headache. it may be that there is more that concerns you for me to see in the ink-pool." with this she took my hand and almost pulled me down the stairs by force. as we went i saw the wild head and staring eyeballs of jan the lubber fiend peering at us. he was lying on the back staircase, prone on his stomach, apparently extending from top to bottom down the swirl of it, and with his chin poised on the topmost step. but as we came down the stair the head seemed to be wholly detached from any body. the red ears actually flapped with mirthful pleasure and anticipation at the sight of the lady ysolinde, and no man could see both the beginning and end of that smile. "lubber jan," said she, "go and sit in the yard. the servants will be complaining of thee again, that they cannot come up the staircase, even as they did before." "then, if i do," mumbled the monster, "will you look out of window at least once in each hour, between every stroke of the clock. else will jan not stop in the yard, but come within to feast his eyes on thee." "yes, jan," she said, smiling with a gentle complaisance which made me like her somewhat better than before, "i will look out at least once in the hour." and turning a little she smiled again at me, still holding me by the hand. the lubber fiend pulled his forelock, and reaching downward his head, as if he had the power of stretching out his neck like an arm, he kissed the cold pavement where her foot had rested a moment before. then he rather retracted himself, serpentwise, then betook him in christian fashion down the stair, and we heard him move out amid a babel of servatorial recriminations into the outer yard. "a poor innocent," said the lady ysolinde; "one that worships me, as you see. he is so great of stature and so uncouth that the children persecute him, and some day he may do one of them an injury. years ago i rescued him from an evil pack of them and brought him hither. so that is the reason why he cleaves to me." "an excellent reason, my lady," said i, "for any to cleave to you." "ah," she said, wistfully, "only fools think of ysolinde in the city of thorn. some are afraid and pass by, and the rest are as the dogs that lick the garbage in the streets. here i have no friends, save my father only, and here or elsewhere i have never had any that truly loved me." "but you are young--you are fair," i answered. "many must come seeking your favor." thus did i begin lumpishly enough to comfort her. but at my first words she snatched her fingers away angrily, and then in a moment relented. "you mean well," she said, giving her hand back to me again, "but it is not pity ysolinde needs nor yet desires. but that is no matter. come in hither and see what may abide for you in the depths of the black pool." at the curtained doorway she turned and looked me in the eyes. "if you were as other young men it would be easy for you to misjudge me. this is mine own work-chamber, and i bid you come into it, having seen you but an hour ago. yet never a man save my father only hath set his foot in it before. inquire carefully of your companions in the city of thorn, and if any make pretension to acquaintance with the lady ysolinde of the white gate strike him in the face and call him liar, for the sake of the favor i have shown you and the vision i saw concerning you in the crystal." i stooped and kissed her hand, which was burning hot--a thin little hand, with long, supple fingers which bent in one's grasp. "the man who would pretend to such a thing is dead even as he speaks," said i; and i meant it fully. "i thank you--it is well," she answered, leading me in. "i only desired that you should not misjudge me." "that could i never do if i would," i made her answer. "here my every thought is reverence as in the oratory of a saint." she smiled a strange smile. "mayhap that is rather more than i desire," she said. "say rather in the maiden bower of a woman who knows well whom she may trust." again i kissed her hand for the correction. and, as i remembered afterwards, it was at that hour that the little princess playmate was used to look within my chamber to see that all was ready for me. and, had i known it, even that night she stooped over and kissed the pillow where my head was to lie. "dear love!" she was used to say. alas that i heard it not then! chapter xii eyes of emerald it was a strange little room into which the lady ysolinde brought me, full of quaint, changeful scents, and all ablaze with colors the like of which i had never seen. for not only were rugs and mats of outlandish eastern design scattered over the floor, but there was vividly colored glass in the small, deeply set windows. yet that which affected me most powerfully was a curious, clinging, evanescent odor, which came and went like a breeze through an open window. i liked it at first, but after a little it went to my head like a perfumed wine of greece, such as the men of venice sometimes send to our northern lands with their embassies of merchandise. altogether, it was a strange enough apartment for the daughter of a lawyer in the city of thorn, within a mile of the bare feudal strengths of the red tower and the wolfsberg. all this while ysolinde had kept my hand, a thing which at once thrilled and shamed me. for though i had never been what is called "in love" with the little playmate, nor till that day had spoken a word to her my father might not have heard, yet hitherto she had always been first and sole in my heart whenever i thought on the things which were to be. the lady ysolinde having brought me to her chamber, bade me sit upon an oaken folding-stool beside a table on which lay weapons of curious design--crooked knives and poisoned arrows. then she went to an ivory cupboard of the orient (or, as they are called in holy writ, "an ivory palace"), and opening the beautifully fitting door, she took from it a small square bottle of red glass which she held between her and the light. "it is well," she said, looking long and carefully at it; "it will flow." and coming to the table and pouring some of a shining black liquid into the palm of her left hand, she sat down beside me on the stool and gazed steadily into the little pool of ink. it was strange to me to sit thus motionless beside a beautiful woman (for such i then thought her)--so near that i could feel the warmth of her body strike like sunshine through the silken fineness of her sea-green gown. i glanced up at her eyes. they were fixed, and, as it seemed, glazed also. but the emerald in them, usually dark as the sea-depths, had opal lights in it, and her lips moved like those of a devotee kneeling in church. presently she began to speak. "hugo--hugo gottfried, son of the red axe," she said, in the same hushed voice as before, most like running water heard murmuring in a deep runnel underground, "you will live to be a man fortunate, well-beloved. you will know love--yes, more than one shall love you. but you will love one only. i see the woman on whom your fate depends, yet not clearly--it may be, because my desire is so great to see her face. but she is tall and moves like a queen. she goes clad in white like a bride and her arms are held out to you. "but another shall love you, and between them two there is darkness and hate, from which come bursting clouds of fire, bringing forth lightnings and angers and deadly jealousies! "again i see you, great, honored, and sitting on a high seat. the woman whose face i cannot distinguish is beside you, clothed in a robe of purple. and, yes, she wears a crown on her head like the coronet of a queen." ysolinde withdrew her eyes gradually from the ink-pool, as if it were a pain to look yet a greater to look away. then with a quick jerk she threw up her head, and tears were standing in her eyes ready to overflow. but the wetness made them beautiful, like a pebble of bright colors with the dew upon it and shone on by the sunshine of the morning. "you hurt me," she murmured reproachfully, looking at me more like a child than ever i had seen her. she was very near to me. "_i_ make you suffer!" cried i, greatly astonished. "how can hugo gottfried have done this thing?" for it seemed impossible that a poor lad, and one alien by his birth from the hearts of ordinary folk, should yet have the power to make a great lady suffer. for a great lady i knew ysolinde to be even then, when her father seemed to be no more in the city of thorn than master gerard, the fount and treasure-house of law and composer-general of quarrels. but i might have known that he was no true lawyer to be so eager about that last. for upon the continuance and fostering of differences the law-men of all nations thrive and eat their bread with honey thereto. as my father often said, "better the stroke of the red axe than that of the scrivener's goose-quill. my solution is kindlier, sooner over, hurts less, and is all the same in the end!" ysolinde thought a little before she answered me. "no man ever made me suffer thus before," she said, "though i have seen and known many men. i am older than you, hugo, and have travelled in many countries, the lands from which these things came. but true love, the pain and the pleasure of it, have i never known." she leaned her head on her hand and her elbow on the table, turning thus to look long and intently at me. i felt oafish and awkward, as jan lubber fiend might have done before the king. many things i might have wished to say and do with that slender figure and lissome waist so near me. but i knew not how to begin. yet i think the desire came not so much from love or passion, but rather from a natural longing to explore those mysteries concerning which i had read so much after friar laurence had done me the service of teaching me french. but it was well that stupidity was my friend. for rebounding like a vain, upstart young monkey from my mood of self-depreciation, i must needs hold it for certain that all was within my grasp, and that the lady ysolinde expected as much of me, which thing would have wrought my downfall. "yon ride soon to plassenburg, i hear," she said, after she had looked at me a long time steadily with the emerald eyes shining upon me. then it was that i saw clearly that they were not the right emerald in hue so much as of the shade of the stone aqua-marine, which is one not so rare, but a better color when it comes to the matter of maiden's eyes. "it is indeed true, my lady," i replied, disappointed at her words, and yet somehow infinitely relieved, "that i ride soon to plassenburg by the favoring of your father, who has been gracious enough to promise me his interest with the prince." i saw her lip curl a little with scorn--the least tilt of a rose leaf to which the sun has been unkind. she seemed about to speak, but presently thinking better of it, smiled instead. "it is like my father," she said, after a little; "but since i also go thither, you shall be of my escort. a sufficient guard accompanies me all the way to the city, and i dare say the arrangement may serve your convenience as well as add to the pleasure and safety of my journeying." "but how will your father do without your company, lady ysolinde?" i asked. for it seemed strange that father and daughter should thus part without reason in these disturbed times. she laughed more heartily than i had heard her. "my father has been used to missing me for months at a time, and, moreover, is well resigned also. but you do not say that you are rejoiced to be of a lady's escort in so long a travel." "indeed, i am much honored and glad to have so great a favor done to me. i am but a mannerless, landward youth, to have been bred in the outer courts of a palace. but that which i do not know you will teach me, and my faults i shall be eager to amend." "pshaw!--psutt!" said ysolinde, making a little face, "be not so mock-modest. you do very well. but tell me if you have any sweetheart in the city to leave behind you." now this bold question at once reddened my face and heightened my confusion. "nay, lady," i stammered, conscious that i was blushing furiously, "i am over-young to have thought much of the things of love. i know no woman in the city save our old house-keeper hanne, and the little playmate." the lady ysolinde looked up quickly. "ah, the little playmate!" she said, in a low voice, curiously distinct from that which she used when she had interpreted her visions to me. "the little playmate! that sounds as though it might be interesting. who is the little playmate?" "she is a maid whose folks were slain long ago by the duke in a foray, and the little one being left, my father begged her life. and she has been brought up with me in the red tower." "how old is she now?" the lady ysolinde's next question leaped out like the flash of a dagger from its sheath. "that," answered i, meditatively, "i know not exactly, because none could tell how old she was when she came to us." "tut," she said, impatiently tossing her head, "do not twist your answers to me--only wise men and courtiers have the skill to do that and hide it. as yet you are neither. is she ten, or is she twenty, or is she mid-way betwixt the two?" "i think she may be a matter of seventeen years of age." "is she pretty?" was the next question. "no," said i, not knowing well what to say. her face cleared as she heard that, and then, in a little, her eyes being still bent steadily on me, reading my very heart, it clouded over again. "you think her not merely pretty, then, but beautiful?" she asked. i nodded. "more beautiful than i?" 'fore god i denied not my love, though i own i have many a time been less tempted, and yet have lied back and forth like a frankfort jew. "yes," said i, "i think so." "you love her, then?" said the lady ysolinde, rising quickly to her feet; "and you told me that you loved none in this city." "i love her, indeed," i said. "she is my little sister. as you mean love, i do not love her. but i love her notwithstanding. all my life i have never thought of doing anything else. and that she is beautiful, all who have eyes in their head may see." this appeased her somewhat. i think it must have been looking for my fortune in the crystal and the ink-pool that made her so eager to know all that concerned me--which none had ever been so importunate to find out before. "i must come and see this little playmate of yours," she said. "it is an ill-done thing that so fair a maid should be shut up in the tower of such a pagan castle--the wolfsberg; it is indeed well named. word has reached me to-day that the princess of plassenburg has need of a bower maiden. now the princess can make her choice from many noble families. but if the little playmate be as beautiful as you say, 'tis high time that she should not be left immured in the red tower of the wolfsberg. true, the duke, like a careful man, neither makes nor mells with womankind. 'tis his only virtue. but any questing ritterling or roaring free companion might bear her off." "i think not," said i, smiling, "so long as the red axe of the mark has a polished edge and gottfried gottfried can send it sheer through an ox's neck as he stands chewing the cud." i hardly think that i ever boasted of my father's prowess before. and, indeed, i had some skill in the axe-play myself, but only in the way of sport. "all one," said ysolinde. "your father, like great caesar and duke casimir, is but mortal, and may stumble across the wooden stump some day himself and find his neck-bone in twain! none so wise that he can tell when the silent rider shall meet him in the wood, leading by the bridle the pale horse whose name is death, and beckoning him to mount and ride." the lady ysolinde paused a while, touching her lips thoughtfully with her fingers. "let your playmate come," she said. "there is room, i warrant, for her and you both at plassenburg. you shall keep each other company when you have the homesickness, and on the journey she can ride with us side by side." then going to the curtain she summoned the servitor who had first opened the door for me. he bowed before the girl with infinite respect. she bade him conduct me upon my way. i will not deny that i had hoped for a tenderer leave-taking. but all at once she seemed to have slipped back into the great lady again, and to be desirous of setting me in my own sphere and station ere i went, lest perchance i should presume overmuch upon her favors. yet not altogether so. for, relenting a little as i turned to leave her, she stood holding the curtain aside for me to pass, and, as it had been by accident, in dropping it her fingers rested a moment against my cheek. then the heavy curtain of blue fell into its place, and i found myself following the eminently respectable domestic of master gerard down the stairs. at the outer door, but before he opened it, the man put a sealed packet in my hand. "from doctor gerard von sturm," he said, bowing respectfully, yet with a certain sense of being a party in a favor conferred. i thrust the letter into my inner pocket and went out into the street. the sun was still shining, yet somehow i felt that it must be another day, another world. the houses seemed hard and dry, the details of the architecture insufferably mean and insultingly familiar. i longed with all my heart to get away from thorn into the new world which had opened to me--a world of perfumes and flowers and flower-like scents and oriental marvels, of low voices, too, and the touching of soft hands upon cheeks. in all the world of young men there was no greener or more simple simon than i, hugo gottfried, as, playing a tune on the pipe of my own conceit, i marched up the high street of thorn to the entrance gate of the wolfsberg. the little playmate was standing at the door as i approached, sweet as a june rose. when she saw me she went into the sitting-room to show that she had not yet forgiven me. though i think by this time, as was often the way with helene, she had forgotten almost what was the original matter of my offending. but i pretended to be careless and heart-free. and so--god forgive me!--i went whistling up the steps of the red tower to my room without so much as looking within the chamber where my little playmate had withdrawn herself. which thing i suffered grievously for or all was done. and an excellent dispensation of providence it had been if i had lost my right hand, all for making that little heart sore, or so much as one tear drop from those deep gray eyes. chapter xiii christian's elsa it was about this time, and after we had made our quarrel up, that helene began to call me "great brother." after all, there is manifest virtue in a name, and the little playmate seemed to find great comfort in thus addressing me. and after that i had called her "little sister" once or twice she was greatly assured and treated me quite differently, having ascertained that between young men and women there is the utmost safety in such a relationship. and as all ways were alike to me, i was willing enough. for indeed i loved her and none other, and so did all the days of my life. though i know that my actions and conceits were not always conformable to the true love that was in my heart, neither wholly worthy of my dear maid. but, then, what would you? nineteen and the follies of one's youth! the mercy of god rather than any virtue in me kept these from being not only infinitely more numerous, but infinitely worse. yet i had better confess them, such as they are, in this place. for it was some such nothings as those which follow that first brought helene and me into one way of thinking, though by paths very devious indeed. to begin with the earliest. there was a maid who dwelt in the tower of the wolfsberg opposite, called the tower of the captain of the guard. and the maid's name was elsa, or, as she was ordinarily called, "christian's elsa." she was a comely maid enough, and greatly taken notice of. and when i went to my window to con over my task for friar laurence, there at the opposite window would be--strange that it should always he so--christian's elsa. she was a little girl, short and plump, but with merry eyes and so bright a stain upon either cheek that it seemed as if she had been eating raspberry conserve, and had wiped her fingers upon the smiling plumpness there. at any rate, as sure as ever i betook me to the window, there would be christian's elsa, busy with her needles. and to tell truth i misliked it not greatly. why, indeed, should i? for there is surely no harm in looking across twenty yards of space at a maid, and as little in the maid looking at you--that is, if neither of you come any nearer. besides, it is much pleasanter to look at a pretty lass than at a vacant wall and twenty yards of uneven cobble-stones. now the girl was harmless enough--a red and white maid, plump as a partridge in the end of harvest. she was forever humming at songs, singing little choruses, and inventing of new melodies, all tunefully and prettily enough. and she would bring her dulcimer to the window and play them over, nodding her head to the instrument as she sang. it was pleasant to watch her. for sometimes when the music refused to run aright, she would frown at the dulcimer, as if the discord had been entirely its fault and it was old enough to know better. then sometimes she would look across abstractedly to the red tower, trying to recall a strain she had forgotten, with her finger all the while making the most bewitching dimple on her plump cheek. it was most sweet and innocent to see. and withal so entirely unconscious that any one could possibly be observing her. i confess that i sat often and conned my book by the window, long after i knew my portion by heart, in order to watch her deft fingers upon the dulcimer sticks and the play of her dimples. but on my part also this was in all innocence and wholly thoughtless of guile. then would i be taken with a spasm of desire to play upon the recorders or the bavarian single flute, and would pester my father to let me learn. now i never had any more ear for music than a deal board that has knot-holes in it. i had ears indeed. but the clatter of the mill-wheel and the lapper of water on the stones of the shore were ever better music to me than singing or playing upon instruments. nevertheless, at this time, for some reason or other, i was in a great fret to learn. and, curiously enough, my desire made the little playmate call me "great brother" more assiduously than ever. though again i knew not why. but christian's elsa she could not abide either sight or mention of. which was passing strange in so sweet and charitable a maid as our helene. also the girl at the guard-house was a good daughter, besides being particular of her company, and in that garrison place untouched by any breath of scandal. but no; helene would have none of her. "_feech_!" she would say, making a little grimace of disgust which she had brought with her from her northern home; "that noisy, mewling cat, purring and stroking her face, in the window, i cannot abide her. i know not what some folks can see in her. there are surely more kinds of blindness than of those that wait about kirk doors with a board hung round their necks, saying, 'good people, for the love of god, put a copper in this wooden platter.'" "why, little playmate, what ails thee at the maid? she is a good maid enough, and, i am sure, a pretty one." so would i say to try her. whereat the lass, being slender herself, and with a head that sat easily on her shoulders, would walk off like the haughty little princess she was, and thrust her chin so far forward that even the pretty round of it bespoke a pointed scorn. and the poutlets would come and go on her red lips so quickly that i would come from the window, leaving my book and christian's elsa, and a thousand elsas, just to watch them. "so, great brother," helene would say, "you think she is pretty, do you? 'tis interesting, for sure. as for me, i see not anything pretty about her. now, there is katrin texel, she is pretty, if you like. what say you to her?" and this was because the minx knew well that i never could abide katrin texel, a girl all running to seed like a shot stalk of rhubarb, who would end up in the neighborhood of six foot in height, and just that "fine figure of a woman" which i never could abide. "_feech_!" i would say, copying her wendish expression. "i would as soon set my feather bolster on end, paint it black and white, and make love to it as to katrin texel." "you do worse every day of your life," retorted helene, with pretty spite, tapping the floor with the point of one delicate foot. "and, pray, what do i that is worse?" i said, knowing full well what. the little playmate was silent a minute, only continuing to tap the flags with a kind of naughtiness that became her. "katrin texel would not look at you, charming as you think yourself," she said, at last. "did she tell you so, little sister?" said i, drawing a bow at a great venture. the arrow struck, and i was content. "well," she answered, somewhat breathlessly, "what if she did? surely even your vanity can take nothing out of a girl saying that she cannot abide you." but i answered nothing to this, only stroked the mustache which was beginning to thrive admirably on my upper lip. "of all the--" began helene, looking at me fixedly. then she stopped. "well," said i, pausing in the caressing of my chin, "what do i worse every day than make love to katrin texel?" her eyes fairly sparkled fire at me. they were "sweetest eyes" no more, but rarely worth looking into all the same. "you go ogling and staring at that little she-cat in the window over there, that screeches and becks and pats herself, all for showing off! and you, hugo gottfried, like a great oaf, thinking all the time how innocent and sweet and--oh, i have no patience with you!--to neglect and think nothing of--of katrin texel, and--and then to go gazing and gaping after a thing like that!" and i declare there were tears in the little playmate's eyes. "dear little sister, why are you so mindful about katrin texel?" said i. "faith, my lass, wait till she comes again, and i will court her to your heart's content. there--there--i will be a very valentine's true lover to your katrin." for all that she was not greatly cheered, but edged away, still strangely disconsolate when i came near and tried to pet her. mysterious and hidden are the ways of women! for once, when i would have put my hand about her pretty slender waist, she promptly took me by the wrist, and holding it at arm's-length, she dropped it from her with a disgustful curl of her lip, as if it had been an intruding spider she had perforce to put forth out of her chamber into the garden. yet formerly, upon occasion when, as it might be, she was reading or looking out of the window, if i but came behind her and called her "little sister," i might even put my hand upon her shoulder, and so stand for five minutes at a time and she never seem to notice it. chapter xiv sir amorous is pleased with himself for, as i say, women have curious ways, and there are a good many of them recorded in this book. and yet more i have observed which i cannot find room for in a chronicle of so many sad and bad and warlike happenings. but none of them all is more notable than this--that women, or at least (for it is no use saying "women," every one being different in temper, though like as pease in some things) many women, will permit that which it suits them to be oblivious of, when if you ask them for permission or make a favor of the matter, they will promptly flame sky-high with indignation. so my advice to the young man who honestly goes a-courting is to keep talking earnestly, to occupy his mistress's attention withal, and progress in her favors during the abstractions of high discourse. of course in this, as in all other similar enterprises, sir amorous must have a certain trading-stock of favor to start with. but if he have this much, 'tis not difficult to increase it by honest endeavor, and, as it were, the sweat of his brain. so at least i am told by those who have proved it. nevertheless, for myself, i have used no such nice refinements, but rather taken with thankfulness such things as came in my way. and now when i look back over my paper--lord! what a pother of writing about it and about! but my excuse is that many young lads and gay bachelors will read this tale, so i desire to import what of instruction i can into it. and not having the learning of the clerks, i must e'en put in what wisdom i have gotten for myself in my passage through the world. for i never could plough with another man's heifer--least of all with that of a college-bred mess john. not but what mess john knoweth somewhat of the lear of love also among the well-favored dames of the city. or else, by my faith, mess john is sorely belied. but where was i in my tale? and if this present errant discourse be forgiven, surely i will not transgress again, but drive my team straight to the furrow's end and then back again, like an honest ploughman that has his eye ever upon the guide-poles on the windy ridge. well, the little playmate lifted a toad from her waist--i mean my hand--and dropped it as far from her as her arm would reach. and then after that she ran up-stairs, slammed the door of her own chamber, and came not down to our nooning, so that old hanne had to call her three times. and once, when i had occasion to cross the court-yard to the guard-house, i saw her standing pensively by the window. but so soon as she saw me she vanished within and was seen no more. yet, indeed and indeed, as all may see, there was no cause for all this fret. for i cared no more about christian's elsa than about christian himself--less, indeed, for christian was a good soldier and master-at-arms, and taught me how to handle the match-lock, the pistolet, and the other new weapons that had begun to come in from france. and often upon saturdays and wet days he would let me spend long mornings in the armory with him, oiling and cleaning the ordnance. which it certainly was a great pleasure to do. and what if the little dumpling elsa, with her red cheeks and her babyish eyes, did run in and out. her father was ever with us, and even had i been willing there was no opportunity for more than a word or a touch of her fingers--well, save once, when her father went himself to seek the bottle of oil she had been sent to fetch, and was some time in finding it. but even that was a mere nothing, and might have happened to any one. but when i came home again that night, you would have thought that the whole happening had been printed legibly on my face. the little playmate would not let me come within a hundred miles of her. and it was "keep your distance, sirrah!" not perhaps said in words, but expressed as clearly by the warlike angle of an arm, the contumelious hitch of a shoulder, or the scornful sweep of an adverse skirt. and all about nothing! mighty hector! i never saw such things as women. and yet in her good moments she would call me "great brother," and tell me that she thought only of my future welfare, desiring that i should not compromise myself in any entanglement with such as were not worthy of me. oh, a most wise and prudent counsellor was the playmate in these days. and i used ever to say: "helene, when i am truly in love i will e'en bring her here to you, and, by my faith, if you approve not--why, there is an end of the matter. back she goes to her mother like a parcel of returned goods--aye, if she were the kaiser's daughter herself!" whereat she pouted and was not ill-pleased. "ah, my man," she would reply, "after a girl hath said you nay a time or two, it will bring you down from these high notions, and be much for your soul's final good!" but yet, when i could keep her in good-humor, it was exceedingly sweet to bide quietly in the house with the little playmate--far better than to gad about with texels and meandering fools, which indeed i did oftentimes just because it made my little lass so full of moods and tenses--like one of friar laurence's irregular verbs in his cursed humanities. for there is nothing so variously delightful as a woman when she is half in love and half out of it--more interesting (say some) though less delightful than when she is all and whole in love. nevertheless, there are exceptions, and one woman at least i know more various, and more delicious also, since love's ocean hath gone over her head, than ever she was when, like a timid bather, she shivered on the brink or made little fearful plunges, as it were knee-deep, and so ran out again. but i am not come to that in the story yet. well, on the afternoon of the next day, who should come to the house in the red tower but our helene's gossip, for this week at least her bosom friend, katrin texel. she was even more impressive in manner than ever, and also a little pleasanter to behold. for her angles were clothing themselves into curves, and she was learning, perhaps from the little playmate, to leave off bouncing into a room like a cow at the trot, and to walk in sedately instead. by-and-by i knew she would come sailing down the street like a towered galleon from the isles of ind. for all that, she looked not ill--an academic study for juno, one might say. but to make love to--why, as helene was wont to remark, _feech!_ and the curious thing about katrin texel was that though her corporeal part might be a direct inheritance from her burgomeister father and his substantial brewery, her spirit had been designed for an artful fairy of half her size, in order that it might go pirouetting into airy realms of the imagination. for she was gay enough and lightsome enough in her demeanor. she came in with a skip which would have been entrancing in some elfish mignonne who could dance light-foot on spring flowers without crushing them. but when this our solid burgomagisterial katrin tripped in, it nearly drove me wild with mirth. for it was as if some bland maternal cow out of the pasture had skipped with a hop and a circle of flying skirts into a ballroom or a butterfly of two hundred pounds' weight had taken to flitting from flower to flower. and this katrin talked in a quick, light voice, with ups and downs and skips and quivers in it, as spring-heeled as a chamois goat on the mountains of the south. "ah, tiny-chen," she would cry, as she came undulating and cooing in to our helene, "is it you, dearest? 'tis as sweet to see you as for birds to kiss on bough! i have danced all day in the sunshine just to think that i should come to see you! and tell me why you have not been to visit me. ah, bad one--cruelest--as cruel as she is pretty" (appealing to me), "is she not? and there, our michael, great oaf, sits at home desolated that he does not hear her foot on the stairs. the foolish fellow tells me that he listens for four little pit-a-pats every time that i come up from the court-yard, and is disappointed when there come back only my poor two." and katrin becked and nodded and set her head to the side--like to the divine io-cow playing at being little jenny wren. and as for me, i kept my gravity--or, rather, how could i lose it, hearing such nonsense about that great stupid beer-vat, michael texel. michael texel, indeed! i should admire to hear of michael texel so much as raising his eyes to the little playmate. why, i would stave him on the open street like a puncheon of eight, and think nothing of the doing of it. michael texel, indeed! but i am forgetting. my business at this time was to make love to katrin, so that i might banish the ill impression which helene had formed concerning that pleasant, harmless little christian's elsa over there. i never heard anything so foolish in my life. but, then, what women will think and say passes the imagination of man. michael texel indeed! the thought of that young man of beef and beer recurred so persistently and forcibly to me that for a time i could scarce command myself to speak civilly to his sister. though, of course, she was quite different, being a woman, and informed with such a quick and dainty spirit that at times it seemed as it had been imprisoned in her too massive frame and held "in subjection to the flesh," as the clerics say. god wot, i never knew i had so much religion and morality about me till i came to write. if i do not have a care this tale of mine will turn out almost as painful as a book of devotion which they set children to read on saints' days to keep them from being over-happy. but i subdued my feelings and drew up somewhat nearer to katrin. "my little sister--" so i began, cunningly, as i thought--"my sister helene is, indeed, fortunate to have so fair a friend, and one so devoted--" "as my brother michael, yes," she twittered, with her most ponderous, cage-bird manner; "yes, indeed, he _is_ devoted to her." "no," said i, hastily (confound the great hulking camel!), "i mean such a faithful friend as yourself. i, alas, have no friend. i am cut off from all society of my kind. often and often have i felt the weight of loneliness press heavy upon me in this darksome tower." i saw helene rise, go to the window, and glance across with such a peculiar smile that i knew as well as if i had seen her that christian's elsa was at her window with her music, looking across for me between each bar. i cannot describe the smile which hovered on the face of the little playmate. but perhaps all the male beings who read my book may have seen something like it. all that i can say is, that the smile conveyed an almost superhuman understanding of men and their little ways, and, curiously enough, something of contempt too. but i was not going to be discouraged by any smile, acid or sweet. besides, i had something still to pay back. michael texel, indeed!--faith, by st. blaise, i will texel him tightly an he comes sneaking to our gate! so again i drew yet nearer to his sister. katrin dimpled and showed her teeth, with a smile like the sun going about the world, till i had almost put my hand behind her shoulders to catch the ends of it when it got round. this illumination almost finished me, for it was not the kind of smile i had been accustomed to from--well, that was not the business i was on at present. chapter xv the little playmate settles accounts but i admit that the smile discouraged me. nevertheless i proceeded gallantly. "ah, jungfrau texel," said i, "you cannot know how your presence brightens our lives here in the red tower. wherefore will you not come oftener to our grim abode?" i thought that, on the whole, pretty well; but, looking up at helene, i saw that her smile (so different from that of the io-cow katrin) had become a whole volume of scathing satire. god wot, it is not easy to make love to a lass when your "little sister" is listening--especially to a woman-mountain set on watch-springs like katrin texel. but, after all, katrin was no ways averse to love-making of any kind, which, after all, is the main thing. and as for the little playmate, i did not mind her a bonnet-tag. she had brought it upon herself. michael texel indeed! so i went on. it was excellent sport--such a jest as may not be played every day. i would show mistress helene (so i said to myself) whether she would like it any better if i made love to katrin than if i went over on an occasional wet day to clean pistolets and oil french musketoons in christian's guard-house. so i began to tell katrin how that woman was the sacredest influence on the life of men, with other things as i could recollect them out of a book of chivalry which i had been reading, the fine sentiments of which it was a pity to waste. for our helene would have stamped her foot and boxed my ears for coming nigh her with such nonsense (that is, at this time she would, doubtless--not, however, always). and as for the lass over the way--christian's elsa--she knew no more of letters than her father knew of the mathematics. plain kissing was more in her way--as i have been told. so i aired my book of chivalry to katrin texel. "fair maid," said i, "have you heard the refrain of the song that i love so well? it is like sweet music to me to hear it. i love sweet music. this is the latest catch: "'my true love hath my heart and i have his.' "how goes it, helene?" i asked, turning to her as she stood smiling bitterly by the window. for i knew that it would annoy her to be referred to. "goes it not something like this?" and i hummed fairly enough: "'my true love hath my heart and i have his.'" *** "and if it goes like that," said she, quickly, "it goeth like a tomcat mollrowing on the tiles in the middle of the night." now this being manifestly only spiteful, i took no notice of her work. "helene does not love good music," said i; "'tis her only fault. but i trust that you, dear katrin, have a greater taste for angelic song?" "and i trust you love to scratch upon the twangling zither as cats sharpen their claws upon the bark of trees? you love such music, _dear_ katrin, do you not?" cried helene over her shoulder from the window. but katrin, the divine cow, knew not what to make of us. i think she was of the opinion that helene and i, with much study upon books, had suddenly gone mad. "i do indeed love music," she said at last, uncertainly, "but, master hugo, not the kind of which my gossip, helene, speaks. i love best of all a ballad of love, sung sweetly and with a melting expression, as from a lover by the wall to his mistress aloft in the balcony, like that of him of italy, who sings: "'o words that fall like summer dew on me.' "how goes it? "'o breath more sweet than is the growing--the growing--'" she paused, and waved her hand as if to summon the words from the empty air. "'_the growing garlic,'_ if it be a lover of italy," cried helene, still more spitefully. "this is enough and to spare of chivalry, besides which hugo hath his lessons to learn for friar laurence, or else he will repent it on the morrow. come, sweetheart, let us be going. i will e'en convoy thee home." so she spoke, making great ostentation of her own superiority and emancipation from learning, treating me as a lad that must learn his horn-book at school. but i was even with her for all that. "and so farewell, then, dear mistress katrin," said i. "the delicate pleasure of your presence shall be followed by the still more tender remembrance which, when you are gone, my heart shall continue to cherish of you." that was indeed well-minded. a whole sentence out of my romance-book without a single slip. katrin bowed, with the airy grace of the grand duke's monument out in the square. but the little helene swept majestically off, muttering to herself, but so that i could hear her: "'o wondrous, most wondrous,' quoth our cat mall, when she saw her tom betwixt her and the moon." the application of which wise saw is indeed to seek. so the two maids went away, and i betook me to the window to see if i could catch a glimpse of christian's elsa. but i only saw katrin and helene going gossiping down the street with their heads very close together. at first i smiled, well pleased to think how excellently i had played my cards and how daintily i had worked in those gallant speeches out of the book of chivalry. but by-and-by it struck me that the little playmate was absent a most unconscionable time. could it be--michael texel? no, that at least was plainly impossible. i got up and walked about. then for a change i paused by the window. i had stood a good while thus moodily looking out at the casement, when i became aware of two that walked slowly up the street and halted together before the great iron-studded door which led to the red tower. by the thirty thousand virgins--helene and michael texel! and then, indeed, what a coil was i in; how blackly deceitful i called her! how keenly i watched for any token of understanding and kindness more than ordinary that might chance to pass between them. but i could see none, for though the great soft lout of a ruddy beer-vat tried often to look under the brim of her hat, yet she kept her eyes down--only once, that i could observe, raising them, and that was more towards the red tower than in the direction of michael texel. i think she wished to see whether i was watching. and when she had noted me it i wot well that she became much more animated, and laughed and spoke quickly, with color in her cheeks and a flash of defiance on her countenance, which were manifestly wasted on such a boastful, callow blubber-tun as michael texel. then it was: "adieu to you, master texel!" "farewell to you, fair maid!" and helene dipped a courtesy to him, dainty and sweet enough to conquer an angel, while the great jelly-bag shook himself almost to pieces in his eagerness to achieve a masterly bow. all this made me angry, not that i cared though helene had coquetted with a dozen lads, an it had liked her. it was only the poverty of taste shown in being seen in the open high street of thorn along with such an oaf as michael texel. he had first been my friend, it is true, but then at that time i had not found him out. by-and-by helene came up the stairs, tripping light as a feather that the wind blows. perhaps, though, she had turned in the doorway, where i could not see her, to throw the lout a kiss--so i thought within me, jealously. "you have convoyed your gossip katrin home in safety, i trust," said i, sweetly, as she came in. "yes," said she; "but i fear she has left her heart behind her. so wondrously rapid a courtship never did i see!" "save on the street," answered i; "and with a pale, soft jack-pudding like michael texel! that was a sight, indeed." at which helene laughed a merry little laugh--well-pleased, too, the minx, as i could see. "what are courtships on the street to you, sir hugo," she returned, "with your 'twinkle-twankle' singing-women over the way, and--lord, how went it? "'my true love hath my heart and i have his.' "ha! ha! sir gallant, what need you with more? would you have as many loves as the grand turk, and invent new love-makings for each of them? shall we maidens petition duke casimir to banish the other lads of the town and leave only hugo gottfried for all of us?" and then she went on to other such silly talk that i think it not worth reporting. whereupon i was about to leave the room in a transport of just indignation, and that without speaking, when helene called to me. "hugo!" she said, very softly, as she alone could speak, and that only when it liked her to make friends. i turned me about with some dignity, but knowing in my heart that it was all over with me. "well, what may be your will, madam?" said i. helene came towards me with uplifted, petitionary eyes. "you are not going to be angry with me, hugo!" she said. and she lifted her eyes again upon me--irresistible, compelling, solvent of dignities, and able to break down all pride. o all ye men who have never seen my helene look up thus at you--but only common other eyes, go and hang yourselves on high trees for very envy. well, as i say, helene looked up at me. she kept on looking up at me. and i--well, i hung a moment on my pride, and then--clasped her in my arms. "dear minx, thrice wicked one!" i exclaimed, "wherefore do you torment me--break my heart?" "because," said she, escaping as soon as she had gained her pretty, rascal way, "you think yourself so clever, hugo, such an irresistible person, that you must be forever returning to this window and getting this book of chivalry by heart. now you are going to be cross again. oh, shame, and with your little sister-"'that never did you any harm, but killed the mice in your father's barn.'" with such babyish words she talked the frowns off my face, or, when they would not go fast enough, hastened them by reaching up and smoothing them away with her finger. "now," she said, setting her head to the side, "what a nice sweet great brother! let him sit down here on the great chair." so i sat down, well pleased enough, not knowing what mischief the pranksome maid had now in her head, but judging that the matter might turn out well for me. then helene stole round to the back of the chair, and, taking me by the ears, she gave first one and then the other of them a pull. "that," she said, pulling the right, "is for listening to the little cat over the way that squalls on the tiles! and _that_" (giving the other a sound tug) "is for being a dandiprat when my gossip katrin was here!" she paused a moment as if to summon courage, and then she stooped quickly and kissed me on the neck. "and _that_ for michael texel!" she cried, and ran out of the room before i could get clear of the wide arms of the chair, and so run after and catch her. she turned in the doorway and wafted me a kiss from her finger-tips, airily and a little mockingly. "that for hugo gottfried!" she said, and was off to her own chamber with the _frou-frou_ of a light skirt, the slam of a door, and the shooting of a bolt. and after all this, it was heart's pity that ever anything should have come between us again, even for a moment. though, indeed, it was but for a moment. chapter xvi two women--and a man it was the forenoon of a sunday, a dull, sleepy time in all countries, and one difficult to get overpast. i was as usual busy with my accoutrement, recently bought with the loan of master gerard. the little playmate was just returned from the cathedral, and had indeed scarcely laid her finery aside, when there came a loud knocking at the outer gate of the red tower. then one of the guard tramped stolidly from the wicket to the door of our dwelling. "a lady waits you at the postern," said he, and so tramped his way unceremoniously back to his post. i knew without any need of telling that it was the lady ysolinde. so i rose, and hastily setting my fingers through my hair, went to the gate. there, attended by the respectable servitor, was, as i had expected, the lady ysolinde. "good-morrow," she said very courteously to me, and i duly returned her greeting with a low obeisance of respect and welcome. she wore a large garment, fashioned like a man's cloak, over her festal attire--which, with a hood for the head, wholly enveloped her figure and descended to her feet. "i have come, as i promised, to see the little playmate." these were her first words as we paced together across the wide upper court under the wondering eyes of the men of the duke's body-guard. "pray remember, lady ysolinde," said i, with much eagerness, "that i have as yet said nothing of the matter to helene, and that my father only knows that i am to ride to plassenburg in order to exercise myself in the practice of arms, before becoming his assistant here in the red tower and in the hall of judgment across the way." my visitor nodded a little impatiently. she who knew so many things, of a surety might be trusted to understand so much without being told. in the inner doorway helene met us. and never had it been my fortune to see the meeting of two such women. the little playmate had in her hands the broidered handkerchiefs, the long flemish gloves, and the little illuminated book of the hours which i had given her. she had been about to lay them away together, as is the fashion of women. and when she met the lady ysolinde i declare that she looked almost as tall. helene was perhaps an inch or two less in stature than her visitor, but what she lacked in height she more than made up in the supple erectness of her carriage and the vivid and extraordinary alertness of all her movements. "lady ysolinde," said i, as they met with the mutually level eyeshot of women who measure one another, "this is helene--whom, for love and kindliness, we of the wolfsberg call the 'little playmate.'" the daughter of master gerard impetuously threw back the gray monk's hood which shrouded the masses of her tawny hair. she put out both hands to helene, held her a moment at arm's-length to look into her eyes, even as she had done with me, but in a different way. then, drawing her nearer, she leaned forward and kissed her on the brow and on both cheeks. now i am not ordinarily a close observer, and many things, specially things that pertain to the acts of women, pass by me unnoticed. but i saw in a moment that there was not, and never could be, more than the semblance of cordial amity between these two women. i noted the little playmate instinctively quiver like a taken bird when she was thus embraced. it was, i think, the undying antipathy of eve for lilith, a hatred which is mostly on the side of eve, the mother-woman--its place being taken by sharper and more dangerous envy in the breast of lilith-without-the wall. there, face to face, stood the two women who were to make my life, ruling it between them, as it were, striking it out between the impact of their natures, as underneath the blows of two smiths upon the ringing anvil the iron, hissing hot, becomes a sword or a ploughshare. it was impossible to avoid contrasting them. helene, of a bodily beauty infinitely more full of temptation, bloomful with radiant health, the blush of youth and conscious loveliness upon her lips and looking out under the crisp entanglement of her hair, all simple purity and straightness of soul in the fearless innocency of her eyes; the lady ysolinde, deeper taught in the mysteries of existence, more conscious of power, not so beautiful, but oftentimes giving the impression of beauty more strongly than her fairer rival, compact of swift delicate graces, half feline, half feminine (if these two be not the same). all these passed like clouds over the unquiet sea of her nature, reflecting the changing skies of circumstance, and were fitted to produce a fascination ever on the verge of repulsion even when it was strongest. ysolinde was the more ready of speech, but her words were touched constantly with dainty malice and clawed with subtlest spite. she catspawed with men and things, often setting the hidden spur under the velvet foot deeply into the very cheek which she seemed to caress. such as i read them then, and largely as even now i understand them, were the two women who moulded between them my life's history. i suppose it is because i am of this baltic north that i must need think things round and round, and prose of reasons and explanations--even when i write concerning beautiful maids--forever dreaming and dividing, instead of going straight, sword in hand, for their hearts, as is the way of the folk from the english land over-seas, or, more simply still, lying about their favors, which, i hear, is mostly the frenchman's way. but enough of intolerable theory. instinctively the lady ysolinde spoke to our maid of the red tower in a manner and tone very different from that which i had ever before heard her employ, at once more equal and more guarded. "i was told by master hugo gottfried here (whose acquaintance i made at my father's house on the day after his foolish boy's prank of the white swan) that in the red tower of the wolfsberg dwelt one of mine own age, like myself a maid solitary among men. so to-day i have come to solicit her acquaintance, and to ask her to be kind to me, who have ever been in this city and country as a stranger in a strange land." it was prettily enough said, and our helene, easily touched, and perhaps a little ashamed of her first stiffness, put out a hand which the other quickly and securely clasped. then those two sat down together. ysolinde von sturm kept her eyes fixed on the playmate, but our shy and slender helene looked steadily past her out over the tumbled red roofs and peaked gables of the city of thorn to the gray wolfmark plains which lay spread beneath our windows like a picture in a book. at intervals, as it came near the hour of their mid-day meal, the blood-hounds howled in the kennels, and by their tone i knew that my father had left the hall of judgment where he had been detained all the morning. also i knew very well that the lady ysolinde wished me to find an errand elsewhere, in order that she might talk alone with her companion. but i saw also the appeal in the eyes of the playmate, and i was resolved not to give her the chance. "are you never weary in this dull tower?" asked the lawyer's daughter, still holding the playmate's hand. "it is not dull," replied helene. "i have my work. there are two men as shiftless and helpless as babes to attend to, and none to help me but old hanne." "let men attend to themselves," cried ysolinde; "that is ever my motto. they ought to be our servants, not we theirs." it was said smilingly, yet there was bitterness under the words as well. "but," said helene, smiling back at her with a fresh directness all her own, "one of the men saved my life and brought me up as his own daughter, and the other is--is hugo, here." and as she spoke of my father and of me i saw the eyes of the lady ysolinde fixed upon her, as it had been to read her inner soul. "and, by-the-way," she said, at last, after a long pause, "you have heard how this same master hugo proposes to himself to escape from the prison-house of this city, for a season to exercise himself in arms, and so in roving adventure fulfil that which is not granted to a maid, his 'wandering years.' he goes (so my father tells me) to the court of the prince of plassenburg, with the promise of a company to command. and i am glad, for i shall ride thither under his escort. indeed, and in truth, my home is far more there than here in thorn. but i would fain have a companion of my own sex. so i have come to beg of you, mistress helene, that you will accompany me. the princess, i know, has great need of a maid of honor near her person, and will gladly welcome a friend of mine for the post." the little playmate looked up astonished, as well she might, at this direct assault, which was moreover spoken with a pretty shamefacedness and the air of asking almost too great a favor. and, indeed, if there was any patronage in the thing offered, it was at least carefully kept out of the manner of asking. "lady ysolinde, i cannot accept your too overpowering favor," said helene, after a pause, "but your kindness in thinking at all of me will always warm my heart." at this critical moment came my father in, looking more than grave and severe, so that i judged at once that he had been talking to the duke casimir and had found his post of chief adviser both thankless and difficult. i knew it could be no matter of his office which worried him, for that day he wore his holiday attire of white friesland cloth, and the broad bonnet in which i loved best to see him. there was no mark of his calling about him anywhere, save a little red axe sewed upon his left breast like a war veteran's decoration. chapter xvii the red axe is left alone gottfried gottfried bowed to the guest of his house with the noble manner which comes to every serious-minded man who deals habitually in the high matters of life and death. i made his introductions to the lady ysolinde, and as readily and gracefully he returned his acknowledgments. for the rest i allowed master gerard's daughter to develop her own projects to him, which, indeed, she was no long time in doing. as she proceeded i saw my father change color and become as to his face almost as white as the friesland cloth in which he was dressed. presently, however, as if struck with the sound of a well-known name, he looked up quickly. "plassenburg, said you, my lady?" he inquired. the lady ysolinde nodded. "yes, to plassenburg, where the princess has great need of a maid of honor." "her highness is often upon her travels, i hear it reported," said my father, "while the prince keeps himself much at home." "he esteems his armies more than all the marvels of strange countries," replied ysolinde, "and thus he holds the land and folk in great quiet." "and your father, master gerard, would have my son engage with this prince karl for a space. well, i think it may be good for the lad. for i know well that the shadow of the red tower stalks after him through this city of thorn, and there is no need that he should lie down under it too soon. but this of my little maid is a matter apart, and means a longer and a sorer parting." "fear not, my father," cried the playmate, eagerly, "i would not leave you alone, even to be the princess of plassenburg herself." my father took another strange look from one to the other of the two women, the import of which i understood not then. "i know not," said he; "i think this thing also might be for the best. as i see it, there are strange times coming upon us in thorn. and the town of plassenburg under karl the prince is a defenced city, set in a strong province, content and united. it might be wisest that you also should go, little one." "i cannot go," said helene, "and leave you alone." gottfried gottfried smiled a sad smile, wistfully pleasant. "already i am wellnigh an old man, and it is the nature of my profession that i should be alone. i work among the issues of life and death. every man must be lonely when he dies, and i, who have lived most with dying men, am perforce already lonely while i live. it is well--a clearer air for the young bird! but yet it will be lonesome to miss you when i come in--the empty pot wanting the flower; the case without the jewel; silence above and below; your voice and hugo's, that have changed the sombre red tower with your young folks' pleasantries, heard no more. ah, god wot, i had thought--i had dreamed far other things." he stopped and looked from one to the other of us, and i saw that ysolinde of the white gate read his thought. whereat right suddenly the little playmate blushed, and as for me i kept watching the dull gold flash on the spangles of our guest's waist-belt, which was in form like a live serpent, with changeful scales and eyes of ruby red. my father went over to where helene sat. she rose to meet him and cast her arms about his neck. he laid his right hand on her head--that terrible hand that was yet not dreadful to us-who loved him. "little flower," he said, in his simple way, "god be good to you in the transplanting! it is not fair to your young life that my red stain should lie upon your lot. i have given you a quiet hermitage while you needed it. but now it is right that my house should again be left unto me desolate. it is already late summer with gottfried gottfried, and high time that the young brood should fly away." he turned to me. "with you, hugo, it is a thing different; you were born to that to which you are born. and to that, as i read your horoscope, you must one day return. but in the mean time care well for the maid. i lend her to you. i give her into your hand. cherish her as your chiefest treasure. let her enemies be yours, and if harm come to her through your neglect, slay yourself ere you come again before me. for, by the lord god of all righteous judgment, i will have no mercy!" i saw the eyes of the lady ysolinde glitter like those of the snake in her belt as thus my father delivered helene over to me. but my father had yet more to say. "and if any," he went on, in a deep, still voice, keeping his hand upon the downcast head of the little playmate--"if any, great or small, prince or pauper, harm so much as a hair of this fair head, by the great god who wields his axe over the universe and sits in the highest halls of judgment, whose servant i am--i, gottfried gottfried, swear that he shall taste the vengeance of the red axe and drink to the dregs the cup of agony in his own blood!" so saying, he kissed helene and stalked out without turning his head or making any further obeisance or farewell. we sat mazed and confounded after his departure. the lady ysolinde it was who first recovered herself. she put out a kindly hand to helene, who stood wet-eyed and drooping by the window, looking out upon the roofs of thorn, though well i wot she saw nothing of spire, roof, or pinnacle. "god do so to me and more also," she said, in a low, solemn voice, "if i too keep not this charge." and i think for the moment she meant it. the trouble was that the lady ysolinde could not mean one thing for very long at a time. as, indeed, shall afterwards appear. so it was arranged that within the week helene and i should say our farewells to the red tower which had sheltered us so long, as well as to gottfried gottfried, who had ever been my kind father, and to the little helene more than any father. but in spite of all we wearied day by day to be gone. for, indeed, gottfried gottfried said right. the shadow of the red tower, the stain of the red axe, was over us both so long as we abode on the wolfsberg. yet what it cost us to depart--at least till we were out of the gates of the city--i cannot write down, for to both of us the first waygoing seemed bitter as death. i remember it well. my father had been busy all the morning with his grim work on the day when we were to ride away. a gang of malefactors who had wasted a whole country-side with their cruelty had been brought in. and, as it was suspected that other more important villains were yet to be caught, there had been the repeated pain of the extreme question, and now there remained but the falling of the red axe to settle all accounts. so that when he came to bid us farewell he had but brief time to spare. and of necessity he wore the fearful crimson, which fitted his tall, spare figure like a glove. "fare thee well, little one!" he said, first to helene. "not thus, had the choice lain with me, would i have bidden thee farewell. but when it shall be that i meet you again i will surely wear the white of the festa day. i commit you to him whose mistakes are better than our good deeds, whose judgments are kinder than our tenderest mercies." so he kissed her, and reached a hand over her shoulder to me. "son hugo," he said, "go in peace. you must return to succeed me. i see it like a picture--on the day when i lie dead you shall stand with the red axe in your hand waiting to do judgment. it is well. keep this maid more sacred than your life--and, meantime, fare you well!" so saying he left us abruptly. our horses were saddled in the court-yard, and as i rode last through the rarely opened gateway, i saw duke casimir looking out from his window upon the lower enclosure, as was his pleasure upon the days of execution. i heard the dull thud, which was the meeting of the red axe and the redder block as that which had been between fell apart. and for the last time i heard the blood-hounds leap and the pattering of their eager feet upon the barriers as they leaped up scenting the duke's carrion. thus the latest i heard of the place of my nativity was fitting and dreadful. i was mortally glad to ride away into the clear air and the invigorating silence. but on my heart there still lay heavy the twice-repeated prediction of my father and of the lady ysolinde, that i should yet return and hold the red axe in his place. but i resolved rather to die in the honest front of battle. nevertheless, had i known the future, i would have seen that they and not i were right. i was indeed fated to return and stand ready to execute doom, with the red axe in my hand and my father lying dead near by. chapter xviii the prime of the morning now so strange a thing is woman that, so soon as we were started down the high street of the city of thorn, the little playmate dried her eyes, turned towards me in her saddle, and straightway began to take me to task as though i had been to blame. "i have left," said she, "the only home i ever knew, and the only man that ever truly loved me, to accompany a young man that cares not for me, and a woman whom i have seen but once, to a far land and an unkindly folk." "it is not fair," i said, "to say that i love you not. for, as god sees me, i have ever loved you--loved you best and loved you only, little helenchen! and though you are angered with me now, i know not why--still till now you have never doubted it." "i doubt it sorely enough now, i know," she said, bitterly; "yet, indeed, i care not whether you or any love me at all." and this saying i was greatly sorry for. it seemed a sad wayfaring from our old red tower and out of my native city of thorn. "helene, little one," said i, "believe me, i love none in the whole world but my father and you. trust me, for i am to keep you safe with my life in the far land to which we go. do not let us quarrel, littlest. there are only the two of us here that remember the old man my father and the little room to which you came as a babe, all in white." so presently she was somewhat pacified, and reached me a hand from the back of her beast, on pretence of leaning over to avoid a swinging sign in one of the narrow streets near by the white gate, where we were to meet the lady ysolinde. "and yet more, little playmate," said i, keeping her hand when i had it; "do not begin by distrusting the noble lady with whom we are to travel. for she means well to us both, and in the strange country to which we go we may be wholly in her power." "you are sure that you do not love that woman, then?" said helene, without looking at me. for, indeed, in many things she was but a child, and ever spoke more freely than other maids--perhaps with being brought up in the red tower in the company of my father, who on all occasions spoke his mind just as it came to him. "nay," said i, "believe me, little love, i do not love her at all." and now on horseback helene looked all charming, and what with the exercise, the unknown adventure, and my reassurance, she had a glow of rose color in her cheeks. she had never before been so far away from the precincts of the wolfsberg. i had even taught her to ride in the court-yard of a summer evening, on a horse borrowed from one of the duke's squires. we found the lady ysolinde waiting for us at her house, master gerard talking to her in the doorway, earnestly and apart. both of them had a look of much solemnity, as though the matter of their discourse were some very weighty one. presently her father kissed her and she came down the steps. i leaped from my horse to help her to the saddle, but the respectable serving-man was before me. so that instead i went about and looked to the buckles and girths, which were all in order, and patted the arching neck of the beautiful milk-white palfrey whereon she rode. then master gerard waved a hand and went within. and as we fared forth out of the weiss thor into the keener air of the country, i thought what a charge i had--to squire two ladies so surpassingly fair, each in her own several graces, as our helene and the lady ysolinde. no sooner, however, were we past the outer barriers, at which the soldiers of the duke casimir kept guard, than a vast, ungainly wight started up from the road-side. "jan lubber fiend!" cried the lady ysolinde; "what do you here?" the oaf grinned his awful, writhed smile and wriggled his great body after the manner of a puppy desirous of the milk-platter. "think you, my lady," said he, cunningly, "that your poor jan would abide within the precincts of the city house with that funeral ape bidding me do this and do that, sit here and sit there, come in and go out at his pleasure? a thing of dough that i could twist into knots as easily as i can crack my joints." and of this latter accomplishment he proceeded to give us certain examples which sounded like cannon-shots delivered at close quarters. "get home with you!" cried ysolinde; "i cannot have thee following us. there are two men presently to meet us, to guard us to plassenburg, and we do not need you, jan lubber fiend. get back and take care of my father." "oh, as for him," said the monster, sitting down squat upon the plain road in the dust, "he is a tough old cock, and will come to no harm. we can e'en leave him with a good cook, a prime cellar, and an easy mind. but this young man is not to trust to with so many pretty maids. jan will come and look after him." and with that he nodded his hay-stack of a head three times at me, and going to the hedge-root he laid hold of the top of a young poplar and turned him about, keeping the stem of it over his shoulder. then he set himself to pull like a horse that starts a load, and presently, without apparently distressing himself in the least, he walked away with the young tree, roots and all. having shaken off the earth roughly, he pulled out a sheath-knife and trimmed the branches till he had made him a kind of club, with which he threatened me, saying, "if i catch that young man at any tricks, with this club will jan lubber fiend break every bone in his skin, like the shells of so many broken eggs." then laughing a little, and seeing that nothing could be made of the fellow, the lady ysolinde rode on and we followed her. we thought that surely there would be no difficulty in shaking him off long ere we reached our lodging-place of the evening, and that he would find his way back to the city of thorn. but even though we set our horses to their speed, it seemed to make no difference to the unwieldy giant. he merely stretched his legs a little farther, and caused his great gaskined feet to pass each other as fast as if they had been shod with seven-league boots. so he not only kept up with us easily, but oftentimes made a dã©tour through the fields and over the wild country on either side, as a questing dog does, ever returning to us with some quaint vagrant fancy or quip of childish simplicity. but what pleased me better than the appearance of the lubber fiend was that ere we had gone quite two miles out of the city we found two well-armed and stanch-looking soldiers waiting for us at a kind of cross-road. they were armed with the curious powder-guns which were coming into fashion from france. these went off with a noble report, and killed sometimes at as much as fifteen or twenty paces when the aim was good. the fellows had swords also, and little polished shields on their left arms--altogether worthy and notable body-guards. "these two are soldiers of the guard from plassenburg," said the lady ysolinde, "though now they are travelling as members of a free company desiring to enter upon new engagements. but they will make the way easier and pleasanter for us, as well as infinitely safer, being veterans well accustomed to the work of quartering and foraging." as indeed we were to find ere the day ended. so we rode on in the brilliant light, and the long, long day seemed all too brief to us who were young, and scarce delivered from the prison-house of thorn. and to my shame i admit that my heart rose with every mile that i put between me and the red tower. indeed, i hardly had a thought to spend on my father. the hot quadrangle of the wolfsberg, ever smelling of horses and the swelter of shed blood, the howling, fox-colored demons in the kennels, the black duke casimir --right gladly i forgot them all. aye, i forgot even my father, and everything save that i was riding with two fair women through a world where all was love and spring, and where it was ever the prime of a young morning. the lady ysolinde could not make enough of our little playmate. she laughed back at her over her shoulder when she let her horse out for a canter. she marvelled loudly at helene's good riding, and at the unbound beauty of the crisp ringlets which clustered round her head like a boy's. and our helene smiled, well pleased, and ceased to watch my eyes or to grow silent if i checked my horse too long by the side of the lady ysolinde. mostly we three rode abreast over the pleasant country. so long as we were crossing the plain of the wolfmark we saw few tilled fields, and the farm-houses were fewer still. but wherever these were to be seen they were fortified and defended like castles, and had gates, great and high, with iron plates upon them and knobs like the points of spears beaten blunt. the lady ysolinde, who had often ridden that way, told us that these were all in the duke casimir's country, and were mostly possessed by the kin of his chief captains--feudal tenants, who for the right of possession were compelled to furnish so many riders to the duke's companies. "but wait," she said, "till you come to the dominions of the prince of plassenburg. you will find that he is indeed a ruler that can make the broom-bush keep the cow." so we rode on, and passed pleasant and exciting things, more than i had ever seen in all my life before. once we saw half a dozen men driving cattle across our path, and it was curious to mark how readily they drew their swords and couched their lances at us, turning themselves about this way and that like a quintain till we were quite gone by, which made us laugh. for it seemed a strange thing that men so well armed should fear a company of no more than their own numbers, and two of them maids upon palfreys. but ysolinde said: "it is not, after all, so strange, for over yonder blue hills dwells joan of the swordhand, who can lead a foray as well as any man, and once worsted duke casimir himself when he beset her castle." so the day went past swiftly, with good company and the converse of folk well liking one another. and ever i wondered how we were to spend the night, and what sort of cheer we should find at our inn. chapter xix wendish wit the gray plain of the wolfmark, which we had been traversing ever since we descended out of the steep weiss thor of the city of thorn, had now begun to break into ridges and mounded hills of stiff red clay. and i, who had often kept my watch on the highest pinnacle of the red tower, looked with astonishment back upon the city i had left behind. seen from the plain, thorn had an aspect almost imperial. it rose above the colorless flat of gray suddenly, unexpectedly, almost insolently. the city, with its numberless gables, spires of churches, turreted gate-houses, occupied a ridge of gradually swelling ground which rose like a huge whale-back from the misty plain. its walls were grim, high, and far-stretching. but as we travelled farther into the wolfmark the city seemed to sink deeper into the plain and the dark castle of duke casimir to shoot ever higher into the skies. so that presently, as we looked back, we could only see the wolfsberg itself, the abode of cruelty and wrong, standing black against the white sky of noon. its flanking towers stood up above the battlemented wall, their turrets climbing higher and higher towards heaven, till the topmost red tower--that in which my father's garrot was, and in which i had spent my entire life until this day--soared straight upward above them all, like a threatening index-finger pointing, not into the clear sky of a summer's noon, but into clouds and thick darkness. i was glad when at last we lost sight of it. then, indeed, i felt that i had left my old life behind me. and, in spite of the lady ysolinde's ink-pool prophecy and my love for my father (such as it was), i did not mean ever to trust myself within that baleful circle of gray and weary plain upon which the red tower looked down. seeing that the maids were inclined to talk the one with the other, or rather that the lady ysolinde spoke confidentially with helene, and that helene now answered her without embarrassment and with frank, equal glances, i dropped gradually behind and rode with the two stout men-at-arms. these i found to be honest lads enough, but of a strangely reserved and taciturn nature, each ever waiting for the other to answer--being, like most wendish men, much averse to questioning and still more stiff as to replying. "you are men of plassenburg?" i said to the nearest, simply and innocently enough, for the purpose of improving the cordiality of our relations. whereupon he turned his head slowly about to his neighbor, as it were to consult him. the glance said as clearly as monk's script: "what shall we answer to this troublesome, inquisitive fellow?" at first i thought that perhaps they spoke not the common dialect, and that as we were travelling towards regions roughly wendish and but lately heathen, they might have some uncouth speech of their own. so, as is ever the custom with folk that are not accustomed to the speaking of foreign tongues, i repeated the question in mine own language in a louder tone, supposing that that would do as well. "you are men of the country of plassenburg?" cried i, as loud as i could bawl. "we are not deaf--we have all our faculties, praise the saints!" said the more distant of the two, looking not at me but at his companion. he, on his part, nodded back at his comrade's reply, as if it had been delicately calculated at once to answer my question and at the same time not to commit them to any dangerous opinions. i tried again. "your prince, i hear, is a true man, brave, and well-versed in war?" the shorter and stouter man, who rode beside me, glanced once at my face, and slowly screwed round his head to his companion in a long, questioning gaze. then as slowly he turned his head back again. "umph!" he said, judicially, with a movement of his head, which seemed a successful compromise between a nod and a shake, just as his remark might very well have resulted from an attempt to say "yes" and "no" at the same time. this was not encouraging to one who, like myself, was in high spirits and much inclined for conversation. but i was not to be so easily beaten off. "the prince of plassenburg has a princess," i said, "who is often upon her travels?" it was an innocent remark, and, so far as i could see, not one in itself highly humorous. but it broke up the gravity of these red-haired northern bears as if it had been the latest gay sally of the court-fool. "ha! ha!" laughed the more distant, lanky man, rocking himself in his saddle till the pennon on his lance shook and the point dipped towards his horse's ear. "ho! ho!" chorused his companion, slapping his thigh jovially. "jorian, did you hear that? 'the prince of plassenburg hath a princess, and she is often upon her travels.' ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho!" "he hath said it! ho! ho! he hath said it! he is a wise fellow, after all, this beardless jack-pudding of thorn!" cried the other, tee-heeing with laughter till he nearly wept upon his own saddle-bow. i began to get very angry. for we men of thorn were not accustomed to be so flouted by any strangers, keeping mostly our own customs, and reining in the few strangers who ventured to visit duke casimir's dominions pretty tightly. least of all could i brook insolence from these wendish boors from the outskirts of half-pagan borrussia. "the prince of plassenburg hath churls among his retinue," said i, hotly, "if they be all like you two jacks, that cannot answer a simple question without singing out like donkeys upon a common where there are no thistles to keep them quiet." sir thicksides, the fat jolter-head nearest me set his thumb out to stick it into the side armor of longlegs, his companion, who rode cheek by jowl with him. "oo-oo-ahoo!" cried he, crowing with mirth, as if i had said a yet more facetious thing. "'tis a simple question--'hath the prince of plassenburg a princess, and is she not oft--ahoo!' boris, prod me with thy lance-shaft hard, to keep me from doing myself an ill turn with this fellow's innocence." "hold up, jorian !" answered the long man, promptly pounding him on the back with the butt of his spear. "hold up, fat jorian! let not thy love of mirth do thee any injury. for thou art a good comrade, and fools were ever apt to divert thee too much. i have seen thee at this before--that time we went to wilna, and the fellow in motley gave thee griping spasms with his tomfoolery." then was i mainly angry, as indeed i had sufficient occasion. "you are but churls," i said, "and the next thing to knaves. and i will e'en inform the prince when we arrive what like are the men whom he sets to escort ladies to his castle." but though they were silenter after this, it was not from any alarm at my words, but simply because they had laughed themselves out of ply. for as i rode on in high dudgeon, half-way between the women and the men-at-arms, i could see them with the corner of an eye still nudging each other with their thumbs and throwing back their heads, and the breeze blew me scraps of their limited conversation. "ho! ho! good, was it not? 'the prince hath a princess, and she--' ho! ho! good!" the ridges of clay of which i have already spoken continued and increased in size as we went on. it was a dried-up, speckled, unwholesome-looking land. and people upon it there were none that we could see. the large fortified farms had ceased altogether. a certain frightful monotony reigned everywhere. ravines, like cracks which the sun makes in mud, but a thousand times greater, began to split the hills perpendicularly to their very roots. the path wound perilously this way and that among them. and presently jorian and boris rode past me to take the lead, for ysolinde and helene were inclined to mistake the way as often as they came to the crossing and interweaving of the intricate paths. and as these two jolly jackasses rode past at my right side i could see the thumb of long boris curving towards the ribs of his companion, and the shoulders of both shaking as they chuckled. "a rare simpleton's question, i' faith, yes. ho! ho! good!" they chorussed. "'the prince hath a princess'--the cock hath a hen, and she-ha! ha! good!" at that moment i could with pleasure have slain jorian and boris for open-mouthed, unshaven, slab-sided wendish pigs, as indeed they were. yet, had i done so, we had fared but ill without them. for had they been a thousand times jackasses and rotten pudding-heads (as they were), at least they knew the way and something of the unchristian people among whom we were going. and so in a little while, as we wound our way along the face of these perilons rifts in the baked clay, with the mottled, inefficient river feeling its way gingerly at the bottom of the buff--colored ravine, what was my astonishment to see jorian and boris turn sharply at right angles and ride single file up one of the dry lateral cracks which opened, as it were, directly into the hill-side! they did this without ever looking at the landmarks, like men who are anyways uncertain of their road. but, on the contrary, they wheeled confidently and rode jauntily on, and we three meekly followed, having by this time lost the lubber fiend, the devil doubtless knew where. for we must have followed boris and jorian unquestioningly had they led us into the bowels of the earth, as indeed, at first sight, they seemed to be doing. chapter xx the earth-dwellers of no man's land then presently we came to a strange place, the like of which i have never seen, save here on the borders of the mark and the northern wendish lands. an amalgam of lime, or binding stuff of some sort, had glued the clay of the ravines together, and set it stiff and fast like dried plaster. so, as we went up the narrow, perilous path, our horses had to tread very warily lest, going too near the edge, they should chip off enough of the foothold to send themselves and their riders whirling neck-over-toes to the bottom. all at once the little playmate, who was riding immediately before me, screamed out sharp and shrill, and i hastened up to her, thinking she had fallen upon a misfortune. i found her palfrey with ears pricked and distended nostril, gazing at a head in a red nightcap which was set out of a hole in the red clay. "the country of gnomes! of a surety, yes! and hitherto i had thought it had been but the nonsense of folk-tales!" said i to myself. which is what we shall say one day of more things than red-nightcapped heads. but the little playmate uttered scream after scream, for the head continued coolly to stare at her, as if fixed alive over the gateway by the craft of some cave-dwelling imp of the red axe. i noticed, however, that the head chewed a straw and spat, which i deemed a gnome would not do--though wherefore straws and spitting are not free to gnomes i do not know and could not have told. yet, at all events, such was my belief. and a serviceable one enough it was, since it took the fear out of me and gave me back my speech. and when a man can speak he can fight. contrariwise, it is when a woman will not fight that she can talk best, as one may see in any congress of two angry vixens. so long as they rail there is but threatening and safe recriminations, but when one waxes silent, then 'ware nails and teeth! and i am _not_ in my dotage to use such illustrations--as not unnaturally sayeth the first to read my history. "good man," cried i, to sir red cap in the wall, "i know not why you stick your ugly head out of the mud, but retract it, i pray you! for do you not see that it alarms the lady and affrights her beast?" the man nodded intelligently, but went on coolly chewing his straw. then i went up to him, and, as civilly as i could, took him by the chin and thrust his head back into the hole. and as i did so i saw for the first time that the wall of the clay cliff, tough and gritty with its alloy of lime, had been cut and hewn into houses and huts having doors of wood of exactly the same color, and in some cases even windows with bars--very marvellous to see, and such as i have never witnessed elsewhere. presently, at the trampling of the feet of so many horses, people began to throng to their doors, and children peered out at windows and cried to each other shrilly: "see the christians!" for so, being but lately pagans themselves, if not partly so to this day, these outlandish men of the border no man's land denominated us of the south. presently we came to an open space sloping away from the sheer cliff, where was a wall and a door greater than the others. jorian rode directly up to the gate, which was of the same dull brick-red as the rest of the curious town. he took the butt of his lance and thumped and banged lustily upon it. for a time there was no reply, but the number of heads thrust out at neighboring windows and the swarms of townsfolk on the pathways before and behind us enormously increased. jorian thundered again, kicking with his foot and swearing explosively in mingled wendish and german. then he took the point of his spear, and, setting it to a hole in the wall above his head, he hooked out an entire wooden window-frame, as one is taught to pull out a shrimp with a pin on the shore of the baltic sea. whereupon a sudden outcry arose within the house, and a head popped angrily out of the aperture so suddenly created. but as instantly it returned within. for jorian tossed the lattice to the ground by the door and thrust his spear-head into the cravat of red which the man had about his throat, shouting to him all the while in the name of the prince, of the duke, of the emperor, of the archbishop, of all potentates, lay and secular, to come down and open the gates. the man in the red cravat was threatened with the strappado, with the water-torture, with the brodequins, and finally with the devil's cannon--which, according to our man-at-arms, was to be planted on the opposite bank of the ravine, and which would infallibly bring the whole of their wretched town tumbling down into the gulf like swallows' nests from under the eaves. and this last threat seemed to have more weight than all the rest, probably because the prince of plassenburg had already done something of the kind to some other similar town, and the earth-burrowers of erdborg had good reason to fear the thunder of his artillery. at all events, the great door opened, and a man of the same brick-red as all the other inhabitants of the town appeared at the portal. he bowed profoundly, and jorian addressed him in some outlandishly compounded speech, of which i could only understand certain oft-recurring words, as "lodging," "victualling," and "order of the prince." so, presently, after a long, and on the side of our escort a stormy, conference, we were permitted to enter. our horses were secured at the great mangers, which extended all along one side; while, opposite to the horses, but similar to their accommodation in every respect, were stalls wherein various families seemed to be encamped for the night. with all the air of a special favor conferred, we were informed that we must take up our quarters in the middle of the room and make the best of the hardened floor there. this information, conveyed with a polite wave of the hand and a shrug of the shoulders by our landlord, seemed not unnaturally to put jorian and boris into a furious passion, for they drew their swords, and with a unanimous sweep of the hand cleared the capes of their leathern jacks for fighting. so, not to be outdone, i drew my weapon also, and stood by to protect helene and the lady ysolinde. these two stood close together behind us, but continued to talk indifferently, chiefly of dress and jewels--which surprised me, both in the strange circumstances, and because i knew that helene had seen no more of them than the valueless trinkets that had belonged to my mother, and which abode in a green-lined box in the red tower. yet to speak of such things seems to come naturally to all women. as if they had mutually arranged it "from all eternity," as the clerks say, jorian and boris took, without hesitation, each a door on the opposite wall, and, setting their shoulders to them, they pushed them open, and went within sword in hand, leaving me alone to protect the ladies and to provide for the safety of the horses. presently out from the doors by which our conductors had entered there came tumbling a crowd of men and women, some carrying straw bolsters and wisps of hay, others bearing cooking utensils, and all in various _dishabille._ then ensued a great buzzing and stirring, much angry growling on the part of the disturbed men, and shrill calling of women for their errant children. our little helene looked sufficiently pitiful and disturbed as these preparations were being made. but the lady ysolinde scarcely noticed them, taking apparently all the riot and delay as so much testimony to the important quality of such great ones of the earth as could afford to travel under the escort of two valiant men-at-arms. presently came jorian and boris out at a third door, having met somewhere in the back parts of the warren. they came up to the lady ysolinde and bowed humbly. "will your ladyship deign to choose her chamber? they are all empty. thereafter we shall see that proper furniture, such as the place affords, is provided for your highness." i could not but wonder at so much dignity expended upon the daughter of master gerard, the lawyer of thorn. but ysolinde took their reverence as a matter of course. she did not even speak, but only lifted her right hand with a little casual flirt of the fingers, which said, "lead on!" then jorian marshalled us within, boris standing at the door to let us pass, and bringing his sword-blade with a little click of salute to the perpendicular as each of us passed. but i chanced to meet his eye as i went within, whereat the rogue deliberately winked, and i could plainly see his shoulders heave. i knew that he was still chewing the cud of his stale and ancient jest: "the prince hath a princess, and she--" i could have disembowelled the villain. but, after all, he was certainly doing us some service, though in a most provocative and high-handed manner. chapter xxi i stand sentry there are (say some) but two things worth the trouble of making in the world--war and love. so once upon a time i believed. but since--being laid up during the unkindly monotony of our baltic spring by an ancient wound--i fell to the writing of this history, i would add to these two worthy adventures--the making of books. which, till i tried my hand at the task myself, i would in no wise have allowed. but now, when the days are easterly of wind and the lashing water beats on the leaded lozenges of our window lattice, i am fain to stretch myself, take up a new pen, and be at it again all day. but i must e'en think of them that are to read me, and of their pain if i overstretch my privilege. besides, if i prove over-long in the wind they may not read me at all, which, i own it, would somewhat mar my purpose. i was speaking, therefore, of being in the watch and ward of two women, each of whom (in my self-conceit i thus imagined it) certainly regarded me without dislike. god forgive me for thinking so much when they had never plainly told me! nevertheless i took the thing for granted, as it were. and, as i said before, it has been my experience that, if it be done with a careful and delicate hand, more is gained with women by taking things for granted than by the smoothest tongue and longest jacob-and-rachael service. the man who succeeds with good women is the man who takes things for granted. only he must know exactly what things, otherwise i am mortally sorry for him--he will have a rough road to travel. but to my tale. jorian ushered ysolinde and helene into the rooms from which he had so unceremoniously ousted the former tenants. how these chambers were lighted in the daytime i could not at first make out, but by going to the end of the long earth-hewn passage and leaning out of a window the mystery was made plain. the ravine took an abrupt turn at this point, so that we were in a house built round an angle, and so had the benefit of light from both sides. "and where are our rooms to be?" i asked of the stout soldier when he returned. jorian pointed to the plain, hard earth of the passage. "that is poor lodging for tired bones!" i said; "have they no other rooms to let anywhere in this hostelry?" he laughed again; indeed, he seemed to be able to do little else whenever he spoke to me. "tired bones will lie the stiller!" said he, at last, sententiously. "there is some wheaten straw out there which you can bring in for a bolster, if you will. but i think it likely that we shall get no more sleep than the mouse in the cat's dining-room this night. these border rascals are apt to be restless in the dark hours, and their knives prick most consumedly sharp!" with that he went out, leaving the doors into the passages all open, and presently i could hear him raging and rummaging athwart the house, ordering this one to find him "graubunden fleisch," the next to get him some good bread, and not to attempt to palm off "cow-cake" upon honest soldiers on pain of getting his stomach cut open--together with other amenities which occur easily to a seasoned man-at-arms foraging in an unfriendly country. then, having returned successful from this quest, what was my admiration to see jorian (whom i had so lately called, and i began to be sorry for it, a wendish pig) strip his fine soldier's coat and hang it upon a peg by the door, roll up his sleeves, and set to at the cooking in the great open fireplace with swinging black crooks against the front wall, while boris stood on guard with a long pistolet ready in the hollow of his arm, and his slow-match alight, by the doorway of the ladies' apartment. i went and stood by the long man for company. and after a little he became much more friendly. "why do you stand with your match alight?" i asked of him after we had been a while silent. "why, to keep a border knife out of jorian's back, of course, while he is turning the fry in the pan," said he, as simply as if he had said that 'twas a fine night without, or that the moon was full. "i wish i could help," i sighed, a little wistfully, for i wished him to think well of me. "what!" he exclaimed--"with the frying-pan? well, there is the basting ladle!" he retorted, and laughed in his old manner. i own that, being yet little more than a lad, the tears stood in my eyes to be so flouted and made nothing of. "i will show you perhaps sooner than you think that i am neither a coward nor a babe!" i said, in high dudgeon. and so went and stood by myself over against the farther door of the three, which led from the outer hall to the apartments in which i could hear the murmur of women's voices. and it was lucky that i did so. for even as i reached the door a sharp cry of terror came from within, and there at the inner portal i caught sight of a narrow, foxy, peering visage, and a lean, writhing figure, prone like a worm on its belly. the rascal had been crawling towards helene's room, for what purpose i know not. nor did i stop to inquire, for, being stung by the taunt of the man-at-arms, i was on foxface in a moment, stamping upon him with my iron-shod feet, and then lifting him unceremoniously up by the slackness of his back covertures, i turned him over and over like a wheel, tumbling him out of the doorway into the outer hall with an astonishing clatter, shedding knives and daggers as he went. it was certainly a pity for the fellow that boris had taunted me so lately. but the abusing of him gave me great comfort. and as he whirled past the group at the fire, jorian caught him handily in the round of his back with a convenient spit, also without asking any questions, whereat the fellow went out at the wide front door by which we had first entered, revolving in a cloud of dust. and where he went after that i have no idea. to the devil, for all i care! but boris, standing quietly by his own door, was evidently somewhat impressed by my good luck. for soon after this he came over to me. i thought he might be about to apologize for his rudeness. and so perhaps he did, but it was in his own way. "did you spoil your dagger on him?" he said, anxiously, for the first time speaking to me as a man speaks to his equal. "no," said i, "but i stubbed my toe most confoundedly, jarring it upon the rascal's backbone as he went through the door." "ah!" he replied, thoughtfully, nodding his head, "that was more fitting for such as he. but you may get a chance at him with the dagger yet or the night be over." and with that he went back to his door, blowing up his slow-match as he went. presently the supper was pronounced cooked, and, after washing his hands, jorian resumed his coat, amid the universal attention of the motley crew in the great hall, and began to dish up the fragrant stew. ho had been collecting for it all day upon the march, now knocking over a rabbit with a bolt from his gun, now picking some leaves of lettuce and watercress when he chanced upon a running stream or a neglected garden--of which last (thanks to duke casimir and his raiders) there were numbers along the route we had traversed. then, when he had made all ready, our sturdy cook dished the stew into a great wooden platter--rabbits, partridges, scraps of dried flesh, bits of bacon for flavoring, fresh eggs, vegetables in handfuls, all covered with a dainty-smelling sauce, deftly compounded of milk, gravy, and red wine. then jorian and boris, one taking the heap of wooden platters and the other the smoking bowl of stew, marched solemnly within. but before he went, boris handed me his pistolet without a word, and the slow-match with it. which, as i admit, made me feel monstrously unsafe. however, i took the engine across my arm and stood at attention as i had seen him do, with the match thrust through my waistband. then i felt as if i had suddenly grown at least a foot taller, and my joy was changed to ecstasy when the lady ysolinde, coming out quickly, i knew not at first for what purpose, found me thus standing sentinel and blowing importantly upon my slow-match. "hugo," she said, kindly, looking at me with the aqua-marine eyes that had the opal glints in them, "come thy ways in and sit with us." i made her a salute with my piece and thanked her for her good thought. "but," said i, "lady ysolinde, pray remember that this is a place of danger, and that it is more fitting that we who have the honor to be your guards should dine together without your chamber doors." "nay," she said, impetuously, "i insist. it is not right that you, who are to be an officer, should mess with the common soldiers." "my lady," said i, "i thank you deeply. and it shall be so, i promise you, when we are in safety. but let me have my way here and now." she smiled upon me--liking me, as i think, none the worse for my stiffness. and so went away, and i was right glad to see her go. for i would not have lost what i had gained in the good opinion of these two men-at-arms--no, not for twenty maidens' favors. but in that respect also i changed as the years went on. for of all things a boy loves not to be flouted and babyfied when he thinks himself already grown up and the equal of his elders in love and war. so in a little while came out jorian and boris, and, having carried in the bread and wine, we three sat down to the remains of the stew. indeed, i saw but little difference as to quantity from the time that jorian had taken it in. for maids' appetites when they are anyways in love are precarious, but, after they are assured of their love's return, then the back hunger comes upon them and the larder is made to pay for all arrears. not that i mean to assert that either of these ladies was in love with me--far otherwise indeed. for this it would argue the conceit of a jack-a-dandy to imagine, much more to write such a thing. but, nevertheless, certain is it that this night they were both of small appetite. chapter xxii helene hates me however, when the provision came to the outer port, we three sat down about it, and then, by my troth, there was little to marvel at in the tardiness of our eating. for the rabbits seemed to come alive and positively leaped down our throats, the partridges almost flew at us out of the pot, the pigeons fairly rejoiced to be eaten. the broth and the gravy ebbed lower and lower in the pan and left all dry. but as soon as we had picked the bones roughly, for there was no time for fine work lest the others should get all the best, we threw the bones out to the hungry crew that watched us sitting round the stalls, their very jowls pendulous with envy. so after a while we came to the end, and then i went to the entrance of the chamber where were bestowed the little playmate and the lady ysolinde. for i began to be anxious how helene would be able to comport herself in the company of one so dainty and full of devices and convenances as the lady of the weiss thor. but, by my faith, i need not have troubled about our little lass. for if there were any embarrassed, that one was certainly not helene. and if any of us lacked reposefulness of manners, that one was certainly a staring jackanapes, who did not know which foot to stand upon, nor yet how to sit down on the oaken settle when a seat was offered him, nor, last of all, when nor how to take his departure when he had once sat down. and as to the identity of that jackass, there needs no further particularity. nevertheless, i talked pleasantly enough with both of them, and i might have been an acquaintance of the day for all the notice that the little playmate took of me, oven when the lady ysolinde told her, evidently not for the first time, of my standing sentry by the door and blowing upon the match at my girdle. from without we heard presently the clapping of hands and loud deray of merrymaking, so i went to find out what it might be that was causing such an uproar. there i found jorian and boris giving a kind of exhibition of their skill in military exercises. it might be, also, that they desired to teach a lesson for the benefit of the wild robber border folk and the yet more ruffianly kempers who foregathered in this strange inn of erdberg on the borders of the mark. i summoned the maids that they might look on. for i wot the scene was a curious and pleasing one, and i could see that the eyes of the lady ysolinde glittered. but our little maid, being used to all these things from her youth, cared nothing for it, though the thing was indeed marvellous in itself. when i went out our two men-at-arms had each of them in hand his straight wendish tolleknife, made heavy at the end of the swedish blade, but light as to the handle, and hafted with cork from spain. ten yards apart, shoulder to shoulder they stood, and, first of all, each of them poising the knife in the hollow of his hand with a peculiar dancing movement, set it writhing across the room at a marked circle on a board. the two knives sped simultaneously with a vicious whir, and stood quivering, with their blades touching each other, in the centre of the white. at the next trial, so exactly had they been aimed that the point of the one hit upon the haft of the other and stripped the cork almost to the blade. but jorian, to whom the knife belonged, mended it with a piece of string, telling the company philosophically that it was no bad thing to have a string hanging loose to a tolleknife, for when it went into any one the string would always hang down from the wound in order to pull it out by. then they got their knives again and played a more dangerous game. jorian stood on guard with his knife, waving the blade slowly before him in the shape of a long-bodied letter s. boris poised his weapon in the hollow of his hand, and sent it whirring straight at jorian's heart. as it came buzzing like an angry bee, almost too quick for the eye to follow, jorian flicked it deftly up into the air at exactly the right moment, and, without even taking his eye off it, he caught the knife by the handle as it fell. thereafter he bowed and gave it back to the thrower ceremoniously. then boris guarded, and jorian in his turn threw, with a like result, though, perhaps, a little less featly done on boris's part. all the while there was a clamant and manifold astonishment in the kitchen of the inn, together with prodigal and much-whispering wonder. then ensued other plays. boris stood with his elbow crooked and his left hand on his hip, with his back also turned to jorian. _buzz!_ went the knife! it flashed like level lightning under the arch of jorian's armpit, and lo! it was caught in his right hand, which dropped upon it like a hawk upon a rabbit, as it sped through his elbow port. then came shooting with the cross-bow, and i regretted much that i had only learned the six-foot yew, and that there was not one in the company, nor indeed room to display it if there had been. for i longed to do something to show that i also was no milksop. now it chanced that there was in one corner a yearling calf that had been killed that day, and hung up with a bar between its thighs. i saw an axe leaning in the corner--an axe with a broad, cutting edge--and i bethought me that perhaps, after all, i knew something which even jorian and boris were ignorant of. so, mindful of my father's teaching, i took the axe, and, before any one was aware of my intent, i swept the long-handled axe round my head, and, getting the poise and distance for the slow drawing cut which does not stop for bone nor muscle, i divided the neck through at one blow so that the head dropped on the ground. then there was much applause and wonder. men ran to lift the calf's head, and the owner of the axe came up to examine the edge of his weapon. i looked about. the eyes of the lady ysolinde were aflame with pleasure, but, on the other hand, the little playmate was crimson with shame. tears stood in her beautiful eyes. she marched straight up to meet me, and, clinching her hands, she said; "oh, i hate you !" and so went within to her chamber, and i saw her no more that night. now i take all to witness what strange things are the mind and temper of even the best of women. and why helene thus spoke to me i know not--nay, even to this day i can hazard no right guess. but as i have often said, god never made anything straight that he made beautiful, except only the line where the sea meets the sky. and of all the pretty, crooked, tangled things that he has made, women are the prettiest, the crookedest--and the most distractingly tangled. which is perhaps why they are so everlastingly interesting, and why we blundering, ram-stam, homely favored men love them so. but the best entertainment must at long and last come to an end. and the one in the inn of erdberg lasted not so long as the telling of it--for the matter, being more comfortable than that which came after, i have, perhaps, not hurried so much as i might. when at last both supper and entertainment were finished, and the earthenware platters huddled away into the hall without, there arose a mighty clamor, so that jorian went to the door and cried out to the landlord to know what was the matter. the old brick-dusty knave came hulking forward, and, with greatly increased respect, he addressed the men-at-arms. "what is your will, noble sirs?" "i asked," said jorian, "what was the reason of this so ill-favored noise. if your guests cannot be quiet, i will come among them with something that will settle the quarrels of certain of them in perpetuity." so with sulky recurrent murmurs the fray finally settled itself, and for that time at least there was no more trouble. i went to the door of the lady ysolinde and the little playmate and cried in to them a courteous good-night. for i had been sorry to have helene's "i hate you!" for her last word. and the lady ysolinde came to the door in a light robe of silk and gave me her hand to kiss. but though i said: "a sweet sleep and a pleasant, helene!" no voice replied. which i took very ill, seeing that i had done naught amiss that i knew of. then jorian, boris, and i made us comfortable for the night, and, being instructed by boris, i set my straw, with the foot of my bundle to the door, which opened inward upon us. then, putting my sword by my side and my other weapons convenient to my hand, i laid me down and braced my feet firmly against the door, thus locking it safely. jorian and boris did the same at the other entrances, and before the former went to sleep he arranged a tall candle that had been placed unlighted before a little shrine of the virgin (for, in name at least, the folk were not wholly pagan) and lighted it, so that it shed a faint illumination down the long passage in which we were bestowed, and on the inner door of the ladies' apartment. and though i was far from being in love, yet the thought of the wandering damsels, both so fair and so far from home, moved me deeply. and i was in act to waft a kiss towards the door when jorian caught me. "what now?" he said; "art at thy prayers, lad ?" "aye, that am i," said i, "towards the shrine of the saints' rest." now this was irreverent, and mayhap afterwards we were all soundly punished for it. but at least it was on the level of their soldiers' wit--though i own, at the most, no great matter to cackle of. "ho! ho! good!" chuckled boris, under his breath. "one of them is doubtless a saint. but as to the other--well, let us ask the prince. 'he hath a princess, and she is oft upon her travels?' ho! ho! ho!" and the lout shook among his straw to such an extent that i bade him for god's dear sake to bide still, otherwise we might as lief lie in a barn among questing rattons. "and the saints of your saints' rest defend us from lying among any worse!" said he, and betook him to sleep. chapter xxiii hugo of the broadaxe but as for me, sleep i could not. and indeed that is small wonder. for it was the first night i had ever slept out of the red tower in my life. i seemed to lack some necessary accompaniment to the act of going to sleep. it was a long while before i could find out what it could be that was disturbing me. at last i discovered that it was the howling of the kennelled blood-hounds which i missed. for at night they even raged, and leaped on the barriers with their forefeet, hearing mayhap the moving to and fro of men come sleeplessly up from the streets of the city beneath. but here, within a long day's march of thorn, i had come at once into a new world. slowly the night dragged on. the candle guttered. a draught of air blew fitfully through the corridor in which we lay. it carried the flame of the candle in the opposite direction. i wondered whence it could come, for the air had been still and thick before. yet i was glad of the stir, for it cooled my temples, and i think that but for one thing i might have slept. and had i fallen on sleep then no one of us might have waked so easily. what i heard was no more than this--once or twice the flame of the candle gave a smart little "spit," as if a moth or a fat blue-bottle had forwandered into it and fallen spinning to the ground with burned wings. yet there were no moths in the chambers, or we should have seen them circling about the lights at the time of supper. nevertheless, ere long i heard again the quick, light "_plap_!" and presently i saw a pellet fall to the ground, rolling away from the wall almost to the edge of the straw on which i lay. i reached out a hand for it, and in a trice had it in my fingers. it was soft, like mason's putty. "plop!" came another. i was sure now. some one was shooting at the flame of the candle with intent to leave us in the dark. jorian and boris snored loudly, sleeping like true men-at-arms. i need say no more. i lay with my head in the shadow, but by moving little by little, with sleepy grunts of dissatisfaction, i brought my face far enough round to see through the straw the window at the far end of the passage, which, as i had discovered upon our first coming, opened out upon a ravine running at right angles to the street by which we had come. presently i could see the lattice move noiselessly, and a white face appeared with a boy's blow-gun of pierced bore-tree at its lips. "alas!" said i to myself, "that i had had these soldiers' skill of the knife throwing. i would have marked that gentleman." but i had not even a bow--only my sword and dagger. i resolved to begin to learn the practice of pistol and cross-bow on the morrow. "_plap! scat!_" the aim was good this time. we were in darkness. i listened the barest fragment of a moment. some one was stealthily entering at the window end. "rise, jorian and boris!" i cried. "an enemy!" and leaping up i ran to relight the candle. by good luck the wick was a sound, honest, thick one, a good housewife's wick--not such as are made to sell and put in ordinary candles of offertory. the wick was still red, and smoked as i put my hands behind it and blew. "_twang! twang! zist! zist!_" went the arrows and bolts thickly about me, bringing down the clay dust in handfuls thickly from the walls. "down on your stomachs--they are shooting crosswise along the passage !" cried jorian, who had instantly awakened. i longed to follow the advice, for i felt something sharp catch the back of my undersuit of soft leather, in which, for comfort, i had laid me down to sleep. but i _must_ get the candle alight. hurrah! the flame flickered and caught at last. "_twang! twang!"_ went the bows, harder at it than ever. something hurtled hotly through my hair--the iron bolt of an arbalest, as i knew by the song of the steel bow in a man's hand at the end of the passage. "get into a doorway, man!" cried boris, as the light revealed me. and like a startled rabbit i ran for the nearest--that within which helene and the lady ysolinde were lying asleep. the candle, as i have said, was set deep in a niche, which proved a great mercy for us. for our foes, who had thought to come on us by fraud, could not now shoot it out. also, in relighting it, in my eagerness to save myself from the hissing arrows behind me, i had pushed it to the very back of the shrine. i had no weapon now but my dagger, for, in rising to relight the candle, i had carelessly and blamefully left my sword in the straw. and i felt very useless and foolish as i stood there to bide the assault with only a bit of guardless knife in my hand. suddenly, however, there came a diversion. "crash !" went a gun in my very ear. flame, smoke--much of both--and the stifling smell of sulphur. jorian had fired at the face of the pop-gun knave. that putty-white countenance had a crimson plash on it ere it vanished. then came back to us a scream of dreadful agony and the sound of a heavy fall outside. "end of act the first! the wicked angels--hum, hum--go to hell! all in the day's work!" cried jorian, cheerily, recharging his pistolet and driving home the wadding as he spoke. it may well be imagined that during our encounter with the assailants of the candle, whose transverse fire had so nearly finished me, the company out in the great kitchen had not been content to lie snoring on their backs. we could hear them creeping and whispering out there beyond the doors; but till after the shot from the soldier's pistolet they had not dared to show us any overt act of hostility. suddenly jorian, once more facing the door, now that the passage was clear, perceived by the rustling of the straw that it began to open gradually. he waited till in another moment it would have been wide enough to let in a man. "back there, dog, or i fire!" he bellowed. and the door was promptly shut to. after that there came another period of waiting very difficult to get over. i wished with all my heart for a cross-bow or any shooting weapon. much did i reproach myself that i had not learned the art before, as i might easily have done from the men-at-arms about the wolfsberg, who, for my father's sake (or helene's), would gladly have taught me. the women folk in the room behind my back were now up and dressed. indeed, the lady ysolinde would have come out and watched with us, but i besought her to abide where she was. presently, however, helene put her head without, and seeing me stand by the door with my sword, she asked if i wanted anything. she appeared to have forgotten her unkind good-night, and i was not the man to remind her of it. "only another weapon, sweetheart, besides this prick-point small-sword!" said i, looking at the thing in my hand i doubt not a trifle scornfully. helene shut to the door, and for a space i heard no more. presently, however, she opened it again, and thrust an axe with a long handle through to me. it was the very fellow of the weapon i had used on the pendent calf in the kitchen. i understood at once that it was her apology and her justification as well. for the little playmate was ever a straight lass. she ever did so much more than she promised, and ever said less than her heart meant. which perhaps is less common than the other way about--especially among women. "i found it on my incoming and hid it under the bed!" she said. then judge ye if i sheathed not my small-sword right swiftly, and made the broadaxe blade, to the skill of which i had been born, whistle through the air. for a mightily strange thing it is that, though i had ever a rooted horror at the thought of my father's office itself, and from my childhood never for a moment intended to exercise it, nevertheless i had always the most notable facility in cutting things. never to this day have i a stick in hand, when i walk abroad among the ragweed waving yellow on the grassy pastures below the wolfsberg, but i must need make wagers with myself to cut to an inch at the heads of the tallest and never miss. and this i can do the day by the length, and never grow weary. then again, for pleasaunce, my father used to put me to the cutting of light wood with an axe, not always laying it upon a block or hag-clog, but sometimes setting the billet upright and making me cut the top off with a horizontal swing of the axe. and in this i became exceedingly expert. and how difficult it is no one knows till he has tried. so it is small wonder that as soon as i gripped the noble broadaxe which helene passed me i felt my own man again. then we were silent and listened--and ever again listened and held our breaths. now i tell you when an enemy is whispering unseen without, rustling like rats in straw, and you wonder at what point they will break in next, thinking all the while of the woman you love (or do not yet love, but may) in the chamber behind--i tell you a castle is something less difficult to hold at such a time than just one's own breath. suddenly i heard a sound in the outer chamber which i knew the meaning of. it was the shifting of horses' feet as they turn in narrow space to leave their stalls. our good friends were making free with our steeds. and, if we were not quick about it, we should soon see the last of them, and be compelled to traverse the rest of the road to plassenburg upon our own proper feet. "jorian," cried i, "do you hear? they are slipping our horses out of the stalls! shall you and i make a sortie against them, while boris with that pistol of his keeps the passage from the wicks of the middle door?" "good!" answered jorian. "give the word when you are ready." with axe in my right hand, the handle of the door in my left, i gave the signal. "when i say 'three!' jorian!" "good!" said jorian. clatter went the horses' hoofs as they were being led towards the door. "one! two! three!" i counted, softly but clearly. chapter xxiv the sortie the door was open, and the next i mind was my axe whirling about my head and jorian rushing out of the other door a step ahead of me, with his broadsword in his hand. i cannot tell much about the fight. i never could all my days. and i wot well that those who can relate such long particulars of tales of fighting are the folk who stood at a distance and labored manfully at the looking on--not of them that were close in and felt the hot breaths and saw the death-gleam in fierce, desperate eyes, near to their own as the eyes of lovers when they embrace. ah, brothers of the sword, these things cannot be told! yet, of a surety, there is a heady delight in the fray itself. and so i found. for i struck and warded not, that being scarce necessary. because an axe is an uncanny weapon to wield, but still harder to stand against when well used. and i drove the rabble before me--the men of them, i mean. i felt my terrible weapon stopped now and then--now softly, now suddenly, according to that which i struck against. and all the while the kitchen of the inn resounded with yells and threatenings, with oaths and cursings. but jorian and i drove them steadily back, though they came at us again and again, with spits, iron hooks, and all manner of curious weapons. also from out of the corners we saw the gleaming, watchful eyes of a dark huddle of women and children. presently the clamorous rabble turned tail suddenly and poured through the door out upon the pathway, quicker than water through a tide-race in the fulness of the ebb. and lo! in a moment the room was sucked empty, save only for the huddled women in the corners, who cried and suckled their children to keep them still. and some of the wounded with the axe and the sword crawled to them to have their ghastly wounds bound. for an axe makes ugly work at the best of times, and still worse on the edges of such a pagan fight as we three had just fought. so we went back victorious to our inner doors. then jorian looked at me and nodded across at boris. "good!" was all that he said. but the single word made me happier than many encomiums. in spite of all, however, we were no nearer than before to getting away that i could see. for there was still all that long, desperate traverse of the defile before we could guide our horses to firm ground again. but while i was thinking bitterly of my first night's sleep (save the mark!) away from the red tower, i heard something i knew not the meaning of--the beginning of a new attack, as i judged. it sounded like a scraping and a crumbling somewhere above. "god help us now, jorian!" i cried, in a sudden, quick panic; "they are coming upon us everyway. i can hear them stripping off the roof-tile overhead--if such rabbit-warrens as this have christian roofs!" boris sat down calmly with his back against the earthen wall and trained his pistol upward, ready to shoot whatever should appear. presently fragments of earth and hardened clay began to drop on the pounded floor of the corridor. i heard the soft hiss of the man-at-arms blowing up his match, and i waited for the crash and the little heap of flame from the touch. suddenly a foot, larger than that of mortal, plumped through our ceiling of brick-dust and a huge scatterment of earth tumbled down. a great bare leg, with attachment of tattered hose hanging here and there, followed. before the pistol could go off, boris meanwhile waiting shrewdly for the appearance of a more vital part, a voice cried, "stop!" i looked about me, and there was the lady ysolinde come out of her chamber, with a dagger in her hand. she was looking upward at the hole in the ceiling. "for god's sake, do not fire!" she cried; "tis only my poor lubber fiend. shame on me, that i had quite forgotten him all this time!" at which, without turning away the muzzle, boris put it a little aside, and waited for the disturber of brick-dust ceilings to reveal himself. which, when presently he did, a huge, grinning face appeared, pushing forward at first slowly and with difficulty, then, as soon as the ears had crossed the narrows of the pass, the whole head to the neck was glaring down and grinning to us. "lubber jan," said ysolinde, "what do you up there?" the head only grinned and waggled pleasantly, as it had been through a horse-collar at dantzig fair. "speak!" said she, and stamped her little foot; "i will shake thee with terrors else, monster!" "poor jan came down from above. it is quite easy!" he said. "but not for horses. oh no! but now i will go and bring the burgomeister. do you keep the castle while i go. he bides below the town in a great house of stone, and entertains our prince miller's son's archers. i will bring all that are sober of them." "god help us then!" quoth jorian; "it is past eleven o' the clock, and as i know them man by man, there will not be so much as one left able to prop up another by this time!" "aha!" cried the head above; "you say that because you know the archers. but i say i shall bring full twenty of them--because i know the strength of the burgomeister's ale. hold the place for half an hour and twenty right sober men shall ye have." and with that the lubber fiend disappeared in a final avalanche of brick-dust and clay clods. he was gone, and half an hour was a long time to wait. yet in such a case there was nothing for it but to stand it out. so i besought the maids to retire again to their inner chamber, into which, at least, neither bullets nor arrows could penetrate. this, after some little persuasion, they did. we waited. i have since that night fought many easier battles, and bloody battles, too. now and then a face would look in momentarily from the great outer door and vanish before any one could put a shot into it. next, ere one was aware, an arrow would whistle with a "_hisst_!" past one's breast-bone and stand quivering, head-covered in the clay. vicious things they were, too, steel-pointed and shafted with iron for half their length. but all waitings come to an end, even that of him who waits on a fair woman's arraying of herself. erdberg evidently did not know of the little party down at the burgomeister's below the pass of the ravine, or, knowing, did not care. for, just as our half-hour was crawling to an end, with a unanimous yell a crowd of wild men with weapons in their hands poured in through the great door and ran shouting at our position. at the same time the window at the end of the passage opened and a man leaped through. him i sharply attended to with the axe, and stood waiting for the next. he also came, but not through the window. he ran at me, head first, through the door, and, being stricken down, completely blocked it up. good service! and a usefully bulky man he was. but how he bled!--saint christopher! that is the worst of bulky men, they can do nothing featly--not even die! one man won past me, indeed, darting under the stroke of my axe, but he was little advantaged thereby. for i fetched a blow at the back of his head with the handle which brought him to his knees. he stumbled and fell at the threshold of the maids' chamber. and, by my sooth, the lady ysolinde stooped and poignarded him as featly as though it had been a work of broidering with a bodkin. too late, helene wept and besought her to hold her hand. he was, she said, some one's son or lover. it was deucedly unpractical. but, 'twas my little playmate. and after all, i suppose, the crack he got from me in the way of business would have done the job neatly enough without my lady's dagger. i tell you, the work was hot enough about those three doors during the next few moments. i never again want to see warmer on this side of peter's gates--especially not since i got this wound in my thigh, with its trick of reopening at the most inconvenient seasons. but the broadaxe was a blessed thought of the little helene's, and helped to keep the castle right valiantly. yet i can testify that i was glad with more than mere joy when i heard the "trot, trot!" of the prince's archers coming at the wolf's lope, all in each other's footsteps, along the narrow ledge of the village street. "hurrah, lads!" i shouted; "quick and help us!" and then at the sound of them the turmoil emptied itself as quickly as it had come. the rabble of ill-doers melted through the wide outer door, where the archers received and attended to them there. some precipitated themselves over the cliff. others were straightway knocked down, stunned, and bound. some died suddenly. and a few were saved to stretch the judicial ropes of the bailiwick. for it was always thought a good thing by such as were in authority to have a good show on the "thieves' architrave," or general gallows of the vicinity, as a thing at once creditable to the zeal of the worthy dispensers of local justice, and pleasing to the kaiser's officer if he chanced to come spying that way. chapter xxv mine host runs his last race hearty were the greetings when the soldiers found us all safe and sound. they shook us again and again by the hand. they clapped us on the back. they examined professionally the dead who lay strewn about. "a good stroke! well smitten!" they cried, as they turned them over, like spectators who applaud at a game they can all understand. specially did they compliment me on my axe-work. never had anything like it been seen in plassenburg. the head of the yearling calf was duly exhibited, when the neatness of the blow and the exactness of the aim at the weakest jointing were prodigiously admired. the good fellows, mellow with the burgomeister's sinall-ale, were growing friendly beyond all telling, when, in the light of the offertory taper, now growing beguttered and burning low, there appeared the lady ysolinde. you never saw so quick a change in any men. the heartiest reveller forthwith became silent and slunk behind his neighbor. knees shook beneath stalwart frames, and there seemed a very general tendency to get down upon marrow-bones. the lady ysolinde stood before them, strangely different from the slim, willowy maiden i had seen her. she looked almost imperial in her demeanor. "you shall be rewarded for your ready obedience," she said; "the prince will not forget your service. take away that offal!" she pointed to the dead rascals on the floor. and the men, muttering something that sounded to me like "yes, your highness !" hastened to obey. "did you say 'yes, your highness' ?" i asked one of them, who seemed, by his air of command, to be the superior among the archers. "aye," answered he, dryly, "it is a term usually applied to the lady ysolinde, princess of plassenburg." i was never more smitten dazed and dumb in my life. ysolinde, the daughter of master gerard, the maid who had read my fate in the ink-pool, whom i had "made suffer," according to her own telling--she the princess of plassenburg '. ah, i had it now. here at last was the explanation of the threadbare and inexplicable jest of jorian and boris, "the prince hath a princess, and she is oft upon her travels !" but, after all, what a wendish barking about so small an egg. i have heard an emperor proclaimed with less cackle. ysolinde, princess of plassenburg--yes, that made a difference. and i had taken her hand--i, the son of the red axe--i, the hereditary justicer of the wolfmark. well, after all, she had sought me, not i her. and then, the little helene--what would she make of it? i longed greatly to find an opportunity to tell her. it might teach her in what manner to cut her cloth. the archers of the prince camped with us the rest of the night in the place of the outcast crew. they behaved well (though their forbearance was perhaps as much owing to the near presence of the princess as to any inherent virtue in the good men of the bow) to the women and children who remained huddled in the corners. then came the dawn, swift-foot from the east. a fair dawn it was, the sun rising, not through barred clouds, with the lightest at the horizon (which is the foul-weather dawn), but through streamers and bannerets that fluttered upward and fired to ever fleecier crimson and gold as he rose. we rode among a subdued people, and ere we went the princess called for the burgomeister and bade him send to plassenburg the landlord, so soon as he should be found, and also the heads of the half-dozen houses on either side of the inn. then, indeed, there was a turmoil and a wailing to speak about. women folk crowded out of the huts and kissed the white feet of the palfrey that bore the lady ysolinde. "have mercy!" they wailed; "show kindness, great princess! here are our men, unwounded and unhurt, that have lain by our sides all the night. they are innocent of all intent of evil--of every dark deed. ah, lady, send them not to your prisons. we shall never see them more, and they are all we have or our children. 'tis they bring in the bread to this drear spot!" "produce me your husbands, then!" said the lady ysolinde. whereat the women ran and brought a number of frowsy and bleared men, all unwounded, save one that had a broken head. then ysolinde called to the burgomeister. "come hither, chief of a thievish municipality, tell me if these be indeed these women's husbands." the burgomeister, a pallid, pouch-mouthed man, tremulous, and brick-dusty, like everything else in the village of erdberg, came forward and peeringly examined the men. "every man to his woman!" he ordered, brusquely, and the women went and stood each by her own property--the men shamefaced and hand-dog, the women anxious and pale. some of the last threw a, protecting arm about their husbands, which they for the most part appeared to resent. in every case the woman looked the more capable and intelligent, the men being apparently mere boors. "they are all their true husbands, at least so far as one can know!" answered the burgomeister, cautiously. "then," said the lady, "bid them catch the innkeeper and send him to plassenburg, and these others can abide where they are. but if they find him not, they must all come instead of him." the men started at her words, their faces brightening wonderfully, and they were out of the door before one could count ten. we mounted our horses, and under the very humble guidance of the burgomeister, who led the princess's palfrey, we were soon again upon the high table-land. here we enjoyed to the full the breezes which swept with morning freshness across the scrubby undergrowths of oak and broom, and above all the sight of misty wisps of cloud scudding and whisking about the distant peaks-behind which lay the city of plassenburg. we had not properly won clear of the ravines when we heard a great shouting and turmoil behind us--so that i hastened to look to my weapons. for i saw the archers instinctively draw their quarrels and bolt-pouches off their backs, to be in readiness upon their left hips. but it was only the rabble of men and women who had been threatened, the dwellers in those twelve houses next the inn, who came dragging our brick-faced knave of a host, with that hard-polished countenance of his slack and clammy--slate-gray in color too, all the red tan clean gone out of it. "mercy--mercy, great lady!" he cried; "i pray you, do execution on me here and now. carry me not to the extreme tortures. death clears all. and i own that for my crimes i well deserve to die. but save me from the strappado, from the torment of the rack. i am an old man and could not endure." the lady ysolinde looked at him, and her emerald eyes held a steely glitter in their depths. "i am neither judge nor"--i think she was going to say "executioner," but she remembered in time and for my sake was silent, which i thought was both gracious and charming of her. she resumed in a softer tone: "what sentence, then, would you desire, thus confessing your guilt?" "that i might end myself over the cliff there!" said the innkeeper, pointing to the wall of rock along the edge of which we were riding. "see, then, that he is well ended!" said the princess, briefly, to jorian. "good!" said jorian, saluting. and very coolly betook himself to the edge of the cliff, where he primed his piece anew, and blew up his match. "loose the man and stand back!" cried the princess. a moment the innkeeper stood nerving himself. a moment he hung on the thin edge of his resolve. the slack gray face worked convulsively, the white lips moved, the hands were gripped close to his sides as though to run a race. his whole body seemed suddenly to shrink and fall in upon itself. "the torture! the terrible torture!" he shrieked aloud, and ran swiftly from the clutches of the men who had held him. between the path and the verge of the cliff from which he was suffered to cast himself there stretched some thirty or forty yards of fine green turf. the old man ran as though at a village fair for some wager of slippery pig's tail, but all the time the face of him was like death and hell following after. at the cliff's edge he leaped high into the air, and went headlong down, to our watching eyes as slowly as if he had sunk through water. none of us who were on the path saw more of him. but jorian craned over, regarding the man's end calmly and even critically. and when he had satisfied himself that that which was done was properly done, as coolly as before he stowed away his match in his cover-fire, mounted his horse, and rode towards us. he nodded to the princess. "good, my lady!" quoth he, for all comment. "i saved a charge that time!" said he to his companion. "good!" quoth boris, in his turn. we had now a safe and noble escort, and the way to plassenburg was easy. the face of the country gradually changed. no more was it the gray, wistful plain of the wolfmark, upon which our red tower looked down. no more did we ride through the marly, dusty, parched lands, in which were the ravines with their uncanny cavern villages, of which this erdberg was the chief. but green, well-watered valleys and mountains wooded to the top lay all about us--a pleasant land, a fertile province, and, as the princess had said, a land in which the strong hand of karl the prince had long made "the broom-bush keep the cow." i had all along been possessed with great desire to meet the prince of so noble and well-cared-for a land, and perhaps also to see what manner of man could be the husband of so extraordinary a princess. chapter xxvi prince jehu miller's son yet now, when she was in her own country, and as good as any queen thereof, i found the lady ysolinde in no wise different from, what she had been in the city of thorn and in her father's house. she called me often to ride beside her, helene being on my other side, while the lubber fiend, who had saved all our lives, gambolled about and came to her to be petted like a lapdog of some monstrous sort. he licked his lips and twisted his eyes upward at her in ludicrous ecstasy till only the whites were visible whenever the princess laid her hand on his head. so that it was as much as the archers of the guard could do to hide their laughter in their beards. but hide it they did, having a wholesome awe of the emerald eyes of their mistress, or perhaps of the steely light which sometimes came into them. it was growing twilight upon the third day (for there were no adventures worth dwelling upon after that among the cavern dwellings of erdberg) when for the first time we saw the towers of plassenburg crowning a hill, with its clear brown river winding slow beneath. we were yet a good many miles from it when down the dusty road towards us came a horseman, and fifty yards or so behind him another. "the prince--none rides like our karl!" said jorian, familiarly, under his breath, but proudly withal. "he comes alone!" said i, wonderingly. for indeed duke casimir of the wolfsberg never went ten lances' length from his castle without a small army at his tail. "even so!" replied jorian; "it is ever his custom. the officer who follows behind him has his work cut out--and basted. not for nothing is our karl called prince jehu miller's son, for indeed he rides most furiously." before there was time for more words between us a tall, grim-faced, pleasant-eyed man of fifty rode up at a furious gallop. the first thing i noticed about him was that his hair was exactly the same color as his horse--an iron-gray, rusty a little, as if it had been rubbed with iron that has been years in the wet. he took off his hat courteously to the princess. "i bid you welcome, my noble lady," said he, smiling; "the cages are ready for the new importations." the lady ysolinde reached a hand for her husband to kiss, which he did with singular gentleness. but, so far as i could see, she neither looked at him even once nor yet so much as spoke a word to him. presently he questioned her directly: "and who may this fair young damsel be, who has done me the honor to journey to my country?" "she is helene, called helene gottfried of thorn, and has come with me to be one of my maids of honor," answered the lady ysolinde, looking straight before her into the gathering mist, which began to collect in white ponds and streaks here and there athwart the valley. the prince gave the little playmate a kindly ironic look out of his gray eyes, which, as i interpreted it, had for meaning, "then, if that be so, god help thee, little one--'tis well thou knowest not what is before thee!" "and this young man?" said the prince, nodding across to me. but i answered for myself. "i am the son of the hereditary justicer of the wolfmark," said i. "i had no stomach for such work. therefore, as i was shortly to be made my father's assistant, i have brought letters of introduction to your highness, in the hopes that you will permit me the exercise of arms in your army in another and more honorable fashion." "i have promised him a regiment," said the princess, speaking quickly. "what--of leaden soldiers?" answered the prince, looking at her mighty soberly. "your highness is pleased to be brutal," answered the lady ysolinde, coldly. "it is your ordinary idea of humor!" a kind of quaint humility sat on the face of the prince. "i but thought that your highness could have nothing else in her mind--seeing that our rough plassenburg regiments will only accept men of some years and experience to lead them. but the little soldiers of metal are not so queasy of stomach." "may it please your highness," said i, earnestly, "i will be content to begin with carrying a pike, so that i be permitted in any fashion to fight against your enemies." jorian and boris came up and saluted at this point, like twin mechanisms. then they stood silent and waiting. the prince nodded in token that they had permission to speak. "with the sword the lad fights well," said boris. "is it not so, jorian?" "good!" said jorian. "but with the broadaxe he slashes about him like an angel from heaven--not so, boris?" said jorian. "good!" said boris. "can you ride?" said the prince, turning abruptly from them. "aye, sire!" said i. for indeed i could, and had no shame to say it. "that horse of his is blown; give him your fresh one!" said he to the officer who had accompanied him. "and do you show these good folk to their quarters." hardly was i mounted before the prince set spurs to his beast, and, with no more than a casual wave of his hand to the princess and her train, he was off. "ride!" he cried to me. and was presently almost out of sight, stretching his horse's gray belly to the earth, like a coursing dog after a hare. well was it for me that i had learned to ride in a hard school--that is, upon the unbroken colts which were brought in for the mounting of the duke casimir's soldiery. for the horse that i had been given took the bit between his teeth and pursued so fiercely after his stable companion that i could scarce restrain him from passing the prince. but our way lay homeward, so that, though i was in no way able to guide nor yet control my charger, nevertheless presently the prince and i were clattering through the town of plassenburg like two fiends riding headlong to the pit. within the town the lamps were being lit in the booths, the folks busy marketing, and the watchmen already perambulating the city and crying the hours at the street corners. but as the prince and i drove furiously through, like pursuer and pursued, the busy streets cleared themselves in a twinkling; and we rode through lanes of faces yellow in the lamplight, or in the darker places like blurs of scrabbled whiteness. so i leaned forward and let the beast take his chance of uneven causeway and open sewer. i expected nothing less than a broken neck, and for at least half a mile, as we flew upward to the castle, i think that the certainty of naught worse than a broken arm would positively have pleasured me. at least, i would very willingly have compounded my chances for that. presently, without ever drawing rein, we flew beneath the dark outer port of the castle, clattered through a court paved with slippery blocks of stone, thundered over a noble drawbridge, plunged into a long and gloomy archway, and finally came out in a bright inner palace court with lamps lit all about it. i was at the prince's bridle ere he could dismount. "you can ride, captain hugo gottfried!" he said. "i think i will make you my orderly officer." and so he went within, without a word more of praise or welcome. there came past just at that moment an ancient councillor clad in a long robe of black velvet, with broad facings and rosettes of scarlet. he was carrying a roll of papers in his hand. "what said the prince to yon, young sir, if i may ask without offence?" said he, looking at me with a curiously sly, upward glance out of the corner of his eye, as if he suspected me of a fixed intention to tell him a lie in any case. "if it be any satisfaction to you to know," answered i, rather piqued at his tone, "the prince informed me that i could ride, and that he intended to make me his orderly officer. and he called me not 'young sir,' but captain hugo gottfried." "how long has he known you?" said the chief councillor of state. for so by his habit i knew him to be. "half an hour, or thereby," answered i. "god help this kingdom!" cried the old man, tripping off, flirting his hand hopelessly in the air--"if he had known you only ten minutes you would have been either prime-minister or commander-in-chief of the army." it was in this strange fashion that i entered the army of the prince of plassenburg, a service which i shall ever look back upon with gratitude, and count as having brought me all the honors and most of the pleasures of my life. half an hour or so afterwards the blowing of trumpets and the thunder of the new leathern cannon announced that the princess and her train were entering the palace. the prince came down to greet them on the threshold in a new and magnificent dress. "the prince's officer-in-waiting to attend upon his highness!" cried a herald in fine raiment of blue and yellow. i looked about for the man who was to be my superior in my new office--that is, if prince karl should prove to have spoken in earnest. "the prince's orderly to attend upon him!" again proclaimed the herald, more impatiently.' i saw every eye turn upon me, and i began to feel a gentle heat come over me. presently i was blushing furiously. for i was still in my riding-clothes, and even they had not been changed after the adventure of the brick-dust town. so that they were in no wise fitting to attend upon a mighty dignitary. the prince of plassenburg looked round. "ha!" he said; "this is not well--i had forgotten. my orderly ought to have been duly arrayed by this time." "pardon, my prince," said i, "but all the apparel i have is upon my sumpter horse, which comes in the train of the princess." my master looked right and left in his quickly imperious and yet humorous manner. "here, count von reuss," he said to a tall, handsome, heavily jowled young man, "i pray you strip off thy fine coat for an hour, and lend it to my new officer-in-waiting. the ladies will admire thee more than ever in thy fine flowered waistcoat, with silk sleeves and frilled purfles of lace!" the young man, von reuss, looked as if he desired much to tell the prince to go and be hanged. but there was something in the bearing of karl of plassenburg, usurper as they called him, the like of which for command i have never seen in the countenance and manner of any lawfully begotten prince in the world. so, beckoning me into an antechamber, and swearing evilly under his breath all the time, the young man stripped off his fine coat, and offered it to me with one hand, without so much as looking at me. he gave it indeed churlishly, as one might give a dole to a loathsome beggar to be rid of his importunity. "i thank you, sir," said i, "but more for your obedience to the prince than for the fashion of your courtesy to me." yet for all that he answered me never a syllable, but turned his head and played with his mustache till his man-servant brought him another coat. chapter xxvii another man's coat i followed the prince without another word, and when he received the princess i had the happiness of taking the little playmate by the hand and conducting her as gallantly as i could into the palace. and i was glad, for it helped to allay a kind of reproachful feeling in my heart, which would keep tugging and gnawing there whenever i was not thinking of anything else. i feared lest, in the throng and press of new experiences, i might a little have neglected or been in danger of forgetting the love of the many years and all the sweetness of our solitary companionship. nevertheless, i knew well that i loved those sweetest eyes of hers more than all the words of men and women and priests. and even as i helped her to dismount, i went over and told her so. it was just when i held her in my arms for a moment as she dismounted. she clung to me, and methought i heard a little sob. "do not ever be unkind, hugo," she said. "i am very lonely. i wish, with all my heart, i were back again in the old red tower." "unkind--never while i live, little one," i whispered in her ear. "cheer your heart, and to-morrow your sorrows will wear off, and you and i both shall find friendship in the strange land." "i hate the princess! and i shall never like her as long as i live!" she said, with that certain concentrated dislike which only good women feel towards those a degree less innocent, specially when the latter are well to look upon. there was no time to reply immediately as i conducted her up the steps. for i had to keep my eyes open to observe how the prince conducted himself, and in the easy ceremonial of plassenburg it chanced that i happened upon nothing extravagant. "but, helene, you said a while ago that you hated _me_!" i said, after a little pause, smiling down at her. "did i?" she answered. "surely nay!" "ah, but 'tis true as your eyes," i persisted. "do you not remember when i had cut the calf's head off with the axe? you did not love the thought of the red tower so much then!" "oh, _that_!" she said, as if the discrepancy had been fully explained by the inflexion of her voice upon the word. but she pressed my hand, so i cared not a jot for logic. "you do not love her, you are sure?" she said, looking up at me when we came to the darker turn of the stairs, for the corkscrews were narrower in the ancient castle than in the new palace below. "not a bit!" said i, heartily, without any more pretence that i did not understand what she meant. she pressed my hand again, momentarily slipping her own down off my arm to do it. "it is not that i love you, hugo, or that i want you to love me," she said, like one who explains that which is plain already, "except, of course, as your little playmate. but i could not bear that you should care about that--that woman." it was evident that there were to be stirring times in the castle of plassenburg, and that i, hugo gottfried, was to have my share of them. as soon as we had arrived at the banqueting-hall, the prince beckoned me and presented me formally to the lady ysolinde. "your highness, this is captain hugo gottfried, my new officer-in-waiting." the princess bowed gravely and held out her hand. her aqua-marine eyes were bent upon me, suffused with a certain quick and evident pleasure which became them well. "your highness has chosen excellently. i can bear witness that the captain gottfried is a brave--a very brave man," she said. and at that moment i was most grateful to her for the testimony. for behind us stood the young von reuss, pulling at his mustache and looking very superciliously over at me. then the lady ysolinde withdrew to her own apartments, and that day i got no more words with her nor yet with helene. the prince also went to his room, and i remained where i was, deeming that for the present my duty was done. the servant of the man whose coat i wore stood with another servitor close at hand--indeed, many of all ranks stood about. "that is the fellow," i heard one say, tauntingly, meaning me to hear--"peacocking it there in my master's coat!" his companion laughed contumeliously, at which the passion within me suddenly stirred. i gave one of them the palm of my hand, and as the other fell hastily back my foot took him. "what ho, there! no quarrelling among the lackeys!" cried von reuss, insolently, from the other side of the room. "were you, by any chance, speaking to me?" said i, politely, looking over at him. "why, yes, fellow!" he said. "if you squabble with the waiting-men concerning cast-off clothes, you had better do it in the stables, where, as you say, your own wardrobe is kept." "sir," said i, "the coat i wear, i wear by the command of your prince. it shall be immediately returned to you when the prince permits me to go off duty. in the mean time, pray take notice that i am captain hugo gottfried, officer-in-waiting to the prince karl of plassenburg, and that my sword is wholly at your service." "you are," retorted von reuss, "the son of my uncle casimir's hereditary executioner, and one day you may be mine. let that be sufficient honor for you." "that i may be yours is the only part of my father's hereditary office i covet!" said i, pointedly. and certainly i had him there, for immediately he turned on his heel and would have walked away. but this i could not permit. so i strode sharply after him, and seizing him by his embroidered shoulder-strap, i wheeled him about. "but, sir," said i, "you have insulted an officer of the prince. will you answer for that with your sword, or must i strike you on the face each time i meet you to quicken your sense of honor?" before he had time to answer the prince came in. "what, quarrelling already, young spitfire!" he cried. "i made you my orderly--not my disorderly." von reuss and i stood blankly enough, looking away from one another. "what was the quarrel?" asked the prince, when he had seated himself at table. i looked to von reuss to explain. for indeed i was somewhat awed to think that thus early in my new career i had embroiled myself with the nephew of duke casimir, even though, like myself, he was in exile and dependent upon, the liberality of prince karl. but, since he did not speak, i made bold to say: "sire, the count von reuss taunted me with wearing a borrowed coat, and called me a servitor, because by birth i am the son of the hereditary executioner of the wolfmark. so i told him i was an officer of your household, and that my sword was much at his service." "so you are," cried the prince--"so you are--a servitor! so is he--young fools both! and as for being son of the hereditary executioner, it is throughout all our german land an honorable office. once i was assistant executioner myself, and wished with all my heart that i had been principal, and so pocketed the guilders. no more of this folly, von reuss. i am ashamed of you, and to a new-comer! hear ye, sir, i will not have it! i will e'en resume my old trade and do a little justicing on my own account. shake hands this instant, you young bantams!" and the prince sat back in his chair and looked grimly at us. i went a step forward. but von reuss held aloof. "provost marshal!" cried the prince, in a voice which made every one in the room jump and all the glasses ring on the table--"bring a guard!" the provost marshal advanced, bowed, and was departing, when von reuss came forward and held his hand out, at first sulkily, but afterwards readily enough. then we shook hands solemnly and stiffly, of course loving each other not one whit better. "ah," said the prince, "i thought you would! for if you had not, your uncle, duke casimir, might have been a duke without either an heir to his dukedom or a successor to his hereditary justicer." "now sit down, lads, sit down and agree!" he said, after a pause. "the ladies come not to table to-night. so now begin and tell me all the affair of the earthhouses. i must ride and see the place. i declare i grow rotten and thewless in this dull plassenburg, where they dare not stick so much as a knife in one another, all for fear of karl miller's son! since i cannot adventure forth on my own account, i am become a man that wearies for news. tell me every part of the affair, concealing nothing. but if you can, relate even your own share in it as faithfully as becomes a modest youth." so i told him at length all that hath already been told, giving as far as i could the credit to jorian and boris, as indeed was only their desert. whereupon the tale being finished, the prince said: "have the two archers up!" and while the pursuivant had gone for them, the old councillor leaned across the table and whispered: "enter field-marshal jorian and general boris!" but when the archers came in and stood like a pair of kitchen pokers, the prince ordered them to tell the story. jorian turned his head to boris, and boris turned his head to jorian. they both made a little impatient gesture, which said: "tell it you!" but neither appeared to be able to speak first. "wind them up with a cup of wine apiece!" cried the hearty prince; "surely that will set one of them off." two great flagons of wine were handed to jorian and boris, and they drank as if one machine had been propelling their internal workings, throwing off the liquor with beautiful unanimity and then bringing their cups to the position of salute as if they had been musketoons at the new french drill. after which each of them, having finished, gave the little cough of content and appreciation, which among the archers means manners. but nevertheless the prince's information with regard to the affair of erdberg was not increased. "go on!" he cried, impatiently, looking at jorian and boris sternly. they were still silent. "this officer, captain hugo gottfried," said the prince, looking at me, "tells me that the credit of the preservation of the princess among the cave folk is due to you two brave men." "he lies!" said wendish jorian, with a face like a blank wall. "good!" muttered boris, approvingly. "he did it himself!" said boris, adding, after a pause--"with an axe!" "good!" quoth jorian. "he cut a calf's head off!" said jorian, as a complete explanation of how the preserving of the princess was effected. whereat all laughed, and the prince more than any. for ever since he drank his first draught of wine, he had begun to mellow. "well, hearty fellows, what reward would you have for your great bravery?" they turned their heads simultaneously inward without moving any other part of their bodies. they nodded to one another. "well," cried the prince, "what reward do you desire?" "now for the field-marshal's wand!" said the councillor near to me, under his breath. "twelve dozen rhenish!" said jorian. the prince looked at boris. "and you?" he said. "twelve dozen rhenish!" said boris, without moving a muscle. "god bacchus!" cried the prince, "you will empty my cellars between you, and i shall not have a sober archer for a month. but you shall have it. go!" jorian and boris saluted with a wink to each other as they wheeled, which said, as plain as monk's script or plainer, "good!" chapter xxviii the prince's compact in spite of all drawbacks and difficulties (and i had my share of them) i loved plassenburg. and especially i loved the prince. the son, so they said, of a miller in the valley of the almer, he had entered the guard of the last prince of plassenburg, much as i had now entered his own service. prince dietrich had taken a fancy to him, and advanced him so rapidly that, after the disastrous war with duke casimir of the mark and the death of the last legitimate prince, karl, the miller's son, having set himself to reorganize the army, succeeded so well that it was not long before he found himself the source of all authority in plassenburg. thereafter he gave to the decimated and heartless land adequate defences and complete safety against foreign foes, together with security for life and property, under equal laws, within its own borders. so, in time, no man saying him nay, karl miller's son became the prince of plassenburg, and his seat was more secure upon his throne than that of any legitimate prince for a thousand miles all round about. after the quarrel with von reuss, the prince, for reasons of his own, favored me with a great deal of his society. he was often graciously pleased to talk concerning his early difficulties. "when i was an understrapper," he was wont to say, "the land was overswarmed and eaten up by officialdom. i could not see the good meat wasted upon crawlers. 'get to work,' said i, 'or ye shall neither eat nor crawl!' "'we must eat--to beg we are not ashamed, to steal is the right of our noble ritterdom,' the crawlers replied. "'so,' said i, '_bitte_--as to that we shall see!' "then i made me a fine gallows, builded like that outside paris, which i had seen once when on an embassy for prince dietrich. it was like a castle, with walls twelve feet thick, and on the beams of it room for a hundred or more to swing, each with his six feet of clearance, all comfortable, and no complaints. "then came the crawlers and asked me what this fine thing was for. "'for the sacred ritterdom of plassenburg!' answered i, 'if it will not cease to burn houses and to ravish and carry off honest men's wives and daughters.' "'but you must catch us!' quoth crawlerdom. 'walls fourteen feet thick!' said they. "'content,' cried i; 'there is the more fun in catching you. only the end is the same--that is to say, my new, well-ventilated castle out there on the heath, fine girdles and neck-pieces and anklets of iron, and six feet of clearance for each of you to swing in.' "so they went back to their castles, and robbed and ravished and rieved, even as did their fathers for a thousand years, thinking no evil. but i took my soldiers, whom in seven years' service i had taught to obey orders-two foot of clearance did well enough for the disobedient among them, not being either ritters or men of mark. and i, karl the miller's brat, as at that time they called me in contempt, borrowed cannon-great lumbering things--from my friend the margrave george, down there to the south. a great work we had dragging them up to plassenburg by rope and chain and laboring plough oxen. we shot them off before the fourteen-feet walls. then arose various clouds of dust, shriekings, surrenderings, crying of 'forgive us, great prince, we never meant to do it,' followed, as i had said, by the six-feet clearances. but these in time i had to reduce to four--so great became the competition for places in my new schloss mã¼llerssohn. "but 'once done, well done--done forever!' is my motto. so since that time the winds have mostly blown through my schloss untainted, and the sons of ritterdom, magnanimous captains and honest bailies of quiet bailiwicks, are my very good friends and faithful officers." prince karl the miller's son was silent a moment. "but i am still looking out for another man with a head-piece to come after me. i have no son, and if i had, the chances are ten to one that he would be either a milksop or a flittermouse painted blue. milksops i hate, and send to the monkeries. i can endure flittermice painted blue, but they must wear petticoats--and pretty petticoats too. have you observed those of the princess?" said he, abruptly changing the subject. "the princess's flittermice?" i faltered, not well knowing what i said, for he had turned roughly and suddenly upon me. "aye, marry, you may say it! but i meant the princess's wilicoats!" "no," said i, as curtly as i could, for the subject had its obvious limitations. "ah, they are pretty ones," said karl, "i assure you. she has at least an undeniable taste in lace and cambric. they say in other lands--not in this--though i would not hinder them if they did--that she wears the under-garments of men and rules the state. but i think not so. the princess is a better queen than wife, a better woman than either." on this subject also i had nothing to say which i dared venture to the husband of the lady ysolinde. "she read my horoscope," said i, weakly, searching for something in the corners of my brain to change the subject. "how so?" said the prince, quickly. "first in a crystal and then in a pool of ink," i replied. "it was a good horoscope and of a fortunate ending?" "on the whole--yes!" said i; "though there was much in it that i could not understand." "like enow!" laughed the prince; "i warrant she could not understand it herself! it is ever the way of the ink-pool folk." then ensued a silence between us. prince karl remained long with his head resting on his hand. he looked critically at the twisted stem of his wineglass, twirling it between his thick fingers. "the princess loves you!" he said, at last, looking shrewdly at me from beneath his gray brows. it was spoken half as a question and half as information. "loves me?" stammered i, the blood sucking back to my heart and leaving my head light and tingling. the prince nodded calmly. "so they say!" said he. "my lord, it is a thing impossible!" cried i, earnestly. "i am but a poor lad--and she has been kind to me. but of love no word has been spoken. besides--" and i stopped. "out with it, man!" said the prince, more like, as it seemed to me, a comrade inviting a confidence than a great prince speaking to a newly made officer. "well, i--i love the little playmate." it came out with a rush at last. "oh!" said he; "that is bad. i hope that is not a matter arranged, a thing serious. for if the princess knows as much, the young woman will not have her troubles to seek in the palace of plassenburg." i hung my head and said naught, save that helene declared she loved me not, but that i thought she was mistaken. "ah, then," cried the prince, like one exceedingly relieved, "it is but some boy and girl affair. that is better. she may change her mind, as you will certainly change yours--and that several times--among the ladies of the court. i was in hopes--" and the prince stopped in his turn, not from bashfulness, but rather like a man who desires more carefully to choose his words. "i was in hopes," he went on, speaking slowly, "that if the princess loved your boy's face and liked my conversation (which i may say without pride that i think she does) you and i together might have kept her at home. so over-much wandering is not good for the state. also it gets her a name beyond all manner of ill-doing within-doors." once more i knew not well what to answer to this speech of the prince's, so i remained discreetly silent. "i have seen the princess's flittermice about her before, often enough (i thank thee for the word, sir captain.), but this is the first time she has performed the ink-pool and crystal foolery with any man. there is no great harm in the princess. in the things of love she is as inflammable as the ink, and as soft as the crystal. fear not, joseph, potiphera may be depended upon not to proceed to extremities. but i was in some hopes that you and i could have arranged matters between us, being both men--aye, and honorable men." i saw that karl miller's son looked sad and troubled. "prince, you love the princess!" said i, thrusting out my hand to him before i thought. he did not take it, but instead he thrust a flagon of wine into it, as if i had asked for that--yet the thing was not done by way of a rebuff. i saw that plainly. "pshaw! what does a grizzle-pate with love?" said he, gruffly. "nevertheless, i was in hopes." "prince karl," said i, "i give you word of honor, 'tis not as you say or they say. the princess has indeed done me the honor to be friendly--" "to hold your hand!" he murmured, softly, like a chorus. "well, to be friendly, and--" "to caress your cheek?" put in the prince, gently as before. "done me the honor to be friendly--" "to play with your curls, lad?" "the princess--" i began, all in a tremor. for anything more awkward than this conversation i had never experienced. it bathed me in a drip of cold sweat. "to kiss you, perhaps, at the waygoing?" he insinuated. "no!" thundered i, at last. "prince, you do your princess great wrong." he lifted his hand in a gentle, deprecating way, most unlike the rider who had ridden so fast and so hotly that night of our coming. "you mistake me, sir," he said. "on the contrary, i have the greatest respect for the princess ysolinde. i would not wrong her for the world. but i know her track of old. you are a brave lad, and, after all, i fear there is something in that calf-love of yours--devil take it!" i thought i could now dimly discern whither the prince's plans were tending. "your highness," said i, "i am a young man and of little experience. i cannot tell why you have chosen to speak so freely to me. but i am your servant, and, in all that hurts not the essence and matter of my love for the little playmate, i will do even as you say." prince karl grasped my hand. "ah, well said!" he cried. "you are running your head into a peck of troubles, though. and you are likely to have some experience of womenkind shortly--a thing which does no brisk young fellow any harm, unless he lets them come between him and his career. women are harmless enough, so that you keep them well down to leeward. i am baltic-bred, and have ever held to this--that you may sail unscathed through fleets of farthingales, so being that you keep the wind well on your quarter, and see the fair-way clear before you." i did not at the time understand half he said, but i knew we had made some sort of a bargain. and i thought, with an aching, unsatisfied heart, that though it might be well enough for an iron-gray and cynical old prince, the thing would hardly commend itself to helene, my little playmate, to whom i had so recently spoken loving words, sweeter than ever before. "devil take all princes and princesses!" i said, as i thought, to myself. but i must have spoken aloud, for the prince laughed. "do not waste good prayers needlessly," he said; "he will!" and so, with a careless and humorsome wave of his hand to one side, he went down the staircase, and so out into the quadrangle of the palace. chapter xxix loves me--loves me not now how this plan of my lord prince's worked in the palace of plassenburg i find it difficult to tell without writing myself down a "painted flittermouse," as the prince expressed it. i was in high favor with my master; well liked also by most of the hard-driving, rough-riding young soldiers whom the miller's son had made out of the sons of dead and damned ritterdom. i got my share of honor and good service, too, in going to different courts and bringing back all that prince karl needed. to exercise myself in the art of war, i hunted the border thieves and gave them short enough shrift. in a year i had made such an assault as that of the inn at erdberg an impossibility all along the marches of our provinces. the crusty old councillor, leopold dessauer, who had held office under the last prince of the legitimate line, was ever ready to assist me with the kindest of deeds and the bitterest and saltest of words. "what did i tell you about being field-marshal?" said he one day--"in karl's kingdom the shorter the service, the higher the distinction. if you and the prince live long enough, i shall see you carry a musketoon yet, and not one of the latest pattern, either. you will be promoted down, like a booby who has been raised by chance to the top of the class!" "well," said i, humbly, for i always reverenced age, "then i hope, high-chancellor dessauer, that i shall carry my musketoon as becomes a brave man!" "i do not doubt it!" said he. "and that is the most hopeful thing i have seen about you yet. it is just possible, on the other hand, that you may yet rule and the prince carry the piece." "god forbid!" said i, heartily. for next to my own father, of all men i loved the prince. "the princess hath a pretty hand," remarked dessauer casually, as if he had said, "it will rain to-morrow!" "i' faith, yes!" said i; "what have you been at to find out that?" "weak--weak!" he said, shaking his head. "i fear you will wreck on that rock. it is your blind peril!" "my blind peril!" cried i. "what may that be, high councillor?" "ah, lad," he said, smiling with that wise, all-patient smile which the aged affect when they mean to be impressive, yet know how useless is their wisdom, "it was never intended by the almighty that any man should have eyes all round his head. that is why he fixed two in front, and made them look straight forward. that is also why he made us a little lower (generally a good deal lower) than the angels!" i heard him as if i heard him not. "you do me the honor to follow me?" he said, looking at me. he was, i think, conscious that my eyes wandered to the door, for indeed i was expecting the little playmate to come down every minute. "ah! yes, you follow indeed," he said, bitterly, "but it is the trip of feet, the flirt of farthingales down the turret steps. no matter! as i was saying, every man has his blind peril. he can see the thousand. he provides laboriously against them. he blocks every avenue of risk, he locks every dangerous door, and lo! there is the thousand-and-first right before him, yawning wide open, which he does not see--his blind peril!" "and what, high-councillor dessauer, is my blind peril?" "i will tell you, hugo," he said; "not that you will believe or alter a hair. a man may do many things in this world, but one thing he cannot do. he cannot kiss the fingers of a princess--dainty fingers, too, separating finger from finger--and kiss also the princess's maid of honor on the mouth. the combination is certainly entertaining, but like the friar's powder it is somewhat explosive." "and how," asked i, "may you know all that ?" the old man nodded his head sagely. "neither by ink-pool nor yet by scrying! all the same, i know. moreover, your peril is not a blind peril only, but a blind man's peril. ye must choose, and that quickly, little son--fingers or lips." i heard the rustle of a skirt down the stair. it was the light, springing tread of the one i loved first and best, last and only. "by the twelve gods, lips!" cried i, and made for the door. and i heard the chuckling laughter of high-chancellor dessauer behind me as i followed helene down the stairs. it sounded like the decanting of mellow wine, long hidden in darksome cellars, and now, in the flower of its age, bringing to the light the smiling of ancient vineyards and the shining of forgotten suns. i found helene arrived before me in the rose-garden. she did not turn round as i came, though she heard me well enough. instead she walked on, plucking at a marguerite. "loves me--loves me _not_!" she said, bearing upon the last word with triumphant accent, as she continued to dismantle the poor flower. and flashing round upon me with the solitary petal in her hand, she presented it with a low bow, in elfish mockery of the manner of the court exquisite. "ah, true flower!" she said, apostrophizing the bare stalk, "a flower cannot lie. it has not a glozing tongue. it cannot change back and forth. the sun shines. it turns towards the sun. the sun leaves the skies. it shuts itself up and waits his return. ah,-true flower, dear flower, how unlike a man you are!" "helene," said i, "you have learned conceits from the catch-books. you quarrel by rote. were i as eager to answer me, i might say: 'ah, false flower, you grow out of the foulness underneath. you give your fragrance to all without discretion--a common lover, prodigal of favors, fit only to be torn to shreds by pretty, spiteful fingers, and to die at last with a lie in your mouth. again i say--false flower!'" "you can turn the corners, sir juggler, with the cup and ball of words," answered helene. "so much they have already taught you in a court. but there is one thing that your fine-feathered tutors have not taught you--to make love to two women in one house and hide it from both of them. hot and cold may not come too near each other. they will mix and make lukewarm of both." a wise observation, and one that i wished i had made myself. "may the devil take all princes and princesses!" i began, as i had done to the prince himself. helene shook her head. "hugo," she said, "i was but a simpleton when i came hither, and knew nothing. now i am wise, and i know!" she touched her forehead with her finger, just where the curls were softest and prettiest. "oh, you have learned to be thrice more beautiful than ever you were!" i said, impetuously. "so i am often told," answered she, calmly. "who dared tell you ?" cried i, quick as fire, laying my hand on my sword. "the false common flowers by the wayside tell me!" said helene, pertly. "let them beware, or i will take their heads off for rank weeds!" i answered. for at that time, in the court of plassenburg, we talked in figures and romance words. we had indeed become so familiar with the mode that we could use no other, even in times of earnestness. so that a man would go to be hanged or married with a quipsome conceit on his lips. "i think, sir janus double-tongue," she said, "that you would not be the worse of a little medicine of your own concocting." and with that she swept her skirts daintily about and tripped down in to the pleasaunce of flowers, to make which the prince karl had brought a skilled gardener all the way from france. i prowled about the higher terrace, moodily watching the sky and thinking on the morrow's weather. and by-and-by i saw one come forth from among the cropped dutch hedges, and stride across to where helene walked with something white in her hand. i could see her again picking a flower to pieces, and methought i could hear the words. my jealous fancy conjured up the ending, "loves me not--loves me! loves me not!" she turned even as she had done to me. the newcomer was that sneering court fop, the count von reuss, duke casimir's nephew--still in hiding from the wrath of his uncle. for at that time hardly any court in germany was without one or two of these hangers-on, and a bad, reckless, ill-contriving breed they were at plassenburg, as doubtless elsewhere. then grew my heart hard and bitter, and yet, in a moment afterwards, was again only wistful and sad. "she had been safer," thought i, "in the old red tower than playing flower fancies with such a man!" for i had seen the very devil look out of his eye--which indeed it did as often as he cast it on a fair woman. in especial, i longed to throttle him each time he turned to watch helene as she went by. and here she was walking with him, and talking pleasantly too, in the rose garden of the palace. "ah, devil take all princes and princesses!" said i. this one, it is true, was only a count, and disinherited. but i felt that the thing was the prince's doing, and that it was for the sake of the covenant he had made with me that i was compelled to put up with such a toad as von reuss crawling and besliming the fair garden of my love. it was an evening without clouds--everything shining clear after rain, the scent of the flowers rising like incense so full and sweet that you could almost see it. the unnumbered birds were every one awake, responsive and emulous. the deep silence of midsummer was broken up. it was like another spring. the princess ysolinde came out to take the air. she was wrapped in her gown of sea-green silk, with sparkles of dull copper upon it. the dress fitted her like a snake's skin, and glittered like it too as she swayed her lithe body in walking. "ha, hugo," she said, "i thought i should find you here!" i did not say that if another had been kinder she might have found me elsewhere and otherwise employed. i had at least the discretion to leave things as they were. for the time to speak plainly was not yet. she took my arm, and we paced up and down. "princess--" i began. "ysolinde!" corrected she, softly. it was an old and unsettled contention between us. "well then, ysolinde, to-morrow must i ride to fight the men of mine own country of the wolfmark. i like not the duty. but since it must be, for the sake of the brave prince, it shall be well done." "you do not say 'for your sake, ysolinde'?" she answered, pensively. "no," i said, bluntly, "'for the prince's sake.'" "you would do all things for the prince's sake--nothing for mine!" said the princess, withdrawing her hand. "on the contrary, lady ysolinde," i made answer, "i do all things for your sake. save for the sake of your good-will, i should now be elsewhere." which was true enough. i should have been in the garden pleasaunce beneath, and probably with my sword out, arguing the case with von reuss. but she pressed my arm, for she understood that i had delayed a day from my duty for her sake. so touched at heart was ysolinde that she slipped her hand down from my arm and took my hand instead, flirting a corner of her shawl cleverly over both, to hide the fact from the men-at-arms--as helene could not have done to save her life. but every maid of honor who passed noted and knew, lifting eyebrows at one another, i doubt not, as soon as we passed, which thing made me feel like a fool and blush hotly. for i knew that ere they were couched that night every maid of them would tell helene, and with pleasure in the telling too. "devil take--" i began and stopped. "what did you say?" asked ysolinde, almost tenderly. "that if i come not back again from the wolfmark it will be the better for all of us!" i made answer, which was indeed the sense if not the exact text of my remark. "nay," she said, shuddering, "not better for me that am companionless!" "why so?" said i, boldly. "you do not love me. deep at the bottom of your heart you love your husband, karl the prince. you know there is no man like him. me you do not love at all." "you will not let me," she said, softly, almost like a shy country maiden. "ah, if i had, you would have slain me long ere this," said i, "for i read you like a child's horn-book that he plays battledore with. 'have not--_love_! have--_hate_.' there you are, all in brief, my lady ysolinde." "it is false," laughed she; "but nevertheless i love greatly to hear you call me ysolinde." she netted her fingers in mine beneath the shawl. well might the high councillor say that she had a beautiful hand. though, god wot, much he knew about it. for ysolinde of plassenburg could speak with her hand, love with it, be angry with it, hate with it--and kill with it. "i am an experiment," said i; "one indeed that has lasted you a little longer than the others, my lady ysolinde, only because you have not come to the end of me so soon." "pshaw!" she said, pushing me from her, for we were at the turning of a path, "you love another. that is the amulet against infection that you carry. yet sometimes i think that that other is only your hateful, plain-favored, vainly conceited self!" i saw the prince sit alone, according to his custom, in an arbor behind us at that very moment--and judge if i blushed or no. but the princess saw him not, being eager upon her flouting of me. "i tell you," she cried, scornfully and disdainfully, "there is nothing interesting about you but the blueness of your eyes, and that any monk can make upon parchment, aye, and deeper and bluer, with his lapis-lazuli. an experiment!--why should i, ysolinde of plassenburg, experiment with you, the son of the red axe of the wolfsberg ?" "nay, that i know not," i answered; "but yet i am indeed no more than your arrow-butts, your target of practice, your whipping-boy, to be slung at and arrow-drilled and bullet-pitted at your pleasure!" "i dare say," she said, bitterly; "and all the time you go scathless--no more heart-stricken than if summer flies lighted on thee. away with such a man; he is the ghost of a man--a simulacrum--no true lover!" "at your will, princess. i shall indeed go away. i will to-morrow seek the spears. but, after all, you will not send me forth in anger?" i said, with a strong conviction that i knew the answer. "and why not?" said she. "because," i replied, looking at her, "i am, after all, the one man who believes thoroughly in your heart's deep inward goodness. i believe in you even when you do not believe in yourself. i can affirm, for i know better than you know yourself. you cover the beauty of your heart from others. you flout and jeer. above all, you experiment dangerously with words and actions. but, after all, i am necessary to you. you will not send me away in anger. for you need some one to believe in the soundness of your heart. and i, hugo gottfried, am that man!" "hence, flatterer!" cried the lady, smiling, but well pleased. "it is known to all that i am the old serpent--the deceiver--the ill fruit of the knowledge of evil. and now you say of good also! and what is more and worse, you expect me to believe you. wherein you also experiment! i pray you, do not so. that is to you the forbidden fruit. good-night. go, now, and pray for a more truthful tongue!" and with that she went in, the copper spangles glancing at her waist red as the light on ripe wheat, and all her tall figure lissome as the bending corn. chapter xxx insult and challenge now, because there is still so much to tell, and so little time and space to tell it in, i must go forward rapidly. in these dull times of grouting peace, when men become like penned pigs, waking up only at feeding-time, they have no knowledge of how swiftly life went when every day brought a new living friend or a new dead enemy, when love and hate awakened fresh and fresh with each morrow's sun--and when i was young. perhaps that last is the true reason. but when the baltic norther snorts without, and mine ancient thigh-wound twinges down where my hand rests, naturally i have no better resource than to fall to the goose-quill. and lo! long ere i am done with the first page, and have the ink no more than half-way to the roots of my hair, i am again in the midst of the ringing hoofs of the foray. i hear the merry dinting of steel on steel; the sullen _chug-chug_ of the wheels of foul peg, the margrave's great cannon, which more than once he lent our prince; the oaths of the men-at-arms shouldering her up, apostrophizing most indecently her fat haunches, and the next moment getting tossed aside like ninepins by her unexpected lurches. ah, the times that were when i was young! i see these gallants about our later courts--lord help them, sons of mine own, too, some of them--year in and year out, crossing their legs and staring at the gilded points of their shoon. all are grown so tame--none now to ride a-questing in the baltic forest for border brigands --indeed, there be no brigands to quest for. but i forget. time was when i looked love, and i too had shoon, aye, with golden tips to match the armor of honor which the prince gave me after i had led my first regiment to victory--even as the lady ysolinde had said. and noble shoes of price they were. and i could make love, too, when i had the chance. but, nevertheless, not more than one day in six--spending the rest in the new training of my men, the perfecting of their equipment, the choosing of their horses, and the providing for their stores. god wot--it was a good time. i mind me the year when the prince fell out with duke casimir, and we played over again the old tricks with him. never was i gladder of any quest than that to ride within sight of the red tower, and wave the blue and yellow of my master under the very ramparts of the wolfsberg, and almost within hearing of the inhuman howling of its blood-hounds. "singe his beard!" said my master. and with a hundred riders i did it too. for though the burghers clattered to their gates, i rode to the very walls of the wolfsberg, which for bravado i summoned to surrender. and the best of it was that no man knew me. for i had grown soldierlike and strong, and was most unlike the lad who had ridden away so meekly and almost in tears out of the gate of that very wolfsberg. of my father, thank god, i saw nothing--though i doubt not he observed my troop. for doubtless he would be with his master--aged now, soured, and prone to cower about behind his guard, fearing the dagger or the poisoned bowl, seeing an enemy in every shadowy corner, and hearing the whistle of the assassin's bullet in every wind. and, save when an honest burgher was slain by the black riders, the beasts of the kennels were fed on diet more ordinary than of old. so we rode back with our prisoners, and as much plunder as we could screw out of old burgomeister texel and his citizens by threats of sacking the city--a deed which i was main sorry for afterwards, in the light of that which happened at a later day. but i knew not the future then, and it was as well. for the guilders paid nobly for the new-fashioned ordnance which stood us in such good stead that autumn, when we had sterner work in hand than singeing the gray beard of duke casimir. within schloss plassenburg things went on much as usual. perhaps i was lax in my wooing--i cannot tell; i loved sincerely enough, of a certainty. nor, after this, was i backward in telling helene of it, and sometimes she would love me well enough, and then again she would not. so that i could not tell what she would be at. looking back upon everything now, i see clearly how that the rankling secret thorn was the accursed understanding with the prince, that for his peace's sake i was to abide friendly with the princess and let her try her fool experiments on me. which she did, god wot, innocently enough--that is, for all the harm they did me. but, nevertheless, without knowing it, i kept the little playmate with a sore and aching heart for many and many a day. but i made nothing of it--thinking, like a careless, ill-deserving soldier-lover, eager for success and dazzled with ambition, chiefly of my profession, of how to win battles and take fortresses against the surrounding princelings, our karl's enemies, till one day i found helene with her cheeks wet and her pretty lips bitten till the blood had come. "what is't, little one? tell me!" said i, going to her and putting my arm about her, as indeed i had some right to do, if no more than the right of having carried her up into the red tower in her white gown so long ago. but she wrested herself determinedly out of my hold, saying: "do not touch me, sir. 'tis all your fault!" "what is my fault, dear lass?" said i. "tell me, and i will instantly amend it." "oh!" she cried, casting her hands out from her in bitter complaint, "there is nothing so meanly selfish as a man! he will say tender things--aye, and do them, too, when it liketh him. he can be, oh, so devoted and so full of his eternal affections. he is dying all for love! and then, soon as he passes out of the door he ties his sword-knot and points his mustache to his liking, and lo! there is no more of him. he goes and straightway forgets till it shall please his high mightiness to call again. oh! and we--we women, poor things, must stand about with our mouths open, like mossy carp in a pond, and struggle and push for such crumbs of comfort as he will deign to throw us from the full larder of his self-satisfaction!" this was a most mighty speech for the little playmate, and took me entirely by surprise. for mostly she was still enough and quiet enough in her ways and speakings. "'tis true, sweetheart, that some men are like that," i replied, gently, "but not hugo gottfried, surely. when did you ever find me unkind, unthankful, unfaithful? when went i ever away and left you alone?" "oh, you did--you did," she cried, the tears starting from her lovely eyes, "or i should never have been insulted--treated lightly, spoken to as a staled thing of courts and camps!" and helene sank down beside the garden wall in an abandonment of sorrow--so that my heart grew hot and angry at the cause of her grief, to me then unknown. i knelt down beside her and touched her lightly on one rounded, heaving shoulder. "dearest," said i, "i knew nothing of this. tell me who has insulted you. as god is in his heaven, i will have my sword in his heart or nightfall, were it the prince himself! tell me, and by the lord of the innocents, i will make him eat cold steel and drink his own blood therewith!" "oh, it was my own fault--i know i should not have met him--let him speak to me in the garden. but you were so cold to me, hugo. and then i thought--i thought that the woman was taking you away from me. also she sent me out to be--to be in his path!" "in whose path, i bid you tell me, and what woman?" though the latter i knew well enough. "the princess," she answered, "and the count von reuss. to-day he spoke to me of love, and spoke it hatefully, shamefully, when the princess had bidden me go and carry her message to him. but it was with me that he desired to meet. and i--at first many days ago--i walked by his side and listened, for then he spoke courteously and like a gentleman. for you were on the high terrace, and i wished you to see. i thought--i hoped--" and the little one broke off with tears. "i know, i know!" cried i, contritely; "i am a blind, doting fool. in this prince's court i thought no more of such dangers than when i had you safe and innocent, my playmate of the red tower. but what did or said von reuss?" "truly he did naught, but only spoke--things for which i would have smitten him to death had i possessed a dagger. i bade him begone. and he swore he would execute his purpose yet in spite of every town's executioner in the empire." "ah, will he?" said i, a calm chill of hatred settling about my heart. "i, hugo gottfried, will execute him, if i have to send for my father's red axe to do it with--singed and scented monkey that he is." "nay," said helene, "then i wish i had not told you. perhaps he will not meddle with me again, and if you cross him he may slay thee. remember, i have no friend here but you, hugo!" "count von reuss slay me! i could eat him up without salt or savory--a weak reed, a kerl without backbone save of buckram; why, i will shake him this day like a rat between my hands!" so i spoke in my anger, hot with myself that i had let the little playmate suffer these things, and resolved that neither prince nor princess would stand between me and my love a moment longer. but in all lands it takes more than say-so to budge the stubborn wheels of circumstance. chapter xxxi i find a second i meant to go directly to the prince in his chamber and tell him that from this time forth helene and i had resolved to battle out our lives together. but it chanced that i passed through the higher terrace on my way to the lower--a bosky place of woods, where the prince loved to linger in of a summer afternoon, drowsing there to the singing of birds and the falling of waters. for our karl had tastes quite beyond sour black casimir, with his church-yard glooms and raw-bone terrors. on the upper terrace i found von reuss, lolling against the parapet with other blue flittermice, his peers--he himself no flittermouse, indeed, but of the true casimir vampire breed, horrid of tooth, nocturnal, desirous of lusts and blood. at sight of him i went straight at mine enemy, as if i had been leading a charge. "sir," said i, "you are a base rascal. you have insulted the lady helene, maid of honor to the princess, the adopted child of my father. her wrongs are mine. you will do me the honor of crossing weapons with me!" "i have not learned the art of the axe," said he, turning about, listlessly. "you expect too much, sir executioner!" i wasted no more words upon him, for i had not sought him to barter insults, but to force him to meet me where i could have my anger out upon him, and avenge the tears in the eyes of my little playmate. von reuss was drawing a glove of yellow dressed kid through his hand as he spoke. this i plucked from his fingers ere he was aware, and struck him soundly on either cheek with it before flinging it crumpled up in his face. "now will you fight, or must i strike you with my open hand?" then i saw the look of his uncle stand hell-clear in his eyes. but he was not frightened, this one, only darkly and unscrupulously vengeful. "foul toad's spawn, now i will have your blood!" he cried, tugging at his sword. "we cannot fight here," said i, "within sight of the palace windows. but to-night at sundown, or to-morrow at dawn, i am at your service." "let it be to-night, on the common at the back of the hirschgasse--one second, and the fighting only between principals." very readily i agreed to that, or anything, and then, with a wave of my hat, i went off, cudgelling my brain whom i should ask to be my second. jorian, who was now an officer, i should have liked better than any other. but, being of the people myself, it was necessary that i should have some one of weight and standing to meet the nephew of the duke of the wolfmark and his friend. moodily pacing down the glade, which led from the second terrace and the pleasaunce, i almost overran the prince himself. he was seated under a tree, a parchment of troubadours' songs lay by him, illuminated (to judge by the woeful pictures) by no decent monkish or clerkly hand. he had a bottle of rhenish at hand, and looked the same hearty, hard-headed, ironic soldier he ever was, and yet, what is more strange, every inch of him a prince. "whither away, young sir amorous," he cried, pretending great indignation at my absent-mindedness, "head among the clouds or intent as ever on the damosels? conning madrigals for lovers' lutes, mayhap? and all the while taking no more heed of god's honest princes than if they existed only for trampling under your feet." i asked his pardon--but indeed i had not come so nigh him as that. "i am to fight in a private quarrel," said i, "and, truth to tell, i sorely want a second, and was pondering whom to ask." the prince sighed. "ah, lad," he said, "once i had wished no better than to stand up at your side myself. i was not a prince then though; and again, these laws--these too strict laws of mine! but what is the matter of your duel, and with whom?" "well," said i, "i have slapped count von reuss's chafts with his own glove, in the midst of his friends, on the upper terrace." 'tis possible i may be mistaken, i suppose, but i did think then, and still do think, that i saw evident tokens of pleasure on the face of the prince. "and the cause--" i hesitated, blushing temple-high, i dare say, in spite of the growth of my mustaches. "a woman, then!" cried the prince. then, more low, he added, "not the--?" he would have said the princess, for he paused, in his turn, with a graver look on his face. so i hastened with my explanation. "he insulted the young lady helene, maid of honor to the princess, who is to me as a sister, having been brought up with me in one house. her honor is my honor, both by this tie, and because, as you know, we have long loved each other. therefore will i fight count von reuss to the death, and a good cause enough." the prince whistled--an unprincely habit, but then all millers' lads whistle at their work. so prince karl whistled as he meditated. "i see further into this matter than that--if indeed you love this maid. there be other things to be thought upon than vengeance upon von reuss! does the princess know of this?" "suspect she may," said i; "know she cannot. it was only half an hour ago that i knew myself." "ha," said he, musingly, with his beard in his hand, "it hath gone no further than that. were it not, if possible, better to conceal the cause yet a while that our compact may go on? it were surely easy enough to invent an excuse for the quarrel." "prince," answered i, earnestly, "this bargain of ours hath gone on over long already, in that it hath brought a true maid's honor and happiness in question. and a maid also whom i am bound to love. i will ask you this, have i been a good soldier and servant to you or not?" "aye to that!" quoth the prince, heartily. "have i ever asked fee or reward for aught i have tried to do?" "nay," he said; "but you have gotten some of both without asking." "will you grant me the first boon i have asked of you since you became prince and master to hugo gottfried?" "i will grant it, if it be not to separate us as friend and friend," said my master at once. it was like the noble prince thus to speak of our relation. i took his hand in mine to kiss it, but this he would not permit. "shake hands like a man," he said, "or else kiss me upon the cheek. my hand is for young, blue-painted flittermice to kiss, for whose souls' good it is to put their lips to the hand that has shifted the meal-bags." and with that prince karl embraced me heartily, and kissed me on both cheeks. "now for this request of yours!" said he, looking expectantly at me. "it is this," i answered him directly: "give me a district to govern, a tower to dwell in, and helene to be my wife." "nay, but these are three things, and you stipulated but for one. choose one!" he said. "then give me helene to wife!" i cried, instantly. "spoken like a lover," said the good prince. "you shall have her if i have the giving of her, which i beg leave to doubt. something tells me that much water will run under the bridges ere that wedding comes to pass. but so far as it concerns me the thing is done. yet remember, i have never been one wisely to marry, nor yet to give in marriage." he smiled a dry, humorsome smile--the smile of a shrewd miller casting up his thirlage upon the mill door when he sees the fields of his parish ripe to the harvest. "i wonder why, with her crystals and her ink-pools, the princess hath not foreseen this. by the blue robe of mary, there will be proceedings when she does know. i think i shall straightway go a-hunting in the mountains with my friend the margrave!" he considered a moment longer, and took a deep draught of rhenish. "then the matter of a second," continued the prince; "he is to fight, of course?" "no," said i; "principals only." "i wonder," said the prince, meditatively, "if there be anything in that. it is not our plassenburg custom between two young men, well surrounded with brisk lads. three seconds, and three to meet them point to point, was more our ancient way." "it was specially arranged at the request of the count you reuss," i told the prince. "if there is to be no fighting of seconds, what do you say to old dessauer? he was a pretty blade in my time, and has all the etiquette and chivalry of the business at his finger-ends. also he likes you." "at any rate, he is ever railing upon me with that sharp tongue of his!" said i. "but did you ever hear him rail upon any of these young men that lean on rails and roll their eyes under ladies' windows?" said the prince. "old leopold dessauer is even now no weakling. i warrant he could draw a good sword yet upon occasion. anything more lovely than his riposte i never saw." the prince got upon his feet with the difficulty of a man naturally heavy of body, who takes all his exercise upon horseback. "page!" he cried. "my compliments to high state's councillor dessauer, and ask him to come to me here. you will find him, i think, in the library." so to the palace sped the boy; and presently, walking stiffly, but with great dignity, came the old man down to us. "how about the ancestors, the noble men my predecessors?" cried the prince, when he saw him; "have you found aught to link the miller of chemnitz with the princes of plassenburg?" the councillor smiled, and shook his head gravely. "nothing beyond that bit of metal which hangs by your side, prince karl," said dessauer, pointing to his highness's sword. the prince looked down at the strong, unadorned hilt thoughtfully and sighed. "i would i had another to transmit this sword to, as well as the power to wield it, when i take my place as usurper in the histories of the princes of plassenburg." "i trust your highness may long be spared to us," replied dessauer, gravely; "but, prince karl, in default of an heir to your body (of which there is yet no reason to despair), wherefore may not your highness devise the realm back to the ancient line?" "the line of dietrich is extinct," said the prince, booking up sharply. "so says duke casimir, hoping to succeed to your shoes, when he could not to your helmet and your sword. but i have my suspicions and my beliefs. there is more in the parchments of yonder library than has yet seen the light." suddenly the prince recollected me, standing patiently by. "but we waste time, dessauer; we can speak of ancestors and successors anon. i and hugo gottfried want you to take up your ancient role. do you mind how you snicked axelstein, and clipped duke casimir of his little finger at the back of the barn, when we were all lads at the kaiser's first diet at augsburg?" old dessauer smiled, well pleased enough at the excellence of the prince's memory. "i have seen worse cuts," he said; "casimir has never rightly liked me since. and had the black riders caught me, over to his dogs i should have gone without so much as a belt upon me. he would have kept them without food for a week on purpose to make a clean job of my poor scarecrow pickings." "and now this young spark," said the prince, "for the sake of a lady's eyes, desires to do your augsburg deed over again with duke casimir's nephew. so we must give him a man with quarterings on his shield to go along with him." "i am too old and stiff," said dessauer, shaking his head mournfully, yet with obvious desire in the itching fingers of his sword-hand; "let him seek out one of the brisk young kerls that are drumming at the blade-play all the time down there in the square by the guard-rooms." "nay, it is to be principals only; there is to be no fighting of seconds. the count has specially desired that there shall be none," said the prince; "therefore, go with the lad, dessauer." "no fighting of seconds!" cried the councillor, in astonishment, holding up his hands. and i think the old swordsman seemed a little disappointed. "well, i will go and see the lad well through, and warrant that he gets fair-play among these wolves of the mark." "faith, when it comes to that, he is as rough-pelted a wolf of the mark as any of them!" laughed the prince. chapter xxxii the wolves of the mark the hirschgasse is a little inn across the river, well known to the wilder blades of plassenburg. there they go to be outside the authority of the city magistrates, to make rendezvous with maids more complaisant than maidenly, to fight their duels, and generally to do those things without remark which otherwise bring them under the eye of the miller's son, as they one and all call (behind his back) the reigning prince of plassenburg. it was on the stroke of seven, and as fine an evening as ever failed to touch the soul of sinful man with a sense of its beauty, that i set out to fight the nephew of duke casimir. i had indeed ridden far and fast, and withal kept my head since i left the red tower a poor homeless wanderer, otherwise i had scarce found myself going out with high councillor leopold von dessauer as my second to fight my late master's heir, the proximate duke of the wolfmark. what was my surprise to find the old man attired in the appropriate costume for such an occasion, a close-fitting suit of dark gray, of ancient cut indeed, and without the fashionable slashes and scallops, but both correct and practicable, either for the sword-play or the proper ordering of it in others. von dessauer laughed a little dry laugh when i congratulated him on the youthfulness of his appearance. indeed, he seemed little grateful for my felicitations. and if it had not been for the rheumatism which he had inherited from his father's campaigns on the tented field, and the weakness which came from his own in other fields, he would yet have proved as fit for the play of fence as any youngster of them all. so, at least, he averred. and to-night the wind was southerly, and his old hurts irked him not. faith he was almost minded to try a ruffle with the cocks of the mark on his own account. "mind you," he said, "guard low. the attack of the mark ever comes from the right leg, half-way to the knee. but i forgot--what use is it to tell you, that are born of the mark, and have learned sword-cunning in their schools?" as we left the castle i looked about and secretly kissed a hand to that high window, where was the chamber of my little playmate, whose cause i was going out so gladly to champion. dessauer and i went quickly down through the lanes which led to the river edge where the ferry was, and more than once with the comer of my eye i seemed to see a man in a cloak and sword stealing after us. but as the sight of a man so attired going secretly in the direction of the hirschgasse was no uncommon one, i did not pay any particular attention. we crossed over in the large flat-boat which plied constantly between the banks before our fine new bridge was built. we found our enemies on the ground before us, and they seemed more than a little surprised when they perceived who my second was. for as we came up the bank i saw them go close and whisper together like men who hastily alter their plans at the last moment. i presented my second in form. "the high councillor leopold von dessauer, knight of the empire!" said i, proudly enough. then the count presented his, as the custom then was among us of the north: "his excellency friedrich, count of cannstadt, hereditary cup-bearer of the wolfmark." count cannstadt was an impecunious old-young man, who, chiefly owing to accumulated gaming-debts and a disagreement with duke casimir concerning the payment of certain rents and duties, had sought the shelter of the castle of plassenburg--a refuge which the generous prince karl extended to all exiles who were not proven criminals. the seconds bowed first to each other, and then to their opposing principals. in those days, duels were mostly fought with the combatants' own swords. and now von dessauer took my blade, and, going forward courteously, handed the hilt to count cannstadt, receiving that of von reuss in return. the seconds then compared the lengths, and found almost half an inch in favor of my opponent. which being declared, and i offering no objection, the discrepancy was allowed and the swords returned us to fall to. and this without further parley we did. i was no ways afraid of my opponent. for though a pretty enough, tricky fighter, he had little practical experience. also he had quite failed to strengthen himself by daily custom, and especially by practice at outrauce, with an enemy keen to run you through in front of you, and the necessity of keeping a wary eye on half a dozen other conflicts on either hand, as has constantly to be done in war. the place where we fought was on a level green platform a little way above the roofs of the inn of the hirschgasse, where many a similar conflict has been fought, and on which many a good fellow has lain, panting like a grassed trout, with the gasps growing slower and deadlier, while his opponent wiped his blade on the trampled herbage, and the seconds looked on with folded arms. there were many bushes and rocks about, and the place was very secluded to be so near a great city. at first i did not trouble myself much, nor attempt to force the fighting. i was content to hold von reuss in play, and defend myself till the hunger edge of his attack was dulled. for i saw on his face a look of vicious confidence that surprised me, considering his inexperience, and he lunged with a venom and resolution which, to my mind, betokened a determination to kill at all hazards. i knew, however, that presently he must overreach himself, so of set purpose i kept my blade short, and let him approach nearer. immediately he began to press, thinking that he had me at his mercy. we had fought our way round to a spot on the upper side of the plateau, where for a moment von reuss had a momentary benefit from the nature of the ground. here i felt that he gathered himself together, and, presently, as i had supposed he would, he centred his energy in a determined thrust at my left breast. this was well enough timed, for my guard had been short and a little high on purpose to lead him on, and now it took me all my time to turn his point aside. i saw the steel shoot past, grazing my left arm. then with so long a recovery, and the loss of balance from lunging downhill, he was at my mercy. as i did not wish to kill him i chose my spot almost at my leisure, and pinked him two inches below the spring of the neck and close to the collar-bone, which was running the thing as fine as i could allow myself. what was my surprise to see my sword-blade arch itself as if it had stricken a stone wall, and to hear the unmistakable ring of steel meeting steel. "treachery!" cried von dessauer and i together; "you are villains both. he is wearing a shirt of mail!" and the old man rushed forward with his sword bare in his hand and all a-tremble with indignation. i heard the shrill "purl" of a silver call, and, turning me about, there was the gambler cannstadt with a whistle at his lips. i dared not turn my head, for i had still to guard myself against the traitor von reuss's attack, but with the tail of my eye i could see two or three men rise from behind bushes and rocks, and come running as fast as they could towards us. then i knew that dessauer and i were doomed men unless something turned up that we wotted not of. for with an old man, and one so stiff as the high councillor, for my only ally, it was impossible for me to hold my own against more than double our numbers. nevertheless, von dessauer attacked cannstadt with surprising fury and determination, anger glittering in his eye, and resolution to punish treachery lending vigor to his thrust. i had not time to observe his method save unconsciously, for i had to change my position momentarily that i might take the points of the two men who came down the hill at speed, sword in hand. but all this foul play among high-born folk gave me a kind of mortal sickness. to die in battle is one thing, but over against the very roofs of your home to find yourself brought to death's door by murderous treachery is quite another. at this moment there came news of a diversion. from below was heard the crying of a stormy voice. "halt! i command you! halt!" and wheeling sufficiently to see, i observed through the twilight the figure of a stout man, who came leaping heavily up the hill towards us, waving a sword as he came. well, thought i, the more there are of them the quicker it will be over, and the more credit for us in keeping up our end so long. better die in a good fight than live with a bad conscience. with which admirable reflection i sent my sword through von reuss's sword-arm, in the fleshy part, severing the muscle and causing him to drop his blade. i had him then at my mercy, and experienced a great desire to push my blade down his throat, for a treacherous cowardly hound as he had proved himself to me. but instead of this i had to turn towards the other two who came at the charge down the hill and were now close upon us. i had just time to leap aside from the first and let him overrun himself when he shot almost upon the sword of the thick-set man, who came up the hill shouting to us to stop. the second man i engaged, and a stanch blade i found him, though fighting for as dirty a cause as ever man crossed swords in. "halt!" came the voice of command again--the voice i knew so well--"in the name of the state i bid you cease!" it was the voice of karl, prince of plassenburg. "we must take the rough with the smooth now. we must kill them, every one, like stanch men of the mark!" cried von reuss. "there is no safety for any of us else." and in a moment we were at it, the prince furiously assaulting the second of the bravoes who came down the hill. more coolly than i had given him credit for, von reuss stuffed a silken kerchief into the hole in his shoulder, and repossessed himself of his weapon in his other hand. it was the briskest kind of a bicker that ensued for a little while there on the bosky, broomy hill-side in the evening light. ah, dessauer was down at last and cannstadt at his throat! i went about with a whirl, leaving my own man for the moment, and rushed upon the count's false second. he turned to receive me, but not quite quick enough, for i got him two inches below where i had pinked his principal's ring-mail, and that made all the difference. cannstadt did not immediately drop his sword. but his limbs weakened, and he fell forward without a sound. then as i looked about, there was the prince manfully crossing swords with two, and the cowardly von reuss creeping up with his sword shortened in his left hand with intent to slay him from behind. whereat i gave a furious cry of anguish, that i should have been the means of bringing my noble master into such peril. the prince karl had at the same moment some intuition of the treacherous foe behind him, for he leaped aside with more agility than i had ever seen him display before on foot, and von reuss was too sorely wounded to follow. presently i was at my first bravo again, and the prince being left with but one, von reuss took the opportunity to slip away over the hill. the rest of the conflict was not long a-settling. there were loud voices from the stream beneath. the combat had been observed, and half a score of the prince's guard were already swimming, wading, and leaping into small boats in their haste to be first to our assistance. but we did not need their aid. i passed my blade through and through my assailant, almost at the same moment that the prince spiked his man so directly in the throat, so that the red point stood out in the hollow of his neck behind. both went down simultaneously, and there was von reuss on horseback, just disappearing over the ridge. prince karl wiped his brow. "what devil's traitors!" he cried. "poor dessauer, i wonder what he has gotten? let us go to him." we went across the plateau together, and knelt by the side of the old man. at first i could not find the wound, though there was blood enough upon his face and fencing-habit. but presently i discovered that his scalp had been cut from above the eye backwards to the crown of his head--a shallow, ploughing scratch, no more, though it had effectually stunned the old man. even as i held him in my arms, he came to and looked about him. "are they all dead?" he said, feeling about for his sword. "you were nearly dead, dearest of friends," said my master. "but be content. you have done very well for so young a fighter. an you behave yourself, and keep from such brawling in the future, i declare i will give you a company!" dessauer smiled. "all dead?" he asked, trying still to look about him. "your man is dead, or the next thing to it, two other rascals grievously wounded, and the scoundrel von reuss fled, as well he might. but my archers are already on his track." up the hill came jorian and boris leading the rout. "is the prince safe?" cried jorian. "the prince is safe," said karl, answering for himself. "good!" chorussed jorian, boris, and all the archers together. "catch me that man on horseback there!" cried the prince. "take him or kill him, but if you can help it do not let him escape. he is the count von reuss, and a double traitor." "good!" cried the pair, and set off after him, all dripping as they were from their abrupt passage of the river. chapter xxxiii the flight of the little playmate we carried dessauer back to the boat with the utmost tenderness, the prince walking by his side, and oft-times taking his hand. i followed behind them, more than a little sad to think that my troubles should have caused so good and true a man so dangerous a wound. for though in a young man the scalp-wound would have healed in a week, in a man of the high councillor's age and delicacy of constitution it might have the most serious effects. but dessauer himself made light of it. "i needed a leech to bleed me," he said. "i was coward enough to put off the kindly surgery, and here our young friend has provided me one without cost. his last operation, too, and so no fee to pay. i am a fortunate man." we came to the gate of the palace of plassenburg. my lady princess met us, pale and obviously anxious, with lips compressed and a strange cold glitter in her emerald eyes. "so strange a thing has happened!" she began. "no stranger than hath happened to us," cried the prince. "why, what hath happened to you?" she demanded, quickly. "your fine von reuss has proved himself a traitor. he fought a duel with hugo here all tricked in chain-armor, and when found out he whistled his rascals from the covert to slay us. but we bested him, and he is over the hill, with jorian and boris hot after his heel." "and he hath not gone alone!" said the princess, and her eyes were brilliant with excitement. "not gone alone?" said the prince. "what do you know about this black work?" "because helene, my maid of honor, hath fled to join him," she said, looking anxiously at us, like one who perils much upon a throw of the dice. i laughed aloud. so certain was i of the utter impossibility of the thing, that i laughed a laugh of scorn. and i saw the sound of my voice jar the lady ysolinde like a blow on the face. "you do not believe!" she said, standing straight before me. "i do not believe--i know!" answered i, curtly enough. "nevertheless the thing is true," she said, with a curious, pleading expression, as if she had been charged with wrong-doing and were clearing herself, though none had accused her by word or look. "it is most true," the princess went on. "she fled from the palace an hour before sundown. she was seen mounting a horse belonging to von reuss at the wolfmark gate, with two of his men in attendance upon her. she is known to have received a note by the hand of an unknown messenger an hour before." i did not wait for the permission of the princess, but tore up the women's staircase to helene's room, where i found nothing out of place--not so much as a fold of lace. after a hurried look round i was about to leave the room when a crumpled scrap of paper, half hidden by a curtain, caught my eye. i stooped and picked it up. it was written in an unknown and probably disguised hand--a hand cumbersome and unclerkly: "come to me. meet me at the red tower. i need you." there was no more; the signature was torn away, and if the letter were genuine it was more than enough. but no thought of its truth nor of the falseness of helene so much as crossed my mind. to tell the truth, it struck me from the first that the lady ysolinde might have placed the letter there herself. so i said nothing about it when i descended. the prince met me half-way up the stairs. "well?" he questioned, bending his thick brows upon me. "she is gone, certainly," said i; "where or how i do not yet know. but with your permission i will pursue and find out." "or, i presume, without my permission?" said the prince. i nodded, for it was vain to pretend otherwise--foolish, too, with such a master. "go, then, and god be with you!" he said. "it is a fine thing to believe in love." and in ten minutes i was riding towards the wolfsberg. as i went past the great four-square gibbet which had made an end of ritterdom in plassenburg, i noted that there was a gathering of the hooded folk--the carrion crows. and lo! there before me, already comfortably a-swing, were our late foes, the two bravoes, and in the middle the dead cannstadt tucked up beside them, for all his five hundred years of ancestry--stamped traitor and coward by the miller's son, who minded none of these things, but understood a true man when he met him. i pounded along my way, and for the first ten miles did well, but there my horse stumbled and broke a leg in a wretched mole-run widened by the winter rains. in mercy i had to kill the poor beast, and there i was left without other means of conveyance than my own feet. it was a long night as i pushed onward through the mire. for presently it had come on to rain--a thick, dank rain, which wetted through all covering, yet fell soft as caressing on the skin. i took shelter at last in a farm-house with honest folk, who right willingly sat up all night about the fire, snoring on chairs and hard settles that i might have their single sleeping-chamber, where, under strings of onions and odorous dried herbs, i rested well enough. for i was dead tired with the excitement and anxiety of the day--and at such times one often sleeps best. on the morrow i got another horse, but the brute, heavy-footed from the plough, was so slow that, save for the look of the thing, i might just as well have been afoot. nevertheless i pushed towards the town of thorn, hearing and seeing naught of my dear playmate, though, as you may well imagine, i asked at every wayside place. it was at the entering in of the strange country of the brick-dust that i met jorian and boris. they were riding excellent horses, unblown, and in good condition--the which, when i asked how they came by such noble steeds, they said that a man gave them to them. "jorian," said i, sharply, "where have you been?" "to the city of thorn," said he, more briskly than was his wont, so that i knew he had tidings to communicate. "saw you the lady helene?" i asked, eagerly, of them. he shook his head, yet pleasantly. "nay," said he, "i saw her not. the red tower is not a healthy place for men of plassenburg, nor yet the white gate and the house of master gerard von sturm. but mistress helene is in safety, so much boris and i are assured of." "not with von reuss?" cried i, fear thrilling sudden in my voice that he had stolen her and now held her in captivity. boris held up his hand as a signal that i must not hurry his companion, who was clearly doing his best. "she is with gottfried gottfried, the old man, your father, and is safe." "did she go to them of her own free will, or did my father send for her?" i went on, for much depended upon that question. "nay," answered jorian, "that i know not. but certainly she is with him, and safe. the count, too, is with his uncle, and they say also safe--under lock and key." "good!" quoth boris. "let us all three go back to plassenburg forthwith!" cried i. "good!" chorussed both of them together, unanimously slapping their thighs. "choose one of our horses. he was a good man who gave us them. we wish we had known. we should have asked him for another when we were about it." nevertheless, i rode back to plassenburg on the farmer's beast, sadly enough, yet somewhat contented. for helene was with my father, and far safer, as i judged, than in the palace chambers of plassenburg, and within striking distance of the lady ysolinde. and in that i judged not wrong, though the future seemed for a while to belie my confidence. chapter xxxiv the golden necklace the chancellor leopold von dessauer, high councillor of the prince, with his head still bound up, was pacing the sparred gallery outside the private apartments of his master. it was in the heats of the late summer, before the ripening of the orchard fruits had had time to culminate, or the russet to come out slowly upon the apples, like a blush upon a woman's soft, dusky cheek. the high councillor was in a bad humor. for he had been kept waiting, and that by a man of no account. at last a forester in a uniform of dark green, with the prince's bugle and sparrow-hawk in silver everywhere about him, made his appearance at the foot of the gallery, and stood waiting dessauer's summons with his plumed hat of soft cloth in his hand. "hither, man!" cried the high councillor, sharply. "what has kept you? why were you not here half an hour ago? if this be the way you keep the prince's forests, no wonder there are many deer taken by reiving rascals and the forest laws daily broken." "high mightiness," said the man, humbly, looking down, "it was my daughter--she would not give up the necklace. she hath had it for her own since she was a child, and she would not deliver it, though i threatened her with your well-born anger." "and have you got it with you? surely you and she have not dared to keep it!" began the chancellor, with gathering fury on his eyebrow. "yea, truly, truly, an you will have patience, my lord, i have it here,"-said the man, drawing a necklace of golden bars curiously arranged from his leathern wallet; and, kneeling on his knee, he presented it to the chancellor. "how did you prevail with the maid?" he asked, as soon as he had it in hand--"you used no constraint or force, i hope?" "nay, sir," said the man, "for my wife being dead and my daughter marriageable, she keeps house for me; and having a sweetheart betrothed a year ago she hath been laying aside plenishing gear and women's dainty gewgaws. so these i took one by one, beginning with a mirror of polished brass, and made as if i would dash them in pieces if she discovered not where the chain of gold was hid." "and she revealed it?" said dessauer. "aye," said the man, "but none so willingly, as you might suppose. i had saint peter's own trouble to get it from her. indeed, i prayed to the holy apostle to aid me." "what had saint peter to do with it?" said the councillor, pausing and looking humorsomely at the man, like an ascetic sparrow with his head at one side. "because our holy saint peter is the only saint who understands the trouble men have with the contrariness of women." "why so?" cried the chancellor, rubbing his hand with a curious pleasure at the colloquy. "because he only among the apostles was a married man and had experience of a mother-in-law." "art a wise forester. where got you that wisdom?" "why," said the man, modestly, "partly by nature, partly because i also have been married, and so have graduated in the wars." "it is the same thing," said the chancellor, "according to your own telling." "aye, sir," quoth the man, "but yet the young fellows will take no warning. 'it is better to marry than to burn,' said the other apostle. but methinks he knew nothing about it, being no better than a bachelor, or he would have amended it, 'it is better to burn than to marry _and_ burn.'" "ha! art also a theologe, sir woodman?" cried dessauer. "but enough; this touches on the inquisition and the holy office. let us despatch." all this time the high councillor had been gazing by fits and starts at the links of the necklace, turning it about and viewing it from every-angle. it was composed of short bars of gold laid horizontally three and three together, and bound together with short chains of gold. and on each of the bars there was engraven a crest. letters also were on the bars, cut in plain deep script. "now tell your tale and tell it briefly--that is, if brevity be in you, which i doubt," said dessauer. "as i said before," quoth the forester, "i was in the wars; i mean not only in the wars with womenkind, but also with mankind. and among other things i remember the night of the duke casimir's famous ride, when he took plassenburg, because there was scarce a sober man within the walls." "and his highness the prince karl away on baltic side with his men, else had casimir never set foot within the city!" cried the high chancellor. "ah, like enow," said the woodman, "i ken naught of that. but this i do know, plassenburg was taken with much slaughter and grievous loss of goodly gear. they captivated many noble prisoners also, and, because i slept in the stables, they took me to help lead the horses. yet i was not ill-treated, save that i had to keep pace with the horsemen upon my feet. but i saw the prince--" "which prince? speak plainly," said the high councillor, gruffly. "why, the prince dietrich hohenfriedberg of plassenburg," said the man. "he, as your well-born wisdom remembers, was then the only prince in these parts--a good man, and born of the noblest, though not of the capacity of his present highness the prince karl." "proceed somewhat faster. yon move as slowly as one of your own forest oxen at the wood-hauling," cried the well-born councillor in a testy tone. "we were long in riding over to thorn--two days and nights upon the way. it was a terrible time, and all the while those condemned beasts of the wolfmark, casimir's black riders, driving us with their spears like prick-goads, till our backs were all bleeding, gentle and simple alike. so at midnight of the third day we came to the city of thorn, and up through the streets to the wolfsberg. there was no gladness in the town, such as there would have been in our city had there been news of a victory, or even of some hundreds of the enemy's horses well driven. for then as now the town hated its duke. and so they were all silent. "then in the darkness we came to the castle, and the word was: 'dismount, and to the shambles!' me and my like they meddled not with, but only the great ones. and it was then, as i told you, that i saw prince dietrich with the little maid in his arms. i had carried her part of the way for him, and faithfully delivered her up again, feeding her with the choicest meats i could obtain when she could eat. but she was tired, mostly, and would not look at food. so for this he gave me her necklace from about her pretty neck. but the rest of her noble golden gear, the belt and the clasps, were upon the maid when the headsman of thorn delivered her to one that stood near by. so, being almost asleep with weariness and exhausted with terror, they carried her away, and i saw the maid no more. "but the prince dietrich hohenfriedberg was beheaded within the hour, and, as is their hellish custom, his body was thrown to the duke's blood-hounds that were clamoring all the time behind their fence. "god help us--such a disaster that night was for plassenburg! will the prince never set about wiping away the disgrace?" "aye, that he will!" cried the high chancellor, suddenly bursting into a fury, strangely unlike him. "he will wash it away in the blood of duke casimir and all his evil brood--the wolves of the mark truly are they named. and the wolfsberg shall go up in flaming fire to heaven, so that the ashes of it shall be cast abroad to make the mark yet grayer and more desolate--like the fell of the beasts that dwelt within it." "amen! let it come quick, say i--that i may see it before i die!" cried the forester, bowing low before the chancellor. chapter xxxv the decent servitor "this grows past all bearing," cried the prince one morning, when he had summoned into his hall the chancellor dessauer and myself. for, though the prince was still wont to command in person in any important action, and in the general policy of his realm took counsel with none, yet it had somehow come about that we, the old man and the young, had been constituted an informal council of two which was liable to be summoned at any moment, whenever the prince was weary or troubled. he struck one clinched hand into the palm of the other before he spoke again. "duke casimir is either in his dotage, or his riders have gotten out of hand since hugo and you drove the young wolf over to help the old. both are likely enough, with a people praying for deliverance and yearning for their duke's death. a bare board and an empty treasury may render a new course of plunder necessary abroad, in order to keep his dukedom from toppling about his ears at home. after all, 'tis natural enough. but i had thought that he would have had enough of sense to let the borders of plassenburg alone so long as its prince lived." "and what, my lord, has befallen?" asked the high councillor. "why," cried the prince, "the black riders of the wolfmark are out again, and have left their ancient trail behind them in slain men and frantic women--and on our borders, too, among our kindly husbandmen, our honest, sunburnt peasants. bitterly shall casimir ironteeth rue the day that he meddled with karl miller's son." "your highness," i said, "this is indeed madness. we have but to collect our forces, choose a time, and, lo! we are within the town of thorn! once there, we would be welcomed by man, woman, and child. we could then besiege the wolfsberg, and in three days make an end." "aye, that is it," said the prince, grimly; "you have hit it, hugo. we _will_ make an end." "also, my prince," i went on, boldly, "so ye give me leave and approve of my design, i will go alone to the town of thorn, and bring you back word of their power and dispositions. save the count von reuss, there is none who could now recognize me within the city walls." "what think ye, dessauer?" said the prince, looking over at the high chancellor. "i think well," said he, a little doubtfully; "but would it not be better that two should go than that one should adventure alone into the wolf's den ?" "surely it were better to keep the matter between our three selves," the prince made answer; "not even the princess must know of our attempt. keep a candle flame within the hollow of your palm, and though the wind blow the sparks will not fly far." "i will go with the lad, prince karl," said the chancellor, firmly. "in my youth i had some practice as a leech. i am acquainted with the art of healing. i could travel either as a doctor of healing, as a travelling philosopher seeking disputation with the scholars of each country, or, perhaps best of all, in mine own quality of a doctor of law. and in any case this young man might with all safety be my pupil or servant, whichever best liketh him." "servant, then," said i, "for the art of disputation i have hitherto chiefly undertaken with my fists and side-irons. and as to surgery, i am more practised in the giving of wounds than in the healing of them." the prince leaned his head upon his hand. he thought carefully over our proposal, taking up point after point, resolving difficulty after difficulty in his mind, as was his wont. "how long would you be away?" he asked, looking up at us. "ten days, prince," said i. "give us but ten days and we will return." "i will give you eight, and if ye are not home again on the eve of the last, as sure as i am karl miller's son, the army of plassenburg will be thundering on the walls of thorn seeking for a wandering chancellor and a lost hugo gottfried!" and so it was arranged. we of the prince's staff were indeed in great need of such a mission, for we had heard nothing from thorn or the wolfmark during many months; no tidings, at all events, that could be relied upon. for the cutting up of our frontiers by new raids, and the severance of all relations between us and the dwellers in the wolfmark, through fear of reprisals, caused us to hear little news but such as was manifest lies. as thus: duke casimir was collecting a great army, magnificent with cannon and munitions of war. he was shut up tight in the wolfsberg, not daring to show his face to his own citizens. he would appear some fine day before the palace of plassenburg and slay every man of us. he was in a madman's cell, and otho von reuss was duke of the mark in his place. these were only a few of the stories which were brought to regale us daily. and since there was no certainty anywhere, we were all in the dark concerning the military matters which it behooved us greatly to be acquainted with. therefore i was honestly eager for my master's sake to undertake the perilous journey. but to tell the whole truth, the fact that i had not had a word from the little playmate, not so much as a line of script nor a verbal message since her disappearance, made me more eager to go than the high politics of a dozen provinces. since the duel, and the final declaring of my love for helene, i had seen but little of the princess. indeed, i kept out of her way, so far at least as i could. and the lady ysolinde remained mostly in her own domains--to which, of late, i had been less and less invited. nevertheless, when we met, she was more than kind to me--gentle, forbearing, pathetic almost in bearing and demeanor, like as a woman wronged, slighted, misconstrued. also there was sent to my quarters a new banner for my following, broidered and blazoned in yellow and blue, a saddle-cloth of silk for my horse, fine as a woman's robe, with a crowned y faint and small in the corner, lettered in straw-colored gold. no man could help being touched by such kindly thought, which, after all, is more than mere liberality. yet i saw a sight upon her stairs one night which awoke me with a sudden start to the fact that we had one to reckon with in our journeying to the city of thorn whom we had not as yet taken into consideration. for it chanced that i was passing up to the prince's apartments by the quicker way, through corridors and by stairs to which he had given me private access. and there, upon the steps leading to the lady ysolinde's rooms, i saw the decent servitor of master gerard stand waiting. he stared as hard at me as i did at him. but whereas his smooth, silent, secret face remained with me, and i knew him at a glance, it was, i judged, clean impossible that he could know the beardless stripling in the mustached leader of soldiers, walking well-accustomed and unafraid through palaces. the man had a letter in his hand, and i saw him deliver it to a maid who came to the dividing curtain to take it. so there was later news from the city of thorn within the palace of plassenburg than we of the prince's council of three possessed. should i tell our karl of this encounter? i thought it might be safer not. because the prince was the last man to attempt to obtain aught from his wife by compulsion, and any question, direct or indirect, might only put her upon her guard. if i let him into the secret, the prince would be most likely to stride straight into the princess's rooms with the brusque words: "gottfried has seen a letter come to you from your father--what were its contents?" and that would not suit us at all. so, rightly or wrongly, i kept the matter from my master, speaking of it only to dessauer. and if aught befel from my reticence, it was at least i myself who bore the burden, and, in the final event, paid the penalty. chapter xxxvi ysolinde's farewell the next morning early, as i went about making my dispositions, and putting men of trust in positions fit for them--for the prince has given me the command of all the soldiers within the city--the lady ysolinde came to me upon the terrace. "walk with me a while," she said, "in the lower garden. it is a quiet place, and i would speak with you." it was a command that i dared not refuse to obey, yet my greatest enemy would not accuse me that i went lightly or willingly to such a tryst. the lady ysolinde passed on daintily and proudly before me, and i followed, more like a condemned criminal lamping heavily to the scaffold than a lad of mettle accompanying a fair lady to a rendezvous of her own asking under the greenwood-tree. but i need not have feared. the princess's mood was mild, and i saw her in a humor in which i had never seen her before. she moved before me over the grass, with her head a little turned up to the skies, as though appealing out of her innocence to the beings who sat behind and sorted out the hearts of men and women. at a great weeping-elm, under which was a seat, she turned. it formed a wide canopy of shade, grateful and cool. for the breezes stirred under the leaves, and the river moved beneath with a pleasant, meditative hush of sound. "hugo gottfried, once you were my friend," she began; "what have i done that you should be my friend no more? tell me plainly. i liked you when as a lad, the son of the red axe, you had come to my father's house about some boyish freak. i have not done ill by you since that day. and now that you are a leader of men and of rank and honor here in my husband's country of plassenburg, i would be your well-wisher still. i am conscious of no reason for my having forfeited your liking. but that i would know for certain--and now." as she threw back her head and let her clear emerald eyes rest upon me, i never saw woman born of woman look more innocent. indeed, in these days of mistrust, it is innocence under suspicion which usually looks most guilty, knowing what is expected of it. "lady ysolinde," i made answer, "you try me hard and sore. you put me by force in the wrong. you do me indeed great honor, as you have ever done all these years. in reverence and high respect i shall ever hold you for all that you have done--for your kindness to me and to helene, the orphan girl who came from our father's roof with me. i know no reason why there should be any break in our friendship--nor shall there be, if you will pardon my folly and--" "tush!" she said, impetuously; "you speak things empty, vain, the rattling of knuckle-bones in a bladder--not live words at all. think you i have never listened to true men? do not i, ysolinde of plassenburg, know the sound of words that have the heart behind them? i have heard you speak such yourself. do not insult me then with platitudes, nor try to divert me with the piping of children in the market-place. i will not dance to them, nor yet, like a foolish kitchen-wench, smile at the jingling of your trinketry." "your highness--" i began again. she waved her hand as if putting a light thing away. "i was a woman to you before you knew that i was a princess," she said; "you need not forget that i am a woman still, cursed with the plate-mail of rank added to the weariness and inaction of a woman's breaking heart." i grew acutely conscious that i was not distinguishing myself in this interview. so i dashed again at the wall, and this time, for a moment at least, overbore interruption. "ysolinde, my dear lady," i said to her, "you are the prince's and my good master's wife. and if i have stood aloof, it is that i wished that he should have the companionship which one day i desire to find for myself--and also that i might always have the right to look straight into my master's eyes." "now you talk like a silly prating priestling," she said. "you are both mighty careful of your honesty, your virtue, your companionship--your precious master and you. but you do not think what it is to starve a woman's heart, to bid her find her level among broiderers of bannerets and stitchers in tapestry. ah! if the particular god who happened to be at the digging of us out of the happier pit of oblivion had only made me a man, i, at least, should neither have been a straitlaced jackanapes nor yet a prating, callow-bearded wiseacre." "and am i either?" said i, weakly enough. "you are in danger of becoming both," she said, promptly. "once i saw better things in you. i thought i had won me a friend, and that for once i might put my anchor down. my husband neglects me, so much cannot have escaped your eagle eye. he is twice my age, and he thinks more of you, more of councillor von dessauer, more of his horse than of me, ysolinde of plassenburg. and i was made to be loved and to love. how much of either, think you, have i ever known? the true lot of a woman shut to me, the sweet love of man and woman wiled from me, even the communion of the spirit forbidden. i might as lief carry a wizened nut-kernel within my brain-pan as a thinking soul, for all that any one cares. i am a woman of another age stranded on the shores of a time made only for men. i am the woman priests talk against, or perhaps rather the witch-woman lilith on the outside of eden's wall. or i may be the woman of a time yet to come, when she who is man's mate shall not be only a gay-decked bird to sit on his wrist, tethered with a leash and called back to her master with a silver lure." these things i had never listened to before, nor, indeed, thought of. nevertheless, though i could not answer her, i felt in my heart that she was wrong, and that a woman has always power over men, being stronger than all ideals, philosophies, kingdoms--aye, even our holy religion itself. "after all," i said, piqued a little at her tone, as men are wont to be at that which they do not understand, "my lady ysolinde, wherefore should you not tell these things to the prince, your husband, and not to me, that am neither your husband nor your lover?" "and if you had been both?" she interjected, a little breathlessly. "then, my lady," i replied, stirred by her persistence, "you would have obeyed me and served me just as you say. or else i should have broken your spirit as a man is broken on the wheel." it was a prideful saying, and one informed with all ignorance and conceit. yet the lady ysolinde gave a long sigh. "ah, that would have been sweet, too," she said. "you are the one man i should have delighted to call master, to have done your bidding. that had been a thing different indeed! but you love me not. you love a chit, a chitterling--a pretty thing that can but peep and mutter, whose heart's depths i have sounded with my finger-nail, and whose babyish vanity i have tickled with a straw." this was enough and too much. "madam," said i, "the clear stars are not fouled by throwing filth at them, nor yet the lady helene--whom i do acknowledge that with all my heart i love--by the speaking of any ill words. you do but wrong yourself, most noble lady. for your heart tells you other things, both of the maid i love and of me that am her true servant, and, if i might, your true friend." the princess reached out her hand, looking, not with anger, but rather wistfully at me, like a mother at a son who goes to his death with blasphemy on his lips. "forgive me," she said, gently. "i would not at the last have you go forth thinking ill of me. indeed, you think all too well, and make me do things that are better than mine intent, because i know that you expect them of me. i have done many ill and cruel things in my poor life, simply from idleness and the empty, unsatisfied heart. if you had loved me or taught me or driven me, i might have tried better things. perhaps in the end, for great love's sake, i may yet do one worthy deed that shall blot out all the rest. farewell!" and without another spoken word she moved away, and left me in the green pleasaunces of the garden, with my heart riven this way and that, scarce knowing what i did or where i stood. chapter xxxvii captain karl miller's son black, blank, chill, confining night shut us in as leopold dessauer and i rode out of plassenburg. our horses had been made ready for us at the little water-gate in the lower garden. fain would i have taken also jorian and boris, but on this occasion the fewer the safer. for to enter thorn was to go with lighted matches into a powder-magazine. the rushes in the river rustled dry and cold along the brink. the leaves of the linden-trees chuckled overhead, rubbing their palms together spitefully. there was mockery of our foolhardy enterprise in the soft whispering sough of the water, as i heard it lapper beneath the ferry-boat that lay ready to cross to the other side. old hans, the prince's ferryman, snored in his boat. above in the women's chambers a light went to and fro. i judged that it was in the bower of the lady ysolinde. but not a string of my heart moved. for pity is so weak and love so strong that all my nature was now on the strain forward towards helene and the wolfsberg, like an eager hound that pulls at the unslipped leash. "my love! my love!" i cried in my heart, "i am coming to you, i am going out to find you! though i give my life for it, i shall at least see and touch you ere i die." for during these last days my love had grown greatly upon me, being of that kind which gathers within a man, banks up, fills out his crevices, and he know it not. in the wolfmark there are oft, in the heart of the limestone, caverns where the water sleeps deep and cool, while above, on the thin, rocky crust, the sun beats and the very lizards die for lack of moisture. it was only now that i had broken up the crust of my nature and found the caverns under, where love was abiding all undreamed of, deep, and eternal as the sea. it is a great thing and a beautiful to meet love for the first time face to face, not to nod to only as to an acquaintance, and to know how great and masterful he is; to say, "love, i am yours. do with me that which seemeth good to you. i was strong--now in your hands am i become weak. i was proud--now am i glad to be humble and kneel, waiting your word. you have made life and death the same thing to me, for the sake of the beloved. i am ready to take either from your hands!" but enough! we were riding out of the dark pleasaunces of the palace, the leaves were rustling and the sedges blowing. that was what began it, carrying away my thoughts. dessauer rode behind me, letting his horse follow mine, nose to tail. for, being used to the visitation of the city outposts, i knew the ground thoroughly. at every hundred yards we were halted, and i answered. for i had posted the men myself, making sure that plassenburg should not again be taken by surprise. on the other hand, i had determined that the spoiler should now be made despoiled, and that the foul den of the wolf should be cleansed as by fire. then, like the breaking up of the baltic ice in spring, the thought ran through me--my father and the maid of the red tower, what of them? why, at the very first (so i told myself), i should set a guard of the best troops in plassenburg about the red tower, and carry them all--helene, my father, and old hanne--to a safe place till prince karl and i had made an end. with our stark veterans swarming in thorn, that would easily be done. and so the plan abode to be altered, broidered, and recast in the imagination of my heart. we were soon out on the darksome, unguarded road, and after that i steered chiefly by the lights of the palace behind me, dessauer saying no word, but riding like a man-at-arms close behind me. we had reached the crown of the green hill over whose slopes the path to the wolf markwinds--the path by which, doubtless, helene had travelled the night of the duel. as i came to the summit, mounting the steepest part slowly, i was aware of a figure dark against the sky, no more apparent than a blacker patch of night where all was dark. it was in shape as of a horseman sitting his steed on the crest of the hill. instantly i drew my pistol, in which i had become expert. "your name and business?" cried i to the shape on the hill-side. for, indeed, none had any right to be abroad so near the city of plassenburg, armed cap-a-pie, at that time of the night. and for a moment the thought flashed upon me that the tales we had heard might after all be true, and the armies of the wolfmark nearer than we dreamed of. "hugo--von dessauer!" quoth right jovially to my ear a voice well known and ever dear to me, the voice of my master, the prince karl. "the prince!" cried i. "my lord, what do you here? this is stark madness--you, who should be within the walls of the palace, with the guards watching three deep about you. what would come to the state of plassenburg if it wanted you?" "oh," said he, lightly, falling in beside us in the most natural fashion, "you and von dessauer in dual control would be a singular improvement on the present head of the state. you, hugo, would keep the soldiers to their work, and von dessauer could look nobly after the treasury." "but who would command us and be a gracious and beloved master to us?" said i. "my prince, we must instantly return and put you in safety!" "indeed, that will you not. by god's truth, if i am not to come all the way to the city of thorn with you, i will at least convoy you to the edges of the mark. it is so dull, dragging out month by month at ease within the castle, and not nearly so much fun as it used to be when i was a poor captain of a free company under the old prince. young rattling blades like dessauer and yourself make no allowance for the distractions of an aged and gouty prince." within myself i felt some amusement stir. it was almost exactly what the princess, his wife, had alleged as a reason for her wanderings. i could not help marvelling why these two had not long ere this found out their great affinity to each other. but now i see that this very likeness of nature was the first cause of their lack of agreement. like may, indeed, draw to like, as the saw hath it. but in the things of love like and like agree not well together. fair desires dark, stout and stark desire slender, slow desires quick, severe desires gay (though this often secretly). and so the world goes on, and in another generation, sprung from these desirings, once more dark desireth fair and fair dark. there i am at it again. oh, but i, hugo gottfried, am the wise man when i set out on my disquisitions. i could new-make all the saws of the world, set instances to them, and never breathe myself. "nay," said the prince, "all is safe set within and without, thanks to my brave commander and wise chancellor, and these other matters can e'en bide till i go back to them. consider that i am but a captain of horse going a-wooing and needing to talk gayly for good comradeship by the road. call me honest captain miller's son." so captain miller's son rode with herr doctor schmidt and his servant johann. and a merry time the three of us had till we arrived at the borders of the mark. now i have not time nor yet space (though a great deal of inclination) to tell of the wondrous pranks we played--of the broad-haunched countrywomen we rallied (or rather whom captain miller's son rallied, and who, truth to tell, mostly gave as good as they got, or better, to that soldier's huge delight), the stout yeoman families into whose midst we went, and their opinion of the prince. of the last i have a good tale to tell. "a good man and a kindly," so the man said; "he has given us safe horse, fat cow, and a quiet life. but yet the old was good too. the true race to reign is ever the anointed prince." "but then, did not dietrich, the anointed prince, harry you? and worse, let others plunder you? and that is not the fashion of prince karl, usurper though he be!" said the prince. "nay," the honest man would reply, "usurper is he not--a god-sent boon to plassenburg rather. we love him, would fight for him, all my six sons and i. would we not, chickens?" and the six sons rolled out a thunderous "aye, fight--marry, that we would!" as they sat, plaiting willow-baskets and mending bows about the fire. "but, alas! he is cursed with a mad wife, and, after all said and done, he is not of the ancient stock," said the ancient man, shaking his head. and the prince answered him as quickly, tapping his brow significantly with his forefinger, "are not all wives a little touched? or are yon passing fortunate in your part of the country? faith, we of the city will all come courting to the tannenwald if you prove better off." "we are even as our neighbors!" cried the yeoman, shrugging his shoulders. "maul, my troth, what sayest thou? here is a brisk lad that miscalls thy clan." the goodwife came forward, smiling, comely, and large of well-padded bone. "which?" said she, laconically. the farmer pointed to the prince. the matron took a good look at him. "well," she said, "he is the one that should know most about us. he has been married once or twice, and hath gotten certain things burned into him. as for this one," she went on, indicating dessauer, "he may be doctor of all the wisdoms, as ye say, but he has never compassed the mystery of a woman. and this limber young spark with the quick eyes, he is a bachelor also, but ardently desires to be otherwise. i wot he has a pretty lass waiting for him somewhere." "how knew you that of me, goodwife ?" i cried, greatly astonished. "why, by the way you looked up when my daughter came dancing in. you were in your lost brown-study, and then, seeing a pretty lass that most are glad to rest their eyes upon, you looked away disappointed or careless." "and how knew you that i was of the ancient guild of the bachelors?" asked dessauer. "why, by the way that you looked at the pot on the fire, and sniffed up the stew, and asked how long the dinner would be! the bachelor of years is ever uneasy about his meals, having little else to be uneasy about, and no wife, compact of all contrary whimsies, to teach him how to be patient." "and how," cried the prince, in his turn, "knew you that i had been wedded once?" "or twice," said the woman, smiling. "man, ye cackle it like a hen on the rafters advertising her egg in the manger below. i knew it by the fashion ye had of hanging up your hat and eke scraping your feet---not after ye entered, like these other good, careless gentlemen, but with your knife, outside the door. i see it by your air of one that has been at once under authority and yet master of a house." "well done, good wife!" cried the prince. "were i indeed in authority i would make you either prime-minister or chief of my thief-catchers." and so after that we went to bed. chapter xxxviii the black riders the next day we jogged along, and many were our advices and admonitions to the prince to return. for we were now on the borders of his kingdom, and from indications which met us on the journeying we knew that the black riders were abroad. for in one place we came to a burned cottage and the tracks of driven cattle; in another upon a dead forest guard, with his green coat all splashed in splotches of dark crimson, a sight which made the prince clinch his hands and swear. and this also kept him pretty silent for the rest of the day. it was about evening of this second day, and we had come to the top of a little swell of hills, when suddenly beneath us we heard the crackling of timbers and saw the pale, almost invisible flames beginning to devour a thriving farm-house at our feet. there were swarms of men in dark armor about it, running here and there, clapping straw and brushwood to hay-ricks and byre doors. "the black riders of duke casimir," i cried; "down among the bushes and let them not see us! we must go back. if they so much as suspected the prince they would slay us every one." but ere we had time to flee half a dozen of their scouts came near us, and, observing our horses and excellent accoutrement, they raised a cry. there was nothing for it but the spurs on the heels of our boots. so across the smooth, well-turfed country we had it, and in spite of our beasts' weariness we made good running. and while we fled i considered how best to serve the prince. "there is a monastery near by," said i, "and the head thereof is a good friend of ours. let us, if possible, gain that shelter, and cast ourselves on the kindness of the good abbot tobias." "aye," said the prince, urging his horse to speed, "but will we ever get there?" then i called myself all the stupid-heads in the world, because i had not refused to go a foot with the prince on such a mad venture, and so put our future and that of the princedom of plassenburg in such peril. but there at last were the gray walls and high towers of the abbey of wolgast. our pursuers were not yet in sight, so we rode in at the gate and cast our bridles to a lay brother of the order, crying imperiously for instant audience of the abbot. as soon as my friend tobias saw us he threw up his hands in a rapture of welcome. but i soon had him advertised of our great danger. whereupon he went directly to the window of his chamber of reception and looked out on the court-yard. "ring the abbey bell for full service," he commanded; "throw open the outer gates and great doors, and lead these horses to the secret crypt beneath the mortuary chapel." for the abbot tobias was a man of the readiest resource, and in other circumstances would have made a good soldier. he hurried us off to the robing-rooms, and made us put on monastic and priestly garments over our several apparels. never, got wot, had i expected that i should be transformed into a rope-girt praying clerk. but so it was. i was given a square black cap and a brown robe, and sent to join the lay brethren. for my hair grew thick as a mat on top and there was no time to tonsure it. now, dessauer being bald and quite practicable as to his topknot, they endued him with the full dress of a monk. but at that time i saw not what was done with the prince. for my conductor, a laughing, frolicsome lad, came for me and carried me off all in good faith, telling me the while that he hoped we should lodge together. there were, he whispered, certain very fair and pleasant-spoken maids just over the wall, that which you could climb easily enough by the branches of the pear-tree that grew contiguous at the south corner. as we hurried towards the chapel, the monks were streaming out of their cells in great consternation, grumbling like soldiers at an unexpected parade. "what hath gotten into our old man?" said one. "hath he overeaten at mid-day refection, and so is not able to sleep, that he cannot let honest men enjoy greater peace than himself?" "what folly!" cried another; "as if we had not prayers enough, without cheating the almighty by knocking him up at uncanonical hours!" "and the choir summoned, and full choral service, no less! not even a respectable saint's day--no true churchman indeed, but some heretic of a greek fellow!" quoth a third. nevertheless, obediently enough they made their way as the bell clanged, and the throng filed into their places most reverently. it was a pleasant sight. i came into rank unobtrusively at the back, among the rustling and nudging lay brethren. in other circumstances it would have amused me to see the grave faces they turned towards the altar, and to hear all the while the confused scuffling as they trod on each other's toes, trying whose skin was the tenderest or whose sandal soles were the thickest. one or two even tried conclusions with me, but once only. for the first who adventured got a stamp from my riding-boot which caused him to squeal out like a stuck pig, and but for the waking thunder of the organ might have gotten him a month's penance in addition. so after that my toes were left severely alone among the lay brethren. then came the high procession, at which the monks and all stood up. in front there were the incense-bearers and acolytes, then officers whose names, not being convent-bred nor yet greatly given to church-craft, i did not know. then after them came two men who walked together, at the sight of whom the' jaws of all the monks dropped, and they stood so infinitely astonished that no power was left in them. for, instead of one, two mitred abbots entered in full canonical attire--golden mitre and green, golden-headed staff, red embroidered robes lined with green. these two paced solemnly in abreast, and sat down upon twin thrones. "the abbot of st. omer!" whispered one of the lay brothers, naming one of the most famous abbeys in europe, and the word flew round like lightning. whether he had been instructed or not what to say i do not know. but at all events i saw the tidings run round the circle of the choir, overleap the boundary stall, and even reach the officiating priests, who inclined an eager ear to catch it, and passed the word one to another in the intervals of the chanted sentences. then the news was drowned in the thunder of the anthem, and the organ dominating all. everything was strange to me, but most strange the practice of the lay brothers, who chanted bravely indeed in tune, but who (for the words set in the chorals) substituted other sentiments of a kind not usually found in service-books. "he looks a stout and be-e-e-fy o-o-old fel-low, this a-a-a-bot of st. omer, don't you think? glory, glo-o-ry. takes his meals well, likes his qu-a-a-art of rhenish or his burgundy to swell his jolly paunch. a-a-a-men!" or, as it might be: "are you coming--are you coming o-o-out to-night? there will be-ee, good compan-ee-ee. dancing and deray--lots of pretty girls; no proud churls. ten by the clock, when the doors all lock. as it was in the beginning, is now, ever shall be, world without end, a-a-a-men!" these were, of course, only the lay brothers, and i hope the friars were better behaved. i decided, however, that for the sake of my respect for religion, i should ask dessauer. because i saw even the abbot tobias lean smilingly over to abbot prince karl, and i marvelled what they spoke about. not that i had long to wonder, for through the open door of the chapel there streamed a dismal host of invaders from the wolfmark--black hussars of death, in dark armor, with white skeletons painted over them, all charnel-house ribs and bones in hideous and ridiculous array--which was one of duke casimir's devices to frighten children, and no doubt these scarecrows frightened many of these. specially when these villanous companies were recruited from all the wild bandits of the mark, and never punished for any atrocity, but, on the contrary, rather encouraged in evil-doing in order to spread the terror of their name. yet, when they came rushing in, even the cavaliers of death were daunted by the sight which met them. and as the solemn service proceeded, amid the thunder of the great organ pressing, throbbing against the roof and reverberating along the floor, hands stole to heads, helmets were lifted, and half-forgotten fear of holy church stirred in many a wicked and outcast heart. some of the foremost, with their blades half-drawn, appeared to waver whether or no they should even yet stay the service with the bloody sword. but as the monks calmly chanted, and the solemn responses were given, a stillness stole over the vociferous babble within the great open doors. higher and higher the voices of the choir mounted, breaking a way to heaven. awe sat on every fierce face, and when the abbot tobias arose to pronounce the benediction, the other stood up beside him, and the hussars of death knelt awe-stricken before the two mitred dignitaries of the church. without a murmur they arose and slunk away without so much as searching the abbey, and so departed on their errands, leaving us safe and unharmed. then, when the three of us were again united in the private rooms of the abbot tobias, that hearty ecclesiastic shook us all by the hand and said, "good friends, we are well out of that. nay, no thanks! my monks are not a bit the worse of a little additional exercise to keep them humble and lean. nor is god the less well pleased that we have sought him in time of need--as prince and abbot, as well as soldier and peasant, require." these being the only words of genuine piety i had heard within the walls of the monastery, i thought more of the abbot tobias from that moment that he was not ashamed to speak them in the presence of prince and councillor of state, as well as before a rough soldier like myself. chapter xxxix the flag on the bed tower it took us all our powers of persuasion with the prince to induce him to depart homeward on the morrow, under escort of a dozen sturdy and well-armed lanzknechte attached to the monastery. but the thing was done at last. "and remember," said our karl, as he embraced us, "that if ye return not on the eighth day at eventide, the forces of plassenburg will e'en be battering on the gates of thorn by the hour of dusk. i am not going to have my farms burned, my peasants disembowelled and cast to the blood-hounds, my women ravished in their kindly home-steadings. god wot! the cup of duke casimir hath been brimming this many a day, and we will give him a deep and bitter draught to drink when we set it to his lips." thereupon we bade our dear and brave master a respectful adieu. karl miller's son he might be, but for all that he was every inch a king--a right royal man, whom i would rather serve than the kaiser himself. and after he had gone from us a little way he turned again and waved his hand, crying: "on the eighth day report you without fail, friends of mine, unless ye wish me to come asking for you at the gates of thorn, with some din and the spilling of much blood." the worthy abbot tobias gave us a paper to the bishop peter, now restored to his bishopric of thorn, and in some measure dwelling at peace with the duke casimir since that ruler's reconciliation with holy church. in this paper it was set forth that the most learned doctor of law, leonard schmidt, with his servant johann, were on their way to ratisbon to dispute concerning the practice of law and reason with another most learned doctor of the empire, and that, desiring to remain a day of two in thorn, they were by the abbot tobias of wolgast commended to bishop peter's kind hospitality. for indeed the inns of germany, and especially of the north, were not at that time such as wise and learned men could readily submit to--neither abide in, to be herded with dull, landward peasants and all the tankard-swilling gutter-knaves of the town. of the remainder of our journey i need not speak, seeing that more than once i have had to tell of that journey from thorn to plassenburg. it is sufficient that by evening the dark, frowning mass of the wolfsberg lay imminent before us, each tower black against the sky. for even the new portions which casimir had builded were of intention blackened with soot--mingled with the plaster and mortar, so that they should be of one piece of grim terror with the rest of the building. "after all it is not strange," said i to the councillor, for when there was no one in sight or very near us i rode with him instead of behind him, "that the man who shakes at every breeze among the aspens should take such pains to create the fiction and shadow of terror about him, when the substance and reality is dominant all the while in his own bosom." since we had come within the distressed and depopulated territory of the wolfmark we had not spoken to any soul. indeed, except a few poor, desolate peasant folk, burned black with the sun, scuttling from den to den at the sight of mounted men, we had not seen any living creatures. the cruelty which had marked the reign of the black duke seemed to have afflicted the very face of the country with a visible curse. but the day of deliverance was at hand. as we came nearer to thorn, there before us was the red tower, at first dimly apparent, then prominent, then commanding, finally rising higher than all the buildings of the wolfsberg. how many days had i not looked down from those windows! and my father was even now up there in his grim garret, his heart stirring calm and kindly within him, in spite of all the atmosphere of blood in which his life had moved, as untouched as though he had been a gardener working among the flowers of the parterre. also the block was there, and against it the red axe was leaning. then i called to mind the prophecy of the lady ysolinde, that i should return to take up my father's dreadful trade. and i smiled thereat. for i thought that now i came in other circumstances--aye, even though riding in at the tail of the learned doctor schmidt with my shaven and chestnut-stained face, my flowing hair cropped to the roots, as in the manner of the servant tribe! yet for all that was i not the virtual military commander of the plassenburg and the right hand of the prince, whose forces would soon be clamoring against the walls of thorn and bringing down to destruction the hateful tyranny of the black duke casimir? "what is that?" said i, pointing to a standard of immense size which drooped from the red tower. it had been hanging limp and straight about the staff, and till now we had not observed it. but as we went toiling up to the weiss thor, and the last links of road lengthened themselves indefinitely out before us in their own familiar manner, suddenly a waft of hot wind from the sun-beaten plain of the wolfmark blew out an immense black flag, which spread itself, fluttered feebly, and died down again flat against the pole. "nay," said the doctor, "that i cannot tell. surely you should know the customs of your own city better than i!" for the heat had made the high chancellor a little snappish, as well perhaps as the length of the way. "never in my time have i seen such a thing float above the red tower," i made answer. "can it be a flag of pestilence?" it seemed a likely thing enough. cities were often made desolate in a few days by the plague--the people running to the hills, a weird devil's silence all about the gates. these might well betoken the presence of a foe to which the army of plassenburg would seem as a friend. as we rode under the arch of the white gate of thorn we were summarily halted to be examined. we gave our names, and the doctor showed his letters of authorization from a dozen learned universities. the black hussar who examined our credentials was of a taciturn disposition, and evidently no scholar, for he studied the parchments intently upsidedown, and appeared to have an idea that their genuineness was best investigated by smelling the seals. "where are you bound?" he asked. "to the house of the learned and venerable bishop of thorn!" said the doctor schmidt. so the hussar, having finally approved of the quality of the scholastic wax, called a subordinate, and bade him guide us to the house of bishop peter. in an instant we were in the familiar streets, narrow, sunken, and indescribably dirty, as they now appeared to me. for i had been accustomed to the wider, airier spaces, and to the bickering rivulets which ran down most of the steeper streets of plassenburg, and which made it one of the cleanest towns in the world. so that the ancient and unreformed filth and wretchedness of thorn appealed to my senses as they had never done before. there were evidences too of the terror in which the inhabitants had long lived. the houses of the rich burghers were sadly dilapidated. no man thought it worth while to spend a pot of paint on a house which might be knocked about his ears that very night, if the duke conceived there was money or gear to be found within the walls of it. here and there the same black banner appeared. i asked the reason of it from our guide. "is it that the plague is in the city?" "the plague has, indeed, been in the city--yes! but that is not the reason of the flag." "and what then is the meaning of the black flag?" said i. "ye are strangers indeed!" answered the man. "did you not know that the great duke casimir is dead, and that the black flag flies for him, and must fly on the wolfsberg till his successor be crowned." "and who is his successor?" said i. "who but young otho, the worst of the wolfs litter. but perhaps you are his friend?" he turned with a keen look, like one who has been accustomed to deliver himself in company where he is sure of sympathy, and who suddenly has to consider his words in society the tone of which he is not sure of. "nay," said i, "we are travelling strangers and know nothing of your politics. but this duke otho, wherefore has he not been crowned?" "because," said the man, "the duke casimir, they say, hath been foully murdered, and that through the witchcraft of a woman. so by our laws, till the murderer is punished, the young duke may not be crowned." by this time we were at the entering in of the long, dull mass of building, which during most of my boyhood had stood unoccupied, owing to the quarrel between bishop peter and the duke. our guide led us unchallenged into the quadrangle, and then abruptly vanished without pausing to bid us good-day, or even deigning to accept the modest gratuity which my master, the learned doctor, had in his front pouch ready for him. as for me, i stood holding the horses and looking about for any of my own quality who might show me the way to the stables. presently a long, lean, lathy youth slouched out of one of the gloomy entries. he stood amazed at the sight of me. i went to him to ask where i might bestow the horses, now standing weary-footed, hanging their heads after the long journey and the toil of the final ascent from the plain. "will you fight, outlander?" were the first words of my lathy friend from the entry. he seemed to have been drawn up recently from a period of detention in some deep draw-well, and to have the mould of the stones still upon him. "why," said i, "of course i will fight, and that gladly, if you will find me a man to fight with !" "i will fight you myself," he said, swelling himself. "for the end of this candle i will fight half a dozen such baltic sausages as you be." "like enough," said i, "all in good time. but in the mean time show me the stables, that i may put up my master's horses." "what know i about you or your master's horses?" cried my lad of lath; "and pray why should i show the way to bishop peter's good stables to every wastrel that comes sneaking in off the street and asks the freedom of our house. for aught i know you may have come to steal corn. though, if that be so, lord love you, you have come to the wrong place." "come, stable-master," said i, placably, "let me see a corner and a wisp of straw and i will ease the poor beasts. that will not harm the bishop peter, whom my master has gone to visit. he is a friend of his, a man learned in ecclesiastical affairs, who comes to hold disputations with the bishop--" "disputations--what be those? anything with money at the end of them? if so, he will be a welcome guest at this house. there is very little money at the tail of anything in this town." i thought i would try the effect of a broad silver piece upon him, at the same time giving the lad the information that disputations were kinds of fights with the tongues of men instead of with their fists. the silver sweetened his face like a charm. he seized me by the hand. "my name," he cried, "is peter of the pigs. i am not stable-master, but feed the grouting piglings. and yet in a way i am indeed stable-master. for the bishop hath had no horses since the duke took them away to mount his cavalry for the raids into plassenburg. so peter of the pigs looks after all about the yard, and precious little there is to look after--except one's own legs getting longer and leaner every day." "and where is the bishop this afternoon?" i said. "where should he be," cried peter of the pigs, "but at the trial of the witch-woman in the hall of justice? it must be a rare sight. they say she is to be put to the torture, and that they want a new executioner to do it." "why," said i, struck to the heart by his words, "what is the matter with the old one?" "oh," said the lad, "he is mortal sick abed. he happened an accident, or some one stuck a dagger into him--no great matter if he had stuck it through him, or cloven him to the chine with his own red axe!" chapter xl the trial of the witch at this point came my master back, looking exceedingly disconsolate. a starveling, furtive-eyed monk accompanied him. "the bishop," he said, "is gone forth of his house. he is in attendance at the trial of a woman for witchcraft, one whom some of the common city folk hold to be a saint. but the young duke and others swear that she is a witch, and hath murdered the duke casimir. haste thee with the horses, sirrah, and attend me to the hall of justice. i have sent a messenger forward with my credentials to the bishop peter." so to the corner of the yard i went and rubbed down the horses with a wisp of straw which peter of the pigs brought me, and which smelled of his charges too. then, with another piece of money in his hand, i sent him out to the nearest corn-chandler's to buy some corn for our beasts, the which i gave them, and stood by them till i saw them eat it too. for in such a poverty-stricken place, and with a gentleman of the capacity of master peter of the pigs, one that is in any way fond of his horses cannot be too careful. this done, i announced myself to my master as ready to accompany him. then, through the streets of thorn, all strangely empty, we took our way. women were leaning out of windows; every head turned castleward up the street. they hardly deigned a glance at my master or at myself, but continued to gaze. and as each passenger came down the street from the direction of the wolfsberg they cried questions at him, so that he ran the gantlet of a dropping fire of shrill queries. "what are they doing to the sweet saint up yonder?" "hath she been put to the question?" "who could be executioner in such a case? a man would be sent to hell-fire for daring to lay hand on her." the popular sympathies ran clearly with the accused, which is not, as our old hanne had reason to remember, the rule in trials for witchcraft. soon we were passing the gate of the red tower. it was barred and closed. the windows of my father's house looked barrenly down, like the eye-holes of skulls. i saw the window from which i used to gaze wistfully down upon the children, who would not play with me, but spat upon the tower when they saw me looking at their play and pipings upon the streets. there above was the window of my father's garret, with the edge of the black flag blowing out above it. the streetward door of the judgment hall was open, and a great crowd of people stood about, silent, anxious, respectful. some of them talked in low tones, and whenever there was a word passed out of the door, within which men looked ten deep, it scattered all about like a wave which comes into a sea-cave by a narrow entrance, and then widens out till it breaks gently in the wide inner hall. "she is not to be tortured; only the hereditary executioner may do that. they have threatened the old woman. she has confessed all!" so ran the words about the crowd, and ever and anon, one would detach himself from the press, elbowing his way out, and then speed down the long street, crying the latest tidings of the trial. it was manifestly impossible for us to obtain entrance by this door. so we looked about for another. then i minded me of the private passage which led from the inner court-yard which i knew so well. we skirted the crowd, with our attendant following, till we came to the side door, which led directly into the hall of judgment behind the judges' high seats. it was the way by which many a time i had seen my father enter, either in his dress of black or in that of red. and i was always glad when i saw him put on the scarlet, because i knew that then the worst was over for some poor tortured soul. but when my master proposed that the attendant of the bishop should carry a letter into the hall to his master to inform him that we waited without, the man trembled in every limb, and the hair of his head shocked itself up in sheer terror. "i cannot--i dare not," he cried; "it is the place of torture--of the engines--the strappado--the water-drop, the leg-crushers!" and at this point the vision of what was contained within the fatal door became so appalling to him that he picked up his skirts and fled, looking over his shoulder all the while to make sure that the red axe was not after him full tilt. so dessauer and i were left standing. and if the matter had been less serious, it would have been comical to see us thus deserted upon mine own middenstead, as it were. "bishop peter of thorn seems a prelate somewhat difficult of approach," said the chancellor. "i wonder if we shall ever lay any salt on his tail?" "let us risk it and go in," said i. "we are putting all our cards on the table, at any rate. and at least we can see all that is to be sees. if there is any risk of von reuss penetrating our disguises, it is as well to gulp and get it over at once, rather than suck gingerly at it till the fear of death chills our marrow." "go on, then," he said, somewhat crossly; "there is indeed naught to be gained by standing here as a butt for the eyes of evil-doers." so i opened the door carefully, and with a trembling heart. the hum of a great assembly breathed turbidly upon us in a hushed chaos of sound. the warm, stifling atmosphere, heavy with a thousand respirations, the sound of a voice speaking loud and clear, the thunder of continuous heels on the paved floor, the voices of the ushers crying, "silentium!" at intervals--these all came suddenly upon us as we shut out the air and sunshine and went into the hall of judgment. we could not see the full assembly at first. we stood, as i had supposed, directly behind the judges' rostrum. only the corners of the vast crowd which covered the floor and filled the galleries could be seen--a blur of white faces all bent towards one point. but at the corner, not far from us, a tall, spare, gray-headed ecclesiastic was speaking. we stood still, in order that we might not interrupt by entering till he had finished. what was our surprise when we heard his words. "my lord duke," he was saying, "it is fortunate for the elucidation of this great mystery that i have this moment received word concerning a most learned and notable jurisconsult, a doctor of the law, wise in controversy and specially skilled in such cases, who has even now arrived in the city of thorn, on his way to the emperor at ratisbon, before whom he is to dispute for the honor of truth and our holy religion. "his name is the learned, venerable, and reverend doctor schmidt, and i trust that we of the city and faculty of the wolfmark shall have the honor of welcoming him as so distinguished a man deserves." the pattern of the bishop's speech is one that does not vary while the world lasts. "lord, they have made me a doctor of theology as well!" whispered the chancellor to me. i gave him a little push. "now is your time," said i, "the hour and the doctor!" i lifted the skirt of his long black robe. he took hold of his marvellous beard, a triumph of the disguiser's art, and we stepped forward. i could hardly conceal a smile. we had come in the very nick of time. then after this i have a vague remembrance of my master bowing this way and that. i seem to see the wise men of the law, the judges, the priests, and lictors rising and bowing in acknowledgment. i heard the hush of a thousand people all craning their necks to look round the heads of their neighbors, and the hum of whispered comment reach farther and farther back, till it lapped against the walls and ebbed out into the street from the great open door of the hall of judgment. it was a surprising sight, this great trial--the gloomy hall, black with age and deeds of darkness, lit by the rays of sunlight falling through windows of red glass, the faces of men flecked as with blood where the evening sunlight streamed luridly upon them. in the midst there was a clear four-square space. a lictor, with a bundle of rods, stood at each corner. i looked, and there, alone in the centre, attired in white, the cynosure of eyes, i beheld--helene. chapter xli the garret of the red tower i felt my temples, my ears, my neck tingling with cold. i seemed to have fallen into a sea of ice. i think i would have fallen and fainted but that at that moment my master sat down beside the bishop, and i was left free to retire into a darksome corner, where i staggered against a beam, slimy with black sweat, and hung over it with my hand clasping my brow, trying to think what had happened. i do not know how long i remained in this position, nor yet when i came to myself. all was a dream to me, a nightmare of horrid whirlings and infinite oppressions. the faces of the folk that watched, the garmentry of the bishop and his priests, the red robes of the young duke and his assessors, spun round me in a hideous phantasmagoria. at last i was conscious that a trumpet had blown. whereupon all rose up. the secretaries stacked their papers unconcernedly with the feathers of their pens in their mouths. and then in the solemn silence which ensued the duke and his judges filed out of the door, while the power of the church, represented by bishop peter and his priests, went forth by another. before i could realize the situation, helene had vanished, as it seemed, down a trap-door in the floor. my master accompanied bishop peter. as for me, i hardly knew what i did. i did not even stand up, till our conductor, he who had gone forward to announce us at the first, ran across to me, and, plucking me by the arm from the beam on which i leaned, whispered, hurriedly: "art dead or drunk, man, that thou riskest thine ears and thy neck? stand up while the judges and the new duke go by!" so, dazed and numb, i hent me up, and lo! coming arm in arm towards me were otho von reuss and his newly appointed chief justice and assessor--who but mine old friend michael texel! the duke bent a searching look on me as i bowed low before him, but he saw only the tan of my skin and the close bristle of my hair. and so all passed on. "ho, blackamoor, thy master waits thee! run, if thou wouldst avoid the whipping-post!" cried another of the rout of servitors, with a small sniggering laugh. so, putting out a hand to stay myself, i staggered weakly after my master. i found him at the door, in talk with the confessor of the bishop. "and so," he was saying, "this girl was reared in the executioner's house. and she went away to a far country in order to learn the secrets of necromancy, it is not known where. i would see this duke's justicer. does he dwell near by? what! in that very tower? it is of good omen. let us go in thither." but the confessor excused himself, being in no wise desirous to visit the red axe, even in his time of sickness. "i have business of the soul with bishop peter. i will speak with thee again at refection," he said, twitching his head up at the red tower with suspicious glances, as if he feared unseen ears might be listening, and that some of its fearful magic might even descend upon a man so notably holy as a bishop's confessor. presently dessauer and i were across the court-yard at the well-known door. i knocked, and listened, whereupon ensued silence. again and yet again i made the quaint death's-head knocker thunder, and then, when the echoes ceased, there was once more a great silence in the tower. i heard the blood-hounds of duke casimir howl. the indigo shadow of the pinnacled hall of justice stretched across and touched the red tower with an ominous finger. "let us go in," said i. and, pushing the unresisting door, i began to climb the stone stairs. each smoothed hollow and chipped edge was familiar to me as my name. indeed, much more so, for i was now passing under a false one. so i climbed, in a dazed way, up and up. there on my left was the sitting-room. it had been searched high and low, escritoires rudely tossed down, aumries rifled, household stuff, grain, white linen, empty bottles, all cast about and huddled together even as the searchers had left them. then above was the little room where helene used to sleep. here the wrack was indescribable--every hidingplace rifled, her pretty worked bedquilt lying across the doorway trampled and soiled, her dainty white clothing, some she had worn at plassenburg, and even the tiny dresses of her childhood, all torn and confused together. and in the midst, what affected me more than everything else, a tiny puppet of wood my father had hewn her with his knife, and which she had dressed as a queen with red ribbons and crown of tinsel--ah, so long ago--and in such happy days. "father!" i called, loudly. "father!" but in this i forgot myself. there might have been enemies lurking anywhere in the house of pain and disaster. my own room came next, and the way out upon the roof; but we tried not these. there remained only the garret of my father. i climbed up, with dessauer behind me, and pushed the door open. then i stood in the entering-in, looking for the first time for years on the face of my father. he lay on his conch, his head bound about with a napkin. the dark wisp of hair which rose like a cock's comb, sticking through the stained cloth which swathed his brow, was no longer blue-black, but of an iron-gray, splashed and brindled with pure white. his eyes were open, and shone, cavernous and solemn, above his fallen-in cheeks. it was like looking into the secrets of another world. that which he had so often caused other eyes to see, the red axe of thorn was now to see for himself. the hand which lay--mere skin, muscle, and bone--on the counterpane had guided many to the door of the mysteries. now at its own entrance it was to push the arras aside, for the death-justicer of the mark was to go before the judge of all the earth. my father lay gazing at me with deep, mournful eyes. so sad they seemed that it was as if nothing in heaven or earth, neither joy nor sorrow, life nor death, could have power to change their expression of immeasurable sadness. i entered, and my companion followed. "you are alone? there is none with you here?" i said to my father, going to the bedside. he started at the voice, and looked up even eagerly. but his eyes dulled and deadened again as he fell back. "i did but dream!" he muttered, sadly. "you have no one with you here, gottfried gottfried?" said i again, for in a matter of life and death it was as well to make sure even at risk of disturbing a dying man. he set his hand to his brow as if trying to think. "who should be with me--except all these?" he answered, very solemnly. and swept his hand about the room as if he saw strange shapes standing in rows round the walls. "i wish," he went on, almost querulously, "whoever you may be, you would tell these people to keep their hands down. they point at me, and thrust their dripping heads forward, holding them like lanterns in their palms." he turned away to the back of the bed, and then, as if he saw something there worse than all the rest, faced about again quickly, saying, with some pathetic intonation of his lost childhood, "there is no need for them to point so at me, is there? i did but my duty." "father!" said i, gently touching his cheek with my hand as i used to do. "ah, what is that?" he said, quickly. "did some one call me father? let me go! i tell you, sirs, let me go! she needs me. they are torturing her. i must go to her!" "father," i said again, putting him gently back, "it is i--your own son hugo--come back to speak with you, to help if it may be--to die for the little playmate if need be." "hugo--hugo!" he said. "yes, yes--of course, i know--my little lad, my pretty boy!" he pushed me back to look at me, eagerly, wistfully--and then thrust me sharply away. "bah!" he said; "you lie! what need to lie to a dying man? my hugo had yellow hair and a skin like lilies. yours is dark--" "father," said i, "i am here disguised. help is coming, sure and strong, if we can only wait a little and delay the trial. but tell me all. speak to me freely, if you love your daughter helene--your daughter and my love." he sat up now, and motioned me to come nearer. there was a dark, fierce, unworldly light in his eyes. i set a pillow to his back, and went and kneeled by the bed as i used to do at good-night time when i said my paternoster. then for the first time he knew me. "say your prayers, child!" he commanded, in his old voice. so, though with the stress of wars and other things i had mostly forgotten, yet i said not only that, but the little prayer of childhood he had taught me. and then i kissed him as i used to do when i bade him good-night. "yes," he said, softly, "it is true, after all. you are mine own only son. hugo--i am glad you have come so far to see your father before he dies." i told him how i had come, and brought dessauer forward, introducing him as one great in the kingdom where i was, and to whom i was much beholden. he shook him by the hand with grave, intent courtesy, and again looked at me. "now, father," said i, "we have no long time to bide with you, lest the new duke come upon us. we must hie us back to our lodging with the bishop peter, lest we be missed." my father smiled. "ye will live but sparely there!" said he, with a flicker of his ancient smile. "tell us how you came to this," said i, "and, if you can, why helene, our little helene, stands so terribly accused." my father paused a long time before he began to answer. "it is not easy for me to tell you all," he said. "i know and i have the words, but, somehow, when i try to fit the words to the thing, they run asunder and will not mix, like water and oil. but see, hugo, here is an elixir of rare value. drop a drop or two on my tongue if ye see me wander. it will bring me back for a time." chapter xlii princess playmate then began my father to tell the story slowly, with many a pause and interruption, now searching for words, now racked with pain, all of which i need not imitate, and shall leave out. but the substance of his tale was to this effect: "after you had left us, the dukedom went from bad to worse--no peace, no rest, no money. duke casimir took less and less of my advice, but, on the contrary, began again his old horrors--plundering, killing, living by terror and in terror. he threatened torgau. he attacked plassenburg. he stirred up hornets' nests everywhere. at home he made himself the common mark for every assassin. "then suddenly came his nephew back, and almost immediately he grew great in favor with him. uncle and nephew drank together. they paraded the terraces arm in arm. i was never more sent for save to do my duty. otho von reuss rode abroad at the head of the black horsemen. "but, at the same time, to my great joy, arrived the little playmate back to me. she was safer with me, she said. so that, having her, i needed naught else. she came with good news of you, making the journey not alone, for two men of the princess's retinue brought her to the city gates." "the princess!" i cried; "aye, i thought so. i judged that it was the princess who sent her back." dessauer motioned with his hand. he saw that it was dangerous to throw my father off the track. and, indeed, this was proven at once, for my unfortunate interruption set my father's mind to wandering, till finally i had to drop certain drops of the red liquid on his tongue. these, indeed, had a marvellous effect upon him. he sat up instantly, his eyes flashing the old light, and began to speak rapidly and to clear purport, even as he used to do in the old days when duke casimir would come striding across the yard at all hours of the night and day to consult his justicer. "what was i telling?" he went on. "yes, i remember, of the home-coming of helene under honorable escort. and she was beautiful--but all her race were beautiful, all the women of them, at any rate. but that is another matter. "so things went well enough with us till, as she went across the yard one day to meet me at the door of the hall as i came out, who should see her but the count otho von reuss. and she turned from him like a queen and took hold of my arm, clasping it strongly. then he gazed fixedly at us both, and his look was the evil-doer's look. oh, i know it. who knows that look, if not i? and so we passed within. but my helene was quivering and much afraid, nestling to me--aye, to me, old gottfried gottfried, like a frightened dove. "after this she went not out into the court-yard or city any more, save with me by her side, and otho von reuss lingered about, watching like a wolf about the sheepfold. for, as i say, he was in high favor with duke casimir, and had already equal place with him on the bed of justice. "then there came a night, lightning peeping and blazing, alternate blue and ghastly white--god's face and the devil's time about staring in at the lattice. i lay alone in my chamber. but i was not asleep. as you know, i do not often sleep. but i lay awake and thought and thought. the lightning showed me faces i had not seen for thirty years, and forms i remembered, black against eternity. but all at once, in a certain after-clap of silence that followed the roaring thunder, i heard a voice call to me. "'my father--my father" it cried. "it was like a soul in danger calling on god. "i rose and went, clad as i was in the red of mine office (for that day i had done the final grace more than once); even so, i ran down the stairs to the room of my little helene. "the lightning showed me my lamb crouched in the corner, her lips open, white, squared with horror, her arms extended, as though to push some monstrous thing away. a black shape, whose, i could not tell, i saw bending over her. then came blackness of darkness again. and again my helene's voice. ah, god, i can hear it now, calling pitifully, like a woman hanging over hell and losing hold: 'father--my father!' "'i am here!' i cried, loudly, even as on the scaffold i cry the doom for which the malefactors die. "and the room lit up with a flame, white as the face of god as he passed by on mount sinai, flash on continuous flash. and there before me, with a countenance like a demon's, stood otho von reuss." i uttered a hoarse cry, but dessauer again checked me. my father went on: "otho von reuss it was--he saw me in my red apparel, and cried aloud with mighty fear. if god had given me mine axe in my hand--well, duke or no duke, he had cried no more. but even as he turned and fled from the room i seized him about the waist, and, opening the window with my other hand, i cast him forth. and as he went down backward, clutching at nothing, god looked again out of the skylights of heaven, and showed me the face of the devil, even as michael saw it when he hurled him shrieking into the nether pit. "then i went back and took in my arms my one ewe lamb. "many days (so they brought me word) otho lay at the point of death, and duke casimir came not near me nor yet sent for me. but by that very circumstance i knew otho had not revealed how his accident had befallen. yet he but bided his time. and as he grew well, duke casimir grew ill. he waxed more and more like an armored ghost, and one day he came here and sat on the bed as in old times. "'i know my friends now,' he said, 'good red axe of mine, friend of many years. i have had mine eyes blinded, but this morning there has come a mighty clearness, and from this day forth you and i shall stand face to face and see eye to eye again, as in the days of old!' "then being athirst, he asked for something to drink. which, when our sweet helene had brought, he patted her cheek. 'a maid too good for a court--one among a thousand, a fair one !' he said; and passed away down the stairs, walking with his old steady tread. "but even at the steps of the hall of justice he stumbled and fell. they carried him in, and there in the robing chamber he lay unconscious for a week, and then died without speech. "when he was dead, and ere he had been embalmed, there arose a clamor, first among the followers of otho von reuss, and after that among those of the wolfsberg who expected that they would be favored by the new duke. it was first whispered, and then cried aloud, that the death of duke casimir had been compassed by witchcraft and potions. "cunningly and with subtlety was spread the report how my daughter and i had worked upon duke casimir. how he had gone to our house, drunken a draught, and then died ere he could come to his own chamber. but as for me, i went on my way and heeded them not. for just then the plague, which had stricken the duke first, stalked athwart the city unchecked, and all through it this helene of ours was as the angel of god, coming and going by night and day among the streets and lanes of the town. and the common folk almost worshipped her. and so do unto this day. "now perhaps i did not heed this babble as i ought to have done. but there came one night--how long ago i have forgotten--and with it a clamor in the court-yard. the black riders, the worst of them, fiends incarnate that otho had of late gathered about him, thundered upon us without, and presently burst in the door. "i met them with mine axe at the stair-head, and for the better part of an hour i kept them at a distance. and some died and some were dismembered. for at that business i am not a man to make mistakes. then came otho limping from his fall and shot me with a bolt from behind his men. and so over my body as i lay at the stair-head they took my love and left me here to die. and the new duke will not kill me, for he desires that i shall see her agony ere my own life is taken. for that alone the fiend keeps me in life! "and that," said my father, feebly, "is all." but just as he seemed to ebb away a wild fear startled him. "no," he cried, "there is yet something more. hugo, hugo, keep me here a little! hold me that my mind may not wander away among the racking-wheels and the faces mopping and mowing. i have something yet to tell." i held him up while dessauer poured a drop or two of the potent liquid into his mouth. as before, it instantly revived him. the color came back to his cheeks. "quick, hugo, lad!" he cried; "give me that black box which sits behind the block." i brought it, and from this he extracted a small key, which he gave me. "unlock the panel you see there in the wall," he said. i looked, but could find none. "the oaken knob!" he cried, sharply, as to a clumsy servitor. i could only see a rough knob in the wood-work, a little worm-eaten, and in the centre one hole a little larger than the rest. "put in the key!" commanded my father, making as if he would come out of bed and hasten me himself. i thrust in the key, indeed, but with no more faith than if i had been bidden to put it into a mouse-hole. nevertheless, it turned easy as thinking, and a little door swung open, cunningly fitted. here were dresses, books, parchments huddled together. "bring all these to me," he said. and i brought them carefully in my arms and laid them on the bed. the eye of old dessauer fell on something among them and was instantly fascinated. it was a woman's waist-belt of thick bars of gold laid three and three, with crests and letters all over it. the chancellor put his hand forward for it, and my father allowed him to take it, following him, however, with a questioning eye. then dessauer put his hand into his bosom and drew out a chain of gold--the necklace of the woodman, in-deed--and laid the two side by side. he uttered a shrill cry as he did so. "the belt of the lost princess!" he cried; "the little princess of plassenburg!" and, laying them one above the other, each group of six bars read thus: [illustration: o o o h o o o h o o o h o o o | | | o o o e o o o e o o o e o o o the necklace | | | o o o l o o o l o o o l o o o o o o e o o o e o o o e o o o | | | o o o n o o o n o o o n o o o the belt | | | o o o e o o o e o o o e o o o] with delight on his face, like that of a mathematician when his calculations work out truly, dessauer reached over his hand for the papers also, but my father stayed him. "who may you be that has a chain to match mine?" he asked, with his mighty hand on dessauer's wrist. "i am the state's chancellor of plassenburg, and it needed but this to show me our true princess." "here, then," said my father, "is more and better." and he handed him the papers. "it meets! it meets!" cried dessauer, enthusiastically, as he glanced them over. "it is complete. it would stand probation in the dict of the emperor." "but yet all that will not prevent helene gottfried dying at the stake!" cried my father, sadly, and fell back unconscious on his bed. * * * * * we spent this heaviest of nights at the palace of bishop peter--dessauer with the prelate--i, praise to the holy pyx, in the kitchen with the serving men and maids. peter of the pigs was there, but no more eager to fight. the lay brother who had gone with the letter, and the conductor who had run away from the dread door of the hall of justice, had returned, and had spread a favorable report of our courage. certainly the house of peter the bishop might be a poor one and scantily provendered, but there was little sign of it that night. for if the master went fasting and his guests lived on pulse (as they said in thorn), certainly not so bishop peter's servants. for there were pasties of larks, with sauce of butter and herbs, most excellent and toothsome. there were rabbits from the sand-hills, and pigeons from the towers of the minster. the clear chill rhenish vied with the more generous wine of burgundy and the red juice of assmanhauser. for me, as was natural, i ate little. i spoke not at all. but i looked so dangerous with my swarthy face and desperate eye, i dare say, also i was so well armed, that the roysterers left me severely alone. but i drank--lord, what did i not drink that night! i poured down my gullet all and sundry that was given me. and to render these bishop's thralls their dues, there was no lack and no inhospitality. but the strange thing of it was that, though i am a man more than ordinarily temperate, that night i poured the rhenish into me like water down a cistern-pipe and felt it not. god forgive me, i wanted to make me drunken and forgetful, and lo! the dog's swill would not bite. so i cursed their drink, and asked if they had no lyons water-of-life, stark and mordant, or social hollands, or indeed anything that was not mere compound of whey and dirty water. whereat they wondered, and held me thereafter in great respect as a good companion and approven worthy drinker. then they brought me of the strong spirit of dantzig, with curious little flakes of gold dancing in it. it was raw and strong, and at first i had good hopes of it. but i drank the dautzig like spring-water, all there was of it, and though it had a taste singularly displeasing to me, it took no more effect than so much warm barley-brew for the palates of babes. upon this i had great glory. for the card-players and the dicers actually left their games and gazed open-jawed to see me drink. and i sat there and expounded the levitical law and the wheels of the prophet ezekiel, the law of succession to the empire, and also the apostolic succession--all with surprising clearness and cogency of reasoning. so that before i had finished they required of me whether it was i or my master who was sent for to dispute before his sovereign mightiness the emperor. then i told them that the things i knew (that is, which the hollands had put into my head) were but the commonest chamber-sweepings of my master's learning, which i had picked up as i rode at his elbow. and this bred a mighty wondering what manner of man he might be who was so wise. and i think, if i had gone on, dessauer and i might both have found ourselves in the bishop's prison, on suspicion of being the devil and one of his ministrants. but suddenly, as with a kind of recoil or back stroke, all that i had drunken must have come upon me. the clearness of vision went from me like a candle that is blown out. i know not what happened after, save that i found myself upon my truckle-bed, with my leathern money-pouch clasped in my hand with surprising tightness, as if i had been mortally afraid that some one would mistake my poor satchel for his own pocket. so in time the morrow came, and by all rules i ought to have had a racking headache. for i saw many of those that had been with me the night before pale of countenance and eating handfuls of baker's salt. so i judged that their anxiety and the turmoil of their hearts had not burned their liquor up, as had been the case with me. now it is small wonder that all my soul cried out for oblivion till i should be able to do something for the beloved--break her prison, hasten the troops from plassenburg, or in some way save my love. hardly had i looked out of the main door that morning, desiring no more than to pass away the time till the trial should begin again, before i saw the lubber fiend, smirking and becking across the way. he had squatted himself down on the side of the street opposite, looking over at the bishop's palace. he pointed at me with his finger. "your complexion runs down," he said. "i know you. but go to the spring there by the stable, wash your face, and i shall know you better." this was fair perdition and nothing less. for one may stay the tongue of a scoundrel with money, or the expectation of it, until opportunity arrive to stop it with steel or prison masonry. but who shall curb or halter the tongue of a fool? then, swift as one that sees his face in a glass, i bethought me of a plan. "see," i said, "do you desire gold, sir lubber fiend?" he wagged his great head and shook his cabbage-leaf ears till they made currents in the heavy air, to signify that he loved the touch of the yellow metal. "see then, lubber," said i, "you shall have ten of these now, and ten more afterwards, if you will carry a letter to the prince at plassenburg, or meet him on the way." "not possible," said he, shaking his head sadly; "my little missie has come to thorn." "but," said i, "little missie would desire it; take letter to the prince, good jan, then missie will be happy." "would she let poor jan lubberchen kiss her hand, think you?" he asked, looking up at me. "aye," said i; "kiss her cheek maybe!" he danced excitedly from side to side. "jan will run--jan will run all the way!" he cried. so i pulled out a scrap of parchment and wrote a hasty message to the prince, asking him, for the love of god and us, to set every soldier in plassenburg on the march for thorn, and to come on ahead himself with such a flying column as he could gather. no more i added, because i knew that my good master would need no more. then i went down with my messenger to the weiss thor, and with great fear and pulsation of the midriff i saw the idiot pass the house of master gerard. then, at the outer gate, i gave him his ten golden coins, and watched him trot away briskly on the green winding road to plassenburg. "mind," he called back to me, "jan is to kiss her cheek if jan takes letter to the prince!" and i promised it him without wincing. for by this time lying had no more effect upon me than dram-drinking. chapter xliii the trial for witchcraft the bed of justice was set by eight of the morning. for they were ever early astir in the city of thorn, though, like most early risers, they did little enough afterwards all day. with a sadly beating heart, i accompanied dessauer in the same guise as on the previous day. the crowd was even greater in and about the hall of judgment. and when the duke had taken his seat and his tools set themselves down on either side, they brought in the little playmate. she was dressed all in white, clean and spotless, in spite of prison usage. she glanced just once about her, right and left, high and low, as if seeking for a face she could not see, and from thenceforth she looked down on the ground. the argument as to torture had been concluded on the day before, and it had been held inadmissible--not because of any kindly thought for the prisoner, but because, according to the laws of the wolfmark, in the absence of the hereditary executioner, there was no one legally capable of inflicting it. then came the evidence. the first witness against the little playmate was old hanne. she was brought in by a cowled monk of dark and sinister appearance--in fact, as my heart leaped to observe, i saw that she was accompanied by friar laurence--he who had taught me my learning in the old days, and who even then had watched the little playmate with no friendly eyes. as she passed the judges i saw the deadly fear mount to agony on the face of old hanne. the look in her eyes of physical pain suffered and overpassed was the same which i had often seen in the wars after the surgeon has done his horrid work. that same look i saw now on the face of hanne. so i knew that somewhere in the dark recesses under the hall of judgment the extreme question had been put to her, and to all appearance answered according to the liking of the persecutors, though they dared not torture so notable a public prisoner as helene. i saw a look of satisfied vindictiveness pass over the brutal features of duke otho. he changed his position and whispered to his colleagues. it was master gerard von sturm who rose to put the questions to the witness. and as he did so, i heard the steady sough of talk among the people rise mutteringly in a low growl of anger and contempt. the duke's lictors struck right and left among the crowd, as men bent forward with fierce hate in their voices, lowing like oxen, as if to clear their lungs of a weight of contempt. it was not thus in the old days, when there was no people's arbiter in all the wolfmark so famous or so popular as master gerard of the weiss thor. "what is the reason of that turmoil?" said i to my neighbor. "this is the man who was her first accuser. why, he dares not go outside his house without a guard of the duke's riders," said the man, picking at his finger-nail with his teeth, as if it were a bone and he did not think much of its savoriness. "you have already confessed," said the advocate to old hanne, when they had propped up the poor wreck of skin and bone, "and you do now confess that this maid and yourself have ofttimes had converse with the enemy of souls?" a spasm passed across the face of the witness, and a low sound proceeded from her mouth, which might have been an affirmative answer, but which sounded to me much more like a moan of pain. "and you confess that she consulted you concerning the best means of killing the duke casimir--by means of a draught to be administered to him when he should, as was his custom, visit his hereditary justicer?" "there was indeed a draught spoken of between us, noble sir," stammered the old woman, "but it was not for the duke casimir, nor yet for--for any evil purpose." i saw the friar laurence incline his head a little forward and whisper in hanne's ear from his place behind her. at the words she clasped her hands and fell on the floor, grovelling: "i will say aught that you bid me, kind sir. i cannot bear it again. i cannot go back to that place. i am too old to be tormented. i will bear what testimony your excellencies desire." "we wish only that you should tell the truth as you have already done of your own free will in your pre-examination," said master gerard, "the notes of which are before me. was it not to kill the duke casimir that this draught was compounded?" the old woman hesitated. friar laurence stooped again. "yes!" she cried; "god forgive me--yes!" an evil look of triumph sat on the face of otho von reuss. i think he felt sure of his victim now. "that is enough," said master gerard. "take the old woman back to her cell." "oh no, great lord!" she cried, "not there! you promised that if i said it i was to be let go free. kill me, but do not send me back!" the duke moved his hand, and the old woman was led shrieking below. then came friar laurence, who testified that he had often seen old hanne instructing the young woman who was now a prisoner in the art of drugs, in the preparation of images carven in dough--and it might be also in clay--things well known in the art of witchery. further, he had been with the duke casimir at the last, and the duke had declared that he had partaken of a draught in the house of gottfried gottfried, and immediately thereafter had been taken ill. there was not much else of matter in the friar's evidence, but the most deep and vindictive malice against the prisoner was evident in every word and gesture. then master gerard rose to address the judges. his venerable appearance was enhanced by the sternly severe look on his face. he looked an accusing angel from the pit, swart of skin and with eyes of flame. he was tall and bent of figure, with the serpent-browed head set deep between hunched shoulders like those of a moulting vulture. he grasped his bundle of papers and rose to make his final speech. the judges settled themselves to closer attention. the hush of listening folk broadened to the utmost limits of the great hall. at a whisper or a cough a hundred threatening faces were turned in the direction of the sound, so strained was the attention of the people and such the fear of the eloquence of this most famous pleader in all germany. in these days when learning has reached so great a pitch, and is so general that in a largish city there may be as many as a thousand people who can read and write, of course there are many eloquent men. but in those days it was not so, and grerard von sturm was counted the one golden mouth of the wolfmark. and this in brief was the matter of his speech. the manner and the persuasive grace i cannot attempt to give: "it has at all times been a received opinion of the wise that witchcraft is a thing truly practised--by which such women as the witch of endor in holy writ were able to call dead men out of their deep graves grown with grass; or, as in that famous case of demarchaus, who, having by the advice of such a woman tasted the flesh of a sacrificed child, was immediately turned into a wolf. "further, the testimony-of scripture is clear: 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'; and, again, as sayeth the wise man, 'thou hast hated them, 0 god, because with enchantments they did horrible works.' "now, men may by conspicuous bravery guard their lives against assault by the sword of the enemy, against the spear of the invader that cometh over the wall, even against the knife of the assassin. but who shall be able to keep out witchcraft? it moveth in the motes of the mid-day sun. it comes stealing into the room on the pale beams of the moon. witchcraft rides in the hurtling blast, and shrieks in the gust which shakes the roof and blows awry the candle in the hall. "enchantment can summon azazeli, the lord of flesh and blood, called in another place the lord of the desert, by whose spiriting of the elements even the pure water of the spring or the juice of the purple grape may become noxious as the brew of the serpent's poison-bag. "of such a sort was the ill-doing of this woman. for her own hellish purposes she desired and compassed the death of the most noble duke casimir. there may be those who try to discover a motive for such an act. but in this they do foolishly. for to those who have studied of this matter, as i have done, it is well known that enchanters and witches ever attack those who are the greatest, the noblest, and the most envied--not hoping for any good to result to themselves, but out of pure malice and envy, being prompted by the devil in order that the great and noble should be destroyed out of the land. well was it spoken then, 'ye shall not suffer a witch to live!' "and if any plead hereafter of this evil-doer's youth, of her beauty, i call you to witness that the evil one ever makes his best implement of the fairest metal. as the aged crone, her teacher and accomplice, hath confessed, this helene was for long a plotter of dark deeds. by the trust of duke casimir in her maiden's innocence he was betrayed to death. that one so fair and evil should be turned loose on the world to begin anew her enchantments, and, like a pestilence, to creep into good men's houses, is a thing not to be thought of. is she to go forth breathing death upon the faces of the young children, to sit squat, like hideous toad, sucking the blood of the new-born infant, or distilling poison-drops to put into the draughts of strong men which shall run like molten iron through their veins till they go mad? "hear me, judges, i bid you again remember the word: 'ye shall not suffer a witch to live.' and in the name of the great unbroken law of the wolfmark, which i hold in my hand, i conclude by claiming the pains of death to pass upon the witch-woman who by her deed sent forth untimely the spirit of the most noble duke casimir, lord of the city of thorn and duke of the wolfmark." the pleader sat down, calmly as he had risen, and the judges conferred together as though they were on the point of delivering their verdict. there had been no sound of applause as master gerard had spoken--a hushed attention only, and then the muffled thunder of the great audience relaxing its attention and of men turning to whispered discussion among themselves. "prisoner," said duke otho, "have you any to speak for you? or do you desire to make any answer to the things which have been urged against you?" then, thrilling me to my soul, arose the voice of helene. clear and sweet and girlish, without hurry or fear, yet with an innocence which might have touched the hardest heart, the maiden upon trial for her life said a simple word or two in her defence. "i have no one to speak for me. i have nothing to say, save that which i have said so often, that before god, who knows all things, i am innocent of thought, word, or deed against any man, and most of all against duke casimir of the wolfsberg." and as she spoke the multitude was stirred, and voices broke out here and there: "no witch!" "she is innocent!" "the guilty are among the judges!" "saint helena!" "if she die we will avenge her!" and though the lictors struck furiously every way, they could not settle the tumult, and ever the mass of folk swayed more wildly to and fro. nor do i know what might have happened at that moment but for a cry that arose in front of the throng. "the stranger! the great doctor! the wise man! hear him! he is going to speak for her!" chapter xliv sentence of death and there, standing by the place of pleading, with his foot on the first step, i saw dessauer, in his black doctorial gown, leaning reverently upon a long staff. he made a courteous salutation to duke otho upon the high seat. "i am a stranger, most noble duke," he began, "and as such have no standing in this your high court of justice. but there is a certain courtesy extended to doctors of the law--the right of speech in great trials--in many of the lands to which i have adventured in the search of wisdom. i am encouraged by my friend, the most venerable prelate, bishop peter, to ask your forbearance while i say a word on behalf of the prisoner, in reply to that learned and most celebrated jurisconsult, master gerard von sturm, who, in support of his cause, has spoken things so apt and eloquent. this is my desire ere judgment be passed. for in a multitude of councils there is wisdom." he was silent, and looked at the duke and his tool, michael texel. they conferred together in whispers, and at first seemed on the point of refusing. but the folk began to sway so dangerously, and the voice of their muttering sank till it became a growl, as of a caged wild beast which has broken all bars save the last, and which only waits an opportunity to put forth its strength in order to shiver that also. "you are heartily welcome, most learned doctor," said duke otho, sullenly. "we would desire to hear you briefly concerning this matter." "i shall assuredly be brief, my noble lord--most brief," said dessauer. "i am a stranger, and must therefore speak by the great principles of equity which underlie all law and all evidence, rather than according to the statutes of the province over which you are the distinguished ruler. "the crime of witchcraft is indeed a heinous one, if so be that it can be proven--not by the compelled confession of crazed and tortured crones, but by the clear light of reason. now there is no evidence that i have heard against this young girl which might not be urged with equal justice against every cup-bearer in the castle of the wolfsberg. "the duke casimir died indeed after having partaken of the wine. but so may a man at any time by the visitation of god, by the stroke which, from the void air, falleth suddenly upon the heart of man. no poison has been found on or about the girl. no evil has been alleged against her, save that which has been compelled (as all must have seen) by torture, and the fear of torture, from the palsied and reluctant lips of a frantic hag." "hear him! great is the stranger!" cried the folk in the hall. and the shouting of the guards commanding silence could scarce be heard for the roar of the populace. it was some time before the speech of dessauer was again audible. ho was beginning to speak again, but duke otho, without rising, called out rudely and angrily: "speak to the reason of the judges and not to the passions of the mob!" "i do indeed speak from the reason to the reason," said dessauer, calmly; "for in this matter there is no true averment, even of witchcraft, but only of the administration of poison--which ought to be proven by the ordinary means of producing some portion of the drug, both in the possession of the criminal and from the body of the murdered man. this has not been done. there has been no evidence, save, as i have shown, such as may be easily compelled or suborned. if this maid be condemned, there is no one of you with a wife, a daughter, a sweetheart, who may not have her burned or beheaded on just as little evidence--if she have a single enemy in all the city seeking for the sake of malice or thwarted lust to compass her destruction. "moreover, it indeed matters little for the argument that this damsel is fair to the eye. save in so far as she is more the object of desire, and that when the greed of the lustful eye is balked" (here he paused and looked fixedly between his knees), "disappointment oft in such a heart turns to deadly poison. and so that which was desired is the more bitterly hated, and revenge awakes to destroy. "but if beauty matters little, character matters greatly. and what, by common consent, has been known in the city concerning this maid? "i ask not you, duke otho, who have lived apart in your castle or in far lands, a stranger to the city like myself. but i ask the people among whom, during all these; past months of the plague, she has dwelt. is she not known among them as saint helena?" "aye," cried the people, "saint helena, indeed--our savior when there was none to help! god save saint helena!" dessauer waved his hand for silence. "did she not go among you from house to house, carrying, not the poison-cup, but the healing draught? was not her hand soft on the brow of the dying, comfortable about the neck of the bereaved? day and night, whose fingers reverently wrapped up the poor dead bodies of your beloved? who quieted your babes in her arms, fed thorn, nursed them, healed them, buried them--wore herself to a shadow for your sakes ?" "saint helena!" they cried; "saint helena, the angel of the red tower!" "aye," said dessauer, in tones like thunder, "hear their voices! there are a thousand witnesses in this house untortured, unsuborned. i tell you, the guilt of innocent blood will lie on you, great duke--on you counsellors of evil things, if you condemn this maid. your throne, duke otho, shall totter and fall, and your life's sun shall set in a sea of blood!" he sat down calm and fearless as the duke raged to michael texel, as i think, desiring that the fearless pleader could be seized on the instant, and punished for his insolence. but as the folk shouted in the hall, and the thunder of cheering came in through the open windows from the great concourse without, michael texel calmed his master, urging upon him that the temper of the people was for the present too dangerous. and also, doubtless, that they could easily compass their ends by other means. i saw texel despatch a messenger to the lictors who stood on either side of helene. the body-guard of the duke stood closer about her as the duke otho himself stood up to read the sentence. i saw that the form of it had been written out upon a paper. doubtless, therefore, all had been prearranged, so that neither evidence nor eloquence could possibly have had any effect upon it. "we, the court of the wolfmark, find the prisoner, helene, called gottfried, guilty of witchcraft, and especially of compassing and causing the death of our predecessor, the most noble duke casimir, and we do hereby adjudge that, on the morning of sunday presently following, helene gottfried shall be executed upon the common scaffold by the axe of the executioner. of our clemency is this sentence delivered, instead of the torture and the burning alive at the stake which it was within our power to command. this is done in consideration of the youth of the criminal, and as the first exercise of our ducal prerogative of high mercy." with an angry roar the people closed in. "take her!" they cried; "rescue her out of their hands!" and there was a fierce rush, in which the outer barriers were snapped like straw. but the lictors had pulled down the trap-door on the instant, and the people surged fiercely over the spot where a moment before helene had stood. before them were the levelled pikes and burning matches of the duke's guard. "have at them!" was still the cry. "kill the wolves! tear them to pieces!" but the mob was undisciplined, and the steady advance of the soldiers soon cleared the hall. nevertheless the streets without continued angry and throbbing with incipient rebellion. duke otho could scarce win scathless across the court-yard to his own apartments. tiles from the nearest roofs were cast upon the heads of his escort. the streets were impassable with angry men shaking their fists at every courier and soldier of the duke. women hung sobbing out of the windows, and all the city of thorn lamented with uncomforted tears because of the cruel condemnation of their saint of the plague, helena, the maiden of the red tower. chapter xlv the message from the white gate i rushed out into the street, distract and insensate with grief and madness. i found the city seething with sullen unrest--not yet openly hostile to the powers that abode in the castle of the wolfsberg--too long cowed and down-trodden for that, but angry with the anger which one day would of a certainty break out and be pitiless. the black horsemen of the duke pricked a way with their lances here and there through the people, driving them into the narrow lanes, in jets and spurts of fleeing humanity, only once more to reunite as soon as the hussars of death had passed. pikemen cried "make way!" and the regular guard of the city paraded in strong companies. a soldier wantonly thrust me in the back with his spear, and i sprang towards him fiercely, glad to strike home at something. but as quickly a man of the crowd pulled me back. "be wise!" he said; "not for your own sake alone, but for the sake of all these women and children. the black riders seek only an excuse to sweep the city from end to end with the besom of fire and blood." then came my master out of the hall of judgment, his head hanging dejectedly down. as soon as he was observed the people crowded about, shaking him by the hand, thanking him for that which he had done for their maid, their holy saint helena of the plague. "we will not suffer her to be put to death, not even if they of the wolfsberg raze our city to the ground!" "make way there!" cried the black horsemen--"way, in the name of duke otho!" "who is duke otho?" cried a voice. "we do not know duke otho." "he is not crowned yet! why should he take so much upon him?" shouted another. "we are free burgesses of thorn, and no man's bond-slaves!" said a third. such were the shouts that hurtled through the streets and were bandied fiercely from man to man, betraying in tone more than in word the intensity of the hatred which existed between the ducal towers of the wolfsberg and the city which lay beneath them. in my boyish days i had laughed at the assemblies of the swan--the white wolves and free companies. but, perhaps, those who had thus played at revolt were wiser than i. for of a surety these associations were yielding their fruits now in a harvest of hate against the gloomy pile that had so long dominated the town, choked its liberties, and shut it off from the new, free, thriving world of the northern seaboard commonwealths to which of right it belonged. so soon as dessauer and i were alone in my master's room at bishop peter's i tried to stammer some sort of thanks, but i could do no more than hold out a hand to him. the old man clasped it. "it was wholly useless from the first," he said; "they had their purpose fixed and their course laid out, so that there was no turning of them. all was a mockery, so clear that even the ignorant men of the streets were not deceived. accusation, evidence, pleadings, condemnation, sentence--all were ready before the maid was taken; aye, and, i think, before duke casimir was dead. "also there is no court in the wolfmark higher than the mockery we have seen to-day. the arms of the soldiers of plassenburg are our only court of appeal." "it is two days before they can come," i answered. "i fear me all will be over before then." "be not so sure," said dessauer. "there is at present no justicer in the mark capable of carrying out the sentence, so long as your father lies on his bed of mortal weakness." "duke otho will not let that stand in his way--or i am the more deceived," said i, with a heavy heart. at this moment there came an interruption. i heard a loud argument outside in the court-yard. "tell me what you want with the servant of the most learned doctor!" cried a voice. "that is his business, and mine--not yours, rusty son of a stable-sweeper!" was the answer. i went out immediately, and there, facing each other in a position of mutual defiance, i saw peter of the pigs and the decent legal domestic of master gerard von sturm. "get out of my wind, old muck-to-the-eyes!" said the servitor, offensively; "you poison the good, wholesome air that is needed for men's breath." "go back to your murderer of the saints," responded peter of the pigs, valiantly. "your master and you will swing in effigy to-night in every street in thorn. some day before long you will both swing in the body--if a hair of this angel's head be harmed." "i must see this learned doctor's servant!" persisted the man of law, avoiding the personal question. "here he is," said i; "and now what would you with him?" "i am sent to invite you to come to the weiss thor immediately, on business which deeply concerns you." "that is not enough for me," said i. "who sends for me?" "let me come in out of the hearing of this moon-faced idiot," said he, pointing contumeliously to peter of the pigs, "and i will tell you. i am not bidden to proclaim my business in the market sties and city cattlepens!" "you do well, parchment knave," cried peter; "for it is such black business that if you proclaimed a syllable of it there you would be torn to pieces of honest folk. thank god there are still some such in the world!" "aye, many," quoth the servitor, "and we all know they are to be found in the dwellings of priestlings!" i walked with the man to the gate, for i did not care to take him to where dessauer was sitting. i feared that it might be some ill news from the lubber fiend, who, though i had seen him clear of the gate, might very well have returned and told my message to master gerard. "well," said i, brusquely, for i had no love for the sir rusty respectable, "out with it--who sends you?" "it is not my master," answered the man, "but one other." "what other?" said i. "the one," he said, cunningly, "with whom on a former occasion you rode out at the white gate." then i saw that he knew me. "the princess--" i began. "hush," he said, touching my arm; "that is not a word to be whispered in the streets of thorn--the lady ysolinde is at her father's house, and would see you--on a matter of life or death--so she bade me tell you." "i will go with you," i said, instantly. "nay," he said, smirking secretly, "not now, but at nine of the clock, when the city ways shall be dark, you must come--you know the road. and then you two can confer together safely, and eke, an it please you, jocosely, when master gerard will be safe in his study, with the lamp lit." i went back to dessauer, who during my absence had kept his head in his hand, as if deeply absorbed in thought. "the princess is in thorn!" said i, as a startling piece of news. "ah, the princess!" he muttered, abstractedly; "truly she is the princess, but yet that will not advantage her a whit." i saw that he was thinking of our little helene. "nay," i said, taking him by the arm to secure his attention, as indeed about this time i had often to do. "i mean the lady ysolinde, the wife of our good prince." "in thorn?" said dessauer. "ah, i am little surprised. twice when i was speaking to-day i saw a face i knew well look through a lattice in the wall at me. but being intent upon my words i did not think of it, nor indeed recognize it till it had disappeared. now the picture comes back to me curiously clear. it was the face of the princess ysolinde." "i am to see her at nine o'clock to-night in the house of the weiss thor." "do not go, i pray you!" he said; "it is certainly a trap." "go i must, and will," i replied; "for it may be to the good of our maiden. i will risk all for that!" "i dare say," said he; "so should i, if i saw any advantage, such as indeed i hoped for to-day. but if i be not mistaken, our princess is deep in this plot." "and why?" said i. "helene never harmed her." "helene is your betrothed wife, is she not?" he said. he asked as if he did not know. "surely!" said i. "well!" he replied, sententiously, and so went out. chapter xlvi a woman scorned at nine i was at the door of the dark, silent house by the weiss thor. i sounded the knocker loudly, and with the end of the reverberations i heard a foot come through the long passages. the panel behind slid noiselessly in its grooves, and i was conscious that a pair of eyes looked out at me. "you are the servant of the strange doctor?" said the voice of the servitor, sir respectable. "that i am, as by this time you may have seen!" answered i, for i was in no mood of mere politeness. i was venturing my life in the house of mine enemy, and, at least, it would be no harm if i put a bold face on the matter. he opened the door, and again the same curious perfume was wafted down the passages--something that i had never felt either in the wolfsberg nor yet even in the women's chambers of the palace of plassenburg. at the door of the little room in which she had first received me so long ago, the lady ysolinde was waiting for me. she did not shut the door till sir respectable had betaken him down again to his own place. then quite frankly and undisguisedly she took my hand, like one who had come to the end of make-believe. "i knew you to-day in your disguise," she said; "it is an excellent one, and might deceive all save a woman who loves. ah, you start. it might deceive the woman you love, but not the woman that loves you. i am not the princess to-night; i am ysolinde, the woman. i have no restraints, no conventions, no laws, no religions to-night--save the law of a woman's need and the religion of a woman's passion." i stood before her, scarce knowing what to say. "sit down," she said; "it is a long story, and yet i will not weary you, hugo--so much i promise you." i made answer to her, still standing up. "to-night, my lady, after what you know, you will not be surprised that i can think of only one thing. you know that to-day--" "i know," she said, cutting me short, as if she did not wish to listen to that which i might say next; "i know--i was present in the judgment hall." "then, being master gerard's daughter, you knew also the sentence before it was pronounced!" i said, bitterly, being certain as that i lived that the paper from which the duke otho read had been penned at this very house of the weiss thor in which i now sat. ysolinde reached a slender hand to me, as was often her wont instead of speech. "be patient to-night," she said; "i am trying hard to do that which is best--for myself first, as a woman must in a woman's affairs. but, as god sees me, for others also! you are a man, but i pray you think with fairness of the fight i, a lonely, unloved woman, have to fight." "will they carry out the terrible sentence?" said i, eagerly. for i judged that she must be in her father's counsels. "be patient," she said; "we will come to that presently." ysolinde sat silent a while, and when i would have spoken further she moved her hand a little impatiently aside, in sign that i was not to interrupt. yet even this was not done in her old imperious manner, but rather sadly and with a certain wistful gentleness which went to my heart. when she spoke again it was in the same even voice with which she had formerly told my fortune in that very room. "that which i have to say to you is a thing strange--as it may seem unwomanly. but then, i did not ask god to make me a woman, and certainly he did not make me as other women. i have never had a true mate, never won the love which god owes to every man and woman he brings into the world. "then i mot you, not by any seeking of mine. next, equally against my will, i loved you. nay, do not start to-night. it is as well to put the matter plainly." "you did not _love_ me," said i; "you were but kind to me, the unworthy son of the executioner of thorn. out of your good heart you did it." i acknowledge that i spoke like a paltering knave, but in truth knew not what to say. "i loved you--yes, and i love you!" she said, serenely, as though my words had been the twittering of a bird on the roof. "and i am not ashamed. there was indeed no reason for my folly--no beauty, no desirableness in you. but--i loved you. pass! let it be. we will begin from there. you loved, or thought you loved, a maid--your little playmate. pshaw, you loved her not! or not as i count love. i was proud, accustomed to command, and, besides, a prince's wife. the last, doubtless, should have held me apart. yet my princessdom was but as straw bands cast into the fire to bind the flame. as for you, hugo gottfried, you were in love with your success, your future, and, most of all, with your confident, insolently dullard self." she smiled bitterly, and, because the thing she spoke was partly true, i had still nothing to answer her. "hugo gottfried," she said, "try to remember if, when we rode to plassenburg in the pleasant weather of that old spring, you loved this girl whom now you love?" "aye," said i, "loved her then, even as i love her now." "you lie," she answered, calmly, not like one in anger, but as one who makes a necessary correction, "you loved her not. you were ready to love me--glad, too, that i should love you. and since you knew not then of my rank, it was not done for the sake of any advancement in plassenburg." i felt again the great disadvantage i was under in speaking to the lady ysolinde. i never had a word to say but she could put three to it. my best speeches sounded empty, selfish, vain beside hers. and so was it ever. by deeds alone could i vanquish her, and perhaps by a certain dogged masculine persistence. "princess," i said to her, "you have asked me to meet you here. it is not of the past, nor yet of likings, imaginings, recriminations that i must speak. my love, my sister, my playmate, bound to me by a thousand ancient tendernesses, lies in prison in this city of thorn, under sentence of a cruel death. will you help me to release her? i think that with your father, and therefore with you, is the power to open her prison doors!" "and what is there then for me?" cried the lady ysolinde, instantly, bending her head forward, her emerald eyes so great and clear that their shining seemed to cover all her face as a wave covers a rock at flood-tide. "what for me?" she repeated, in the silence which followed. "for you," said i, "the gladness to have saved an innocent life." "tush!" she cried, with a gesture of extravagant contempt. "you mistake; i am no good-deeds monger, to give my bread and butter to the next beggar-lass. i tell you i am the woman who came first out of the womb of mother-earth. i will yield only that which is snatched from me. what is mine is more mine than another's, because i would suffer, dare, sin, defy a world of men and women in order to keep it, to possess it, to have it all alone to myself!" "but," i answered, "who am i, that so great a lady should love me? what am i to you, princess, more than another?" "_that_ i know not!" she answered, swiftly. "only god knows that. perhaps my curse, my punishment. my husband is a far better, truer, nobler man than you, hugo. i know it; but what of that, when i love him not? love goes not by the rungs in a ladder, stands not with the most noble on the highest step, is not bestowed, like the rewards in a child's school, to the most deserving. i love you, hugo gottfried, it is true. but i wish a thousand times that i did not. nevertheless--i do! therefore make your reckoning with that, and put aside puling shams and whimpering subterfuges." this set me all on edge, and i asked a question. "what, then, do you propose? where, shall this comedy end?" "end!" she said--"end! aye, of course, men must ever look to an end. women are content with a continuance. that you should love me and keep on loving me, that is all i want!" "but," i began, "i love--" "ah, do not say it!" she cried, pitifully, clasping her hands with a certain swift appeal in her voice--"do not say it! for god's sake, for the sake of innocent blood, do not say that you love me not!" she paused a moment, and grew more pensive as she looked stilly and solemnly at me. "i will tell you the end that i see; only be patient and answer not before i have done. i have seen a vision--thrice have i seen it. karl of plassenburg, my husband, shall die. i have seen the black cloak thrice envelop him. it is the sign. no man hath ever escaped that omen--aye, and if i choose, it shall wrap him about speedily. more, i have seen you sit on the throne of plassenburg and of the mark, with a princess by your side. it is _not_ only my fancy. even as in the old time i read your present fortune, so, for good or ill, this thing also is coming to you." she never took her eyes from my face. "now listen well and be slow to speak. the princedom and the power shall both fall to me when my husband dies. there are none other hands capable. so also is it arranged in his will. here"--she broke off suddenly, as with a gesture of infinite surrender she thrust out her white hands towards me--"here is my kingdom and me. take us both, for we are yours--yours--yours!" i took her hands gently in mine and kissed them. "lady, lady ysolinde," i said, "you honor me, you overwhelm me, i know not what to say. but think! the prince is well, full of health and the hope of years. this thought of yours is but a vision, a delusion--how can we speak of the thing that is not?" "i wait your answer," she said, leaving her hands still in mine, but now, as it were, on sufferance. then, indeed, i was torn between the love that i had in my heart for my dear and the need of pleasing the lady ysolinde--between the truth and my desire to save helene. almost it was in my heart to declare that i loved the lady ysolinde, and to promise that i should do all she asked. but though, when need hath been, i have lied back and forth in my time, and thought no shame, something stuck in my throat now; and i felt that if i denied my love, who lay prison-bound that night, i should never come within the mercy of god, but be forever alien and outcast from any commonwealth of honorable men. "i cannot, lady ysolinde," i answered, at last. "the love of the maid hath so grown into my heart that i cannot root it out at a word. it is here, and it fills all my life!" again she interrupted me. "see," she said, speaking quickly and eagerly, "they tell me this your helene is an angel of mercy to the sick. if she is spared she will be content to give her life to works of good intent among the poor. this cannot be life and death to her as it is to me. her love is not as the love of a woman like ysolinde. it is not for any one man to possess in monopoly. though you may deceive yourself and think that it will be fixed and centred on you. but she will never love you as i love you. see, i would knee to you, pray to you on my knees, make myself a suppliant--i, ysolinde that am a princess! with you, hugo, i have no pride, no shame. i would take your love by violence, as a strong man surpriseth and taketh the heart of a maid." she was now all trembling and distract, her lips red, her eyes bright, her hands clasped and trembling as they were strained palm to palm. "lady ysolinde, i would that this were not so," i began. a new quick spasm passed over her face. i think it came across her that my heart was wavering. "god knows that i, hugo gottfried, am not worth all this!" "nay," she said, with a kind of joy in her voice and in her eyes, "that matters not. ysolinde of plassenburg is as a child that must have its toy or die. worthiness has no more to do with love than creeds and dogmas. love me--hugo--love me even a little. put me not away. i will be so true, so willing. i will run your errands, wait on you, stand behind you in battle, in council lead you to fame and great glory. for you, hugo, i will watch the faces of others, detect your enemies, unite your well-wishers, mark the failing favor of your friends. what heart so strong, what eye so keen as mine--for the greater the love the sharper the eye to mark, prevent, countermine. and this maid, so cold and icy, so full of good works and the abounding fame of saintliness, let her live for the healing of the people, for the love of god and man both, and it liketh her. she shall be abbess of our greatest convent. she shall indeed be the saint helena of the north. even now i will save her from death and give her refuge. i promise it. i have the power in my hands. only do you, hugo gottfried, give me your love, your life, yourself!" she was standing before me now, and had her arms about my neck. i felt them quiver upon my shoulders. her eyes looked directly up into mine, and whether they were the eyes of an angel or of a tempting fiend i could not tell. very lovely, at any rate, they were, and might have tempted even saint anthony to sin. "ysolinde," i said, at last, "it is small wonder that i am strongly moved; you have offered me great things to-night. i feel my heart very humble and unworthy. i deserve not your love. i am but a man, a soldier, dull and slow. were it not for one man and one woman it should be as you say. but karl of plassenburg is my good master, my loyal friend. helene is my true love. i beseech you put this thought from you, dear lady, and be once more my true princess, i your liege subject--faithful, full of reverence and devotion till life shall end!" as i spoke she drew herself away from me. my hand had unconsciously rested on her hair, for at first she had leaned her head towards me. when i had finished she took my hand by the wrist and gripped it as if she would choke a snake ere she dropped it at arm's-length. i knew that our interview was at an end. "go!" she commanded, pointing to the door. "one day you shall know how precious is the love you have so lightly cast aside. in a dark, dread hour, you, hugo gottfried, shall sue as a suppliant. and i shall deny you. there shall come a day when you shall abase yourself--even as you have seen ysolinde the princess abase herself to hugo, the son of the red axe of the wolf mark. go, i tell you! go--ere i slay you with my knife!" and she flashed a keen double-edged blade from some recess of her silken serpentine dress. "my lady, hear me," i pleaded. "out of the depths of my heart i protest to you--" "bah!" she cried, with a sudden uprising of tigerish fierceness in her eyes, quick and chill as the glitter of her steel. "go, i tell you, ere i be tempted to strike! _your heart!_ why, man, there is nothing in your heart but empty words out of monks' copy-books and proverbs dry and rotten as last year's leaves. ye have seen me abased. by the lords of hell, i will abase you, executioner's son! aye, and you yourself, hugo gottfried, shall work out in flowing blood and bitter tears the doom of the pale trembling girl for whom you have rejected and despised ysolinde, princess of plassenburg!" chapter xlvii the red axe dies standing up how i stumbled down the stairs and found myself outside the house in the weiss thor i do not know. whether the servitor, sir respectable, showed me out or not has quite passed from me. i only remember that i came upon myself waiting outside the gate of bishop peter's palace ringing at a bell which sounded ghostly enough, tinkling like a cracked kettle behind the door. the lattice clicked and a face peeped out. "get hence, night-raker!" cried a voice. "wherefore do you come here so untimeously, profaning the holy quiet of our minster-close?" "there was no very holy calm in the kitchen t'other night, peter swinehead!" said i, my wits coming mechanically back to me at the familiar sound. "ha, sir blackamoor, 'tis you; surely your chafts have grown strangely white, or else are my eyes serving me foully in the torchlight." instinctively i covered as much of my face as i could with my cloak's cape, for indeed i had washed it ere i went forth to see the lady ysolinde. "'tis that you have slipped too much of the rhenish down thy gullet, old comrade," said i, slapping peter on the back and getting before him so that he might remark nothing more. at that, being well pleased with my calling him comrade, he lighted me cordially to my chamber, and there left me to the sleepless meditation of the night. the next day was one of great quietness in the city of thorn. an uneasy, sultry pause of silence brooded over the lower town. men's heads showed a moment at door and window, looked furtively up and down the street, and then vanished again within. plots were being hatched and plans laid in thorn; yet, while there was the lowering silence in the city, up aloft the wolfsberg hummed gayly like a hive. once i went up that way to see if i could win any news of my father. but this day the door into the red tower stood closed, nor would any within open for all my knocking. so perforce i had to return unsatisfied. several times i went to the weiss thor to spy the horizon round for the troops of plassenburg. but only the gray plain of the mark stretched itself out so far as the eye could penetrate--hardly a reeking chimney to be seen, or any token of the pleasant rustic life of man, such as in my youth i remembered to have looked down upon from the red tower. beneath me the city of thorn lay grimly quiescent, like a beast of prey which has eaten all its neighbors, and must now die of starvation because there are no more to devour. the day passed on feet that crept like those of a tortoise, as the sullen minutes dragged by, leaden-clogged and tardy. but the evening came at last. and with it, knocking at the door of the bishop's quadrangle and interrupting my long talk with dessauer, lo! a messenger, hot-foot from the castle. "to the learned doctor and his servant, gottfried gottfried, being in death's utmost extremities, sends greeting, and desires greatly to have speech with them." thus ran my father's message in that testing hour where he had seen so many! yet i was but little surprised. there was no wonder in the fact save the wonder that it should all seem so natural. dessauer rose quickly. "i will go with you," he said; "it will be safer. for at least i can keep the door while you speak with your father." so, without further word, we followed the messenger up the long, narrow, wooden-gabled street, and heard the folk muttering gloomily in the darkness within, or talking softly in the dull russet glow of their hearth-fires. for there were but few lighted candles in thorn that night. and i wondered how near or how far from us tho men of plassenburg might be encamping, and thrilled to think that at any moment a spy might ride in to warn duke otho of the spy within his city, or the near approach of his foe. but so far all was quiet at the red tower. the wicket-gate in the angle of the wall was open, and we passed in without difficulty. as i mounted the stairs i heard the key turn behind us. obviously, therefore, we were expected. the gate of the red tower had been left open for our entrance; and so soon as the birds were in the snare, it was shut, and the silly goslings trapped. nevertheless we climbed up and up the dark stairs till we came to the door of my father's garret. i pushed it open without knocking, and entered. "the most learned the doctor schmidt," i announced, lest there should be some stranger in the room. and indeed my precaution was necessary enough. for, from my father's bed-head, disengaging himself reluctantly, like a disturbed vulture napping up from the side of a dying steer, friar laurence rose out of the darkness, and, folding his robe about him, stalked to the door without a word or nod to either of us. i stood holding the edge of it till i had watched him well down the stairs. then dessauer relieved me at the stair-head as i went to approach my father. i saw a change in him, very startling, indeed, to see. "in the uttermost extremity" he was, indeed, as he had written. a ghastly pallor overspread his face; his eyes were wild, his breathing came both quick and hard. the fire cast nickering lights over his face and on the outlines of his lank figure under the scarlet mantle which had been cast over him. one corner of it was cast aside, as if for air or coolness, and i could see a thing which gave me a cold chill in the marrow of my spine. my father still wore the dress which he only donned when some poor soul was about to die and pay the forfeit. at first gottfried took no notice of me whatever, but lay looking at the ceiling, his lips muttering something steadily, though what the words were i could not hear. "father," i said at last, bending over him gently, "i have come to see you." he turned to me, as if suddenly and regretfully summoned back from very far away. it was a movement i had seen in many dying men. he looked at me, a strange, luminous comprehension growing up gradually in his eyes. "hugo," he said, "you have come home at last! the little playmate has come home, too. we three will make a merry party in the old red tower. we have not been all together for so long. lord christ, but i have been a man much alone! hugo, why did you leave me so long? ah, well, i do not blame you, my son. you have been pushing your fortunes, doubtless, and you have--so they tell me--become a great man in plassenburg. and the little maid is a lady of honor, and very fair to see. but now you two have come to the old garret, like birds homing to the nest." "yes, father," i said to him, "we have both come home to you, the little playmate and i. and now you will give us your blessing!" "the little playmate--say rather the little princess," he cried, cheerfully, as, with the air of one who brings good tidings, he sat up in bed. then he pointed to a chair on which a pillow had carelessly been flung. "little maid," he said, looking at the cushion as if it had been helene, "i am glad you have come back to be wedded to my boy. that was like you. i ever wished it, indeed. but i never expected to see my children thus happy. yet i always knew you and hugo were made for each other. you are at your sewing, little maid. well, 'tis natural. i mind me when my own love sat making dainties of just such delicate and wreathed whiteness." he paused, and then, his countenance suddenly changing, he looked fearfully and fixedly at the chair. "but, little maid, my own helene," he cried, in a loud, gasping, alarmed tone, "what is this, best beloved? why, you are sewing at a shroud? surely such funeral-trappings become not bridals. a shroud--and there is blood upon it! put it down--_put it down,_ i pray you!" the red flames on the fire crackled suddenly up about the back log and cast dancing shadows on his face. "lie down and rest, dear father," i said softly to him, "the little playmate is not here--i, hugo, your son, am alone beside you." "hugo," he said, instantly appeased, and passing a lean arm about me, "my good son, my brave boy! you will be kind to the little princess. she loves you. there is no man so beloved as you in all the city of thorn. many would have loved her besides otho. ah, but i threw him out of the window there. i threw a grand duke out of a window! ha! ha! it was the bravest jest!" he laughed a little at intervals, as at a tale that will bear infinite repetition. "i, gottfried gottfried, threw a proximate reigning prince out of the window! how casimir laughed! the thing pleased him well. and the little maid, do you remember her, hugo? how she would teach me--me, the red axe of thorn--how to dance that first night, and how totteringly she carried the red axe? the little one took heart that night. she will have a happy future, i know; so blessed, far away from this dark and damned place of the wolfsberg. i am glad she is not here to see me die. that is a sight for men, not for fair young loving women." "hush, my father," i said, touching his dank brow; "you are not going to die. you will yet live to be strong and well, a man among men." for one tells these things to dying men. and they smile and pass us by, amused at our childish ignorance, as you and i shall one day smile upon those others. and even thus did my father. "nay, hugo, i am sped," he answered. "this night ends all. the door i have oped for so many is opening from within for me. god's mercy be on a sinful man! ere the light of to-morrow's dawn the duke's justicer must face the tribunal that has no assessor and no court of appeal." he threw back the cloak which served him as a mantle, and crying, "give me your hand, hugo!" gottfried gottfried staggered to his feet. "i will die standing up," he said, bending his brows and gazing about him uncertainly. he pointed to the walls of the garret. the fire was flickering low, but still making the place light enough to see easily. there beside the bed was the red axe, with its shining edge undimmed, leaning against the block. there across it was the crimson mask which was never more to bind his eyes as he did the office of final dread. "do you see them, son hugo?" he cried, leaning heavily on my shoulder and pointing with his finger; "they are gibbering at me, mowing, processioning by, and pointing mockingly at me. do you hear them laughing? that horrid one there with his head under his arm? laughing as if there were no god! but i am not afraid. mercy of jesu! hath god himself no justicer, that he should punish me because i have fulfilled my charge? i have all my life been merciful, ever giving the blow of mercy first, and the drop of stupefaction before the extreme question. hence, fiends! shapes inhuman, torment me not! for in my day i was merciful to you and never struck twice. i _will_ die standing up. the devil shall not fright me--no, nor all his angels! "god himself shall not fright me! i appeal to his judgment throne! get hence, false accusing spirits! i stand at caesar's judgment-seat. give me the axe, boy--i will cut down the evil, i will spare the good. here is the red axe, my son. take it! strike with it strong and well. strike, strike, and spare not!" totteringly he handed me the axe, and, clasping his hands, he stood looking up. "god! god!" he cried in a great voice. "i see my judge face to face; i am not afraid! but i will die standing up!" and in this manner, even as i tell it, died gottfried gottfried, a strong man, standing up and not afraid. and these arms received him, as, being dead, he fell headlong. chapter xlviii hugo gottfried, red axe of the wolfmark then cried dessauer from the door to me as i stood thus holding my father in my arms: "haste you, lad; there are men coming across the yard with torches. they are gathering in groups about the door. now they are on the stairs--many soldiers--and with weapons in their hands!" and scarcely had he spoken when the sound of the tramping of men in haste came to us up the turret, and the door of the garret was thrust violently open. a turmoil of men-at-arms burst in on us. i stood still, holding gottfried gottfried, his head on my shoulder, though i knew that he was dead. but as one came forward with a paper in his hand i stooped and laid my father gently on his bed. an officer of the black hussars, fantastically dressed in their church-yard array, with skull and cross-bones slashed in silver across his breast, accosted me. "hugo gottfried, son of gottfried gottfried, in the name of the duke otho and the state of the wolfmark, i arrest you! also you, leopold von dessauer, chancellor of the princedom of plassenburg. you are accused as spies and enemies of the commonweal. yield yourselves therefore to me, without condition." "i am indeed hugo gottfried," said i, "but you may see for yourselves the mission on which i have come hither. and for this hour, at least, you might have spared your brutal entry. behold!" i caught a torch from the nearest soldier, and let its light shine on the dead face of the fourteenth hereditary justicer of the wolfmark. the men started back. the terrible countenance of the dead affected them even more than the grim figure of the red axe as they had seen him stalking from the hall of justice to the block. "ah," said the officer, not wholly irreverently, "gottfried gottfried has gone now to the dark place to which he hath sent so many. but, after all, he is dead--and i heard a monkish clerk prate the other day, 'let the dead bury their dead.' i have my orders, and the duke otho waits. therefore i bid you follow me, hugo gottfried and leopold von dessauer." so, leaving the body of my father lying on the bed in his garret, we were constrained to follow our captors down the stairs. across the court-yard we were hurried, and through the hall of justice into the private apartments of the duke. otho von reuss, now duke of the wolfmark, was standing erect by the great chair in which, as my father had so often described him to me, casimir had sat so many days with his head sunk on his breast. the new duke stood up proudly, gazing at us with frowning brows and lowering, narrowed eyes. this was mighty fine, but i could not help thinking of the poor appearance he had made on the hill above the hirschgasse as he slunk off when he saw an evil cause going desperately against him. "so," he said, "gentlemen both, i have caught you spying in my land. you know what those have to expect who are caught in hostile territory in disguise." i thought it was as well to take the high hand at once, especially since i saw that humility would avail us nothing at any rate. "before now i have seen otho von reuss in hostile territory, and a right cowed traitor he looked!" said i, boldly. the duke smiled upon me, like a man that has a complete retort on his tongue but who is content for the present to reserve it. "my friend," he said, suavely, "i will reply to you presently. i have a word to speak to your betters." he turned him about to dessauer. "and what, lord high chancellor of plassenburg, think you of this masquerading? dignified, is it not? and your wondrous speech in court that was to have done such great things. will you be pleased to abide with us here in the wolfsberg? or must you forsake us to pleasure the emperor, who, poor man, cannot sleep of nights in his bed at ratisbon till the eloquent doctor is come to cheer him with the full-flowing river of speech?" "duke otho," said dessauer, "my life is indeed in your hands. i hold it forfeit. a few years less or more are but little to leopold von dessauer now. but there is one who will most bloodily avenge us if a hair of our heads falls to the ground." "who?" said otho, sneeringly. "karl miller's son, i suppose. ah, fool that you are, i hold your poor karl in the palm of my hand!" "it is like enough," said dessauer, with a quick look, the look of a keen fencer when he sees an advantage. "i have often enough seen the palm of your hand approach karl miller's son's treasury when i kept the moneys." i saw the face of otho twitch angrily. but he had evidently made up his mind to command his temper, sure of having that up his sleeve which would sufficiently answer all taunts. "you mistake me," he said, with more subtlety than i had expected from the brute. "i had not meant to prove ungrateful. i am but newly come to my own here in the wolfmark. i have learned from your host, bishop peter, how precious a thing forgiveness is. and now i am resolved to practise it. there is a time to love and a time to hate; a time to war and a time to be at peace. this is the last news i had from the holy clerk whose revenues i pay. so lay it to heart, as i have done." "glad am i," said dessauer, courteously, as if he had been turning a phrase on the terrace at plassenburg--"glad am i that in your hour you are to be mindful of old friends, for they are like old wine, which grows better and mellower with the years." "it is indeed well," said otho von reuss, ironically. "i have known the chancellor dessauer many years, and he grows more honorable and more wise with each decade. "but now 'tis with this young man that i would speak," he said, changing his tone. "he at least is mine own servant, and so i have other words for him. hugo gottfried, you remember that you insulted me, striking me on the face with a glove, because i offered certain civilities to a maid of honor to the princess of plassenburg. you wounded me in the arm. your father, of whose death i have heard but now, cast me forth like a cur-dog from a chamber window. between you ye have shamed me, and would shame me worse--for the sake of the murderess of mine uncle, duke casimir." "well do you know that the lady helene is innocent of that crime, or any other," said i; "she is purer than your eyes can look upon or your heart conceive. yet, solely because she knows you for the foul thing you are, helene lies condemned in your dungeons to-night. i ask you to grant me but one boon--that i may die with her!" "nay, my friend, gentlest squire of dames, defender of the oppressed, i have better things in store for you and your maid than that!" he paused and looked a long while at me, as it seemed, chewing the cud of revenge upon that which he had to say to me. at last he came a step nearer, that he might look into my eyes. "hugo gottfried," he said, slowly, "son of gottfried gottfried, you are my servant now. i said that i would forgive you all for the sake of old times in exile together. and now you and i are both again in our own land. they that kept us out of our offices are dead, and we standing in their places. there is a maid down there in the wolfsberg dungeons who to-morrow must meet her fate." he paused a moment and laid his hand on my shoulder impressively. "and you, hugo gottfried, hereditary justicer of the dukedom, red axe of the wolfmark, art the man who must carry out that doom!" again he paused--and the world seemed instantly to dissolve into whirling vapor at his words. i had never once thought of such a conclusion. yet i was indubitably, by my father's death, hereditary executioner of the wolfmark. red axe of thorn i was, and by a terrible chance i had returned in time to be installed in mine office, even as the lady ysolinde had foretold. but a strong thought swelled triumphant in my heart. "well," said i, looking the sneering tormentor in the face, "if so be that i am your hereditary justicer, it will be long ere a sentence so monstrous shall be carried out by me. i will not slay the innocent, nor pour out the blood of a virgin saint, for a million deaths. you can torture me with all your hellish engines, and you will find that a gottfried has learned how to suffer, as well as, how to make others suffer, in fourteen generations. as god strengthens me, i will never carry out your sentence--do with me what you will." "nobly said, justicer of the mark!" said otho. "i had thought of that! but in case you should refuse to do your lawful office, it may be well for you to remember that i have other instruments that mayhap will please you less." he threw open a door suddenly, and we looked into an underground hall, where a dozen men were carousing--duke casimir's hussars of death, black-browed, evil-faced, slack-jowled villains every man of them, cruel and sensual. a blast of ribald oaths came sulphurously up, as if the mouth of hell had been opened. "listen!" said otho, with his hand on my shoulder. and a jest struck to our ears concerning the prisoner, the little playmate--a jest which sticks in my memory to this day. and even yet i hope to cleave the jester through the brain, meet him when i may. the duke shut the door, and turned to me again. his eyes narrowed to a thin line which glittered with hate and triumph. "if you, hugo gottfried, hereditary executioner of the mark, refuse to do your duty at the time appointed upon the prisoner condemned, i, duke otho, solemnly declare that i will cast your fair and tender lamb into that den of wolves down there to work their wills upon. hark to them! they will have no misgivings--no qualms, no noble renunciations." then he turned to me airily and confidently. "well, my good justicer, will you carry out the just and merciful sentence of the law, and baptize your red axe with the blood of her for whose sake you chose to insult and wound a duke of the mark?" i turned away, sick at heart. "give me time. god's mercy--give me time!" i cried. "at least let me see helene. i will give you my answer to-night. but, first of all, let me see my beloved." "i am forgiving and most merciful," he said, smiling till his teeth showed. "observe, i do not even cast you into prison to make sure of you. go your ways" (he sat down and wrote rapidly); "here is a pass which will enable you to visit the prisoner. at midnight i shall expect you to tell me that to-morrow you will fulfil your office." he handed me the paper and motioned us away. "we are free to go?" said i, wonderingly. "surely," he replied, smiling. "are you not both my friends, and can otho von reuss be forgetful of old times? come and go at your pleasure. be sure to be here to give me your answer at midnight to-night--or--" he pointed with his hand to the door he had again opened, and with the fingers of his other hand beat time to the blasphemous chorus which came belching up from below. chapter xlix the serpent's strife dazed and death-stricken by the horror of the choice which lay before me, i hastened down the street, hardly waiting for dessauer, who toiled vainly after me. i knew not what to do nor where to turn. i could neither think nor speak. but it chanced that my steps brought me to the house of the weiss thor. almost without any will of mine own i found myself raising the knocker of the house of master gerard von sturm. sir respectable instantly appeared. i asked of him if the lady ysolinde would see me--giving my name plainly. for since duke otho knew me, there was no need of concealment any more. the lady ysolinde would receive me. i followed my conductor, but not this time to the room in which i had seen her on the occasion of my last visit. it was in her father's chamber that i met the princess. the room was as i had first seen it. only there was no ascetic old man with keen, deep-set eyes and receding forehead to rear his head back from the table as though he would presently strike across it like a serpent from its coil. for the moment the room was empty, but, ere i had time to look around, the curtains moved and the lady ysolinde appeared. without entering, she set a hand on the door-post, and stood poised against the heavy curtain, waiting for me to speak. her face was pale, her thin nostrils dilated. anger and scorn sat white and deadly on every feature. "so," she said, intensely, as i did not speak, "you have come back already, most noble hereditary justicer of the mark! even as i told you--so it is. you come to ask mercy from the woman you despised, from the woman whose love you refused. you would beg her to spare her enemy. ere you go i shall see you on your knees; ah, that will be sweet. i have been on my knees--can i believe it? nay, i shall not forget it. i, ysolinde of plassenburg, have pled in vain to you--to you!" and the accent of chill hatred and malice turned me to stone. "my lady," said i, "well do you know that i would never ask aught for my own life, though the red axe itself were at my neck. but it is for the maid i love, for the little child i carried home out of the arms of the man condemned. i ask for her life, who never wronged you or any in all this world. you have heard that task which the duke hath laid on me, because it is my misfortune to be my father's son--i must take away my love's sweet life, or, if i do not--" i could proceed no further for the horror which rose in my heart. "i know it," she said, calmly; "my father hath told me all." "then," cried i, "if the power lie with you, as you hope for mercy to your own soul, be merciful! save the maiden helene from the death of shame, and me from becoming her murderer!" "ah," she answered, with delicatest meditative inflection, "this is indeed sweet. the mighty is fallen indeed. the proud one is suppliant now. the knee is bent that would not bend. hearken, you and your puling babe, to the princess ysolinde! were your lives in that glass, to save or to destroy--her life and your suffering--to make or to break, i would fling them to destruction, even as i cast this cup into the darkness!" and as she spoke the wreathed beaker of venice glass sped out of the window and crashed on the pavement without. "thus would i end your lives," she said, "for the shame that you two put upon me in the day of my weakness." "lady," i cried, eagerly, "you do yourself a wrong! your heart is better than your word. do this deed of mercy, i beseech you, if so be you can. and my life is yours forever!" "your life is mine, you say," cried she; "aye, and that means what? the wind that cries about the house. your life is _mine_--it is a lie. your life and love both are that chit's for whom you have despised--rejected--me!" and i grant that at that moment she looked noble enough in her anger as she stood discharging her words at me with hissing directness, like bolts shot twanging from the steel cross-bow. "and, lest you should think that i have not the power to save you, i will tell you this--when you shall see the neck bared for the blade of the red axe, the fine tresses you love, that your eyes look upon with desire, all ruthlessly cut away by the shears of your assistants--ah, i know you will remember then that i, ysolinde, whom you refused and slighted, had the power in her hand to deliver you both with a word, according to the immaculate laws of the wolfmark. aye, and more--power to raise you both to a pinnacle of bliss such as you can hardly conceive. in that hour, when you see me look down upon your anguish, you will know that i can speak the word. you will watch my lips till the axe falls, and under your hand the young life ebbs red. but the lips of ysolinde will be silent!" "such knowledge is an easy boast, lady ysolinde!" i answered, thinking to taunt her, that she might reveal whether indeed she had the power she claimed. "there," she said, pointing to the great collection of black-bound books and papers about the walls; "see, the secret is there--the secret for the lack of which you shall strike your beloved to the death to save her from the unnamable shame. i know it; my father has revealed it to me. i have seen the parchment in these hands. but--you shall never hear it, she never profit by it, and my vengeance shall be sweet--so sweet!" and she laughed, with a strange crackling laugh that it was a pain to hear. "god forgive you, lady ysolinde," said i, "if this be so. for if there be a god, you must burn in great hell for this deed you are about to do. having had no mercy on the innocent, how shall you ask god to have mercy on you?" "i will not ask him!" she cried. "instead of puling for mercy i will have had my revenge. and after that, come earth, heaven, or hell--i shall not care. all will then be the same to ysolinde!" i thought i would try her yet once more. "the little playmate," i said, "the maid whom i have ever loved, though i am not worthy to touch her, is no chance child, no daughter of the red axe of thorn. leopold von dessauer hath found and sent to karl the prince the full proofs that helene is the daughter of the last and rightful prince, and therefore in her own right princess of plassenburg." "you lie, fool!" she cried--"you lie! you think to frighten me. and even if it were true--thrice, four times fool to tell me! for shall not i, the princess of plassenburg, the wife of the reigning prince, stand for my own name and dignity. i would not help you now though a thousand fair heads, well-beloved, the desire of men, the envy of women, were to be rolled in the dust." "then farewell, princess," i cried; "you are wronging to the death of deaths two that never did you wrong, who loved each other with the love of man and woman before ever you crossed their paths, and who since then have only sought your good. you wrong god also, and you lose your soul, divorcing it from the mercy of the saviour of men. for be very sure that with that measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." she did not answer, but stood with her hand still against the door-post, her head raised, and her lips curling scornfully, looking after me as i retired with a smiling and malicious pleasure. so, without further speech, i went out from the presence of the lady ysolinde. and thus she had the first part of her revenge. chapter l the dungeon of the wolfsberg and now i must see the little playmate. judge ye whether or no my heart was torn in twain as i went up the long high street of thorn, back to the wolfsberg, alone. for i had compelled dessauer to return to bishop peter's, in order to avert popular suspicion, since our real names and errands were not yet known there. and when i parted from him the old man was so worn out that i looked momently for him to drop on the rough causeway stones of the street. many pictures of my youth passed before me as i mounted towards the castle that night. i remembered the ride of the wild horsemen returning from the raid such long years agone, the old man who carried the babe, and the red axe himself, who now lay dead in the tower--my father, casimir's justicer, clad now as then in crimson from head to heel. ere long i arrived at the wolfsberg, and as i came near the red tower i saw that the gate was open. a little crowd of men with swords and partisans was issuing tumultuously from it. then came six carrying a coffin. i stood aside to let them pass. and not till the last one brushed me did i ask what was their business abroad with a dead man at such a time of the night. "'tis one that had wrought much fear in his time," answered the soldier, for i had lighted on a sententious fellow--"one that made many swift ends, and now has come to one himself." "you mean gottfried gottfried, the duke's justicer?" said i, speaking like one in a dream. "aye," he replied. "the duke otho is mightily afraid of the plague, and will not have a dead body over-night in his castle. since they condemned the saint helena, god wot, the duke is a fear-stricken man. he sleeps with half a dozen black riders at the back of his door, as though that made him any safer if a handful of minted gold were dealt out among the rascals. but when was a prince ever wise?" "my father's funeral," thought i. "well, to-night it is, indeed, 'let the dead bury their dead'; helene is yet alive!" surely i am not wanting in feeling, yet my heart was strangely chill and cold. nevertheless, i turned and followed the procession a little way towards the walls. but even as i went, lo! the bell of the wolfsberg slowly and brazenly clanged ten. i stopped. i had but two hours in which to visit the little playmate and tell her all. "good-bye, father," said i, standing with my hat off; "so you would wish me to do--you who met your god standing up--you who did an ill business greatly, because it was yours and you were born to it. teach me, my father, to be worthy of you in this strait, to the like of which surely never was man brought before!" the men-at-arms clattered roughly down the street, shifting their burden as if it had been so much kindling-wood, and quarrelling as to their turns. i heard their jests coming clear up the narrow street from far away. i stood still as they approached a corner which they must turn. i waved my hand to the coffin. "fare you well, true father; to-night and to-morrow may god help me also, like you, to meet my fate standing up!" and the curve of the long street hid the ribald procession. my father was gone. i had made choice. the dead was burying his dead. i went on towards the prison of the wolfsberg; so it was nominated by a sort of grim superiority in that place which was all a prison--the castle which had lorded it so long over the red clustered roofs and stepped gables of thorn, solely because it meant prisonment and death to the rebel or the refuser of the duke's exactions. often had i seen the straggling procession of prisoners rise, head following head, up from that weary staircase, my father standing by, as they came up from the cells, counting his victims silently, like a shepherd who tells his flock as they pass through a gap in the sheepfold. for me, alas! there was but one in that dread fold to-night. and she my one ewe lamb who ought to have lain in my bosom. i clamored long at the gate ere i could make the drowsy jailer hear. as the minutes slipped away i grew more and more wild with fear and anger. at midnight i must face the duke, and it was after ten--how long i knew not, but i feared every moment that i might hear the brazen clang as the hammer struck eleven. for time seemed to make no impression on me at all that night. at last the man came, shuffling, grumbling, and cursing, from his truckle-bed. "what twice-condemned drunken roysterer may you be, that hath mistaken the prison of duke otho for a trull-house? "an order from the duke--to see a prisoner! come to-morrow then, and, meanwhile, depart to gehenna. must a man be forever at the beck and call of every sleepless sot? 'urgent'--is the duke's mandate. shove it through the lattice then, that a lantern may flash upon it." i pushed under the door a broad piece of gold, which proved more to the purpose than much speech. the door was opened and i showed my pass. that and the gold together worked wonders. the jailer rattled his keys, donned a hood and woollen wrapper which he took down from a nail, and went coughing before me down the chill, draughty passages. i could hear the prisoners leaping from their couches within as the light of his cresset filtered beneath their doors. what hopes and fears stirred them! a summons, it might be, for some one in that dread warren to come up for a last look at the stars, a walk to the heading-place through the soft, velvet-dark night--then the block, the lightning flash of bright steel, a drench of something sweet and strong like wine upon the lips, and--silence, rest, oblivion. but we passed the prison doors one by one, and the jailer of the wolfsberg went coughing and rasping by to another part of the prison. "'tis an ill place for chills," he grumbled. "i have never been free of them since first i came to this place, no--nor my wife neither. she has been dead these ten years, praises to the pyx! ah, would you?" (the torch threatened to go out, so he held it downward in his hand till the pitch melted and caught again, and meanwhile we stood blinded in the smoke and glare which the strong draught forced in our faces.) at last came the door, a low, iron-spiked grating, like any other of the hundred we had passed. "key-metal is not often weared on this cell," the man chuckled. "those stay not long above ground that bide here." the door swung back on its creaking hinges. i slipped the fellow another gold piece. "i must come in with you," he said; "you might do the wench an ill turn which would cheat the duke of his show and me of my head to-morrow." i slipped him another piece of gold, and then three together. "risk it, man," i said. "have i not the duke's own pass? i will do her no harm." "well," he said, "pray remember i am a man with five poor motherless children. my wife died of falling down a flight of steps ten years agone--praise the lord for his mercies. for he is ever mindful of us, the sinful children of men." the sound of his voice died away as the door closed. i turned, and was alone with the beloved. the jailer had stuck the cresset in its niche behind the door, and its glow filled the little cell. at first i could not see the little playmate--only a rough pallet bed and something white at the head of it. but as the cresset burned up more clearly, and my eyes became accustomed to the bleared and streaky light, i saw helene, my love, kneeling at her bed's head. i stood still and waited. was she asleep? was she--was she dead? i almost hoped that she might be. then the duke's vengeance would be balked indeed. "helene!" i said, softly, as one speaks to the dying--"helene, dear, dear helene!" slowly she looked up. her face dawned on me as one day the face of the blessed angel will shine when he calls me out of purgatory. "my love--my love!" she said, sweetly, like the first note of a hymn when the choir breathes the sweet music rather than sings it. ah, lord of innocence, that pure loving face, the purple deepness in the eyes, the flush on the cheek as on that of a little child asleep, the soft curled hair which crisped in the hollow of the neck--the throat itself--eternal god, that i should be alive to think of the horror! but time was passing swiftly. the minutes were slipping by like men running for their lives. i raised helene from her knees, and she nestled her head on my shoulder. "you have come to me! i knew you would come. i saw you on the day--the day when they condemned me to die." i broke into an angry, desperate, protesting cry, so that i heard my own voice ring strangely through that dumb, horrible place. and it was i who sobbed in her arms with my head on her shoulder. "hush, dear love," she said, clasping her arms caressingly about my head; "do not fear for me. god will keep your little one. god has told me that he will bring me bravely through. hush thee, then; do not so, hugo, great playmate! this i cannot bear. help me to be good. it will not be long nor painful. do not weep for your little girl! i think, somehow, it is for our love that i suffer, and that will make it sweet!" but still i sobbed like a child. for how--how could i tell her? presently the power returned slowly to me, seeing her smiling so bravely up at me, and rising on tiptoe to kiss my wet face. then i told her all--in what words i hardly remember now. "love of mine," i said, "i have but an hour or less to speak with you--and ah! such terrible things, such inconceivable things, to say; a horror to reveal such as never lover had to tell his love before." she drew one of my hands down and softly patted her breast with it. "fear not," she said; "tell it helene. if it be true that love conquers all, your little lass can bear it!" "i came," said i, "with purpose to see you, and by treachery (it skills not to ask whose) i was taken at my dead father's bedside." "our father dead?" she cried, going a step away to look at me, but coming back again immediately; "then there are but you and me in the world, hugo!" "aye," said i, "but how can i tell you the rest? my father died like a man, and then they took me, still holding the dead in my arms. i was confronted with a fiend of hell in the likeness of duke otho." as i mentioned the duke's name i could feel her shudder on my neck. "and--but i cannot tell you what he has bidden me do, under penalties too fearful to conceive or speak of." she put her hands up, and gently, timidly, lovingly stroked my cheek. "dear love, tell me! tell the little playmate!" she said, as simply and sweetly as if she had been coaxing me to whisper to her some lightest childish secret of our plays together in the old red tower. i was silent for a space, and then, spurred by the thought of the swiftly passing time, the words were wrenched out of me. "he says that i, even i, hugo gottfried, my father's son, being now hereditary red axe of the wolfmark, must strike off the head of the one i love. and if i will not, then to the vilest of devils for vilest ends he will deliver her. ah, god, and he would do it too! i saw the very flame of hell's fire in his eyes." then i that write saw a strange appearance on the face that looked up in mine. as on a dark april day, with a lowering sky, you have seen the wind suddenly stir high in the heavens, and the sun look through on the dripping green of the young trees and the gay bourgeoning of the flowers, so, looking on my love's face as she took in my words, there awakened a kind of springtime joy. nay, wherefore need i say a kind of joy only. it was more. it was great, overleaping, sudden-springing gladness. her eyes swam in lustrous beauty. she smiled up at me as i had never seen her smile before. "oh, i am glad, hugo--so glad! i love you, hugo! it will be hard for you, my love. and yet you will be brave and help me. i had far rather die at your hand than live to be the bride of the greatest man in all the world. do that which will save me from, shame; do it gladly, hugo. i fear it. i saw it in the eyes of that man otho von reuss. but _only_ to die will be easy, with you near by. for i love you, hugo. and i could just say a prayer, and then--well, and then--do not cry, hugo--why, then you would put me to sleep, even as of old you did in the red tower! "nay, nay, dear love! you must not do so. this is not like my hugo. see, _i_ do not cry. do you remember when you took me up and laid me on your bed, and our father came and looked? you said i was your little wife. so i was, even though i denied it, and now i can trust you, my husband. i have never been aught else but your little wife, you see--not in my heart, not in my heart of hearts! "i have been proud with you, hugo--spoken unkind things. for love, you know, is like that. it hurts that which it would die for. but now you will know, once for all, that i love you. for death tests all. and you _will_ help me. you will not cry then, hugo--not then, when we walk, you and i, by the shores of the great sea. you will only send me a little voyage by myself, as you used to make me go to the well in the court-yard, to teach me not to be frightened! "and then you will be with me when i go. you will watch me; soon, soon you will come after me. yes, i am glad, hugo--so glad. for--bend down your ear, hugo--i will confess. your little girl is such a coward. she is afraid of the dark. but it will not be dark--and it will not be long, and it will be sure. if my love stand by, i shall not fear. and, after all, it is but a little thing to do for my love, when i love him so." what i said, or what i did, i know not. but when i came a little to myself, i found my head on my knees, and helene soothing and petting me, as if i had been a child that had fallen down and hurt itself. "i would have been a good wife to you, hugo; i had thought it all out. at first i would have been such an ignorant little house-keeper, and you would have needed--oh, such great patience with me! but so willing, so ready, hugo! and how i should have listened for your foot! do you know, i used to know it as it came across the court-yard at plassenburg. but i could not run and meet you then. i could only slip behind the window-lattice and throw you a kiss. but when i was indeed your wife, how i should have flown to meet you!" i think i cried out here for very agony. "hush, hugo!" she said. "hush, lad, and listen. there are stairs up aloft--i saw them in a dream. i saw the angels and the redeemed ascending and descending as i prayed, even when you came in to call me back. i shall ask god to let me wait at the stair-head a little while for you--till it should be time for you to come, my dear, my dear. you would not be very long, and i could wait. i would listen for your feet upon the stair, dear love. and when at last you came, i should know your footfall; yes, i should know it ever so far away. you would not be thinking of me just then. and when you came to the top of the golden stairs, there--there, all so suddenly, would be your little lass, with her arms ready to welcome you!" the door of the cell creaked open. the jailer appeared. "it is time!" he said, curtly, and stood waiting. we stood up, and i looked in her eyes. she was smiling, dry-eyed, but i--the water was running down my face. "you will be brave, hugo, for my sake. next to life with you--to die by your dear hand, knowing that you love me, is the best gift they could have given me. they thought to hurt, but instead they have made me so happy. till we meet again, dear love--till we meet soon again!" and she accompanied me to the door, and kissed me as i went out, standing smilingly on tiptoe to do it, even as of old she was wont to do in the red tower. and the last thing i saw of her, as the door closed upon the darkness of the cell, was my love standing smiling up at me, her eyes filled with the splendors of the love that casteth out fear. chapter li the night before the morn even as the dwarf on the ledge of the castle clocktower creaked his wires and clicked back his hammer to strike the midnight over the city, even as the first solemn toll of the hour reverberated over the wolfsberg, i was at the door of the duke's room waiting for admission. the chamberlain in attendance looked within, and seeing his master writing at a table, he was going out again without speech. "has hugo gottfried returned?" said the duke, without looking up. "hugo gottfried is here!" i replied, stepping unannounced into the room. he looked up without smiling, a keen inquiring glance glittering from between eyelids so close together that only the faintest line of the pupil showed black under the lashes. "well?" he questioned. "i will do the thing you have asked," answered i. and said no more. the duke instantly became restless, and getting up, he began to pace about the floor like a caged beast. "you have seen her?" he inquired, stopping in front of me, wide-nostrilled, like a dog that points the game. "i _have_ seen her," i replied, as simply. "well?" he queried again, with a keen, eager note of anxiety in his voice. "i am ready to do that which you have asked." he seemed to be on the point of saying something else. but, changing his mind, he touched a little silver bell. the usher appeared. "show the hereditary justicer of the mark to the red tower. give him all that is necessary to eat and drink. bid a man-at-arms attend him, and set a sufficient guard at the door!" so i went out from the presence, and the duke and the duke's new justicer bowed to each other gravely as i stood a moment on the threshold. "till we meet again, red axe of the wolfmark!" said duke otho. "till we meet again!" said i, countering him like blade meeting blade. in little more than ten minutes after i had entered them, i stood outside the duke's apartments, and with my escort i strode across to the empty red tower, the home of so many memories. my head was reeling, and with the overpress of excitement i could not sleep. so, bribing the soldier, my companion--who had been charged by the duke not to lose sight of me--to accompany me, i went up to my father's garret. there i found all things as they had been when my father died. i set the windows wide, cast the tumbled bedclothes out upon the dust-heap beneath, and bared the whole to the clean, large, wholesome breezes of the night. i saw the fateful red axe lean as usual against the block, and, taking it up, i found it keen as a razor. it was spotless, and the edge gave back the long low room and our one glimmering candle like a mirror. it must have been my father's last work in this world to polish it. then i went down to my own room and cast myself down upon the bed in which, on that night of the first home-coming of the playmate, i had laid my little wife. the soldier couched across the door, rolled in his cloak and some chance wrapping he found about the house. god keep me from ever spending such a night again! i thought it would never come to an end. out in the square in front of the wolfsberg i could hear a knocking--dull, continuous, reverberant. at first i thought it must be within my own head. so i asked the soldier, after a little, if he heard it also. i had some faint idea that it might be prince karl of plassenburg with his army thundering at the gates of thorn. "'tis but the scaffold going up in the grand place without!" said the soldier, carelessly; "i heard that the duke had bidden them work all night by torch-light." i tried to sleep, but the knocking continued, aching across my brows till i thought i must go mad. after a while i rose and went to the window from which i had so often looked down wistfully upon the play of the city children. opposite me, in the middle of the open space, loomed a dark mass--a platform, it seemed, raised a dozen feet above the road--the black silhouette of a ladder set anglewise against it, and that was all. lower, plainer, somehow deadlier than a gibbet with its flamboyant beam, which one never sees empty without imagining the malefactor aswing upon it; the heading-block did not frown, it grinned--yes, grinned like the eye-holes of a skeleton with a candle behind them, while the torches glinted through the interstices of the framework as it was being nailed together. all night the dull _dunt-dunting_ went on without. and i sat awake by the window and awaited the dawning. the city seethed unslaked beneath. when first i looked from my chamber window the square was free to all who chose to enter it. but as the knocking went on the news spread through the town of thorn. "they are making the scaffold for our saint helena!" so the word ran. and within an hour the courts and alleys of thorn belched forth thousands of angry men. pikes were carried like staves, the steel head hidden up the long white burgess sleeve. working-men of the trades, 'prentices, and market porters drew their swords and came forth with the bare blades in their hands, leaving the scabbards at home to take care of themselves, as was their custom. wives cried from escalier windows to their men to come in by and lie decently down, to be ready for their work in the morning. and the men so addressed paid not the least heed, as the manner of men is. these things and many others i saw, scarce knowing what i saw. and so, with the hum of gathering crowds, the hours passed slowly over. but the temper of the people in the square grew more and more difficult, and soon the guard had to be brought down from the castle. the great gates beneath me were open, and the wolfsberg vomited the black men-at-arms to keep the duke's peace. but this brought only the quicker strife. yells received them as soon as their steel partisans showed up in the square. "oppressors of the people, ye come to your reward!" cried many voices. "we will give you your last breakfast--of cold, tempered steel!" cried another, from the bowels of the crowd. "to the wolfsberg--ho! break in the doors! we will have our saint helena forth of their cursed prisons!" it was no sooner said than done. like a wave the people rushed in a black irregular mass at the front rank of the guard. the soldiers of the duke were swept away like chaff; i could see one here and another there struggling in the vortices of the angry multitude. "on to the wolfsberg!" cried the crowd. but when the first of them reached the castle gates, lo! they stood open, and there behind them stood file on file of matchlock men with their matches burning in their hands and their pieces trained upon their rests. "give them the fire!" cried a voice, that of duke otho, as the crowd halted a moment irresolute. the bright red flame started out here and there from muzzle and touchhole, and then ran along the line in an irregular volley. a terrible cry of fear went up from the folk. for though they had heard of the new ordnance, and even seen one or two, they had never realized the effect of a fusillade. and when a man on either side sank down with a hollow sound like a beast in shamble-thills, and the man in front fell over on his face without a sound, the multitude turned, broke into groups, fled, and disappeared in a moment like a whirl of snow which the wind canters down the street in a veering flurry. then the gates shut to, and the deep lines of matchlock men were hidden from view. after this the city thrilled and murmured worse than ever, humming like an angry hive. but the wolfsberg kept its counsel. not yet had deliverance arrived for the captives within its cells. and the dread morning was coming fast. at last, wearied out with crowding emotions, i went and cast me down on my bed, and, instantly falling asleep, i slept like a log till one touched me on the shoulder. looking up, i saw the duke otho. he had come to make sure of his vengeance--the vengeance which i knew well was not his, but that of ysolinde, princess of plassenburg. chapter lii the headsman's right "rise, justicer of the wolfmark!" said otho, smiling mockingly upon me like a fiend. i started up and gazed about bewildered as the coming terrors of the morning broke upon me. "'tis scarcely an hour to sunrise," he continued, "and i warrant the noble red axe will desire to feel the edge of his tool and see that his assistants are in their places." the duke paused as he went out of the door, and looked at me. "i can promise you a distinguished company at the first public performance of your honorable office," he said, with a polite gesture. so soon as he was gone i rose to my feet. across the broad, black oaken stool, whereon from boyhood it had been my habit to place my clothes neatly folded up, i found a suit of new red cloth, plain and rich, with an inscription upon a strip of vellum laid across the breast, bearing that these were a gift from the most illustrious duke otho of the wolfmark. since, after all, my fate was my fate, there was little use in straining at the gnat. so i set to and did upon me the garmentry of shame. they were made after the fashion of my father's, cap and hosen and shoon all of red, with a cloak of red to cover all. then i went to the playmate's room, and before the niche where her little prie-dieu had stood, i kneeled me down and said such a prayer as at the moment i could compass. but little was needed. for i think god in heaven himself was praying for us both that day. when i went forth into the square, few there were who knew or remembered me, but all knew my attire. then indeed it did my heart good to hear the great unanimous roar of execration which went up from the multitude as i came out. the soldiers had their work cut out to push a way for me to the scaffold. "butcher him--tear him to pieces--wolf's cub that he is--he that was her foster-brother to slay our saint helena!" it made me proud to hear them. and as they rushed furiously against the escort, intent to kill me, we swayed from side to side. "down with the red axe!" they shouted. "down with the bloody house of gottfried and all that belong to it!" and i felt inclined to cry "amen!" then, when i had mounted the few steps which led to the platform on which stood the black headsman's block, i gazed about me in wonder, holding the red axe in my hand. and to my disordered vision i saw the crowd swell and whirl about me on earth and in the air, bubbling and tossing like a pot boiling furiously. then i bethought me of the work i had to do, and prayed that i might be given strength to do it swiftly and featly, that the suffering of my love might not be long. also i thought of the lecherous evil demons of the black riders, and thereat was somewhat comforted. at the worst i could give my love a better end than that. then appeared my lord duke otho. an enclosure had been formed for him by the palace wall, covered with a red hanging, as though my sweetheart's death were a gala sight. and when he had come to the front and arranged his folk, lo! there by his side stood ysolinde, princess of plassenburg, with her father, master gerard. they had a place close by the duke, and otho ofttimes bent over to confer graciously with his councillor. but ysolinde looked neither to right nor left, nor yet spoke to any, keeping her eyes fixed, as it seemed, on the shining blade of the red axe in my hand. then, as these fine folk stood waiting and gloating among the festoons of their balcony, the devil or god (i know which, but i will not say, lest i be thought a blasphemer) put an intent into my heart. i walked to the edge of the scaffold, and i looked at the barrier of the enclosure. they were of the same height, and the distance between them little more than six feet. i examined them again, and yet more intently. i saw the steely smile on duke otho's face. already he was tasting the double sweetness of his revenge. "wait," i said, within my heart, as i also smiled a little, "only wait a little, otho, duke of the wolfmark. wait till this bright edge be sullied with my sweet love's blood. and then--then will i leap upon you, and the red axe shall crash deep into the brain that hatched and fostered this hellish intent. and by the gentle heart of her who is about to die, so also will i serve gerard the lawyer, and ysolinde, his daughter, for their treachery against the innocent. then, amid the flash of steel and the heady whirl of battle, shall hugo gottfried be very content to die!" it would take more than one stroke to dull that which my father had sharpened. and i lifted up the red axe and felt the edge with my thumb. it was razor keen. but the action was observed, and taken as a proof of callousness. and then what a yell of hate surged up around me! i could have taken those burghers of thorn to my heart. and i thought if only our karl would come. alas! it was a full day too soon; for i felt sure that these burghers would proclaim him at the gates, and that the house of otho and casimir, the brood of the wolf, would, like the shadow of the raven as it flits by in the sunshine, pass away. for by that time there would be no otho. they would find him low enough, with an axe cleft in his head. so soon as the sun's light tipped the eastern clouds with rose, the black hussars came riding forth. the guards and matchlock men lined the way from the castle gates. they blew up their matches to be ready. suddenly in the midst of the armed throng there appeared a radiant figure coming down the steps of the castle from the hall of judgment. at the sight the people threw themselves wildly in that direction. the dark lines of the guard reeled and wavered. there was the sharp click as the pikes engaged. the shouts of the captains of the matchlock men were heard. but the trained bands stood fast, and the rush was stayed. then came our helene down towards me, walking delicately, yet proudly erect as a young tree. she was clad all in white and wore her hair plaited high upon her head, so that the shape of her neck was clearly seen. and i who stood there with the axe in my hand seemed to have a thousand years to think all these things, and even to mark the lace upon her dress. i saw her come nearer and nearer to me. yet feeling was dead within me. i seemed to sleep and wake and sleep again. and when at last i awoke, there came a strange feeling to me. it was my wedding-day, and my bride was coming to me, lily pure, clad in whiteness. then at the foot of the scaffold there came one forth from the ranks, a captain of the duke's guard, and with honor and respect offered helene his arm. she declined it with a proud smile, and all that were near could hear her clear voice say, "i thank you, sir, but i need no help. i am strong enough to walk thus far." and she mounted the steps of the scaffold as though they had been those of the grand staircase at plassenburg. but when she saw me, standing in my habit of red from head to heel, she seemed a little taken aback. quickly, however, she came forward and took me by the hand, looking up at me with the love-light making her eyes glorious. "hugo," she said, "i am glad you are here--glad that i am to die by no less loving hand. that will be sweeter than to live with any other. and, indeed, i deserve so much, for i have not known much joy in my life, save in the old days when i was your little playmate." then there came a stern voice from the enclosure: _"executioner of the mark, do your duty!"_ it was the voice of master gerard. and then i looked over and saw gerard von sturm standing a little in front, with his daughter's wrist held tightly in his hand as though he would drag her back. with that a loathing came over me, for i said within me, "is the woman so anxious for the blood of the innocent whom she has hounded to death that she would intrude on the scaffold itself?" then i remembered the duty of the justicers, ere the sentence was carried out, to recite the crimes of the condemned. so i cried aloud, even as i had heard my father do. "the crimes of helene, princess of plassenburg, sole daughter of dietrich, lately prince thereof--guilty of no evil, save that she has been the savior of this people of thorn and their deliverer in time of pestilence!" the people hushed themselves with astonishment at my words. and then a cry went up. "the red axe speaks true--she is innocent--innocent!" but the voice of gerard von sturm came again, stern as that of the recording angel: "_executioner of the wolfmark, do your duty_!" scarce knowing what i did, i went on with my formal accusation. "helene, princess of plassenburg, who is about to die, is also guilty of loving me, hugo gottfried, son of gottfried gottfried, and of none other crime. for this the duke has decreed that she should die. it is her own will that she should die by my hand." helene came forward and put her hand in mine in token that i spoke truly, and there fell a great silence across the people. i saw the lady ysolinde straining at her father's hand, like a dog in a leash when the quarry rises. then my love kissed me once, just as though she had been saying good-night in the red tower, simply and sweetly, like a child, and laid her head down on the block as on the white pillow of her own bed. "_god do so and more also to them on whose heads is the innocent blood of my love and my wife_!" the words burst from me rather than were uttered. i raised the blade. but ere the red axe could fall there arose a wild scream from the duke's enclosure. some one cried, "let me go! he has said it! he has said it! i will not be silent any longer!" it was the lady ysolinde, who had broken away from her father's hand. "the girl is his wife," she went on. "he has claimed her--according to the laws of the wolfmark, that cannot be broken, he has called her his wife. it is the executioner's right. one woman he can claim as his during his term of office--one only, and for his wife. duke otho, i call upon you to allow it! chancellor texel, i call upon you to read the law! i have it here in my hand. head! read! _i will save my soul! i will save my soul_!" and ere any one could stop her, the lady ysolinde, sobbing and laughing both at once, had overleaped the light barrier, and was thrusting a parchment with a seal into the hands of the chancellor michael texel. "she is mad. let the justice of the realm be done!" cried again the voice of master gerard. and i think the duke would have ordered it to be so. but there arose not only a roar from the people, but, what otho minded far more, an ominous murmur among the nobles and gentlemen and from the ranks of men-at-arms. "the law! the law! read us the law!" and even otho dare not trifle with the will of the free companions of the mark. for in all the realm they were now his only supporters. helene had risen to her feet, and stood, pale of face but erect, resting, as was her wont, one hand on my shoulder. then michael texel read the scroll aloud. "it is the immemorial privilege of the hereditary executioner of the mark, being of the family of gottfried, a privilege not to be abrogated or alienated, that during the term of office of each, he may claim--not as a boon, but as a right--the life of one man for a bond-servant, or the life of one woman for a wife. thus, by order of the states' council, to be the privilege of the gottfrieds forever, it has been proclaimed!" as michael texel went on, i saw the countenance of the duke and the lawyer change. i knew that salvation had come to us like lightning from a clear sky, and i hastened to demand the right which was mine own. so soon as he had finished i shouted with all my power: "i claim helene to be my wife!" then went up such an acclaim from the people as never had been heard in the ancient city. even the gentlemen within the enclosure threw their hats in the air. the soldiers put their helmets on the points of their spears, and the captains waved their colors as at a victory. the thunder of the cheering roused the very rooks and jackdaws from the towers of thorn and the bastions of the wolfsberg till they went drifting in a black cloud clamorously over the city. then helene put her arms about my neck, and, upon the scaffold of death, before all the people, we plighted our troth. "the bishop--the bishop peter!" cried the people. and, leaping upon an officer's horse, a messenger rode post-haste to the palace, the crowd making way for him. duke otho disappeared through a private door, for the thing was over-strong even for him. he knew his weakness too well to war with the immemorial privileges of the wolfmark. rulers stronger than he had been broken in doing battle against ancient rights and amenities. besides, the nobility were afraid of their own perquisites if one of so ancient a charter as that of the hereditary justicer were refused. then from the palace came the bishop, with due and decorous attendance of crosier and solemn procession. and there, amid a turmoil of joy and the ringing of every bell in the city, we, that had gone out to be together in death, were joined in the bonds of youth and life. but the lady ysolinde saw not--heard not. for they had carried her out white and still from the place where she had fallen fainting at the foot of the scaffold. chapter liii the lubber fiend's return al these things had overpast so quickly that when helene and i found ourselves alone in the red tower it seemed to both of us that we dreamed. we sat in a kind of buzzing hush, on the low window-seat of the old room, hand in hand. the shouts of the people came up to us from the square beneath. we heard the tramp of the soldiers, who cheered us as they passed to and fro. being at last alone, we looked into each other's eyes, and we could not believe in our own happiness. "my wife!" i said, but in another fashion than i had said it on the scaffold. "my husband!" answered helene, looking up at me. but i think, for all that we realized of the truth, we might as well have called each other king and queen of sheba. we had been conducted with honor to the red tower. for since it was in virtue of my hereditary office that i had obtained the great deliverance, i dared for the present seek no other dwelling-place. for helene's sake, indeed, i should have felt safer elsewhere. besides, desperate and full of baffled hatred as i knew duke otho to be, i did not believe that he would dare to molest us--for some time at least. the rage of the people, their unbounded jubilation at the deliverance of their saint helena from the jaws of death on the very scaffold, were too recent to be trifled with by a prince sitting so insecure in his ducal seat as otho of the wolfmark. so here in the ancient red tower, i thought, we might at least be safe enough till my good fellows of plassenburg, with the prince at their head, should swarm hammering at the gates of thorn. to us, sitting thus hand in hand, there entered the bishop peter. "hail!" he said, blandly, and in his grandest manner, as we knelt for his benediction; "hail, bride and bridegroom! god has been good to you this day. bishop peter, the least of his servants, greets you very well. may you have long life and prosperity unfailing." i thanked him for his gracious words. "the folk of the city are full of joy," he said. "i think they would almost proclaim you duke to-day." "i desire no such perilous honor," i replied, smiling; "it were indeed an ill-omen to have a duke habited all in red." "it is your marriage-dress, hugo," said helene; "i will not have you speak against it." ever since the strain of the scaffold she had not once broke down--no, nor wept--but only desired to sit very close beside me, touching me sometimes, as if to make sure that i was real. deliverance had been too great and sudden, and those things which had come so near to us both--death and the beyond--had left a salt and bitter spray on our lips. "and what of the lady ysolinde?" i asked of the bishop. now the bishop peter was a good man, but, like many of his brethren, a lover of great, swelling words. "the lady ysolinde," he said, oratorically, "by the immediate assistance of the city guard, was placed in a litter and deported, all unconscious as she was, to her father's house in the weiss thor, where she still remains. but her most seasonable extract from the laws of the wolfmark, which so opportunely saved the life of your fair wife, and led to this present happy consummation, i have here by me, even in my hand." and with that the bishop drew the rolled parchment from his pocket and handed it to me, with all the original seals depending from it. now i have small gift for the deciphering of such ancient documents, being only skilled in the common script of the day, and not over-well in that. so that i had to depend upon the offices of bishop peter for the interpretation. "i think," said the bishop, after he had finished reading it over, "that this document had best remain in my own possession. it may be safer under the seal and protection of the church--even as, to speak truth, you and your wife would also be. i am a plain man," the bishop continued, after a pause, "but remember that there is ever a place of refuge at the palace--and one which even duke otho is not likely to violate, remembering the experiences of his predecessor, duke casimir, when he crossed his sword against the crosier of this unworthy servant of holy church." "i thank you," said i. "i would that it were possible to avail myself of your all too generous offer. but it will be necessary to abide at least this one night in the red tower." "ah," he said, "why this night?" "great things may happen this night, my lord bishop!" said i, and glanced significantly in the direction of plassenburg. "ah," said the bishop again, "so then the power of holy church may not be the only restraint upon duke otho by to-morrow at this time!" and, calling his attendants, the suave and far-seeing prelate made his way with gravity and reverend ceremony down the streets of thorn towards his palace. so, bit by bit, the long day passed away, and i thought it would never end. for helene and i sat and waited for that which might happen, with beating and anxious hearts. ofttimes i ran to the top of the red tower, and sometimes it seemed that i could see a moving cloud of dust, and sometimes a flurry of startled cattle afar on the horizon. but till dusk there came to our aching eyes no better evidence that the lads of plassenburg were coming to our rescue and to the deliverance of the down-trodden city of thorn. the soldiers of the garrison were still encamped in the great square. there was also a constant swarming and mustering of men upon the ramparts of the wolfsberg. duke otho had certainly enough men to make a creditable resistance. true, they were free companions, and without other loyalty than that which they owed to their paymaster. and beneath this warlike show lay the city, rebellious and turbulent to the core, the merchants longing for unhampered rights of trade and security in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labors, the craftsmen claiming freedom to work in their guilds without a payment of labor-bond tithes to the duke, and especially without the fear of being snatched away at any moment from their benches and looms to join in his forays and incursions. towards the gloaming i had come down from the roof of the tower, and was standing, gloomy, and little like a bridegroom, at the little window whence i had so often looked down upon the playing children of thorn. suddenly a great hand was reached up from the pavement, a folded paper was thrust in at the lattice, and i saw the face of the lubber fiend looking up at me from the street below. "come up hither, good jan," i cried to him. "i will run and open the gate!" but the lubber fiend only shook his head till his ears flapped like burdocks in the wind by the wood edges. "jan will come none within that gate to tell where he has been," he said. "jan may be a fool, but he knows better than that." "and where have you been?" i asked, eagerly. jan the lubber fiend stood on his tiptoes and whispered up to me with his elbows on the sill. "you are sure the duke is not behind you?" "there is none here--except my wife," i said, smiling. and i liked speaking the word. "i have seen the great prince," said jan, nodding backward, and smiling mysteriously, "and he is coming, but not by himself. there are such a peck of mad fellows out there. there will not be much to eat in thorn when they all come in. better make a good dinner to-day, that is my advice to you. and i was bid to tell you that when all was ready for their coming a fire is to be lighted on a high place, and then the prince will come to the gates." i longed much to hear more of his adventures, but neither love nor money would induce the thrice cautious jan to set a foot within the precincts of the red tower. "i will light a bonfire when it is dark at the white gate," he said, as he retracted himself into the dusk. "i know what will make a rare blaze. and the prince cannot come too soon." so indeed i thought also, as i looked out and saw the swarms of duke otho's men in the court-yard and about the square, and reflected on our helplessness here in the red tower within the defenced precincts of the wolfsberg. chapter liv the crowning of duke otho but at long and last the most tardy-footed day comes to an end. and so, just as fast as on any common day, the sun at last dropped to the edge of the horizon and slowly sank, leaving a shallowing lake of orange color behind. the red roofs of thorn grew gray, with purple veins of shadow in the interstices where the streets ran, or rather burrowed. the nightly hum of the city began. for, under the cruel rule of the wolves of the castle, thorn was ever busiest in the right. indeed, the cheating of the guard had become a business well understood of all the citizens, who had a regular code of signals to warn each other of its approach. lights winked and kindled in the wolfsberg over against me. i could see the long array of lighted windows where the duke would presently be dining with michael texel, high councillor gerard von sturm, and most of his other intimates. there, beneath, were the stables of the black riders, and before them men were constantly passing and repassing with buckets and soldier gear. i wondered if the duke had news of the approach of the enemy. so soon as i judged it safe i went to the top of the red tower and unfolded the paper which jan the lubber fiend had brought me. it was without name and address or signature, and read as follows: "to-night we shall be all in readiness. when the time is ripe let a fire be lighted upon some conspicuous tower or high place of the city. then we will come." thereafter helene, being lonely, climbed up and sat down beside me. i handed her the paper. "to-night will be a stormy one in thorn and the wolfsberg, little one," said i. "i fear you and i are not yet out of the wood." the little playmate read the letter and gave it back to me. i tore it up, and let the wind carry away the pieces one by one, small, like dust, so that scarce one letter clave to another. her hand stole into mine. "ah," she sighed, "i am beginning to believe in it now! to-night may be as dangerous as yesternight. but at least we are together, never to be separated. and to us two that means all." it was a strange marriage night, this of ours--thus to sit on the roof of the tower, under the iron beacon which had been placed there in my grandfather's time, and listen to the hum and murmur of the city, straining our eyes meanwhile through the darkness to catch the first spear-glint from the army of the prince. "if they do not come by midnight, or if jan lubber fiend does not light his fire by the white gate, we must e'en risk it and kindle this one here on the red tower." so the night passed on till it was about eleven, or it might be a quarter of an hour later. then all suddenly i saw a little crowd of men disengage themselves from that private entrance of the hall of judgment by which, on the day of the trial, dessauer and i had entered. they made straight towards the red tower at a quick run. "dear love," said i to helene, "see yonder! be ready to light the beacon. i fear me much that our time has come to fight for life." "kiss me, then," she said, "and i will be ready for all that may be. at worst, we can die together, true husband and true wife." presently there came a thundering knock at the door of the red tower. i crouched on the stairs behind and listened intently. i could hear the breathing of several men. "he is surely within," said a voice. "the tower has been watched every moment of the day." again came the loud knocking. "open--in the name of the duke!" cried the voice. and the door was rattled fiercely against its fastenings. but i knew well enough that it could hold against any force of unassisted men. for my father had ever taken a special pride in the bars and defences of the single low door which led into his much-threatened residence. so i crouched in the dark of the stairs and listened with yet more quivering intentness. presently i could hear shoulders set to the iron-studded surface, and a voice counted, softly, "one--two--three--and a heave!" but though i discerned the laboring of the men straining themselves with all their might, they might as well have pushed at the rough-harled wall of the wolfsberg. "it will not do," i heard one say at last. "we cannot hope to succeed thus. bring the powder-bag and prepare the fuse." so then i knew indeed that our time was at hand. i mounted the stairs three at a time till i came to the room where helene was waiting for me in the dark. "fire the beacon on the tower!" i bade her--"our enemies are upon us!" "and after that may i come to you, hugo?" she said. "nay, little one, it is better that you bide on the roof and see that the beacon burns. you will find plenty of tow and oil in the niche by the stair-head." i could hear helene give vent to a little sigh. but she obeyed instantly, and her light feet went pattering up the stairs. then i waited for the explosion, which seemed as if it would never come. i had my dagger in my belt, but of pure instinct my right hand seized the red axe. for i had more skill of that than any other weapon, and as i had cast it down when they brought us in from the scaffold that morning, it lay ready to my hand. so i waited at the stair-head, and watched keenly the narrow passage up which the men must come one by one. i measured my distance with the axe-handle, and made a trial sweep or two, so that i might be sure of clearing the stones on either side. i could not see that there would be much difficulty in holding the place for a while, if only prince karl would haste him and come. for to me the game of breaking heads and slicing necks would be easy as cracking nuts on an anvil--at least, so long as they would come up singly. presently i heard the roar of burning fuel above me, and immediately after a cry from below. through the narrow stairway lattice i could see the uncertain flicker of flames lighting up the street. men ran backward across the open square, looking up as they ran. so by that i knew that helene had done her work, and was now watching the burning beacon, as the flames flicked upward and clapped their fiery applausive palms. but at the same moment, from the foot of the stairs, there came the loud report of the explosion beneath the door of the red tower, the rumble of stones, and then an eager rush of men to see what had been effected. "now for it!" i thought, as i gripped the red axe. but it was not to be so soon. the iron bars, which my father had engineered so that they sank deep into the wall on either side, still held nobly, and i heard the loud voice crying again for a battering-ram. the soldiers of the attacking party went scurrying across the yard, and presently returned, carrying between them a young tree cleared of its branches, but with the rough bark still upon it. without, in the square, the turmoil increased, and the streets echoed with shouting. a wild hope came into my heart that prince karl had not awaited the summons of the beacon, and that his troops were already in the streets of thorn. but even as the thought passed through my brain i knew that it was vain. on the other hand, it was evident that in the town the general alarm had been given, for the trumpets blew from the ramparts of the wolfsberg, and the call to arms resounded incessantly in the court-yard. i doubted not also that many a stout burgher was getting him under arms--and but few of them to fight for the duke. suddenly the bars of the door jangled on the stones under the swinging blows of the battering-ram. i heard feet clatter on the stair. they came with a rush, but long ere they had arrived at the top the pace slackened. only one man at a time could come up the stairway, and it is always a drag upon the enthusiasm of an assault when at least two cannot advance together. the light flickered and filtered in from the torches in the streets, and the reflected glow of the bonfire on the roof made the stair-head clear as a lucid twilight. i waited, with the axe swinging loosely in one hand. a head bobbed up, clad in a steel cap. bat as the unseen feet propelled it upward the red axe took little reck of the head. betwixt the steel cap and the rim of steel of the body armor appeared a gray line of leather jerkin and a thinner white line of neck. the red axe swung. i bethought me that it was a bad light to cut off calves' heads in. but the red axe made no mistake. i had learned my trade. there was not even a groan--only a dull thud some way underneath, such as you may hear when the children of the quarter play football on the streets. then the foremost of the assailants were blocked by the fallen body, and the feet of the men behind were stayed as the strange round plaything rebounded among them. "back!" they cried, who were in front. "forward!" replied those who were hindmost and knew nothing. "come, men--on and finish it!" cried the voice which had commanded the powder-flask and the tree--the voice i now knew to be that of duke otho himself. but the kick-ball argument of the red axe was mightily discouraging to those immediately concerned, and as i felt the muscles of my right arm and waited, i could hear otho reasoning, threatening, coaxing, all in vain. then his tones mounted steadily into hot anger. he reviled his followers for dogs, cowards, curs who had eaten his bread and now would not rid him of his enemies. "a thousand rix-dollars to the man who kills hugo gottfried!" he shouted. "but, hear ye, save the girl alive!" yet not a man would attempt the first hazard of the stair. "knaves, traitors, curs!" he cried; "would that there were so much as a single true man among you--but there is not one worth spitting upon!" "cur yourself!" growled a man, somewhere in the dark--"you have most at stake in this. try the stair yourself if you are so keen. we will follow fast enough!" "god strike me dead if i do not!" shouted otho; "if it were only to shame you cowards." he paused to prepare his weapons. "follow me, men!" he shouted again; "all together!" again there was the clatter of iron-shod feet on the stone steps beneath me. my grip on the red axe became like iron, but my joints were loose and swung easily as a flail swings on well-seasoned leathers. "welcome, otho von reuss!" i cried; "ye could not be crowned without the death of helene my wife! come up hither and i will crown thee once for all with the iron crown." there, at last, was mine enemy at the turn of the stair, rushing furiously upon me, sword in hand. "traitor!" he cried, and his sword was almost at my breast, so fast he came. "murderer!" i shouted. and almost ere i was aware the red axe flashed as it swept full circle with scarce a pause, but it took the head of a man with it on its way. otho von reuss was crowned. helene, the little playmate, was avenged. chapter lv the lady ysolinde saves her soul the duke's body sank down upon that of the soldier, still further blocking the passage. and as for his head, i know not where that went to. but the rush of his followers was utterly checked by the barrier of dead. with a wild cry, "the duke is dead! duke otho is slain!" they rushed down and out of the red tower, eager at once to escape unharmed, and to carry to their companions in the wolfsberg the startling news. nevertheless, i cleared my arm, wiped my axe, and again stood ready. "come!" i cried--"come all of you. you desire to kill me? well, i am still waiting!" but not a man answered. the stairway was clear, save of the headless dead. and then, sudden as summer thunder, through the dumb and empty silence, i heard clear and loud the clanging of the hammers of prince karl upon the gates of thorn. at that i felt that i must roar aloud in my fierce joy. i shouted angrily for more and more assailants to come up the stair, that i might kill them all. i yearned to be first at the gate, to see the men whom i had led break their way in to deliver the city. i, more than any other, had brought them there. i had trained them for that work. best of all, across the stairway beneath me lay dead otho, duke of the wolfmark, beheaded by the red axe of his own justicer. "husband! hugo! are you wounded?" said a voice behind me, a voice which in a moment recalled me from my bloody imaginings and baresark fury of fighting. "helene!" i cried. she approached, and would have thrown her arms about me. but i held out my hand to keep her off. "not now, child," i said; "touch me not. i am unwounded, but wet!" and so i was, wet with that which had spouted from the neck of otho von reuss, as his trunk stood a moment headless in the stairway ere it fell prone--a hideous thing to see. "come, helene," i said, "we must away. there is other work for your husband to-night. you i will place with the bishop peter. but my place is with the men of plassenburg and with karl, my noble prince." and i took her by the hand to lead her out. "not that way!" she cried, shrinking back. for the bodies of the two slain men lay there. and the stairs ran red from step to step in red drips and lappering pools. so i bethought me of what we should do, and ran forthwith for my father's cord, with which he was used to bind the malefactors upon the wheel. "come, helene," said i, and straightway fastened the rope to the iron bar from which i had made so many descents to the pavement in the old days of the white wolves. i let myself down, and there in the angle of the tower wall, i waited to catch my wife. she delayed somewhat, and i could not think wherefore. but at last she came, bringing the red axe in her hand. "go not weaponless!" she said, and i reached up and took from her hand that which had already served me so well. the red axe had done its work now, and she was grateful. then full lightly she descended to my side, and we went down the streets of thorn, which were filled with hurrying burgesses, all with weapons in their hands, rushing to discover the cause of the clamor. i took helene hastily to the palace of the bishop. and when i arrived there i saw peter himself with his head out of a window. "i come to claim your protection for my wife!" i cried. he came down immediately with an attendant. "fear not," i said, "you will never be called in question for this kindly deed. the duke otho is slain, and the army of prince karl of plassenburg is already at the gates." "the duke is dead!" he gasped. "who slew him?" "who but the hereditary justicer of the wolfmark should slay a traitor?" said i, smiling at his astonishment. and i held up the red axe, on which there was now no crystal-clear rim of shining steel. all was crimson from haft to edge--red as blood. "here, for an hour, helene, little wife, i must leave you!" i said. but now she sobbed and clung to me as she had not done before, even in the dungeon. "stay with me," she said. "i need you, hugo!" i took her by the hand. "little one," i whispered, as tenderly as i could, "i would not be worthily your husband if i went not to meet those who are fighting to save us all this night. they have come from far to deliver us. i were false and recreant if i went not to their assistance." "i know--i know," she said. "go!" and with that she gave a hand to the good bishop and went quietly within, with no more than a smile over her shoulder, like a watery april sun-glint. then i betook me with all speed to the weiss thor, where i judged the chief struggle would take place. and as i came i heard the rattle of shot and the jarring thunder of the forehammers. the soldiers without shouted, and the men within more feebly replied. i came in sight of the gate. there on my left hand was the house of master gerard von sturm. a fire was still flickering upon the tower of it. without i could hear the cheering and clamoring of the besiegers. but the gates remained obstinately shut. they were stronger than the prince had anticipated. as _i_ stood, uncertain what to do, i saw a slim white figure, the figure of a woman, flash across the open space towards the gate. the men who defended the gate towers were all upon the top of the wall. before any could stop her she had thrown herself upon the wheel by which the bars were unfastened, and with a few turns had drawn them as deftly as evil duke casimir had been wont to remove the teeth of the rich hebrew folk when he wanted supplies. the white gate slowly opened upon creaking hinges. the faces of the soldiers of plassenburg were seen without, the weapons gleamed in their hands as they came on shouting fiercely. the guards of the duke rushed forward to close the gate. but the woman had clamped the wheel and stood holding the bar. it was the lady ysolinde. she saw me as the soldiers of duke otho closed threateningly upon her. she waved her hand to me almost happily. "_i have saved my soul, hugo gottfried_!" she cried. "_i have saved my soul_!" at that moment a soldier of the black riders struck her fiercely with his lance. i saw the white bosom of her dress redden as he plucked his weapon to him again. i was in time to catch her in my arms as the soldiers of plassenburg, with prince karl at their head, came through the white gate like a spring-tide, carrying all before them. the prince stayed at his wife's side. "ysolinde!" cried the prince, aghast, bending over her--not heeding, nor indeed, as i think, even seeing me. "karl!" she said, looking gently at him, "try and forgive me all the rest. but be glad that i opened the white gate for yon. i, ysolinde, your wife, did it for your sake." i put her into her husband's arms. i saw at a glance that there was no hope. she could not live many moments with that lance-thrust through her breast. she looked at him again. "karl--say 'ysolinde, i love you!'" she whispered, almost shyly. he looked down, and a rush of unwonted tears came to the eyes of the prince of plassenburg. "ysolinde, i love you!" he made answer, in a broken voice. she smiled, and then looked over his shoulder up at me. _"hugo gottfried, have i not saved my soul?"_ she cried. and so passed. chapter lvi helena, princess of plassenburg there was, however, deadly work yet before the men of plassenburg. we found, indeed, that the townsfolk were with us almost to a man. their guild train-bands gathered and mustered at their halls. the guards at the city gates fraternally turned their arms to the ground. "the prince will restore your ancient liberties!" i cried. and the people shouted. "prince karl of plassenburg and our ancient liberties!" then we made our way up the street by different routes to the wolfsberg. there was little fighting till we arrived under those vast and gloomy walls. the black riders had disappeared within. those worst tools of grim tyranny had early withdrawn themselves, knowing that small mercy would be shown them by the people if once the wolfsberg were taken. but the common soldiers of the fighting rank, sons and brothers of the women of thorn, tore off the badge of the bloody dukes and with loud shouts marched with us as comrades. but when we came before the walls, and with sound of trumpet and loud shouts summoned the wolfsberg to surrender, a discharge of musketry from the walls, and the determined faces of a multitude of defenders showed us conclusively that all was not yet over. it was no use wasting men in attacking the great pile of buildings with the force at our disposal. we had men in plenty, but for breeching we needed the cannon left behind by these swift forces, which, marching day and night, had arrived in the very nick of time before the walls of thorn. nevertheless, it was not the fate of the wolfsberg to be taken by lazy peg and her compeers. these ponderous pieces of ordnance were presently being dragged through the swamps and over the brick-dust barrens of the borderlands, and it might be three or four days before they could arrive to aid us. there was nothing, therefore, to do but to sit down and wait, drawing a cincture that not a mouse could creep through about the cliffs of the wolfsberg. but deep within the heart of the old red tower there was one stronger than lazy peg fighting for us. "fire! fire!" cried the people in the streets. "the wolfsberg is on fire!" and so, surely, it was. the flames burst out from the windows of the red tower and were rapidly carried by a dry fanning northerly wind along the wooden workshops and kennels to the main building, where the hall of judgment was soon blazing like a torch. the defenders seemed paralyzed by this misadventure. some ran to the castle well. some threw themselves desperately from the walls, others crowded to the gates, and through the bars besought our prince's pledge that mercy would be shown them. then the crowd without were ill to deal with, for they cried aloud, "no mercy to the murderers! show us our saint helena!" then it was that i leaped once more upon the scaffold, which had seen such a sight the day before, and cried, "duke otho is dead! i, hugo gottfried, slew him with this red axe. prince karl is come to save you, and to give you back your ancient liberties. your saint helena is my wife, and is safe under the protection of bishop peter." but though they cheered at my words they would not cease from crying, "show us saint helena, and if she bid us we will have mercy on the wolves of the wolfsberg!" so it was necessary for helene to be brought and to show herself to them, for the sake of the poor souls sore driven and in jeopardy 'twixt the fire and the knives. "have mercy on the poor folk!" she cried, when they had done shouting because of her safety. "at worst, they are but misguided, ignorant men!" by this time the doors of the wolfsberg were thrown open from within, and the men crowded out, casting down their arms in heaps on either side the gate. they were then marched, under charge of the soldiers of plassenburg, to various strongholds which were pointed out by the burgomeister and the chiefs of the guilds. the fortified halls of the trades were filled with them. by daybreak the whole of thorn was in our hands, while the gray barrens of the wolfmark were lit for leagues by the flaming wolfsberg, which, on its craggy height, vomited fire and sparks into the blackness of night. and the reek of this great burning hung for days after in the heavens. thus was an end made to the iniquities of the house of the black duke casimir and the red duke otho. and the last duke mixed his ashes with that of the fatal tower. for on the morrow there remained only the blackened walls and glowing skeleton beams of all that mighty palace--which, indeed, has never been rebuilt. for the people of thorn, under the mild and equitable rule which followed, erected a great memorial church upon the spot--as may be seen to this day, a landmark from far to witness if i have lied in the tale which has been told. so the prince karl gave back to thorn its liberties, as he had promised. but the regality of the dukedom he kept for himself, and he took the wolfmark and made it part of his dominions, till, as he had formerly undertaken, the broom-bush kept the cow throughout the length and breadth of plassenburg and the mark. it was a noble home-coming when we returned to plassenburg--victorious and famous; but also there was mourning deep and solemn for the princess ysolinde, who by her sacrifice had wrought such great things for the arms of plassenburg, and had died in the moment of victory. then, when after the stately funeral of the dead princess we returned back to the palace, it was the prince's pleasure that helene and myself should ride on either hand of him through the city. and when we were announced in the court, and the councillors of state stood about, my wife was named by her true name, "helena, princess of plassenburg!" whereat the courtiers opened their mouths and widened their eyes--thinking, perhaps, that that ancient wizard, chancellor leopold von dessauer had suddenly gone mad. but when the representatives of the cities of the princedom, and the delegates from thorn and the mark, had been received with due honor, the prince bade his chancellor recount all he had learned from my father, and all that he had discovered in the archives of plassenburg. then, when dessauer had finished, karl the prince arose. "i am," he said, "a plain, brusque man. and speech was never my stronghold. but this i say. when karl the miller's son goes the way of king's son and beggar's son, it is his will that helene, legitimate princess of plassenburg, shall reign over you. and also that her husband, hugo, who, as you know, won her from dreadful death, shall stand by her right hand." then the nobles and great lords, fearing the prince, and perhaps also envying a little the man who was the prince's general of his armies, shouted amain: "we swear to obey the princess helena!" whereat uprose the little playmate, very princess-like and full of sweet regal dignity. "i thank you, noble prince," she said. "i am glad that i can claim so honorable a name and lineage; but i had rather be no princess, nor anything else than that which my husband hath made me--the wife of the captain-general of the armies of karl, the only true and noble prince of plassenburg!" then the prince rose and clasped her in his arms, kissing her fondly on both cheeks. "fear not," he said, "dear and loyal lady. if you live to be the princess, your goodman shall be the prince. never shall the gray mare flaunt it first, in plassenburg!" and he gave us each a hand, and conducted us to a pair of seats which had been set level with his on the platform of the council-chamber of the princedom. the prince karl lived many days after the winning of the wolfmark and the ending of the ducal wolves. but he gave less and less care to the regalities, leaving them even more completely to me, sitting mostly in the pleasaunce by the river-side, or in the far-regarding room which had been the lady ysolinde's. also he never looked again on the face of a woman--except as it might be to bid them good-day--save on that of my wife, helene, who, as you who know her may guess, waxed but the sweeter and the fairer as the years went by. and the blessing of children came to us, and in this thing the prince karl was even happier than we. one day, however, it chanced that he was seated in full council, and right noble he looked. i had just handed him a paper to sign. but he looked neither at me nor yet at the paper. his eyes were fixed on the locked doors of the privy bedchamber, through which only those of princely blood might come. he stared so long at it that to recall him i put my hand on his sleeve and said, "prince, the council waits your pleasure!" bat he heard me not, his eyes being fixed on the door. "your pardon, my lords and knights," he said, at last, fighting a little stiffly with his utterance, "but it seemed that i saw the princess, my wife, come through the door, clad in white, and beckon me with her hand. i must go to her, my lords; i think she waits for me. the prince hugo will take my place at the council." and the old man took a step from the high seat. but at the foot of the throne he stumbled and fell into my arms. he said but one word after that, with his eyes still fixed on the bolted door. "_ysolinde_!" and so the prince karl and his wife were united at last. since then we have lived long, the little playmate and i; but never have we been other than comrades and friends--lovers also, which is the best of all. and so (an the good god please) we shall abide till the end comes. and in the gloaming we two also shall see the beckoning finger from beyond the bolted door and turn our feet homeward, passing the bourne of the new life hand in hand--and undismayed. the end caleb williams or things as they are by william godwin with an introduction by ernest a. baker, m.a. london 1903 dramatis personae mr. ferdinando falkland, a high-spirited and highly cultured gentleman, a country squire in "a remote county of england." caleb williams, a youth, his secretary, the discoverer of his secret, and the supposed narrator of the consequent events. mr. collins, falkland's steward and caleb's friend. thomas, a servant of falkland's. mr. forester, falkland's brother-in-law. mr. barnabas tyrrel, a brutal and tyrannical squire. miss emily melville, his cousin and dependent, whom he cruelly maltreats and does to death. grimes, a brutal rustic, suborned by tyrrel to abduct miss melville. dr. wilson; mrs. hammond, friends of miss melville. mr. hawkins, farmer; young hawkins, his son, victims of tyrrel's brutality, and wrongfully hanged as his murderers. gines, a robber and thief-taker, instrument of falkland's vengeance upon caleb. mr. raymond, an "arcadian" captain of robbers. larkins, one of his band. an old hag, housekeeper to the robbers. a gaoler. miss peggy, the gaoler's daughter. mrs. marney, a poor gentlewoman, caleb's friend in distress. mr. spurrel, a friend who informs on caleb. mrs. denison, a cultivated lady with whom caleb is for a while on friendly terms. introduction the reputation of william godwin as a social philosopher, and the merits of his famous novel, "caleb williams," have been for more than a century the subject of extreme divergencies of judgment among critics. "the first systematic anarchist," as he is called by professor saintsbury, aroused bitter contention with his writings during his own lifetime, and his opponents have remained so prejudiced that even the staid bibliographer allibone, in his "dictionary of english literature," a place where one would think the most flagitious author safe from animosity, speaks of godwin's private life in terms that are little less than scurrilous. over against this persistent acrimony may be put the fine eulogy of mr. c. kegan paul, his biographer, to represent the favourable judgment of our own time, whilst i will venture to quote one remarkable passage that voices the opinions of many among godwin's most eminent contemporaries. in "the letters of charles lamb," sir t.n. talfourd says: "indifferent altogether to the politics of the age, lamb could not help being struck with productions of its newborn energies so remarkable as the works and the character of godwin. he seemed to realise in himself what wordsworth long afterwards described, 'the central calm at the heart of all agitation.' through the medium of his mind the stormy convulsions of society were seen 'silent as in a picture.' paradoxes the most daring wore the air of deliberate wisdom as he pronounced them. he foretold the future happiness of mankind, not with the inspiration of the poet, but with the grave and passionless voice of the oracle. there was nothing better calculated at once to feed and to make steady the enthusiasm of youthful patriots than the high speculations in which he taught them to engage, on the nature of social evils and the great destiny of his species. no one would have suspected the author of those wild theories which startled the wise and shocked the prudent in the calm, gentlemanly person who rarely said anything above the most gentle commonplace, and took interest in little beyond the whist-table." william godwin (1756-1836) was son and grandson of dissenting ministers, and was destined for the same profession. in theology he began as a calvinist, and for a while was tinctured with the austere doctrines of the sandemanians. but his religious views soon took an unorthodox turn, and in 1782, falling out with his congregation at stowmarket, he came up to london to earn his bread henceforward as a man of letters. in 1793 godwin became one of the most famous men in england by the publication of his "political justice," a work that his biographer would place side by side with the "speech for unlicensed printing," the "essay on education," and "emile," as one of "the unseen levers which have moved the changes of the times." although the book came out at what we should call a "prohibitive price," it had an enormous circulation, and brought its author in something like 1,000 guineas. in his first novel, "caleb williams," which was published the next year, he illustrated in scenes from real life many of the principles enunciated in his philosophical work. "caleb williams" went through a number of editions, and was dramatized by colman the younger under the title of "the iron chest." it has now been out of print for many years. godwin wrote several other novels, but one alone is readable now, "st. leon," which is philosophical in idea and purpose, and contains some passages of singular eloquence and beauty. godwin married the authoress of the "rights of woman," mary wollstonecraft, in 1797, losing her the same year. their daughter was the gifted wife of the poet shelley. he was a social man, particularly fond of whist, and was on terms of intimacy and affection with many celebrated men and women. tom paine, josiah wedgwood, and curran were among his closest male friends, while the story of his friendships with mrs. inchbald, amelia opie, with the lady immortalized by shelley as maria gisborne, and with those literary sisters, sophia and harriet lee, authors of the "canterbury tales," has a certain sentimental interest. afterwards he became known to wordsworth, coleridge, and lamb. he married mrs. clairmont in 1801. his later years were clouded by great embarrassments, and not till 1833 was he put out of reach of the worst privations by the gift of a small sinecure, that of yeoman usher of the exchequer. he died in 1836. among the contradictory judgments passed on "caleb williams" by godwin's contemporaries those of hazlitt, sir james mackintosh, and sir t. n. talfourd were perhaps the most eulogistic, whilst de quincey and allan cunningham criticized the book with considerable severity. hazlitt's opinion is quoted from the "spirit of the age": "a masterpiece, both as to invention and execution. the romantic and chivalrous principle of the love of personal fame is embodied in the finest possible manner in the character of falkland; as in caleb williams (who is not the first, but the second character in the piece), we see the very demon of curiosity personified. perhaps the art with which these two characters are contrived to relieve and set off each other has never been surpassed by any work of fiction, with the exception of the immortal satire of cervantes." sir leslie stephen said of it the other day: "it has lived--though in comparative obscurity--for over a century, and high authorities tell us that vitality prolonged for that period raises a presumption that a book deserves the title of classic."--_national review, february_, 1902. to understand how the work came to be written, and its aim, it is advisable to read carefully all three of godwin's prefaces, more particularly the last and the most candid, written in 1832. this will, i think, dispose of the objection that the story was expressly constructed to illustrate a moral, a moral that, as sir leslie stephen says, "eludes him." he says: "i formed a conception of a book of fictitious adventure that should in some way be distinguished by a very powerful interest. pursuing this idea, i invented first the third volume of my tale, then the second, and, last of all, the first. i bent myself to the conception of a series of adventures of flight and pursuit; the fugitive in perpetual apprehension of being overwhelmed with the worst calamities, and the pursuer, by his ingenuity and resources, keeping his victim in a state of the most fearful alarm. this was the project of my third volume." he goes on to describe in more detail the "dramatic and impressive" situations and the "fearful events" that were to be evolved, making it pretty clear that the purpose somewhat vaguely and cautiously outlined in the earliest preface was rather of the nature of an afterthought. falkland is not intended to be a personification of the evils caused by the social system, nor is he put forward as the inevitable product of that system. the reader's attention is chiefly absorbed by the extraordinary contest between caleb williams and falkland, and in the tragic situations that it involves. compared with these the denunciation of the social system is a matter of secondary interest; but it was natural that the author of the "political justice," with his mind preoccupied by the defects of the english social system, should make those defects the, evil agencies of his plot. as the essential conditions of the series of events, as the machinery by which everything is brought about, these defects are of the utmost importance to the story. it is the accused system that awards to tyrrel and falkland their immense preponderance in society, and enables them to use the power of the law for the most nefarious ends. tyrrel does his cousin to death and ruins his tenant, a man of integrity, by means of the law. this is the occasion of falkland's original crime. his more heinous offence, the abandonment of the innocent hawkinses to the gallows, is the consequence of what godwin expressly denounces, punishment for murder. "i conceived it to be in the highest degree absurd and iniquitous, to cut off a man qualified for the most essential and extensive utility, merely out of retrospect to an act which, whatever were its merits, could not be retrieved." then a new element is imported into the train of causation, caleb's insatiable curiosity, and the strife begins between these well-matched antagonists, the man of wealth and station utilizing all the advantages granted him by the state of society to crush his enemy. godwin, then, was justified in declaring that his book comprehended "a general view of the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of man." such were the words of the original preface, which was suppressed for a short time owing to the fears caused by the trial of horne tooke, thomas holcroft and other revolutionists, with whom godwin was in profound sympathy. had he intended "caleb williams," however, from its first inception, to be an imaginative version of the "political justice," he would have had to invent a different plan and different characters. the arguments of a sociological novel lack cogency unless the characters are fairly representative of average mankind. godwin's principal actors are both, to say the least, exceptional. they are lofty idealizations of certain virtues and powers of mind. falkland is like jean valjean, a superhuman creature; and, indeed, "caleb williams" may well be compared on one side with "les misérables," for victor hugo's avowed purpose, likewise, was the denunciation of social tyranny. but the characteristics that would have weakened the implied theorem, had such been the main object, are the very things that make the novel more powerful as drama of a grandiose, spiritual kind. the high and concentrated imagination that created such a being as falkland, and the intensity of passion with which caleb's fatal energy of mind is sustained through that long, despairing struggle, are of greater artistic value than the mechanical symmetry by which morals are illustrated. e. a. b. preface by the author. the following narrative is intended to answer a purpose more general and important than immediately appears upon the face of it. the question now afloat in the world respecting things as they are is the most interesting that can be presented to the human mind. while one party pleads for reformation and change, the other extols in the warmest terms the existing constitution of society. it seemed as if something would be gained for the decision of this question if that constitution were faithfully developed in its practical effects. what is now presented to the public is no refined and abstract speculation; it is a study and delineation of things passing in the moral world. it is but of late that the inestimable importance of political principles has been adequately apprehended. it is now known to philosophers that the spirit and character of the government intrudes itself into every rank of society. but this is a truth highly worthy to be communicated to persons whom books of philosophy and science are never likely to reach. accordingly, it was proposed, in the invention of the following work, to comprehend, as far as the progressive nature of a single story would allow, a general review of the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of man. if the author shall have taught a valuable lesson, without subtracting from the interest and passion by which a performance of this sort ought to be characterised, he will have reason to congratulate himself upon the vehicle he has chosen. _may_ 12, 1794. this preface was withdrawn in the original edition, in compliance with the alarms of booksellers. "caleb williams" made his first appearance in the world in the same month in which the sanguinary plot broke out against the liberties of englishmen, which was happily terminated by the acquittal of its first intended victims in the close of that year. terror was the order of the day; and it was feared that even the humble novelist might be shown to be constructively a traitor. _october_ 29, 1795. author's latest preface. london, _november_ 20, 1832. "caleb williams" has always been regarded by the public with an unusual degree of favour. the proprietor of "the standard novels" has therefore imagined that even an account of the concoction and mode of writing of the work would be viewed with some interest. i finished the "enquiry concerning political justice," the first work which may be considered as written by me in a certain degree in the maturity of my intellectual powers, and bearing my name, early in january, 1793; and about the middle of the following month the book was published. it was my fortune at that time to be obliged to consider my pen as the sole instrument for supplying my current expenses. by the liberality of my bookseller, mr. george robinson, of paternoster row, i was enabled then, and for nearly ten years before, to meet these expenses, while writing different things of obscure note, the names of which, though innocent and in some degree useful, i am rather inclined to suppress. in may, 1791, i projected this, my favourite work, and from that time gave up every other occupation that might interfere with it. my agreement with robinson was that he was to supply my wants at a specified rate while the book was in the train of composition. finally, i was very little beforehand with the world on the day of its publication, and was therefore obliged to look round and consider to what species of industry i should next devote myself. i had always felt in myself some vocation towards the composition of a narrative of fictitious adventure; and among the things of obscure note which i have above referred to were two or three pieces of this nature. it is not therefore extraordinary that some project of the sort should have suggested itself on the present occasion. but i stood now in a very different situation from that in which i had been placed at a former period. in past years, and even almost from boyhood, i was perpetually prone to exclaim with cowley: "what shall i do to be for ever known, and make the age to come my own?" but i had endeavoured for ten years, and was as far from approaching my object as ever. everything i wrote fell dead-born from the press. very often i was disposed to quit the enterprise in despair. but still i felt ever and anon impelled to repeat my effort. at length i conceived the plan of political justice. i was convinced that my object of building to myself a name would never be attained by merely repeating and refining a little upon what other men had said, even though i should imagine that i delivered things of this sort with a more than usual point and elegance. the world, i believed, would accept nothing from me with distinguishing favour that did not bear upon the face of it the undoubted stamp of originality. having long ruminated upon the principles of political justice, i persuaded myself that i could offer to the public, in a treatise on this subject, things at once new, true, and important. in the progress of the work i became more sanguine and confident. i talked over my ideas with a few familiar friends during its progress, and they gave me every generous encouragement. it happened that the fame of my book, in some inconsiderable degree, got before its publication, and a certain number of persons were prepared to receive it with favour. it would be false modesty in me to say that its acceptance, when published, did not nearly come up to everything that could soberly have been expected by me. in consequence of this, the tone of my mind, both during the period in which i was engaged in the work and afterwards, acquired a certain elevation, and made me now unwilling to stoop to what was insignificant. i formed a conception of a book of fictitious adventure that should in some way be distinguished by a very powerful interest. pursuing this idea, i invented first the third volume of my tale, then the second, and last of all the first. i bent myself to the conception of a series of adventures of flight and pursuit; the fugitive in perpetual apprehension of being overwhelmed with the worst calamities, and the pursuer, by his ingenuity and resources, keeping his victim in a state of the most fearful alarm. this was the project of my third volume. i was next called upon to conceive a dramatic and impressive situation adequate to account for the impulse that the pursuer should feel, incessantly to alarm and harass his victim, with an inextinguishable resolution never to allow him the least interval of peace and security. this i apprehended could best be effected by a secret murder, to the investigation of which the innocent victim should be impelled by an unconquerable spirit of curiosity. the murderer would thus have a sufficient motive to persecute the unhappy discoverer, that he might deprive him of peace, character, and credit, and have him for ever in his power. this constituted the outline of my second volume. the subject of the first volume was still to be invented. to account for the fearful events of the third, it was necessary that the pursuer should be invested with every advantage of fortune, with a resolution that nothing could defeat or baffle, and with extraordinary resources of intellect. nor could my purpose of giving an overpowering interest to my tale be answered without his appearing to have been originally endowed with a mighty store of amiable dispositions and virtues, so that his being driven to the first act of murder should be judged worthy of the deepest regret, and should be seen in some measure to have arisen out of his virtues themselves. it was necessary to make him, so to speak, the tenant of an atmosphere of romance, so that every reader should feel prompted almost to worship him for his high qualities. here were ample materials for a first volume. i felt that i had a great advantage in thus carrying back my invention from the ultimate conclusion to the first commencement of the train of adventures upon which i purposed to employ my pen. an entire unity of plot would be the infallible result; and the unity of spirit and interest in a tale truly considered gives it a powerful hold on the reader, which can scarcely be generated with equal success in any other way. i devoted about two or three weeks to the imagining and putting down hints for my story before i engaged seriously and methodically in its composition. in these hints i began with my third volume, then proceeded to my second, and last of all grappled with the first. i filled two or three sheets of demy writing-paper, folded in octavo, with these memorandums. they were put down with great brevity, yet explicitly enough to secure a perfect recollection of their meaning, within the time necessary for drawing out the story at full, in short paragraphs of two, three, four, five, or six lines each. i then sat down to write my story from the beginning. i wrote for the most part but a short portion in any single day. i wrote only when the afflatus was upon me. i held it for a maxim that any portion that was written when i was not fully in the vein told for considerably worse than nothing. idleness was a thousand times better in this case than industry against the grain. idleness was only time lost; and the next day, it may be, was as promising as ever. it was merely a day perished from the calendar. but a passage written feebly, flatly, and in a wrong spirit, constituted an obstacle that it was next to impossible to correct and set right again. i wrote therefore by starts; sometimes for a week or ten days not a line. yet all came to the same thing in the sequel. on an average, a volume of "caleb williams" cost me four months, neither less nor more. it must be admitted, however, that during the whole period, bating a few intervals, my mind was in a high state of excitement. i said to myself a thousand times, "i will write a tale that shall constitute an epoch in the mind of the reader, that no one, after he has read it, shall ever be exactly the same man that he was before."--i put these things down just as they happened, and with the most entire frankness. i know that it will sound like the most pitiable degree of self-conceit. but such perhaps ought to be the state of mind of an author when he does his best. at any rate, i have said nothing of my vainglorious impulse for nearly forty years. when i had written about seven-tenths of the first volume, i was prevailed upon by the extreme importunity of an old and intimate friend to allow him the perusal of my manuscript. on the second day he returned it with a note to this purpose: "i return you your manuscript, because i promised to do so. if i had obeyed the impulse of my own mind, i should have thrust it in the fire. if you persist, the book will infallibly prove the grave of your literary fame." i doubtless felt no implicit deference for the judgment of my friendly critic. yet it cost me at least two days of deep anxiety before i recovered the shock. let the reader picture to himself my situation. i felt no implicit deference for the judgment of my friendly critic. but it was all i had for it. this was my first experiment of an unbiassed decision. it stood in the place of all the world to me. i could not, and i did not feel disposed to, appeal any further. if i had, how could i tell that the second and third judgment would be more favourable than the first? then what would have been the result? no; i had nothing for it but to wrap myself in my own integrity. by dint of resolution i became invulnerable. i resolved to go on to the end, trusting as i could to my own anticipations of the whole, and bidding the world wait its time before it should be admitted to the consult. i began my narrative, as is the more usual way, in the third person. but i speedily became dissatisfied. i then assumed the first person, making the hero of my tale his own historian; and in this mode i have persisted in all my subsequent attempts at works of fiction. it was infinitely the best adapted, at least, to my vein of delineation, where the thing in which my imagination revelled the most freely was the analysis of the private and internal operations of the mind, employing my metaphysical dissecting knife in tracing and laying bare the involutions of motive, and recording the gradually accumulating impulses which led the personages i had to describe primarily to adopt the particular way of proceeding in which they afterwards embarked. when i had determined on the main purpose of my story, it was ever my method to get about me any productions of former authors that seemed to bear on my subject. i never entertained the fear that in this way of proceeding i should be in danger of servilely copying my predecessors. i imagined that i had a vein of thinking that was properly my own, which would always preserve me from plagiarism. i read other authors, that i might see what they had done, or, more properly, that i might forcibly hold my mind and occupy my thoughts in a particular train, i and my predecessors travelling in some sense to the same goal, at the same time that i struck out a path of my own, without ultimately heeding the direction they pursued, and disdaining to inquire whether by any chance it for a few steps coincided or did not coincide with mine. thus, in the instance of "caleb williams," i read over a little old book, entitled "the adventures of mademoiselle de st. phale," a french protestant in the times of the fiercest persecution of the huguenots, who fled through france in the utmost terror, in the midst of eternal alarms and hair-breadth escapes, having her quarters perpetually beaten up, and by scarcely any chance finding a moment's interval of security. i turned over the pages of a tremendous compilation, entitled "god's revenge against murder," where the beam of the eye of omniscience was represented as perpetually pursuing the guilty, and laying open his most hidden retreats to the light of day. i was extremely conversant with the "newgate calendar" and the "lives of the pirates." in the meantime no works of fiction came amiss to me, provided they were written with energy. the authors were still employed upon the same mine as myself, however different was the vein they pursued: we were all of us engaged in exploring the entrails of mind and motive, and in tracing the various rencontres and clashes that may occur between man and man in the diversified scene of human life. i rather amused myself with tracing a certain similitude between the story of caleb williams and the tale of bluebeard, than derived any hints from that admirable specimen of the terrific. falkland was my bluebeard, who had perpetrated atrocious crimes, which, if discovered, he might expect to have all the world roused to revenge against him. caleb williams was the wife who, in spite of warning, persisted in his attempts to discover the forbidden secret; and, when he had succeeded, struggled as fruitlessly to escape the consequences, as the wife of bluebeard in washing the key of the ensanguined chamber, who, as often as she cleared the stain of blood from the one side, found it showing itself with frightful distinctness on the other. when i had proceeded as far as the early pages of my third volume, i found myself completely at a stand. i rested on my arms from the 2nd of january, 1794, to the 1st of april following, without getting forward in the smallest degree. it has ever been thus with me in works of any continuance. the bow will not be for ever bent: "opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum." i endeavoured, however, to take my repose to myself in security, and not to inflict a set of crude and incoherent dreams upon my readers. in the meantime, when i revived, i revived in earnest, and in the course of that month carried on my work with unabated speed to the end. thus i have endeavoured to give a true history of the concoction and mode of writing of this mighty trifle. when i had done, i soon became sensible that i had done in a manner nothing. how many flat and insipid parts does the book contain! how terribly unequal does it appear to me! from time to time the author plainly reels to and fro like a drunken man. and, when i had done all, what had i done? written a book to amuse boys and girls in their vacant hours, a story to be hastily gobbled up by them, swallowed in a pusillanimous and unanimated mood, without chewing and digestion. i was in this respect greatly impressed with the confession of one of the most accomplished readers and excellent critics that any author could have fallen in with (the unfortunate joseph gerald). he told me that he had received my book late one evening, and had read through the three volumes before he closed his eyes. thus, what had cost me twelve months' labour, ceaseless heartaches and industry, now sinking in despair, and now roused and sustained in unusual energy, he went over in a few hours, shut the book, laid himself on his pillow, slept, and was refreshed, and cried, "to-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new." i had thought to have said something here respecting the concoction of "st. leon" and "fleetwood." but all that occurs to me on the subject seems to be anticipated in the following preface to the first edition. _february 14, 1805._ yet another novel from the same pen, which has twice before claimed the patience of the public in this form. the unequivocal indulgence which has been extended to my two former attempts, renders me doubly solicitous not to forfeit the kindness i have experienced. one caution i have particularly sought to exercise: "not to repeat myself." caleb williams was a story of very surprising and uncommon events, but which were supposed to be entirely within the laws and established course of nature, as she operates in the planet we inhabit. the story of st. leon is of the miraculous class; and its design, to "mix human feelings and passions with incredible situations, and thus render them impressive and interesting." some of those fastidious readers--they may be classed among the best friends an author has, if their admonitions are judiciously considered--who are willing to discover those faults which do not offer themselves to every eye, have remarked that both these tales are in a vicious style of writing; that horace has long ago decided that the story we cannot believe we are by all the laws of criticism called upon to hate; and that even the adventures of the honest secretary, who was first heard of ten years ago, are so much out of the usual road that not one reader in a million can ever fear they will happen to himself. gentlemen critics, i thank you. in the present volumes i have served you with a dish agreeable to your own receipt, though i cannot say with any sanguine hope of obtaining your approbation. the following story consists of such adventures as for the most part have occurred to at least one half of the englishmen now existing who are of the same rank of life as my hero. most of them have been at college, and shared in college excesses; most of them have afterward run a certain gauntlet of dissipation; most have married, and, i am afraid, there are few of the married tribe who have not at some time or other had certain small misunderstandings with their wives.[a] to be sure, they have not all of them felt and acted under these trite adventures as my hero does. in this little work the reader will scarcely find anything to "elevate and surprise;" and, if it has any merit, it must consist in the liveliness with which it brings things home to the imagination, and the reality it gives to the scenes it pourtrays. [footnote a: i confess, however, the inability i found to weave a catastrophe, such as i desired, out of these ordinary incidents. what i have here said, therefore, must not be interpreted as applicable to the concluding sheets of my work.] yes, even in the present narrative, i have aimed at a certain kind of novelty--a novelty which may be aptly expressed by a parody on a well-known line of pope; it relates: "things often done, but never yet described." in selecting among common and ordinary adventures, i have endeavoured to avoid such as a thousand novels before mine have undertaken to develop. multitudes of readers have themselves passed through the very incidents i relate; but, for the most part, no work has hitherto recorded them. if i have told them truly, i have added somewhat to the stock of books which should enable a recluse, shut up in his closet, to form an idea of what is passing in the world. it is inconceivable, meanwhile, how much, by this choice of a subject, i increased the arduousness of my task. it is so easy to do, a little better, or a little worse, what twenty authors have done before! if i had foreseen from the first all the difficulty of my project, my courage would have failed me to undertake the execution of it. certain persons, who condescend to make my supposed inconsistencies the favourite object of their research, will perhaps remark with exultation on the respect expressed in this work for marriage, and exclaim, "it was not always thus!" referring to the pages in which this subject is treated in the "enquiry concerning political justice" for the proof of their assertion. the answer to this remark is exceedingly simple. the production referred to in it, the first foundation of its author's claim to public distinction and favour, was a treatise, aiming to ascertain what new institutions in political society might be found more conducive to general happiness than those which at present prevail. in the course of this disquisition it was enquired whether marriage, as it stands described and supported in the laws of england, might not with advantage admit of certain modifications. can anything be more distinct than such a proposition on the one hand and a recommendation on the other that each man for himself should supersede and trample upon the institutions of the country in which he lives? a thousand things might be found excellent and salutary, if brought into general practice, which would in some cases appear ridiculous, and in others be attended with tragical consequences, if prematurely acted upon by a solitary individual. the author of "political justice," as appears again and again in the pages of that work, is the last man in the world to recommend a pitiful attempt, by scattered examples, to renovate the face of society, instead of endeavouring, by discussion and reasoning, to effect a grand and comprehensive improvement in the sentiments of its members. * * * * * volume the first. chapter i. my life has for several years been a theatre of calamity. i have been a mark for the vigilance of tyranny, and i could not escape. my fairest prospects have been blasted. my enemy has shown himself inaccessible to entreaties, and untired in persecution. my fame, as well as my happiness, has become his victim. every one, as far as my story has been known, has refused to assist me in my distress, and has execrated my name. i have not deserved this treatment. my own conscience witnesses in behalf of that innocence, my pretensions to which are regarded in the world as incredible. there is now, however, little hope that i shall escape from the toils that universally beset me. i am incited to the penning of these memoirs only by a desire to divert my mind from the deplorableness of my situation, and a faint idea that posterity may by their means be induced to render me a justice which my contemporaries refuse. my story will, at least, appear to have that consistency which is seldom attendant but upon truth. i was born of humble parents, in a remote county of england. their occupations were such as usually fall to the lot of peasants, and they had no portion to give me, but an education free from the usual sources of depravity, and the inheritance, long since lost by their unfortunate progeny! of an honest fame. i was taught the rudiments of no science, except reading, writing, and arithmetic. but i had an inquisitive mind, and neglected no means of information from conversation or books. my improvement was greater than my condition in life afforded room to expect. there are other circumstances deserving to be mentioned as having influenced the history of my future life. i was somewhat above the middle stature. without being particularly athletic in appearance, or large in my dimensions, i was uncommonly vigorous and active. my joints were supple, and i was formed to excel in youthful sports. the habits of my mind, however, were to a certain degree at war with the dictates of boyish vanity. i had considerable aversion to the boisterous gaiety of the village gallants, and contrived to satisfy my love of praise with an unfrequent apparition at their amusements. my excellence in these respects, however, gave a turn to my meditations. i delighted to read of feats of activity, and was particularly interested by tales in which corporeal ingenuity or strength are the means resorted to for supplying resources and conquering difficulties. i inured myself to mechanical pursuits, and devoted much of my time to an endeavour after mechanical invention. the spring of action which, perhaps more than any other, characterised the whole train of my life, was curiosity. it was this that gave me my mechanical turn; i was desirous of tracing the variety of effects which might be produced from given causes. it was this that made me a sort of natural philosopher; i could not rest till i had acquainted myself with the solutions that had been invented for the phenomena of the universe. in fine, this produced in me an invincible attachment to books of narrative and romance. i panted for the unravelling of an adventure with an anxiety, perhaps almost equal to that of the man whose future happiness or misery depended on its issue. i read, i devoured compositions of this sort. they took possession of my soul; and the effects they produced were frequently discernible in my external appearance and my health. my curiosity, however, was not entirely ignoble: village anecdotes and scandal had no charms for me: my imagination must be excited; and when that was not done, my curiosity was dormant. the residence of my parents was within the manor of ferdinando falkland, a country squire of considerable opulence. at an early age i attracted the favourable notice of mr. collins, this gentleman's steward, who used to call in occasionally at my father's. he observed the particulars of my progress with approbation, and made a favourable report to his master of my industry and genius. in the summer of the year ----, mr. falkland visited his estate in our county after an absence of several months. this was a period of misfortune to me. i was then eighteen years of age. my father lay dead in our cottage. i had lost my mother some years before. in this forlorn situation i was surprised with a message from the squire, ordering me to repair to the mansion-house the morning after my father's funeral. though i was not a stranger to books, i had no practical acquaintance with men. i had never had occasion to address a person of this elevated rank, and i felt no small uneasiness and awe on the present occasion. i found mr. falkland a man of small stature, with an extreme delicacy of form and appearance. in place of the hard-favoured and inflexible visages i had been accustomed to observe, every muscle and petty line of his countenance seemed to be in an inconceivable degree pregnant with meaning. his manner was kind, attentive, and humane. his eye was full of animation; but there was a grave and sad solemnity in his air, which, for want of experience, i imagined was the inheritance of the great, and the instrument by which the distance between them and their inferiors was maintained. his look bespoke the unquietness of his mind, and frequently wandered with an expression of disconsolateness and anxiety. my reception was as gracious and encouraging as i could possibly desire. mr. falkland questioned me respecting my learning, and my conceptions of men and things, and listened to my answers with condescension and approbation. this kindness soon restored to me a considerable part of my self-possession, though i still felt restrained by the graceful, but unaltered dignity of his carriage. when mr. falkland had satisfied his curiosity, he proceeded to inform me that he was in want of a secretary, that i appeared to him sufficiently qualified for that office, and that, if, in my present change of situation, occasioned by the death of my father, i approved of the employment, he would take me into his family. i felt highly flattered by the proposal, and was warm in the expression of my acknowledgments. i set eagerly about the disposal of the little property my father had left, in which i was assisted by mr. collins. i had not now a relation in the world, upon whose kindness and interposition i had any direct claim. but, far from regarding this deserted situation with terror, i formed golden visions of the station i was about to occupy. i little suspected that the gaiety and lightness of heart i had hitherto enjoyed were upon the point of leaving me for ever, and that the rest of my days were devoted to misery and alarm. my employment was easy and agreeable. it consisted partly in the transcribing and arranging certain papers, and partly in writing from my master's dictation letters of business, as well as sketches of literary composition. many of these latter consisted of an analytical survey of the plans of different authors and conjectural speculations upon hints they afforded, tending either to the detection of their errors, or the carrying forward their discoveries. all of them bore powerful marks of a profound and elegant mind, well stored with literature, and possessed of an uncommon share of activity and discrimination. my station was in that part of the house which was appropriated for the reception of books, it being my duty to perform the functions of librarian as well as secretary. here my hours would have glided in tranquillity and peace, had not my situation included in it circumstances totally different from those which attended me in my father's cottage. in early life my mind had been much engrossed by reading and reflection: my intercourse with my fellow mortals was occasional and short. but, in my new residence, i was excited by every motive of interest and novelty to study my master's character; and i found in it an ample field for speculation and conjecture. his mode of living was in the utmost degree recluse and solitary. he had no inclination to scenes of revelry and mirth. he avoided the busy haunts of men; nor did he seem desirous to compensate for this privation by the confidence of friendship. he appeared a total stranger to every thing which usually bears the appellation of pleasure. his features were scarcely ever relaxed into a smile, nor did that air which spoke the unhappiness of his mind at any time forsake them: yet his manners were by no means such as denoted moroseness and misanthropy. he was compassionate and considerate for others, though the stateliness of his carriage and the reserve of his temper were at no time interrupted. his appearance and general behaviour might have strongly interested all persons in his favour; but the coldness of his address, and the impenetrableness of his sentiments, seemed to forbid those demonstrations of kindness to which one might otherwise have been prompted. such was the general appearance of mr. falkland: but his disposition was extremely unequal. the distemper which afflicted him with incessant gloom had its paroxysms. sometimes he was hasty, peevish, and tyrannical; but this proceeded rather from the torment of his mind than an unfeeling disposition; and when reflection recurred, he appeared willing that the weight of his misfortune should fall wholly upon himself. sometimes he entirely lost his self-possession, and his behaviour was changed into frenzy: he would strike his forehead, his brows became knit, his features distorted, and his teeth ground one against the other. when he felt the approach of these symptoms, he would suddenly rise, and, leaving the occupation, whatever it was, in which he was engaged, hasten into a solitude upon which no person dared to intrude. it must not be supposed that the whole of what i am describing was visible to the persons about him; nor, indeed, was i acquainted with it in the extent here stated but after a considerable time, and in gradual succession. with respect to the domestics in general, they saw but little of their master. none of them, except myself, from the nature of my functions, and mr. collins, from the antiquity of his service and the respectableness of his character, approached mr. falkland, but at stated seasons and for a very short interval. they knew him only by the benevolence of his actions, and the principles of inflexible integrity by which he was ordinarily guided; and though they would sometimes indulge their conjectures respecting his singularities, they regarded him upon the whole with veneration, as a being of a superior order. one day, when i had been about three months in the service of my patron, i went to a closet, or small apartment, which was separated from the library by a narrow gallery that was lighted by a small window near the roof. i had conceived that there was no person in the room, and intended only to put any thing in order that i might find out of its place. as i opened the door, i heard at the same instant a deep groan, expressive of intolerable anguish. the sound of the door in opening seemed to alarm the person within; i heard the lid of a trunk hastily shut, and the noise as of fastening a lock. i conceived that mr. falkland was there, and was going instantly to retire; but at that moment a voice, that seemed supernaturally tremendous, exclaimed, who is there? the voice was mr. falkland's. the sound of it thrilled my very vitals. i endeavoured to answer, but my speech failed, and being incapable of any other reply, i instinctively advanced within the door into the room. mr. falkland was just risen from the floor upon which he had been sitting or kneeling. his face betrayed strong symptoms of confusion. with a violent effort, however, these symptoms vanished, and instantaneously gave place to a countenance sparkling with rage. "villain!" cried he, "what has brought you here?" i hesitated a confused and irresolute answer. "wretch!" interrupted mr. falkland, with uncontrollable impatience, "you want to ruin me. you set yourself as a spy upon my actions; but bitterly shall you repent your insolence. do you think you shall watch my privacies with impunity?" i attempted to defend myself. "begone, devil!" rejoined he. "quit the room, or i will trample you into atoms." saying this, he advanced towards me. but i was already sufficiently terrified, and vanished in a moment. i heard the door shut after me with violence; and thus ended this extraordinary scene. i saw him again in the evening, and he was then tolerably composed. his behaviour, which was always kind, was now doubly attentive and soothing. he seemed to have something of which he wished to disburthen his mind, but to want words in which to convey it. i looked at him with anxiety and affection. he made two unsuccessful efforts, shook his head, and then putting five guineas into my hand, pressed it in a manner that i could feel proceeded from a mind pregnant with various emotions, though i could not interpret them. having done this, he seemed immediately to recollect himself, and to take refuge in the usual distance and solemnity of his manner. i easily understood that secrecy was one of the things expected from me; and, indeed, my mind was too much disposed to meditate upon what i had heard and seen, to make it a topic of indiscriminate communication. mr. collins, however, and myself happened to sup together that evening, which was but seldom the case, his avocations obliging him to be much abroad. he could not help observing an uncommon dejection and anxiety in my countenance, and affectionately enquired into the reason. i endeavoured to evade his questions, but my youth and ignorance of the world gave me little advantage for that purpose. beside this, i had been accustomed to view mr. collins with considerable attachment, and i conceived from the nature of his situation that there could be small impropriety in making him my confident in the present instance. i repeated to him minutely every thing that had passed, and concluded with a solemn declaration that, though treated with caprice, i was not anxious for myself; no inconvenience or danger should ever lead me to a pusillanimous behaviour; and i felt only for my patron, who, with every advantage for happiness, and being in the highest degree worthy of it, seemed destined to undergo unmerited distress. in answer to my communication, mr. collins informed me that some incidents, of a nature similar to that which i related, had fallen under his own knowledge, and that from the whole he could not help concluding that our unfortunate patron, was at times disordered in his intellects. "alas!" continued he, "it was not always thus! ferdinando falkland was once the gayest of the gay. not indeed of that frothy sort, who excite contempt instead of admiration, and whose levity argues thoughtlessness rather than felicity. his gaiety was always accompanied with dignity. it was the gaiety of the hero and the scholar. it was chastened with reflection and sensibility, and never lost sight either of good taste or humanity. such as it was however, it denoted a genuine hilarity of heart, imparted an inconceivable brilliancy to his company and conversation, and rendered him the perpetual delight of the diversified circles he then willingly frequented. you see nothing of him, my dear williams, but the ruin of that falkland who was courted by sages, and adored by the fair. his youth, distinguished in its outset by the most unusual promise, is tarnished. his sensibility is shrunk up and withered by events the most disgustful to his feelings. his mind was fraught with all the rhapsodies of visionary honour; and, in his sense, nothing but the grosser part, the mere shell of falkland, was capable of surviving the wound that his pride has sustained." these reflections of my friend collins strongly tended to inflame my curiosity, and i requested him to enter into a more copious explanation. with this request he readily complied; as conceiving that whatever delicacy it became him to exercise in ordinary cases, it would be out of place in my situation; and thinking it not improbable that mr. falkland, but for the disturbance and inflammation of his mind, would be disposed to a similar communication. i shall interweave with mr. collins's story various information which i afterwards received from other quarters, that i may give all possible perspicuity to the series of events. to avoid confusion in my narrative, i shall drop the person of collins, and assume to be myself the historian of our patron. to the reader it may appear at first sight as if this detail of the preceding life of mr. falkland were foreign to my history. alas! i know from bitter experience that it is otherwise. my heart bleeds at the recollection of his misfortunes, as if they were my own. how can it fail to do so? to his story the whole fortune of my life was linked: because he was miserable, my happiness, my name, and my existence have been irretrievably blasted. chapter ii. among the favourite authors of his early years were the heroic poets of italy. from them he imbibed the love of chivalry and romance. he had too much good sense to regret the times of charlemagne and arthur. but, while his imagination was purged by a certain infusion of philosophy, he conceived that there was in the manners depicted by these celebrated poets something to imitate, as well as something to avoid. he believed that nothing was so well calculated to make men delicate, gallant, and humane, as a temper perpetually alive to the sentiments of birth and honour. the opinions he entertained upon these topics were illustrated in his conduct, which was assiduously conformed to the model of heroism that his fancy suggested. with these sentiments he set out upon his travels, at the age at which the grand tour is usually made; and they were rather confirmed than shaken by the adventures that befel him. by inclination he was led to make his longest stay in italy; and here he fell into company with several young noblemen whose studies and principles were congenial to his own. by them he was assiduously courted, and treated with the most distinguished applause. they were delighted to meet with a foreigner, who had imbibed all the peculiarities of the most liberal and honourable among themselves. nor was he less favoured and admired by the softer sex. though his stature was small, his person had an air of uncommon dignity. his dignity was then heightened by certain additions which were afterwards obliterated,--an expression of frankness, ingenuity, and unreserve, and a spirit of the most ardent enthusiasm. perhaps no englishman was ever in an equal degree idolised by the inhabitants of italy. it was not possible for him to have drunk so deeply of the fountain of chivalry without being engaged occasionally in affairs of honour, all of which were terminated in a manner that would not have disgraced the chevalier bayard himself. in italy, the young men of rank divide themselves into two classes,--those who adhere to the pure principles of ancient gallantry, and those who, being actuated by the same acute sense of injury and insult, accustom themselves to the employment of hired bravoes as their instruments of vengeance. the whole difference, indeed, consists in the precarious application of a generally received distinction. the most generous italian conceives that there are certain persons whom it would be contamination for him to call into the open field. he nevertheless believes that an indignity cannot be expiated but with blood, and is persuaded that the life of a man is a trifling consideration, in comparison of the indemnification to be made to his injured honour. there is, therefore, scarcely any italian that would upon some occasions scruple assassination. men of spirit among them, notwithstanding the prejudices of their education, cannot fail to have a secret conviction of its baseness, and will be desirous of extending as far as possible the cartel of honour. real or affected arrogance teaches others to regard almost the whole species as their inferiors, and of consequence incites them to gratify their vengeance without danger to their persons. mr. falkland met with some of these. but his undaunted spirit and resolute temper gave him a decisive advantage even in such perilous rencounters. one instance, among many, of his manner of conducting himself among this proud and high-spirited people it may be proper to relate. mr. falkland is the principal agent in my history; and mr. falkland in the autumn and decay of his vigour, such as i found him, cannot be completely understood without a knowledge of his previous character, as it was in all the gloss of youth, yet unassailed by adversity, and unbroken in upon by anguish or remorse. at rome he was received with particular distinction at the house of marquis pisani, who had an only daughter, the heir of his immense fortune, and the admiration of all the young nobility of that metropolis. lady lucretia pisani was tall, of a dignified form, and uncommonly beautiful. she was not deficient in amiable qualities, but her soul was haughty, and her carriage not unfrequently contemptuous. her pride was nourished by the consciousness of her charms, by her elevated rank, and the universal adoration she was accustomed to receive. among her numerous lovers count malvesi was the individual most favoured by her father, nor did his addresses seem indifferent to her. the count was a man of considerable accomplishments, and of great integrity and benevolence of disposition. but he was too ardent a lover, to be able always to preserve the affability of his temper. the admirers whose addresses were a source of gratification to his mistress, were a perpetual uneasiness to him. placing his whole happiness in the possession of this imperious beauty, the most trifling circumstances were capable of alarming him for the security of his pretensions. but most of all he was jealous of the english cavalier. marquis pisani, who had spent many years in france, was by no means partial to the suspicious precautions of italian fathers, and indulged his daughter in considerable freedoms. his house and his daughter, within certain judicious restraints, were open to the resort of male visitants. but, above all, mr. falkland, as a foreigner, and a person little likely to form pretensions to the hand of lucretia, was received upon a footing of great familiarity. the lady herself, conscious of innocence, entertained no scruple about trifles, and acted with the confidence and frankness of one who is superior to suspicion. mr. falkland, after a residence of several weeks at rome, proceeded to naples. meanwhile certain incidents occurred that delayed the intended nuptials of the heiress of pisani. when he returned to rome count malvesi was absent. lady lucretia, who had been considerably amused before with the conversation of mr. falkland, and who had an active and enquiring mind, had conceived, in the interval between his first and second residence at rome, a desire to be acquainted with the english language, inspired by the lively and ardent encomiums of our best authors that she had heard from their countryman. she had provided herself with the usual materials for that purpose, and had made some progress during his absence. but upon his return she was forward to make use of the opportunity, which, if missed, might never occur again with equal advantage, of reading select passages of our poets with an englishman of uncommon taste and capacity. this proposal necessarily led to a more frequent intercourse. when count malvesi returned, he found mr. falkland established almost as an inmate of the pisani palace. his mind could not fail to be struck with the criticalness of the situation. he was perhaps secretly conscious that the qualifications of the englishman were superior to his own; and he trembled for the progress that each party might have made in the affection of the other, even before they were aware of the danger. he believed that the match was in every respect such as to flatter the ambition of mr. falkland; and he was stung even to madness by the idea of being deprived of the object dearest to his heart by this tramontane upstart. he had, however, sufficient discretion first to demand an explanation of lady lucretia. she, in the gaiety of her heart, trifled with his anxiety. his patience was already exhausted, and he proceeded in his expostulation, in language that she was by no means prepared to endure with apathy. lady lucretia had always been accustomed to deference and submission; and, having got over something like terror, that was at first inspired by the imperious manner in which she was now catechised, her next feeling was that of the warmest resentment. she disdained to satisfy so insolent a questioner, and even indulged herself in certain oblique hints calculated to strengthen his suspicions. for some time she described his folly and presumption in terms of the most ludicrous sarcasm, and then, suddenly changing her style, bid him never let her see him more except upon the footing of the most distant acquaintance, as she was determined never again to subject herself to so unworthy a treatment. she was happy that he had at length disclosed to her his true character, and would know how to profit of her present experience to avoid a repetition of the same danger. all this passed in the full career of passion on both sides, and lady lucretia had no time to reflect upon what might be the consequence of thus exasperating her lover. count malvesi left her in all the torments of frenzy. he believed that this was a premeditated scene, to find a pretence for breaking off an engagement that was already all but concluded; or, rather, his mind was racked with a thousand conjectures: he alternately thought that the injustice might be hers or his own; and he quarrelled with lady lucretia, himself, and the whole world. in this temper he hastened to the hotel of the english cavalier. the season of expostulation was now over, and he found himself irresistibly impelled to justify his precipitation with the lady, by taking for granted that the subject of his suspicion was beyond the reach of doubt. mr. falkland was at home. the first words of the count were an abrupt accusation of duplicity in the affair of lady lucretia, and a challenge. the englishman had an unaffected esteem for malvesi, who was in reality a man of considerable merit, and who had been one of mr. falkland's earliest italian acquaintance, they having originally met at milan. but more than this, the possible consequence of a duel in the present instance burst upon his mind. he had the warmest admiration for lady lucretia, though his feelings were not those of a lover; and he knew that, however her haughtiness might endeavour to disguise it, she was impressed with a tender regard for count malvesi. he could not bear to think that any misconduct of his should interrupt the prospects of so deserving a pair. guided by these sentiments, he endeavoured to expostulate with the italian. but his attempts were ineffectual. his antagonist was drunk with choler, and would not listen to a word that tended to check the impetuosity of his thoughts. he traversed the room with perturbed steps, and even foamed with anguish and fury. mr. falkland, finding that all was to no purpose, told the count, that, if he would return to-morrow at the same hour, he would attend him to any scene of action he should think proper to select. from count malvesi mr. falkland immediately proceeded to the palace of pisani. here he found considerable difficulty in appeasing the indignation of lady lucretia. his ideas of honour would by no means allow him to win her to his purpose by disclosing the cartel he had received; otherwise that disclosure would immediately have operated as the strongest motive that could have been offered to this disdainful beauty. but, though she dreaded such an event, the vague apprehension was not strong enough to induce her instantly to surrender all the stateliness of her resentment. mr. falkland, however, drew so interesting a picture of the disturbance of count malvesi's mind, and accounted in so flattering a manner for the abruptness of his conduct, that this, together with the arguments he adduced, completed the conquest of lady lucretia's resentment. having thus far accomplished his purpose, he proceeded to disclose to her every thing that had passed. the next day count malvesi appeared, punctual to his appointment, at mr. falkland's hotel. mr. falkland came to the door to receive him, but requested him to enter the house for a moment, as he had still an affair of three minutes to despatch. they proceeded to a parlour. here mr. falkland left him, and presently returned leading in lady lucretia herself, adorned in all her charms, and those charms heightened upon the present occasion by a consciousness of the spirited and generous condescension she was exerting. mr. falkland led her up to the astonished count; and she, gently laying her hand upon the arm of her lover, exclaimed with the most attractive grace, "will you allow me to retract the precipitate haughtiness into which i was betrayed?" the enraptured count, scarcely able to believe his senses, threw himself upon his knees before her, and stammered out his reply, signifying that the precipitation had been all his own, that he only had any forgiveness to demand, and, though they might pardon, he could never pardon himself for the sacrilege he had committed against her and this god-like englishman. as soon as the first tumults of his joy had subsided, mr. falkland addressed him thus:-"count malvesi, i feel the utmost pleasure in having thus by peaceful means disarmed your resentment, and effected your happiness. but i must confess, you put me to a severe trial. my temper is not less impetuous and fiery than your own, and it is not at all times that i should have been thus able to subdue it. but i considered that in reality the original blame was mine. though your suspicion was groundless, it was not absurd. we have been trifling too much in the face of danger. i ought not, under the present weakness of our nature and forms of society, to have been so assiduous in my attendance upon this enchanting woman. it would have been little wonder, if, having so many opportunities, and playing the preceptor with her as i have done, i had been entangled before i was aware, and harboured a wish which i might not afterwards have had courage to subdue. i owed you an atonement for this imprudence. "but the laws of honour are in the utmost degree rigid; and there was reason to fear that, however anxious i were to be your friend, i might be obliged to be your murderer. fortunately, the reputation of my courage is sufficiently established, not to expose it to any impeachment by my declining your present defiance. it was lucky, however, that in our interview of yesterday you found me alone, and that accident by that means threw the management of the affair into my disposal. if the transaction should become known, the conclusion will now become known along with the provocation, and i am satisfied. but if the challenge had been public, the proofs i had formerly given of courage would not have excused my present moderation; and, though desirous to have avoided the combat, it would not have been in my power. let us hence each of us learn to avoid haste and indiscretion, the consequences of which may be inexpiable but with blood; and may heaven bless you in a consort of whom i deem you every way worthy!" i have already said that this was by no means the only instance, in the course of his travels, in which mr. falkland acquitted himself in the most brilliant manner as a man of gallantry and virtue. he continued abroad during several years, every one of which brought some fresh accession to the estimation in which he was held, as well as to his own impatience of stain or dishonour. at length he thought proper to return to england, with the intention of spending the rest of his days at the residence of his ancestors. chapter iii. from the moment he entered upon the execution of this purpose, dictated as it probably was by an unaffected principle of duty, his misfortunes took their commencement. all i have further to state of his history is the uninterrupted persecution of a malignant destiny, a series of adventures that seemed to take their rise in various accidents, but pointing to one termination. him they overwhelmed with an anguish he was of all others least qualified to bear; and these waters of bitterness, extending beyond him, poured their deadly venom upon others. i being myself the most unfortunate of their victims. the person in whom these calamities originated was mr. falkland's nearest neighbour, a man of estate equal to his own, by name barnabas tyrrel. this man one might at first have supposed of all others least qualified from instruction, or inclined by the habits of his life, to disturb the enjoyments of a mind so richly endowed as that of mr. falkland. mr. tyrrel might have passed for a true model of the english squire. he was early left under the tuition of his mother, a woman of narrow capacity, and who had no other child. the only remaining member of the family it may be necessary to notice was miss emily melville, the orphan daughter of mr. tyrrel's paternal aunt; who now resided in the family mansion, and was wholly dependent on the benevolence of its proprietors. mrs. tyrrel appeared to think that there was nothing in the world so precious as her hopeful barnabas. every thing must give way to his accommodation and advantage; every one must yield the most servile obedience to his commands. he must not be teased or restricted by any forms of instruction; and of consequence his proficiency, even in the arts of writing and reading, was extremely slender. from his birth he was muscular and sturdy; and, confined to the _ruelle_ of his mother, he made much such a figure as the whelp-lion that a barbarian might have given for a lap-dog to his mistress. but he soon broke loose from these trammels, and formed an acquaintance with the groom and the game-keeper. under their instruction he proved as ready a scholar, as he had been indocile and restive to the pedant who held the office of his tutor. it was now evident that his small proficiency in literature was by no means to be ascribed to want of capacity. he discovered no contemptible sagacity and quick-wittedness in the science of horse-flesh, and was eminently expert in the arts of shooting, fishing, and hunting. nor did he confine himself to these, but added the theory and practice of boxing, cudgel play, and quarter-staff. these exercises added ten-fold robustness and vigour to his former qualifications. his stature, when grown, was somewhat more than five feet ten inches in height, and his form might have been selected by a painter as a model for that hero of antiquity, whose prowess consisted in felling an ox with his fist, and devouring him at a meal. conscious of his advantage in this respect, he was insupportably arrogant, tyrannical to his inferiors, and insolent to his equals. the activity of his mind being diverted from the genuine field of utility and distinction, showed itself in the rude tricks of an overgrown lubber. here, as in all his other qualifications, he rose above his competitors; and if it had been possible to overlook the callous and unrelenting disposition which they manifested, one could scarcely have denied his applause to the invention these freaks displayed, and the rough, sarcastic wit with which they were accompanied. mr. tyrrel was by no means inclined to permit these extraordinary merits to rust in oblivion. there was a weekly assembly at the nearest market-town, the resort of all the rural gentry. here he had hitherto figured to the greatest advantage as grand master of the _coterie_, no one having an equal share of opulence, and the majority, though still pretending to the rank of gentry, greatly his inferior in this essential article. the young men in this circle looked up to this insolent bashaw with timid respect, conscious of the comparative eminence that unquestionably belonged to the powers of his mind; and he well knew how to maintain his rank with an inflexible hand. frequently indeed he relaxed his features, and assumed a temporary appearance of affableness and familiarity; but they found by experience, that if any one, encouraged by his condescension, forgot the deference which mr. tyrrel considered as his due, he was soon taught to repent his presumption. it was a tiger that thought proper to toy with a mouse, the little animal every moment in danger of being crushed by the fangs of his ferocious associate. as mr. tyrrel had considerable copiousness of speech, and a rich, but undisciplined imagination, he was always sure of an audience. his neighbours crowded round, and joined in the ready laugh, partly from obsequiousness, and partly from unfeigned admiration. it frequently happened, however; that, in the midst of his good humour, a characteristic refinement of tyranny would suggest itself to his mind. when his subjects, encouraged by his familiarity, had discarded their precaution, the wayward fit would seize him, a sudden cloud overspread his brow, his voice transform from the pleasant to the terrible, and a quarrel of a straw immediately ensue with the first man whose face he did not like. the pleasure that resulted to others from the exuberant sallies of his imagination was, therefore, not unalloyed with sudden qualms of apprehension and terror. it may be believed that this despotism did not gain its final ascendancy without being contested in the outset. but all opposition was quelled with a high hand by this rural antaeus. by the ascendancy of his fortune, and his character among his neighbours, he always reduced his adversary to the necessity of encountering him at his own weapons, and did not dismiss him without making him feel his presumption through every joint in his frame. the tyranny of mr. tyrrel would not have been so patiently endured, had not his colloquial accomplishments perpetually come in aid of that authority which his rank and prowess originally obtained. the situation of our squire with the fair was still more enviable than that which he maintained among persons of his own sex. every mother taught her daughter to consider the hand of mr. tyrrel as the highest object of her ambition. every daughter regarded his athletic form and his acknowledged prowess with a favourable eye. a form eminently athletic is, perhaps, always well proportioned; and one of the qualifications that women are early taught to look for in the male sex, is that of a protector. as no man was adventurous enough to contest his superiority, so scarcely any woman in this provincial circle would have scrupled to prefer his addresses to those of any other admirer. his boisterous wit had peculiar charms for them; and there was no spectacle more flattering to their vanity, than seeing this hercules exchange his club for a distaff. it was pleasing to them to consider, that the fangs of this wild beast, the very idea of which inspired trepidation into the boldest hearts, might be played with by them with the utmost security. such was the rival that fortune, in her caprice, had reserved for the accomplished falkland. this untamed, though not undiscerning brute, was found capable of destroying the prospects of a man the most eminently qualified to enjoy and to communicate happiness. the feud that sprung up between them was nourished by concurring circumstances, till it attained a magnitude difficult to be paralleled; and, because they regarded each other with a deadly hatred, i have become an object of misery and abhorrence. the arrival of mr. falkland gave an alarming shock to the authority of mr. tyrrel in the village assembly and in all scenes of indiscriminate resort. his disposition by no means inclined him to withhold himself from scenes of fashionable amusement; and he and his competitor were like two stars fated never to appear at once above the horizon. the advantages mr. falkland possessed in the comparison are palpable; and had it been otherwise, the subjects of his rural neighbour were sufficiently disposed to revolt against his merciless dominion. they had hitherto submitted from fear, and not from love; and, if they had not rebelled, it was only for want of a leader. even the ladies regarded mr. falkland with particular complacence. his polished manners were peculiarly in harmony with feminine delicacy. the sallies of his wit were far beyond those of mr. tyrrel in variety and vigour; in addition to which they had the advantage of having their spontaneous exuberance guided and restrained by the sagacity of a cultivated mind. the graces of his person were enhanced by the elegance of his deportment; and the benevolence and liberality of his temper were upon all occasions conspicuous. it was common indeed to mr. tyrrel, together with mr. falkland, to be little accessible to sentiments of awkwardness and confusion. but for this mr. tyrrel was indebted to a self-satisfied effrontery, and a boisterous and over-bearing elocution, by which he was accustomed to discomfit his assailants; while mr. falkland, with great ingenuity and candour of mind, was enabled by his extensive knowledge of the world, and acquaintance with his own resources, to perceive almost instantaneously the proceeding it most became him to adopt. mr. tyrrel contemplated the progress of his rival with uneasiness and aversion. he often commented upon it to his particular confidents as a thing altogether inconceivable. mr. falkland he described as an animal that was beneath contempt. diminutive and dwarfish in his form, he wanted to set up a new standard of human nature, adapted to his miserable condition. he wished to persuade people that the human species were made to be nailed to a chair, and to pore over books. he would have them exchange those robust exercises which make us joyous in the performance, and vigorous in the consequences, for the wise labour of scratching our heads for a rhyme and counting our fingers for a verse. monkeys were as good men as these. a nation of such animals would have no chance with a single regiment of the old english votaries of beef and pudding. he never saw any thing come of learning but to make people foppish and impertinent; and a sensible man would not wish a worse calamity to the enemies of his nation, than to see them run mad after such pernicious absurdities. it was impossible that people could seriously feel any liking for such a ridiculous piece of goods as this outlandish foreign-made englishman. but he knew very well how it was: it was a miserable piece of mummery that was played only in spite of him. but god for ever blast his soul, if he were not bitterly revenged upon them all! if such were the sentiments of mr. tyrrel, his patience found ample exercise in the language which was held by the rest of his neighbours on the same subject. while he saw nothing in mr. falkland but matter of contempt, they appeared to be never weary of recounting his praises. such dignity, such affability, so perpetual an attention to the happiness of others, such delicacy of sentiment and expression! learned without ostentation, refined without foppery, elegant without effeminacy! perpetually anxious to prevent his superiority from being painfully felt, it was so much the more certainly felt to be real, and excited congratulation instead of envy in the spectator. it is scarcely necessary to remark, that the revolution of sentiment in this rural vicinity belongs to one of the most obvious features of the human mind. the rudest exhibition of art is at first admired, till a nobler is presented, and we are taught to wonder at the facility with which before we had been satisfied. mr. tyrrel thought there would be no end to the commendation; and expected when their common acquaintance would fall down and adore the intruder. the most inadvertent expression of applause inflicted upon him the torment of demons. he writhed with agony, his features became distorted, and his looks inspired terror. such suffering would probably have soured the kindest temper; what must have been its effect upon mr. tyrrel's, always fierce, unrelenting, and abrupt? the advantages of mr. falkland seemed by no means to diminish with their novelty. every new sufferer from mr. tyrrel's tyranny immediately went over to the standard of his adversary. the ladies, though treated by their rustic swain with more gentleness than the men, were occasionally exposed to his capriciousness and insolence. they could not help remarking the contrast between these two leaders in the fields of chivalry, the one of whom paid no attention to any one's pleasure but his own, while the other seemed all good-humour and benevolence. it was in vain that mr. tyrrel endeavoured to restrain the ruggedness of his character. his motive was impatience, his thoughts were gloomy, and his courtship was like the pawings of an elephant. it appeared as if his temper had been more human while he indulged in its free bent, than now that he sullenly endeavoured to put fetters upon its excesses. among the ladies of the village-assembly already mentioned, there was none that seemed to engage more of the kindness of mr. tyrrel than miss hardingham. she was also one of the few that had not yet gone over to the enemy, either because she really preferred the gentleman who was her oldest acquaintance, or that she conceived from calculation this conduct best adapted to insure her success in a husband. one day, however, she thought proper, probably only by way of experiment, to show mr. tyrrel that she could engage in hostilities, if he should at any time give her sufficient provocation. she so adjusted her manoeuvres as to be engaged by mr. falkland as his partner for the dance of the evening, though without the smallest intention on the part of that gentleman (who was unpardonably deficient in the sciences of anecdote and match-making) of giving offence to his country neighbour. though the manners of mr. falkland were condescending and attentive, his hours of retirement were principally occupied in contemplations too dignified for scandal, and too large for the altercations of a vestry, or the politics of an election-borough. a short time before the dances began, mr. tyrrel went up to his fair inamorata, and entered into some trifling conversation with her to fill up the time, as intending in a few minutes to lead her forward to the field. he had accustomed himself to neglect the ceremony of soliciting beforehand a promise in his favour, as not supposing it possible that any one would dare dispute his behests; and, had it been otherwise, he would have thought the formality unnecessary in this case, his general preference to miss hardingham being notorious. while he was thus engaged, mr. falkland came up. mr. tyrrel always regarded him with aversion and loathing. mr. falkland, however, slided in a graceful and unaffected manner into the conversation already begun; and the animated ingenuousness of his manner was such, as might for the time have disarmed the devil of his malice. mr. tyrrel probably conceived that his accosting miss hardingham was an accidental piece of general ceremony, and expected every moment when he would withdraw to another part of the room. the company now began to be in motion for the dance, and mr. falkland signified as much to miss hardingham. "sir," interrupted mr. tyrrel abruptly, "that lady is my partner."--"i believe not, sir: that lady has been so obliging as to accept my invitation."--"i tell you, sir, no. sir, i have an interest in that lady's affections; and i will suffer no man to intrude upon my claims."--"the lady's affections are not the subject of the present question."--"sir, it is to no purpose to parley. make room, sir!"--mr. falkland gently repelled his antagonist. "mr. tyrrel!" returned he, with some firmness, "let us have no altercation in this business: the master of the ceremonies is the proper person to decide in a difference of this sort, if we cannot adjust it: we can neither of us intend to exhibit our valour before the ladies, and shall therefore cheerfully submit to his verdict."--"damn me, sir, if i understand--" "softly, mr. tyrrel; i intended you no offence. but, sir, no man shall prevent my asserting that to which i have once acquired a claim!" mr. falkland uttered these words with the most unruffled temper in the world. the tone in which he spoke had acquired elevation, but neither roughness nor impatience. there was a fascination in his manner that made the ferociousness of his antagonist subside into impotence. miss hardingham had begun to repent of her experiment, but her alarm was speedily quieted by the dignified composure of her new partner. mr. tyrrel walked away without answering a word. he muttered curses as he went, which the laws of honour did not oblige mr. falkland to overhear, and which indeed it would have been no easy task to have overheard with accuracy. mr. tyrrel would not, perhaps, have so easily given up his point, had not his own good sense presently taught him, that, however eager he might be for revenge, this was not the ground he should desire to occupy. but, though he could not openly resent this rebellion against his authority, he brooded over it in the recesses of a malignant mind; and it was evident enough that he was accumulating materials for a bitter account, to which he trusted his adversary should one day be brought. chapter iv. this was only one out of innumerable instances, that every day seemed to multiply, of petty mortifications which mr. tyrrel was destined to endure on the part of mr. falkland. in all of them mr. falkland conducted himself with such unaffected propriety, as perpetually to add to the stock of his reputation. the more mr. tyrrel struggled with his misfortune, the more conspicuous and inveterate it became. a thousand times he cursed his stars, which took, as he apprehended, a malicious pleasure in making mr. falkland, at every turn, the instrument of his humiliation. smarting under a succession of untoward events, he appeared to feel, in the most exquisite manner, the distinctions paid to his adversary, even in those points in which he had not the slightest pretensions. an instance of this now occurred. mr. clare, a poet whose works have done immortal honour to the country that produced him, had lately retired, after a life spent in the sublimest efforts of genius, to enjoy the produce of his economy, and the reputation he had acquired, in this very neighbourhood. such an inmate was looked up to by the country gentlemen with a degree of adoration. they felt a conscious pride in recollecting that the boast of england was a native of their vicinity; and they were by no means deficient in gratitude when they saw him, who had left them an adventurer, return into the midst of them, in the close of his days, crowned with honours and opulence. the reader is acquainted with his works: he has, probably, dwelt upon them with transport; and i need not remind him of their excellence: but he is, perhaps, a stranger to his personal qualifications; he does not know that his productions were scarcely more admirable than his conversation. in company he seemed to be the only person ignorant of the greatness of his fame. to the world his writings will long remain a kind of specimen of what the human mind is capable of performing; but no man perceived their defects so acutely as he, or saw so distinctly how much yet remained to be effected: he alone appeared to look upon his works with superiority and indifference. one of the features that most eminently distinguished him was a perpetual suavity of manners, a comprehensiveness of mind, that regarded the errors of others without a particle of resentment, and made it impossible for any one to be his enemy. he pointed out to men their mistakes with frankness and unreserve, his remonstrances produced astonishment and conviction, but without uneasiness, in the party to whom they were addressed: they felt the instrument that was employed to correct their irregularities, but it never mangled what it was intended to heal. such were the moral qualities that distinguished him among his acquaintance. the intellectual accomplishments he exhibited were, principally, a tranquil and mild enthusiasm, and a richness of conception which dictated spontaneously to his tongue, and flowed with so much ease, that it was only by retrospect you could be made aware of the amazing variety of ideas that had been presented. mr. clare certainly found few men in this remote situation that were capable of participating in his ideas and amusements. it has been among the weaknesses of great men to fly to solitude, and converse with woods and groves, rather than with a circle of strong and comprehensive minds like their own. from the moment of mr. falkland's arrival in the neighbourhood, mr. clare distinguished him in the most flattering manner. to so penetrating a genius there was no need of long experience and patient observation to discover the merits and defects of any character that presented itself. the materials of his judgment had long since been accumulated; and, at the close of so illustrious a life, he might almost be said to see through nature at a glance. what wonder that he took some interest in a mind in a certain degree congenial with his own? but to mr. tyrrel's diseased imagination, every distinction bestowed on his neighbour seemed to be expressly intended as an insult to him. on the other hand, mr. clare, though gentle and benevolent in his remonstrances to a degree that made the taking offence impossible, was by no means parsimonious of praise, or slow to make use of the deference that was paid him, for the purpose of procuring justice to merit. it happened at one of those public meetings at which mr. falkland and mr. tyrrel were present, that the conversation, in one of the most numerous sets into which the company was broken, turned upon the poetical talents of the former. a lady, who was present, and was distinguished for the acuteness of her understanding, said, she had been favoured with a sight of a poem he had just written, entitled _an ode to the genius of chivalry_, which appeared to her of exquisite merit. the curiosity of the company was immediately excited, and the lady added, she had a copy in her pocket, which was much at their service, provided its being thus produced would not be disagreeable to the author. the whole circle immediately entreated mr. falkland to comply with their wishes, and mr. clare, who was one of the company, enforced their petition. nothing gave this gentleman so much pleasure as to have an opportunity of witnessing and doing justice to the exhibition of intellectual excellence. mr. falkland had no false modesty or affectation, and therefore readily yielded his consent. mr. tyrrel accidentally sat at the extremity of this circle. it cannot be supposed that the turn the conversation had taken was by any means agreeable to him. he appeared to wish to withdraw himself, but there seemed to be some unknown power that, as it were by enchantment, retained him in his place, and made him consent to drink to the dregs the bitter potion which envy had prepared for him. the poem was read to the rest of the company by mr. clare, whose elocution was scarcely inferior to his other accomplishments. simplicity, discrimination, and energy constantly attended him in the act of reading, and it is not easy to conceive a more refined delight than fell to the lot of those who had the good fortune to be his auditors. the beauties of mr. falkland's poem were accordingly exhibited with every advantage. the successive passions of the author were communicated to the hearer. what was impetuous, and what was solemn, were delivered with a responsive feeling, and a flowing and unlaboured tone. the pictures conjured up by the creative fancy of the poet were placed full to view, at one time overwhelming the soul with superstitious awe, and at another transporting it with luxuriant beauty. the character of the hearers upon this occasion has already been described. they were, for the most part, plain, unlettered, and of little refinement. poetry in general they read, when read at all, from the mere force of imitation, and with few sensations of pleasure; but this poem had a peculiar vein of glowing inspiration. this very poem would probably have been seen by many of them with little effect; but the accents of mr. clare carried it home to the heart. he ended: and, as the countenances of his auditors had before sympathised with the passions of the composition, so now they emulated each other in declaring their approbation. their sensations were of a sort to which they were little accustomed. one spoke, and another followed by a sort of uncontrollable impulse; and the rude and broken manner of their commendations rendered them the more singular and remarkable. but what was least to be endured was the behaviour of mr. clare. he returned the manuscript to the lady from whom he had received it, and then, addressing mr. falkland, said with emphasis and animation, "ha! this is as it should be. it is of the right stamp. i have seen too many hard essays strained from the labour of a pedant, and pastoral ditties distressed in lack of a meaning. they are such as you sir, that we want. do not forget, however, that the muse was not given to add refinements to idleness, but for the highest and most invaluable purposes. act up to the magnitude of your destiny." a moment after, mr. clare quitted his seat, and with mr. falkland and two or three more withdrew. as soon as they were gone, mr. tyrrel edged further into the circle. he had sat silent so long that he seemed ready to burst with gall and indignation. "mighty pretty verses!" said he, half talking to himself, and not addressing any particular person: "why, ay, the verses are well enough. damnation! i should like to know what a ship-load of such stuff is good for." "why, surely," said the lady who had introduced mr. falkland's ode on the present occasion, "you must allow that poetry is an agreeable and elegant amusement." "elegant, quotha!--why, look at this falkland! a puny bit of a thing! in the devil's name, madam, do you think he would write poetry if he could do any thing better?" the conversation did not stop here. the lady expostulated. several other persons, fresh from the sensation they had felt, contributed their share. mr. tyrrel grew more violent in his invectives, and found ease in uttering them. the persons who were able in any degree to check his vehemence were withdrawn. one speaker after another shrunk back into silence, too timid to oppose, or too indolent to contend with, the fierceness of his passion. he found the appearance of his old ascendancy; but he felt its deceitfulness and uncertainty, and was gloomily dissatisfied. in his return from this assembly he was accompanied by a young man, whom similitude of manners had rendered one of his principal confidents, and whose road home was in part the same as his own. one might have thought that mr. tyrrel had sufficiently vented his spleen in the dialogue he had just been holding. but he was unable to dismiss from his recollection the anguish he had endured. "damn falkland!" said he. "what a pitiful scoundrel is here to make all this bustle about! but women and fools always will be fools; there is no help for that! those that set them on have most to answer for; and most of all, mr. clare. he is a man that ought to know something of the world, and past being duped by gewgaws and tinsel. he seemed, too, to have some notion of things: i should not have suspected him of hallooing to a cry of mongrels without honesty or reason. but the world is all alike. those that seem better than their neighbours, are only more artful. they mean the same thing, though they take a different road. he deceived me for a while, but it is all out now. they are the makers of the mischief. fools might blunder, but they would not persist, if people that ought to set them right did not encourage them to go wrong." a few days after this adventure mr. tyrrel was surprised to receive a visit from mr. falkland. mr. falkland proceeded, without ceremony, to explain the motive of his coming. "mr. tyrrel," said he, "i am come to have an amicable explanation with you." "explanation! what is my offence?" "none in the world, sir; and for that reason i conceive this the fittest time to come to a right understanding." "you are in a devil of a hurry, sir. are you clear that this haste will not mar, instead of make an understanding?" "i think i am, sir. i have great faith in the purity of my intentions, and i will not doubt, when you perceive the view with which i come, that you will willingly co-operate with it." "mayhap, mr. falkland, we may not agree about that. one man thinks one way, and another man thinks another. mayhap i do not think i have any great reason to be pleased with you already." "it may be so. i cannot, however, charge myself with having given you reason to be displeased." "well, sir, you have no right to put me out of humour with myself. if you come to play upon me, and try what sort of a fellow you shall have to deal with, damn me if you shall have any reason to hug yourself upon the experiment." "nothing, sir, is more easy for us than to quarrel. if you desire that, there is no fear that you will find opportunities." "damn me, sir, if i do not believe you are come to bully me." "mr. tyrrel! sir--have a care!" "of what, sir!--do you threaten me? damn my soul! who are you? what do you come here for?" the fieriness of mr. tyrrel brought mr. falkland to his recollection. "i am wrong," said he. "i confess it. i came for purposes of peace. with that view i have taken the liberty to visit you. whatever therefore might be my feelings upon another occasion, i am bound to suppress them now." "ho!--well, sir: and what have you further to offer?" "mr. tyrrel," proceeded mr. falkland, "you will readily imagine that the cause that brought me was not a slight one. i would not have troubled you with a visit, but for important reasons. my coming is a pledge how deeply i am myself impressed with what i have to communicate. "we are in a critical situation. we are upon the brink of a whirlpool which, if once it get hold of us, will render all further deliberation impotent. an unfortunate jealousy seems to have insinuated itself between us, which i would willingly remove; and i come to ask your assistance. we are both of us nice of temper; we are both apt to kindle, and warm of resentment. precaution in this stage can be dishonourable to neither; the time may come when we shall wish we had employed it, and find it too late. why should we be enemies? our tastes are different; our pursuits need not interfere. we both of us amply possess the means of happiness; we may be respected by all, and spend a long life of tranquillity and enjoyment. will it be wise in us to exchange this prospect for the fruits of strife? a strife between persons with our peculiarities and our weaknesses, includes consequences that i shudder to think of. i fear, sir, that it is pregnant with death at least to one of us, and with misfortune and remorse to the survivor." "upon my soul, you are a strange man! why trouble me with your prophecies and forebodings?" "because it is necessary to your happiness! because it becomes me to tell you of our danger now, rather than wait till my character will allow this tranquillity no longer! "by quarrelling we shall but imitate the great mass of mankind, who could easily quarrel in our place. let us do better. let us show that we have the magnanimity to contemn petty misunderstandings. by thus judging we shall do ourselves most substantial honour. by a contrary conduct we shall merely present a comedy for the amusement of our acquaintance." "do you think so? there may be something in that. damn me, if i consent to be the jest of any man living." "you are right, mr. tyrrel. let us each act in the manner best calculated to excite respect. we neither of us wish to change roads; let us each suffer the other to pursue his own track unmolested. be this our compact; and by mutual forbearance let us preserve mutual peace." saying this, mr. falkland offered his hand to mr. tyrrel in token of fellowship. but the gesture was too significant. the wayward rustic, who seemed to have been somewhat impressed by what had preceded, taken as he now was by surprise, shrunk back. mr. falkland was again ready to take fire upon this new slight, but he checked himself. "all this is very unaccountable," cried mr. tyrrel. "what the devil can have made you so forward, if you had not some sly purpose to answer, by which i am to be overreached?" "my purpose," replied mr. falkland, "is a manly and an honest purpose. why should you refuse a proposition dictated by reason, and an equal regard to the interest of each?" mr. tyrrel had had an opportunity for pause, and fell back into his habitual character. "well, sir, in all this i must own there is some frankness. now i will return you like for like. it is no matter how i came by it, my temper is rough, and will not be controlled. mayhap you may think it is a weakness, but i do not desire to see it altered. till you came, i found myself very well: i liked my neighbours, and my neighbours humoured me. but now the case is entirely altered; and, as long as i cannot stir abroad without meeting with some mortification in which you are directly or remotely concerned, i am determined to hate you. now, sir, if you will only go out of the county or the kingdom, to the devil if you please, so as i may never hear of you any more, i will promise never to quarrel with you as long as i live. your rhymes and your rebusses, your quirks and your conundrums, may then be every thing that is grand for what i care." "mr. tyrrel, be reasonable! might not i as well desire you to leave the county, as you desire me? i come to you, not as to a master, but an equal. in the society of men we must have something to endure, as well as to enjoy. no man must think that the world was made for him. let us take things as we find them; and accommodate ourselves as we can to unavoidable circumstances." "true, sir; all this is fine talking. but i return to my text: we are as god made us. i am neither a philosopher nor a poet, to set out upon a wild-goose chase of making myself a different man from what you find me. as for consequences, what must be must be. as we brew we must bake. and so, do you see? i shall not trouble myself about what is to be, but stand up to it with a stout heart when it comes. only this i can tell you, that as long as i find you thrust into my dish every day i shall hate you as bad as senna and valerian. and damn me, if i do not think i hate you the more for coming to-day in this pragmatical way, when nobody sent for you, on purpose to show how much wiser you are than all the world besides." "mr. tyrrel, i have done. i foresaw consequences, and came as a friend. i had hoped that, by mutual explanation, we should have come to a better understanding. i am disappointed; but, perhaps, when you coolly reflect on what has passed, you will give me credit for my intentions, and think that my proposal was not an unreasonable one." having said this, mr. falkland departed. through the interview he, no doubt, conducted himself in a way that did him peculiar credit. yet the warmth of his temper could not be entirely suppressed: and even when he was most exemplary, there was an apparent loftiness in his manner that was calculated to irritate; and the very grandeur with which he suppressed his passions, operated indirectly as a taunt to his opponent. the interview was prompted by the noblest sentiments; but it unquestionably served to widen the breach it was intended to heal. for mr. tyrrel, he had recourse to his old expedient, and unburthened the tumult of his thoughts to his confidential friend. "this," cried he, "is a new artifice of the fellow, to prove his imagined superiority. we knew well enough that he had the gift of the gab. to be sure, if the world were to be governed by words, he would be in the right box. oh, yes, he had it all hollow! but what signifies prating? business must be done in another guess way than that. i wonder what possessed me that i did not kick him! but that is all to come. this is only a new debt added to the score, which he shall one day richly pay. this falkland haunts me like a demon. i cannot wake but i think of him. i cannot sleep but i see him. he poisons all my pleasures. i should be glad to see him torn with tenter-hooks, and to grind his heart-strings with my teeth. i shall know no joy till i see him ruined. there may be some things right about him; but he is my perpetual torment. the thought of him hangs like a dead weight upon my heart, and i have a right to shake it off. does he think i will feel all that i endure for nothing?" in spite of the acerbity of mr. tyrrel's feelings, it is probable, however, he did some justice to his rival. he regarded him, indeed, with added dislike; but he no longer regarded him as a despicable foe. he avoided his encounter; he forbore to treat him with random hostility; he seemed to lie in wait for his victim, and to collect his venom for a mortal assault. chapter v. it was not long after that a malignant distemper broke out in the neighbourhood, which proved fatal to many of the inhabitants, and was of unexampled rapidity in its effects. one of the first persons that was seized with it was mr. clare. it may be conceived, what grief and alarm this incident spread through the vicinity. mr. clare was considered by them as something more than mortal. the equanimity of his behaviour, his unassuming carriage, his exuberant benevolence and goodness of heart, joined with his talents, his inoffensive wit, and the comprehensiveness of his intelligence, made him the idol of all that knew him. in the scene of his rural retreat, at least, he had no enemy. all mourned the danger that now threatened him. he appeared to have had the prospect of long life, and of going down to his grave full of years and of honour. perhaps these appearances were deceitful. perhaps the intellectual efforts he had made, which were occasionally more sudden, violent, and unintermitted, than a strict regard to health would have dictated, had laid the seed of future disease. but a sanguine observer would infallibly have predicted, that his temperate habits, activity of mind, and unabated cheerfulness, would be able even to keep death at bay for a time, and baffle the attacks of distemper, provided their approach were not uncommonly rapid and violent. the general affliction, therefore, was doubly pungent upon the present occasion. but no one was so much affected as mr. falkland. perhaps no man so well understood the value of the life that was now at stake. he immediately hastened to the spot; but he found some difficulty in gaining admission. mr. clare, aware of the infectious nature of his disease, had given directions that as few persons as possible should approach him. mr. falkland sent up his name. he was told that he was included in the general orders. he was not, however, of a temper to be easily repulsed; he persisted with obstinacy, and at length carried his point, being only reminded in the first instance to employ those precautions which experience has proved most effectual for counteracting infection. he found mr. clare in his bed-chamber, but not in bed. he was sitting in his night-gown at a bureau near the window. his appearance was composed and cheerful, but death was in his countenance. "i had a great inclination, falkland," said he, "not to have suffered you to come in; and yet there is not a person in the world it could give me more pleasure to see. but, upon second thoughts, i believe there are few people that could run into a danger of this kind with a better prospect of escaping. in your case, at least, the garrison will not, i trust, be taken through the treachery of the commander. i cannot tell how it is that i, who can preach wisdom to you, have myself been caught. but do not be discouraged by my example. i had no notice of my danger, or i would have acquitted myself better." mr. falkland having once established himself in the apartment of his friend, would upon no terms consent to retire. mr. clare considered that there was perhaps less danger in this choice, than in the frequent change from the extremes of a pure to a tainted air, and desisted from expostulation. "falkland," said he, "when you came in, i had just finished making my will. i was not pleased with what i had formerly drawn up upon that subject, and i did not choose in my present situation to call in an attorney. in fact, it would be strange if a man of sense, with pure and direct intentions, should not be able to perform such a function for himself." mr. clare continued to act in the same easy and disengaged manner as in perfect health. to judge from the cheerfulness of his tone and the firmness of his manner, the thought would never once have occurred that he was dying. he walked, he reasoned, he jested, in a way that argued the most perfect self-possession. but his appearance changed perceptibly for the worse every quarter of an hour. mr. falkland kept his eye perpetually fixed upon him, with mingled sentiments of anxiety and admiration. "falkland," said he, after having appeared for a short period absorbed in thought, "i feel that i am dying. this is a strange distemper of mine. yesterday i seemed in perfect health, and to-morrow i shall be an insensible corpse. how curious is the line that separates life and death to mortal men! to be at one moment active, gay, penetrating, with stores of knowledge at one's command, capable of delighting, instructing, and animating mankind, and the next, lifeless and loathsome, an incumbrance upon the face of the earth! such is the history of many men, and such will be mine. "i feel as if i had yet much to do in the world; but it will not be. i must be contented with what is past. it is in vain that i muster all my spirits to my heart. the enemy is too mighty and too merciless for me; he will not give me time so much as to breathe. these things are not yet at least in our power: they are parts of a great series that is perpetually flowing. the general welfare, the great business of the universe, will go on, though i bear no further share in promoting it. that task is reserved for younger strengths, for you, falkland, and such as you. we should be contemptible indeed if the prospect of human improvement did not yield us a pure and perfect delight, independently of the question of our existing to partake of it. mankind would have little to envy to future ages, if they had all enjoyed a serenity as perfect as mine has been for the latter half of my existence." mr. clare sat up through the whole day, indulging himself in easy and cheerful exertions, which were perhaps better calculated to refresh and invigorate the frame, than if he had sought repose in its direct form. now and then he was visited with a sudden pang; but it was no sooner felt, than he seemed to rise above it, and smiled at the impotence of these attacks. they might destroy him, but they could not disturb. three or four times he was bedewed with profuse sweats; and these again were succeeded by an extreme dryness and burning heat of the skin. he was next covered with small livid spots: symptoms of shivering followed, but these he drove away with a determined resolution. he then became tranquil and composed, and, after some time, decided to go to bed, it being already night. "falkland," said he, pressing his hand, "the task of dying is not so difficult as some imagine. when one looks back from the brink of it, one wonders that so total a subversion can take place at so easy a price." he had now been some time in bed, and, as every thing was still, mr. falkland hoped that he slept; but in that he was mistaken. presently mr. clare threw back the curtain, and looked in the countenance of his friend. "i cannot sleep," said he. "no, if i could sleep, it would be the same thing as to recover; and i am destined to have the worst in this battle. "falkland, i have been thinking about you. i do not know any one whose future usefulness i contemplate with greater hope. take care of yourself. do not let the world be defrauded of your virtues. i am acquainted with your weakness as well as your strength. you have an impetuosity, and an impatience of imagined dishonour, that, if once set wrong, may make you as eminently mischievous as you will otherwise be useful. think seriously of exterminating this error! "but if i cannot, in the brief expostulation my present situation will allow, produce this desirable change in you, there is at least one thing i can do. i can put you upon your guard against a mischief i foresee to be imminent. beware of mr. tyrrel. do not commit the mistake of despising him as an unequal opponent. petty causes may produce great mischiefs. mr. tyrrel is boisterous, rugged, and unfeeling; and you are too passionate, too acutely sensible of injury. it would be truly to be lamented, if a man so inferior, so utterly unworthy to be compared with you, should be capable of changing your whole history into misery and guilt. i have a painful presentiment upon my heart, as if something dreadful would reach you from that quarter. think of this. i exact no promise from you. i would not shackle you with the fetters of superstition; i would have you governed by justice and reason." mr. falkland was deeply affected with this expostulation. his sense of the generous attention of mr. clare at such a moment, was so great as almost to deprive him of utterance. he spoke in short sentences, and with visible effort. "i will behave better," replied he. "never fear me! your admonitions shall not be thrown away upon me." mr. clare adverted to another subject. "i have made you my executor; you will not refuse me this last office of friendship. it is but a short time that i have had the happiness of knowing you; but in that short time i have examined you well, and seen you thoroughly. do not disappoint the sanguine hope i have entertained! "i have left some legacies. my former connections, while i lived amidst the busy haunts of men, as many of them as were intimate, are all of them dear to me. i have not had time to summon them about me upon the present occasion, nor did i desire it. the remembrances of me will, i hope, answer a better purpose than such as are usually thought of on similar occasions." mr. clare, having thus unburthened his mind, spoke no more for several hours. towards morning mr. falkland quietly withdrew the curtain, and looked at the dying man. his eyes were open, and were now gently turned towards his young friend. his countenance was sunk, and of a death-like appearance. "i hope you are better," said falkland in a half whisper, as if afraid of disturbing him. mr. clare drew his hand from the bed-clothes, and stretched it forward; mr. falkland advanced, and took hold of it. "much better," said mr. clare, in a voice inward and hardly articulate; "the struggle is now over; i have finished my part; farewell! remember!" these were his last words. he lived still a few hours; his lips were sometimes seen to move; he expired without a groan. mr. falkland had witnessed the scene with much anxiety. his hopes of a favourable crisis, and his fear of disturbing the last moments of his friend, had held him dumb. for the last half hour he had stood up, with his eyes intently fixed upon mr. clare. he witnessed the last gasp, the last little convulsive motion of the frame. he continued to look; he sometimes imagined that he saw life renewed. at length he could deceive himself no longer, and exclaimed with a distracted accent, "and is this all?" he would have thrown himself upon the body of his friend; the attendants withheld, and would have forced him into another apartment. but he struggled from them, and hung fondly over the bed. "is this the end of genius, virtue, and excellence? is the luminary of the world thus for ever gone? oh, yesterday! yesterday! clare, why could not i have died in your stead? dreadful moment! irreparable loss! lost in the very maturity and vigour of his mind! cut off from a usefulness ten thousand times greater than any he had already exhibited! oh, his was a mind to have instructed sages, and guided the moral world! this is all we have left of him! the eloquence of those lips is gone! the incessant activity of that heart is still! the best and wisest of men is gone, and the world is insensible of its loss!" mr. tyrrel heard the intelligence of mr. clare's death with emotion, but of a different kind. he avowed that he had not forgiven him his partial attachment to mr. falkland, and therefore could not recall his remembrance with kindness. but if he could have overlooked his past injustice, sufficient care, it seems, was taken to keep alive his resentment. "falkland, forsooth, attended him on his death-bed, as if nobody else were worthy of his confidential communications." but what was worst of all was this executorship. "in every thing this pragmatical rascal throws me behind. contemptible wretch, that has nothing of the man about him! must he perpetually trample upon his betters? is every body incapable of saying what kind of stuff a man is made of? caught with mere outside? choosing the flimsy before the substantial? and upon his death-bed too? [mr. tyrrel with his uncultivated brutality mixed, as usually happens, certain rude notions of religion.] sure the sense of his situation might have shamed him. poor wretch! his soul has a great deal to answer for. he has made my pillow uneasy; and, whatever may be the consequences, it is he we have to thank for them." the death of mr. clare removed the person who could most effectually have moderated the animosities of the contending parties, and took away the great operative check upon the excesses of mr. tyrrel. this rustic tyrant had been held in involuntary restraint by the intellectual ascendancy of his celebrated neighbour: and, notwithstanding the general ferocity of his temper, he did not appear till lately to have entertained a hatred against him. in the short time that had elapsed from the period in which mr. clare had fixed his residence in the neighbourhood, to that of the arrival of mr. falkland from the continent, the conduct of mr. tyrrel had even shown tokens of improvement. he would indeed have been better satisfied not to have had even this intruder into a circle where he had been accustomed to reign. but with mr. clare he could have no rivalship; the venerable character of mr. clare disposed him to submission: this great man seemed to have survived all the acrimony of contention, and all the jealous subtleties of a mistaken honour. the effects of mr. clare's suavity however, so far as related to mr. tyrrel, had been in a certain degree suspended by considerations of rivalship between this gentleman and mr. falkland. and, now that the influence of mr. clare's presence and virtues was entirely removed, mr. tyrrel's temper broke out into more criminal excesses than ever. the added gloom which mr. falkland's neighbourhood inspired, overflowed upon all his connections; and the new examples of his sullenness and tyranny which every day afforded, reflected back upon this accumulated and portentous feud. chapter vi. the consequences of all this speedily manifested themselves. the very next incident in the story was in some degree decisive of the catastrophe. hitherto i have spoken only of preliminary matters, seemingly unconnected with each other, though leading to that state of mind in both parties which had such fatal effects. but all that remains is rapid and tremendous. the death-dealing mischief advances with an accelerated motion, appearing to defy human wisdom and strength to obstruct its operation. the vices of mr. tyrrel, in their present state of augmentation, were peculiarly exercised upon his domestics and dependents. but the principal sufferer was the young lady mentioned on a former occasion, the orphan daughter of his father's sister. miss melville's mother had married imprudently, or rather unfortunately, against the consent of her relations, all of whom had agreed to withdraw their countenance from her in consequence of that precipitate step. her husband had turned out to be no better than an adventurer; had spent her fortune, which in consequence of the irreconcilableness of her family was less than he expected, and had broken her heart. her infant daughter was left without any resource. in this situation the representations of the people with whom she happened to be placed, prevailed upon mrs. tyrrel, the mother of the squire, to receive her into her family. in equity, perhaps, she was entitled to that portion of fortune which her mother had forfeited by her imprudence, and which had gone to swell the property of the male representative. but this idea had never entered into the conceptions of either mother or son. mrs. tyrrel conceived that she performed an act of the most exalted benevolence in admitting miss emily into a sort of equivocal situation, which was neither precisely that of a domestic, nor yet marked with the treatment that might seem due to one of the family. she had not, however, at first been sensible of all the mortifications that might have been expected from her condition. mrs. tyrrel, though proud and imperious, was not ill-natured. the female, who lived in the family in the capacity of housekeeper, was a person who had seen better days, and whose disposition was extremely upright and amiable. she early contracted a friendship for the little emily, who was indeed for the most part committed to her care. emily, on her side, fully repaid the affection of her instructress, and learned with great docility the few accomplishments mrs. jakeman was able to communicate. but most of all she imbibed her cheerful and artless temper, that extracted the agreeable and encouraging from all events, and prompted her to communicate her sentiments, which were never of the cynical cast, without modification or disguise. besides the advantages emily derived from mrs. jakeman, she was permitted to take lessons from the masters who were employed at tyrrel place for the instruction of her cousin; and indeed, as the young gentleman was most frequently indisposed to attend to them, they would commonly have had nothing to do, had it not been for the fortunate presence of miss melville. mrs. tyrrel therefore encouraged the studies of emily on that score; in addition to which she imagined that this living exhibition of instruction might operate as an indirect allurement to her darling barnabas, the only species of motive she would suffer to be presented. force she absolutely forbade; and of the intrinsic allurements of literature and knowledge she had no conception. emily, as she grew up, displayed an uncommon degree of sensibility, which under her circumstances would have been a source of perpetual dissatisfaction, had it not been qualified with an extreme sweetness and easiness of temper. she was far from being entitled to the appellation of a beauty. her person was _petite_ and trivial; her complexion savoured of the _brunette_; and her face was marked with the small-pox, sufficiently to destroy its evenness and polish, though not enough to destroy its expression. but, though her appearance was not beautiful, it did not fail to be in a high degree engaging. her complexion was at once healthful and delicate; her long dark eye-brows adapted themselves with facility to the various conceptions of her mind; and her looks bore the united impression of an active discernment and a good-humoured frankness. the instruction she had received, as it was entirely of a casual nature, exempted her from the evils of untutored ignorance, but not from a sort of native wildness, arguing a mind incapable of guile itself, or of suspecting it in others. she amused, without seeming conscious of the refined sense which her observations contained; or rather, having never been debauched with applause, she set light by her own qualifications, and talked from the pure gaiety of a youthful heart acting upon the stores of a just understanding, and not with any expectation of being distinguished and admired. the death of her aunt made very little change in her situation. this prudent lady, who would have thought it little less than sacrilege to have considered miss melville as a branch of the stock of the tyrrels, took no more notice of her in her will than barely putting her down for one hundred pounds in a catalogue of legacies to her servants. she had never been admitted into the intimacy and confidence of mrs. tyrrel; and the young squire, now that she was left under his sole protection, seemed inclined to treat her with even more liberality than his mother had done. he had seen her grow up under his eye, and therefore, though there were but six years difference in their ages, he felt a kind of paternal interest in her welfare. habit had rendered her in a manner necessary to him, and, in every recess from the occupations of the field and the pleasures of the table, he found himself solitary and forlorn without the society of miss melville. nearness of kindred, and emily's want of personal beauty, prevented him from ever looking on her with the eyes of desire. her accomplishments were chiefly of the customary and superficial kind, dancing and music. her skill in the first led him sometimes to indulge her with a vacant corner in his carriage, when he went to the neighbouring assembly; and, in whatever light he might himself think proper to regard her, he would have imagined his chambermaid, introduced by him, entitled to an undoubted place in the most splendid circle. her musical talents were frequently employed for his amusement. she had the honour occasionally of playing him to sleep after the fatigues of the chase; and, as he had some relish for harmonious sounds, she was frequently able to soothe him by their means from the perturbations of which his gloomy disposition was so eminently a slave. upon the whole, she might be considered as in some sort his favourite. she was the mediator to whom his tenants and domestics, when they had incurred his displeasure, were accustomed to apply; the privileged companion, that could approach this lion with impunity in the midst of his roarings. she spoke to him without fear; her solicitations were always good-natured and disinterested; and when he repulsed her, he disarmed himself of half his terrors, and was contented to smile at her presumption. such had been for some years the situation of miss melville. its precariousness had been beguiled by the uncommon forbearance with which she was treated by her savage protector. but his disposition, always brutal, had acquired a gradual accession of ferocity since the settlement of mr. falkland in his neighbourhood. he now frequently forgot the gentleness with which he had been accustomed to treat his good-natured cousin. her little playful arts were not always successful in softening his rage; and he would sometimes turn upon her blandishments with an impatient sternness that made her tremble. the careless ease of her disposition, however, soon effaced these impressions, and she fell without variation into her old habits. a circumstance occurred about this time which gave peculiar strength to the acrimony of mr. tyrrel, and ultimately brought to its close the felicity that miss melville, in spite of the frowns of fortune, had hitherto enjoyed. emily was exactly seventeen when mr. falkland returned from the continent. at this age she was peculiarly susceptible of the charms of beauty, grace, and moral excellence, when united in a person of the other sex. she was imprudent, precisely because her own heart was incapable of guile. she had never yet felt the sting of the poverty to which she was condemned, and had not reflected on the insuperable distance that custom has placed between the opulent and the poorer classes of the community. she beheld mr. falkland, whenever he was thrown in her way at any of the public meetings, with admiration; and, without having precisely explained to herself the sentiments she indulged, her eyes followed him through all the changes of the scene, with eagerness and impatience. she did not see him, as the rest of the assembly did, born to one of the amplest estates in the county, and qualified to assert his title to the richest heiress. she thought only of falkland, with those advantages which were most intimately his own, and of which no persecution of adverse fortune had the ability to deprive him. in a word, she was transported when he was present; he was the perpetual subject of her reveries and her dreams; but his image excited no sentiment in her mind beyond that of the immediate pleasure she took in his idea. the notice mr. falkland bestowed on her in return, appeared sufficiently encouraging to a mind so full of prepossession as that of emily. there was a particular complacency in his looks when directed towards her. he had said in a company, of which one of the persons present repeated his remarks to miss melville, that she appeared to him amiable and interesting; that he felt for her unprovided and destitute situation; and that he should have been glad to be more particular in his attention to her, had he not been apprehensive of doing her a prejudice in the suspicious mind of mr. tyrrel. all this she considered as the ravishing condescension of a superior nature; for, if she did not recollect with sufficient assiduity his gifts of fortune, she was, on the other hand, filled with reverence for his unrivalled accomplishments. but, while she thus seemingly disclaimed all comparison between mr. falkland and herself, she probably cherished a confused feeling as if some event, that was yet in the womb of fate, might reconcile things apparently the most incompatible. fraught with these prepossessions, the civilities that had once or twice occurred in the bustle of a public circle, the restoring her fan which she had dropped, or the disembarrassing her of an empty tea-cup, made her heart palpitate, and gave birth to the wildest chimeras in her deluded imagination. about this time an event happened, that helped to give a precise determination to the fluctuations of miss melville's mind. one evening, a short time after the death of mr. clare, mr. falkland had been at the house of his deceased friend in his quality of executor, and, by some accidents of little intrinsic importance, had been detained three or four hours later than he expected. he did not set out upon his return till two o'clock in the morning. at this time, in a situation so remote from the metropolis, every thing is as silent as it would be in a region wholly uninhabited. the moon shone bright; and the objects around being marked with strong variations of light and shade, gave a kind of sacred solemnity to the scene. mr. falkland had taken collins with him, the business to be settled at mr. clare's being in some respects similar to that to which this faithful domestic had been accustomed in the routine of his ordinary service. they had entered into some conversation, for mr. falkland was not then in the habit of obliging the persons about him by formality and reserve to recollect who he was. the attractive solemnity of the scene made him break off the talk somewhat abruptly, that he might enjoy it without interruption. they had not ridden far, before a hollow wind seemed to rise at a distance, and they could hear the hoarse roarings of the sea. presently the sky on one side assumed the appearance of a reddish brown, and a sudden angle in the road placed this phenomenon directly before them. as they proceeded, it became more distinct, and it was at length sufficiently visible that it was occasioned by a fire. mr. falkland put spurs to his horse; and, as they approached, the object presented every instant a more alarming appearance. the flames ascended with fierceness; they embraced a large portion of the horizon; and, as they carried up with them numerous little fragments of the materials that fed them, impregnated with fire, and of an extremely bright and luminous colour, they presented some feeble image of the tremendous eruption of a volcano. the flames proceeded from a village directly in their road. there were eight or ten houses already on fire, and the whole seemed to be threatened with immediate destruction. the inhabitants were in the utmost consternation, having had no previous experience of a similar calamity. they conveyed with haste their moveables and furniture into the adjoining fields. when any of them had effected this as far as it could be attempted with safety, they were unable to conceive any further remedy, but stood wringing their hands, and contemplating the ravages of the fire in an agony of powerless despair. the water that could be procured, in any mode practised in that place, was but as a drop contending with an element in arms. the wind in the mean time was rising, and the flames spread with more and more rapidity. mr. falkland contemplated this scene for a few moments, as if ruminating with himself as to what could be done. he then directed some of the country people about him to pull down a house, next to one that was wholly on fire, but which itself was yet untouched. they seemed astonished at a direction which implied a voluntary destruction of property, and considered the task as too much in the heart of the danger to be undertaken. observing that they were motionless, he dismounted from his horse, and called upon them in an authoritative voice to follow him. he ascended the house in an instant, and presently appeared upon the top of it, as if in the midst of the flames. having, with the assistance of two or three of the persons that followed him most closely, and who by this time had supplied themselves with whatever tools came next to hand, loosened the support of a stack of chimneys, he pushed them headlong into the midst of the fire. he passed and repassed along the roof; and, having set people to work in all parts, descended in order to see what could be done in any other quarter. at this moment an elderly woman burst from the midst of a house in flames: the utmost consternation was painted in her looks; and, as soon as she could recollect herself enough to have a proper idea of her situation, the subject of her anxiety seemed, in an instant, to be totally changed. "where is my child?" cried she, and cast an anxious and piercing look among the surrounding crowd. "oh, she is lost! she is in the midst of flames! save her! save her! my child!" she filled the air with heart-rending shrieks. she turned towards the house. the people that were near endeavoured to prevent her, but she shook them off in a moment. she entered the passage; viewed the hideous ruin; and was then going to plunge into the blazing staircase. mr. falkland saw, pursued, and seized her by the arm; it was mrs. jakeman. "stop!" he cried, with a voice of grand, yet benevolent authority. "remain you in the street! i will seek, and will save her!" mrs. jakeman obeyed. he charged the persons who were near to detain her; he enquired which was the apartment of emily. mrs. jakeman was upon a visit to a sister who lived in the village, and had brought emily along with her. mr. falkland ascended a neighbouring house, and entered that in which emily was, by a window in the roof. he found her already awaked from her sleep; and, becoming sensible of her danger, she had that instant wrapped a loose gown round her. such is the almost irresistible result of feminine habits; but, having done this, she examined the surrounding objects with the wildness of despair. mr. falkland entered the chamber. she flew into his arms with the rapidity of lightning. she embraced and clung to him, with an impulse that did not wait to consult the dictates of her understanding. her emotions were indescribable. in a few short moments she had lived an age in love. in two minutes mr. falkland was again in the street with his lovely, half-naked burthen in his arms. having restored her to her affectionate protector, snatched from the immediate grasp of death, from which, if he had not, none would have delivered her, he returned to his former task. by his presence of mind, by his indefatigable humanity and incessant exertions, he saved three fourths of the village from destruction. the conflagration being at length abated, he sought again mrs. jakeman and emily, who by this time had obtained a substitute for the garments she had lost in the fire. he displayed the tenderest solicitude for the young lady's safety, and directed collins to go with as much speed as he could, and send his chariot to attend her. more than an hour elapsed in this interval. miss melville had never seen so much of mr. falkland upon any former occasion; and the spectacle of such humanity, delicacy, firmness, and justice in the form of man, as he crowded into this small space, was altogether new to her, and in the highest degree fascinating. she had a confused feeling as if there had been something indecorous in her behaviour or appearance, when mr. falkland had appeared to her relief; and this combined with her other emotions to render the whole critical and intoxicating. emily no sooner arrived at the family mansion, than mr. tyrrel ran out to receive her. he had just heard of the melancholy accident that had taken place at the village, and was terrified for the safety of his good-humoured cousin. he displayed those unpremeditated emotions which are common to almost every individual of the human race. he was greatly shocked at the suspicion that emily might possibly have become the victim of a catastrophe which had thus broken out in the dead of night. his sensations were of the most pleasing sort when he folded her in his arms, and fearful apprehension was instantaneously converted into joyous certainty. emily no sooner entered under the well known roof than her spirits were brisk, and her tongue incessant in describing her danger and her deliverance. mr. tyrrel had formerly been tortured with the innocent eulogiums she pronounced of mr. falkland. but these were lameness itself, compared with the rich and various eloquence that now flowed from her lips. love had not the same effect upon her, especially at the present moment, which it would have had upon a person instructed to feign a blush, and inured to a consciousness of wrong. she described his activity and resources, the promptitude with which every thing was conceived, and the cautious but daring wisdom with which it was executed. all was fairy-land and enchantment in the tenour of her artless tale; you saw a beneficent genius surveying and controlling the whole, but could have no notion of any human means by which his purposes were effected. mr. tyrrel listened for a while to these innocent effusions with patience; he could even bear to hear the man applauded, by whom he had just obtained so considerable a benefit. but the theme by amplification became nauseous, and he at length with some roughness put an end to the tale. probably, upon recollection, it appeared still more insolent and intolerable than while it was passing; the sensation of gratitude wore off, but the hyperbolical praise that had been bestowed still haunted his memory, and sounded in his ear;--emily had entered into the confederacy that disturbed his repose. for herself, she was wholly unconscious of offence, and upon every occasion quoted mr. falkland as the model of elegant manners and true wisdom. she was a total stranger to dissimulation; and she could not conceive that any one beheld the subject of her admiration with less partiality than herself. her artless love became more fervent than ever. she flattered herself that nothing less than a reciprocal passion could have prompted mr. falkland to the desperate attempt of saving her from the flames; and she trusted that this passion would speedily declare itself, as well as induce the object of her adoration to overlook her comparative unworthiness. mr. tyrrel endeavoured at first with some moderation to check miss melville in her applauses, and to convince her by various tokens that the subject was disagreeable to him. he was accustomed to treat her with kindness. emily, on her part, was disposed to yield an unreluctant obedience, and therefore it was not difficult to restrain her. but upon the very next occasion her favourite topic would force its way to her lips. her obedience was the acquiescence of a frank and benevolent heart; but it was the most difficult thing in the world to inspire her with fear. conscious herself that she would not hurt a worm, she could not conceive that any one would harbour cruelty and rancour against her. her temper had preserved her from obstinate contention with the persons under whose protection she was placed; and, as her compliance was unhesitating, she had no experience of a severe and rigorous treatment. as mr. tyrrel's objection to the very name of falkland became more palpable and uniform, miss melville increased in her precaution. she would stop herself in the half-pronounced sentences that were meant to his praise. this circumstance had necessarily an ungracious effect; it was a cutting satire upon the imbecility of her kinsman. upon these occasions she would sometimes venture upon a good-humoured expostulation:--"dear sir! well, i wonder how you can be so ill-natured! i am sure mr. falkland would do you any good office in the world:"--till she was checked by some gesture of impatience and fierceness. at length she wholly conquered her heedlessness and inattention. but it was too late. mr. tyrrel already suspected the existence of that passion which she had thoughtlessly imbibed. his imagination, ingenious in torment, suggested to him all the different openings in conversation, in which she would have introduced the praise of mr. falkland, had she not been placed under this unnatural restraint. her present reserve upon the subject was even more insufferable than her former loquacity. all his kindness for this unhappy orphan gradually subsided. her partiality for the man who was the object of his unbounded abhorrence, appeared to him as the last persecution of a malicious destiny. he figured himself as about to be deserted by every creature in human form; all men, under the influence of a fatal enchantment, approving only what was sophisticated and artificial, and holding the rude and genuine offspring of nature in mortal antipathy. impressed with these gloomy presages, he saw miss melville with no sentiments but those of rancorous aversion; and, accustomed as he was to the uncontrolled indulgence of his propensities, he determined to wreak upon her a signal revenge. chapter vii. mr. tyrrel consulted his old confident respecting the plan he should pursue; who, sympathising as he did in the brutality and insolence of his friend, had no idea that an insignificant girl, without either wealth or beauty, ought to be allowed for a moment to stand in the way of the gratifications of a man of mr. tyrrel's importance. the first idea of her now unrelenting kinsman was to thrust her from his doors, and leave her to seek her bread as she could. but he was conscious that this proceeding would involve him in considerable obloquy; and he at length fixed upon a scheme which, at the same time that he believed it would sufficiently shelter his reputation, would much more certainly secure her mortification and punishment. for this purpose he fixed upon a young man of twenty, the son of one grimes, who occupied a small farm, the property of his confident. this fellow he resolved to impose as a husband on miss melville, who, he shrewdly suspected, guided by the tender sentiments she had unfortunately conceived for mr. falkland, would listen with reluctance to any matrimonial proposal. grimes he selected as being in all respects the diametrical reverse of mr. falkland. he was not precisely a lad of vicious propensities, but in an inconceivable degree boorish and uncouth. his complexion was scarcely human; his features were coarse, and strangely discordant and disjointed from each other. his lips were thick, and the tone of his voice broad and unmodulated. his legs were of equal size from one end to the other, and his feet misshapen and clumsy. he had nothing spiteful or malicious in his disposition, but he was a total stranger to tenderness; he could not feel for those refinements in others, of which he had no experience in himself. he was an expert boxer: his inclination led him to such amusements as were most boisterous; and he delighted in a sort of manual sarcasm, which he could not conceive to be very injurious, as it left no traces behind it. his general manners were noisy and obstreperous; inattentive to others; and obstinate and unyielding, not from any cruelty and ruggedness of temper, but from an incapacity to conceive those finer feelings, that make so large a part of the history of persons who are cast in a gentler mould. such was the uncouth and half-civilised animal, which the industrious malice of mr. tyrrel fixed upon as most happily adapted to his purpose. emily had hitherto been in an unusual degree exempted from the oppression of despotism. her happy insignificance had served her as a protection. no one thought it worth his while to fetter her with those numerous petty restrictions with which the daughters of opulence are commonly tormented. she had the wildness, as well as the delicate frame, of the bird that warbles unmolested in its native groves. when therefore she heard from her kinsman the proposal of mr. grimes for a husband, she was for a moment silent with astonishment at so unexpected a suggestion. but as soon as she recovered her speech, she replied, "no, sir, i do not want a husband." "you do! are not you always hankering after the men? it is high time you should be settled." "mr. grimes! no, indeed! when i do have a husband, it shall not be such a man as mr. grimes neither." "be silent! how dare you give yourself such unaccountable liberties?" "lord, i wonder what i should do with him. you might as well give me your great rough water-dog, and bid me make him a silk cushion to lie in my dressing-room. besides, sir, grimes is a common labouring man, and i am sure i have always heard my aunt say that ours is a very great family." "it is a lie! our family! have you the impudence to think yourself one of our family?" "why, sir, was not your grandpapa my grandpapa? how then can we be of a different family?" "from the strongest reason in the world. you are the daughter of a rascally scotchman, who spent every shilling of my aunt lucy's fortune, and left you a beggar. you have got an hundred pounds, and grimes's father promises to give him as much. how dare you look down upon your equals?" "indeed, sir, i am not proud. but, indeed and indeed, i can never love mr. grimes. i am very happy as i am: why should i be married?" "silence your prating! grimes will be here this afternoon. look that you behave well to him. if you do not, he will remember and repay, when you least like it." "nay, i am sure, sir--you are not in earnest?" "not in earnest! damn me, but we will see that. i can tell what you would be at. you had rather be mr. falkland's miss, than the wife of a plain downright yeoman. but i shall take care of you.--ay, this comes of indulgence. you must be taken down, miss. you must be taught the difference between high-flown notions and realities. mayhap you may take it a little in dudgeon or so; but never mind that. pride always wants a little smarting. if you should be brought to shame, it is i that shall bear the blame of it." the tone in which mr. tyrrel spoke was so different from any thing to which miss melville had been accustomed, that she felt herself wholly unable to determine what construction to put upon it. sometimes she thought he had really formed a plan for imposing upon her a condition that she could not bear so much as to think of. but presently she rejected this idea as an unworthy imputation upon her kinsman, and concluded that it was only his way, and that all he meant was to try her. to be resolved however, she determined to consult her constant adviser, mrs. jakeman, and accordingly repeated to her what had passed. mrs. jakeman saw the whole in a very different light from that in which emily had conceived it, and trembled for the future peace of her beloved ward. "lord bless me, my dear mamma!" cried emily, (this was the appellation she delighted to bestow upon the good housekeeper,) "you cannot think so? but i do not care. i will never marry grimes, happen what will." "but how will you help yourself? my master will oblige you." "nay, now you think you are talking to a child indeed. it is i am to have the man, not mr. tyrrel. do you think i will let any body else choose a husband for me? i am not such a fool as that neither." "ah, emily! you little know the disadvantages of your situation. your cousin is a violent man, and perhaps will turn you out of doors, if you oppose him." "oh, mamma! it is very wicked of you to say so. i am sure mr. tyrrel is a very good man, though he be a little cross now and then. he knows very well that i am right to have a will of my own in such a thing as this, and nobody is punished for doing what is right." "nobody ought, my dear child. but there are very wicked and tyrannical men in the world." "well, well, i will never believe my cousin is one of these." "i hope he is not." "and if he were, what then? to be sure i should he very sorry to make him angry." "what then! why then my poor emily would be a beggar. do you think i could bear to see that?" "no, no. mr. tyrrel has just told me that i have a hundred pounds. but if i had no fortune, is not that the case with a thousand other folks? why should i grieve, for what they bear and are merry? do not make yourself uneasy, mamma. i am determined that i will do any thing rather than marry grimes; that is what i will." mrs. jakeman could not bear the uneasy state of suspense in which this conversation left her mind, and went immediately to the squire to have her doubts resolved. the manner in which she proposed the question, sufficiently indicated the judgment she had formed of the match. "that is true," said mr. tyrrel, "i wanted to speak to you about this affair. the girl has got unaccountable notions in her head, that will be the ruin of her. you perhaps can tell where she had them. but, be that as it will, it is high time something should be done. the shortest way is the best, and to keep things well while they are well. in short, i am determined she shall marry this lad: you do not know any harm of him, do you? you have a good deal of influence with her, and i desire, do you see, that you will employ it to lead her to her good: you had best, i can tell you. she is a pert vixen! by and by she would be a whore, and at last no better than a common trull, and rot upon a dunghill, if i were not at all these pains to save her from destruction. i would make her an honest farmer's wife, and my pretty miss cannot bear the thoughts of it!" in the afternoon grimes came according to appointment, and was left alone with the young lady. "well, miss," said he, "it seems the squire has a mind to make us man and wife. for my part, i cannot say i should have thought of it. but, being as how the squire has broke the ice, if so be as you like of the match, why i am your man. speak the word; a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse." emily was already sufficiently mortified at the unexpected proposal of mr. tyrrel. she was confounded at the novelty of the situation, and still more at the uncultivated rudeness of her lover, which even exceeded her expectation. this confusion was interpreted by grimes into diffidence. "come, come, never be cast down. put a good face upon it. what though? my first sweetheart was bet butterfield, but what of that? what must be must be; grief will never fill the belly. she was a fine strapping wench, that is the truth of it! five foot ten inches, and as stout as a trooper. oh, she would do a power of work! up early and down late; milked ten cows with her own hands; on with her cardinal, rode to market between her panniers, fair weather and foul, hail, blow, or snow. it would have done your heart good to have seen her frost-bitten cheeks, as red as a beefen from her own orchard! ah! she was a maid of mettle; would romp with the harvestmen, slap one upon the back, wrestle with another, and had a rogue's trick and a joke for all round. poor girl! she broke her neck down stairs at a christening. to be sure i shall never meet with her fellow! but never you mind that; i do not doubt that i shall find more in you upon further acquaintance. as coy and bashful as you seem, i dare say you are rogue enough at bottom. when i have touzled and rumpled you a little, we shall see. i am no chicken, miss, whatever you may think. i know what is what, and can see as far into a millstone as another. ay, ay; you will come to. the fish will snap at the bait, never doubt it. yes, yes, we shall rub on main well together." emily by this time had in some degree mustered up her spirits, and began, though with hesitation, to thank mr. grimes for his good opinion, but to confess that she could never be brought to favour his addresses. she therefore entreated him to desist from all further application. this remonstrance on her part would have become more intelligible, had it not been for his boisterous manners and extravagant cheerfulness, which indisposed him to silence, and made him suppose that at half a word he had sufficient intimation of another's meaning. mr. tyrrel, in the mean time, was too impatient not to interrupt the scene before they could have time to proceed far in explanation; and he was studious in the sequel to prevent the young folks from being too intimately acquainted with each other's inclinations. grimes, of consequence, attributed the reluctance of miss melville to maiden coyness, and the skittish shyness of an unbroken filly. indeed, had it been otherwise, it is not probable that it would have made any effectual impression upon him; as he was always accustomed to consider women as made for the recreation of the men, and to exclaim against the weakness of people who taught them to imagine they were to judge for themselves. as the suit proceeded, and miss melville saw more of her new admirer, her antipathy increased. but, though her character was unspoiled by those false wants, which frequently make people of family miserable while they have every thing that nature requires within their reach, yet she had been little used to opposition, and was terrified at the growing sternness of her kinsman. sometimes she thought of flying from a house which was now become her dungeon; but the habits of her youth, and her ignorance of the world, made her shrink from this project, when she contemplated it more nearly, mrs. jakeman, indeed, could not think with patience of young grimes as a husband for her darling emily; but her prudence determined her to resist with all her might the idea on the part of the young lady of proceeding to extremities. she could not believe that mr. tyrrel would persist in such an unaccountable persecution, and she exhorted miss melville to forget for a moment the unaffected independence of her character, and pathetically to deprecate her cousin's obstinacy. she had great confidence in the ingenuous eloquence of her ward. mrs. jakeman did not know what was passing in the breast of the tyrant. miss melville complied with the suggestion of her mamma. one morning immediately after breakfast, she went to her harpsichord, and played one after another several of those airs that were most the favourites of mr. tyrrel. mrs. jakeman had retired; the servants were gone to their respective employments. mr. tyrrel would have gone also; his mind was untuned, and he did not take the pleasure he had been accustomed to take in the musical performances of emily. but her finger was now more tasteful than common. her mind was probably wrought up to a firmer and bolder tone, by the recollection of the cause she was going to plead; at the same time that it was exempt from those incapacitating tremors which would have been felt by one that dared not look poverty in the face. mr. tyrrel was unable to leave the apartment. sometimes he traversed it with impatient steps; then he hung over the poor innocent whose powers were exerted to please him; at length he threw himself in a chair opposite, with his eyes turned towards emily. it was easy to trace the progress of his emotions. the furrows into which his countenance was contracted were gradually relaxed; his features were brightened into a smile; the kindness with which he had upon former occasions contemplated emily seemed to revive in his heart. emily watched her opportunity. as soon as she had finished one of the pieces, she rose and went to mr. tyrrel. "now, have not i done it nicely? and after this will not you give me a reward?" "a reward! ay, come here, and i will give you a kiss." "no, that is not it. and yet you have not kissed me this many a day. formerly you said you loved me, and called me your emily. i am sure you did not love me better than i loved you. you have not forgot all the kindness you once had for me?" added she anxiously. "forgot? no, no. how can you ask such a question? you shall be my dear emily still!" "ah, those were happy times!" she replied, a little mournfully. "do you know, cousin, i wish i could wake, and find that the last month--only about a month--was a dream?" "what do you mean by that?" said mr. tyrrel with an altered voice. "have a care! do not put me out of humour. do not come with your romantic notions now." "no, no: i have no romantic notions in my head. i speak of something upon which the happiness of my life depends." "i see what you would be at. be silent. you know it is to no purpose to plague me with your stubbornness. you will not let me be in good humour with you for a moment. what my mind is determined upon about grimes, all the world shall not move me to give up." "dear, dear cousin! why, but consider now. grimes is a rough rustic lout, like orson in the story-book. he wants a wife like himself. he would be as uneasy and as much at a loss with me, as i with him. why should we both of us be forced to do what neither of us is inclined to? i cannot think what could ever have put it into your head. but now, for goodness' sake, give it up! marriage is a serious thing. you should not think of joining two people for a whim, who are neither of them fit for one another in any respect in the world. we should feel mortified and disappointed all our lives. month would go after month, and year after year, and i could never hope to be my own, but by the death of a person i ought to love. i am sure, sir, you cannot mean me all this harm. what have i done, that i should deserve to have you for an enemy?" "i am not your enemy. i tell you that it is necessary to put you out of harm's way. but, if i were your enemy, i could not be a worse torment to you than you are to me. are not you continually singing the praises of falkland? are not you in love with falkland? that man is a legion of devils to me! i might as well have been a beggar! i might as well have been a dwarf or a monster! time was when i was thought entitled to respect. but now, debauched by this frenchified rascal, they call me rude, surly, a tyrant! it is true that i cannot talk in finical phrases, flatter people with hypocritical praise, or suppress the real feelings of my mind. the scoundrel knows his pitiful advantages, and insults me upon them without ceasing. he is my rival and my persecutor; and, at last, as if all this were not enough, he has found means to spread the pestilence in my own family. you, whom we took up out of charity, the chance-born brat of a stolen marriage! you must turn upon your benefactor, and wound me in the point that of all others i could least bear. if i were your enemy, should not i have reason? could i ever inflict upon you such injuries as you have made me suffer? and who are you? the lives of fifty such cannot atone for an hour of my uneasiness. if you were to linger for twenty years upon the rack, you would never feel what i have felt. but i am your friend. i see which way you are going; and i am determined to save you from this thief, this hypocritical destroyer of us all. every moment that the mischief is left to itself, it does but make bad worse; and i am determined to save you out of hand." the angry expostulations of mr. tyrrel suggested new ideas to the tender mind of miss melville. he had never confessed the emotions of his soul so explicitly before; but the tempest of his thoughts suffered him to be no longer master of himself. she saw with astonishment that he was the irreconcilable foe of mr. falkland, whom she had fondly imagined it was the same thing to know and admire; and that he harboured a deep and rooted resentment against herself. she recoiled, without well knowing why, before the ferocious passions of her kinsman, and was convinced that she had nothing to hope from his implacable temper. but her alarm was the prelude of firmness, and not of cowardice. "no, sir," replied she, "indeed i will not be driven any way that you happen to like. i have been used to obey you, and, in all that is reasonable, i will obey you still. but you urge me too far. what do you tell me of mr. falkland? have i ever done any thing to deserve your unkind suspicions? i am innocent, and will continue innocent. mr. grimes is well enough, and will no doubt find women that like him; but he is not fit for me, and torture shall not force me to be his wife." mr. tyrrel was not a little astonished at the spirit which emily displayed upon this occasion. he had calculated too securely upon the general mildness and suavity of her disposition. he now endeavoured to qualify the harshness of his former sentiments. "god damn my soul! and so you can scold, can you? you expect every body to turn out of his way, and fetch and carry, just as you please? i could find in my heart--but you know my mind. i insist upon it that you let grimes court you, and that you lay aside your sulks, and give him a fair hearing. will you do that? if then you persist in your wilfulness, why there, i suppose, is an end of the matter. do not think that any body is going to marry you, whether you will or no. you are no such mighty prize, i assure you. if you knew your own interest, you would be glad to take the young fellow while he is willing." miss melville rejoiced in the prospect, which the last words of her kinsman afforded her, of a termination at no great distance to her present persecutions. mrs. jakeman, to whom she communicated them, congratulated emily on the returning moderation and good sense of the squire, and herself on her prudence in having urged the young lady to this happy expostulation. but their mutual felicitations lasted not long. mr. tyrrel informed mrs. jakeman of the necessity in which he found himself of sending her to a distance, upon a business which would not fail to detain her several weeks; and, though the errand by no means wore an artificial or ambiguous face, the two friends drew a melancholy presage from this ill-timed separation. mrs. jakeman, in the mean time, exhorted her ward to persevere, reminded her of the compunction which had already been manifested by her kinsman, and encouraged her to hope every thing from her courage and good temper. emily, on her part, though grieved at the absence of her protector and counsellor at so interesting a crisis, was unable to suspect mr. tyrrel of such a degree either of malice or duplicity as could afford ground for serious alarm. she congratulated herself upon her delivery from so alarming a persecution, and drew a prognostic of future success from this happy termination of the first serious affair of her life. she exchanged a state of fortitude and alarm for her former pleasing dreams respecting mr. falkland. these she bore without impatience. she was even taught by the uncertainty of the event to desire to prolong, rather than abridge, a situation which might be delusive, but which was not without its pleasures. chapter viii. nothing could be further from mr. tyrrel's intention than to suffer his project to be thus terminated. no sooner was he freed from the fear of his housekeeper's interference, than he changed the whole system of his conduct. he ordered miss melville to be closely confined to her apartment, and deprived of all means of communicating her situation to any one out of his own house. he placed over her a female servant, in whose discretion he could confide, and who, having formerly been honoured with the amorous notices of the squire, considered the distinctions that were paid to emily at tyrrel place as an usurpation upon her more reasonable claims. the squire himself did every thing in his power to blast the young lady's reputation, and represented to his attendants these precautions as necessary, to prevent her from eloping to his neighbour, and plunging herself in total ruin. as soon as miss melville had been twenty-four hours in durance, and there was some reason to suppose that her spirit might be subdued to the emergency of her situation, mr. tyrrel thought proper to go to her, to explain the grounds of her present treatment, and acquaint her with the only means by which she could hope for a change. emily no sooner saw him, than she turned towards him with an air of greater firmness than perhaps she had ever assumed in her life, and accosted him thus:-"well, sir, is it you? i wanted to see you. it seems i am shut up here by your orders. what does this mean? what right have you to make a prisoner of me? what do i owe you? your mother left me a hundred pounds: have you ever offered to make any addition to my fortune? but, if you had, i do not want it. i do not pretend to be better than the children of other poor parents; i can maintain myself as they do. i prefer liberty to wealth. i see you are surprised at the resolution i exert. but ought i not to turn again, when i am trampled upon? i should have left you before now, if mrs. jakeman had not over-persuaded me, and if i had not thought better of you than by your present behaviour i find you deserve. but now, sir, i intend to leave your house this moment, and insist upon it, that you do not endeavour to prevent me." thus saying, she rose, and went towards the door, while mr. tyrrel stood thunderstruck at her magnanimity. seeing, however, that she was upon the point of being out of the reach of his power, he recovered himself and pulled her back. "what is in the wind now? do you think, strumpet; that you shall get the better of me by sheer impudence? sit down! rest you satisfied!--so you want to know by what right you are here, do you? by the right of possession. this house is mine, and you are in my power. there is no mrs. jakeman now to spirit you away; no, nor no falkland to bully for you. i have countermined you, damn me! and blown up your schemes. do you think i will be contradicted and opposed for nothing? when did you ever know any body resist my will without being made to repent? and shall i now be browbeaten by a chitty-faced girl?--i have not given you a fortune! damn you! who brought you up? i will make you a bill for clothing and lodging. do not you know that every creditor has a right to stop his runaway debtor. you may think as you please; but here you are till you marry grimes. heaven and earth shall not prevent but i will get the better of your obstinacy!" "ungenerous, unmerciful man! and so it is enough for you that i have nobody to defend me! but i am not so helpless as you may imagine. you may imprison my body, but you cannot conquer my mind. marry mr. grimes! and is this the way to bring me to your purpose? every hardship i suffer puts still further distant the end for which i am thus unjustly treated. you are not used to have your will contradicted! when did i ever contradict it? and, in a concern that is so completely my own, shall my will go for nothing? would you lay down this rule for yourself, and suffer no other creature to take the benefit of it? i want nothing of you: how dare you refuse me the privilege of a reasonable being, to live unmolested in poverty and innocence? what sort of a man do you show yourself, you that lay claim to the respect and applause of every one that knows you?" the spirited reproaches of emily had at first the effect to fill mr. tyrrel with astonishment, and make him feel abashed and overawed in the presence of this unprotected innocent. but his confusion was the result of surprise. when the first emotion wore off, he cursed himself for being moved by her expostulations; and was ten times more exasperated against her, for daring to defy his resentment at a time when she had every thing to fear. his despotic and unforgiving propensities stimulated him to a degree little short of madness. at the same time his habits, which were pensive and gloomy, led him to meditate a variety of schemes to punish her obstinacy. he began to suspect that there was little hope of succeeding by open force, and therefore determined to have recourse to treachery. he found in grimes an instrument sufficiently adapted to his purpose. this fellow, without an atom of intentional malice, was fitted, by the mere coarseness of his perceptions, for the perpetration of the greatest injuries. he regarded both injury and advantage merely as they related to the gratifications of appetite; and considered it an essential in true wisdom, to treat with insult the effeminacy of those who suffer themselves to be tormented with ideal misfortunes. he believed that no happier destiny could befal a young woman than to be his wife; and he conceived that that termination would amply compensate for any calamities she might suppose herself to undergo in the interval. he was therefore easily prevailed upon, by certain temptations which mr. tyrrel knew how to employ, to take part in the plot into which miss melville was meant to be betrayed. matters being thus prepared, mr. tyrrel proceeded, through the means of the gaoler (for the experience he already had of personal discussion did not incline him to repeat his visits), to play upon the fears of his prisoner. this woman, sometimes under the pretence of friendship, and sometimes with open malice, informed emily, from time to time, of the preparations that were making for her marriage. one day, "the squire had rode over to look at a neat little farm which was destined for the habitation of the new-married couple;" and at another, "a quantity of live stock and household furniture was procured, that every thing might be ready for their reception." she then told her "of a licence that was bought, a parson in readiness, and a day fixed for the nuptials." when emily endeavoured, though with increased misgivings, to ridicule these proceedings as absolutely nugatory without her consent, her artful gouvernante related several stories of forced marriages, and assured her that neither protestations, nor silence, nor fainting, would be of any avail, either to suspend the ceremony, or to set it aside when performed. the situation of miss melville was in an eminent degree pitiable. she had no intercourse but with her persecutors. she had not a human being with whom to consult, who might afford her the smallest degree of consolation and encouragement. she had fortitude; but it was neither confirmed nor directed by the dictates of experience. it could not therefore be expected to be so inflexible, as with better information it would, no doubt, have been found. she had a clear and noble spirit; but she had some of her sex's errors. her mind sunk under the uniform terrors with which she was assailed, and her health became visibly impaired. her firmness being thus far undermined, grimes, in pursuance of his instructions, took care, in his next interview, to throw out an insinuation that, for his own part, he had never cared for the match, and since she was so averse to it, would be better pleased that it should never take place. between one and the other however, he was got into a scrape, and now he supposed he must marry, will he, nill he. the two squires would infallibly ruin him upon the least appearance of backwardness on his part, as they were accustomed to do every inferior that resisted their will. emily was rejoiced to find her admirer in so favourable a disposition; and earnestly pressed him to give effect to this humane declaration. her representations were full of eloquence and energy. grimes appeared to be moved at the fervency of her manner; but objected the resentment of mr. tyrrel and his landlord. at length, however, he suggested a project, in consequence of which he might assist her in her escape, without its ever coming to their knowledge, as, indeed, there was no likelihood that their suspicions would fix upon him. "to be sure," said he, "you have refused me in a disdainful sort of a way, as a man may say. mayhap you thought i was no better 'an a brute: but i bear you no malice, and i will show you that i am more kind-hearted 'an you have been willing to think. it is a strange sort of a vagary you have taken, to stand in your own light, and disoblige all your friends. but if you are resolute, do you see? i scorn to be the husband of a lass that is not every bit as willing as i; and so i will even help to put you in a condition to follow your own inclinations." emily listened to these suggestions at first with eagerness and approbation. but her fervency somewhat abated, when they came to discuss the minute parts of the undertaking. it was necessary, as grimes informed her, that her escape should be effected in the dead of the night. he would conceal himself for that purpose in the garden, and be provided with false keys, by which to deliver her from her prison. these circumstances were by no means adapted to calm her perturbed imagination. to throw herself into the arms of the man whose intercourse she was employing every method to avoid, and whom, under the idea of a partner for life, she could least of all men endure, was, no doubt, an extraordinary proceeding. the attendant circumstances of darkness and solitude aggravated the picture. the situation of tyrrel place was uncommonly lonely; it was three miles from the nearest village, and not less than seven from that in which mrs. jakeman's sister resided, under whose protection miss melville was desirous of placing herself. the ingenuous character of emily did not allow her once to suspect grimes of intending to make an ungenerous and brutal advantage of these circumstances; but her mind involuntarily revolted against the idea of committing herself, alone, to the disposal of a man, whom she had lately been accustomed to consider as the instrument of her treacherous relation. after having for some time revolved these considerations, she thought of the expedient of desiring grimes to engage mrs. jakeman's sister to wait for her at the outside of the garden. but this grimes peremptorily refused. he even flew into a passion at the proposal. it showed very little gratitude, to desire him to disclose to other people his concern in this dangerous affair. for his part, he was determined, in consideration of his own safety, never to appear in it to any living soul. if miss did not believe him, when he made this proposal out of pure good-nature, and would not trust him a single inch, she might even see to the consequences herself. he was resolved to condescend no further to the whims of a person who, in her treatment of him, had shown herself as proud as lucifer himself. emily exerted herself to appease his resentment; but all the eloquence of her new confederate could not prevail upon her instantly to give up her objection. she desired till the next day to consider of it. the day after was fixed by mr. tyrrel for the marriage ceremony. in the mean time she was pestered with intimations, in a thousand forms, of the fate that so nearly awaited her. the preparations were so continued, methodical, and regular, as to produce in her the most painful and aching anxiety. if her heart attained a moment's intermission upon the subject, her female attendant was sure, by some sly hint or sarcastical remark, to put a speedy termination to her tranquillity. she felt herself, as she afterwards remarked, alone, uninstructed, just broken loose, as it were, from the trammels of infancy, without one single creature to concern himself in her fate. she, who till then never knew an enemy, had now, for three weeks, not seen the glimpse of a human countenance, that she had not good reason to consider as wholly estranged to her at least, if not unrelentingly bent on her destruction. she now, for the first time, experienced the anguish of never having known her parents, and being cast upon the charity of people with whom she had too little equality, to hope to receive from them the offices of friendship. the succeeding night was filled with the most anxious thoughts. when a momentary oblivion stole upon her senses, her distempered imagination conjured up a thousand images of violence and falsehood; she saw herself in the hands of her determined enemies, who did not hesitate by the most daring treachery to complete her ruin. her waking thoughts were not more consoling. the struggle was too great for her constitution. as morning approached, she resolved, at all hazards, to put herself into the hands of grimes. this determination was no sooner made, than she felt her heart sensibly lightened. she could not conceive any evil which could result from this proceeding, that deserved to be put in the balance against those which, under the roof of her kinsman, appeared unavoidable. when she communicated her determination to grimes, it was not possible to say whether he received pleasure or pain from the intimation. he smiled indeed; but his smile was accompanied by a certain abrupt ruggedness of countenance, so that it might equally well be the smile of sarcasm or of congratulation. he, however, renewed his assurances of fidelity to his engagements and punctuality of execution. meanwhile the day was interspersed with nuptial presents and preparations, all indicating the firmness as well as security of the directors of the scene. emily had hoped that, as the crisis approached, they might have remitted something of their usual diligence. she was resolved, in that case, if a fair opportunity had offered, to give the slip both to her jailors, and to her new and reluctantly chosen confederate. but, though extremely vigilant for that purpose, she found the execution of the idea impracticable. at length the night, so critical to her happiness, approached. the mind of emily could not fail, on this occasion, to be extremely agitated. she had first exerted all her perspicacity to elude the vigilance of her attendant. this insolent and unfeeling tyrant, instead of any relentings, had only sought to make sport of her anxiety. accordingly, in one instance she hid herself, and, suffering emily to suppose that the coast was clear, met her at the end of the gallery, near the top of the staircase. "how do you do, my dear?" said she, with an insulting tone. "and so the little dear thought itself cunning enough to outwit me, did it? oh, it was a sly little gipsy! go, go back, love; troop!" emily felt deeply the trick that was played upon her. she sighed, but disdained to return any answer to this low vulgarity. being once more in her chamber, she sat down in a chair, and remained buried in reverie for more than two hours. after this she went to her drawers, and turned over, in a hurrying confused way, her linen and clothes, having in her mind the provision it would be necessary to make for her elopement. her jailor officiously followed her from place to place, and observed what she did for the present in silence. it was now the hour of rest. "good night, child," said this saucy girl, in the act of retiring. "it is time to lock up. for the few next hours, the time is your own. make the best use of it! do'ee think ee can creep out at the key-hole, lovey? at eight o'clock you see me again. and then, and then," added she, clapping her hands, "it is all over. the sun is not surer to rise, than you and your honest man to be made one." there was something in the tone with which this slut uttered her farewell, that suggested the question to emily, "what does she mean? is it possible that she should know what has been planned for the few next hours?"--this was the first moment that suspicion had offered itself, and its continuance was short. with an aching heart she folded up the few necessaries she intended to take with her. she instinctively listened, with an anxiety that would almost have enabled her to hear the stirring of a leaf. from time to time she thought her ear was struck with the sound of feet; but the treading, if treading it were, was so soft, that she could never ascertain whether it were a real sound, or the mere creature of the fancy. then all was still, as if the universal motion had been at rest. by and by she conceived she overheard a noise as of buzzing and low-muttered speech. her heart palpitated; for a second time she began to doubt the honesty of grimes. the suggestion was now more anxious than before; but it was too late. presently she heard the sound of a key in her chamber-door, and the rustic made his appearance. she started, and cried, "are we discovered? did not i hear you speak?" grimes advanced on tiptoe with his finger to his lip. "no, no," replied he, "all is safe!" he took her by the hand, led her in silence out of the house, and then across the garden. emily examined with her eye the doors and passages as they proceeded, and looked on all sides with fearful suspicion; but every thing was as vacant and still as she herself could have wished. grimes opened a back-door of the garden already unlocked, that led into an unfrequented lane. there stood two horses ready equipped for the journey, and fastened by their bridles to a post not six yards distant from the garden. grimes pushed the door after them. "by gemini," said he, "my heart was in my mouth. as i comed along to you, i saw mun, coachey, pop along from the back-door to the stables. he was within a hop, step, and jump of me. but he had a lanthorn in his hand, and he did not see me, being as i was darkling." saying this, he assisted miss melville to mount. he troubled her little during the route; on the contrary, he was remarkably silent and contemplative, a circumstance by no means disagreeable to emily, to whom his conversation had never been acceptable. after having proceeded about two miles, they turned into a wood, through which the road led to the place of their destination. the night was extremely dark, at the same time that the air was soft and mild, it being now the middle of summer. under pretence of exploring the way, grimes contrived, when they had already penetrated into the midst of this gloomy solitude, to get his horse abreast with that of miss melville, and then, suddenly reaching out his hand, seized hold of her bridle. "i think we may as well stop here a bit," said he. "stop!" exclaimed emily with surprise; "why should we stop? mr. grimes, what do you mean?" "come, come," said he, "never trouble yourself to wonder. did you think i were such a goose, to take all this trouble merely to gratify your whim? i' faith, nobody shall find me a pack-horse, to go of other folks' errands, without knowing a reason why. i cannot say that i much minded to have you at first; but your ways are enough to stir the blood of my grand-dad. far-fetched and dear-bought is always relishing. your consent was so hard to gain, that squire thought it was surest asking in the dark. a' said however, a' would have no such doings in his house, and so, do ye see, we are comed here." "for god's sake, mr. grimes, think what you are about! you cannot be base enough to ruin a poor creature who has put herself under your protection! "ruin! no, no, i will make an honest woman of you, when all is done. nay, none of your airs; no tricks upon travellers! i have you here as safe as a horse in a pound; there is not a house nor a shed within a mile of us; and, if i miss the opportunity, call me spade. faith, you are a delicate morsel, and there is no time to be lost!" miss melville had but an instant in which to collect her thoughts. she felt that there was little hope of softening the obstinate and insensible brute in whose power she was placed. but the presence of mind and intrepidity annexed to her character did not now desert her. grimes had scarcely finished his harangue, when, with a strong and unexpected jerk, she disengaged the bridle from his grasp, and at the same time put her horse upon full speed. she had scarcely advanced twice the length of her horse, when grimes recovered from his surprise, and pursued her, inexpressibly mortified at being so easily overreached. the sound of his horse behind served but to rouse more completely the mettle of that of emily; whether by accident or sagacity, the animal pursued without a fault the narrow and winding way; and the chase continued the whole length of the wood. at the extremity of this wood there was a gate. the recollection of this softened a little the cutting disappointment of grimes, as he thought himself secure of putting an end, by its assistance, to the career of emily; nor was it very probable that any body would appear to interrupt his designs, in such a place, and in the dead and silence of the night. by the most extraordinary accident, however, they found a man on horseback in wait at this gate. "help, help!" exclaimed the affrighted emily; "thieves! murder! help!" the man was mr. falkland. grimes knew his voice; and therefore, though he attempted a sort of sullen resistance, it was feebly made. two other men, whom, by reason of the darkness, he had not at first seen, and who were mr. falkland's servants, hearing the bustle of the rencounter, and alarmed for the safety of their master, rode up; and then grimes, disappointed at the loss of his gratification, and admonished by conscious guilt, shrunk from farther parley, and rode off in silence. it may seem strange that mr. falkland should thus a second time have been the saviour of miss melville, and that under circumstances the most unexpected and singular. but in this instance it is easily to be accounted for. he had heard of a man who lurked about this wood for robbery or some other bad design, and that it was conjectured this man was hawkins, another of the victims of mr. tyrrel's rural tyranny, whom i shall immediately have occasion to introduce. mr. falkland's compassion had already been strongly excited in favour of hawkins; he had in vain endeavoured to find him, and do him good; and he easily conceived that, if the conjecture which had been made in this instance proved true, he might have it in his power not only to do what he had always intended, but further, to save from a perilous offence against the laws and society a man who appeared to have strongly imbibed the principles of justice and virtue. he took with him two servants, because, going with the express design of encountering robbers, if robbers should be found, he believed he should be inexcusable if he did not go provided against possible accidents. but he had directed them, at the same time that they kept within call, to be out of the reach of being seen; and it was only the eagerness of their zeal that had brought them up thus early in the present encounter. this new adventure promised something extraordinary. mr. falkland did not immediately recognise miss melville; and the person of grimes was that of a total stranger, whom he did not recollect to have ever seen. but it was easy to understand the merits of the case, and the propriety of interfering. the resolute manner of mr. falkland, conjoined with the dread which grimes, oppressed with a sense of wrong, entertained of the opposition of so elevated a personage, speedily put the ravisher to flight. emily was left alone with her deliverer. he found her much more collected and calm, than could reasonably have been expected from a person who had been, a moment before, in the most alarming situation. she told him of the place to which she desired to be conveyed, and he immediately undertook to escort her. as they went along, she recovered that state of mind which inclined her to make a person to whom she had such repeated obligations, and who was so eminently the object of her admiration, acquainted with the events that had recently befallen her. mr. falkland listened with eagerness and surprise. though he had already known various instances of mr. tyrrel's mean jealousy and unfeeling tyranny, this surpassed them all; and he could scarcely credit his ears while he heard the tale. his brutal neighbour seemed to realise all that has been told of the passions of fiends. miss melville was obliged to repeat, in the course of her tale, her kinsman's rude accusation against her, of entertaining a passion for mr. falkland; and this she did with the most bewitching simplicity and charming confusion. though this part of the tale was a source of real pain to her deliverer, yet it is not to be supposed but that the flattering partiality of this unhappy girl increased the interest he felt in her welfare, and the indignation he conceived against her infernal kinsman. they arrived without accident at the house of the good lady under whose protection emily desired to place herself. here mr. falkland willingly left her as in a place of security. such conspiracies as that of which she was intended to have been the victim, depend for their success upon the person against whom they are formed being out of the reach of help; and the moment they are detected, they are annihilated. such reasoning will, no doubt, be generally found sufficiently solid; and it appeared to mr. falkland perfectly applicable to the present case. but he was mistaken. chapter ix. mr. falkland had experienced the nullity of all expostulation with mr. tyrrel, and was therefore content in the present case with confining his attention to the intended victim. the indignation with which he thought of his neighbour's character was now grown to such a height, as to fill him with reluctance to the idea of a voluntary interview. there was indeed another affair which had been contemporary with this, that had once more brought these mortal enemies into a state of contest, and had contributed to raise into a temper little short of madness, the already inflamed and corrosive bitterness of mr. tyrrel. there was a tenant of mr. tyrrel, one hawkins;--i cannot mention his name without recollecting the painful tragedies that are annexed to it! this hawkins had originally been taken up by mr. tyrrel, with a view of protecting him from the arbitrary proceedings of a neighbouring squire, though he had now in his turn become an object of persecution to mr. tyrrel himself. the first ground of their connection was this:--hawkins, beside a farm which he rented under the above-mentioned squire, had a small freehold estate that he inherited from his father. this of course entitled him to a vote in the county elections; and, a warmly contested election having occurred, he was required by his landlord to vote for the candidate in whose favour he had himself engaged. hawkins refused to obey the mandate, and soon after received notice to quit the farm he at that time rented. it happened that mr. tyrrel had interested himself strongly in behalf of the opposite candidate; and, as mr. tyrrel's estate bordered upon the seat of hawkins's present residence, the ejected countryman could think of no better expedient than that of riding over to this gentleman's mansion, and relating the case to him. mr. tyrrel heard him through with attention. "well, friend," said he, "it is very true that i wished mr. jackman to carry his election; but you know it is usual in these cases for tenants to vote just as their landlords please. i do not think proper to encourage rebellion."--"all that is very right, and please you," replied hawkins, "and i would have voted at my landlord's bidding for any other man in the kingdom but squire marlow. you must know one day his huntsman rode over my fence, and so through my best field of standing corn. it was not above a dozen yards about if he had kept the cart-road. the fellow had served me the same sauce, an it please your honour, three or four times before. so i only asked him what he did that for, and whether he had not more conscience than to spoil people's crops o' that fashion? presently the squire came up. he is but a poor, weazen-face chicken of a gentleman, saving your honour's reverence. and so he flew into a woundy passion, and threatened to horsewhip me. i will do as much in reason to pleasure my landlord as arr a tenant he has; but i will not give my vote to a man that threatens to horsewhip me. and so, your honour, i and my wife and three children are to be turned out of house and home, and what i am to do to maintain them god knows. i have been a hard-working man, and have always lived well, and i do think the case is main hard. squire underwood turns me out of my farm; and if your honour do not take me in, i know none of the neighbouring gentry will, for fear, as they say, of encouraging their own tenants to run rusty too." this representation was not without its effect upon mr. tyrrel. "well, well, man," replied he, "we will see what can be done. order and subordination are very good things; but people should know how much to require. as you tell the story, i cannot see that you are greatly to blame. marlow is a coxcombical prig, that is the truth on't; and if a man will expose himself, why, he must even take what follows. i do hate a frenchified fop with all my soul: and i cannot say that i am much pleased with my neighbour underwood for taking the part of such a rascal. hawkins, i think, is your name? you may call on barnes, my steward, to-morrow, and he shall speak to you." while mr. tyrrel was speaking, he recollected that he had a farm vacant, of nearly the same value as that which hawkins at present rented under mr. underwood. he immediately consulted his steward, and, finding the thing suitable in every respect, hawkins was installed out of hand in the catalogue of mr. tyrrel's tenants. mr. underwood extremely resented this proceeding, which indeed, as being contrary to the understood conventions of the country gentlemen, few people but mr. tyrrel would have ventured upon. there was an end, said mr. underwood, to all regulation, if tenants were to be encouraged in such disobedience. it was not a question of this or that candidate, seeing that any gentleman, who was a true friend to his country, would rather lose his election than do a thing which, if once established into a practice, would deprive them for ever of the power of managing any election. the labouring people were sturdy and resolute enough of their own accord; it became every day more difficult to keep them under any subordination; and, if the gentlemen were so ill advised as to neglect the public good, and encourage them in their insolence, there was no foreseeing where it would end. mr. tyrrel was not of a stamp to be influenced by these remonstrances. their general spirit was sufficiently conformable to the sentiments he himself entertained; but he was of too vehement a temper to maintain the character of a consistent politician; and, however wrong his conduct might be, he would by no means admit of its being set right by the suggestions of others. the more his patronage of hawkins was criticised, the more inflexibly he adhered to it; and he was at no loss in clubs and other assemblies to overbear and silence, if not to confute, his censurers. beside which, hawkins had certain accomplishments which qualified him to be a favourite with mr. tyrrel. the bluntness of his manner and the ruggedness of his temper gave him some resemblance to his landord; and, as these qualities were likely to be more frequently exercised on such persons as had incurred mr. tyrrel's displeasure, than upon mr. tyrrel himself, they were not observed without some degree of complacency. in a word, he every day received new marks of distinction from his patron, and after some time was appointed coadjutor to mr. barnes under the denomination of bailiff. it was about the same period that he obtained a lease of the farm of which he was tenant. mr. tyrrel determined, as occasion offered, to promote every part of the family of this favoured dependent. hawkins had a son, a lad of seventeen, of an agreeable person, a ruddy complexion, and of quick and lively parts. this lad was in an uncommon degree the favourite of his father, who seemed to have nothing so much at heart as the future welfare of his son. mr. tyrrel had noticed him two or three times with approbation; and the boy, being fond of the sports of the field, had occasionally followed the hounds, and displayed various instances, both of agility and sagacity, in presence of the squire. one day in particular he exhibited himself with uncommon advantage; and mr. tyrrel without further delay proposed to his father, to take him into his family, and make him whipper-in to his hounds, till he could provide him with some more lucrative appointment in his service. this proposal was received by hawkins with various marks of mortification. he excused himself with hesitation for not accepting the offered favour; said the lad was in many ways useful to him; and hoped his honour would not insist upon depriving him of his assistance. this apology might perhaps have been sufficient with any other man than mr. tyrrel; but it was frequently observed of this gentleman that, when he had once formed a determination, however slight, in favour of any measure, he was never afterwards known to give it up, and that the only effect of opposition was to make him eager and inflexible, in pursuit of that to which he had before been nearly indifferent. at first he seemed to receive the apology of hawkins with good humour, and to see nothing in it but what was reasonable; but afterwards, every time he saw the boy, his desire of retaining him in his service was increased, and he more than once repeated to his father the good disposition in which he felt himself towards him. at length he observed that the lad was no more to be seen mingling in his favourite sports, and he began to suspect that this originated in a determination to thwart him in his projects. roused by this suspicion, which, to a man of mr. tyrrel's character, was not of a nature to brook delay, he sent for hawkins to confer with him. "hawkins," said he, in a tone of displeasure, "i am not satisfied with you. i have spoken to you two or three times about this lad of yours, whom i am desirous of taking into favour. what is the reason, sir, that you seem unthankful and averse to my kindness? you ought to know that i am not to be trifled with. i shall not be contented, when i offer my favours, to have them rejected by such fellows as you. i made you what you are; and, if i please, can make you more helpless and miserable than you were when i found you. have a care!" "an it please your honour," said hawkins, "you have been a very good master to me, and i will tell you the whole truth. i hope you will na be angry. this lad is my favourite, my comfort, and the stay of my age." "well, and what then? is that a reason you should hinder his preferment?" "nay, pray your honour, hear me. i may be very weak for aught i know in this case, but i cannot help it. my father was a clergyman. we have all of us lived in a creditable way; and i cannot bear to think that this poor lad of mine should go to service. for my part, i do not see any good that comes by servants. i do not know, your honour, but, i think, i should not like my leonard to be such as they. god forgive me, if i wrong them! but this is a very dear case, and i cannot bear to risk my poor boy's welfare, when i can so easily, if you please, keep him out or harm's way. at present he is sober and industrious, and, without being pert or surly, knows what is due to him. i know, your honour, that it is main foolish of me to talk to you thus; but your honour has been a good master to me, and i cannot bear to tell you a lie." mr. tyrrel had heard the whole of this harangue in silence, because he was too much astonished to open his mouth. if a thunderbolt had fallen at his feet, he could not have testified greater surprise. he had thought that hawkins was so foolishly fond of his son, that he could not bear to trust him out of his presence; but had never in the slightest degree suspected what he now found to be the truth. "oh, ho, you are a gentleman, are you? a pretty gentleman truly! your father was a clergyman! your family is too good to enter into my service! why you impudent rascal! was it for this that i took you up, when mr. underwood dismissed you for your insolence to him? have i been nursing a viper in my bosom? pretty master's manners will be contaminated truly? he will not know what is due to him, but will be accustomed to obey orders! you insufferable villain! get out of my sight! depend upon it, i will have no gentlemen on my estate! i will off with them, root and branch, bag and baggage! so do you hear, sir? come to me to-morrow morning, bring your son, and ask my pardon; or, take my word for it, i will make you so miserable, you shall wish you had never been born." this treatment was too much for hawkins's patience. "there is no need, your honour, that i should come to you again about this affair. i have taken up my determination, and no time can make any change in it. i am main sorry to displease your worship, and i know that you can do me a great deal of mischief. but i hope you will not be so hardhearted as to ruin a father only for being fond of his child, even if so be that his fondness should make him do a foolish thing. but i cannot help it, your honour: you must do as you please. the poorest neger, as a man may say, has some point that he will not part with. i will lose all that i have, and go to day-labour, and my son too, if needs must; but i will not make a gentleman's servant of him." "very well, friend; very well!" replied mr. tyrrel, foaming with rage. "depend upon it, i will remember you! your pride shall have a downfal! god damn it! is it come to this? shall a rascal that farms his forty acres, pretend to beard the lord of the manor? i will tread you into paste! let me advise you, scoundrel, to shut up your house and fly, as if the devil was behind you! you may think yourself happy, if i be not too quick for you yet, if you escape in a whole skin! i would not suffer such a villain to remain upon my land a day longer, if i could gain the indies by it!" "not so fast, your honour," answered hawkins, sturdily. "i hope you will think better of it, and see that i have not been to blame. but if you should not, there is some harm that you can do me, and some harm that you cannot. though i am a plain, working man, your honour, do you see? yet i am a man still. no; i have got a lease of my farm, and i shall not quit it o' thaten. i hope there is some law for poor folk, as well as for rich." mr. tyrrel, unused to contradiction, was provoked beyond bearing at the courage and independent spirit of his retainer. there was not a tenant upon his estate, or at least not one of hawkins's mediocrity of fortune, whom the general policy of landowners, and still more the arbitrary and uncontrollable temper of mr. tyrrel, did not effectually restrain from acts of open defiance. "excellent, upon my soul! god damn my blood! but you are a rare fellow. you have a lease, have you? you will not quit, not you! a pretty pass things are come to, if a lease can protect such fellows as you against the lord of a manor! but you are for a trial of skill? oh, very well, friend, very well! with all my soul! since it is come to that, we will show you some pretty sport before we have done! but get out of my sight, you rascal! i have not another word to say to you! never darken my doors again." hawkins (to borrow the language of the world) was guilty in this affair of a double imprudence. he talked to his landlord in a more peremptory manner than the constitution and practices of this country allow a dependent to assume. but above all, having been thus hurried away by his resentment, he ought to have foreseen the consequences. it was mere madness in him to think of contesting with a man of mr. tyrrel's eminence and fortune. it was a fawn contending with a lion. nothing could have been more easy to predict, than that it was of no avail for him to have right on his side, when his adversary had influence and wealth, and therefore could so victoriously justify any extravagancies that he might think proper to commit. this maxim was completely illustrated in the sequel. wealth and despotism easily know how to engage those laws as the coadjutors of their oppression, which were perhaps at first intended [witless and miserable precaution!] for the safeguards of the poor. from this moment mr. tyrrel was bent upon hawkins's destruction; and he left no means unemployed that could either harass or injure the object of his persecution. he deprived him of his appointment of bailiff, and directed barnes and his other dependents to do him ill offices upon all occasions. mr. tyrrel, by the tenure of his manor, was impropriator of the great tithes, and this circumstance afforded him frequent opportunities of petty altercation. the land of one part of hawkins's farm, though covered with corn, was lower than the rest; and consequently exposed to occasional inundations from a river by which it was bounded. mr. tyrrel had a dam belonging to this river privately cut, about a fortnight before the season of harvest, and laid the whole under water. he ordered his servants to pull away the fences of the higher ground during the night, and to turn in his cattle, to the utter destruction of the crop. these expedients, however, applied to only one part of the property of this unfortunate man. but mr. tyrrel did not stop here. a sudden mortality took place among hawkins's live stock, attended with very suspicious circumstances. hawkins's vigilance was strongly excited by this event, and he at length succeeded in tracing the matter so accurately, that he conceived he could bring it home to mr. tyrrel himself. hawkins had hitherto carefully avoided, notwithstanding the injuries he had suffered, the attempting to right himself by legal process; being of opinion that law was better adapted for a weapon of tyranny in the hands of the rich, than for a shield to protect the humbler part of the community against their usurpations. in this last instance however he conceived that the offence was so atrocious, as to make it impossible that any rank could protect the culprit against the severity of justice. in the sequel, he saw reason to applaud himself for his former inactivity in this respect, and to repent that any motive had been strong enough to persuade him into a contrary system. this was the very point to which mr. tyrrel wanted to bring him, and he could scarcely credit his good fortune, when he was told that hawkins had entered an action. his congratulation upon this occasion was immoderate, as he now conceived that the ruin of his late favourite was irretrievable. he consulted his attorney, and urged him by every motive he could devise, to employ the whole series of his subterfuges in the present affair. the direct repelling of the charge exhibited against him was the least part of his care; the business was, by affidavits, motions, pleas, demurrers, flaws, and appeals, to protract the question from term to term, and from court to court. it would, as mr. tyrrel argued, be the disgrace of a civilized country, if a gentleman, when insolently attacked in law by the scum of the earth, could not convert the cause into a question of the longest purse, and stick in the skirts of his adversary till he had reduced him to beggary. mr. tyrrel, however, was by no means so far engrossed by his law-suit, as to neglect other methods of proceeding offensively against his tenant. among the various expedients that suggested themselves, there was one, which, though it tended rather to torment than irreparably injure the sufferer, was not rejected. this was derived from the particular situation of hawkins's house, barns, stacks, and outhouses. they were placed at the extremity of a slip of land connecting them with the rest of the farm, and were surrounded on three sides by fields, in the occupation of one of mr. tyrrel's tenants most devoted to the pleasures of his landlord. the road to the market-town ran at the bottom of the largest of these fields, and was directly in view of the front of the house. no inconvenience had yet arisen from that circumstance, as there had always been a broad path, that intersected this field, and led directly from hawkins's house to the road. this path, or private road, was now, by concert of mr. tyrrel and his obliging tenant, shut up, so as to make hawkins a sort of prisoner in his own domains, and oblige him to go near a mile about for the purposes of his traffic. young hawkins, the lad who had been the original subject of dispute between his father and the squire, had much of his father's spirit, and felt an uncontrollable indignation against the successive acts of despotism of which he was a witness. his resentment was the greater, because the sufferings to which his parent was exposed, all of them flowed from affection to him, at the same time that he could not propose removing the ground of dispute, as by so doing he would seem to fly in the face of his father's paternal kindness. upon the present occasion, without asking any counsel but of his own impatient resentment, he went in the middle of the night, and removed all the obstructions that had been placed in the way of the old path, broke the padlocks that had been fixed, and threw open the gates. in these operations he did not proceed unobserved, and the next day a warrant was issued for apprehending him. he was accordingly carried before a meeting of justices, and by them committed to the county gaol, to take his trial for the felony at the next assizes. mr. tyrrel was determined to prosecute the offence with the greatest severity; and his attorney, having made the proper enquiries for that purpose, undertook to bring it under that clause of the act 9 geo. i. commonly called the black act, which declares that "any person, armed with a sword, or other offensive weapon, and having his face blackened, or being otherwise disguised, appearing in any warren or place where hares or conies have been or shall be usually kept, and being thereof duly convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death, as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy." young hawkins, it seemed, had buttoned the cape of his great coat over his face, as soon as he perceived himself to be observed, and he was furnished with a wrenching-iron for the purpose of breaking the padlocks. the attorney further undertook to prove, by sufficient witnesses, that the field in question was a warren in which hares were regularly fed. mr. tyrrel seized upon these pretences with inexpressible satisfaction. he prevailed upon the justices, by the picture he drew of the obstinacy and insolence of the hawkinses, fully to commit the lad upon this miserable charge; and it was by no means so certain as paternal affection would have desired, that the same overpowering influence would not cause in the sequel the penal clause to be executed in all its strictness. this was the finishing stroke to hawkins's miseries: as he was not deficient in courage, he had stood up against his other persecutions without flinching. he was not unaware of the advantages which our laws and customs give to the rich over the poor, in contentions of this kind. but, being once involved, there was a stubbornness in his nature that would not allow him to retract, and he suffered himself to hope, rather than expect, a favourable issue. but in this last event he was wounded in the point that was nearest his heart. he had feared to have his son contaminated and debased by a servile station, and he now saw him transferred to the seminary of a gaol. he was even uncertain as to the issue of his imprisonment, and trembled to think what the tyranny of wealth might effect to blast his hopes for ever. from this moment his heart died within him. he had trusted to persevering industry and skill, to save the wreck of his little property from the vulgar spite of his landlord. but he had now no longer any spirit to exert those efforts which his situation more than ever required. mr. tyrrel proceeded without remission in his machinations; hawkins's affairs every day grew more desperate, and the squire, watching the occasion, took the earliest opportunity of seizing upon his remaining property in the mode of a distress for rent. it was precisely in this stage of the affair, that mr. falkland and mr. tyrrel accidentally met, in a private road near the habitation of the latter. they were on horseback, and mr. falkland was going to the house of the unfortunate tenant, who seemed upon the point of perishing under his landlord's malice. he had been just made acquainted with the tale of this persecution. it had indeed been an additional aggravation of hawkins's calamity, that mr. falkland, whose interference might otherwise have saved him, had been absent from the neighbourhood for a considerable time. he had been three months in london, and from thence had gone to visit his estates in another part of the island. the proud and self-confident spirit of this poor fellow always disposed him to depend, as long as possible, upon his own exertions. he had avoided applying to mr. falkland, or indeed indulging himself in any manner in communicating and bewailing his hard hap, in the beginning of the contention, and, when the extremity grew more urgent, and he would have been willing to recede in some degree from the stubbornness of his measures, he found it no longer in his power. after an absence of considerable duration, mr. falkland at length returned somewhat unexpectedly; and having learned, among the first articles of country intelligence, the distresses of this unfortunate yeoman, he resolved to ride over to his house the next morning, and surprise him with all the relief it was in his power to bestow. at sight of mr. tyrrel in this unexpected rencounter, his face reddened with indignation. his first feeling, as he afterwards said, was to avoid him; but finding that he must pass him, he conceived that it would be want of spirit not to acquaint him with his feelings on the present occasion. "mr. tyrrel," said he, somewhat abruptly, "i am sorry for a piece of news which i have just heard." "and pray, sir, what is your sorrow to me?" "a great deal, sir: it is caused by the distresses of a poor tenant of yours, hawkins. if your steward have proceeded without your authority, i think it right to inform you what he has done; and, if he have had your authority, i would gladly persuade you to think better of it." "mr. falkland, it would be quite as well if you would mind your own business, and leave me to mind mine. i want no monitor, and i will have none." "you mistake, mr. tyrrel; i am minding my own business. if i see you fall into a pit, it is my business to draw you out and save your life. if i see you pursuing a wrong mode of conduct, it is my business to set you right and save your honour." "zounds, sir, do not think to put your conundrums upon me! is not the man my tenant? is not my estate my own? what signifies calling it mine, if i am not to have the direction of it? sir, i pay for what i have: i owe no man a penny; and i will not put my estate to nurse to you, nor the best he that wears a head." "it is very true," said mr. falkland, avoiding any direct notice of the last words of mr. tyrrel, "that there is a distinction of ranks. i believe that distinction is a good thing, and necessary to the peace of mankind. but, however necessary it may be, we must acknowledge that it puts some hardship upon the lower orders of society. it makes one's heart ache to think, that one man is born to the inheritance of every superfluity, while the whole share of another, without any demerit of his, is drudgery and starving; and that all this is indispensable. we that are rich, mr. tyrrel, must do every thing in our power to lighten the yoke of these unfortunate people. we must not use the advantage that accident has given us with an unmerciful hand. poor wretches! they are pressed almost beyond bearing as it is; and, if we unfeelingly give another turn to the machine, they will be crushed into atoms." this picture was not without its effect, even upon the obdurate mind of mr. tyrrel.--"well, sir, i am no tyrant. i know very well that tyranny is a bad thing. but you do not infer from thence that these people are to do as they please, and never meet with their deserts?" "mr. tyrrel, i see that you are shaken in your animosity. suffer me to hail the new-born benevolence of your nature. go with me to hawkins. do not let us talk of his deserts! poor fellow! he has suffered almost all that human nature can endure. let your forgiveness upon this occasion be the earnest of good neighbourhood and friendship between you and me." "no, sir, i will not go. i own there is something in what you say. i always knew you had the wit to make good your own story, and tell a plausible tale. but i will not be come over thus. it has been my character, when i had once conceived a scheme of vengeance, never to forego it; and i will not change that character. i took up hawkins when every body forsook him, and made a man of him; and the ungrateful rascal has only insulted me for my pains. curse me, if i ever forgive him! it would be a good jest indeed, if i were to forgive the insolence of my own creature at the desire of a man like you that has been my perpetual plague." "for god's sake, mr. tyrrel, have some reason in your resentment! let us suppose that hawkins has behaved unjustifiably, and insulted you: is that an offence that never can be expiated? must the father be ruined, and the son hanged, to glut your resentment?" "damn me, sir, but you may talk your heart out; you shall get nothing of me. i shall never forgive myself for having listened to you for a moment. i will suffer nobody to stop the stream of my resentment; if i ever were to forgive him, it should be at nobody's, entreaty but my own. but, sir, i never will. if he and all his family were at my feet, i would order them all to be hanged the next minute, if my power were as good as my will." "and this is your decision, is it? mr. tyrrel, i am ashamed of you! almighty god! to hear you talk gives one a loathing for the institutions and regulations of society, and would induce one to fly the very face of man! but, no! society casts you out; man abominates you. no wealth, no rank, can buy out your stain. you will live deserted in the midst of your species; you will go into crowded societies, and no one will deign so much as to salute you. they will fly from your glance as they would from the gaze of a basilisk. where do you expect to find the hearts of flint that shall sympathise with yours? you have the stamp of misery, incessant, undivided, unpitied misery!" thus saying, mr. falkland gave spurs to his horse, rudely pushed beside mr. tyrrel, and was presently out of sight. flaming indignation annihilated even his favourite sense of honour, and he regarded his neighbour as a wretch, with whom it was impossible even to enter into contention. for the latter, he remained for the present motionless and petrified. the glowing enthusiasm of mr. falkland was such as might well have unnerved the stoutest foe. mr. tyrrel, in spite of himself, was blasted with the compunctions of guilt, and unable to string himself for the contest. the picture mr. falkland had drawn was prophetic. it described what mr. tyrrel chiefly feared; and what in its commencements he thought he already felt. it was responsive to the whispering of his own meditations; it simply gave body and voice to the spectre that haunted him, and to the terrors of which he was an hourly prey. by and by, however, he recovered. the more he had been temporarily confounded, the fiercer was his resentment when he came to himself. such hatred never existed in a human bosom without marking its progress with violence and death. mr. tyrrel, however, felt no inclination to have recourse to personal defiance. he was the furthest in the world from a coward; but his genius sunk before the genius of falkland. he left his vengeance to the disposal of circumstances. he was secure that his animosity would never be forgotten nor diminished by the interposition of any time or events. vengeance was his nightly dream, and the uppermost of his waking thoughts. mr. falkland had departed from this conference with a confirmed disapprobation of the conduct of his neighbour, and an unalterable resolution to do every thing in his power to relieve the distresses of hawkins. but he was too late. when he arrived, he found the house already evacuated by its master. the family was removed nobody knew whither; hawkins had absconded, and, what was still more extraordinary, the boy hawkins had escaped on the very same day from the county gaol. the enquiries mr. falkland set on foot after them were fruitless; no traces could be found of the catastrophe of these unhappy people. that catastrophe i shall shortly have occasion to relate, and it will be found pregnant with horror, beyond what the blackest misanthropy could readily have suggested. i go on with my tale. i go on to relate those incidents in which my own fate was so mysteriously involved. i lift the curtain, and bring forward the last act of the tragedy. chapter x. it may easily be supposed, that the ill temper cherished by mr. tyrrel in his contention with hawkins, and the increasing animosity between him and mr. falkland, added to the impatience with which he thought of the escape of emily. mr. tyrrel heard with astonishment of the miscarriage of an expedient, of the success of which he had not previously entertained the slightest suspicion. he became frantic with vexation. grimes had not dared to signify the event of his expedition in person, and the footman whom he desired to announce to his master that miss melville was lost, the moment after fled from his presence with the most dreadful apprehensions. presently he bellowed for grimes, and the young man at last appeared before him, more dead than alive. grimes he compelled to repeat the particulars of the tale; which he had no sooner done, than he once again slunk away, shocked at the execrations with which mr. tyrrel overwhelmed him. grimes was no coward; but he reverenced the inborn divinity that attends upon rank, as indians worship the devil. nor was this all. the rage of mr. tyrrel was so ungovernable and fierce, that few hearts could have been found so stout, as not to have trembled before it with a sort of unconquerable inferiority. he no sooner obtained a moment's pause than he began to recall to his tempestuous mind the various circumstances of the case. his complaints were bitter; and, in a tranquil observer, might have produced the united feeling of pity for his sufferings, and horror at his depravity. he recollected all the precautions he had used; he could scarcely find a flaw in the process; and he cursed that blind and malicious power which delighted to cross his most deep-laid schemes. "of this malice he was beyond all other human beings the object. he was mocked with the shadow of power; and when he lifted his hand to smite, it was struck with sudden palsy. [in the bitterness of his anguish, he forgot his recent triumph over hawkins, or perhaps he regarded it less as a triumph, than an overthrow, because it had failed of coming up to the extent of his malice.] to what purpose had heaven given him a feeling of injury, and an instinct to resent, while he could in no case make his resentment felt! it was only necessary for him to be the enemy of any person, to insure that person's being safe against the reach of misfortune. what insults, the most shocking and repeated, had he received from this paltry girl! and by whom was she now torn from his indignation? by that devil that haunted him at every moment, that crossed him at every step, that fixed at pleasure his arrows in his heart, and made mows and mockery at his insufferable tortures." there was one other reflection that increased his anguish, and made him careless and desperate as to his future conduct. it was in vain to conceal from himself that his reputation would be cruelly wounded by this event. he had imagined that, while emily was forced into this odious marriage, she would be obliged by decorum, as soon as the event was decided, to draw a veil over the compulsion she had suffered. but this security was now lost, and mr. falkland would take a pride in publishing his dishonour. though the provocations he had received from miss melville would, in his own opinion, have justified him in any treatment he should have thought proper to inflict, he was sensible the world would see the matter in a different light. this reflection augmented the violence of his resolutions, and determined him to refuse no means by which he could transfer the anguish that now preyed upon his own mind to that of another. meanwhile, the composure and magnanimity of emily had considerably subsided, the moment she believed herself in a place of safety. while danger and injustice assailed her with their menaces, she found in herself a courage that disdained to yield. the succeeding appearance of calm was more fatal to her. there was nothing now, powerfully to foster her courage or excite her energy. she looked back at the trials she had passed, and her soul sickened at the recollection of that, which, while it was in act, she had had the fortitude to endure. till the period at which mr. tyrrel had been inspired with this cruel antipathy, she had been in all instances a stranger to anxiety and fear. uninured to misfortune, she had suddenly and without preparation been made the subject of the most infernal malignity. when a man of robust and vigorous constitution has a fit of sickness, it produces a more powerful effect, than the same indisposition upon a delicate valetudinarian. such was the case with miss melville. she passed the succeeding night sleepless and uneasy, and was found in the morning with a high fever. her distemper resisted for the present all attempts to assuage it, though there was reason to hope that the goodness of her constitution, assisted by tranquillity and the kindness of those about her, would ultimately surmount it. on the second day she was delirious. on the night of that day she was arrested at the suit of mr. tyrrel, for a debt contracted for board and necessaries for the last fourteen years. the idea of this arrest, as the reader will perhaps recollect, first occurred, in the conversation between mr. tyrrel and miss melville, soon after he had thought proper to confine her to her chamber. but at that time he had probably no serious conception of ever being induced to carry it into execution. it had merely been mentioned by way of threat, and as the suggestion of a mind, whose habits had long been accustomed to contemplate every possible instrument of tyranny and revenge. but now, that the unlooked-for rescue and escape of his poor kinswoman had wrought up his thoughts to a degree of insanity, and that he revolved in the gloomy recesses of his mind, how he might best shake off the load of disappointment which oppressed him, the idea recurred with double force. he was not long in forming his resolution; and, calling for barnes his steward, immediately gave him directions in what manner to proceed. barnes had been for several years the instrument of mr. tyrrel's injustice. his mind was hardened by use, and he could, without remorse, officiate as the spectator, or even as the author and director, of a scene of vulgar distress. but even he was somewhat startled upon the present occasion. the character and conduct of emily in mr. tyrrel's family had been without a blot. she had not a single enemy; and it was impossible to contemplate her youth, her vivacity, and her guileless innocence, without emotions of sympathy and compassion. "your worship?--i do not understand you!--arrest miss--miss emily!" "yes,--i tell you!--what is the matter with you?--go instantly to swineard, the lawyer, and bid him finish the business out of hand!" "lord love your honour! arrest her! why she does not owe you a brass farthing: she always lived upon your charity!" "ass! scoundrel! i tell you she does owe me,--owes me eleven hundred pounds.--the law justifies it.--what do you think laws were made for? i do nothing but right, and right i will have." "your honour, i never questioned your orders in my life; but i must now. i cannot see you ruin miss emily, poor girl! nay, and yourself too, for the matter of that, and not say which way you are going. i hope you will bear with me. why, if she owed you ever so much, she cannot be arrested. she is not of age." "will you have done?--do not tell me of--it cannot, and it can. it has been done before,--and it shall be done again. let him dispute it that dares! i will do it now and stand to it afterwards. tell swineard,--if he make the least boggling, it is as much as his life is worth;--he shall starve by inches." "pray, your honour, think better of it. upon my life, the whole country will cry shame of it." "barnes!--what do you mean? i am not used to be talked to, and i cannot hear it! you have been a good fellow to me upon many occasions--but, if i find you out for making one with them that dispute my authority, damn my soul, if i do not make you sick of your life!" "i have done, your honour. i will not say another word except this,--i have heard as how that miss emily is sick a-bed. you are determined, you say, to put her in jail. you do not mean to kill her, i take it." "let her die! i will not spare her for an hour--i will not always be insulted. she had no consideration for me, and i have no mercy for her.--i am in for it! they have provoked me past bearing,--and they shall feel me! tell swineard, in bed or up, day or night, i will not hear of an instant's delay." such were the directions of mr. tyrrel, and in strict conformity to his directions were the proceedings of that respectable limb of the law he employed upon the present occasion. miss melville had been delirious, through a considerable part of the day on the evening of which the bailiff and his follower arrived. by the direction of the physician whom mr. falkland had ordered to attend her, a composing draught was administered; and, exhausted as she was by the wild and distracted images that for several hours had haunted her fancy, she was now sunk into a refreshing slumber. mrs. hammond, the sister of mrs. jakeman, was sitting by her bed-side, full of compassion for the lovely sufferer, and rejoicing in the calm tranquillity that had just taken possession of her, when a little girl, the only child of mrs. hammond, opened the street-door to the rap of the bailiff he said he wanted to speak with miss melville, and the child answered that she would go tell her mother. so saying, she advanced to the door of the back-room upon the ground-floor, in which emily lay; but the moment it was opened, instead of waiting for the appearance of the mother, the bailiff entered along with the girl. mrs. hammond looked up. "who are you?" said she. "why do you come in here? hush! be quiet!' "i must speak with miss melville." "indeed, but you must not. tell me your business. the poor child has been light-headed all day. she has just fallen asleep, and must not be disturbed." "that is no business of mine. i must obey orders." "orders? whose orders? what is it you mean?" at this moment emily opened her eyes. "what noise is that? pray let me be quiet." "miss, i want to speak with you. i have got a writ against you for eleven hundred pounds at the suit of squire tyrrel." at these words both mrs. hammond and emily were dumb. the latter was scarcely able to annex any meaning to the intelligence; and, though mrs. hammond was somewhat better acquainted with the sort of language that was employed, yet in this strange and unexpected connection it was almost as mysterious to her as to poor emily herself. "a writ? how can she be in mr. tyrrel's debt? a writ against a child!" "it is no signification putting your questions to us. we only do as we are directed. there is our authority. look at it." "lord almighty!" exclaimed mrs. hammond, "what does this mean? it is impossible mr. tyrrel should have sent you." "good woman, none of your jabber to us! cannot you read?" "this is all a trick! the paper is forged! it is a vile contrivance to get the poor orphan out of the hands of those with whom only she can be safe. proceed upon it at your peril!" "rest you content; that is exactly what we mean to do. take my word, we know very well what we are about." "why, you would not tear her from her bed? i tell you, she is in a high fever; she is light-headed; it would be death to remove her! you are bailiffs, are not you? you are not murderers?" "the law says nothing about that. we have orders to take her sick or well. we will do her no harm except so far as we must perform our office, be it how it will." "where would you take her? what is it you mean to do?" "to the county jail. bullock, go, order a post-chaise from the griffin!" "stay, i say! give no such orders! wait only three hours; i will send off a messenger express to squire falkland, and i am sure he will satisfy you as to any harm that can come to you, without its being necessary to take the poor child to jail." "we have particular directions against that. we are not at liberty to lose a minute. why are not you gone? order the horses to be put to immediately!" emily had listened to the course of this conversation, which had sufficiently explained to her whatever was enigmatical in the first appearance of the bailiffs. the painful and incredible reality that was thus presented effectually dissipated the illusions of frenzy to which she had just been a prey. "my dear madam," said she to mrs. hammond, "do not harass yourself with useless efforts. i am very sorry for all the trouble i have given you. but my misfortune is inevitable. sir, if you will step into the next room, i will dress myself, and attend you immediately." mrs. hammond began to be equally aware that her struggles were to no purpose; but she could not be equally patient. at one moment she raved upon the brutality of mr. tyrrel, whom she affirmed to be a devil incarnate, and not a man. at another she expostulated, with bitter invective, against the hardheartedness of the bailiff, and exhorted him to mix some humanity and moderation with the discharge of his function; but he was impenetrable to all she could urge. in the mean while emily yielded with the sweetest resignation to an inevitable evil. mrs. hammond insisted that, at least, they should permit her to attend her young lady in the chaise; and the bailiff, though the orders he had received were so peremptory that he dared not exercise his discretion as to the execution of the writ, began to have some apprehensions of danger, and was willing to admit of any precaution that was not in direct hostility to his functions. for the rest he understood, that it was in all cases dangerous to allow sickness, or apparent unfitness for removal, as a sufficient cause to interrupt a direct process; and that, accordingly, in all doubtful questions and presumptive murders, the practice of the law inclined, with a laudable partiality, to the vindication of its own officers. in addition to these general rules, he was influenced by the positive injunctions and assurances of swineard, and the terror which, through a circle of many miles, was annexed to the name of tyrrel. before they departed, mrs. hammond despatched a messenger with a letter of three lines to mr. falkland, informing him of this extraordinary event. mr. falkland was from home when the messenger arrived, and not expected to return till the second day; accident seemed in this instance to favour the vengeance of mr. tyrrel, for he had himself been too much under the dominion of an uncontrollable fury, to take a circumstance of this sort into his estimate. the forlorn state of these poor women, who were conducted, the one by compulsion, the other a volunteer, to a scene so little adapted to their accommodation as that of a common jail, may easily be imagined. mrs. hammond, however, was endowed with a masculine courage and impetuosity of spirit, eminently necessary in the difficulties they had to encounter. she was in some degree fitted by a sanguine temper, and an impassioned sense of injustice, for the discharge of those very offices which sobriety and calm reflection might have prescribed. the health of miss melville was materially affected by the surprise and removal she had undergone at the very time that repose was most necessary for her preservation. her fever became more violent; her delirium was stronger; and the tortures of her imagination were proportioned to the unfavourableness of the state in which the removal had been effected. it was highly improbable that she could recover. in the moments of suspended reason she was perpetually calling on the name of falkland. mr. falkland, she said, was her first and only love, and he should be her husband. a moment after she exclaimed upon him in a disconsolate, yet reproachful tone, for his unworthy deference to the prejudices of the world. it was very cruel of him to show himself so proud, and tell her that he would never consent to marry a beggar. but, if he were proud, she was determined to be proud too. he should see that she would not conduct herself like a slighted maiden, and that, though he could reject her, it was not in his power to break her heart. at another time she imagined she saw mr. tyrrel and his engine grimes, their hands and garments dropping with blood: and the pathetic reproaches she vented against them might have affected a heart of stone. then the figure of falkland presented itself to her distracted fancy, deformed with wounds, and of a deadly paleness, and she shrieked with agony, while she exclaimed that such was the general hardheartedness, that no one would make the smallest exertion for his rescue. in such vicissitudes of pain, perpetually imagining to her self unkindness, insult, conspiracy, and murder, she passed a considerable part of two days. on the evening of the second mr. falkland arrived, accompanied by doctor wilson, the physician by whom she had previously been attended. the scene he was called upon to witness was such as to be most exquisitely agonising to a man of his acute sensibility. the news of the arrest had given him an inexpressible shock; he was transported out of himself at the unexampled malignity of its author. but, when he saw the figure of miss melville, haggard, and a warrant of death written in her countenance, a victim to the diabolical passions of her kinsman, it seemed too much to be endured. when he entered, she was in the midst of one of her fits of delirium, and immediately mistook her visitors for two assassins. she asked, where they had hid her falkland, her lord, her life, her husband! and demanded that they should restore to her his mangled corpse, that she might embrace him with her dying arms, breathe her last upon his lips, and be buried in the same grave. she reproached them with the sordidness of their conduct in becoming the tools of her vile cousin, who had deprived her of her reason, and would never be contented till he had murdered her. mr. falkland tore himself away from this painful scene, and, leaving doctor wilson with his patient, desired him, when he had given the necessary directions, to follow him to his inn. the perpetual hurry of spirits in which miss melville had been kept for several days, by the nature of her indisposition, was extremely exhausting to her; and, in about an hour from the visit of mr. falkland, her delirium subsided, and left her in so low a state as to render it difficult to perceive any signs of life. doctor wilson, who had withdrawn, to soothe, if possible, the disturbed and impatient thoughts of mr. falkland, was summoned afresh upon this change of symptoms, and sat by the bed-side during the remainder of the night. the situation of his patient was such, as to keep him in momentary apprehension of her decease. while miss melville lay in this feeble and exhausted condition, mrs. hammond betrayed every token of the tenderest anxiety. her sensibility was habitually of the acutest sort, and the qualities of emily were such as powerfully to fix her affection. she loved her like a mother. upon the present occasion, every sound, every motion, made her tremble. doctor wilson had introduced another nurse, in consideration of the incessant fatigue mrs. hammond had undergone; and he endeavoured, by representations, and even by authority, to compel her to quit the apartment of the patient. but she was uncontrollable; and he at length found that he should probably do her more injury, by the violence that would be necessary to separate her from the suffering innocent, than by allowing her to follow her inclination. her eye was a thousand times turned, with the most eager curiosity, upon the countenance of doctor wilson, without her daring to breathe a question respecting his opinion, lest he should answer her by a communication of the most fatal tidings. in the mean time she listened with the deepest attention to every thing that dropped either from the physician or the nurse, hoping to collect as it were from some oblique hint, the intelligence which she had not courage expressly to require. towards morning the state of the patient seemed to take a favourable turn. she dozed for near two hours, and, when she awoke, appeared perfectly calm and sensible. understanding that mr. falkland had brought the physician to attend her, and was himself in her neighbourhood, she requested to see him. mr. falkland had gone in the mean time, with one of his tenants, to bail the debt, and now entered the prison to enquire whether the young lady might be safely removed, from her present miserable residence, to a more airy and commodious apartment. when he appeared, the sight of him revived in the mind of miss melville an imperfect recollection of the wanderings of her delirium. she covered her face with her fingers, and betrayed the most expressive confusion, while she thanked him, with her usual unaffected simplicity, for the trouble he had taken. she hoped she should not give him much more; she thought she should get better. it was a shame, she said, if a young and lively girl, as she was, could not contrive to outlive the trifling misfortunes to which she had been subjected. but, while she said this, she was still extremely weak. she tried to assume a cheerful countenance; but it was a faint effort, which the feeble state of her frame did not seem sufficient to support. mr. falkland and the doctor joined to request her to keep herself quiet, and avoid for the present all occasions of exertion. encouraged by these appearances, mrs. hammond ventured to follow the two gentlemen out of the room, in order to learn from the physician what hopes he entertained. doctor wilson acknowledged, that he found his patient at first in a very unfavourable situation, that the symptoms were changed for the better, and that he was not without some expectation of her recovery. he added, however, that he could answer for nothing, that the next twelve hours would be exceedingly critical, but that if she did not grow worse before morning, he would then undertake for her life. mrs. hammond, who had hitherto seen nothing but despair, now became frantic with joy. she burst into tears of transport, blessed the physician in the most emphatic and impassioned terms, and uttered a thousand extravagancies. doctor wilson seized this opportunity to press her to give herself a little repose, to which she consented, a bed being first procured for her in the room next to miss melville's, she having charged the nurse to give her notice of any alteration in the state of the patient. mrs. hammond enjoyed an uninterrupted sleep of several hours. it was already night, when she was awaked by an unusual bustle in the next room. she listened for a few moments, and then determined to go and discover the occasion of it. as she opened her door for that purpose, she met the nurse coming to her. the countenance of the messenger told her what it was she had to communicate, without the use of words. she hurried to the bed-side, and found miss melville expiring. the appearances that had at first been so encouraging were of short duration. the calm of the morning proved to be only a sort of lightening before death. in a few hours the patient grew worse. the bloom of her countenance faded; she drew her breath with difficulty; and her eyes became fixed. doctor wilson came in at this period, and immediately perceived that all was over. she was for some time in convulsions; but, these subsiding, she addressed the physician with a composed, though feeble voice. she thanked him for his attention; and expressed the most lively sense of her obligations to mr. falkland. she sincerely forgave her cousin, and hoped he might never be visited by too acute a recollection of his barbarity to her. she would have been contented to live. few persons had a sincerer relish of the pleasures of life; but she was well pleased to die, rather than have become the wife of grimes. as mrs. hammond entered, she turned her countenance towards her, and with an affectionate expression repeated her name. this was her last word; in less than two hours from that time she breathed her last in the arms of this faithful friend. chapter xi. such was the fate of miss emily melville. perhaps tyranny never exhibited a more painful memorial of the detestation in which it deserves to be held. the idea irresistibly excited in every spectator of the scene, was that of regarding mr. tyrrel as the most diabolical wretch that had ever dishonoured the human form. the very attendants upon this house of oppression, for the scene was acted upon too public a stage not to be generally understood, expressed their astonishment and disgust at his unparalleled cruelty. if such were the feelings of men bred to the commission of injustice, it is difficult to say what must have been those of mr. falkland. he raved, he swore, he beat his head, he rent up his hair. he was unable to continue in one posture, and to remain in one place. he burst away from the spot with vehemence, as if he sought to leave behind him his recollection and his existence. he seemed to tear up the ground with fierceness and rage. he returned soon again. he approached the sad remains of what had been emily, and gazed on them with such intentness, that his eyes appeared, ready to burst from their sockets. acute and exquisite as were his notions of virtue and honour, he could not prevent himself from reproaching the system of nature, for having given birth to such a monster as tyrrel. he was ashamed of himself for wearing the same form. he could not think of the human species with patience. he foamed with indignation against the laws of the universe, that did not permit him to crush such reptiles at a blow, as we would crush so many noxious insects. it was necessary to guard him like a madman. the whole office of judging what was proper to be done under the present circumstances devolved upon doctor wilson. the doctor was a man of cool and methodical habits of acting. one of the first ideas that suggested itself to him was, that miss melvile was a branch of the family of tyrrel. he did not doubt of the willingness of mr. falkland to discharge every expense that might be further incident to the melancholy remains of this unfortunate victim; but he conceived that the laws of fashion and decorum required some notification of the event to be made to the head of the family. perhaps, too, he had an eye to his interest in his profession, and was reluctant to expose himself to the resentment of a person of mr. tyrrel's consideration in the neighbourhood. but, with this weakness, he had nevertheless some feelings in common with the rest of the world, and must have suffered considerable violence, before he could have persuaded himself to be the messenger; beside which, he did not think it right in the present situation to leave mr. falkland. doctor wilson no sooner mentioned these ideas, than they seemed to make a sudden impression on mrs. hammond, and she earnestly requested that she might be permitted to carry the intelligence. the proposal was unexpected; but the doctor did not very obstinately refuse his assent. she was determined, she said, to see what sort of impression the catastrophe would make upon the author of it; and she promised to comport herself with moderation and civility. the journey was soon performed. "i am come, sir," said she to mr. tyrrel, "to inform you that your cousin, miss melville, died this afternoon." "died?" "yes, sir. i saw her die. she died in these arms." "died? who killed her? what do you mean?" "who? is it for you to ask that question? your cruelty and malice killed her!" "me?--my?--poh! she is not dead--it cannot be--it is not a week since she left this house." "do not you believe me? i say she is dead!" "have a care, woman! this is no matter for jesting. no: though she used me ill, i would not believe her dead for all the world!" mrs. hammond shook her head in a manner expressive at once of grief and indignation. "no, no, no, no! i will never believe that!--no, never!" "will you come with me, and convince your eyes? it is a sight worthy of you; and will be a feast to such a heart as yours!"--saying this, mrs. hammond offered her hand, as if to conduct him to the spot. mr. tyrrel shrunk back. "if she be dead, what is that to me? am i to answer for every thing that goes wrong in the world?--what do you come here for? why bring your messages to me?" "to whom should i bring them but to her kinsman,--and her murderer." "murderer?--did i employ knives or pistols? did i give her poison? i did nothing but what the law allows. if she be dead, nobody can say that i am to blame!" "to blame?--all the world will abhor and curse you. were you such a fool as to think, because men pay respect to wealth and rank, this would extend to such a deed? they will laugh at so barefaced a cheat. the meanest beggar will spurn and spit at you. ay, you may well stand confounded at what you have done. i will proclaim you to the whole world, and you will be obliged to fly the very face of a human creature!" "good woman," said mr. tyrrel, extremely humbled, "talk no more in this strain!--emmy is not dead! i am sure--i hope--she is not dead!--tell me that you have only been deceiving me, and i will forgive you every thing--i will forgive her--i will take her into favour--i will do any thing you please!--i never meant her any harm!" "i tell you she is dead! you have murdered the sweetest innocent that lived! can you bring her back to life, as you have driven her out of it? if you could, i would kneel to you twenty times a day! what is it you have done?--miserable wretch! did you think you could do and undo, and change things this way and that, as you pleased?" the reproaches of mrs. hammond were the first instance in which mr. tyrrel was made to drink the full cup of retribution. this was, however, only a specimen of a long series of contempt, abhorrence, and insult, that was reserved for him. the words of mrs. hammond were prophetic. it evidently appeared, that though wealth and hereditary elevation operate as an apology for many delinquencies, there are some which so irresistibly address themselves to the indignation of mankind, that, like death, they level all distinctions, and reduce their perpetrator to an equality with the most indigent and squalid of his species. against mr. tyrrel, as the tyrannical and unmanly murderer of emily, those who dared not venture the unreserved avowal of their sentiments muttered curses, deep, not loud; while the rest joined in an universal cry of abhorrence and execration. he stood astonished at the novelty of his situation. accustomed as he had been to the obedience and trembling homage of mankind, he had imagined they would be perpetual, and that no excess on his part would ever be potent enough to break the enchantment. now he looked round, and saw sullen detestation in every face, which with difficulty restrained itself, and upon the slightest provocation broke forth with an impetuous tide, and swept away the mounds of subordination and fear. his large estate could not purchase civility from the gentry, the peasantry, scarcely from his own servants. in the indignation of all around him he found a ghost that haunted him with every change of place, and a remorse that stung his conscience, and exterminated his peace. the neighbourhood appeared more and more every day to be growing too hot for him to endure, and it became evident that he would ultimately be obliged to quit the country. urged by the flagitiousness of this last example, people learned to recollect every other instance of his excesses, and it was, no doubt, a fearful catalogue that rose up in judgment against him. it seemed as if the sense of public resentment had long been gathering strength unperceived, and now burst forth into insuppressible violence. there was scarcely a human being upon whom this sort of retribution could have sat more painfully than upon mr. tyrrel. though he had not a consciousness of innocence prompting him continually to recoil from the detestation of mankind as a thing totally unallied to his character, yet the imperiousness of his temper and the constant experience he had had of the pliability of other men, prepared him to feel the general and undisguised condemnation into which he was sunk with uncommon emotions of anger and impatience. that he, at the beam of whose eye every countenance fell, and to whom in the fierceness of his wrath no one was daring enough to reply, should now be regarded with avowed dislike, and treated with unceremonious censure, was a thing he could not endure to recollect or believe. symptoms of the universal disgust smote him at every instant, and at every blow he writhed with intolerable anguish. his rage was unbounded and raving. he repelled every attack with the fiercest indignation; while the more he struggled, the more desperate his situation appeared to become. at length he determined to collect his strength for a decisive effort, and to meet the whole tide of public opinion in a single scene. in pursuance of these thoughts he resolved to repair, without delay, to the rural assembly which i have already mentioned in the course of my story. miss melville had now been dead one month. mr. falkland had been absent the last week in a distant part of the country, and was not expected to return for a week longer. mr. tyrrel willingly embraced the opportunity, trusting, if he could now effect his re-establishment, that he should easily preserve the ground he had gained, even in the face of his formidable rival. mr. tyrrel was not deficient in courage; but he conceived the present to be too important an epoch in his life to allow him to make any unnecessary risk in his chance for future ease and importance. there was a sort of bustle that took place at his entrance into the assembly, it having been agreed by the gentlemen of the assembly, that mr. tyrrel was to be refused admittance, as a person with whom they did not choose to associate. this vote had already been notified to him by letter by the master of the ceremonies, but the intelligence was rather calculated, with a man of mr. tyrrel's disposition, to excite defiance than to overawe. at the door of the assembly he was personally met by the master of the ceremonies, who had perceived the arrival of an equipage, and who now endeavoured to repeat his prohibition: but he was thrust aside by mr. tyrrel with an air of native authority and ineffable contempt. as he entered; every eye was turned upon him. presently all the gentlemen in the room assembled round him. some endeavoured to hustle him, and others began to expostulate. but he found the secret effectually to silence the one set, and to shake off the other. his muscular form, the well-known eminence of his intellectual powers, the long habits to which every man was formed of acknowledging his ascendancy, were all in his favour. he considered himself as playing a desperate stake, and had roused all the energies he possessed, to enable him to do justice to so interesting a transaction. disengaged from the insects that at first pestered him, he paced up and down the room with a magisterial stride, and flashed an angry glance on every side. he then broke silence. "if any one had any thing to say to him, he should know where and how to answer him. he would advise any such person, however, to consider well what he was about. if any man imagined he had any thing personally to complain of, it was very well. but he did expect that nobody there would be ignorant and raw enough to meddle with what was no business of theirs, and intrude into the concerns of any man's private family." this being a sort of defiance, one and another gentleman advanced to answer it. he that was first began to speak; but mr. tyrrel, by the expression of his countenance and a peremptory tone, by well-timed interruptions and pertinent insinuations, caused him first to hesitate, and then to be silent. he seemed to be fast advancing to the triumph he had promised himself. the whole company were astonished. they felt the same abhorrence and condemnation of his character; but they could not help admiring the courage and resources he displayed upon the present occasion. they could without difficulty have concentred afresh their indignant feelings, but they seemed to want a leader. at this critical moment mr. falkland entered the room. mere accident had enabled him to return sooner than he expected. both he and mr. tyrrel reddened at sight of each other. he advanced towards mr. tyrrel without a moment's pause, and in a peremptory voice asked him what he did there? "here? what do you mean by that? this place is as free to me as you, and you are the last person to whom i shall deign to give an account of myself." "sir, the place is not free to you. do not you know, you have been voted out? whatever were your rights, your infamous conduct has forfeited them." "mr. what do you call yourself, if you have anything to say to me, choose a proper time and place. do not think to put on your bullying airs under shelter of this company! i will not endure it." "you are mistaken, sir. this public scene is the only place where i can have any thing to say to you. if you would not hear the universal indignation of mankind, you must not come into the society of men.--miss melville!--shame upon you, inhuman, unrelenting tyrant! can you hear her name, and not sink into the earth? can you retire into solitude, and not see her pale and patient ghost rising to reproach you? can you recollect her virtues, her innocence, her spotless manners, her unresentful temper, and not run distracted with remorse? have you not killed her in the first bloom of her youth? can you bear to think that she now lies mouldering in the grave through your cursed contrivance, that deserved a crown, ten thousand times more than you deserve to live? and do you expect that mankind will ever forget, or forgive such a deed? go, miserable wretch; think yourself too happy that you are permitted to fly the face of man! why, what a pitiful figure do you make at this moment! do you think that any thing could bring so hardened a wretch as you are to shrink from reproach, if your conscience were not in confederacy with them that reproached you? and were you fool enough to believe that any obstinacy, however determined, could enable you to despise the keen rebuke of justice? go, shrink into your miserable self! begone, and let me never be blasted with your sight again!" and here, incredible as it may appear, mr. tyrrel began to obey his imperious censurer. his looks were full of wildness and horror; his limbs trembled; and his tongue refused its office. he felt no power of resisting the impetuous torrent of reproach that was poured upon him. he hesitated; he was ashamed of his own defeat; he seemed to wish to deny it. but his struggles were ineffectual; every attempt perished in the moment it was made. the general voice was eager to abash him. as his confusion became more visible, the outcry increased. it swelled gradually to hootings, tumult, and a deafening noise of indignation. at length he willingly retired from the public scene, unable any longer to endure the sensations it inflicted. in about an hour and a half he returned. no precaution had been taken against this incident, for nothing could be more unexpected. in the interval he had intoxicated himself with large draughts of brandy. in a moment he was in a part of the room where mr. falkland was standing, and with one blow of his muscular arm levelled him with the earth. the blow however was not stunning, and mr. falkland rose again immediately. it is obvious to perceive how unequal he must have been in this species of contest. he was scarcely risen before mr. tyrrel repeated his blow. mr. falkland was now upon his guard, and did not fall. but the blows of his adversary were redoubled with a rapidity difficult to conceive, and mr. falkland was once again brought to the earth. in this situation mr. tyrrel kicked his prostrate enemy, and stooped apparently with the intention of dragging him along the floor. all this passed in a moment, and the gentlemen present had not time to recover their surprise. they now interfered, and mr. tyrrel once more quitted the apartment. it is difficult to conceive any event more terrible to the individual upon whom it fell, than the treatment which mr. falkland in this instance experienced. every passion of his life was calculated to make him feel it more acutely. he had repeatedly exerted an uncommon energy and prudence, to prevent the misunderstanding between mr. tyrrel and himself from proceeding to extremities; but in vain! it was closed with a catastrophe, exceeding all that he had feared, or that the most penetrating foresight could have suggested. to mr. falkland disgrace was worse than death. the slightest breath of dishonour would have stung him to the very soul. what must it have been with this complication of ignominy, base, humiliating, and public? could mr. tyrrel have understood the evil he inflicted, even he, under all his circumstances of provocation, could scarcely have perpetrated it. mr. falkland's mind was full of uproar like the war of contending elements, and of such suffering as casts contempt on the refinements of inventive cruelty. he wished for annihilation, to lie down in eternal oblivion, in an insensibility, which, compared with what he experienced, was scarcely less enviable than beatitude itself. horror, detestation, revenge, inexpressible longings to shake off the evil, and a persuasion that in this case all effort was powerless, filled his soul even to bursting. one other event closed the transactions of this memorable evening. mr. falkland was baffled of the vengeance that yet remained to him. mr. tyrrel was found by some of the company dead in the street, having been murdered at the distance of a few yards from the assembly house. chapter xii. i shall endeavour to state the remainder of this narrative in the words of mr. collins. the reader has already had occasion to perceive that mr. collins was a man of no vulgar order; and his reflections on the subject were uncommonly judicious. "this day was the crisis of mr. falkland's history. from hence took its beginning that gloomy and unsociable melancholy, of which he has since been the victim. no two characters can be in certain respects more strongly contrasted, than the mr. falkland of a date prior and subsequent to these events. hitherto he had been attended by a fortune perpetually prosperous. his mind was sanguine; full of that undoubting confidence in its own powers which prosperity is qualified to produce. though the habits of his life were those of a serious and sublime visionary they were nevertheless full of cheerfulness and tranquillity. but from this moment, his pride, and the lofty adventurousness of his spirit, were effectually subdued. from an object of envy he was changed into an object of compassion. life, which hitherto no one had more exquisitely enjoyed, became a burden to him. no more self-complacency, no more rapture, no more self-approving and heart-transporting benevolence! he who had lived beyond any man upon the grand and animating reveries of the imagination, seemed now to have no visions but of anguish and despair. his case was peculiarly worthy of sympathy, since, no doubt, if rectitude and purity of disposition could give a title to happiness, few men could exhibit a more consistent and powerful claim than mr. falkland. "he was too deeply pervaded with the idle and groundless romances of chivalry, ever to forget the situation, humiliating and dishonourable according to his ideas, in which he had been placed upon this occasion. there is a mysterious sort of divinity annexed to the person of a true knight, that makes any species of brute violence committed upon it indelible and immortal. to be knocked down, cuffed, kicked, dragged along the floor! sacred heaven, the memory of such a treatment was not to be endured! no future lustration could ever remove the stain: and, what was perhaps still worse in the present case, the offender having ceased to exist, the lustration which the laws of knight-errantry prescribe was rendered impossible. "in some future period of human improvement, it is probable, that that calamity will be in a manner unintelligible, which in the present instance contributed to tarnish and wither the excellence of one of the most elevated and amiable of human minds. if mr. falkland had reflected with perfect accuracy upon the case, he would probably have been able to look down with indifference upon a wound, which, as it was, pierced to his very vitals. how much more dignity, than in the modern duellist, do we find in themistocles, the most gallant of the greeks; who, when eurybiades, his commander in chief, in answer to some of his remonstrances, lifted his cane over him with a menacing air, accosted him in that noble apostrophe, 'strike, but hear!' "how would a man of true discernment in such a case reply to his brutal assailant? 'i make it my boast that i can endure calamity and pain: shall i not be able to endure the trifling inconvenience that your folly can inflict upon me? perhaps a human being would be more accomplished, if he understood the science of personal defence; but how few would be the occasions upon which he would be called to exert it? how few persons would he encounter so unjust and injurious as you, if his own conduct were directed by the principles of reason and benevolence? beside, how narrow would be the use of this science when acquired? it will scarcely put the man of delicate make and petty stature upon a level with the athletic pugilist; and, if it did in some measure secure me against the malice of a single adversary, still my person and my life, so far as mere force is concerned, would always be at the mercy of two. further than immediate defence against actual violence, it could never be of use to me. the man who can deliberately meet his adversary for the purpose of exposing the person of one or both of them to injury, tramples upon every principle of reason and equity. duelling is the vilest of all egotism, treating the public, who has a claim to all my powers and exertions, as if it were nothing, and myself, or rather an unintelligible chimera i annex to myself, as if it were entitled to my exclusive attention. i am unable to cope with you: what then? can that circumstance dishonour me? no; i can only be dishonoured by perpetrating an unjust action. my honour is in my own keeping, beyond the reach of all mankind. strike! i am passive. no injury that you can inflict, shall provoke me to expose you or myself to unnecessary evil. i refuse that; but i am not therefore pusillanimous: when i refuse any danger or suffering by which the general good may be promoted, then brand me for a coward! "these reasonings, however simple and irresistible they must be found by a dispassionate enquirer, are little reflected on by the world at large, and were most of all uncongenial to the prejudices of mr. falkland. "but the public disgrace and chastisement that had been imposed upon him, intolerable as they were to be recollected, were not the whole of the mischief that redounded to our unfortunate patron from the transactions of that day. it was presently whispered that he was no other than the murderer of his antagonist. this rumour was of too much importance to the very continuance of his life, to justify its being concealed from him. he heard it with inexpressible astonishment and horror; it formed a dreadful addition to the load of intellectual anguish that already oppressed him. no man had ever held his reputation more dear than mr. falkland; and now, in one day, he was fallen under the most exquisite calamities, a complicated personal insult, and the imputation of the foulest of crimes. he might have fled; for no one was forward to proceed against a man so adored as mr. falkland, or in revenge of one so universally execrated as mr. tyrrel. but flight he disdained. in the mean time the affair was of the most serious magnitude, and the rumour unchecked seemed daily to increase in strength. mr. falkland appeared sometimes inclined to adopt such steps as might have been best calculated to bring the imputation to a speedy trial. but he probably feared, by too direct an appeal to judicature, to render more precise an imputation, the memory of which he deprecated; at the same time that he was sufficiently willing to meet the severest scrutiny, and, if he could not hope to have it forgotten that he had ever been accused, to prove in the most satisfactory manner that the accusation was unjust. "the neighbouring magistrates at length conceived it necessary to take some steps upon the subject. without causing mr. falkland to be apprehended, they sent to desire he would appear before them at one of their meetings. the proceeding being thus opened, mr. falkland expressed his hope that, if the business were likely to stop there, their investigation might at least be rendered as solemn as possible. the meeting was numerous; every person of a respectable class in society was admitted to be an auditor; the whole town, one of the most considerable in the county, was apprised of the nature of the business. few trials, invested with all the forms of judgment, have excited so general an interest. a trial, under the present circumstances, was scarcely attainable; and it seemed to be the wish both of principal and umpires, to give to this transaction all the momentary notoriety and decisiveness of a trial. "the magistrates investigated the particulars of the story. mr. falkland, it appeared, had left the rooms immediately after his assailant; and though he had been attended by one or two of the gentlemen to his inn, it was proved that he had left them upon some slight occasion, as soon as he arrived at it, and that, when they enquired for him of the waiters, he had already mounted his horse and ridden home. "by the nature of the case, no particular facts could be stated in balance against these. as soon as they had been sufficiently detailed, mr. falkland therefore proceeded to his defence. several copies of his defence were-made, and mr. falkland seemed, for a short time, to have had the idea of sending it to the press, though, for some reason or other, he afterwards suppressed it. i have one of the copies in my possession, and i will read it to you." saying this, mr. collins rose, and took it from a private drawer in his escritoire. during this action he appeared to recollect himself. he did not, in the strict sense of the word, hesitate; but he was prompted to make some apology for what he was doing. "you seem never to have heard of this memorable transaction; and, indeed, that is little to be wondered at, since the good nature of the world is interested in suppressing it, and it is deemed a disgrace to a man to have defended himself from a criminal imputation, though with circumstances the most satisfactory and honourable. it may be supposed that this suppression is particularly acceptable to mr. falkland; and i should not have acted in contradiction to his modes of thinking in communicating the story to you, had there not been circumstances of peculiar urgency, that seemed to render the communication desirable." saying this, he proceeded to read from the paper in his hand. "gentlemen, "i stand here accused of a crime, the most black that any human creature is capable of perpetrating. i am innocent. i have no fear that i shall fail to make every person in this company acknowledge my innocence. in the mean time, what must be my feelings? conscious as i am of deserving approbation and not censure, of having passed my life in acts of justice and philanthropy, can any thing be more deplorable than for me to answer to a charge of murder? so wretched is my situation, that i cannot accept your gratuitous acquittal, if you should be disposed to bestow it. i must answer to an imputation, the very thought of which is ten thousand times worse to me than death. i must exert the whole energy of my mind, to prevent my being ranked with the vilest of men. "gentlemen, this is a situation in which a man may be allowed to boast. accursed situation! no man need envy me the vile and polluted triumph i am now to gain! i have called no witnesses to my character. great god! what sort of character is that which must be supported by witnesses? but, if i must speak, look round the company, ask of every one present, enquire of your own hearts! not one word of reproach was ever whispered against me. i do not hesitate to call upon those who have known me most, to afford me the most honourable testimony. "my life has been spent in the keenest and most unintermitted sensibility to reputation. i am almost indifferent as to what shall be the event of this day. i would not open my mouth upon the occasion, if my life were the only thing that was at stake. it is not in the power of your decision to restore to me my unblemished reputation, to obliterate the disgrace i have suffered, or to prevent it from being remembered that i have been brought to examination upon a charge of murder. your decision can never have the efficacy to prevent the miserable remains of my existence from being the most intolerable of all burthens. "i am accused of having committed murder upon the body of barnabas tyrrel. i would most joyfully have given every farthing i possess, and devoted myself to perpetual beggary, to have preserved his life. his life was precious to me, beyond that of all mankind. in my opinion, the greatest injustice committed by his unknown assassin was that of defrauding me of my just revenge. i confess that i would have called him out to the field, and that our encounter should not have been terminated but by the death of one or both of us. this would have been a pitiful and inadequate compensation for his unparalleled insult, but it was all that remained. "i ask for no pity, but i must openly declare that never was any misfortune so horrible as mine. i would willingly have taken refuge from the recollection of that night in a voluntary death. life was now stripped of all those recommendations, for the sake of which it was dear to me. but even this consolation is denied me. i am compelled to drag for ever the intolerable load of existence, upon penalty, if at any period, however remote, i shake it off, of having that impatience regarded as confirming a charge of murder. gentlemen, if by your decision you could take away my life, without that act being connected with my disgrace, i would bless the cord that stopped the breath of my existence for ever. "you all know how easily i might have fled from this purgation. if i had been guilty, should i not have embraced the opportunity? but, as it was, i could not. reputation has been the idol, the jewel of my life. i could never have borne to think that a human creature, in the remotest part of the globe, should believe that i was a criminal. alas! what a deity it is that i have chosen for my worship! i have entailed upon myself everlasting agony and despair! "i have but one word to add. gentlemen, i charge you to do me the imperfect justice that is in your power! my life is a worthless thing. but my honour, the empty remains of honour i have now to boast, is in your judgment, and you will each of you, from this day, have imposed upon yourselves the task of its vindicators. it is little that you can do for me; but it is not less your duty to do that little. may that god who is the fountain of honour and good prosper and protect you! the man who now stands before you is devoted to perpetual barrenness and blast! he has nothing to hope for beyond the feeble consolation of this day!" "you will easily imagine that mr. falkland was discharged with every circumstance of credit. nothing is more to be deplored in human institutions, than that the ideas of mankind should have annexed a sentiment of disgrace to a purgation thus satisfactory and decisive. no one entertained the shadow of a doubt upon the subject, and yet a mere concurrence of circumstances made it necessary that the best of men should be publicly put on his defence, as if really under suspicion of an atrocious crime. it may be granted indeed that mr. falkland had his faults, but those very faults placed him at a still further distance from the criminality in question. he was the fool of honour and fame: a man whom, in the pursuit of reputation, nothing could divert; who would have purchased the character of a true, gallant, and undaunted hero, at the expense of worlds, and who thought every calamity nominal but a stain upon his honour. how atrociously absurd to suppose any motive capable of inducing such a man to play the part of a lurking assassin? how unfeeling to oblige him to defend himself from such an imputation? did any man, and, least of all, a man of the purest honour, ever pass in a moment, from a life unstained by a single act of injury, to the consummation of human depravity? "when the decision of the magistrates was declared, a general murmur of applause and involuntary transport burst forth from every one present. it was at first low, and gradually became louder. as it was the expression of rapturous delight, and an emotion disinterested and divine, so there was an indescribable something in the very sound, that carried it home to the heart, and convinced every spectator that there was no merely personal pleasure which ever existed, that would not be foolish and feeble in the comparison. every one strove who should most express his esteem of the amiable accused. mr. falkland was no sooner withdrawn than the gentlemen present determined to give a still further sanction to the business, by their congratulations. they immediately named a deputation to wait upon him for that purpose. every one concurred to assist the general sentiment. it was a sort of sympathetic feeling that took hold upon all ranks and degrees. the multitude received him with huzzas, they took his horses from his carriage, dragged him along in triumph, and attended him many miles on his return to his own habitation. it seemed as if a public examination upon a criminal charge, which had hitherto been considered in every event as a brand of disgrace, was converted, in the present instance, into an occasion of enthusiastic adoration and unexampled honour. "nothing could reach the heart of mr. falkland. he was not insensible to the general kindness and exertions; but it was too evident that the melancholy that had taken hold of his mind was invincible. "it was only a few weeks after this memorable scene that the real murderer was discovered. every part of this story was extraordinary. the real murderer was hawkins. he was found with his son, under a feigned name, at a village about thirty miles distant, in want of all the necessaries of life. he had lived there, from the period of his flight, in so private a manner, that all the enquiries that had been set on foot, by the benevolence of mr. falkland, or the insatiable malice of mr. tyrrel, had been insufficient to discover him. the first thing that had led to the detection was a parcel of clothes covered with blood, that were found in a ditch, and that, when drawn out, were known by the people of the village to belong to this man. the murder of mr. tyrrel was not a circumstance that could be unknown, and suspicion was immediately roused. a diligent search being made, the rusty handle, with part of the blade of a knife, was found thrown in a corner of his lodging, which, being applied to a piece of the point of a knife that had been broken in the wound, appeared exactly to correspond. upon further enquiry two rustics, who had been accidentally on the spot, remembered to have seen hawkins and his son in the town that very evening and to have called after them, and received no answer, though they were sure of their persons. upon this accumulated evidence both hawkins and his son were tried, condemned, and afterwards executed. in the interval between the sentence and execution hawkins confessed his guilt with many marks of compunction; though there are persons by whom this is denied; but i have taken some pains to enquire into the fact, and am persuaded that their disbelief is precipitate and groundless. "the cruel injustice that this man had suffered from his village-tyrant was not forgotten upon the present occasion. it was by a strange fatality that the barbarous proceedings of mr. tyrrel seemed never to fall short of their completion; and even his death served eventually to consummate the ruin of a man he hated; a circumstance which, if it could have come to his knowledge, would perhaps have in some measure consoled him for his untimely end. this poor hawkins was surely entitled to some pity, since his being finally urged to desperation, and brought, together with his son, to an ignominious fate, was originally owing to the sturdiness of his virtue and independence. but the compassion of the public was in a great measure shut against him, as they thought it a piece of barbarous and unpardonable selfishness, that he had not rather come boldly forward to meet the consequences of his own conduct, than suffer a man of so much public worth as mr. falkland, and who had been so desirous of doing him good, to be exposed to the risk of being tried for a murder that he had committed. "from this time to the present mr. falkland has been nearly such as you at present see him. though it be several years since these transactions, the impression they made is for ever fresh in the mind of our unfortunate patron. from thenceforward his habits became totally different. he had before been fond of public scenes, and acting a part in the midst of the people among whom he immediately resided. he now made himself a rigid recluse. he had no associates, no friends. inconsolable himself, he yet wished to treat others with kindness. there was a solemn sadness in his manner, attended with the most perfect gentleness and humanity. every body respects him, for his benevolence is unalterable; but there is a stately coldness and reserve in his behaviour, which makes it difficult for those about him to regard him with the familiarity of affection. these symptoms are uninterrupted, except at certain times when his sufferings become intolerable, and he displays the marks of a furious insanity. at those times his language is fearful and mysterious, and he seems to figure to himself by turns every sort of persecution and alarm, which may be supposed to attend upon an accusation of murder. but, sensible of his own weakness, he is anxious at such times to withdraw into solitude: and his domestics in general know nothing of him, but the uncommunicative and haughty, but mild, dejection that accompanies every thing he does." end of the first volume. * * * * * volume the second. chapter i. i have stated the narrative of mr. collins, interspersed with such other information as i was able to collect, with all the exactness that my memory, assisted by certain memorandums i made at the time, will afford. i do not pretend to warrant the authenticity of any part of these memoirs, except so much as fell under my own knowledge, and that part shall be given with the same simplicity and accuracy, that i would observe towards a court which was to decide in the last resort upon every thing dear to me. the same scrupulous fidelity restrains me from altering the manner of mr. collins's narrative to adapt it to the precepts of my own taste; and it will soon be perceived how essential that narrative is to the elucidation of my history. the intention of my friend in this communication was to give me ease; but he in reality added to my embarrassment. hitherto i had had no intercourse with the world and its passions; and, though i was not totally unacquainted with them as they appear in books, this proved of little service to me when i came to witness them myself. the case seemed entirely altered, when the subject of those passions was continually before my eyes, and the events had happened but the other day as it were, in the very neighbourhood where i lived. there was a connection and progress in this narrative, which made it altogether unlike the little village incidents i had hitherto known. my feelings were successively interested for the different persons that were brought upon the scene. my veneration was excited for mr. clare, and my applause for the intrepidity of mrs. hammond. i was astonished that any human creature should be so shockingly perverted as mr. tyrrel. i paid the tribute of my tears to the memory of the artless miss melville. i found a thousand fresh reasons to admire and love mr. falkland. at present i was satisfied with thus considering every incident in its obvious sense. but the story i had heard was for ever in my thoughts, and i was peculiarly interested to comprehend its full import. i turned it a thousand ways, and examined it in every point of view. in the original communication it appeared sufficiently distinct and satisfactory; but as i brooded over it, it gradually became mysterious. there was something strange in the character of hawkins. so firm, so sturdily honest and just, as he appeared at first; all at once to become a murderer! his first behaviour under the prosecution, how accurately was it calculated to prepossess one in his favour! to be sure, if he were guilty, it was unpardonable in him to permit a man of so much dignity and worth as mr. falkland to suffer under the imputation of his crime! and yet i could not help bitterly compassionating the honest fellow, brought to the gallows, as he was, strictly speaking, by the machinations of that devil incarnate, mr. tyrrel. his son, too, that son for whom he voluntarily sacrificed his all, to die with him at the same tree; surely never was a story more affecting! was it possible, after all, that mr. falkland should be the murderer? the reader will scarcely believe, that the idea suggested itself to my mind that i would ask him. it was but a passing thought; but it serves to mark the simplicity of my character. then i recollected the virtues of my master, almost too sublime for human nature; i thought of his sufferings so unexampled, so unmerited; and chid myself for the suspicion. the dying confession of hawkins recurred to my mind; and i felt that there was no longer a possibility of doubting. and yet what was the meaning of all mr. falkland's agonies and terrors? in fine, the idea having once occurred to my mind, it was fixed there for ever. my thoughts fluctuated from conjecture to conjecture, but this was the centre about which they revolved. i determined to place myself as a watch upon my patron. the instant i had chosen this employment for myself, i found a strange sort of pleasure in it. to do what is forbidden always has its charms, because we have an indistinct apprehension of something arbitrary and tyrannical in the prohibition. to be a spy upon mr. falkland! that there was danger in the employment, served to give an alluring pungency to the choice. i remembered the stern reprimand i had received, and his terrible looks; and the recollection gave a kind of tingling sensation, not altogether unallied to enjoyment. the further i advanced, the more the sensation was irresistible. i seemed to myself perpetually upon the brink of being countermined, and perpetually roused to guard my designs. the more impenetrable mr. falkland was determined to be, the more uncontrollable was my curiosity. through the whole, my alarm and apprehension of personal danger had a large mixture of frankness and simplicity, conscious of meaning no ill, that made me continually ready to say every thing that was upon my mind, and would not suffer me to believe that, when things were brought to the test, any one could be seriously angry with me. these reflections led gradually to a new state of my mind. when i had first removed into mr. falkland's family, the novelty of the scene rendered me cautious and reserved. the distant and solemn manners of my master seemed to have annihilated my constitutional gaiety. but the novelty by degrees wore off, and my constraint in the same degree diminished. the story i had now heard, and the curiosity it excited, restored to me activity, eagerness, and courage. i had always had a propensity to communicate my thoughts; my age was, of course, inclined to talkativeness; and i ventured occasionally in a sort of hesitating way, as if questioning whether such a conduct might be allowed, to express my sentiments as they arose, in the presence of mr. falkland. the first time i did so, he looked at me with an air of surprise, made me no answer, and presently took occasion to leave me. the experiment was soon after repeated. my master seemed half inclined to encourage me, and yet doubtful whether he might venture. he had long been a stranger to pleasure of every sort, and my artless and untaught remarks appeared to promise him some amusement. could an amusement of this sort be dangerous? in this uncertainty he could not probably find it in his heart to treat with severity my innocent effusions. i needed but little encouragement; for the perturbation of my mind stood in want of this relief. my simplicity, arising from my being a total stranger to the intercourse of the world, was accompanied with a mind in some degree cultivated with reading, and perhaps not altogether destitute of observation and talent. my remarks were therefore perpetually unexpected, at one time implying extreme ignorance, and at another some portion of acuteness, but at all times having an air of innocence, frankness, and courage. there was still an apparent want of design in the manner, even after i was excited accurately to compare my observations, and study the inferences to which they led; for the effect of old habit was more visible than that of a recently conceived purpose which was yet scarcely mature. mr. falkland's situation was like that of a fish that plays with the bait employed to entrap him. by my manner he was in a certain degree encouraged to lay aside his usual reserve, and relax his stateliness; till some abrupt observation or interrogatory stung him into recollection, and brought back his alarm. still it was evident that he bore about him a secret wound. whenever the cause of his sorrows was touched, though in a manner the most indirect and remote, his countenance altered, his distemper returned, and it was with difficulty that he could suppress his emotions, sometimes conquering himself with painful effort, and sometimes bursting into a sort of paroxysm of insanity, and hastening to bury himself in solitude. these appearances i too frequently interpreted into grounds of suspicion, though i might with equal probability and more liberality have ascribed them to the cruel mortifications he had encountered in the objects of his darling ambition. mr. collins had strongly urged me to secrecy; and mr. falkland, whenever my gesture or his consciousness impressed him with the idea of my knowing more than i expressed, looked at me with wistful earnestness, as questioning what was the degree of information i possessed, and how it was obtained. but again at our next interview the simple vivacity of my manner restored his tranquillity, obliterated the emotion of which i had been the cause, and placed things afresh in their former situation. the longer this humble familiarity on my part had continued, the more effort it would require to suppress it; and mr. falkland was neither willing to mortify me by a severe prohibition of speech, nor even perhaps to make me of so much consequence, as that prohibition might seem to imply. though i was curious, it must not be supposed that i had the object of my enquiry for ever in my mind, or that my questions and innuendoes were perpetually regulated with the cunning of a grey-headed inquisitor. the secret wound of mr. falkland's mind was much more uniformly present to his recollection than to mine; and a thousand times he applied the remarks that occurred in conversation; when i had not the remotest idea of such an application, till some singularity in his manner brought it back to my thoughts. the consciousness of this morbid sensibility, and the imagination that its influence might perhaps constitute the whole of the case, served probably to spur mr. falkland again to the charge, and connect a sentiment of shame, with every project that suggested itself for interrupting the freedom of our intercourse. i will give a specimen of the conversations to which i allude; and, as it shall be selected from those which began upon topics the most general and remote, the reader will easily imagine the disturbance that was almost daily endured by a mind so tremblingly alive as that of my patron. "pray, sir," said i, one day as i was assisting mr. falkland in arranging some papers, previously to their being transcribed into his collection, "how came alexander of macedon to be surnamed the great?" "how came it? did you never read his history?" "yes, sir." "well, williams, and could you find no reasons there?" "why, i do not know, sir. i could find reasons why he should be so famous; but every man that is talked of is not admired. judges differ about the merits of alexander. doctor prideaux says in his connection, that he deserves only to be called the great cut-throat; and the author of tom jones has written a volume, to prove that he and all other conquerors ought to be classed with jonathan wild." mr. falkland reddened at these citations. "accursed blasphemy! did these authors think that, by the coarseness of their ribaldry, they could destroy his well-earned fame? are learning, sensibility, and taste, no securities to exempt their possessor from this vulgar abuse? did you ever read, williams, of a man more gallant, generous, and free? was ever mortal so completely the reverse of every thing engrossing and selfish? he formed to himself a sublime image of excellence, and his only ambition was to realise it in his own story. remember his giving away every thing when he set out upon his grand expedition, professedly reserving for himself nothing but hope. recollect his heroic confidence in philip the physician, and his entire and unalterable friendship for ephestion. he treated the captive family of darius with the most cordial urbanity, and the venerable sysigambis with all the tenderness and attention of a son to his mother. never take the judgment, williams, upon such a subject, of a clerical pedant or a westminster justice. examine for yourself, and you will find in alexander a model of honour, generosity, and disinterestedness,--a man who, for the cultivated liberality of his mind, and the unparalleled grandeur of his projects, must stand alone the spectacle and admiration of all ages of the world." "ah, sir! it is a fine thing for us to sit here and compose his panegyric. but shall i forget what a vast expense was bestowed in erecting the monument of his fame? was not he the common disturber of mankind? did not he over-run nations that would never have heard of him but for his devastations? how many hundred thousands of lives did he sacrifice in his career? what must i think of his cruelties; a whole tribe massacred for a crime committed by their ancestors one hundred and fifty years before; fifty thousand sold into slavery; two thousand crucified for their gallant defence of their country? man is surely a strange sort of creature, who never praises any one more heartily than him who has spread destruction and ruin over the face of nations!" "the way of thinking you express, williams, is natural enough, and i cannot blame you for it. but let me hope that you will become more liberal. the death of a hundred thousand men is at first sight very shocking; but what in reality are a hundred thousand such men, more than a hundred thousand sheep? it is mind, williams, the generation of knowledge and virtue, that we ought to love. this was the project of alexander; he set out in a great undertaking to civilise mankind; he delivered the vast continent of asia from the stupidity and degradation of the persian monarchy: and, though he was cut off in the midst of his career, we may easily perceive the vast effects of his project. grecian literature and cultivation, the seleucidae, the antiochuses, and the ptolemies followed, in nations which before had been sunk to the condition of brutes. alexander was the builder, as notoriously as the destroyer, of cities." "and yet, sir, i am afraid that the pike and the battle-axe are not the right instruments for making men wise. suppose it were admitted that the lives of men were to be sacrificed without remorse if a paramount good were to result, it seems to me as if murder and massacre were but a very left-handed way of producing civilisation and love. but pray, do not you think this great hero was a sort of a madman? what now will you say to his firing the palace of persepolis, his weeping for other worlds to conquer, and his marching his whole army over the burning sands of libya, merely to visit a temple, and persuade mankind that he was the son of jupiter ammon?" "alexander, my boy, has been much misunderstood. mankind have revenged themselves upon him by misrepresentation, for having so far eclipsed the rest of his species. it was necessary to the realising his project, that he should pass for a god. it was the only way by which he could get a firm hold upon the veneration of the stupid and bigoted persians. it was this, and not a mad vanity, that was the source of his proceeding. and how much had he to struggle with in this respect, in the unapprehending obstinacy of some of his macedonians?" "why then, sir, at last alexander did but employ means that all politicians profess to use, as well as he. he dragooned men into wisdom, and cheated them into the pursuit of their own happiness. but what is worse, sir, this alexander, in the paroxysm of his headlong rage, spared neither friend nor foe. you will not pretend to justify the excesses of his ungovernable passion. it is impossible, sure, that a word can be said for a man whom a momentary provocation can hurry into the commission of murders--" the instant i had uttered these words, i felt what it was that i had done. there was a magnetical sympathy between me and my patron, so that their effect was not sooner produced upon him, than my own mind reproached me with the inhumanity of the allusion. our confusion was mutual. the blood forsook at once the transparent complexion of mr. falkland, and then rushed back again with rapidity and fierceness. i dared not utter a word, lest i should commit a new error, worse than that into which i had just fallen. after a short, but severe, struggle to continue the conversation, mr. falkland began with trepidation, but afterwards became calmer:-"you are not candid--alexander--you must learn more clemency--alexander, i say, does not deserve this rigour. do you remember his tears, his remorse, his determined abstinence from food, which he could scarcely be persuaded to relinquish? did not that prove acute feeling and a rooted principle of equity?--well, well, alexander was a true and judicious lover of mankind, and his real merits have been little comprehended." i know not how to make the state of my mind at that moment accurately understood. when one idea has got possession of the soul, it is scarcely possible to keep it from finding its way to the lips. error, once committed, has a fascinating power, like that ascribed to the eyes of the rattlesnake, to draw us into a second error. it deprives us of that proud confidence in our own strength, to which we are indebted for so much of our virtue. curiosity is a restless propensity, and often does but hurry us forward the more irresistibly, the greater is the danger that attends its indulgence. "clitus," said i, "was a man of very coarse and provoking manners, was he not?" mr. falkland felt the full force of this appeal. he gave me a penetrating look, as if he would see my very soul. his eyes were then in an instant withdrawn. i could perceive him seized with a convulsive shuddering which, though strongly counteracted, and therefore scarcely visible, had i know not what of terrible in it. he left his employment, strode about the room in anger, his visage gradually assumed an expression as of supernatural barbarity, he quitted the apartment abruptly, and flung the door with a violence that seemed to shake the house. "is this," said i, "the fruit of conscious guilt, or of the disgust that a man of honour conceives at guilt undeservedly imputed?" chapter ii. the reader will feel how rapidly i was advancing to the brink of the precipice. i had a confused apprehension of what i was doing, but i could not stop myself. "is it possible," said i, "that mr. falkland, who is thus overwhelmed with a sense of the unmerited dishonour that has been fastened upon him in the face of the world, will long endure the presence of a raw and unfriended youth, who is perpetually bringing back that dishonour to his recollection, and who seems himself the most forward to entertain the accusation?" i felt indeed that mr. falkland would not hastily incline to dismiss me, for the same reason that restrained him from many other actions, which might seem to savour of a too tender and ambiguous sensibility. but this reflection was little adapted to comfort me. that he should cherish in his heart a growing hatred against me, and that he should think himself obliged to retain me a continual thorn in his side, was an idea by no means of favourable augury to my future peace. it was some time after this that, in clearing out a case of drawers, i found a paper that, by some accident, had slipped behind one of the drawers, and been overlooked. at another time perhaps my curiosity might have given way to the laws of decorum, and i should have restored it unopened to my master, its owner. but my eagerness for information had been too much stimulated by the preceding incidents, to allow me at present to neglect any occasion of obtaining it. the paper proved to be a letter written by the elder hawkins, and from its contents seemed to have been penned when he had first been upon the point of absconding from the persecutions of mr. tyrrel. it was as follows:-"honourable sir, "i have waited some time in daily hope of your honour's return into these parts. old warnes and his dame, who are left to take care of your house, tell me they cannot say when that will be, nor justly in what part of england you are at present. for my share, misfortune comes so thick upon me, that i must determine upon something (that is for certain), and out of hand. our squire, who i must own at first used me kindly enough, though i am afraid that was partly out of spite to squire underwood, has since determined to be the ruin of me. sir, i have been no craven; i fought it up stoutly; for after all, you know, god bless your honour! it is but a man to a man; but he has been too much for me. "perhaps if i were to ride over to the market-town and enquire of munsle, your lawyer, he could tell me how to direct to you. but having hoped and waited o' this fashion, and all in vain, has put me upon other thoughts. i was in no hurry, sir, to apply to you; for i do not love to be a trouble to any body. i kept that for my last stake. well, sir, and now that has failed me like, i am ashamed, as it were, to have thought of it. have not i, thinks i, arms and legs as well as other people? i am driven out of house and home. well, and what then? sure i arn't a cabbage, that if you pull it out of the ground it must die. i am pennyless. true; and how many hundreds are there that live from hand to mouth all the days of their life? (begging your honour's pardon) thinks i, if we little folks had but the wit to do for ourselves, the great folks would not be such maggotty changelings as they are. they would begin to look about them. "but there is another thing that has swayed with me more than all the rest. i do not know how to tell you, sir,--my poor boy, my leonard, the pride of my life, has been three weeks in the county jail. it is true indeed, sir. squire tyrrel put him there. now, sir, every time that i lay my head upon my pillow under my own little roof, my heart smites me with the situation of my leonard. i do not mean so much for the hardship; i do not so much matter that. i do not expect him to go through the world upon velvet! i am not such a fool. but who can tell what may hap in a jail! i have been three times to see him; and there is one man in the same quarter of the prison that looks so wicked! i do not much fancy the looks of the rest. to be sure, leonard is as good a lad as ever lived. i think he will not give his mind to such. but come what will, i am determined he shall not stay among them twelve hours longer. i am an obstinate old fool perhaps; but i have taken it into my head, and i will do it. do not ask me what. but, if i were to write to your honour, and wait for your answer, it might take a week or ten days more. i must not think of it! "squire tyrrel is very headstrong, and you, your honour, might be a little hottish, or so. no, i would not have any body quarrel for me. there has been mischief enough done already; and i will get myself out of the way. so i write this, your honour, merely to unload my mind. i feel myself equally as much bound to respect and love you, as if you had done every thing for me, that i believe you would have done if things had chanced differently. it is most likely you will never hear of me any more. if it should be so, set your worthy heart at rest. i know myself too well, ever to be tempted to do any thing that is really bad. i have now my fortune to seek in the world. i have been used ill enough, god knows. but i bear no malice; my heart is at peace with all mankind; and i forgive every body. it is like enough that poor leonard and i may have hardship enough to undergo, among strangers, and being obliged to hide ourselves like housebreakers or highwaymen. but i defy all the malice of fortune to make us do an ill thing. that consolation we will always keep against all the crosses of a heart-breaking world. "god bless you! so prays, your honour's humble servant to command, benjamin hawkins." i read this letter with considerable attention, and it occasioned me many reflections. to my way of thinking it contained a very interesting picture of a blunt, downright, honest mind. "it is a melancholy consideration," said i to myself; "but such is man! to have judged from appearances one would have said, this is a fellow to have taken fortune's buffets and rewards with an incorruptible mind. and yet see where it all ends! this man was capable of afterwards becoming a murderer, and finished his life at the gallows. o poverty! thou art indeed omnipotent! thou grindest us into desperation; thou confoundest all our boasted and most deep-rooted principles; thou fillest us to the very brim with malice and revenge, and renderest us capable of acts of unknown horror! may i never be visited by thee in the fulness of thy power!" having satisfied my curiosity with respect to this paper, i took care to dispose of it in such a manner as that it should be found by mr. falkland; at the same time that, in obedience to the principle which at present governed me with absolute dominion, i was willing that the way in which it offered itself to his attention should suggest to him the idea that it had possibly passed through my hands. the next morning i saw him, and i exerted myself to lead the conversation, which by this time i well knew how to introduce, by insensible degrees to the point i desired. after several previous questions, remarks, and rejoinders, i continued:-"well, sir, after all, i cannot help feeling very uncomfortably as to my ideas of human nature, when i find that there is no dependence to be placed upon its perseverance, and that, at least among the illiterate, the most promising appearances may end in the foulest disgrace." "you think, then, that literature and a cultivated mind are the only assurance for the constancy of our principles!" "humph!--why do you suppose, sir, that learning and ingenuity do not often serve people rather to hide their crimes than to restrain them from committing them? history tells us strange things in that respect." "williams," said mr. falkland, a little disturbed, "you are extremely given to censure and severity." "i hope not. i am sure i am most fond of looking on the other side of the picture, and considering how many men have been aspersed, and even at some time or other almost torn to pieces by their fellow-creatures, whom, when properly understood, we find worthy of our reverence and love." "indeed," replied mr. falkland, with a sigh, "when i consider these things i do not wonder at the dying exclamation of brutus, 'o virtue, i sought thee as a substance, but i find thee an empty name!' i am too much inclined to be of his opinion." "why, to be sure, sir, innocence and guilt are too much confounded in human life. i remember an affecting story of a poor man in the reign of queen elizabeth, who would have infallibly been hanged for murder upon the strength of circumstantial evidence, if the person really concerned had not been himself upon the jury and prevented it." in saying this i touched the spring that wakened madness in his mind. he came up to me with a ferocious countenance, as if determined to force me into a confession of my thoughts. a sudden pang however seemed to change his design! he drew back with trepidation, and exclaimed, "detested be the universe, and the laws that govern it! honour, justice, virtue, are all the juggle of knaves! if it were in my power i would instantly crush the whole system into nothing!" i replied; "oh, sir! things are not so bad as you imagine. the world was made for men of sense to do what they will with. its affairs cannot be better than in the direction of the genuine heroes; and as in the end they will be found the truest friends of the whole, so the multitude have nothing to do but to look on, be fashioned, and admire." mr. falkland made a powerful effort to recover his tranquillity. "williams," said he, "you instruct me well. you have a right notion of things, and i have great hopes of you. i will be more of a man; i will forget the past, and do better for the time to come. the future, the future is always our own." "i am sorry, sir, that i have given you pain. i am afraid to say all that i think. but it is my opinion that mistakes will ultimately be cleared up, justice done, and the true state of things come to light, in spite of the false colours that may for a time obscure it." the idea i suggested did not give mr. falkland the proper degree of delight. he suffered a temporary relapse. "justice!"--he muttered. "i do not know what is justice. my case is not within the reach of common remedies; perhaps of none. i only know that i am miserable. i began life with the best intentions and the most fervid philanthropy; and here i am--miserable--miserable beyond expression or endurance." having said this, he seemed suddenly to recollect himself, and re-assumed his accustomed dignity and command. "how came this conversation?" cried he. "who gave you a right to be my confidant? base, artful wretch that you are! learn to be more respectful! are my passions to be wound and unwound by an insolent domestic? do you think i will be an instrument to be played on at your pleasure, till you have extorted all the treasures of my soul? begone, and fear lest you be made to pay for the temerity you have already committed!" there was an energy and determination in the gestures with which these words were accompanied, that did not admit of their being disputed. my mouth was closed; i felt as if deprived of all share of activity, and was only able silently and passively to quit the apartment. chapter iii. two days subsequent to this conversation, mr. falkland ordered me to be called to him. [i shall continue to speak in my narrative of the silent, as well as the articulate part of the intercourse between us. his countenance was habitually animated and expressive, much beyond that of any other man i have seen. the curiosity which, as i have said, constituted my ruling passion, stimulated me to make it my perpetual study. it will also most probably happen, while i am thus employed in collecting the scattered incidents of my history, that i shall upon some occasions annex to appearances an explanation which i was far from possessing at the time, and was only suggested to me through the medium of subsequent events.] when i entered the apartment, i remarked in mr. falkland's countenance an unwonted composure. this composure however did not seem to result from internal ease, but from an effort which, while he prepared himself for an interesting scene, was exerted to prevent his presence of mind, and power of voluntary action, from suffering any diminution. "williams," said he, "i am determined, whatever it may cost me, to have an explanation with you. you are a rash and inconsiderate boy, and have given me much disturbance. you ought to have known that, though i allow you to talk with me upon indifferent subjects, it is very improper in you to lead the conversation to any thing that relates to my personal concerns. you have said many things lately in a very mysterious way, and appear to know something more than i am aware of. i am equally at a loss to guess how you came by your knowledge, as of what it consists. but i think i perceive too much inclination on your part to trifle with my peace of mind. that ought not to be, nor have i deserved any such treatment from you. but, be that as it will, the guesses in which you oblige me to employ myself are too painful. it is a sort of sporting with my feelings, which, as a man of resolution, i am determined to bring to an end. i expect you therefore to lay aside all mystery and equivocation, and inform me explicitly what it is upon which your allusions are built. what is it you know? what is it you want? i have been too much exposed already to unparalleled mortification and hardship, and my wounds will not bear this perpetual tampering." "i feel, sir," answered i, "how wrong i have been, and am ashamed that such a one as i should have given you all this trouble and displeasure. i felt it at the time; but i have been hurried along, i do not know how. i have always tried to stop myself, but the demon that possessed me was too strong for me. i know nothing, sir, but what mr. collins told me. he told me the story of mr. tyrrel and miss melville and hawkins. i am sure, sir, he said nothing but what was to your honour, and proved you to be more an angel than a man." "well, sir: i found a letter written by that hawkins the other day; did not that letter fall into your hands? did not you read it?" "for god's sake, sir, turn me out of your house. punish me in some way or other, that i may forgive myself. i am a foolish, wicked, despicable wretch. i confess, sir, i did read the letter." "and how dared you read it? it was indeed very wrong of you. but we will talk of that by and by. well, and what did you say to the letter? you know it seems, that hawkins was hanged." "i say, sir? why it went to my heart to read it. i say, as i said the day before yesterday, that when i see a man of so much principle afterwards deliberately proceeding to the very worst of crimes, i can scarcely bear to think of it." "that is what you say? it seems too you know--accursed remembrance!--that i was accused of this crime?" i was silent. "well, sir. you know too, perhaps, that from the hour the crime was committed--yes, sir, that was the date [and as he said this, there was somewhat frightful, i had almost said diabolical, in his countenance]--i have not had an hour's peace; i became changed from the happiest to the most miserable thing that lives; sleep has fled from my eyes; joy has been a stranger to my thoughts; and annihilation i should prefer a thousand times to the being that i am. as soon as i was capable of a choice, i chose honour and the esteem of mankind as a good i preferred to all others. you know, it seems, in how many ways my ambition has been disappointed,--i do not thank collins for having been the historian of my disgrace,--would to god that night could be blotted from the memory of man!--but the scene of that night, instead of perishing, has been a source of ever new calamity to me, which must flow for ever! am i then, thus miserable and ruined, a proper subject upon which for you to exercise your ingenuity, and improve your power of tormenting? was it not enough that i was publicly dishonoured? that i was deprived, by the pestilential influence of some demon, of the opportunity of avenging my dishonour? no: in addition to this, i have been charged with having in this critical moment intercepted my own vengeance by the foulest of crimes. that trial is past. misery itself has nothing worse in store for me, except what you have inflicted: the seeming to doubt of my innocence, which, after the fullest and most solemn examination, has been completely established. you have forced me to this explanation. you have extorted from me a confidence which i had no inclination to make. but it is a part of the misery of my situation, that i am at the mercy of every creature, however little, who feels himself inclined to sport with my distress. be content. you have brought me low enough." "oh, sir, i am not content; i cannot be content! i cannot bear to think what i have done. i shall never again be able to look in the face of the best of masters and the best of men. i beg of you, sir, to turn me out of your service. let me go and hide myself where i may never see you more." mr. falkland's countenance had indicated great severity through the whole of this conversation; but now it became more harsh and tempestuous than ever. "how now, rascal!" cried he. "you want to leave me, do you? who told you that i wished to part with you? but you cannot bear to live with such a miserable wretch as i am! you are not disposed to put up with the caprices of a man so dissatisfied and unjust!" "oh, sir! do not talk to me thus! do with me any thing you will. kill me if you please." "kill you!" [volumes could not describe the emotions with which this echo of my words was given and received.] "sir, i could die to serve you! i love you more than i can express. i worship you as a being of a superior nature. i am foolish, raw, inexperienced,--worse than any of these;--but never did a thought of disloyalty to your service enter into my heart." here our conversation ended; and the impression it made upon my youthful mind it is impossible to describe. i thought with astonishment, even with rapture, of the attention and kindness towards me i discovered in mr. falkland, through all the roughness of his manner. i could never enough wonder at finding myself, humble as i was by my birth, obscure as i had hitherto been, thus suddenly become of so much importance to the happiness of one of the most enlightened and accomplished men in england. but this consciousness attached me to my patron more eagerly than ever, and made me swear a thousand times, as i meditated upon my situation, that i would never prove unworthy of so generous a protector. chapter iv. is it not unaccountable that, in the midst of all my increased veneration for my patron, the first tumult of my emotion was scarcely subsided, before the old question that had excited my conjectures recurred to my mind, was he the murderer? it was a kind of fatal impulse, that seemed destined to hurry me to my destruction. i did not wonder at the disturbance that was given to mr. falkland by any allusion, however distant, to this fatal affair. that was as completely accounted for from the consideration of his excessive sensibility in matters of honour, as it would have been upon the supposition of the most atrocious guilt. knowing, as he did, that such a charge had once been connected with his name, he would of course be perpetually uneasy, and suspect some latent insinuation at every possible opportunity. he would doubt and fear, lest every man with whom he conversed harboured the foulest suspicion against him. in my case he found that i was in possession of some information, more than he was aware of, without its being possible for him to decide to what it amounted, whether i had heard a just or unjust, a candid or calumniatory tale. he had also reason to suppose that i gave entertainment to thoughts derogatory to his honour, and that i did not form that favourable judgment, which the exquisite refinement of his ruling passion made indispensable to his peace. all these considerations would of course maintain in him a state of perpetual uneasiness. but, though i could find nothing that i could consider as justifying me in persisting in the shadow of a doubt, yet, as i have said, the uncertainty and restlessness of my contemplations would by no means depart from me. the fluctuating state of my mind produced a contention of opposite principles, that by turns usurped dominion over my conduct. sometimes i was influenced by the most complete veneration for my master; i placed an unreserved confidence in his integrity and his virtue, and implicitly surrendered my understanding for him to set it to what point he pleased. at other times the confidence, which had before flowed with the most plenteous tide, began to ebb; i was, as i had already been, watchful, inquisitive, suspicious, full of a thousand conjectures as to the meaning of the most indifferent actions. mr. falkland, who was most painfully alive to every thing that related to his honour, saw these variations, and betrayed his consciousness of them now in one manner, and now in another, frequently before i was myself aware, sometimes almost before they existed. the situation of both was distressing; we were each of us a plague to the other; and i often wondered, that the forbearance and benignity of my master was not at length exhausted, and that he did not determine to thrust from him for ever so incessant an observer. there was indeed one eminent difference between his share in the transaction and mine. i had some consolation in the midst of my restlessness. curiosity is a principle that carries its pleasures, as well as its pains, along with it. the mind is urged by a perpetual stimulus; it seems as if it were continually approaching to the end of its race; and as the insatiable desire of satisfaction is its principle of conduct, so it promises itself in that satisfaction an unknown gratification, which seems as if it were capable of fully compensating any injuries that may be suffered in the career. but to mr. falkland there was no consolation. what he endured in the intercourse between us appeared to be gratuitous evil. he had only to wish that there was no such person as myself in the world, and to curse the hour when his humanity led him to rescue me from my obscurity, and place me in his service. a consequence produced upon me by the extraordinary nature of my situation it is necessary to mention. the constant state of vigilance and suspicion in which my mind was retained, worked a very rapid change in my character. it seemed to have all the effect that might have been expected from years of observation and experience. the strictness with which i endeavoured to remark what passed in the mind of one man, and the variety of conjectures into which i was led, appeared, as it were, to render me a competent adept in the different modes in which the human intellect displays its secret workings. i no longer said to myself, as i had done in the beginning, "i will ask mr. falkland whether he were the murderer." on the contrary, after having carefully examined the different kinds of evidence of which the subject was susceptible, and recollecting all that had already passed upon the subject, it was not without considerable pain, that i felt myself unable to discover any way in which i could be perfectly and unalterably satisfied of my patron's innocence. as to his guilt, i could scarcely bring myself to doubt that in some way or other, sooner or later, i should arrive at the knowledge of that, if it really existed. but i could not endure to think, almost for a moment, of that side of the alternative as true; and with all my ungovernable suspicion arising from the mysteriousness of the circumstances, and all the delight which a young and unfledged mind receives from ideas that give scope to all that imagination can picture of terrible or sublime, i could not yet bring myself to consider mr. falkland's guilt as a supposition attended with the remotest probability. i hope the reader will forgive me for dwelling thus long on preliminary circumstances. i shall come soon enough to the story of my own misery. i have already said, that one of the motives which induced me to the penning of this narrative, was to console myself in my insupportable distress. i derive a melancholy pleasure from dwelling upon the circumstances which imperceptibly paved the way to my ruin. while i recollect or describe past scenes, which occurred in a more favourable period of my life, my attention is called off for a short interval, from the hopeless misfortune in which i am at present involved. the man must indeed possess an uncommon portion of hardness of heart, who can envy me so slight a relief.--to proceed. for some time after the explanation which had thus taken place between me and mr. falkland, his melancholy, instead of being in the slightest degree diminished by the lenient hand of time, went on perpetually to increase. his fits of insanity--for such i must denominate them for want of a distinct appellation, though it is possible they might not fall under the definition that either the faculty or the court of chancery appropriate to the term--became stronger and more durable than ever. it was no longer practicable wholly to conceal them from the family, and even from the neighbourhood. he would sometimes, without any previous notice, absent himself from his house for two or three days, unaccompanied by servant or attendant. this was the more extraordinary, as it was well known that he paid no visits, nor kept up any sort of intercourse with the gentlemen of the vicinity. but it was impossible that a man of mr. falkland's distinction and fortune should long continue in such a practice, without its being discovered what was become of him; though a considerable part of our county was among the wildest and most desolate districts that are to be found in south britain. mr. falkland was sometimes seen climbing among the rocks, reclining motionless for hours together upon the edge of a precipice, or lulled into a kind of nameless lethargy of despair by the dashing of the torrents. he would remain for whole nights together under the naked cope of heaven, inattentive to the consideration either of place or time; insensible to the variations of the weather, or rather seeming to be delighted with that uproar of the elements, which partially called off his attention from the discord and dejection that occupied his own mind. at first, when we received intelligence at any time of the place to which mr. falkland had withdrawn himself, some person of his household, mr. collins or myself, but most generally myself, as i was always at home, and always, in the received sense of the word, at leisure, went to him to persuade him to return. but, after a few experiments, we thought it advisable to desist, and leave him to prolong his absence, or to terminate it, as might happen to suit his own inclination. mr. collins, whose grey hairs and long services seemed to give him a sort of right to be importunate, sometimes succeeded; though even in that case there was nothing that could sit more uneasily upon mr. falkland than this insinuation as if he wanted a guardian to take care of him, or as if he were in, or in danger of falling into, a state in which he would be incapable of deliberately controlling his own words and actions. at one time he would suddenly yield to his humble, venerable friend, murmuring grievously at the constraint that was put upon him, but without spirit enough even to complain of it with energy. at another time, even though complying, he would suddenly burst out in a paroxysm of resentment. upon these occasions there was something inconceivably, savagely terrible in his anger, that gave to the person against whom it was directed the most humiliating and insupportable sensations. me he always treated, at these times, with fierceness, and drove me from him with a vehemence lofty, emphatical, and sustained, beyond any thing of which i should have thought human nature to be capable. these sallies seemed always to constitute a sort of crisis in his indisposition; and, whenever he was induced to such a premature return, he would fall immediately after into a state of the most melancholy inactivity, in which he usually continued for two or three days. it was by an obstinate fatality that, whenever i saw mr. falkland in these deplorable situations, and particularly when i lighted upon him after having sought him among the rocks and precipices, pale, emaciated, solitary, and haggard, the suggestion would continually recur to me, in spite of inclination, in spite of persuasion, and in spite of evidence, surely this man is a murderer! chapter v. it was in one of the lucid intervals, as i may term them, that occurred during this period, that a peasant was brought before him, in his character of a justice of peace, upon an accusation of having murdered his fellow. as mr. falkland had by this time acquired the repute of a melancholy valetudinarian, it is probable he would not have been called upon to act in his official character upon the present occasion, had it not been that two or three of the neighbouring justices were all of them from home at once, so that he was the only one to be found in a circuit of many miles. the reader however must not imagine, though i have employed the word insanity in describing mr. falkland's symptoms, that he was by any means reckoned for a madman by the generality of those who had occasion to observe him. it is true that his behaviour, at certain times, was singular and unaccountable; but then, at other times, there was in it so much dignity, regularity, and economy; he knew so well how to command and make himself respected; his actions and carriage were so condescending, considerate, and benevolent, that, far from having forfeited the esteem of the unfortunate or the many, they were loud and earnest in his praises. i was present at the examination of this peasant. the moment i heard of the errand which had brought this rabble of visitors, a sudden thought struck me. i conceived the possibility of rendering the incident subordinate to the great enquiry which drank up all the currents of my soul. i said, this man is arraigned of murder, and murder is the master-key that wakes distemper in the mind of mr. falkland. i will watch him without remission. i will trace all the mazes of his thought. surely at such a time his secret anguish must betray itself. surely, if it be not my own fault, i shall now be able to discover the state of his plea before the tribunal of unerring justice. i took my station in a manner most favourable to the object upon which my mind was intent. i could perceive in mr. falkland's features, as he entered, a strong reluctance to the business in which he was engaged; but there was no possibility of retreating. his countenance was embarrassed and anxious; he scarcely saw any body. the examination had not proceeded far, before he chanced to turn his eye to the part of the room where i was. it happened in this as in some preceding instances--we exchanged a silent look, by which we told volumes to each other. mr. falkland's complexion turned from red to pale, and from pale to red. i perfectly understood his feelings, and would willingly have withdrawn myself. but it was impossible; my passions were too deeply engaged; i was rooted to the spot; though my own life, that of my master, or almost of a whole nation had been at stake, i had no power to change my position. the first surprise however having subsided, mr. falkland assumed a look of determined constancy, and even seemed to increase in self-possession much beyond what could have been expected from his first entrance. this he could probably have maintained, had it not been that the scene, instead of being permanent, was in some sort perpetually changing. the man who was brought before him was vehemently accused by the brother of the deceased as having acted from the most rooted malice. he swore that there had been an old grudge between the parties, and related several instances of it. he affirmed that the murderer had sought the earliest opportunity of wreaking his revenge; had struck the first blow; and, though the contest was in appearance only a common boxing match, had watched the occasion of giving a fatal stroke, which was followed by the instant death of his antagonist. while the accuser was giving in his evidence, the accused discovered every token of the most poignant sensibility. at one time his features were convulsed with anguish; tears unbidden trickled down his manly cheeks; and at another he started with apparent astonishment at the unfavourable turn that was given to the narrative, though without betraying any impatience to interrupt. i never saw a man less ferocious in his appearance. he was tall, well made, and comely. his countenance was ingenuous and benevolent, without folly. by his side stood a young woman, his sweetheart, extremely agreeable in her person, and her looks testifying how deeply she interested herself in the fate of her lover. the accidental spectators were divided, between indignation against the enormity of the supposed criminal, and compassion for the poor girl that accompanied him. they seemed to take little notice of the favourable appearances visible in the person of the accused, till, in the sequel, those appearances were more forcibly suggested to their attention. for mr. falkland, he was at one moment engrossed by curiosity and earnestness to investigate the tale, while at another he betrayed a sort of revulsion of sentiment, which made the investigation too painful for him to support. when the accused was called upon for his defence, he readily owned the misunderstanding that had existed, and that the deceased was the worst enemy he had in the world. indeed he was his only enemy, and he could not tell the reason that had made him so. he had employed every effort to overcome his animosity, but in vain. the deceased had upon all occasions sought to mortify him, and do him an ill turn; but he had resolved never to be engaged in a broil with him, and till this day he had succeeded. if he had met with a misfortune with any other man, people at least might have thought it accident; but now it would always be believed that he had acted from secret malice and a bad heart. the fact was, that he and his sweetheart had gone to a neighbouring fair, where this man had met them. the man had often tried to affront him; and his passiveness, interpreted into cowardice, had perhaps encouraged the other to additional rudeness. finding that he had endured trivial insults to himself with an even temper, the deceased now thought proper to turn his brutality upon the young woman that accompanied him. he pursued them; he endeavoured in various manners to harass and vex them; they had sought in vain to shake him off. the young woman was considerably terrified. the accused expostulated with their persecutor, and asked him how he could be so barbarous as to persist in frightening a woman? he replied with an insulting tone, "then the woman should find some one able to protect her; people that encouraged and trusted to such a thief as that, deserved no better!" the accused tried every expedient he could invent; at length he could endure it no longer; he became exasperated, and challenged the assailant. the challenge was accepted; a ring was formed; he confided the care of his sweetheart to a bystander; and unfortunately the first blow he struck proved fatal. the accused added, that he did not care what became of him. he had been anxious to go through the world in an inoffensive manner, and now he had the guilt of blood upon him. he did not know but it would be kindness in them to hang him out of the way; for his conscience would reproach him as long as he lived, and the figure of the deceased, as he had lain senseless and without motion at his feet, would perpetually haunt him. the thought of this man, at one moment full of life and vigour, and the next lifted a helpless corpse from the ground, and all owing to him, was a thought too dreadful to be endured. he had loved the poor maiden, who had been the innocent occasion of this, with all his heart; but from this time he should never support the sight of her. the sight would bring a tribe of fiends in its rear. one unlucky minute had poisoned all his hopes, and made life a burden to him. saying this, his countenance fell, the muscles of his face trembled with agony, and he looked the statue of despair. this was the story of which mr. falkland was called upon to be the auditor. though the incidents were, for the most part, wide of those which belonged to the adventures of the preceding volume, and there had been much less policy and skill displayed on either part in this rustic encounter, yet there were many points which, to a man who bore the former strongly in his recollection, suggested a sufficient resemblance. in each case it was a human brute persisting in a course of hostility to a man of benevolent character, and suddenly and terribly cut off in the midst of his career. these points perpetually smote upon the heart of mr. falkland. he at one time started with astonishment, and at another shifted his posture, like a man who is unable longer to endure the sensations that press upon him. then he new strung his nerves to stubborn patience. i could see, while his muscles preserved an inflexible steadiness, tears of anguish roll down his cheeks. he dared not trust his eyes to glance towards the side of the room where i stood; and this gave an air of embarrassment to his whole figure. but when the accused came to speak of his feelings, to describe the depth of his compunction for an involuntary fault, he could endure it no longer. he suddenly rose, and with every mark of horror and despair rushed out of the room. this circumstance made no material difference in the affair of the accused. the parties were detained about half an hour. mr. falkland had already heard the material parts of the evidence in person. at the expiration of that interval, he sent for mr. collins out of the room. the story of the culprit was confirmed by many witnesses who had seen the transaction. word was brought that my master was indisposed; and, at the same time, the accused was ordered to be discharged. the vengeance of the brother however, as i afterwards found, did not rest here, and he met with a magistrate, more scrupulous or more despotic, by whom the culprit was committed for trial. this affair was no sooner concluded, than i hastened into the garden, and plunged into the deepest of its thickets. my mind was full, almost to bursting. i no sooner conceived myself sufficiently removed from all observation, than my thoughts forced their way spontaneously to my tongue, and i exclaimed, in a fit of uncontrollable enthusiasm, "this is the murderer; the hawkinses were innocent! i am sure of it! i will pledge my life for it! it is out! it is discovered! guilty, upon my soul!" while i thus proceeded with hasty steps along the most secret paths of the garden, and from time to time gave vent to the tumult of my thoughts in involuntary exclamations, i felt as if my animal system had undergone a total revolution. my blood boiled within me. i was conscious to a kind of rapture for which i could not account. i was solemn, yet full of rapid emotion, burning with indignation and energy. in the very tempest and hurricane of the passions, i seemed to enjoy the most soul-ravishing calm. i cannot better express the then state of my mind than by saying, i was never so perfectly alive as at that moment. this state of mental elevation continued for several hours, but at length subsided, and gave place to more deliberate reflection. one of the first questions that then occurred was, what shall i do with the knowledge i have been so eager to acquire? i had no inclination to turn informer. i felt what i had had no previous conception of, that it was possible to love a murderer, and, as i then understood it, the worst of murderers. i conceived it to be in the highest degree absurd and iniquitous, to cut off a man qualified for the most essential and extensive utility, merely out of retrospect to an act which, whatever were its merits, could not be retrieved. this thought led me to another, which had at first passed unnoticed. if i had been disposed to turn informer, what had occurred amounted to no evidence that was admissible in a court of justice. well then, added i, if it be such as would not be admitted at a criminal tribunal, am i sure it is such as i ought to admit? there were twenty persons besides myself present at the scene from which i pretend to derive such entire conviction. not one of them saw it in the light that i did. it either appeared to them a casual and unimportant circumstance, or they thought it sufficiently accounted for by mr. falkland's infirmity and misfortunes. did it really contain such an extent of arguments and application, that nobody but i was discerning enough to see? but all this reasoning produced no alteration in my way of thinking. for this time i could not get it out of my mind for a moment: "mr. falkland is the murderer! he is guilty! i see it! i feel it! i am sure of it!" thus was i hurried along by an uncontrollable destiny. the state of my passions in their progressive career, the inquisitiveness and impatience of my thoughts, appeared to make this determination unavoidable. an incident occurred while i was in the garden, that seemed to make no impression upon me at the time, but which i recollected when my thoughts were got into somewhat of a slower motion. in the midst of one of my paroxysms of exclamation, and when i thought myself most alone, the shadow of a man as avoiding me passed transiently by me at a small distance. though i had scarcely caught a faint glimpse of his person, there was something in the occurrence that persuaded me it was mr. falkland. i shuddered at the possibility of his having overheard the words of my soliloquy. but this idea, alarming as it was, had not power immediately to suspend the career of my reflections. subsequent circumstances however brought back the apprehension to my mind. i had scarcely a doubt of its reality, when dinner-time came, and mr. falkland was not to be found. supper and bed-time passed in the same manner. the only conclusion made by his servants upon this circumstance was, that he was gone upon one of his accustomed melancholy rambles. chapter vi. the period at which my story is now arrived seemed as if it were the very crisis of the fortune of mr. falkland. incident followed upon incident, in a kind of breathless succession. about nine o'clock the next morning an alarm was given, that one of the chimneys of the house was on fire. no accident could be apparently more trivial; but presently it blazed with such fury, as to make it clear that some beam of the house, which in the first building had been improperly placed, had been reached by the flames. some danger was apprehended for the whole edifice. the confusion was the greater, in consequence of the absence of the master, as well as of mr. collins, the steward. while some of the domestics were employed in endeavouring to extinguish the flames, it was thought proper that others should busy themselves in removing the most valuable moveables to a lawn in the garden. i took some command in the affair, to which indeed my station in the family seemed to entitle me, and for which i was judged qualified by my understanding and mental resources. having given some general directions, i conceived, that it was not enough to stand by and superintend, but that i should contribute my personal labour in the public concern. i set out for that purpose; and my steps, by some mysterious fatality, were directed to the private apartment at the end of the library. here, as i looked round, my eye was suddenly caught by the trunk mentioned in the first pages of my narrative. my mind was already raised to its utmost pitch. in a window-seat of the room lay a number of chisels and other carpenter's tools. i know not what infatuation instantaneously seized me. the idea was too powerful to be resisted. i forgot the business upon which i came, the employment of the servants, and the urgency of general danger. i should have done the same if the flames that seemed to extend as they proceeded, and already surmounted the house, had reached this very apartment. i snatched a tool suitable for the purpose, threw myself upon the ground, and applied with eagerness to a magazine which inclosed all for which my heart panted. after two or three efforts, in which the energy of uncontrollable passion was added to my bodily strength, the fastenings gave way, the trunk opened, and all that i sought was at once within my reach. i was in the act of lifting up the lid, when mr. falkland entered, wild, breathless, distracted in his looks! he had been brought home from a considerable distance by the sight of the flames. at the moment of his appearance the lid dropped down from my hand. he no sooner saw me than his eyes emitted sparks of rage. he ran with eagerness to a brace of loaded pistols which hung in the room, and, seizing one, presented it to my head. i saw his design, and sprang to avoid it; but, with the same rapidity with which he had formed his resolution, he changed it, and instantly went to the window, and flung the pistol into the court below. he bade me begone with his usual irresistible energy; and, overcome as i was already by the horror of the detection, i eagerly complied. a moment after, a considerable part of the chimney tumbled with noise into the court below, and a voice exclaimed that the fire was more violent than ever. these circumstances seemed to produce a mechanical effect upon my patron, who, having first locked the closet, appeared on the outside of the house, ascended the roof, and was in a moment in every place where his presence was required. the flames were at length extinguished. the reader can with difficulty form a conception of the state to which i was now reduced. my act was in some sort an act of insanity; but how undescribable are the feelings with which i looked back upon it! it was an instantaneous impulse, a short-lived and passing alienation of mind; but what must mr. falkland think of that alienation? to any man a person who had once shown himself capable of so wild a flight of the mind, must appear dangerous: how must he appear to a man under mr. falkland's circumstances? i had just had a pistol held to my head, by a man resolved to put a period to my existence. that indeed was past; but what was it that fate had yet in reserve for me! the insatiable vengeance of a falkland, of a man whose hands were, to my apprehension, red with blood, and his thoughts familiar with cruelty and murder. how great were the resources of his mind, resources henceforth to be confederated for my destruction! this was the termination of an ungoverned curiosity, an impulse that i had represented to myself as so innocent or so venial. in the high tide of boiling passion i had overlooked all consequences. it now appeared to me like a dream. is it in man to leap from the high-raised precipice, or rush unconcerned into the midst of flames? was it possible i could have forgotten for a moment the awe-creating manners of falkland, and the inexorable fury i should awake in his soul? no thought of future security had reached my mind. i had acted upon no plan. i had conceived no means of concealing my deed, after it had once been effected. but it was over now. one short minute had effected a reverse in my situation, the suddenness of which the history of man, perhaps is unable to surpass. i have always been at a loss to account for my having plunged thus headlong into an act so monstrous. there is something in it of unexplained and involuntary sympathy. one sentiment flows, by necessity of nature, into another sentiment of the same general character. this was the first instance in which i had witnessed a danger by fire. all was confusion around me, and all changed into hurricane within. the general situation, to my unpractised apprehension, appeared desperate, and i by contagion became alike desperate. at first i had been in some degree calm and collected, but that too was a desperate effort; and when it gave way, a kind of instant insanity became its successor. i had now every thing to fear. and yet what was my fault? it proceeded from none of those errors which are justly held up to the aversion of mankind; my object had been neither wealth, nor the means of indulgence, nor the usurpation of power. no spark of malignity had harboured in my soul. i had always reverenced the sublime mind of mr. falkland; i reverenced it still. my offence had merely been a mistaken thirst of knowledge. such however it was, as to admit neither of forgiveness nor remission. this epoch was the crisis of my fate, dividing what may be called the offensive part from the defensive, which has been the sole business of my remaining years. alas! my offence was short, not aggravated by any sinister intention: but the reprisals i was to suffer are long, and can terminate only with my life! in the state in which i found myself, when the recollection of what i had done flowed back upon my mind, i was incapable of any resolution. all was chaos and uncertainty within me. my thoughts were too full of horror to be susceptible of activity. i felt deserted of my intellectual powers, palsied in mind, and compelled to sit in speechless expectation of the misery to which i was destined. to my own conception i was like a man, who, though blasted with lightning, and deprived for ever of the power of motion, should yet retain the consciousness of his situation. death-dealing despair was the only idea of which i was sensible. i was still in this situation of mind when mr. falkland sent for me. his message roused me from my trance. in recovering, i felt those sickening and loathsome sensations, which a man may be supposed at first to endure who should return from the sleep of death. gradually i recovered the power of arranging my ideas and directing my steps. i understood, that the minute the affair of the fire was over mr. falkland had retired to his own room. it was evening before he ordered me to be called. i found in him every token of extreme distress, except that there was an air of solemn and sad composure that crowned the whole. for the present, all appearance of gloom, stateliness, and austerity was gone. as i entered he looked up, and, seeing who it was, ordered me to bolt the door. i obeyed. he went round the room, and examined its other avenues. he then returned to where i stood. i trembled in every joint of my frame. i exclaimed within myself, "what scene of death has roscius now to act?" "williams!" said he, in a tone which had more in it of sorrow than resentment, "i have attempted your life! i am a wretch devoted to the scorn and execration of mankind!" there he stopped. "if there be one being on the whole earth that feels the scorn and execration due to such a wretch more strongly than another, it is myself. i have been kept in a state of perpetual torture and madness. but i can put an end to it and its consequences; and, so far at least as relates to you, i am determined to do it. i know the price, and--i will make the purchase. "you must swear," said he. "you must attest every sacrament, divine and human, never to disclose what i am now to tell you."--he dictated the oath, and i repeated it with an aching heart. i had no power to offer a word of remark. "this confidence," said he, "is of your seeking, not of mine. it is odious to me, and is dangerous to you." having thus prefaced the disclosure he had to make, he paused. he seemed to collect himself as for an effort of magnitude. he wiped his face with his handkerchief. the moisture that incommoded him appeared not to be tears, but sweat. "look at me. observe me. is it not strange that such a one as i should retain lineaments of a human creature? i am the blackest of villains. i am the murderer of tyrrel. i am the assassin of the hawkinses." i started with terror, and was silent. "what a story is mine! insulted, disgraced, polluted in the face of hundreds, i was capable of any act of desperation. i watched my opportunity, followed mr. tyrrel from the rooms, seized a sharp-pointed knife that fell in my way, came behind him, and stabbed him to the heart. my gigantic oppressor rolled at my feet. "all are but links of one chain. a blow! a murder! my next business was to defend myself, to tell so well-digested a lie as that all mankind should believe it true. never was a task so harrowing and intolerable! "well, thus far fortune favoured me; she favoured me beyond my desire. the guilt was removed from me, and cast upon another; but this i was to endure. whence came the circumstantial evidence against him, the broken knife and the blood, i am unable to tell. i suppose, by some miraculous accident, hawkins was passing by, and endeavoured to assist his oppressor in the agonies of death. you have heard his story; you have read one of his letters. but you do not know the thousandth part of the proofs of his simple and unalterable rectitude that i have known. his son suffered with him; that son, for the sake of whose happiness and virtue he ruined himself, and would have died a hundred times.--i have had feelings, but i cannot describe them. "this it is to be a gentleman! a man of honour! i was the fool of fame. my virtue, my honesty, my everlasting peace of mind, were cheap sacrifices to be made at the shrine of this divinity. but, what is worse, there is nothing that has happened that has in any degree contributed to my cure. i am as much the fool of fame as ever. i cling to it to my last breath. though i be the blackest of villains, i will leave behind me a spotless and illustrious name. there is no crime so malignant, no scene of blood so horrible, in which that object cannot engage me. it is no matter that i regard these things at a distance with aversion;--i am sure of it; bring me to the test, and i shall yield. i despise myself, but thus i am; things are gone too far to be recalled. "why is it that i am compelled to this confidence? from the love of fame. i should tremble at the sight of every pistol or instrument of death that offered itself to my hands; and perhaps my next murder may not be so fortunate as those i have already committed. i had no alternative but to make you my confidant or my victim. it was better to trust you with the whole truth under every seal of secrecy, than to live in perpetual fear of your penetration or your rashness. "do you know what it is you have done? to gratify a foolishly inquisitive humour, you have sold yourself. you shall continue in my service, but can never share my affection. i will benefit you in respect of fortune, but i shall always hate you. if ever an unguarded word escape from your lips, if ever you excite my jealousy or suspicion, expect to pay for it by your death or worse. it is a dear bargain you have made. but it is too late to look back. i charge and adjure you by every thing that is sacred, and that is tremendous, preserve your faith! "my tongue has now for the first time for several years spoken the language of my heart; and the intercourse from this hour shall be shut for ever. i want no pity. i desire no consolation. surrounded as i am with horrors, i will at least preserve my fortitude to the last. if i had been reserved to a different destiny, i have qualities in that respect worthy of a better cause. i can be mad, miserable, and frantic; but even in frenzy i can preserve my presence of mind and discretion." such was the story i had been so desirous to know. though my mind had brooded upon the subject for months, there was not a syllable of it that did not come to my ear with the most perfect sense of novelty. "mr. falkland is a murderer!" said i, as i retired from the conference. this dreadful appellative, "a murderer," made my very blood run cold within me. "he killed mr. tyrrel, for he could not control his resentment and anger: he sacrificed hawkins the elder and hawkins the younger, because he could upon no terms endure the public loss of honour: how can i expect that a man thus passionate and unrelenting will not sooner or later make me his victim?" but, notwithstanding this terrible application of the story, an application to which perhaps in some form or other, mankind are indebted for nine tenths of their abhorrence against vice, i could not help occasionally recurring to reflections of an opposite nature. "mr. falkland is a murderer!" resumed i. "he might yet be a most excellent man, if he did but think so." it is the thinking ourselves vicious then, that principally contributes to make us vicious. amidst the shock i received from finding, what i had never suffered myself constantly to believe, that my suspicions were true, i still discovered new cause of admiration for my master. his menaces indeed were terrible. but, when i recollected the offence i had given, so contrary to every received principle of civilised society, so insolent and rude, so intolerable to a man of mr. falkland's elevation, and in mr. falkland's peculiarity of circumstances, i was astonished at his forbearance. there were indeed sufficiently obvious reasons why he might not choose to proceed to extremities with me. but how different from the fearful expectations i had conceived were the calmness of his behaviour, and the regulated mildness of his language! in this respect, i for a short time imagined that i was emancipated from the mischiefs which had appalled me; and that, in having to do with a man of mr. falkland's liberality, i had nothing rigorous to apprehend. "it is a miserable prospect," said i, "that he holds up to me. he imagines that i am restrained by no principles, and deaf to the claims of personal excellence. but he shall find himself mistaken. i will never become an informer. i will never injure my patron; and therefore he will not be my enemy. with all his misfortunes and all his errors, i feel that my soul yearns for his welfare. if he have been criminal, that is owing to circumstances; the same qualities under other circumstances would have been, or rather were, sublimely beneficent." my reasonings were, no doubt, infinitely more favourable to mr. falkland, than those which human beings are accustomed to make in the case of such as they style great criminals. this will not be wondered at, when it is considered that i had myself just been trampling on the established boundaries of obligation, and therefore might well have a fellow-feeling for other offenders. add to which, i had known mr. falkland from the first as a beneficent divinity. i had observed at leisure, and with a minuteness which could not deceive me, the excellent qualities of his heart; and i found him possessed of a mind beyond comparison the most fertile and accomplished i had ever known. but though the terrors which had impressed me were considerably alleviated, my situation was notwithstanding sufficiently miserable. the ease and light-heartedness of my youth were for ever gone. the voice of an irresistible necessity had commanded me to "sleep no more." i was tormented with a secret, of which i must never disburthen myself; and this consciousness was, at my age, a source of perpetual melancholy. i had made myself a prisoner, in the most intolerable sense of that term, for years--perhaps for the rest of my life. though my prudence and discretion should be invariable, i must remember that i should have an overseer, vigilant from conscious guilt, full of resentment at the unjustifiable means by which i had extorted from him a confession, and whose lightest caprice might at any time decide upon every thing that was dear to me. the vigilance even of a public and systematical despotism is poor, compared with a vigilance which is thus goaded by the most anxious passions of the soul. against this species of persecution i knew not how to invent a refuge. i dared neither fly from the observation of mr. falkland, nor continue exposed to its operation. i was at first indeed lulled in a certain degree to security upon the verge of the precipice. but it was not long before i found a thousand circumstances perpetually reminding me of my true situation. those i am now to relate are among the most memorable. chapter vii. in no long time after the disclosure mr. falkland had made, mr. forester, his elder brother by the mother's side, came to reside for a short period in our family. this was a circumstance peculiarly adverse to my patron's habits and inclinations. he had broken off, as i have already said, all intercourse of visiting with his neighbours. he debarred himself every kind of amusement and relaxation. he shrunk from the society of his fellows, and thought he could never be sufficiently buried in obscurity and solitude. this principle was, in most cases, of no difficult execution to a man of firmness. but mr. falkland knew not how to avoid the visit of mr. forester. this gentleman was just returned from a residence of several years upon the continent; and his demand of an apartment in the house of his half-brother, till his own house at the distance of thirty miles should be prepared for his reception, was made with an air of confidence that scarcely admitted of a refusal. mr. falkland could only allege, that the state of his health and spirits was such, that he feared a residence at his house would be little agreeable to his kinsman; and mr. forester conceived that this was a disqualification which would always augment in proportion as it was tolerated, and hoped that his society, by inducing mr. falkland to suspend his habits of seclusion, would be the means of essential benefit. mr. falkland opposed him no further. he would have been sorry to be thought unkind to a kinsman for whom he had a particular esteem; and the consciousness of not daring to assign the true reason, made him cautious of adhering to his objection. the character of mr. forester was, in many respects, the reverse of that of my master. his very appearance indicated the singularity of his disposition. his figure was short and angular. his eyes were sunk far into his head, and were overhung with eye-brows, black, thick, and bushy. his complexion was swarthy, and his lineaments hard. he had seen much of the world; but, to judge of him from his appearance and manners, one would have thought that he had never moved from his fire-side. his temper was acid, petulant, and harsh. he was easily offended by trifles, respecting which, previously to the offence, the persons with whom he had intercourse could have no suspicion of such a result. when offended, his customary behaviour was exceedingly rugged. he thought only of setting the delinquent right, and humbling him for his error; and, in his eagerness to do this, overlooked the sensibility of the sufferer, and the pains he inflicted. remonstrance in such a case he regarded as the offspring of cowardice, which was to be extirpated with a steady and unshrinking hand, and not soothed with misjudging kindness and indulgence. as is usual in human character, he had formed a system of thinking to suit the current of his feelings. he held that the kindness we entertain for a man should be veiled and concealed, exerted in substantial benefits, but not disclosed, lest an undue advantage should be taken of it by its object. with this rugged outside, mr. forester had a warm and generous heart. at first sight all men were deterred by his manner, and excited to give him an ill character. but the longer any one knew him, the more they approved him. his harshness was then only considered as habit; and strong sense and active benevolence were uppermost in the recollection of his familiar acquaintance. his conversation, when he condescended to lay aside his snappish, rude, and abrupt half-sentences, became flowing in diction, and uncommonly amusing with regard to its substance. he combined, with weightiness of expression, a dryness of characteristic humour, that demonstrated at once the vividness of his observation, and the force of his understanding. the peculiarities of this gentleman's character were not undisplayed in the scene to which he was now introduced. having much kindness in his disposition, he soon became deeply interested in the unhappiness of his relation. he did every thing in his power to remove it; but his attempts were rude and unskilful. with a mind so accomplished and a spirit so susceptible as that of mr. falkland, mr. forester did not venture to let loose his usual violence of manner; but, if he carefully abstained from harshness, he was however wholly incapable of that sweet and liquid eloquence of the soul, which would perhaps have stood the fairest chance of seducing mr. falkland for a moment to forget his anguish. he exhorted his host to rouse up his spirit, and defy the foul fiend; but the tone of his exhortations found no sympathetic chord in the mind of my patron. he had not the skill to carry conviction to an understanding so well fortified in error. in a word, after a thousand efforts of kindness to his entertainer, he drew off his forces, growling and dissatisfied with his own impotence, rather than angry at the obstinacy of mr. falkland. he felt no diminution of his affection for him, and was sincerely grieved to find that he was so little capable of serving him. both parties in this case did justice to the merits of the other; at the same time that the disparity of their humours was such, as to prevent the stranger from being in any degree a dangerous companion to the master of the house. they had scarcely one point of contact in their characters. mr. forester was incapable of giving mr. falkland that degree either of pain or pleasure, which can raise the soul into a tumult, and deprive it for a while of tranquillity and self-command. our visitor was a man, notwithstanding appearances, of a peculiarly sociable disposition, and, where he was neither interrupted nor contradicted, considerably loquacious. he began to feel himself painfully out of his element upon the present occasion. mr. falkland was devoted to contemplation and solitude. he put upon himself some degree of restraint upon the arrival of his kinsman, though even then his darling habits would break out. but when they had seen each other a certain number of times, and it was sufficiently evident that the society of either would be a burthen rather than a pleasure to the other, they consented, by a sort of silent compact, that each should be at liberty to follow his own inclination. mr. falkland was, in a sense, the greatest gainer by this. he returned to the habits of his choice, and acted, as nearly as possible, just as he would have done if mr. forester had not been in existence. but the latter was wholly at a loss. he had all the disadvantages of retirement, without being able, as he might have done at his house, to bring his own associates or his own amusements about him. in this situation he cast his eyes upon me. it was his principle to do every thing that his thoughts suggested, without caring for the forms of the world. he saw no reason why a peasant, with certain advantages of education and opportunity, might not be as eligible a companion as a lord; at the same time that he was deeply impressed with the venerableness of old institutions. reduced as he was to a kind of last resort, he found me better qualified for his purpose than any other of mr. falkland's household. the manner in which he began this sort of correspondence was sufficiently characteristical. it was abrupt; but it was strongly stamped with essential benevolence. it was blunt and humorous; but there was attractiveness, especially in a case of unequal intercourse, in that very rusticity by which he levelled himself with the mass of his species. he had to reconcile himself as well as to invite me; not to reconcile himself to the postponing an aristocratical vanity, for of that he had a very slender portion, but to the trouble of invitation, for he loved his ease. all this produced some irregularity and indecision in his own mind, and gave a whimsical impression to his behaviour. on my part, i was by no means ungrateful for the distinction that was paid me. my mind had been relaxed into temporary dejection, but my reserve had no alloy of moroseness or insensibility. it did not long hold out against the condescending attentions of mr. forester. i became gradually heedful, encouraged, confiding. i had a most eager thirst for the knowledge of mankind; and though no person perhaps ever purchased so dearly the instructions he received in that school, the inclination was in no degree diminished. mr. forester was the second man i had seen uncommonly worthy of my analysis, and who seemed to my thoughts, arrived as i was at the end of my first essay, almost as much deserving to be studied as mr. falkland himself. i was glad to escape from the uneasiness of my reflections; and, while engaged with this new friend, i forgot the criticalness of the evils with which i was hourly menaced. stimulated by these feelings, i was what mr. forester wanted, a diligent and zealous hearer, i was strongly susceptible of impression; and the alternate impressions my mind received, visibly displayed themselves in my countenance and gestures. the observations mr. forester had made in his travels, the set of opinions he had formed, all amused and interested me. his manner of telling a story, or explaining his thoughts, was forcible, perspicuous, and original: his style in conversation had an uncommon zest. every thing he had to relate delighted me; while, in return, my sympathy, my eager curiosity, and my unsophisticated passions, rendered me to mr. forester a most desirable hearer. it is not to be wondered at, therefore, that every day rendered our intercourse more intimate and cordial. mr. falkland was destined to be for ever unhappy; and it seemed as if no new incident could occur, from which he was not able to extract food for this imperious propensity. he was wearied with a perpetual repetition of similar impressions; and entertained an invincible disgust against all that was new. the visit of mr. forester he regarded with antipathy. he was scarcely able to look at him without shuddering; an emotion which his guest perceived, and pitied as the result of habit and disease, rather than of judgment. none of his actions passed unremarked; the most indifferent excited uneasiness and apprehension. the first overtures of intimacy between me and mr. forester probably gave birth to sentiments of jealousy in the mind of my master. the irregular, variable character of his visitor tended to heighten them, by producing an appearance of inexplicableness and mystery. at this time he intimated to me that it was not agreeable to him, that there should be much intercourse between me and this gentleman. what could i do? young as i was, could it be expected that i should play the philosopher, and put a perpetual curb upon my inclinations? imprudent though i had been, could i voluntarily subject myself to an eternal penance, and estrangement from human society? could i discourage a frankness so perfectly in consonance with my wishes, and receive in an ungracious way a kindness that stole away my heart? besides this, i was but ill prepared for the servile submission mr. falkland demanded. in early life i had been accustomed to be much my own master. when i first entered into mr. falkland's service, my personal habits were checked by the novelty of my situation, and my affections were gained by the high accomplishments of my patron. to novelty and its influence, curiosity had succeeded: curiosity, so long as it lasted, was a principle stronger in my bosom than even the love of independence. to that i would have sacrificed my liberty or my life; to gratify it, i would have submitted to the condition of a west indian negro, or to the tortures inflicted by north american savages. but the turbulence of curiosity had now subsided. as long as the threats of mr. falkland had been confined to generals, i endured it. i was conscious of the unbecoming action i had committed, and this rendered me humble. but, when he went further, and undertook to prescribe to every article of my conduct, my patience was at an end. my mind, before sufficiently sensible to the unfortunate situation to which my imprudence had reduced me, now took a nearer and a more alarming view of the circumstances of the case. mr. falkland was not an old man; he had in him the principles of vigour, however they might seem to be shaken; he might live as long as i should. i was his prisoner; and what a prisoner! all my actions observed; all my gestures marked. i could move neither to the right nor the left, but the eye of my keeper was upon me. he watched me; and his vigilance was a sickness to my heart. for me there was no more freedom, no more of hilarity, of thoughtlessness, or of youth. was this the life upon which i had entered with such warm and sanguine expectation? were my days to be wasted in this cheerless gloom; a galley-slave in the hands of the system of nature, whom death only, the death of myself or my inexorable superior, could free? i had been adventurous in the gratification of an infantine and unreasonable curiosity; and i resolved not to be less adventurous, if need were, in the defence of every thing that can make life a blessing. i was prepared for an amicable adjustment of interests: i would undertake that mr. falkland should never sustain injury through my means; but i expected in return that i should suffer no encroachment, but be left to the direction of my own understanding. i went on, then, to seek mr. forester's society with eagerness; and it is the nature of an intimacy that does not decline, progressively to increase. mr. falkland observed these symptoms with visible perturbation. whenever i was conscious of their being perceived by him, i betrayed tokens of confusion: this did not tend to allay his uneasiness. one day he spoke to me alone; and, with a look of mysterious but terrible import, expressed himself thus:-"young man, take warning! perhaps this is the last time you shall have an opportunity to take it! i will not always be the butt of your simplicity and inexperience, nor suffer your weakness to triumph over my strength! why do you trifle with me? you little suspect the extent of my power. at this moment you are enclosed with the snares of my vengeance unseen by you, and, at the instant that you flatter yourself you are already beyond their reach, they will close upon you. you might as well think of escaping from the power of the omnipresent god, as from mine! if you could touch so much as my finger, you should expiate it in hours and months and years of a torment, of which as yet you have not the remotest idea. remember! i am not talking at random! i do not utter a word, that, if you provoke me, shall not be executed to the severest letter!" it may be supposed that these menaces were not without their effect. i withdrew in silence. my whole soul revolted against the treatment i endured, and yet i could not utter a word. why could not i speak the expostulations of my heart, or propose the compromise i meditated? it was inexperience, and not want of strength, that awed me. every act of mr. falkland contained something new, and i was unprepared to meet it. perhaps it will be found that the greatest hero owes the propriety of his conduct to the habit of encountering difficulties, and calling out with promptness the energies of his mind. i contemplated the proceedings of my patron with the deepest astonishment. humanity and general kindness were fundamental parts of his character; but in relation to me they were sterile and inactive. his own interest required that he should purchase my kindness; but he preferred to govern me by terror, and watch me with unceasing anxiety. i ruminated with the most mournful sensations upon the nature of my calamity. i believed that no human being was ever placed in a situation so pitiable as mine. every atom of my frame seemed to have a several existence, and to crawl within me. i had but too much reason to believe that mr. falkland's threats were not empty words. i knew his ability; i felt his ascendancy. if i encountered him, what chance had i of victory? if i were defeated, what was the penalty i had to suffer? well then, the rest of my life must be devoted to slavish subjection. miserable sentence! and, if it were, what security had i against the injustice of a man, vigilant, capricious, and criminal? i envied the condemned wretch upon the scaffold; i envied the victim of the inquisition in the midst of his torture. they know what they have to suffer. i had only to imagine every thing terrible, and then say, "the fate reserved for me is worse than this!" it was well for me that these sensations were transient: human nature could not long support itself under what i then felt. by degrees my mind shook off its burthen. indignation succeeded to emotions of terror. the hostility of mr. falkland excited hostility in me. i determined i would never calumniate him in matters of the most trivial import, much less betray the grand secret upon which every thing dear to him depended. but, totally abjuring the offensive, i resolved to stand firmly upon the defensive. the liberty of acting as i pleased i would preserve, whatever might be the risk. if i were worsted in the contest, i would at least have the consolation of reflecting that i had exerted myself with energy. in proportion as i thus determined, i drew off my forces from petty incursions, and felt the propriety of acting with premeditation and system. i ruminated incessantly upon plans of deliverance, but i was anxious that my choice should not be precipitately made. it was during this period of my deliberation and uncertainty that mr. forester terminated his visit. he observed a strange distance in my behaviour, and, in his good-natured, rough way, reproached me for it. i could only answer with a gloomy look of mysterious import, and a mournful and expressive silence. he sought me for an explanation, but i was now as ingenious in avoiding as i had before been ardent to seek him; and he quitted our house, as he afterwards told me, with an impression, that there was some ill destiny that hung over it, which seemed fated to make all its inhabitants miserable, without its being possible for a bystander to penetrate the reason. chapter viii. mr. forester had left us about three weeks, when mr. falkland sent me upon some business to an estate he possessed in a neighbouring county, about fifty miles from his principal residence. the road led in a direction wholly wide of the habitation of our late visitor. i was upon my return from the place to which i had been sent, when i began in fancy to take a survey of the various circumstances of my condition, and by degrees lost, in the profoundness of my contemplation, all attention to the surrounding objects. the first determination of my mind was to escape from the lynx-eyed jealousy and despotism of mr. falkland; the second to provide, by every effort of prudence and deliberation i could devise, against the danger with which i well knew my attempt must be accompanied. occupied with these meditations, i rode many miles before i perceived that i had totally deviated from the right path. at length i roused myself, and surveyed the horizon round me; but i could observe nothing with which my organ was previously acquainted. on three sides, the heath stretched as far as the eye could reach; on the fourth, i discovered at some distance a wood of no ordinary dimensions. before me, scarcely a single track could be found, to mark that any human being had ever visited the spot. as the best expedient i could devise, i bent my course towards the wood i have mentioned, and then pursued, as well as i was able, the windings of the inclosure. this led me, after some time, to the end of the heath; but i was still as much at a loss as ever respecting the road i should pursue. the sun was hid from me by a grey and cloudy atmosphere; i was induced to continue along the skirts of the wood, and surmounted with some difficulty the hedges and other obstacles that from time to time presented themselves. my thoughts were gloomy and disconsolate; the dreariness of the day, and the solitude which surrounded me, seemed to communicate a sadness to my soul. i had proceeded a considerable way, and was overcome with hunger and fatigue, when i discovered a road and a little inn at no great distance. i made up to them, and upon enquiry found that, instead of pursuing the proper direction, i had taken one that led to mr. forester's rather than to my own habitation. i alighted, and was entering the house, when the appearance of that gentleman struck my eyes. mr. forester accosted me with kindness, invited me into the room where he had been sitting, and enquired what accident had brought me to that place. while he was speaking, i could not help recollecting the extraordinary manner in which we were thus once more brought together, and a train of ideas was by this means suggested to my mind. some refreshment was, by mr. forester's order, prepared for me; i sat down, and partook of it. still this thought dwelt upon my recollection:--"mr. falkland will never be made acquainted with our meeting; i have an opportunity thrown in my way, which if i do not improve, i shall deserve all the consequences that may result. i can now converse with a friend, and a powerful friend, without fear of being watched and overlooked." what wonder that i was tempted to disclose, not mr. falkland's secret, but my own situation, and receive the advice of a man of worth and experience, which might perhaps be adequately done without entering into any detail injurious to my patron? mr. forester, on his part, expressed a desire to learn why it was i thought myself unhappy, and why i had avoided him during the latter part of his residence under the same roof, as evidently as i had before taken pleasure in his communications. i replied, that i could give him but an imperfect satisfaction upon these points; but what i could, i would willingly explain. the fact, i proceeded, was, that there were reasons which rendered it impossible for me to have a tranquil moment under the roof of mr. falkland. i had revolved the matter again and again in my mind, and was finally convinced that i owed it to myself to withdraw from his service. i added, that i was sensible, by this half-confidence, i might rather seem to merit the disapprobation of mr. forester than his countenance; but i declared my persuasion that, if he could be acquainted with the whole affair, however strange my behaviour might at present appear, he would applaud my reserve. he appeared to muse for a moment upon what i had said, and then asked what reason i could have to complain of mr. falkland? i replied, that i entertained the deepest reverence for my patron; i admired his abilities, and considered him as formed for the benefit of his species. i should in my own opinion be the vilest of miscreants, if i uttered a whisper to his disadvantage. but this did not avail: i was not fit for him; perhaps i was not good enough for him; at all events, i must be perpetually miserable so long as i continued to live with him. i observed mr. forester gaze upon me eagerly with curiosity and surprise; but this circumstance i did not think proper to notice. having recovered himself, he enquired, why then, that being the case, i did not quit his service? i answered, what he now touched upon was that which most of all contributed to my misfortune. mr. falkland was not ignorant of my dislike to my present situation; perhaps he thought it unreasonable, unjust; but i knew that he would never be brought to consent to my giving way to it. here mr. forester interrupted me, and, smiling, said, i magnified obstacles, and over-rated my own importance; adding, that he would undertake to remove that difficulty, as well as to provide me with a more agreeable appointment. this suggestion produced in me a serious alarm. i replied, that i must entreat him upon no account to think of applying to mr. falkland upon the subject. i added, that perhaps i was only betraying my imbecility; but in reality, unacquainted as i was with experience and the world, i was afraid, though disgusted with my present residence, to expose myself upon a mere project of my own, to the resentment of so considerable a man as mr. falkland. if he would favour me with his advice upon the subject, or if he would only give me leave to hope for his protection in case of any unforeseen accident, this was all i presumed to request; and, thus encouraged. i would venture to obey the dictates of my inclination, and fly in pursuit of my lost tranquillity. having thus opened myself to this generous friend, as far as i could do it with propriety and safety, he sat for some time silent, with an air of deep reflection. at length, with a countenance of unusual severity, and a characteristic fierceness of manner and voice, he thus addressed me: "young man, perhaps you are ignorant of the nature of the conduct you at present hold. may be, you do not know that where there is mystery, there is always something at bottom that will not bear the telling. is this the way to obtain the favour of a man of consequence and respectability? to pretend to make a confidence, and then tell him a disjointed story that has not common sense in it!" i answered, that, whatever were the amount of that prejudice, i must submit. i placed my hope of a candid construction, in the present instance, in the rectitude of his nature. he went on: "you do so; do you? i tell you, sir, the rectitude of my nature is an enemy to disguise. come, boy, you must know that i understand these things better than you. tell all, or expect nothing from me but censure and contempt." "sir," replied i, "i have spoken from deliberation; i have told you my choice, and, whatever be the result, i must abide by it. if in this misfortune you refuse me your assistance, here i must end, having gained by the communication only your ill opinion and displeasure." he looked hard at me, as if he would see me through. at length he relaxed his features, and softened his manner. "you are a foolish, headstrong boy," said he, "and i shall have an eye upon you. i shall never place in you the confidence i have done. but--i will not desert you. at present, the balance between approbation and dislike is in your favour. how long it will last, i cannot tell; i engage for nothing. but it is my rule to act as i feel. i will for this time do as you require;--and, pray god, it may answer. i will receive you, either now or hereafter, under my roof, trusting that i shall have no reason to repent, and that appearances will terminate as favourably as i wish, though i scarcely know how to hope it." we were engaged in the earnest discussion of subjects thus interesting to my peace, when we were interrupted by an event the most earnestly to have been deprecated. without the smallest notice, and as if he had dropped upon us from the clouds, mr. falkland burst into the room. i found afterwards that mr. forester had come thus far upon an appointment to meet mr. falkland, and that the place of their intended rendezvous was at the next stage. mr. forester was detained at the inn where we now were by our accidental rencounter, and in reality had for the moment forgotten his appointment; while mr. falkland, not finding him where he expected, proceeded thus far towards the house of his kinsman. to me the meeting was most unaccountable in the world. i instantly foresaw the dreadful complication of misfortune that was included in this event. to mr. falkland, the meeting between me and his relation must appear not accidental, but, on my part at least, the result of design. i was totally out of the road i had been travelling by his direction; i was in a road that led directly to the house of mr. forester. what must he think of this? how must he suppose i came to that place? the truth, if told, that i came there without design, and purely in consequence of having lost my way, must appear to be the most palpable lie that ever was devised. here then i stood detected in the fact of that intercourse which had been so severely forbidden. but in this instance it was infinitely worse than in those which had already given so much disturbance to mr. falkland. it was then frank and unconcealed; and therefore the presumption was, that it was for purposes that required no concealment. but the present interview, if concerted, was in the most emphatical degree clandestine. nor was it less perilous than it was clandestine: it had been forbidden with the most dreadful menaces; and mr. falkland was not ignorant how deep an impression those menaces had made upon my imagination. such a meeting therefore could not have been concerted under such circumstances, for a trivial purpose, or for any purpose that his heart did not ache to think of. such was the amount of my crime, such was the agony my appearance was calculated to inspire; and it was reasonable to suppose that the penalty i had to expect would be proportionable. the threats of mr. falkland still sounded in my ears, and i was in a transport of terror. the conduct of the same man in different circumstances, is often so various as to render it very difficult to be accounted for. mr. falkland, in this to him, terrible crisis, did not seem to be in any degree hurried away by passion. for a moment he was dumb; his eyes glared with astonishment; and the next moment, as it were, he had the most perfect calmness and self-command. had it been otherwise, i have no doubt that i should instantly have entered into an explanation of the manner in which i came there, the ingenuousness and consistency of which could not but have been in some degree attended with a favourable event. but, as it was, i suffered myself to be overcome; i yielded, as in a former instance, to the discomfiting influence of surprise. i dared scarcely breathe; i observed the appearances with equal anxiety and surprise. mr. falkland quietly ordered me to return home, and take along with me the groom he had brought with him. i obeyed in silence. i afterwards understood, that he enquired minutely of mr. forester the circumstances of our meeting; and that that gentleman, perceiving that the meeting itself was discovered, and guided by habits of frankness, which, when once rooted in a character, it is difficult to counteract, told mr. falkland every thing that had passed, together with the remarks it had suggested to his own mind. mr. falkland received the communication with an ambiguous and studied silence, which by no means operated to my advantage in the already poisoned mind of mr. forester. his silence was partly the direct consequence of a mind watchful, inquisitive, and doubting; and partly perhaps was adopted for the sake of the effect it was calculated to produce, mr. falkland not being unwilling to encourage prejudices against a character which might one day come in competition with his own. as to me, i went home indeed, for this was not a moment to resist. mr. falkland, with a premeditation to which he had given the appearance of accident, had taken care to send with me a guard to attend upon his prisoner. i seemed as if conducting to one of those fortresses, famed in the history of despotism, from which the wretched victim is never known to come forth alive; and when i entered my chamber, i felt as if i were entering a dungeon. i reflected that i was at the mercy of a man, exasperated at my disobedience, and who was already formed to cruelty by successive murders. my prospects were now closed; i was cut off for ever from pursuits that i had meditated with ineffable delight; my death might be the event of a few hours. i was a victim at the shrine of conscious guilt, that knew neither rest nor satiety; i should be blotted from the catalogue of the living, and my fate remain eternally a secret; the man who added my murder to his former crimes, would show himself the next morning, and be hailed with the admiration and applause of his species. in the midst of these terrible imaginations, one idea presented itself that alleviated my feelings. this was the recollection of the strange and unaccountable tranquillity which mr. falkland had manifested, when he discovered me in company with mr. forester. i was not deceived by this. i knew that the calm was temporary, and would be succeeded by a tumult and whirlwind of the most dreadful sort. but a man under the power of such terrors as now occupied me catches at every reed. i said to myself, "this tranquillity is a period it is incumbent upon me to improve; the shorter its duration may be found, the more speedy am i obliged to be in the use of it." in a word, i took the resolution, because i already stood in fear of the vengeance of mr. falkland, to risk the possibility of provoking it in a degree still more inexpiable, and terminate at once my present state of uncertainty. i had now opened my case to mr. forester, and he had given me positive assurances of his protection. i determined immediately to address the following letter to mr. falkland. the consideration that, if he meditated any thing tragical, such a letter would only tend to confirm him, did not enter into the present feelings of my mind. "sir, "i have conceived the intention of quitting your service. this is a measure we ought both of us to desire. i shall then be, what it is my duty to be, master of my own actions. you will be delivered from the presence of a person, whom you cannot prevail upon yourself to behold without unpleasing emotions. "why should you subject me to an eternal penance? why should you consign my youthful hopes to suffering and despair? consult the principles of humanity that have marked the general course of your proceedings, and do not let me, i entreat you, be made the subject of a useless severity. my heart is impressed with gratitude for your favours. i sincerely ask your forgiveness for the many errors of my conduct. i consider the treatment i have received under your roof, as one almost uninterrupted scene of kindness and generosity. i shall never forget my obligations to you, and will never betray them. "i remain, sir, "your most grateful, respectful, "and dutiful servant, "caleb williams." such was my employment of the evening of a day which will be ever memorable in the history of my life. mr. falkland not being yet returned, though expected every hour, i was induced to make use of the pretence of fatigue to avoid an interview. i went to bed. it may be imagined that my slumbers were neither deep nor refreshing. the next morning i was informed that my patron did not come home till late; that he had enquired for me, and, being told that i was in bed, had said nothing further upon the subject. satisfied in this respect, i went to the breakfasting parlour, and, though full of anxiety and trepidation, endeavoured to busy myself in arranging the books, and a few other little occupations, till mr. falkland should come down. after a short time i heard his step, which i perfectly well knew how to distinguish, in the passage. presently he stopped, and, speaking to some one in a sort of deliberate, but smothered voice, i overheard him repeat my name as enquiring for me. in conformity to the plan i had persuaded myself to adopt, i now laid the letter i had written upon the table at which he usually sat, and made my exit at one door as mr. falkland entered at the other. this done, i withdrew, with flutterings and palpitation, to a private apartment, a sort of light closet at the end of the library, where i was accustomed not unfrequently to sit. i had not been here three minutes, when i heard the voice of mr. falkland calling me. i went to him in the library. his manner was that of a man labouring with some dreadful thought, and endeavouring to give an air of carelessness and insensibility to his behaviour. perhaps no carriage of any other sort could have produced a sensation of such inexplicable horror, or have excited, in the person who was its object, such anxious uncertainty about the event.--"that is your letter," said he, throwing it. "my lad," continued he, "i believe now you have played all your tricks, and the farce is nearly at an end! with your apishness and absurdity however you have taught me one thing; and, whereas before i have winced at them with torture, i am now as tough as an elephant. i shall crush you in the end with the same indifference, that i would any other little insect that disturbed my serenity. "i am unable to tell what brought about your meeting with mr. forester yesterday. it might be design; it might be accident. but, i shall not forget it. you write me here, that you are desirous to quit my service. to that i have a short answer: you never shall quit it with life. if you attempt it, you shall never cease to rue your folly as long as you exist. that is my will; and i will not have it resisted. the very next time you disobey me in that or any other article, there is an end of your vagaries for ever. perhaps your situation may be a pitiable one; it is for you to look to that. i only know that it is in your power to prevent its growing worse; no time nor chance shall ever make it better. "do not imagine i am afraid of you! i wear an armour, against which all your weapons are impotent. i have dug a pit for you; and, whichever way you move, backward or forward, to the right or the left, it is ready to swallow you. be still! if once you fall, call as loud as you will, no man on earth shall hear your cries; prepare a tale however plausible, or however true, the whole world shall execrate you for an impostor. your innocence shall be of no service to you; i laugh at so feeble a defence. it is i that say it; you may believe what i tell you--do you not know, miserable wretch!" added he, suddenly altering his tone, and stamping upon the ground with fury, "that i have sworn to preserve my reputation, whatever be the expense; that i love it more than the whole world and its inhabitants taken together? and do you think that you shall wound it? begone, miscreant! reptile! and cease to contend with insurmountable power!" the part of my history which i am now relating is that which i reflect upon with the least complacency. why was it, that i was once more totally overcome by the imperious carriage of mr. falkland, and unable to utter a word? the reader will be presented with many occasions in the sequel, in which i wanted neither facility in the invention of expedients, nor fortitude in entering upon my justification. persecution at length gave firmness to my character, and taught me the better part of manhood. but in the present instance i was irresolute, overawed, and abashed. the speech i had heard was the dictate of frenzy, and it created in me a similar frenzy. it determined me to do the very thing against which i was thus solemnly warned, and fly from my patron's house. i could not enter into parley with him; i could no longer endure the vile subjugation he imposed on me. it was in vain that my reason warned me of the rashness of a measure, to be taken without concert or preparation. i seemed to be in a state in which reason had no power. i felt as if i could coolly survey the several arguments of the case, perceive that they had prudence, truth, and common sense on their side; and then answer, i am under the guidance of a director more energetic than you. i was not long in executing what i had thus rapidly determined. i fixed on the evening of that very day as the period of my evasion. even in this short interval i had perhaps sufficient time for deliberation. but all opportunity was useless to me; my mind was fixed, and each succeeding moment only increased the unspeakable eagerness with which i meditated my escape. the hours usually observed by our family in this country residence were regular; and one in the morning was the time i selected for my undertaking. in searching the apartment where i slept, i had formerly discovered a concealed door, which led to a small apartment of the most secret nature, not uncommon in houses so old as that of mr. falkland, and which had perhaps served as a refuge from persecution, or a security from the inveterate hostilities of a barbarous age. i believed no person was acquainted with this hiding-place but myself. i felt unaccountably impelled to remove into it the different articles of my personal property. i could not at present take them away with me. if i were never to recover them, i felt that it would be a gratification to my sentiment, that no trace of my existence should be found after my departure. having completed their removal, and waited till the hour i had previously chosen, i stole down quietly from my chamber with a lamp in my hand. i went along a passage that led to a small door opening into the garden, and then crossed the garden, to a gate that intersected an elm-walk and a private horse-path on the outside. i could scarcely believe my good fortune in having thus far executed my design without interruption. the terrible images mr. falkland's menaces had suggested to my mind, made me expect impediment and detection at every step; though the impassioned state of my mind impelled me to advance with desperate resolution. he probably however counted too securely upon the ascendancy of his sentiments, when imperiously pronounced, to think it necessary to take precautions against a sinister event. for myself, i drew a favourable omen as to the final result of my project, from the smoothness of success that attended it in the outset. chapter ix. the first plan that had suggested itself to me was, to go to the nearest public road, and take the earliest stage for london. there i believed i should be most safe from discovery, if the vengeance of mr. falkland should prompt him to pursue me; and i did not doubt, among the multiplied resources of the metropolis, to find something which should suggest to me an eligible mode of disposing of my person and industry. i reserved mr. forester in my arrangement, as a last resource, not to be called forth unless for immediate protection from the hand of persecution and power. i was destitute of that experience of the world, which can alone render us fertile in resources, or enable us to institute a just comparison between the resources that offer themselves. i was like the fascinated animal, that is seized with the most terrible apprehensions, at the same time that he is incapable of adequately considering for his own safety. the mode of my proceeding being digested, i traced, with a cheerful heart, the unfrequented path it was now necessary for me to pursue. the night was gloomy, and it drizzled with rain. but these were circumstances i had scarcely the power to perceive; all was sunshine and joy within me. i hardly felt the ground; i repeated to myself a thousand times, "i am free. what concern have i with danger and alarm? i feel that i am free; i feel that i will continue so. what power is able to hold in chains a mind ardent and determined? what power can cause that man to die, whose whole soul commands him to continue to live?" i looked back with abhorrence to the subjection in which i had been held. i did not hate the author of my misfortunes--truth and justice acquit me of that; i rather pitied the hard destiny to which he seemed condemned. but i thought with unspeakable loathing of those errors, in consequence of which every man is fated to be, more or less, the tyrant or the slave. i was astonished at the folly of my species, that they did not rise up as one man, and shake off chains so ignominious, and misery so insupportable. so far as related to myself, i resolved--and this resolution has never been entirely forgotten by me--to hold myself disengaged from this odious scene, and never fill the part either of the oppressor or the sufferer. my mind continued in this enthusiastical state, full of confidence, and accessible only to such a portion of fear as served rather to keep up a state of pleasurable emotion than to generate anguish and distress, during the whole of this nocturnal expedition. after a walk of three hours, i arrived, without accident, at the village from which i hoped to have taken my passage for the metropolis. at this early hour every thing was quiet; no sound of any thing human saluted my ear. it was with difficulty that i gained admittance into the yard of the inn, where i found a single ostler taking care of some horses. from him i received the unwelcome tidings, that the coach was not expected till six o'clock in the morning of the day after to-morrow, its route through that town recurring only three times a week. this intelligence gave the first check to the rapturous inebriation by which my mind had been possessed from the moment i quitted the habitation of mr. falkland. the whole of my fortune in ready cash consisted of about eleven guineas. i had about fifty more, that had fallen to me from the disposal of my property at the death of my father; but that was so vested as to preclude it from immediate use, and i even doubted whether it would not be found better ultimately to resign it, than, by claiming it, to risk the furnishing a clew to what i most of all dreaded, the persecution of mr. falkland. there was nothing i so ardently desired as the annihilation of all future intercourse between us, that he should not know there was such a person on the earth as myself, and that i should never more hear the repetition of a name which had been so fatal to my peace. thus circumstanced, i conceived frugality to be an object by no means unworthy of my attention, unable as i was to prognosticate what discouragements and delays might present themselves to the accomplishment of my wishes, after my arrival in london. for this and other reasons, i determined to adhere to my design of travelling by the stage; it only remaining for me to consider in what manner i should prevent the eventful delay of twenty-four hours from becoming, by any untoward event, a source of new calamity. it was by no means advisable to remain in the village where i now was during this interval; nor did i even think proper to employ it, in proceeding on foot along the great road. i therefore decided upon making a circuit, the direction of which should seem at first extremely wide of my intended route, and then, suddenly taking a different inclination, should enable me to arrive by the close of day at a market-town twelve miles nearer to the metropolis. having fixed the economy of the day, and persuaded myself that it was the best which, under the circumstances, could be adopted, i dismissed, for the most part, all further anxieties from my mind, and eagerly yielded myself up to the different amusements that arose. i rested and went forward at the impulse of the moment. at one time i reclined upon a bank immersed in contemplation, and at another exerted myself to analyse the prospects which succeeded each other. the haziness of the morning was followed by a spirit-stirring and beautiful day. with the ductility so characteristic of a youthful mind, i forgot the anguish which had lately been my continual guest, and occupied myself entirely in dreams of future novelty and felicity. i scarcely ever, in the whole course of my existence, spent a day of more various or exquisite gratification. it furnished a strong, and perhaps not an unsalutary contrast, to the terrors which had preceded, and the dreadful scenes that awaited me. in the evening i arrived at the place of my destination, and enquired for the inn at which the coach was accustomed to call. a circumstance however had previously excited my attention, and reproduced in me a state of alarm. though it was already dark before i reached the town, my observation had been attracted by a man, who passed me on horseback in the opposite direction, about half a mile on the other side of the town. there was an inquisitiveness in his gesture that i did not like; and, as far as i could discern his figure, i pronounced him an ill-looking man. he had not passed me more than two minutes before i heard the sound of a horse advancing slowly behind me. these circumstances impressed some degree of uneasy sensation upon my mind. i first mended my pace; and, this not appearing to answer the purpose, i afterwards loitered, that the horseman might pass me. he did so; and, as i glanced at him, i thought i saw that it was the same man. he now put his horse into a trot, and entered the town. i followed; and it was not long before i perceived him at the door of an alehouse, drinking a mug of beer. this however the darkness prevented me from discovering, till i was in a manner upon him. i pushed forward, and saw him no more, till, as i entered the yard of the inn where i intended to sleep, the same man suddenly rode up to me, and asked if my name were williams. this adventure, _while it had been passing_, expelled the gaiety of my mind, and filled me with anxiety. the apprehension however that i felt, appeared to me groundless: if i were pursued, i took it for granted it would be by some of mr. falkland's people, and not by a stranger. the darkness took from me some of the simplest expedients of precaution. i determined at least to proceed to the inn, and make the necessary enquiries. i no sooner heard the sound of the horse as i entered the yard, and the question proposed to me by the rider, than the dreadful certainty of what i feared instantly took possession of my mind. every incident connected with my late abhorred situation was calculated to impress me with the deepest alarm. my first thought was, to betake myself to the fields, and trust to the swiftness of my flight for safety. but this was scarcely practicable: i remarked that my enemy was alone; and i believed that, man to man, i might reasonably hope to get the better of him, either by the firmness of my determination, or the subtlety of my invention. thus resolved, i replied in an impetuous and peremptory tone, that i was the man he took me for; adding, "i guess your errand; but it is to no purpose. you come to conduct me back to falkland house; but no force shall ever drag me to that place alive. i have not taken my resolution without strong reasons; and all the world shall not persuade me to alter it. i am an englishman, and it is the privilege of an englishman to be sole judge and master of his own actions." "you are in the devil of a hurry," replied the man, "to guess my intentions, and tell your own. but your guess is right; and mayhap you may have reason to be thankful that my errand is not something worse. sure enough the squire expects you;--but i have a letter, and when you have read that, i suppose you will come off a little of your stoutness. if that does not answer, it will then be time to think what is to be done next." thus saying, he gave me his letter, which was from mr. forester, whom, as he told me, he had left at mr. falkland's house. i went into a room of the inn for the purpose of reading it, and was followed by the bearer. the letter was as follows:-williams, "my brother falkland has sent the bearer in pursuit of you. he expects that, if found, you will return with him: i expect it too. it is of the utmost consequence to your future honour and character. after reading these lines, if you are a villain and a rascal, you will perhaps endeavour to fly; if your conscience tells you, you are innocent, you will, out of all doubt, come back. show me then whether i have been your dupe: and, while i was won over by your seeming ingenuousness, have suffered myself to be made the tool of a designing knave. if you come, i pledge myself that, if you clear your reputation, you shall not only be free to go wherever you please, but shall receive every assistance in my power to give. remember, i engage for nothing further than that. "valentine forester." what a letter was this! to a mind like mine, glowing with the love of virtue, such an address was strong enough to draw the person to whom it was addressed from one end of the earth to the other. my mind was full of confidence and energy. i felt my own innocence, and was determined to assert it. i was willing to be driven out a fugitive; i even rejoiced in my escape, and cheerfully went out into the world destitute of every provision, and depending for my future prospects upon my own ingenuity. thus much, said i, falkland! you may do. dispose of me as you please with respect to the goods of fortune; but you shall neither make prize of my liberty, nor sully the whiteness of my name. i repassed in my thoughts every memorable incident that had happened to me under his roof. i could recollect nothing, except the affair of the mysterious trunk, out of which the shadow of a criminal accusation could be extorted. in that instance my conduct had been highly reprehensible, and i had never looked back upon it without remorse and self-condemnation. but i did not believe that it was of the nature of those actions which can be brought under legal censure. i could still less persuade myself that mr. falkland, who shuddered at the very possibility of detection, and who considered himself as completely in my power, would dare to bring forward a subject so closely connected with the internal agony of his soul. in a word, the more i reflected on the phrases of mr. forester's billet, the less could i imagine the nature of those scenes to which they were to serve as a prelude. the inscrutableness however of the mystery they contained, did not suffice to overwhelm my courage. my mind seemed to undergo an entire revolution. timid and embarrassed as i had felt myself, when i regarded mr. falkland as my clandestine and domestic foe, i now conceived that the case was entirely altered. "meet me," said i, "as an open accuser: if we must contend, let us contend in the face of day; and then, unparalleled as your resources may be, i will not fear you." innocence and guilt were, in my apprehension, the things in the whole world the most opposite to each other. i would not suffer myself to believe, that the former could be confounded with the latter, unless the innocent man first allowed himself to be subdued in mind, before he was defrauded of the good opinion of mankind. virtue rising superior to every calamity, defeating by a plain unvarnished tale all the stratagems of vice, and throwing back upon her adversary the confusion with which he had hoped to overwhelm her, was one of the favourite subjects of my youthful reveries. i determined never to prove an instrument of destruction to mr. falkland; but i was not less resolute to obtain justice to myself. the issue of all these confident hopes i shall immediately have occasion to relate. it was thus, with the most generous and undoubting spirit, that i rushed upon irretrievable ruin. "friend," said i to the bearer, after a considerable interval of silence, "you are right. this is, indeed, an extraordinary letter you have brought me; but it answers its purpose. i will certainly go with you now, whatever be the consequence. no person shall ever impute blame to me, so long as i have it in my power to clear myself." i felt, in the circumstances in which i was placed by mr. forester's letter, not merely a willingness, but an alacrity and impatience, to return. we procured a second horse. we proceeded on our journey in silence. my mind was occupied again in endeavouring to account for mr. forester's letter. i knew the inflexibility and sternness of mr. falkland's mind in accomplishing the purposes he had at heart; but i also knew that every virtuous and magnanimous principle was congenial to his character. when we arrived, midnight was already past, and we were obliged to waken one of the servants to give us admittance. i found that mr. forester had left a message for me, in consideration of the possibility of my arrival during the night, directing me immediately to go to bed, and to take care that i did not come weary and exhausted to the business of the following day. i endeavoured to take his advice; but my slumbers were unrefreshing and disturbed. i suffered however no reduction of courage: the singularity of my situation, my conjectures with respect to the present, my eagerness for the future, did not allow me to sink into a languid and inactive state. next morning the first person i saw was mr. forester. he told me that he did not yet know what mr. falkland had to allege against me, for that he had refused to know. he had arrived at the house of his brother by appointment on the preceding day to settle some indispensable business, his intention having been to depart the moment the business was finished, as he knew that conduct on his part would be most agreeable to mr. falkland. but he was no sooner come, than he found the whole house in confusion, the alarm of my elopement having been given a few hours before. mr. falkland had despatched servants in all directions in pursuit of me; and the servant from the market-town arrived at the same moment with mr. forester, with intelligence that a person answering the description he gave, had been there very early in the morning enquiring respecting the stage to london. mr. falkland seemed extremely disturbed at this information, and exclaimed on me with acrimony, as an unthankful and unnatural villain. mr. forester replied, "have more command of yourself, sir! villain is a serious appellation, and must not be trifled with. englishmen are free; and no man is to be charged with villainy, because he changes one source of subsistence for another." mr. falkland shook his head, and with a smile, expressive of acute sensibility, said, "brother, brother, you are the dupe of his art. i always considered him with an eye of suspicion, and was aware of his depravity. but i have just discovered--" "stop, sir!" interrupted mr. forester. "i own i thought that, in a moment of acrimony, you might be employing harsh epithets in a sort of random style. but if you have a serious accusation to state, we must not be told of that, till it is known whether the lad is within reach of a hearing. i am indifferent myself about the good opinion of others. it is what the world bestows and retracts with so little thought, that i can make no account of its decision. but that does not authorise me lightly to entertain an ill opinion of another. the slenderest allowance i think i can make to such as i consign to be the example and terror of their species, is that of being heard in their own defence. it is a wise principle that requires the judge to come into court uninformed of the merits of the cause he is to try; and to that principle i am determined to conform as an individual. i shall always think it right to be severe and inflexible in my treatment of offenders; but the severity i exercise in the sequel, must be accompanied with impartiality and caution in what is preliminary." while mr. forester related to me these particulars, he observed me ready to break out into some of the expressions which the narrative suggested; but he would not suffer me to speak. "no," said he; "i would not hear mr. falkland against you; and i cannot hear you in your defence. i come to you at present to speak, and not to hear. i thought it right to warn you of your danger, but i have nothing more to do now. reserve what you have to say to the proper time. make the best story you can for yourself--true, if truth, as i hope, will serve your purpose; but, if not, the most plausible and ingenious you can invent. that is what self-defence requires from every man, where, as it always happens to a man upon his trial, he has the whole world against him, and has his own battle to fight against the world. farewell; and god send you a good deliverance! if mr. falkland's accusation, whatever it be, shall appear premature, depend upon having me more zealously your friend than ever. if not, this is the last act of friendship you will ever receive from me!" it may be believed that this address, so singular, so solemn, so big with conditional menace, did not greatly tend to encourage me. i was totally ignorant of the charge to be advanced against me; and not a little astonished, when it was in my power to be in the most formidable degree the accuser of mr. falkland, to find the principles of equity so completely reversed, as for the innocent but instructed individual to be the party accused and suffering, instead of having, as was natural, the real criminal at his mercy. i was still more astonished at the superhuman power mr. falkland seemed to possess, of bringing the object of his persecution within the sphere of his authority; a reflection attended with some check to that eagerness and boldness of spirit, which now constituted the ruling passion of my mind. but this was no time for meditation. to the sufferer the course of events is taken out of his direction, and he is hurried along with an irresistible force, without finding it within the compass of his efforts to check their rapidity. i was allowed only a short time to recollect myself, when my trial commenced. i was conducted to the library, where i had passed so many happy and so many contemplative hours, and found there mr. forester and three or four of the servants already assembled, in expectation of me and my accuser. every thing was calculated to suggest to me that i must trust only in the justice of the parties concerned, and had nothing to hope from their indulgence. mr. falkland entered at one door, almost as soon as i entered at the other. chapter x. he began: "it has been the principle of my life, never to inflict a wilful injury upon any thing that lives; i need not express my regret, when i find myself obliged to be the promulgator of a criminal charge. how gladly would i pass unnoticed the evil i have sustained; but i owe it to society to detect an offender, and prevent other men from being imposed upon, as i have been, by an appearance of integrity." "it would be better," interrupted mr. forester "to speak directly to the point. we ought not, though unwarily, by apologising for ourselves, to create at such a time a prejudice against an individual, against whom a criminal accusation will always be prejudice enough." "i strongly suspect," continued mr. falkland, "this young man, who has been peculiarly the object of my kindness, of having robbed me to a considerable amount." "what," replied mr. forester, "are the grounds of your suspicion?" "the first of them is the actual loss i have sustained, in notes, jewels, and plate. i have missed bank-notes to the amount of nine hundred pounds, three gold repeaters of considerable value, a complete set of diamonds, the property of my late mother, and several other articles." "and why," continued my arbitrator, astonishment grief, and a desire to retain his self-possession, strong contending in his countenance and voice, "do you fix on this young man as the instrument of the depredation?" "i found him, on my coming home, upon the day when every thing was in disorder from the alarm of fire, in the very act of quitting the private apartment where these articles were deposited. he was confounded at seeing me, and hastened to withdraw as soon as he possibly could." "did you say nothing to him--take no notice of the confusion your sudden appearance produced?" "i asked what was his errand in that place. he was at first so terrified and overcome, that he could not answer me. afterwards, with a good deal of faltering, he said that, when all the servants were engaged in endeavouring to save the most valuable part of my property, he had come hither with the same view; but that he had as yet removed nothing." "did you immediately examine to see that every thing was safe?" "no. i was accustomed to confide in his honesty, and i was suddenly called away, in the present instance, to attend to the increasing progress of the flames. i therefore only took out the key from the door of the apartment, having first locked it, and, putting it in my pocket, hastened to go where my presence seemed indispensably necessary." "how long was it before you missed your property?" "the same evening. the hurry of the scene had driven the circumstance entirely out of my mind, till, going by accident near the apartment, the whole affair, together with the singular and equivocal behaviour of williams, rushed at once upon my recollection. i immediately entered, examined the trunk in which these things were contained, and, to my astonishment, found the locks broken, and the property gone." "what steps did you take upon this discovery?" "i sent for williams, and talked to him very seriously upon the subject. but he had now perfectly recovered his self-command, and calmly and stoutly denied all knowledge of the matter. i urged him with the enormousness of the offence, but i made no impression. he did not discover either the surprise and indignation one would have expected from a person entirely innocent, or the uneasiness that generally attends upon guilt. he was rather silent and reserved. i then informed him, that i should proceed in a manner different from what he might perhaps expect. i would not, as is too frequent in such cases, make a general search; for i had rather lose my property for ever without redress, than expose a multitude of innocent persons to anxiety and injustice. my suspicion, for the present, unavoidably fixed upon him. but, in a matter of so great consequence, i was determined not to act upon suspicion. i would neither incur the possibility of ruining him, being innocent, nor be the instrument of exposing others to his depredations, if guilty. i should therefore merely insist upon his continuing in my service. he might depend upon it he should be well watched, and i trusted the whole truth would eventually appear. since he avoided confession now, i advised him to consider how far it was likely he would come off with impunity at last. this i determined on, that the moment he attempted an escape, i would consider that as an indication of guilt, and proceed accordingly." "what circumstances have occurred from that time to the present?" "none upon which i can infer a certainty of guilt; several that agree to favour a suspicion. from that time williams was perpetually uneasy in his situation, always desirous, as it now appears, to escape, but afraid to adopt such a measure without certain precautions. it was not long after, that you, mr. forester, became my visitor. i observed, with dissatisfaction, the growing intercourse between you, reflecting on the equivocalness of his character, and the attempt he would probably make to render you the dupe of his hypocrisy. i accordingly threatened him severely; and i believe you observed the change that presently after occurred in his behaviour with relation to you." "i did, and it appeared at that time mysterious and extraordinary." "some time after, as you well know, a rencounter took place between you, whether accidental or intentional on his part i am not able to say, when he confessed to you the uneasiness of his mind, without discovering the cause, and openly proposed to you to assist him in his flight, and stand, in case of necessity, between him and my resentment. you offered, it seems, to take him into your service; but nothing, as he acknowledged, would answer his purpose, that did not place his retreat wholly out of my power to discover." "did it not appear extraordinary to you, that he should hope for any effectual protection from me, while it remained perpetually in your power to satisfy me of his unworthiness?" "perhaps he had hopes that i should not proceed to that step, at least so long as the place of his retreat should be unknown to me, and of consequence the event of my proceeding dubious. perhaps he confided in his own powers, which are far from contemptible, to construct a plausible tale, especially as he had taken care to have the first impression in his favour. after all, this protection, on your part, was merely reserved in case all other expedients failed. he does not appear to have had any other sentiment upon the subject, than that, if he were defeated in his projects for placing himself beyond the reach of justice, it was better to have bespoken a place in your patronage than to be destitute of every resource." mr. falkland having thus finished his evidence, called upon robert, the valet, to confirm the part of it which related to the day of the fire. robert stated, that he happened to be coming through the library that day, a few minutes after mr. falkland's being brought home by the sight of the fire; that he had found me standing there with every mark of perturbation and fright; that he could not help stopping to notice it; that he had spoken to me two or three times before he could obtain an answer; and that all he could get from me at last was, that i was the most miserable creature alive. he further said, that in the evening of the same day mr. falkland called him into the private apartment adjoining to the library, and bid him bring a hammer and some nails. he then showed him a trunk standing in the apartment with its locks and fastening broken, and ordered him to observe and remember what he saw, but not to mention it to any one. robert did not at that time know what mr. falkland intended by these directions, which were given in a manner uncommonly solemn and significant; but he entertained no doubt, that the fastenings were broken and wrenched by the application of a chisel or such-like instrument, with the intention of forcibly opening the trunk. mr. forester observed upon this evidence, that as much of it as related to the day of the fire seemed indeed to afford powerful reasons for suspicion; and that the circumstances that had occurred since strangely concurred to fortify that suspicion. meantime, that nothing proper to be done might be omitted, he asked whether in my flight i had removed my boxes, to see whether by that means any trace could be discovered to confirm the imputation. mr. falkland treated this suggestion slightly, saying, that if i were the thief, i had no doubt taken the precaution to obviate so palpable a means of detection. to this mr. forester only replied, that conjecture, however skilfully formed, was not always realised in the actions and behaviour of mankind; and ordered that my boxes and trunks, if found, should be brought into the library. i listened to this suggestion with pleasure; and, uneasy and confounded as i was at the appearances combined against me, i trusted in this appeal to give a new face to my cause. i was eager to declare the place where my property was deposited; and the servants, guided by my direction, presently produced what was enquired for. the two boxes that were first opened, contained nothing to confirm the accusation against me; in the third were found a watch and several jewels, that were immediately known to be the property of mr. falkland. the production of this seemingly decisive evidence excited emotions of astonishment and concern; but no person's astonishment appeared to be greater than that of mr. falkland. that i should have left the stolen goods behind me, would of itself have appeared incredible; but when it was considered what a secure place of concealment i had found for them, the wonder diminished; and mr. forester observed, that it was by no means impossible i might conceive it easier to obtain possession of them afterwards, than to remove them at the period of my precipitate flight. here however i thought it necessary to interfere. i fervently urged my right to a fair and impartial construction. i asked mr. forester, whether it were probable, if i had stolen these things, that i should not have contrived, at least to remove them along with me? and again, whether, if i had been conscious they would he found among my property, i should myself have indicated the place where i had concealed it? the insinuation i conveyed against mr. forester's impartiality overspread his whole countenance, for an instant, with the flush of anger. "impartiality, young man! yes, be sure, from me you shall experience an impartial treatment! god send that may answer your purpose! presently you shall be heard at full in your own defence. "you expect us to believe you innocent, because you did not remove these things along with you. the money is removed. where, sir, is that? we cannot answer for the inconsistences and oversights of any human mind, and, least of all, if that mind should appear to be disturbed with the consciousness of guilt. "you observe that it was by your own direction these boxes and trunks have been found: that is indeed extraordinary. it appears little less than infatuation. but to what purpose appeal to probabilities and conjecture, in the face of incontestable facts? there, sir, are the boxes: you alone knew where they were to be found; you alone had the keys: tell us then how this watch and these jewels came to be contained in them?" i was silent. to the rest of the persons present i seemed to be merely the subject of detection; but in reality i was, of all the spectators, that individual who was most at a loss to conceive, through every stage of the scene, what, would come next, and who listened to every word that was uttered with the most uncontrollable amazement. amazement however alternately yielded to indignation and horror. at first i could not refrain from repeatedly attempting to interrupt; but i was checked in these attempts by mr. forester; and i presently felt how necessary it was to my future peace, that i should collect the whole energy of my mind to repel the charge, and assert my innocence. every thing being now produced that could be produced against me, mr. forester turned to me with a look of concern and pity, and told me that now was the time, if i chose to allege any thing in my defence. in reply to this invitation, i spoke nearly as follows:-"i am innocent. it is in vain that circumstances are accumulated against me; there is not a person upon earth less capable than i of the things of which i am accused. i appeal to my heart--i appeal to my looks--i appeal to every sentiment my tongue ever uttered." i could perceive that the fervour with which i spoke made some impression upon every one that heard me. but in a moment their eyes were turned upon the property that lay before them, and their countenances changed. i proceeded:-"one thing more i must aver;--mr. falkland is not deceived; he perfectly knows that i am innocent." i had no sooner uttered these words, than an involuntary cry of indignation burst from every person in the room. mr. forester turned to me with a look of extreme severity, and said-"young man, consider well what you are doing! it is the privilege of the party accused to say whatever he thinks proper; and i will take care that you shall enjoy that privilege in its utmost extent. but do you think it will conduce in any respect to your benefit, to throw out such insolent and intolerable insinuations?" "i thank you most sincerely," replied i, "for your caution; but i well know what it is i am doing. i make this declaration, not merely because it is solemnly true, but because it is inseparably connected with my vindication. i am the party accused, and i shall be told that i am not to be believed in my own defence. i can produce no other witnesses of my innocence; i therefore call upon mr. falkland to be my evidence. i ask him-"did you never boast to me in private of your power to ruin me? did you never say that, if once i brought on myself the weight of your displeasure, my fall should be irreparable? did you not tell me that, though i should prepare in that case a tale however plausible or however true, you would take care that the whole world should execrate me as an impostor? were not those your very words? did you not add, that my innocence should be of no service to me, and that you laughed at so feeble a defence? i ask you further,--did you not receive a letter from me the morning of the day on which i departed, requesting your consent to my departure? should i have done that if my flight had been that of a thief? i challenge any man to reconcile the expressions of that letter with this accusation. should i have begun with stating that i had conceived a desire to quit your service, if my desire and the reasons for it, had been of the nature that is now alleged? should i have dared to ask for what reason i was thus subjected to an eternal penance?" saying this, i took out a copy of my letter, and laid it open upon the table. mr. falkland returned no immediate answer to my interrogations. mr. forester turned to him, and said. "well, sir, what is your reply to this challenge of your servant?" mr. falkland answered, "such a mode of defence scarcely calls for a reply. but i answer, i held no such conversation; i never used such words; i received no such letter. surely it is no sufficient refutation of a criminal charge, that the criminal repels what is alleged against him with volubility of speech, and intrepidity of manner." mr. forester then turned to me: "if," said he, "you trust your vindication to the plausibility of your tale, you must take care to render it consistent and complete. you have not told us what was the cause of the confusion and anxiety in which robert professes to have found you, why you were so impatient to quit the service of mr. falkland, or how you account for certain articles of his property being found in your possession." "all that, sir," answered i, "is true. there are certain parts of my story that i have not told. if they were told, they would not conduce to my disadvantage, and they would make the present accusation appear still more astonishing. but i cannot, as yet at least, prevail upon myself to tell them. is it necessary to give any particular and precise reasons why i should wish to change the place of my residence? you all of you know the unfortunate state of mr. falkland's mind. you know the sternness, reservedness, and distance of his manners. if i had no other reasons, surely it would afford small presumption of criminality that i should wish to change his service for another. "the question of how these articles of mr. falkland's property came to be found in my possession, is more material. it is a question i am wholly unable to answer. their being found there, was at least as unexpected to me as to any one of the persons now present. i only know that, as i have the most perfect assurance of mr. falkland's being conscious of my innocence--for, observe! i do not shrink from that assertion; i reiterate it with new confidence--i therefore firmly and from my soul believe, that their being there is of mr. falkland's contrivance." i no sooner said this, than i was again interrupted by an involuntary exclamation from every one present. they looked at me with furious glances, as if they could have torn me to pieces. i proceeded:-"i have now answered every thing that is alleged against me. "mr. forester, you are a lover of justice; i conjure you not to violate it in my person. you are a man of penetration; look at me! do you see any of the marks of guilt? recollect all that has ever passed under your observation; is it compatible with a mind capable of what is now alleged against me? could a real criminal have shown himself so unabashed, composed, and firm as i have now done? "fellow-servants! mr. falkland is a man of rank and fortune; he is your master. i am a poor country lad, without a friend in the world. that is a ground of real difference to a certain extent; but it is not a sufficient ground for the subversion of justice. remember, that i am in a situation that is not to be trifled with; that a decision given against me now, in a case in which i solemnly assure you i am innocent, will for ever deprive me of reputation and peace of mind, combine the whole world in a league against me, and determine perhaps upon my liberty and my life. if you believe--if you see--if you know, that i am innocent, speak for me. do not suffer a pusillanimous timidity to prevent you from saving a fellow-creature from destruction, who does not deserve to have a human being for his enemy. why have we the power of speech, but to communicate our thoughts? i will never believe that a man, conscious of innocence, cannot make other men perceive that he has that thought. do not you feel that my whole heart tells me. i am not guilty of what is imputed to me? "to you, mr. falkland, i have nothing to say: i know you, and know that you are impenetrable. at the very moment that you are urging such odious charges against me, you admire my resolution and forbearance. but i have nothing to hope from you. you can look upon my ruin without pity or remorse. i am most unfortunate indeed in having to do with such an adversary. you oblige me to say ill things of you; but i appeal to your own heart, whether my language is that of exaggeration or revenge." every thing that could be alleged on either side being now concluded, mr. forester undertook to make some remarks upon the whole. "williams," said he, "the charge against you is heavy; the direct evidence strong; the corroborating circumstances numerous and striking. i grant that you have shown considerable dexterity in your answers; but you will learn, young man, to your cost, that dexterity, however powerful it may be in certain cases, will avail little against the stubbornness of truth. it is fortunate for mankind that the empire of talents has its limitations, and that it is not in the power of ingenuity to subvert the distinctions of right and wrong. take my word for it, that the true merits of the case against you will be too strong for sophistry to overturn; that justice will prevail, and impotent malice be defeated. "to you, mr. falkland, society is obliged for having placed this black affair in its true light. do not suffer the malignant aspersions of the criminal to give you uneasiness. depend upon it that they will be found of no weight i have no doubt that your character, in the judgment of every person that has heard them, stands higher than ever. we feel for your misfortune, in being obliged to hear such calumnies from a person who has injured you so grossly. but you must be considered in that respect as a martyr in the public cause. the purity of your motives and dispositions is beyond the reach of malice; and truth and equity will not fail to award, to your calumniator infamy, and to you the love and approbation of mankind. "i have now told you, williams, what i think of your case. but i have no right to assume to be your ultimate judge. desperate as it appears to me, i will give you one piece of advice, as if i were retained as a counsel to assist you. leave out of it whatever tends to the disadvantage of mr. falkland. defend yourself as well as you can, but do not attack your master. it is your business to create in those who hear you a prepossession in your favour. but the recrimination you have been now practising, will always create indignation. dishonesty will admit of some palliation. the deliberate malice you have now been showing is a thousand times more atrocious. it proves you to have the mind of a demon, rather than of a felon. wherever you shall repeat it, those who hear you will pronounce you guilty upon that, even if the proper evidence against you were glaringly defective. if therefore you would consult your interest, which seems to be your only consideration, it is incumbent upon you by all means immediately to retract that. if you desire to be believed honest, you must in the first place show that you have a due sense of merit in others. you cannot better serve your cause than by begging pardon of your master, and doing homage to rectitude and worth, even when they are employed in vengeance against you." it is easy to conceive that my mind sustained an extreme shock from the decision of mr. forester; but his call upon me to retract and humble myself before my accuser penetrated my whole soul with indignation. i answered:-"i have already told you i am innocent. i believe that i could not endure the effort of inventing a plausible defence, if it were otherwise. you have just affirmed that it is not in the power of ingenuity to subvert the distinctions of right and wrong, and in that very instant i find them subverted. this is indeed to me a very awful moment. new to the world, i know nothing of its affairs but what has reached me by rumour, or is recorded in books. i have come into it with all the ardour and confidence inseparable from my years. in every fellow-being i expected to find a friend. i am unpractised in its wiles, and have even no acquaintance with its injustice. i have done nothing to deserve the animosity of mankind; but, if i may judge from the present scene, i am henceforth to be deprived of the benefits of integrity and honour. i am to forfeit the friendship of every one i have hitherto known, and to be precluded from the power of acquiring that of others. i must therefore be reduced to derive my satisfaction from myself. depend upon it, i will not begin that career by dishonourable concessions. if i am to despair of the good-will of other men, i will at least maintain the independence of my own mind. mr. falkland is my implacable enemy. whatever may be his merits in other respects, he is acting towards me without humanity, without remorse, and without principle. do you think i will ever make submissions to a man by whom i am thus treated, that i will fall down at the feet of one who is to me a devil, or kiss the hand that is red with my blood?" "in that respect," answered mr. forester, "do as you shall think proper. i must confess that your firmness and consistency astonish me. they add something to what i had conceived of human powers. perhaps you have chosen the part which, all things considered, may serve your purpose best; though i think more moderation would be more conciliating. the exterior of innocence will, i grant, stagger the persons who may have the direction of your fate, but it will never be able to prevail against plain and incontrovertible facts. but i have done with you. i see in you a new instance of that abuse which is so generally made of talents, the admiration of an undiscerning public. i regard you with horror. all that remains is, that i should discharge my duty, in consigning you, as a monster of depravity, to the justice of your country." "no," rejoined mr. falkland, "to that i can never consent. i have put a restraint upon myself thus far, because it was right that evidence and enquiry should take their course. i have suppressed all my habits and sentiments, because it seemed due to the public that hypocrisy should be unmasked. but i can suffer this violence no longer. i have through my whole life interfered to protect, not overbear, the sufferer; and i must do so now. i feel not the smallest resentment of his impotent attacks upon my character; i smile at their malice; and they make no diminution in my benevolence to their author. let him say what he pleases; he cannot hurt me. it was proper that he should be brought to public shame, that other people might not be deceived by him as we have been. but there is no necessity for proceeding further; and i must insist upon it that he be permitted to depart wherever he pleases. i am sorry that public interest affords so gloomy a prospect for his future happiness." "mr. falkland," answered mr. forester, "these sentiments do honour to your humanity; but i must not give way to them. they only serve to set in a stronger light the venom of this serpent, this monster of ingratitude, who first robs his benefactor, and then reviles him. wretch that you are, will nothing move you? are you inaccessible to remorse? are you not struck to the heart with the unmerited goodness of your master? vile calumniator! you are the abhorrence of nature, the opprobrium of the human species, and the earth can only be freed from an insupportable burthen by your being exterminated! recollect, sir, that this monster, at the very moment that you are exercising such unexampled forbearance in his behalf, has the presumption to charge you with prosecuting a crime of which you know him to be innocent, nay, with having conveyed the pretended stolen goods among his property, for the express purpose of ruining him. by this unexampled villainy, he makes it your duty to free the world from such a pest, and your interest to admit no relaxing in your pursuit of him, lest the world should be persuaded by your clemency to credit his vile insinuations." "i care not for the consequences," replied mr. falkland; "i will obey the dictates of my own mind. i will never lend my assistance to the reforming mankind by axes and gibbets. i am sure things will never be as they ought, till honour, and not law, be the dictator of mankind, till vice be taught to shrink before the resistless might of inborn dignity, and not before the cold formality of statutes. if my calumniator were worthy of my resentment, i would chastise him with my own sword, and not that of the magistrate; but in the present case i smile at his malice, and resolve to spare him, as the generous lord of the forest spares the insect that would disturb his repose." "the language you now hold," said mr. forester, "is that of romance, and not of reason. yet i cannot but be struck with the contrast exhibited before me, of the magnanimity of virtue, and the obstinate impenetrable injustice of guilt. while your mind overflows with goodness, nothing can touch the heart of this thrice-refined villain. i shall never forgive myself for having once been entrapped by his detestable arts. this is no time for us to settle the question between chivalry and law. i shall therefore simply insist as a magistrate, having taken the evidence in this felony, upon my right and duty of following the course of justice, and committing the accused to the county jail." after some further contest mr. falkland, finding mr. forester obstinate and impracticable, withdrew his opposition. accordingly a proper officer was summoned from the neighbouring village, a mittimus made out, and one of mr. falkland's carriages prepared to conduct me to the place of custody. it will easily be imagined that this sudden reverse was very painfully felt by me. i looked round on the servants who had been the spectators of my examination, but not one of them, either by word or gesture, expressed compassion for my calamity. the robbery of which i was accused appeared to them atrocious from its magnitude; and whatever sparks of compassion might otherwise have sprung up in their ingenuous and undisciplined minds, were totally obliterated by indignation at my supposed profligacy in recriminating upon their worthy and excellent master. my fate being already determined, and one of the servants despatched for the officer, mr. forester and mr. falkland withdrew, and left me in the custody of two others. one of these was the son of a farmer at no great distance, who had been in habits of long-established intimacy with my late father. i was willing accurately to discover the state of mind of those who had been witnesses of this scene, and who had had some previous opportunity of observing my character and manners. i, therefore, endeavoured to open a conversation with him. "well, my good thomas," said i, in a querulous tone, and with a hesitating manner, "am i not a most miserable creature?" "do not speak to me, master williams! you have given me a shock that i shall not get the better of for one while. you were hatched by a hen, as the saying is, but you came of the spawn of a cockatrice. i am glad to my heart that honest farmer williams is dead; your villainy would else have made him curse the day that ever he was born." "thomas, i am innocent! i swear by the great god that shall judge me another day, i am innocent!" "pray, do not swear! for goodness' sake, do not swear! your poor soul is damned enough without that. for your sake, lad, i will never take any body's word, nor trust to appearances, tho' it should be an angel. lord bless us! how smoothly you palavered it over, for all the world, as if you had been as fair as a new-born babe! but it will not do; you will never be able to persuade people that black is white. for my own part, i have done with you. i loved you yesterday, all one as if you had been my own brother. to-day i love you so well, that i would go ten miles with all the pleasure in life to see you hanged." "good god, thomas! have you the heart? what a change! i call god to witness, i have done nothing to deserve it! what a world do we live in!" "hold your tongue, boy! it makes my very heart sick to hear you! i would not lie a night under the same roof with you for all the world! i should expect the house to fall and crush such wickedness! i admire that the earth does not open and swallow you alive! it is poison so much as to look at you! if you go on at this hardened rate, i believe from my soul that the people you talk to will tear you to pieces, and you will never live to come to the gallows. oh, yes, you do well to pity yourself; poor tender thing! that spit venom all round you like a toad, and leave the very ground upon which you crawl infected with your slime." finding the person with whom i talked thus impenetrable to all i could say, and considering that the advantage to be gained was small, even if i could overcome his prepossession, i took his advice, and was silent. it was not much longer before every thing was prepared for my departure, and i was conducted to the same prison which had so lately enclosed the wretched and innocent hawkinses. they too had been the victims of mr. falkland. he exhibited, upon a contracted scale indeed, but in which the truth of delineation was faithfully sustained, a copy of what monarchs are, who reckon among the instruments of their power prisons of state. chapter xi. for my own part, i had never seen a prison, and, like the majority of my brethren, had given myself little concern to enquire what was the condition of those who committed offence against, or became obnoxious to suspicion from, the community. oh, how enviable is the most tottering shed under which the labourer retires to rest, compared with the residence of these walls! to me every thing was new,--the massy doors, the resounding locks, the gloomy passages, the grated windows, and the characteristic looks of the keepers, accustomed to reject every petition, and to steel their hearts against feeling and pity. curiosity, and a sense of my situation, induced me to fix my eyes on the faces of these men; but in a few minutes i drew them away with unconquerable loathing. it is impossible to describe the sort of squalidness and filth with which these mansions are distinguished. i have seen dirty faces in dirty apartments, which have nevertheless borne the impression of health, and spoke carelessness and levity rather than distress. but the dirt of a prison speaks sadness to the heart, and appears to be already in a state of putridity and infection. i was detained for more than an hour in the apartment of the keeper, one turnkey after another coming in, that they might make themselves familiar with my person. as i was already considered as guilty of felony to a considerable amount, i underwent a rigorous search, and they took from me a penknife, a pair of scissars, and that part of my money which was in gold. it was debated whether or not these should be sealed up, to be returned to me, as they said, as soon as i should be acquitted; and had i not displayed an unexpected firmness of manner and vigour of expostulation, such was probably the conduct that would have been pursued. having undergone these ceremonies, i was thrust into a day-room, in which all the persons then under confinement for felony were assembled, to the number of eleven. each of them was too much engaged in his own reflections, to take notice of me. of these, two were imprisoned for horse-stealing, and three for having stolen a sheep, one for shop-lifting, one for coining, two for highway-robbery, and two for burglary. the horse-stealers were engaged in a game at cards, which was presently interrupted by a difference of opinion, attended with great vociferation,--they calling upon one and another to decide it, to no purpose; one paying no attention to their summons, and another leaving them in the midst of their story, being no longer able to endure his own internal anguish, in the midst of their mummery. it is a custom among thieves to constitute a sort of mock tribunal of their own body, from whose decision every one is informed whether he shall be acquitted, respited, or pardoned, as well as respecting the supposed most skilful way of conducting his defence. one of the housebreakers, who had already passed this ordeal, and was stalking up and down the room with a forced bravery, exclaimed to his companion, that he was as rich as the duke of bedford himself. he had five guineas and a half, which was as much as he could possibly spend in the course of the ensuing month; and what happened after that, it was jack ketch's business to see to, not his. as he uttered these words, he threw himself abruptly upon a bench that was near him, and seemed to be asleep in a moment. but his sleep was uneasy and disturbed, his breathing was hard, and, at intervals, had rather the nature of a groan. a young fellow from the other side of the room came softly to the place where he lay, with a large knife in his hand: and pressed the back of it with such violence upon his neck, the head hanging over the side of the bench, that it was not till after several efforts that he was able to rise. "oh, jack!" cried this manual jester, "i had almost done your business for you!" the other expressed no marks of resentment, but sullenly answered, "damn you, why did not you take the edge? it would have been the best thing you have done this many a day!"[b] [footnote b: an incident exactly similar to this was witnessed by a friend of the author, a few years since, in a visit to the prison of newgate.] the case of one of the persons committed for highway-robbery was not a little extraordinary. he was a common soldier of a most engaging physiognomy, and two-and-twenty years of age. the prosecutor, who had been robbed one evening, as he returned late from the alehouse, of the sum of three shillings, swore positively to his person. the character of the prisoner was such as has seldom been equalled. he had been ardent in the pursuit of intellectual cultivation, and was accustomed to draw his favourite amusement from the works of virgil and horace. the humbleness of his situation, combined with his ardour for literature, only served to give an inexpressible heightening to the interestingness of his character. he was plain and unaffected; he assumed nothing; he was capable, when occasion demanded, of firmness, but, in his ordinary deportment, he seemed unarmed and unresisting, unsuspicious of guile in others, as he was totally free from guile in himself. his integrity was proverbially great. in one instance he had been intrusted by a lady to convey a sum of a thousand pounds to a person at some miles distance: in another, he was employed by a gentleman, during his absence, in the care of his house and furniture, to the value of at least five times that sum. his habits of thinking were strictly his own, full of justice, simplicity, and wisdom. he from time to time earned money of his officers, by his peculiar excellence in furbishing arms; but he declined offers that had been made him to become a serjeant or a corporal, saying that he did not want money, and that in a new situation he should have less leisure for study. he was equally constant in refusing presents that were offered him by persons who had been struck with his merit; not that he was under the influence of false delicacy and pride, but that he had no inclination to accept that, the want of which he did not feel to be an evil. this man died while i was in prison. i received his last breath.[c] [footnote c: a story extremely similar to this is to be found in the newgate calendar, vol. i. p. 382.] the whole day i was obliged to spend in the company of these men, some of them having really committed the actions laid to their charge, others whom their ill fortune had rendered the victims of suspicion. the whole was a scene of misery, such as nothing short of actual observation can suggest to the mind. some were noisy and obstreperous, endeavouring by a false bravery to keep at bay the remembrance of their condition; while others, incapable even of this effort, had the torment of their thoughts aggravated by the perpetual noise and confusion that prevailed around them. in the faces of those who assumed the most courage, you might trace the furrows of anxious care and in the midst of their laboured hilarity dreadful ideas would ever and anon intrude, convulsing their features, and working every line into an expression of the keenest agony. to these men the sun brought no return of joy. day after day rolled on, but their state was immutable. existence was to them a scene of invariable melancholy; every moment was a moment of anguish; yet did they wish to prolong that moment, fearful that the coming period would bring a severer fate. they thought of the past with insupportable repentance, each man contented to give his right hand to have again the choice of that peace and liberty, which he had unthinkingly bartered away. we talk of instruments of torture; englishmen take credit to themselves for having banished the use of them from their happy shore! alas! he that has observed the secrets of a prison, well knows that there is more torture in the lingering existence of a criminal, in the silent intolerable minutes that he spends, than in the tangible misery of whips and racks! such were our days. at sunset our jailors appeared, and ordered each man to come away, and be locked into his dungeon. it was a bitter aggravation of our fate, to be under the arbitrary control of these fellows. they felt no man's sorrow; they were of all men least capable of any sort of feeling. they had a barbarous and sullen pleasure in issuing their detested mandates, and observing the mournful reluctance with which they were obeyed. whatever they directed, it was in vain to expostulate; fetters, and bread and water, were the sure consequences of resistance. their tyranny had no other limit than their own caprice. to whom shall the unfortunate felon appeal? to what purpose complain, when his complaints are sure to be received with incredulity? a tale of mutiny and necessary precaution is the unfailing refuge of the keeper, and this tale is an everlasting bar against redress. our dungeons were cells, 7-1/2 feet by 6-1/2, below the surface of the ground, damp, without window, light, or air, except from a few holes worked for that purpose in the door. in some of these miserable receptacles three persons were put to sleep together.[d] i was fortunate enough to have one to myself. it was now the approach of winter. we were not allowed to have candles, and, as i have already said, were thrust in here at sunset, and not liberated till the returning day. this was our situation for fourteen or fifteen hours out of the four-and-twenty. i had never been accustomed to sleep more than six or seven hours, and my inclination to sleep was now less than ever. thus was i reduced to spend half my day in this dreary abode, and in complete darkness. this was no trifling aggravation of my lot. [footnote d: see howard on prisons.] among my melancholy reflections i tasked my memory, and counted over the doors, the locks, the bolts, the chains, the massy walls, and grated windows, that were between me and liberty. "these," said i, "are the engines that tyranny sits down in cold and serious meditation to invent. this is the empire that man exercises over man. thus is a being, formed to expatiate, to act, to smile, and enjoy, restricted and benumbed. how great must be his depravity or heedlessness, who vindicates this scheme for changing health and gaiety and serenity, into the wanness of a dungeon, and the deep furrows of agony and despair!" "thank god," exclaims the englishman, "we have no bastile! thank god, with us no man can be punished without a crime!" unthinking wretch! is that a country of liberty, where thousands languish in dungeons and fetters? go, go, ignorant fool! and visit the scenes of our prisons! witness their unwholesomeness, their filth, the tyranny of their governors, the misery of their inmates! after that, show me the man shameless enough to triumph, and say, england has no bastile! is there any charge so frivolous, upon which men are not consigned to those detested abodes? is there any villainy that is not practised by justices and prosecutors? but against all this perhaps you have been told there is redress. yes; a redress, that it is the consummation of insult so much as to name! where shall the poor wretch reduced to the last despair, to whom acquittal perhaps comes just time enough to save him from perishing,--where shall this man find leisure, and much less money, to fee counsel and officers, and purchase the tedious dear-bought remedy of the law? no; he is too happy to leave his dungeon, and the memory of his dungeon, behind him; and the same tyranny and wanton oppression become the inheritance of his successor. for myself, i looked round upon my walls, and forward upon the premature death i had too much reason to expect: i consulted my own heart, that whispered nothing but innocence; and i said, "this is society. this is the object, the distribution of justice, which is the end of human reason. for this sages have toiled, and midnight oil has been wasted. this!" the reader will forgive this digression from the immediate subject of my story. if it should be said these are general remarks, let it be remembered that they are the dear-bought, result of experience. it is from the fulness of a bursting heart that reproach thus flows to my pen. these are not the declamations of a man desirous to be eloquent. i have felt the iron of slavery grating upon my soul. i believed that misery, more pure than that which i now endured, had never fallen to the lot of a human being. i recollected with astonishment my puerile eagerness to be brought to the test, and have my innocence examined. i execrated it, as the vilest and most insufferable pedantry. i exclaimed, in the bitterness of my heart, "of what value is a fair fame? it is the jewel of men formed to be amused with baubles. without it, i might have had serenity of heart and cheerfulness of occupation, peace, and liberty; why should i consign my happiness to other men's arbitration? but, if a fair fame were of the most inexpressible value, is this the method which common sense would prescribe to retrieve it? the language which these institutions hold out to the unfortunate is, 'come, and be shut out from the light of day; be the associate of those whom society has marked out for her abhorrence, be the slave of jailers, be loaded with fetters; thus shall you be cleared from every unworthy aspersion, and restored to reputation and honour!' this is the consolation she affords to those whom malignity or folly, private pique or unfounded positiveness, have, without the smallest foundation, loaded with calumny." for myself, i felt my own innocence; and i soon found, upon enquiry, that three fourths of those who are regularly subjected to a similar treatment, are persons whom, even with all the superciliousness and precipitation of our courts of justice, no evidence can be found sufficient to convict. how slender then must be that man's portion of information and discernment, who is willing to commit his character and welfare to such guardianship! but my case was even worse than this. i intimately felt that a trial, such as our institutions have hitherto been able to make it, is only the worthy sequel of such a beginning. what chance was there after the purgation i was now suffering, that i should come out acquitted at last? what probability was there that the trial i had endured in the house of mr. falkland was not just as fair as any that might be expected to follow? no; i anticipated my own condemnation. thus was i cut off, for ever, from all that existence has to bestow--from all the high hopes i had so often conceived--from all the future excellence my soul so much delighted to imagine,--to spend a few weeks in a miserable prison, and then to perish by the hand of the public executioner. no language can do justice to the indignant and soul-sickening loathing that these ideas excited. my resentment was not restricted to my prosecutor, but extended itself to the whole machine of society. i could never believe that all this was the fair result of institutions inseparable from the general good. i regarded the whole human species as so many hangmen and torturers; i considered them as confederated to tear me to pieces; and this wide scene of inexorable persecution inflicted upon me inexpressible agony. i looked on this side and on that: i was innocent; i had a right to expect assistance; but every heart was steeled against me; every hand was ready to lend its force to make my ruin secure. no man that has not felt, in his own most momentous concerns, justice, eternal truth, unalterable equity engaged in his behalf, and on the other side brute force, impenetrable obstinacy, and unfeeling insolence, can imagine the sensations that then passed through my mind. i saw treachery triumphant and enthroned; i saw the sinews of innocence crumbled into dust by the gripe of almighty guilt. what relief had i from these sensations? was it relief, that i spent the day in the midst of profligacy and execrations--that i saw reflected from every countenance agonies only inferior to my own? he that would form a lively idea of the regions of the damned, need only to witness, for six hours, a scene to which i was confined for many months. not for one hour could i withdraw myself from this complexity of horrors, or take refuge in the calmness of meditation. air, exercise, series, contrast, those grand enliveners of the human frame, i was for ever debarred from, by the inexorable tyranny under which i was fallen. nor did i find the solitude of my nightly dungeon less insupportable. its only furniture was the straw that served me for my repose. it was narrow, damp, and unwholesome. the slumbers of a mind, wearied, like mine, with the most detestable uniformity, to whom neither amusement nor occupation ever offered themselves to beguile the painful hours, were short, disturbed, and unrefreshing. my sleeping, still more than my waking thoughts, were full of perplexity, deformity, and disorder. to these slumbers succeeded the hours which, by the regulations of our prison, i was obliged, though awake, to spend in solitary and cheerless darkness. here i had neither books nor pens, nor any thing upon which to engage my attention; all was a sightless blank. how was a mind, active and indefatigable like mine, to endure this misery? i could not sink it in lethargy; i could nor forget my woes: they haunted me with unintermitted and demoniac malice. cruel, inexorable policy of human affairs, that condemns a man to torture like this; that sanctions it, and knows not what is done under its sanction; that is too supine and unfeeling to enquire into these petty details; that calls this the ordeal of innocence, and the protector of freedom! a thousand times i could have dashed my brains against the walls of my dungeon; a thousand times i longed for death, and wished, with inexpressible ardour, for an end to what i suffered; a thousand times i meditated suicide, and ruminated, in the bitterness of my soul, upon the different means of escaping from the load of existence. what had i to do with life? i had seen enough to make me regard it with detestation. why should i wait the lingering process of legal despotism, and not dare so much as to die, but when and how its instruments decreed? still some inexplicable suggestion withheld my hand. i clung with desperate fondness to this shadow of existence, its mysterious attractions, and its hopeless prospects. chapter xii. such were the reflections that haunted the first days of my imprisonment, in consequence of which they were spent in perpetual anguish. but, after a time, nature, wearied with distress, would no longer stoop to the burthen; thought, which is incessantly varying, introduced a series of reflections totally different. my fortitude revived. i had always been accustomed to cheerfulness, good humour, and serenity; and this habit now returned to visit me at the bottom of my dungeon. no sooner did my contemplations take this turn, than i saw the reasonableness and possibility of tranquillity and peace; and my mind whispered to me the propriety of showing, in this forlorn condition, that i was superior to all my persecutors. blessed state of innocence and self-approbation! the sunshine of conscious integrity pierced through all the barriers of my cell, and spoke ten thousand times more joy to my heart, than the accumulated splendours of nature and art can communicate to the slaves of vice. i found out the secret of employing my mind. i said, "i am shut up for half the day in total darkness, without any external source of amusement; the other half i spend in the midst of noise, turbulence, and, confusion. what then? can i not draw amusement from the stores of my own mind? is it not freighted with various knowledge? have i not been employed from my infancy in gratifying an insatiable curiosity? when should i derive benefit from these superior advantages, if not at present?" accordingly i tasked the stores of my memory, and my powers of invention. i amused myself with recollecting the history of my life. by degrees i called to mind a number of minute circumstances, which, but for this exercise, would have been for ever forgotten. i repassed in my thoughts whole conversations, i recollected their subjects, their arrangement, their incidents, frequently their very words. i mused upon these ideas, till i was totally absorbed in thought. i repeated them, till my mind glowed with enthusiasm. i had my different employments, fitted for the solitude of the night, in which i could give full scope to the impulses of my mind; and for the uproar of the day, in which my chief object was, to be insensible to the disorder with which i was surrounded. by degrees i quitted my own story, and employed myself in imaginary adventures. i figured to myself every situation in which i could be placed, and conceived the conduct to be observed in each. thus scenes of insult and danger, of tenderness and oppression, became familiar to me. in fancy i often passed the awful hour of dissolving nature. in some of my reveries i boiled with impetuous indignation, and in others patiently collected the whole force of my mind for some fearful encounter. i cultivated the powers of oratory suited to these different states, and improved more in eloquence in the solitude of my dungeon, than perhaps i should have done in the busiest and most crowded scenes. at length i proceeded to as regular a disposition of my time, as the man in his study, who passes from mathematics to poetry, and from poetry to the law of nations, in the different parts of each single day; and i as seldom infringed upon my plan. nor were my subjects of disquisition less numerous than his. i went over, by the assistance of memory only, a considerable part of euclid during my confinement, and revived, day after day, the series of facts and incidents in some of the most celebrated historians. i became myself a poet; and, while i described the sentiments cherished by the view of natural objects, recorded the characters and passions of men, and partook with a burning zeal in the generosity of their determinations, i eluded the squalid solitude of my dungeon, and wandered in idea through all the varieties of human society. i easily found expedients, such as the mind seems always to require, and which books and pens supply to the man at large, to record from time to time the progress that had been made. while i was thus employed, i reflected with exultation upon the degree in which man is independent of the smiles and frowns of fortune. i was beyond her reach, for i could fall no lower. to an ordinary eye i might seem destitute and miserable, but in reality i wanted for nothing. my fare was coarse; but i was in health. my dungeon was noisome; but i felt no inconvenience. i was shut up from the usual means of exercise and air; but i found the method of exercising myself even to perspiration in my dungeon. i had no power of withdrawing my person from a disgustful society, in the most cheerful and valuable part of the day; but i soon brought to perfection the art of withdrawing my thoughts, and saw and heard the people about me, for just as short a time, and as seldom, as i pleased. such is man in himself considered; so simple his nature; so few his wants. how different from the man of artificial society! palaces are built for his reception, a thousand vehicles provided for his exercise, provinces are ransacked for the gratification of his appetite, and the whole world traversed to supply him with apparel and furniture. thus vast is his expenditure, and the purchase slavery. he is dependent on a thousand accidents for tranquillity and health, and his body and soul are at the devotion of whoever will satisfy his imperious cravings. in addition to the disadvantages of my present situation, i was reserved for an ignominious death. what then? every man must die. no man knows how soon. it surely is not worse to encounter the king of terrors, in health, and with every advantage for the collection of fortitude, than to encounter him, already half subdued by sickness and suffering. i was resolved at least fully to possess the days i had to live; and this is peculiarly in the power of the man who preserves his health to the last moment of his existence. why should i suffer my mind to be invaded by unavailing regrets? every sentiment of vanity, or rather of independence and justice within me, instigated me to say to my persecutor, "you may cut off my existence, but you cannot disturb my serenity." chapter xiii. in the midst of these reflections, another thought, which had not before struck me, occurred to my mind. "i exult," said i, "and reasonably, over the impotence of my persecutor. is not that impotence greater than i have yet imagined? i say, he may cut off my existence, but cannot disturb my serenity. it is true: my mind, the clearness of my spirit, the firmness of my temper, are beyond his reach; is not my life equally so, if i please? what are the material obstacles, that man never subdued? what is the undertaking so arduous, that by some has not been accomplished? and if by others, why not by me? had they stronger motives than i? was existence more variously endeared to them? or had they more numerous methods by which to animate and adorn it? many of those who have exerted most perseverance and intrepidity, were obviously my inferiors in that respect. why should not i be as daring as they? adamant and steel have a ductility like water, to a mind sufficiently bold and contemplative. the mind is master of itself; and is endowed with powers that might enable it to laugh at the tyrant's vigilance." i passed and repassed these ideas in my mind; and, heated with the contemplation, i said, "no, i will not die!" my reading, in early youth, had been extremely miscellaneous. i had read of housebreakers, to whom locks and bolts were a jest, and who, vain of their art, exhibited the experiment of entering a house the most strongly barricaded, with as little noise, and almost as little trouble, as other men would lift up a latch. there is nothing so interesting to the juvenile mind, as the wonderful; there is no power that it so eagerly covets, as that of astonishing spectators by its miraculous exertions. mind appeared, to my untutored reflections, vague, airy, and unfettered, the susceptible perceiver of reasons, but never intended by nature to be the slave of force. why should it be in the power of man to overtake and hold me by violence? why, when i choose to withdraw myself, should i not be capable of eluding the most vigilant search? these limbs, and this trunk, are a cumbrous and unfortunate load for the power of thinking to drag along with it; but why should not the power of thinking be able to lighten the load, till it shall be no longer felt?--these early modes of reflection were by no means indifferent to my present enquiries. our next-door neighbour at my father's house had been a carpenter. fresh from the sort of reading i have mentioned, i was eager to examine his tools, their powers and their uses. this carpenter was a man of strong and vigorous mind; and, his faculties having been chiefly confined to the range of his profession, he was fertile in experiments, and ingenious in reasoning upon these particular topics. i therefore obtained from him considerable satisfaction; and, my mind being set in action, i sometimes even improved upon the hints he furnished. his conversation was particularly agreeable to me; i at first worked with him sometimes for my amusement, and afterwards occasionally for a short time as his journeyman. i was constitutionally vigorous; and, by the experience thus attained, i added to the abstract possession of power, the skill of applying it, when i pleased, in such a manner as that no part should be inefficient. it is a strange, but no uncommon feature in the human mind, that the very resource of which we stand in greatest need in a critical situation, though already accumulated, it may be, by preceding industry, fails to present itself at the time when it should be called into action. thus my mind had passed through two very different stages since my imprisonment, before this means of liberation suggested itself. my faculties were overwhelmed in the first instance, and raised to a pitch of enthusiasm in the second; while in both i took it for granted in a manner, that i must passively submit to the good pleasure of my persecutors. during the period in which my mind had been thus undecided, and when i had been little more than a month in durance, the assizes, which were held twice a year in the town in which i was a prisoner, came on. upon this occasion my case was not brought forward, but was suffered to stand over six months longer. it would have been just the same, if i had had as strong reason to expect acquittal as i had conviction. if i had been apprehended upon the most frivolous reasons upon which any justice of the peace ever thought proper to commit a naked beggar for trial, i must still have waited about two hundred and seventeen days before my innocence could be cleared. so imperfect are the effects of the boasted laws of a country, whose legislators hold their assembly from four to six months in every year! i could never discover with certainty, whether this delay were owing to any interference on the part of my prosecutor, or whether it fell out in the regular administration of justice, which is too solemn and dignified to accommodate itself to the rights or benefit of an insignificant individual. but this was not the only incident that occurred to me during my confinement, for which i could find no satisfactory solution. it was nearly at the same time, that the keeper began to alter his behaviour to me. he sent for me one morning into the part of the building which was appropriated for his own use, and, after some hesitation, told me he was sorry my accommodations had been so indifferent, and asked whether i should like to have a chamber in his family? i was struck with the unexpectedness of this question, and desired to know whether any body had employed him to ask it. no, he replied; but, now the assizes were over, he had fewer felons on his hands, and more time to look about him. he believed i was a good kind of a young man, and he had taken a sort of a liking to me. i fixed my eye upon his countenance as he said this. i could discover none of the usual symptoms of kindness; he appeared to me to be acting a part, unnatural, and that sat with awkwardness upon him. he went on however to offer me the liberty of eating at his table; which, if i chose it, he said, would make no difference to him, and he should not think of charging me any thing for it. he had always indeed as much upon his hands as one person could see to; but his wife and his daughter peggy would be woundily pleased to hear a person of learning talk, as he understood i was; and perhaps i might not feel myself unpleasantly circumstanced in their company. i reflected on this proposal, and had little doubt, notwithstanding what the keeper had affirmed to the contrary, that it did not proceed from any spontaneous humanity in him, but that he had, to speak the language of persons of his cast, good reasons for what he did. i busied myself in conjectures as to who could be the author of this sort of indulgence and attention. the two most likely persons were mr. falkland and mr. forester. the latter i knew to be a man austere and inexorable towards those whom he deemed vicious. he piqued himself upon being insensible to those softer emotions, which, he believed, answered no other purpose than to seduce us from our duty. mr. falkland, on the contrary, was a man of the acutest sensibility; hence arose his pleasures and his pains, his virtues and his vices. though he were the bitterest enemy to whom i could possibly be exposed, and though no sentiments of humanity could divert or control the bent of his mind, i yet persuaded myself, that he was more likely than his kinsman, to visit in idea the scene of my dungeon, and to feel impelled to alleviate my sufferings. this conjecture was by no means calculated to serve as balm to my mind. my thoughts were full of irritation against my persecutor. how could i think kindly of a man, in competition with the gratification of whose ruling passion my good name or my life was deemed of no consideration? i saw him crushing the one, and bringing the other into jeopardy, with a quietness and composure on his part that i could not recollect without horror. i knew not what were his plans respecting me. i knew not whether he troubled himself so much as to form a barren wish for the preservation of one whose future prospects he had so iniquitously tarnished. i had hitherto been silent as to my principal topic of recrimination. but i was by no means certain, that i should consent to go out of the world in silence, the victim of this man's obduracy and art. in every view i felt my heart ulcerated with a sense of his injustice; and my very soul spurned these pitiful indulgences, at a time that he was grinding me into dust with the inexorableness of his vengeance. i was influenced by these sentiments in my reply to the jailor; and i found a secret pleasure in pronouncing them in all their bitterness. i viewed him with a sarcastic smile, and said, i was glad to find him of a sudden become so humane: i was not however without some penetration as to the humanity of a jailor, and could guess at the circumstances by which it was produced. but he might tell his employer, that his cares were fruitless: i would accept no favours from a man that held a halter about my neck; and had courage enough to endure the worst both in time to come and now.--the jailor looked at me with astonishment, and turning upon his heel, exclaimed, "well done, my cock! you have not had your learning for nothing, i see. you are set upon not dying dunghill. but that is to come, lad; you had better by half keep your courage till you shall find it wanted." the assizes, which passed over without influence to me, produced a great revolution among my fellow-prisoners. i lived long enough in the jail to witness a general mutation of its inhabitants. one of the housebreakers (the rival of the duke of bedford), and the coiner, were hanged. two more were cast for transportation, and the rest acquitted. the transports remained with us; and, though the prison was thus lightened of nine of its inhabitants, there were, at the next half-yearly period of assizes, as many persons on the felons' side, within three, as i had found on my first arrival. the soldier, whose story i have already recorded, died on the evening of the very day on which the judges arrived, of a disease the consequence of his confinement. such was the justice, that resulted from the laws of his country to an individual who would have been the ornament of any age; one who, of all the men i ever knew, was perhaps the kindest, of the most feeling heart, of the most engaging and unaffected manners, and the most unblemished life. the name of this man was brightwel. were it possible for my pen to consecrate him to never-dying fame, i could undertake no task more grateful to my heart. his judgment was penetrating and manly, totally unmixed with imbecility and confusion, while at the same time there was such an uncontending frankness in his countenance, that a superficial observer would have supposed he must have been the prey of the first plausible knavery that was practised against him. great reason have i to remember him with affection! he was the most ardent, i had almost said the last, of my friends. nor did i remain in this respect in his debt. there was indeed a great congeniality, if i may presume to say so, in our characters, except that i cannot pretend to rival the originality and self-created vigour of his mind, or to compare with, what the world has scarcely surpassed, the correctness and untainted purity of his conduct. he heard my story, as far as i thought proper to disclose it, with interest; he examined it with sincere impartiality; and if, at first, any doubt remained upon his mind, a frequent observation of me in my most unguarded moments taught him in no long time to place an unreserved confidence in my innocence. he talked of the injustice of which we were mutual victims, without bitterness; and delighted to believe that the time would come, when the possibility of such intolerable oppression would be extirpated. but this, he said, was a happiness reserved for posterity; it was too late for us to reap the benefit of it. it was some consolation to him, that he could not tell the period in his past life, which the best judgment of which he was capable would teach him to spend better. he could say, with as much reason as most men, he had discharged his duty. but he foresaw that he should not survive his present calamity. this was his prediction, while yet in health. he might be said, in a certain sense, to have a broken heart. but, if that phrase were in any way applicable to him, sure never was despair more calm, more full of resignation and serenity. at no time in the whole course of my adventures was i exposed to a shock more severe, than i received from this man's death. the circumstances of his fate presented themselves to my mind in their full complication of iniquity. from him, and the execrations with which i loaded the government that could be the instrument of his tragedy, i turned to myself. i beheld the catastrophe of brightwel with envy. a thousand times i longed that my corse had lain in death, instead of his. i was only reserved, as i persuaded myself, for unutterable woe. in a few days he would have been acquitted; his liberty, his reputation restored; mankind perhaps, struck with the injustice he had suffered, would have shown themselves eager to balance his misfortunes, and obliterate his disgrace. but this man died; and i remained alive! i, who, though not less wrongfully treated than he, had no hope of reparation, must be marked as long as i lived for a villain, and in my death probably held up to the scorn and detestation of my species! such were some of the immediate reflections which the fate of this unfortunate martyr produced in my mind. yet my intercourse with brightwel was not, in the review, without its portion of comfort. i said, "this man has seen through the veil of calumny that overshades me: he has understood, and has loved me. why should i despair? may i not meet hereafter with men ingenuous like him, who shall do me justice, and sympathise with my calamity? with that consolation i will be satisfied. i will rest in the arms of friendship, and forget the malignity of the world. henceforth i will be contented with tranquil obscurity, with the cultivation of sentiment and wisdom, and the exercise of benevolence within a narrow circle." it was thus that my mind became excited to the project i was about to undertake. i had no sooner meditated the idea of an escape, than i determined upon the following method of facilitating the preparations for it. i undertook to ingratiate myself with my keeper. in the world i have generally found such persons as had been acquainted with the outline of my story, regarding me with a sort of loathing and abhorrence, which made them avoid me with as much care as if i had been spotted with the plague. the idea of my having first robbed my patron, and then endeavouring to clear myself by charging him with subornation against me, placed me in a class distinct from, and infinitely more guilty than that of common felons. but this man was too good a master of his profession, to entertain aversion against a fellow-creature upon that score. he considered the persons committed to his custody, merely as so many human bodies, for whom he was responsible that they should be forthcoming in time and place; and the difference of innocence and guilt he looked down upon as an affair beneath his attention. i had not therefore the prejudices to encounter in recommending myself to him, that i have found so peculiarly obstinate in other cases. add to which, the same motive, whatever it was, that had made him so profuse in his offers a little before, had probably its influence on the present occasion. i informed him of my skill in the profession of a joiner, and offered to make him half a dozen handsome chairs, if he would facilitate my obtaining the tools necessary for carrying on my profession in my present confinement; for, without his consent previously obtained, it would have been in vain for me to expect that i could quietly exert an industry of this kind, even if my existence had depended upon it. he looked at me first, as asking himself what he was to understand by this novel proposal; and then, his countenance most graciously relaxing, said, he was glad i was come off a little of my high notions and my buckram, and he would see what he could do. two days after, he signified his compliance. he said that, as to the matter of the present i had offered him, he thought nothing of that; i might do as i pleased in it; but i might depend upon every civility from him that he could show with safety to himself, if so be as, when he was civil, i did not offer a second time for to snap and take him up short. having thus gained my preliminary, i gradually accumulated tools of various sorts--gimlets, piercers, chisels, _et cetera_. i immediately set myself to work. the nights were long, and the sordid eagerness of my keeper, notwithstanding his ostentatious generosity, was great; i therefore petitioned for, and was indulged with, a bit of candle, that i might amuse myself for an hour or two with my work after i was locked up in my dungeon. i did not however by any means apply constantly to the work i had undertaken, and my jailor betrayed various tokens of impatience. perhaps he was afraid i should not have finished it, before i was hanged. i however insisted upon working at my leisure as i pleased; and this he did not venture expressly to dispute. in addition to the advantages thus obtained, i procured secretly from miss peggy, who now and then came into the jail to make her observations of the prisoners, and who seemed to have conceived some partiality for my person, the implement of an iron crow. in these proceedings it is easy to trace the vice and duplicity that must be expected to grow out of injustice. i know not whether my readers will pardon the sinister advantage i extracted from the mysterious concessions of my keeper. but i must acknowledge my weakness in that respect; i am writing my adventures, and not my apology; and i was not prepared to maintain the unvaried sincerity of my manners, at the expense of a speedy close of my existence. my plan was now digested. i believed that, by means of the crow, i could easily, and without much noise, force the door of my dungeon from its hinges, or if not, that i could, in case of necessity, cut away the lock. this door led into a narrow passage, bounded on one side by the range of dungeons, and on the other by the jailor's and turnkeys' apartments, through which was the usual entrance from the street. this outlet i dared not attempt, for fear of disturbing the persons close to whose very door i should in that case have found it necessary to pass. i determined therefore upon another door at the further end of the passage, which was well barricaded, and which led to a sort of garden in the occupation of the keeper. this garden i had never entered, but i had had an opportunity of observing it from the window of the felons' day-room, which looked that way, the room itself being immediately over the range of dungeons. i perceived that it was bounded by a wall of considerable height, which i was told by my fellow-prisoners was the extremity of the jail on that side, and beyond which was a back-lane of some length, that terminated in the skirts of the town. upon an accurate observation, and much reflection upon the subject, i found i should be able, if once i got into the garden, with my gimlets and piercers inserted at proper distances to make a sort of ladder, by means of which i could clear the wall, and once more take possession of the sweets of liberty. i preferred this wall to that which immediately skirted my dungeon, on the other side of which was a populous street. i suffered about two days to elapse from the period at which i had thoroughly digested my project, and then in the very middle of the night began to set about its execution. the first door was attended with considerable difficulty; but at length this obstacle was happily removed. the second door was fastened on the inside. i was therefore able with perfect ease to push back the bolts. but the lock, which of course was depended upon for the principal security, and was therefore strong, was double-shot, and the key taken away. i endeavoured with my chisel to force back the bolt of the lock, but to no purpose. i then unscrewed the box of the lock; and, that being taken away, the door was no longer opposed to my wishes. thus far i had proceeded with the happiest success; but close on the other side of the door there was a kennel with a large mastiff dog, of which i had not the smallest previous knowledge. though i stepped along in the most careful manner, this animal was disturbed, and began to bark. i was extremely disconcerted, but immediately applied myself to soothe the animal, in which i presently succeeded. i then returned along the passage to listen whether any body had been disturbed by the noise of the dog; resolved, if that had been the case, that i would return to my dungeon, and endeavour to replace every thing in its former state. but the whole appeared perfectly quiet, and i was encouraged to proceed in my operation. i now got to the wall, and had nearly gained half the ascent, when i heard a voice at the garden-door, crying, "holloa! who is there? who opened the door?" the man received no answer, and the night was too dark for him to distinguish objects at any distance. he therefore returned, as i judged, into the house for a light. meantime the dog, understanding the key in which these interrogations were uttered, began barking again more violently than ever. i had now no possibility of retreat, and i was not without hopes that i might yet accomplish my object, and clear the wall. meanwhile a second man came out, while the other was getting his lantern, and by the time i had got to the top of the wall was able to perceive me. he immediately set up a shout, and threw a large stone, which grazed me in its flight. alarmed at my situation, i was obliged to descend on the other side without taking the necessary precautions, and in my fall nearly dislocated my ankle. there was a door in the wall, of which i was not previously apprised; and, this being opened, the two men with the lantern were on the other side in an instant. they had then nothing to do but to run along the lane to the place from which i had descended. i endeavoured to rise after my fall; but the pain was so intense, that i was scarcely able to stand, and, after having limped a few paces, i twisted my foot under me, and fell down again. i had now no remedy, and quietly suffered myself to be retaken. chapter xiv. i was conducted to the keeper's room for that night, and the two men sat up with me. i was accosted with many interrogatories, to which i gave little answer, but complained of the hurt in my leg. to this i could obtain no reply, except "curse you, my lad! if that be all, we will give you some ointment for that; we will anoint it with a little cold iron." they were indeed excessively sulky with me, for having broken their night's rest, and given them all this trouble. in the morning they were as good as their word, fixing a pair of fetters upon both my legs, regardless of the ankle which was now swelled to a considerable size, and then fastening me, with a padlock, to a staple in the floor of my dungeon. i expostulated with warmth upon this treatment, and told them, that i was a man upon whom the law as yet had passed no censure, and who therefore, in the eye of the law, was innocent. but they bid me keep such fudge for people who knew no better; they knew what they did, and would answer it to any court in england. the pain of the fetter was intolerable. i endeavoured in various ways to relieve it, and even privily to free my leg; but the more it was swelled, the more was this rendered impossible. i then resolved to bear it with patience: still, the longer it continued, the worse it grew. after two days and two nights, i entreated the turnkey to go and ask the surgeon, who usually attended the prison, to look at it, for, if it continued longer as it was, i was convinced it would mortify. but he glared surlily at me, and said, "damn my blood! i should like to see that day. to die of a mortification is too good an end for such a rascal!" at the time that he thus addressed me, the whole mass of my blood was already fevered by the anguish i had undergone, my patience was wholly exhausted, and i was silly enough to be irritated beyond bearing, by his impertinence and vulgarity: "look, you, mr. turnkey," said i, "there is one thing that such fellows as you are set over us for, and another thing that you are not. you are to take care we do not escape; but it is no part of your office to call us names and abuse us. if i were not chained to the floor, you dare as well eat your fingers as use such language; and, take my word for it, you shall yet live to repent of your insolence." while i thus spoke, the man stared at me with astonishment. he was so little accustomed to such retorts, that, at first, he could scarcely believe his ears; and such was the firmness of my manner, that he seemed to forget for a moment that i was not at large. but, as soon as he had time to recollect himself, he did not deign to be angry. his face relaxed into a smile of contempt; he snapped his fingers at me; and, turning upon his heel, exclaimed, "well said, my cock! crow away! have a care you do not burst!" and, as he shut the door upon me, mimicked the voice of the animal he mentioned. this rejoinder brought me to myself in a moment, and showed me the impotence of the resentment i was expressing. but, though he thus put an end to the violence of my speech, the torture of my body continued as great as ever. i was determined to change my mode of attack. the same turnkey returned in a few minutes; and, as he approached me, to put down some food he had brought, i slipped a shilling into his hand, saying at the same time, "my good fellow, for god's sake, go to the surgeon; i am sure you do not wish me to perish for want of assistance." the fellow put the shilling into his pocket, looked hard at me, and then with one nod of his head, and without uttering a single word, went away. the surgeon presently after made his appearance; and, finding the part in a high state of inflammation, ordered certain applications, and gave peremptory directions that the fetter should not be replaced upon that leg, till a cure had been effected. it was a full month before the leg was perfectly healed, and made equally strong and flexible with the other. the condition in which i was now placed, was totally different from that which had preceded this attempt. i was chained all day in my dungeon, with no other mitigation, except that the door was regularly opened for a few hours in an afternoon, at which time some of the prisoners occasionally came and spoke to me, particularly one, who, though he could ill replace my benevolent brightwel, was not deficient in excellent qualities. this was no other than the individual whom mr. falkland had, some months before, dismissed upon an accusation of murder. his courage was gone, his garb was squalid, and the comeliness and clearness of his countenance was utterly obliterated. he also was innocent, worthy, brave, and benevolent. he was, i believe, afterwards acquitted, and turned loose, to wander a desolate and perturbed spectre through the world. my manual labours were now at an end; my dungeon was searched every night, and every kind of tool carefully kept from me. the straw, which had been hitherto allowed me, was removed, under pretence that it was adapted for concealment; and the only conveniences with which i was indulged, were a chair and a blanket. a prospect of some alleviation in no long time opened upon me; but this my usual ill fortune rendered abortive. the keeper once more made his appearance, and with his former constitutional and ambiguous humanity. he pretended to be surprised at my want of every accommodation. he reprehended in strong terms my attempt to escape, and observed, that there must be an end of civility from people in his situation, if gentlemen, after all, would not know when they were well. it was necessary, in cases the like of this, to let the law take its course; and it would be ridiculous in me to complain, if, after a regular trial, things should go hard with me. he was desirous of being in every respect my friend, if i would let him. in the midst of this circumlocution and preamble, he was called away from me, for something relating to the business of his office. in the mean time i ruminated upon his overtures; and, detesting as i did the source from which i conceived them to flow, i could not help reflecting how far it would be possible to extract from them the means of escape. but my meditations in this case were vain. the keeper returned no more during the remainder of that day, and, on the next, an incident occurred which put an end to all expectations from his kindness. an active mind, which has once been forced into any particular train, can scarcely be persuaded to desert it as hopeless. i had studied my chains, during the extreme anguish that i endured from the pressure of the fetter upon the ankle which had been sprained; and though, from the swelling and acute sensibility of the part, i had found all attempts at relief, in that instance, impracticable, i obtained, from the coolness of my investigation, another and apparently superior advantage. during the night, my dungeon was in a complete state of darkness; but, when the door was open, the case was somewhat different. the passage indeed into which it opened, was so narrow, and the opposite dead wall so near, that it was but a glimmering and melancholy light that entered my apartment, even at full noon, and when the door was at its widest extent. but my eyes, after a practice of two or three weeks, accommodated themselves to this circumstance, and i learned to distinguish the minutest object. one day, as i was alternately meditating and examining the objects around me, i chanced to observe a nail trodden into the mud-floor at no great distance from me. i immediately conceived the desire of possessing myself of this implement; but, for fear of surprise, people passing perpetually to and fro, i contented myself, for the present, with remarking its situation so accurately, that i might easily find it again in the dark. accordingly, as soon as my door was shut, i seized upon this new treasure, and, having contrived to fashion it to my purpose, found that i could unlock with it the padlock that fastened me to the staple in the floor. this i regarded as no inconsiderable advantage, separately from the use i might derive from it in relation to my principal object. my chain permitted me to move only about eighteen inches to the right or left; and, having borne this confinement for several weeks, my very heart leaped at the pitiful consolation of being able to range, without constraint, the miserable coop in which i was immured. this incident had occurred several days previously to the last visit of my keeper. from this time it had been my constant practice to liberate myself every night, and not to replace things in their former situation till i awoke in the morning, and expected shortly to perceive the entrance of the turnkey. security breeds negligence. on the morning succeeding my conference with the jailor, it so happened, whether i overslept myself, or the turnkey went his round earlier than usual, that i was roused from my sleep by the noise he made in opening the cell next to my own; and though i exerted the utmost diligence, yet having to grope for my materials in the dark, i was unable to fasten the chain to the staple, before he entered, as usual, with his lantern. he was extremely surprised to find me disengaged, and immediately summoned the principal keeper. i was questioned respecting my method of proceeding; and, as i believed concealment could lead to nothing but a severer search, and a more accurate watch, i readily acquainted them with the exact truth. the illustrious personage, whose functions it was to control the inhabitants of these walls, was, by this last instance, completely exasperated against me. artifice and fair speaking were at an end. his eyes sparkled with fury; he exclaimed, that he was now convinced of the folly of showing kindness to rascals, the scum of the earth, such as i was; and, damn him, if any body should catch him at that again towards any one. i had cured him effectually! he was astonished that the laws had not provided some terrible retaliation for thieves that attempted to deceive their jailors. hanging was a thousand times too good for me! having vented his indignation, he proceeded to give such orders as the united instigations of anger and alarm suggested to his mind. my apartment was changed. i was conducted to a room called the strong room, the door of which opened into the middle cell of the range of dungeons. it was under-ground, as they were, and had also the day-room for felons, already described, immediately over it. it was spacious and dreary. the door had not been opened for years; the air was putrid; and the walls hung round with damps and mildew. the fetters, the padlock, and the staple, were employed, as in the former case, in addition to which they put on me a pair of handcuffs. for my first provision, the keeper sent me nothing but a bit of bread, mouldy and black, and some dirty and stinking water. i know not indeed whether this is to be regarded as gratuitous tyranny on the part of the jailor; the law having providently directed, in certain cases, that the water to be administered to the prisoners shall be taken from "the next sink or puddle nearest to the jail."[e] it was further ordered, that one of the turnkeys should sleep in the cell that formed a sort of anti-chamber to my apartment. though every convenience was provided, to render this chamber fit for the reception of a personage of a dignity so superior to the felon he was appointed to guard, he expressed much dissatisfaction at the mandate: but there was no alternative. [footnote e: in the case of the _peine forte et dure_. see state trials, vol. i. _anno_ 1615.] the situation to which i was thus removed was, apparently, the most undesirable that could be imagined but i was not discouraged; i had for some time learned not to judge by appearances. the apartment was dark and unwholesome; but i had acquired the secret of counteracting these influences. my door was kept continually shut, and the other prisoners were debarred access to me; but if the intercourse of our fellow-men has its pleasure, solitude, on the other hand, is not without its advantages. in solitude we can pursue our own thoughts undisturbed; and i was able to call up at will the most pleasing avocations. besides which, to one who meditated such designs as now filled my mind, solitude had peculiar recommendations. i was scarcely left to myself, before i tried an experiment, the idea of which i conceived, while they were fixing my handcuffs; and, with my teeth only, disengaged myself from this restraint. the hours at which i was visited by the keepers were regular, and i took care to be provided for them. add to which, i had a narrow grated window near the ceiling, about nine inches in perpendicular, and a foot and a half horizontally, which, though small, admitted a much stronger light than that to which i had been accustomed for several weeks. thus circumstanced, i scarcely ever found myself in total darkness, and was better provided against surprises than i had been in my preceding situation. such were the sentiments which this change of abode immediately suggested. i had been a very little time removed, when i received an unexpected visit from thomas, mr. falkland's footman, whom i have already mentioned in the course of my narrative. a servant of mr. forester happened to come to the town where i was imprisoned, a few weeks before, while i was confined with the hurt in my ankle, and had called in to see me. the account he gave of what he observed had been the source of many an uneasy sensation to thomas. the former visit was a matter of mere curiosity; but thomas was of the better order of servants. he was considerably struck at the sight of me. though my mind was now serene, and my health sufficiently good, yet the floridness of my complexion was gone, and there was a rudeness in my physiognomy, the consequence of hardship and fortitude, extremely unlike the sleekness of my better days. thomas looked alternately in my face, at my hands, and my feet; and then fetched a deep sigh. after a pause, "lord bless us!" said he, in a voice in which commiseration was sufficiently perceptible, "is this you?" "why not, thomas? you knew i was sent to prison, did not you?" "prison! and must people in prison be shackled and bound of that fashion?--and where do you lay of nights?" "here." "here? why there is no bed!" "no, thomas, i am not allowed a bed. i had straw formerly, but that is taken away." "and do they take off them there things of nights?" "no; i am expected to sleep just as you see." "sleep! why i thought this was a christian country; but this usage is too bad for a dog." "you must not say so, thomas; it is what the wisdom of government has thought fit to provide." "zounds, how i have been deceived! they told me what a fine thing it was to be an englishman, and about liberty and property, and all that there; and i find it is all a flam. lord, what fools we be! things are done under our very noses, and we know nothing of the matter; and a parcel of fellows with grave faces swear to us, that such things never happen but in france, and other countries the like of that. why, you ha'n't been tried, ha' you?" "no." "and what signifies being tried, when they do worse than hang a man, and all beforehand? well, master williams, you have been very wicked to be sure, and i thought it would have done me good to see you hanged. but, i do not know how it is, one's heart melts, and pity comes over one, if we take time to cool. i know that ought not to be; but, damn it, when i talked of your being hanged, i did not think of your suffering all this into the bargain." soon after this conversation thomas left me. the idea of the long connection of our families rushed upon his memory, and he felt more for my sufferings, at the moment, than i did for myself. in the afternoon i was surprised to see him again. he said that he could not get the thought of me out of his mind, and therefore he hoped i would not be displeased at his coming once more to take leave of me. i could perceive that he had something upon his mind, which he did not know how to discharge. one of the turnkeys had each time come into the room with him, and continued as long as he staid. upon some avocation however--a noise, i believe, in the passage--the turnkey went as far as the door to satisfy his curiosity; and thomas, watching the opportunity, slipped into my hand a chisel, a file, and a saw, exclaiming at the same time with a sorrowful tone, "i know i am doing wrong; but, if they hang me too, i cannot help it; i cannot do no other. for christ's sake, get out of this place; i cannot bear the thoughts of it!" i received the implements with great joy, and thrust them into my bosom; and, as soon as he was gone, concealed them in the rushes of my chair. for himself he had accomplished the object for which he came, and presently after bade me farewell. the next day, the keepers, i know not for what reason, were more than usually industrious in their search, saying, though without assigning any ground for their suspicion, that they were sure i had some tool in my possession that i ought not; but the depository i had chosen escaped them. i waited from this time the greater part of a week, that i might have the benefit of a bright moonlight. it was necessary that i should work in the night; it was necessary that my operations should be performed between the last visit of the keepers at night and their first in the morning, that is, between nine in the evening and seven. in my dungeon, as i have already said, i passed fourteen or sixteen hours of the four-and-twenty undisturbed; but since i had acquired a character for mechanical ingenuity, a particular exception with respect to me was made from the general rules of the prison. it was ten o'clock when i entered on my undertaking. the room in which i was confined was secured with a double door. this was totally superfluous for the purpose of my detention, since there was a sentinel planted on the outside. but it was very fortunate for my plan; because these doors prevented the easy communication of sound, and afforded me tolerable satisfaction that, with a little care in my mode of proceeding, i might be secure against the danger of being overheard. i first took off my handcuffs. i then filed through my fetters; and next performed the same service to three of the iron bars that secured my window, to which i climbed, partly by the assistance of my chair, and partly by means of certain irregularities in the wall. all this was the work of more than two hours. when the bars were filed through, i easily forced them a little from the perpendicular, and then drew them, one by one, out of the wall, into which they were sunk about three inches perfectly straight, and without any precaution to prevent their being removed. but the space thus obtained was by no means wide enough to admit the passing of my body. i therefore applied myself, partly with my chisel, and partly with one of the iron bars, to the loosening the brick-work; and when i had thus disengaged four or five bricks, i got down and piled them upon the floor. this operation i repeated three or four times the space was now sufficient for my purpose: and, having crept through the opening, i stepped upon a shed on the outside. i was now in a kind of rude area between two dead walls, that south of the felons' day-room (the windows of which were at the east end) and the wall of the prison. but i had not, as formerly, any instruments to assist me in scaling the wall, which was of considerable height. there was, of consequence, no resource for me but that of effecting a practicable breach in the lower part of the wall, which was of no contemptible strength, being of stone on the outside, with a facing of brick within. the rooms for the debtors were at right angles with the building from which i had just escaped; and, as the night was extremely bright, i was in momentary danger, particularly in case of the least noise, of being discovered by them, several of their windows commanding this area. thus circumstanced, i determined to make the shed answer the purpose of concealment. it was locked; but, with the broken link of my fetters, which i had had the precaution to bring with me, i found no great difficulty in opening the lock. i had now got a sufficient means of hiding my person while i proceeded in my work, attended with no other disadvantage than that of being obliged to leave the door, through which i had thus broken, a little open for the sake of light. after some time, i had removed a considerable part of the brick-work of the outer wall; but, when i came to the stone, i found the undertaking infinitely more difficult. the mortar which bound together the building was, by length of time, nearly petrified, and appeared to my first efforts one solid rock of the hardest adamant. i had now been six hours incessantly engaged in incredible labour: my chisel broke in the first attempt upon this new obstacle; and between fatigue already endured, and the seemingly invincible difficulty before me, i concluded that i must remain where i was, and gave up the idea of further effort as useless. at the same time the moon, whose light had till now been of the greatest use to me, set, and i was left in total darkness. after a respite of ten minutes however, i returned to the attack with new vigour. it could not be less than two hours before the first stone was loosened from the edifice. in one hour more, the space was sufficient to admit of my escape. the pile of bricks i had left in the strong room was considerable. but it was a mole-hill compared with the ruins i had forced from the outer wall. i am fully assured that the work i had thus performed would have been to a common labourer, with every advantage of tools, the business of two or three days. but my difficulties, instead of being ended, seemed to be only begun. the day broke, before i had completed the opening, and in ten minutes more the keepers would probably enter my apartment, and perceive the devastation i had left. the lane, which connected the side of the prison through which i had escaped with the adjacent country, was formed chiefly by two dead walls, with here and there a stable, a few warehouses, and some mean habitations, tenanted by the lower order of people. my best security lay in clearing the town as soon as possible, and depending upon the open country for protection. my arms were intolerably swelled and bruised with my labour, and my strength seemed wholly exhausted with fatigue. speed i was nearly unable to exert for any continuance; and, if i could, with the enemy so close at my heels, speed would too probably have been useless. it appeared as if i were now in almost the same situation as that in which i had been placed five or six weeks before, in which, after having completed my escape, i was obliged to yield myself up, without resistance, to my pursuers. i was not however disabled as then; i was capable of exertion, to what precise extent i could not ascertain; and i was well aware, that every instance in which i should fail of my purpose would contribute to enhance the difficulty of any future attempt. such were the considerations that presented themselves in relation to my escape; and, even if that were effected, i had to reckon among my difficulties, that, at the time i quitted my prison, i was destitute of every resource, and had not a shilling remaining in the world. end of the second volume. * * * * * volume the third. chapter i. i passed along the lane i have described, without perceiving or being observed by a human being. the doors were shut, the window-shutters closed, and all was still as night. i reached the extremity of the lane unmolested. my pursuers, if they immediately followed, would know that the likelihood was small, of my having in the interval found shelter in this place; and would proceed without hesitation, as i on my part was obliged to do, from the end nearest to the prison to its furthest termination. the face of the country, in the spot to which i had thus opened myself a passage, was rude and uncultivated. it was overgrown with brushwood and furze; the soil was for the most part of a loose sand; and the surface extremely irregular. i climbed a small eminence, and could perceive, not very remote in the distance, a few cottages thinly scattered. this prospect did not altogether please me; i conceived that my safety would, for the present, be extremely assisted, by keeping myself from the view of any human being. i therefore came down again into the valley, and upon a careful examination perceived that it was interspersed with cavities, some deeper than others, but all of them so shallow, as neither to be capable of hiding a man, nor of exciting suspicion as places of possible concealment. meanwhile the day had but just begun to dawn; the morning was lowering and drizzly; and, though the depth of these caverns was of course well known to the neighbouring inhabitants, the shadows they cast were so black and impenetrable, as might well have produced wider expectations in the mind of a stranger. poor therefore as was the protection they were able to afford, i thought it right to have recourse to it for the moment, as the best the emergency would supply. it was for my life; and, the greater was the jeopardy to which it was exposed, the more dear did that life seem to become to my affections. the recess i chose, as most secure, was within little more than a hundred yards of the end of the lane, and the extreme buildings of the town. i had not stood up in this manner two minutes, before i heard the sound of feet, and presently saw the ordinary turnkey and another pass the place of my retreat. they were so close to me that, if i had stretched out my hand, i believe i could have caught hold of their clothes, without so much as changing my posture. as no part of the overhanging earth intervened between me and them, i could see them entire, though the deepness of the shade rendered me almost completely invisible. i heard them say to each other, in tones of vehement asperity, "curse the rascal! which way can he be gone?" the reply was, "damn him! i wish we had him but safe once again!"--"never fear!" rejoined the first; "he cannot have above half a mile the start of us." they were presently out of hearing; for, as to sight, i dared not advance my body, so much as an inch, to look after them, lest i should be discovered by my pursuers in some other direction. from the very short time that elapsed, between my escape and the appearance of these men, i concluded that they had made their way through the same outlet as i had done, it being impossible that they could have had time to come, from the gate of the prison, and so round a considerable part of the town, as they must otherwise have done. i was so alarmed at this instance of diligence on the part of the enemy, that, for some time, i scarcely ventured to proceed an inch from my place of concealment, or almost to change my posture. the morning, which had been bleak and drizzly, was succeeded by a day of heavy and incessant rain; and the gloomy state of the air and surrounding objects, together with the extreme nearness of my prison, and a total want of food, caused me to pass the hours in no very agreeable sensations. this inclemency of the weather however, which generated a feeling of stillness and solitude, encouraged me by degrees to change my retreat, for another of the same nature, out of somewhat greater security. i hovered with little variation about a single spot, as long as the sun continued above the horizon. towards evening, the clouds began to disperse, and the moon shone, as on the preceding night, in full brightness. i had perceived no human creature during the whole day, except in the instance already mentioned. this had perhaps been owing to the nature of the day; at all events i considered it as too hazardous an experiment, to venture from my hiding-place in so clear and fine a night. i was therefore obliged to wait for the setting of this luminary, which was not till near five o'clock in the morning. my only relief during this interval was to allow myself to sink to the bottom of my cavern, it being scarcely possible for me to continue any longer on my feet. here i fell into an interrupted and unrefreshing doze, the consequence of a laborious night, and a tedious, melancholy day; though i rather sought to avoid sleep, which, cooperating with the coldness of the season, would tend more to injury than advantage. the period of darkness, which i had determined to use for the purpose of removing to a greater distance from my prison, was, in its whole duration, something less than three hours. when i rose from my seat, i was weak with hunger and fatigue, and, which was worse, i seemed, between the dampness of the preceding day and the sharp, clear frost of the night, to have lost the command of my limbs. i stood up and shook myself; i leaned against the side of the hill, impelling in different directions the muscles of the extremities; and at length recovered in some degree the sense of feeling. this operation was attended with an incredible aching pain, and required no common share of resolution to encounter and prosecute it. having quitted my retreat, i at first advanced with weak and tottering steps; but, as i proceeded, increased my pace. the barren heath, which reached to the edge of the town, was, at least on this side, without a path; but the stars shone, and, guiding myself by them, i determined to steer as far as possible from the hateful scene where i had been so long confined. the line i pursued was of irregular surface, sometimes obliging me to climb a steep ascent, and at others to go down into a dark and impenetrable dell. i was often compelled, by the dangerousness of the way, to deviate considerably from the direction i wished to pursue. in the mean time i advanced with as much rapidity as these and similar obstacles would permit me to do. the swiftness of the motion, and the thinness of the air, restored to me my alacrity. i forgot the inconveniences under which i laboured, and my mind became lively, spirited, and enthusiastic. i had now reached the border of the heath, and entered upon what is usually termed the forest. strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that, in this conjuncture, exhausted with hunger, destitute of all provision for the future, and surrounded with the most alarming dangers, my mind suddenly became glowing, animated, and cheerful. i thought that, by this time, the most formidable difficulties of my undertaking were surmounted; and i could not believe that, after having effected so much, i should find any thing invincible in what remained to be done. i recollected the confinement i had undergone, and the fate that had impended over me, with horror. never did man feel more vividly, than i felt at that moment, the sweets of liberty. never did man more strenuously prefer poverty with independence, to the artificial allurements of a life of slavery. i stretched forth my arms with rapture; i clapped my hands one upon the other, and exclaimed, "ah, this is indeed to be a man! these wrists were lately galled with fetters; all my motions, whether i rose up or sat down, were echoed to with the clanking of chains; i was tied down like a wild beast, and could not move but in a circle of a few feet in circumference. now i can run fleet as a greyhound, and leap like a young roe upon the mountains. oh, god! (if god there be that condescends to record the lonely beatings of an anxious heart) thou only canst tell with what delight a prisoner, just broke forth from his dungeon, hugs the blessings of new-found liberty! sacred and indescribable moment, when man regains his rights! but lately i held my life in jeopardy, because one man was unprincipled enough to assert what he knew to be false; i was destined to suffer an early and inexorable death from the hands of others, because none of them had penetration enough to distinguish from falsehood, what i uttered with the entire conviction of a full-fraught heart! strange, that men, from age to age, should consent to hold their lives at the breath of another, merely that each in his turn may have a power of acting the tyrant according to law! oh, god! give me poverty! shower upon me all the imaginary hardships of human life! i will receive them all with thankfulness. turn me a prey to the wild beasts of the desert, so i be never again the victim of man, dressed in the gore-dripping robes of authority! suffer me at least to call life, and the pursuits of life, my own! let me hold it at the mercy of the elements, of the hunger of beasts, or the revenge of barbarians, but not of the cold-blooded prudence of monopolists and kings!"--how enviable was the enthusiasm which could thus furnish me with energy, in the midst of hunger, poverty, and universal desertion! i had now walked at least six miles. at first i carefully avoided the habitations that lay in my way, and feared to be seen by any of the persons to whom they belonged, lest it should in any degree furnish a clue to the researches of my pursuers. as i went forward, i conceived it might be proper to relax a part of my precaution. at this time i perceived several persons coming out of a thicket close to me. i immediately considered this circumstance as rather favourable than the contrary. it was necessary for me to avoid entering any of the towns and villages in the vicinity. it was however full time that i should procure for myself some species of refreshment, and by no means improbable that these men might be in some way assisting to me in that respect. in my situation it appeared to me indifferent what might be their employment or profession. i had little to apprehend from thieves, and i believed that they, as well as honest men, could not fail to have some compassion for a person under my circumstances. i therefore rather threw myself in their way than avoided them. they were thieves. one of the company cried out, "who goes there? stand!" i accosted them; "gentlemen," said i, "i am a poor traveller, almost"--while i spoke, they came round me; and he that had first hailed me, said, "damn me, tip us none of your palaver; we have heard that story of a poor traveller any time these five years. come, down with your dust! let us see what you have got!"--"sir," i replied, "i have not a shilling in the world, and am more than half starved beside."--"not a shilling!" answered my assailant, "what, i suppose you are as poor as a thief? but, if you have not money, you have clothes, and those you must resign." "my clothes!" rejoined i with indignation, "you cannot desire such a thing. is it not enough that i am pennyless? i have been all night upon the open heath. it is now the second day that i have not eaten a morsel of bread. would you strip me naked to the weather in the midst of this depopulated forest? no, no, you are men! the same hatred of oppression, that arms you against the insolence of wealth, will teach you to relieve those who are perishing like me. for god's sake, give me food! do not strip me of the comforts i still possess!" while i uttered this apostrophe, the unpremeditated eloquence of sentiment, i could perceive by their gestures, though the day had not yet begun to dawn, that the feelings of one or two of the company appeared to take my part. the man, who had already undertaken to be their spokesman, perceived the same thing; and, excited either by the brutality of his temper or the love of command, hastened to anticipate the disgrace of a defeat. he brushed suddenly up to me, and by main force pushed me several feet from the place where i stood. the shock i received drove me upon a second of the gang, not one of those who had listened to my expostulation; and he repeated the brutality. my indignation was strongly excited by this treatment; and, after being thrust backward and forward two or three times in this manner, i broke through my assailants, and turned round to defend myself. the first that advanced within my reach, was my original enemy. in the present moment i listened to nothing but the dictates of passion, and i laid him at his length on the earth. i was immediately assailed with sticks and bludgeons on all sides, and presently received a blow that almost deprived me of my senses. the man i had knocked down was now upon his feet again, and aimed a stroke at me with a cutlass as i fell, which took place in a deep wound upon my neck and shoulder. he was going to repeat his blow. the two who had seemed to waver at first in their animosity, afterwards appeared to me to join in the attack, urged either by animal sympathy or the spirit of imitation. one of them however, as i afterwards, understood seized the arm of the man who was going to strike me a second time with his cutlass, and who would otherwise probably have put an end to my existence. i could hear the words, "damn it, enough, enough! that is too bad, gines!"--"how so?" replied a second voice; "he will but pine here upon the forest, and die by inches: it will be an act of charity to put him out of his pain."--it will be imagined that i was not uninterested in this sort of debate. i made an effort to speak; my voice failed me. i stretched out one hand with a gesture of entreaty. "you shall not strike, by god!" said one of the voices; "why should we be murderers?"--the side of forbearance at length prevailed. they therefore contented themselves with stripping me of my coat and waistcoat, and rolling me into a dry ditch. they then left me totally regardless of my distressed condition, and the plentiful effusion of blood, which streamed from my wound. chapter ii. in this woeful situation, though extremely weak, i was not deprived of sense. i tore my shirt from my naked body, and endeavoured, with some success, to make of it a bandage to staunch the flowing of the blood. i then exerted myself to crawl up the side of the ditch. i had scarcely effected the latter, when, with equal surprise and joy, i perceived a man advancing at no great distance. i called for help as well as i could. the man came towards me with evident signs of compassion, and the appearance i exhibited was indeed sufficiently calculated to excite it. i had no hat. my hair was dishevelled, and the ends of the locks clotted with blood. my shirt was wrapped about my neck and shoulders, and was plentifully stained with red. my body, which was naked to my middle, was variegated with streams of blood; nor had my lower garments, which were white, by any means escaped. "for god's sake, my good fellow!" said he, with a tone of the greatest imaginable kindness, "how came you thus?" and, saying this, he lifted me up, and set me on my feet. "can you stand?" added he, doubtfully. "oh, yes, very well," i replied. having received this answer, he quitted me, and began to take off his own coat, that he might cover me from the cold. i had however over-rated my strength, and was no sooner left to myself than i reeled, and fell almost at my length upon the ground. but i broke my fall by stretching out my sound arm, and again raised myself upon my knees. my benefactor now covered me, raised me, and, bidding me lean upon him, told me he would presently conduct me to a place where i should be taken care of. courage is a capricious property; and, though while i had no one to depend upon but myself, i possessed a mine of seemingly inexhaustible fortitude, yet no sooner did i find this unexpected sympathy on the part of another, than my resolution appeared to give way, and i felt ready to faint. my charitable conductor perceived this, and every now and then encouraged me, in a manner so cheerful, so good humoured and benevolent, equally free from the torture of droning expostulation, and the weakness of indulgence, that i thought myself under the conduct of an angel rather than a man. i could perceive that his behaviour had in it nothing of boorishness, and that he was thoroughly imbued with the principles of affectionate civility. we walked about three quarters of a mile, and that not towards the open, but the most uncouth and unfrequented part of the forest. we crossed a place which had once been a moat, but which was now in some parts dry, and in others contained a little muddy and stagnated water. within the enclosure of this moat, i could only discover a pile of ruins, and several walls, the upper part of which seemed to overhang their foundations, and to totter to their ruin. after having entered however with my conductor through an archway, and passed along a winding passage that was perfectly dark, we came to a stand. at the upper end of this passage was a door, which i was unable to perceive. my conductor knocked at the door, and was answered by a voice from within, which, for body and force, might have been the voice of a man, but with a sort of female sharpness and acidity, enquiring, "who is there?" satisfaction was no sooner given on this point, than i heard two bolts pushed back, and the door unlocked. the apartment opened, and we entered. the interior of this habitation by no means corresponded with the appearance of my protector, but, on the contrary, wore the face of discomfort, carelessness, and dirt. the only person i saw within was a woman, rather advanced in life, and whose person had i know not what of extraordinary and loathsome. her eyes were red and blood-shot; her hair was pendent in matted and shaggy tresses about her shoulders; her complexion swarthy, and of the consistency of parchment; her form spare, and her whole body, her arms in particular, uncommonly vigorous and muscular. not the milk of human kindness, but the feverous blood of savage ferocity, seemed to flow from her heart; and her whole figure suggested an idea of unmitigable energy, and an appetite gorged in malevolence. this infernal thalestris had no sooner cast her eyes upon us as we entered, than she exclaimed in a discordant and discontented voice, "what have we got here? this is not one of our people!" my conductor, without answering this apostrophe, bade her push an easy chair which stood in one corner, and set it directly before the fire. this she did with apparent reluctance, murmuring, "ah! you are at your old tricks; i wonder what such folks as we have to do with charity! it will be the ruin of us at last, i can see that!"--"hold your tongue, beldam!" said he, with a stern significance of manner, "and fetch one of my best shirts, a waistcoat, and some dressings." saying this, he at the same time put into her hand a small bunch of keys. in a word, he treated me with as much kindness as if he had been my father. he examined my wound, washed and dressed it; at the same time that the old woman, by his express order, prepared for me such nourishment as he thought most suitable to my weak and languid condition. these operations were no sooner completed than my benefactor recommended to me to retire to rest, and preparations were making for that purpose, when suddenly a trampling of feet was heard, succeeded by a knock at the door. the old woman opened the door with the same precautions as had been employed upon our arrival, and immediately six or seven persons tumultuously entered the apartment. their appearance was different, some having the air of mere rustics, and others that of a tarnished sort of gentry. all had a feature of boldness, inquietude, and disorder, extremely unlike any thing i had before observed in such a group. but my astonishment was still increased, when upon a second glance i perceived something in the general air of several of them, and of one in particular, that persuaded me they were the gang from which i had just escaped, and this one the antagonist by whose animosity i was so near having been finally destroyed. i imagined they had entered the hovel with a hostile intention, that my benefactor was upon the point of being robbed, and i probably murdered. this suspicion however was soon removed. they addressed my conductor with respect, under the appellation of captain. they were boisterous and noisy in their remarks and exclamations, but their turbulence was tempered by a certain deference to his opinion and authority. i could observe in the person who had been my active opponent some awkwardness and irresolution as he first perceived me, which he dismissed with a sort of effort, exclaiming, "who the devil is here?" there was something in the tone of this apostrophe that roused the attention of my protector. he looked at the speaker with a fixed and penetrating glance, and then said, "nay, gines, do you know? did you ever see the person before?"--"curse it, gines!" interrupted a third, "you are damnably out of luck. they say dead men walk, and you see there is some truth in it."--"truce with your impertinence, jeckols!" replied my protector: "this is no proper occasion for a joke. answer me, gines, were you the cause of this young man being left naked and wounded this bitter morning upon the forest?" "mayhap i was. what then?" "what provocation could induce you to so cruel a treatment?" "provocation enough. he had no money." "what, did you use him thus, without so much as being irritated by any resistance on his part?" "yes, he did resist. i only hustled him, and he had the impudence to strike me." "gines! you are an incorrigible fellow." "pooh, what signifies what i am? you, with your compassion, and your fine feelings, will bring us all to the gallows." "i have nothing to say to you; i have no hopes of you! comrades, it is for you to decide upon the conduct of this man as you think proper. you know how repeated his offences have been; you know what pains i have taken to mend him. our profession is the profession of justice." [it is thus that the prejudices of men universally teach them to colour the most desperate cause to which they have determined to adhere.] "we, who are thieves without a licence, are at open war with another set of men who are thieves according to law. with such a cause then to bear us out, shall we stain it with cruelty, malice, and revenge? a thief is, of course, a man living among his equals; i do not pretend therefore to assume any authority among you; act as you think proper; but, so far as relates to myself, i vote that gines be expelled from among us as a disgrace to our society." this proposition seemed to meet the general sense. it was easy to perceive that the opinion of the rest coincided with that of their leader; notwithstanding which a few of them hesitated as to the conduct to be pursued. in the mean time gines muttered something in a surly and irresolute way, about taking care how they provoked him. this insinuation instantly roused the courage of my protector, and his eyes flashed with contempt. "rascal!" said he, "do you menace us? do you think we will be your slaves? no, no, do your worst! go to the next justice of the peace, and impeach us; i can easily believe you are capable of it. sir, when we entered into this gang, we were not such fools as not to know that we entered upon a service of danger. one of its dangers consists in the treachery of fellows like you. but we did not enter at first to flinch now. did you believe that we would live in hourly fear of you, tremble at your threats, and compromise, whenever you should so please, with your insolence? that would be a blessed life indeed! i would rather see my flesh torn piecemeal from my bones! go, sir! i defy you! you dare not do it! you dare not sacrifice these gallant fellows to your rage, and publish yourself to all the world a traitor and a scoundrel! if you do, you will punish yourself, not us! begone!" the intrepidity of the leader communicated itself to the rest of the company. gines easily saw that there was no hope of bringing them over to a contrary sentiment. after a short pause, he answered, "i did not mean--no, damn it! i will not snivel neither. i was always true to my principles, and a friend to you all. but since you are resolved to turn me out, why--good bye to you!" the expulsion of this man produced a remarkable improvement in the whole gang. those who were before inclined to humanity, assumed new energy in proportion as they saw such sentiments likely to prevail. they had before suffered themselves to be overborne by the boisterous insolence of their antagonist; but now they adopted, and with success, a different conduct. those who envied the ascendancy of their comrade, and therefore imitated his conduct, began to hesitate in their career. stories were brought forward of the cruelty and brutality of gines both to men and animals, which had never before reached the ear of the leader. the stories i shall not repeat. they could excite only emotions of abhorrence and disgust; and some of them argued a mind of such a stretch of depravity, as to many readers would appear utterly incredible; and yet this man had his virtues. he was enterprising, persevering, and faithful. his removal was a considerable benefit to me. it would have been no small hardship to have been turned adrift immediately under my unfavourable circumstances, with the additional disadvantage of the wound i had received; and yet i could scarcely have ventured to remain under the same roof with a man, to whom my appearance was as a guilty conscience, perpetually reminding him of his own offence, and the displeasure of his leader. his profession accustomed him to a certain degree of indifference to consequences, and indulgence to the sallies of passion; and he might easily have found his opportunity to insult or injure me, when i should have had nothing but my own debilitated exertions to protect me. freed from this danger, i found my situation sufficiently fortunate for a man under my circumstances. it was attended with all the advantages for concealment my fondest imagination could have hoped; and it was by no means destitute of the benefits which arise from kindness and humanity. nothing could be more unlike than the thieves i had seen in ---jail, and the thieves of my new residence. the latter were generally full of cheerfulness and merriment. they could expatiate freely wherever they thought proper. they could form plans and execute them. they consulted their inclinations. they did not impose upon themselves the task, as is too often the case in human society, of seeming tacitly to approve that from which they suffered most; or, which is worst, of persuading themselves that all the wrongs they suffered were right; but were at open war with their oppressors. on the contrary, the imprisoned felons i had lately seen were shut up like wild beasts in a cage, deprived of activity, and palsied with indolence. the occasional demonstrations that still remained of their former enterprising life were the starts and convulsions of disease, not the meditated and consistent exertions of a mind in health. they had no more of hope, of project, of golden and animated dreams, but were reserved to the most dismal prospects, and forbidden to think upon any other topic. it is true, that these two scenes were parts of one whole, the one the consummation, the hourly to be expected successor of the other. but the men i now saw were wholly inattentive to this, and in that respect appeared to hold no commerce with reflection or reason. i might in one view, as i have said, congratulate myself upon my present residence; it answered completely the purposes of concealment. it was the seat of merriment and hilarity; but the hilarity that characterised it produced no correspondent feelings in my bosom. the persons who composed this society had each of them cast off all control from established principle; their trade was terror, and their constant object to elude the vigilance of the community. the influence of these circumstances was visible in their character. i found among them benevolence and kindness: they were strongly susceptible of emotions of generosity. but, as their situation was precarious, their dispositions were proportionably fluctuating. inured to the animosity of their species, they were irritable and passionate. accustomed to exercise harshness towards the subject of their depredations, they did not always confine their brutality within that scope. they were habituated to consider wounds and bludgeons and stabbing as the obvious mode of surmounting every difficulty. uninvolved in the debilitating routine of human affairs, they frequently displayed an energy which, from every impartial observer, would have extorted veneration. energy is perhaps of all qualities the most valuable; and a just political system would possess the means of extracting from it, thus circumstanced, its beneficial qualities, instead of consigning it, as now, to indiscriminate destruction. we act like the chemist, who should reject the finest ore, and employ none but what was sufficiently debased to fit it immediately for the vilest uses. but the energy of these men, such as i beheld it, was in the highest degree misapplied, unassisted by liberal and enlightened views, and directed only to the most narrow and contemptible purposes. the residence i have been describing might to many persons have appeared attended with intolerable inconveniences. but, exclusively of its advantages as a field for speculation, it was elysium, compared with that from which i had just escaped. displeasing company, incommodious apartments, filthiness, and riot, lost the circumstance by which they could most effectually disgust, when i was not compelled to remain with them. all hardships i could patiently endure, in comparison with the menace of a violent and untimely death. there was no suffering that i could not persuade myself to consider as trivial, except that which flowed from the tyranny, the frigid precaution, or the inhuman revenge of my own species. my recovery advanced in the most favourable manner. the attention and kindness of my protector were incessant, and the rest caught the spirit from his example. the old woman who superintended the household still retained her animosity. she considered me as the cause of the expulsion of gines from the fraternity. gines had been the object of her particular partiality; and, zealous as she was for the public concern, she thought an old and experienced sinner for a raw probationer but an ill exchange. add to which, that her habits inclined her to moroseness and discontent, and that persons of her complexion seem unable to exist without some object upon which to pour out the superfluity of their gall. she lost no opportunity, upon the most trifling occasion, of displaying her animosity; and ever and anon eyed me with a furious glance of canine hunger for my destruction. nothing was more evidently mortifying to her, than the procrastination of her malice; nor could she bear to think that a fierceness so gigantic and uncontrollable should show itself in nothing more terrific than the pigmy spite of a chambermaid. for myself, i had been accustomed to the warfare of formidable adversaries, and the encounter of alarming dangers; and what i saw of her spleen had not power sufficient to disturb my tranquillity. as i recovered, i told my story, except so far as related to the detection of mr. falkland's eventful secret, to my protector. that particular i could not, as yet, prevail upon myself to disclose, even in a situation like this, which seemed to preclude the possibility of its being made use of to the disadvantage of my persecutor. my present auditor however, whose habits of thinking were extremely opposite to those of mr. forester, did not, from the obscurity which flowed from this reserve, deduce any unfavourable conclusion. his penetration was such, as to afford little room for an impostor to hope to mislead him by a fictitious statement, and he confided in that penetration. so confiding, the simplicity and integrity of my manner carried conviction to his mind, and insured his good opinion and friendship. he listened to my story with eagerness, and commented on the several parts as i related them. he said, that this was only one fresh instance of the tyranny and perfidiousness exercised by the powerful members of the community, against those who were less privileged than themselves. nothing could be more clear, than their readiness to sacrifice the human species at large to their meanest interest, or wildest caprice. who that saw the situation in its true light would wait till their oppressors thought fit to decree their destruction, and not take arms in their defence while it was yet in their power? which was most meritorious, the unresisting and dastardly submission of a slave, or the enterprise and gallantry of the man who dared to assert his claims? since, by the partial administration of our laws, innocence, when power was armed against it, had nothing better to hope for than guilt, what man of true courage would fail to set these laws at defiance, and, if he must suffer by their injustice, at least take care that he had first shown his contempt of their yoke? for himself, he should certainly never have embraced his present calling, had he not been stimulated to it by these cogent and irresistible reasons; and he hoped, as experience had so forcibly brought a conviction of this sort to my mind, that he should for the future have the happiness to associate me to his pursuits.--it will presently be seen with what event these hopes were attended. numerous were the precautions exercised by the gang of thieves with whom i now resided, to elude the vigilance of the satellites of justice. it was one of their rules to commit no depredations but at a considerable distance from the place of their residence; and gines had transgressed this regulation in the attack to which i was indebted for my present asylum. after having possessed themselves of any booty, they took care, in the sight of the persons whom they had robbed, to pursue a route as nearly as possible opposite to that which led to their true haunts. the appearance of their place of residence, together with its environs, was peculiarly desolate and forlorn, and it had the reputation of being haunted. the old woman i have described had long been its inhabitant, and was commonly supposed to be its only inhabitant; and her person well accorded with the rural ideas of a witch. her lodgers never went out or came in but with the utmost circumspection, and generally by night. the lights which were occasionally seen from various parts of her habitation, were, by the country people, regarded with horror as supernatural; and if the noise of revelry at any time saluted their ears, it was imagined to proceed from a carnival of devils. with all these advantages, the thieves did not venture to reside here but by intervals: they frequently absented themselves for months, and removed to a different part of the country. the old woman sometimes attended them in these transportations, and sometimes remained; but in all cases her decampment took place either sooner or later than theirs, so that the nicest observer could scarcely have traced any connection between her reappearance, and the alarms of depredation that were frequently given; and the festival of demons seemed, to the terrified rustics, indifferently to take place whether she were present or absent. chapter iii. one day, while i continued in this situation, a circumstance occurred which involuntarily attracted my attention. two of our people had been sent to a town at some distance, for the purpose of procuring us the things of which we were in want. after having delivered these to our landlady, they retired to one corner of the room; and, one of them pulling a printed paper from his pocket, they mutually occupied themselves in examining its contents. i was sitting in an easy chair by the fire, being considerably better than i had been, though still in a weak and languid state. having read for a considerable time, they looked at me, and then at the paper, and then at me again. they then went out of the room together, as if to consult without interruption upon something which that paper suggested to them. some time after they returned; and my protector, who had been absent upon the former occasion, entered the room at the same instant. "captain!" said one of them with an air of pleasure, "look here! we have found a prize! i believe it is as good as a bank-note of a hundred guineas." mr. raymond (that was his name) took the paper, and read. he paused for a moment. he then crushed the paper in his hand; and, turning to the person from whom he had received it, said, with the tone of a man confident in the success of his reasons,-"what use have you for these hundred guineas? are you in want? are you in distress? can you be contented to purchase them at the price of treachery--of violating the laws of hospitality?" "faith, captain, i do not very well know. after having violated other laws, i do not see why we should be frightened at an old saw. we pretend to judge for ourselves, and ought to be above shrinking from a bugbear of a proverb. beside, this is a good deed, and i should think no more harm of being the ruin of such a thief than of getting my dinner." "a thief! you talk of thieves!" "not so fast, captain. god defend that i should say a word against thieving as a general occupation! but one man steals in one way, and another in another. for my part, i go upon the highway, and take from any stranger i meet what, it is a hundred to one, he can very well spare. i see nothing to be found fault with in that. but i have as much conscience as another man. because i laugh at assizes, and great wigs, and the gallows, and because i will not be frightened from an innocent action when the lawyers say me nay, does it follow that i am to have a fellow-feeling for pilferers, and rascally servants, and people that have neither justice nor principle? no; i have too much respect for the trade not to be a foe to interlopers, and people that so much the more deserve my hatred, because the world calls them by my name." "you are wrong, larkins! you certainly ought not to employ against people that you hate, supposing your hatred to be reasonable, the instrumentality of that law which in your practice you defy. be consistent. either be the friend of the law, or its adversary. depend upon it that, wherever there are laws at all, there will be laws against such people as you and me. either therefore we all of us deserve the vengeance of the law, or law is not the proper instrument for correcting the misdeeds of mankind. i tell you this, because i would fain have you aware, that an informer or a king's evidence, a man who takes advantage of the confidence of another in order to betray him, who sells the life of his neighbour for money, or, coward-like, upon any pretence calls in the law to do that for him which he cannot or dares not do for himself, is the vilest of rascals. but in the present case, if your reasons were the best in the world, they do not apply." while mr. raymond was speaking, the rest of the gang came into the room. he immediately turned to them, and said,-"my friends, here is a piece of intelligence that larkins has just brought in which, with his leave, i will lay before you." then unfolding the paper he had received, he continued: "this is the description of a felon, with the offer of a hundred guineas for his apprehension. larking picked it up at ----. by the time and other circumstances, but particularly by the minute description of his person, there can be no doubt but the object of it is our young friend, whose life i was a while ago the instrument of saving. he is charged here with having taken advantage of the confidence of his patron and benefactor to rob him of property to a large amount. upon this charge he was committed to the county jail, from whence he made his escape about a fortnight ago, without venturing to stand his trial; a circumstance which is stated by the advertiser as tantamount to a confession of his guilt. "my friends, i was acquainted with the particulars of this story some time before. this lad let me into his history, at a time that he could not possibly foresee that he should stand in need of that precaution as an antidote against danger. he is not guilty of what is laid to his charge. which of you is so ignorant as to suppose, that his escape is any confirmation of his guilt? who ever thinks, when he is apprehended for trial, of his innocence or guilt as being at all material to the issue? who ever was fool enough to volunteer a trial, where those who are to decide think more of the horror of the thing of which he is accused, than whether he were the person that did it; and where the nature of our motives is to be collected from a set of ignorant witnesses, that no wise man would trust for a fair representation of the most indifferent action of his life? "the poor lad's story is a long one, and i will not trouble you with it now. but from that story it is as clear as the day, that, because he wished to leave the service of his master, because he had been perhaps a little too inquisitive in his master's concerns, and because, as i suspect, he had been trusted with some important secrets, his master conceived an antipathy against him. the antipathy gradually proceeded to such a length, as to induce the master to forge this vile accusation. he seemed willing to hang the lad out of the way, rather than suffer him to go where he pleased, or get beyond the reach of his power. williams has told me the story with such ingenuousness, that i am as sure that he is guiltless of what they lay to his charge, as that i am so myself. nevertheless the man's servants who were called in to hear the accusation, and his relation, who as justice of the peace made out the mittimus, and who had the folly to think he could be impartial, gave it on his side with one voice, and thus afforded williams a sample of what he had to expect in the sequel. "larkins, who when he received this paper had no previous knowledge of particulars, was for taking advantage of it for the purpose of earning the hundred guineas. are you of that mind now you have heard them? will you for so paltry a consideration deliver up the lamb into the jaws of the wolf? will you abet the purposes of this sanguinary rascal, who, not contented with driving his late dependent from house and home, depriving him of character and all the ordinary means of subsistence, and leaving him almost without a refuge, still thirsts for his blood? if no other person have the courage to set limits to the tyranny of courts of justice, shall not we? shall we, who earn our livelihood by generous daring, be indebted for a penny to the vile artifices of the informer? shall we, against whom the whole species is in arms, refuse our protection to an individual, more exposed to, but still less deserving of, their persecution than ourselves?" the representation of the captain produced an instant effect upon the whole company. they all exclaimed, "betray him! no, not for worlds! he is safe. we will protect him at the hazard of our lives. if fidelity and honour be banished from thieves, where shall they find refuge upon the face of the earth?"[f] larkins in particular thanked the captain for his interference, and swore that he would rather part with his right hand than injure so worthy a lad or assist such an unheard-of villainy. saying this, he took me by the hand and bade me fear nothing. under their roof no harm should ever befal me; and, even if the understrappers of the law should discover my retreat, they would to a man die in my defence, sooner than a hair of my head should be hurt. i thanked him most sincerely for his good-will; but i was principally struck with the fervent benevolence of my benefactor. i told them, i found that my enemies were inexorable, and would never be appeased but with my blood; and i assured them with the most solemn and earnest veracity, that i had done nothing to deserve the persecution which was exercised against me. [footnote f: this seems to be the parody of a celebrated saying of john king of france, who was taken prisoner by the black prince at the battle of poitiers.] the spirit and energy of mr. raymond had been such as to leave no part for me to perform in repelling this unlooked-for danger. nevertheless, it left a very serious impression upon my mind. i had always placed some confidence in the returning equity of mr. falkland. though he persecuted me with bitterness, i could not help believing that he did it unwillingly, and i was persuaded it would not be for ever. a man, whose original principles had been so full of rectitude and honour, could not fail at some time to recollect the injustice of his conduct, and to remit his asperity. this idea had been always present to me, and had in no small degree conspired to instigate my exertions. i said, "i will convince my persecutor that i am of more value than that i should be sacrificed purely by way of precaution." these expectations on my part had been encouraged by mr. falkland's behaviour upon the question of my imprisonment, and by various particulars which had occurred since. but this new incident gave the subject a totally different appearance. i saw him, not contented with blasting my reputation, confining me for a period in jail, and reducing me to the situation of a houseless vagabond, still continuing his pursuit under these forlorn circumstances with unmitigable cruelty. indignation and resentment seemed now for the first time to penetrate my mind. i knew his misery so well, i was so fully acquainted with its cause, and strongly impressed with the idea of its being unmerited, that, while i suffered deeply, i still continued to pity, rather than hate my persecutor. but this incident introduced some change into my feelings. i said, "surely he might now believe that he had sufficiently disarmed me, and might at length suffer me to be at peace. at least, ought he not to be contented to leave me to my fate, the perilous and uncertain condition of an escaped felon, instead of thus whetting the animosity and vigilance of my countrymen against me? were his interference on my behalf in opposition to the stern severity of mr. forester, and his various acts of kindness since, a mere part that he played in order to lull me into patience? was he perpetually haunted with the fear of an ample retaliation, and for that purpose did he personate remorse, at the very moment that he was secretly keeping every engine at play that could secure my destruction?" the very suspicion of such a fact filled me with inexpressible horror, and struck a sudden chill through every fibre of my frame. my wound was by this time completely healed, and it became absolutely necessary that i should form some determination respecting the future. my habits of thinking were such as gave me an uncontrollable repugnance to the vocation of my hosts. i did not indeed feel that aversion and abhorrence to the men which are commonly entertained. i saw and respected their good qualities and their virtues. i was by no means inclined to believe them worse men, or more hostile in their dispositions to the welfare of their species, than the generality of those that look down upon them with most censure. but, though i did not cease to love them as individuals, my eyes were perfectly open to their mistakes. if i should otherwise have been in danger of being misled, it was my fortune to have studied felons in a jail before i studied them in their state of comparative prosperity; and this was an infallible antidote to the poison. i saw that in this profession were exerted uncommon energy, ingenuity, and fortitude, and i could not help recollecting how admirably beneficial such qualities might be made in the great theatre of human affairs; while, in their present direction, they were thrown away upon purposes diametrically at war with the first interests of human society. nor were their proceedings less injurious to their own interest than incompatible with the general welfare. the man who risks or sacrifices his life for the public cause, is rewarded with the testimony of an approving conscience; but persons who wantonly defy the necessary, though atrociously exaggerated, precautions of government in the matter of property, at the same time that they commit an alarming hostility against the whole, are, as to their own concerns, scarcely less absurd and self-neglectful than the man who should set himself up as a mark for a file of musqueteers to shoot at. viewing the subject in this light, i not only determined that i would have no share in their occupation myself, but thought i could not do less, in return for the benefits i had received from them, than endeavour to dissuade them from an employment in which they must themselves be the greatest sufferers. my expostulation met with a various reception. all the persons to whom it was addressed had been tolerably successful in persuading themselves of the innocence of their calling; and what remained of doubt in their mind was smothered, and, so to speak, laboriously forgotten. some of them laughed at my arguments, as a ridiculous piece of missionary quixotism. others, and particularly our captain, repelled them with the boldness of a man that knows he has got the strongest side. but this sentiment of ease and self-satisfaction did not long remain. they had been used to arguments derived from religion and the sacredness of law. they had long ago shaken these from them as so many prejudices. but my view of the subject appealed to principles which they could not contest, and had by no means the air of that customary reproof which is for ever dinned in our ears without finding one responsive chord in our hearts. urged, as they now were, with objections unexpected and cogent, some of those to whom i addressed them began to grow peevish and impatient of the intrusive remonstrance. but this was by no means the case with mr. raymond. he was possessed of a candour that i have seldom seen equalled. he was surprised to hear objections so powerful to that which, as a matter of speculation, he believed he had examined on all sides. he revolved them with impartiality and care. he admitted them slowly, but he at length fully admitted them. he had now but one rejoinder in reserve. "alas! williams," said he, "it would have been fortunate for me if these views had been presented to me, previously to my embracing my present profession. it is now too late. those very laws which, by a perception of their iniquity, drove me to what i am, preclude my return. god, we are told, judges of men by what they are at the period of arraignment, and whatever be their crimes, if they have seen and abjured the folly of those crimes, receives them to favour. but the institutions of countries that profess to worship this god admit no such distinctions. they leave no room for amendment, and seem to have a brutal delight in confounding the demerits of offenders. it signifies not what is the character of the individual at the hour of trial. how changed, how spotless, and how useful, avails him nothing. if they discover at the distance of fourteen[g] or of forty years[h] an action for which the law ordains that his life shall be the forfeit, though the interval should have been spent with the purity of a saint and the devotedness of a patriot, they disdain to enquire into it. what then can i do? am i not compelled to go on in folly, having once begun?" [footnote g: eugene aram. see annual register for 1759.] [footnote h: william andrew home. ibid.] chapter iv. i was extremely affected by this plea. i could only answer, that mr. raymond must himself be the best judge of the course it became him to hold; i trusted the case was not so desperate as he imagined. this subject was pursued no further, and was in some degree driven from my thoughts by an incident of a very extraordinary nature. i have already mentioned the animosity that was entertained against me by the infernal portress of this solitary mansion. gines, the expelled member of the gang, had been her particular favourite. she submitted to his exile indeed, because her genius felt subdued by the energy and inherent superiority of mr. raymond; but she submitted with murmuring and discontent. not daring to resent the conduct of the principal in this affair, she collected all the bitterness of her spirit against me. to the unpardonable offence i had thus committed in the first instance, were added the reasonings i had lately offered against the profession of robbery. robbery was a fundamental article in the creed of this hoary veteran, and she listened to my objections with the same unaffected astonishment and horror that an old woman of other habits would listen to one who objected to the agonies and dissolution of the creator of the world, or to the garment of imputed righteousness prepared to envelope the souls of the elect. like the religious bigot, she was sufficiently disposed to avenge a hostility against her opinions with the weapons of sublunary warfare. meanwhile i had smiled at the impotence of her malice, as an object of contempt rather than alarm. she perceived, as i imagine, the slight estimation in which i held her, and this did not a little increase the perturbation of her thoughts. one day i was left alone, with no other person in the house than this swarthy sybil. the thieves had set out upon an expedition about two hours after sunset on the preceding evening, and had not returned, as they were accustomed to do, before day-break the next morning. this was a circumstance that sometimes occurred, and therefore did not produce any extraordinary alarm. at one time the scent of prey would lead them beyond the bounds they had prescribed themselves, and at another the fear of pursuit: the life of a thief is always uncertain. the old woman had been preparing during the night for the meal to which they would expect to sit down as soon as might be after their return. for myself, i had learned from their habits to be indifferent to the regular return of the different parts of the day, and in some degree to turn day into night, and night into day. i had been now several weeks in this residence, and the season was considerably advanced. i had passed some hours during the night in ruminating on my situation. the character and manners of the men among whom i lived were disgusting to me. their brutal ignorance, their ferocious habits, and their coarse behaviour, instead of becoming more tolerable by custom, hourly added force to my original aversion. the uncommon vigour of their minds, and acuteness of their invention in the business they pursued, compared with the odiousness of that business and their habitual depravity, awakened in me sensations too painful to be endured. moral disapprobation, at least in a mind unsubdued by philosophy, i found to be one of the most fertile sources of disquiet and uneasiness. from this pain the society of mr. raymond by no means relieved me. he was indeed eminently superior to the vices of the rest; but i did not less exquisitely feel how much he was out of his place, how disproportionably associated, or how contemptibly employed. i had attempted to counteract the errors under which he and his companions laboured; but i had found the obstacles that presented themselves greater than i had imagined. what was i to do? was i to wait the issue of this my missionary undertaking, or was i to withdraw myself immediately? when i withdrew, ought that to be done privately, or with an open avowal of my design, and an endeavour to supply by the force of example what was deficient in my arguments? it was certainly improper, as i declined all participation in the pursuits of these men, did not pay my contribution of hazard to the means by which they subsisted, and had no congeniality with their habits, that i should continue to reside with them longer than was absolutely necessary. there was one circumstance that rendered this deliberation particularly pressing. they intended in a few days removing from their present habitation, to a haunt to which they were accustomed, in a distant county. if i did not propose to continue with them, it would perhaps be wrong to accompany them in this removal. the state of calamity to which my inexorable prosecutor had reduced me, had made the encounter even of a den of robbers a fortunate adventure. but the time that had since elapsed, had probably been sufficient to relax the keenness of the quest that was made after me. i sighed for that solitude and obscurity, that retreat from the vexations of the world and the voice even of common fame, which i had proposed to myself when i broke my prison. such were the meditations which now occupied my mind. at length i grew fatigued with continual contemplation, and to relieve myself pulled out a pocket horace, the legacy of my beloved brightwel! i read with avidity the epistle in which he so beautifully describes to fuscus, the grammarian, the pleasures of rural tranquillity and independence. by this time the sun rose from behind the eastern hills, and i opened my casement to contemplate it. the day commenced with peculiar brilliancy, and was accompanied with all those charms which the poets of nature, as they have been styled, have so much delighted to describe. there was something in this scene, particularly as succeeding to the active exertions of intellect, that soothed the mind to composure. insensibly a confused reverie invaded my faculties; i withdrew from the window, threw myself upon the bed, and fell asleep. i do not recollect the precise images which in this situation passed through my thoughts, but i know that they concluded with the idea of some person, the agent of mr. falkland, approaching to assassinate me. this thought had probably been suggested by the project i meditated of entering once again into the world, and throwing myself within the sphere of his possible vengeance. i imagined that the design of the murderer was to come upon me by surprise, that i was aware of his design, and yet, by some fascination, had no thought of evading it. i heard the steps of the murderer as he cautiously approached. i seemed to listen to his constrained yet audible breathings. he came up to the corner where i was placed, and then stopped. the idea became too terrible; i started, opened my eyes, and beheld the execrable hag before mentioned standing over me with a butcher's cleaver. i shifted my situation with a speed that seemed too swift for volition, and the blow already aimed at my skull sunk impotent upon the bed. before she could wholly recover her posture, i sprung upon her, seized hold of the weapon, and had nearly wrested it from her. but in a moment she resumed her strength and her desperate purpose, and we had a furious struggle--she impelled by inveterate malice, and i resisting for my life. her vigour was truly amazonian, and at no time had i ever occasion to contend with a more formidable opponent. her glance was rapid and exact, and the shock with which from time to time she impelled her whole frame inconceivably vehement. at length i was victorious, took from her the instrument of death, and threw her upon the ground. till now the earnestness of her exertions had curbed her rage; but now she gnashed with her teeth, her eyes seemed as if starting from their sockets, and her body heaved with uncontrollable insanity. "rascal! devil!" she exclaimed, "what do you mean to do to me?" till now the scene had passed uninterrupted by a single word. "nothing," i replied: "begone, infernal witch! and leave me to myself." "leave you! no: i will thrust my fingers through your ribs, and drink your blood!--you conquer me?--ha, ha!--yes, yes; you shall!--i will sit upon you, and press you to hell! i will roast you with brimstone, and dash your entrails into your eyes! ha, ha!--ha!" saying this, she sprung up, and prepared to attack me with redoubled fury. i seized her hands, and compelled her to sit upon the bed. thus restrained, she continued to express the tumult of her thoughts by grinning, by certain furious motions of her head, and by occasional vehement efforts to disengage herself from my grasp. these contortions and starts were of the nature of those fits in which the patients are commonly supposed to need three or four persons to hold them. but i found by experience that, under the circumstances in which i was placed, my single strength was sufficient. the spectacle of her emotions was inconceivably frightful. her violence at length however began to abate, and she became convinced of the hopelessness of the contest. "let me go!" said she. "why do you hold me? i will not be held." "i wanted you gone from the first," replied i. "are you contented to go now?" "yes, i tell you, misbegotten villain! yes, rascal!" i immediately loosed my hold. she flew to the door, and, holding it in her hand, said, "i will be the death of you yet: you shall not be your own man twenty-four hours longer!" with these words she shut the door, and locked it upon me. an action so totally unexpected startled me. whither was she gone? what was it she intended? to perish by the machinations of such a hag as this was a thought not to be endured. death in any form brought upon us by surprise, and for which the mind has had no time to prepare, is inexpressibly terrible. my thoughts wandered in breathless horror and confusion, and all within was uproar. i endeavoured to break the door, but in vain. i went round the room in search of some tool to assist me. at length i rushed against it with a desperate effort, to which it yielded, and had nearly thrown me from the top of the stairs to the bottom. i descended with all possible caution and vigilance, i entered the room which served us for a kitchen, but it was deserted. i searched every other apartment in vain. i went out among the ruins; still i discovered nothing of my late assailant. it was extraordinary: what could be become of her? what was i to conclude from her disappearance! i reflected on her parting menace,--"i should not be my own man twenty-four hours longer." it was mysterious! it did not seem to be the menace of assassination. suddenly the recollection of the hand-bill brought to us by larkins rushed upon my memory. was it possible that she alluded to that in her parting words? would she set out upon such an expedition by herself? was it not dangerous to the whole fraternity if, without the smallest precaution, she should bring the officers of justice in the midst of them? it was perhaps improbable she would engage in an undertaking thus desperate. it was not however easy to answer for the conduct of a person in her state of mind. should i wait, and risk the preservation of my liberty upon the issue? to this question i returned an immediate negative. i had resolved in a short time to quit my present situation, and the difference of a little sooner or a little later could not be very material. it promised to be neither agreeable nor prudent for me to remain under the same roof with a person who had manifested such a fierce and inexpiable hostility. but the consideration which had inexpressibly the most weight with me, belonged to the ideas of imprisonment, trial, and death. the longer they had formed the subject of my contemplation, the more forcibly was i impelled to avoid them. i had entered upon a system of action for that purpose; i had already made many sacrifices; and i believed that i would never miscarry in this project through any neglect of mine. the thought of what was reserved for me by my persecutors sickened my very soul; and the more intimately i was acquainted with oppression and injustice, the more deeply was i penetrated with the abhorrence to which they are entitled. such were the reasons that determined me instantly, abruptly, without leave-taking, or acknowledgment for the peculiar and repeated favours i had received, to quit a habitation to which, for six weeks, i had apparently been indebted for protection from trial, conviction, and an ignominious death. i had come hither pennyless; i quitted my abode with the sum of a few guineas in my possession, mr. raymond having insisted upon my taking a share at the time that each man received his dividend from the common stock. though i had reason to suppose that the heat of the pursuit against me would be somewhat remitted by the time that had elapsed, the magnitude of the mischief that, in an unfavourable event, might fall on me, determined me to neglect no imaginable precaution. i recollected the hand-bill which was the source of my present alarm, and conceived that one of the principal dangers which threatened me was the recognition of my person, either by such as had previously known me, or even by strangers. it seemed prudent therefore to disguise it as effectually as i could. for this purpose i had recourse to a parcel of tattered garments, that lay in a neglected corner of our habitation. the disguise i chose was that of a beggar. upon this plan, i threw off my shirt; i tied a handkerchief about my head, with which i took care to cover one of my eyes; over this i drew a piece of an old woollen nightcap. i selected the worst apparel i could find; and this i reduced to a still more deplorable condition, by rents that i purposely made in various places. thus equipped, i surveyed myself in a looking-glass. i had rendered my appearance complete; nor would any one have suspected that i was not one of the fraternity to which i assumed to belong. i said, "this is the form in which tyranny and injustice oblige me to seek for refuge: but better, a thousand times better is it, thus to incur contempt with the dregs of mankind, than trust to the tender mercies of our superiors!" chapter v. the only rule that i laid down to myself in traversing the forest, was to take a direction as opposite as possible to that which led to the scene of my late imprisonment. after about two hours walking i arrived at the termination of this ruder scene, and reached that part of the country which is inclosed and cultivated. here i sat down by the side of a brook, and, pulling out a crust of bread which i had brought away with me, rested and refreshed myself. while i continued in this place, i began to ruminate upon the plan i should lay down for my future proceedings; and my propensity now led me, as it had done in a former instance, to fix upon the capital, which i believed, besides its other recommendations, would prove the safest place for concealment. during these thoughts i saw a couple of peasants passing at a small distance, and enquired of them respecting the london road. by their description i understood that the most immediate way would be to repass a part of the forest, and that it would be necessary to approach considerably nearer to the county-town than i was at the spot which i had at present reached. i did not imagine that this could be a circumstance of considerable importance. my disguise appeared to be a sufficient security against momentary danger; and i therefore took a path, though not the most direct one, which led towards the point they suggested. some of the occurrences of the day are deserving to be mentioned. as i passed along a road which lay in my way for a few miles, i saw a carriage advancing in the opposite direction. i debated with myself for a moment, whether i should pass it without notice, or should take this occasion, by voice or gesture, of making an essay of my trade. this idle disquisition was however speedily driven from my mind when i perceived that the carriage was mr. falkland's. the suddenness of the encounter struck me with terror, though perhaps it would have been difficult for calm reflection to have discovered any considerable danger. i withdrew from the road, and skulked behind a hedge till it should have completely gone by. i was too much occupied with my own feelings, to venture to examine whether or no the terrible adversary of my peace were in the carriage. i persuaded myself that he was. i looked after the equipage, and exclaimed, "there you may see the luxurious accommodations and appendages of guilt, and here the forlornness that awaits upon innocence!"--i was to blame to imagine that my case was singular in that respect. i only mention it to show how the most trivial circumstance contributes to embitter the cup to the man of adversity. the thought however was a transient one. i had learned this lesson from my sufferings, not to indulge in the luxury of discontent. as my mind recovered its tranquillity, i began to enquire whether the phenomenon i had just seen could have any relation to myself. but though my mind was extremely inquisitive and versatile in this respect, i could discover no sufficient ground upon which to build a judgment. at night i entered a little public-house at the extremity of a village, and, seating myself in a corner of the kitchen, asked for some bread and cheese. while i was sitting at my repast, three or four labourers came in for a little refreshment after their work. ideas respecting the inequality of rank pervade every order in society; and, as my appearance was meaner and more contemptible than theirs, i found it expedient to give way to these gentry of a village alehouse, and remove to an obscurer station. i was surprised, and not a little startled, to find them fall almost immediately into conversation about my history, whom, with a slight variation of circumstances, they styled the notorious housebreaker, kit williams. "damn the fellow," said one of them, "one never hears of any thing else. o' my life, i think he makes talk for the whole country." "that is very true," replied another. "i was at the market-town to-day to sell some oats for my master, and there was a hue and cry, some of them thought they had got him, but it was a false alarm." "that hundred guineas is a fine thing," rejoined the first. "i should be glad if so be as how it fell in my way." "for the matter of that," said his companion, "i should like a hundred guineas as well as another. but i cannot be of your mind for all that. i should never think money would do me any good that had been the means of bringing a christian creature to the gallows." "poh, that is all my granny! some folks must be hanged, to keep the wheels of our state-folks a-going. besides, i could forgive the fellow all his other robberies, but that he should have been so hardened as to break the house of his own master at last, that is too bad." "lord! lord!" replied the other, "i see you know nothing of the matter! i will tell you how it was, as i learned it at the town. i question whether he ever robbed his master at all. but, hark you! you must know as how that squire falkland was once tried for murder"-"yes, yes, we know that." "well, he was as innocent as the child unborn. but i supposes as how he is a little soft or so. and so kit williams--kit is a devilish cunning fellow, you may judge that from his breaking prison no less than five times,--so, i say, he threatened to bring his master to trial at 'size all over again, and so frightened him, and got money from him at divers times. till at last one squire forester, a relation of t'other, found it all out. and he made the hell of a rumpus, and sent away kit to prison in a twinky; and i believe he would have been hanged: for when two squires lay their heads together, they do not much matter law, you know; or else they twist the law to their own ends, i cannot exactly say which; but it is much at one when the poor fellow's breath is out of his body." though this story was very circumstantially told, and with a sufficient detail of particulars, it did not pass unquestioned. each man maintained the justness of his own statement, and the dispute was long and obstinately pursued. historians and commentators at length withdrew together. the terrors with which i was seized when this conversation began, were extreme. i stole a sidelong glance to one quarter and another, to observe if any man's attention was turned upon me. i trembled as if in an ague-fit; and, at first, felt continual impulses to quit the house, and take to my heels. i drew closer to my corner, held aside my head, and seemed from time to time to undergo a total revolution of the animal economy. at length the tide of ideas turned. perceiving they paid no attention to me, the recollection of the full security my disguise afforded recurred strongly to my thoughts; and i began inwardly to exult, though i did not venture to obtrude myself to examination. by degrees i began to be amused at the absurdity of their tales, and the variety of the falsehoods i heard asserted around me. my soul seemed to expand; i felt a pride in the self-possession and lightness of heart with which i could listen to the scene; and i determined to prolong and heighten the enjoyment. accordingly, when they were withdrawn, i addressed myself to our hostess, a buxom, bluff, good-humoured widow, and asked what sort of a man this kit williams might be? she replied that, as she was informed, he was as handsome, likely a lad, as any in four counties round; and that she loved him for his cleverness, by which he outwitted all the keepers they could set over him, and made his way through stone walls as if they were so many cobwebs. i observed, that the country was so thoroughly alarmed, that i did not think it possible he should escape the pursuit that was set up after him. this idea excited her immediate indignation: she said, she hoped he was far enough away by this time; but if not, she wished the curse of god might light on them that betrayed so noble a fellow to an ignominious end!--though she little thought that the person of whom she spoke was so near her, yet the sincere and generous warmth with which she interested herself in my behalf gave me considerable pleasure. with this sensation to sweeten the fatigues of the day and the calamities of my situation, i retired from the kitchen to a neighbouring barn, laid myself down upon some straw, and fell into a profound sleep. the next day about noon, as i was pursuing my journey, i was overtaken by two men on horseback, who stopped me, to enquire respecting a person that they supposed might have passed along that road. as they proceeded in their description, i perceived, with astonishment and terror, that i was myself the person to whom their questions related. they entered into a tolerably accurate detail of the various characteristics by which my person might best be distinguished. they said, they had good reason to believe that i had been seen at a place in that county the very day before. while they were speaking a third person, who had fallen behind, came up; and my alarm was greatly increased upon seeing that this person was the servant of mr. forester, who had visited me in prison about a fortnight before my escape. my best resource in this crisis was composure and apparent indifference. it was fortunate for me that my disguise was so complete, that the eye of mr. falkland itself could scarcely have penetrated it. i had been aware for some time before that this was a refuge which events might make necessary, and had endeavoured to arrange and methodise my ideas upon the subject. from my youth i had possessed a considerable facility in the art of imitation; and when i quitted my retreat in the habitation of mr. raymond, i adopted, along with my beggar's attire, a peculiar slouching and clownish gait, to be used whenever there should appear the least chance of my being observed, together with an irish brogue which i had had an opportunity of studying in my prison. such are the miserable expedients, and so great the studied artifice, which man, who never deserves the name of manhood but in proportion as he is erect and independent, may find it necessary to employ, for the purpose of eluding the inexorable animosity and unfeeling tyranny of his fellow man! i had made use of this brogue, though i have not thought it necessary to write it down in my narrative, in the conversation of the village alehouse. mr. forester's servant, as he came up, observed that his companions were engaged in conversation with me; and, guessing at the subject, asked whether they had gained any intelligence. he added to the information at which they had already hinted, that a resolution was taken to spare neither diligence nor expense for my discovery and apprehension, and that they were satisfied, if i were above ground and in the kingdom, it would be impossible for me to escape them. every new incident that had occurred to me tended to impress upon my mind the extreme danger to which i was exposed. i could almost have imagined that i was the sole subject of general attention, and that the whole world was in arms to exterminate me. the very idea tingled through every fibre of my frame. but, terrible as it appeared to my imagination, it did but give new energy to my purpose; and i determined that i would not voluntarily resign the field, that is, literally speaking, my neck to the cord of the executioner, notwithstanding the greatest superiority in my assailants. but the incidents which had befallen me, though they did not change my purpose, induced me to examine over again the means by which it might be effected. the consequence of this revisal was, to determine me to bend my course to the nearest sea-port on the west side of the island, and transport myself to ireland. i cannot now tell what it was that inclined me to prefer this scheme to that which i had originally formed. perhaps the latter, which had been for some time present to my imagination, for that reason appeared the more obvious of the two; and i found an appearance of complexity, which the mind did not stay to explain, in substituting the other in its stead. i arrived without further impediment at the place from which i intended to sail, enquired for a vessel, which i found ready to put to sea in a few hours, and agreed with the captain for my passage. ireland had to me the disadvantage of being a dependency of the british government, and therefore a place of less security than most other countries which are divided from it by the ocean. to judge from the diligence with which i seemed to be pursued in england, it was not improbable that the zeal of my persecutors might follow me to the other side of the channel. it was however sufficiently agreeable to my mind, that i was upon the point of being removed one step further from the danger which was so grievous to my imagination. could there be any peril in the short interval that was to elapse, before the vessel was to weigh anchor and quit the english shore? probably not. a very short time had intervened between my determination for the sea and my arrival at this place; and if any new alarm had been given to my prosecutors, it proceeded from the old woman a very few days before. i hoped i had anticipated their diligence. meanwhile, that i might neglect no reasonable precaution, i went instantly on board, resolved that i would not unnecessarily, by walking the streets of the town, expose myself to any untoward accident. this was the first time i had, upon any occasion, taken leave of my native country. chapter vi. the time was now nearly elapsed that was prescribed for our stay, and orders for weighing anchor were every moment expected, when we were hailed by a boat from the shore, with two other men in it besides those that rowed. they entered our vessel in an instant. they were officers of justice. the passengers, five persons besides myself, were ordered upon deck for examination. i was inexpressibly disturbed at the occurrence of such a circumstance in so unseasonable a moment. i took it for granted that it was of me they were in search. was it possible that, by any unaccountable accident, they should have got an intimation of my disguise? it was infinitely more distressing to encounter them upon this narrow stage, and under these pointed circumstances, than, as i had before encountered my pursuers, under the appearance of an indifferent person. my recollection however did not forsake me. i confided in my conscious disguise and my irish brogue, as a rock of dependence against all accidents. no sooner did we appear upon deck than, to my great consternation, i could observe the attention of our guests principally turned upon me. they asked a few frivolous questions of such of my fellow passengers as happened to be nearest to them; and then, turning to me, enquired my name, who i was, whence i came, and what had brought me there? i had scarcely opened my mouth to reply, when, with one consent, they laid hold of me, said i was their prisoner, and declared that my accent, together with the correspondence of my person, would be sufficient to convict me before any court in england. i was hurried out of the vessel into the boat in which they came, and seated between them, as if by way of precaution, lest i should spring overboard, and by any means escape them. i now took it for granted that i was once more in the power of mr. falkland; and the idea was insupportably mortifying and oppressive to my imagination. escape from his pursuit, freedom from his tyranny, were objects upon which my whole soul was bent. could no human ingenuity and exertion effect them? did his power reach through all space, and his eye penetrate every concealment? was he like that mysterious being, to protect us from whose fierce revenge mountains and hills, we are told, might fall on us in vain? no idea is more heart-sickening and tremendous than this. but, in my case, it was not a subject of reasoning or of faith; i could derive no comfort, either directly from the unbelief which, upon religious subjects, some men avow to their own minds; or secretly from the remoteness and incomprehensibility of the conception: it was an affair of sense; i felt the fangs of the tiger striking deep into my heart. but though this impression was at first exceedingly strong, and accompanied with its usual attendants of dejection and pusillanimity, my mind soon began, as it were mechanically, to turn upon the consideration of the distance between this sea-port and my county prison, and the various opportunities of escape that might offer themselves in the interval. my first duty was to avoid betraying myself, more than it might afterwards appear i was betrayed already. it was possible that, though apprehended, my apprehension might have been determined on upon some slight score, and that, by my dexterity, i might render my dismission as sudden as my arrest had been. it was even possible that i had been seized through a mistake, and that the present measure might have no connection with mr. falkland's affair. upon every supposition, it was my business to gain information. in my passage from the ship to the town i did not utter a word. my conductors commented on my sulkiness; but remarked that it would avail me nothing--i should infallibly swing, as it was never known that any body got off who was tried for robbing his majesty's mail. it is difficult to conceive the lightness of heart which was communicated to me by these words: i persisted however in the silence i had meditated. from the rest of their conversation, which was sufficiently voluble, i learned that the mail from edinburgh to london had been robbed about ten days before by two irishmen, that one of them was already secured, and that i was taken up upon suspicion of being the other. they had a description of his person, which, though, as i afterwards found, it disagreed from mine in several material articles, appeared to them to tally to the minutest tittle. the intelligence that the whole proceeding against me was founded in a mistake, took an oppressive load from my mind. i believed that i should immediately be able to establish my innocence, to the satisfaction of any magistrate in the kingdom; and though crossed in my plans, and thwarted in my design of quitting the island, even after i was already at sea, this was but a trifling inconvenience compared with what i had had but too much reason to fear. as soon as we came ashore, i was conducted to the house of a justice of peace, a man who had formerly been the captain of a collier, but who, having been successful in the world, had quitted this wandering life, and for some years had had the honour to represent his majesty's person. we were detained for some time in a sort of anti-room, waiting his reverence's leisure. the persons by whom i had been taken up were experienced in their trade, and insisted upon employing this interval in searching me, in presence of two of his worship's servants. they found upon me fifteen guineas and some silver. they required me to strip myself perfectly naked, that they might examine whether i had bank-notes concealed any where about my person. they took up the detached parcels of my miserable attire as i threw it from me, and felt them one by one, to discover whether the articles of which they were in search might by any device be sewn up in them. to all this i submitted without murmuring. it might probably come to the same thing at last; and summary justice was sufficiently coincident with my views, my principal object being to get as soon as possible out of the clutches of the respectable persons who now had me in custody. this operation was scarcely completed, before we were directed to be ushered into his worship's apartment. my accusers opened the charge, and told him they had been ordered to this town, upon an intimation that one of the persons who robbed the edinburgh mail was to be found here; and that they had taken me on board a vessel which was by this time under sail for ireland. "well," says his worship, "that is your story; now let us hear what account the gentleman gives of himself. what is your name--ha, sirrah? and from what part of tipperary are you pleased to come?" i had already taken my determination upon this article; and the moment i learned the particulars of the charge against me, resolved, for the present at least, to lay aside my irish accent, and speak my native tongue. this i had done in the very few words i had spoken to my conductors in the anti-room: they started at the metamorphosis; but they had gone too far for it to be possible they should retract, in consistence with their honour. i now told the justice that i was no irishman, nor had ever been in that country: i was a native of england. this occasioned a consulting of the deposition in which my person was supposed to be described, and which my conductors had brought with them for their direction. to be sure, that required that the offender should be an irishman. observing his worship hesitate, i thought this was the time to push the matter a little further. i referred to the paper, and showed that the description neither tallied as to height nor complexion. but then it did as to years and the colour of the hair; and it was not this gentleman's habit, as he informed me, to squabble about trifles, or to let a man's neck out of the halter for a pretended flaw of a few inches in his stature. "if a man were too short," he said, "there was no remedy like a little stretching." the miscalculation in my case happened to be the opposite way, but his reverence did not think proper to lose his jest. upon the whole, he was somewhat at a loss how to proceed. my conductors observed this, and began to tremble for the reward, which, two hours ago, they thought as good as in their own pocket. to retain me in custody they judged to be a safe speculation; if it turned out a mistake at last, they felt little apprehension of a suit for false imprisonment from a poor man, accoutred as i was, in rags. they therefore urged his worship to comply with their views. they told him that to be sure the evidence against me did not prove so strong as for their part they heartily wished it had, but that there were a number of suspicious circumstances respecting me. when i was brought up to them upon the deck of the vessel, i spoke as fine an irish brogue as one shall hear in a summer's day; and now, all at once, there was not the least particle of it left. in searching me they had found upon me fifteen guineas, how should a poor beggar lad, such as i appeared, come honestly by fifteen guineas? besides, when they had stripped me naked, though my dress was so shabby my skin had all the sleekness of a gentleman. in fine, for what purpose could a poor beggar, who had never been in ireland in his life, want to transport himself to that country? it was as clear as the sun that i was no better than i should be. this reasoning, together with some significant winks and gestures between the justice and the plaintiffs, brought him over to their way of thinking. he said, i must go to warwick, where it seems the other robber was at present in custody, and be confronted with him; and if then every thing appeared fair and satisfactory, i should be discharged. no intelligence could be more terrible than that which was contained in these words. that i, who had found the whole country in arms against me, who was exposed to a pursuit so peculiarly vigilant and penetrating, should now be dragged to the very centre of the kingdom, without power of accommodating myself to circumstances, and under the immediate custody of the officers of justice, seemed to my ears almost the same thing as if he had pronounced upon me a sentence of death! i strenuously urged the injustice of this proceeding. i observed to the magistrate, that it was impossible i should be the person at whom the description pointed. it required an irishman; i was no irishman. it described a person shorter than i; a circumstance of all others the least capable of being counterfeited. there was not the slightest reason for detaining me in custody. i had been already disappointed of my voyage, and lost the money i had paid, down, through the officiousness of these gentlemen in apprehending me. i assured his worship, that every delay, under my circumstances, was of the utmost importance to me. it was impossible to devise a greater injury to be inflicted on me, than the proposal that, instead of being permitted to proceed upon my voyage, i should be sent, under arrest, into the heart of the kingdom. my remonstrances were vain. the justice was by no means inclined to digest the being expostulated with in this manner by a person in the habiliments of a beggar. in the midst of my address he would have silenced me for my impertinence, but that i spoke with an earnestness with which he was wholly unable to contend. when i had finished, he told me it was all to no purpose, and that it might have been better for me, if i had shown myself less insolent. it was clear that i was a vagabond and a suspicious person. the more earnest i showed myself to get off, the more reason there was he should keep me fast. perhaps, after all, i should turn out to be the felon in question. but, if i was not that, he had no doubt i was worse; a poacher, or, for what he knew, a murderer. he had a kind of a notion that he had seen my face before about some such affair; out of all doubt i was an old offender. he had it in his choice to send me to hard labour as a vagrant, upon the strength of my appearance and the contradictions in my story, or to order me to warwick; and, out of the spontaneous goodness of his disposition, he chose the milder side of the alternative. he could assure me i should not slip through his fingers. it was of more benefit to his majesty's government to hang one such fellow as he suspected me to be, than, out of mistaken tenderness, to concern one's self for the good of all the beggars in the nation. finding it was impossible to work, in the way i desired, on a man so fully impressed with his own dignity and importance and my utter insignificance, i claimed that, at least, the money taken from my person should be restored to me. this was granted. his worship perhaps suspected that he had stretched a point in what he had already done, and was therefore the less unwilling to relax in this incidental circumstance. my conductors did not oppose themselves to this indulgence, for a reason that will appear in the sequel. the justice however enlarged upon his clemency in this proceeding. he did not know whether he was not exceeding the spirit of his commission in complying with my demand. so much money in my possession could not be honestly come by. but it was his temper to soften, as far as could be done with propriety, the strict letter of the law. there were cogent reasons why the gentlemen who had originally taken me into custody, chose that i should continue in their custody when my examination was over. every man is, in his different mode, susceptible to a sense of honour; and they did not choose to encounter the disgrace that would accrue to them, if justice had been done. every man is in some degree influenced by the love of power; and they were willing i should owe any benefit i received, to their sovereign grace and benignity, and not to the mere reason of the case. it was not however an unsubstantial honour and barren power that formed the objects of their pursuit: no, their views were deeper than that. in a word, though they chose that i should retire from the seat of justice, as i had come before it, a prisoner, yet the tenor of my examination had obliged them, in spite of themselves, to suspect that i was innocent of the charge alleged against me. apprehensive therefore that the hundred guineas which had been offered as a reward for taking the robber was completely out of the question in the present business, they were contented to strike at smaller game. having conducted me to an inn, and given directions respecting a vehicle for the journey, they took me aside, while one of them addressed me in the following manner:-"you see, my lad, how the case stands: hey for warwick is the word i and when we are got there, what may happen then i will not pretend for to say. whether you are innocent or no is no business of mine; but you are not such a chicken as to suppose, if so be as you are innocent, that that will make your game altogether sure. you say your business calls you another way, and as how you are in haste: i scorns to cross any man in his concerns, if i can help it. if therefore you will give us them there fifteen shiners, why snug is the word. they are of no use to you; a beggar, you know, is always at home. for the matter of that, we could have had them in the way of business, as you saw, at the justice's. but i am a man of principle; i loves to do things above board, and scorns to extort a shilling from any man." he who is tinctured with principles of moral discrimination is apt upon occasion to be run away with by his feelings in that respect, and to forget the immediate interest of the moment. i confess, that the first sentiment excited in my mind by this overture was that of indignation. i was irresistibly impelled to give utterance to this feeling, and postpone for a moment the consideration of the future. i replied with the severity which so base a proceeding appeared to deserve. my bear-leaders were considerably surprised with my firmness, but seemed to think it beneath them to contest with me the principles i delivered. he who had made the overture contented himself with replying, "well, well, my lad, do as you will; you are not the first man that has been hanged rather than part with a few guineas." his words did not pass unheeded by me. they were strikingly applicable to my situation, and i was determined not to suffer the occasion to escape me unimproved. the pride of these gentlemen however was too great to admit of further parley for the present. they left me abruptly; having first ordered an old man, the father of the landlady, to stay in the room with me while they were absent. the old man they ordered, for security, to lock the door, and put the key in his pocket; at the same time mentioning below stairs the station in which they had left me, that the people of the house might have an eye upon what went forward, and not suffer me to escape. what was the intention of this manoeuvre i am unable certainly to pronounce. probably it was a sort of compromise between their pride and their avarice; being desirous, for some reason or other, to drop me as soon as convenient, and therefore determining to wait the result of my private meditations on the proposal they had made. chapter vii. they were no sooner withdrawn than i cast my eye upon the old man, and found something extremely venerable and interesting in his appearance. his form was above the middle size. it indicated that his strength had been once considerable; nor was it at this time by any means annihilated. his hair was in considerable quantity, and was as white as the drifted snow. his complexion was healthful and ruddy, at the same time that his face was furrowed with wrinkles. in his eye there was remarkable vivacity, and his whole countenance was strongly expressive of good-nature. the boorishness of his rank in society was lost in the cultivation his mind had derived from habits of sensibility and benevolence. the view of his figure immediately introduced a train of ideas into my mind, respecting the advantage to be drawn from the presence of such a person. the attempt to take any step without his consent was hopeless; for, though i should succeed with regard to him, he could easily give the alarm to other persons, who would, no doubt, be within call. add to which, i could scarcely have prevailed on myself to offer any offence to a person whose first appearance so strongly engaged my affection and esteem. in reality my thoughts were turned into a different channel. i was impressed with an ardent wish to be able to call this man my benefactor. pursued by a train of ill fortune, i could no longer consider myself as a member of society. i was a solitary being, cut off from the expectation of sympathy, kindness, and the good-will of mankind. i was strongly impelled, by the situation in which the present moment placed me, to indulge in a luxury which my destiny seemed to have denied. i could not conceive the smallest comparison between the idea of deriving my liberty from the spontaneous kindness of a worthy and excellent mind, and that of being indebted for it to the selfishness and baseness of the worst members of society. it was thus that i allowed myself in the wantonness of refinement, even in the midst of destruction. guided by these sentiments, i requested his attention to the circumstances by which i had been brought into my present situation. he immediately signified his assent, and said he would cheerfully listen to any thing i thought proper to communicate. i told him, the persons who had just left me in charge with him had come to this town for the purpose of apprehending some person who had been guilty of robbing the mail; that they had chosen to take me up under this warrant, and had conducted me before a justice of the peace; that they had soon detected their mistake, the person in question being an irishman, and differing from me both in country and stature; but that, by collusion between them and the justice, they were permitted to retain me in custody, and pretended to undertake to conduct me to warwick to confront me with my accomplice; that, in searching me at the justice's, they had found a sum of money in my possession which excited their cupidity, and that they had just been proposing to me to give me my liberty upon condition of my surrendering this sum into their hands. under these circumstances, i requested him to consider, whether he would wish to render himself the instrument of their extortion. i put myself into his hands, and solemnly averred the truth of the facts i had just stated. if he would assist me in my escape, it could have no other effect than to disappoint the base passions of my conductors. i would upon no account expose him to any real inconvenience; but i was well assured that the same generosity that should prompt him to a good deed, would enable him effectually to vindicate it when done; and that those who detained me, when they had lost sight of their prey, would feel covered with confusion, and not dare to take another step in the affair. the old man listened to what i related with curiosity and interest. he said that he had always felt an abhorrence to the sort of people who had me in their hands; that he had an aversion to the task they had just imposed upon him, but that he could not refuse some little disagreeable offices to oblige his daughter and son-in-law. he had no doubt, from my countenance and manner, of the truth of what i had asserted to him. it was an extraordinary request i had made, and he did not know what had induced me to think him the sort of person to whom, with any prospect of success, it might be made. in reality however his habits of thinking were uncommon, and he felt more than half inclined to act as i desired. one thing at least he would ask of me in return, which was to be faithfully informed in some degree respecting the person he was desired to oblige. what was my name? the question came upon me unprepared. but, whatever might be the consequence, i could not bear to deceive the person by whom it was put, and in the circumstances under which it was put. the practice of perpetual falsehood is too painful a task. i replied, that my name was williams. he paused. his eye was fixed upon me. i saw his complexion alter at the repetition of that word. he proceeded with visible anxiety. my christian name? caleb. good god! it could not be ----? he conjured me by every thing that was sacred to answer him faithfully to one question more. i was not--no, it was impossible--the person who had formerly lived servant with mr. falkland, of ----? i told him that, whatever might be the meaning of his question, i would answer him truly. i was the individual he mentioned. as i uttered these words the old man rose from his seat. he was sorry that fortune had been so unpropitious to him, as for him ever to have set eyes upon me! i was a monster with whom the very earth groaned! i entreated that he would suffer me to explain this new misapprehension, as he had done in the former instance. i had no doubt that i should do it equally to his satisfaction. no! no! no! he would upon no consideration admit, that his ears should suffer such contamination. this case and the other were very different. there was no criminal upon the face of the earth, no murderer, half so detestable as the person who could prevail upon himself to utter the charges i had done, by way of recrimination, against so generous a master.--the old man was in a perfect agony with the recollection. at length he calmed himself enough to say, he should never cease to grieve that he had held a moment's parley with me. he did not know what was the conduct severe justice required of him; but, since he had come into the knowledge of who i was only by my own confession, it was irreconcilably repugnant to his feelings to make use of that knowledge to my injury. here therefore all relation between us ceased; as indeed it would be an abuse of words to consider me in the light of a human creature. he would do me no mischief; but, on the other hand, he would not, for the world, be in any way assisting and abetting me. i was inexpressibly affected at the abhorrence this good and benevolent creature expressed against me. i could not be silent; i endeavoured once and again to prevail upon him to hear me. but his determination was unalterable. our contest lasted for some time, and he at length terminated it by ringing the bell, and calling up the waiter. a very little while after, my conductors entered, and the other persons withdrew. it was a part of the singularity of my fate that it hurried me from one species of anxiety and distress to another, too rapidly to suffer any one of them to sink deeply into my mind. i am apt to believe, in the retrospect, that half the calamities i was destined to endure would infallibly have overwhelmed and destroyed me. but, as it was, i had no leisure to chew the cud upon misfortunes as they befel me, but was under the necessity of forgetting them, to guard against peril that the next moment seemed ready to crush me. the behaviour of this incomparable and amiable old man cut me to the heart. it was a dreadful prognostic for all my future life. but, as i have just observed, my conductors entered, and another subject called imperiously upon my attention. i could have been content, mortified as i was at this instant, to have been shut up in some impenetrable solitude, and to have wrapped myself in inconsolable misery. but the grief i endured had not such power over me as that i could be content to risk the being led to the gallows. the love of life, and still more a hatred against oppression, steeled my heart against that species of inertness. in the scene that had just passed i had indulged, as i have said, in a wantonness and luxury of refinement. it was time that indulgence should be brought to a period. it was dangerous to trifle any more upon the brink of fate; and, penetrated as i was with sadness by the result of my last attempt, i was little disposed to unnecessary circumambulation. i was exactly in the temper in which the gentlemen who had me in their power would have desired to find me. accordingly we entered immediately upon business; and, after some chaffering, they agreed to accept eleven guineas as the price of my freedom. to preserve however the chariness of their reputation, they insisted upon conducting me with them for a few miles on the outside of a stage-coach. they then pretended that the road they had to travel lay in a cross country direction; and, having quitted the vehicle, they suffered me, almost as soon as it was out of sight, to shake off this troublesome association, and follow my own inclinations. it may be worth remarking by the way, that these fellows outwitted themselves at their own trade. they had laid hold of me at first under the idea of a prize of a hundred guineas; they had since been glad to accept a composition of eleven: but if they had retained me a little longer in their possession, they would have found the possibility of acquiring the sum that had originally excited their pursuit, upon a different score. the mischances that had befallen me, in my late attempt to escape from my pursuers by sea, deterred me from the thought of repeating that experiment. i therefore once more returned to the suggestion of hiding myself, at least for the present, amongst the crowds of the metropolis. meanwhile, i by no means thought proper to venture by the direct route, and the less so, as that was the course which would be steered by my late conductors; but took my road along the borders of wales. the only incident worth relating in this place occurred in an attempt to cross the severn in a particular point. the mode was by a ferry; but, by some strange inadvertence, i lost my way so completely as to be wholly unable that night to reach the ferry, and arrive at the town which i had destined for my repose. this may seem a petty disappointment, in the midst of the overwhelming considerations that might have been expected to engross every thought of my mind. yet it was borne by me with singular impatience. i was that day uncommonly fatigued. previously to the time that i mistook, or at least was aware of the mistake of the road, the sky had become black and lowring, and soon after the clouds burst down in sheets of rain. i was in the midst of a heath, without a tree or covering of any sort to shelter me. i was thoroughly drenched in a moment. i pushed on with a sort of sullen determination. by and by the rain gave place to a storm of hail. the hail-stones were large and frequent. i was ill defended by the miserable covering i wore, and they seemed to cut me in a thousand directions. the hail-storm subsided, and was again succeeded by a heavy rain. by this time it was that i had perceived i was wholly out of my road. i could discover neither man nor beast, nor habitation of any kind. i walked on, measuring at every turn the path it would be proper to pursue, but in no instance finding a sufficient reason to reject one or prefer another. my mind was bursting with depression and anguish. i muttered imprecations and murmuring as i passed along. i was full of loathing and abhorrence of life, and all that life carries in its train. after wandering without any certain direction for two hours, i was overtaken by the night. the scene was nearly pathless, and it was vain to think of proceeding any farther. here i was, without comfort, without shelter, and without food. there was not a particle of my covering that was not as wet as if it had been fished from the bottom of the ocean. my teeth chattered. i trembled in every limb. my heart burned with universal fury. at one moment i stumbled and fell over some unseen obstacle; at another i was turned back by an impediment i could not overcome. there was no strict connection between these casual inconveniences and the persecution under which i laboured. but my distempered thoughts confounded them together. i cursed the whole system of human existence. i said, "here i am, an outcast, destined to perish with hunger and cold. all men desert me. all men hate me. i am driven with mortal threats from the sources of comfort and existence. accursed world! that hates without a cause, that overwhelms innocence with calamities which ought to be spared even to guilt! accursed world! dead to every manly sympathy; with eyes of horn, and hearts of steel! why do i consent to live any longer? why do i seek to drag on an existence, which, if protracted, must be protracted amidst the lairs of these human tigers?" this paroxysm at length exhausted itself. presently after, i discovered a solitary shed, which i was contented to resort to for shelter. in a corner of the shed i found some clean straw. i threw off my rags, placed them in a situation where they would best be dried, and buried myself amidst this friendly warmth. here i forgot by degrees the anguish that had racked me. a wholesome shed and fresh straw may seem but scanty benefits; but they offered themselves when least expected, and my whole heart was lightened by the encounter. through fatigue of mind and body, it happened in this instance, though in general my repose was remarkably short, that i slept till almost noon of the next day. when i rose, i found that i was at no great distance from the ferry, which i crossed, and entered the town where i intended to have rested the preceding night. it was market-day. as i passed near the cross, i observed two people look at me with great earnestness: after which one of them exclaimed, "i will be damned if i do not think that this is the very fellow those men were enquiring for who set off an hour ago by the coach for ----." i was extremely alarmed at this information; and, quickening my pace, turned sharp down a narrow lane. the moment i was out of sight i ran with all the speed i could exert, and did not think myself safe till i was several miles distant from the place where this information had reached my ears. i have always believed that the men to whom it related were the very persons who had apprehended me on board the ship in which i had embarked for ireland; that, by some accident, they had met with the description of my person as published on the part of mr. falkland; and that, from putting together the circumstances, they had been led to believe that this was the very individual who had lately been in their custody. indeed it was a piece of infatuation in me, for which i am now unable to account, that, after the various indications which had occurred in that affair, proving to them that i was a man in critical and peculiar circumstances, i should have persisted in wearing the same disguise without the smallest alteration. my escape in the present case was eminently fortunate. if i had not lost my way in consequence of the hail-storm on the preceding night, or if i had not so greatly overslept myself this very morning, i must almost infallibly have fallen into the hands of these infernal blood-hunters. the town they had chosen for their next stage, the name of which i had thus caught in the market-place, was the town to which, but for this intimation, i should have immediately proceeded. as it was, i determined to take a road as wide of it as possible. in the first place to which i came, in which it was practicable to do so, i bought a great coat, which i drew over my beggar's weeds, and a better hat. the hat i slouched over my face, and covered one of my eyes with a green-silk shade. the handkerchief, which i had hitherto worn about my head, i now tied about the lower part of my visage, so as to cover my mouth. by degrees i discarded every part of my former dress, and wore for my upper garment a kind of carman's frock, which, being of the better sort, made me look like the son of a reputable farmer of the lower class. thus equipped, i proceeded on my journey, and, after a thousand alarms, precautions, and circuitous deviations from the direct path, arrived safely in london. chapter viii. here then was the termination of an immense series of labours, upon which no man could have looked back without astonishment, or forward without a sentiment bordering on despair. it was at a price which defies estimation that i had purchased this resting-place; whether we consider the efforts it had cost me to escape from the walls of my prison, or the dangers and anxieties to which i had been a prey, from that hour to the present. but why do i call the point at which i was now arrived at a resting-place? alas, it was diametrically the reverse! it was my first and immediate business to review all the projects of disguise i had hitherto conceived, to derive every improvement i could invent from the practice to which i had been subjected, and to manufacture a veil of concealment more impenetrable than ever. this was an effort to which i could see no end. in ordinary cases the hue and cry after a supposed offender is a matter of temporary operation; but ordinary cases formed no standard for the colossal intelligence of mr. falkland. for the same reason, london, which appears an inexhaustible reservoir of concealment to the majority of mankind, brought no such consolatory sentiment to my mind. whether life were worth accepting on such terms i cannot pronounce. i only know that i persisted in this exertion of my faculties, through a sort of parental love that men are accustomed to entertain for their intellectual offspring; the more thought i had expended in rearing it to its present perfection, the less did i find myself disposed to abandon it. another motive, not less strenuously exciting me to perseverance, was the ever-growing repugnance i felt to injustice and arbitrary power. the first evening of my arrival in town i slept at an obscure inn in the borough of southwark, choosing that side of the metropolis, on account of its lying entirely wide of the part of england from which i came. i entered the inn in the evening in my countryman's frock; and, having paid for my lodging before i went to bed, equipped myself next morning as differently as my wardrobe would allow, and left the house before day. the frock i made up into a small packet, and, having carried it to a distance as great as i thought necessary, i dropped it in the corner of an alley through which i passed. my next care was to furnish myself with another suit of apparel, totally different from any to which i had hitherto had recourse. the exterior which i was now induced to assume was that of a jew. one of the gang of thieves upon ---forest, had been of that race; and by the talent of mimicry, which i have already stated myself to possess, i could copy their pronunciation of the english language, sufficiently to answer such occasions as were likely to present themselves. one of the preliminaries i adopted, was to repair to a quarter of the town in which great numbers of this people reside, and study their complexion and countenance. having made such provision as my prudence suggested to me, i retired for that night to an inn in the midway between mile-end and wapping. here i accoutred myself in my new habiliments; and, having employed the same precautions as before, retired from my lodging at a time least exposed to observation. it is unnecessary to describe the particulars of my new equipage; suffice it to say, that one of my cares was to discolour my complexion, and give it the dun and sallow hue which is in most instances characteristic of the tribe to which i assumed to belong; and that when my metamorphosis was finished, i could not, upon the strictest examination, conceive that any one could have traced out the person of caleb williams in this new disguise. thus far advanced in the execution of my project. i deemed it advisable to procure a lodging, and change my late wandering life for a stationary one. in this lodging i constantly secluded myself from the rising to the setting of the sun; the periods i allowed for exercise and air were few, and those few by night. i was even cautious of so much as approaching the window of my apartment, though upon the attic story; a principle i laid down to myself was, not wantonly and unnecessarily to expose myself to risk, however slight that risk might appear. here let me pause for a moment, to bring before the reader, in the way in which it was impressed upon my mind, the nature of my situation. i was born free: i was born healthy, vigorous, and active, complete in all the lineaments and members of a human body. i was not born indeed to the possession of hereditary wealth; but i had a better inheritance, an enterprising mind, an inquisitive spirit, a liberal ambition. in a word, i accepted my lot with willingness and content; i did not fear but i should make my cause good in the lists of existence. i was satisfied to aim at small things; i was pleased to play at first for a slender stake; i was more willing to grow than to descend in my individual significance. the free spirit and the firm heart with which i commenced, one circumstance was sufficient to blast. i was ignorant of the power which the institutions of society give to one man over others; i had fallen unwarily into the hands of a person who held it as his fondest wish to oppress and destroy me. i found myself subjected, undeservedly on my part, to all the disadvantages which mankind, if they reflected upon them, would hesitate to impose on acknowledged guilt. in every human countenance i feared to find the countenance of an enemy. i shrunk from the vigilance of every human eye. i dared not open my heart to the best affections of our nature. i was shut up, a deserted, solitary wretch, in the midst of my species. i dared not look for the consolations of friendship; but, instead of seeking to identify myself with the joys and sorrows of others, and exchanging the delicious gifts of confidence and sympathy, was compelled to centre my thoughts and my vigilance in myself. my life was all a lie. i had a counterfeit character to support. i had counterfeit manners to assume. my gait, my gestures, my accents, were all of them to be studied. i was not free to indulge, no not one, honest sally of the soul. attended with these disadvantages, i was to procure myself a subsistence, a subsistence to be acquired with infinite precautions, and to be consumed without the hope of enjoyment. this, even this, i was determined to endure; to put my shoulder to the burthen, and support it with unshrinking firmness. let it not however be supposed that i endured it without repining and abhorrence. my time was divided between the terrors of an animal that skulks from its pursuers, the obstinacy of unshrinking firmness, and that elastic revulsion that from time to time seems to shrivel the very hearts of the miserable. if at some moments i fiercely defied all the rigours of my fate, at others, and those of frequent recurrence, i sunk into helpless despondence. i looked forward without hope through the series of my existence, tears of anguish rushed from my eyes, my courage became extinct, and i cursed the conscious life that was reproduced with every returning day. "why," upon such occasions i was accustomed to exclaim, "why am i overwhelmed with the load of existence? why are all these engines at work to torment me? i am no murderer; yet, if i were, what worse could i be fated to suffer? how vile, squalid, and disgraceful is the state to which i am condemned! this is not my place in the roll of existence, the place for which either my temper or my understanding has prepared me! to what purpose serve the restless aspirations of my soul, but to make me, like a frighted bird, beat myself in vain against the enclosure of my cage? nature, barbarous nature! to me thou hast proved indeed the worst of step-mothers; endowed me with wishes insatiate, and sunk me in never-ending degradation!" i might have thought myself more secure if i had been in possession of money upon which to subsist. the necessity of earning for myself the means of existence, evidently tended to thwart the plan of secrecy to which i was condemned. whatever labour i adopted, or deemed myself qualified to discharge, it was first to be considered how i was to be provided with employment, and where i was to find an employer or purchaser for my commodities. in the mean time i had no alternative. the little money with which i had escaped from the blood-hunters was almost expended. after the minutest consideration i was able to bestow upon this question. i determined that literature should be the field of my first experiment. i had read of money being acquired in this way, and of prices given by the speculators in this sort of ware to its proper manufacturers. my qualifications i esteemed at a slender valuation. i was not without a conviction that experience and practice must pave the way to excellent production. but, though of these i was utterly destitute, my propensities had always led me in this direction; and my early thirst of knowledge had conducted me to a more intimate acquaintance with books, than could perhaps have been expected under my circumstances. if my literary pretensions were slight, the demand i intended to make upon them was not great. all i asked was a subsistence; and i was persuaded few persons could subsist upon slenderer means than myself. i also considered this as a temporary expedient, and hoped that accident or time might hereafter place me in a less precarious situation. the reasons that principally determined my choice were, that this employment called upon me for the least preparation, and could, as i thought, be exercised with least observation. there was a solitary woman, of middle age, who tenanted a chamber in this house, upon the same floor with my own. i had no sooner determined upon the destination of my industry than i cast my eye upon her as the possible instrument for disposing of my productions. excluded as i was from all intercourse with my species in general, i found pleasure in the occasional exchange of a few words with this inoffensive and good-humoured creature, who was already of an age to preclude scandal. she lived upon a very small annuity, allowed her by a distant relation, a woman of quality, who, possessed of thousands herself, had no other anxiety with respect to this person than that she should not contaminate her alliance by the exertion of honest industry. this humble creature was of a uniformly cheerful and active disposition, unacquainted alike with the cares of wealth and the pressure of misfortune. though her pretensions were small, and her information slender, she was by no means deficient in penetration. she remarked the faults and follies of mankind with no contemptible discernment; but her temper was of so mild and forgiving a cast, as would have induced most persons to believe that she perceived nothing of the matter. her heart overflowed with the milk of kindness. she was sincere and ardent in her attachments, and never did she omit a service which she perceived herself able to render to a human being. had it not been for these qualifications of temper, i should probably have found that my appearance, that of a deserted, solitary lad, of jewish extraction, effectually precluded my demands upon her kindness. but i speedily perceived, from her manner of receiving and returning civilities of an indifferent sort, that her heart was too noble to have its effusions checked by any base and unworthy considerations. encouraged by these preliminaries, i determined to select her as my agent. i found her willing and alert in the business i proposed to her. that i might anticipate occasions of suspicion, i frankly told her that, for reasons which i wished to be excused from relating, but which, if related, i was sure would not deprive me of her good opinion, i found it necessary, for the present, to keep myself private. with this statement she readily acquiesced, and told me that she had no desire for any further information than i found it expedient to give. my first productions were of the poetical kind. after having finished two or three, i directed this generous creature to take them to the office of a newspaper; but they were rejected with contempt by the aristarchus of that place, who, having bestowed on them a superficial glance, told her that such matters were not in his way. i cannot help mentioning in this place, that the countenance of mrs. marney (this was the name of my ambassadress) was in all cases a perfect indication of her success, and rendered explanation by words wholly unnecessary. she interested herself so unreservedly in what she undertook, that she felt either miscarriage or good fortune much more exquisitely than i did. i had an unhesitating confidence in my own resources, and, occupied as i was in meditations more interesting and more painful, i regarded these matters as altogether trivial. i quietly took the pieces back, and laid them upon my table. upon revisal, i altered and transcribed one of them, and, joining it with two others, despatched them together to the editor of a magazine. he desired they might be left with him till the day after to-morrow. when that day came he told my friend they should be inserted; but, mrs. marney asking respecting the price, he replied, it was their constant rule to give nothing for poetical compositions, the letter-box being always full of writings of that sort; but if the gentleman would try his hand in prose, a short essay or a tale, he would see what he could do for him. with the requisition of my literary dictator i immediately complied. i attempted a paper in the style of addison's spectators, which was accepted. in a short time i was upon an established footing in this quarter. i however distrusted my resources in the way of moral disquisition, and soon turned my thoughts to his other suggestion, a tale. his demands upon me were now frequent, and, to facilitate my labours, i bethought myself of the resource of translation. i had scarcely any convenience with respect to the procuring of books; but, as my memory was retentive, i frequently translated or modelled my narrative upon a reading of some years before. by a fatality, for which i did not exactly know how to account, my thoughts frequently led me to the histories of celebrated robbers; and i related, from time to time, incidents and anecdotes of cartouche, gusman d'alfarache, and other memorable worthies, whose career was terminated upon the gallows or the scaffold. in the mean time a retrospect to my own situation rendered a perseverance even in this industry difficult to be maintained. i often threw down my pen in an ecstasy of despair. sometimes for whole days together i was incapable of action, and sunk into a sort of partial stupor, too wretched to be described. youth and health however enabled me, from time to time, to get the better of my dejection, and to rouse myself to something like a gaiety, which, if it had been permanent, might have made this interval of my story tolerable to my reflections. chapter ix. while i was thus endeavouring to occupy and provide for the intermediate period, till the violence of the pursuit after me might be abated, a new source of danger opened upon me of which i had no previous suspicion. gines, the thief who had been expelled from captain raymond's gang, had fluctuated, during the last years of his life, between the two professions of a violator of the laws and a retainer to their administration. he had originally devoted himself to the first; and probably his initiation in the mysteries of thieving qualified him to be peculiarly expert in the profession of a thief-taker--a profession he had adopted, not from choice, but necessity. in this employment his reputation was great, though perhaps not equal to his merits; for it happens here as in other departments of human society, that, however the subalterns may furnish wisdom and skill, the principals exclusively possess the _éclat_. he was exercising this art in a very prosperous manner, when it happened, by some accident, that one or two of his achievements previous to his having shaken off the dregs of unlicensed depredation were in danger of becoming subjects of public attention. having had repeated intimations of this, he thought it prudent to decamp; and it was during this period of his retreat that he entered into the ---gang. such was the history of this man antecedently to his being placed in the situation in which i had first encountered him. at the time of that encounter he was a veteran of captain raymond's gang; for thieves being a short-lived race, the character of veteran costs the less time in acquiring. upon his expulsion from this community he returned once more to his lawful profession, and by his old comrades was received with congratulation as a lost sheep. in the vulgar classes of society no length of time is sufficient to expiate a crime; but among the honourable fraternity of thief-takers it is a rule never to bring one of their own brethren to a reckoning when it can with any decency be avoided. they are probably reluctant to fix an unnecessary stain upon the ermine of their profession. another rule observed by those who have passed through the same gradation as gines had done, and which was adopted by gines himself, is always to reserve such as have been the accomplices of their depredations to the last, and on no account to assail them without great necessity or powerful temptation. for this reason, according to gines's system of tactics, captain raymond and his confederates were, as he would have termed it, safe from his retaliation. but, though gines was, in this sense of the term, a man of strict honour, my case unfortunately did not fall within the laws of honour he acknowledged. misfortune had overtaken me, and i was on all sides without protection or shelter. the persecution to which i was exposed was founded upon the supposition of my having committed felony to an immense amount. but in this gines had had no participation; he was careless whether the supposition were true or false, and hated me as much as if my innocence had been established beyond the reach of suspicion. the blood-hunters who had taken me into custody at ----, related, as usual among their fraternity, a part of their adventure, and told of the reason which inclined them to suppose, that the individual who had passed through their custody, was the very caleb williams for whose apprehension a reward had been offered of a hundred guineas. gines, whose acuteness was eminent in the way of his profession, by comparing facts and dates, was induced to suspect in his own mind, that caleb williams was the person he had hustled and wounded upon ---forest. against that person he entertained the bitterest aversion. i had been the innocent occasion of his being expelled with disgrace from captain raymond's gang; and gines, as i afterwards understood, was intimately persuaded that there was no comparison between the liberal and manly profession of a robber from which i had driven him, and the sordid and mechanical occupation of a blood-hunter, to which he was obliged to return. he no sooner received the information i have mentioned than he vowed revenge. he determined to leave all other objects, and consecrate every faculty of his mind to the unkennelling me from my hiding-place. the offered reward, which his vanity made him consider as assuredly his own, appeared as the complete indemnification of his labour and expense. thus i had to encounter the sagacity he possessed in the way of his profession, whetted and stimulated by a sentiment of vengeance, in a mind that knew no restraint from conscience or humanity. when i drew to myself a picture of my situation soon after having fixed on my present abode, i foolishly thought, as the unhappy are accustomed to do, that my calamity would admit of no aggravation. the aggravation which, unknown to me, at this time occurred was the most fearful that any imagination could have devised. nothing could have happened more critically hostile to my future peace, than my fatal encounter with gines upon ---forest. by this means, as it now appears, i had fastened upon myself a second enemy, of that singular and dreadful sort that is determined never to dismiss its animosity as long as life shall endure. while falkland was the hungry lion whose roarings astonished and appalled me, gines was a noxious insect, scarcely less formidable and tremendous, that hovered about my goings, and perpetually menaced me with the poison of his sting. the first step pursued by him in execution of his project, was to set out for the sea-port town where i had formerly been apprehended. from thence he traced me to the banks of the severn, and from the banks of the severn to london. it is scarcely necessary to observe that this is always practicable, provided the pursuer have motives strong enough to excite him to perseverance, unless the precautions of the fugitive be, in the highest degree, both judicious in the conception, and fortunate in the execution. gines indeed, in the course of his pursuit, was often obliged to double his steps; and, like the harrier, whenever he was at a fault, return to the place where he had last perceived the scent of the animal whose death he had decreed. he spared neither pains nor time in the gratification of the passion, which choice had made his ruling one. upon my arrival in town he for a moment lost all trace of me, london being a place in which, on account of the magnitude of its dimensions, it might well be supposed that an individual could remain hidden and unknown. but no difficulty could discourage this new adversary. he went from inn to inn (reasonably supposing that there was no private house to which i could immediately repair), till he found, by the description he gave, and the recollections he excited, that i had slept for one night in the borough of southwark. but he could get no further information. the people of the inn had no knowledge what had become of me the next morning. this however did but render him more eager in the pursuit. the describing me was now more difficult, on account of the partial change of dress i had made the second day of my being in town. but gines at length overcame the obstacle from that quarter. having traced me to my second inn, he was here furnished with a more copious information. i had been a subject of speculation for the leisure hours of some of the persons belonging to this inn. an old woman, of a most curious and loquacious disposition, who lived opposite to it, and who that morning rose early to her washing, had espied me from her window, by the light of a large lamp which hung over the inn, as i issued from the gate. she had but a very imperfect view of me, but she thought there was something jewish in my appearance. she was accustomed to hold a conference every morning with the landlady of the inn, some of the waiters and chambermaids occasionally assisting at it. in the course of the dialogue of this morning, she asked some questions about the jew who had slept there the night before. no jew had slept there. the curiosity of the landlady was excited in her turn. by the time of the morning it could be no other but me. it was very strange! they compared notes respecting my appearance and dress. no two things could be more dissimilar. the jew christian, upon any dearth of subjects of intelligence, repeatedly furnished matter for their discourse. the information thus afforded to gines appeared exceedingly material. but the performance did not for some time keep pace with the promise. he could not enter every private house into which lodgers were ever admitted, in the same manner that he had treated the inns. he walked the streets, and examined with a curious and inquisitive eye the countenance of every jew about my stature; but in vain. he repaired to duke's place and the synagogues. it was not here that in reality he could calculate upon finding me; but he resorted to those means in despair, and as a last hope. he was more than once upon the point of giving up the pursuit; but he was recalled to it by an insatiable and restless appetite for revenge. it was during this perturbed and fluctuating state of his mind, that he chanced to pay a visit to a brother of his, who was the head-workman of a printing-office. there was little intercourse between these two persons, their dispositions and habits of life being extremely dissimilar. the printer was industrious, sober, inclined to methodism, and of a propensity to accumulation. he was extremely dissatisfied with the character and pursuits of his brother, and had made some ineffectual attempts to reclaim him. but, though they by no means agreed in their habits of thinking, they sometimes saw each other. gines loved to boast of as many of his achievements as he dared venture to mention; and his brother was one more hearer, in addition to the set of his usual associates. the printer was amused with the blunt sagacity of remark and novelty of incident that characterised gines's conversation. he was secretly pleased, in spite of all his sober and church-going prejudices, that he was brother to a man of so much ingenuity and fortitude. after having listened for some time upon this occasion to the wonderful stories which gines, in his rugged way, condescended to tell, the printer felt an ambition to entertain his brother in his turn. he began to retail some of my stories of cartouche and gusman d'alfarache. the attention of gines was excited. his first emotion was wonder; his second was envy and aversion. where did the printer get these stories? this question was answered. "i will tell you what," said the printer, "we none of us know what to make of the writer of these articles. he writes poetry, and morality, and history: i am a printer, and corrector of the press, and may pretend without vanity to be a tolerably good judge of these matters: he writes them all to my mind extremely fine; and yet he is no more than a jew." [to my honest printer this seemed as strange, as if they had been written by a cherokee chieftain at the falls of the mississippi.] "a jew! how do you know? did you ever see him?" "no; the matter is always brought to us by a woman. but my master hates mysteries; he likes to see his authors himself. so he plagues and plagues the old woman; but he can never get any thing out of her, except that one day she happened to drop that the young gentleman was a jew." a jew! a young gentleman! a person who did every thing by proxy, and made a secret of all his motions! here was abundant matter for the speculations and suspicions of gines. he was confirmed in them, without adverting to the process of his own mind, by the subject of my lucubrations,--men who died by the hand of the executioner. he said little more to his brother, except asking, as if casually, what sort of an old woman this was? of what age she might be? and whether she often brought him materials of this kind? and soon after took occasion to leave him. it was with vast pleasure that gines had listened to this unhoped-for information. having collected from his brother sufficient hints relative to the person and appearance of mrs. marney, and understanding that he expected to receive something from me the next day, gines took his stand in the street early, that he might not risk miscarriage by negligence. he waited several hours, but not without success. mrs. marney came; he watched her into the house; and after about twenty minutes delay, saw her return. he dogged her from street to street; observed her finally enter the door of a private house; and congratulated himself upon having at length arrived at the consummation of his labours. the house she entered was not her own habitation. by a sort of miraculous accident she had observed gines following her in the street. as she went home she saw a woman who had fallen down in a fainting fit. moved by the compassion that was ever alive in her, she approached her, in order to render her assistance. presently a crowd collected round them. mrs. marney, having done what she was able, once more proceeded homewards. observing the crowd round her, the idea of pickpockets occurred to her mind; she put her hands to her sides, and at the same time looked round upon the populace. she had left the circle somewhat abruptly; and gines, who had been obliged to come nearer, lest he should lose her in the confusion, was at that moment standing exactly opposite to her. his visage was of the most extraordinary kind; habit had written the characters of malignant cunning and dauntless effrontery in every line of his face; and mrs. marney, who was neither philosopher nor physiognomist, was nevertheless struck. this good woman, like most persons of her notable character, had a peculiar way of going home, not through the open streets, but by narrow lanes and alleys, with intricate insertions and sudden turnings. in one of these, by some accident, she once again caught a glance of her pursuer. this circumstance, together with the singularity of his appearance, awakened her conjectures. could he be following her? it was the middle of the day, and she could have no fears for herself. but could this circumstance have any reference to me? she recollected the precautions and secrecy i practised, and had no doubt that i had reasons for what i did. she recollected that she had always been upon her guard respecting me; but had she been sufficiently so? she thought that, if she should be the means of any mischief to me, she should be miserable for ever. she determined therefore, by way of precaution in case of the worst, to call at a friend's house, and send me word of what had occurred. having instructed her friend, she went out immediately upon a visit to a person in the exactly opposite direction, and desired her friend to proceed upon the errand to me, five minutes after she left the house. by this prudence she completely extricated me from the present danger. meantime the intelligence that was brought me by no means ascertained the greatness of the peril. for any thing i could discover in it the circumstance might be perfectly innocent, and the fear solely proceed from the over-caution and kindness of this benevolent and excellent woman. yet, such was the misery of my situation, i had no choice. for this menace or no menace, i was obliged to desert my habitation at a minute's warning, taking with me nothing but what i could carry in my hand; to see my generous benefactress no more; to quit my little arrangements and provision; and to seek once again, in some forlorn retreat, new projects, and, if of that i could have any rational hope, a new friend. i descended into the street with a heavy, not an irresolute heart. it was broad day. i said, persons are at this moment supposed to be roaming the street in search of me: i must not trust to the chance of their pursuing one direction, and i another. i traversed half a dozen streets, and then dropped into an obscure house of entertainment for persons of small expense. in this house i took some refreshment, passed several hours of active but melancholy thinking, and at last procured a bed. as soon however as it was dark i went out (for this was indispensable) to purchase the materials of a new disguise. having adjusted it as well as i could during the night, i left this asylum, with the same precautions that i had employed in former instances. chapter x. i procured a new lodging. by some bias of the mind, it may be, gratifying itself with images of peril, i inclined to believe that mrs. marney's alarm had not been without foundation. i was however unable to conjecture through what means danger had approached me; and had therefore only the unsatisfactory remedy of redoubling my watch upon all my actions. still i had the joint considerations pressing upon me of security and subsistence. i had some small remains of the produce of my former industry; but this was but small, for my employer was in arrear with me, and i did not choose in any method to apply to him for payment. the anxieties of my mind, in spite of all my struggles, preyed upon my health. i did not consider myself as in safety for an instant. my appearance was wasted to a shadow; and i started at every sound that was unexpected. sometimes i was half tempted to resign myself into the hands of the law, and brave its worst; but resentment and indignation at those times speedily flowed back upon my mind, and re-animated my perseverance. i knew no better resource with respect to subsistence than that i had employed in the former instance, of seeking some third person to stand between me and the disposal of my industry. i might find an individual ready to undertake this office in my behalf; but where should i find the benevolent soul of mrs. marney? the person i fixed upon was a mr. spurrel, a man who took in work from the watchmakers, and had an apartment upon our second floor. i examined him two or three times with irresolute glances, as we passed upon the stairs, before i would venture to accost him. he observed this, and at length kindly invited me into his apartment. being seated, he condoled with me upon my seeming bad health, and the solitary mode of my living, and wished to know whether he could be of any service to me. "from the first moment he saw me, he had conceived an affection for me." in my present disguise i appeared twisted and deformed, and in other respects by no means an object of attraction. but it seemed mr. spurrel had lost an only son about six months before, and i was "the very picture of him." if i had put off my counterfeited ugliness, i should probably have lost all hold upon his affections. "he was now an old man," as he observed, "just dropping into the grave, and his son had been his only consolation. the poor lad was always ailing, but he had been a nurse to him; and the more tending he required while he was alive, the more he missed him now he was dead. now he had not a friend, nor any body that cared for him, in the whole world. if i pleased, i should be instead of that son to him, and he would treat me in all respects with the same attention and kindness." i expressed my sense of these benevolent offers, but told him that i should be sorry to be in any way burthensome to him. "my ideas at present led me to a private and solitary life, and my chief difficulty was to reconcile this with some mode of earning necessary subsistence. if he would condescend to lend me his assistance in smoothing this difficulty, it would be the greatest benefit he could confer on me." i added, that "my mind had always had a mechanical and industrious turn, and that i did not doubt of soon mastering any craft to which i seriously applied myself. i had not been brought up to any trade; but, if he would favour me with his instructions, i would work with him as long as he pleased for a bare subsistence. i knew that i was asking of him an extraordinary kindness; but i was urged on the one hand by the most extreme necessity, and encouraged on the other by the persuasiveness of his friendly professions." the old man dropped some tears over my apparent distress, and readily consented to every thing i proposed. our agreement was soon made, and i entered upon my functions accordingly. my new friend was a man of a singular turn of mind. love of money, and a charitable officiousness of demeanour, were his leading characteristics. he lived in the most penurious manner, and denied himself every indulgence. i entitled myself almost immediately, as he frankly acknowledged, to some remuneration for my labours, and accordingly he insisted upon my being paid. he did not however, as some persons would have done under the circumstance, pay me the whole amount of my earnings, but professed to subtract from them twenty per cent, as an equitable consideration for instruction, and commission-money in procuring me a channel for my industry. yet he frequently shed tears over me, was uneasy in every moment of our indispensable separation, and exhibited perpetual tokens of attachment and fondness. i found him a man of excellent mechanical contrivance, and received considerable pleasure from his communications. my own sources of information were various; and he frequently expressed his wonder and delight in the contemplation of my powers, as well of amusement as exertion. thus i appeared to have attained a situation not less eligible than in my connection with mrs. marney. i was however still more unhappy. my fits of despondence were deeper, and of more frequent recurrence. my health every day grew worse; and mr. spurrel was not without apprehensions that he should lose me, as he before lost his only son. i had not been long however in this new situation, before an incident occurred which filled me with greater alarm and apprehension than ever. i was walking out one evening, after a long visitation of languor, for an hour's exercise and air, when my ears were struck with two or three casual sounds from the mouth of a hawker who was bawling his wares. i stood still to inform myself more exactly, when, to my utter astonishment and confusion, i heard him deliver himself nearly in these words: "_here you have the_ most wonderful and surprising history and miraculous adventures of caleb williams: _you are informed how he first robbed, and then brought false accusations against his master; as also of his attempting divers times to break out of prison, till at last he effected his escape in the most wonderful and uncredible manner; as also of his travelling the kingdom in various disguises, and the robberies he committed with a most desperate and daring gang of thieves; and of his coming up to london, where it is supposed he now lies concealed; with a true and faithful copy of the hue and cry printed and published by one of his majesty's most principal secretaries of state, offering a reward of one hundred guineas for apprehending him. all for the price of one halfpenny_." petrified as i was at these amazing and dreadful sounds, i had the temerity to go up to the man and purchase one of his papers. i was desperately resolved to know the exact state of the fact, and what i had to depend upon. i carried it with me a little way, till, no longer able to endure the tumult of my impatience, i contrived to make out the chief part of its contents, by the help of a lamp, at the upper end of a narrow passage. i found it contain a greater number of circumstances than could have been expected in this species of publication, i was equalled to the most notorious housebreaker in the art of penetrating through walls and doors, and to the most accomplished swindler in plausibleness, duplicity, and disguise. the hand-bill which larkins had first brought to us upon the forest was printed at length. all my disguises, previously to the last alarm that had been given me by the providence of mrs. marney, were faithfully enumerated; and the public were warned to be upon their watch against a person of an uncouth and extraordinary appearance, and who lived in a recluse and solitary manner. i also learned from this paper that my former lodgings had been searched on the very evening of my escape, and that mrs. marney had been sent to newgate, upon a charge of misprision of felony.--this last circumstance affected me deeply. in the midst of my own sufferings my sympathies flowed undiminished. it was a most cruel and intolerable idea, if i were not only myself to be an object of unrelenting persecution, but my very touch were to be infectious, and every one that succoured me was to be involved in the common ruin. my instant feeling was that of a willingness to undergo the utmost malice of my enemies, could i by that means have saved this excellent woman from alarm and peril.--i afterwards learned that mrs. marney was delivered from confinement, by the interposition of her noble relation. my sympathy for mrs. marney however was at this moment a transient one. a more imperious and irresistible consideration demanded to be heard. with what sensations did i ruminate upon this paper? every word of it carried despair to my heart. the actual apprehension that i dreaded would perhaps have been less horrible. it would have put an end to that lingering terror to which i was a prey. disguise was no longer of use. a numerous class of individuals, through every department, almost every house of the metropolis, would be induced to look with a suspicious eye upon every stranger, especially every solitary stranger, that fell under their observation. the prize of one hundred guineas was held out to excite their avarice and sharpen their penetration. it was no longer bow-street, it was a million of men in arms against me. neither had i the refuge, which few men have been so miserable as to want, of one single individual with whom to repose my alarms, and who might shelter me from the gaze of indiscriminate curiosity. what could exceed the horrors of this situation? my heart knocked against my ribs, my bosom heaved, i gasped and panted for breath. "there is no end then," said i, "to my persecutors! my unwearied and long-continued labours lead to no termination! termination! no; the lapse of time, that cures all other things, makes my case more desperate! why then," exclaimed i, a new train of thought suddenly rushing into my mind, "why should i sustain the contest any longer? i can at least elude my persecutors in death. i can bury myself and the traces of my existence together in friendly oblivion; and thus bequeath eternal doubt, and ever new alarm, to those who have no peace but in pursuing me!" in the midst of the horrors with which i was now impressed, this idea gave me pleasure; and i hastened to the thames to put it in instant execution. such was the paroxysm of my mind that my powers of vision became partially suspended. i was no longer conscious to the feebleness of disease, but rushed along with fervent impetuosity. i passed from street to street without observing what direction i pursued. after wandering i know not how long, i arrived at london bridge. i hastened to the stairs, and saw the river covered with vessels. "no human being must see me," said i, "at the instant that i vanish for ever." this thought required some consideration. a portion of time had elapsed since my first desperate purpose. my understanding began to return. the sight of the vessels suggested to me the idea of once more attempting to leave my native country. i enquired, and speedily found that the cheapest passage i could procure was in a vessel moored near the tower, and which was to sail in a few days for middleburgh in holland. i would have gone instantly on board, and have endeavoured to prevail with the captain to let me remain there till he sailed; but unfortunately i had not money enough in my pocket to defray my passage. it was worse than this. i had not money enough in the world. i however paid the captain half his demand, and promised to return with the rest. i knew not in what manner it was to be procured, but i believed that i should not fail in it. i had some idea of applying to mr. spurrel. surely he would not refuse me? he appeared to love me with parental affection, and i thought i might trust myself for a moment in his hands. i approached my place of residence with a heavy and foreboding heart. mr. spurrel was not at home; and i was obliged to wait for his return. worn out with fatigue, disappointment, and the ill state of my health, i sunk upon a chair. speedily however i recollected myself. i had work of mr. spurrel's in my trunk, which had been delivered out to me that very morning, to five times the amount i wanted. i canvassed for a moment whether i should make use of this property as if it were my own; but i rejected the idea with disdain. i had never in the smallest degree merited the reproaches that were east upon me; and i determined i never would merit them. i sat gasping, anxious, full of the blackest forebodings. my terrors appeared, even to my own mind, greater and more importunate than the circumstances authorised. it was extraordinary that mr. spurrel should be abroad at this hour; i had never known it happen before. his bed-time was between nine and ten. ten o'clock came, eleven o'clock, but not mr. spurrel. at midnight i heard his knock at the door. every soul in the house was in bed. mr. spurrel, on account of his regular hours, was unprovided with a key to open for himself. a gleam, a sickly gleam, of the social spirit came over my heart. i flew nimbly down stairs, and opened the door. i could perceive, by the little taper in my hand, something extraordinary in his countenance. i had not time to speak, before i saw two other men follow him. at the first glance i was sufficiently assured what sort of persons they were. at the second, i perceived that one of them was no other than gines himself. i had understood formerly that he had been of this profession, and i was not surprised to find him in it again. though i had for three hours endeavoured, as it were, to prepare myself for the unavoidable necessity of falling once again into the hands of the officers of law, the sensation i felt at their entrance was indescribably agonising. i was besides not a little astonished at the time and manner of their entrance; and i felt anxious to know whether mr. spurrel could be base enough to have been their introducer. i was not long held in perplexity. he no sooner saw his followers within the door, than he exclaimed, with convulsive eagerness, "there, there, that is your man! thank god! thank god!" gines looked eagerly in my face, with a countenance expressive alternately of hope and doubt, and answered, "by god, and i do not know whether it be or no! i am afraid we are in the wrong box!" then recollecting himself, "we will go into the house, and examine further however." we all went up stairs into mr. spurrel's room; i set down the candle upon the table. i had hitherto been silent; but i determined not to desert myself, and was a little encouraged to exertion by the scepticism of gines. with a calm and deliberate manner therefore, in my feigned voice, one of the characteristics of which was lisping, i asked, "pray, gentlemen, what may be your pleasure with me?"--"why," said gines, "our errand is with one caleb williams, and a precious rascal he is! i ought to know the chap well enough; but they say he has as many faces as there are days in the year. so you please to pull off your face; or, if you cannot do that, at least you can pull off your clothes, and let us see what your hump is made of." i remonstrated, but in vain. i stood detected in part of my artifice; and gines, though still uncertain, was every moment more and more confirmed in his suspicions. mr. spurrel perfectly gloated, with eyes that seemed ready to devour every thing that passed. as my imposture gradually appeared more palpable, he repeated his exclamation, "thank god! thank god!" at last, tired with this scene of mummery, and disgusted beyond measure with the base and hypocritical figure i seemed to exhibit, i exclaimed, "well, i am caleb williams; conduct me wherever you please! and now, mr. spurrel!"--he gave a violent start. the instant i declared myself his transport had been at the highest, and was, to any power he was able to exert, absolutely uncontrollable. but the unexpectedness of my address, and the tone in which i spoke, electrified him.--"is it possible," continued i, "that you should have been the wretch to betray me? what have i done to deserve this treatment? is this the kindness you professed? the affection that was perpetually in your mouth? to be the death of me!" "my poor boy! my dear creature!" cried spurrel, whimpering, and in a tone of the humblest expostulation, "indeed i could not help it! i would have helped it, if i could! i hope they will not hurt my darling! i am sure i shall die if they do!" "miserable driveller!" interrupted i, with a stern voice, "do you betray me into the remorseless fangs of the law, and then talk of my not being hurt? i know my sentence, and am prepared to meet it! you have fixed the halter upon my neck, and at the same price would have done so to your only son! go, count your accursed guineas! my life would have been safer in the hands of one i had never seen than in yours, whose mouth and whose eyes for ever ran over with crocodile affection!" i have always believed that my sickness, and, as he apprehended, approaching death, contributed its part to the treachery of mr. spurrel. he predicted to his own mind the time when i should no longer be able to work. he recollected with agony the expense that attended his son's illness and death. he determined to afford me no assistance of a similar kind. he feared however the reproach of deserting me. he feared the tenderness of his nature. he felt, that i was growing upon his affections, and that in a short time he could not have deserted me. he was driven by a sort of implicit impulse, for the sake of avoiding one ungenerous action, to take refuge in another, the basest and most diabolical. this motive, conjoining with the prospect of the proffered reward, was an incitement too powerful for him to resist. chapter xi. having given vent to my resentment, i left mr. spurrel motionless, and unable to utter a word. gines and his companion attended me. it is unnecessary to repeat all the insolence of this man. he alternately triumphed in the completion of his revenge, and regretted the loss of the reward to the shrivelled old curmudgeon we had just quitted, whom however he swore he would cheat of it by one means or another. he claimed to himself the ingenuity of having devised the halfpenny legend, the thought of which was all his own, and was an expedient that was impossible to fail. there was neither law nor justice, he said, to be had, if hunks who had done nothing were permitted to pocket the cash, and his merit were left undistinguished and pennyless. i paid but little attention to his story. it struck upon my sense, and i was able to recollect it at my nearest leisure, though i thought not of it at the time. for the present i was busily employed, reflecting on my new situation, and the conduct to be observed in it. the thought of suicide had twice, in moments of uncommon despair, suggested itself to my mind; but it was far from my habitual meditations. at present, and in all cases where death was immediately threatened me from the injustice of others, i felt myself disposed to contend to the last. my prospects were indeed sufficiently gloomy and discouraging. how much labour had i exerted, first to extricate myself from prison, and next to evade the diligence of my pursuers; and the result of all, to be brought back to the point from which i began! i had gained fame indeed, the miserable fame to have my story bawled forth by hawkers and ballad-mongers, to have my praises as an active and enterprising villain celebrated among footmen and chambermaids; but i was neither an erostratus nor an alexander, to die contented with that species of eulogium. with respect to all that was solid, what chance could i find in new exertions of a similar nature? never was a human creature pursued by enemies more inventive or envenomed. i could have small hope that they would ever cease their persecution, or that my future attempts would be crowned with a more desirable issue. they were considerations like these that dictated my resolution. my mind had been gradually weaning from mr. falkland, till its feeling rose to something like abhorrence. i had long cherished a reverence for him, which not even animosity and subornation on his part could utterly destroy. but i now ascribed a character so inhumanly sanguinary to his mind; i saw something so fiend-like in the thus hunting me round the world, and determining to be satisfied with nothing less than my blood, while at the same time he knew my innocence, my indisposition to mischief, nay, i might add, my virtues; that henceforth i trampled reverence and the recollection of former esteem under my feet. i lost all regard to his intellectual greatness, and all pity for the agonies of his soul. i also would abjure forbearance. i would show myself bitter and inflexible as he had done. was it wise in him to drive me into extremity and madness? had he no fears for his own secret and atrocious offences? i had been obliged to spend the remainder of the night upon which i had been apprehended, in prison. during the interval i had thrown off every vestige of disguise, and appeared the next morning in my own person. i was of course easily identified; and, this being the whole with which the magistrates before whom i now stood thought themselves concerned, they were proceeding to make out an order for my being conducted back to my own county. i suspended the despatch of this measure by observing that i had something to disclose. this is an overture to which men appointed for the administration of criminal justice never fail to attend. i went before the magistrates, to whose office gines and his comrade conducted me, fully determined to publish those astonishing secrets of which i had hitherto been the faithful depository; and, once for all, to turn the tables upon my accuser. it was time that the real criminal should be the sufferer, and not that innocence should for ever labour under the oppression of guilt. i said that "i had always protested my innocence, and must now repeat the protest." "in that case," retorted the senior magistrate abruptly, "what can you have to disclose? if you are innocent, that is no business of ours! we act officially." "i always declared," continued i, "that i was the perpetrator of no guilt, but that the guilt wholly belonged to my accuser. he privately conveyed these effects among my property, and then charged me with the robbery. i now declare more than that, that this man is a murderer, that i detected his criminality, and that, for that reason, he is determined to deprive me of life. i presume, gentlemen, that you do consider it as your business to take this declaration. i am persuaded you will be by no means disposed, actively or passively, to contribute to the atrocious injustice under which i suffer, to the imprisonment and condemnation of an innocent man, in order that a murderer may go free. i suppressed this story as long as i could. i was extremely averse to be the author of the unhappiness or the death of a human being. but all patience and submission have their limits." "give me leave, sir," rejoined the magistrate, with an air of affected moderation, "to ask you two questions. were you any way aiding, abetting, or contributing to this murder?" "no." "and pray, sir, who is this mr. falkland? and what may have been the nature of your connection with him?" "mr. falkland is a gentleman of six thousand per annum. i lived with him as his secretary." "in other words, you were his servant?" "as you please." "very well, sir; that is quite enough for me. first, i have to tell you, as a magistrate, that i can have nothing to do with your declaration. if you had been concerned in the murder you talk of, that would alter the case. but it is out of all reasonable rule for a magistrate to take an information from a felon, except against his accomplices. next, i think it right to observe to you, in my own proper person, that you appear to me to be the most impudent rascal i ever saw. why, are you such an ass as to suppose, that the sort of story you have been telling, can be of any service to you, either here or at the assizes, or any where else? a fine time of it indeed it would be, if, when gentlemen of six thousand a year take up their servants for robbing them, those servants could trump up such accusations as these, and could get any magistrate or court of justice to listen to them! whether or no the felony with which you stand charged would have brought you to the gallows, i will not pretend to say: but i am sure this story will. there would be a speedy end to all order and good government, if fellows that trample upon ranks and distinctions in this atrocious sort were upon any consideration suffered to get off." "and do you refuse, sir, to attend to the particulars of the charge i allege?" "yes, sir, i do.--but, if i did not, pray what witnesses have you of the murder?" this question staggered me. "none. but i believe i can make out a circumstantial proof, of a nature to force attention from the most indifferent hearer." "so i thought.--officers, take him from the bar!" such was the success of this ultimate resort on my part, upon which i had built with such undoubting confidence. till now, i had conceived that the unfavourable situation in which i was placed was prolonged by my own forbearance; and i had determined to endure all that human nature could support, rather than have recourse to this extreme recrimination. that idea secretly consoled me under all my calamities: it was a voluntary sacrifice, and was cheerfully made. i thought myself allied to the army of martyrs and confessors; i applauded my fortitude and self-denial; and i pleased myself with the idea, that i had the power, though i hoped never to employ it, by an unrelenting display of my resources, to put an end at once to my sufferings and persecutions. and this at last was the justice of mankind! a man, under certain circumstances, shall not be heard in the detection of a crime, because he has not been a participator of it! the story of a flagitious murder shall be listened to with indifference, while an innocent man is hunted, like a wild beast, to the furthest corners of the earth! six thousand a year shall protect a man from accusation; and the validity of an impeachment shall be superseded, because the author of it is a servant! i was conducted back to the very prison from which a few months before i had made my escape. with a bursting heart i entered those walls, compelled to feel that all my more than herculean labours served for my own torture, and for no other end. since my escape from prison i had acquired some knowledge of the world; i had learned by bitter experience, by how many links society had a hold upon me, and how closely the snares of despotism beset me. i no longer beheld the world, as my youthful fancy had once induced me to do, as a scene in which to hide or to appear, and to exhibit the freaks of a wanton vivacity. i saw my whole species as ready, in one mode or other, to be made the instruments of the tyrant. hope died away in the bottom of my heart. shut up for the first night in my dungeon, i was seized at intervals with temporary frenzy. from time to time, i rent the universal silence with the roarings of unsupportable despair. but this was a transient distraction. i soon returned to the sober recollection of myself and my miseries. my prospects were more gloomy, and my situation apparently more irremediable, than ever. i was exposed again, if that were of any account, to the insolence and tyranny that are uniformly exercised within those walls. why should i repeat the loathsome tale of all that was endured by me, and is endured by every man who is unhappy enough to fall under the government of these consecrated ministers of national jurisprudence? the sufferings i had already experienced, my anxieties, my flight, the perpetual expectation of being discovered, worse than the discovery itself, would perhaps have been enough to satisfy the most insensible individual, in the court of his own conscience, if i had even been the felon i was pretended to be. but the law has neither eyes, nor ears, nor bowels of humanity; and it turns into marble the hearts of all those that are nursed in its principles. i however once more recovered my spirit of determination. i resolved that, while i had life, i would never be deserted by this spirit. oppressed, annihilated i might be; but, if i died, i would die resisting. what use, what advantage, what pleasurable sentiment, could arise from a tame surrender? there is no man that is ignorant, that to humble yourself at the feet of the law is a bootless task; in her courts there is no room for amendment and reformation. my fortitude may to some persons appear above the standard of human nature. but if i draw back the veil from my heart they will readily confess their mistake. my heart bled at every pore. my resolution was not the calm sentiment of philosophy and reason. it was a gloomy and desperate purpose: the creature, not of hope, but of a mind austerely held to its design, that felt, as it were, satisfied with the naked effort, and prepared to give success or miscarriage to the winds. it was to this miserable condition, which might awaken sympathy in the most hardened bosom, that mr. falkland had reduced me. in the mean time, strange as it may seem, here, in prison, subject to innumerable hardships, and in the assured expectation of a sentence of death, i recovered my health. i ascribe this to the state of my mind, which was now changed, from perpetual anxiety, terror, and alarm, the too frequent inmates of a prison, but which i upon this occasion did not seem to bring along with me, to a desperate firmness. i anticipated the event of my trial. i determined once more to escape from my prison; nor did i doubt of my ability to effect at least this first step towards my future preservation. the assizes however were near, and there were certain considerations, unnecessary to be detailed, that persuaded me there might be benefit in waiting till my trial should actually be terminated, before i made my attempt. it stood upon the list as one of the latest to be brought forward. i was therefore extremely surprised to find it called out of its order, early on the morning of the second day. but, if this were unexpected, how much greater was my astonishment, when my prosecutor was called, to find neither mr. falkland, nor mr. forester, nor a single individual of any description, appear against me! the recognizances into which my prosecutors had entered were declared to be forfeited; and i was dismissed without further impediment from the bar. the effect which this incredible reverse produced upon my mind it is impossible to express. i, who had come to that bar with the sentence of death already in idea ringing in my ears, to be told that i was free to transport myself whithersoever i pleased! was it for this that i had broken through so many locks and bolts, and the adamantine walls of my prison; that i had passed so many anxious days, and sleepless, spectre-haunted nights; that i had racked my invention for expedients of evasion and concealment; that my mind had been roused to an energy of which i could scarcely have believed it capable; that my existence had been enthralled to an ever-living torment, such as i could scarcely have supposed it in man to endure? great god! what is man? is he thus blind to the future, thus totally unsuspecting of what is to occur in the next moment of his existence? i have somewhere read, that heaven in mercy hides from us the future incidents of our life. my own experience does not well accord with this assertion. in this instance at least i should have been saved from insupportable labour and undescribable anguish, could i have foreseen the catastrophe of this most interesting transaction. chapter xii. it was not long before i took my everlasting leave of this detested and miserable scene. my heart was for the present too full of astonishment and exultation in my unexpected deliverance, to admit of anxiety about the future. i withdrew from the town; i rambled with a slow and thoughtful pace, now bursting with exclamation, and now buried in profound and undefinable reverie. accident led me towards the very heath which had first sheltered me, when, upon a former occasion, i broke out of my prison. i wandered among its cavities and its valleys. it was a forlorn and desolate solitude. i continued here i know not how long. night at length overtook me unperceived, and i prepared to return for the present to the town i had quitted. it was now perfectly dark, when two men, whom i had not previously observed, sprung upon me from behind. they seized me by the arms, and threw me upon the ground. i had no time for resistance or recollection. i could however perceive that one of them was the diabolical gines. they blindfolded, gagged me, and hurried me i knew not whither. as we passed along in silence, i endeavoured to conjecture what could be the meaning of this extraordinary violence. i was strongly impressed with the idea, that, after the event of this morning, the most severe and painful part of my history was past; and, strange as it may seem, i could not persuade myself to regard with alarm this unexpected attack. it might however be some new project, suggested by the brutal temper and unrelenting animosity of gines. i presently found that we were returned into the town i had just quitted. they led me into a house, and, as soon as they had taken possession of a room freed me from the restraints they had before imposed here gines informed me with a malicious grin that no harm was intended me, and therefore i should show most sense in keeping myself quiet. i perceived that we were in an inn; i overheard company in a room at no great distance from us, and therefore was now as thoroughly aware as he could be, that there was at present little reason to stand in fear of any species of violence, and that it would be time enough to resist, when they attempted to conduct me from the inn in the same manner that they had brought me into it. i was not without some curiosity to see the conclusion that was to follow upon so extraordinary a commencement. the preliminaries i have described were scarcely completed, before mr. falkland entered the room. i remember collins, when he first communicated to me the particulars of our patron's history, observed that he was totally unlike the man he had once been. i had no means of ascertaining the truth of that observation. but it was strikingly applicable to the spectacle which now presented itself to my eyes, though, when i last beheld this unhappy man, he had been a victim to the same passions, a prey to the same undying remorse, as now. misery was at that time inscribed in legible characters upon his countenance. but now he appeared like nothing that had ever been visible in human shape. his visage was haggard, emaciated, and fleshless. his complexion was a dun and tarnished red, the colour uniform through every region of the face, and suggested the idea of its being burnt and parched by the eternal fire that burned within him. his eyes were red, quick, wandering, full of suspicion and rage. his hair was neglected, ragged, and floating. his whole figure was thin, to a degree that suggested the idea rather of a skeleton than a person actually alive. life seemed hardly to be the capable inhabitant of so woe-begone and ghost-like a figure. the taper of wholesome life was expired; but passion, and fierceness, and frenzy, were able for the present to supply its place. i was to the utmost degree astonished and shocked at the sight of him.--he sternly commanded my conductors to leave the room. "well, sir, i have this day successfully exerted myself to save your life from the gallows. a fortnight ago you did what you were able to bring my life to that ignominious close. "were you so stupid and undistinguishing as not to know that the preservation of your life was the uniform object of my exertions? did not i maintain you in prison? did not i endeavour to prevent your being sent thither? could you mistake the bigoted and obstinate conduct of forester, in offering a hundred guineas for your apprehension, for mine? "i had my eye upon you in all your wanderings. you have taken no material step through their whole course with which i have not been acquainted. i meditated to do you good. i have spilt no blood but that of tyrrel: that was in the moment of passion; and it has been the subject of my uninterrupted and hourly remorse. i have connived at no man's fate but that of the hawkinses: they could no otherwise have been saved, than by my acknowledging myself a murderer. the rest of my life has been spent in acts of benevolence. "i meditated to do you good. for that reason i was willing to prove you. you pretended to act towards me with consideration and forbearance. if you had persisted in that to the end, i would yet have found a way to reward you. i left you to your own discretion. you might show the impotent malignity of your own heart; but, in the circumstances in which you were then placed, i knew you could not hurt me. your forbearance has proved, as i all along suspected, empty and treacherous. you have attempted to blast my reputation. you have sought to disclose the select and eternal secret of my soul. because you have done that, i will never forgive you. i will remember it to my latest breath. the memory shall survive me, when my existence is no more. do you think you are out of the reach of my power, because a court of justice has acquitted you?" while mr. falkland was speaking a sudden distemper came over his countenance, his whole frame was shaken by an instantaneous convulsion, and he staggered to a chair. in about three minutes he recovered. "yes," said he, "i am still alive. i shall live for days, and months, and years; the power that made me, of whatever kind it be, can only determine how long. i live the guardian of my reputation. that, and to endure a misery such as man never endured, are the only ends to which i live. but, when i am no more, my fame shall still survive. my character shall be revered as spotless and unimpeachable by all posterity, as long as the name of falkland shall be repeated in the most distant regions of the many-peopled globe." having said this, he returned to the discourse which more immediately related to my future condition and happiness. "there is one condition," said he, "upon which you may obtain some mitigation of your future calamity. it is for that purpose that i have sent for you. listen to my proposal with deliberation and sobriety. remember, that the insanity is not less to trifle with the resolved determination of my soul, than it would be to pull a mountain upon your head that hung trembling upon the edge of the mighty apennine! "i insist then upon your signing a paper, declaring, in the most solemn manner, that i am innocent of murder, and that the charge you alleged at the office in bow-street is false, malicious, and groundless. perhaps you may scruple out of a regard to truth. is truth then entitled to adoration for its own sake, and not for the sake of the happiness it is calculated to produce? will a reasonable man sacrifice to barren truth, when benevolence, humanity, and every consideration that is dear to the human heart, require that it should be superseded? it is probable that i may never make use of this paper, but i require it, as the only practicable reparation to the honour you have assailed. this is what i had to propose. i expect your answer." "sir," answered i, "i have heard you to an end, and i stand in need of no deliberation to enable me to answer you in the negative. you took me up a raw and inexperienced boy, capable of being moulded to any form you pleased. but you have communicated to me volumes of experience in a very short period. i am no longer irresolute and pliable. what is the power you retain over my fate i am unable to discover. you may destroy me; but you cannot make me tremble. i am not concerned to enquire, whether what i have suffered flowed from you by design or otherwise; whether you were the author of my miseries, or only connived at them. this i know, that i have suffered too exquisitely on your account, for me to feel the least remaining claim on your part to my making any voluntary sacrifice. "you say that benevolence and humanity require this sacrifice of me. no; it would only be a sacrifice to your mad and misguided love of fame,--to that passion which has been the source of all your miseries, of the most tragical calamities to others, and of every misfortune that has happened to me. i have no forbearance to exercise towards that passion. if you be not yet cured of this tremendous and sanguinary folly, at least i will do nothing to cherish it. i know not whether from my youth i was destined for a hero; but i may thank you for having taught me a lesson of insurmountable fortitude. "what is it that you require of me? that i should sign away my own reputation for the better maintaining of yours. where is the equality of that? what is it that casts me at such an immense distance below you, as to make every thing that relates to me wholly unworthy of consideration? you have been educated in the prejudice of birth. i abhor that prejudice. you have made me desperate, and i utter what that desperation suggests. "you will tell me perhaps that i have no reputation to lose; that, while you are esteemed faultless and unblemished, i am universally reputed a thief, a suborner, and a calumniator. be it so. i will never do any thing to countenance those imputations. the more i am destitute of the esteem of mankind, the more careful i will be to preserve my own. i will never from fear, or any other mistaken motive, do any thing of which i ought to be ashamed. "you are determined to be for ever my enemy. i have in no degree deserved this eternal abhorrence. i have always esteemed and pitied you. for a considerable time i rather chose to expose myself to every kind of misfortune, than disclose the secret that was so dear to you. i was not deterred by your menaces--(what could you make me suffer more than i actually suffered?)--but by the humanity of my own heart; in which, and not in means of violence, you ought to have reposed your confidence. what is the mysterious vengeance that you can yet execute against me? you menaced me before; you can menace no worse now. you are wearing out the springs of terror. do with me as you please; you teach me to hear you with an unshrinking and desperate firmness. recollect yourself! i did not proceed to the step with which you reproach me, till i was apparently urged to the very last extremity. i had suffered as much as human nature can suffer; i had lived in the midst of eternal alarm and unintermitted watchfulness; i had twice been driven to purposes of suicide. i am now sorry however, that the step of which you complain was ever adopted. but, urged to exasperation by an unintermitted rigour, i had no time to cool or to deliberate. even at present i cherish no vengeance against you. all that is reasonable, all that can really contribute to your security, i will readily concede; but i will not be driven to an act repugnant to all reason, integrity, and justice." mr. falkland listened to me with astonishment and impatience. he had entertained no previous conception of the firmness i displayed. several times he was convulsed with the fury that laboured in his breast. once and again he betrayed an intention to interrupt; but he was restrained by the collectedness of my manner, and perhaps by a desire to be acquainted with the entire state of my mind. finding that i had concluded, he paused for a moment; his passion seemed gradually to enlarge, till it was no longer capable of control. "it is well!" said he, gnashing his teeth, and stamping upon the ground. "you refuse the composition i offer! i have no power to persuade you to compliance! you defy me! at least i have a power respecting you, and that power i will exercise; a power that shall grind you into atoms. i condescend to no more expostulation. i know what i am, and what i can be. i know what you are, and what fate is reserved for you!" saying this he quitted the room. such were the particulars of this memorable scene. the impression it has left upon my understanding is indelible. the figure and appearance of mr. falkland, his death-like weakness and decay, his more than mortal energy and rage, the words that he spoke, the motives that animated him, produced one compounded effect upon my mind that nothing of the same nature could ever parallel. the idea of his misery thrilled through my frame. how weak in comparison of it is the imaginary hell, which the great enemy of mankind is represented as carrying every where about with him! from this consideration, my mind presently turned to the menaces he had vented against myself. they were all mysterious and undefined. he had talked of power, but had given no hint from which i could collect in what he imagined it to consist. he had talked of misery, but had not dropped a syllable respecting the nature of the misery to be inflicted. i sat still for some time, ruminating on these thoughts. neither mr. falkland nor any other person appeared to disturb my meditations. i rose, went out of the room, and from the inn into the street. no one offered to molest me. it was strange! what was the nature of this power, from which i was to apprehend so much, yet which seemed to leave me at perfect liberty? i began to imagine that all i had heard from this dreadful adversary was mere madness and extravagance, and that he was at length deprived of the use of reason, which had long served him only as a medium of torment. yet was it likely in that case that he should be able to employ gines and his associate, who had just been his instruments of violence upon my person? i proceeded along the streets with considerable caution. i looked before me and behind me, as well as the darkness would allow me to do, that i might not again be hunted in sight by some men of stratagem and violence without my perceiving it. i went not, as before, beyond the limits of the town, but considered the streets, the houses, and the inhabitants, as affording some degree of security. i was still walking with my mind thus full of suspicion and forecast, when i discovered thomas, that servant of mr. falkland whom i have already more than once had occasion to mention. he advanced towards me with an air so blunt and direct, as instantly to remove from me the idea of any thing insidious in his purpose; besides that i had always felt the character of thomas, rustic and uncultivated as it was, to be entitled to a more than common portion of esteem. "thomas," said i, as he advanced, "i hope you are willing to give me joy, that i am at length delivered from the dreadful danger which for many months haunted me so unmercifully." "no," rejoined thomas, roughly; "i be not at all willing. i do not know what to make of myself in this affair. while you were in prison in that miserable fashion, i felt all at one almost as if i loved you: and now that that is over, and you are turned out loose in the world to do your worst, my blood rises at the very sight of you. to look at you, you are almost that very lad williams for whom i could with pleasure, as it were, have laid down my life; and yet, behind that smiling face there lie robbery, and lying, and every thing that is ungrateful and murderous. your last action was worse than all the rest. how could you find in your heart to revive that cruel story about mr. tyrrel, which every body had agreed, out of regard to the squire, never to mention again, and of which i know, and you know, he is as innocent as the child unborn? there are causes and reasons, or else i could have wished from the bottom of my soul never to have set eyes on you again." "and you still persist in your hard thoughts of me?" "worse! i think worse of you than ever! before, i thought you as bad as man could be. i wonder from my soul what you are to do next. but you make good the old saying, 'needs must go, that the devil drives.'" "and so there is never to be an end of my misfortunes! what can mr. falkland contrive for me worse than the ill opinion and enmity of all mankind?" "mr. falkland contrive! he is the best friend you have in the world, though you are the basest traitor to him. poor man! it makes one's heart ache to look at him; he is the very image of grief. and it is not clear to me that it is not all owing to you. at least you have given the finishing lift to the misfortune that was already destroying him. there have been the devil and all to pay between him and squire forester. the squire is right raving mad with my master, for having outwitted him in the matter of the trial, and saved your life. he swears that you shall be taken up and tried all over again at the next assizes; but my master is resolute, and i believe will carry it his own way. he says indeed that the law will not allow squire forester to have his will in this. to see him ordering every thing for your benefit, and taking all your maliciousness as mild and innocent as a lamb, and to think of your vile proceedings against him, is a sight one shall not see again, go all the world over. for god's sake, repent of your reprobate doings, and make what little reparation is in your power! think of your poor soul, before you awake, as to be sure one of these days you will, in fire and brimstone everlasting!" saying this, he held out his hand and took hold of mine. the action seemed strange; but i at first thought it the unpremeditated result of his solemn and well-intended adjuration. i felt however that he put something into my hand. the next moment he quitted his hold, and hastened from me with the swiftness of an arrow. what he had thus given me was a bank-note of twenty pounds. i had no doubt that he had been charged to deliver it to me from mr. falkland. what was i to infer? what light did it throw upon the intentions of my inexorable persecutor? his animosity against me was as great as ever; that i had just had confirmed to me from his own mouth. yet his animosity appeared to be still tempered with the remains of humanity. he prescribed to it a line, wide enough to embrace the gratification of his views, and within the boundaries of that line it stopped. but this discovery carried no consolation to my mind. i knew not what portion of calamity i was fated to endure, before his jealousy of dishonour, and inordinate thirst of fame would deem themselves satisfied. another question offered itself. was i to receive the money which had just been put into my hands? the money of a man who had inflicted upon me injuries, less than those which he had entailed upon himself, but the greatest that one man can inflict upon another? who had blasted my youth, who had destroyed my peace, who had held me up to the abhorrence of mankind, and rendered me an outcast upon the face of the earth? who had forced the basest and most atrocious falsehoods, and urged them with a seriousness and perseverance which produced universal belief? who, an hour before, had vowed against me inexorable enmity, and sworn to entail upon me misery without end? would not this conduct on my part betray a base and abject spirit, that crouched under tyranny, and kissed the hands that were imbrued in my blood? if these reasons appeared strong, neither was the other side without reasons in reply. i wanted the money: not for any purpose of vice or superfluity, but for those purposes without which life cannot subsist. man ought to be able, wherever placed, to find for himself the means of existence; but i was to open a new scene of life, to remove to some distant spot, to be prepared against all the ill-will of mankind, and the unexplored projects of hostility of a most accomplished foe. the actual means of existence are the property of all. what should hinder me from taking that of which i was really in want, when, in taking it, i risked no vengeance, and perpetrated no violence? the property in question will be beneficial to me, and the voluntary surrender of it is accompanied with no injury to its late proprietor; what other condition can be necessary to render the use of it on my part a duty? he that lately possessed it has injured me; does that alter its value as a medium of exchange? he will boast, perhaps of the imaginary obligation he has conferred on me: surely to shrink from a thing in itself right from any such apprehension, can be the result only of pusillanimity and cowardice! chapter xiii. influenced by these reasonings, i determined to retain what had thus been put into my hands. my next care was in regard to the scene i should choose, as the retreat of that life which i had just saved from the grasp of the executioner. the danger to which i was exposed of forcible interruption in my pursuits, was probably, in some respects, less now than it had been previously to this crisis. besides, that i was considerably influenced in this deliberation by the strong loathing i conceived for the situations in which i had lately been engaged. i knew not in what mode mr. falkland intended to exercise his vengeance against me; but i was seized with so unconquerable an aversion to disguise, and the idea of spending my life in personating a fictitious character, that i could not, for the present at least, reconcile my mind to any thing of that nature. the same kind of disgust i had conceived for the metropolis, where i had spent so many hours of artifice, sadness, and terror. i therefore decided in favour of the project which had formerly proved amusing to my imagination, of withdrawing to some distant, rural scene, a scene of calmness and obscurity, where for a few years at least, perhaps during the life of mr. falkland, i might be hidden from the world, recover the wounds my mind had received in this fatal connection, methodise and improve the experience which had been accumulated, cultivate the faculties i in any degree possessed, and employ the intervals of these occupations in simple industry, and the intercourse of guileless, uneducated, kind-intentioned minds. the menaces of my persecutor seemed to forebode the inevitable interruption of this system. but i deemed it wise to put these menaces out of my consideration i compared them to death, which must infallibly overtake us we know not when; but the possibility of whose arrival next year, next week, to-morrow, must be left out of the calculation of him who would enter upon any important or well-concerted undertaking. such were the ideas that determined my choice. thus did my youthful mind delineate the system of distant years, even when the threats of instant calamity still sounded in my ears. i was inured to the apprehension of mischief, till at last the hoarse roarings of the beginning tempest had lost their power of annihilating my peace. i however thought it necessary, while i was most palpably within the sphere of the enemy, to exert every practicable degree of vigilance. i was careful not to incur the hazards of darkness and solitude. when i left the town it was with the stage-coach, an obvious source of protection against glaring and enormous violence. meanwhile i found myself no more exposed to molestation in my progress, than the man in the world who should have had the least reason for apprehensions of this nature. as the distance increased, i relaxed something in my precaution, though still awake to a sense of danger, and constantly pursued with the image of my foe. i fixed upon an obscure market-town in wales as the chosen seat of my operations. this place recommended itself to my observation as i was wandering in quest of an abode. it was clean, cheerful, and of great simplicity of appearance. it was at a distance from any public and frequented road, and had nothing which could deserve the name of trade. the face of nature around it was agreeably diversified, being partly wild and romantic, and partly rich and abundant in production. here i solicited employment in two professions; the first, that of a watchmaker, in which though the instructions i had received were few, they were eked out and assisted by a mind fruitful in mechanical invention; the other, that of an instructor in mathematics and its practical application, geography, astronomy, land-surveying, and navigation. neither of these was a very copious source of emolument in the obscure retreat i had chosen for myself; but, if my receipts were slender, my disbursements were still fewer. in this little town i became acquainted with the vicar, the apothecary, the lawyer, and the rest of the persons who, time out of mind, had been regarded as the top gentry of the place. each of these centred in himself a variety of occupations. there was little in the appearance of the vicar that reminded you of his profession, except on the recurring sunday. at other times he condescended, with his evangelical hand to guide the plough, or to drive the cows from the field to the farm-yard for the milking. the apothecary occasionally officiated as a barber, and the lawyer was the village schoolmaster. by all these persons i was received with kindness and hospitality. among people thus remote from the bustle of human life there is an open spirit of confidence, by means of which a stranger easily finds access to their benevolence and good-will. my manners had never been greatly debauched from the simplicity of rural life by the scenes through which i had passed; and the hardships i had endured had given additional mildness to my character. in the theatre upon which i was now placed i had no rival. my mechanical occupation had hitherto been a non-resident; and the schoolmaster, who did not aspire to the sublime heights of science i professed to communicate, was willing to admit me as a partner in the task of civilising the unpolished manners of the inhabitants. for the parson, civilisation was no part of his trade; his business was with the things of a better life, not with the carnal concerns of this material scene; in truth, his thoughts were principally occupied with his oatmeal and his cows. these however were not the only companions which this remote retirement afforded me. there was a family of a very different description, of which i gradually became the chosen intimate. the father was a shrewd, sensible, rational man, but who had turned his principal attention to subjects of agriculture. his wife was a truly admirable and extraordinary woman. she was the daughter of a neapolitan nobleman, who, after having visited, and made a considerable figure, in every country in europe, had at length received the blow of fate in this village. he had been banished his country upon suspicion of religious and political heresy, and his estates confiscated. with this only child, like prospero in the tempest, he had withdrawn himself to one of the most obscure and uncultivated regions of the world. very soon however after his arrival in wales he had been seized with a malignant fever, which carried him off in three days. he died possessed of no other property than a few jewels, and a bill of credit, to no considerable amount, upon an english banker. here then was the infant laura, left in a foreign country, and without a single friend. the father of her present husband was led by motives of pure humanity to seek to mitigate the misfortunes of the dying italian. though a plain uninstructed man, with no extraordinary refinement of intellect, there was something in his countenance that determined the stranger in his present forlorn and melancholy situation, to make him his executor, and the guardian of his daughter. the neapolitan understood enough of english to explain his wishes to this friendly attendant of his death-bed. as his circumstances were narrow, the servants of the stranger, two italians, a male and a female, were sent back to their own country soon after the death of their master. laura was at this time eight years of age. at these tender years she had been susceptible of little direct instruction; and, as she grew up, even the memory of her father became, from year to year, more vague and indistinct in her mind. but there was something she derived from her father, whether along with the life he bestowed, or as the consequence of his instruction and manners, which no time could efface. every added year of her life contributed to develop the fund of her accomplishments. she read, she observed, she reflected. without instructors, she taught herself to draw, to sing, and to understand the more polite european languages. as she had no society in this remote situation but that of peasants, she had no idea of honour or superiority to be derived from her acquisitions; but pursued them from a secret taste, and as the sources of personal enjoyment. a mutual attachment gradually arose between her and the only son of her guardian. his father led him, from early youth, to the labours and the sports of the field, and there was little congeniality between his pursuits and those of laura. but this was a defect that she was slow to discover. she had never been accustomed to society in her chosen amusements, and habit at that time even made her conceive, that they were indebted to solitude for an additional relish. the youthful rustic had great integrity, great kindness of heart, and was a lad of excellent sense. he was florid, well-proportioned, and the goodness of his disposition made his manners amiable. accomplishments greater than these she had never seen in human form, since the death of her father. in fact, she is scarcely to be considered as a sufferer in this instance; since, in her forlorn and destitute condition, it is little probable, when we consider the habits and notions that now prevail, that her accomplishments, unassisted by fortune, would have procured her an equal alliance in marriage. when she became a mother her heart opened to a new affection. the idea now presented itself, which had never occurred before, that in her children at least she might find the partners and companions of her favourite employments. she was, at the time of my arrival, mother of four, the eldest of which was a son. to all of them she had been a most assiduous instructor. it was well for her perhaps that she obtained this sphere for the exercise of her mind. it came just at the period when the charm which human life derives from novelty is beginning to wear off. it gave her new activity and animation. it is perhaps impossible that the refinements of which human nature is capable should not, after a time, subside into sluggishness, if they be not aided by the influence of society and affection. the son of the welch farmer by this admirable woman was about seventeen years of age at the time of my settlement in their neighbourhood. his eldest sister was one year younger than himself. the whole family composed a group, with which a lover of tranquillity and virtue would have delighted to associate in any situation. it is easy therefore to conceive how much i rejoiced in their friendship, in this distant retirement, and suffering, as i felt myself, from the maltreatment and desertion of my species. the amiable laura had a wonderful quickness of eye, and rapidity of apprehension; but this feature in her countenance was subdued by a sweetness of disposition, such as i never in any other instance saw expressed in the looks of a human being. she soon distinguished me by her kindness and friendship; for, living as she had done, though familiar with the written productions of a cultivated intellect, she had never seen the thing itself realised in a living being, except in the person of her father. she delighted to converse with me upon subjects of literature and taste, and she eagerly invited my assistance in the education of her children. the son, though young, had been so happily improved and instructed by his mother, that i found in him nearly all the most essential qualities we require in a friend. engagement and inclination equally led me to pass a considerable part of every day in this agreeable society. laura treated me as if i had been one of the family; and i sometimes flattered myself that i might one day become such in reality. what an enviable resting-place for me, who had known nothing but calamity, and had scarcely dared to look for sympathy and kindness in the countenance of a human being! the sentiments of friendship which early disclosed themselves between me and the member of this amiable family daily became stronger. at every interview, the confidence reposed in me by the mother increased. while our familiarity gained in duration, it equally gained in that subtlety of communication by which it seemed to shoot forth its roots in every direction. there are a thousand little evanescent touches in the development of a growing friendship, that are neither thought of, nor would be understood, between common acquaintances. i honoured and esteemed the respectable laura like a mother; for, though the difference of our ages was by no means sufficient to authorise the sentiment, it was irresistibly suggested to me by the fact of her always being presented to my observation under the maternal character. her son was a lad of great understanding, generosity, and feeling, and of no contemptible acquirements; while his tender years, and the uncommon excellence of his mother, subtracted something from the independence of his judgment, and impressed him with a sort of religious deference for her will. in the eldest daughter i beheld the image of laura; for that i felt attached to her for the present; and i sometimes conceived it probable that hereafter i might learn to love her for her own sake.--alas, it was thus that i amused myself with the visions of distant years, while i stood in reality on the brink of the precipice! it will perhaps be thought strange that i never once communicated the particulars of my story to this amiable matron, or to my young friend, for such i may also venture to call him, her son. but in truth i abhorred the memory of this story; i placed all my hopes of happiness in the prospect of its being consigned to oblivion. i fondly flattered myself that such would be the event: in the midst of my unlooked-for happiness, i scarcely recollected, or, recollecting, was disposed to yield but a small degree of credit to, the menaces of mr. falkland. one day, that i was sitting alone with the accomplished laura, she repeated his all-dreadful name. i started with astonishment, amazed that a woman like this, who knew nobody, who lived as it were alone in a corner of the universe, who had never in a single instance entered into any fashionable circle, this admirable and fascinating hermit, should, by some unaccountable accident, have become acquainted with this fatal and tremendous name. astonishment however was not my only sensation. i became pale with terror; i rose from my seat; i attempted to sit down again; i reeled out of the room, and hastened to bury myself in solitude. the unexpectedness of the incident took from me all precaution, and overwhelmed my faculties. the penetrating laura observed my behaviour; but nothing further occurred to excite her attention to it at that time; and, concluding from my manner that enquiry would be painful to me, she humanely suppressed her curiosity. i afterwards found that mr. falkland had been known to the father of laura; that he had been acquainted with the story of count malvesi, and with a number of other transactions redounding in the highest degree to the credit of the gallant englishman. the neapolitan had left letters in which these transactions were recorded, and which spoke of mr. falkland in the highest terms of panegyric. laura had been used to regard every little relic of her father with a sort of religious veneration; and, by this accident, the name of mr. falkland was connected in her mind with the sentiments of unbounded esteem. the scene by which i was surrounded was perhaps more grateful to me, than it would have been to most other persons with my degree of intellectual cultivation. sore with persecution and distress, and bleeding at almost every vein, there was nothing i so much coveted as rest and tranquillity. it seemed as if my faculties were, at least for the time, exhausted by the late preternatural intensity of their exertions, and that they stood indispensably in need of a period of comparative suspension. this was however but a temporary feeling. my mind had always been active, and i was probably indebted to the sufferings i had endured, and the exquisite and increased susceptibility they produced, for new energies. i soon felt the desire of some additional and vigorous pursuit. in this state of mind, i met by accident, in a neglected corner of the house of one of my neighbours, with a general dictionary of four of the northern languages. this incident gave a direction to my thoughts. in my youth i had not been inattentive to languages. i determined to attempt, at least for my own use, an etymological analysis of the english language. i easily perceived, that this pursuit had one advantage to a person in my situation, and that a small number of books, consulted with this view, would afford employment for a considerable time. i procured other dictionaries. in my incidental reading, i noted the manner in which words were used, and applied these remarks to the illustration of my general enquiry. i was unintermitted in my assiduity, and my collections promised to accumulate. thus i was provided with sources both of industry and recreation, the more completely to divert my thoughts from the recollection of my past misfortunes. in this state, so grateful to my feelings, week after week glided away without interruption and alarm. the situation in which i was now placed had some resemblance to that in which i had spent my earlier years, with the advantage of a more attractive society, and a riper judgment. i began to look back upon the intervening period as upon a distempered and tormenting dream; or rather perhaps my feelings were like those of a man recovered from an interval of raging delirium, from ideas of horror, confusion, flight, persecution, agony, and despair! when i recollected what i had undergone, it was not without satisfaction, as the recollection of a thing that was past; every day augmented my hope that it was never to return. surely the dark and terrific menaces of mr. falkland were rather the perturbed suggestions of his angry mind, than the final result of a deliberate and digested system! how happy should i feel, beyond the ordinary lot of man, if, after the terrors i had undergone, i should now find myself unexpectedly restored to the immunities of a human being! while i was thus soothing my mind with fond imaginations, it happened that a few bricklayers and their labourers came over from a distance of five or six miles, to work upon some additions to one of the better sort of houses in the town, which had changed its tenant. no incident could be more trivial than this, had it not been for a strange coincidence of time between this circumstance, and a change which introduced itself into my situation. this first manifested itself in a sort of shyness with which i was treated, first by one person, and then another, of my new-formed acquaintance. they were backward to enter into conversation with me, and answered my enquiries with an awkward and embarrassed air. when they met me in the street or the field, their countenances contracted a cloud, and they endeavoured to shun me. my scholars quitted me one after another; and i had no longer any employment in my mechanical profession. it is impossible to describe the sensations, which the gradual but uninterrupted progress of this revolution produced in my mind. it seemed as if i had some contagious disease, from which every man shrunk with alarm, and left me to perish unassisted and alone. i asked one man and another to explain to me the meaning of these appearances; but every one avoided the task, and answered in an evasive and ambiguous manner. i sometimes supposed that it was all a delusion of the imagination; till the repetition of the sensation brought the reality too painfully home to my apprehension. there are few things that give a greater shock to the mind, than a phenomenon in the conduct of our fellow men, of great importance to our concerns, and for which we are unable to assign any plausible reason. at times i was half inclined to believe that the change was not in other men, but that some alienation of my own understanding generated the horrid vision. i endeavoured to awaken from my dream, and return to my former state of enjoyment and happiness; but in vain. to the same consideration it may be ascribed, that, unacquainted with the source of the evil, observing its perpetual increase, and finding it, so far as i could perceive, entirely arbitrary in its nature, i was unable to ascertain its limits, or the degree in which it would finally overwhelm me. in the midst however of the wonderful and seemingly inexplicable nature of this scene, there was one idea that instantly obtruded itself, and that i could never after banish from my mind. it is falkland! in vain i struggled against the seeming improbability of the supposition. in vain i said, "mr. falkland, wise as he is, and pregnant in resources, acts by human, not by supernatural means. he may overtake me by surprise, and in a manner of which i had no previous expectation; but he cannot produce a great and notorious effect without some visible agency, however difficult it may be to trace that agency to its absolute author. he cannot, like those invisible personages who are supposed from time to time to interfere in human affairs, ride in the whirlwind, shroud himself in clouds and impenetrable darkness, and scatter destruction upon the earth from his secret habitation." thus it was that i bribed my imagination, and endeavoured to persuade myself that my present unhappiness originated in a different source from my former. all evils appeared trivial to me, in comparison with the recollection and perpetuation of my parent misfortune. i felt like a man distracted, by the incoherence of my ideas to my present situation, excluding from it the machinations of mr. falkland, on the one hand; and on the other, by the horror i conceived at the bare possibility of again encountering his animosity, after a suspension of many weeks, a suspension as i had hoped for ever. an interval like this was an age to a person in the calamitous situation i had so long experienced. but, in spite of my efforts, i could not banish from my mind the dreadful idea. my original conceptions of the genius and perseverance of mr. falkland had been such, that i could with difficulty think any thing impossible to him. i knew not how to set up my own opinions of material causes and the powers of the human mind, as the limits of existence. mr. falkland had always been to my imagination an object of wonder, and that which excites our wonder we scarcely suppose ourselves competent to analyse. it may well be conceived, that one of the first persons to whom i thought of applying for an explanation of this dreadful mystery was the accomplished laura. my disappointment here cut me to the heart. i was not prepared for it. i recollected the ingenuousness of her nature, the frankness of her manners, the partiality with which she had honoured me. if i were mortified with the coldness, the ruggedness, and the cruel mistake of principles with which the village inhabitants repelled my enquiries, the mortification i suffered, only drove me more impetuously to seek the cure of my griefs from this object of my admiration. "in laura," said i, "i am secure from these vulgar prejudices. i confide in her justice. i am sure she will not cast me off unheard, nor without strictly examining a question on all sides, in which every thing that is valuable to a person she once esteemed, may be involved." thus encouraging myself, i turned my steps to the place of her residence. as i passed along i called up all my recollection, i summoned my faculties. "i may be made miserable," said i, "but it shall not be for want of any exertion of mine, that promises to lead to happiness. i will be clear, collected, simple in narrative, ingenuous in communication. i will leave nothing unsaid that the case may require. i will not volunteer any thing that relates to my former transactions with mr. falkland; but, if i find that my present calamity is connected with those transactions, i will not fear but that by an honest explanation i shall remove it." i knocked at the door. a servant appeared, and told me that her mistress hoped i would excuse her; she must really beg to dispense with my visit. i was thunderstruck. i was rooted to the spot. i had been carefully preparing my mind for every thing that i supposed likely to happen, but this event had not entered into my calculations. i roused myself in a partial degree, and walked away without uttering a word. i had not gone far before i perceived one of the workmen following me, who put into my hands a billet. the contents were these:-"mr. williams, "let me see you no more. i have a right at least to expect your compliance with this requisition; and, upon that condition, i pardon the enormous impropriety and guilt with which you have conducted yourself to me and my family. "laura denison." the sensations with which i read these few lines are indescribable. i found in them a dreadful confirmation of the calamity that on all sides invaded me. but what i felt most was the unmoved coldness with which they appeared to be written. this coldness from laura, my comforter, my friend, my mother! to dismiss, to cast me off for ever, without one thought of compunction! i determined however, in spite of her requisition, and in spite of her coldness, to have an explanation with her. i did not despair of conquering the antipathy she harboured. i did not fear that i should rouse her from the vulgar and unworthy conception, of condemning a man, in points the most material to his happiness, without stating the accusations that are urged against him, and without hearing him in reply. though i had no doubt, by means of resolution, of gaining access to her in her house, yet i preferred taking her unprepared, and not warmed against me by any previous contention. accordingly, the next morning, at the time she usually devoted to half an hour's air and exercise, i hastened to her garden, leaped the paling, and concealed myself in an arbour. presently i saw, from my retreat, the younger part of the family strolling through the garden, and from thence into the fields; but it was not my business to be seen by them. i looked after them however with earnestness, unobserved; and i could not help asking myself, with a deep and heartfelt sigh, whether it were possible that i saw them now for the last time? they had not advanced far into the fields, before their mother made her appearance. i observed in her her usual serenity and sweetness of countenance. i could feel my heart knocking against my ribs. my whole frame was in a tumult. i stole out of the arbour; and, as i advanced nearer, my pace became quickened. "for god's sake, madam," exclaimed i, "give me a hearing! do not avoid me!" she stood still. "no, sir," she replied, "i shall not avoid you. i wished you to dispense with this meeting; but since i cannot obtain that--i am conscious of no wrong; and therefore, though the meeting gives me pain, it inspires me with no fear." "oh, madam," answered i, "my friend! the object of all my reverence! whom i once ventured to call my mother! can you wish not to hear me? can you have no anxiety for my justification, whatever may be the unfavourable impression you may have received against me?" "not an atom. i have neither wish nor inclination to hear you. that tale which, in its plain and unadorned state, is destructive of the character of him to whom it relates, no colouring can make an honest one." "good god! can you think of condemning a man when you have heard only one side of his story?" "indeed i can," replied she with dignity. "the maxim of hearing both sides may be very well in some cases; but it would be ridiculous to suppose that there are not cases, that, at the first mention, are too clear to admit the shadow of a doubt. by a well-concerted defence you may give me new reasons to admire your abilities; but i am acquainted with them already. i can admire your abilities, without tolerating your character." "madam! amiable, exemplary laura! whom, in the midst of all your harshness and inflexibility, i honour! i conjure you, by every thing that is sacred, to tell me what it is that has filled you with this sudden aversion to me." "no, sir; that you shall never obtain from me. i have nothing to say to you. i stand still and hear you; because virtue disdains to appear abashed and confounded in the presence of vice. your conduct even at this moment, in my opinion, condemns you. true virtue refuses the drudgery of explanation and apology. true virtue shines by its own light, and needs no art to set it off. you have the first principles of morality as yet to learn." "and can you imagine, that the most upright conduct is always superior to the danger of ambiguity?" "exactly so. virtue, sir, consists in actions, and not in words. the good man and the bad are characters precisely opposite, not characters distinguished from each other by imperceptible shades. the providence that rules us all, has not permitted us to be left without a clew in the most important of all questions. eloquence may seek to confound it; but it shall be my care to avoid its deceptive influence. i do not wish to have my understanding perverted, and all the differences of things concealed from my apprehension." "madam, madam! it would be impossible for you to hold this language, if you had not always lived in this obscure retreat, if you had ever been conversant with the passions and institutions of men." "it may be so. and, if that be the case, i have great reason to be thankful to my god, who has thus enabled me to preserve the innocence of my heart, and the integrity of my understanding." "can you believe then that ignorance is the only, or the safest, preservative of integrity?" "sir, i told you at first, and i repeat to you again, that all your declamation is in vain. i wish you would have saved me and yourself that pain which is the only thing that can possibly result from it. but let us suppose that virtue could ever be the equivocal thing you would have me believe. is it possible, if you had been honest, that you would not have acquainted me with your story? is it possible, that you would have left me to have been informed of it by a mere accident, and with all the shocking aggravations you well knew that accident would give it? is it possible you should have violated the most sacred of all trusts, and have led me unknowingly to admit to the intercourse of my children a character, which if, as you pretend, it is substantially honest, you cannot deny to be blasted and branded in the face of the whole world? go, sir; i despise you. you are a monster and not a man. i cannot tell whether my personal situation misleads me; but, to my thinking, this last action of yours is worse than all the rest. nature has constituted me the protector of my children. i shall always remember and resent the indelible injury you have done them. you have wounded me to the very heart, and have taught me to what a pitch the villainy of man can extend." "madam, i can be silent no longer. i see that you have by some means come to a hearing of the story of mr. falkland." "i have. i am astonished you have the effrontery to pronounce his name. that name has been a denomination, as far back as my memory can reach, for the most exalted of mortals, the wisest and most generous of men." "madam, i owe it to myself to set you right on this subject. mr. falkland--" "mr. williams, i see my children returning from the fields, and coming this way. the basest action you ever did was the obtruding yourself upon them as an instructor. i insist that you see them no more. i command you to be silent. i command you to withdraw. if you persist in your absurd resolution of expostulating with me, you must take some other time." i could continue no longer. i was in a manner heart-broken through the whole of this dialogue. i could not think of protracting the pain of this admirable woman, upon whom, though i was innocent of the crimes she imputed to me, i had inflicted so much pain already. i yielded to the imperiousness of her commands, and withdrew. i hastened, without knowing why, from the presence of laura to my own habitation. upon entering the house, an apartment of which i occupied, i found it totally deserted of its usual inhabitants. the woman and her children were gone to enjoy the freshness of the breeze. the husband was engaged in his usual out-door occupations. the doors of persons of the lower order in this part of the country are secured, in the day-time, only with a latch. i entered, and went into the kitchen of the family. here, as i looked round, my eyes accidentally glanced upon a paper lying in one corner, which, by some association i was unable to explain, roused in me a strong sensation of suspicion and curiosity. i eagerly went towards it, caught it up, and found it to be the very paper of the wonderful and surprising history of caleb williams, the discovery of which, towards the close of my residence in london, had produced in me such inexpressible anguish. this encounter at once cleared up all the mystery that hung upon my late transactions. abhorred and intolerable certainty succeeded to the doubts which had haunted my mind. it struck me with the rapidity of lightning. i felt a sudden torpor and sickness that pervaded every fibre of my frame. was there no hope that remained for me? was acquittal useless? was there no period, past or in prospect, that could give relief to my sufferings? was the odious and atrocious falsehood that had been invented against me, to follow me wherever i went, to strip me of character, to deprive me of the sympathy and good-will of mankind, to wrest from me the very bread by which life must be sustained? for the space perhaps of half an hour the agony i felt from this termination to my tranquillity, and the expectation it excited of the enmity which would follow me through every retreat, was such as to bereave me of all consistent thinking, much more of the power of coming to any resolution. as soon as this giddiness and horror of the mind subsided, and the deadly calm that invaded my faculties was no more, one stiff and master gale gained the ascendancy, and drove me to an instant desertion of this late cherished retreat. i had no patience to enter into further remonstrance and explanation with the inhabitants of my present residence. i believed that it was in vain to hope to recover the favourable prepossession and tranquillity i had lately enjoyed. in encountering the prejudices that were thus armed against me, i should have to deal with a variety of dispositions, and, though i might succeed with some, i could not expect to succeed with all. i had seen too much of the reign of triumphant falsehood, to have that sanguine confidence in the effects of my innocence, which would have suggested itself to the mind of any other person of my propensities and my age. the recent instance which had occurred in my conversation with laura might well contribute to discourage me. i could not endure the thought of opposing the venom that was thus scattered against me, in detail and through its minuter particles. if ever it should be necessary to encounter it, if i were pursued like a wild beast, till i could no longer avoid turning upon my hunters, i would then turn upon the true author of this unprincipled attack; i would encounter the calumny in its strong hold; i would rouse myself to an exertion hitherto unessayed; and, by the firmness, intrepidity, and unalterable constancy i should display, would yet compel mankind to believe mr. falkland a suborner and a murderer! chapter xiv. i hasten to the conclusion of my melancholy story. i began to write soon after the period to which i have now conducted it. this was another resource that my mind, ever eager in inventing means to escape from my misery, suggested. in my haste to withdraw myself from the retreat in wales, where first the certainty of mr. falkland's menaces was confirmed to me, i left behind me the apparatus of my etymological enquiries, and the papers i had written upon the subject. i have never been able to persuade myself to resume this pursuit. it is always discouraging, to begin over again a laborious task, and exert one's self to recover a position we had already occupied. i knew not how soon or how abruptly i might be driven from any new situation; the appendages of the study in which i had engaged were too cumbrous for this state of dependence and uncertainty; they only served to give new sharpness to the enmity of my foe, and new poignancy to my hourly-renewing distress. but what was of greatest importance, and made the deepest impression upon my mind, was my separation from the family of laura. fool that i was, to imagine that there was any room for me in the abodes of friendship and tranquillity! it was now first, that i felt, with the most intolerable acuteness, how completely i was cut off from the whole human species. other connections i had gained, comparatively without interest; and i saw them dissolved without the consummation of agony. i had never experienced the purest refinements of friendship, but in two instances, that of collins, and this of the family of laura. solitude, separation, banishment! these are words often in the mouths of human beings; but few men except myself have felt the full latitude of their meaning. the pride of philosophy has taught us to treat man as an individual. he is no such thing. he holds necessarily, indispensably, to his species. he is like those twin-births, that have two heads indeed, and four hands; but, if you attempt to detach them from each other, they are inevitably subjected to miserable and lingering destruction. it was this circumstance, more than all the rest, that gradually gorged my heart with abhorrence of mr. falkland. i could not think of his name but with a sickness and a loathing that seemed more than human. it was by his means that i suffered the loss of one consolation after another, of every thing that was happiness, or that had the resemblance of happiness. the writing of these memoirs served me as a source of avocation for several years. for some time i had a melancholy satisfaction in it. i was better pleased to retrace the particulars of calamities that had formerly afflicted me, than to look forward, as at other times i was too apt to do, to those by which i might hereafter be overtaken. i conceived that my story, faithfully digested, would carry in it an impression of truth that few men would be able to resist; or, at worst, that, by leaving it behind me when i should no longer continue to exist, posterity might be induced to do me justice; and, seeing in my example what sort of evils are entailed upon mankind by society as it is at present constituted, might be inclined to turn their attention upon the fountain from which such bitter waters have been accustomed to flow. but these motives have diminished in their influence. i have contracted a disgust for life and all its appendages. writing, which was at first a pleasure, is changed into a burthen. i shall compress into a small compass what remains to be told. i discovered, not long after the period of which i am speaking, the precise cause of the reverse i had experienced in my residence in wales, and, included in that cause, what it was i had to look for in my future adventures. mr. falkland had taken the infernal gines into his pay, a man critically qualified for the service in which he was now engaged, by the unfeeling brutality of his temper, by his habits of mind at once audacious and artful, and by the peculiar animosity and vengeance he had conceived against me. the employment to which this man was hired, was that of following me from place to place, blasting my reputation, and preventing me from the chance, by continuing long in one residence, of acquiring a character for integrity, that should give new weight to any accusation i might at a future time be induced to prefer. he had come to the seat of my residence with the bricklayers and labourers i have mentioned; and, while he took care to keep out of sight so far as related to me, was industrious in disseminating that which, in the eye of the world, seemed to amount to a demonstration of the profligacy and detestableness of my character. it was no doubt from him that the detested scroll had been procured, which i had found in my habitation immediately prior to my quitting it. in all this mr. falkland, reasoning upon his principles, was only employing a necessary precaution. there was something in the temper of his mind, that impressed him with aversion to the idea of violently putting an end to my existence; at the same time that unfortunately he could never deem himself sufficiently secured against my recrimination, so long as i remained alive. as to the fact of gines being retained by him for this tremendous purpose, he by no means desired that it should become generally known; but neither did he look upon the possibility of its being known with terror. it was already too notorious for his wishes, that i had advanced the most odious charges against him. if he regarded me with abhorrence as the adversary of his fame, those persons who had had occasion to be in any degree acquainted with our history, did not entertain less abhorrence against me for my own sake. if they should at any time know the pains he exerted in causing my evil reputation to follow me, they would consider it as an act of impartial justice, perhaps as a generous anxiety to prevent other men from being imposed upon and injured, as he had been. what expedient was i to employ for the purpose of counteracting the meditated and barbarous prudence, which was thus destined, in all changes of scene, to deprive me of the benefits and consolations of human society? there was one expedient against which i was absolutely determined--disguise. i had experienced so many mortifications, and such intolerable restraint, when i formerly had recourse to it; it was associated in my memory with sensations of such acute anguish, that my mind was thus far entirely convinced: life was not worth purchasing at so high a price! but, though in this respect i was wholly resolved, there was another point that did not appear so material, and in which therefore i was willing to accommodate myself to circumstances. i was contented, if that would insure my peace, to submit to the otherwise unmanly expedient of passing by a different name. but the change of my name, the abruptness with which i removed from place to place, the remoteness and the obscurity which i proposed to myself in the choice of my abode, were all insufficient to elude the sagacity of gines, or the unrelenting constancy with which mr. falkland incited my tormentor to pursue me. whithersoever i removed myself it was not long before i had occasion to perceive this detested adversary in my rear. no words can enable me to do justice to the sensations which this circumstance produced in me. it was like what has been described of the eye of omniscience, pursuing the guilty sinner, and darting a ray that awakens him to new sensibility, at the very moment that, otherwise, exhausted nature would lull him into a temporary oblivion of the reproaches of his conscience. sleep fled from my eyes. no walls could hide me from the discernment of this hated foe. every where his industry was unwearied to create for me new distress. rest i had none; relief i had none: never could i count upon an instant's security; never could i wrap myself in the shroud of oblivion. the minutes in which i did not actually perceive him, were contaminated and blasted with the certain expectation of his speedy interference. in my first retreat i had passed a few weeks of delusive tranquillity, but never after was i happy enough to attain to so much as that shadowy gratification. i spent some years in this dreadful vicissitude of pain. my sensations at certain periods amounted to insanity. i pursued in every succeeding instance the conduct i had adopted at first. i determined never to enter into a contest of accusation and defence with the execrable gines. if i could have submitted to it in other respects, what purpose would it answer? i should have but an imperfect and mutilated story to tell. this story had succeeded with persons already prepossessed in my favour by personal intercourse; but could it succeed with strangers? it had succeeded so long as i was able to hide myself from my pursuers; but could it succeed now, that this appeared impracticable, and that they proceeded by arming against me a whole vicinity at once? it is inconceivable the mischiefs that this kind of existence included. why should i insist upon such aggravations as hunger, beggary, and external wretchedness? these were an inevitable consequence. it was by the desertion of mankind that, in each successive instance, i was made acquainted with my fate. delay in such a moment served but to increase the evil; and when i fled, meagreness and penury were the ordinary attendants of my course. but this was a small consideration. indignation at one time, and unconquerable perseverance at another, sustained me, where humanity, left to itself, would probably have sunk. it has already appeared that i was not of a temper to endure calamity, without endeavouring, by every means i could devise, to elude and disarm it. recollecting, as i was habituated to do, the various projects by which my situation could be meliorated, the question occurred to me, "why should i be harassed by the pursuits of this gines? why, man to man, may i not, by the powers of my mind, attain the ascendancy over him? at present he appears to be the persecutor, and i the persecuted: is not this difference the mere creature of the imagination? may i not employ my ingenuity to vex him with difficulties, and laugh at the endless labour to which he will be condemned?" alas, this is a speculation for a mind at ease! it is not the persecution, but the catastrophe which is annexed to it, that makes the difference between the tyrant and the sufferer! in mere corporal exertion the hunter perhaps is upon a level with the miserable animal he pursues! but could it be forgotten by either of us, that at every stage gines was to gratify his malignant passions, by disseminating charges of the most infamous nature, and exciting against me the abhorrence of every honest bosom, while i was to sustain the still-repeated annihilation of my peace, my character, and my bread? could i, by any refinement of reason, convert this dreadful series into sport? i had no philosophy that qualified me for so extraordinary an effort. if, under other circumstances, i could even have entertained so strange an imagination, i was restrained in the present instance by the necessity of providing for myself the means of subsistence, and the fetters which, through that necessity, the forms of human society imposed upon my exertions. in one of those changes of residence, to which my miserable fate repeatedly compelled me, i met, upon a road which i was obliged to traverse, the friend of my youth, my earliest and best beloved friend, the venerable collins. it was one of those misfortunes which served to accumulate my distress, that this man had quitted the island of great britain only a very few weeks before that fatal reverse of fortune which had ever since pursued me with unrelenting eagerness. mr. falkland, in addition to the large estate he possessed in england, had a very valuable plantation in the west indies. this property had been greatly mismanaged by the person who had the direction of it on the spot; and, after various promises and evasions on his part, which, however they might serve to beguile the patience of mr. falkland, had been attended with no salutary fruits, it was resolved that mr. collins should go over in person, to rectify the abuses which had so long prevailed. there had even been some idea of his residing several years, if not settling finally, upon the plantation. from that hour to the present i had never received the smallest intelligence respecting him. i had always considered the circumstance of his critical absence as one of my severest misfortunes. mr. collins had been one of the first persons, even in the period of my infancy, to conceive hopes of me, as of something above the common standard; and had contributed more than any other to encourage and assist my juvenile studies. he had been the executor of the little property of my father, who had fixed upon him for that purpose in consideration of the mutual affection that existed between us; and i seemed, on every account, to have more claim upon his protection than upon that of any other human being. i had always believed that, had he been present in the crisis of my fortune, he would have felt a conviction of my innocence; and, convinced himself, would, by means of the venerableness and energy of his character, have interposed so effectually, as to have saved me the greater part of my subsequent misfortunes. there was yet another idea in my mind relative to this subject, which had more weight with me, than even the substantial exertions of friendship i should have expected from him. the greatest aggravation of my present lot was, that i was cut off from the friendship of mankind. i can safely affirm, that poverty and hunger, that endless wanderings, that a blasted character and the curses that clung to my name, were all of them slight misfortunes compared to this. i endeavoured to sustain myself by the sense of my integrity, but the voice of no man upon earth echoed to the voice of my conscience. "i called aloud; but there was none to answer; there was none that regarded." to me the whole world was unhearing as the tempest, and as cold as the torpedo. sympathy, the magnetic virtue, the hidden essence of our life, was extinct. nor was this the sum of my misery. this food, so essential to an intelligent existence, seemed perpetually renewing before me in its fairest colours, only the more effectually to elude my grasp, and to mock my hunger. from time to time i was prompted to unfold the affections of my soul, only to be repelled with the greater anguish, and to be baffled in a way the most intolerably mortifying. no sight therefore could give me a purer delight than that which now presented itself to my eyes. it was some time however, before either of us recognised the person of the other. ten years had elapsed since our last interview. mr. collins looked much older than he had done at that period; in addition to which, he was, in his present appearance, pale, sickly, and thin. these unfavourable effects had been produced by the change of climate, particularly trying to persons in an advanced period of life. add to which, i supposed him to be at that moment in the west indies. i was probably as much altered in the period that had elapsed as he had been. i was the first to recollect him. he was on horseback; i on foot. i had suffered him to pass me. in a moment the full idea of who he was rushed upon my mind; i ran; i called with an impetuous voice; i was unable to restrain the vehemence of my emotions. the ardour of my feelings disguised my usual tone of speaking, which otherwise mr. collins would infallibly have recognised. his sight was already dim; he pulled up his horse till i should overtake him; and then said, "who are you? i do not know you." "my father!" exclaimed i, embracing one of his knees with fervour and delight, "i am your son; once your little caleb, whom you a thousand times loaded with your kindness!" the unexpected repetition of my name gave a kind of shuddering emotion to my friend, which was however checked by his age, and the calm and benevolent philosophy that formed one of his most conspicuous habits. "i did not expect to see you!" replied he: "i did not wish it!" "my best, my oldest friend!" answered i, respect blending itself with my impatience, "do not say so! i have not a friend any where in the whole world but you! in you at least let me find sympathy and reciprocal affection! if you knew how anxiously i have thought of you during the whole period of your absence, you would not thus grievously disappoint me in your return!" "how is it," said mr. collins, gravely, "that you have been reduced to this forlorn condition? was it not the inevitable consequence of your own actions?" "the actions of others, not mine! does not your heart tell you that i am innocent?" "no. my observation of your early character taught me that you would be extraordinary; but, unhappily, all extraordinary men are not good men: that seems to be a lottery, dependent on circumstances apparently the most trivial." "will you hear my justification? i am as sure as i am of my existence, that i can convince you of my purity." "certainly, if you require it, i will hear you. but that must not be just now. i could have been glad to decline it wholly. at my age i am not fit for the storm; and i am not so sanguine as you in my expectation of the result. of what would you convince me? that mr. falkland is a suborner and murderer?" i made no answer. my silence was an affirmative to the question. "and what benefit will result from this conviction? i have known you a promising boy, whose character might turn to one side or the other as events should decide. i have known mr. falkland in his maturer years, and have always admired him, as the living model of liberality and goodness. if you could change all my ideas, and show me that there was no criterion by which vice might be prevented from being mistaken for virtue, what benefit would arise from that? i must part with all my interior consolation, and all my external connections. and for what? what is it you propose? the death of mr. falkland by the hands of the hangman." "no; i will not hurt a hair of his head, unless compelled to it by a principle of defence. but surely you owe me justice?" "what justice? the justice of proclaiming your innocence? you know what consequences are annexed to that. but i do not believe i shall find you innocent. if you even succeed in perplexing my understanding, you will not succeed in enlightening it. such is the state of mankind, that innocence, when involved in circumstances of suspicion, can scarcely ever make out a demonstration of its purity; and guilt can often make us feel an insurmountable reluctance to the pronouncing it guilt. meanwhile, for the purchase of this uncertainty, i must sacrifice all the remaining comforts of my life. i believe mr. falkland to be virtuous; but i know him to be prejudiced. he would never forgive me even this accidental parley, if by any means he should come to be acquainted with it." "oh, argue not the consequences that are possible to result!" answered i, impatiently, "i have a right to your kindness; i have a right to your assistance!" "you have them. you have them to a certain degree; and it is not likely that, by any process of examination, you can have them entire. you know my habits of thinking. i regard you as vicious; but i do not consider the vicious as proper objects of indignation and scorn. i consider you as a machine; you are not constituted, i am afraid, to be greatly useful to your fellow men: but you did not make yourself; you are just what circumstances irresistibly compelled you to be. i am sorry for your ill properties; but i entertain no enmity against you, nothing but benevolence. considering you in the light in which i at present consider you, i am ready to contribute every thing in my power to your real advantage, and would gladly assist you, if i knew how, in detecting and extirpating the errors that have misled you. you have disappointed me, but i have no reproaches to utter: it is more necessary for me to feel compassion for you, than that i should accumulate your misfortune by my censures." what could i say to such a man as this? amiable, incomparable man! never was my mind more painfully divided than at that moment. the more he excited my admiration, the more imperiously did my heart command me, whatever were the price it should cost, to extort his friendship. i was persuaded that severe duty required of him, that he should reject all personal considerations, that he should proceed resolutely to the investigation of the truth, and that, if he found the result terminating in my favour, he should resign all his advantages, and, deserted as i was by the world, make a common cause, and endeavour to compensate the general injustice. but was it for me to force this conduct upon him, if, now in his declining years, his own fortitude shrank from it? alas, neither he nor i foresaw the dreadful catastrophe that was so closely impending! otherwise, i am well assured that no tenderness for his remaining tranquillity would have withheld him from a compliance with my wishes! on the other hand, could i pretend to know what evils might result to him from his declaring himself my advocate? might not his integrity be browbeaten and defeated, as mine had been? did the imbecility of his grey hairs afford no advantage to my terrible adversary in the contest? might not mr. falkland reduce him to a condition as wretched and low as mine? after all, was it not vice in me to desire to involve another man in my sufferings? if i regarded them as intolerable, this was still an additional reason why i should bear them alone. influenced by these considerations, i assented to his views. i assented to be thought hardly of by the man in the world whose esteem i most ardently desired, rather than involve him in possible calamity. i assented to the resigning what appeared to me at that moment as the last practicable comfort of my life; a comfort, upon the thought of which, while i surrendered it, my mind dwelt with undescribable longings. mr. collins was deeply affected with the apparent ingenuousness with which i expressed my feelings. the secret struggle of his mind was, "can this be hypocrisy? the individual with whom i am conferring, if virtuous, is one of the most disinterestedly virtuous persons in the world." we tore ourselves from each other. mr. collins promised, as far as he was able, to have an eye upon my vicissitudes, and to assist me, in every respect that was consistent with a just recollection of consequences. thus i parted as it were with the last expiring hope of my mind; and voluntarily consented, thus maimed and forlorn, to encounter all the evils that were yet in store for me. this is the latest event which at present i think it necessary to record. i shall doubtless hereafter have further occasion to take up the pen. great and unprecedented as my sufferings have been, i feel intimately persuaded that there are worse sufferings that await me. what mysterious cause is it that enables me to write this, and not to perish under the horrible apprehension! chapter xv. it is as i foreboded. the presage with which i was visited was prophetic. i am now to record a new and terrible revolution of my fortune and my mind. having made experiment of various situations with one uniform result, i at length determined to remove myself, if possible, from the reach of my persecutor, by going into voluntary banishment from my native soil. this was my last resource for tranquillity, for honest fame, for those privileges to which human life is indebted for the whole of its value. "in some distant climate," said i, "surely i may find that security which is necessary to persevering pursuit; surely i may lift my head erect, associate with men upon the footing of a man, acquire connections, and preserve them!" it is inconceivable with what ardent teachings of the soul i aspired to this termination. this last consolation was denied me by the inexorable falkland. at the time the project was formed i was at no great distance from the east coast of the island, and i resolved to take ship at harwich, and pass immediately into holland. i accordingly repaired to that place, and went, almost as soon as i arrived, to the port. but there was no vessel perfectly ready to sail. i left the port, and withdrew to an inn, where, after some time, i retired to a chamber. i was scarcely there before the door of the room was opened, and the man whose countenance was the most hateful to my eyes, gines, entered the apartment. he shut the door as soon as he entered. "youngster," said he, "i have a little private intelligence to communicate to you. i come as a friend, and that i may save you a labour-in-vain trouble. if you consider what i have to say in that light, it will be the better for you. it is my business now, do you see, for want of a better, to see that you do not break out of bounds. not that i much matter having one man for my employer, or dancing attendance after another's heels; but i have special kindness for you, for some good turns that you wot of, and therefore i do not stand upon ceremonies! you have led me a very pretty round already; and, out of the love i bear you, you shall lead me as much further, if you will. but beware the salt seas! they are out of my orders. you are a prisoner at present, and i believe all your life will remain so. thanks to the milk-and-water softness of your former master! if i had the ordering of these things, it should go with you in another fashion. as long as you think proper, you are a prisoner within the rules; and the rules with which the soft-hearted squire indulges you, are all england, scotland, and wales. but you are not to go out of these climates. the squire is determined you shall never pass the reach of his disposal. he has therefore given orders that, whenever you attempt so to do, you shall be converted from a prisoner at large to a prisoner in good earnest. a friend of mine followed you just now to the harbour; i was within call; and, if there had been any appearance of your setting your foot from land, we should have been with you in a trice, and laid you fast by the heels. i would advise you, for the future, to keep at a proper distance from the sea, for fear of the worst. you see i tell you all this for your good. for my part, i should be better satisfied if you were in limbo, with a rope about your neck, and a comfortable bird's eye prospect to the gallows: but i do as i am directed; and so good night to you!" the intelligence thus conveyed to me occasioned an instantaneous revolution in both my intellectual and animal system. i disdained to answer, or take the smallest notice of the fiend by whom it was delivered. it is now three days since i received it, and from that moment to the present my blood has been in a perpetual ferment. my thoughts wander from one idea of horror to another, with incredible rapidity. i have had no sleep. i have scarcely remained in one posture for a minute together. it has been with the utmost difficulty that i have been able to command myself far enough to add a few pages to my story. but, uncertain as i am of the events of each succeeding hour, i determined to force myself to the performance of this task. all is not right within me. how it will terminate, god knows. i sometimes fear that i shall be wholly deserted of my reason. what--dark, mysterious, unfeeling, unrelenting tyrant!--is it come to this? when nero and caligula swayed the roman sceptre, it was a fearful thing to offend these bloody rulers. the empire had already spread itself from climate to climate, and from sea to sea. if their unhappy victim fled to the rising of the sun, where the luminary of day seems to us first to ascend from the waves of the ocean, the power of the tyrant was still behind him. if he withdrew to the west, to hesperian darkness, and the shores of barbarian thule, still he was not safe from his gore-drenched foe.--falkland! art thou the offspring, in whom the lineaments of these tyrants are faithfully preserved? was the world, with all its climates, made in vain for thy helpless unoffending victim? tremble! tyrants have trembled, surrounded with whole armies of their janissaries! what should make thee inaccessible to my fury? no, i will use no daggers! i will unfold a tale!--i will show thee to the world for what thou art; and all the men that live, shall confess my truth!--didst thou imagine that i was altogether passive, a mere worm, organised to feel sensations of pain, but no emotion of resentment? didst thou imagine that there was no danger in inflicting on me pains however great, miseries however dreadful? didst thou believe me impotent, imbecile, and idiot-like, with no understanding to contrive thy ruin, and no energy to perpetrate it? i will tell a tale--! the justice of the country shall hear me! the elements of nature in universal uproar shall not interrupt me! i will speak with a voice more fearful than thunder!--why should i be supposed to speak from any dishonourable motive? i am under no prosecution now! i shall not now appear to be endeavouring to remove a criminal indictment from myself, by throwing it back on its author!--shall i regret the ruin that will overwhelm thee? too long have i been tender-hearted and forbearing! what benefit has ever resulted from my mistaken clemency? there is no evil thou hast scrupled to accumulate upon me! neither will i be more scrupulous! thou hast shown no mercy; and thou shalt receive none!--i must be calm! bold as a lion, yet collected! this is a moment pregnant with fate. i know--i think i know--that i will be triumphant, and crush my seemingly omnipotent foe. but, should it be otherwise, at least he shall not be every way successful. his fame shall not be immortal as he thinks. these papers shall preserve the truth; they shall one day be published, and then the world shall do justice on us both. recollecting that, i shall not die wholly without consolation. it is not to be endured that falsehood and tyranny should reign for ever. how impotent are the precautions of man against the eternally existing laws of the intellectual world! this falkland has invented against me every species of foul accusation. he has hunted me from city to city. he has drawn his lines of circumvallation round me that i may not escape. he has kept his scenters of human prey for ever at my heels. he may hunt me out of the world.--in vain! with this engine, this little pen, i defeat all his machinations; i stab him in the very point he was most solicitous to defend! collins! i now address myself to you. i have consented that you should yield me no assistance in my present terrible situation. i am content to die rather than do any thing injurious to your tranquillity. but remember, you are my father still! i conjure you, by all the love you ever bore me, by the benefits you have conferred on me, by the forbearance and kindness towards you that now penetrates my soul, by my innocence--for, if these be the last words i shall ever write, i die protesting my innocence!--by all these, or whatever tie more sacred has influence on your soul, i conjure you, listen to my last request! preserve these papers from destruction, and preserve them from falkland! it is all i ask! i have taken care to provide a safe mode of conveying them into your possession: and i have a firm confidence, which i will not suffer to depart from me, that they will one day find their way to the public! the pen lingers in my trembling fingers! is there any thing i have left unsaid?--the contents of the fatal trunk, from which all my misfortunes originated, i have never been able to ascertain. i once thought it contained some murderous instrument or relic connected with the fate of the unhappy tyrrel. i am now persuaded that the secret it encloses, is a faithful narrative of that and its concomitant transactions, written by mr. falkland, and reserved in case of the worst, that, if by any unforeseen event his guilt should come to be fully disclosed, it might contribute to redeem the wreck of his reputation. but the truth or the falsehood of this conjecture is of little moment. if falkland shall never be detected to the satisfaction of the world, such a narrative will probably never see the light. in that case this story of mine may amply, severely perhaps, supply its place. i know not what it is that renders me thus solemn. i have a secret foreboding, as if i should never again be master of myself. if i succeed in what i now meditate respecting falkland, my precaution in the disposal of these papers will have been unnecessary; i shall no longer be reduced to artifice and evasion. if i fail, the precaution will appear to have been wisely chosen. * * * * * postscript. all is over. i have carried into execution my meditated attempt. my situation is totally changed; i now sit down to give an account of it. for several weeks after the completion of this dreadful business, my mind was in too tumultuous a state to permit me to write. i think i shall now be able to arrange my thoughts sufficiently for that purpose. great god! how wondrous, how terrible are the events that have intervened since i was last employed in a similar manner! it is no wonder that my thoughts were solemn, and my mind filled with horrible forebodings! having formed my resolution, i set out from harwich, for the metropolitan town of the county in which mr. falkland resided. gines, i well knew, was in my rear. that was of no consequence to me. he might wonder at the direction i pursued, but he could not tell with what purpose i pursued it. my design was a secret, carefully locked up in my own breast. it was not without a sentiment of terror that i entered a town which had been the scene of my long imprisonment. i proceeded to the house of the chief magistrate the instant i arrived, that i might give no time to my adversary to counterwork my proceeding. i told him who i was, and that i was come from a distant part of the kingdom, for the purpose of rendering him the medium of a charge of murder against my former patron. my name was already familiar to him. he answered, that he could not take cognizance of my deposition; that i was an object of universal execration in that part of the world; and he was determined upon no account to be the vehicle of my depravity. i warned him to consider well what he was doing. i called upon him for no favour; i only applied to him in the regular exercise of his function. would he take upon him to say that he had a right, at his pleasure, to suppress a charge of this complicated nature? i had to accuse mr. falkland of repeated murders. the perpetrator knew that i was in possession of the truth upon the subject; and, knowing that, i went perpetually in danger of my life from his malice and revenge. i was resolved to go through with the business, if justice were to be obtained from any court in england. upon what pretence did he refuse my deposition? i was in every respect a competent witness. i was of age to understand the nature of an oath; i was in my perfect senses; i was untarnished by the verdict of any jury, or the sentence of any judge. his private opinion of my character could not alter the law of the land. i demanded to be confronted with mr. falkland, and i was well assured i should substantiate the charge to the satisfaction of the whole world. if he did not think proper to apprehend him upon my single testimony, i should be satisfied if he only sent him notice of the charge, and summoned him to appear. the magistrate, finding me thus resolute, thought proper a little to lower his tone. he no longer absolutely refused to comply with my requisition, but condescended to expostulate with me. he represented to me mr. falkland's health, which had for some years been exceedingly indifferent; his having been once already brought to the most solemn examination upon this charge; the diabolical malice in which alone my proceeding must have originated; and the ten-fold ruin it would bring down upon my head. to all these representations my answer was short. "i was determined to go on, and would abide the consequences." a summons was at length granted, and notice sent to mr. falkland of the charge preferred against him. three days elapsed before any further step could be taken in this business. this interval in no degree contributed to tranquillise my mind. the thought of preferring a capital accusation against, and hastening the death of, such a man as mr. falkland, was by no means an opiate to reflection. at one time i commended the action, either as just revenge (for the benevolence of my nature was in a great degree turned to gall), or as necessary self-defence, or as that which, in an impartial and philanthropical estimate, included the smallest evil. at another time i was haunted with doubts. but, in spite of these variations of sentiment, i uniformly determined to persist! i felt as if impelled by a tide of unconquerable impulse. the consequences were such as might well appal the stoutest heart. either the ignominious execution of a man whom i had once so deeply venerated, and whom now i sometimes suspected not to be without his claims to veneration; or a confirmation, perhaps an increase, of the calamities i had so long endured. yet these i preferred to a state of uncertainty. i desired to know the worst; to put an end to the hope, however faint, which had been so long my torment; and, above all, to exhaust and finish the catalogue of expedients that were at my disposition. my mind was worked up to a state little short of frenzy. my body was in a burning fever with the agitation of my thoughts. when i laid my hand upon my bosom or my head, it seemed to scorch them with the fervency of its heat. i could not sit still for a moment. i panted with incessant desire that the dreadful crisis i had so eagerly invoked, were come, and were over. after an interval of three days, i met mr. falkland in the presence of the magistrate to whom i had applied upon the subject. i had only two hours' notice to prepare myself; mr. falkland seeming as eager as i to have the question brought to a crisis, and laid at rest for ever. i had an opportunity, before the examination, to learn that mr. forester was drawn by some business on an excursion on the continent; and that collins, whose health when i saw him was in a very precarious state, was at this time confined with an alarming illness. his constitution had been wholly broken by his west indian expedition. the audience i met at the house of the magistrate consisted of several gentlemen and others selected for the purpose; the plan being, in some respects, as in the former instance, to find a medium between the suspicious air of a private examination, and the indelicacy, as it was styled, of an examination exposed to the remark of every casual spectator. i can conceive of no shock greater than that i received from the sight of mr. falkland. his appearance on the last occasion on which we met had been haggard, ghost-like, and wild, energy in his gestures, and frenzy in his aspect. it was now the appearance of a corpse. he was brought in in a chair, unable to stand, fatigued and almost destroyed by the journey he had just taken. his visage was colourless; his limbs destitute of motion, almost of life. his head reclined upon his bosom, except that now and then he lifted it up, and opened his eyes with a languid glance; immediately after which he sunk back into his former apparent insensibility. he seemed not to have three hours to live. he had kept his chamber for several weeks; but the summons of the magistrate had been delivered to him at his bed-side, his orders respecting letters and written papers being so peremptory that no one dared to disobey them. upon reading the paper he was seized with a very dangerous fit; but, as soon as he recovered, he insisted upon being conveyed, with all practicable expedition, to the place of appointment. falkland, in the most helpless state, was still falkland, firm in command, and capable to extort obedience from every one that approached him. what a sight was this to me! till the moment that falkland was presented to my view, my breast was steeled to pity. i thought that i had coolly entered into the reason of the case (passion, in a state of solemn and omnipotent vehemence, always appears to be coolness to him in whom it domineers), and that i had determined impartially and justly. i believed that, if mr. falkland were permitted to persist in his schemes, we must both of us be completely wretched. i believed that it was in my power, by the resolution i had formed, to throw my share of this wretchedness from me, and that his could scarcely be increased. it appeared therefore to my mind, to be a mere piece of equity and justice, such as an impartial spectator would desire, that one person should be miserable in preference to two; that one person rather than two should be incapacitated from acting his part, and contributing his share to the general welfare. i thought that in this business i had risen superior to personal considerations, and judged with a total neglect of the suggestions of self-regard. it is true, mr. falkland was mortal, but, notwithstanding his apparent decay, he might live long. ought i to submit to waste the best years of my life in my present wretched situation? he had declared that his reputation should be for ever inviolate; this was his ruling passion, the thought that worked his soul to madness. he would probably therefore leave a legacy of persecution to be received by me from the hands of gines, or some other villain equally atrocious, when he should himself be no more. now or never was the time for me to redeem my future life from endless woe. but all these fine-spun reasonings vanished before the object that was now presented to me. "shall i trample upon a man thus dreadfully reduced? shall i point my animosity against one, whom the system of nature has brought down to the grave? shall i poison, with sounds the most intolerable to his ears, the last moments of a man like falkland? it is impossible. there must have been some dreadful mistake in the train of argument that persuaded me to be the author of this hateful scene. there must have been a better and more magnanimous remedy to the evils under which i groaned." it was too late: the mistake i had committed was now gone past all power of recall. here was falkland, solemnly brought before a magistrate to answer to a charge of murder. here i stood, having already declared myself the author of the charge, gravely and sacredly pledged to support it. this was my situation; and, thus situated, i was called upon immediately to act. my whole frame shook. i would eagerly have consented that that moment should have been the last of my existence. i however believed, that the conduct now most indispensably incumbent on me was to lay the emotions of my soul naked before my hearers. i looked first at mr. falkland, and then at the magistrate and attendants, and then at mr. falkland again. my voice was suffocated with agony. i began:-"why cannot i recall the last four days of my life? how was it possible for me to be so eager, so obstinate, in a purpose so diabolical? oh, that i had listened to the expostulations of the magistrate that hears me, or submitted to the well-meant despotism of his authority! hitherto i have been only miserable; henceforth i shall account myself base! hitherto, though hardly treated by mankind, i stood acquitted at the bar of my own conscience. i had not filled up the measure of my wretchedness! "would to god it were possible for me to retire from this scene without uttering another word! i would brave the consequences--i would submit to any imputation of cowardice, falsehood, and profligacy, rather than add to the weight of misfortune with which mr. falkland is overwhelmed. but the situation, and the demands of mr. falkland himself, forbid me. he, in compassion for whose fallen state i would willingly forget every interest of my own, would compel me to accuse, that he might enter upon his justification. i will confess every sentiment of my heart. "no penitence, no anguish, can expiate the folly and the cruelty of this last act i have perpetrated. but mr. falkland well knows--i affirm it in his presence--how unwillingly i have proceeded to this extremity. i have reverenced him; he was worthy of reverence: i have loved him; he was endowed with qualities that partook of divine. "from the first moment i saw him, i conceived the most ardent admiration. he condescended to encourage me; i attached myself to him with the fulness of my affection. he was unhappy; i exerted myself with youthful curiosity to discover the secret of his woe. this was the beginning of misfortune. "what shall i say?--he was indeed the murderer of tyrrel; he suffered the hawkinses to be executed, knowing that they were innocent, and that he alone was guilty. after successive surmises, after various indiscretions on my part, and indications on his, he at length confided to me at full the fatal tale! "mr. falkland! i most solemnly conjure you to recollect yourself! did i ever prove myself unworthy of your confidence? the secret was a most painful burthen to me; it was the extremest folly that led me unthinkingly to gain possession of it; but i would have died a thousand deaths rather than betray it. it was the jealousy of your own thoughts, and the weight that hung upon your mind, that led you to watch my motions, and to conceive alarm from every particle of my conduct. "you began in confidence; why did you not continue in confidence? the evil that resulted from my original imprudence would then have been comparatively little. you threatened me: did i then betray you? a word from my lips at that time would have freed me from your threats for ever. i bore them for a considerable period, and at last quitted your service, and threw myself a fugitive upon the world, in silence. why did you not suffer me to depart? you brought me back by stratagem and violence, and wantonly accused me of an enormous felony! did i then mention a syllable of the murder, the secret of which was in my possession? "where is the man that has suffered more from the injustice of society than i have done? i was accused of a villainy that my heart abhorred. i was sent to jail. i will not enumerate the horrors of my prison, the lightest of which would make the heart of humanity shudder. i looked forward to the gallows! young, ambitious, fond of life, innocent as the child unborn, i looked forward to the gallows! i believed that one word of resolute accusation against my patron would deliver me; yet i was silent, i armed myself with patience, uncertain whether it were better to accuse or to die. did this show me a man unworthy to be trusted? "i determined to break out of prison. with infinite difficulty, and repeated miscarriages, i at length effected my purpose. instantly a proclamation, with a hundred guineas reward, was issued for apprehending me. i was obliged to take shelter among the refuse of mankind, in the midst of a gang of thieves. i encountered the most imminent peril of my life when i entered this retreat, and when i quitted it. immediately after, i travelled almost the whole length of the kingdom, in poverty and distress, in hourly danger of being retaken and manacled like a felon. i would have fled my country; i was prevented. i had recourse to various disguises; i was innocent, and yet was compelled to as many arts and subterfuges as could have been entailed on the worst of villains. in london i was as much harassed and as repeatedly alarmed as i had been in my flight through the country. did all these persecutions persuade me to put an end to my silence? no: i suffered them with patience and submission; i did not make one attempt to retort them upon their author. "i fell at last into the hands of the miscreants that are nourished with human blood. in this terrible situation i, for the first time, attempted, by turning informer, to throw the weight from myself. happily for me, the london magistrate listened to my tale with insolent contempt. "i soon, and long, repented of my rashness, and rejoiced in my miscarriage. "i acknowledge that, in various ways, mr. falkland showed humanity towards me during this period. he would have prevented my going to prison at first; he contributed towards my subsistence during my detention; he had no share in the pursuit that had been set on foot against me; he at length procured my discharge, when brought forward for trial. but a great part of his forbearance was unknown to me; i supposed him to be my unrelenting pursuer. i could not forget that, whoever heaped calamities on me in the sequel, they all originated in his forged accusation. "the prosecution against me for felony was now at an end. why were not my sufferings permitted to terminate then, and i allowed to hide my weary head in some obscure yet tranquil retreat? had i not sufficiently proved my constancy and fidelity? would not a compromise in this situation have been most wise and most secure? but the restless and jealous anxiety of mr. falkland would not permit him to repose the least atom of confidence. the only compromise that he proposed was that, with my own hand, i should sign myself a villain. i refused this proposal, and have ever since been driven from place to place, deprived of peace, of honest fame, even of bread. for a long time i persisted in the resolution that no emergency should convert me into the assailant. in an evil hour i at last listened to my resentment and impatience, and the hateful mistake into which i fell has produced the present scene. "i now see that mistake in all its enormity. i am sure that if i had opened my heart to mr. falkland, if i had told to him privately the tale that i have now been telling, he could not have resisted my reasonable demand. after all his precautions, he must ultimately have depended upon my forbearance. could he be sure that, if i were at last worked up to disclose every thing i knew, and to enforce it with all the energy i could exert, i should obtain no credit? if he must in every case be at my mercy, in which mode ought he to have sought his safety, in conciliation, or in inexorable cruelty? "mr. falkland is of a noble nature. yes; in spite of the catastrophe of tyrrel, of the miserable end of the hawkinses, and of all that i have myself suffered, i affirm that he has qualities of the most admirable kind. it is therefore impossible that he could have resisted a frank and fervent expostulation, the frankness and the fervour in which the whole soul is poured out. i despaired, while it was yet time to have made the just experiment; but my despair was criminal, was treason against the sovereignty of truth. "i have told a plain and unadulterated tale. i came hither to curse, but i remain to bless. i came to accuse, but am compelled to applaud. i proclaim to all the world, that mr. falkland is a man worthy of affection and kindness, and that i am myself the basest and most odious of mankind! never will i forgive myself the iniquity of this day. the memory will always haunt me, and embitter every hour of my existence. in thus acting i have been a murderer--a cool, deliberate, unfeeling murderer.--i have said what my accursed precipitation has obliged me to say. do with me as you please! i ask no favour. death would be a kindness, compared to what i feel!" such were the accents dictated by my remorse. i poured them out with uncontrollable impetuosity; for my heart was pierced, and i was compelled to give vent to its anguish. every one that heard me, was petrified with astonishment. every one that heard me, was melted into tears. they could not resist the ardour with which i praised the great qualities of falkland; they manifested their sympathy in the tokens of my penitence. how shall i describe the feelings of this unfortunate man? before i began, he seemed sunk and debilitated, incapable of any strenuous impression. when i mentioned the murder, i could perceive in him an involuntary shuddering, though it was counteracted partly by the feebleness of his frame, and partly by the energy of his mind. this was an allegation he expected, and he had endeavoured to prepare himself for it. but there was much of what i said, of which he had had no previous conception. when i expressed the anguish of my mind, he seemed at first startled and alarmed, lest this should be a new expedient to gain credit to my tale. his indignation against me was great for having retained all my resentment towards him, thus, as it might be, to the last hour of his existence. it was increased when he discovered me, as he supposed, using a pretence of liberality and sentiment to give new edge to my hostility. but as i went on he could no longer resist. he saw my sincerity; he was penetrated with my grief and compunction. he rose from his seat, supported by the attendants, and--to my infinite astonishment--threw himself into my arms! "williams," said he, "you have conquered! i see too late the greatness and elevation of your mind. i confess that it is to my fault and not yours, that it is to the excess of jealousy that was ever burning in my bosom, that i owe my ruin. i could have resisted any plan of malicious accusation you might have brought against me. but i see that the artless and manly story you have told, has carried conviction to every hearer. all my prospects are concluded. all that i most ardently desired, is for ever frustrated. i have spent a life of the basest cruelty, to cover one act of momentary vice, and to protect myself against the prejudices of my species. i stand now completely detected. my name will be consecrated to infamy, while your heroism, your patience, and your virtues will be for ever admired. you have inflicted on me the most fatal of all mischiefs; but i bless the hand that wounds me. and now,"--turning to the magistrate--"and now, do with me as you please. i am prepared to suffer all the vengeance of the law. you cannot inflict on me more than i deserve. you cannot hate me, more than i hate myself. i am the most execrable of all villains. i have for many years (i know not how long) dragged on a miserable existence in insupportable pain. i am at last, in recompense for all my labours and my crimes, dismissed from it with the disappointment of my only remaining hope, the destruction of that for the sake of which alone i consented to exist. it was worthy of such a life, that it should continue just long enough to witness this final overthrow. if however you wish to punish me, you must be speedy in your justice; for, as reputation was the blood that warmed my heart, so i feel that death and infamy must seize me together." i record the praises bestowed on me by falkland, not because i deserved them, but because they serve to aggravate the baseness of my cruelty. he survived this dreadful scene but three days. i have been his murderer. it was fit that he should praise my patience, who has fallen a victim, life and fame, to my precipitation! it would have been merciful in comparison, if i had planted a dagger in his heart. he would have thanked me for my kindness. but, atrocious, execrable wretch that i have been! i wantonly inflicted on him an anguish a thousand times worse than death. meanwhile i endure the penalty of my crime. his figure is ever in imagination before me. waking or sleeping, i still behold him. he seems mildly to expostulate with me for my unfeeling behaviour. i live the devoted victim of conscious reproach. alas! i am the same caleb williams that, so short a time ago, boasted that, however great were the calamities i endured, i was still innocent. such has been the result of a project i formed, for delivering myself from the evil that had so long attended me. i thought that, if falkland were dead, i should return once again to all that makes life worth possessing. i thought that, if the guilt of falkland were established, fortune and the world would smile upon my efforts. both these events are accomplished; and it is now only that i am truly miserable. why should my reflections perpetually centre upon myself?--self, an overweening regard to which has been the source of my errors! falkland, i will think only of thee, and from that thought will draw ever-fresh nourishment for my sorrows! one generous, one disinterested tear i will consecrate to thy ashes! a nobler spirit lived not among the sons of men. thy intellectual powers were truly sublime, and thy bosom burned with a god-like ambition. but of what use are talents and sentiments in the corrupt wilderness of human society? it is a rank and rotten soil, from which every finer shrub draws poison as it grows. all that, in a happier field and a purer air, would expand into virtue and germinate into usefulness, is thus concerted into henbane and deadly nightshade. falkland! thou enteredst upon thy career with the purest and most laudable intentions. but thou imbibedst the poison of chivalry with thy earliest youth; and the base and low-minded envy that met thee on thy return to thy native seats, operated with this poison to hurry thee into madness. soon, too soon, by this fatal coincidence, were the blooming hopes of thy youth blasted for ever. from that moment thou only continuedst to live to the phantom of departed honour. from that moment thy benevolence was, in a great part, turned into rankling jealousy and inexorable precaution. year after year didst thou spend in this miserable project of imposture; and only at last continuedst to live, long enough to see, by my misjudging and abhorred intervention, thy closing hope disappointed, and thy death accompanied with the foulest disgrace! i began these memoirs with the idea of vindicating my character. i have now no character that i wish to vindicate: but i will finish them that thy story may be fully understood; and that, if those errors of thy life be known which thou so ardently desiredst to conceal, the world may at least not hear and repeat a half-told and mangled tale. the end. 