CHAPTER LXV.
Marry, he was dead--And the right valiant Barlquo walked too late,Whom, you may say, if it please you, Fleance killed, For Fleance fled!--Macbeth.
It is a fearful thing, even to the hardiest nerves, to find ourselvessuddenly alone with the dead. How much more so, if we have, but abreathing interval before, moved and conversed with the warm and livinglikeness of the motionless clay before us!
And this was the man from whom I had parted in coldness--almost inanger--at a word--a breath! I took up the heavy hand--it fell frommy grasp, and as it did so, I thought a change passed over the lividcountenance. I was deceived; it was but a light cloud flitting over themoon;--it rolled away, and the placid and guiltless light shone overthat scene of dread and blood, making more wild and chilling theeternal contrast of earth and heaven--man and his Maker--passion andimmutability--dust and immortality.
But that was not a moment for reflection--a thousand thoughts hurriedupon me, and departed as swift and confusedly as they came. My mindseemed a jarring and benighted chaos of the faculties which were itselements; and I had stood several minutes over the corpse before, by avigorous effort, I shook off the stupor that possessed me, and began tothink of the course that it now behoved me to pursue.
The house I had noted in the morning was, I knew, within a few minutes'walk of the spot; but it belonged to Dawson, upon whom the first weightof my suspicions rested. I called to mind the disreputable character ofthat man, and the still more daring and hardened one of his companionThornton. I remembered the reluctance of the deceased to accompany them,and the well-grounded reason he assigned; and my suspicions amounting tocertainty, I resolved rather to proceed to Chester Park, and theregive the alarm, than to run the unnecessary risk of interrupting themurderers in the very lair of their retreat. And yet, thought I, as Iturned slowly away, how, if they were the villains, is the appearanceand flight of the disguised horseman to be accounted for?
Then flashed upon my recollection all that Tyrrell had said of thedogged pursuit of that mysterious person, and the circumstance of hishaving passed me upon the road so immediately after Tyrrell had quittedme. These reflections (associated with a name I did not dare breatheeven to myself, although I could not suppress a suspicion whichaccounted at once for the pursuit, and even for the deed,) made mewaver in, and almost renounce my former condemnation of Thornton andhis friend: and by the time I reached the white gate and dwarfish avenuewhich led to Dawson's house, I resolved, at all events, to halt at thesolitary mansion, and mark the effect my information would cause.
A momentary fear for my own safety came across me, but was as instantlydismissed;--for even supposing the friends were guilty, still it wouldbe no object to them to extend their remorseless villany to me; and Iknew that I could sufficiently command my own thoughts to prevent anysuspicion I might form, from mounting to my countenance, or discoveringitself in my manner.
There was a light in the upper story; it burned still and motionless.How holy seemed the tranquillity of life, to the forced and fearfulsilence of the death scene I had just witnessed! I rung twice at thedoor--no one came to answer my summons, but the light in the upperwindow moved hurriedly to and fro.
"They are coming," said I to myself. No such thing--the casement abovewas opened--I looked up, and discovered, to my infinite comfort anddelight, a blunderbuss protruded eight inches out of the window in adirect line with my head; I receded close to the wall with no commonprecipitation.
"Get away, you rascal," said a gruff, but trembling voice, "or I'll blowyour brains out."
"My good Sir," I replied, still keeping my situation, "I come on urgentbusiness, either to Mr. Thornton or Mr. Dawson; and you had better,therefore, if the delay is not very inconvenient, defer the honour youoffer me, till I have delivered my message."
"Master, and 'Squire Thornton are not returned from Newmarket, and wecannot let any one in till they come home," replied the voice, in atone somewhat mollified by my rational remonstrance; and while I wasdeliberating what rejoinder to make, a rough, red head, like Liston's,in a farce, poked itself cautiously out under cover of the blunderbuss,and seemed to reconnoitre my horse and myself. Presently another head,but attired in the more civilized gear of a cap and flowers, peeped overthe first person's left shoulder; the view appeared to reassure them.
"Sir," said the female, "my husband and Mr. Thornton are not returned;and we have been so much alarmed of late, by an attack on the house,that I cannot admit any one till their return."
"Madam," I replied, reverently doffing my hat, "I do not like to alarmyou by mentioning the information I should have given to Mr. Dawson;only oblige me by telling them, on their return, to look beside the poolon the common; they will then do as best pleases them."
Upon this speech, which certainly was of no agreeable tendency, theblunderbuss palpitated so violently, that I thought it highly imprudentto tarry any longer in so immediate a vicinity; accordingly, I madethe best of my way out of the avenue, and once more resumed my road toChester Park.
I arrived there at length; the gentlemen were still in the dining-room.I sent out for Lord Chester, and communicated the scene I had witnessed,and the cause of my delay.
"What, Brown Bob lamed?" said he, "and Tyrrell--poor--poor fellow, howshocking! we must send instantly. Here, John! Tom! Wilson!" and hislordship shouted and rung the bell in an indescribable agitation.
The under butler appeared, and Lord Chester began--"My head groom--SirJohn Tyrrell is murdered--violent sprain in off leg--send lights withMr. Pelham--poor gentleman--an express instantly to Dr. Physicon--Mr.Pelham will tell you all--Brown Bob--his throat cut from ear toear--what shall be done?" and with this coherent and explanatoryharangue, the marquis sunk down in his chair in a sort of hysteria.
The under butler looked at him in suspicious bewilderment. "Come," saidI, "I will explain what his lordship means:" and, taking the man out ofthe room, I gave him, in brief, the necessary particulars. I ordered afresh horse for myself, and four horsemen to accompany me. Whilethese were preparing, the news was rapidly spreading, and I was soonsurrounded by the whole house. Many of the men wished to accompany me;and Lord Chester, who had at last recovered from his stupor, insistedupon heading the search. We set off, to the number of fourteen, andsoon arrived at Dawson's house: the light in the upper room was stillburning. We rang, and after a brief pause, Thornton himself opened thedoor to us. He looked pale and agitated.
"How shocking!" he said directly--"we are only just returned from thespot."
"Accompany us, Mr. Thornton," said I, sternly; and fixing my eye uponhim--
"Certainly," was his immediate answer, without testifying anyconfusion--"I will fetch my hat." He went into the house for a moment.
"Do you suspect these people?" whispered Lord Chester.
"Not suspect," said I, "but doubt."
We proceeded down the avenue: "Where is Mr. Dawson?" said I to Thornton.
"Oh, within!" answered Thornton.
"Shall I fetch him?"
"Do," was my brief reply.
Thornton was absent some minutes; when he re-appeared, Dawson wasfollowing him. "Poor fellow," said he to me in a low tone--"he was soshocked by the sight, that he is still all in a panic; besides, as youwill see, he is half drunk still."
I made no answer, but looked narrowly at Dawson; he was evidently,as Thornton said, greatly intoxicated: his eyes swam, and his feetstaggered as he approached us; yet, through all the natural effects ofdrunkenness, he seemed nervous and frightened. This, however, might bethe natural, and consequently innocent effect, of the mere sight of anobject so full of horror; and, accordingly, I laid little stress uponit.
We reached the fatal spot: the body seemed perfectly unmoved. "Why,"said I, apart to Thornton, while all the rest were crowding fearfullyround the corpse--"why did you not take the body within?"
"I was going to return here with our servant for that purpose," answeredthe gambler; "for poor Dawson was both too drunk and too nervous
to giveme any assistance."
"And how came it," I rejoined, eyeing him searchingly, "that you andyour friend had not returned home when I called there, although you hadboth long since passed me on the road, and I had never overtaken you?"
Thornton, without any hesitation, replied--"because, during the violenceof the shower, we cut across the fields to an old shed, which werecollected, and we remained there till the rain had ceased."
"They are probably innocent," thought I--and I turned to look once moreat the body which our companions had now raised. There was upon the heada strong contusion, as if inflicted by some blunt and heavy instrument.The fingers of the right hand were deeply gashed, and one of them almostdissevered: the unfortunate man had, in all probability, grasped thesharp weapon from which his other wounds proceeded; these were one widecut along the throat, and another in the side; either of them would haveoccasioned his death.
In loosening the clothes another wound was discovered, but apparently ofa less fatal nature; and in lifting the body, the broken blade of a longsharp instrument, like a case-knife, was discovered. It was the opinionof the surgeon, who afterwards examined the body, that the blade hadbeen broken by coming in contact with one of the rib bones; and itwas by this that he accounted for the slightness of the last mentionedwound. I looked carefully among the fern and long grass, to see if Icould discover any other token of the murderer: Thornton assisted me. Atthe distance of some feet from the body, I thought I perceived somethingglitter. I hastened to the place, and picked up a miniature. I was justgoing to cry out, when Thornton whispered--"Hush! I know the picture; itis as I suspected."
An icy thrill ran through my very heart. With a desperate but tremblinghand, I cleansed from the picture the blood, in which, notwithstandingits distance from the corpse, the grater part of it was bathed. I lookedupon the features; they were those of a young and singularly beautifulfemale. I recognized them not: I turned to the other side of theminiature; upon it were braided two locks of hair--one was the long,dark ringlet of a woman, the other was of a light auburn. Beneath werefour letters. I looked eagerly at them. "My eyes are dim," said I, in alow tone to Thornton, "I cannot trace the initials."
"But I can," replied he, in the same whispered key, but with a savageexultation, which made my heart stand still--"they are G. D., R. G.;they are the initials of Gertrude Douglas and Reginald Glanville."
I looked up at the speaker--our eyes met--I grasped his hand vehemently.He understood me. "Put it up," said he; "we will keep the secret." Allthis, so long in the recital, passed in the rapidity of a moment.
"Have you found any thing there, Pelham?" shouted one of our companions.
"No!" cried I, thrusting the miniature in my bosom, and turningunconcernedly away.
We carried the corpse to Dawson's house. The poor wife was in fits. Weheard her scream as we laid the body upon a table in the parlour.
"What more can be done?" said Lord Chester.
"Nothing," was the general answer. No excitation makes the Englishpeople insensible to the chance of catching cold!
"Let us go home, then, and send to the nearest magistrate," exclaimedour host: and this proposal required no repetition.
On our way, Chester said to me, "That fellow Dawson looked devilishuneasy--don't you still suspect him and his friend?"
"I do not!" answered I, emphatically.
VOLUME VI.