CHAPTER XXV
Death finds us 'mid our playthings--snatches us, As a cross nurse might do a wayward child, From all our toys and baubles. His rough call Unlooses all our favourite ties on earth; And well if they are such as may be answer'd In yonder world, where all is judged of truly. _Old Play_.
It was a ghastly scene which opened, upon Martha Trapbois's return witha light. Her own haggard and austere features were exaggerated byall the desperation of grief, fear, and passion--but the latter waspredominant. On the floor lay the body of the robber, who had expiredwithout a groan, while his blood, flowing plentifully, had crimsonedall around. Another body lay also there, on which the unfortunate womanprecipitated herself in agony, for it was that of her unhappy father. Inthe next moment she started up, and exclaiming--"There may be life yet!"strove to raise the body. Nigel went to her assistance, but not withouta glance at the open window; which Martha, as acute as if undisturbedeither by passion or terror, failed not to interpret justly.
"Fear not," she cried, "fear not; they are base cowards, to whom courageis as much unknown as mercy. If I had had weapons, I could have defendedmyself against them without assistance or protection.--Oh! my poorfather! protection comes too late for this cold and stiff corpse.--He isdead--dead!"
While she spoke, they were attempting to raise the dead body of the oldmiser; but it was evident, even from the feeling of the inactive weightand rigid joints, that life had forsaken her station. Nigel looked for awound, but saw none. The daughter of the deceased, with more presenceof mind than a daughter could at the time have been supposed capableof exerting, discovered the instrument of his murder--a sort of scarf,which had been drawn so tight round his throat, as to stifle his criesfor assistance, in the first instance, and afterwards to extinguishlife.
She undid the fatal noose; and, laying the old man's body in the arms ofLord Glenvarloch, she ran for water, for spirits, for essences, in thevain hope that life might be only suspended. That hope proved indeedvain. She chafed his temples, raised his head, loosened his nightgown,(for it seemed as if he had arisen from bed upon hearing the entranceof the villains,) and, finally, opened, with difficulty, his fixed andclosely-clenched hands, from one of which dropped a key, from the otherthe very piece of gold about which the unhappy man had been a littlebefore so anxious, and which probably, in the impaired state of hismental faculties, he was disposed to defend with as desperate energy asif its amount had been necessary to his actual existence.
"It is in vain--it is in vain," said the daughter, desisting from herfruitless attempts to recall the spirit which had been effectuallydislodged, for the neck had been twisted by the violence of themurderers; "It is in vain--he is murdered--I always knew it would bethus; and now I witness it!"
She then snatched up the key and the piece of money, but it was only todash them again on the floor, as she exclaimed, "Accursed be ye both,for you are the causes of this deed!"
Nigel would have spoken--would have reminded her, that measures shouldbe instantly taken for the pursuit of the murderer who had escaped, aswell as for her own security against his return; but she interrupted himsharply.
"Be silent," she said, "be silent. Think you, the thoughts of my ownheart are not enough to distract me, and with such a sight as thisbefore me? I say, be silent," she said again, and in a yet sternertone--"Can a daughter listen, and her father's murdered corpse lying onher knees?"
Lord Glenvarloch, however overpowered by the energy of her grief, feltnot the less the embarrassment of his own situation. He had dischargedboth his pistols--the robber might return--he had probably otherassistants besides the man who had fallen, and it seemed to him, indeed,as if he had heard a muttering beneath the windows. He explained hastilyto his companion the necessity of procuring ammunition.
"You are right," she said, somewhat contemptuously, "and have venturedalready more than ever I expected of man. Go, and shift for yourself,since that is your purpose--leave me to my fate."
Without stopping for needless expostulation, Nigel hastened to his ownroom through the secret passage, furnished himself with the ammunitionhe sought for, and returned with the same celerity; wondering himself atthe accuracy with which he achieved, in the dark, all the meanderingsof the passage which he had traversed only once, and that in a moment ofsuch violent agitation.
He found, on his return, the unfortunate woman standing like a statue bythe body of her father, which she had laid straight on the floor, havingcovered the face with the skirt of his gown. She testified neithersurprise nor pleasure at Nigel's return, but said to him calmly--"Mymoan is made--my sorrow--all the sorrow at least that man shall everhave noting of, is gone past; but I will have justice, and the basevillain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he had not, bythe course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall not cumberthe earth long after him. Stranger, whom heaven has sent to forwardthe revenge reserved for this action, go to Hildebrod's--there they areawake all night in their revels--bid him come hither--he is bound by hisduty, and dare not, and shall not, refuse his assistance, which he knowswell I can reward. Why do ye tarry?--go instantly."
"I would," said Nigel, "but I am fearful of leaving you alone; thevillains may return, and--"
"True, most true," answered Martha, "he may return; and, though I carelittle for his murdering me, he may possess himself of what has mosttempted him. Keep this key and this piece of gold; they are both ofimportance--defend your life if assailed, and if you kill the villain Iwill make you rich. I go myself to call for aid."
Nigel would have remonstrated with her, but she had departed, and ina moment he heard the house-door clank behind her. For an instant hethought of following her; but upon recollection that the distance wasbut short betwixt the tavern of Hildebrod and the house of Trapbois,he concluded that she knew it better than he--incurred little danger inpassing it, and that he would do well in the meanwhile to remain on thewatch as she recommended.
It was no pleasant situation for one unused to such scenes to remainin the apartment with two dead bodies, recently those of living andbreathing men, who had both, within the space of less than half an hour,suffered violent death; one of them by the hand of the assassin, theother, whose blood still continued to flow from the wound in his throat,and to flood all around him, by the spectator's own deed of violence,though of justice. He turned his face from those wretched relics ofmortality with a feeling of disgust, mingled with superstition; and hefound, when he had done so, that the consciousness of the presenceof these ghastly objects, though unseen by him, rendered him moreuncomfortable than even when he had his eyes fixed upon, and reflectedby, the cold, staring, lifeless eyeballs of the deceased. Fancy alsoplayed her usual sport with him. He now thought he heard the well-worndamask nightgown of the deceased usurer rustle; anon, that he heard theslaughtered bravo draw up his leg, the boot scratching the floor as ifhe was about to rise; and again he deemed he heard the footsteps andthe whisper of the returned ruffian under the window from which he hadlately escaped. To face the last and most real danger, and to parry theterrors which the other class of feelings were like to impress upon him,Nigel went to the window, and was much cheered to observe the light ofseveral torches illuminating the street, and followed, as the murmurof voices denoted, by a number of persons, armed, it would seem, withfirelocks and halberds, and attendant on Hildebrod, who (not in hisfantastic office of duke, but in that which he really possessed ofbailiff of the liberty and sanctuary of Whitefriars) was on his way toinquire into the crime and its circumstances.
It was a strange and melancholy contrast to see these debauchees,disturbed in the very depth of their midnight revel, on their arrival atsuch a scene as this. They stared on each other, and on the bloody workbefore them, with lack-lustre eyes; staggered with uncertain stepsover boards slippery with blood; their noisy brawling voices sunk intostammering whispers; and, with spirits quelled by what they saw, whiletheir brains were still stupefied by the liquor which t
hey had drunk,they seemed like men walking in their sleep.
Old Hildebrod was an exception to the general condition. That seasonedcask, however full, was at all times capable of motion, when thereoccurred a motive sufficiently strong to set him a-rolling. He seemedmuch shocked at what he beheld, and his proceedings, in consequence,had more in them of regularity and propriety, than he might have beensupposed capable of exhibiting upon any occasion whatever. Thedaughter was first examined, and stated, with wonderful accuracy anddistinctness, the manner in which she had been alarmed with a noise ofstruggling and violence in her father's apartment, and that themore readily, because she was watching him on account of some alarmconcerning his health. On her entrance, she had seen her father sinkingunder the strength of two men, upon whom she rushed with all the furyshe was capable of. As their faces were blackened, and their figuresdisguised, she could not pretend, in the hurry of a moment so dreadfullyagitating, to distinguish either of them as persons whom she had seenbefore. She remembered little more except the firing of shots, untilshe found herself alone with her guest, and saw that the ruffians hadescaped. Lord Glenvarloch told his story as we have given it to thereader. The direct evidence thus received, Hildebrod examined thepremises. He found that the villains had made their entrance by thewindow out of which the survivor had made his escape; yet it seemedsingular that they should have done so, as it was secured with strongiron bars, which old Trapbois was in the habit of shutting with his ownhand at nightfall. He minuted down with great accuracy, the state ofevery thing in the apartment, and examined carefully the features of theslain robber. He was dressed like a seaman of the lowest order, buthis face was known to none present. Hildebrod next sent for an Alsatiansurgeon, whose vices, undoing what his skill might have done for him,had consigned him to the wretched practice of this place. He made himexamine the dead bodies, and make a proper declaration of the manner inwhich the sufferers seemed to have come by their end. The circumstancesof the sash did not escape the learned judge, and having listened toall that could be heard or conjectured on the subject, and collectedall particulars of evidence which appeared to bear on the bloodytransaction, he commanded the door of the apartment to be locked untilnext morning; and carrying, the unfortunate daughter of the murderedman into the kitchen, where there was no one in presence but LordGlenvarloch, he asked her gravely, whether she suspected no one inparticular of having committed the deed.
"Do _you_ suspect no one?" answered Martha, looking fixedly on him.
"Perhaps, I may, mistress; but it is my part to ask questions, yours toanswer them. That's the rule of the game."
"Then I suspect him who wore yonder sash. Do not you know whom I mean?"
"Why, if you call on me for honours, I must needs say I have seenCaptain Peppercull have one of such a fashion, and he was not a man tochange his suits often."
"Send out, then," said Martha, "and have him apprehended."
"If it is he, he will be far by this time; but I will communicate withthe higher powers," answered the judge.
"You would have him escape," resumed she, fixing her eyes on himsternly.
"By cock and pie," replied Hildebrod, "did it depend on me, themurdering cut-throat should hang as high as ever Haman did--but let metake my time. He has friends among us, _that_ you wot well; and all thatshould assist me are as drunk as fiddlers."
"I will have revenge--I _will_ have it," repeated she; "and take heedyou trifle not with me."
"Trifle! I would sooner trifle with a she-bear the minute after they hadbaited her. I tell you, mistress, be but patient, and we will have him.I know all his haunts, and he cannot forbear them long; and I will havetrap-doors open for him. You cannot want justice, mistress, for you havethe means to get it."
"They who help me in my revenge," said Martha, "shall share thosemeans."
"Enough said," replied Hildebrod; "and now I would have you go to myhouse, and get something hot--you will be but dreary here by yourself."
"I will send for the old char-woman," replied Martha, "and we have thestranger gentleman, besides."
"Umph, umph--the stranger gentleman!" said Hildebrod to Nigel, whomhe drew a little apart. "I fancy the captain has made the strangergentleman's fortune when he was making a bold dash for his own. Ican tell your honour--I must not say lordship--that I think my havingchanced to give the greasy buff-and-iron scoundrel some hint of what Irecommended to you to-day, has put him on this rough game. The betterfor you--you will get the cash without the father-in-law.--You will keepconditions, I trust?"
"I wish you had said nothing to any one of a scheme so absurd," saidNigel.
"Absurd!--Why, think you she will not have thee? Take her with the tearin her eye, man--take her with the tear in her eye. Let me hear from youto-morrow. Good-night, good-night--a nod is as good as a wink. I must tomy business of sealing and locking up. By the way, this horrid work hasput all out of my head.--Here is a fellow from Mr. Lowestoffe has beenasking to see you. As he said his business was express, the Senate onlymade him drink a couple of flagons, and he was just coming to beat upyour quarters when this breeze blew up.--Ahey, friend! there is MasterNigel Grahame."
A young man, dressed in a green plush jerkin, with a badge on thesleeve, and having the appearance of a waterman, approached and tookNigel aside, while Duke Hildebrod went from place to place to exercisehis authority, and to see the windows fastened, and the doors of theapartment locked up. The news communicated by Lowestoffe's messengerwere not the most pleasant. They were intimated in a courteous whisperto Nigel, to the following effect:--That Master Lowestoffe prayed him toconsult his safety by instantly leaving Whitefriars, for that a warrantfrom the Lord Chief-Justice had been issued out for apprehending him,and would be put in force to-morrow, by the assistance of a party ofmusketeers, a force which the Alsatians neither would nor dared toresist.
"And so, squire," said the aquatic emissary, "my wherry is to wait youat the Temple Stairs yonder, at five this morning, and, if you wouldgive the blood-hounds the slip, why, you may."
"Why did not Master Lowestoffe write to me?" said Nigel.
"Alas! the good gentleman lies up in lavender for it himself, and has aslittle to do with pen and ink as if he were a parson."
"Did he send any token to me?" said Nigel.
"Token!--ay, marry did he--token enough, an I have not forgot it," saidthe fellow; then, giving a hoist to the waistband of his breeches, hesaid,--"Ay, I have it--you were to believe me, because your name waswritten with an O, for Grahame. Ay, that was it, I think.--Well, shallwe meet in two hours, when tide turns, and go down the river like atwelve-oared barge?"
"Where is the king just now, knowest thou?" answered Lord Glenvarloch.
"The king! why, he went down to Greenwich yesterday by water, like anoble sovereign as he is, who will always float where he can. He wasto have hunted this week, but that purpose is broken, they say; andthe Prince, and the Duke, and all of them at Greenwich, are as merry asminnows."
"Well," replied Nigel, "I will be ready to go at five; do thou comehither to carry my baggage."
"Ay, ay, master," replied the fellow, and left the house mixing himselfwith the disorderly attendants of Duke Hildebrod, who were now retiring.That potentate entreated Nigel to make fast the doors behind him, and,pointing to the female who sat by the expiring fire with her limbsoutstretched, like one whom the hand of Death had already arrested, hewhispered, "Mind your hits, and mind your bargain, or I will cut yourbow-string for you before you can draw it."
Feeling deeply the ineffable brutality which could recommend theprosecuting such views over a wretch in such a condition, LordGlenvarloch yet commanded his temper so far as to receive the advicein silence, and attend to the former part of it, by barring the doorcarefully behind Duke Hildebrod and his suite, with the tacit hopethat he should never again see or hear of them. He then returned to thekitchen, in which the unhappy woman remained, her hands still clenched,her eyes fixed, and her limbs extended, like those of a person in atrance. M
uch moved by her situation, and with the prospect which laybefore her, he endeavoured to awaken her to existence by every means inhis power, and at length apparently succeeded in dispelling her stupor,and attracting her attention. He then explained to her that he wasin the act of leaving Whitefriars in a few hours--that his futuredestination was uncertain, but that he desired anxiously to know whetherhe could contribute to her protection by apprizing any friend of hersituation, or otherwise. With some difficulty she seemed to comprehendhis meaning, and thanked him with her usual short ungracious manner. "Hemight mean well," she said, "but he ought to know that the miserable hadno friends."
Nigel said, "He would not willingly be importunate, but, as he was aboutto leave the Friars--" She interrupted him--
"You are about to leave the Friars? I will go with you."
"You go with me!" exclaimed Lord Glenvarloch.
"Yes," she said, "I will persuade my father to leave this murderingden." But, as she spoke, the more perfect recollection of what hadpassed crowded on her mind. She hid her face in her hands, and burst outinto a dreadful fit of sobs, moans, and lamentations, which terminatedin hysterics, violent in proportion to the uncommon strength of her bodyand mind.
Lord Glenvarloch, shocked, confused, and inexperienced, was about toleave the house in quest of medical, or at least female assistance; butthe patient, when the paroxysm had somewhat spent its force, held himfast by the sleeve with one hand, covering her face with the other,while a copious flood of tears came to relieve the emotions of grief bywhich she had been so violently agitated.
"Do not leave me," she said--"do not leave me, and call no one. I havenever been in this way before, and would not now," she said, sittingupright, and wiping her eyes with her apron,--"would not now--butthat--but that he loved _me_. if he loved nothing else that washuman--To die so, and by such hands!"
And again the unhappy woman gave way to a paroxysm of sorrow, minglingher tears with sobbing, wailing, and all the abandonment of femalegrief, when at its utmost height. At length, she gradually recoveredthe austerity of her natural composure, and maintained it as if by aforcible exertion of resolution, repelling, as she spoke, the repeatedreturns of the hysterical affection, by such an effort as that by whichepileptic patients are known to suspend the recurrence of their fits.Yet her mind, however resolved, could not so absolutely overcome theaffection of her nerves, but that she was agitated by strong fits oftrembling, which, for a minute or two at a time, shook her whole framein a manner frightful to witness. Nigel forgot his own situation, and,indeed, every thing else, in the interest inspired by the unhappy womanbefore him--an interest which affected a proud spirit the more deeply,that she herself, with correspondent highness of mind, seemed determinedto owe as little as possible either to the humanity or the pity ofothers.
"I am not wont to be in this way," she said,--"but--but--Nature willhave power over the frail beings it has made. Over you, sir, I have someright; for, without you, I had not survived this awful night. I wishyour aid had been either earlier or later--but you have saved my life,and you are bound to assist in making it endurable to me."
"If you will show me how it is possible," answered Nigel.
"You are going hence, you say, instantly--carry me with you," saidthe unhappy woman. "By my own efforts, I shall never escape from thiswilderness of guilt and misery."
"Alas! what can I do for you?" replied Nigel. "My own way, and I mustnot deviate from it, leads me, in all probability, to a dungeon. Imight, indeed, transport you from hence with me, if you could afterwardsbestow yourself with any friend."
"Friend!" she exclaimed--"I have no friend--they have long sincediscarded us. A spectre arising from the dead were more welcome thanI should be at the doors of those who have disclaimed us; and, if theywere willing to restore their friendship to me now, I would despise it,because they withdrew it from him--from him"--(here she underwent strongbut suppressed agitation, and then added firmly)--"from _him_ who liesyonder.--I have no friend." Here she paused; and then suddenly, as ifrecollecting herself, added, "I have no friend, but I have thatwill purchase many--I have that which will purchase both friends andavengers.--It is well thought of; I must not leave it for a prey tocheats and ruffians.--Stranger, you must return to yonder room. Passthrough it boldly to his--that is, to the sleeping apartment; push thebedstead aside; beneath each of the posts is a brass plate, as if tosupport the weight, but it is that upon the left, nearest to the wall,which must serve your turn--press the corner of the plate, and it willspring up and show a keyhole, which this key will open. You will thenlift a concealed trap-door, and in a cavity of the floor you willdiscover a small chest. Bring it hither; it shall accompany our journey,and it will be hard if the contents cannot purchase me a place ofrefuge."
"But the door communicating with the kitchen has been locked by thesepeople," said Nigel.
"True, I had forgot; they had their reasons for that, doubtless,"answered she. "But the secret passage from your apartment is open, andyou may go that way."
Lord Glenvarloch took the key, and, as he lighted a lamp to show him theway, she read in his countenance some unwillingness to the task imposed.
"You fear?" said she--"there is no cause; the murderer and his victimare both at rest. Take courage, I will go with you myself--you cannotknow the trick of the spring, and the chest will be too heavy for you."
"No fear, no fear," answered Lord Glenvarloch, ashamed of theconstruction she put upon a momentary hesitation, arising from a disliketo look upon what is horrible, often connected with those high-wroughtminds which are the last to fear what is merely dangerous--"I will doyour errand as you desire; but for you, you must not--cannot go yonder."
"I can--I will," she said. "I am composed. You shall see that I am so."She took from the table a piece of unfinished sewing-work, and, withsteadiness and composure, passed a silken thread into the eye of afine needle.--"Could I have done that," she said, with a smile yet moreghastly than her previous look of fixed despair, "had not my heart andhand been both steady?"
She then led the way rapidly up stairs to Nigel's chamber, and proceededthrough the secret passage with the same haste, as if she had feared herresolution might have failed her ere her purpose was executed. At thebottom of the stairs she paused a moment, before entering the fatalapartment, then hurried through with a rapid step to the sleepingchamber beyond, followed closely by Lord Glenvarloch, whose reluctanceto approach the scene of butchery was altogether lost in the anxietywhich he felt on account of the survivor of the tragedy.
Her first action was to pull aside the curtains of her father's bed. Thebed-clothes were thrown aside in confusion, doubtless in the action ofhis starting from sleep to oppose the entrance of the villains into thenext apartment. The hard mattress scarcely showed the slight pressurewhere the emaciated body of the old miser had been deposited. Hisdaughter sank beside the bed, clasped her hands, and prayed to heaven,in a short and affectionate manner, for support in her affliction,and for vengeance on the villains who had made her fatherless. Alow-muttered and still more brief petition recommended to Heaven thesoul of the sufferer, and invoked pardon for his sins, in virtue of thegreat Christian atonement.
This duty of piety performed, she signed to Nigel to aid her; and,having pushed aside the heavy bedstead, they saw the brass plate whichMartha had described. She pressed the spring, and, at once, the platestarting up, showed the keyhole, and a large iron ring used in liftingthe trap-door, which, when raised, displayed the strong box, or smallchest, she had mentioned, and which proved indeed so very weighty, thatit might perhaps have been scarcely possible for Nigel, though a verystrong man, to have raised it without assistance.
Having replaced everything as they had found it, Nigel, with such helpas his companion was able to afford, assumed his load, and made a shiftto carry it into the next apartment, where lay the miserable owner,insensible to sounds and circumstances, which, if any thing couldhave broken his long last slumber, would certainly have done so. Hisunfortunate
daughter went up to his body, and had even the courage toremove the sheet which had been decently disposed over it. She put herhand on the heart, but there was no throb--held a feather to the lips,but there was no motion--then kissed with deep reverence the startingveins of the pale forehead, and then the emaciated hand.
"I would you could hear me," she said,--"Father! I would you could hearme swear, that, if I now save what you most valued on earth, it is onlyto assist me in obtaining vengeance for your death."
She replaced the covering, and, without a tear, a sigh, or an additionalword of any kind, renewed her efforts, until they conveyed thestrong-box betwixt them into Lord Glenvarloch's sleeping apartment. "Itmust pass," she said, "as part of your baggage. I will be in readinessso soon as the waterman calls."
She retired; and Lord Glenvarloch, who saw the hour of their departureapproach, tore down a part of the old hanging to make a covering, whichhe corded upon the trunk, lest the peculiarity of its shape, and thecare with which it was banded and counterbanded with bars of steel,might afford suspicions respecting the treasure which it contained.Having taken this measure of precaution, he changed the rascallydisguise, which he had assumed on entering Whitefriars, into a suitbecoming his quality, and then, unable to sleep, though exhaustedwith the events of the night, he threw himself on his bed to await thesummons of the waterman.