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The Purcell Papers, Volume 2
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
April, 1996 [Etext #510]
**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Purcell Papers, Volume 2**
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THE
PURCELL PAPERS.
BY THE LATE
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU,
AUTHOR OF 'UNCLE SILAS.'
With a Memoir by
ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
----
PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESS
THE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAH
STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER
SCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADS
THE PURCELL PAPERS.
PASSAGE IN THE
SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH
COUNTESS.
Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis
Purcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.
The following paper is written in a
female hand, and was no doubt
communicated to my much-regretted
friend by the lady whose early
history it serves to illustrate, the Countess
D----. She is no more--she long since
died, a childless and a widowed wife, and,
as her letter sadly predicts, none survive
to whom the publication of this narrative
can prove 'injurious, or even painful.'
Strange! two powerful and wealthy
families, that in which she was born,
and that into which she had married,
have ceased to be--they are utterly
extinct.
To those who know anything of the
history of Irish families, as they were
less than a century ago, the facts which
immediately follow will at once suggest
THE NAMES of the principal actors; and to
others their publication would be useless--
to us, possibly, if not probably, injurious.
I have, therefore, altered such of the
names as might, if stated, get us into
difficulty; others, belonging to minor
characters in the strange story, I have left
untouched.
My dear friend,--You have asked me to
furnish you with a detail of the strange
events which marked my early history,
and I have, without hesitation, applied
myself to the task, knowing that, while I
live, a kind consideration for my feelings
will prevent your giving publicity to the
statement; and conscious that, when I am
no more, there will not survive one to
whom the narrative can prove injurious, or
even painful.
My mother died when I was quite an
infant, and of her I have no recollection,
even the faintest. By her death, my
education and habits were left solely to
the guidance of my surviving parent; and,
as far as a stern attention to my religious
instruction, and an active anxiety evinced
by his procuring for me the best masters
to perfect me in those accomplishments
which my station and wealth might seem
to require, could avail, he amply discharged
the task.
My father was what is called an oddity,
and his treatment of me, though uniformly
kind, flowed less from affection and
tenderness than from a sense of obligation
and duty. Indeed, I seldom even spoke
to him except at meal-times, and then his
manner was silent and abrupt; his
leisure hours, which were many, were
passed either in his study or in solitary
walks; in short, he seemed to take no
further interest in my happiness or
improvement than a conscientious regard to
the discharge of his own duty would seem
to claim.
Shortly before my birth a circumstance
had occurred which had contributed much
to form and to confirm my father's
secluded habits--it was the fact that a
suspicion of MURDER had fallen upon his
younger brother, though not sufficiently
definite to lead to an indictment, yet
strong enough to ruin him in public
opinion.
This disgraceful and dreadful doubt cast
upon the family name, my father felt
deeply and bitterly, and not the less so
that he himself was thoroughly convinced
of his brother's innocence. The sincerity
and strength of this impression he shortly
afterwards proved in a manner which
produced the dark events which follow.
Before, however, I enter upon the
statement of them, I ought to relate the
circumstances which had awakened the
suspicion; inasmuch as they are in themselves
somewhat curious, and, in their
effects, most intimately connected with my
after-history.
My uncle, Sir Arthur T----n, was a gay
and extravagant man, and, among other
vices, was ruinously addicted to gaming;
this unfortunate propensity, even after his
fortune had suffered so severely as to
render inevitable a reduction in his
expenses by no means inconsiderable,
nevertheless continued to actuate him, nearly
to the exclusion of all other pursuits; he
was, however, a proud, or rather a vain
man, and could not bear to make the
diminution of his income a matter of
gratulation and triumph to those with
whom he had hitherto competed, and the
consequence was, that he frequented no
longer the expensive haunts of dissipation,
and retired from the gay world, leaving
his coterie to discover his reasons as best
they might.
He did not, however, forego his
favourite vice, for, though he could not
worship his great divinity in the costly
temples where it was formerly his wont to
take his stand, yet he found it very
possible to bring about him a sufficient
number of the votaries of chance to
answer all his ends. The consequence
was, that Carrickleigh, which was the
name of my uncle's residence, was never
without one or more of such visitors as I
have described.
It happened that upon one occasion he
was visited by one Hugh Tisdall, a gentleman
of loose habits, but of considerable
wealth, and who had, in early youth,
travelled with my uncle upon the Con-
tinent; the period of his visit was winter,
and, consequently, the house was nearly
deserted excepting by its regular inmates;
it was therefore highly acceptable,
particularly as my uncle was aware that his
visitor's tastes accorded exactly with his
own.
Both parties seemed determined to
avail themselves of their suitability during
the brief stay which Mr. Tisdall had
promised; the consequence was, that they
shut themselves up in Sir Arthur's private
room for nearly all the day and the
greater part of the night, during the
space of nearly a week, at the end of
which the servant having one morning,
as usual, knocked at Mr. Tisdall's bed-
room door repeatedly, received no answer,
and, upon attempting to enter, found that
it was locked; this appeared suspicious,
and, the inmates of the house having been
alarmed, the door was forced open, and,
on proceeding to the bed, they found the
body of its occupant perfectly lifeless, and
hanging half-way out, the head downwards,
and near the floor. One deep
wound had been inflicted upon the temple,
apparently with some blunt instrument
which had penetrated the brain; and
another blow, less effective, probably the
first aimed, had grazed the head, removing
some of the scalp, but leaving the skull
untouched. The door had been double-
locked upon the INSIDE, in evidence of which
the key still lay where it had been placed
in the lock.
The window, though not secured on the
interior, was closed--a circumstance not a
little puzzling, as it afforded the only other
mode of escape from the room; it looked
out, too, upon a kind of courtyard, round
which the old buildings stood, formerly
accessible by a narrow doorway and passage
lying in the oldest side of the quadrangle,
but which had since been built up,
so as to preclude all ingress or egress; the
room was also upon the second story, and
the height of the window considerable.
Near the bed were found a pair of razors
belonging to the murdered man, one of
them upon the ground, and both of them
open. The weapon which had inflicted
the mortal wound was not to be found in
the room, nor were any footsteps or other
traces of the murderer discoverable.
At the suggestion of Sir Arthur
himself, a coroner was instantly summoned to
attend, and an inquest was held; nothing,
however, in any degree conclusive was
elicited; the walls, ceiling, and floor of the
room were carefully examined, in order to
ascertain whether they contained a trap-
door or other concealed mode of entrance
--but no such thing appeared.
Such was the minuteness of investigation
employed, that, although the grate
had contained a large fire during the night,
they proceeded to examine even the very
chimney, in order to discover whether
escape by it were possible; but this
attempt, too, was fruitless, for the chimney,
built in the old fashion, rose in a perfectly
perpendicular line from the hearth to a
height of nearly fourteen feet above the
roof, affording in its interior scarcely the
possibility of ascent, the flue being
smoothly plastered, and sloping towards
the top like an inverted funnel, promising,
too, even if the summit were attained,
owing to its great height, but a precarious
descent upon the sharp and steep-ridged
roof; the ashes, too, which lay in the
grate, and the soot, as far as it could be
seen, were undisturbed, a circumstance
almost conclusive of the question.
Sir Arthur was of course examined; his
evidence was given with clearness and
unreserve, which seemed calculated to silence
all suspicion. He stated that, up to the
day and night immediately preceding the
catastrophe, he had lost to a heavy
amount, but that, at their last sitting, he
had not only won back his original loss,
but upwards of four thousand pounds in
addition; in evidence of which he produced
an acknowledgment of debt to that
amount in the handwriting of the deceased,
and bearing the date of the fatal night.
He had mentioned the circumstance to his
lady, and in presence of some of the
domestics; which statement was
supported by THEIR respective evidence.
One of the jury shrewdly observed, that
the circumstance of Mr. Tisdall's having
sustained so heavy a loss might have
suggested to some ill-minded persons
accidentally hearing it, the plan of robbing
him, after having murdered him in such a
manner as might make it appear that he
had committed suicide; a supposition
which was strongly supported by the
razors having been found thus displaced,
and removed from their case. Two persons
had probably been engaged in the
attempt, one watching by the sleeping
man, and ready to strike him in case of
his awakening suddenly, while the other
was procuring the razors and employed in
inflicting the fatal gash, so as to make it
appear to have been the act of the
murdered man himself. It was said that
while the juror was making this suggestion
Sir Arthur changed colour.
Nothing, however, like legal evidence
appeared against him, and the consequence
was that the verdict was found against a
person or persons unknown; and for some
time the matter was suffered to rest, until,
after about five months, my father
received a letter from a person signing
himself Andrew Collis, and representing
himself to be the cousin of the deceased. This
letter stated that Sir Arthur was likely to
incur not merely suspicion, but personal
risk, unless he could account for certain
circumstances connected with the recent
murder, and contained a copy of a letter
written by the deceased, and bearing date,
the day of the week, and of the month,
upon the night of which the deed of blood
had been perpetrated. Tisdall's note ran
as follows:
'DEAR COLLIS,
'I have had sharp work with Sir
Arthur; he tried some of his stale tricks,
but soon found that _I_ was Yorkshire too:
it would not do--you understand me. We
went to the work like good ones, head,
heart and soul; and, in fact, since I came
here, I have lost no time. I am rather
fagged, but I am sure to be well paid for
my hardship; I never want sleep so long
as I can have the music of a dice-box, and
wherewithal to pay the piper. As I told
you, he tried some of his queer turns, but
I foiled him like a man, and, in return,
gave him more than he could relish of the
genuine DEAD KNOWLEDGE.
'In short, I have plucked the old
baronet as never baronet was plucked before;
I have scarce left him the stump of
a quill; I have got promissory notes in his
hand to the amount of--if you like round
numbers, say, thirty thousand pounds,
safely deposited in my portable strong-
box, alias double-clasped pocket-book. I
leave this ruinous old rat-hole early on to-
morrow, for two reasons--first, I do not
want to play with Sir Arthur deeper than
I think his security, that is, his money, or
his money's worth, would warrant; and,
secondly, because I am safer a hundred
miles from Sir Arthur than in the house
with him. Look you, my worthy, I tell
you this between ourselves--I may be
wrong, but, by G--, I am as sure as that I
am now living, that Sir A---- attempted
to poison me last night; so much for old
friendship on both sides.
'When I won the last stake, a heavy one
enough, my friend leant his forehead upon
his hands, and you'll laugh when I tell
you that his head literally smoked like a
hot dumpling. I do not know whether his
agitation was produced by the plan which
he had against me, or by his having lost so
heavily--though it must be allowed that he
had reason to be a little funked, whichever
way his thoughts went; but he pulled the
bell, and ordered two bottles of
champagne. While the fellow was bringing
them he drew out a promissory note to the
full amount, which he signed, and, as the
man came in with the bottles and glasses,
he desired him to be off; he filled out a
glass for me, and, while he thought my
eyes were off, for I was putting up his note
at the time, he dropped something slyly
into it, no doubt to sweeten it; but I saw
it all, and, when he handed it to me, I
said, with an emphasis which he might or
might not understand:
' "There is some sediment in this; I'll
not drink it."
' "Is there?" said he, and at the same
time snatched it from my hand and threw
it into the fire. What do you think of
that? have I not a tender chicken to
manage? Win or lose, I will not play
beyond five thousand to-night, and to-
morrow sees me safe out of the reach of
Sir Arthur's champagne. So, all things
considered, I think you must allow that
you are not the last who have found a
knowing boy in
'Yours to command,
'HUGH TISDALL.'
Of the authenticity of this document I
never heard my father express a doubt;
and I am satisfied that, owing to his
strong conviction in favour of his brother,
he would not have admitted it without
sufficient inquiry, inasmuch as it tended to
confirm the suspicions which already
existed to his prejudice.
Now, the only point in this letter which
made strongly against my uncle, was the
mention of the 'double-clasped pocket-
book' as the receptacle of the papers
likely to involve him, for this pocket-book
was not forthcoming, nor anywhere to be
found, nor had any papers referring to his
gaming transactions been found upon the
dead man. However, whatever might have
been the original intention of this Collis,
neither my uncle nor my father ever heard
more of him; but he published the letter
in Faulkner's newspaper, which was shortly
afterwards made the vehicle of a much
more mysterious attack. The passage in
that periodical to which I allude, occurred
about four years afterwards, and while the
fatal occurrence was still fresh in public
recollection. It commenced by a rambling
preface, stating that 'a CERTAIN PERSON
whom CERTAIN persons thought to be dead,
was not so, but living, and in full possession
of his memory, and moreover ready
and able to make GREAT delinquents
tremble.' It then went on to describe the
murder, without, however, mentioning
names; and in doing so, it entered into
minute and circumstantial particulars of
which none but an EYE-WITNESS could have
been possessed, and by implications almost
too unequivocal to be regarded in the light
of insinuation, to involve the 'TITLED
GAMBLER' in the guilt of the transaction.
My father at once urged Sir Arthur to
proceed against the paper in an action of
libel; but he would not hear of it, nor
consent to my father's taking any legal
steps whatever in the matter. My father,
however, wrote in a threatening tone to
Faulkner, demanding a surrender of the
author of the obnoxious article. The
answer to this application is still in my
possession, and is penned in an apologetic
tone: it states that the manuscript had
been handed in, paid for, and inserted as
an advertisement, without sufficient
inquiry, or any knowledge as to whom it
referred.
No step, however, was taken to clear
my uncle's character in the judgment of
the public; and as he immediately sold a
small property, the application of the
proceeds of which was known to none, he
was said to have disposed of it to enable
himself to buy off the threatened information.
However the truth might have been,
it is certain that no charges respecting the
mysterious murder were afterwards publicly
made against my uncle, and, as far as
external disturbances were concerned, he
enjoyed henceforward perfect security and
quiet.
A deep and lasting impression, however,
had been made upon the public mind, and
Sir Arthur T----n was no longer visited
or noticed by the gentry and aristocracy of
the county, whose attention and courtesies
he had hitherto received. He accordingly
affected to despise these enjoyments which
he could not procure, and shunned even
that society which he might have commanded.
This is all that I need recapitulate of my
uncle's history, and I now recur to my own.
Although my father had never, within my
recollection, visited, or been visited by, my
uncle, each being of sedentary, procrastinating,
and secluded habits, and their respective
residences being very far apart--
the one lying in the county of Galway, the
other in that of Cork--he was strongly
attached to his brother, and evinced his
affection by an active correspondence, and
by deeply and proudly resenting that
neglect which had marked Sir Arthur as
unfit to mix in society.
When I was about eighteen years of
age, my father, whose health had been
gradually declining, died, leaving me in
heart wretched and desolate, and, owing to
his previous seclusion, with few acquaintances,
and almost no friends.
The provisions of his will were curious,
and when I had sufficiently come to myself
to listen to or comprehend them,
surprised me not a little: all his vast property
was left to me, and to the heirs of my
body, for ever; and, in default of such
heirs, it was to go after my death to my
uncle, Sir Arthur, without any entail.
At the same time, the will appointed
him my guardian, desiring that I might be
received within his house, and reside with
his family, and under his care, during the
term of my minority; and in consideration
of the increased expense consequent upon
such an arrangement, a handsome annuity
was allotted to him during the term of my
proposed residence.
The object of this last provision I at
once understood: my father desired, by
making it the direct, apparent interest of
Sir Arthur that I should die without
issue, while at the same time he placed me
wholly in his power, to prove to the world
how great and unshaken was his
confidence in his brother's innocence and
honour, and also to afford him an
opportunity of showing that this mark of
confidence was not unworthily bestowed.
It was a strange, perhaps an idle
scheme; but as I had been always brought
up in the habit of considering my uncle as
a deeply-injured man, and had been taught,
almost as a part of my religion, to regard
him as the very soul of honour, I felt no
further uneasiness respecting the arrangement
than that likely to result to a timid
girl, of secluded habits, from the immediate
prospect of taking up her abode for the
first time in her life among total strangers.
Previous to leaving my home, which I felt
I should do with a heavy heart, I re-
ceived a most tender and affectionate letter
from my uncle, calculated, if anything
could do so, to remove the bitterness of
parting from scenes familiar and dear from
my earliest childhood, and in some degree
to reconcile me to the measure.
It was during a fine autumn that I
approached the old domain of Carrickleigh.
I shall not soon forget the impression of
sadness and of gloom which all that I saw
produced upon my mind; the sunbeams
were falling with a rich and melancholy
tint upon the fine old trees, which stood in
lordly groups, casting their long, sweeping
shadows over rock and sward. There was
an air of neglect and decay about the spot,
which amounted almost to desolation; the
symptoms of this increased in number as
we approached the building itself, near
which the ground had been originally more
artificially and carefully cultivated than
elsewhere, and whose neglect consequently
more immediately and strikingly betrayed
itself.
As we proceeded, the road wound near
the beds of what had been formally two
fish-ponds, which were now nothing more
than stagnant swamps, overgrown with
rank weeds, and here and there encroached
upon by the straggling underwood; the
avenue itself was much broken, and in
many places the stones were almost
concealed by grass and nettles; the loose
stone walls which had here and there
intersected the broad park were, in many
places, broken down, so as no longer to
answer their original purpose as fences;
piers were now and then to be seen, but
the gates were gone; and, to add to the
general air of dilapidation, some huge
trunks were lying scattered through the
venerable old trees, either the work of the
winter storms, or perhaps the victims of
some extensive but desultory scheme of
denudation, which the projector had not
capital or perseverance to carry into full
effect.
After the carriage had travelled a mile
of this avenue, we reached the summit of
rather an abrupt eminence, one of the
many which added to the picturesqueness,
if not to the convenience of this rude
passage. From the top of this ridge the
grey walls of Carrickleigh were visible,
rising at a small distance in front, and
darkened by the hoary wood which
crowded around them. It was a quadrangular
building of considerable extent,
and the front which lay towards us, and
in which the great entrance was placed,
bore unequivocal marks of antiquity; the
time-worn, solemn aspect of the old building,
the ruinous and deserted appearance
of the whole place, and the associations
which connected it with a dark page in the
history of my family, combined to depress
spirits already predisposed for the reception
of sombre and dejecting impressions.
When the carriage drew up in the grass-
grown court yard before the hall-door, two
lazy-looking men, whose appearance well
accorded with that of the place which they
tenanted, alarmed by the obstreperous
barking of a great chained dog, ran out
from some half-ruinous out-houses, and
took charge of the horses; the hall-door
stood open, and I entered a gloomy and
imperfectly lighted apartment, and found
no one within. However, I had not long
to wait in this awkward predicament, for
before my luggage had been deposited in
the house, indeed, before I had well
removed my cloak and other wraps, so as
to enable me to look around, a young girl
ran lightly into the hall, and kissing me
heartily, and somewhat boisterously,
exclaimed:
'My dear cousin, my dear Margaret--
I am so delighted--so out of breath. We
did not expect you till ten o'clock; my
father is somewhere about the place, he
must be close at hand. James--Corney
--run out and tell your master--my
brother is seldom at home, at least at any
reasonable hour--you must be so tired--so
fatigued--let me show you to your room--
see that Lady Margaret's luggage is all
brought up--you must lie down and rest
yourself--Deborah, bring some coffee--up
these stairs; we are so delighted to see
you--you cannot think how lonely I have
been--how steep these stairs are, are not
they? I am so glad you are come--I
could hardly bring myself to believe that
you were really coming--how good of you,
dear Lady Margaret.'
There was real good-nature and delight
in my cousin's greeting, and a kind of
constitutional confidence of manner which
placed me at once at ease, and made me
feel immediately upon terms of intimacy
with her. The room into which she
ushered me, although partaking in the
general air of decay which pervaded the
mansion and all about it, had nevertheless
been fitted up with evident attention to
comfort, and even with some dingy attempt
at luxury; but what pleased me most was
that it opened, by a second door, upon a
lobby which communicated with my fair
cousin's apartment; a circumstance which
divested the room, in my eyes, of the air
of solitude and sadness which would otherwise
have characterised it, to a degree
almost painful to one so dejected in spirits
as I was.
After such arrangements as I found
necessary were completed, we both went
down to the parlour, a large wainscoted
room, hung round with grim old portraits,
and, as I was not sorry to see, containing
in its ample grate a large and cheerful
fire. Here my cousin had leisure to talk
more at her ease; and from her I learned
something of the manners and the habits
of the two remaining members of her
family, whom I had not yet seen.
On my arrival I had known nothing of
the family among whom I was come to
reside, except that it consisted of three
individuals, my uncle, and his son and
daughter, Lady T----n having been long
dead. In addition to this very scanty stock
of information, I shortly learned from my
communicative companion that my uncle
was, as I had suspected, completely retired
in his habits, and besides that, having been
so far back as she could well recollect,
always rather strict, as reformed rakes
frequently become, he had latterly been
growing more gloomily and sternly
religious than heretofore.
Her account of her brother was far less
favourable, though she did not say anything
directly to his disadvantage. From all
that I could gather from her, I was led to
suppose that he was a specimen of the idle,
coarse-mannered, profligate, low-minded
'squirearchy'--a result which might
naturally have flowed from the circum-
stance of his being, as it were, outlawed
from society, and driven for companionship
to grades below his own--enjoying,
too, the dangerous prerogative of spending
much money.
However, you may easily suppose that
I found nothing in my cousin's communication
fully to bear me out in so very
decided a conclusion.
I awaited the arrival of my uncle,
which was every moment to be expected,
with feelings half of alarm, half of
curiosity--a sensation which I have often
since experienced, though to a less degree,
when upon the point of standing for the
first time in the presence of one of whom
I have long been in the habit of hearing
or thinking with interest.
It was, therefore, with some little
perturbation that I heard, first a slight
bustle at the outer door, then a slow step
traverse the hall, and finally witnessed the
door open, and my uncle enter the room.
He was a striking-looking man; from
peculiarities both of person and of garb, the
whole effect of his appearance amounted
to extreme singularity. He was tall, and
when young his figure must have been
strikingly elegant; as it was, however, its
effect was marred by a very decided stoop.
His dress was of a sober colour, and in
fashion anterior to anything which I could
remember. It was, however, handsome,
and by no means carelessly put on; but
what completed the singularity of his
appearance was his uncut, white hair,
which hung in long, but not at all
neglected curls, even so far as his shoulders,
and which combined with his regularly
classic features, and fine dark eyes, to
bestow upon him an air of venerable
dignity and pride, which I have never seen
equalled elsewhere. I rose as he entered,
and met him about the middle of the
room; he kissed my cheek and both my
hands, saying:
'You are most welcome, dear child, as
welcome as the command of this poor
place and all that it contains can make
you. I am most rejoiced to see you--
truly rejoiced. I trust that you are not
much fatigued--pray be seated again.'
He led me to my chair, and continued: 'I
am glad to perceive you have made
acquaintance with Emily already; I see,
in your being thus brought together, the
foundation of a lasting friendship. You
are both innocent, and both young. God
bless you--God bless you, and make you
all that I could wish.'
He raised his eyes, and remained for a
few moments silent, as if in secret prayer.
I felt that it was impossible that this man,
with feelings so quick, so warm, so tender,
could be the wretch that public opinion
had represented him to be. I was more
than ever convinced of his innocence.
His manner was, or appeared to me,
most fascinating; there was a mingled
kindness and courtesy in it which seemed
to speak benevolence itself. It was a
manner which I felt cold art could never
have taught; it owed most of its charm to
its appearing to emanate directly from the
heart; it must be a genuine index of the
owner's mind. So I thought.
My uncle having given me fully to
understand that I was most welcome, and
might command whatever was his own,
pressed me to take some refreshment; and
on my refusing, he observed that previously
to bidding me good-night, he had one duty
further to perform, one in whose observance
he was convinced I would cheerfully
acquiesce.
He then proceeded to read a chapter
from the Bible; after which he took his
leave with the same affectionate kindness
with which he had greeted me, having
repeated his desire that I should consider
everything in his house as altogether at
my disposal. It is needless to say that I
was much pleased with my uncle--it was
impossible to avoid being so; and I could
not help saying to myself, if such a man
as this is not safe from the assaults of
slander, who is? I felt much happier than
I had done since my father's death, and
enjoyed that night the first refreshing
sleep which had visited me since that event.
My curiosity respecting my male cousin
did not long remain unsatisfied--he
appeared the next day at dinner. His
manners, though not so coarse as I had
expected, were exceedingly disagreeable;
there was an assurance and a forwardness
for which I was not prepared; there
was less of the vulgarity of manner, and
almost more of that of the mind, than I
had anticipated. I felt quite uncomfortable
in his presence; there was just that
confidence in his look and tone which
would read encouragement even in mere
toleration; and I felt more disgusted and
annoyed at the coarse and extravagant
compliments which he was pleased from
time to time to pay me, than perhaps the
extent of the atrocity might fully have
warranted. It was, however, one consolation
that he did not often appear, being
much engrossed by pursuits about which I
neither knew nor cared anything; but
when he did appear, his attentions, either
with a view to his amusement or to some
more serious advantage, were so obviously
and perseveringly directed to me, that
young and inexperienced as I was, even _I_
could not be ignorant of his preference. I
felt more provoked by this odious persecution
than I can express, and discouraged
him with so much vigour, that I employed
even rudeness to convince him that his
assiduities were unwelcome; but all in
vain.
This had gone on for nearly a twelve-
month, to my infinite annoyance, when one
day as I was sitting at some needle-work
with my companion Emily, as was my
habit, in the parlour, the door opened,
and my cousin Edward entered the room.
There was something, I thought, odd in
his manner--a kind of struggle between
shame and impudence--a kind of flurry
and ambiguity which made him appear,
if possible, more than ordinarily disagreeable.
'Your servant, ladies,' he said, seating
himself at the same time; 'sorry to spoil
your tete-a-tete, but never mind, I'll only
take Emily's place for a minute or two;
and then we part for a while, fair cousin.
Emily, my father wants you in the corner
turret. No shilly-shally; he's in a hurry.'
She hesitated. 'Be off--tramp, march!'
he exclaimed, in a tone which the poor girl
dared not disobey.
She left the room, and Edward followed
her to the door. He stood there for a
minute or two, as if reflecting what he
should say, perhaps satisfying himself
that no one was within hearing in the
hall.
At length he turned about, having closed
the door, as if carelessly, with his foot; and
advancing slowly, as if in deep thought, he
took his seat at the side of the table
opposite to mine.
There was a brief interval of silence,
after which he said:
'I imagine that you have a shrewd
suspicion of the object of my early visit; but
I suppose I must go into particulars.
Must I?'
'I have no conception,' I replied, 'what
your object may be.'
'Well, well,' said he, becoming more at
his ease as he proceeded, 'it may be told in
a few words. You know that it is totally
impossible--quite out of the question--
that an offhand young fellow like me, and
a good-looking girl like yourself, could
meet continually, as you and I have done,
without an attachment--a liking growing
up on one side or other; in short, I think
I have let you know as plain as if I spoke
it, that I have been in love with you
almost from the first time I saw
you.'
He paused; but I was too much horrified
to speak. He interpreted my silence
favourably.
'I can tell you,' he continued, 'I'm
reckoned rather hard to please, and very
hard to HIT. I can't say when I was taken
with a girl before; so you see fortune
reserved me----'
Here the odious wretch wound his arm
round my waist. The action at once
restored me to utterance, and with the most
indignant vehemence I released myself
from his hold, and at the same time
said:
'I have not been insensible, sir, of your
most disagreeable attentions--they have
long been a source of much annoyance to
me; and you must be aware that I have
marked my disapprobation--my disgust--
as unequivocally as I possibly could, without
actual indelicacy.'
I paused, almost out of breath from the
rapidity with which I had spoken; and
without giving him time to renew the
conversation, I hastily quitted the room,
leaving him in a paroxysm of rage and
mortification. As I ascended the stairs,
I heard him open the parlour-door with
violence, and take two or three rapid strides
in the direction in which I was moving. I
was now much frightened, and ran the
whole way until I reached my room; and
having locked the door, I listened breathlessly,
but heard no sound. This relieved
me for the present; but so much had I
been overcome by the agitation and annoyance
attendant upon the scene which I had
just gone through, that when my cousin
Emily knocked at my door, I was weeping
in strong hysterics.
You will readily conceive my distress,
when you reflect upon my strong dislike to
my cousin Edward, combined with my
youth and extreme inexperience. Any
proposal of such a nature must have
agitated me; but that it should have come
from the man whom of all others I most
loathed and abhorred, and to whom I had,
as clearly as manner could do it, expressed
the state of my feelings, was almost too
overwhelming to be borne. It was a calamity,
too, in which I could not claim the sym-
pathy of my cousin Emily, which had
always been extended to me in my minor
grievances. Still I hoped that it might
not be unattended with good; for I
thought that one inevitable and most
welcome consequence would result from
this painful eclaircissment, in the
discontinuance of my cousin's odious
persecution.
When I arose next morning, it was with
the fervent hope that I might never again
behold the face, or even hear the name, of
my cousin Edward; but such a consummation,
though devoutly to be wished, was
hardly likely to occur. The painful
impressions of yesterday were too vivid to
be at once erased; and I could not help
feeling some dim foreboding of coming
annoyance and evil.
To expect on my cousin's part anything
like delicacy or consideration for me, was
out of the question. I saw that he had
set his heart upon my property, and that
he was not likely easily to forego such an
acquisition--possessing what might have
been considered opportunities and facilities
almost to compel my compliance.
I now keenly felt the unreasonableness
of my father's conduct in placing me to
reside with a family of all whose members,
with one exception, he was wholly
ignorant, and I bitterly felt the helplessness
of my situation. I determined, however,
in case of my cousin's persevering in
his addresses, to lay all the particulars
before my uncle, although he had never in
kindness or intimacy gone a step beyond
our first interview, and to throw myself
upon his hospitality and his sense of honour
for protection against a repetition of such
scenes.
My cousin's conduct may appear to have
been an inadequate cause for such serious
uneasiness; but my alarm was caused
neither by his acts nor words, but entirely
by his manner, which was strange and even
intimidating to excess. At the beginning
of the yesterday's interview there was a
sort of bullying swagger in his air, which
towards the end gave place to the brutal
vehemence of an undisguised ruffian--a
transition which had tempted me into a belief
that he might seek even forcibly to extort
from me a consent to his wishes, or by
means still more horrible, of which I
scarcely dared to trust myself to think,
to possess himself of my property.
I was early next day summoned to attend
my uncle in his private room, which lay in
a corner turret of the old building; and
thither I accordingly went, wondering all
the way what this unusual measure might
prelude. When I entered the room, he
did not rise in his usual courteous way to
greet me, but simply pointed to a chair
opposite to his own. This boded nothing
agreeable. I sat down, however, silently
waiting until he should open the conversation.
'Lady Margaret,' at length he said, in a
tone of greater sternness than I thought
him capable of using, 'I have hitherto
spoken to you as a friend, but I have not
forgotten that I am also your guardian,
and that my authority as such gives me a
right to control your conduct. I shall
put a question to you, and I expect and
will demand a plain, direct answer. Have
I rightly been informed that you have con-
temptuously rejected the suit and hand of
my son Edward?'
I stammered forth with a good deal of
trepidation:
'I believe--that is, I have, sir, rejected
my cousin's proposals; and my coldness
and discouragement might have
convinced him that I had determined to
do so.'
'Madam,' replied he, with suppressed,
but, as it appeared to me, intense anger,
'I have lived long enough to know that
COLDNESS and discouragement, and such
terms, form the common cant of a worthless
coquette. You know to the full, as
well as I, that COLDNESS AND DISCOURAGEMENT
may be so exhibited as to convince
their object that he is neither distasteful
or indifferent to the person who wears this
manner. You know, too, none better, that
an affected neglect, when skilfully managed,
is amongst the most formidable of the
engines which artful beauty can employ.
I tell you, madam, that having, without
one word spoken in discouragement,
permitted my son's most marked attentions
for a twelvemonth or more, you have no
right to dismiss him with no further
explanation than demurely telling him that
you had always looked coldly upon him;
and neither your wealth nor your LADYSHIP'
(there was an emphasis of scorn on the
word, which would have become Sir
Giles Overreach himself) 'can warrant you
in treating with contempt the affectionate
regard of an honest heart.'
I was too much shocked at this undisguised
attempt to bully me into an acquiescence
in the interested and unprincipled
plan for their own aggrandisement, which
I now perceived my uncle and his son to
have deliberately entered into, at once to
find strength or collectedness to frame an
answer to what he had said. At length I
replied, with some firmness:
'In all that you have just now said, sir,
you have grossly misstated my conduct and
motives. Your information must have been
most incorrect as far as it regards my
conduct towards my cousin; my manner
towards him could have conveyed nothing
but dislike; and if anything could have
added to the strong aversion which I
have long felt towards him, it would be
his attempting thus to trick and frighten
me into a marriage which he knows to be
revolting to me, and which is sought by
him only as a means for securing to
himself whatever property is mine.'
As I said this, I fixed my eyes upon
those of my uncle, but he was too old in
the world's ways to falter beneath the
gaze of more searching eyes than mine; he
simply said:
'Are you acquainted with the provisions
of your father's will?'
I answered in the affirmative; and he
continued:
'Then you must be aware that if my
son Edward were--which God forbid--the
unprincipled, reckless man you pretend to
think him'--(here he spoke very slowly,
as if he intended that every word which
escaped him should be registered in my
memory, while at the same time the
expression of his countenance underwent a
gradual but horrible change, and the eyes
which he fixed upon me became so darkly
vivid, that I almost lost sight of everything
else)--'if he were what you have
described him, think you, girl, he could
find no briefer means than wedding
contracts to gain his ends? 'twas but to gripe
your slender neck until the breath had
stopped, and lands, and lakes, and all were
his.'
I stood staring at him for many minutes
after he had ceased to speak, fascinated
by the terrible serpent-like gaze, until he
continued with a welcome change of countenance:
'I will not speak again to you upon this
--topic until one month has passed. You
shall have time to consider the relative
advantages of the two courses which are
open to you. I should be sorry to hurry
you to a decision. I am satisfied with
having stated my feelings upon the subject,
and pointed out to you the path of duty.
Remember this day month--not one word
sooner.'
He then rose, and I left the room, much
agitated and exhausted.
This interview, all the circumstances
attending it, but most particularly the
formidable expression of my uncle's
countenance while he talked, though hypothetically,
of murder, combined to arouse all
my worst suspicions of him. I dreaded to
look upon the face that had so recently
worn the appalling livery of guilt and
malignity. I regarded it with the
mingled fear and loathing with which one
looks upon an object which has tortured
them in a nightmare.
In a few days after the interview, the
particulars of which I have just related, I
found a note upon my toilet-table, and on
opening it I read as follows:
'MY DEAR LADY MARGARET,
'You will be perhaps surprised to
see a strange face in your room to-day. I
have dismissed your Irish maid, and
secured a French one to wait upon you--a
step rendered necessary by my proposing
shortly to visit the Continent, with all my
family.
'Your faithful guardian,
'ARTHUR T----N.'
On inquiry, I found that my faithful
attendant was actually gone, and far on
her way to the town of Galway; and in
her stead there appeared a tall, raw-boned,
ill-looking, elderly Frenchwoman, whose
sullen and presuming manners seemed to
imply that her vocation had never before
been that of a lady's-maid. I could not
help regarding her as a creature of my
uncle's, and therefore to be dreaded,
even had she been in no other way suspicious.
Days and weeks passed away without
any, even a momentary doubt upon my
part, as to the course to be pursued by me.
The allotted period had at length elapsed;
the day arrived on which I was to
communicate my decision to my uncle.
Although my resolution had never for a
moment wavered, I could not shake of
the dread of the approaching colloquy;
and my heart sunk within me as I heard
the expected summons.
I had not seen my cousin Edward since
the occurrence of the grand eclaircissment;
he must have studiously avoided
me--I suppose from policy, it could not
have been from delicacy. I was prepared
for a terrific burst of fury from my uncle,
as soon as I should make known my
determination; and I not unreasonably
feared that some act of violence or of
intimidation would next be resorted to.
Filled with these dreary forebodings, I
fearfully opened the study door, and the
next minute I stood in my uncle's
presence. He received me with a politeness
which I dreaded, as arguing a favourable
anticipation respecting the answer
which I was to give; and after some slight
delay, he began by saying:
'It will be a relief to both of us, I
believe, to bring this conversation as soon
as possible to an issue. You will excuse
me, then, my dear niece, for speaking with
an abruptness which, under other
circumstances, would be unpardonable. You
have, I am certain, given the subject of
our last interview fair and serious con-
sideration; and I trust that you are now
prepared with candour to lay your answer
before me. A few words will suffice--we
perfectly understand one another.'
He paused, and I, though feeling that I
stood upon a mine which might in an
instant explode, nevertheless answered with
perfect composure:
'I must now, sir, make the same reply
which I did upon the last occasion, and I
reiterate the declaration which I then
made, that I never can nor will, while life
and reason remain, consent to a union with
my cousin Edward.'
This announcement wrought no apparent
change in Sir Arthur, except that he
became deadly, almost lividly pale. He
seemed lost in dark thought for a minute,
and then with a slight effort said:
'You have answered me honestly and
directly; and you say your resolution is
unchangeable. Well, would it had been
otherwise--would it had been otherwise--
but be it as it is--I am satisfied.'
He gave me his hand--it was cold and
damp as death; under an assumed calmness,
it was evident that he was fearfully
agitated. He continued to hold my hand
with an almost painful pressure, while, as
if unconsciously, seeming to forget my
presence, he muttered:
'Strange, strange, strange, indeed!
fatuity, helpless fatuity!' there was here a
long pause. 'Madness INDEED to strain a
cable that is rotten to the very heart--it
must break--and then--all goes.'
There was again a pause of some
minutes, after which, suddenly changing
his voice and manner to one of wakeful
alacrity, he exclaimed:
'Margaret, my son Edward shall plague
you no more. He leaves this country on
to-morrow for France--he shall speak no
more upon this subject--never, never
more--whatever events depended upon
your answer must now take their own
course; but, as for this fruitless proposal, it
has been tried enough; it can be repeated
no more.'
At these words he coldly suffered my
hand to drop, as if to express his total
abandonment of all his projected schemes
of alliance; and certainly the action, with
the accompanying words, produced upon
my mind a more solemn and depressing
effect than I believed possible to have
been caused by the course which I had
determined to pursue; it struck upon my
heart with an awe and heaviness which
WILL accompany the accomplishment of an
important and irrevocable act, even though
no doubt or scruple remains to make it
possible that the agent should wish it undone.
'Well,' said my uncle, after a little time,
'we now cease to speak upon this topic,
never to resume it again. Remember you
shall have no farther uneasiness from
Edward; he leaves Ireland for France on
to-morrow; this will be a relief to you.
May I depend upon your HONOUR that no
word touching the subject of this interview
shall ever escape you?'
I gave him the desired assurance; he
said:
'It is well--I am satisfied--we have
nothing more, I believe, to say upon
either side, and my presence must be a
restraint upon you, I shall therefore bid
you farewell.'
I then left the apartment, scarcely
knowing what to think of the strange
interview which had just taken place.
On the next day my uncle took occasion
to tell me that Edward had actually
sailed, if his intention had not been
interfered with by adverse circumstances; and
two days subsequently he actually produced
a letter from his son, written, as it
said, ON BOARD, and despatched while the
ship was getting under weigh. This was
a great satisfaction to me, and as being
likely to prove so, it was no doubt
communicated to me by Sir Arthur.
During all this trying period, I had
found infinite consolation in the society
and sympathy of my dear cousin Emily.
I never in after-life formed a friendship so
close, so fervent, and upon which, in all its
progress, I could look back with feelings
of such unalloyed pleasure, upon whose
termination I must ever dwell with so
deep, yet so unembittered regret. In
cheerful converse with her I soon
recovered my spirits considerably, and
passed my time agreeably enough,
although still in the strictest seclusion.
Matters went on sufficiently smooth,
although I could not help sometimes
feeling a momentary, but horrible
uncertainty respecting my uncle's character;
which was not altogether unwarranted by
the circumstances of the two trying
interviews whose particulars I have just
detailed. The unpleasant impression which
these conferences were calculated to leave
upon my mind, was fast wearing away,
when there occurred a circumstance, slight
indeed in itself, but calculated irresistibly
to awaken all my worst suspicions, and to
overwhelm me again with anxiety and
terror.
I had one day left the house with my
cousin Emily, in order to take a ramble of
considerable length, for the purpose of
sketching some favourite views, and we
had walked about half a mile when I
perceived that we had forgotten our drawing
materials, the absence of which would have
defeated the object of our walk. Laughing
at our own thoughtlessness, we returned
to the house, and leaving Emily without, I
ran upstairs to procure the drawing-books
and pencils, which lay in my bedroom.
As I ran up the stairs I was met by the
tall, ill-looking Frenchwoman, evidently
a good deal flurried.
'Que veut, madame?' said she, with a
more decided effort to be polite than I had
ever known her make before.
'No, no--no matter,' said I, hastily
running by her in the direction of my
room.
'Madame,' cried she, in a high key,
'restez ici, s'il vous plait; votre chambre
n'est pas faite--your room is not ready
for your reception yet.'
I continued to move on without heeding
her. She was some way behind me, and
feeling that she could not otherwise prevent
my entrance, for I was now upon the
very lobby, she made a desperate attempt
to seize hold of my person: she succeeded
in grasping the end of my shawl, which
she drew from my shoulders; but slipping at
the same time upon the polished oak floor,
she fell at full length upon the boards.
A little frightened as well as angry at
the rudeness of this strange woman, I
hastily pushed open the door of my room,
at which I now stood, in order to escape
from her; but great was my amazement
on entering to find the apartment preoccupied.
The window was open, and beside it
stood two male figures; they appeared to
be examining the fastenings of the casement,
and their backs were turned towards
the door. One of them was my uncle;
they both turned on my entrance, as if
startled. The stranger was booted and
cloaked, and wore a heavy broad-leafed hat
over his brows. He turned but for a moment,
and averted his face; but I had seen
enough to convince me that he was no
other than my cousin Edward. My uncle
had some iron instrument in his hand,
which he hastily concealed behind his back;
and coming towards me, said something as
if in an explanatory tone; but I was too
much shocked and confounded to understand
what it might be. He said something
about 'REPAIRS--window--frames--
cold, and safety.'
I did not wait, however, to ask or to
receive explanations, but hastily left the
room. As I went down the stairs I
thought I heard the voice of the Frenchwoman
in all the shrill volubility of excuse,
which was met, however, by suppressed
but vehement imprecations, or what
seemed to me to be such, in which the
voice of my cousin Edward distinctly
mingled.
I joined my cousin Emily quite out of
breath. I need not say that my head was
too full of other things to think much of
drawing for that day. I imparted to her
frankly the cause of my alarms, but at the
same time as gently as I could; and with
tears she promised vigilance, and devotion,
and love. I never had reason for a
moment to repent the unreserved confidence
which I then reposed in her. She was no
less surprised than I at the unexpected
appearance of Edward, whose departure
for France neither of us had for a moment
doubted, but which was now proved by his
actual presence to be nothing more than
an imposture, practised, I feared, for no
good end.
The situation in which I had found my
uncle had removed completely all my
doubts as to his designs. I magnified
suspicions into certainties, and dreaded night
after night that I should be murdered in
my bed. The nervousness produced by
sleepless nights and days of anxious fears
increased the horrors of my situation to
such a degree, that I at length wrote a
letter to a Mr. Jefferies, an old and faithful
friend of my father's, and perfectly
acquainted with all his affairs, praying him,
for God's sake, to relieve me from my
present terrible situation, and communicating
without reserve the nature and
grounds of my suspicions.
This letter I kept sealed and directed
for two or three days always about my
person, for discovery would have been
ruinous, in expectation of an opportunity
which might be safely trusted, whereby to
have it placed in the post-office. As neither
Emily nor I were permitted to pass beyond
the precincts of the demesne itself,
which was surrounded by high walls
formed of dry stone, the difficulty of
procuring such an opportunity was greatly
enhanced.
At this time Emily had a short conver-
sation with her father, which she reported
to me instantly.
After some indifferent matter, he had
asked her whether she and I were upon
good terms, and whether I was unreserved
in my disposition. She answered in the
affirmative; and he then inquired whether
I had been much surprised to find him in
my chamber on the other day. She
answered that I had been both surprised and
amused.
'And what did she think of George
Wilson's appearance?'
'Who?' inquired she.
'Oh, the architect,' he answered, 'who
is to contract for the repairs of the house;
he is accounted a handsome fellow.'
'She could not see his face,' said Emily,
'and she was in such a hurry to escape
that she scarcely noticed him.'
Sir Arthur appeared satisfied, and the
conversation ended.
This slight conversation, repeated
accurately to me by Emily, had the effect of
confirming, if indeed anything was required
to do so, all that I had before believed as
to Edward's actual presence; and I naturally
became, if possible, more anxious
than ever to despatch the letter to Mr.
Jefferies. An opportunity at length occurred.
As Emily and I were walking one day
near the gate of the demesne, a lad from
the village happened to be passing down
the avenue from the house; the spot was
secluded, and as this person was not
connected by service with those whose
observation I dreaded, I committed the letter
to his keeping, with strict injunctions that
he should put it without delay into the
receiver of the town post-office; at the
same time I added a suitable gratuity, and
the man having made many protestations
of punctuality, was soon out of sight.
He was hardly gone when I began to
doubt my discretion in having trusted this
person; but I had no better or safer means
of despatching the letter, and I was not
warranted in suspecting him of such
wanton dishonesty as an inclination to
tamper with it; but I could not be quite
satisfied of its safety until I had received
an answer, which could not arrive for a
few days. Before I did, however, an event
occurred which a little surprised me.
I was sitting in my bedroom early in the
day, reading by myself, when I heard a
knock at the door.
'Come in,' said I; and my uncle entered
the room.
'Will you excuse me?' said he. 'I
sought you in the parlour, and thence I
have come here. I desired to say a word
with you. I trust that you have hitherto
found my conduct to you such as that of a
guardian towards his ward should be.'
I dared not withhold my consent.
'And,' he continued, 'I trust that you
have not found me harsh or unjust, and
that you have perceived, my dear niece,
that I have sought to make this poor place
as agreeable to you as may be.'
I assented again; and he put his hand
in his pocket, whence he drew a folded
paper, and dashing it upon the table with
startling emphasis, he said:
'Did you write that letter?'
The sudden and tearful alteration of his
voice, manner, and face, but, more than all,
the unexpected production of my letter to
Mr. Jefferies, which I at once recognised,
so confounded and terrified me, that I felt
almost choking.
I could not utter a word.
'Did you write that letter?' he repeated
with slow and intense emphasis.' You
did, liar and hypocrite! You dared to
write this foul and infamous libel; but it
shall be your last. Men will universally
believe you mad, if I choose to call for an
inquiry. I can make you appear so. The
suspicions expressed in this letter are the
hallucinations and alarms of moping lunacy.
I have defeated your first attempt, madam;
and by the holy God, if ever you make
another, chains, straw, darkness, and the
keeper's whip shall be your lasting portion!'
With these astounding words he left the
room, leaving me almost fainting.
I was now almost reduced to despair;
my last cast had failed; I had no course
left but that of eloping secretly from the
castle, and placing myself under the
protection of the nearest magistrate. I felt
if this were not done, and speedily, that I
should be MURDERED.
No one, from mere description, can have
an idea of the unmitigated horror of my
situation--a helpless, weak, inexperienced
girl, placed under the power and wholly
at the mercy of evil men, and feeling that
she had it not in her power to escape for
a moment from the malignant influences
under which she was probably fated to fall;
and with a consciousness that if violence,
if murder were designed, her dying shriek
would be lost in void space; no human
being would be near to aid her, no human
interposition could deliver her.
I had seen Edward but once during his
visit, and as I did not meet with him
again, I began to think that he must have
taken his departure--a conviction which
was to a certain degree satisfactory, as I
regarded his absence as indicating the
removal of immediate danger.
Emily also arrived circuitously at the
same conclusion, and not without good
grounds, for she managed indirectly to
learn that Edward's black horse had actually
been for a day and part of a night in
the castle stables, just at the time of her
brother's supposed visit. The horse had
gone, and, as she argued, the rider must
have departed with it.
This point being so far settled, I felt a
little less uncomfortable: when being one
day alone in my bedroom, I happened to
look out from the window, and, to my un-
utterable horror, I beheld, peering through
an opposite casement, my cousin Edward's
face. Had I seen the evil one himself in
bodily shape, I could not have experienced
a more sickening revulsion.
I was too much appalled to move at
once from the window, but I did so soon
enough to avoid his eye. He was looking
fixedly into the narrow quadrangle upon
which the window opened. I shrank back
unperceived, to pass the rest of the day
in terror and despair. I went to my room
early that night, but I was too miserable
to sleep.
At about twelve o'clock, feeling very
nervous, I determined to call my cousin
Emily, who slept, you will remember, in
the next room, which communicated with
mine by a second door. By this private
entrance I found my way into her chamber,
and without difficulty persuaded her to
return to my room and sleep with me.
We accordingly lay down together, she
undressed, and I with my clothes on, for I
was every moment walking up and down
the room, and felt too nervous and miserable
to think of rest or comfort.
Emily was soon fast asleep, and I lay
awake, fervently longing for the first pale
gleam of morning, reckoning every stroke
of the old clock with an impatience which
made every hour appear like six.
It must have been about one o'clock
when I thought I heard a slight noise at
the partition-door between Emily's room
and mine, as if caused by somebody's
turning the key in the lock. I held my
breath, and the same sound was repeated
at the second door of my room--that which
opened upon the lobby--the sound was
here distinctly caused by the revolution of
the bolt in the lock, and it was followed by
a slight pressure upon the door itself, as if
to ascertain the security of the lock.
The person, whoever it might be, was
probably satisfied, for I heard the old
boards of the lobby creak and strain, as if
under the weight of somebody moving
cautiously over them. My sense of hearing
became unnaturally, almost painfully
acute. I suppose the imagination added
distinctness to sounds vague in themselves.
I thought that I could actually hear the
breathing of the person who was slowly
returning down the lobby. At the head of
the staircase there appeared to occur a
pause; and I could distinctly hear two or
three sentences hastily whispered; the
steps then descended the stairs with
apparently less caution. I now ventured to
walk quickly and lightly to the lobby-door,
and attempted to open it; it was indeed
fast locked upon the outside, as was also
the other.
I now felt that the dreadful hour was
come; but one desperate expedient
remained--it was to awaken Emily, and by
our united strength to attempt to force
the partition-door, which was slighter than
the other, and through this to pass to the
lower part of the house, whence it might
be possible to escape to the grounds, and
forth to the village.
I returned to the bedside and shook
Emily, but in vain. Nothing that I could
do availed to produce from her more than
a few incoherent words--it was a death-
like sleep. She had certainly drank of
some narcotic, as had I probably also, spite
of all the caution with which I had
examined everything presented to us to
eat or drink.
I now attempted, with as little noise as
possible, to force first one door, then the
other--but all in vain. I believe no
strength could have effected my object, for
both doors opened inwards. I therefore
collected whatever movables I could carry
thither, and piled them against the doors,
so as to assist me in whatever attempts I
should make to resist the entrance of those
without. I then returned to the bed and
endeavoured again, but fruitlessly, to
awaken my cousin. It was not sleep, it
was torpor, lethargy, death. I knelt down
and prayed with an agony of earnestness;
and then seating myself upon the bed, I
awaited my fate with a kind of terrible
tranquillity.
I heard a faint clanking sound from the
narrow court which I have already
mentioned, as if caused by the scraping of
some iron instrument against stones or
rubbish. I at first determined not to
disturb the calmness which I now felt, by
uselessly watching the proceedings of those
who sought my life; but as the sounds
continued, the horrible curiosity which I
felt overcame every other emotion, and I
determined, at all hazards, to gratify it.
I therefore crawled upon my knees to
the window, so as to let the smallest
portion of my head appear above the
sill.
The moon was shining with an uncertain
radiance upon the antique grey buildings,
and obliquely upon the narrow court
beneath, one side of which was therefore
clearly illuminated, while the other was
lost in obscurity, the sharp outlines of the
old gables, with their nodding clusters of
ivy, being at first alone visible.
Whoever or whatever occasioned the
noise which had excited my curiosity, was
concealed under the shadow of the dark
side of the quadrangle. I placed my hand
over my eyes to shade them from the
moonlight, which was so bright as to be
almost dazzling, and, peering into the
darkness, I first dimly, but afterwards gradually,
almost with full distinctness, beheld the
form of a man engaged in digging what
appeared to be a rude hole close under the
wall. Some implements, probably a shovel
and pickaxe, lay beside him, and to these
he every now and then applied himself as
the nature of the ground required. He
pursued his task rapidly, and with as little
noise as possible.
'So,' thought I, as, shovelful after shovel-
ful, the dislodged rubbish mounted into a
heap, 'they are digging the grave in which,
before two hours pass, I must lie, a cold,
mangled corpse. I am THEIRS--I cannot
escape.'
I felt as if my reason was leaving me.
I started to my feet, and in mere despair I
applied myself again to each of the two
doors alternately. I strained every nerve
and sinew, but I might as well have
attempted, with my single strength, to force
the building itself from its foundation. I
threw myself madly upon the ground, and
clasped my hands over my eyes as if to
shut out the horrible images which crowded
upon me.
The paroxysm passed away. I prayed
once more, with the bitter, agonised fervour
of one who feels that the hour of death is
present and inevitable. When I arose, I
went once more to the window and looked
out, just in time to see a shadowy figure
glide stealthily along the wall. The task
was finished. The catastrophe of the
tragedy must soon be accomplished.
I determined now to defend my life to
the last; and that I might be able to do
so with some effect, I searched the room
for something which might serve as a
weapon; but either through accident, or
from an anticipation of such a possibility,
everything which might have been made
available for such a purpose had been carefully
removed. I must then die tamely
and without an effort to defend myself.
A thought suddenly struck me--might
it not be possible to escape through the
door, which the assassin must open in
order to enter the room? I resolved to
make the attempt. I felt assured that the
door through which ingress to the room
would be effected, was that which opened
upon the lobby. It was the more direct
way, besides being, for obvious reasons,
less liable to interruption than the other.
I resolved, then, to place myself behind a
projection of the wall, whose shadow would
serve fully to conceal me, and when the
door should be opened, and before they
should have discovered the identity of the
occupant of the bed, to creep noiselessly
from the room, and then to trust to
Providence for escape.
In order to facilitate this scheme, I
removed all the lumber which I had heaped
against the door; and I had nearly completed
my arrangements, when I perceived
the room suddenly darkened by the close
approach of some shadowy object to the
window. On turning my eyes in that
direction, I observed at the top of the
casement, as if suspended from above, first
the feet, then the legs, then the body, and
at length the whole figure of a man present
himself. It was Edward T----n.
He appeared to be guiding his descent
so as to bring his feet upon the centre of
the stone block which occupied the lower
part of the window; and, having secured
his footing upon this, he kneeled down and
began to gaze into the room. As the
moon was gleaming into the chamber, and
the bed-curtains were drawn, he was able
to distinguish the bed itself and its
contents. He appeared satisfied with his
scrutiny, for he looked up and made a sign
with his hand, upon which the rope by
which his descent had been effected was
slackened from above, and he proceeded to
disengage it from his waist; this accom-
plished, he applied his hands to the
window-frame, which must have been
ingeniously contrived for the purpose, for,
with apparently no resistance, the whole
frame, containing casement and all, slipped
from its position in the wall, and was by
him lowered into the room.
The cold night wind waved the bed-
curtains, and he paused for a moment--all
was still again--and he stepped in upon
the floor of the room. He held in his
hand what appeared to be a steel instrument,
shaped something like a hammer,
but larger and sharper at the extremities.
This he held rather behind him, while, with
three long, tip-toe strides, he brought
himself to the bedside.
I felt that the discovery must now be
made, and held my breath in momentary
expectation of the execration in which he
would vent his surprise and disappointment.
I closed my eyes--there was a
pause, but it was a short one. I heard
two dull blows, given in rapid succession:
a quivering sigh, and the long-drawn,
heavy breathing of the sleeper was for
ever suspended. I unclosed my eyes, and
saw the murderer fling the quilt across the
head of his victim: he then, with the
instrument of death still in his hand,
proceeded to the lobby-door, upon which he
tapped sharply twice or thrice. A quick
step was then heard approaching, and a
voice whispered something from without.
Edward answered, with a kind of chuckle,
'Her ladyship is past complaining; unlock
the door, in the devil's name, unless you're
afraid to come in, and help me to lift the
body out of the window.'
The key was turned in the lock--the
door opened--and my uncle entered the
room.
I have told you already that I had
placed myself under the shade of a
projection of the wall, close to the door. I had
instinctively shrunk down, cowering
towards the ground on the entrance of
Edward through the window. When my
uncle entered the room he and his son
both stood so very close to me that his
hand was every moment upon the point of
touching my face. I held my breath, and
remained motionless as death.
'You had no interruption from the next
room?' said my uncle.
'No,' was the brief reply.
'Secure the jewels, Ned; the French
harpy must not lay her claws upon them.
You're a steady hand, by G----! not
much blood--eh?'
'Not twenty drops,' replied his son,
'and those on the quilt.'
'I'm glad it's over,' whispered my uncle
again. 'We must lift the--the THING
through the window, and lay the rubbish
over it.'
They then turned to the bedside, and,
winding the bed-clothes round the body,
carried it between them slowly to the
window, and, exchanging a few brief words
with some one below, they shoved it over
the window-sill, and I heard it fall heavily
on the ground underneath.
'I'll take the jewels,' said my uncle;
'there are two caskets in the lower
drawer.'
He proceeded, with an accuracy which,
had I been more at ease, would have
furnished me with matter of astonishment, to
lay his hand upon the very spot where my
jewels lay; and having possessed himself
of them, he called to his son:
'Is the rope made fast above?'
'I'm not a fool--to be sure it is,'
replied he.
They then lowered themselves from the
window. I now rose lightly and cautiously,
scarcely daring to breathe, from my place
of concealment, and was creeping towards
the door, when I heard my cousin's voice,
in a sharp whisper, exclaim: 'Scramble up
again! G--d d----n you, you've forgot to
lock the room-door!' and I perceived, by
the straining of the rope which hung from
above, that the mandate was instantly
obeyed.
Not a second was to be lost. I passed
through the door, which was only closed,
and moved as rapidly as I could, consistently
with stillness, along the lobby.
Before I had gone many yards, I heard
the door through which I had just passed
double-locked on the inside. I glided
down the stairs in terror, lest, at every
corner, I should meet the murderer or one
of his accomplices.
I reached the hall, and listened for a
moment to ascertain whether all was silent
around; no sound was audible. The parlour
windows opened on the park, and through
one of them I might, I thought, easily
effect my escape. Accordingly, I hastily
entered; but, to my consternation, a
candle was burning in the room, and by
its light I saw a figure seated at the
dinner-table, upon which lay glasses,
bottles, and the other accompaniments of
a drinking-party. Two or three chairs
were placed about the table irregularly, as
if hastily abandoned by their occupants.
A single glance satisfied me that the
figure was that of my French attendant.
She was fast asleep, having probably
drank deeply. There was something
malignant and ghastly in the calmness of
this bad woman's features, dimly illuminated
as they were by the flickering blaze
of the candle. A knife lay upon the table,
and the terrible thought struck me--
'Should I kill this sleeping accomplice in
the guilt of the murderer, and thus secure
my retreat?'
Nothing could be easier--it was but to
draw the blade across her throat--the
work of a second. An instant's pause,
however, corrected me. 'No,' thought I,
'the God who has conducted me thus far
through the valley of the shadow of death,
will not abandon me now. I will fall into
their hands, or I will escape hence, but it
shall be free from the stain of blood. His
will be done.'
I felt a confidence arising from this
reflection, an assurance of protection which
I cannot describe. There was no other
means of escape, so I advanced, with a
firm step and collected mind, to the
window. I noiselessly withdrew the bars
and unclosed the shutters--I pushed open
the casement, and, without waiting to look
behind me, I ran with my utmost speed,
scarcely feeling the ground under me, down
the avenue, taking care to keep upon the
grass which bordered it.
I did not for a moment slack my speed,
and I had now gained the centre point
between the park-gate and the mansion-
house. Here the avenue made a wider
circuit, and in order to avoid delay, I
directed my way across the smooth sward
round which the pathway wound, intending,
at the opposite side of the flat, at a
point which I distinguished by a group of
old birch-trees, to enter again upon the
beaten track, which was from thence
tolerably direct to the gate.
I had, with my utmost speed, got about
half way across this broad flat, when the
rapid treading of a horse's hoofs struck
upon my ear. My heart swelled in my
bosom as though I would smother. The
clattering of galloping hoofs approached--
I was pursued--they were now upon the
sward on which I was running--there was
not a bush or a bramble to shelter me--
and, as if to render escape altogether
desperate, the moon, which had hitherto
been obscured, at this moment shone forth
with a broad clear light, which made every
object distinctly visible.
The sounds were now close behind me.
I felt my knees bending under me, with
the sensation which torments one in
dreams. I reeled--I stumbled--I fell--
and at the same instant the cause of my
alarm wheeled past me at full gallop. It
was one of the young fillies which
pastured loose about the park, whose
frolics had thus all but maddened me
with terror. I scrambled to my feet, and
rushed on with weak but rapid steps, my
sportive companion still galloping round
and round me with many a frisk and fling,
until, at length, more dead than alive, I
reached the avenue-gate and crossed the
stile, I scarce knew how.
I ran through the village, in which all was
silent as the grave, until my progress was
arrested by the hoarse voice of a sentinel,
who cried: 'Who goes there?' I felt that
I was now safe. I turned in the direction
of the voice, and fell fainting at the
soldier's feet. When I came to myself; I
was sitting in a miserable hovel,
surrounded by strange faces, all bespeaking
curiosity and compassion.
Many soldiers were in it also: indeed,
as I afterwards found, it was employed as
a guard-room by a detachment of troops
quartered for that night in the town. In
a few words I informed their officer of the
circumstances which had occurred, describing
also the appearance of the persons
engaged in the murder; and he, without
loss of time, proceeded to the mansion-
house of Carrickleigh, taking with him a
party of his men. But the villains had
discovered their mistake, and had effected
their escape before the arrival of the
military.
The Frenchwoman was, however,
arrested in the neighbourhood upon the next
day. She was tried and condemned upon
the ensuing assizes; and previous to her
execution, confessed that 'SHE HAD A
HAND IN MAKING HUGH TISDAL'S BED.' She
had been a housekeeper in the castle at
the time, and a kind of chere amie of my
uncle's. She was, in reality, able to speak
English like a native, but had exclusively
used the French language, I suppose to
facilitate her disguise. She died the same
hardened wretch which she had lived,
confessing her crimes only, as she alleged, that
her doing so might involve Sir Arthur
T----n, the great author of her guilt and
misery, and whom she now regarded with
unmitigated detestation.
With the particulars of Sir Arthur's and
his son's escape, as far as they are known,
you are acquainted. You are also in
possession of their after fate--the terrible, the
tremendous retribution which, after long
delays of many years, finally overtook and
crushed them. Wonderful and inscrutable
are the dealings of God with His creatures.
Deep and fervent as must always be my
gratitude to heaven for my deliverance,
effected by a chain of providential
occurrences, the failing of a single link of which
must have ensured my destruction, I was
long before I could look back upon it with
other feelings than those of bitterness,
almost of agony.
The only being that had ever really
loved me, my nearest and dearest friend,
ever ready to sympathise, to counsel, and
to assist--the gayest, the gentlest, the
warmest heart--the only creature on
earth that cared for me--HER life had been
the price of my deliverance; and I then
uttered the wish, which no event of my
long and sorrowful life has taught me to
recall, that she had been spared, and that,
in her stead, _I_ were mouldering in the
grave, forgotten and at rest.
THE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAH.
Being a Sixth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis
Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh.
In a sequestered district of the
county of Limerick, there stood
my early life, some forty
years ago, one of those strong stone
buildings, half castle, half farm-house,
which are not unfrequent in the South of
Ireland, and whose solid masonry and
massive construction seem to prove at
once the insecurity and the caution of the
Cromwellite settlers who erected them.
At the time of which I speak, this
building was tenanted by an elderly man,
whose starch and puritanic mien and
manners might have become the morose
preaching parliamentarian captain, who
had raised the house and ruled the
household more than a hundred years
before; but this man, though Protestant
by descent as by name, was not so in
religion; he was a strict, and in outward
observances, an exemplary Catholic; his
father had returned in early youth to the
true faith, and died in the bosom of the
church.
Martin Heathcote was, at the time of
which I speak, a widower, but his house-
keeping was not on that account altogether
solitary, for he had a daughter, whose age
was now sufficiently advanced to warrant
her father in imposing upon her the
grave duties of domestic superintendence.
This little establishment was perfectly
isolated, and very little intruded upon by
acts of neighbourhood; for the rank of
its occupants was of that equivocal kind
which precludes all familiar association
with those of a decidedly inferior rank,
while it is not sufficient to entitle its
possessors to the society of established
gentility, among whom the nearest
residents were the O'Maras of Carrigvarah,
whose mansion-house, constructed
out of the ruins of an old abbey, whose
towers and cloisters had been levelled by
the shot of Cromwell's artillery, stood
not half a mile lower upon the river
banks.
Colonel O'Mara, the possessor of the
estates, was then in a declining state of
health, and absent with his lady from the
country, leaving at the castle, his son
young O'Mara, and a kind of humble
companion, named Edward Dwyer, who,
if report belied him not, had done in his
early days some PECULIAR SERVICES for the
Colonel, who had been a gay man--
perhaps worse--but enough of recapitulation.
It was in the autumn of the year 17--
that the events which led to the catastrophe
which I have to detail occurred.
I shall run through the said recital as
briefly as clearness will permit, and leave
you to moralise, if such be your mood,
upon the story of real life, which I even
now trace at this distant period not without
emotion.
It was upon a beautiful autumn evening,
at that glad period of the season when
the harvest yields its abundance, that
two figures were seen sauntering along
the banks of the winding river, which I
described as bounding the farm occupied
by Heathcote; they had been, as the rods
and landing-nets which they listlessly
carried went to show, plying the gentle,
but in this case not altogether solitary
craft of the fisherman. One of those
persons was a tall and singularly handsome
young man, whose dark hair and
complexion might almost have belonged
to a Spaniard, as might also the proud but
melancholy expression which gave to his
countenance a character which contrasts
sadly, but not uninterestingly, with
extreme youth; his air, as he spoke with
his companion, was marked by that careless
familiarity which denotes a conscious
superiority of one kind or other, or which
may be construed into a species of
contempt; his comrade afforded to him in
every respect a striking contrast. He
was rather low in stature--a defect which
was enhanced by a broad and square-built
figure--his face was sallow, and his
features had that prominence and sharpness
which frequently accompany personal
deformity--a remarkably wide mouth,
with teeth white as the fangs of a wolf,
and a pair of quick, dark eyes, whose
effect was heightened by the shadow of a
heavy black brow, gave to his face a
power of expression, particularly when
sarcastic or malignant emotions were to
be exhibited, which features regularly
handsome could scarcely have possessed.
'Well, sir,' said the latter personage,
'I have lived in hall and abbey, town
and country, here and abroad for forty
years and more, and should know a thing
or two, and as I am a living man, I
swear I think the girl loves you.'
'You are a fool, Ned,' said the
younger.
'I may be a fool,' replied the first
speaker, 'in matters where my own
advantage is staked, but my eye is keen
enough to see through the flimsy disguise
of a country damsel at a glance; and I
tell you, as surely as I hold this rod, the
girl loves you.'
'Oh I this is downright headstrong
folly,' replied the young fisherman.
'Why, Ned, you try to persuade me
against my reason, that the event which
is most to be deprecated has actually
occurred. She is, no doubt, a pretty
girl--a beautiful girl--but I have not
lost my heart to her; and why should I
wish her to be in love with me? Tush,
man, the days of romance are gone, and
a young gentleman may talk, and walk,
and laugh with a pretty country maiden,
and never breathe aspirations, or vows, or
sighs about the matter; unequal matches
are much oftener read of than made, and
the man who could, even in thought,
conceive a wish against the honour of
an unsuspecting, artless girl, is a villain,
for whom hanging is too good.'
This concluding sentence was uttered
with an animation and excitement, which
the mere announcement of an abstract
moral sentiment could hardly account
for.
'You are, then, indifferent, honestly
and in sober earnest, indifferent to the
girl?' inquired Dwyer.
'Altogether so,' was the reply.
'Then I have a request to make,'
continued Dwyer, 'and I may as well urge
it now as at any other time. I have
been for nearly twenty years the faithful,
and by no means useless, servant of your
family; you know that I have rendered
your father critical and important
services----' he paused, and added hastily:
'you are not in the mood--I tire you,
sir.'
'Nay,' cried O'Mara, 'I listen patiently
--proceed.'
'For all these services, and they were
not, as I have said, few or valueless, I
have received little more reward than
liberal promises; you have told me often
that this should be mended--I'll make it
easily done--I'm not unreasonable--I
should be contented to hold Heathcote's
ground, along with this small farm on
which we stand, as full quittance of all
obligations and promises between us.'
'But how the devil can I effect that
for you; this farm, it is true, I, or my
father, rather, may lease to you, but
Heathcote's title we cannot impugn; and
even if we could, you would not expect
us to ruin an honest man, in order to
make way for YOU, Ned.'
'What I am,' replied Dwyer, with the
calmness of one who is so accustomed to
contemptuous insinuations as to receive
them with perfect indifference, 'is to be
attributed to my devotedness to your
honourable family--but that is neither
here nor there. I do not ask you to
displace Heathcote, in order to made
room for me. I know it is out of your
power to do so. Now hearken to me for
a moment; Heathcote's property, that
which he has set out to tenants, is worth,
say in rents, at most, one hundred
pounds: half of this yearly amount is
assigned to your father, until payment be
made of a bond for a thousand pounds,
with interest and soforth. Hear me
patiently for a moment and I have done.
Now go you to Heathcote, and tell him
your father will burn the bond, and cancel
the debt, upon one condition--that when
I am in possession of this farm, which you
can lease to me on what terms you think
suitable, he will convey over his property
to me, reserving what life-interest may
appear fair, I engaging at the same time
to marry his daughter, and make such
settlements upon her as shall be thought
fitting--he is not a fool--the man will
close with the offer.'
O'Mara turned shortly upon Dwyer,
and gazed upon him for a moment with
an expression of almost unmixed resentment.
'How,' said he at length, 'YOU contract
to marry Ellen Heathcote? the poor,
innocent, confiding, light-hearted girl.
No, no, Edward Dwyer, I know you too
well for that--your services, be they what
they will, must not, shall not go unrewarded--
your avarice shall be appeased--
but not with a human sacrifice! Dwyer,
I speak to you without disguise; you
know me to be acquainted with your
history, and what's more, with your
character. Now tell me frankly, were I
to do as you desire me, in cool blood,
should I not prove myself a more
uncompromising and unfeeling villain than
humanity even in its most monstrous
shapes has ever yet given birth
to?'
Dwyer met this impetuous language
with the unmoved and impenetrable calmness
which always marked him when
excitement would have appeared in
others; he even smiled as he replied:
(and Dwyer's smile, for I have seen it,
was characteristically of that unfortunate
kind which implies, as regards the
emotions of others, not sympathy but
derision).
'This eloquence goes to prove Ellen
Heathcote something nearer to your heart
than your great indifference would have
led me to suppose.'
There was something in the tone,
perhaps in the truth of the insinuation, which
at once kindled the quick pride and the
anger of O'Mara, and he instantly replied:
'Be silent, sir, this is insolent
folly.'
Whether it was that Dwyer was more
keenly interested in the success of his suit,
or more deeply disappointed at its failure
than he cared to express, or that he was in
a less complacent mood than was his wont,
it is certain that his countenance expressed
more emotion at this direct insult than it
had ever exhibited before under similar
circumstances; for his eyes gleamed for an
instant with savage and undisguised ferocity
upon the young man, and a dark glow
crossed his brow, and for the moment he
looked about to spring at the throat of his
insolent patron; but the impulse whatever
it might be, was quickly suppressed, and
before O'Mara had time to detect the
scowl, it had vanished.
'Nay, sir,' said Dwyer, 'I meant no
offence, and I will take none, at your
hands at least. I will confess I care not,
in love and soforth, a single bean for the
girl; she was the mere channel through
which her father's wealth, if such a pittance
deserves the name, was to have flowed into
my possession--'twas in respect of your
family finances the most economical
provision for myself which I could devise--a
matter in which you, not I, are interested.
As for women, they are all pretty much
alike to me. I am too old myself to make
nice distinctions, and too ugly to succeed by
Cupid's arts; and when a man despairs of
success, he soon ceases to care for it. So,
if you know me, as you profess to do, rest
satisfied "caeteris paribus;" the money part
of the transaction being equally advantageous,
I should regret the loss of Ellen
Heathcote just as little as I should the
escape of a minnow from my landing-net.'
They walked on for a few minutes in
silence, which was not broken till Dwyer,
who had climbed a stile in order to pass a
low stone wall which lay in their way,
exclaimed:
'By the rood, she's here--how like a
philosopher you look."
The conscious blood mounted to O'Mara's
cheek; he crossed the stile, and, separated
from him only by a slight fence and a gate,
stood the subject of their recent and somewhat
angry discussion.
'God save you, Miss Heathcote,' cried
Dwyer, approaching the gate.
The salutation was cheerfully returned,
and before anything more could pass,
O'Mara had joined the party.
My friend, that you may understand the
strength and depth of those impetuous
passions, that you may account for the
fatal infatuation which led to the catastrophe
which I have to relate, I must tell
you, that though I have seen the beauties
of cities and of courts, with all the splendour
of studied ornament about them to
enhance their graces, possessing charms
which had made them known almost
throughout the world, and worshipped with
the incense of a thousand votaries, yet
never, nowhere did I behold a being of
such exquisite and touching beauty, as
that possessed by the creature of whom I
have just spoken. At the moment of
which I write, she was standing near the
gate, close to which several brown-armed,
rosy-cheeked damsels were engaged in
milking the peaceful cows, who stood
picturesquely grouped together. She had
just thrown back the hood which is the
graceful characteristic of the Irish girl's
attire, so that her small and classic head was
quite uncovered, save only by the dark-
brown hair, which with graceful simplicity
was parted above her forehead. There
was nothing to shade the clearness of her
beautiful complexion; the delicately-formed
features, so exquisite when taken singly, so
indescribable when combined, so purely
artless, yet so meet for all expression. She
was a thing so very beautiful, you could
not look on her without feeling your heart
touched as by sweet music. Whose
lightest action was a grace--whose lightest
word a spell--no limner's art, though ne'er
so perfect, could shadow forth her beauty;
and do I dare with feeble words try to
make you see it?[1] Providence is indeed
no respecter of persons, its blessings and
its inflictions are apportioned with an
undistinguishing hand, and until the race is
over, and life be done, none can know
whether those perfections, which seemed
its goodliest gifts, many not prove its most
fatal; but enough of this.
[1] Father Purcell seems to have had an admiration
for the beauties of nature, particularly as developed in
the fair sex; a habit of mind which has been rather
improved upon than discontinued by his successors
from Maynooth.--ED,
Dwyer strolled carelessly onward by
the banks of the stream, leaving his
young companion leaning over the gate
in close and interesting parlance with
Ellen Heathcote; as he moved on, he
half thought, half uttered words to this
effect:
'Insolent young spawn of ingratitude
and guilt, how long must I submit to be
trod upon thus; and yet why should I
murmur--his day is even now declining--
and if I live a year, I shall see the
darkness cover him and his for ever. Scarce
half his broad estates shall save him--but
I must wait--I am but a pauper now--a
beggar's accusation is always a libel--they
must reward me soon--and were I
independent once, I'd make them feel my
power, and feel it SO, that I should die the
richest or the best avenged servant of a
great man that has ever been heard of--
yes, I must wait--I must make sure of
something at least--I must be able to
stand by myself--and then--and then--'
He clutched his fingers together, as if in
the act of strangling the object of his
hatred. 'But one thing shall save him--
but one thing only--he shall pay me my
own price--and if he acts liberally, as no
doubt he will do, upon compulsion, why
he saves his reputation--perhaps his neck
--the insolent young whelp yonder would
speak in an humbler key if he but knew
his father's jeopardy--but all in good
time.'
He now stood upon the long, steep,
narrow bridge, which crossed the river
close to Carrigvarah, the family mansion
of the O'Maras; he looked back in the
direction in which he had left his
companion, and leaning upon the battlement,
he ruminated long and moodily. At
length he raised himself and said:
'He loves the girl, and WILL love her
more--I have an opportunity of winning
favour, of doing service, which shall bind
him to me; yes, he shall have the girl, if
I have art to compass the matter. I must
think upon it.'
He entered the avenue and was soon
lost in the distance.
Days and weeks passed on, and young
O'Mara daily took his rod and net, and
rambled up the river; and scarce twelve
hours elapsed in which some of those
accidents, which invariably bring lovers
together, did not secure him a meeting of
longer or shorter duration, with the
beautiful girl whom he so fatally
loved.
One evening, after a long interview with
her, in which he had been almost irresistibly
prompted to declare his love, and
had all but yielded himself up to the
passionate impulse, upon his arrival at
home he found a letter on the table
awaiting his return; it was from his
father to the following effect:
'To Richard O'Mara.
'September, 17--, L----m, England.
'MY DEAR SON,--
'I have just had a severe attack of
my old and almost forgotten enemy, the
gout. This I regard as a good sign; the
doctors telling me that it is the safest
development of peccant humours; and I
think my chest is less tormenting and
oppressed than I have known it for some
years. My chief reason for writing to
you now, as I do it not without difficulty,
is to let you know my pleasure in certain
matters, in which I suspect some shameful,
and, indeed, infatuated neglect on your
part, "quem perdere vult deus prius
dementat:" how comes it that you have
neglected to write to Lady Emily or any of
that family? the understood relation
subsisting between you is one of extreme
delicacy, and which calls for marked and
courteous, nay, devoted attention upon
your side. Lord ---- is already offended;
beware what you do; for as you will find,
if this match be lost by your fault or folly,
by ---- I will cut you off with a shilling.
I am not in the habit of using threats
when I do not mean to fulfil them, and
that you well know; however I do not
think you have much real cause for alarm
in this case. Lady Emily, who, by the
way, looks if possible more charming than
ever, is anything but hard-hearted, at
least when YOU solicit; but do as I desire,
and lose no time in making what excuse
you may, and let me hear from you when
you can fix a time to join me and your
mother here.
'Your sincere well-wisher and father,
'RICHARD O'MARA.'
In this letter was inclosed a smaller one,
directed to Dwyer, and containing a
cheque for twelve pounds, with the following
words:
'Make use of the enclosed, and let me
hear if Richard is upon any wild scheme
at present: I am uneasy about him, and
not without reason; report to me speedily
the result of your vigilance.
'R. O'MARA.'
Dwyer just glanced through this brief,
but not unwelcome, epistle; and deposited
it and its contents in the secret recesses of
his breeches pocket, and then fixed his
eyes upon the face of his companion, who
sat opposite, utterly absorbed in the perusal
of his father's letter, which he read again
and again, pausing and muttering between
whiles, and apparently lost in no very
pleasing reflections. At length he very
abruptly exclaimed:
'A delicate epistle, truly--and a politic
--would that my tongue had been burned
through before I assented to that doubly-
cursed contract. Why, I am not pledged
yet--I am not; there is neither writing,
nor troth, nor word of honour, passed
between us. My father has no right to
pledge me, even though I told him I liked
the girl, and would wish the match. 'Tis
not enough that my father offers her my
heart and hand; he has no right to do it;
a delicate woman would not accept professions
made by proxy. Lady Emily! Lady
Emily! with all the tawdry frippery, and
finery of dress and demeanour--compare
HER with---- Pshaw! Ridiculous! How
blind, how idiotic I have been.'
He relapsed into moody reflections,
which Dwyer did not care to disturb, and
some ten minutes might have passed before
he spoke again. When he did, it was in
the calm tone of one who has irrevocably
resolved upon some decided and important
act.
'Dwyer,' he said, rising and approaching
that person, 'whatever god or demon told
you, even before my own heart knew it,
that I loved Ellen Heathcote, spoke truth.
I love her madly--I never dreamed till
now how fervently, how irrevocably, I am
hers--how dead to me all other interests
are. Dwyer, I know something of your
disposition, and you no doubt think it
strange that I should tell to you, of all
persons, SUCH a secret; but whatever be
your faults, I think you are attached to
our family. I am satisfied you will not
betray me. I know----'
'Pardon me,' said Dwyer, 'if I say that
great professions of confidence too
frequently mark distrust. I have no possible
motive to induce me to betray you; on the
contrary, I would gladly assist and direct
whatever plans you may have formed.
Command me as you please; I have said
enough.'
'I will not doubt you, Dwyer,' said
O'Mara; ' I have taken my resolution--I
have, I think, firmness to act up to it. To
marry Ellen Heathcote, situated as I am,
were madness; to propose anything else
were worse, were villainy not to be named.
I will leave the country to-morrow, cost
what pain it may, for England. I will at
once break off the proposed alliance with
Lady Emily, and will wait until I am my
own master, to open my heart to Ellen.
My father may say and do what he likes;
but his passion will not last. He will
forgive me; and even were he to disinherit
me, as he threatens, there is some property
which must descend to me, which his will
cannot affect. He cannot ruin my
interests; he SHALL NOT ruin my happiness.
Dwyer, give me pen and ink; I will write
this moment.'
This bold plan of proceeding for many
reasons appeared inexpedient to Dwyer,
and he determined not to consent to its
adoption without a struggle.
'I commend your prudence,' said he, 'in
determining to remove yourself from the
fascinating influence which has so long
bound you here; but beware of offending
your father. Colonel O'Mara is not a man
to forgive an act of deliberate disobedience,
and surely you are not mad enough to
ruin yourself with him by offering an out-
rageous insult to Lady Emily and to her
family in her person; therefore you must
not break off the understood contract which
subsists between you by any formal act--
hear me out patiently. You must let Lady
Emily perceive, as you easily may, without
rudeness or even coldness of manner, that
she is perfectly indifferent to you; and
when she understands this to be the case,
it she possesses either delicacy or spirit,
she will herself break off the engagement.
Make what delay it is possible to effect;
it is very possible that your father, who
cannot, in all probability, live many
months, may not live as many days if
harassed and excited by such scenes as
your breaking off your engagement must
produce.'
'Dwyer,' said O'Mara, 'I will hear you
out--proceed.'
'Besides, sir, remember,' he continued,
'the understanding which we have termed
an engagement was entered into without
any direct sanction upon your part; your
father has committed HIMSELF, not YOU, to
Lord ----. Before a real contract can
subsist, you must be an assenting party to
it. I know of no casuistry subtle enough
to involve you in any engagement whatever,
without such an ingredient. Tush!
you have an easy card to play.'
'Well,' said the young man, 'I will
think on what you have said; in the
meantime, I will write to my father to
announce my immediate departure, in order
to join him.'
'Excuse me,' said Dwyer, 'but I would
suggest that by hastening your departure
you but bring your dangers nearer. While
you are in this country a letter now and
then keeps everything quiet; but once
across the Channel and with the colonel,
you must either quarrel with him to your
own destruction, or you must dance attendance
upon Lady Emily with such assiduity
as to commit yourself as completely as if
you had been thrice called with her in the
parish church. No, no; keep to this side
of the Channel as long as you decently
can. Besides, your sudden departure must
appear suspicious, and will probably excite
inquiry. Every good end likely to be
accomplished by your absence will be
effected as well by your departure for
Dublin, where you may remain for three
weeks or a month without giving rise to
curiosity or doubt of an unpleasant kind;
I would therefore advise you strongly to
write immediately to the colonel, stating
that business has occurred to defer your
departure for a month, and you can then
leave this place, if you think fit,
immediately, that is, within a week or so.'
Young O'Mara was not hard to be persuaded.
Perhaps it was that, unacknowledged
by himself, any argument which
recommended his staying, even for an
hour longer than his first decision had
announced, in the neighbourhood of Ellen
Heathcote, appeared peculiarly cogent and
convincing; however this may have been,
it is certain that he followed the counsel of
his cool-headed follower, who retired that
night to bed with the pleasing conviction
that he was likely soon to involve his
young patron in all the intricacies of
disguise and intrigue--a consummation which
would leave him totally at the mercy of
the favoured confidant who should possess
his secret.
Young O'Mara's reflections were more
agitating and less satisfactory than those
of his companion. He resolved upon
leaving the country before two days had
passed. He felt that he could not fairly
seek to involve Ellen Heathcote in his
fate by pledge or promise, until he had
extricated himself from those trammels
which constrained and embarrassed all his
actions. His determination was so far
prudent; but, alas! he also resolved that
it was but right, but necessary, that he
should see her before his departure. His
leaving the country without a look or a
word of parting kindness interchanged,
must to her appear an act of cold and
heartless caprice; he could not bear the
thought.
'No,' said he, 'I am not child enough
to say more than prudence tells me
ought to say; this cowardly distrust of my
firmness I should and will contemn.
Besides, why should I commit myself? It is
possible the girl may not care for me. No,
no; I need not shrink from this interview.
I have no reason to doubt my firmness--
none--none. I must cease to be governed
by impulse. I am involved in rocks
and quicksands; and a collected spirit,
a quick eye, and a steady hand, alone can
pilot me through. God grant me a safe
voyage!'
The next day came, and young O'Mara
did not take his fishing-rod as usual, but
wrote two letters; the one to his father,
announcing his intention of departing
speedily for England; the other to Lady
Emily, containing a cold but courteous
apology for his apparent neglect. Both
these were despatched to the post-office
that evening, and upon the next morning
he was to leave the country.
Upon the night of the momentous day
of which we have just spoken, Ellen Heathcote
glided silently and unperceived from
among the busy crowds who were engaged
in the gay dissipation furnished by what
is in Ireland commonly called a dance
(the expenses attendant upon which, music,
etc., are defrayed by a subscription of one
halfpenny each), and having drawn her
mantle closely about her, was proceeding
with quick steps to traverse the small
field which separated her from her father's
abode. She had not walked many yards
when she became aware that a solitary
figure, muffled in a cloak, stood in the
pathway. It approached; a low voice
whispered:
'Ellen.'
'Is it you, Master Richard?' she replied.
He threw back the cloak which had
concealed his features.
'It is I, Ellen, he said; 'I have been
watching for you. I will not delay you
long.'
He took her hand, and she did not
attempt to withdraw it; for she was too
artless to think any evil, too confiding to
dread it.
'Ellen,' he continued, even now unconsciously
departing from the rigid course
which prudence had marked out; 'Ellen,
I am going to leave the country; going
to-morrow. I have had letters from
England. I must go; and the sea will soon
be between us.'
He paused, and she was silent.
'There is one request, one entreaty I
have to make,' he continued; 'I would,
when I am far away, have something to
look at which belonged to you. Will you
give me--do not refuse it--one little lock
of your beautiful hair?'
With artless alacrity, but with trembling
hand, she took the scissors, which in simple
fashion hung by her side, and detached one
of the long and beautiful locks which
parted over her forehead. She placed it
in his hand.
Again he took her hand, and twice he
attempted to speak in vain; at length he
said:
'Ellen, when I am gone--when I am
away--will you sometimes remember,
sometimes think of me?'
Ellen Heathcote had as much, perhaps
more, of what is noble in pride than the
haughtiest beauty that ever trod a court;
but the effort was useless; the honest
struggle was in vain; and she burst into
floods of tears, bitterer than she had ever
shed before.
I cannot tell how passions rise and fall;
I cannot describe the impetuous words of
the young lover, as pressing again and
again to his lips the cold, passive hand,
which had been resigned to him, prudence,
caution, doubts, resolutions, all vanished
from his view, and melted into nothing.
'Tis for me to tell the simple fact, that
from that brief interview they both
departed promised and pledged to each other
for ever.
Through the rest of this story events
follow one another rapidly.
A few nights after that which I have
just mentioned, Ellen Heathcote disappeared;
but her father was not left long
in suspense as to her fate, for Dwyer,
accompanied by one of those mendicant
friars who traversed the country then even
more commonly than they now do, called
upon Heathcote before he had had time to
take any active measures for the recovery
of his child, and put him in possession of
a document which appeared to contain
satisfactory evidence of the marriage of
Ellen Heathcote with Richard O'Mara,
executed upon the evening previous, as the
date went to show; and signed by both
parties, as well as by Dwyer and a servant
of young O'Mara's, both these having acted
as witnesses; and further supported by
the signature of Peter Nicholls, a brother
of the order of St. Francis, by whom the
ceremony had been performed, and whom
Heathcote had no difficulty in recognising
in the person of his visitant.
This document, and the prompt personal
visit of the two men, and above all, the
known identity of the Franciscan, satisfied
Heathcote as fully as anything short
of complete publicity could have done.
And his conviction was not a mistaken
one.
Dwyer, before he took his leave,
impressed upon Heathcote the necessity of
keeping the affair so secret as to render it
impossible that it should reach Colonel
O'Mara's ears, an event which would have
been attended with ruinous consequences to
all parties. He refused, also, to permit
Heathcote to see his daughter, and even
to tell him where she was, until circumstances
rendered it safe for him to visit
her.
Heathcote was a harsh and sullen man;
and though his temper was anything but
tractable, there was so much to please,
almost to dazzle him, in the event, that he
accepted the terms which Dwyer imposed
upon him without any further token of
disapprobation than a shake of the head,
and a gruff wish that 'it might prove all
for the best.'
Nearly two months had passed, and
young O'Mara had not yet departed for
England. His letters had been strangely
few and far between; and in short, his
conduct was such as to induce Colonel
O'Mara to hasten his return to Ireland,
and at the same time to press an engagement,
which Lord ----, his son Captain
N----, and Lady Emily had made to
spend some weeks with him at his
residence in Dublin.
A letter arrived for young O'Mara,
stating the arrangement, and requiring his
attendance in Dublin, which was accordingly
immediately afforded.
He arrived, with Dwyer, in time to
welcome his father and his distinguished
guests. He resolved to break off his
embarrassing connection with Lady Emily,
without, however, stating the real motive,
which he felt would exasperate the resentment
which his father and Lord ----
would no doubt feel at his conduct.
He strongly felt how dishonourably he
would act if, in obedience to Dwyer's
advice, he seemed tacitly to acquiesce in
an engagement which it was impossible for
him to fulfil. He knew that Lady Emily
was not capable of anything like strong
attachment; and that even if she were,
he had no reason whatever to suppose that
she cared at all for him.
He had not at any time desired the
alliance; nor had he any reason to suppose
the young lady in any degree less
indifferent. He regarded it now, and not
without some appearance of justice, as
nothing more than a kind of understood
stipulation, entered into by their parents,
and to be considered rather as a matter of
business and calculation than as involving
anything of mutual inclination on the part
of the parties most nearly interested in the
matter.
He anxiously, therefore, watched for an
opportunity of making known his feelings
to Lord ----, as he could not with propriety
do so to Lady Emily; but what at
a distance appeared to be a matter of easy
accomplishment, now, upon a nearer
approach, and when the immediate impulse
which had prompted the act had subsided,
appeared so full of difficulty and almost
inextricable embarrassments, that he
involuntarily shrunk from the task day after
day.
Though it was a source of indescribable
anxiety to him, he did not venture to write
to Ellen, for he could not disguise from
himself the danger which the secrecy of
his connection with her must incur by his
communicating with her, even through a
public office, where their letters might be
permitted to lie longer than the gossiping
inquisitiveness of a country town would
warrant him in supposing safe.
It was about a fortnight after young
O'Mara had arrived in Dublin, where all
things, and places, and amusements; and
persons seemed thoroughly stale, flat, and
unprofitable, when one day, tempted by
the unusual fineness of the weather, Lady
Emily proposed a walk in the College
Park, a favourite promenade at that time.
She therefore with young O'Mara, accompanied
by Dwyer (who, by-the-by, when
he pleased, could act the gentleman
sufficiently well), proceeded to the place
proposed, where they continued to walk for
some time.
'Why, Richard,' said Lady Emily, after
a tedious and unbroken pause of some
minutes, 'you are becoming worse and
worse every day. You are growing absolutely
intolerable; perfectly stupid! not
one good thing have I heard since I left
the house.'
O'Mara smiled, and was seeking for a
suitable reply, when his design was
interrupted, and his attention suddenly and
painfully arrested, by the appearance of
two figures, who were slowly passing the
broad walk on which he and his party
moved; the one was that of Captain
N----, the other was the form of--Martin
Heathcote!
O'Mara felt confounded, almost stunned;
the anticipation of some impending
mischief--of an immediate and violent
collision with a young man whom he had ever
regarded as his friend, were apprehensions
which such a juxtaposition could not fail
to produce.
'Is Heathcote mad?' thought he.
'What devil can have brought him
here?'
Dwyer having exchanged a significant
glance with O'Mara, said slightly to Lady
Emily:
'Will your ladyship excuse me for a
moment? I have a word to say to Captain
N----, and will, with your permission,
immediately rejoin you.'
He bowed, and walking rapidly on, was
in a few moments beside the object of his
and his patron's uneasiness.
Whatever Heathcote's object might be,
he certainly had not yet declared the secret,
whose safety O'Mara had so naturally
desired, for Captain N---- appeared in
good spirits; and on coming up to his
sister and her companion, he joined them
for a moment, telling O'Mara, laughingly,
that an old quiz had come from the country
for the express purpose of telling tales, as
it was to be supposed, of him (young
O'Mara), in whose neighbourhood he
lived.
During this speech it required all the
effort which it was possible to exert to
prevent O'Mara's betraying the extreme
agitation to which his situation gave rise.
Captain N----, however, suspected no-
thing, and passed on without further
delay.
Dinner was an early meal in those days,
and Lady Emily was obliged to leave the
Park in less than half an hour after the
unpleasant meeting which we have just
mentioned.
Young O'Mara and, at a sign from
him, Dwyer having escorted the lady
to the door of Colonel O'Mara's house,
pretended an engagement, and departed
together.
Richard O'Mara instantly questioned
his comrade upon the subject of his
anxiety; but Dwyer had nothing to
communicate of a satisfactory nature. He
had only time, while the captain had been
engaged with Lady Emily and her
companion, to say to Heathcote:
'Be secret, as you value your existence:
everything will be right, if you be but
secret.'
To this Heathcote had replied: 'Never
fear me; I understand what I am
about.'
This was said in such an ambiguous
manner that it was impossible to conjecture
whether he intended or not to act upon
Dwyer's exhortation. The conclusion
which appeared most natural, was by no
means an agreeable one.
It was much to be feared that Heathcote
having heard some vague report of
O'Mara's engagement with Lady Emily,
perhaps exaggerated, by the repetition,
into a speedily approaching marriage, had
become alarmed for his daughter's interest,
and had taken this decisive step in order
to prevent, by a disclosure of the circumstances
of his clandestine union with Ellen,
the possibility of his completing a guilty
alliance with Captain N----'s sister. If
he entertained the suspicions which they
attributed to him, he had certainly taken
the most effectual means to prevent their
being realised. Whatever his object might
be, his presence in Dublin, in company
with Captain N----, boded nothing good
to O'Mara.
They entered ----'s tavern, in Dame
Street, together; and there, over a hasty
and by no means a comfortable meal, they
talked over their plans and conjectures.
Evening closed in, and found them still
closeted together, with nothing to interrupt,
and a large tankard of claret to sustain
their desultory conversation.
Nothing had been determined upon,
except that Dwyer and O'Mara should
proceed under cover of the darkness to
search the town for Heathcote, and by
minute inquiries at the most frequented
houses of entertainment, to ascertain his
place of residence, in order to procuring a
full and explanatory interview with him.
They had each filled their last glass, and
were sipping it slowly, seated with their
feet stretched towards a bright cheerful
fire; the small table which sustained the
flagon of which we have spoken, together
with two pair of wax candles, placed
between them, so as to afford a convenient
resting-place for the long glasses out of
which they drank.
'One good result, at all events, will be
effected by Heathcote's visit,' said O'Mara.
'Before twenty-four hours I shall do that
which I should have done long ago. I
shall, without reserve, state everything.
I can no longer endure this suspense--this
dishonourable secrecy--this apparent
dissimulation. Every moment I have passed
since my departure from the country has
been one of embarrassment, of pain, of
humiliation. To-morrow I will brave
the storm, whether successfully or not is
doubtful; but I had rather walk the high
roads a beggar, than submit a day longer
to be made the degraded sport of every
accident--the miserable dependent upon a
successful system of deception. Though
PASSIVE deception, it is still unmanly,
unworthy, unjustifiable deception. I
cannot bear to think of it. I despise myself,
but I will cease to be the despicable thing
I have become. To-morrow sees me free,
and this harassing subject for ever at
rest.'
He was interrupted here by the sound
of footsteps heavily but rapidly ascending
the tavern staircase. The room door
opened, and Captain N----, accompanied
by a fashionably-attired young man,
entered the room.
Young O'Mara had risen from his seat
on the entrance of their unexpected
visitants; and the moment Captain N----
recognised his person, an evident and
ominous change passed over his countenance.
He turned hastily to withdraw, but,
as it seemed, almost instantly changed his
mind, for he turned again abruptly.
'This chamber is engaged, sir,' said the
waiter.
'Leave the room, sir,' was his only
reply.
'The room is engaged, sir,' repeated the
waiter, probably believing that his first
suggestion had been unheard.
'Leave the room, or go to hell!' shouted
Captain N----; at the same time seizing
the astounded waiter by the shoulder, he
hurled him headlong into the passage,
and flung the door to with a crash that
shook the walls. 'Sir,' continued he,
addressing himself to O'Mara, 'I did not
hope to have met you until to-morrow.
Fortune has been kind to me--draw, and
defend yourself.'
At the same time he drew his sword,
and placed himself in an attitude of
attack.
'I will not draw upon YOU,' said O'Mara.
'I have, indeed, wronged you. I have
given you just cause for resentment; but
against your life I will never lift my
hand.'
'You are a coward, sir,' replied Captain
N----, with almost frightful vehemence,
'as every trickster and swindler IS. You
are a contemptible dastard--a despicable,
damned villain! Draw your sword, sir,
and defend your life, or every post
and pillar in this town shall tell your
infamy.'
'Perhaps,' said his friend, with a sneer,
'the gentleman can do better without his
honour than without his wife.'
'Yes,' shouted the captain, 'his wife--
a trull--a common----'
'Silence, sir!' cried O'Mara, all the
fierceness of his nature roused by this last
insult--'your object is gained; your blood
be upon your own head.' At the same
time he sprang across a bench which stood
in his way, and pushing aside the table
which supported the lights, in an instant
their swords crossed, and they were
engaged in close and deadly strife.
Captain N---- was far the stronger of
the two; but, on the other hand, O'Mara
possessed far more skill in the use of the
fatal weapon which they employed. But
the narrowness of the room rendered this
advantage hardly available.
Almost instantly O'Mara received a
slight wound upon the forehead, which,
though little more than a scratch, bled so
fast as to obstruct his sight considerably.
Those who have used the foil can tell
how slight a derangement of eye or of
hand is sufficient to determine a contest of
this kind; and this knowledge will prevent
their being surprised when I say, that,
spite of O'Mara's superior skill and
practice, his adversary's sword passed
twice through and through his body, and
he fell heavily and helplessly upon the
floor of the chamber.
Without saying a word, the successful
combatant quitted the room along with
his companion, leaving Dwyer to shift
as best he might for his fallen comrade.
With the assistance of some of the
wondering menials of the place, Dwyer
succeeded in conveying the wounded man
into an adjoining room, where he was laid
upon a bed, in a state bordering upon
insensibility--the blood flowing, I might
say WELLING, from the wounds so fast as
to show that unless the bleeding were
speedily and effectually stopped, he could
not live for half an hour.
Medical aid was, of course, instantly
procured, and Colonel O'Mara, though at
the time seriously indisposed, was urgently
requested to attend without loss of time.
He did so; but human succour and
support were all too late. The wound had
been truly dealt--the tide of life had ebbed;
and his father had not arrived five minutes
when young O'Mara was a corpse. His
body rests in the vaults of Christ Church, in
Dublin, without a stone to mark the spot.
The counsels of the wicked are always
dark, and their motives often beyond
fathoming; and strange, unaccountable,
incredible as it may seem, I do believe,
and that upon evidence so clear as to
amount almost to demonstration, that
Heathcote's visit to Dublin--his betrayal
of the secret--and the final and terrible
catastrophe which laid O'Mara in the
grave, were brought about by no other
agent than Dwyer himself.
I have myself seen the letter which
induced that visit. The handwriting is
exactly what I have seen in other alleged
specimens of Dwyer's penmanship. It is
written with an affectation of honest alarm
at O'Mara's conduct, and expresses a
conviction that if some of Lady Emily's
family be not informed of O'Mara's real
situation, nothing could prevent his
concluding with her an advantageous alliance,
then upon the tapis, and altogether throwing
off his allegiance to Ellen--a step
which, as the writer candidly asserted,
would finally conduce as inevitably to his
own disgrace as it immediately would to
her ruin and misery.
The production was formally signed
with Dwyer's name, and the postscript
contained a strict injunction of secrecy,
asserting that if it were ascertained that
such an epistle had been despatched from
such a quarter, it would be attended with
the total ruin of the writer.
It is true that Dwyer, many years after,
when this letter came to light, alleged it to
be a forgery, an assertion whose truth,
even to his dying hour, and long after he
had apparently ceased to feel the lash of
public scorn, he continued obstinately to
maintain. Indeed this matter is full of
mystery, for, revenge alone excepted,
which I believe, in such minds as Dwyer's,
seldom overcomes the sense of interest,
the only intelligible motive which could
have prompted him to such an act was the
hope that since he had, through young
O'Mara's interest, procured from the
colonel a lease of a small farm upon the
terms which he had originally stipulated,
he might prosecute his plan touching the
property of Martin Heathcote, rendering
his daughter's hand free by the removal of
young O'Mara. This appears to me too
complicated a plan of villany to have
entered the mind even of such a man as
Dwyer. I must, therefore, suppose his
motives to have originated out of
circumstances connected with this story which
may not have come to my ear, and perhaps
never will.
Colonel O'Mara felt the death of his
son more deeply than I should have
thought possible; but that son had been
the last being who had continued to
interest his cold heart. Perhaps the pride
which he felt in his child had in it more of
selfishness than of any generous feeling.
But, be this as it may, the melancholy
circumstances connected with Ellen
Heathcote had reached him, and his
conduct towards her proved, more strongly
than anything else could have done, that
he felt keenly and justly, and, to a certain
degree, with a softened heart, the fatal
event of which she had been, in some
manner, alike the cause and the victim.
He evinced not towards her, as might
have been expected, any unreasonable
resentment. On the contrary, he exhibited
great consideration, even tenderness, for
her situation; and having ascertained
where his son had placed her, he issued
strict orders that she should not be
disturbed, and that the fatal tidings, which
had not yet reached her, should be withheld
until they might be communicated in
such a way as to soften as much as
possible the inevitable shock.
These last directions were acted upon
too scrupulously and too long; and,
indeed, I am satisfied that had the event
been communicated at once, however
terrible and overwhelming the shock
might have been, much of the bitterest
anguish, of sickening doubts, of harassing
suspense, would have been spared her,
and the first tempestuous burst of sorrow
having passed over, her chastened spirit
might have recovered its tone, and her life
have been spared. But the mistaken
kindness which concealed from her the
dreadful truth, instead of relieving her
mind of a burden which it could not support,
laid upon it a weight of horrible
fears and doubts as to the affection of
O'Mara, compared with which even the
certainty of his death would have been
tolerable.
One evening I had just seated myself
beside a cheerful turf fire, with that true
relish which a long cold ride through a
bleak and shelterless country affords,
stretching my chilled limbs to meet the
genial influence, and imbibing the warmth
at every pore, when my comfortable
meditations were interrupted by a long
and sonorous ringing at the door-bell
evidently effected by no timid hand.
A messenger had arrived to request my
attendance at the Lodge--such was the
name which distinguished a small and
somewhat antiquated building, occupying
a peculiarly secluded position among the
bleak and heathy hills which varied the
surface of that not altogether uninteresting
district, and which had, I believe, been
employed by the keen and hardy ancestors
of the O'Mara family as a convenient
temporary residence during the sporting
season.
Thither my attendance was required, in
order to administer to a deeply distressed
lady such comforts as an afflicted mind can
gather from the sublime hopes and consolations
of Christianity.
I had long suspected that the occupant
of this sequestered, I might say desolate,
dwelling-house was the poor girl whose
brief story we are following; and feeling a
keen interest in her fate--as who that had
ever seen her DID NOT?--I started from my
comfortable seat with more eager alacrity
than, I will confess it, I might have
evinced had my duty called me in another
direction.
In a few minutes I was trotting rapidly
onward, preceded by my guide, who urged
his horse with the remorseless rapidity of
one who seeks by the speed of his progress
to escape observation. Over roads and
through bogs we splashed and clattered,
until at length traversing the brow of a
wild and rocky hill, whose aspect seemed
so barren and forbidding that it might
have been a lasting barrier alike to mortal
sight and step, the lonely building became
visible, lying in a kind of swampy flat,
with a broad reedy pond or lake stretching
away to its side, and backed by a farther
range of monotonous sweeping hills,
marked with irregular lines of grey rock,
which, in the distance, bore a rude and
colossal resemblance to the walls of a
fortification.
Riding with undiminished speed along
a kind of wild horse-track, we turned the
corner of a high and somewhat ruinous
wall of loose stones, and making a sudden
wheel we found ourselves in a small
quadrangle, surmounted on two sides by
dilapidated stables and kennels, on
another by a broken stone wall, and upon
the fourth by the front of the lodge itself.
The whole character of the place was that
of dreary desertion and decay, which
would of itself have predisposed the mind
for melancholy impressions. My guide
dismounted, and with respectful attention
held my horse's bridle while I got down;
and knocking at the door with the handle
of his whip, it was speedily opened by a
neatly-dressed female domestic, and I was
admitted to the interior of the house, and
conducted into a small room, where a fire
in some degree dispelled the cheerless air,
which would otherwise have prevailed
to a painful degree throughout the
place.
I had been waiting but for a very few
minutes when another female servant,
somewhat older than the first, entered the
room. She made some apology on the
part of the person whom I had come to
visit, for the slight delay which had already
occurred, and requested me further to wait
for a few minutes longer, intimating that
the lady's grief was so violent, that without
great effort she could not bring herself
to speak calmly at all. As if to beguile
the time, the good dame went on in a
highly communicative strain to tell me,
amongst much that could not interest me,
a little of what I had desired to hear. I
discovered that the grief of her whom I
had come to visit was excited by the
sudden death of a little boy, her only
child, who was then lying dead in his
mother's chamber.
'And the mother's name?' said I, inquiringly.
The woman looked at me for a moment,
smiled, and shook her head with the air of
mingled mystery and importance which
seems to say, 'I am unfathomable.' I
did not care to press the question, though
I suspected that much of her apparent
reluctance was affected, knowing that my
doubts respecting the identity of the person
whom I had come to visit must soon
be set at rest, and after a little pause the
worthy Abigail went on as fluently as
ever. She told me that her young
mistress had been, for the time she had
been with her--that was, for about a year
and a half--in declining health and spirits,
and that she had loved her little child to a
degree beyond expression--so devotedly
that she could not, in all probability,
survive it long.
While she was running on in this way
the bell rang, and signing me to follow,
she opened the room door, but stopped in
the hall, and taking me a little aside, and
speaking in a whisper, she told me, as I
valued the life of the poor lady, not to say
one word of the death of young O'Mara.
I nodded acquiescence, and ascending a
narrow and ill-constructed staircase, she
stopped at a chamber door and knocked.
'Come in,' said a gentle voice from
within, and, preceded by my conductress,
I entered a moderately-sized, but rather
gloomy chamber.
There was but one living form within it
--it was the light and graceful figure of a
young woman. She had risen as I
entered the room; but owing to the
obscurity of the apartment, and to the
circumstance that her face, as she looked
towards the door, was turned away from
the light, which found its way in dimly
through the narrow windows, I could not
instantly recognise the features.
'You do not remember me, sir?' said the
same low, mournful voice. 'I am--I WAS
--Ellen Heathcote.'
'I do remember you, my poor child,'
said I, taking her hand; 'I do remember
you very well. Speak to me frankly--
speak to me as a friend. Whatever I can
do or say for you, is yours already; only
speak.'
'You were always very kind, sir, to
those--to those that WANTED kindness.'
The tears were almost overflowing, but
she checked them; and as if an accession
of fortitude had followed the momentary
weakness, she continued, in a subdued but
firm tone, to tell me briefly the
circumstances of her marriage with O'Mara.
When she had concluded the recital,
she paused for a moment; and I asked
again:
'Can I aid you in any way--by advice
or otherwise?'
'I wish, sir, to tell you all I have been
thinking about,' she continued. 'I am
sure, sir, that Master Richard loved me
once--I am sure he did not think to
deceive me; but there were bad, hard-
hearted people about him, and his family
were all rich and high, and I am sure he
wishes NOW that he had never, never seen
me. Well, sir, it is not in my heart to blame
him. What was _I_ that I should look at
him?--an ignorant, poor, country girl--
and he so high and great, and so beautiful.
The blame was all mine--it was all my
fault; I could not think or hope he would
care for me more than a little time. Well,
sir, I thought over and over again that
since his love was gone from me for ever,
I should not stand in his way, and hinder
whatever great thing his family wished for
him. So I thought often and often to write
him a letter to get the marriage broken,
and to send me home; but for one reason,
I would have done it long ago: there was
a little child, his and mine--the dearest,
the loveliest.' She could not go on for a
minute or two. 'The little child that is
lying there, on that bed; but it is dead
and gone, and there is no reason NOW why
I should delay any more about it.'
She put her hand into her breast, and
took out a letter, which she opened. She
put it into my hands. It ran thus:
'DEAR MASTER RICHARD,
'My little child is dead, and your
happiness is all I care about now. Your
marriage with me is displeasing to your
family, and I would be a burden to you,
and in your way in the fine places, and
among the great friends where you must
be. You ought, therefore, to break the
marriage, and I will sign whatever YOU
wish, or your family. I will never try
to blame you, Master Richard--do not
think it--for I never deserved your
love, and must not complain now that
I have lost it; but I will always pray
for you, and be thinking of you while
I live.'
While I read this letter, I was satisfied
that so far from adding to the poor
girl's grief, a full disclosure of what had
happened would, on the contrary, mitigate
her sorrow, and deprive it of its sharpest
sting.
'Ellen,' said I solemnly, 'Richard
O'Mara was never unfaithful to you; he
is now where human reproach can reach
him no more.'
As I said this, the hectic flush upon her
cheek gave place to a paleness so deadly,
that I almost thought she would drop lifeless
upon the spot.
'Is he--is he dead, then?' said she,
wildly.
I took her hand in mine, and told her
the sad story as best I could. She listened
with a calmness which appeared almost
unnatural, until I had finished the mournful
narration. She then arose, and going to
the bedside, she drew the curtain and gazed
silently and fixedly on the quiet face of the
child: but the feelings which swelled at
her heart could not be suppressed; the
tears gushed forth, and sobbing as if her
heart would break, she leant over the bed
and took the dead child in her arms.
She wept and kissed it, and kissed it and
wept again, in grief so passionate, so
heartrending, as to draw bitter tears from
my eyes. I said what little I could to
calm her--to have sought to do more
would have been a mockery; and observing
that the darkness had closed in, I
took my leave and departed, being
favoured with the services of my former
guide.
I expected to have been soon called
upon again to visit the poor girl; but
the Lodge lay beyond the boundary of my
parish, and I felt a reluctance to trespass
upon the precincts of my brother minister,
and a certain degree of hesitation in intruding
upon one whose situation was so
very peculiar, and who would, I had no
doubt, feel no scruple in requesting my
attendance if she desired it.
A month, however, passed away, and I
did not hear anything of Ellen. I called
at the Lodge, and to my inquiries they
answered that she was very much worse
in health, and that since the death of the
child she had been sinking fast, and so
weak that she had been chiefly confined
to her bed. I sent frequently to inquire,
and often called myself, and all that I
heard convinced me that she was rapidly
sinking into the grave.
Late one night I was summoned from
my rest, by a visit from the person who
had upon the former occasion acted as
my guide; he had come to summon me to
the death-bed of her whom I had then
attended. With all celerity I made my
preparations, and, not without considerable
difficulty and some danger, we made a
rapid night-ride to the Lodge, a distance
of five miles at least. We arrived safely,
and in a very short time--but too late.
I stood by the bed upon which lay the
once beautiful form of Ellen Heathcote.
The brief but sorrowful trial was past--
the desolate mourner was gone to that
land where the pangs of grief, the tumults
of passion, regrets and cold neglect, are
felt no more. I leant over the lifeless face,
and scanned the beautiful features which,
living, had wrought such magic on all that
looked upon them. They were, indeed,
much wasted; but it was impossible for
the fingers of death or of decay altogether
to obliterate the traces of that exquisite
beauty which had so distinguished her.
As I gazed on this most sad and striking
spectacle, remembrances thronged fast upon
my mind, and tear after tear fell upon the
cold form that slept tranquilly and for ever.
A few days afterwards I was told that a
funeral had left the Lodge at the dead of
night, and had been conducted with the
most scrupulous secrecy. It was, of course,
to me no mystery.
Heathcote lived to a very advanced age,
being of that hard mould which is not
easily impressionable. The selfish and the
hard-hearted survive where nobler, more
generous, and, above all, more sympathising
natures would have sunk for ever.
Dwyer certainly succeeded in extorting,
I cannot say how, considerable and advantageous
leases from Colonel O'Mara; but
after his death he disposed of his interest
in these, and having for a time launched
into a sea of profligate extravagance, he
became bankrupt, and for a long time I
totally lost sight of him.
The rebellion of '98, and the events
which immediately followed, called him
forth from his lurking-places, in the
character of an informer; and I myself have
seen the hoary-headed, paralytic perjurer,
with a scowl of derision and defiance, brave
the hootings and the execrations of the
indignant multitude.
STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER.
Being a Seventh Extract from the Legacy of the late
Francis Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh.
You will no doubt be surprised,
my dear friend, at the subject of
the following narrative. What
had I to do with Schalken, or Schalken
with me? He had returned to his native
land, and was probably dead and buried,
before I was born; I never visited Holland
nor spoke with a native of that country.
So much I believe you already know. I
must, then, give you my authority, and
state to you frankly the ground upon
which rests the credibility of the strange
story which I am, about to lay before
you.
I was acquainted, in my early days,
with a Captain Vandael, whose father had
served King William in the Low Countries,
and also in my own unhappy land during
the Irish campaigns. I know not how it
happened that I liked this man's society,
spite of his politics and religion: but so it
was; and it was by means of the free
intercourse to which our intimacy gave
rise that I became possessed of the curious
tale which you are about to hear.
I had often been struck, while visiting
Vandael, by a remarkable picture, in
which, though no connoisseur myself, I
could not fail to discern some very strong
peculiarities, particularly in the distribu-
tion of light and shade, as also a certain
oddity in the design itself, which interested
my curiosity. It represented the interior
of what might be a chamber in some
antique religious building--the foreground
was occupied by a female figure, arrayed
in a species of white robe, part of which is
arranged so as to form a veil. The dress,
however, is not strictly that of any religious
order. In its hand the figure bears
a lamp, by whose light alone the form and
face are illuminated; the features are
marked by an arch smile, such as pretty
women wear when engaged in successfully
practising some roguish trick; in the
background, and, excepting where the dim red
light of an expiring fire serves to define
the form, totally in the shade, stands the
figure of a man equipped in the old fashion,
with doublet and so forth, in an attitude
of alarm, his hand being placed upon the
hilt of his sword, which he appears to be
in the act of drawing.
'There are some pictures,' said I to my
friend, 'which impress one, I know not
how, with a conviction that they represent
not the mere ideal shapes and combinations
which have floated through the imagination
of the artist, but scenes, faces, and
situations which have actually existed. When
I look upon that picture, something assures
me that I behold the representation of a
reality.'
Vandael smiled, and, fixing his eyes upon
the painting musingly, he said:
'Your fancy has not deceived you, my
good friend, for that picture is the record,
and I believe a faithful one, of a remarkable
and mysterious occurrence. It was
painted by Schalken, and contains, in the
face of the female figure, which occupies
the most prominent place in the design, an
accurate portrait of Rose Velderkaust, the
niece of Gerard Douw, the first and, I
believe, the only love of Godfrey Schalken.
My father knew the painter well, and from
Schalken himself he learned the story of
the mysterious drama, one scene of which
the picture has embodied. This painting,
which is accounted a fine specimen of
Schalken's style, was bequeathed to my
father by the artist's will, and, as you
have observed, is a very striking and
interesting production.'
I had only to request Vandael to tell
the story of the painting in order to be
gratified; and thus it is that I am enabled
to submit to you a faithful recital of what
I heard myself, leaving you to reject or to
allow the evidence upon which the truth
of the tradition depends, with this one
assurance, that Schalken was an honest,
blunt Dutchman, and, I believe, wholly
incapable of committing a flight of
imagination; and further, that Vandael, from
whom I heard the story, appeared firmly
convinced of its truth.
There are few forms upon which the
mantle of mystery and romance could
seem to hang more ungracefully than
upon that of the uncouth and clownish
Schalken--the Dutch boor--the rude and
dogged, but most cunning worker in oils,
whose pieces delight the initiated of the
present day almost as much as his manners
disgusted the refined of his own; and yet
this man, so rude, so dogged, so slovenly,
I had almost said so savage, in mien and
manner, during his after successes, had
been selected by the capricious goddess, in
his early life, to figure as the hero of a
romance by no means devoid of interest or
of mystery.
Who can tell how meet he may have
been in his young days to play the part of
the lover or of the hero--who can say that
in early life he had been the same harsh,
unlicked, and rugged boor that, in his
maturer age, he proved--or how far the
neglected rudeness which afterwards
marked his air, and garb, and manners,
may not have been the growth of that
reckless apathy not unfrequently produced
by bitter misfortunes and disappointments
in early life?
These questions can never now be answered.
We must content ourselves, then,
with a plain statement of facts, or what
have been received and transmitted as
such, leaving matters of speculation to
those who like them.
When Schalken studied under the
immortal Gerard Douw, he was a young
man; and in spite of the phlegmatic
constitution and unexcitable manner which he
shared, we believe, with his countrymen,
he was not incapable of deep and vivid
impressions, for it is an established fact that
the young painter looked with considerable
interest upon the beautiful niece of his
wealthy master.
Rose Velderkaust was very young,
having, at the period of which we speak,
not yet attained her seventeenth year, and,
if tradition speaks truth, possessed all the
soft dimpling charms of the fail; light-
haired Flemish maidens. Schalken had
not studied long in the school of Gerard
Douw, when he felt this interest deepening
into something of a keener and intenser
feeling than was quite consistent with the
tranquillity of his honest Dutch heart;
and at the same time he perceived, or
thought he perceived, flattering symptoms
of a reciprocity of liking, and this was
quite sufficient to determine whatever
indecision he might have heretofore
experienced, and to lead him to devote
exclusively to her every hope and feeling of his
heart. In short, he was as much in love
as a Dutchman could be. He was not
long in making his passion known to the
pretty maiden herself, and his declaration
was followed by a corresponding confession
upon her part.
Schalken, however, was a poor man,
and he possessed no counterbalancing
advantages of birth or position to induce
the old man to consent to a union which
must involve his niece and ward in the
strugglings and difficulties of a young and
nearly friendless artist. He was, therefore,
to wait until time had furnished him with
opportunity, and accident with success; and
then, if his labours were found sufficiently
lucrative, it was to be hoped that his
proposals might at least be listened to by her
jealous guardian. Months passed away,
and, cheered by the smiles of the little
Rose, Schalken's labours were redoubled,
and with such effect and improvement as
reasonably to promise the realisation of his
hopes, and no contemptible eminence in
his art, before many years should have
elapsed.
The even course of this cheering
prosperity was, however, destined to
experience a sudden and formidable
interruption, and that, too, in a manner so
strange and mysterious as to baffle all
investigation, and throw upon the events
themselves a shadow of almost supernatural horror.
Schalken had one evening remained in
the master's studio considerably longer
than his more volatile companions, who
had gladly availed themselves of the
excuse which the dusk of evening afforded,
to withdraw from their several tasks, in
order to finish a day of labour in the
jollity and conviviality of the tavern.
But Schalken worked for improvement,
or rather for love. Besides, he was now
engaged merely in sketching a design, an
operation which, unlike that of colouring,
might be continued as long as there was
light sufficient to distinguish between
canvas and charcoal. He had not then,
nor, indeed, until long after, discovered the
peculiar powers of his pencil, and he was
engaged in composing a group of extremely
roguish-looking and grotesque imps and
demons, who were inflicting various
ingenious torments upon a perspiring and
pot-bellied St. Anthony, who reclined in
the midst of them, apparently in the last
stage of drunkenness.
The young artist, however, though
incapable of executing, or even of
appreciating, anything of true sublimity,
had nevertheless discernment enough to
prevent his being by any means satisfied
with his work; and many were the patient
erasures and corrections which the limbs
and features of saint and devil underwent,
yet all without producing in their new
arrangement anything of improvement or
increased effect.
The large, old-fashioned room was
silent, and, with the exception of himself,
quite deserted by its usual inmates. An
hour had passed--nearly two--without
any improved result. Daylight had
already declined, and twilight was fast giving
way to the darkness of night. The
patience of the young man was exhausted,
and he stood before his unfinished production,
absorbed in no very pleasing ruminations,
one hand buried in the folds of his
long dark hair, and the other holding the
piece of charcoal which had so ill executed
its office, and which he now rubbed, without
much regard to the sable streaks which
it produced, with irritable pressure upon
his ample Flemish inexpressibles.
'Pshaw!' said the young man aloud,
'would that picture, devils, saint, and all,
were where they should be--in hell!'
A short, sudden laugh, uttered start
lingly close to his ear, instantly responded
to the ejaculation.
The artist turned sharply round, and
now for the first time became aware that
his labours had been overlooked by a
stranger.
Within about a yard and a half, and
rather behind him, there stood what was,
or appeared to be, the figure of an elderly
man: he wore a short cloak, and broad-
brimmed hat with a conical crown, and in
his hand, which was protected with a
heavy, gauntlet-shaped glove, he carried a
long ebony walking-stick, surmounted with
what appeared, as it glittered dimly in the
twilight, to be a massive head of gold,
and upon his breast, through the folds
of the cloak, there shone what appeared
to be the links of a rich chain of the same
metal.
The room was so obscure that nothing
further of the appearance of the figure
could be ascertained, and the face was
altogether overshadowed by the heavy flap
of the beaver which overhung it, so that
not a feature could be discerned. A
quantity of dark hair escaped from
beneath this sombre hat, a circumstance
which, connected with the firm, upright
carriage of the intruder, proved that his
years could not yet exceed threescore or
thereabouts.
There was an air of gravity and
importance about the garb of this person, and
something indescribably odd, I might say
awful, in the perfect, stone-like movelessness
of the figure, that effectually checked
the testy comment which had at once
risen to the lips of the irritated artist.
He therefore, as soon as he had suf-
ficiently recovered the surprise, asked the
stranger, civilly, to be seated, and desired
to know if he had any message to leave for
his master.
'Tell Gerard Douw,' said the unknown,
without altering his attitude in the
smallest degree, 'that Mynher Vanderhauseny
of Rotterdam, desires to speak
with him to-morrow evening at this
hour, and, if he please, in this room, upon
matters of weight--that is all. Good-night.'
The stranger, having finished this
message, turned abruptly, and, with a
quick but silent step, quitted the room,
before Schalken had time to say a word in
reply.
The young man felt a curiosity to see in
what direction the burgher of Rotterdam
would turn on quitting the studio,
and for that purpose he went directly
to the window which commanded the
door.
A lobby of considerable extent
intervened between the inner door of the
painter's room and the street entrance, so
that Schalken occupied the post of
observation before the old man could possibly
have reached the street.
He watched in vain, however. There
was no other mode of exit.
Had the old man vanished, or was he
lurking about the recesses of the lobby
for some bad purpose? This last suggestion
filled the mind of Schalken with a
vague horror, which was so unaccountably
intense as to make him alike afraid to
remain in the room alone and reluctant to
pass through the lobby.
However, with an effort which ap-
peared very disproportioned to the
occasion, he summoned resolution to leave
the room, and, having double-locked the
door and thrust the key in his pocket,
without looking to the right or left, he
traversed the passage which had so
recently, perhaps still, contained the person
of his mysterious visitant, scarcely venturing
to breathe till he had arrived in the
open street.
'Mynher Vanderhausen,' said Gerard
Douw within himself, as the appointed
hour approached, 'Mynher Vanderhausen
of Rotterdam! I never heard of the man
till yesterday. What can he want of me?
A portrait, perhaps, to be painted; or a
younger son or a poor relation to be
apprenticed; or a collection to be valued; or
--pshaw I there's no one in Rotterdam to
leave me a legacy. Well, whatever the
business may be, we shall soon know it all.'
It was now the close of day, and every
easel, except that of Schalken, was
deserted. Gerard Douw was pacing the
apartment with the restless step of
impatient expectation, every now and then
humming a passage from a piece of music
which he was himself composing; for,
though no great proficient, he admired the
art; sometimes pausing to glance over the
work of one of his absent pupils, but more
frequently placing himself at the window,
from whence he might observe the passengers
who threaded the obscure by-street
in which his studio was placed.
'Said you not, Godfrey,' exclaimed
Douw, after a long and fruitless gaze from
his post of observation, and turning to
Schalken--'said you not the hour of ap-
pointment was at about seven by the clock
of the Stadhouse?'
'It had just told seven when I first saw
him, sir,' answered the student.
'The hour is close at hand, then,' said
the master, consulting a horologe as large
and as round as a full-grown orange.
'Mynher Vanderhausen, from Rotterdam
--is it not so?'
'Such was the name.'
'And an elderly man, richly clad?'
continued Douw.
'As well as I might see,' replied his
pupil; 'he could not be young, nor yet
very old neither, and his dress was rich
and grave, as might become a citizen of
wealth and consideration.'
At this moment the sonorous boom of
the Stadhouse clock told, stroke after
stroke, the hour of seven; the eyes of
both master and student were directed to
the door; and it was not until the last
peal of the old bell had ceased to vibrate,
that Douw exclaimed:
'So, so; we shall have his worship
presently--that is, if he means to keep his
hour; if not, thou mayst wait for him,
Godfrey, if you court the acquaintance of
a capricious burgomaster. As for me, I
think our old Leyden contains a
sufficiency of such commodities, without an
importation from Rotterdam.'
Schalken laughed, as in duty bound;
and after a pause of some minutes, Douw
suddenly exclaimed:
'What if it should all prove a jest, a
piece of mummery got up by Vankarp, or
some such worthy! I wish you had run
all risks, and cudgelled the old burgomaster,
stadholder, or whatever else he
may be, soundly. I would wager a dozen
of Rhenish, his worship would have
pleaded old acquaintance before the third
application.'
'Here he comes, sir,' said Schalken,
in a low admonitory tone; and instantly,
upon turning towards the door, Gerard
Douw observed the same figure which
had, on the day before, so unexpectedly
greeted the vision of his pupil
Schalken.
There was something in the air and
mien of the figure which at once satisfied
the painter that there was no mummery
in the case, and that he really stood in the
presence of a man of worship; and so, without
hesitation, he doffed his cap, and courteously
saluting the stranger, requested him
to be seated.
The visitor waved his hand slightly, as,
if in acknowledgment of the courtesy, but
remained standing.
'I have the honour to see Mynher
Vanderhausen, of Rotterdam?' said Gerard
Douw.
'The same,' was the laconic reply of his
visitant.
'I understand your worship desires to
speak with me,' continued Douw, 'and I
am here by appointment to wait your
commands.'
'Is that a man of trust?' said Vanderhausen,
turning towards Schalken, who
stood at a little distance behind his master.
'Certainly,' replied Gerard.
'Then let him take this box and get the
nearest jeweller or goldsmith to value its
contents, and let him return hither with a
certificate of the valuation.'
At the same time he placed a small case,
about nine inches square, in the hands of
Gerard Douw, who was as much amazed
at its weight as at the strange abruptness
with which it was handed to him.
In accordance with the wishes of the
stranger, he delivered it into the hands of
Schalken, and repeating HIS directions,
despatched him upon the mission.
Schalken disposed his precious charge
securely beneath the folds of his cloak, and
rapidly traversing two or three narrow
streets, he stopped at a corner house, the
lower part of which was then occupied by
the shop of a Jewish goldsmith.
Schalken entered the shop, and calling
the little Hebrew into the obscurity of its
back recesses, he proceeded to lay before
him Vanderhausen's packet.
On being examined by the light of a
lamp, it appeared entirely cased with lead,
the outer surface of which was much
scraped and soiled, and nearly white with
age. This was with difficulty partially
removed, and disclosed beneath a box of
some dark and singularly hard wood; this,
too, was forced, and after the removal of
two or three folds of linen, its contents
proved to be a mass of golden ingots,
close packed, and, as the Jew declared, of
the most perfect quality.
Every ingot underwent the scrutiny of
the little Jew, who seemed to feel an
epicurean delight in touching and testing
these morsels of the glorious metal; and
each one of them was replaced in the box
with the exclamation:
'Mein Gott, how very perfect! not one
grain of alloy--beautiful, beautiful!'
The task was at length finished, and the
Jew certified under his hand the value of
the ingots submitted to his examination to
amount to many thousand rix-dollars.
With the desired document in his bosom,
and the rich box of gold carefully pressed
under his arm, and concealed by his cloak,
he retraced his way, and entering the
studio, found his master and the stranger
in close conference.
Schalken had no sooner left the room,
in order to execute the commission he had
taken in charge, than Vanderhausen
addressed Gerard Douw in the following
terms:
'I may not tarry with you to-night more
than a few minutes, and so I shall briefly
tell you the matter upon which I come.
You visited the town of Rotterdam some
four months ago, and then I saw in the
church of St. Lawrence your niece, Rose
Velderkaust. I desire to marry her, and
if I satisfy you as to the fact that I am
very wealthy--more wealthy than any
husband you could dream of for her--I
expect that you will forward my views to
the utmost of your authority. If you
approve my proposal, you must close with it
at once, for I cannot command time
enough to wait for calculations and delays.'
Gerard Douw was, perhaps, as much
astonished as anyone could be by the very
unexpected nature of Mynher Vanderhausen's
communication; but he did not
give vent to any unseemly expression of
surprise, for besides the motives supplied
by prudence and politeness, the painter
experienced a kind of chill and oppressive
sensation, something like that which is
supposed to affect a man who is placed
unconsciously in immediate contact with
something to which he has a natural anti-
pathy--an undefined horror and dread
while standing in the presence of the
eccentric stranger, which made him very
unwilling to say anything which might
reasonably prove offensive.
'I have no doubt,' said Gerard, after
two or three prefatory hems, 'that the
connection which you propose would prove
alike advantageous and honourable to my
niece; but you must be aware that she has
a will of her own, and may not acquiesce
in what WE may design for her advantage.'
'Do not seek to deceive me, Sir Painter,'
said Vanderhausen; 'you are her guardian
--she is your ward. She is mine if YOU like
to make her so.'
The man of Rotterdam moved forward
a little as he spoke, and Gerard Douw, he
scarce knew why, inwardly prayed for the
speedy return of Schalken.
'I desire,' said the mysterious gentleman,
'to place in your hands at once an
evidence of my wealth, and a security for
my liberal dealing with your niece. The
lad will return in a minute or two with a
sum in value five times the fortune which
she has a right to expect from a husband.
This shall lie in your hands, together with
her dowry, and you may apply the united
sum as suits her interest best; it shall be
all exclusively hers while she lives. Is that
liberal?'
Douw assented, and inwardly thought
that fortune had been extraordinarily kind
to his niece. The stranger, he thought,
must be both wealthy and generous, and
such an offer was not to be despised, though
made by a humourist, and one of no very
prepossessing presence.
Rose had no very high pretensions, for
she was almost without dowry; indeed,
altogether so, excepting so far as the
deficiency had been supplied by the generosity
of her uncle. Neither had she any right to
raise any scruples against the match on the
score of birth, for her own origin was by
no means elevated; and as to other objections,
Gerard resolved, and, indeed, by the
usages of the time was warranted in
resolving, not to listen to them for a moment.
'Sir,' said he, addressing the stranger,
'your offer is most liberal, and whatever
hesitation I may feel in closing with it
immediately, arises solely from my not
having the honour of knowing anything of
your family or station. Upon these points
you can, of course, satisfy me without
difficulty?'
'As to my respectability,' said the
stranger, drily, 'you must take that for
granted at present; pester me with no
inquiries; you can discover nothing more
about me than I choose to make known.
You shall have sufficient security for my
respectability--my word, if you are honourable:
if you are sordid, my gold.'
'A testy old gentleman,' thought Douw;
'he must have his own way. But, all
things considered, I am justified in giving
my niece to him. Were she my own
daughter, I would do the like by her. I
will not pledge myself unnecessarily, however.'
'You will not pledge yourself unnecessarily,'
said Vanderhausen, strangely uttering
the very words which had just floated
through the mind of his companion; 'but
you will do so if it IS necessary, I presume;
and I will show you that I consider it in-
dispensable. If the gold I mean to leave
in your hands satisfy you, and if you
desire that my proposal shall not be at once
withdrawn, you must, before I leave this
room, write your name to this engagement.'
Having thus spoken, he placed a paper
in the hands of Gerard, the contents of
which expressed an engagement entered
into by Gerard Douw, to give to Wilken
Vanderhausen, of Rotterdam, in marriage,
Rose Velderkaust, and so forth, within one
week of the date hereof.
While the painter was employed in
reading this covenant, Schalken, as we have
stated, entered the studio, and having
delivered the box and the valuation of the
Jew into the hands of the stranger, he
was about to retire, when Vanderhausen
called to him to wait; and, presenting the
case and the certificate to Gerard Douw,
he waited in silence until he had satisfied
himself by an inspection of both as to the
value of the pledge left in his hands. At
length he said:
'Are you content?'
The painter said he would fain have an
other day to consider.
'Not an hour,' said the suitor, coolly.
'Well, then,' said Douw, 'I am content;
it is a bargain.'
'Then sign at once,' said Vanderhausen;
'I am weary.'
At the same time he produced a small
case of writing materials, and Gerard signed
the important document.
'Let this youth witness the covenant,'
said the old man; and Godfrey Schalken
unconsciously signed the instrument which
bestowed upon another that hand which
he had so long regarded as the object and
reward of all his labours.
The compact being thus completed, the
strange visitor folded up the paper, and
stowed it safely in an inner pocket.
'I will visit you to-morrow night, at
nine of the clock, at your house, Gerard
Douw, and will see the subject of our
contract. Farewell.' And so saying, Wilken
Vanderhausen moved stiffly, but rapidly
out of the room.
Schalken, eager to resolve his doubts,
had placed himself by the window in order
to watch the street entrance; but the
experiment served only to support his
suspicions, for the old man did not issue from
the door. This was very strange, very
odd, very fearful. He and his master
returned together, and talked but little on
the way, for each had his own sub-
jects of reflection, of anxiety, and of
hope.
Schalken, however, did not know the
ruin which threatened his cherished
schemes.
Gerard Douw knew nothing of the
attachment which had sprung up between
his pupil and his niece; and even if he
had, it is doubtful whether he would have
regarded its existence as any serious
obstruction to the wishes of Mynher Vanderhausen.
Marriages were then and there matters
of traffic and calculation; and it would have
appeared as absurd in the eyes of the guardian
to make a mutual attachment an
essential element in a contract of marriage,
as it would have been to draw up his bonds
and receipts in the language of chivalrous
romance.
The painter, however, did not communicate
to his niece the important step which
he had taken in her behalf, and his resolution
arose not from any anticipation of
opposition on her part, but solely from a
ludicrous consciousness that if his ward
were, as she very naturally might do, to
ask him to describe the appearance of the
bridegroom whom he destined for her, he
would be forced to confess that he had not
seen his face, and, if called upon, would find
it impossible to identify him.
Upon the next day, Gerard Douw having
dined, called his niece to him, and having
scanned her person with an air of satisfaction,
he took her hand, and looking upon
her pretty, innocent face with a smile of
kindness, he said:
'Rose, my girl, that face of yours will
make your fortune.' Rose blushed and
smiled. 'Such faces and such tempers
seldom go together, and, when they do,
the compound is a love-potion which few
heads or hearts can resist. Trust me, thou
wilt soon be a bride, girl. But this is
trifling, and I am pressed for time, so
make ready the large room by eight o'clock
to-night, and give directions for supper at
nine. I expect a friend to-night; and
observe me, child, do thou trick thyself out
handsomely. I would not have him think
us poor or sluttish.'
With these words he left the chamber,
and took his way to the room to which we
have already had occasion to introduce
our readers--that in which his pupils
worked.
When the evening closed in, Gerard
called Schalken, who was about to take his
departure to his obscure and comfortless
lodgings, and asked him to come
home and sup with Rose and Vanderhausen.
The invitation was of course accepted,
and Gerard Douw and his pupil soon
found themselves in the handsome and
somewhat antique-looking room which
had been prepared for the reception of the
stranger.
A cheerful wood-fire blazed in the capacious
hearth; a little at one side an old-
fashioned table, with richly-carved legs,
was placed--destined, no doubt, to receive
the supper, for which preparations were
going forward; and ranged with exact
regularity, stood the tall-backed chairs,
whose ungracefulness was more than
counterbalanced by their comfort.
The little party, consisting of Rose, her
uncle, and the artist, awaited the arrival of
the expected visitor with considerable impatience.
Nine o'clock at length came, and with it
a summons at the street-door, which, being
speedily answered, was followed by a slow
and emphatic tread upon the staircase; the
steps moved heavily across the lobby, the
door of the room in which the party which
we have described were assembled slowly
opened, and there entered a figure which
startled, almost appalled, the phlegmatic
Dutchmen, and nearly made Rose scream
with affright; it was the form, and arrayed
in the garb, of Mynher Vanderhausen;
the air, the gait, the height was the same,
but the features had never been seen by
any of the party before.
The stranger stopped at the door of the
room, and displayed his form and face
completely. He wore a dark-coloured
cloth cloak, which was short and full, not
falling quite to the knees; his legs were
cased in dark purple silk stockings, and his
shoes were adorned with roses of the same
colour. The opening of the cloak in front
showed the under-suit to consist of some
very dark, perhaps sable material, and his
hands were enclosed in a pair of heavy
leather gloves which ran up considerably
above the wrist, in the manner of a gauntlet.
In one hand he carried his walking-
stick and his hat, which he had removed,
and the other hung heavily by his side.
A quantity of grizzled hair descended in
long tresses from his head, and its folds
rested upon the plaits of a stiff ruff, which
effectually concealed his neck.
So far all was well; but the face!--all
the flesh of the face was coloured with the
bluish leaden hue which is sometimes pro-
duced by the operation of metallic
medicines administered in excessive quantities;
the eyes were enormous, and the white
appeared both above and below the iris,
which gave to them an expression of
insanity, which was heightened by their
glassy fixedness; the nose was well enough,
but the mouth was writhed considerably to
one side, where it opened in order to give
egress to two long, discoloured fangs, which
projected from the upper jaw, far below the
lower lip; the hue of the lips themselves
bore the usual relation to that of the face,
and was consequently nearly black. The
character of the face was malignant, even
satanic, to the last degree; and, indeed,
such a combination of horror could hardly
be accounted for, except by supposing the
corpse of some atrocious malefactor, which
had long hung blackening upon the gibbet,
to have at length become the habitation of
a demon--the frightful sport of Satanic
possession.
It was remarkable that the worshipful
stranger suffered as little as possible of his
flesh to appear, and that during his visit he
did not once remove his gloves.
Having stood for some moments at the
door, Gerard Douw at length found breath
and collectedness to bid him welcome, and,
with a mute inclination of the head, the
stranger stepped forward into the room.
There was something indescribably odd,
even horrible, about all his motions,
something undefinable, that was unnatural, un-
human--it was as if the limbs were guided
and directed by a spirit unused to the
management of bodily machinery.
The stranger said hardly anything during
his visit, which did not exceed half an
hour; and the host himself could scarcely
muster courage enough to utter the few
necessary salutations and courtesies: and,
indeed, such was the nervous terror which
the presence of Vanderhausen inspired,
that very little would have made all his
entertainers fly bellowing from the room.
They had not so far lost all self-
possession, however, as to fail to observe two
strange peculiarities of their visitor.
During his stay he did not once suffer
his eyelids to close, nor even to move in
the slightest degree; and further, there
was a death-like stillness in his whole
person, owing to the total absence of the
heaving motion of the chest, caused by the
process of respiration.
These two peculiarities, though when
told they may appear trifling, produced a
very striking and unpleasant effect when
seen and observed. Vanderhausen at
length relieved the painter of Leyden of
his inauspicious presence; and with no
small gratification the little party heard the
street-door close after him.
'Dear uncle,' said Rose, 'what a frightful
man! I would not see him again for
the wealth of the States!'
'Tush, foolish girl!' said Douw, whose
sensations were anything but comfortable.
'A man may be as ugly as the devil, and
yet if his heart and actions are good, he
is worth all the pretty-faced, perfumed
puppies that walk the Mall. Rose, my
girl, it is very true he has not thy pretty
face, but I know him to be wealthy and
liberal; and were he ten times more
ugly----'
'Which is inconceivable,' observed Rose.
'These two virtues would be sufficient,'
continued her uncle, 'to counterbalance all
his deformity; and if not of power sufficient
actually to alter the shape of the features,
at least of efficacy enough to prevent one
thinking them amiss.'
'Do you know, uncle,' said Rose, 'when
I saw him standing at the door, I could
not get it out of my head that I saw the
old, painted, wooden figure that used to
frighten me so much in the church of St.
Laurence of Rotterdam.'
Gerard laughed, though he could not
help inwardly acknowledging the justness
of the comparison. He was resolved,
however, as far as he could, to check his
niece's inclination to ridicule the ugliness
of her intended bridegroom, although he
was not a little pleased to observe that she
appeared totally exempt from that mysterious
dread of the stranger which, he could
not disguise it from himself, considerably
affected him, as also his pupil Godfrey
Schalken.
Early on the next day there arrived,
from various quarters of the town, rich
presents of silks, velvets, jewellery, and so
forth, for Rose; and also a packet directed
to Gerard Douw, which, on being opened,
was found to contain a contract of marriage,
formally drawn up, between Wilken
Vanderhausen of the Boom-quay, in Rotterdam,
and Rose Velderkaust of Leyden, niece to
Gerard Douw, master in the art of painting,
also of the same city; and containing
engagements on the part of Vanderhausen to
make settlements upon his bride, far more
splendid than he had before led her guardian
to believe likely, and which were to
be secured to her use in the most unexceptionable
manner possible--the money being
placed in the hands of Gerard Douw himself.
I have no sentimental scenes to describe,
no cruelty of guardians, or magnanimity of
wards, or agonies of lovers. The record I
have to make is one of sordidness, levity,
and interest. In less than a week after
the first interview which we have just
described, the contract of marriage was
fulfilled, and Schalken saw the prize which
he would have risked anything to secure,
carried off triumphantly by his formidable
rival.
For two or three days he absented
himself from the school; he then returned
and worked, if with less cheerfulness, with
far more dogged resolution than before;
the dream of love had given place to that
of ambition.
Months passed away, and, contrary to
his expectation, and, indeed, to the direct
promise of the parties, Gerard Douw heard
nothing of his niece, or her worshipful
spouse. The interest of the money, which
was to have been demanded in quarterly
sums, lay unclaimed in his hands. He
began to grow extremely uneasy.
Mynher Vanderhausen's direction in
Rotterdam he was fully possessed of. After
some irresolution he finally determined to
journey thither--a trifling undertaking, and
easily accomplished--and thus to satisfy
himself of the safety and comfort of his
ward, for whom he entertained an honest
and strong affection.
His search was in vain, however. No
one in Rotterdam had ever heard of Mynher
Vanderhausen.
Gerard Douw left not a house in the
Boom-quay untried; but all in vain. No
one could give him any information whatever
touching the object of his inquiry;
and he was obliged to return to Leyden,
nothing wiser than when he had left
it.
On his arrival he hastened to the
establishment from which Vanderhausen had
hired the lumbering though, considering
the times, most luxurious vehicle which
the bridal party had employed to convey
them to Rotterdam. From the driver of
this machine he learned, that having
proceeded by slow stages, they had late in
the evening approached Rotterdam; but
that before they entered the city, and
while yet nearly a mile from it, a small
party of men, soberly clad, and after the
old fashion, with peaked beards and
moustaches, standing in the centre of the road,
obstructed the further progress of the car-
riage. The driver reined in his horses,
much fearing, from the obscurity of the
hour, and the loneliness of the road, that
some mischief was intended.
His fears were, however, somewhat
allayed by his observing that these strange
men carried a large litter, of an antique
shape, and which they immediately set
down upon the pavement, whereupon the
bridegroom, having opened the coach-door
from within, descended, and having assisted
his bride to do likewise, led her, weeping
bitterly and wringing her hands, to the
litter, which they both entered. It was
then raised by the men who surrounded it,
and speedily carried towards the city, and
before it had proceeded many yards the
darkness concealed it from the view of the
Dutch charioteer.
In the inside of the vehicle he found a
purse, whose contents more than thrice
paid the hire of the carriage and man.
He saw and could tell nothing more of
Mynher Vanderhausen and his beautiful
lady. This mystery was a source of deep
anxiety and almost of grief to Gerard
Douw.
There was evidently fraud in the dealing
of Vanderhausen with him, though for what
purpose committed he could not imagine.
He greatly doubted how far it was possible
for a man possessing in his countenance
so strong an evidence of the presence of
the most demoniac feelings, to be in reality
anything but a villain; and every day that
passed without his hearing from or of his
niece, instead of inducing him to forget
his fears, on the contrary tended more and
more to exasperate them.
The loss of his niece's cheerful society
tended also to depress his spirits; and in
order to dispel this despondency, which
often crept upon his mind after his daily
employment was over, he was wont frequently
to prevail upon Schalken to accompany
him home, and by his presence
to dispel, in some degree, the gloom of his
otherwise solitary supper.
One evening, the painter and his pupil
were sitting by the fire, having accomplished
a comfortable supper, and had
yielded to that silent pensiveness
sometimes induced by the process of digestion,
when their reflections were disturbed by
a loud sound at the street-door, as if
occasioned by some person rushing forcibly and
repeatedly against it. A domestic had run
without delay to ascertain the cause of the
disturbance, and they heard him twice or
thrice interrogate the applicant for admis-
sion, but without producing an answer or
any cessation of the sounds.
They heard him then open the hall-door,
and immediately there followed a light and
rapid tread upon the staircase. Schalken
laid his hand on his sword, and advanced
towards the door. It opened before he
reached it, and Rose rushed into the room.
She looked wild and haggard, and pale with
exhaustion and terror; but her dress
surprised them as much even as her
unexpected appearance. It consisted of a kind
of white woollen wrapper, made close about
the neck, and descending to the very
ground. It was much deranged and
travel-soiled. The poor creature had
hardly entered the chamber when she fell
senseless on the floor. With some difficulty
they succeeded in reviving her, and
on recovering her senses she instantly ex-
claimed, in a tone of eager, terrified impatience:
'Wine, wine, quickly, or I'm lost!'
Much alarmed at the strange agitation
in which the call was made, they at once
administered to her wishes, and she drank
some wine with a haste and eagerness which
surprised them. She had hardly swallowed
it, when she exclaimed, with the same
urgency:
'Food, food, at once, or I perish!'
A considerable fragment of a roast joint
was upon the table, and Schalken immediately
proceeded to cut some, but he was
anticipated; for no sooner had she become
aware of its presence than she darted at it
with the rapacity of a vulture, and, seizing
it in her hands she tore off the flesh with
her teeth and swallowed it.
When the paroxysm of hunger had been
a little appeased, she appeared suddenly to
become aware how strange her conduct
had been, or it may have been that other
more agitating thoughts recurred to her
mind, for she began to weep bitterly and to
wring her hands.
'Oh! send for a minister of God,' said
she; 'I am not safe till he comes; send
for him speedily.'
Gerard Douw despatched a messenger
instantly, and prevailed on his niece to
allow him to surrender his bedchamber to
her use; he also persuaded her to retire
to it at once and to rest; her consent was
extorted upon the condition that they would
not leave her for a moment.
'Oh that the holy man were here!' she
said; 'he can deliver me. The dead and
the living can never be one--God has
forbidden it.'
With these mysterious words she
surrendered herself to their guidance, and
they proceeded to the chamber which
Gerard Douw had assigned to her use.
'Do not--do not leave me for a
moment,' said she. 'I am lost for ever if
you do.'
Gerard Douw's chamber was approached
through a spacious apartment, which they
were now about to enter. Gerard Douw
and Schalken each carried a was candle,
so that a sufficient degree of light was cast
upon all surrounding objects. They were
now entering the large chamber, which, as
I have said, communicated with Douw's
apartment, when Rose suddenly stopped,
and, in a whisper which seemed to thrill
with horror, she said:
'O God! he is here--he is here! See,
see--there he goes!'
She pointed towards the door of the
inner room, and Schalken thought he saw
a shadowy and ill-defined form gliding into
that apartment. He drew his sword, and
raising the candle so as to throw its light
with increased distinctness upon the objects
in the room, he entered the chamber into
which the shadow had glided. No figure
was there--nothing but the furniture which
belonged to the room, and yet he could
not be deceived as to the fact that
something had moved before them into the
chamber.
A sickening dread came upon him, and
the cold perspiration broke out in heavy
drops upon his forehead; nor was he more
composed when he heard the increased
urgency, the agony of entreaty, with which
Rose implored them not to leave her for
a moment.
'I saw him,' said she. 'He's here! I
cannot be deceived--I know him. He's
by me--he's with me--he's in the room.
Then, for God's sake, as you would save,
do not stir from beside me!'
They at length prevailed upon her to lie
down upon the bed, where she continued
to urge them to stay by her. She
frequently uttered incoherent sentences,
repeating again and again, 'The dead
and the living cannot be one--God has
forbidden it!' and then again, 'Rest
to the wakeful--sleep to the sleep-walkers.'
These and such mysterious and broken
sentences she continued to utter until the
clergyman arrived.
Gerard Douw began to fear, naturally
enough, that the poor girl, owing to terror
or ill-treatment, had become deranged; and
he half suspected, by the suddenness of
her appearance, and the unseasonableness
of the hour, and, above all, from the
wildness and terror of her manner, that she
had made her escape from some place of
confinement for lunatics, and was in
immediate fear of pursuit. He resolved to
summon medical advice as soon as the
mind of his niece had been in some
measure set at rest by the offices of the
clergyman whose attendance she had so
earnestly desired; and until this object had
been attained, he did not venture to put
any questions to her, which might
possibly, by reviving painful or horrible
recollections, increase her agitation.
The clergyman soon arrived--a man of
ascetic countenance and venerable age--
one whom Gerard Douw respected much,
forasmuch as he was a veteran polemic,
though one, perhaps, more dreaded as a
combatant than beloved as a Christian--of
pure morality, subtle brain, and frozen
heart. He entered the chamber which
communicated with that in which Rose
reclined, and immediately on his arrival she
requested him to pray for her, as for one who
lay in the hands of Satan, and who could
hope for deliverance--only from heaven.
That our readers may distinctly understand
all the circumstances of the event
which we are about imperfectly to describe,
it is necessary to state the relative position
of the parties who were engaged in it.
The old clergyman and Schalken were in
the anteroom of which we have already
spoken; Rose lay in the inner chamber,
the door of which was open; and by the
side of the bed, at her urgent desire, stood
her guardian; a candle burned in the bed-
chamber, and three were lighted in the
outer apartment
The old man now cleared his voice, as if
about to commence; but before he had
time to begin, a sudden gust of air blew
out the candle which served to illuminate
the room in which the poor girl lay, and
she, with hurried alarm, exclaimed:
'Godfrey, bring in another candle; the
darkness is unsafe.'
Gerard Douw, forgetting for the moment
her repeated injunctions in the immediate
impulse, stepped from the bedchamber into
the other, in order to supply what she
desired.
'O God I do not go, dear uncle!'
shrieked the unhappy girl; and at the
same time she sprang from the bed and
darted after him, in order, by her grasp, to
detain him.
But the warning came too late, for
scarcely had he passed the threshold, and
hardly had his niece had time to utter the
startling exclamation, when the door which
divided the two rooms closed violently
after him, as if swung to by a strong blast
of wind.
Schalken and he both rushed to the
door, but their united and desperate efforts
could not avail so much as to shake it.
Shriek after shriek burst from the inner
chamber, with all the piercing loudness of
despairing terror. Schalken and Douw
applied every energy and strained every
nerve to force open the door; but all in
vain.
There was no sound of struggling from
within, but the screams seemed to increase
in loudness, and at the same time they
heard the bolts of the latticed window
withdrawn, and the window itself grated
upon the sill as if thrown open.
One LAST shriek, so long and piercing
and agonised as to be scarcely human,
swelled from the room, and suddenly there
followed a death-like silence.
A light step was heard crossing the
floor, as if from the bed to the window;
and almost at the same instant the door
gave way, and, yielding to the pressure of
the external applicants, they were nearly
precipitated into the room. It was empty.
The window was open, and Schalken
sprang to a chair and gazed out upon
the street and canal below. He saw no
form, but he beheld, or thought he beheld,
the waters of the broad canal beneath
settling ring after ring in heavy circular
ripples, as if a moment before disturbed by
the immersion of some large and heavy mass.
No trace of Rose was ever after discovered,
nor was anything certain respecting
her mysterious wooer detected or even
suspected; no clue whereby to trace the
intricacies of the labyrinth and to arrive at
a distinct conclusion was to be found. But
an incident occurred, which, though it will
not be received by our rational readers as
at all approaching to evidence upon the
matter, nevertheless produced a strong and
a lasting impression upon the mind of
Schalken.
Many years after the events which we
have detailed, Schalken, then remotely
situated, received an intimation of his
father's death, and of his intended burial
upon a fixed day in the church of Rotterdam.
It was necessary that a very considerable
journey should be performed by
the funeral procession, which, as it will
readily be believed, was not very numerously
attended. Schalken with difficulty
arrived in Rotterdam late in the day upon
which the funeral was appointed to take
place. The procession had not then arrived.
Evening closed in, and still it did not appear.
Schalken strolled down to the church--
be found it open--notice of the arrival of
the funeral had been given, and the vault
in which the body was to be laid had been
opened. The official who corresponds to
our sexton, on seeing a well-dressed
gentleman, whose object was to attend the
expected funeral, pacing the aisle of the
church, hospitably invited him to share
with him the comforts of a blazing wood
fire, which, as was his custom in winter
time upon such occasions, he had kindled
on the hearth of a chamber which commu-
nicated, by a flight of steps, with the vault
below.
In this chamber Schalken and his
entertainer seated themselves, and the sexton,
after some fruitless attempts to engage his
guest in conversation, was obliged to apply
himself to his tobacco-pipe and can to
solace his solitude.
In spite of his grief and cares, the
fatigues of a rapid journey of nearly forty
hours gradually overcame the mind and
body of Godfrey Schalken, and he sank
into a deep sleep, from which he was
awakened by some one shaking him
gently by the shoulder. He first thought
that the old sexton had called him, but HE
was no longer in the room.
He roused himself, and as soon as he
could clearly see what was around him, he
perceived a female form, clothed in a kind
of light robe of muslin, part of which was
so disposed as to act as a veil, and in her
hand she carried a lamp. She was moving
rather away from him, and towards the
flight of steps which conducted towards the
vaults.
Schalken felt a vague alarm at the sight
of this figure, and at the same time an
irresistible impulse to follow its guidance.
He followed it towards the vaults, but
when it reached the head of the stairs, he
paused; the figure paused also, and, turning
gently round, displayed, by the light of
the lamp it carried, the face and features
of his first love, Rose Velderkaust. There
was nothing horrible, or even sad, in the
countenance. On the contrary, it wore
the same arch smile which used to enchant
the artist long before in his happy days.
A feeling of awe and of interest, too
intense to be resisted, prompted him to
follow the spectre, if spectre it were. She
descended the stairs--he followed; and,
turning to the left, through a narrow
passage, she led him, to his infinite
surprise, into what appeared to be an old-
fashioned Dutch apartment, such as the
pictures of Gerard Douw have served to
immortalise.
Abundance of costly antique furniture
was disposed about the room, and in one
corner stood a four-post bed, with heavy
black-cloth curtains around it; the figure
frequently turned towards him with the
same arch smile; and when she came to
the side of the bed, she drew the curtains,
and by the light of the lamp which she
held towards its contents, she disclosed to
the horror-stricken painter, sitting bolt
upright in the bed, the livid and demoniac
form of Vanderhausen. Schalken had
hardly seen him when he fell senseless
upon the floor, where he lay until
discovered, on the next morning, by persons
employed in closing the passages into the
vaults. He was lying in a cell of considerable
size, which had not been disturbed for
a long time, and he had fallen beside a
large coffin which was supported upon
small stone pillars, a security against the
attacks of vermin.
To his dying day Schalken was satisfied
of the reality of the vision which he had
witnessed, and he has left behind him a
curious evidence of the impression which
it wrought upon his fancy, in a painting
executed shortly after the event we have
narrated, and which is valuable as
exhibiting not only the peculiarities which
have made Schalken's pictures sought
after, but even more so as presenting a
portrait, as close and faithful as one taken
from memory can be, of his early love,
Rose Velderkaust, whose mysterious fate
must ever remain matter of speculation.
The picture represents a chamber of
antique masonry, such as might be found
in most old cathedrals, and is lighted
faintly by a lamp carried in the hand of
a female figure, such as we have above
attempted to describe; and in the
background, and to the left of him who
examines the painting, there stands the
form of a man apparently aroused from
sleep, and by his attitude, his hand being
laid upon his sword, exhibiting considerable
alarm: this last figure is illuminated
only by the expiring glare of a wood or
charcoal fire.
The whole production exhibits a beauti-
ful specimen of that artful and singular
distribution of light and shade which has
rendered the name of Schalken immortal
among the artists of his country. This
tale is traditionary, and the reader will
easily perceive, by our studiously omitting
to heighten many points of the narrative,
when a little additional colouring might
have added effect to the recital, that we
have desired to lay before him, not a figment
of the brain, but a curious tradition
connected with, and belonging to, the
biography of a famous artist.
SCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADS.
Being an Eighth Extract from the Legacy of the late
Francis Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh.
I have observed, my dear friend,
among other grievous misconceptions
current among men otherwise
well-informed, and which tend to
degrade the pretensions of my native land,
an impression that there exists no such
thing as indigenous modern Irish composition
deserving the name of poetry--a
belief which has been thoughtlessly
sustained and confirmed by the unconscion-
able literary perverseness of Irishmen
themselves, who have preferred the easy
task of concocting humorous extravaganzas,
which caricature with merciless exaggeration
the pedantry, bombast, and blunders
incident to the lowest order of Hibernian
ballads, to the more pleasurable and
patriotic duty of collecting together the
many, many specimens of genuine poetic
feeling, which have grown up, like its wild
flowers, from the warm though neglected
soil of Ireland.
In fact, the productions which have
long been regarded as pure samples of
Irish poetic composition, such as 'The
Groves of Blarney,' and 'The Wedding
of Ballyporeen,' 'Ally Croker,' etc., etc.,
are altogether spurious, and as much like
the thing they call themselves 'as I to
Hercules.'
There are to be sure in Ireland, as in all
countries, poems which deserve to be
laughed at. The native productions of
which I speak, frequently abound in
absurdities--absurdities which are often,
too, provokingly mixed up with what is
beautiful; but I strongly and absolutely
deny that the prevailing or even the
usual character of Irish poetry is that of
comicality. No country, no time, is
devoid of real poetry, or something
approaching to it; and surely it were a
strange thing if Ireland, abounding as she
does from shore to shore with all that is
beautiful, and grand, and savage in
scenery, and filled with wild recollections,
vivid passions, warm affections, and keen
sorrow, could find no language to speak
withal, but that of mummery and jest.
No, her language is imperfect, but there
is strength in its rudeness, and beauty in
its wildness; and, above all, strong feeling
flows through it, like fresh fountains in
rugged caverns.
And yet I will not say that the
language of genuine indigenous Irish
composition is always vulgar and uncouth:
on the contrary, I am in possession
of some specimens, though by no means
of the highest order as to poetic merit,
which do not possess throughout a single
peculiarity of diction. The lines which
I now proceed to lay before you, by way
of illustration, are from the pen of an
unfortunate young man, of very humble
birth, whose early hopes were crossed by
the untimely death of her whom he loved.
He was a self-educated man, and in after-
life rose to high distinctions in the Church
to which he devoted himself--an act which
proves the sincerity of spirit with which
these verses were written.
'When moonlight falls on wave and wimple,
And silvers every circling dimple,
That onward, onward sails:
When fragrant hawthorns wild and simple
Lend perfume to the gales,
And the pale moon in heaven abiding,
O'er midnight mists and mountains riding,
Shines on the river, smoothly gliding
Through quiet dales,
'I wander there in solitude,
Charmed by the chiming music rude
Of streams that fret and flow.
For by that eddying stream SHE stood,
On such a night I trow:
For HER the thorn its breath was lending,
On this same tide HER eye was bending,
And with its voice HER voice was blending
Long, long ago.
Wild stream! I walk by thee once more,
I see thy hawthorns dim and hoar,
I hear thy waters moan,
And night-winds sigh from shore to shore,
With hushed and hollow tone;
But breezes on their light way winging,
And all thy waters heedless singing,
No more to me are gladness bringing--
I am alone.
'Years after years, their swift way keeping,
Like sere leaves down thy current sweeping,
Are lost for aye, and sped--
And Death the wintry soil is heaping
As fast as flowers are shed.
And she who wandered by my side,
And breathed enchantment o'er thy tide,
That makes thee still my friend and guide--
And she is dead.'
These lines I have transcribed in order
to prove a point which I have heard
denied, namely, that an Irish peasant--
for their author was no more--may write
at least correctly in the matter of measure,
language, and rhyme; and I shall add
several extracts in further illustration of
the same fact, a fact whose assertion, it
must be allowed, may appear somewhat
paradoxical even to those who are
acquainted, though superficially, with
Hibernian composition. The rhymes are,
it must be granted, in the generality of
such productions, very latitudinarian
indeed, and as a veteran votary of the
muse once assured me, depend wholly
upon the wowls (vowels), as may be seen
in the following stanza of the famous
'Shanavan Voicth.'
' "What'll we have for supper?"
Says my Shanavan Voicth;
"We'll have turkeys and roast BEEF,
And we'll eat it very SWEET,
And then we'll take a SLEEP,"
Says my Shanavan Voicth.'
But I am desirous of showing you that,
although barbarisms may and do exist in
our native ballads, there are still to be
found exceptions which furnish examples
of strict correctness in rhyme and metre.
Whether they be one whit the better for
this I have my doubts. In order to
establish my position, I subjoin a portion
of a ballad by one Michael Finley, of
whom more anon. The GENTLEMAN spoken
of in the song is Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
'The day that traitors sould him and inimies bought him,
The day that the red gold and red blood was paid--
Then the green turned pale and thrembled like the dead leaves in
Autumn,
And the heart an' hope iv Ireland in the could grave was
laid.
'The day I saw you first, with the sunshine fallin' round ye,
My heart fairly opened with the grandeur of the view:
For ten thousand Irish boys that day did surround ye,
An' I swore to stand by them till death, an' fight for you.
'Ye wor the bravest gentleman, an' the best that ever stood,
And your eyelid never thrembled for danger nor for dread,
An' nobleness was flowin' in each stream of your blood--
My bleasing on you night au' day, an' Glory be your bed.
'My black an' bitter curse on the head, an' heart, an' hand,
That plotted, wished, an' worked the fall of this Irish hero
bold;
God's curse upon the Irishman that sould his native land,
An' hell consume to dust the hand that held the thraitor's
gold.'
Such were the politics and poetry of
Michael Finley, in his day, perhaps, the
most noted song-maker of his country; but
as genius is never without its eccentricities,
Finley had his peculiarities, and among
these, perhaps the most amusing was his
rooted aversion to pen, ink, and paper, in
perfect independence of which, all his
compositions were completed. It is
impossible to describe the jealousy with
which he regarded the presence of writing
materials of any kind, and his ever wakeful
fears lest some literary pirate should
transfer his oral poetry to paper--fears
which were not altogether without warrant,
inasmuch as the recitation and singing of
these original pieces were to him a source
of wealth and importance. I recollect
upon one occasion his detecting me in the
very act of following his recitation with
my pencil and I shall not soon forget his
indignant scowl, as stopping abruptly in
the midst of a line, he sharply exclaimed:
'Is my pome a pigsty, or what, that you
want a surveyor's ground-plan of it?'
Owing to this absurd scruple, I have been
obliged, with one exception, that of the ballad
of 'Phaudhrig Crohoore,' to rest satisfied
with such snatches and fragments of his
poetry as my memory could bear away--a
fact which must account for the mutilated
state in which I have been obliged to
present the foregoing specimen of his
composition.
It was in vain for me to reason with
this man of metres upon the unreasonableness
of this despotic and exclusive assertion
of copyright. I well remember his
answer to me when, among other arguments,
I urged the advisability of some
care for the permanence of his reputation,
as a motive to induce him to consent to
have his poems written down, and thus
reduced to a palpable and enduring
form.
'I often noticed,' said he, 'when a mist
id be spreadin', a little brier to look as big,
you'd think, as an oak tree; an'
same way, in the dimmness iv the nightfall,
I often seen a man tremblin' and crassin'
himself as if a sperit was before him, at
the sight iv a small thorn bush, that he'd
leap over with ase if the daylight and
sunshine was in it. An' that's the rason why
I think it id be better for the likes iv me
to be remimbered in tradition than to be
written in history.'
Finley has now been dead nearly eleven
years, and his fame has not prospered by
the tactics which he pursued, for his
reputation, so far from being magnified, has
been wholly obliterated by the mists of
obscurity.
With no small difficulty, and no inconsiderable
manoeuvring, I succeeded in procuring,
at an expense of trouble and
conscience which you will no doubt
think but poorly rewarded, an accurate
'report' of one of his most popular
recitations. It celebrates one of the many
daring exploits of the once famous
Phaudhrig Crohoore (in prosaic English,
Patrick Connor). I have witnessed
powerful effects produced upon large
assemblies by Finley's recitation of this
poem which he was wont, upon pressing
invitation, to deliver at weddings, wakes,
and the like; of course the power of
the narrative was greatly enhanced by
the fact that many of his auditors
had seen and well knew the chief actors in
the drama.
'PHAUDHRIG CROHOORE.
Oh, Phaudhrig Crohoore was the broth of a boy,
And he stood six foot eight,
And his arm was as round as another man's thigh,
'Tis Phaudhrig was great,--
And his hair was as black as the shadows of night,
And hung over the scars left by many a fight;
And his voice, like the thunder, was deep, strong, and loud,
And his eye like the lightnin' from under the cloud.
And all the girls liked him, for he could spake civil,
And sweet when he chose it, for he was the divil.
An' there wasn't a girl from thirty-five undher,
Divil a matter how crass, but he could come round her.
But of all the sweet girls that smiled on him, but one
Was the girl of his heart, an' he loved her alone.
An' warm as the sun, as the rock firm an' sure,
Was the love of the heart of Phaudhrig Crohoore;
An' he'd die for one smile from his Kathleen O'Brien,
For his love, like his hatred, was sthrong as the lion.
'But Michael O'Hanlon loved Kathleen as well
As he hated Crohoore--an' that same was like hell.
But O'Brien liked HIM, for they were the same parties,
The O'Briens, O'Hanlons, an' Murphys, and Cartys--
An' they all went together an' hated Crohoore,
For it's many the batin' he gave them before;
An' O'Hanlon made up to O'Brien, an' says he:
"I'll marry your daughter, if you'll give her to me."
And the match was made up, an' when Shrovetide came on,
The company assimbled three hundred if one:
There was all the O'Hanlons, an' Murphys, an' Cartys,
An' the young boys an' girls av all o' them parties;
An' the O'Briens, av coorse, gathered strong on day,
An' the pipers an' fiddlers were tearin' away;
There was roarin', an' jumpin', an' jiggin', an' flingin',
An' jokin', an' blessin', an' kissin', an' singin',
An' they wor all laughin'--why not, to be sure?--
How O'Hanlon came inside of Phaudhrig Crohoore.
An' they all talked an' laughed the length of the table,
Atin' an' dhrinkin' all while they wor able,
And with pipin' an' fiddlin' an' roarin' like tundher,
Your head you'd think fairly was splittin' asundher;
And the priest called out, "Silence, ye blackguards, agin!"
An' he took up his prayer-book, just goin' to begin,
An' they all held their tongues from their funnin' and bawlin',
So silent you'd notice the smallest pin fallin';
An' the priest was just beg'nin' to read, whin the door
Sprung back to the wall, and in walked Crohoore--
Oh! Phaudhrig Crohoore was the broth of a boy,
Ant he stood six foot eight,
An' his arm was as round as another man's thigh,
'Tis Phaudhrig was great--
An' he walked slowly up, watched by many a bright eye,
As a black cloud moves on through the stars of the sky,
An' none sthrove to stop him, for Phaudhrig was great,
Till he stood all alone, just apposit the sate
Where O'Hanlon and Kathleen, his beautiful bride,
Were sitting so illigant out side by side;
An' he gave her one look that her heart almost broke,
An' he turned to O'Brien, her father, and spoke,
An' his voice, like the thunder, was deep, sthrong, and loud,
An' his eye shone like lightnin' from under the cloud:
"I didn't come here like a tame, crawlin' mouse,
But I stand like a man in my inimy's house;
In the field, on the road, Phaudhrig never knew fear,
Of his foemen, an' God knows he scorns it here;
So lave me at aise, for three minutes or four,
To spake to the girl I'll never see more."
An' to Kathleen he turned, and his voice changed its tone,
For he thought of the days when he called her his own,
An' his eye blazed like lightnin' from under the cloud
On his false-hearted girl, reproachful and proud,
An' says he: "Kathleen bawn, is it thrue what I hear,
That you marry of your free choice, without threat or fear?
If so, spake the word, an' I'll turn and depart,
Chated once, and once only by woman's false heart."
Oh! sorrow and love made the poor girl dumb,
An' she thried hard to spake, but the words wouldn't come,
For the sound of his voice, as he stood there fornint her,
Wint could on her heart as the night wind in winther.
An' the tears in her blue eyes stood tremblin' to flow,
And pale was her cheek as the moonshine on snow;
Then the heart of bould Phaudhrig swelled high in its place,
For he knew, by one look in that beautiful face,
That though sthrangers an' foemen their pledged hands might
sever,
Her true heart was his, and his only, for ever.
An' he lifted his voice, like the agle's hoarse call,
An' says Phaudhrig, "She's mine still, in spite of yez all!"
Then up jumped O'Hanlon, an' a tall boy was he,
An' he looked on bould Phaudhrig as fierce as could be,
An' says he, "By the hokey! before you go out,
Bould Phaudhrig Crohoore, you ,must fight for a bout."
Then Phaudhrig made answer: "I'll do my endeavour,"
An' with one blow he stretched bould O'Hanlon for ever.
In his arms he took Kathleen, an' stepped to the door;
And he leaped on his horse, and flung her before;
An' they all were so bother'd, that not a man stirred
Till the galloping hoofs on the pavement were heard.
Then up they all started, like bees in the swarm,
An' they riz a great shout, like the burst of a storm,
An' they roared, and they ran, and they shouted galore;
But Kathleen and Phaudhrig they never saw more.
'But them days are gone by, an' he is no more;
An' the green-grass is growin' o'er Phaudhrig Crohoore,
For he couldn't be aisy or quiet at all;
As he lived a brave boy, he resolved so to fall.
And he took a good pike--for Phaudhrig was great--
And he fought, and he died in the year ninety-eight.
An' the day that Crohoore in the green field was killed,
A sthrong boy was sthretched, and a sthrong heart was stilled.'
It is due to the memory of Finley to
say that the foregoing ballad, though bearing
throughout a strong resemblance to Sir
Walter Scott's 'Lochinvar,' was nevertheless
composed long before that spirited
production had seen the light.
**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Purcell Papers, Volume 2**