Between four and five in the morning, the corpse was put into the hea.r.s.e; the coffin before being filled, as intended, with flowers and aromatic herbs, and proper care taken to prevent the corpse suffering (to the eye) from the jolting of the hea.r.s.e.
Poor Mrs. Norton is extremely ill. I gave particular directions to Mrs.
Smith"s maid (whom I have ordered to attend the good woman in a mourning chariot) to take care of her. The Colonel, who rides with his servants within view of the hea.r.s.e, says that he will see my orders in relation to her enforced.
When the hea.r.s.e moved off, and was out of sight, I locked up the lady"s chamber, into which all that had belonged to her was removed.
I expect to hear from the Colonel as soon as he is got down, by a servant of his own.
LETTER XXII
MR. MOWBRAY, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
UXBRIDGE, SUNDAY MORN. NINE O"CLOCK.
DEAR JACK,
I send you enclosed a letter from Mr. Lovelace; which, though written in the cursed Algebra, I know to be such a one as will show what a queer way he is in; for he read it to us with the air of a tragedian. You will see by it what the mad fellow had intended to do, if we had not all of us interposed. He was actually setting out with a surgeon of this place, to have the lady opened and embalmed.--Rot me if it be not my full persuasion that, if he had, her heart would have been found to be either iron or marble.
We have got Lord M. to him. His Lordship is also much afflicted at the lady"s death. His sisters and nieces, he says, will be ready to break their hearts. What a rout"s here about a woman! For after all she was no more.
We have taken a pailful of black bull"s blood from him; and this has lowered him a little. But he threatens Col. Morden, he threatens you for your cursed reflections, [cursed reflections indeed, Jack!] and curses all the world and himself still.
Last night his mourning (which is full as deep as for a wife) was brought home, and his fellows" mourning too. And, though eight o"clock, he would put it on, and make them attend him in theirs.
Every body blames him on this lady"s account. But I see not for why.
She was a vixen in her virtue. What a pretty fellow she has ruined--Hey, Jack!--and her relations are ten times more to blame than he. I will prove this to the teeth of them all. If they could use her ill, why should they expect him to use her well?--You, or I, or Tourville, in his shoes, would have done as he has done. Are not all the girls forewarned?
--"Has he done by her as that caitiff Miles did to the farmer"s daughter, whom he tricked up to town, (a pretty girl also, just such another as Bob."s Rosebud,) under a notion of waiting on a lady?--Drilled her on, pretending the lady was abroad. Drank her light-hearted--then carried her to a play--then it was too late, you know, to see the pretended lady --then to a bagnio--ruined her, as they call it, and all this the same day. Kept her on (an ugly dog, too!) a fortnight or three weeks, then left her to the mercy of the people of the bagnio, (never paying for any thing,) who stript her of all her clothes, and because she would not take on, threw her into prison; where she died in want and despair!"--A true story, thou knowest, Jack.--This fellow deserved to be d----d. But has our Bob. been such a villain as this?--And would he not have married this flinty-hearted lady?--So he is justified very evidently.
Why, then, should such cursed qualms take him?--Who would have thought he had been such poor blood? Now [rot the puppy!] to see him sit silent in a corner, when he has tired himself with his mock majesty, and with his argumentation, (Who so fond of arguing as he?) and teaching his shadow to make mouths against the wainscot--The devil fetch me if I have patience with him!
But he has had no rest for these ten days--that"s the thing!--You must write to him; and pr"ythee coax him, Jack, and send him what he writes for, and give him all his way--there will be no bearing him else. And get the lady buried as fast as you can; and don"t let him know where.
This letter should have gone yesterday. We told him it did. But were in hopes he would have inquired after it again. But he raves as he has not any answer.
What he vouchsafed to read of other of your letters has given my Lord such a curiosity as makes him desire you to continue your accounts. Pray do; but not in your h.e.l.lish Arabic; and we will let the poor fellow only into what we think fitting for his present way.
I live a cursed dull poking life here. What with I so lately saw of poor Belton, and what I now see of this charming fellow, I shall be as crazy as he soon, or as dull as thou, Jack; so must seek for better company in town than either of you. I have been forced to read sometimes to divert me; and you know I hate reading. It presently sets me into a fit of drowsiness; and then I yawn and stretch like a devil.
Yet in Dryden"s Palemon and Arcite have I just now met with a pa.s.sage, that has in it much of our Bob."s case. These are some of the lines.
Mr. Mowbray then recites some lines from that poem, describing a distracted man, and runs the parallel; and then, priding himself in his performance, says:
Let me tell you, that had I begun to write as early as you and Lovelace, I might have cut as good a figure as either of you. Why not? But boy or man I ever hated a book. "Tis folly to lie. I loved action, my boy. I hated droning; and have led in former days more boys from their book, than ever my master made to profit by it. Kicking and cuffing, and orchard-robbing, were my early glory.
But I am tired of writing. I never wrote such a long letter in my life.
My wrist and my fingers and thumb ache d----n----y. The pen is an hundred weight at least. And my eyes are ready to drop out of my head upon the paper.--The cramp but this minute in my fingers. Rot the goose and the goose-quill! I will write no more long letters for a twelve-month to come. Yet one word; we think the mad fellow coming to.
Adieu.
LETTER XXIII
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
UXBRIDGE, SAT. SEPT. 9.
JACK,
I think it absolutely right that my ever-dear and beloved lady should be opened and embalmed. It must be done out of hand this very afternoon.
Your acquaintance, Tomkins, and old Anderson of this place, I will bring with me, shall be the surgeons. I have talked to the latter about it.
I will see every thing done with that decorum which the case, and the sacred person of my beloved require.
Every thing that can be done to preserve the charmer from decay shall also be done. And when she will descend to her original dust, or cannot be kept longer, I will then have her laid in my family-vault, between my own father and mother. Myself, as I am in my soul, so in person, chief mourner. But her heart, to which I have such unquestionable pretensions, in which once I had so large a share, and which I will prize above my own, I will have. I will keep it in spirits. It shall never be out of my sight. And all the charges of sepulture too shall be mine.
Surely n.o.body will dispute my right to her. Whose was she living?--Whose is she dead but mine?--Her cursed parents, whose barbarity to her, no doubt, was the true cause of her death, have long since renounced her.
She left them for me. She chose me therefore; and I was her husband.
What though I treated her like a villain? Do I not pay for it now?
Would she not have been mine had I not? n.o.body will dispute but she would. And has she not forgiven me?--I am then in statu quo prius with her, am I not? as if I had never offended?--Whose then can she be but mine?
I will free you from your executorship, and all your cares.
Take notice, Belford, that I do hereby actually discharge you, and every body, from all cares and troubles relating to her. And as to her last testament, I will execute it myself.
There were no articles between us, no settlements; and she is mine, as you see I have proved to a demonstration; nor could she dispose of herself but as I pleased.--D----n----n seize me then if I make not good my right against all opposers!
Her bowels, if her friends are very solicitous about them, and very humble and sorrowful, (and none have they of their own,) shall be sent down to them--to be laid with her ancestors--unless she has ordered otherwise. For, except that, she shall not be committed to the unworthy earth so long as she can be kept out of it, her will shall be performed in every thing.
I send in the mean time for a lock of her hair.
I charge you stir not in any part of her will but by my express direction. I will order every thing myself. For am I not her husband?
and, being forgiven by her, am I not the chosen of her heart? What else signifies her forgiveness?
The two insufferable wretches you have sent me plague me to death, and would treat me like a babe in strings.--D--n the fellows, what end can they mean by it? Yet that crippled monkey Doleman joins with them. And, as I hear them whisper, they have sent for Lord M.--to controul me, I suppose.
What I write to you for is,
1. To forbid you intermeddling with any thing relating to her. To forbid Morden intermeddling also. If I remember right, he has threatened me, and cursed me, and used me ill--and let him be gone from her, if he would avoid my resentment.
2. To send me a lock of her hair instantly by the bearer.
3. To engage Tomkins to have every thing ready for the opening and embalming. I shall bring Anderson with me.
4. To get her will and every thing ready for my perusal and consideration.
I will have possession of her dear heart this very night; and let Tomkins provide a proper receptacle and spirits, till I can get a golden one made for it.