"Leave me," said Audley, in a faint voice. "Dale! the man who suspected Harley, who called on me in London, spoke of a child,--my child,--and sent me to find but another grave! He closeted with Harley,--he!"
Audley sank back on his chair, and literally gasped for breath. Few men in the world had a more established reputation for the courage that dignifies manhood, whether the physical courage or the moral. But at that moment it was not grief, not remorse, that paralyzed Audley,--it was fear. The brave man saw before him, as a thing visible and menacing, the aspect of his own treachery,--that crime of a coward; and into cowardice he was stricken. What had he to dread? Nothing save the accusing face of an injured friend,--nothing but that. And what more terrible? The only being, amidst all his pomp of partisans, who survived to love him, the only being for whom the cold statesman felt the happy, living, human tenderness of private affection, lost to him forever!
He covered his face with both hands, and sat in suspense of something awful, as a child sits in the dark, the drops on his brow, and his frame trembling.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Meanwhile Harley had listened to Mr. Dale"s vindication of Leonard with cold attention.
"Enough," said he, at the close. "Mr. Fairfield (for so we will yet call him) shall see me to-night; and if apology be due to him, I will make it. At the same time, it shall be decided whether he continue this contest or retire. And now, Mr. Dale, it was not to hear how this young man wooed, or shrunk from wooing, my affianced bride, that I availed myself of your promise to visit me at this house. We agreed that the seducer of Nora Avenel deserved chastis.e.m.e.nt, and I promised that Nora Avenel"s son should find a father. Both these a.s.surances shall be fulfilled to-morrow. And you, sir," continued Harley, rising, his whole form gradually enlarged by the dignity of pa.s.sion, "who wear the garb appropriated to the holiest office of Christian charity; you who have presumed to think that, before the beard had darkened my cheek, I could first betray the girl who had been reared under this roof, then abandon her,--sneak like a dastard from the place in which my victim came to die, leave my own son, by the woman thus wronged, without thought or care, through the perilous years of tempted youth, till I found him, by chance, an outcast in a desert more dread than Hagar"s,--you, sir, who have for long years thus judged of me, shall have the occasion to direct your holy anger towards the rightful head; and in me, you who have condemned the culprit shall respect the judge."
Mr. Dale was at first startled, and almost awed, by this unexpected burst. But, accustomed to deal with the sternest and the darkest pa.s.sions, his calm sense and his habit of authority over those whose souls were bared to him, n.o.bly recovered from their surprise. "My Lord,"
said he, "first, with humility I bow to your rebuke, and entreat your pardon for my erring, and, as you say, my uncharitable opinions.
We dwellers in a village and obscure pastors of a humble flock, we, mercifully removed from temptation, are too apt, perhaps, to exaggerate its power over those whose lots are cast in that great world which has so many gates ever open to evil. This is my sole excuse if I was misled by what appeared to me strong circ.u.mstantial evidence. But forgive me again if I warn you not to fall into an error perhaps little lighter than my own. Your pa.s.sion, when you cleared yourself from reproach, became you. But ah, my Lord, when with that stern brow and those flashing eyes, you launched your menace upon another over whom you would const.i.tute yourself the judge, forgetful of the divine precept, "Judge not," I felt that I was listening no longer to honest self-vindication,--I felt that I was listening to fierce revenge!"
"Call it revenge, or what you will," said Harley, with sullen firmness; "but I have been stung too deeply not to sting. Frank with all, till the last few days, I have ever been. Frank to you, at least, even now, this much I tell you: I pretend to no virtue in what I still hold to be justice; but no declamations nor homilies tending to prove that justice is sinful will move my resolves. As man I have been outraged, and as man I will retaliate. The way and the mode, the true criminal and his fitting sentence, you will soon learn, sir. I have much to do to-night; forgive me if I adjourn for the present all further conference."
"No, no; do not dismiss me. There is something, in spite of your present language, which so commands my interest; I see that there has been so much suffering where there is now so much wrath,--that I would save you from the suffering worse than all,--remorse. Oh, pause, my dear Lord, pause and answer me but two questions; then I will leave your after course to yourself."
"Say on, sir," said Lord L"Estrange, touched, and with respect.
"First; then, a.n.a.lyze your own feelings. Is this anger merely to punish an offender and to right the living,--for who can pretend to right the dead? Or is there not some private hate that stirs and animates and confuses all?"
Harley remained silent. Mr. Dale renewed,
"You loved this poor girl. Your language even now reveals it. You speak of treachery: perhaps you had a rival who deceived you; I know not, guess not, whom. But if you would strike the rival, must you not wound the innocent son? And, in presenting Nora"s child to his father, as you pledge yourself to do, can you mean some cruel mockery that, under seeming kindness, implies some unnatural vengeance?"
"You read well the heart of man," said Harley; "and I have owned to you that I am but man. Pa.s.s on; you have another question."
"And one more solemn and important. In my world of a village, revenge is a common pa.s.sion; it is the sin of the uninstructed. The savage deems it n.o.ble! but Christ"s religion, which is the sublime Civilizer, emphatically condemns it. Why? Because religion ever seeks to enn.o.ble a man; and nothing so debases him as revenge. Look into your own heart, and tell me whether, since you have cherished this pa.s.sion, you have not felt all sense of right and wrong confused,--have not felt that whatever would before have seemed to you mean and base, appears now but just means to your heated end. Revenge is ever a hypocrite: rage, at least, strikes with the naked sword; but revenge, stealthy and patient, conceals the weapon of the a.s.sa.s.sin. My Lord, your colour changes. What is your answer to my question?"
"Oh," exclaimed Harley, with a voice thrilling in its mournful anguish, "it is not since I have cherished the revenge that I am changed, that right and wrong grow dark to me, that hypocrisy seems the atmosphere fit for earth. No; it is since the discovery that demands the vengeance. It is useless, sir," he continued impetuously,--"useless to argue with me.
Were I to sit down, patient and impotent, under the sense of the wrong which I have received, I should feel, indeed, that debas.e.m.e.nt which you ascribe to the gratification of what you term revenge. I should never regain the self-esteem which the sentiment of power now restores to me; I should feel as if the whole world could perceive and jeer at my meek humiliation. I know not why I have said so much,--why I have betrayed to you so much of my secret mind, and stooped to vindicate my purpose. I never meant it. Again I say, we must close this conference." Harley here walked to the door, and opened it significantly.
"One word more, Lord L"Estrange,--but one. You will not hear me. I am a comparative stranger, but you have a friend, a friend dear and intimate, now under the same roof. Will you consent, at least, to take counsel of Mr. Audley Egerton? None can doubt his friendship for you; none can doubt that whatever he advise will be that which best becomes your honour. What, my Lord, you hesitate,--you feel ashamed to confide to your dearest friend a purpose which his mind would condemn? Then I will seek him, I will implore him to save you from what can but entail repentance."
"Mr. Dale, I must forbid you to see Mr. Egerton. What has pa.s.sed between us ought to be as sacred to you as a priest of Rome holds confession.
This much, however, I will say to content you: I promise that I will do nothing that shall render me unworthy of Mr. Audley Egerton"s friendship, or which his fine sense of honour shall justify him in blaming. Let that satisfy you."
"Ah, my Lord," cried Mr. Dale, pausing irresolute at the doorway, and seizing Harley"s hand, "I should indeed be satisfied if you would submit yourself to higher counsel than mine,--than Mr. Egerton"s, than man"s.
Have you never felt the efficacy of prayer?"
"My life has been wasted," replied Harley, "and I dare not, therefore, boast that I have found prayer efficacious. But, so far back as I can remember, it has at least been my habit to pray to Heaven, night and morning, until at least--until--" The natural and obstinate candour of the man forced out the last words, which implied reservation. He stopped short.
"Until you have cherished revenge? You have not dared to pray since?
Oh, reflect what evil there is within us, when we dare not come before Heaven,--dare not pray for what we wish. You are moved. I leave you to your own thoughts." Harley inclined his head, and the parson pa.s.sed him by, and left him alone,--startled indeed; but was he softened? As Mr.
Dale hurried along the corridor, much agitated, Violante stole from a recess formed by a large bay window, and linking her arm in his, said anxiously, but timidly: "I have been waiting for you, dear Mr. Dale; and so long! You have been with Lord L"Estrange?"
"Well!"
"Why do you not speak? You have left him comforted, happier?"
"Happier! No."
"What!" said Violante, with a look of surprise, and a sadness not unmixed with petulance in her quick tone. "What! does he then so grieve that Helen prefers another?"
Despite the grave emotions that disturbed his mind, Mr. Dale was struck by Violante"s question, and the voice in which it was said. He loved her tenderly. "Child, child," said he, "I am glad that Helen has escaped Lord L"Estrange. Beware, oh, beware how he excite any gentler interest in yourself. He is a dangerous man,--more dangerous for glimpses of a fine original nature. He may well move the heart of the innocent and inexperienced, for he has strangely crept into mine. But his heart is swollen with pride and ire and malice."
"You mistake; it is false!" cried Violante, impetuously. "I cannot believe one word that would asperse him who has saved my father from a prison, or from death. You have not treated him gently. He fancies he has been wronged by Leonard, received ingrat.i.tude from Helen. He has felt the sting in proportion to his own susceptible and generous heart, and you have chided where you should have soothed. Poor Lord L"Estrange!
And you have left him still indignant and unhappy?"
"Foolish girl! I have left him meditating sin; I have left him afraid to pray; I have left him on the brink of some design--I know not what--but which involves more than Leonard in projects of revenge; I have left him so, that if his heart be really susceptible and generous, he will wake from wrath to be the victim of long and unavailing remorse. If your father has influence over him, tell Dr. Riccabocca what I say, and bid him seek, and in his turn save, the man who saved himself. He has not listened to religion,--he maybe more docile to philosophy. I cannot stay here longer,--I must go to Leonard."
Mr. Dale broke from Violante and hurried down the corridor; Violante stood on the same spot, stunned and breathless. Harley on the brink of some strange sin! Harley to wake, the victim of remorse! Harley to be saved, as he had saved her father! Her breast heaved, her colour went and came, her eyes were raised, her lips murmured. She advanced with soft footsteps up the corridor; she saw the lights gleaming from Harley"s room, and suddenly they were darkened, as the inmate of the room shut to the door, with angry and impatient hand.
An outward act often betrays the inward mind. As Harley had thus closed the door, so had he sought to shut his heart from the intrusion of softer and holier thoughts. He had turned to his hearthstone, and stood on it, resolved and hardened. The man who had loved with such pertinacious fidelity far so many years could not at once part with hate. A pa.s.sion once admitted to his breast, clung to it with such rooted force! But woe, woe to thee, Harley L"Estrange, if tomorrow at this hour thou stand at the hearthstone, thy designs accomplished, knowing that, in the fulfilment of thy blind will, thou hast met falsehood with falsehood, and deception with deceit! What though those designs now seem so consummate, so just, so appropriate, so exquisite a revenge,--seem to thee the sole revenge wit can plan and civilized life allow: wilt thou ever wash from thy memory the stain that will sully thine honour? Thou, too, professing friendship still, and masking perfidy under smiles! Grant that the wrong be great as thou deem it,--be ten times greater: the sense of thy meanness, O gentleman and soldier, will bring the blush to thy cheek in the depth of thy solitude. Thou, who now thinkest others unworthy a trustful love, wilt feel thyself forever unworthy theirs. Thy seclusion will know not repose. The dignity of man will forsake thee. Thy proud eye will quail from the gaze. Thy step will no longer spurn the earth that it treads on. He who has once done a base thing is never again wholly reconciled to honour. And woe--thrice woe, if thou learn too late that thou hast exaggerated thy fancied wrong: that there is excuse, where thou seest none; that thy friend may have erred, but that his error is venial compared to thy fancied retribution!
Thus, however, in the superb elation of conscious power, though lavished on a miserable object,--a terrible example of what changes one evil and hateful thought, cherished to the exclusion of all others, can make in the n.o.blest nature, stood, on the hearth of his fathers, and on the abyss of a sorrow and a shame from which there could be no recall, the determined and scornful man.
A hand is on the door,--he does not hear it; a form pa.s.ses the threshold,-he does not see it; a light step pauses, a soft eye gazes.
Deaf and blind still to both.
Violante came on, gathering courage, and stood at the hearth by his side.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"LORD L"ESTRANGE, n.o.ble friend!"
"You!--and here--Violante? Is it I whom you seek? For what? Good heavens! what has happened? Why are you so pale; why tremble?"
"Have you forgiven Helen?" asked Violante, beginning with evasive question, and her cheek was pale no more. "Helen, the poor child! I have nothing in her to forgive, much to thank her for. She has been frank and honest."
"And Leonard--whom I remember in my childhood--you have forgiven him?"
"Fair mediator," said Harley, smiling, though coldly, "happy is the man who deceives another; all plead for him. And if the man deceived cannot forgive, no one will sympathize or excuse."
"But Leonard did not deceive you?"
"Yes, from the first. It is a long tale, and not to be told to you; but I cannot forgive him."
"Adieu! my Lord. Helen must, then, still be very dear to you!" Violante turned away. Her emotion was so artless, her very anger so charming, that the love, against which, in the prevalence of his later and darker pa.s.sions, he had so sternly struggled, rushed back upon Harley"s breast; but it came only in storm.
"Stay, but talk not of Helen!" he exclaimed. "Ah, if Leonard"s sole offence had been what you appear to deem it, do you think I could feel resentment? No; I should have gratefully hailed the hand that severed a rash and ungenial tie. I would have given my ward to her lover with such a dower as it suits my wealth to bestow. But his offence dates from his very birth. To bless and to enrich the son of a man who--Violante, listen to me. We may soon part, and forever. Others may misconstrue my actions; you, at least, shall know from what just principle they spring.