"Is he not your son? and do we not owe him the more respect for having hitherto allowed others to--"
He stopped, and the mother could say no more. And thus it was, that this boy of powerful character and strong pa.s.sions had, from motives the most amiable, been pampered from the darling into the despot.
"And now, Kate, I will, as I told you last night, ride over to ---- and fix the earliest day for our public marriage: I will ask the lawyer to dine here, to talk about the proper steps for proving the private one."
"Will that be difficult" asked Catherine, with natural anxiety.
"No,--for if you remember, I had the precaution to get an examined copy of the register; otherwise, I own to you, I should have been alarmed.
I don"t know what has become of Smith. I heard some time since from his father that he had left the colony; and (I never told you before--it would have made you uneasy) once, a few years ago, when my uncle again got it into his head that we might be married, I was afraid poor Caleb"s successor might, by chance, betray us. So I went over to A---- myself, being near it when I was staying with Lord C----, in order to see how far it might be necessary to secure the parson; and, only think! I found an accident had happened to the register--so, as the clergyman could know nothing, I kept my own counsel. How lucky I have the copy! No doubt the lawyer will set all to rights; and, while I am making the settlements, I may as well make my will. I have plenty for both boys, but the dark one must be the heir. Does he not look born to be an eldest son?"
"Ah, Philip!"
"Pshaw! one don"t die the sooner for making a will. Have I the air of a man in a consumption?"--and the st.u.r.dy sportsman glanced complacently at the strength and symmetry of his manly limbs. "Come, Phil, let"s go to the stables. Now, Robert, I will show you what is better worth seeing than those miserable flower-beds." So saying, Mr. Beaufort led the way to the courtyard at the back of the cottage. Catherine and Sidney remained on the lawn; the rest followed the host. The grooms, of whom Beaufort was the idol, hastened to show how well the horses had thriven in his absence.
"Do see how Brown Bess has come on, sir! but, to be sure, Master Philip keeps her in exercise. Ah, sir, he will be as good a rider as your honour, one of these days."
"He ought to be a better, Tom; for I think he"ll never have my weight to carry. Well, saddle Brown Bess for Mr. Philip. What horse shall I take?
Ah! here"s my old friend, Puppet!"
"I don"t know what"s come to Puppet, sir; he"s off his feed, and turned sulky. I tried him over the bar yesterday; but he was quite restive like."
"The devil he was! So, so, old boy, you shall go over the six-barred gate to-day, or we"ll know why." And Mr. Beaufort patted the sleek neck of his favourite hunter. "Put the saddle on him, Tom."
"Yes, your honour. I sometimes think he is hurt in the loins somehow--he don"t take to his leaps kindly, and he always tries to bite when we bridles him. Be quiet, sir!"
"Only his airs," said Philip. "I did not know this, or I would have taken him over the gate. Why did not you tell me, Tom?"
"Lord love you, sir! because you have such a spurret; and if anything had come to you--"
"Quite right: you are not weight enough for Puppet, my boy; and he never did like any one to back him but myself. What say you, brother, will you ride with us?"
"No, I must go to ---- to-day with Arthur. I have engaged the post-horses at two o"clock; but I shall be with you to-morrow or the day after. You see his tutor expects him; and as he is backward in his mathematics, he has no time to lose."
"Well, then, good-bye, nephew!" and Beaufort slipped a pocket-book into the boy"s hand. "Tush! whenever you want money, don"t trouble your father--write to me--we shall be always glad to see you; and you must teach Philip to like his book a little better--eh, Phil?"
"No, father; I shall be rich enough to do without books," said Philip, rather coa.r.s.ely; but then observing the heightened colour of his cousin, he went up to him, and with a generous impulse said, "Arthur, you admired this gun; pray accept it. Nay, don"t be shy--I can have as many as I like for the asking: you"re not so well off, you know."
The intention was kind, but the manner was so patronising that Arthur felt offended. He put back the gun, and said, drily, "I shall have no occasion for the gun, thank you."
If Arthur was offended by the offer, Philip was much more offended by the refusal. "As you like; I hate pride," said he; and he gave the gun to the groom as he vaulted into his saddle with the lightness of a young Mercury. "Come, father!"
Mr. Beaufort had now mounted his favourite hunter--a large, powerful horse well known for its prowess in the field. The rider trotted him once or twice through the s.p.a.cious yard.
"Nonsense, Tom: no more hurt in the loins than I am. Open that gate; we will go across the paddock, and take the gate yonder--the old six-bar--eh, Phil?"
"Capital!--to be sure!--"
The gate was opened--the grooms stood watchful to see the leap, and a kindred curiosity arrested Robert Beaufort and his son.
How well they looked! those two hors.e.m.e.n; the ease, lightness, spirit of the one, with the fine-limbed and fiery steed that literally "bounded beneath him as a barb"--seemingly as gay, as ardent, and as haughty as the boyrider. And the manly, and almost herculean form of the elder Beaufort, which, from the buoyancy of its movements, and the supple grace that belongs to the perfect mastership of any athletic art, possessed an elegance and dignity, especially on horseback, which rarely accompanies proportions equally st.u.r.dy and robust. There was indeed something knightly and chivalrous in the bearing of the elder Beaufort--in his handsome aquiline features, the erectness of his mien, the very wave of his hand, as he spurred from the yard.
"What a fine-looking fellow my uncle is!" said Arthur, with involuntary admiration.
"Ay, an excellent life--amazingly strong!" returned the pale father, with a slight sigh.
"Philip," said Mr. Beaufort, as they cantered across the paddock, "I think the gate is too much for you. I will just take Puppet over, and then we will open it for you."
"Pooh, my dear father! you don"t know how I"m improved!" And slackening the rein, and touching the side of his horse, the young rider darted forward and cleared the gate, which was of no common height, with an ease that extorted a loud "bravo" from the proud father.
"Now, Puppet," said Mr. Beaufort, spurring his own horse. The animal cantered towards the gate, and then suddenly turned round with an impatient and angry snort. "For shame, Puppet!--for shame, old boy!"
said the sportsman, wheeling him again to the barrier. The horse shook his head, as if in remonstrance; but the spur vigorously applied showed him that his master would not listen to his mute reasonings. He bounded forward--made at the gate--struck his hoofs against the top bar--fell forward, and threw his rider head foremost on the road beyond. The horse rose instantly--not so the master. The son dismounted, alarmed and terrified. His father was speechless! and blood gushed from the mouth and nostrils, as the head drooped heavily on the boy"s breast. The bystanders had witnessed the fall--they crowded to the spot--they took the fallen man from the weak arms of the son--the head groom examined him with the eye of one who had picked up science from his experience in such casualties.
"Speak, brother!--where are you hurt?" exclaimed Robert Beaufort.
"He will never speak more!" said the groom, bursting into tears. "His neck is broken!"
"Send for the nearest surgeon," cried Mr. Robert. "Good G.o.d! boy! don"t mount that devilish horse!"
But Arthur had already leaped on the unhappy steed, which had been the cause of this appalling affliction. "Which way?"
"Straight on to ----, only two miles--every one knows Mr. Powis"s house.
G.o.d bless you!" said the groom. Arthur vanished.
"Lift him carefully, and take him to the house," said Mr. Robert. "My poor brother! my dear brother!"
He was interrupted by a cry, a single shrill, heartbreaking cry; and Philip fell senseless to the ground.
No one heeded him at that hour--no one heeded the fatherless b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
"Gently, gently," said Mr. Robert, as he followed the servants and their load. And he then muttered to himself, and his sallow cheek grew bright, and his breath came short: "He has made no will--he never made a will."
CHAPTER V.
"Constance. O boy, then where art thou?
* * * * What becomes of me"--King John.
It was three days after the death of Philip Beaufort--for the surgeon arrived only to confirm the judgment of the groom: in the drawing-room of the cottage, the windows closed, lay the body, in its coffin, the lid not yet nailed down. There, prostrate on the floor, tearless, speechless, was the miserable Catherine; poor Sidney, too young to comprehend all his loss, sobbing at her side; while Philip apart, seated beside the coffin, gazed abstractedly on that cold rigid face which had never known one frown for his boyish follies.
In another room, that had been appropriated to the late owner, called his study, sat Robert Beaufort. Everything in this room spoke of the deceased. Partially separated from the rest of the house, it communicated by a winding staircase with a chamber above, to which Philip had been wont to betake himself whenever he returned late, and over-exhilarated, from some rural feast crowning a hard day"s hunt.
Above a quaint, old-fashioned bureau of Dutch workmanship (which Philip had picked up at a sale in the earlier years of his marriage) was a portrait of Catherine taken in the bloom of her youth. On a peg on the door that led to the staircase, still hung his rough driving coat. The window commanded the view of the paddock in which the worn-out hunter or the unbroken colt grazed at will. Around the walls of the "study"--(a strange misnomer!)--hung prints of celebrated fox-hunts and renowned steeple-chases: guns, fishing-rods, and foxes" brushes, ranged with a sportsman"s neatness, supplied the place of books. On the mantelpiece lay a cigar-case, a well-worn volume on the Veterinary Art, and the last number of the Sporting Magazine. And in the room--thus witnessing of the hardy, masculine, rural life, that had pa.s.sed away--sallow, stooping, town-worn, sat, I say, Robert Beaufort, the heir-at-law,--alone: for the very day of the death he had remanded his son home with the letter that announced to his wife the change in their fortunes, and directed her to send his lawyer post-haste to the house of death. The bureau, and the drawers, and the boxes which contained the papers of the deceased were open; their contents had been ransacked; no certificate of the private marriage, no hint of such an event; not a paper found to signify the last wishes of the rich dead man.
He had died, and made no sign. Mr. Robert Beaufort"s countenance was still and composed.
A knock at the door was heard; the lawyer entered.
"Sir, the undertakers are here, and Mr. Greaves has ordered the bells to be rung: at three o"clock he will read the service."