"Then you did not know that after all! I thought so. Oh, Jerry!"
"Why, look you, man, it was not our interest to take their side if we could make our bargain out of the other. "Cause why? You are only one witness--you are a good fellow, but poor, and with very shaky nerves, Will. You does not know what them big wigs are when a roan"s caged in a witness-box--they flank one up, and they flank one down, and they bully and bother, till one"s like a horse at Astley"s dancing on hot iron.
If your testimony broke down, why it would be all up with the case, and what then would become of us? Besides," added the captain, with dignified candour, "I have been lagged, it"s no use denying it; I am back before my time. Inquiries about your respectability would soon bring the bulkies about me. And you would not have poor Jerry sent back to that d---d low place on t"other side of the herring-pond, would you?"
"Ah, Jerry!" said William, kindly placing his hand in his brother"s, "you know I helped you to escape; I left all to come over with you."
"So you did, and you"re a good fellow; though as to leaving all, why you had got rid of all first. And when you told me about the marriage, did not I say that I saw our way to a snug thing for life? But to return to my story. There is a danger in going with the youngsters. But since, Will,--since nothing but hard words is to be got on the other side, we"ll do our duty, and I"ll find them out, and do the best I can for us--that is, if they be yet above ground. And now I"ll own to you that I think I knows that the younger one is alive."
"You do?"
"Yes! But as he won"t come in for anything unless his brother is dead, we must have a hunt for the heir. Now I told you that, many years ago, there was a lad with me, who, putting all things together--seeing how the Beauforts came after him, and recollecting different things he let out at the time--I feel pretty sure is your old master"s Hopeful. I know that poor Will Gawtrey gave this lad the address of Old Gregg, a friend of mine. So after watching Sharp off the sly, I went that very night, or rather at two in the morning, to Gregg"s house, and, after brushing up his memory, I found that the lad had been to him, and gone over afterwards to Paris in search of Gawtrey, who was then keeping a matrimony shop. As I was not rich enough to go off to Paris in a pleasant, gentlemanlike way, I allowed Gregg to put me up to a noice quiet little bit of business. Don"t shake your head--all safe--a rural affair! That took some days. You see it has helped to new rig me," and the captain glanced complacently over a very smart suit of clothes.
"Well, on my return I went to call on you, but you had flown. I half suspected you might have gone to the mother"s relations here; and I thought, at all events, that I could not do better than go myself and see what they knew of the matter. From what you say I feel I had better now let that alone, and go over to Paris at once; leave me alone to find out. And faith, what with Sharp and the old lord, the sooner I quit England the better."
"And you really think you shall get hold of them after all? Oh, never fear my nerves if I"m once in the right; it"s living with you, and seeing you do wrong, and hearing you talk wickedly, that makes me tremble."
"Bother!" said the captain, "you need not crow over me. Stand up, Will; there now, look at us two in the gla.s.s! Why, I look ten years younger than you do, in spite of all my troubles. I dress like a gentleman, as I am; I have money in my pocket; I put money in yours; without me you"d starve. Look you, you carried over a little fortune to Australia--you married--you farmed--you lived honestly, and yet that d---d shilly-shally disposition of yours, "ticed into one speculation to-day, and scared out of another to-morrow, ruined you!"
"Jerry! Jerry!" cried William, writhing; "don"t--don"t."
"But it"s all true, and I wants to cure you of preaching. And then, when you were nearly run out, instead of putting a bold face on it, and setting your shoulder to the wheel, you gives it up--you sells what you have--you bolts over, wife and all, to Boston, because some one tells you you can do better in America--you are out of the way when a search is made for you--years ago when you could have benefited yourself and your master"s family without any danger to you or me--n.o.body can find you; "cause why, you could not bear that your old friends in England, or in the colony either, should know that you were turned a slave-driver in Kentucky. You kick up a mutiny among the n.i.g.g.e.rs by moaning over them, instead of keeping "em to it--you get kicked out yourself--your wife begs you to go back to Australia, where her relations will do something for you--you work your pa.s.sage out, looking as ragged as a colt from gra.s.s--wife"s uncle don"t like ragged nephews-in-law--wife dies broken-hearted--and you might be breaking stones on the roads with the convicts, if I, myself a convict, had not taken compa.s.sion on you. Don"t cry, Will, it is all for your own good--I hates cant! Whereas I, my own master from eighteen, never stooped to serve any other--have dressed like a gentleman--kissed the pretty girls--drove my pheaton--been in all the papers as "the celebrated Dashing Jerry"--never wanted a guinea in my pocket, and even when lagged at last, had a pretty little sum in the colonial bank to lighten my misfortunes. I escape,--I bring you over--and here I am, supporting you, and in all probability, the one on whom depends the fate of one of the first families in the country. And you preaches at me, do you? Look you, Will;--in this world, honesty"s nothing without force of character! And so your health!"
Here the captain emptied the rest of the brandy into his gla.s.s, drained it at a draught, and, while poor William was wiping his eyes with a ragged blue pocket-handkerchief, rang the bell, and asked what coaches would pa.s.s that way to -----, a seaport town at some distance. On hearing that there was one at six o"clock, the captain ordered the best dinner the larder would afford to be got ready as soon as possible; and, when they were again alone, thus accosted his brother:--
"Now you go back to town--here are four shiners for you. Keep quiet--don"t speak to a soul--don"t put your foot in it, that"s all I beg, and I"ll find out whatever there is to be found. It is d.a.m.nably out of my way embarking at -----, but I had best keep clear of Lunnon. And I tell you what, if these youngsters have hopped the twig, there"s another bird on the bough that may prove a goldfinch after all--Young Arthur Beaufort: I hear he is a wild, expensive chap, and one who can"t live without lots of money. Now, it"s easy to frighten a man of that sort, and I cha"n"t have the old lord at his elbow."
"But I tell you, that I only care for my poor master"s children."
"Yes; but if they are dead, and by saying they are alive, one can make old age comfortable, there"s no harm in it--eh?"
"I don"t know," said William, irresolutely. "But certainly it is a hard thing to be so poor at my time of life; and so honest a man as I"ve been, too!"
Captain Smith went a little too far when he said that "honesty"s nothing without force of character." Still, Honesty has no business to be helpless and draggle-tailed;--she must be active and brisk, and make use of her wits; or, though she keep clear or the prison, "tis no very great wonder if she fall on the parish.
CHAPTER III.
"Mitis.--This Macilente, signior, begins to be more sociable on a sudden." Every Man out of his Humour.
"Punt. Signior, you are sufficiently instructed.
"Fast. Who, I, sir?"--Ibid.
After spending the greater part of the day in vain inquiries and a vain search, Philip and Mr. Morton returned to the house of the latter.
"And now," said Philip, "all that remains to be done is this: first give to the police of the town a detailed description of the man; and secondly, let us put an advertis.e.m.e.nt both in the county journal and in some of the London papers, to the effect, that if the person who called on you will take the trouble to apply again, either personally or by letter, he may obtain the information sought for. In case he does, I will trouble you to direct him to--yes--to Monsieur de Vaudemont, according to this address."
"Not to you, then?"
"It is the same thing," replied Philip, drily. "You have confirmed my suspicions, that the Beauforts know some thing of my brother. What did you say of some other friend of the family who a.s.sisted in the search?"
"Oh,--a Mr. Spencer! an old acquaintance of your mother"s." Here Mr.
Morton smiled, but not being encouraged in a joke, went on, "However, that"s neither here nor there; he certainly never found out your brother. For I have had several letters from him at different times, asking if any news had been heard of either of you."
And, indeed, Spencer had taken peculiar pains to deceive the Mortons, whose interposition he feared little less than that of the Beauforts.
"Then it can be of no use to apply to him," said Philip, carelessly, not having any recollection of the name of Spencer, and therefore attaching little importance to the mention of him.
"Certainly, I should think not. Depend on it, Mr. Beaufort must know."
"True," said Philip. "And I have only to thank you for your kindness, and return to town."
"But stay with us this day--do--let me feel that we are friends. I a.s.sure you poor Sidney"s fate has been a load on my mind ever since he left. You shall have the bed he slept in, and over which your mother bent when she left him and me for the last time."
These words were said with so much feeling, that the adventurer wrung his uncle"s hand, and said, "Forgive me, I wronged you--I will be your guest."
Mrs. Morton, strange to say, evinced no symptoms of ill-humour at the news of the proffered hospitality. In fact, Miss Margaret had been so eloquent in Philip"s praise during his absence, that she suffered herself to be favourably impressed. Her daughter, indeed, had obtained a sort of ascendency over Mrs. M. and the whole house, ever since she had received so excellent an offer. And, moreover, some people are like dogs--they snarl at the ragged and fawn on the well-dressed. Mrs. Morton did not object to a nephew de facto, she only objected to a nephew in forma pauperis. The evening, therefore, pa.s.sed more cheerfully than might have been antic.i.p.ated, though Philip found some difficulty in parrying the many questions put to him on the past. He contented himself with saying, as briefly as possible, that he had served in a foreign service, and acquired what sufficed him for an independence; and then, with the ease which a man picks up in the great world, turned the conversation to the prospects of the family whose guest he was. Having listened with due attention to Mrs. Morton"s eulogies on Tom, who had been sent for, and who drank the praises on his own gentility into a very large pair of blushing ears,--also, to her self-felicitations on Miss Margaret"s marriage,--item, on the service rendered to the town by Mr. Roger, who had repaired the town-hall in his first mayoralty at his own expense,--item, to a long chronicle of her own genealogy, how she had one cousin a clergyman, and how her great-grandfather had been knighted,--item, to the domestic virtues of all her children,--item, to a confused explanation of the chastis.e.m.e.nt inflicted on Sidney, which Philip cut short in the middle; he asked, with a smile, what had become of the Plaskwiths. "Oh!" said Mrs. Morton, "my brother Kit has retired from business. His son-in-law, Mr. Plimmins, has succeeded."
"Oh, then, Plimmins married one of the young ladies?"
"Yes, Jane--she bad a sad squint!--Tom, there is nothing to laugh at,--we are all as G.o.d made us,--"Handsome is as handsome does,"--she has had three little uns!"
"Do they squint too?" asked Philip; and Miss Margaret giggled, and Tom roared, and the other young men roared too. Philip had certainly said something very witty.
This time Mrs. Morton administered no reproof; but replied pensively
"Natur is very mysterious--they all squint!"
Mr. Morton conducted Philip to his chamber. There it was, fresh, clean, unaltered--the same white curtains, the same honeysuckle paper as when Catherine had crept across the threshold.
"Did Sidney ever tell you that his mother placed a ring round his neck that night?" asked Mr. Morton.
"Yes; and the dear boy wept when he said that he had slept too soundly to know that she was by his side that last, last time. The ring--oh, how well I remember it! she never put it off till then; and often in the fields--for we were wild wanderers together in that day--often when his head lay on my shoulder, I felt that ring still resting on his heart, and fancied it was a talisman--a blessing. Well, well-good night to you!" And he shut the door on his uncle, and was alone.
CHAPTER IV.
"The Man of Law,.......
And a great suit is like to be between them."
BEN JONSON: Staple of News.
On arriving in London, Philip went first to the lodging he still kept there, and to which his letters were directed; and, among some communications from Paris, full of the politics and the hopes of the Carlists, he found the following note from Lord Lilburne:--
"DEAR SIR,--When I met you the other day I told you I had been threatened with the gout. The enemy has now taken possession of the field. I am sentenced to regimen and the sofa. But as it is my rule in life to make afflictions as light as possible, so I have asked a few friends to take compa.s.sion on me, and help me "to shuffle off this mortal coil" by dealing me, if they can, four by honours. Any time between nine and twelve to-night, or to-morrow night, you will find me at home; and if you are not better engaged, suppose you dine with me to-day--or rather dine opposite to me--and excuse my Spartan broth. You will meet (besides any two or three friends whom an impromptu invitation may find disengaged) my sister, with Beaufort and their daughter: they only arrived in town this morning, and are kind enough "to nurse me," as they call it,--that is to say, their cook is taken ill!