And with this speech, uttered in an accent of withering hate and scorn, he again returned to gaze at the open parchment. The doc.u.ment, surmounted by the royal arms, and engrossed in a stiff old-fashioned hand, was a free pardon accorded by his Majesty George the Second to Miles Hardress Corrigan, and a full and unqualified restoration to his once forfeited estates. Certain legal formalities were also enjoined to be taken, and certain oaths to be made, as the recognition of this act of his sovereign"s grace.
Such was the important doc.u.ment on which now he gazed, reading and re-reading it, till every word became riveted on his memory.
CHAPTER x.x.xI. THE GUESTS BEGIN TO ARRIVE.
"Hark they come! they come!"
An unusual bustle and commotion in the little inn awoke Linton early on the following morning. These were caused by the arrival of a host of cooks, coachmen, grooms, footmen, and scullions, with a due proportion of the other s.e.x, all engaged in London, and despatched--"as per order"--to form the household of Tubbermore.
As Linton proceeded with his dressing, he overheard the multifarious complaints and lamentations of this town-reared population over the dirt and dest.i.tution of their newly adopted land,--criticisms which, as they scrupled not to detail aloud, evoked rejoinders not a whit more complimentary to the Saxon; the hostess of the Goat--being an energetic disciple of that great authority who has p.r.o.nounced both the land and its people as the paragons of creation--leading the van of the attack, and certainly making up for any deficiencies in her cause by the force of her eloquence.
"Arrah! who wanted ye here at all?" said she, addressing the circle, stunned into silence by her volubility. "Who axed ye? Was it to plaze us, or to fill yer pockets with the goold of ould Ireland, ye kem? Oh, murther! murther!--is n"t it the sin and the shame to think how the craytures is eatin" us up! Faix! maybe ye "ll be sorry enough for it yet. There"s more than one amongst you would like to be safe home again, afore long! A set of lazy thieves, no less. The heavens be my bed, but I never thought I "d see the day they "d be bringing a "naygur" to Ireland to teach us music!"
This singular apostrophe, which seemed to fill the measure of her woe, so far attracted Linton"s curiosity to comprehend it, that he opened the window and looked out, and at once discovered, by the direction of the eyes of the circle, the object of the sarcasm. He was a well-built man, of a dark swarthy complexion and immense beard and mustache, who sat on a stone bench before the door, occupied in arranging the strings of his guitar. The air of unmoved tranquillity showed that he did not suspect himself to be the b.u.t.t of any sarcasm, and he pursued his task with a composure that vouched for his ignorance of the language.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 392]
"Who is our friend?" said Linton, addressing the coachman, and pointing to the musician.
"We calls him Robinson Crusoe, sir," replied the other; "we took him up on the road from Limerick. We never seed him afore."
"So, then, he doesn"t belong to our force. I really had begun to fear that Mr. Gunter had pushed enlistment too far."
Meanwhile the stranger, attracted by the voice, looked up, and seeing Linton, immediately removed his cap, with an air of quiet courtesy that was not lost upon the shrewd observer to whom it was tendered.
"You are a sailor, I perceive?" said Tom, as he walked out in front of the inn. The other shook his head dubiously.
"I was asking," said Linton, changing his language to French, "if you had been a sailor?"
"Yes, sir," replied he, again removing his cap, "a sailor from Trieste."
"And how came you here?"
"Our vessel was lost off the Blasquets, sir, on Wednesday night. We were bound for Bristol with fruit from Sicily, and caught in a gale; we struck, and all were lost, except myself and another, now in hospital in the large city yonder."
"Were you a petty officer, or a common seaman?" said linton, who had been scanning with keen eye the well-knit frame and graceful ease of the speaker.
"A common sailor, sir," rejoined he, modestly.
"And how comes it that you are a musician, friend?" asked Linton, shrewdly.
"Every one is in my country, sir--at least, with such humble skill as I possess."
"What good fortune it was to have saved your guitar from shipwreck!"
rejoined Linton, with an incredulous twinkle of his gray eyes.
"I did not do so, sir," said the sailor, who either did not, or would not, notice the sarcasm. "My good friends here"--pointing to the servants--"bought this for me in the last town we came through."
Linton again fixed his eyes upon him; it was evident that he was hesitating between belief and an habitual sense of distrust, that extended to everything and everybody. At last he said,--
"And what led you hither, my friend?"
"Chance," said the man, shrugging his shoulders. "I could have no preferences for one road over another--all were strange--all unknown to me. I hoped with the aid of my guitar, to get some clothes once more together, and then to find some vessel bound for the Adriatic."
"What can you do besides that?" said Linton, "for it strikes me a fellow with thews and sinews like yours was scarcely intended to thrum catgut."
"I can do most things where a steady eye, and a strong; hand, and a quick foot are needed. I "ve been a hunter in the forests of Dalmatia--herded the half-wild cattle on the Campagna at Rome--sailed a felucca in the worst Levanters of the gulf--and to swim in a high sea, or to ride an unbroken horse, I"ll yield to but one man living."
"And who may he be?" said Linton, aroused at the southern enthusiasm so suddenly excited.
"A countryman of mine," said the sailor, sententiously; "his name is not known to you."
"How sad such gifts as these should have so little recompense in our days," said Linton, with an affected sincerity. "There was a time, in your own country, too, when a fellow like yourself would not have had long to seek for a patron."
The Italian"s cheek grew deeper in its flush, and his dark eyes seemed almost to kindle beneath the s.h.a.ggy brows; then correcting, as it seemed, the pa.s.sionate impulse, he said: "Ay, true enough, sir; there were many who had the gold to squander, who had not the hand to strike, and, as you say, fellows like me were high in the market."
"And no great hardship in it, either," said Linton. "There is a justice surer and quicker than the law, which I, for one, think right well of."
Either not following the import of the speech, or not caring to concur in it, the Italian did not reply.
"I have a notion that we may find out some employment for you here,"
said Linton. "What name are we to call you?"
"Giovanni," said the sailor, after a moment"s hesitation, which did not escape the shrewdness of his questioner.
"Giovanni be it," said Linton, easily; "as good as another."
"Just so," rejoined the Italian, with a hardihood that seemed to sit easily upon him.
"I think, friend," said Linton, drawing nearer to him--and, although the foreign language in which he spoke effectually prevented the others from understanding what pa.s.sed, instantly his voice dropped into a lower and more confidential tone--"I think, friend, we shall soon understand each other well. You are in want of a protector; I may yet stand in need of an attached and zealous fellow. I read people quickly, and it seems to me that we are well met. Stay here, then; we shall soon have a large company arriving, and I "ll try and find out some exercise for your abilities."
The Italian"s dark eyes flashed and twinkled as though his subtle nature had already enlarged upon the shadowy suggestions of the other, and he made a significant gesture of a.s.sent.
"Remember, now, in whose service you are," said Linton, taking out his purse, and seeking among its contents for the precise piece of coin he wanted--"remember, that I am not the master here, but one who has to the full as much power, and that I can prove a strong friend, and, some say, a very dangerous enemy. Here is the earnest of our bargain," said he, handing him a guinea in gold; "from this hour I count upon you."
The Italian nodded twice, and pocketing the money with a cool audacity that told that such contracts were easily comprehended by him, touched his cap, and sauntered away, as though to follow out some path of his own choosing. Linton looked after him for a moment, but the next his attention was taken off by seeing that Mr. Corrigan and his granddaughter were advancing hastily towards him.
"So you have really accepted my suggestion," said Mary, with a flush of pleasure on her cheek; "the door has been opened, and the vista is exactly as my dream revealed it."
"In all save the chief ingredient," replied Linton, laugh-. ing; "we want the monk and the casket."
"Hush!" said she, cautiously; "grandpapa is a firm believer in all dreams and visions, and would not hear them spoken of irreverently."
"a.s.suredly, I never was less in the mind to do so," replied Linton, with a degree of earnestness that made Mary smile, little suspecting at the time to what his speech owed its fervor.