"Come in--come in, Jacopo," said the young man; "come in, and close the door. When did this happen?"
The Neapolitan recounted briefly the events which we have already recorded.
"It was a fit--some sudden seizure," said the young man, glancing at the features of the corpse.
"Yes, vary like, vary like," said Parucci; "he used to complain sometimes that his head was sweeming round, and pains and aches; but there was something more--something more."
"What do you mean?--don"t speak riddles," said Ashwoode.
"I mean this, then," replied the Italian; "something came to him--something was in the room when he died."
"How do you know that?" inquired the young man.
"I heard him talking loudly with it," replied he--"talking and praying it to go away from him."
"Why did you not come into the room yourself?" asked Ashwoode.
"So I did, _Diamine_, so I did," replied he.
"Well, what saw you?"
"Nothing bote Sir Richard, dead--quite dead; and the far door was bolted inside, just so as he always used to do; and when the candle went out, the thing was here again. I heard it myself, as sure as I am leeving man--I heard it--close up with me--by the body."
"Tut, tut, man; speak sense. Do you mean to say that anyone talked with you?" said Ashwoode.
"I mean this, that something was in the chamber with me beside the dead man," replied the valet, doggedly. "I heard it with my own ears.
_Zucche!_ I moste "av been deaf, if I did not hear it. It said "hish,"
and then again, close up to my face, it said it--"hish, hish," and laughed below its breath. Pah! the place smelt of brimstone."
"In plain terms, then, you believe that the devil was in the room; is that it?" said Ashwoode, with a ghastly smile of contempt.
"Oh! no," replied the servant, with a sneer as ghastly; "it was an angel, of course--an angel from heaven."
"No more of this folly, sirrah," said Ashwoode, sharply. "Your own d----d cowardice fills your brain with these fancies. Here, give me the keys, and show me where the papers are laid. I shall first examine the cabinets here, and then in the library. Now open this one; and do you hear, Parucci, not one word of this c.o.c.k-and-bull story of yours to the servants. Good G.o.d! my brain"s unsettled. I can scarcely believe my father dead--dead," and again he stood by the bedside, and looked upon the still face of the corpse.
"We must send for Craven at once," said Ashwoode, turning from the bed; "I must confer with him; he knows better than anyone else how all my father"s affairs stand. There are some d----d bills out, I believe, but we"ll soon know."
Having despatched an urgent note to Craven, the insinuating attorney, to whom we have already introduced the reader, Sir Henry Ashwoode proceeded roughly to examine the contents of boxes, escritoires, and cabinets filled with dusty papers, and accompanied and directed in his search by the Italian.
"You never heard him mention a will, did you?" inquired the young man.
The Neapolitan shook his head.
"You did not know of his making one?" he resumed.
"No, no, I cannot remember," said the Italian, reflectively; "but," he added quickly, while a peculiar meaning lit up the piercing eyes which he turned upon the interrogator--"but do you weesh to _find_ one? Maybe I could help you to find one."
"Pshaw! folly; what do you take me for?" retorted Ashwoode, slightly colouring, in spite of his habitual insensibility, for Parucci was too intimate with his principles for him to a.s.sume ignorance of his meaning. "Why the devil should I wish to find a will, since I inherit everything without it?"
"Signor," said the little man, after an interval of silence, during which he seemed absorbed in deep reflection, "I have moche to say about what I shall do with myself, and some things to ask from you. I will begin and end it here and now--it is best over at once. I have served Sir Richard there for thirty-four years. I have served him well--vary well. I have taught him great secrets. I have won great abundance of good moneys for him; if he was not reech it is not my fault. I attend him through his sickness; and "av been his companion for the half of a long life. What else I "av done for him I need not count up, but most of it you know well. Sir Richard is there--dead and gone--the service is ended, and now I "av resolved I will go back again to Italy--to Naples--where I was born. You shall never hear of me any more if you will do for me one little thing."
"What is it?--speak out. You want to extort money--is it so?" said Ashwoode, slowly and sternly.
"I want," continued the man, with equal distinctness and deliberateness, "I want one thousand pounds. I do not ask a penny more, and I will not take a penny less; and if you give me that, I will never trouble you more with word of mine--you will never hear or see honest Jacopo Parucci any more."
"Come, come, Jacopo, that were paying a little too dear, even for such a luxury," replied Ashwoode. "A thousand pounds! Ha! ha! A modest request, truly. I half suspect your brain is a little crazed."
"Remember what I have done--all I have done for him." rejoined the Italian, coolly. "And above all, remember what I have _not_ done for him. I could have had him hanged up by the neck--hanged like a dog--but I never did. Oh! no, never--though not a day went by that I might not "av brought the house full of officers, and have him away to jail and get him hanged. Remember all that, signor, and say is it in conscience too moche?--_rotta di collo!_ It is not half--no, nor quarter so moche as I ought to ask. No, nor as you ought to give, signor, without me to ask at all."
"Parucci, you are either mad or drunk, or take me to be so," said Ashwoode, who could not feel quite comfortable in disputing the claims of the Italian, nor secure in provoking his anger. "But at all events, there is ample time to talk about these matters. We can settle it all more at our ease in a week or so."
"No, no, signor. I will have my answer now," replied the man, doggedly.
"Mr. Craven has money now--the money of Miss Mary"s land that Sir Richard got from her. But though the money is there _now_, in a week or leetle more we will not see moche of it, and my pocket weel remain aimpty--_corbezzoli!_ am I a fool?"
"I tell you, Parucci, I will give you no promises now," exclaimed the young man, vehemently. "Why, d---- it, the blood is hardly cold in the old man"s veins, and you begin to pester me for money. Can"t you wait till he"s buried?"
"Ay--yees--yees--wait till he"s buried--and then wait till the mourning"s off--and then wait for something more," said the Neapolitan, with a sneer, "and so wait on till the money"s all spent. No, no, signor--_corpo di Bacco!_ I will have it now. I will have my answer now, before Mr. Craven comes--_giuro di Dio_, I _will_ have my answer."
"Don"t talk like a madman, Parucci," replied the young man, angrily. "I have no money here. I will make no promises. And besides, your request is perfectly ridiculous and unconscionable."
"I ask for a thousand pounds," replied the valet. "I must have the promise _now_, signor, and the money to-day. If you do not promise it here and at once, I will not ask again, and maybe you weel be sorry. I will take one thousand pounds. I want no more, and I accept no less.
Signor, your answer."
There was a cool, menacing insolence in the manner of the fellow which stung the pride of the young baronet to the quick.
"Scoundrel," said he, "do you think I am to be bullied by your audacious threats? Do you dream that I am weak enough to suffer a wretch like you to practise his extortions upon me? By ----, you"ll find to your cost that you have no longer to deal with a master who is in your power. What care I for your utmost? Do your worst, miscreant--I defy you. I warn you only to beware of giving an undue license to your foul, lying tongue--for if I find that you have been spreading your libellous tales abroad, I"ll have you pilloried and whipped."
"Well, you "av given me an answer," replied the Italian coolly. "I weel ask no more; and now, signor, farewell--adieu. I think, perhaps, you will hear of me again. I will not return here any more after I go out; and so, for the last time," he continued, approaching the cold form which lay upon the bed, "farewell to you, Sir Richard Ashwoode. While I am alive I will never see your face again--perhaps, if holy friars tell true, we may meet again. Till then--till then--farewell."
With this strange speech the Neapolitan, having gazed for a brief s.p.a.ce, with a strange expression, in which was a dash of something very nearly approaching to sorrow, upon the stern, moveless face before him, and then with an effort, and one long-drawn sigh, having turned away, deliberately withdrew from the room through the small door which led to his own apartment.
"The lazzarone will come to himself in a little," muttered Ashwoode; "he will think twice before he leaves this place--he"ll cool--he"ll cool."
Thus soliloquizing, the young man locked up the presses and desks which he had opened, bolted the door after the Italian, and hurried from the room; for, somehow or other, he felt uneasy and fearful alone in the chamber with the body.
CHAPTER x.x.x.
SKY-COPPER COURT.
Upon the evening of the same day, the Italian having collected together the few movables which he called his own, and left them ready for removal in the chamber which he had for so long exclusively occupied, might have been seen, emerging from the old manor-house, and with a small parcel in his hand, wending his solitary, moon-lit way across the broad wooded pasture-lands of Morley Court. Without turning to look back upon the familiar scene, which he was now for ever leaving--for all his faculties and feelings, such as they were, had busy occupation in the measures of revenge which he was keenly pursuing, he crossed the little stile which terminated the pathway he was following, and descended upon the public road--shaking from his hat and cloak the heavy drops, which in his progress the close underwood through which he brushed had shed upon him. With a quickened pace, and with a stern, almost a savage countenance, over which from time to time there flitted a still more ominous smile, and muttering between his teeth many a short and vehement apostrophe as he went, he held his way directly toward the city of Dublin; and once within the streets, he was not long in reaching the ancient, and by this time to the reader, familiar mansion, over whose portal swung the glittering sign of the "c.o.c.k and Anchor."
"Now, then," thought Parucci, "let us see whether I have not one card left, and that a trump. What, because I wear no sword myself, shall you escape unpunished? Fool--miscreant, I will this night conjure up such an avenger as will appal even you; I will send him with a thousand atrocious wrongs upon his head, frantic into your presence--you had better cope with an actual incarnate demon."
Such were the exulting thoughts which lighted the features of Parucci with a fitful smile of singular grimness as he entered the inn yard, where meeting one of the waiters, he promptly inquired for O"Connor. To his dismay, however, he learnt that that gentleman had quitted the "c.o.c.k and Anchor" on the day before, and whither he had gone, none could inform him. As he stood, pondering in bitter disappointment what step was next to be taken, somebody tapped his shoulder smartly from behind. He turned, and beheld the square form and swarthy features of O"Hanlon, whose interview with O"Connor is recorded early in these pages. After a few brief questions and answers, in which, by a reference to the portly proprietor of the "c.o.c.k and Anchor," who vouched for the accuracy of his representations, O"Hanlon satisfied the vindictive foreigner that he might safely communicate the subject of his intended communication to _him_, as to the sure friend of Mr.