"That good and n.o.ble friend, Will, would make me Lady Brockenhurst."
"Jenny--why not?"
"He would go with me: he would marry me here and sail with me. No--no--I promised his sister. What? Because I love a man--the best of men--should I give him children who would be ashamed of their mother and her origin?
Mine would be a pretty history for them to learn, would it not? No, Will, no. Believe me I love him too well. Even if he were a meaner man, I could never bring my history to smirch the chronicles of a respectable family."
She was silent a little. "Will," she said presently, looking up, "all that I foretold has proved true. I want no money. I am going out to a strange country. It is not Ireland as I thought. It is Virginia. I see it again so plain--so clear--I shall know it when I land. But I can see no farther. There will be no return for me to Drury Lane. My vision stops short--now that I see you--somewhere--with me--I see Alice also.
But I cannot see England or London--or the Black Jack or Drury Lane."
Then we moved to the more commodious chamber, where I soothed her spirits with a cup of tea which is better far than wine or cordials for the refreshment of the mind. Presently she began to recover a little from her disappointment.
"It will be lonely at first," she said, "without a single friend, and I suppose that a transported convict--say that for me, Will--it hath a strange sound. It is like a slap in the face--a transported convict----"
"Nay, Jenny, do not say it."
"I must. I say that though a transported convict must be despised, yet I shall have my girl here with me, and perhaps my Lord will prove right and I may come home again. Yet I do not think so. Will, there is one consolation. At last I shall get clean away from my own people. They used to congregate round the stage-door of the Theatre to congratulate their old friend on her success. The Orange-Girls were never tired of claiming old friendship. I married in order to get away from them, but Matthew never meant to keep his promise--I am tired, Will, of my own people. They have made me suffer too much. Henceforth let them go and hang without any help from me."
"It is high time, Jenny."
"The Act ends lamely, perhaps. It may be the last Act of the Play. The ship leaves the Quay. On the deck stands the heroine in white satin, waving her handkerchief. The people weep. The bo"s"n blows his whistle.
The sailors stamp about; the curtain falls. Will, if things are real--what am I to do when I get back--if I do get back? How am I to live?"
"Jenny," I said seriously, "I believe that one so good and so fearless, for whom daily prayers are offered, will be led by no will of her own, into some way of peace and happiness."
"Think you so, good cousin? There spoke Alice. It is her language. She says that beyond the stars are eyes that can see and hands that can lead. Why, Will, for my people, the only hand that leads is the hand of hunger: the only hand that directs is the hand with the whip in it; as for eyes that see"--she shook her head sadly--"I wish there were," she said. "Perhaps there would then be some order in St. Giles"s. And there would be some hope for the poor rogues. Oh! Will--the poor helpless, ignorant, miserable rogues--of whom I am one--a transported convict--a transported convict--how we suffer! how we die! And pa.s.s away and are forgotten! Will ... Will ... I go with a heavy heart--I go to meet my death. For never more shall I return. Where is the eye that sees? Oh!
Will--where is the hand that leads?"
CHAPTER XXV
TRANSPORTATION
In the evening when I left the prison, it was with emotions strange and bewildering. Jenny, who was to have received a free pardon, was sent, a self-accused convict, to the plantations. To the plantations, where they send the common rogues and villains. She was to go out on board a convict ship, counted happy because although one of that shameful company, she was not kept below all the voyage on convict fare with those wretches vile and unspeakable.
And I was rich. After all these troubles: after my father"s displeasure: after my disinheritance: after my persecution and imprisonment: I was rich----
And Matthew, the cause of all, was dead.
Truly the hand of the Lord had been heavy upon them all. Matthew dying in starvation and misery. Mr. Probus, lying in prison, a pauper and blind: Merridew stoned to death: the other two escaped with life, but that was all. But the innocent were suffering with the guilty: the old man Alderman languishing in a debtors" prison with no hope of release: and Jenny a convict to be transported across the seas. They did well to call it a voyage: a short exile in a pleasant climate: she was a convict: she was under sentence.
And I was rich. So I kept saying to myself as I walked home that evening. So I kept saying to Alice when I told her what had happened while we sat till late at night talking over these acts of Providence.
We were to see her go far away across the ocean--a convict, never perhaps to return: to see her go alone, save for her little maid: in danger of wicked men of whom there are plenty over every part of the world: perhaps, in spite of what was said, a servant even, at her master"s beck and call: the woman to whom I owed more than life: far more than life: honour: and the respect of the world: and the happiness of my children and grandchildren: yea, even unto the third and fourth generation. What was wealth? Where was its happiness when we had to think of Jenny? It was this woman, I say, who by her ready wit, her generosity, her fearlessness in the presence of risks certain and dangers inevitable, made my innocence as clear as the noonday"s sun. For this service shall her name be blessed among those who come after me and bear my name and are stimulated to deeds of honour by the thought that they come of an honourable stock. Think of the burden upon their lives had they been doomed to remember that their father or their grandfather before them had suffered a shameful death for highway robbery!
Jenny saved me--but at what a price! She braved the worst that the rogues, her former friends, could do to her. She compelled her own people: their own a.s.sociates to betray them in order to prove my innocence. She paid for the betrayal by prison, trial and ruin. She poured out her money like water in order that no doubt whatever should exist in the mind of the Court or the Jury as to the real character of the witnesses. In return she endured the foul air and the foul companionship of Newgate and a shameful transportation to Virginia, there to be set up, if her sentence was carried out, and sold as a slave for five years. It was no common grat.i.tude--we repeated over and over again--that we owed her for this service. We owed her all--all--all--that we possessed or ever could possess.
But money cannot effect everything: it could not, in this case, give Jenny the full pardon and the immediate release we desired.
In the dead of night, as I lay sleepless, tortured in my mind because I could think of nothing that we could do for Jenny, who had done so much for us, Alice spoke to me, sitting up in bed.
"Husband," she said, and then she fell to weeping for a while and it seemed as if she could not stop her crying and sobbing--but they were tears of prayer and praise. "Let us talk. It is yet night. The world sleeps; but the Lord is awake. Let us talk."
So we talked.
"I am heavy in my mind about that poor creature," she began.
"And I no less, my dear."
"We must not think that the innocent are punished with the guilty. That old man the Alderman is pulled down by his son: they lie in ruin together: but he is innocent: for this reason he has been permitted to lose his wits and now feels nothing. Jenny suffers because though she is innocent in intention, she is guilty in fact. Will, if I think of that poor creature, so good and generous and so self-denying: and of the company among whom she has lived: and of the people among whom she was born: and how she has no religion, not the least sense of religion, I think that this new business may be but the leading of the poor trembling soul to knowledge."
"She is a.s.sured that before long she will be permitted to return."
"Perhaps she will not be permitted to return. There is One who is higher than kings."
"What would you do, Alice?"
"Let us ask ourselves, Will, what we are to do with our new riches. I am but a homely body, I cannot become a fine lady. As for yourself, remember, my dear, that you have been a musician, playing for your livelihood at the Dog and Duck: and you have stood your trial at the Old Bailey: and you have been in a Debtors" Prison: and your father"s House is bankrupt: and your name is held in contempt where formerly it was in honour. Where will you seek your new friends? In the country? But the Quality despise a musician. In the City? They despise a musician much: prisoner for debt, more: a bankrupt, most."
"I know not what is in your mind, Alice."
"I am coming to it, my dear. Remember, once more, what you said to-night that we owe her all--all--all. Your life: your honour: your son"s pride in his father: my life, for the agony and the shame would have killed me. Oh! Will, what can we do for her? What can we give her in return for benefits and services such as these?"
"I will give her all I have, my dear, my whole fortune, this new great fortune. I will give her everything but you, my dear, and the boy."
"Money she does not want and it will not help her in this strait."
"What then can we do? We have grat.i.tude--it is hers. And our fortune, it is hers if she will take it."
"Oh! Will, be patient with me, dear. We can give her indeed, all that we have: we can give her"--she bent over me and kissed me, and her tears fell upon my forehead--"we can give her, Will--ourselves."
"What?"
"We can give her--ourselves. The whole of our lives. We can become her servants in grateful thanks for all that she has done for us."
"But how, Alice, how?"
"Consider: she is going out to a new country--alone. We know not into what company she may fall. It is a rough country not yet fully settled I am told: there are fierce Indians and cruel snakes and wild beasts--though I fear the men worse than the beasts. Who will protect her? She is beautiful and men are sometimes driven mad by beauty in women."
I began to understand.
"Let us go away with her to this new country, where she shall be the mistress and we will be the servants. They say it is a beautiful country, with fine sunshine and fruits in plenty. Let us go with her, Will, and protect her from dangers and teach her to forget the thieves"
kitchen and make her happy among the flowers and the woods. We will turn her captivity into a holiday: we will think of nothing in the world but to make her happy. I have told you. Will, what is in my mind. And, my dear, I verily believe the Lord Himself has put it there."
I reflected for a little. Then I kissed her. "I am content, my dear," I said. "As you desire, so shall it be. We will go with Jenny and become her servants as long as the duty shall be laid upon us."