"You played a deep game, sir," said I, drawing a long breath; "but you never were near winning it."
"Nor you either," said he, throwing wide the door between the two rooms; "I hear a voice without there, that settles the question forever."
At the same instant, Major Barton entered, followed by two men.
"I suspected I should find you here, sir," said he, addressing me. "You need scarcely trouble my worthy friend for his bail; I arrest you now under a warrant of felony."
"A felony!" exclaimed Ba.s.set, with a counterfeited astonishment in his look. "Mr. Burke accused of such a crime!"
I could not utter a word; indignation and shame overpowered me, and merely motioning with my hand that I was ready to accompany him, I followed to the door, at which a carriage was standing, getting into which we drove towards Newgate.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI. THE PERIL AVERTED
If I have dwelt with unnecessary prolixity on this dark portion of my story, it is because the only lesson my life teaches has lain in similar pa.s.sages. The train of evils which flows from one misdirection in early life,--the misfortunes which ensue from a single false and inconsiderate step,--frequently darken the whole subsequent career. This I now thought over in the solitude of my cell. However I could acquit myself of the crime laid to my charge, I could not so easily absolve my heart of the early folly which made me suppose that the regeneration of a land should be accomplished by the efforts of a sanguinary and bigoted rabble. To this error could I trace every false step I made in life,--to this cause attribute the long struggle I endured between my love of liberty and my detestation of mob rule; and yet how many years did it cost me to learn, that to alleviate the burdens of the oppressed may demand a greater exercise of tyranny than ever their rulers practised towards them. Like many others, I looked to France as the land of freedom; but where was despotism so unbounded! where the sway of one great mind so unlimited!
They had bartered liberty for equality, and because the pressure was equal on all, they deemed themselves free; while the privileges of cla.s.s with us suggested the sense of bondage to the poor man, whose actual freedom was yet unenc.u.mbered.
Of all the daydreams of my boyhood, the ambition of military glory alone survived; and that lived on amid the dreary solitude of my prison, comforting many a lonely hour by memories of the past. The glittering ranks of the mounted squadrons; the deep-toned thunder of the artillery; the solid ma.s.ses of the infantry, immovable beneath the rush of cavalry,--were pictures I could dwell on for hours and days, and my dearest wish could point to no higher destiny than to be once more a soldier in the ranks of France.
During all this time my mind seldom reverted to the circ.u.mstances of my imprisonment, nor did I feel the anxiety for the result my position might well have suggested. The conscious sense of my innocence kept the flame of hope alive, without suffering it either to flicker or vary. It burned like a steady fire within me, and made even the dark cells of a jail a place of repose and tranquillity. And thus time rolled on: the hours of pleasure and happiness to thousands, too short and flitting for the enjoyments they brought. They went by also to the prisoner, as to one who waits on the bank of the stream, nor knows what fortune may await him on his voyage.
A stubborn feeling of conscious right had prevented my taking even the ordinary steps for my defence, and the day of trial was now drawing nigh without any preparation on my part. I was ignorant how essential the habits and skill of an advocate are in the conduct of every case, however simple; and implicitly relied on my guiltlessness, as though men can read the heart of a prisoner and know its workings. M"Dougall, the only member of the bar I knew even by name, had accepted a judicial appointment in India, and was already on his way thither, so that I had neither friend nor adviser in my difficulty. Were it otherwise, I felt I could scarcely have bent my pride to that detail of petty circ.u.mstances which an advocate might deem essential to my vindication; and was actually glad to think that I should owe the a.s.sertion of my innocence to nothing less than the pure fact.
When November at length arrived, I learned that the trial had been deferred to the following February; and so listless and indifferent had imprisonment made me, that I heard the intelligence without impatience or regret. The publicity of a court of justice, its exposure to the gaze and observation of the crowd who throng there, were subjects of more shrinking dread to my heart than the weight of an accusation which, though false, might peril my life; and for the first time I rejoiced that I was friendless. Yes! it brought balm and comfort to me to think that none would need to blush at my relationship nor weep over my fate.
Sorrow has surely eaten deeply into our natures, when we derive pleasure and peace from what in happier circ.u.mstances are the sources of regret.
Let me now hasten on. My reader will readily forgive me if I pa.s.s with rapid steps over a portion of my story, the memory of which has not yet lost its bitterness. The day at last came; and amid all the ceremonies of a prison I was marched from my cell to the dock. How strange the sudden revolution of feeling,--from the solitude and silence of a jail to the crowded court, teeming with looks of eager curiosity, dread, or perhaps compa.s.sion, all turned towards him, who himself, half forgetful of his condition, gazes on the great ma.s.s in equal astonishment and surprise!
My thoughts at once recurred to a former moment of my life, when I stood accused among the Chouan prisoners before the tribunal of Paris. But though the proceedings were less marked by excitement and pa.s.sion, the stern gravity of the English procedure was far more appalling; and in the absence of all which could stir the spirit to any effort of its own, it pressed with a more solemn dread on the mind of the prisoner.
I have said I would not linger over this part of my life. I could not do so if I would. Real events, and the impressions they made upon me,--facts, and the pa.s.sing emotions of my mind,--are strangely confused and commingled in my memory; and although certain minute and trivial things are graven in my recollection, others of moment have escaped me unrecorded.
The usual ceremonial went forward: the jury were impanelled, and the clerk of the Crown read aloud the indictment, to which my plea of "Not guilty" was at once recorded; then the judge asked if I were provided with counsel, and hearing that I was not, appointed a junior barrister to act for me, and the trial began.
I was not the first person who, accused of a crime of which he felt innocent, yet was so overwhelmed by the statements of imputed guilt,--so confused by the inextricable web of truth and falsehood, artfully entangled.--that he actually doubted his own convictions when opposed to views so strongly at variance with them.
The first emotion of the prisoner is a feeling of surprise to discover, that one utterly a stranger--the lawyer he has perhaps never seen, whose name he never so much as heard of--is perfectly conversant with his own history, and as it were by intuition seems acquainted with his very thoughts and motives. Tracing out not only a line of acting but of devising, he conceives a story of which the accused is the hero, and invests his narrative with all the appliances to belief which result from time and place and circ.u.mstance. No wonder that the very accusation should strike terror into the soul; no wonder that the statement of guilt should cause heart-sinking to him who, conscious that all is not untrue, may feel that his actions can be viewed in another and very different light to that which conscience sheds over them.
Such, so far as I remember, was the channel of my thoughts. At first mere astonishment at the accuracy of detail regarding my name, age, and condition in life, was uppermost; and then succeeded a sense of indignant anger at the charges laid against me; which yielded gradually to a feeling of confusion as the advocate continued; which again merged into a sort of dubious fear as I heard many trivial facts repeated, some of which my refreshed memory acknowledged as true, but of which my puzzled brain could not detect the inapplicability to sustain the accusation,--all ending in a chaos of bewilderment, where conscience itself was lost, and nothing left to guide or direct the reason.
The counsel informed the jury that, although they were not placed in the box to try me on any charge of a political offence, they must bear in mind, that the murderous a.s.sault of which I was accused was merely part of a system organized to overthrow the Government; that, young as I then was, I was in intimate connection with the disaffected party which the mistaken leniency of the Crown had not thoroughly eradicated on the termination of the late rebellion, my constant companion being one whose crimes were already undergoing their but too merciful punishment in transportation for life; that, to tamper with the military, I had succeeded in introducing myself into the barrack, where I obtained the confidence of a weak-minded but good-natured officer of the regiment.
"These schemes," continued he, "were but partially successful. My distinguished client was then an officer of the corps; and with that ever-watchful loyalty which has distinguished him, he determined to keep a vigilant eye on this intruder, who, from circ.u.mstances of youth and apparent innocence, already had won upon the confidence of the majority of the regiment. Nor was this impression a false one. An event, apparently little likely to unveil a treasonable intention, soon unmasked the true character of the prisoner and the nature of his mission."
He then proceeded to narrate with circ.u.mstantial accuracy the night in the George"s Street barracks, when Hilliard, Crofts, and some others came with Bubbleton to his quarters to decide a wager between two of the parties. Calling the attention of the jury to this part of the case, he detailed the scene which occurred; and, if I could trust my memory, not a phrase, not a word escaped him which had been said.
"It was then, gentlemen," said he, "at that instant, that the prisoner"s habitual caution failed him, and in an unguarded moment developed the full story of his guilt. Captain Bubbleton lost his wager, of which my client was the winner. The habits of the service are peremptory in these matters; it was necessary that payment should be made at once. Bubbleton had not the means of discharging his debt, and while he looked around among his comrades for a.s.sistance, the prisoner steps forward and supplies the sum. Mark what followed.
"A sudden call of service now summoned the officers beneath; all save Crofts, who, not being on duty, had no necessity for accompanying them.
The bank-note so opportunely furnished by the prisoner lay on the table; and this Crofts proceeded leisurely to open and examine before he left the room. Slowly unfolding the paper, he spread it out before him; and what, think you, gentlemen, did the paper display? A Bank of England bill for twenty pounds, you"ll say, of course. Far from it, indeed! The paper was a French a.s.signat, bearing the words, "Payez au porteur la somme de deux mille livres." Yes; the sum so carelessly thrown on the table by this youth was an order for eighty pounds, issued by the French Government.
"Remember the period, gentlemen, when this occurred. We had just pa.s.sed the threshold of a most fearful and sanguinary rebellion,--the tranquillity of the land scarce restored after a convulsion that shook the very const.i.tution and the throne to their centres. The interference of France in the affairs of the country had not been a mere threat; her ships had sailed, her armies had landed, and though the bravery and the loyalty of our troops had made the expedition result in utter defeat and overthrow, the emissaries of the land of anarchy yet lingered on our sh.o.r.es, and disseminated that treason in secret which openly they dared not proclaim. If they were sparing of their blood, they were lavish of their gold; what they failed in courage they supplied in a.s.signats.
Large promises of gain, rich offers of booty, were rife throughout the land; and wherever disaffection lurked or rebellion lingered, the enemy of England found congenial allies. Nothing too base, nothing too low, for this confederacy of crime; neither was anything too lowly in condition or too humble in efficiency. Treason cannot choose its agents; it must take the tools which chance and circ.u.mstances offer: they may be the refuse of mankind, but if inefficient for good, they are not the less active for evil. Such a one was the youth who now stands a prisoner before you, and here was the price of his disloyalty."
At these words he held up triumphantly the French a.s.signat, and waved it before the eyes of the court. However little the circ.u.mstances weighed within me, such was the impression manifestly produced upon the jury by this piece of corroborative evidence, that a thrill of anxiety for the result ran suddenly through me.
Until that moment I believed Darby had repossessed himself of the a.s.signat when Crofts lay insensible on the ground; at least I remembered well that he stooped over him and appeared to take something from him.
While I was puzzling my mind on this point, I did not remark that the lawyer was proceeding to impress on the jury the full force of conviction such a circ.u.mstance implied.
The offer I had made to Crofts to barter the a.s.signat for an English note; my urgent entreaty to have it restored to me; the arguments I had employed to persuade him that no suspicion could attach to my possession of it,--were all narrated with so little of exaggeration that I was actually unable to say what a.s.sertion I could object to, while I was conscious that the inferences sought to be drawn from them were false and unjust.
Having displayed with consummate skill the critical position this paper had involved me in, he took the opportunity of contrasting the anxiety I evinced for my escape from my difficulty, with the temperate conduct of my antagonist, whose loyalty left him no other course than to retain possession of the note, and inquire into the circ.u.mstances by which it reached my hands.
Irritated by the steady determination of Crofts, it was said that I endeavored by opprobrious epithets and insulting language to provoke a quarrel, which a sense of my inferiority as an antagonist rendered a thing impossible to be thought of. Baffled in every way, I was said to have rushed from the room, double-locking it on the outside, and hurried down the stairs and out of the barrack; not to escape, however, but with a purpose very different,--to return in a few moments accompanied by three fellows, whom I pa.s.sed with the guard as men wishing to recruit.
To ascend the stairs, unlock the door, and fall on the imprisoned officer, was the work of an instant. His defence, although courageous and resolute, was but brief. His sword being broken, he was felled by a blow of a bludgeon, and thus believed dead. The ruffians ransacked his pockets, and departed.
The same countersign which admitted, pa.s.sed them out as they went; and when morning broke the wounded man was found weltering in his blood, but with life still remaining, and strength enough to recount what had occurred. By a mere accident, it was stated, the French bank-note had not been consigned to his pocket, but fell during the struggle, and was discovered the next day on the floor.
These were the leading features of an accusation, which, however improbable while thus briefly and boldly narrated, hung together with a wonderful coherence in the speech of the lawyer, supported as they were by the number of small circ.u.mstances corroboratory of certain immaterial portions of the story. Thus, the political opinions I professed; the doubtful--nay, equivocal--position I occupied; the intercourse with France or Frenchmen, as proved by the _billet de banque_; my sudden disappearance after the event, and my escape thither, where I continued to live until, as it was alleged, I believed that years had eradicated all trace of, if not my crime, myself,--such were the statements displayed with all the specious inferences of habitual plausibility, and to confirm which by evidence Sir Montague Crofts was called to give his testimony.
There was a murmur of expectancy through the court as this well-known individual"s name was p.r.o.nounced; and in a few moments the throng around the inner bar opened, and a tall figure appeared upon the witness table.
The same instant that I caught sight of his features he had turned his glance on me, and we stood for some seconds confronting each other.
Mutual defiance seemed the gage between us; and I saw, with a thrill of savage pleasure, that after a minute or so his cheek flushed, and he averted his face and appeared ill at ease and uncomfortable.
To the first questions of the lawyer he answered with evident constraint, and in a low, subdued voice; but soon recovering his self-possession, gave his testimony freely and boldly, corroborating by his words all the statements of his advocate. By both the court and the jury he was heard with attention and deference; and when he took a pa.s.sing occasion to allude to his loyalty and attachment to the const.i.tution, the senior judge interrupted him by saying,--
"On that point, Sir Montague, no second opinion can exist. Your character for unimpeachable honor is well known to the court."
The examination was brief, lasting scarcely half an hour; and when the young lawyer came forward to put some questions as cross-examination, his want of instruction and ignorance were at once seen, and the witness was dismissed almost immediately.
Sir Montague"s advocate declined calling any other witness. The regiment to which his client then belonged was on foreign service; but he felt satisfied that the case required nothing in addition to the evidence the jury had heard.
A few moments of deliberation ensued among the members of the bench; and then the senior judge called on my lawyer to proceed with the defence.
The young barrister rose with diffidence, and expressed in few words his inability to rebut the statements that had been made by any evidence in his power to produce. "The prisoner, my lord," said he, "has confided nothing to me of his case. I am ignorant of everything, save what has taken place in open court."
"It is true, my lord," said I, interrupting. "The facts of this unhappy circ.u.mstance are known but to three individuals. You have already heard the version which one of them has given; you shall now hear mine. The third, whose testimony might incline the balance in my favor, is, I am told, no longer in this country; and I have only to discharge the debt I feel due to myself and to my own honor, by narrating the real occurrence, and leave the issue in your hands, to deal with as your consciences may dictate."
With the steadiness of purpose truth inspires, and in few words, I narrated the whole of my adventure with Crofts, down to the moment of Darby"s sudden appearance. I told of what pa.s.sed between us; and how the altercation, that began in angry words, terminated in a personal struggle, where, as the weaker, I was overcome, and lay beneath the weapon of my antagonist, by which already I had received a severe and dangerous wound.
"I should hesitate here, my lords," said I, "before I spoke of one who then came to my aid, if I did not know that he is already removed by a heavy sentence, both from the penalty his gallant conduct might call down on him, and the enmity which the prosecutor would as certainly pursue him with. But he is beyond the reach of either, and I may speak of him freely."
I then told of Darby"s appearance that night in the barrack, disguised as a ballad-singer; how in this capacity he pa.s.sed the sentry, and was present in the room when the officers entered to decide the wager; that he had quitted it soon after their arrival, and only returned on hearing the noise of the scuffle between Crofts and myself. The struggle itself I remembered but imperfectly, but so far as my memory bore me out, recapitulated to the court.
"I will relate, my lords," said I, "the few events which followed,--not that they can in any wise corroborate the plain statement I have made, nor indeed that they bear, save remotely, on the events mentioned; but I will do so in the hope,--a faint hope it is,--that in this court there might be found some one person who could add his testimony to mine, and say, "This is true; to that I can myself bear witness.""
With this brief preface, I told how Darby had brought me to a house in an obscure street, in which a man, apparently dying, was stretched upon a miserable bed; that while my wound was being dressed, a car came to the door with the intention of conveying the sick man away somewhere.
This, however, was deemed impossible, so near did his last hour appear; and in his place I was taken off, and placed on board the vessel bound for France.