Rattlin the Reefer Part 36

"To a boarding-school kept by a French gentleman at Stickenham, where, in his wife, I thought I had found a mother--"

"Stop, we are not come to that yet, that is too affecting--of that anon, as somebody says in some play. Have you, Captain Reud, a gla.s.s of water ready, should this amiable youth or myself feel faint during this exciting investigation?"

"Perfectly ready," said the Creole, decidedly in one of his insane fits; for he immediately skipped behind his lordship, and, jumping upon the locker, stood ready to invert a gla.s.s of water upon his nicely-powdered head, containing at least three gallons, this gla.s.s being a large globe, containing several curious fish, which swung, attached to a beam, directly over my interrogator.

Here was a critical situation for me! A mad captain about to blow the gampus (i.e. souse) a lord of the Admiralty, that same lord, I firmly believed, about to declare himself my father. I was, in a manner, spell-bound. Afraid to interrupt the conference, I bethought me that my Lord Whiffledale would be no less my father wet or dry, and so I determined to let things take their course. So I permitted his lordship to go on with his questions, at every one of which Captain Reud, looking more like a baboon than a human being, canted the globe more and more.

"All very satisfactory--all very satisfactory, indeed! And now, Ralph, on whom have you been in the habit of drawing for your allowance while you were in the West Indies?"

"Mr ---, of King's Bench Walk, in the Temple."

"Perfectly correct--perfectly"--(still reading).

"Are you a well-grown youth for your age?"

"I am."

"Of an interesting physiognomy?"

Here the malicious madman grinned at me in the most laughable manner, over the devoted head of the ancient lord.

"I hope you will think so, my lord, when I have recovered my usual looks."

"Ugh--hum--ha--of dark brown hair, approaching to black?"

"With intensely black eyes."

"No."--"YES." Mine was the negative, Captain Reud's the affirmative, spoken simultaneously.

At this crisis his lordship had made a very proper and theatrical start.

Captain Reud grasped the gla.s.s with both hands; and the severe, bright eye of Dr Thompson fell upon the prank-playing captain. The effect was instantaneous: he slunk away from his intended mischief; completely subdued. The fire left his eye, the grin his countenance; and he stood beside his lordship in a moment, the quiet and gentlemanly post-captain, deferentially polite in the presence of his superior. I understood the thing in a moment--it was the keeper and his patient.

"I am particularly sorry, my lord," said the doctor--"I am very particularly sorry, Captain Reud, to break in upon you unannounced; the fact is, I did knock several times but I suppose I was not heard. This letter, my lord, I hope will be a sufficient apology."

His lordship took the letter with a proud condescension. Captain Reud said, "Dr Thompson's presence is always acceptable to me."

Lord Whiffledale read this letter over three times distinctly; then, from his usual white he turned a palish purple, then again became white.

In no other manner did he seem to lose his self-possession.

"Dr Thompson," said he, at length, very calmly, "let me see some of these doc.u.ments immediately."

"Antic.i.p.ating the request, my lord, I have them with me." The doctor then placed in his hands several letters and papers. At length, his lordship exclaimed:

"I am confounded. It is wholly beyond my comprehension--I know not how to act. It is excessively distressing. I wish, on my soul, I had never meddled in the business. Can I see the young man?"

"Certainly, my lord; I will bring him to you immediately."

During Dr Thompson's short absence, his lordship walked up and down with a contracted brow, and much more than his usual fidgety movements.

Not wholly to my surprise, but completely to my dismay, the doctor reappeared with my arch and only enemy by his side--Joshua Daunton.

The contrast between him and me was not at all in my favour. Not in uniform, certainly, but scrupulously clean, with a superfine blue cloth jacket and trousers, white neckerchief; and clean linen shirt; he looked not only respectable, but even gentlemanly. I have before described my appearance. I may be spared the hateful repet.i.tion.

"And so," said his lordship, turning to Joshua, "you are the true and veritable Ralph Rattlin?"

"I am, my lord," said the unblushing liar. "The young gentleman near you is my illegitimate brother; his mother is a beautiful lady, of the name of Causand, a most artful woman. She first contrived to poison Sir Reginald's mind with insinuations to my disfavour; and, at last, so well carried on her machinations as to drive me first from the paternal roof, and, lastly, I confess it with horror and remorse, into a course so evil as to compel me to change my name, fly from my country, and subject me to the lash at the gangway. If these doc.u.ments, that I confide to your hands, and to yours only, will not remove every doubt as to the truth of my a.s.sertions, afford me but a little time, till I can send to London, and every point shall be satisfactorily cleared up."

He then placed in Lord Whiffledale's hands the papers that had been so convincing to Dr Thompson. Captain Reud, now reduced by the presence of the good doctor to the most correct deportment, stepped forward, and a.s.sured his lordship that I, at least, was no impostor, and that, if imposition had been practised, I had been made an unconscious instrument.

"Perhaps," said his lordship, after scrutinising the papers, and returning them to Joshua, "the young gentleman with the blackened eyes will do us the favour, in a few words, to give us his own version of the story; for, may I die consumptive, if I can tell which is the real Simon Pure!"

Placed thus in the embarra.s.sing situation of pleading for my own ident.i.ty, I found that I had very little to say for myself. I could only affirm that, although always unowned, I had been continuously cared for; and that the bills I had drawn upon Mr ---, the lawyer in the King's Bench Walk in the Temple, had always been honoured. My lord shook his head when I had finished, diplomatically. He took snuff. He then eyed me and my adversary carefully. He now waved his head upwards and downwards, and at length opened his mouth and spoke:

"Captain Reud, I wash my hands of this business. I cannot decide. I was going to take on sh.o.r.e with me the legitimate and too-long neglected son of my good old friend, Sir Reginald. Where is that son? I come on board the _Eos_, and I ask him at your hands, Captain Reud. Is that person with the discoloured countenance my friend's son? Certainly not.

Is that other person his son--a disgraced man? Knowing the n.o.ble race of my friend, I should say certainly not. Where is Sir Ralph's [?Sir Reginalds's] son? He is not here; or, if he be here, I cannot distinguish him. I wash my hands of it--I hate mysteries. I will take neither of them to London. I am under some _slight_ obligations to Sir Reginald--and yet--I cannot decide. The weight of evidence certainly preponderates in favour of the new claimant. Captain Reud, perhaps, will permit him to land, and he may go up to town immediately, and have an interview with Mr ---, the lawyer; and, if he can satisfy that person, he will receive from him further instructions as to his future proceedings."

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A MADMAN, WHICH, NEVERTHELESS, EMBRACE A VERY WISE CAUTION--RALPH GETS HIS LIBERTY-TICKET--VERY NEEDLESS, AS HE IS DETERMINED HENCEFORWARD TO PRESERVE HIS LIBERTY--AND, BEING TREATED SO UNCIVILLY AS A SAILOR, DETERMINES TO TURN CIVILIAN HIMSELF.

Here Captain Reud interrupted the speaker, and told him that Joshua was a prisoner under punishment, and waiting only for convalescence to receive the remainder of his six dozen lashes. At hearing this, his lordship appeared truly shocked; and, drawing Reud aside, they conversed for some minutes, in whispers.

At the conclusion of this conference, Captain Reud stepped forward, and, regarding Joshua with a look of much severity, he said: "Young man, for the sake of other parties, and of other interests, your errors are overlooked. Your discharge from this ship shall be made out immediately. If you are the person you claim to be, your three or four months' pay can be of no consequence to you. Have you sufficient money to proceed to London immediately?"

"Much more than sufficient, sir."

"I thought so. Proceed to London to the lawyer's. If you are no impostor, I believe that a father's forgiveness awaits you. Forget that you were ever in this ship. My clerk will make out your discharge immediately. Take care of yourself. You are watched. There is a wakeful eye upon you: if you swerve from the course laid down for you, and go not immediately to Mr ---'s office, be a.s.sured that you will be again in irons under the half-deck. Have I, my lord, correctly expressed your intentions?"

"Correctly, Captain Reud."

"Joshua Daunton, get your bag ready; and, in the meantime, I will give the necessary orders to the clerk. You may go."

With an ill-concealed triumph on his countenance, Joshua Daunton bowed submissively to all but myself. To me he advanced with an insulting smile and an extended hand. I shrank back loathingly.

"Farewell, brother Ralph. I told you that I should be in London before you. Will you favour me with any commands? Well--your pride is not unbecoming--I will not resent it for your father's sake; and, for his and for your sake, I will forgive the juggle that has. .h.i.therto placed the natural son--that is, I believe, the delicate paraphrase--in the station of the rightful heir. Farewell."

I made no reply: he left the cabin, and, in an hour after, the ship. I shall not advantage myself of that expression, so fully naturalised in novels, that "my feelings might be conceived, but cannot be expressed:"

for they _can_ be expressed easily enough--in two words,--stupefied indignation. After Joshua had departed, the other persons remaining in the after-cabin followed shortly after, with the exception of myself; for Reud told me to stay where I then was, until he should see me again.

In the course of an hour, Lord Whiffledale went on sh.o.r.e with his _cortege_; and Captain Reud returned into the after-cabin, which I had been, during his absence, disconsolately pacing. He was a little flushed with the wine he had taken, but perfectly sane. He came up to me kindly, and, placing his hands upon my shoulders, looked me fully and sorrowfully in the face. There was no wild speculation in his eyes; they looked mild and motherly. The large tears gathered in each gradually, and, at length, overflowing the sockets, slowly trickled down his thin and sallow cheeks. He then pressed his right hand heavily on the top part of his forehead, exclaiming, in a voice so low, so mournful, and so touching, that my bosom swelled at its tones, "It is here;--it is here!"

"Ralph, my good Ralph," said he, after he had seated himself; weeping all the while bitterly, "we will take leave of each other now. We are true brothers in sorrow--our afflictions are the same--you have lost your ident.i.ty, and I mine. Ever since that cursed night at Aniana, John Reud's soul was loosened from his body; I have the greatest trouble to keep it fixed to my corporeal frame; it goes away, in spite of me, at times, and some other soul gets into this withered carca.s.s, and plays me sad tricks--sad tricks, Rattlin--sad tricks. My ident.i.ty is gone, and so, poor youth, is yours. We will part friends. These tears are not all for you--they are for myself; too. I do not mind crying before you now, for it is not the true John Reud that is now weeping. You think that I have been a tyrant to you--but, I tell you, Rattlin, there is a tyrant in the ship greater than I--it is that horrible Dr Thompson. He is plotting to take away my commission, and to get me into a madhouse!-- oh, my G.o.d!--my G.o.d! remove from me this agony. Hath Thine awful storm no thunderbolt--Thy wave no tomb! Must I die on the straw, like a beast of burden worn to death by loathsome toil?--and so many swords to have flashed harmlessly over my head, so many b.a.l.l.s to have whistled idly past my body! But, G.o.d's will be done! Bear yourself, my dear body, carefully in the presence of all medical men. They have the eye of the fanged adder. You know that your ident.i.ty also has been questioned; but your fate is happier than mine, for you can hear, see, touch, your double; but mine always eludes me, when I come home, after an excursion, to my own temple. But, if I were you, when I got hold of the thing that says it is, and is _not_, yourself, I would grind it, I would crush it, I would destroy it!"

"I will, so may Heaven help me at my utmost need!"

"Well said, my boy, well said--because he has no right to get himself flogged, and thus give a wretched world an opportunity of saying that Ralph Rattlin had been brought to the gangway. But do not let this cast you down. You will do well yet--while I--Oh, that I had a son!--I might then escape. G.o.d bless you!--I must pray for strength of mind--strength of mind--mark me, strength of mind. Go, my good boy; if misfortunes should overtake you, and they leave me anything better than a dark cell and clanking chains, come and share it with me. Now go (and he wrung my hands bitterly), and tell Doctor Thompson I wish to speak with him, and just hint to him how rationally and pleasantly we have been discoursing together--and remember my parting words--deport yourself warily before the doctors, carefully preserve your ident.i.ty, and sometimes think on your poor captain."

This last interview with Captain Reud, for it was my last, would have made me wretched, had it not been swallowed up by a deeper wretchedness of my own.