The Mysterious Wanderer Volume Iii Part 4

"This declaration recalled him to a sense of his own safety: he sullenly obeyed; but at the same time a.s.serted that the provocation he had received, was more than sufficient to authorise what he had done; and, with many bitter invectives, declared, my insanity should be no defence for offering him such insults!

"'Your excuse, Sir,' I exclaimed, 'is too absurd to pa.s.s even with a madman; and I am not yet sufficiently bereaved of my senses, to need an explanation of the motives which instigated you to seek my destruction!'

"'Then I will not attempt one,' he fiercely replied; 'but boldly say--Corbet Hall cannot--nor shall any longer contain two masters!'

"My mother regarded him with a look of ineffable scorn.--'Surely thou too art insane!--Know you not, Sir, where I am, no one shall claim the t.i.tle of master? and as you value my good opinion, never again dare to entertain such an expectation.'

"Mallet was abashed, and, after some moments pause, said--'Do I rightly understand you, Lady Corbet?'

"'It appears not, Sir,' answered my mother; 'or you would not thus insolently a.s.sume the privilege of acting contrary to my injunction! But from this time, Sir, learn that I expect implicit obedience to my will: if not--as I have raised, you shall likewise find it is in my power to replace you in your original obscurity!'--'To you, Sir,' addressing me, 'I shall only say, that unless you resign the key, I will immediately bring a charge of lunacy against you: nor shall you ever again pa.s.s beyond the walls of your present apartment!'--Then ordering Mallet to follow her, with an air of the sternest dignity, she quitted the room.

"Mallet knew my mother's temper too well, to irritate her, by a further opposition to her commands; he therefore slowly directed his steps toward the door, when perceiving she was beyond hearing, he turned to me in a menacing manner--'Next time we meet, young man, your life shall surely pay the forfeit for this night's adventure!'

"He closed the door; leaving me in a state of wretchedness surpa.s.sing aught I had then experienced. To resign the key, was to yield the only means by which, as I imagined, I could ever hope to obtain my father's will; and would be consigning not only myself, but my aunt, Mrs. Blond, and all who were dear to me, to ruin!--To retain it--or indeed to remain where I was, would be equally destructive; for Mallet, I doubted not, would keep his word.

"I stood for some time nearly stupified with horror. 'Is no resource left to save me?' I at last sighed, advancing to the window. The morning had dawned, and a gypsey I had two or three times spoken to, was crossing the lawn toward the house. To me he came the angel of deliverance; and, allowing myself scarcely a moment's consideration, I broke a square of gla.s.s--for the windows were too well secured to admit of my opening them---and called to him.

"He heard me, and immediately approached; when tying five guineas in my handkerchief, I threw it to him, and briefly telling him my situation, promised him twenty more if he would aid me to escape.

"He declared himself willing to a.s.sist me; but that he knew not how to effect my liberation. No time, I was certain, was to be lost; I therefore directed him to an outhouse, whence he procured a ladder, which he placed against the window, and breaking another square of gla.s.s, severed the wood-work that divided them; with some difficulty I got through, and thus, once more, found myself at liberty!

"I gave him his promised reward, and hastened, as fast as my feeble state would admit, to the Parsonage; where my aunt and Mrs. Blond, on hearing what had pa.s.sed, urged me instantly to fly; but not choosing to put the friendship of St. Ledger again to a trial, or knowing where else to go, my aunt advised my seeking the protection of her Howard, whose generous heart, and the remembrance of his Ellenor, she doubted not, would render him favourable to my suit.

"You were then at Yarmouth; for my aunt had constant intelligence of your destinations from the time of your quitting Brighthelmstone; and refusing the money she would have forced me to accept, I set out on foot for Hay. But my escape was already discovered. Mallet, early in the morning, entered my room, and finding me gone, immediately dispatched the servants in pursuit of me.

"This I learned from old Owen, and was again obliged to have recourse to the gypsey, who, knowing the urgency of the moment, refused the offer of my clothes for his, without a considerable gratuity. It was not a time to argue or deliberate; I therefore paid his demand, and soon found myself in rags, and with something less than three guineas. I, however, travelled in safety, though reduced to some distress from the lowness of my purse, and at last reached the spot, where the benevolence of my friend Frederick relieved me from apprehended danger.

"I was beginning to recover my tranquillity, when the appearance of Mr.

Talton drove me from your protection:--of my subsequent rencounter with the smugglers, I have already informed you. After my escape from them, I worked my pa.s.sage to Cardigan; where, anxious to see my aunt and Eliza, I proceeded immediately for the Parsonage, secure, as I thought, in my sailor's habit. The appearance of Mallet drove me to the cottage of Owen, who informed me of the report circulated of my death, and that you, Mr. Talton, had previously to your going to Holland, in my mother's name, demanded of Mrs. Blond, the back rents of the lands, my father had attached to the Parsonage, and which my mother had already torn from her possession."

"'I now,' said Mr. Talton, 'take shame to myself for the action, to which I was instigated by Lady Corbet, who informed me, Mrs. Blond had in her house a woman the late Sir Henry had kept previously to his marriage, and on whom he had since lavished immense sums; that, to reward Blond for affording her his countenance, he had allowed him the free rent of the lands; likewise, that she suspected Mrs. Blond was endeavouring to inveigle you, Sir Henry, into a marriage with her daughter. I cannot say this account agreed with the characters I ever received of Mr. and Mrs. Blond; but such was my affection for your mother, that I still retained the opinion she had impressed me with. She did not, she said, want the money; but being certain they were the instigators of your elopement, she wished to have them removed to a greater distance, but knew no other means to effect it, without exposing the conduct of the late Sir Henry, which she would willingly avoid. On going to the parsonage, I was introduced to a lady I had never before seen: the beauty of her face and figure, added to the extreme shyness and embarra.s.sment with which she received me, induced me to think she was the mistress your mother had mentioned; and I am sorry to say, I behaved to her with a harshness and severity, I am now convinced she did not deserve; but I should sooner have discredited the evidence of my senses, than the word of your mother; and scarcely, indeed, can I believe them, in the discovery this day has afforded! But, I beg pardon, Sir Henry; pray proceed.'"

"Alarmed at the intelligence I received," continued Sir Henry, "I hastened to the Parsonage, and found it deserted by all but Mary, who confirmed the truth of old Owen's report: and that, on the news arriving of my death, they had been obliged to fly, as Mallet had threatened to send them to gaol. Mary wept as she gave me the relation of their distress, and at last said--'Ah! Sir Henry, would to Heaven you had never left the Hall; for I heard old Thomas tell my Lady, if you had staid, and thought of the pannel, all had been well; they should not now have had to regret your death, or been unjustly driven on a merciless world, to seek their maintenance.'

"Mary knew not the meaning of what she uttered, but, quick as lightning, it brought to my recollection a pannel which concealed a small cavity in a closet adjoining the library. There, I doubted not the will was placed! The woman my father loved, my aunt, her Edward, and her on whose happiness I then found mine depended, were wandering without support: and the idea determined me, regardless of the consequence which must ensue, should I be discovered, to venture beneath the roof I so lately fled from!

"Favoured by the night, I entered by the servants offices, and got, unperceived, through the library to the closet. Mary had provided me with a small dark lanthorn, and, with some difficulty I opened the cavity; but again was doomed to disappointment; it was vacant! With an aching heart I closed the pannel, and was going to leave the closet, when my mother and Mallet entered the library. They discoursed on the improvement of an estate he had purchased for my mother a few weeks before; till Mr. Talton's name was casually mentioned, when he asked if she really designed to marry him? and, on her answering in the affirmative, he endeavoured to dissuade her from it, and to prevail on her to bestow her hand on himself.

"'I love you, Charles,' she answered, 'and believe your sentiments are reciprocal; but will never put it in your power to controul me. I am now mistress of a n.o.ble fortune; and you are welcome to partake of it, even if increased by that of Talton. Cease then to repeat the only request I wish to refuse you; and rest satisfied with the t.i.tle of my lover.'

"He still urged his suit, still she peremptorily forbade the subject, and reverted to the newly-purchased estate; he soon after retired to his office, and my mother entered the closet where I was, for the purpose of writing. Never was surprise and horror greater than that expressed on her countenance at beholding me: scarcely could her trembling hand retain the light which exposed the features of a son to her view.--'It is the phantom of the drowned Corbet!' she at length faintly screamed.

'Approach me not! Help--help!'

"'No, Madam,' I exclaimed, 'your son still lives! and you may now glory in having reduced him to the state, in which your lover deserted Louise.'

"I rushed by her, hearing the servants approaching; escaped into the garden, and, scaling the wall, retraced my steps to Cardigan; every hope lost of discovering the will, or ever being restored to my rights.

Cooler reflection, however, offered a different interpretation to the words of Mary, to what I had at first imagined they implied; and I thought it not impossible, but even probable, that Thomas had discovered the will (as he actually had), and conveyed it to my aunt and Mrs.

Blond. But where to trace them--I knew not. I was moneyless, and certainly in danger of being discovered by my mother; and the same precaution they must use to elude the knowledge of Mr. Talton; would, I feared, as effectually conceal them from me. For some days, however, I endeavoured to gain intelligence of them, but in vain; and the powerful demands of hunger, at last, compelled me to engage as a common sailor in a merchantman trading to Havre-de-Grace; where, disgusted with the Captain, I left the vessel, and, having an ardent desire to know if my deserted sister was in existence, I travelled on foot to Rennes. My adventures there--my rescue of Louise, I have already related; till the period when Providence directed my steps to L'Orient, where, impelled again by necessity, I engaged to serve in a vessel destined with others to Pondicherry. The day after we reached St. Helena, you, Captain Howard, also arrived there, and fortune, there wearied of persecuting me, not only restored me to your friendship, but discovered to me a sister, endeared to my heart by her misfortunes, before a personal knowledge made me love her for her virtues; yet the recollection of past events, forced continually to mind by her striking resemblance to my mother, preyed on my heart. I again sunk under it; and, but for the attentions of you, my friends, should most probably, ere this period, have left my mother the lawful possessor of the fortune she now illegally holds."

"Thank Heaven, my prayers were heard for the preservation of your existence:" said Louise: "though, had you, my brother, entrusted me with the secrets you have this day disclosed, Louise would have been your comforter, and, by sharing your griefs, have lightened the sorrow which oppressed you."

"Say, rather, have added to it, my dear girl;" said Sir Henry, "from the consciousness of having rendered you as unhappy as myself: and but for the discovery of last night, this of to-day would never have taken place. For the friends we here found, I wished the recovery of my fortune; as indeed with them the means rested: and, had not Providence conducted us to them, should never on my own account oppose her, who, whatever are her failings,--is still my mother!"

The company here unanimously joined in thanking Sir Henry for the elucidation of the mysteries which had perplexed them.

"Yet has he not related every particular," said Ellenor, smiling. "He might have added, that since the deaths of his father and Blond, his hand has not only sustained Ellenor and her son, but the descendants of Sir James Elvyn.

"On your second emigration, my Henry, your mother, not being able to discover you, turned the effects of her rage against us, and sent a peremptory demand, by Mr. Talton, for the back-rents. This message, which portended our ruin, threw us into the utmost consternation; though, had I entertained a suspicion the lover of Lady Corbet was the former friend of my Howard, I should not have hesitated a moment in discovering myself to him, and appealing to the rect.i.tude of his own principles against the injustice and inhumanity of the claim. Your mother, however, at that time, went to London, and Mr. Talton accompanying her, in some degree freed us from our fears of immediate distress; but the following morning, Mallet, attended by an officer, entered the room whilst we were at breakfast, and arrested Mrs. Blond for three and twenty hundred pounds, the amount of the rent for seventeen years.--Nor was my unhappy friend treated with either respect or mercy, but, on declaring her inability to discharge the debt, instantly hurried away to confinement.

"To sue for lenity, I was certain would be in vain, I therefore (trusting to Sir Henry's friendship, to redress the injury,) paid the money; consisting of my father's legacy to Blond, which had hitherto been preserved for Eliza, and the money Sir Henry had supplied me with, for my Edward's maintenance at the University.

"Lady Corbet, however, was determined on forcing us from Caermarthen; for, a few weeks after, we were privately informed by a servant from the Hall, that he had overheard Mallet threatening to arrest both me and Mrs. Blond, as joint tenants, for the rent of the parsonage since the death of Blond, and from Mr. Talton's name being likewise mentioned, he was induced, he said, to think that gentleman concerned in the business.--This relation, added to the late occurrence, considerably affected the health of Hannah; and she earnestly entreated her sister to leave the Parsonage, and seek a surer asylum at the house of Lieutenant Booyers, at least till we should hear from Sir Henry. Mrs. Blond readily acceded to the proposal, and, writing for my Edward to return, we prepared for our departure.

"At that time Thomas returned from Cornwall, where he had been sent some time before Sir Henry's elopement; and on being informed of that circ.u.mstance, and our sentiments respecting Lady Corbet, he declared he had supported my brother, when he took his will from the private room, and placed it in the recess of his closet; but ever supposed it had been the same which was produced after his decease. He undertook to procure it; but could not accomplish his design, till the day previous to Lady Corbet's return; the library being shut up, and Mallet in possession of the keys: an opportunity then presented itself, of entering unperceived, and he found the will, indeed, where my brother had placed it. He immediately brought it to me; when every ardent hope, the discovery had raised, was destroyed, by the report of Sir Henry's death. Thomas's dislike to Lady Corbet being greatly increased by the knowledge of this action, he determined to follow my fortunes, and attach himself to my son as his future master. We accordingly proceeded to Lieutenant Booyers, where the amiable Hannah--her gentle spirit broken by repeated afflictions--sunk beneath this last misfortune, and, a few weeks after, found a refuge from her sorrows in the grave.

"We were yet mourning her loss, when we were alarmed by Susan informing us, she had seen you, Mr. Talton, alight at the inn.--Not doubting but that you were in pursuit of us, we ordered a carriage from the adjoining village, and prepared again for flight. On Booyers' return with Ellen, being made acquainted with the emergency of our situation, he consented to accompany us, and we thus set out--Providence our guide--to seek a future habitation. Heaven conducted us to this spot, where happiness has once more become an inmate of my bosom; and where justice, I hope, by the hand of my Howard, will re-establish Sir Henry in the possessions of which he has been defrauded."

"My obligations to Sir Henry, on your account, my Ellenor," said the Captain, "I can never sufficiently acknowledge; indeed every action or account but heightens my admiration and regard. Let me then know, my young friend, how you wish to proceed--and command my fortune and interest."

"It is now the subject to be considered," said Sir Henry. "Violent measures we cannot pursue. The will my mother produced is forged: think then what must be the consequence, if I commence a process of law against her. No--rather let me rest satisfied with the entailed estates.

I would wish to appoint you my guardian, for the remainder of my minority: my mother, at her decease, may perhaps be just: if not--whilst blessed with the friendship of those I so highly esteem, and as I trust with the hand and affection of Eliza, I shall not only have sufficient to fulfil my father's request, but to enjoy every comfort of life: its luxuries I am content to dispense with."

"I cannot agree to this arrangement," said Mr. Talton: "and if you, Sir Henry, will allow me to be joint guardian with Captain Howard, I may, perhaps, be able to re-establish you in your rights, without the aid of the law."

Sir Henry readily consented, on condition that his mother was not exposed.

"That, Sir Henry," continued Mr. Talton, "I shall carefully avoid. My affection to your mother, first founded on personal attractions, was confirmed only by the appearance of every virtue. Think, then, what must be my sentiments, at the discovery of her real character. I shall respect your feelings, my amiable young friends, nor forget that she is your mother: but these proofs of her duplicity, have raised a sentiment of indignation, perhaps not altogether excusable, against the woman for whom I so lately avowed an ardent attachment: but sooner will I tear the dearest hope, the richest prospect of happiness my fancy could pourtray from my heart, than be an accomplice in wronging her already too much injured offspring!

"Misled by her insinuations, I regarded the late Sir Henry as a tyrant, and her son, as a youth of sordid unsocial principles! I am undeceived--and here avow myself the supporter of his cause. Lady Corbet shall find, that when led into an error, Talton is neither ashamed to acknowledge it, nor to make reparation as far as lies in his power! Nor do I think it will prove an improper punishment to her, to be deprived of her ill-obtained wealth, by the man she pretended affection to, and would have accepted, with no other view than to increase it. But whether I succeed or not in this act of justice, you, Sir Henry, shall ever find a father in me!"

Sir Henry returned his acknowledgements for the regard Mr. Talton professed; and began to cherish a hope, that all would yet terminate to his satisfaction. The re-appearance of Mrs. Blond added to the pleasure which prevailed: only the bosom of Louise sometimes heaved a sigh, at the disappointment of the ideas she had cherished, of being restored to the arms of a mother.

The messenger returning with the licence, arrangements were commenced for the approaching nuptials. The Captain wished to have secured his Ellenor an ample competence, independent of himself: but she refused the jointure, telling him, with a smile, she would not be restricted to a part of his fortune. They, therefore, agreed to dispense with the delays of the law, and appointed the following day for their re-union: after which, they proposed to proceed to Mr. Talton's, and there wait the return of Lady Corbet.

Enlivened by genuine gaiety, the hours pa.s.sed imperceptibly; and the ensuing morning, Ellenor, for the second time, gave her hand to the man she loved: and the transports of the Captain on the occasion, showed how highly he prized the gift.

CHAPTER IV.

A few days after the marriage, they bade adieu to the humble roof, which had so many months afforded them a secure asylum; presenting the stock on the farm, and the furniture, to the peasant, who, with his wife, had proved themselves zealous and faithful servants.

By pleasant journeys, Sir Henry and his friends proceeded toward the seat of Mr. Talton, which, as he had informed the Captain, adjoined to the Corbet estate.--On approaching the Parsonage, Edward, who was conversing with his father, checked the pace of his horse, and, pointing it out to his observation, said,--"I can scarcely, my dear Sir, express the pleasure I feel in this return to the scenes of my earlier days. How often have I trodden the spot we are now pa.s.sing, and plucked the wild heath from its native soil--gayly carolling as the lark soaring over our heads, unconscious of evil, and a stranger to sorrow! Here, too, the worthy Blond, and my generous uncle, would often join Sir Henry and myself, in our boyish amus.e.m.e.nts; and whilst we inhaled health from the mountain breeze, would, from each object and incident, mix instruction with our pastime. Here, too, I last beheld one of the fairest of nature's creation----."

"Which circ.u.mstance," said the Captain, with a smile, "I believe, my son, you remember with as much regret as pleasure. I have, Edward, from the time I first beheld you, imagined your cheerfulness to be forced.

Your mother, too, has observed it; and I have wished for the opportunity, which now offers, of inquiring the cause? Make me your confident; nor think, in unbosoming yourself, it is to a rigid censor, but to a father, whose anxiety for your happiness equals--and perhaps exceeds your own."