Sir Jasper Carew Part 69

"Yes, sir," was the quick reply. "That's ould Delany of Shanestown, and a greater devil there isn't from this to his own place. Blood and ages,"

cried he, addressing me, "won't you give yourself a chance? do you want them to tear you to pieces where you stand?"

The man's looks impressed me still more than his words; and though I scarcely believed it possible that my peril could be such as he spoke of, the terrified faces about me struck fear into my heart.

"Would men stand by," cried I, "and see such an infamous cruelty?"

"Arrah! how could we help it?" said one, stopping me; "and if you won't do anything for yourself, what use can we be?"

"There, be off, you, in the name of Heaven," said another, pus.h.i.+ng me through a small door that opened into a shrubbery; "down that lane as fast as you can, and keep to the right after you pa.s.s the fish-pond."

"It wouldn't be bad to swim to one of the islands!" muttered another; but the counsel was overruled by the rest.

By this time, the contagion of terror had so completely seized upon me that I yielded myself to the impulse of the moment, and, taking the direction they pointed out, I fled along the path beneath the garden wall at full speed.

In the unbroken stillness I could hear nothing but the tramp of my own feet, or the rustling of the branches as I tore through them. I gained at last the open fields, and with one hurried glance behind to see that I was not pursued, still dashed onwards. The young cattle started off at full speed as they saw me, and the snorting horses galloped wildly here and there as I went.

Again, beneath the shade of a wood I would have halted to repose myself, but suddenly a sound came floating along the air, which swelled louder and louder, till I could recognize in it the deep, hoa.r.s.e bay of dogs, as in wild chorus they yelped together; and high above all could be heard the more savage notes of men's voices cheering them on and encouraging them. With the mad speed of terror, I now fled onward; the very air around me seeming to resound with the dreadful cries of my pursuers. Now tumbling headlong over the tangled roots, now das.h.i.+ng recklessly forward through stony watercourses or fissured crevices of ground, I ran with mad impulse, heedless of all peril but one. At some moments the deafening sounds of the wild pack seemed close about me; at others, all was still as the grave around.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 564]

I had forgotten every direction the men had given me, and only thought of pressing onward without any thought of whither. At last I came to a rapid but narrow river, with steep and rugged banks at either side.

To place this between myself and my pursuers seemed the best chance of escape, and without a second's hesitation I dashed into the stream. Far stronger than I had supposed, the current bore me down a considerable distance, and it was not till after a long and tremendous effort that I gained the bank. Just as I had reached it, the wild cry of the dogs again met my ears; and, faint and dripping as I was, once more I took to speed.

Through dark woods and waving plains of tall gra.s.s, over deep tillage ground and through the yellow corn, I fled like one bereft of reason,--the terror of a horrible and inglorious death urging me on to efforts that my strength seemed incapable of making. Cut and bleeding in many places, my limbs were at last yielding to fatigue, when I saw at a short distance in front of me a tall but dilapidated stone wall. With one last effort I reached this, and, climbing by the crevices, gained the top. But scarcely had I gained it when my head reeled, my senses left me, and, overcome by sickness and exhaustion, I fell headlong to the ground beneath.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fell headlong to the ground]

It was already evening when I came to myself, and still lay there stunned, but uninjured. A wild plain, studded over with yellow furze bushes, lay in front, and beyond in the distance I could see the straggling huts of a small village. It was a wild and dreary scene; but the soft light of a summer's evening beamed calmly over it, and the silence was unbroken around. With an effort, I arose, and, though weak and sorely bruised, found that I could walk. My faculties were yet so confused that of the late events I could remember but little with any distinctness. At times I fancied I had been actually torn and worried by savage dogs; and then I would believe that the whole was but a wild and feverish dream, brought on by intense anxiety and care. My tattered and ragged clothes, clotted over with blood, confused, but did not aid, my memory; and thus struggling with my thoughts, I wandered along, and, as night was falling, reached the little village of Shanestown. Directing my steps towards a cabin where I perceived a light, I discovered that it was the alehouse of the village. Two or three country people were sitting smoking on a bench before the door, who arose as I came forward, half in curiosity, half in respect; and as I was asking them in what quarter I might find a lodging for the night, the landlord came out. No sooner did his eyes fall on me than he started back in seeming terror, and, after a pause of a few seconds, cried out,--

"Molly! Molly! come here quick! Who's that standing there?" said he, as he pointed with his finger towards me.

"The heavens be about us! but it's Mr. Walter Carew himself," said the woman, crossing herself.

This sudden recognition of my resemblance to my father so overcame me that though I struggled hard for speech, the words would not come; and I stood pale and gasping before them.

"For Heaven's sake, speak!" cried the man, in terror.

I heard no more; faint, agitated, and exhausted, I tottered towards the bank, and swooned away.

CHAPTER XLVIII. THE PERILS OF EVIL

The last few pages I mean to append to these notices of my life might be, perhaps, equally well derived from the public newspapers of the time. At a period when great events were occurring; when the conquering armies of France marched over the length and breadth of Europe,--the humble historian of these pages was able, for a brief s.p.a.ce, to engage public attention, and become for a short season the notoriety of the hour. I will not presume so far as to say that the fame to which I attained was of that kind which flatters most, or that the reputation attaching to me was above reproach. Still, I had my partisans and adherents, nay, I believe I might even aver, my friends and well-wishers. He must, perchance, have had a fortunate existence who can say more.

Of what followed after the event detailed in my last chapter I can relate nothing, for I was seized with s.h.i.+vering and other signs of fever that same night, and for several weeks my life was despaired of. Even when the dangerous period pa.s.sed over, my convalescence made but little progress. For me there were none of those aids which so powerfully a.s.sist the return to health. The sympathy of friends, the affections of family, the very hope of once more a.s.suming one's place at hearth and board,--I had none of these. If the past was filled with trouble and suffering, the future was a bleak expanse that offered nothing to speculate on. My thoughts turned to the New World beyond the seas, to a region wherein nothing should recall a memory of the bygone, and where even I might at last forget the early years of my own life. There were not then, as now, the rapid means of intercourse between this country and America; as little, too, was there of that knowledge of the great continent of the west which now prevails. Men talked of it as a far-away land only emerging into civilization, and whose vast regions were still untrodden and unexplored. Dreamy visions of the existence men might carve out for themselves in such a scene formed the amus.e.m.e.nts of the long hours of my solitary sick bed. I fancied myself at times a lone settler on the bank of some nameless river, and at other moments as a member of some Indian tribe, following their fortunes to the chase and to the battle-field, and dreaming through life in the uneventful stillness of the forest.

In part from the effect of malady itself, in part from this dreamy state of mind, I sank into a state of impa.s.sive lethargy wherein nothing pleased or displeased me. Worse than actual despondency, a sense of indifference had settled down on all my feelings; and if I could have asked a boon, it would have been to have been left utterly alone.

To reply when spoken to became irksome; even to listen was a painful exertion to me. Looking back now on this period, it seems to me that such intervals of apathetic repose are often inserted in the lives of men of more than ordinary activity, acting as sleep does in our habitual existence, and serving to rest and recruit faculties overcharged and overworked.

I was in a very humble lodging in a very humble street, still attended by doctors, and besieged by lawyers and solicitors, who came and went, held consultations, questioned and cross-questioned me with a greedy avidity on themes in which my own interest had long ceased, and which I was gradually learning to think of with absolute aversion.

Ysaffich, whose confidence in our success rose higher every day, appeared from time to time to see me; but his visits were generally hurried ones, as he was constantly on the road, travelling hither and thither, exploring registries here, and certificates there, and fortifying our case by every possible means he could think of.

His energy was untiring; and in the shrewd devices of his quick intelligence, even the long-practised acuteness of the lawyers discovered great resources.

Paragraphs of a half mysterious kind in the public newspapers announced to the world that a most remarkable case might ere long transpire, and a claim be preferred which should threaten the possession of one of the largest estates in a county adjacent to the metropolis. To these succeeded others, more openly expressed, in which it was announced that some of the most distinguished members of the inner bar had received retainers for a cause that would soon astonish the world, wherein the plaintiff was represented to be the son and heir of one who once had figured most conspicuously in the fas.h.i.+onable and political circles of Dublin.

As the time approached for bringing the case to trial it was judged expedient that I should be provided with lodgings in a more fas.h.i.+onable quarter of the town, be seen abroad in places of public resort, and, in fact, a certain _eclat_ be imparted to my presence, which should enlist, so far as might be, popular feeling in my favor. The chief adviser and leader of my case was a lawyer of great repute in the Irish bar of those days,--a certain Samuel Hanchett,--one of those men who owe their success in life less to actual learning than to the possession of immense natural acuteness, great resources in difficulty, and a vast acquaintance with all the arts of their fellow-men. There had been, I believe, considerable difficulty in securing his services originally in our behalf. It was reported that he disliked such cases; that they were not what "suited him." He made various objections when first addressed, and threw every discouragement when the cause was submitted for his opinion. He asked for evidence that was not to be obtained, and proofs that were not forthcoming. The merest accident--if I am justified in calling such what was to be followed by consequences so important to myself--overruled these objections on his part. It chanced that in one of my solitary walks on a Sunday afternoon I happened to find myself at the bank of a little stream near Milltown, with an elderly man who seemed to have some apprehensions about crossing on the slippery and uncertain stepping-stones by which the pa.s.sage was forded. Perceiving his difficulty, I tendered my a.s.sistance to him at once, which he accepted. On arriving at then opposite bank, and finding that our roads led in the same direction, we began to converse together, during which my accidental p.r.o.nunciation of a word with a slightly foreign accent attracted his notice. To a question on his part, I mentioned that a great part of my life had been pa.s.sed abroad; and amongst the places to which I alluded was Reichenau. He asked me in what year I had been there, and inquired if by any chance I had ever heard of a certain school there in which it was said the son of the late Duke of Orleans had been a teacher.

"You are speaking of Monsieur Jost, my old master?" said I, warmed up by even this pa.s.sing remembrance of happier days.

"Will you pardon the liberty I am about to take," said he, with some earnestness, "and allow me to ask, with whom I have the honor to speak?"

"My name is Jasper Carew, sir," said I, with a degree of stern pride a man feels in a.s.serting a claim that he knows may be contested.

"Jasper Carew!" repeated he, slowly, while he stood still and stared steadfastly at me--"Jasper Carew! You are then the claimant to the estates of Castle Carew and Crone Lofty in Wicklow?"

"The property of my late father," said I, a.s.sentingly.

"What a singular coincidence should have brought us together," said he, after a pause. "Do you know, sir, that when you overtook me half an hour ago, and saw me standing on the side of the stream there, I was less occupied in thinking how I should cross it than how I could reconcile certain strange statements which had been made to me respecting your claim. I am Mr. Hanchett, sir, the counsel to whom your case has been submitted."

"It is indeed a curious accident that has brought us thus in contact,"

exclaimed I, in surprise.

"I should like to give it another name, young gentleman," said he, thoughtfully, while he walked along at my side for some moments in silence. "Has it ever been explained to you, Mr. Carew," said he, gravely, "what dangers attend such a course of proceeding as you are now engaged in? How necessarily you must be prepared to give in your adhesion to many things your advisers deem essential, and of which you can have no cognizance personally,--in a word, how frequently you will be forced into a responsibility which you never contemplated or antic.i.p.ated? Have all these circ.u.mstances been placed fairly and clearly before you?"

"Never!" replied I.

"Then suffer me to endeavor, in a very few words, to show you some at least of the perils I allude to." In a few short and graphic sentences he stated my case, with all its favorable points forcibly and well delineated. He then exhibited its various weaknesses and deficiencies, the a.s.sumptions for which no proofs were forthcoming, the positions which were taken without power to maintain them. "To give the required coherence and consistency to these, your advisers will of course take all due precaution; but they will require aid also from you. You will be asked for information you have no means of obtaining, for details you cannot supply. A lawsuit is like a chase: the ardor of pursuit deadens every sense of peril, and in the desire to win you become reckless for the cost. I perceive," said he, "that you demur to some of this; but remember that as yet you have not entered the field, that you have only viewed the sport from afar, and its pa.s.sions of hope and fear are all untasted by you!"

"It may be as you say," said I, "and that hereafter I may seem to feel differently; but for the present I can promise you that to secure a verdict in my favor, not only would I not strain any point myself, but I would not condescend to accept the benefit of such a sacrifice from another. I believe--I have strong reasons to believe--that I am a.s.serting a rightful claim; the arguments that shall be sufficient to convince others that I am wrong will, doubtless, be strong enough to satisfy me."

He had fixed his eyes steadily on me while I was speaking these words, and I could, easily perceive that the impression they produced on him was favorable. He then led me on to speak of my life and its vicissitudes, and I could detect in many of his questions that he had formed erroneous notions as to various parts of my story. I cannot attempt to explain why it was so; but the fact unquestionably was, that I opened my heart more freely and unreservedly to this stranger than I had ever done to any of those with whom I had before conversed; and when we parted at length, it was like old friends.

The accident of our meeting was not known to others, and there was considerable astonishment excited when it was heard that Hanchett, who had hitherto shown no disposition to engage in the cause, now accepted the brief and exhibited the warmest anxiety for success. His acute intelligence quickly detected many things which had been pa.s.sed over as immaterial, and by his activity various channels of information were opened which others had not thought of. In these details Ysaffich came more than once before him; and it was remarkable with what shrewdness he read the man's nature, bold, resolute, and unscrupulous as it was.

Between the two, the feeling of distrust rapidly ripened into open hatred, each not hesitating to accuse the other of treachery; and thus was a new element of difficulty added to a case whose complications were already more than enough.

My own position at this period was embarra.s.sing in the extreme. Hanchett frequently invited me to his house, and presented me freely to his friends; while Ysaffich continued to suggest doubts of his good faith on every occasion, and by a hundred petty slights showed his implacable enmity towards him. Day after day this breach grew wider and wider, every effort of the one being sure to excite the animosity and opposition of the other. Ysaffich, too, far from endeavoring to repress this spirit on his part, seemed to foster and encourage it, sneering at the old lawyer's caution and reserve, and even insinuating against him darker and more treacherous intentions.

"To what end," said he, at length, one morning when our discussion had become unusually warm and animated, "to what end the inquiries to which this learned adviser of yours would push us: he wants to discover the Countess of Ga-briac and Raper. Why, bethink you, my worthy friend, that these are the very people we hope never to hear more of; that if by any mischance they could possibly be forthcoming, our whole scheme is blown up at once. We have now enough, or we shall have enough by the end of the month, to go to a jury. There is not a doc.u.ment nor a paper that will not, in some form or other, be supplied. Let us stand or fall by that issue; but, of all things, let us not protract the campaign till the arrival of the forces that shall overwhelm us. If this be your policy, Master Gervois, speak it out freely, and let us be frank with each other."

There was a tone of bold defiance in this speech that startled me; but the way in which he addressed me, as Gervois, a name he had never called me by for several months, in even our closest intimacy, was like a declaration of open hostility.

"I claim to be called Jasper Carew," said I, calmly and slowly; "I will accept no other designation from you nor any one."

"You have learned your part admirably," said he, with a sneer; "but remember that I am myself the prompter; so pray reserve the triumphs of your art for the public!"