Authors: George W. M. Reynolds,James Malcolm Rymer
"Yes,
yes, Charles; most true."
"It
seemed to me as if all the world in arms could not have protected you so well
as this one heart, clad in the triple steel of its affections, could have
shielded you from evil."
"Ay,
Charles; and then I was the bane of your existence, because I filled you with
apprehension?"
"For
a time, dearest; and then came the antidote; for when exhausted alike in mind
and body—when lying helpless, with chains upon my limbs—when expecting death at
every visit of those who had dragged me from light and from liberty, and from
love; it was but the thought of thy beauty and thy affection that nerved me,
and gave me a hope even amidst the cruellest disaster."
"And
then—and then, Charles?"
"You
were my blessing, as you have ever been—as you are, and as you will ever be—my
own Flora, my beautiful—my true!"
We
won't go so far as to say it is the fact; but, from a series of singular sounds
which reached even to the passage of the cottage, we have our own private opinion
to the effect, that Charles began kissing Flora at the top of her forehead, and
never stopped, somehow or another, till he got down to her chin—no, not her
chin—her sweet lips—he could not get past them. Perhaps it was wrong; but we
can't help it—we are faithful chroniclers. Reader, if you be of the sterner
sex, what would you have done?—if of the gentler, what would you have
permitted?
MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS, AND THE VISIT TO THE RUINS.
During
the next hour, Charles informed Flora of the whole particulars of his forcible
abduction; and to his surprise he heard, of course, for the first time, of
those letters, purporting to be written by him, which endeavoured to give so
bad an aspect to the fact of his sudden disappearance from Bannerworth Hall.
Flora
would insist upon the admiral, Henry, and the rest of the family, hearing all
that Charles had to relate concerning Mr. Marchdale; for well she knew that her
mother, from early associations, was so far impressed in the favour of that
hypocritical personage, that nothing but damning facts, much to his prejudice,
would suffice to convince her of the character he really was.
But
she was open to conviction, and when she really found what a villain she had
cherished and given her confidence to, she shed abundance of tears, and blamed
herself exceedingly as the cause of some of the misfortunes which had fallen
upon her children.
"Very
good," said the admiral; "I ain't surprised a bit. I knew he was a
vagabond from the first time I clapped eyes upon him. There was a down look
about the fellow's figure-head that I didn't like, and be hanged to him, but I
never thought he would have gone the length he has done. And so you say you've
got him safe in the ruins, Charles?"
"I
have, indeed, uncle."
"And
then there let him remain, and a good place, too, for him."
"No,
uncle, no. I'm sure you speak without thought. I intend to release him in a few
hours, when I have rested from my fatigues. He could not come to any harm if he
were to go without food entirely for the time that I leave him; but even that
he will not do, for there is bread and water in the dungeon."
"Bread
and water! that's too good for him. But, however, Charles, when you go to let
him out, I'll go with you, just to tell him what I think of him, the
vagabond."
"He
must suffer amazingly, for no doubt knowing well, as he does, his own infamous
intentions, he will consider that if I were to leave him to starve to death, I
should be but retailing upon him the injuries he would have inflicted upon
me."
"The
worst of it is," said the admiral, "I can't think what to do with
him."
"Do
nothing, uncle, but just let him go; it will be a sufficient punishment for
such a man to feel that, instead of succeeding in his designs, he has only
brought upon himself the bitterest contempt of those whom he would fain have
injured. I can have no desire for revenge on such a man as Marchdale."
"You
are right, Charles," said Flora; "let him go, and let him go with a
feeling that he has acquired the contempt of those whose best opinions might
have been his for a far less amount of trouble than he has taken to acquire
their worst."
Excitement
had kept up Charles to this point, but now, when he arose and expressed his
intention of going to the ruins, for the purpose of releasing Marchdale, he
exhibited such unequivocal symptoms of exhaustion and fatigue that neither his
uncle nor Flora would permit him to go, so, in deference to them, he gave up
the point, and commissioned the admiral and Jack, with Henry, to proceed to the
place, and give the villain his freedom; little suspecting what had occurred
since he had himself left the neighbourhood of those ruins.
Of
course Charles Holland couldn't be at all accountable for the work of the
elements, and it was not for him to imagine that when he left Marchdale in the
dungeon that so awful a catastrophe as that we have recorded to the reader was
to ensue.
The
distance to the ruins was not so great from this cottage even as it was from
Bannerworth Hall, provided those who went knew the most direct and best road to
take; so that the admiral was not gone above a couple of hours, and when he
returned he sat down and looked at Charles with such a peculiar expression,
that the latter could not for the life of him tell what to make of it.
"Something
has happened, uncle," he said, "I am certain; tell me at once what it
is."
"Oh!
nothing, nothing," said the admiral, "of any importance."
"Is
that what you call your feelings?" said Jack Pringle. "Can't you tell
him as there came on a squall last night, and the ruins have come in with a dab
upon old Marchdale, crushing his guts, so that we smelt him as soon as we got
nigh at hand?"
"Good
God!" said Charles, "has such a catastrophe occurred?"
"Yes,
Charles, that's just about the catastrophe that has occurred. He's dead; and
rum enough it is that it should happen on the very night that you
escaped."
"Rum!"
said Jack, suddenly; "my eye, who mentions rum? What a singular sort of
liquor rum must be. I heard of a chap as used to be fond of it once on board a
ship; I wonder if there's any in the house."
"No!"
said the admiral; "but there's a fine pump of spring water outside if you
feel a little thirsty, Jack; and I'll engage it shall do you more good than all
the rum in the world."
"Uncle,"
said Charles, "I'm glad to hear you make that observation."
"What
for?"
"Why,
to deal candidly with you, uncle, Jack informed me that you had lately taken
quite a predilection for drinking."
"Me!"
cried the admiral; "why the infernal rascal, I've had to threaten him with
his discharge a dozen times, at least, on that very ground, and no other."
"There's
somebody calling me," said Jack. "I'm a coming! I'm a coming!"
and, so he bolted out of the room, just in time to escape an inkstand, which
the admiral caught up and flung after him.
"I'll
strike that rascal off the ship's books this very day," muttered Admiral
Bell. "The drunken vagabond, to pretend that I take anything, when all the
while it's himself!"
"Well,
well, I ought certainly to have suspected the quarter from whence the
intelligence came; but he told it to me so circumstantially, and with such an
apparent feeling of regret for the weakness into which he said you had fallen,
that I really thought there might be some truth in it."
"The
rascal! I've done with him from this moment; I have put up with too much from
him for years past."
"I
think now that you have given him a great deal of liberty, and that, with a
great deal more he has taken, makes up an amount which you find it difficult to
endure."
"And
I won't endure it."
"Let
me talk to him, and I dare say I shall be able to convince him that he goes too
far, and when he finds that such is the case he will mend."
"Speak
to him, if you like, but I have done with such a mutinous rascal, I have. You
can take him into your service, if you like, till you get tired of him; and
that won't be very long."
"Well,
well, we shall see. Jack will apologise to you I have no doubt; and then I
shall intercede for him, and advise you to give him another trial."
"If
you get him into the apology, then there's no doubt about me giving him another
trial. But I know him too well for that; he's as obstinate as a mule, he is,
and you won't get a civil word out of him; but never mind that, now. I tell you
what, Master Charley, it will take a good lot of roast beef to get up your good
looks again."
"It
will, indeed, uncle; and I require, now, rest, for I am thoroughly exhausted.
The great privations I have undergone, and the amount of mental excitement
which I have experienced, in consequence of the sudden and unexpected release
from a fearful confinement, have greatly weakened all my energies. A few hours'
sleep will make quite a different being of me."
"Well,
my boy, you know best," returned the admiral; "and I'll take care, if
you sleep till to-morrow, that you sha'n't be disturbed. So now be off to bed
at once."
The
young man shook his uncle's hand in a cordial manner, and then repaired to the
apartment which had been provided for him.
Charles
Holland did, indeed, stand in need of repose; and for the first time now for
many days he laid down with serenity at his heart, and slept for many hours.
And was there not now a great and a happy change in Flora Bannerworth! As if by
magic, in a few short hours, much of the bloom of her before-fading beauty returned
to her. Her step again recovered its springy lightness; again she smiled upon
her mother, and suffered herself to talk of a happy future; for the dread even
of the vampyre's visitations had faded into comparative insignificance against
the heart's deep dejection which had come over her at the thought that Charles
Holland must surely be murdered, or he would have contrived to come to her.
And
what a glorious recompense she had now for the trusting confidence with which
she had clung to a conviction of his truth! Was it not great, now, to feel that
when he was condemned by others, and when strong and unimpeachable evidence
seemed to be against him, she had clung to him and declared her faith in his
honour, and wept for him instead of condemning?
Yes,
Flora; you were of that order of noble minds that, where once confidence is
given, give it fully and completely, and will not harbour a suspicion of the
faith of the loved one, a happy disposition when verified, as in this instance,
by an answering truthfulness.
But
when such a heart trusts not with judgment—when that pure, exalted, and noble
confidence is given to an object unworthy of it—then comes, indeed, the most
fearful of all mental struggles; and if the fond heart, that has hugged to its
inmost core so worthless a treasure, do not break in the effort to discard it,
we may well be surprised at the amount of fortitude that has endured so much.
Although
the admiral had said but little concerning the fearful end Marchdale had come
to, it really did make some impression upon him; and, much as he held in
abhorrence the villany of Marchdale's conduct, he would gladly in his heart
have averted the fate from him that he had brought upon himself.
On
the road to the ruins, he calculated upon taking a different kind of vengeance.
When
they had got some distance from the cottage, Admiral Bell made a proposal to
Henry to be his second while he fought Marchdale, but Henry would not hear of
it for a moment.
"My
dear sir," he said, "could I, do you think, stand by and see a
valuable, revered, and a respected life like yours exposed to any hazard merely
upon the chance of punishing a villain? No, no; Marchdale is too base now to be
met in honourable encounter. If he is dealt with in any way let it be by the
laws."
This
was reasonable enough, and after some argument the admiral coincided in it, and
then they began to wonder how, without Charles, they should be able to get an
entrance to the dungeons, for it had been his intention originally, had he not
felt so fatigued, to go with them.
As
soon, however, as they got tolerably near to the ruins, they saw what had
happened. Neither spoke, but they quickened their pace, and soon stood close to
the mass of stone-work which now had assumed so different a shape to what it
had a few short hours before.
It
needed little examination to let them feel certain that whoever might have been
in any of the underground dungeons must have been crushed to death.
"Heaven
have mercy upon his soul!" said Henry.
"Amen!"
said the admiral.
They
both turned away, and for some time they neither of them spoke, for their
thoughts were full of reflection upon the horrible death which Marchdale must
have endured. At length the admiral said—
"Shall
we tell this or not?"
"Tell
it at once," said Henry; "let us have no secrets."
"Good.
Then I will not make one you may depend. I only wish that while he was about
it, Charley could have popped that rascal Varney as well in the dungeon, and
then there would have been an end and a good riddance of them both."