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I

LI E) RAFLY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

Of ILLINOIS

THE ROBBER.

VOL. II.

London

Printed by A. Spottiswoodb,

New-StreeUSquare.

THE ROBBER

A TALE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"RICHELIEU," "THE GIPSY," *' ATTILA," &c.

More should I question thee, and more I must — Though more to know would not be mote to trust — From whence thou cam'st, how tended on. But rest Unquestioned, welcome ; and undoubted, blest."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, QRME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN!

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1838.

■^2 3

] S39:

THE ROBBER,

CHAPTER I.

The world we live in is full of beautiful sights and sweet sounds ; it is a treasure-house of loveliness and of melody. Whether the eye ranges over the face of nature at large, and marks all the varied, the magnificent, the sweet, die bright, the gentle,, in wood, and mountain, and valley, and stream ; or rests, wondering and admiring, on the bright deli- cate fabric of a flower, the rich hues of the butterfly, or the lustrous plumage of the birds, ^beauty and brightness is everywhere. The air ^we breathe, too, is full of sweet sounds ; whether i^in the singing of the birds, the murmuring /vi music of the stream, or the hum of all the insect world upon the wing, every thing is ^replete with harmony. But of all the lovely

VOI<. II. B

2 THE ROBBER.

sights, and of all the touching sounds whereof nature is full, there is nothing so beautiful, tliere is nothing so sweet, as the sight and the ^vords of natural affection.

Alice Herbert, — for to her we must now turn, — sat by the bed-side of her father, on the morning of that day, the eventful passing of which we have already commemorated in the end of the last volume, as far as it affects the greater part of the characters connected with this tale. There was joy and brightness upon her counte- nance ; and in the small and beautiful hand that rested on her lap she held open the packet of papers which had been left for her by Langford. She gazed in the countenance of her father with a look of eager and gratified affection, which gave to her lovely features a look of additional loveli- ness, and added the crowning beauty to the beauty of the whole. Her voice, too, sweet and melodious as it always was, seemed, at least to her father's ears, to have a more musical tone than ever, as she told him, with a heart thrilling with joy and satisfaction at having such news to tell, that she held in her hand the means of freeing

THK ROBBER. O

him from the painful situation into wliich he had been plunged by the events of the night before ; and that those means had been fur- nished to her by him whom she so deeply loved.

The feelings of Sir Walter himself were also very sweet ; they were sweet to receive such assistance from a daughter's hand ; they were sweet from perceiving the happiness which to give that assistance afforded her ; they were sweet from the very act of appreciating all her sensations ; from the power of understanding and estimating the ideas and feelings of her whom he loved best on earth. They were sweet, but not wholly sweet. There was a sensation mingled with them, as there must almost always be with every enjoyment and delight of our mortal being, which tempered, if it did not sadden, — which took some little part off the brightness of the joy. It may be, that such slight deteriorations, that such partial alloys thrown into the gold of happiness, do, like the real alloys which render the precious metals more fitted for the hand of the work« B 2

THE ROBBER.

men, render our pleasures more adapted to our state of being. At all events, the slight shade of something less than happiness which mingled with Sir Walter Herbert's feelings, was not suffi- cient to do more than give them a deeper interest. It was the thrill of a fine mind on receiving a benefit. Pride had nothing to do with it ; and yet when Alice Herbert showed him the various notes and bills of exchange which she held in her hand, a slight flush appeared upon his cheek, a momentary feeling of embarrassment came over him. He would not, however, have let Alice perceive for the world that he felt the least embarrassment ; he struggled against it, and conquered it in a moment.

"This is indeed generous and noble of Langford," he said. " This is like what I always supposed him ; this is like what I could desire and hope in him who is to possess my Alice. But I must rise, Alice my beloved. I must rise and see him, and thank him myself, I long to tell him how I appreciate his good and noble character, and to show him that I do so by seeking his advice, assistance, and coun-

THE ROBBER. 5

sel in a situation to which some carelessness and some want of wisdom, perhaps, have brought my affairs, though I feel assured and am con- fident, Alice, as you tell me he himself said last night, that matters are by no means so bad as that lawyer would unkindly have us believe. Go down, my love, and have the breakfast pre- pared ; I will join you speedily."

Alice did as he bade her, leaving the papers with him ; but although her heart was very happy, she could have much wished that Lang- ford himself had not been absent. She knew that a thousand causes of the simplest and most natural kind might have taken him out at that early hour of the morning ; but yet there was a feeling of apprehensiveness in her bosom which she did not attempt to account for, but which in reality proceeded from the agitation of the preceding evening — agitation which had taken from her heart that feeling of security in its own happiness which seldom, if ever, returns when once scared away. The first great misfor- tune is the breaking of a spell, the dissolving of that bright and beautiful illusion in which our B 3

b THE ROBBER.

youth is enshrined, the confidence of happiness; and there is no magic power in after-hfe sufficient to give us back the charm again. It may come in another world, but there it shall be a reality, and not a dream.

Alice Herbert, then, felt apprebensive she knew not of what; but in the silence of the old servants, and the solemn gloom that seemed to hang over them as they laid out the morning meal, there was something which increased her uneasiness. She asked herself, why Wilson walk- ed so slowly, why Halliday no longer bustled about as usual, forgetting for a moment his reverence for the ears of his master, in directing and scolding the other servants if they went wrong: and though she ultimately concluded that they had all heard some report of the diffi- culties into which her father had fallen, and that such a report had rendered their affectionate hearts sad, yet the conclusion did not altogether satisfy her ; and she longed both for Langford's return, and for her father's appearance at the breakfast table.

Sir Walter did at length appear, but his

THE KOBBER. 7

first question was for Langford, to which the servant Halliday answered as he had been di- rected. The good knight seemed perfectly satisfied, and, sitting down to table, commenced his breakfast, talking to his daughter with an air that showed that the slight embarrass- ment under which he had first laboured was gone, — that the despondency which had been produced by the imperfect insight into his affairs, given by the events of the preceding night, was passing aw^ay, and that hope and expectation were beginning to brighten up and smile upon him once more.

Ere breakfast was over, however, the ser- vant Halliday entered the room, and approach- ing the end of the table where his master sat, informed him that Gregory Myrtle, the landlord of the Talbot, desired instantly to speak with him.

" What does he want, Halliday ?" demanded the knight ; " will not the good man's business wait?"

" I believe not, your worship," replied Halli- day; "he says it is a matter of much impor-

B A

8 THE ROBBER.

" Well, then, send him in," said Sir Walter ; " he is a good man and a merry one, and I will discuss the matter with him while I finish my breakfast."

Halliday looked at Alice, but he did not venture to say any thing, and, retiring from the rocMii, he soon after re-appeared, ushering in the portly form of Gregory Myrtle.

The worthy host of the Talbot, however, for once in his life, had lost that radiant jocundity of expression which his countenance usually bore ; and the first question of Sir Walter was, " Why, how now, Master Gregory Myrtle, what is the matter with thee, mine host? Thou lookest as solemn and as much surprised as if thou hadst seen a ghost on thy way hither. I hope nothing has gone wrong with thee, good Gregory?" '

" I have seen a sight, your worship," replied the landlord, laying his hand upon the white apron which covered his stomach, — " I have seen a sight which I never thought to see, and which has made me as sad as any thing can make Gregory Myrtle. I have seen Master

THE ROBBER. 9

Harry Langford taken away from mine house by two magistrates on a charge of murder ! ''

Sir Walter gazed on him for a single instant with astonishment, but then immediately turned towards his daughter, forgetting all his own feelings in hers. Alice, as pale as death, had sunk back in her chair, and was covering her eyes with her hands, while she seemed to gasp for breath under the agitation of the moment. Sir Walter started up, and approached her tenderly, while Halliday ran from the other side of the room with water. She put it away with her hand, however, saying, " I shall be better in a moment ! It was but the shock ! Go on, Master Myrtle !"

Sir Walter gazed tenderly on his child, but the colour soon came back into Alice's cheek, and she begged her father not to attend to her, but to go on with the sad business which had been so suddenly brought before him. Sir Walter again sat down to the table, and as his mind turned from his daughter to the charge against one whom she loved and whom he esteemed, surprise and indignation superseded

10 THE ROBBER.

all Other feelings, and the blood mounted up into his cheek, while he demanded, " Of whose murder, pray, have they had the folly to accuse him ?"

" Folly, indeed, your worship," replied Gre- gory Myrtle; "but they accuse him of having murdered Lord Harold last night upon the moor."

The blood again rushed rapidly through every vein back to Alice Herbert's heart, and her fair hand clasped almost convulsively the arm of the chair in which she sat. Her father's heart had instantly directed his eye towards her, and, rising from his seat, he went gently up to her, and took her by the hand, saying, " Let me help you to your own room, dear child. I must make inquiries into this matter ; but it is not a subject for your ears, my Alice."

" Yes, indeed," she replied, making an effort for calmness. "I have now heard the worst, my dear father, and shall be anxious to know all the rest. If I were away, I should be still more uneasy than I am here ; — pray go on."

*'The charge is perfectly absurd!" replied

THE nOBBEH. 11

Sir Walter, returning to his chair. " No one that knows Langford can for a moment suspect him of committing any crime. I will investi- gate the affair to the bottom, and of course take care that he is not subject to the annoy- ance of confinement any longer, my Alice. But go on, Master Myrtle ! — What more?"

Alice listened eagerly to all the details which Gregory Myrtle now gave, for her mind was not at all at ease in regard to the real state of the case. Not that she ever suspected Lang- ford of having murdered the unhappy Lord Harold : of course such an idea never entered her mind ; but she remembered that Langford had been absent the greater part of the pre- ceding evening, and even a portion of the night. She knew that he had left her to see Lord Harold, whose feelings she doubted not were irritated and excited by what he had seen take place between her and his rival ; and she did fear that Langford, notwithstanding the pro- mise he had given her, might have been driven or tempted to draw his sword under some strong provocation. She knew tliat he had

12 THE ROBBER.

great powers of commanding himself; and slie believed that even had such an occurrence taken J lace, he would have been perfectly capable of conversing with her over her father's affairs, as : 2 had done. At the same time she recollected that — although absorbed by the situation of her father, and occupied by her own feelings and sensations — she had remarked that Langford was pale, thoughtful, and seemingly agitated by emotions different from those which might be naturally called forth by the subjects on which tliey spoke.

On the other hand, he had assured her that no encounter had taken place between him and Lord Harold, and she did not think that, even to spare her feelings, Langford would say any thing that was not true ; but yet she thought that their meeting might have taken place even after Langford had left her. She accounted for his previous absence by supposing that he had irone to seek some friend to act as his second upon the occasion, and, in short, imagi- nation found many a way of justifying the apprehensions that love was prompt to force.

THE ROBBER. 13

Under any ordinary circumstances, though she might bitterly have regretted that one whom she loved had stained his hand with the blood of a fellow creature, yet she would have enter- tained no apprehensions for his safety in a mere affair of honour. But Alice had known from her infancy the Earl of Danemore, and had formed, almost without knowing it herself, an estimate of his character, which was but too near the reality. There was in it a remorselessness, a vehemence, a determination, an unscrupulous pursuit of his own purposes, which had been apparent to her, even as a child. She knew well, she felt perfectly convinced that he would halt at no step, that he would hesitate at no means to be avenged upon any one who had lifted a hand against his son ; and she was well aware, too, that Lord Danemore united to his unscrupulous determination of character talents and skill, which gave him but too often the means of accomplishing his purpose, how- ever unjust.

Such knowledge and such feelings added deep apprehensions in regard to Langford's

14 THE ROBBER.

safety to the pain that slie would at any time have felt at the idea of one she loved taking the life of another human being ; and the whole was mingled with sincere grief to think that one who had been her playmate in childhood, and who had loved her truly in more mature years, — one whom she esteemed and felt for deeply, though she could not return his love, had been cut off in the spring of life, before many blossoming virtues had yet borne fruit.

She listened eagerly, therefore, and anxiously to the words of the good landlord of the Talbot, while he detailed all those facts connected with the arrest of Langford which we have already dwelt upon. Her father, indeed, felt and showed much more indignation and surprise that the charge should be brought at all, than apprehension lest it should prove just; and when from some part of the conduct of tlie magistrates, as detailed by the worthy land- lord, it appeared that they accused Langford of having slain Lord Harold in an unfair and secret manner, Alice shared in the in-

:3

THE ROBBER. 15

(lignant feelings of her father, and raised high her head at the very thought of her noble, her generous, her gallant lover being suspected of an unworthy act for a moment.

By the showing of Gregory Myrtle, it very speedily appeared to Sir Walter and his daughter, that the magistrates had not dealt quite impartially in taking or seeking for evi- dence; and that they had shown a strong inclination to find out that Langford was really guilty. From what Sir Walter knew of the character of one, if not of both of those worthy gentlemen, he easily conceived it to be possible that they should be somewhat desirous of recommending themselves to Lord Danemore by an overstrained and excessive zeal in discoverinii- the murderer of his son. But when he heard that the body of Lord Harold had not even been found, his in- dignation grew still greater, and he sent back Gregory Myrtle to the village, with directions to collect together every one who could give any information on the subject, promising as soon as his horses could be saddled to come over to

16 THE llOBBKR.

the Talbot and investigate the matter to the bottom.

" As soon as this is done, Alice,'' he said, " I will ride over to the castle, notwithstand- ing the painful event that has occurred, dis- charge this long-standing debt to my good Lord Danemore, who has thought fit to make so unhandsome a use of it; and I will then insist upon even justice being shown towards our noble friend Langford, who, I doubt not, can prove his innocence in five minutes."

The worthy knight hastened all his proceed- ings; for when the cause of a friend was in his hands, none of that easy and somewhat apathe- tic indifference displayed itself with which he was but too apt to regard his own affairs. His riding boots were drawn on with speed, and he twice asked for his horses before the grooms could have had time to saddle them ; nor had he for many years before been known to ride so fast as he did in going from the gates of his own park to the door of the Talbot Almost the whole population of the little town was gathered about the inn, enjoying the satisfaction of a

6

THE ROBBER. 1^

legitimate subject of marvel and gossip ; and the glad and reverential smiles, the bows of un- feigned respect, and the homely but affectionate greeting with which they received the good knight as he rode up, showed pleasingly how much beloved the virtues and good qualities of all its members had rendered the family of the Manor.

Sir Walter, however, was, detained at Moorhurst much longer than he expected, for every body was anxious to give testimony before him, and many more crow^ded forward than could afford any satisfactory information, or throw the slightest light upon the case ; and yet, as each and all of them had something to say in favour of Langford, Sir Walter could not find it in his heart to refuse to listen to any. The clerk of the parish was called upon to take down their depositions; and certainly, if having established a good character in a country town could have besteaded any man in a similar case, it might have done so with Langford in the present instance.

Sir Walter Herbert, however, did not lose

VOL. II. c

18 THE ROBBER.

sight of the great object, though he suffered himself to be deluged by much irrelevant matter, and he soon found that the only legitimate cause for supposing Langford at all connected with the death or disappearance of Lord Harold, was the fact of the half-witted man, John Graves, having run down, during the preceding evening, and besought several persons to come up and prevent Langford and the young nobleman from killing each other. As he was known to adhere invariably to the truth, two or three of the town's people had gone up with him into the park in order to keep the peace, but on finding all quiet, and nobody there, had returned without further search.

Sir Walter discovered also that the two magistrates who had preceded him in the in- vestigation had not even demanded to see John Graves himself, though his testimony, taken second-hand, was that in fact on which the whole case rested. This he determined im- mediately to remedy ; but the half-witted man was by that time nowhere to be found, and

7

THE ROBBER. 19

though Sir Walter waited for many hours while persons were despatched to seek for him in all directions, the good knight was at length obliged to give the matter up for the day, and return to the Manor House.

During his absence Alice was left for several hours with no companion but her own painful thoughts. She felt, as she might well feel, quite sure that Langford was innocent of any base, or cowardly, or treacherous action ; she felt sure of his honour, his integrity, his upright- ness. But that certainty, that confidence, though it gave her support, could not deliver her from apprehension. All her thoughts were gloomy. The bright joy which Langford's acknowledg- ment of his love on the preceding evening had afforded her, had been like one of those sweet warm summer-like days in the uncon- firmed infancy of the year, which are succeeded immediately by storms and tempests. Her mind had rested for a moment in a vision of perfect happiness ; but now, whichever way she turned her waking eyes, there was some- thing painful in the prospect. Although she c 2

20 THE ROBBER.

was very willing to believe that her father's pecuniary affairs were not in near so bad a state as Lord Danemore's lawyer had made them appear, yet there could be no doubt that they were greatly embarrassed, and that his income and resources were so much smaller than those of his ancestors, that it would be a duty to curtail his expenses, to diminish his establishment, and, in an age when luxury and splendor were daily increasing, to forego many of the conveniences and comforts which he had hitherto enjoyed, and all that dignified but unostentatious state which his family had kept up for many generations.

She knew, too, that to do so would be a bitter pang, well nigh to the breaking of the heart that felt it; and although, for her own part, there was scarcely a pretty cottage in the neighbourhood in which she could not have made her home with cheerfulness and happi- ness, she looked forward with painful appre- hension to the time when her father might have to quit the Manor House, and discharge the old servants who had served him so lono^, and

THE ROBBER. 21

be no more what he had been amongst the many who looked up to and reverenced him.

Such was one dark subject of contemplation : the death of Lord Harold was another. She thought of him as she had seen him the evening before, full of youth, and health, and energy ; she thought of him as she had seen him in other days, full of joy and gaiety, and that bright exuberant life which it is difficult to imagine can ever be extinguished, when we gaze upon it in all its activity and brightness ; and yet a single moment had put it out and ended it for ever.

Her mind then turned to the father of him who was gone ; and she pictured him sitting in his lonely halls, childless, solitary, desolate, left without hope and without consolation to pass through the chill winter of his age till he reached the dark and cheerless resting place of the tomb. She pitied him from her very heart; she could have wept for him; but then her thoughts turned to Langford, and she asked herself, if it were possible that a man who had just suffered so severely as Lord c 3

22 THE ROBBER.

Danemore himself, could seek to bring misery and sorrow upon others ? Abstractedly she would have thought such a thing impossible ; but when she reflected upon the character of the man, she felt but too deeply convinced that his own misery would but make him seek to render others as miserable ; that his despair would be bitter and turbulent, not calm and mild; and that to see the hearths of others desolate, the hearts of others broken, would in all probability be the consolation he would choose.

She was pondering sadly upon these gloomy subjects of contemplation, as well as upon that chief and still more absorbing one, the situa- tion of him whom she so dearly loved, when the servant Halliday appeared to announce to her that Master Kinsight, Lord Danemore's attorney, was at the gate and would not go away. He had told him, the servant said, that his wor- ship was out, and that she herself was busy, and not to be disturbed ; " but he still hangs there. Mistress Alice," continued the man, " and he is no way civil ; so much so, indeed, that if I did

THE ROBBER. 23

not know his worship is averse to having any body cudgelled, I would drub him for his pains."

" Do no such thing, Halliday," replied Alice, *' but bring him in here ; I will speg-k to him myself."

In a few minutes the lawyer entered the room, and threw himself down into a chair with very little ceremony. " So, Mistress Alice," he said, in a tone, the natural insolence of which was increased by the unconcealed hatred of Sir Walter^s servants, " I find your father's out ; gone out, I suppose, to avoid me, for he knew I was coming about this time for his answer and yours, as to what we were speaking of last night."

*" My father has gone out. Master Kinsight," replied Alice calmly, " upon business of im- portance, but I can give you the answer that you require as well as if he were present. He is going over to Danemore Castle, as soon as possible, to pay the money and interest which you came to claim, having found the means of doing so without any further delay."

c 4

24 THE ROBBER.

" Ay, indeed. Madam ! " exclaimed the lawyer, with evident surprise, " indeed ! Pray how?"

" Thatj I should conceive, Sir," replied Alice, in the same tone in which she had before spoken, " that, I should conceive, is no business of yours."

" Your pardon. Madam, your pardon," cried the lawyer, "it is business of mine. Your father must have borrowed the money, and to have borrowed the money he must have given security, and we hold mortgages over his whole property to its full value, and therefore "

As he paused and hesitated, Alice replied, " I do not yet see. Sir, how that would make it any business of yours. However, to satisfy you, the money was lent by my father's friend, Captain Langford, without any security what- ever."

" Do you mean to say that the money was lent," he exclaimed, rudely, " actually lent, paid down ? Come, come, I shall not go out of the house till I hear more of this matter, for I do not want to be trifled with, and go and

THE ROBBER. 25

tell my Lord that the money is ready when it is not."

" Sir," said Alice Herbert, raising her head with a look of indignation, " you are insolent. The money is, as I have told you, now in the house, ready to be paid to your master — as I suppose I must call Lord Danemore — whenever my father is at leisure to do so. I expect him ere long, and if you choose to remain till he returns, you may wait in the servants' hall. At present I myself am busy, and wish to be alone."

The lawyer looked somewhat disconcerted; but he paused thoughtfully for a moment, biting his lip, twirling his hat, and laying his finger on his brow, as if uncertain what to do. At length he exclaimed, " No, no, I'll not wait, I'll go over to the Earl directly, and take instructions."

So saying, he bade Alice a short and saucy adieu, and quitted her presence and the house, not finding a servant who would even show him the attention of holding his horse while he mounted.

26 THE ROBBEK.

CHAPTER II.

Light and shade, the chief sources of all phy- sical beauty, may, and indeed must, have their effect in the world of the mind ; but though the eye may rest well pleased upon deep sha- dows when relieved by bright lights on the face of nature, the human heart, in the picture of its own fate, unwillingly bears the darker portion, more especially when it is contrasted closely with the brighter. I fear that, like that famed English queen who has obtained for herself so much good and so much evil fame, we would always rather see the portrait painted without shade.

For several weeks Henry Langford had en- joyed a degree of happiness which he had never before known. From the night in which he was wounded in defence of Alice Herbert till the evening preceding the day on which we last left him, had been a period full of sweet hopes

THE ROBBER. 27

and new sensations- endino^ with the crown ins: joy of all, the knowledge of loving and being beloved. That period of bright light, however, had now been suddenly contrasted with as deep a shadow as had ever fallen on any part of his existence; and yet in the course of that existence he had known some sorrows and some cares. None, however, had touched him so deeply as this; for now he was imprisoned, not in conse- quence of having fallen into the power of a foreign enemy, taken in battle, and esteemed even while restrained, but accused of a base and cowardly crime, separated from those he loved best, placed in a situation from which it might be difficult for him to extricate himself, and feeling more deeply and painfully for the unhappy youth of whose murder he was accused than any one knew.

Sitting in solitude and in silence, the re- mainder of Henry Langford's day, after the half-witted man had left him, passed over in gloom and anxious thought. It was not that he yielded to despondency, it was not that he suf- fered hope to extinguish her torch, or even to

28 THE ROBBER.

shade its light for a moment. Knowing himself innocent of the crime with which he was charged, knowing that he possessed the love of Alice Herbert, and feeling sure that that love would never alter, there was always a balm for grief and anxiety. But still, even when he thought of Alice Herbert herself, when he re- membered the situation of her father, and knev/ that any false steps might plunge the worthy knight into irretrievable ruin, he could not be without anxiety on that score either; and, in fact, whichever way he turned his eyes there were clouds upon the horizon which threatened to gather into a storm.

The treatment which he received from the Earl of Danemore, indeed, was in all respects consolotary. That nobleman, it was clear, hardly entertained any suspicion of his having had a share in the murder of his son. Several times in the course of the evening servants were sent to ascertain if he wanted any thing. The or- dinary meals of the day were regularly set before him, and when night fell lights were brought, and various kinds of fine wine were

THE ROBBER. 29

left ill the room, sufficient to satisfy him to the full if by chance he had addicted himself to the evil habit of deep drinking, but too common in those days.

Some short time after the lights had been brought, he heard a step approaching his room by the smaller staircase, and the Earl again appeared. The expression of his countenance was agitated and anxious; but he apologised courteously for intruding, and then added, " I thought you might be pleased to learn that the whole of Up water Mere has been dragged with the greatest care, without any thing having been found to confirm my apprehensions in regard to its having been made the receptacle of my poor son's body. It is very foolish, under such circumstances and with such proofs of his death that we have, to give way to hope, but yet I cannot help yielding a little to your rea- soning of this morning."

" I hope and trust, my Lord," replied Lang- ford, " that reasoning may not prove fallacious. Far be it from me to wish to instil false hopes, but I would certainly, were I you, not give my-

30 THE ROBBER.

self up to despair till the truth of the calamity is better ascertained,"

" I knowj" replied the Earl, " that coinci- dences very often happen, giving much unne- cessary alarm. Indeed, the story which you told this morning is an extraordinary proof of the fact. I remember having heard it before," he added in a careless tone, " though I forget where it was. Pray where did the incident happen ?"

Langford mused for a single moment, and then looked up with something of a meaning smile. " It occurred, my Lord," he replied, " in the Gulf of Florida, many years ago. I therefore do not know it from my own personal knowledge ; but I have heard it from one who was present, and who told me the whole par- ticulars of that and many another adventure in those seas."

ft was now Lord Danemore's turn to muse, and he did so with a cloudy brow, gnawing his nether lip, as if struggling with some powerful emotions. " Pray, do you know the name of the Captain of the ship?" he asked at length, affect-

THE ROBBER, 31

ing the same careless tone with which he had before spoken.

" Yes, my Lord," replied Langford, " I know his name and his whole history from that time to the present hour."

Lord Danemore turned very pale, and then mused for several minutes in silence. Nor was it unworthy of remark that he did not demand the name of the captain of the vessel, though the moment before he had seemed so much in- terested in the subject. He remained gloomy and silent, however, as we have said, knitting his brow thoughtfully, and his first words were — though in so low a tone that Langford did not hear them — " People may know too much."

Perceiving his lips move, and seeing that he was evidently much affected by what had passed, Langford, who had spoken with some degree of emphasis, added with apparent indifference, '^ Yes, oh yes ; I know his whole history well. He was an English gentleman of a brave, daring, and enterprising disposition, who, having been driven from his own country, and deprived for the time of his own possessions,

32 THE ROBBER.

pursued a wild and fitful course of life — - now serving with gallant distinction in the armies of foreign countries — now becoming a rover on the high seas, and acquiring for himself a fearful and redoubtable fame, till the restora- tion of the king suddenly recalled him to for- tunes and honours in his own land."

Lord Danemore made no direct reply, but putting his hand to his head, he said, "It is very hot ; I have seldom known a more oppres- sive night."

As he spoke, the storm, which had long been coming up, burst forth with a bright flash, which blazed with a blue and ghastly light round the dark wainscotted chamber in which they sat, lighting up every cornice and orna- ment in the carved oak, and seeming absolutely to play amidst the papers on the table. At that very instant both Lord Danemore and Langford raised their eyes each to the coun- tenance of his companion, and gazed upon each other with a firm and questioning glance.

" That was a bright flash," said the Earl, with a lip that curled slightly as he spoke, " I 8

THE ROBBER. 33

do not know that I ever saw a brighter — ex- cept in the Gulf of Florida ! "

He added nothing more, nor waited for any reply, but rose as he spoke and abruptly quitted the room. He trod the stairs down to his own private apartments with a heavy but irre- gular step, and paused at the bottom for several moments ere he opened the door which gave entrance to his own dressing-room, thinking with a gloomy brow and eyes bent steadfast, sightless, upon the ground. At length he entered and cast himself into a chair, clasping his strong bony hands firmly over each other ; and oh ! what a wild chaos of mingled feelings, and strong passions, and memories, and regrets, and dreads, and expectations, did his bosom at that moment contain. He was one of those men in whom time, if it have decayed some of the softer passions, has left the more fierce and fiery ones as strong and wild as ever ; and it is certain that, where they dwell on, in the withering frame of age, they tear it more eagerly, they rage with more unrestrained power.

All those passions were now called up in his

VOL, II. D

34 THE ROBBER.

bosom ; and the struggle between them was the more tremendous, inasmuch as they were in many points arrayed nearly equally against each other. Henry Langford had in a few words laid before him the picture of his life, and had shown a deep and intimate knowledge of that darker part of his history which he had be- lieved to be buried in profound oblivion. For more than twenty years he had heard no allu- sion to those days of wild and roving adventure when driven forth, as he fancied, for ever from his native land, stripped of his rank and his possessions, he had given way to the impulses of a rash, daring, and fierce spirit, had piled upon his own head many a heavy remorse, and seared his own heart with many a deed of evil. He had believed that all the companions of those days were either gone or scattered far from the high and lordly path in which he now trod ; he had imagined that he had removed every trace of that bond of fate which united the proud, cold, wealthy Earl of Danemore, the domineering- spirit of the country round, to the wild rover of the western seas, whose deeds of daring and of

3

THE ROBBER. 35

blood were still remembered with awe and fear in a land fertile of strong passions and great crimes.

There were many who remembered him in exile, indeed, but in that part of his exile when his daring courage and great powers had been employed in noble warfare and in an honourable cause ; but he thought that the very fact of being so remembered would be an ad- ditional safeguard against all suspicion in regard to another period. There was, indeed, a lapse of several years in which his history was un- known to all such companions of his brighter days; and he had more than once been asked, where he was when some great event had hap- pened on which the conversation at the moment turned. But Lord Danemore was not a man to be interrogated closely by any one ; and, as we have said, he firmly believed that all those who could have answered such questions by pointing to the dark and evil events which had been crowded into a few short years of his life, were far removed, plunged beneath the rolling waves of the ocean, buried upon the sandy n 2

36 THE ROBBER.

beach of distant lands, or with their bones whitening — a public spectacle — in the sun.

Now, however, suddenly, after a long and sunshiny lapse of peaceful years, the memories of former acts were recalled when he least expected them, — recalled by one who seemed to have a perfect knowledge of every fact he could have desired to hide ; and the dark train of images conjured up from the past : the regret, the remorse, the shame, which he had banished long and carefully, were now linked hand in hand with apprehensions for the future, with the fear of exposure, if not the dread of punishment. His mind, however, was in no unfit state for receiving gloomy impressions, his heart was al- ready excited for the entertainment of fierce and angry passions. Through the whole of that day, from a very early hour in the morning, he had been torn with grief and anger, now mourning over the loss of his son with the deep anguish of wounded affection, now vowing vengeance against that son's murderer, while his heart felt scorched and seared by the burning thirst for

THE ROBBER. 37

Disappointment, too, deep and bitter disap- pointment had had its share — the disappoint- ment of a proud and ambitious heart. On the son now lost he had fixed all his hopes and all his aspirations, in him had he trusted to see his life prolonged, through him had he expected that future generations would carry on his name with increasing wealth and greatness. Now all was over ; the son on whom he had relied was gone; he was childless, lonely, cut off from hope and expectations, to live dark, solitary, through the chill autumnal twilight of his age, and then to die, leaving all the vast possessions which he had obtained, to a distant kinsman, whom he hated and despised.

Such had been, in some degree, the state of iiis feelings, so shaken, so agitated, when he suddenly found that shame was likely to be added to the other burdens cast upon him, and that the vice and crimes of other years were rising up in judgment against him even at the latest hour. The drop thus cast in was sufficient to make the cup overflow. Never through life D 3

38 THE ROBBER.

had he been accustomed to put any restraint upon the fierce passions of his heart, and now what was there that could act as any check upon them ? what was there to prevent him from seeking their gratification ? what was there to oppose in any degree the desire which instantly sprang up within his heart, of silencing for ever the voice which might tell the dark secrets of other years ?

Nevertheless there was a check, nevertheless there was something, that opposed him in the fiery course he might otherwise have pursued : ay, and opposed him strongly, though it was but a feeling connected with other years, though it was but one of those strange asso- ciations between the present and the past which often have a firmer hold upon us than more immediate interests or affections. There was something in Langford's face, there was something in his manner and whole appearance, there was something in the very tone of his voice, rich, and musical, and harmonious, which called up as forcibly to his mind a period of sweet.

THE ROBBER. 39

and early, and happy days, as the tale he had told brought over the glass of memory the dark and awful features of another epoch.

At the sound of that voice, at the glance of that eye, the forms of many bright, and dear, and be- loved, many who had been known and esteemed in times of innocence and of happiness, rose up as clear before him, as if some magic wand had waved over the dark past, and brought out of the dim masses of things irrecoverably gone the images of the dead clothed in all the sem- blance of life and reality. The associations thus raised up were all sweet ; and, in regard to him who called them up, there was a strange feeling of tenderness, of affection, and of in- terest, which at the very first sight had made him feel confident, that man could never have been the murderer of his son, that he who seemed connected with the brightest portion of his early life could never be one to render the latter part of his existence all dark and desolate.

Then again, when he remembered that the same man held in his possession the great terrible secret of his former deeds, all his D 4

40 THE ROBBER.

feelings and his thoughts were changed, and sensations almost approaching to despair came over him — a stern, dark, eager resolution, akin to those fierce determinations and sensations which had filled up that portion of his being to which his thoughts were so suddenly directed.

He sat then and gazed upon the ground, with his hands clasped over each other, and twice he murmured to himself, " People may know too much." He pondered upon every word that had been spoken, and for nearly half an hour his thoughts wandered with a vague uncertain rambling over the various epochs of the gone, connecting them with the present, and then turning again and again towards the past, while anguish and pleasure were still strangely mingled in the retrospect. Still, however, when he l"emembered the words of Langford, and felt himself to a certain degree in his power, the same dark but ill- defined purpose returned of removing for ever from his path one who held so dangerous a tie upon him. He felt, indeed, a reluctance, a hesitation, a doubt, which he somewhat scorned

THE ROBBER. 41

himself for feeling ; and he nerved his mind more and more every moment to execute his determination calmly and deliberately. " I vi^ill never live in the fear of any mortal man," he thought. " Were he ten times as like, he should not bear my fate about with him ! Hovv^, shall he be my only consideration ? Surely I am not become either a child or a woman, to waver in such a case as this."

As he thus thought, he rose from his seat and strode up and down the room with his arms folded on his chest. Over the large and massy mantel-piece of many-coloured marbles, hung a number of weapons of different kinds : pistols, and swords, and firelocks, and daggers, some of foreign, and some of British, manufacture. There appeared the long Toledo blade, the broad Turkish dagger, the Italian stiletto, the no longer-used matchlock, and many another weapon, arranged in fanciful devices ; and each time as the Earl turned up and down the room, he paused and gazed upon them, then bit his lips and recommenced his course across the chamber. When this had proceeded for about a

42 THE ROBBER.

quarter of an hour, some one knocked at the door, and he started sharply as if caught in some evil act. The next moment, however, he called to the person without to come in, speaking in an angry tone ; and a servant who, from his dress and appearance, seemed to be his own par- ticular valet, appeared, announcing that Mr. Kinsight the lawyer had just arrived on im- portant business.

" I am glad of it," said the Earl ; " take him to the library, — I will come directly." And as soon as the servant was gone he added, " This man may be of some use."

He then carefully locked the door, which led from his dressing-room to the room which had been assigned to Langford, and descended to the library to confer with an agent worthy of his purposes.

THE ROBBEll. 43

CHAPTER III.

The prisoner in the mean time was not left in solitude ; for, scarcely had Lord Danemore quitted his chamber, bearing with him a world of dark thoughts and excited passions, when Langford was visited by the person who, more than any one in that house or neighbourhood, seemed to know his history and understand his situation. Mistress Bertha, as she was called, came ostensibly in her character of housekeeper to ask if there were any thing to be done for the promotion of his comfort ; saying, that she had been so commanded in the morning by the Earl. She lingered, however, after she had received his answer, though for some minutes she scarcely spoke ; and when she did, she merely uttered a comment on the storm that was raging without. Langford seemed to under- stand her character well, and he too kept silence, leaving her to say any thing that she

44 THE ROBBER.

might desire to say, in her own manner and at her own time.

'' It is an awful night," she said ; " an awful night, indeed. It is such a night as the spirits of bad men should depart in. I never pass such a night without thinking there is a likeness between it and the dark stormy heart of the wicked. But it matters not," she added, after a long thoughtful pause. " I have linked my- self to his fate, and I must not sever the bond. He is my master, and has been good to me, though he may have wronged others. I will remain by his side."

She paused again, and Langford merely replied, " It were too late now to think of it."

" I understand your meaning," she said, "and it is too late. You would say that in former times I ought to have adhered to the wronged and the oppressed, and so I would, but I was driven from them. It is needless now, however," she continued ; " it is needless to say one word more on that score; let us talk of other things. Has he been with you again ? "

THE ROBBER. 45

" He has scarcely left me a moment," replied Langford ; " and I fear with less friendly feel- ings towards me than when we met before, I showed him that I knew much of his former life ; for, in truth, good Bertha, the blow must be struck now or never."

" It must, it must ! " she replied ; " but not too rapidly. Be cautious, be careful. After he left you this morning, I was with him long, and his feelings were all such as you could have hoped for. What had passed between you I know not ; but there was a softness, a tenderness had come over him : a light as from other days seemed to shine into his heart, and to flash upon affections and feelings long buried in darkness. He spoke to me of things he has not spoken of for many a year ; he. used words and he named names that I never thought to hear him utter again. The sight of you seemed to form an eddy in the current of time which carried him back to a happier and brighter part of its course. Be careful, however. Be careful how you deal with him. If you act well and wisely, ere the drops are dried up

46 THE ROBBER.

whicli are now falling from the clouds, you may tell him all ; you may ask him all. But I know him well ; and one rash word, one hasty act, may undo your fortunes at the very moment they are well nigh built up."

" I will be careful," replied Langford ; " I will be careful, because I am bound by every tie to use all gentle means, rather than harsh ones. But still it is hard completely to re- strain one's self, and to seek with softness and concession that which is wrongly withheld, and which I have every right to demand with the loud voice of justice.'*

" To demand and not obtain," replied Bertha ; " for there is no means by which you can gain your purpose except by gentleness."

Langford smiled. " Be not quite sure of that," he said. " I have at this moment my fate in my own power."

" Indeed ! " she exclaimed ; " indeed ! — how so?"

" It matters not," Langford replied ; " be assured I have ; but, as I have said, I am bound by every consideration to use gentle means. If

THE ROBBER. 47

I find that they will succeed, I will employ none other ; but should they fail, I will boldly and openly assert my own rights, and both claim and take that which is my own."

Bertha's eye., while he spoke, fixed upon one of those small doors in the wainscotting, which we have morejhan once mentioned, and she shook her head with an incredulous smile. " Because," she said, answering his thoughts more than his words, " because I have placed you here, and because there is between you and what you desire but one small partition. That partition is of iron, which, had you a thousand- fold the strength you possess, you could never break through."

" I know it," replied Langford, " I know it well ; but yet I tell you, that in those respects my fate is in my own power. However, I will use all gentle means, though no subtlety ; but in the end I will do myself right."

" Be it as you say," she answered; "but of one thing beware. It seems that you have rekindled in his bosom a hope of his son Edward being still living. Avoid that ; the

48 THE ROBBER.

boy is dead beyond all doubt: struck down, poor fellow ! in his pride of life ; broken off in his dearest dream of happiness and love. But let it be so ; it is well it should. He w^ould have lived but to deeper grief; he would have remained but for greater anguish. Give the father no hope ! For your own sake, give him no hope that the boy is still alive ! '*

" But I entertained hope myself," replied Langford ; " and it was not in my nature, Bertha, to see a father grieving for the death of his son, and not try to afford him what con- solation I could."

She shook her head mournfully, adding, " He is dead. I feel that his fate is accomplished. He could not live. He had no right to live. The date is out He is taken away. But I must stay with you no longer ; yet in leaving you remember my words : use none but gentle means ! Urge him alone by the kinder feelings of his nature ; for if ever there was a man in whom there dwelt at once two strong spirits, powerful for good and powerful for evil, it is he."

THE ROBBER. 49

" I will remember your advice," replied Langford, " and thank you for it. I will use gentle means ; but by one means or another right shall be done."

She lingered for another moment or two, as if desirous of saying more, but then turned and left him ; and, proceeding down the staircase into the hall, she encountered the lawyer, just alighted from his horse.

The man of law bowed low and reverentially to one whom he knew to possess great influence over his patron ; and, more for something to say than on any other account, added to the usual salutation of good evening, " It is a terrible night. Mistress Bertha ; a good soaked posset now were not amiss to warm one."

She looked upon him, however, with cold and motionless features, merely replying in an under voice, as she passed on, " The time will come, I rather think, when you will be glad of some- thing to cool instead of to warm you."

The lawyer must have caught the meaning of what she said, as well as the servant who was conducting him ; for a well satisfied smile

VOL. II. E

50 THE ROBBER.

came upon the face of the latter, while the attorney shrugged his shoulders, and said aloud, " She is a rare virago."

He was conducted by the servant into the library of the castle, where against the wide and lofty walls and round the massive pillars that supported the roof, were ranged in due order a vast number of dusty volumes, con- taining the wisdom, and the learning, and the folly and the dulness of many preceding ages. Lights were placed upon the table ; and after waiting for a few minutes gazing upon the ponderous tomes around him, without, however, venturing to disturb any of them by taking them from their places of long repose, he was joined by the Earl, on whose strong-marked countenance the keen and practised eye of the lawyer recognised at once the traces of strong emotion.

Deep and reverential was the bow with which the Earl was greeted by the same pan who had so lately treated Alice Herbert and her father with contempt and indignity. He remained standing, though the Earl had

THE ROBBER. 51

seated himself, and even then did not sit down till he had been twice told to do so. The Earl at the same time would gladly have had the lawyer abate so much of his respect as to com- mence the conversation himself; for the noble- man's mind was full of dark purposes and stormy passions, and he wished them to be led forth by degrees, lest the fierce crowd in rushing out too hastily should throw open the inner- most secrets of his heart to a stranjrer. The lawyer, however, did not venture to do so, being rather overawed than otherwise by the state of agitation in which he beheld his noble client ; and the Earl, putting a restraint upon his words to prevent himself from hurrying forward to the subject of his thoughts at once, began the conversation by saying, " This is a stormy night, Sir. What business, may I ask, is it that has brought you hither at such an hour and in this weather ? "

The lawyer, though he had gained no small

knowledge of the world by long dealings witih

every different class of men, and by seeing them

under every different circumstance and afFec-

E 2

t3. OF iU- LIB.

52 THE ROBBER.

tion, was, nevertheless, embarrassed in regard to his demeanour towards Lord Danemore, situated as he knew him to be at that moment. He had expected to find him, as he did find him, deeply agitated ; but the agitation which he had imagined he should behold was bitter grief for the death of his son. Now there was some- thing in the aspect of the peer which made him see at once, that many other feelings were mingled with his sorrow; and as he did not If^iow what those feelings were, and desired solely so to shape his whole conduct as to make it agreeable to his patron, he was excessively anxious to discover, by some means, what was going on in the Earl's breast, in order to direct his course accordingly.

Finding, however, that he was not able to make such discoveries, he judged it the best plan to throw before the Earl the sub- ject farthest removed from the death of his son ; and to counterbalance grief by exciting anger. He replied, therefore, after a moment's thought, "Nothing but important business, my Lord, would have induced me to intrude

THE ROBBER. 53

upon you at such a moment. Your Lord- ship, however, will recollect that you gave me your commands to proceed in a certain manner in regard to the old knight at Moor- hurst, in which, I am sorry to say, I have been frustrated by a most unexpected incident."

" Frustrated, Sir ! " exclaimed the Earl, the whole of whose passions were in too excited a state not to take fire at every new obstacle cast in his way. " Frustrated ! By all the powers of Heaven, I will not be frustrated ! What? do you mean to tell me that there is any flaw in the bond, any error in the transaction, which will debar me of my right ? If so, look to yourself, Sir ; for you drew up the whole. Or would you have me believe that he has money to discharge the debt? I tell you. Sir, he is a beggar ; he is ruined, — undone, — as you well know. What is the meaning of all this ? Frus- trated ! Shall he frustrate me ? " and ho ended with a scoff of angry derision.

" It is for the purpose of preventing it, my Lord," replied the lawyer meekly, " that I came hither to-night. I wished to lay the case E 3

54 THE ROBBER.

before you, and take your Lordship's com- mands."

" Well, Sir, well," rejoined the Earl, recover- ing from the first burst of passion, " tell me the facts that I may judge."

From not knowing the new matter which had been cast into the fiery furnace of the Earl's bosom, the lawyer was more and more puzzled at his demeanour every moment. He saw that there was an under-current of feelings running more rapidly, than the natural course of those excited by the matter on which they spoke. And in order to fathom his mind and ascertain of what feelings that under-current was really composed, he resolved to throw in, even unnecessarily, the name of Lord Harold, and he answered, " The facts are these, my Lord : after seeing you yesterday, and taking precise instructions from you as to the course I was to pursue, I went over to Moorhurst, where I found your Lordship's lamented son."

As he spoke a dark cloud came over the countenance of the Earl, but it was of a dif- ferent kind and character from that which liad

THE ROBBER. 55

hung upon his brow before ; and the lawyer, at once perceiving that he had not found the right road, instantly turned to the straight-for^ ward path, finding that he must take his chance of going right or wrong in a country where there was no finger-post to direct him. " I was in some apprehension," he continued, " lest his generosity might step in to interfere with your Lordship's just views and purposes."

" Speak not of my son. Sir," said the Earl, sternly ; " speak not of my son ; for although, now that the first anguish is past, I have con- quered the quivering of my wounded heart, and the flesh is still, yet I love not that any one should lay his finger on the spot, unless it be a surgeon to heal the injury. Go on with the. matter in hand. What said Sir Walter Herbert?"

" Why he said, my Lord, that he could not pay the money," replied the lawyer ; " and he fell into a great state of agitation, and would not believe that his affairs were so bad till I showed him that they could hardly be worse ; E 4

56 THE ROBBEK.

and then Mistress Alice was sent for, and I must say, never were such airs as the young woman gave herself."

" The young lady. Sir ! '* said the Earl, sternly ; " you forget yourself. The person whom I considered meet to be the bride of my son, may well merit her proper name from a low person like yourself."

The attorney was not without the natural feelings of humanity, and he did not fail to experience all those sensations which in other circumstances induce one man to knock down another. But the effect of our feelings when prevented from operating in their natural direction, is often by their recoil to drive ^is in a way directly contrary. Though the lawyer then would have given a great deal to have repelled the insulting language of Lord Danemore, yet he would not have given for diat purpose the hundredth part of the advan- tage which he derived from his patronage and employment ; and this being the case, it always happened that the more rude and overbearing

THE ROBBER. 57

the peer showed himself to be in his demeanour towards the lawyer, the more servile and hum- ble became the lawyer towards the peer.

In the present instance he begged his Lord- ship's pardon a thousand times, but excused himself on the plea that the conduct of Mistress Alice, — her expressions regarding his Lordship himself, — had been so bold and haughty, that his indignation got the better of his manners.

" However, my Lord," he continued, "she agreed at once to give up the pittance that she possesses, for the relief of her father ; but still the plate and the jewels and all the rest would have to be sold to make up the sum required. I doubt if even that would do, and he would certainly be obliged to go out of the house, and be reduced nearly to a state of beggary."

There was a degree of satisfaction appa* rent in the countenance of the Earl which made the lawyer stop to let it work, and he watched every shade of expression that passed over the face of Lord Danemore, as he gazed with a curling lip upon the ground. With a sudden

58 THE ROBBER.

Start, however, the peer raised his eyes to the countenance of the lawyer, and beheld there — reading it in a moment as a familiar book — all that was passing within his agent's mind.

" You are right. Sir," he said, going boldly and at once to the subject of the lawyer's thoughts ; " I do hate that man, and if you think that you have made a discovery, you de- ceive yourself, for there is nothing to conceal. Other men hate their neighbours as w^ell as I, and I see not wherefore I should not have my own private enmities and gratify them like others. He is one of those good honest people whom the world delight to praise, and the vulgar love and honour. He sets himself up for modest simplicity, and yet affects a state and station which he has not the means to maintain. He is one of your positive lovers of right, too, yielding but formal respect to his superiors, but denying them all authority in matters of importance. In times long gone, when first I returned after the restoration, I met with more difficulty and opposition in establishing my just rights and influence over the tenantry and

THE ROBBER. 59

people in the neighbourhood, from that mild justice- fancying, learning -loving Sir Walter Herbert than from all the other petty squires and magistrates in the county. If it had not been for the love my poor boy entertained for him and for his daughter, I would have swept him from my path long ago ; — but go on, go on with your tale. What obstacle has since arisen ?" " Why, last night, my Lord," replied the lawyer, " I left all matters in as fair a train as w^ell might be. The old man had become as pale as ashes, and the young lady, notwith- standing all her pride, had more than once wept bitterly, I gave them till this morning to make up their minds as to how they would act ; but when I went thither about two or three hours ago, I found the old knight from home, and my young mistress with her pride and haughtiness all in fresh bloom again. The end of the matter is, my Lord, that it seems a friend has been found foolish enough to advance the money without any security whatsoever. A Captain Langford, whom I never before heard of."

60 THE ROBBER.

" Who ? who ?" demanded the Earl.

The lawyer repeated the name ; and his noble companion, starting up, struck the table a blow with his clenched hand which made the lights dance and flicker as they stood. " This is too much," he said; " this is too much: I know now w^here I must aim."

The lawyer had risen at the same time as the peer, and Lord Danemore, striding across towards him, grasped him firmly by the arm, saying, in a low voice, " That very man — that very Langford, is now in this house, having been brought hither by those two foolish jus- tices, Sir Thomas Waller and Sir Matthew Scrope, on charge of being the murderer of my son."

The lawyer, forgetting one half of the awful circumstances of the moment, rubbed his hands with a look of satisfaction. " That will just do ! my Lord ; that will just do !" he exclaimed. " If we can get any proof whatsoever that the money is furnished by this Langford, we will, when it is tendered, which will doubtless be the case to- morrow, seize upon it as the property of a felon.

THE ROBBER. 61

and then proceed against Sir Walter as if he had never had it. Long ere this Langford comes to be tried, by one means or another we can lay the old man by the heels in gaol, and then what by one process or another, mount him up such an expense at law, as will leave him scarcely a coat to his back."

The Earl smiled, partly with satisfaction at the ready means of gratification which had been found for him in one instance, and partly with contemptuous insight into the workings of the lawyer's mind, feeling that degree of pleasant scorn with which the more powerful but not less evil minds regard the minor operations of the tools they work with in the accomplishment of wicked purposes. The lawyer remarked the expression, and fancied that it was well-pleased admiration of his skill and readiness ; and again he rubbed his hands, and chuckled with conceit and pleasure.

The Earl, however, waived his hand some- what sternly. « Cease, cease," he said, " I can have no laughter here ! This house is a house of mourning and of vengeance. We

62 THE ROBBER.

will have no laughter ! Your idea is a good one, and you shall be rewarded if the execution answers to the conception. But there is more to be done ; there are still greater things to be accomplished, — things that are painful to me, but which yet I must do; things I shall re- member and regret, but which yet I will not shrink from."

As he spoke there came over the strong stern features of the old man's face a dark and awful expression which made even the lawyer shrink and draw back, accustomed as he was to see human passions in all their direst forms. It was the expression, the irrepressible expression of a powerful mind deliberately summoning all its energies to the commission of . a crime known, appreciated, and abhorred. The evident effect produced upon the lawyer seemed in some degree to affect his patron, who, ere he spoke further took two or three gloomy turns up and down the room, and then again drawing near him, said, " But this Langford ; what is to be done with Langford ? He remains to be dealt with."

THE ROBBER. 63

The lawyer gazed in the Earl's countenance, doubting in his own mind what he meant ; and imagining that the very fact of having aided Sir Walter Herbert was so great a crime in the eyes of the Earl as to call down his vengeance as remorselessly upon the one as upon the other. It was a pitch of vindictiveness at which even his mind was staggered, and he said with some embarrassment, " But, my Lord, from what your Lordship said just now of those two justices, I fancied you thought the gentleman not guilty."

The Earl gazed upon him stedfastly for so long that the lawyer shrunk beneath his eyes. He then answered deliberately, " I do not think him guilty, but yet I would prove him so."

'* But, my Lord," stammered the lawyer, " my Lord, if the man be innocent ! I dare say he did not know he would offend your Lordship by helping Sir Walter, otherwise "

" Hush ! " exclaimed the Earl. " It is no such pitiful motive as that which moves me. I have other reasons for my actions, other causes

64 THE ROBBER.

for my determination. Whether the man mur- dered my son or not is of little import in this question. Hearken to me, my good friend ; lie must be swept from my path. I have strong and sufficient causes for wishing him hence. He must be removed. He and I cannot live long in the same world together !'*

*' Good God ! my Lord," replied the lawyer, " this is very terrible. I really know not how to act, or what to think."

" Think," said the peer, " that if by your means I succeed in this business ; if, by your zeal for myself and my family you convict this man of the murder of my son, wealth and distinction shall be yours for the rest of your life, but if you do not "

" But, my Lord," said the lawyer, pre- suming upon the situation in which they were placed so far as to interrupt the Earl, " these are great and terrible things ; and if I undertake to accomplish that which your Lordship wishes, I must have my reward made sure to me. We do not do such things without reward, nor with any uncertainty."

THE llOBBER. 65

Lord Danemore now felt, by the bold tone assumed by his subservient tool, a part of the bitterness of wrong action ; but he was prepared for that also, and he replied at once, " You are bold. Sir, to speak to me in such a manner; but I understand your meaning, and I have a hold upon you yet. We are here alone with no one to witness our conversation ; you, therefore, judge that I may promise and not perform. But that same exclusion of all witnesses is my security if not yours ; and I now tell you, that if you do not accomplish that which I command, I will withdraw from your hands all those sources of emolument you now enjoy from me ; and I will keep this promise in the one case, as surely as I will keep the other in the other case. Make me no reply now ; I give you half an hour to determine, and will return to you at the end of that time."

The Earl turned and walked towards the door, but before he had reached it the lawyer raised his voice, saying, " My Lord, my Lord ! Do not go !• I have determined I What you wish shall be done at all risks, and I will trust

VOL. II. F

66 THE ROBBER.

to your Lordship's promise fully. Only name what is to be my reward !"

The Earl smiled with a dark and bitter smile while he replied deliberately " The sum which shall be tendered me to-morrow by Sir Walter Herbert."

" Enough, enough, my Lord," said the lawyer, " it shall be done.'*

The Earl turned and came back to the table. " You understand," he said, " the money shall be yours — when he is dead."

The lawyer was very pale, as well as his patron, but he answered distinctly, " I do under- stand, my Lord ! "

As he spoke, a sudden flash of the lightning glared upon the countenance of each. That of the peer was stern, calm, and determined ; that of the lawyer was quivering under a fearful de- gree of emotion : but what is singular, though the storm had been proceeding during the whole time they were together, so fierce had been the struggle in the bosom of each, that neither had noticed tjie strife of the elements without. The moment, however, that the fearful words had

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passed, that the dark determination was taken , both remarked the flash and heard the peal of thunder that followed. They were neither of them men to shrink at portents ; and though the thunder made the lawyer start, it seemed to both but a confirmation of their compact,

''It is a tremendous night," said the Earl; " you must sleep here, my good friend."

The lawyer muttered forth some few words of thanks and withdrew, but sleep visited not that night the soft pillow on which he laid his head.

68 THE ROBBER.

CHAPTER IV.

The storm of the preceding night had ceased and left the earth all glittering with golden drops, when the sun rose up and poured the full tide of his glorious light upon that world where, during his absence, so many dark and fearful scenes had been enacted. About nine o'clock, and along a tortuous and unscientific road, — which seemed to have been cut solely with a view of mingling the bright sunshine and the cool green shades amidst the pleasant woods through which it wandered, — rode along Alice Herbert and her father. Their thoughts were full of matter of deep moment : cares, fears, anxieties, were busy in their bosoms ; but yet it were false to say, that the sweet scenes through which their way was laid, the cheerful aspect of the summer world, the voice of the blackbird and the lark, the soft calm air of the bright morning, did not soften and soothe all their feelings. It is not alone that in the breast 8

THE ROBBER. 69

of almost every one there goes on a sort of silent superstition, drawing auguries almost unknown to ourselves from every varying feature of the scenes through which we are led, finding the frowning look of boding fate upon the sky, when the dark clouds roll over it, or the bright smile of hope when it spreads out clear and bright above us ; but it is that there are mysterious links of harmony be- tween all our feelings and the universal cre- ations of our God ; and that the fine electric chain, along which so many strange and thrilling vibrations run, is carried from the heart of man to the uttermost verge of heaven. The brightness of the morning sunk into Alice's soul, and soothed the painful memories within her ; the easy motion, too, of her light jen- net, as he cantered untiringly forward through the fresh early air, had something in it inspiring and gladsome. He went along with her as if there were no such things as obstacles or barriers in all life's road, as if all things were smooth and easy as his own soft pace. Sir Walter, too, felt the same ; he was pecuharly suscep- F 3

70 THE ROBBER.

tible to the impressions of external nature, and readily yielded his whole heart to the bright influence of every thing fine and beautiful throughout the range of creation. Though in early life he had mingled with many scenes of active strife and endeavour, his heart was all unused and fresh, and retained all the capabili- ties of enjoyment which bless our early years. He too, therefore, felt his heart lighter, and the fountain of hope welling up anew within him from the gladsome aspect of the morning ; and as he rode on with his daughter, followed by two or three servants on horseback, he conversed cheerfully and happily over coming events, and spoke of Langford being immediately set free, of his own affairs restored to order and abundance, and of the happiness of all parties being secured, as if he had held in his hands the keys of fate, and could open the storehouses of Fortune, to bring forth what pleasure he pleased for after years.

He spoke, too, without any animosity, of the Earl of Danemore and of his proceedings towards himj and Alice on her part was en-*

THE ROBBER. 71

chanted to hear him do so, for she had feared from the tone of her father's feehngs on the day before that, either in regard to his own affairs, or to those of Henry Langford, some sharp coUision would take place between him and the Earl on the first occasion of their meet- ing. It was partly on that account that, when Sir Walter had announced his intention of going over in person to the castle, both to discharge the debt to Lord Danemore, to lay before him the evidence which he had procured concerning Langford, and to request him to set the latter at liberty, she had besought him, in terms which her father could not resist, to take her with him.

" The proceeding will seem strange," she said ; " but I do not think Lord Danemore is a man that will think it so. He has shown me much kindness, and I should wish to see him and condole with him under his present grief, both because I do sincerely feel for liim, and because I wish him to know that any grief or disappointment I may have occasioned his poor son, was not mingled with any unkindness of r 4

72 THE ROBBER.

feeling on my part — any lightness of conduct, or any wish to inflict a wound. He has no one near him to console him or to comfort him ; we are the only people he has at all associated with, and I used to think that he was fond of my society, and would hear things from me which he would listen to from no one else."

His daughter's arguments were almost always good to the mind of Sir Walter Herbert ; and even if he did understand that she was afraid he might become somewhat over vehement with the proud and passionate man he was about to see, his was one of those kindly natures free from that irritable vanity which is jealous of all interference; and he suffered his daughter to have her way, because he knew that her motive was good, and felt that he as well as another might fall into error.

Thus they rode on : and, as they went, Sir Walter himself found a thousand excuses for the conduct of the Earl ; showed Alice how, in that nobleman's seeming want of liberality towards himself, fatherly pride, wounded by the rejection of his son, might have the greatest

THE ROBBER. 73

share ; and how in the detention of Langford the magistrates who had arrested him were most to blame, while it was natural that a father's heart, torn and wrung as his must be, should make him regard mere suspicion as direct proof, and suffer his eager desire for vengeance to blind his eyes to the real object.

Judging from such expressions, Alice now felt little doubt that her father's first interview with the Earl would pass over tranquilly; and having no longer the strong motive which had, at first, induced her to cast off a certain feeling of timid shyness which she experi- enced in regard to seeing Lord Danemore for the first time after all that had taken place between herself and his son, she proposed to re- main for a time with Mistress Bertha the house- keeper, and not to see the Earl till after the busi- ness on which Sir Walter went was concluded.

"Perhaps it may be better, my love," replied Sir Walter, " although I never liked that woman, who is as stern and harsh a being I think as ever was created. Yet she was always fond of you,

74 THE ROBBER.

Alice : and in regard to my conversation with the Earl, put your mind at rest; I am too sorry for him at the present moment, to let any degree of anger rest in my bosom, or to suffer any thing that he can say, knowing as I do the violence of his nature, to make me forget for one moment that he is a father, mourning for the unexpected loss of his only son."

Their plans being thus arranged, Sir Walter announced to the porter of Danemore Castle that his daughter would remain with Mistress Bertha, while he craved audience with the Earl on important business.

There was something in the demeanour of Sir Walter Herbert which even the insolent servants of Lord Danemore could not resist : there was the mingling of courtesy and dignity, the conscious right to command, but that right, waived for kindness' sake, which is sure to win respect even from those the most unwilling to pay it. The worthy Knight and his daughter then were shown, with some degree of ceremony, into one of the large, cold, stately saloons of the Castle, while the servant proceeded to announce their

THE ROBBER. 75

coming to his master. He returned in a few minutes, saying, that the Earl would join Sir Walter there ere long, and that in the mean- time he would conduct the young lady to Mistress Bertha's room.

She had not been long gone when Sir Walter was joined by the Earl, who was followed into the room by the lawyer, hanging his head and bending his back, like a sulky dog trudging at its master's heels. Lord Danemore received Sir Walter with stately coldness, begged him to be seated, and, as if totally unconscious of any thing that had passed before, requested to know what was the cause of his being hon- oured with Sir Walter Herbert's presence.

" I should not have intruded upon you, my Lord, especially at such a moment," said Sir Walter, " but that I was desirous both of offering you any assistance and co-operation in my power in the very painful inquiries which must fall to your lot to make, of laying before you a considerable mass of information which I have already obtained, and at the same time of discharging an obligation which I only

Y6 THE ROBBER.

deeply regret that it has not been in my power to liquidate long ago."

" Thanking you for your offers of assistance, Sir," said the Earl, " we will, if you please, turn to the latter point you have mentioned, first. Although I ordered my views upon the subject to be notified to you before the loss I have sustained, yet I shall not suffer that loss to interfere with the progress of a business which it must be as agreeable to Sir Walter Herbert as to myself to bring to a conclusion."

The Earl spoke in a cold and cutting tone, which brought the warm blood into Sir Walter's cheek. He replied calmly, however, saying, " Of course, my Lord, it is as agreeable to me as to you to conclude a business of this nature, which has produced, I am sorry to say, between us feelings which I hoped would never have existed."

" It seems to me, Sir," said the Earl, " that we are entering upon irrelevant matter. I can accuse myself of having done nothing that I was not justified in doing, nor do I perceive that any persons have a right to accuse me of

THE ROBBER. 77

being wanting in feelings of friendship, when they were themselves the first to reject advances by which, considering all things, I believe they might think themselves both honoured and favoured."

" We might view that fact in a different light, my Lord," replied Sir Walter, who was becoming somewhat irritated ; " however, not to touch any further upon subjects of an un- pleasant nature, I am here to tender you pay- ment of the bond which you hold of mine, although, as you are well aware, my Lord, the debt was in reality none of mine, but incurred through the villany of another."

" With that. Sir, I have nothing to do," said the Earl ; " but what are these papers that you offer me ? "

" They are, my Lord," replied SirWalter, " as you may see, bills of exchange from houses of undoubted respectability in the ca- pital ; of course it is hardly possible to carry in safety such a sum in gold. Should your Lord- ship, however, as by your countenance I am led to suppose, object to receive the amount in

78 THE ROBBER.

this manner, I will, of course, cause the bills to be immediately turned into money."

** I am far from objecting to receive the amount in this manner," replied the Earl ; " in- deed, it might be, in many respects, more con- venient; but there is something peculiar here, — more than one of these bills is endorsed with the name of Henry Langford."

" Such is the case, my Lord," replied Sir Walter. " Of that gentleman I shall have to speak to you in a few moments ; but it was your Lordship's wish that we should adhere in the first instance to this business, and, such being the case, we will conclude it, if you please. Are you willing to receive those bills in payment? or shall I cause them to be turned into money, as may be done immediately ? "

A dark and fiend-like smile of satisfaction had been gradually coming over the counte- nance of the Earl ; and there was a struggle in his mind between the natural quickness and impatience of his disposition, and the desire which he felt to protract the actual execution of his purpose, in order to enjoy every step

THE ROBBER. 79

he took therein. Impatience, however, at length predominated, and he replied, taking the whole packet of bills of exchange from the table —

" There will be no occasion, I am afraid, to cause these bills to be turned into money, for some time at least ; although, Sir Walter Her- bert, I cannot receive them as payment of your debt. They are, as I am informed, — and the name upon the back of some of them bears out that information,' — they are the property of a person now under charge of felony; and I there- fore find myself called upon, in my capacity of magistrate, to take possession of them, till the accusation against him is proved or disproved."

Sir Walter, for a moment, sat before him thunder-struck, without making any reply, while the Earl continued to fix upon him the full gaze of his stern dark eyes, enjoying the surprise and pain he had occasioned. The in- stant after, however. Sir Walter recovered himself, and, replying to the look of the Earl with one as stern and resolute, he said, " I con- clude that your Lordship is jesting, though tlie

80 THE ROBBER.

moment for so doing is strangely chosen ; but I cannot believe that the Earl of Danemore wishes to prove himself a villain more detest- able than the needy sharper who fleeces a con- fiding dupe. Concluding that there was some- thing in noble blood which implied honour and integrity ; trusting that a long line of generous ancestors afforded some tie to honesty and up^ right conduct, if nothing more ; believing the person who calls himself the Earl of Danemore not to be the bastard of a noble house, but one who had some cause to hold its honour high ; — thus thinking and believing, 1 placed in his hands those papers, which he is bound either to receive as payment of his debt, or to restore to me in the same manner as he received them." The Earl was too well satisfied to yield to anger, and he replied with the same cold and bitter calmness which he had displayed through- out, " You are right. Sir, in all your conclu- sions, except the last. Noble birth should be coupled with integrity; high ancestors are a tie to honour ; the Earl of Danemore has every reason to believe himself the legitimate

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son of his father : but, nevertheless, he may take a different view of his duty from Sir WaUer Herbert, in a matter where Sir Walter Herbert is an interested party — too much so, indeed, to judge with his usual clearness. These papers, which it is now my purpose to seal up and deliver into the hands of my worthy friend here present, Master Kinsight, are evidently the property of this same Henry Langford, who stands accused of the murder of my son."

" My Lord, my Lord," interrupted Sir Walter, " if you have taken any pains to inves- tigate this matter, you must be well aware that the case made out against that upright and honourable man. Captain Langford, is not even a case of suspicion, far less one which justifies his detention for a moment. It is not even proved that your son is dead; and I pray to God that it may not be so — "

" Prove that. Sir, prove that," exclaimed the Earl, " and none will be more glad than I shall be; but even then, I very much fear these papers would remain to be dealt with according to law, as there can be no doubt whatever that

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82 THE ROBBER.

this same Henry Langford, if not a principal, is an accessary to all those acts of pillage and robbery which have lately disgraced this neigh- bourhood. You are not aware, Sir Walter, of all the facts ; you are not aware of all that has been discovered this very morning, Master Kinsight here having, with all his own shrewd- ness, obtained proof, almost incontestible, that this same Henry Langford is one of a band of plunderers who have established themselves in this county, and whose acts speak for them- selves."

Again Sir Walter Herbert was struck dumb. " My Lord," he said, at length, after a consider- able pause, " I am a magistrate of the county, and, consequently, may be permitted to demand the nature of the evidence against Captain Langford, especially as I have both taken a very active part in putting down the system of vio- lence and outrage which has, as you observed, disgraced this neighbourhood, and have inves- tigated the matter thoroughly since the attack upon my daughter, of which you most probably have heard, and from which she was delivered by

THE ROBBER. 83

the courage of Captain Langford alone. I, therefore, must beg to see the evidence against him, as I have with me the depositions of various witnesses, which clear him of all sus- picion in regard to the disappearance of your son."

" I do not feel myself called upon," replied the Earl, '' nor, indeed, do I think it would be right and just, to make any one acquainted with the discoveries we have already made, before the whole train of evidence is mature. There are two learned, wise, and most respectable magistrates. Sir Thomas Waller and Sir Mat- thew Scrope, who are even now engaged in col- lecting information on the subject, and it would be not only an insult to them but an effectual means of frustrating the ends of justice, were any other person permitted to interfere, espe- cially when that person is avowedly a supporter of the culprit."

" All this is very specious, my Lord," replied Sir Walter ; " but it may be doubted — and I am one of those who do doubt — whether per- sonal motives on your Lordship's part may not G 2

84 THE ROBBER.

mingle with the view you take of the case, and whether your known power and influence in this neighbourhood may not have more to do with the decision of the magistrates you mention than the considerations of right and justice."

" Your language, Sir Walter Herbert, is growing insulting," replied the Earl, " and in- deed so has been your whole conduct. I have passed it over as yet, out of consideration for the foolish fondness which my poor son enter- tained towards a member of your family. It must go no further, however, or you shall find that I am not to be insulted with impunity. The im- putations, too, which you cast upon two most re- spectable men are altogether unworthy ; and I beg to say that I shall hear no more upon this or any other subject from you. My lawyer shall have my directions to deal with you, in regard to your debt to me, with moderate de- termination ; and any evidence that you may have collected in reference to the prisoner, had better be communicated to the two magistrates who have the case before them. I must beg

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now to be excused any further conversation on the subject."

" Then I am to understand, my Lord," said Sir Walter, " that you positively and distinctly refuse to return to me the bills of exchange which I have, with foolish confidence, placed in your hands."

The Earl bowed his head in token of assent, and Sir Walter proceeded, " You will permit me, if you please," he said, " to call in one of my own servants to witness my demand, and your refusal."

" That is unnecessary. Sir," replied the Earl ; " I will give you an acknowledgment under my own hand, that I have taken possession of certain bills of exchange belonging to Henry Lang ford, accused of felony. Draw it up, Sir," he continued, turning to the lawyer.

The lawyer did as he was directed, employing all the most cautious expressions, and the Earl, after having read the paper over, signed it, and delivered it to Sir Walter Herbert.

" Your Lordship's conduct is certainly most extraordinary," repUed Sir Walter ; " but this G 3

86 THE ROBBER.

business shall soon be cleared up, for I have determined that I will not rest one moment till the best legal assistance has been procured for the noble gentleman you seem disposed to per- secute, and who has been deprived of his liberty upon the accusation of having murdered a person who is by no means proved to be really dead."

He was turning to quit the apartment, and the Earl was in the act of directing his lawyer in a low voice to have him arrested at once for the debt, when two or three hard blows upon the door, as if struck with a heavy stick, called the attention of the whole party, and caused the good knight to stop, expecting to see the door open, and some one enter. The door, indeed, did open, but it was only pushed for- ward a small space, just giving room sufficient to admit the head of the half-witted man John Graves.

As soon as he beheld him. Sir Walter ex- claimed, " Here is one who probably can tell us more of the matter than any one else ; for, if I am rightly informed, it was upon his testi-

THE ROBBER. 87

mony, received second-hand, that these magis- trates acted."

" That I can, indeed," said the half-witted man, still standing in the door-way ; " I can tell you more about it than any one else, for I saw him buried last night with my own eyes under the beech trees."

" Who ? who ?" demanded several voices at once; while the Earl, with the feelings of a father, breaking forth and overpowering all others, strode forward and gazed in the man*s face.

" Why, the boy," replied the other ; " the boy Harold; and I came to tell you where he lies."

The Earl covered his eyes with his hands, and for a few minutes an awful silence spread through the room. Sir Walter Herbert could not have found in his heart to break in upon the first moment of parental grief for any con- sideration; and he suffered the bitter agonj to have its way without attempting by one word of consolation to soothe that deep wound which he himself believed to be incurable, and G 4

88 THE ROBBER.

only likely to be aggravated by any earthly appliance. The lawyer, though feeling very differently, was yet afraid to speak ; and silly John, as he was called, stood gazing upon them infected by the feelings which he had seen expressed in the countenance of the Earl and Sir Walter, when he announced the sad con- firmation of their worst fears.

It was the Earl himself who first broke silence. " Sir," he said, turning abruptly to Sir Walter, " I desire to be alone. This is no time for any other business than that either of mourning for my son, or punishing his murderers ; with re- gard to other matters, you shall hear from me hereafter. Your fair scornful daughter, I under- stand, accompanied you hither, and now waits for you. Pray tell her that, though bound by courtesy to receive the visits of a lady at all seasons, yet at present the heart of the father is not very well attuned to hear consolatory speeches on the death of his only son, from the lips of one who first encouraged and then re- jected that son's addresses, and who, it would appear, by such conduct brought about his death,"

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" My Lord," replied Sir Walter, mildly, « so deeply am I sorry for you, that I will concede to your sorrow even the privilege of being unjust, and will not defend my child, though she be altogether innocent of that with which you charge her. She is now in Mistress Ber- tha's room, waiting my coming ; and, taking leav^e of you with deep sympathy for your loss, I will seek her there and return with her to my own dwelling."

" Seek where you may find. Sir Walter," said silly John, turning with a lacklustre smile upon the knight ; " seek where you may find : for you will not find Mistress Alice or Mistress Bertha either where you think they are ; for I saw them stepping quietly upstairs towards the old north tower ; and the lady and her lover are by this time looking into each other's eyes."

" This is somewhat too much !" exclaimed the Earl with an angry frown ; " this is somewhat too much ! I did not know that the young lady was so great a proficient in policy : but by your leave. Sir Walter, I must interrupt their con-

90 THE ROBBER.

ference ; " and striding towards the door with flashing eyes, he threw it open and advanced towards the great staircase.

Sir Walter followed quickly, and at the foot of the stairs touched the EarPs arm slightly, with a meaning look, saying at the same time, " I trust, my Lord, that in your present excited state you will not forget who Alice Herbert is, and that her father is present."

The Earl turned and gazed at him from head to foot. " I shall not forget myself^ Sir," he replied ; " the Earl of Danemore is not accustomed to injure or insult a woman ! " and thus saying, he strode up the stairs with the same quick pace.

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CHAPTER V.

There was a thrill in the heart of Alice Herbert as she followed the servant through the long passages of Danemore Castle, which sprang neither from old associations nor from the solemn and, as it were, expecting silence which reigned through the whole building. Since she had last trod those long corridors new feelings had taken possession of her bosom ; new thoughts, new hopes, new happiness, had arisen in her heart; and every pulse that throbbed in that heart had some reference to the earnest affection which now dwelt within her. As she passed along, then, following the servant, who with slow and solemn steps led the way, she could not but remember that she was probably in the same house with Henry Langford, and a vague fancy that by some means she might see him, if it were but for a moment, made her heart beat and her whole frame tremble.

92 THE ROBBETl.

The room to which she was led was vacant, and she sat down to meditate over the past and the future, both of which had a world of absorbing thoughts and feelings to engage her attention. But yet her eyes wandered round the small chamber, which she had not visited for many years, and she remarked that to the crucifix and missal which usually lay upon a table near the window, marking the faith of the occupier of that apartment, were now added the grinning skull and mouldy bones, which may well serve as mementos of our mortality.

She had not been there long, however, when the slow stately step of Mistress Bertha was heard near the door, and the next moment she entered the room, gazing upon Alice with a calm, but somewhat sad, expression of coun- tenance, as she answered her salutation.

" Good morrow. Mistress Bertha," said the young lady ; " I hope you have been well since we last met, which is now a long time ago."

" Well, quite well. Lady," replied Mistress Bertha ; " it is a long time ago ; and many things have happened in the space between,

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which should not have happened. Fate, how- ever, has had its way. We must all fulfil our destiny ; and you and I, as well as others, are but working out what is to come to pass."

" If you mean, Mistress Bertha," said Alice, " that I have not been here of late so frequently as I used to be, I think, when you remember all that has happened, you will not judge that I acted wrongly in making my visits scarce at Danemore, where my father's reception has long been cold."

" I blame you not, Mistress Alice ; I blame you not," replied the housekeeper. " What right have I to blame you ? You liked him not ; you loved him not. That was not your fault, nor the poor boy's either. You were fated for another, and that other fated to snatch from him that which he held dearest. We cannot control our likings and dislikings ; they are the work of destiny. There have been those who loved me that I could never love, those who have treated me well and kindly, who through long years befriended me, and with tenderness and affection did all to win regard ; and yet when

94 THE ROBBER.

they had done all they failed; and seizing gladly on some rash word, some hasty burst of passion, I have cast their benefits behind me, and left them, because I could not love them. What right, then, should I have to blame others for feeling as I have felt, and doing even less than I have done ? "

" I am sure, Mistress Bertha," replied Alice, gently, " I am quite sure from what I know of you, that, though you might act sharply, you would never act unjustly, and never be guilty of any degree of ingratitude, though you almost accuse yourself of being so."

" You do not know, you do not know," re- plied the other ; " I have been guilty of in- gratitude. I know and acknowledge and feel, that to her who was kind to me from her youth, whose fathers had protected my fathers, and whose generosity had raised me from low estate, I know and feel that I was ungrateful ; that I could not, that I did not, return her love for love, and that I quitted her at the first rash and thoughtless word. So far I did wrong, and felt evil : but I did no more ; my heart was not 8

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made, as many another is made, to hate because I knew that I had wronged. I went upon my way and she upon hers, but I sought for no opportunity of doing her ill. On the contrary, I would willingly have atoned for what I had done by serving her in those matters where she felt most deeply. I did serve her as far as I could; but there are things which I must not do — no, not even now.'*

"I know not to what your words allude," replied Alice, speaking to her gently and kindly, wishing to soothe rather than in any degree t(3 irritate one towards whom she had always ex- perienced feelings of great kindness, and even respect; for although Mistress Bertha, on many occasions, had given way in her presence to the sharp and unruly temper which evidently existed within her heart, yet the occasions on which it had been exercised, Alice had always remarked, were those where there was either an open and apparent, or a concealed but no less certain cause for the contempt or anger to which she yielded such unbridled sway. " I know not to what your words allude ; but I doubt not that

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3^ou judge of yourself harshly, — too harshl}^ Mistress Bertha, as I have often seen you do in regard to yourself before."

Bertha gave a melancholy smile, and shook her head, as she replied, "Young lady, clear your mind of that great error ; the greatest, the most pernicious of the poisonous dainties with which human vanity feeds itself in all this world of vain things ! We never judge of ourselves too harshly. The brightest and the best, the noblest and the most generous, if they could but look into their own bosoms with eyes as clear and righteous as those that gaze upon them from the sky, would find therein a thousand dark forms and hideous errors, of which their hearts accuse them now but little. Ay ; and if in the whole course of human actions we could see the current of our various motives separated from each other, how much that is vile and impure should we find mingling with all that we fancy bright and clear ! No, no ! man never judges himself too harshly, let him judge as harshly as he will. God sees and judges, not harshly, we b.ope, but in mercy ; and yet, what sins does 5

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not his eye discover, what punishments will he not have to inflict ! "

Alice was silent ; but after a momentary pause Bertha resumed the conversation nearly where she had first begun it. "I blame not you," she said, "young lady, for not loving one who loved you. It was not destined so to be, though there may have been a feeling of pride too, in your dealings with him. The poor boy who is gone had not the eagle eye and ruling look of this one, — an eagle eye and ruling look gained from a noble race in other lands ; and well do I know how with young happy things like you, the eyes lead captive the imagina- tion ; ay, and fix chains of iron upon the heart. Yet you judged well and nobly, too, if I see aright. That face and form are but an image of a mind as bright, and he has every right to have such a mind now that all that was dark, and fierce, and harsh in the proud streams that mingle in his veins has been purified, and tempered, and softened by long adversity."

*' Of whom do you speak. Mistress Bertha ?"

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demanded Alice, with a conscious blush man- tling in her cheek as she asked the question.

« Of whom do I speak ! " echoed Bertha, gazing on her ; " would you have me think that you do not know of whom I speak ?"

" No ! " answered Alice, blushing still more deeply ; "no. Mistress Bertha, I do not wish to deceive you. I know, at least I guess,

you speak of Captain Langford; but

but ''

Bertha gazed thoughtfully down upon the ground for a few moments ; " I had forgot ! " she said at length, " yet he did wisely — he always does wisely ! But I had not believed that there was a man who in the unchained moments of the heart's openness would act so wisely and so well ! I understand you, sweet lady. — You were not aware that I knew rightly the story of your heart ; and I knew it only by having divined it. Yet to show you how well I have divined it, I will tell you the motive that brought you hither with your father. — You came with the view of seeing him you love !"

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The ingenuous colour once more rose warm in Alice's cheek ; but she replied, with that sparkling of truth and sincerity in her pure eyes that there was no doubting one single word, " No, Mistress Bertha," she said, " you are wrong. I came hither with no such motive, with no such view. My father had business with the Earl, so painful, so irritating, that I sought to accompany him, solely with the wish to soothe and calm both ; but I found as we rode along that Sir Walter's mind was already prepared to treat all things gently and kindly, in consideration of Lord Danemore's sad loss ; and, therefore, I thought it better to come to this room than to intrude upon the Earl's grief till I was quite sure he would be well pleased to see me. But, on my word, the thought of seeing Captain Langford never entered my mind till I was crossing the hall to come hither. Then, indeed, remembering that he had been brought hither, and having learned that he had been most wrongly de- tained here, — -at least all yesterday, — I thought he might still be here, and that, perhaps, I H 2

100 THE ROBBER*

might see liim. Nor will I deny, Mistress Bertha," she added, " that I much wish to do so, if it be possible."

" I believe your whole tale, Alice Herbert," replied Bertha ; " I believe it all, and every word ; for I have seen and watched you from your childhood, and I know that you are truth itself. You shall see your lover, Alice. Yoit shall taste those few bright moments of stolen happiness which are dear, all too dear, to every young heart like thine."

" Nay, nay. Bertha," said Alice in reply,. " though I will not deny that his society is happiness to me, I have a greater object in view; 1 have to learn how I — I his promised wife, may aid him at the present painful moment* Nor, Bertha," she added, while at the very re- petition of the words her cheek again grew red; " nor, do I wish that the moments spent with him should be stolen moments. I ask you openly, if it be possible to let me see him and speak with him. I wish no concealment. I seek not to hide either my regard for him, nor my interview with him. Sure lam that my father 3

THE ROBBER. 101

would approve it, and I have none but bim to consider, in framing my actions."

Bertha gazed upon her glowing countenance and sparkling eyes, as she raised them full of timid eagerness to her face, with a look of plea- sure not unmixed with surprise ; " You are, in- deed, a noble creature and a lovely one,'* she said ; " yours may well be called generous blood. But it shall be as you wish ; and yet be under no fear for your lover. They cannot in- jure him ! It is not his destiny. He is born for a very different fate, and the fools who took him were only tools in Fortune's hands, to cut a pathway for him to the point where he is now arrived. Fear not, Alice, but come with me, and you shall see and speak with him ; alone, if you will."

" No, not alone ! " said Alice, again colour- ing; "not alone! That were needless — useless.

" Come with me, then," said Bertha ; " come

with me, then ; though it is little needful that

you should see him, to take counsel with him

for his liberation. Ere to-morrow morning

H 3

102 THE ROBBER.

he will be free. They cannot hold him there long. To think of holding him there at all is idle and empty ; and there is one of them, at least, that feels it to be so, though he knows not well why."

As she spoke, she led the way out of the room in which they were, and along the corridor towards the great hall. Alice made no reply ; for her heart beat so fast, and her limbs trembled so much, that she was glad to take refuge in silence in order to hide her agitation. She knew that she was going to do nothing but what was right. She felt that every sensation of her heart, every pur- pose of her mind, was pure, and noble, and good ; and yet — why or wherefore she could not tell — there was something in the act of thus going privately to see her lover in the house of another, which made her tremble like a guilty creature, though conscious of innocence in thought and deed. She looked anxiously at each door as she passed, lest it should be opened, and some one issue forth to interrupt her. She hurried her pace up the great staircase.

THE ROBBER. lO^

gazing round with feelings of apprehension she could not comprehend ; and when at length they reached the extremity of the building, and they stood before the last door upon that side, she was obliged to lay her hand on Bertha's arm, and beg her to stop for a moment, in order to recover breath, and gain some de- gree of command over herself.

At length she said, " Now, now I am ready ;'* and Bertha opened the door of the outer chamber. It was tenanted by a single ser- vant, apparently busy in the ordinary occu- pations of the day, putting this article of furni- ture in one place, and that article in another, with that sort of tardy diligence remarkable in houses where there are many servants and but little to do.

He started, however, and turned round when he heard the door open ; and then ad- vancing towards Bertha, he said, " My Lord ordered me. Mistress Bertha, not to give any one admission here ;" he then added in a low sort of confidential tone, " The orders came early this morning for me to hang about here, H 4

104 THE ROBBER.

and when I liad done with the rooms, to remain upon the staircase, so as to make sure that the prisoner does not escape, without locking the doors however — though I don't see why my Lord should take such a round-about way, when by doing nothing but just turning the key, he could keep the young man in as long as he liked."

" The Earl has his reasons for all that he does," replied Bertha, walking on ; " You will do very right to stop every one; but of course your Lord's orders do not apply to me. Come with me, young lady ; you may be admitted as I told you."

The man looked surprised and bewildered ; for Mistress Bertha, as he well knew, was not a person to be contradicted with impunity; and yet he feared that he would be doing wrong in letting the two visitors pass.

Half the advantages, however, which are gained in this world, either over our adver- saries or rivals, are obtained by taking advan- tage of their astonishment; and before the man had time to make up his mind as to

THE ROBBER. 105

what he ought rightly to do, Mistress Bertha and Alice had passed him, and the door of the inner chamber was open.

Langford was sitting at the table, writing, and the sound of the opening door made him raise his eyes. For a moment it seemed as if he could scarcely believe that what he saw was real; but then a look of joy and satisfac- tion, which would have repayed Alice well, had she had to encounter a thousand dangers and difficulties in making her way to visit him, spread over his countenance, while rising up, he advanced to meet her.

Without doubt or hesitation, he cast his arm around her and pressed his lip upon her cheek. "Thank you, dearest Alice, thank you," he said, " this is, indeed, most kind and most good ; how can I ever show myself grateful enough for such a token of affection ? "

Alice burst into tears. To see him sitting there — him that she loved, and honoured, and esteemed— a prisoner, and accused of dark crimes, had wrung her heart almost to agony; but his words and his look, and the tone of his

106 THE ROBBER.

voice, and the touch of his hand, and the pressure of his lips seemed to sever the bonds which held the varied emotions struggling together in her breast, and they all burst forth together in that profuse flood of tears.

''It is ice that must be grateful to you," she said, as soon as she could speak ; " it is we that must be grateful to you. I cannot help sus- pecting, nay believing, that you are suffering in some degree on our account ; but for fear we should not have time to speak fully, let me tell you, Langford, the principal object of my coming here. — I was afraid that you might not have means allowed you of communi- cating with any of your friends, and, therefore, I was anxious to see you, to ask what can be done for you, what lawyer can be sent for to you, or what means can be taken to prove your innocence."

'' My Alice has never doubted my innocence then," said Langford, gazing tenderly upon her; " 1 knew, I felt sure, she would not."

" Of any thing like crime, Langford," she said, " I knew you were innocent, perfectly

THE ROBBER. 107

innocent ! I might imagine, indeed, — for we women can hardly judge or tell to what lengths you men may think the point of honour should carry them, — I might imagine, indeed, that you had taken this unhappy young man's life in honourable quarrel; but even that I did not believe."

" Oh, no ! " replied Langford ; " I should never dream of such a thing. Nothing could have provoked me to do so. Besides, Alice, did I not give you my word ? and, believe me, dear Alice, — believe me, now and ever, that I look upon my word given to a woman as binding as my word given to a man. Nay, if it were possible, I should say more binding, because she has fewer means of enforcing its execu- tion. No, no ! dear Alice, I parted with him in the park, within ten minutes after I left you. It is true he did try to provoke me to a quarrel, but I was not to be provoked."

" I am ashamed of having doubted you, even in that, and for a moment," replied Alice; "but that doubt sprang solely from a belief that men often thought it a point of honour to conceal

108 THE ROBBER.

their intentions from women, in such matters as these, and beh'eve themselves justified in using any means to do so. But now, Langford, tell me, as quickly as possible, what can be done to prove you innocent? what is there that my father or myself can do to free you from a situation so painful?"

" I know little," replied Langford, "that can be done under present circumstances. It is their task to prove that I am guilty, more than mine to show that I am innocent — but I hear steps upon the stairs; who have we here, I wonder ? "

As he spoke, he opened the door into the other room, which Bertha had closed behind her; and nearly at the same moment, as the reader may have anticipated, the outer door at the top of the stairs was thrown open, and the Earl of Danemore, with a countenance on which hung the thunder-cloud of deep but suppressed wrath, strode in, followed close by Sir Walter Herbert.

The colour came and went rapidly in Alice's cheek, and her heart beat very quick. The ser-

THE ROBBER. 109

vant in the outer room looked tremblingly to- wards Mistress Bertha; but Bertha herself remained totally unmoved, with her long sinewy hands, clad in their white mittens, resting calmly upon each other, and her dark eyes raised full upon the Earl, while not a quiver of the lip or a movement of the eyelids betrayed that she was affected by any emotion whatsoever. Lang- ford drew a little closer to the side of Alice, while the Earl turned his first wrath upon the servant.

His words were few and low, but they were fully indicative of what was passing in his heart. " I commanded," he said, " that no one should be admitted here ! You have disobeyed my commands. — Answer me not a word. — You have disobeyed my commands, and you shall have cause to remember it to the last day of your life. — Silence, I say ! Get you gone, and send hither Wilton and the other groom of the chambers. Madam," he con- tinued, advancing towards Alice, with a bitter and sarcastic sneer curling his lip, " Madam, long as I have had the honour of your ac-

110 THE ROBBER.

quaintance, I did not know that you were so skilful a tactician till to-day. To engage me with your serviceable and convenient father, while you came hither to lay your plans with a personage accused of the murder of my son, is a stroke, indeed, worthy of a great politician — "

Alice had turned pale when first he ap- proached her; but at the words, "your service- able and convenient father," the blood rushed up into her cheek ; and though, while turning to look at Sir Walter, whose eyes were beginning to flash with indignation, she suffered the Earl to finish his sentence, she stopped him at the word " politician," by raising her hand sud- denly, and then replied at once, with her sweet musical voice sounding strangely melodious after the harsh tone in which Lord Danemore had been speaking, —

" Forbear, my Lord," she said, " forbear ! Let me prevent you from using any more words that you will be ashamed of and grieve for hereafter. My motive in coming to this house to-day was any thing but that which you imply. I came, my Lord, because I feared that my fathef,

2

THE ROBBER. Ill

justly irritated at some unworthy treatment, might act towards Lord Danemore as Lord Danemore is now acting towards me — that is to say, might speak angry words which he would soon be sorry for. I found, however, my Lord, that the kind gentleness of that father's heart was already sufficient to make him forget the injuries which Lord Danemore sought to inflict, in the sorrow which Lord Danemore now ex- perienced; and, though there was a time, my Lord, when I believed that the voice of Alice Herbert had some power to soothe, to tran- quillise, and to console you, I did not flatter myself that such was the case now ; and I re- mained, in consequence without."

The Earl seemed somewhat moved. He had listened in silence, and drew himself up to his full height with an air of attention and thought. When she paused, however, he de- manded, but in a softer tone, "And your coming here, Madam, — here, into this room, was, doubtless, perfectly accidental ; — a singular coincidence brought you into the apartments of this worthy gentleman."

11*2 THE ROBBER.

" Noj my Lord," replied Alice, with a degree of calm dignity that set his sneers at defiance, " quite on the contrary; as soon as I found that Captain Langford was still here, I asked Mistress Bertha to conduct me to see him, which, your Lordship will see, was very na- tural," she added, with the colour becoming deeper and deeper in her cheek, " if you con- der, first, that he was severely injured in my defence ; next, that I have promised him my hand ; and, lastly, that I knew him to be both unjustly charged with a great crime, and in the power of one who sometimes suffers a nature, originally most noble, to be influenced too much by strong passions, and a judgment, originally clear and right, to be darkened and obscured by his own desires and prejudices. — My Lord," she added, " the tone which you are pleased to assume towards me obliges me to speak candidly; I thought it very possible that, circumstanced as he is, and in your power, this gentleman might meet with obstacles in esta- blishing his innocence, and in communicating with those who would defend and advise him.

THE ROBBEt?. 113

Under these circumstances, I acted as I have acted, in order to bear any communication from him, either to my father, or to any other person with whom he mioht think fit to take counsel."

" Madam," replied the Earl, with far less acerbity of manner than before, " I find that you can judge severely, too. This gentleman shall have every opportunity of proving his innocence."

** That, my Lord, I will take care of,'* inter- rupted Sir Walte;* Herbert ; " for I certainly will not trust, in the case of my friend, to the justice of those who, without a shadow of reason, first charged him with a crime of which he is in- nocent, and then acted towards him as if they had nearly proved him guilty."

" He shall have every opportunity of proving his innocence," reiterated the Earl, sternly; "but Sir Walter Herbert is the man who judges too hastily. But yesterday, I said to this same gen- tleman, this Captain Langford, as he is pleased to call himself, that his bare word not to quit these apartments, was sufficient. To-day, I say that those bolts and bars, strong as they are, are not too strong to guard him withal : for I

VOL. II. I

114 THE ROBBER.

liave not only received, as you well know, the confirmation of my poor son's death ; but I have it proved, beyond all doubt, by the testi- mony of those who saw him, that the man who stands before us, after separating from that son in the park, was seen by four different people galloping up towards the very moor and at the very time at which the unhappy boy was mur- dered. He shall have the full opportunity of explaining or disproving this hereafter; at pre- sent, he is a close prisoner here, till he can be removed to-morrow to the county gaol."

Alice's cheek grew very pale as the Earl spoke ; not that she for one moment suffered her confidence in Langford's innocence to be shaken ; not that one doubt or one suspicion ever crossed her mind ; but that the words used by the Earl were such as to call up before the eye of imagination every dark and painful object which could by any chance connect itself with her lover's situation. The imasfe of Langford, in the county gaol, immured in a close noisome cell, as a common felon, together with all that she knew and all that she had

THE ROBliEK. 115

heard of the prisons of England, —which were then a disgrace to the land, — presented itself to her mind J and made her heart sink within her.

The eyes of her lover, however, were upon her. He saw the colour fade away in her cheek; he saw the anxious quivering of that beautiful lip which had so lately spoken boldly in his defence ; but Langford knew and under- stood the heart whose treasured affection he had obtained, and taking her hand in his, he pressed it to his lips, saying, " Fear not, dear Alice ! Let them do their worst. So confident am I in my own innocence, and in the just laws of a free land, that not the slightest apprehen- sion crosses my mind, though I may see a dis- position to deny me justice. Strange, too, as it may seem to you, I am well contented to remain in this house for some time longer ; and perhaps," he added, " I could, even by a single word, change entirely the feelings and views of its noble owner."

" I may understand you better than you think. Sir," replied the Earl, gazing upon him with the same knitted brow ; <' I may know you I 2

]16 THE ROBBER.

better than you believe ; but you would find it difficult to change my views and purposes. At present I have but to say, that I cannot suffer Mistress Alice Herbert to remain here any longer. Bertha," he continued, turning to the housekeeper, " you have done bitterly wrong in bringing her hither. I am willing to believe that you knew not, how wrong ; but I will deal with you hereafter upon this matter."

" Earl of Danemore, I did right !" replied the woman, " and I tell you that it is you who know not that which you are doing ; but the time will come when you will repent."

The EarPs brow grew very dark, but he evi- dently made a great effort to command his passions, and he only replied, " You have served me too faithfully and too long for my anger to have way. But provoke me no further ; I am not in a mood to bear with your bold temper. Now, Madam," he continued, turning to Alice, " we wait your pleasure."

Langford pressed her hand in his, and grasped that which Sir Walter extended towards him ; " Farewell," he said, — " Farewell, for the present It is useless to stay longer now. All

THE ROBBER.

H7

that you can do for me is to engage some person learned in the law to watch the proceed- ings against me, in case I should not be liberated before to-morrow evening. I fear nothing in the straight-forward course of jus- tice ; but there are circumstances in my situa- tion and in my fate " — and as he spoke he fixed his eyes upon the Earl — " which may bring persecution upon me, though they ought to have the most opposite effect."

The Earl returned his look steadfastly and sternly, then turned upon his heel, and waving his hand ceremoniously towards the doox', followed Sir Walter and Alice out of the room. He found the servants that he had sent for at the head of the stairs, and gave them charge to guard the prisoner better than he had been pre- viously guarded, to keep the door constantly locked, and to remain, the one at watch on the outside of the door, while the other kept guard at the foot of the stairs. He then walked slowly down into the vestibule, and, in cold silence on all parts, saw Sir Walter and his daughter mount

their horses and depart. I 3

1 18 THE ROBCEU.

CHAPTER VI.

Could we but have the heart of the wicked laid open before us ; could we but see how it is torn and wrung by the evil passions that harbour within it; could we but mark how even in the strongest and most determined breast, when bent upon evil purposes, or en- gaged in wicked acts, fear and apprehension go hand in hand with every deed of evil, w^hile repentances, remorse, and punishment follow more slowl}-, though not less surely, iu the distance ; — what an instructive, what an awful lesson it would be, and how fearfully we should shrink back from the commission of the first crime, as the brink of a precipice which, once overleapt, dashes us down over a thousand pointed rocks, even into the gulf of hell itself !

When Sir Walter and Alice Herbert had left him, the Earl of Danemore pressed his hand upon his burning brow for a few moments, while wild and thrilling thoughts, — all painful, all

THE ROBBER. 119

angry, all evil, — crossed and recrossed each other through his brain. He then turned with a rapid step, and entered the room, where the lawyer had lingered behind, fearing to follow to a scene where the violent passions which he knew existed in his patron's breast were likely to be excited into fury. The Earl closed the door, and casting himself down into a chair, covered his eyes with his hands.

He was roused, however, in a moment, by a voice saying, " Do not grieve so, Danemore ; do not grieve so. It's a sad thing, truly, to have one's fine boy killed, and never see him'again ; but we must all die once, and you'll die too, and very likely not long first, for you are an old man now. Then we shall be all comfortable again when we get on the other side of the mole's habitation. Let me speak to him, Master Kinsight; why should not I comfort him? — We should aU comfort each other."

" I have been trying, my Lord," said the

lawyer, in an apologetic tone, as the Earl

raised his eyes towards the half-witted man, " I

have been trying to get out of this foolish fellow

I 4

120 THE ROBBER.

who were the people that he saw bury your Lordship*s noble son. He acknowledges that he knows them all, but declares that he will never mention the names of any of them."

The Earl passed his hand once or twice before his eyes, as if to clear away other images from before his mental vision, ere he returned to the subject which was again suddenly pre- sented to him.

'• He shall be made to tell," he said, at length, in a stern tone, knitting his dark brows as he spoke, " he shall be made to tell, after he has pointed out the spot where the poor boy lies."

" Why, my Lord," answered the lawyer, ** we do not need his help for that, as he himself says that it was under the beech trees by the meer; but I am sure I do not know how your Lordship will make him speak, for I have been trying for this half hour, threatening him with your Lordship's displeasure, and to have him put in the cage, and every thing I could think of, but without effect."

" There are ways would make the dumb speak," replied the Earl. " I have seen, — " he

THE ROBBER. 121

continued ; but then, suddenly breaking off, he changed his form of speech, and added, " I have heard, I mean to say, of old Spaniards in the new world, who loved their gold better than their life, and would have died sooner than reveal the spot where their treasures were hidden ; and yet there have been found ways to make them speak, — there have been found means to make them scream forth the name of every treasure-cave they had."

" But, my Lord," replied the lawyer, with a somewhat apprehensive look, " but, my Lord, you know in this country we dare not make use of any such means."

The Earl gazed at him sternly, and yet somewhat contemptuously. " We will do every thing lawfully. Master Lawyer," he said ; " we will do every thing lawfully. First, we are justified, I think, in keeping this good man in strict confinement till he has declared the names of the murderers or their accomplices. Next, I believe there is no law which can com- pel us, till he is fully committed, to give him either meat or drink: neither are we told that

122 THE ROBBER.

light must be admitted to the place where he is held. Dost thou hear, Sir Fool? If thou tellest not immediately the names of all those who were engaged in this hellish act, thou shalt be shut up without a crust of bread, or a drop of water, or a ray of light; and hunger, and thirst, and darkness, shall be your com- panions till you do tell."

The unhappy man gazed in his face for a mo- ment with a wanderinn^ and haccffard look, as if he scarcely understood or believed the menaces held out to him. He replied, at length, however, in a low sad tone, " I have vowed a vow, and it can't be broken. They call me mad, but I never broke a promise, or told a falsehood in my life. Let the wise ones say as much if they can. No ! you may quench the light of these eyes for ever, you may deny me food or make me perish of thirst, but you shall never make me tell one word more than I have told."

" We shall see," replied the Earl, " we shall see :" and he added a few indistinct words to the lawyer, who withdrew, and almost immediately returned again, accompanied by two or three

THE ROBBER. 123

of the lower grade of serving men, who instantly laid hands upon the object of the Earl's indig- nation, and dragged him out of the room, to fulfil the orders which they previously received by the mouth of the attorney.

After they were gone, Lord Danemore paused for a moment thoughtfully, and the shadows of dark passions might be seen traversing his high and haughty brow. Ere he spoke he recovered his calmness, and there was even a degree of melancholy inhis tone as he said, "Men drive me to things that I would not willingly do. It is not the fault of the lion that he is a beast of prey, nor would he, except when pressed by need, de- stroy or devour any being, if the hunters did not torment him by pursuit. There is a weakness in my heart towards this youth which must be con- quered. I cannot view him as the murderer of my son, although the tidings we have this day received would in some degree prove this to be the case. Nevertheless, I will conquer such feel- ings. I will overcome such folly, for these very papers prove more than ever that it is necessary he should be removed iVom my path."

124 THE ROBBER.

As he spoke, he laid his hand on the packet of bills of exchange, which had been sealed up, and remained upon the table.

The lawyer gazed in his face with a look of some wonder and inquiry; but the Earl pro- ceeded without explanation.

" You will act as we before determined," he said ; " the evidence that we have got is now strong ; you will take means still further to strengthen it. There wants but one link in the chain. Amongst all those that you know in the country round, cannot some one be found, think you, to supply that link? — some poacher, some deer stealer, who may have seen the shot fired, or the blow struck, while lurking about on his unlawful avocations ? — Some one who mi;][ht merit foro^iveness for his other offences by bearing testimony in this matter ? "

The lawyer looked down, and hesitated. Although his nature was no ways scrupulous, yet the bold, straight- forward, uncompromising decision of his patron alarmed rather than encouraged him.

*' I will do my best^ my Lord," he said, in a

THE ROBBER. 125

low tone ; " nothing shall be wanting that I can do ; but at the same time, if we can let the matter prove itself, it would be much better than risking any thing by manufacturing tes- timony."

" See that he escape me not," said the Earl, sternly ; " see that he escape me not. Woe be unto you should he do so. Trifle not with petty means, Sir. Timidity in such matters is ruin. Boldly, fearlessly, but skilfully and carefully, pursue your plan. You have already the strongest of all foundations to build upon. See that you build well, or you shall answer to me for it. And now to other matters, though connected, as you will see, with that of which we have spoken. This Sir Walter Herbert must be dealt with immediately. If we do not at once engage him so deeply in his own affairs that he shall have neither time, nor wish, nor oppor- tunity to meddle with others, he will find means to mar our schemes, and disappoint all our expectations. Besides, you know my feelings on the subject; with him the matter must be brought to a speedy conclusion."

l!2G THE ROBBER.

" That may well be done, my Lord," re- plied the lawyer ; " now that he has tendered you, in payment of his debt, that which you cannot accept, it is very natural that you should immediately take measures against him. I myself am not much skilled in such matters, and might make some mistake ; but I saw yesterday at the town-house a person who is now down here upon some special business, whom I can well trust, and who will, I know, so manage the matter that once having fixed his hands upon this knight, no turn, no shift, no evasion, scarcely even the power of the law itself, will make him let go his hold."

" Indeed ! " said the Earl, " indeed ! Pray, who is this tenacious personage ? "

" His name, my Lord, is Bolland," replied the lawyer ; " he is a man who in the good city of London has made himself a reputation little inferior to that of a great general. His origin, in- deed, was somewhat low, having been a butcher in the City, a bankrupt, with some suspicion of fraud in his transactions, and for a certain period, we are told, a gambler in a small way of trade."

THE ROBBER. 127

" A goodly commencement for a future law- yer," said the Earl, with a bitter sneer curling his lip ; " of course he has prospered in the world ?"

" Your Lordship's pardon," replied the other, somewhat sharply, " he is no lawyer, nor has aught to do with the law but in following its mandates. He is now a sheriff's officer of the county of Middlesex, but he is not one to scruple at where he exercises his calling. I have heard that he is amassing great wealth by the skill wath which he deals with his poor patients; sometimes suiFering them to go at large, on payment of a weekly sum ; sometimes even furnishing them with money when he thinks, that by putting them in this or that calling, he can ensure to himself cent, per cent, repayment ; but never does he suffer any one to slip through his fingers ; " and if your Lord- ship will permit me, I will mount my horse directly, seek out Master Bolland, and charge him to execute a writ against this Sir Walter.'* " Do, do," said the Earl ; " but yet," he continued, " I fear that all we can do will hardly be in time to prevent this meddling old

128 THE ROBBER.

man, — fool I will not call him, for fool he is not, — from taking such steps as may embarrass our proceedings."

" I do not know, my Lord," replied the lawyer, " I do not know ; but one thing I can answer for, that if you but trust the matter to me and Bolland, and pay him well for his trouble, Sir Walter Herbert shall be in the county gaol ere the sun goes down to-night."

" Indeed ! " exclaimed the Earl, " that were quiak, indeed. Promise him this night an hun- dred pounds if he contrives to execute the writ as you mention. Now go," continued the Earl ; " no time must be lost."

But as he saw the lawyer rise to obey his directions, a look of doubt and hesitation came over his countenance for a moment* " My poor boy loved the girl," he said, " and there- in there is a tie between those Herberts and myself which I feel to be a weakness, and yet it comes upon me even now, when I think I am destroying the father of one for whom he felt so tenderly. Stay, Master Attorney, stay ! My poor boy loved the girl ! "

THE ROBBER. 129

Accursed be all those, doubly accursed, who, when better feelings are coming over our hearts, — when the well of sweet waters is gush- ing up, which is found somewhere in almost every desert, — when a touch of human aiFection is softening the harsh asperity of anger, blunting the sting of hatred, or relaxing the iron grasp of revenge ! — accursed be all those, I say, who at such moments come in, and rouse up again within us the evil passions that have been lulled to sleep, and might, perchance, be strangled in their slumber, if some fiendish voice from without did not waken them into fresh activity.

The lawyer saw the shade of unwonted gentle- ness, that passed over his patron's countenance, with pain, for his own mind was made up alto- gether of the considerations of petty interest, and he foresaw loss in any relaxation of the other's harsh determinations.

With the skill of a demon, he instantly per- ceived how he might turn the rare drop of honey into gall and bitterness ; and he replied, " Yes, my Lord, he did love her, — he did love her dearly, but she did not love him as he de-

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130 THE ROBBER.

served to be loved ; and the last most painful feelings of all his life were brought about by her conduct to him."

" It is true," said the Earl, frowning ; " it is true ! Go, and lose no time. I have a sad task before me in the mean time, and I would fain have intrusted you with it. Master Kinsight, but it cannot be. You would not have time and opportunity to accomplish both."

" Pray what may it be, my Lord ? " demanded the lawyer eagerly, fearful of losing some other lucrative occupation. " My business with Eolland will be over in a minute. I give him but directions, and trust the rest to him. Pray what may it be ? "

" Can you not divine, man ? " demanded the Earl, fixing his large stern eyes upon him; " can you not divine, that it is to seek and bring home the dead body of my unhappy son from the spot where this idiot says they have laid him."

" Oh ! my Lord," exclaimed the lawyer, with some touch of human feeling breaking even through his sordid nature, like a misty ray of sun-

THE ROBBER. 131

shine streaming through a dark cloud ; " Oh ! my Lord, such is no task for you. It would wring your heart sadly to be present yourself. Besides, the magistrates ought to be there. Now after I have spoken with Bolland, and left the business in his hands, I shall have plenty of time to see Sir Matthew Scrope and Sir Thomas Waller, and go v/ith them to the spot. Leave it to pie, my Lord, leave it to me ; and if I bring those two worthy justices over here with me, we may, perhaps, find some means of making this half-witted man give us further inform- ation regarding the murderers."

" Bring them not ! bring them not !" replied the Earl vehemently. " Mark me, my good friend ! In this matter I am moved by many very opposite feelings. You know — you must feel, for you are a father yourself, how I thirst to discover, and to drink the heart's blood of my son's murderer ! and yet I doubt that this fool, if forced to speak to any other ear but my own, might reveal matter which might tend to exculpate him whom we have there shut up above, and who must be swept from my path if I K 2

132 THE ROBBER.

would have any peace during my remaining years. — I am not a man to live in doubt or hesitation ; and as soon as any man gives me cause to fear him, the matter between us must be brought to an issue at once, and he or I must fall ! No," he added, " no ! bring not those men hither, I am sick of them. We must use them as tools, but not let them use us. Take them then with you to search under the beech trees, but bring them not hither ! When all is done, return yourself and let me know. I shall have occupation enough in the mean time to busy my thoughts with things less sad, though not less painful perhaps, than the task which I make over to you ; — and now go quickly."

" Shall I take these papers with me ? " de- manded the lawyer, laying his hand upon the packet of bills of exchange which had been sealed up before Sir Walter Herbert.

" No ! " answered the Earl sternly ; " leave them where they are."

" I thought they were to be deposited with me," rejoined the agent with a lingering 4

THE ROBBER. 133

affection for the money which he could not restrain, even though he feared to offend his patron.

" I say, Sir, leave them where they are, and go upon your errand," rejoined the Earl, in a tone that could not be misunderstood ; and without uttering another word, he pointed towards the door, and drove the lawyer out of the room by the fierce sternness of his gaze.

As soon as he was gone and the door closed, the Earl took up the packet and deliberately broke the seals : then examined each of the papers minutely, muttering as he did it, " I thought so, — I thought so ; they have watched all that I have done; they have tracked me from land to land, and they have gained that knowledge of my past deeds which they think will give them power over me, and force me to do that which they know I would never do without. But they shall find themselves mistaken. Yet when I think upon all the past, the memory of friendship and of love is stronger even than hatred and apprehension ; and I find that the lines graven on the soft K 3

134 THE ROBBER.

heart of youth in early days, may be crosseu and traversed by many others in after life, but can never wholly be erased. Would to God that they had not driven me to it ! vy^ould to God that they did not thrust themselves in the path of one who is forced to go forward on his way ; who cannot, who must not, go back ; who must trample on all that oppose him ! But I am weak again ; I am weak to think of such things. He has sought his fate, and he must find it. Yet I will see him once more ; I will make myself sure of myself and of him before I do that which can never be recalled ; but not now, — not in the broad day. He is too like the dead, and the dark glimmer of the lamp, or the blue gleam of the lightning, gives the only light by which v/e should meet. I doubt that woman Bertha, too; I doubt her much: but yet I love not to question her about such things; for slie will come harshly upon the bitter sub- ject of the past, and will turn once more those memories, which time is softening and rendering more gentle, into all that is dark, and bitter, and fearful."

THE ROBBER. 135

Such were some of the words that broke from the bosom of a man torn by con- tending passions. They were spoken also ; they were words as well as thoughts ; for he was one with whom the struggles of the im- patient spirit within, especially in his soli- tary moments, often mastered the guard set habitually upon the lips, and gave voice to thoughts and feelings when alone, which he most anxiously concealed when the watchful and oppressive world was round about him.

Again and again he looked over those papers, and again and again some new comment sprang to his lips ; but his thoughts evidently became more and more painful as his mind was drawn forcibly back to dwell upon the past ; and at length, covering his eyes v/ith his hands, he gave way to many a bitter and mingled feeling, and groaned aloud in agony of heart, as he recollected the deeds he had done, — the flowers he had trampled on, — the treasures he had scattered from his path, never to be found

K 4

136 THE ROBBER,

CHAPTER VII.

About four hours after the period at which we closed the last Chapter, a number of persons were to be seen collected between the grove of beech trees on the moor and the long sheet of shallow water called Up Water Mere. They were of a varied and a motley character ; for there, might be seen the worshipful and the honourable of the county on horseback; and thence downward, going in progression through the ownership of many a four-footed beast, appeared all classes of the community, till you came to the poorest of poor labourers, who had not even a cur to follow him.

At the head of the group, and leading its operations with pompous dignity, appeared the portly persons of Sir Matthew Scrope and Sir Thomas Waller: and behind them again, prompt- ing their motions, though appearing to submit to their will, were four other personages on horse- back; that is to say, their own joint clerk as

THE ROBBER. 137

justices of the peace; Master Nicolas clerk of the receiver of the county, whose narrow escape from the hands of the Philistines we have recorded in another place ; Master Kin- sight, attorney-at-law, agent and lawyer to the Earl of Danemore ; and a certain black-bearded, round-faced, keen-eyed gentleman, strong, though not long, in limb, mounted upon a spirited blood nag, with a certain knowing look both about master and beast which betokened in each great acquaintance with the ways of the world.

The lawyer Kinsight called him Master Bo] land, and often commented to him in a whisper upon the proceedings of the party they accompanied. Bolland rarely made an verbal reply, but he looked volumes ; and the wink of his black eye was made, by its different characters, to express almost as many things as Lord Burleigh's shake of the head.

The greater part of the body had come thither in procession from the neighbouring county town. Some had joined it in the way, and some had been found already waiting on the heath ;

133 THE ROBBER.

but as soon as the whole party was assembled by the side of the beech trees, a perquisition was commenced in order to discover any ground which might seem to have been recently moved; and, ere any very long search had been made, a part of the thin green turf showed, amidst the rank blades of grass which covered the ground beneath the trees, a quantity of scattered mould, clearly indicating that there was the spot they sought.

As soon as this discoveiy was made, a new difficulty presented itself. It was found that, with a degree of foresight common to county magistrates in those days, the worthy and worshipful knights who came to exhume the body reported to be interred there, had for- gotten to order any spades, shovels, or pickaxes to be brought with them ; and there they were, in the midst of a wide moor, where no im- plement of the kind was to be found within a mile or two. On the first mention of this want, one of the more active of the lads who had accompanied the party, set oH' as hard as his legs would carry him in the direction of

THE ROBBER. 139

the little town of Moorhurst ; but as that town was at several miles distance, some of the other persons present suggested that it would be better to send up to the farm which had lately been taken by Farmer Gray, just upon the edge of the moor ; and while this suggestion was actually being followed, a discussion naturally arose in regard to Farmer Gray, his character, habits, appearance, station, fortune, and farm.

" Ay, he has got a bad bargain of it," said a sturdy farmer in a white smock frock, which concealed the greater part of a strong short- backed pony that he bestrode ; " ay, he has got a bad bargain of it ; and if he do not mind what he *s about he'll do for himself. I might have had the farm for an old song if I liad liked, but I'd have nothing to do with such poor swampy stuff. Why the place has been out of lease for two years."

" He'll do very well," grunted another of the same class. " I'm sorry I did not take the place myself. He'll do very well ; he comes from Lincolnsliire, and knows that sort of land. At least I saw, ' Franklin Gray, Squash-lane, Lin-

140 THE ROBBER.

colnshire,' upon one of his carts. He'll do very well. He has the finest horses in the country, too."

" I wonder you call those fine horses, Master Brown," said a respectable labourer, who over- heard the conversation ; " they are no more fitted for hard work than my sick wife Jane ; and as for the matter of that. Farmer Gray will never be much liked hereabouts, for he's brought all his own labourers with him, and that 's a hard case upon the people of the place. They say he has been a soldier, too ; and I'm sure he don't look like a farmer, or any thing half as honest Why he goes about in a laced jacket, like a gentleman ; and I never saw him at market, not I."

" I'll tell you what," cried a sturdy drover who had joined the group, " he's as good a judge of cattle, for all that, as any man in this country. He knows a beast when he sees it, do'sn't he ? Why, he bought half a score of me the other day, and paid me down drink- money and all, without a word."

Such were comments that took place upon

THE ROBBER. I4l

Franklin Gray, in one of the groups into which the party had divided itself. Something si- milar, with a very slight variation from the different class and character of the speakers, was taking place amongst the rest; and all the little investigating spirit which is excited by the arrival of a stranger in a country place, espe- pically if that stranger be somewhat reserved in his habits, was exercising itself in regard to Franklin Gray, amongst the whole of the as- sembly on the moor.

Lawyer Kinsight ventured to hint that he suspected Farmer Gray had been a bankrupt in Lincolnshire before he came into their county; but this was instantly contradicted by several others who had had dealings with him, and who represented him as possessing all those excellent qualities which gold invariably bestows upon its owner. Two or three of the young men talked of Farmer Gray's beautiful wife, but declared she was as coy and backward as if she had been old and ugly. Some had only caught a sight of her ; some had heard her speak ; and some had never even seen her,

142 THE KOBBER.

but were in raptures witli her beauty on the mere report of others. What between the rumours of the wife's beauty, the husband's wealth, and the report of his wearing a laced jacket, like a gentleman, Sir Matthew Scrope and Sir Thomas Waller found the two organs of curiosity and reverence in their respective brains considerably excited regarding Franklin Gray, and they entered into slow and solemn discussion as to whether, under existing circum- stances, they should or should not pay him a

ormal visit.

At the end of about half an hour, however, some one was seen coming slowly across the moor on horseback, accompanied by tv/o or three others; and in due time appeared the person who had been sent for the spades and shovels^ accompanied by Franklin Gray himself, with two or three men furnished with imple- ments for digging. Gray was momited on a fine powerful horse, full of fire and activity, which he sat in a very different manner from that in which the personages around him bestrode

their beasts; and there was something, indeed, in

THE ROBBER, 143

his whole appearance and demeanor which made the greater part of the men assembled take off their hats as he rode up.

There was only one person present, with the exception of the drover, who showed the slightest sign of recognition, and that was Master Bolland, who gave a sudden start, and then turned pale, as the stern fierce eye of Franklin Gray fixed, for a moment, full upon him, with a meaning, perhaps a menacing, look. He ventured upon no other token of ac- quaintanceship, however, and Gray riding up at once to the magistrates, bowed to them some- what haughtily, and said, " I am liappy to hear from this good man, tliat your worships have discovered the place where this poor young no- bleman's body has been concealed; indeed, I expected no less from your known wisdom, as soon as I heard that you had taken the matter in hand. I have now come down at once to oflPer you every assistance in my power, and to say that I hope some means will be immediately taken for putting a stop to all these terrible

144 THE ROBBER.

things that are daily occurring in the county. Indeed, no one is so much interested as I am ; for, having taken this lonely farm here, I am^ obliged to cross the moor constantly, often with large sums about me, and it is but fit that we should have protection under such circum- stances."

" That it is, indeed. Master Gray," said Master Nicolas the clerk, " I am just in the same condition as yourself; and I hope at the very next meeting of the magistrates something will be done."

" Depend upon it, depend upon it ! " said Sir Matthew Scrope, " something shall be done, Master Nicolas ; something shall be done, Master Franklin Gray ! I should be very glad to confer with you on the subject. Sir," he added, addressing the latter, for whom his reverence was getting very high ; " and we will taste together my last year's cider, which is now just in its prime. But now let us fall to work ;" and he and the rest accordingly dis- mounted from their horses, and directed the

THE ROBBER. 145

labourers, whom they had brought witli them, to dig up that part of the ground which bore ftiarks of having been lately moved.

Shovelful after shovelful of earth was thrown out, and the work had proceeded some way, when, cantering quickly along the road, ap- peared two or three persons, who proved to be Sii' Walter Herbert and his servants. The countenances of Sir Matthew Scrope and Sir Thomas Waller immediately fell ; and the first impulse of the former was to bid the workmen suspend their proceedings ; after which he turned to his comrade, beckoned up the clerk and the Earl of Danemore's lawyer, and held with them a quick whispering conference apart.

In the meanwhile, Sir Walter came up and dismounted from his horse, while every head was uncovered around, and every face beamed with a smile of pleasure and satisfaction to see him there.

" I have come," he said, " gentlemen, to be a witness of the execution of that painful task which you have undertaken, and to see, perhaps for the last time, the body of my poor young

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146 THE ROBBER.

friend, Lord Harold, whose death has unfor- tunately been made a pretext for accusing another friend, not less noble and excellent, of a foul and horrible crime."

" Pretext, Sir, pretext," exclaimed Sir Tho- mas Waller, " I do not know what you mean by pretext. Do you mean to charge me. Sir ? — Do you mean to insinuate. Sir — should such imputations as these go on, I shall certainly order the work to be suspended, for we are not going to proceed with this matter to be in- sulted."

" Sir Thomas," replied the other, " I have no intention of insulting you ; and the only effect of your ordering the work to be suspended will be, that I shall order it to go on . You forget, Sir, that I am not only a magistrate, as well as yourself, but Lord of the Manor on which you stand. Go on, my good fellows, and make good speed ! "

The men required no other authority, but with redoubled activity plied their work, and in a few moments a long deal case was disco- vered, rudely put together. The labourers tried 4

THE ROBBER. 147

to take the top off at once, but they could not accomplish it, and after digging round it on all sides, they lifted the heavy burden carefully out and laid it upon tlie edge of the pit. The whole crowd gathered round, pressing somewhat rough- ly upon the principal personages, who occupied the front stations about the grave. Sir Matthew Scrope put on his spectacles, and rubbed his iiands, as if arriving near some long-desired consummation. Sir Walter Herbert stood near the foot of the coffin, if it could be so called, and gazed upon it with a brow of sorrow and something bright glistening in his eye. Franklin Gray looked on sternly, with his arms crossed upon his broad bull-like chest, and his brow gathered into a heavy frown.

There was some difficulty in wrenching up the top. But at length one of the labourers forcing the spade between it and the sides, tore it open, and exposed to view the ghastly spec- tacle of death within.

Those who were without saw nothing but the form of a dead man; but amongst those who immediately surrounded the chest there L 2

148 THE ROBBER.

were exclamations of surprise, which made the rest press forward to get a nearer view, and it was then perceived by all who had known Lord Harold that the body was that of a stranger. In the centre of the forehead was a small round wound, spreading from which on every side was a dark discoloured bruise, and a considerable quantity of blood had run down and disfigured the face, on which it had been suffered to remain. Still the features were sufficiently distinct to show every one that this was not the corpse that they expected to find ; and though each countenance around was pale with agitation and awe, yet on the lip of Sir Walter Herbert and of many others there appeared a smile of hope renewed.

That smile was almost immediately done away, however, when they could look farther, for across the breast of the dead man lay a paper on which was written, in a large bold hand, " The punishment of him who shot Edward Lord Harold."

The first who read the paper was the ma- gistrates* clerk, and the words were circu-

THE BOBBER. 149

lated in a low murmur from one to ano- ther around. But at the same time Master Nicolas, the clerk to the receiver of the county, pressed forward as if moved by some sudden impulse, and getting as near the head of the corpse as he could, he gazed eagerly in its face, exclaiming, " It is ; yes, I declare it is. It is the very same man that I saw lying on the road that night when the robbers laid hold of Mis- tress Alice Herbert, and he was one of them, too, beyond all doubt ! "

" Doubtless it must be the same," said Frank- lin Gray, gravely. " I think I never saw a more rascally countenance in my life, or one that seemed more likely to deserve the fate that he has met with."

" His clothes are very good, however," said Sir Matthew Scrope; " they don*t look like those of a robber. Why, I declare there is as much lace as would cost two or three marks any day."

" It's the same man, however," reiterated Master Nicolas ; " that I will swear to ; and that he was a robber, there can be little doubt, L 3

150 THE ROBBER.

from what happened to Mistress AUce Herbert. Is it not so, Sir Walter ? "

" Undoubtedly," replied Sir Walter. " There is no doubt : there can be no doubt that rob- bery was their purpose. Nor is it improbable that this is one of them. One man was wounded and disarmed by my excellent friend, Captain Langford. The other was beaten down and stunned by the poor innocent John Graves, and he it was. Master Nicolas, whom you saw upon the road. Let all these matters be taken down," he continued, looking round him for some one who was capable of the task.

" Where is the coroner ?" Sir Walter de- manded abruptly, when he could not discover that officer amidst those around. " That officer should have been here. Why was he not sum- moned ? When a body supposed to be mur- dered is discovered buried in a lonely common like this, it is natural to ask, where is the coroner ? and to deprecate excessively his not being on the spot. May I ask. Sir Matthew, whether, in all the informal and somewhat ex- traordinary steps which you have thought fit to

THE ROBBER. 151

take, you have remembered the simple one of calling to your aid the coroner of the county ?"

" Why, Sir," replied Sir Matthew Scrope, in some confusion, " we were so hurried to decide, we were so pressed onward for time, that I do not know how it was, the coroner was for- gotten."

" In short, Sir," replied Sir Walter Herbert, " you forgot all except that which might serve your own purpose ; you forgot all except that which might condemn an innocent man ; and the regular course of justice in the land was in no degree attended to ! This must be remedied. I, as a magistrate, must demand that the coroner be instantly sent for. He should have wit- nessed the exhumation. He should have been present at every step through all this business ; and you, my good friends, the yeomen of this county, will witness that in taking cognizance of all these transactions, the proper officer of the crown has not been upon the spot, — has not received any summons to attend, and that, from the very beginning to the close, two magistrates alone have conducted the whole investigation, L 4

152 THE ROBBER.

showing a great disinclination to any open in- quiry into their conduct or purposes."

" That we will. That we will," cried several voices ; and one or two persons from the little town of Moorhurst gave point to Sir Walter's charge, by mentioning the name of Langford, and declaring that he had won the love of all around him, instead of injuring any body.

At the same time, however, the attorney was seen whispering eagerly to Master Bolland, who on his part seemed to show some slight degree of hesitation, listening silently to the promptings of the lawyer, eyeing from time to time Sir Walter Herbert, and then scanning the crowd around.

Sir Matthew Scrope by this time was at the end of his eloquence, and though he swelled and coloured like an offended turkey-cock, he made no reply to Sir Walter Herbert. The other magistrate, however, bristled up in his own defence, vowed that what they had done in regard to Langford was perfectly justifiable, and ended by striking his clenched fist upon his thigh, and swearing, with not a very worshipful

THE ROBBER. 153

oath, that the prisoner should be fully committed to the county gaol the very next day in spite of all the Walter Herberts in the land.

The old Knight was about to reply, and pro- bably in the heat of the moment might have said things that he would afterwards have regretted ; but during Sir Thomas Waller's angry declara- tion Master Holland had walked round ; and now, with a thin slip of parchment in his hand, he laid his finger on Sir Walter Herbert's shoulder, say- ing, "Sir Walter Herbert, Knight, I arrest you in

the name of the Sheriff of the county of

at the suit of the Earl of Danemore."

The old man turned very pale, and put his hand to his head, saying, " This is most strange, and most unhandsome ! "

The people who stood around were all taken by surprise, and all felt more or less a sensation of grief, compassion, and indignation, so that there came a profound silence for the space of about a minute over the whole multi- tude. Even Sir Matthew Scrope and SirThomas Waller gazed as well as the rest with painful emotions in the pale but noble countenance

154 THE ROBBER.

of the old knight of Moorhurst, as, standing by the side of the dead body which they had so lately disinterred, he felt a momentary regret that he himself was not cold, and silent, and feelingless, like it.

The silence lasted for about a minute, but then it was suddenly broken by an unex- pected event. One of the young farmers, who had been standing by Bolland and the lawyer while they conversed, glanced from the honoured countenance of Sir Walter Herbert to the shrewd mean face of Master Kin sight. He seemed to struggle during that temporary silence with strong emotions ; but then, giving way to aburstof unconquerable indignation, he struck the lawyer a violent blow in the face with his clenched fist, exclaiming, " D — n thee ! it is thou hast done all this mischief ! "

The lawyer was stretched with that one blow at his feet, with the blood starting from his mouth and nostrils. A general commotion took place amongst the people ; violent hands were laid instantly upon Bolland. They de- clared that '' Sir Walter, good Sir Walter,

THE ROBBER. 155

should not be taken from among them." The magistrates in vain endeavoured to interpose ; and the peasantry, trampling the lawyer under their feet, dragged the sheriff's officer forward to the side of the mere, declaring they would half drown him for his pains, and do the same to Sir Matthew Scrope and Sir Thomas Waller if they did not get upon their horses and ride away with all speed. y The warning was not lost upon them; but each scrambled upon his beast, and followed by their clerk and Master Nicolas, got out of the affray as fast as they could, and made the best of their way back to the county town, where they arrived as the evening was just closing in.

In the meanwhile Bolland was saved from the fate prepared for him by the voice of Sir Walter Herbert, who with much difficulty made himself heard, and induced the peasantry to release the bailiff.

" Master officer," he added, as soon as he saw that the people had taken their unwilling hands off Bolland, who, with his under jaw

156 THE UOBBEK.

Stuck out and his hat knocked off his head, remained standing with an air of dogged deter- mination by the side of the water, — " Master officer, having been appointed to see the law executed, I am not one to resist it, and am ready to submit to your arrest this moment ! "

" Hang me if thou shalt ! " cried one of the farmers. "If that man put a finger on thee again, I'll beat the soul out of him ; so look to it, bailiff ! and with your leave, Sir Walter, we'll see you safe down to your own house ; for go with him you sha'nt, whether you like it or not ! "

Sir Walter looked with some degree of hesi- tation in the face of the officer, who nodded as if to signify that he understood him, and then replied aloud, " It's no use. Sir, it's no use ! The writ's gone to the devil amidst these mad people, so you had better do what they would have you."

" So be it, then," replied Sir Walter Herbert ; " and I doubt not ere to-morrow to be able to raise funds to discharge this claim of Lord Danemore's. But now let us look after that unworthy but unfortunate man Kinsight, whom

THE ROBBER. 157

I saw knocked down and trampled upon. My good friends, you have been violent, much too vio- lent in this business. No one has a right to inter- rupt the course of the law ; far less to injure those who, however ungenerously they may demean themselves, are not overstepping its authority."

While Bolland slunk away, and, joining a group of people from the county town who had held aloof from the aiFray, mounted his horse, and made his way across the moor, Sir Walter returned to the spot where the attorney had been knocked down, and beheld, with feelings of great pain and anxiety, that though he still breathed he was quite insensible, and had evidently received various severe injuries. It was in vain that he endeavoured to impress upon the peasantry about him that a great wrong and a great crime had been committed.

The only answer he could obtain was, " It serves him right ! " and with difficulty he pre- vailed upon some of the labourers to place the hurt man upon the cover of the large wooden case they had dug up, and to carry him down to the small town of Moorhurst, in order

158 THE ROBBER.

to obtain medical assistance. The body of the dead man which they had disinterred, — and which has been already recognized by the reader as that of the robber, Wiley — was also carried down to Moorhurst ; and, before he even re- turned to the Manor House, Sir Walter des- patched a messenger to the coroner, briefly narrating the events that had occurred.

While the rescue of Sir Walter Herbert was taking place, Franklin Gray had remained looking on, with his arms folded on his chest and an expression of no slight satisfaction curling his lip. As soon as Bolland, how- ever, was set free and rode away. Gray threw himself upon his horse again, and galloped after him over the moor. He overtook him at the distance of about four miles from the county town, and called to him by his name. It was evident from the countenance of Bolland, as he turned round to see who it was that followed him, that he had no great taste for Franklin Gray's society. The other, however, pushed on his horse till he came upon a line with him ; and then, just touching him with the cane he

THE ROBBER. 159

carried in his hand, he said, " Stop a moment, Master BoUand ; I want a word with you."

"Do you mean really to say stop?" de- manded Bolland, with a grim smile. " How am I to take you, Captain ? "

" Why, not in the sense you're afraid of," answered Gray ; " I only want to ask you a question. Are you fully aware. Master Bolland, that I could hang you to-morrow if I liked it?"

Bolland hesitated, but then replied, " Why, perhaps I could do the same good turn for you. Captain."

" That would be difficult," answered Gray. " I know my own fate, Master Bolland ; and though there is no fear of my ever dying in my bed, like a consumptive school girl, there is as little chance of my dying on a scaffold. As to you, you are as sure of being hanged as if the rope were now round your neck *; but I for my part have no wish to put it there, and

* He was, indeed, tried some years afterwards for forgery, and made a very brilliant defence on his trial, which however availed him nothing. He was hanged for the offence, which was one of the least crimes he had committed, and at his death were dis- closed a thousand acts of infamy which had been perpetrated by him under the mantle of our dreadful law of imprisonment for debt.

160 THE ROBBER.

I want a plain answer to my simple question. Are you fully aware that I could hang you to- morrow if I liked it ? "

"To be candid with you, Master Gray," replied Bolland, " 1 believe you might, if you have still got a certain awkward piece of paper in your hands ; but I think it would be a dan- gerous matter for you to undertake, for I might give the beaks a clue "

" That has nothing to do with the question," rejoined Gray ; " all I wanted to be sure of was that you knew how we stood towards each other. I like to have some hold upon gentle- men of your cloth, who think fit to look as if they had seen me before."

" Oh, I am a man of honour, Captain," replied Bolland ; " you know I would not do an unhandsome thing by a gentleman for the world."

" I am now quite sure that you would not do so by me," replied Gray ; " so good night. Master Bolland." And thus speaking, he turned his horse and galloped oflP over the moor, upon which the shades of night were now rapidly descending.

THE ROBBER, 16.1

CHAPTER VIII.

With a sad heart Sir Walter Herbert turned towards his own dweUing, after having taken all the proper steps to secure medical assistance for the lawyer of the Earl of Danemore, and to have a proper investigation instituted regarding the death of the man whose body had been found buried in the moor. Every circumstance com- bined to sadden and pain him ; the imprison- ment of Langford and the uncertainty of his fate, the strange and somewhat fearful event attending the finding of the dead body, the scene of violence and outrage which had occurred on the attempt to arrest him, the dangerous condition of the lawyer, and the severe punishment likely to be inflicted, if he should die, upon the warm-hearted people who had taken part in the affray, might well have rendered the good knight melancholy and des- ponding, even if care had not pressed heavily upon him in regard to his own affairs.

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162 THE ROBBER.

He went home, however, under the full im- pression that the writ against him would be renewed on the morrow, and that twelve or fourteen hours was the whole space of time which would be allowed him to prepare for the payment of the debt. He had to tell his sweet daughter all these painful facts ; he had to re- quire of her to give up for the sake of his liberty the small fortune which she called her own ; he had himself to take means as rapidly as possible to sell the old family plate, which he had seen standing on his sideboard for fifty years; and bitterer than all, he had to sell those jewels which had been worn by the wife he had always truly loved, — many a sweet token of early affection, — the gems that she had received on her wedding morning, — and many a trinket and ornament which marked in the calendar of past time some bright days, some happy hours, that could return no more.

Even then, perhaps, all would not be suffi- cient, and he thought of what more could be sacrificed to satisfy the claim against him. His horses, his carriages, they could, indeed, bo

THE ROBBER. 163

sold, but this would not go far ; his library, if disposed of in haste, would not bring half its value ; his pictures, though chosen with much knowledge and fine taste, would be thrown away in that remote part of the country ; and he pondered, and calculated, and doubted till he reached his own doorway.

" Halliday," he said to the servant whom he met, " I w4sh you would mount Whitefoot as soon as possible, and ride over to the county town. There tell honest Master Antony Evelyn, attorney-at4aw, to come over here without a moment's delay, bringing his clerk with him ; and also if you can find Brooks the jeweller, make him come too."

The man bowed without reply, and Sir Walter went into the room where his daughter sat expecting him. Her arms were round his neck in a moment ; and the expression of her countenance, which had become very pale under the grief and agitation of the last few days, told him, without her speaking, how anxiously she liad watched for him, and how apprehensive she had been of some new evil. M 2

1G4 THE ROBBER;

" I have been detained very long from you my sweet Alice," he said, trying to look as cheerfid as he could ; " but several extraordi- nary things have occurred to detain me. Nay, look not alarmed, dear Alice ; some of those things are to a certain extent satisfactory. The body of poor Lord Harold has not been found, but in the place where it was supposed to be laid was discovered another body, that of a man who had evidently met with a violent death ; and on the breast was placed a paper intimating that it was the corpse of him who had murdered Lord Harold, or something to that effect. This must tend, my dear girl," he continued, taking his child's hand between both of his, as he saw that the very mention of such circumstances affected her very much ; " this must tend greatly to hasten our dear friend Langford's exculpation, as he could have no hand in the burial of this unknown person, having been at that very time in confinement on this false charge, when poor silly John Graves saw the corpse interred. It must, therefore, I say, greatly tend to hasten his exculpation."

THE ROBBER. 165

" Thank God for that, my dear lather, thank God for that ! " replied Alice ; not with the usual levity with which such an exclamation is often uttered, but with true thankfulness, deep and sincere. " If Langford were but free, I think — at least I hope, that you and he by consulting together might soon find means of removing all the other terrible things that now seem to be hanging over us."

" His liberation would at once remove one great difficulty," replied Sir Walter ; "for the Earl would no longer have a pretext for detain- ing the money which I tendered him, as he most unhandsomely and ungenerously did this morning ; but I see that it is the Earl's object to pain and injure me."

" But tell me what more has happened, my dear father," said Alice, seating herself beside him ; " I see by your face that the rest of your tidings are not so agreeable as the first part. Indeed, I know that you always tell me the pleasant news first, and then would fain not let me hear the rest at all. But, indeed, dear father, I am prepared — I am fully prepared;

31 8

166 THE ROBBER.

and wherefore am I your child, if not to share and h'ghten your cares and anxieties ? "

" Thou dost ligliten them, my Alice," answered her father ; " thou dost lighten them by thy very looks; but still, my dear child, I have much that is painful to tell, and if it were possi- ble, would fain keep it to my own breast. But it must be told, Alice, for your father must at length come to his child for aid."

" Oh that his child's powers to grant it were as great as her will, my father. Do you know, I do not look upon a little adversity, my dear father, with so evil an eye as you do. I could almost wish for it, if it did not go too far and make you unhappy ; to show you how easily I could bear it, and to have the means of paying you back all the kindness, and tenderness, and care you have shown me."

She spoke with a smile, but there was nothing harsh to the feelings of Sir Walter in her play- fulness even at that moment, for it was mixed with sadness, like the gleam of the blue sky through a stormy cloud. He pressed her to his bosom, and he told her all that had occurred ;

THE ROBBER. 167

and she felt more bitterly than even he had the insult and the degradation which had been offered to him. She thought of her father's years and of his character ; she thought of him, not only as her own parent, but as the benevolent master, the kind friend, the liberal landlord, the benefactor of all that came near him ; and when she heard that an attempt had been made un- announced to arrest him for debt, in the midst of the tenantry that reverenced him, in the face of the country where he had lived and done good through a long life, indignation was strong in her heart; and, as she would not give it words, it broke through the silken lashes of her eyes in tears.

" There are many painful points in this business, dear Alice," continued her father, " should this lawyer die, which seems to me but too likely from his state, poor young Rapson, who struck him the first blow, is likely to fall under severe punishment."

" Oh, heaven forbid that he should die," ex- claimed Alice, eagerly ; " though he is a bad man, and an unkind one, I trust that so severe M 4

168 THE ROBBER.

a fate may not overtake him, especially under such circumstances as these."

" I trust not also, my sweet Alice," replied her father ; " the man doubtless acted but as he was told to act, and indeed the whole demeanour of Lord Danemore this morning shows that these ungenerous actions are his, not those of the mere tools that he employs. But I am grieved for the dangerous situation in which this rash young man has placed himself; for though the first blow is all that is to be attri- buted to him, and the more severe injuries the man has received proceeded from his being trodden under foot by the people "

Alice covered her eyes with her hands and gave a flight shudder at the image thus pre- sented to her sight ; and her father seeing the effect his words had produced, turned to the more immediate matter of which he had to speak. In fact he had but dwelt upon the collateral part of the business, from an unwillingness to approach things that he thought would be more personally painful to his daughter. Feeling that it must be done, however, he now went on.

THE ROBBER. 169

" Well, well, Alice," he continued, " I will not speak of these horrible things any more, though what I have to say may be equally painful. I am afraid, my dear child, that in the course of to-morrow we shall have a new visit from this sherifTs officer. He knows from all that has passed that I will not resist the law, and that my doors will never be shut in order to avoid its execution. Under these circum- stances he is sure to pursue his object, and con- sequently 1 must in some way be prepared to meet him. The sacrifice of the small fortune you possess independent of me, which that rascally lawyer proposed to you some nights ago, your father must now propose himself j however painful it may be to him."

" Thank you, thank you, my dear father," exclaimed Alice, throwing her arms around his neck, " you cannot think how happy you make me."

"But, alas, my dear child," continued Sir Walter, " this is not all. What you can supply will but be a part ; I must instantly be prepared with a much larger sum; the house must be

170 THE ROBBER.

Stripped of its paintings, all our old favourite horses must know other masters, the plate must be sold; even the carriages and the furniture, except merely that of those rooms which we inhabit, must fetch what they may. The shelves of my library must be emptied ; — ay, Alice, and even more, for even this will not be enough. Your mother's jewels, my sweet girl, those jewels which were always destined for yourself, which are, indeed, your's by right, they, too, must go to adorn strangers."

Alice's heart was very full, and the tears would fain have rushed up into her eyes ; but the resolute determination of a woman's mind w hen roused by noble motives to a great effort, will triumph over mental as well as over bodily pangs, and bear them as if they existed not. By a sharp struggle Alice repressed the foun- tain of her tears, for she knew that the slightest sign of reluctance would add to the anguish of her father's heart ; that to give way to her own sorrow would more than double his. Not a tear then stained her cheek, and she only replied, ** What better use could they be put to, my father,

THE ROBBER. 171

than to avert such a painful event as that which you expect. As jewels, of course, I care not for them, and only think of them as my mother's ; but I know how willingly that dear mother would have sacrificed them to buy you one mo- ment's comfort, and I will only ask for one ring- as a remembrance, if it makes no difference ; — the ring which she always wore."

She spoke calmly, though not cheerfully; but Sir Walter knew all that was passing in his daughter's heart, as well as if he could have seen its movements, and the gentle restraint she put upon herself affected him, perhaps, more than her tears would have done. He pressed her hands in his, and then turned to the window to conceal his emotion.

The sun had just set, and the sky was still full of light, though half-way between the hori- zon— w^here the deep blue distance cut upon the bright golden expanse of the heavens — and the zenith — where the orange hues melted into rich purple — there hung a dark heavy cloud.

Alice had followed her father to the window, and both, as they gazed upon the expanse before

17'2 THE ROBBER.

them, suffered imagination to find an image in the scene. Sir Walter thought that the warm golden space below resembled the past years of his existence, that the dark cloud looked like his present fate, and that the purple sky above was that far land beyond the grave to which his footsteps were rapidly hastening. His daughter's was a more hopeful vision; and, with her, fancy reversed the objects. The calm purple sky over their heads was the sweet tranquil past; the dark cloud was, indeed, the present ; but in the golden light beyond she saw a future of warm happy days. There was an indistinct feeling, however, in her mind, that her father read the sight less cheerfully, and she told him what she thought that it was like.

Sir Walter sighed, but he would not check her by giving the more melancholy picture; and even as she spoke the wind moved the heavy cloud slightly to the east, and in the midst of the bright and intense light below burst forth a clear brilliant star, outshining all the splen- dour that surrounded it.

THE ROBBER. 173

"There, there!" cried Alice, with all the enthusiasm of a young and ardent heart, find- ing in that sight fresh auguries of hope. " There, there ! "

Her father turned and pressed her to his heart, only replying, " May it be so, beloved ; may it be so."

The rest of the evening passed, till about ten o'clock at night, in making various painful arrangements for effecting what Sir Walter had proposed. He had calculated that between ten and eleven o'clock his servant Halliday would return with the lawyer and the jeweller whom he had sent for, and when about half past ten the bell at the great gates was rung, he doubted not that it gave notice of their arrival. One of the other servants, however, appeared a few minutes afterwards, and with a grave face and a manner that seemed to court interrogation, he announced that two strange men demanded to see Sir Walter.

" I suppose Master Evelyn has not been able to come himself," said the knight, " and has sent some of his clerks. Show them in."

174 THE ROBBER.

The man proceeded to obey, but when the door opened, with grief and astonishment Sir Walter beheld the face of John BoUand, who was followed by another person of the same stamp.

" How is this. Sir," exclaimed the Knight, " how is this? you know very well that it is not legal to execute an arrest for debt after sunset, and I am even now making preparations for paying this sum to-morrow morning."

" Ay, you see. Sir Walter," replied BoUand, with an air of cool insolence, " that may suit your purpose very well, but it won't suit mine, for Tm to have a hundred guineas, you see, if I arrest you before twelve o'clock to-night."

Alice clung to her father with a pale cheek, and a heart through which the blood seemed to force itself with pain ; but Sir Walter pressed her hand, saying, " Do not be alarmed, Alice : this act is illegal, and I shall certainly resist it. You are. Sir," he continued, turning to BoUand with a frowning brow, " you are engaged at this moment, as you very well know, in an illegal attempt, and you may consider it as

THE ROBBER. 175

more owing to my respect for myself tlian to your situation, that I do not order the servants to throw you out of the window."

" Not quite so illegal as you may think, Sir Walter," replied Bolland, " the caption was made this morning, be so good as to recollect. I then had my right hand upon your shoulder and the writ in my left. That was at a legal hour, I take it. Sir Walter ; and your being rescued by a mob has nothing to do with the matter. I am responsible for you to the sheriff ; I came here not to arrest you, but to claim my prisoner, and if you resist, it is at your peril.'*

Sir Walter pressed his daughter to his bosom and bent down his head. " I am afraid, my child," he said, '* that what this man alleges is but too true."

Alice replied nothing for a moment or two ; but then gently disengaging herself from her father's arms she took two or three steps to- wards the officer ; and, gazing earnestly in his face, she demanded, " You are not surely going to take my father out of his own house at this time -of night,'*

176 THE ROBBER.

• " Why I must do my duty, young mistress," replied the man, " and as I shan't get paid unless I have him in quod to night, I'm afraid he must budge."

" Oh ! my dear father, my dear father," ex- claimed Alice, turning to Sir Walter, " all that this man wants is money. What is a hundred pounds to your comfort ? We have more than that in the house, a good deal more, I know. Give him the hundred pounds he wants, and he will come back to-morrow for the rest, when you have settled every thing and are ready to pay it."

" No, Alice, never," replied Sir Walter ; " I will never so countenance extortion and villany. I should be unworthy of the respect and esteem of any one were I to do it ; as unworthy as he *who has already oifered him that sum for worse purposes. No, my child, no ; I will go, how- ever bitter it may be. I will not sink myself in my own esteem. All I ask. Sir, is time to write a letter to my lawyer in case he does not arrive to-night before I go, and to put some papers of importance in order." 8

THE ROBBER. 177

" Well," answered Bolland, " I've no objec- tion to that. I suppose you'd like to travel in your own coach ; so, while the horses are putting to, you can give me and my friend here a bit of supper, and do what you like, provided you give us your word of honour that you'll come back here within the hour.. I always like to deal gentlemanly with a gentleman, and am not so hard a man as many would make me out."

Sir Walter pledged himself as was required, and taking his daughter by the hand lie left the room, up and down which Bolland continued to walk, whistling the air of an indecent song, and commenting with some taste upon the pictures, till two or three servants brought in the supper he had demanded, eyeing him while they laid it out as if they would much rather have beaten him to a mummy than provided him with food. He sat down, however, with perfect carelessness, helped himself liberally to beef and ale, and encouraged his companion to partake. Shortly after the sound of a horse's feet was heard passing by, and the servant

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178 THE ROBBER.

Halliday ere long thrust his head into the room gazing upon the two officers with a very menacing countenance. He said nothing, however, but retired and shut the door.

When about three quarters of an hour had passed, and Bolland was beginning to get some- what impatient, the door again opened, and AHce ghded in, clad in a travelling dress. " You have of course no objection, Sir," she said, approaching the officer, " to my accom- panying my father ? "

" Why I never object to any thing in reason, my young mistress," replied the man; "You see for all such things we have a regulation, which is, that when civility is shown, civility money should be given."

" Only tell me what you demand," she said ; " and if it be in my power you shall have it."

The man gazed in her face for a moment, as if calculating how much he should ask, and then replied, " Why five guineas is about the fee ; but I should think a young lady like you would find a prison a poor place to be in."

" So will my father find it," replied Alice,

THE ROBBER. 179

sadly ; " and I should find a palace a poor place if I were away from him at such a moment of care and anxiety ; but I intend to take a woman servant with me, of course."

"Oh that will be a guinea more, then," answered the hard-hearted man, with a shrewd wink to his follower ; " if you will do it like gentlefolks, you must pay for it."

Alice made no reply, for she well knew that she was imposed upon, but was yet determined to submit to the imposition ; and, drawing forth her purse, she paid the money demanded at once, to have it over before her father entered the room.

It was scarcely done when he appeared, but she had already obtained his unwilling consent to her going, and he only said, " I wish you could be dissuaded, my Alice ; you do not know what you undertake."

Several of the servants had followed him into the room, as well as the maid who was to accompany her mistress ; and Sir Walter placed a letter in the hand of Halliday, saying calmly, " Let that go to Master Evelyn by day-break N 2

180 THE ROBBER.

to-morrow. He might perhaps have saved me much pain if he had come over to-night. My good friends," he added, addressing the servants M'ith that cahn fatherly suavity of manner which, though it had deserted him two or three days before, when the principal facts of his pecuniary situation were first brought to his notice, was now completely restored. " My good friends, keep all togethei' in your master's absence, for I trust I shall soon return to you again. I think I need not bid you, who have been such good and faithful servants to me for many years, keep an orderly and economical household till I return. I believe there is not one of you who would feel at any time disposed to riot or intemperance, but certainly not during your master's absence, under such circumstances as those in which you now see me."

One or two of them murmured something in a low voice, but there were tears in the eyes of all, and, amidst kind but ineffec- tual wishes, Sir Walter and his daughter descended to the court-yard, and entered the carriage, which was already prepared. There

THE ROBBER, 181

was something in the old knight's demeancw which did not suffer the impudence even of a Bolland to go too far; and when he and his daughter and the maid-servant had entered the coach, the officer approached the side, saying, " I'll tell you what, Sir Walter, it's customary with us to go in the carriage with our prisoners, if they have a carriage, but as I dare say you'd like better to go by yourselves, we'll mount our horses and return as we came."

Sir Walter bowed his head without reply. The door was shut, and with slow and solemn pace, as if unwilling to perform their task, the four strong horses which had been harnessed to the ponderous vehicle dragged it forth from the court-yard, and taking the lower road through the park, bent their way towards the county town. When they had gone about half a mile, the clock of Moorhurst church, which they were leaving behind them, was heard clear and distinctly, striking twelve.

" Bear witness, John," cried Bolland, to the man who followed with him on horseback behind the carriage; "bear witness that I had him N 3

182 THE ROBBEK.

out of his own house before twelve o'clock : so that I've fah'ly won the money. Take care, master coachman, liow you drive," he shouted, " for the night is as dark as pitch."

" I drove this road before your father was hanged," growled the coachman, " and I trust to drive it after you're hanged a foot higher than he was."

In the mean while, of all the party in the carriage, perhaps Sir Walter was the least sad. His spirits had rallied wonderfully now that the worst was over, and, sitting with his daughter's hand in his, he talked even cheerfully of the means of extricating himself from his present difficulties. All the little Wal knowledge that he possessed was called up, and he said that he doubted not to be able easily to obtain good bail at the county town, which would give him plenty of time to effect the sale that he pro- posed, without the great loss attendant upon more hurried proceedings, even if Langford should not be set at liberty before that time, and the money which the Earl had detained restored.

THE ROBBER. 183

Of Langford's situation, too, he spoke cheer- fully, in order to cheer his daughter ; and as her hand lay in his, she also made a great effort to appear tranquil, though more than once, under cover of the darkness, she suffered the silent tears to stream down her cheeks, and found therein substantial relief.

Their journey was necessarily very slow, and though the distance from Moorhurst to the town w^as not more than fourteen miles, and a full hour had elapsed since their departure, they had not proceeded one third of the way, when a red light began to spread over the sky above them, increasing every moment in intensity till every part of the sandy lane through which they were dragged slowly along became plainly visible to their eyes.

In vain they wasted conjectures as to v,?hat this could mean ; they had no means of dis- covering ; and the strong light still continued for nearly an hour. It was beginning slightly to abate when they traversed the farther end of the moor, about two miles beyond the spot where the affray had taken place in the morning. N 4

184 THE ROBBER.

They then entered a road between high banks, where the blaze, though dimmed, suffered them to see their way very plainly, when sud- denly the horses heads were seized, and a loud voice cried " Stop ! "

Sir Walter smiled as he heard it, saying to two men who had presented themselves, pistol in hand, at the side of the vehicle, " You will get little here, my good friends, for I am now, alas ! a prisoner for debt."

" We know that," replied one of the men, much to the knight's surprise, "and we don't want your money, but we want the carriage. You must get out as fast as possible. Quick, master coachman, down from your box ! If you don't get the horses off faster, we shall cut the traces I Take those two fellows behind," added the same voice, "and tie them where I told you." According to the peremptory orders they had received, Sir Walter, his daughter, and the maid issued forth, and found themselves surrounded by a number of men all strongly armed, while some horses stood near, in a field on the top of the bank, with a group of other persons beside

THE ROBBER. 185

them. The gentry who had stopped the carriage seemed to take very little heed of those it had contained, and to be in urgent haste. The only further words that were addressed to the group from Moorhurst were by the man who had first spoken, and who, like the rest, had something drawn over his face so as com- pletely to conceal its features.

" Move farther off," he said. " Take up your position under that bank, and do not stir from it till we are gone."

The same personage then aided with his own hands in unharnessing the horses which had brought them ; and he then turned the beasts loose, much to the dismay of the coachman. Four others were immediately attached to the carriage with the speed of lightning, and the same voice then exclaimed, '*Now come down."

Two women, one of whom bore a child in her arms, instantly descended by a path down the bank, and without speaking entered the carriage. " Now two of you," said the voice again, " carry him down. Put your hands under his arms, to prevent hurting him.'*

186 THE ROBBER.

No sooner were these words spoken, than another part of the group at the top of the bank began to move slowly clown ; but no sooner had it reached the bottom of the bank, than a new voice said, in a v»'eak but somewhat haughty tone, " I can w^alk very v/ell now ; take away your hands. I can walk quite well." With a sudden movement, Alice took two steps for- ward, and saw a man advancing to the carriage between two others, who seemed to wish to give him assistance and support against his will. Without uttering a word, she grasped the arm of the maid, and drew her a step forward, pointing with her finger.

"Good God!" exclaimed the woman. But a quick gesture from her mistress stopped her from saying more. Two or three other persons got into the carriage. All the rest mounted their horses, except one, who sprang upon tlie box. The vehicle drove rapidly off, and Sir Walter, his daughter, and the two servants were left alone in the road, for on looking round for Bolland and his follower they could see them nowhere.

THE ROBBER. 187

CHAPTER IX.

It was night again, nearly apppoacbing to midnight, and the Earl of Danemore sat alone in the small dark wainscotted room immediately beneath the chamber which bad been assigned to the prisoner. More than once he had called his attendants to ask impatiently if the lawyer had returned, and as the clock in the great hall struck eleven without his appearance, he ordered several of the servants to go out in different ways to seek him, forbidding them to return without bringing word of v.bere he was, and what had been the result of his proceedings during the day.

Solitude, a quick imagination, violent pas- sions, and dangerous designs, all combined to produce a state of anxiety and impatience bordering upon frenzy. Now he sat with his head leaning on his hand, gazing ex- pectant at the door ; now he strode up and down with his arms Crossed upon his chest,

188 THE ROBBER.

and his bosom full of deep but rapid thoughts ; now he paused and listened either to the footsteps of the prisoner above, as with a calmer and less irregular stride Langford paced up and down in the room above, or to the sigh- ing of the strong wind as it whistled round and round the high tower in which both cham- bers were situated.

At length, after having listened to the steps for some time, and then gazed intently on the ground in deep meditation, he seemed to be seized by a sudden resolution, and advanced at once to the door which opened on the stairs leading to the apartments above.

" I will go up to him ! " he said ; ** I will confront him boldly ! I will speak over the whole theme ! I will dare every painful sub- ject ! He shall not say that I feared to en- counter any thing, or to grapple with any enemy amongst the living or the dead. He shall never say that I was a coward in thought, or word, or deed, or that I feared boldly to meet aught that could be urged against me. I will go, and brow to brow tell him what he has brought upon his head !"

THE ROBBER. 189

His first steps up the stairs were rapid and vehement ; those that he took after were more slow ; and at the door of Langford's room he paused once more and thought. As he did so pause, he could distinctly hear the prisoner cast himself somewhat heavily into a chair, hum a few words of an old ballad, and, as it were, seduced by the music, go on with the song in a louder tone, and with a clear, mellow, and not uncultivated voice. He sang one of the sweet and simple airs of LuUi, which had a touch of melancholy, mingling, one scarcely knew how or where, with the general cheerfulness of the strain; but the English words which were adapted to it were even more gay than the music.

Strange to say, however, Langford thought not at all of the words that he was singing ; nay, nor of the music itself. While he did sing his thoughts were busy, deeply busy, upon other things ; and the music was but a mechanical ap- plication of the animal part of his nature to the sweetest of all arts, in order to obtain some soothing and tranquillizing power to calm his spirit ere he lay down to rest.

190 THE ROBBER.

SONG.

The dew is on each leaf and flow'r, The sky is full of light ; '■ Beauty and brightness mark the hour, That parts the day and night.

Wake up ! wake up ! my own sweet love !

Raise up those beaming eyes, To find an answering look above, An image in the skies.

Tlie lark ! the lark ! thine own sweet lark,

Pours forth his thrilling lay ; And all that's cold, and all that's dark. Fly from the porch of day.

Wake up ! wake up ! my own sweet love !

Raise up those beaming eyes, To find an answering look above. An image in the skies.

There's music ready for thine ear, There's perfume on the breeze ; Wake up, and add to all that's dear, What's dearer than all these.

Wake up ! wake up ! my own sweet love !

Raise up those beaming eyes. To find an answering look above, An image in the skies.

According to the differences of our different natures there is for each man's heart a key, as it were, to be found in some one of the senses.

5

THE ROBBER. 191

With one man it is the grosser sense of the palate, and the things that he has tasted, — the cup that he has drank in particular lands and scenes, will, when again met with, carry back the mind to earlier days, and the feelings thereof, the affections, the hopes, the fears, will crowd upon him like phantoms from the grave, con- jured up by objects that seem to have no ap- parent connection with them.

To others, again, certain sweet odours, the perfume of a flower, or the mingled sweetness of the morning's breath, will have the same effect. While to others, the sight of some pecu- liar effect of light and shade, and to others a strain of music, a tone of voice, the carol of a bird, or the living hum of morning, will call up scenes long past, re-awaken memories and affections that have slumbered for years, and give us back the gentleness of our youth.

But when the chord of association is thus struck, let the sensations produced be joyful or be melancholy, there is something in the first bursting forth of the past upon the pre- sent, — there is something in the rapid drawing

192 THE ROBBER.

back of the dim curtain of years from between our-actual feelings and the feelings long lost, too thrilling to be experienced without deep emo- tion ; and our natural impulse is to melt in tears.

The Earl stood and listened while Langford sung, and the deep mellow tone of his voice, the well-remembered air of Lulli, — the words which, though he heard them not distinctly, he knew by heart, — all served to unchain the long-fettered feelings of his better days ; the stern heart was bent, the proud, impetuous, revengeful spirit was softened for the moment, and the old man's eyes glistened with unwonted dew. It lasted but for a moment. Habit and circumstance re-assumed their sway ; and, with a slight stamp of the foot, he drew up his head, which had been bent down under the influence of manifold emotions, and entered the room in which the prisoner sat.

Langford turned in some surprise to discover who it was that came to visit him at so late an hour, and his astonishment was not diminished on perceiving the Earl, who advanced into the room with a brow contracted even more than

THE ROBBER. 193

' usual by the angry effort he had made to con- quer what he believed to be the weakness of his own heart. He paused for a moment on the side of the table opposite to Langford, gazing at him sternly but silently, as if scarcely prepared to begin the explanation he had sought.

Langford returned his glance calmly and gently, flinching not the least beneath his eye, but gazing in return with a look expressive rather of inquiry than of any other feeling. At length, as the Earl still continued silent, he spoke, saying, " Your Lordship, I conclude, has something to communicate to me, and I fear from your countenance that it is not of a pleas- ant nature. I am very glad, however, that you have come, as there is one subject on which it is necessary that I should speak to you, and I am led to believe that the moments in which I can do so are drawing to a close."

'^ You do well to believe so, Sir," replied the Earl ; " the moments in which any com- munication can take place between us are, as you say, . drawing to a close ; the}' are few and

VOL. II. o

194 THE ROBBER.

short You are right also in supposing that I have something to tell you, otherwise I should not have sought you. What I have to tell, however, requires but few words ; it is, that I know youP

« I am glad to hear it, my Lord," replied Langford, with perfect calmness ; " as, if you really do know me, you will know, as I believe you do know, that the charge brought against me is false, if not absurd. But in the first instance it will be better to show me that you really do know me."

The Earl gazed upon him with his keen large eyes full of meaning, and then demanded, " Before you ever entered these gates, have you not twice written to me ? " " I have," replied Langford, "Twice," continued the Earl, *' you have demanded that to which you have no right; and now the object of your coming hither is not less clearly known to me than all your former proceedings. But in a word, I ask you, is not your name of Langford a false one ? Are you not he whom men call the Chevalier de B^aulieu ?"

THE ROBBER. 195

" I am," replied Langford ; " but as your Lordship has accused me of demanding that to which I have no right, let me reply at once that I have a right, the strongest and the greatest ! Has not every member of a noble family a right to demand that any unjust stain cast thereon should be removed ? Have not I, especially, charged as I was by the dying breath of my noble relation the Marquis de Beaulieu never to cease my exertions to recover the means of taking a stain from our honour ; have not I, especially, a right, I say, to demand those papers at your hands, which afford the only possible method of doing so ? "

"I say no !" replied the Earl sternly; ''I say no ! even if the papers whereof you speak existed, I say "

But Langford interrupted him more vehe- mently than he had ever before spoken, " My Lord," he said, " those papers do exist, or you have not only broken your most solemn vow, but your plighted word of honour as a gentle- man. Your vow, my Lord, you perhaps might break, for in one instance at least you did break o 2

196 THE ROBBER,

it, and a noble heart along with it ; but I would not believe you to be the being who would forfeit your plighted honour, — no, not to gain a kingdom ! Unsay those words which cast so foul a doubt, if not an imputation upon you ! and let me know, that though in the current of your fiery passions you may have scrupled not to wring the hearts and destroy the hopes of others, do not leave me to believe that you have deliberately pledged your word and then have broken it. No, no ! my Lord, I know that those papers are not destroyed ! "

The traces of contending passions came over the countenance of Lord Danemore like the shadows of dark clouds carried over the land- scape by a rapid wind ; and while Langford spoke, it seemed sometimes as if he felt inclined to strike him to the earth, — sometimes as if a strange and unwilling admiration took pos- session of him, and restrained his anger. " You are a bold and daring mau," he said, in reply ; " but you have spoken the truth. The papers are not destroyed, though I do not admit their contents to be such as voii mav imagine."

THE ROBBER. 197

" Thank you, my Lord ; thank you," replied Langford earnestly ; " thank you for clearing yourself from the painful doubt in which you involved your character. Though you may have bitterly wronged my family, stilL I take a deeper interest than you know in seeing your honour pure in this respect at least. In regard to the papers," he continued, with a slight change of tone, " if they were not such as I be- lieve, you could have no reasonable objection to give them to me. If they are such as I believe, tiiey are necessary to the honour of my family ; and, deputed as I am by every member of that family to claim them at your hands, I demand them, — not as a concession, but as a right. But, at the same time, I offer now, as I offered before, to pledge myself, in order to remove all evil and dangerous consequences to yourself, that those papers shall never be made public in England, — shall only be so far recorded iii France as to clear the honour of our race, and sliall then be utterly destroyed."

A scornful and bitter smile came upon the lip oF the Earl as he whom we shall still call o 3

198 THE IIOBBER.

Laiiffford uttered these words. " You are mis- taken," he replied, sternly; "you are alto- gether mistaken. I trust myself in the power of no one ; and even the very words that you uttered yesterday have put between you and me a barrier which can never be past."

« I know not to what words your Lordship alludes," replied Langford. "Nothing that I have said, nothing that I have done, ought to put any such barrier between us. Most careful have I been, in no respect, either in conversa- tion wdth yourself or others, to cast an imputa- tion upon you."

« It may be so," replied the Earl ; " it may be so ; but nevertheless, clearly and distinctly, I refuse you those papers. Now, Sir," he con- tmued, with the same bitter smile ; " now. Sir, use your threats. Now, Sir, let me know what tale you will tell if I do not accede to your demands. Now, Sii', let me know whether you and yours will travel to Florida to seek for matter against me ! "

" Your Lordship is altogether wrong," replied Langford. " That I know your history well in

THE ROBBER. 199

every particular and in every point is true, but that I will divulge any part of it that might do you injury, except that part which it is neces- sary to the honour of our race should be di- vulged, is not only far from my intention, but never should take place, even if your Lordship should continue your refusal to give up those papers and to do the act of justice that is demanded at your hands."

" Indeed ! " exclaimed the Earl, pondering ; " indeed ! — then why did you refer to matters which should be buried in the deep silence of long-gone years ? "

" Accident had some share in my so doing," replied Langford, "and a wish to lead your mind back to the past had also a part therein. But at once to show you, my Lord, that I am inclined to take no advantage, and to pursue my course as uprightly and honourably as pos- sible, let me now tell you that I not only know of the existence of those papers, but know also well where they are preserved, and could while Jiere have made myself master of them at once, o 4

200 THE ROBBEn.

had I been inclined to take that by private means which I demand openly!"

As he spoke he pointed to the small carved door in the oak panneling, and the Earl's eyes followed the direction of his hand, but with no expression of surprise.

His lip, at the same time, curled with a bitter sneer, and he replied at once, " I am not inclined to believe in the communication of miraculous knowledge to any of us poor mortals novv- a-days, and therefore doubt not that your information has been derived from some source less than supernatural. There is in this house, Sir, a woman called Bertha, brought up by the family of Beaulieu from her youth, and retain- ing for them still a deep veneration and regard, although a quarrel with one of that race in- duced her to quit them and enter into my service. The attachment that she showed to myself and my family through many years have taught me to trust her deeply; but when I found that she placed, on the idle pretext of greater security, a stranger accused of dark

THE ROBBER. 201

crimes into a chamber reserved entirely for myself, I began to doubt her; — when, added to that, I found that she held frequent private conferences with him, my doubts increased, — and when I found that she brought others to communicate with him, contrary to my expressed will, my doubts grew into certainties."

" Under such circumstances," replied Lang- ford, fixing his eyes inquiringly upon the Ear?s countenance; "under such circumstances you have of ccrse discharged that woman from your service."

" Not so. Sir," replied the Earl ; " not so. It may be my purpose to punish as v>'ell as to dismiss ; but ere I do either, I shall take care to learn in what degree she has betrayed me. But to turn, Sir, from your idle affectation of insight into my secrets to your equally empty boast of power, let me tell you, that though you may have been placed in a room reserved for years to myself, and though in that room all my most private papers may be preserved, you are as impotent to get possession of them as a blind man to tell the hour bv the sun dial."

202 THE ROBBER.

" My Lord, you are mistaken," replied Lang- ford calmly ; <* I am not so powerless in that respect as you imagine. I have had them now for two days at my will and pleasure to take or to leave. I have them now at my disposal ; but I had determined to use all gentle and reasonable means first, to urge you by every persuasion to do justice, and only in the end to do myself right in your presence, and before your lace. You have come now most oppor- tunely, and I will not suffer the occasion to pass; but in the first instance, let me once more entreat you to do a tardy act of justice, ere you force me to things most unpleasant to me."

The Earl had gazed upon him as he spoke with an expression of some surprise and doubt; so tranquilly confident was the tone and man- ner of one whom he had believed to be entirely in his power. At the last words, however, his brow gathered again into a frown ; and he replied, " I am not to be menaced, Sir ; I tell you you shall never have them ; and such menace puts iheni farther from your reach than ever."

THE ROBBER. 203

" My Lord, I use no menaces," replied Lang- ford ; " my wish, my only wish, is to persuade you. Oh consider, Sir ! Here you now stand at the verge of age, touching upon that cold season when the only consolation for declining years, the wintry sunshine of our being's close, is a clear conscience and the memory of good deeds. If, alas ! you are deprived of the power of looking back upon many such actions ; — nay, hear me out ; — if there be in the past much that is painful, much that you would feign forget, much that can never be repaired, remember, oh remember ! that what cannot be repaired may often be atoned. Thus, in one instance at least, the means of atonement are in your own power, and to seize upon them in every instance is the only means to bring back even a portion of that calm serenity of heart which once you knew in days of inno« cence, but which I feel too sure has long de- parted from your bosom."

" Sir, I never knew it," burst forth the Earl ° *' my life has been made up of passions and regrets, and as it began so shall it close I"

204 TWE KOBBEK.

"Oil no, my Lord ! oh no!" cried Lang- ford ; " let it not be so ! I must wring your lieart, but I trust it may be in some degree to Ileal it. You lately had a son whom you loved deeply ; for his sake, I believe, you have per- sisted for years in a course of injustice which the nobler part of your nature, I am sure, dis- avowed. My Lord, he has been taken from you. The inducement to remain in wrong has been removed by the will of God, who therein lias at once punished and opened the way to atonement. Let me beseech you, let me entreat of you, not to suffer this opportunity to pass by unnoticed. Do tardy justice, and instead of hardening yourself to crush and to injure one who could love you well, and against whom you can never succeed, think of what a satisfaction it will be to you when from your own death- bed you look back and see that you have done all to repair a great wrong that you committed."

" And do you make the assassination of my son," demanded die Earl, " a plea for my gratifying one who is accused of murdering

THE ROBBER. 205

" My Lord, I have taken it for granted throughout," replied Langford, " that you know me to be perfecdy innocent of that deed. What I demand of you also, I have a right to demand. I ask you not to gratify me, but to do an act of justice; I ask of you to do honour to yourself, by taking away a stain from an honourable house that you have v.ronged."

" Right ? " exclaimed the Earl, with one of his dark sneers, as if the recollection of some- thing he had before intended to say came sud- denly back upon him ; " in what consists your right ? and how have you any connection with the honour of the family of Beaulieu ? Do you suppose that I am blind or stupid ? Answer me ! If you are so near and honorably akin to the dead Marquis of Beaulieu, how are you not the heir of his title and estates ? What right has his bastard to prate of the honour of his family?"

The blood rushed rapidly into Langford's cheek ; his eye flashed, and his brow contracted ; but it was only for a moment. "With what was evidently a great effort, he mastered his

206 THE ROBBER.

own passions immediately, and replied, " The coarse term you have used is inapplicable to me, Lord Danemore. Your other question, as to why I have not succeeded, I could answer by a single word if I so pleased ; and, did I feel as much assured of your son's death as you do, I would so answer it."

" Doubtless, doubtless ! " exclaimed the Earl impatiently ; " every thing can doubtless be explained if certain ifs and huts be removed. But I tell you. Sir, till they are removed I shall listen to you no further ; nor shall I detain you long, for I came to tell you what may be told in but few words. Mark me, young man ! There are certain memories called up by your looks and by your voice which might have moved me to the weakness of sparing you, had you not been foolish enough to show me, that, like a winged insect which we are forced to crush, you can sting as well as buzz. You have yet to learn that I live in the fear of no man, and that when once any one has shown me that he may be dangerous to me, the strug- gle commences between us, which ends but

THK ROBBER. 207

with the life of one or the otlier. There is ah'eady sufficient proof against you to bring you to the gibbet ; more will not be wanting, or I am mistaken ; but I would have you kn ow that your fate is of your own seeking, and that when you and yours spied out and investigated the actions of my early life, you raised up the scaffold for yourself. To-morrow you will be taken hence ; a gaol will then receive you. A public trial and public execution will be the end which you have obtained by measuring yourself against one who never yet failed in the accomplishment of that for which he strove."

As the Earl spoke he turned as if to quit the apartment, but Langford, who had listened calmly and attentively, exclaimed, ere he laid his hand upon the door, " Stay yet one moment, my Lord ; our conference is not finished yet. With regard to your urging against me an accusation which you know to be false, either from motives of hatred, revenge, or fear, you will reconcile that to your own conscience as you can. You will fail in your attempt ; but if you did succeed, you would pile upon your head

•208 THE ROBBEK.

coals of fire which would consume your very heart to ashes ! The matter on which I now detain you is these papers, I am not accustomed to say I will do what I cannot do ; therefore when I told you that if you did not do justice I would with my own hand right myself and my family, I made no vain boast."

The Earl turned and gazed upon him, both in surprise and anger, but his rage and his astonishment v/ere doubled when the prisoner took from his pocket the key, the easily-recog- nized key, which had been given to him by Franklin Gray upon the moor. Prompt, how- ever, and decided in all his determinations, the Earl instantly raised his voice, and shouted in a tone of thunder to the servants whom he had that morning ordered to remain without.

" My Lord," said Langford, "you raise your voice in vain. I have every reason to believe that the persons you placed there have been gone for more than an hour ; and, even if they wTre there still, those bolts and that lock would prevent them from entering. Of that I have taken care."

THE ROBBER. ^09

Even while he spoke the Earl had strode across the room towards the outer door, mut- tering, " They shall soon return ; " but the key of the door between the two rooms, which had been left in the inside, was now gone; and after gazing upon lock and bolt with impotent rage for a moment, he turned fiercely towards the other door which led by the stairs in the turret down to his apartments below. Langford, however, had seized the moment, and casting himself in the way, was in the act of locking that door also, when the Earl turned towards it.

Lord Danemore instantly drew his sword; but Langford was not unarmed, as he had supposed. His own blade, which had been restored to him by the half-witted man, John Graves, was in his hand in a moment ; but it was only to show himself prepared that he used it, for, waving the Earl back with his hand, he exckiimed, " My Lord, do nothing rashly ! Remember you have to deal with a younger, stronger, more active man than yourself, and with one long accustomed to perils and dangers. Stand back and answer me. Will you or will

VOL. II. P

210 THE ROBBER.

you not give up those papers by fair means, or must I take them myself?"

" I will never give them," replied the Earl ; " I will never give them, though that vile and treacherous woman has not only betrayed my trust but stolen from my private cabinet the key that you now hold : I will never give them ; and if you take them, you shall take my blood first, and die for spilling it."

As he spoke he placed himself, with his drawn sword still in his hand, between Langford and the small door in the wainscot which we have mentioned several times before.

Langford advanced upon him, but with the same degree of calm determination which, ex- cept during one brief moment, he had displayed throughout their whole conference, " My Lord," he said, " you do the woman. Bertha, wrong. This key was not obtained from her. I beseech you to give way, for I am determined to use it."

"Not while you and I both live!" replied

the Earl ; and as he spoke he made a sharp

quick lunge at Langford's bosom. The other

was prepared, however ; his sword met that of

4

THE ROBBER. 211

the Earl in a moment, and parrying the lunge, he grappled with his adversary, and at the same moment wrenched the weapon from his grasp, and by ah exertion of his great strength removed him from between himself and the door.

He had cast the sword he had mastered to the other side of the room, and the Earl seemed to hesitate for an instant as to whether he should spring forward to recover his weapon, or struggle with the prisoner to prevent him from obtaining the papers. He felt while he hesitated that the very hesitation was undigni- fied. He felt too, perhaps, that either attempt would be vain ; that he was in the presence of one superior to himself in bodily power, in activity, in energy; one equal to himself in courage, determination, promptitude ; one that was what he had been when a youth, but with the grand superiority of mental dignity and conscious rectitude. He felt himself reproved and degraded, but not humbled, and the natural movement proceeding from such sensations was to cross his arms on his broad chest, and stand r 2

212 THE ROBBER.

with a look of dark defiance gleaming from beneath his long grey eyebrows ; while Lang- ford, taking the key in his right hand, and chanQ^ino; the sword into his left, stood about to open the door which covered all those mys- terious points of his history which he had so long concealed.

But, even then, his young companion paused, — " Oh ! my Lord," he said, " I would fain have these papers with your own will and consent. Again, again I ask you, now that you see I have the power to take them, will you give them to me ? will you grant me that which is my right to demand ? Oh ! Lord Dane- more, if you ever loved the race from which I spring, — if ever human affection and natural tenderness affected your bosom, — if ever you had sympathy with others, — if ever the strongest passion of our nature touched your heart, — I adjure you now, by the memory of the past, by the dark and awful circumstances of the pre- sent, by the frowning future, by the inevitable, interminable hereafter of weal or woe, to do that which you know to be right ! — at this last.

THE ROBBER. 213

this fatal moment between you and me, to render justice to those that you have wronged ; to cast from your soul the burden of old guilt, and to make atonement for one out of the dark deeds of the past ! "

He gazed upon him sternly, fixedly, earnestly ; and strong passion called up in the face of each a strange likeness of expression ; but the whirlwind of their emotions was too strong for either to mark the clouds and shadows, the light, or the lightning, that passed over the countenance of the other. Urged into fury, thwarted, disappointed, foiled, the Earl had no longer any command over himself, and the only dignity he could assume was that of disap- pointed scorn.

'' Never, bastard ! " he replied ; " never ! Take that which you can ; secure that which is in your power ! Fly, if you can fly ! Use your advantage to the utmost, if it can be used ; but I swear by Heaven and by Hell, by all that is sacred and by all that is accursed, to follow you henceforth and for ever, unto the gates of death, to devote life, and soul, and p 8

214 THE ROBBER.

being, mind, and thought, and energy, corporeal power and worldly wealth and temporal in- fluence, to your destruction ; and never, never to cease, till the dark, dread, interminable gulf have swallowed up one or both ! "

Langford gazed at him with deep and intense earnestness ; and while he did so, a thousand varied emotions, each painful but each different, flitted in expression across his countenance, and caused wavering irresolution to take the place of high and strong determination. As the Earl ended, however, the other looked at him for a moment fixedly, while the peer stood with his arms still crossed upon his chest, and a look of resolute, unchangeable purpose marked in every line of that dark but splendid coun- tenance.

Emotions strong, but new and strange, over- powered his youthful adversary ; and casting from him the sword which had successfully opposed him, and the key of all the treasured secrets of his opponent's eventful life, he sprang forward, as if with a sudden impulse which he could not resist, cast himself at the Earl's feet,

THE ROBBER. 215

and looking up in his face embraced his knees. The stern determination of the old man was shaken. Feelings equally new and strange and unaccountable took possession of his bosom also, and he strained his eyes upon the noble form of him who knelt before him with sensa- tions different from any that he had ever known in life.

At that moment, however, strange and unusual sounds made themselves heard from without. There were cries and screams, and the noise of man}^ feet. Still kneeling, Lang- ford gazed upon the Earl, and the Earl upon him ; but ere one could ask the other what this meant, there was a violent rush against the outer door, as if by people propelled by terror. The bolts, the bars, the fastenings gave way, and, half torn from the hinges, it burst into the room.

p 4

2 in THE ROBBER.

CHAPTER X.

We must go back for a few hours. The sky was without a star, and a dull heavy darkness brooded over the face of the earth, as a strong party of horsemen, — whose numbers and appear- ance might well banish all fears, and laugh to scorn all the tales of highwaymen and footpads

with which the county of then rang, —

took its way down the road which first led from the county town towards Danemore Castle, and thence passing under the walls of the park proceeded to the little borough of Moorhurst.

The part of the road on which they were at the moment when we must first speak of them passed between two high banks of sand rock, overtopped with trees and shrubs, so that if there had been any light in the sky it would have been shut out from that spot ; and the person who rode at their head, and seemed to act as their leader, chose the gloomiest point for the purpose of causing the line to halt, and speaking a

THE ROBBER. 217

few words in a low tone to each of his companions. They answered in a whisper, as if the deep darkness and silence around had its usual effect in producing awe ; and when each had listened and replied, their leader once more advanced to the front, and they recommenced their journey two and two. Descending slowly from the moors, they emerged into a more open country, and any one who had been by the side of the road might have counted their num- ber as eleven, notwithstanding the darkness of the night, and might also have observed that generally speaking they were tall and powerful men, and sat their horses with a degree of ease and composure only to be acquired by long acquaintance with the saddle.

We have remarked before, that the country in that district is famous for little greens of an acre or two in extent, generally shaded by some tall elms, and often adorned by a bright gleam- ing pond. To one of these the party that we speak of had advanced ; and though there was a cottage at the further side of the green, all was silent and still, when the word to halt was

218 THE ROBBER.

suddenly given, and the voice of the leader was heard in a low tone, saying, " Spread out to the right and left, under the trees. I hear a horse's feet ! "

The evolution that he commanded was exe- cuted in a moment with the most profound silence, each horseman separating from his neighbour and taking ground some yards to the right and left, without any of that pawing and prancing which gives pomp and circum- stance to many a military manoeuvre. The proceedings of the leader himself, however, were even more remarkable, for, advancing per- haps twenty yards before the rest, he also quitted the road for the green turf, and then his dim figure was seen to dismount. The next moment horse and man seemed to sink slowly down into the earth, and nothing but what appeared to be a small rise in the ground was seen through the darkness, marking the spot where they had stood.

While all this was taking place the sound of a horse's feet beating the road with a quick trot was heard advancing from that side towards

THE ROBBER. 219

which the party had been going, and after a pause of about two minutes, a white horse bearing his rider at a rapid rate could be discerned entering upon the green. The horse- man advanced some way unconscious of the neighbourhood of so many others, but appa- rently not quite insensible to fear, for from time to time his head was turned round on either side ; and at length it would seem that he caught a glance of something unusual be- neath the elm trees, for he suddenly pulled up his horse and gazed anxiously on before him.

His eyes were keen, and had been for some time habituated to the darkness ; and, becoming convinced that there was a considerable party assembled on either side of the road, he was turning his bridle to gallop off on the same road by which he came, when suddenly what he had passed as a mere mound of earth and bushes started up into life, and his retreat was cut off by a man springing upon a horse which rose as if magically from the ground, and darting into the road before him.

" Stop ! " cried a stern voice, while the

•2*20 THE ROBBER.

gleam of something like a pistol in the hand of his opponent made the rider of the white horse recoil. He looked round, however, to see if there were no means of evading obedience to the command he had received ; but by this time he found that he was surrounded on all sides, and that the way even to the low cottage by the side of the common was cut off. At the same time the command was repeated, " Stop, and give an account of yourself !"

The additional injunction, however, of " Give an account of yourself !" was rather satisfactory to the rider, who perceived therein a sort of police tone rather than that generally employed by the worthies whom he most apprehended, and who to the word " stop ! " usually added, " deliver ! "

He replied, then, with a greater degree of confidence, saying, " I am a servant of the noble Earl of Danemore, and I am riding to the town of by his orders on particular business."

" Show me the badge upon your arm ! " said the person who had first spoken ; but the ser- vant was obliged to acknowledge that he had

THE ROBBER. 221

come away in haste, and liad not his livery coat on.

" You have some cords," said the same voice, addressing one of the other horsemen. " Tie him, and bring him along."

In a moment the unfortunate groom found himself seized and his arms pinioned behind his back, while a still more disagreeable opera- tion, that of tying his feet and legs tight to the stirrups, was performed by another of his cap- tors, who dismounted for the purpose.

Not a word was spoken by any one but the leader of the party, and when he saw that the commands he had given were obeyed, he added, " Bring him up abreast with me j" and then riding on at the same slow pace in which they had been proceeding previous to the little episode which had taken place, he asked several questions of his captive in a low voice.

" We shall soon see," said he, " whether your account of yourself is true or not, for we are going to the castle. Now tell me how long do you say you have left it ? "

" About half an hour, Sir," replied the man,

•222 THE ROBBER.

resuming a certain degree of courage on find- ing that he was not injured ; " about half an hour, Sir ; and I can tell you that my Lord will be mighty angry when he finds you have stopped me, and brought me back. He will make the house too hot to hold you, and the county too, that I'll warrant. You don't know whom you have got to deal with. He suffers no one to do any thing but what he likes."

" Is the Earl of Danemore still up ? " de- manded the stranger calmly, taking not the slightest heed of the other's intimation.

" Yes, that he is, and will not be in bed for these two hours, as you will find to your cost, perhaps, when he hears you have stopped me," answered the groom, firmly believing that what was awful to him must be equally so to every one else.

" Does he not usually go to rest sooner ? " asked the stranger again : " I understood that the whole household were required to be in bed by eleven, and I was afraid that we might have to rouse the porter to give us admittance."

" Ay, he generally does go to bed at eleven,"

THE ROBBER. 223

answered the groom, " but he has not done so to-night. You will have to rouse the porter, however, and most of the other servants too ,• for old John came out, growling and damning me, in his shirt when I made him open the gates."

" He must not damn us though," replied the other quietly, but in a tone which moved the groom's astonishment even more than any thing which had passed before, so little reverence did his captors show either for the awful name of the Earl of Danemore or any of his dependents. As the other ceased, however, and did not resume the conversation, he had no choice but to accompany him in silence ; and, followed by the whole of the rest of the party, they proceeded slowly on the road, which was evidently well known to the leader, now winding in and out amongst the high banks and woods, now cross- ing scattered pieces of the heath and moor-land, till at length they arrived at that spot under the walls of the park where, as we have mentioned in describing the forced journey of Langford, Danemore Castle, with its wide extent of park

2*24 THE ROBBER.

and woods, became first visible to the eye of any one travelling on the road from Moorhurst to the county town.

There the leader of the party halted, and suffering his hands to drop thoughtfully upon the saddle bow, he gazed up towards the spot where the castle stood. At that dark hour, however, nothing was to be perceived but the masses of tall trees with which the building itself was confounded in undistinguished shade, except, indeed, where a single spot of light was seen gleaming high up like a beacon, and marking that there was the habitation of some human beings amongst the dark and awful- looking blackness which the scene otherwise presented.

After thus gazing for a few minutes, the leader of the party turned towards the groom, and W'hile he reined back his horse to the other side of the road, said, with something of a sneer, " We will save old John the porter the trouble of opening the gate for us." At the same moment, the well-trained horse which he rode, feeling a touch of the spur, started for-

THE ROBBER. ''2'2o

ward towards the wall, cleared it with ease, and horse and rider stood within the boundaries of the park.

"I can't leap with my hands and legs tied," cried the groom, whose first feelings were those of an equestrian ; " that's impossible. I shall break my own neck and the horse's knees."

" You shan't be required to leap," was the reply of the leader, from the other side of the wall ; and then, turning towards one of his companions, he added, '•' You must manage to pull it down, Harvey."

" I will leap it first, however," replied his companion, and away went a second horse and man over the wall. Xo sooner was this done than several of the other horsemen dismoimted, and with short bars of iron, which each of tliem appeared to have slung at their saddle-bow, they set to work upon the wall of the park, and in less than a quarter of an hour the space of three yards was laid level between the road and the park.

The whole of the troop then passed in,

VOL. fir. Q

226 THE ROBBER.

taking the groom along with them ; and, riding slowly lip to a clump of old chesniits at the distance of about three hundred yards from the terrace on which the mansion stood, they gathered themselves together in a group under the boughs, and their leader, advancing a few paces, again gazed stedfastly upon the castle, whose tow^ers and pinnacles were now to be more clearly distinguished rising here and there above the trees, and marking, with the straight lines of the older architec- ture, or the light tracery of the more modern and ornamental parts, the sky beyond, over which a pale gleam cast by the rising moon was just beginning to spread itself.

Gradually, as he sat there on horseback, the beautiful orb of night rose up from be- hind the trees, and with her peculiar power of dispersing the clouds and shadows that obstruct her way, she was seen struggling with and overcoming the vapours of the night; sometimes, like a veiled but still lovely coun- tenance, beaming through a thin film of white mist which grew radiant with her radi-

THE ROBBER. 227

ance; sometimes hidden for a single instant behind a dark mass which swept over her with gilded edges ; sometimes bursting forth from a black cloud with pure effulgence, like sudden joy succeeding despair.

As he sat there, with the varying light of the moon falling upon him, now casting his long shadow upon the soft green turf of the park, now leaving him distinct, and as it were magnified by the dim misty light, the power- ful form of that horseman was scanned eagerly and apprehensively by the groom, on whose mind but little doubt remained in regard to the character and propensities of the party whose unwilling companion he had become. He thought he had never seen a more powerful frame, and in so thinking he was right ; but the imagination of terror had a great deal to do with the business when he called him in his heart "the most ruffian-like fellow that his eyes had ever rested on."

After about ten minutes contemplation, during which not a word was spoken by any one, and not a sound was heard but the low Q 2

228 THE ROBBER.

sighing of the wind through the neighbouring- trees, and the scream of the screech owls which nested themselves in the old ivy of the castle, the leader returned to his party, saying, " I would fain have that light put out first; but, how- ever, we cannot stay wasting all our time here. Now, my good fellow," he continued, turning to the groom, " 1 want one or two pieces of information from you ; but before you answer you had better take into consideration that you are speakmg to a person not willing to be trifled with, that if you do not answer straight- forwardly and at once your life is not worth five minutes' purchase ; and that if you give me false information you will be as surely a dead man within two hours as you are now a living one. In the first place, then, inform me ; in what part of the house do the servants sleep ? " " Why, up at the top to the westward," re- plied the man ; " that is where the serving-men sleep ; but there are others, such as the sewers, and the grooms of the chambers, who sleep at the top of Hubert's Tower. Then there's my lord's own man sleeps in his ante-room ; but to-

THE ROBBER. 229"

night there are two or three who were ordered to stay in the outer room where the prisoner is, in the old tower — that is to say, in what they used to call the haunted rooms, for they were always shut up, and nobody went in but my lord and Mistress Bertha, so that folks said that the ghost of the Countess used to walk there."

" So there are three men appointed to sleep there, are there ?" demanded the other ; " you are sure of the fact ? "

" Why, no," replied the groom ; " if you mean whether I am sure they were ordered to sleep there, I'm sure enough of that ; but I am quite as sure that not one of them will do it, for I heard Will Hudson say that the Earl might skin him alive first. No, no ; they'll none of them stay there after twelve o'clock at night, I'll answ^er for it."

*' That is sufficient on that score," said the interrogator ; " now tell me further, how many men in all may there be in the castle? "

The groom paused for a moment, as if in thought^ but then answered, " Some fifteen or Q .3

230 THE ROBBER.

sixteen that sleep within doors ; but then there are all the grooms and horse-boys, and my lord's three coachmen, and the running foot- men, who sleep at the stables which you know

lie out by "

" I know, I know," interrupted the other. " Not more than fifteen or sixteen ; — fifteen or sixteen lackeys !" he continued, turning with a sort of contemptuous laugh to his companions, " it is scarcely worth while priming our pistols. Are there none of them sleep below ?"

" Why, no ; not by rights,'* replied the man, " except the porter and his boy ; but to-night there will be Willy Hudson and the rest, who, I dare say, will come down into the corridor and sleep in the arm chairs; and then, too, there is fat Frank, who has got silly John in charge, shut up in the dark room at tlie bottom of Hubert's Tower."

" Silly John ! " exclaimed the other ; " what does he do there ? "

" Why, he would not tell, I hear,'* an* swered the groom, " who were the people whom he had seen bury my young Lord under the

THE ROBBER. 231

beach trees by Upwater Mere, so my Lord ordered him to be shut up in the dark room, without either meat or drink, till he did ; and if he don't tell, hang me if he don't starve to death, for my Lord's not one to go back from what he has once said."

As the man spoke, the person who had been thus questioning him moved his hand with a rapid and impatient gesture to the holster at his saddle-bow, plunged it in, and pulling out a pistol, thrust it into his belt. He muttered also a few words in a hurried tone, which could only be heard by himself; but then again, appearing to recover from some impatient feelings, he continued, " One word more, my good fellow. Is not the small wicket door, at the back of the western wing, very often, if not always, left open all night ? "

The man hesitated, and showed evident signs of a disinclination to reply.

" It is, sometimes," he said, at length, " but not always."

" I ask you," continued the other, " did you ever know it shut ? "

q4

232 THE ROBBER.

" Yes, I think so. I don't know. I can't tell," replied the groom, with manifest hesita- tion, at wliat he felt to be betraying the way into his Lord's mansion.

" He prevaricates," said one of the men behind ; " he prevaricates; shall I blow his brains out, Captain ? "

" Not yet,'* replied their leader, calmly. " Do you intend to answer, or not? Did you ever in your life know that door shut ? "

" No, I did'nt ; no, I did'nt," answered the groom. " It's always open ; that's the truth,"

" Very well then," continued the other. " If I remember right, when one goes straight forward from that door, and then turns along the first passage to the left, it leads to the little hall, out of which a passage takes to the foot of the great stairs. Now, there are two other doors, one of which leads to the private staircase going to the Earl's apartments. Which of those two doors is it ; the right or the left; for I forget? — Your life is at stake," he added, in a warning tone.

There was a sound like the clicking of a

THE KOBBEK. 233

pislol lock behind him, and the man replied without the loss of a single moment, " It is the door to the left. I tell you true, upon my word."

" I dare say you do," replied the other ; " if you don't, so much the worse for you. You will remain here till I come back ; and you know what will happen to you if you have made any mistake in this business. Harvey, learn from him exactly the way to the room where the poor silly man has been put. You and Hardcastle must undertake to set him free. Then join me with all speed at the point you know. You, Williams and Erith, stay with this good man and the horses; and if you should have such reason to believe that he has told me a falsehood as to induce you to leave the spot, give him a couple of ounces of lead in his head before you go. You understand me. I know a word is sufficient with you."

" But, Captain," exclaimed the man whom he called Erith, " why should I not go with you? Curse me if I like to be left here, hold- ing the horses like a groom. Why must not I go?"

234 THE ROBBER.

" Because I appoint you to a post of trust and danger," answered his leader ; " there is more to be apprehended from without than from within ; judgment of what intelligence it may be necessary to give me, too, is wanted, and, therefore, I choose you. But to end all in one word, Erith," he added, seeing the other about to reply, " you must stay here, because I direct you do so — I, who never yet found you unwilling to obey, at once, in moments of action and peril !"

" That's the way you always come over me, Captain," replied his companion ; " however, 1 suppose I must do as you bid me, having stood by your side in many a moment of life and death work."

" And always acted like a lion, where it was needful," answered his leader, holding out to him his hand, which the other grasped eagerly. " God bless you, Erith !" he added ; " there is something at my heart tells me we shall not be long together. If we part for the last time to- night, remember that I love you, and that 1 think even now of the watch-fire of Kaiser-

THE ROBBER. 235

lautern, when, wounded yourself, you brought cup after cup of cold water to your wounded Captain's lips."

Thus saying he dismounted from his horse, and eight of his comrades followed his example. Tlie well-trained beasts were then ranged in a line, and a single rope run through the bridles seemed all that was necessary to keep them together till their riders' return. One end of the rope was tied to a tree^ the other to the last horse's bit ; and after gazing for one moment more at the light in the window of the tower, acrpss which a dark figure was seen to pass twice, the leader gave a signal with his hand. The whole party then began silently to descend the hill, with the exception of the two who had been appointed to remain with the horses and the unhappy groom, whose terror had now grown to such a pitch, that, had it not been for the lashings with which he was attached to his horse, he could not have sat the animal that bore him, although it remained as quiet and passive as if

236 THE ROBBER.

it had never known any other stable tlmn that of a farmer's mule.

With eager eyes and a beating heart the man marked the party descend the hill, emerge from the shadow of the trees, cross the dewy grass, which glistened like frost- work in the full beams of the moon, ascend the opposite rise, and then take their way through the trees behind, towards the back of the building w^here they proposed to effect their entrance. It was certain that the property of his lordly master, that perhaps the lives of several of his comrades, were at stake at that moment; but yet the worthy domestic felt little or no agitation upon that score.

All that affected him, all that he thought of, as would too naturally be the case with most of the human worms that crawl about in this state of being, was his own situation, was his own danger. He knew, he felt, that any misunder- standing of the directions he had given, or that any thing going wrong in the arrangements of those who had compelled him to afford them

THE ROBBER. 237

intelligence, might be attributed to intentional falsehood or mis-statement on his part, and that a life which he valued just in proportion to its worthlessness, its inactivity, and its want of fine perceptions, might be taken from him on the slightest notice.

He regarded the party of nine, then, as they descended the hill, with feelings most strangely mingled and apparently contradic- tory ; — there was a hope for their success, which he trusted would free him from the painful situation in which they had placed him ; there were sensations of dislike and enmity towards those who had stopped and made him a prisoner ; there were feelings of anger in regard to the degradation of the Earl of Danemore, who had so long ruled paramount throughout the country round ; and there was that longing desire, which brutes as well as men feel, to witness every thing of importance that is passing around them, especially when they are prevented by any cause from so doing.

His feelings, I say, were so mingled, that his

238 THE ROBBER.

whole capability of wishing was concentrated in one earnest desire to know the result, and to have, if we may use such a colloquial expression, " the mattter out at once.'' There are times and seasons, indeed, when ten minutes of the past, ten minutes of any thing that is absolutely cer- tain, are worth whole ages of doubt, even though that doubt may not be mingled with any degree of apprehension ; but in the present instance personal terror added immensely to all that the unhappy man felt ; and his thoughts of every dear relation of life which might be sacrificed, had ample room to torture his heart, while silent and inactive he remained upon the hill watching the progress of those on whom depended his whole after fate.

When they approached the side of the wood that swept round the esplanade, the straining eye of the captive could no longer distinguish them; and he waited eagerly, with his eyes fixed upon the building, as if he could gather from the dull unmeaning face of the stone that which was passing within those walls. For some time, however, neither sight nor sound gave him

THE ROBBER. 239

the slightest indications of that which he longed to learn. It was like the cold outside, which we too frequently see in the world, covering a heait all agitation, anxiety, bitterness, and pain.

At length his feelings became insurmount- able. There are degrees of terror which give courage : he felt that it would be a thousand times preferable to be amongst his comrades at the castle, sharing their fate and mingling in their danger, than sitting there in perfect inac- tivity, waiting a result which he had no power to change ; and he writhed with the bonds that confined him. As he did so he felt that the knot upon the cords which tied his arms gave in a degree— that he could loosen it still further by a great but silent exertion of his strength ; and as he made that exertion, it slipped down to his wrists, over which it was easily passed.

The two men who guarded him were gazing as eagerly upon the castle as he had been; and their minds were too full of the progress of their comrades to allow them to take any note of the slight movement he had made, so that, before they were at all aware of what he was

240 THE ROBBER.

doing, his arms were free. As silently as he could he slipped one hand into his pocket for a knife to cut the cords which tied his legs, and he had ac- comphshed that purpose also, in some degree, while they still continued gazing at the castle, along the windows of which more than one light was now gleaming. He felt that he could do no more without calling attention ; but he perceived that what remained to do would be speedily done, if he could get away, and would not impede his progress as he went; and he gazed round upon the two who remained beside him with a beating heart, longing to gallop down to the castle as fast as he could, yet terrified at the idea of making the attempt. His hesitation was soon brought to an end,* however, for giving way to the impulse of habit, he put forward his hand, without think- ing of what he was doing, and patted his horse's neck. The gesture instantly drew the attention

of those beside him.

" What are you about there ? " cried Erith.

" He has got his hands free ! "

The groom stayed to hear no more, but

5

THE ROBBER. 241

snatching up the bridle he struck his horse hard and galloped down the hill. The report of a pistol rang in his ear the next moment, and at the same time a feeling as if some one had run a hot iron alon<j his right cheek, fol- lowed by the trickling down of blood, showed him that the robber's aim had not been far amiss. The slight wound only added wings to his flight, however, and the sound of a horse's feet following urged him on still. faster. It was — and he knew it — a ride for life or death; but fortunately for him his beast felt that it was speeding to its longed-for stable, and though the hoofs of the pursuer sounded close behind, the groom rather gained than lost ground in that head-long race.

VOL. II.

242 THE ROBBER.

CHAPTER XL

Franklin Gray uttered scarce!}' a word as he led his men down the hill, through the deep plantations to the left of the castle, and to the small door which he was aware stood generally unlocked throughout the whole night. Not a human being seemed to be stirring in the mansion or its proximity ; darkness, silence, and solitude reigned in all the offices and courts ; and the Robber laid his hand upon the heavy iron latch which was to give him admission into the interior of the building without his ap- proach having been perceived by any one.

He paused there for a moment, however, -and spoke in a low tone to his band, saying, " Remember ! to free this young gentleman is the first object. After that, take what may fall in the way, money and jewels ; nothing heavy ; nothing cumbersome. All the rest that is light in weight and valuable in quality sweep oif at once. What right has he to such wealth more

THE ROBBER. '240

than we have?" he added in the tone of one who sought to justify, to himself and others, acts the justice of which he doubted. " He took many a thing from others with a strong hand, and he shall now feel the strong hand in turn. Your weapons, I know, are never unready ; but use them not, unless we are compelled. As little bloodshed as possible ! Remember, Harvey, the silly man, poor fellow ! — then by the Earl*s dressing-room up to the old tower ! You may clear the dressing-room as you come, if you like. There are many jewels there."

Those he spoke to heard his directions without reply, though swords were loosened in their sheaths, and the priming of some of the pistols examined or increased. Harvey, and one or two others, indeed, of the more experienced, seemed too sure of their preparations to ne^ any investigation thereof, and, without touching their weapons, prepared to accompany their leader with as much easy nonchalance as if he had been leading them to a ball-room.

Franklin Gray himself neither touched sword nor pistol, but there was no affected carelessness R 2

244 THE ROBBER.

in his air. It was grave and stern, and full of thought, as it well might be when bent upon an errand in the course of which human blood might be spilt like water, without any of the exciting and animating spirit of martial enter- prise which, under other circumstances, might have led him to tread gaily the path to tenfold dangers. He looked round his companions, however, while the short and fluttered prepara- tion was made; then laid his hand upon the latch, and the door opened easily to his hand.

All was dark within, and the hollow echo of Franklin Gray's foot, as he crossed the thres- hold, and strode on into the vaulted passage, was the only sound to be heard in the mansion. One by one the others followed, and leading them on through the dark corridors, without either hesitation or mistake, the Robber pro- ceeded straight towards what was called the Little Hall, and pushed open a swinging door which lay between it and the passages commu- nicating with the offices. As he did so a bright light burst upon him, and dazzled his eyes, so Ions habituated to the darkness. He strode

THE ROBBER. 245

on, however, into the midst of the hall with a pistol in his hand ; but the place was tenantless; and he found that the light proceeded from a large sconce over the chimney, and from a lamp standing on the table.

" This will light us on our way," he said, taking up the lamp. " That is the door, Harvey, which leads to the Earl's rooms above; when you have set the poor man free, come that way at once. In the end room of the suite you will find a door opposite to you, leading to a stair- case between that room and the top rooms of the tower above. Follow the stairs and join me; but, remember, do not hurt the old man. Tie him, if he resists, but do not take his life, unless he tries to take yours."

Thus saying, he turned, and took his way through the passage that led towards the foot of the great stairs, which he found dark and soli- tary. There Harvey and his companion left him; and with the rest of his followers, now reduced to six in number, Franklin Gray ascended the steps, and entered the long corridor.

R 3

246 THE ROBBER.

" Hark ! " he whispered, after pausing for a moment ; " Hark ! There are voices speaking beyond, and I think I see a hght through the door. That chamber lies close at the foot of the stairs which we have to go up, and we must see what it contains ere we proceed farther. Follow me," he continued ; and, advancing with a noise- less step, he pushed open the door, which was only ajar, and strode at once into the room.

There, seated round a table furnished with a large black jack full of strong ale, were, not only the three men who had been ordered to keep guard over Langford, but two or three of the women servants of the house, whom their male companions had prevailed upon to come and cheer the solitary hours of night with their presence, and to banish all fears of the ghost by numbers and merriment.

The sudden apparition of Franklin Gray and his followers, however, at once put an end to all glee. The men sat for a moment as if turned into marble with terror and astonishment, but the women, without waiting to see whether the object of their apprehensions was corporeal or

THE ROBBER. 247

incorporeal, fled with loud arid piercing screams by the opposite door; and, as their retreat towards the great staircase was cut off, they had no resource but to rush up towards the cham- bers inhabited by Langford. No sooner was the example of flight set them than the men hastened to follow it with loud and terrified vociferations; and though Franklin Gray, irri- tated by the noise, vowed he would fire upon them if they v/ere not silent, they continued their outcry as they rushed on before him up the stairs and through the outer chamber.

Without calculation or concert, it struck each of the terrified servants that they might make their way through the prisoner's room down into Lord Danemore's apartments, where they hoped to find new courage, or at least protection from one to whom they had been accustomed to see all things yield in his vicinity. Each then, rushed towards the door, and, when they found it locked, pushed against it with frantic vehe- mence. It shook — it yielded — the steps of the pursuers were heard at the top of the stairs — another great effort was made ; and so sudden R 4

248 THE ROBBER.

and violent was the rush against the door, that it gave way at once, and darting in, the terrified servants found themselves in the presence not only of Lang ford but of the Earl himself.

" What is the meaning of all this?" ex- claimed the Ear). But scarcely had the words issued from his lips, and before he could receive any reply, when the figures of several strange men, armed, and for the most part disguised, appeared at the door-way, and gave him some intimation of the truth. No sooner did he be- hold this sight, than he sprang towards the door which led to his apartments below, unlocked it, and calling to his servants, " Follow me ! " he darted down the stairs, leaving Langford to act as he thought fit.

Franklin Gray paused but for a single in- stant for the purpose of speaking a few hurried words to the prisoner, or rather spoke them as he passed; *« Quick ! " he cried; "take pos- session of the papers, if you have not got them, and fly across the park down to Moorhurst, and thence to London, where use your advantage, and hire the most knavish, which means the

THE ROBBER. 249

best, of that great herd of knaves, called lawyers. I must after yonder old man, or he will get to the alarum bell, and have the whole county up upon us."

" Stop, Gray, stop ! " exclaimed Langford ; " remember "

" I cannot stop ! I cannot remember ! " shouted Gray sharply, in return, and, darting towards the door, he rushed after the Earl, followed by his band.

Langford, left alone, paused for a moment, as if to consider, and then took the same path that the rest had done. The stairs were all in darkness, but the lights from the rooms below, the noise of many voices, of trampling feet, and of evident contention, guided him; and, rushing on through the dressing-room, he came to the Earl's bed-room, where the old man, having snatched up what weapons he could find, with the terrified women clinging to his knees, and the three men armed in haste around him, now stood like an ancient lion brought to bay. With his white hair floating back from his face, and the fire of unquenchable courage flashing from his ©yes, with a pistol presented towards Gray

250 THE IlOliEER.

in one hand, and a drawn sword in the other, lie leaned forward ready and eager for the un- equal strife ; while the Robber, with his band behind him, and his arms crossed upon his broad chest, stood gazing upon the old Peer with a look, stern indeed, but not devoid of admiration.

At the same time, in a detached group to the right, were Harvey and Hardcastle, the first of whom had his foot planted firmly on the chest of the Earl's Italian valet, who lay pros- trate before him, wliile with his rigiit hand the Robber pointed a pistol at the servant's head. Hardcastle from behind, with a short carbine raised to his shoulder, took aim at the Earl, exclaiming, as he looked towards Franklin Gray, « Shall I fire?"

Like lightning Langford sprang forward, grappled with Hardcastle, and threw up the muzzle of the carbine, which instantly going off, struck the fine gilded ceiling, and brought down a considerable part upon their heads.

« Hold ! hold ! " shouted Gray. " If any one stirs he shall die ! "

" I know you, murinoiis traitor ! I know.

THE ROBBER. 251

you," exclaimed the Earl, gazing fiercely upon the Robber ; " I have not forgotten you ! "

" Nor I you, buccanier !" replied the Robber. " But this is no time to call such memories to mind. Make no resistance, and you are safe."

But, even as he spoke, there came the rush- ing sound of many feet from the direction of the little hall below. The door to the left of the Earl was thrown open, and in poured a crowd of men, grooms, horse-boys, running footmen, all armed in haste with whatever weapons they could snatch up, and led on by the very groom who had been left upon the hill.

Many of them were pale with terror, but the determination and courage of a few amongst them served to inspire the whole, and they poured on into the room to the number of twelve or thirteen men, jostling each other through the door, and gazing wildly round a chamber in which few, if any, of them had ever been before, and which now presented so strange and fearful a scene.

The eyes of Franklin Gray flashed as he beheld them, and Hardcastle, suddenly bursting

252 THE ROBBEll.

from the grasp of I^angford, — for all this had passed in a single moment,— sprang to the side of his leader, while Harvey, coolly firing the pistol at the Italian's head, followed his com- panion, and ranged himself with the rest. The unhappy valet started partly up from the ground, but ere he could gain his feet fell back again, and writhed for an instant in convulsive agony, while the spirit quitted its frail tenement. Then all was still.

But matters of deeper interest to Henry Langford were going on at the other side of the room. Fury had evidently taken place of calm- ness in the breast of Franklin Gray, and the EarFs eyes were blazing with triumph and wrath as he found himself unexpectedly sup- ported by so large a body of men.

" Now, villain ! will you surrender and meet your fate ? " the old man exclaimed. " Now surrender, or die where you stand, like a man ! Out of the way, woman ! why cling you there ? " he continued, spurning one of the women ser- vants with his foot, and striding over her, to approach nearer to the Robber. But at that

THE ROBBER. 253.

moment Franklin Gray*s arms were unfolded from his breast, the pistol in his right hand was raised in an instant — there was a flash — a report, and the Earl fell back.

Consternation for a moment seized upon his attendants; and Langford's voice was heard aloud exclaiming, " If you have killed him, you shall answer for it with your life ! "

But the Earl sprang up again instantly, cry- ing, " 'Tis nothing ! 'tis nothing but a slight hurt ! Take that, villain ! " and, in the very act of rising, he fired the pistol, which he had never let fall, into the midst of the group of robbers. He probably intended the shot for Franklin Gray, and there had been a time when no aim of his would have failed in reaching its object ; but he was wounded and old ; and the ball hit the man Hardcastle a few inches below the collar bone, and brought him to the ground with a loud unnatural scream.

All was now confusion; a number of shots were fired on both sides, till the pistols and car- bines which had been loaded were discharged, and, betaking themselves to other weapons, the two parties mingled, and bloodshed, slaughter,

254 THE ROBBER.

and determined strife spread throughout the whole apartments. Some were driven back into the rooms beyond, and prolonged the struggle there ; some died where they stood ; and some were seen to steal away wounded, or to fly as fast as they could with terror.

Skill, however, and discipline were on the part of the robbers ; and though they were in- ferior in number, the advantage was evidently on their side. Franklin Gray, with all the worst parts of his nature roused and fierce within him, commanded, directed, and fought, as if he had been in the field. His eye was on every part of the chamber in turn, and his voice was heard shouting orders to his different men, which, promptly obeyed, almost always brought success along with them.

Two of the EarPs grooms, who thrust them- selves between him and their master, fell by his hand, either killed or wounded, even while he was directing others. But while he still strode on towards the old Peer, who struggled fiercely forward to meet him, he was encoun- tered by one at least equal to himself.

With difficulty Langford had forced himself

THE ROBBFJl. -255

forward through the scene of strife and con- fusion that was going on. He spoke to no one ; he assailed no one ; though he parried more than one blow aimed at random at his head, for, tliough the lamp above their heads gave abundant light, the struggle and the obscurity caused by the smoke had got to that pitch that men scarcely knew who were adversaries or who were friends ; but, with his drawjii sword in his hand, he hurried on to the part of the room wiiere he had seen the Earl, and now seemed to devote himself to his defence.

At the very moment when Franklin Gray was within another stride of the old Peer, Langford thrust himself between them. But the Robber's blood was all on fire. " Out of my way ! " he cried ; " out of my way, or take the consequences ! "

" Stand back ! " cried Langford, in return, while his eyes too flashed with living lightning ; '• Stand back, or I forget all, and you die ! "

" Out of my way !" again repeated Franklin Gray, and their swords crossed.

At that moment, however, the loud long peai

256 THE ROBBER.

of the alarum bell made itself heard throughout the whole castle, — rung with such violence and determination as speedily to rouse all the vil- lages and hamlets in the neighbourhood. Franklin Gray heard the sound ; and never in the moment of the strongest passion forgetting the judgment and the skill which had distin- guished him in the army, even in the most un- justifiable enterprises, he glared for a moment upon Langford, unwilling to yield his victim, or to give up the strife ; but then, as the knell sounded louder and more loud upon his ear, he turned to his nearest companion, saying in a low voice, " Wilson, we must make our retreat. Tell Harvey to get the men together. We go by the same way that we came. Get hold of yonder casket, and see what is in that cabinet, while I and these good fellows screen you ; and be quick ! for we shall have the whole peasantry upon us ! There is a tremendous smell of fire ! — Be quick, — be quick !"

He spoke rapidly but calmly, glancing with his eye from time to time towards his antagonist. Although he felt very sure that Langford would

THE ROBBER. 257

not attempt to injure him, unless he pressed liim, still he kept his blade playing round that of his opponent; and when he had done, he made a lunge or two to fill up the time, but evidently without any intention of wounding his adversary.

Langford parried them with ease, and as rapid in his conclusions as Franklin Gray, he perceived at once that the ringing of the alarum bell, w4iich struck his ear also, had rendered the robbers apprehensive of their retreat being cut off, and now made them prepare to retire.

The Earl, however, fierce and implacable, rushed forward, but the more eagerly from the sounds he heard, and from the hope of taking or destroying those who had dared to assail him. With word and gesture he cheered on the men that still stood around him, and pressed forward upon the robbers, who were now ranging themselves in regular line, and slowly retreating to the doorway behind them. His men, however, were in general of the opinion that it is wise to make a bridge for a flying enemy, and they seconded his efforts but feebly, notwithstanding his reiterated commands

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258 THE ROBBER.

and the fearful execrations wliicli he poured forth upon their cowardice.

Two or three, indeed, rushed forward with him, but they were driven back in a moment by the line of their adversaries, bearing with them some severe wounds to teach them more caution for the future.

They dragged back in their flight their more impetuous lord, and under cover of the smoke, which was now so dense as to render every object in the room indistinct, the Robber and his men reached the door by which they had entered, and began to pass it two at a time. As they did so, the eye of Franklin Gray ran over their numbers, and he suddenly exclaimed, " Halt ! — Hardcastle is down and dead ; but where are Harvey and Dove ton ? "

"I am here," cried a faint voice, which pro- ceeded from a man who was seen staggering towards them through the clouds of smoke. " Go on, Captain ; never mind me. I will come after."

" We must leave none in the hands of the enemy," cried the Robber, starting forward.

THE ROBBER. 259

and taking the wounded man by the arm. At that moment, however, one of the grooms darted upon Doveton, and seized him by the collar, but as instantly fell back on the floor, cleft nearly to the jaws by the heavy blade of Franklin Gray, who, while he was thus re- morselessly sending the spirit of an adversary to its eternal account, w^as shouting out with anxious care for his companions. " Where is Harvey ? I don't see Harvey !'*

Such is human nature !

"I am here; I am here. Captain," cried Harvey, bursting into the room from the oppo- site door, and throwing down a man who stood in his way.

" Come quick then, — come quick ! " cried his leader; '^ we shall scarce have time to retreat !"

" No, by , we shall not," replied Harvey,

rushing up to Franklin Gray, and speaking in a low tone. " We shall not, for the house is on fire in every part. T ran through there to see if we could get out by that staircase and the little hall, but the fire seems to have begun there ; some of the men must have knocked s 2

260 THE ROBBER.

over the sconce. Our only way will be up these stairs, down the others from the tower, and through the great gallery. But we must be quick, for the fire is running that way rapidly."

He spoke quickly, but by this time there was no chance of his being interrupted, for the same tidings had just been communicated to the Earl and those who surrounded him, but not with the same clearness ; and, horrified at the thought of the new kind of death presented to their eyes, the whole body of grooms and attendants had made a rush towards the ante- chamber and vestibule, hoping to escape by the same way that Harvey had attempted but found impracticable.

The Earl followed them more slowly, and he might be seen once or twice to raise his hand towards his head, as if either faint from loss of blood, or giddy with the smoke and the fatigue. Langford gazed after him eagerly, and when he saw him reach the door, and take hold of the lintel as if for support, he darted forward to aid him ; but he was suddenly detained by

THE ROBBER. 261

a Strong and powerful hand which grasped his arm, and turning, he beheld Franklin Gray and two of his men by his side.

"This way! this way!" cried the Robber, eagerly ; " this way, if you would save your life and regain your liberty ! This way, if you would recover the papers you have so long eagerly sought ! The house is on fire, and every thing will quickly be consumed ! "

Langford hesitated; but when he turned again towards the Earl, the old peer had passed through the door, and was no longer visible.

" Quick, — quick ! " cried Franklin Gray. " Come you must and shall ! Drag him along whether he will or not j" and seized by both arms, he was hurried to the foot of the staircase leading to the tov,'er. Some sudden emotion, however, seemed there to take possession of him, and make him throw aside all hesitation at once.

" My duty first," he cried, " and God's will'

for the rest !" and shaking off the hold of those

who were hurrying him forward, he exclaimed,

" Go on. Gray, and if I perish, forget that we

s 3

262 THE IIOBBEK.

have drawn our swords upon each other ; — go on."

As he spoke he turned with a rapid step, and retrod his way into the Earl's bed- room.

Gray gazed after him for a moment, with a look of stern sorrow, and then said, " On, my men ! He must perish if he will."

A number of voices assailed Langford as he entered the EarPs bed-room, exclaiming, " Not that way, — not that way ! the vestibule is all on fire ! the stairs are down !" and men and women, rushing rapidly towards the other stair- case by which the robbers had fled, passed him as lie advanced, while the heat was becoming more and more intense, and the smoke almost suffocating.

" Where is the Earl ? " he demanded of one of the grooms, as he darted by him.

"I don't know," replied the man, with all the bitter selfishness of terror. " Gone to the devil, I dare say," and on he rushed.

But Langford, undismayed, strode forward, — passed through the bed-room, and entered the ante-ruom beyond. It was now clear of all

THE ROBBER. 263

the crowd of attendants who had supported the Earl in his struggle with the robbers, but had fled in different directions from the still more ap- palling fate that now menaced every one within those walls. The fire was running round the cornices ; the smoke was tremendously thick, — the heat and smell of burning wood intolerable, and the rushing and roaring sound of the flames, as they seemed to revel with demoniac triumph in the passages beyond, was almost deafening to the ear.

Immediately under the lamp that hung from the ceiling, howeven*, and leaning on a table of splendid mosaic work, which was soon de- stined to crumble into nothing under the jaws of the devouring element, stood the Earl of Danemore, with the blood dropping rapidly from a wound in his shoulder and from another in the arm. There was a sort of fixed, stern, cold determination in his countenance, which had something in it awful, as in that scene of terror and coming destruction he re- mained there, without making one effort to save himself.

s 4

264 THE ROBBER.

"Fly, my Lord, fly !" exclaimed Laiigford, hurrying towards him ; " this way is still clear."

" Sir," replied the Earl, calmly and coldly, " I cannot fly; I am old, and weak, and wounded, and I cannot fly. I have exerted myself some- what too much in this little affray; my strength is expended, and I cannot fly. I may as well die here as in the next room or the room beyond."

"God forbid that it should be so !" replied Langford, eagerly. "My Lord, I can bear you forth ; I am young and strong, unhurt and unfatigued. Let me, — let me save you ! "

"Touch me not. Sir !" exclaimed the Earl ; " touch me not ! You have brought this thing upon my head. From the sight of that man's face I know where you gained your information of my former life. He came to set you free. Touch me not ! but go to join your fellows while you may. Here, with death hanging over me, and perhaps over you, I tell you I hate and abhor you, and will not have your support, even to save my life ! "

" Say not so, my Lord ; say not so," replied

THE ROBBER. 265

Langford, casting himself on Iiis knee before him; "let me entreat you, — let me adjure you, to accept my aid ! Did you not see my sword drawn against him in your defence i Hate me, my Lord, you may; injure me, my Lord, you have : but you know not yet that I love you with a love that may change your hate into affection ; and to show you w4iat I feel, I swear that if you come not to safety with me I will remain and die with you !"

The old man was moved. " This is sti-ange, — this is very strange !" he said ; " but no !" he added, " Save yourself. Monsieur de Beaulieu, save yourself; and, in gratitude for what you say, let us mutually forgive one another. For me, my hour is come ; I know it, — I feel it. JMy plans are frustrated and thwarted ; the secrets of my early life displayed; the mansion of my fathers burnt to the ground ; my son, my only son, dead by the hand of a murderer ! — I am old, houseless — hopeless ; why should 1 linger? I am companionless, childless ; why should I live ? "

266 THE KOBBER.

" Not childless, my Lord," replied Langford ; " not companionless, if you will have it so. Your son Lord Danemore is dead, but not your only son. Your son is lost, — but your eldest son is at your feet ! "

" God of heaven !" exclaimed the Earl ; " what do you mean ? You are so like ; yes, you are so like "

" Yes, my Lord ; yes," exclaimed Langford, " I know I am. I am like Eugenie de Beau- lieu, your first, your only wife. I am her son ! I am your child ! But now let me save my father ;" and he threw his vigorous arms around him.

The old man bent down his head upon his shoulder, and wept ; but he resisted him no longer; and Langford, with a great effort, raising that still powerful form in his arms, bore him strongly onward through the bed- room, and the dressing-room behind it, to the stairs. It is true he felt that he carried a great and unusual weight ; but there were those feelings within his bosom whicli made every

THE ROBBER. 267

muscle as strong as a band of iron, and he bore the old peer up the stairs into the chamber where he had been so long confined.

Until that moment the Earl uttered not a word, and the tears rained heavy from his eyes ; but then he raised his head, exclaiming, " Stop ! stop ! The papers, my boy ! The papers ! "

" Not for a world ! " exclamed Langford ; " if we have time, it is all that we shall have ;" and on he hurried through the ante-chamber and down the stairs to the long gallery.

There was an awful sight before him. The rich carved oak wainscotting was all in flames. The invaluable pictures which covered the walls shrivelling and cracking with the fire. The armour and weapons, either of the chase or war, which had been piled up in the form of trophies between the pannels, fallen from the brackets that supported them, cumbered the floor in many places. The ceiling from above was dropping down with the heat, and in two places the flame might be seen forcing its way through the flooring from below, and curling

268 THE llOBBER.

up the wooden pillars which supported the roof. It was evident that the whole of the corridors underneath were on fire ; and as Henry, bearing his heavy burden, strode on along the gallery, he knew not but that each step might precipitate both himself and his father into the gulf of death.

His heart, however, was proud of its doing, and fearless ; and if there was one feeling in his breast which was painful, it arose there only when the thought of AHce Herbert crossed his mind, — when deep love and the memory of her affection came tender and unnerving upon him. For a single instant all the painful par- ticulars of her situation, if he were lost to her, flashed across his mind, but he banished them in a moment, and summoned high resolution to his aid, knowing that he was acting as she would have him act, — knowing that she would be proud and satisfied if she could see him at that moment.

Onward he went, then, rapidly but carefully. Twice he felt the flooring giving way beneath him, and twice by a lunger stride he reached a

THE ROBBER. 269

spot where tlie beams were firm and uncon- sumed. The vast size of the gallery enabled him to breathe with greater freedom, but still he could not see clearly to the top of the great staircase, not only on account of the smoke, but on account of a shower of sparks which came down from a spot where the ceiling had fallen in.

The dust and mortar, even when he reached that place, prevented him from discovering what was the state of the flooring below ; only two steps however, lay between him and the head of the great staircase. If he reached it he knew that he was safe, for it was of stone, and he strode on. The flooring gave way, however, at the first step, but he perceived it yielding before it was too late, and with a violent exertion sprang across the chasm. The effort was so great as nearly to have cast him headlong down the steps, but he caught the iron ballustrade, and with a beating heart felt that he and his father both were saved.

« Thank God ] " he exclaimed.

•270 THE ROBBER.

« Thank God ! " rejoined the Earl ; «' I can walk now ! I can walk well !"

But Langford still bore him on till they had reached the doorway, and passed out under the arch which projected beyond the building. There, relaxing his hold, he suffered the Earl to regain his feet; but, still supporting him by the arm, led him onward, after giving a moment to recover breath, towards a spot on the terrace where all those who had escaped from the fire were assembled, and, as too usual on such occasions, were standing with inactive wonder and selfish thankfulness for their own deliverance.

Farther on, indeed, there were two or three people engaged in raising with difficulty a long ladder towards the high tower where Langford had been confined. But a cry of " The Earl ! the Earl ! " which burst from the nearest group as the two approached, caused them to pause, and the woman Bertha, who had been directing their movements, ran up in haste.

The Earl, leaning on the arm of him who

THE ROBBER. 271

Iiad saved him, gazed up for an instant upon the splendid mansion of his ancestors, v/hile in some parts wide black vacuities, fringed with fire, and in others a mass of flame and a blaze of light, crov/ned by a pyramid of red sparks and smoke, showed him the state of that building from the midst of which he had been borne.

The sight thus presented to his eyes; the memory of all that night's events; the sudden wakening up of old, and dear, but painful, asso- ciations ; the renewal of feelings that had been extinct ; and the struggle of wonder and un- certainty with joy and conviction, were over- powering to a frame weakened as his had been. He turned from the burning mansion to his recovered son ; he gazed for a moment earn- estly, intensely, on his countenance, and then, casting his arms around his neck, he exclaimed, " It is, it is, my son ! my child ! my deliverer ! But my eyes grow dizzy ; my heart feels sick." And as he spoke he fainted with the loss of blood and the manifold emotions which thronged into his heart.

272 THE ROBBER.

CHAPTER XII.

" He acknowledges him ! he acknowledges him as his own child ! " exclaimed the voice of Berdia, who had run up in haste from the other group. " Bear witness all — bear witness every one ! You Henry, you Jones, you More- ton ; he acknowledges him as his son even at the moment of his death ! "

" Hush ! hush ! he is not dead," exclaimed the deep full voice of Langford ; " he is but fainting from loss of blood. Some one seek a surgeon speedily. Give me something to bind up his wounds. Cannot some one fetch a cup of water ? "

" He acknowledged him," repeated the wo- man Bertha, whose whole mind seemed taken up with one idea ; " he has acknowledged him ; let every one bear witness. I knew it would be so ; I knew it must be so. I knew that fate and inscrutable justice would work out their ow^n way, though it were in darkness and in

THE ROBBER. '273

shadow. I knew that it wanted no mortal skill to direct, no mortal hand to help. O ! thouj" she continued, turning toward Lang- ford, " thou who hast undergone the severe trial in thine infancy of evil fortune and ad- versity ; thou who hast drank the bitter cup in youth ; now — now that the sweeter cup is pre- sented to thee — forget not the lessons thou hast learnt ; and show that thy heart has been softened, not hardened, by struggles early en- dured, and sorrows tasted in the brightest days of life, — now show that thy bosom is as free, even when loaded with riches, as when lowliest fortune oppressed thee."

" I trust it may be so," replied Langford quickly ; *^ I trust it may be so ; but never- theless you mark not the Earl's condition. Quick, Mistress Bertha, quick ! Surely some simples can be found to recall him from this state of insensibility. Seek them, I beseech you ; seek them quickly, for it is terrible to think of losing a parent when one has so lately regained one."

" Fear not ! fear not I " answered the woman,

VOL. II. T

274 THE ROBBER.

gazing upon the Earl'; " he only faints. There is many a year's life yet within those old limbs. He was not saved from destruction to die at the moment when his dearest tie to the world was restored to him. But look not impatient, Master Henry ; I will speed quickly to the rooms which are not yet on fire, although my keys have been stolen from me, and I know not where to find any thing that I seek. Never- theless, so be it, — I go but to obey."

She turned as if to quit them ; but Henry, and one or two of those who stood near, ex- claimed, " Hold ! hold ! he is better ;— he opens his eyes. Bring us some water; that will re- store him fully."

As they spoke the Earl did indeed open his eyes, and looked around him feebly. A few long strips of linen were procured, and made into bandages for his wounds. Langford, as we shall siill call him, applied them skilfully and well ; and some water was obtained, of which the Earl drank eagerly, for he was parched and thirsty with exertion and loss of blood. The deep draught seemed to refresh

THE ROBBER. 275

him much, and lie raised himself up on his arm from the turf whereon they had laid him, making a sign for Langford and others to help him to rise entirely.

" You are better now,*' said Langford eagerly ; " you are better now. Let us bear you to some cottage in the neighbourhood, where the aid of a surgeon may be procured."

" I am better," replied the Earl, in a voice wonderfully firm ; " I am better, my son ; but there is much yet to be done. Raise me up ! Stay ! Give me your hand ; I can rise myself. How goes the fire ? is the building all down ? "

«0h mind not the building, my Lord," replied his son ; " mind not the building. Let us attend to your safety first. There will not be wanting means to raise Danemore Castle from its ashes again. No, my Lord, no," he continued, seeing the Earl make an impatient sign with his hand ; " the building is not all down ; the whole of the right wing is free, and the people are bringing out every thing valu- able that it contains."

" But the tower ! the tower ! " exclaimed the T 2

276 THE ROBBER.

EarJ. " Those papers, my boy ! they must be preserved at all risks, otherwise your destiny Avill still be clouded. Lift me up ! lift me up, I say ! "

With very little assistance he raised himself from the ground and gazed over the building, fixing his eyes eagerly on the old tower in which Langford had been confined. The fire, running along the corridors, had reached the first and second stories, and round the frame- works of the lower windows might be seen the long lambent flames curling like fiery serpents. But up above appeared the windows of the two chambers which contained matter of such in- terest to both the Earl and his son, through which shone forth nothing but the calm steady light of the lamps that had been left burning there — pouring forth a mild and tranquil lustre, high above all the fierce and eager flames below, like a gentle and virtuous spirit shining on in peaceful brightness amidst the fire, and flame, and smoke of the angry pas- sions, and consuming strifes, and foul ambitions of the world in which we live. 6

THE ROBBER. 277

" There is yet time," exclaimed the Earl ; " there is yet time ! Raise up that ladder," he continued, turning to those who had been placing it against the tower as a means for his own escape, but had now let it sink back again to the ground ; " raise up that ladder ! Why have you let it drop ? There ! Be quick ! Place it against the farthest window to the east. — Why do you not aid them?" he continued, turning to some of the servants who stood inactive. " By Heaven I will have your ears slit if you stand idly there ! "

The men, reminded by the tone of the fiery rule under which they had so long lived, sprang to obey ; but notwithstanding all the eager haste with which he urged them on, to raise that tall ladder was a work requiring some labour and time ; and while they did it the anxious eye of the Earl marked with apprehension the flames appearing, one after another, at the small loop-hole windows which lighted the staircase that led from the great gallery to the chambers above.

" Now ! now ! " he said in the loudest voice T 3

278 THE ROBBER.

he could command, as soon as the ladder was fixed ; " a thousand guineas to the man who will mount into that room, and with a pickaxe break open the cabinet door in the wall on the left hand, and bring me down safely the small iron case that is contained therein. A thou- sand guineas to that man, I say ! "

" I will do it, my Lord," cried a stout pea- sant, starting forth ; " I 'd go through fire, or water either, for a thousand guineas, for then I could marry Jenny Barker, and take old Hudson's farm. There's no pickaxe here, but here 's a crowbar, which will do as well."

" Up, up then ! " cried the Earl ; " a thou- sand guineas if you bring it down ! "

The young man sprang up the ladder at once, but ere he had reached the top the flames were seen bursting through the windows of the ad- joining room, and every eye below watched his ascent with fearful interest. He went on boldly, however, and, reaching the top, contrived to open the window.

He was seen kneeling for a moment upon the sill, and then sprang into the room.

THE ROBBICK. 279

A moment of anxious suspense followed, but then the small flickering point of the flame was seen curling round the wood- work of the case- ment through which he had just passed, and in another instant it burst forth in a volume. As it did so, a wild scream burst from the crowd behind the Earl, and a pretty country girl ran forward wringing her hands. But at that mo- ment the form of him she loved was seen emerg- ing from the very midst of the fire. He planted his foot firmly on the ladder, and descended rapidly, holding a small case in his arms,

" He has got them ! " cried the Earl, " he has got them !" and he turned towards Lang' ford with a smile full of joy.

" He is safe," murmured the girl ; " he is safe !" and she burst into tears.

With haste so great as almost to be dan- gerous the young man descended the ladder ; but it soon became apparent why he did so, for the flames were seen curling about the upper rounds thereof, and just as he reached the bottom the upper part, consumed by the intense heat, gave way, and the ladder fell, T 4

J280 iHE ROBBEK*

first against another point of the tower, and then with a crash to the ground. The young man, however, was safe ; and, giving one pres- sure of the hand to the girl, who ran forward to meet him as he passed, he advanced directly to the Earl, and placed the small iron case that he carried in his hands.

It opened with a spring lock, and the Earl pressed it back eagerly.

Langford gazed not without much agitation, for there before him, he thought, lay all that he had so long desired and striven to possess, — the proofs of his mother's honour and purity, his title to great wealth, a noble name, and high rank, (not only in his own country but in that which had in some degree adopted him,) and the means of showing, of proving, to Alice Herbert, that he had loved her, and sought her with the high, pure, disinterested love of which she was w^orthy.

He gazed anxiously then while the Earl pressed back the lock ; but the old man's hands were still feeble, and it was with difficulty that he accomplished that object. He did so at

THE ROBBER. 281

length; the lock gave way, and the top flew open : but, to the surprise and consternation of both, the casket was void. Not a paper, not a trace of any thing of the kind did it contain.

The Earl let it drop from his hands, and turned a glance of fierce inquiry upon the young peasant, exclaiming, " Have you opened it?'*

"As I hope for salvation, my Lord," ex- claimed the young man, <' I neither tried nor knew how to open it, but brought it to you just as I found it."

His anxious and terrified look, the sudden rush of blood to his countenance, his frank and ingenuous bearing, all confirmed his words, and left no doubt that he spoke the truth.

The Earl then turned to his son, and gazed in his face with a look of deep and painful interest. Langford's brow was grave but calm, and taking both the Earl's hands in his, he said, " Never mind, my Lord ; it cannot be helped ; let us be satisfied with the good which has befallen us. This day I have gained a father and you a son ! — It is enough ! Let us not mind the rest."

282 TliE ROBBER.

The Earl cast himself upon his bosom. " You are my son, you are my son ! " he said ; " I know and feel it, though there is much that I do not comprehend, though there is much still to be explained. You are like your mother ! Oh ! too like your mother ! Hating myself for havino[ wron^^ed her, I hated her because she was wronged ; and yet — though it seem madness and folly to say it — I loved her still. But I knew not that she had had a son, or I would never have acted as I did act; I would never have wronged her as I did wrong her. A vague suspicion of the truth, a wild whirling phantom of the imagination, did cross my mind once in years long gone ; and once, too, within these few days, when first I saw you in that tower. But why, why did she conceal it?"

" Because, my Lord," replied Langford, " you had left her ; you had taken from her the proofs of your marriage with her ; you were upon the eve of marriage with another, a proud and princely dame of another land ; and be- cause her brother, my uncle, once your friend and companion — though he doubted not the

THE ROBBER. 283

tale that his sister told of her private marriage with yourself, and of your having obtained from her all the proofs of that marriage, upon the most solemn vow never to destroy them, — though he doubted it not, I say, — no, not a word of the whole tale, — yet he insisted upon her concealing her situation and the birth of her child, for the sake of the honour of his family, at least till he could obtain from you the proofs of his sister's virtue. Nay, more ; when he found that, not- withstanding all his precautions, scandal had got abroad and was busy with her name, he forced her to quit her own land, to dwell in other countries, to assume another name, and to countenance the report of her own death. In every matter of fortune he treated her with noble and princely generosity ; and in all points he was kind, except in one, where he was stern and inflexible. — But I agitate you. You are not able to hear this tale now."

" Go on ! go on ! " exclaimed the Earl ; "let me hear it all at once. Keep me not a moment in suspense."

" Well," continued Langford, " he educated

284 THE ROBBEK.

me as if I liad been his own child ; but, as I was born in England — born within but a few miles of this very spot — he caused me to be placed in the English regiments serving at that time with the troops of France. When of an age to judge for myself, he told me, with her consent, the sad story of my mother, which she had never told me. "

" What ! then she lived ! " exclaimed the Earl ; " she did not die when I was told she died ! '*

" Oh no, my Lord," replied Langford ; " she bore deep grief for many a long and bitter year. Her's was a heart of much endurance, and though the disappointment of her first affection, the destruction of all confidence in "

" Hush ! hush ! " exclaimed the Earl, cover- ing his eyes with his hands. " Hush, hush ; I did her bitter wrong ! "

There was a silent pause of several minutes, and then the old man asked again, " How long has she been dead ? "

" Scarcely two years, my Lord," replied his

THE ROBBER. 285

son ; " and let me say, that even to the last, there was within her heart a lingering spark of affection toward him whom she had loved in early youth, — whom she had loved alone."

" Bless her ! " exclaimed the Earl ; " bless her ! Oh, could she but know that I weep for her even now ;" and he did weep.

" But that too," he added sadly, " is amongst the dark things of the irrevocable past. Oh, could but man remember that, though each act that he performs, each fiery passion gratified, each rash word spoken, each selfish wrong com - mitted, may be blotted from his memory the next hour, like words written by the finger of a child upon the sea-shore sand, — that, though his remembrance thereof may be but as a waxen tablet, on which each new impression effaces the last, — could he but remember, I say, that there is a stern and adamantine record kept by fate, on which the lightest line, once traced, can never be effaced, which whole oceans of tears can never clear of one spot, nor the fiery longings of the repentant heart ever purify of one dark act done — human things would

286 THE ROBBER.

surely never give themselves cause to feel what I feel now, longing to pour out my blood like water, so that it could but recall the past."

There was another pause, and then the Earl continued, " Tell me more, my son ; tell me more. You spoke of your uncle. He was a noble man, and generous. Though there have been harsh words and fierce acts pass between us, I loved him well : I love him even now."

" I was about to say, my Lord," continued Langford, " that when I was of an age to hear and judge, he told me my mother's history, and my own condition. He told me that you had wedded another, and had a son on whom you doated fondly, and he showed me that there was no chance of your ever doing myself or my mother justice, if by so doing you were to wring your earldom and your rich estates from him, the child of your affection. He then pro- posed to me to make a sacrifice, and once more to apply to you for the proofs of my mother's marriage, entering into a solemn compact with you never to produce those proofs in England. Possessing them in France would

THE ROBBER. 287

not only have at once restored the honour of my mother, but would have rendered me heir to the Marquisate of Beaulieu, and to all the estates thereunto attached. But there arose a question as to whether my birth should be made known to you. My mother longed for it eagerly, for with a mother's fond affection she thought that there was something in your breast which would prevent you from utterly wronging your child."

The Earl stretched forth his hand and turned away his head, exclaiming, " She did me more than justice. My heart might have been torn with agony and shame, but I should have found no means to escape but in fresh crime, and might not have had the courage even to do partial right."

" So my uncle judged," replied Langford, " and he refused his consent to your being made acquainted either with my birth, or with my mother's existence. He offered you his solemn pledge, however, never to make use of the proofs if you once yielded them, for any other

2hB the robbkr.

purpose than to establish the fact of his sister's marriage, in France."

" And I refused him," said the Earl ; " I re- fused him what he had every right to claim. But it is vain regretting; — and he, too, is dead, bearing with him to the cold tomb a load of injuries, from him whom he once called his friend — from him whom he succoured in adver- sity, nursed in sickness. He, too, is dead ! and with him likewise the past is beyond recall. But with thee, my boy ; with thee it is not too late ; and yet," he added sadly, " those papers are lost which 1 promised never to destroy — which I guarded so carefully — the only proofs of that marriage — they are lost at the very moment that I find my son. Does it not seem as if fate were resolved to punish all my past deeds by stamping them with its irrevocable signet at the moment I first longed to recall them ? What shall we do ? How shall we act to prove the facts ? Bertha, you were present ; you are the only one now left."

** Is it not enough that you acknowledge

THE ROBBER. 289

him ? " demanded the woman ; «• are your laws in this land so hard that a man cannot do tardy justice when he longs to do it?"

" What is justice to one might be injustice to another," replied Langford ; " and if I am rightly informed the title and estates must pass away to some far relative."

" A man I hate," exclaimed the Earl with a touch of his old fierceness.

But Langford interposed. " Oh, hate no one now ! " he said ; " but let us talk no more of these things ; at least not now. You are faint, my Lord, and I fear much hurt ; lean on my arm, and take this good youth's too, who, though he brought us but the empty casket, with the treasure gone, must not be unre- warded."

" The stables are not touched, my Lord," said one of the grooms, advancing, and bowing low ; " We can bring a carriage in a moment."

" Do so ! do so speedily ! " replied Langford, and he endeavoured to lead the Peer to some place of repose. But the old man seemed still inclined to linger and to inquire into the past, . VOL. II. u

290 THE ROBBER.

in the presence of the awful scene which was yet proceeding before his eyes. All that had been said, both by father and son, had been witnessed by a crowd of persons; but at first the overpowering feelings of their hearts had withdrawn all attention from external objects, and neither had remarked or remem- bered that there was any living soul present but themselves. Henry had awakened to their situation first, and he now strove to prevent the Earl from entering further into the history of his past life, grieved and angry with himself for not having stopped him earlier, ere any ears had heard him charge himself with so many dark offences.

" We are surrounded by listeners, my Lord," he said, in a low tone, seeing that the Earl was proceeding with the theme then paramount in his thoughts ; " we had better pause till we are in private. There is many a keen ear around us."

" I mind them not ! " replied the Earl, aloud, drawing himself up to his full height, but still leaning upon his son's arm ; " I mind

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them not ! I would have them know it ! Who can say that I shall ever see to-morrow's sun ? — Hear every one, and bear witness, that I acknowledge this gentleman as my son; that 1 was fully and lawfully married to his mother, before his birth, in the church of Uppington ; that by my hand the leaf was torn from the register which recorded that marriage ; that the certificate thereof was taken by me from his mother; and that it, with the torn leaf and other papers, was kept by me, from that time to this, in the case which now lies empty there. Some one has stolen them in the horrors of this night; but for their recovery I will double the reward I offered for the casket itself. Let every one remember the words that I have spoken. — This is my legitimate son ! "

The people around answered by a shout ; but the heavy pressure of the Earl's hand upon his son's arm showed Henry that the exertion of speaking in so loud a tone had been too much for his exhausted powers ; and he eagerly led him away towards a spot where he could sit down till the vehicle came to carry him to the u 2

292 THE ROBBER.

neighbouring village. The old man seemed satisfied, however, with what he had accom- plished, and gazing in his son's face with a smile, he said, " I have done my best towards one act of reparation. Oh, my boy, would that I could repair all ! '*

Langford said little in reply, but what he did say was kind and tender ; and as soon as the carriage appeared the Earl was placed in it, and conveyed to the house of the clergyman of the village, who gladly received his noble patron. Messengers were instantly sent off for surgeons, but ere they arrived, Langford, who sat by his father's bed-side, saw with pain a bright red spot deepening every moment in the Earl's cheek, announcing, as well as his burning thirst, that strong fever was taking possession of him.

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CHAPTER XIIL

It is an awful thing to sit by the bed of sick- ness at any time ; — to see that strange and inex^ plicable thing, animal life, oppressed and beaten down like a crushed butterfly, waving its faint wings with the energy of suffering, but not the freedom of health; — to mark the quick breathing, — to gaze upon the anxious eye, — to see the cheek once florid grown pale and ashy, — ^the lip parched and dry, — the thin nostril expanding for the insufficient breath, — the hand suddenly blanched and grown meagre, — the uneasy frame tossing with the dire com- bination of lassitude and restlessness; and to know that all these are signs of a spirit ap- proaching that dread portal, which, if once passed, can never be passed again till the gates of life are thrown open for eternity !

It is an awful thing at any time ! but when the being that we see so situated is dear to our heart by the ties of kindred or of love it is u 3

294 THE ROBBER.

Still more awful; and awful, trebly awful, is the scene, when the creature that lies weighed down by sickness before our eyes is both closely linked to our deepest feelings and tenderest natural affections, and yet loaded, even more than by the weight of malady, with faults and errors, and sins and crimes, which may render the dark passing of that fearful porch of death, the eternal separation from all who loved him on the earth.

The fire in Danemore Castle had burnt itself out. Part of the building had been saved, and remained uninjured. The servants had taken possession of it, and were using all means to prevent the fire from breaking out again. The greater part of the peasantry had returned to their homes, and few persons were seen in the park or on the terraces, but here and there a straggling group of idlers gathered together from the neighbouring country to gaze upon the scene of ruin and destruction.

He whom we have called throughout this book Henry Langford had twice gone forth, at his father's desire, to see what was taking place

THE ROBBER. 295

without, and he now sat in the cool grey of the dawn beside the couch of the Earl, as he lay obtaining snatches of brief and troubled slum- ber. As Langford so sat, and gazed upon him, the natural feelings of a son's heart towards a father would have way. The blood of kindred stirred within him, and he felt that he was his son. But still as he gazed the image of his dead mother rose up before his sight, and all the bitter wrongs that she had suffered made his heart sad, and brought the tears into his eyes.

He thought of her as he had known her in his youth, still exquisitely lovely, though touched by the withering hand of sorrow. He thought of her as he had known her in later days, fading rapidly away like a flower broken and trampled under foot by some heedless passer-by. He thought of her as he had seen her on the bed of death, with every worldly hope at an end, and with no thought or care but of the heaven to which her steps were bent, and of his own future fate and happiness on earth. Her words, almost the last which u 4

296 THE ROBBER.

she ever spoke, still rang in his ears : the pro- mise she had exacted from him, never to give up the endeavour to establish her honour and purity ; and the injunction which she had like- wise lain upon him, if his father ever did him injustice, to forgive him, and love him for her sake.

Henry felt that he did forgive him ; but he felt, too, that there was another and a greater Judge whose forgiveness was needed ; a judge not less merciful, indeed, but one not moved by human passions and affections; and as he thought of all that had been done by him to whom he owed his being — of all the dark deeds of other years — the fierce unruly passions which had remained unextinguished even to that very night, the scene of his father's suffering, the prospect of his death, became awful, trebly awful to the eyes of his son.

The surgeon from the county town had been with Lord Danemore, had examined his wounds, and had pronounced that there was no imme- diate danger ; but he had not in any degree assured the Earl's son that there was a prospect

THE ROBBER. 297

of his illness terminating favourably. He spoke as men are too apt to speak, with cautious con- sideration of his own reputation, more than with any regard for the feelings and anxieties of him to whom he spoke. Langford had gathered, however, that he judged unfavour- ably of his father's state. He dwelt upon the facts of the Earl being an old man, — of his constitution, though strong, having been appa- rently severely tried in former years, — of the event of all such wounds being uncertain, — and of a great deal of fever having rapidly come on* He said nothing to mitigate these unfavourable circumstances, and Langford judged the worst. His feelings then, when, after the surgeon had left the Earl for a short time, and he sat beside him watching his fitful slumbers, were most painful ; but they were destined to be more so ere long.

Scarcely had the sky grown yellow with the bright coming on of morning, when the tram- pling of many horses' feet below, and then the sound of persons ascending the stairs, called his attention. It had been the surgeon's express

298 THE ROBBER.

injunction that the Earl should be kept per- fectly quiet; and as the sounds approached the chamber in which he lay, Langford started up and moved towards the door, in order to caution the new comers to make less noise. Before he reached it, however, that door opened, and five or six persons unceremoniously entered the chamber. The noise at once awoke the Earl, and, starting up on his arm, he exclaimed, "Who is there?"

" It is I, my Lord ; your Lordship's very humble servant. Sir Thomas Waller," replied the first person who entered ; " no sooner did I hear that your Lordship's house had been attacked and set on fire than I got on horse- back with as many constables as I could gather together to come to your aid ; and as my learned and worshipful friend and cousin. Justice Whistler- from London, the chief magis- trate of police, happened to be lodging in my poor house at the time, I besought him to come over with me too."

" Whether in regard to the fire or in regard to thy robbery," replied the Earl cynically,

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" your coming is somewhat late ; and as I am both wounded and in pain, and have the ex- press orders of my surgeon to remain in perfect quiet, you will perhaps favour me by leaving me to repose ; and another time, before you bring strangers into my room, do me the honour to inquire whether it is my pleasure to receive you ; " so saying, he laid himself down again, and turned his back upon his unwished-for- guests.

" This is a very extraordinary reception in- deed," said a portly keen-faced personage, who had followed Sir Thomas into the room ; " but at all events, Sir Thomas, we must do our duty. My Lord, I am sorry to trouble your repose."

"You must trouble it no longer. Sir," said Langford, advancing towards him, ^'but have the goodness at once to quit the room.'*

The worshipful Justice Whistler — for he it was who had been speaking — calmly took a pair of spectacles out of his pocket, placed them on his nose, and gazed at Langford from head to foot.

" This is the young man, I take it, Sir

000 THE ROBBEIl.

Thomas," he said, turning to his companion ; and on a significant nod from Sir Thomas Wal- ler, he proceeded, "You are the personage calling yourself Henry Langford, and stand charged, I find, with the wilful murder of Ed- ward Lord Harold. On consulting with my good friend here on the subject last night, aided by the wisdom of Sir Matthew Scrope, I gave it as my decided opinion that you should be immediately committed to the county gaol, having been left too long already in circum- stances which rendered it probable that the ends of justice might be defeated."

" What is this ? what is this ? " exclaimed the Earl, starting up.

" Nothing, my Lord," replied the magistrate, " but that this young man stands committed upon a due warrant to that effect, placed in the hands of these officers behind me for execution."

" Do you know. Sir," demanded the Earl sternly ; " do you know that he is my son ?"

** We have heard something to that effect this night," rejoined the justice, in a sharp dry tone — he evidently having taken offence at the

THE ROBBER. 301

Earl's first salutation, and not having that reverence for his wealth and power which was felt by his neighbours in the country — " We have heard something to that effect this night ; but as I observed to my good friend here, that only renders the matter more probable. That your Lordship's illegitimate son — "

" He is not my illegitimate son, Sir," replied the Earl ; " he is my legitimate child by my first wife."

'' It is very awkward, certainly," answered the imperturbable Justice Whistler ; " but, nevertheless, my Lord, we cannot help it. The law must have its course ; and, as I said before, the charge is but rendered the more probable by the fact of his being your un- acknowledged son. To get an obtrusive heir out of the way is no slight inducement; but besides all that there is quite proof sufficient to justify his committal long ago. Here they are seen to draw their swords upon each other. The one rides away slowly up to the moor ; the other gets his horse and follows him at full speed, just as night is closing in. The one is killecl

302 THE ROBBER.

upon the moor, and his horse returns all bloody ! The other does not get back till late upon that night, and then is in an evident state of agi- tation. A pistol shot is heard in that direc- tion at the very time he is there, and at the very spot to which he is seen .riding. My Lord, my Lord, the matter is quite conclusive ; and though it is doubtless unpleasant, the young gentleman must to prison !"

The Earl gazed wildly but earnestly in the face of his son, with feelings which those who have read the steps he had taken to bring about the very result that now fell upon him like a thunderbolt may well conceive.

" I have done this ! " he exclaimed ; " I have done this ! Oh, my son, I am your murderer ! " and he turned away his head with an aguish shudder passing all over his frame.

Langford, however, hastened to console him. " Oh no," he said, grasping the old man's hand ; "Oh no! While you thought me guilty, you justly used all means to punish the supposed murderer of your son, but —

" You do not know, " replied the Earl, with

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that withering expression of heartfelt anguish that nothing but remorse can give. " You do not know. I have pursued you like a fiend ! Your blood will be upon my head; — my own child's blood ! "

"Not so, my Lord; not so," replied Lang- ford again. " The worst will be but a few days* imprisonment. You know my innocence; I know it too, and know that it can be proved with ease. That which gives me the greatest pain at this moment is to be deprived of the opportunity of watching by and attending you till you shall have recovered from your wounds. It grieves me, — it is dreadful to me, — to leave you to the hands of menials. My Lord, there will be one comfort to me, — one consolation in prison, which, as the first favour I have ever asked you, you must grant me. There is a lady in this vicinity, kind, and gentle, and ten- der; your son's promised bride; Mistress Alice Herbert I mean. Will you let me sit down and write her a few lines, beseeching her, during my enforced absence from my fa- ther's sick bed, to attend him as if she were

804 THE ROBBER.

his daughter. I know that it will be an office which she will love to fulfil, not more for my sake than for yours. Pray let me do so ? "

The Earl's eyes had been cast down, and the thick eyebrows had gathered heavily over them ; but he did not speak, for the knowledge of all he had done lay weighty on his heart, and took away all utterance.

Sir Thomas Waller, however, took upon him^ self to reply. " Your writing, young gentleman, would be useless," he said ; " for I am sorry to tell you that Sir Walter — who, though a hasty and passionate man, and sometimes very dis- respectful to persons fully equal to himself, is a very good man, and much liked in the country ■ — was arrested yesterday evening at the suit of the noble Earl here. Indeed he would have been arrested in the earlier part of the day, but the country people rose and rescued him."

" This, too," exclaimed the Earl, setting his teeth ; " I have done this ! I have done this ! "

" Your worthy lawyer, my Lord," continued Sir Thomas, whose mind was one of those shallow ones that cannot comprehend any deep

THE ROBBER. 305

and powerful emotion, even when they see its workings before their eyes; "your worthy lawyer, my Lord, Master Kinsight, was very roughly handled by the people, and is likely to die."

" Curse him ! " said the Earl, in a low, deep voice; " curse him ! He is one of the vile in- struments, the ready tools of wrong."

" May I ask you. Sir," interposed Langford, with no slight anxiety now thrilling in his bosom; " may I ask you, who seem to know the particulars of the whole affair, what has become of Mistress Alice Herbert, under these dis- tressing- circumstances ? "

" She chose to go with her father, I was in- formed," replied the Knight ; " I dare say Master Bolland made her pay dear for permis- sion to do so. He is not a man to grant any thing without a consideration."

" And has worthy, kind-hearted, noble Sir Walter Herbert," exclaimed Langford, with the anguish of his heart making itself apparent in every feature ; " has he fallen into the hands of that well known, that infamous knave and pecu-

VOL. II. X

306 THE ROBBER.

lator, whose very existence as an officer of the law, even though in the lowest grade of de- graded offices, is a disgrace to this free country, — whose acts make the capital of England no- torious for monstrous injustice, and for the daily infraction of every social law, of every moral feeling, and of every sacred right? Has he, — has he, — simple, unguarded, plain, and true ! — fallen into the hands of one whose whole soul is fraud, corruption, perjury, and baseness? Yet how can this be?" he continued, after a moment's pause ; " I myself furnished the money to pay this debt. I do not comprehend it."

" I have done this, loo. I have done this, too," replied the Earl, in a tone of profound despondency. " I refused to receive the money; I seized upon it as the property of a felon. Bitterly, bitterly do these things fall upon my head ; bitterly, oh, how bitterly, is the punish- ment of all coming upon me ! "

There was a deep silence, for Langford's heart was wrung, and he could give him no consolation. After a moment or two, however,

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the Earl started up in bed, exclaiming, " This, — this at least can be amended. This, — this at least can be repaired. Give me the pen and ink ; quick ! "

He was obeyed immediately, and with a trembling hand he wrote a full acquittal of all debt from Sir Walter Herbert to himself, prin- cipal and interest, — costs and charges ; nothing was omitted.

" There," he said, putting it in Langford's hands ; " there is the first act of atonement which I have been able to accomplish. Take it, my son ; take it. The writing those lines has given me the first happy moment I have known for years. Oh, misery of violent passions indulged ! thou fiery curse that makest even gratification a torment ! Had I but known — had I but known what it is to refrain ! Stay," he continued, as Langford was taking the paper, " stay. These wounds and this weakness have made my hand shake, and such men as now stand by us, cunning lawyers and wise justices as they are, may hereafter swear that the writ- X 2

308 THE ROBBER.

ing is not mine. Here, Sir Thomas Waller; here, worthy Justice Whistler; favour me by placing to this act the testimony of your hands.'

" But, my Lord," exclaimed Mr. Justice Whistler.

" But me no buts. Sir," replied the Earl, fixing his keen feverish eyes upon him ; " I know what you would say ; I know what your lawyer-like seeking for a flaw would suggest, that no consideration has been given, and that therefore the deed will not be legal. But I tell you, Sir, that a consideration has been given ; that the money in full was paid into my hand this morning, and will be found in my library, if that library have escaped the flames. Sign, Sir, sign ! that is all you have to do. Witness that this is my act and deed ! "

The two justices put their hands to the paper ; and to render Sir Thomas Waller but simple justice, he did so freely and willingly enough; not so exactly worthy Mr. Justice Whistler, who showed no slight disinclination and hesitation in even witnessing an act which

8

THE KOBBER. 309

might take a fellow creature from out of the clutches of the law. Twice, when he had got his hand to the paper, he withdrew it, and paused for a moment in thought, longing appa- rently to find some excuse or some motive for refusal. At length, however, he signed it ; and the Earl gave it to Langford, saying, " There, my son ; take it, and use it for your friend's deliverance."

" I beg your pardon, my Lord," said the Justice, again interposing; " but this gentleman will have no opportunity of acting in the matter. You had better trust it to me."

" Wonderful impudence ! " cried the Earl. " What! give meat to the harpies ! Out upon it, man ! do you think I would trust you with any feasible means of hurting your fellow creatures ?"

•' My Lord," answered the justice^ sharply, " if I am to judge by your own words lately used, your sarcasm is as much applicable to your Lordship as myself."

" You say true, man ; you say true," replied X 3

310 THE ROBBER.

the Earl. " But, though I be a wolf, I will not trust a wolf; I know you all too well. My son," he continued, turning to Langford, " are they really going to take thee from me at this painful hour ? "

" I fear, my Lord, that such is really their purpose," replied Langford. " I will not in- sult these gentlemen by saying that they know me to be innocent, though I must say that they seem very willingly blind to innocence. But they are resolved, my Lord, to carry the matter through to the last, and therefore it may be as well to bring this scene, painful and terrible as it must be to you, to an end as soon as possible."

" Stay yet a while — stay yet a while," cried the Earl, grasping the hand that he held out to him ; " I feel that it is terrible to see you go, for perhaps, my son, we may never meet again. We may never meet in this world. We may never meet in the world to come ; that dark and awful world towards which I am speeding, quickly — quickly ! "

THE ROBBER. 31 I

" Oh, say not so," replied Laiigford; " I trust, nay, I hope, — I am sure, — that my in- nocence will so speedily be made manifest by one means or another that in a very few days, perhaps a few hours, I shall again sit beside you ; and I trust then to find you better."

The Earl shook his head. " Too late found," he said; " too early lost. I now feel how I could love you. I see your mother's spirit shining out of your eyes. I see that spirit, which par- doned and gave way but too much, looking mildly upon me — upon me, who wronged both her and you so deeply; but it is all in vain." And as he spoke he pressed his hands over his eyes ; and Langford, willing to spare him any further agitation, took that moment to make a sign to Justice Whistler, signifying that he was ready, and turned towards the door.

The Earl heard his step, however, and ex- claimed, " Oh not yet, — not yet !" but Langford opened the door, and called Bertha with a loud voice.

The French woman came immediately, for

312 THE ROBBER.

she was sitting watching in the neighbouring chamber.

" Look to my father," said Langford ; " you, who were a witness of my mother's marriage, — you, who owe my race so much, — you "

'* You," she interrupted, " you would say, you who have repaid their kindness so ill "

" No," answered Langford, " such was not my thought. You, who have had a share in all the turns of my wayward fate, look to my father, now on his couch of illness, — look to him, tend him well, and if you feel that you have injured me or mine, make up for it now by keeping his mind as free from all anxiety as may be, by shutting out all that can agitate or alarm him, by speaking cheerfully and hopefully of my fate, and by teaching him that there is much yet to be done on earth, — much yet to be gained from heaven. Take this paper also. You will see its value at once. Find somebody — if there be such a being on earth — in whom you can place implicit trust. Send him to seek out Sir Walter Herbert, who is in the hands of

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the notorious, infamous John Bolland. Let liim give the paper to Sir Walter himself, requesting him, from me, to send for some lawyer of high repute in London, and not to act himself in the matter. Tell him, — tell Alice, — not to fear for me, for, being innocent, my innocence must appear. They may aid me if they find means ; but at all events I am safe in my integrity. But above all things be careful to whom you trust the paper."

" I will," she answered ; " I will ; but you will soon be able to follow out these things yourself. I know it ; I feel sure of it."

" So do 1," replied Langford ; " but Alice and Sir Walter must not languish till then Now, gentlemen, there but remains to crave a father's blessing, and then I am ready. I mean to use no threat towards you, Mr. Justice Whistler, but the time may come when the share you have had in this matter will be fully inquired into, and the legality of your pro- ceedings investigated and ascertained."

" I will look to that. Sir," replied the justice,

314 THE ROBBER.

with a calm and sneering nod of the head ; " I have taken care of myself in more difficult cir- cumstances than these, and doubtless shall be able to do so still."

Langford made no reply, but re 'entered the room where the Earl sat gazing upon the door, and listening to the sound of his voice.

The young gentleman advanced direct to- wards him, and knelt by the side of his bed. " My father," he said, " give me your blessing !"

The Earl turned away his head. " What, oh ! what is my blessing worth ! " he said ; "but be it so. My blessing, the blessing of a father's fondest affection, be upon you. I have none now but you ! "

" If you would render that blessing of effect," replied Langford, " remember that on yoiu' life and health my fate may greatly depend. Be careful, then ; cast away from you every thought and every feeling that may injure or agitate you, and strive for life and health, if not for your own sake, for your son's. Now, gentle- men, I am ready."

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The two justices and the constables accom- panied him out of the room. " What think you of it ?" asked Sir Thomas Waller, addressing his companion in a whisper as they went.

The London magistrate rephed by a peculiar contortion of countenance ; and then added, " We must make as good a case of it as we can if it be but to bear ourselves harmless."

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

London :

Printed by A. Spottiswoodi:,

New« Street- Square.

THE

ROBBER:

IN THREE VOI.UMKS.

VOL. 11.

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