Marry, he was dead—
And the right valiant Barlquo walked too late,
Whom, you may say, if it please you,
Fleance killed,
For Fleance fled!
—Macbeth.
It is a fearful thing, even to the hardiest nerves, to find ourselves suddenly alone with the dead. How much more so, if we have, but a breathing interval before, moved and conversed with the warm and living likeness of the motionless clay before us!
And this was the man from whom I had parted in coldness—almost in anger—at a word—a breath! I took up the heavy hand—it fell from my grasp, and as it did so, I thought a change passed over the livid countenance. I was deceived; it was but a light cloud flitting over the moon;—it rolled away, and the placid and guiltless light shone over that scene of dread and blood, making more wild and chilling the eternal contrast of earth and heaven—man and his Maker—passion and immutability—dust and immortality.
But that was not a moment for reflection—a thousand thoughts hurried upon me, and departed as swift and confusedly as they came. My mind seemed a jarring and benighted chaos of the faculties which were its elements; and I had stood several minutes over the corpse before, by a vigorous effort, I shook off the stupor that possessed me, and began to think of the course that it now behoved me to pursue.
The house I had noted in the morning was, I knew, within a few minutes’ walk of the spot; but it belonged to Dawson, upon whom the first weight of my suspicions rested. I called to mind the disreputable character of that man, and the still more daring and hardened one of his companion Thornton. I remembered the reluctance of the deceased to accompany them, and the well-grounded reason he assigned; and my suspicions amounting to certainty, I resolved rather to proceed to Chester Park, and there give the alarm, than to run the unnecessary risk of interrupting the murderers in the very lair of their retreat. And yet, thought I, as I turned slowly away, how, if they were the villains, is the appearance and flight of the disguised horseman to be accounted for?
Then flashed upon my recollection all that Tyrrell had said of the dogged pursuit of that mysterious person, and the circumstance of his having passed me upon the road so immediately after Tyrrell had quitted me. These reflections (associated with a name I did not dare breathe even to myself, although I could not suppress a suspicion which accounted at once for the pursuit, and even for the deed,) made me waver in, and almost renounce my former condemnation of Thornton and his friend: and by the time I reached the white gate and dwarfish avenue which led to Dawson’s house, I resolved, at all events, to halt at the solitary mansion, and mark the effect my information would cause.
A momentary fear for my own safety came across me, but was as instantly dismissed;—for even supposing the friends were guilty, still it would be no object to them to extend their remorseless villany to me; and I knew that I could sufficiently command my own thoughts to prevent any suspicion I might form, from mounting to my countenance, or discovering itself in my manner.
There was a light in the upper story; it burned still and motionless. How holy seemed the tranquillity of life, to the forced and fearful silence of the death scene I had just witnessed! I rung twice at the door—no one came to answer my summons, but the light in the upper window moved hurriedly to and fro.
“They are coming,” said I to myself. No such thing—the casement above was opened—I looked up, and discovered, to my infinite comfort and delight, a blunderbuss protruded eight inches out of the window in a direct line with my head; I receded close to the wall with no common precipitation.
“Get away, you rascal,” said a gruff, but trembling voice, “or I’ll blow your brains out.”
“My good Sir,” I replied, still keeping my situation, “I come on urgent business, either to Mr. Thornton or Mr. Dawson; and you had better, therefore, if the delay is not very inconvenient, defer the honour you offer me, till I have delivered my message.”
“Master, and ‘Squire Thornton are not returned from Newmarket, and we cannot let any one in till they come home,” replied the voice, in a tone somewhat mollified by my rational remonstrance; and while I was deliberating what rejoinder to make, a rough, red head, like Liston’s, in a farce, poked itself cautiously out under cover of the blunderbuss, and seemed to reconnoitre my horse and myself. Presently another head, but attired in the more civilized gear of a cap and flowers, peeped over the first person’s left shoulder; the view appeared to reassure them.
“Sir,” said the female, “my husband and Mr. Thornton are not returned; and we have been so much alarmed of late, by an attack on the house, that I cannot admit any one till their return.”
“Madam,” I replied, reverently doffing my hat, “I do not like to alarm you by mentioning the information I should have given to Mr. Dawson; only oblige me by telling them, on their return, to look beside the pool on the common; they will then do as best pleases them.”
Upon this speech, which certainly was of no agreeable tendency, the blunderbuss palpitated so violently, that I thought it highly imprudent to tarry any longer in so immediate a vicinity; accordingly, I made the best of my way out of the avenue, and once more resumed my road to Chester Park.
I arrived there at length; the gentlemen were still in the dining-room. I sent out for Lord Chester, and communicated the scene I had witnessed, and the cause of my delay.
“What, Brown Bob lamed?” said he, “and Tyrrell—poor—poor fellow, how shocking! we must send instantly. Here, John! Tom! Wilson!” and his lordship shouted and rung the bell in an indescribable agitation.
The under butler appeared, and Lord Chester began—“My head groom—Sir John Tyrrell is murdered—violent sprain in off leg—send lights with Mr. Pelham—poor gentleman—an express instantly to Dr. Physicon—Mr. Pelham will tell you all—Brown Bob—his throat cut from ear to ear—what shall be done?” and with this coherent and explanatory harangue, the marquis sunk down in his chair in a sort of hysteria.
The under butler looked at him in suspicious bewilderment. “Come,” said I, “I will explain what his lordship means:” and, taking the man out of the room, I gave him, in brief, the necessary particulars. I ordered a fresh horse for myself, and four horsemen to accompany me. While these were preparing, the news was rapidly spreading, and I was soon surrounded by the whole house. Many of the men wished to accompany me; and Lord Chester, who had at last recovered from his stupor, insisted upon heading the search. We set off, to the number of fourteen, and soon arrived at Dawson’s house: the light in the upper room was still burning. We rang, and after a brief pause, Thornton himself opened the door to us. He looked pale and agitated.
“How shocking!” he said directly—“we are only just returned from the spot.”
“Accompany us, Mr. Thornton,” said I, sternly; and fixing my eye upon him—
“Certainly,” was his immediate answer, without testifying any confusion—“I will fetch my hat.” He went into the house for a moment.
“Do you suspect these people?” whispered Lord Chester.
“Not suspect,” said I, “but doubt.”
We proceeded down the avenue: “Where is Mr. Dawson?” said I to Thornton.
“Oh, within!” answered Thornton.
“Shall I fetch him?”
“Do,” was my brief reply.
Thornton was absent some minutes; when he re-appeared, Dawson was following him. “Poor fellow,” said he to me in a low tone—“he was so shocked by the sight, that he is still all in a panic; besides, as you will see, he is half drunk still.”
I made no answer, but looked narrowly at Dawson; he was evidently, as Thornton said, greatly intoxicated: his eyes swam, and his feet staggered as he approached us; yet, through all the natural effects of drunkenness, he seemed nervous and frightened. This, however, might be the natural, and consequently innocent effect, of the mere sight of an object so full of horror; and, accordingly, I laid little stress upon it.
We reached the fatal spot: the body seemed perfectly unmoved. “Why,” said I, apart to Thornton, while all the rest were crowding fearfully round the corpse—“why did you not take the body within?”
“I was going to return here with our servant for that purpose,” answered the gambler; “for poor Dawson was both too drunk and too nervous to give me any assistance.”
“And how came it,” I rejoined, eyeing him searchingly, “that you and your friend had not returned home when I called there, although you had both long since passed me on the road, and I had never overtaken you?”
Thornton, without any hesitation, replied—“because, during the violence of the shower, we cut across the fields to an old shed, which we recollected, and we remained there till the rain had ceased.”
“They are probably innocent,” thought I—and I turned to look once more at the body which our companions had now raised. There was upon the head a strong contusion, as if inflicted by some blunt and heavy instrument. The fingers of the right hand were deeply gashed, and one of them almost dissevered: the unfortunate man had, in all probability, grasped the sharp weapon from which his other wounds proceeded; these were one wide cut along the throat, and another in the side; either of them would have occasioned his death.
In loosening the clothes another wound was discovered, but apparently of a less fatal nature; and in lifting the body, the broken blade of a long sharp instrument, like a case-knife, was discovered. It was the opinion of the surgeon, who afterwards examined the body, that the blade had been broken by coming in contact with one of the rib bones; and it was by this that he accounted for the slightness of the last mentioned wound. I looked carefully among the fern and long grass, to see if I could discover any other token of the murderer: Thornton assisted me. At the distance of some feet from the body, I thought I perceived something glitter. I hastened to the place, and picked up a miniature. I was just going to cry out, when Thornton whispered—“Hush! I know the picture; it is as I suspected.”
An icy thrill ran through my very heart. With a desperate but trembling hand, I cleansed from the picture the blood, in which, notwithstanding its distance from the corpse, the grater part of it was bathed. I looked upon the features; they were those of a young and singularly beautiful female. I recognized them not: I turned to the other side of the miniature; upon it were braided two locks of hair—one was the long, dark ringlet of a woman, the other was of a light auburn. Beneath were four letters. I looked eagerly at them. “My eyes are dim,” said I, in a low tone to Thornton, “I cannot trace the initials.”
“But I can,” replied he, in the same whispered key, but with a savage exultation, which made my heart stand still—“they are G. D., R. G.; they are the initials of Gertrude Douglas and Reginald Glanville.”
I looked up at the speaker—our eyes met—I grasped his hand vehemently. He understood me. “Put it up,” said he; “we will keep the secret.” All this, so long in the recital, passed in the rapidity of a moment.
“Have you found any thing there, Pelham?” shouted one of our companions.
“No!” cried I, thrusting the miniature in my bosom, and turning unconcernedly away.
We carried the corpse to Dawson’s house. The poor wife was in fits. We heard her scream as we laid the body upon a table in the parlour.
“What more can be done?” said Lord Chester.
“Nothing,” was the general answer. No excitation makes the English people insensible to the chance of catching cold!
“Let us go home, then, and send to the nearest magistrate,” exclaimed our host: and this proposal required no repetition.
On our way, Chester said to me, “That fellow Dawson looked devilish uneasy—don’t you still suspect him and his friend?”
“I do not!” answered I, emphatically.
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