Amidst the darkening shadows of twilight, Randal Leslie walked through Lansmere Park towards the house. He had slunk away before the poll was closed,—crept through bylanes, and plunged into the leafless copses of the earl’s stately pasture-grounds. Amidst the bewilderment of his thoughts—at a loss to conjecture how this strange mischance had befallen him, inclined to ascribe it to Leonard’s influence over Avenel, but suspecting Harley, and half doubtful of Baron Levy—he sought to ascertain what fault of judgment he himself had committed, what wile he had forgotten, what thread in his web he had left ragged and incomplete. He could discover none. His ability seemed to him unimpeachable,—totus, teres, atque rotundas. And then there came across his breast a sharp pang,—sharper than that of baffled ambition,—the feeling that he had been deceived and bubbled and betrayed. For so vital a necessity to all living men is TRUTH, that the vilest traitor feels amazed and wronged, feels the pillars of the world shaken, when treason recoils on himself. “That Richard Avenel, whom I trusted, could so deceive me!” murmured Randal, and his lip quivered.
He was still in the midst of the Park, when a man with a yellow cockade in his hat, and running fast from the direction of the town, overtook him with a letter, on delivering which the messenger, waiting for no answer, hastened back the way he had come. Randal recognized Avenel’s hand on the address, broke the seal, and read as follows:
(Private and Confidential.)
DEAR LESLIE,—Don’t be down-hearted,—you will know to-night or
to-morrow why I have had cause to alter my opinion as to the Right
Honourable; and you will see that I could not, as a Family Man, act
otherwise than I have done. Though I have not broken my word to
you,—for you remember that all the help I promised was dependent on
my own resignation, and would go for nothing if Leonard resigned
instead,—yet I feel you must think yourself rather bamboozled. But
I have been obliged to sacrifice you, from a sense of Family Duty,
as you will soon acknowledge. My own nephew is sacrificed also; and
I have sacrificed my own concerns, which require the whole man of me
for the next year or two at Screwstown. So we are all in the same
boat, though you may think you are set adrift by yourself. But I
don’t mean to stay in parliament. I shall take the Chiltern
Hundreds, pretty considerable soon. And if you keep well with the
Blues, I’ll do my best with the Yellows to let you walk over the
course in my stead. For I don’t think Leonard will want to stand
again. And so a word to the wise,—and you may yet be member for
Lansmere.
R. A.
In this letter, Randal, despite all his acuteness, could not detect the honest compunction of the writer. He could at first only look at the worst side of human nature, and fancy that it was a paltry attempt to stifle his just anger and ensure his discretion; but, on second thoughts, it struck him that Dick might very naturally be glad to be released to his mill, and get a quid pro quo out of Randal, under the comprehensive title, “repayment of expenses.” Perhaps Dick was not sorry to wait until Randal’s marriage gave him the means to make the repayment. Nay, perhaps Randal had been thrown over for the present, in order to wring from him better terms in a single election. Thus reasoning, he took comfort from his belief in the mercenary motives of another. True; it might be but a short disappointment. Before the next parliament was a month old, he might yet take his seat in it as member for Lansmere. But all would depend on his marriage with the heiress; he must hasten that.
Meanwhile, it was necessary to knit and gather up all his thought, courage, and presence of mind. How he shrunk from return to Lansmere House,—from facing Egerton, Harley, all. But there was no choice. He would have to make it up with the Blues,—to defend the course he had adopted in the Committee-room. There, no doubt, was Squire Hazeldean awaiting him with the purchase-money for the lands of Rood; there was the Duke di Serrano, restored to wealth and honour; there was his promised bride, the great heiress, on whom depended all that could raise the needy gentleman into wealth and position. Gradually, with the elastic temper that is essential to a systematic schemer, Randal Leslie plucked himself from the pain of brooding over a plot that was defeated, to prepare himself for consummating those that yet seemed so near success. After all, should he fail in regaining Egerton’s favour, Egerton was of use no more. He might rear his head, and face out what some might call “ingratitude,” provided he could but satisfy the Blue Committee. Dull dogs, how could he fail to do that! He could easily talk over the Machiavellian sage. He should have small difficulty in explaining all to the content of Audley’s distant brother, the squire. Harley alone—but Levy had so positively assured him that Harley was not sincerely anxious for Egerton; and as to the more important explanation relative to Peschiera, surely what had satisfied Violante’s father ought to satisfy a man who had no peculiar right to demand explanations at all; and if these explanations did not satisfy, the onus to disprove them must rest with Harley; and who or what could contradict Randal’s plausible assertions,—assertions in support of which he himself could summon a witness in Baron Levy? Thus nerving himself to all that could task his powers, Randal Leslie crossed the threshold of Lansmere House, and in the hall he found the baron awaiting him.
“I can’t account,” said Levy, “for what has gone so cross in this confounded election. It is L’Estrange that puzzles me; but I know that he hates Egerton. I know that he will prove that hate by one mode of revenge, if he has lost it in another. But it is well, Randal, that you are secure of Hazeldean’s money and the rich heiress’s hand; otherwise—”
“Otherwise, what?”
“I should wash my hands of you, mon cher; for, in spite of all your cleverness, and all I have tried to do for you, somehow or other I begin to suspect that your talents will never secure your fortune. A carpenter’s son beats you in public speaking, and a vulgar mill-owner tricks you in private negotiation. Decidedly, as yet, Randal Leslie, you are—a failure. And, as you so admirably said, ‘a man from whom we have nothing to hope or fear we must blot out of the map of the future.’”
Randal’s answer was cut short by the appearance of the groom of the chambers.
“My Lord is in the saloon, and requests you and Mr. Leslie will do him the honour to join him there.” The two gentlemen followed the servant up the broad stairs.
The saloon formed the centre room of the suite of apartments. From its size, it was rarely used save on state occasions. It had the chilly and formal aspect of rooms reserved for ceremony.
Riccabocca, Violante, Helen, Mr. Dale, Squire Hazeldean, and Lord L’Estrange were grouped together by the cold Florentine marble table, not littered with books and female work, and the endearing signs of habitation, that give a living smile to the face of home; nothing thereon save a great silver candelabrum, that scarcely lighted the spacious room, and brought out the portraits on the walls as a part of the assembly, looking, as portraits do look, with searching, curious eyes upon every eye that turns to them.
But as soon as Randal entered, the squire detached himself from the group, and, coming to the defeated candidate, shook hands with him heartily.
“Cheer up, my boy; ‘t is no shame to be beaten. Lord L’Estrange says you did your best to win, and man can do no more. And I’m glad, Leslie, that we don’t meet for our little business till the election is over; for, after annoyance, something pleasant is twice as acceptable. I’ve the money in my pocket. Hush! and I say, my dear, dear boy, I cannot find out where Frank is, but it is really all off with that foreign woman, eh?”
“Yes, indeed, sir, I hope so. I’ll talk to you about it when we can be alone. We may slip away presently, I trust.”
“I’ll tell you a secret scheme of mine and Harry’s,” said the squire, in a still low whisper. “We, must drive that marchioness, or whatever she is, out of the boy’s head, and put a pretty English girl into it instead. That will settle him in life too. And I must try and swallow that bitter pill of the post-obit. Harry makes worse of it than I do, and is so hard on the poor fellow that I’ve been obliged to take his part. I’ve no idea of being under petticoat government, it is not the way with the Hazeldeans. Well, but to come back to the point: Whom do you think I mean by the pretty girl?”
“Miss Sticktorights?”
“Zounds, no!—your own little sister, Randal. Sweet pretty face! Harry liked her from the first, and then you’ll be Frank’s brother, and your sound head and good heart will keep him right. And as you are going to be married too (you must tell me all about that later), why, we shall have two marriages, perhaps, in the family on the same day.”
Randal’s hand grasped the squire’s, and with an emotion of human gratitude,—for we know that, hard to all else, he had natural feelings for his fallen family; and his neglected sister was the one being on earth whom he might almost be said to love. With all his intellectual disdain for honest simple Frank, he knew no one in the world with whom his young sister could be more secure and happy. Transferred to the roof, and improved by the active kindness, of Mrs. Hazeldean, blest in the manly affection of one not too refined to censure her own deficiencies of education, what more could he ask for his sister, as he pictured her to himself, with her hair hanging over her ears, and her mind running into seed over some trashy novel. But before he could reply, Violante’s father came to add his own philosophical consolations to the squire’s downright comfortings.
“Who could ever count on popular caprice? The wise of all ages had despised it. In that respect, Horace and Machiavelli were of the same mind,” etc. “But,” said the duke, with emphatic kindness “perhaps your very misfortune here may serve you elsewhere. The female heart is prone to pity, and ever eager to comfort. Besides, if I am recalled to Italy, you will have leisure to come with us, and see the land where, of all others, ambition can be most readily forgotten, even” added the Italian with a sigh—“even by her own sons!”
Thus addressed by both Hazeldean and the duke, Randal recovered his spirits. It was clear that Lord L’Estrange had not conveyed to them any unfavourable impression of his conduct in the Committee-room. While Randal had been thus engaged, Levy had made his way to Harley, who retreated with the baron into the bay of the great window.
“Well, my Lord, do you comprehend this conduct on the part of Richard Avenel? He secure Egerton’s return!—he!”
“What so natural, Baron Levy,—his own brother-in-law?” The baron started, and turned very pale.
“But how did he know that? I never told him. I meant indeed—”
“Meant, perhaps, to shame Egerton’s pride at the last by publicly declaring his marriage with a shopkeeper’s daughter. A very good revenge still left to you; but revenge for what? A word with you, now, Baron, that our acquaintance is about to close forever. You know why I have cause for resentment against Egerton. I do but suspect yours; will you make it clear to me?”
“My Lord, my Lord,” faltered Baron Levy, “I, too, wooed Nora Avenel as my wife; I, too, had a happier rival in the haughty worldling who did not appreciate his own felicity; I too—in a word, some women inspire an affection that mingles with the entire being of a man, and is fused with all the currents of his life-blood. Nora Avenel was one of those women.”
Harley was startled. This burst of emotion from a man so corrupt and cynical arrested even the scorn he felt for the usurer. Levy soon recovered himself. “But our revenge is not baffled yet. Egerton, if not already in my power, is still in yours. His election may save him from arrest, but the law has other modes of public exposure and effectual ruin.”
“For the knave, yes,—as I intimated to you in your own house,—you who boast of your love to Nora Avenel, and know in your heart that you were her destroyer; you who witnessed her marriage, and yet dared to tell her that she was dishonoured!”
“My Lord—I—how could you know—I mean, how think that—that—” faltered Levy, aghast.
“Nora Avenel has spoken from her grave,” replied Harley, solemnly. “Learn that, wherever man commits a crime, Heaven finds a witness!”
“It is on me, then,” said Levy, wrestling against a superstitious thrill at his heart—“on me that you now concentre your vengeance; and I must meet it as I may. But I have fulfilled my part of our compact. I have obeyed you implicitly—and—”
“I will fulfil my part of our bond, and leave you undisturbed in your wealth.”
“I knew I might trust to your Lordship’s honour,” exclaimed the usurer, in servile glee.
“And this vile creature nursed the same passions as myself; and but yesterday we were partners in the same purpose, and influenced by the same thought!” muttered Harley to himself. “Yes,” he said aloud, “I dare not, Baron Levy, constitute myself your judge. Pursue your own path,—all roads meet at last before the common tribunal. But you are not yet released from our compact; you must do some good in spite of yourself. Look yonder, where Randal Leslie stands, smiling secure, between the two dangers he has raised up for himself. And as Randal Leslie himself has invited me to be his judge, and you are aware that he cited yourself this very day as his witness, here I must expose the guilty; for here the innocent still live, and need defence.”
Harley turned away, and took his place by the table. “I have wished,” said he, raising his voice, “to connect with the triumph of my earliest and dearest friend the happiness of others in whose welfare I feel an interest. To you, Alphonso, Duke of Serrano, I now give this despatch, received last evening by a special messenger from the Prince Von ———, announcing your restoration to your lands and honours.”
The squire stared with open mouth. “Rickeybockey a duke? Why, Jemima’s a duchess! Bless me, she is actually crying!” And his good heart prompted him to run to his cousin and cheer her up a bit.
Violante glanced at Harley, and flung herself on her father’s breast. Randal involuntarily rose, and moved to the duke’s chair.
“And you, Mr. Randal Leslie,” continued Harley, “though you have lost your election, see before you at this moment such prospects of wealth and happiness, that I shall only have to offer you congratulations to which those that greet Mr. Audley Egerton may well appear lukewarm and insipid, provided you prove that you have not forfeited the right to claim that promise which the Duke di Serrano has accorded to the suitor of his daughter’s hand. Some doubts resting on my mind, you have volunteered to dispel them. I have the duke’s permission to address to you a few questions, and I now avail myself of your offer to reply to them.”
“Now,—and here, my Lord?” said Randal, glancing round the room, as if deprecating the presence of so many witnesses. “Now,—and here. Nor are those present so strange to your explanations as your question would imply. Mr. Hazeldean, it so happens that much of what I shall say to Mr. Leslie concerns your son.”
Randal’s countenance fell. An uneasy tremor now seized him.
“My son! Frank? Oh, then, of course, Randal will speak out. Speak, my boy!”
Randal remained silent. The duke looked at his working face, and drew away his chair.
“Young man, can you hesitate?” said he. “A doubt is expressed which involves your honour.”
“‘s death!” cried the squire, also gazing on Randal’s cowering eye and quivering lip, “what are you afraid of?”
“Afraid!” said Randal, forced into speech, and with a hollow laugh—“afraid?—I? What of? I was only wondering what Lord L’Estrange could mean.”
“I will dispel that wonder at once. Mr. Hazeldean, your son displeased you first by his proposals of marriage to the Marchesa di Negra against your consent; secondly, by a post-obit bond granted to Baron Levy. Did you understand from Mr. Randal Leslie that he had opposed or favoured the said marriage,—that he had countenanced or blamed the said post-obit?”
“Why, of course,” cried the squire, “that he had opposed both the one and the other.”
“Is it so, Mr. Leslie?”
“My Lord—I—I—my affection for Frank, and my esteem for his respected father—I—I—” (He nerved himself, and went on with firm voice)—“Of course, I did all I could to dissuade Frank from the marriage; and as to the post-obit, I know nothing about it.”
“So much at present for this matter. I pass on to the graver one, that affects your engagement with the Duke di Serrano’s daughter. I understand from you, Duke, that to save your daughter from the snares of Count di Peschiera, and in the belief that Mr. Leslie shared in your dread of the count’s designs, you, while in exile and in poverty, promised to that gentleman your daughter’s hand? When the probabilities of restoration to your principalities seemed well-nigh certain, you confirmed that promise on learning from Mr. Leslie that he had, however ineffectively, struggled to preserve your heiress from a perfidious snare. Is it not so?”
“Certainly. Had I succeeded to a throne, I could not recall the promise that I had given in penury and banishment; I could not refuse to him who would have sacrificed worldly ambition in wedding a penniless bride, the reward of his own generosity. My daughter subscribes to my views.”
Violante trembled, and her hands were locked together; but her gaze was fixed on Harley.
Mr. Dale wiped his eyes, and thought of the poor refugee feeding on minnows, and preserving himself from debt amongst the shades of the Casino.
“Your answer becomes you, Duke,” resumed Harley. “But should it be proved that Mr. Leslie, instead of wooing the princess for herself, actually calculated on the receipt of money for transferring her to Count Peschiera; instead of saving her from the dangers you dreaded, actually suggested the snare from which she was delivered,—would you still deem your honour engaged to—”
“Such a villain? No, surely not!” exclaimed the duke. “But this is a groundless hypothesis! Speak, Randal.”
“Lord L’Estrange cannot insult me by deeming it otherwise than a groundless hypothesis!” said Randal, striving to rear his head.
“I understand then, Mr. Leslie, that you scornfully reject such a supposition?”
“Scornfully—yes. And,” continued Randal, advancing a step, “since the supposition has been made, I demand from Lord L’Estrange, as his equal (for all gentlemen are equals where honour is to be defended at the cost of life), either instant retractation—or instant proof.”
“That’s the first word you have spoken like a man,” cried the squire. “I have stood my ground myself for a less cause. I have had a ball through my right shoulder.”
“Your demand is just,” said Harley, unmoved. “I cannot give the retractation,—I will produce the proof.”
He rose and rang the bell; the servant entered, received his whispered order, and retired. There was a pause painful to all. Randal, however, ran over in his fearful mind what evidence could be brought against him—and foresaw none. The folding doors of the saloon were thrown open and the servant announced—
THE COUNT DI PESCHIERA.
A bombshell, descending through the roof could not have produced a more startling sensation. Erect, bold, with all the imposing effect of his form and bearing, the count strode into the centre of the ring; and after a slight bend of haughty courtesy, which comprehended all present, reared up his lofty head, and looked round, with calm in his eye and a curve on his lip,—the self-assured, magnificent, high-bred Daredevil.
“Duke di Serrano,” said the count, in English, turning towards his astounded kinsman, and in a voice that, slow, clear, and firm, seemed to fill the room, “I returned to England on the receipt of a letter from my Lord L’Estrange, and with a view, it is true, of claiming at his hands the satisfaction which men of our birth accord to each other, where affront, from what cause soever, has been given or received. Nay, fair kinswoman,”—and the count, with a slight but grave smile, bowed to Violante, who had uttered a faint cry,—“that intention is abandoned. If I have adopted too lightly the old courtly maxim, that ‘all stratagems are fair in love,’ I am bound also to yield to my Lord L’Estrange’s arguments, that the counter-stratagems must be fair also. And, after all, it becomes me better to laugh at my own sorry figure in defeat, than to confess myself gravely mortified by an ingenuity more successful than my own.” The count paused, and his eye lightened with sinister fire, which ill suited the raillery of his tone and the polished ease of his bearing. “Ma foi!” he continued, “it is permitted me to speak thus, since at least I have given proofs of my indifference to danger, and my good fortune when exposed to it. Within the last six years I have had the honour to fight nine duels, and the regret to wound five, and dismiss from the world four, as gallant and worthy gentlemen as ever the sun shone upon.”
“Monster!” faltered the parson.
The squire stared aghast, and mechanically rubbed the shoulder which had been lacerated by Captain Dashinore’s bullet. Randal’s pale face grew yet more pale, and the eye he had fixed upon the count’s hardy visage quailed and fell.
“But,” resumed the count, with a graceful wave of the hand, “I have to thank my Lord L’Estrange for reminding me that a man whose courage is above suspicion is privileged not only to apologize if he has injured another, but to accompany apology with atonement. Duke of Serrano, it is for that purpose that I am here. My Lord, you have signified your wish to ask me some questions of serious import as regards the duke and his daughter; I will answer them without reserve.”
“Monsieur le Comte,” said Harley, “availing myself of your courtesy, I presume to inquire who informed you that this young lady was a guest under my father’s roof?”
“My informant stands yonder,—Mr. Randal Leslie; and I call upon Baron Levy to confirm my statement.”
“It is true,” said the baron, slowly, and as if overmastered by the tone and mien of an imperious chieftain.
There came a low sound like a hiss from Randal’s livid lips.
“And was Mr. Leslie acquainted with your project for securing the person and hand of your young kinswoman?”
“Certainly,—and Baron Levy knows it.” The baron bowed assent. “Permit me to add—for it is due to a lady nearly related to myself—that it was, as I have since learned, certain erroneous representations made to her by Mr. Leslie which alone induced that lady, after my own arguments had failed, to lend her aid to a project which otherwise she would have condemned as strongly as, Duke di Serrano, I now with unfeigned sincerity do myself condemn it.”
There was about the count, as he thus spoke, so much of that personal dignity which, whether natural or artificial, imposes for the moment upon human judgment,—a dignity so supported by the singular advantages of his superb stature, his handsome countenance, his patrician air,—that the duke, moved by his good heart, extended his hand to the perfidious kinsman, and forgot all the Machiavellian wisdom which should have told him how little a man of the count’s hardened profligacy was likely to be influenced by any purer motives, whether to frank confession or to manly repentance. The count took the hand thus extended to him, and bowed his face, perhaps to conceal the smile which would have betrayed his secret soul. Randal still remained mute, and pale as death. His tongue clove to his mouth. He felt that all present were shrinking from his side. At last, with a violent effort, he faltered out, in broken sentences,
“A charge so sudden may well—may well confound me. But—but—who can credit it? Both the law and commonsense pre-suppose some motive for a criminal action; what could be my motive here? I—myself the suitor for the hand of the duke’s daughter—I betray her! Absurd—absurd! Duke, Duke, I put it to your own knowledge of mankind whoever goes thus against his own interest—and—and his own heart?”
This appeal, however feebly made, was not without effect on the philosopher. “That is true,” said the duke, dropping his kinsman’s hand; “I see no motive.”
“Perhaps,” said Harley, “Baron Levy may here enlighten us. Do you know of any motive of self-interest that could have actuated Mr. Leslie in assisting the count’s schemes?”
Levy hesitated. The count took up the word. “Pardieu!” said he, in his clear tone of determination and will—“pardieu! I can have no doubt thrown on my assertion, least of all by those who know of its truth; and I call upon you, Baron Levy, to state whether, in case of my marriage with the duke’s daughter, I had not agreed to present my sister with a sum, to which she alleged some ancient claim, and which would have passed through your hands?”
“Certainly, that is true,” said the baron.
“And would Mr. Leslie have benefited by any portion of that sum?”
Levy paused again.
“Speak, sir,” said the count, frowning.
“The fact is,” said the baron, “that Mr. Leslie was anxious to complete a purchase of certain estates that had once belonged to his family, and that the count’s marriage with the signora, and his sister’s marriage with Mr. Hazeldean, would have enabled me to accommodate Mr. Leslie with a loan to effect that purchase.”
“What! what!” exclaimed the squire, hastily buttoning his breast-pocket with one hand, while he seized Randal’s arm with the other—“my son’s marriage! You lent yourself to that, too? Don’t look so like a lashed hound! Speak out like a man, if man you be!”
“Lent himself to that, my good sir!” said the count. “Do you suppose that the Marchesa di Negra could have condescended to an alliance with a Mr. Hazeldean—”
“Condescended! a Hazeldean of Hazeldean!” exclaimed the squire, turning fiercely, and half choked with indignation. “Unless,” continued the count, imperturbably, “she had been compelled by circumstances to do that said Mr. Hazeldean the honour to accept a pecuniary accommodation, which she had no other mode to discharge? And here, sir, the family of Hazeldean, I am bound to say, owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Leslie; for it was he who most forcibly represented to her the necessity for this misalliance; and it was he, I believe, who suggested to my friend the baron the mode by which Mr. Hazeldean was best enabled to afford the accommodation my sister deigned to accept.”
“Mode! the post-obit!” ejaculated the squire, relinquishing his hold of Randal to lay his gripe upon Levy.
The baron shrugged his shoulders. “Any friend of Mr. Frank Hazeldean’s would have recommended the same, as the most economical mode of raising money.”
Parson Dale, who had at first been more shocked than any one present at these gradual revelations of Randal’s treachery, now turning his eyes towards the young man, was so seized with commiseration at the sight of Randal’s face, that he laid his hand on Harley’s arm, and whispered him, “Look, look at that countenance!—and one so young! Spare him, spare him!”
“Mr. Leslie,” said Harley, in softened tones, “believe me that nothing short of justice to the Duke di Serrano—justice even to my young friend Mr. Hazeldean—has compelled me to this painful duty. Here let all inquiry terminate.”
“And,” said the count, with exquisite blandness, “since I have been informed by my Lord L’Estrange that Mr. Leslie has represented as a serious act on his part that personal challenge to myself, which I understood was but a pleasant and amicable arrangement in our baffled scheme, let me assure Mr. Leslie that if he be not satisfied with the regret that I now express for the leading share I have taken in these disclosures, I am wholly at Mr. Leslie’s service.”
“Peace, homicide,” cried the parson, shuddering; and he glided to the side of the detected sinner, from whom all else had recoiled in loathing.
Craft against craft, talent against talent, treason against treason—in all this Randal Leslie would have risen superior to Giulio di Peschiera. But what now crushed him was not the superior intellect,—it was the sheer brute power of audacity and nerve. Here stood the careless, unblushing villain, making light of his guilt, carrying it away from disgust itself, with resolute look and front erect. There stood the abler, subtler, profounder criminal, cowering, abject, pitiful; the power of mere intellectual knowledge shivered into pieces against the brazen metal with which the accident of constitution often arms some ignobler nature.
The contrast was striking, and implied that truth so universally felt, yet so little acknowledged in actual life, that men with audacity and force of character can subdue and paralyze those far superior to themselves in ability and intelligence. It was these qualities which made Peschiera Randal’s master; nay, the very physical attributes of the count, his very voice and form, his bold front and unshrinking eye, overpowered the acuter mind of the refining schemer, as in a popular assembly some burly Cleon cows into timorous silence every dissentient sage. But Randal turned in sullen impatience from the parson’s whisper, that breathed comfort or urged repentance; and at length said, with clearer tones than he had yet mustered,
“It is not a personal conflict with the Count di Peschiera that can vindicate my honour; and I disdain to defend myself against the accusations of a usurer, and of a mam who—”
“Monsieur!” said the count, drawing himself up.
“A man who,” persisted Randal, though he trembled visibly, “by his own confession, was himself guilty of all the schemes in which he would represent me as his accomplice, and who now, not clearing himself, would yet convict another—”
“Cher petit monsieur!” said the count, with his grand air of disdain, “when men like me make use of men like you, we reward them for a service if rendered, or discard them if the service be not done; and if I condescend to confess and apologize for any act I have committed, surely Mr. Randal Leslie might do the same without disparagement to his dignity. But I should never, sir, have taken the trouble to appear against you, had you not, as I learn, pretended to the hand of the lady whom I had hoped, with less presumption, to call my bride; and in this, how can I tell that you have not tricked and betrayed me? Is there anything in our past acquaintance that warrants me to believe that, instead of serving me, you sought but to serve yourself? Be that as it may, I had but one mode of repairing to the head of my house the wrongs I have done him, and that was by saving his daughter from a derogatory alliance with an impostor who had abetted my schemes for hire, and who now would filch for himself their fruit.”
“Duke!” exclaimed Randal.
The duke turned his back. Randal extended his hands to the squire. “Mr. Hazeldean—what? you, too, condemn me, and unheard?”
“Unheard!—zounds, no! If you have anything to say, speak truth, and shame the devil.”
“I abet Frank’s marriage! I sanction the post-obit! Oh!” cried Randal, clinging to a straw, “if Frank himself were but here!”
Harley’s compassion vanished before this sustained hypocrisy.
“You wish for the presence of Frank Hazeldean? It is just.” Harley opened the door of the inner room, and Frank appeared at the entrance.
“My son! my son!” cried the squire, rushing forward, and clasping Frank to his broad, fatherly breast.
This affecting incident gave a sudden change to the feelings of the audience, and for a moment Randal himself was forgotten. The young man seized that moment. Reprieved, as it were, from the glare of contemptuous, accusing eyes, slowly he crept to the door, slowly and noiselessly, as the viper, when it is wounded, drops its crest and glides writhing through the grass. Levy followed him to the threshold, and whispered in his ear,
“I could not help it,—you would have done the same by me. You see you have failed in everything; and when a man fails completely, we both agreed that we must give him up altogether.”
Randal said not a word, and the baron marked his shadow fall on the broad stairs, stealing down, down, step after step, till it faded from the stones.
“But he was of some use,” muttered Levy. “His treachery and his exposure will gall the childless Egerton. Some little revenge still!”
The count touched the arm of the musing usurer,
“J’ai bien joue mon role, n’est ce pas?”—(I have well played my part, have I not?)
“Your part! Ah, but, my dear count, I do not quite understand it.”
“Ma foi, you are passably dull. I had just been landed in France, when a letter from L’Estrange reached me. It was couched as an invitation, which I interpreted to—the duello. Such invitations I never refuse. I replied: I came hither, took my lodgings at an inn. My Lord seeks me last night.
“I begin in the tone you may suppose. Pardieu! he is clever, milord! He shows me a letter from the Prince Von ——-, Alphonse’s recall, my own banishment. He places before me, but with admirable suavity, the option of beggary and ruin, or an honourable claim on Alphonso’s gratitude. And as for that petit monsieur, do you think I could quietly contemplate my own tool’s enjoyment of all I had lost myself? Nay, more, if that young Harpagon were Alphonso’s son-inlaw, could the duke have a whisperer at his ear more fatal to my own interests? To be brief, I saw at a glance my best course. I have adopted it. The difficulty was to extricate myself as became a man de sang et de jeu. If I have done so, congratulate me. Alphonso has taken my hand, and I now leave it to him to attend to my fortunes, and clear up my repute.”
“If you are going to London,” said Levy, “my carriage, ere this, must be at the door, and I shall be proud to offer you a seat, and converse with you on your prospects. But, peste, mon cher, your fall has been from a great height, and any other man would have broken his bones.”
“Strength is ever light,” said the count, smiling; “and it does not fall; it leaps down and rebounds.”
Levy looked at the count, and blamed himself for having disparaged Peschiera and overrated Randal.
While this conference went on, Harley was by Violante’s side.
“I have kept my promise to you,” said he, with a kind of tender humility. “Are you still so severe on me?”
“Ah,” answered Violante, gazing on his noble brow, with all a woman’s pride in her eloquent, admiring eyes, “I have heard from Mr. Dale that you have achieved a conquest over yourself, which makes me ashamed to think that I presumed to doubt how your heart would speak when a moment of wrath (though of wrath so just) had passed away.”
“No, Violante, do not acquit me yet; witness my revenge (for I have not foregone it), and then let my heart speak, and breathe its prayer that the angel voice, which it now beats to hear, may still be its guardian monitor.”
“What is this?” cried an amazed voice; and Harley, turning round, saw that the duke was by his side; and, glancing with ludicrous surprise, now to Harley, now to Violante, “Am I to understand that you—”
“Have freed you from one suitor for this dear hand, to become myself your petitioner!”
“Corpo di Bacco!” cried the sage, almost embracing Harley, “this, indeed, is joyful news. But I must not again make a rash pledge,—not again force my child’s inclinations. And Violante; you see, is running away.”
The duke stretched out his arm, and detained his child. He drew her to his breast, and whispered in her ear. Violante blushed crimson, and rested her head on his shoulder. Harley eagerly pressed forward.
“There,” said the duke, joining Harley’s hand with his daughter’s, “I don’t think I shall hear much more of the convent; but anything of this sort I never suspected. If there be a language in the world for which there is no lexicon nor grammar, it is that which a woman thinks in, but never speaks.”
“It is all that is left of the language spoken in paradise,” said Harley.
“In the dialogue between Eve and the serpent,—yes,” quoth the incorrigible sage. “But who comes here?—our friend Leonard.”
Leonard now entered the room; but Harley could scarcely greet him, before he was interrupted by the count. “Milord,” said Peschiera, beckoning him aside, “I have fulfilled my promise, and I will now leave your roof. Baron Levy returns to London, and offers me a seat in his carriage, which is already, I believe, at your door. The duke and his daughter will readily forgive me if I do not ceremoniously bid them farewell. In our altered positions, it does not become me too intrusively to claim kindred; it became me only to remove, as I trust I have done, a barrier against the claim. If you approve my conduct, you will state your own opinion to the duke.” With a profound salutation the count turned to depart; nor did Harley attempt to stay him, but attended him down the stairs with polite formality.
“Remember only, my Lord, that I solicit nothing. I may allow myself to accept,—voilia tout.” He bowed again, with the inimitable grace of the old regime, and stepped into the baron’s travelling carriage.
Levy, who had lingered behind, paused to accost L’Estrange. “Your Lordship will explain to Mr. Egerton how his adopted son deserved his esteem, and repaid his kindness. For the rest, though you have bought up the more pressing and immediate demands on Mr. Egerton, I fear that even your fortune will not enable you to clear those liabilities which will leave him, perhaps, a pauper!”
“Baron Levy,” said Harley, abruptly, “if I have forgiven Mr. Egerton, cannot you too forgive? Me he has wronged; you have wronged him, and more foully.”
“No, my Lord, I cannot forgive him. You he has never humiliated, you he has never employed for his wants, and scorned as his companion. You have never known what it is to start in life with one whose fortunes were equal to your own, whose talents were not superior. Look you, Lord L’Estrange, in spite of this difference between me and Egerton, that he has squandered the wealth that he gained without effort, while I have converted the follies of others into my own ample revenues, the spendthrift in his penury has the respect and position which millions cannot bestow upon me. You would say that I am an usurer, and he is a statesman. But do you know what I should have been, had I not been born the natural son of a peer? Can you guess what I should have been if Nora Avenel had been my wife? The blot on my birth, and the blight on my youth, and the knowledge that he who was rising every year into the rank which entitled him to reject me as a guest at his table—he whom the world called the model of a gentleman—was a coward and a liar to the friend of his youth,—all this made me look on the world with contempt; and, despising Audley Egerton, I yet hated him and envied. You, whom he wronged, stretch your hand as before to the great statesman; from my touch you would shrink as pollution. My Lord, you may forgive him whom you love and pity; I cannot forgive him whom I scorn and envy. Pardon my prolixity. I now quit your house.” The baron moved a step, then, turning back, said with a withering sneer,—
“But you will tell Mr. Egerton how I helped to expose the son he adopted! I thought of the childless man when your Lordship imagined I was but in fear of your threats. Ha! ha! that will sting.”
The baron gnashed his teeth as, hastily entering the carriage, he drew down the blinds. The post-boys cracked their whips, and the wheels rolled away.
“Who can judge,” thought Harley, “through what modes retribution comes home to the breast? That man is chastised in his wealth, ever gnawed by desire for what his wealth cannot buy!” He roused himself, cleared his brow, as from a thought that darkened and troubled; and, entering the saloon, laid his hand upon Leonard’s shoulder, and looked, rejoicing, into the poet’s mild, honest, lustrous eyes. “Leonard,” said he, gently, “your hour is come at last.”
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