The Gipsy Part 20

The manner in which this latter object was to be accomplished became the next consideration; but ere Lord Dewry could come to any determination upon the subject, the lodge of Dimden Park, and the old woman who opened the gates, courtesying to the ground as the carriage rolled through, met his eyes, and told him that he must reserve that matter for after-thought.

The place that he was now entering had been the favourite habitation of his brother, where his days of happiness and suns.h.i.+ne had been pa.s.sed, and whence his virtues had made themselves felt and beloved through all the country round. There were many recollections and a.s.sociations then connected with that spot which, as it may easily be conceived, were not a little painful to the man who now entered it: and although he sometimes visited the house, and had once or twice in twenty years spent a day within its walls, yet he had never been able to vanquish the distress that the sight occasioned him so far as to live in it for any length of time. He now beheld it in a state which added to the pain whereof other circ.u.mstances had rendered it fruitful. It was not exactly going to ruin, for he had given strict orders, and paid large annual sums, for the express purpose of keeping the grounds in order and the house in repair; but those orders had been given from a distance, and had been received with a conviction that the master's eye would never inspect their execution very minutely. There were long tufts of gra.s.s in the walks and on the roads, though here and there was to be seen a faint and lazy effort to clear away, by the exertions of a few hours, the shameful negligence of many a day. Some of the trees, which had been felled years before, were rotting in the long dank gra.s.s; and the fences which had been placed to keep the deer within their proper bounds lay flat upon the ground, overturned and broken. The road over which the carriage rolled was channelled with deep unmended ruts; and the fine old house, with its closed windows and smokeless chimneys, stood in its wide, open esplanade, like the palace of damp and desertion. Lord Dewry bit his lip, and muttered audibly, "This must be amended. The scoundrels did not expect me to visit the place, and have been shamefully negligent.

I will send them away."

But as he thought thus, his other purposes crossed his mind, and brought with it one of those annoying and degrading convictions which so often follow evil actions and crooked policy. He felt that when he was about to engage his park-keepers in an action which his own heart told him was base, he could not dare to treat them severely for the faults they had themselves committed; and to a proud and violent man the restraint which he was obliged to put upon his pa.s.sions was bitter enough. As the carriage approached the house, hasty symptoms of opening windows and unbarring doors showed that his coming had been remarked; and as he had no ambiguous commands to lay upon the old servants who had been left to keep the mansion in order, upon them fell the full weight of his indignation. When the first angry burst was over, he ordered the old man to call the princ.i.p.al park-keeper; and while he was absent upon that errand, strode gloomily through the dreary chambers, feeling his heart more dark and comfortless than even the long-deserted apartments amid which he stood. He then called for pen and ink, which, after some difficulty, he obtained, and wrote and despatched the note which we have seen delivered to Marian de Vaux.

At length the park-keeper appeared, a bold and st.u.r.dy fellow, with no inconsiderable portion of shrewd cunning in his countenance, to which had been superadded at present an air of dogged preparation, occasioned by the tidings of Lord Dewry's anger, which the old man had given him as they walked along towards the house.

"Harvey," said the peer, as the man presented himself, "you have suffered the park to get into a terrible state. I must have all this changed. Those fences must be put up; those trees cleared away: speak to Wilson about the road, and tell him if ever I see it in that state again I shall discharge him; and--do not answer me, but listen; for I came over to speak to you upon matters of more importance.--What are you waiting for, John?"

"I thought your lords.h.i.+p might want me," said the old man, who had lingered in the room.

"No, no, not I," replied the peer: "retire, and shut the door; but take care what you are about, for in future I shall come over at least every month; and if I find the house is not properly attended to after this warning, you and your wife go out of it without another word.--Now, Harvey, tell me," he continued, as the old man withdrew with a low and deprecating bow, "have you many poachers here?"

"Why, no, my lord," replied the park-keeper, his face brightening up to find that the antic.i.p.ated storm had blown away; "we have not had much of that work doing lately, though I dare say we soon shall have."

"And why so?" demanded Lord Dewry. "I am glad to hear that poaching is on the decrease. What makes you think it will revive again?"

"As to revive, my lord, why, I don't know," replied the man; "but I doubt we shall soon have more of it--so I think. It's just the time, you see, my lord--long moonlight nights, and a good deal of the out-door work over."

The man paused; but these were not the reasons the peer had hoped to hear him a.s.sign for his apprehensions of more extended poaching, and found that he must bring him nearer to the point by some direct course. "We have a great deal of poaching near the hall," he said: "Wise tells me that there are a number of bad characters continually in the woods, gipsies and thieves of all descriptions."

"Ay, for the matter of that we have gipsies enough just now, too,"

replied the keeper; "and that's the reason, my lord, why I said I thought we should soon hear of more poaching: but I did not like to mention it, you see. Why, there, I saw no longer ago than yesterday, up in Morley Wood, I dare say a score of them--lazy beggars! D--n them, I hate those fellows, and so I told 'em--beg your lords.h.i.+p's pardon."

Lord Dewry found that he was now on the right course; but, afraid of pursuing the matter so eagerly as to cause suspicions which might perhaps tell against himself hereafter, he replied with a tranquil countenance, "It would not surprise me if these were the same that have been plundering and poaching in a most desperate manner near the hall."

"O, no doubt they are the same, my lord," replied the keeper; "and as to poaching, they were at it last night, or I have no ears: I heard a gun--I am sure I heard a gun--though I got up, and went all over the grounds without finding them. But I heard a gun--I am sure enough of that, anyhow."

"Oh, if that be the case," said Lord Dewry, "we must really take serious measures for their apprehension and conviction. They once murdered a gamekeeper, those gipsies, not far from here; and it is dangerous to honest men to let them be in the country."

"Ay, that it is, my lord," said the keeper; "they'd murder any one as soon as look at him. They nearly murdered me once. I wish we could get rid of them, that I do, anyhow."

"And so do I, too," replied Lord Dewry, solemnly; "I do not like men's lives risked continually, nor their property plundered at every turn, solely because these gipsies are suffered to continue in the kingdom.

I declare I would give fifty guineas to any one who could convict them in such a manner as to ensure their being sent out of the country without fail. I do not like my people continually exposed to their attacks."

"Your lords.h.i.+p is very kind and very generous," said the keeper; "and if your lords.h.i.+p would really give the fifty guineas, I dare say we could find some young fellows that would join in and take a hand in catching them."

"But we must first be able to prove that they have committed some offence," replied Lord Dewry, thoughtfully.

"Oh, they have committed offences enough, my lord," answered the keeper; "and if your lords.h.i.+p give fifty guineas, we shall soon have plenty to help in catching them."

The peer paused for a moment or two without any direct reply; but he then answered, "What I have said I mean, Harvey: the fifty guineas I would give of course to the man by whose means they were princ.i.p.ally brought to justice; but I would do more, and pay handsomely every one concerned in actually taking them. Do you think they have ever shot any of the deer?" he added after a short pause.

"No, my lord, no!" answered the keeper, fearful that blame might fall upon himself; "I will answer for it they have not done that."

"I am sorry for it," said Lord Dewry, dryly. The man stared, and the peer proceeded:--"I am sorry for it; because, you see, Harvey, the offence would be the heavier, and we might get rid of them for ever if we could prove such a thing against them; whereas this poaching, especially if it be a first offence, will only take them out of the way for a time, and then turn them back upon us more enraged against us than ever."

"That's true, my lord, that's true," replied the keeper, whose perceptions were sufficiently acute, and who began to see that his master had a very potent distaste to the race of gipsies, although his mind, proceeding in its habitual train, did not fail to conclude that the peer's motives for hating them were the same which would have actuated himself had he been in the peer's situation, namely, wrath at their having destroyed the peculiar objects of his veneration, game, and anger at their having outwitted him in his endeavours to preserve it. He went no further in his investigations of his lord's designs, though he himself had peculiar motives of his own; but, possessing goodly powers of detestation himself, he easily conceived that the baron would not scruple at any plausible stratagem for the purpose of obtaining his object. "That's true, my lord, that's true," replied he; "but do you know, I should not wonder if they did some night shoot a fat buck upon his moonlight walk; and I dare say, for the matter of that, we could get them to do it very soon."

"Nay, nay," cried the peer in a tone of moderation, "take care what you are about, Harvey; for if any one were to discover that you instigated them, you might get transported; and though of course I would take care that none of my servants was a loser by his zeal in my service, yet I should not like you to get into any sc.r.a.pe."

"Your lords.h.i.+p is very kind," said the man; "but I will take care that I get into no sc.r.a.pe; and as to any one hearing me say any thing about it, no fear of that, for I will never say a word to any one but your lords.h.i.+p; and but little will I say even now. But I know how to manage the matter; and if I can get some stout hands to help me and the two under-keepers in taking the fellows, when once we have found out when they are about the job, I'll rid the country of them soon enough--a set of lazy, thieving beggars."

"Why, Harvey," said the peer, with a complacent smile, "you do not seem fond of these gipsies, I think."

"I fond of them, my lord!" said the man. "No, no! I owe them an old grudge, which I have long thought to pay. One of them nearly killed me once when I was a younker, now near twenty years ago, just for being a little over-civil to one of their women. I might have had my revenge at the time; but I was weak and sick with the bruises, and I was spoony enough to let him get off; but he'll not do so again if I catch hold of him."

"But pray, Harvey," said the peer, "how do you propose to obtain such information in regard to when and where these men are to be caught--for they must be caught in the fact, remark--as to enable you to seize them with any certainty? Do you know any of their gang personally?"

"Not I, my lord," replied the man; "but, do you see, my lord, I know a man up in the village, called Harry Saxon, who hears a good deal about all those sorts of people, and I will get him just to put it into their heads to--"

"Hush, hush, Harvey!" interrupted the n.o.bleman, but a tone as to express much disapprobation. "Do not tell me what you intend to do, but merely how you are to learn when and where to catch them."

"Why, _he_ will tell me all that, to be sure, my lord," replied the keeper. "He's a good sort of man, and won't disoblige me, I'll warrant."

"And pray what is his usual occupation?" demanded the peer in a casual way.

"Oh, he sells venison to the dealers in London," replied the keeper; and then suddenly perceiving that he was on the edge of a precipice, he added, "that is, when any of the gentlemen in the neighbourhood want to kill off some of their bucks, he buys them and sends them up to London. I have heard, too," he continued, seeing that his lord listened with an unmoved countenance, as if to something of course--"I have heard, too, that he sends up many a good brace of partridges, and many a pheasant and a hare: but he is a good sort of man, upon the whole; and when he knows a keeper, like, he will not let the people poach and that upon the grounds that he keeps, and that's what makes us have so much game here. I'll warrant the game is better preserved here than anywhere else in the country."

The peer made no observations upon these disjointed pieces of information; but in his own mind concluded, and not without reason, that his keeper was a very great scoundrel. He took care, however, neither by word, look, nor action, to suffer the man he was making use of to perceive what sort of a character he was establis.h.i.+ng in his opinion; being fully resolved in his own mind, however, to discharge him as soon after he had served the present purpose as might be found convenient.

Deceit, like every other art, has been wonderfully perfected and refined since first it took its origin in the rude, uncultivated human breast. There can be no doubt whatever that when one man entertains an opinion which he wishes to conceal from another, the first natural effort of his mind would be to tell him the direct contrary; and much refinement and experience in the art must have been acquired before the necessity was ascertained of doing things more delicately, and implying, rather than saying, that one believes another to be an honest man, when one is sure he is a great rogue. As the world proceeded, however, and the liberal science of deceit became so thoroughly studied as to force one, with very few exceptions, to say, as said the Psalmist, "All men are liars," a new refinement was introduced, and it became necessary to know when to cover one's own opinion by a skilful implication of the reverse, when, returning to the original and simple mode, in plain terms to announce the direct contrary of what one feels, and to deceive the most thoroughly by the appearance of the utmost candour.

In the present instance Lord Dewry chose the latter means, and ended the conversation with the keeper by saying, "Well, Harvey, well! I believe you are a very honest fellow. There are ten guineas for you to give the men you are obliged to employ, an earnest of their reward; and if you succeed in catching these gipsies, so as to convict them either of deer-stealing or aggravated poaching, you may count upon fifty guineas and my favour, besides having all your _bona fide_ expenses paid."

The man made a low bow, though he did not understand at all what _bona fide_ meant; and the peer with a slow step walked to his carriage. The old man and woman who kept the house followed half a step behind, troubling him all the way by questions concerning the superintendence of the place, in regard to which their directions had been full and explicit years before, but by re-demanding which they meant, as usual on such occasions, to insinuate a justification of their late negligence, implying that if they had been properly instructed they would have behaved better. Short and severe were the replies of the baron; and when the carriage-door was at length closed, and the vehicle rolled away, he sunk into thought, feeling that at least one part of his plan was in a fair way for execution, but feeling, likewise, deep, deep in his heart's core, the melancholy conviction--not the less poignant because he strove not to see it--that one crime was las.h.i.+ng him on with a fiery scourge to the commission of many more.

The house he had just visited, and the scenes through which he was pa.s.sing, had not been without their effect. They had recalled to his mind his brother, who had there lived so long the object of his envy, and now of his deep regret. That brother's virtues, his kindness, his n.o.ble generosity, tried to the very utmost by his excesses and demands, often, often returned reproachfully to his mind. All the good and affectionate acts which had seemed as nothing while his own pa.s.sions and interests existed in opposition, and while his brother lived, had been estimated with terrible exactness as soon as his own hand had placed the impa.s.sable barrier of death between them; and the sight of that house now, as it always did, recalled every memory that could aggravate remorse, and stir into an intenser blaze the unquenchable fire that burned his heart.

There, too, he had himself been educated from infancy to manhood; over those lawns and walks he had played in the guileless innocence of youth; under those trees he had sat a thousand times with the dead, in the sweet and hopeful summer-days of boyhood. Their arms clasped round each other's necks, or their hands locked in each other, they had wandered in their hours of play through the calm green shades of the park, or sat beneath the stately oak, reading some lighter book than that appointed for their daily studies. He remembered it all well; and many an individual day, too, would come forward from the crowd of early memories, and stand before his eyes bright and distinct as if it were hardly yet numbered with the past. He could call back even the feelings of those times, the n.o.ble and enthusiastic glow of their bosoms when they had read together some great actions, some generous self-devotion, some pious act of friends.h.i.+p, some deed of mighty patriotism; and now, what had those feelings become? In his brother they were extinct in death, or, rather, glorifying him in a brighter world; and with him himself they were but memories; with him it was the feelings that were dead, while he himself lived but to remember them. Nor was his a heart to scoff at their memory as some men might have done. Perhaps, indeed, had his crimes been lighter--had they but reached the grade of vices--had they been of that character which man's blind selfishness can dress up in other garbs, and cover beneath a light robe of wit, or of what we call philosophy, he might have sneered at the sweet and innocent days that forced themselves upon his recollection, and have parried all that was painful in them by a jest.

But the terrible, irrevocable, awful deed that he had committed had been weighty enough, not only to break the elastic spring of gayety in his heart for ever, but to leave those sweet early hours of guileless happiness and n.o.ble feeling which still flattered him with the thought that he had not always been base, or cruel, or depraved, the least painful of all that series of painful things whereof his memory was alone composed. And yet remorse mingled its poison even with them, and perhaps rendered the agony they produced on the present occasion more poignant, because on that point his heart was not hardened to the lash.

He cast the memories from him as the vehicle rolled on, for he found not only that they were painful, but that other thoughts of the imperious present must have way; and that though he trusted by a new crime to remove some part of the danger of his situation, yet that it was necessary to contemplate his position in every point of view, in order to guard against all that might happen. But here, perhaps, his feelings were even less enviable than those from which he turned.

Personal danger, not abstract and distinct, but accompanied by shame, and scorn, and detection, was the first image that presented itself to his mind. To meet the hatred and contempt of the whole world, to be exposed in a court of justice, and on a public scaffold to be pointed and hooted at by the rude populace--to be called the fratricide, the murderer--to undergo the horrors of imprisonment, suspense, trial, condemnation, and execution--and to plunge, loaded with a brother's blood and many another sin, into the wide, dim, terrible hereafter--such were the only objects of his antic.i.p.ation, if his present schemes should fail.

Nor was it at all strange that he should feel them now much more poignantly than at the time which immediately followed his brother's death, though, perhaps, the years which had elapsed might have rendered his safety less in danger now than then. But at that period he had little time to reflect; and his whole mind had been occupied in acting. He had seen and felt the immediate peril, and had apprehended many a vague horror; but imagination had not had time to act--she had not had time to call up and particularize, as she had since done with terrible minuteness, all the awful and agonizing scenes that await the detected murderer.

As he leaned back in his carriage, and with closed eyes thought of all the past and all the future, the mingling emotions that agitated his breast were dreadful indeed. Bitter, bitter remorse--strong, lasting, never-sleeping remorse--was for the moment paramount; and could he have seen any way of avoiding shame and death but by new evil, he would have resigned much, he would have resigned all, to follow it. But there was no means before him of escaping all the horrors that threatened, but either to destroy those he feared or to destroy himself: he had but the choice of two great crimes; and the terrors of the endless future, aggravated by the condemnation of self-destruction, were too great for him to think of attempting his own life. As we have before said, it was not that he feared death; for often in his moods of deepest despondency he thought that if some one were to take away his life as he had taken that of his brother, it might be received, together with his long remorse, as some atonement for the past; but he feared to make it his own act, and to double, instead of diminis.h.i.+ng, the load upon his own head; and in the desperate choice which was before him he yielded to the common weakness of human nature, and chose that crime of which punishment was most remote.

Such were some of the emotions which agitated his mind as the carriage rolled on towards his usual residence; but still the picture of them is but faint and imperfect, as every picture of agitated feelings must be. There were a thousand shades that escape the pen, a thousand sudden changes for which it would be difficult to account.

Nevertheless, it must not be supposed that this varying and uncertain mood was the general state of his mind, when no outward circ.u.mstance had served to awaken antagonist feelings. On the contrary, he was generally firm in his despair, with remorse for the predominant tone of his whole sensations; but at the same time, with a stern determination to hold all that for which he had paid so deep a price, and to defend his own safety at any risk. It was only when some a.s.sociation connected with other days touched a tenderer point in his heart, and aroused some better feelings from their sleep of years, that the winds and the tempests dashed against the dark dwelling-place of his spirit, and threatened to level it with its foundation in the sand. The mood seldom lasted long, however, and, indeed, could not have done so without driving him to phrensy; and now, as he came within sight of the plantations that skirted his other property, he put on a firmer frame of mind, cast doubt, and fear, and hesitation behind him, and called up those powers of quick, decisive thought and vigorous action which had often in former days carried him through many a scene of difficulty and danger.

"I have been as weak as a child," he said, when he looked back on all the feelings to which he had given way--"I have been as weak as a child; and that at a moment when I most need manly firmness: but it is past, and I will not easily forget myself again!"

On the next day but one, at a very early hour, Lord Dewry again drove over to Dimden, and had the pleasure of learning, by implications and hints from his head park-keeper, that the plan which had been shadowed out for entangling the gipsies was in a fair way for execution; and yet his spirit was ill at rest, for he felt that his plan was an imperfect one, and that at a thousand points it might fail. The gipsies might be too wary; and, at all events, Pharold was not likely to take part himself in such a scheme. If his companions were implicated, and he were to escape, the natural consequence would be, that his roused-up vengeance would take the ready means of sating itself by betraying the fearful secret that he possessed; and thus the attempt to remove him would but bring about more certainly the danger that was apprehended. Yet what could he do? the peer asked himself. If he could add one other link to the chain in which he had sought to entangle the gipsy, it might render it complete, and prevent the possibility of his escape. But what was that link to be? He could not tell, and yet it served him as food for stern and eager meditation as the carriage bore him rapidly home again, after having satisfied himself that his scheme, as far as it went, was already in progress towards its completion.

As he drove up to the door of the house, he remarked that one of his grooms was walking a hard-ridden horse up and down upon the gravel, while the dirty condition of the animal bespoke a long journey. As such sights, however, were not at all uncommon, and the horse might either belong to the steward, or to some stranger come on a visit of curiosity to the house, it excited but little notice on the part of the peer, who was entering without inquiry, when one of the servants informed him that a gentleman was waiting his lords.h.i.+p's return in the small library. Lord Dewry turned a little pale; for there was a consciousness of danger and of the uncertainty of his condition at the heart of the peer, that caused the blood to forsake his cheek at any announcement of a visit, the import of which he did not know. He rebuked the servant, however, for admitting any one to wait for him during his absence; and ordered him never to do so again, adding, that when he expected or wished to see any one, he would always give intimation of his will.