FEELING very much of a fool to be thus taken by surprise, I scrambled to my feet and hastened to make my visitor welcome.He did not refuse me his hand; but he gave it with a coldness and distance for which I was quite unprepared, and his countenance, as he looked on me, was marked in a strong degree with concern and severity.
'So, sir, I find you here?' said he, in tones of little encouragement.'Is that you, George? You can run away; I have business with your master.'
He showed Rowley out, and locked the door behind him.Then he sat down in an armchair on one side of the fire, and looked at me with uncompromising sternness.
'I am hesitating how to begin,' said he.'In this singular labyrinth of blunders and difficulties that you have prepared for us, I am positively hesitating where to begin.It will perhaps be best that you should read, first of all, this paragraph.' And he handed over to me a newspaper.
The paragraph in question was brief.It announced the recapture of one of the prisoners recently escaped from Edinburgh Castle; gave his name, Clausel, and added that he had entered into the particulars of the recent revolting murder in the Castle, and denounced the murderer:-
'It is a common soldier called Champdivers, who had himself escaped, and is in all probability involved in the common fate of his comrades.In spite of the activity along all the Forth and the East Coast, nothing has yet been seen of the sloop which these desperadoes seized at Grangemouth, and it is now almost certain that they have found a watery grave.'
At the reading of this paragraph, my heart turned over.In a moment I saw my castle in the air ruined; myself changed from a mere military fugitive into a hunted murderer, fleeing from the gallows; my love, which had a moment since appeared so near to me, blotted from the field of possibility.Despair, which was my first sentiment, did not, however, endure for more than a moment.I saw that my companions had indeed succeeded in their unlikely design;
and that I was supposed to have accompanied and perished along with them by shipwreck - a most probable ending to their enterprise.If they thought me at the bottom of the North Sea, I need not fear much vigilance on the streets of Edinburgh.Champdivers was wanted: what was to connect him with St.Ives? Major Chevenix would recognise me if he met me; that was beyond bargaining: he had seen me so often, his interest had been kindled to so high a point, that I could hope to deceive him by no stratagem of disguise.
Well, even so; he would have a competition of testimony before him:
he knew Clausel, he knew me, and I was sure he would decide for honour.At the same time the image of Flora shot up in my mind's eye with such a radiancy as fairly overwhelmed all other considerations; the blood sprang to every corner of my body, and I vowed I would see and win her, if it cost my neck.
'Very annoying, no doubt,' said I, as I returned the paper to Mr.
Romaine.
'Is annoying your word for it?' said he.
'Exasperating, if you like,' I admitted.
'And true?' he inquired.
'Well, true in a sense,' said I.'But perhaps I had better answer that question by putting you in possession of the facts?'
'I think so, indeed,' said he.
I narrated to him as much as seemed necessary of the quarrel, the duel, the death of Goguelat, and the character of Clausel.He heard me through in a forbidding silence, nor did he at all betray the nature of his sentiments, except that, at the episode of the scissors, I could observe his mulberry face to turn three shades paler.
'I suppose I may believe you?' said he, when I had done.
'Or else conclude this interview,' said I.
'Can you not understand that we are here discussing matters of the gravest import? Can you not understand that I feel myself weighed with a load of responsibility on your account - that you should take this occasion to air your fire-eating manners against your own attorney? There are serious hours in life, Mr.Anne,' he said severely.'A capital charge, and that of a very brutal character and with singularly unpleasant details; the presence of the man Clausel, who (according to your account of it) is actuated by sentiments of real malignity, and prepared to swear black white;
all the other witnesses scattered and perhaps drowned at sea; the natural prejudice against a Frenchman and a runaway prisoner: this makes a serious total for your lawyer to consider, and is by no means lessened by the incurable folly and levity of your own disposition.'
'I beg your pardon!' said I.
'Oh, my expressions have been selected with scrupulous accuracy,'
he replied.'How did I find you, sir, when I came to announce this catastrophe? You were sitting on the hearthrug playing, like a silly baby, with a servant, were you not, and the floor all scattered with gold and bank paper? There was a tableau for you!
It was I who came, and you were lucky in that.It might have been any one - your cousin as well as another.'
'You have me there, sir,' I admitted.'I had neglected all precautions, and you do right to be angry.APROPOS, Mr.Romaine, how did you come yourself, and how long have you been in the house?' I added, surprised, on the retrospect, not to have heard him arrive.
'I drove up in a chaise and pair,' he returned.'Any one might have heard me.But you were not listening, I suppose? being so extremely at your ease in the very house of your enemy, and under a capital charge! And I have been long enough here to do your business for you.Ah, yes, I did it, God forgive me! - did it before I so much as asked you the explanation of the paragraph.
For some time back the will has been prepared; now it is signed;
and your uncle has heard nothing of your recent piece of activity.
Why? Well, I had no fancy to bother him on his death-bed: you might be innocent; and at bottom I preferred the murderer to the spy.'
No doubt of it but the man played a friendly part; no doubt also that, in his ill-temper and anxiety, he expressed himself unpalatably.
'You will perhaps find me over delicate,' said I.'There is a word you employed - '