by Mrs. West
CHAP. IV.
My wrongs, my wrongs, my constant thoughts engage, These, my sole oracles, inspire my rage.
Pope's Homer.
One evening, while the young Evellins were watching for their father,and fancying they discerned him returning from the mountains, theyhastily ran back to their mother to inform her that a strange man lay atthe bottom of the glen seemingly much fatigued, who asked the way to Mr.Neville's. Isabel knew that the real name of her husband was known onlyto herself in that neighbourhood, and suspected a snare of De Vallance'sto get him into his power and rob him of all that remained, his life.She anxiously inquired what further passed, little Eustace answered, "Wesaid nobody lived near but our father, whose name was not Neville butEvellin. He asked us if he was tall, with dark hair, and carried himselflike a Prince. We had seen no Princes, but I put on my cap as he does,and shewed how he walked, and the poor man caught me in his arms, almostsmothered me with kisses, and said he would never stir from that spottill his master came."
"Foolish children," said the mother; "perhaps you have betrayed yourfather to those who hunt for his life."
"No, indeed," replied Isabel, "he is too weak and ill to hurt any body.He is very hungry still, though I gave him all the cloud-berries I hadgathered, and filled his can with water. He blessed us just as you do,and I am sure he never would hurt my father."
"Go round by the coppice, my darling; meet your father and tell him whatyou have seen; I will go to the stranger."--"And take some cordials withyou," said both the children. "He shall want no cordials if he be whathe appears," returned Mrs. Evellin; "but, sweet lambs, there are morewolves in the world than true shepherds."
The suspicions of the fond wife were in this instance groundless. Thestranger was David Williams, formerly comptroller of the Earl ofBellingham's household, who, discovering that his real master was notdead, as Earl Walter now affirmed, set out with a determination ofdiscovering his retreat. He carried with him the honourable savings of alife of industry; but having been attacked on the road and robbed of hisproperty, he arrived, exhausted and pennyless, among the Fells ofFourness, in appearance a burden to the family he wished to serve.
Yet this faithful old servant, though bare and withering like thescathed oak, was inexpressibly welcome to one who so deeply sufferedfrom the crimes of duplicity. Williams soon recovered his strength underthe care of his dear old master; and though the mountain cottage bore noresemblance to the embattled towers of Castle Bellingham, still he wasunder the roof of a true Neville, and he would not change his service toattend an Emperor. Evellin took a lively interest in the society of hisold domestic, who, happy that his recovered health enabled him to serve,in adversity, the noble stock under whose protection he had formerlyflourished, followed his dear lord, as he called him, over themountains, thinking of the days that were past. Sometimes Williams wouldlead Evellin to talk of former times, when Bellingham Castle blazed withfeudal splendor, and the numerous dependents of its mighty owner,marshalled by the sound of the bugle, rode to their sports like theclans of the earlier ages, a gallant troop, to rouse the stag from hislair, or to loose the hawk at the crested pheasant. The heir of thatcastle, habited as an humble yeoman, sullenly listened to the narrativeof his only follower. "Does not the chace," he would say, "now afford usequal pleasure? are not my dogs as swift, and these mountains as repletewith game as those which engird my paternal residence." A deep groancontradicted the conclusion to which this inquiry seemed to lead; yetWilliams, fancying he amused his master, continued to deepen thoseagonizing recollections which are most dangerous to poignantsensibility. Nor had Evellin the self-command to forbear makinginquiries which must, when answered, aggravate his anguish. He badeWilliams freely state what he knew of their old neighbours anddependents. The tale was diffusely told. Evellin listened with deepattention, execrated his own misconduct, enjoined silence, and then, byfresh questions, encouraged repetition. A hope had long clung to hisheart, arising from that lofty tone of feeling which is more pained atbecoming the tool of falsehood than at being the victim of misfortune.Long-continued moody musings had affected his judgment; and he sometimesactually doubted whether De Vallance was really treacherous, or had beendefeated in his friendly efforts by the power of a host of enemies.
"Answer me truly, Williams," said he, while his lip quivered withemotion, and his hand trembled as he affected to stroke his falcon witha careless air: "you see the present and the future are now indifferentto me. You remember the time when Walter's father rescued me, a cradledinfant, from Tyrone's rebellious kerns in Ireland, and thus laid thefoundation of the friendship between our houses. You remember, Walterhimself saving me from the lake when I was nearly drowned. Surely he wasthen a warm-hearted, generous boy. The tears he shed over my supposedcorse could not be dangerous and deceitful drops. At school, at college,and when we crossed the Alps together, ever sharing my bed and table, Isaw him in every different situation. Was his life one act of deceit,and mine a long dream of credulity? When, in the fullness of my soul, Itold him he was more than worthy my sister's love, he answered thatthough the noble blood of Devereux ran in his veins, it did not becomehis humble fortunes to aspire to the Lady Eleanor. After my father'sdeath, he would no longer reside with me, but entered into the serviceof his cousin, the Lord Essex, saying he would not quarter an expensiveretainer on the scanty portion of a younger brother, which needed goodhusbandry, but that his heart still remained with me, and would be acheap sojourner. Was not this the language of a noble spirit? You look,Williams, as if you had a mystery to unfold. Come, tell all your tale asyou would repeat it to gossips on a wassail night. The world is nowforgotten by me, and I am forgotten by the world."
"My noble Lord," Williams began--"Again," said Evellin, "after my strictinjunctions, do not insult me with empty titles. Have I not told youthat my patent of nobility is cancelled? I am Goodman Evellin of theFells, husband of the best of women, and father of two wanton prattlers,who know not the misery of having fallen from an eminently gloriousstation. Mark, Williams, the story of what I was shall die with me, oronly survive close shut in the treasured remembrance of my faithfulwife. I would not for the universe cloud the laughing features of thesehappy babes, by awakening desires which I cannot gratify; thereforeforget my lapsed greatness."
"Even in our privacies?" inquired Williams.
"Certainly; and habit will make familiarity easy. Sit beside me on theground, and leave off putting your hand to your bonnet. Do we not looklike two smart woodmen, enjoying, over our evening repast, a tale ofother times?"
"I must turn my face from your honour," said Williams, "before I canattempt to forget that you was Sir Allan, my old master's favourite son;but it is in vain for you to try to pass for a country yeoman. They whohave spent their lives in these mountains, and never seen a noblepersonage, rudely explain their notions of majesty and dignity bydescribing you; and, by the grace of Heaven, they shall find theyguessed right, when they said the stranger from the south-country was aman of another sort of a world."
"Let us have no more day-dreams, I asked you about Walter de Vallance."
"He is now Earl of Bellingham."
Evellin gnawed his lip, and angrily struck his fawning spaniel. "True,"replied he, "the King would have him so. He forced these honours on him;and if is thus, by prejudice and injustice, that he tampers with theloyalty of a brave nation. Canst thou blame De Vallance for catching mycoronet before it fell to the ground by a false attainder? Why shouldthe title lie in abeyance? Is it not better worn by one allied to ourhouse than by an alien? Who so fit to sit in the baronial chair of ourcommon ancestor as my sister's son, now I am exscinded as a diseasedbranch."
"He is a lad of the fairest promise," answered Williams, "but he willnever live to be Earl of Bellingham. Grant that no singular judgmentsfall on the house of usurpation, yet the honourable blood which heinherits from the Nevilles will so strive with the foul current of DeVallance, that the ill-c
ompounded body will not grow to manhood."
Evellin smiled: "Thou thinkest then," said he, "that Walter has playedthe thief's part, and stolen what he could not honestly acquire."
"'Tis past thinking about," answered Williams; "the blame rests not onthe King's Majesty, whom Heaven prosper. He is too much raised above thecommon intercourse of life to look into the hearts of those who takecare to approach him with a fair outside. His days are consumed by caresand perplexities, and those who are apt and courteous in business mustneeds have his ear. I well know that De Vallance gained the royal favourby appearing to be your devoted friend, and by praising you for thosequalities in which it was Heaven's will to leave you somewhat defective.Thus he praised your prudence, and produced your flight in proof of yourinnocence; yet, in the same breath, gave some instance of your rashness,and shewed that flight was ever the villain's resource. So contrariwisewere his pleadings and his praises, that His Grace said one day of him,jestingly, 'Whatever my council may decide about Neville, I must keep DeVallance in my service; for though he is an unapt advocate, he is aright trusty friend.'"
"We are now," returned Evellin, "acting as jurors, deciding upon thebetter part of a man's possessions, his honour. Let us then be candidand wary. Zeal, like anger, often overshoots the mark. The livelypromptitude of feeling hurries our judgment beyond its natural pace. Letus admit that the stern character of that bloody conclave, before whomDe Vallance often pleaded my cause, might confuse a man, among whosenatural defects I have noted a constitutional timidity, apt to trembleat the frown of a fellow-creature. Before a court constituted like theStar-chamber, armed with unlimited powers to impose fines, imprisonment,sequestration, banishment, nay even the punishment of personalmutilation, no wonder the sole friend and unsupported advocate of a man,whom they were bent to ruin, took improper methods of serving him."
"It is too true," returned Williams, "that this court has of latestretched its originally unconstitutional powers, and has furtherprovoked the unwarrantable licence of the times by trying to restrainit. The King's best friends allow that it has in many instances 'heldthat for honourable which pleased, and that for just which profited; andbeing the same persons who composed the council, the same individualsacted in two courts; in one, enjoining the people what was not law, andprohibiting what was not prohibited; and, in the other, censuringdisobedience to their own decrees by heavy fines and severeimprisonments. But the tendency of these proceedings has been rather tosupply the King's necessities with money, which, since his breach withhis parliament he cannot legally obtain, than wantonly to sport with therights of his people, from which no advantage can be derived to thecrown[1].' And truly, those noble persons who compose this assembly aretoo well aware of the unpopularity and odium of their proceedings togive any needless cause of complaint; nor would they have dared tocommit such a foul misdemeanor, as to condemn and sentence a peer of therealm for a capital offence, without giving him a solemn and publictrial. Now, my dear master, has your clear understanding been so misledas to make you suppose their misdoings ever reached such atrocity, orthat they would unwisely give contention such a handle."
Evellin's judgment had ever contradicted Walter's statements, and theconclusions which remaining affection, and his own unwillingness to ownhimself a dupe, laboured to draw, he now inquired how his estates cameto be confiscated, and his person cast out of the protection of the law.
"On account of your contumacy," answered Williams; "you did notsurrender when the royal proclamation called upon you to take yourtrial, and then a writ of outlawry was required by your prosecutor."
"Was it not Walter's duty to convey that proclamation to me?" saidEvellin. Williams replied, it was; he mentioned its date, and Evellinknew it tallied with that of his marriage, at which time Walter moreearnestly conjured him to remain in the closest concealment. A heavygroan burst from his heart, he rested his head on his folded hands, andbade Williams proceed.
"Yet though a long term of years had elapsed," continued he, "sounwilling was the King to proceed to extremities, that from term to termthe cause stood over, and the hungry vulture who longed to gorge yourpossessions grew weary of acting the dove's part. I had long seen hisbase nature. In vain did he dress his face and his person in the solemnhue of mourning, or your false-hearted sister shed Hyaena tears,"--
"Tears! For what did she weep?"
"For your death."
"My death," said Evellin, starting up; "De Vallance knew I was alive."
"Aye, my noble master, and so did I too, or I should never have lived todrag my bones to the banks of Windermere; grief would have killed me ereI had gone half my journey. I caught the villain destroying yourletters; I saw the date of one; you were alive at Ribblesdale inNovember, so could not have died the preceding month at Launceston."
"Who durst affirm that I did?"
"Walter De Vallance.--He claimed an audience of the King, and shewed anattested certificate, stating that Allan Neville had there deceased. Anaccount was subjoined of his person, his way of living, and the time hehad resided in that borough, all made to correspond with your likenessand history. I had followed him to the door of the privy-chamber, andwaited among the pages. Methinks I see him now screw up his hypocriticalface and wink his eyes, as if he wept." "Your Majesty," said he, "willbe no more persecuted with my suit for my ill-fated brother-in-law.--LadyEleanor commends her duty to the Queen.--Alas, I fear the same strokewill leave me friendless and a widower.--Never was such love." He wenton, sobbing aloud--"A broken heart brought him to his grave.--One, onlyerror; else the very mirror of honourable faculties." Thus he stood asone beside himself with anguish, holding out the certificate, which agentleman read to His Highness. And then, my noble master, you mighthave seen how true pity looks by the side of its vile counterfeit. "Iknew Allan Neville well," said the King, "and I once truly loved him.Ill rest the calumniators of those who can no longer justify themselves!His faults die with him. The pardon I meant to have granted to hisoffences, if he would have sought my mercy, shall turn into favours tothose who share his blood." Walter answered, he could scarce becomforted even by such gracious words; but he acted his part ill, forthough the King's goodness was too noble to suspect him, the courtiersnicknamed him the merry-mourner.
"Why speaks not my noble master," said Williams, observing the fixedposture and quenched eye of Evellin. At last he exclaimed--"I am notdead;" and bursting into an hysterical laugh, he swore De Vallanceshould find he was not dead.
"That is the point," replied Williams, "to which I have long wished tourge you. Only appear and prove your identity; nothing more is wanting.But rest on my arm, your whole frame is convulsed. Ah, woe is me, that abase upstart should thus destroy so true a sample of old English worth!"
"I have survived the loss of my patrimony," said Evellin; "I have bowedmy aspiring mind to the lowliness of which I was born to be theprotector; I have a good King, a good cause, a faithful wife, dearlovely children. De Vallance shall not long triumph. But say, Williams,didst than ever hear of treachery so complicated, so deep, so totallyvoid of even a twinkling ray of common rectitude."
"I know but one character more vile and unnatural," returned Williams,"and that is the Lady Eleanor."
"I pass her by," said Evellin. "Nature cast her mind in its most sordidmould; and her heart is capable only of mean inclinations and lowdesires; I have, from my youth, reproved her follies, and as she neverloved me, she would see no crime in plotting my destruction."
"What--because you strove to render her worthy her lineage," answeredWilliams. "If a bad nature is an excuse for crimes, may not Satan objectto the severity of his sentence. Beauty made her vain, and adulationmade her haughty. Yet other ladies on the same personal graces haveengrafted the lovelier stock of truly noble virtues. The husband whomshe deigned to marry, because she found him a ready slave to herdesigns, will live to rue the day when he made marriage a ladder toambition. May Heaven guard our Queen from so dangerous a friend. Neverdid a falser serpent with a beautiful
outside dart its poisons into theear of Majesty."
Williams went on repeating anecdotes, which proved the degeneracy of thenew Countess from the antient stock of noble ladies who were betterpleased to act as faithful and provident stewards of the bounty ofHeaven, than, like greedy whirlpools, to absorb every thing within theirreach. He contrasted their circumspect liberality with her thoughtlesswaste; the matronly sobriety and tempered magnificence of their attirewith her new fangled fickleness and wanton costliness; their modestdignified courtesy with her wayward perverseness; their gravity with herlightness, in acting at court-revels and maskings, familiar with everygallant, and accepting praise from the most polluted sources. He spoketo the winds; the full proof of that perfidy which Evellin had so longstruggled to disbelieve, fell like a thundering cataract on his mind,and swept away all power of attention. Long-indulged sorrow had preyedon his mental and corporeal functions, and rendered him ill able tosupport that severe blow. Williams sincerely repented the circumstantialdisclosure he had made. A feverish listlessness seized on the unhappyEvellin, which yielded only to the visitation of a more dreadfulcalamity. It was not decided insanity, but it dispelled the hopes whichhad been formed of his being able to reclaim his usurped birth-right.His bodily health was in time restored, and his mental infirmity becamea wild humoursome eccentricity, preserving traces of his noblecharacter, but querulously impatient of controul, subject to extravaganttransports, and incapable of steady exertion or connected thought. Stillmagnanimous, independent and honourable, but moody, rash, andintractable, he was the automaton of generous instinct, no longeranimated by reason.
Such a situation required constant vigilance to prevent irritation andsupply soothing recreations and gratifying objects. Williams was a mostuseful assistant to Mrs. Evellin. He was practically versed inhusbandry, he knew the world, and had a creditable share of literature;he could thus amuse his master, direct the domestic management, andinstruct the children. Isabel in all these instances found him aconsiderable relief to her cares. That excellent woman knew not whatimmediately hastened her husband's malady. Williams had often stated thepossibility of his regaining his rights; but she, dreading everyproposal that might agitate his mind, solemnly urged that that topicshould be avoided. "In my prayers to Heaven," said she, "I never daredto supplicate for more than that he might ever continue what he was whenI first revered and loved him. Reason and judgment are positiveadvantages; fortune and title, accidents which the possessor may convertinto evils. I should have been most thankful, if, during our journey tothe vale of years, he had been always able to act as my counsellor andguide. His conversation was 'the daily banquet of my nourished mind.' Ihoped ever to feed on the words of wisdom breathed from the lips ofkindness. I know not what important contingencies in my eternalexistence are connected with my present trial; but this I know, if Isustain it patiently and cheerfully, it must promote much present good.I did not consider marriage merely as a summer voyage. Before I left thequiet harbour of singleness I thought of winter and its future storms.Most happily I did not choose a vessel laden with perishable treasures.While reason and judgment illuminated his mind, my Evellin was thedelight and ornament of society; yet still his holier hopes, pursued agood, less transient than the applause of man. If while the faithfulservant labours in his vocation a premature night falls upon him andsuspends his toil, will the just Master who ordains the privation, beextreme in noting the remissness of infirmity? I once was the happiestof wives, nor can I now be wretched since I still minister comfort to mybeloved."
Thus, with a mind naturally firm, and still further supported byprinciple and undeviating affection through years of trial, Mrs. Evellinpersevered in active duty and enduring fortitude. The anxiety which hersuffering husband excited, and the attentions he required, slowlyundermined a constitution originally delicate, but she made no paradeeither of her sorrows or her cares. She courted no compassion, and hersuppressed anguish would have been known only to her Creator, had shenot observed that Evellin, in his wildest aberrations of intellect, felther sorrows, and was not only tranquillized but restored to a transientrecollection by the sight of her distress. She bestowed infinite care onher children, labouring to impart to them a portion of her own cheerfulfortitude and active vigilance. The superintendance of her farm added toher employments; she had no leisure for unavailing regret; and tillsickness was added to sorrow, her busy days were frequently rewarded bynights of peaceful slumber. The occupied mind, however acute itssensibility, rarely sinks into despondence. The soothing consciousnessof usefulness overcomes its regrets, and the habit of exertion createsconfidence in its own powers. This sentiment, though criminal when itannihilates religious dependence, is highly commendable when it acts asits ally, inspiring a generous resolution of not adding to the burden ofour fellow-pilgrims, who like us toil heavy-laden through the wildernessof life. On the other hand those, who, when visited by irremediableaffliction, give up their whole souls to the indulgence of grief, maydignify their passive dejection with the name of finer feelings, andmore tender sensibility, but they will at last find, that they havesubmitted to the bondage of a tyrant who will deprive them of all theirremaining comforts. Does gloomy despondence bespeak a higher degree ofsocial virtue? Is melancholy an instance of the soul's reliance onDivine goodness? Do they not rather shew a rebellious disposition to Himfrom whom affliction proceeds, and a selfish disregard of those whosecomforts are all blasted by the depressing influence of indulged despair?
[1] This is Clarendon's account of that famous court.
