CHAPTER LXXVII.
A thousand crowns, or else lay down your head.--2nd Part of Henry VI.
From Ellen, I hastened to the house of Sir Reginald. The hall was in allthe confusion of approaching departure. I sprang over the paraphernaliaof books and boxes which obstructed my way, and bounded up the stairs.Glanville was, as usual, alone: his countenance was less pale than ithad been lately, and when I saw it brighten as I approached, I hoped, inthe new happiness of my heart, that he might baffle both his enemy andhis disease.
I told him all that had just occurred between Ellen and myself. "Andnow," said I, as I clasped his hand, "I have a proposal to make, towhich you must accede: let me accompany you abroad; I will go with youto whatever corner of the world you may select. We will plan togetherevery possible method of concealing our retreat. Upon the past I willnever speak to you. In your hours of solitude I will never disturb youby an unwelcome and ill-timed sympathy. I will tend upon you, watch overyou, bear with you, with more than the love and tenderness of a brother.You shall see me only when you wish it. Your loneliness shall never beinvaded. When you get better, as I presage you will, I will leave you tocome back to England, and provide for the worst, by ensuring your sistera protector. I will then return to you alone, that your seclusion maynot be endangered by the knowledge, even of Ellen, and you shall have meby your side till--till--"
"The last!" interrupted Glanville. "Too--too generous Pelham, Ifeel--these tears (the first I have shed for a long, long time) tellyou, that I feel to the heart--your friendship and disinterestedattachment; but the moment your love for Ellen has become successful,I will not tear you from its enjoyment. Believe me, all that I couldderive from your society, could not afford me half the happiness Ishould have in knowing that you and Ellen were blest in each other.No--no, my solitude will, at that reflection, be deprived of its sting.You shall hear from me once again; my letter shall contain a request,and your executing that last favour must console and satisfy thekindness of your heart. For myself, I shall die as I have lived--alone.All fellowship with my griefs would seem to me strange and unwelcome."
I would not suffer Glanville to proceed. I interrupted him with fresharguments and entreaties, to which he seemed at last to submit, and Iwas in the firm hope of having conquered his determination, when we werestartled by a sudden and violent noise in the hall.
"It is Thornton," said Glanville, calmly. "I told them not to admit him,and he is forcing his way."
Scarcely had Sir Reginald said this, before Thornton burst abruptly intothe room.
Although it was scarcely noon, he was more than half intoxicated, andhis eyes swam in his head with a maudlin expression of triumph andinsolence, as he rolled towards us.
"Oh, oh! Sir Reginald," he said, "thought of giving me the slip, eh?Your d--d servants said you were out; but I soon silenced them. 'Egad Imade them as nimble as cows in a cage--I have not learnt the use of myfists for nothing. So, you're going abroad to-morrow; without my leave,too--pretty good joke that, indeed. Come, come, my brave fellow, youneed not scowl at me in that way. Why, you look as surly as a butcher'sdog with a broken head."
Glanville, who was lived with ill-suppressed rage, rose haughtily.
"Mr. Thornton," he said, in a calm voice, although he was trembling inhis extreme passion, from head to foot, "I am not now prepared to submitto your insolence and intrusion. You will leave this room instantly. Ifyou have any further demands upon me, I will hear them to-night at anyhour you please to appoint."
"No, no, my fine fellow," said Thornton, with a coarse chuckle; "youhave as much wit as three folks, two fools, and a madman; but you won'tdo me, for all that. The instant my back is turned, your's will beturned too; and by the time I call again, your honour will be half wayto Calais. But--bless my stars, Mr. Pelham, is that you? I really didnot see you before; I suppose you are not in the secret?"
"I have no secrets from Mr. Pelham," said Glanville; "nor do I careif you discuss the whole of your nefarious transactions with me in hispresence. Since you doubt my word, it is beneath my dignity to vindicateit, and your business can as well be dispatched now, as hereafter. Youhave heard rightly, that I intend leaving England to-morrow; and now,Sir, what is your will?"
"By G--d, Sir Reginald Glanville!" exclaimed Thornton, who seemed stungto the quick by Glanville's contemptuous coldness, "you shall not leaveEngland without my leave. Ay, you may frown, but I say you shall not;nay, you shall not budge a foot from this very room unless I cry, 'Be itso!'"
Glanville could no longer restrain himself. He would have sprung towardsThornton, but I seized and arrested him. I read, in the malignant andincensed countenance of his persecutor, all the danger to which a singleimprudence would have exposed him, and I trembled for his safety.
I whispered, as I forced him again to his seat, "Leave me alone tosettle with this man, and I will endeavour to free you from him." I didnot tarry for his answer; but turning to Thornton, said to him coollybut civilly: "Sir Reginald Glanville has acquainted me with the natureof your very extraordinary demands upon him. Did he adopt my advice, hewould immediately place the affair in the hands of his legal advisers.His ill health, however, his anxiety to leave England, and his wish tosacrifice almost every thing to quiet, induce him, rather than takethis alternative, to silence your importunities, by acceding to claims,however illegal and unjust. If, therefore, you now favour Sir Reginaldwith your visit, for the purpose of making a demand previous to hisquitting England, and which, consequently, will be the last to whichhe will concede, you will have the goodness to name the amount of yourclaim, and should it be reasonable, I think Sir Reginald will authorizeme to say, that it shall be granted."
"Well, now!" cried Thornton, "that's what I call talking like a sensibleman; and though I am not fond of speaking to a third person, when theprincipal is present, yet as you have always been very civil to me, Ihave no objection to treating with you. Please to give Sir Reginaldthis paper: if he will but take the trouble to sign it, he may go to theFalls of Niagara for me! I won't interrupt him--so he had better put pento paper, and get rid of me at once, for I know I am as welcome as snowin harvest."
I took the paper, which was folded up, and gave it to Glanville, wholeant back on his chair, half-exhausted by his rage. He glanced hiseye over it, and then tore it into a thousand pieces, and trampled itbeneath his feet: "Go!" exclaimed he, "go, rascal, and do your worst! Iwill not make myself a beggar to enrich you. My whole fortune would butanswer this demand."
"Do as you please, Sir Reginald," answered Thornton, grinning, "do asyou please. It's not a long walk from hence to Bow-street, nor a longswing from Newgate to the gallows; do as you please, Sir Reginald, do asyou please!" and the villain flung himself at full length on the costlyottoman, and eyed Glanville's countenance with an easy and maliciouseffrontery, which seemed to say, "I know you will struggle, but youcannot help yourself."
I took Glanville aside: "My dear friend," said I, "believe me, that Ishare your indignation to the utmost; but we must do any thing ratherthan incense this wretch: what is his demand?"
"I speak literally," replied Glanville, "when I say, that it coversnearly the whole of my fortune; for my habits of extravagance have verymuch curtailed my means: it is the exact sum I had set apart, for amarriage gift to my sister, in addition to her own fortune."
"Then," said I, "you shall give it him; your sister has no longer anynecessity for a portion: her marriage with me prevents that--and withregard to yourself, your wants are not many--such as it is, you canshare my fortune."
"No--no--no!" cried Glanville; and his generous nature lashing him intofresh rage, he broke from my grasp, and moved menacingly to Thornton.That person still lay on the ottoman, regarding us with an air halfcontemptuous, half exulting.
"Leave the room instantly," said Glanville, "or you will repent it!"
"What! another murder, Sir Reginald!" said Thornton. "No, I am not asparrow, to have my neck wrenched by a woman's hand like your's. Give memy demand--
sign the paper, and I will leave you for ever and a day."
"I will commit no such folly," answered Glanville. "If you will acceptfive thousand pounds, you shall have that sum; but were the rope on myneck, you should not wring from me a farthing more!"
"Five thousand!" repeated Thornton; "a mere drop--a child's toy--why,you are playing with me, Sir Reginald--nay, I am a reasonable man,and will abate a trifle or so of my just claims, but you must not takeadvantage of my good nature. Make me snug and easy for life--let me keepa brace of hunters--a cosey box--a bit of land to it, and a girl aftermy own heart, and I'll say quits with you. Now, Mr. Pelham, who is along-headed gentleman, and does not spit on his own blanket, knows wellenough that one can't do all this for five thousand pounds; make it athousand a year--that is, give me a cool twenty thousand--and I won'texact another sous. Egad, this drinking makes one deuced thirsty--Mr.Pelham, just reach me that glass of water--I hear bees in my head!"
Seeing that I did not stir, Thornton rose, with an oath against pride;and swaggering towards the table, took up a tumbler of water, whichhappened accidentally to be there: close by it was the picture of theill-fated Gertrude. The gambler, who was evidently so intoxicated asto be scarcely conscious of his motions or words (otherwise, in allprobability, he would, to borrow from himself a proverb illustrative ofhis profession, have played his cards better) took up the portrait.
Glanville saw the action, and was by his side in an instant. "Touch itnot with your accursed hands!" he cried, in an ungovernable fury. "Leaveyour hold this instant, or I will dash you to pieces!"
Thornton kept a firm gripe of the picture. "Here's a to-do!" said hetauntingly: "was there ever such work about a poor--(using a word toocoarse for repetition) before?"
The word had scarcely passed his lips, when he was stretched at hisfull length upon the ground. Nor did Glanville stop there. With allthe strength of his nervous and Herculean frame, fully requited for thedebility of disease by the fury of the moment, he seized the gamester asif he had been an infant, and dragged him to the door: the next moment Iheard his heavy frame rolling down the stairs with no decorous slownessof descent.
Glanville re-appeared. "Good God!" I cried, "what have you done?" But hewas too lost in his still unappeased rage to heed me. He leaned, pantingand breathless, against the wall, with clenched teeth, and a flashingeye, rendered more terribly bright by the feverish lustre natural to hisdisease.
Presently I heard Thornton re-ascend the stairs: he opened the door,and entered but one pace. Never did human face wear a more fiendishexpression of malevolence and wrath. "Sir Reginald Glanville," he said,"I thank you heartily. He must have iron nails who scratches a bear.You have sent me a challenge, and the hangman shall bring you my answer.Good day, Sir Reginald--good day, Mr. Pelham;" and so saying, he shutthe door, and rapidly descending the stairs, was out of the house in aninstant.
"There is no time to be lost," said I, "order post horses to yourcarriage, and be gone instantly."
"You are wrong," replied Glanville, slowly recovering himself. "I mustnot fly; it would be worse than useless; it would seem the strongestargument against me. Remember that if Thornton has really gone toinform against me, the officers of justice would arrest me long before Ireached Calais; or even if I did elude their pursuit so far, I shouldbe as much in their power in France as in England: but to tell you thetruth, I do not think Thornton will inform. Money, to a temper like his,is a stronger temptation than revenge; and, before he has been threeminutes in the air, he will perceive the folly of losing the goldenharvest he may yet make of me for the sake of a momentary passion.No--my best plan will be to wait here till to-morrow, as I originallyintended. In the meanwhile he will, in all probability, pay me anothervisit, and I will make a compromise with his demands."
Despite of my fears, I could not but see the justice of theseobservations, the more especially as a still stronger argument thanany urged by Glanville, forced itself on my mind; this was my internalconviction, that Thornton himself was guilty of the murder of Tyrrell,and that, therefore, he would, for his own sake, avoid the new andparticularizing scrutiny into that dreadful event, which his accusationof Glanville would necessarily occasion.
Both of us were wrong. Villains have passions as well as honest men; andthey will, therefore, forfeit their own interest in obedience to thosepassions, while the calculations of prudence invariably suppose, thatthat interest is their only rule. [Note: I mean "interest" in thegeneral, not the utilitarian, signification of the word.]
Glanville was so enfeebled by his late excitation, that he besought meonce more to leave him to himself. I did so, under a promise, that hewould admit me again in the evening; for notwithstanding my persuasionthat Thornton would not put his threats into execution, I could notconquer a latent foreboding of dread and evil.
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