CHAPTER XXXIV.
John Ayliffe, as we may now once more very righteously call him, wasseated in the great hall of the old house of the Hastings family. Verydifferent indeed was the appearance of that large chamber now fromthat which it had presented when Sir Philip Hastings was inpossession. All the old, solid, gloomy-looking furniture, whichformerly had given it an air of baronial dignity, and which Sir Philiphad guarded as preciously as if every antique chair and knotted tablehad been an heir-loom, was now removed, and rich flaunting things ofgaudy colors substituted. Damask, and silk, and velvet, and giltornaments in the style of France, were there in abundance, and had itnot been for the arches overhead, and the stone walls and narrowwindows around, the old hall might have passed for the saloon of somenewly-enriched financier of Paris.
The young man sat at table alone--not that he was by any means fond ofsolitude, for on the contrary he would have fain filled his house withcompany--but for some reason or another, which he could not divine, hefound the old country gentlemen in the neighborhood somewhat shy ofhis society. His wealth, his ostentation, his luxury--for he had begunhis new career with tremendous vehemence--had no effect upon them.They looked upon him as somewhat vulgar, and treated him with merecold, supercilious civility as an upstart. There was one gentleman ofgood family, indeed, at some distance, who had hung a good deal aboutcourts, had withered and impoverished himself, and reduced both hismind and his fortune in place-hunting, and who had a large family ofdaughters, to whom the society of John Ayliffe was the moreacceptable, and who not unfrequently rode over and dined withhim--nay, took a bed at the Hall. But that day he had not been over,and although upon the calculation of chances, one might have auguredtwo to one John Ayliffe would ultimately marry one of the daughters,yet at this period he was not very much smitten with any of them, andwas contemplating seriously a visit to London, where he thought hisorigin would be unknown, and his wealth would procure him every sortof enjoyment.
Two servants were in the Hall, handing him the dishes. Well-cookedviands were on the table, and rich wine. Every thing which JohnAyliffe in his sensual aspirations had anticipated from the possessionof riches was there--except happiness, and that was wanting. To sitand feed, and feel one's self a scoundrel--to drink deep draughts,were it of nectar, for the purpose of drowning the thought of our ownbaseness--to lie upon the softest bed, and prop the head with thedowniest pillow, with the knowledge that all we possess is the fruitof crime, can never give happiness--surely not, even to the mostdepraved.
That eating and drinking, however, was now one of John Ayliffe's chiefresources--drinking especially. He did not actually get intoxicatedevery night before he went to bed, but he always drank to a sufficientexcess to cloud his faculties, to obfuscate his mind. He rather likedto feel himself in that sort of dizzy state where the outlines of allobjects become indistinct, and thought itself puts on the same hazyaspect.
The servants had learned his habits already, and were very willing tohumor them; for they derived their own advantage therefrom. Thus, onthe present occasion, as soon as the meal was over, and the disheswere removed, and the dessert put upon the table--a dessert consistingprincipally of sweetmeats, for which he had a great fondness, withstimulants to thirst. Added to these were two bottles of the mostpotent wine in his cellar, with a store of clean glasses, and a jug ofwater, destined to stand unmoved in the middle of the table.
After this process it was customary never to disturb him, till, with asomewhat wavering step, he found his way up to his bedroom. But on thenight of which I am speaking, John Ayliffe had not finished his fourthglass after dinner, and was in the unhappy stage, which, with somemen, precedes the exhilarating stage of drunkenness, when the butlerventured to enter with a letter in his hand.
"I beg pardon for intruding, sir," he said, "but Mr. Cherrydew hassent up a man on horseback from Hartwell with this letter, becausethere is marked upon it, 'to be delivered with the greatest possiblehaste.'"
"Curse him!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, "I wish he would obey the ordersI give him. Why the devil does he plague me with letters at this timeof night?--there, give it to me, and go away," and taking the letterfrom the man's hand, he threw it down on the table beside him, as ifit were not his intention to read it that night. Probably, indeed, itwas not; for he muttered as he looked at the address, "She wants moremoney, I dare say, to pay for some trash or another. How greedy thesewomen are. The parson preached the other day about the horse-leech'sdaughter. By ---- I think I have got the horse-leech's mother!" and helaughed stupidly, not perceiving that the point of his sarcasm touchedhimself.
He drank another glass of wine, and then looked at the letter again;but at length, after yet another glass, curiosity got the better ofhis moodiness, and he opened the epistle.
The first sight of the contents dispelled not only his indifferencebut the effects of the wine he had taken, and he read the letter withan eager and a haggard eye. The substance was as follows:
"My dearest boy:
"All is lost and discovered. I can but write you a very short accountof the things that have been happening here, for I am under what thesepeople call the surveillance of the police. I have got a few minutes,however, and I will pay the maid secretly to give this to the post.Never was such a time as I have had this morning. Four men have beenhere, and among them Atkinson, who lived just down below at thecottage with the gray shutters. He knew me in a minute, and toldeverybody who I was. But that is not the worst of it, for they havegot a commissioner of police with him--a terrible looking man, whotook as much snuff as Mr. Jenkins, the justice of peace. They had gotall sorts of information in England about me, and you, and every body,and they came to me to give them more, and cross-questioned me in aterrible manner; and that ugly old Commissioner, in his black coat andgreat wig, took my keys, and opened all the drawers and places. Whatcould I do to stop them? So they got all your letters to me; because Icould not bear to burn my dear boy's letters, and that letter from oldSir John to my poor father, which I once showed you. So when they gotall those, there was no use of trying to conceal it any more, and,besides, they might have sent me to the Bastile or the Tower ofLondon. So every thing has come out, and the best thing you can do isto take whatever money you have got, or can get, and run away as fastas possible, and come over here and take me away. One of them was asfine a man as ever I saw, and quite a gentleman, though very severe.
"Pray, my dear John, don't lose a moment's time, but run away beforethey catch you; for they know every thing now, depend upon it, andnothing will stop them from hanging you or sending you to the coloniesthat you can do; for they have got all the proofs, and I could see bytheir faces that they wanted nothing more; and if they do, my heartwill be quite broken, that is, if they hang you or send you to thecolonies, where you will have to work like a galley-slave, and a manstanding over you with a whip, beating your bare back very likely. Sorun away, and come to your afflicted mother."
She did not seem to have been quite sure what name to sign, for shefirst put "Brown," but then changed the word to "Hastings," and thenagain to "Ayliffe." There were two or three postscripts, but they wereof no great importance, and John Ayliffe did not take the trouble ofreading them. The terms he bestowed upon his mother--not in thesecrecy of his heart, but aloud and fiercely--were any thing butfilial, and his burst of rage lasted full five minutes before it wassucceeded by the natural fear and trepidation which the intelligencehe had received might well excite. Then, however, his terror becameextreme. The color, usually high, and now heightened both by rage andwine, left his cheeks, and, as he read over some parts of his mother'sletter again, he trembled violently.
"She has told all," he repeated to himself, "she has told all--andmost likely has added from his own fancy. They have got all my letterstoo which the fool did not burn. What did say, I wonder? Too much--toomuch, I am sure. Heaven and earth, what will come of it! Would to GodI had not listened to that rascal Shanks! Where should I go now foradvice? It must not be to him. He w
ould only betray and ruin me--makeme the scape-goat--pretend that I had deceived him, I dare say. Oh, heis a precious villain, and Mrs. Hazleton knows that too well to trusthim even with a pitiful mortgage--Mrs. Hazleton--I will go to her. Sheis always kind to me, and she is devilish clever too--knows a gooddeal more than Shanks if she did but understand the law--I will go toher---she will tell me how to manage."
No time was to be lost. Ride as hard as he could it would take himmore than an hour to reach Mrs. Hazleton's house, and it was alreadylate. He ordered a horse to be saddled instantly, ran to his bedroom,drew on his boots, and then, descending to the hall, stood swearing atthe slowness of the groom till the sound of hoofs made him run to thedoor. In a moment he was in the saddle and away, much to theastonishment of the servants, who puzzled themselves a little as towhat intelligence their young master could have received, and thenproceeded to console themselves according to the laws and ordinancesof the servants' hall in such cases made and provided. The wine he hadleft upon the table disappeared with great celerity, and the butler,who was a man of precision, arrayed a good number of small silverarticles and valuable trinkets in such a way as to be packed up andremoved with great facility and secrecy.
In the meanwhile John Ayliffe rode on at a furious pace, avoiding aroad which would have led him close by Mr. Shanks's dwelling, andreached, Mrs. Hazleton's door about nine o'clock.
That lady was sitting in a small room behind the drawing-room, which Ihave already mentioned, where John Ayliffe was announced once more asSir John Hastings. But Mrs. Hazleton, in personal appearance at least,was much changed since she was first introduced to the reader. She wasstill wonderfully handsome. She had still that indescribable air ofcalm, high-bred dignity which we are often foolishly inclined toascribe to noble feelings and a high heart; but which--where it is notan art, an acquirement--only indicates, I am inclined to believe, whenit has any moral reference at all, strength of character and greatself-reliance. But Mrs. Hazleton was older--looked older a gooddeal--more so than the time which had passed would alone account for.The passions of the last two or three years had worn her sadly, andprobably the struggle to conceal those passions had worn her as much.Nevertheless, she had grown somewhat fat under their influence, and awrinkle here and there in the fair skin was contradicted by theplumpness of her figure.
She rose with quiet, easy grace to meet her young guest, and held outher hand to him, saying, "Really, my dear Sir John, you must not payme such late visits or I shall have scandal busying herself with mygood name."
But even as she spoke she perceived the traces of violent agitationwhich had not yet departed from John Ayliffe's visage, and she added,"What is the matter? Has any thing gone wrong?"
"Every thing is going to the devil, I believe," said John Ayliffe, assoon as the servant had closed the door. "They have found out mymother at St. Germain."
He paused there to see what effect this first intelligence wouldproduce, and it was very great; for Mrs. Hazleton well knew that uponthe concealment of his mother's existence had depended one of theprincipal points in his suit against Sir Philip Hastings. What wasgoing on in her mind, however, appeared not in her countenance. Shepaused in silence, indeed, for a moment or two, and then said in hersweet musical voice, "Well, Sir John, is that all?"
"Enough too, dear Mrs. Hazleton!" replied the young man. "Why yousurely remember that it was judged absolutely necessary she should besupposed dead--you yourself said, when we were talking of it, 'Sendher to France.' Don't you remember?"
"No I do not," answered Mrs. Hazleton, thoughtfully; "and if I did itcould only be intended to save the poor thing from all the torment ofbeing cross-examined in a court of justice."
"Ay, she has been cross-examined enough in France nevertheless," saidthe young man bitterly, "and she has told every thing, Mrs.Hazleton--all that she knew, and I dare say all that she guessed."
This news was somewhat more interesting than even the former; ittouched Mrs. Hazleton personally to a certain extent, for all thatJane Ayliffe knew and all that she guessed might comprise a great dealthat Mrs. Hazleton would not have liked the world to know or guesseither. She retained all her presence of mind however, and repliedquite quietly "Really, Sir John, I cannot at all form a judgment ofthese things, or give you either assistance or advice, as I am anxiousto do, unless you explain the whole matter fully and clearly. What hasyour mother done which seems to have affected you so much? Let me hearthe whole details, then I can judge and speak with some show ofreason. But calm yourself, calm yourself, my dear sir. We often at thefirst glance of any unpleasant intelligence take fright, and thinkingthe danger ten times greater than it really is, run into worse dangersin trying to avoid it. Let me hear all, I say, and then I willconsider what is to be done."
Now Mrs. Hazleton had already, from what she had just heard,determined precisely and entirely what she would do. She had divinedin an instant that the artful game in which John Ayliffe had beenengaged, and in which she herself had taken a hand, was played out,and that he was the loser; but it was a very important object with herto ascertain if possible how far she herself had been compromised bythe revelations of Mrs. Ayliffe. This was the motive of her gentlequestions; for at heart she did not feel the least gentle.
On the other hand John Ayliffe was somewhat angry. All frightenedpeople are angry when they find others a great deal less frightenedthan themselves. Drawing forth his mother's letter then, he thrust ittowards Mrs. Hazleton, almost rudely, saying, "Read that, madam, andyou'll soon see all the details, that you could wish for."
Mrs. Hazleton did read it from end to end, postscript and all, and shesaw with infinite satisfaction and delight, that her own name wasnever once mentioned in the whole course of that delectable epistle.As she read that part of the letter, however, in which Mrs. Ayliffereferred to the very handsome gentlemanly man who had been one of herunwished for visitors, Mrs. Hazleton said within herself, "This isMarlow; Marlow has done this!" and tenfold bitterness took possessionof her heart. She folded up the letter with neat propriety, however,and handed it back to John Ayliffe, saying, in her very sweetesttones, "Well, I do not think this so very bad as you seem to imagine.They have found out that your mother is still living, and that is all.They cannot make much of that."
"Not much of that!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, now nearly driven tofrenzy, "what if they convict one of perjury for swearing she wasdead?"
"Did you swear she was dead?" exclaimed Mrs. Hazleton with anexceedingly well assumed look of profound astonishment.
"To be sure I did," he answered. "Why you proposed that she should besent away yourself, and Shanks drew out the affidavit."
A mingled look of consternation and indignation came into Mrs.Hazleton's beautiful face; but before she could make any reply he wenton, thinking he had frightened her; which was in itself a satisfactionand a sort of triumph.
"Ay, that you did," he said, "and not only that, but you advanced meall the money to carry on the suit, and I am told that that ispunishable by law. Besides, you knew quite well of the leaf being tornout of the register, so we are in the same basket I can tell you, Mrs.Hazleton."
"Sir, you insult me," said the lady, rising with an air of imperiousdignity. "The charity which induced me to advance you different sumsof money, without knowing what they were to be applied to--and I canprove that some of them were applied to very different purposes than asuit at law--has been misunderstood, I see. Had I advanced them tocarry on this suit, they would have been paid to your and my lawyer,not to yourself. Not a word more, if you please! You have mistaken mycharacter as well as my motives, if you suppose that I will suffer youto remain here one moment after you have insulted me by the verythought that I was any sharer in your nefarious transactions." Shespoke in a loud shrill tone, knowing that the servants were in thehall hard by, and then she added, "Save me the pain, sir, of orderingsome of the men to put you out of the house by quitting it directly."
"Oh, yes, I will go, I will go," cried John Ayliffe, now
quitemaddened, "I will go to the devil, and you too, madam," and he burstout of the room, leaving the door open behind him.
"I can compassionate misfortune," cried Mrs. Hazleton, raising hervoice to the very highest pitch for the benefit of others, "but I willhave nothing to do with roguery and fraud," and as she heard hishorse's feet clatter over the terrace, she heartily wished he mightbreak his neck before he passed the park gates. How far she wassatisfied, and how far she was not, must be shown in another chapter.
The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen Anne Page 34