CHAPTER LXXI.
SIR HARRY BRACTON'S INVASION OF GYLINGDEN.
Jim Dutton had not turned up since, and his letter was one of thosemares' nests of which gentlemen in Mr. Larkin's line of business have solarge an experience. Of Mark Wylder not a trace was discoverable. Hisenquiries on this point were, of course, conducted with caution andremoteness. Gylingden, however, was one of those places which, if itknows anything, is sure to find a way of telling it, and the attorney wassoon satisfied that Mark's secret visit had been conducted withsufficient caution to baffle the eyes and ears of the good folk of thetown.
Well, one thing was plain. The purchase of the reversion was to wait, andfraudulent as was the price at which he had proposed to buy it, he wasnow resolved to get it for less than half that sum, and he wrote a shortnote to the vicar, which he forthwith despatched.
In the meantime there was not a moment to be lost in clenching thepurchase of Five Oaks. And Mr. Jos. Larkin, with one of his 'young men'with him in the tax-cart, reached Brandon Hall in a marvellously shorttime after his arrival at home.
Jos. Larkin, his clerk, and the despatch-box, had a short wait in theDutch room, before his admission to the library, where an animated debatewas audible. The tremendous contest impending over the county was, ofcourse, the theme. In the Dutch room, where they waited, there was alarge table, with a pyramid of blank envelopes in the middle, and ever somany cubic feet of canvassing circulars, six chairs, and pens and ink.The clerks were in the housekeeper's room at that moment, partaking ofrefreshment. There was a gig in the court-yard, with a groom at thehorse's head, and Larkin, as he drew up, saw a chaise driving round tothe stable yard. People of all sorts were coming and going, and BrandonHall was already growing like an inn.
'How d'ye do, dear Larkin?' said Captain Brandon Stanley Lake, the heroof all this debate and commotion, smiling his customary sly greeting, andextending his slim hand across the arm of his chair--'I'm so sorry youwere away--this thing has come, after all, so suddenly--we are getting onfamously though--but I'm awfully fagged.' And, indeed, he looked pale andtired, though smiling. 'I've a lot of fellows with me; they've just runin to luncheon; won't you take something?'
But Jos. Larkin, smiling after his sort, excused himself. He was gladthey had a moment to themselves. He had brought the money, which he knewwould be acceptable at such a moment, and he thought it would bedesirable to sign and seal forthwith, to which the captain, a littleanxiously, agreed. So he got in one of the clerks who were directing thecanvassing circulars, and gave him the draft, approved by his counsel, toread aloud, while he followed with his eye upon the engrossed deed.
The attorney told down the money in bank bills. He fancied that exceptionmight be taken to his cheque for so large a sum, and was eager to avoiddelay, and came from London so provided.
The captain was not sorry, for in truth he was in rather imminentjeopardy just then. He had spoken truth, strangely enough, when hementioned his gambling debts as an incentive to his marriage with theheiress of Brandon, in that Sunday walk with Rachel in the park; andhardly ten minutes had passed when Melton Hervey, trustiest ofaide-de-camps, was on his way to Dollington to make a large lodgment tothe captain's credit in the county bank, and to procure a letter ofcredit for a stupendous sum in favour of Messrs. Hiram and Jacobs,transmitted under cover to Captain Lake's town solicitor. The captain hadsigned, sealed, and delivered, murmuring that formula about hand andseal, and act and deed, and Dorcas glided in like a ghost, and merelywhispering an enquiry to Lake, did likewise, the clerk deferentiallyputting the query, 'this is your hand and seal, &c.?' and Jos. Larkindrawing a step or two backward.
Of course the lady saw that lank and sinister man of God quitedistinctly, but she did not choose to do so, and Larkin, with a grandsort of prescience, foresaw a county feud between the Houses of Five Oaksand Brandon, and now the lady had vanished. The money, carefully counted,was rolled in Lake's pocket book, and the bright new deed which made Jos.Larkin, of the Lodge, Esq., master of Five Oaks, was safely locked intothe box, under his long arm, and the attorney vanished, bowing very much,and concealing his elation under a solemn sort of _nonchalance_.
The note, which by this time the vicar had received, though short, was,on the whole, tremendous. It said:--
'(_Private._)
REV. AND DEAR SIR,--I have this moment arrived from London, where Ideeply regret to state the negotiation on which we both relied to carryyou comfortably over your present difficulties has fallen through, inconsequence of what I cannot but regard as the inexcusable caprice of theintending purchaser. He declines stating any reason for his withdrawal. Ifear that the articles were so artfully framed by his solicitors, in oneparticular which it never entered into my mind to refer to anything liketrick or design, that we shall find it impossible to compel him to carryout what, in the strongest terms, I have represented to Messrs.Burlington and Smith as a bargain irrevocably concluded in point ofhonour and morality. The refusal of their own client to make the proposedinvestment has alarmed those gentlemen, I regret to add, for the safetyof their costs, which, as I before apprised you, are, though I cannot sayexcessive, certainly _very heavy_; and I fear we must be prepared forextreme measures upon their part. I have carefully reconsidered the veryhandsome proposal which Miss Lake was so good as to submit; but theresult is that, partly on technical, and partly on other grounds, Icontinue of the clear opinion that the idea is absolutely impracticable,and must be peremptorily laid aside in attempting to arrive at anestimate of any resources which you may be conscious of commanding. If,under these deplorably untoward circumstances, you still think I can beof any use to you, may I beg that you will not hesitate to say how.
'I remain, my dear and reverend Sir, with profound regrets and sympathy,yours very sincerely,
'JOS. H. LARKIN.'
He had already imported the H. which was to germinate, in a little while,into Howard.
When Jos. Larkin wanted to get a man's property a bargain--and he hadmade two or three excellent hits, though, comparatively, on a very smallscale--he liked so to contrive matters as to bring his client to hisknees, begging him to purchase on the terms he wished; and then Jos.Larkin came forward, in the interests of humanity, and unable to resistthe importunities of 'a party whom he respected,' he did 'what, at thetime, appeared a very risky thing, although it has turned out tolerablysafe in the long run.'
The screw was now twisted pretty well home upon the poor vicar, who, ifhe had any sense at all, would, remembering Larkin's expressions only aweek before, suggest his buying, and so, the correspondence woulddisclose, in a manner most honourable to the attorney, the history of thepurchase.
But the clouds had begun to break, and the sky to clear, over the goodvicar, just at the point where they had been darkest and most menacing.
Little Fairy, after all, was better. Good-natured Buddle had been thereat nine, quite amazed at his being so well, still reserved and cautious,and afraid of raising hopes. But when he came back, at eleven, and hadcompleted his examination, he told them, frankly, that there was adecided change; in fact, that the little man, with, of course, greatcare, might do very well, and _ought_ to recover, if nothing went wrong.
Honest Buddle was delighted. He chuckled over the little man's bed. Hecould not suppress his grins. He was a miracle of a child! a prodigy! ByGeorge, it was the most extraordinary case he had ever met with! It wasall that bottle, and that miraculous child; they seemed made for oneanother. From two o'clock, last night, the action of his skin hascommenced, and never ceased since. When he was here last night, thelittle fellow's pulse was a hundred and forty-four, and now down toninety-seven!
The doctor grew jocular; and who can resist a doctor's jokes, when theygarnish such tidings as he was telling. Was ever so pleasant a doctor!Laughter through tears greeted these pleasantries; and oh, suchtransports of gratitude broke forth when he was gone!
It was well for Driver, the postmaster, and his daughters, that all thecirculars made up that day
in Brandon Hall were not despatched throughthe Gylingden post-office. It was amazing how so many voters could findroom to one county. Next day, it was resolved, the captain's personalcanvass was to commence. The invaluable Wealdon had run through the listof his to-morrow's visits, and given him an inkling of theidiosyncrasies, the feuds, and the likings of each elector in thecatalogue. 'Busy times, Sir!' Tom Wealdon used to remark, with a chuckle,from time to time, in the thick of the fuss and conspiration which wasthe breath of his nostrils; and, doubtless, so they are, and were, andever will be, until the time-honoured machinery of our election systemhas been overhauled, and adapted to the civilisation of these days.
Captain Brandon Lake was as much as possible at head quarters in thesecritical times; and, suddenly, Mr. Crump; the baker, and John Thomas, ofthe delft, ironmongery, sponge, and umbrella shop, at the corner ofChurch Street, in Gylingden, were announced by the fatigued servant. Theybowed, and stood, grinning, near the door; and the urbane and cordialcaptain, with all a candidate's good fellowship, shook them both by thehands, and heard their story; and an exciting one it was.
Sir Harry Bracton had actually invaded the town of Gylingden. There was arabble of the raff of Queen's Bracton along with him. He, with two orthree young swells by him, had made a speech, from his barouche, outsidethe 'Silver Lion,' near the green; and he was now haranguing from thesteps of the Court House. They had a couple of flags, and some music. Itwas 'a regular, planned thing;' for the Queen's Bracton people had beendropping in an hour before. The shop-keepers were shutting their windows.Sir Harry was 'chaffing the capting,' and hitting him very hard 'for ahupstart'--and, in fact, Crump was more particular in reporting theworthy baronet's language than was absolutely necessary. And it wasthought that Sir Harry was going to canvass the town.
The captain was very much obliged, indeed, and begged they would go intothe parlour, and take luncheon; and, forthwith, Wealdon took the command.The gamekeepers, the fifty hay-makers in the great meadow, they were toenter the town from the top of Church Street, where they were to gatherall the boys and blackguards they could. The men from the gas-works, themasons, and blacksmiths, were to be marched in by Luke Samways. TomWealdon would, himself, in passing, give the men at the coal-works ahint. Sir Harry's invasion was the most audacious thing on record; and itwas incumbent on Gylingden to make his defeat memorably disgraceful anddisastrous.
His barouche was to be smashed, and burnt on the green; his white topcoatand hat were to clothe the effigy, which was to swing over the bonfire.The captured Bracton banners were to hang in the coffee-room of the'Silver Lion,' to inspire the roughs. What was to become of the humanportion of the hostile pageant, Tom, being an official person, did notchoose to hint.
All these, and fifty minor measures, were ordered by the fertile Wealdonin a minute, and suitable messengers on the wing to see after them. Thecaptain, accompanied by Mr. Jekyl, myself, and a couple of the gravescriveners from the next room, were to go by the back approach andRedman's Dell to the Assembly Rooms, which Crump and Thomas, already ontheir way in the fly, undertook to have open for their reception, andfurnished with some serious politicians from the vicinity. From thewindows, the captain, thus supported, was to make his maiden speech, onepoint in which Tom Wealdon insisted upon, and that was an injunction tothe 'men of Gylingden' on no account to break the peace. 'Take care tosay it, and we'll have it well reported in the "Chronicle," and our ladswon't mind it, nor hear it neither, for that matter.'
So, there was mounting in hot haste in the courtyard of old Brandon, anda rather ponderous selection of walking-sticks by the politicians--ofwhom I was one--intended for the windows of the assembly room.
Lake rode; Tom Wealdon, myself, and two scriveners, squeezed into thedog-cart, which was driven by Jekyl, and away we went. It was a pleasantdrive, under the noble old trees. But we were in no mood for thepicturesque. A few minutes brought us into the Blackberry hollow, whichdebouches into Redman's Dell.
Here, the road being both steep and rugged, our speed abated. Theprecipitous banks shut out the sunlight, except at noon, and the roadthrough this defile, overhung by towering trees and rocks, was even nowin solemn shadow. The cart-road leading down to Redman's Dell, andpassing the mills near Redman's Farm, diverges from the footpath withwhich we are so well acquainted, near that perpendicular block of stonewhich stands a little above the steps which the footpath here descends.
Wylder's Hand Page 72