by Walter Scott
CHAPTER THIRTEENTH.
Dire was his thought, who first in poison steeped The weapon formed for slaughter--direr his, And worthier of damnation, who instilled The mortal venom in the social cup, To fill the veins with death instead of life. Anonymous.
"Upon my Word, Mr. Francis Osbaldistone," said Miss Vernon, with the airof one who thought herself fully entitled to assume the privilege ofironical reproach, which she was pleased to exert, "your characterimproves upon us, sir--I could not have thought that it was in you.Yesterday might be considered as your assay-piece, to prove yourselfentitled to be free of the corporation of Osbaldistone Hall. But it was amasterpiece."
"I am quite sensible of my ill-breeding, Miss Vernon, and I can only sayfor myself that I had received some communications by which my spiritswere unusually agitated. I am conscious I was impertinent and absurd."
"You do yourself great injustice," said the merciless monitor--"you havecontrived, by what I saw and have since heard, to exhibit in the courseof one evening a happy display of all the various masterly qualificationswhich distinguish your several cousins;--the gentle and generous temperof the benevolent Rashleigh,--the temperance of Percie,--the cool courageof Thorncliff,--John's skill in dog-breaking,--Dickon's aptitude tobetting,--all exhibited by the single individual, Mr. Francis, and thatwith a selection of time, place, and circumstance, worthy the taste andsagacity of the sapient Wilfred."
"Have a little mercy, Miss Vernon," said I; for I confess I thought theschooling as severe as the case merited, especially considering from whatquarter it came, "and forgive me if I suggest, as an excuse for follies Iam not usually guilty of, the custom of this house and country. I am farfrom approving of it; but we have Shakspeare's authority for saying, thatgood wine is a good familiar creature, and that any man living may beovertaken at some time."
"Ay, Mr. Francis, but he places the panegyric and the apology in themouth of the greatest villain his pencil has drawn. I will not, however,abuse the advantage your quotation has given me, by overwhelming you withthe refutation with which the victim Cassio replies to the tempter Iago.I only wish you to know, that there is one person at least sorry to see ayouth of talents and expectations sink into the slough in which theinhabitants of this house are nightly wallowing."
"I have but wet my shoe, I assure you, Miss Vernon, and am too sensibleof the filth of the puddle to step farther in."
"If such be your resolution," she replied, "it is a wise one. But I wasso much vexed at what I heard, that your concerns have pressed before myown,--You behaved to me yesterday, during dinner, as if something hadbeen told you which lessened or lowered me in your opinion--I beg leaveto ask you what it was?"
I was stupified. The direct bluntness of the demand was much in the styleone gentleman uses to another, when requesting explanation of any part ofhis conduct in a good-humoured yet determined manner, and was totallydevoid of the circumlocutions, shadings, softenings, and periphrasis,which usually accompany explanations betwixt persons of different sexesin the higher orders of society.
I remained completely embarrassed; for it pressed on my recollection,that Rashleigh's communications, supposing them to be correct, ought tohave rendered Miss Vernon rather an object of my compassion than of mypettish resentment; and had they furnished the best apology possible formy own conduct, still I must have had the utmost difficulty in detailingwhat inferred such necessary and natural offence to Miss Vernon'sfeelings. She observed my hesitation, and proceeded, in a tone somewhatmore peremptory, but still temperate and civil--"I hope Mr. Osbaldistonedoes not dispute my title to request this explanation. I have no relativewho can protect me; it is, therefore, just that I be permitted to protectmyself."
I endeavoured with hesitation to throw the blame of my rude behaviourupon indisposition--upon disagreeable letters from London. She sufferedme to exhaust my apologies, and fairly to run myself aground, listeningall the while with a smile of absolute incredulity.
"And now, Mr. Francis, having gone through your prologue of excuses, withthe same bad grace with which all prologues are delivered, please to drawthe curtain, and show me that which I desire to see. In a word, let meknow what Rashleigh says of me; for he is the grand engineer and firstmover of all the machinery of Osbaldistone Hall."
"But, supposing there was anything to tell, Miss Vernon, what does hedeserve that betrays the secrets of one ally to another?--Rashleigh, youyourself told me, remained your ally, though no longer your friend."
"I have neither patience for evasion, nor inclination for jesting, on thepresent subject. Rashleigh cannot--ought not--dare not, hold any languagerespecting me, Diana Vernon, but what I may demand to hear repeated. Thatthere are subjects of secrecy and confidence between us, is most certain;but to such, his communications to you could have no relation; and withsuch, I, as an individual, have no concern."
I had by this time recovered my presence of mind, and hastily determinedto avoid making any disclosure of what Rashleigh had told me in a sort ofconfidence. There was something unworthy in retailing privateconversation; it could, I thought, do no good, and must necessarily giveMiss Vernon great pain. I therefore replied, gravely, "that nothing butfrivolous talk had passed between Mr. Rashleigh Osbaldistone and me onthe state of the family at the Hall; and I protested, that nothing hadbeen said which left a serious impression to her disadvantage. As agentleman," I said, "I could not be more explicit in reporting privateconversation."
She started up with the animation of a Camilla about to advance intobattle. "This shall not serve your turn, sir,--I must have another answerfrom you." Her features kindled--her brow became flushed--her eye glancedwild-fire as she proceeded--"I demand such an explanation, as a womanbasely slandered has a right to demand from every man who calls himself agentleman--as a creature, motherless, friendless, alone in the world,left to her own guidance and protection, has a right to require fromevery being having a happier lot, in the name of that God who sent _them_into the world to enjoy, and _her_ to suffer. You shall not deny me--or,"she added, looking solemnly upwards, "you will rue your denial, if thereis justice for wrong either on earth or in heaven."
I was utterly astonished at her vehemence, but felt, thus conjured, thatit became my duty to lay aside scrupulous delicacy, and gave her briefly,but distinctly, the heads of the information which Rashleigh had conveyedto me.
She sate down and resumed her composure, as soon as I entered upon thesubject, and when I stopped to seek for the most delicate turn ofexpression, she repeatedly interrupted me with "Go on--pray, go on; thefirst word which occurs to you is the plainest, and must be the best. Donot think of my feelings, but speak as you would to an unconcerned thirdparty."
Thus urged and encouraged, I stammered through all the account whichRashleigh had given of her early contract to marry an Osbaldistone, andof the uncertainty and difficulty of her choice; and there I wouldwillingly have paused. But her penetration discovered that there wasstill something behind, and even guessed to what it related.
"Well, it was ill-natured of Rashleigh to tell this tale on me. I am likethe poor girl in the fairy tale, who was betrothed in her cradle to theBlack Bear of Norway, but complained chiefly of being called Bruin'sbride by her companions at school. But besides all this, Rashleigh saidsomething of himself with relation to me--Did he not?"
"He certainly hinted, that were it not for the idea of supplanting hisbrother, he would now, in consequence of his change of profession, bedesirous that the word Rashleigh should fill up the blank in thedispensation, instead of the word Thorncliff."
"Ay? indeed?" she replied--"was he so very condescending?--Too muchhonour for his humble handmaid, Diana Vernon--And she, I suppose, was tobe enraptured with joy could such a substitute be effected?"
"To confess the truth, he intimated as much, and even fartherinsinuated"--
"What?--Let me hear it all!" she exclaimed, ha
stily.
"That he had broken off your mutual intimacy, lest it should have givenrise to an affection by which his destination to the church would notpermit him to profit."
"I am obliged to him for his consideration," replied Miss Vernon, everyfeature of her fine countenance taxed to express the most supreme degreeof scorn and contempt. She paused a moment, and then said, with her usualcomposure, "There is but little I have heard from you which I did notexpect to hear, and which I ought not to have expected; because, batingone circumstance, it is all very true. But as there are some poisons soactive, that a few drops, it is said, will infect a whole fountain, sothere is one falsehood in Rashleigh's communication, powerful enough tocorrupt the whole well in which Truth herself is said to have dwelt. Itis the leading and foul falsehood, that, knowing Rashleigh as I havereason too well to know him, any circumstance on earth could make methink of sharing my lot with him. No," she continued with a sort ofinward shuddering that seemed to express involuntary horror, "any lotrather than that--the sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, theinsensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh:--theconvent--the jail--the grave, shall be welcome before them all."
There was a sad and melancholy cadence in her voice, corresponding withthe strange and interesting romance of her situation. So young, sobeautiful, so untaught, so much abandoned to herself, and deprived of allthe support which her sex derives from the countenance and protection offemale friends, and even of that degree of defence which arises from theforms with which the sex are approached in civilised life,--it is scarcemetaphorical to say, that my heart bled for her. Yet there was anexpression of dignity in her contempt of ceremony--of upright feeling inher disdain of falsehood--of firm resolution in the manner in which shecontemplated the dangers by which she was surrounded, which blended mypity with the warmest admiration. She seemed a princess deserted by hersubjects, and deprived of her power, yet still scorning those formalregulations of society which are created for persons of an inferior rank;and, amid her difficulties, relying boldly and confidently on the justiceof Heaven, and the unshaken constancy of her own mind.
I offered to express the mingled feelings of sympathy and admiration withwhich her unfortunate situation and her high spirit combined to impressme, but she imposed silence on me at once.
"I told you in jest," she said, "that I disliked compliments--I now tellyou in earnest, that I do not ask sympathy, and that I despiseconsolation. What I have borne, I have borne--What I am to bear I willsustain as I may; no word of commiseration can make a burden feel onefeather's weight lighter to the slave who must carry it. There is onlyone human being who could have assisted me, and that is he who has ratherchosen to add to my embarrassment--Rashleigh Osbaldistone.--Yes! the timeonce was that I might have learned to love that man--But, great God! thepurpose for which he insinuated himself into the confidence of onealready so forlorn--the undeviating and continued assiduity with which hepursued that purpose from year to year, without one single momentarypause of remorse or compassion--the purpose for which he would haveconverted into poison the food he administered to my mind--GraciousProvidence! what should I have been in this world, and the next, in bodyand soul, had I fallen under the arts of this accomplished villain!"
I was so much struck with the scene of perfidious treachery which thesewords disclosed, that I rose from my chair hardly knowing what I did,laid my hand on the hilt of my sword, and was about to leave theapartment in search of him on whom I might discharge my just indignation.Almost breathless, and with eyes and looks in which scorn and indignationhad given way to the most lively alarm, Miss Vernon threw herself betweenme and the door of the apartment.
"Stay!" she said--"stay!--however just your resentment, you do not knowhalf the secrets of this fearful prison-house." She then glanced her eyesanxiously round the room, and sunk her voice almost to a whisper--"Hebears a charmed life; you cannot assail him without endangering otherlives, and wider destruction. Had it been otherwise, in some hour ofjustice he had hardly been safe, even from this weak hand. I told you,"she said, motioning me back to my seat, "that I needed no comforter. Inow tell you I need no avenger."
I resumed my seat mechanically, musing on what she said, and recollectingalso, what had escaped me in my first glow of resentment, that I had notitle whatever to constitute myself Miss Vernon's champion. She paused tolet her own emotions and mine subside, and then addressed me with morecomposure.
"I have already said that there is a mystery connected with Rashleigh, ofa dangerous and fatal nature. Villain as he is, and as he knows he standsconvicted in my eyes, I cannot--dare not, openly break with or defy him.You also, Mr. Osbaldistone, must bear with him with patience, foil hisartifices by opposing to them prudence, not violence; and, above all, youmust avoid such scenes as that of last night, which cannot but give himperilous advantages over you. This caution I designed to give you, and itwas the object with which I desired this interview; but I have extendedmy confidence farther than I proposed."
I assured her it was not misplaced.
"I do not believe that it is," she replied. "You have that in your faceand manners which authorises trust. Let us continue to be friends. Youneed not fear," she said, laughing, while she blushed a little, yetspeaking with a free and unembarrassed voice, "that friendship with usshould prove only a specious name, as the poet says, for another feeling.I belong, in habits of thinking and acting, rather to your sex, withwhich I have always been brought up, than to my own. Besides, the fatalveil was wrapt round me in my cradle; for you may easily believe I havenever thought of the detestable condition under which I may remove it.The time," she added, "for expressing my final determination is notarrived, and I would fain have the freedom of wild heath and open airwith the other commoners of nature, as long as I can be permitted toenjoy them. And now that the passage in Dante is made so clear, pray goand see what has become of the badger-baiters. My head aches so much thatI cannot join the party."
I left the library, but not to join the hunters. I felt that a solitarywalk was necessary to compose my spirits before I again trusted myself inRashleigh's company, whose depth of calculating villany had been sostrikingly exposed to me. In Dubourg's family (as he was of the reformedpersuasion) I had heard many a tale of Romish priests who gratified, atthe expense of friendship, hospitality, and the most sacred ties ofsocial life, those passions, the blameless indulgence of which is deniedby the rules of their order. But the deliberate system of undertaking theeducation of a deserted orphan of noble birth, and so intimately alliedto his own family, with the perfidious purpose of ultimately seducingher, detailed as it was by the intended victim with all the glow ofvirtuous resentment, seemed more atrocious to me than the worst of thetales I had heard at Bourdeaux, and I felt it would be extremelydifficult for me to meet Rashleigh, and yet to suppress the abhorrencewith which he impressed me. Yet this was absolutely necessary, not onlyon account of the mysterious charge which Diana had given me, but becauseI had, in reality, no ostensible ground for quarrelling with him.
I therefore resolved, as far as possible, to meet Rashleigh'sdissimulation with equal caution on my part during our residence in thesame family; and when he should depart for London, I resolved to giveOwen at least such a hint of his character as might keep him on his guardover my father's interests. Avarice or ambition, I thought, might have asgreat, or greater charms, for a mind constituted like Rashleigh's, thanunlawful pleasure; the energy of his character, and his power of assumingall seeming good qualities, were likely to procure him a high degree ofconfidence, and it was not to be hoped that either good faith orgratitude would prevent him from abusing it. The task was somewhatdifficult, especially in my circumstances, since the caution which Ithrew out might be imputed to jealousy of my rival, or rather mysuccessor, in my father's favour. Yet I thought it absolutely necessaryto frame such a letter, leaving it to Owen, who, in his own line, waswary, prudent, and circumspect, to make the necessary use of hisknowledge of Rashleigh's true character. Such a l
etter, therefore, Iindited, and despatched to the post-house by the first opportunity.
At my meeting with Rashleigh, he, as well as I, appeared to have taken updistant ground, and to be disposed to avoid all pretext for collision. Hewas probably conscious that Miss Vernon's communications had beenunfavourable to him, though he could not know that they extended todiscovering his meditated villany towards her. Our intercourse,therefore, was reserved on both sides, and turned on subjects of littleinterest. Indeed, his stay at Osbaldistone Hall did not exceed a few daysafter this period, during which I only remarked two circumstancesrespecting him. The first was the rapid and almost intuitive manner inwhich his powerful and active mind seized upon and arranged theelementary principles necessary to his new profession, which he nowstudied hard, and occasionally made parade of his progress, as if to showme how light it was for him to lift the burden which I had flung downfrom very weariness and inability to carry it. The other remarkablecircumstance was, that, notwithstanding the injuries with which MissVernon charged Rashleigh, they had several private interviews together ofconsiderable length, although their bearing towards each other in publicdid not seem more cordial than usual.
When the day of Rashleigh's departure arrived, his father bade himfarewell with indifference; his brothers with the ill-concealed glee ofschool-boys who see their task-master depart for a season, and feel a joywhich they dare not express; and I myself with cold politeness. When heapproached Miss Vernon, and would have saluted her she drew back with alook of haughty disdain; but said, as she extended her hand to him,"Farewell, Rashleigh; God reward you for the good you have done, andforgive you for the evil you have meditated."
"Amen, my fair cousin," he replied, with an air of sanctity, whichbelonged, I thought, to the seminary of Saint Omers; "happy is he whosegood intentions have borne fruit in deeds, and whose evil thoughts haveperished in the blossom."
These were his parting words. "Accomplished hypocrite!" said Miss Vernonto me, as the door closed behind him--"how nearly can what we mostdespise and hate, approach in outward manner to that which we mostvenerate!"
I had written to my father by Rashleigh, and also a few lines to Owen,besides the confidential letter which I have already mentioned, and whichI thought it more proper and prudent to despatch by another conveyance.In these epistles, it would have been natural for me to have pointed outto my father and my friend, that I was at present in a situation where Icould improve myself in no respect, unless in the mysteries of huntingand hawking; and where I was not unlikely to forget, in the company ofrude grooms and horse-boys, any useful knowledge or elegantaccomplishments which I had hitherto acquired. It would also have beennatural that I should have expressed the disgust and tedium which I waslikely to feel among beings whose whole souls were centred infield-sports or more degrading pastimes--that I should have complained ofthe habitual intemperance of the family in which I was a guest, and thedifficulty and almost resentment with which my uncle, Sir Hildebrand,received any apology for deserting the bottle. This last, indeed, was atopic on which my father, himself a man of severe temperance, was likelyto be easily alarmed, and to have touched upon this spring would to acertainty have opened the doors of my prison-house, and would either havebeen the means of abridging my exile, or at least would have procured mea change of residence during my rustication.
I say, my dear Tresham, that, considering how very unpleasant a prolongedresidence at Osbaldistone Hall must have been to a young man of my age,and with my habits, it might have seemed very natural that I should havepointed out all these disadvantages to my father, in order to obtain hisconsent for leaving my uncle's mansion. Nothing, however, is morecertain, than that I did not say a single word to this purpose in myletters to my father and Owen. If Osbaldistone Hall had been Athens inall its pristine glory of learning, and inhabited by sages, heroes, andpoets, I could not have expressed less inclination to leave it.
If thou hast any of the salt of youth left in thee, Tresham, thou wilt beat no loss to account for my silence on a topic seemingly so obvious.Miss Vernon's extreme beauty, of which she herself seemed so littleconscious--her romantic and mysterious situation--the evils to which shewas exposed--the courage with which she seemed to face them--her manners,more frank than belonged to her sex, yet, as it seemed to me,exceeding in frankness only from the dauntless consciousness of herinnocence,--above all, the obvious and flattering distinction which shemade in my favour over all other persons, were at once calculated tointerest my best feelings, to excite my curiosity, awaken myimagination, and gratify my vanity. I dared not, indeed, confess tomyself the depth of the interest with which Miss Vernon inspired me, orthe large share which she occupied in my thoughts. We read together,walked together, rode together, and sate together. The studies which shehad broken off upon her quarrel with Rashleigh, she now resumed, underthe auspices of a tutor whose views were more sincere, though hiscapacity was far more limited.
In truth, I was by no means qualified to assist her in the prosecution ofseveral profound studies which she had commenced with Rashleigh, andwhich appeared to me more fitted for a churchman than for a beautifulfemale. Neither can I conceive with what view he should have engagedDiana in the gloomy maze of casuistry which schoolmen called philosophy,or in the equally abstruse though more certain sciences of mathematicsand astronomy; unless it were to break down and confound in her mind thedifference and distinction between the sexes, and to habituate her totrains of subtle reasoning, by which he might at his own time invest thatwhich is wrong with the colour of that which is right. It was in the samespirit, though in the latter case the evil purpose was more obvious, thatthe lessons of Rashleigh had encouraged Miss Vernon in setting at noughtand despising the forms and ceremonial limits which are drawn roundfemales in modern society. It is true, she was sequestrated from allfemale company, and could not learn the usual rules of decorum, eitherfrom example or precept; yet such was her innate modesty, and accuratesense of what was right and wrong, that she would not of herself haveadopted the bold uncompromising manner which struck me with so muchsurprise on our first acquaintance, had she not been led to conceive thata contempt of ceremony indicated at once superiority of understanding andthe confidence of conscious innocence. Her wily instructor had, no doubt,his own views in levelling those outworks which reserve and caution erectaround virtue. But for these, and for his other crimes, he has long sinceanswered at a higher tribunal.
Besides the progress which Miss Vernon, whose powerful mind readilyadopted every means of information offered to it, had made in moreabstract science, I found her no contemptible linguist, and wellacquainted both with ancient and modern literature. Were it not thatstrong talents will often go farthest when they seem to have leastassistance, it would be almost incredible to tell the rapidity of MissVernon's progress in knowledge; and it was still more extraordinary, whenher stock of mental acquisitions from books was compared with her totalignorance of actual life. It seemed as if she saw and knew everything,except what passed in the world around her;--and I believe it was thisvery ignorance and simplicity of thinking upon ordinary subjects, sostrikingly contrasted with her fund of general knowledge and information,which rendered her conversation so irresistibly fascinating, and rivettedthe attention to whatever she said or did; since it was absolutelyimpossible to anticipate whether her next word or action was to displaythe most acute perception, or the most profound simplicity. The degree ofdanger which necessarily attended a youth of my age and keen feelingsfrom remaining in close and constant intimacy with an object so amiable,and so peculiarly interesting, all who remember their own sentiments atmy age may easily estimate.