The MS. in a Red Box

by John A. Hamilton

  CHAPTER XVIII

  My liberation did not come to pass so quickly as Mr. Ulceby had hoped,for the justices and the sheriff and the commander of the castle, and Iknow not how many authorities besides, all had something to say in thematter. After my friend's testimony that I was not his son had beenaccepted, I supposed I should be set free at once, but no such thing!"If I was not Jim Ulceby, who was I?" "Where was Jim Ulceby?" "Howcame I to resemble him?" So the authorities demanded, and seemed tothink these questions must be answered before they gave me my liberty.One magistrate, whose gravity and dulness were of equal magnitude, tookit into his head that a plot of some kind was on foot. If he couldhave had his way, I believe he would have put me to bodily torture; totorture of mind he often put me, coming to "examine the prisoner," byasking the most absurd questions, looking as solemn as an owl thewhile. I never understood his drift, nor I believe did he. Mr. Ulcebywarned me of this man's first visit, and implored me to endure it withall the patience I could muster; so I contrived to keep my temper, andin the end the ass was good enough to express the judgment "that I wasa blind instrument of the conspirators." That there was a conspiracyhe was well assured.

  Acton gave us some trouble at first, holding that I was in fact hisone-time crony, and that Mr. Ulceby had taken the course of denying me,as the one means of saving me from transportation to America. Hedeclared that no man would be at the pains and cost which Mr. Ulcebytook on my behalf for a stranger, and claimed "hush-money." When hecould not extort that, he did his worst against me secretly. Even whenthe surgeon had restored me to something more like my former looks,Acton would not be convinced. The surgeon did me good service bygiving evidence as to the recent date of the distortion of my face,which was corroborated by the sergeant who brought me to Hull. Hetestified that he had been perplexed when he arrested me by thefreshness of the tattooing and of the scars. But eight days passedbefore my good friend, who had been unceasing in his exertions in mycause, came with the order for my release. Every comfort which moneycould procure during those weary days I enjoyed, and Mr. Ulceby gave meas much of his time as might be spared from the business of expeditingmy deliverance. After the second day of durance I kept to my own room.On that day I had the curiosity to look over the prison. It consistedof two houses which had been thrown into one, and of buildings whichoccupied two sides of a quadrangle behind them. These buildings wouldnot have been used as stabling by a man who valued his horses. Herethe wretches were confined who could not, or would not, pay foraccommodation within the house; some of them kept safely by being laidon the floor with iron bars across their legs; others having liberty tostand upright, but chained to staples in the wall. Some were free toroam the yard, variously ironed and fettered. The most part were halfstarved and in rags, the most miserable creatures I had ever seen.

  The inmates of the house were such as had means to pay the exorbitantcharges which the jailer made for food and lodging and fees for this,that, and the other. Many of these had money to waste in gambling anddrunkenness, but few had any compassion for their poverty-strickenfellow-prisoners. In this den were prisoners awaiting trial, prisonersunder sentence, and prisoners who had been acquitted, now detained forpayment of the jailer's charges; prisoners of both sexes and of allages, from childhood to decrepitude. While I was making the round ofthe yard, a greasy fellow came to one of the windows, and calling tothe crowd, threw out the orts and scraps of his breakfast, for whichthe hungry wretches scrambled. In the struggle two women fell out andbegan to fight, tearing, scratching, and biting with the fury oftigresses, while men stood round them laughing and betting as to whichwould be the victrix. Turning away from this, I came upon a ragged,miserable creature, who lay moaning and whimpering in a corner. He hadtried to climb the wall with the aid of a rope which a friend hadmanaged to convey to him, but had been caught in the effort; so thejailer and his men had beaten the soles of his feet to a horriblecondition. A few of the prisoners lay about dead drunk, the objects ofthe envy of others, who had not the luck to have friends able andwilling to give them liquor. Much that I saw and heard is not to bedescribed. I took refuge from the little hell in the solitude of myown room, right thankful I had not been compelled to herd with the vileand wretched crew. In a sense it was lucky for me that Acton held tothe belief that I was Jim Ulceby, for he made it loudly known, and sosaved me from being molested by the bullies in the house, who feared tomeddle with one who had the repute of never failing to pay back in fullany ill turn that might be done him.

  Not until the fourth day of my incarceration did I receive a letterfrom Anna, for Mr. Ulceby's messenger had been delayed by one mishapafter another, howbeit they need not be set down here. All the day Iread and re-read that precious letter, wondering how a pen, which in myhand is an unwieldy tool, came to be such a wand of magic in hers, thatI could, in a manner, hear her clear voice, and almost see hersprightly smile and the sudden coming of her tears. I will copy partsof the letter here, for they tell the story far better than it could betold in words of mine.

  "When Luke brought me your letter, in which you promised to come on theday following, he told me of the wickedness of Sebastian Vliet, and Imade him repeat the matter in my father's hearing. But when Luke wenton to say you had sent a challenge to your would-be murderer, I wasalmost beside myself with anger that you should risk your life solightly in fighting with a wretch so infamous. For a brief moment Ithought you had slain my love by your folly, but I soon knew it stilllived by the sinking at my heart for fear of what might be devisedagainst you by so crafty a coward. When I learned that Vliet had goneto meet you alone and armed only with a sword, you may be sure all hisdoings were watched as closely as two women knew how to do. It filledme with wonder. But my fears were redoubled by Vermuijden's report ofwhat had happened, which was that you had fled from Vliet in suddenterror, and gone he knew not whither. A lie so gross and palpable mademe certain some foul deed had been done, but what I could not guess,and for days I was as one bereft of reason.

  "At last came the news of the finding of a body in a pond, said to beyours: but I could not believe you were dead. My father and Martha andLuke thought me distraught with grief, but my heart said you were stillalive. And as my wits returned, I questioned Luke particularly aboutthe dead man. That he was of your height and build, and dressed inyour clothes were no sufficient proofs to me. I doubted whether fishesalone had disfigured the face beyond knowledge, and the condition ofthe man's breast seemed unaccountable. I asked whether there was traceof any deadly wound; and was answered 'None.' How, then, came the bodyinto the pond? If you, even in the dark, had stumbled into the water,you were strong enough to get out again. No one could have thrown youin, unless he had first stunned you with a blow from behind, and therewas no mark of such a blow. Luke told me what was found in thepockets: your purse and the coins which it contained, a ring of keys,your penknife, and your seal. But no word of the half of a ninepennybit. I felt assured my Frank had not thrown away or lost hislove-token. So my mind did in some degree confirm my heart's faith,although every one thought my hope the veriest madness.

  "And now to tell you a strange thing. The day after that body wascommitted to the grave, I sat here, wearied out with thinking andwondering, and I saw you stretched on a couch in what looked like achurch crypt. You were bound hand and foot, and by the light of a lamphanging from the wall behind you, I could see blood upon your face. Aman came out of the shadowed part of the room, and stood so that he hidyour face from me, and then all faded from my sight. I cried out to myfather, who sat near me reading, 'Frank is alive! I have seen him.' Idescribed the place and your state to my father, being perfectly sureof the truth of what I had seen. He sought to convince me I haddreamed it, but I knew I had not closed my eyes; and, besides, therewas I know not what of reality in the sight, which would not suffer meto doubt. I sent for Luke, who was in the house at the time, andinquired of him whether he knew of such a room as I had seen, but hecould not he
lp me. My own mind ran on the dungeons of Castle Mulgrave,and I gave my father no rest until he ventured with me, professing hisdesire to consult a book in the earl's library as the reason of ourgoing. I pretended a whim to see the vaults of the castle, and the oldnobleman gave order to his seneschal to take me through them, who didso willingly, he and I being great friends. (He it was who gave me mylessons in riding on my first visit to the castle, so you see yourone-time jealousy was misplaced.) From him I heard that Lord Sheffieldhad his abode at present at Normanby, where he led a life lessrestrained than was possible under his father's roof, which set methinking that there might be underground rooms there; but my guideassured me there was not so much as a wine-cellar. 'It was,' he said,'a poor place, but honoured by my lord's residence when heavy drinkingand high play and other delights were desired. For the last ten daysthe revelling had been perpetual.' Had your disappearance anything todo with this merrymaking? I asked myself. I would set Luke to spy uponthe comings and goings of his lordship, I resolved, little as he wasfitted by nature for the part. But on our return, which was made insafety, I found Martha in distress about the poor fellow, who hadstruck his foot with an axe, while chopping wood, and he is even yethobbling on a crutch. Will it always be that we poor women mustdepend, even in maddening anxiety, on the aid of men? If I had beenfree, I should have donned the garb of manhood, and ridden the lengthand breadth of the Isle to find you, for I had the feeling that yourprison was not very far away.

  "But at length, three days before your messenger brought me thisletter--which I have wet with happy tears, and kissed a thousand times,and held in my hand and looked at, even while I poured out my thanks toGod--at length came the beautiful gipsy girl, who had seen you, spokenwith you, touched you. I have much to say to you about the darkbeauty, and some questions to ask you. Our meeting was a strange one(of that another time), but before long we were sobbing in each other'sarms. And we had arranged to follow and find you on the very day yourletter arrived."

  Of Vliet, Anna had no more to tell than I already knew, that he hadbeen arrested, and that he had escaped and disappeared. She wrote ofher father as being wholly taken up with researches and experimentsregarding ague, and full of hope to find a preventive against thatsickness. Vermuijden had hired a number of the poorer sort ofIslonians to work with the Dutch, but their neighbours were so bitteragainst them for this going over to the enemy as to render it necessaryto provide lodging for them within the settlement. Nevertheless, Annahad confidence that the step would tend to amity and a goodunderstanding in due time.

  On the third day after the receipt of this letter, Mr. Ulceby came tome with the order for my release duly signed and countersigned, and assoon as we had settled with Acton, I was once more a free man. My goodfriend had reckoned on my impatience to be on the road to Sandtoft, andhad provided breakfast at the nearest inn, his house being on the otherside of the town.

  When the meal was eaten, three horses were brought to the door, one forme, one for my friend, and one for his manservant. Mr. Ulceby believedhe had been spied upon and followed several times during his visits tomy prison, and feared my enemies were on the alert; hence his purposeto accompany me to the Isle.

  "Three men, well mounted and well armed, might travel much more safelythan a single horseman," said he.

  I may here say that there was no need, as we afterwards came to know,of all this care for my protection, Boswell having never counted on mybeing delivered from the prison.

  We rode with no more serious mishap than the shying of my horse at theflapping of a cloth, which a housewife came to her door to shake as wewere passing.

  We crossed Trent at Burringham Ferry and went by Crowle Causey, itbeing my intent to see my friend in quarters at the White Hart, andleaving him there, to ride south to Belton, and thence to Sandtoft bythe embankment, but this was not his mind. He would have no nay but weshould dine together, procure fresh horses, and he and his man go withme to the settlement. Impatient though I was to see my love, I was toomuch bound to Mr. Ulceby to refuse to do as he would have me, seeinghow he, had set his heart on this thing. After we had eaten and drunk,we went on our way, and Mr. Ulceby with great delicacy spoke of what Iwas to do to earn a livelihood. He did not approve my plan of joiningmyself to a company of adventurers, or of enlisting in the militaryservice of a foreign prince. He had another scheme for me, which wasthat I should enter into his business, either as his agent and clerk,or, if mercantile affairs were distasteful to me, as supercargo on oneof his ships, with a prospect of coming to the command of a vessel,when I had gained a sufficient degree of seamanship. He spoke as if hethought he ought to make excuse for offering occupation so humble toone of my birth and breeding, but pointed out that a competency mightmuch more certainly and speedily be made by such means than byexploring American forests or engaging as a soldier of fortune. And hetouched on the need he would have shortly for a partner, whose youthfulenergy might supply the lack of his own declining strength. He endedby saying--

  "I am but a plain, blunt fellow, Mr. Vavasour, with no more learningthan I got at a dame's school, and unused to the ways of gentlefolks,so I trust you will excuse me if I put it badly; but if your heart'sdesire is to prepare a cage for your singing-bird, I think it will bemost quickly gratified by condescending to trade."

  Had such an offer been made me only a month before, assuredly I shouldhave rejected it with scorn, but one may learn a good deal in a month,especially if part of it be spent in prison. Even now I had no likingfor a seat on an office stool with a pen behind my ear, or going to andfro as a chapman. The command of a ship would be more to my tastetruly, though its cargo might be hides or stockfish or whales' blubber.But I was in no case to consider liking and misliking. I had not apenny of my own, or any present likelihood of gaining one, but in themanner Mr. Ulceby had indicated. The clothes I wore, the food I hadeaten these ten days, his money had bought; and it was by his kindnessand the mercy of God that I was not now groaning in the hold of aslave-ship. So I made him a reply suitable to his generosity,signifying my readiness to undertake such duties as I might prove to befit for, albeit I had the gravest doubt about the matter, because of myignorance and want of capacity. This vastly pleased him, and he wenton to tell me his mind had been set on coming to Sandtoft with me,partly because he thought himself better able to lay the matter beforeDoctor Goel, if I accepted the offer.

  "I am older, and used to reason with old folk," he said; and thenlapsed into silence, smiling as if he had pleasant thoughts which hekept to himself.

  I also inclined to silence. Welcome though the chance was to earn mybread, and maybe something more in time, I could not rid myself of thefeeling that it was a dreary destiny for the last of the Vavasours ofTemple Belwood to become a fish merchant, notwithstanding I knew sowell that a fish merchant might be as worthy and generous a man as anysquire in Axholme or in England. Little did I think that in a fewhours I should envy the safety and freedom of the poorest quill-driverin the kingdom. Ah, me! if I had had the foreknowledge, it would onlyhave spoiled for me the bit of pure happiness which was soon to be mine.