The String of Pearls: a Romance--The Original Sweeney Todd

by Thomas Preskett Prest

  ‘Well, well! I carried her indoors, and left her in a room by herself on a bed. She was a nice girl – a handsome girl, I suppose people would call her, and had a low, sweet and plaintive voice. But enough of this!

  ‘ “She’s all right,” said I, when I returned to this room. “It’s all right – I have left her.”

  ‘ “She isn’t dead?” he enquired, with much terror.

  ‘ “Oh! no, no! she is only asleep, and has not woke up yet from the effects of the laudanum. Will you now give me one year’s pay in advance?”

  ‘ “Yes,” he replied, as he handed the money, and the remainder of the bonds. “Now, how am I to do about getting back to London tonight?”

  ‘ “You had better remain here.”

  ‘ “Oh, no! I should go mad too, if I were to remain here; I must leave here soon.”

  ‘ “Well, will you go to the village inn?”

  ‘ “How far is that off?”

  ‘ “About a mile – you’ll reach it easy enough; I’ll drive you over for the matter of that, and leave you there. I shall take the cart there.”

  ‘ “Very well, let it be so; I will go. Well, well, I am glad it is all over, and the sooner it is over for ever, the better. I am truly sorry for her, but it cannot be helped. It will kill her, I have no doubt; but that is all the better; she will escape the misery consequent upon her departure, and release us from a weight of care.”

  ‘ “So it will,” said I, “but come, we must go at once, if going you are.”

  ‘ “Yes, yes,” he said hurriedly.

  ‘ “Well, then, come along; the horse is not yet unharnessed, and if we do not make haste, we shall be too late to obtain a lodging for the night.”

  ‘ “That is very good,” he said, somewhat wildly; “I am quite ready – quite.”

  ‘We left the house, and trotted off to the inn at a good rate, where we arrived in about ten minutes or less, and then I put up the horse, and saw him in the inn, and came back as quick as I could on foot. “Well, well,” I thought, “this will do, I have had a good day of it – paid well for business, and haven’t wanted for sport on the road.”

  ‘Well, I came to the conclusion that if the whole affair was to speedily end, it would be more in my pocket than if she were living, and she would be far happier in heaven than here, Mr Todd.’

  ‘Undoubtedly,’ said Mr Sweeney Todd, ‘undoubtedly that is a very just observation of yours.’

  ‘Well, then I set to work to find out how the matter could be managed, and I watched her until she awoke. She looked around her, and seemed much surprised, and confused, and did not seem to understand her position, while I remained near at hand.

  ‘She sighed deeply, and put her hand to her head, and appeared for a time quite unable to comprehend what had happened to her, or where she was.

  ‘I sent some tea to her, as I was not prepared to execute my purpose, and she seemed to recover, and asked some questions, but my man was dumb for the occasion, and would not speak, and the result was, she was very much frightened. I left her so for a week or two, and then, one day, I went into her cell. She had greatly altered in appearance, and looked very pale.

  ‘ “Well,” said I, “how do you find yourself now?”

  ‘She looked up into my face, and shuddered; but she said in a calm voice, looking round her, “Where am I?”

  ‘ “You are here!” said I, “and you’ll be very comfortable if you only take on kindly, but you will have a straight waistcoat put on you if you do not.”

  ‘ “Good God!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands, “have they put me here – in – in –”

  ‘She could not finish the sentence, and I supplied the word which she did not utter, until I had done so, and then she screamed loudly, “A mad-house!”

  ‘ “Come,” said I, “this will never do; you must learn to be quiet, or you’ll have fearful consequences.”

  ‘ “Oh, mercy, mercy! I will do no wrong! What have I done that I should be brought here – what have I done? They may have all I have if they will let me live in freedom. I care not where or how poor I may be. Oh! Henry, Henry! – if you knew where I was, would you not fly to my rescue? Yes, you would, you would!”

  ‘ “Ah,” said I, “there is no Henry here, and you must be content to do without one.”

  ‘ “I could not have believed that my brother would have acted such a base part. I did not think him wicked; although I knew him to be selfish, mean and stern, yet I did not think he intended such wickedness; but he thinks to rob me of all my property – yes, that is the object he has in sending me here.”

  ‘ “No doubt,” said I.

  ‘ “Shall I ever get out?” she enquired in a pitiful tone; “do not say my life is to be spent here.”

  ‘ “Indeed it is,” said I; “while he lives, you’ll never leave these walls.”

  ‘ “He shall not attain his end, for I have deeds about me that he will never be able to obtain; indeed he may kill me, but he cannot benefit by my death.”

  ‘ “Well,” said I, “it serves him right. And how did you manage that matter – how did you contrive to get the deeds away?”

  ‘ “Never mind that; it is a small deed, and I have secured it. I did not think he would have done this thing, but he may yet relent. Will you aid me? I shall be rich, and can pay you well.”

  ‘ “But your brother?” said I.

  ‘ “Oh, he is rich without mine, but he is over-avaricious; but say you will help me – only help me to get out, and you shall be no loser by the affair.”

  ‘ “Very well,” said I. “Will you give me this deed as a security that you will keep your word?”

  ‘ “Yes,” she replied, drawing forth the deed – a small parchment – from her bosom. “Take it, and now let me out; you shall be handsomely rewarded.”

  ‘ “Ah!” said I, “but you must allow me first to settle this matter with my employers. You must really be mad. We do not hear of young ladies carrying deeds and parchments about them when they are in their senses.”

  ‘ “You do not mean to betray me?” she said, springing up wildly, and running towards the deed, which I carefully placed in my breastcoat-pocket.

  ‘ “Oh dear no! but I shall retain the deed, and speak to your brother about this matter.”

  ‘ “My God! my God!” she exclaimed, and then she sank back on her bed, and in another moment she was covered with blood. She had burst a blood vessel.

  ‘I sent for a surgeon and physician, and they both gave it as their opinion that she could not be saved, and that a few hours would see the last of her.

  ‘That was the fact. She was dead before another half hour, and then I sent to the authorities for the purpose of burial; and, producing the certificate of the medical men, I had no difficulty, and she was buried all comfortably without any trouble.

  ‘ “Well,” thought I, “this is a very comfortable affair, but it will be more profitable than I had any idea of, and I must get my first reward first; and if there should be any difficulty, I have the deed to fall back upon.”

  ‘He came down next day, and appeared with rather a long face.

  ‘ “Well,” said he, “how do matters go here?”

  ‘ “Very well,” said I; “how is your throat?”

  ‘I thought he cast a malicious look at me, as much as to imply he laid it all to my charge.

  ‘ “Pretty well,” he replied; “but I was ill for three days. How is the patient?”

  ‘ “As well as you could possibly wish,” said I.

  ‘ “She takes it kindly, eh? Well, I hardly expected it – but no matter. She’ll be a long while on hand, I perceive. You haven’t tried the frightening system yet, then?”

  ‘ “Hadn’t any need,” I replied, putting the certificate of her burial in his hand.

  ‘He jumped as if he had been stung by an adder, and turned pale; but he soon recovered, and smiled complaisantly as he said, “Ah! well, I see you have been diligent; but I should ha
ve liked to have seen her, to have asked her about a missing deed, but no matter.”

  ‘ “Now, about the two hundred pounds,” said I.

  ‘ “Why,” said he, “I think one will do when you come to consider what you have received, and the short space of time and all: you have had a year’s board in advance.”

  ‘ “I know I had; but because I have done more than you expected, and in a shorter time, instead of giving me more, you have the conscience to offer me less.”

  ‘ “No, no, not the – the – what did you call it? – we’ll have nothing said about that – but here is a hundred pounds, and you are well paid.”

  ‘ “Well,” said I, taking the money, “I must have five hundred pounds at any rate, and unless you give it me, I will tell other parties where a certain deed is to be found.”

  ‘ “What deed?”

  ‘ “The one you were alluding to. Give me four hundred more, and you shall have the deed.”

  ‘After much conversation and trouble he gave it to me, and I gave him the deed, with which he was well pleased, but looked hard at the money, and seemed to grieve at it very much.

  ‘Since that time I have heard that he was challenged by his sister’s lover, and they went out to fight a duel, and he fell – and died. The lover went to the continent, where he has since lived.’

  ‘Ah,’ said Sweeney Todd, ‘you had decidedly the best of this affair: nobody gained anything but you.’

  ‘Nobody at all that I know of, save distant relations, and I did very well; but then you know I can’t live upon nothing: it costs me something to keep my house and cellar, but I stick to business, and so I shall as long as business sticks to me.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Colonel Jeffery Makes Another Effort to Come at Sweeney Todd’s Secret

  We were to say that Colonel Jeffery was satisfied with the state of affairs as regarded the disappearance of his friend Thornhill, or that he had made up his mind now contentedly to wait until chance, or the mere progress of time, blew something of a more defined nature in his way, we should be doing that gentleman a very great injustice indeed.

  On the contrary, he was one of those chivalrous persons who, when they do commence anything, take the most ample means to bring it to a conclusion, and are not satisfied that they have made one great effort, which, having failed, is sufficient to satisfy them.

  Far from this, he was a man who, when he commenced any enterprise, looked forward to but one circumstance that could possibly end it, and that was its full and complete accomplishment in every respect; so that in this affair of Mr Thornhill, he certainly did not intend by any means to abandon it.

  But he was not precipitate. His habits of military discipline, and the long life he had led in camps, where anything in the shape of hurry and confusion is much reprobated, made him pause before he decided upon any particular course of action; and this pause was not one contingent upon a belief, or even a surmise, in the danger of the course that suggested itself, for such a consideration had no effect whatever upon him; and if some other mode had suddenly suggested itself, which, while it placed his life in the most imminent peril, would have seemed more likely to accomplish his object, it would have been at once most gladly welcomed.

  And now, therefore, he set about thinking deeply over what could possibly be done in a matter that as yet appeared to be involved in the most profound of possible mysteries.

  That the barber’s boy, who had been addressed by him, and by his friend, the captain, knew something of an extraordinary character, which fear prevented him from disclosing, he had no doubt, and, as the colonel remarked, ‘If fear keeps that lad silent upon the subject, fear may make him speak; and I do not see why we should not endeavour to make ourselves a match for Sweeney Todd in such a matter.’

  ‘What do you propose, then?’ said the captain.

  ‘I should say that the best plan would be, to watch the barber’s shop, and take possession of the boy, as we may find an opportunity of so doing.’

  ‘Carry him off!’

  ‘Yes, certainly; and as in all likelihood his fear of the barber is but a visionary affair, after all, it can really, when we have him to ourselves, be dispelled; and then when he finds that we can and will protect him, we shall hear all he has to say.’

  After some further conversation, the plan was resolved upon; and the captain and the colonel, after making a careful reconnaissance, as they called it, of Fleet Street, found that by taking up a station at the window of a tavern, which was very nearly opposite to the barber’s shop, they should be able to take such effectual notice of whoever went in and came out, that they would be sure to see the boy sometime during the course of the day.

  This plan of operations would no doubt have been greatly successful, and Tobias would have fallen into their hands, had he not, alas! for him, poor fellow, already been treated by Sweeney Todd, as we have described, by being incarcerated in that fearful mad-house on Peckham Rye, which was kept by so unscrupulous a person as Fogg.

  And we cannot but consider that it was most unfortunate, for the happiness of all those persons in whose fate we take so deep an interest, and in whom we hope, as regards the reader, we have likewise awakened a feeling of great sympathy – if Tobias had not been so infatuated as to make the search he did of the barber’s house, but had waited even for twenty-four hours before doing so, in that case, not only would he have escaped the dreadful doom which awaited him, but Johanna Oakley would have been saved from much danger, which afterwards befell her.

  But we must not anticipate; and the fearful adventures which it was her doom to pass through, before she met with the reward of her great virtue, and her noble perseverance will speak for themselves, trumpet-tongued indeed.

  It was at a very early hour in the morning that the two friends took up their station at the public house so nearly opposite to Sweeney Todd’s, in Fleet Street; and then, having made an arrangement with the landlord of the house, that they were to have undisturbed possession of the room for as long as they liked, they both sat at the window, and kept an eye upon Todd’s house.

  It was during the period of time there spent, that Colonel Jeffery first made the captain acquainted with the fact of his great affection for Johanna, and that, in her he thought he had at last fixed his wandering fancy, and found, really, the only being with whom he thought he could, in this world, taste the sweets of domestic life, and know no regret.

  ‘She is all,’ he said, ‘in beauty that the warmest imagination can possibly picture, and along with these personal charms, which certainly are most peerless, I have seen enough of her to feel convinced that she has a mind of the purest order that ever belonged to any human being in the world.’

  ‘With such sentiments and feelings towards her, the wonder would be,’ said the captain, ‘if you did not love her, as you now avow you do.’

  ‘I could not be insensible to her attractions. But, understand me, my dear friend, I do not on account of my own suddenly-conceived partiality for this young and beautiful creature, intend to commit the injustice of not trying might and main, and with heart and hand, to discover, if she supposes it be true, that Thornhill and Mark Ingestrie be one and the same person; and when I tell you that I love her with a depth and a sincerity of affection that makes her happiness of greater importance to me than my own – you know, I think, enough of me to feel convinced that I am speaking only what I really feel.’

  ‘I can,’ said the captain; ‘and I do give you credit for the greatest possible amount of sincerity, and I feel sufficiently interested myself in the future fate of this fair young creature to wish that she may be convinced her lover is no more, and may so much better herself as I am quite certain she would, by becoming your wife; for all we can hear of this Ingestrie seems to prove that he is not the most stable-minded of individuals the world ever produced, and perhaps not exactly the sort of man to make such a girl as Johanna Oakley happy; however, of course she may think to the contrary, and he
may in all sincerity think likewise.’

  ‘I thank you for the kind feeling towards me, my friend, which has dictated that speech, but –’

  ‘Hush!’ said the captain, suddenly, ‘hush! look at the barber!’

  ‘The barber? Sweeney Todd?’

  ‘Yes, yes, there he is; do you not see him? There he is, and he looks as if he had come off a long journey. What can he have been about, I wonder? He is draggled in mud.’

  Yes, there was Sweeney Todd, opening his shop from the outside with a key that, after a vast amount of fumbling, he took from his pocket; and, as the captain said, he did indeed look as if he had come off a long journey, for he was draggled with mud, and his appearance altogether was such as to convince anyone that he must have fallen during the early part of the morning upon London and its suburbs.

  And this was just the fact, for after staying with the mad-house keeper in the hope that the bad weather which had set in would be alleviated, he had been compelled to give up all chance of such a thing, and as no conveyance of any description was to be had, he enjoyed the pleasure, if it could be called such, of walking home up to his knees in the mud of that dirty neighbourhood.

  It was, however, some satisfaction to him to feel that he had got rid of Tobias, who, from what he had done as regarded the examination of the house, had become extremely troublesome indeed, and perhaps the most serious enemy that Sweeney Todd had ever had.

  ‘Ha!’ he said, as he came within sight of his shop in Fleet Street, ‘ha! Master Tobias is safe enough; he will give me no more trouble, that is quite clear. What a wonderfully convenient thing it is to have such a friend as Fogg, who for a consideration will do so much towards ridding one of an uncomfortable encumbrance. It is possible enough that that boy might have compassed my destruction. I wish I dared, with the means I now have from the string of pearls, joined to my other resources, to leave the business, and so not be obliged to run the risk and have the trouble of another boy.’