‘After the decease of my late dear lady, Mr Roker, had the other will proved; and Dr Hollybourn and he agreed together in all things. Mr Roker, to whom I was married, was very eager after every box of papers, and almost every scrap belonging to Mrs Rayland; but I thought him, even in those early days, a little too much in a hurry to take possession of all the jewels, and rings, and effects, of which I had the care; and did not see why, as they were mostly mine, I should give them entirely up to him, seeing that I had already given him my fortune – and that such things belong to a woman, and in no case to her husband. – This being the case, I own, I did not put into his hands some of these things, nor a small rose wood box of my Lady’s, in which she always kept some lockets, and miniature pictures, and medals, and other such curiosities, and some family papers. Mr Roker never saw this box, nor did I ever have the keys of it, for there are two belonging to it with a very particular lock; my late lady always kept them in her purse; and it was only after her decease that they came into my possession; and thereupon opening the box, which Mr Roker knew nothing of, I found a paper sealed up and dated in my Lady’s own hand and indorsed – ‘Duplicate of my last Will and Testament, to be delivered to Orlando Somerive, or his Representative.’ – I assure you that I had repented me before of the thing I had done in destroying the will, and now resolved to keep it in my power always to make you amends, by taking care of this; which I, knowing I could not do so if I had it in my own possession, put therefore into this box again, with the medals and family papers, and some jewels of no great value, but which I thought would be no harm to make sure of – because, as the proverb observes, things are in this world uncertain at best; and we all know where we eat our first bread, but none can tell where they shall eat their last. Mr Roker was at that time a fond and affectionate husband; but men are but fickle, even the very best, and none can tell what may befall; by bad people especially, who are so wicked to meddle and interfere between man and wife, to destroy all matrimonial comfort, as is too often the case.
‘Mr Roker thought then of residing at the Hall as steward for the Bishop, &c.; but Dr Hollybourn not being agreeable thereto, it was settled otherwise: only Mr Roker and I were to go once a year to the Court holding for Manors, and to overlook the premises till they were disposed of, according to the will of my Lady which was proved, which the worthy Divines seemed not to be in a great hurry to do – Whereupon, as I did not choose for many reasons to carry this small box about with me, I put it into a place of safety in the house.
‘If you have not forgot old times, Mr Orlando, you know very well that Rayland Hall, which belonged to such famous cavaliers in the great rebellion, has a great many secret staircases, and odd passages, and hiding-places in it; where, in those melancholy times, some of my late Lady’s ancestors, who had been in arms for the blessed Martyr and King, Charles the Second, were hid by others of the family after the fight at Edgehill, &c. – which I have heard my Lady oftentimes recount: but, nevertheless, I do not know that she herself knew all those places.
‘By the side of my bed, in that chamber hung partly with scarlet and gold printed leather, and partly with painting in pannels, where there is a brown mohair bed lined with yellow silk, you may remember a great picture of the Lady Alithea, second wife of the first Sir Hildebrand Rayland, with her two sons and a dog – She was an Earl’s daughter, and a celebrated beauty, and great great grandmother to my late Lady. The picture is only a copy from that in the great gallery, and done, as I have heard my Lady say, by some painter of that time when he was a young man – so that, as there was another, this was not hung in the gallery. Close under that picture there seems to be a hanging of gilt leather: but this is only fastened with small hooks: and under it is a sliding oak board, which gives into a closet where there is no light – but a very narrow stair-case goes from it through the wall, quite round to the other side of the house, and into other hiding-places, where one or two persons might be hid for years, and nobody the wiser.
‘Now, Sir, in a sort of hollow place about three feet wide, made like an arch under the thick wall in this closet, is a tin box with a padlock – and in that box this inlaid rose wood box or casket. There you will find the real will of my Lady, and I hope all you wish and expect in it; and what I desire of you in return is, that you will take means to convince the world that I am not to blame; and that I am not a lunatic; and you have so much honour, that I rely upon your promises not to injure me if it should be in your power; but to make me amends for what I thus lose for your sake and the sake of justice – as in your letter you faithfully promise.
‘For that poor unfortunate young woman, the daughter of my deceased kinswoman, I do assure you that, if I knew what was become of her, I would give you notice. But she has never been heard of that I know of for a great many months – and I am afraid, from her flippant ways with my Mr Roker before I was forced to send her away, has taken to courses very disgraceful, and which have made her unworthy of your farther thoughts. God forgive me if I judge amiss herein! – We must be charitable one towards another, as the Scripture says, poor sinful mortals, who have so much to answer for ourselves, as to be sure all of us have!
‘And now, dear Sir, I take my leave, having been four days writing this long letter by fits and snatches, when Mr Roker’s sister, who even sleeps in my room, has been out of the way; for she watches me like a jailor, and I am quite a prisoner: and have not pen and ink but by stealth. If I were to attempt to send this to the post, all would be lost: so I have trusted it to old Hugh March the beggar, by means of the servant girl, and I have given the old man the three keys. Heartily wishing you health and happiness I recommend myself to your prayers, as mine are for your success, and remain, dear Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
RACHEL ROKER.
P.S. Pray let me hear speedily by the bearer.’
Orlando read this strange confession, this avowal of iniquity so black, mingled with appeals to Heaven, and sentences of religion, with such a palpitating heart, that, when he had finished it, he looked around him to discover whether he was alive – The objects about him seemed real – He saw the old man before him, who, after a long search in his other pocket, produced the three keys; and then pulling off the relics of an hat from his grey head, bowed with an air of much humility, and cried, ‘Well, and what says my young master? Does his lame messenger bring him bad news or good? – Ah, your honour is a noble gentleman, and will reward your old soldier!’
‘That I will, my honest fellow! to the utmost of your wishes, as soon as I have discovered whether all this is real; but it seems to me at present that I am in a dream.’
‘Wide awake, depend upon it,’ answered the beggar; – ‘so come, dear young gentleman! will you go back to yon ale-house, and let us see what the good news will do for us? – I do not very well know, indeed, what it is; but I know that I was promised that you could do me a power of good, if I delivered the letter and the keys safe. – You know I had promised afore to serve you by night and by day, and so I have.’ ‘Serve me a little longer, my brave old man!’ said Orlando; ‘by preserving in the place we are going to the secrecy I desire of you, without which all may yet be lost. – Here, I will share my purse with you – Go back to the ale-house, order whatever you like and shew them that you have money to pay for it. – Do not make use of my name, nor say a word about Mrs Roker till I return. – I must go to the next town, to consult a friend I have there on the best steps to be taken; in which if I succeed, I will make thee the very prince of old soldiers.’
Orlando then put some guineas into his hand, and saw him take the way to the ale-house, less rejoiced at his future hopes of reward, than at the power of immediate gratification. He somewhat doubted his discretion, but thought that a very few hours would put it out of the power of any indiscretion to mar the happy effects of Mrs Roker’s repentance: – and to set about securing this advantage, he hastened to his friend Dawson, as he saw that too many precautions could not b
e taken in an affair so unusual and so important.
CHAPTER XIII
THE young man to whom Orlando now applied, was very sincerely his friend, and possessed an acute and penetrating mind. – He saw at once all the importance of the business, and the hazard Orlando would incur by the smallest delay. Mrs Roker’s letter evidently expressed a mind fluctuating between resentment towards her husband, and unwillingness to acknowledge the folly she had committed in marrying him; and as no great dependence could be placed on the repentance of a person under the influence of such a contrariety of passions, there was reason to fear that her love, or, what she fancied so, her pride, her avarice, and her fear, might unite to conquer the compunction she had shewn, and to make her discover the steps she had taken to her husband.
Dawson advised therefore an immediate application to a justice of peace, for a warrant to search the house that night; and as there was none resident in the town, Orlando set out with him in a post-chaise for the house of a magistrate, about seven miles distant, who had formerly been much acquainted with the Somerive family, and had been always full of professions of regard for them.
To this man, now in much higher affluence than formerly, by the acquisitions of the fortunes of some of his relations, Dawson opened the business on which they came.
But here he had occasion to remark the truth of that observation 13 which, whoever has seen many vicissitudes of fortune, must have too often beheld, as a melancholy evidence of the depravity of our nature, ‘That in the misfortunes of our best friends, there is something not displeasing to us.’ – Far from appearing to rejoice at the probability which now offered itself, that the son of his old friend would be restored to the right of his ancestors, and from depressing indigence be raised to high prosperity, this gentleman seemed to take pains to throw difficulties in his way: he doubted the letter from Mrs Roker; he doubted the legality of his granting a warrant; and it was not till after considerable delay, and long arguments, that he was at length prevailed upon to lend to Orlando the assistance of the civil power, without the immediate exertion of which, it seemed possible that his hopes might be again baffled.
Orlando was not without apprehensions, that this worthy magistrate might send immediate information of what was passing to Dr Hollybourn; and he determined, late as it was, to go to Rayland Hall that night. He set forward, therefore, attended by Dawson, two other young men of the same town, who were eager for his success, and the persons who were to execute the warrant. It was midnight when they arrived at the Hall – All was profoundly silent around it, and it had no longer the appearance of an inhabited house. The summons, however loud, was unanswered. As the men rapped violently at the old door of the servants’ hall, the sullen sounds murmured through the empty courts, and to their call only hollow echoes were returned. These attempts to gain admittance were repeated again and again without effect, and they began to conclude, that there was nobody within the house; but at length some of them going round to another part of the house, the man who had the charge of it looked out of window, and demanded their business.
Upon hearing there was a warrant and a constable, the fellow, who had deeply engaged in the same sort of business as that which used to be carried on by Pattenson and Company, imagined immediately that he had been informed against: but as there was no remedy, he came down with fear and trembling to open the door; and it was a great relief to him to learn, that it was only for a paper, which might occasion the house to change its master, but not for any of his effects that the intended search was to be made. The posse now proceeded to the place indicated by the letter of Mrs Roker – the constable, a most magisterial person, marching by the side of Orlando, while Dawson and his friends followed, with candles in their hands; and as silently they ascended the great stair-case, and traversed the long dark passages that led towards the apartment in question, Orlando could not, amid the anxiety of such a moment, help fancying, that the scene resembled one of those so often met with in old romances and fairy tales, where the hero is by some supernatural means directed to a golden key, which opens an invisible drawer, where a hand or an head is found swimming in blood, which it is his business to restore to the inchanted owner. With a beating heart, however, he saw the picture of the Lady Alithea removed, and the sliding board appear. On entering the closet, the tin box, covered with a green cloth, was discovered. The key which Orlando possessed opened it, and the casket was within it; which he unlocked, in presence of all the persons present, and saw the important paper, exactly as it had been described by Mrs Roker.
He now debated whether he should open it; but at length, with the advice of his friend Dawson, determined not to do so till his arrival in London. Replacing every thing else as it was found, and securing the closet and the room that led to it, he now hastened to reward the persons who had attended him on this search – and without resting, set out post with Dawson for London, where they arrived at nine o’clock the next morning.
Orlando hastened immediately to the house of his mother, with sensations very different from those which he had quitted it. – He found Monimia alone in the dining room, pensively attentive to the two children of Isabella, who were playing on the carpet. – She received him with that degree of transport which shewed itself in tears; nor could he prevail upon her for a moment or two to be more composed, and to answer his enquiries after his mother and his sisters. – She at length told him, that Mrs Somerive had been so much affected by the visits her brother had made during his absence, by his reproaches for her false indulgence to both her sons, and by his total dislike to the marriage of Orlando (which he had represented as the most absurd folly, and as the utter ruin of his nephew) and by the disposition he (Mr Woodford) shewed to withdraw all assistance from her and her two youngest daughters, if she did not wholly withdraw all countenance both from Orlando and Isabella, that Mrs Somerive was actually sinking under the pain such repeated instances of cruelty had inflicted; and had determined, rather than continue to be obliged to a brother who was capable of thus empoisoning the favours her circumstances obliged her to accept, to quit London, discharge all but one servant, and to retire to some cheap part of Wales or Scotland, where the little income she possessed might be more sufficient to their support.
Orlando, who felt that some precaution was necessary, in revealing to Monimia the fortunate reverse that now presented itself, was considering how to begin this propitious discovery, when his mother, who eagerly expected him, having learned from the servants that he was arrived, sent down Selina to beg to see him.
She put back the curtain as he came into the room; and held out her hand to him, but was unable to speak. – The mournful particulars she expected, which however she had not courage to ask, filled her heart with bitterness, and her eyes with tears.
Orlando, affected by the looks and the pathetic silence of his mother, kissed with extreme emotion the hand she gave him – He thanked her, after a moment’s silence, for her goodness to Monimia during the few days of his absence; and entreated her to be in better spirits. He then gradually discovered to her, by a short and clear relation of what had happened, the assurance he now had, which the transactions of that evening would, he hoped, confirm, of a speedy change in their circumstances.
The heart of Mrs Somerive, so long accustomed only to sorrow and solicitude, was no longer sensible to those acute feelings which agitate the warm and sanguine bosom of youth; but to hear that her children, for whom only she wished to live, were likely to be at once rescued from the indigence which impended over them, and secured in affluence and prosperity, could not be heard with calmness. At length both herself and her son acquired composure enough to consider of the proper steps to be taken. Every person interested was summoned to attend that evening at the house of Mrs Somerive, who found herself animated enough to be present at the opening of the will, at which all who were sent for were present, except Doctor Hollybourn (who sent his attorney) and the Rokers. The elder only sent a protest against it by his clerk
; and the younger thought it safer immediately to disappear.
It was found on the perusal of this important paper, and the codicils belonging to it, that with the exception of five thousand pounds, and two hundred a year for her life, to her old companion Lennard, Mrs Rayland had given every thing she possessed, both real and personal, to Orlando, without any other restriction than settling the whole of her landed estate of the Rayland family on his male heirs, and appropriating a sum of money to purchase the title of a Baronet, and for an act to enable him to take and bear the name and arms of Rayland only.
The subsequent proceedings were easy and expeditious. Against a will so authenticated, all opposition was vain; and within three weeks Orlando was put in possession of his estate, and Doctor Hollybourn obliged, with extreme reluctance, not only to deliver up all of which he and his brother had taken into their hands, but to refund the rents and the payments for timber; which operation went to the poor Doctor’s heart. There were some men who have such an extreme affection for money, even when it does not belong to them, that they cannot determine to part with it when once they get possession of it. Of this order was the worthy Doctor; who, with charity and urbanity always in his mouth, had an heart rendered callous by avarice, and a passion for the swinish gratifications of the table, to which the possession of Rayland Hall, the gardens and hot-houses of which he alone kept up, had lately so considerably contributed that he could not bear to relinquish them; and actually suffered so much from mortification, that he was obliged to go to Bath to cure a bilious illness, which vexation and gluttony contributed to bring on.
Orlando lost no time in rescuing the unfortunate Mrs Roker from the hands of her tyrant; who, in order to incapacitate her from giving that testimony which he knew was in her power, and with which she often had threatened him, had taken out against her a commission of lunacy. It was superseded on the application of Orlando, who himself immediately conducted Mrs Rokcr to Rayland-Hall; where he put her in possession of the apartments she had formerly occupied; and employed her to superintend, as she was still active and alert, the workmen whom he directed to repair and re-furnish the house, and the servants whom he hired to prepare it for the reception of its lovely mistress. He forebore to pursue Roker himself, as he might have done; having no pleasure in revenge, and being rather solicitous to give to those he loved future tranquillity, than to avenge on others those past misfortunes, which perhaps served only to make him more sensible of his present felicity.
Complete Poetical Works of Charlotte Smith Page 155