CHAPTER XXVI.
This conversation was interrupted by a messenger from my wife, whodesired my return immediately. I had some hopes of meeting with Mervyn,some days having now elapsed since his parting from us, and not beingconscious of any extraordinary motives for delay. It was Wortley,however, and not Mervyn, to whom I was called.
My friend came to share with me his suspicions and inquietudesrespecting Welbeck and Mervyn. An accident had newly happened which hadawakened these suspicions afresh. He desired a patient audience while heexplained them to me. These were his words:--
"To-day a person presented me a letter from a mercantile friend atBaltimore. I easily discerned the bearer to be a sea-captain. He was aman of sensible and pleasing aspect, and was recommended to myfriendship and counsel in the letter which he brought. The letterstated, that a man, by name Amos Watson, by profession a mariner, and aresident at Baltimore, had disappeared in the summer of last year, in amysterious and incomprehensible manner. He was known to have arrived inthis city from Jamaica, and to have intended an immediate journey to hisfamily, who lived at Baltimore; but he never arrived there, and no traceof his existence has since been discovered. The bearer had come toinvestigate, if possible, the secret of his fate, and I was earnestlyentreated to afford him all the assistance and advice in my power, inthe prosecution of his search. I expressed my willingness to serve thestranger, whose name was Williams; and, after offering him entertainmentat my house, which was thankfully accepted, he proceeded to unfold tome the particulars of this affair. His story was this.
"'On the 20th of last June, I arrived,' said he, 'from the West Indies,in company with Captain Watson. I commanded the ship in which he came asa passenger, his own ship being taken and confiscated by the English. Wehad long lived in habits of strict friendship, and I loved him for hisown sake, as well as because he had married my sister. We landed in themorning, and went to dine with Mr. Keysler, since dead, but who thenlived in Water Street. He was extremely anxious to visit his family,and, having a few commissions to perform in the city, which would notdemand more than a couple of hours, he determined to set out nextmorning in the stage. Meanwhile, I had engagements which required me torepair with the utmost expedition to New York. I was scarcely lessanxious than my brother to reach Baltimore, where my friends alsoreside; but there was an absolute necessity of going eastward. Iexpected, however, to return hither in three days, and then to followWatson home. Shortly after dinner we parted; he to execute hiscommissions, and I to embark in the mail-stage.
"'In the time prefixed I returned. I arrived early in the morning, andprepared to depart again at noon. Meanwhile, I called at Keysler's. Thisis an old acquaintance of Watson's and mine; and, in the course of talk,he expressed some surprise that Watson had so precipitately deserted hishouse. I stated the necessity there was for Watson's immediate departure_southward_, and added, that no doubt my brother had explained thisnecessity.
"'Why, (said Keysler,) it is true, Captain Watson mentioned hisintention of leaving town early next day; but then he gave me reason toexpect that he would sup and lodge with me that night, whereas he hasnot made his appearance since. Besides, his trunk was brought to myhouse. This, no doubt, he intended to carry home with him, but here itremains still. It is not likely that in the hurry of departure hisbaggage was forgotten. Hence, I inferred that he was still in town, andhave been puzzling myself these three days with conjectures as to whatis become of him. What surprises me more is, that, on inquiring amongthe few friends which he has in this city, I find them as ignorant ofhis motions as myself. I have not, indeed, been wholly withoutapprehensions that some accident or other has befallen him.'
"'I was not a little alarmed by this intimation. I went myself,agreeably to Keysler's directions, to Watson's friends, and made anxiousinquiries, but none of them had seen my brother since his arrival. Iendeavoured to recollect the commissions which he designed to execute,and, if possible, to trace him to the spot where he last appeared. Hehad several packets to deliver, one of which was addressed to WalterThetford. Him, after some inquiry, I found out, but unluckily he chancedto be in the country. I found, by questioning a clerk, who transactedhis business in his absence, that a person, who answered the minutedescription which I gave of Watson, had been there on the day on which Iparted with him, and had left papers relative to the capture of one ofThetford's vessels by the English. This was the sum of the informationhe was able to afford me.
"'I then applied to three merchants for whom my brother had letters.They all acknowledged the receipt of these letters, but they weredelivered through the medium of the post-office.
"'I was extremely anxious to reach home. Urgent engagements compelled meto go on without delay. I had already exhausted all the means of inquirywithin my reach, and was obliged to acquiesce in the belief that Watsonhad proceeded homeward at the time appointed, and left, by forgetfulnessor accident, his trunk behind him. On examining the books kept at thestage-offices, his name nowhere appeared, and no conveyance by water hadoccurred during the last week. Still, the only conjecture I could formwas that he had gone homeward.
"'Arriving at Baltimore, I found that Watson had not yet made hisappearance. His wife produced a letter, which, by the postmark, appearedto have been put into the office at Philadelphia, on the morning afterour arrival, and on which he had designed to commence his journey. Thisletter had been written by my brother, in my presence, but I haddissuaded him from sending it, since the same coach that should bear theletter was likewise to carry himself. I had seen him put it unwafered inhis pocket-book, but this letter, unaltered in any part, and containingmoney which he had at first intended to enclose in it, was now conveyedto his wife's hand. In this letter he mentioned his design of settingout for Baltimore on the _twenty-first_, yet on that day the letteritself had been put into the office.
"'We hoped that a short time would clear up this mystery, and bring thefugitive home; but, from that day till the present, no atom ofintelligence has been received concerning him. The yellow fever, whichquickly followed, in this city, and my own engagements, have hinderedme, till now, from coming hither and resuming the search.
"'My brother was one of the most excellent of men. His wife loved him todistraction, and, together with his children, depended for subsistenceupon his efforts. You will not, therefore, be surprised that hisdisappearance excited, in us, the deepest consternation and distress;but I have other and peculiar reasons for wishing to know his fate. Igave him several bills of exchange on merchants of Baltimore, which Ihad received in payment of my cargo, in order that they might, as soonas possible, be presented and accepted. These have disappeared with thebearer. There is likewise another circumstance that makes his existenceof no small value.
"'There is an English family, who formerly resided in Jamaica, andpossessed an estate of great value, but who, for some years, have livedin the neighbourhood of Baltimore. The head of this family died a yearago, and left a widow and three daughters. The lady thought it eligibleto sell her husband's property in Jamaica, the island becoming hourlymore exposed to the chances of war and revolution, and transfer it tothe United States, where she purposes henceforth to reside. Watson hadbeen her husband's friend, and, his probity and disinterestedness beingwell known, she intrusted him with legal powers to sell this estate.This commission was punctually performed, and the purchase-money wasreceived. In order to confer on it the utmost possible security, herolled up four bills of exchange, drawn upon opulent, merchants ofLondon, in a thin sheet of lead, and, depositing this roll in a leatherngirdle, fastened it round his waist, and under his clothes; a second sethe gave to me, and a third he despatched to Mr. Keysler, by a vesselwhich sailed a few days before him. On our arrival in this city, wefound that Keysler had received those transmitted to him, and which hehad been charged to keep till our arrival. They were now produced, and,together with those which I had carried, were delivered to Watson. Byhim they were joined to those in the girdle, which he still wore,conceiving this method
of conveyance to be safer than any other, and, atthe same time, imagining it needless, in so short a journey as remainedto be performed, to resort to other expedients.
"'The sum which he thus bore about him was no less than ten thousandpounds sterling. It constituted the whole patrimony of a worthy andexcellent family, and the loss of it reduces them to beggary. It is gonewith Watson, and whither Watson has gone it is impossible even to guess.
"'You may now easily conceive, sir, the dreadful disasters which may beconnected with this man's fate, and with what immeasurable anxiety hisfamily and friends have regarded his disappearance. That he is alive canscarcely be believed; for in what situation could he be placed in whichhe would not be able and willing to communicate some tidings of his fateto his family?
"'Our grief has been unspeakably aggravated by the suspicions which Mrs.Maurice and her friends have allowed themselves to admit. They do notscruple to insinuate that Watson, tempted by so great a prize, hassecretly embarked for England, in order to obtain payment for thesebills and retain the money for his own use.
"'No man was more impatient of poverty than Watson, but no man's honestywas more inflexible. He murmured at the destiny that compelled him tosacrifice his ease, and risk his life upon the ocean in order toprocure the means of subsistence; and all the property which he hadspent the best part of his life in collecting had just been ravishedaway from him by the English; but, if he had yielded to this temptationat any time, it would have been on receiving these bills at Jamaica.Instead of coming hither, it would have been infinitely more easy andconvenient to have embarked directly for London; but none who thoroughlyknew him can, for a moment, harbour a suspicion of his truth.
"'If he be dead, and if the bills are not to be recovered, yet toascertain this will, at least, serve to vindicate his character. As longas his fate is unknown, his fame will be loaded with the most flagrantimputations, and, if these bills be ever paid in London, theseimputations will appear to be justified. If he has been robbed, therobber will make haste to secure the payment, and the Maurices may notunreasonably conclude that the robber was Watson himself.' Many otherparticulars were added by the stranger, to show the extent of the evilsflowing from the death of his brother, and the loss of the papers whichhe carried with him.
"I was greatly at a loss," continued Wortley, "what directions or adviceto afford this man. Keysler, as you know, died early of the pestilence;but Keysler was the only resident in this city with whom Williams hadany acquaintance. On mentioning the propriety of preventing the sale ofthese bills in America, by some public notice, he told me that thiscaution had been early taken; and I now remembered seeing theadvertisement, in which the bills had been represented as having beenlost or stolen in this city, and a reward of a thousand dollars wasoffered to any one who should restore them. This caution had beenpublished in September, in all the trading-towns from Portsmouth toSavannah, but had produced no satisfaction.
"I accompanied Williams to the mayor's office, in hopes of finding inthe records of his proceedings, during the last six months, some tracesof Watson; but neither these records nor the memory of the magistrateafforded us any satisfaction. Watson's friends had drawn up, likewise,a description of the person and dress of the fugitive, an account of theincidents attending his disappearance, and of the papers which he had inhis possession, with the manner in which these papers had been secured.These had been already published in the Southern newspapers, and havebeen just reprinted in our own. As the former notice had availednothing, this second expedient was thought necessary to be employed.
"After some reflection, it occurred to me that it might be proper torenew the attempt which Williams had made to trace the footsteps of hisfriend to the moment of his final disappearance. He had pursued Watsonto Thetford's; but Thetford himself had not been seen, and he had beencontented with the vague information of his clerk. Thetford and hisfamily, including his clerk, had perished, and it seemed as if thissource of information was dried up. It was possible, however, that oldThetford might have some knowledge of his nephew's transactions, bywhich some light might chance to be thrown upon this obscurity. Itherefore called on him, but found him utterly unable to afford me thelight that I wished. My mention of the packet which Watson had broughtto Thetford, containing documents respecting the capture of a certainship, reminded him of the injuries which he had received from Welbeck,and excited him to renew his menaces and imputations on that wretch.Having somewhat exhausted this rhetoric, he proceeded to tell me whatconnection there was between the remembrance of his injuries and thecapture of this vessel.
"This vessel and its cargo were, in fact, the property of Welbeck. Theyhad been sent to a good market, and had been secured by an adequateinsurance. The value of this ship and cargo, and the validity of thepolicy, he had taken care to ascertain by means of his two nephews, oneof whom had gone out supercargo. This had formed his inducement to lendhis three notes to Welbeck, in exchange for three other notes, the wholeamount of which included the _equitable interest_ of _five per cent. permonth_ on his own loan. For the payment of these notes he by no meansrelied, as the world foolishly imagined, on the seeming opulence andsecret funds of Welbeck. These were illusions too gross to have anyinfluence on him. He was too old a bird to be decoyed into the net by_such_ chaff. No; his nephew, the supercargo, would of course receivethe produce of the voyage, and so much of this produce as would pay hisdebt he had procured the owner's authority to intercept its passage fromthe pocket of his nephew to that of Welbeck. In case of loss, he hadobtained a similar security upon the policy. Jamieson's proceedings hadbeen the same with his own, and no affair in which he had ever engagedhad appeared to be more free from hazard than this. Their calculations,however, though plausible, were defeated. The ship was taken andcondemned, for a cause which rendered the insurance ineffectual.
"I bestowed no time in reflecting on this tissue of extortions andfrauds, and on that course of events which so often disconcerts thestratagems of cunning. The names of Welbeck and Watson were thusassociated together, and filled my thoughts with restlessness andsuspicion. Welbeck was capable of any weakness. It was possible aninterview had happened between these men, and that the fugitive had beensomeway instrumental in Watson's fate. These thoughts were mentioned toWilliams, whom the name of Welbeck threw into the utmost perturbation.On finding that one of this name had dwelt in this city, and that he hadproved a villain, he instantly admitted the most dreary forebodings.
"'I have heard,' said Williams, 'the history of this Welbeck a score oftimes from my brother. There formerly subsisted a very intimateconnection between them. My brother had conferred, upon one whom hethought honest, innumerable benefits; but all his benefits had beenrepaid by the blackest treachery. Welbeck's character and guilt hadoften been made the subject of talk between us, but, on these occasions,my brother's placid and patient temper forsook him. His grief for thecalamities which had sprung from this man, and his desire of revenge,burst all bounds, and transported him to a pitch of temporary frenzy. Ioften inquired in what manner he intended to act if a meeting shouldtake place between them. He answered, that doubtless he should act likea maniac, in defiance of his sober principles, and of the duty which heowed his family.
"'What! (said I,) would you stab or pistol him?
"'No. I was not born for an assassin. I would upbraid him in such termsas the furious moment might suggest, and then challenge him to ameeting, from which either he or I should not part with life. I wouldallow time for him to make his peace with Heaven, and for me to blasthis reputation upon earth, and to make such provision for my possibledeath as duty and discretion would prescribe.
"'Now, nothing is more probable than that Welbeck and my brother havemet. Thetford would of course mention his name and interest in thecaptured ship, and hence the residence of this detested being in thiscity would be made known. Their meeting could not take place withoutsome dreadful consequence. I am fearful that to that meeting we mustimpute the disappearance of my brother.'
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