At the close of this magniloquent period, borrowed, no doubt, from some great American orator, Baron Levy involuntarily retreated towards the shelter of the polling-booth, followed by some frowning Yellows with very menacing gestures.
“But the calumniator sneaks away; leave him to the reproach of his conscience,” resumed Dick, with a generous magnanimity.
“SOLD! [the word rang through the place like the blast of a trumpet] Sold! No, believe me, not a man who votes for Egerton instead of Fairfield will, so far as I am concerned, be a penny the better—[chilling silence]—or [with a scarce perceivable wink towards the anxious faces of the Hundred and Fifty who filled the background]—or a penny the worse. [Loud cheers from the Hundred and Fifty, and cries of ‘Noble!’] I don’t like the politics of Mr. Egerton. But I am not only a politician,—I am a MAN! The arguments of our respected Committee—persons in business, tender husbands, and devoted fathers—have weight with me. I myself am a husband and a father. If a needless contest be prolonged to the last, with all the irritations it engenders, who suffer?—why, the tradesman and the operative. Partiality, loss of custom, tyrannical demands for house rent, notices to quit,—in a word, the screw!”
“Hear, hear!” and “Give us the Ballot!”
“The Ballot—with all my heart, if I had it about me! And if we had the Ballot, I should like to see a man dare to vote Blue. [Loud cheers from the Yellows.] But, as we have not got it, we must think of our families. And I may add, that though Mr. Egerton may come again into office, yet [added Dick solemnly] I will do my best, as his colleague, to keep him straight; and your own enlightenment (for the schoolmaster is abroad) will show him that no minister can brave public opinion, nor quarrel with his own bread and butter. [Much cheering.] In these times the aristocracy must endear themselves to the middle and working class; and a member in office has much to give away in the Stamps and Excise, in the Customs, the Post Office, and other State departments in this rotten old—I mean this magnificent empire, by which he can benefit his constituents, and reconcile the prerogatives of aristocracy with the claims of the people,—more especially in this case, the people of the borough of Lausmere. [Hear, hear!]
“And therefore, sacrificing party inclinations (since it seems that I can in no way promote them) on the Altar of General Good Feeling, I cannot oppose the resignation of my nephew,—honourable relation!—nor blind my eyes to the advantages that may result to a borough so important to the nation at large, if the electors think fit to choose my Right Honourable brother—I mean the Right Honourable Blue candidate—as my brother colleague. Not that I presume to dictate, or express a wish one way or the other; only, as a Family Man, I say to you, Electors and Freemen, having served your country in returning me, you have nobly won the right to think of the little ones at home.”
Dick put his hand to his heart, bowed gracefully, and retired from the balcony amidst unanimous applause.
In three minutes more Dick had resumed his place in the booth in his quality of candidate. A rush of Yellow electors poured in, hot and fast. Up came Emanuel Trout, and, in a firm voice, recorded his vote, “Avenel and Egerton.” Every man of the Hundred and Fifty so polled. To each question, “Whom do you vote for?” “Avenel and Egerton” knelled on the ears of Randal Leslie with “damnable iteration.” The young man folded his arms across his breast in dogged despair. Levy had to shake hands for Mr. Egerton with a rapidity that took away his breath. He longed to slink away,—longed to get at L’Estrange, whom he supposed would be as wroth at this turn in the wheel of fortune as himself. But how, as Egerton’s representative, escape from the continuous gripes of those horny hands? Besides, there stood the parish pump, right in face of the booth, and some huge truculent-looking Yellows loitered round it, as if ready to pounce on him the instant he quitted his present sanctuary. Suddenly the crowd round the booth receded; Lord L’Estrange’s carriage drove up to the spot, and Harley, stepping from it, assisted out of the vehicle an old, gray-haired, paralytic man. The old man stared round him, and nodded smilingly to the mob. “I’m here,-I’m come; I’m but a poor creature, but I’m a good Blue to the last!”
“Old John Avenel,—fine old John!” cried many a voice.
And John Avenel, still leaning on Harley’s arm, tottered into the booth, and plumped for “Egerton.”
“Shake hands, Father,” said Dick, bending forward, “though you’ll not vote for me.”
“I was a Blue before you were born,” answered the old man, tremulously; “but I wish you success all the same, and God bless you, my boy!”
Even the poll-clerks were touched; and when Dick, leaving his place, was seen by the crowd assisting Lord L’Estrange to place poor John again in the carriage, that picture of family love in the midst of political difference—of the prosperous, wealthy, energetic son, who, as a boy, had played at marbles in the very kennel, and who had risen in life by his own exertions, and was now virtually M. P. for his native town, tending on the broken-down, aged father, whom even the interests of a son he was so proud of could not win from the colours which he associated with truth and rectitude—had such an effect upon the rudest of the mob there present, that you might have heard a pin fall,—till the carriage drove away back to John’s humble home; and then there rose such a tempest of huzzas! John Avenel’s vote for Egerton gave another turn to the vicissitudes of that memorable election. As yet Avenel had been ahead of Audley; but a plumper in favour of Egerton, from Avenel’s own father, set an example and gave an excuse to many a Blue who had not yet voted, and could not prevail on himself to split his vote between Dick and Audley; and, therefore, several leading tradesmen, who, seeing that Egerton was safe, had previously resolved not to vote at all, came up in the last hour, plumped for Egerton, and carried him to the head of the poll; so that poor John, whose vote, involving that of Mark Fairfield, had secured the first opening in public life to the young ambition of the unknown son-in-law, still contributed to connect with success and triumph, but also with sorrow, and, it may be, with death, the names of the high-born Egerton and the humble Avenel.
The great town-clock strikes the hour of four; the returning officer declares the poll closed; the formal announcement of the result will be made later. But all the town knows that Audley Egerton and Richard Avenel are the members for Lausmere. And flags stream, and drums beat, and men shake each other by the hand heartily; and there is talk of the chairing to-morrow; and the public-houses are crowded; and there is an indistinct hubbub in street and alley, with sudden bursts of uproarious shouting; and the clouds to the west look red and lurid round the sun, which has gone down behind the church tower,—behind the yew-trees that overshadow the quiet grave of Nora Avenel.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Amidst the darkening shadows of twilight, Randal Leslie walked through Lansmere Park towards the house. He had slunk away before the poll was closed,—crept through bylanes, and plunged into the leafless copses of the earl’s stately pasture-grounds. Amidst the bewilderment of his thoughts—at a loss to conjecture how this strange mischance had befallen him, inclined to ascribe it to Leonard’s influence over Avenel, but suspecting Harley, and half doubtful of Baron Levy—he sought to ascertain what fault of judgment he himself had committed, what wile he had forgotten, what thread in his web he had left ragged and incomplete. He could discover none. His ability seemed to him unimpeachable,—totus, teres, atque rotundas. And then there came across his breast a sharp pang,—sharper than that of baffled ambition,—the feeling that he had been deceived and bubbled and betrayed. For so vital a necessity to all living men is TRUTH, that the vilest traitor feels amazed and wronged, feels the pillars of the world shaken, when treason recoils on himself. “That Richard Avenel, whom I trusted, could so deceive me!” murmured Randal, and his lip quivered.
He was still in the midst of the Park, when a man with a yellow cockade in his hat, and running fast from the direction of the town, overtook him with a letter, on delivering which the messenger, waiting for no answer, hastened back the way he had come. Randal recognized Avenel’s hand on the address, broke the seal, and read as follows:
(Private and Confidential.)
DEAR LESLIE,—Don’t be down-hearted,—you will know to-night or to-morrow why I have had cause to alter my opinion as to the Right Honourable; and you will see that I could not, as a Family Man, act otherwise than I have done. Though I have not broken my word to you,—for you remember that all the help I promised was dependent on my own resignation, and would go for nothing if Leonard resigned instead,—yet I feel you must think yourself rather bamboozled. But I have been obliged to sacrifice you, from a sense of Family Duty, as you will soon acknowledge. My own nephew is sacrificed also; and I have sacrificed my own concerns, which require the whole man of me for the next year or two at Screwstown. So we are all in the same boat, though you may think you are set adrift by yourself. But I don’t mean to stay in parliament. I shall take the Chiltern Hundreds, pretty considerable soon. And if you keep well with the Blues, I’ll do my best with the Yellows to let you walk over the course in my stead. For I don’t think Leonard will want to stand again. And so a word to the wise,—and you may yet be member for Lansmere.
R. A.
In this letter, Randal, despite all his acuteness, could not detect the honest compunction of the writer. He could at first only look at the worst side of human nature, and fancy that it was a paltry attempt to stifle his just anger and ensure his discretion; but, on second thoughts, it struck him that Dick might very naturally be glad to be released to his mill, and get a quid pro quo out of Randal, under the comprehensive title, “repayment of expenses.” Perhaps Dick was not sorry to wait until Randal’s marriage gave him the means to make the repayment. Nay, perhaps Randal had been thrown over for the present, in order to wring from him better terms in a single election. Thus reasoning, he took comfort from his belief in the mercenary motives of another. True; it might be but a short disappointment. Before the next parliament was a month old, he might yet take his seat in it as member for Lansmere. But all would depend on his marriage with the heiress; he must hasten that.
Meanwhile, it was necessary to knit and gather up all his thought, courage, and presence of mind. How he shrunk from return to Lansmere House,—from facing Egerton, Harley, all. But there was no choice. He would have to make it up with the Blues,—to defend the course he had adopted in the Committee-room. There, no doubt, was Squire Hazeldean awaiting him with the purchase-money for the lands of Rood; there was the Duke di Serrano, restored to wealth and honour; there was his promised bride, the great heiress, on whom depended all that could raise the needy gentleman into wealth and position. Gradually, with the elastic temper that is essential to a systematic schemer, Randal Leslie plucked himself from the pain of brooding over a plot that was defeated, to prepare himself for consummating those that yet seemed so near success. After all, should he fail in regaining Egerton’s favour, Egerton was of use no more. He might rear his head, and face out what some might call “ingratitude,” provided he could but satisfy the Blue Committee. Dull dogs, how could he fail to do that! He could easily talk over the Machiavellian sage. He should have small difficulty in explaining all to the content of Audley’s distant brother, the squire. Harley alone—but Levy had so positively assured him that Harley was not sincerely anxious for Egerton; and as to the more important explanation relative to Peschiera, surely what had satisfied Violante’s father ought to satisfy a man who had no peculiar right to demand explanations at all; and if these explanations did not satisfy, the onus to disprove them must rest with Harley; and who or what could contradict Randal’s plausible assertions,—assertions in support of which he himself could summon a witness in Baron Levy? Thus nerving himself to all that could task his powers, Randal Leslie crossed the threshold of Lansmere House, and in the hall he found the baron awaiting him.
“I can’t account,” said Levy, “for what has gone so cross in this confounded election. It is L’Estrange that puzzles me; but I know that he hates Egerton. I know that he will prove that hate by one mode of revenge, if he has lost it in another. But it is well, Randal, that you are secure of Hazeldean’s money and the rich heiress’s hand; otherwise—”
“Otherwise, what?”
“I should wash my hands of you, mon cher; for, in spite of all your cleverness, and all I have tried to do for you, somehow or other I begin to suspect that your talents will never secure your fortune. A carpenter’s son beats you in public speaking, and a vulgar mill-owner tricks you in private negotiation. Decidedly, as yet, Randal Leslie, you are—a failure. And, as you so admirably said, ‘a man from whom we have nothing to hope or fear we must blot out of the map of the future.’”
Randal’s answer was cut short by the appearance of the groom of the chambers.
“My Lord is in the saloon, and requests you and Mr. Leslie will do him the honour to join him there.” The two gentlemen followed the servant up the broad stairs.
The saloon formed the centre room of the suite of apartments. From its size, it was rarely used save on state occasions. It had the chilly and formal aspect of rooms reserved for ceremony.
Riccabocca, Violante, Helen, Mr. Dale, Squire Hazeldean, and Lord L’Estrange were grouped together by the cold Florentine marble table, not littered with books and female work, and the endearing signs of habitation, that give a living smile to the face of home; nothing thereon save a great silver candelabrum, that scarcely lighted the spacious room, and brought out the portraits on the walls as a part of the assembly, looking, as portraits do look, with searching, curious eyes upon every eye that turns to them.
But as soon as Randal entered, the squire detached himself from the group, and, coming to the defeated candidate, shook hands with him heartily.
“Cheer up, my boy; ‘t is no shame to be beaten. Lord L’Estrange says you did your best to win, and man can do no more. And I’m glad, Leslie, that we don’t meet for our little business till the election is over; for, after annoyance, something pleasant is twice as acceptable. I’ve the money in my pocket. Hush! and I say, my dear, dear boy, I cannot find out where Frank is, but it is really all off with that foreign woman, eh?”
“Yes, indeed, sir, I hope so. I’ll talk to you about it when we can be alone. We may slip away presently, I trust.”
“I’ll tell you a secret scheme of mine and Harry’s,” said the squire, in a still low whisper. “We, must drive that marchioness, or whatever she is, out of the boy’s head, and put a pretty English girl into it instead. That will settle him in life too. And I must try and swallow that bitter pill of the post-obit. Harry makes worse of it than I do, and is so hard on the poor fellow that I’ve been obliged to take his part. I’ve no idea of being under petticoat government, it is not the way with the Hazeldeans. Well, but to come back to the point: Whom do you think I mean by the pretty girl?”
“Miss Sticktorights?”
“Zounds, no!—your own little sister, Randal. Sweet pretty face! Harry liked her from the first, and then you’ll be Frank’s brother, and your sound head and good heart will keep him right. And as you are going to be married too (you must tell me all about that later), why, we shall have two marriages, perhaps, in the family on the same day.”
Randal’s hand grasped the squire’s, and with an emotion of human gratitude,—for we know that, hard to all else, he had natural feelings for his fallen family; and his neglected sister was the one being on earth whom he might almost be said to love. With all his intellectual disdain for honest simple Frank, he knew no one in the world with whom his young sister could be more secure and happy. Transferred to the roof, and improved by the active kindness, of Mrs. Hazeldean, blest in the manly affection of one not too refined to censure her own deficiencies of education, what more could he ask for his sister, as he pictured her to himself, with her hair hanging over her ears, and her mind running into seed over some trashy novel. But before he could reply, Violante’s father came to add his own philosophical consolations to the squire’s downright comfortings.
“Who could ever count on popular caprice? The wise of all ages had despised it. In that respect, Horace and Machiavelli were of the same mind,” etc. “But,” said the duke, with emphatic kindness “perhaps your very misfortune here may serve you elsewhere. The female heart is prone to pity, and ever eager to comfort. Besides, if I am recalled to Italy, you will have leisure to come with us, and see the land where, of all others, ambition can be most readily forgotten, even” added the Italian with a sigh—“even by her own sons!”
Thus addressed by both Hazeldean and the duke, Randal recovered his spirits. It was clear that Lord L’Estrange had not conveyed to them any unfavourable impression of his conduct in the Committee-room. While Randal had been thus engaged, Levy had made his way to Harley, who retreated with the baron into the bay of the great window.
“Well, my Lord, do you comprehend this conduct on the part of Richard Avenel? He secure Egerton’s return!—he!”
“What so natural, Baron Levy,—his own brother-in-law?” The baron started, and turned very pale.
“But how did he know that? I never told him. I meant indeed—”
“Meant, perhaps, to shame Egerton’s pride at the last by publicly declaring his marriage with a shopkeeper’s daughter. A very good revenge still left to you; but revenge for what? A word with you, now, Baron, that our acquaintance is about to close forever. You know why I have cause for resentment against Egerton. I do but suspect yours; will you make it clear to me?”
“My Lord, my Lord,” faltered Baron Levy, “I, too, wooed Nora Avenel as my wife; I, too, had a happier rival in the haughty worldling who did not appreciate his own felicity; I too—in a word, some women inspire an affection that mingles with the entire being of a man, and is fused with all the currents of his life-blood. Nora Avenel was one of those women.”
Harley was startled. This burst of emotion from a man so corrupt and cynical arrested even the scorn he felt for the usurer. Levy soon recovered himself. “But our revenge is not baffled yet. Egerton, if not already in my power, is still in yours. His election may save him from arrest, but the law has other modes of public exposure and effectual ruin.”
“For the knave, yes,—as I intimated to you in your own house,—you who boast of your love to Nora Avenel, and know in your heart that you were her destroyer; you who witnessed her marriage, and yet dared to tell her that she was dishonoured!”
“My Lord—I—how could you know—I mean, how think that—that—” faltered Levy, aghast.
“Nora Avenel has spoken from her grave,” replied Harley, solemnly. “Learn that, wherever man commits a crime, Heaven finds a witness!”
“It is on me, then,” said Levy, wrestling against a superstitious thrill at his heart—“on me that you now concentre your vengeance; and I must meet it as I may. But I have fulfilled my part of our compact. I have obeyed you implicitly—and—”
“I will fulfil my part of our bond, and leave you undisturbed in your wealth.”
“I knew I might trust to your Lordship’s honour,” exclaimed the usurer, in servile glee.
“And this vile creature nursed the same passions as myself; and but yesterday we were partners in the same purpose, and influenced by the same thought!” muttered Harley to himself. “Yes,” he said aloud, “I dare not, Baron Levy, constitute myself your judge. Pursue your own path,—all roads meet at last before the common tribunal. But you are not yet released from our compact; you must do some good in spite of yourself. Look yonder, where Randal Leslie stands, smiling secure, between the two dangers he has raised up for himself. And as Randal Leslie himself has invited me to be his judge, and you are aware that he cited yourself this very day as his witness, here I must expose the guilty; for here the innocent still live, and need defence.”
Harley turned away, and took his place by the table. “I have wished,” said he, raising his voice, “to connect with the triumph of my earliest and dearest friend the happiness of others in whose welfare I feel an interest. To you, Alphonso, Duke of Serrano, I now give this despatch, received last evening by a special messenger from the Prince Von ———, announcing your restoration to your lands and honours.”
The squire stared with open mouth. “Rickeybockey a duke? Why, Jemima’s a duchess! Bless me, she is actually crying!” And his good heart prompted him to run to his cousin and cheer her up a bit.
Violante glanced at Harley, and flung herself on her father’s breast. Randal involuntarily rose, and moved to the duke’s chair.
“And you, Mr. Randal Leslie,” continued Harley, “though you have lost your election, see before you at this moment such prospects of wealth and happiness, that I shall only have to offer you congratulations to which those that greet Mr. Audley Egerton may well appear lukewarm and insipid, provided you prove that you have not forfeited the right to claim that promise which the Duke di Serrano has accorded to the suitor of his daughter’s hand. Some doubts resting on my mind, you have volunteered to dispel them. I have the duke’s permission to address to you a few questions, and I now avail myself of your offer to reply to them.”
“Now,—and here, my Lord?” said Randal, glancing round the room, as if deprecating the presence of so many witnesses. “Now,—and here. Nor are those present so strange to your explanations as your question would imply. Mr. Hazeldean, it so happens that much of what I shall say to Mr. Leslie concerns your son.”
Randal’s countenance fell. An uneasy tremor now seized him.
“My son! Frank? Oh, then, of course, Randal will speak out. Speak, my boy!”
Randal remained silent. The duke looked at his working face, and drew away his chair.
“Young man, can you hesitate?” said he. “A doubt is expressed which involves your honour.”
“‘s death!” cried the squire, also gazing on Randal’s cowering eye and quivering lip, “what are you afraid of?”
“Afraid!” said Randal, forced into speech, and with a hollow laugh—“afraid?—I? What of? I was only wondering what Lord L’Estrange could mean.”
“I will dispel that wonder at once. Mr. Hazeldean, your son displeased you first by his proposals of marriage to the Marchesa di Negra against your consent; secondly, by a post-obit bond granted to Baron Levy. Did you understand from Mr. Randal Leslie that he had opposed or favoured the said marriage,—that he had countenanced or blamed the said post-obit?”
“Why, of course,” cried the squire, “that he had opposed both the one and the other.”
“Is it so, Mr. Leslie?”
“My Lord—I—I—my affection for Frank, and my esteem for his respected father—I—I—” (He nerved himself, and went on with firm voice)—“Of course, I did all I could to dissuade Frank from the marriage; and as to the post-obit, I know nothing about it.”
“So much at present for this matter. I pass on to the graver one, that affects your engagement with the Duke di Serrano’s daughter. I understand from you, Duke, that to save your daughter from the snares of Count di Peschiera, and in the belief that Mr. Leslie shared in your dread of the count’s designs, you, while in exile and in poverty, promised to that gentleman your daughter’s hand? When the probabilities of restoration to your principalities seemed well-nigh certain, you confirmed that promise on learning from Mr. Leslie that he had, however ineffectively, struggled to preserve your heiress from a perfidious snare. Is it not so?”
“Certainly. Had I succeeded to a throne, I could not recall the promise that I had given in penury and banishment; I could not refuse to him who would have sacrificed worldly ambition in wedding a penniless bride, the reward of his own generosity. My daughter subscribes to my views.”
Violante trembled, and her hands were locked together; but her gaze was fixed on Harley.
Mr. Dale wiped his eyes, and thought of the poor refugee feeding on minnows, and preserving himself from debt amongst the shades of the Casino.
“Your answer becomes you, Duke,” resumed Harley. “But should it be proved that Mr. Leslie, instead of wooing the princess for herself, actually calculated on the receipt of money for transferring her to Count Peschiera; instead of saving her from the dangers you dreaded, actually suggested the snare from which she was delivered,—would you still deem your honour engaged to—”
“Such a villain? No, surely not!” exclaimed the duke. “But this is a groundless hypothesis! Speak, Randal.”
“Lord L’Estrange cannot insult me by deeming it otherwise than a groundless hypothesis!” said Randal, striving to rear his head.
“I understand then, Mr. Leslie, that you scornfully reject such a supposition?”
“Scornfully—yes. And,” continued Randal, advancing a step, “since the supposition has been made, I demand from Lord L’Estrange, as his equal (for all gentlemen are equals where honour is to be defended at the cost of life), either instant retractation—or instant proof.”
“That’s the first word you have spoken like a man,” cried the squire. “I have stood my ground myself for a less cause. I have had a ball through my right shoulder.”
“Your demand is just,” said Harley, unmoved. “I cannot give the retractation,—I will produce the proof.”
He rose and rang the bell; the servant entered, received his whispered order, and retired. There was a pause painful to all. Randal, however, ran over in his fearful mind what evidence could be brought against him—and foresaw none. The folding doors of the saloon were thrown open and the servant announced—
THE COUNT DI PESCHIERA.
A bombshell, descending through the roof could not have produced a more startling sensation. Erect, bold, with all the imposing effect of his form and bearing, the count strode into the centre of the ring; and after a slight bend of haughty courtesy, which comprehended all present, reared up his lofty head, and looked round, with calm in his eye and a curve on his lip,—the self-assured, magnificent, high-bred Daredevil.
“Duke di Serrano,” said the count, in English, turning towards his astounded kinsman, and in a voice that, slow, clear, and firm, seemed to fill the room, “I returned to England on the receipt of a letter from my Lord L’Estrange, and with a view, it is true, of claiming at his hands the satisfaction which men of our birth accord to each other, where affront, from what cause soever, has been given or received. Nay, fair kinswoman,”—and the count, with a slight but grave smile, bowed to Violante, who had uttered a faint cry,—“that intention is abandoned. If I have adopted too lightly the old courtly maxim, that ‘all stratagems are fair in love,’ I am bound also to yield to my Lord L’Estrange’s arguments, that the counter-stratagems must be fair also. And, after all, it becomes me better to laugh at my own sorry figure in defeat, than to confess myself gravely mortified by an ingenuity more successful than my own.” The count paused, and his eye lightened with sinister fire, which ill suited the raillery of his tone and the polished ease of his bearing. “Ma foi!” he continued, “it is permitted me to speak thus, since at least I have given proofs of my indifference to danger, and my good fortune when exposed to it. Within the last six years I have had the honour to fight nine duels, and the regret to wound five, and dismiss from the world four, as gallant and worthy gentlemen as ever the sun shone upon.”
“Monster!” faltered the parson.
The squire stared aghast, and mechanically rubbed the shoulder which had been lacerated by Captain Dashinore’s bullet. Randal’s pale face grew yet more pale, and the eye he had fixed upon the count’s hardy visage quailed and fell.
“But,” resumed the count, with a graceful wave of the hand, “I have to thank my Lord L’Estrange for reminding me that a man whose courage is above suspicion is privileged not only to apologize if he has injured another, but to accompany apology with atonement. Duke of Serrano, it is for that purpose that I am here. My Lord, you have signified your wish to ask me some questions of serious import as regards the duke and his daughter; I will answer them without reserve.”
“Monsieur le Comte,” said Harley, “availing myself of your courtesy, I presume to inquire who informed you that this young lady was a guest under my father’s roof?”