 Chapter 34 of Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer Lytton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 34 O Fortuna, Wiris in Witte, Fortibus, Quam non aqua bonis, Primae de Wittes, Seneca, and as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue, pants to the place from whence at first he flew. Here, to the houseless child of want, my door is open still. Goldsmith, Slowly, for Lucy waned, the weeks of a winter which to her was the most dreary portion of life she had ever passed. It became the time for the judge to attend one of those periodical visitations, so fraught with dread and dismay, to the miserable inmates of the darker boats, which the complex laws of this country so bountiously supply, those times of great hilarity and eating to the legal gentry, who feed on crimes and fatten on distress, and ring vile mirth from sufferings last excess, a excellent order of the world which it is so wicked to disturb. A miraculously beautiful must be that system which makes wine out of the scorching tears of guilt, and from the suffocating suspense, the agonized fear, the compelled and self-mockery bravery, the awful sentence that is sparing death-pang of one man, furnishes the smirking expectation of bees, the jovial meeting, and the mercenary holiday to another. Of law nothing less can be said than that her seat is the bosom of God, Hooker's ecclesiastical polity. To be sure not, Richard Hooker, you are perfectly right. The divinity of us sessions and the inspiration of the old Bailey are undeniable. The care of Sir William Brandon had effectually kept from Lucy Zear the knowledge of her lover's ignominious situation, indeed in her delicate health even the hard eye of Brandon, and the thoughtless glance of Malevore perceived the danger of such a discovery. The Earl, now waiting the main attack on Lucy till the curtain had forever dropped on Clifford, proceeded with great caution and delicacy in his suit to his proposed bride. He waited with the more patience in as much as he had drawn in advance on his friend, Sir William, for some portion of the heiress's fortune, and he readily allowed that he could not in the meanwhile have a better advocate than he found in Brandon. So persuasive indeed and so subtle was the eloquence of this able sophist that often in his artful conversations with his niece he left even on the unvisiated and strong, the simple mind of Lucy and uneasy and restless impression, which time might have ripened into an inclination towards the worldly advantages of the marriage at her command. Brandon was no bungling mediator or violent persecutor. He seemed to acquiesce in her rejection of Malevore. He scarcely recurred to the event. He rarely praised the Earl himself, save for the obvious qualities of liveness and good nature, but he spoke with all the vivid colors he could infuse at will into his words of the pleasures and the duties of rank and wealth. Well could he appeal alike to all the prejudices and all the foibles of the human breast, and govern virtue through its weaknesses. Lucy had been brought up like the daughters of most country gentlemen of ancient family in an undue and idle consciousness of superior birth. And she was far from inaccessible to the warmth and even feeling, for here Brandon was sincere with which her uncle spoke of the duty of raising a gallant name sunk into disrepute and sacrificing our own inclination for the redecorating, the molded splendor of those who have gone before us. If the confusion of idea occasioned by a vague pomposity of phrase or the infant inculcation of a sentiment that is mistaken for virtue, so often makes fools of the wise on the subject of ancestry. If it clouded even the sarcastic and keen sense of Brandon himself, we may forgive its influence over a girl so little versed in the arts of sound reasoning as poor Lucy, who it may be said had never learned to think until she had learned to love. However, the impression made by Brandon in his happiest moments of persuasion was as yet only transient, it vanished before the first thought of Clifford and never suggested to her even a doubt as to the suit of malevolence. When the day arrived for Sir William Brandon to set out on the circuit, he called Barlow and enjoined on that acute an intelligent servant the strictest caution with respect to Lucy, he bade him deny her to every one of whatever rank and carefully to look into every newspaper that was brought to her as well as to withhold every letter, save such as were addressed to her in the judge's own handwriting. Lucy's maid Brandon had already won over to silence and the uncle now pleased himself with thinking that he had put an effectual guard to every chance of discovery. The identity of Leavitt with Clifford had not yet even been rumored and the lever had rightly judged of Clifford when he believed the prisoner would himself take every precaution against the detection of that fact. Clifford answered the Earl's note and promised in the letter couched in so effecting yet so manly a tone of gratitude that even Brandon was touched when he read it. And since his confinement and partial recovery of health, the prisoner had kept himself closely secluded and refused all visitors. Encouraged by this reflection and the belief in the safety of his precautions, Brandon took leave of Lucy. Farewell, said he as he embraced her affectionately, be sure that you write to me and forgive me if I do not answer you punctually. Take care of yourself, my sweet niece, and let me see a fresher color on that soft cheek when I return. Take care of yourself rather, my dear, dear uncle, said Lucy, clinging to him and weeping as of later weakened nerves caused her to do at the least agitation. May I not go with you. You have seemed to me paler than usual the last three or four days than you complained yesterday. Do let me go with you. I will be no trouble, none at all. But I'm sure you require a nurse. You want to frighten me, my pretty Lucy, said Brandon, shaking his head with a smile. I'm well, very well. I felt a strange rush of blood towards the head yesterday. It is true. But I feel today stronger and lighter than I have done for years. Once more, God bless you, my child. And Brandon tore himself away and commenced his journey. The wandering and dramatic course of our story now conducts us to an obscure lane in the metropolis leading to the Thames and makes us spectators of an affecting farewell between two persons whom the injustice of fate and the persecutions of men were about perhaps forever to divide. Adieu, my friend, said Augustus Tomlinson, as he stood looking full on that segment of the face of Edward Pepper, which was left unconcealed by a huge hat and a red belt your hand could chip. Tomlinson himself was attired in the full costume of a dignified clergyman. Adieu, my friend, since you will remain in England. Adieu, I am. I exalt to say no less than see a patriot than you. Heaven be my witness, how long I looked repugnantedly on poor Leavitt's proposal to quit my beloved country, but all hope of life here is now over. And really during the last 10 days, I've been so hunted from corner to corner, so plagued with polite invitations, similar to those given by a farmer's wife to her ducks. Dilly, dilly, dilly, come and be gild that my patriotism has been prodigiously cooled and I no longer recoil from thoughts of self-banishment. The earth, my dear Ned, as a Greek sage has very well observed, the earth is the same everywhere. And if I'm asked for my home, I can point, like an exagerus to heaven. Upon my soul, you affect me, said Ned, speaking thick, either from grief or the pressure of the belt your hand could chip on his mouth. It is quite beautiful to hear you talk. Bear up, my dear friend, continue, Tomlinson. Bear up against your present afflictions. What to a man who fortifies himself by reason and by reflection on the shortness of life are the little calamities of the body? What is imprisonment or persecution or cold or hunger? By the by, you did not forget to put the sandwiches into my coat pocket. Hush, whispered Ned, and he moved on involuntarily. I see a man at the other end of the street. Let us quicken our pace, said Tomlinson, and the pair proceeded towards the river. And now began Ned, who thought he might as well say something about himself, for hitherto Augustus, in the order of his friendship, had been only discussing his own plans. And now that is to say, when I leave you, I shall hasten to die for shelter until the storm blows over. I don't much like living in a cellar and wearing a smock frock, but those concealments have something interesting in them after all. The safest and snuggest place I know of is the païfah about the Timbs Court. So I think of hiring an apartment underground and taking my meals at poor Levitt's old quarters, the mug the police will never dream of looking in these vulgar haunts for a man of my fashion. You cannot then tear yourself from England, said Tomlinson. No, hang it, the fellows are so cursed unmanly on the other side of the water. I hate their wine in there, parlay, woo. Besides, there is no fun there. Tomlinson, who was absorbed in his own thoughts, made no comment on his friend's excellent reasons against travel, and the pair now approached the brink of the river, a boat was in waiting to receive and conduct to the vessel in which he had taken his place for Calais, the illustrious emigrant. But as Tomlinson's eye fell suddenly on the rude boatman and the little boat which were to bear him away from his native land, as he glanced to across the blue waters which up brisk wind wildly agitated and thought how much rougher it would be at sea, where his soul invariably sickened at the heaving wave, a whole tide of deep and sorrowful emotions rushed upon him. He turned away, the spot on which he stood was a piece of ground to be let as a board proclaimed upon a building lease, below descended the steps which were to conduct into the boat, around the desolate space allowed him to see in far and broad extent the spires and domes and chimneys of the great city whose inhabitants he might never plunder more. As he looked and looked, the tears started to his eyes and with a gust of enthusiasm, a little consonant with his temperate and philosophical character, he lifted his right hand from his black, breeched his pocket and burst into the following farewell to the metropolis of his native shores. Farewell, my beloved London farewell, where shall I ever find a city like you? Never till now did I feel how inexpressibly dear you were to me. You've been my father and my brother and my mistress and my tailor and my shoemaker and my hatter and my cook and my wine merchant. You and I never misunderstood each other. I did not grumble when I saw what fine houses and good strong boxes you gave to other men. No, I rejoiced at their prosperity. I delighted to see a rich man. My only disappointment was in stumbling on a poor one. You gave riches to my neighbors, but oh generous London, you gave those neighbors to me. Magnificent streets, all Christian virtues abide within you. Charity is as common as smoke. Where in what corner of the habitable world shall I find human beings most so many superfluities? Where shall I so easily decoy from benevolent credulity those superfluities to myself? Heaven only knows my dear, dear darling London, what I lose in you. Oh, public charities, oh, public institutions, oh, banks that malign mathematical axioms and make lots out of nothing. Oh, ancient constitution always to be questioned. Oh, modern improvements that never answer. Oh, speculations, oh, companies, oh, usury laws which guard against users by making as many as possible. Oh, churches in which no one profits save the parson and the old women that let pews of an evening. Oh, superb theaters, too small for parks, too enormous for houses which exclude comedy and comfort and have a monopoly for performing nonsense gigantically. Oh, houses of plaster built in a day. Oh, palaces four yards high with a dome in the middle meant to be invisible. We must not suppose this apostrophe should be an anachronism. Tomlinson, of course, refers to some palace of his day. One of the boxes, Christmas boxes given to the king by his economical nation of shopkeepers. We suppose it is either pulled down or blown down longer ago. It is doubtless forgotten by this time except by antiquaries. Nothing is so ephemeral as great houses built by the people. Your kings play the deuce with their playthings. Oh, shops worth thousands and oh, shopkeepers not worth us shilling. Oh, system of credit by which beggars are princes and princes are beggars. Oh, imprisonment for debt which lets the mayor be stolen and then locks up the bridal. Oh, sharpers, bubbles, senators, bow, taverns, brothels, clubs, houses, private and public. Oh, London, in a word, receive my last adieu. Long may you flourish in peace and plenteousness. May your knaves be witty and your fools be rich. May you alter only two things, your damnable tricks of transportation and hanging. Those are your sole faults, but for those I would never desert you adieu. Here, Tomlinson averted his head and then hastily shaking the hand of long Ned with a tremulous and warm grasp. He hurried down the stairs and entered the boat. Ned remained motionless for some moments following him with his eyes as he sat at the end of the boat, waving a white pocket handkerchief. At length, the line of barges snatched him from the side of the lingerer and Ned slowly turning away muttered, yes, I've always heard that Dame Lopkins's was the safest asylum for misfortune like mine. I will go forth within search of a lodging and tomorrow I will make my breakfast at the mug. Be it our pleasing task, dear reader, to forestall the good robber and return at the hour of sunrise on the day following Tomlinson's departure to the scene of which our story commenced. We are now once more at the house of Mrs. Marjorie Lopkins. The room which served so many purposes was still the same as when Paul turned it into the arena of his mischievous pranks. The dresser with its shelves and mingled delt and pewter occupied its ancient and important station. Only it might be noticed that the pewter was more dull than a viewer and that sundry cracks made their erratic wanderings over the yellow surface of the delt. The eye of the mistress had become less keen than heretofore and the care of the handmaid had of necessity relaxed. The tall clock still ticked the monotonous warning, the blanket screened happily in a scent of soap since we last described it, many storied and poly-balleted, still unfolded in sample leaves rich with the spores of time. The spit in the musket yet hung from the wall in amicable approximation and the long smooth form with many a holy text their omba stream still afforded rest to the weary traveler and an object to the vain stare of Mrs. Marguerite Lopkins as she logged in her opposite seat and forgot the world. But poor, biggy log, there was the alteration, the soul of the woman was gone, the spirit had evaporated from the human bottle. She sat with open mouth and glassy eye in her chair, sidling herself to and fro with the low, peevish sound, a fretful age and bodily pain. Sometimes this querulous murmur sharpened into a shrill but unmeaning scold. There now you gallows bird, you has taken the swipes without chalking, you wants to cheat the poor widow, but I seize you, I does. Providence protects the aged and the innocent. Oh, oh, these twinges will be the death of me. Where's Martha? You jade you, you wiperous hussy, bring the tape. Doesn't you see how I suffers? As you know bowels to let a poor Christian creature perish for want to help. That's with them, that's the way no one cares for I now. No one has respect for the gray airs of the old and then the voice dwindled into the whimpering tenor of its way. Martha, a strapping wint with red hair streaming over her heels of snow, was not however inattentive to the wants of her mistress. Who knows said she to a man who sat by the heart drinking tea out of a blue mug and toasting with great care, two or three huge rounds of bread for his own private and his special nutriment. Who knows said she what we may come to ourselves. And so saying, she placed a glowing tumbler by her mistress's elbow. But in the sunken prostration of her intellect, the old woman was insensible even to her consolation. She sipped and drank it as true, but as if the stream warmed not the benumbed region through which it passed, she continued muttering in a crazed and groaning key. Is this your gratitude, you serpent? Why does not you bring the tape? I tell you, am I of a age to drink water like an awse? You nasty thing. Ode to think as ever I should live to be deserted. Inattentive to these murmurs which she felt unreasonable, the balancing Martha now quitted the room to repair to her upper household avocations. The man at the heart was the only companion left to the widow, gazing at her for a moment as she sat whining with a rude compassion in his eye and slowly munching his toast which he had now buttered and placed in a delft plate on the hob. This person thus soothingly began. Ah, Dame Lopkins, if so be as our little Paul, thus avidst you, it would be a gallows comfort to you in your latter hand. The name of Paul made the good woman incline her head towards the speaker, a ray of consciousness shot through her bed-dog brain. Little Paul, acers, where is Paul? Paul, I say. My Ben, call alike, he's gone. Left his poor old nurse to die like a cat in a cellar. Oh, dummy, never live to be old, man. They leaves us to ourselves and then takes away all the lush with him, has not a drop of comfort in the varsal world. Dummy, who at this moment had his own reasons for soothing the dame and was anxious to make the most of the opportunity of a conversation as unwitnessed as the present, replied tenderly and with a cunning likely to promote his end, reproach Paul bitterly for never having informed the dame of his whereabouts and his proceedings. But come, dame, he wound up, come. I guess is how he is better, nor all that, and that you need not be your whole brains to think where he lies or what he's doing. Blow me tight, mother, lob. I ask pardon, Mrs. Marjorie, I should say. If I would not give five bob eye and five to the tail of that to know what the poor lad is about, I takes a mortal interest in that air chat. Oh, oh, groan the old woman on whose palsy he'd sensed the astute inquiries of Dummy Donecker, fell harmless. My poor sinful carcass, would it weigh it be in? Artfully again did Dummy Donecker, nothing defeated, renew his attack, but fortune does not always favor the wise. And it failed Dummy now for a reason first because it was not possible for the dame to comprehend him. Secondly, because even if it had been, she had nothing to reveal. Some of Clifford's pecuniary gifts have been conveyed anonymously, all without direction or date, and for the most part, they have been appropriated by the sage Martha into whose hands they fell to her own private uses. Nor did the dame require Clifford's grateful charity for she was a woman tolerably well off in the world, considering how it near she was waxing to another. Longer, however, might Dummy have tried his unabailing way, had not the door of the inn creaked on its hinges and the bulky form of a tall man in a smocked rock, but with a remarkably fine head of hair darkened the threshold. He honored the dame who cast on him a luckluster eye with a sulky yet ambrosial knot, seized a bottle of spirits and a tumbler, lighted a candle, drew a small German pipe and a tobacco box from his pouch, placed these several luxuries on a small table, wheeled it to a far corner of the room and throwing himself into one chair, and his legs into another. He enjoyed the result of his pains in a moody and supercilious silence. Long and earnestly did the meek Dummy gaze on the face of the gentleman before him. It had been some years since he had last beheld it, but it was one which did not easily escape the memory. And although it's proprietor was a man who had risen in the world and had gained the height of his profession, a station far beyond the diurnal sphere of Dummy Dunnaker and the humble Pallorner was therefore astonished to encounter him in these lower regions, yet Dummy's recollection carried him back to a day when they had gone shares together without respect of persons and had been right jolly partners in the practical game of beggar my neighbor. While however, Dummy Dunnaker, who was a little inclined to be shy, deliberated as to the propriety of claiming acquaintanceship, a dirty boy with a face which betokened the frost, as Dummy himself said like a plum dying of the scarlet fever entered the room with a newspaper in his dexter paw. Great news, great news, cried the urchin, imitating his vociferous originals in the street, all about the famous Captain Leavitt as large as life. Old Gerblarney, you blotter gal, said Dummy rebukingly and seizing the journal. Master says it's how he must have it to send to Clapham, can't spare it for more than an hour, said the boy as he withdrew. I members the day said Dummy with the zeal of a clansman when the mug took a paper all through itself instead of ironing it by the job like. Thereon he opened the paper with the Philip and gave himself tip to the lecture, but the tall stranger half rising with the start exclaimed, can't you have the manners to be communicative? Do you think nobody cares about Captain Leavitt but yourself? On this Dummy turned round on his chair and with a blow me tight, your welcome, I'm sure, began as follows, we copy the paper, not the diction of the reader. The trial of the notorious Leavitt commences this day, great exertions have been made by people of all classes to procure seats in the town hall, which will be full to a degree never before known in this peaceful province. No less than seven indictments are said to await the prisoner. It has been agreed that the robbery of Lord Malever should be the first to come on. The principal witness in this case against the prisoner is understood to be the King's evidence, McGrawler. No news as yet have been circulated concerning the suspected accomplices, Augustus Tomlinson and Edward Pepper. It is believed that the former has left the country and that the latter is lurking among the low refuges of guilt with which the heart of the metropolis abounds. Report speaks highly of the person and manners of Leavitt. He is also supposed to be a man of some talent and was formerly engaged in an obscure periodical as Debate McGrawler and termed the alpha neum or assenium. Nevertheless, we apprehend that his origin is remarkably low and suitable to the nature of his pursuits. The prisoner will be most fortunate in a judge, never did anyone holding the same high office as Sir William Brandon earned an equal reputation in so short a time. The wigs are accustomed to sneer at us when we insist on the private virtues of our public men, let them look to Sir William Brandon and confess that the austere's morals may be linked with the soundest knowledge and the most brilliant genius. The opening address of the learner judge to the jury at blank is perhaps the most impressive and solemn piece of eloquence in the English language. A cause for this eulogy might happily be found in another part of the paper in which it was said, among the higher circles we understand the rumor has gone forth that Sir William Brandon is to be recalled to his old parliamentary career in a more elevated scene. So highly are this gentleman's talents respected by his majesty and the ministers that they are, it is reported, anxious to secure his assistance in the house of lords. When Demi had spelt his toil some march through the first of the above extracts, he turned round to the tall stranger and ironed him with a sort of winking significance, said Sir McGrawler, peaches, blows the gap on his pals, ay, bell, now I always suspected that heir son of a gun. Do you know he used to be at the mug many a day teaching our little Paul and says to Piggy Lob, says I blow me tight but the cove is a queer one and if he does not come to be scragged, says I, it will only be because he'll turn out rusty and scragg one of his pals, so you seize, your Demi looked round and his voice sank into a whisper, so you seize, me stir pepper, I've got a snow fool there. Long Ned dropped his pipe and said sourly and with a suspicious frown, what, you know me, to be sure and certain I does answer little Demi walking up to the table where the robber said, does not you know I? Ned regarded the interrogator with a sullen glance which gradually brightened into knowledge, ah, said he with the air of a brummel, Mr. Bummy or Demi, I think, ay, shake a paw, I'm glad to see you. Recollected last time I saw you, you rather affronted me, never mind, I dare say you did not mean it. Encouraged by this affable reception from the highwaymen, though a little embarrassed by Ned's allusion to former conduct on his part, which he felt was just, Demi Grimm pushed a stool near Ned, sat himself down and carefully avoiding any immediate answer to Ned's complaints rejoined. Do you know, Mr. Pepper, you struck all of a heap, I could not have esposed as how you'd condescend nowadays to come to the mug, there I never seed you but once before, Lord love you, they says as out, you go to all the fine places in Ruffles with a pair of silver pops in your vase-coat pocket by the boys hereabouts, say that you and me is to Tom and some, and this here poor devil and quote, there the finest gem in town, and Lord for to think of your civility to a pitiful rag merchant like I. Ah, said Ned Gravely, there are sad principles afloat now, they want to do away with all distinctions and ranks to make a duke no better than his valet and a gentleman highwayman classed with a filter of vogels. But damn, if I don't think, Miss Fortune, love us all quite enough, and Miss Fortune brings me here, little dummy, ah, you vance to keep out of the day of the balkies. Right, since poor Lovett was laid by the heels, which I must say was the fault of his own, deucid, gentlemen-like behavior to me and Augustus, you've heard of guzz, you say, the knot of us seems quite broken. One's own friends look inclined to play one false and really the queer cufflands hover so sharply upon us, but I thought it safe to duck for a time, so I've taken a lodging and a cellar, and I intend for the next three months to board at the mug. I have heard that I may be sure of lying snug here. Dummy, your health, give us the back seat. I say, Mr. Pepper, said Dummy, clearing his throat when he had obeyed the request. Can you tell I? If so be you as met in your travels, our little Paul, poor chap, he knows his out and by. He was sent to quote by Justice Bermphlet. Though then he got out, he went to the devil or somewhat like it, and we have not card of void of him since. You members of that, a nation, fine call, tall and straight as a hero. Why, you fool, said Ned, don't you know, then, shaking himself suddenly, ah, by the by, that rigmarole oath, I was not to tell, though now it's past caring for, I fear, it is no use looking after the seal when the letters burned. Blow me, Crydenaker, with unaffected vehemence, I see as how you know buts come of he. Many is the good turn, I'll do you if you will, but tell I. Why does he owe you a dozen bobs, or what, Dummy? Said Ned, not he, not he, cry Dummy. But then you want to do him a mischief of some sort? Do little Paul a mischief, ejaculated Dummy, but I've known the call ever since he was that high. No, but I want to do him a great service, Mr. Pepper and myself, too, and you to boot, for ought that I know, Mr. Pepper. Hum, said Ned, hum, what do you mean? I do it is true, no, where Paul is, but you must tell me first why you wish to know, otherwise you may ask your grandfather for me. A long, sharp, whisper survey, did Mr. Dummy, Doneker, cast around him before he rejoined. All seemed safe and convenient for confidential communication. The supine features of Mrs. Lopkins were hushed in a drowsy stupor, even the gray cat that lay by the fire was curled in the embrace of Morpheus. Nevertheless, it was in a close whisper that Dummy spoke. I dares be bound, Mr. Pepper, that you members, Bell, Vin, Harry Cook, that great high-vayman, poor fellow, he's gone, Bear, we must all go, brought you then quite a goosene for the first time to the little back parlor at the cock and hen, the maroo court. Ned nodded ascent, and you members is how I met Harry and you there, and I of us all feared at you, because by I had never seen you before and leave us are going to crack a swells crib. And Harry spoke up for you and said as out, though you had just gone on the town, he was already primed up to gammon. You members, eh? I remember all, said Ned, it was the first and only house I ever had a hand in breaking into. Harry was a fellow of low habits, so I dropped his acquaintance and took slowly to the road or a chance in genuity now and then. I have no idea of a gentleman turning cracksman. Bell, so you vent with us and be slipped you through a pain in the kitchen, Vinda, you vest the least of us big as you be now, and you vent round and open the door for us, and then you had opened the door. You saw a woman had joined us and you were a funk then and stayed without the crib to keep botch by the vent in. Well, well, cried Ned, what the devil has all this rigmarole got to do with Paul. Now don't be glim-flashy, but let me go on smack right about, though then V came out, you minds as out, the woman had a bundle in her arms and you spake to her and she answered you roughly and left a saw and bent straight home and even and fenced the swag that very night and afterwards napped the regulars and sure you made us laugh artily, Mr. Pepper, when you said, says you, that air of woman is a rum blow and so she was, Mr. Pepper, the reader has probably observed the use made by dummy and Mrs. Lopkins of Irish phraseology or pronunciation. This is a remarkable trait in the dialect of the lowest orders of London, knowing we suppose to their constant association with immigrants from the first flower of the earth. Perhaps it is a modished affectation among the gentry of St. Joseph's just as we eke out our mother tongue with French at Mayfair. Oh, spare me, said Ned, affectedly and make haste, you keep me all in the dark. By the way, I remember that you joke me about the bundle and when I asked what the woman had wrapped in it, you swore it was a child, rather more likely that the girl, whoever she was would have left a child behind her, then carried one off the face of dummy wax big with conscious importance. So now you would not believe us, but it was all true, that air bundle bus the woman's child, I suppose an unnatural bond by the chairman. She led us into the house on condition we helped her off with it. And blow me tight, but be paid ourselves well for our trouble that air woman bus a strange creature. They say she had been a Lord's blowing, but how some ever she was as odd-edded and hard as if she had been. There was so Nick's hound, row, made on the matter and the reward for our detection bus, so great that as you thus not much tried yet, Harry thought it best for it to take you with him down to the country and told you as I'll it bus all a flam about the child in the bundle. They said that I believed him readily enough and poor Harry was twisted shortly after and I went into Ireland for safety where I stayed two years and do good Claret I got there. So vows you bus there, continued dummy poor Judy, the woman died. She died in this very house and left the orphan to the affection of Piggy Lobb who was nation fond of it surely. Oh, but I members, but a night it was then poor Judy died. The then this would like met and the rain tumbled about as if it had got a holiday and there the poor creature lay raving just over edge of this room. We sits in it, lousy me, but a sighted bus. Here dummy paused and seemed to recall in imagination the scene he had witnessed, but over the mind of long net array of light broke slowly. Phew said he lifting up his forefinger. Phew, I smell a rat. The stolen child then was no other than Paul but pray to whom did the house belong? For that fact, Harry never communicated to me. I only heard the owner was a lawyer or a person or some such thing. By now I tell you, but don't be glim flashy. So you see then Judy died and Harry was scragg. I bust the only one living who busts up to the secret and then mother love bus taking a drop to come for her then Judy bent off. I hope in the great box in which poor Judy kept her duds and rattle traps and surely I find that the bottom of the box have her so many letters and sick like for I knew as how they bust there. So I dips these off and carries them on with me and soon Arder mother love sold me the box of duds for two quids because why I bust a rag merchant. So now I saw since the secret bus all in my home keeping to keep it as tight as Vinky. For first you see as how I bust the feared I should be hanged if I bent for detail because by I stole a watch and lots more as well as the hurtin. And next I bust the feared as out the mother might come back and haunt me the same as saw haunted Billy for of us horrid night then her soul took being and however and above this Mr. Pepper I thought some it might turn up by and by in which it must be best for I to keep my home council and have the very bar if I ever just make myself known. Here then we proceeded to narrate how frightened he had been lest Ned should discover all when as it may be remembered Pepper informed Paul at the beginning of his history he encountered that worthy a dame Lopkins his house how this fear had induced him to testify to Pepper that coldness and rudeness which had so enraged the haughty highwaymen and now great had been his relief and delighted finding that Ned returned to the mug no more. He next proceeded to inform his new confidant of his meeting with the father the sagacious reader knows where and when and of what took place at that event he said how in his first negotiation with the father prudently resolving to communicate drop by drop such information as he possessed he merely besides confessing to a share in the robbery stated that he thought he knew the house et cetera to which the infant had been consigned and that if so it was still alive but that he would inquire he then related how the sanguine father who saw that hanging dummy for the robbery of his house might not be half so likely a method to recover his son as bribery and conciliation not only forgave him his former outrage but wedded his appetite to the search by rewarding him for his disclosure he then proceeded to state how unable anywhere to find Paul or any trace of him he amused the sire from time to time with forward excuses how at first the sums he received made him by no means desirous to expedite a discovery that would terminate such satisfactory receipts how it linked the magnitude of the profit reward joined to the threats of the sire had made him become seriously anxious to learn the real fate and present whereabouts of Paul how the last time he had seen the father he had by way of propitiation and first route taken to him all the papers left by the unhappy mother and secreted by himself and how he was now delighted to find that Ned was acquainted with Paul's address since he despaired of finding Paul by his own exertions alone he became less tenacious of his secret and he now profit Ned on his discovery of Paul a third of that reward the whole of which he had once hoped to engross Ned's eyes and mouth opened at this proposition but the name, the name of the father you have not told me that yet cried he impatiently Noah Noah said dummy archer I doesn't tell you all till you tells I summit bears little Paul I say and bear be us to get at him Ned heaved a sigh as for the oaths that he musingly it would be a sin to keep it now that to break it can do him no harm and may do him good especially as in case of imprisonment or death the oath is not held to be binding yet I fear it is too late for the reward the father will scarcely thank you for finding his son no dummy that Paul is in jail and that he is one and the same person as captain Leavitt astonishment never wrote in more legible characters than she now displayed on the rough features of dummy Donecker so strong of the sympathies of a profession compared with all others that dummy's first confused thought was that of pride the great captain Leavitt he faltered little Paul at the top of the profession Lord Lord I always said is how he'd be a hand vision to rise well well but the father's name at this question the expression of dummy's face fell a sudden horror struggle to his eyes into chapter 34 chapter 35 part one of Paul Clifford by Edward Bower Lytton this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 35 part one what is it that at moments there creeps over us in awe a terror overpowering but undefined why is it that we shut it without a cause and feel the warm lifeblood stand still in its courses are the dead to near Falkland ah says thou hideous thought I feel it twine or my ice tart as curls around his prey the sure and deadly serpent what in the hush and in the solitude past that dreads soul away love and hatred the evening prior to that morning in which the above conversation occurred Brandon passed alone in his lodging at blank it felt himself too unwell to attend the customary wasle and he sat indolently musing in the solitude of the old fashioned chamber to which he was consigned there to wax candles on the smooth quaint table dimly struggled against the gloom of heavy panels which were relieved at unfrequent intervals by portraits in oaken frames dingy harsh and important with the pomp of laced garments and flowing wigs the pre-election of the landlady for modern tastes had indeed on each side of the huge fireplace suspended more novel masterpieces of the fine arts in emblematic gorgeousness hung the pictures of the four seasons bucks and wenches all save winter who was deformedly bodied forth in the likeness of an aged call these were interspersed by an engraving of Lord Milover the lieutenant of the neighboring county looking extremely majestic in his pier's robes and by three typifications of faith, hope and charity ladies with whom it may be doubted if the gay orl ever before cultivated so close and intimacy curtains of that antique gents in which vast seas of stripes are alternated by rows of flowers fill the interstices of three windows a heavy sideboard occupied the greater portion of one side of the room and on the opposite side in the rear of Brandon a vast screen stretched a slow length along and relieved the unpopulated and as it were desolate comfort of the apartment pale and imperfectly streamed the light upon Brandon's face as he sat in his large chair leaning his cheek on one hand engaging with the unconscious earnestness of abstraction on the clear fire at that moment a whole phalanx of gloomy thought was sweeping in successive array across his mind, his early ambition his ill omened marriage the causes of his after-rise in the wrong judging world the first dawn of his reputation his rapid and flattering successes his present elevation his aspiring hope of far higher office and more patrician honors all these phantoms pass before him in checkered shadow and light but ever with each stalked one disquieting and dark remembrance the loss of his only son weaving his ambition with the wish to revive the pride of his hereditary name every acquisition of fortune or a fame rendered him yet more anxious to find the only one who could perpetuate these hollow distinctions to his race I shall recover him yet he broke out suddenly and allowed as he spoke a quick darting spasmodic pain ran shivering through his whole frame and then fixed for one instant on his heart with a grip like the talons of a bird it passed away and was followed by a deadly sickness Brandon rose and filling himself a large tumbler of water drank with avidity the sickness passed off like the preceding pain but the sensation had a late been often felt by Brandon and disregarded for few persons were less afflicted with the self-torture of hypochondria but now that night whether it was more keen than usual or whether his thought had touched on the string that jars naturally on the most startling of human anticipations we know not but as he resumed his seat the idea of his approaching dissolution shot like an ice bolt through his breast so intent was the scheming man upon the living objects of the world and so little were his thoughts accustomed to turn toward the ultimate goal of all things that this idea of truiting itself abruptly upon him startled him with a ghastly awe he built the color rushed from his cheek and a tingling and involuntary pain ran wandering through the channels of his blood even from the roots of the hair to the soles of his feet but the stern soul of Brandon was not one which shadows could long afright he nerved himself to meet the grim thought thus forced upon his mental eye and he gazed on it with a steady and enduring look well thought he is my hour coming or have I yet the ordinary term of mortal nature to expect it is true I have lately suffered these strange revolutions of the frame with somewhat of an alarming frequency perhaps this medicine which healed the anguish of one infirmity has produced another more immediately deadly yet why should I think this my sleep is sound and calm my habits temperate my mind active and clear as in its best days in my youth I never played the traitor with my constitution why should it desert me at the very threshold of my age nay nay these are but passing twitches chills of the blood that begins to wax then shall I learn to be less rigorous in my diet perhaps wine may reward my abstinence in avoiding it for my luxuries by becoming a cordial to my necessities I I will consult I will consult I must not die yet I have let me see three four grades to gain before the ladder is scaled and above all I must regain my child Lucy married to the leverer myself appear my son wedded to whom break out he be not married already my nephews and my children nobles the house of Brandon restored my power high in the upward gaze of men my fame set on a more lasting basis than a skill in the quirks of law these are yet to come these I will not die till I have enjoyed men die not till their destinies are fulfilled the spirit that swells and sores within me says that the destiny of William Brandon is but half begun with this conclusion Brandon sought his pillar what were the reflections of the prisoner whom he was to judge need we ask let us picture to ourselves his shattered health the langer of sickness heightening the gloom which makes the very air of a jail his certainty of the doom to be passed against him his knowledge that the uncle of Lucy Brandon was to be his judge that malever was to be his accuser and that in all human probability the only woman he had ever loved must sooner or later learn the criminality of his life and the ignominy of his death let us but glance at the above blackness of circumstances that surrounded him and it would seem that there is but little doubt as to the complexion of his thoughts perhaps indeed even in that terrible and desolate hour one sweet face shown on him and dash the darkness all away perhaps to whatever might be the stings of his conscience one thought one remembrance of a temptation mastered and a sin escaped brought to his eyes tears that were sweet and healing in their source but the heart of a man in Clifford's awful situation is dark and inscrutable and often when the wildest and gloomiest external circumstances surround us their reflection sleeps like a shadow calm and still upon the mind the next morning the whole town of a town in which we regret to say an accident once detained our self for three wretched days in which we can speaking therefore from profound experience assert to be in ordinary times the most melancholy and people this looking congregation of houses that our sober imagination can conceive exhibited a scene of such bustle animation and jovial anxiety as the trial for life or death to a fellow creature can alone excite in the phlegmatic breasts of the English around the court the crowd thickened with every moment until the whole marketplace in which the town hall was situated became one living mass the windows of the houses were filled with women some of whom had taken that opportunity to make parties to breakfast and little round tables with tea and toast on them caught the eyes of the grinning mobists as they gave impatiently upwards Ben said a stout yeoman tossing up a half penny and catching the said coin in his right hand which he immediately covered with the left Ben heads or tails that love it is hang heads hang tails not for a crown to be sure quote Ben eating an apple and it was heads dummy you've lost cry the yeoman rubbing his rough hands with glee it would have been a fine sight for as many as could he have perked on one of the house tops of the marketplace of blank and looked on the murmuring and heaving sea of mortality below though the sight of a crowd round a court of law or jibbit ought to make the devil split himself with laughter while the mob was fretting and pushing and swearing and grinning and bedding and picking pockets and trampling feet and tearing gowns and scrambling near and nearer to the doors and windows of the court Brandon was slowly concluding his upstimious repast preparatory to attendance on his judicial duties his footman entered with a letter so William clasp rapidly over the seal one of those immense sacrifices of wax used at that day adorned with a huge coat of arms surmounted with an earl's cornet and decorated on either side with those supporters so dear to herald the taste he then tore open the letter and read as follows my dear sir William you know that in the last conversation I had the honor to hold with you I alluded though perhaps somewhat distantly to the esteem which his majesty had personally expressed for your principles and talents and has wished to testify it at the earliest opportunity there will be as you are doubtless aware an immediate creation of four peerages your name stands second on the list the choice of title his majesty graciously leaves to you but he has hinted that the respectable antiquity of your family would make him best pleased were you to select the name of your own family seat which if i mistake not is warlock you will instruct me at your leisure as to the manner in which the patent should be made out touching the succession etc perhaps excuse the license of an old friend this event may induce you to forsake your long cherished celibacy I need not add that this accession of rank will be accompanied by professional elevation you will see by the papers that the death of blank leaves vacant the dignity of chief baron and I'm at length empowered to offer you a station proportion to your character and talents with great consideration believe me my dear sir very truly yours private and confidential Brandon's dark eye glanced quickly from the signature of the premier affixed to this communication towards the mirror opposite him he strode to it and examined his own countenance were the long and wistful gaze never we think did youthful gallant about to repair to the tristine pot in which fair looks make the greatest of earthly advantages gaze more anxiously on the impartial glass than now did the ascetic and scornful judge and never we weaned did the eye of the said gallant retire with a more satisfied and triumphant expression yes yes mud of the judge no sign of infirmity is yet written here the blood flows clear and warm enough the cheek looks firm too and passing full for one who was always of the lean kind aha this letter is a cordial and elixir vitro I feel as if a new lease were granted to the reluctant tenant lord warlock the first baron of warlock lord chief baron what next as he spoke he strode unconsciously away folding his arms with that sort of joyous and complacent gesture which implies the idea of a man hugging himself in a silent relight assuredly had the most skillful physician then looked upon the ardent and all lighted face the firm stepped the elastic and muscular frame the vigorous air of brandon as he mentally continued his soliloquy he would have predicted for him as fair a grasp on longevity as the chances of mortal life will allow he was interrupted by the servant entering it is 25 minutes after nine sir said he respectfully sir sir repeated brandon aw well so late yes sir and the sheriff's carriage is almost at the door huh minister pierre warlock succession my son my son would be god that i could find the such were brandon's last thoughts as he left the room it was with great difficulty so dense was the crowd that the judge drove up to the court as the carriage slowly passed the spectators pressed to the windows of the vehicle and stood on tiptoe to catch a view of the celebrated lawyer brandon's face never long indicative of his feelings have now settled into its usual gravity and the severe loftiness of his look chilled while it satisfied the curiosity of the vulgar it had been ordered that no person should be admitted until the judge had taken his seat on the bench in this order occasioned so much delay owing to the accumulated pressure of the vast and milis cillaneous group that it was more than half an hour before the court was able to obtain that decent order suiting the solemnity of the occasion at five minutes before ten a universal and indescribable movement announced that the prisoner was was put to the bar we read in one of the journals of that day that on being put to the bar the prisoner looked round with a long and anxious gaze which at length settled on the judge and then dropped while the prisoner was observed to change countenance slightly love it was dressed in a plain dark suit he seemed to be about six feet high and though thin and warm probably from the effect of his wound and imprisonment he is remarkably well made and exhibits the outward appearance of that great personal strength which he is said to possess and which is not unfrequently the characteristic of daring criminals his face is handsome and prepossessing his eyes and hair dark and his complexion pale possibly from the effects of his confinement there was a certain sternness in his countenance during the greater part of the trial his behavior was remarkably collected and composed the prisoner listened with the greatest attention to the indictment which the reader will find in another part of our paper charging him with the highway robbery of lord melevere on the night of the blank of blank last he occasionally inclined his body forward and turned his ear towards the court and he was observed as the jury was sworn to look steadily in the face of each he breathed thick and hard when the various aliases he had assumed Howard Cavendish Jackson etc were read but smiled with an unaccountable expression when the list was completed as if exalting at the varieties of his ingenuity at 25 minutes past 10 mr. Dibright the counts for the crown stated the case to the jury mr. Dibright was a lawyer of great eminence he had been a wig all his life but had laterally become remarkable for his insincerity and subservience to the wishes of the higher powers his talents were peculiar and effective if he had little eloquence he had much power and his legal knowledge was sound and extensive many of his brethren excelled him in display but no one like him possessed the secret of addressing a jury winningly familiar seemingly candid to a degree that scarcely did justice to his cause as if he were in an agony lest he should persuade you to lean a hair breath more on his side of the case than justice would allow apparently all made up of good homely virtuous feeling a disinterested regard for truth a blunt yet tender honesty seasoned with a few amiable fireside prejudices which always come home to the hearts of your fathers of families and thoroughbred britains versed in all the niceties of language and the magic of names if he were defending crime carefully calling it misfortune if attacking misfortune constantly calling it crime mr. Dibright was exactly the man born to pervert justice to tickle jurors to cousin truth with a friendly smile and to obtain a vast reputation as an excellent advocate he began with a long preliminary flourish on the importance of the case he said that he should with the most scrupulous delicacy avoid every remark calculated to raise unnecessary prejudice against the prisoner he should not allude to his unhappy notoriety his associations with the lowest rags here up jumped the council for the prisoner and mr. Dibright was called to order god knows resumed a learned gentleman looking wistfully at the jury that my learned friend might have spared himself this morning god knows that i would rather fifty of the wretched inmates of this county jail were to escape unharmed than that a hair of the prisoner you behold at the bar should be unjustly touched the life of a human being is at stake we should be guilty ourselves of a crime which on our deathbeds we should tremble to recall where we to suffer any consideration whether of interest or prejudice or of undue fear for our own properties and lives to bias us even to the turning of a straw against the unfortunate prisoner gentleman if you find me traveling a single inch from my case if you find me saying a single word calculated to harm the prisoner in your eyes and unsupported by the evidence i shall call then i implore you not to depend upon the vigilance of my learned friend but to treasure these my errors in your recollection and to consider them as so many arguments in favor of the prisoner if gentlemen i could by any possibility imagine that your verdict would be favorable to the prisoner i can unaffectedly and from the bottom of my heart declare to you that i should rejoice a case might be lost but a fellow creature would be saved callous as we of the legal profession are believed we have feelings like you and i ask any one of you gentlemen of the jury anyone who has ever felt the pleasures of social intercourse the joy of charity the hearts reward of benevolence i ask any one of you whether if he were placed in the arduous situation i now hold all the persuasions of vanity would not vanish at once from his mind and whether his defeat as an advocate would not be rendered dear to him by the common and fleshly sympathies of a man but gentlemen mr. Dibright's voice at once deepened and faltered there is a duty a painful duty we owe to our country and never in the long course of my professional experience do i remember an instance in which it was more called forth than in the present mercy gentlemen is dear very dear to us all but it is the deadliest injury we can inflict on mankind when it is bought at the expense of justice the learned gentlemen then after a few further preparatory observations proceeded to state how on the night of blank last lord malever was stopped and robbed by three men masked of a sum of money amounting to above 350 pounds a diamond snuff box rings watch in a case of most valuable jewels how lord malever in endeavoring to defend himself had passed a bullet through the close of one of the robbers how it would be proved that the garments of the prisoner found in a cave in Oxfordshire and positively sworn to by witness he should produce exhibited a rent similar to such one as a bullet would produce how moreover it would be positively swarmed to by the same witness that the prisoner love it had come to the cavern with two accomplices not since taken up since they're rescued by the prisoner and boasted of the robber he had just committed that in the close and sleeping apartment of the robber the article stolen from a lord malever were found and that the purse containing the notes for 300 pounds the only thing the prisoner could probably have obtained time to carry off with him on the morning on which the cave was entered by the policeman was found on his person on the day on which he had attempted to rescue of his comrades and had been apprehended in that attempt he stated moreover that the dress found in the cavern and sworn to by one witness he should produce as belonging to the prisoner answered exactly to the description of the clothes worn by the principal robber and sworn to by lord malever his servant and the postillions in like manner the color of one of the horses found in the cavern corresponded with that rode by the highway men on these circumstantial proof stated by the immediate testimony of the king's evidence that witness whom he should produce he rested a case which could he aver be leave no doubt on the minds of an impartial jury such briefly and plainly alleged made the substance of the details entered into by the learner council who then proceeded to call his witnesses the evidence of lord malever who was staying at malever park which was within a few miles of blank was short and clear it was noticed as a singular circumstance that at the end of the evidence the prisoner bowed respectfully to his lordship the witness of the postillions and of the ballet was no less concise nor could all the ingenuity of clifards council shake any part of their evidence in his cross examination the main witness depended on by the crown was now summoned and the solemn countenance of peter mcrawler rose on the eyes of the jury one look of cold and blighting contempt fell on him from the eye of the prisoner who did not again deign to regard him during the whole of his examination the witness of mcrawler was delivered with a pomposity worthy of the ex editor of the asinium nevertheless by the skill of mr die bright it was rendered sufficiently clear a story to leave an impression on the jury damnatory to the interests of the prisoner the council on the opposite side was not slow and perceiving the ground acquired by the adverse party so clearing his throat he rose with a sneering air to the cross examination so so began mr bother him putting on a pair of remarkably large spectacles where with he truck violently regarded the witness so so mr mcrawler is that your name a a uh it is is it a very respectable name it is too i warrant well sir look at me now on your oath remember were you ever the editor of a certain thing published every wednesday and call the asinium or the asinium or some such name commencing with this insidious and self damnatory question the learned council then proceeded as artfully as he was able through a series of interrogatories calculated to injure the character the respectable character of mcrawler and weaken his testimony in the eyes of the jury he succeeded in exciting in the audience the feeling of merriment wherewith the vulgar are always so delighted to interspersed the dull seriousness of hanging a human being but though the jury themselves grinned they were not convinced the scotsman retired from the witness box scotch perhaps in reputation but not killed as to testimony it was just before this witness concluded that lord malever caused to be handed to the judge a small slipper paper containing merely these words in pencil dear brandon a dinner wait you at malever park only three miles hence lord and the bishop of meet you plenty of news from london and a letter about you which i will show to no one till we meet make haste and hang this poor fellow that i may see you the sooner and it is bad for both of us to wait long for a regular meal like dinner i can't stay longer it is so hot and my nerves were always susceptible yours malever if you will come give me a knot you know my hour it is always the same the judge glancing over the note inclined his head gravely to the earl who withdrew and in one minute afterwards a heavy and breathless silence fell over the whole court the prisoner was called upon for his defense it was singular what a different sensation to that existing in their breasts the moment before crept willingly through the audience hushed was every whisper vanished was every smile that the late cross examination had excited a sudden and chilling sense of the dread importance of the tribunal made itself abruptly felt in the minds of every one present perhaps as in the lumie satire of hogarth the moral mephestopheles of painters the close neighborhood of pain to mirth made the former come with a homely earth shock to the heart be that as it may a freezing anxiety numbing the pulse and stirring through the air made every man in that various crowd feel a sympathy of all with his neighbor accepting only the hardened judge and the hackneyed lawyers and one spectator an idiot who had thrust himself in with his general press and stood within a few paces of the prisoner grinning unconsciously and every now and then winking with a glassy eye had someone at a distance whose vigilance he had probably eluded the face and aspect even the attitude of the prisoner were well fitted to heighten the effect which would naturally have been created by any man under the same fearful dune he stood at the very front of the bar and his tall and noble figure was drawn up to his full height a glow of excitement spread itself gradually over features that all time striking and lighted and i naturally eloquent and to which various emotions at that time gave him more than commonly deep and impressive expression he began thus my lord i have little to say and i may at once relieve the anxiety of my counsel who now looks wistfully upon me and add that that little will scarcely embrace the object of defense why should i defend myself why should i endeavor to protract a life that a few days more or less will terminate according to the ordinary calculations of chance such as it is and has been my life is vowed to the law and the law will have the offering could i escape from this indictment i know that seven others await me and that by one or the other of these my conviction and my sentence must come life may be sweet to all of us my lord and where possible that mine could be spared yet a while that continued life might make a better atonement for past actions than a death which abrupt and premature calls for repentance while it forbids redress but when the dark side of things is our only choice it is useless to regard the bright idle to fix our eyes upon life when death is at hand useless to speak of contrition when we are denied its proof it is the usual policy of prisoners in my situation to address the feelings and flood of the prejudices of the jury to discount on the excellence of our laws while they endeavor to disarm them to praise justice yet demand mercy to talk of expecting a quiddle yet most of submitting without a murmur to condemnation for me to whom all earthly interests are dead this policy is idle and superfluous i hesitate not to tell you my lord judge to proclaim to you gentlemen of the jury that the laws which i've broken through my life i despise in death your laws are but of two classes the one makes criminals the other punishes them i've suffered by the one i'm about to perish by the other my lord it was the turn of a straw which made me what i am seven years ago i was sent to the house of correction for an offense which i did not commit i went there a boy who had never infringed a single law i came forth in a few weeks a man who was prepared to break all laws whence was this change was it my fault or that of my condemners you had first wronged me by a punishment which i did not deserve you wronged me yet more deeply when even had i been guilty of the first offense i was sentenced to heard with hardened offenders and graduates advice and vices methods of support the laws themselves caused me to break the laws first by implanting within me the goading sense of injustice secondly by submitting me to the corruption of example thus i repeat and i trust my words will sink solemnly into the hearts of all present your legislation made me what i am and it now destroys me as it has destroyed thousands for being what it made me but for this the first aggression on me i might have been what the world terms honest i might have advanced to old age and a peaceful grave through the harmless cheateries of trade or the honored falsers of a profession nay i might have supported the laws which i have now braved like the council opposed to me i might have grown sleek on the vices of others and advanced to honor by my ingenuity and hanging my fellow creatures the canting and prejudging part of the press has affected to set before you the merits of honestability or laborious trade in opposition to my offenses what i beseech you are the props of your honest exertion the profits of trade are there no bribes to menials is there no adulteration of goods are the rich never duped in the price they pay are the poor never wronged in the quality they receive is there honesty in the bread you eat in a single necessity which clothes or feeds or warms you let those whom the law protects consider it a protector when did it ever protect me when did it ever protect the poor man the government of us state the institutions of law profess to provide for all those who obey mark a man hungers do you feed him he is naked do you clothe him if not you break your covenant you drive him back to the first law of nature and you hang him not because he is guilty but because you have left him naked and starving a murmur among the mob below with great difficulty silenced one thing only i will add in that not to move your mercy no nor to invest my fate with an idle and momentary interest but because there are some persons in this world who have not known me as the criminal who stands before you in whom the tidings of my fate may hear after reach and i would not have those persons view me in blacker colors than i deserve among all the rumors gentleman that have reached you through all the tales and fables kindled from my unhappy notoriety my approaching doom i put it to you if you have heard that i have committed one sanguinary action or one ruinous and deliberate fraud you have heard that i have lived by the plunder of the rich i do not deny the charge from the grinding of the poor the habitual overreaching or the systematic pilfering of my neighbors my conscience is as free as it is from the charge of cruelty and bloodshed those errors i leave to honest mediocrity or a virtuous exertion you may perhaps find to that my life has not passed through a career of outrage without scattering some few benefits on the road in destroying me it is true that you will have the constellation to think that among the benefits you derive from my sentence will be the salutary encouragement you give to other offenders to offend to the last degree and to diverse outrage of no single aggravation but if this does not seem to you any very powerful inducement you may pause before you cut off from all amendment a man who seems neither holy hardened nor utterly beyond atonement my lord my counsel would have wished to summon witnesses some to bear testimony to redeeming points in my own character others to invalidate the oath of the witness against me a man whom i saved from destruction in order that he might destroy me i do not think either necessary the public press has already said of me what little good does not shock the truth and had i not possessed something of those qualities which society does not disesteem you would not have beheld me here at this hour if i'd saved myself as well as my companions i should have left this country perhaps forever and commenced a very different career abroad i committed offenses i alluded you i committed what in my case was an act of duty i am seized and i perish but the weakness of my body destroys me not the strength of your malice had i and as the prisoners spake the haughty and rapid motion the enlarging of the form produced by the passion of the moment made impressively conspicuous to all the remarkable power of his frame had i but my wanted health my wanted command over these limbs and these veins i would have asked no friend no ally to favor my escape i tell you engines and guardians of the law that i would have mocked your chains and defied your walls as you know that i have mocked and defied them before but my blood creeps now only and drops through its courses and the heart that i had of old stirs feebly and heavily within me the prisoner paused a moment and resumed in an altered tone leaving then my own character to the ordeal of report i cannot perhaps do better than leave to the same criterion that of the witness against me i will candidly own that under other circumstances it might have been otherwise i will candidly about that i might have then use such means as your law awards me to procure an acquittal and to prolong my existence though in a new scene as it is what matters the cause in which i receive my sentence nay it is even better to suffer by the first than to linger to the last it is some consolation not again to stand where i now stand to go through the humbling salemnities which i have this day endured to see the smile of some and retort the frown of others to wrestle with the anxiety of the heart and to depend on the caprice of the excited nerves it is something to feel one part of the drama of disgrace is over and that i may wait unmolested in my den until for one time only i'm again the butt of the unthinking and the monster of the crowd my lord i have now done to you whom the law deems the prisoner's counsel to you gentlemen of the jury to whom it has delegated his fate i leave the chances of my life the prisoner ceased but the same heavy silence which saved when broken by one solitary murmur had lain over the court during his speech still continued even for several moments after that deep and firm voice had died on the ear so different had been the defense of the prisoner from that which had been expected so assuredly did the more hackneyed part of the audience even as he had proceeded imagine that by some artful turn he would at length wind into the usual courses of defense that when his unfaltering and almost stern accents paused and were not prepared to feel that his speech was finished and the pause involuntarily jarred in them as untimious and abrupt advent when each of the audience slowly awoke to the conviction that the prisoner had indeed concluded his orang a movement eloquent of feelings released from suspense which had been perhaps the more earnest and the more blended with awe from the boldness and novelty of the words on which it hung circled around the court the jurors looked confusedly at each other but not one of them spoke even by whisper their feelings which had been aroused by the speech of the prisoner had not from his shortness its singularity and the haughty impolicy of its tone been so far guided by its course as to settle into any state of mind clearly favorable to him or the reverse so that each man waited for his neighbor to speak first in order that he might find as it were in another kind of clue to the distinct and excited feelings which wanted utterance in himself end of chapter 35 part one chapter 35 part two of paul clifford by edward bower liton this lever vox recording is in the public domain the judge who had been from the first attracted by the air and aspect of the prisoner had perhaps not withstanding the hardness of his mind more approvingly than anyone present listened to the defense for in the scorn of the hollow institutions and the mock honesty of social life so defiantly manifested by the prisoner brandon recognized elements of mind remarkably congenial to his own and his sympathy was heightened by the hardy hood of physical nerve and moral intrepidity displayed by the prisoner qualities which among men of a similar mold often form the strongest motive of esteem and sometimes as we read of in the imperial course again and his chiefs the only point of attraction brandon was however soon recalled to his cold self by a murmur of vague applause circling throughout the common crowd among whom the general impulse always manifests itself first and to whom the opinions of the prisoner though but imperfectly understood came more immediately home than they did to the better and richer classes of the audience ever alive to the decorums of form brandon instantly ordered silence in the court and when it was again restored and it was fully understood that the prisoner's defense had closed the judge proceeded to sum up it is worthy of remark that many of the qualities of mind which seem most unamiable in private life often conduce with a singular felicity to the ends of public and thus the stony firmness characteristic of brandon was a main cause which made him admirable as a judge for men in office err no less from their feelings than their interests glancing over his notes the judge inclined himself to the jury and began with that silver ringing voice which particularly distinguished brandon's eloquence and carried with it in high station so majestic and candid a tone of persuasion he pointed out with a clear brevity the various points of the evidence he dwelt for a moment on the attempt to cast disrepute upon the testimony of McGrawler but called a proper attention to the fact that the attempt had been unsupported by witnesses or proof as he proceeded the impression made by the prisoner on the minds of the jury slowly melted away and perhaps so much do men soften when they behold clearly the face of a fellow man dependent on them for life it acted disambentagiously on the interests of Clifford that during the summing up he leaned back in the dock and prevented his countenance from being seen when the evidence had been gone through the judge concluded thus the prisoner who in his defense on the principles and opinions of which I now forebear to comment certainly exhibited the signs of a superior education and a high though perverted ability has alluded to the reports circulated by the public press and leaned some little stress on the various anecdotes tending to his advantage which he supposes have reached your ears I am by no means willing that the prisoner should be deprived of whatever benefit may be derivable from such a source but it is not in this place nor at this moment that it can avail him all you have to consider is the evidence before you all on which you have to decide is whether the prisoner be or be not guilty of the robbery of which he is charged you must not waste of thought on what redeems or heightens a supposed crime you must only decide on the crime itself put away your minds I precede you all that interferes with the main case put away also from your motives of decision all for thought of other possible indictments to which the prisoner has alluded but with which you are necessarily unacquainted if you doubt the evidence whether of one witness or of all the prisoner must receive from you the benefit of that doubt if not you are sworn to a solemn oath which ordains you to forego all minor considerations which compels you to watch narrowly that you be not influenced by the infirmities natural to us all but criminal in you to lean towards the side of a mercy that would be rendered by your oath a perjury to God and by your duty as impartial citizens of treason to your country I dismiss you to the grave consideration of the important case you have heard and I trust the heat to whom all hearts are open and all secrets are known will grant you the temper and the judgment to form a right decision there was in the majestic aspect and thrilling voice of branding something which made the commonest form of words solemn and impressive and the hypocrite aware of this felicity of manner generally has now added weight to his concluding words by religious illusion or a scriptural phraseology he ceased and the jury recovering the effect of his adoration consulted for a moment among themselves the foreman then addressing the court on behalf of his fellow jurors requested leave to retire for deliberation an attendant bailiff being sworn in we read in the journals of the day which noted the divisions of time with that customer scoop velocity rendered terrible by the reflection how soon all time and seasons may perish for the hero of the scene that it was at 25 minutes to two that the jury withdrew perhaps in the whole course of a criminal trial there is no period more awful than that occupied by the deliberation of the jury in the present case the prisoner as if acutely sensible of his situation remained in the rear of the dock and buried his face in his hands they who stood near him observed however that his breast did not seem to swell with the convulsive emotion customary to persons in his state and that not even a sigh or agitated movement escaped him the jury had been absent about 20 minutes when a confused noise was heard in the court the face of the judge turned in commanding severity towards the quarter whence it proceeded he perceived a man of a coarse garb and mean appearance endeavoring rudely and violently to push his way through the crowd towards the bench and at the same instant he saw one of the officers of the court approaching the disturber of its tranquility with no friendly intent the man aware of the purpose of the constable exclaimed with great vehemence i will give this to my lord the judge blow me if i won't and as he spoke he raised high above his head a soil scrap of paper folded awkwardly in the shape of a letter the instant brandon's eye caught the rugged features of the intrusive stranger emotion with rather less than his usual slowness of gesture to one of his official satellites bring me that paper instantly he whispered the officer bowed and obeyed the man who seemed a little intoxicated gave it with a look of ludicrous triumph and self-importance stand debate man he added to the constable who now laid hand on his collar you'll see what the judge says to that air bit of paper and so veiled the prisoner poor fellow this scene so unworthy the dignity of the court attracted the notice and immediately around the intruder the merriment of the crowd and many an eye was directed towards brandon as with calm gravity he opened the note and glanced over the contents in a large schoolboy hand it was the hand of long ned were written these few words my lord judge i make bold to beg you will do all you can for the prisoner at the bar as he is no other than the paul i spoke to your worship about you know what i mean dummy dunnaker as he read this note the judge's head was observed to droop suddenly as if by a sickness or a spasm but he recovered himself instantly and whispering the officer who brought him the note said see that that madman be immediately removed from the court and lock him up alone he is so deranged as to be dangerous the officer lost not a moment in seeing the order executed three stout constables dragged the astounded dummy from the court in an instant yet the more ruthlessly for his ejaculating a serves what's this i tells you i have saved the judge's home flesh and blood by now gently there you'll smart for this might find fellow never you mind paul my arty i's done you up your good silence proclaimed the voice of the judge and that voice came forth with so commanding a tone of power that it awed dummy despite his intoxication in a moment more and air he had time to recover he was without the court during the strange hubbub which nevertheless scarcely lasted above two or three minutes the prisoner had not once lifted his head nor appeared aroused in any manner from his reverie and scarcely had the intruder been withdrawn before the jury returned the verdict was as all had for seen guilty but it was coupled with a strong recommendation to mercy the prisoner was then asked in the usual form whether he had to say anything why sentence of death should not be passed against him as these dread words struck upon his ear slowly the prisoner rose he directed first towards the jury a brief and keen glance and his eyes then rested full and with a stern significance on the face of his judge my lord he began i have but one reason to advance against the sentence of the law if you have interest to prevent or mitigate it that reason will i think suffice to enlist you on my behalf i said that the first cause of those offenses against the law which brings me to this part was the committing me to prison on a charge of which i was wholly innocent my lord judge you were the man who accused me of that charge and subjected me to that imprisonment look at me well my lord and you may trace in the countenance of the hardened felon you are about to a judge to death the features of a boy whom some seven years ago you accused before a london magistrate of the theft of your watch on the oath of a man who has one step on the threshold of death the accusation was unjust and fit minister of the laws you represent you who will now pass my doom you were the cause of my crimes my lord i've done i'm ready to add another to the long and dark list of victims who are first polluted and then sacrificed by the blindness and the injustice of human codes well clifford spoke every eye turned from him to the judge and everyone was appalled by the ghastly and fearful change which had fallen over brandon's face men said afterwards that they saw written there in terrible distinctness the characters of death and there certainly seemed something awful and preternatural in the bloodless and haggard calmness of his proud features yet his eye did not quail nor the muscles of his lip quiver and with even more than his wanted loftiness he met the regard of the prisoner but as alone conspicuous throughout the motionless and breathless crowd the judge and criminal gazed upon each other and as the eyes of the spectators wandered on each a thrilling and electric impression of a powerful likeness between the doomed and the doomer for the first time in the trial struck upon the audience and increased though they scarcely knew why the sensation of pain and dread which the prisoners last words excited perhaps it might have chiefly arisen from a common expression of fierce emotion conquered by an iron and stern character of mind or perhaps now that the ashy paleness of exhaustion had succeeded the excited flush on the prisoners face the similarity of complexion thus obtain made the likeness more obvious than before or perhaps the spectators had not hitherto fixed so searching or if we may so speak so alternating a gaze upon the two however that be the resemblance between the men placed as they were in such widely different circumstances that resemblance which as we have hinted had at certain moments occurred startlingly to lucy was playing and unfortably striking the same the dark hue of their complexions the same the hearty and roman outline of their faces the same the height of the forehead the same even a displeasing unsarcastic rigidity of mouth which made the most conspicuous feature in brandon and which was the only point that deteriorated from the singular beauty of cliffer but above all the same inflexible defying stubborn spirit though in brandon it assumed the stately cast of majesty and in cliffer it seemed the desperate sternness of the bravo stamped itself in both though cliffer ceased he did not resume his seat but stood in the same attitude as that in which he had reversed the order of things and merged the petitioner in the accuser and brandon himself without speaking or moving continued still to survey him so with erect fronts and marble countenances in which what was defying and resolute did not altogether quell the mortal leaven of pain and dread they looked as might have looked the two men in the eastern story who had the power of gazing each other unto death what at that moment was raging in brandon's heart it is in vain to guess he doubted not for a moment that he beheld before him his long lost his anxiously demanded sun every fiber every corner of his complex and gloomy soul that certainly reached and blasted with a hideous and irresistible glare the earliest perhaps the strongest though often the least acknowledged principle of his mind was the desire to rebuild the fallen honors of his house its last sign he now beheld before him covered with the darkest ignominies of the law he had coveted worldly honors he beheld their legitimate successor in a convicted felon he had garnered the few affections he had spared from the objects of pride and ambition in his son that son he was about to a judge to the gibbet and the hangman of late he had increased the hopes of regaining his lost treasure even to an exultant certainty lo the hopes were accomplished how with these thoughts worrying in what manner we dare not even by an epithet expressed within him we may cast one hasty glance on the horror of aggravation they endured when he heard the prisoner accuse him as the cause of his present doom and felt himself at once the murderer and the judge of his son minutes had elapsed since the voice of the prisoner ceased and brandon now drew forth the black cap as he placed it slowly over his brows the increasing and corpse like whiteness of his face became more glaringly visible by the contrast which this dread headgear presented twice as he essayed to speak his voice failed him and an indistinct murmur came forth from his hueless lips and died away like a fitful and feeble wind but with the third effort the resolution and long self tyranny of the man conquered and his voice went clear and unfaltering through the crowd although the severe sweetness of its wanted tones was gone and it sounded strange and hollow on the ears that drank it prisoner at the bar it has become my duty to announce to you the close of your mortal career you have been accused of daring robbery and after an impartial trial a jury of your countrymen and the laws of your country have decided against you the recommendation to mercy here only throughout his speech branding gasped convulsively for breath so he mainly added by the jury shall be forwarded to the supreme power but I cannot flatter you with much hope of its success the lawyers looked with some surprise at each other they had expected a far more unqualified mandate to abjure all hope from the jury's recommendation prisoner for the opinions you have expressed you are now only answerable to your god I forbear to arraign them for the charge you have made against me whether true or false and for the anguish it has given me may you find pardon at another tribunal it remains for me only under a reserve to you slight as I have said to afford you a fair promise of hope only to to all eyes were on brandon he felt it exerted himself for a last effort and proceeded to pronounce on you the sharp sentence of the law it is that you be taken back to the prison when she came and thence when the supreme authority shall appoint to the place of execution to be there hanged by the neck till you are dead and the lord god almighty have mercy on your soul with this address concluded that eventful trial and while the crowd in rushing and noisy tumult more towards the door brandon concealing to the last with a spartan bravery the anguish which was gnawing at his entrails retired from the awful pageant for the next half hour he was locked up with the strange intruder on the proceedings of the court at the end of that time the stranger was dismissed and in about double the same period brandon servant readmitted him accompanied by another man with a slouched head and inner car man's frock the reader need not be told that the new comer was the friendly Ned whose testimony was indeed a valuable corroborative to dummies and whose regard for Clifford aided by an appetite for rewards had induced him to venture to the town of blank although he tarried concealed in a safe suburb until reassured by a written promise from brandon of safety to his person and a sum for which we might almost doubt whether he would not have consented so long had he been mistaking means for an end to be hanged himself brandon listened to the details of these confederates and when they had finished he addressed them thus I have heard you and am convinced you are liars and imposters there is the money I promised you throwing down a pocketbook take it and hark you if ever you dare whisper I but a breath of the atrocious lie you have now forged be sure I will have you dragged from the recess or nook of infamy in which you may hide your heads and hang for the crimes you have already committed I'm not the man to break my word be gone quit this town instantly if in two hours hence you are found here your blood be on your own heads be gone I say these words aided by accountants well adapted at all times to expressions of menacing and ruthless character had once astounded and appalled the accomplices they left the room and hasty confusion and brandon now alone walked with uneven steps the alarming weakness and vacillation of which he did not himself feel to and fro the apartment the hell of his breast was stamped upon his features but he uttered only one thought aloud I may yes yes I may yet conceal this disgrace to my name his servant tapped at the door to say that the carriage was ready and that lord malever had bid him remind his master that they dine punctually at the hour appointed I'm coming subrandon with a slow and startling emphasis on each word but he first sat down and wrote a letter to the official quarter strongly aiding the recommendation of the jury and we may conceive how pride clung to him to the last when he urged the substitution for death of transportation for life as soon as he had sealed this letter he summoned and expressed gave his orders coolly and distinctly and attempted with his usual stateliness of step to walk through a long passage which led to the outer door he found himself fail come hither he said to his servant give me your arm all brandon's domestic save the one left with lucy stood in awe of him and it was with some hesitation that his servant ventured to inquire if his master felt well brandon looked at him but made no reply he entered his carriage with slight difficulty and telling the coachman to drive as fast as possible pull down a general custom with him all the blinds of the windows meanwhile lord malever with six friends was impatiently awaiting the arrival of the seventh guest our august friend terry's quote the bishop of blank with his hands folded across his capacious stomach i fear the turbo your lordship spoke of may not be the better for the length of the trial poor fellow said the earl of blank slightly yawning whom do you mean ask lord malever with a smile the bishop the judge or the turbo not one of the three malever i spoke of the prisoner ah the fine dog i forgot him said malever really now you mentioned him i must confess that he inspires me with great compassion but indeed it is very wrong in him to keep the judge so long those hardened wretches have such a great deal to say mumbled the bishop sourly true said malever a religious rogue would have had some bowels for the state of the church he's syriant is it really true malever asked the earl of blank that brandon is to succeed so i hear some malever heavens how hungry i am a grown from the bishop echoed the complaint i suppose it would be against all decorum to sit down to dinner without him said lord blank why really i fear so return malever but our health our health is at stake we will only wait five minutes more by joe there's the carriage i beg your pardon for my heath and oath my lord bishop i forgive you said the good bishop smiling the party thus engaged in colloquy were stationed at a window opening on the gravel road along which the judge's carriage was now seen rapidly approaching this window was but a few yards from the porch and had been partially open for the better reconordering the approach of the expected guest he keeps the blinds down still absence of mind or shame at unpunctuality which is the cause malever said one of the party not shame i fear answered malever even the indecent immorality of delaying our dinner could seriously bring a blush to the parchment skin of my learned friend here the carriage stopped at the porch the carriage door was opened there seems a strange delay said malever previously why does not he get out as he spoke a murmur among the attendants who appeared somewhat strangely to crowd around the carriage smote the ears of the party what do they say what said malever putting his hand to his ear the bishop answered hastily and malever as he heard the reply forgot for once his susceptibility to cold and hurried out to the carriage door his guest followed they found brandon leaning against the farther corner of the carriage a corpse one hand held the check string as if he had endeavored involuntarily but ineffectually to pull it the right side of his face was partially distorted as by convulsions paralysis but not sufficiently so to destroy that remarkable expression of loftiness and severity which had characterized the features in life at the same time the distortion which had drawn up on one side the muscles of the mouth had deepened into a startling broadness the half sneer of derision that usually lurked around the lower part of his face thus unwitnessed and abrupt had been the disunion of the clay and spirit of a man who if he passed through life a bold scheming stubborn unwavering hypocrite was not without something high even amidst his baseness his selfishness and his vices who seem less to have loved sin than by some strange perversion of reason to have disdain virtue anew by a solemn and awful suddenness of fate for who shall venture to indicate the judgment of the arch and unseen providence even when it appears to mortal either least obscured one the dreams the objects the triumphs of hope to be blasted by them at the moment of acquisition end of chapter 35 part two