Chapter 70
Mr Dennis having despatched this piece of business without any personalhurt or inconvenience, and having now retired into the tranquilrespectability of private life, resolved to solace himself with half anhour or so of female society. With this amiable purpose in his mind,he bent his steps towards the house where Dolly and Miss Haredale werestill confined, and whither Miss Miggs had also been removed by order ofMr Simon Tappertit.
As he walked along the streets with his leather gloves claspedbehind him, and his face indicative of cheerful thought and pleasantcalculation, Mr Dennis might have been likened unto a farmer ruminatingamong his crops, and enjoying by anticipation the bountiful gifts ofProvidence. Look where he would, some heap of ruins afforded him richpromise of a working off; the whole town appeared to have been ploughedand sown, and nurtured by most genial weather; and a goodly harvest wasat hand.
Having taken up arms and resorted to deeds of violence, with the greatmain object of preserving the Old Bailey in all its purity, and thegallows in all its pristine usefulness and moral grandeur, it wouldperhaps be going too far to assert that Mr Dennis had ever distinctlycontemplated and foreseen this happy state of things. He rather lookedupon it as one of those beautiful dispensations which are inscrutablybrought about for the behoof and advantage of good men. He felt, asit were, personally referred to, in this prosperous ripening for thegibbet; and had never considered himself so much the pet and favouritechild of Destiny, or loved that lady so well or with such a calm andvirtuous reliance, in all his life.
As to being taken up, himself, for a rioter, and punished with therest, Mr Dennis dismissed that possibility from his thoughts as an idlechimera; arguing that the line of conduct he had adopted at Newgate,and the service he had rendered that day, would be more than a set-offagainst any evidence which might identify him as a member of the crowd.That any charge of companionship which might be made against him bythose who were themselves in danger, would certainly go for nought. Andthat if any trivial indiscretion on his part should unluckily come out,the uncommon usefulness of his office, at present, and the great demandfor the exercise of its functions, would certainly cause it to be winkedat, and passed over. In a word, he had played his cards throughout, withgreat care; had changed sides at the very nick of time; had deliveredup two of the most notorious rioters, and a distinguished felon to boot;and was quite at his ease.
Saving--for there is a reservation; and even Mr Dennis was not perfectlyhappy--saving for one circumstance; to wit, the forcible detention ofDolly and Miss Haredale, in a house almost adjoining his own. This wasa stumbling-block; for if they were discovered and released, they could,by the testimony they had it in their power to give, place him in asituation of great jeopardy; and to set them at liberty, first extortingfrom them an oath of secrecy and silence, was a thing not to be thoughtof. It was more, perhaps, with an eye to the danger which lurked in thisquarter, than from his abstract love of conversation with the sex, thatthe hangman, quickening his steps, now hastened into their society,cursing the amorous natures of Hugh and Mr Tappertit with greatheartiness, at every step he took.
When he entered the miserable room in which they were confined, Dollyand Miss Haredale withdrew in silence to the remotest corner. But MissMiggs, who was particularly tender of her reputation, immediately fellupon her knees and began to scream very loud, crying, 'What will becomeof me!'--'Where is my Simmuns!'--'Have mercy, good gentlemen, on mysex's weaknesses!'--with other doleful lamentations of that nature,which she delivered with great propriety and decorum.
'Miss, miss,' whispered Dennis, beckoning to her with his forefinger,'come here--I won't hurt you. Come here, my lamb, will you?'
On hearing this tender epithet, Miss Miggs, who had left off screamingwhen he opened his lips, and had listened to him attentively, beganagain, crying: 'Oh I'm his lamb! He says I'm his lamb! Oh gracious, whywasn't I born old and ugly! Why was I ever made to be the youngest ofsix, and all of 'em dead and in their blessed graves, exceptingone married sister, which is settled in Golden Lion Court, numbertwenty-sivin, second bell-handle on the--!'
'Don't I say I an't a-going to hurt you?' said Dennis, pointing to achair. 'Why miss, what's the matter?'
'I don't know what mayn't be the matter!' cried Miss Miggs, clasping herhands distractedly. 'Anything may be the matter!'
'But nothing is, I tell you,' said the hangman. 'First stop that noiseand come and sit down here, will you, chuckey?'
The coaxing tone in which he said these latter words might have failedin its object, if he had not accompanied them with sundry sharp jerks ofhis thumb over one shoulder, and with divers winks and thrustings of histongue into his cheek, from which signals the damsel gathered that hesought to speak to her apart, concerning Miss Haredale and Dolly. Hercuriosity being very powerful, and her jealousy by no means inactive,she arose, and with a great deal of shivering and starting back, andmuch muscular action among all the small bones in her throat, graduallyapproached him.
'Sit down,' said the hangman.
Suiting the action to the word, he thrust her rather suddenly andprematurely into a chair, and designing to reassure her by a littleharmless jocularity, such as is adapted to please and fascinate the sex,converted his right forefinger into an ideal bradawl or gimlet, andmade as though he would screw the same into her side--whereat Miss Miggsshrieked again, and evinced symptoms of faintness.
'Lovey, my dear,' whispered Dennis, drawing his chair close to hers.'When was your young man here last, eh?'
'MY young man, good gentleman!' answered Miggs in a tone of exquisitedistress.
'Ah! Simmuns, you know--him?' said Dennis.
'Mine indeed!' cried Miggs, with a burst of bitterness--and as she saidit, she glanced towards Dolly. 'MINE, good gentleman!'
This was just what Mr Dennis wanted, and expected.
'Ah!' he said, looking so soothingly, not to say amorously on Miggs,that she sat, as she afterwards remarked, on pins and needles ofthe sharpest Whitechapel kind, not knowing what intentions might besuggesting that expression to his features: 'I was afraid of that. I sawas much myself. It's her fault. She WILL entice 'em.'
'I wouldn't,' cried Miggs, folding her hands and looking upwards witha kind of devout blankness, 'I wouldn't lay myself out as she does; Iwouldn't be as bold as her; I wouldn't seem to say to all male creeturs"Come and kiss me"'--and here a shudder quite convulsed her frame--'forany earthly crowns as might be offered. Worlds,' Miggs added solemnly,'should not reduce me. No. Not if I was Wenis.'
'Well, but you ARE Wenus, you know,' said Mr Dennis, confidentially.
'No, I am not, good gentleman,' answered Miggs, shaking her head with anair of self-denial which seemed to imply that she might be if she chose,but she hoped she knew better. 'No, I am not, good gentleman. Don'tcharge me with it.'
Up to this time she had turned round, every now and then, to where Dollyand Miss Haredale had retired and uttered a scream, or groan, or laidher hand upon her heart and trembled excessively, with a view of keepingup appearances, and giving them to understand that she conversed withthe visitor, under protest and on compulsion, and at a great personalsacrifice, for their common good. But at this point, Mr Dennis lookedso very full of meaning, and gave such a singularly expressive twitchto his face as a request to her to come still nearer to him, thatshe abandoned these little arts, and gave him her whole and undividedattention.
'When was Simmuns here, I say?' quoth Dennis, in her ear.
'Not since yesterday morning; and then only for a few minutes. Not allday, the day before.'
'You know he meant all along to carry off that one!' said Dennis,indicating Dolly by the slightest possible jerk of his head:--'And tohand you over to somebody else.'
Miss Miggs, who had fallen into a terrible state of grief when the firstpart of this sentence was spoken, recovered a little at the second,and seemed by the sudden check she put upon her tears, to intimatethat possibly this arrangement might meet her views; and that it might,pe
rhaps, remain an open question.
'--But unfort'nately,' pursued Dennis, who observed this: 'somebody elsewas fond of her too, you see; and even if he wasn't, somebody else istook for a rioter, and it's all over with him.'
Miss Miggs relapsed.
'Now I want,' said Dennis, 'to clear this house, and to see you righted.What if I was to get her off, out of the way, eh?'
Miss Miggs, brightening again, rejoined, with many breaks and pausesfrom excess of feeling, that temptations had been Simmuns's bane. Thatit was not his faults, but hers (meaning Dolly's). That men did not seethrough these dreadful arts as women did, and therefore was cagedand trapped, as Simmun had been. That she had no personal motives toserve--far from it--on the contrary, her intentions was good towardsall parties. But forasmuch as she knowed that Simmun, if united to anydesigning and artful minxes (she would name no names, for that was nother dispositions)--to ANY designing and artful minxes--must be mademiserable and unhappy for life, she DID incline towards prewentions.Such, she added, was her free confessions. But as this was privatefeelings, and might perhaps be looked upon as wengeance, she begged thegentleman would say no more. Whatever he said, wishing to do her dutyby all mankind, even by them as had ever been her bitterest enemies, shewould not listen to him. With that she stopped her ears, and shook herhead from side to side, to intimate to Mr Dennis that though he talkeduntil he had no breath left, she was as deaf as any adder.
'Lookee here, my sugar-stick,' said Mr Dennis, 'if your view's the sameas mine, and you'll only be quiet and slip away at the right time, Ican have the house clear to-morrow, and be out of this trouble.--Stopthough! there's the other.'
'Which other, sir?' asked Miggs--still with her fingers in her ears andher head shaking obstinately.
'Why, the tallest one, yonder,' said Dennis, as he stroked his chin, andadded, in an undertone to himself, something about not crossing MusterGashford.
Miss Miggs replied (still being profoundly deaf) that if Miss Haredalestood in the way at all, he might make himself quite easy on that score;as she had gathered, from what passed between Hugh and Mr Tappertit whenthey were last there, that she was to be removed alone (not by them, butby somebody else), to-morrow night.
Mr Dennis opened his eyes very wide at this piece of information,whistled once, considered once, and finally slapped his head once andnodded once, as if he had got the clue to this mysterious removal, andso dismissed it. Then he imparted his design concerning Dolly to MissMiggs, who was taken more deaf than before, when he began; and soremained, all through.
The notable scheme was this. Mr Dennis was immediately to seek out fromamong the rioters, some daring young fellow (and he had one in his eye,he said), who, terrified by the threats he could hold out to him, andalarmed by the capture of so many who were no better and no worse thanhe, would gladly avail himself of any help to get abroad, and out ofharm's way, with his plunder, even though his journey were incumberedby an unwilling companion; indeed, the unwilling companion beinga beautiful girl, would probably be an additional inducement andtemptation. Such a person found, he proposed to bring him there onthe ensuing night, when the tall one was taken off, and Miss Miggs hadpurposely retired; and then that Dolly should be gagged, muffled in acloak, and carried in any handy conveyance down to the river's side;where there were abundant means of getting her smuggled snugly off inany small craft of doubtful character, and no questions asked. Withregard to the expense of this removal, he would say, at a roughcalculation, that two or three silver tea or coffee-pots, with somethingadditional for drink (such as a muffineer, or toast-rack), would morethan cover it. Articles of plate of every kind having been buried by therioters in several lonely parts of London, and particularly, as heknew, in St James's Square, which, though easy of access, was littlefrequented after dark, and had a convenient piece of water in the midst,the needful funds were close at hand, and could be had upon the shortestnotice. With regard to Dolly, the gentleman would exercise his owndiscretion. He would be bound to do nothing but to take her away,and keep her away. All other arrangements and dispositions would restentirely with himself.
If Miss Miggs had had her hearing, no doubt she would have been greatlyshocked by the indelicacy of a young female's going away with a strangerby night (for her moral feelings, as we have said, were of the tenderestkind); but directly Mr Dennis ceased to speak, she reminded him that hehad only wasted breath. She then went on to say (still with her fingersin her ears) that nothing less than a severe practical lesson would savethe locksmith's daughter from utter ruin; and that she felt it, as itwere, a moral obligation and a sacred duty to the family, to wish thatsome one would devise one for her reformation. Miss Miggs remarked, andvery justly, as an abstract sentiment which happened to occur to herat the moment, that she dared to say the locksmith and his wife wouldmurmur, and repine, if they were ever, by forcible abduction, orotherwise, to lose their child; but that we seldom knew, in this world,what was best for us: such being our sinful and imperfect natures, thatvery few arrived at that clear understanding.
Having brought their conversation to this satisfactory end, they parted:Dennis, to pursue his design, and take another walk about his farm; MissMiggs, to launch, when he left her, into such a burst of mental anguish(which she gave them to understand was occasioned by certain tenderthings he had had the presumption and audacity to say), that littleDolly's heart was quite melted. Indeed, she said and did so much tosoothe the outraged feelings of Miss Miggs, and looked so beautifulwhile doing so, that if that young maid had not had ample vent for hersurpassing spite, in a knowledge of the mischief that was brewing, shemust have scratched her features, on the spot.