LETTER XX
MR. BELFORD, TO ROBERT LOVELACE, ESQ.SAT. NIGHT.
Your servant gives me a dreadful account of your raving unmanageableness.I wonder not at it. But as nothing violent is lasting, I dare say thatyour habitual gaiety of heart will quickly get the better of yourphrensy; and the rather do I judge so, as your fits are of the ravingkind, (suitable to your natural impetuosity,) and not of that melancholyspecies which seizes slower souls.
For this reason I will proceed in writing to you, that my narrative maynot be broken by your discomposure; and that the contents of it may findyou, and help you to reflection, when you shall be restored.
Harry is returned from carrying the posthumous letters to the family, andto Miss Howe; and that of the Colonel, which acquaints James Harlowe withhis sister's death, and with her desire to be interred near hergrandfather.
Harry was not admitted into the presence of any of the family. They wereall assembled together, it seems, at Harlowe-place, on occasion of theColonel's letter, which informed them of the lady's dangerous way;* andwere comforting themselves, as Harry was told, with hopes that Mr. Mordenhad made the worst of her state, in order to quicken their resolutions.
* See the beginning of Letter II.
It is easy to judge what must be their grief and surprise on receivingthe fatal news which the letters Harry sent in to them communicated.
He staid there long enough to find the whole house in confusion; theservants running different ways; lamenting and wringing their hands asthey ran; the female servants particularly; as if somebody (poor Mrs.Harlowe, no doubt; and perhaps Mrs. Hervey too) were in fits.
Every one was in such disorder, that he could get no commands, nor obtainany notice of himself. The servants seemed more inclined to execratethan welcome him--O master!--O young man! cried three or four together,what dismal tidings have you brought?--They helped him, at the very firstword, to his horse; which, with great civility, they had put up on hisarrival; and he went to an inn, and pursued on foot his way to Mrs.Norton's; and finding her come to town, left the letter he carried donfor her with her son, (a fine youth,) who, when he heard the fatal news,burst out into a flood of tears--first lamenting the lady's death, andthen crying out, What--what would become of his poor mother!--How wouldshe support herself, when she should find, on her arrival in town, thatthe dear lady, who was so deservedly the darling of her heart, was nomore!
He proceeded to Miss Howe's with the letter for her. That lady, he wastold, had just given orders for a young man, a tenant's son, to post toLondon, and bring her news of her dear friend's condition, and whethershe should herself be encouraged, by an account of her being still alive,to make her a visit; every thing being ordered to be in readiness for hergoing up on his return with the news she wished and prayed for with theutmost impatience. And Harry was just in time to prevent the man'ssetting out.
He had the precaution to desire to speak with Miss Howe's woman or maid,and communicated to her the fatal tidings, that she might break them toher young lady. The maid herself was so affected, that her old lady(who, Harry said, seemed to be every where at once) came to see whatailed her! and was herself so struck with the communication, that shewas forced to sit down in a chair.--O the sweet creature! said she, andis it come to this?--O my poor Nancy!--How shall I be able to break thematter to my Nancy?
Mr. Hickman was in the house. He hastened in to comfort the old lady--but he could not restrain his own tears. He feared, he said, when he waslast in town, that this sad event would soon happen; but little thoughtit would be so very soon!--But she is happy, I am sure, said the goodgentleman.
Mrs. Howe, when a little recovered, went up, in order to break the newsto her daughter. She took the letter, and her salts in her hand. Andthey had occasion for the latter. For the housekeeper soon came hurryingdown into the kitchen, her face overspread with tears--her young mistresshad fainted away, she said--nor did she wonder at it--never did therelive a lady more deserving of general admiration and lamentation, thanMiss Clarissa Harlowe! and never was there a stronger friendshipdissolved by death than between her young lady and her.
She hurried, with a lighted wax candle, and with feathers, to burn underthe nose of her young mistress; which showed that she continued in fits.
Mr. Hickman, afterwards, with his usual humanity, directed that Harryshould be taken care of all night; it being then the close of day. Heasked him after my health. He expressed himself excessively afflicted,as well for the death of the most excellent of women, as for the justgrief of the lady whom he so passionately loves. But he called thedeparted lady an Angel of Light. We dreaded, said he, (tell yourmaster,) to read the letter sent--but we needed not--'tis a blessedletter! written by a blessed hand!--But the consolation she aims to give,will for the present heighten the sense we all shall have of the loss ofso excellent a creature! Tell Mr. Belford, that I thank God I am not theman who had the unmerited honour to call himself her brother.
I know how terribly this great catastrophe (as I may call it, since somany persons are interested in it) affects thee. I should have been gladto have had particulars of the distress which the first communication ofit must have given to the Harlowes. Yet who but must pity the unhappymother?
The answer which James Harlowe returned to Colonel Morden's letter ofnotification of his sister's death, and to her request as to herinterment, will give a faint idea of what their concern must be. Herefollows a copy of it:
TO WILLIAM MORDEN, ESQ.SATURDAY, SEPT. 9.
DEAR COUSIN,
I cannot find words to express what we all suffer on the most mournfulnews that ever was communicated to us.
My sister Arabella (but, alas! I have now no other sister) was preparingto follow Mrs. Norton up, and I had resolved to escort her, and to havelooked in upon the dear creature.
God be merciful to us all! To what purpose did the doctor write, if shewas so near her end?--Why, as every body says, did he not send sooner?--Or, Why at all?
The most admirable young creature that ever swerved! Not one friend tobe with her!--Alas! Sir, I fear my mother will never get over this shock.--She has been in hourly fits ever since she received the fatal news. Mypoor father has the gout thrown into his stomach; and Heaven knows--OCousin!--O Sir!--I meant nothing but the honour of the family; yet have Iall the weight thrown upon me--[O this cursed Lovelace!--may I perish ifhe escape the deserved vengeance!]*
* The words thus enclosed [] were omitted in the transcript to Mr.Lovelace.
We had begun to please ourselves that we should soon see her here--GoodHeaven! that her next entrance into this house, after she abandoned us soprecipitately, should be in a coffin.
We can have nothing to do with her executor, (another strange step of thedear creature's!)--He cannot expect we will--nor, if he be a gentleman,will he think of acting. Do you, therefore, be pleased, Sir, to order anundertaker to convey the body down to us. My mother says she shall befor ever unhappy, if she may not in death see the dear creature whom shecould not see in life. Be so kind, therefore, as to direct the lid to beonly half-screwed down--that (if my poor mother cannot be prevailed uponto dispense with so shocking a spectacle) she may be obliged--she was thedarling of her heart!
If we know her well in relation to the funeral, it shall be punctuallycomplied with; as shall every thing in it that is fit or reasonable to beperformed; and this without the intervention of strangers.
Will you not, dear Sir, favour us with your presence at this melancholytime? Pray do--and pity and excuse, with the generosity which is naturalto the brave and the wise, what passed at our last meeting. Every one'srespects attend you. And I am, Sir,
Your inexpressibly afflicted cousin and servant,JA. HARLOWE, JUN.
Every thing that's fit or reasonable to be performed! [repeated I to theColonel from the above letter on his reading it to me;] that is everything which she has directed, that can be performed. I hope, Colonel,that I shall have no contention with them. I wis
h no more for theiracquaintance than they do for mine. But you, Sir, must be the mediatorbetween them and me; for I shall insist upon a literal performance inevery article.
The Colonel was so kind as to declare that he would support me in myresolution.