CHAPTER XXIV
BETSY'S TALE--(Continued.)
"I am only astonished, my dear," said my nurse, as soon as she had hadsome tea and toast, and scarcely the soft roe of a red herring, "thatyou can put up so well, and abide with my instincts in the way youdo. None of your family could have done it, to my knowledge of theirdispositions, much less the baby that was next above you. But it oftencomes about to go in turns like that; 'one, three, five, and seven issweet, while two, four, and six is a-squalling with their feet.' Butthe Lord forgive me for an ill word of them, with their precious littlebodies washed, and laying in their patterns till the judgment-day.
"But putting by the words I said in the dirty little room they pleasedto call a 'court,' and the Testament so filthy that no lips could havea hold of it, my meaning is to tell you, miss, the very things thathappened, so that you may fairly judge of them. The Captain came backfrom going with his father, I am sure, in less than twenty minutes, andsmoking a cigar in his elegant way, quite happy and contented, for I sawhim down the staircase. As for sign of any haste about him, or wiping ofhis forehead, or fumbling with his handkerchief, or being in a stew inany sort of way--as the stupid cook who let him in declared, by reasonof her own having been at the beer-barrel--solemnly, miss, as I hope togo to heaven, there was nothing of the sort about him.
"He went into the dining-room, and mistress, who had been up stairs tosee about the baby, went down to him; and there I heard them talking aspleasant and as natural as they always were together. Not one of themhad the smallest sense of trouble hanging over them; and they put awayboth the decanters and cruets, and came up to bed in their proper order,the master stopping down just to finish his cigar and see to the doorsand the bringing up the silver, because there was no man-servant now.And I heard him laughing at some little joke he made as he went intothe bedroom. A happier household never went to bed, nor one with betterhopes of a happy time to come. And the baby slept beside his parents inhis little cot, as his mother liked to have him, with his blessed mouthwide open.
"Now we three (cook and Susan and myself) were accustomed to have agood time of it whenever the master first came home and the mistress wastaken up with him. We used to count half an hour more in bed, withoutany of that wicked bell-clack, and then go on to things according totheir order, without any body to say any thing. Accordingly we were allsnug in bed, and turning over for another tuck of sleep, when there camea most vicious ringing of the outer bell. 'You get up, Susan,' I heardthe cook say, for there only was a door between us; and Susan said,'Blest if I will! Only Tuesday you put me down about it when the bakercame.' Not a peg would either of them stir, no more than to call nameson one another; so I slipped on my things, with the bell going clatterall the while, like the day of judgment. I felt it to be hard upon me,and I went down cross a little--just enough to give it well to a body Iwere not afraid of.
"But the Lord in His mercy remember me, miss! When I opened the door,I had no blood left. There stood two men, with a hurdle on theirshoulders, and on the hurdle a body, with the head hanging down, and thefront of it slouching, like a sack that has been stolen from; and behindit there was an authority with two buttons on his back, and he waitedfor me to say something; but to do so was beyond me. Not a bit ofcaution or of fear about my sham dress-up, as the bad folk put itafterward; the whole of such thoughts was beyond me outright, and nothought of any thing came inside me, only to wait and wonder.
"'This corpse belongeth here, as I am informed,' said the man, whoseemed to be the master of it, and was proud to be so. 'Young woman,don't you please to stand like that, or every duffer in the parish willbe here, and the boys that come hankering after it. You be off!' hecried out to a boy who was calling some more round the corner. 'Now,young woman, we must come in if you please, and the least said thesoonest mended.'
"'Oh, but my mistress, my mistress!' I cried; 'and her time up, as nighas may be, any day or night before new moon. 'Oh, Mr. Constable, Mr.Rural Polishman, take it to the tool shed, if you ever had a wife, Sir.'Now even this was turned against us as if I had expected it. They saidthat I must have known who it was, and to a certain length so I did,miss, but only by the dress and the manner of the corpse, and lying withan attitude there was no contradicting.
"I can not tell you now, my dear, exactly how things followed. Mymind was gone all hollow with the sudden shock upon it. However, I hadthought enough to make no noise immediate, nor tell the other foolishgirls, who would have set up bellowing. Having years to deal with littleones brings knowledge of the rest to us. I think that I must have goneto master's door, where Susan's orders were to put his shaving waterin a tin, and fetched him out, with no disturbance, only in hisdressing-gown. And when I told him what it was, his rosy color turnedlike sheets, and he just said, 'Hush!' and nothing more. And guessingwhat he meant, I ran and put my things on properly.
"But having time to think, the shock began to work upon me, and I wasfit for nothing when I saw the children smiling up with their tonguesout for their bread and milk, as they used to begin the day with. AndI do assure you, Miss Erema, my bitterest thought was of your coming,though unknown whether male or female, but both most inconvenient then,with things in such a state of things. You have much to answer for,miss, about it; but how was you to help it, though?
"The tool-shed door was too narrow to let the hurdle and the body in,and finding some large sea-kale pots standing out of use against thedoor, the two men (who were tired with the weight and fright, I daresay) set down their burden upon these, under a row of hollyhocks, at theend of the row of bee-hives. And here they wiped their foreheads withsome rags they had for handkerchiefs, or one of them with his ownsleeve, I should say, and, gaining their breath, they began to talk withthe boldness of the sunrise over them. But Mr. Rural Polishman, ashe was called in those parts, was walking up and down on guard, anddespising of their foolish words.
"My master, the Captain, your father, miss, came out of a window anddown the cross-walk, while I was at the green door peeping, for Ithought that I might be wanted, if only to take orders what was to bedone inside. The constable stiffly touched his hat, and marched to thehead of the hurdle, and said,
"'Do you know this gentleman?'
"Your father took no more notice of him than if he had been a stiffhollyhock, which he might have resembled if he had been good-looking.The Captain thought highly of discipline always, and no kinder gentlemancould there be to those who gave his dues to him. But that man's voicehad a low and dirty impertinent sort of a twang with it. Nothing couldhave been more unlucky. Every thing depended on that fellow in anignorant neighborhood like that; and his lordship, for such he was now,of course, would not even deign to answer him. He stood over his head inhis upright way by a good foot, and ordered him here and there, as thefellow had been expecting, I do believe, to order his lordship. And thatmade the bitterest enemy of him, being newly sent into these parts,and puffed up with authority. And the two miller's men could not helpgrinning, for he had waved them about like a pair of dogs.
"But to suppose that my master 'was unmoved, and took it brutally' (asthat wretch of a fellow swore afterward), only shows what a stuck-updolt he was. For when my master had examined his father, and made hispoor body be brought in and spread on the couch in the dining-room, andsent me hot-foot for old Dr. Diggory down at the bottom of Shoxford,Susan peeped in through the crack of the door, with the cook to hold herhand behind, and there she saw the Captain on his knees at the side ofhis father's corpse, not saying a word, only with his head down. Andwhen the doctor came back with me, with his night-gown positiveunder his coat, the first thing he said was, 'My dear Sir--my lord, Imean--don't take on so; such things will always happen in this world;'which shows that my master was no brute.
"Then the Captain stood up in his strength and height, without any prideand without any shame, only in the power of a simple heart, and he saidwords fit to hang him:
"'This is my doing! There is no one else to blame. If my father is d
ead,I have killed him!'
"Several of us now were looking in, and the news going out like awinnowing woman with no one to shut the door after her; our passage wascrowding with people that should have had a tar-brush in their faces.And of course a good score of them ran away to tell that the Captain hadmurdered his father. The milk-man stood there with his yoke and cans,and his naily boots on our new oil-cloth, and, not being able to hidehimself plainly, he pulled out his slate and began to make his bill.
"'Away with you all!' your father said, coming suddenly out of thedining-room, while the doctor was unbuttoning my lord, who was dead withall his day clothes on; and every body brushed away like flies at thedepth of his voice and his stature. Then he bolted the door, with onlyour own people and the doctor and the constable inside. Your mother wassleeping like a lamb, as I could swear, having had a very tiring day theday before, and being well away from the noise of the passage, as wellas at a time when they must sleep whenever sleep will come, miss. Blessher gentle heart, what a blessing to be out of all that scare of it!
"All this time, you must understand, there was no sign yet what hadhappened to his lordship, over and above his being dead. All of usthought, if our minds made bold to think, that it must have pleasedthe Lord to take his lordship either with an appleplexy or a suddenheart-stroke, or, at any rate, some other gracious way not having anyflow of blood in it. But now, while your father was gone up stairs--forhe knew that his father was dead enough--to be sure that your mother wasquiet, and perhaps to smooth her down for trouble, and while I was runaway to stop the ranting of the children, old Dr. Diggory and thatrural officer were handling poor Lord Castlewood. They set him to theirliking, and they cut his clothes off--so Susan told me afterward--andthen they found why they were forced to do so, which I need not tryto tell you, miss. Only they found that he was not dead from any wisevisitation, but because he had been shot with a bullet through hisheart.
"Old Dr. Diggory came out shaking, and without any wholesome senseto meet what had arisen, after all his practice with dead men, andhe called out 'Murder!' with a long thing in his hand, till my masterleaped down the stairs, twelve at a time, and laid his strong hand onthe old fool's mouth.
"'Would you kill my wife?' he said; 'you shall not kill my wife.'
"'Captain Castlewood,' the constable answered, pulling out his staffimportantly, 'consider yourself my prisoner.'
"The Captain could have throttled him with one hand, and Susan thoughthe would have done it. But, instead of that, he said, 'Very well; doyour duty. But let me see what you mean by it.' Then he walked backagain to the body of his father, and saw that he had been murdered.
"But, oh, Miss Erema, you are so pale! Not a bit of food have you hadfor hours. I ought not to have told you such a deal of it to once. Letme undo all your things, my dear, and give you something cordial; andthen lie down and sleep a bit."
"No, thank you, nurse," I answered, calling all my little courage back."No sleep for me until I know every word. And to think of all my fatherhad to see and bear! I am not fit to be his daughter."