Pelham, Volume 5.
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Edward Bulwer Lytton >> Pelham, Volume 5.
"Mr. Pelham," he said at last, after a few preliminary efforts to clear
his voice, "this note requires some consideration. I know not at present
whom to appoint as my second--will you call upon me early to-morrow?"
"I am sorry," said I, "that my sole instructions were to get an immediate
answer from you. Surely either of the gentlemen I saw with you would
officiate as your second?"
Tyrrell made no reply for some moments. He was endeavouring to compose
himself, and in some measure he succeeded. He raised his head with a
haughty air of defiance, and tearing the paper deliberately, though still
with uncertain and trembling fingers, he stamped his foot upon the atoms.
"Tell your principal," said he, "that I retort upon him the foul and
false words he has uttered against me; that I trample upon his assertions
with the same scorn I feel towards himself; and that before this hour to-
morrow, I will confront him to death as through life. For the rest, Mr.
Pelham, I cannot name my second till the morning; leave me your address,
and you shall hear from me before you are stirring. Have you any thing
farther with me?"
"Nothing," said I, laying my card on the table, "I have fulfilled the
most ungrateful charge ever entrusted to me. I wish you good night."
I re-entered the carriage, and drove to Glanville's. I broke into the
room rather abruptly; Glanville was leaning on the table, and gazing
intently on a small miniature. A pistol-case lay beside him: one of the
pistols in order for use, and the other still unarranged; the room was,
as usual, covered with books and papers, and on the costly cushions of
the ottoman, lay the large, black dog, which I remembered well as his
companion of yore, and which he kept with him constantly, as the only
thing in the world whose society he could at all times bear: the animal
lay curled up, with its quick, black eye fixed watchfully upon its
master, and directly I entered, it uttered, though without moving, a low,
warning growl.
Glanville looked up, and in some confusion thrust the picture into a
drawer of the table, and asked me my news. I told him word for word what
had passed. Glanville set his teeth, and clenched his hand firmly; and
then, as if his anger was at once appeased, he suddenly changed the
subject and tone of our conversation. He spoke with great cheerfulness
and humour, on the various topics of the day; touched upon politics;
laughed at Lord Guloseton, and seemed as indifferent and unconscious of
the event of the morrow as my peculiar constitution would have rendered
myself.
When I rose to depart, for I had too great an interest in him to feel
much for the subjects he conversed on, he said, "I shall write one line
to my mother, and another to my poor sister; you will deliver them if I
fall, for I have sworn that one of us shall not quit the ground alive. I
shall be all impatience to know the hour you will arrange with Tyrrell's
second. God bless you, and farewell for the present."
CHAPTER LX.
Charge, Chester, charge!
--Marmion.
Though this was one of the first mercantile transactions
of my life, I had no doubt about acquitting myself with
reputation.
--Vicar of Wakefield.
The next morning I was at breakfast, when a packet was brought me from
Tyrrell; it contained a sealed letter to Glanville, and a brief note to
myself. The latter I transcribe:--
"My Dear Sir,
"The enclosed letter to Sir Reginald Glanville will explain my reasons
for not keeping my pledge: suffice it to state to you, that they are such
as wholly to exonerate me, and fairly to satisfy Sir Reginald. It will be
useless to call upon me; I leave town before you will receive this.
Respect for myself obliges me to add that, although there are
circumstances to forbid my meeting Sir Reginald Glanville, there are none
to prevent my demanding satisfaction of any one, whoever he may be, who
shall deem himself authorized to call my motives into question,
"I have the honour,
"John Tyrrell."
It was not till I had thrice read this letter that I could credit its
contents. From all I had seen of Tyrrell's character, I had no reason to
suspect him to be less courageous than the generality of worldly men; and
the conclusion of his letter, evidently pointed at myself, should I
venture to impugn his conduct, seemed by no means favourable to any
suspicion of his cowardice. And yet, when I considered the violent
language of Glanville's letter, and Tyrrell's apparent resolution the
night before, I scarcely knew to what more honourable motive to attribute
his conduct. However, I lost no time in despatching the whole packet to
Glanville, with a few lines from myself, saying I should call in an hour.
When I fulfilled this promise, Glanville's servant told me his master had
gone out immediately on reading the letters I had sent, and had merely
left word that he should not return home the whole day. That night he was
to have brought an important motion before the House. A message from him,
pleading sudden and alarming illness, devolved this duty upon another
member of our party. Lord Dawton was in despair; the motion was lost by a
great majority; the papers, the whole of that week, were filled with the
most triumphant abuse and ridicule of the Whigs. Never was that unhappy
and persecuted party reduced to so low an ebb: never did there seem a
fainter probability of their coming into power. They appeared almost
annihilated--a mere nominis umbra.
On the eighth day from Glanville's disappearance, a sudden event in the
cabinet threw the whole country into confusion; the Tories trembled to
the very soles of their easy slippers of sinecure and office; the eyes of
the public were turned to the Whigs; and chance seemed to effect in an
instant that change in their favour, which all their toil, trouble,
eloquence, and art, had been unable for so many years to render even a
remote probability.
But there was a strong though secret party in the state, which reminded
me of the independents in the reign of Charles the First, that, concealed
under a general name, worked only for a private end, and made a progress
in number and respectability, not the less sure for being but little
suspected. Foremost among the leaders of this party was Lord Vincent.
Dawton, who knew of their existence, and regarded them with fear and
jealousy, considered the struggle rather between them and himself, than
any longer between himself and the Tories; and strove, while it was yet
time, to reinforce himself by a body of allies, which, should the contest
really take place, might be certain of giving him the superiority. The
Marquis of Chester was among the most powerful of the neutral noblemen:
it was of the greatest importance to gain him to the cause. He was a
sturdy, sporting, independent man, who lived chiefly in the country, and
turned his ambition rather towards promoting the excellence of
quadrupeds, than the bad passions of men. To this personage Lord Dawton
implored me to be the bearer of a letter, and to aid, with all the
dexterity in my power, the purpose it was intended to effect. It was the
most consequential mission yet entrusted to me, and I felt eager to turn
my diplomatic energies to so good an account. Accordingly, one bright
morning I wrapped myself carefully in my cloak, placed my invaluable
person safely in my carriage, and set off to Chester Park, in the county
of Suffolk.
CHAPTER LXI.
Hinc Canibus blandis rabies venit
--Virgil Georgics.
I should have mentioned, that the day after I sent Glanville Tyrrell's
communication, I received a short and hurried note from the former,
saying, that he had left London in pursuit of Tyrrell, and that he would
not rest till he had brought him to account. In the hurry of the public
events in which I had been of late so actively engaged, my mind had not
had leisure to dwell much upon Glanville; but when I was alone in my
carriage, that singular being, and the mystery which attended him, forced
themselves upon my reflection, in spite of all the importance of my
mission.
I was leaning back in my carriage, at (I think) Ware, while they were
changing horses, when a voice, strongly associated with my meditations,
struck upon my ear. I looked out, and saw Thornton standing in the yard,
attired with all his original smartness of boot and breeches: he was
employed in smoking a cigar, sipping brandy and water, and exercising his
conversational talents in a mixture of slang and jokeyism, addressed to
two or three men of his own rank of life, and seemingly his companions.
His brisk eye soon discovered me, and he swaggered to the carriage door
with that ineffable assurance of manner which was so peculiarly his own.
"Ah, ah, Mr. Pelham," said he, "going to Newmarket, I suppose? bound
there myself--like to be found among my betters. Ha, ha--excuse a pun:
what odds on the favourite? What! you won't bet, Mr. Pelham? close and
sly at present; well, the silent sow sups up all the broth--eh!--"
"I'm not going to Newmarket," I replied: "I never attend races."
"Indeed!" answered Thornton. "Well, if I was as rich as you, I would soon
make or spend a fortune on the course. Seen Sir John Tyrrell? No! He is
to be there. Nothing can cure him of gambling--what's bred in the bone,
Good day, Mr. Pelham--won't keep you any longer--sharp shower coming on.
'The devil will soon be basting his wife with a leg of mutton,' as the
proverb says--au plaisir, Mr. Pelham."
And at these words my post-boy started, and released me from my bete
noire. I spare my reader an account of my miscellaneous reflections on
Thornton, Dawton, Vincent, politics, Glanville, and Ellen, and will land
him, without further delay, at Chester Park.
I was ushered through a large oak hall of the reign of James the First,
into a room strongly resembling the principal apartment of a club; two or
three round tables were covered with newspapers, journals, racing
calendars, An enormous fire-place was crowded with men of all ages, I had
almost said, of all ranks; but, however various they might appear in
their mien and attire, they were wholly of the patrician order. One
thing, however, in this room, belied its similitude to the apartment of a
club, viz., a number of dogs, that lay in scattered groups upon the
floor. Before the windows were several horses, in body-cloths, led or
rode to exercise upon a plain in the park, levelled as smooth as a
bowling-green at Putney; and stationed at an oriel window, in earnest
attention to the scene without, were two men; the tallest of these was
Lord Chester. There was a stiffness and inelegance in his address which
prepossessed me strongly against him. "Les manieres que l'on neglige
comme de petites choses, sont souvent ce qui fait que les hommes decident
de vous en bien ou en mal."
[The manners which on negects as trifles, are often precisely that
by which men decide on you favourably of the reverse.]
I had long since, when I was at the University, been introduced to Lord
Chester; but I had quite forgotten his person, and he the very
circumstance. I said, in a low tone, that I was the bearer of a letter of
some importance from our mutual friend, Lord Dawton, and that I should
request the honour of a private interview at Lord Chester's first
convenience.
His lordship bowed, with an odd mixture of the civility of a jockey and
the hauteur of a head groom of the stud, and led the way to a small
apartment, which I afterwards discovered he called his own. (I never
could make out, by the way, why, in England, the very worst room in the
house is always appropriated to the master of it, and dignified by the
appellation of "the gentleman's own.") I gave the Newmarket grandee the
letter intended for him, and quietly seating myself, awaited the result.
He read it through slowly and silently, and then taking out a huge
pocket-book, full of racing bets, horses' ages, jockey opinions, and such
like memoranda, he placed it with much solemnity among this dignified
company, and then said, with a cold, but would-be courteous air, "My
friend, Lord Dawton, says you are entirely in his confidence Mr. Pelham.
I hope you will honour me with your company at Chester Park for two or
three days, during which time I shall have leisure to reply to Lord
Dawton's letter. Will you take some refreshment?"
I answered the first sentence in the affirmative, and the latter in the
negative; and Lord Chester thinking it perfectly unnecessary to trouble
himself with any further questions or remarks, which the whole jockey
club might not hear, took me back into the room we had quitted, and left
me to find, or make whatever acquaintance I could. Pampered and spoiled
as I was in the most difficult circles of London, I was beyond measure
indignant at the cavalier demeanour of this rustic Thane, whom I
considered a being as immeasurably beneath me in every thing else, as he
really was in antiquity of birth, and, I venture to hope, in cultivation
of intellect. I looked round the room, and did not recognize a being of
my acquaintance: I seemed literally thrown into a new world: the very
language in which the conversation was held, sounded strange to my ear. I
had always transgressed my general rule of knowing all men in all grades,
in the single respect of sporting characters: they were a species of
bipeds, that I would never recognize as belonging to the human race.
Alas! I now found the bitter effects of not following my usual maxims. It
is a dangerous thing to encourage too great a disdain of one's inferiors:
pride must have a fall.
After I had been a whole quarter of an hour in this strange place, my
better genius came to my aid. Since I found no society among the two-
legged brutes, I turned to the quadrupeds. At one corner of the room lay
a black terrier of the true English breed; at another was a short,
sturdy, wirey one, of the Scotch. I soon formed a friendship with each of
these canine Pelei, (little bodies with great souls), and then by degrees
alluring them from their retreat to the centre of the room, I fairly
endeavoured to set them by the ears. Thanks to the national antipathy, I
succeeded to my heart's content. The contest soon aroused the other
individuals of the genus--up they started from their repose, like Roderic
Dhu's merry men, and incontinently flocked to the scene of battle.
"To it," said I; and I took one by the leg and another by the throat, and
dashing them against each other, turned all their peevish irascibility at
the affront into mutual aggression. In a very few moments, the whole room
was a scene of uproarious confusion; the beasts yelled, and bit, and
struggled with the most delectable ferocity. To add to the effect, the
various owners of the dogs crowded round--some to stimulate, others to
appease the fury of the combatants. As for me, I flung myself into an arm
chair, and gave way to an excess of merriment, which only enraged the
spectators more: many were the glances of anger, many the murmurs of
reproach directed against me. Lord Chester himself eyed me with an air of
astonished indignation, that redoubled my hilarity: at length, the
conflict was assuaged--by dint of blows, and kicks, and remonstrances
from their dignified proprietors, the dogs slowly withdrew, one with the
loss of half an ear, another with a shoulder put out, a third with a
mouth increased by one-half of its natural dimensions.
In short, every one engaged in the conflict bore some token of its
severity. I did not wait for the thunder-storm I foresaw: I rose with a
nonchalant yaw n of ennui--marched out of the apartment, called a
servant--demanded my own room--repaired to it, and immersed the internal
faculties of my head in Mignet's History of the Revolution, while Bedos
busied himself in its outward embellishment.
CHAPTER LXII.
Noster ludos, spectaverat una,
Luserat in campo, Fortunae filius omnes.
--Horace.
I did not leave my room till the first dinner-bell had ceased a
sufficient time to allow me the pleasing hope that I should have but a
few moments to wait in the drawing-room, previous to the grand epoch and
ceremony of an European day. The manner most natural to me, is one rather
open and easy; but I pique myself peculiarly upon a certain (though
occasional) air, which keeps impertinence aloof; in fine, I am by no
means a person with whom others would lightly take a liberty, or to whom
they would readily offer or resent an affront. This day I assumed a
double quantum of dignity, in entering a room which I well knew must be
filled with my enemies; there were a few women round Lady Chester, and as
I always feel reassured by a sight of the dear sex, I walked towards
them.
Judge of my delight, when I discovered amongst the group, Lady Harriett
Garrett. It is true that I had no particular predilection for that lady,
but the sight of a negress I had seen before, I should have hailed with
rapture in so desolate and inhospitable a place. If my pleasure at seeing
Lady Harriett was great, her's seemed equally so at receiving my
salutation. She asked me if I knew Lady Chester--and on my negative
reply, immediately introduced me to that personage. I now found myself
quite at home; my spirits rose, and I exerted every nerve to be as
charming as possible. In youth, to endeavour is to succeed.
I gave a most animated account of the canine battle, interspersed with
various sarcasms on the owners of the combatants, which were by no means
ill-received either by the marchioness or her companions; and, in fact,
when the dinner was announced, they all rose in a mirth, sufficiently
unrestrained to be any thing but patrician: for my part, I offered my arm
to Lady Harriett, and paid her as many compliments on crossing the suite
that led to the dining-room, as would have turned a much wiser head than
her ladyship's.
The dinner went off agreeably enough, as long as the women stayed, but
the moment they quitted the room, I experienced exactly the same feeling
known unto a mother's darling, left for the first time at that strange,
cold, comfortless place--ycleped a school.
I was not, however, in a mood to suffer my flowers of oratory to blush
unseen. Besides, it was absolutely necessary that I should make a better
impression upon my host. I leant, therefore, across the table, and
listened eagerly to the various conversations afloat: at last I
perceived, on the opposite side, Sir Lionel Garrett, a personage whom I
had not before even inquired after, or thought of. He was busily and
noisily employed in discussing the game-laws. Thank Heaven, thought I, I
shall be on firm ground there. The general interest of the subject, and
the loudness with which it was debated, soon drew all the scattered
conversation into one focus.
"What!" said Sir Lionel, in a high voice, to a modest, shrinking youth,
probably from Cambridge, who had supported the liberal side of the
question--"what! are our interests to be never consulted? Are we to have
our only amusement taken away from us? What do you imagine brings country
gentlemen to their seats? Do you not know, Sir, the vast importance our
residence at our country houses is to the nation? Destroy the game laws,
and you destroy our very existence as a people."
'Now,' thought I, 'it is my time.' "Sir Lionel," said I, speaking almost
from one end of the table to the other, "I perfectly agree with your
sentiments; I am entirely of opinion, first, that it is absolutely
necessary for the safety of the nation that game should be preserved;
secondly, that if you take away game you take away country gentlemen: no
two propositions can be clearer than these; but I do differ from you with
respect to the intended alterations. Let us put wholly out of the
question, the interests of the poor people, or of society at large: those
are minor matters, not worthy of a moment's consideration; let us only
see how far our interests as sportsmen will be affected. I think by a
very few words I can clearly prove to you, that the proposed alterations
will make us much better off than we are at present."
I then entered shortly, yet fully enough, into the nature of the laws as
they now stood, and as they were intended to be changed. I first spoke of
the two great disadvantages of the present system to country gentlemen;
viz. in the number of poachers, and the expense of preserving. Observing
that I was generally and attentively listened to, I dwelt upon these two
points with much pathetic energy; and having paused till I had got Sir
Lionel and one or two of his supporters to confess that it would be
highly desirable that these defects should, if possible, be remedied, I
proceeded to show how, and in what manner it was possible. I argued, that
to effect this possibility, was the exact object of the alterations
suggested; I anticipated the objections; I answered them in the form of
propositions, as clearly and concisely stated as possible; and as I spoke
with great civility and conciliation, and put aside every appearance of
care for any human being in the world who was not possessed of a
qualification, I perceived at the conclusion of my harangue, that I had
made a very favourable impression. That evening completed my triumph: for
Lady Chester and Lady Harriett made so good a story of my adventure with
the dogs, that the matter passed off as a famous joke, and I was soon
considered by the whole knot as a devilish amusing, good-natured,
sensible fellow. So true is it that there is no situation which a little
tact cannot turn to our own account: manage yourself well, and you may
manage all the world.
As for Lord Chester, I soon won his heart by a few feats of horsemanship,
and a few extempore inventions respecting the sagacity of dogs. Three
days after my arrival we became inseparable; and I made such good use of
my time, that in two more, he spoke to me of his friendship for Dawton,
and his wish for a dukedom. These motives it was easy enough to unite,
and at last he promised me that his answer to my principal should be as
acquiescent as I could desire; the morning after this promise commenced
the great day at Newmarket.
Our whole party were of course bound to the race-ground, and with great
reluctance I was pressed into the service. We were not many miles distant
from the course, and Lord Chester mounted me on one of his horses. Our
shortest way lay through rather an intricate series of cross roads: and
as I was very little interested in the conversation of my companions, I
paid more attention to the scenery we passed, than is my customary wont:
for I study nature rather in men than fields, and find no landscape
afford such variety to the eye, and such subject to the contemplation, as
the inequalities of the human heart.
But there were to be fearful circumstances hereafter to stamp forcibly
upon my remembrance some traces of the scenery which now courted and
arrested my view. The chief characteristics of the country were broad,
dreary plains, diversified at times by dark plantations of fir and larch;
the road was rough and stony, and here and there a melancholy rivulet,
swelled by the first rains of spring, crossed our path, and lost itself
in the rank weeds of some inhospitable marsh.
About six miles from Chester Park, to the left of the road, stood an old
house with a new face; the brown, time-honoured bricks which composed the
fabric, were strongly contrasted by large Venetian windows newly inserted
in frames of the most ostentatious white. A smart, green veranda,
scarcely finished, ran along the low portico, and formed the termination
to two thin rows of meagre and dwarfish sycamores, which did duty for an
avenue, and were bounded, on the roadside, by a spruce white gate, and a
sprucer lodge, so moderate in its dimensions, that it would scarcely have
boiled a turnip: if a rat had got into it, he might have run away with
it. The ground was dug in various places, as if for the purpose of
further improvements, and here and there a sickly little tree was
carefully hurdled round, and seemed pining its puny heart out at the
confinement.
In spite of all these well-judged and well-thriving graces of art, there
was such a comfortless and desolate appearance about the place, that it
quite froze one to look at it; to be sure, a damp marsh on one side, and
the skeleton rafters and beams of an old stable on the other, backed by a
few dull and sulky-looking fir trees, might, in some measure, create, or
at least considerably add to, the indescribable cheerlessness of the tout
ensemble. While I was curiously surveying the various parts of this
northern "Delices," and marvelling at the choice of two crows who were
slowly walking over the unwholesome ground, instead of making all
possible use of the black wings with which Providence had gifted them, I
perceived two men on horseback wind round from the back part of the
building and proceed in a brisk trot down the avenue. We had not advanced
many paces before they overtook us; the foremost of them turned round as
he passed me, and pulling up his horse abruptly, discovered to my
dismayed view, the features of Mr. Thornton. Nothing abashed by the
slightness of my bow, or the grave stares of my lordly companions, who
never forgot the dignity of their birth, in spite of the vulgarity of
their tastes, Thornton instantly and familiarly accosted me.