before his father's eyes, a far more agonising and painful death than
that young slanderer of his sister's worth is meeting while I speak. You
laughed--laughed in your daughter's face, where death had already set
his hand--at our sufferings, then. What think you of them now! See
there, see there!"
'As the stranger spoke, he pointed to the sea. A faint cry died away
upon its surface; the last powerful struggle of the dying man agitated
the rippling waves for a few seconds; and the spot where he had gone
down into his early grave, was undistinguishable from the surrounding
water.
'Three years had elapsed, when a gentleman alighted from a private
carriage at the door of a London attorney, then well known as a man of
no great nicety in his professional dealings, and requested a private
interview on business of importance. Although evidently not past the
prime of life, his face was pale, haggard, and dejected; and it did not
require the acute perception of the man of business, to discern at a
glance, that disease or suffering had done more to work a change in his
appearance, than the mere hand of time could have accomplished in twice
the period of his whole life.
'"I wish you to undertake some legal business for me," said the
stranger.
'The attorney bowed obsequiously, and glanced at a large packet which
the gentleman carried in his hand. His visitor observed the look, and
proceeded.
'"It is no common business," said he; "nor have these papers reached my
hands without long trouble and great expense."
'The attorney cast a still more anxious look at the packet; and his
visitor, untying the string that bound it, disclosed a quantity of
promissory notes, with copies of deeds, and other documents.
'"Upon these papers," said the client, "the man whose name they bear,
has raised, as you will see, large sums of money, for years past. There
was a tacit understanding between him and the men into whose hands they
originally went--and from whom I have by degrees purchased the whole,
for treble and quadruple their nominal value--that these loans should
be from time to time renewed, until a given period had elapsed. Such
an understanding is nowhere expressed. He has sustained many losses of
late; and these obligations accumulating upon him at once, would crush
him to the earth."
'"The whole amount is many thousands of pounds," said the attorney,
looking over the papers.
'"It is," said the client.
'"What are we to do?" inquired the man of business.
'"Do!" replied the client, with sudden vehemence. "Put every engine of
the law in force, every trick that ingenuity can devise and rascality
execute; fair means and foul; the open oppression of the law, aided by
all the craft of its most ingenious practitioners. I would have him die
a harassing and lingering death. Ruin him, seize and sell his lands and
goods, drive him from house and home, and drag him forth a beggar in his
old age, to die in a common jail."
'"But the costs, my dear Sir, the costs of all this," reasoned the
attorney, when he had recovered from his momentary surprise. "If the
defendant be a man of straw, who is to pay the costs, Sir?"
'"Name any sum," said the stranger, his hand trembling so violently
with excitement, that he could scarcely hold the pen he seized as he
spoke--"any sum, and it is yours. Don't be afraid to name it, man. I
shall not think it dear, if you gain my object."
'The attorney named a large sum, at hazard, as the advance he should
require to secure himself against the possibility of loss; but more with
the view of ascertaining how far his client was really disposed to go,
than with any idea that he would comply with the demand. The stranger
wrote a cheque upon his banker, for the whole amount, and left him.
'The draft was duly honoured, and the attorney, finding that his strange
client might be safely relied upon, commenced his work in earnest.
For more than two years afterwards, Mr. Heyling would sit whole days
together, in the office, poring over the papers as they accumulated,
and reading again and again, his eyes gleaming with joy, the letters of
remonstrance, the prayers for a little delay, the representations of the
certain ruin in which the opposite party must be involved, which poured
in, as suit after suit, and process after process, was commenced. To all
applications for a brief indulgence, there was but one reply--the money
must be paid. Land, house, furniture, each in its turn, was taken under
some one of the numerous executions which were issued; and the old
man himself would have been immured in prison had he not escaped the
vigilance of the officers, and fled.
'The implacable animosity of Heyling, so far from being satiated by the
success of his persecution, increased a hundredfold with the ruin he
inflicted. On being informed of the old man's flight, his fury was
unbounded. He gnashed his teeth with rage, tore the hair from his head,
and assailed with horrid imprecations the men who had been intrusted
with the writ. He was only restored to comparative calmness by repeated
assurances of the certainty of discovering the fugitive. Agents were
sent in quest of him, in all directions; every stratagem that could be
invented was resorted to, for the purpose of discovering his place of
retreat; but it was all in vain. Half a year had passed over, and he was
still undiscovered.
'At length late one night, Heyling, of whom nothing had been seen for
many weeks before, appeared at his attorney's private residence, and
sent up word that a gentleman wished to see him instantly. Before the
attorney, who had recognised his voice from above stairs, could order
the servant to admit him, he had rushed up the staircase, and entered
the drawing-room pale and breathless. Having closed the door, to prevent
being overheard, he sank into a chair, and said, in a low voice--
'"Hush! I have found him at last."
'"No!" said the attorney. "Well done, my dear sir, well done."
'"He lies concealed in a wretched lodging in Camden Town," said Heyling.
"Perhaps it is as well we DID lose sight of him, for he has been
living alone there, in the most abject misery, all the time, and he is
poor--very poor."
'"Very good," said the attorney. "You will have the caption made
to-morrow, of course?"
'"Yes," replied Heyling. "Stay! No! The next day. You are surprised at
my wishing to postpone it," he added, with a ghastly smile; "but I had
forgotten. The next day is an anniversary in his life: let it be done
then."
'"Very good," said the attorney. "Will you write down instructions for
the officer?"
'"No; let him meet me here, at eight in the evening, and I will
accompany him myself."
'They met on the appointed night, and, hiring a hackney-coach, directed
the driver to stop at that corner of the old Pancras Road, at which
stands the parish workhouse. By the time they alighted there, it was
quite dark; and, proceeding by the dead wall in front of the Veterinary
Hospital, they entered a small by-street, which is, or was at that time,
called Little College Street, and which, whatever it may be now, was
in those days a desolate place enough, surrounded by little else than
fields and ditches.
'Having drawn the travelling-cap he had on half over his face, and
muffled himself in his cloak, Heyling stopped before the meanest-looking
house in the street, and knocked gently at the door. It was at once
opened by a woman, who dropped a curtsey of recognition, and Heyling,
whispering the officer to remain below, crept gently upstairs, and,
opening the door of the front room, entered at once.
'The object of his search and his unrelenting animosity, now a decrepit
old man, was seated at a bare deal table, on which stood a miserable
candle. He started on the entrance of the stranger, and rose feebly to
his feet.
'"What now, what now?" said the old man. "What fresh misery is this?
What do you want here?"
'"A word with YOU," replied Heyling. As he spoke, he seated himself
at the other end of the table, and, throwing off his cloak and cap,
disclosed his features.
'The old man seemed instantly deprived of speech. He fell backward in
his chair, and, clasping his hands together, gazed on the apparition
with a mingled look of abhorrence and fear.
'"This day six years," said Heyling, "I claimed the life you owed me for
my child's. Beside the lifeless form of your daughter, old man, I swore
to live a life of revenge. I have never swerved from my purpose for
a moment's space; but if I had, one thought of her uncomplaining,
suffering look, as she drooped away, or of the starving face of our
innocent child, would have nerved me to my task. My first act of
requital you well remember: this is my last."
'The old man shivered, and his hands dropped powerless by his side.
'"I leave England to-morrow," said Heyling, after a moment's pause.
"To-night I consign you to the living death to which you devoted her--a
hopeless prison--"
'He raised his eyes to the old man's countenance, and paused. He lifted
the light to his face, set it gently down, and left the apartment.
'"You had better see to the old man," he said to the woman, as he opened
the door, and motioned the officer to follow him into the street. "I
think he is ill." The woman closed the door, ran hastily upstairs, and
found him lifeless.
'Beneath a plain gravestone, in one of the most peaceful and secluded
churchyards in Kent, where wild flowers mingle with the grass, and the
soft landscape around forms the fairest spot in the garden of England,
lie the bones of the young mother and her gentle child. But the ashes of
the father do not mingle with theirs; nor, from that night forward, did
the attorney ever gain the remotest clue to the subsequent history of
his queer client.' As the old man concluded his tale, he advanced to a
peg in one corner, and taking down his hat and coat, put them on with
great deliberation; and, without saying another word, walked slowly
away. As the gentleman with the Mosaic studs had fallen asleep, and the
major part of the company were deeply occupied in the humorous process
of dropping melted tallow-grease into his brandy-and-water, Mr. Pickwick
departed unnoticed, and having settled his own score, and that of Mr.
Weller, issued forth, in company with that gentleman, from beneath the
portal of the Magpie and Stump.
CHAPTER XXII. Mr. PICKWICK JOURNEYS TO IPSWICH AND MEETS WITH A ROMANTIC
ADVENTURE WITH A MIDDLE-AGED LADY IN YELLOW CURL-PAPERS
'That 'ere your governor's luggage, Sammy?' inquired Mr. Weller of his
affectionate son, as he entered the yard of the Bull Inn, Whitechapel,
with a travelling-bag and a small portmanteau.
'You might ha' made a worser guess than that, old feller,' replied Mr.
Weller the younger, setting down his burden in the yard, and sitting
himself down upon it afterwards. 'The governor hisself'll be down here
presently.'
'He's a-cabbin' it, I suppose?' said the father.
'Yes, he's a havin' two mile o' danger at eight-pence,' responded the
son. 'How's mother-in-law this mornin'?'
'Queer, Sammy, queer,' replied the elder Mr. Weller, with impressive
gravity. 'She's been gettin' rayther in the Methodistical order lately,
Sammy; and she is uncommon pious, to be sure. She's too good a creetur
for me, Sammy. I feel I don't deserve her.'
'Ah,' said Mr. Samuel. 'that's wery self-denyin' o' you.'
'Wery,' replied his parent, with a sigh. 'She's got hold o' some
inwention for grown-up people being born again, Sammy--the new birth,
I think they calls it. I should wery much like to see that system in
haction, Sammy. I should wery much like to see your mother-in-law born
again. Wouldn't I put her out to nurse!'
'What do you think them women does t'other day,' continued Mr. Weller,
after a short pause, during which he had significantly struck the side
of his nose with his forefinger some half-dozen times. 'What do you
think they does, t'other day, Sammy?'
'Don't know,' replied Sam, 'what?'
'Goes and gets up a grand tea drinkin' for a feller they calls their
shepherd,' said Mr. Weller. 'I was a-standing starin' in at the pictur
shop down at our place, when I sees a little bill about it; "tickets
half-a-crown. All applications to be made to the committee. Secretary,
Mrs. Weller"; and when I got home there was the committee a-sittin' in
our back parlour. Fourteen women; I wish you could ha' heard 'em, Sammy.
There they was, a-passin' resolutions, and wotin' supplies, and all
sorts o' games. Well, what with your mother-in-law a-worrying me to go,
and what with my looking for'ard to seein' some queer starts if I did,
I put my name down for a ticket; at six o'clock on the Friday evenin' I
dresses myself out wery smart, and off I goes with the old 'ooman, and
up we walks into a fust-floor where there was tea-things for thirty, and
a whole lot o' women as begins whisperin' to one another, and lookin' at
me, as if they'd never seen a rayther stout gen'l'm'n of eight-and-fifty
afore. By and by, there comes a great bustle downstairs, and a lanky
chap with a red nose and a white neckcloth rushes up, and sings out,
"Here's the shepherd a-coming to wisit his faithful flock;" and in
