Peveril of the Peak Page 47

  CHAPTER XLVII

  High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect. --RICHARD III.

  Before giving the reader an account of the meeting betwixt Buckinghamand his injured Sovereign, we may mention a trifling circumstance ortwo which took place betwixt his Grace and Chiffinch, in the short drivebetwixt York Place and Whitehall.

  In the outset, the Duke endeavoured to learn from the courtier thespecial cause of his being summoned so hastily to the Court. Chiffinchanswered, cautiously, that he believed there were some gambols goingforward, at which the King desired the Duke's presence.

  This did not quite satisfy Buckingham, for, conscious of his own rashpurpose, he could not but apprehend discovery. After a moment's silence,"Chiffinch," he said abruptly, "did you mention to any one what the Kingsaid to me this morning touching the Lady Anne?"

  "My Lord Duke," said Chiffinch, hesitantly, "surely my duty to theKing--my respect to your Grace----"

  "You mentioned it to no one, then?" said the Duke sternly.

  "To no one," replied Chiffinch faintly, for he was intimidated by theDuke's increasing severity of manner.

  "Ye lie, like a scoundrel!" said the Duke--"You told Christian!"

  "Your Grace," said Chiffinch--"your Grace--your Grace ought to rememberthat I told you Christian's secret; that the Countess of Derby was comeup."

  "And you think the one point of treachery may balance for the other? Butno. I must have a better atonement. Be assured I will blow your brainsout, ere you leave this carriage, unless you tell me the truth of thismessage from Court."

  As Chiffinch hesitated what reply to make, a man, who, by the blaze ofthe torches, then always borne, as well by the lackeys who hung behindthe carriage, as by the footmen who ran by the side, might easily seewho sat in the coach, approached, and sung in a deep manly voice, theburden of an old French song on the battle of Marignan, in which isimitated the German French of the defeated Swiss.

  "_Tout est verlore La tintelore, Tout est verlore_ Bei Got."

  "I am betrayed," said the Duke, who instantly conceived that thischorus, expressing "all is lost," was sung by one of his faithfulagents, as a hint to him that their machinations were discovered.

  He attempted to throw himself from the carriage, but Chiffinch heldhim with a firm, though respectful grasp. "Do not destroy yourself,my lord," he said, in a tone of deep humility--"there are soldiersand officers of the peace around the carriage, to enforce your Grace'scoming to Whitehall, and to prevent your escape. To attempt it would beto confess guilt; and I advise you strongly against that--the King isyour friend--be your own."

  The Duke, after a moment's consideration, said sullenly, "I believe youare right. Why should I fly, when I am guilty of nothing but sendingsome fireworks to entertain the Court, instead of a concert of music?"

  "And the dwarf, who came so unexpectedly out of the bass-viol----"

  "Was a masking device of my own, Chiffinch," said the Duke, though thecircumstance was then first known to him. "Chiffinch, you will bind mefor ever, if you will permit me to have a minute's conversation withChristian."

  "With Christian, my lord?--Where could you find him?--You are aware wemust go straight to the Court."

  "True," said the Duke, "but I think I cannot miss finding him; and you,Master Chiffinch, are no officer, and have no warrant either to detainme prisoner, or prevent my speaking to whom I please."

  Chiffinch replied, "My Lord Duke, your genius is so great, and yourescapes so numerous, that it will be from no wish of my own if I amforced to hurt a man so skilful and so popular."

  "Nay, then, there is life in it yet," said the Duke, and whistled;when, from beside the little cutler's booth, with which the reader isacquainted, appeared, suddenly, Master Christian, and was in a moment atthe side of the coach. "_Ganz ist verloren_," said the Duke.

  "I know it," said Christian; "and all our godly friends are dispersedupon the news. Luckily the Colonel and these German rascals gave a hint.All is safe--You go to Court--Hark ye, I will follow."

  "You, Christian? that would be more friendly than wise."

  "Why, what is there against me?" said Christian. "I am innocent as thechild unborn--so is your Grace. There is but one creature who can bearwitness to our guilt; but I trust to bring her on the stage in ourfavour--besides, if I were not, I should presently be sent for."

  "The familiar of whom I have heard you speak, I warrant?"

  "Hark in your ear again."

  "I understand," said the Duke, "and will delay Master Chiffinch,--forhe, you must know, is my conductor,--no longer.--Well, Chiffinch, letthem drive on.--_Vogue la Galere!_" he exclaimed, as the carriage wentonward; "I have sailed through worse perils than this yet."

  "It is not for me to judge," said Chiffinch; "your Grace is a boldcommander; and Christian hath the cunning of the devil for a pilot;but----However, I remain your Grace's poor friend, and will heartilyrejoice in your extrication."

  "Give me a proof of your friendship," said the Duke. "Tell me what youknow of Christian's familiar, as he calls her."

  "I believe it to be the same dancing wench who came with Empson to myhouse on the morning that Mistress Alice made her escape from us. Butyou have seen her, my lord?"

  "I?" said the Duke; "when did I see her?"

  "She was employed by Christian, I believe, to set his niece at liberty,when he found himself obliged to gratify his fanatical brother-in-law,by restoring his child; besides being prompted by a private desire, as Ithink, of bantering your Grace."

  "Umph! I suspected so much. I will repay it," said the Duke. "But firstto get out of this dilemma.--That little Numidian witch, then, was hisfamiliar; and she joined in the plot to tantalise me?--But here wereach Whitehall.--Now, Chiffinch, be no worse than thy word, and--now,Buckingham, be thyself!"

  But ere we follow Buckingham into the presence, where he had sodifficult a part to sustain, it may not be amiss to follow Christianafter his brief conversation with him. On re-entering the house, whichhe did by a circuitous passage, leading from a distant alley, andthrough several courts, Christian hastened to a low matted apartment, inwhich Bridgenorth sat alone, reading the Bible by the light of a smallbrazen lamp, with the utmost serenity of countenance.

  "Have you dismissed the Peverils?" said Christian hastily.

  "I have," said the Major.

  "And upon what pledge--that they will not carry information against youto Whitehall?"

  "They gave me their promise voluntarily, when I showed them our armedfriends were dismissed. To-morrow, I believe, it is their purpose tolodge informations."

  "And why not to-night, I pray you?" said Christian.

  "Because they allow us that time for escape."

  "Why, then, do you not avail yourself of it? Wherefore are you here?"said Christian.

  "Nay, rather, why do _you_ not fly?" said Bridgenorth. "Of a surety, youare as deeply engaged as I."

  "Brother Bridgenorth, I am the fox, who knows a hundred modes ofdeceiving the hounds; you are the deer, whose sole resource is inhasty flight. Therefore lose no time--begone to the country--or rather,Zedekiah Fish's vessel, the _Good Hope_, lies in the river, bound forMassachusetts--take the wings of the morning, and begone--she can falldown to Gravesend with the tide."

  "And leave to thee, brother Christian," said Bridgenorth, "the charge ofmy fortune and my daughter? No, brother; my opinion of your good faithmust be re-established ere I again trust thee."

  "Go thy ways, then, for a suspicious fool," said Christian, suppressinghis strong desire to use language more offensive; "or rather stay wherethou art, and take thy chance of the gallows!"

  "It is appointed to all men to die once," said Bridgenorth; "my lifehath been a living death. My fairest boughs have been stripped by theaxe of the forester--that which survives must, if it shall blossom, begrafted elsewhere, and at a distance from my aged trunk. The sooner,then, the root feels the axe, the stroke is more welcome. I had bee
npleased, indeed, had I been called to bringing yonder licentious Courtto a purer character, and relieving the yoke of the suffering people ofGod. That youth too--son to that precious woman, to whom I owe thelast tie that feebly links my wearied spirit to humanity--could I havetravailed with _him_ in the good cause!--But that, with all my otherhopes is broken for ever; and since I am not worthy to be an instrumentin so great a work, I have little desire to abide longer in this vale ofsorrow."

  "Farewell, then, desponding fool!" said Christian, unable, with allhis calmness, any longer to suppress his contempt for the resigned andhopeless predestinarian. "That fate should have clogged me with suchconfederates!" he muttered, as he left the apartment--"this bigoted foolis now nearly irreclaimable--I must to Zarah; for she, or no one, mustcarry us through these straits. If I can but soothe her sullen temper,and excite her vanity to action,--betwixt her address, the King'spartiality for the Duke, Buckingham's matchless effrontery, and my ownhand upon the helm, we may yet weather the tempest that darkens aroundus. But what we do must be hastily done."

  In another apartment he found the person he sought--the same who visitedthe Duke of Buckingham's harem, and, having relieved Alice Bridgenorthfrom her confinement there, had occupied her place as has been alreadynarrated, or rather intimated. She was now much more plainly attiredthan when she had tantalised the Duke with her presence; but her dresshad still something of the Oriental character, which corresponded withthe dark complexion and quick eye of the wearer. She had the kerchief ather eyes as Christian entered the apartment, but suddenly withdrew it,and, flashing on him a glance of scorn and indignation, asked him whathe meant by intruding where his company was alike unsought for andundesired.

  "A proper question," said Christian, "from a slave to her master!"

  "Rather, say, a proper question, and of all questions the most proper,from a mistress to her slave! Know you not, that from the hour in whichyou discovered your ineffable baseness, you have made me mistress ofyour lot? While you seemed but a demon of vengeance, you commandedterror, and to good purpose; but such a foul fiend as thou hast of lateshown thyself--such a very worthless, base trickster of the devil--sucha sordid grovelling imp of perdition, can gain nothing but scorn from asoul like mine."

  "Gallantly mouthed," said Christian, "and with good emphasis."

  "Yes," answered Zarah, "I can speak--sometimes--I can also be mute; andthat no one knows better than thou."

  "Thou art a spoiled child, Zarah, and dost but abuse the indulgence Ientertain for your freakish humour," replied Christian; "thy wits havebeen disturbed since ever you landed in England, and all for the sakeof one who cares for thee no more than for the most worthless object whowalks the streets, amongst whom he left you to engage in a brawl for onehe loved better."

  "It is no matter," said Zarah, obviously repressing very bitter emotion;"it signifies not that he loves another better; there is none--no,none--that ever did, or can, love him so well."

  "I pity you, Zarah!" said Christian, with some scorn.

  "I deserve your pity," she replied, "were your pity worth my accepting.Whom have I to thank for my wretchedness but you?--You bred me up inthirst of vengeance, ere I knew that good and evil were anything betterthan names;--to gain your applause, and to gratify the vanity you hadexcited, I have for years undergone a penance, from which a thousandwould have shrunk."

  "A thousand, Zarah!" answered Christian; "ay, a hundred thousand, and amillion to boot; the creature is not on earth, being mere mortal woman,that would have undergone the thirtieth part of thy self-denial."

  "I believe it," said Zarah, drawing up her slight but elegant figure;"I believe it--I have gone through a trial that few indeed could havesustained. I have renounced the dear intercourse of my kind; compelledmy tongue only to utter, like that of a spy, the knowledge which myear had only collected as a base eavesdropper. This I have done foryears--for years--and all for the sake of your private applause--andthe hope of vengeance on a woman, who, if she did ill in murdering myfather, has been bitterly repaid by nourishing a serpent in her bosom,that had the tooth, but not the deafened ear, of the adder."

  "Well--well--well," reiterated Christian; "and had you not yourreward in my approbation--in the consequences of your own unequalleddexterity--by which, superior to anything of thy sex that history hasever known, you endured what woman never before endured, insolencewithout notice, admiration without answer, and sarcasm without reply?"

  "Not without reply!" said Zarah fiercely. "Gave not Nature to myfeelings a course of expression more impressive than words? and did notthose tremble at my shrieks, who would have little minded my entreatiesor my complaints? And my proud lady, who sauced her charities with thetaunts she thought I heard not--she was justly paid by the passing herdearest and most secret concerns into the hands of her mortal enemy;and the vain Earl--yet he was a thing as insignificant as the plume thatnodded in his cap;--and the maidens and ladies who taunted me--I had, orcan easily have, my revenge upon them. But there is _one_," she added,looking upward, "who never taunted me; one whose generous feelings couldtreat the poor dumb girl even as his sister; who never spoke word of herbut was to excuse or defend--and you tell me I must not love him, andthat it is madness to love him!--I _will_ be mad then, for I will lovetill the latest breath of my life!"

  "Think but an instant, silly girl--silly but in one respect, sincein all others thou mayest brave the world of women. Think what I haveproposed to thee, for the loss of this hopeless affection, a career sobrilliant!--Think only that it rests with thyself to be the wife--thewedded wife--of the princely Buckingham! With my talents--with thy witand beauty--with his passionate love of these attributes--a short spacemight rank you among England's princesses.--Be but guided by me--heis now at deadly pass--needs every assistance to retrieve hisfortunes--above all, that which we alone can render him. Put yourselfunder my conduct, and not fate itself shall prevent your wearing aDuchess's coronet."

  "A coronet of thistle-down, entwined with thistle-leaves," saidZarah.--"I know not a slighter thing than your Buckingham! I saw himat your request--saw him when, as a man, he should have shown himselfgenerous and noble--I stood the proof at your desire, for I laugh atthose dangers from which the poor blushing wailers of my sex shrinkand withdraw themselves. What did I find him?--a poor waveringvoluptuary--his nearest attempt to passion like the fire on a wretchedstubble-field, that may singe, indeed, or smoke, but can neither warmnor devour. Christian! were his coronet at my feet this moment, I wouldsooner take up a crown of gilded gingerbread, than extend my hand toraise it."

  "You are mad, Zarah--with all your taste and talent, you are utterlymad! But let Buckingham pass--Do you owe _me_ nothing on thisemergency?--Nothing to one who rescued you from the cruelty of yourowner, the posture-master, to place you in ease and affluence?"

  "Christian," she replied, "I owe you much. Had I not felt I did so, Iwould, as I have been often tempted to do, have denounced thee to thefierce Countess, who would have gibbeted you on her feudal walls ofCastle Rushin, and bid your family seek redress from the eagles, thatwould long since have thatched their nest with your hair, and fed theiryoung ospreys with your flesh."

  "I am truly glad you have had so much forbearance for me," answeredChristian.

  "I have it, in truth and in sincerity," replied Zarah--"Not for yourbenefits to me--such as they were, they were every one interested, andconferred from the most selfish considerations. I have overpaid them athousand times by the devotion to your will, which I have displayed atthe greatest personal risk. But till of late I respected your powers ofmind--your inimitable command of passion--the force of intellect which Ihave ever seen you exercise over all others, from the bigot Bridgenorthto the debauched Buckingham--in that, indeed, I have recognised mymaster."

  "And those powers," said Christian, "are unlimited as ever; and with thyassistance, thou shalt see the strongest meshes that the laws of civilsociety ever wove to limit the natural dignity of man, broke asunderlike a spider's web."

>   She paused and answered, "While a noble motive fired thee--ay, a noblemotive, though irregular--for I was born to gaze on the sun which thepale daughters of Europe shrink from--I could serve thee--I couldhave followed, while revenge or ambition had guided thee--but love of_wealth_, and by what means acquired!--What sympathy can I hold withthat?--Wouldst thou not have pandered to the lust of the King, thoughthe object was thine own orphan niece?--You smile?--Smile again when Iask you whether you meant not my own prostitution, when you chargedme to remain in the house of that wretched Buckingham?--Smile at thatquestion, and by Heaven, I stab you to the heart!" And she thrust herhand into her bosom, and partly showed the hilt of a small poniard.

  "And if I smile," said Christian, "it is but in scorn of so odious anaccusation. Girl, I will not tell thee the reason, but there existsnot on earth the living thing over whose safety and honour I wouldkeep watch as over thine. Buckingham's wife, indeed, I wished thee; andthrough thy own beauty and thy wit, I doubted not to bring the match topass."

  "Vain flatterer," said Zarah, yet seeming soothed even by the flatterywhich she scoffed at, "you would persuade me that it was honourable lovewhich you expected the Duke was to have offered me. How durst you urgea gross a deception, to which time, place, and circumstance gave thelie?--How dare you now again mention it, when you well know, that at thetime you mention, the Duchess was still in life?"

  "In life, but on her deathbed," said Christian; "and for time, place,and circumstance, had your virtue, my Zarah, depended on these, howcouldst thou have been the creature thou art? I knew thee all-sufficientto bid him defiance--else--for thou art dearer to me than thouthinkest--I had not risked thee to win the Duke of Buckingham; ay, andthe kingdom of England to boot. So now, wilt thou be ruled and go onwith me?"

  Zarah, or Fenella, for our readers must have been long aware of theidentity of these two personages, cast down her eyes, and was silent fora long time. "Christian," she said at last, in a solemn voice, "if myideas of right and of wrong be wild and incoherent, I owe it, first, tothe wild fever which my native sun communicated to my veins; next, to mychildhood, trained amidst the shifts, tricks, and feats of jugglers andmountebanks; and then, to a youth of fraud and deception, throughthe course thou didst prescribe me, in which I might, indeed, heareverything, but communicate with no one. The last cause of my wilderrors, if such they are, originates, O Christian, with you alone; bywhose intrigues I was placed with yonder lady, and who taught me, thatto revenge my father's death, was my first great duty on earth, andthat I was bound by nature to hate and injure her by whom I was fed andfostered, though as she would have fed and caressed a dog, or any othermute animal. I also think--for I will deal fairly with you--that you hadnot so easily detected your niece, in the child whose surprising agilitywas making yonder brutal mountebank's fortune; nor so readily inducedhim to part with his bond-slave, had you not, for your own purposes,placed me under his charge, and reserved the privilege of claiming mewhen you pleased. I could not, under any other tuition, have identifiedmyself with the personage of a mute, which it has been your desire thatI should perform through life."

  "You do me injustice, Zarah," said Christian--"I found you capableof the avenging of your father's death--I consecrated you to it, as Iconsecrated my own life and hopes; and you held the duty sacred, tillthese mad feeling towards a youth who loves your cousin----"

  "Who--loves--my--cousin," repeated Zarah (for we will continue to callher by her real name) slowly, and as if the words dropped unconsciouslyfrom her lips. "Well--be it so!--Man of many wiles, I will follow thycourse for a little, a very little farther; but take heed--tease me notwith remonstrances against the treasure of my secret thoughts--I meanmy most hopeless affection to Julian Peveril--and bring me not as anassistant to any snare which you may design to cast around him. You andyour Duke shall rue the hour most bitterly, in which you provoke me. Youmay suppose you have me in your power; but remember, the snakes of myburning climate are never so fatal as when you grasp them."

  "I care not for these Peverils," said Christian--"I care not for theirfate a poor straw, unless where it bears on that of the destined woman,whose hands are red in your father's blood. Believe me, I can divideher fate and theirs. I will explain to you how. And for the Duke, he maypass among men of the town for wit, and among soldiers for valour, amongcourtiers for manners and for form; and why, with his high rank andimmense fortune, you should throw away an opportunity, which, as I couldnow improve it----"

  "Speak not of it," said Zarah, "if thou wouldst have our truce--rememberit is no peace--if, I say, thou wouldst have our truce grow to be anhour old!"

  "This, then," said Christian, with a last effort to work upon the vanityof this singular being, "is she who pretended such superiority to humanpassion, that she could walk indifferently and unmoved through the hallsof the prosperous, and the prison cells of the captive, unknowing andunknown, sympathising neither with the pleasures of the one, nor thewoes of the other, but advancing with sure, though silent steps, her ownplans, in despite and regardless of either!"

  "My own plans!" said Zarah--"_Thy_ plans, Christian--thy plans ofextorting from the surprised prisoners, means whereby to convictthem--thine own plans, formed with those more powerful than thyself, tosound men's secrets, and, by using them as a matter of accusation, tokeep up the great delusion of the nation."

  "Such access was indeed given you as my agent," said Christian, "and foradvancing a great national change. But how did you use it?--to advanceyour insane passion."

  "Insane!" said Zarah--"Had he been less than insane whom I addressed, heand I had ere now been far from the toils which you have pitched for usboth. I had means prepared for everything; and ere this, the shores ofBritain had been lost to our sight for ever."

  "The dwarf, too," said Christian--"Was it worthy of you to delude thatpoor creature with flattering visions--lull him asleep with drugs! Was_that_ my doing?"

  "He was my destined tool," said Zarah haughtily. "I remembered yourlessons too well not to use him as such. Yet scorn him not too much.I tell you, that yon very miserable dwarf, whom I made my sport in theprison--yon wretched abortion of nature, I would select for a husband,ere I would marry your Buckingham;--the vain and imbecile pigmy has yetthe warm heart and noble feelings, that a man should hold his highesthonour."

  "In God's name, then, take your own way," said Christian; "and, for mysake, let never man hereafter limit a woman in the use of her tongue,since he must make it amply up to her, in allowing her the privilege ofher own will. Who would have thought it? But the colt has slipped thebridle, and I must needs follow, since I cannot guide her."

  Our narrative returns to the Court of King Charles at Whitehall.