CHAPTER XXXIII

Convalescence--The Surgeon's Bill--Letter of Recommendation--Commencement

of the Old Man's History.

Two days--three days passed away--and I still remained at the house of my

hospitable entertainer; my bruised limb rapidly recovering the power of

performing its functions. I passed my time agreeably enough, sometimes

in my chamber, communing with my own thoughts; sometimes in the stable,

attending to, and not unfrequently conversing with, my horse; and at meal-

time--for I seldom saw him at any other--discoursing with the old

gentleman, sometimes on the Chinese vocabulary, sometimes on Chinese

syntax, and once or twice on English horseflesh; though on this latter

subject, notwithstanding his descent from a race of horse-traders, he did

not enter into with much alacrity. As a small requital for his kindness,

I gave him one day, after dinner, unasked, a brief account of my history

and pursuits. He listened with attention; and when it was concluded,

thanked me for the confidence which I had reposed in him. "Such

conduct," said he, "deserves a return. I will tell you my own history;

it is brief, but may perhaps not prove uninteresting to you--though the

relation of it will give me some pain." "Pray, then, do not recite it,"

said I. "Yes," said the old man, "I will tell you, for I wish you to

know it." He was about to begin, when he was interrupted by the arrival

of the surgeon. The surgeon examined into the state of my bruised limb,

and told me, what indeed I already well knew, that it was rapidly

improving. "You will not even require a sling," said he, "to ride to

Horncastle. When do you propose going?" he demanded. "When do you think

I may venture?" I replied. "I think, if you are a tolerably good

horseman, you may mount the day after to-morrow," answered the medical

man. "By-the-bye, are you acquainted with anybody at Horncastle?" "With

no living soul," I answered. "Then you would scarcely find stable-room

for your horse. But I am happy to be able to assist you. I have a

friend there who keeps a small inn, and who, during the time of the fair,

keeps a stall vacant for any quadruped I may bring, until he knows

whether I am coming or not. I will give you a letter to him, and he will

see after the accommodation of your horse. To-morrow I will pay you a

farewell visit, and bring you the letter." "Thank you," said I; "and do

not forget to bring your bill." The surgeon looked at the old man, who

gave him a peculiar nod. "Oh!" said he, in reply to me, "for the little

service I have rendered you, I require no remuneration. You are in my

friend's house, and he and I understand each other." "I never receive

such favours," said I, "as you have rendered me, without remunerating

them; therefore I shall expect your bill." "Oh! just as you please,"

said the surgeon; and shaking me by the hand more warmly than he had

hitherto done, he took his leave.

On the evening of the next day, the last which I spent with my kind

entertainer, I sat at tea with him in a little summer-house in his

garden, partially shaded by the boughs of a large fig-tree. The surgeon

had shortly before paid me his farewell visit, and had brought me the

letter of introduction to his friend at Horncastle, and also his bill,

which I found anything but extravagant. After we had each respectively

drank the contents of two cups--and it may not be amiss here to inform

the reader that though I took cream with my tea, as I always do when I

can procure that addition, the old man, like most people bred up in the

country, drank his without it--he thus addressed me:--"I am, as I told

you on the night of your accident, the son of a breeder of horses, a

respectable and honest man. When I was about twenty he died, leaving me,

his only child, a comfortable property, consisting of about two hundred

acres of land and some fifteen hundred pounds in money. My mother had

died about three years previously. I felt the death of my mother keenly,

but that of my father less than was my duty; indeed, truth compels me to

acknowledge that I scarcely regretted his death. The cause of this want

of proper filial feeling was the opposition which I had experienced from

him in an affair which deeply concerned me. I had formed an attachment

for a young female in the neighbourhood, who, though poor, was of highly

respectable birth, her father having been a curate of the Established

Church. She was, at the time of which I am speaking, an orphan, having

lost both her parents, and supported herself by keeping a small school.

My attachment was returned, and we had pledged our vows, but my father,

who could not reconcile himself to her lack of fortune, forbade our

marriage in the most positive terms. He was wrong, for she was a fortune

in herself--amiable and accomplished. Oh! I cannot tell you all she

was--" and here the old man drew his hand across his eyes. "By the death

of my father, the only obstacle to our happiness appeared to be removed.

We agreed, therefore, that our marriage should take place within the

course of a year; and I forthwith commenced enlarging my house and

getting my affairs in order. Having been left in the easy circumstances

which I have described, I determined to follow no business, but to pass

my life in a strictly domestic manner, and to be very, very happy.

Amongst other property derived from my father were several horses, which

I disposed of in this neighbourhood, with the exception of two remarkably

fine ones, which I determined to take to the next fair at Horncastle, the

only place where I expected to be able to obtain what I considered to be

their full value. At length the time arrived for the commencement of the

fair, which was within three months of the period which my beloved and

myself had fixed upon for the celebration of our nuptials. To the fair I

went, a couple of trusty men following me with the horses. I soon found

a purchaser for the animals, a portly, plausible person, of about forty,

dressed in a blue riding coat, brown top boots, and leather breeches.

There was a strange-looking urchin with him, attired in nearly similar

fashion, with a beam in one of his eyes, who called him father. The man

paid me for the purchase in bank-notes--three fifty-pound notes for the

two horses. As we were about to take leave of each other, he suddenly

produced another fifty-pound note, inquiring whether I could change it,

complaining, at the same time, of the difficulty of procuring change in

the fair. As I happened to have plenty of small money in my possession,

and as I felt obliged to him for having purchased my horses at what I

considered to be a good price, I informed him that I should be very happy

to accommodate him; so I changed him the note, and he, having taken

possession of the horses, went his way, and I myself returned home.

"A month passed; during this time I paid away two of the notes which I

had received at Horncastle from the dealer--one of them in my immediate

neighbourhood, and the other at a town about fifteen miles distant, to

which I had repaired for the purpose of purchasing some furniture. All

things seemed to be going on most prosperously, and I felt quite happy,

when one morning, as I was overlooking some workmen who were employed

about my house, I was accosted by a constable, who informed me that he

was sent to request my immediate appearance before a neighbouring bench

of magistrates. Concluding that I was merely summoned on some

unimportant business connected with the neighbourhood, I felt no

surprise, and forthwith departed in company with the officer. The

demeanour of the man upon the way struck me as somewhat singular. I had

frequently spoken to him before, and had always found him civil and

respectful, but he was now reserved and sullen, and replied to two or

three questions which I put to him in anything but a courteous manner. On

arriving at the place where the magistrates were sitting--an inn at a

small town about two miles distant--I found a more than usual number of

people assembled, who appeared to be conversing with considerable

eagerness. At sight of me they became silent, but crowded after me as I

followed the man into the magistrates' room. There I found the tradesman

to whom I had paid the note for the furniture at the town fifteen miles

off in attendance, accompanied by an agent of the Bank of England; the

former, it seems, had paid the note into a provincial bank, the

proprietors of which, discovering it to be a forgery, had forthwith

written up to the Bank of England, who had sent down their agent to

investigate the matter. A third individual stood beside them--the person

in my own immediate neighbourhood to whom I had paid the second note;

this, by some means or other, before the coming down of the agent, had

found its way to the same provincial bank, and also being pronounced a

forgery, it had speedily been traced to the person to whom I had paid it.

It was owing to the apparition of this second note that the agent had

determined, without further inquiry, to cause me to be summoned before

the rural tribunal.

"In a few words the magistrates' clerk gave me to understand the state of

the case. I was filled with surprise and consternation. I knew myself

to be perfectly innocent of any fraudulent intention, but at the time of

which I am speaking it was a matter fraught with the greatest danger to

be mixed up, however innocently, with the passing of false money. The

law with respect to forgery was terribly severe, and the innocent as well

as the guilty occasionally suffered. Of this I was not altogether

ignorant; unfortunately, however, in my transactions with the stranger,

the idea of false notes being offered to me, and my being brought into

trouble by means of them, never entered my mind. Recovering myself a

little, I stated that the notes in question were two of three notes which

I had received at Horncastle, for a pair of horses, which it was well

known I had carried thither.

"Thereupon, I produced from my pocket-book the third note, which was

forthwith pronounced a forgery. I had scarcely produced the third note,

when I remembered the one which I had changed for the Horncastle dealer,

and with the remembrance came the almost certain conviction that it was

also a forgery; I was tempted for a moment to produce it, and to explain

the circumstance--would to God I had done so!--but shame at the idea of

having been so wretchedly duped prevented me, and the opportunity was

lost. I must confess that the agent of the bank behaved, upon the whole,

in a very handsome manner; he said that as it was quite evident that I

had disposed of certain horses at the fair, it was very probable that I

might have received the notes in question in exchange for them, and that

he was willing, as he had received a very excellent account of my general

conduct, to press the matter no farther, that is, provided--" And here

he stopped. Thereupon, one of the three magistrates, who were present,

asked me whether I chanced to have any more of these spurious notes in my

possession. He certainly had a right to ask the question; but there was

something peculiar in his tone-insinuating suspicion. It is certainly

difficult to judge of the motives which rule a person's conduct, but I

cannot help imagining that he was somewhat influenced in his behaviour on

that occasion, which was anything but friendly, by my having refused to

sell him the horses at a price less than that which I expected to get at

the fair; be this as it may, the question filled me with embarrassment,

and I bitterly repented not having at first been more explicit. Thereupon

the magistrate in the same kind of tone, demanded to see my pocket-book.

I knew that to demur would be useless, and produced it, and therewith,

amongst two or three small country notes, appeared the fourth which I had

received from the Horncastle dealer. The agent took it up and examined

it with attention. 'Well, is it a genuine note?' asked the magistrate.

'I am sorry to say that it is not,' said the agent; 'it is a forgery,

like the other three.' The magistrate shrugged his shoulders, as indeed

did several people in the room. 'A regular dealer in forged notes,' said

a person close behind me; 'who would have thought it?'

"Seeing matters begin to look so serious, I aroused myself, and

endeavoured to speak in my own behalf, giving a candid account of the

manner in which I became possessed of the notes; but my explanation did

not appear to meet much credit; the magistrate, to whom I have in

particular alluded, asked, why I had not at once stated the fact of my

having received a fourth note; and the agent, though in a very quiet

tone, observed that he could not help thinking it somewhat strange that I

should have changed a note of so much value for a perfect stranger, even

supposing that he had purchased my horses, and had paid me their value in

hard cash; and I noticed that he laid particular emphasis on the last

words. I might have observed that I was an inexperienced young man, who,

meaning no harm myself, suspected none in others, but I was confused,

stunned, and my tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of my mouth. The men

who had taken my horses to Horncastle, and for whom I had sent, as they

lived close at hand, now arrived, but the evidence which they could give

was anything but conclusive in my favour; they had seen me in company

with an individual at Horncastle, to whom, by my orders, they had

delivered certain horses, but they had seen no part of the money

transaction; the fellow, whether from design or not, having taken me

aside into a retired place, where he had paid me the three spurious

notes, and induced me to change the fourth, which throughout the affair

was what bore most materially against me. How matters might have

terminated I do not know, I might have gone to prison, and I might have

been--just then, when I most needed a friend, and least expected to find

one, for though amongst those present there were several who were my

neighbours, and who had professed friendship for me, none of them when

they saw that I needed support and encouragement, came forward to yield

me any, but, on the contrary, appeared by their looks to enjoy my terror

and confusion--just then a friend entered the room in the person of the

surgeon of the neighbourhood, the father of him who has attended you; he

was not on very intimate terms with me, but he had occasionally spoken to

me, and had attended my father in his dying illness, and chancing to hear

that I was in trouble, he now hastened to assist me. After a short

preamble, in which he apologized to the bench for interfering, he begged

to be informed of the state of the case, whereupon the matter was laid

before him in all its details. He was not slow in taking a fair view of

it, and spoke well and eloquently in my behalf--insisting on the

improbability that a person of my habits and position would be wilfully

mixed up with a transaction like that of which it appeared I was

suspected--adding, that as he was fully convinced of my innocence, he was

ready to enter into any surety with respect to my appearance at any time

to answer anything which might be laid to my charge. This last

observation had particular effect, and as he was a person universally

respected, both for his skill in his profession and his general

demeanour, people began to think that a person in whom he took an

interest could scarcely be concerned in anything criminal, and though my

friend the magistrate--I call him so ironically--made two or three

demurs, it was at last agreed between him and his brethren of the bench,

that, for the present, I should be merely called upon to enter into my

own recognizance for the sum of two hundred pounds, to appear whenever it

should be deemed requisite to enter into any further investigation of the

matter.

"So I was permitted to depart from the tribunal of petty justice without

handcuffs, and uncollared by a constable; but people looked coldly and

suspiciously upon me. The first thing I did was to hasten to the house

of my beloved, in order to inform her of every circumstance attending the

transaction. I found her, but how? A malicious female individual had

hurried to her with a distorted tale, to the effect that I had been taken

up as an utterer of forged notes; that an immense number had been found

in my possession; that I was already committed, and that probably I

should be executed. My affianced one tenderly loved me, and her

constitution was delicate; fit succeeded fit; she broke a blood-vessel,

and I found her deluged in blood; the surgeon had been sent for; he came

and afforded her every possible relief. I was distracted; he bade me

have hope, but I observed he looked very grave.

"By the skill of the surgeon, the poor girl was saved in the first

instance from the arms of death, and for a few weeks she appeared to be

rapidly recovering; by degrees, however, she became melancholy; a worm

preyed upon her spirit; a slow fever took possession of her frame. I

subsequently learned that the same malicious female who had first carried

to her an exaggerated account of the affair, and who was a distant

relative of her own, frequently visited her, and did all in her power to

excite her fears with respect to its eventual termination. Time passed

on in a very wretched manner. Our friend the surgeon showing to us both

every mark of kindness and attention.

"It was owing to this excellent man that my innocence was eventually

established. Having been called to a town on the borders of Yorkshire to

a medical consultation, he chanced to be taking a glass of wine with the

landlord of the inn at which he stopped, when the waiter brought in a

note to be changed, saying 'That the Quaker gentleman, who had been for

some days in the house, and was about to depart, had sent it to be

changed, in order that he might pay his bill.' The landlord took the

note, and looked at it. 'A fifty-pound bill,' said he; 'I don't like

changing bills of that amount, lest they should prove bad ones; however,

as it comes from a Quaker gentleman, I suppose it is all right.' The

mention of a fifty-pound note aroused the attention of my friend, and he

requested to be permitted to look at it; he had scarcely seen it, when he

was convinced that it was one of the same description as those which had

brought me into trouble, as it corresponded with them in two particular

features, which the agent of the bank had pointed out to him and others

as evidence of their spuriousness. My friend, without a moment's

hesitation, informed the landlord that the note was a bad one, expressing

at the same time a great wish to see the Quaker gentleman who wanted to

have it changed. 'That you can easily do,' said the landlord, and

forthwith conducted him into the common room, where he saw a respectable-

looking man, dressed like a Quaker, and seemingly about sixty years of

age.

"My friend, after a short apology, showed him the note which he held in

his hand, stating that he had no doubt it was a spurious one, and begged

to be informed where he had taken it, adding, that a particular friend of

his was at present in trouble, owing to his having taken similar notes

from a stranger at Horncastle; but that he hoped that he, the Quaker,

could give information, by means of which the guilty party, or parties,

could be arrested. At the mention of Horncastle, it appeared to my

friend that the Quaker gave a slight start. At the conclusion of this

speech, however, he answered, with great tranquillity, that he had

received it in the way of business at ---, naming one of the principal

towns in Yorkshire, from a very respectable person, whose name he was

perfectly willing to communicate, and likewise his own, which he said was

James, and that he was a merchant residing at Liverpool; that he would

write to his friend at ---, requesting him to make inquiries on the

subject; that just at that moment he was in a hurry to depart, having

some particular business at a town about ten miles off, to go to which he

had bespoken a post-chaise of the landlord; that with respect to the

note, it was doubtless a very disagreeable thing to have a suspicious one

in his possession, but that it would make little difference to him, as he

had plenty of other money, and thereupon he pulled out a purse,

containing various other notes, and some gold, observing, 'that his only

motive for wishing to change the other note was a desire to be well

provided with change;' and finally, that if they had any suspicion with

respect to him, he was perfectly willing to leave the note in their

possession till he should return, which he intended to do in about a

fortnight. There was so much plausibility in the speech of the Quaker,

and his appearance and behaviour were so perfectly respectable, that my

friend felt almost ashamed of the suspicion which at first he had

entertained of him, though, at the same time, he felt an unaccountable

unwillingness to let the man depart without some further interrogation.

The landlord, however, who did not wish to disoblige one who had been,

and might probably be again, a profitable customer, declared that he was

perfectly satisfied; and that he had no wish to detain the note, which he

made no doubt the gentleman had received in the way of business, and that

as the matter concerned him alone, he would leave it to him to make the

necessary inquiries. 'Just as you please, friend,' said the Quaker,

pocketing the suspicious note, 'I will now pay my bill.' Thereupon he

discharged the bill with a five-pound note, which he begged the landlord

to inspect carefully, and with two pieces of gold.

"The landlord had just taken the money, receipted the bill, and was

bowing to his customer, when the door opened, and a lad, dressed in a

kind of grey livery, appeared, and informed the Quaker that the chaise

was ready. 'Is that boy your servant?' said the surgeon. 'He is,

friend,' said the Quaker. 'Hast thou any reason for asking me that

question?' 'And has he been long in your service?' 'Several years,'

replied the Quaker, 'I took him into my house out of compassion, he being

an orphan, but as the chaise is waiting, I will bid thee farewell.' 'I

am afraid I must stop your journey for the present,' said the surgeon;

'that boy has exactly the same blemish in the eye which a boy had who was

in company with the man at Horncastle, from whom my friend received the

forged notes, and who there passed for his son.' 'I know nothing about

that,' said the Quaker, 'but I am determined to be detained here no

longer, after the satisfactory account which I have given as to the

note's coming into my possession.' He then attempted to leave the room,

but my friend detained him, a struggle ensued, during which a wig which

the Quaker wore fell off, whereupon he instantly appeared to lose some

twenty years of his age. 'Knock the fellow down, father,' said the boy,

'I'll help you.'

"And, forsooth, the pretended Quaker took the boy's advice, and knocked

my friend down in a twinkling. The landlord, however, and waiter, seeing

how matters stood, instantly laid hold of him; but there can be no doubt

that he would have escaped from the whole three, had not certain guests

who were in the house, hearing the noise, rushed in, and helped to secure

him. The boy was true to his word, assisting him to the best of his

ability, flinging himself between the legs of his father's assailants,

causing several of them to stumble and fall. At length, the fellow was

secured, and led before a magistrate; the boy, to whom he was heard to

say something which nobody understood, and to whom, after the man's

capture, no one paid much attention, was no more seen.

"The rest, as far as this man was concerned, may be told in a few words;

nothing to criminate him was found on his person, but on his baggage

being examined, a quantity of spurious notes were discovered. Much of

his hardihood now forsook him, and in the hope of saving his life he made

some very important disclosures; amongst other things, he confessed that

it was he who had given me the notes in exchange for the horses, and also

the note to be changed. He was subsequently tried on two indictments, in

the second of which I appeared against him. He was condemned to die;

but, in consideration of the disclosures he had made, his sentence was

commuted to perpetual transportation.

"My innocence was thus perfectly established before the eyes of the

world, and all my friends hastened to congratulate me. There was one who

congratulated me more than all the rest--it was my beloved one,

but--but--she was dying--"

Here the old man drew his hand before his eyes, and remained for some

time without speaking; at length he removed his hand, and commenced again

with a broken voice: "You will pardon me if I hurry over this part of my

story, I am unable to dwell upon it. How dwell upon a period when I saw

my only earthly treasure pine away gradually day by day, and knew that

nothing could save her! She saw my agony, and did all she could to

console me, saying that she was herself quite resigned. A little time

before her death she expressed a wish that we should be united. I was

too happy to comply with her request. We were united, I brought her to

this house, where, in less than a week, she expired in my arms."