the purcell papers-2-第17章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
fathoming; and strange; unaccountable;
incredible as it may seem; I do believe;
and that upon evidence so clear as to
amount almost to demonstration; that
Heathcote's visit to Dublinhis betrayal
of the secretand the final and terrible
catastrophe which laid O'Mara in the
grave; were brought about by no other
agent than Dwyer himself。
I have myself seen the letter which
induced that visit。 The handwriting is
exactly what I have seen in other alleged
specimens of Dwyer's penmanship。 It is
written with an affectation of honest alarm
at O'Mara's conduct; and expresses a
conviction that if some of Lady Emily's
family be not informed of O'Mara's real
situation; nothing could prevent his
concluding with her an advantageous alliance;
then upon the tapis; and altogether throwing
off his allegiance to Ellena step
which; as the writer candidly asserted;
would finally conduce as inevitably to his
own disgrace as it immediately would to
her ruin and misery。
The production was formally signed
with Dwyer's name; and the postscript
contained a strict injunction of secrecy;
asserting that if it were ascertained that
such an epistle had been despatched from
such a quarter; it would be attended with
the total ruin of the writer。
It is true that Dwyer; many years after;
when this letter came to light; alleged it to
be a forgery; an assertion whose truth;
even to his dying hour; and long after he
had apparently ceased to feel the lash of
public scorn; he continued obstinately to
maintain。 Indeed this matter is full of
mystery; for; revenge alone excepted;
which I believe; in such minds as Dwyer's;
seldom overcomes the sense of interest;
the only intelligible motive which could
have prompted him to such an act was the
hope that since he had; through young
O'Mara's interest; procured from the
colonel a lease of a small farm upon the
terms which he had originally stipulated;
he might prosecute his plan touching the
property of Martin Heathcote; rendering
his daughter's hand free by the removal of
young O'Mara。 This appears to me too
complicated a plan of villany to have
entered the mind even of such a man as
Dwyer。 I must; therefore; suppose his
motives to have originated out of
circumstances connected with this story which
may not have come to my ear; and perhaps
never will。
Colonel O'Mara felt the death of his
son more deeply than I should have
thought possible; but that son had been
the last being who had continued to
interest his cold heart。 Perhaps the pride
which he felt in his child had in it more of
selfishness than of any generous feeling。
But; be this as it may; the melancholy
circumstances connected with Ellen
Heathcote had reached him; and his
conduct towards her proved; more strongly
than anything else could have done; that
he felt keenly and justly; and; to a certain
degree; with a softened heart; the fatal
event of which she had been; in some
manner; alike the cause and the victim。
He evinced not towards her; as might
have been expected; any unreasonable
resentment。 On the contrary; he exhibited
great consideration; even tenderness; for
her situation; and having ascertained
where his son had placed her; he issued
strict orders that she should not be
disturbed; and that the fatal tidings; which
had not yet reached her; should be withheld
until they might be communicated in
such a way as to soften as much as
possible the inevitable shock。
These last directions were acted upon
too scrupulously and too long; and;
indeed; I am satisfied that had the event
been communicated at once; however
terrible and overwhelming the shock
might have been; much of the bitterest
anguish; of sickening doubts; of harassing
suspense; would have been spared her;
and the first tempestuous burst of sorrow
having passed over; her chastened spirit
might have recovered its tone; and her life
have been spared。 But the mistaken
kindness which concealed from her the
dreadful truth; instead of relieving her
mind of a burden which it could not support;
laid upon it a weight of horrible
fears and doubts as to the affection of
O'Mara; compared with which even the
certainty of his death would have been
tolerable。
One evening I had just seated myself
beside a cheerful turf fire; with that true
relish which a long cold ride through a
bleak and shelterless country affords;
stretching my chilled limbs to meet the
genial influence; and imbibing the warmth
at every pore; when my comfortable
meditations were interrupted by a long
and sonorous ringing at the door…bell
evidently effected by no timid hand。
A messenger had arrived to request my
attendance at the Lodgesuch was the
name which distinguished a small and
somewhat antiquated building; occupying
a peculiarly secluded position among the
bleak and heathy hills which varied the
surface of that not altogether uninteresting
district; and which had; I believe; been
employed by the keen and hardy ancestors
of the O'Mara family as a convenient
temporary residence during the sporting
season。
Thither my attendance was required; in
order to administer to a deeply distressed
lady such comforts as an afflicted mind can
gather from the sublime hopes and consolations
of Christianity。
I had long suspected that the occupant
of this sequestered; I might say desolate;
dwelling…house was the poor girl whose
brief story we are following; and feeling a
keen interest in her fateas who that had
ever seen her DID NOT?I started from my
comfortable seat with more eager alacrity
than; I will confess it; I might have
evinced had my duty called me in another
direction。
In a few minutes I was trotting rapidly
onward; preceded by my guide; who urged
his horse with the remorseless rapidity of
one who seeks by the speed of his progress
to escape observation。 Over roads and
through bogs we splashed and clattered;
until at length traversing the brow of a
wild and rocky hill; whose aspect seemed
so barren and forbidding that it might
have been a lasting barrier alike to mortal
sight and step; the lonely building became
visible; lying in a kind of swampy flat;
with a broad reedy pond or lake stretching
away to its side; and backed by a farther
range of monotonous sweeping hills;
marked with irregular lines of grey rock;
which; in the distance; bore a rude and
colossal resemblance to the walls of a
fortification。
Riding with undiminished speed along
a kind of wild horse…track; we turned the
corner of a high and somewhat ruinous
wall of loose stones; and making a sudden
wheel we found ourselves in a small
quadrangle; surmounted on two sides by
dilapidated stables and kennels; on
another by a broken stone wall; and upon
the fourth by the front of the lodge itself。
The whole character of the place was that
of dreary desertion and decay; which
would of itself have predisposed the mind
for melancholy impressions。 My guide
dismounted; and with respectful attention
held my horse's bridle while I got down;
and knocking at the door with the handle
of his whip; it was speedily opened by a
neatly…dressed female domestic; and I was
admitted to the interior of the house; and
conducted into a small room; where a fire
in some degree dispelled the cheerless air;
which would otherwise have prevailed
to a painful degree throughout the
place。
I had been waiting but for a very few
minutes when another female servant;
somewhat older than the first; entered the
room。 She made some apology on the
part of the person whom I had come to
visit; for the slight delay which had already
occurred; and requested me further to wait
for a few minutes longer; intimating that
the lady's grief was so violent; that without
great effort she could not bring herself
to speak