Thirty Years Since; or, The Ruined Family. A Tale

by Unknown

CHAPTER XX.

"And now, my dear William," said Sir Sidney Delaware, as soon as Mr. Tims had departed, and the rolling wheels of his post-chaise were no longer heard grating down the western avenue--"and now, my dear William, lay your angry spirit. Depend upon it, that man carries with him a sufficient punishment in the disappointment he has suffered. He is one of that class of rogues for whom the old Athenians, finding no appropriate corporeal infliction, decreed the punishment of the Stela; or, in other words, ordered their names and infamy to be engraved upon a pillar, and thus held them up to shame forever."

"As our law has no such just award," replied Captain Delaware, "I should certainly have had great pleasure in writing his shame on his back with a horsewhip instead; but of course as you did not like it, I forbore."

"NO, no, my dear boy!" said his father; "you would have degraded yourself, gratified him, and had to pay a large sum for a small. satisfaction. But now all that is past; explain to us the rest of the business. How happened the money to arrive so apropos, and without the accompaniment of the miser of Ryebury! Was Mr. Tims, senior, unwilling to meet Mr. Tims, junior on a business, in regard to which it was evident that the lawyer both wished and anticipated a different result?"

"Strange enough to say, my dear sir," replied Captain Delaware, "you are asking me questions which I can not at all answer. There is Blanche smiling," he added, "because I told her the same, before I came down, and she chose to be incredulous; though she knows that there never was sailor or landsman yet so little given to romancing as I am."

"But you can tell me when it was you received the money?" said Sir Sidney, in some degree of surprise.

"Oh, certainly, sir!" answered his son. "It was this morning, not long before Blanche came up to my room."

"Why, they told me you had not been out this morning," said his father.

"Neither have I, my dear sir," replied Captain Delaware.

"In short, papa, he makes a mystery of the whole affair," said Blanche "and will not say how or where he got it."

"You are wrong, my dear sister," rejoined her brother. "I am perfectly willing to say how and where I got it; and in fact I told you before."

"Oh, but, William!" exclaimed his sister, "I saw very well that you were only jesting. You did not, I am sure, intend me to give credence to that story!"

"Well for you that you are not a man, my pretty Blanche," answered Captain Delaware, shaking his hand at her, good-humoredly. "I will repeat the same, word for word, to my father; and if he do not believe me, I will swear to it, if he likes."

"Not I--not I, William!" said Sir Sidney. "Anything that you assert in so solemn a manner, I will believe without any swearing, however improbable it may be."

"Well, then, my dear sir," replied Captain Delaware, "the fact is this: when I rose this morning, in looking about for something on my dressing-table, I found a paper parcel with my name written upon it; and, on opening it, saw the notes which I just now gave to that blackguard. There was no one thing in or about the parcel that could lead me to divine from whom or whence it came; but as it contained the precise sum required, and was addressed to myself, I could not doubt the purpose for which it was intended. I have a vague recollection, indeed, of seeing it lying there last night; but I was out of humor, and somewhat sick at heart, and took but little notice, of any thing. However, it must have been there when I went to bed, for no one could have come into my room without my hearing them."

"Hum!" said Sir Sidney Delaware, with a smile. "Hum!" and, notwithstanding his promise of full faith in his son's account, it was evident he did not give credit to a word of it. "Well, well, William," he said, "we will not press you hard; though your grave face almost deserves that one should believe you."

"On my word, sir! On my honor!" reiterated Captain Delaware. "Every word that I tell you is true. This is very hard indeed that I am not to be believed, even when I pledge my honor."

"Nay, nay!" said Sir Sidney. "If you bring your honor into the scrape, my dear boy, I suppose we must believe you. But you will not, I dare say, deny that you have some shrewd guess at how the money came there, or who sent it!"

"In regard to the person who sent it," answered Captain Delaware, a good deal mortified at doubts which he felt he did not deserve, "I have certainly a very strong suspicion, though I do not feel justified in naming the friend to whom my mind turns; but, as to how it came there, I am fully as ignorant as yourself or Blanche."

"Well, all I can say is, that the whole business is very extraordinary," replied Sir Sidney Delaware, more gravely than he had hitherto spoken. "Indeed, I know not which would seem the most strange, that such a large sum should be left in your room without your privity or knowledge; or that my son should so strongly assert, even in jest, what is not strictly true."

"Sir, you are doing me injustice!" said Captain Delaware, with a burning cheek and a quivering lip; "and, as it is so, I will soon investigate, and, if possible, discover how it was that this took place;" and, striding across the room, he rang the hell with a degree of violence, which showed the pain it cost him to brook respectfully, even from his father, the doubt that Sir Sidney's last words insinuated. Blanche gently glided across the room; and, laying her hand upon his arm, raised her beautiful eyes to his with a look half imploring, half reproachful. Captain Delaware did not reply, but turned away; and, walking to the window, looked out into the park till the servant appeared.

"Who left a paper parcel on my dressing-table last night?" he demanded abruptly, and somewhat sharply too, as the man entered.

The first reply was a stare of astonishment at the unwonted tone of one usually so mild and kindly in his whole deportment. "I am sure I do not know, sir!" answered the man, as soon as he had recovered. "I did not!"

"William, you are heated," said Sir Sidney Delaware, interrupting his son, as he was about to put another question to the servant. "I perceive now, perhaps too plainly, that the matter is not a jest; and therefore, of course, believe what you have said. The business, however, must be investigated; as we can not lie under so great an obligation to any one, without due acknowledgment and repayment. Did you see any stranger about the house or near it during the course of yesterday evening!" he continued, turning to the servant.

"No one, sir," replied the man. "That is to say, no one near the house. In the lanes, at the back of the park, I met Harding, Mr. Burrel's valet, loitering about with another young man toward dusk; and now, I recollect, the housemaid declaring that she saw some one just passing by the terrace at about eight or nine o'clock."

"Send the housemaid here!" said Sir Sidney; "and desire Mrs. Williams"--the name of the old housekeeper--"and desire Mrs. Williams to come with her."

The commands of Sir Sidney were immediately obeyed, and the examination of the housemaid began in form. The footman, however, had already told nearly as much as she could tell herself. When going along one of the corridors, during the previous evening, to shut the windows which looked out upon the western part of the park, she had seen a gentleman, she said, walking along just below the terrace, toward the wood. She could not tell who he was, for she only saw him for a moment; and, as he was partly concealed by the raised terrace on which the house stood, she only caught a sight of his head and shoulders.

Here ended all information. The old housekeeper had seen no one, and the housemaid declared that she neither could tell how tall the gentleman was, nor could vouchsafe any other particulars in regard to his personal appearance, except that he was a gentleman, she was sure; for he walked like a gentleman. Sir Sidney would fain have forced her into a definition of the walk of a gentleman; but the housemaid was not to be caught, and took refuge in stupidity, as usual in such cases.

By the time this was over, William Delaware's heat had evaporated, and it was with a smile he asked his father, "Well, sir, who do you think our _dear unknown friend is?_"

"Why, of course, William, I can not say who it positively is," replied Sir Sidney; "but it would not surprise me, were I to find that it was your admirable friend Burrel."

"Nor I either!" answered William Delaware. "What do you think, Blanche!"

But Blanche was looking out of the window, with a very red tip to the fair finely-turned ear that rested on the smooth glossy waves of her rich brown hair. Perhaps she did not hear the question, but certainly she did not answer it; and her brother, though he would fain have said a word or two of kind malice, could he have known how far he might venture without inflicting real pain, would not run the risk.

"I wish, William," said his father, "that you would go down to Emberton, and see Mr. Burrel. The circumstances of the proposed arrangement with Lord Ashborough were mentioned more than once in his presence, and if he have heard by any chance of there being a delay on the part of Mr. Tims, he may certainly have taken means to remedy that inconvenience. In fact, I know of no other person at all likely to perform such an act of liberality in this somewhat romantic manner."

Blanche glided out of the room, and her father went on. "Mrs. Darlington, though a very good woman, and not without feeling, does not perform such acts as this. Otherwise, as she came to Emberton, I hear, yesterday, to meet Dr. Wilton and another magistrate about this burning of her house, we might have supposed that she was the lender of the money. Good Dr. Wilton himself could not, I know, command so large a sum. I wish, therefore, you would go and visit Mr. Burrel, and tell him that, while we accept the loan as an obligation, and appreciate his conduct as it should be appreciated, we are desirous of giving him a mortgage upon the property which he has released from so great a burden."

"I will go down almost immediately, sir," replied Captain Delaware; "but, in all the confusion of this morning, I have lost my breakfast, for it seems that the surprise and wonderment of finding the packet detained me till you and Blanche had finished."

The bell was rung, breakfast was again made, and Captain Delaware proceeded somewhat quickly in the task of dispatching it, reflecting, in the intervals of a broken conversation with his father, upon all that he would have to say to Burrel--how he might best and most delicately thank him for the kindness and promptitude of the service he had rendered--how he might arrive-at the facts of his situation in regard to Blanche; and whether he would be justified in communicating at once to Sir Sidney his cousin's real name, without consulting Beauchamp himself. In the mean while, the baronet walked backward and forward--now looked out of the window--now talked with his son, feeling that degree of pleasant perturbation, that sort of long swell, which remains after some moment of peculiar agitation is happily over, and the mind is settling down slowly into a calm.

Before his son had finished his breakfast, however, Sir Sidney remarked that there seemed a great many people in the park. "I suppose," he said, "the worthy lawyer has informed the good folks of the town that we are rather more than a thousand a year richer than we were in the morning; and therefore we may now expect the respectful congratulations of all those who treated us with the greatest degree of contempt while we were poor."

"I will go and kick them out, sir, directly," said Captain Delaware, "if you will allow me to finish this piece of toast."

"I hope you may finish a great many, William," replied his father, "before you begin kicking at all. But there really seems something extraordinary here. There is a whole posse, and here is a chariot driving up the avenue--Dr. Wilton's, I think."

Captain Delaware rose for a moment, looked out of the window, declared the carriage to be certainly Dr. Wilton's, and the personages on foot to be a set of blackguards, who had no business there; and then sat down to his breakfast again, with the intention, as soon as he had concluded, of going forth and sending the gentry, who had now approached close to the house, back to the town without any very flattering expression of regard. He was just depositing his coffee-cup in the saucer, when Dr. Wilton entered the room unannounced, accompanied by another magistrate, and followed by Mr. Peter Tims, with two or three other persons, whose appearance in that place greatly surprised both Sir Sidney and his son.

The baronet advanced, however, and shook his reverend friend by the hand; and Captain Delaware exclaimed, laughing, "Why, my dear Doctor Wilton, I never thought to see you with such a crew, headed by such a rascally boatswain as that behind you. Why, you have got all the constables of Emberton at your back! What is the matter?"

"I am sorry to say, my dear William, that I am come upon a very serious business," replied Doctor Wilton; "Although, indeed, the part that regards you, both our good friend here, Mr. Egerton, and myself, look upon as quite ridiculous. Yet the matter is of so very horrible a nature, that it does not admit of a jest; and this person--this gentleman, urges a charge against you, so seriously and plausibly, that we are forced to examine into the matter, though we doubt not that you can clear yourself at once."

"The scoundrel does not pretend to say that I struck him!" cried Captain Delaware, his cheek burning with anger; "I threatened, indeed, and I wish I had put my threat--"

"The charge is a much more serious one than that," said Dr. Wilton, interrupting him; and then, turning to his brother magistrate, he said, in a low tone--"Remark his demeanor! I told you it was ridiculous."

"Yon had better, however, have the warrant executed," replied the other, in the same low tone. "We can hold the examination here; and if it turn out as you expect, discharge it as soon as the business is over."

"What is the matter, gentlemen?" asked Sir Sidney Delaware. "All this seems very strange! Will you be kind enough to explain?"

"Captain Delaware," said Mr. Egerton, "we are here upon an unpleasant duty. You are charged by this person, who is, I am told, Mr. Tims, a lawyer of Clement's Inn, with a very serious crime; and although, from your character and station, Dr. Wilton and myself do not for a moment believe the accusation to originate in any thing but error, and are willing to do all to spare your feelings; yet, in pursuit of the ends of justice, we are bound to act toward you as we would toward any other person in the same situation. A charge against you, then, having been made before us, upon oath, we were bound to grant a warrant against you, which must now be executed. The examination, however, can as well take place here as elsewhere; and as this gentleman has declared that he is ready to go into it immediately, we will instantly proceed, not at all doubting that you can clear yourself at once."

Captain Delaware had listened at first with surprise and indignation; but gradually, as the importance of the whole business became strongly impressed upon his mind, he assumed a more serious aspect, and bowing low in reply to Mr. Egerton's address, he said, gravely, but frankly,--"Although I can not divine what charge that person is about to bring--or rather has brought--against me, yet I thank you, sir, for the courtesy with which you are inclined to treat me, and of course surrender myself at once. Do not look so shocked, my dear father," he added, turning toward Sir Sidney; "be assured that your son never did an act that he was ashamed to acknowledge in the face of the whole world., But I think you had better leave us, for this business seems likely to be too painful for you."

"Never, never, my dear boy!" replied Sir Sidney. "Never! I am a magistrate also, and should know something of these affairs; and though, of course, I can not act in your case, I will not leave you while I have life."

A tear rose in Doctor Wilton's eye; but Mr. Egerton beckoned forward the officer charged with the warrant against Captain Delaware, to whom the young gentleman surrendered immediately, merely requiring to be informed of the nature of the crime with which he was charged. "I object, I object!" cried Mr. Peter Tims. "I will not have the prisoner put upon his guard!"

"You seem strangely ignorant of the fundamental principles of English law, sir, for a person who follows it as a profession," replied Mr. Egerton. "Captain Delaware, you are charged with the murder of a person of the name of Tims, residing at Ryebury, in this neighborhood."

"Good God!" exclaimed Captain Delaware, with unfeigned horror; "then, that is the reason the poor fellow did not bring the money last night."

"Put down that observation, clerk!" said Doctor Wilton to a young man who had followed into the room with the constables, and two or three other persons.

"Let us carry on the matter a little more formally, my dear sir," said Mr. Egerton.--"Sir Sidney, with your permission, we will take our seats here. Clerk, place yourself there. Constable, put a chair for Captain Delaware at the bottom of the table--stand back yourself, and keep those other persons back.--Captain Delaware, it is customary to warn persons in your present situation against saying any thing that may commit themselves. To you I have only to remark, that your examination will of course be taken down, and may hereafter be brought against you."

"You will understand, however," added Doctor Wilton, "that the present investigation is merely instituted by us to ascertain whether this person can bring forward sufficient evidence in support of the accusation, to oblige us to remand you for further examination."

"I shall bring forward sufficient evidence to compel you to commit him," cried Mr. Tims, "however prejudiced you may be in his favor."

"Do not be insolent, sir," said Mr. Egerton, "or I may find it necessary to punish you in the first instance. Your charge is already made, and we shall proceed with the examination as we judge most expedient ourselves. Remember, Captain Delaware, you are warned against committing yourself."

"I have nothing to conceal, sir, and therefore have no reason to fear saying any thing that is true!" replied the young officer. "Pray, proceed."

"Well, then, let me ask," said Mr. Egerton, "when and where you happened to see Mr. Tims--generally known by the name of the miser of Ryebury--for the last time?"

"It was yesterday morning," replied Captain Delaware. "I met him first in the lanes leading to his own house; accompanied him home, and left him there."

"Pray, did any high words pass between you and him on that occasion?" demanded the magistrate; "and if so, what was the subject of dispute? You are not compelled to answer, unless you like."

"I am sorry to say," replied Captain Delaware, "that there were high words passed between myself and the poor old man. The cause of them was simply that he had agreed to furnish a certain sum of money to pay off an annuity which was pressing heavily upon this estate; and that he failed to perform his promise at the time agreed upon."

"And to obtain which, whether he would or not, you murdered him!" cried Mr. Peter Tims.

Captain Delaware started up, with the fire flashing from his eyes, but instantly resumed his seat, saying, "Am I to be thus insulted, gentlemen?"

"Mr. Peter Tims," Said Mr. Egerton, sternly, "if you again interrupt the proceedings, I will have you removed from the room; and if you are insolent," he added, seeing the other about to reply, "I shall equally know how to deal with you."

The lawyer was silent, and Doctor Wilton demanded, "Will you state; Captain Delaware, whether, on your last meeting with the unhappy man, Mr. Tims, you threatened to strike him, or used any violent menaces toward him?"

William Delaware reddened, but he replied at once, "Sorry I am to say, my dear sir, that I did threaten to horsewhip him; but it was upon severe provocation, from the cool insolence with which he informed me that he was not able to keep the promise he had made--the performance of which was of infinite consequence to my family."

"And are you certain, Captain Delaware," demanded Mr. Egerton, "that that was the last time you ever saw this unhappy man?"

"Perfectly certain!" replied the young officer; and then added, after a momentary pause, "I went to his house last night, in order to ascertain whether the money had arrived, but could not obtain admittance. I rang several times without effect."

Dr. Wilton and Mr. Egerton looked at each other, and the latter then demanded--"Then, pray, Captain Delaware, where did you obtain the money which you paid to Mr. Tims, here present, this morning?"

"I suppose, sir," replied Captain Delaware, with some degree of haughtiness, "that, as the question is evidently intended to entangle me, I might, according to the principle you have yourself laid down, refuse to answer; but it is indeed unnecessary to do so; and if the simple truth do not clear me, I can hope for nothing else." He then circumstantially recapitulated the same story which he had that morning related to his father, concerning the receipt of the money.

Mr. Tims laughed scornfully, and Mr. Egerton looked to Dr. Wilton, who, in return, whispered something to him, which seemed to make an immediate impression. "Captain Delaware," he said, "it is fit that I should inform you, that a strong case is made out against you. In the first place, there has been evidence on oath given before us, at the house of this unfortunate man, Mr. Tims, that you were heard to threaten him violently yesterday morning--clerk, hand me the minute of Farmer Ritson's evidence--yes, those are the words. In the next place, you were seen going toward his house last night, after sunset, and two or three other persons unknown were observed proceeding in the same direction. About that period, the deceased was evidently still alive, as his servant, it appears, was sent to Emberton for bill-stamps, the written description of which is before us, in his own hand. The man has been found murdered, in the very room where he kept his money, as if he had been killed in the act of taking out certain sums from his iron chest. The body of the woman has not been discovered, but a long track of blood down the stairs has pointed the direction in which it was carried, and doubtless it will be found ere long."

Captain Delaware had listened attentively, but not without impatience; for perfect innocence made him feel the charge utterly absurd, and at length he broke forth--"And do you, sir!" he exclaimed, "call it a strong case, that I was heard to threaten an old knavish miser with a horsewhipping, and was seen somewhere in the neighborhood of his house on the night that he was killed, without any other evidence whatever?"

"Not without any other evidence whatever, Captain Delaware," replied Mr. Egerton, some what sharply; "but on a train of circumstantial evidence, sir, very painful for as to contemplate. You mistake the matter, Captain Delaware," he added, in a more kindly tone. "Your previous high character induces us to put the most liberal construction upon every thing, and to extend to your case the most calm--nay, the most friendly--consideration that justice will admit, before we even remand you to await the result of the coroner's inquest. Besides the circumstances I have stated, you must remember that you, yourself acknowledge that, up to a late hour last night, you were not possessed of the sum required. By half-past nine this morning, that sum is in your possession. One of the notes before me bears the mark of a forefinger stained with blood; and in the bed-room of the deceased a paper has been found, dated yesterday morning, in which the dates and numbers of some of the notes paid by you this morning, are marked as having been received by post that day. Your account of the manner in which the money came into your hands is somewhat extraordinary--nay, so much so, as to be highly improbable; and I fear, that unless you can in some way explain these circumstances, we shall be bound to commit you at once."

Sir Sidney Delaware hid his face in his handkerchief, and wept. Mr. Tims rubbed his hands with a degree of glee, not at all diminished by the loss of his uncle, and Captain Delaware gazed upon the two magistrates, stupefied at finding himself suddenly placed in circumstances so suspicious. There was innocence, however, in the whole expression of his countenance; in the surprise, in the horror, in the bewilderment it betrayed and Mr. Egerton, who was a shrewd and observing, without being an unfeeling man, saw that such conduct could not be affected, and believed that it could only proceed from a heart devoid of guilt.

"Bethink yourself, my dear sir!" he said, after a short pause, during which he awaited in vain Captain Delaware's answer. "However improbable, I will not believe any thing that you have said to be untrue."

"If you did, sir, I could pardon you," replied the young officer, with a glowing cheek; "for long ere you appeared, I could scarcely prevail upon my own family to believe the tale. How much more, then, might it be doubted by a person who is nearly a stranger to me?"

"Well, but, my dear sir!" said Mr. Egerton, more convinced of the prisoner's innocence, by this outbreak of feeling, than he had been before, "can you not account for the fact of the money being so placed in your bed-room?"

Captain Delaware related what had passed in the morning, and the servants being called, recapitulated their tale; the footman declaring that he had seen no one but Mr. Burrel's man, Harding, in the lanes at the back of the park, and the housemaid swearing that she had seen a stranger on the terrace just after nightfall. Dr. Wilton, at the first sound of Burrel's name, sent off a messenger to his lodging at Emberton, with orders to bring up the landlady, with Harding, and the groom, if the two latter were still there; and, in the mean while, Mr. Egerton continued the examination, evidently more with a view of giving the prisoner every chance of explaining the suspicious circumstances, than with a wish to find him guilty.

"Now, Captain Delaware," he said, "I am about to put a question to you, which the circumstances I believe, fully justify. Do you, or do you not, know any one who was likely to perform so extraordinary, and, I must say, foolish an act as that of placing so large a sum in your chamber, without giving you any notice of his so doing?--I say, have you any suspicion as to who was the person who did so?"

"I certainly have, sir!" replied William Delaware. "And he was not a man to do a foolish act. Circumstances unknown to you, sir, might induce him to do, in the present instance, what he would not have done upon any other motives."

"And pray, sir, who may he be?" demanded the magistrate.

Captain Delaware paused; but replied, after an instant's thought--"my present situation, of course, compels me to be more explicit upon such a subject than I otherwise should be. The person I suspect of having placed the money in my room, is a gentleman who has lately been residing at Emberton, under the name of Burrel, but who may now be named as my cousin, Henry Beauchamp."

Sir Sidney Delaware started up off his chair, but immediately resumed his seat again: and another look of intelligence passed between Mr. Egerton and Dr. Wilton.

"I appeal to Dr. Wilton," added Captain Delaware, "if such a thing be not probable."

"Most probable in his case," replied Dr. Wilton. "Indeed, more than probable!"

"Pray, sir, are you now acting as a magistrate or as a witness?" demanded Mr. Tims. "If as the latter, I would ask you, whether Mr. Beauchamp did not pass the day at your house yesterday, which I hear in the village that he did, beyond all doubt?"

"Then you have heard, sir, what was not the case!" replied Dr. Wilton.

"Pray, at what hour did he leave your house sir?" demanded Mr. Tims, taking care to preserve so respectful a tone as to afford no excuse for refusing an answer to his question.

"I should not hold myself bound to reply to you sir," said the clergyman; "but a sense of justice must of course supersede every other consideration, whether indignation at impudence, or contempt for low cunning; and therefore I reply, that he left my house, I should suppose, about three o'clock."

"I will presume to ask one question more, if I am permitted," said the unruffled Mr. Peter Tims, bowing to Mr. Egerton, who was evidently listening with interest. "At Mr. Beauchamp's departure, Dr. Wilton did he tell you whither he was about to turn his steps?"

Dr. Wilton fidgeted on his seat; but truth was paramount, and he answered, "He certainly implied that he was going to London."

"Did he take the road which leads in that direction?" asked Mr. Tims.

"He did!" replied the clergyman, and the interrogatory dropped by a low bow on the part of the lawyer to both the magistrates.

The examination now paused for several minutes, till good Mrs. Wilson who had been Beauchamp's landlady at Emberton was brought into the room. Although the questions which were asked her were few, and of the simplest kind, the poor woman gave her evidence in as wild and confused a manner as if she had been charged with the murder herself. The result, however, was, that she swore Mr. Burrel had left her house early in the forenoon of the preceeding day, as she understood, for London; that his groom, with the greater part of his luggage, had gone by the coach that very morning, and that his gentleman, Mr. Harding, had followed his master the night before. She could not say exactly at what hour; but swore that it was between eight and ten.

This evidence was all that could be adduced at the time; and Mr. Tims, upon the strength of the case he had made out, resumed a degree of his former insolence, and demanded loudly, that Captain Delaware should be committed.

A long conversation, which was carried on in so low a tone as to be inaudible to any one but the two magistrates and the clerk, then ensued between Dr. Wilton and Mr. Egerton; the latter of whom at length said, to the surprise even of Captain Delaware himself, "I do not think, Mr. Tims, that, all things considered, we should be justified in committing the prisoner till after the coroner's jury have sat upon the body. We have determined, sir, to remand him."

Mr. Tims stormed and raved, slapped the table with all the unction of forensic eloquence, and demanded where the magistrates intended to confine the prisoner in the mean time. There was no place of security nearer than the county town, except the cage at Emberton; and he doubted not--he added, with a sneer--that the friendship which the worthy magistrates entertained for the prisoner would prevent him from occupying that lodging.

"Our sense of decency and humanity will do so, at least," replied Mr. Egerton, coolly. "In a word, sir, we do not think that there is sufficient direct evidence before us to commit the accused till the coroner's inquest has sat. The coroner has been already sent for, and the inquest can be held immediately. The jury may themselves like to examine the prisoner; and, therefore, it will be useless to send him to the county town. In order to spare his feelings as much as possible, which of course we wish to do, we have determined, if two of our most active constables can find a room in this house which they judge undoubtedly secure, to leave him here, under their custody. If not, he must be removed to Emberton, and placed in the justice-room, though the security of it is doubtful."

In vain the lawyer argued. The justices were determined; and the officers, after spending some time in examining the house, returned, declaring that no room in a prison could be more secure than the prisoner's own bed-room, which was so high above the terrace, that no escape could be effected from the window; and which had but one door opening into an ante-room, where they could keep watch. Mr. Tims himself was permitted to examine the room; and could not but acknowledge that he was satisfied. The constables received every injunction to be cautious, and Captain Delaware, having been asked whether he had any thing farther to say, replied that he had not.

"Then you may remove the prisoner!" said Mr. Egerton. Sir Sidney Delaware staggered up, and caught him in his arms. Captain Delaware pressed his father for a moment to his heart; and saying, in a low but firm voice, "Do not be afraid--I am as innocent as a child of the charge they bring against me!" tore himself away, and quitted the room.