“That it served them right for marrying poachers, and that they might think they were lucky not to be the victims themselves, for that a fellow who would take to poaching was capable of cutting his wife’s throat, or of any other enormity.”
Mr. Gouger’s report was, on the whole, satisfactory. Markum was going on well, though he (Gouger) could not pronounce him out of danger; the injury was very serious, and several days must elapse before the ulterior consequences would be apparent; or, as the doctor himself remarked, the effect of extraneous particles of plumbago, or lead, introduced into the vital system by the sudden expansion of saltpetre and other explosive compounds compressed within the narrow limits of a gun-barrel, and discharged thence by ignition, according to the natural laws of projectiles, was most subtle and deleterious, leading sometimes to the total destruction of animal life, at others to a concussion of the nervous system; or again, &c. &c.: from which sapient opinion Harry collected that Brodie need not be sent for immediately.
Days glided by, the prisoners were remanded till Markum’s chance of life or death should be ascertained, and Alice had not found a fitting moment in which to make her appeal. At length the surgeon, with grave looks, which might mean everything, anything, or nothing, advised, merely as a matter of precaution, that the wounded man should make a deposition before a magistrate, so that if anything were to happen, the jury might have the advantage of his statement of facts. Coverdale, therefore, having persuaded one of his brother magistrates to accompany him, proceeded to the cottage for the above purpose. Shortly after he had set off, Alice was informed that a poor woman was desirous of speaking to her; and on ordering her to be shown in, she was less surprised than embarrassed to recognise in the tearful applicant her cottage hostess, the wife of the culprit, Jack Hargrave. The result of the interview may be easily foreseen. Alice descanted on the greatness of the crime committed, Mr. Coverdale’s virtuous indignation against the offenders, and the consequent difficulty of persuading him not to prosecute them. Mrs. Jack brought forward, in reply, the baby and a flood of tears,—arguments so unanswerable that Alice, having kissed the one, and all but joined in the other, dismissed the afflicted matron, having renewed her pledge of exerting her whole influence in favour of the prisoners. It was with a feeling akin to desperation that she determined to plead her protégées’ cause the moment Harry should return, certain that if she again allowed her ardour to cool, she should never have courage to enter upon the subject to him. Accordingly, as soon as he had finished giving her an account of the clear and able manner in which Markum had detailed the proceedings of the eventful night on which the affray had occurred, she began:—
“I, too, have had rather a trying interview; the wife of one of the men who have been taken up on suspicion has been here—a frail, delicate-looking, young creature, scarcely more than a girl, with the dearest, sweetest, little baby imaginable. I do so wish you had seen it!”
Harry muttered a reply, which, though scarcely audible, conveyed the impression that he was perfectly content without having had ocular demonstration of its infantine perfections; and Alice continued—
“Yes, I wish you had seen both mother and child—its sweet, innocent looks, and the poor girl’s tears, would have pleaded her cause better than any arguments of mine can do, your kind heart could never have resisted them.”
“Plead her cause,” repeated Coverdale; “that means, because her husband and his accomplice have been so obliging as to destroy my game, and murder, or half murder, as the case may prove, my head keeper, she considers it my duty to support herself and family, I suppose; she has brought this irresistible baby as a safe dodge to work upon your feminine susceptibilities; and, with thorough woman’s logic, she has persuaded you to look upon her as a suffering innocent, and upon me as a tyannical oppressor. Now confess—is not this the truth?”
“No, really it is not,” replied Alice, eagerly. “I own I think you, from your passion for field-sports, take rather an exaggerated view of the crime of poaching; but I quite feel as you do, that wounding poor Markum was a cruel and cowardly act; still, revenging it upon this family will not benefit him nor ourselves.”
“I don’t wish the people to starve, of course,” returned Harry, moodily, “though I should imagine the young woman and her brats can scarcely have got through all the game in her larder yet. I should not mind starving on hashed hare and broiled pheasants’ legs myself for a week or two; however, if the poor girl really is in want, I have no objection to your relieving her, but do not be imposed upon, darling, that is all that I mean to say.”
The kindness of her husband’s manner, and the good-natured way in which he appeared willing to support the family of the man who had injured him, served alike to remove Alice’s fears, and to lead her to overrate the extent of her influence with her husband; so, leaning her arm on his shoulder, while with her other hand she smoothed back his clustering hair, she continued, “What a good, kind boy it is, though it does growl sometimes. But now, to show you that my protégée is not seeking to impose on me for the sake of obtaining money, I will tell you that her petition was for quite a different object, and one creditable alike to her feelings as a wife and a sister: she wants you to act as only a high and generous nature like your own would be capable of acting—she implores you to pardon her husband and her brother.”