They all gazed on him for a moment as he lay stretched upon the grass, and then Longly turned to the young gentleman saying:--
"Now, Mr. Tyrrell, if you think as you did just now, you have nothing to do but to go and send down people to take us up. As for any wrong I've done, my heart's at rest; I've given him the first shot at myself, and if he was such a fool and such a coward as not to be able to hit such a great grampus as I am, that's not my fault. But he's had fair play and a good distance, and so help me God, when I come to lie like him, as I have thought of nothing throughout this morning, but his shameful conduct to my poor motherless girl; so now go if you will and send down constables for us, for if I'm to be hanged, I've had something for it at least."
"No, no, Longly," replied Charles Tyrrell, holding out his hand to him, "I will betray no man, and give you my honour, unless I am put upon my oath against you, will never say one word of what I have seen this day. I am sorry for you, Longly, for I fear the time will come that you will bitterly repent what you have done."
"Not I, not I!" replied Longly, "I have done nothing but what's right, and what he well deserved; but I always knew you were a gentleman and a man of honour, Mr. Tyrrell, and I'm very much obliged to you, for you see if you hold your tongue, nobody need know anything about this business. There's a man here, living not many hundred yards off, in whom I can trust, and if we can but get the body there without being caught, we can stow it away, and nothing more be said about it."
A slight shudder came over Charles Tyrrell's frame, and he replied:--
"With that, of course, I can have nothing to do, Longly, but in everything else you may depend upon me. I will in no degree betray you, for I feel for you, even though I think you are wrong."
"No, no;" replied Longly, "of course you can have nothing to do with the business, so the sooner you are gone the better. God bless you, sir, and make you happy."
And without reply, Charles Tyrrell turned once more, and hurrying along under the park-wall, re-entered the domain, not by the stile at which he was to have met Longly, but by that which led to the end of the lady-walk.
With his mind filled with painful images from what he had seen, he returned to the house and traversed the library, as we have before seen without speaking to Mr. Driesen, or, indeed, holding communication with any one, till he had entered his own room and locked the door, that he might have a few minutes to calm his mind, and think, without interruption, over what had occurred.
He had remained there for some time, before he perceived that in raising up the head and shoulders of the unhappy young man, whom he had just seen slain, both his hands and shooting-jacket had been stained with blood, and though he did not think it necessary to take any means of removing the spots from the shooting-jacket, he washed his hands with a feeling of horror and disgust at finding them dabbled all over with human gore.