CHAPTER XXV.
Before mid-day, on the following morning, Everard Morrison was at the door of the Falcon, but he was not alone. The large form of Captain Longly not unaccompanied by the pigtail, appeared mounted upon a short-legged, sturdy, little pony; and as Charles, who happened to be at the window at the moment of their arrival, perceived the old seaman, he felt no slight satisfaction at being the first to bear him the news of Lieutenant Hargrave's real fate. To Morrison, Charles had only communicated the fact, that he had been overtaken by the commander of the revenue-cutter, and had promised to return in order to undergo his trial, and he was, therefore, sure that the news he had in store, had not been anticipated.
The countenances of both Morrison and Longly, however, were not a little gloomy, as they entered the chamber in which the young baronet was, and, after the first salutation, Morrison broke forth with, "This is most unfortunate, indeed, Sir Charles; but as Mr. Longly was with me when your note came, I thought it but right to communicate its contents to him, and he determined to come with me, to tell you himself what he has resolved upon doing."
Charles Terrell was about to reply, but Longly instantly took up the tale, and, after having pulled the waistband of his breeches as far up as possible, and rolled something which was in his mouth into his cheek, he went on, "You see, Sir Charles, it is not fair that one man should suffer for another--not that I would ever have let you suffer for me, though you were honourable enough to keep your word with me, even to death, which must be a satisfaction to you--but now, as the case goes, you have done your best, and have tried to get away, and can't: and so, I am resolved, sir, on the trial, to come forward, and to tell all, do you see. In the first place, it rests hard upon my mind, and I can't bear up against this wind;--next, you see, sir, I would a deal rather be hanged at once, and have done with it, than go on, never knowing one day, whether I shall not be hanged the next; but, as for that, however, Mr. Everard here thinks he can get me off, because, you see, we can prove, by that young scoundrel's letter to my poor Hannah, that it was a trap he laid for her, and so I might well be angry; and then that smuggling has blown over, for all the men were acquitted at six o'clock, last night; so, if they can prove nothing against them, they can prove nothing against me;--and it is likely to be manslaughter at the worst. However, you see, Sir Charles, I do not so much care how it goes, because, before that, my Hannah is going to be married to as noble a young fellow, though I say it to his face, as ever lived, who loves her dearly, and she him--so she is taken care of; but, nevertheless, even it were not so, I should not let you be hanged for me, any how."
Although this oration, on the part of good Captain Longly, might be a little out of form and propriety of speech, it served to convey to Charles Tyrrell, a great deal of information, regarding matters of some interest, and to afford him a very fair picture of the honest seaman's feelings. He would indeed have interrupted him, in order to save him one moment of unnecessary pain, but when Captain Longly was once set going, it was no easy thing to stop him, till he had exhausted what he had to say; every appearance that he saw of a wish to cut him short, only making him raise his voice, and repeat, in a louder tone, what he had just been saying.
When he was done, however, Charles took the hand, which Longly held out to him as a sort of full stop at the end of the sentence; and replied, "I am much obliged to you, Mr. Longly, for your frankness and generous thoughts in this matter; but I have some news for you, that will surprise you, much more than it does me to find that Mr. Longly is always ready to do what is right and honourable. You fully believe that you killed Lieutenant Hargrave."
"To be sure!" exclaimed Longly, "though I have never been able to get that old scoundrel, Jenkins, to tell me what he did with the body. He winks his eye, and says it is all safe; but I can't get any more out of him. He'll be obliged to tell now, however."
"It will be unnecessary," replied Charles Tyrrell, "for I can tell you, that Lieutenant Hargrave was alive and well on board the revenue-cutter, not four days ago, and now lies buried in a small church-yard in Devonshire, having been drowned while trying to get off from the cutter, which struck on a reef called the Hog's-back."
Longly smacked his hand upon his thigh, till the place rang again, and then exclaimed, "Ay, that's what's the meaning of all that winking. But I can scarcely believe my ears--Did you see him yourself, sir? Can you swear it was him, and not his ghost?"
"I saw him with my own eyes," replied Charles; "but besides that proof, I have the acknowledgment of the commander of the cutter, his own friend, who had him on board, and did not even know that anything was the matter with him, but a spitting of blood, till I showed him the wound of the ball in the throat of the corpse, after he was drowned."[[3]]