Charles Tyrrell; or, The Bitter Blood. Volumes I and II

by G. P. R. James

"Of course not," replied Charles; and, as he had predetermined, he went on: "I had next to knock down a man dressed like a sailor, who had followed Miss Effingham into the park, and was insolent to her."

"Indeed," cried every one, while their eyes opened somewhat wider with astonishment, and Sir Francis added, "I must really have some stop put to this. It is now the fifth or sixth time within the last week, I think, that sailors have been found wandering about in the park. The gamekeepers must not do their duty, or else such people would not be in five minutes without their finding them. And so," he continued, renewing the attack upon his son, "you made yourself the champion of Miss Effingham, did you? for which she was, of course, very grateful, doughty sir."

"Certainly," replied Charles; "I could not refuse to become the lady's champion when you were not present, sir, to defend your fair favourite; and even more, after that was all over, and she had a little recovered, I escorted her home to the manor-house, as she was not disposed to come on here, judging that you would not be quite so inconsolable as she thought, as I was to remain another day."

"I hope you gave my message to Mrs. Effingham," continued his father.

Charles replied in the affirmative; and as Sir Francis chose, when in society, to assume the character of a very amiable and placable parent, though he could hardly suppose that he really deceived anybody by so doing, he dropped the matter there, and resumed his conversation with his brother justice.

Nearly half an hour more elapsed without any notice being given that the persons expected had arrived, and the conversation began naturally to turn upon the subject of their meeting, when Charles, though he did not think fit to ask any questions, gathered that the important business on which his father had detained him was neither more nor less than the examination of a gang of smugglers, one of the largest and most important seizures having been made on the coast the night before which had been known for many years. This had been effected by the custom-house officers, aided by the crew of the revenue cutter; but for the apprehension of the smugglers themselves, as the contraband articles had not been found actually in their possession, the civil power had been called in, and the necessary authority given by Sir Francis Tyrrell.

While Charles was step by step discovering these facts, the door of the library was thrown open, and no less than two-and-twenty men, of different kinds and stations, poured into the room. The greater part of them remained, however, at the farther end, while a young gentleman in naval uniform advanced to the magistrates, and informed them that he believed, with the assistance he had received from the civil power, he had succeeded in capturing almost all the persons implicated. The prisoners had sent off, he said, for a lawyer from the neighbouring town, to assist them before the magistrates, though he did not see what a landshark could do for the poor devils; but, however, as some desperate resistance had been made, and it might go hard with them for their lives if one of the constables who had been injured were to die, he thought it better, he said, to bring them up but slowly, while the messenger went on for the lawyer.

While he had been thus speaking, Charles Tyrrell had been examining attentively the group at the farther end of the room, and separating it into its constituent parts. The constables and other officers were immediately distinguished, and, in general, the boat's crew of the cutter could also be marked out from the rest. The group of smugglers stood in the middle, with the others sweeping round them, and one or two of them bearing evident marks of the contest in which they had so lately been engaged.

But the surprise and grief of Charles Tyrrell was not slight, to see standing beside another man, some ten or fifteen years older than himself, and bearing a strong resemblance to him, honest John Hailes, the father of the little boy who had so nearly drifted out to sea in the empty boat. The other person who stood next to him afterward proved to be William Hailes, whom we have already introduced to the reader under the name of Old Will. The younger of the brothers, John Hailes, had evidently been somewhat severely treated, having received a blow upon the forehead with a cutlass, the bleeding of which seemed scarcely to be stanched yet. William Hailes had met with less sharp usage, or had shown less resistance, and Charles doubted not that it was on account of the former, and the interest which he took in him from the little incident of having saved his child, that his father had required him to remain at Harbury Park that day.

It is certainly strange, the bond which exists between us and any one who has called into action towards them the better feelings of our nature. It seems as if they had made acquaintance with our hearts, and obtained an entrance at once on all occasions when strangers are not admitted. "We put a withering twig in the ground," says Sterne, "and then we water it because we have planted it." Whatever may be the philosophical cause of this tendency, Charles Tyrrell certainly felt far more interest in the case of John Hailes than he did in that of any one present; and advancing towards him, he asked him, not in a loud voice indeed, but not in a low one, how he happened to be in such a situation.