Lord L⸺ requested Mr. Jackson to adjourn with him to the library, for the purpose of examining the packet of letters, which, having been found with the parchments, might possibly throw some light on the late mysterious business. His lordship had also the cruelty to ask Fitz-Ullin to assist them with his judgment. Our hero had just whispered a request to Julia to take a walk in the shrubbery, and had just received a smile in assent. What a disappointment!
CHAPTER L.
… “Now, unfold the mystery.”
The trio of gentlemen proceeded to their task. The first epistle which was casually unfolded, exhibited but a few lines, wide asunder, and in their purport so unimportant, that Mr. Jackson flung the letter, spread open as it happened to be, on the top of the fire, and proceeded to take up a second. Lord L⸺, chancing to rest his eyes on the first while the heat was causing it to roll itself up, perceived, with some surprise, that the spaces between the lines, as well as all else that had appeared blank, was rapidly becoming, as by magic, covered with bright green characters. He snatched up the paper just as the devouring flame was about to envelope it, and succeeded in saving all but a small part. The green writing was in the hand of Henry; and, to the utter astonishment of all the party, addressed to his father—so long supposed dead. The contents of the letter equally puzzled and confounded our secret committee, and decided them on comparing all the hitherto unexamined, because supposed to be unimportant, papers of Henry with those before them.
They were accordingly sent for, and the letters on both sides found to present, in black ink, what appeared to be but the idle, careless correspondence of two young messmates, while, on being submitted to the ordeal of heat, they were all found to contain, in green writing, which, as it cooled, gradually disappeared again, the strange and mysterious communications, for many years, of father and son. From these letters the following wonderful discoveries were collected. The captain of the privateer, the murderer of the younger St. Aubin, was shown to be the elder St. Aubin—the father of the unfortunate Henry, who was thus proved to have died by the hand of a parent! The silent, heart-broken being, who had so tenderly watched Julia, and who, there can be little doubt, met her death by the explosion of the smuggler, it appeared from all the circumstances, was the ill-fated Maria, Mrs. Montgomery’s sister. She, it seems, as well as her depraved husband, had escaped from the wreck of the vessel in which they had both so many years since been supposed to be lost.
The vessel in question, it may be remembered, had specie on board. Some of the letters contained casual expressions, from which it might be gathered, that her foundering by night was not quite accidental. And one in particular, addressed by the elder St. Aubin to the younger, contained an account of his fortunate escape, as he termed it, with his black, as much of the money as could conveniently be carried, and his wife; and their landing on the coast of France. The money obtained by this very suspicious adventure seems, from many after-allusions, to have been the first setting up of the desperate St. Aubin, in his triple calling of pirate, privateer, and smuggler, carried on for so many years after, with various degrees of success.
The whole correspondence, from its commencement to its conclusion, proved that the St. Aubins, father and son, had, from Julia’s infancy, meditated, and ever since, step by step, proceeded with the plot for carrying her away, as soon as she should be of age. The spoils of her very large fortune, (rendered, by the death of Lady L⸺ and her infant son, unalienable,) they were ultimately to have divided, while the income of the Craigs would have been the present reward of their diabolical labours. Their victim, poor Julia, was to have been kept abroad, in strict concealment—the wife, by compulsion, of Henry, till cruel treatment and horrible threats should compel her to declare herself married to him by her own free choice. He was to have corresponded, meanwhile, in her name, with her family; having, it appeared, for this purpose, actually practised, for years, the imitation of her handwriting. It was also found that he had possessed himself of impressions of her seals, duplicates of her keys, &c. On the subject of his being the intercepter of Fitz-Ullin’s proposals, and the writer of Julia’s supposed rejection, there was a letter of his, which exulted in the fact, and related his good fortune in having himself taken the precious epistle, as he termed it, from the postman, and having been inspired to suspect the truth on seeing it directed to Julia, in our hero’s hand. There could be no doubt that Henry was also the author of all the other forged letters.
Parts of the correspondence contained expressions and allusions which proved that the elder St. Aubin was the person who, under the name of Lauson, and assisted with keys and vouchers provided by Henry, had stripped the Craigs of all its valuables. By the produce of these it appeared the necessary funds had been raised for carrying on the desperate design on Julia herself, shortly after attempted. It further appeared that, by a curious combination of circumstances, the St. Aubins had, since a short time before the memorable attempt on our hero’s life at the masquerade at Arandale, been acquainted with the real birth of Fitz-Ullin, then known as the poor Edmund Montgomery.