But not many weeks elapsed, before the worst fears of Mr. Woodburn were realised. The “Castleborough Chronicle,” the conservative journal of the county, and in which the influence of the Bullockshed, Tenterhook, and Swagsides class, and that of a much higher and nobler, the influence of the best aristocracy of the county, prevailed, had a startling article. It observed that the continued absence of any evidence of the perpetration of the crime of murder at Wink’s Ferry, after much and vigorous inquiry, led them to revert to that mysterious fact, by which a man of much eminence and activity in the county had somehow lost his life. An event of so much importance to the security of society, demanded that it should not be suffered to drift away into oblivion, without the turning of every stone which might possibly elicit the hidden and gloomy truth: and however painful it might be to prosecute the inquiries on the subject into quarters otherwise most respectable, and, therefore, unlikely, impartial justice, and the dearest interests of the public, made it imperative to endeavour to fathom the mystery, even though in the process some most estimable minds might be intensely pained.
After this preamble, the article went on to say that it was well known that the late Mr. Trant Drury, by his bold innovations and novel theories of agriculture, and it might be added, by an enthusiasm which led him sometimes to be a little too unceremonious to the long-cherished ideas of others, had made a number of enemies; or, if that term were too strong, of persons animated by no concealed resentment towards him. His introduction of machinery and other causes had made him unpopular amongst the class of agricultural labourers; but the inquiries of the police had resulted in the clearest and most positive demonstration that every man and woman of that class, for many miles round, could be shown to have been at some particular place at the hour of this catastrophe, and nearly all of them at work in the presence of numerous others.
Now, this well ascertained fact compelled them to acquit this class of the community; and to look whether there might be any member or members of Mr. Drury’s own class who might have an ill-feeling towards him, or a motive to wish him out of the way. They were very sensible of the delicate ground on which they were entering; but the paramount interests of truth and humanity required that they should wave all considerations of delicacy or respect; and they were bound to declare that there was a gentleman and near neighbour of the late Mr. Drury, who had shown a strong antagonism to him, which was well known to have gone on strengthening through a lengthened period; and who, only a few days before this lamentable event took place, had publicly, and with signs of much feeling, expressed a wish that some cause could remove Mr. Drury from the neighbourhood. The gentleman referred to was a man of wealth and position, a man of old family, of great classical attainments, it was said, and of a character against which, hitherto, not a shadow of a shade of suspicion of any kind could be brought. On the contrary, he had always borne the most honourable and admirable reputation. Yet such were the anomalies of life and human nature, that it was not impossible but that to such a man, some sudden contact and words of disagreement might have occurred, and that in a moment of sudden anger, he might have raised his hand and done, what even to himself an hour before, would have seemed utterly impossible.
They did not presume to say that any such thing had taken place; this gentleman, honoured and beloved as he was, must be regarded as innocent till he was fully proved to be otherwise; but they would submit that had any poor man lain under the same complication of circumstances, had long entertained unfriendly feelings against the deceased—they did not yet say murdered gentleman—had he expressed an angry wish for the removal of the deceased only a few days previous, and were he the last person seen near the scene of the catastrophe, nothing could have prevented him long ago being summoned to a legal examination on that head. They thought the gentleman, if innocent, as they sincerely hoped he was, must himself desire such an inquiry for the vindication of his fair fame.
It may be imagined that the sensation created by this article was intense. What its effect was on the inhabitants of Woodburn Grange, lies not within the compass of human language. Terror, grief, distraction, astonishment, were blended into one crushing and prostrating feeling. It was now that Mrs. Woodburn and her daughters for the first time learned that Mr. Woodburn, in the hay-field, had used those unfortunate words towards Mr. Drury in a moment of irritation. George had heard of them before, and they had lain on his heart with a deadly weight. Of his father’s incapability of committing such a crime, under any circumstances, he had the same assurance as he had of his own. He cast it away from him as ridiculous: but he foresaw that they would excite much prejudice, and occasion much trouble under the circumstances. He received a letter from Elizabeth Drury, expressing her horror and indignation at such a frightful imputation or even suspicion on his father. “Never! never! never! would she believe it. She would answer for Mr. Woodburn with her own existence; but the cruel aspersions, and the misery and trouble that must arise out of it, had,” she said, “added fresh poignancy to her former grief.”
Words of indignation and of tender sympathy poured in from friends all around, and assurances of any aid that could in any way be given in defence against such a charge. Sir Henry Clavering came in haste to express his unbounded grief and resentment of such an impossible and unsupportable accusation. But instant steps, he said, must be taken to change the current of public opinion. He was on his way to secure an able refutation of the article in the paper of opposite politics. This article appeared the following week, and denounced so abominable a libel on the character of a man of the highest and most unimpeachable reputation for all that was good and kind, and against whom there was not a particle of evidence to support such a foul charge. Words of petty difference of opinion between gentlemen might, and did, frequently arise, but none but fools, considering the character of the speaker, would attach any serious import to them. Sir Henry did not wait for the issue of the paper, but that very day had the walls of the town placarded by bills, expressing the same energetic sentiments in different words.
But the intention sufficiently manifested in the “Chronicle” article, was, notwithstanding, carried out, and in a few days afterwards a couple of constables presented themselves at Woodburn Grange, with a mission no less astounding than that of the apprehension of Mr. Leonard Woodburn, on a suspicion of murder; and amid a scene of distress only to be imagined, he was conveyed in his own carriage to the county court justice-room in Castleborough, to answer under warrant to this charge.
CHAPTER II.
WHO DID IT?
If, on that memorable occasion at the hayfield fête, when Mrs. Heritage was impressed with a sense of impending calamities, she had gone a little further and asserted that within three years Sir Emanuel Clavering, then in full health and spirits, should be gathered to his fathers; that a severe dispensation should fall on the family at Fair Manor; that Dr. Leroy should suddenly abandon his practice and his native place, and go to the far East; that Thorsby should alternately turn reprobate, preacher, and again reprobate; that he should marry Letty Woodburn, doat on her and leave her; that one of the friends of the Woodburns should be killed in a most mysterious manner at Wink’s Ferry; and that, as the climax of all, Mr. Leonard Woodburn should be charged with a wilful murder, and be put in jeopardy of a public and ignominious death,—the effect of her vaticinations would have been lost, and she would have been pronounced extravagantly insane. But now, as all these things had taken place, there was scarcely a person who was present on that occasion, who did not recall the fact with astonishment.