Their eyes met, and were on each other as he drew it out. He puthis arm about the dying man, who repulsed him, feebly, and droppedupon the turf. Raising himself upon his hands, he gazed at him foran instant, with scorn and hatred in his look; but, seeming toremember, even then, that this expression would distort hisfeatures after death, he tried to smile, and, faintly moving hisright hand, as if to hide his bloody linen in his vest, fell backdead--the phantom of last night.
Chapter the LastA parting glance at such of the actors in this little history asit has not, in the course of its events, dismissed, will bring itto an end.
Mr Haredale fled that night. Before pursuit could be begun, indeedbefore Sir John was traced or missed, he had left the kingdom.
Repairing straight to a religious establishment, known throughoutEurope for the rigour and severity of its discipline, and for themerciless penitence it exacted from those who sought its shelter asa refuge from the world, he took the vows which thenceforth shuthim out from nature and his kind, and after a few remorseful yearswas buried in its gloomy cloisters.
Two days elapsed before the body of Sir John was found. As soon asit was recognised and carried home, the faithful valet, true to hismaster"s creed, eloped with all the cash and movables he could layhis hands on, and started as a finished gentleman upon his ownaccount. In this career he met with great success, and wouldcertainly have married an heiress in the end, but for an unluckycheck which led to his premature decease. He sank under acontagious disorder, very prevalent at that time, and vulgarlytermed the jail fever.
Lord George Gordon, remaining in his prison in the Tower untilMonday the fifth of February in the following year, was on thatday solemnly tried at Westminster for High Treason. Of this crimehe was, after a patient investigation, declared Not Guilty; uponthe ground that there was no proof of his having called themultitude together with any traitorous or unlawful intentions. Yetso many people were there, still, to whom those riots taught nolesson of reproof or moderation, that a public subscription was seton foot in Scotland to defray the cost of his defence.
For seven years afterwards he remained, at the strong intercessionof his friends, comparatively quiet; saving that he, every now andthen, took occasion to display his zeal for the Protestant faith insome extravagant proceeding which was the delight of its enemies;and saving, besides, that he was formally excommunicated by theArchbishop of Canterbury, for refusing to appear as a witness inthe Ecclesiastical Court when cited for that purpose. In the year1788 he was stimulated by some new insanity to write and publishan injurious pamphlet, reflecting on the Queen of France, in veryviolent terms. Being indicted for the libel, and (after variousstrange demonstrations in court) found guilty, he fled into Hollandin place of appearing to receive sentence: from whence, as thequiet burgomasters of Amsterdam had no relish for his company,he was sent home again with all speed. Arriving in the month ofJuly at Harwich, and going thence to Birmingham, he made in thelatter place, in August, a public profession of the Jewishreligion; and figured there as a Jew until he was arrested, andbrought back to London to receive the sentence he had evaded. Byvirtue of this sentence he was, in the month of December, castinto Newgate for five years and ten months, and required besides topay a large fine, and to furnish heavy securities for his futuregood behaviour.
After addressing, in the midsummer of the following year, an appealto the commiseration of the National Assembly of France, which theEnglish minister refused to sanction, he composed himself toundergo his full term of punishment; and suffering his beard togrow nearly to his waist, and conforming in all respects to theceremonies of his new religion, he applied himself to the study ofhistory, and occasionally to the art of painting, in which, in hisyounger days, he had shown some skill. Deserted by his formerfriends, and treated in all respects like the worst criminal in thejail, he lingered on, quite cheerful and resigned, until the 1stof November 1793, when he died in his cell, being then only threeand-forty years of age.
Many men with fewer sympathies for the distressed and needy, withless abilities and harder hearts, have made a shining figure andleft a brilliant fame. He had his mourners. The prisonersbemoaned his loss, and missed him; for though his means were notlarge, his charity was great, and in bestowing alms among them heconsidered the necessities of all alike, and knew no distinction ofsect or creed. There are wise men in the highways of the world whomay learn something, even from this poor crazy lord who died inNewgate.
To the last, he was truly served by bluff John Grueby. John was athis side before he had been four-and-twenty hours in the Tower, andnever left him until he died. He had one other constant attendant,in the person of a beautiful Jewish girl; who attached herself tohim from feelings half religious, half romantic, but whose virtuousand disinterested character appears to have been beyond the censureeven of the most censorious.
Gashford deserted him, of course. He subsisted for a time upon histraffic in his master"s secrets; and, this trade failing when thestock was quite exhausted, procured an appointment in thehonourable corps of spies and eavesdroppers employed by thegovernment. As one of these wretched underlings, he did hisdrudgery, sometimes abroad, sometimes at home, and long endured thevarious miseries of such a station. Ten or a dozen years ago--notmore--a meagre, wan old man, diseased and miserably poor, was founddead in his bed at an obscure inn in the Borough, where he wasquite unknown. He had taken poison. There was no clue to hisname; but it was discovered from certain entries in a pocket-bookhe carried, that he had been secretary to Lord George Gordon in thetime of the famous riots.