Frank Fairlegh

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"This instant," replied I, and I turned to leave the room, beckoning to
Ellis, as I did so, to follow me. "Tell me the truth," exclaimed I, as
he closed the door behind him, "will he live or die?"

"It is too early in the business to pronounce a decided opinion," was
the answer; "nor can I venture as yet to do so; everything depends
upon the course the ball may have taken, and that, as soon as the
other surgeon arrives, we must endeavour to ascertain; all I can say at
present is, that I have seen worse cases recover. There is one thing,"
he added, "which may be a satisfaction for you to know--if you had not
brought me, or some one in my profession, to the ground, he would have
bled to death where he fell; no one but a surgeon could have stopped
that bleeding."

"If we had been too late I should never have forgiven myself, and we
very nearly were so," returned I. "I cannot understand how it was."

"I can explain it," said Archer, who now joined us. "You left me up
at the village, you remember, Fairlegh, when you started to fetch Mr.
Ellis; well, just as I was leaving it to return to the Hall, a boy
ran past me at the top of his speed, and began knocking at one of the
cottage doors hard by; surprised to see any one about at so early an
hour in the morning, I inquired what was the matter. 'Master's just had
word brought him that some gem'men is a going to fight a jewel at five
o'clock, and I be come to call the constable, for master to give him
a warrant to take 'em hup.' 'And who is your master?' questioned I.
'Justice Bumbleby,' was the answer. This was enough for me; I made the
best of my way to the Hall, woke Oaklands, who was sleeping as calmly as
a child, poor fellow! and he immediately sent his own ~222~~groom, the
lad who went with us to the field, to inform Wilford and his second of
what I had heard, and to propose that the meeting should take place a
quarter of an hour earlier than the time originally agreed on, to which
they willingly consented."

"This then," thought I, "is the reason why Coleman's scheme failed, and
Cumberland arrived too late;--well, one good thing is, it will clearly
prove that neither Archer nor Oaklands connived at the intended
interruption."

The deep, the agonising grief of Sir John Oaklands, on receiving from my
lips the account of his son's danger, was most painful to witness, and
I was obliged to yield to his desire to return with me to the cottage,
although Ellis had strictly forbidden his being allowed to see Harry,
lest the excitement should prove injurious to the patient in the
precarious state in which he lay. On my return I found the surgeon
of the neighbourhood, Mr. (or as he was more commonly styled Dr.)
Probehurt, had arrived, and that they were endeavouring to extract
the ball, which, after a long and painful operation, they succeeded
in doing. From the marks on the coat and waistcoat, it appeared that
Wilford had aimed straight for the heart; but his deadly intentions
had been providentially frustrated by the accident of Oaklands having a
half-crown piece in a small pocket in his waist-coat, against which
the ball had struck, and, glancing off, passed between two of the
ribs, finally lodging amongst the muscles immediately under the
shoulder-blade. The great effusion of blood had been occasioned by its
having divided one of the smaller arteries, which Ellis had succeeded in
securing on the spot. The wound was, therefore, a very severe one;
but it was impossible to pronounce upon the exact amount of danger at
present, as the course which the ball had taken trenched closely on
so many important organs, that time alone could show the extent of the
injury sustained. With this opinion, in which (strange to say) both
doctors agreed, we were fain to content ourselves, and we passed
the rest of the day in alternately watching by the wounded man and
attempting to comfort and support Sir John, whom we had the greatest
difficulty in keeping out of Harry's room, till Ellis asked him abruptly
"whether he wanted to murder his son?" after which nothing short of
force could have induced him to enter it. One of his first acts, having
consulted with Dr. Probehurt, who graciously approved of the measure,
was to enter into an arrangement with ~223~~Ellis, to induce him
to remain constantly with Harry till his health should be perfectly
re-established, if, indeed, that happy event was ever destined to
occur. As Sir John's liberality was unbounded, and Ellis's professional
prospects rather hazy--his practice at Harley End being chiefly confined
to the very poor, who went on the advice gratis system, and expected
to have medicine given them into the bargain--the negotiation was soon
concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.

Towards evening Harry became more restless; the pain of his wound
increased, and feverish symptoms began to make their appearance. As the
night advanced he grew delirious, and before morning was in a high state
of fever. For many days his life was despaired of. Ellis never left his
bedside, save to snatch an occasional hour's sleep on a sofa, when I
took his place. Sir Benjamin Brodie was summoned from town, and held a
consultation with Dr. Probehurt and Ellis.

Sir John's grief was something fearful to witness. Although naturally a
strong-minded man, this unlooked-for blow and the subsequent anxiety had
completely unnerved him. At times he would cry like a child; at others
he would sit for hours without opening his lips, his head resting
dejectedly on his hands, the image of despair: he could with difficulty
be prevailed upon to take sufficient nourishment for his support,
and appeared scarcely to notice anything that was going on. On these
occasions Fanny was the only person whose influence was of the slightest
avail; with her own hands she would prepare some delicacy of which
she knew he was fond, and when with a melancholy shake of the head he
rejected it, she would seat herself at his feet, and, taking his hand
within her own, whisper kind words of hope and consolation to him,
till the old man's heart was softened, and he could refuse her nothing.
Sometimes even this failed, and then she would begin singing in a low
sweet voice some plaintive simple air that he loved to hear, till the
tears would steal down his grief-worn cheeks, and, laying his hand upon
her fair young brow, he would bless her, and say that the God who was
about to take his noble son from him, had sent an angel to be a daughter
to him in his stead. And so the weary days wore on--still vibrating
between life and death, the strong man, his matchless powers now reduced
to the weakness of infancy, lay stretched upon the couch of suffering,
whence it appeared too probable he might never be removed, save to the
last sad resting-place of frail humanity--the grave.

~224~~About the eighth day the ligature with which Ellis had tied
the artery came away, and the wound assumed a rather more favourable
appearance, but the fever remained unsubdued, and the delirium
continued. Each day which passed without improvement added to the length
of Dr. Probehurt's solemn visage, and I could see that in his own mind
he had little or no hope of the patient's recovery. Ellis was by far
the most sanguine of the party, and, whenever we urged our gloomy
forebodings upon him, invariably replied--"Yes, I know all that--it
would have killed' any other man, but it won't kill him. Wait a bit, and
you'll see."

A fortnight had now elapsed, and the continued burden of his grief began
to tell visibly upon Sir John. The ruddy hue of health faded from his
cheeks; his eyes grew dim with weeping, his hands shook, and his firm
manly step became feeble and uncertain; it seemed as if in that short
space of time he had grown ten years older. My mother also began to look
ill and harassed, and Fanny, though she still kept up wonderfully, and
was the life and soul of us all, waxed paler and thinner every day,
while, for my own part, I could neither eat, drink, nor sleep to any
efficient purpose, and divided my time between watching in the sick-room
and pacing up and down the garden, beyond the precincts of which I
never ventured, from a nervous dread lest anything might go wrong in my
absence.

On one occasion Ellis, completely wearied out, had thrown himself on
a sofa to snatch an hour's repose, while I took his place by Harry's
bedside. It was between two and three o clock in the morning, and the
first rays of early dawn, stealing in through the partially closed
shutters, and mingling with the faint glimmer of the night-lamp, threw a
pale and ghastly light over the surrounding objects, when I fancied that
I heard my name pronounced in a low, scarcely audible voice. I glanced
at Ellis, but his hard and regular breathing proved him to be sound
asleep. I next turned towards the bed where Harry lay, and, carefully
shading the lamp with my hand, advanced with noiseless step towards
it. As I approached I perceived the patient's eyes were open, and, oh,
happiness I once more animated by the mild light of reason.

"Harry," whispered I, "did you call? Do you know me?"

A faint smile passed across his pallid features as he replied in a voice
so weak and low, that I was obliged to ~225~~stoop my head almost to a
level with his lips, ere I could catch his words--"Know you, dear Frank!
why not?"

"Thank heaven," murmured I, "he is no longer delirious!"

As I again turned towards him, he endeavoured to stretch out his hand to
me, but his strength was unequal even to that slight exertion, and his
arm dropped heavily by his side; as it did so, he spoke again--"Frank,
what is all this? I cannot--I am very weak--very tired."

"Lie still, dear Harry, and do not try to talk--it may do you harm. You
have been very ill, but God in His mercy will soon, I trust, restore
you to health." I then crossed over to Ellis's sofa, and laid my hand
lightly upon his shoulder. "Oaklands is no longer delirious," said I,
as he started up; "he knows me, and has spoken to me."

"Is he?--does he?--has he?"--exclaimed Ellis in an eager whisper. "I
told you it would never kill him. Why didn't you call me before? but
it's always the way; if I do by any chance fall asleep once in a week,
there isn't another head properly so called in the whole house, they
might as well be chair nobs--Yes, I know," he continued, as I attempted
to get in a word of explanation, "if you couldn't wake me before it
happened, that doesn't prevent your giving me the medicine-chest now,
does it?"

I may as well take this opportunity of mentioning that Ellis, though in
the main one of the best-tempered fellows in the world, whenever he was
particularly interested or excited, became extremely cross and snappish,
and was certain at such times to scold every one who fell in his way,
without the slightest regard to age, sex, or station. However, it was
always over in two or three minutes, and I have seen him laugh till the
tears ran down his face, when the rude things he had said were repeated
to him afterwards. While he was staying with his brother at Cambridge,
it used to be a favourite amusement with some of the men to start a
subject which they knew would excite him, for the sake of "getting a
rise out of the doctor," as they termed it. But I am digressing.

The medicine Ellis gave Harry threw him into a heavy sleep, from which
he did not awake until late in the morning, when he appeared perfectly
conscious. The fever had in great measure abated, and on Dr. Probehurt's
arrival he was fain to confess a surprising improvement had taken place,
and that, if not positively out of danger, the patient was in a fair way
to become so. As for Ellis, he was exactly like one beside himself.
He ran all over the house--into bedrooms and all sorts of places where
~226~~he had not the slightest business, shaking hands with every one,
and repeating, "I knew it--I knew it--I always told you so--it would
have killed any other man, but it couldn't kill him!"

Let us pass in silence over the first interview between Sir John
Oaklands and his son. There are some of the deeper feelings of our
nature, planted in our bosoms by the hand of God Himself, which, when
called forth to their fullest extent by the chances of life, reveal so
clearly their divine origin, that those who witness their display stand
reverently by, and, with throbbing hearts and averted eyes, bow the
head as in presence of some holy thing; and if such pure and sacred
influences shed their lustre over that meeting, and the old man wept
tears of deep and fervent thankfulness on the neck of the son whom
he had, as it were, received from the dead, far be it from us, with
sacrilegious hand, to remove the veil which shrouds the hallowed
mysteries of feeling.

From that day Oaklands began to amend slowly, and, at the end of another
week, even the cautious Dr. Probehurt declared all immediate danger
was over; for which admission, however, he took care fully to indemnify
himself, by detailing at length every possible evil which might accrue
for the future. The state of weakness to which Harry's once herculean
frame was reduced was melancholy to witness; for many days he was unable
to turn in his bed without assistance, and even when he began to recover
his strength, it was by very slow and lingering degrees. Utterly unable
to support himself, he was lifted from his bed to a sofa, and wheeled
into the drawing-room, where all our powers of entertainment were called
into requisition to relieve the monotony of such a state of existence.
In doing this, Fanny made herself pre-eminently useful; by a sort of
intuition she appeared to divine everything he could possibly want
before he asked for it, and contrived to have it waiting his pleasure
as if by magic; and yet it was done so quietly, that I believe Harry had
not a notion to whom he was indebted for the forestalment of his every
wish. Did his lips appear parched and dry from the low fever which still
hung about him--unobserved by any one, Fanny would glide out of
the room, and in another minute his servant would enter with a tray
containing jelly, lemonade, or some refreshment of a like nature; and
Harry would say, with a languid smile, that the fairies must have been
at work, for that Wilson had brought him the very thing he was wishing
for. As he grew stronger, and ~227~~required less attention, I yielded
to his request, and once more resumed my studies, reading doubly hard in
order to make up for lost time. The duel had taken place early in June,
but it was not until the latter end of August that the surgeons would
allow of their patient's removal to the Hall. Under Ellis's directions
a kind of litter was prepared, drawn by a stout Shetland pony, and
hung upon a complicated arrangement of springs, by which means all
possibility of jolting was avoided. With the assistance of this vehicle,
Harry was enabled to take short airings in the park, and, when it was
found that no ill effects ensued, a fine day was chosen, and Heathfield
Hall flung wide its ample gates to receive once more within its walls
the heir of that noble property. It was a glad day for every one--the
old servants shed mingled tears of joy and sorrow; of joy that their
young master had been spared to come among them again, and of sorrow
when they gazed on his pallid cheeks and long thin hands, and thought
of the amount of suffering that manly frame must have undergone ere it
could have become such a wreck of its former self.

After his return home Oaklands progressed very slowly; he so far
recovered as to walk about the house and garden with the assistance of
Ellis's arm; but the wound in his side still presented an unsatisfactory
appearance, and obstinately refused to heal. Ellis's skill and attention
were unparalleled; he took the greatest interest in the case, and though
he pretended that his zeal was entirely professional, yet it was clear
the fascination which Harry seemed unconsciously to exercise over every
one who became intimate with him, had subdued even the sturdy doctor,
and that he had conceived the strongest affection for his patient.

The only one of the party on whom the fatigue and anxiety appeared
to have produced any lasting effect was dear little Fanny, and she
continued to look much more pale and thin than I liked to see her. Her
spirits, also, seemed less gay and buoyant than usual, and when Sir John
and Harry left us, and she had no longer any motive for exertion, a
kind of languor came over her, producing a listless distaste for all her
former employments; and she would sit for hours poring over one of the
Italian poets, without exchanging a word with any one. In order, if
possible, to rouse her from this state of apathy, I used every means in
my power to interest and amuse her; but, unfortunately, my time was
now so fully occupied that I had little leisure to bestow upon her. I
~228~~was to take my degree at the commencement of the new year; and,
as I had made up my mind to try for honours, I had not a moment to lose,
and read eight hours a day. The rest of my time was devoted to Sir John
and Harry (save an odd hour or two for a constitutional scamper with my
gun through the preserves to keep down the rabbits, or a gallop across
country to prevent the hunters from getting too fat), and our kind
friends were never so well pleased as when they could persuade us all
to come to them. My sister, however, seemed to prefer dreaming over her
book to the exertion of accompanying us to the Hall, and even when she
did so, appeared unequal to the labour of amusing Harry, and devoted
herself to the more easy task of pleasing Sir John, who, happy beyond
expression in the prospect of his son's recovery, was in the highest
good humour with everybody and everything. Becoming at length far from
satisfied about Fanny, I mentioned my uneasiness to my mother, who
comforted me by the assurance, that she considered it merely the natural
consequences of the fatigue and anxiety she had undergone, a sort of
reaction of the spirits, for which time and rest would prove the most
effectual cure.

And once again the leaves upon the trees grew brown, presenting, in
their varied richness, those exquisite shades of colouring that gladden
a painter's eye--and the swallows, those summer parasites, taking alarm
at the first sharp blast from the north, had departed to prosecute their
annual pursuit of sunshine under difficulties, leaving the honest
robin redbreast to renew his friendship with the race of men--when
I, dissatisfied and anxious about those I was leaving behind me, and
nervous in the highest degree as to the result of the struggle for
distinction in which I was about to engage, once more took up my abode
at Trinity.~229~~

CHAPTER XXIX -- THE STRUGGLE IN CHESTERTON MEADOW

"Men
Put forth their sons to seek preferment out.

Some to the studious universities,
For any or for all these exercises."

"Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you;
If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you."

"A rescue! a rescue! Good people bring a rescue or two!"

"Construe me, art thou a gentleman? What is thy name?
Discuss!"
--_Shakspeare_.

HAVING now no one to interfere with me, I determined to read as hard as
my powers, mental and bodily, would allow, so as to give my talents, be
they great or small, full scope, and endeavour to evince my gratitude to
my unknown benefactor in the only manner that lay open to me, _i.e._, by
proving to him that his liberality had not been thrown away. As the
men began to come up, I took care to let it be generally known among my
friends that I was reading steadily and in earnest, with a view of going
out in honours; and when they became convinced that this was the case,
and that whenever I "sported oak" there was positively "no admittance,"
they left me to my fate, as one who, in the words of Lawless,
"having strayed from the paths of virtue and--eh!--what do you call it?
--jollity--had fallen a victim to the vice of mathematics--not a hope
of recovery--a regular case of hydrostatics on the brain--eh! don't you
see?"

Besides the regular college tutor, I secured the assistance of what, in
the slang of the day, we irreverently termed "a coach," which vehicle,
for the conveyance of heavy learning (from himself to his pupils),
consisted of a gentleman who, but few years older than those whom he
taught, possessed more practical knowledge, and a greater aptitude for
the highest scientific research, than it had ever before been my fate
to meet with combined in any one individual. Under his able tuition I
advanced rapidly, and reading men began to look upon me as a somewhat
formidable rival. Several of my opponents, however, were men of
first-rate talent, whose powers of mind, as I could not for a moment
disguise from myself, ~230~~were infinitely superior to my own, and with
whom my only chance of competing successfully would be by the exercise
of indefatigable perseverance and industry. Daylight, therefore (which
at this season did not make its appearance over early), found me book in
hand, and midnight saw me still seated at my desk--sometimes with a wet
towel bound round my head, to cool the throbbing of my heated brow; at
others, with a tea-pot of strong green tea by my side, to arouse and
stimulate my wearied faculties: conventional specifics, of which, by the
way, I very quickly discovered the fallacy.

A fear of completely knocking up, however, induced me to preserve some
little method in my madness. I laid down a rule to walk for a couple
of hours every day, and thus, although I grew pale and thin, no very
dangerous effects appeared likely to ensue from my exertions.

One evening, about a week before the examinations were to begin, I was
taking my usual constitutional after Hall; and, careless which way I
turned my steps, crossed the river at Moore's, and followed the footpath
which led over the fields to the village of Chesterton. There had been a
cattle fair at some place in the neighbourhood, which had drawn together
a number of disreputable characters, and, in the course of my walk, I
passed two or three parties of rather suspicious-looking men. Having
nothing valuable about me, however, I continued my walk. I had advanced
some half mile or more, when I was roused from my meditations by a cry
of "Thieves I thieves! help! hoy! thieves, I say!" accompanied by the
noise of blows. When these sounds first reached me I was close to a
hedge and stile, across which the footpath led, and from the farther
side of which the cries proceeded. It was growing dark, but there still
remained light enough to distinguish objects at a moderate distance. To
bound over the stile and cast my eyes around was the work of a moment,
nor was I much longer in taking part in an affray which was going on.

The person whose cries I had heard was a stout little man, respectably
dressed, who was defending himself vigorously with what seemed in the
twilight a club, but which turned out eventually to be an umbrella,
against the attacks of a tall, strapping fellow, in a rough frieze
coat, who was endeavouring to wrest his weapon from him. A still more
formidable adversary was, however, approaching in the shape of a second
ruffian, who had armed himself with a thick stake out of the hedge,
and was creeping cautiously up behind the shorter man, with ~231~~the
evident intention of knocking him on the head. I instantly determined to
frustrate his benevolent design, nor was there much time to lose, if
I wished my assistance to prove of much avail. Shouting, therefore, as
well to intimidate the scoundrels as to let the person attacked know
that there was succour at hand, I sprang upon the man who held the
cudgel, and, seizing his uplifted arm, succeeded in averting the
coming blow from the head of the intended victim, who, ignorant of the
impending danger, was making most furious thrusts at his assailant
with the point of his umbrella, a novel mode of attack, which seemed to
perplex and annoy that individual in no small degree.

[Illustration: page231 Fairlegh to the Rescue]

I had, however, but little time allowed me to make observations, as the
fellow with whom I had interfered, as soon as he perceived that he had
only an unarmed man to deal with, appeared determined not to give up
his hopes of plunder without a struggle, and, freeing his wrist by a
powerful jerk, he aimed a blow at me with the bludgeon, which, had it
taken effect, would at once have ended all my anxieties, and
brought this veracious history to an abrupt and untimely conclusion.
Fortunately, however, for "my gentle public" and their humble servant, I
was able, by dodging on one side, to avoid the stroke; and, seeing that
matters had now become serious, I closed with him, and, after a short
but severe struggle, had the satisfaction of depositing him flat on his
back on the green sward. As he fell he dropped his stick, of which I
immediately possessed myself, and, planting my foot upon his chest
to prevent his rising, I turned to see how the other combatants were
getting on. Dame Fortune had not, in this instance, acted up to her
usual principle of favouring the brave, for the hero of the umbrella,
having struggled gallantly for the preservation of his property and
person, had apparently at length been overpowered, and, when I
turned towards him, was lying on the ground, while his assailant was
endeavouring to rifle his pockets, a matter which was rendered anything
but easy of accomplishment by reason of the energetic kicks and
struggles of the fallen warrior. It was clear that if I would not have
the unfortunate little man robbed before my very eyes, I must go to his
assistance. Giving, therefore, my prostrate foe a tap on the head with
the stake, by way of a hint to lie still, I advanced to the rescue with
uplifted weapon. No sooner did the rascal perceive my approach, than,
quitting the fallen man, he sprang up, and, without waiting to be
attacked, took to ~232~~his heels and ran off as fast as his legs would
carry him, an example which his companion, seeing the coast clear,
hastened to emulate.