_ CHAPTER XV
Party spirit, in politics, ran very high about this time in London--it was in the year 1780. The ill success of the American war had put the people in ill-humour; they were ready to believe any thing against the ministry, and some who, for party purposes, desired to influence the minds of the people, circulated the most ridiculous reports, and excited the most absurd terrors. The populace were made to believe that the French and the papists were secret favourites of government: a French invasion, the appearance of the French in London, is an old story almost worn out upon the imaginations of the good people of England; but now came a new if not a more plausible bugbear--the Pope! It was confidently affirmed that the Pope would soon be in London, he having been seen in disguise in a gold-flowered nightgown on
St. James's parade at Bath. A poor gentleman, who appeared at his door in his nightgown, had been actually taken by the Bath mob for the Pope; and they had pursued him with shouts, and hunted him, till he was forced to scramble over a wall to escape from his pursuers.
Ludicrous as this may appear, the farce, we all know, soon turned to tragedy. From the smallest beginnings, the mischief grew and spread; half- a-dozen people gathered in one street, and began the cry of "No popery!--no papists!--no French!"--The idle joined the idle, and the discontented the discontented, and both were soon drawn in to assist the mischievous; and the cowardly, surprised at their own prowess, when joined with numbers, and when no one opposed them, grew bolder and bolder. Monday morning Mr. Strachan was insulted; Lord Mansfield treated it as a slight irregularity. Monday evening Lord Mansfield himself was insulted by the mob, they pulled down his house, and burnt his furniture. Newgate was attacked next; the keeper went to the Lord Mayor, and, at his return, he found the prison in a blaze; that night the Fleet, and the King's Bench prisons, and the popish chapels, were on fire, and the glare of the conflagration reached the skies. I was heartily glad my father and mother were safe in the country.
Mr. Montenero and Berenice were preparing to go to a villa in Surrey, which he had just purchased; but they apprehended no danger for themselves, as they were inoffensive strangers, totally unconnected with party or politics. The fury of the mob had hitherto been directed chiefly against papists, or persons supposed to favour their cause. The very day before Mr. Montenero was to leave town, without any conceivable reason, suddenly a cry was raised against the Jews: unfortunately, Jews rhymed to shoes: these words were hitched into a rhyme, and the cry was, "
No Jews, no wooden shoes!" Thus, without any natural, civil, religious, moral, or political connexion, the poor Jews came in remainder to the ancient anti-Gallican antipathy felt by English feet and English fancies against the French wooden shoes. Among the London populace, however, the Jews had a respectable body of friends, female friends of noted influence in a mob-- the orange-women--who were most of them bound by gratitude to certain opulent Jews. It was then, and I believe it still continues to be, a customary mode of charity with the Jews to purchase and distribute large quantities of oranges among the retail sellers, whether Jews or Christians. The orange-women were thus become their staunch friends. One of them in particular, a warm-hearted Irishwoman, whose barrow had, during the whole season, been continually replenished by Mr. Montenero's bounty, and by Jacob's punctual care, now took her station on the steps of Mr. Montenero's house; she watched her opportunity, and when she saw
the master appear in the hall, she left her barrow in charge with her boy, came up the steps, walked in, and addressed herself to him thus, in a dialect and tone as new, almost to me, as they seemed to be to Mr. Montenero.
"Never fear, jewel!--Jew as you have this day the misfortune to be, you're the best Christian any way ever I happened on! so never fear, honey, for yourself nor your daughter, God bless her! Not a soul shall go near yees, nor a finger be laid on her, good or bad. Sure I know them all--not a mother's son o' the
boys but I can call my frind--not a captain or lader that's in it, but I can lade, dear, to the devil and back again, if I'd but whistle: so only you keep quite, and don't be advertising yourself any way for a Jew, nor be showing your cloven
fut, with or without the wooden shoes.
Keep ourselves to ourselves, for I'll tell you a bit of a sacret-- I'm a little bit of a cat'olic myself, all as one as what
they call a
papish; but I keep it to myself, and nobody's the wiser nor the worse-- they'd tear me to pieces, may be, did they suspect
the like, but I keep never minding, and you, jewel, do the like. They call you a Levite, don't they? then I, the Widow Levy, has a good right to advise ye; we were all brothers and sisters once--no offence--in the time of Adam, sure, and we should help one another in all times. 'Tis my turn to help
yees now, and, by the blessing, so I will--accordingly I'll be sitting all day and night, mounting guard on your steps there without. And little as you may think of me, the devil a guardian angel better than myself, only just the Widow Levy, such as ye see!"
The Widow Levy took her stand, and kept her word. I stayed at Mr. Montenero's all day, saw every thing that passed, and had frequent opportunities of admiring her address.
She began by making the footman take down "the outlandish name from off the door; for no name at all, sure, was better
nor a foreign name these times." She charged the footman to "say
sorrow word themselves to the mob for their lives, in case they would come; but to lave it all entirely to her, that knew how to spake to
them. For see!" said she, aside to me-- "For see! them powdered numskulls would spoil all--they'd be taking it too high or too low, and never hit the right
kay, nor mind when to laugh or cry in the right place; moreover, when they'd get
frighted with a cross-examination, they'd be apt to be
cutting themselves. Now, the ould one himself, if he had me
on the table even, I'd defy to get the truth out of me, if not convanient, and I in the sarvice of a frind."
In the pleasure of telling a few superfluous lies it seemed to be necessary that our guardian angel should be indulged; and there she sat on the steps quite at ease, smoking her pipe, or wiping and
polishing her oranges. As parties of the rioters came up, she would parley and jest with them, and by alternate wit and humour, and blunder, and bravado, and flattery, and
fabling, divert their spirit of mischief, and forward them to distant enterprise. In the course of the day, we had frequent occasion to admire her intrepid ingenuity and indefatigable zeal. Late at night, when all seemed perfectly quiet in this part of the town, she, who had never stirred from her post all day, was taken into the kitchen by the servants to eat some supper. While she was away, I was standing at an open window of the drawing-room, watching and listening--all was silence; but suddenly I heard a shriek, and two strange female figures appeared from the corner of the square, hurrying, as if in danger of pursuit, though no one followed them. One was in black, with a hood, and a black cloak streaming behind; the other in white, neck and arms bare, head full dressed, with high feathers blown upright. As they came near the window at which I stood, one of the ladies called out, "Mr. Harrington! Mr. Harrington! For Heaven's sake let us in!"
"Lady Anne Mowbray's voice! and Lady de Brantefield!" cried I.
Swiftly, before I could pass her, Berenice ran down stairs, unlocked--threw open the hall-door, and let them in. Breathless, trembling so that they could not speak, they sunk upon the first seat they could reach; the servants hearing the hall-door unchained, ran into the hall, and when sent away for water, the three footmen returned with each something in his hand, and stood with water and salvers as a pretence to satisfy their curiosity; along with them came the orange-woman, who, wiping her mouth, put in her head between the footmen's elbows, and stood listening, and looking at the two ladies with no friendly eye. She then worked her way round to me, and twitching my elbow, drew me back, and whispered--"What made ye let 'em in? Take care but one's a mad woman, and t'other a bad woman." Lady Anne, who had by this time drank water, and taken hartshorn, and was able to speak, was telling, though in a very confused manner, what had happened. She said that she had been dressed for the opera--the carriage was at the door--her mother, who was to set her down at Lady Somebody's, who was to
chaperon her, had just put on her hood and cloak, and was coming down stairs, when they heard a prodigious noise of the mob in the street. The mob had seized their carriage--and had found in one of the pockets a string of beads, which had been left there by the Portuguese ambassador's lady, whom Lady De Brantefield had taken home from chapel the preceding day. The mob had seen the carriage stop at the chapel, and the lady and her confessor get into it; and this had led to the suspicion that Lady de Brantefield was a catholic, or in their language, a concealed papist.
On searching the carriage farther, they had found a breviary, and one of them had read aloud the name of a priest, written in the beginning of the book--a priest whose name was peculiarly obnoxious to some of the leaders.
As soon as they found the breviary, and the rosary, and this priest's name, the mob grew outrageous, broke the carriage, smashed the windows of the house, and were bursting open the door, when, as Lady Anne told us, she and her mother, terrified almost out of their senses, escaped through the back door
just in the dress they were, and made their way through the stables, and a back lane, and a cross street: still hearing, or fancying they heard, the shouts of the mob, they had run on without knowing how, or where, till they found themselves in this square, and saw me at the open window.
"What is it? Tell me, dear," whispered the orange-woman, drawing me back behind the footman. "Tell me, for I can't understand her for looking at the figure of her. Tell me plain, or it may be the ruen of yees all before ye'd know it."
I repeated Lady Anne's story, and from me the orange-woman understood it; and it seemed to alarm her more than any of us.
"But are they
Romans? " (Roman Catholics) said she. "How is that, when they're not Irish!--for I'll swear to their not being Irish, tongue or pluck. I don't believe but they're impostors--no right
Romans, sorrow bit of the likes; but howsomdever, no signs of none following them yet--thanks above! Get rid on 'em any way as smart as ye can, dear; tell Mr. Montenero."
As all continued perfectly quiet, both in the back and front of the house, we were in hopes that they would not be pursued or discovered by the mob. We endeavoured to quiet and console them with this consideration; and we represented that, if the mob should break into their house, they would, after they had searched and convinced themselves that the obnoxious priest was not concealed there, disperse without attempting to destroy or pillage it "Then," said Lady de Brantefield, rising, and turning to her daughter, "Lady Anne, we had better think of returning to our own house."
Though well aware of the danger of keeping these suspected ladies this night, and though our guardian angel repeatedly twitched us, reiterating, "Ah! let 'em go--don't be keeping 'em!" yet Mr. Montenero and Berenice pressed them, in the kindest and most earnest manner, to stay where they were safe. Lady Anne seemed most willing, Lady de Brantefield most unwilling to remain; yet her fears struggled with her pride, and at last she begged that a servant might be sent to her house to see how things were going on, and to order chairs for her, if their return was practicable.
"Stop!" cried the orange-woman, laying a strong detaining hand on the footman's arm; "stop you--'tis I'll go with more sense--and speed."
"What is that person--that woman?" cried Lady de Brantefield, who now heard and saw the orange-woman for the first time.
"Woman!--is it me she manes?" said the orange-woman, coming forward quite composedly, shouldering on her cloak.
"Is it who I am?--I'm the Widow Levy.--Any commands?"
"How did she get in?" continued Lady de Brantefield, still with a look of mixed pride and terror: "how did she get in?"
"Very asy!--through the door--same way you did, my lady, if ye had your senses. Where's the wonder? But what commands?--don't be keeping of me."
"Anne!--Lady Anne!--Did she follow us in?" said Lady de Brantefield.
"Follow yees!--not I!--no follower of yours nor the likes. But what commands, nevertheless?--I'll do your business the night, for the sake of them I love in my heart's core," nodding at Mr. and Miss Montenero; "so, my lady, I'll bring ye word, faithful, how it's going with ye at home--which is her house, and where, on God's earth?" added she, turning to the footmen.
"If my satisfaction be the object, sir, or madam," said Lady de Brantefield, addressing herself with much solemnity to Mr. and Miss Montenero, "I must take leave to request that a fitter messenger be sent; I should, in any circumstances, be incapable of trusting to the representations of such a person."
The fury of the orange-woman kindled--her eyes flashed fire--her arms a-kimbo, she advanced repeating, "Fitter!--Fitter!--What's that ye say?-- You're not Irish--not a bone in your skeleton!"
Lady Anne screamed. Mr. Montenero forced the orange-woman back, and Berenice and I hurried Lady de Brantefield and her daughter across the hall into the eating-room. Mr. Montenero followed an instant afterwards, telling Lady de Brantefield that he had despatched one of his own servants for intelligence. Her ladyship bowed her head without speaking. He then explained why the orange-woman happened to be in his house, and spoke of the zeal and ability with which she had this day served us. Lady de Brantefield continued at intervals to bow her head while Mr. Montenero spoke, and to look at her watch, while Lady Anne, simpering, repeated, "Dear, how odd!" Then placing herself opposite to a large mirror, Lady Anne re-adjusted her dress. That settled, she had nothing to do but to recount her horrors over again. Her mother, lost in reverie, sat motionless. Berenice, meantime, while the messenger was away, made the most laudable and kind efforts, by her conversation, to draw the attention of her guests from themselves and their apprehensions; but apparently without effect, and certainly without thanks.
At length, Berenice and her father being called out of the room, I was left alone with Lady de Brantefield and Lady Anne: the mother broke silence, and turning to the daughter, said, in a most solemn tone of reproach, "Anne! Lady Anne Mowbray!--how could you bring me into this house of all others--a Jew's--when you know the horror I have always felt--"
"La, mamma! I declare I was so terrified, I didn't know one house from another. But when I saw Mr. Harrington, I was so delighted I never thought about it's being
the Jew's house--and what matter?"
"What matter!" repeated Lady de Brantefield: "are you my daughter, and a descendant of Sir Josseline de Mowbray, and ask what matter?"
"Dear mamma, that's the old story! that's so long ago!--How can you think of such old stuff at such a time as this? I'm sure I was frightened out of my wits--I forgot even my detestation of----But I must not say that before Mr. Harrington. But now I see the house, and
all that, I don't wonder at him so much; I declare it's a monstrous handsome house--as rich as a Jew! I'm sure I hope those wretches will not destroy
our house--and, oh! the great mirror, mamma!"
Mr. and Miss Montenero returned with much concern in their countenances: they announced that the messenger had brought word that the mob were actually pulling down Lady de Brantefield's house--that the furniture had all been dragged out into the street, and that it was now burning. Pride once more gave way to undisguised terror in Lady de Brantefield's countenance, and both ladies stood in speechless consternation. Before we had time to hear or to say more, the orange-woman opened the door, and putting in her head, called out in a voice of authority, "Jantlemen, here's one wants yees, admits of no delay; lave all and come out, whether you will or no, the minute."
We went out, and with an indescribable gesture, and wink of satisfaction, the moment she had Mr. Montenero and me in the hall, she said in a whisper, "'Tis only myself, dears, but 'tis I am glad I got yees out away from being bothered by the presence of them women, whiles ye'd be settling all for life or death, which we must now do--for don't be nursing and dandling yourselves in the notion that
the boys will not be wid ye. It's a folly to talk--they will; my head to a China orange they will, now: but take it asy, jewels--we've got an hour's law--they've one good hour's work first-- six garrets to gut, where they are, and tree back walls, with a piece of the front, still to pull down. Oh! I larnt all. He is a
'cute lad you sent, but not being used to it, just went and ruined and murdered us all by what he let out! What do ye tink? But when one of the boys was questioning him who he belonged to, and what brought him in it, he got frighted, and could think of noting at all but the truth to tell: so they've got the scent, and they'll follow the game. Ogh! had I been my own messenger, in lieu of minding that woman within, I'd have put 'em off the scent. But it's past me now--so what next?" While Mr. Montenero and I began to consult together, she went on--"I'll tell you what you'll do: you'll send for two chairs, or one--less suspicious, and just get the two in asy, the black one back, the white for'ard, beca'ase she's coming nat'ral from the Opera--if stopped, and so the chairmen, knowing no more than Adam who they would be carrying, might go through the thick of the boys at a pinch safe enough, or round any way, sure; they know the town, and the short cuts, and set 'em down (a good riddance!) out of hand, at any house at all they mention, who'd resave them of their own frinds, or kith and kin--for, to be sure, I suppose they
have frinds, tho' I'm not one. You'll settle with them by the time it's come, where they'll set down, and I'll step for the chair, will I?"
"No," said Mr. Montenero, "not unless it be the ladies' own desire to go: I cannot turn them out of my house, if they choose to stay; at all hazards they shall have every protection I can afford. Berenice, I am sure, will think and feel as I do."
Mr. Montenero returned to the drawing-room, to learn the determination of his guests.
"There goes as good a Christian!" cried the Widow Levy, holding up her forefinger, and shaking it at Mr. Montenero the moment his back was turned: "didn't I tell ye so from the first? Oh! if he isn't a jewel of a Jew!--and the daughter the same!" continued she, following me as I walked up and down the hall: "the kind-hearted cratur, how tinder she looked at the fainting Jezabel--while the black woman turning from her in her quality scowls.-- Oh! I seed it all, and with your own eyes, dear--but I hope they'll go--and once we get a riddance of them women. I'll answer for the rest. Bad luck to the minute they come into the house! I wish the jantleman would be back-- Oh! here he is--and will they go, jewel?" cried she, eagerly. "The ladies will stay," said Mr. Montenero.
"Murder!--but you can't help it--so no more about it--but what arms have ye?"
No arms were to be found in the house but a couple of swords, a pair of pistols of Mr. Montenero's, and one gun, which had been left by the former proprietor. Mr. Montenero determined to write immediately to his friend General B--, to request that a party of the military might be sent to guard his house.
"Ay, so best, send for the dragoons, the only thing left on earth for us now: but don't let 'em fire on
the boys--disperse 'em with the horse, asy, ye can, without a shot; so best--I'll step down and feel the pulse of all below."
While Mr. Montenero wrote, Berenice, alarmed for her father, stood leaning on the back of his chair, in silence.
"Oh! Mr. Harrington! Mr. Harrington!" repeated Lady Anne, "what will become of us! If Colonel Topham was but here! Do send to the Opera, pray, pray, with
my compliments--Lady Anne Mowbray's compliments--he'll come directly, I'm sure."
"That my son, Lord Mowbray, should be out of town, how extraordinary and how unfortunate!" cried Lady de Brantefield, "when we might have had his protection, his regiment, without applying to strangers."
She walked up and down the room with the air of a princess in chains. The orange-woman bolted into the room, and pushed past her ladyship, while Mr. Montenero was sealing his note.
"Give it, jewel!--It's I'll be the bearer; for all your powdered men below has taken fright by the dread the first messenger got, and dares not be carrying a summons for the military through the midst of
them: but I'll take it for yees--and which way will I go to get quickest to your general's? and how will I know his house?--for seven of them below bothered my brains."
Mr. Montenero repeated the direction--she listened coolly, then stowing the letter in her bosom, she stood still for a moment with a look of deep deliberation--her head on one side, her forefinger on her cheek-bone, her thumb under her chin, and the knuckle of the middle-finger compressing her lips.
"See, now,
they'll be apt to come up the stable lane for the back o' the house, and another party of them will be in the square, in front; so how will it be with me to get into the house to yees again, without opening the doors for
them, in case they are wid
ye afore I'd get the military up? --I have it," cried she.
She rushed to the door, but turned back again to look for her pipe, which she had laid on the table.
"Where's my pipe?--Lend it me--What am I without my pipe?"
"The savage!" cried Lady de Brantefield.
"The fool!" said Lady Anne.
The Widow Levy nodded to each of the two ladies, as she lit the pipe again, but without speaking to them, turned to us, and said, "If the boys would meet me without my pipe, they'd not know me; or smell something odd, and guess I was on some unlawful errand."
As she passed Berenice and me, who were standing together, she hastily added, "Keep a good heart, sweetest!--At the last push, you have one will shed the heart's drop for ye!"
A quick, scarcely perceptible motion of her eye towards me marked her meaning; and one involuntary look from Berenice at that moment, even in the midst of alarm, spread joy through my whole frame. In the common danger we were drawn closer together--we
thought together;--I was allowed to help her in the midst of the general bustle.
It was necessary, as quickly as possible, to determine what articles in the house were of most value, and to place these in security. It was immediately decided that the pictures were inestimable.--What was to be done with them? Berenice, whose presence of mind never forsook her, and whose quickness increased with the occasion, recollected that the unfinished picture-gallery, which had been built behind the house, adjoining to the back drawing-room, had no window opening to the street: it was lighted by a sky-light; it had no communication with any of the apartments in the house, except with the back drawing-room, into which it was intended to open by large glass doors; but fortunately these were not finished, and, at this time, there was no access to the picture-gallery but by a concealed door behind the gobelin tapestry of the back drawing-room-- an entrance which could hardly be discovered by any stranger. In the gallery were all the plasterers' trestles, and the carpenters' lumber; however, there was room soon made for the pictures: all hands were in motion, every creature busy and eager, except Lady de Brantefield and her daughter, who never offered the smallest assistance, though we were continually passing with our loads through the front drawing-room, in which the two ladies now were. Lady Anne standing up in the middle of the room looked like an actress ready dressed for some character, but without one idea of her own. Her mind, naturally weak, was totally incapacitated by fear: she kept incessantly repeating as we passed and repassed, "Bless me! one would think the day of judgment was coming!"
Lady de Brantefield all the time sat in the most remote part of the room, fixed in a huge arm-chair. The pictures and the most valuable things were, by desperately hard work, just stowed into our place of safety, when we heard the shouts of the mob, at once at the back and front of the house, and soon a thundering knocking at the hall-door. Mr. Montenero and I went to the door, of course without opening it, and demanded, in a loud voice, what they wanted.
"We require the papists," one answered for the rest, "the two women papists and the priest you've got within, to be given up, for your lives!"
"There is no priest here--there are no papists here:--two protestant ladies, strangers to me, have taken refuge here, and I will not give them up," said Mr. Montenero.
"Then we'll pull down the house."
"The military will be here directly," said Mr. Montenero, coolly; "you had better go away."
"The military!--then make haste, boys, with the work."
And with a general cry of "No papists!--no priests!--no Jews!--no wooden shoes!" they began with a volley of stones against the windows. I ran to see where Berenice was. It had been previously agreed among us, that she and her guests, and every female in the house, should, on the first alarm, retire into a back room; but at the first shout of the mob, Lady de Brantefield lost the little sense she ever possessed: she did not faint, but she stiffened herself in the posture in which she sat, and with her hands turned down over the elbows of the huge chair, on which her arms were extended, she leaned back in all the frightful rigidity of a corpse, with a ghastly face, and eyes fixed.
Berenice, in vain, tried to persuade her to move. Her ideas were bewildered or concentrated. Only the obstinacy of pride remained alive within her.
"No," she said, "she would never move from that spot--she would not be commanded by Jew or Jewess."
"Don't you hear the mob--the stones at the windows?"
"Very well. They would all pay for it on the scaffold or the gibbet."
"But if they break in here you will be torn to pieces."
"No--those only will be sacrificed who
have sacrificed. A 'de Brantefield'--they dare not!--I shall not stir from this spot. Who will presume to touch Lady de Brantefield?"
Mr. Montenero and I lifted up the huge chair on which she sat, and carried her and it into the back room.
The door of this room was scarcely shut, and the tapestry covering but just closed over the entrance into the picture-gallery, when there was a cry from the hall, and the servants came rushing to tell us that one of the window-shutters had given way.
Mr. Montenero, putting the pistols into my hand, took the gun, ran down stairs, and stationed himself so as to defend the entrance to the window, at which the people were pelting with stones; declaring that he would fire on the first man who should attempt to enter.
A man leaped in, and, in the struggle, Mr. Montenero's gun was wrested from him.
On my presenting a pistol, the man scrambled out of the window, carrying away with him the prize he had seized.
At this moment the faithful Jacob appeared amongst us as if by miracle. "Master, we are safe," said he, "if we can defend ourselves for a few minutes. The orange-woman delivered your letter, and the military are coming. She told me how to get in here, through the house that is building next door, from the leads of which I crept through a trap-door into your garret."
With the pistols, and with the assistance of the servants who were armed, some of them with swords, and others with whatever weapons came to hand, we made such a show of resistance as to keep the mob at bay for some moments.
"Hark!" cried Jacob; "thank Heaven, there's the military!" There was a sudden cessation of stones at the window. We heard the joyful sound of the horses' hoofs in the street. A prodigious uproar ensued, then gradually subsided. The mob was dispersed, and fled in different directions, and the military followed. We heard them gallop off. We listened till not a sound, either of human voice or of horse's foot, was to be heard. There was perfect silence; and when we looked as far as our eyes could reach out of the broken window, there was not a creature to be seen in the square or in the line of street to which it opened.
We ran to let out our female prisoners; I thought only of Berenice--she, who had shown so much self-possession during the danger, seemed most overpowered at this moment of joy; she threw her arms round her father, and held him fast, as if to convince herself that he was safe. Her next look was for me, and in her eyes, voice, and manner, when she thanked me, there was an expression which transported me with joy; but it was checked, it was gone the next moment: some terrible recollection seemed to cross her mind. She turned from me to speak to that odious Lady de Brantefield. I could not see Mr. Montenero's countenance, for he, at the same instant, left us, to single out, from the crowd assembled in the hall, the poor Irishwoman, whose zeal and intrepid gratitude had been the means of our deliverance. I was not time enough to hear what Mr. Montenero said to her, or what reward he conferred; but that the reward was judicious, and that the words were grateful to her feelings in the highest degree, I had full proof; for when I reached the hall, the widow was on her knees, with hands uplifted to Heaven, unable to speak, but with tears streaming down her hard face: she wiped them hastily away, and started up.
"It's not a little thing brings me to this," said she; "none ever drew a tear from my eyes afore, since the boy I lost."
She drew the hood of her cloak over her head, and pushed her way through the servants to get out of the hall-door; I unbolted and unchained it for her, and as I was unlocking it, she squeezed up close to me, and laying her iron hand on mine, said in a whisper, "God bless yees! and don't forget my thanks to the sweet
Jewish--I can't speak 'em now, 'tis you can best, and joined in my prayers ye shall ever be!" said our guardian angel, as I opened the door; and as she passed out, she added, "You are right, jewel-- she's worth all the fine ladies in Lon'on, feathers an' all in a bag."
I had long been entirely of the Widow Levy's opinion, though the mode of expression would never have occurred to me. What afterwards became of Lady Anne and of her mother this night, I do not distinctly recollect. Lady de Brantefield, when the alarm was over, I believe, recovered her usual portion of sense, and Lady Anne her silly spirits; but neither of them, I know, showed any feeling, except for themselves. I have an image of Lady de Brantefield standing up, and making, at parting, such ungracious acknowledgments to her kind hostess and generous protector, as her pride and her prejudices would permit. Both their ladyships seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the house, and I know that I rejoiced in their departure. I was in hopes of one moment, one explanatory word or look from Berenice. She was retiring to her own apartment, as I returned, with her father, after putting those two women into their carriage.
"I am now quite convinced," said Mr. Montenero, smiling, "that Mr. Harrington never could have been engaged or attached to Lady Anne Mowbray."
"Is it possible you ever imagined?"
"I did not
imagine, I only heard and believed--and now I have seen, and I disbelieve."
"And is this the obstacle, the invincible obstacle?" cried I.
Berenice sighed, and walked on to her room.
"I wish it were!" said Mr. Montenero; "but I pray you, sir, do not speak, do not think of this to-night--farewell! we all want repose."
I did not think that I wanted repose till the moment I lay down in bed, and then, overpowered with bodily fatigue, I fell into a profound sleep, from which I did not awaken till late the next morning, when my man, drawing back my curtains, presented to me a note from--I could hardly believe my eyes--"from Miss Montenero"--from Berenice! I started up, and read these words written in pencil: "My father is in danger--come to us."
How quick I was in obeying may be easily imagined. I went well armed, but in the present danger arms were of no use. I found that Mr. Montenero was summoned before one of the magistrates, on a charge of having fired from his window the preceding night before the Riot Act had been read--of having killed an inoffensive passenger. Now the fact was, that no shot had ever been fired by Mr. Montenero; but such was the rage of the people at the idea that the
Jew had killed a Christian, and one of their party, that the voice of truth could not be heard. They followed with execrations as he was carried before the magistrate; and waited with impatience, assembled round the house, in hopes of seeing him committed to prison to take his trial for murder. As I was not ignorant of the substantial nature of the defence which the spirit and the forms of English law provide in all cases for truth and innocence, against false accusation and party prejudice, I was not alarmed at the clamour I heard; I was concerned only for the temporary inconvenience and mortification to Mr. Montenero, and for the alarm to Berenice. The magistrate before whom Mr. Montenero appeared was an impartial and very patient man: I shall not so far try the patience of others as to record all that was positively said, but which could not be sworn to--all that was offered in evidence, but which contradicted itself, or which could not be substantiated by any good witness--at length one creditable-looking man came forward against Mr. Montenero.
He said he was an ironmonger--that he had been passing by at the time of the riot, and had been hurried along by the crowd against his will to Mr. Montenero's house, where he saw a sailor break open the window-shutter of one of the lower rooms--that he saw a shot fired by Mr. Montenero--that the sailor, after a considerable struggle, wrested the gun, with which the shot had been fired, from Mr. Montenero, and retreated with it from the window-- that hearing the cry of murder in the crowd, he thought it proper to secure the weapon, that it might be produced in evidence--and that the piece which he now produced was that which had been taken from Mr. Montenero.
I perceived great concern in the countenance of the magistrate, who, addressing himself to Mr. Montenero, asked him what he had to say in his defence.
"Sir," said Mr. Montenero, "I acknowledge that to be the gun which was wrested from my hands by the sailor; and I acknowledge that I attempted with that gun to defend my family and my house from immediate violence; I am, however," continued he, "happy to have escaped having injured any person, even in the most justifiable cause, for the piece did not go off, it only flashed in the pan."
"If that be the case," said the magistrate, "the piece is still loaded."
The gun was tried, and it was found to be empty both of powder and ball. As the magistrate returned the piece to the man, I came forward and asked leave to examine it. I observed to the magistrate, that if the piece had been fired, the inside of the barrel must retain marks of the discharge, whereas, on the contrary, the inside of the barrel was perfectly smooth and clean. To this the man replied, that he had cleaned the piece when he brought it home, which might indeed have been true. At this moment, I recollected a circumstance that I had lately heard from the officers in the country, who had been talking about a fowling-piece, and of the careless manner in which fire-arms are sometimes proved [Footnote: See Manton on Gunnery.]. Upon examination, I found that what I suspected might be just possible was actually the case with respect to the piece in question--the touch-hole had never been bored through, though the piece was marked as
proof! I never shall forget the satisfaction which appeared in the countenance of the humane magistrate, who from the beginning had suspected the evidence, whom he knew from former delinquency. The man was indeed called an ironmonger, but his was one of those
old iron shops which were known to be receptacles of stolen goods of various descriptions. To my surprise, it now appeared that this man's name was Dutton: he was the very Dutton who had formerly been Jacob's rival, and who had been under Lord Mowbray's protection. Time and intemperance had altered him so much, that I had not, till I heard his name, the slightest recollection of his face. What his motive for appearing against Mr. Montenero might be, whether it was hatred to him as being the patron of Jacob, whom Dutton envied and detested, or whether Dutton was instigated by some other and higher person, I shall not now stop to inquire. As he had not been put upon his oath, he had not been guilty of perjury; he was discharged amidst the hootings of the mob. Notwithstanding their prejudice against the Jews, and their rage against a Jew who had harboured, as they conceived, two
concealed papists and a priest, yet the moment an attempt to bear false witness against Mr. Montenero appeared, the people took his part. In England the mob is always in favour of truth and innocence, wherever these are made clearly evident to their senses. Pleased with themselves for their impartiality, it was not difficult at this moment for me to convince them, as I did, that Mr. Montenero had not harboured either papists or priest. The mob gave us three cheers. As we passed through the crowd, I saw Jacob and the orange-woman-- the orange-woman, with broad expanded face of joy, stretched up her arms, and shouted loud, that all the mob might hear. Jacob, little accustomed to sympathy, and in the habit of repressing his emotions, stood as one unmoved or dumb, till his eyes met mine, and then suddenly joy spread over his features and flashed from his dark eyes--that was a face of delight I never can forget; but I could not stay: I hastened to be the first to tell Berenice of her father's safety, and of the proof which all the world had had of the falsehood of the charge against him. I ran up to the drawing-room, where she was alone. She fainted in my arms.
And now you think, that when she came to herself, there was an end of all my fears, all my suspense--you think that her love, her gratitude, overcame the objection, whatever it may be, which has hitherto been called invincible--alas! you are mistaken.
I was obliged to resign Berenice to the care of her attendants. A short time afterwards I received from her father the following note:--
"My obligations to you are great, so is my affection for you; but the happiness of my child, as well as your happiness, is at stake.
"I dare not trust my gratitude--my daughter and you must never meet again, or must meet to part no more.
"I cannot yet decide: if I shall be satisfied that the obstacle do not exist, she shall be yours; if it do exist, we sail the first of next month for America, and you, Mr. Harrington, will not be the only, or perhaps the most, unhappy person of the three.
"A. MONTENERO."
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