The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
"We shall see in a moment," said the architect. "I have taken the
bearings so exactly, that I can point out to you the precise course."
He forced into the ground to a sufficient depth to make it stand steady,
his walking stick, and then removing a little gold cap from the top of
it, he disclosed a small compass, which after some oscillations,
steadied itself.
"Then," said Sir Christopher, "through that wall would lead in a direct
line to Todd's house."
"This will assist us," said Sir Richard. "We will, before we actually
begin excavating, endeavour to find some of the vaults which may run in
that direction, and so perhaps save ourselves an immense amount of
labour."
"Very good," said Sir Christopher Wren, "I can at any time give you,
from any place, the exact bearing of Todd's house, for I have it fixed
in my mind, and can read it off from the compass plate in a moment."
They now at once made their way into the vaults, and by dint of keeping
to the right hand, they avoided going much out of their course. These
vaults were of great extent, and although some of them, owing to being
full of the dead, had been bricked up, yet they were very easily opened,
and in many cases a direct thoroughfare for considerable distances was
affected.
Ever and anon the compass was appealed to, and showed them that they
were approaching Todd's house.
One of the party, a well-dressed gentlemanly-looking man, now stepped
forward, and said to Sir Richard--
"Here, according to the plans of the church, the vaults end."
"Then we can get no further?"
"Not an inch, Sir Richard."
"Then here commences in reality our mission, which is to try to discover
some communication between the lower part of the house occupied by
Sweeney Todd, and these vaults. Let us each use our utmost
discrimination to affect that object."
He lighted for himself a small lantern, and commenced a rigorous search
of the walls, but for some few minutes could find nothing to excite the
least suspicion. At length he paused at one portion of one of the
vaults, where a kind of wooden tomb had been erected close to the wall.
A large piece of dirty oak was placed upright against the earth work.
"If there be any mode of leaving this vault, but the one we have
entered," he said, "it is here."
At these words, so significant as they were of some discovery having
been made by Sir Richard, all those who were with him made their way to
that spot, and from their several lanterns, a glare of light was thrown
upon the wooden monument.
"This," said the person who had before spoken of the plan of the vaults,
"this is the monument of a Sir Giles Horseman, who was killed by
accident and interred here about twenty-two years ago. It was a very
unusual thing to make any such erection in a vault, but his widow wished
it, and the authorities saw no good reason for interfering."
The monument had evidently consisted of an oaken kind of square
ornamental tomb affixed to the wall, and extending out about six feet
into the vault. That portion of it which did so extend into the vault
had fallen in, but the piece of oak which had been originally affixed to
the wall there remained.
"What leads you to suppose, Sir Richard," said the architect, "that this
place will show us anything?"
"This," said the magistrate, as he picked up from amid the rubbish of
the broken monument, a nearly new glove of thick leather. "How did this
get here?"
The glove was passed from hand to hand, and duly examined. No one owned
it, and the only remark that could be made upon it was, that it was of
an immense size.
"Then," said Sir Richard Blunt, "since it belongs to none of us, I give
it as my opinion that it belongs to Sweeney Todd, and has fallen from
his hand in this place."
"It must be so," said the fruiterer. "I know of no hand in the City of
London that such a glove would fit but his."
"But how came he here?" said Sir Christopher. "That is the question. How
could he get here."
"We shall see," said the magistrate. "Lend me that small iron crow-bar,
Jenkins."
The crow-bar was handed to Sir Richard Blunt, and at one touch with it
down come the piece of oak that was against the wall. That was
conclusive, for, instead of the solid wall beyond it, there was a deep
crevice or opening just sufficient to enable one person to go through
it.
"This is the place," said the magistrate.
There was a death-like silence among all present. Every ear was on the
stretch, and every eye was fixed upon the narrow opening in the wall of
the vault. It would almost seem as though every one expected Sweeney
Todd to appear with one of his victims on his back that he had just, to
use his own expressive phraseology, succeeded in polishing off.
Sir Christopher stuck up his compass again, and it was his voice that
first broke the stillness.
"The route is direct," he said.
"To Todd's house?" asked Sir Richard.
"Yes, direct."
"Then all we have got to do is to follow it. It is an enterprise perhaps
attended with some danger, and certainly with much horror, I think. Now,
I do not ask any one to follow me, but go I will."
"I will follow you, Sir Richard," said the fruiterer. "I reside in Fleet
Street, and rather than not ferret out such a villain as Todd from the
neighbourhood, I would run any risks. I am with you, sir."
"And I," said Sir Christopher Wren.
"And I--and I," cried every one.
"Come on," said the magistrate. "Come on. I will take the small lantern,
and if I meet Todd, my great aim will be to take him a prisoner, not to
kill him; and mind all of you, if by any chance a scuffle with that man
should ensue, it would be a scandalous cheating of the gallows to do him
any injury that might even delay his execution. Now, come on."
It required no small amount of real courage to lead the way in that
expedition into the very bowels of the earth as it were; but with the
small lantern elevated as far above his head as the roof of the passage
would admit of, Sir Richard stepped cautiously and slowly on.
The excavation in which they were was roughly but well made. At
intervals of about twelve feet each, there always occurred two upright
pieces of plank supporting a third piece on the roof, and firmly wedged
in, so that there was but little likelihood of a fall of earth from
above.
Suddenly a scuffling noise was heard, and Sir Richard for a moment
paused.
"What is it?" said the fruiterer.
"Only some rats," he replied. "I daresay there are plenty of such
gentlemen in this quarter of the world, and probably they never saw so
large a party here before. They are scudding along in a regiment here."
After going on for about twenty paces further, Sir Richard found a door
completely blocking up the passage. By dint of careful investigation of
it, he found it was locked, and the key in the other side of the lock.
He pushed it through with some difficulty, and then, with a skeleton
key, opened the door in the course of a few moments.
"Come on," he said. "Ah! this is a different place."
They now found themselves in some regularly constructed vaults, arched
with stone, down the sides of which there rolled long streams of
moisture. They were all quite at a loss to know what place they had got
into, for they knew of nothing of the sort beneath Fleet Street, and
they gazed about them with wonder.
CHAPTER XCIV.
IN THE VAULTS.
"Who on earth would have thought of vaults like these in such a
situation?" said the fruiterer.
"They are," said Sir Christopher, "undoubtedly the remains of some
public building, which probably at a very distant date has occupied the
site above. They are well built, and really of considerable
architectural beauty in some respects. I am quite pleased at the
opportunity of seeing such a place."
"It looks," remarked the magistrate, "as though it had been long hidden
from the world. It is such men as Sweeney Todd who find out more
underground secrets in a month than we should in a lifetime; but I hope
that we shall find out all his cleverness and most abhorrent iniquities
now."
The air in this stone place was by no means very bad, and indeed, after
the vaults, there was rather an agreeable damp kind of freshness in it;
while it was evident, by the manner in which the lights burnt in it,
that there was no want of vitality in its atmosphere. At first it was no
easy matter to find any kind of outlet from the place. After some
searching, however, another door was discovered, very similar, indeed,
to the one that Sir Richard Blunt had opened with the picklock, and
that, too, was found to be locked on the other side, and the key, as in
the former case, in the lock.
"All this locking of doors," said the magistrate, "was, I have no sort
of doubt, to protect himself from any night visit upon the part of Mrs.
Lovett, from whom I feel certain that Sweeney Todd has been expecting
attempts upon his life, as much as to my own knowledge he has made
attempts upon hers; but by some kind of fatality, or providence, they
seem to be unable to harm each other."
"It is a providence," said Sir Christopher. "They must both suffer the
penalty of outraging, as they have done, the laws of God and man; and
the retribution would be by no means complete were they to fall by the
hands or each other."
"I think you are right, sir," said the fruiterer.
The door which was now opened, only led to some other vaults, which
somewhat resembled those the party had just left, only that they were by
no means so lofty or so carefully constructed as they were; and before
they had proceeded far, some evidences of habitation began to show
themselves. Some old boots occupied a place in one corner, and some old
hats, and other articles of clothing, were lying in a confused heap in
another. Sir Richard Blunt looked upon all this as ample testimony that
he was quite close to the abode of Sweeney Todd, and he accordingly
turned to his friends, saying--
"It is necessary that we proceed with the utmost caution. I think, a
very few steps will take us into the cellars of Todd's house, and the
object now is not by any means to give him the least alarm, but merely
to find out, if possible, by what means he murders and disposes of his
victims."
Acting upon this caution, they extinguished all the lights, with the
exception of one lantern, and that Sir Richard Blunt himself carried, as
he still continued to head the expedition. Suddenly he came upon an
arched doorway without a door; and hardly had he proceeded a few paces,
when he saw something lying in a strange confused mass upon the floor,
which, upon a closer examination, proved to be a dead body.
The reader will probably in this body see the spy who had been employed
by Mrs. Lovett to see that Todd did not run away in the course of the
preceding night.
The body was lying upon some stones, that seemed to have been placed one
upon another in such a position that their most jagged corners and
uneven surfaces should be uppermost. A glance at the roof showed a
square, black-looking hole.
Sir Richard Blunt was upon the point of saying something, when overhead
they heard the distinct tramp of a man. The magistrate immediately
placed his finger upon his lips, and all was as still as the grave in
that place. Presently they heard a voice, and they all knew that it was
the voice of Sweeney Todd. It came from above, and reached their ears
with sufficient clearness to enable them to catch the words--
"Her death is certain if I can but get her to cross the threshold of
this parlour!"
Then the pacing to and fro of that really wretched man continued. The