The String of Pearls; Or, The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance.
for me if I requested their good-will. I had serious thoughts of
possessing myself of some money, and then leaving home, and staying away
until I had arrived at age; but this I deferred doing, seeing that there
were no means, and I could not do more than I then did--that is, to live
on without any mischief happening, and wait for a few years more. I
contracted an acquaintance with a young man who came to visit my
father--he came several times, and paid me more civility and attention
than any one else ever did, and I felt that he was the only friend I
possessed. It is no wonder I looked upon him as being my best and my
only friend. I thought him the best and the handsomest man I ever
beheld. This put other thoughts into my head. I did not dress as others
did, much less had I the opportunity of becoming possessed of many of
those little trinkets that most young women of my age had. But this made
no alteration in the good opinion of the young gentleman, who took no
notice of that, but made me several pretty presents. These were
treasures to me, and I must say I gloated over them, and often, when
alone, I have spent hours in admiring them; trifling as they were, they
made me happier. I knew now one person who cared for me, and a
delightful feeling it was too. I shall never know it again--it is quite
impossible. Here, among the dark walls and unwholesome cells, we have no
cheering ray of life or hope--all is dreary and cold; a long and
horrible punishment takes place, to which there is no end save with
life, and in which there is no one mitigating circumstance--all is bad
and dark. God help me!"
* * * * *
"However, my dream of happiness was soon disturbed. By some means my
parents had got an idea of this, and the young man was dismissed the
house, and forbidden to come to it again. This he determined to do, and
more than once we met, and then in secret I told him all my woes. When
he had heard all I said, he expressed the deepest commiseration, and
declared I had been most unjustly and harshly treated, and thought that
there was not a harder or harsher treatment than that which I had
received. He then advised me to leave home.
"'Leave home,' I said; 'where shall I fly? I have no friend.'
"'Come to me, I will protect you; I will stand between you and all the
world; they shall not stir hand or foot to your injury.'
"'But I cannot, dare not to do that; if they found me out, they would
force me back with all the ignominy and shame that could be felt from
having done a bad act; not any pity would they show me.'
"'Nor need you; you would be my wife--I mean to make you my wife.'
"'You?'
"'Yes! I dreamed not of anything else. You shall be my wife; we will
hide ourselves, and remain unknown to all until the time shall have
arrived when you are of age--when you can claim all your property, and
run no risk of being poisoned or killed by any other means.'
"'This is a matter,' said I, 'that ought to be considered well before
adopting anything so violent and so sudden.'
"'It does; and it is not one that I think will injure by being reflected
upon by those who are the principal actors; for my own part my mind is
made up, and I am ready to perform my share of the engagement.'
"I resolved to consider the matter well in my own mind, and felt every
inclination to do what he proposed, because it took me away from home,
and because it would give me one of my own. My parents had become
utterly estranged from me: they did not act as parents, they did not act
as friends, they had steeled my heart against them; they never could
have borne any love to me, I am sure of it, who could have committed
such great crimes against me. As the hour drew near, that in which I was
likely to become an object of still greater hatred and dislike to them,
I thought I was often the subject of their private thoughts, and often
when I entered the room my mother and father, and the rest, would
suddenly leave off speaking, and look at me, as if to ascertain if I had
overheard them say anything. On one occasion I remember very well I
heard them conversing in a low tone. The door happened to have opened of
itself, the hasp not having been allowed to enter the mortise. I heard
my name mentioned: I paused and listened.
"'We must soon get rid of her,' said my mother.
"'Undoubtedly,' he replied; 'if we do not, we shall have her about our
ears: she'll get married, or some infernal thing, and then we shall have
to refund.'
"'We could prevent that.'
"'Not if her husband were to insist upon it, we could not; but the only
plan I can now form is, what I told you of already.'
"'Putting her into a madhouse?'
"'Yes: there, you see, she will be secured, and cannot get away.
Besides, those who go there die in a natural way before many years.'
"'But she can speak.'
"'So she may; but who attends to the ravings of a mad woman? No, no;
depend upon it, that is the best plan: send her to a lunatic asylum--a
private madhouse. I can obtain all that is requisite in a day or two.'
"'Then we will consider that settled?'
"'Certainly.'
"'In a few days, then?'
"'Before next Sunday; because we can enjoy ourselves on that day without
any restraint, or without any uncomfortable feelings of uncertainty
about us.'
* * * * *
"I waited to hear no more: I had heard enough to tell me what I had to
expect. I went back to my own room, and having put on my bonnet and
shawl I went out to see the individual to whom I have alluded, and saw
him. I then informed him of all that had taken place, and heard him
exclaim against them in terms of rising indignation.
"'Come to me,' he said; 'come to me at once.'
"'Not at once.'
"'Don't stop a day.'
"'Hush!' said I, 'there's no danger; I will come the day after
to-morrow; and then I will bid adieu to all these unhappy moments, to
all these persecutions; and in three years' time I shall be able to
demand my fortune, which will be yours.'
* * * * *
"We were to meet the next day but one, early in the morning; there was
not, in fact, to be more than thirty hours elapse before I was to leave
home--if home I could call it--however, there was no time to be lost. I
made up a small bundle and had all in readiness before I went to bed,
and placed in security, intending to rise early, and let myself out and
leave the house. That, however, was never to happen. While I slept, at a
late hour of the night, I was awakened by two men standing by my
bedside, who desired me to get up and follow them. I refused, and they
pulled me rudely out of bed. I called out for aid, and exclaimed against
the barbarity of their proceedings.
"'It is useless to listen to her,' said my father, 'you know what a mad
woman will say!'
"'Ay, we do,' replied the men, 'they are the cunningest devils we ever
heard. We have seen enough of them to know that.'
"To make the matter plain, I was seized, gagged, and thrust into a
coach, and brought here, where I have remained ever since."
CHAPTER XXIX.
TOBIAS'S RAPID JOURNEY TO LONDON.
There was something extremely touching in the tone, and apparently in
the manner in which the poor persecuted one detailed the story of her
wrongs, and she had a tribute of a willing tear from Tobias.
"After the generous confidence you have had in me," he said, "I ought to
tell you something of myself."
"Do so," she replied, "we are companions in misfortune."
"We are indeed."
Tobias then related to her at large all about Sweeney Todd's villanies,
and how at length he, Tobias, had been placed where he was for the
purpose of silencing his testimony of the evil and desperate practices
of the barber. After that, he related to her what he had overheard about
the intention to murder him that very night, and he concluded by
saying--
"If you have any plan of escape from this horrible place, let me implore
you to tell it to me, and let us put it into practice to-night, and if
we fail, death is at any time preferable to continued existence here."
"It is--it is--listen to me."
"I will indeed," said Tobias: "you will say you never had such attention
as I will now pay to you."
"You must know, then, that this cell is paved with flag-stones, as you
see, and that the wall here at the back forms likewise part of the wall
of an old wood-house in the garden, which is never visited."
"Yes, I understand."
"Well, as I have been here so long, I managed to get up one of the
flag-stones that forms the flooring here, and to work under the wall
with my hands--a slow labour, and one of pain, until I made a regular
kind of excavation, one end of which is here, and the other in the
wood-house."
"Glorious!" said Tobias. "I see--I see--go on."
"I should have made my escape if I could, but the height of the garden
wall has always been the obstacle. I thought of tearing this miserable
quilt into strips, and making a sort of rope of it; but then how was I
to get it on the wall? you, perhaps will, with your activity and youth,
be able to accomplish that."
"Oh, yes, yes! you're right enough there; it is not a wall shall stop
me."
They waited until, from a church clock in the vicinity, they heard ten
strike, and they began operations. Tobias assisted his new friend to
raise the stone in the cell, and there, immediately beneath, appeared
the excavation leading to the wood-house, just sufficiently wide for one
person to creep through. It did not take long to do that, and Tobias
took with him a piece of work, upon which he had been occupied for the
last two hours, namely the quilt torn up into long pieces, twisted and
tied together, so that it formed a very tolerable rope, which Tobias
thought would sustain the weight of his companion. The wood-house was a
miserable-looking hole enough, and Tobias at once thought that the door
of it was fastened, but by a little pressure it came open; it had only
stuck through the dampness of the woodwork at that low point of the
garden. And now they were certainly both of them at liberty, with the
exception of surmounting the wall, which rose frowningly before him in
all its terrors. There was a fine cool fresh air in the garden, which
was indeed most grateful to the senses of Tobias, and he seemed doubly
nerved for anything that might be required of him after inhaling that
delicious, cool fresh breeze. There grew close to the wall one of those
beautiful mountain-ash trees, which bend over into such graceful
foliage, and which are so useful in the formation of pretty
summer-houses. Tobias saw that if he ascended to the top of this tree
there would not be much trouble in getting from there to the wall.
"We shall do it," he said, "we shall succeed."
"Thank God, I hear you say so," replied his companion.
Tobias tied one end of the long rope they had made of the quilt to his
waist, so that he might carry it up with him, and yet leave him free use
of his hands and feet, and then he commenced ascending the tree. In
three minutes he was on the wall. The moon shone sweetly. There was not
a tree or house in the vicinity that was not made beautiful now, in some
portions of it, by the sweet, soft light that poured down upon them,
Tobias could not resist pausing a moment to look around him on the
glorious scene; but the voice of her for whom he was bound to do all
that was possible, aroused him.
"Oh, Tobias!" she said, "quick, quick--lower the rope; oh, quick!"
"In a moment--in a moment," he cried.
The top of the wall was here and there armed with iron spikes, and some
of these formed an excellent grappling place for the torn quilt. In the