第119章

"`Hasten here, sir, in God's name; help, help, sir, for the love of Heaven.He is my son, sir, my only son!' said the old man, frantically, as he advanced to meet him.`My only son, sir, and he is dying before his father's eyes!

"At the first word the old man uttered, the stranger checked himself in his career, and, folding his arms, stood perfectly motionless.

"`Great God!' exclaimed the old man, recoiling.`Heyling!'

"The stranger smiled, and was silent.

"`Heyling!' said the old man, wildly: `My boy, Heyling, my dear boy, look, look!' gasping for breath, the miserable father pointed to the spot where the young man was struggling for life.

"`Hark!' said the old man.`He cries once more.He is alive yet.Heyling, save him, save him!'

"The stranger smiled again, and remained immovable as a statue.

"`I have wronged you,' shrieked the old man, falling on his knees, and clasping his hands together.`Be revenged; take my all, my life; cast me into the water at your feet, and, if human nature can repress a struggle, I will die, without stirring hand or foot.Do it, Heyling, do it, but save my boy, he is so young, Heyling, so young to die!'

"`Listen,' said the stranger, grasping the old man fiercely by the wrist:

`I will have life for life, and here is ONE.My child died, before his father's eyes, a far more agonising and painful death than that young slanderer of his sister's worth is meeting while I speak.You laughed--laughed in your daughter's face, where death had already set his hand--at our sufferings, then.What think you of them now?

See there, see there!'

"As the stranger spoke, he pointed to the sea.A faint cry died away upon its surface: the last powerful struggle of the dying man agitated the rippling waves for a few seconds: and the spot where he had gone down into his early grave, was undistinguishable from the surrounding water.

"Three years had elapsed, when a gentleman alighted from a private carriage at the door of a London attorney, then well known as a man of no great nicety in his professional dealings: and requested a private interview on business of importance.Although evidently not past the prime of life, his face was pale, haggard, and dejected; and it did not require the acute perception of the man of business, to discern at a glance, that disease or suffering had done more to work a change in his appearance, than the mere hand of time could have accomplished in twice the period of his whole life.

"`I wish you to undertake some legal business for me,' said the stranger.

"The attorney bowed obsequiously, and glanced at a large packet which the gentleman carried in his hand.His visitor observed the look, and proceeded.

"`It is no common business,' said he; `nor have these papers reached my hands without long trouble and great expense.'

"The attorney cast a still more anxious look at the packet: and his visitor, untying the string that bound it, disclosed a quantity of promissory notes, with copies of deeds, and other documents.

"`Upon these papers,' said the client, `the man whose name they bear, has raised, as you will see, large sums of money, for some years past.

There was a tacit understanding between him and the men into whose hands they originally went--and from whom I have by degrees purchased the whole, for treble and quadruple their nominal value--that these loans should be from time to time renewed, until a given period had elapsed.Such an understanding is nowhere expressed.He has sustained many losses of late; and these obligations accumulating upon him at once, would crush him to the earth.'

"`The whole amount is many thousands of pounds,' said the attorney, looking over the papers.

"`It is,' said the client.

"`What are we to do?' inquired the man of business.

"`Do!' replied the client, with sudden vehemence.`Put every engine of the law in force, every trick that ingenuity can devise and rascality execute; fair means and foul; the open oppression of the law, aided by all the craft of its most ingenious practitioners.I would have him die a harassing and lingering death.Ruin him, seize and sell his lands and goods, drive him from house and home, and drag him forth a beggar in his old age, to die in a common gaol.'

"`But the costs, my dear sir, the costs of all this,' reasoned the attorney, when he had recovered from his momentary surprise.`If the defendant be a man of straw, who is to pay the costs, sir?'

"`Name any sum,' said the stranger, his hand trembling so violently with excitement, that he could scarcely hold the pen he seized as he spoke;`Any sum, and it is yours.Don't be afraid to name it, man.I shall not think it dear, if you gain my object.""The attorney named a large sum, at hazard, as the advance he should require to secure himself against the possibility of loss; but more with the view of ascertaining how far his client was really disposed to go, than with any idea that he would comply with the demand.The stranger wrote a cheque upon his banker, for the whole amount, and left him.

"The draft was duly honoured, and the attorney, finding that his strange client might be safely relied upon, commenced his work in earnest.For more than two years afterwards, Mr.Heyling would sit whole days together, in the office, poring over the papers as they accumulated, and reading again and again, his eyes gleaming with joy, the letters of remonstrance, the prayers for a little delay, the representations of the certain ruin in which the opposite party must be involved, which poured in, as suit after suit, and process after process, was commenced.To all applications for a brief indulgence, there was but one reply--the money must be paid.