August 18, 2025 • 31 mins
In this captivating novella by the renowned Elizabeth Gaskell, we delve into the life and memories of the aristocratic Lady Ludlow, as narrated by her young charge, Margaret Dawson. Lady Ludlow embodies the resistance of the old English gentry to embrace social reform and technological advancements, including education for the less fortunate and a more lenient approach to religion. Through her reflections on friends from the tumultuous times of the French Revolution, she seeks to protect and mentor the many young ladies under her care. [Summary by Rosie]
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter five of My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell. This
is a liberovox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
liberovox dot org. My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell, Chapter five.
(00:27):
In the hurry of the moment, I scarce knew what
I did. I bade the housekeeper put up every delicacy
she had in order to tempt the invalid, whom yet
I hoped to bring back with me to our house.
When the carriage was ready, I took the good woman
with me to show us the exact way, which my
coachman professed not to know. For indeed they were staying
(00:50):
at but a poor kind of place at the back
of Leicester Square, of which they had heard, as Clement
told me afterwards, from one of the fishermen who had
carried them across from the Dutch coast in their disguises
as a Friesland peasant and his mother. They had some
jewels of value concealed from their persons, but their ready
money was all spent before I saw them, and Clement
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had been unwilling to leave his mother even for the
time necessary to ascertain the best mode of disposing of
the diamonds. For overcome with distress of mind and bodily fatigue,
she had reached London only to take to her bed
in a sort of low nervous fever, in which her
chief and only ideas seemed to be that Clement was
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about to be taken from her to some sort of
prison or other, and if he were out of her sight,
though but for a minute, she cried like a child
and could not be pacified or comforted. The landlady was
a kind, good woman, and though she but half understood
the case, she was truly sorry for them as foreigners,
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and the mother, sick in a strange land, sent her
forwards to request permission for my entrance. In a moment,
I saw Clement, a tall, elegant young man in a
curious dress of coarse cloth, standing at the open of
a door, and evidently even before he accosted me, striving
to soothe the terrors of his mother inside. I went
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towards him and would have taken his hand, but he
bent down and kissed mine. May I come in, madame,
I asked, looking at the poor sick lady lying in
the dark, dingy bed, her head propped up on coarse
and dirty pillows, and gazing with the frighted eyes at
all that was going on. Clement. Clement, come to me,
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she cried, and when he went to her bedside, she
turned on one side and took his hand in both
of hers and began stroking it, and looking up into
his face. I could scarce keep back my tears. He
stood there quite still, except that from time to time
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he spoke to her in a low tone. At last
I advanced into the room so that I could talk
to him without renewing her alarm. I asked for the
doctor's address, for I had learned that they had called
in some one at their landlady's recommendation. But I could
hardly understand Clement's broken English and mispronunciation of our proper names,
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and was obliged to apply to the woman herself. I
could not say much to Clement, for his attention was
perpetually needed by his mother, who never seemed to perceive
that I was there. But I told him not to
fear however long I might be away, for that I
would return before night, and bidding the woman take charge
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of all the heterogeneous things, the housekeeper had put up,
and leaving one of my men in the house who
could understand a few words of French, with directions that
he should hold himself and Madame de Craigie his orders
until I sent or gave him fresh commands. I drove
off to the doctor's. What I wanted was his permission
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to remove Madame de craig Hey to my own house,
and to learn how it might best be done. Or
I saw that every movement in the room, every sound
except Clement's voice, brought on fresh access of trembling and
nervous agitation. The doctor was, I should think, a clever man,
but he had that kind of abrupt manner which people
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get who have much to do with the lower orders.
I told him the story of his patient, the interest
I had in her, and the wish I entertained of
removing her to my own house. It can't be done,
said he. Any change will kill her. But it must
be done, I replied, and it shall not kill her.
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Then I have nothing more to say, said he, turning
away from the carriage door and making his though he
would go back into the house. Stop a minute. You
must help me, and if you do, you should have
reason to be glad, for I shall give you fifty
pounds down with pleasure. If you won't do it another shall.
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He looked at me, then furtivelly at the carriage door, hesitated,
and then said, you do not mind expense? Apparently I
suppose you are a rich lady of quality. Such folks
do not stick at such trifles as the life or
death of a sick woman to get their own way.
I suppose I must in help you, for if I don't,
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another will. I did not mind what he said, so
that he would assist me. I was pretty sure that
she was in a state to require opiates, and I
had not forgotten Christopher's ly, you may be sure. So
I told him what I had in my head, that
in the dead of night, the quiet time in the streets,
she should be carried in a hospital litter so softly
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and warmly covered over from the Leicester Square lodging house
to rooms that I would have in perfect readiness for
her as I planned. So it was done. I let
clament know by a note of my design I had
all prepared at home, and we walked about my house
as though shod with velvet, while the porter watched at
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the open door. At last, through the darkness, I saw
the lanterns carried by my men, who were leading the
little procession. The litter looked like a hearse On one side,
walked the doctor on the other Clement. They came softly
and swiftly along. I could try no further experiment. We
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dared not change her clothes. She was laid in the
bed in the landlady's coarse night gear and covered over warmly,
and left in the shaded, scented room, with a nurse
and the doctor watching by her, while I led Clement
to the dressing room joining in which I had had
a bed placed for him. Farther than that he would
not go, and there I had refreshments brought. Meanwhile, he
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had shown his gratitude at every possible action, for none
of us dared to speak. He had kneeled at my
feet and kissed my hand, and left it wet with
his tears. He had thrown up his arms to heaven
and prayed earnestly, as I could see by the movements
of his lips. I allowed him to relieve himself by
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these dumb expressions, if I may so call them, And
then I left him and went to my own rooms
to sit up for my Lord and tell him what
I had done. Of course it was all right, and
neither my Lord nor I could sleep for wondering how
Madame de Craigy would bear her awakening. I had engaged
the doctor to whose face and voice she was accustomed,
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to remain with her all night. The nurse was experienced,
and Clement was within call. But it was with the
great relief that I heard from my own woman when
she brought me my chocolate, that Madame de Craiguy Monsieur
had said had awakened more tranquil than she had been
for many days. To be sure, the whole aspect of
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the bed chamber must have been more familiar to her
than that miserable place where I had found her, and
she must have intuitively felt herself among friends. My Lord
was scandalized at Clement's dress, which, after the first moment
of seeing him, I had forgotten and thinking of other things,
and for which I had not prepared. Lord Ludlow he
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sent for his own tailor and bade him bring patterns
of stuff and engage his men to work night and
day till Clement could appear as became his rank in
short in a few days, so much of the traces
of their flight were removed that we had almost forgotten
the terrible causes of it, and rather felt as if
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they had come on a visit to us than that
they had been compelled to fly the country. Their diamonds, too,
were sold well by my Lord's agents, though the London
shops were stocked with jewelry and such portable values, some
of rare and curious fashion, which were sold at half
their real value by immigrants who could not afford to wait.
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Madame de craig He was recovering her health, although her
strength was sadly gone, and she would never be equal
to such another flight as the perilous one which she
had just gone through, and to which she could not
bear the slightest reference. For some time things continued in
this state that to Craigie still are honored visitors. Many
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houses besides our own, even among our own friends, opened
to receive the poor, flying nobility of France, driven from
their country by the brutal Republicans, and every freshly arrived
immigrant bringing new tales of horror, as if these revolutionists
were drunk with blood and mad to devise neutrial. One day,
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Clement I should tell you that he had been presented
to our good King George and the sweet Queen, and
they had accosted him most graciously, And his beauty and elegance,
and some of the circumstances attendant on his flight made
him be received in the world quite like a hero
of romance. He might have been on intimate terms in
(10:26):
many a distinguished house, had he cared much to visit.
But he accompanied my Lord and me with an air
of indifference and languor, which I sometimes fancied made him
be all the more sought after Monkshaven, that was the
title my eldest son. Poor tried in vain to interest
him in all young men's sports, but no, it was
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the same through all. His mother took far more interest
in the audis of the London world, into which she
was far too great an invalid to venture, than he
did in the absence flute evinced themselves, in which he
might have been an actor. One day, as I was saying,
an old frenchman of humble class presented himself to our servants.
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Several of them understood French, and through Medlicott I learned
that he was in some way connected with the Crakys,
not in their Paris life, but I fancied that he
had been intendant of their estates in the country, estates
which were more useful as hunting grounds than as adding
to their income. However, there was the old man, and
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with him wrapped round his person, he had brought the
long parchment rolls and deeds relating to their property. These
he would deliver up to none, but Monsieur de Crakiye
the rightful owner, and Clement was out with Monkshaven. So
the old man waited, And when Clement came in, I
told him of the Stuart's arrival and how he had
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been cared for by my people. Clament went directly to
see him. He was a long time away, and I
was waiting for him to drive out with me for
some purpose or another. I scarce know what now, but
I remember I was tired of waiting. I was just
in the act of ringing the bell to desire that
he might be reminded of his engagement with me. When
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he came in, his face as white as the powder
in his hair, his beautiful eyes dilated with horror. I
saw that he had heard something that touched him even
more closely than the usual tales which every fresh immigrant brought.
What is it, glyment, I asked. He clasped his hands
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and looked as though he tried to speak, but could
not bring out the words They have guillotined, my uncle,
said he at last, Now I knew that there was
a count to Craigy, but I had always understood that
the elder branch had very little communication with him, in fact,
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that he was of for rihinn of some kind, and
rather disgrace than otherwise to the family. So perhaps I
was hard hearted, But I was a little surprised at
this excess of emotion till I saw that this particular
look in his eye that many people have when there
is more terror in their hearts than they dare put
into words. He wanted me to understand something without his
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saying it, But how could I. I had never heard
of a mademoiselle de Craigie Virsini. At last, he uttered
in an instant, I understood it all, and remembered that
if Uriene had lived, he too might have been in love.
Your uncle's daughter, I inquired, my cousin, He replied, I
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did not say your betrothed, But I had no doubt
of it. I was mistaken. However, oh madame, he continued,
Her mother died long ago, her father now, and she
is a daily fear alone deserted. Is she in the abbey?
Asked I? No, she is in hiding with the widow
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of her father's old concierge. Any day they may search
the house for aristocrats. They are seeking them everywhere. Then
not her life alone, but that of the old woman.
Her hostess is sacrificed. The old woman knows this and
trembles with fear. Even if she is brave enough to
be faithful, her fears would betray her should the house
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be searched. Yet there is no one to help Zini
to escape. She is alone in Paris. I saw what
was in his mind. He was fretting and chafing to
go to his cousin's assistance. But the thought of his
mother restrained him. I would not have kept back Urian
from such an errand at such a time, how should
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I restrain him? And yet perhaps I did wrong in
not urging the chance of danger. More still, if it
was danger to him, was it not the same or
even greater danger to her, for the French spared neither
age nor sex in those wicked days of terror. So
I rather fell in with his wish and encouraged him
(15:16):
to think how best and most prudently it might be fulfilled,
never doubting, as I have said, that he and his
cousin were troth plighted. But when I went to see
Madame de Craiky, after he had imparted his, or rather
our plan for her, I found out my mistake. She,
who was in general too feeble to walk across a
(15:39):
room save slowly and with a stick, was going from
end to end with quick tottering steps. And if now
and then she sank upon a chair, it seemed as
if she could not rest, for she was up again
in a moment, pacing along, wringing her hands and speaking
rapidly to herself. When she saw me, she stop. Madame.
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She said, you have lost your own boy. You might
have left me mine. I was so astonished I hardly
knew what to say. I had spoken to Clement as
if his mother's consent were secure, as I had felt
my own would have been, if Urian had been alive
to ask it. Of course, both he and I knew
(16:24):
that his mother's consent must be asked and obtained before
he could leave her to go on such an undertaking.
But somehow my blood always rose at the side or
a sound of danger, perhaps because my life had always
been so peaceful. Poor Madame de Cragie it was otherwise
for her. She despaired, while I hoped and claiment trusted.
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Dear Madame de Crakie, said I he will return safely
to us. Every precaution shall be taken that either he
or you, or my lord Lord or Monkshaven can think of.
But he cannot leave a girl his nearest relation, save you,
his betrothed. Is she not his betrothed? Cried she, now
(17:12):
at the utmost pitch of her excitement. Erstini betrothed to Clement. No,
thank Heaven, not so bad as that. Yet it might
have been, But Mademoiselle scorned my son. She would have
nothing to do with him. Now is the time for
him to have nothing to do with her. Clement had
entered at the door behind his mother. As she thus spoke.
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His face was set and pale, till it looked as
gray and immovable as if it had been carved in stone.
He came forward and stood before his mother. She stopped
her walk, threw back her haughty head, and the two
looked at each other steadily in the face. After a
minute or two, in this attitude, her proud and resolute gaze,
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never flinching or wave, he went down upon one knee
and taking her hand, her hard, stony hand, which never
closed on his, but remained straight and stiff. Mother, he pleaded,
withdraw your prohibition, let me go. What were her words,
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Madame de Craig, he replied, slowly, as if forcing her
memory to the extreme of accuracy. My cousin, she said,
when I marry, I marry a man, not a petite maitre.
I marry a man who, whatever his rank may be,
will add dignity to the human race by his virtues,
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and not be content to live in an effeminate court
on the traditions of past grandeur. She borrowed her words
from the infamous Jean Jacques Rousseau, the friend of her
scarceless infamous father. Nay, I will say it, if not
her words, she borrowed her principles, and my son to
request to marry her. It was my father's written wish,
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said Clement, But did you not love her. You plead
your father's words, words written twelve years before, and as
if it were your reason for being indifferent at my
dislike to the alliance. And you requested her to marry you,
and she refused you with exolent contempt. And now you
are ready to leave me, Leave me desolate in a
foreign land, desolate my mother. And there the Countess Ludlow
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stands there. Pardon madame, But all the earth, though it
were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and
a desert place to a mother when her only child
is absent. And you, Clement, would leave me for this Visini,
this degenerate d craigy tainted with the atheism of Monsieclopegist.
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She is only reaping some of the fruit of the harvest,
whereof her friends have sewn the seed. Let her alone.
Doubtless she has friends. It may be lovers among these demons,
who have, under the cry of life liberty, committed every license.
Let her alone, Clement, she refused you with scorn. Be
too proud to know her. Now, Mother, I cannot think
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of myself, only of her. Think of me. Then I,
your mother, forbid you to go, Clement, bowed low and
went out of the room. Instantly, as one blinded, she
saw his groping movement, and for an instant I think
her heart was touched. But she turned to me and
tried to esculpate her past violence by dilating upon her wrongs,
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and they certainly were many. The Count, her husband's younger brother,
had invariably tried to make mischief between husband and wife.
He had been the cleverer man of the two, and
had possessed extraordinary influence over her husband. She suspected him
of having instigated that clause of her husband's will, by
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which the Marquis expressed his wish for the marriage of
the cousins. The Count had had some interest in the
management of the du Craki property during her son's minority. Indeed,
I remembered then that it was through the Count de
Craki that Lord Ludlow had first heard of the apartment
which we afterwards took in the Hotel de Creki. And
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then the recollection of a past feeling came distinctly out
of the mist, as it were, and I called to
mind how when we first took up our abode in
the Hotel de Creky, both Lord Ludlow and I imagined
that our arrangement was displeasing to our hostess, and how
it had taken a considerable time before we had been
(21:38):
able to establish relations of friendship with her. Years after
our visit, she began to suspect that Clement, whom she
could not forbid to visit his uncle's house, considering the
terms on which his father had been with his brother,
though she herself had never set foot over the count
to Creakie's threshold, was attaching himself to Mataemoiselle, his cousin,
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and she made cautious inquiries as to the appearance, character,
and disposition of the young lady. Mademoiselle was not handsome,
they said, but of a fine figure, and generally considered
as having a very noble and attractive presence. In character,
she was daring and wilful, said one, set original and independent,
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said another. She was much indulged by her father, who
had given her something of a man's education, and selected
for her intimate friend a young lady below her in
rank one of the bureaucracy, a Mademoiselle Necker, daughter of
the Minister of Finance, Mademoiselle de Craigy was thus introduced
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into all the free thinking salons of Paris, among people
who were always full of plans for subverting society, and
de Clement affects such people. Madame de Craigy had asked,
with some anxiety, no monsieur to Craigie had neither eyes
nor ears nor thought for anything but his cousin while
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she was by, and she she hardly took notice of
his devotion so evident to every one else, the proud creature.
But perhaps that was her haughty way of concealing what
she felt. And so Madame de Craigy listened and questioned
and learnt nothing decided, until one day she surprised Clement
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with a note in his hand, of which she remembered
the stinging words so well in which Virzini had said,
in a reply to a proposal Clement had sent through
her through her father, that when she married, she married
a man, not apity matre. Clement was justly indignant at
the insulting nature of the answer Virzini had sent to
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a proposal respectful in its tone, and which was, after
all the cool, hardened lava over a burning heart. He
acquis asked in his mother's desire that he should not
again present himself in his uncle's salons, but he did
not forget for Zini, although he never mentioned her name.
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Madame de Crakie and her son were among the earliest
proscree and they were of the strongest possible royalist and aristocrats,
as it was the custom of the horrid Saint Cudott
to term those who adhered to the habits and expression
and action in which it was their pride to have
been educated. They had left Paris some weeks before they
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had arrived in England, and Clement's belief at the time
of quitting the hotel de Craiki had certainly been that
his uncle was not merely safe, but rather a popular
man with the party in power, and as all communication
having relation to private individuals of a reliable kind was intercepted,
Monsieur de Crakie had felt but little anxiety for his
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uncle and cousin, in comparison with what he did for
many the other friends of very different opinions in politics,
until the day when he was stunned by the fatal
information that even his progressive uncle was guillotined, and learned
that dis cousin was imprisoned by the license of the mob,
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whose rights, as she called them, she was always advocating.
When I heard all this story, I confess I lost
in sympathy for Clement what I gained for his mother.
Rousini's life did not seem to me worth the risk
that Clement would run. But when I saw him sad, depressed,
(25:37):
nay hopeless, going about like one oppressed with a heavy
dream which he cannot shake off, caring neither to eat,
drink nor sleep, yet bearing all was silent dignity, and
even trying to force a poor, faint smile. When he
caught my anxious eyes. I turned round again. I wondered
how Madame de Craikie could resist this mute bleeding of
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her son's altered appearance. As for my Lord Ludlow and
Monk's Haven, as soon as they understood the case, they
were indignant that any mother should attempt to keep a
son out of honorable danger. And it was honorable and
a clear duty, according to them, to try to save
the life of a helpless orphan girl his next of kin.
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None but a Frenchman said my Lord would hold himself
back by an old woman's whimsies and fears, even though
she were his mother. As it was, he was chafing
himself to death under the restraint if he went, to
be sure, the wretches might make an end of him,
as they had done for many a fine fellow. But
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my Lord would take heavy odds that instead of being guillotined,
he would save the girl and bring her back to England,
just desperately in love with her preserver, and then we
would have a jolly wedding done at Monkshaven. My Lord
repeated his opinion so often that it became a certain
prophecy in his mind of what was to take place.
And one day, seeing Clement look even paler and thinner
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than he had ever done before, he sent a message
to Madame de Criquie, requesting permission to speak with her
in private. For by George, said he, she shall hear
my opinion, and not let that lad of hers kill
himself by fretting. He's too good for that. If he'd
been an English lad, he'd been off to a sweetheart
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long before that, without saying by your leave or by
your leave. But being a Frenchman, he's all for neus
and filial piety, filial fiddlesticks. My lord had run away
to see when he was a boy, against his father's consent.
I am sorry to say, And as all had ended
well and he had come back to find both parents alive,
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I do not think he was ever as much aware
of his fault as he might have been under other circumstances. No,
my lady, he went on, don't come with me. A
woman can manage a man best when he has a
fit of obstinacy, and a man can persuade a woman
out of her tantrums when all of her own sex,
the whole army of them, would fail. Allow me to
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go alone with my tete a tete with Madame. What
he said what passed, he never could repeat. But he
came back graver than he went. However, the point was
gained Madame Craig. He withdrew her prohibition and had given
him leave to tell Clement as much. But she is
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an old Cassandra said, he don't let the lad be
much with her. Her talk would destroy the courage of
the bravest man. She is so given over to superstition.
Something that she had said had touched a chord in
my Lord's nature, which he inherited from his Scotch ancestors.
Long afterwards I heard what this was, Medlicot told me. However,
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my Lord shook off all fancies that told against the
fulfillment of Clement's wishes. All that afternoon we three sat
together planning, and Monkshaven passed in and out, executing our
commissions and preparing everything. Towards nightfall, all was ready for
Clement's start on his journey towards the coast. Madame had
declined seeing any of us since my Lord's stormy interview
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with her. She sent word that she was fatigued and
desired repose. But of course, before Clement set off, he
was bound to wish her farewell and to ask her blessing.
In order to avoid an agitating conversation between mother and son,
my Lord and I resolved to be present at the interview.
Clement was all ready in his traveling dress, that of
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a Norman fisherman, which Monkhaven had, with infinite trouble, discovered
in the possession of one of the emigres who thronged
London and who had made his escape from the shores
of France. In this disguise, Clement was planning to go
down to the coast of Sussex and get some of
the fishing or smuggling boats to take him across to
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the French coast near de Pay. There again he would
have to change his dress. Oh, it was so well planned.
His mother was startled by his disguise, of which we
had not thought to forewarn her as he entered her apartment,
and either that or the being suddenly roused from her
heavy slumber into which she was apt to fall when
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she was left alone, gave her manner an air of
wildness that was almost like insanity. Go go, she said
to him, almost pushing him away as he knelt to
kiss her hand. Forsenia's beckoning to you, but you don't
see what kind of bed it is. Clema, make haste,
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said my Lord in a hurried manner, as if to interrupt. Madame.
The time is later than I thought, and you must
not miss the morning's tide. Did your mother good bye
at once, and let's be off for my Lord and
Munshaven were to ride with him to an inn near
the shore, from whence he was to walk to his destination.
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My Lord almost took him by the arm to pull
him away, and they were gone, and I was left
alone with Madame de Craigie. When she heard the horse's feet,
she seemed to find out the truth, as if for
the first time she set her teeth together. He has
left me for her, she almost screamed, left me for her.
(31:35):
She kept muttering, and then as the wild look came
back into her eyes, she said, almost with exultation, But
I did not give him my blessing. End of chapter five.
Chapter five of My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell. This
is a liberovox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
liberovox dot org. My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell, Chapter five.
(00:27):
In the hurry of the moment, I scarce knew what
I did. I bade the housekeeper put up every delicacy
she had in order to tempt the invalid, whom yet
I hoped to bring back with me to our house.
When the carriage was ready, I took the good woman
with me to show us the exact way, which my
coachman professed not to know. For indeed they were staying
(00:50):
at but a poor kind of place at the back
of Leicester Square, of which they had heard, as Clement
told me afterwards, from one of the fishermen who had
carried them across from the Dutch coast in their disguises
as a Friesland peasant and his mother. They had some
jewels of value concealed from their persons, but their ready
money was all spent before I saw them, and Clement
(01:13):
had been unwilling to leave his mother even for the
time necessary to ascertain the best mode of disposing of
the diamonds. For overcome with distress of mind and bodily fatigue,
she had reached London only to take to her bed
in a sort of low nervous fever, in which her
chief and only ideas seemed to be that Clement was
(01:35):
about to be taken from her to some sort of
prison or other, and if he were out of her sight,
though but for a minute, she cried like a child
and could not be pacified or comforted. The landlady was
a kind, good woman, and though she but half understood
the case, she was truly sorry for them as foreigners,
(01:56):
and the mother, sick in a strange land, sent her
forwards to request permission for my entrance. In a moment,
I saw Clement, a tall, elegant young man in a
curious dress of coarse cloth, standing at the open of
a door, and evidently even before he accosted me, striving
to soothe the terrors of his mother inside. I went
(02:20):
towards him and would have taken his hand, but he
bent down and kissed mine. May I come in, madame,
I asked, looking at the poor sick lady lying in
the dark, dingy bed, her head propped up on coarse
and dirty pillows, and gazing with the frighted eyes at
all that was going on. Clement. Clement, come to me,
(02:43):
she cried, and when he went to her bedside, she
turned on one side and took his hand in both
of hers and began stroking it, and looking up into
his face. I could scarce keep back my tears. He
stood there quite still, except that from time to time
(03:03):
he spoke to her in a low tone. At last
I advanced into the room so that I could talk
to him without renewing her alarm. I asked for the
doctor's address, for I had learned that they had called
in some one at their landlady's recommendation. But I could
hardly understand Clement's broken English and mispronunciation of our proper names,
(03:27):
and was obliged to apply to the woman herself. I
could not say much to Clement, for his attention was
perpetually needed by his mother, who never seemed to perceive
that I was there. But I told him not to
fear however long I might be away, for that I
would return before night, and bidding the woman take charge
(03:47):
of all the heterogeneous things, the housekeeper had put up,
and leaving one of my men in the house who
could understand a few words of French, with directions that
he should hold himself and Madame de Craigie his orders
until I sent or gave him fresh commands. I drove
off to the doctor's. What I wanted was his permission
(04:09):
to remove Madame de craig Hey to my own house,
and to learn how it might best be done. Or
I saw that every movement in the room, every sound
except Clement's voice, brought on fresh access of trembling and
nervous agitation. The doctor was, I should think, a clever man,
but he had that kind of abrupt manner which people
(04:32):
get who have much to do with the lower orders.
I told him the story of his patient, the interest
I had in her, and the wish I entertained of
removing her to my own house. It can't be done,
said he. Any change will kill her. But it must
be done, I replied, and it shall not kill her.
(04:55):
Then I have nothing more to say, said he, turning
away from the carriage door and making his though he
would go back into the house. Stop a minute. You
must help me, and if you do, you should have
reason to be glad, for I shall give you fifty
pounds down with pleasure. If you won't do it another shall.
(05:16):
He looked at me, then furtivelly at the carriage door, hesitated,
and then said, you do not mind expense? Apparently I
suppose you are a rich lady of quality. Such folks
do not stick at such trifles as the life or
death of a sick woman to get their own way.
I suppose I must in help you, for if I don't,
(05:38):
another will. I did not mind what he said, so
that he would assist me. I was pretty sure that
she was in a state to require opiates, and I
had not forgotten Christopher's ly, you may be sure. So
I told him what I had in my head, that
in the dead of night, the quiet time in the streets,
she should be carried in a hospital litter so softly
(06:00):
and warmly covered over from the Leicester Square lodging house
to rooms that I would have in perfect readiness for
her as I planned. So it was done. I let
clament know by a note of my design I had
all prepared at home, and we walked about my house
as though shod with velvet, while the porter watched at
(06:22):
the open door. At last, through the darkness, I saw
the lanterns carried by my men, who were leading the
little procession. The litter looked like a hearse On one side,
walked the doctor on the other Clement. They came softly
and swiftly along. I could try no further experiment. We
(06:45):
dared not change her clothes. She was laid in the
bed in the landlady's coarse night gear and covered over warmly,
and left in the shaded, scented room, with a nurse
and the doctor watching by her, while I led Clement
to the dressing room joining in which I had had
a bed placed for him. Farther than that he would
not go, and there I had refreshments brought. Meanwhile, he
(07:09):
had shown his gratitude at every possible action, for none
of us dared to speak. He had kneeled at my
feet and kissed my hand, and left it wet with
his tears. He had thrown up his arms to heaven
and prayed earnestly, as I could see by the movements
of his lips. I allowed him to relieve himself by
(07:30):
these dumb expressions, if I may so call them, And
then I left him and went to my own rooms
to sit up for my Lord and tell him what
I had done. Of course it was all right, and
neither my Lord nor I could sleep for wondering how
Madame de Craigy would bear her awakening. I had engaged
the doctor to whose face and voice she was accustomed,
(07:52):
to remain with her all night. The nurse was experienced,
and Clement was within call. But it was with the
great relief that I heard from my own woman when
she brought me my chocolate, that Madame de Craiguy Monsieur
had said had awakened more tranquil than she had been
for many days. To be sure, the whole aspect of
(08:12):
the bed chamber must have been more familiar to her
than that miserable place where I had found her, and
she must have intuitively felt herself among friends. My Lord
was scandalized at Clement's dress, which, after the first moment
of seeing him, I had forgotten and thinking of other things,
and for which I had not prepared. Lord Ludlow he
(08:34):
sent for his own tailor and bade him bring patterns
of stuff and engage his men to work night and
day till Clement could appear as became his rank in
short in a few days, so much of the traces
of their flight were removed that we had almost forgotten
the terrible causes of it, and rather felt as if
(08:55):
they had come on a visit to us than that
they had been compelled to fly the country. Their diamonds, too,
were sold well by my Lord's agents, though the London
shops were stocked with jewelry and such portable values, some
of rare and curious fashion, which were sold at half
their real value by immigrants who could not afford to wait.
(09:18):
Madame de craig He was recovering her health, although her
strength was sadly gone, and she would never be equal
to such another flight as the perilous one which she
had just gone through, and to which she could not
bear the slightest reference. For some time things continued in
this state that to Craigie still are honored visitors. Many
(09:39):
houses besides our own, even among our own friends, opened
to receive the poor, flying nobility of France, driven from
their country by the brutal Republicans, and every freshly arrived
immigrant bringing new tales of horror, as if these revolutionists
were drunk with blood and mad to devise neutrial. One day,
(10:02):
Clement I should tell you that he had been presented
to our good King George and the sweet Queen, and
they had accosted him most graciously, And his beauty and elegance,
and some of the circumstances attendant on his flight made
him be received in the world quite like a hero
of romance. He might have been on intimate terms in
(10:26):
many a distinguished house, had he cared much to visit.
But he accompanied my Lord and me with an air
of indifference and languor, which I sometimes fancied made him
be all the more sought after Monkshaven, that was the
title my eldest son. Poor tried in vain to interest
him in all young men's sports, but no, it was
(10:49):
the same through all. His mother took far more interest
in the audis of the London world, into which she
was far too great an invalid to venture, than he
did in the absence flute evinced themselves, in which he
might have been an actor. One day, as I was saying,
an old frenchman of humble class presented himself to our servants.
(11:11):
Several of them understood French, and through Medlicott I learned
that he was in some way connected with the Crakys,
not in their Paris life, but I fancied that he
had been intendant of their estates in the country, estates
which were more useful as hunting grounds than as adding
to their income. However, there was the old man, and
(11:31):
with him wrapped round his person, he had brought the
long parchment rolls and deeds relating to their property. These
he would deliver up to none, but Monsieur de Crakiye
the rightful owner, and Clement was out with Monkshaven. So
the old man waited, And when Clement came in, I
told him of the Stuart's arrival and how he had
(11:54):
been cared for by my people. Clament went directly to
see him. He was a long time away, and I
was waiting for him to drive out with me for
some purpose or another. I scarce know what now, but
I remember I was tired of waiting. I was just
in the act of ringing the bell to desire that
he might be reminded of his engagement with me. When
(12:15):
he came in, his face as white as the powder
in his hair, his beautiful eyes dilated with horror. I
saw that he had heard something that touched him even
more closely than the usual tales which every fresh immigrant brought.
What is it, glyment, I asked. He clasped his hands
(12:39):
and looked as though he tried to speak, but could
not bring out the words They have guillotined, my uncle,
said he at last, Now I knew that there was
a count to Craigy, but I had always understood that
the elder branch had very little communication with him, in fact,
(12:59):
that he was of for rihinn of some kind, and
rather disgrace than otherwise to the family. So perhaps I
was hard hearted, But I was a little surprised at
this excess of emotion till I saw that this particular
look in his eye that many people have when there
is more terror in their hearts than they dare put
into words. He wanted me to understand something without his
(13:22):
saying it, But how could I. I had never heard
of a mademoiselle de Craigie Virsini. At last, he uttered
in an instant, I understood it all, and remembered that
if Uriene had lived, he too might have been in love.
Your uncle's daughter, I inquired, my cousin, He replied, I
(13:47):
did not say your betrothed, But I had no doubt
of it. I was mistaken. However, oh madame, he continued,
Her mother died long ago, her father now, and she
is a daily fear alone deserted. Is she in the abbey?
Asked I? No, she is in hiding with the widow
(14:09):
of her father's old concierge. Any day they may search
the house for aristocrats. They are seeking them everywhere. Then
not her life alone, but that of the old woman.
Her hostess is sacrificed. The old woman knows this and
trembles with fear. Even if she is brave enough to
be faithful, her fears would betray her should the house
(14:31):
be searched. Yet there is no one to help Zini
to escape. She is alone in Paris. I saw what
was in his mind. He was fretting and chafing to
go to his cousin's assistance. But the thought of his
mother restrained him. I would not have kept back Urian
from such an errand at such a time, how should
(14:55):
I restrain him? And yet perhaps I did wrong in
not urging the chance of danger. More still, if it
was danger to him, was it not the same or
even greater danger to her, for the French spared neither
age nor sex in those wicked days of terror. So
I rather fell in with his wish and encouraged him
(15:16):
to think how best and most prudently it might be fulfilled,
never doubting, as I have said, that he and his
cousin were troth plighted. But when I went to see
Madame de Craiky, after he had imparted his, or rather
our plan for her, I found out my mistake. She,
who was in general too feeble to walk across a
(15:39):
room save slowly and with a stick, was going from
end to end with quick tottering steps. And if now
and then she sank upon a chair, it seemed as
if she could not rest, for she was up again
in a moment, pacing along, wringing her hands and speaking
rapidly to herself. When she saw me, she stop. Madame.
(16:02):
She said, you have lost your own boy. You might
have left me mine. I was so astonished I hardly
knew what to say. I had spoken to Clement as
if his mother's consent were secure, as I had felt
my own would have been, if Urian had been alive
to ask it. Of course, both he and I knew
(16:24):
that his mother's consent must be asked and obtained before
he could leave her to go on such an undertaking.
But somehow my blood always rose at the side or
a sound of danger, perhaps because my life had always
been so peaceful. Poor Madame de Cragie it was otherwise
for her. She despaired, while I hoped and claiment trusted.
(16:50):
Dear Madame de Crakie, said I he will return safely
to us. Every precaution shall be taken that either he
or you, or my lord Lord or Monkshaven can think of.
But he cannot leave a girl his nearest relation, save you,
his betrothed. Is she not his betrothed? Cried she, now
(17:12):
at the utmost pitch of her excitement. Erstini betrothed to Clement. No,
thank Heaven, not so bad as that. Yet it might
have been, But Mademoiselle scorned my son. She would have
nothing to do with him. Now is the time for
him to have nothing to do with her. Clement had
entered at the door behind his mother. As she thus spoke.
(17:35):
His face was set and pale, till it looked as
gray and immovable as if it had been carved in stone.
He came forward and stood before his mother. She stopped
her walk, threw back her haughty head, and the two
looked at each other steadily in the face. After a
minute or two, in this attitude, her proud and resolute gaze,
(17:58):
never flinching or wave, he went down upon one knee
and taking her hand, her hard, stony hand, which never
closed on his, but remained straight and stiff. Mother, he pleaded,
withdraw your prohibition, let me go. What were her words,
(18:20):
Madame de Craig, he replied, slowly, as if forcing her
memory to the extreme of accuracy. My cousin, she said,
when I marry, I marry a man, not a petite maitre.
I marry a man who, whatever his rank may be,
will add dignity to the human race by his virtues,
(18:41):
and not be content to live in an effeminate court
on the traditions of past grandeur. She borrowed her words
from the infamous Jean Jacques Rousseau, the friend of her
scarceless infamous father. Nay, I will say it, if not
her words, she borrowed her principles, and my son to
request to marry her. It was my father's written wish,
(19:03):
said Clement, But did you not love her. You plead
your father's words, words written twelve years before, and as
if it were your reason for being indifferent at my
dislike to the alliance. And you requested her to marry you,
and she refused you with exolent contempt. And now you
are ready to leave me, Leave me desolate in a
foreign land, desolate my mother. And there the Countess Ludlow
(19:26):
stands there. Pardon madame, But all the earth, though it
were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and
a desert place to a mother when her only child
is absent. And you, Clement, would leave me for this Visini,
this degenerate d craigy tainted with the atheism of Monsieclopegist.
(19:47):
She is only reaping some of the fruit of the harvest,
whereof her friends have sewn the seed. Let her alone.
Doubtless she has friends. It may be lovers among these demons,
who have, under the cry of life liberty, committed every license.
Let her alone, Clement, she refused you with scorn. Be
too proud to know her. Now, Mother, I cannot think
(20:11):
of myself, only of her. Think of me. Then I,
your mother, forbid you to go, Clement, bowed low and
went out of the room. Instantly, as one blinded, she
saw his groping movement, and for an instant I think
her heart was touched. But she turned to me and
tried to esculpate her past violence by dilating upon her wrongs,
(20:33):
and they certainly were many. The Count, her husband's younger brother,
had invariably tried to make mischief between husband and wife.
He had been the cleverer man of the two, and
had possessed extraordinary influence over her husband. She suspected him
of having instigated that clause of her husband's will, by
(20:55):
which the Marquis expressed his wish for the marriage of
the cousins. The Count had had some interest in the
management of the du Craki property during her son's minority. Indeed,
I remembered then that it was through the Count de
Craki that Lord Ludlow had first heard of the apartment
which we afterwards took in the Hotel de Creki. And
(21:18):
then the recollection of a past feeling came distinctly out
of the mist, as it were, and I called to
mind how when we first took up our abode in
the Hotel de Creky, both Lord Ludlow and I imagined
that our arrangement was displeasing to our hostess, and how
it had taken a considerable time before we had been
(21:38):
able to establish relations of friendship with her. Years after
our visit, she began to suspect that Clement, whom she
could not forbid to visit his uncle's house, considering the
terms on which his father had been with his brother,
though she herself had never set foot over the count
to Creakie's threshold, was attaching himself to Mataemoiselle, his cousin,
(22:01):
and she made cautious inquiries as to the appearance, character,
and disposition of the young lady. Mademoiselle was not handsome,
they said, but of a fine figure, and generally considered
as having a very noble and attractive presence. In character,
she was daring and wilful, said one, set original and independent,
(22:23):
said another. She was much indulged by her father, who
had given her something of a man's education, and selected
for her intimate friend a young lady below her in
rank one of the bureaucracy, a Mademoiselle Necker, daughter of
the Minister of Finance, Mademoiselle de Craigy was thus introduced
(22:44):
into all the free thinking salons of Paris, among people
who were always full of plans for subverting society, and
de Clement affects such people. Madame de Craigy had asked,
with some anxiety, no monsieur to Craigie had neither eyes
nor ears nor thought for anything but his cousin while
(23:05):
she was by, and she she hardly took notice of
his devotion so evident to every one else, the proud creature.
But perhaps that was her haughty way of concealing what
she felt. And so Madame de Craigy listened and questioned
and learnt nothing decided, until one day she surprised Clement
(23:28):
with a note in his hand, of which she remembered
the stinging words so well in which Virzini had said,
in a reply to a proposal Clement had sent through
her through her father, that when she married, she married
a man, not apity matre. Clement was justly indignant at
the insulting nature of the answer Virzini had sent to
(23:50):
a proposal respectful in its tone, and which was, after
all the cool, hardened lava over a burning heart. He
acquis asked in his mother's desire that he should not
again present himself in his uncle's salons, but he did
not forget for Zini, although he never mentioned her name.
(24:12):
Madame de Crakie and her son were among the earliest
proscree and they were of the strongest possible royalist and aristocrats,
as it was the custom of the horrid Saint Cudott
to term those who adhered to the habits and expression
and action in which it was their pride to have
been educated. They had left Paris some weeks before they
(24:33):
had arrived in England, and Clement's belief at the time
of quitting the hotel de Craiki had certainly been that
his uncle was not merely safe, but rather a popular
man with the party in power, and as all communication
having relation to private individuals of a reliable kind was intercepted,
Monsieur de Crakie had felt but little anxiety for his
(24:55):
uncle and cousin, in comparison with what he did for
many the other friends of very different opinions in politics,
until the day when he was stunned by the fatal
information that even his progressive uncle was guillotined, and learned
that dis cousin was imprisoned by the license of the mob,
(25:16):
whose rights, as she called them, she was always advocating.
When I heard all this story, I confess I lost
in sympathy for Clement what I gained for his mother.
Rousini's life did not seem to me worth the risk
that Clement would run. But when I saw him sad, depressed,
(25:37):
nay hopeless, going about like one oppressed with a heavy
dream which he cannot shake off, caring neither to eat,
drink nor sleep, yet bearing all was silent dignity, and
even trying to force a poor, faint smile. When he
caught my anxious eyes. I turned round again. I wondered
how Madame de Craikie could resist this mute bleeding of
(26:01):
her son's altered appearance. As for my Lord Ludlow and
Monk's Haven, as soon as they understood the case, they
were indignant that any mother should attempt to keep a
son out of honorable danger. And it was honorable and
a clear duty, according to them, to try to save
the life of a helpless orphan girl his next of kin.
(26:25):
None but a Frenchman said my Lord would hold himself
back by an old woman's whimsies and fears, even though
she were his mother. As it was, he was chafing
himself to death under the restraint if he went, to
be sure, the wretches might make an end of him,
as they had done for many a fine fellow. But
(26:45):
my Lord would take heavy odds that instead of being guillotined,
he would save the girl and bring her back to England,
just desperately in love with her preserver, and then we
would have a jolly wedding done at Monkshaven. My Lord
repeated his opinion so often that it became a certain
prophecy in his mind of what was to take place.
And one day, seeing Clement look even paler and thinner
(27:08):
than he had ever done before, he sent a message
to Madame de Criquie, requesting permission to speak with her
in private. For by George, said he, she shall hear
my opinion, and not let that lad of hers kill
himself by fretting. He's too good for that. If he'd
been an English lad, he'd been off to a sweetheart
(27:28):
long before that, without saying by your leave or by
your leave. But being a Frenchman, he's all for neus
and filial piety, filial fiddlesticks. My lord had run away
to see when he was a boy, against his father's consent.
I am sorry to say, And as all had ended
well and he had come back to find both parents alive,
(27:52):
I do not think he was ever as much aware
of his fault as he might have been under other circumstances. No,
my lady, he went on, don't come with me. A
woman can manage a man best when he has a
fit of obstinacy, and a man can persuade a woman
out of her tantrums when all of her own sex,
the whole army of them, would fail. Allow me to
(28:14):
go alone with my tete a tete with Madame. What
he said what passed, he never could repeat. But he
came back graver than he went. However, the point was
gained Madame Craig. He withdrew her prohibition and had given
him leave to tell Clement as much. But she is
(28:36):
an old Cassandra said, he don't let the lad be
much with her. Her talk would destroy the courage of
the bravest man. She is so given over to superstition.
Something that she had said had touched a chord in
my Lord's nature, which he inherited from his Scotch ancestors.
Long afterwards I heard what this was, Medlicot told me. However,
(29:00):
my Lord shook off all fancies that told against the
fulfillment of Clement's wishes. All that afternoon we three sat
together planning, and Monkshaven passed in and out, executing our
commissions and preparing everything. Towards nightfall, all was ready for
Clement's start on his journey towards the coast. Madame had
declined seeing any of us since my Lord's stormy interview
(29:23):
with her. She sent word that she was fatigued and
desired repose. But of course, before Clement set off, he
was bound to wish her farewell and to ask her blessing.
In order to avoid an agitating conversation between mother and son,
my Lord and I resolved to be present at the interview.
Clement was all ready in his traveling dress, that of
(29:46):
a Norman fisherman, which Monkhaven had, with infinite trouble, discovered
in the possession of one of the emigres who thronged
London and who had made his escape from the shores
of France. In this disguise, Clement was planning to go
down to the coast of Sussex and get some of
the fishing or smuggling boats to take him across to
(30:06):
the French coast near de Pay. There again he would
have to change his dress. Oh, it was so well planned.
His mother was startled by his disguise, of which we
had not thought to forewarn her as he entered her apartment,
and either that or the being suddenly roused from her
heavy slumber into which she was apt to fall when
(30:28):
she was left alone, gave her manner an air of
wildness that was almost like insanity. Go go, she said
to him, almost pushing him away as he knelt to
kiss her hand. Forsenia's beckoning to you, but you don't
see what kind of bed it is. Clema, make haste,
(30:50):
said my Lord in a hurried manner, as if to interrupt. Madame.
The time is later than I thought, and you must
not miss the morning's tide. Did your mother good bye
at once, and let's be off for my Lord and
Munshaven were to ride with him to an inn near
the shore, from whence he was to walk to his destination.
(31:10):
My Lord almost took him by the arm to pull
him away, and they were gone, and I was left
alone with Madame de Craigie. When she heard the horse's feet,
she seemed to find out the truth, as if for
the first time she set her teeth together. He has
left me for her, she almost screamed, left me for her.
(31:35):
She kept muttering, and then as the wild look came
back into her eyes, she said, almost with exultation, But
I did not give him my blessing. End of chapter five.
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