Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
There ended his narrative. He started from the spot where he stood, and, without affording me any opportunity of replying or commenting, disappeared amidst the thickest of the wood. I had no time to exert myself for his detention: I could have used no arguments for this end to which it is probable he would have listened. The story I had heard was too extraordinary, too completely the reverse of all my expectations, to allow me to attend to the intimations of self-murder which he dropped.
The secret which I imagined was about to be disclosed, was as inscrutable as ever; not a circumstance, from the moment when Clithero's character became the subject of my meditations, till the conclusion of his tale, but served to confirm my suspicion. Was this error to be imputed to credulity? Would not any one from similar appearances have drawn similar conclusions?—or is there a criterion by which truth can always be distinguished? Was it owing to my imperfect education that the inquietudes of this man were not traced to a deed performed at the distance of a thousand leagues—to the murder of his patroness and friend?
I had heard a tale, which apparently related to scenes and persons far distant; but though my suspicions have appeared to have been misplaced, what should hinder but that the death of my friend was, in like manner, an act of momentary insanity, and originated in a like spirit of mistaken benevolence?
But I did not consider this tale merely in relation to myself: my life had been limited and uniform; I had communed with romances and historians; but the impression made upon me by this incident was unexampled in my experience; my reading had furnished me with no instance in any degree parallel to this; and I found that to be a distant and second-hand spectator of events, was widely different from witnessing them myself, and partaking in their consequences. My judgment was, for a time, sunk into imbecility and confusion: my mind was full of the images unavoidably suggested by this tale, but they existed in a kind of chaos; and not otherwise than gradually was I able to reduce them to distinct particulars, and subject them to a deliberate and methodical inspection.
How was I to consider this act of Clithero? What a deplorable infatuation! Yet it was the necessary result of a series of ideas mutually linked and connected; his conduct was dictated by a motive allied to virtue—it was the fruit of an ardent and grateful spirit.
The death of Wiatte could not be censured: the life of Clithero was unspeakably more valuable than that of his antagonist;——it was the instinct of self-preservation that swayed him; he knew not his adversary in time enough to govern himself by that knowledge: had the assailant been an unknown ruffian, his death would have been followed by no remorse,- the spectacle of his dying agonies would have dwelt upon the memory of his assassin like any other mournful sight in the production of which he bore no part.
It must at least be said that his will was not concerned in this transaction: he acted in obedience to an impulse which he could not control nor resist. Shall we impute guilt where there is no design? Shall a man extract food for self-reproach from an action, to which it is not enough to say that he was actuated by no culpable intention, but that he was swayed by no intention whatever? If consequences arise that cannot be foreseen, shall we find no refuge in the persuasion of our rectitude and of human frailty? Shall we deem ourselves criminal because we do not enjoy the attributes of Deity?—because our power and our knowledge are confined by impassable boundaries?
But whence arose the subsequent intention? It was the fruit of a dreadful mistake. His intents were noble and compassionate: but this is of no avail to free him from the imputation of guilt; no remembrance of past beneficence can compensate for this crime; the scale, loaded with the recriminations of his conscience, is immovable by any counterweight.
But what are the conclusions to be drawn by dispassionate observers? Is it possible to regard this person with disdain or with enmity? The crime originated in those limitations which nature has imposed upon human faculties: proofs of a just intention are all that are requisite to exempt us from blame. He is thus in consequence of a double mistake:—the light in which he views this event is erroneous; he judges wrong, and is therefore miserable.
How imperfect are the grounds of all our decisions! Was it of no use to superintend his childhood, to select his instructors and examples, to mark the operations of his principles, to see him emerging into youth, to follow him through various scenes and trying vicissitudes, and mark the uniformity of his integrity? Who would have predicted his future conduct? Who would not have affirmed the impossibility of an action like this?
How mysterious was the connection between the fate of Wiatte and his sister! By such circuitous and yet infallible means were the prediction of Mrs. Lorimer and the vengeance of her brother accomplished! In how many cases may it be said, as in this, that the prediction was the cause of its own fulfilment—that the very act which considerate observers, and even himself for a time, imagined to have utterly precluded the execution of Wiatte's menaces, should be that inevitably leading to it—that the execution should be assigned to him who, abounding in abhorrence, and in the act of self-defence, was the slayer of the menacer!
As the obstructor of his designs, Wiatte waylaid and assaulted Clithero: he perished in the attempt. Were his designs frustrated? No:—it was thus that he secured the gratification of his vengeance: his sister was cut off in the bloom of life and prosperity; by a refinement of good fortune, the voluntary minister of his malice had entailed upon himself exile without reprieve, and misery without end.
But what chiefly excited my wonder, was the connection of this tale with the destiny of Sarsefield. This was he whom I have frequently mentioned to you as my preceptor. About four years previous to this era, he appeared in this district without fortune or friend. He desired one evening to be accommodated at my uncle's house. The conversation turning on the objects of his journey, he professed himself in search of lucrative employment. My uncle proposed to him to become a teacher, there being a sufficient number of young people in this neighbourhood to afford him occupation and subsistence.
He found it his interest to embrace this proposal. I of course became his pupil, and demeaned myself in such a manner as speedily to grow into a favourite. He communicated to us no part of his early history, but informed us sufficiently of his adventures in Asia and Italy, to make it plain that this was the same person alluded to by Clithero. During his abode among us, his conduct was irreproachable. When he left us, he manifested the most poignant regret; but this originated chiefly in his regard for me. He promised to maintain with me an epistolary intercourse: since his departure, however, I had heard nothing respecting him. It was with unspeakable regret that I now learned the disappointment of his hopes; and was inquisitive respecting the measures which he would adopt in his new situation. Perhaps he would once more return to America, and I should again be admitted to the enjoyment of his society. This event I anticipated with the highest satisfaction.
At present, the fate of the unhappy Clithero was the subject of abundant anxiety. On his suddenly leaving me at the conclusion of his tale, I supposed that he had gone upon one of his usual rambles, and that it would terminate only with the day.
Next morning a message was received from Inglefield, enquiring if any one knew what had become of his servant. I could not listen to this message with tranquillity. I recollected the hints that he had given of some design upon his life, and admitted the most dreary forebodings. I speeded to Inglefield's. Clithero had not returned, they told me, the preceding evening. He had not apprised them of any intention to change his abode: his boxes, and all that composed his slender property, were found in their ordinary state: he had expressed no dissatisfaction with his present condition.
Several days passed, and no tidings could be procured of him. His absence was a topic of general speculation; but was a source of particular anxiety to no one but myself. My apprehensions were surely built upon sufficient grounds: from the moment that we parted no one had seen or heard of him. What mode of suicide he had selected, he had disabled us from discovering by the impenetrable secrecy in which he had involved it.
In the midst of my reflections upon this subject, the idea of the wilderness occurred. Could he have executed his design in the deepest of its recesses? These were unvisited by human footsteps, and his bones might lie for ages in this solitude without attracting observation. To seek them where they lay, to gather them together, and provide for them a grave, was a duty which appeared incumbent on me, aud of which the performance was connected with a thousand habitual sentiments and mixed pleasures.
Thou knowest my devotion to the spirit that breathes its inspiration in the gloom of forests, and on the verge of streams. I love to immerse myself in shades and dells, and hold converse with the solemnities and secrecies of Nature in the rude retreats of Norwalk. The disappearance of Clithero had furnished new incitements to ascend its cliffs and pervade its thickets, as I cherished the hope of meeting in my rambles with some traces of this man. But might be not still live? His words had imparted the belief that he intended to destroy himself. This catastrophe, however, was far from certain. Was it not in my power to avert it? Could I not restore a mind thus vigorous to tranquil and wholesome existence? Could I not subdue his perverse disdain and immeasurable abhorrence of himself? His upbraiding and his scorn were unmerited and misplaced: perhaps they argued frenzy, rather than prejudice; but frenzy, like prejudice, was curable: reason was no less an antidote to the illusions of insanity like his, than to the illusions of error.
I did not immediately recollect that to subsist in this desert was impossible: nuts were the only fruits it produced, and these were inadequate to sustain human life. If it were haunted by Clithero, he must occasionally pass its limits, and beg or purloin victuals. This deportment was too humiliating and flagitious to be imputed to him. There was reason to suppose him smitten with the charms of solitude, of a lonely abode in the midst of mountainous and rugged nature; but this could not be uninterruptedly enjoyed: life could be supported only by occasionally visiting the haunts of men, in the guise of a thief or a mendicant. Hence, since Clithero was not known to have reappeared at any farm-house in the neighbourhood, I was compelled to conclude, either that he had retired far from the district, or that he was dead.
Though I designed that my leisure should chiefly be consumed in the bosom of Norwalk, I almost dismissed the hope of meeting with the fugitive. There were indeed two sources of my hopelessness on this occasion: not only it was probable that Clithero had fled far away, but, should he have concealed himself in some nook or cavern within these precincts, his concealment was not to be traced: this arose from the nature of that sterile region.
It would not be easy to describe the face of this district in a few words. Half of Solebury, thou knowest, admits neither of plough nor spade: the cultivable space lies along the river; and the desert, lying on the north, has gained by some means the appellation of Norwalk. Canst thou imagine a space, somewhat circular, about six miles in diameter, and exhibiting a perpetual and intricate variety of craggy eminences and deep dells?
The hollows are single, and walled around by cliffs, ever varying in shape and height, and have seldom any perceptible communication with each other. These hollows are of all dimensions, from the narrowness and depth of a well, to the amplitude of one hundred yards. Winter's snow is frequently found in these cavities at midsummer. The streams that burst forth from every crevice are thrown, by the irregularities of the surface, into numberless cascades, often disappear in mists or in chasms, and emerge from subterranean channels, and, finally, either subside into lakes, or quietly meander through the lower and more level grounds.
Wherever Nature left a flat it is made rugged and scarcely passable by enormous and fallen trunks, accumulated by the storms of ages, and forming, by their slow decay, a moss-covered soil, the haunt of rabbits and lizards. These spots are obscured by the melancholy umbrage of pines, whose eternal murmurs are in unison with vacancy and solitude, with the reverberations of the torrents, and the whistling of the blasts. Hiccory and poplar, which abound in the low lands, find here no fostering elements.
A sort of continued vale, winding and abrupt, leads into the midst of this region and through it. This vale serves the purpose of a road: it is a tedious maze and perpetual declivity, and requires from the passenger a cautious and sure foot. Openings and ascents occasionally present themselves on each side, which seem to promise you access to the interior region; but always terminate, sooner or later, in insuperable difficulties, at the verge of a precipice, or the bottom of a steep.
Perhaps no one was more acquainted with this wilderness than I; but my knowledge was extremely imperfect. I had traversed parts of it at an early age, in pursuit of berries and nuts, or led by a roaming disposition; afterwards the sphere of my rambles was enlarged, and their purpose changed. When Sarsefield came among us, I became his favourite scholar and the companion of all his pedestrian excursions: he was fond of penetrating into these recesses, partly from the love of picturesque scenes, partly to investigate its botanical and mineral productions, and partly to carry on more effectually that species of instruction which he had adopted with regard to me, and which chiefly consisted in moralising narratives or synthetical reasonings. These excursions had familiarised me with its outlines and most accessible parts; but there was much which, perhaps, could never be reached without wings, and much the only paths to which I might for ever overlook.
Every new excursion, indeed, added somewhat to my knowledge; new tracks were pursued, new prospects detected, and new summits were gained: my rambles were productive of incessant novelty, though they always terminated in the prospect of limits that could not be overleaped. But none of these had led me wider from my customary paths than that which had taken place when in pursuit of Clithero: I had faint remembrance of the valley into which I had descended after him; but till then I had viewed it at a distance, and supposed it impossible to reach the bottom but by leaping from a precipice some hundred feet in height. The opposite steep seemed no less inaccessible; and the cavern at the bottom was impervious to any views which my former positions had enabled me to take of it.
My intention to re-examine this cave, and ascertain whither it led, had for a time been suspended by different considerations: it was now revived with more energy than ever. I reflected that this had formerly been haunted by Clithero, and might possibly have been the scene of the desperate act which he had meditated: it might at least conceal some token of his past existence; it might lead into spaces hitherto unvisited, and to summits from which wider landscapes might be seen.
One morning I set out to explore this scene. The road which Clithero had taken was laboriously circuitous. On my return from the first pursuit of him, I ascended the cliff in my former footsteps, but soon lighted on the beaten track which I have already described. This enabled me to shun a thousand obstacles which had lately risen before me, and opened an easy passage to the cavern.
I once more traversed this way. The brow of the hill was gained: the ledges of which it consisted afforded sufficient footing when the attempt was made, though viewed at a distance they seemed to be too narrow for that purpose. As I descended the rugged stairs, I could not but wonder at the temerity and precipitation with which this descent had formerly been made: it seemed as if the noon-day light and the tardiest circumspection would scarcely enable me to accomplish it; yet then it had been done with headlong speed, and with no guidance but the moon's uncertain rays.
I reached the mouth of the cave. Till now I had forgotten that a lamp or a torch might be necessary to direct my subterranean footsteps. I was unwilling to defer the attempt. Light might possibly be requisite, if the cave had no other outlet; somewhat might present itself within to the eyes which might for ever elude the hands: but I was more inclined to consider it merely as an avenue, terminating in an opening on the summit of the steep, or on the opposite side of the ridge. Caution might supply the place of light; or, having explored the cave as far as possible at present, I might hereafter return better furnished for the scrutiny.