``I am not aware of it,'' replied the Antiquary.
``The fate of the infant--its disappearance with the confidential attendant of my mother, and the dreadful surmises which may be drawn from my conversation with Elspeth.''
``If you would have my free opinion, my lord,'' answered Mr.Oldbuck, ``and will not catch too rapidly at it as matter of hope, I would say that it is very possible the child yet lives.
For thus much I ascertained, by my former inquiries concerning the event of that deplorable evening, that a child and woman were carried that night from the cottage at the Craigburnfoot in a carriage and four by your brother Edward Geraldin Neville, whose journey towards England with these companions I traced for several stages.I believed then it was a part of the family compact to carry a child whom you meant to stigmatize with illegitimacy, out of that country where chance might have raised protectors and proofs of its rights.But I now think that your brother, having reason, like yourself, to believe the child stained with shame yet more indelible, had nevertheless withdrawn it, partly from regard to the honour of his house, partly from the risk to which it might have been exposed in the neighbourhood of the Lady Glenallan.''
As he spoke, the Earl of Glenallan grew extremely pale, and had nearly fallen from his chair.--The alarmed Antiquary ran hither and thither looking for remedies; but his museum, though sufficiently well filled with a vast variety of useless matters, contained nothing that could be serviceable on the present or any other occasion.As he posted out of the room to borrow his sister's salts, he could not help giving a constitutional growl of chagrin and wonder at the various incidents which had converted his mansion, first into an hospital for a wounded duellist, and now into the sick chamber of a dying nobleman.``And yet,'' said he, ``I have always kept aloof from the soldiery and the peerage.My _cnobitium_ has only next to be made a lying-in hospital, and then, I trow, the transformation will be complete.''
When he returned with the remedy, Lord Glenallan was much better.The new and unexpected light which Mr.Oldbuck had thrown upon the melancholy history of his family had almost overpowered him.``You think, then, Mr.Oldbuck--for you are capable of thinking, which I am not--you think, then, that it is possible--that is, not impossible--my child may yet live?''
``I think,'' said the Antiquary, ``it is impossible that it could come to any violent harm through your brother's means.He was known to be a gay and dissipated man, but not cruel nor dishonourable; nor is it possible, that, if he had intended any foul play, he would have placed himself so forward in the charge of the infant, as I will prove to your lordship he did.''
So saying, Mr.Oldbuck opened a drawer of the cabinet of his ancestor Aldobrand, and produced a bundle of papers tied with a black ribband, and labelled,--Examinations, etc., taken by Jonathan Oldbuck, J.P., upon the 18th of February, 17--;a little under was written, in a small hand, _Eheu Evelina_! The tears dropped fast from the Earl's eyes, as he endeavoured, in vain, to unfasten the knot which secured these documents.
``Your lordship,'' said Mr.Oldbuck, ``had better not read these at present.Agitated as you are, and having much business before you, you must not exhaust your strength.Your brother's succession is now, I presume, your own, and it will be easy for you to make inquiry among his servants and retainers, so as to hear where the child is, if, fortunately, it shall be still alive.''
``I dare hardly hope it,'' said the Earl, with a deep sigh.
``Why should my brother have been silent to me?''
``Nay, my lord, why should he have communicated to your lordship the existence of a being whom you must have supposed the offspring of''--``Most true--there is an obvious and a kind reason for his being silent.If anything, indeed, could have added to the horror of the ghastly dream that has poisoned my whole existence, it must have been the knowledge that such a child of misery existed.''
``Then,'' continued the Antiquary, ``although it would be rash to conclude, at the distance of more than twenty years, that your son must needs be still alive because he was not destroyed in infancy, I own I think you should instantly set on foot inquiries.''
``It shall be done,'' replied Lord Glenallan, catching eagerly at the hope held out to him, the first he had nourished for many years;--``I will write to a faithful steward of my father, who acted in the same capacity under my brother Neville--But, Mr.Oldbuck, I am not my brother's heir.''
``Indeed!--I am sorry for that, my lord--it is a noble estate, and the ruins of the old castle of Neville's-Burgh alone, which are the most superb relics of Anglo-Norman architecture in that part of the country, are a possession much to be coveted.Ithought your father had no other son or near relative.''
``He had not, Mr.Oldbuck,'' replied Lord Glenallan; ``but my brother adopted views in politics, and a form of religion, alien from those which had been always held by our house.
Our tempers had long differed, nor did my unhappy mother always think him sufficiently observant to her.In short, there was a family quarrel, and my brother, whose property was at his own free disposal, availed himself of the power vested in him to choose a stranger for his heir.It is a matter which never struck me as being of the least consequence--for if worldly possessions could alleviate misery, I have enough and to spare.
But now I shall regret it, if it throws any difficulty in the way of our inquiries--and I bethink me that it may; for in case of my having a lawful son of my body, and my brother dying without issue, my father's possessions stood entailed upon my son.It is not therefore likely that this heir, be he who he may, will afford us assistance in making a discovery which may turn out so much to his own prejudice.''
