The String of Pearls 71The Revelations in the Vaults
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Literature · Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
The String of Pearls 71
The Revelations in the Vaults
PrestEnglish
The object of Sir Richard Blunt was, of course, to make the cook hear him, but no one else. With this aim he took a crown-piece from his pocket and tapped with the edge of it upon the stone-work which at that place protruded from the wall to the extent of nearly a foot. The stone shelves upon the other side were let into the wall in that fashion. The monotonous ringing sound of the coin against the stone was likely enough to reverberate through the wall, and that the cook was rather a light sleeper, or did not sleep at all, was soon sufficiently manifest, for a voice, which the magistrate recognised as his, cried from the other side--
"Who is there? If a friend, speak quickly, for God knows I have need of such. If an enemy, your utmost malice cannot make my situation worse than it is."
Sir Richard placed his mouth close to a crevice, and said--
"A friend, and the same who has spoken to you before."
"Ah! I know that voice. Do you bring me freedom?"
"Soon. But I have much to ask of you."
"Let me look at the daylight, and then ask what you will, I shall not tire of answering."
"Nay, the principal thing I have to ask of you is yet a little more patience."
"Patience! patience! It seems that I have been years in this place, and yet you ask me to have more patience. Oh, blessed liberty, am I not to hail you yet?"
"Can you forget that you have another object--namely, to bring to the just punishment of the law those who have placed you and others in this awful position?"
"Yes--yes. But--"
"But you would forego all that to be free, a few short hours before you would be free with the accomplishment of all that justice and society required?"
"No--no. God help me! I will have patience. What is it that you demand of me now? Speak."
"Your name?"
"Alas!--alas!"
"Surely you cannot hesitate to tell one, who has run some risks to befriend you, who you are?"
"If, by my telling that, I saw that those risks were made less, I would not hesitate; but, as it is, London, and all that it contains now, is so hateful to me, that I shall leave it the instant I can. Falsehood, where I most expected truth, has sunk deeply, like a barbed arrow, into my heart."
"Well, I certainly had hoped you would have placed in me that amount of confidence."
"No. I dare not."
"Dare not?"
"Yes, that is the word. The knowledge of my name spread abroad--that is to say, my real name, would inflict much misery for all, I can just now say to the contrary, upon one whom I yet wish all the happiness that God can give his creatures in this world. Let it be thought that I and the world have parted company."
"You are a strange man."
"I am. But the story I have to tell of the doings in this den of infamy, will come as well from a Mr. Smith as from any one else."
"I wish you now, in a few words, to relate to me what you know, fully and freely."
"Anticipating that a statement would be wanted, I have, with no small amount of trouble, manufactured for myself pens and ink, and have written all that I have to say. How can I give you the document?"
"There is a chink here in the wall, through which I am addressing you. Can you pass it through?"
"I will try. I see the chink now for the first time since my long and painful residence here. Your light upon the other side has made it quite apparent to me. I think, by folding my paper close, I can pass it through to you."
"Try it."
In about half a minute Sir Richard Blunt got hold of a piece of folded paper, which was pushed partly through the chink. He pulled it quite through, and handed it to the secretary, who, with a nod, at once put it in his pocket.
"And now for how long," said the cook, "am I to pine for freedom from this dreadful place? Recollect that each hour here has upon its passing wings a load of anxieties and miseries, such as I only can appreciate."
"I have brought a letter for you," said Sir Richard, "which will contain all the intelligence you wish, and give you such instructions as shall not only ensure your safety, but enable you to aid materially in bringing your persecutors to justice. Place your hand to the crevice and take it."
"I have it."
"Well, read it at your leisure. Have you any means of knowing the time of day in your prison?"
"Oh yes. There is a clock in the bakehouse, by which I am forced to regulate the different batches of pies."
"That will do. Have you had any more threats from Mrs. Lovett?"
"None. As long as I perform my loathsome duty here, I see no one and hear of no one."
"Be of good cheer, your desolate condition will not last long. It is not easy under present circumstances to enter at large into matters which might induce you to declare who you really are, but when you and I meet in the bright sunshine from which you have been debarred for so long, you will think very differently from what you do now upon many things."
"Well, sir, perhaps I shall."
"Good night to you. Take what rest and refreshment you can, my good friend, and believe that there are better days in store for you."
"I will strive to think so.--Good night."
There was such a mournful cadence in the voice of the imprisoned young man, as he said "Good night," that the secretary remarked in a low voice to Sir Richard--
"Would it not be a mercy now to let him free, and take him away with us?"
"I don't like his concealing his name, my lord."
"Well, it is not the thing exactly."
"His imprisonment now will be of very short duration indeed, and his liberation is certain, unless by some glaring act of imprudence he mars his own fortune. But now, gentlemen, I have a sight to show you in these vaults that you have come to see, and yet, that I think it would have been wise if you had left unseen."
"Indeed!"
"Yes. You will soon agree with me in opinion."
Sir Richard, bearing the lantern in his hand, led the way for a considerable distance back again, until they were fairly under the church, and then he said--
"A large vault belonging to a family named Weston, which is extinct I fancy, for we can find no one to claim it, has been opened near this spot."
"By whom?"
"That you will have no difficulty in guessing. It is that vault that I wish to show you. There are others in the same condition, but one will be enough to satiate your appetites for such sights. This way, gentlemen, if you please."
As the light from the two lanterns fell upon the faces of Sir Richard Blunt's companions, curiosity and excitement could be seen paramount upon their features. They followed him as their guide without a word, but they could not but see that he trod slowly, and that now and then a shudder crossed his frame.
"Even you are affected," said the secretary, when the silence had lasted some minutes.
"I were something more or less than human," replied Sir Richard Blunt "if I could go unmoved into the presence of that sight, that I feel it to be my duty to show to you."
"It must be horrible indeed."
"It is more horrible than all the horrors your imagination can suggest. Let us go quicker."
Apparently with a desperate feeling of resolution, such as might actuate a man who had some great danger to encounter, and who after shrinking from it for a time, should cry "Well, the sooner it is over the better," did the magistrate now quicken his steps, nor paused he until he arrived at the door of the vault of which he had spoken.
"Now, Mr. Villimay," he said. "Be so good as to hold up your lantern as high as you can, at the same time not to get it above the doorway, and I will do the same by mine. All that we want is a brief but clear view."
"Yes, yes. Quite brief," said the secretary.
Sir Richard Blunt laid his hand upon the door of the vault, which was unfastened, and flung it open.
"Behold!" he said, "one of the vaults of old St. Dunstan's."
For the space of about a minute and a half no one uttered a word, so it behoves us to state what that vault contained, to strike such horror into the hearts of bold educated men. Piled one upon each other on the floor, and reaching half way up to the ceiling lay, a decomposing mass of human remains. Heaped up one upon another, heedlessly tossed into the disgusting heap any way, lay the gaunt skeletons with pieces of flesh here and there only adhering to the bones. A steam--a foetid steam rose up from the dead, and upon the floor was a pool of corruption, creeping along as the declivities warranted. Eyes, teeth, hands half denuded of flesh--glistening vermin, shiny and sleek with the luxurious feeding they there got, slipped glibly in and out of the heaped-up horror.
"No more--no more!" cried the secretary.
"I sicken," said his friend, "I am faint."
Sir Richard Blunt let go the door, and it slammed shut with a hollow sound.
"Thank God!" he said.
"For--for what?" gasped Mr. Villimay.
"That you and I, my friend, need not look upon this sight again. We are all sufficient evidence upon our oaths that it is here to see."
"Yes--yes."
"Come away," said the secretary. "You told me something of what was to see, Sir Richard Blunt, but my imagination did not picture it to be what it is."
"I told you that likewise, my lord."
"You did--you did."
With hurried steps they now followed the magistrate; and it was with a feeling of exquisite relief that they all found themselves, after a few minutes, fairly in the body of the church, and some distance from that frightful spectacle they had each thought it to be their duty to look upon.
"Let us go to the vestry," said the secretary, "and take something. I am sick at heart and stomach both."
"And I am everything, and hungry too," cried a voice, and the Lord Mayor popped his head up from the churchwardens' pew.
No one could help laughing at this, although, to tell the truth, those men, after what they had seen, were in no laughing mood, as the reader may well imagine.
"Is that our friend, the King of the City?" said the secretary.
"It is," said Sir Richard.
"Well, I must say that he has set a good example of bravery in his dominions."
"He has indeed."
"Gentlemen--gentlemen," added the Lord Mayor, as he rolled out of the churchwardens' pew, "don't think of going into the vestry without me, for it was I who gave a hint to have refreshments put there, and I have been dying for some of them for this last half-hour, I assure you."
