It required some effort on the part of Mr. Phillipson to secure the admission of a second visitor on the same day; but, having golden methods at hand when others failed, he was seldom baulked in his purpose. With a show of sympathy and concern, he accompanied the captain's wife in a hackney coach to the jail gate, and consigned her to the guidance of the porter. With beating heart and trembling steps she followed her conductor; but the dread that stole over her spirit as she crossed the yard, with its repulsive signals of branded character and penal suffering, and the thought of meeting her loved and trusted one in a prison cell, so overcame her that she sought the support of the mechanical official, who displayed an amount of considerate sympathy unusual in men of his calling.
The obscure and dripping passage was traversed; the ponderous door was thrown open; and the broken-hearted wife fell into the arms of her wretched, repentant husband.
It is a blessed thing that the sorrows of our nature have outlets by which to relieve themselves. Pent up within the bosom, recoiling and reacting, they would surely demolish the frail framework of flesh and spirit—scatter the fire of intelligence—still the wondrous machinery of life. It sometimes is so, indeed, when grief can find no vent, that it paralyzes the brain and chills the life-blood; but, generally, relief is found for pent-up sorrow, and Mary Stauncy found it so in this her first great trouble.
The captain regained his composure and self-control in a few moments, and was able in some degree to calm his weeping wife. Seating her gently on his hard couch, and taking a place beside her, he broke the silence of that dreary cell, whose walls had so often listened to confessions and blasphemies, to cries of penitence and ravings of despair, by saying affectionately, 'Try to bear it, Mary. Little do I care myself; but I shall soon be unmanned and go mazed if you grieve so. Our destiny must be met, whatever it is; and though it come in such a shape as to cut us to the heart, it's better to yield than to struggle. Endeavour to be resigned, dearest, and strengthen spirit by your own calm endurance.'
'I will, James,' she replied. 'I feel better now.' For not only had the outburst of grief which such a meeting occasioned relieved her, but his plea for a fortifying example immediately roused the energies of her Christian spirit. 'It's sorrow indeed; but God can help me to act as I ought, and He will. I want strength to nerve my heart and wisdom to shape my counsel; and Mrs. Lloyd's last words to me were, "Remember, Mary, as thy day is, so shall thy strength be." The innocent may sometimes suffer with the guilty, and even for them, but justice shall surely prevail.'
'I am not innocent,' replied the captain in a firm but husky voice; 'I will not deceive you any longer, Mary. I scuttled the brig off Lundy, and Jim Ortop was in the hold watching me. It's a true bill; and as it has been found out, I must give in. What must be, must.'
'And why did you scuttle the brig, James?' his wife inquired, drawn off from her sad reflections by the unexpected disclosure, and having a new class of feelings excited.
'Because the merchant tempted me to do it, gave me money to do it, ordered me to do it, bound me by an oath to do it, and so made it my duty.'
'Duty, James! That's a strange word. It's no one's duty to do wrong, and that bad man must have spellbound you with his irreligious sophistry, to fasten such a thought on your mind. I see it all now. He beguiled you with that fifty-pound note. He made you believe that crime could be smothered by obedience. Well! that note will be a swift witness against him. It will tell its own tale of bribery, and the tempter will get his desert. I feel lighter of heart, James. There's some hope yet.'
'There's no hope, Mary. I have no witness, and he is a wealthy and influential man; besides, I couldn't turn king's evidence and peach, were it to save my life.'
'Peach, James! Is telling the plain truth peaching? Is clearing yourself from a foul blot peaching? Is your character and the good name of your children nothing? Is it of no consequence whether you are separated from us for ever or spared to bless us all your days? Do be yourself, James, and listen to your heart a little.'
'You're getting too warm, Mary. Your strong mind has gone in for the mastery over your sensitive spirit. There'll be a volcano of excitement, instead of a fountain of tears, and the one is as bad as the other in overcoming reason.'
'How you talk, James! Have I any w............