The three had up to this point been standing; but Sir Eustace, motioning to Bloodworth to be seated, beckoned Dr. Cruden to stand before them; then, placing a pen in the steward's hand, he guided it with his own, and wrote in large letters on a piece of blank paper that lay on the table, 'Eustace De la Mark,' the steward passively submitting to the movement.
'Whose signature?' he asked, fixing his eyes on Bloodworth. The steward trembled violently, and was about to rise, but Sir Eustace held his arm. 'Shall we make another will and let Sir Valary sign it? A pen in a dead man's hand has been found a pliant writer before now.'
There was no answer, for the culprit could not trust his voice; but an exclamation of horror and surprise burst from the doctor.
'It was so,' said Sir Eustace; 'I have the confession in full of the woman Higgs, dictated on her deathbed, and taken down and witnessed by the clergyman and surgeon who attended her—a strange device for quieting conscience and cloaking perjury. Your partner in crime, every way less guilty than yourself, saw through the flimsy cheat, and heartily repented.'
'I never heard of such shocking wickedness!' said the doctor, holding up his hands; 'oh dear, dear—no wonder my poor friend—oh, horrible!' he said, turning his back on Bloodworth. The scornful sneer with which the steward noticed this movement quickly gave way to an assumption of boldness.
'I don't know you,' he said fiercely. 'I am not to be brow-beaten for a crazy woman's ravings—got out of her, perhaps, by some impostor to get money out of Sir Valary while he was alive, or out of the son of him that was disinherited; but the will was proved and never questioned. Let me pass, I say,' he said, trying to get towards the door; 'I have much to do. Mr. Brimble is executor to Sir Valary, and I will account to him.'
'The business is in the hands of the law,' said Sir Eustace, 'as you will shortly be. You will have more help in preparing your papers than you desire.'
'You can't search my house, you have no warrant. Oh, let me go—I promise—yes, only let me go—I will indeed'—
'Confess?' asked Sir Eustace. 'It is needless.'
'No, no, explain it, and—and'—
'Give up the will. That may as well be taken from its hiding-place; the law employs expert seekers.'
'Fool that I have been!' cried the steward, who now saw his true position—that he was without hope of escape.
'It is well that you know that,' said Sir Eustace; 'there is hope that you may seek for wisdom.'
But the steward rocked to and fro in his chair, his violent passions venting themselves in choking imprecations on his own folly.
Hoping little from him in this state, Sir Eustace beckoned the doctor to the door, intending to leave him awhile; but the paroxysm had passed, and, starting up, he looked fixedly on Sir Eustace.
'Tell me one thing,' he said; 'are you employed by the son of the last Sir Eustace?' Sir Eustace nodded assent. 'Then if I were to disclose the truth of everything'—
'Needless—it is disclosed; have I not told it but now?'
'Ay! but how it came about, and—and'—
'My dear Sir Eustace,' said the doctor, who thought his companion looked inflexible, and who was extremely and anxiously curious to know the particulars of the wonderful story, 'let him speak; let him tell it all. I long to have my poor dear friend's memory cleared. I'm sure he never could have known of such unnatural wickedness.'
Nothing of this speech came to the ears of Bloodworth but the title of him who was addressed. He looked fixedly at him, and then, falling on his knees, entreated pardon, repeatedly promising to reveal all.
Tenderness for Sir Valary's memory, and the feelings of his cousin Marjory, who had not shown any sign of recovery from the shock of his death, with a natural desire to spare the honour of his name, made Sir Eustace willing to pass with as little notoriety as possible through the strange revelations that must be made in order to put him in possession of his rights. He saw the importance of having Bloodworth's free and unconstrained testimony in order to obtain this, and conditionally promised his pardon.
The long story that followed must be told in few words. The second will was executed and signed after death, as described, by Bloodworth's contrivance, in order that Sir Valary might succeed to the whole property. His motive was to open to himself a source of wealth otherwise unattainable. For some time after Sir Valary's succession he kept the dead signature an entire secret; when all things were well established and going smoothly, and a daughter was born, in whom, after the death of his wife, all his affections were centred, pretending to be pricked by conscience, he revealed it. Sir Valary's first impulse was to seek out his brother's heir and make restoration, but the steward artfully represented that the reported death of the young man must be true, or he would have sought refuge in England when left alone; again, the portionless state of his infant daughter was adroitly brought before him, and in a moment of weakness he relented, a............