Paul Clifford — CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Paul Clifford — Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Brigands and robbers -- Fiction
We shall therefore, in pursuance of the tit's policy, relate as rapidly
as possible that part of our narrative which yet remains untold. On
Brandon's person was found the paper which had contained so fatal an
intelligence of his son; and when brought to Lord Mauleverer, the words
struck that person (who knew Brandon had been in search of his lost
son, whom we have seen that he had been taught however to suppose
illegitimate, though it is probable that many doubts whether he had
not been deceived must have occurred to his natural sagacity) as
sufficiently important to be worth an inquiry after the writer. Dummie
was easily found, for he had not yet turned his back on the town when
the news of the judge's sudden death was brought back to it; and
taking advantage of that circumstance, the friendly Dunnaker remained
altogether in the town (albeit his long companion deserted it as hastily
as might be), and whiled the time by presenting himself at the jail,
and after some ineffectual efforts winning his way to Clifford. Easily
tracked by the name he had given to the governor of the jail, he was
conducted the same day to Lord Mauleverer; and his narrative, confused
as it was, and proceeding even from so suspicious a quarter, thrilled
those digestive organs, which in Mauleverer stood proxy for a heart,
with feelings as much resembling awe and horror as our good peer was
capable of experiencing. Already shocked from his worldly philosophy
of indifference by the death of Brandon, he was more susceptible to a
remorseful and salutary impression at this moment than he might have
been at any other; and he could not, without some twinges of conscience,
think of the ruin he had brought on the mother of the being he had but
just prosecuted to the death. He dismissed Dummie, and after a
little consideration he ordered his carriage, and leaving the funeral
preparations for his friend to the care of his man of business, he set
off for London, and the house, in particular, of the Secretary of the
Home Department. We would not willingly wrong the noble penitent; but
we venture a suspicion that he might not have preferred a personal
application for mercy to the prisoner to a written one, had he not felt
certain unpleasant qualms in remaining in a country-house overshadowed
by ceremonies so gloomy as those of death. The letter of Brandon and
the application of Mauleverer obtained for Clifford a relaxation of his
sentence. He was left for perpetual transportation. A ship was already
about to sail; and Mauleverer, content with having saved his life,
was by no means anxious that his departure from the country should be
saddled with any superfluous delay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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