Percival Skelton

“ Everyone knows in a village, how the smallest event becomes exaggerated, and truth and facts are perverted. The awful and sudden disappearence of a fellow-creature, whom several of them had seen depart from the valley full of health and spirits in the early morning, naturally gave rise to all sorts of speculations. Alas, for human nature!—envy and ill-will found their place in the peaceful and beautiful Grindelwald. ”

“ Nothing could be done, but to carry the mournful intelligence to the valley and to the curé, who alone could communicate with the friends and family of M. Meuron. Henri redescended the path, accompanied by the goatherd,—that path which a few hours before he had taken with him who now lay senseless in an icy grave!
The sad tale was told! And now what could be done to recover the body, if, indeed, as they feared, life was extinct? ”

“ Henri soon claimed her attention, and by degrees extorted from her the confession, that her father was indignant at a rumour which had reached him; and at length, with many tears and tender assurances of her own confidence in his integrity, she made him understand the cruel suspicions which had circulated in the village. Even conscious innocence could not save the poor fellow from the pain of being supposed guilty of so great a crime: it needed all Justine’s fond words of encouragement to be patient for a while, to soothe and cheer him ”

“ From the terrace we descended to the old fish-pond, skirted on one side by a grove, in the recesses of which are two statues of Pan and a female Satyr, much defaced by time, and looked upon by the country people as the “old Lord’s devils.” The only object of real interest is a tree on which Byron, at his last visit to Newstead, engraved his name and that of his loved sister Augusta. On the other side, dark masses of yew, probably as ancient as the abbey itself, overhang the stagnant water, whose stillness is occasionally broken by the plunge of the heavy carp. ”

“ Passing by the principal front of the abbey, where we could see the extent of the restorations made by its late respected owner, we left Newstead in the direction of Hucknall. For two miles we followed the ridge of high land overlooking the forest of Sherwood, and the legendary haunts of Robin Hood, till we turned from the direct road to visit the venerable Hall, the home of Mary Chaworth, “that bright morning star of Annesley,” who often lured the young poet’s steps over those bleak and barren hills. ”

“ After a rugged and tedious walk, they arrived at the fatal abyss. Its yawning mouth seemed indeed a sepulchre. But he was there, and although they ceased to hope for life, they must endeavour to recover his body. They had been obliged to use lanterns during the last half-hour of the ascent, and, lowering one from a cord, they kept their eyes attentively fixed upon the light, but no dark object met their view. ”

“ The gothic entrance passed, we were conducted to the library, a room in which the artist and antiquary must delight; and there cannot be a fitter place than this—the favourite apartment of Colonel Wildman, the late possessor of the abbey—to render all respect to his memory, and to express a hope, now that the approaching sale of Newstead is occupying public attention, that this sanctuary of genius may continue to be as faithfully guarded by its future occupants. ”

“ The broken hollyoaks which have laid their flowered sceptres on its grey balustrade, the ruined sun-dial, long since fallen a victim to that insidious Time, against which it had warned so many generations, the weather-stained vases, from which the wind has torn the flowering creepers, the half-ruined steps, on which a peacock is trailing his bright plumage in the watery sunshine,—these and many other objects enhance the melancholy beauty of the scene, and have a touching sympathy with the memory of him who will ever be sadly remembered there. ”

“ As soon as it was a little abated, they returned to the glacier, each man carrying a clod of earth, to render the banks of the water-course more compact and secure; and it was decided to attempt the descent. Henri would glady have undertaken it; but with the odious suspicion attached to him, his native delicacy of feeling told him it must be left to others to proclaim his innocence. He could not conceal from himself what many others have experienced in a similar situation, that innocence and guilt often assume the same appearance. ”

“ Henri Rochat, of the valley of Grindelwald, had been tacitly allowed for several years to be the guide selected when any man of science visited that locality, as he who could give the best information on the subjects of botany and geology. Henri could tell where the mountain gentian, or anemone, or the brightest and rarest mosses grew most luxuriantly, or where the formation of such and such a glacier had receded or advanced. ”

“ He descended to the fountain in the small garden, and in the cool water there he endeavoured to wash away the traces of outward emotion, which no man, much less a sturdy mountaineer, likes to be seen on his sun-burnt face. He wandered from home between the low stone walls which bounded the narrow path of the village, but on addressing a few words to the first neighbour he met, he was only answered by a shrug of the shoulder or some strangely inappropriate remark, when he spoke of the sad event of the previous day. ”

“ Before the earth was closed over the coffin, and as the crowd, in profound silence, was standing round the earthy and not icy grave, which at last received the body of this excellent young pasteur, the stillness of the scene was broken by the sharp report of two or three small avalanches, which, loosened by the warmth of the sun, fell like streams of milk from the sides of a neighbouring mountain. ”

“ They enclose a small turf quadrangle, in the centre of which stands a Gothic fountain, surmounted with grotesque figures, “here a monster, there a saint.” The slender jets falling from grim “mouths of granite made” into the circular basin beneath, break with their monotonous splash the indescribable stillness of the scene. ”

“ He pined to be up and doing; and there is no harder lesson to a man of his character than to be patient in inactivity.
It seemed to Henri a month; but it was on the morning of the 11th of September that Madame Rochat entered the house with an expression on her face which told of some news of interest. As she returned from spreading her flax upon the small greensward she possessed at a short distance from the châlet, she had heard that two more of M. Meuron’s friends had arrived at early dawn, and that every arrangement was making for an expedition the following morning. ”

“ The lover of picturesque illustration might here crowd a redundancy of subject into one picture—an avenue of stately elms—a gate-house, with its low archway leading to a court-yard which fronts the hall—the hall itself, built at various times and in various tastes, with high gables and massive chimneys. ”

“ Passing out into the pleasure-grounds, the eye is at once attracted by the ruin of the west end of the abbey church. It is best seen from the tomb which Byron built over his dog Boatswain. A broad expanse of light falls through the high dismantled window upon the verdant turf, all fresh and even from the recent rain and the gardener’s scythe ”

“ He could only conclude that in the brief interval of his turning back, M. Meuron had approached the very edge of the precipice to examine it more closely, had leaned upon his pole fixed in the manner described, and his feet slipping upon the ice, he had lost his balance, and thus fallen into the abyss. Who that has experienced the agony of witnessing a sudden and fatal accident, has not felt the wild despairing thought, “if the last five minutes could but be recalled?” To poor Henri came this cruel pain of unavailing regret. Help must be had ”

“ Those who follow that occupation are necessarily men of intelligence and thorough respectability, and, whilst in many families the calling is hereditary, no man offers himself to fill the responsible duties of such a post, unless he be assured that he is considered equal to the undertaking. ”

“ The curé lost no time in summoning four strong men from the village, and decided to ascend the glacier with them, Henri and the goatherd, in spite of the rain and the darkness of the evening, which was fast closing in. ”

“ The romantic issue of this tale remains to be heard. Colonel Wildman took upon himself the care of her interment at Hucknall, and she was laid in death near the body of him who had, during her life, been the idol of her imagination. ”