Tyrrel

“ And as they thus communed Tyrrel took his wife’s hand and slowly turned on her finger the plain gold wedding ring behind its barrier of guarding gems.
“Ethel,” he said tenderly, “what enchantments are in this ring of gold! What romances I used to weave around it, and, dearest, it has turned every Romance into Reality.”
“And, Tyrrel, it will also turn all our Realities into Romances. Nothing in our life will ever become common. Love will glorify everything.” ”

“ A handsome young man, Walter Tyrrel, of the true Cornish type—tall, dark, poetical-looking, with pensive eyes and a thick black mustache, which gave dignity and character to his otherwise almost too delicately feminine features. And he stood on the open moor just a hundred yards outside his own front door at Penmorgan, on the Lizard peninsula, looking westward down a great wedge-shaped gap in the solid serpentine rock to a broad belt of sea beyond without a ship or a sail on it. The view was indeed, as Eustace Le Neve admitted, a somewhat bleak and dreary one. ”

“ Then, Tyrrel, you’ll see a beauty—face like a rose, hair brown as a nut, eyes that make your heart go galloping, the most enticing mouth, the prettiest figure, and she loves me with all her heart. When she says ‘John Thomas, dear one,’ I tremble with pleasure, and when she lets me kiss her sweet mouth, I really don’t know where I am. What would you say if a girl whispered, ‘I love you, and nobody but you,’ and gave you a kiss that was like—like wine and roses? Now what would you say?”
“I know as little as you do what I would say. It’s a situation to make a man coin new words. ”

“ Then, before the men could seize him or prevent the rash attempt, he had dashed into the great waves that curled and thundered on the beach, and was struggling hard with the sea in a life and death contest. Eustace Le Neve held the rope, and tried to aid him in his endeavors. He had meant to plunge in himself, but Walter Tyrrel was beforehand with him. He was no match in a race against time for the fiery and impetuous Cornish temperament. It wasn’t long, however, before the breakers proved themselves more than equal foes for Walter Tyrrel. ”

“ This was not accomplished without considerable difficulty, and, indeed, absolute danger, owing to the deceptive gloom, but, fortunately, the trio succeeded in gaining the valley in safety. Securing their rifles, they crossed this, and once more gained their covert, tired out and sore, yet feeling rewarded by the strange discovery they had made.
Tyrrel alone had little to say. That night's events seemed to have made a deep impression upon his mind, and while his comrades discussed the subject, he remained deep buried in thought. ”

“ The next morning Tyrrel rose with the sun. He had passed a restless night, and now sought refreshment in the early breeze. With this purpose he descended to the river, and strayed along the dewy pathway which crept through the shrubbery on the right bank in the direction of the Fawn's Tower. He had not wandered far before he perceived a horseman moving along the road upon the opposite side. ”

“ Whilst she sat in the loose robe of an invalid, towards noon, looking out upon the green forest and smiling fields around her, with Henry close by her side, seeking to soothe and amuse her mind, they were enabled to descry a horseman, attended by a single servant, making his way up the hill from the ford, by the road that led directly to the door.
"As I live, sister," ejaculated Henry, "there is Tyrrel, covered with dust, and his horse all but worn down by travel."
"Heaven forbid that it should be Tyrrel indeed!" said Mildred, growing paler, and trembling as she spoke. ”

“ Frequently indeed he relaxed his features, and assumed a temporary appearance of affableness and familiarity; but they found by experience, that if any one, encouraged by his condescension, forgot the deference which Mr. Tyrrel considered as his due, he was soon taught to repent his presumption. It was a tiger that thought proper to toy with a mouse, the little animal every moment in danger of being crushed by the fangs of his ferocious associate. As Mr. Tyrrel had considerable copiousness of speech, and a rich, but undisciplined imagination, he was always sure of an audience. ”

“ Tyrrel allowed with a sigh that this was well indeed; for how could he ever dream, now he knew who she was, of marrying young Michael Trevennack’s sister?
One afternoon the two friends were returning from a long ramble across the open moor, when, near a little knoll of bare and weathered rock that rose from a circling belt of Cornish heath, they saw Cleer by herself, propped against the huge boulders, with her eyes fixed intently on a paper-covered novel. She looked up and smiled as they approached; and the young men, turning aside from their ill-marked path, came over and stood by her. ”

“ The sun had set already, and his last gleams were rapidly departing from the skies, nor had the moon yet risen, when six horsemen came slowly, searching as it were for traces on the earth, up the same alley along which Tyrrel and the king had ridden with such furious speed since noontide. ”

“ Tyrrel—it shall be as you say. My brother obliges me sometimes to go into company at that hateful place down yonder; and I do so because he likes it, and because the folks let me have my own way, and come and go as I list. Do you know, Tyrrel, that very often when I am there, and John has his eye on me, I can carry it on as gaily as if you and I had never met?”
“I would to God we never had,” said Tyrrel, in a trembling voice, “since this is to be the end of all!”
“And wherefore should not sorrow be the end of sin and of folly? ”

“ The misadventure of Sir Walter Tyrrel was, that on August 2d, in the year 1100, William II, surnamed Rufus or the Red Rover (from the color of his hair) , was hunting in the New Forest accompanied by Sir Walter Tyrrel, a French gentleman. [Pg 15] A stag suddenly started up and Tyrrel let fly at him an arrow which struck a tree, and, glancing off, hit the King in the breast, killing him instantly. Sir Walter immediately put spurs to his horse, gained the channel coast and embarked for France, where he joined the Crusades as a voluntary penance for his involuntary crime. ”

“ Tyrrel that you were once Euphrosyne, though now so much under the banners of Il Penseroso.”
[Pg 93]
“I do not know that I have been either one or the other,” answered Lady Binks; “one thing I certainly am not—I am not capable of understanding your ladyship's wit and learning.”
“Poor soul,” whispered Lady Penelope to Tyrrel; “we know what we are, we know not what we may be.—And now, Mr. Tyrrel, I have been your sibyl to guide you through this Elysium of ours, I think, in reward, I deserve a little confidence in return.” ”

“ The coastguard grew suddenly graver. “Like enough,” he said, stroking his chin. “Like enough; and right, too, for him, sir. You see, he’s a Tyrrel, and he’s bound to be cautious.’
“Why so?” Le Neve asked, somewhat puzzled. “Why a Tyrrel more than the rest of us?”
The man hesitated and stared hard at him.
“Well, it’s like this, sir,” he answered at last, with the shamefaced air of the intelligent laboring man who confesses to a superstition. “We Cornish are old-fashioned, and we has our ideas. The Tyrrels are new people like, in Cornwall, as we say ”

“ If Tyrrel had been petted as you think he ought to have been, every respectable young man and woman in the county would have married where their fancy led them; and the fancies of young people mostly lead them to the road it is ruin to take.”
“From what Fred Mostyn says, Tyrrel’s descendants seem to have taken a very respectable road.” ”

“ Tyrrel answered. “And I’m content to risk it. But, mind, if any other design is submitted of superior excellence to Le Neve’s, I wouldn’t wish you on any account to—to do or say anything that goes against your conscience.”
Erasmus Walker stared at him. “What—after paying ten thousand pounds?” he said, “to secure the job?”
Tyrrel nodded a solemn nod. “Especially,” he added, “if you think it safer to life and limb. I should never forgive myself if an accident were to occur on Eustace Le Neve’s viaduct.” ”

“ There was an eager gathering into the beech-shaded dell round the knoll of Stoney Cross, where, beneath an oak tree, lay the bleeding corpse of the Red William, an arrow in his heart. Terror fell on some, the hope of self-aggrandizement actuated others. Walter Tyrrel never drew rein till he came to the coast, and there took ship for France, whence he went to the holy wars. Prince Henry rode as fast in the opposite direction. ”

“ Sir Walter Tyrrel afterwards swore, in France, that he did not shoot the arrow; but he was, probably, anxious to relieve himself from the odium of killing a King, even by accident. It is quite possible, indeed, that the event did not arise from chance, and that Tyrrel had no part in it. The remorseless ambition of Henry might have had recourse to murder, or the avenging shaft might have been sped by the desperate hand of some Englishman, tempted by a favourable opportunity and the traditions of the place. ”

“ By July, however, things were looking so black for the engineer’s prospects that Tyrrel made up his mind to run up to town and talk things over seriously with Eustace Le Neve himself in person. He hated going up there, for he hardly knew how he could see much of Eustace without running some risk of knocking up accidentally against Michael Trevennack; and there was nothing on earth that sensitive young squire dreaded so much as an unexpected meeting with the man he had so deeply, though no doubt so unintentionally and unwittingly, injured. ”

“ Beshrew my soul, if that be not stanch Palamon—that hound is worth ten thousand. Ha! they are now at fault. Again! brave Palamon again! and now they turn; hark how the echoes roar! Ay, they are crossing now the Deer-leap dingle; and now, now, as their notes ring out distinct and tuneful, they gain the open moorland. Spur, Tyrrel, for your life! spur, spur! we see him not again till we reach Bolderwood”—and, with the word, he raised his bugle to his lips, and wound it lustily and well till every oak replied to the long flourish. ”

“ Tyrrel,” she said, “ye are a Christian man.”
“Hush, hush, for Heaven's sake!” he replied; “you will disturb Miss Mowbray.”
“Naething will disturb her, puir thing,” answered Mrs. Dods; “they have muckle to answer for that brought her to this!”
“They have—they have indeed,” said Tyrrel, striking his forehead; “and I will see her avenged on every one of them!—Can I see her?”
“Better not—better not,” said the good woman; [Pg 310] but he burst from her, and rushed into the apartment.
“Is life gone?—Is every spark extinct?” ”

“ True, he is not what he seems, but better. Tyrrel appears here but as a simple gentleman, wearing, for obvious reasons, an assumed name. The letters he has brought me avouch him to be a man of rank and family, high in the confidence of the officers of the king, and holding a reputable commission in the army: a man of note, worthy to be trusted with grave enterprises, distinguished for sagacity, bravery, and honor, of moral virtues which would dignify any station, and, as you cannot but acknowledge from your own observation, filled with the courtesy and grace of a gentleman. ”

“ According to the monarch’s pleasure, Tyrrel rode at his bridle-hand, for that day’s space admitted as his comrade and his rival. Two splendid bloodhounds, coal-black, but tawny on the muzzle and the breast, so accurately trained that they required no leash to check their ardor, ran at the red king’s heel;55 but neither page nor squire, such was his special mandate, accompanied their master. And now the loud shouts of the foresters and the deep baying of the pack gave note that the chase was on foot ”

“ From this demonstration Sir Bingo thought it prudent somewhat to recoil, though backed by a party of friends, who, in their zeal for his honour, would rather have seen his bones broken in conflict bold, than his honour injured by a discreditable retreat; and Tyrrel seemed to have some inclination to indulge them. But, at the very instant when his hand was raised with a motion of no doubtful import, a whispering voice, close to his ear, pronounced the emphatic words—“Are you a man?” ”

“ Tyrrel answered, clinching his hand hard as he spoke, and knitting his brow despondently, “I simply hate it. If I wasn’t the landlord here, to be perfectly frank with you, I’d never come near Penmorgan. I do it for conscience’ sake, to be among my own people. That’s my only reason. ”

“ Tyrrel, now threaten him.—Deprive him, if you can, of the Oakendale estate, he has still a large patrimony by [Pg 148] his mother; and besides, as to his marriage with Clara Mowbray, he conceives, that unless it should be the lady's wish to have the ceremony repeated to which he is most desirous to defer his own opinion, they have only to declare that it has already passed between them.”
“A trick, sir!” said Tyrrel, “a vile infamous trick! of which the lowest wretch in Newgate would be ashamed—the imposition of one person for another.” ”

“ Tyrrel will give him up at the moment when hue and cry is being made for all concerned in this matter. He will give him up, and men will bear witness where and how he was seized, where and how he has been seen before this. Men's minds will be all aflame with rage and fear. The wildest tale will obtain credence, and there be nothing so wild in what they may truly say of Cuthbert Trevlyn. The Tower gates will close upon him, and they will only open to him when he is led forth to die. Have I not lived long enough to know that? If he he not saved tonight, nothing can avail to save him afterwards. ”