Archibald Malmaison: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Possibly the reader, though, understanding the force of the Doctor's
illustration better than good stupid Lady Malmaison could do, is still of
opinion that that eminent practitioner's exposition of the real nucleus of
the mystery might have been more explicit. It is all very well to say that
the boy was asleep for seven years and then woke up; but what does such a
statement mean? Are such prolonged slumbers an ordinary occurrence? And if
so, might not the slumberer, after a longer or shorter interval of
wakefulness, fall asleep again? It is to be feared that the old physician
was not quite so well satisfied in his secret mind as he pretended to be,
and that his learned dissertation upon automatic action was little better
than a device to avoid being pressed upon the real point at issue. But it
is always a delicate matter to fathom the depth of a medical man's
sagaciousness.

Mention has already been made of little Kate Battledown, the effect of
whose society on Archibald had been so strangely ungenial. A year or two
after his "awakening" the little maiden was again thrown in his way, and
this time with very different results. There is extant among the family
papers a letter containing a very pretty account of the relations which
were soon established between these small personages. They seem to have
taken to one another at once, and exercised over each other a mutual
fascination. Archibald, keen and domineering with his brother and
sisters, and, so far as his power went, with everybody else--was as sweet
as milk to his childish enchantress; and no doubt his manners, if not his
general character, greatly benefited by her companionship. There is a
picture of the two children painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and now hanging
in the present Dr. Rollinson's parlor (where, doubtless, thousands of his
patients have beheld it, ignorant of its history), which is perhaps as
beautiful an example of English youth and maidenhood at eleven and nine
years of age as could be found in the three kingdoms. The boy, black-eyed
and black-haired, seems to step forward daringly, with his glance fixed
defiantly upon the spectator; but his left hand, extended behind him,
clasps that of little Kate with a protecting gesture; and her great brown
eyes rest on his face, with a look half of apprehension, half of admiring
confidence. There is a second portrait of her, taken ten years later; but
of Archibald no other authentic likeness exists. Report affirms, however,
that in 1823 and thereabout he was esteemed one of the handsomest young
fellows of his day.

The devotion of the two to each other grew with their growth. She, even at
that early age, must have given occasional foretastes of the wayward,
impulsive, and yet calculating character that was developed in her later
life; but there can be little doubt that she felt a genuine attachment to
Archibald; and he laid himself at her feet with a chivalric
single-heartedness more characteristic of the fifteenth century than of
the early nineteenth. Indeed, his jealous guardianship of her excited not
a little amusement among his seniors; and it is related that in his
twelfth year he actually commissioned Colonel Battledown to carry a formal
"message" on his behalf to the Honorable Richard Pennroyal; the latter's
offence consisting in his having taken Miss Battledown on his knee and
kissed her. The matter was, however, happily arranged on the Hon.
gentleman's expressing his regret for his indiscretion, and the Colonel
and Sir Clarence becoming answerable for his good behavior in future. But
the children's preference for each other now began to suggest other
thoughts than those of mere passing entertainment to the paternal minds.
There seemed to be no good reason why they should not ultimately make a
match of it. It was true that Kate might well expect to find a more
brilliant mate than the second son of a baronet; but, personal feeling and
the friendship of the families aside, she might do much worse than with
Archibald. The second son of Sir Clarence stood a fair chance of hereafter
making a favorable entry into politics; and as for fortune, his aunt on
the mother's side, a Miss Tremont, of Cornwall, an old maid without nearer
relatives than her nephew, was in a fair way to bequeath him seventy
thousand pounds. And furthermore (this was an aspect of the case which
Colonel Battledown probably kept to himself), it was not beyond the bounds
of possibility that Archibald might finally inherit Malmaison in spite of
the accident of his birth. Edward Malmaison had always been a delicate
child, and years were not making him stronger. He was very studious, and
disinclined to those active exercises in which his brother was already
beginning to excel: his eyes were weak and his cheeks pale; and in short,
unless his constitution should presently undergo a favorable change, the
chances were fairly against his surviving Archibald, to say the least of
it. "Archie thrashed him at fisticuffs," said the old man of war to
himself, "and why shouldn't he get the better of him in other ways as
well? Of course we wish no harm to happen to poor Edward, who is a good
little snipe enough; but one must conduct one's campaign to an eye to what
may happen, as well as to what is."

So this matrimonial arrangement, without being definitely resolved upon
(except possibly in the hearts of the two young persons principally
concerned), was allowed to remain in a state of favorable suspense. Kate
and Archibald saw one another as much as was good for them--although, by
way of keeping up the chivalric conditions, they used to pretend that all
manner of portentous obstacles intervened between them and the
consummation of their desires; and exhausted their ingenuity in the
devising of secret meetings, of elopements across the garden wall, and of
heart-rending separations, when imaginary heartless parents tore them
ruthlessly from one another's arms. In a letter written by Sir Clarence to
Dr. Rollinson, under date December 27th, 1811, the jolly Baronet says:
"Our Xmas festivities were for a time interupted by another Romantic
Event. Catherine, onely daughter of Colonel Battledown eloped with Mr.
Archibald Malmaison of Malmaison. The Fugitives escaped by the pantry
dore, and before they could be overtaken, had been maid man and wife by
the under Gardner in the tool house in the corner of the yard. An
application will be made to Parlement to dissolve the marriage untill the
parties are out of the Nursrie." By this it may appear that Sir Clarence
had even more humor than orthography.

It was a few weeks after this event that poor old Aunt Jane left the world
by way of the ornamental fish-pond. The pond in question lay on the
boundary-line between the Malmaison estate and that of the Pennroyals; and
the ornamentation consisted of two flights of steps leading down to the
water, and of half a dozen willows whose twisted trunks bent over the
surface. Although of no great area, this pond was startlingly deep, and
the bottom, when you got to it, was of the softest and most unfathomable
mud. Had not Aunt Jane been seen just as she was sinking for the third
time, therefore, the chances are that she would never have been seen till
doomsday; there was room, and to spare, for all the Malmaison line in the
slimy depths of that pool. After the catastrophe, Mr. Pennroyal caused a
handsome iron railing to be erected round the scene of it. This act caused
it to be said that he might have done it before. Did he expect his future
wives to go the road of the first one? And was it not criminal negligence
in him to have suffered her to escape from her attendants? How could such
a thing have happened? Did Mr. Pennroyal consider that people might say
that the death of his wife was no loss to him, but the contrary? because
that fifty thousand pounds of hers, of which, during her lifetime, he
could touch only the interest, became, at her decease, his absolute
property, to do with as he liked. Under such circumstances, a gentleman
careful of his reputation should have guarded her as the apple of his eye.
It was certainly very odd that a poor frail crazy creature should have
been able to elude all pursuit, and then have gone straight to the
pool--in midwinter, too--and deliberately jumped in. And there she might
have lain, and no one the wiser, had not young Archibald Malmaison
happened to see her, and given the alarm. If he had been a few minutes
earlier, who can tell but he might have seen something--that nobody
suspected!

All this random talk proved nothing more than that the Honorable Mr.
Pennroyal was not a favorite with his neighbors; and that was a fact of
which no proof was needed. Some men, who are good fellows enough at bottom
and even capable of inspiring genuine attachment in particular cases,
never become generally popular. When Mr. Pennroyal was accused of
stinginess, it was not considered that he had a great many liabilities to
meet, and perhaps some big debts to pay off. When it was said that he was
unsocial and cynical, it was forgotten that these very remarks were enough
to make him so. And when he was blamed for neglecting his wife, and
profiting by her demise--well, now, how is a gentleman to pay attentions
to an idiot, or to be inconsolable when Providence gives him fifty
thousand down in exchange for her? Besides, he gave her an imposing
funeral, and put himself and all his household into strict mourning. As
for the iron railing, it might be looked upon as a sort of monument to the
departed, in which practical usefulness and a becoming sentiment were
ingeniously combined.

The incident had its effect upon Archibald--in rather a curious fashion. He
was, as has been intimated, the one to give the alarm. He had been passing
that way, it seemed, and had caught sight of a struggling something in the
water; and his shouts had speedily drawn the gamekeeper and a couple of
villagers to the spot. The boy had watched the recapture of the lifeless
body in solemn silence, a red flush of color in either cheek. He had been
rather fond of Aunt Jane after her insanity became confirmed, and he was
the only human being whom the poor woman had seemed to recognize, and in
whose company she felt some dull gleams of pleasure. He now shed no tears,
seeming more angry than grieved, and continued to maintain a marked
taciturnity for several days; and, concerning the catastrophe itself, he
could never be induced to speak at all. The power of keeping his own
counsel had always characterized him: in the present instance he was as
gloomily reserved as though he had buried a secret of state in his breast.
Toward the widower his manner became, from hostile, almost insolent. It
was a curious spectacle to see the lad, scarcely out of the nursery,
either ignoring his tall relative, as if the latter were a caitiff
unworthy the notice of a gentleman, or else staring him haughtily in the
face, and staring him down, too! for it was remarked that the Honorable
Richard exhibited an admirable forbearance, not to say meekness, toward
his rude little kinsman. And yet, before this time, he had occasionally
given the boy harsh words and looks.... It must have been that his
bereavement had softened his heart.

However, time went on, and by degrees the poignancy of the widower's grief
was blunted, and Aunt Jane's name was seldom mentioned by any one; after
all she had not done herself, or anybody connected with her, much credit.
And other changes occurred: the stout old Colonel found it incumbent upon
him to join Sir Arthur Wellesley in the Peninsula; and Kate began to take
the lead in household affairs (her mother was a good deal of an invalid),
and stayed more at home than she used to do, and consequently did not see
so much of Archibald; she gave him to understand that it was more genteel
for him to come and call on her, as Mr. Pennroyal and other gentlemen did.
The young lady was already coming into her heritage of beauty, and
possessed more than her share of maidenly dignity, considering that she
was barely thirteen. And when, at that mention of Pennroyal, Archibald
said:

"Indeed, Kate, you must not class me with him, or with any man. Remember
that we were married two Christmases ago--" she answered:

"You foolish boy! that was not a real marriage: a real marriage is done in
a church, by a parson, and I wear a white veil."

"But ours was an elopement," objected Archibald, disturbed.

"An elopement without a carriage-and-four and a blacksmith? What an idea!"

"Do you mean to say you are not my wife, Kate?" demanded the boy, turning
pale.

"Neither yours nor anybody's, Mr. Archibald."

"Kate!" he broke out passionately, the blood leaping to his face, "take
care you never let yourself be any body else's wife than mine! And I don't
see what difference a blacksmith or a veil makes. And if you do, they
shall die! I know how to use a sword, and a pistol too!"

"O Archie, how wicked you are! and how cruel to me, when you know that I
can never love any man but you, though cruel fate may separate us for a
season!" The young lady was quoting from "Evelina," as Archibald well
knew, but they had got so much in the habit of applying the phraseology of
that work to the requirements of their own private romance, that it came
without their thinking of it.

"But say that you will be my own at last!" cries Archibald, carrying on the
scene in all seriousness.

"Nay, my lord, 'tis ungenerous thus to press me--Oh, no, you must not do so,
Archie; the book says that Lord Orville only kisses her hand--"

"I am not Lord Orville, and I will kiss you where I like; and I don't care
for the book when I feel as I do now! I only care for you."

"Bravo, young gentleman! that's the way to talk to 'em!" cried Dr.
Rollinson, who had overheard the whole of this conversation, and who now
appeared with his broad figure, his gouty legs, and his gruff chuckle.
"Books are very well for make-believe, but when it comes to downright
earnest, use a tongue of your own--eh?" and he clapped the boy kindly on
the shoulder. "Yes, yes, she'll marry you fast enough when she sees you
making eyes at some other pretty girl! Don't tell me! there's plenty of
'em, go where you will, and when you start on the grand tour, as you'll be
doing one of these days, you'll see for yourself!" Such were the cynical
blasphemies which this man was not ashamed to instil into the ear of his
young friend; and then he led him away somewhere, still chuckling, and
left Miss Battledown to digest her slight the best way she could. The
Doctor fancied he knew a thing or two about the sex. If so, he was very
knowing!

Back to chapter list of: Archibald Malmaison