LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 267, 20 April 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A TERRIBLE WEDDING TRIP.

Concluded.

‘ I say, Ada,’ he remarked presently bending forwards, and again addressing me by the name which was not mine, ‘ I’ve got such a capital idea ; it’ll amuse you, I’m sure, I’ve just decided upon paying a visit to the Cyclops, and 1 know they’d take it as a great compliment if my wife had only one eye, like themselves. Ha, ha ! isn’t it a good joke ? You won’t mind it, will you ?’ The last question was asked in a concilitary tone, but, as he spoke, I observed the blade of an open penknife glittering in his hand. With a palpitating heart, but a strong endeavor still to retain my self-pos-session, I sought about for some method of escape. The train was still going at full speed, whizzing with maddening rapidity past the minor stations, whilst the one at which it was to stop was yet, as I knew, far away. What was to be done ? I again asked myself in agonising perplexity. A sudden inspiration occurred to me—there was the signal ! Until that morning, I had been ignorant of the existence of such a thing. My heart bounded with gratitude to Dr Adair for having pointed out to me the manner of working it, whilst a vague wonder crossed my mind whether he could have had any suspicion that the knowledge might prove useful. These thoughts passed through my brain with the rapidity of lightning. One moment only had elapsed since Herbert’s horrible proposition had been uttered; and to avert attention from my movements, I began, in quite an indifferent tone, to reason with him, and suggested that the Cyclops, having probably seen quite sufficient of the species with one eye, might be interested and amused by an introduction to a variety with two, and that it would therefore be much better that I should be allowed to visit them in my natural condition. Whilst thus speaking, I slipped into a seat nearer the window, for I had been occupying one in the centre of the carriage, and as I did so, the thought occurred to me, that the signal-cord ran along only one side of the train, and that it might possibly not be on that towards which 1 had moved. The idea turned me sick with apprehension, for on this sole chance, as I imagined, rested my fate; my husband having immediately taken the seat I had vacated, and thus placed himself between me and the opposite window, repeating, with much emphasis, his belief that the mutilation which he desired would be a gratifying compliment to the Cyclops. ‘ Oh, very well; I daresay you are right,’ I replied, with the nonchalance which was becoming momentarily more difficult to maintain, ‘ But, Herbert, dear, you know we are a long way off the country yet, and if you don’t object, I should prefer waiting until we are a little nearer.’

Whilst offering this new suggestion, I carelessly placed my hand upon the sash of the window, and was just about to lower it, when a strong grasp was laid upon my outstretched arm.

‘No, no; I’m not going to wait!’ he screamed, pulling my hand away, and keeping a firm hold upon it. * I shall be busy by-and-by, looking after my estates; it’ll be better to get it done at once.’ ‘ But, Herbert,’ I cried, making this further objection rather faintly, for my courage had almost vanished at his touch, ‘ you might possibly make some blunder over. Let us wait till we get to the hotel in London, and then we will send for a doctor, and have it done properly and scientifically. ’ This remark, probably because it inferentially taxed him with want of skill, greatly infuriated him, and as he growled out a savage refusal of my request, the cruel hands tightened upon my arm. I neither fainted nor screamed. My eye had fallen upon my dressing-case, which had been placed upon the parcel-rack (running along at the top of the carriage, and stood close by the opposite window. Professing to be reconciled to his design, I observed that I would merely take from my case a clean handkerchief, and I would then be at his disposal. My cheerfulness completely disarming suspicion, he allowed me to rise ; and passing over to the further end of the carriage, I suddenly lowered the window, stretched out my hand, and groped for the signal cord. In vain, in vain ! Head .followed hand, as I eagerly glanced above and below. There was no cord. I was at the wrong side of the carriage. A cry of despair and horror burst from my lips as I felt my husband seize me by the waist, drag me backwards from the window, and throw me into a seat. He stooped to pick up the knife, which the shock had jerked from his grasp, and —was it fancy ? Or, oh! could it indeed be reality? —as he sought upon the ground, some little time unsuccessfully, the train appeared to be slackening, speed. . Yearningly, I

strove to realise the truth, 0 yes! it was moving more slowly; I was certain of that. W e must be nearing the station; I must have exaggerated the time it would take. Hope revived; but a yell of satisfaction announced the recovery of the lost knife; already it was brandished in my face, when, with the energy of desperation, and with both my hands, I grasped the cruel hand which held it. Another moment, and I felt "myself raised up and flung violently down. My head crashed upon the flooring of the carriage; blinding sparks flew before my eyes: horrible distortions seemed to pass over the inflamed features which were bending over me, then a black shadow slid between, and all was darkness. *****

When 1 recovered consciousness, I was lying upon my own little bed in the cottage at Elstonlee, where for weeks I had been tossing in the delirium of brain fever. It was but slowly that recollection of the terrible scene through which I had passed returned to me; and only by degrees, as I could bear it, did my mother communicate to me the following particulars. The head which 1 had seen withdrawn into the adjoining carriage at the junction station was indeed that of Dr Adair; for, suspecting the truth, and filled with the deepest anxiety upon my account, he had at the last moment stepped into the train. The unearthly shriek uttered by Herbert in the tunnel had been heard by him, and he had immediately used the signal; but the rapid rate at which the train was travelling had prevented it from being very quickly responded to. In miserable suspense, he had stood at the door of his compartment whilst the speed gradually slackened ; and the instant he could do so with safety, he had rushed, aided by a guard, to my assistance, and had succeeded in overpowering my assailant in the very nick of time. On reaching the large town a few miles distant, Mr St Julien was carried at once to an asylum, whilst I, in a state of unconsciousness, was brought home by my rescuer. The following morning, a sensational paragraph appeared in the newspaper, describing the affair ; and upon the succeeding day, a lady called at Woodbine Cottage. She introduced herself as the sister-in-law of Mr St Julien, and informed mamma and Dr Adair, who was present at the interview, that the poor young man had, some time previously, gouc down to his house at Cambridge, in what she considered an unsettled state of mind ; that indications of more serious aberration had speedily followed; and that, in the end, he had been obliged to be placed under the care of a keeper. Managing, however, to elude the man’s vigilance, he had effected his escape so cleverly that his friends had been unable to trace him, and had only done so eventually by means of the newspaper paragraph. The further information elicited from this lady may be condensed into a few words. In his youth, my unfortunate husband had been distinguished for great learning and studious habits. He had married, when very young, a beautiful girl, to whom he was ardently attached, and who had almost immediately been accidentally drowned; and following closely upon this disaster had come the failure of a bank in which the bulk of his large property was invested. Insanity was hereditary in the family; and although no symptoms of the malady had previously exhibited themselves in him, poor Herbert’s mind had been completely unhinged by his troubles, and for some months he had been violently mad. His recovery, when it took place, appeared to be a most perfect one; but, notwithstanding this, he had always retained peculiarities upon the two subjects which had originated his derangement. Never, since her death, had he been known to allude to his wife even in the most distant manner; though, as has been seen, he once or twice, in his second fit of insanity, addressed me by the name she had borne, probably mistaking our identity. The other and more notable singularity, which evidenced the remains of disease, was the delusion, under which he constantly labored, that he was the owner of immense wealth and of numerous estates and properties. So entirely sane, however, was he in every other respect, that it was by no means remarkable that two simple women like my mother and myself should have remained in ignorance of his condition. Still looking back upon that time with the light thrown upon it by subsequent events, 1 can see clearly that, during the latter weeks of our intercourse in Torquay and London, Mr St Julien’s mind had already begun to waver, although it was not Anally thrown off the balance until the excitement attendant upon the thought of immediate marriage. Whilst in Cambridge, he had not, it appeared, mentioned that subject to any person; but upon being placed under re straint, he had exercised much shrewdness in evading his keeper, and had contrived to reach Elstonlee in time. With the cunning characteristic of the insane, he had managed to control himself whilst in the company of my friends. Little now remains to be told.

During that terrible ride in the express train, every atom of love I had felt for my husband was extinguished as completely as though it had never existed. Horror took the place of every other sentiment; and when, upon his restoration to health, be besought me to live with him, I not only refused to do so, butAeclined even to see him again. Too delicate to press the matter, my unhappy husband relinquished his claim, and, settling through his lawyer a liberal annuity on me, he started once more for the continent Two years afterwards, I received the announcement of his death, which had taken place in Rome, and had been occasioned by rhematic fever; and three years later, I again stood before the altar, and left it the wife of a sober middle-aged gentleman, whose constancy and devotion had won from me a depth of affection never in reality accorded to my poor Herbert, but fully deserved by Dr Adair.