LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1721, 26 August 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

BOROUGH-ENGLISH. A Tale of South African Like, ( Concluded .) * Yea 1* ‘ Did you have time to tell me that yon were her father’s executor, and the will was yours, and yon would succeed to the executorship under that will?’ ‘ I was so confused by the news of the marriage and your sudden appearance, that I do not know what I said.’ ‘ But you understood you were being thrashed because of the will being burned?’ The Major was silent. ‘ Was Sintwango, the Kaffir, looking through the door when the will was burned ?’ Lowcraft started. * I did not see him, ’ he answered. ‘ Did you not burn the will upon hearing of our marriage, and express the intention of making my wife a pauper ?’ [Sensation.] The witness was silent. * Let mo understand you,’ said the magistrate. ‘ You knew the lady was entitled to a fortune under the will ?’ ‘ Yes ?’ ‘ And that you were the person who stood to be executor in the place of the person appointed, and who was dead ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘ But neither before the commencement of your thrashing, nor during the half-hour that it endured, did you explain to Mr Smith that the burning was accidental?’ ‘Just so; I had no opportunity.’ ‘This Is the first opportunity you have had?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘You regret the misfortune.’ ‘ Yea.’ ‘ You remember the contents of the will.’ ‘ Only in a general way.’ * Three persons have sworn to depositions before me charging you with the wilful destruction of an instrument nnder which the lady might receive a large benefit, and which came to your possession only in the capacity of a trustee. You will find that the offence, if established, would be a very grave one under Boman-Dutch law, and so I invite yon to remedy the accident which you regret. Tell me what you remember of the will. Come, who was the testator ?’ There was no answer.

‘Mr Smith,’ said the magistrate, _ ‘ put the contenta of the will to the witness seriatim, and I will take them down on my notes, and so we may possibly obtain such a verification of the contents of the destroyed document as may enable probate to be granted of it when the testator dies.’ ‘ I thank you, sir,’ aaid Jack. ‘ I understood the drift of your questions, and was about to aid the memory of thu executor, who has sworn that the injury was accidental, and that ho regrets it. Such a course is all the more necessary as, by letters received this morning from England, I am informed of the death of the testator.’ [Sensation ]

‘ Old Jerry Smith dead V cried Lowcraft. ‘You did not remember his name just now,’said Jack. ‘Do you know that lam his youngest son ?’ ‘ Yes ; and will not be his heir.’ * Just so. Now, sir, I invite you upon your oath to answer ai to the contents of the lost instrument, so as to avert the grave injury which will otherwise fall upon the lady at my side. ’ ‘Never!’ cried Lowcraft in a tone of triumphant resolve. * Never ! And if my memory is the casket which holds her fortune, I will not unlock it. Keep her yourself, or let her die without a sou.’ And ho struck the table with his fist, and raised his head, and an expression of defiance and of exaltation shot across his contused features. A deep murmur rose from t v e audience, and ‘ Scoundrel!’ * Shame 1’ and ‘ Villain !’ were hissed from between the teeth of the spectators at the windows, ‘Silence I’ shouted the officer. *He shouldn’t ha’ told him as t’ old man was dead till after he’d got him to swear to the will,’ said one Yorkey to another. ‘ Thou art a fool, Tam,’ said his neighbor. ‘He’s going about with him. The fish is shown by the bait he bites at.’ ‘Officer,’said the magistrate, ‘serve this man with the warrant issued this morning.’ A deep hum again ran through the crowd as the officer obeyed his orders, and ‘ Silence ’ was again cried. ‘You are now a prisoner,’ sa'd the magistrate, addressing Lowcraft, ‘on the charge of wilfully destroying a document of title committed to your care as trustee. You will find the charge a serious one. The reason why I invited you to state the contents of the will— ’ * Neither by invitation nor compulsion will I utter a single word which can revive tho lost document,’ said Lowcraft, in a tone of decision and of challenge. ‘ Fortune or no fortune, not a word escapes my lips,’ and a satanlo look at poor Dolly shot from his discolored and bloodshot eyes. ‘Shame! scoundrel! villain!’ were the unrepressed comments of the audience. 'lam very sorry,’ said the magistrate; ‘ I did not think that ev.en jealousy would prompt a man of character to a perjured silence when upon hla oath. The charge against Major Lowcraft has yet to be heard, and I shall not prejudge it, and as for the case before me, I shall adjourn it for a week, to give time for better counsels to prevail.’ * Perhaps, sir, said Jack, rising, ‘ before you adjourn tho ease I may be allowed to say a word in my character of accused person ? ’ ‘Certainly.’ ‘ It is only just,’ said Jack pointing to Lowcraft— ‘ it is only just to that man there that I should own that I believe he visited my wife in ignorance of our marriage. But I shall be able to prove on another occasion that he took out the will and held it to tho candle in order to coerce the lady; that she told him of her marriage in order to remove the motive of tho threat, and that he then destroyed the document in a fit of rage and jealousy, in spite of her entreaties and her resistance, and tauntingly devoted her and me to poverty and misfortune as he flung the burning ashes from his hand. (Murmurs.) That such was his conduct when he recognised his power to injure will not appear incredible to those who have witnessed in this very room his triumphant resolve to keep silence as to the contents of the will the moment he felt the power in his hands upon my announcement of the death of the testator. It is true, sir, according to tho letter which I now hand up to you. that the testator has died apparently intestate, althongh his housekeeper and his groom recollect being called in to attest a document. which is the very document which that man has wilfully destroyed. His malice, however, is destined to be thwarted as regards the fortune of those whom he intended to ruin, for the great bulk of the property which was given by the will to my wife will descend under an intestacy to me.’ The audience took one long breath, and were again silent. ‘I am,’ continued Jack, ‘the youngest son of the testator, but the lands within the ancient borough of Broughtondale descend, according to the custom of Borough-English, to the youngest son.’ A loud murmur of applause swept like a wave the audience till it was taken up by the crowd outside, where it developed into a cheer.

Dolly, during all this speech, had sat looking up with her big blue eyes at her husband. But she was evidently unprepared for his concluding words. She rose and put both her arms on his shoulder. * Then, my dear Jack, ’ said she, ‘we shall not be so badly off, after all 1 ’ ‘ My sweet lass,’ be said, * yon were ready to give me the fortune of which my father deprived me, and I equally hold at your disposal the fortune of which Loworaft has deprived you.’ * The case is adjourned,’ said the magistrate, * and (pointing to Loworaft) take that man away.’ It was not so easy, however, for he had fainted, and they had to dash water on his face, aud take him back into the office. Everybody now began to shake hands with Jack, and magistrate, clerk, and audience seemed to form themselves into a sort of select committee for heaping compliments upon Jack and Dolly, who remained the centre figures of an excited and jubilant group. The Yorkshiremen shook hands with Dolly, and one old man who had at school with Jerry Smith insisted upon kissing her. How long they would have remained there I do not know, if it had not been that, as Jack and his bride endeavoured to move out of the room, a drag and four horses came to fetch them away. Amid three cheers, the Xorkehiremen took them off to the Prince Alfred Hotel, and would not let them go home till the evening, when they were driven up to the cottage and a little serenade was prepared for them. So ended the third 'day after Jack’s marriage. The curly-haired gentleman gave a verbatim account of the hearing in the “ Messenger,” prefaced by a few lines of flowery description, in which the charms of Dolly were not forgotten, while Mr Jeff. Skigs guessed he had slung a quart of ink into the two tallest columns that had ever dazzled the readers of the “ Immigrant.” Major Loworaft was admitted to bail, but the case never came on again. Two days after the scene at the police court a Kaffir came from Lowcraft’s plantation to the chief of the police. Two white constables rode out to the plantation, and shortly afterwards four black ones bore in his body.

He had shot himself. The next mail steamer took Jack and Dolly home, and she was once more welcomed at Broughtondale, and the son made for his mother and brethren that provision which the father had forgotten. The beer is still good, and at the City Apprentice, the Coach and Horses, the Blue Lion, the Crown and Cushion, and the Yorkshire Grey, the ordinary brew is still called for by the name of “ Old Jerry Smith,” but when I last visited the venerable incumbent of a fat college living in the neighbourhood he invited mo to cap the ample meal with a glass of the already famous “ BoroughEnglish” ale.