The Purcell Papers, Volume 2

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THE
PURCELL PAPERS.

BY THE LATE
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU,
AUTHOR OF 'UNCLE SILAS.'

With a Memoir by
ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
----

PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESS
THE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAH
STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER
SCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADS

THE PURCELL PAPERS.

PASSAGE IN THE
SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH
COUNTESS.

Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis
Purcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh.

The following paper is written in a
female hand, and was no doubt
communicated to my much-regretted
friend by the lady whose early
history it serves to illustrate, the Countess
D----. She is no more--she long since
died, a childless and a widowed wife, and,
as her letter sadly predicts, none survive
to whom the publication of this narrative
can prove 'injurious, or even painful.'
Strange! two powerful and wealthy
families, that in which she was born,
and that into which she had married,
have ceased to be--they are utterly
extinct.

To those who know anything of the
history of Irish families, as they were
less than a century ago, the facts which
immediately follow will at once suggest
THE NAMES of the principal actors; and to
others their publication would be useless--
to us, possibly, if not probably, injurious.
I have, therefore, altered such of the
names as might, if stated, get us into
difficulty; others, belonging to minor
characters in the strange story, I have left
untouched.

My dear friend,--You have asked me to
furnish you with a detail of the strange
events which marked my early history,
and I have, without hesitation, applied
myself to the task, knowing that, while I
live, a kind consideration for my feelings
will prevent your giving publicity to the
statement; and conscious that, when I am
no more, there will not survive one to
whom the narrative can prove injurious, or
even painful.

My mother died when I was quite an
infant, and of her I have no recollection,
even the faintest. By her death, my
education and habits were left solely to
the guidance of my surviving parent; and,
as far as a stern attention to my religious
instruction, and an active anxiety evinced
by his procuring for me the best masters
to perfect me in those accomplishments
which my station and wealth might seem
to require, could avail, he amply discharged
the task.

My father was what is called an oddity,
and his treatment of me, though uniformly
kind, flowed less from affection and
tenderness than from a sense of obligation
and duty. Indeed, I seldom even spoke
to him except at meal-times, and then his
manner was silent and abrupt; his
leisure hours, which were many, were
passed either in his study or in solitary
walks; in short, he seemed to take no
further interest in my happiness or
improvement than a conscientious regard to
the discharge of his own duty would seem
to claim.

Shortly before my birth a circumstance
had occurred which had contributed much
to form and to confirm my father's
secluded habits--it was the fact that a
suspicion of MURDER had fallen upon his
younger brother, though not sufficiently
definite to lead to an indictment, yet
strong enough to ruin him in public
opinion.

This disgraceful and dreadful doubt cast
upon the family name, my father felt
deeply and bitterly, and not the less so
that he himself was thoroughly convinced
of his brother's innocence. The sincerity
and strength of this impression he shortly
afterwards proved in a manner which
produced the dark events which follow.
Before, however, I enter upon the
statement of them, I ought to relate the
circumstances which had awakened the
suspicion; inasmuch as they are in themselves
somewhat curious, and, in their
effects, most intimately connected with my
after-history.

My uncle, Sir Arthur T----n, was a gay
and extravagant man, and, among other
vices, was ruinously addicted to gaming;
this unfortunate propensity, even after his
fortune had suffered so severely as to
render inevitable a reduction in his
expenses by no means inconsiderable,
nevertheless continued to actuate him, nearly
to the exclusion of all other pursuits; he
was, however, a proud, or rather a vain
man, and could not bear to make the
diminution of his income a matter of
gratulation and triumph to those with
whom he had hitherto competed, and the
consequence was, that he frequented no
longer the expensive haunts of dissipation,
and retired from the gay world, leaving
his coterie to discover his reasons as best
they might.

He did not, however, forego his
favourite vice, for, though he could not
worship his great divinity in the costly
temples where it was formerly his wont to
take his stand, yet he found it very
possible to bring about him a sufficient
number of the votaries of chance to
answer all his ends. The consequence
was, that Carrickleigh, which was the
name of my uncle's residence, was never
without one or more of such visitors as I
have described.

It happened that upon one occasion he
was visited by one Hugh Tisdall, a gentleman
of loose habits, but of considerable
wealth, and who had, in early youth,
travelled with my uncle upon the Con-
tinent; the period of his visit was winter,
and, consequently, the house was nearly
deserted excepting by its regular inmates;
it was therefore highly acceptable,
particularly as my uncle was aware that his
visitor's tastes accorded exactly with his
own.

Both parties seemed determined to
avail themselves of their suitability during
the brief stay which Mr. Tisdall had
promised; the consequence was, that they
shut themselves up in Sir Arthur's private
room for nearly all the day and the
greater part of the night, during the
space of nearly a week, at the end of
which the servant having one morning,
as usual, knocked at Mr. Tisdall's bed-
room door repeatedly, received no answer,
and, upon attempting to enter, found that
it was locked; this appeared suspicious,
and, the inmates of the house having been
alarmed, the door was forced open, and,
on proceeding to the bed, they found the
body of its occupant perfectly lifeless, and
hanging half-way out, the head downwards,
and near the floor. One deep
wound had been inflicted upon the temple,
apparently with some blunt instrument
which had penetrated the brain; and
another blow, less effective, probably the
first aimed, had grazed the head, removing
some of the scalp, but leaving the skull
untouched. The door had been double-
locked upon the INSIDE, in evidence of which
the key still lay where it had been placed
in the lock.

The window, though not secured on the
interior, was closed--a circumstance not a
little puzzling, as it afforded the only other
mode of escape from the room; it looked
out, too, upon a kind of courtyard, round
which the old buildings stood, formerly
accessible by a narrow doorway and passage
lying in the oldest side of the quadrangle,
but which had since been built up,
so as to preclude all ingress or egress; the
room was also upon the second story, and
the height of the window considerable.
Near the bed were found a pair of razors
belonging to the murdered man, one of
them upon the ground, and both of them
open. The weapon which had inflicted
the mortal wound was not to be found in
the room, nor were any footsteps or other
traces of the murderer discoverable.

At the suggestion of Sir Arthur
himself, a coroner was instantly summoned to
attend, and an inquest was held; nothing,
however, in any degree conclusive was
elicited; the walls, ceiling, and floor of the
room were carefully examined, in order to
ascertain whether they contained a trap-
door or other concealed mode of entrance
--but no such thing appeared.

Such was the minuteness of investigation
employed, that, although the grate
had contained a large fire during the night,
they proceeded to examine even the very
chimney, in order to discover whether
escape by it were possible; but this
attempt, too, was fruitless, for the chimney,
built in the old fashion, rose in a perfectly
perpendicular line from the hearth to a
height of nearly fourteen feet above the
roof, affording in its interior scarcely the
possibility of ascent, the flue being
smoothly plastered, and sloping towards
the top like an inverted funnel, promising,
too, even if the summit were attained,
owing to its great height, but a precarious
descent upon the sharp and steep-ridged
roof; the ashes, too, which lay in the
grate, and the soot, as far as it could be
seen, were undisturbed, a circumstance
almost conclusive of the question.

Sir Arthur was of course examined; his
evidence was given with clearness and
unreserve, which seemed calculated to silence
all suspicion. He stated that, up to the
day and night immediately preceding the
catastrophe, he had lost to a heavy
amount, but that, at their last sitting, he
had not only won back his original loss,
but upwards of four thousand pounds in
addition; in evidence of which he produced
an acknowledgment of debt to that
amount in the handwriting of the deceased,
and bearing the date of the fatal night.
He had mentioned the circumstance to his
lady, and in presence of some of the
domestics; which statement was
supported by THEIR respective evidence.

One of the jury shrewdly observed, that
the circumstance of Mr. Tisdall's having
sustained so heavy a loss might have
suggested to some ill-minded persons
accidentally hearing it, the plan of robbing
him, after having murdered him in such a
manner as might make it appear that he
had committed suicide; a supposition
which was strongly supported by the
razors having been found thus displaced,
and removed from their case. Two persons
had probably been engaged in the
attempt, one watching by the sleeping
man, and ready to strike him in case of
his awakening suddenly, while the other
was procuring the razors and employed in
inflicting the fatal gash, so as to make it
appear to have been the act of the
murdered man himself. It was said that
while the juror was making this suggestion
Sir Arthur changed colour.

Nothing, however, like legal evidence
appeared against him, and the consequence
was that the verdict was found against a
person or persons unknown; and for some
time the matter was suffered to rest, until,
after about five months, my father
received a letter from a person signing
himself Andrew Collis, and representing
himself to be the cousin of the deceased. This
letter stated that Sir Arthur was likely to
incur not merely suspicion, but personal
risk, unless he could account for certain
circumstances connected with the recent
murder, and contained a copy of a letter
written by the deceased, and bearing date,
the day of the week, and of the month,
upon the night of which the deed of blood
had been perpetrated. Tisdall's note ran
as follows:

'DEAR COLLIS,
'I have had sharp work with Sir
Arthur; he tried some of his stale tricks,
but soon found that _I_ was Yorkshire too:
it would not do--you understand me. We
went to the work like good ones, head,
heart and soul; and, in fact, since I came
here, I have lost no time. I am rather
fagged, but I am sure to be well paid for
my hardship; I never want sleep so long
as I can have the music of a dice-box, and
wherewithal to pay the piper. As I told
you, he tried some of his queer turns, but
I foiled him like a man, and, in return,
gave him more than he could relish of the
genuine DEAD KNOWLEDGE.

'In short, I have plucked the old
baronet as never baronet was plucked before;
I have scarce left him the stump of
a quill; I have got promissory notes in his
hand to the amount of--if you like round
numbers, say, thirty thousand pounds,
safely deposited in my portable strong-
box, alias double-clasped pocket-book. I
leave this ruinous old rat-hole early on to-
morrow, for two reasons--first, I do not
want to play with Sir Arthur deeper than
I think his security, that is, his money, or
his money's worth, would warrant; and,
secondly, because I am safer a hundred
miles from Sir Arthur than in the house
with him. Look you, my worthy, I tell
you this between ourselves--I may be
wrong, but, by G--, I am as sure as that I
am now living, that Sir A---- attempted
to poison me last night; so much for old
friendship on both sides.

'When I won the last stake, a heavy one
enough, my friend leant his forehead upon
his hands, and you'll laugh when I tell
you that his head literally smoked like a
hot dumpling. I do not know whether his
agitation was produced by the plan which
he had against me, or by his having lost so
heavily--though it must be allowed that he
had reason to be a little funked, whichever
way his thoughts went; but he pulled the
bell, and ordered two bottles of
champagne. While the fellow was bringing
them he drew out a promissory note to the
full amount, which he signed, and, as the
man came in with the bottles and glasses,
he desired him to be off; he filled out a
glass for me, and, while he thought my
eyes were off, for I was putting up his note
at the time, he dropped something slyly
into it, no doubt to sweeten it; but I saw
it all, and, when he handed it to me, I
said, with an emphasis which he might or
might not understand:

' "There is some sediment in this; I'll
not drink it."

' "Is there?" said he, and at the same
time snatched it from my hand and threw
it into the fire. What do you think of
that? have I not a tender chicken to
manage? Win or lose, I will not play
beyond five thousand to-night, and to-
morrow sees me safe out of the reach of
Sir Arthur's champagne. So, all things
considered, I think you must allow that
you are not the last who have found a
knowing boy in
'Yours to command,
'HUGH TISDALL.'

Of the authenticity of this document I
never heard my father express a doubt;
and I am satisfied that, owing to his
strong conviction in favour of his brother,
he would not have admitted it without
sufficient inquiry, inasmuch as it tended to
confirm the suspicions which already
existed to his prejudice.

Now, the only point in this letter which
made strongly against my uncle, was the
mention of the 'double-clasped pocket-
book' as the receptacle of the papers
likely to involve him, for this pocket-book
was not forthcoming, nor anywhere to be
found, nor had any papers referring to his
gaming transactions been found upon the
dead man. However, whatever might have
been the original intention of this Collis,
neither my uncle nor my father ever heard
more of him; but he published the letter
in Faulkner's newspaper, which was shortly
afterwards made the vehicle of a much
more mysterious attack. The passage in
that periodical to which I allude, occurred
about four years afterwards, and while the
fatal occurrence was still fresh in public
recollection. It commenced by a rambling
preface, stating that 'a CERTAIN PERSON
whom CERTAIN persons thought to be dead,
was not so, but living, and in full possession
of his memory, and moreover ready
and able to make GREAT delinquents
tremble.' It then went on to describe the
murder, without, however, mentioning
names; and in doing so, it entered into
minute and circumstantial particulars of
which none but an EYE-WITNESS could have
been possessed, and by implications almost
too unequivocal to be regarded in the light
of insinuation, to involve the 'TITLED
GAMBLER' in the guilt of the transaction.

My father at once urged Sir Arthur to
proceed against the paper in an action of
libel; but he would not hear of it, nor
consent to my father's taking any legal
steps whatever in the matter. My father,
however, wrote in a threatening tone to
Faulkner, demanding a surrender of the
author of the obnoxious article. The
answer to this application is still in my
possession, and is penned in an apologetic
tone: it states that the manuscript had
been handed in, paid for, and inserted as
an advertisement, without sufficient
inquiry, or any knowledge as to whom it
referred.

No step, however, was taken to clear
my uncle's character in the judgment of
the public; and as he immediately sold a
small property, the application of the
proceeds of which was known to none, he
was said to have disposed of it to enable
himself to buy off the threatened information.
However the truth might have been,
it is certain that no charges respecting the
mysterious murder were afterwards publicly
made against my uncle, and, as far as
external disturbances were concerned, he
enjoyed henceforward perfect security and
quiet.

A deep and lasting impression, however,
had been made upon the public mind, and
Sir Arthur T----n was no longer visited
or noticed by the gentry and aristocracy of
the county, whose attention and courtesies
he had hitherto received. He accordingly
affected to despise these enjoyments which
he could not procure, and shunned even
that society which he might have commanded.

This is all that I need recapitulate of my
uncle's history, and I now recur to my own.
Although my father had never, within my
recollection, visited, or been visited by, my
uncle, each being of sedentary, procrastinating,
and secluded habits, and their respective
residences being very far apart--
the one lying in the county of Galway, the
other in that of Cork--he was strongly
attached to his brother, and evinced his
affection by an active correspondence, and
by deeply and proudly resenting that
neglect which had marked Sir Arthur as
unfit to mix in society.

When I was about eighteen years of
age, my father, whose health had been
gradually declining, died, leaving me in
heart wretched and desolate, and, owing to
his previous seclusion, with few acquaintances,
and almost no friends.

The provisions of his will were curious,
and when I had sufficiently come to myself
to listen to or comprehend them,
surprised me not a little: all his vast property
was left to me, and to the heirs of my
body, for ever; and, in default of such
heirs, it was to go after my death to my
uncle, Sir Arthur, without any entail.

At the same time, the will appointed
him my guardian, desiring that I might be
received within his house, and reside with
his family, and under his care, during the
term of my minority; and in consideration
of the increased expense consequent upon
such an arrangement, a handsome annuity
was allotted to him during the term of my
proposed residence.

The object of this last provision I at
once understood: my father desired, by
making it the direct, apparent interest of
Sir Arthur that I should die without
issue, while at the same time he placed me
wholly in his power, to prove to the world
how great and unshaken was his
confidence in his brother's innocence and
honour, and also to afford him an
opportunity of showing that this mark of
confidence was not unworthily bestowed.

It was a strange, perhaps an idle
scheme; but as I had been always brought
up in the habit of considering my uncle as
a deeply-injured man, and had been taught,
almost as a part of my religion, to regard
him as the very soul of honour, I felt no
further uneasiness respecting the arrangement
than that likely to result to a timid
girl, of secluded habits, from the immediate
prospect of taking up her abode for the
first time in her life among total strangers.
Previous to leaving my home, which I felt
I should do with a heavy heart, I re-
ceived a most tender and affectionate letter
from my uncle, calculated, if anything
could do so, to remove the bitterness of
parting from scenes familiar and dear from
my earliest childhood, and in some degree
to reconcile me to the measure.

It was during a fine autumn that I
approached the old domain of Carrickleigh.
I shall not soon forget the impression of
sadness and of gloom which all that I saw
produced upon my mind; the sunbeams
were falling with a rich and melancholy
tint upon the fine old trees, which stood in
lordly groups, casting their long, sweeping
shadows over rock and sward. There was
an air of neglect and decay about the spot,
which amounted almost to desolation; the
symptoms of this increased in number as
we approached the building itself, near
which the ground had been originally more
artificially and carefully cultivated than
elsewhere, and whose neglect consequently
more immediately and strikingly betrayed
itself.

As we proceeded, the road wound near
the beds of what had been formally two
fish-ponds, which were now nothing more
than stagnant swamps, overgrown with
rank weeds, and here and there encroached
upon by the straggling underwood; the
avenue itself was much broken, and in
many places the stones were almost
concealed by grass and nettles; the loose
stone walls which had here and there
intersected the broad park were, in many
places, broken down, so as no longer to
answer their original purpose as fences;
piers were now and then to be seen, but
the gates were gone; and, to add to the
general air of dilapidation, some huge
trunks were lying scattered through the
venerable old trees, either the work of the
winter storms, or perhaps the victims of
some extensive but desultory scheme of
denudation, which the projector had not
capital or perseverance to carry into full
effect.

After the carriage had travelled a mile
of this avenue, we reached the summit of
rather an abrupt eminence, one of the
many which added to the picturesqueness,
if not to the convenience of this rude
passage. From the top of this ridge the
grey walls of Carrickleigh were visible,
rising at a small distance in front, and
darkened by the hoary wood which
crowded around them. It was a quadrangular
building of considerable extent,
and the front which lay towards us, and
in which the great entrance was placed,
bore unequivocal marks of antiquity; the
time-worn, solemn aspect of the old building,
the ruinous and deserted appearance
of the whole place, and the associations
which connected it with a dark page in the
history of my family, combined to depress
spirits already predisposed for the reception
of sombre and dejecting impressions.

When the carriage drew up in the grass-
grown court yard before the hall-door, two
lazy-looking men, whose appearance well
accorded with that of the place which they
tenanted, alarmed by the obstreperous
barking of a great chained dog, ran out
from some half-ruinous out-houses, and
took charge of the horses; the hall-door
stood open, and I entered a gloomy and
imperfectly lighted apartment, and found
no one within. However, I had not long
to wait in this awkward predicament, for
before my luggage had been deposited in
the house, indeed, before I had well
removed my cloak and other wraps, so as
to enable me to look around, a young girl
ran lightly into the hall, and kissing me
heartily, and somewhat boisterously,
exclaimed:

'My dear cousin, my dear Margaret--
I am so delighted--so out of breath. We
did not expect you till ten o'clock; my
father is somewhere about the place, he
must be close at hand. James--Corney
--run out and tell your master--my
brother is seldom at home, at least at any
reasonable hour--you must be so tired--so
fatigued--let me show you to your room--
see that Lady Margaret's luggage is all
brought up--you must lie down and rest
yourself--Deborah, bring some coffee--up
these stairs; we are so delighted to see
you--you cannot think how lonely I have
been--how steep these stairs are, are not
they? I am so glad you are come--I
could hardly bring myself to believe that
you were really coming--how good of you,
dear Lady Margaret.'

There was real good-nature and delight
in my cousin's greeting, and a kind of
constitutional confidence of manner which
placed me at once at ease, and made me
feel immediately upon terms of intimacy
with her. The room into which she
ushered me, although partaking in the
general air of decay which pervaded the
mansion and all about it, had nevertheless
been fitted up with evident attention to
comfort, and even with some dingy attempt
at luxury; but what pleased me most was
that it opened, by a second door, upon a
lobby which communicated with my fair
cousin's apartment; a circumstance which
divested the room, in my eyes, of the air
of solitude and sadness which would otherwise
have characterised it, to a degree
almost painful to one so dejected in spirits
as I was.

After such arrangements as I found
necessary were completed, we both went
down to the parlour, a large wainscoted
room, hung round with grim old portraits,
and, as I was not sorry to see, containing
in its ample grate a large and cheerful
fire. Here my cousin had leisure to talk
more at her ease; and from her I learned
something of the manners and the habits
of the two remaining members of her
family, whom I had not yet seen.

On my arrival I had known nothing of
the family among whom I was come to
reside, except that it consisted of three
individuals, my uncle, and his son and
daughter, Lady T----n having been long
dead. In addition to this very scanty stock
of information, I shortly learned from my
communicative companion that my uncle
was, as I had suspected, completely retired
in his habits, and besides that, having been
so far back as she could well recollect,
always rather strict, as reformed rakes
frequently become, he had latterly been
growing more gloomily and sternly
religious than heretofore.

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