Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 347: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

334 CHAPTER CXXII. MES, STURTON’S EXPLANATIONS. PuncruaL to the appointment which she had made, Mrs. Sturton came to the hotel a couple of hours after I had left her at her own wretched abode; and her appearance was now indeed much changed. She was of course still thin, pale, emaciated, and sickly-looking: but she was clean and respectable—she wore decent raiment—and there was an expression of hope, and thankfulness, and even joy upon her countenance. She seemed to be about forty years of age—though I presently learnt that she was really not more than five-and- thirty. She was of gipsy origin, and for more than half her life she had dwelt with her tribe in the true gipsy fashion,—until she had married out of that tribe, as I learnt from Dame Betty. Her husband had been a hawker of Sheffield and Bir- mingham goods: he did a good business, ahd main- tained his wife and family in comparative comfort and respectability, until his death which happened suddenly. The woman endeavoured to carry on the business—but she failed: then her husband’s relatives set her up in a little shop in Stafford—but here she still experienced a complete want of suc- cess, so that she sank down into poverty. Her friends died off or went elsewhere—and for the last two or three years her existence had been of the most wretched description. When she came to me at the hotel, I received her alone in my sitting-room ; for I thought it better that Beda should not be present. I told her who | was—what I had heard from Dame Betty in London—and wherefore I had now sought her in Stafford. I told her likewise that I had a cousin named Henry Wakefield, who had gone to America: and when I had given all these particulars, I said, “ Now tell me what you have to impart; and whether it be serviceable or other- wise, you shall be rewarded. But of course your recompense will ultimately prove in proportion to the value of the information itself.” * You already know, Miss,” said the woman, “that I was a wandering gipsy living with my parents; and our tribe chiefly frequented these midland counties. What I am now going to tell you happened about twenty-two years ago * “TI will take down memorandu of what you narrate,” I said; for I had writing materials before me. “Twenty-two years ago P” * Yes, Miss,” resumed Mrs. Sturton. “TI was then a mere girl of about thirteen or fourteen ; but I recollect the circumstances well—and I afterwards heard my parents speak of them very frequently. We were in Warwickshire at the time ; and we were encamped close by Embledon. One evening an elderly gentleman, between fifty and sixty years of age, came and took my father on one side; and they spoke for a considerable time together. The gentleman gave my fatber money, and went away. I presently heard all about the matter—for I listened while my father told my mother: indeed he spoke freely and openly in my presence. He said that the gentle- man was a Mr. Wakefield I “Do you know his Christian name?” I in- quired. ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. “Oh, yes, Miss !” answered Mrs. Sturton. was Gerald.” ! “T thought so,” I said. ceed.” “Tt appeared that Mr. Gerald Wakefield had persuaded and bribed my father to seize and carry off the younger child of Lord and Lady Carshalton, whose country-seat was at no great distance. This child was then about a twelvemonth old, or barely so much ; and his nurse was accustomed to take out the babe every day in the park when the weather was fine. The child was stolen accord- ingly, and in a manner which plunged the Car- shalton family into the utmost uncertainty as to what its fate could be. The nurse placed the child, enveloped in a sbawl, upon a shady bank for the infant was fast asleep—while she strayed to a little distance to gather primroses and violets, it being in the Spring season. Then my mother, who had been upon the watch, crept to- wards the place and bore away the child, unper- ceived by its nurse. Have you taken down all these particulars, Miss Percy ?” “JT have made memoranda sufficient for my purpose,” I answered. ‘“ Proceed.” * Tam now about to begin what may at first seem to be quite a different story,” said Mrs. Sturton; “ but you will soon find, Miss, how it will all fit in along with the rest. There was a gipsy family of the name of Robinson, that fre- quented the same midland counties as we did ; but for some reason or another there was a jealousy betwixt our family and the Robinsons. Well, Miss, it seems that Mr. Gerald Wakefield went to the Robinsons just about the same time that he came and sought out my father ; and he proposed something to the man Robinson. This was nothing less than that he should engage the assistance of some of his confederates for the purpose of way- laying a postchaise which was expected to pass along the road from Birmingham to Carshalton at a particular hour in the evening. The occupants of that postcha:se would prove to be a gentleman and a boy; and both were to be murdered on the spot !” “ Good heavens! can this be possible?” I ejacu- lated. “T am telling you, Miss, all I have heard and all I know,” replied Mrs. Sturton. “I have no other means of convincing you of the truth of the statement. It may seem incredible—but it is not the less true on that account.” * And who were that gentleman and that boy,” I asked, my blood running cold at the time, “ who were thus to be intercepted and brutally mur- dered ?” “The gentleman—or rather nobleman,” replied Mrs. Sturton, “was none other than the Earl of Carshalton himself; and the boy was his elder son, the Viscount Ravenscliffe, then about five years of age.” “And Mr. Gerald Wakefield was monster enough,” I exclaimed, “to plan these tremendous crimes? God grant,” I mentally added, “that he may, after all, prove not to be a relation of my dear cousin Heary ‘” “ Yes—he planned these crimes,” answered Mrs. Sturton; “and there can be no doubt that when he employed my parents to carry off the infant Frederick Ravenscliffe, it was with the intention ‘é It “And now pro- ELOOO | KS 4 (E00)