The Soldier's Wife — page 221: what you’re looking at

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

200 | THE SOLDIER'S WIFE, pera to emanate from Mrs, Davis, was written ticularly pointed out to him, should discower ny some female at Middleton, with whom the barber was acquainted, and whose epistolary qualifications were of a much higher standard than her moral ones, He had sought her co- operation in that particular scheme ;—and with the certainty of obtaining the reward offered for the deserter’s apprehension, he had recompensed the woman. liberally. When he was appre- hended and condenined to transportation, he re ceived in Middleton gaol, as the reader is aware, that bitter letter which Lonsdale wrote, and which excited all the most horrible vindictive passions of Bates’s mind. We need not enter into details respecting his escape ; suffice it to remark that he effected it,—and in order to se- cure himself against the chance of being retaken, lhe had recourse to the desperate expedient of dishiguring his countenance by means of vitriol. The application of the corrosive fluid was how- ever attended by effects more terrible than he had calculated upon,—depriving him of the sight of one of his eyes. pete he con- eoled himself with the reflection that the de- struction of bis identity was all the more com- plete ; and when he looked at his face in the glass, he knew full well that not even those who had known him best, would recoguize Obadiah Bates in the monstrous loathsome object which he had become. He wrote to Mrs. Lonsdale at Manchester, to tell her that her busband had been branded; and of that husband he signed | himself “ the eternal enemy.” that his wife’s ruin had been accomplished, he would immolate Redburn to his rage. All these dinbolical hopes on the miscreant’s part were however frustrated; for Lucy was rescued ip time, and Redburn escaped with his life. Why was it that the fiendish vindietiveness of Bates was thus directed against Gerald Redburn as well as against the Lonsdales? It was because Sir Archibald RKedburn was one of those whe had effected the exposure, the ruin, and the con- demnation of Bates, in respeet to the letter- tamperings at the post-office, and therefore he sought to revenge himself against the sire by levelling a blow at the son, We need not linger upon our narrative in or- der to describe how, during the interval of more than eighteen months after the transactions at Manchester, Obadiah Bates became a wretched wanderer over the face of the country. At last he read in a newspaper that a General Court- Martial had just been held on private }rederick Lonsdale at the Middleton Barracks, and that the accused was found guilty and condemned to death. Bates chuckled with a savage gloating over this intelligence, and resolved to be pres- ent at the final scene—or at least near it, He felt assured that he could venture with perfect safety into a neighborhood where he had once been well known: for General Redburn had not recognized him at Manchester—Lonsdale had not recognized hini—and others of his old ae- quaintances, whom he had occasionally met in Shortly afterwards he proceeded to Manches- his wanderings, had likewise failed to discern ter, with the hope of finding opportunities to/the identity of Obadiah Bates with the hideous wreak his vengeance upon the objects of his|object he bad rendered himself. He pursued his hatred. His deplorable condition—the wretch- weary way—night came—and at about eleven edness to which be was reduced—ihe means by |\o’clock he was within a few miles of Middleton. which he was saved from starvatiou by some | ‘That night, as the reader will remember, was tactory slaves—and the accident that led him to seek refuge in the house which Chancery de- brilliantly dluminated with moon and stars: aud thus, when an officer on horseba¢k happened to lays were suffering to fall into ruins, are already |overtake Bates on the road, the miscreant had known to the reader: for when ciiance one might ho difficulty in at onee recognizing Captain Red- threw Bates in the way of Gerald Redburn,|burn, A diabolical thought flashed to his mind those particulars of his narrative which the In a Moment ; and it justantaneously became a wretch volunteered, were strictly true. AH of | purpese which he resolved to execute. He was a sudden he found himself possessed of the) penniless and starving—Redburn was sure to wished-for opportunities, as he calculated andjhave money about his person. Moreover there hoped, to wreak his vengeance. ‘The vile belnys of this world are never at a loss where to find creatures of a kindred villany when their co- operation is required: it needs but to plunge iuto the cesspools of vice and demoralizauion to discover such ready and willing ageuts, ‘Thus was it that Obadiah Bates found in the keeper of an infamous house the accomplice that he suught. Lucy was enticed thither—Redburn received a note to bid him hasten to where he might seize upon his prey—and Bates felt assu- red that the dishonor of Lonsdale’s wife would be effected by violence. But this was rot all the vengeance he meditated; bis plan was two- foli—the blow was to strike not merely the Lonsdules, but Gerald Kedburn hituself; and hence the note which Gates sent to warn the husband of his wife’s danyer: hence to his ap: parent zeal in conducting Lonsdale to the house where be was to find Lucy and Redburn, Lor Bates calculated that when Lonsdale, on burst- log abruptly into the room which was so par- was yet a vengeance to be wreaked against the sire: why not wreak it, as formerly attempted, through the medium of the son 4 With the suddenness and fury of a famished tiger darung at its prey, did Bales spring at Gerald Redburn, who was walking his horse at the moment. ‘The steed, terrified at that pre- cipitate Rush towards it, shied abruptly —oue of the stirrup-leathers broke, and Redburn we hurled to the ground, while the horse galloped madly away. ‘Then commenced a desperate struggle: Gerald managed to regain his legs ; and drawing his sword, inflicted a couple of se- vere Wounds upon his assailant. Bates however succeeded in wresting the weapon from his vrasp; and holding it by the blade, he dealt a terrific blow with the hilt on the side of Red- burn’s head, ‘The victim fell; but the infur- ated Bates continued to beat bim with the sword-hilt till he was quite certain life was ex- tinct. He then threw nae weapon into the diteh aud proceeded to rifle the pockets of the mur Gomilebooks €o