The Tragedy of Life: being records of remarkable phases of lunacy, kept by a physician

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THE TRAGEDY OF LIFE BEING RECORDS OF REMARKABLE PHASES OF LUNACY. KEPT BY A PHYSICIAN. BY JOHN H. BREMEN. Our towns und cities are but so many dwellings of human misery, in which pries and sorrow, innumerable troubles, labours of mortal men, and all manner of vices, are included as in many pens. Our villages are like moleblUs, and men as so many emmets, busy, busy, still gning to and fro, in and out, crossing one another's projects, as the lines of several sea cards cut each other in a map. Now light and merry, by and by soiTowful and heavy; now hoping, then distrusting; now patient, to-morrow crying out; now pale, then red, running, sitting, trembling, sweating, halting, &c— Burton. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., G5, CORNHILL. M.DCCC.LXI. [77/e right of Translation is reserved.]

CONTENTS OF VOL. I. MAD OR NOT MAD? (DAP. PAUE I. How the Rector Lived and how he Died . I II. The Comforts of a Home, with Musical Society . . .22 III. Mr. Tremlett and his Entailed Possessions. 45 IV. Les Cartes sont Brouillees . 92 V. A Costly Triumph .... 138 VI. Forebodings Fulfilled . . . . 148 VII. Special Charac teristics of Lawrence Tremlett ...... 187 VIII. Conscience and Casuistry . . . 204 IX. Interviews ...... 213 X. Dr. Brandling takes Counsel's Opinion . 236 XI. De Lunatico Inquirendo . . . . 263 XII. George Carnegie pleads against himself . 300 XIII. The Secret betrayed in Death . . . 312 XIV. Post Tenebras Lux . . .321 MAD OR NOT MAD?

Chapter I. How The Rector Lived And How He Died

"On the 20th of last month, at the Rectory, much respected, the Rev. Louis Lackingham, aged 67, for many years Rector of Basset cum Wintleton" — When I was a boy, I used often to run my eye over the announcement of deaths in the columns of The Times, and consider with myself, in a desultory fashion, which of the various deceased parties were most to have been envied in their respective lives, and, in the case of an enforced exchange between their position vol. i. and my own, which among them all I should have preferred. At first sight, that of the Rev. Louis Lackingham seems one that few men would have declined ; the much respected rector of a large, opulent, and agricultural parish, to •whom the Clergy List assigned an income of rather over 2,0O0Z. per annum. In those clays our clergymen were almost invariably men of good family and university education, and such a prize was not a rara avis; but now, when district churches are springing, up and pew-rents, the voluntary system, and short cuts into holy orders, are superseding the ancient ways, these good things are becoming each day more scarce.

Probably there was greediness, unscrupulousness, and time-serving among some of the clergy. But let us do justice to the old times : human nature is still the same — the thing which has been is that which shall be : we shall not the less have greediness and unscrupulousness in the hundred candidates for an episcopal chapel, the income of which is made up of pew-rents, and cannot by any exertion be worked into 500L per annum ; but it is a lower, and consequently a more numerous, class that furnishes the competitors. Louis Lackingham, in the first instance a Winchester scholar, was, at the age of nineteen, transferred to Oxford. He was well-born, good looking, possessed great natural gifts of pleasing, and being early left an orphan, he had never experienced the wholesome restraint of parental control.

His guardian informed him that in six more years he would be sole masterof 12,000/., and recommended the Church as a gentlemanly profession. Neither the information nor the suggestion was thrown away. He adopted the clerical vocation, and proceeded to spend his money in advance : first, the university trades men, the tailors, tobacconists, pastry-cooks, jewellers, and livery-stable keepers, — and, secondly, the children of Israel, — became his creditors; so that long before he had taken his degree, what with the legal debts of the first, and the usurious loans of the last, he owed very nearly as much as he would receive two years from that time. 1—2 At length the moment of departure came, and for once he looked his affairs in the face ; the result of the experiment was such a shock that for the rest of his life he never repeated the operation.

" If only Lackingham would look his affairs in the face ! " said one of his friends. "Yes; but he won't," replied a practical junior, " and you can no more make a man look, than you can make him drink." So when he took his degree, he retired from the university as quietly as possible, giving such promises to his creditors as were best calculated to appease for the moment, and procured a title to holy orders in the shape of a curacy at a very secluded village in the most out-of-the-way part of Cornwall; where, for the space of one year, he gathered health and strength, and certainly spent little or nothing. When the control of his guardian ceased, and the money was made over to him, he did what he considered best under the circumstances: he paid as little of it away as possible, and indeed only silenced a few of the most clamorous.

He then proceeded to conclude an enfra-iement as travelling tutor to a nobleman, and for the next ten years the Rev. Louis Lackingham, in this capacity, and in other succeeding ones of the like nature, improved his knowledge of foreign languages and human nature, and added greater polish to an address naturally courtly and refined. He did not rebuke sin by any austerity of demeanour cither in public or private; and was popular, consequently, with both men and women : he was discreet also, and a good listener, so that few guests were more welcome in polite society. About this time, to his surprise, and I am not quite sure that it was to his gratification, he was presented to a fashionable curacy in the West End of London : I use the expression " was presented," designedly, for it best expresses the operation, as far as he was concerned.

It was one of those places where a diminution of popularity is very decidedly followed by a falling off of income. He was at this period thirty-four years of age, and in appearance an eminently handsome and distinguished looking man. His hair grew far back on the head, giving a sem blance of greater benevolence and breadth to the upper regions than rightfully belonged to them ; he had clearly defined eyebrows, a full purple gray eye, a well-cut nose, and a mouth and lips which his best friends admitted to be some what sensual and pleasure-loving in expression. He did not possess that first requisite of a town clergyman, the gift of eloquent discourse ; but what his intellect or moral weight failed to hold, was won by his courteous manners and fine person ; and if it may be said without scandal, wealthy widows and enterprising spinsters soon formed an obtrusively prominent portion of his congregation.

Any conspiracy, however, entered into by these ladies against his celibate state was fated to fail ; and the marriage of the Rev. Louis Lackingham to a very young lady of good family, considerable beauty, and an heiress in her own right, was not only duly announced, but solem nized with the pomp usual on these occasions. Whether it were that perfect faith is due to the clerical character, or that it was owing to the loyal and uncompromising trust of woman, or to the imbecility or carelessness of the guardians, cannot be accurately known ; but so it was that the settlements made at the time were hardly worthy of the name, unless, indeed, they were made with an express view to future insolvencj*. Neither Louis nor his wife relished his present position very much ; she had no violent taste for making herself acceptable to his congregation, and the female division of his audience had lost their relish for the si<rht of their handsome pastor, since the date of his marriage.

The cure of souls was, therefore, resigned, and the newly married couple repaired to the Continent, where the husband had the opportunity of giving lessons to his wife in many things in which he was a proficient ; though in the art of throwing away money she appeared to stand in need of little or no instruction. For about three years they followed the devices of their own hearts, and spared themselves no pleasure or luxury which their tastes or appetites desired, using their capital in all respects with as little scruple as if it were income. At the end of this period, the connections of his wife procured for him — and it was again without solicitation on his part — the rectory of Basset cum Wintleton ; and the prize, of which many a poor clergyman had dreamed by night and prayed for by day, fell like a ripe pear into the hands of one who was too indolent to ask for it.

However, it was accepted without any misgiving, and with an utter absence of any solemn feeling of responsibility. The new rector and his wife, having ex perienced the charms of unlimited continental gaiety, now essayed the effects of country dissipation. They were well received by the neighbouring gentry. Louis had not run into debt at Oxford, and figured as the tutor to sundry young noblemen, without acquiring know ledge and accomplishments of a certain kind. He rode well to hounds, though in a quiet way, and by no means in scarlet. But then he had excellent horses, and plenty of them ; and though he persisted, with a pleasant smile, in calling them hacks, or cobs, they were very undeniable hunters — lengthy, deep - chested, clean-limbed animals, with as much bone as any horse need have, and to spare.

He kept a first-rate cook, gave numerous dinners and choice wine, and received invitations in return. In a couple of years bills began to pour in ; at first slowly, then with an ominous rapidity. They were settled or not, according to the humour of the moment, when the)* were presented, or the degree of impor tunity with which they were urged. But the rector smiled on, and his wife also, and, seeing them smile, the world consented to do the same. Within a few months, while money was thus poured recklessly out, a change was at hand, and a sudden gloom spread over the rectory: Mrs. Lackingham became ill — very ill — then dano-erously ill. I would not say that the rector continued to present as gay a face to the world, for he was essentially a kind-hearted man; but at least his equanimity never forsook him.

He had excellent health and a good digestion; and when poor Mrs. Lackingham died, he bore up much better than could have been expected: at least, so everybody said; and not a few young ladies would have been too glad to console a laro-er amount of grief than that which he displayed. He had, in reality, even more forti tude than society gave him credit for, since he became aware, or at least was made so by his lawyers, that he had completely muddled away a sum of 30,000/., the fortune of his late wife, and had henceforth nothing but his clerical income to look to. Only 2,000/. a year! A cloud passed over his handsome face as he thought of it, and his college bills were not all setttled yet. So once more he went abroad — for retirement, he told his friends — for retrenchment, he said to his man of business.

Why should he not amuse himself, he thought. Though he had nearly hved the half-century, he was still well able to do that much. In those days, prolonged absence from parish duty was not an unpardonable offence, and a liberal furlough was easily obtained from a bishop, who happened also to be his particular friend. And again Louis Lackingham enjoyed himself; perhaps more sedately, but still self-indulgence was the only light which guided him in his steps. The two legal gentlemen whom he had selected for the honour of setting his affairs in order, talked him over a little. " Parsons are odd birds, we know, sometimes," said one to the other ; " but what Louis Lackingham can have done with that 30,000/. — how he has muddled it — whether he has hidden it, or sunk it — is what I cannot guess." " He has shaken the dice-box once too often over the water, I take it," replied the one ad dressed.

" Hum ! Is that so ? " replied the other. " Then he has gone to try his luck again. I never knew one drink quench that sort of thirst." Years rolled away, and people had ceased to wonder when the rector would return. He, however, did reappear ; but it was with a wife : very much, I believe, to every one's disgust. However, he met all inquiries with his usual bland affability : " Yes, he had been fortunate enough to engage the affections of Mrs. St. "Maur, a lady of excellent family and connections." And he was, or affected to be, quite wrapped up in her. This much was ascertained by the perse verance of female curiosity, that she was a widow when he first encountered her at Homberg. This account was hardly satisfactory to the old county families ; perhaps it was, not un naturally, the reverse.

The new Mrs. Lack ingham was not one of them ; and to a certain extent they carried out their first intention of letting her know that at such an angle they meant to view the fact. (This cabal, I ought to say, existed only among the members of her own sex.) However, Mrs. St. Maur was a thorough woman of the world long before she became Mrs. Lackingham : perhaps that she was so, had been one reason for her marriage ; so, whatever she felt, she kept to herself. She was affable to their haughtiness, deaf to their sarcasm, blind ? 13 to their coldness, and presented an imperturbably polished and suave demeanour to all they did, said, and looked. I say looked, because this species of artillery is not the least formidable instrument of feminine aggressive warfare. She was a first-rate actress : that was not the smallest of her special endowments.

If on well-timed occasions she wore a slightly distressed or sur prised air, it was almost imperceptible, and was instantly suppressed, and replaced by her ordinary ingratiating deportment. By degrees, there fore, she was allowed to suppose herself forgiven, and all visible demonstration of hostilities ceased. Louis Lackingham was all right with his bishop, and there was no official declaration to proclaim that he was all wrong with his creditors ; the rectory cuisine was perfect, the dinners well assorted, the household was well and liberally appointed : what could they ask for more ? But a change gradually appeared in the rector : he became dull, uneasy, and irritable; his little compliments and well-turned sentences were no longer delivered with the ease of old ; the pleasures of the table seemed to have lost their power, the best wine its flavour; nay, the very expression of his countenance was changed.

The family doctor was called in, and looked grave ; but, excepting that he counselled rest and entire abstinence from all intellectual pursuits, mental anxiety, and excitement of any description, he did not do much. Probably the Rev. Louis hardly knew what to make of this advice, since he had never, so long as the memory of man served, suffered anything to excite or worry him, whether intellectual or otherwise. He there fore did as he had been accustomed to do, and they continued to live easily and pleasantly at the rate of 4,000/. per annum. But one day the black cloud broke ; and a stroke of paralysis laid liim prostrate. He rallied, physically speaking, to a certain extent, but his mind had been more surely stricken ; and for the rest of his life he was doomed to be a garrulous old man, wheeled about in an arm chair, and left a good deal in private to the care of his servants.

At first, after a decent lapse of time, Mrs. Lackingham signified her intention of visitino and receiving guests as usual ; but the spectacle of poor Lackingham, with his distorted face and unmeaning, half-formed words, wheeled in like an aged imbecile to preside nominally over his own table, was one too painful to be borne, and Mrs. Lackingham -was given unmistakably to understand that this line of conduct would not do. So, with great philosophy, she betook her self to that retirement which is so acceptable when we are tired of the world or the world is tired of us, and in so doing contrived to be thought exemplary rather than otherwise. Then unpleasant rumours floated about; strange-looking men were reported to have been seen on the premises ; horses were sold, and several domestics dismissed.

At length the truth, long looming, burst forth ; and it was made public that the rector was, and had for some time been, hopelessly insolvent. Not the least fortunate part of the matter was his utter incapability of assisting himself or of comprehending the painful position in which he was placed. A meeting of his creditors was held, and the result was that his living was sequestrated for their benefit; a certain liberal portion being set aside for his maintenance. Half the house was shut up ; a curate agreed, for the con sideration of a slender salary, to occupy the vacant pulpit; and, if his life had been prolonged for a few years longer, Louis Lackingham might again have been a free man ; but this was not permitted, and the announcement alluded to at the commencement of my tale met the eyes of the readers of the provincial papers.

So the rectory windows were darkened; and the well bred, if not very warm-hearted inquirers after Mrs. Lackingham, were told " that she was con fined to her bed, and was much overcome." The living was quickly bestowed on another. The rector was dead ! Long live the rector ! But this gentleman, being unmarried, courteously informed the widow that for the month she was at liberty to retain possession of the house. Now the dilapidations were as extensive as the debts were numerous, and people w-ere good enough to spend much time in wondering what would happen, and devising schemes whereby both might be successfully disposed of. In the midst of these complications the world was surprised to learn that the lady in question had a daughter by a previous marriage ; that this daughter had already arrived at the rectory to " console her mother in the hour of affliction," as Mrs. Lackingham put it ; and furthermore, rumour affirmed that Miss St. Maur was a very lovely girl.

The first part of this report was quickly ascertained to be correct ; the second was doubted by many, and believed by a few, who, however, only saw in it a fresh matter for aggravation. What business had Mrs. Lacking ham at all with a daughter unknown to them ? Why was she not produced during her late husband's lifetime? What guarantee had they that Mrs. Lackingham had ever been a Mrs. St. Maur at all, or that this young woman waa her daughter ? " The St. Maurs of shire I know, and the St. Maurs of shire I know; 2 VOL. I. but who are these ? " demanded a free-spoken, hard-headed old gentlewoman; and receiving no reply, either satisfactory or otherwise, she black balled them in her own mind, and advised a good many others to do the same. The religio loci had been outraged, and it was felt that circumstances required a victim.

That Mrs. Lackingham should take advantage of the new rector's polite permission to prolong her stay, was supposed to signify that both the mother and daughter were preparing to reward his unsuspecting kindness by treacherously in veigling him into matrimony. No real fear was, however, entertained on this head by those who knew him. Mr. Edgecombe was one of those complete specimens of the old school which are still ex tant : a kindly-disposed man ; a high Tory ; an attested bon vivant, and a confirmed celibate ; a sayer of good things ; and possessing that uni versal gallantry, which the opposite sex affirm to be so insincere and unproductive. No ; it was felt that he could defend himself; and no measures of protection were devised in his behalf. But as the dowagers talked over these things in their drawing-rooms, those among them who had sons were filled with apprehension, and they resolved with one accord to eschew all inter course, and to keep the young men under their own eye, until such time as these women should have departed from among them.

This was, perhaps, hardly fair, for it was all mere supposi tion; no actual proof of evil intention could be proved. But their disgust rose to its height when Miss St. Maur appeared in the rectory pew attended by a servant ; she was in deep mourning and closely veiled, it is true, but a quantity of magnificent fair-coloured, silky hair, fell in a net beneath her bonnet, so as to be visible to all beholders, and it was thought to be an omen of dangerous beauty. Meanwhile, the winding-up of affairs pro ceeded ; the creditors took all there was, amount ing to about one-third of what they actually claimed, and then agreed to sign their acquittance in full, well convinced that not another shilling 2—2 was forthcoming. Finally, Mrs. Lackingham, looking worn and pale indeed, but gentle and suave as ever, emerged from her seclusion, and took up her abode in a pretty little cottage in the neighbourhood.

The lines of defence were then immediately strengthened : the gentry called on her, but they did not do so cordially, or with any visible intention of promoting intimacy ; and when the visit was returned, the same distant and distrustful thought was felt, if not expressed in so many words. Women have an instinct in these things ; and Mrs. Lackingham probably did not see her way to anything pleasant by remaining longer. She was not in a position to punish her adversaries, or she would gladly have done it: she could not, indeed, even rebel with success ; so she preserved the equanimity of her temper, and began to meditate flight. In a month she vacated her cottage, and, with her daughter, departed from the hostile camp, leaving a few trifling debts unpaid : of which it is a fact creditable to the kindliness of the tradespeople that she never heard more.

In this matter they appeared in advantageous contrast with the class above them. But then, it may be said, they had less at stake : it is one thing to lose ten pounds, and it is another thing to lose your son, or, what amounts to the same thing, accept a daughter-in-law whom your heart abominates.

Chapter II. The Comforts Of

A HOME, WITH MUSICAL SOCIETY. Mbs. Lackingham and her daughter migrated to London, and having hired a fairly-sized house in one of the squares in the north-west part, which make pretensions to gentility, if not fashion (this was easily obtained by means of negotiating from the Rectory of Basset-cum-Wintleton), mother and daughter settled down, with some furniture taken on credit, four letters of introduction, and a few dozen of very fine old wine, which had in some mysterious manner escaped the grasp of the creditors ; and in due time an advertisement appeared in the papers, setting forth that " the widow of a clergyman offered to any lady or gentleman the comforts of a home," &c. In our crowded land, with its strufglinf OO o ? 23 myriads, the means of subsistence are daily growing more difficult to procure, and when the masses are concentrated the strife begins in earnest.

The fear of poverty and the lust of wealth engender a fierce, desperate pitilessness, so that no individual voice is heard : the single cry is drowned in the surging roar of the million ; the wheel grinds on, careless of what may be crushed ; the strong brave it, the weak go to the wall, and if they fall, their life is soon trampled out of them. Carlyle has well expressed it. Man says to his fellow:. "See, thou art taking more than thy share of happiness in the world — something from my share — which, by the Heavens, thou shalt not ! Nay, I will fight thee rather ! " It must be conceded that for two reduced gentlewomen delicately reared, the business of carninrr their daily bread honestly in our vast ■o J •■ city is a hard one. A want of methodical system, of any sound and accurate knowledge in any special art or vocation; a habit of feebly re gretting the days that are gone by ; a sensitive, tetchy spirit, or a peevish melancholy ; — all these things are likely to exist, and to prove serious hindrances.

If they commence a school or endeavour to conduct a boarding-house, too often the pupils are sent thither from motives of compassion to the teacher, without the smallest reference to the welfare of the child ; or the lodgers stay long after they have ceased to find comfort or expect management, because they shrink from giving pain or showing apparent discourtesy to a lady who has seen better days. So do some years roll on in unfruitful, dreary toil and unthriftiness, and then the insolvency that has long been inevitable closes the scene. On the other hand, I have also seen that the kindness which the humbler classes are so ready to show to each other they still more often extend to reduced gentility; and this not from the pride which delights to pity, but from, it may be a rough, but certainly a courteous and genuine compassion.

The man who supplies their daily necessities will not press for pay ment ; the small tradesman will exhibit unwonted ? 25 leniency. But beyond and apart from all this, there is a wonderfully large portion of gulli bility among the trading classes, which is every day exposed in our police courts ; it exists, and it increases, and roguery consequently thrives apace. Of course fresh schemes are required in succession, and old expedients have to make way to new; but the feeling is always there — always ready and willing to be imposed upon. Of the existence of all these peculiarities Mrs. Lackingham was perfectly aware, and she traded systematically upon them. I learned afterwards that there was hardly a town of importance on the Continent where she was not well known; that she had more than once charmed her importunate creditors on the threshold, while her valuables were at that very moment being secretly conveyed away by the back entrance.

Belgians, French, Germans, and the inhabitants of the Channel Islands, had all in turn experienced her fascinations to their cost ; and for a time, at least, Mrs. Lackingham succeeded in Square. She presented her letters of introduction, and her address, her speech, her becoming attire, and other characteristics, were so admirably effective that when she challenged pity and entreated sympathy and support, as one whose widowed and forlorn position fairly entitled her to it, her claim was very generally admitted. She did not advance her special qualities, so as to deter the refined and fastidious. Her sorrow was not obtrusive nor loud, but toned down to a becoming hue. Her poverty was at least clothed with attention to fashion and elegance. If the locality of her residence was not such as to excite envy, it was not such as to call forth derision; and lastly, the presence of Miss St. Maur — of whom I shall have more to say hereafter — was not without good effect in certain cases: and it was only on judicious occasions that the young lady did appear.

So Mrs. Lackingham obtained one or two inmates, who paid handsomely, and had in return very agreeable society, in a household which, if it were not regulated with system or punctuality, was at least pleasantly administered, and com pletely free from dulness and constraint. Several, indeed, did in process of time leave, from un explained causes ; and Mrs. Lackingham shed tears over their departure : however, she bore her loss with wonderful equanimity when they were once gone. Meanwhile, if the fare was sometimes scanty, and sometimes profuse, it was always choice and admirably cooked ; if the breakfasts were thinly set forth at no very defined hour, the suppers, at which there were frequently a few guests, were models of what that meal should be. Mrs. Lackingham was a woman of great and versatile talent ; she had a gift of language, combined with a power of memory, which made her an admirable raconteuse.

If she did not always adhere to rigid truth, few detected it ; and, after all, a variation in that anecdote which is to point a jest or a moral is generally per mitted without serious reprobation. She was well read, not only in the light literature of the day, but in the English classics ; moreover, with the large share of tact and penetration, and happy audacity of purpose which lay beneath her well-assumed meekness, there were the remains of considerable personal beauty. These were no ordinary advantages, and they were managed with adroitness. An Irish gentle man, indeed, succumbed completely to these influences, and left in haste and indignation the day after his proposals had been rejected. A clergyman gave warning because he could not have his breakfast early enough ; and a lady quitted the house on account of her intolerance of music: but, on the whole, Mrs. Lackingham bore these defections with great serenity, and only added a certain dejection of manner in alluding to them when she was explaining to her new friends the enormous difficulties, as she termed them, of her position.