Dead Man's Hollow : or, The Bridal of Bodesden. A romance

Preface

. The Romance of Dead Mam's Hollow is one of those so closely founded upon facts, that the Author has little to do in the way of invention, save to make such alterations as should prevent the possibility of the feelings of the living being in the slightest degree outraged. The strange and unprecedented occurrences herein brought before the mental gaze of the reader took place in a midland county some one hundred years ago, when it was not at all unusual to gibbet by the way-side those who had committed the crime of murder. It will be perceived that the principal facts, most curious as they are, have been left to speak for themselves, and that nothing has been done to swell them out into any undue importance ; and those of our readers who, from circumstances have a key to the real parties here represented, and whom we have concealed under other names, will give us full credit for setting down nothing in malice, as Othello has it, at the same time that we have extenuated nothing.

The favourable reception of the work by the public affords yet another of those convincing proofs that the actual romance of real life has a charm and a truthfulness about it which at once lays hold of the imagination, and insures ready attention. But it does net always happen that sad and mournful episodes of real life en '"o well and pleasantly as this of Dead Man's Hollow, and we may remark, that

PREFACE.

. it was the happy termination of the affair which enabled us to think that it might be presented to our readers in all its first mysteries and terrors, without requiring anything in the shape of an apology. With these few brief observations we beg to lay before our patrons, in a complete form, the short, but, we trust, on that account, none the less interesting Romance of Dead Man's Hollow. London, March, 1847. OB. THE BRIDAL OF BODESDEN. & Viommte.

Chapter I. The Sight-watch

— THE LITTLE STRANGER.— THE MYSTERY.— AN ENGLISH FARM-HOUSE. " Hush ! There it is again ! There, do vou not hear it ? Hark ! These words were uttered by Mathew Ablewhite. a farmer, of a county not far from the sea-shore, as he sat among his family on a tempestuous winter s evening by his fireside. I " Don't you hear it ? There it comes again alon'g with the wind, and dies away I knew— that is, somehow I thought it would come again to-n.gnt Hush. Will, hush ! Good God ! what was that ?" As the farmer spoke, there came a strange, loud, wailing shriek upon the night air. and such a blow was o-iven against the outer door ol the farm-house, that it seemed to be almost shattered from its hinges, and then lor a few moments all was Mill, both within No- ; and without, for the farmer and his family were too much astonished, and perhaps a little too much frightened to speak ; and it appeared as if that loud and sudden blow upon the farm-house door had been a signal for the very elements themselves to cease their uproar.

" Well," said Mathew Ablewhite, after a pause, " reach me down my gun, lad. I will know what is the meaning of all this. There, for two nights, we have heard these strange sounds, and we have not been able, among us all, to come to any conclusion concerning them. Reach my gun, boy, and we will soon see what it is." " No, no, I say no," half-screamed Mrs. Ablewhite ; " you shall not go." " There, again ! There, again! Did you hear that?" The question surely was a superfluous one, for it was quite impossible that the wailing , shrieking sound, that now seemed to be immediately outside one of the windows of the farm-house, could escape the ears of any one within it. It was a sound that could be resolved into nothing human, nor was it the known cry of any animal in distress ; but it seemed as if it was in the very air itself, and as if it paused for a moment to make the night hideous at that old farm-house, ere it sped onward to continue its career of terror.

The farmer sprang to his feet, and as he snatched his gnu out of the hands of his son, Will, a lad of eighteen years of age, he said, with a determination of tone and manner, which could not be mistaken, — " I will know what it is — I cannot endure this suspense. I will, I say, know what it is. let the wind blow how it lists, and let the snow come down in what drifts it ma^, I will be out to-night, and find out what is the meaning of that tumult without. Ave we to remain here, and be made wretched ty hearing sounds like those at our very doors and windows, and do nothing ? Are we " A cry from one of the younger children at this moment attracted the attention of the farmer, and he glanced towards the window, on which the child's attention seemed to be fixed. There he distinctly saw that there was something outside, apparently hovering about the window, as if intent upon effecting an entrance by that means to the house.

The snow was coming down in large flakes, so as to form a sort of natural light-coloured back-ground to the figure, which seemed to be moving about with its arms, which looked long and; shadowy, outside the latticed window. Will Ablewhite placed his hand between tlie candle and the casement, and then he said, — " Father, father, you can see it better now. Look, oh, look !" They could see it better now, and all doubt of its being a human fio-ure vanished from the mind of Mathew Ablewhite. He waived his hand to his wife and children to be still, and then in a loud voice he said, — " Speak, I charge you, speak ! Be you what you may, speak, 1 say, or 1 will fire upon you !" There was no reply, but the strange object still seemed to be making an effort to get in at the window ; but if it then made any noise, or rattled the casement at all it was drowned in the wild, roaring rush of wind that at the moment swept over the face of nature, carrying the same with it furiously into all the most unimaginable little, odd, out-of-the-way places, where it uever could have fallen, and ereatinosueb an uproar, even among the leafless branches of the trees, that nothing could be heard for several minutes that was uttered within the cottage, althou^h'several of the family made remarks.

" Hush, all of you, hush !" said Mathew Ablewhite, when lie considered that they could again hear his voice. " Hush, all of you, and leave this affair to me " He then raised his gun nearly to his shoulder, and presented the muzzle towards the window, as lie added, in a loud, clear voice, that must have been perfectly well heard without, as well ae_ his attitude with the gun being seen, which was perfectly sufficient to afford a key to his words, — ' " I warn you, be you whom you may— I warn you off my premises, and away horn my window. If you disregard this warning, I fire. I am not afraid of a few broken K panes of glass, and so surely as you don't say something to save yourself, or move away, 1 fire." There was no reply, but the movements of the figure witheut appeared to be more energetically than before directed to getting an entrance to the farm-house, so that while his family crouched down in disorder at the further end of the room, and the youngest child began sobbing in its mother's aims, Mathew Ablewhite fired his gun direct at the window.

The room in which they had been sitting was one of those large old fashioned, wainscoted apartments, of larger extent by real measurement than they actually look, and the sound, although it was extremely loud and almost stunning in its effect, did no mischief, as the discharge of a gun will do in a smaller space. There was a loud crash of broken glass, and then, before the echoes of the gun's discharge had died away, a wild shrieking kind of voice from without shouted,— " Mathew Ablewhite, you will find me in Dead Man's Hollow !" Then all was still, but Mathew Ablewhite, with another barrel of his gun still loaded, rushed from his room, closely followed by his son, Will, who, despite a cry of caution from his mother, would go where his father led. On such a terrific night as that for snow and wind, it was no easy matter in the open air to get along, and when they both reached the front entrance of the farm-house and opened the door, the rush of wind and snow that dashed in, blinded them for some seconds, and most effectually stopped their progress.

It was not so bad, however, when they got the door closed again and were fairly outside, for the passage of the farm-house seemed to have acted as a sort of funnel to diaw in an enormous quantity of the drifting snow, that was dashed about hither and thither in all directions by the mad, roaring wind, which seemed to be blowing in all directions at once, and not to come as usual from some particular point of the compass, and so blow steadily on to another. Had such been the case, they would have been all right when they turned the angle of the house, to the side on which the window was situated, where the mysterious appearance had shown itself, but they were as much buffeted by the storm there as before. It was not above twenty steps to get round from the froot door of the old farmhouse to the large casement window ; and when they did reach it, the bright fire of fine logs within the apartment, as well as the light that was burning upon the table, enabled them to see very distinctly the whole of the interior of the place, and that the window was completely riddled from the shot of the gun.

But sound or sight of anything human, there was none ; and what made the matter much more extraordinary was, that, in the snow-drift that had collected under the window close up to the wall of the house, there was not the least appearance of any foot-mark indicative of the presence of anyone. " What does it all mean, father," said Will — " what does it all mean?" " Why, my boy, you just know as much about it as I do. But is not the snow abating?" " It is, and the wind is going down, father. I can see, too, that the clouds ara breaking in the sky. But mother is calling to us. Answer her, father ; she is terrified." The voice of Mrs. Ablewhite could now be plainly heard calling upon her husband, for she was terrified for his safety on such a night, and feared that the certain amount of adventurous spirit that he had, would induce him to remain out longer than was at all necessary, and possibly, too, to his great danger, for all she knew.

" Mathew, Mathew," she cried, " where are you? " " Here, wife; here," said the farmer, as he tapped upon the window ; " Will and I are both here, but we can see nothing but snow ; I cannot at all make it out." " Come in, then, for this is no night for a Christian to be out in." " The snow is abating, and Will and I mean just to take a short turn round the the farm, and then we will be back. There's no danger, and never mind if we are gone half an hour ; I will aend Reuben into the house, to wait till we come back." ; 4 Mrs. Ablewhite was not. in love with this arrangement; for although, as far as size went, Reuben, the farmer's man, who lived|in the fens, might be a very good protec tion, yet Mrs. Ablewhite was fearful that her husband had seen something suspicious, and was bound on some expedition involving personal danger ; she knew, however, from long experience, that it would be of no avail to attempt to turn him from any project by representing its danger to him, so she was fain to content herself by saying, — "Very well, Mathew, but return as quickly as you can, for little Marian is frightened, and so is Johnny, and both are asking for you every minute."

"Ay, ay," said the farmer, " I shall soon be back again. Have no fear of us, wife ; there is no danger from the snow drifts, you know, acquainted with the place as we are." " Father," whispered Will, " father." "Well, my lad, what is it? " "You heard, father, what was said outside the window, after you had had your shot, and I was thinking, now that we are about it, suppose we were to go down to Dead Man's Hollow. We might, you know, father, find out what it is by going there ; I should like very much to do so, father, if you don't mind. The distance is short, and mother need know nothing about it at all, you know." " That's true enough, Will, and, to tell you the truth, I was thinking of it even now." "You were, lather ? well, if I didn't think so, and hope so ; hadn't you better load the other barrel, lather, of your gun, and then you will have two shots if you should happen to want them, for folks do say odd things about the Dead Man's Hollow after dark."

"Why, Will, I don't see what they can say worse of it than the truth. A mur der was committed, and a man was hanged on tlie spot about half a dozen years ago, they say." " Not so long, father, not so long. It aint above three years, if that ; you know we have only been in Spring-Head Farm two years come this Christmas that's so close at hand, and we came here while everybody was talking about it; and one of the first things almost we went to look at was the murderer hanging in irons in Dead Man's Hollow ; don't you recollect it ?" " It was, it was, boy, and an odd effect it has to see a body there with iron rings all round him, and the face picked to pieces by the crows. It's a barbarous way of managing matters, Will, and they do say that gibbeting will be abolished even now in cases of murder."

" And time enough it was, too," said Will ; " for I don't see any good it does except to frighten old women and children, and to give some place a bad name for ever so long." "You are right, Will, quite right ; but aint it freezing hard now that the snow-drift is over— the ground is getting quite crisp, and I think the remainder of the night will be clear after all. Oh, yes, I can see a glimpse of the sky now between the clouds, and, mark my words, Will, this night will be the commencement of a long and hard frost." " Do you think so, father ?" " Yes, lad, I do, hut now let us look about us. for here we are off our own premises, and we have but to skirt Sir John's new plantation, and we shall come soon upon Dpad Man's Hollow." What has passed between Mathew Ablewhite and his son will suffice just to inform the reader of the fact that the Dead Man's Hollow was so called owing to a barbarous murder having been committed there, the perpetrator of which was hung in chains ou the spot, according to the custom observed in such cases about the beginning of the las', century and so on until nearly our own times.

The peculiar circumstances attendant upon that murder, and the strange events which preceded it, and which followed it, will foim legitimate mattenfor us to ]ay before the reader; but just at present, we will follow the fortunes of Mathew Ablewhite and his bold, adventurous son, Will, to whom anything in the shape of an adventure was always most abundantly welcome; and whs, with all the real Courage of his father, united to it a bold, daring love of danger, almost for danger's sake, which was peculiarly his own. Nothing could possibly please him better than such an expedition as they were now on. It was the very thing for Will Ablewhite, and he would not have missed it on any consideration, and hence was it that he had been so eager to follow his lather from the farm-house ; for he thought it likely enough that his intention might be, after what happened, to visit Dead Man's Hollow, and if not the lad thought he might be persuaded into the adoption of some such an adventurous measure.

The plantation which has been mentioned, and which belonged to the estate of a Sir John Kenneth, one of the largest landed proprietors in the county, and who, in fact was Mathew Ablewhite's landlord, was of great extent, partly composed of old and partly of young trees which had been planted recently in every disposable spot, no doubt as a preparatory step to disposing of the old timber, which was very fine and very valuable ; and, as Sir John Kenneth was reported to be not the most prudent man in the whole world as regarded money matters, such a supposition seemed extremely probable to the neighbours. But with those matters we have nothing to do at present, further than wishing the reader to be aware that there is a Sir John Kenneth, and that he has residing with him his sister, the Lady Caroline Kenneth, of whom more anon, and that his estate is called Bodesden Hall.

Chapter II. The Gibbet In The Hollow

— THE SUSPICIOUS HAMPER. The prediction of Mathew Ablewhite that the great snow-drift was nearly over, turned out to be quite correct, as well as that it was about to be followed by frost ; for the small snow that now fell, got so (icefied if we may be allowed the expres sion), as it came through the air, that it almost cut the skin of the face and hands of the farmer and his son. The ground, too, instead of, where it was covered with the snow, being soft and noiseless to the tread, was hard as iron, and only here and there, where an unusual depth of snow had collected, it yielded to the tread with a crushing sound, and allowed the footsteps to sink a little way into it. The clouds, too, had discharged their moisture, which, freezing, had turned to snow, and consequently the night was much lighter than it had been, and this light ness from the sky was further much aided by the reflection from the whitened surface of the earth for many miles around.

The country began to descend in a succession of gentle slopes, after passing the plantation of Sir John Kenneth which we have mentioned, and it was in the lowest portions that the deep ravine was situated, which was called Dead Man's Hollow, and which in moist weather was usually not in a fit state for any one to penetrate into. The moment they began the descent, the hoy paused, and laying his hand upon his father's arms, said, — " Here, father, you can see the gibbet from here against the night sky. Don't you see it, father, looking black against it — there, a little to the left of the fir-trees." " Oh, yes, I did not know it could be seen from this point, bul it's only the top of it after all ; hu_.li ! do you hear anything. Will ?" " Yes, father, and I know what it is, too." '' Indeed, what is it?"

" The swinging to and fro of the body on the gibbet ; the iron-hook at the top of the head has got rusty, and makes that creaking noise as it works in the ring on the cross-piece of the gibbet, you know ; I wondered what it was one night until Hugh Maggotts told me." " Sir John's under-keeper ?" " Yes, father." " Will, Will, that's a bad fellow, and I advise you to keep clear of him. He is no good, I assure you; you can take my word for more than that, Will ; he is a drunkard, and that is enough without any other vice, I should say, to make you shun him." "I aint often with him, father, but when one meets a fellow, one can't help being a little civii to him, you know, as he lets me ramble about the plantation, too, just where I like, and takes a deal of pains to teach me to shoot well, and makes me understand the lowest twitter of any of the forest birds, and his cottage is such a nice place."

" And his daughter, Lucy ?" « ye3 — he — be — oh, yes, he has got a daughter Lucy ; oh, yes — yes." Mathew Ablewhite shook his head, but he said nothing; and in five minutes more, they stood by the side of Dead Man's Hollow, and saw the gibbet, with its ghastly, hoirible burden, rising high in the night air, while ever and anon, as Will had said, the rusty irons creaked and groaned as the body was swayed to and fro in the night air. The preceding snow-storm, too, which had spared nothing, had succeeded in effecting a lodgment of particles of the drift upon many places about the irons of the gibbet and the body, so that it had a strange look with it, resembling a drawing, the extreme lights of which were tinted with white in order to make them show up in bolder relief from the rest of the dull and sombre picture.

" Ah," said Mathew Ablewhite, as he threw his gun into the hollow of his arm, " there lie is just as usual ; I don't see any change at all in him, and I don't know what induced me to come here now, Will ; for, after all, I could hardly expect that he was going to explain to me how it was that -somebody wanted to get in at my window." '' The voice said so," remarked Will. " It did — it did," added Mathew Ablewhite, in a lower tone—'' it did. Let us descend into the hollow, Will, and mind your footing, for the slopes are all ice." This was no needless caution, for the farmer himself slipped more than once as he descended ; and they both had to proceed with great caution to avoid a serious tumble ere they found themselves safe and sound at the bottom of the hollow, and about twenty paces from the foot _f the gibbet.

In their descent, however, they came down behind the swinging corpse of the murderer, but now, by the freak of a sudden gust of wind, the hideous long body, with its panoply of irons, swung slowly round and faced them, the iron hook screeching as it turned rustily upon the rings, and all the rings rattling with an ominous sound. The farmer involuntarily started back a pace or two and so did Will, foT however natural, upon reflection, such a thing as the body swinging round upon the gibbet might be, it was just one of those things which take a sudden effect upon the imagination before reason comes to our aid. It was, however, but lor a few brief moments that Mathew Ablewhite thus stood at bay ; and then turning to Will, he said, — " How strange the body swung round !" " Yes," said Will, whose younger imagination deemed more affected than his father's — " yes, it turned round as if it knew that we came here to see it, and was willing to show us that it was ready to answer any questions."

" Nonsense, nonsense, lad ; let's get to the other side now, and it's moving again !" It so happened that the moment Mathew Ablewhite walked a few paces to get round the gibbet, the body slowly swung round in the same direction, as if still intent upon facing them, let them turn in what direction they might ; and perhaps when Mathew Ablewhite paused, and, with a forced laugh, spoke, he did so from wish not to pursue an unlucky experiment too far. e™ ., _T f . c ■ . " It's mere accident, lad, of course," said the farmer — ''it's mere accident, and nothing else. You see the wind to-night has been doing nothing but blow in fitful gusts, here, there, and everywhere ; it's wayward, and don't know its own miud, Will, that's a fact ; and so, you see, it plays what games it likes in the Dead Man's Hollow."

The tone of affected pleasantry in which the farmer uttered these words was but ill put on, and Will could not help noticing that his father did not for a moment take his eyes off the dead man. " Well," said Will, " we are here and nobody speaks to us.'' " Speaks to us, lad ! How did you expect anybody was to speak to us here, I should like to know?" " Ha, ha, ha I" laughed some one close at hand ; " why not — why not, I should like to know? And why not, Mathew Ablewhite? and why not? Answer me that. Ha, ha, ha !" This was certainly rat'.;. . ..titling at the moment, and the farmer flung his gun forward, and laid his hand upon the trigger, but a moment's reflection stayed his arm, and he said, — " I know that voice. It's the old chicken-stealing, poaching, lying tramper, that calls herself the duchess."

" Yes, yes," said the voice, " good, good ! And you are the canting, thieving farmer Ablewhite, come out to rob the gibket, and sell the dead man's manacles for old iron ! Oh, oh 1 I know you — you and your hopeful son, too, who think the daughter of a thief and a poacher the fairest woman he ever will set eyes upon. Oh, oh ! I know you both ; but I'll inform against you for coining here to rob the gibbet, I will ; and you shall have my curse, too, for nothing." "Peace! hag that you are," cried the farmer; "no one cares for your idle croaking, but no man likes to hear an old wretch on the grave's brink, as you are, cursing and swearing, when you ought to be thinking of what account you can give of yourself to that Being who will soon demand one of you." " Indeed !" shrieked the hag, coming forward from behind one of the upright shafts of the gibbet — " indeed ! and that is your opinion, Mathew Ablewhite.

Ha, ha, ha ! You may not be able to help your opinion, but you shall bitterly, ay, most bitterly repent giving utterance to it." " You told me as much last year, and yet we have made a thriving farming season of it for all your predictions." " Don't speak to the old wretch, father," said Will ; " you tried what kindness would do for her when first we came to live in these parts, and you got nothing for your pains but curses." '" Oh, you think me an old wretch, do you ?'' " I know you are an old wretch, and an ungrateful one too. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, and go and repent of all the wickedness you have done in your long life, which I dare say is a good stack — I mean a good lot. Oh, you old disagreeable creature, I never heard you have a good word for anybody. In old times you would have been burnt for a witch, and a good riddance you would have been to the whole parish !"

Rage seemed almost to deprive the old hag of the power of utterance as Will thus freely told her his opinion of her, and both he and his father could see that she shook again with anger. After a few moments she did contrive to speak, and in a hoarse voice she poured down every description of malediction on the head of the boy. " Curse you," she cried, " sleeping and waking ! Curse you in all seasons and in all weathers ! and whatever you turn your hand to, may it become a blight and a desolation !" " For shame, for shame !" said Mathew Ablewhite to her. " Oh, never mind her, father," said Will ; " all her curses, like our young chickens, will go home to roost. She's only making herself ill, poor old animal, and it serves her right." The old woman advanced towards the boy with something she had in her hand, but what it was, Mathew Ablewhite could not see.

He, however, stepped between them, and presented the butt-end of his gun towards her, saying, — " Keep off, keep off ; you may be as abusive as you like, for that can do no harm to anybody but yourself, but we decline any closer quarters, if vou please. Keep off, I say, or you will get hurt, and that will be your own fault." " He shall have it, though." said the hag ; and she flung what she had in her hand at Will, and then she seemed so overpowered with joy that it touched him, which it did slightly on the shoulder, that she clapped her hands and burst into such a shout of discordant laughter that it must have been heard for a considerable distance off. .. , "Good, good!" she said, " that's good! Now he has got it— the curse of the dead hand. Ha, ha, ha! Nothing will prosper with him now.