'I heard this afternoon that he was at the point of death.It was that which set me thinking of that past time--and induced me to search on the hill for what I have told you.Coming back I heard that he wished to see the Vicar to confess to him a secret he had kept for more than twenty years--"out of respect to my Lord the Duke"--something that he had seen committed on Marlbury Downs when returning to the flock on a December night twenty-two years ago.Ihave thought it over.He had left me in charge that evening;but he was in the habit of coming back suddenly,lest I should have fallen asleep.That night I saw nothing of him,though he had promised to return.He must have returned,and--found reason to keep in hiding.
It is all plain.The next thing is that the Vicar went to him two hours ago.Further than that I have not heard.'
'It is quite enough.I will see the Vicar at daybreak to-morrow.'
'What to do?'
'Stop his tongue for four-and-twenty years--till I am dead at ninety-four,like the shepherd.'
'Your Grace--while you impose silence on me,I will not speak,even though nay neck should pay the penalty.I promised to be yours,and I am yours.But is this persistence of any avail?'
'I'll stop his tongue,I say!'cried the Duke with some of his old rugged force.'Now,you go home to bed,Mills,and leave me to manage him.'The interview ended,and the steward withdrew.The night,as he had said,was just such an one as the night of twenty-two years before,and the events of the evening destroyed in him all regard for the season as one of cheerfulness and goodwill.He went off to his own house on the further verge of the park,where he led a lonely life,scarcely calling any man friend.At eleven he prepared to retire to bed--but did not retire.He sat down and reflected.Twelve o'clock struck;he looked out at the colourless moon,and,prompted by he knew not what,put on his hat and emerged into the air.Here William Mills strolled on and on,till he reached the top of Marlbury Downs,a spot he had not visited at this hour of the night during the whole score-and-odd years.
He placed himself,as nearly as he could guess,on the spot where the shepherd's hut had stood.No lambing was in progress there now,and the old shepherd who had used him so roughly had ceased from his labours that very day.But the trilithon stood up white as ever;and,crossing the intervening sward,the steward fancifully placed his mouth against the stone.Restless and self-reproachful as he was,he could not resist a smile as he thought of the terrifying oath of compact,sealed by a kiss upon the stones of a Pagan temple.But he had kept his word,rather as a promise than as a formal vow,with much worldly advantage to himself,though not much happiness;till increase of years had bred reactionary feelings which led him to receive the news of to-night with emotions akin to relief.
While leaning against the Devil's Door and thinking on these things,he became conscious that he was not the only inhabitant of the down.
A figure in white was moving across his front with long,noiseless strides.Mills stood motionless,and when the form drew quite near he perceived it to be that of the Duke himself in his nightshirt--apparently walking in his sleep.Not to alarm the old man,Mills clung close to the shadow of the stone.The Duke went straight on into the hollow.There he knelt down,and began scratching the earth with his hands like a badger.After a few minutes he arose,sighed heavily,and retraced his steps as he had come.
Fearing that he might harm himself,yet unwilling to arouse him,the steward followed noiselessly.The Duke kept on his path unerringly,entered the park,and made for the house,where he let himself in by a window that stood open--the one probably by which he had come out.
Mills softly closed the window behind his patron,and then retired homeward to await the revelations of the morning,deeming it unnecessary to alarm the house.
However,he felt uneasy during the remainder of the night,no less on account of the Duke's personal condition than because of that which was imminent next day.Early in the morning he called at Shakeforest Towers.The blinds were down,and there was something singular upon the porter's face when he opened the door.The steward inquired for the Duke.
The man's voice was subdued as he replied:'Sir,I am sorry to say that his Grace is dead!He left his room some time in the night,and wandered about nobody knows where.On returning to the upper floor he lost his balance and fell downstairs.'The steward told the tale of the Down before the Vicar had spoken.
Mills had always intended to do so after the death of the Duke.The consequences to himself he underwent cheerfully;but his life was not prolonged.He died,a farmer at the Cape,when still somewhat under forty-nine years of age.
The splendid Marlbury breeding flock is as renowned as ever,and,to the eye,seems the same in every particular that it was in earlier times;but the animals which composed it on the occasion of the events gathered from the Justice are divided by many ovine generations from its members now.Lambing Corner has long since ceased to be used for lambing purposes,though the name still lingers on as the appellation of the spot.This abandonment of site may be partly owing to the removal of the high furze bushes which lent such convenient shelter at that date.Partly,too,it may be due to another circumstance.For it is said by present shepherds in that district that during the nights of Christmas week flitting shapes are seen in the open space around the trilithon,together with the gleam of a weapon,and the shadow of a man dragging a burden into the hollow.But of these things there is no certain testimony.
Christmas 1881.