Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/103

61 THE PICKWICK CLUB. HI

crowded round him, clapping their tiny hands, and dragging him out, to join their joyous sports. The convict thought on the many times he had shrunk from his father's sight in that very place. He remembered how often he had buried his trembling head beneath the bed-clothes, and heard the harsh word, and the hard stripe, and his mother's wailing; and though the man sobbed aloud with agony of mind as he left the spot, his fist was clenched, and his teeth were set, in fierce and deadly passion. " And such was the return to which he had looked through the weary perspective of many years, and for which he had undergone so much suffering I No face of welcome, no look of forgiveness, no house to receive, no hand to help him — and this too in the old village. What was his loneliness in the wild thick woods where man was never seen, to this!

thought of his native place as it was when he left it ; — not as it would be, when he returned. The sad reality struck coldly at his heart, and his spirit sank within him. He had not courage to make inquiries, or to present himself to the only person who was likely to receive him with kindness and compassion. He walked slowly on ; and shunning the road-side like a guilty man, turned into a meadow he well remem- bered ; and covering his face with his hands, threw himself upon the grass. " He had not observed that a man was lying on the bank beside im ; his garments rustled as he turned round to steal a look at the •lew comer: and Edmunds raised his head.
 * ' He felt that in the distant land of his bondage and infamy, he had

" The man had moved into a sitting posture. His body was much bent, and his face was wrinkled and yellow. His dress denoted him an inmate of the workhouse : he had the appearance of being very old, but it looked more the effect of dissipation or disease, than length of years. He was staring hard at the stranger, and though his eyes were lustreless and heavy at first, they appeared to glow with an unnatural and alarmed expression after they had been fixed upon him for a short time, until they seemed to be starting from their sockets. Edmunds gradually raised himself to his kneiis, and looked more and more earnestly upon the old man's face. They gazed upon each other in silence.

feet. Edmunds sprang to his. He stepped back a pace or two. Ed- munds advanced.
 * ' The old man was ghastly pale. He shuddered and tottered to his

" * Let me hear you speak,' said the convict in a thick broken voice. drew closer to him.
 * • * Stand off,' cried the old man, with a dreadful oath. The convict

his stick, and struck Edmunds a heavy blow across the face.
 * ' ' Stand off,' shrieked the old man. Furious with terror he raised

" * Father — devil,' murmured the convict, between his set teeth. He rushed wildly foward, and clenched the old man by the throat — but he was his father ; and his arm fell powerless by his side.

'* The old man uttered a loud yell which rang through the lonely fields like the howl of an evil spirit. His face turned black : the gore rushed from his mouth and nose, and dyed the grass a deep dark red, as he staggered and fell. He had ruptured a blood vessel : and he was a