“For the love of God,” said Mr. Brownlow solemnly,“do not say that now, upon the very verge of death;but tell me where they are.You know that Sikes is dead; that Monks has confessed;that there is no hope of any further gain.Where are those papers?”
“Oliver,” cried Fagin, beckoning to him. “Here, here!Let me whisper to you.”
“I am not afraid,” said Oliver in a low voice,as he relinquished Mr. Brownlow’s hand.
“The papers,” said Fagin, drawing Oliver towards him,“are in a canvas bag,in a hole a little way up the chimney in the top front-room.I want to talk to you, my dear. I want to talk to you.”
“Yes, yes,” returned Oliver. “Let me say a prayer. Do!Let me say one prayer. Say only one, upon your knees,with me, and we will talk till morning.”
“Outside, outside,” replied Fagin,pushing the boy before him towards the door,and looking vacantly over his head.“Say I’ve gone to sleep—they’ll believe you.You can get me out, if you take me so. Now then, now then!”
“Oh!God forgive this wretched man!” cried the boy with a burst of tears.
“That’s right, that’s right,” said Fagin.“That’ll help us on. This door first.If I shake and tremble, as we pass the gallows,don’t you mind, but hurry on. Now, now, now!”
“Have you nothing else to ask him, sir?” inquired the turnkey.
“No other question,” replied Mr. Brownlow.“If I hoped we could recall him to a sense of his position—”
“Nothing will do that, sir,” replied the man,shaking his head. “You had better leave him.”
The door of the cell opened,and the attendants returned.
“Press on, press on,” cried Fagin. “Softly,but not so slow. Faster, faster!”
The men laid hands upon him,and disengaging Oliver from his grasp, held him back.He struggled with the power of desperation,for an instant; and then sent up cry upon cry that penetrated even those massive walls, and rang in their ears until they reached the open yard.
It was some time before they left the prison.Oliver nearly swooned after this frightful scene,and was so weak that for an hour or more,he had not the strength to walk.
Day was dawning when they again emerged.A great multitude had already assembled;the windows were filled with people,smoking and playing cards to beguile the time;the crowd were pushing, quarrelling, joking.Everything told of life and animation,but one dark cluster of objects in the centre of all—the black stage,the cross-beam, the rope,and all the hideous apparatus of death.
CHAPTER LIII. AND LAST
The fortunes of those who have figured in this tale are nearly closed.The little that remains to their historian to relate,is told in few and simple words.
Before three months had passed,Rose Fleming and Harry Maylie were married in the village church which was henceforth to be the scene of the young clergyman’s labours; on the same day they entered into possession of their new and happy home.
Mrs. Maylie took up her abode with her son and daughter-in-law,to enjoy, during the tranquil remainder of her days,the greatest felicity that age and worth can know—the contemplation of the happiness of those on whom the warmest affections and tenderest cares of a well-spent life, have been unceasingly bestowed.
It appeared, on full and careful investigation,that if the wreck of property remaining in the custody of Monks (which had never prospered either in his hands or in those of his mother) were equally divided between himself and Oliver, it would yield, to each, little more than three thousand pounds. By the provisions of his father’s will, Oliver would have been entitled to the whole; but Mr. Brownlow, unwilling to deprive the elder son of the opportunity of retrieving his former vices and pursuing an honest career, proposed this mode of distribution, to which his young charge joyfully acceded.
Monks, still bearing that assumed name,retired with his portion to a distant part of the New World;where, having quickly squandered it,he once more fell into his old courses, and,after undergoing a long confinement for some fresh act of fraud and knavery,at length sunk under an attack of his old disorder,and died in prison. As far from home,died the chief remaining members of his friend Fagin’s gang.
Mr. Brownlow adopted Oliver as his son.Removing with him and the old housekeeper to within a mile of the parsonage-house, where his dear friends resided, he gratified the only remaining wish of Oliver’s warm and earnest heart, and thus linked together a little society, whose condition approached as nearly to one of perfect happiness as can ever be known in this changing world.
Soon after the marriage of the young people,the worthy doctor returned to Chertsey, where,bereft of the presence of his old friends,he would have been discontented if his temperament had admitted of such a feeling; and would have turned quite peevish if he had known how. For two or three months, he contented himself with hinting that he feared the air began to disagree with him; then, finding that the place really no longer was, to him, what it had been, he settled his business on his assistant, took a bachelor’s cottage outside the village of which his young friend was pastor, and instantaneously recovered. Here he took to gardening, planting, fishing, carpentering, and various other pursuits of a similar kind: all undertaken with his characteristic impetuosity. In each and all he has since become famous throughout the neighborhood, as a most profound authority.
Before his removal, he had managed to contract a strong friendship for Mr.Grimwig, which that eccentric gentleman cordially reciprocated.He is accordingly visited by Mr.Grimwig a great many times in the course of the year.On all such occasions, Mr. Grimwig plants, fishes,and carpenters, with great ardour;doing everything in a very singular and unprecedented manner,but always maintaining with his favourite asseveration,that his mode is the right one. On Sundays,he never fails to criticise the sermon to the young clergyman’s face:always informing Mr. Losberne,in strict confidence afterwards,that he considers it an excellent performance,but deems it as well not to say so.It is a standing and very favourite joke, for Mr.Brownlow to rally him on his old prophecy concerning Oliver,and to remind him of the night on which they sat with the watch between them,waiting his return; but Mr.Grimwig contends that he was right in the main, and,in proof thereof, remarks that Oliver did not come back after all;which always calls forth a laugh on his side,and increases his good humour.
Mr. Noah Claypole: receiving a free pardon from the Crown in consequence of being admitted approver against Fagin: and considering his profession not altogether as safe a one as he could wish: was, for some little time, at a loss for the means of a livelihood, not burdened with too much work. After some consideration, he went into business as an informer, in which calling he realises a genteel subsistence. His plan is, to walk out once a week during church time attended by Charlotte in respectable attire. The lady faints away at the doors of charitable publicans, and the gentleman being accommodated with three-penny worth of brandy to restore her, lays an information next day, and pockets half the penalty. Sometimes Mr. Claypole faints himself, but the result is the same.
Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, deprived of their situations,were gradually reduced to great indigence and misery,and finally became paupers in that very same workhouse in which they had once lorded it over others. Mr. Bumble has been heard to say, that in this reverse and degradation, he has not even spirits to be thankful for being separated from his wife.