"Gentlemen, I hope I do no injustice to my uncle's memory, when I express my opinion, that although he was a bachelor, he had held some ladies in his arms, before this time; I believe indeed, that he had rather a habit of kissing barmaids: and I know, that in one or two instances, he had been seen by credible witnesses, to hug a landlady in a very perceptible manner.
I mention the circumstance, to show what a very uncommon sort of person this beautiful young lady must have been, to have affected my uncle in the way she did; he used to say, that as her long dark hair trailed over his arm, and her beautiful dark eyes fixed themselves upon his face when she recovered, he felt so strange and nervous that his legs trembled beneath him.But, who can look in a sweet soft pair of dark eyes, without feeling queer? I can't, gentlemen.I am afraid to look at some eyes I know, and that's the truth of it.
"`You will never leave me,' murmured the young lady.
"`Never,' said my uncle.And he meant it too.
"`My dear preserver!' exclaimed the young lady.`My dear, kind, brave preserver!'
"`Don't,' said my uncle, interrupting her.
"`Why?' inquired the young lady.
"`Because your mouth looks so beautiful when you speak,' rejoined my uncle, `that I'm afraid I shall be rude enough to kiss it.'
"The young lady put up her hand as if to caution my uncle not to do so, and said--no, she didn't say anything--she smiled.When you are looking at a pair of the most delicious lips in the world, and see them gently break into a roguish smile--if you are very near them, and nobody else by--you cannot better testify your admiration of their beautiful form and colour than by kissing them at once.My uncle did so, and I honour him for it.
"`Hark!' cried the young lady, starting.`The noise of wheels and horses!'
"`So it is,' said my uncle, listening.He had a good ear for wheels, and the trampling of hoofs; but there appeared to be so many horses and carriages rattling towards them, from a distance, that it was impossible to form a guess at their number.The sound was like that of fifty breaks, with six blood cattle in each.
"`We are pursued!' cried the young lady, clasping her hands.`We are pursued.I have no hope but in you!'
"There was such an expression of terror in her beautiful face, that my uncle made up his mind at once.He lifted her into the coach, told her not to be frightened, pressed his lips to hers once more, and then advising her to draw up the window to keep the cold air out, mounted to the box.
"`Stay, love,' cried the young lady.
"`What's the matter?' said my uncle, from the coach-box.
"`I want to speak to you," said the young lady; `only a word.Only one word, dearest.'
"`Must I get down?' inquired my uncle.The lady made no answer, but she smiled again.Such a smile, gentlemen! It beat the other one, all to nothing.My uncle descended from his perch in a twinkling.
"`What is it, my dear?' said my uncle, looking in at the coach-window.
The lady happened to bend forward at the same time, and my uncle thought she looked more beautiful than she had done yet.He was very close to her just then, gentlemen, so he really ought to know.
"`What is it, my dear?' said my uncle.
"`Will you never love any one but me; never marry any one beside?' said the young lady.
"My uncle swore a great oath that he never would marry anybody else, and the young lady drew in her head, and pulled up the window.He jumped upon the box, squared his elbows, adjusted the ribands, seized the whip which lay on the roof, gave one flick to the off leader, and away went the four long-tailed flowing-maned black horses, at fifteen good English miles an hour, with the old mail coach behind them.Whew! How they tore along!
"The noise behind grew louder.The faster the old mail went, the faster came the pursuers--men, horses, dogs, were leagued in the pursuit.The noise was frightful, but, above all, rose the voice of the young lady, urging my uncle on, and shrieking, `Faster! Faster!'
They whirled past the dark trees, as feathers would be swept before a hurricane.Houses, gates, churches, hay-stacks, objects of every kind they shot by, with a velocity and noise like roaring waters suddenly let loose.Still the noise of pursuit grew louder, and still my uncle could hear the young lady wildly screaming, `Faster! Faster!'
"My uncle plied whip and rein, and the horses flew onward till they were white with foam; and yet the noise behind increased; and yet the young lady cried `Faster! Faster!' My uncle gave a loud stamp on the boot in the energy of the moment, and--found that it was grey morning, and he was sitting in the wheelwright's yard, on the box of an old Edinburgh mail, shivering with the cold and wet and stamping his feet to warm them! He got down, and looked eagerly inside for the beautiful young lady.Alas!
There was neither door nor seat to the coach.It was a mere shell.
"Of course my uncle knew very well that there was some mystery in the matter, and that everything had passed exactly as he used to relate it.
He remained staunch to the great oath he had sworn to the beautiful young lady: refusing several eligible landladies on her account, and dying a bachelor at last.He always said, what a curious thing it was that he should have found out, by such a mere accident as his clambering over the palings, that the ghosts of mail coaches and horses, guards, coachmen, and passengers, were in the habit of making journeys regularly every night.He used to add, that he believed he was the only living person who had ever been taken as a passenger on one of these excursions.And I think he was right, gentlemen--at least I never heard of any other.""I wonder what these ghosts of mail coaches carry in their bags," said the landlord, who had listened to the whole story with profound attention.
"The dead letters, of course," said the Bagman.
"Oh, ah! To be sure," rejoined the landlord."I never thought of that."[Next Chapter] [Table of Contents]The Pickwick Papers: Chapter 50[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents]