"After you were gone last night, I told my friend of the strugglethat the soldiers found you engaged in on the marshes, when we cameup. You remember?"

"Remember!" said he. "I think so!"

"We want to know something about that man - and about you. It isstrange to know no more about either, and particularly you, than Iwas able to tell last night. Is not this as good a time as anotherfor our knowing more?"

"Well!" he said, after consideration. "You're on your oath, youknow, Pip's comrade?"

"Assuredly," replied Herbert.

"As to anything I say, you know," he insisted. "The oath applies toall."

"I understand it to do so."

"And look'ee here! Wotever I done, is worked out and paid for," heinsisted again.

"So be it."

He took out his black pipe and was going to fill it with negrohead,when, looking at the tangle of tobacco in his hand, he seemed tothink it might perplex the thread of his narrative. He put it backagain, stuck his pipe in a button-hole of his coat, spread a handon each knee, and, after turning an angry eye on the fire for a fewsilent moments, looked round at us and said what follows.

Chapter 42

"Dear boy and Pip's comrade. I am not a-going fur to tell you mylife, like a song or a story-book. But to give it you short andhandy, I'll put it at once into a mouthful of English. In jail andout of jail, in jail and out of jail, in jail and out of jail.There, you got it. That's my life pretty much, down to such timesas I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my friend.

"I've been done everything to, pretty well - except hanged. I'vebeen locked up, as much as a silver tea-kettle. I've been cartedhere and carted there, and put out of this town and put out of thattown, and stuck in the stocks, and whipped and worried and drove.I've no more notion where I was born, than you have - if so much. Ifirst become aware of myself, down in Essex, a thieving turnips formy living. Summun had run away from me - a man - a tinker - andhe'd took the fire with him, and left me wery cold.

"I know'd my name to be Magwitch, chrisen'd Abel. How did I knowit? Much as I know'd the birds' names in the hedges to bechaffinch, sparrer, thrush. I might have thought it was all liestogether, only as the birds' names come out true, I supposed minedid.

"So fur as I could find, there warn't a soul that see young AbelMagwitch, with us little on him as in him, but wot caught fright athim, and either drove him off, or took him up. I was took up, tookup, took up, to that extent that I reg'larly grow'd up took up.

"This is the way it was, that when I was a ragged little creetur asmuch to be pitied as ever I see (not that I looked in the glass,for there warn't many insides of furnished houses known to me), Igot the name of being hardened. "This is a terrible hardened one,"they says to prison wisitors, picking out me. "May be said to livein jails, this boy. "Then they looked at me, and I looked at them,and they measured my head, some on 'em - they had better a-measuredmy stomach - and others on 'em giv me tracts what I couldn't read,and made me speeches what I couldn't understand. They always wenton agen me about the Devil. But what the Devil was I to do? I mustput something into my stomach, mustn't I? - Howsomever, I'm agetting low, and I know what's due. Dear boy and Pip's comrade,don't you be afeerd of me being low.

"Tramping, begging, thieving, working sometimes when I could -though that warn't as often as you may think, till you put thequestion whether you would ha' been over-ready to give me workyourselves - a bit of a poacher, a bit of a labourer, a bit of awaggoner, a bit of a haymaker, a bit of a hawker, a bit of mostthings that don't pay and lead to trouble, I got to be a man. Adeserting soldier in a Traveller's Rest, what lay hid up to thechin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read; and a travellingGiant what signed his name at a penny a time learnt me to write. Iwarn't locked up as often now as formerly, but I wore out my goodshare of keymetal still.

"At Epsom races, a matter of over twenty years ago, I gotacquainted wi' a man whose skull I'd crack wi' this poker, like theclaw of a lobster, if I'd got it on this hob. His right name wasCompeyson; and that's the man, dear boy, what you see me a-poundingin the ditch, according to what you truly told your comrade arter Iwas gone last night.

"He set up fur a gentleman, this Compeyson, and he'd been to apublic boarding-school and had learning. He was a smooth one totalk, and was a dab at the ways of gentlefolks. He was good-looking too. It was the night afore the great race, when Ifound him on the heath, in a booth that I know'd on. Him and somemore was a sitting among the tables when I went in, and thelandlord (which had a knowledge of me, and was a sporting one)called him out, and said, 'I think this is a man that might suityou' - meaning I was.

"Compeyson, he looks at me very noticing, and I look at him. He hasa watch and a chain and a ring and a breast-pin and a handsome suitof clothes.

"'To judge from appearances, you're out of luck,' says Compeyson tome.

"'Yes, master, and I've never been in it much.' (I had come out ofKingston Jail last on a vagrancy committal. Not but what it mighthave been for something else; but it warn't.)

"'Luck changes,' says Compeyson; 'perhaps yours is going to change.'

"I says, 'I hope it may be so. There's room.'

"'What can you do?' says Compeyson.

"'Eat and drink,' I says; 'if you'll find the materials.'

"Compeyson laughed, looked at me again very noticing, giv me fiveshillings, and appointed me for next night. Same place.

"I went to Compeyson next night, same place, and Compeyson took meon to be his man and pardner. And what was Compeyson's business inwhich we was to go pardners? Compeyson's business was theswindling, handwriting forging, stolen bank-note passing, andsuch-like. All sorts of traps as Compeyson could set with his head,and keep his own legs out of and get the profits from and letanother man in for, was Compeyson's business. He'd no more heartthan a iron file, he was as cold as death, and he had the head ofthe Devil afore mentioned.

"There was another in with Compeyson, as was called Arthur - not asbeing so chrisen'd, but as a surname. He was in a Decline, and wasa shadow to look at. Him and Compeyson had been in a bad thing witha rich lady some years afore, and they'd made a pot of money by it;but Compeyson betted and gamed, and he'd have run through theking's taxes. So, Arthur was a-dying, and a-dying poor and with thehorrors on him, and Compeyson's wife (which Compeyson kickedmostly) was a-having pity on him when she could, and Compeyson wasa-having pity on nothing and nobody.

"I might a-took warning by Arthur, but I didn't; and I won'tpretend I was partick'ler - for where 'ud be the good on it, dearboy and comrade? So I begun wi' Compeyson, and a poor tool I was inhis hands. Arthur lived at the top of Compeyson's house (over nighBrentford it was), and Compeyson kept a careful account agen himfor board and lodging, in case he should ever get better to work itout. But Arthur soon settled the account. The second or third timeas ever I see him, he come a-tearing down into Compeyson's parlourlate at night, in only a flannel gown, with his hair all in asweat, and he says to Compeyson's wife, 'Sally, she really isupstairs alonger me, now, and I can't get rid of her. She's all inwhite,' he says, 'wi' white flowers in her hair, and she's awfulmad, and she's got a shroud hanging over her arm, and she saysshe'll put it on me at five in the morning.'

"Says Compeyson: 'Why, you fool, don't you know she's got a livingbody? And how should she be up there, without coming through thedoor, or in at the window, and up the stairs?'

"'I don't know how she's there,' says Arthur, shivering dreadfulwith the horrors, 'but she's standing in the corner at the foot ofthe bed, awful mad. And over where her heart's brook - you brokeit! - there's drops of blood.'

"Compeyson spoke hardy, but he was always a coward. 'Go up alongerthis drivelling sick man,' he says to his wife, 'and Magwitch, lendher a hand, will you?' But he never come nigh himself.

"Compeyson's wife and me took him up to bed agen, and he raved mostdreadful. 'Why look at her!' he cries out. 'She's a-shaking theshroud at me! Don't you see her? Look at her eyes! Ain't it awful tosee her so mad?' Next, he cries, 'She'll put it on me, and then I'mdone for! Take it away from her, take it away!' And then he catchedhold of us, and kep on a-talking to her, and answering of her, tillI half believed I see her myself.

"Compeyson's wife, being used to him, giv him some liquor to getthe horrors off, and by-and-by he quieted. 'Oh, she's gone! Has herkeeper been for her?' he says. 'Yes,' says Compeyson's wife. 'Didyou tell him to lock her and bar her in?' 'Yes.' 'And to take thatugly thing away from her?' 'Yes, yes, all right.' 'You're a goodcreetur,' he says, 'don't leave me, whatever you do, and thankyou!'

"He rested pretty quiet till it might want a few minutes of five,and then he starts up with a scream, and screams out, 'Here sheis! She's got the shroud again. She's unfolding it. She's coming outof the corner. She's coming to the bed. Hold me, both on you - oneof each side - don't let her touch me with it. Hah! she missed methat time. Don't let her throw it over my shoulders. Don't let herlift me up to get it round me. She's lifting me up. Keep me down!'Then he lifted himself up hard, and was dead.

"Compeyson took it easy as a good riddance for both sides. Him andme was soon busy, and first he swore me (being ever artful) on myown book - this here little black book, dear boy, what I swore yourcomrade on.

"Not to go into the things that Compeyson planned, and I done -which 'ud take a week - I'll simply say to you, dear boy, and Pip'scomrade, that that man got me into such nets as made me his blackslave. I was always in debt to him, always under his thumb, alwaysa-working, always a-getting into danger. He was younger than me,but he'd got craft, and he'd got learning, and he overmatched mefive hundred times told and no mercy. My Missis as I had the hardtime wi' - Stop though! I ain't brought her in--"

He looked about him in a confused way, as if he had lost his placein the book of his remembrance; and he turned his face to the fire,and spread his hands broader on his knees, and lifted them off andput them on again.

"There ain't no need to go into it," he said, looking round oncemore. "The time wi' Compeyson was a'most as hard a time as ever Ihad; that said, all's said. Did I tell you as I was tried, alone,for misdemeanour, while with Compeyson?"

I answered, No.

"Well!" he said, "I was, and got convicted. As to took up onsuspicion, that was twice or three times in the four or five yearthat it lasted; but evidence was wanting. At last, me and Compeysonwas both committed for felony - on a charge of putting stolen notesin circulation - and there was other charges behind. Compeyson saysto me, 'Separate defences, no communication,' and that was all. AndI was so miserable poor, that I sold all the clothes I had, exceptwhat hung on my back, afore I could get Jaggers.

"When we was put in the dock, I noticed first of all what agentleman Compeyson looked, wi' his curly hair and his blackclothes and his white pocket-handkercher, and what a common sort ofa wretch I looked. When the prosecution opened and the evidence wasput short, aforehand, I noticed how heavy it all bore on me, andhow light on him. When the evidence was giv in the box, I noticedhow it was always me that had come for'ard, and could be swore to,how it was always me that the money had been paid to, how it wasalways me that had seemed to work the thing and get the profit.But, when the defence come on, then I see the plan plainer; for,says the counsellor for Compeyson, 'My lord and gentlemen, here youhas afore you, side by side, two persons as your eyes can separatewide; one, the younger, well brought up, who will be spoke to assuch; one, the elder, ill brought up, who will be spoke to as such;one, the younger, seldom if ever seen in these here transactions,and only suspected; t'other, the elder, always seen in 'em andalways wi'his guilt brought home. Can you doubt, if there is butone in it, which is the one, and, if there is two in it, which ismuch the worst one?' And such-like. And when it come to character,warn't it Compeyson as had been to the school, and warn't it hisschoolfellows as was in this position and in that, and warn't ithim as had been know'd by witnesses in such clubs and societies,and nowt to his disadvantage? And warn't it me as had been triedafore, and as had been know'd up hill and down dale in Bridewellsand Lock-Ups? And when it come to speech-making, warn't itCompeyson as could speak to 'em wi' his face dropping every now andthen into his white pocket-handkercher - ah! and wi' verses in hisspeech, too - and warn't it me as could only say, 'Gentlemen, thisman at my side is a most precious rascal'? And when the verdictcome, warn't it Compeyson as was recommended to mercy on account ofgood character and bad company, and giving up all the informationhe could agen me, and warn't it me as got never a word but Guilty?And when I says to Compeyson, 'Once out of this court, I'll smashthat face of yourn!' ain't it Compeyson as prays the Judge to beprotected, and gets two turnkeys stood betwixt us? And when we'resentenced, ain't it him as gets seven year, and me fourteen, andain't it him as the Judge is sorry for, because he might a done sowell, and ain't it me as the Judge perceives to be a old offenderof wiolent passion, likely to come to worse?"

Title: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens
Viewed 221114 times

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