Silas Marner | Page 7

of the younger brethren or sisters. Silas frequently
took his turn in the night-watching with William, the one relieving the

other at two in the morning. The old man, contrary to expectation,
seemed to be on the way to recovery, when one night Silas, sitting up
by his bedside, observed that his usual audible breathing had ceased.
The candle was burning low, and he had to lift it to see the patient's
face distinctly. Examination convinced him that the deacon was
dead--had been dead some time, for the limbs were rigid. Silas asked
himself if he had been asleep, and looked at the clock: it was already
four in the morning. How was it that William had not come? In much
anxiety he went to seek for help, and soon there were several friends
assembled in the house, the minister among them, while Silas went
away to his work, wishing he could have met William to know the
reason of his non-appearance. But at six o'clock, as he was thinking of
going to seek his friend, William came, and with him the minister.
They came to summon him to Lantern Yard, to meet the church
members there; and to his inquiry concerning the cause of the summons
the only reply was, "You will hear." Nothing further was said until
Silas was seated in the vestry, in front of the minister, with the eyes of
those who to him represented God's people fixed solemnly upon him.
Then the minister, taking out a pocket-knife, showed it to Silas, and
asked him if he knew where he had left that knife? Silas said, he did not
know that he had left it anywhere out of his own pocket-- but he was
trembling at this strange interrogation. He was then exhorted not to
hide his sin, but to confess and repent. The knife had been found in the
bureau by the departed deacon's bedside-- found in the place where the
little bag of church money had lain, which the minister himself had
seen the day before. Some hand had removed that bag; and whose hand
could it be, if not that of the man to whom the knife belonged? For
some time Silas was mute with astonishment: then he said, "God will
clear me: I know nothing about the knife being there, or the money
being gone. Search me and my dwelling; you will find nothing but
three pound five of my own savings, which William Dane knows I
have had these six months." At this William groaned, but the minister
said, "The proof is heavy against you, brother Marner. The money was
taken in the night last past, and no man was with our departed brother
but you, for William Dane declares to us that he was hindered by
sudden sickness from going to take his place as usual, and you yourself
said that he had not come; and, moreover, you neglected the dead

body."
"I must have slept," said Silas. Then, after a pause, he added, "Or I
must have had another visitation like that which you have all seen me
under, so that the thief must have come and gone while I was not in the
body, but out of the body. But, I say again, search me and my dwelling,
for I have been nowhere else."
The search was made, and it ended--in William Dane's finding the
well-known bag, empty, tucked behind the chest of drawers in Silas's
chamber! On this William exhorted his friend to confess, and not to
hide his sin any longer. Silas turned a look of keen reproach on him,
and said, "William, for nine years that we have gone in and out together,
have you ever known me tell a lie? But God will clear me."
"Brother," said William, "how do I know what you may have done in
the secret chambers of your heart, to give Satan an advantage over
you?"
Silas was still looking at his friend. Suddenly a deep flush came over
his face, and he was about to speak impetuously, when he seemed
checked again by some inward shock, that sent the flush back and made
him tremble. But at last he spoke feebly, looking at William.
"I remember now--the knife wasn't in my pocket."
William said, "I know nothing of what you mean." The other persons
present, however, began to inquire where Silas meant to say that the
knife was, but he would give no further explanation: he only said, "I am
sore stricken; I can say nothing. God will clear me."
On their return to the vestry there was further deliberation. Any resort
to legal measures for ascertaining the culprit was contrary to the
principles of the church in Lantern Yard, according to which
prosecution was forbidden to Christians, even had