Night had come on, and Aveline was anxiously expecting the arrival of
her lover, when a loud knocking was heard at the door of the cottage;
and before the summons could be answered by Anthony Rocke, two persons
entered, and pushing past the old serving-man, who demanded their
business, and vainly endeavoured to oppose their progress, forced their
way into the presence of his mistress. Dame Sherborne was in an inner
room, but, alarmed by the noise, she flew to the aid of her charge, and
reached her at the same moment with the intruders. Her lamp threw its
light full upon their countenances; and when she found who they were,
she screamed and nearly let it fall, appearing to stand much more in
need of support than Aveline herself.
The foremost of the two was Sir Giles Mompesson, and his usually stern
and sinister features had acquired a yet more inauspicious cast, from
the deathlike paleness that bespread them, as well as from the fillet
bound round his injured brow. The other was an antiquated coxcomb, aping
the airs and graces of a youthful gallant, attired in silks and velvets
fashioned in the newest French mode, and exhaling a mingled perfume of
civet, musk, and ambergris; and in him Aveline recognised the amorous
old dotard, who had stared at her so offensively during the visit she
had been forced to make to the extortioner.
Sir Francis's deportment was not a whit less impertinent or
objectionable now than heretofore. After making a profound salutation to
Aveline, which he thought was executed in the most courtly style, and
with consummate grace, he observed in a loud whisper to his partner,
"'Fore heaven! a matchless creature! a divinity! Introduce me in due
form, Sir Giles."
"Suffer me to make known to you Sir Francis Mitchell, fair mistress,"
said Mompesson. "He is so ravished by your charms that he can neither
eat, drink, nor sleep; and he professes to me, his friend and partner,
that he must die outright, unless you take pity on him. Is it not so,
Sir Francis? Nay, plead your own cause, man. You will do it better than
I, who am little accustomed to tune my voice to the ear of beauty."
During this speech, the old usurer conducted himself in a manner that,
under other circumstances, must have moved Aveline's mirth; but it now
only excited her disgust and indignation. Sighing, groaning placing his
hand upon his heart, languishingly regarding her, and turning up his
eyes till the whites alone were visible, he ended by throwing himself at
her feet, seizing her hand, and attempting to cover it with kisses.
"Deign to listen to me, peerless and adorable damsel!" he cried in the
most impassioned accents he could command, though he wheezed terribly
all the while, and was ever and anon interrupted by a fit of coughing.
"Incline your ear to me, I beseech you. Sir Giles has in no respect
exaggerated my sad condition. Ever since I beheld you I have been able
to do nothing else than--ough! ough!--dwell upon your surpassing
attractions. Day and night your lovely image has been constantly before
me. You have driven sleep from my eyelids, and rest from my--(ough!
ough!)--frame. Your lustrous eyes have lighted up such a fire in my
breast as can never be extinguished, unless--(ough! ough! ough!)--plague
take this cough! I owe it to you, fair mistress of my heart, as well as
my other torments. But as I was about to say, the raging flame you have
kindled in my breast will utterly consume me, unless--(ough! ough!
ough!)"
Here he was well-nigh choked, and Sir Giles had to come to his
assistance.
"What my worthy friend and partner would declare, if his cough permitted
him, fair Mistress Aveline," urged the extortioner, "is that he places
his life and fortune at your disposal. His desires are all centred in
you, and it rests with you to make him the happiest or most miserable of
mankind. Speak I not your sentiments, Sir Francis?"
"In every particular, good Sir Giles," replied the other, as soon as he
could recover utterance. "And now, most adorable damsel, what say you in
answer? You are too gentle, I am sure, to condemn your slave to endless
tortures. Nay, motion me not to rise. I have that to say will disarm
your frowns, and turn them into smiles of approval and assent. (O, this
accursed rheumatism!" he muttered to himself, "I shall never be able to
get up unaided!) I love you, incomparable creature--love you to
distraction; and as your beauty has inflicted such desperate wounds upon
my heart, so I am sure your gentleness will not fail to cure them.
Devotion like mine must meet its reward. Your answer, divinest creature!
and let it be favourable to my hopes, I conjure you!"
"I have no other answer to give," replied Aveline, coldly, and with an
offended look, "except such as any maiden, thus unwarrantably and
unseasonably importuned, would make. Your addresses are utterly
distasteful to me, and I pray you to desist them. If you have any real
wish to oblige me, you will at once free me from your presence."
"Your hand, Sir Giles--your hand!" cried the old usurer, raising
himself to his feet with difficulty, "So, you are not to be moved by my
sufferings--by my prayers, cruel and proud beauty?" he continued,
regarding her with a mortified and spiteful look. "You are
inflexible--eh?"
"Utterly so," she replied.
"Anthony Rocke!" cried Dame Sherborne, "show the gentlemen to the
door--and bolt it upon them," she added, in a lower tone.
"Not so fast, Madam--not so fast!" exclaimed Sir Francis. "We will not
trouble old Anthony just yet. Though his fair young mistress is
indisposed to listen to the pleadings of love, it follows not she will
be equally insensible to the controlling power of her father's delegated
authority. Her hand must be mine, either freely, or by compulsion. Let
her know on what grounds I claim it, Sir Giles."
"Your claim cannot be resisted, Sir Francis," rejoined the other; "and
if you had followed my counsel, you would not have condescended to play
the abject wooer, but have adopted the manlier course, and demanded her
hand as your right."
"Nay, Sir Giles, you cannot wonder at me, knowing how infatuated I am by
this rare and admirable creature. I was unwilling to assert my rights
till all other means of obtaining her hand had failed. But now I have no
alternative."
"Whence is your authority derived?" inquired Aveline, trembling as she
put the question.
"From your dead father," said Sir Giles, sternly. "His last solemn
injunctions to you were, that you should wed the man to whom he had
promised you; provided your hand were claimed by him within a year after
his death. With equal solemnity you bound yourself to fulfil his wishes.
The person to whom you were thus sacredly contracted is Sir Francis
Mitchell; and now, in your father's name, and by your father's
authority, he demands fulfilment of the solemn pledge."
"O, this is wholly impossible!--I will not believe it!" almost shrieked
Aveline, throwing herself into Dame Sherborne's arms.
"It is some wicked device to ensnare you, I am convinced," said the old
lady, clasping her to her breast. "But we defy them, as we do the Prince
of Darkness, and all his iniquities. Avoid thee, thou wicked old
sinner!--thou worse than the benighted heathen! Get hence! I say,
Sathanas!" she ejaculated to Sir Francis.
"Ay, I am well assured it is all a fabrication," said Anthony Rocke. "My
master had too much consideration and tenderness for his daughter to
promise her to a wretched old huncks like this, with one foot in the
grave already. Besides, I knew he held both him and Sir Giles Mompesson
in utter abomination and contempt. The thing is, therefore, not only
improbable, but altogether impossible."
"Hold thy peace, sirrah!" cried Sir Francis, foaming with rage, "or I
will cut thy scurril tongue out of thy throat. Huncks, indeed! As I am a
true gentleman, if thou wert of my own degree, thou shouldst answer for
the opprobrious expression."
"What proof have you that my father entered into any such engagement
with you?" inquired Aveline, turning to Sir Francis. "Your bare
assertion will scarcely satisfy me."
"Neither will it satisfy me," remarked Anthony. "Let him produce his
proofs."
"You are acquainted with your father's handwriting, I presume, fair
maiden?" rejoined Sir Francis. "And it may be that your insolent and
incredulous serving-man is also acquainted with it. Look at this
document, and declare whether it be not, as I assert, traced in Hugh
Calveley's characters. Look at it, I say, thou unbelieving hound," he
added, to Anthony, "and contradict me if thou canst."
"It is my master's writing, I am compelled to admit," replied the old
serving-man, with a groan.
"Are you prepared to render obedience to your father's behests, maiden?"
demanded Sir Giles, menacingly.
"O, give me counsel! What shall I say to them?" cried Aveline,
appealing to Dame Sherborne. "Would that Sir Jocelyn were here!"
"It is in vain to expect his coming," rejoined Sir Giles, with a bitter
laugh. "We have taken good care to keep him out of the way."
"There is no help then!" said Aveline, despairingly. "I must submit."
"We triumph," whispered Sir Giles to his partner.
"Talk not of submission, my dear young lady," implored Anthony Rocke.
"Resist them to the last. I will shed my best blood in your defence. If
my master did give them that paper he must have been out of his senses,
and you need not, therefore, regard it as other than the act of a
madman."
"Peace, shallow-pated fool!" cried Sir Giles. "And do you, fair
mistress, attend to me, and you shall learn under what circumstances
that contract was made, and how it becomes binding upon you. Deeply
indebted to Sir Francis, your father had only one means of discharging
his obligations. He did hesitate to avail himself of it. He promised you
to his creditor, and obtained his own release. Will you dishonour his
memory by a refusal?"
"O, if this tale be true, I have no escape from misery!" exclaimed
Aveline. "And it wears the semblance of probability."
"I take upon me to declare it to be false," cried Anthony Rocke.
"Another such insolent speech shall cost thee thy life, sirrah!" cried
Sir Giles, fiercely.
"Read over the paper again, my dear young lady," said Dame Sherborne.
"You may, perhaps, find something in it not yet discovered, which may
help you to a better understanding of your father's wishes."
"Ay, read it!--read it!" cried the old usurer, giving her the paper.
"You will perceive in what energetic terms your father enjoins
compliance on your part with his commands; and what awful denunciations
he attaches to your disobedience. Read it, I say, and fancy he is
speaking to you from the grave in these terms--'Take this man for thy
husband, O my daughter, and take my blessing with him. Reject him, and
my curse shall alight upon thy head.'"
But Aveline was too much engrossed to heed him. Suddenly her eye caught
something she had not previously noticed, and she exclaimed,--"I have
detected the stratagem. I knew this authority could never be committed
to you."
"What mean you, fair mistress?" cried Sir Francis, surprised and
alarmed. "My name may not appear upon the face of the document; but,
nevertheless, I am the person referred to by it."
"The document itself disproves your assertion," cried Aveline, with
exultation.
"How so?" demanded Sir Giles, uneasily.
"Why, see you not that he to whom my father designed to give my hand was
named Osmond Mounchensey?"
"Osmond Mounchensey!" exclaimed Sir Giles, starting.
"This is pure invention!" cried Sir Francis. "There is no such name on
the paper--no name at all, in short--nor could there be any, for reasons
I will presently explain."
"Let your own eyes convince you to the contrary," she rejoined,
extending the paper to him and revealing to his astounded gaze and to
that of his partner, who looked petrified with surprise, the name
plainly written as she had described it.
"How came it there?" cried Sir Giles, as soon as he could command
himself.
"I cannot say," replied Sir Francis. "I only know it was not there when
I--that is, when I received it. It must be Clement Lanyere's handiwork,"
he added in a whisper.
"I see not how that can be," replied the other, in a like low tone. "The
alteration must have been made since it has been in your possession. It
could not have escaped my observation."
"Nor mine," cried Sir Francis. "'T is passing strange!"
"Your infamous project is defeated," cried Aveline. "Let the rightful
claimant appear, and it will be time enough to consider what I will
do.--But I can hold no further discourse with you, and command your
instant departure."
"And think you we mean to return empty-handed, fair mistress?" said Sir
Giles, resuming all his wonted audacity. "Be not deceived. By fair means
or foul you shall be the bride of Sir Francis Mitchell. I have sworn it,
and I will keep my oath!"
"As I am a true gentleman, it will infinitely distress me to resort to
extremities, fair mistress," said the old usurer, "and I still trust you
will listen to reason. If I have put in practice a little harmless
stratagem, what matters it? All is fair in love. And if you knew all,
you would be aware that I have already paid so dearly for you that I
cannot afford to lose you. Cost what it will, you must be mine."
"Never!" exclaimed Aveline, resolutely.
"You will soon alter your tone, when you find how little power of
refusal is left you, fair mistress," said Sir Giles. "A litter is
waiting for you without. Will it please you to enter it?"
"Not unless by force--and you dare to offer me violence," she replied.
"I advise you not to put our forbearance to the test," said Sir Giles.
"I should be grieved to impose any restraint upon you," subjoined Sir
Francis; "and I trust you will not compel me to act against my
inclinations. Let me lead you to the litter."
As he advanced towards her, Aveline drew quickly back, and Dame
Sherborne uttered a loud scream; but her cries brought no other help
than could be afforded by old Anthony Rocke, who, planting himself
before his young mistress, menaced Sir Francis to retire.
But this state of things was only of brief duration. It speedily
appeared that the two extortioners had abundant assistance at hand to
carry out their infamous design. A whistle was sounded by Sir Giles; and
at the call the cottage door was burst open by some half dozen of the
myrmidons, headed by Captain Bludder.
Any resistance that the old serving-man could offer was speedily
overcome. Knocked down by a pike, he was gagged and pinioned, and
carried out of the house. The cries of Aveline and the elderly dame were
stifled by scarves tied over their heads; and both being in a fainting
condition from fright, they were borne to the litter which was standing
at the door, and being shut up within it, were conveyed as quickly as
might be to Sir Giles Mompesson's mansion, near the Fleet. Thither,
also, was old Anthony Rocke taken, closely guarded on the way by two of
the myrmidons.