THE CATASTROPHE.
IT happened unfortunately that the mission to ------ was indispensable.
The slender accommodation of the tower forbade Gerald the use of his
customary attendants, and the neighbouring villagers were too few in
number, and too ill provided with weapons, to encounter men cradled in
the very lap of danger; moreover, it was requisite, above all things,
that no rumour or suspicion of our intended project should obtain wind,
and, by reaching Montreuil's ears, give him some safer opportunity of
escape. I had no doubt of the sincerity of the Fatalist's
communications, and if I had, the subsequent conversation I held with
him, when Gerald and Oswald were gone, would have been sufficient to
remove it. He was evidently deeply stung by the reflection of his own
treachery, and, singularly enough, with Montreuil seemed to perish all
his worldly hopes and aspirations. Desmarais, I found, was a man of
much higher ambition than I had imagined; and he had linked himself
closely to Montreuil, because, from the genius and the resolution of the
priest, he had drawn the most sanguine auguries of his future power. As
the night advanced, he grew visibly anxious; and, having fully satisfied
myself that I might count indisputably upon his intelligence, I once
more left him to his meditations, and, alone in the outer chamber, I
collected myself for the coming event. I had fully hoped that Montreuil
would have repaired to the tower in search of Gerald, and this was the
strongest reason which had induced me to remain behind: but time waned;
he came not, and at length it grew so late that I began to tremble lest
the assistance from ------ should not arrive in time.
It struck the first quarter after eleven: in less than an hour my enemy
would be either in my power or beyond its reach; still Gerald and our
allies came not; my suspense grew intolerable, my pulse raged with
fever; I could not stay for two seconds in the same spot; a hundred
times had I drawn my sword, and looked eagerly along its bright blade.
"Once," thought I, as I looked, "thou didst cross the blade of my mortal
foe, and to my danger rather than victory; years have brought skill to
the hand which then guided thee, and in the red path of battle thou hast
never waved in vain. Be stained but once more with human blood, and I
will prize every drop of that blood beyond all the triumphs thou hast
brought me!" Yes, it had been with a fiery and intense delight that I
had learned that Montreuil would have companions to his flight in
lawless and hardened men, who would never yield him a prisoner without
striking for his rescue; and I knew enough of the courageous and proud
temper of my purposed victim to feel assured that, priest as he was, he
would not hesitate to avail himself of the weapons of his confederates
or to aid them with his own. Then would it be lawful to oppose violence
to his resistance, and with my own hand to deal the death-blow of
retribution. Still as these thoughts flashed over me my heart grew
harder, and my blood rolled more burningly through my veins. "They come
not; Gerald returns not," I said, as my eye dwelt on the clock, and saw
the minutes creep one after the other: "it matters not; HE at least
shall not escape!--were he girt by a million, I would single him from
the herd; one stroke of this right hand is all that I ask of life, then
let them avenge him if they will." Thus resolved, and despairing at
last of the return of Gerald, I left the tower, locked the outer door,
as a still further security against my prisoner's escape, and repaired
with silent but swift strides to the beach by the Castle Cave. It
wanted about half an hour to midnight: the night was still and
breathless; a dim mist spread from sea to sky, through which the stars
gleamed forth heavily, and at distant intervals. The moon was abroad,
but the vapours that surrounded her gave a watery and sicklied dulness
to her light, and whereever in the niches and hollows of the cliff the
shadows fell, all was utterly dark and unbroken by the smallest ray;
only along the near waves of the sea and the whiter parts of the level
sand were objects easily discernible. I strode to and fro for a few
minutes before the Castle Cave; I saw no one, and I seated myself in
stern vigilance upon a stone, in a worn recess of the rock, and close by
the mouth of the Castle Cave. The spot where I sat was wrapped in total
darkness, and I felt assured that I might wait my own time for
disclosing myself. I had not been many minutes at my place of watch
before I saw the figure of a man approach from the left; he moved with
rapid steps, and once when he passed along a place where the wan light
of the skies was less obscured I saw enough of his form and air to
recognize Montreuil. He neared the cave; he paused; he was within a few
paces of me; I was about to rise, when another figure suddenly glided
from the mouth of the cave itself.
"Ha!" cried the latter, "it is Bertrand Collinot: Fate be lauded!"
Had a voice from the grave struck my ear, it would have scarcely amazed
me more than that which I now heard. Could I believe my senses? the
voice was that of Desmarais, whom I had left locked within the inner
chamber of the tower! "Fly," he resumed, "fly instantly; you have not a
moment to lose: already the stern Morton waits thee; already the hounds
of justice are on thy track; tarry not for the pirates, but begone at
once."
"You rave, man! What mean you? the boats will be here immediately.
While you yet speak methinks I can descry them on the sea. Something of
this I dreaded when, some hours ago, I caught a glimpse of Gerald on the
road to ------. I saw not the face of his companion; but I would not
trust myself in the tower: yet I must await the boats; flight is indeed
requisite, but /they/ make the only means by which flight is safe!"
"Pray, then, thou who believest, pray that they may come soon, or thou
diest and I with thee! Morton is returned,--is reconciled to his weak
brother. Gerald and Oswald are away to ------ for men to seize and drag
thee to a public death. I was arrested,--threatened; but one way to
avoid prison and cord was shown me. Curse me, Bertrand, for I embraced
it. I told them thou wouldst fly to-night, and with whom. They locked
me in the inner chamber of the tower; Morton kept guard without. At
length I heard him leave the room; I heard him descend the stairs, and
lock the gate of the tower. Ha! ha! little dreamed he of the wit of
Jean Desmarais! /Thy/ friend must scorn bolt and bar, Bertrand
Collinot. They had not searched me: I used my instruments; thou knowest
that with those instruments I could glide through stone walls!--I opened
the door; I was in the outer room; I lifted the trap door which old Sir
William had had boarded over, and which thou hadst so artfully and
imperceptibly replaced, when thou wantedst secret intercourse with thy
pupils; I sped along the passage, came to the iron door, touched the
spring thou hadst inserted in the plate which the old knight had placed
over the key-hole, and have come to repair my coward treachery, to save
and to fly with thee. But while I speak we tread on a precipice.
Morton has left the house, and is even now perhaps in search of thee."
"Ha! I care not if he be," said Montreuil, in a low but haughty tone.
"Priest though I am, I have not assumed the garb, without assuming also
the weapon, of the layman. Even now I have my hand upon the same sword
which shone under the banners of Mar; and which once, but for my foolish
mercy, would have rid me forever of this private foe."
"Unsheath it now, Julian Montreuil!" said I, coming from my retreat, and
confronting the pair.
Montreuil recoiled several paces. At that instant a shot boomed along
the waters.
"Haste, haste!" cried Desmarais, hurrying to the waves, as a boat, now
winding the cliff, became darkly visible: "haste, Bertrand, here are
Bonjean and his men; but they are pursued!"
Once did Montreuil turn, as if to fly; but my sword was at his breast,
and, stamping fiercely on the ground, he drew his rapier and parried and
returned my assault; but he retreated rapidly towards the water while he
struck; and wild and loud came the voices from the boat, which now
touched the shore.
"Come--come--come--the officers are upon us; we can wait not a moment!"
and Montreuil, as he heard the cries, mingled with oaths and curses, yet
quickened his pace towards the quarter whence they came. His steps were
tracked by his blood: twice had my sword passed through his flesh; but
twice had it failed my vengeance, and avoided a mortal part. A second
boat, filled also with the pirates, followed the first; but then another
and a larger vessel bore black and fast over the water; the rush and cry
of men were heard on land; again and nearer a shot broke over the heavy
air,--another and another,--a continued fire. The strand was now
crowded with the officers of justice. The vessel beyond forbade escape
to the opposite islet. There was no hope for the pirates but in
contest, or in dispersion among the cliffs or woods on the shore. They
formed their resolution at once, and stood prepared and firm, partly on
their boats, partly on the beach around them. Though the officers were
far more numerous, the strife--fierce, desperate, and hand to hand
seemed equally sustained. Montreuil, as he retreated before me, bore
back into the general /melee/, and, as the press thickened, we were for
some moments separated. It was at this time that I caught a glimpse of
Gerald; /he/ seemed also then to espy me, and made eagerly towards me.
Suddenly he was snatched from my view. The fray relaxed; the officers,
evidently worsted, retreated towards the land, and the pirates appeared
once more to entertain the hope of making their escape by water.
Probably they thought that the darkness of the night might enable them
to baffle the pursuit of the adverse vessel, which now lay expectant and
passive on the wave. However this be, they made simultaneously to their
boats, and among their numbers I descried Montreuil. I set my teeth
with a calm and prophetic wrath. But three strokes did my good blade
make through that throng before I was by his side; he had at that
instant his hold upon the boat's edge, and he stood knee-deep in the
dashing waters. I laid my grasp upon his shoulder, and my cheek touched
his own as I hissed in his ear, "I am with thee yet!" He turned
fiercely; he strove in vain to shake off my grasp. The boat pushed
away, and his last hope of escape was over. At this moment the moon
broke away from the mist, and we saw each other plainly, and face to
face. There was a ghastly but set despair in Montreuil's lofty and
proud countenance, which changed gradually to a fiercer aspect, as he
met my gaze. Once more, foot to foot and hand to hand, we engaged; the
increased light of the skies rendered the contest more that of skill
than it had hitherto been, and Montreuil seemed to collect all his
energies, and to fight with a steadier and a cooler determination.
Nevertheless the combat was short. Once my antagonist had the
imprudence to raise his arm and expose his body to my thrust: his sword
grazed my cheek,--I shall bear the scar to my grave,--mine passed twice
through his breast, and he fell, bathed in his blood, at my feet.
"Lift him!" I said, to the men who now crowded round. They did so, and
he unclosed his eyes, and glared upon me as the death-pang convulsed his
features, and gathered in foam to his lips. But his thoughts were not
upon his destroyer, nor upon the wrongs he had committed, nor upon any
solitary being in the linked society which he had injured.
"Order of Jesus," he muttered, "had I but lived three months longer,
I--"
So died Julian Montreuil.
CONCLUSION.
MONTREUIL was not the only victim in the brief combat of that night;
several of the pirates and their pursuers perished, and among the bodies
we found Gerald. He had been pierced, by a shot, through the brain, and
was perfectly lifeless when his body was discovered. By a sort of
retribution, it seems that my unhappy brother received his death-wound
from a shot, fired (probably at random) by Desmarais; and thus the
instrument of the fraud he had tacitly subscribed to became the minister
of his death. Nay, the retribution seemed even to extend to the very
method by which Desmarais had escaped; and, as the reader has perceived,
the subterranean communication which had been secretly reopened to
deceive my uncle made the path which had guided Gerald's murderer to the
scene which afterwards ensued. The delay of the officers had been owing
to private intelligence, previously received by the magistrate to whom
Gerald had applied, of the number and force of the pirates, and his
waiting in consequence for a military reinforcement to the party to be
despatched against them. Those of the pirates who escaped the conflict
escaped also the pursuit of the hostile vessel; they reached the islet,
and gained their captain's ship. A few shots between the two vessels
were idly exchanged, and the illicit adventurers reached the French
shore in safety. With them escaped Desmarais, and of him, from that
hour to this, I have heard nothing: so capriciously plays Time with
villains!
Marie Oswald has lately taken unto himself a noted inn on the North
Road, a place eminently calculated for the display of his various
talents; he has also taken unto himself a WIFE, of whose tongue and
temper he has been known already to complain with no Socratic meekness;
and we may therefore opine that his misdeeds have not altogether escaped
their fitting share of condemnation.
Succeeding at once, by the death of my poor brother, to the DEVEREUX
estates, I am still employed in rebuilding, on a yet more costly scale,
my ancestral mansion. So eager and impatient is my desire for the
completion of my undertaking that I allow rest neither by night nor day,
and half of the work will be done by torchlight. With the success of
this project terminates my last scheme of Ambition.
Here, then, at the age of thirty-four, I conclude the history of my
life. Whether in the star which, as I now write, shines in upon me, and
which a romance, still unsubdued, has often dreamed to be the bright
prophet of my fate, something of future adventure, suffering, or
excitement is yet predestined to me; or whether life will muse itself
away in the solitudes which surround the home of my past childhood and
the scene of my present retreat,--creates within me but slight food for
anticipation or conjecture. I have exhausted the sources of those
feelings which flow, whether through the channels of anxiety or of hope,
towards the future; and the restlessness of my manhood, having attained
its last object, has done the labour of time, and bequeathed to me the
indifference of age.
If love exists for me no longer, I know well that the memory of that
which has been is to me far more than a living love is to others; and
perhaps there is no passion so full of tender, of soft, and of hallowing
associations as the love which is stamped by death. If I have borne
much, and my spirit has worked out its earthly end in travail and in
tears, yet I would not forego the lessons which my life has bequeathed
me, even though they be deeply blended with sadness and regret. No!
were I asked what best dignifies the present and consecrates the past;
what enables us alone to draw a just moral from the tale of life; what
sheds the purest light upon our reason; what gives the firmest strength
to our religion; and, whether our remaining years pass in seclusion or
in action, is best fitted to soften the heart of man, and to elevate the
soul to God,--I would answer, with Lassus, it is EXPERIENCE!"