ON THE CLEAVE AGAIN.
Ever full of pity and love for others, and forgetfulness of self, Bessie
sat holding Urith's hand in her own, with her eyes fixed compassionately
on her sister-in-law.
Urith's condition was perplexing. It was hard to say whether the events
of that night when she saw Anthony struck down on the hearthstone, and
her subsequent and consequent illness, with the premature confinement
and the death of the child, had deranged her faculties, or whether she
was merely stunned by this succession of events.
Always with a tendency in her to moodiness, she had now lapsed into a
condition of silent brooding. She would sit the whole day in one
position, crouched with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her
hands, looking fixedly before her, and saying nothing: taking no notice
of anything said or done near her.
It almost seemed as though she had fallen into a condition of melancholy
madness, and yet, when spoken to, she would answer, and answer
intelligently. Her faculties were present, unimpaired, but crushed under
the overwhelming weight of the past. Only on one point did she manifest
any signs of hallucination. She believed that Anthony was dead, and
nothing that was said to her could induce her to change her conviction.
She believed that everyone was in league to deceive her on this point.
And yet, though sane, she had to be watched, for in her absence of mind
and internal fever of distress, she would put her hands into her mouth,
and bite the knuckles, apparently unconscious of pain.
Mrs. Penwarne, who was usually with her, would quietly remove her hands
from her mouth, and hold them down. Then Urith would look at her with a
strange, questioning expression, release her hands, and resting the
elbows on her knees, thrust the fingers into her hair.
The state in which Urith was alarmed Bessie. She tried in vain to cheer
her; every effort, and they were various in kind, failed. The condition
of Urith resembled that of one oppressed with sleep before consciousness
passes away. When her attention was called by a question addressed to
her pointedly by name, or by a touch, she answered, but she relapsed
immediately into her former state. She could be roused to no interest in
anything. Bessie spoke to her about domestic matters, about the
rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, about the departure of Mr. Crymes,
finally, after some hesitation, about her own marriage, but she said
nothing concerning the conduct of Fox on the preceding evening, or of
her desertion of the home of her childhood. Urith listened dreamily, and
forgot at once what had been told her. Her mind was susceptible to no
impressions, so deeply indented was it with her own sorrows.
Luke, so said Mistress Penwarne, had been to see her, and had spoken of
sacred matters; but Urith had replied to him that she had killed
Anthony, that she did not regret having done so, and that therefore she
could neither hope in nor pray to God.
This Mrs. Penwarne told Bessie, standing over Urith, well aware that
what she said passed unheeded by the latter, probably unheard by her.
Nothing but a direct appeal could force Urith to turn the current of her
thoughts, and that only momentarily, from the direction they had taken.
"She has been biting her hands again," said Mrs. Penwarne. "Bessie, when
she does that, pull out the token that hangs on her bosom and put it
into her palm. She will sit and look at that by the hour. She must be
broken of that trick."
Urith slowly stood up, with a ruffle of uneasiness on her dull face. She
was conscious that she was being discussed, without exactly knowing what
was said about her. Without a word of explanation, she went out,
drawing Bessie with her, who would not let go her hand; and together, in
silence, they passed through the court and into the lane.
Their heads were uncovered, and the wind was fresh and the sun shone
brightly.
Urith walked leisurely along the lane, accompanied by Bessie Cleverdon,
between the moorstone walls, thick-bedded with pink and white flowering
saxifrage, and plumed with crimson foxgloves. She looked neither to
right nor to left till she reached the moor-gate closing the lane, a
gate set there to prevent the escape of the cattle from their upland
pasturage. The gate was swung between two blocks of granite, in which
sockets had been cut for the pivot of the gate to swing. Urith put forth
her hand, thrust open the gate, and went on. It was characteristic of
her condition that she threw it open only wide enough to allow herself
to pass through, and Bess had to put forth her disengaged hand to check
the gate from swinging back upon her. This was not due to rudeness on
the part of Urith, but to the fact that Urith had forgotten that any one
was with her.
On issuing forth on the open waste-land among the flowering heather and
deep carmine, large-belled heath, the freedom, the fresh air seemed to
revive Urith. A flicker of light passed over her darkened face, as
though clouds had been lifted from a tor, and a little watery sunlight
had played over its bleak surface. She turned her head to the west,
whence blew the wind, and the air raised and tossed her dark hair. She
stood still, with half-closed eyes, and nostrils distended, inhaling the
exhilarating breeze, and enjoying its coolness as it trifled with her
disordered locks.
Bessie had tried her with every subject that could distract her
thoughts, in vain. She now struck on that which nearly affected her.
"Urith," she said, "I have heard that a battle is expected every day,
and Anthony is in it. You will pray God to guard him in danger, will you
not?"
"Anthony is dead. I killed him."
"No, dear Urith, he is not dead; he has joined the Duke of Monmouth."
"They told you so? They deceived you. I killed him."
"It is not so." Bessie paused. Her hand clenched that of Urith tightly.
"My dearest sister, it is not so. Fox himself told me, and told my
father--_he_ struck Anthony."
"I bade him do so--I had not strength in my arm, I had no knife. But I
killed him."
"I assure you that this is not true."
"I saw him fall across the hearthstone. My mother wished it. She prayed
that it might be so, with her last breath; but she never prayed that I
should kill him."
"Urith! Poor Anthony, who is dear to you and to me, is in extreme
danger. There is like to be bloody fighting and we must ask God to
shield him."
"I cannot pray for him. He is dead, and I cannot pray at all. I am glad
he is dead. I would do it all over again, rather than that Julian should
have him."
"Julian!" sighed Elizabeth Cleverdon. "What has been told you about
Julian?"
"She threatened to pluck him out of my bosom, and she has done it; but
she shall not wear him in hers. I killed him because he was false to me,
and would leave me."
"No--no--Urith, he never would leave you."
"He was going to leave me. His father asked him to go back to Hall."
"But he would not go. Anthony was too noble."
"He was going to desert me and go to Julian, so I killed him. They may
kill me also; I do not care. God took my baby; I am glad He did that. I
never wish for a moment it had lived--lived to know that its mother was
a murderess. It could not touch my hand with his blood on it; so God
took my baby. I am waiting; they will take me soon, because I killed
Anthony. I am willing. I cannot pray. I have no hope. I wish it were
over, and I were dead."
On her own topic, on that which engrossed all her mind, on that round
which her thoughts turned incessantly, on that she could speak, and
speak fairly rationally; and when she spoke her face became expressive.
They walked on together. Bessie knew not what to say. It was not
possible to disturb Urith's conviction that her husband was dead, and
that she was his destroyer.
They continued to walk, but now again in silence. Urith again relapsed
into her brooding mood, went forward, threaded her own way among the
bunches of prickly gorse, now out of flower, and the scattered stones,
regardless of Bessie, who was put to great inconvenience to keep at her
side. She was forced to disengage her hand, as it was not possible for
her to keep pace with her sister-in-law in such broken ground. Urith did
not observe that Bessie had released her, nor that she was still
accompanying her.
She took a direct course to Tavy Cleave, that rugged, natural fortress
of granite which towers above the river that plunges in a gorge, rather
than a valley, below.
On reaching this she cast herself down on the overhanging slab, whereon
she had stood with Anthony, when he clasped her in his arms and swung
her, laughing and shouting, over the abyss.
Bessie drew to her side. She was uneasy what Urith might do, in her
disturbed frame of mind; but no thought of self-destruction seemed to
have crossed Urith's brain. She swung her feet over the gulf, and put
her hands through her hair, combing it out into the wind, and letting
that waft and whirl it about, as it blew up the Cleave and rose against
the granite crags, as a wave that bowls against a rocky coast leaps up
and curls over it.
Bessie allowed her to do as she liked. It was clearly a refreshment and
relaxation to her heated and overstrained mind thus to sit and play with
the wind.
Rooks were about, at one moment flashing white in the sun, then showing
the blackness of their glossy feathers. Their nesting and rearing
labours were over: they had deserted their usual haunts among trees, to
disport themselves on the waste lands.
The roar of the river came up on the wind from below--now loud as the
surf on reefs at sea, then soft and soothing as a murmur of marketers
returning from fairing, heard from far away.
Something--Bessie knew not what--induced her to turn her head aside,
when, with a start of alarm, she saw, standing on a platform of rock,
not a stone's throw distance, the tall full form of Julian. Her face was
turned towards her and Urith. She had been watching them. The sun was on
her handsome, richly-coloured face, with its lustrous eyes and ripe
pouting lips.
Bessie's first impulse was to hold up her hand in caution. She did not
know what the effect produced on Urith might be of seeing suddenly
before her the rival who had blighted her happiness; and the position
occupied by Urith was dangerous, on the overhanging ledge.
Bessie rose from her place and walked towards Julian, stepping
cautiously among the crags. Urith took no notice of her departure.
On reaching Julian Crymes, Bessie caught her by the arm and drew her
back among the rocks, out of sight and hearing of Urith.
"For heaven's sake," she entreated, "do not let her see you! Do you see
what has fallen on her? She is not herself."
"Well," retorted Julian, "what of that? She and I staked for the same
prize, and she has lost."
"And you not won."
"I have won somewhat. He is no longer hers, if he be not mine."
"He is not, he never was, he never will be yours," said Bessie,
vehemently. "Oh, Julian! how can you be so cruel, so wicked! Have you no
pity? She is deranged. She thinks she has killed Anthony--dead; but you
have seen--she cannot speak and think of anything now but of her sorrow
and loss."
"We played together--it was a fair game. She wrested from me him who was
mine by right, and she must take the consequences of her acts--we must
all do that. I--yes--Bess, I am ready. I will take the consequences of
what I have done. Let me pass, Bess, I will speak to her."
"I pray you!" Bess extended her arms.
"No--let me pass. She and I are accustomed to look each other in the
face. I will see how she is. I will! Stand aside."
She had a long staff in her hand, and with it she brushed Bess away, and
strode past her, between her and the precipice, with steady eye and firm
step, and clambered to where was Urith.
She stood beside her for a minute, studying her, watching her, as she
played with her hair, passing her fingers through it, and drawing it
forth into the wind to turn and curl, and waft about.
Then, her patience exhausted, Julian put forth the end of her staff,
touched Urith, and called her by name.
Urith looked round at her, but neither spake nor stirred. No flush of
anger or surprise appeared in her cheek, no lightning glare in her eye.
"Urith," said Julian, "how stands the game?"
"He is dead," answered Urith, "I killed him."
Julian was startled, and slightly turned colour.
"It is not true," she said hastily, recovering herself, "he has gone off
to serve with the Duke of Monmouth."
"I killed him," answered Urith composedly. "I would never, never let you
have him, draw him from me. I am not sorry. I am glad. I killed him."
"What!" with a sudden exultation, "you know he would have been drawn by
me away! I conquered."
"You did not get him away," said Urith, "you could not--for I killed
him."
Julian put out her staff again, and touched Urith.
"Listen to me!" she said, and there was triumph in her tone. "He never
loved you. No never. Me he loved; me he always had loved. But his father
tried to force him, he quarrelled with him, and out of waywardness, to
defy his father to show his independence, he married you; but he never,
never loved you."
"That is false," answered Urith, and she slowly rose on the platform to
her feet. "That is false. He did love me. Here on this stone he held me
to his heart, here he held me aloft and made me promise to be his very
own."
"It was naught!" exclaimed Julian. "A passing fancy. Come--I know not
whether he be alive or dead. Some say one thing and some another, but
this I do know, that if he be alive, the world will be too narrow for
you and me together in it, and if he be dead--it is indifferent to both
whether we live, for to you and me alike is Anthony the sun that rules
us, in whose light we have our joy. Come! Let us have another hitch, as
the wrestlers say, and see which gives the other the turn."
Urith, in her half-dreamy condition, in rising to her feet, had taken
hold of the end of Julian's staff, and now stood looking down the abyss
to the tossing, thundering water, still holding the end.
"Urith!" called Julian, imperiously and impatiently, "dost hear what I
say? Let us have one more, and a final hitch. Thou holding the staff at
one end, I at the other. See, we stand equal, on the same shelf, and
each with a heel at the edge of the rock. One step back, and thou or I
must go over and be broken on the stones, far below. Dost mark me?"
"I hear what you say," answered Urith.
"I will thrust, and do thou! and see which can drive the other to death.
In faith! we have thrust and girded at each other long, and driven each
other to desperation. Now let us finish the weary game with a final
turn[6] and a fair back."[6]
Urith remained, holding the end of the staff, looking at Julian
steadily, without passion. Her face was pale; the wild hair was tossing
about it.
"Art ready!" called Julian. "When I say three, then the thrust begins,
and one or other of us is driven out of one world into the other."
Urith let fall the end of the staff; "I have no more quarrel with you,"
she said, "Anthony is dead. I killed him."
Julian stamped angrily. "This is the second time thou hast refused my
challenge; though thou didst refuse my glove, thou didst take it up. So
now thou refusest, yet may be will still play. As thou wilt: at thine
own time--but one or other."
She pointed down the chasm with her staff, and turned away.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] Terms in wrestling. A "turn" is a fall; a "fair back" is one where
the three points are touched--head, shoulders, and back.