THE WIFE'S APPEAL.
Governor Phipps was a changed man during the progress of Barbara
Stafford's trial. His character, usually so sternly calm, seemed all
broken up. He was restless--almost irritable--and would start as if
wounded if any one mentioned her name, or discussed her cause in his
presence.
After giving his evidence he had not once entered the court, but shut
himself up on a plea of pressing papers to write, and remained almost
entirely alone. He neither wrote nor read, but sat with both elbows on
the library table, wondering moodily if he were indeed bewitched and
given up to the evil one.
One great cause of his depression arose from the awful responsibility
which must fall upon him if this strange lady should be found guilty.
With him, as chief magistrate of the colony, rested the pardoning power.
If she was condemned her life would lie in his hands--her death perhaps
rest upon his soul should he refuse the mercy that might be demanded of
him. He felt that she would be condemned, and the coming responsibility
lay heavy on him.
In this frame of mind the afternoon of the closing trial found him. The
storm which had been slowly gathering all day broke fiercely over his
dwelling; sleet and hail rattled like a storm of shot against the
window-panes; the wind howled and raved among the old trees that
sheltered the gables, beating their branches heavily against the roof,
and forcing weird sounds, almost of human anguish, from every tree and
bough.
Sir William shuddered as these dismal sounds swelled around him. It
seemed indeed as if some demon were turning the elements into great
bursts of wrath. Had the trial ended? Was the beautiful witch condemned;
and were kindred demons tearing through the elements, exhausting their
fiendish powers there which had been insufficient to save her?
This thought certainly passed through his disturbed mind, but took no
lasting hold there. But for the strange influence this woman had
exercised over his own feelings, his reason, always clear and logical,
would have rejected such wild fantasies. But something weird, and yet
enthralling in his own soul, rendered the strong man for once clearly
superstitious.
The library door was hastily flung open, and Norman Lovel came in, pale
as death, though he had been buffeting the winds, and with terrible
excitement in his eyes. He was shivering, and cold sleet and ridges of
fine snow hung on his garments and powdered his hair.
Sir William started to his feet, cast one glance on that white young
face, and sat down suddenly, stifling a groan.
The young man flung himself into a chair, threw his arms out on the
table, and buried his face upon them.
"Speak to me," said Sir William, hoarsely. "Is the trial ended?"
The young man lifted his head; every feature of his face was quivering.
His eyes, heavy with anguish, turned upon the governor.
"Day after to-morrow they will murder her."
"Day after to-morrow! Great Heavens! so soon?"
"You will not permit it. Thank God her life rests with you!" cried
Norman, passionately. "You have the power. Use it, and save the highest
and best creature that the sun ever shone upon."
The governor slowly regained his manhood under this appeal. Remembering
that he was chief magistrate of the province, he put aside the sensitive
tenderness that had almost swayed him for a time, and asked himself
whence that strange feeling had come? Could this woman's influence reach
him even from her dungeon? Had the evil spirit within her seized upon
Norman Lovel, the being held closest to his heart, that she might thus
possess him, and force mercy from his hands?
"Norman," he said, gravely, "by what power are you so wrought upon? What
is this woman to you?"
"What is she to me? My soul! my life I--every thing that an angel of
light can be to a human being. If she dies, Sir William, I will perish
with her."
This wild outburst hardened the governor, who absolutely believed the
young man possessed.
"Leave me, boy!" he said, not unkindly; "in this matter I must take
council with my God alone. Would that this hard duty had been spared me!
I am admonished by the weakness here, that the scales of justice tremble
in my hands. This must not be. Men who govern must be firm, or mercy is
but cowardice."
"Oh, if you could but see her as I have! feel for her as I feel!" cried
the young man.
"Were I Norman Lovel, and you governor of this province, it might be
so," answered Sir William. "But plead with me no more; this heart is
heavy enough without that. If it must withhold the mercy you ask, the
pain here will far outweigh any thing that you can feel."
Sir William pressed a hand hard upon his heart as he spoke, and there
was an expression of such pain in his voice and on his features that
Norman forbore to press him further, but arose, and stood up ready to
go.
"Yes, leave me," said Sir William, reaching forth his hand with a sad
smile. "I have need to be alone."
Norman kissed the hand which Sir William held out to him, and his eyes
filled with tears.
"Oh, think mercifully of her, if you would not break my heart!" he said.
Sir William drew back his hand, turning his face away.
"Leave me, boy! leave me!"
Was the strong man weeping, or were all his tears forced back into that
thrilling voice? Never in his life had Norman seen the governor so
moved.
From the library Norman went to the little breakfast-parlor, where Lady
Phipps sat in dull silence with Elizabeth Parris and Abby Williams.
The lady had evidently been weeping, for there was a flush under her
eyes, and her cheerfulness was all gone.
"I have heard the sad news," she said, moving upon the sofa, that he
might sit by her. "Poor lady! I cannot choose but pity her."
"I knew that her fate would touch you with compassion. God help the
sweet lady, for men and women both seem hardened against her."
Elizabeth Parris, who sat in a great easy-chair, with her tear-stained
cheek gleaming white against the crimson cushions, began to cry
piteously, and sobbed out,
"Ah, me! If she could but go over seas and live her years out there! If
they drown her I shall never know rest again."
Norman went up to the young girl, and kissed her forehead.
"Help me to save her, darling. Plead with Lady Phipps, and with Sir
William. He has the power to pardon her. As I came from the court an
English ship hove in sight, struggling against the storm. Let us save
this unhappy woman from death, Elizabeth, and that ship shall carry her
away from these shores forever."
"Would she go--would she?" questioned the girl, looking up eagerly.
"It was her earnest wish to leave the country before this awful charge
was made."
"Lady Phipps--Lady Phipps! May I go to Sir William? May I kneel to him
and beg for her life?"
"I will go with you, child," answered the lady. "Alas, it was an evil
day for this poor woman when she came among us!"
"Let us go--let us go at once!" cried Elizabeth, rising, and pushing
back the hair from her forehead. "I shall not sleep till it is done. He
cannot resist you. May Abigail Williams come with us?"
Abigail sat by herself, looking wistfully out into the storm. She turned
her head as Elizabeth called to her, but did not attempt to rise.
"No," she said. "I have done nothing toward hunting this unhappy lady to
her death."
"Always cruel, always cold," said Elizabeth, reproachfully. "Well, as I
have borne witness against her, so will I go alone and beg for her life
on my knees."
"It is better so," whispered Lovel, as Lady Phipps hesitated. "When it
comes to the worst, dear friend, we must claim your help. That will be
our last hope."
Elizabeth left the room as they were conversing, and went into the
library. Few words were spoken after she left. Abby Williams gazed out
into the storm as if she had no part in the general trouble. Lady Phipps
sat with downcast eyes, looking thoughtfully on the floor. Norman paced
up and down the room, turning anxiously at every sound, expecting to see
Elizabeth.
She came at last, pale and heavy-eyed, moving wearily across the hall.
"She has failed!" cried Norman. "Oh, misery, she has failed!"
A smile, that seemed malicious, quivered across Abigail's lips, but she
did not turn her head.
Elizabeth tottered across the room, and fell into an easy chair,
exhausted.
Norman Lovel bent over her, hoping against hope.
"It is of no use," she murmured; "he would not let me plead. Oh, Norman!
must she die?"
"Shall I go now?" whispered Lady Phipps. "He never refused me any thing
in his life."
"Not yet, dear lady," answered Lovel. "At present leave him alone."
"To-night, when he comes to my room," answered the lady; "that perhaps
is best."
Lady Phipps seemed glad of a reprieve. She went back to her sofa,
sighing heavily.
"Feel how I tremble!" she said, giving her hands to Norman. "It is
strange, but nothing ever shook my nerves so till this lady came across
the seas. Oh, Norman! that was a weary day for us."
"But most of all for her."
"True, true. Poor soul, I shall not sleep till she is pardoned. If she
is proven guilty of witchcraft, it was not of a harmful sort, though we
have been made very unhappy by it. Elizabeth, child, you are worn out;
take my arm and we will go to our chambers, for I, too, am weary. Be
hopeful, Norman; I will surely speak to the governor before he goes to
rest."
But the lady was doomed to disappointment. All that night Sir William
remained in his library, with the door locked. In the morning the gentle
wife claimed admittance, and he let her in, smiling sadly upon her as
she entered.
"My husband, this has been a weary night. How mournful and pale you
look! Surely, it is not because you have doomed that poor woman?"
"She was doomed before her case came before me. God knows, dear wife, I
would gladly save her if my conscience permitted."
Lady Phipps sat down on a cushioned stool at her husband's feet, resting
her hand lightly on his knee. Her sweet, gracious face, formed a
striking contrast with the haggard whiteness of his.
"Nay, sweetheart; you will be more merciful than the judges," she
pleaded. "They are naturally stern and hard--but you--"
"Must be stern also, or betray my trust," he answered. "If I pardon this
woman, who enlists your sympathy so much more than others, because of
her beauty and gentle breeding, what will be said of me--that I withhold
mercy from the ignorant crones and common-place witches who have
perished, and give it to a gentlewoman because of her fair face? If they
were held worthy of punishment for setting a few cows wild, and
scattering mischief among their neighbors mostly pertaining to the body
alone, how much more severely should this woman be dealt with who
fastens her witchcraft on the soul! Have you marked the progress of her
sorcery on the young man under our roof, who still clings to her as if
she were part of his own being--on the maiden you love so, Elizabeth
Parris, whose very life seems to have been half shrunk up under the evil
influence which she struggles against in vain?"
"Nay," answered the lady, with an arch smile, "so far as Elizabeth is
concerned, I think the witch that most troubles her is Jealousy. Indeed,
indeed I do! It is the dark-browed beauty, who says so little, that
seems most deeply affected. Yet she exonerates this woman entirely. As
for Lovel, he is generous and good to every one: impetuous in his
likings, he is always indignant if he suspects oppression or injustice.
Had this Barbara Stafford come among us without mystery, and been left
unnoticed, he would have cared little about her."
Sir William looked at his wife thoughtfully while she was speaking, and
a deeper shade came over his face. She was so frank, so sweetly
generous, that he felt conscience-stricken at having given these trivial
reasons for withholding mercy from Barbara Stafford while those, so much
deeper and more potent, lay buried in his own bosom.
He took her two hands between his, and pressed them with nervous energy.
"My wife, bear with me--neither give way to anger nor fear--and I will
tell you why it is impossible that this woman can receive a pardon at my
hands. Even as it has enthralled the souls of these young persons, her
wonderful power has bewitched your husband. Since that hour when she
stood near me at the altar, and the night when she lay for one moment
against my heart, I have had no rest. Nay, sweet wife, do not turn pale,
or draw these hands from mine. What power there is in mortal man to
resist the evil one I have striven for, but in vain. Absent or present
this woman is forever in my mind, standing, as it were, like the ghost
of some buried love between us two."
Lady Phipps gave a sharp cry, and wresting her hands from his grasp
buried her face in them.
"Between us two? Alas! alas! I felt this but would not believe it."
"Nay, sweetheart, be calm. Is your husband a man to yield up his love,
or his integrity, to the evil one, come in what form he may? Of my own
free will I have never looked upon this woman, or spoken to her but once
in my life."
"I know it, I know it," moaned the unhappy lady.
"But she is always here," continued Sir William, laying a hand on his
heart. "She haunts me. I cannot drive her image away. Sleeping and
waking I am shadow-haunted."
Lady Phipps gazed on her husband in pale dismay. At last she cried
out--"Oh, my God! my God! help him--help me, for he loves this woman."
"Be calm, and let me tell every thing. In this matter I would not have a
single reservation. What I say will give you pain, but my conscience
must clear itself. Since I first saw this woman, something that I cannot
describe--a feeling so intangible that it is in vain I strive to grasp
it--divides me from--it is hard to speak, and I would rather perish than
wound you, my wife--but it seems to point out my union with you as
a--a--I cannot utter it. God help us both! This witch in her prison
poisons my heart with feelings that I can neither repel nor describe.
Either she or I must perish before my soul is free again."
Lady Phipps sat gazing on him in affright; her eyes widened, her face
contracted. "Oh, my husband! has it come to this?" she cried out in
bitter anguish; "and I was pleading for her life. Poor, poor Elizabeth!
it was thus her young heart suffered. What can I do? How ought I to
act?"
"Let us be still, and crave help of God," said the governor, solemnly.
"I have been asking such questions of the Lord all night, and my resolve
was firm."
Awed by the thrilling earnestness of his voice Lady Phipps bowed her
head and fell into a painful reverie, half thought, half prayer. When
she looked up a sweet calmness shone in her eyes.
"Still, my husband, I say pardon this woman, and let her go beyond the
seas."
"That she may render other men wretched as I am?" exclaimed Sir William.
"Nay, do not plead for her. The evidence of her sorcery is here, in my
bosom. This clamorous pity, which will not let me rest, is a part of it.
Knowing what I know, feeling the entire justice of her condemnation, I
have but one course before me."
"And the woman must die?" exclaimed Lady Phipps, piteously, forgetting
her own wrongs in the flood of compassion that filled her heart.
A shudder ran through Sir William's strong frame as he repeated her
words: "The woman must die!"
"Take time--only take a few more hours for consideration," pleaded the
self-sacrificing wife. "It is like sending her into eternity when you
banish her across the ocean. Do that, and so let her pass out of our
lives."
"Nay, I will do nothing. Think you, child, that this heart does not
tempt me enough? Must your sweet magnanimity urge on its weakness? Hark!
that is Samuel Parris claiming admittance. I will not see him. Of all
others, I will not see him!"
"Oh, but he is a good man--a just and merciful man," pleaded the wife.
"I will not see him, nevertheless, nor any one till to-morrow is over.
Bring my overcoat and hat. I will go through the back entrance to the
stables and so escape him."
"Here is the coat and hat as you cast them off yesterday. I am glad of
this. The fresh air may put merciful thoughts in your heart. Which way
will you ride? We will not give up the hope that some good angel will
urge you back with a merciful resolve." The lady spoke rapidly and with
tears swelling into her eyes.
"I shall ride to Providence, nor return under some days. Farewell! God
be with you, and forgive her."
Sir William went away in haste, without other farewell.
It was a full hour before Lady Phipps left the library.