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CAPTAIN KYD;
OR,
THE WIZARD OF THE SEA.
A ROMANCE.
BY J. H. INGRAHAM
AUTHOR OF "THE SOUTHWEST," "LAFITTE," "BURTON," &c.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW-YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF-STREET.
1839.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838,
By HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.
TO
THE AUTHOR OF THE
"WINTER IN THE WEST,"
CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN, ESQ.,
THESE VOLUMES ARE,
WITH SENTIMENTS OF ESTEEM,
Respectfully Inscribed.
"There's many a one who oft has heard
The name of Robert Kyd,
Who cannot tell, perhaps, a word
Of him, or what he did.
"So, though I never saw the man,
And lived not in his day,
I'll tell you how his guilt began--
To what it led the way."
H. F. GOULD.
PREFACE.
The following dramatic romance consists of two acts, with an interval of
five years between them. The time and action of the first part, the
scene of which is placed in the south of Ireland, are comprised in
something less than three days; that of the second, the scenes of which
are laid in New-York Bay and on its adjacent shores, embraces a somewhat
longer space of time, the two comprising the most prominent crises of
the hero's life--one giving the colouring to the whole of his subsequent
career, which in the other is brought to its close.
Natchez, Miss., Jan., 1839.
BOOK I.
THE CAUSE.
"A lady should not scorn
One soul that loves her, howe'er lowly it be."
BARRY CORNWALL.
"'Twere idle to remember now,
Had I the heart, my thwarted schemes.
I bear beneath this alter'd brow
The ashes of a thousand dreams--
Some wrought of wild Ambition's fingers,
Some colour'd of Love's pencil well--
* * * * *
Ambition has but foil'd my grasp,
And Love has perish'd in my clasp."
_Melanie._
CHAPTER I.
"Oh, bold Robin Hood
Was a forester good
As ever drew bow in the merry green wood,
And what eye hath e'er seen
Such a sweet maiden queen
As Marian the pride of the forester's green."
On a rocky headland that stretches boldly out into the bosom of one of
the lakelike bays that indent the southern shore of Ireland, stands a
picturesque ruin, half hidden to the eye of the voyager amid a group of
old trees. With its solitary square tower, and warlike battlements
jagged and stern in their desolation, it still wears an air of imposing
grandeur, that conveys some idea of its ancient baronial state. It is
known by the name of "old Castle Cor;" and in its palmy days was the
summer abode of the last Earl of Bellamont.
On a bright morning in the merry month of May, in the year sixteen
hundred and ninety-four, its now silent halls rung with the joyous
voices and noisy sports of a score of gallant youths and noble maidens,
gathered there, from many a lordly roof both far and near, to celebrate
a rural fete in honour of the sixteenth birthday of the only child of
this ancient house, the beautiful Kate Bellamont, better known
throughout the barony as "wild Kate of Castle Cor." In the pastimes of
the day, archery, then much practised by ladies of gentle blood, was to
hold a conspicuous place, and a silver arrow was to be awarded to the
victor by the hands of Lady Bellamont herself. As the hour of noon
approached, the earl's chief forester, Cormac Dermot, his gray locks
covered with a red cloth bonnet, in which was fastened an eagle's plume,
and his goodly person arrayed in a holyday suit of green and gold, made
his appearance on the lawn by the west side of the castle, and wound his
horn, loud and long, as the signal that the "gentle sporte of archerie"
was now about to begin.
The place chosen for the trial of skill was an ample lawn of the softest
and greenest verdure, lying between the wall of the castle and the verge
of the cliff. A few ancient oaks grew here and there upon it; and
towards the south it was open to the land-locked bay and far-distant
sea, which, wide as the vision extended, seemed to belt the horizon like
a shining band of silver. At each extremity of the field, one hundred
yards apart, was pitched upon the sward a gorgeous pavilion, one of
blue, the other of orange-coloured silk: the hangings of the former were
fringed with silver; and from the festooned curtains of the latter
pended tassels of silk and gold. In these were laid tables spread with
cloths of crimson damask, and covered with every luxury that could tempt
the palate or gratify the eye. From the summit of one of the pavilions
fluttered a crimson banneret, displaying the arms of Bellamont, its
boar's-head crest pierced through with an arrow, emblematical of the
occasion; and from the top of the other waved a white banner, in the
centre of which, according to the rules of heraldry, a bow, quiver,
target and other signs of archery were tastefully emblazoned.
Twenty-five yards in front of each pavilion, two targets were placed,
fifty yards apart, so that, after sending all their arrows at one, the
archers might walk up to it and gather them, and, taking their stand by
it, shoot back to the other; thus alternately reversing the direction of
their shots, and adding healthful exercise to their graceful pastime.
The targets were both very beautiful, and gay with colours; being round
wooden shields half an inch in thickness and three feet in diameter,
with four circles painted on the faces: the outer white, with a green
border; the next black; the next within it orange; and the inner circle
red, encompassing a gold centre. They were elevated, at a slight angle,
twenty inches from the ground, on a light frame resembling a painter's
easel.
Midway between the targets, but safely placed several paces back from
the erratic path of the arrows, was erected beneath an ancient
linden-tree a sylvan throne, surmounted by a canopy of silk, elaborately
worked with the needle to represent Diana, with her nymphs and hounds,
pursuing a herd of deer with flights of arrows. This was the seat of the
umpire of the sports--Katrine, the lovely Countess of Bellamont.
Altogether, it was an imposing and gorgeous scene; and, with its stern
castle rising boldly from the verdant lawn topped with battlements and
towers; with its boundary on the north side, of green, dark old woods,
and the calm, deep bay beneath, with a yacht sleeping on its bosom; with
its extended prospect of the illimitable sea forever breathing with a
mysterious life, the field of archery at Castle Cor, for the natural
beauty of the spot and the taste displayed in its adornment, has
doubtless had no parallel in the annals of archery.
Scarcely had the echoes of old Cormac's horn died away in the forest,
startling many a stately stag to flight, when the castle poured forth
its gay throng of archers towards the lists. In their midst was the
Countess of Bellamont, escorted by a bodyguard of young archeresses. She
was then in the prime and beauty of ripe womanhood: at that delightful
age when the wife and mother, all the charms of mind and person fully
developed and refined by taste and elegant culture, fascinates by a
thousand nameless graces, and captivates and enslaves even the youthful
crowd that sigh at the feet of her lovely daughter of seventeen--the age
that leaves one in doubt whether beautiful women arrive at the zenith of
their beauty and power under five-and-thirty.
This was the age of Katrine of Bellamont; and though at eighteen (when
she became a bride) the loveliest of all Irish maidens either of gentle
or lowly birth, yet now, as the Countess of Bellamont, far-famed for her
rare and stately beauty. She was arrayed in a simple white robe; and a
laced jacket of royal-purple velvet closely fitted her magnificent bust.
When she entered the field she was conducted by her juvenile escort to
the throne, on which she seated herself, and with a playfully assumed
queenly dignity that became her highborn air. A coronet of pearls graced
her brow; and her symmetrical hand, that rivalled pearls in its soft
transparency, gracefully held, like a sceptre, the miniature arrow which
was to be the prize for excelling in archery. Her deep blue eyes, as she
looked around, reflected, in a thousand smiling beams, the joy that
danced on each youthful face, and the sunny light of her own countenance
communicated sunshine of the heart wherever it fell.
On each side of the throne stood a well-born youth habited as a page,
and behind her were stationed two beautiful young girls attired as
sylphides. On her right hand, a few feet in the rear, leaning on a yew
bow six feet in length, stood Cormac Dermot, his stag's horn, richly
inlaid and curiously carved with woodland devices, slung beneath his
left shoulder, with the mouthpiece brought round in front ready for use.
A little farther beyond, and nearer the castle-wall, was assembled a
group of lower degree, consisting of under-foresters, retainers of the
household, and neighbouring peasants; while on the opposite side of the
lawn might be seen, relieved against the sky, the forms of two or three
fishermen, whom curiosity had led to climb the dizzy precipice from the
beach--far along the white line of which were visible their scattered
huts, looking like black specks upon the sand.
All was now animation with the preparations for the lists. From bundles
of bows thrown by Dermot on the ground before each pavilion, the youths
began busily to select weapons for the fair archers, who were themselves
earnestly engaged in choosing arrows from quivers that were hung on the
front of the tent; fastening braces of thick fawn's leather on their
left or bow arm just above the wrist to preserve it from injury by the
rebound of the bow-string; and drawing on the right hand, from parcels
handed them by pages, shooting-gloves, with three finger-stalls, fitted
with a strap and button to fasten at the wrist, to protect their fingers
in drawing the arrow. Besides these appendages of archery, each
archeress wore a belt buckled about the waist, to which pended a tassel
of the softest floss of Brussels, to wipe away the soil that adhered to
the arrows when drawn from the ground; and also an ivory box with a
metal lid, containing a perfumed paste for anointing the finger-stalls
of the shooting-gloves and the brace on the arm, that the bow-string
might the more easily quit the fingers and pass over the guarded wrist.
A small pouch, either of tortoise-shell or of silver, in shape and
dimensions like a sportsman's cup or a dicebox, was suspended on the
right side to receive two or three arrows; the more cumbersome quiver,
while in target-shooting, being left on the ground near at hand, filled
with shafts to replace those broken or lost.
The party of archeresses consisted of seven fair girls, the eldest
scarce seventeen. They were fancifully attired, some in green, and
others in orange or blue hunting-jackets, after the tasteful fashion of
the period; a costume admirably calculated to display their sylphan
shapes. They all wore hats of the colour of their spencers, looped up in
front, and ornamented with waves of snowy plumes. Long white trains
descended from their waists to the ground, but, in shooting, were
gathered beneath the belt on the left side, and, thence falling down
again to the feet in numerous folds, added to the grace and
picturesqueness of their appearance. Each archeress was attended by a
favoured youth as an esquire, habited in a green or gray hunting-frock,
bordered with a wreath of embroidered oak-leaves, with an arrow worked
in silver thread on each lappel. They wore broad flapping hats, turned
boldly back from the forehead, and shaded in front with a drooping black
plume. Each carried a short hunting-spear, decked with ribands of the
colour of his mistress' jacket, gifts from her own hand and tied thereon
with her own fingers, in token that she acknowledged him as her "Esquire
of the Bow." The duty of these youthful cavaliers was to select a bow
suited to the strength of the archeress whose colours they wore; to fit
it with an arrow of a weight proportioned to its power, having a nock
exactly receiving the string; to assist, if the lady is unskilled, in
stringing the bow; to draw the arrows from the butt, or collect the
far-shot shafts and return them to the owner; and otherwise, as courtesy
and gallantry prompted, to do their duty as "esquires of archerie."
Once more the sonorous horn of old Cormac was heard winding, now high,
now low, in a long, wild strain, and then ending in three sharp blasts,
like the stirring notes of a bugle sounding to the charge. Every
archeress now had her brace buckled on her arm, and her shooting-glove
buttoned about her wrist; every one had two good arrows in the pouch at
her belt, and a third on the string; and each fair girl, attended by her
esquire, hastened to the stand by the southernmost target at the sound
of the forester's horn--save, in each instance, Kate Bellamont! Her
brace would not buckle all she could do; her shooting-glove would not go
on, and three, that she had pulled off, were lying rent at her feet; and
not an arrow was to be seen in her tortoise-shell pouch, though half a
dozen fair ones lay about her on the ground! It was very plain that
something was going wrong with the maiden. Such a dilemma could not have
happened without a cause. The braces of the rest buckled with ease;
their shooting-gloves fitted beautifully; and there had been time enough
to fill twenty pouches. Why, then, was Kate Bellamont not ready? Her
brace, both strap and buckle, was perfect; and the wrist it was destined
to compass was not to be matched for its smallness of size! The gloves,
plainly were just what they should be! Her companions had been fitted,
and her hand was the smallest as well as the fairest of the party;
besides, there were a dozen pairs on the ground that evidently were made
for no other hand. The cause could not lie in the arrows, for they were,
to the eye, without fault, and of every variety of shape and fashion
known to archery; nor in her handsome esquire, who, save when requested
by some eager girl to assist her, had been diligently serving her with
arrow after arrow, until he had emptied two quivers, the contents of
which now lay strewn around. The cause is not to be found in either of
these. The truth is, Kate Bellamont was playing with her little foot
against the ground when she should have been trying on her glove. No
sooner was one pulled half way on than she suffered it to remain so,
drumming the while in a fit of absence on the sward, while her eyes
followed the motions of her handsome esquire. The next moment,
recovering herself, she would tear it off impatiently, and, with a
laugh, fling it to the ground. She would then take up another, and go
through the same process, or play with her brace instead of buckling it;
and when the young gentleman gave her an arrow, without scarcely
touching it to the bow-string she threw it down, saying it was too heavy
or too light, too long or too short, had too much feather or had not
feather enough; so that, when the rest of the party were ready, Kate
Bellamont was just where she was at the outset. The result of all this,
whether brought about designedly or not by a little female
manoeuvring, being a question to be solved by such as are skilled in
the ways and means by which women work out their ends, was, that when
the last notes of Cormac's horn died away in the forest, Kate Bellamont
found herself and her esquire, the noble and youthful heir of the broad
lands of the earldom of Lester, left quite alone. The brace was on her
arm unbuckled, and she held a glove in her hand.
"Lord Robert, do clasp this troublesome brace for me. Strange you could
not see what difficulty I have had to get ready! But I suppose you were
so engaged fitting an arrow to pretty Gracy Fitzgerald's bow, that you
had no eyes for any one else!"
This was said half in pique, half laughingly; and holding, with a
pouting lip, her snowy arm towards her esquire as she spoke, he
gallantly received it, and with the merest effort in the world clasped
the rebellious brace. But he did not release her soft hand without
giving it a slight pressure, and looking into her face with an eloquent
gaze, which she consciously met with eyes half downcast, yet beaming
through their long dark lashes with a gentle fire that young love only
could have kindled.
"Now, Sir Esquire, fasten this glove."
The youth bent till the black plume of his bonnet rested on her arm,
and, with some difficulty apparently, for he was a very long time about
it, succeeded in buttoning the silken strap across the blue-veined
wrist; nor did he lift his head from the fair hand, which lay nestled
like a bird in his beneath the thick covert of his drooping feather, ere
he had touched it with his bold lip.
"Ha, Sir Forester, is this a part of your service as squire of archery?"
she demanded, with the blood mounting to her cheek in maidenly surprise;
though the pouting smile on her mouth, which she vainly tried to turn
into a frown, and the dancing light in her telltale eyes, betokened
anything besides resentment at the bold deed; "I see I must resign you
to my sly little cousin Gracy, and take her well-behaved esquire;
doubtless you better understand her humour than you seem to do mine."
By the time she had ended she had succeeded in calling up a small cloud
on her brow, which struggled very hard to cast a shadow over the sunny
light that played around her lovely mouth and was reflected back in a
thousand rays from the deep wells of her black, Castilian eyes.
"Forgive me, sweet Lady Kate," said the esquire, dropping on one
knee--disguising his attitude to the eyes of others by gathering
carelessly one or two arrows from the ground--to her eyes alone a
suppliant. The expression of his face amusingly wavered between playful
mockery and seriousness, as if greatly fearing, yet doubting much, that
his daring act had really given offence: a sort of neutral ground
between mirth and grief, with the advantage of enabling him to fall
readily into the one or the other, as he should find the needle of her
humour pointed.
"See, then, you offend not again, sir," she said, laughing at the
troubled expression of his serio-comic countenance. "Haste! choose me an
arrow that tapers from the pile to the feather."
"One that tapers each way from the middle will suit you better for
shooting in this light wind," said the young esquire, the puzzled play
of his handsome features changed to sunshine by her voice. As he spoke
he brought a quiver full of arrows and poured them out at her feet, and,
kneeling on the thick verdure, selected an arrow of the kind he had
named.
"No, no," she said, putting it aside; "they always curve from the line
of sight; and, besides, fly unsteady."
"Not in a wind, Kate. The fulness in the middle counteracts the weight
of the ends, and drives it more evenly."
"Do as you are bidden, Sir Esquire," she said. "Don't think now you are
going to have your own way." A second arrow was placed in her hand by
the youth.
"Why, Lord Robert, what _is_ the matter with your wits! This is an arrow
of the same kind; and, besides, it is without a cock-feather. I shall
have to call yonder handsome fisher's lad, who is watching me so
admiringly, to my assistance."
The esquire, without looking up, mechanically handed to her a third
arrow, with the head broken and the feathers ruffled. Without being able
to speak in her surprise, she looked quietly down and beheld the young
man so intently contemplating one of her exquisite little feet, that
twice she spoke to him ere he looked up to encounter her gaze of arch
astonishment. It was very plain what had become of her esquire's wits.
The youth blushed, and hastily rose to his feet; but the maiden could
not disguise a little female vanity, though she shook her finger at him,
and said mischievously,
"Do you propose becoming a cordwainer, and making me a pair of slippers,
Lord Robert, that you are so busy taking the dimensions of my foot?"
"I would willingly become apprentice to the meanest cobbler, to be
suffered to take the measure of that tiny foot, and fit it with a shoe,"
said the youth, with gallantry.
The maiden laughed, and, unwilling to betray the feeling his words had
created, said, "Do be quick, Lord Robert; my bow is not yet strung with
our foolish idling here, and I shall be too late for the lists."
As she spoke she grasped her bow firmly in the middle, and extending her
hand, containing the string terminating with a loop, to the upper limb,
she pulled smartly upward, pressing the limb downward at the same time
with her left wrist, and skilfully and accurately carried the eye of the
bow-string into the nock. Her bow, like those of her companions, was
five feet in length, neatly made of dark wood highly polished, and
rounded on the inner side to increase its power in shooting.
"Well and featly done! That's a tough yew, and a man's strength could
not have better done what your little fingers, with skill to guide them,
I have just seen do. You were an apt pupil, young mistress, and do
honour to old Dermot's lessons."
Kate Bellamont turned and saw the old forester close at her side. "If I
have any skill, good Cormac," she said, "I do owe it all to your kind
teaching; and if I win the arrow this day, you shall have it as a
birthday gift from me, to wear in your bonnet instead of your pipe."
The forester lifted his bonnet with a gratified air, mingled with
respect, at this expression of kindness from his lovely young mistress,
and said,
"I know you would give Cormac, sweet lady, even the fair white plume
that graces your brow if you thought it would gratify the old man. God
bless you, noble child; may you live to see many such bright birthdays
as this!" The rough huntsman brushed a tear from his eyes as he spoke;
for the experience of years had told him that clouds would obscure the
bright sky of her young hopes, and that each returning birthday might be
but a sad waymark to denote the slow passage of a life of sorrow and
trial. "The countess has bid me come and see if you need my aid in
fitting your shafts, that you delay."
"No, no, Cormac," said the maiden, blushing; but directly she cried,
"Yes, you can help me. I am undecided whether to shoot an arrow that
tapers from the head to the feathers, or from the feathers to the head,
or from the middle both ways."
"What says Master Robert?" asked Dermot, smiling archly through one of
his little gray eyes, the other, from the long habit of shutting it in
shooting, having at last got to be so firmly closed up in a radiating
network of fine wrinkles as to have been for the last ten years of his
life invisible.
"Pshaw, Cormac!" she cried, stooping till her snowy plumes shaded her
burning cheek; "I did not ask Lord Robert, but you."
"I have advised Lady Kate, forester, to shoot arrows that taper both to
feather and pile," said the youth, haughtily.
"And she chooses--"
"Those that taper from the pile to the feather," said the maiden,
quickly.
"If the distance were seventy yards instead of fifty," said the
forester, measuring the ground with his eye, "it would be a good shaft
for a steady hand; but, if you will let me decide, I would recommend you
to take the taper from the feather, especially as the air is in motion."
"Your skill is at fault for once, old man," said the young noble, with a
flushed brow; "the best bowmen in England--ay, Robin Hood himself, were
he here this day--would teach you your craft better."
"You are in error, Master Robert," said the forester, with some warmth,
in defence of his profession; "and he who taught you that a double taper
is better in a wind than--"
"Hist, old graybeard! you know nothing of woodscraft; yonder fisher's
lad will even tell you a shaft swelling in the middle will waver in its
passage through the wind like a weathercock."
"Nay, Master Robert--"
"Speak again, old man, and I strike you!" said the young noble,
imperiously, angry that his skill should be called in question; feeling
positive that he alone was right, or else too proud to acknowledge his
conviction.
"For shame, Lester," cried Kate Bellamont, with an indignant look; "I
did not think you were of so overbearing and ungracious a temper!
Besides," she added, proudly, "I sought Cormac's opinion! Strike an old
man, and in a lady's presence! Out upon thy manhood, Robert. Ask
Cormac's forgiveness, or never speak to me more."
"Pardon my hasty speech, Kate," he said, abashed by her look, and
reproached by the cutting irony of her words, approaching her as he
spoke with an air of deep mortification, "forgive--"
"To Cormac, sir, not me."
"For Cormac, in atonement, I will send from Castle More a fat buck, with
this very arrow sticking in its heart; but," he added, with haughty
fierceness, "I will ask no man's forgiveness. If I have offended, I am
ready to stand by my words."
"Marry come up! we are like to have a letting of blood here," said the
maiden, between jest and seriousness. "Will you be docile, Robert?"
"At your bidding, Kate, as a lamb."
"_Very_ like a lamb. Forget it, Dermot. You have made his pride a little
sore to tell him, before a lady, he knew not how to choose a shaft, and
so unfit to be an esquire of archery."
"Young blood will up," said the forester. "I meant not to gainsay your
skill, Master Robert, for it's known to every bowman that no young hand
in the county can send a shaft farther or surer than young Lord Robert
of Castle More."
"That will do, Cormac. Now, Robert, see that you henceforward take fire
less readily; and you, good Dermot, refrain from wounding the esteem of
these young lords. Verily, it behooves me to look to my own speech in
such fiery company. Nay, Robert," she added, laughing, "I have done.
Give me the shafts; and, as we are to have three shots apiece at the
target, I will shoot one of each kind, and be the prize his whose arrow
wins! Give me them, Robert!--nay, don't press my fingers so hard; I
don't want them in my hand, but in the pouch. Go, Cormac, I am ready. I
see my lady mother is shaking her silver arrow at me already for
loitering here when I should be at the post."
The next moment she had joined the archers, and the trial of skill
forthwith commenced. The first arrow that was shot was from the bow of a
fair-haired girl, in a blue hat and a silken bodice of the same colour;
it flew wide of the mark, and quivered in the trunk of a tree sixty
yards off.
"There was nerve in that, Lady Eustace," said old Cormac, who watched
each shot with professional interest; "but you grasped the handle of
your bow too tightly, and so made your aim unsteady. Hold your bow as
lightly as you would a hunting-whip. 'Tis not strength, but skill, that
sends the bolt into the eye of the butt."
The young archeress laughed at her failure, and resigned her place to
another, who was distinguished by an orange-coloured spencer. This
second shot was more successful; for, swiftly cleaving the air, the
arrow stuck in the orange circle.
"Bravo! orange to orange!" was the cry that on all sides hailed this
appropriate hit.
The third shaft was still better directed; and, hitting the red or inner
circle, stuck there for a moment trembling like an aspen-leaf, and then
fell to the ground.
"A brave bolt that! a brave bolt that," said the forester, "and drawn
well to the head. But you should have brought the nock of your arrow
down more towards your ear. The ear in shooting an arrow; the eye in
firing a pistol or harquebuss. That shaft was a taper from the feather,
Master Robert."
"Hush, Cormac," cried Kate Bellamont, quickly; "would you get your gray
beard into a broil. Robert, bring me my quiver," she said, as she saw
the young man's eye light up; "one of my arrows, the very one you gave
me, has the cock-feather awry! Stay! you need not bring the quiver, but
select a shaft for me yourself. I will keep it as my forlorn hope, and
mark me if it do not carry off the prize." She sought his eyes and
looked so bewitchingly after a manner maidens have of their own, that
his brow coloured and his eyes beamed with a different emotion, while,
with a fluttering heart, he went to do her bidding.
Oh, gentle and angelic woman! ever ready to calm the ruffled brow with
words of peace! to bring good out of evil! to step between fierce man
and his reinless passions! with an eye to sooth, a voice to disarm, a
smile to win! Blessings on thee, woman! whether in thy happy and
innocent girlhood, or fair and gentle maidenhood; whether maid or
matron, young or old, lovely or homely! Blessings on thee, sweet leaven
of humanity! yet partaking so much of the heavenly nature, that the sons
of the gods, we are told, were lured from their celestial thrones to
cast their crowns at thy feet!
A fourth arrow hit the black circle; and the fifth, sent from the bow of
a tall, graceful girl, struck on the outer edge of the target and
splintered it, while the bow itself snapped in two in her hand.
"What a mischievous shot, Fanny," cried Lady Bellamont, smiling; "if
by-and-by you launch Cupid's shafts at your lovers' hearts in that way,
you will make sad havoc."
"It was all, your ladyship, of placing the short limb of the bow
uppermost. Hugh Conor must be getting old that he teacheth not his pupil
better to handle the bow," said old Cormac, shaking his snowy locks as
the next archeress, a sylph-like little being, about fifteen, with
dangerous hazel eyes; rich chestnut-coloured hair, that flowed in curls
all over her shoulders; a voice like some merry bird's, and a wild,
joyous spirit lighting up like a sunbeam her whole countenance, took her
place at the stand.
"Now, cousin Gracy, do be steady!" cried Kate Bellamont; "take heed! you
will shoot my esquire through the heart if you handle your bow so
carelessly."
"And then you would shoot me through the head in return, I dare say."
The laughing girl bounded to the stand as she spoke, carelessly drew her
arrow to the head, and, ere she had well taken aim, away it flew, and
passed through the centre of the emblazoned target waving on the summit
of the pavilion, and continued its wild flight into the wood beyond.
"Bravo, cousin Gracy! you have won the silver arrow," cried Kate
Bellamont. "Lord Robert, I wonder if that was the arrow you chose for
Lady Grace. A taper both ways, or I'll forfeit my jennet!"
"Who makes the broil now, young mistress?" asked the old forester, with
a glance of humour.
"You and I, worthy Cormac, are two very different people where a young
gentleman is concerned," said the maiden, laughing.
The forester shook his head incredulously, and, turning to Grace
Fitzgerald, said, "Faith, but it was a brave shot that, my young lady!
You have done what old Dermot could not have done at a target, playing
in the wind like that. But, with the leave of my lady the queen, you
must have a second shot at the real target. Take this arrow, that tapers
from the feather to the pile; fit it to your bow-string exactly at the
spot where it is wound round with silk; and, if you will follow my
directions, I will teach you to strike the centre of the true butt, or
never draw arrow to head again." Leave being granted by acclamation, the
archeress merrily resumed her attitude and prepared to follow his
instructions.
"Hold the bow easily in your hand. Throw your head back a little. That
will do. Now keep your bow-arm straightened, and bend the wrist of your
gloved hand inward. Now raise your bow, steadily drawing the arrow at
the same time--not towards your eye, but towards your ear. Be steady!
When it is three parts drawn, take your aim at the centre. Keep the head
of the arrow a little to the right of the mark. Be cool, and, if you are
sure of your aim, draw the arrow quickly and steadily to the head, and
gently part your fingers and let it go!"
The shaft, loosened from the string, cut the air and buried itself in
the very centre of the golden eye of the target. A shout from every part
of the field acknowledged the success of the quick pupil, and bore
testimony to the skill of the experienced old archer.
"It is Cormac's shot, not mine," said the archeress; "I am satisfied
with piercing the glittering centre of yonder escutcheon."
"The queen shall decide," cried several of the party, turning towards
the throne where sat the lovely countess, amid her youthful attendants,
participating with girlish interest in the scene, and prepared to decide
all appeals to her royal umpirage.
"Gracy is right. Cormac's skill directed the shaft. She has no honest
claim to the honour of the hit, save the credit of having stood quiet
longer than she was ever known to before! The banner with its perforated
target she is justly entitled to; and," added the countess, with a
smile, "I here award it to her."
"And if I ever get a husband he shall carry it before him into battle,"
said the merry sylph. "Now, divine Kate, see that you don't wound my
arrow. I would not have it injured for a silver one."
"It tapers from the middle in each direction, I have no doubt," said
Kate, archly, glancing mischievously towards her esquire as she prepared
to take her place at the stand.
"Your speech tapers in both directions, wild Kate," retorted the other,
blushing. "I wonder what you and Lord Robert could have been doing, that
you loitered so long about the pavilion! There, I declare, if you are
not holding your bow with the short limb uppermost!"
Kate blushed in her turn, and reversed it.
"Why, cousin Kate Bellamont, you are going to shoot with the feather
towards the target!" cried the tantalizing little maiden. "Really, I
_do_ begin to wonder what you and Lester _could_ have been about, that
the mention of it scatters your wits and makes you look so _very_
foolish!"
Kate shook her head with a playful menace at her tormentor, placed her
arrow with the right end to the bow-string, and took her stand by the
target. The instant she fixed her eyes on it her self-possession
returned, and, elevating her bow, she threw herself with careless grace
into the attitude of an accomplished archeress.
A more beautiful object than this young creature, standing in the
strikingly spirited attitude she had assumed, can hardly be imagined.
Though but sixteen, her form was divinely perfect. Every limb--foot,
hand, and arm--was a rare model for the sculptor's chisel. The
undulating outline of her shoulders was faultless; and her figure,
perhaps, was the more beautiful that her bust and waist, and the wavy
symmetry of her whole person, was just receiving that harmony of touch
and roundness of finish which marks the era when the wild romping girl
is merging into the blushing, conscious, loving, and loveable maiden of
seventeen. Descended from an ancient Milesian family, she betrayed her
origin in her complexion, which was a rich brunette, reflecting in warm,
sunny tints the mantling blood, which came and went at every emotion.
Her eyes were dark and sparkling as night with its stars, and as, with a
slightly bent brow, she fixed them on the target, they had a cool and
steady expression remarkable in one of her years and sex. She wore a
dark ruby velvet jacket, laced over a stomacher rich with brilliants,
and a velvet hat of the same dark ruby, surmounted by a plume of white
ostrich feathers, in that day a rare and costly ornament, which
gracefully drooped about her head in striking contrast with her raven
locks that floated around her superb neck in the wildest freedom. Her
lips, like most of the lips of Erin's fair maidens, were of a rich coral
red, and, just parted as she took sight, rendered visible a pearly line
of beautifully-arranged teeth. Her mouth, when closed, was finely
shaped, and sometimes wore an air of decision, that did not, however, in
any way diminish its witchery. The glow of health, and the pride of
birth and beauty, were upon her countenance, and every feminine grace
and charm seemed to play around her.
As she stood with one foot a little advanced, her neck slightly curved
to bring her eyes down to a level with the mark, her left side, but no
part of the front of the body, accurately turned towards the target, the
eyes of old Cormac Dermot glistened with pride. Slowly she elevated the
bow, drawing the arrow simultaneously towards the ear with the first
three gloved fingers of her right hand, till she had drawn it out three
quarters of its length, when, pausing till she had filled her eye with
the golden eye of the target, she drew it smartly to its head and let it
loose from her fingers. For an instant she stood following its swift
flight: the pupils of her dark eyes dilated and eager; her lips closely
shut; her chest advanced; her right arm elevated and curved above her
shoulders, the wrist bent, and the fingers of the hand turned gently
downward; the left arm extended at full length, and grasping the relaxed
bow; her neck curved; her spirited head thrown back, and her whole
action animated and commanding; presenting altogether, perhaps, the most
graceful attitude the female form is susceptible of assuming.
The arrow was sent with unerring aim, struck the golden eye within half
an inch of Grace Fitzgerald's, and buried itself to its feather. The
lawn rung with the plaudits of both archeresses and esquires; and even
the retainers and fishermen, who were humble but curious spectators of
the sports, gave vent to their admiration in shouts of clamorous
applause. Old Cormac swung his long yew bow above his head with delight,
and looked as if, in the pride of the moment, he would have hugged his
accomplished pupil to his heart.
"Do not be so elated, good Dermot," she said, laughing; "it was the
arrow I chose--a taper from the pile."
"The more skill in the hand that drove it so truly," said the forester.
"I must do still better than this, else neither you nor Lord Robert,
who, methinks, looks somewhat blank to find I have not missed to gratify
him, will neither of you get the prize."
"It was not a fair trial, Kate," said the esquire, gayly; "the wind has
lulled; and, as you drew your bow, there was not a breath of air."
"If, nevertheless, that had been a taper from the feather," said the
forester, after surveying the target earnestly for a moment, as
obstinately bent on adhering to his original opinion as even the
spirited young noble himself, "it would have cleft the arrow of Lady
Gracy through its length to the pile."
"We will see to that anon, worthy Cormac. I have two shots more. Here is
the arrow you chose for me, which I will fit to my bow-string, and do my
best to drive it through my cousin's."
"I dare say you will if you can, and would like, also, to destroy
everything else Lord Robert gives me," said the roguish Grace, putting
up her lip and tossing her head, with its cloud of rich hair, in
admirably affected pique.
The young esquire of Kate Bellamont looked embarrassed; Kate laughed and
drummed on the ground with her foot, while the whole party began
forthwith to prepare for the next round. The customary mode of
ascertaining the value of the hits in archery, by estimating it in
proportion to their distance from the centre, was departed from in the
present instance. By the method alluded to, a hit in the gold counts
nine; in the red, three; in the orange, two; in the black, one; and
their sum is the value of the hits: a process which makes three hits in
the red circle of the same value, or nearly so, of one in the gold. In
the present case, the shots were limited to three, and the prize awarded
to the greatest number of hits in the gold.
In the second round, the first three arrows struck three different
circles; and one well-directed shaft, shot by the archeress who had
before broken her bow, hit the gold, though at its junction with the
red. Grace Fitzgerald bent her bow without aim, but the courteous arrow
went accurately to the mark, and struck within a finger's breadth of the
centre, much to the delight of Cormac, the forester, who took himself
all the credit of the fair shot. Kate, with the arrow given her by
Cormac fitted to her bow-string, took somewhat less careful aim than
with her first shot, and was about to loose the arrow, when a hawk,
bearing a live fish in his talons, soared above the cliff, and with
swift wing flew high across the lawn in the direction of the forest.
Quicker than thought, the point of the arrow was elevated from the
target into the air, drawn to its head with a stronger arm and more
resolute eye, and launched from the bow-string. With irresistible force
and unerring aim, it cleft the air and struck the proud bird of prey
beneath the wing. He uttered a wild cry, flew heavily a few feet
perpendicularly upward, and then, whirling round and round in concentric
circles, each gyration bringing him nearer the earth, fell, transfixed
with the arrow, among the fishermen: fluttering wildly on the ground in
agony, he succeeded, before they could secure him, in flapping himself
over the precipice. He was instantly followed by a daring young
fisherman, who had been endeavouring to capture him--the same youth
whose admiration of her had before attracted the notice of Kate
Bellamont.
For a moment the generous heart of the fair archer shrunk from the wreck
she had made, and she turned away her head from the dying struggles of
the dark bandit of the air. But maidens of that period were too familiar
with the more revolting scenes of the chase to show emotion at
witnessing the death of a hawk; and, therefore, sympathy for the fate of
the victim of her skill gave place to the pride of the successful
archer.
"There is a prize for you, Cormac, better than a golden arrow," she
said, with a flashing eye; "and, when next I go a hawking," she archly
added, "I will be sure to use arrows that taper from the feather."
The third and final round now followed. Each archeress had shot her last
arrow save Kate Bellamont, yet but three arrows besides her own and the
equivocal shot of Grace Fitzgerald were in the centre, and these from as
many different bows. Grace had made a wilder shot even than her first;
for her arrow, jeopardizing the lives of the poor fishermen, flew far
over the cliff out of sight. Four of the companions of Kate had, equally
with herself, each an arrow in the gold; but as she had yet to shoot her
third arrow, she had yet a chance of making a second hit and winning the
prize. Glancing with proud consciousness of her own skill towards her
young esquire, she drew her remaining arrow through her fingers,
carefully examining each one of its three feathers, and fitted it
accurately to the bow-string; then elevating her bow, she steadily drew
the arrow. All was breathless expectation. The old archer looked on as
if he would not grieve if for once his pupil should miss; while her
young esquire watched her with the anxiety of one who felt that his
judgment and skill in the noble science of archery were at stake. As she
was ready to loose the arrow, the wind, which had hitherto gently fanned
her cheek, increased suddenly to a strong breeze, lifting the hair from
her brow and tossing her tresses in wild confusion about her neck. The
eyes of Cormac lighted up with triumph, while Lord Robert himself curled
his lip scornfully and smiled with confidence. The archeress, who had
dropped the point of the arrow with a misgiving, remembering what Cormac
had said of it as ill adapted to a wind, on catching the confident eye
of her esquire again raised the bow, and coolly and steadily drew the
shaft to its head. Every eye followed it in its swift course, and saw it
strike the arrow of Grace Fitzgerald on the end, shiver it to its pile,
and drive itself through the target to the feather. A general
exclamation of surprise and admiration bore testimony to the skill of
the victor; the dark eyes of the young esquire sparkled with triumph,
while the discomfited Dermot said, with a broad laugh of good-humour,
"Well, Master Robert, it's your time to boast now. By the boar's head o'
Castle Cor! I shall never hear the end of your double taper. Faith,
masters, no hand but my young Lady Kate's could have sent a double taper
with such an aim and in this wind, which young Lord Robert there has got
old Elpsy to set a blowing to triumph over the old man's skill. Well
a-day! What the gray-headed forester said of it is true, nevertheless;
but when such a hand and eye as Lady Kate's sends the bolt to the butt,
there is no depending on old rules; especially," he added, laughing,
"with a witch's wind to carry the arrow to its centre."
The young noble frowned darkly on the speaker, and joined not in the
laugh of his companions. Lady Bellamont now commanded Cormac to sound
his horn three times, and bid, in the name of the queen of archery, the
band of archeresses, with their esquires, who were hastening towards the
target to collect their arrows, to approach the throne, and witness the
award of the prize to the victor.
Amid the congratulations and applauses of the whole field, for,
unenvious, each light-hearted girl seemed to share the triumph of the
accomplished archeress, the victoress advanced to the rustic footstool
of the throne, and gracefully knelt to receive, from the hand of the
beautiful queen of the sports, the glittering prize--a finely-wrought
arrow of silver, five inches in length, with a chased gold head, on
which was graven, in small Gothic characters, these words:
"Field of Archery, Castle Cor, May, MDCXCIV."
"Victorious archeress," said the queen, rising, her face beaming with
maternal love and pride, and extending her arm containing the prize,
"receive this fair token of your matchless skill, so well displayed this
day. May you in every other female accomplishment, my sweet Kate, be as
successful as in archery."
"She'll be a match for poor little Cupid, with his tiny bow and arrow, I
dare say," said Grace Fitzgerald, with a roguish eye. "Poor youth!" she
continued, glancing significantly towards the handsome Lord Robert, who
stood at the right hand of the victress, "I pity him if he's like to
have such a hole made in his heart as Kate has made in yonder target."
This sally of the sprightly maiden was merrily received by all the
youthful circle save the conscious two who were its subjects. The lovely
countess now left the throne, embraced and kissed her noble Kate, whom
her companions, gathering around her, playfully forced into the vacant
seat. She was about to bound from it again, when she checked the
impulse, reseated herself, and bade her esquire advance and kneel before
her. The gallant youth obeyed; when, bending gracefully forward, she
fastened the silver arrow in the loop of his bonnet, and bade him wear
it on every return of that day in memory of the field of archery at
Castle Cor.
The noble youth accepted the gift, won by the arrow he had chosen, with
the same playful, half-serious spirit in which it was bestowed, and then
kissed the fair hand that presented it with at least full as much
passion as gallantry. Amid the merry sallies, especially from Grace
Fitzgerald, this scene created, the whole party of archers bounded away
like a troop of wild deer towards the target, to ascertain more
accurately the nature, of the several hits, while the countess, at a
more dignified pace, attended by the forester, returned to the castle to
prepare for the further entertainments of the day. But the fleetest of
foot among the youthful bevy of fair girls had not measured half the
green space between the linden-tree and bristling target, when a
thrilling outcry of terror from a fisherman on the cliff, who wildly
waved his arms to some one below, and the next moment clasped his hands
together in despair, checked them in mid career; and, with hearts
palpitating with vague apprehensions of danger, they flew to the
precipice to ascertain the cause of this sudden alarm.