"Alas! the love of women! it is known
To be a lovely and a fearful thing;
For all of theirs upon that die is thrown,
And if 'tis lost, life hath no more to bring
To them but mockeries of the past alone,
And their revenge is as the tiger's spring,
Deadly, and quick, and crushing; yet, as real
Fortune is theirs--what they inflict they feel."
_Don Juan._
Kate Bellamont gazed after the departing Lester until his receding form
became indistinct, and his dancing plume mingled with the waving foliage
of the forest into which he rode; she then bent her ear and listened
till his horse's feet ceased longer to give back a sound, when, overcome
by the depth and strength of her feelings, she leaned her head upon the
lattice and wept like a very child; at length she recollected the duties
that devolved upon her as entertainer of the party of archers; and,
forcing a calmness that she did not feel, she descended to the lawn, and
once more mingled in the festivities of her birthday.
Notwithstanding all her self-possession, her eyes often filled with
tears when they should have lighted up with smiles; and even her smiles
were tinged with sadness! And how could it be otherwise, when her heart
and her thoughts were at no moment with the scenes before her? She
longed for the day to close--for the night to approach--that she might
fly to her solitary chamber, and there, hidden from every eye, indulge
her feelings. At length the long, long day came to an end, and with it
departed the youthful company on horse-back to their several homes. A
gay and gallant appearance the cavalcade presented as it rode away from
the castle--a youthful cavalier prancing by the bridle of each maiden,
and a band of armed retainers of the several families bringing up the
rear. Kate bade them adieu, and stood in the hall-door following them
with her eyes till the last horseman was lost in the windings of the
forest; she then flew to her chamber, and, turning the bolt of her door,
cast herself upon her bed and once more gave free vent to the gushing
tears which she could no longer restrain.
Twilight was lost in night: the round moon rose apace, and, shining
through the Gothic lattice, fell in a myriad of diamond-shaped flakes on
the floor; yet had she not lifted her face from her pillow since first
she had buried it there, though the violence of her grief had long since
subsided; and so still was she that she seemed to sleep. But the soft
influence of this gentle blessing was a stranger to her aching eyelids.
Her soul was sad and dark! her sensitive spirit had been wounded! the
wing of her heart was broken. Her thoughts rushed wild and tumultuous
through her brain, and her young bosom, torn by strong emotions, heaved
like the billow when lashed by the storm. She mourned in the silence of
her heart's depths, without solace, and without hope; condemning her own
hasty act, and, like a very woman, excusing his conduct by every
invention that her true love could find in palliation.
All at once she was disturbed by a light tap at her door. She started
suddenly, aroused from that world of troubled thought in which she had
so long been lost to the exclusion of everything external, and lifted
her face. Her surprise was great on seeing the moon looking in upon her,
and filling her little room with an atmosphere like floating dust of
silver. A glow of pleasure warmed her heart, and an exclamation of
delight unconsciously escaped from her lips--it was so calmly bright, so
richly beautiful! Like a blessing sent from heaven, the sweet moonlight
fell upon her soul, and all the softer and holier sympathies of her
nature were touched by its celestial beauty. She approached the lattice
and threw it open, forgetting the cause that had aroused her from her
mood of grief, in admiration of the loveliness to which she had
awakened.
A second tap was heard at her door. She started with instant
consciousness; and throwing back from her face the cloud of raven
ringlets that had fallen about it, tried to assume a cheerful look, and
bade the applicant enter.
"I can't, cousin Kate," said the sweet voice of Grace Fitzgerald, in a
low tone; "you have locked yourself in."
Kate blushed, stammered something, she scarcely knew what, in excuse,
and turning the key, admitted her mischievous cousin.
"In the dark, Kate!" exclaimed Grace, as she entered.
"'T were sacrilege, cousin, to bring a lamp in presence of this lovely
moon! Come stand by the lattice with me," she said, throwing her arms
about her and drawing her towards her.
The fair cousins leaned together from the window and looked out upon the
silvery scene. There was something in the quiet loveliness of the lawn
beneath, spangled with myriads of dewdrops like minute fragments of
diamonds; in the deep repose of the dark woods; in the majesty of the
ocean, which sent its heavy, sighing sound to their ears with every
passing breeze; in the glory of the glittering firmament, with the moon
like a bride walking in its midst, and in their own lonely situation,
which the silence of the castle and the lateness of the hour contributed
to increase, to make both silent and thoughtful.
At length a deep sigh escaped the bosom of Kate, and Grace turned to
contemplate her unconscious face, as with thoughtful eyes, her head
resting in her hand, she gazed on vacancy, evidently thinking on
subjects wholly separated from the natural scenery before her.
"Dear Kate," said Grace, after watching for some time in silence the
sad, pale brow of her cousin, and speaking in a tone of tender and
affectionate sympathy; "dear Kate, I pity you!" She gently threw her
arms about her neck as she spoke, and, drawing her towards her, kissed
her cheek.
The touching sincerity of her manner, unusual to the merry maiden, came
directly home to her heart. She felt that she was understood; that her
sorrow was appreciated! She struggled with virgin coyness for a few
seconds, and then, yielding to her increasing emotions, threw herself
into her arms and wept there. How grateful to her full heart to find
another into which it could freely empty itself! How happy, very happy
was she, that that heart was, of all others, her beloved cousin's! How
unexpected her sympathy! How soothing, how welcome to her sad and
isolated bosom! At length she lifted her face, and, smiling through her
tears, said, after dwelling an instant on the lovely features of her
cousin,
"You are a sweet, noble creature, Grace! You don't know how happy your
kind sympathy has made me! and all so unlooked for! Yet I know you will
think me very silly; and I fear your natural spirit will break out
again, and that you will, ere long, ridicule what you now regard with
such sweet charity!"
"Believe me, Kate, I feel for you with all my heart. I could have cried
for you a dozen times to-day, when I saw how very unhappy you looked!"
she added, with tenderness beaming through her deep shaded eyes.
"And yet, dear Grace, I think I never saw you so gay, nor those little
lips so rich with merry speeches," pursued Kate, playfully tapping her
rosy lips with her finger.
"It was for your sake, dear cousin Kate. I saw that your feelings were
wrought up to just that point when you must either laugh or cry, and one
as easy for you to do as the other; so, trembling lest, in spite of
yourself, you should lean towards the tragic vein, I did my little best
to make you laugh."
"You were a kind, generous creature, Grace," said the maiden, with a
glow of grateful energy in her manner. "I have not half known your
worth, though you have been full six months at Castle Cor."
"And now, just as you are beginning to know what a nice, good cousin I
turn out to be, I am, hey for merry England again!"
"I cannot part with you, Grace; my father must sail to-morrow without
you. You will stay with me, won't you?" she added, with sportive
earnestness.
"I have twice delayed my departure, and poor father will need my nursing
in this recent return of his old complaint. I fear we may not meet again
for many years. I shall then," she said, with her usual thoughtlessness,
"perhaps, find you Lady Lester! Forgive me, cousin Kate," she instantly
added, as she saw the expression of her face change; "I am a careless
creature, to wound at one moment where I have healed at another. But,"
she added, with playful assurance, "this may yet be even as I have said!
Nay, don't shake your head so determinedly! Lester is not so angry that
a word from you will not bring him to your feet."
"Cousin Grace, do you know what and of whom you are speaking?" said
Kate, startled that her feelings should have been so well divined;
shrinking with maidenly shame that the strength of her love and the
weakness of her resolution should be discovered to her observing cousin,
and involuntarily resenting, with the impulse of a woman at such a time,
the imputation.
"Indeed I do, dear coz! so do no injustice to your own feelings by
denying them. You will forgive Lester if I will bring him to your feet?"
she inquired, archly.
"Yes--no--that is--"
"That _you will_. Very well. Before to-morrow's sun be an hour old, he
shall kneel there."
"Not for the world, Grace!" she cried, trembling between fear and hope;
her love struggling with the respect due to her maidenly dignity, which
she could not but feel, still, that Lester had outraged.
"I don't care for your words, Kate; I know they mean just the opposite
of what you say. Robert Lester shall kneel at your feet to-morrow
morning, and sue for pardon for his offence," she added, with gentle
stubbornness.
"Without compromising my--" she half unconsciously began.
"I shall not compromise you in the least. There shall be no syllable of
concession on your part mentioned; let me manage it my own way, and see
if you do not love each other the better for it yet?"
"Coz!" she cried, placing her fore finger on her mouth reprovingly, yet
pleased and smiling with the first dawnings of bright returning hope.
"I am glad to see you smile once more, and I am resolved you shall yet
be happy," added Grace, who had shown that, beneath the light current of
gayety that usually characterized her, there was a flow of deep and
generous feeling; and that, with all her thoughtless levity, she was
susceptible both of the sincerest attachment and of the warmest
friendship. Her words conveyed the germe of hope to the breast of her
cousin. Her confident manner inspired confidence; and the happy Kate,
giving herself up to the direction of the sanguine feelings her language
and presence had caused to spring up in her sinking heart, became all at
once a different being.
"If I am happy in the way you mean, I shall owe it all to you," she
said, kissing her. "Now for your plan, my sweet diplomatist."
"Now for my plan, then. That Lord Robert has gone home very angry
indeed, there can be no question. Now, when a lover is angry, justly,
with his mistress, he will be ever ready to meet her, not only half, but
the whole, of the way, to bring about a reconciliation. When he has no
right to be angry with her, and is so foolish as to be so, how much the
more readily then will he be brought to her feet! There is a spice of
argument for you. Now, as Lord Robert has no cause in the world to be
offended with you, it follows that he has every cause in the world to
induce him to acknowledge his offence, and ask pardon therefor on the
very first opportunity. Now all that he wants cheerfully to do this, it
appears to me, is the assurance that, after such a philippic as that
with which you were pleased to send him off, he will be received
graciously."
"But how, if I should be inclined to be gracious, sage cousin of mine,
is Lester to know it?"
"That will very easily be brought about, I think. Let me see!" and she
seemed to muse very profoundly for a few seconds. "Ha! I have it. I will
borrow that curious locket he gave you--"
"Locket, Grace--Lord Robert gave me!" repeated Kate, colouring, and
looking out of the lattice as if some interesting object had at that
moment drawn her attention.
"Yes," replied Grace, dryly, and with a look of the most provoking
positiveness.
"It is no use, I see, to conceal anything from you, mischief! How _did_
you know he gave it to me?"
"Young ladies are not wont to take from their bosoms a boughten trinket,
and slyly kiss it a hundred times a day, and--"
"Grace, Grace!" cried Kate, attempting to stop her saucy speech.
"And sleep with it under their pillow."
"Cousin Grace!"
"I have done," she said, quietly.
"You well may be. Oh, if I do not wish you had a lover, that I could
repay you in kind!"
"Perhaps I have!" was the imperturbable rejoinder of the maiden.
"I dare say fifty whom you call so. Among the gay Oxford gallants, the
heiress of a coronet could not be without admirers; but oh, if I knew
only of one _lover_ who could set that little heart of yours a
trembling!"
"You forget your locket, cousin," said the other, gravely.
"What shall be done with it, Grace?"
"Send it to Lester, with this message: '_He who returns this gift of
love to her who sends it, shall with love be met_.' Now is not that very
pretty, and as it should be?"
"What a wild creature! Would you have me send such a message to Lester,
child? He would think me jesting with him."
"No, never. Is it not just what you want to say--what you feel--what you
wish, above all things, he should know you feel?"
"Yes, indeed, Grace," she replied, with the most ingenuous naivete.
"Then it shall go. Give me the token. Nay, part not with it so
reluctantly; 'twill soon be back, with a prize worth a thousand of it.
Give it me, coz. Nay, then, kiss it! and so will I."
"No, you shall not!" cried Kate, with laughing earnestness.
"Oh, I _do_ hope _I_ never shall be in love!" said Grace, getting
possession of the locket. "Here is pencil and paper. Can you write by
this moonlight? Lovers, methinks, should write by no other light." She
spread the paper on the window as she spoke.
"Write! what do you mean, Grace?" exclaimed Kate, with surprise.
"I mean for you to put down, in your nicest hand, my gem of a message to
Robert."
"Never, Grace. What will he think of me?"
"He will think you love him very much."
"Just what I don't wish him to think," she said, with singular decision.
"Was there ever!" cried Grace, holding up both hands. "Well, this love
is an odd thing! What instinctive coquetry! Like John Milton's Eve,
'All conscious of your worth,
You would be woo'd, and, not unsought, be won.'
I don't understand this disguising love under a show of
coldness--seeming to hate where the heart pants and glows with devotion.
Oh, if this be love, I'll none of it. Here is the pencil, and there is a
fair sheet, and the moon is patiently holding her silver lamp for you;
will you write?"
"I will, to gratify you, cousin Grace;" she said, taking the pencil and
placing her fingers lightly on the paper which lay in the window.
"To please _me_! very well, be it so. Who could have believed, a quarter
of an hour ago, that I should have had to coax you to send a line to
Robert Lester! You may well hide your telltale face."
Kate bent her head over the gilded sheet and began to write, or, at
least, to make characters with her pencil, when Grace, impatient at her
slow progress, looked over her shoulder and exclaimed,
"Why, what are you writing? _Lester Robert, Robert Lester, Robert
Lester, Lester Rob--._"
Kate glanced at what she had written, hastily run her pencil through it,
and said, with a mortified laugh,
"I had forgotten what to write."
"And so put down what was deepest in your memory," said Grace, with a
vexatious air. "Now take this fair page, and write as I repeat:
"'_He who shall bring again this gift of love to her who sends it, shall
with love be met._'
"Is it written?"
"Letter for letter."
"And you will find that each letter will act as a charm. Never so few
monosyllables as I have strung together here held so much magic."
"Who will be its bearer?" Kate now inquired in a lively tone.
"I will find a Mercury both sure and swift," she said, folding the
locket in the billet.
This _gage d'amour_ was oval in shape, of plain gold, with a chased rim,
a little raised, enclosing an azure field, on which, in exquisite
enamel, were inlaid the crests of Lester and Bellamont, joined together
by two clasped hands: beneath was the sanguine motto,
DURANTE VITA.
"Now, coz, for one of your raven ringlets to bind around it!"
"No, I will not, Grace!"
"Then I will tie it with a lock of my own hair," she said, in a sportive
manner, running her fingers through her auburn tresses; and, selecting
one that was like a silken braid for its soft and shining texture, she
prepared to sever it from her temples.
"You provoking child, you will have your own way," said Kate, shaking
forward the dark cloud of her abundant hair, and intwining her finger in
a jetty tress that rivalled the sable hue of the night swallow's dark
and glossy wing.
"Half an hour since you verily would have parted with every lock to be
assured the sacrifice would bring him to you; and now, forsooth,
scarcely will you part with a strand to bind a note. There!" she added,
clipping a beautiful ringlet that Kate had selected from the rest; "now
all that is wanted is wax--no, not that! I will fasten it with a
true-lover's-knot, which will be far better; will it not, coz?"
As she said this she looked up with a bright light dancing in her dark
hazel eyes; and, without waiting for a reply, in a few seconds tied,
with great gravity, the mysterious knot she had mentioned, and gave the
billet to her cousin for the superscription. "Write, 'These: to the
hands of Robert, Lord Lester, of Castle More, greeting,'" she said, with
gravity.
"Nay, I will direct it simply 'Lester, Castle More,'" she said,
decidedly.
"By which," said Grace, laughing, "you avoid the distant respect
conveyed in my own on the one hand, and the tenderness that is ready
to gush from your heart on the other. Love certainly does make his
votaries skilful tacticians! Truly, now, is not this a proper
love-billet--written in a lattice by the light of the moon, and tied
with a braid of the lady's hair in a true-love-knot? Well, when I am in
love I shall know how to manage rightly all these little affairs."
"Who is to be our Mercury on this occasion?" inquired Kate, with a
little doubt in the tones of her voice. "I fear we shall have to trust
it to a moonbeam also."
"Something more substantial, I assure you," said the good-humoured
maiden, in a very positive manner.
"Not one of the menials, for the world!"
"No, no!" she answered, with quickness; and then approaching her
cousin's ear, she pronounced, very mysteriously, the very homely
monosyllable,
"Mark!"
"That proud boy! _He_ become the bearer of a message to Lester!" she
exclaimed, looking at her with surprise.
"For _me_ he will!" replied Grace, confidently.
"Two such spirits to come in contact! No, no! Have you forgotten how
they parted to-day?"
"No."
"Then why do you propose so wild a scheme?"
"Mark will do as I bid him," she said, with a naive and pertinaciousness
that was wholly irresistible.
Kate burst into such a merry, musical peal of laughter, that at first
the maiden looked very grave, but at length found it in vain to withhold
her sympathy, and laughed with her; while the rich blood mounted to her
cheeks, and invested her with surpassing beauty.
"Oh, oh!" cried Kate, triumphantly, "so you are a _very_ little in love!
I half guessed it! Doubtless there is blood enough in thy noble veins
for both of you."
"Very well, cousin, you may think what you choose," she replied; adding,
in a tone and manner that left her cousin in doubt if she were not half
in earnest, "but if I were in love with him, is he not noble in person?
handsome, gallant, and brave? Why may he not be worthy a noble maiden's
love? I would not give him as he is, for Lester, with all his nobility,
coupled as it is with his terrible passions."
"Out upon you, jade," said Kate, good-humouredly; "will you revile in
this vein my noble Lester--compare him to a fisher's lad? Where is your
pride of birth and rank, Grace Fitzgerald! Really, I should not wonder
if, with your levelling notions, you should some day throw yourself away
upon some one unworthy to wear so fair and rich a flower in his bosom."
"I have both wealth and rank, and shall be my own mistress soon! that I
will give my hand where my heart goes, you may rest assured, cousin
Kate," said the maiden, with spirited, yet sportive decision.
"Marry come up! I shall not wonder if I come to be cousin to a
cordwainer's 'prentice yet! I shall assuredly allow you to go to the
good old earl, your father, to-morrow, and shall not fail to bid him, in
a letter, to lock you up."
"Love laughs at locksmiths, you have heard it said, cousin. But a truce
to this. I am not yet in love, so be not alarmed. I will sally forth and
find Mark, and at once despatch him with this message to Castle More."
As she spoke she threw a cloak over her shoulders and prepared to
envelop her head and face in its hood. At this crisis Kate's troubled
countenance indicated a wavering purpose; and as Grace was fastening the
hood beneath her chin, she laid her hand on her arm:
"No, Grace, you must not. Lester will scorn me; let him go for ever
first!" she added, in a sad, irresolute tone of voice.
"No, no! In ten minutes afterward you would be playing Niobe. Have your
feelings towards Lester changed an iota?"
"No; but--"
"Yet you know not, if you delay, how his may change, nor what rash act
he may commit!"
"I will send the token," she said, after a moment's struggle.
"I will soon return with news of my success," she said, placing her hand
on the latch of the door.
"Go, then, quickly! But you will not venture to the beach alone?"
"'Tis light as noonday! A step across the lawn, and a short trip down
the path, and old Meredith's hut is within a stone's throw. I will not
be three minutes gone."
"I must certainly go with you, Grace."
"Not for the world!"
"Lest I interrupt the tender moonlight interview you have in prospect
with the handsome fisherman, I dare say. Ah, you arch girl! I verily
believe you have an eye to your own interests, which accounts for your
devotion to me in this matter," said Kate, laughing, and shaking her
head at her.
"A fisher's lad!" she repeated, in the slightly scornful tone her cousin
had hitherto used.
"Nay, I was not in earnest, Grace," said Kate, apologetically, kissing
her as she was leaving the chamber.
"Nor was I," replied the lively maiden. "Watch me from the opposite
window as I cross the lawn. Courage, dear cousin! You will soon have
Lester at your feet, and be folded in his--"
"Go!" cried the blushing Kate, closing the door upon her ere she could
finish her sentence.
She listened to her light footstep echoing through the hall till it was
lost on the lawn; then turning to her window, she shortly afterward
discovered her gliding across the archery-field towards the cliff, and,
with a wave of her hand towards the lattice, rapidly descend the path
that led to the beach. With her heart fluttering with mingled hopes,
fears, and desires, she sat watching in the window for her return. Her
thoughts the while were busy. She followed, in imagination, the message
to Castle More; pictured Lester's reception of the token; fancied his
surprise, his rapture, perhaps his scornful indifference! No! she would
not believe he could feel _this_, for she judged his truth by her own!
Then, in her imagination, she heard his loud and hasty demand for his
horse! she could see him on his swift course towards Castle Cor. He
approaches! she can almost hear his horse's hoofs in the court! the next
moment he is kneeling at her feet for forgiveness! Wonderful power of
the imagination! How delightful to yield the soul to its influences when
the images it paints on the mind are all pleasing; all as vivid as the
reality of which they are only the shadows! While the meditative maiden
is leaning from her lonely lattice, indulging her happy visions, the
mind naturally turns to the adventurous Grace and the young fisher's
lad, who was to become the bearer of the message which should be the
magical instrument of converting all these delightful dreams into
reality.
After the attack upon his life by the impetuous noble, taking advantage
of the exciting scene that followed between him and Kate Bellamont, Mark
quietly withdrew from the party, gained, unobserved, the path, and was
out of sight, far down the cliff, before his absence was discovered. He
had remained long enough, however, to witness the disgrace of Lester,
and to hear the indignant and bitter words of the offended maiden. With
a fleet foot he reached the beach, hastened along the shore to his cot,
and, crossing its lonely threshold, cast himself upon a block by the
hearth, and buried his face between his hands. His heart heaved
strongly, and he seemed to labour under deep and great emotion. It was
clearly apparent that he was undergoing a severe mental struggle, and
that the tide of his life would turn on the issue. At length he lifted
his fine face and looked around upon the interior of his humble home;
poverty and its signs met his eye wherever it fell! His glance then
rested on his own coarse habiliments, and he started to his feet, and
with a lofty expression of resolution and an air of stern decision,
said, half aloud,
"This day shall end my servitude to poverty. Because the accident of
_birth_ has cast my lot within these wretched walls, and made me
fellow-prisoner with penury, therefore shall I not throw off my chains
when I will? Have I not a soul--a mind? Do I not think, feel, act,
speak, like those whom men call noble? May I not, in spite of nature,
yet become the builder of my own name--the carver of my own fortunes? By
the light of the bright sun, I will no longer be the slave of others!
the 'lowborn serf'--the 'humble fisher's lad'--the peasant, hind, and
what not, that means baseness of birth and degradation of soul! No;
henceforth I will take my place among the highest of them all, or leave
my bones to bleach on the sand!"
He paced the bare ground-floor of the wretched shed for a few moments
with an energy of tread and a determined air that well harmonized with
his words. At length he stopped short in his excited walk; his face
assumed a gentler aspect; and in a voice low and melancholy, he
continued,
"And this beauteous being, whose bright form fills my dreams like a
celestial visitant; who is in all my thoughts; whom to gaze upon at an
_humble_ distance is bliss; whose voice strangely thrills my soul: her,
for whom I would lay down my life! whom to make happy I would forego all
earthly, ay, future hopes of happiness, I am forbidden to love! I cannot
gaze on her without reproof! I am denied the bliss of speaking to her
and listening to the music of her voice in reply; of attending her in
her walks; of sharing in her pursuits and pleasures, because I am
_lowborn_. Yes, I am 'the poor fisher's lad!' and scarce deemed worthy
to be her footman. My approach into her presence is rudeness! my adoring
gaze vulgar impertinence! _I am the fisher's lad!_ 'Tis not for such to
love such a glorious creature! Though his heart may be of the noblest
mould; his taste refined; his spirit proud; his nature lofty and
aspiring, yet he may not love where love points him. 'Tis not for him to
place his affections on the gentle and lovely: on those worthy of his
heart's deep devotion, and to whom he can distribute the rich treasure
of his love. He must degrade his pure and sacred passion by linking his
fate with one of his own class, who may never appreciate him; or let his
wealth of love exhaust itself on his own life, and consume it with its
fire! Nevertheless," he added, with a sparkling eye, "the fisher's boy
dares to love, and love _high_! Love knows no rank. I have placed my
affections on a noble object, my gaze on a lofty eyry--and never will I
clip the wing that once has taken so high and bold a flight. I love her!
highborn as she is, I have dared to send my thoughts up to her! Yet,
alas!" he continued, moodily folding his arms on his breast, and
speaking slowly and bitterly, "alas! what shall this avail? Will she
requite the daring love of a peasant? Will she not scorn--will she not
laugh at me? Will she listen to the deep outpourings of my passion? No,
no, no! She must mate with _her_ mates, and she would bid me mate with
_mine_! Yet, may I not rise above my condition," he exclaimed, with a
glowing brow and flashing eye; "may I not win rank and name that shall
make me worthy of her? Shall I stand here idle, and see this haughty
Lester bear away a prize of which he is no more worthy than I? No, I
will perish first. From this day I am a man! Henceforth I belong to no
degree, no rank. I am to choose what I will be. This hour I burst the
degrading fetters that chain me to the class in which birth has cast me.
From this moment I am the architect of my own fortune, and I will erect
a temple that men shall admire, or bury myself beneath its ruins! The
sea, on which I have been cradled, is open before me like a mother's
bosom, welcoming me to its embrace; and on it, with the aid of God and
my own spirit, I will win a name that shall hide the humble one I wear,
and under it yet lay at the feet of her, who would scorn me under my
present one, laurels that shall have made me worthy of her love!"
As he concluded his cheek was flushed; his eye sparkling; his step rapid
and firm; his countenance elevated and glowing; and he strode the little
cabin as if he was for the moment all that he had resolved to be. He was
so lost in his feelings, so wrapped in the noble vision of the future
his ambitious and ardent mind had pictured, that the old fisherman, who
had slowly followed him from the cliff, entered without attracting his
notice. The aged man gazed on the animated and excited youth with
astonishment, and for a few moments was silent from surprise. At length
he called him by name. He started, and was for the first time sensible
that he was not alone:
"Well!" was the short, stern response.
"Do you know who speaks to you, my boy?" asked the old man, with mild
reproof.
"Yes I do, my good father," he said, instantly resuming his wonted
kindness of manner, and taking his hand; "forgive me; I had forgotten
myself!"
"Do not be angry, child, at this freak of my young lord," said the old
fisherman, in a tone habitual to his class in speaking of those above
them; "it was but a little outbreak of spirit; and you know it is not
for the like of us to be angry at the nobility for such things. They are
our lords, and we must do as they will."
"And let them take my life--ay, if they will, make me their slave, which
is far worse! Never! 'Tis the language of a bondman you utter, and
unworthy the lips of manhood!"
"You talk as if you was one of the quality, boy! You will find it
different when you get to be as old as I am. I have put up with many
wrongs in my day from gentle blood."
"And have not resented it?" demanded the youth, with spirit.
"What could a poor fisherman do? Is it not their right to act what they
will to? We poor fishermen have only to pray to God to give them gentle
wills towards us!"
"And is this the creed you would teach me? Debasing, grovelling, mean
obedience to the tyranny of an order! Before I do it, may my hand wither
at the shoulder, my tongue palsy in my mouth! I should indeed deserve to
be a slave! You would forbid me to resent this wrong from this hotheaded
young noble?"
"It will do thee no good; if thou shouldst take his life, thou wouldst
hang for't."
"And, if he should take mine?"
"There would be none to avenge thee, boy. The judges, who are always on
the side of the great, would say thy life was forfeited because thou
hadst lifted thy hand against one of the privileged."
"God! I cannot believe that all men do spring from Adam and Eve,"
exclaimed the youth, impetuously. "Father," he said, after a moment's
silence, speaking in a tone of mingled shame and sorrow, "thou hast,
fortunately, a spirit fitted to thy station--I pity thee! For myself, I
will be no man's serf, no lord's menial! If accident has made me almost
on a level with the brute, nature has endowed me with the feelings of a
man. Father, I leave you with to-morrow's sun."
"My child! my child! what evil hath taken possession of thee?" cried the
old man, holding him by both hands.
"No evil, but good! To-morrow I go from you!" he replied, resolutely.
"And leave me destitute in my old age, my boy?"
The youth was touched more by the accent in which this was said than by
the words. He buried his face in his hands and groaned aloud; then, with
a sudden burst of filial affection, he cried, throwing himself upon his
aged breast,
"No, no! I will bend my neck to every insult, rather than thou, my more
than father, shouldst be left helpless."
"Thou wilt not go away?" reiterated the old man, pleadingly, as if
doubting the sincerity of his words.
"Not while thou art spared to me, beloved grandsire. Thou hast protected
my infancy and youth! been to me both father and mother. If I be not a
faithful son to thee, and protect not thy old age, may I fail to attain
the rank and honour among men to which I aspire, and which, if purchased
at the expense of filial gratitude, I should be unworthy to wear!"
"Bless thee, bless thee, Mark!" said he, fondly embracing him.
"Providence has made our lot a humble one; let us submit to it with
obedience. Come, my boy, think no more of it, but launch the skiff, and
bring home our evening meal from the vast storehouse that has ever fed
us, and which never holds its life even from the undeserving. Go, my
son: on the rocking wave, and in the silence of the lone deep, your
heart will become calm, and peace will return to your soul. At such
times it is that the good and devout Christian is the most happy! I
sometimes think the holy apostles did owe much of the holy piety which
they possessed to their lowly occupation of fishers."
"_They were Christians._ You are a Christian, father! I am not one save
in name. Would to God I were! perhaps I then might bear my humble lot
more calmly. Now farewell a while; I will be in again ere the moon
rises."
He rushed from the cabin with his heart almost bursting in his breast,
launched his little bark, hoisted the frail latteen sail, and committed
himself to the deep.
Seated in the narrow stern of his fragile skiff, the thwarts and bottom
of which were covered with fishing-lines, a dip-net, and other signs of
his lowly pursuit, holding the rude tiller in one hand and the sheet of
his narrow white sail in the other, he shot swiftly out from the shore,
wafted by a light and fitful wind. From habit he steered his course, and
shifted the sail from side to side to woo the baffling airs, without
giving his thoughts to his occupation. His lips were compressed with
thought, his brow was set, and every feature of his silent face was
eloquent with the feelings that occupied his bosom. His mind was
struggling between filial affection and ambition--between love for the
highborn maiden and duty to his grandsire. The sufferings of the latter,
who looked to his labours for his daily bread, were, if he should desert
him, present and positive. The hopes connected with the former were
altogether future and uncertain. Should he inflict a present evil for a
future good? Would his filial attachment compare with his love? Which
should he sacrifice? He felt that he could not make his grandsire the
victim, either of his love or of his ambition, without the forfeiture of
that filial virtue, wanting which he would be unworthy the prize he
should incur this penalty to obtain. His thoughts became insupportable;
and, for a time, he was nearly wrought up to phrensy by the intensity of
the mental conflict. At this crisis, while his eyes were fixed vacantly
on the crisp waves as they went singing and rippling past him, his bosom
far more disturbed than they, he was startled by a loud, quick hail.
"Boat ahoy! Helm-a-starboard, or you will be into us!"
He mechanically obeyed; and, as he looked up, saw the dark hull of the
yacht, that had lain all day at anchor in the bay, within reach of his
hand, while his boat was gliding safely along its side, directly against
which he had been unconsciously steering.
"You must keep a look-out, lad, how you run aboard a king's yacht, or
you will stand a chance of getting a shot in your locker!" said a gruff,
yet good-humoured voice. "But you have a quick ear and ready hand to
clear our counter as you did. What say you to serving his majesty, my
lad? It's better than catching herring; and, then, many's the younker of
your inches that's come in over the cat-head, and afterward walked the
quarter-deck with a brace of gold bobs on his shoulders."
The young fisherman's ears greedily received every word; they struck a
chord within his bosom that strongly vibrated again. Involuntarily he
put his helm down, and brought his boat up into the wind. He looked
longingly upon the vessel's deck; measured the beautiful and light
proportions of her hull, and surveyed with delight the graceful spars,
following them with his eye to their tapering tops, from which gay flags
streamed in the breeze: he admired, apparently with all a seaman's
gratification, the tracery and interlacing of the neatly-set rigging,
and the snowy sails, some of which were hanging in festoons from the
yards, while one or two lazily spread their broad white fields from yard
to yard: he observed the neat appearance of the men; their happy faces;
their frank, good-humoured manners: he thought over the blunt but kindly
offer he had received, and his hopes whispered,
"Fortune has opened this way for me! my destiny must be linked with this
vessel!"
He then thought of his father, and his head dropped despondingly on his
bosom; he thought of Kate Bellamont, and his eyes sparkled, and he felt
like bursting all filial ties and leaping at once on board.
"What say you, my lad, will you ship?" said the man, observing his
hesitation; "I'll give you ten rix-dollars as bounty."
"Now?" he eagerly asked, starting up in his boat, and extending his
hands with intense earnestness.
"The instant you enter your name on the yacht's books."
"I will go with you."
"Done! come alongside."
Mark hesitated ere he obeyed. Ten rix-dollars had, at first, seemed to
him an inexhaustible sum: a moment's reflection convinced him that it
would not support his grandfather six months without labour, for which
he was nearly unfitted on account of his age. If, he thought, at the end
of six months, therefore, he should not be able to return to him, or if
his own life should be lost in the interim, would not the misery and
want such an event would entail upon him fall heavy to his charge?
All this passed through his mind as he drew aft the tack and pressed the
tiller up to windward to run under the vessel's bows. Instantly he
shifted his helm, let the sheet fly free to the wind, and shot suddenly
away in the opposite direction.
"He's off with a flowing sheet!" said one of the seamen, laughing.
"He's gone to bid the old man good-by," cried another; "he'll be
alongside before morning, kit and kid."
"He's gone to take leave of his lass," added a third. "A wise lad to
anchor his last night ashore."
"I wouldn't lose him for six months' pay," said the captain of the
forecastle, who had first hailed him; "but I am afraid we shall see no
more of him than what he now shows us," he added, shaking his head, and
turning to pace the deck.
Scarce hearing, and heedless of these characteristic remarks, the young
fisherman kept on his course seaward till he had got a league from the
land, when he hove to and lowered his sail; then baiting and casting his
lines, he plied his humble task, his eyes the while often fixed on the
distant towers of Castle Cor, and his thoughts now with its fair inmate,
now brooding over his own lowly destiny. When at length the sun dipped
the edge of his burnished shield into the sea, he for the last time drew
in his lines, each heavy with a fish, hoisted his sail, flung it broad
to the evening wind that blew gently landward, and, taking the helm,
steered towards home. But the wind grew lighter, and soon came only at
intervals in "cat's-paws;" his progress was therefore slow, and he was
yet a mile from the land when it left his sail altogether. Night came
on, and the moon rose above the battlements of the castle, and flung its
scarf of silver far out upon the scarcely dimpled bay. From time to time
he held his open palm to windward, in vain trying to catch a passing
current. He threw back the dark curls that clustered about his forehead,
and laid it bare to receive the faintest breath that might promise the
return of the wind. But the air was motionless! His boat rose and fell
on the glassy undulations, but moved not towards the shore, save by the
slow landward heave of the sea. Springing upon the thwarts, he brailed
up his sail and bound it to the mast, and then, bending to the slender
oars, sent his light skiff over the water with a speed that mocked the
idle winds. He soon got within the dark shadow flung by the cliff along
the water far beyond the land, and run his boat on the beach beside his
cot. The old fisherman welcomed him with a kindness that not only
touched his heart, but rewarded him for the sacrifice he had made on his
account. He also assisted him in conveying the fish into the hut, and
set about himself to prepare their rude repast. Mark placed his oars in
the beckets over the door, and walked out to indulge his thoughts; to
brood over his deferred, if not blasted hopes; and to struggle again and
again against the unfilial temptations that assailed him. He insensibly
wandered along the beach, that sparkled in the moonlight like snow
beneath his feet, until he came to the narrow strip of sand that
stretched beneath the over-hanging cliff from which he had leaped, and
connected his hut with the path up the rocks. He looked up to its dark
and terrific roof, and then down into the black pool at his feet, and a
half-formed wish that he had never risen again from its silent depths,
escaped him.
"That I had perished, ere life had been preserved to be dragged out in
this miserable servitude," he said aloud. "What is life to me? Its
refined joys; its courtly pleasures; its fair forms; its wealth; its
honours! This is _my_ world--these slimy rocks--this lonely bay; yonder
hut my palace, and to fish for daily sustenance my pastime. This is _my_
life--this my universe! What have I to do with aught beyond it? The
world was made for others, not for me--not for the peasant boy! No, no!
Madness! Must I endure this?" he cried, with fierce impatience. "Filial
love, filial gratitude, how bitter, bitter are ye!"
He struck his forehead violently, and turned on the belt of sand with a
fevered step. Suddenly he felt a touch on his shoulder, as light as if a
fairy's foot had lit upon it. He started, and, turning quickly round,
beheld a female, enveloped in a hood and cloak, standing immediately
behind him. The grace of her attitude, and the easy decision of her
whole manner, assured him that she was not lowborn. His heart would have
whispered the name that was enshrined in it, but the figure was not tall
enough for _hers_. With an instinctive consciousness that he was in the
presence of rank and beauty, to which, in this union, his independent
spirit never refused to do homage, he doffed his cap, and addressed her
with that native grace and dignity which characterized him:
"Lady, seek you aught in which I can aid you, that you have come to the
seaside at this lonely hour?"
The moon shone full on his youthful features, which were shaded with
locks of dark-flowing hair, parted across his high, pale forehead, and
descending to his shoulder. She gazed for an instant, ere she replied,
on his youthful face, on each lineament of which his bold character was
written, while his ardent spirit spoke eloquently in every look. As he
bent forward to catch her answer, with his bonnet in his hand, the cloud
had vanished from his brow before the supposed presence of youth and
beauty, and his deferential manner, so opposite to his former bearing,
seemed to inspire her with confidence.
"My business is with you alone, Mark!" spoke, from beneath the shaded
hood, the sweet, hesitating voice of Grace Fitzgerald, intuitively
shrinking within the shadow of the cliff as she addressed him, just out
of which, in the full light of the moon, the young fisherman himself
stood.
"Lady Grace!" he exclaimed, with surprise, as her voice fell on his ear.
"Grace Fitzgerald, in body and spirit," said she, with her usual gayety.
"Can the highborn heiress of Earl Fitzgerald be served by one so
humble?" he asked, in a tone slightly tinged with his former gloomy
humour.
She seemed to be at a loss, for a moment, how to reply, scarcely knowing
in what way to interpret his words. At length she said, advancing
frankly towards him,
"I have not come to command your services, Mark, but to beg of you a
favour; to ask you to execute a mission of delicacy, that can be
intrusted to no one so well as yourself."
The frank and kind manner in which she spoke, the graceful propriety
with which she overstepped the barrier of _caste_ that separated them,
sensibly affected him. It was the first time he had been so addressed by
those above him in birth and station; the first time his services had
not been demanded as a right by those who needed them.
Her suavity and condescension of manner were perhaps prompted by the
remembrance of the outrage he had received at Lester's hands, and by a
knowledge of his intrepidity, and of his pride of spirit, which she knew
to be chafed and goaded by the insults inseparable from his station. She
therefore generously wished to sooth and bind up his injured feelings.
She had, too, her own notions of what constitutes true nobility; and it
is plain, from her conversation with Kate, that she was less governed by
the social canons which regulate such things, and was infinitely more of
a democrat than her haughty and beautiful cousin. That her heart had
anything to do in the matter, though Mark was so handsome, so gentle,
and so brave withal, cannot be supposed; inasmuch as the little god
seldom ensconces himself behind a peajacket to take aim at a heart
mailed beneath a silken spencer. But, then, Cupid is very blind, and,
besides, is so given to odd whims, that but little calculation can be
made as to the direction from which his shafts will fly.
"Command me, lady," he replied, with grateful emotion, as she concluded.
"Are you angry with Lord Robert?" she asked, falteringly.
"Can I forgive him?"
"But you will forgive him--for--for--the sake of--my cousin Kate!"
"If _she_ were to bid me kiss his hand, I would not refuse her," he
exclaimed, with a sudden glow of animation.
Grace sighed, and was for a moment silent; for she plainly saw that her
influence had but little weight in this quarter in comparison with her
cousin's. She then took the locket from the folds of her cloak, and
said, in a very slightly mortified tone,
"It is _her_ wish that you bear this token of her forgiveness to Lord
Robert. You will see that it is tied with a braid of _her own hair_!"
(Was there not a spice of feminine pique in this last clause, lady?)
"Bear this from _her_ to _him_?" he inquired, in a voice trembling with
emotion.
"Yes."
"Never!" replied he, with vehemence.
"Mark!" she said, in a tone of gentle reproof, placing her hand lightly
upon his arm.
"Pardon me," he said, hastily, "but--but--" His voice choked for
utterance. "Oh God! Lady Grace," he suddenly cried, with an outbreak of
terrible and ungovernable emotion, "you know not what it is to be--to
be--" Here his feelings were too strong to be controlled, and, turning
his face from her, he gave way to a paroxysm of the wildest grief.
She stood by in silence! She appreciated fully his feelings, for she had
overheard the soliloquy he gave utterance to before he had become aware
of her presence. She knew what he was and what he aspired to be, and how
deeply his degradation preyed upon him. She sympathized with him with
her whole heart; and with her sympathy there entered into her breast
another emotion, which in woman's heart is so nearly allied to love,
namely, gentle pity! When she saw that the first strong tide of his
feelings had in some degree subsided, in a voice so full of what she
felt that it touched all the finer sensibilities of his nature, and
seemed to breathe peace throughout his soul, stilling every billow of
passion, she said to him,
"Mark, I do pity you from my heart! I know you are not fitted by nature
for the state to which you were born. But to the bold spirit and
determined will there is a wide road open to distinction; and in it men,
humble as yourself, have won honourable renown, in the splendour of
which the mere accident of their birth has been lost. The same road to
honour lies open before you!"
The vivid eloquence, the animation of voice, the spirited manner, and
the lofty energy of look with which this was spoken, united with the
depth and sincerity of her interest in him, which she disdained to
disguise, language can inadequately express. Its effect on him was
electrical. He sprang forward, knelt at her feet, seized her hand, and,
in the fulness of his heart, pressed it gratefully to his lips. She
withdrew it in confusion, and he instantly buried his face in his hands,
overcome with the painful feeling of having offended. She was the first
to speak.
"Mark, bear this packet to Lord Robert; deliver it into his own hand,
and immediately leave him, so that you give him no opportunity of
renewing his feud. In the morning, on the earl's return from Kinsale,
come to the castle, and I will represent your case to him."
"Dear lady, I will leave this message for you at Castle More; but pardon
me if I decline your offer to serve me!"
"Then cousin Kate shall make it," she said, good-humouredly.
"Forgive me, but it will be still more firmly declined."
Grace was puzzled; and half sportively, half sincerely, it entered her
thoughts that she had played her hand well if already, as his words
seemed to imply, she had found more favour in the young fisherman's eyes
than her cousin. But, all at once, the thought flashed upon her mind
that it was alone the pride of love that led him to refuse any favour at
her cousin's hands.
"You mean," she said in revenge, smiling as she spoke, "that you dislike
my cousin Kate so much that you will not receive any kindness at her
hands."
"If such could be inferred from my words, I recall every letter of
them," he said, with an earnestness that amused her.
"I will then speak for you to my uncle."
"Lady, you will think me very ungrateful," he replied, "but--"
"But you will take no favour from the father of Kate Bellamont. Really,
my cousin is complimented."
He was embarrassed by the light in which she seemed to take his words,
and, in attempting to explain, involved himself still deeper.
"Do not be distressed; I perfectly understand you, Mark," she said, with
a laugh that relieved him. "Will you be obliged to _me_?"
"Pardon me if I say no!" he answered, gratefully but firmly. "No, lady,"
he added, in a grateful tone of voice, yet sadly, "I must work out
brighter fortunes for myself by my own energies."
"I admire your independence. But, if you should need my--I would say,
the assistance of any one--will you remember Grace Fitzgerald?"
He did not reply; his heart was swelling, but he laid his hand upon his
bosom with an eloquent gesture that conveyed more than words.
"Enough!" she said, touched with his impressive manner. "I shall ever be
ready to do for you all that can advance you to name and rank; and for
your own sake, for the sake of--" here she paused with embarrassment,
and then added, "those who take an interest in you, it becomes you to
rise from this humble station, and win for yourself a name and station
among men. Do not forget that the proudest names in England sprang from
the lowest rank. My own maternal ancestor was a favourite groom of
William the Conqueror, who, for his prowess in a certain battle,
knighted and parcelled out to him an equal division of land with his own
knightly companions in arms. Shall I not yet hear of _you_ with pride?"
she added, extending her hand to him with characteristic frankness.
"Lady," he said, with animation, "if ever a lowborn youth, who would
rise above his adverse fortunes, had cause to go forward, have I. The
memory of your words will shine like a star of hope to guide me through
the future. God help me! Lady Grace, you shall never blush with shame
for him in whose fate you this night have shown an interest," he
continued, with emotion. "For your sake I will achieve whatever man can
accomplish."
"And will you do nothing for my poor cousin's sake?" she asked,
significantly, and in a tone of raillery, not able, even at such a time,
to subdue altogether her natural temperament.
"There is little hope that one so humble is ever in her thoughts," he
replied, doubting, yet half believing.
"Little hope, I fear, while Lester lives," she said, smiling. "But think
not of her--think not of love now," continued she, with animation; "let
honour be your idol, and woo fame alone as your bride. There are
some--there is _one_, Mark, who would rather see you honoured and
ennobled by your own hand than--than--but no matter, I have already said
too much. Kate will have good reason to suspect I had cause to come
alone," she said, mentally, "if I linger here longer;" she then added
aloud,
"Fly, Mark, with this message. If you would serve me, bear it safely; if
you would do my cousin Kate a favour, bear it quickly; and, lastly, for
your own sake, get into no quarrel."
They had insensibly walked along while speaking, and were now at the
foot of the path by which she had descended to the beach.
Mark took the packet from her hand, and, as he did so, pressed it with
an air of native gallantry blended with gratitude, greatly to her not
unpleasurable surprise and confusion, and then hastened at a rapid pace
along the beach in the direction of Castle More. She followed him for a
few moments with her eyes, and then, sighing unconsciously (for it is in
vain longer to disguise the interest she felt in the interesting
fisher's lad), ascended the steep path and safely gained the castle,
where, still at her lattice waiting her return, she found her cousin, to
whom forthwith she communicated her success.
With a swift tread Mark traversed the curving shore till he had left a
full league between him and the spot where he had separated from Grace
Fitzgerald. Then striking into a path that led inland, he followed it
with undiminished speed, and with a light and confident step, that
showed his familiarity with every intricate winding of his moonlit way.
How often he pressed to his adoring lips the locket of hair that secured
the billet; how often he paused to read over and over again, by the
light of the moon, the delicate characters traced by the pencil her
fingers had guided, let each one that has loved enumerate for himself.
As he went along, he could not help revolving in his mind the manner of
Grace Fitzgerald, and asking himself a hundred times if she could mean
anything; and when it could not be concealed from his penetrating mind
that she did mean something, or affected to do so--the wish rose to his
lips that Kate Bellamont had been in her place. Yet the very next
moment, so contradictory is love, he congratulated himself that she was
not, feeling that he should never have had the courage to meet her face
to face alone, as he had met her cousin. Love surely endows his votaries
with a singular union of boldness and timidity! Your lover is either an
arrant coward or a lion, and sometimes he is both in one, as he happens
to be in or out of his mistress's presence.
At length he came in sight of an ancient and extensive ruin in the midst
of the forest, and was picking his way among the fallen fragments, along
which his road wound, when he was startled by the sound of horses' feet
coming from the direction of Castle More; the moment afterward, he saw,
by the light of the moon, two horsemen emerge from the wood, and rapidly
approach the ruin. He instinctively drew to one side of the path to
escape observation, when he heard one of them utter an exclamation of
surprise; both then suddenly reined up, and, from the sound of a third
voice, they appeared to be holding conversation with some one they had
unexpectedly encountered.