"Trifles light as air
Are, to the jealous, confirmation strong,
As proofs of holy writ."
_Othello._
"Honest soldier,
Who hath relieved you?--
Bernardo hath my place."
_Hamlet._
Left alone upon his post in the inner court, Gerald resolved in his mind
what could best be done for his father. Every thing was already in
preparation for the prisoner's escape, but the success or failure of the
whole enterprise turned solely upon the connivance or opposition of the
sentinel upon duty at the hour when the escape was to be effected. Gerald
did not doubt, however, that should he himself not have the good fortune
to be chosen for the midnight watch, he would not find much difficulty in
persuading the comrade to whom it should fall, to exchange it with him for
a more commodious hour. He felt that there could be none who would not
gladly accept his offer, and thus be left to enjoy their night's rest,
instead of enduring the fatigues of a tedious night watch. Of his own
safety, of the dishonour, the punishment that awaited him for abetting in
the escape of a prisoner of such importance, he thought not a moment. All
such considerations were lost in his hopes of rescuing his father. But
still, in the vague uncertainty that hung over the events of that
important night, in the impatience of his mind to arrive quickly at that
awful hour--that hour which was to decide so much joy or misery for
him--Gerald scarcely knew how to conceal his feverish agitation. He was
aware, however, how necessary it was to avoid betraying any feelings that
might excite the least suspicion; and he determined to appear as cold and
as unconcerned as possible.
There was another also, although at this moment a secondary torment, which
added to his trouble of mind. He was unable to disengage his thoughts
entirely from those feelings of bitter and scorching jealousy, which
various little indications of coquetry, displayed by the evidently
coquettish little Puritan damsel, and certain marks of desire to seek her
presence, and parade under her window, evinced by the hated Maywood, had
planted in his heart--and in a jealous and impatient temperament like
Gerald's, such seed, once sown, quickly grew up with rank luxuriance, and
spread on every side, imbibing sustenance from every element that
approached it, living, in want of better nourishment, upon the very air
itself. Perhaps the sight of Mistress Mildred for a moment at her window,
a passing word, or merely a kind smile, might have poured balm upon the
ulcer of jealousy, soothed the pain and closed the wound--at least for the
time. But during his long watch Gerald looked at that well-known window in
vain. There was not a symptom of the fair girl's presence in her chamber,
and Gerald's fertile imagination--the true imagination of the jealous
lover--suggested to him a thousand doubts and fears of Mildred's truth,
ingeniously invented self-tortures, weapons forged to be turned against
himself--all mere vague conjectures, but assuming in his eyes all the
solidity and reality of truth. If she were not in her chamber, he argued,
where could she be? Perhaps with her father: and her father was dictating
a despatch to that Mark Maywood, who served him sometimes as secretary;
and Mildred was gazing on him with pleasure; and he was raising his eyes
from time to time to hers--or perhaps she was in the other gardens or
alleys about the house, and that Maywood was following her at a distance,
not unobserved; or perhaps she passed close by him, and he muttered words
of admiration or even of love, and she then listened with complacency; or
perhaps the handsome young recruit whispered in her ear to ask her when he
could see her pretty face again; and she smiled on him and said, that when
his watch should be beneath her window she would come. Madness! Gerald
would pursue his vision no further. But although the clouds of the vision
rolled away, they left a dark chilling mist of suspicion upon his mind
that he could not, perhaps did not strive to, shake off.
Relieved from his guard, Gerald returned to the guard-room--his mind in
that agony of suspense and dread respecting his father, the disquietudes
of which his jealous doubts scarcely diverted for a moment, and only
rendered more hard to bear. On his way he again passed the detested
Maywood. As he approached he evidently saw the young soldier crumple in
his hand a paper he was reading, and hide it hastily about him. This was
no fancy, he repeated to himself; this was reality. He had seen the look
of confusion and trouble upon Maywood's face, the haste with which he hid
that paper at his approach. There was no longer any doubt. His hated
rival was in correspondence already with his faithless mistress; and the
contents of that written paper, what could they be, if not an acquiescence
in some demand, a rendezvous granted, a meeting at her window? With rage
in his heart, Gerald again longed to spring upon his rival and tear that
paper from his bosom. But again prudence prevailed over passion. He felt
that the life of his father depended upon his caution--his father--his
father, whom he alone perhaps could save, whose blessing was to be his
recompense. Swearing to tear for ever from his heart the vain, coquettish,
heartless girl upon whom his affections had been so ill disposed--for
thus, in his passion, he qualified his lady-love--he crushed down within
him the violence of his angry feelings, and determined to defer his
revenge, defer it only, until those few hours should be passed, those
hours which should witness his father's escape and ensure his father's
safety--and then die willingly, if such should chance to be his fate, in
securing his vengeance. Strange mixture of noble feelings and base
passions! Where were now the stern, strictly religious principles of his
uncle and instructor? The fierce nature of his hot blood prevailed for the
time over the better culture of his education.
At length the hour arrived when the soldiers were mustered in the outer
court, before the front of the mansion, and the names of those called over
who were appointed to the different watches of the night. How anxiously
and eagerly did Gerald's heart beat as the midnight watch in the
tower-court was named! Was it by a gracious and happy chance upon himself
that the lot would fall? The name was pronounced. It was _not_ his own.
The sentinel appointed to this post, the man upon whom depended the
destiny of his father, was another. But still, in spite of the first pang
of disappointment--for disappointment would arise within him, although the
chances had been so greatly against him--hope again revived in his heart.
The sentinel whose post he coveted, whom he had to seduce into an
exchange, whose watch he was to contrive to take from him as a favour, was
one of the most easy of the whole troop to deal with, the lazy,
phlegmatic, somnolent Godlamb Gideon, he whose very nickname was an augury
and a warrant of success, the wight yclept Go-to-bed Godlamb.
After waiting till the assembled soldiers had dispersed, and a proper time
had elapsed before seeking Gideon, Gerald again returned to the outer
court before the house, where he knew it was the habit of the indolent
soldier to bask and doze upon a certain sheltered bench, in the last rays
of the setting sun, absorbed, he himself would declare, in his devotions.
And there, in truth, he found the man he sought. But, confusion! there was
another by his side, and that other was the man who, among all, he would
have the most avoided. It was Mark Maywood. He stood by the side of
Gideon's reclining form, and was speaking with much earnestness to the
phlegmatic soldier, whose widely-opened eyes seemed to express more
animation than of wont. No time, however, was to be lost. The night was
approaching, and it was necessary to come at once to an arrangement with
the allotted sentinel of the midnight watch.
Overcoming his repugnance, and fully determined to act with caution,
Gerald assumed an air of unconcern, and sauntered to the spot where sat
Godlamb Gideon. After greeting sulkily the handsome young recruit, to whom
Gerald's presence seemed in nowise pleasing, he commenced with affected
indifference his attack upon the heavy soldier.
"You are ever zealous, friend, in the good work," he said.
"Yea, and of a truth these crumbs of comfort have a blessed and pleasant
savour in my nostrils," replied Godlamb Gideon, pressing his book between
his hands, turning up the whites of his eyes, and snuffing through his
nose, as though that member were stuffed up by the pleasant savour of
which he spoke.
"But have a care that your zeal be not overmuch," continued Gerald, "and
that you faint not by the way from the heaviness of your burden. Methinks
your cheek is already pale from exceeding watching and prayer."
"Verily I have fought the good fight, and I have run the good race, and
peradventure the flesh faileth me," snorted the Puritan soldier.
"Your allotted post, then, falls heavy upon you" said Gerald, with an air
of kind concern, "for you have the midnight watch, methinks. Indeed, I
pity you, my good friend. Hear me. I will perform the duties of your part,
and you shall rest this night from your labours; my mind is troubled, and
I heed not the watching through the night. You will rise from your couch
ready for new outpourings of spiritual thought, and refreshed"----
"As a giant refreshed with wine," interrupted Gideon with another snort:
"yea, and so shall it be." Gerald's heart beat at what he considered an
acceptance of his proposal; but Godlamb Gideon continued--"Thou art kind,
and I thank thee no less that I refuse thy offer. Verily it would seem to
be a gracious and an especial vouchsafing in my favour. For, behold,
another hath released me from my task."
"Another!" cried Gerald with a tone of consternation that overcame his
caution.
"Yea, this good youth hath proffered to relieve me of my heavy burden."
Gideon pointed to Mark Maywood.
Gerald started with angry surprise. Maywood bit his lip, and turned his
head aside.
"He has taken thy post!" said Gerald choking with rage.
Gideon nodded his heavy head.
The blood boiled in Gerald's veins and rushed into his cheek. He felt for
a moment nearly suffocated with the violence of his passion. Since the
young recruit had been anxious to obtain Gideon's weary post, there could
be no doubt what was his purpose. There, and in the silence of the night,
he would be able, under Mildred's window, to pour into her ear those words
of love which he dared not openly profess. It was true, then, that Mildred
had bid him try to obtain the post of sentinel in the inner court. That
was their hour of rendezvous. Furious jealousy, joined to rage at losing
that post, on which his father's whole fate depended, contributed to
torture his mind. Not only would his detested rival find a favourable
opportunity of holding converse with that faithless girl, but he would be
there to prevent his father's escape--he, of all others--he, that fierce
and violent Republican, that determined enemy of all adherents to the
royal cause. If the vision of Maywood interchanging soft words with
Mildred at her window tormented the unhappy lover, far more agonizing were
the feelings that represented to him the stern young sentinel raising his
musket upon his shoulder to arrest the escape of the old man--shooting
him, perhaps, in his descent from the tower-window--bringing him bleeding
to the earth. Horror! Convulsed with these accumulated feelings, he stood
for a time speechless, struggling with his passions. When he looked again
upon Maywood's face, that hated individual's eyes were bent on him with a
stern but enquiring glance, and in evident discomposure. This very look
was sufficient to confirm all the young lover's suspicions, and it was
with the greatest difficulty that he could control his passion. He
mastered himself, however, sufficiently to meet the glance of Maywood
without giving vent to his wrath, and, turning to Gideon, he called him
aside.
The indolent soldier evidently rose unwillingly, but he followed Gerald to
a little distance, grumbling something about an "interruption to the
inward outpourings of the spirit."
"Hark ye, Master Gideon," said Gerald, when they had got to some distance
from Mark, "you must not do me wrong in this. I own that my request is not
wholly disinterested. You know that I love our colonel's daughter, that I
am affianced to her. Her chamber looks into that court, and at
midnight"----
"Now, out on thee, Master Lyle," drawled Godlamb, with an hypocritical
upturning of his eyes. "Wouldst thou make my watch a pretext for ungodly
chambering and profane love passages?"
"How now, fellow!" exclaimed the young man in wrath. "What mean you by
this insolence?" and he grasped Gideon's collar with violence. But
immediately afterwards repenting of his excitement, he continued with a
calm tone although still in some irritation, "This is mere fooling,
Gideon. I know you as you are--I know you to be a thorough hypocrite."
"Nay, but of a truth"--exclaimed the pacific Godlamb very sulkily.
"Hear me," interrupted Gerald. "It is not as you think--that Maywood loves
her too. He also would keep the watch at midnight, in the hope to see her
at the window--by chance, man, by chance--no otherwise; but I would hinder
this, and"----
"Nay, but Master Maywood hath my word," again began Gideon.
"Nay, but Master Gideon slept whilom upon his post," continued Gerald,
mimicking him. "And if Master Gideon be reported to his colonel, Master
Gideon will have a week's arrest upon bread and water; but Master Gideon
may do what he listeth."
"For the love of heaven," exclaimed Gideon, forgetting his Puritanical
mask in his alarm; "you would not report me, comrade? S'wounds, you would
not serve a poor fellow so scurvy a trick?"
"Upon one condition, then," replied Gerald. "Retract your word to that
man; give me up your post at midnight; and I will be as silent as the
grave."
"Lord have mercy upon us! Thou art as the cruel taskmasters of the
children of Israel; and thy heart is hardened even as was Pharaoh's,"
whined Godlamb, again resuming his canting tone. "But be it even as thou
wilt."
Gerald triumphed; the midnight watch was his; and with it his father's
safety and his father's blessing.
They returned to the spot where Maywood still stood observing them, Gideon
following in the rear, muttering something about "the hand of the ungodly
being upon him."
"Speak, Gideon," said Gerald as they approached, "and thank your comrade
here for his kindly proffered barter of hours; since it is I who take your
post, you will not need his well-meant and disinterested civilities."
There was something of a sneer on Gerald's lip as he pronounced these
words, which probably augmented the feelings of anger that now evidently
flushed the usually cold face of Maywood and darkened his brow; for the
latter appeared to tremble with suppressed passion as he advanced upon his
rival with the words--
"How now, you, Master what's-your-name? What warrants you to interfere
thus ill advisedly in my concerns? If this man has given up to me, at the
midnight hour, the watch over that offshoot of a rotten and corrupted stem
of tyranny, is it for you to stand between me and my purpose?"
"Your purpose is doubtless of the best, and truest, and worthiest,"
replied Gerald, with another flickering sneer upon his lip. "But this
watch is mine now, by Master Gideon's consent, and these hours of the
night I intend to devote to the watching of those whose security may need
my care."
Mark Maywood bit his lip, and clenched his hands together in a vain effort
to suppress his violent irritation.
"Hoity toity! Here's a coil about an old inveterate Amalekite!" said
Gideon, in a mixture of his natural and assumed phraseology, prudently
withdrawing at the same time to some distance from the angry young men, as
if afraid lest an appeal to himself should involve him in the quarrel.
"Hark ye, sirrah," cried Maywood angrily, "I am not about to resign the
right this man has yielded to me at the caprice of the first foolish
fellow who chooses to cross my path, without making him repent his
uncalled-for interference. What is it to me, this post? but browbeaten by
a bullying boy, I never will be."
"Nor will I yield to a base and treacherous hypocrite like thee, Mark
Maywood," exclaimed his angry antagonist.
The hands of both the young men were instantly upon their rapiers.
"By the mass, what are ye about?" exclaimed Gideon in alarm. "Trifle not
with the carnal weapon! Would ye have us all in arrest before we can look
about us? Forbear, men of wrath!"
But the phlegmatic Gideon kept at a prudent distance.
At these words other considerations appeared suddenly to strike both the
young men. In spite of their passion, both paused irresolute.
Gerald reflected that were he involved in a quarrel he would necessarily
be prevented in any case, whether victorious over his adversary and then
consigned to prison, or himself disabled, from forwarding his father's
escape. His rival appeared actuated also by prudential motives, perhaps by
the conscientious scruples of the party to which he belonged, perhaps by
the thought of Mildred.
"This is truly ruffling and bawling like tavern hunters and drunkards,"
stammered Gerald, as if seeking an excuse for withdrawing from the fray.
"But the time will come, Mark Maywood, when you shall not escape me."
"So be it, comrade," replied the other, again sheathing his half-drawn
rapier. "I know you not; and can but barely divine your cause of enmity.
But I will not fail you at the night-time. Till then let this suffice. The
midnight watch is mine--mine by the first assent of yonder soldier to my
proposal of exchange."
"No! Mine," again urged Gerald, "mine by his retractation of his prior
consent, if such he gave."
"Come hither, comrade," cried Maywood to Gideon, who was suddenly absorbed
once more in his devotions.
"Hear ye, Master Godlamb," said the other. But Go-to-bed Godlamb stirred
not. He shrank from the appeal to himself.
"It is to me your post has been consigned, is it not so?" enquired the
one.
"It is I who take it off your hands--speak," cried Gerald. "Remember,
Gideon," he added with upraised finger.
"Speak, who is it?" said both at once. Gideon shuffled with his feet, and
looked heavier and more embarrassed than ever; but as he caught sight of
the warning finger, he absolutely shut his eyes in utter despair, and
pointing at Gerald, with the words, "Verily, and of a truth, thou art the
man," he hastened away as fast as his indolent nature would permit,
"before he should fall into the toils of the angry Philistines," as he
expressed it.
Gerald could not suppress a look of triumph. Whatever were Mark Maywood's
feelings, he only expressed them by a dark scowl of disappointment, and
then turned away without another word.