The morning of the 1st of October, if it were piercing as a flight of
arrows, was as dazzling too; for the clearness of the atmosphere gave
an unusual splendour to every object: and the larks that carrolled high
in the heavens, seemed exulting in the brilliancy of their course. The
exhilarating property of the air had its effect upon the party from the
Parsonage; who gaily stepped into the boat that was to convey them to a
creek on the opposite shore, a little below Bamborough. To touch at the
castle was out of the question; for no second flag of amnesty had yet
passed between the angry baronet and his quietly expectant nephew.
On landing, they found horses which the Pastor had sent forward at
dawn; and mounting, in full confidence of the animals being accustomed
to the rough roads in prospect, the happy groupe commenced the day's
excursion. Nearly a week's sojourn in the island had blunted most of
the Marquis's prejudices against the amiable followers of Luther whom
he found there; and the familiar companionship of minds not essentially
discordant, had mingled them all into an intimacy almost amounting to
friendship.
They proceeded along the classic banks of the Tweed, and the romantic
borders of the Till, to the distant towers of royal Norham. Much food
was there, for memory and meditation. The friends wandered for several
hours amongst its legendary ruins; and then pursued the _debateable_
stream to Flodden Field. They found another train of thought on that
solitary track. Two centuries before, it had borne the bannered host of
two brother nations; and now lay a desert, as if curst by the kindred
blood then spilt upon its soil.
Having treated the Marquis with a rustic dinner at a farm-house in
the pretty village of Branxton, which stands a little to the north of
the memorable field, Mrs. Coningsby and her highly-gratified party
re-embarked at the mouth of the Tweed. Before them lay a magnificent
setting sun. As the little bark tracked its way through a flood
of molten gold, Ferdinand leaned behind the bench that supported
Alice, and in a soft under-tone pursued the subjects which seemed
most congenial to her youthful taste. Cornelia reclined near them,
contemplating the receding shore, but listening to the Marquis; who
sat between Louis and her mother, comparing with them the strange
coincidence in the fates of James the Fourth of Scotland, Sebastian of
Portugal, and Roderick of Spain; all of whose deaths were as doubtful,
as their disappearance was certain, in the fields of battle where each
lost his crown and existence to the world.
In these discourses time passed lightly, till the breeze wafted them,
under the rising moon, into the sheltered cove of Lindisfarne.
On entering the Parsonage, Mr. Athelstone presented a packet to
the Marquis; and its contents put to flight all their ready plans
for future rambles. It had been forwarded through Holland by Baron
Heinsius, and contained dispatches from Spain. They conveyed the royal
Philip's orders to the Marquis Santa Cruz, to repair immediately to
Madrid; where he was required to take his seat in the council on an
affair of importance.
Ferdinand turned pale at this intelligence.
"Oh, that your Lordship would take me with you!" exclaimed Louis,
impetuously. Mr. Athelstone interrupted him with a look. "Pardon me,
Sir," cried he, "but my father,--am I never to see my father?" "When
he wishes to see you. But you must not break upon his presence."
Louis said no more, but bowing to his uncle, with his heart full,
hurried out of the room. The Marquis looked after him in silence.
Ferdinand had turned his despairing eyes on Alice, and saw her head
bent on her bosom, with tears trickling down her cheeks. Those tears
acted on his soul like dew on the parched earth, and, unconscious of
the intention, he found himself at her side; he had taken her hand, he
had murmured some indistinct sounds in her ear; but they suffused her
face with blushes, and confused and agitated she withdrew her hand,
and glided out of sight to a seat behind the window curtain. Ferdinand
followed her with his eyes; but while he exultingly felt that her pure
image possessed him wholly, he shrunk from the recollection of how
unworthy his transgressions had made him of aspiring to the possession
of so spotless a being. Nay, were it possible that penitence could
so wash his stains away, as to restore him to the self-respect
which is indispensible to the manly character, and above all to the
consciousness of him who takes upon himself to be the protector and the
happiness of a virtuous woman; was he not aware that even this blessed
regeneration could not avail him here? He well knew that his father's
bigotry would sooner see him die than allow him to perish, soul and
body; which he would suppose must be the consequence, should he permit
him to marry a daughter of the church of England. To acknowledge
his sentiments for Alice to the Marquis, was only to call down his
malediction on their object. And, under these circumstances, to reveal
more of them to herself, than his surprised heart had already betrayed,
seemed to him a base sacrifice to his own immediate gratification,
at the expence of his honour and her future comfort. He was not so
illread in female character as to be ignorant that he had made an
impression on the heart of this artless child of nature. No one present
appeared to suspect what was passing in the bosoms of either. Could he
then, knowing that the bar was insuperable between him and her, could
he act the double treachery of fastening affections, that must be
hopeless, upon him; and make so ungrateful a return to the hospitality
of her uncle and her mother, as to devote the youth of their beloved
child to tears and disappointment? "No," said he to himself, "I will
not load my already burdened soul with the guilt of rendering her
unhappy; of having come hither on a demon's errand, to lay waste all
that paradise of smiles! I deserve to go hence, as I came, a lonely,
unregretted wretch."
While these thoughts were occupying the mind of Ferdinand, the Marquis
was explaining to Mr. Athelstone that he must abide by the letter of
his sovereign's commands; and not only relinquish the pleasure he
had anticipated in visiting Morewick-hall, but take his leave even of
the island, the following day. Finding this decision was not to be
questioned, Mrs. Coningsby withdrew to give some necessary orders for
her guest's early departure; and Alice, taking the opportunity of the
opened door, hastily quitted the room. Cornelia having expressed her
sincere regret to Ferdinand, that they must lose his father and himself
so soon, in a few minutes followed her mother.
The gracious spell of tranquil enjoyment which an hour before had
encircled them all, was now broken. Mrs. Coningsby hurried from place
to place in hospitable bustle, ordering all kinds of travelling
comforts to be put up for the service of their departing friends. The
Marquis and the Pastor sat till a late hour, conversing in the library;
but the young people continued dispersed, rather as if some cause of
discord had fallen amongst them, than an order to separate hearts so
well inclined to join. Once Alice had summoned courage to descend to
the drawing-room, but on entering, she saw no one there but Ferdinand,
who was resting his head upon her harpsichord; and hastily retreating,
she did not come down again till summoned to supper.
The ensuing morning's meal was passed, like that of the preceding
evening, by the younger part of the group almost in silence. But when
breakfast was over Louis drew a letter from his pocket, and presenting
it open to Mr. Athelstone, told him he had written that to his father,
and he hoped the Marquis would have the goodness to take charge of it
to Madrid. Santa Cruz bowed his acquiescence, and the Pastor perused
the letter. As he ran his eye over its contents, he could not but
admire the generous submission which had with-held the writer from even
hinting the wish which so thoroughly possessed him. "You have written
like an affectionate son," said the Pastor, as he returned the letter,
"but you have not dropped one word of what is so much at your heart.
Why do you not ask your father's permission to pay your personal duty
to him?"
"And you give me yours, dearest Sir, to express that wish?"
"Certainly; and when the Baron's leisure will allow him to preside over
his son's introduction to this perilous world, then, I doubt not, he
will grant your petition, and I must resign you."
Louis gladly retired, to add, as a postscript to his letter, what
he had found so much difficulty in preventing himself from making
its primary subject. The ladies had already withdrawn; and Ferdinand
seeing their waiving gowns through the distant shrubbery in the garden,
believed that without any breach of his resolution, he might once more
cool his feverish pulse with the breeze at their side; and for the
last time sooth his disturbed soul by feeling himself near Alice, and
listening to her tender accents.
The wish was no sooner formed than he was in their path. Mrs. Coningsby
was not there. Cornelia was calmly gathering flowers to replenish her
beau-pots, and Alice was walking pensively towards the wicket that
opened to the hill. Ferdinand followed her, and with a bound of joy he
could not conceal from his better reason, saw her open the little gate
and pass through. A few sheep were cropping the grass on the pasture,
and her favorite lamb frolicked before her. She did not notice it, but
turned to the base of the hill. Ferdinand heard her draw a deep sigh,
as she seemed to think herself removed from observation, and, in an
agitated voice, she ejaculated his name. He required no more to be at
her side,--at her feet. What he said he hardly knew, but he felt all
his high resolves vanish, and that words failed under the impetuous
declaration of his heart. Surprized at so unthought-of a disclosure;
and alarmed at a language and vehemence she had never known before,
Alice would have fled; but he detained her with her hands clasped in
his: and while he wept upon them in the wild emotions of his soul, her
tears flowed also; and he wrought her to confess that she had retired
alone, to weep at his departure.
Ferdinand forgot all the wretched past, in the transport of that
moment; and amidst the burning blushes of a timidity that trembled at
every word she uttered, he drew from the guileless Alice all the secret
of her heart. His dominant passion had again seized the rein; and
clasping her hands to his breast, he ardently implored her to pledge
him her faith before the Supreme of Heaven,--That, however long might
be his absence, she would never be persuaded to become the wife of any
other man. Then growing in his demands on the tender girl, he conjured
her to promise not to continue that "exquisite softness of manner, to
Mr. de Montemar, the sight of which had already more than half maddened
him."--With a glance, which shone like a shooting star over the dewy
night, she gave him the solemn pledge he asked; and she smiled, when
she made a promise she deemed so unnecessary. But both engagements
were hardly pronounced by her ingenuous lips, before his ungovernable
selfishness smote upon the conscience of her lover.
"Alice," cried he, "I am unworthy of your angelic nature. I know I do
not deserve that you should even look upon me. But I cannot bid you
retract your vow. It is that alone which saves me from despair:--It
is that alone which can support me in life, till we meet again.--Oh,
Alice, you saw the wretch that came to this island, at war with
himself, and sinking fast to an untimely grave!--You recalled me to
existence!--You re-generated, and healed my broken heart!--But my
father, should he know I love you, he would separate us for ever."
Alice raised her eyes, drowned as they were in tears, and looked on him
aghast. "Is his rank so very great?"
"That is not my fear," returned Ferdinand, "his rank is not higher
than your own illustrious blood. But he is so rigid a Catholic; I too
well know he would rather see his whole race extinct, than one of them
married to a Protestant."
Poor Alice was now seized with a violent trembling, and turning deadly
pale, leaned for support against a tree. Ferdinand pressed her cold
hand. "But I am no bigot, my beloved Alice; and there is a circumstance
connected with my family, which may have power to influence a happier
fate. It shall be tried; and it is of such importance, I hardly doubt
its success." She revived at this assurance, and, with deepened
tenderness, he resumed.
"Meanwhile, as we hope to be blessed hereafter in an union as
indissoluble as our love; forbear to disclose what has now passed
between us, to any of your own family. They would communicate it to
my father; and the consequence I seek to avert, must then inevitably
follow: an eternal separation."
The arguments of love, and the pleadings of despair, at last prevailed
upon her to make this promise also. Her head was in a whirl of
distracting thought. She had never known such distress as overwhelmed
her, when, in making this second vow, she felt as if she had at once
relinquished her claims on the affection of her nearest relations; and
saw the being, for whose sake she had made this boundless sacrifice, on
the point of leaving her for an unlimited time, perhaps for ever!
Ferdinand beheld the agony of her soul, and too well guessed her
apprehensions. Now he felt the mischief he had wrought; now he saw
the ruin he had begun in that so lately happy bosom. He had not only
awakened a passion there, to feed upon her heart; but he had introduced
the scorpions of an accusing conscience, where only a few moments
before all was innocence and peace. "Wretch that I am!" cried he to
himself; "to repay the blessing of thy tenderness with all this evil!"
But striving to sooth and to cheer her, he vowed to see her at all
events early in the spring; and at the feet of her mother and her
uncle, implore their pardon, and consent to an eternal union. When she
became a little composed, he besought a ringlet of her hair to console
him in his lonely absence; and having pressed the trembling hand that
bestowed it, to his heart and his lips, he allowed her to break from
the clinging arms that vainly tried to withhold her. She rushed
through the garden into the house; and locking herself within her own
room, gave way to the anguish of her soul.
Ferdinand turned towards a remote winding of the cliffs, fuller of
self-arraignment than of satisfaction; yet though he detested the
selfishness of his recent conduct, the headlong impulse he had yielded
to his passion was too strong to allow him to make the only restitution
now in his power:--to release her from both her vows.
At noon the boat was announced that was to bear the travellers to
the carriage on the mainland, which was to convey them to the place
of embarkation for Spain. In the hurrying moments of departure, the
absence of Alice was remarked by none but the heart of Ferdinand; and
it yearned towards the sensibility which prevented her sharing these
last adieus. He touched the cheeks of her mother and sister with an
emotion they did not expect. He hastily embraced Louis; and putting
the hand of the Pastor reverentially to his lips, hurried down the
rocks to the beach.
The Marquis's farewell was more composed; but as he crossed the sands
to the boat, he stopped, and gathering up a few of the entrochi, (he
had heard called Saint Cuthbert's beads,) he bent his head to the grey
towers of the monastery, and turning towards Mr. Athelstone, said with
a smile, "these shall be my rosary, in grateful remembrance of this
holy isle!"
The venerable Pastor answered him with a benediction. He saw the father
and son embark; and stood with his silvered head bare to the wind, as
he waived his handkerchief to the diminishing vessel; and breathed a
prayer for the safety of its freight, in every movement of his uplifted
hands.
If Louis ever felt a touch of envy, it was at the moment when the
distant sail disappeared from the horizon; and as he slowly followed
the homeward step of his uncle, he sighed to himself; "they will soon
see my father!--They will understand all his glorious plans for the
service of his restored country!--They will witness his honours!--While
I----down, my rebellious, my ungrateful spirit!"