THE GIPSY'S VOW.
"May the grass wither from thy feet! the woods
Deny thee shelter! earth, a home! the dust,
A grave! the sun, his light! and heaven, her God!"
--BYRON.
"Well, madam, I am waiting," said the earl, after a pause, during which
the wild, black eyes of the woman were fixed immovably on his face,
until he began to grow uneasy under the steady glare.
"Lord earl, behold at thy feet a mother who comes to plead for her son,"
said the strange woman, sinking on her knees at his feet, and holding up
her clasped hands.
"Madam, I do not understand," said the earl, surprised, and feeling
himself obliged, as it were, to use a respectful form of address, by the
woman's commanding look.
"My son is in your power! my darling, my only son! my first-born! Oh,
spare him!" said the woman, still holding up her clasped hands.
"Your son? Madam, I do not understand," said the earl, knitting his
brows in perplexity.
"You have condemned him to transportation! And he is innocent--as
innocent of the crime for which he is to suffer as the angels in
heaven," cried the woman, in passionate tones.
"Madam, I assure you, I do not understand. Who is your son?" said the
earl, more and more perplexed.
"You know him as Germaine, but he is my son, Reginald--my only son! Oh,
my lord! spare him! spare him!" wildly pleaded the gipsy queen.
"Madam, rise."
"Not until you have pardoned my son."
"That I will never do! Your son has been found guilty of wilful robbery,
and has been very justly condemned. I can do nothing for him," said the
earl, while his brow grew dark, and his mouth hard and stern.
"My lord, he is innocent!" almost shrieked the wretched woman at his
feet.
"I do not believe it! He has been proven guilty," said the earl, coldly.
"It is false! as false as the black hearts of the perjurers who swore
against him!" fiercely exclaimed the gipsy; "he is innocent of this
crime, as innocent of it as thou art, lord earl. Oh, Earl De Courcy, as
you hope for pardon from God, pardon him."
"Madam, I command you to rise."
"Never, never! while my son is in chains! Oh, my lord, you do not know,
you never can dream, how I have loved that boy! I had no one else in the
wide world to love; not a drop of kindred blood ran in any human heart
but his; and I loved, I adored, I worshiped him! Oh, Earl De Courcy, I
have suffered cold, and hunger, and thirst, and hardship, that he might
never want; I have toiled for him night and day, that he might never
feel pain; I have stooped to actions I loathed, that he might be happy
and free from guilt. And, when he grew older, I gave him up, though it
was like rending soul and body apart. I sent him away; I sent him to
school with the money that years and years of unceasing toil had enabled
me to save. I sent him to be educated with gentlemen. I never came near
him, lest any one should suspect his mother was a gipsy. Yes; I gave him
up, though it was like tearing my very heart-strings apart, content in
knowing he was happy, and in seeing him at a distance at long intervals.
For twenty-three years, my life has been one long dream of him; sleeping
or waking, in suffering and trial, the thought that he was near me gave
me joy and strength. And now he is condemned for life--condemned to a
far-off land, among convicts and felons, where I will never see him
again! Oh, Lord De Courcy! mercy, mercy for my son!"
With the wild cry of a mother's agony, she shrieked out that frenzied
appeal for mercy, and groveled prone to the floor at his feet.
A spasm of pain passed over the face of the earl, but he answered,
sternly:
"Woman, your son is guilty. I cannot pardon him!"
"He is not guilty! Perish the soul so base as to believe such a
falsehood of my high-hearted boy!" cried the gipsy, dashing fiercely
back her wildly-streaming black hair. "He my proud, glorious,
kindly-hearted Reginald, stoop to such a crime! Oh, sooner could the
angels themselves be guilty of it than he!"
"Woman, you rave! Once again I tell you, rise!
"Pardon, pardon for my son!"
"Madam, I cannot. I pity you. Heaven knows I do! but he is guilty, and
must suffer."
"Oh, my God! how shall I convince him?" cried the wretched woman,
wringing her hands in wildest despair. "Oh, Earl De Courcy! you, too,
have a son, handsome, gallant and noble, the pride of your old age, the
last scion of your proud race! For his sake, for the sake of your son,
pardon mine!"
"Once more I tell you, I cannot. Your son is condemned; to-morrow his
sentence will be executed, and I have no power to avert it. And, madam,
though I pity you deeply, I must again say he deserves it. Nay--hear me
out. I know you do not believe it; you think him innocent, and, being
his mother, it is natural you should think so; but, believe me, he is
none the less guilty. Your son deserves his fate, all the more so for
his ingratitude to you, after all you have done for him. I deeply pity
you, as Heaven hears me, I do!"
"Oh, then, for my sake, if there is one spark of pity for me in your
heart, do not kill me! For, Lord De Courcy, it will be a double murder,
his death and mine, if this sentence is executed."
"The law must take its course; I cannot prevent it. And once more,
madam, I beseech you to rise. You should kneel to God alone."
"God would forgive him, had I pleaded to Him thus; but you, tiger-heart,
_you_ will not!" shrieked the woman, throwing up her arms in the
impotence of her despair. "Oh, lord earl, I have never knelt to God or
man before; and to have my petition spurned now! You hold my life in the
hollow of your hand, and you will not grant it!"
"I tell you I cannot."
"You can--you can! It is in your power? You are great, and rich, and
powerful, and can have his sentence annulled. By your soul's salvation,
by your hopes of heaven, by your mother's grave, by Him whom you
worship, I conjure you to save my son!"
The haggard face was convulsed; the brow was dark, and corrugated with
agony; the lips white and quivering; the eyes wild, lurid, blazing with
anguish and despair; her clenched hands upraised in passionate prayer
for pardon. A fearful sight was that despair-maddened woman, as she
knelt at the stern earl's feet, her very voice sharp with inward agony.
He shaded his eyes with his hands to keep out the pitiful sight; but his
stern determined look passed not away. His face seemed hardened with
iron, despite the deep pity of his heart.
"You are yielding! He will yet be saved! Oh, I knew the iron-heart would
soften!" she cried out, with maniac exultation, taking hope from his
silence.
"My poor woman, you deceive yourself. I can do nothing for your son,"
said the earl, sadly.
"What! Do you still refuse? Oh, it cannot be! I am going mad, I think!
Tell me--tell me that my son will live!"
"Woman, I have no power over your son's life."
"Oh, you have--you have! Do you think he could live one single day among
those with whom you would send him? As you hope for pardon on that last
dread day, pardon my son!"
"It is all in vain. Rise, madam."
"You refuse?"
"I do. Rise!"
With the fearful bound of a wild beast, she sprung to her feet, and,
awful in her rage, like a tigress robbed of her young, she stood before
him. Even the stern earl drew back in dismay.
"Then, heart of steel, hear ME!" she cried, raising one long arm toward
heaven, and speaking in a voice terrific in its very depth of despair.
"Tiger-heart, listen to me! From this moment I vow, before God and all
his angels, to devote my whole life to revenge on you! Living, may ruin,
misery, and despair, equal to mine, be your portion; dead, may you
never rest in the earth you sprung from! And, when standing before the
judgment-seat of God, you sue for pardon, may He hurl your miserable
soul back to perdition for an answer! May my curse descend to your
children and children's children forever! May misery here and hereafter
be their portion! May every earthly and eternal evil follow a wronged
mother's curse!"
Appalled, horrified, the iron earl shrunk back from that awful, ghastly
look, and that convulsive, terrific face--that face of a fiend, and not
of mortal woman. A moment after, when he raised his head, he was alone,
and the gipsy, Ketura, was gone. Whither?