While time was yet a stranger to regulation, and ere the dial shewed its
passage; when it had no computation but by our feelings, our weariness,
our occupations, or our passions; the sun which arose splendid upon
felicity, must have excited, by its quick parting rays, a surprise
nearly incredulous; while that which gave light but to sorrow, may have
appeared, at its evening setting, to have revolved the whole year. This
period, so long past, seemed now present to Lady Aurora and to Juliet;
so uncounted flew the minutes; so unconscious were they that they had
more than met, more than embraced, more than reciprocated their joy in
acknowledged kindred; that each felt amazed as well as shocked, when a
summons from Mrs Howel to Lady Aurora, told them that the day was fast
wearing, away.
Lady Aurora reluctantly obeyed the call; and in thanksgiving, pious and
delighted, Juliet spent the interval of her absence.
It was not long; she returned precipitately; but colourless, trembling,
and altered, though making an effort to smile: but the struggle against
her feelings ended in a burst of tears; and, again falling upon the neck
of Juliet; 'Oh my sweet sister!' she cried, 'is your persecution never
to end?'
Juliet, though quickly alarmed, fondly answered, 'It is over already!
While that precious appellation comes from your lips,--sweet title of
tenderness and affection!--I feel above every danger!'
Lady Aurora, bitterly weeping, was compelled, then, to acknowledge that
she had been hurried away by Mrs Howel, to be told that a foreigner, ill
dressed, and just arrived from the Continent, was demanding, in broken
English, of every one that he met, some news of a young person called
Miss Ellis.
The exaltation of Juliet was instantly at an end; and, in an accent of
despair, she uttered, 'Is it so soon, then, over!--my transient
felicity!'
Whether this foreigner were her persecutor himself, escaped and
disguised; or some emissary employed to claim or to entrap her, was all
of doubt by which she was momentarily supported; for she felt as
determined to resist an agent, as she thought herself incapable to
withstand the principal.
Mrs Howel, who had heard of the search, represented to Lady Aurora, the
extreme impropriety of her ladyship's intercourse with a person thus
suspiciously pursued; at least till the opinion of Lord Denmeath could
be known. But Lady Aurora, fully satisfied that this helpless fugitive
was her half-sister, was now as firm as she had hitherto been facile;
and declared that, though her personal inclinations should still yield
to her respect for her uncle, her sense of filial duty to the memory of
her father, must bind her, openly and unreservedly, to sustain his
undoubted daughter.
A waiter now interrupted them, to demand admission to Miss Ellis for a
foreigner.
'She is not here!--There is no Miss Ellis here! No such
person!'--precipitately cried Lady Aurora; but the foreigner himself,
who stood behind the waiter, glided into the room.
Lady Aurora nearly fainted; Juliet screamed and hid her face; the
foreigner called out, 'Ah Mademoiselle Juliette! c'est, donc, vous! et
vous ne me reconnoissez pas?'[14]
[Footnote 14: 'Ah, Miss Juliet! it is you then! and you do not know
me?']
'Ah heaven!' cried Juliet, uncovering her face; 'Ambroise! my good, my
excellent Ambroise! is it you?--and you only?'--Turning then,
enraptured, to Lady Aurora, 'Kindest,' she cried, 'and tenderest of
human beings! condescend to receive, and to aid me to thank, the
valuable person to whom I owe my first deliverance!'
Lady Aurora, revived and charmed, poured forth the warmest praises;
while Juliet, eagerly demanding news of the Marchioness; and whether he
could give any intelligence of the Bishop; saw his head droop, and
seized with terrour, exclaimed, 'Oh Ambroise! am I miserable for ever!'
He hastened to assure her that they were both alive, and well; and, in
the ecstacy of her gratitude, upon the cessation of her first direful
surmise, she promised to receive all other information with courage.
He shook his head, with an air the most sorrowful; and then related
that the Bishop, after delays, dangers, fruitless journies, and
disasters innumerable, which had detained him many months in the
interiour, had, at last, and most unfortunately, reached a port, whence
he was privately to embark for joining his niece, just as the
commissary, upon returning from his abortive expedition, was re-landed.
By some cruel accident, the voice of the prelate reached his ear:
immediate imprisonment, accompanied by treatment the most ignominious,
ensued. Ambroise, who, for the satisfaction of the Marchioness, had
attended the Bishop to the coast, was seized also; and both would
inevitably have been executed, had not a project occurred to the
commissary, of employing Ambroise to demand and recover his prey, and
her dowry.
Ambroise stopt and wept.
Bloodless now became the face of Juliet, though with forced, yet decided
courage, 'I understand you!' she cried, 'and Oh! if I can save him,--by
any sacrifice, any devotion,--I am contented! and I ought to be happy!'
'Ah, cruel sister!' cried Lady Aurora; 'would you kill me?'--
Juliet, shedding a torrent of tears, tenderly embraced her.
'The Bishop,' Ambroise continued, 'no sooner comprehended than he
forbade the attempt; but he was consigned, unheard, to a loathsome cell;
and Ambroise was almost instantly embarked; with peremptory orders to
acquaint _la citoyenne Julie_ that unless she returned immediately to
her husband, in order to sign and seal, by his side, and as his wife,
their joint claim to her portion, upon the terms that Lord Denmeath had
dictated; the most tremendous vengeance should fall upon the
hypocritical old priest, by every means the most terrible that could be
devised.'
'I am ready! quite ready!' cried the pale Juliet, with energy; 'I do not
sacrifice, I save myself by preserving my honoured guardian!'
This eagerness to rescue her revered benefactor, which made her feel
gloriously, though transiently, the exaltation of willing martyrdom,
soon subsided into the deepest grief, upon seeing Lady Aurora,
shivering, speechless, and nearly lifeless, sink despondingly upon the
ground.
Juliet, kneeling by her side, and pressing her nearly cold face to her
bosom, bathed her cheeks, throat, and shoulders with fast falling tears;
but felt incapable of changing her plan. Yet all her own anguish was
almost intolerably embittered, by thus proving the fervour of an
affection, in which almost all her wishes might have been concentrated,
but that honour, conscience, and religion united to snatch her from its
enjoyment.
The news that Lady Aurora was taken ill, spread quickly to Mrs Howel;
and brought that lady to the apartment of Juliet in person. Lady Aurora
was already recovered, and seated in the folding arms of Juliet, with
whom her tears were bitterly, but silently mingling.
Mrs Howel, shocked and alarmed, summoned the female attendants to
conduct her ladyship to her own apartment.
Lady Aurora would accept no aid save from Juliet; fondly leaning upon
whose arm she reached a sofa in her bed-chamber; where she assumed,
though with cruel struggles against her yielding nature, voice and
courage to pronounce, 'My dear Mrs Howel, you have always been so
singularly good to me,--you have always done me so much honour, that you
must not, will not refuse to be kinder to me still, and to permit me to
introduce to you ... Miss Granville!... For this young lady, Mrs Howel,
is my sister!... my very dear sister!'
Utterly confounded, Mrs Howel made a silent inclination of the head,
with eyes superciliously cast down. The letter of Sir Jaspar Herrington
had not failed to convince her that this was the real offspring of Lord
Granville; whose existence had never been doubted in the world, but
whose legitimacy had never been believed. Still, however, Mrs Howel, who
was now, from her own hard conduct, become the young orphan's personal
enemy, flattered herself that means might be found to prevent the
publication of such a story; and determined to run no risk by appearing
to give it credit; at the same time that, in her uncertainty of the
event, she softened the austerity of her manner; and gave orders to the
servants to shew every possible respect to a person who had the honour
to be admitted to Lady Aurora Granville.
Juliet was in too desperate a state for any thought, or care, relative
to Mrs Howel; and, having soothed Lady Aurora by promises of a speedy
return, she hastened back to Ambroise.
She earnestly besought him, since her decision would be immutable, to
make immediate enquiries whence they might embark with the greatest
expedition.
Sadly, yet, so circumstanced, not unwillingly he agreed; and gave to her
aching heart nearly the only joy of which it was susceptible, in the
news that the Marchioness was already at the sea-side, awaiting the
expected arrival of her darling daughter.
Ambroise had been entrusted, he said, by the commissary, with this
cruel office, from his well known fidelity to the Marchioness and to the
Bishop, which, where the alternative was so dreadful, would urge him,
whatever might be his repugnance, to its faithful discharge. His orders
had been to proceed straight to Salisbury, whence, under the name of
Miss Ellis, he was to seek Juliet in every direction. And her various
adventures had made so much noise in that neighbourhood, that she had
been traced, with very little difficulty to Teignmouth.
Her terrible compliance being thus solemnly fixed, she left him to
prepare for their departure the next morning, and returned to the
afflicted Lady Aurora; by whose side she remained till midnight;
struggling to sink her own sufferings, and to hide her shuddering
disgust and horrour, in administering words of comfort, and exhibiting
an example of fortitude, to her weeping sister.
But when, early the next morning, with the dire idea of leave-taking,
she re-visited the gentle mourner, she found her nourishing a hope that
her Juliet might yet be melted to a change of plan. 'Oh my sister!' she
cried, 'my whole heart cannot thus have been opened to affection, to
confidence, to fondest friendship, only to be broken by this dreadful
separation! Our souls cannot have been knit together by ties of the
sweetest trust, only to be rent for ever asunder! You will surely
reflect before you destroy us both? for do you think you can now be a
single victim?'
Dissolved with tenderness, yet agonized with grief, Juliet could but
weep, and ejaculate half-pronounced blessings; while Lady Aurora, with
renovating courage, said, 'Ah! think, sweet Juliet, think, if our
father,--was he not ours alike?--had lived to know the proud day of
receiving his long lost, and so accomplished daughter, such as I see her
now!--would he not have said to me, 'Aurora! this is your sister! You
are equally my children; love her, then, tenderly, and let there be but
one heart between you!'--And will you, then, Juliet, deliver us both up
to wretchedness? Must I see you no more? And only have seen you, now, to
embitter all the rest of my life?'
'Oh resistless Aurora!' cried the miserable Juliet, 'rend not thus my
heart!--Think for me, my Aurora;--Think, as well as feel for me,--and
then--dispose of me as you will!'--
'I accept being the umpire, my Juliet! my tenderest sister! I accept it,
and you are saved!--We are both saved!--for this would be a sacrifice
beyond any call of duty!'--cried Lady Aurora, instantly reviving, not
simply to serenity, but to felicity, to rapture. Her tears were dried
up, her eyes shone with delight, and smiles the softest and most
expressive dimpled her chin, and played about her cheeks and mouth,
while, with a transport new to her serene temperament, she embraced the
appalled Juliet. ''Tis now, indeed,' she continued, 'I feel I have a
sister! 'Tis now I feel the force of kindred fondness! If you had not
loved me with a sister's affection, you would not have listened to my
solicitations; and if you had not listened, such a disappointment, and
your loss together,--do you think I should have been strong enough to
survive them?' But this enchantment lasted not long; she soon perceived
it was without participation, and her joy vanished, 'like the baseless
fabric of a vision.' Anguish sat upon the brow of Juliet; fits of
shuddering horrour shook every limb; and her only answer to these tender
endearments was by tears and embraces; while she strove to hide her
altered and nearly distorted face upon Lady Aurora's shoulder.
'Speak to me, my sister!' cried Lady Aurora. 'Tell me that your pity for
the good Bishop is not stronger than all your love for me? than all your
value for your own security from barbarous brutality? than your trust in
Providence, that will surely protect so pious and exemplary a person?'
'No, Heaven forbid!' answered Juliet; 'but, when Providence permits us
to see a way,--when it opens a path to us by which evil may be avoided,
by which duty may be exerted,--ought the difficulties of that way, the
perils of that path, to make us recoil from the attempt? When the
natural means are obvious, ought we to wait for some miracle?'
'Ah, my sister!' cried Lady Aurora, 'would you, then, still go? Have you
yielded in mere transient compassion?'
'No, sweet Aurora, no! To ruin your peace would every way destroy Mine!
Yet--what a fatality! to fear the very enjoyment of the family
protection for which I have been sighing my whole life, lest I can enjoy
it but by a crime! I abandon the post of honour, in leaving the
benefactor, the supporter, the preserver of my orphan existence, to
perpetual chains, if not to massacre!--Or I break the tender heart of
the gentlest, purest, and most beloved of sisters!'
Lady Aurora, now, looked all consternation; and, after a disturbed
pause, 'If you think it wrong,' she cried, 'not to sacrifice
yourself,--Oh my sister! let not mere commiseration for my weakness lead
you astray! We all know there is another world, in which we yet may meet
again!'
'Angel! angel!' cried Juliet, pressing Lady Aurora to her bosom. 'You
will aid me, then, to do right' by nobly supporting yourself, you will
help to keep me from sinking? Religion will give you strength of mind to
submit to our worldly separation, and all my sufferings will be
endurable, while they open to me the hope of a final re-union with my
angel sister!'
They now mutually sought to re-animate each other. Piety strengthened
the fortitude of Juliet, and supplied its place to Lady Aurora; and, in
soft pity to each other, each strove to look away from, and beyond, all
present and actual evil; and to work up their minds, by religious hopes
and reflections, to an enthusiastic foretaste of the joys of futurity.