began its Fulfilment.
For days past the Favara had been in a state of ferment unknown for
many years. The greatest hero of the age, the man who was duelling
with Buonaparte for the safety or extinction of the world, and had
pinned the destroyer in Egypt, was to visit, to sleep a night, at the
ancient and decaying palace of the ancient and decaying Norman House
of the Princes of Favara. The Admiral, with the considerateness which
he extended to the humblest sailor in his fleet, having ascertained
from Will the straitened fortunes of the House, had announced his
intention of coming in the most friendly way alone--an announcement
which, but for a certain circumstance, might have given dire offence;
for in Sicily you must not notice poverty, you must allow yourself to
be deceived.
Well, to cut a long story short, the Admiral, attended only by Will
and myself, drove out in the afternoon to the Favara, somewhat later
than we had expected, because of a most stormy interview, I should say
desperate interview, with my beautiful Lady, who, before us, hung
round the Admiral's neck, overwhelming him with the embraces of a
loving and solicitous woman, as she entreated him not to go. She had
heard, she said, rumours that certain sympathisers of the French,
disguised as brigands, would take advantage of the loneliness of the
Favara, and its neighbourhood to the wild mountains, to assassinate
him. Yes, she had it on the best authority that they would not even
attempt to carry him off, conceiving that only by his death could the
French interests be served.
The risk to himself the Admiral, as ever, made light of; indeed, he
did not believe it, considering it but the subterfuge of a woman who
loved him, he knew how well, to keep him at her beloved side during
his last days at Palermo. And since he loved her with all the strength
of his mighty soul, he was so far conquered by her tears and her
caresses that he pretended to be convinced and promised to consider
the matter, and if he should hear further, to make his excuse to the
Prince of Favara.
Great preparations were made for his arrival. I could not count the
servants in the Prince's magnificent but tarnished liveries. They
swarmed at the entrance, and lined every stairway and gallery; and
there were preparations for a brilliant fête and illumination of the
whole of the vast and ancient fabric.
As we approached, a fine band, also in the livery of the House, played
English airs like "Rule Britannia," then new to the Sicilies; and the
Prince and Donna Rusidda, in splendid Court dress, met us at the very
entrance of the grand salon, from which I noticed the famous silken
hangings had been stripped, leaving the polished porphyry and the
Cosmato work exposed, which at once struck the Admiral's attention. He
had hardly got through the formal greetings before he commented on the
splendour of the apartment. Will and I exchanged glances, and knowing
by this time something of the country and of the straits of the
Prince, were not surprised when we found the bedroom set apart for the
Admiral in another part of the palace, which we had not yet visited,
decorated with these same silken hangings, which had heretofore hung
over the somewhat cold porphyry walls of the grand salon. We
recognised further, in this chamber and the galleries approaching to
it, nearly every beautiful object which we had seen scattered through
the palace when we were chasing round it with Donna Rusidda. We were
much struck, at the same time, with the fortress-like character of the
place; for the lower windows were all strongly enough barred to resist
a military assault, and entrance into the dwelling part there was none
except by the two great Arabic doorways set close together on the
inner side of the palace, one of which led only to the uninhabited
lower rooms rented as a storehouse by the farmer, and the other opened
directly into the small portion used by the Prince and his sister, to
which the only access was by a narrow stairway walled-in to the
ceiling.
"Princess," the Admiral began, when the Prince and his sister had
conducted him to his bed-chamber, for he was by this sick with longing
for the beloved society of My Lady, "I fear that I must leave when the
other guests bid their adieux this evening, as this is one of my last
days in Palermo. There are so many things that might demand my
attention."
"Oh, my Lord Nelson," she replied, "I entreat you no. You have
experienced officers who will have carried out all your commands
[which indeed was the case--T. T.], and to us Sicilians there is a
world of difference between the guest who comes and goes, and the
guest who lays his head for only one night. Our poor house of the
Favara is indeed unworthy of such an honour from you, so much desired
by even the Queen herself; but we are an ancient race of the same
Norman blood as your own kings and nobles. We are the oldest and
purest Norman family in Sicily. We have ever maintained the
independent traditions of our race towards the Church, and sorely
suffered for it in estate. Soon we shall have perished from off the
face of the earth, and there will be nothing left of the Princes of
the Favara but a name; and we yearn to have it handed down in Sicily,
the land of traditions, as the last tradition of the dead old race,
that the great hero of the other Norman kingdom so far away slept
under our roof in token of friendship and amity."
Now the Admiral, as is well known, had the kindest heart in the world,
and he was touched by the anxiety and race-pride of the beautiful
young Princess. He would not tell her My Lady's real reason for
desiring him to return to Palermo, conceiving, no doubt, that there
would be no gainsaying this. Indeed, he did not take the trouble
either to believe it or to care: he was always reckless of his
personal safety, and so no more was said of it. And the long sunny
afternoon and the evening with its brilliant _fête_ passed away, the
guests leaving early, as they were of Palermo, and the road had an
evil repute at night. And with them melted away the great army of
servants, to return close after dawn so that their absence should not
be discovered by the guest. They were not, as may be divined, servants
of the Prince, nor, many of them, servants at all, but from the
vineyards and lemon groves. In the houses of Sicilian nobles, liveries
are kept sometimes for centuries for occasions like these.
Poor Will had been mightily crest-fallen all the afternoon and
evening, for his hostess had been so unremitting in her attentions to
the Admiral, who was by no means insensible to her beauty and
graciousness, and who was enjoying the Sicilian dignity and repose,
after the somewhat foreign and noisy entertainments of the Queen in
Naples. And Will's mortification was increased when, at the time of
the departure of the other guests (when at last he had expected to
have a few words with Rusidda), the Admiral bade us take word to My
Lady about his spending the night at the Favara. He intimated at the
same time that we had no need to return till the morning.
Now the chambers prepared for us, by the Admiral's, were of the
plainest description: there was little save a truckle-bed standing on
a tiled floor; but never in all his life had any chamber seemed so
beautiful to Will. He could only remember that he was to sleep under
the roof of his beloved.
"Tubby," he said to me as soon as we were clear of the house, "do you
mind coming back here with me when we have delivered our message? I
would give a year of my life to sleep under this roof."
Of course I agreed; and off we went to the city, to My Lady's palace
by the Flora, as hard as we could post, not meeting any adventures by
the way. Nor indeed were we like to, except by reason of a horse
bolting or a coach losing its wheel; for there was a stream of guests
returning to Palermo.
But when we arrived at My Lady's, she put a very different look upon
the matter. Indeed, her lovely face was streaming with tears in the
agony of apprehension for the man to whom she had given the whole of
her passionate heart. "He will be killed!" she cried--"Nelson will be
killed! Oh! why did you leave him?"
Then she broke forth into a fresh passionate utterance: "What am I
doing here, doing nothing, while he, with his one arm, is fighting his
last gasp for life? To the ship, Will--off to the ship with you, and
tell them that the Admiral is being murdered out in the lonely house
of the Favara. No!" she cried, suddenly rushing to the window and
screaming out something at the top of her rich voice: "spring into
that coach which I have just stopped, and drive to the Albergo La
Fortuna. It is always full of your officers later than this, and there
will be coaches there. Get them all into coaches, and stop here for a
moment on your way back, and I will have the pistols in the Embassy
ready for you, for your officers will only have their swords."
Her behaviour carried even Will away. He could not force from his
lips the question if she thought there was any foundation for the
report: her earnestness was so terrible. We flew to the inn, and there
we found a room full of rollicking British officers, smoking and
tossing off the generous Sicilian wine, and most of them describing
some adventure or other, for the indulgence of which Sicily offered
great opportunities.
When Will burst in with the news every man leapt to his feet and
gripped his sword. As they dashed out of the house one of them sang
out to the landlord to put down the reckoning to him--they used the
house as a kind of club, and were therefore well known by sight.
Coaches were hailed, and within a few minutes we were at the
Ambassador's house, and had pistols served to us. There was, moreover,
another coach waiting to join us, with the English servants of the
Embassy.
Out we raced to the Favara, escaping by some special providence the
perils of the road, which like most Sicilian roads was of the very
worst description, with its huge ruts filled with loose stones, and
the road itself barely wide enough for a coach, and bordered by deep
ditches. But desperate men travel safely, and we were soon there.
* * * * *
And here I must go to the Journal for an account of the wonderful
events which had been happening even during our brief absence.
_Extract from the Journal, June the --th, 1799._
"After my Battles this has been the most extraordinary twenty-four
hours of my life. Yesterday I drove out with Will and Trinder to a
_fête_ given in my honour by the Prince of Favara, now much
impoverished, but the head of the chief Norman family in the Island,
and therefore very well disposed to the English. When I say Norman, he
was of course thoroughly Sicilian, as his family had been for
centuries; but they are one of the few families of undoubted Norman
descent, and therefore, when all the Two Sicilies are raving over
their English protectors, feel that they have a sort of claim of
kinship. I went out there, purposely, with no one from the ship beyond
these two young officers, wishing to spare them the expense of
entertaining the large company which goes when the fleet accepts an
invitation. Indeed, I did not think seriously about staying overnight
with them, having promised the dear faithful Emma to return if it
could be managed, though she made it difficult for me by drawing
pictures of intended assaults by brigands, without remembering how
obstinate I am about flying from the face of an enemy. However, my
hostess made such a point of it that I yielded; and when the guests
left the _fête_, somewhat early in the night, I packed Will and
Trinder with them to warn Emma that I should not be back. She took my
warning in a different way, fortunately for me.
"In the interval I was like to have been kidnapped, or to have lost my
life: the latter, I hear, for Buonaparte has been good enough to say
that there is no safety for France while I am alive, and people about
whom he says such things do not live long, when there are Frenchmen
about.
"The plan was for a body of Frenchisers, disguised as brigands, to
seize me while I was at the Favara, and carry me off to the mountains,
or kill me in event of resistance. Which meant death. They had
information that I should spend the night there, and they knew that
the attendants at the _fête_ were, save a mere handful, not servants
of the Prince, but hired men, who would, with two exceptions (one of
whom was in their pay), put off their liveries and depart with the
guests. They were therefore few enough to be overpowered, even if they
were all roused; and it might be possible to get to me unobserved by
the rest of the household, when the accomplice opened the door--for
my room lay in a distant part of the house. Information reached them
also that Will and Trinder, who were to have slept in the ante-chamber
of my suite, had been dispatched by me back to Palermo.
"But they had reckoned literally without their host, for when they
arrived, the Prince of Favara, who was a very expert swordsman, had
not retired. He was, it appears, hunting through his heirlooms for an
ancient Norman seal with the arms of Tancredo di Mardolce, Prince of
Favara, to present to me in honour of my visit to him; for the
enormous iron chest, in which he kept such things, was open, and with
the seal was found a letter which he had evidently just been writing
in the most honouring terms, begging my acceptance of 'this trifle,'
and giving its history. The accomplice must have been a stupid fellow,
for instead of assuring himself that the Prince had retired, he merely
waited until he should have retired by his usual habits. He then went
down and opened the wicket in the great oak door. But he had neglected
to see that the locks and hinges of this were oiled. The great gates
had been open all day, and when they were closed, swung and locked
easily. As, however, he opened the wicket, either the lock or the
hinges gave a great rusty jar and startled the keen-eared Prince, who,
hastening down to learn the cause, met the brigands mounting the
stairs.
"He had time to draw his sword, and posting himself on the half-way
landing, where a turn protected him from pistol shots till his
assailants were within a sword's length, received their onset. One or
two were quickly slain, and the rest came on more cautiously. The
Princess, who behaved with extraordinary courage, hearing the clash of
steel, flew to him with his pistols, but seeing him engaged, knew that
to take off his attention by handing them to him meant certain death.
So with true Norman courage she stood at the head of the stair,
waiting to do her part. The stair was so narrow that she could not
fire past him without the danger of hitting him, though she did fire
one of them over his head to show him that she was there, and in the
hope of frightening the villains and rousing the servants. But the
servants, sleeping in the basement, were divided from them by the
brigands, and either did not hear or were too cowardly to move--most
likely the latter.
"So she retreated up the stairs again, to stand at the head and watch
her brother killed unless some miracle should save him.
"To rouse me was her first impulse. But here a woman's devotion and
instinct interfered. She had heard the men shouting to her brother:
'Give up the Admiral and you shall go unharmed--our quarrel is not
with you. We want his ransom.' With a woman's swift wit she divined
that to call me was to play into their hands. I had only one arm, and
she knew that I should not have brought pistols. She knew, too, that
if she roused me I could not be so cowardly as to make my escape while
my host was being killed for me; and she had hopes that, even if they
killed her and her brother, they might either not find me, or that I
might hear them tramping about for me and be able to barricade myself,
until assistance arrived, summoned by the cowardly servants, who could
be relied on to creep out and run to the city gate, though they would
not fight.
"The Prince fought so well that her hopes rose for the moment, and she
almost trusted that he might beat the assailants off for ever such a
little time, when she could have given him his pistols, and indeed the
pair of them have barricaded themselves behind the stout door at the
head of the staircase. But the villains were crafty, and two of them
charging up the stairs at once, one received her brother's point,
while the other fired his pistol right against the Prince's heart,
killing him on the spot. They then prepared to risk the remaining
stairs; but the brave Princess called out to them from her post round
the corner, that she had a pistol and would apply it to the first, in
the way in which they killed her brother. This checked their ardour.
They had been encouraged in their attack on the Prince by having
firearms, whilst he had none. But now the case was changed: the first
man up the steps would certainly be killed, and none would be the
first. And there they stood, huddled on the stair, with beads of sweat
dropping off their foreheads as they wavered between fear of a
desperate woman and greed for the reward offered for me--alive or
dead.
"Presently they determined to make a united rush, to leave it
uncertain who should be killed. And perhaps only with the idea of
daunting her, but I believe in cowardly fiendishness, they swore with
horrible imprecations to revenge the death of the one who should fall
with murder and the worst outrages that could be perpetrated on a
woman. But the Princess did not waver, and up the stairs they came,
one paying the penalty of his life to her courage, while the others
flung themselves on her and tied her hands, lest she should have
another weapon. Then they gagged her; and then, with the cruelty which
is almost an instinct with the lower-class Sicilians, they tied her
feet together, and forcing her on her knees, from which she could not
in her bonds rise, stood round her, waiting for her fears to torture
her, and forgetting me for a few moments, while they gloated on a
woman's terror and agony, and disputed as to the outrages which should
be inflicted on her.
"While they stood thus, helter skelter up the marble steps flew Will
Hardres, followed by a dozen or more English officers; and those who
had taken counsel before they would face a woman felt at their backs
the vengeance of the terrible English, who would have dashed into them
had they been ten to one. Their shrieks, the most appalling cries of
terror that any of my officers present had ever heard, rent the
vaulted chamber of the ancient palace. The next instant Will's eye
fell on the Princess kneeling in her bonds, and there was not another
thought of mercy in his soul, as with a fierce thrust through the back
he reached the heart of the captain of the band, and slashed off the
ear of the next as he dealt the deadly cut between the neck and the
shoulder.
"In a few seconds but one of the gang was alive, and he was saved by
Hardy knocking up the sword that should have ended his villainous
career, in the hopes of extracting information. At the same time Will
jabbed him in the thigh with the point of his sword, and bade him be
quick with all he knew if he wished to save his miserable life. In a
surprisingly short time he blabbed out the whole plot, which the
Princess, who had been freed by Will, had sufficient self-control to
translate, the Sicilian country dialect being beyond Will's powers.
"It was, briefly, that they were to carry me off, for a huge reward
that was offered for me alive or dead. But the significant part was
that the reward for my dead body was twice as much as that for the
capture of my person.
"I, all the while, was sleeping soundly in my distant chamber, and the
first intimation I had of it was when Donna Rusidda fled to rouse me,
closely followed by Will and a fellow in the livery of the Ambassador,
one of the coachful who had come with my officers. When I opened my
door to their call and they came in, to my astonishment the fellow in
Sir William's liveries rushed in between, and fell on my neck crying,
'Oh Nelson, Nelson, my hero! my hero!' and therewith fainted away.
"It was Emma, my incomparable Emma, who, knowing of my danger, could
not rest without accompanying my rescuers; and doubtless, if there had
been any such halting among them as there had been among the
murderers, her lofty spirit would have leaped o'er the delay.
"Meanwhile most of the party, finding that the danger was no more,
and leaving one or two to secure the prisoner, flew to the Prince's
side to see what could be done to save his life; but in vain, for the
villain had given him no chance. The great heavily charged
horse-pistol placed so close to his body had actually blown away the
clothes and the flesh off his side, and laid bare the heart, in which
the slugs had buried themselves. Death had been instantaneous. I must
say that when I heard of it I was never so moved; for there lay the
last Prince of the ancient House of the Favara, sword in hand, slain
on his own threshold, in defending a guest from the Island over the
seas, of whose Norman connection with himself he was so greatly proud.
"The self-possession of the Princess was marvellous. Mastering her
grief and horror, though they were so terribly wrote upon her
countenance, she summoned the cowardly rascals, who could have saved
their master's noble life, and made them bring all the couches and
bedding and cushions in the palace to the rooms surrounding mine, also
the remains of the lordly feast that her brother had given in my
honour, and the richest of their wines; and then, bidding my officers
feast and rest, excused herself.
"Dear Emma had the Prince's room assigned her, with her own men
guarding at the doors of herself and the Princess."
* * * * *
Here follows an entry in the Journal which explains an episode in the
Admiral's life which we had never been able wholly to understand until
we read these lines, and which went far to convince us, in spite of
ourselves, of the genuineness of these entries.
We both of us remember that morning well; indeed, it would hardly be
possible for the lapse of a lifetime to efface the memory of that
visit to the Favara.
The Admiral had sent the prisoner into Palermo, and with him all the
officers excepting Will and myself, who were in personal attendance
upon him. They were needed for their ships, and now that the whole
band was captured or destroyed there was no necessity for their
presence in the house of sorrow.
We had just seen them off and mounted the steps; and, as the Admiral
told us that he did not require us, we went out into the garden, where
Will soon led the way into the little shrine or belvedere where he had
been with his beloved Donna Rusidda. It gave him a pleasure to sit
there and, bidding me hold my tongue, revel in the scene of that happy
time. I, who had no associations to feed on, after a little rose and
went to the window, from whose lattice one could command a view of the
whole terrace, at the end of which the belvedere stood. At the same
end of the terrace, only a few feet below the level of the window, was
a marble seat, shaped almost like a couch, of the sort common in
gardens of these parts. Presently up the broad steps, which led to
this terrace from the ilex grove below, came the Admiral, walking
thoughtfully, and seated himself right below me. I thought it would be
vastly more entertaining to watch him than Will in his present state,
especially since I could see, and, very naturally, what a prey to
emotion he was. He could not sit still, but walked swiftly backwards
and forwards from the seat to the balustrade a few feet in front of
it, over which one looked to the city and Pellegrino. While he was
pacing thus, a lady came up the steps enveloped in one of the hooded
black silk mantles common in so many parts of Sicily. As she came near
the Admiral she let her hood fall back. It was Donna Rusidda; and I
was astonished to behold on her countenance not grief but rapture. She
came right up to the Admiral; and something told me that what was
about to happen was of so momentous a nature as to all but justify
eavesdropping--and eavesdropping it was, my continuing to stand by
that lattice.
"Princess, you have saved my life," he cried, advancing to her with
his arm outstretched in a way that suggested the ghost of his lost arm
stretched beside it.
"Dear Lord," she said (and I must not at this distance of years
attempt to reproduce her broken English), "there is no life to me so
precious as yours."
The Admiral was a simple man, and evidently took her declaration for
the exquisite courtesy of the South, and no more.
"Princess, it is not right to speak thus."
"Oh, why, my Lord?"
"With your murdered brother's blood hardly yet dried upon the
threshold, I cannot bear to hear you: even a compliment like that is
treason to his memory."
"Alas, my Lord, it is no treason, for it is no compliment."
The Admiral looked at her earnestly with his large searching eye,
which raked one like a broadside.
"You do not understand me. I am not speaking in the flowery way of
which you accuse us, but truth."
"Princess, the women of your country have overwhelmed me with their
gratitude for the small services I have been able to render it. I
thank you--I thank you. It is nothing, what I have been able to do for
you. But how am I ever to thank _you_ for what you have done for me?
It is not twelve hours since you saved my life with your bravery. I
have none braver in my whole fleet. Princess, do not talk of gratitude
to me, me who have robbed you of a brother; tell me rather how I can
atone."
"Are you blind?" she asked, in a low voice I could scarcely catch.
"I almost wish I were, that I might forget last night's work."
"Oh, why are you blind?"
He waited for her to explain.
"You do not see yet?"
"See?"
"See that it is all because I love you!--not gratitude, but love. I
love you with my whole heart, my whole soul, and every fibre of my
body!"
I could see tears glistening in the Admiral's eyes as he said,
"Princess, this is madness!"
"No, it is not madness," she said, coming forward and kneeling at his
feet, with her hands clasped round his arm, and her great clear eyes
and her flowerlike face turned upwards, radiating love and beauty. In
this attitude of supplication she poured forth her love; speaking, not
the worship of the women of a people for the liberator of their
country, but a girl's passion for her first love.
I was so riveted by the tumult of emotions which struggled in the
Admiral's open face that I did not notice that I was no longer alone
at the lattice. My attitude had betrayed that something extraordinary
was in progress, and Will was looking over my shoulder. I noticed the
pressure, but did not give him a thought while that wonderful tragedy
was being enacted below. The Admiral was strangely moved, and could
find no words except, "But your brother, Princess?"
"I cannot think of him; I cannot think of anything except my love for
you."
The Admiral gave a little gesture as if he would shake her off; but,
looking down on the lovely enraptured face, he had not the heart.
Instead, I could see the tears rolling down his cheeks as he said,
"And your brother is hardly dead."
"He is dead! he is dead!" she cried. "Ruggiero who was dearer to me
than anything in life, except you. Did I not wait for it? Did I not
spare him? This has been upon my lips for months past, and I thought
of Ruggiero."
"Princess, Princess, do not speak it!"
"I must, my dear Lord; more than anything should I have been glad to
die in Ruggiero's place if you had known that I had died for you: nay,
whether you knew it or no. We Sicilians are afraid of pain, but not of
death; and if I had died for you, and you had known it, perhaps you
would have kissed my dead lips."
"I have kissed Ruggiero," said the Admiral, almost involuntarily.
Whereat she fell to kissing his hand--a fountain of passionate kisses.
Then she rose and laid her hands upon his shoulders and looked into
his soul; and he, knowing that his soul was as crystal to her, did not
flinch, but rather stood up, and she said to him:--
"My Lord, hear the prayer of a woman, a prayer she has often prayed to
Heaven, a prayer for which she had absolution the day that you were in
the Queen's chapel...."
He made a slight movement.
"Nay, stay and hear me out: hear of a woman's will, oft challenged by
herself, but steadfast. Desperate have I been to give myself to you. I
have thought and fought and prayed how to find a way to conquer
myself."
"Dear Princess, why not marry? Marry Will: you can see how the boy is
eating his heart out for you."
"No," she answered, quite simply; "I love him much; I could not be
untrue to him."
The Admiral hung his head as if _he_ had said the shameful thing. But
she was not ashamed. She continued: "But now, since poor Ruggiero is
dead, there is no need. I am the last of my House. There is no one to
be hurt by me." Something seemed to flash across her as she added: "My
uncle is very old, and at Syracuse they hear nothing. So you see,"
she said, mistaking his silence, "there is nothing to part us."
He disengaged himself from her gently.
"Rusidda," he said, letting those large sensitive lips meet reverently
on her forehead, "this is the haven of those who have made
mistakes--not for the young with all their life before them. I have
enough to blame myself for----"
Even as he spoke, My Lady, who had sent to the city for her proper
habiliments, passed up the steps and stood before them.
"Poor child!" she said. She was full of womanly sympathy: no woman I
ever knew could rise to such a glory of sympathy and imagination and
generosity at such a moment. She led her away. It was My Lady who wept
over the death of the knightly Ruggiero and the hopelessness of
Rusidda's passion.
We watched them pass down the steps, and out of sight among the
ilexes, and the Admiral, very sorrowful, pass by the steps from the
far end of the terrace; and then I, too, crept from the belvedere, in
which I had been an imprisoned spectator, and left Will with his head
buried in his arms.
The Admiral went to the body of the Prince, who was, by this, laid out
reverently on a bier in the small dark hall at the top of the steps,
where he had so valiantly met his death for his guest. There he lay,
as it were, still on guard, where all who entered the palace must pass
him. His sword was at his side, and the old priest of S. Giovanni of
the Lepers, the priest who had brought him up from his childhood, and
so often repeated to him the prophecy of the Favara, was praying over
him. The Admiral made a reverence to him as he entered, and taking the
dead man's right hand, held it as if he were taking a vow, with tears
splashing down on it. This the priest told us; and as we passed up we
saw for ourselves how the hero knelt by the dead hero's body,
praying--as all who knew the Admiral would know--for the dead, though
it is not permitted of our Church. And the attendants told Will how
the aged servant of the Lord laid his hands and his blessing on the
heads of both.
The Admiral was still kneeling when I passed--kneeling as I saw him
kneel on the day of Trafalgar, when the _Victory_ was sailing so
grandly into action.
My Lady, too, saw him from the door, and reverence forbade her
entering the chamber. And presently came to her Will, inquiring for
Donna Rusidda. She led him to the porphyry chamber, where, dry-eyed
and wild-eyed, Donna Rusidda stood gazing out seawards, and there left
him.
"Rusidda! Rusidda!" called Will, waiting to see if she would have him
advance.
She came to him.
"You must marry me now, dear one."
She turned her clear gaze on him. His face was burning.
Then she knew that it could not be her loneliness, her orphaned state,
that made him press his suit at such a time, and said, "How could any
man wish to marry me?"
"Dear, I heard all, and I wish."
"Oh, W-Will," she cried, letting herself be taken into his arms, and
weeping at last--"how noble you are!"
"And you will marry me now?" he said hopefully, after the long silent
embrace.
"Ah, no," she sobbed, "I cannot. I love you too well."
"But, Rusidda, it cannot be true----"
"True it is, alas! I can never give my heart to any one but him, and
to him I have given it and shall give it. I shall be his slave, to do
what he lists. He _shall_ take me with him," she cried, with
passionate earnestness.
And then pitifulness smote her, for she knew well how Will loved her,
and what it was to love with such a love. And she held her peace, for
she could give Will no hope. And so presently she passed into her own
chamber.