Alles vergaengliche ist nur ein Gleichniss.--GOETHE.
Michael was dying. All night Magdalen and the Bishop, with nurse and
doctor, fought for his life, vainly strove to stem the stream of blood
with which his life was ebbing away.
He had been found by Lord Lossiemouth and a servant lying unconscious at
the foot of the staircase in the hall. He had been carried into a room
on the ground floor. Everything had been done, but without avail.
Michael was dying, suffocating in anguish, threshing his life out
through the awful hours, in wild delirium.
He was in prison once more, beating against the bars of his narrow
window looking out over the lagoon. His hoarse strangled voice spoke
unceasingly. His hands plucked at his wrists, and then dropped exhausted
beneath the weight of the chains which dragged him down.
Magdalen would fain have spared Fay the ordeal of that vigil. But the
Bishop was inexorable. He bade her remain. And shrunk away in a corner,
shivering to her very soul, Fay listened hour by hour to the wild feeble
voice of her victim, back once more in the cell where he had been so
silent, where the walls had kept his counsel so well. She saw
something--at last--of what he had endured for her, of what he had made
so light.
At last the paroxysm passed. Michael pushed back the walls with his
hands, and then suddenly gave up the struggle.
"They are closing in on me," he said. "I cannot keep them back any
longer."
The contest ceased all in a moment. He lay back motionless with
half-closed eyes, his face blue against the white pillows. The blood had
ceased at last to flow from his colourless lips. Death was very near.
He knew no one. Not the Bishop, not Magdalen who kept watch beside him,
listening ever for Wentworth's step outside.
In the dawn Michael's spirit made as if to depart, but it seemed as if
it could not gain permission.
The light grew.
And with the light the laboured breathing became easier. He stirred
feebly, and whispered incoherently from time to time. He was still in
his cell. Wentworth's name, the Italian doctor's, rose to his lips.
Then, after a pause, he said suddenly:
"The Duke is dead. She will come now."
There was a long silence. He was waiting, listening.
The Bishop and Magdalen held their breath. Fay knew at last what it is
to fail another. She had failed Michael. Wentworth had failed her.
"Fay!" Michael said, "come soon."
She had to bear it, the waiting, the faltered anguish, the suspense, the
faint reiterated call to deaf ears.
The Bishop got up from his knees beside Michael, and motioned Fay to
take his place. She went timidly to the low couch and knelt down by it.
"Speak to him," said the Bishop sternly.
"Michael!" she said.
He knew her. All other voices had gone from him, but hers he knew. All
other faces had faded from him, but hers he knew. He looked full at her.
Love stronger than death shone in his eyes.
"Fay," he said in an awed voice--"at last."
She had come to release him, after the Duke's death, as he knew she
would.
She leaned her white cheek a moment against his in speechless
self-abasement.
He whispered to her.
"Have I served you?"
She whispered back, "Yes."
He whispered again, "Do you still love me?" The words were quite
inaudible.
Again she said, "Yes."
Again a movement of the lips, but no sound.
He looked at her with radiant questioning eyes.
Again she murmured, "Yes."
It had to be like that. He had always known that this moment had to
come. Had he not foreseen it in some forgotten dream?
A great trembling laid hold on Michael, and then a stillness of
exceeding joy.
In the silence the cathedral bells chimed out suddenly for early
service. The sound of the bells came faintly to him as across wide
water, the river of death widening as it nears the sea. It was all part
of his dream. The bells of Venice were rejoicing with him, in this his
blessed hour.
He was freed at last, free as he had never been, free as the seagull
seen through the bars that could no longer keep him back. Useless bars,
why had he let them hold him so long? He was out and away, sailing over
the sheening water in a boat with an orange sail; in a boat like a
butterfly with spread wings; sailing away, past the floating islands,
past that pale beautiful grief of sea lavender--he laughed to see it
shine so beautiful--sailing away into a pearly morning, under a luminous
sky.
The prison was far away now. Left behind. There was a great knocking at
its gates, hurried steps upon the stairs, and a voice crying urgently
through the bars.
But he could not stay to listen. He was too far away to hear. The voice
was to him but like the thin harsh cry of the sea-mew wheeling near,
blended in with the marvel of his freedom. He took no heed of it. He was
afloat on the great sea-faring tide. Far away before him, but nearer,
nearer, and yet nearer, the sea gleamed in trembling ecstasy.
* * * * *
"He does not know me. He does not hear me," said Wentworth, on his knees
beside Michael, raising a wild, desperate face to Magdalen. Was
Michael's last look of deadly hatred to remain with him through life?
"Speak to him again, Fay," said Magdalen. "Tell him Wentworth is here."
Fay was still kneeling on the other side. The two lovers' eyes met
across the man they had murdered.
"Michael," the tremulous voice whispered.
"Louder," said Wentworth hoarsely.
"Michael," said Fay again.
But Michael's face was set. He was sunk in a great rest, breathing deep
and slow, deeper and slower yet, his long arms faintly rising and
falling with each breath.
"Oh, Fay. For God's sake make him hear," said Wentworth with a cry.
The Bishop and Magdalen standing apart looked at each other.
"He has forgiven her, though he does not know it," he said below his
breath.
Fay stooped down. She raised Michael in her arms, and laid his head on
her breast, turning his fading face to his brother.
"Michael," she whispered into his ear, with a passion which would have
cloven death itself. "Come back, come back and say one word to
Wentworth."
* * * * *
Very near the sea now. Very near the great peace and light. This was the
real life at last. All the rest had been a vain shadow, a prison where
he had dwelt a little while, not seeing that this great all-surrounding
water, which had seemed to hem him in, was but a highway of light.
Who were these two with him in the boat? Who but the two he loved best!
Who but Fay and Wentworth! They were all floating on together in
exceeding joy. They were very near him. He felt them one on each side,
but the light was so great that he could not see them. His head was on
Fay's breast. His hand was in Wentworth's hand. It was all as in dim
dreams he had longed for it to be.
Fay's voice reached him, pressed close to his ear, like the sound of the
sea, held in its tiniest shell.
He opened his eyes and his brother's white face came to him for a
moment, like sea foam, blown in from the sea of love to which he was
going, part of the sea.
"Wenty!" he said, and smiled at him.
And like blown foam upon a breaking wave, the face passed.
And like the whisper in the shell under the hush of the surge, the voice
passed.
The shadow which we call life--passed.
THE END