"Hold thine eye to the crevice when the light enters, and mark well what
thou beholdest."
Again he saw his mistress, apparently in a vaulted chamber, lighted by a
single lamp: she sat as if anxious and disturbed, her cheek pale and
flushed by turns, whilst her eye wandered hurriedly around the room.
Some one approached; it was the seer. Rodolf heard him speak.
"Maiden, hast thou a lover?"
The sound seemed scarcely akin to that of human speech. It rose heavily
and deep, as from the charnel-house, as if the grim and cold jaws of the
grave could utter a voice,--the dreary echoes of the tomb! The seer's
lips were motionless, whilst he thus continued in the same sepulchral
tone.
"I know thou hast. 'Tis here thy love would tend." He drew a richly-set
miniature from his bosom. It was mounted in so peculiar a fashion that
Rodolf started back with the first emotion of surprise. The miniature
was his own; a gem newly from the artist, and which he had left, as he
thought, in safe custody a short time ago. The voice again whispered in
his ear, "Beware."
He subdued the expression of wonder just rising on his lip, watching the
issue with increased interest.
Kate covered her face. She had just glanced at the picture, and her
proud bosom heaved almost to bursting.
"Look, disdainful woman! and though thy bosom be formed for love, yet
wouldest thou spurn it from thee. I _know_ thou lovest him. Nay, chide
not; thy brow cannot blast me with its thunders. Go to. I could, by mine
art, so humble thee, set thy love so exquisitely on its desire, that
thou shouldest lay thy proud womanhood aside--sue and crouch, even if
'twere for blows, like a tame spaniel! I have thee in my power, and were
not the natural bent of thy dispositions kind and noblehearted, yet sore
beset, and, as it were, overwhelmed by thy curst humours, I had now cast
my spells about thee--ay, stricken thee to the dust! Shake off these
bonds that enthral thy better spirit, and let not that beautiful fabric
play the hypocrite any longer. Why should so fair a temple be the
dwelling of a demon?"
A deep sob here told that kindlier feelings were at work; that nature
was beginning to assert her prerogative, and that the common sympathies,
the tender attributes, of woman were not extinguished.
The struggle was short, but severe. With difficulty she repressed the
outburst of her grief as she spoke.
"A woman still! 'Tis the garb nature put on. I have wrapped a sterner
garment about me." A long and bitter sob here betrayed the violent
warfare within. It was but for a moment. Affecting contempt for her own
weakness, she exclaimed--
"Throw it off? Expose me defenceless to his proud contumely? Even now
the cold glance of indifference hath pierced it through!"
Here she arose proudly.
"And what thinkest thou, if I were to stand unarmed, uncovered, before
his unfeeling gaze?"
"He loves thee," hastily rejoined the seer.
"Me!--as soon that bauble learn to love as"----
"Say but one word, and I will bow him at thy feet."
"'Tis well thou mockest me thus. To worm out my secret, perchance.--For
this didst thou crave my presence? Let me be gone!"
"Thou shalt say 'Yes,' Kate, ere thou depart!"
The curtain which divided the apartment suddenly flew aside. The
astonished lover beheld his mistress:--not the unreal phantom he had
imagined, but a being substantial in quality, and of a nature like his
own, though gentler than his fondest anticipations.
The seer departed: but in the end the lovers were not displeased at
being betrayed into a mutual expression of their regard.
The operation of the heavenly influences was, in these days, a doctrine
that obtained almost universal credit; and it would have been looked
upon as a daring piece of presumption to baffle the prophetic
signification of the stars.
On that same night, being the eve of St Bartholomew, they were
married:--thus adding one more to the numerous instances on record,
where a belief in the prediction has been the means of its
accomplishment.
The remainder of Kate's history, and how she crossed the sea,
accompanied by her husband, into the wilds of Bohemia, living there for
a space; and how she afterwards returned into her own land, will be set
forth at some more fitting opportunity.