A VISION--THE DYING BUCANIER.
And a devil of a noise did this said Mr Listado make. He rattled up
the staircase, from side to side, like a grape-shot in a carronade;
banging against the heavy balustrades, on one hand, and thundering
against the wall on the other; and speaking and laughing and shouting
to half-a-dozen persons, apparently collected below in the vestibule.
At length the door was dashed open, and in swung the gentleman, with
his flaunting gingham coat and potato face. "Brail, my darling, how
goes it, my little man? Enough of _monte_ you have had for a while, I
guess. But, heaven love me, man, we must have you made fit to receive
company; you are to hold a levee presently, do you know that? This
will never do; the birds of the air might build in your beard--ah, I
have it;" and he straightway hied him to the window that overlooked the
street, which he threw open, contriving to perform all his operations
with the greatest possible quantity of noise.
"I have it," said he,--"here is little Pepe Biada's shaving-shop right
over against old Pierre Duquesné's domicile; there--next door to Pablo
Carnero, the ham and jerked beef man, so I'll hail Pepe.--Pepe!" bawled
my troublesome friend,--"Pepe Biada--trae su navaja [bring your razor,
you villain] pour shavez un gentilhomme Engles;" and here he grimaced,
and made believe to soap his chin and shave his beard.
My bed had this morning been moved nearer to the window, for the sake
of the fresh air, and I could see, from where I lay, the little Spanish
barber, who was very deaf, sitting in his little shop. He kept turning
his ear first one side, and then another, in a vain attempt to make out
what was said, as Listado shouted to him, straining over the balcony as
far as he could, in his endeavour to make him hear.--"Navaja y
jamon--navaja y jamon--para afeytar--that is, pour cortar la barba,
that is, cuttibus the beardo of this young fellow."
Here the little withered anatomy of a barber seemed to comprehend him,
and thereupon, with a knowing look, repeated the telegraphic motions of
Monsieur Listado, rubbing his chin and going through the motion of
shaving.
"Si, si," roared Listado, "that is it--navaja y jamon"--literally, a
razor and a _ham_. Possibly honest Listado, who, with all his ability,
never could compass Spanish, because, as he said, he had previously
learned French, and thus spoke a hash of both, had mistaken the Spanish
word _jamon_ for _xabon_, the latter meaning soap.
Little Pepe first grinned, and then, as Listado persisted, he stepped
into Carnero's shop, and seizing a ham, held it up to his face, as if
he were rubbing his chin on it, and then laughed, like to fall down
where he stood.
Listado at this flew into a great rage--"Abortion chicho, mas monkey
que homo, yo te mataras--vous sera tué--si vous twistibus your damned
ugly mug at migo"----
"Bueno--bueno," roared el barbero, seeing that nothing would do but the
veritable ham and razor--"quedas quieto, yo los traere, Don
Lorenzo"--(Laurence was Listado's name)--then aside, "ave Maria, que
diablo quiere este loco, con navaja para cortar jamon?" (What the
deuce can this madman want with a razor to cut ham?)
But as Listado was a liberal fellow, and well-known among the brown
tradespeople, the little barber was in my room in a minute, made his
solemn bow at the door, with a large tortoiseshell comb stuck in his
grey pelucca (wig), and his little silver basin and towel under his
arm--his soap-box and razors in the one hand, and, lo! a capital New
York ham in the other.
"Pelukero condeñado--quevas hacer con este pierna de puerco?" (You
infernal wigmaker, what are you going to do with that leg of pork?)
"What am I going to do with it? did you not tell me to fetch a
ham--_jamon_?"
"Yes," replied Listado, "and there it is in your soap-box, you
bothersome little periwig maker--there," striking the utensil out of
his hand up into the air, and cleverly catching it again, when he
seized the soap-brush and stuck it, lather and all, into Pepe's open
mouth--"that is better than tooth-powder for you, Pepe, my darling."
"Ah!" cried little Pepe, laughing and sputtering--"I see--I see--tu me
has pedido para _jamon_, queriendo decir _xabon_--ha, ha, ha!" (You
have asked me for ham when you wanted soap.)
He at length set to work, and having shaved and trimmed me, I had my
wound dressed, and Mrs Gerard acting the part of nurse, having
previously got my clothes on shore, and, with womanly kindness and
care, had them all washed, and nicely repaired, I had my bed made and
sprinkled with Cologne water, and was soon lying on the top of it,
arrayed in one of Mr Duquesné's splendid flowered nightgowns, with a
silk handkerchief bound round my head, and another in my hand,
moistened with fresh lavender;--the windows were then thrown open--the
room thoroughly ventilated--the floor sprinkled with the aforesaid most
refreshing distillation--and there I lay in state, like a grandee's
wife in the straw, wonderfully refreshed, and quite fit to receive
company.
At this moment, in slid my worthy medico--"Good-morning,
sair--good-morning--you are make de killing preparation to massacre all
de young lady, I see. Ah, Monsieur Listado, your most obsequious--how
you are, Monsieur Listado?"
The latter bowed his acknowledgments, and made a hop, step, and skip
towards the door, knocking chairs and tables about in his way, at a
devil of a rate--"Oh dere, he makes de much noise as usual--Monsieur
Listado, dis is one sheek room--you hear me?"
But the Irishman was by this time out of the room, hailing those below,
with stentorian lungs, from the uppermost landing-place; the echo of
his voice, and their replies, sounding loud and hollow, as they were
reverberated from side to side of the lofty staircase.
"Dicky Phantom, mount and ascend, you small villain."
A tiny "Ay, ay, sir," floated up from beneath, and I heard a gradually
increasing tap-tapping on the stair, as of a cat shod with walnuts, and
the sound of suppressed girlish laughter. There was then a halt
called, apparently, and I heard the rush of female footsteps, and the
rustling of light dresses, along the passage, and presently a bustle in
the boudoir already mentioned, as of the placing of music stools. The
next moment, a harp was struck, and three voices, two female and one
male, accompanied by the instrument, which was struck skilfully and
boldly, pealed along the lofty rooms in most exquisite concord.
"Heyday--why, Listado, my lad, what is all this?" But he remained
perdue without, and in came Master Dicky Phantom, with his little drawn
cutlass in his hand, mounted on the sheep, followed by Serjeant Quacco,
as his squire.
The music ceased; Listado again made his appearance, and I received
poor Quacco's congratulations, and little Dicky's caresses.
"Oh, massa," said the little fellow, his phraseology having improved
under Quacco's tuition, "Miss Hudson make me very happy; I call her
mamma--does she make you happy too, massa?"
"I have not seen her, my boy," said I, with a funny sort of sensation
about my brisket--how sentimental! for I rather was prepared to like
her somehow; "but for her kindness to you I am very grateful."
Here Listado, who had returned, and seemed to be clumsily practising a
step in the balcony, stumbled, and fell headlong over a Spanish chair,
in an absurd sprawling fashion, like a large frog. I started, and he
burst into a loud laugh, while the pet-lamb wheeled about so suddenly,
that little Dicky was thrown with a bang on the floor, and began to
cry, when in rushed two girls, and Mrs Hudson; followed by De Walden,
Mr Hudson, and old Mr Duquesné himself.
"There is a scene in a play for you," said I to myself, quite bothered
and confused, as I wagged my head at this one, and nodded to another,
and salaam'd with my fins, with all the grace of a wounded turtle, to a
third.
"You, Monsieur Listado," chirped Doctor Delaville, like to die with
laughter, for the Patlander had chosen to keep his position on the
floor, with his head sticking through below the arm of the chair--"you
make several, many noises sometimes."
"Me!" shouted Listado. "Lord, doctor, I am noiseless as a cat. I am
velvet, doctor, in all my ways, walkings, and habitudes--velvet
entirely, doctor--and dumb as a humming-bird, as ye all know. Why, I
have been compared to a shred of gossamer floating on the calm summer
air, by Helen Hudson there."
"Oh, I forgot--de ladies never will hear nosing against Monsieur
Listado; so my good manner shall make me agree wid dem, and say what
dey say--dat is, you are quiet as von hooracan, and more gentle as de
wild beas, bear you call. Ah, you make no sound more as de tunder--Ah
ha!"
"Now you are in your senses again, mon cher medico. Miss Hudson,
Mademoiselle Sophie Duquesné, give me leave to introduce you to--Master
Brail, pilot of His Britannic Majesty's seventy-four gun-ship, the
Midge--Benjamin Brail, Miss Hudson, and Mademoiselle Duquesné--Speak,
Benjie, and let them know you've a tongue in your head, you spalpeen."
I made my acknowledgments to the kind-hearted people, who, after
remaining scarcely long enough for me to get a look at them
individually, withdrew, and left me alone once more with De Walden.
"She is a very pretty girl, that young French lady, De Walden."
The youth had steeled himself by this time I saw, and was not to be
caught again.
"Very, sir--a beautiful figure--but you seemed to notice Miss Hudson
more particularly, sir."
There was a slight smile played for an instant on the handsome fellow's
countenance, and vanished again, as he resumed his reading.
"Hem, ahem--the breeze is deuced strong," said I. "Do me the favour to
shut the blind, De Walden--beg pardon for all this trouble."
He did so, and I gained the advantage I aimed at, which was, to darken
the room so as to render it impossible for any change in one's
beautiful complexion to be seen.
"Why, I scarcely noticed the little lady, do you know, De Walden?"--He
certainly seemed not to have known it.--"She is a nice little
person--rather too petite, however, for my taste, and not very
sylph-like; a fine skin, certainly, and beautiful hair--but then her
high nose--and her eyes are not very good either--much too small and
light--besides, she is shortsighted."
De Walden's smile showed he was not, at any rate.
"And as for eyebrows, why, the superb arch of Miss Duquesné's is
infinitely finer, and beats them hollow--her neck and throat tolerable,
certainly; and the kindliness of her manner!--why, she comports herself
like a little matron beside a sick-bed; and the way she handles little
Dicky!--didn't you notice it, De Walden? No wonder he called her
mamma, poor little fellow."
"Did you ever hear her sing, sir?"
"No, unless it was her voice I heard but just now in the other room."
"You guess rightly. Miss Duquesné sang the second to her first. Two
voices never did in this world blend so sweetly."
"Ah!" said I, fearing he was again cruising too near me, "the pipe was
good enough--liquid and musical-glass like; but Miss Sophie
Duquesné's--_that_ was a voice indeed--so deep for a woman, so clear,
so full-bodied."
"Pray, sir," said De Walden, archly, "are you speaking of the qualities
of London porter, or Mademoiselle Duquesné's voice?"
I looked at the young midshipman; and, darkened as the room was, I saw
the rogue laughing heartily in his sleeve.
"You seem to have noted a good many of Miss Hudson's peculiarities,
however, my dear sir; considering you paid so _little attention_ to
her, and had so short a time to take your observation."
"I don't know," said I. "Has she been often in my room since I was
wounded, for I have dreamed of such a being, I will not deny?"
A low "Hush" was here breathed from the boudoir. De Walden gave an
intelligent nod, and I became suddenly afflicted with deafness, and
overtaken by a fidgety fit; so I asked him to assist me to change my
position, as it was becoming uneasy, and we both with one accord hauled
our wind on the other tack.
"But whose was the male voice that joined so beautifully in the song?"
"Mr Listado's, sir."
"Moin--moy voice--oh, Lord!"--said some one in subdued Tipperary in the
next room.
"Come," said De Walden, laughing aloud, "no eavesdropping, if you
please."
"Pray, Mr De Walden," said I, "did you perceive the earthquake early
this morning? How peculiar the sensation--how undefinable the
mysterious noise preceding the shock!"
"I did, sir. We have had several slight shocks lately here, but no one
seems to mind them. I was afraid it would disturb you, sir."
"Why, it did so, certainly; but I soon fell asleep again."--A long
pause.--"No appearance of Gazelle yet, _Mister_ De Walden?" borrowing
the stiff formula of the quarterdeck, to rub out, as it were, any
little familiarity that had passed.
"No, sir."
"Surely she might have been round, although I have no objections to her
staying out, until I am up and about again. Have you heard any thing
more of Lennox?"
"I went to the prison to see him last night. He is looking very ill
and pale, poor devil, but does not complain. The jailer again told me,
that the moment you were strong enough to make your deposition before
the _Juez_, he would be discharged."
"And the desperado who wounded me?"
"Why, he has been better, and worse, several times, sir. His
uncontrollable temper throws him back, while the strength of his
constitution does wonders. He was not expected to live over the second
day, but, to the surprise of the surgeon of the prison, he rallied
astonishingly, and was in fact getting well until yesterday, when
Lennox was taken into his room to endeavour to identify him, since
which he has been much worse, and the scene must have had a strong
effect on Lennox himself."
"As how?" said I.
"Why, you know, he is an extraordinary creature; in fact, he is crazy
now and then, as he says himself, and certainly he conducted himself
last evening more like a lunatic than a sane person."
The doctor had retired with the ladies, and now returned for his hat
and cane.
"My dear doctor, do you think it would do me any harm to be moved the
length of the prison to-morrow in a litter? I am very desirous to see
the marine who is confined there for stabbing the bravo who waylaid me."
"I know all about dat, capitain. To-morrow shall be too soon,
very,--but next day, may be."
I thanked him, and determined to wait patiently until then.
The intervening period was one of great comfort and happiness to me.
Old Dick had my things sent ashore, and was most assiduous in his
attention, whenever he could spare time from his repairs on board.
Over and and over again I blessed Heaven for its mercy, in throwing me
amongst such kindly people. Oh, who can appreciate the tenderness of
woman's attentions like the friendless sufferer, who has languished
amongst strangers in a foreign land on a bed of sickness?
Two or three days elapsed, during which I rapidly got better; so that,
on the fourth, I was enabled to walk, with the support of De Walden's
arm, to the prison, in place of being carried on a litter.
When we arrived, we were shown into the room where Lennox was confined:
it was about five in the afternoon of a very hot, sultry day. The
marine was sitting in his frock and trowsers, with his back towards us,
looking out through the iron bars of the unglazed window, that
commanded a long street, and fronted the west. The creaking of the
rusty lock, and clanking of the chain and bolt that secured the door of
the lofty apartment, did not disturb him: he merely, as he sat with his
legs crossed on the small wooden chair, with his clasped hands on his
knee, nodded slightly, but without turning his face, and said--"Come
in."
"Well, Lennox," said De Walden, "here is Mr Brail at last. You were
not beginning to lose heart, were you?"
On this the poor fellow rose and confronted us. There was a sad change
in his appearance since I saw him: he was pale and wan, with an unusual
anxiety and apparent feverishness about him, and an unsettled sparkling
of his eye, that, from what I previously had known of his history, but
too clearly indicated that his reason was more unsettled than usual.
"I am very grateful for this visit," said he at length, without
directly answering Mr De Walden. "I am glad to see you so far
recovered, sir; but you look thin and pale yet: this will soon
disappear, I hope--I trust it will soon disappear." Here his voice
sank into an unintelligible murmur, and his eye fell, as if he were
repeating the words to himself, without being conscious of their
meaning--as if he had been maundering, to use his own phrase.
"Well, I have no doubt it will, and I have good reason to believe that
you will be soon quite well too, Lennox; so get ready. I presume you
know you are to appear before the _Juez_ this afternoon, where you will
instantly be released, I am told. Mr De Walden and I are waiting for
you."
He said nothing, but stooped down to gather some clothes that lay on a
low pallet in the corner of the room; which having tied up in a bundle,
he lifted his hat, and stood in the middle of the apartment ready to
go. His _oddness_--it was not sullenness of manner, I knew--surprised
me a good deal; but I said nothing, and the jailer now turned to
conduct us into the court, where the judge was waiting to take my
deposition. We had advanced ten or twelve paces along the dark stone
passage, when Lennox, who was bringing up the rear, suddenly turned
back, without speaking, and entered his prison-room; shutting the door
very unceremoniously after him, and thereby depriving us of every
particle of light where we stood.
"Hillo," said De Walden, "Master Lennox, this is not over and above
civil."
"El marinero ese es loco, señor." (That sailor is mad, sir), quoth the
jailer.
"Mad or not, I will see if I cannot make him mend his manners," said I,
as I returned with the young midshipman, groping for the door. We
found it on the latch, and pushing it open, saw our _amigo_ coolly
seated in his chair, looking out of the window in precisely the same
attitude as when we first entered.
"Now, sir," said I, really angry, "will you favour me with a reason for
this most extraordinary conduct--this indecent behaviour to your
superior officer, and I may add to myself, to whom you have professed
yourself beholden? I am willing to make great allowances for your
_infirmity_, as you call it; but this is a little too much on the
brogue, my fine fellow." I had moved round in front of him by this
time. He had dropped his eyes on the ground, with his hand pressed on
his forehead; but in an instant he rose up, endeavouring to hide the
tears that were rolling over his cheeks.
"Will you and Mr De Walden listen to me for five minutes, captain,
before we go into court?"
"I scarcely am inclined to humour you in your absurdities, Lennox; but
come, if you have any thing to say, out with it at once--make haste, my
man." Seeing he hesitated, and looked earnestly at the jailer--"Oh, I
perceive--will you have the kindness to leave us alone with the
prisoner for five minutes?"
"Certainly," said the man--"I shall remain outside."
The moment he disappeared, Lennox dropped on his knees, and seemed to
be engaged in prayer for some moments: he then suddenly rose, and
retired a few paces from us. "Gentlemen, what I am going to tell you I
have seen, you will very possibly ascribe to the effects of a heated
imagination; nevertheless, I will speak the truth. The man who wounded
you, Mr Brail, and now lies in the last extremity in the next
room"--here he seemed to be suffocating for want of breath--"is no
other than Mr Adderfang, the villain who through life has been my evil
genius. Ay, you may smile incredulously; I expected nothing else; but
it is nevertheless true, and even he shall, if he can speak when you
see him, confirm what I have told you. Do you not see the palpable
intervention of an overruling Providence in this, gentlemen? _Here_ I
encounter, against all human probability, in a strange country, with
the very fiend who drove me forth, broken-hearted and deranged in mind,
from my own! It is not chance, gentlemen--you will blaspheme,"
continued he impetuously, "if you call it chance--one from the dead has
visited me, and told me it was not chance." His eye flashed fire as he
proceeded with great animation and fluency--"Mr Brail, do not smile--do
not smile. Believe me that I speak the words of truth and soberness,
when I tell you that _she_ was _here_ last night; ay, as certainly as
there is a God in heaven to reward the righteous and punish iniquity."
I let him go on.
"I was sitting, as you saw me, in that chair, sir, looking forth on the
setting moon, as it hung above the misty hill-top, and was watching its
lower limb as it seemed to flatten and lose its roundness against the
outline of the land, and noticing the increasing size of the pale globe
as the mist of morning rose up and floated around it,--when I heard a
deep sigh close behind me. I listened, and could distinguish low
moaning sobs, but I had no power to turn round to look what it was.
Suddenly the window before me became gradually obscured, the dark walls
thinned and grew transparent, the houses and town disappeared, and I
was conscious, ay, as sensible as I am that I speak to you now, Mr
Brail, that I saw before me my own mountain lake, on the moonlight bank
of which I last parted from Jessy Miller before she fell.
"The waning planet seemed to linger on the hill, and shed a long sickly
wake on the midnight tarn, that sleeped in the hollow of the mountain,
bright and smooth as if the brown moss had been inlaid with polished
steel, except where a wild-duck glided over the shining surface, or the
wing of the slow-sailing owl flitted winnowingly across, dimming it for
a moment, like a mirror breathed upon. I was sitting on the small
moss-grown cairn, at the eastern end; the shadow of the black hills was
cast so clearly in the water, that you could not trace the shore of the
small lake, nor define the water-line beneath the hazel bushes; and the
stars were reflected in another heaven scarcely less pure than their
own. I heard the rushing of the burn over its rugged channel, as it
blended with the loch, and the melancholy bleating of the sheep on the
hill-side, and the low bark of the colleys, and the distant shout of
the herds watching the circular folds, high up on the moor,--when I
felt a touch on my shoulder, and, glancing down, I saw a long, pale
female hand resting on it, as of a person, who was standing behind me:
it was thin and wasted, and semi-transparent as alabaster, or a white
cornelian stone, with the blue veins twining amongst the prominent
sinews, and on the marriage-finger there was a broken ring--I saw it as
clearly as I see my own hand now, for the ends of the small gold wire
of which it was composed stood up and out from the fleshless finger. I
kenned weel who was there, but I had no power to speak. The sigh was
repeated, and then I heard a low still voice, inarticulate and scarcely
audible at first, like a distant echo from the hill-side, although I
had a fearful conviction that it was uttered close behind
me;--presently it assumed a composed but most melancholy tone--yes, Mr
Brail, so sure as there is a God above us, Jessy Miller--yea, the dead
spoke in that awful moment to the living."
"Oh, nonsense, man!" I said; "really you are getting mad in earnest
now, Lennox; this will never do."
He paid no attention to me, but went on--
"'Saunders,' it said, 'I have come to tell you that him ye ken o'--he
wha crushed my heart until it split in twain--he wha heaped the mools
on my head, and over the child I bare him--will also help you to an
early grave.' The hand on my shoulder grew heavy as lead. 'He has
meikle to answer for to you, Saunders, and I have mair; and to me he
has----but _I_ maun dree my weird.' Here the voice was choked in small
inaudible sobs, blending with which I thought I heard the puling as of
a new-born baby, when a gradually swelling sough came down the
hill-side, like the rushing of the blast through the glen, and the
water in the placid loch trembled in the waning moonbeams like that in
a moss-hag[1] when a waggon rolls past, and the hitherto steady
reflection of the stars in it twinkled and multiplied as if each spark
of living fire had become two; and although there was not a breath out
of heaven, small ripples lap-lapped on the pebbly shore, and a heavy
shower of dew was shaken from the leaves of the solitary auld saugh
that overhung the northern bank of the wee loch, sparkling in the
moonlight like diamonds; and the scathed and twisted oak stump on the
opposite hill that bisected the half-vanished disk of the sinking moon,
as she lingered like a dying friend looking his last at us, shook
palpably to and fro, and a rotten limb of it fell;--ay, the solid earth
of the cold hill-side itself trembled and heaved, as if they who slept
in the grey cairn beneath had at that moment heard the summons of the
Archangel;--when, lo! the dead hand was withdrawn with a faint shriek,
like the distant cry of the water-hen, and I turned in desperation to
see--what? a thin wreath of white mist float up the hill-side, and
gradually melt into the surrounding darkness. And once more I was
seated where you now see me, with that rusty stanchel clearly defined
against the small segment of the moon, that still lingered above the
horizon. The next moment it was gone, and I was left in darkness."
[1] The pit in a moor from whence peats or turf have been taken.
"All a dream, Lennox; all a phantasy of your heated imagination. There
was a slight shock of an earthquake last night at the time you mention,
just at the going down of the moon, and that was the noise you heard
and the tremor you perceived, so rouse yourself, man. Adderfang, if it
really be him, from all accounts, is dying, and you will soon be safe
from _his_ machinations, at all events."
He shook his head mournfully, but said nothing more--whether my
arguments had convinced him or no, was another thing--but we all
proceeded to the room where the judge was waiting for us, and my
declaration immediately freed poor Lennox; after which we were
requested to accompany the officers of the court, who, along with their
interpreter, were proceeding to the wounded man's room, to take his
dying declaration.
The daylight had entirely failed by the time we reached the cell where
Adderfang lay. We were met at the door by a Carmelite priest, who
appeared in great wrath, and muttered something about a "Heretico
condeñado." We entered. It was an apartment of the same kind as the
one in which Lennox had been confined, and had a low pallet on one
side, fronting the high iron-barred window. From the darkness I could
merely make out that some person lay on the bed, writhing about,
apparently in great pain. A candle was brought, and we could see about
us. It shone brightly on the person of a tall bushy-whiskered
desperado, who lay on the bed, covered by a sheet, groaning and
breathing very heavily. I approached; his features were very sharp and
pale, his lips black, and his beard unshaven; his eyes were shut, and
his long hair spread all over the pillow.
He appeared to be attended by a slight, most beautiful Spanish girl;
apparently a fair mulatto, who was sitting at the head of the bed,
brushing away the musquittoes, and other night flies, with a small
bunch of peacock's feathers; while the hot tears trickled down her
cheeks, and over her quivering lips, until they fell on her distracted
and heaving bosom. But she was silent; her sobs were even inaudible;
her grief was either too deep for utterance, or the fear of disturbing
the dying moments of her lover made her dumb.
"O, Woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!"
Hearing a bustle in the room, Adderfang now spoke, in a low and
interrupted voice--it was in Spanish.
"Padre, do not persist--I do not want your services--you cannot smooth
my pillow--do not therefore try to strew more thorns there--Heaven
knows they are numerous enough, and sharp enough already."
"Can this be the villain who stabbed me?" said I, somewhat moved.
The poor girl at this stooped down, and whispered something into his
ear.
"Ah!" said he, "I had forgot--I had forgot; but your tears scald me,
Antonia--hot--hot;" and with a sudden effort, as if ashamed to evince
how much he was suffering, and a fierce energy, he controlled the
twitching of his feverish limbs, clasped his hands on his bosom, and
opening his blood-shot eyes for the first time, took a steady survey of
us. He then glanced to the jailer.
"This is the gentleman who was stabbed by you," said the Spaniard. He
nodded. "This is the English marine, Lennox, who came up with the
guard and took you prisoner."
I could not help remarking, when Lennox was introduced to him, that the
wounded man smiled bitterly, as much as to say--"I know _him_ but too
well, and he has fearful cause to know _me_." "Mr Brail," said he (I
had to stoop to catch his words, he spoke in so low a tone), "I am
aware of the object of this visit--it is all proper. Let the escribano
there get his paper ready; I shall make short work of the confessional."
The man sat down. Adderfang again shut his eyes, and seemed for a few
moments to be gathering his thoughts about him; at length--
"I acknowledge that I stabbed the Englishman, Mr Brail, and robbed him
afterwards; and that the English marine, Lennox, acted nobly and
honourably in coming to the assistance of his countryman. He was the
man who wounded me. There you have it all; engross it, and I will sign
it."
As if desirous of being heard distinctly, he had, as he pronounced
these words with difficulty, in detached sentences, raised himself on
his left arm, and now, as if exhausted, he fell back with his head on
poor Antonia's lap.
"The tackle of _his_ heart was cracked and burned,
And all the shrouds wherewith _his_ life should sail,
Are turned to one poor thread, one little hair."
There was a long pause.
"But why," said the Juez at length--"why did you waylay Mr Brail?"
"For two reasons," replied the dying bravo; "first, because I harboured
revenge for the destruction of my vessel by the Midge, _steered by
him_, as that young gentleman afterwards told me" (here De Walden and I
exchanged looks), "on the bar of the African river; secondly, because
he took my last stiver from me at the gaming-table."
"Evil motives both, my son, to be entertained by any, but especially by
one standing on the threshold of eternity. Let me recall the priest,
that he may shrive you, and probably, with God's blessing, induce you
to repent before you go hence."
I turned to look at the person who spoke. He was a tall and very dark
Spaniard, his age might have been sixty, and his short and scanty hair
was of a silver grey. He was plainly dressed in black, and sat at a
small table, and opposite to him the escribano, or notary, with his
paper before him, and pen held up between him. and the candle, and
ready wet with ink.
"It is of no use, _and I will not_," said Adderfang; "besides, if I am
any thing at all, I am a Protestant--and as the tree falls, so must it
lie--it is a part of my creed.--_Creed_!" he here interjected to
himself with great bitterness--"_my creed!_ whatever it may be of
yours, and I feel that all the roots that knit me to the earth have
already parted, save one; therefore, let me die, if not in peace, at
least in quietness."
He stopped to take breath, and when he proceeded, it was in a voice
even more weak and trembling than before.
"Yes, Heaven knows, villain as I have been, that they have all snapped
_but one_"--and he caught the hand of the poor girl, and tried to place
it on his heart, but his strength failed him. She wept aloud at this
unexpected burst of feeling, and the contagion of her tears extended
even to the stony heart of the wounded man himself. The iron had at
length entered into his soul, and what the retrospect of his own
ill-spent life--what the intensity of his present agony, and the
fearful prospect before him through eternity, could not wring from
him--now flowed at the sight of the poor girl's misery, as if his bosom
had been a tender woman's. He wept aloud.
"Yes--my evil courses have but too justly estranged all my kindred from
me; one friend has dropped off after another, until, in the prime of
life, after having squandered a handsome patrimony, and having been
educated as a gentleman, with every thing around me that ought to have
made me happy, to this have I come at last!" He groaned heavily. "You
see before you, Mr Brail, not a _fiend, but an everyday villain_--a man
not naturally wicked--one who did not love evil for evil's sake, but
who became the willing slave of his passions, and held no law, human or
divine, in reverence, when they were to be gratified. Ay, William
Adderfang, here you lie on a death-bed from violence--from a wound
sustained in the act of stabbing and robbing another, to gratify
revenge, and the paltry desire of repossessing money squandered at the
gaming-table, and with the certainty that, if a miracle interposed, and
you recovered, your life would still be taken on the scaffold. Ay,
here you lie," continued he with increasing energy, "without one soul
in the wide world to say God bless you, or to close your eyes when you
are gone, but my poor Antonia here."
Here the unhappy girl's anguish became uncontrollable, although she
could not have understood what he said, and she threw herself on the
bed in such a position as to give her paramour great pain; a shudder
passed over his face, and he endeavoured to turn himself round, so as
to gain an easier position. In the action the wound in his side burst
out afresh, and presently a dark puddle coagulated on the sheet at his
right side. The doctor of the prison was in immediate attendance, and
applied styptics to stanch the bleeding; all the time he seemed in a
dead faint--he made no movement, and when the wound was dressed, and he
was replaced on his bed, I did not know, as I bent over him, whether
the spirit had fled or not.
Lennox, with the judge's permission, now took one of the candles from
the table, and held it to his face--he still breathed. But in the
silence within the room, I perceived that the weather without began to
grow gusty and boisterous; I could hear the rain lashing against the
wall of the prison, and the blast howled round the roof, and threatened
to extinguish the candle. The freshness of the night wind, however,
reanimated the sufferer in a wonderful degree; and when I rose, with an
intention of closing the shutters, to prevent the rain beating through
on his face, as he lay propped up on the poor girl's bosom, fronting
the narrow aperture, he had strength enough to ask me, in a low husky
voice, "to leave it open, the coolness and moisture revived him."
Lennox now spoke--"Mr Adderfang, I have come on purpose to say that
I"--his voice faltered, and he leant against the wall for a brief
space--"to say that _I forgive you_--ay, as freely as I hope God will
forgive me at the last day. Give me your hand, Mr Adderfang, and say
you forgive me also for having wounded you."
The dying man shrunk from him, and drew his hand back--"No, no,
Saunders, you cannot be sincere, you cannot be sincere; you cannot have
forgotten _her_ injuries, you cannot have forgiven your own."
"Yes," said the poor fellow solemnly, "I have prayed for many a long
year that I might be able to forgive you--even _you_; and my prayer has
been heard at last. Oh, if you would even at the ninth hour appeal to
the same merciful Being, might he not show his mercy to your dying
soul?"
"I cannot--I cannot pray," said Adderfang, as impetuously as his
weakness would let him--"I cannot pray--I have never prayed,
Saunders--oh, would to God I had! would that I could redeem but one
short week! But it would be of no avail," groaned he, in a low altered
tone--"all has been foreordained--I have been the slave of an
irrevocable destiny--I could have acted no otherwise than I have done;
and if there be a hereafter and a God"----
"If there be!" said I, "Heaven have mercy on you, Mr Adderfang, and
turn your heart even now in your extremity."
"Oh! Mr Brail, I know myself--I am quite conscious of my inherent
wickedness--the damning conviction is burned in on my heart, that even
if I were to recover, I should again fall into the same courses--I am
quite certain of it; so why appeal to the Invisible"--he paused and
gasped for breath--"why insult Heaven with vain promises of amendment,
which I could not and would not keep were I to survive? why play the
hypocrite now? why lie to God, when"--here he put his hand to his side,
as if in great suffering--"when, if there be such a Being, I must, in
all human probability, appear before him in half an hour, when no lie
will serve me?--But let me do an act of justice--yes, call the
priest"--he now spoke in Spanish--"call the priest. Rise, Antonia, and
kiss me; you are another victim"--he groaned again--"I promised you
marriage before I wove my web of deceit round your innocent heart; you
have often prayed me to remember that solemn promise, since you were
ensnared, and I have as often laughed you to scorn, or answered you
with a brutal jest; I will accede to your request now; call the priest,
let him be quick, or death will prevent"--He swooned again.
Presently the venerable friar, without any trace of anger at the
previous rejection of his services, was at the bedside. I never shall
forget the scene. It was now quite dark, and the two large brown wax
tapers were flickering in the current of air that came strong through
the window, and stirred the few hairs of the venerable Juez, who sat at
the table. The lights cast a changeful glare on his face, and on that
of the old priest, who was standing beside the pillow of the dying man,
dressed in his long dark robe, with a cord round his waist, supporting
a silver crucifix that glanced in the light; and on the tall form of
the beautiful Spanish girl, that lay across the bed, her naked feet
covered by neat grass slippers, and on her pale olive complexion, and
fine features, and her hair plaited in three distinct braids, that hung
down her back, intertwined with black ribbon; and sparkled in her large
black swimming eye, and on the diamond-like tears that chased each
other over her beautiful features and swelling and more than half-naked
bosom. Lennox and myself were all this time standing at the foot of
the bed; De Walden was leaning on the back of the escribano's chair,
with his face so turned as to see that of the wounded man, who lay
still as death, the yellow light shining by fits full on his sunburnt
complexion, and unshaven chin (the flickering shadows making his
features appear as if convulsed, if they really were not so), and
strong muscular neck, and glancing on the auburn curls, clotted with
the cold perspiration wrung from his forehead by intense suffering.
He gradually recovered. The priest signed to Antonia to rise, and I
took her place on the bed; he placed her hand in that of Adderfang, who
looked steadily and consciously at him, but he could not speak. The
service proceeded, the gusts without increasing, and the rain lashing
to a degree that almost drowned the old man's voice. Adderfang being
unable to repeat the responses, merely acknowledged them by an
inclination of his head, and a silent movement of his lips; at length,
when it was asked of him, "Do you take this woman to be your wife?" he
made an effort, and replied distinctly, "Yes."
Ha! what is that? A flash of lightning--a piercing shriek echoed
through the room, loud above the rolling thunder--and then a convulsive
giggle--something fell heavily on the floor--the wind howled, the
lights were blown out--"Ave Maria purissima--sancta madre--soy
ciega--soy ciega!" (Holy Mother of God, I am struck blind--I am struck
blind!) The unfortunate girl had, indeed, been struck by the electric
fluid, and was now writhing sightless on the floor: we endeavoured to
remove her, but she had got her arms twined round the foot of the bed,
and resisted all our efforts. "Dexa me morir cerca mi querido--ah
Dios! dexa me morir aqui." Lights were immediately procured, and the
shutters closed; and there lay Adderfang, apparently quite sensible,
but now glaring round him, like a dying tiger. I never can forget the
bitter smile that played on his haggard features, like the lurid glare
of a stormy sunset. I turned away and shuddered, but curiosity
compelled me to look at him again. He shook his head, as his eye
caught mine, and pointed upward, as if he had said, "You see the very
heavens league against me." He then signed for some cordial that stood
on the table: having drank it, it revived him for a minute almost
miraculously. He again shed a flood of tears, and, sobbing audibly,
clasped his hands on his bosom and prayed aloud. Yes, the assassin,
the libertine, the selfish, cold-hearted seducer, for a short minute
bent meekly as a child before the storm of his sufferings!
"Oh, Almighty God, whose laws I have so fearfully contemned, hear my
prayers for her--hear the prayers of one _who dare not pray for
himself_!"
A low, growling thunderclap had gradually rolled on from a distance as
he proceeded; but when he got this length, it roared overhead in a
series of loud reports, as if a seventy-four had fired her broadside
close to us, shaking the dust from the roof and walls of the room, and
making the whole prison tremble, as at the upheaving of an earthquake.
He ceased--when the noise gradually grumbled itself to rest in the
distance, and again nothing but the howling of the tempest without was
heard.
"The voice of the Almighty," at length he said, speaking in short
sentences with great difficulty, and in a low, sigh-like voice,--"yea,
the sound of my condemnation. Heaven will not hear my prayers, but
with its thunders drowns the voice of my supplication--rejecting my
polluted sacrifice, like that of Cain. I am ruined and condemned here
and hereafter--palpably condemned by the Eternal, even while yet on
earth, body and soul--body and soul--condem"----
He ceased--a strong shiver passed over his face--his jaw fell; and
Lennox, stepping up to him, closed his eyes--stooped his cheek towards
his mouth to perceive if he still breathed--then holding up his hand,
solemnly said, "_He hath departed!_"