A sensation of intense heat. Then a feeling as if her head were on
fire, followed by a terrible pain.
How long this lasted Mace never knew, but she lay there confused and
troubled. One feeling, however, was dominant. It was very nearly the
time when Gil would be beneath the window, and she must take off that
wedding-dress, and send her maid away.
What a mockery it was, that dress, and how hot and clammy it seemed.
She shuddered in one of her more lucid moments, as it struck her that it
was like a winding-sheet, and she recalled that she had often wished
herself dead.
How dark it was, and how steaming and hot. Drip, drip, drip, drip. The
noise of dripping water, every drip seemed as if it struck upon her
brain, and caused her suffering. Why, it rained!
Well, what matter? What was rain to Gil, who, in his frail ship, dared
the greatest storms that blew?
He would come, let the weather be what it might.
Then she seemed to be overcome with sleep, to awake once more with the
pain less and her head clearer.
Drip, drip, drip. The rain still falling, and she felt, in a helpless
way, that she must have been to sleep again, and began to wonder how
long Gil would be.
It was still intensely dark, and very close and stifling, the heat
seemed to be more than she could bear.
How long would Gil be? Poor fellow, how cruelly he must have felt it to
hear that she was to wed another, and--yes. Why, had not Janet taken
off the wedding-dress before she lay down to sleep.
How bad her head had been. She never remembered to have suffered such
pains before; and then that terrible thirst! How horribly she had
dreamed, too. She recollected now; a horrible dream. First, Gil had
clasped her in his arms; then it was not Gil, but Sir Mark; and even now
she shuddered at the thoughts of the grim shade which had come next.
But it was a dream consequent upon the excitement she had gone through;
and now she had awakened, and it must be time for Gil to be beneath her
window.
She did not attempt to rise, for the strange feeling of stupor still
held her, and she lay quite still, till the thought that she might have
slept too long came and sent a thrill through her brain, and she started
up to listen, becoming conscious of a strange, suffocating odour as of
dank, hot mist.
How black it was! She could not see the window, and, with the confused
sensation of one waking in the darkness, she sat gazing about and
listening.
Still that ceaseless drip, drip, drip, of water, but the gurgle of the
water-pipe that went down by the side of the gable was not there, and it
suddenly struck her that she could not hear the familiar rushing noise
of the race, where the water hurried towards the wheel.
She stretched out her hand to rise from the bed, and it touched
something rough and hard, making her withdraw it, but only to stretch it
forth again and find that she was touching wood and roughened stone.
"Where am I?" she said, softly; and as she spoke she made out tiny
sparks of light.
"Gil's signals!" she cried. "But why does he show them now?"
She tried to get off the bed, but no bed was there; and, after feeling
about for a few minutes, she clasped her hands to her head.
"What does this terrible silence mean?" she faltered. "Where am I?
Where is Gil?"
There was the slow drip of the water for answer--nothing more; and she
tried to recall the past.
"I have been to sleep," she said, "heavily asleep: and yet I don't
know."
She tried to collect her thoughts, but seemed to grow more confused.
"I must have been very ill," she said, at last. "And it began directly
I had drunk of that water. But how long is it ago? And why is it so
dark? Where am I?"
Weak and prostrated by the terrible shock she had suffered, a curious
sensation of stupor overcame her once more, and she crouched down to
save herself from falling, as she dropped into a feverish sleep.
When she awoke again her head was clearer, but she was terribly weak.
It was dark as ever, but the suffocating feeling had gone, and she could
no longer see the signal lights, but the peculiar drip, drip, of water
was there.
"I must have slept again long past the time when Gil would come," she
said, with a wild feeling of yearning for him; and now again she tried
to make out where she was.
"I must be mad!" she exclaimed in a despairing tone, and she started,
for her voice seemed followed by a hollow whispering murmur, that sent a
shudder through her frame.
Crouching down once more, she waited with eyes and ears on the strain,
but still there was nothing to be seen, no sound to be heard but that
ceaseless drip, drip of water that fell with a faint musical plash
somewhere hard by.
But her senses were gradually growing clearer, her perceptions more
vivid, and she tried to make out what was the meaning of a peculiar
heavy odour.
"It is powder!" she exclaimed, with a shudder. "Can there have been a
mishap while I slept?"
She paused, trying to think, and her senses grew clearer still.
"Yes, it is powder; there must have been an explosion;" and she recalled
the strange, dank, pungent odour that she had often breathed when some
accident had occurred.
"But when? How could the powder have fired?"
She tried hard to think it out: but her mind was still too confused, and
in a helpless manner she groped her way in the direction of the dropping
water, till she felt a splash upon her head, and, stooping down, plunged
her hands into what seemed to be a deep, cold pool.
With the avidity of one perishing from thirst, she scooped up the water
and drank again and again, each draft she took seeming to infuse new
life within her veins; and, at last satisfied, she tried to master the
horrible feeling of dread that was overpowering her, and to make out her
position.
"Let me go back," she said, forcing herself to the point. "I will not
be alarmed at what is perhaps some trifling accident. Now, then--I went
to my bedroom to be ready when Gil should come. I was feverish and
thirsty, and I drank from the jug upon my table. Then I grew worse, and
Janet came to try on my dress. I must have lain down and had some
frightful dream.
"Yes, I remember it now: and I tried on the dress in a half-stupefied
way. Nay, it must have been Janet as I lay half asleep, half mad--
"Oh, God!" she moaned, "am I half mad now?"
There was a hollow, echoing whisper, and she cowered there trembling for
a time, but, recovering, she forced herself to go on.
"I was lying there ill and quite asleep, and--yes--no--yes--I have some
recollection of cries--a terrible shock--and--it must be--it must be."
She pressed her hands to her head, and rocked herself to and fro, for
her reason was on the verge of being shattered, so horrible were her
thoughts.
By degrees, though, she grew calmer, and she once more tried to unravel
the mystery of the thick darkness around, and to carry this out she
again drank from the pool. Then her hands touched stones and timber;
and at last, after a long struggle, she fully realised the facts. There
could be no doubt of it, for she recognised again the peculiar odour of
the powder.
This had come while she slept, then, overwhelming her so suddenly that
she had not awakened from the stupor in which she was plunged. The
powder had exploded, and she must have fallen with the ruins down into
the vault where her father had a store.
She made a brave struggle against the feelings that seemed to bear down
with overwhelming violence, ready to snatch her reason away, but she was
only weak, and at last, with a burst of hysterical sobbing, she sank
back completely overcome. It seemed as if the drugged sleep into which
she had been plunged by Mother Goodhugh's distilments had returned, for
her reason became overclouded, and then all was blank.
It was like awakening once more in the utter darkness that she became
conscious of the drip, drip, of the water from the roof, as it fell into
the pool that lay somewhere near her feet.
Again she had to fight her way to a knowledge of her position; and now,
with her head far clearer, she became fully conscious that this was no
dream. The idea of death or madness grew weaker, while that which
pointed to some terrible explosion and the destruction of the place
gained better hold. The odour of the exploded gunpowder grew so faint
as to be scarcely perceptible, but it was still there, and had she
wanted further evidence she found it upon touching some of the stones,
for her hands were damp and clammy with the reek that would have been
black, for she was too well versed in her father's trade not to be
certain upon such a point.
There was relief even in this, for in spite of the horrors of her
position, this common-sense knowledge relieved her mind of the morbid
terrors that had been ready to sweep away her reason, and set her
thinking of escape.
The knowledge that she was literally buried alive was almost more than
she could bear at times; but, us her brain grew clearer, hope began to
dawn life a soft, pale ray amidst the real and mental blackness all
around.
There was no doubt now: the Pool-house had been destroyed by a terrible
explosion, either of the powder in the cellar stores or by some calamity
outside; and, shivering with horror, she gave way for the moment to the
superstitious belief that it was a judgment upon her for not having
faith that the wedding would be put off. She smiled, though, directly
after, at the absurdity of the idea, and began to wonder how those she
loved had fared.
Gil? Had he been near the place? And her father, what of him--was he
safe? Janet, too, poor girl! She hoped that no ill had overtaken her.
Then she shuddered, for the idea had come upon her that Sir Mark might
have suffered, too, and be even now alive or dead within a few yards of
where she lay.
In spite of a great effort she could not keep from shrieking aloud at
this idea. She crouched listening, almost expecting to hear step or
word, and, in place of being ready to welcome them, she was prepared to
turn and flee from what, instead of seeming like a companionship, bore
the aspect to her of another frightful calamity.
Then, with her mind upon Gil, and the feeling strong that those above
must be making a search for her, she felt that she ought to make some
efforts to let them know her whereabouts.
She raised her voice, and cried loudly--"Gil--father--help--I am here!"
But there was no reply to her wild cry, no sound of iron bar or pick
removing some heap of stones, and in spite of her efforts she could do
no more than sob as if her heart would break.
And now, as if to give her mental relief from the horrors that she had
passed through, came long periods of sleep and dreams of happy times--
bright, sunny skies, the waving trees, and flowery meads. Gil was with
her, and they were fishing once more upon the lake.
It seemed to be spring-time, the time of love and hope and joy; and in
fancy she saw again the waving woods, the silvery bosom of the lake
dotted with broad green leaves, waving sedges, and the silver and golden
chalices of the lilies starting up from the water as if held out by some
pixie's hand. There, too, were the distant hills, and the empurpled
heathery waste, where the golden gorse grew so densely. The meadow with
its waving grass ready for the scythe. The old garden lush with flowers
and advancing fruit. Its round-topped beehives, the pleasant sheltered
seats and grassy walks; and then the bright scene seemed, dream-like, to
fade away in the rich soft glow of evening, and she was once more at her
window gazing, but blushing and happy with expectancy, for there, out on
the far green bank, shone the signal lights of four glowworms, and
directly after there was a noise, and a voice so deep and clear came up,
making her heart beat as it uttered her name.
Yes, there it was; he called her; and with her hands pressed to her
heaving bosom she answered him back--
"Yes, yes, Gil--love--I am here."
She started up with straining eyes, so real did it seem, and then sank
back sobbing bitterly, for it was but a dream. And so was this noise of
falling stones and crackling wood, with the rush as of a mass of broken
fragments that had crumbled down beside her--all a dream, from which
after three weary days of pain she did not care to make the effort to
rouse herself. For the Pool-house had been destroyed, and she must be
dead, even though Mother Goodhugh's voice had come to her, perhaps to
curse. For that was Mother Goodhugh calling to her in this dream,
bidding her rise and come forth, and live again, and then all was blank.
Blank to Sweet Mace, but no dream, for her cries had been heard by the
old woman, as she haunted the ruins by night, picking out little objects
of value, and toiling from the first to reach poor forgotten Janet, an
object that kept her busy, for she could not rest till that was done.
The sixth night had come before she had been able to drag away a
sufficiency of the _debris_ to reach the imprisoned girl. She had not
dared to summon help from the dread she suffered lest Sir Mark's men
should seize her once again; and when at last she succeeded in dragging
the sufferer from her living tomb, and had laid her upon the ground hard
by, there was none to see her in the grey of the early morning
staggering with her burden to her lonely cottage in the lane.
Volume 3, Chapter XVII.