THE SWORD FALLS.
Once conquered--once convinced that the obstacles which her solicitude
for my welfare raised against my wish were not insuperable--Philippa
offered no further resistance; while as for me, every day that might
be counted before I called her my wife seemed a day spoiled, if not
entirely wasted. With my mother’s arguments to back my own fervent
persuasion, I had no difficulty in winning Philippa’s consent to
our marriage taking place as soon as the needful formalities could
be complied with. And yet, although the day was fixed it was at my
instance changed, and the ceremony postponed for a while.
My reason for deferring my crowning happiness was this. Knowing all
that I knew, the question arose, under what name was Philippa to be
married? Under her own maiden name; under the false name which for some
time Sir Mervyn Ferrand, for reasons best known to himself, had made
her assume; or under that name which, supposing Mrs. Wilson had spoken
the truth, she was legally entitled to bear? So anxious, so resolved
was I that there should be no shadow of doubt as to the validity of her
second and happier marriage, that after due consideration I determined
to sacrifice my own inclinations, and postpone our wedding long enough
to give me time to pay a flying visit to England, where I could do my
best to obtain such evidence as would show that Philippa was the dead
man’s widow.
I made the excuse that I found many matters of business connected with
my property must be attended to before I could be married. I travelled
to England--to Liverpool--as fast as I could. I stayed there for a
week, and during that time made full researches into the life and death
of a woman who, as Mrs. Wilson said, had died on a certain date, and
been buried under the name of Lucy Ferrand.
The information I acquired as to her antecedents is of no consequence
to my story. Whatever her faults may have been, her history was a sad
one; indeed it seemed to me that the history of any woman who had been
cursed by Sir Mervyn Ferrand’s love was a sad one. However, the result
of my investigations was, in short, this: Ferrand had married the woman
many years ago. They had parted by mutual consent. With his cynical
carelessness, he had troubled no more about her; and, stranger still,
she had not troubled him. She died on the date given by my informant.
The question of identity could be easily settled; so that if ever
Philippa chose to claim the rights appertaining to Sir Mervyn Ferrand’s
widow, she would have no difficulty in making that claim good. But I
trusted that years might pass before she learned that the man was dead.
I made my presence in England known to no one; in fact, I felt that
in returning to my native country I ran a certain amount of risk. For
all I knew to the contrary, there might be a warrant out against me.
If suspicion as to the author of that night’s work had in any way been
directed to Philippa, I, the partner of her flight, could not hope to
escape free. However, I comforted myself by thinking that if danger
menaced us I should have heard something about it, as after our first
hurried start I had made no attempt to conceal our whereabouts. It
would have been useless. My mother had friends in England, with whom
she exchanged letters. I had an agent and lawyers, with whom, if only
for financial reasons, I was bound to correspond. I had been obliged to
write to my stolid William, and instruct him to get rid of the cottage
as best he could, and to look out for a fresh place for himself. But
all the same I did not care to let it be known that I was now in
England.
While engaged upon raking up evidence on Philippa’s behalf, I did not
neglect to make such inquiries as I could respecting the event which
had happened that night near Roding. I found that, so far as the
general public knew, the crime was still veiled in mystery. No one had
been arrested; no one had been accused; no reason for the deed had been
discovered, and as yet suspicion pointed to no one. Indeed, in spite
of the hundred pounds reward offered by Government, it seemed that Sir
Mervyn Ferrand’s murder was relegated to swell the list of undiscovered
crimes. By this I knew that Mrs. Wilson had kept her promise of
silence; and now that months had gone by, now that public attention
had been turned from the thrilling affair, now that Philippa seemed
as far or farther than ever from giving any token which suggested the
awakening of recollection of what her wrong, her frenzy, had prompted
her hand to do unknowingly, I dared to hope that any chance which
remained of a revelation of the truth was reduced to a minimum. These
results of my investigations and inquiries gave me immense relief, and
my heart was all but gay as, armed with the proofs of the first Lady
Ferrand’s death, I hurried back to Seville, Philippa, and the happiness
which I vowed should be mine.
We were married. Philippa and I were married! Married; and a few months
ago I sat lonely, miserable, and heart-broken, deeming that the one I
loved was lost to me forever! What matters the things which have filled
those months, and made them the most painful of my life? To-day we are
man and wife, joined together till death us do part!
I said no word as to the result of my inquiries in Liverpool. I had no
difficulty in persuading Philippa, who in some things was as simple
and trusting as a child, that it was necessary, or at least advisable,
she should be married under the name which her first certificate of
marriage affected to bestow upon her. She signed her name for the last,
it may, for aught I know, have also been the first time, as Philippa
Ferrand; and I noticed that she shuddered as she formed the letters.
Although my bride was by birth half a Spaniard, and although I had by
now in many ways conformed to the Spanish mode of life, we were still
English enough to look upon going away somewhere for a honeymoon as
indispensable. It would be but a short trip; and as my mother in our
absence would be left at Seville alone, or with servants only, we did
not care to go very far away. It so happened that, although so close to
Cadiz, we had not yet paid that town a visit, and thought the present a
capital opportunity for so doing.
To Cadiz we went, and stayed several days at the Hotel de Paris. We
liked the white-walled town, rising and shining above the dark-blue
sea, like, as I have somewhere seen it described, a white pearl in a
crown of sapphires; or, as the Gaditanos call it, _tazita de plata_, a
silver cup. We liked the rows of tall terrace-topped houses. We liked
the movement and bustle on the quays and in the port. We liked the
walks on the broad granite ramparts, and the lovely views of the busy
bay and country beyond it; but all the same we agreed that Cadiz bore
no comparison to our beautiful Seville, and the sooner we returned to
that gay city the better.
Now that I had gained my desire, was I happy? After all that had
passed, could I have been happy during those early days of our wedded
life? As I look back upon them, I sit and muse, trying in vain to
answer the question to my own satisfaction. Philippa loved me--she was
my wife; come good, come evil, she was mine forever. In so much I was
happy, thrice happy. Could I have lived but for the present, my bliss
would have known no alloy.
But there was the past! I could not altogether forget the path which
had led to such happiness as now was mine. I could be thankful that
I alone knew all the horrors and dangers with which that path was
studded. I alone knew the secret of that one night. Although I could
keep it forever, would it be always a secret?
Yes, and there was the future. Behind the happiness which was mine at
present lurked a dread as to what the future had in store for me--for
us. It was a dread which day by day grew stronger. The greater my
happiness, the more dreadful the thought of its being wrecked. The
feeling that my house of joy was built upon sand was always obtruding
on my most blissful hours, and not, I knew, without good reasons.
Philippa’s very avoidance of speaking of her past life lent some
justification to my gloomy forebodings. Not once did Sir Mervyn
Ferrand’s name pass between my wife and me. Not once did she ask me for
any further particulars concerning the events of that night upon which,
in the height of her short-lived mania, she reached my cottage. True
that upon becoming my wife, and beginning a new and happier stage of
life, it might be but natural for her to wish to consign to oblivion
the wrong, the shame, the suffering wrought by a villain’s craft; yet I
was so mixed up in the catastrophe that silence on the subject seemed
strange. Her reticence alarmed me. I fancied it must be caused by some
vague uneasiness connected with that night--some doubt which she dared
not seek to set at rest. It is, I know, not unusual for women, after
their recovery from that mysterious disease which had for awhile driven
my poor girl distraught, to be able to recall and accurately describe
the delusions which had afflicted them during those wandering hours.
I myself had in one or two cases noticed this peculiarity, and the
authorities which I had studied during Philippa’s illness mention it as
an indisputable fact. My great dread was that at some moment, perhaps
when our happiness was as perfect as it could be, some simple chance,
some allusion to certain events, even the bare mention of a name, might
supply the missing link, and the fearful truth would be revealed to my
wife.
Our return journey to Seville was made by water. Although the
Guadalquiver is not a very interesting river, we thought travelling
by steamer would be a pleasant change from the journeys in the hot,
stuffy, slow trains, full from end to end with the odor of garlic and
tobacco; so early one morning we left Cadiz, and were soon steaming
up the sluggish, dull, turbid river, with the great flat stretches of
swampy land on either hand.
There were not many passengers on board the steamer. The boat itself
was a wretched affair, and before an hour was over we wished we had
chosen the train as a mode of transit. Mile after mile of the level
deserted land through which the river flows passed by, and presented no
objects of interest greater than herds of cattle or flights of aquatic
birds. Save that Philippa was by my side, it was the dullest journey I
ever made.
Of course there were English tourists on board; no spot is complete
without them. Two of them, young men, and apparently gentlemen, had
seated themselves near us; and after the usual admiring glances at my
beautiful Philippa, commenced a desultory talk with each other.
From the unrestrained way in which they spoke, and from the strength of
some of their unfavorable comments on the scenery, or lack of scenery,
it was clear that they took us for natives, before whom they could
speak without being understood. Philippa, of course, looked a thorough
Spaniard, and my own face had become so tanned by the sun that I might
have been of any nationality.
The young fellows chatted on, quite oblivious to the fact that two
of their neighbors understood every word they spoke. For some time I
listened with great amusement; then the lulling motion of the steamer,
the sluggish muddy flow of the stream, the monotonous banks past which
we stole, exercised a soporific effect upon me, and I began to doze and
dream.
Through my dreams I heard a name, a hated name, spoken clearly and
distinctly. I started and opened my eyes. Philippa’s head was stretched
forward as if she was intent upon catching some expected words spoken
by another.
“Sir Mervyn Ferrand,” I heard one of our fellow-voyagers repeat. “Yes,
I remember him; tall, good-looking man. Where is he now? He was a bad
lot.”
“Surely you read or heard about it?” said his companion in a tone of
surprise.
I touched my wife’s arm. “Come away, Philippa,” I said.
She made a motion of dissent. Again I urged her. She shook her head
pettishly.
“Ah! I forgot where you have been for months,” said the second tourist,
laughing; “out of the pale of civilization and newspapers. Well,
Ferrand was murdered--shot dead!”
“Philippa, dearest, come, I implore you,” I whispered.
It was too late! The look on her face told me that nothing would now
move her--nothing! She would hear the dreadful truth, told perhaps
with distorted details. I groaned inwardly. The moment I had so long
dreaded had come. If I dragged her away by force--if I interrupted the
speakers--what good could it do? She had heard enough. She would force
me to tell her the rest. I could only pray that she would not in any
way associate herself with the man’s death.
“Murdered! Poor fellow! Who murdered him?” I heard the first speaker
say.
“No one knows. He was shot dead on a country roadside, just as that
fearful snow-storm of last winter began. It seems almost incredible,
but the snow drifted over him, and until it melted the crime was not
discovered. In the interval the murderer had, of course, got clean
away.”
“Poor devil! I never heard any good of him; but what an end!”
I was not looking at the speakers. I was noting every change in my
wife’s face. I saw the color fly from her cheek. I saw her lips and
throat working convulsively, as though she was trying to articulate. I
saw her dark brows contract as in anguish. I knew that she was clasping
her hands together, as was her way when agitated. Suddenly she turned
her eyes to mine, and in her eyes was a look of horror which told me
that the very worst had come to pass--that the dread which had haunted
me was realized! Then with a low moan she sank, white and senseless, on
my shoulder.
Though in a whirl of despair, I believe that I assumed a kind of
mechanical calm. I seem to remember that the two English tourists
offered their assistance; that, as we bore Philippa to an extemporized
couch in the shadiest and coolest place we could find, I smiled, and
attributed my wife’s fainting-fit to the heat of the sun, the smell of
engines, or something of that kind. Little did those young men guess
what their chance words had wrought. Little could they think that in
speaking of Sir Mervyn Ferrand’s death they had, perhaps, wrecked the
happiness of two lives. My heart was full of grief and fear, but I
believe I bore myself bravely.
In spite of such restoratives as we could administer, Philippa’s swoon
lasted for a considerable time. I troubled little about that fact.
Indeed, to me it seemed well that syncope should have supervened,
and, for a time, banished the dreadful memories which had so suddenly
invaded her brain. Could such a thing have been possible, I would
almost have wished that her insensibility would continue until we
reached Seville. But it was not to be so. By and by she sighed deeply,
and her eyes opened. Consciousness and all its dreaded sequence was
hers once more.
I spoke to her, but she made no reply. She turned her eyes from
mine; she shunned my gaze; she even seemed to shrink from the touch
of my hand. During the remainder of that dreary journey not one
word passed her lips. She lay with her face turned to the side of
the vessel, heedless of curious glances from fellow-passengers,
heedless of my whispered words of love; heedless of all save her own
thoughts--thoughts which led her, I trembled to picture whither.
Through all those long sultry hours while the wretched steamboat
ploughed its way up the broad muddy stream I sat beside her, trying to
find some way out of our sorrow. Alas! every road was stopped by the
impassable obstacle of Philippa’s knowledge of what she had done. For
she knew it, I was certain. That look in her eyes had told me so much.
The duration of her insanity had been so short that I could gather no
comfort from the fact that by some merciful arrangement maniacs who
recover their erring senses are troubled little by the deeds they have
done in their moments of madness. I felt that in my wife’s case my
only hope was to endeavor by argument to bring her to my own way of
thinking; that is, to consider herself unaccountable by any law, human
or divine, for her actions at the time. But I doubted if her sensitive,
impulsive nature could ever be induced to take this view of her act. I
doubted, had she not been the woman I loved with a passionate love, if
I could have quite absolved her from the crime, with the remembrance of
her words, “Basil, did you ever hate a man?” still with me.
Yet, strange anomaly, I would, in fair fight of course, have shot that
man through the heart and have gloried in the deed. But then Philippa
was a woman, and had she not been the woman I loved I might have shrunk
from the one who, even in her madness, was urged to take such fearful
vengeance.
I smiled bitterly as I thought how a chance breath of wind had tumbled
my house of cards to the ground. I smiled almost triumphantly as I told
myself that, come what might--misery--shame--death--I had won and held
for a week the one desire of my life. Nothing could deprive me of that
memory.
Home at last! Still silent, or answering my questions by monosyllables,
Philippa was brought by me to our once happy home in Seville. My
mother, with arch smiles of welcome on her comely face, was at the gate
of the _patio_ ready to receive us. As she saw her a kind of shiver ran
through my poor love’s frame. She let my mother embrace and caress her
without any display of reciprocal affection.
“Philippa is ill,” I said, in explanation. “I will take her to her
room.”
I led her to the apartment which my mother had in our absence fitted
up for us. It was gay and beautiful with flowers, and there were many
other careful little evidences of the hearty welcome which was waiting
us. Philippa noticed nothing. I closed the door and turned toward my
wife.
She looked at me with those wondrous dark eyes, which seemed to search
my very soul. “Basil,” she said, in a low, solemn voice, “tell me--tell
me the truth. What had I done that night?”