ESTELLA'S PRAYER.
"Where--where am I, Cara?"
"Be quiet my darling!" murmured the maid, as she smoothed the dark
tresses back from Estella's icy forehead. "Thank Heaven you have come
to yourself at last. It was a bad spell indeed!"
The pale, but still beautiful, girl lay on her bed, to which Cara
and another servant had carried her. For three hours she had lain in
an unconscious condition, and a local doctor had been in constant
attendance. The doctor had just gone, after pronouncing her out of
danger.
"What has happened?" she asked, slowly, and then the horrible truth
suddenly came back to her, and she began to sob piteously.
Cara did all she could to comfort Estella, but that was but little. The
girl's grief was most intense, and there seemed no way of assuaging it.
"He is dead, Cara--dead!" she moaned. "Oh, would to Heaven that I
were dead, too! Why was I not by his side, when he fell, to ease his
dying moments." She arose slowly and began to move across the floor
unsteadily. "And this is the end--the bitter end!"
"Won't you drink a little wine, my dear mistress? It will strengthen
you, I am sure."
"No, no, I could not swallow it! I can't remember what happened after
he--after Lieutenant Mazenas told me the sad news."
"I heard you fall and ran in, and so did Lizette. We picked you up, and
sent the lieutenant for the doctor. He has just gone, and Lieutenant
Mazenas went with him."
"What did the lieutenant have to say?"
"He said he would inform your father, that is all. He was much
disappointed, and half imagined you were shamming."
"Shamming," cried Estella, indignantly. "Would that I could bring to
his heart one-half of the pain he has brought to mine!"
"And so say I, my dear mistress. In my opinion, the lieutenant is a
brute. But, alas! your father thinks quite differently!"
"Cara, my father would compel me to marry that man!"
"I know it, the more shame to him!" cried the maid, boldly. "Now, if it
was Señor Howard----"
"Don't speak of him--now that he is dead! I cannot bear it. Oh, would
that I could fly from here?"
"It can be done, sweet mistress, if you will," whispered the maid.
"Can be done--how? The guards are outside, and----"
"But they are not below, and I know of a secret way out of the
cellar--a way which leads to the river----"
"You must show it to me, Cara," ejaculated Estella. "I cannot remain
here, to be linked to that brute; such an abominable alliance would
drive me insane. I will fly, join the rebel army, and make myself known
far and wide as Estella, the little Cuban rebel! I will show Lieutenant
Mazenas that women are of some account in this world! Come, Cara,
gather up our things, and waste not a single moment, lest it be too
late to fly!"
In nervous haste Estella took the lead in picking up such articles as
she wished to carry with her. The maid followed, and in five minutes
the bundle was made up.
"I will go first," said Cara, "and will get the other servants out of
the way, so they may think you are still up here. When you hear me
start to sing, come down."
She glided out of the bedroom, and with a last look around Estella
waited for the signal. Soon she heard Cara's clear voice singing in
Spanish:
"A lover bold, with a heart of gold,
Rode off to the distant battlefield;
His heart was light, and his sword was bright--
To the enemy he ne'er would yield."
Estella waited to hear no more. She hurried to the door, threw it open,
and--confronted her father.
"Hullo!" He started back in surprise. "Verily, I thought you were sick
in bed. What is the meaning of this? What have you in that bundle?"
Astonished and dismayed, Estella shrank back and swung the bundle
behind her. With a quick movement he tore the bundle from her hand, and
emptied the contents on the floor.
"Ha! I thought as much. So you were going to run away in secret! It is
well that I appeared in the nick of time. I fancy the lieutenant was
right when he said you were shamming."
"Father!"
"No, no! the time is past for sweet speeches, Estella. I have resolved
to take you in hand. While I am doing what I can for our noble country,
you are playing the part of the rebel, both outside and in our home."
He stamped his foot savagely. "This must not be! Here is an end of it!"
"Father, your opinions cannot sway me. I believe the rebels are in the
right, and, what is more, my prophetic soul tells me that Cuba will one
day be free--she must be free!"
"Tut, tut, child! I want no more of this. Things have come to a pretty
pass when women are allowed to talk in this fashion! Put those things
away, and let us come to business. The lieutenant told you of my
wishes."
"You have told me of them yourself."
"You are to marry Lieutenant Mazenas to-morrow evening, at seven
o'clock. The ceremony will take place in the parlor below."
"I cannot marry him, father."
"You must! Say not another word. The stories that villainous American
spy circulated about Mazenas are all false. I believe he told you the
fellow is dead. We both saw him slain, mowed down by a discharge from
one of our cannon." She shuddered, but he kept right on. "I am glad he
is no more. I wish I had kept you away from all Americans. They have
poisoned your mind."
"It is your mind that is poisoned, father. If you would but----"
"Silence!" He advanced and made a movement as if to strike her, but she
did not flinch, and his arm fell as suddenly as it had been raised. "I
am master here. Not another word, Estella, and, remember, to-morrow
night, at seven o'clock."
And he strode from the apartment as quickly as he had entered it.
Utterly overcome in mind and heart, she threw herself upon the bed.
She lay there for fully half an hour, then sprang up, her lips tightly
compressed.
"I will do it," she murmured, "I must!"
Hastily she summoned Cara, who, seeing the plan of escape had fallen
through, and fearing the general's wrath, had kept out of sight.
"Cara," she whispered, "do you think you can leave the city without
detection and find the rebel camp? Can't you do it, for my sake?"
"What--alone, my dear mistress?"
"Yes, you must go alone, for my father will now have me watched more
closely than ever. Leave in the darkness to-night, and try to find
Captain Martinez, and deliver to him a letter that I will write."
"I will do it," cried the maid. "I want to get out--to find out what
has become of Tomasso."
"Then prepare at once. And, remember, you must not fail to deliver the
letter. To me it is a matter of life or death; for rather than marry
Lieutenant Mazenas, I will stab myself to the heart with this."
And she exposed the hilt of the dagger she had purchased in Santiago.
"I will do my very best," murmured Cara, and then Estella sat down to
pen the letter, requesting that the rebels make an immediate advance,
and come directly to her father's mansion.
She also wrote another letter, to be posted, which was addressed to her
father, requesting him to at once join his troops outside of Puerto
Principe.
"That will let him escape," she thought. "As for the lieutenant, I
trust that he will be caught."
It was dark when Cara kissed her mistress farewell and left the
mansion, the guards allowing her to pass the gate without question.
As she disappeared, Estella uttered a silent prayer that her strange
mission might prove successful.
The beautiful girl did not sleep throughout the warm, tropical night.
From afar she heard the occasional discharge of firearms; but it was
not this which kept her awake. She was thinking of her own wretched
condition. If Cara failed, her case was indeed hopeless.