"Yet again methinks
Some unknown sorrow, ripe in Future's womb,
Is coming towards me; and my inward soul
With nothing trembles. At something it grieves
More than the parting with my lord."
SHAKSPEARE.
Long did Marie Morales linger where her husband had left her after his
strangely passionate farewell. His tone, his look, his embrace haunted
her almost to pain--all were so unlike his wonted calmness: her full
heart so yearned towards him that she would have given worlds, if she
had had them, to call him to her side once more--to conjure him again
to forgive and assure her of his continued trust--to tell him she was
happy, and asked no other love than his. Why had he left her so early?
when she felt as if she had so much to say--so much to confide. And
then her eye caught the same ominous cloud which had so strangely
riveted Don Ferdinand's gaze, and a sensation of awe stole over her,
retaining her by the casement as by some spell which she vainly strove
to resist; until the forked lightnings began to illumine the murky
gloom, and the thunder rolled awfully along. Determined not to give
way to the heavy depression creeping over her, Marie summoned her
attendants, and strenuously sought to keep up an animated conversation
as they worked. Not expecting to see her husband till the ensuing
morning, she retired to rest at the first partial lull of the storm,
and slept calmly for many hours. A morning of transcendent loveliness
followed the awful horrors of the night. The sun seemed higher in the
heavens than usual, when Marie started from a profound sleep, with a
vague sensation that something terrible had occurred; every pulse
was throbbing, though, her heart felt stagnant within her. For some
minutes she could not frame a distinct thought, and then her husband's
fond farewell flashed back; but what had that to do with gloom?
Ringing a little silver bell beside her, Manuella answered the
summons, and Marie anxiously inquired for Don Ferdinand. Had he
not yet returned? A sensation of sickness--the deadly sickness of
indefinable dread--seemed to stupefy every faculty, as Manuella
answered in the negative, adding, it was much beyond his usual hour.
"Send to the castle, and inquire if aught has detained him," she
exclaimed; hastily rising as she spoke, and commencing a rapid toilet.
She was scarcely attired before Alberic, with a pale cheek and voice
of alarm, brought information that a messenger and litter from the
palace were in the court, bringing the Queen's mandate for the instant
attendance of Donna Marie.
"Oh! lady, dearest lady, let me go with thee," continued the boy,
suddenly clasping her robe and bursting into tears. "My master--my
good, noble master--something horrible has occurred, and they will not
tell me what. Every face I see is full of horror--every voice seems
suppressed--every--"
"Hush!" angrily interposed Manuella, as she beheld Marie's very lips
lose their glowing tint, and her eyes gaze on vacancy. "For God's
sake, still thine impudent tongue; thou'lt kill her with thy
rashness."
"Kill! who is killed?" gasped Marie. "What did he say? Where is my
husband?"
"Detained at the palace, dearest lady," readily answered Manuella.
"This foolish boy is terrified at shadows. My lord is detained, and
her Grace has sent a litter requiring thine attendance. We must haste,
for she wills no delay. Carlotta, my lady's mantilla; quick, girl!
Alberic, go if thou wilt: my Lord may be glad of thee! Ay, go," she
continued some little time afterwards, as her rapid movements speedily
placed her passive, almost senseless mistress, in the litter; and she
caught hold of the page's hand with a sudden change of tone, "go; and
return speedily, in mercy, Alberic. Some horror is impending; better
know it than this terrible suspense."
How long an interval elapsed ere she stood in Isabella's presence,
Marie knew not. The most incongruous thoughts floated, one after
another, through her bewildered brain--most vivid amongst them all,
hers and her husband's fatal secret: had it transpired? Was he
sentenced, and she thus summoned to share his fate? And then, when
partially relieved by the thought, that such a discovery had
never taken place in Spanish annals--why should she dread an
impossibility?--flashed back, clear, ringing, as if that moment
spoken, Stanley's fatal threat; and the cold shuddering of every limb
betrayed the aggravated agony of the thought. With her husband she
could speak of Arthur calmly; to herself she would not even think his
name: not merely lest he should unwittingly deceive again, but that
the recollection of _his_ suffering--and caused by her--ever created
anew, thoughts and feelings which she had vowed unto herself to bury,
and for ever.
Gloom was on every face she encountered in the castle. The very
soldiers, as they saluted her as the wife of their general, appeared
to gaze upon her with rude, yet earnest commiseration; but neither
word nor rumor reached her ear. Several times she essayed to ask of
her husband, but the words died in a soundless quiver on her lip. Yet
if it were what she dreaded, that Stanley had fulfilled his threat,
and they had fought, and one had fallen--why was she thus summoned?
And had not Morales resolved to avoid him; for her sake not to avenge
Arthur's insulting words? And again the thought of their fatal secret
obtained ascendency. Five minutes more, and she stood alone in the
presence of her Sovereign.
* * * * *
It was told; and with such deep sympathy, so gently, so cautiously,
that all of rude and stunning shock was averted; but, alas! who could
breathe of consolation at such a moment? Isabella did not attempt it;
but permitted the burst of agony full vent. She had so completely
merged all of dignity, all of the Sovereign into the woman and the
friend, that Marie neither felt nor exercised restraint; and words
mingled with her broken sobs and wild lament, utterly incomprehensible
to the noble heart that heard. The awful nature of Don Ferdinand's
death, Isabella had still in some measure concealed; but it seemed as
if Marie had strangely connected it with violence and blood, and, in
fearful and disjointed words, accused herself as its miserable cause.
"Why did not death come to me?" she reiterated; "why take him, my
husband--my noble husband? Oh, Ferdinand, Ferdinand! to go now, when I
have so learnt to love thee! now, when I looked to years of faithful
devotion to prove how wholly the past was banished--how wholly I was
thine alone! to atone for hours of suffering by years of love! Oh, how
couldst thou leave me friendless--desolate?"
"Not friendless, not desolate, whilst Isabella lives," replied the
Queen, painfully affected, and drawing Marie closer to her, till her
throbbing brow rested on her bosom. "Weep, my poor girl, tears must
flow for a loss like this; and long, long weeks must pass ere we may
hope for resignation; but harrow not thyself by thoughts of more
fearful ill than the reality, my child. Do not look on what might be,
but what has been; on the comfort, the treasure, thou wert to the
beloved one we have lost. How devotedly he loved thee, and thou--"
"And I so treasured, so loved. Oh, gracious Sovereign!" And Marie sunk
down at her feet, clasping her robe in supplication. "Say but I may
see him in life once more; that life still lingers, if it be but to
tell me once more he forgives me. Oh, let me but hear his voice; but
once, only once, and I will be calm--quite calm; I will try to bear
this bitter agony. Only let me see him, hear him speak again. Thou
knowest not, thou canst not know, how my heart yearns for this."
"See him thou shalt, my poor girl, if it will give thee aught of
comfort; but hear him, alas! alas! my child, would that it might be!
Would for Spain and her Sovereign's sake, then how much more for
thine, that voice could be recalled; and life, if but for the briefest
space, return! Alas! the blow was but too well aimed."
"The blow! what blow? How did he die? Who slew him?" gasped Marie; her
look of wild and tearless agony terrifying Isabella, whose last words
had escaped unintentionally. "Speak, speak, in mercy; let me know the
truth?"
"Hast thou not thyself alluded to violence, and wrath, and hatred,
Marie? Answer me, my child; didst thou know any one, regarding the
generous Morales with such feelings? Could there be one to regard him
as his foe?"
Crouching lower and lower at Isabella's feet, her face half burled in
her robe, Marie's reply was scarcely audible; but the Queen's brow
contracted.
"None?" she repeated almost sternly; "wouldst thou deceive at such a
moment? contradict thyself? And yet I am wrong to be thus harsh. Poor
sufferer!" she added, tenderly, as she vainly tried to raise Marie
from the ground; "thou hast all enough to bear; and if, indeed, the
base wretch who has dared thus to trample on the laws alike of God
and man, and stain his own soul with the foul blot of midnight
assassination, be him whom we have secured, thou couldst not know him
as thy husband's foe. It is all mystery--thine own words not least;
but his murder shall be avenged. Ay, had my own kinsman's been the
hand to do the dastard deed."
"Murder! who was his murderer?" repeated Marie, the horror of such a
fate apparently lost in other and more terrible emotion; "who could
have raised his sword against my husband? Said I he had no foe? Had he
not one, and I, oh, God! did not I create that enmity? But he would
not have murdered him; oh, no--no: my liege, my gracious liege, tell
me in mercy--my brain feels reeling--who was the murderer?"
"One thou hast known but little space, poor sufferer," replied the
Queen, soothingly; "one whom of all others we could not suspect of
such a deed. And even now, though appearances are strong against him,
we can scarce believe it; that young foreign favorite of my royal
husband, Arthur Stanley."
"STANLEY!" repeated Marie, in a tone so shrill, so piercing, that the
wild shriek which it formed rung for many and many a day in the ears
of the Queen. And as the word passed her lips she started to her feet,
stood for a second erect, gazing madly on her royal mistress, and
then, without one groan or struggle, dropped perfectly lifeless at her
feet.