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diff --git a/old/344.txt b/old/344.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa787a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/344.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8089 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Merry Men, by Robert Louis Stevenson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Merry Men + and Other Tales and Fables + + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + + + +Release Date: February 28, 2007 [eBook #344] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRY MEN*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1904 edition Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +THE MERRY MEN +AND +Other Tales and Fables + + +BY +ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON + +TENTH EDITION + +LONDON +CHATTO & WINDUS +1904 + +Three of the following Tales have appeared in the _Cornhill Magazine_; +one in _Longman's_; one in Mr. Henry Norman's Christmas Annual; and one +in the _Court and Society Review_. The Author desires to make proper +acknowledgements to the Publishers concerned. + + + + +Dedication + + +_MY DEAR LADY TAYLOR_, + +_To your name_, _if I wrote on brass_, _I could add nothing_; _it has +been already written higher than I could dream to reach_, _by a strong +and dear hand_; _and if I now dedicate to you these tales_, _it is not as +the writer who brings you his work_, _but as the friend who would remind +you of his affection_. + +_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON_ + +SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH. + + + + +Contents + + +The Merry Men + + i. Eilean Aros + + ii. What the wreck had brought to Aros + + iii. Land and sea in Sandag Bay + + iv. The gale + + v. A man out of the sea + +Will o' the Mill + +Markheim + +Thrawn Janet + +Olalla + +The Treasure of Franchard + + i. By the dying Mountebank + + ii. Morning tale + + iii. The adoption + + iv. The education of the philosopher + + v. Treasure trove + + vi. A criminal investigation, in two parts + + vii. The fall of the House of Desprez + + viii. The wages of philosophy + + + + +THE MERRY MEN + + +CHAPTER I. EILEAN AROS. + + +It was a beautiful morning in the late July when I set forth on foot for +the last time for Aros. A boat had put me ashore the night before at +Grisapol; I had such breakfast as the little inn afforded, and, leaving +all my baggage till I had an occasion to come round for it by sea, struck +right across the promontory with a cheerful heart. + +I was far from being a native of these parts, springing, as I did, from +an unmixed lowland stock. But an uncle of mine, Gordon Darnaway, after a +poor, rough youth, and some years at sea, had married a young wife in the +islands; Mary Maclean she was called, the last of her family; and when +she died in giving birth to a daughter, Aros, the sea-girt farm, had +remained in his possession. It brought him in nothing but the means of +life, as I was well aware; but he was a man whom ill-fortune had pursued; +he feared, cumbered as he was with the young child, to make a fresh +adventure upon life; and remained in Aros, biting his nails at destiny. +Years passed over his head in that isolation, and brought neither help +nor contentment. Meantime our family was dying out in the lowlands; +there is little luck for any of that race; and perhaps my father was the +luckiest of all, for not only was he one of the last to die, but he left +a son to his name and a little money to support it. I was a student of +Edinburgh University, living well enough at my own charges, but without +kith or kin; when some news of me found its way to Uncle Gordon on the +Ross of Grisapol; and he, as he was a man who held blood thicker than +water, wrote to me the day he heard of my existence, and taught me to +count Aros as my home. Thus it was that I came to spend my vacations in +that part of the country, so far from all society and comfort, between +the codfish and the moorcocks; and thus it was that now, when I had done +with my classes, I was returning thither with so light a heart that July +day. + +The Ross, as we call it, is a promontory neither wide nor high, but as +rough as God made it to this day; the deep sea on either hand of it, full +of rugged isles and reefs most perilous to seamen--all overlooked from +the eastward by some very high cliffs and the great peals of Ben Kyaw. +_The Mountain of the Mist_, they say the words signify in the Gaelic +tongue; and it is well named. For that hill-top, which is more than +three thousand feet in height, catches all the clouds that come blowing +from the seaward; and, indeed, I used often to think that it must make +them for itself; since when all heaven was clear to the sea level, there +would ever be a streamer on Ben Kyaw. It brought water, too, and was +mossy {5} to the top in consequence. I have seen us sitting in broad +sunshine on the Ross, and the rain falling black like crape upon the +mountain. But the wetness of it made it often appear more beautiful to +my eyes; for when the sun struck upon the hill sides, there were many wet +rocks and watercourses that shone like jewels even as far as Aros, +fifteen miles away. + +The road that I followed was a cattle-track. It twisted so as nearly to +double the length of my journey; it went over rough boulders so that a +man had to leap from one to another, and through soft bottoms where the +moss came nearly to the knee. There was no cultivation anywhere, and not +one house in the ten miles from Grisapol to Aros. Houses of course there +were--three at least; but they lay so far on the one side or the other +that no stranger could have found them from the track. A large part of +the Ross is covered with big granite rocks, some of them larger than a +two-roomed house, one beside another, with fern and deep heather in +between them where the vipers breed. Anyway the wind was, it was always +sea air, as salt as on a ship; the gulls were as free as moorfowl over +all the Ross; and whenever the way rose a little, your eye would kindle +with the brightness of the sea. From the very midst of the land, on a +day of wind and a high spring, I have heard the Roost roaring, like a +battle where it runs by Aros, and the great and fearful voices of the +breakers that we call the Merry Men. + +Aros itself--Aros Jay, I have heard the natives call it, and they say it +means _the House of God_--Aros itself was not properly a piece of the +Ross, nor was it quite an islet. It formed the south-west corner of the +land, fitted close to it, and was in one place only separated from the +coast by a little gut of the sea, not forty feet across the narrowest. +When the tide was full, this was clear and still, like a pool on a land +river; only there was a difference in the weeds and fishes, and the water +itself was green instead of brown; but when the tide went out, in the +bottom of the ebb, there was a day or two in every month when you could +pass dryshod from Aros to the mainland. There was some good pasture, +where my uncle fed the sheep he lived on; perhaps the feed was better +because the ground rose higher on the islet than the main level of the +Ross, but this I am not skilled enough to settle. The house was a good +one for that country, two storeys high. It looked westward over a bay, +with a pier hard by for a boat, and from the door you could watch the +vapours blowing on Ben Kyaw. + +On all this part of the coast, and especially near Aros, these great +granite rocks that I have spoken of go down together in troops into the +sea, like cattle on a summer's day. There they stand, for all the world +like their neighbours ashore; only the salt water sobbing between them +instead of the quiet earth, and clots of sea-pink blooming on their sides +instead of heather; and the great sea conger to wreathe about the base of +them instead of the poisonous viper of the land. On calm days you can go +wandering between them in a boat for hours, echoes following you about +the labyrinth; but when the sea is up, Heaven help the man that hears +that cauldron boiling. + +Off the south-west end of Aros these blocks are very many, and much +greater in size. Indeed, they must grow monstrously bigger out to sea, +for there must be ten sea miles of open water sown with them as thick as +a country place with houses, some standing thirty feet above the tides, +some covered, but all perilous to ships; so that on a clear, westerly +blowing day, I have counted, from the top of Aros, the great rollers +breaking white and heavy over as many as six-and-forty buried reefs. But +it is nearer in shore that the danger is worst; for the tide, here +running like a mill race, makes a long belt of broken water--a _Roost_ we +call it--at the tail of the land. I have often been out there in a dead +calm at the slack of the tide; and a strange place it is, with the sea +swirling and combing up and boiling like the cauldrons of a linn, and now +and again a little dancing mutter of sound as though the _Roost_ were +talking to itself. But when the tide begins to run again, and above all +in heavy weather, there is no man could take a boat within half a mile of +it, nor a ship afloat that could either steer or live in such a place. +You can hear the roaring of it six miles away. At the seaward end there +comes the strongest of the bubble; and it's here that these big breakers +dance together--the dance of death, it may be called--that have got the +name, in these parts, of the Merry Men. I have heard it said that they +run fifty feet high; but that must be the green water only, for the spray +runs twice as high as that. Whether they got the name from their +movements, which are swift and antic, or from the shouting they make +about the turn of the tide, so that all Aros shakes with it, is more than +I can tell. + +The truth is, that in a south-westerly wind, that part of our archipelago +is no better than a trap. If a ship got through the reefs, and weathered +the Merry Men, it would be to come ashore on the south coast of Aros, in +Sandag Bay, where so many dismal things befell our family, as I propose +to tell. The thought of all these dangers, in the place I knew so long, +makes me particularly welcome the works now going forward to set lights +upon the headlands and buoys along the channels of our iron-bound, +inhospitable islands. + +The country people had many a story about Aros, as I used to hear from my +uncle's man, Rorie, an old servant of the Macleans, who had transferred +his services without afterthought on the occasion of the marriage. There +was some tale of an unlucky creature, a sea-kelpie, that dwelt and did +business in some fearful manner of his own among the boiling breakers of +the Roost. A mermaid had once met a piper on Sandag beach, and there +sang to him a long, bright midsummer's night, so that in the morning he +was found stricken crazy, and from thenceforward, till the day he died, +said only one form of words; what they were in the original Gaelic I +cannot tell, but they were thus translated: 'Ah, the sweet singing out of +the sea.' Seals that haunted on that coast have been known to speak to +man in his own tongue, presaging great disasters. It was here that a +certain saint first landed on his voyage out of Ireland to convert the +Hebrideans. And, indeed, I think he had some claim to be called saint; +for, with the boats of that past age, to make so rough a passage, and +land on such a ticklish coast, was surely not far short of the +miraculous. It was to him, or to some of his monkish underlings who had +a cell there, that the islet owes its holy and beautiful name, the House +of God. + +Among these old wives' stories there was one which I was inclined to hear +with more credulity. As I was told, in that tempest which scattered the +ships of the Invincible Armada over all the north and west of Scotland, +one great vessel came ashore on Aros, and before the eyes of some +solitary people on a hill-top, went down in a moment with all hands, her +colours flying even as she sank. There was some likelihood in this tale; +for another of that fleet lay sunk on the north side, twenty miles from +Grisapol. It was told, I thought, with more detail and gravity than its +companion stories, and there was one particularity which went far to +convince me of its truth: the name, that is, of the ship was still +remembered, and sounded, in my ears, Spanishly. The _Espirito Santo_ +they called it, a great ship of many decks of guns, laden with treasure +and grandees of Spain, and fierce soldadoes, that now lay fathom deep to +all eternity, done with her wars and voyages, in Sandag bay, upon the +west of Aros. No more salvos of ordnance for that tall ship, the 'Holy +Spirit,' no more fair winds or happy ventures; only to rot there deep in +the sea-tangle and hear the shoutings of the Merry Men as the tide ran +high about the island. It was a strange thought to me first and last, +and only grew stranger as I learned the more of Spain, from which she had +set sail with so proud a company, and King Philip, the wealthy king, that +sent her on that voyage. + +And now I must tell you, as I walked from Grisapol that day, the +_Espirito Santo_ was very much in my reflections. I had been favourably +remarked by our then Principal in Edinburgh College, that famous writer, +Dr. Robertson, and by him had been set to work on some papers of an +ancient date to rearrange and sift of what was worthless; and in one of +these, to my great wonder, I found a note of this very ship, the +_Espirito Santo_, with her captain's name, and how she carried a great +part of the Spaniard's treasure, and had been lost upon the Ross of +Grisapol; but in what particular spot, the wild tribes of that place and +period would give no information to the king's inquiries. Putting one +thing with another, and taking our island tradition together with this +note of old King Jamie's perquisitions after wealth, it had come strongly +on my mind that the spot for which he sought in vain could be no other +than the small bay of Sandag on my uncle's land; and being a fellow of a +mechanical turn, I had ever since been plotting how to weigh that good +ship up again with all her ingots, ounces, and doubloons, and bring back +our house of Darnaway to its long-forgotten dignity and wealth. + +This was a design of which I soon had reason to repent. My mind was +sharply turned on different reflections; and since I became the witness +of a strange judgment of God's, the thought of dead men's treasures has +been intolerable to my conscience. But even at that time I must acquit +myself of sordid greed; for if I desired riches, it was not for their own +sake, but for the sake of a person who was dear to my heart--my uncle's +daughter, Mary Ellen. She had been educated well, and had been a time to +school upon the mainland; which, poor girl, she would have been happier +without. For Aros was no place for her, with old Rorie the servant, and +her father, who was one of the unhappiest men in Scotland, plainly bred +up in a country place among Cameronians, long a skipper sailing out of +the Clyde about the islands, and now, with infinite discontent, managing +his sheep and a little 'long shore fishing for the necessary bread. If +it was sometimes weariful to me, who was there but a month or two, you +may fancy what it was to her who dwelt in that same desert all the year +round, with the sheep and flying sea-gulls, and the Merry Men singing and +dancing in the Roost! + + + +CHAPTER II. WHAT THE WRECK HAD BROUGHT TO AROS. + + +It was half-flood when I got the length of Aros; and there was nothing +for it but to stand on the far shore and whistle for Rorie with the boat. +I had no need to repeat the signal. At the first sound, Mary was at the +door flying a handkerchief by way of answer, and the old long-legged +serving-man was shambling down the gravel to the pier. For all his +hurry, it took him a long while to pull across the bay; and I observed +him several times to pause, go into the stern, and look over curiously +into the wake. As he came nearer, he seemed to me aged and haggard, and +I thought he avoided my eye. The coble had been repaired, with two new +thwarts and several patches of some rare and beautiful foreign wood, the +name of it unknown to me. + +'Why, Rorie,' said I, as we began the return voyage, 'this is fine wood. +How came you by that?' + +'It will be hard to cheesel,' Rorie opined reluctantly; and just then, +dropping the oars, he made another of those dives into the stern which I +had remarked as he came across to fetch me, and, leaning his hand on my +shoulder, stared with an awful look into the waters of the bay. + +'What is wrong?' I asked, a good deal startled. + +'It will be a great feesh,' said the old man, returning to his oars; and +nothing more could I get out of him, but strange glances and an ominous +nodding of the head. In spite of myself, I was infected with a measure +of uneasiness; I turned also, and studied the wake. The water was still +and transparent, but, out here in the middle of the bay, exceeding deep. +For some time I could see naught; but at last it did seem to me as if +something dark--a great fish, or perhaps only a shadow--followed +studiously in the track of the moving coble. And then I remembered one +of Rorie's superstitions: how in a ferry in Morven, in some great, +exterminating feud among the clans; a fish, the like of it unknown in all +our waters, followed for some years the passage of the ferry-boat, until +no man dared to make the crossing. + +'He will be waiting for the right man,' said Rorie. + +Mary met me on the beach, and led me up the brae and into the house of +Aros. Outside and inside there were many changes. The garden was fenced +with the same wood that I had noted in the boat; there were chairs in the +kitchen covered with strange brocade; curtains of brocade hung from the +window; a clock stood silent on the dresser; a lamp of brass was swinging +from the roof; the table was set for dinner with the finest of linen and +silver; and all these new riches were displayed in the plain old kitchen +that I knew so well, with the high-backed settle, and the stools, and the +closet bed for Rorie; with the wide chimney the sun shone into, and the +clear-smouldering peats; with the pipes on the mantelshelf and the three- +cornered spittoons, filled with sea-shells instead of sand, on the floor; +with the bare stone walls and the bare wooden floor, and the three +patchwork rugs that were of yore its sole adornment--poor man's +patchwork, the like of it unknown in cities, woven with homespun, and +Sunday black, and sea-cloth polished on the bench of rowing. The room, +like the house, had been a sort of wonder in that country-side, it was so +neat and habitable; and to see it now, shamed by these incongruous +additions, filled me with indignation and a kind of anger. In view of +the errand I had come upon to Aros, the feeling was baseless and unjust; +but it burned high, at the first moment, in my heart. + +'Mary, girl,' said I, 'this is the place I had learned to call my home, +and I do not know it.' + +'It is my home by nature, not by the learning,' she replied; 'the place I +was born and the place I'm like to die in; and I neither like these +changes, nor the way they came, nor that which came with them. I would +have liked better, under God's pleasure, they had gone down into the sea, +and the Merry Men were dancing on them now.' + +Mary was always serious; it was perhaps the only trait that she shared +with her father; but the tone with which she uttered these words was even +graver than of custom. + +'Ay,' said I, 'I feared it came by wreck, and that's by death; yet when +my father died, I took his goods without remorse.' + +'Your father died a clean strae death, as the folk say,' said Mary. + +'True,' I returned; 'and a wreck is like a judgment. What was she +called?' + +'They ca'd her the _Christ-Anna_,' said a voice behind me; and, turning +round, I saw my uncle standing in the doorway. + +He was a sour, small, bilious man, with a long face and very dark eyes; +fifty-six years old, sound and active in body, and with an air somewhat +between that of a shepherd and that of a man following the sea. He never +laughed, that I heard; read long at the Bible; prayed much, like the +Cameronians he had been brought up among; and indeed, in many ways, used +to remind me of one of the hill-preachers in the killing times before the +Revolution. But he never got much comfort, nor even, as I used to think, +much guidance, by his piety. He had his black fits when he was afraid of +hell; but he had led a rough life, to which he would look back with envy, +and was still a rough, cold, gloomy man. + +As he came in at the door out of the sunlight, with his bonnet on his +head and a pipe hanging in his button-hole, he seemed, like Rorie, to +have grown older and paler, the lines were deeplier ploughed upon his +face, and the whites of his eyes were yellow, like old stained ivory, or +the bones of the dead. + +'Ay' he repeated, dwelling upon the first part of the word, 'the _Christ- +Anna_. It's an awfu' name.' + +I made him my salutations, and complimented him upon his look of health; +for I feared he had perhaps been ill. + +'I'm in the body,' he replied, ungraciously enough; 'aye in the body and +the sins of the body, like yoursel'. Denner,' he said abruptly to Mary, +and then ran on to me: 'They're grand braws, thir that we hae gotten, are +they no? Yon's a bonny knock {15}, but it'll no gang; and the napery's +by ordnar. Bonny, bairnly braws; it's for the like o' them folk sells +the peace of God that passeth understanding; it's for the like o' them, +an' maybe no even sae muckle worth, folk daunton God to His face and burn +in muckle hell; and it's for that reason the Scripture ca's them, as I +read the passage, the accursed thing. Mary, ye girzie,' he interrupted +himself to cry with some asperity, 'what for hae ye no put out the twa +candlesticks?' + +'Why should we need them at high noon?' she asked. + +But my uncle was not to be turned from his idea. 'We'll bruik {16} them +while we may,' he said; and so two massive candlesticks of wrought silver +were added to the table equipage, already so unsuited to that rough sea- +side farm. + +'She cam' ashore Februar' 10, about ten at nicht,' he went on to me. +'There was nae wind, and a sair run o' sea; and she was in the sook o' +the Roost, as I jaloose. We had seen her a' day, Rorie and me, beating +to the wind. She wasnae a handy craft, I'm thinking, that _Christ-Anna_; +for she would neither steer nor stey wi' them. A sair day they had of +it; their hands was never aff the sheets, and it perishin' cauld--ower +cauld to snaw; and aye they would get a bit nip o' wind, and awa' again, +to pit the emp'y hope into them. Eh, man! but they had a sair day for +the last o't! He would have had a prood, prood heart that won ashore +upon the back o' that.' + +'And were all lost?' I cried. 'God held them!' + +'Wheesht!' he said sternly. 'Nane shall pray for the deid on my hearth- +stane.' + +I disclaimed a Popish sense for my ejaculation; and he seemed to accept +my disclaimer with unusual facility, and ran on once more upon what had +evidently become a favourite subject. + +'We fand her in Sandag Bay, Rorie an' me, and a' thae braws in the inside +of her. There's a kittle bit, ye see, about Sandag; whiles the sook rins +strong for the Merry Men; an' whiles again, when the tide's makin' hard +an' ye can hear the Roost blawin' at the far-end of Aros, there comes a +back-spang of current straucht into Sandag Bay. Weel, there's the thing +that got the grip on the _Christ-Anna_. She but to have come in ram-stam +an' stern forrit; for the bows of her are aften under, and the back-side +of her is clear at hie-water o' neaps. But, man! the dunt that she cam +doon wi' when she struck! Lord save us a'! but it's an unco life to be a +sailor--a cauld, wanchancy life. Mony's the gliff I got mysel' in the +great deep; and why the Lord should hae made yon unco water is mair than +ever I could win to understand. He made the vales and the pastures, the +bonny green yaird, the halesome, canty land-- + + And now they shout and sing to Thee, + For Thou hast made them glad, + +as the Psalms say in the metrical version. No that I would preen my +faith to that clink neither; but it's bonny, and easier to mind. "Who go +to sea in ships," they hae't again-- + + And in + Great waters trading be, + Within the deep these men God's works + And His great wonders see. + +Weel, it's easy sayin' sae. Maybe Dauvit wasnae very weel acquant wi' +the sea. But, troth, if it wasnae prentit in the Bible, I wad whiles be +temp'it to think it wasnae the Lord, but the muckle, black deil that made +the sea. There's naething good comes oot o't but the fish; an' the +spentacle o' God riding on the tempest, to be shure, whilk would be what +Dauvit was likely ettling at. But, man, they were sair wonders that God +showed to the _Christ-Anna_--wonders, do I ca' them? Judgments, rather: +judgments in the mirk nicht among the draygons o' the deep. And their +souls--to think o' that--their souls, man, maybe no prepared! The sea--a +muckle yett to hell!' + +I observed, as my uncle spoke, that his voice was unnaturally moved and +his manner unwontedly demonstrative. He leaned forward at these last +words, for example, and touched me on the knee with his spread fingers, +looking up into my face with a certain pallor, and I could see that his +eyes shone with a deep-seated fire, and that the lines about his mouth +were drawn and tremulous. + +Even the entrance of Rorie, and the beginning of our meal, did not detach +him from his train of thought beyond a moment. He condescended, indeed, +to ask me some questions as to my success at college, but I thought it +was with half his mind; and even in his extempore grace, which was, as +usual, long and wandering, I could find the trace of his preoccupation, +praying, as he did, that God would 'remember in mercy fower puir, +feckless, fiddling, sinful creatures here by their lee-lane beside the +great and dowie waters.' + +Soon there came an interchange of speeches between him and Rorie. + +'Was it there?' asked my uncle. + +'Ou, ay!' said Rorie. + +I observed that they both spoke in a manner of aside, and with some show +of embarrassment, and that Mary herself appeared to colour, and looked +down on her plate. Partly to show my knowledge, and so relieve the party +from an awkward strain, partly because I was curious, I pursued the +subject. + +'You mean the fish?' I asked. + +'Whatten fish?' cried my uncle. 'Fish, quo' he! Fish! Your een are fu' +o' fatness, man; your heid dozened wi' carnal leir. Fish! it's a bogle!' + +He spoke with great vehemence, as though angry; and perhaps I was not +very willing to be put down so shortly, for young men are disputatious. +At least I remember I retorted hotly, crying out upon childish +superstitions. + +'And ye come frae the College!' sneered Uncle Gordon. 'Gude kens what +they learn folk there; it's no muckle service onyway. Do ye think, man, +that there's naething in a' yon saut wilderness o' a world oot wast +there, wi' the sea grasses growin', an' the sea beasts fechtin', an' the +sun glintin' down into it, day by day? Na; the sea's like the land, but +fearsomer. If there's folk ashore, there's folk in the sea--deid they +may be, but they're folk whatever; and as for deils, there's nane that's +like the sea deils. There's no sae muckle harm in the land deils, when +a's said and done. Lang syne, when I was a callant in the south country, +I mind there was an auld, bald bogle in the Peewie Moss. I got a glisk +o' him mysel', sittin' on his hunkers in a hag, as gray's a tombstane. +An', troth, he was a fearsome-like taed. But he steered naebody. Nae +doobt, if ane that was a reprobate, ane the Lord hated, had gane by there +wi' his sin still upon his stamach, nae doobt the creature would hae +lowped upo' the likes o' him. But there's deils in the deep sea would +yoke on a communicant! Eh, sirs, if ye had gane doon wi' the puir lads +in the _Christ-Anna_, ye would ken by now the mercy o' the seas. If ye +had sailed it for as lang as me, ye would hate the thocht of it as I do. +If ye had but used the een God gave ye, ye would hae learned the +wickedness o' that fause, saut, cauld, bullering creature, and of a' +that's in it by the Lord's permission: labsters an' partans, an' sic +like, howking in the deid; muckle, gutsy, blawing whales; an' fish--the +hale clan o' them--cauld-wamed, blind-eed uncanny ferlies. O, sirs,' he +cried, 'the horror--the horror o' the sea!' + +We were all somewhat staggered by this outburst; and the speaker himself, +after that last hoarse apostrophe, appeared to sink gloomily into his own +thoughts. But Rorie, who was greedy of superstitious lore, recalled him +to the subject by a question. + +'You will not ever have seen a teevil of the sea?' he asked. + +'No clearly,' replied the other. 'I misdoobt if a mere man could see ane +clearly and conteenue in the body. I hae sailed wi' a lad--they ca'd him +Sandy Gabart; he saw ane, shure eneueh, an' shure eneueh it was the end +of him. We were seeven days oot frae the Clyde--a sair wark we had +had--gaun north wi' seeds an' braws an' things for the Macleod. We had +got in ower near under the Cutchull'ns, an' had just gane about by soa, +an' were off on a lang tack, we thocht would maybe hauld as far's +Copnahow. I mind the nicht weel; a mune smoored wi' mist; a fine gaun +breeze upon the water, but no steedy; an'--what nane o' us likit to +hear--anither wund gurlin' owerheid, amang thae fearsome, auld stane +craigs o' the Cutchull'ns. Weel, Sandy was forrit wi' the jib sheet; we +couldnae see him for the mains'l, that had just begude to draw, when a' +at ance he gied a skirl. I luffed for my life, for I thocht we were ower +near Soa; but na, it wasnae that, it was puir Sandy Gabart's deid +skreigh, or near hand, for he was deid in half an hour. A't he could +tell was that a sea deil, or sea bogle, or sea spenster, or sic-like, had +clum up by the bowsprit, an' gi'en him ae cauld, uncanny look. An', or +the life was oot o' Sandy's body, we kent weel what the thing betokened, +and why the wund gurled in the taps o' the Cutchull'ns; for doon it +cam'--a wund do I ca' it! it was the wund o' the Lord's anger--an' a' +that nicht we foucht like men dementit, and the niest that we kenned we +were ashore in Loch Uskevagh, an' the cocks were crawin' in Benbecula.' + +'It will have been a merman,' Rorie said. + +'A merman!' screamed my uncle with immeasurable scorn. 'Auld wives' +clavers! There's nae sic things as mermen.' + +'But what was the creature like?' I asked. + +'What like was it? Gude forbid that we suld ken what like it was! It +had a kind of a heid upon it--man could say nae mair.' + +Then Rorie, smarting under the affront, told several tales of mermen, +mermaids, and sea-horses that had come ashore upon the islands and +attacked the crews of boats upon the sea; and my uncle, in spite of his +incredulity, listened with uneasy interest. + +'Aweel, aweel,' he said, 'it may be sae; I may be wrang; but I find nae +word o' mermen in the Scriptures.' + +'And you will find nae word of Aros Roost, maybe,' objected Rorie, and +his argument appeared to carry weight. + +When dinner was over, my uncle carried me forth with him to a bank behind +the house. It was a very hot and quiet afternoon; scarce a ripple +anywhere upon the sea, nor any voice but the familiar voice of sheep and +gulls; and perhaps in consequence of this repose in nature, my kinsman +showed himself more rational and tranquil than before. He spoke evenly +and almost cheerfully of my career, with every now and then a reference +to the lost ship or the treasures it had brought to Aros. For my part, I +listened to him in a sort of trance, gazing with all my heart on that +remembered scene, and drinking gladly the sea-air and the smoke of peats +that had been lit by Mary. + +Perhaps an hour had passed when my uncle, who had all the while been +covertly gazing on the surface of the little bay, rose to his feet and +bade me follow his example. Now I should say that the great run of tide +at the south-west end of Aros exercises a perturbing influence round all +the coast. In Sandag Bay, to the south, a strong current runs at certain +periods of the flood and ebb respectively; but in this northern bay--Aros +Bay, as it is called--where the house stands and on which my uncle was +now gazing, the only sign of disturbance is towards the end of the ebb, +and even then it is too slight to be remarkable. When there is any +swell, nothing can be seen at all; but when it is calm, as it often is, +there appear certain strange, undecipherable marks--sea-runes, as we may +name them--on the glassy surface of the bay. The like is common in a +thousand places on the coast; and many a boy must have amused himself as +I did, seeking to read in them some reference to himself or those he +loved. It was to these marks that my uncle now directed my attention, +struggling, as he did so, with an evident reluctance. + +'Do ye see yon scart upo' the water?' he inquired; 'yon ane wast the gray +stane? Ay? Weel, it'll no be like a letter, wull it?' + +'Certainly it is,' I replied. 'I have often remarked it. It is like a +C.' + +He heaved a sigh as if heavily disappointed with my answer, and then +added below his breath: 'Ay, for the _Christ-Anna_.' + +'I used to suppose, sir, it was for myself,' said I; 'for my name is +Charles.' + +'And so ye saw't afore?', he ran on, not heeding my remark. 'Weel, weel, +but that's unco strange. Maybe, it's been there waitin', as a man wad +say, through a' the weary ages. Man, but that's awfu'.' And then, +breaking off: 'Ye'll no see anither, will ye?' he asked. + +'Yes,' said I. 'I see another very plainly, near the Ross side, where +the road comes down--an M.' + +'An M,' he repeated very low; and then, again after another pause: 'An' +what wad ye make o' that?' he inquired. + +'I had always thought it to mean Mary, sir,' I answered, growing somewhat +red, convinced as I was in my own mind that I was on the threshold of a +decisive explanation. + +But we were each following his own train of thought to the exclusion of +the other's. My uncle once more paid no attention to my words; only hung +his head and held his peace; and I might have been led to fancy that he +had not heard me, if his next speech had not contained a kind of echo +from my own. + +'I would say naething o' thae clavers to Mary,' he observed, and began to +walk forward. + +There is a belt of turf along the side of Aros Bay, where walking is +easy; and it was along this that I silently followed my silent kinsman. I +was perhaps a little disappointed at having lost so good an opportunity +to declare my love; but I was at the same time far more deeply exercised +at the change that had befallen my uncle. He was never an ordinary, +never, in the strict sense, an amiable, man; but there was nothing in +even the worst that I had known of him before, to prepare me for so +strange a transformation. It was impossible to close the eyes against +one fact; that he had, as the saying goes, something on his mind; and as +I mentally ran over the different words which might be represented by the +letter M--misery, mercy, marriage, money, and the like--I was arrested +with a sort of start by the word murder. I was still considering the +ugly sound and fatal meaning of the word, when the direction of our walk +brought us to a point from which a view was to be had to either side, +back towards Aros Bay and homestead, and forward on the ocean, dotted to +the north with isles, and lying to the southward blue and open to the +sky. There my guide came to a halt, and stood staring for awhile on that +expanse. Then he turned to me and laid a hand on my arm. + +'Ye think there's naething there?' he said, pointing with his pipe; and +then cried out aloud, with a kind of exultation: 'I'll tell ye, man! The +deid are down there--thick like rattons!' + +He turned at once, and, without another word, we retraced our steps to +the house of Aros. + +I was eager to be alone with Mary; yet it was not till after supper, and +then but for a short while, that I could have a word with her. I lost no +time beating about the bush, but spoke out plainly what was on my mind. + +'Mary,' I said, 'I have not come to Aros without a hope. If that should +prove well founded, we may all leave and go somewhere else, secure of +daily bread and comfort; secure, perhaps, of something far beyond that, +which it would seem extravagant in me to promise. But there's a hope +that lies nearer to my heart than money.' And at that I paused. 'You +can guess fine what that is, Mary,' I said. She looked away from me in +silence, and that was small encouragement, but I was not to be put off. +'All my days I have thought the world of you,' I continued; 'the time +goes on and I think always the more of you; I could not think to be happy +or hearty in my life without you: you are the apple of my eye.' Still +she looked away, and said never a word; but I thought I saw that her +hands shook. 'Mary,' I cried in fear, 'do ye no like me?' + +'O, Charlie man,' she said, 'is this a time to speak of it? Let me be, a +while; let me be the way I am; it'll not be you that loses by the +waiting!' + +I made out by her voice that she was nearly weeping, and this put me out +of any thought but to compose her. 'Mary Ellen,' I said, 'say no more; I +did not come to trouble you: your way shall be mine, and your time too; +and you have told me all I wanted. Only just this one thing more: what +ails you?' + +She owned it was her father, but would enter into no particulars, only +shook her head, and said he was not well and not like himself, and it was +a great pity. She knew nothing of the wreck. 'I havenae been near it,' +said she. 'What for would I go near it, Charlie lad? The poor souls are +gone to their account long syne; and I would just have wished they had +ta'en their gear with them--poor souls!' + +This was scarcely any great encouragement for me to tell her of the +_Espirito Santo_; yet I did so, and at the very first word she cried out +in surprise. 'There was a man at Grisapol,' she said, 'in the month of +May--a little, yellow, black-avised body, they tell me, with gold rings +upon his fingers, and a beard; and he was speiring high and low for that +same ship.' + +It was towards the end of April that I had been given these papers to +sort out by Dr. Robertson: and it came suddenly back upon my mind that +they were thus prepared for a Spanish historian, or a man calling himself +such, who had come with high recommendations to the Principal, on a +mission of inquiry as to the dispersion of the great Armada. Putting one +thing with another, I fancied that the visitor 'with the gold rings upon +his fingers' might be the same with Dr. Robertson's historian from +Madrid. If that were so, he would be more likely after treasure for +himself than information for a learned society. I made up my mind, I +should lose no time over my undertaking; and if the ship lay sunk in +Sandag Bay, as perhaps both he and I supposed, it should not be for the +advantage of this ringed adventurer, but for Mary and myself, and for the +good, old, honest, kindly family of the Darnaways. + + + +CHAPTER III. LAND AND SEA IN SANDAG BAY. + + +I was early afoot next morning; and as soon as I had a bite to eat, set +forth upon a tour of exploration. Something in my heart distinctly told +me that I should find the ship of the Armada; and although I did not give +way entirely to such hopeful thoughts, I was still very light in spirits +and walked upon air. Aros is a very rough islet, its surface strewn with +great rocks and shaggy with fernland heather; and my way lay almost north +and south across the highest knoll; and though the whole distance was +inside of two miles it took more time and exertion than four upon a level +road. Upon the summit, I paused. Although not very high--not three +hundred feet, as I think--it yet outtops all the neighbouring lowlands of +the Ross, and commands a great view of sea and islands. The sun, which +had been up some time, was already hot upon my neck; the air was listless +and thundery, although purely clear; away over the north-west, where the +isles lie thickliest congregated, some half-a-dozen small and ragged +clouds hung together in a covey; and the head of Ben Kyaw wore, not +merely a few streamers, but a solid hood of vapour. There was a threat +in the weather. The sea, it is true, was smooth like glass: even the +Roost was but a seam on that wide mirror, and the Merry Men no more than +caps of foam; but to my eye and ear, so long familiar with these places, +the sea also seemed to lie uneasily; a sound of it, like a long sigh, +mounted to me where I stood; and, quiet as it was, the Roost itself +appeared to be revolving mischief. For I ought to say that all we +dwellers in these parts attributed, if not prescience, at least a quality +of warning, to that strange and dangerous creature of the tides. + +I hurried on, then, with the greater speed, and had soon descended the +slope of Aros to the part that we call Sandag Bay. It is a pretty large +piece of water compared with the size of the isle; well sheltered from +all but the prevailing wind; sandy and shoal and bounded by low +sand-hills to the west, but to the eastward lying several fathoms deep +along a ledge of rocks. It is upon that side that, at a certain time +each flood, the current mentioned by my uncle sets so strong into the +bay; a little later, when the Roost begins to work higher, an undertow +runs still more strongly in the reverse direction; and it is the action +of this last, as I suppose, that has scoured that part so deep. Nothing +is to be seen out of Sandag Bay, but one small segment of the horizon +and, in heavy weather, the breakers flying high over a deep sea reef. + +From half-way down the hill, I had perceived the wreck of February last, +a brig of considerable tonnage, lying, with her back broken, high and dry +on the east corner of the sands; and I was making directly towards it, +and already almost on the margin of the turf, when my eyes were suddenly +arrested by a spot, cleared of fern and heather, and marked by one of +those long, low, and almost human-looking mounds that we see so commonly +in graveyards. I stopped like a man shot. Nothing had been said to me +of any dead man or interment on the island; Rorie, Mary, and my uncle had +all equally held their peace; of her at least, I was certain that she +must be ignorant; and yet here, before my eyes, was proof indubitable of +the fact. Here was a grave; and I had to ask myself, with a chill, what +manner of man lay there in his last sleep, awaiting the signal of the +Lord in that solitary, sea-beat resting-place? My mind supplied no +answer but what I feared to entertain. Shipwrecked, at least, he must +have been; perhaps, like the old Armada mariners, from some far and rich +land over-sea; or perhaps one of my own race, perishing within eyesight +of the smoke of home. I stood awhile uncovered by his side, and I could +have desired that it had lain in our religion to put up some prayer for +that unhappy stranger, or, in the old classic way, outwardly to honour +his misfortune. I knew, although his bones lay there, a part of Aros, +till the trumpet sounded, his imperishable soul was forth and far away, +among the raptures of the everlasting Sabbath or the pangs of hell; and +yet my mind misgave me even with a fear, that perhaps he was near me +where I stood, guarding his sepulchre, and lingering on the scene of his +unhappy fate. + +Certainly it was with a spirit somewhat over-shadowed that I turned away +from the grave to the hardly less melancholy spectacle of the wreck. Her +stem was above the first arc of the flood; she was broken in two a little +abaft the foremast--though indeed she had none, both masts having broken +short in her disaster; and as the pitch of the beach was very sharp and +sudden, and the bows lay many feet below the stern, the fracture gaped +widely open, and you could see right through her poor hull upon the +farther side. Her name was much defaced, and I could not make out +clearly whether she was called _Christiania_, after the Norwegian city, +or _Christiana_, after the good woman, Christian's wife, in that old book +the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' By her build she was a foreign ship, but I was +not certain of her nationality. She had been painted green, but the +colour was faded and weathered, and the paint peeling off in strips. The +wreck of the mainmast lay alongside, half buried in sand. She was a +forlorn sight, indeed, and I could not look without emotion at the bits +of rope that still hung about her, so often handled of yore by shouting +seamen; or the little scuttle where they had passed up and down to their +affairs; or that poor noseless angel of a figure-head that had dipped +into so many running billows. + +I do not know whether it came most from the ship or from the grave, but I +fell into some melancholy scruples, as I stood there, leaning with one +hand against the battered timbers. The homelessness of men and even of +inanimate vessels, cast away upon strange shores, came strongly in upon +my mind. To make a profit of such pitiful misadventures seemed an +unmanly and a sordid act; and I began to think of my then quest as of +something sacrilegious in its nature. But when I remembered Mary, I took +heart again. My uncle would never consent to an imprudent marriage, nor +would she, as I was persuaded, wed without his full approval. It behoved +me, then, to be up and doing for my wife; and I thought with a laugh how +long it was since that great sea-castle, the _Espirito Santo_, had left +her bones in Sandag Bay, and how weak it would be to consider rights so +long extinguished and misfortunes so long forgotten in the process of +time. + +I had my theory of where to seek for her remains. The set of the current +and the soundings both pointed to the east side of the bay under the +ledge of rocks. If she had been lost in Sandag Bay, and if, after these +centuries, any portion of her held together, it was there that I should +find it. The water deepens, as I have said, with great rapidity, and +even close along-side the rocks several fathoms may be found. As I +walked upon the edge I could see far and wide over the sandy bottom of +the bay; the sun shone clear and green and steady in the deeps; the bay +seemed rather like a great transparent crystal, as one sees them in a +lapidary's shop; there was naught to show that it was water but an +internal trembling, a hovering within of sun-glints and netted shadows, +and now and then a faint lap and a dying bubble round the edge. The +shadows of the rocks lay out for some distance at their feet, so that my +own shadow, moving, pausing, and stooping on the top of that, reached +sometimes half across the bay. It was above all in this belt of shadows +that I hunted for the _Espirito Santo_; since it was there the undertow +ran strongest, whether in or out. Cool as the whole water seemed this +broiling day, it looked, in that part, yet cooler, and had a mysterious +invitation for the eyes. Peer as I pleased, however, I could see nothing +but a few fishes or a bush of sea-tangle, and here and there a lump of +rock that had fallen from above and now lay separate on the sandy floor. +Twice did I pass from one end to the other of the rocks, and in the whole +distance I could see nothing of the wreck, nor any place but one where it +was possible for it to be. This was a large terrace in five fathoms of +water, raised off the surface of the sand to a considerable height, and +looking from above like a mere outgrowth of the rocks on which I walked. +It was one mass of great sea-tangles like a grove, which prevented me +judging of its nature, but in shape and size it bore some likeness to a +vessel's hull. At least it was my best chance. If the _Espirito Santo_ +lay not there under the tangles, it lay nowhere at all in Sandag Bay; and +I prepared to put the question to the proof, once and for all, and either +go back to Aros a rich man or cured for ever of my dreams of wealth. + +I stripped to the skin, and stood on the extreme margin with my hands +clasped, irresolute. The bay at that time was utterly quiet; there was +no sound but from a school of porpoises somewhere out of sight behind the +point; yet a certain fear withheld me on the threshold of my venture. Sad +sea-feelings, scraps of my uncle's superstitions, thoughts of the dead, +of the grave, of the old broken ships, drifted through my mind. But the +strong sun upon my shoulders warmed me to the heart, and I stooped +forward and plunged into the sea. + +It was all that I could do to catch a trail of the sea-tangle that grew +so thickly on the terrace; but once so far anchored I secured myself by +grasping a whole armful of these thick and slimy stalks, and, planting my +feet against the edge, I looked around me. On all sides the clear sand +stretched forth unbroken; it came to the foot of the rocks, scoured into +the likeness of an alley in a garden by the action of the tides; and +before me, for as far as I could see, nothing was visible but the same +many-folded sand upon the sun-bright bottom of the bay. Yet the terrace +to which I was then holding was as thick with strong sea-growths as a +tuft of heather, and the cliff from which it bulged hung draped below the +water-line with brown lianas. In this complexity of forms, all swaying +together in the current, things were hard to be distinguished; and I was +still uncertain whether my feet were pressed upon the natural rock or +upon the timbers of the Armada treasure-ship, when the whole tuft of +tangle came away in my hand, and in an instant I was on the surface, and +the shores of the bay and the bright water swam before my eyes in a glory +of crimson. + +I clambered back upon the rocks, and threw the plant of tangle at my +feet. Something at the same moment rang sharply, like a falling coin. I +stooped, and there, sure enough, crusted with the red rust, there lay an +iron shoe-buckle. The sight of this poor human relic thrilled me to the +heart, but not with hope nor fear, only with a desolate melancholy. I +held it in my hand, and the thought of its owner appeared before me like +the presence of an actual man. His weather-beaten face, his sailor's +hands, his sea-voice hoarse with singing at the capstan, the very foot +that had once worn that buckle and trod so much along the swerving +decks--the whole human fact of him, as a creature like myself, with hair +and blood and seeing eyes, haunted me in that sunny, solitary place, not +like a spectre, but like some friend whom I had basely injured. Was the +great treasure ship indeed below there, with her guns and chain and +treasure, as she had sailed from Spain; her decks a garden for the +seaweed, her cabin a breeding place for fish, soundless but for the +dredging water, motionless but for the waving of the tangle upon her +battlements--that old, populous, sea-riding castle, now a reef in Sandag +Bay? Or, as I thought it likelier, was this a waif from the disaster of +the foreign brig--was this shoe-buckle bought but the other day and worn +by a man of my own period in the world's history, hearing the same news +from day to day, thinking the same thoughts, praying, perhaps, in the +same temple with myself? However it was, I was assailed with dreary +thoughts; my uncle's words, 'the dead are down there,' echoed in my ears; +and though I determined to dive once more, it was with a strong +repugnance that I stepped forward to the margin of the rocks. + +A great change passed at that moment over the appearance of the bay. It +was no more that clear, visible interior, like a house roofed with glass, +where the green, submarine sunshine slept so stilly. A breeze, I +suppose, had flawed the surface, and a sort of trouble and blackness +filled its bosom, where flashes of light and clouds of shadow tossed +confusedly together. Even the terrace below obscurely rocked and +quivered. It seemed a graver thing to venture on this place of ambushes; +and when I leaped into the sea the second time it was with a quaking in +my soul. + +I secured myself as at first, and groped among the waving tangle. All +that met my touch was cold and soft and gluey. The thicket was alive +with crabs and lobsters, trundling to and fro lopsidedly, and I had to +harden my heart against the horror of their carrion neighbourhood. On +all sides I could feel the grain and the clefts of hard, living stone; no +planks, no iron, not a sign of any wreck; the _Espirito Santo_ was not +there. I remember I had almost a sense of relief in my disappointment, +and I was about ready to leave go, when something happened that sent me +to the surface with my heart in my mouth. I had already stayed somewhat +late over my explorations; the current was freshening with the change of +the tide, and Sandag Bay was no longer a safe place for a single swimmer. +Well, just at the last moment there came a sudden flush of current, +dredging through the tangles like a wave. I lost one hold, was flung +sprawling on my side, and, instinctively grasping for a fresh support, my +fingers closed on something hard and cold. I think I knew at that moment +what it was. At least I instantly left hold of the tangle, leaped for +the surface, and clambered out next moment on the friendly rocks with the +bone of a man's leg in my grasp. + +Mankind is a material creature, slow to think and dull to perceive +connections. The grave, the wreck of the brig, and the rusty shoe-buckle +were surely plain advertisements. A child might have read their dismal +story, and yet it was not until I touched that actual piece of mankind +that the full horror of the charnel ocean burst upon my spirit. I laid +the bone beside the buckle, picked up my clothes, and ran as I was along +the rocks towards the human shore. I could not be far enough from the +spot; no fortune was vast enough to tempt me back again. The bones of +the drowned dead should henceforth roll undisturbed by me, whether on +tangle or minted gold. But as soon as I trod the good earth again, and +had covered my nakedness against the sun, I knelt down over against the +ruins of the brig, and out of the fulness of my heart prayed long and +passionately for all poor souls upon the sea. A generous prayer is never +presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is +always, I believe, rewarded by some gracious visitation. The horror, at +least, was lifted from my mind; I could look with calm of spirit on that +great bright creature, God's ocean; and as I set off homeward up the +rough sides of Aros, nothing remained of my concern beyond a deep +determination to meddle no more with the spoils of wrecked vessels or the +treasures of the dead. + +I was already some way up the hill before I paused to breathe and look +behind me. The sight that met my eyes was doubly strange. + +For, first, the storm that I had foreseen was now advancing with almost +tropical rapidity. The whole surface of the sea had been dulled from its +conspicuous brightness to an ugly hue of corrugated lead; already in the +distance the white waves, the 'skipper's daughters,' had begun to flee +before a breeze that was still insensible on Aros; and already along the +curve of Sandag Bay there was a splashing run of sea that I could hear +from where I stood. The change upon the sky was even more remarkable. +There had begun to arise out of the south-west a huge and solid continent +of scowling cloud; here and there, through rents in its contexture, the +sun still poured a sheaf of spreading rays; and here and there, from all +its edges, vast inky streamers lay forth along the yet unclouded sky. The +menace was express and imminent. Even as I gazed, the sun was blotted +out. At any moment the tempest might fall upon Aros in its might. + +The suddenness of this change of weather so fixed my eyes on heaven that +it was some seconds before they alighted on the bay, mapped out below my +feet, and robbed a moment later of the sun. The knoll which I had just +surmounted overflanked a little amphitheatre of lower hillocks sloping +towards the sea, and beyond that the yellow arc of beach and the whole +extent of Sandag Bay. It was a scene on which I had often looked down, +but where I had never before beheld a human figure. I had but just +turned my back upon it and left it empty, and my wonder may be fancied +when I saw a boat and several men in that deserted spot. The boat was +lying by the rocks. A pair of fellows, bareheaded, with their sleeves +rolled up, and one with a boathook, kept her with difficulty to her +moorings for the current was growing brisker every moment. A little way +off upon the ledge two men in black clothes, whom I judged to be superior +in rank, laid their heads together over some task which at first I did +not understand, but a second after I had made it out--they were taking +bearings with the compass; and just then I saw one of them unroll a sheet +of paper and lay his finger down, as though identifying features in a +map. Meanwhile a third was walking to and fro, polling among the rocks +and peering over the edge into the water. While I was still watching +them with the stupefaction of surprise, my mind hardly yet able to work +on what my eyes reported, this third person suddenly stooped and summoned +his companions with a cry so loud that it reached my ears upon the hill. +The others ran to him, even dropping the compass in their hurry, and I +could see the bone and the shoe-buckle going from hand to hand, causing +the most unusual gesticulations of surprise and interest. Just then I +could hear the seamen crying from the boat, and saw them point westward +to that cloud continent which was ever the more rapidly unfurling its +blackness over heaven. The others seemed to consult; but the danger was +too pressing to be braved, and they bundled into the boat carrying my +relies with them, and set forth out of the bay with all speed of oars. + +I made no more ado about the matter, but turned and ran for the house. +Whoever these men were, it was fit my uncle should be instantly informed. +It was not then altogether too late in the day for a descent of the +Jacobites; and may be Prince Charlie, whom I knew my uncle to detest, was +one of the three superiors whom I had seen upon the rock. Yet as I ran, +leaping from rock to rock, and turned the matter loosely in my mind, this +theory grew ever the longer the less welcome to my reason. The compass, +the map, the interest awakened by the buckle, and the conduct of that one +among the strangers who had looked so often below him in the water, all +seemed to point to a different explanation of their presence on that +outlying, obscure islet of the western sea. The Madrid historian, the +search instituted by Dr. Robertson, the bearded stranger with the rings, +my own fruitless search that very morning in the deep water of Sandag +Bay, ran together, piece by piece, in my memory, and I made sure that +these strangers must be Spaniards in quest of ancient treasure and the +lost ship of the Armada. But the people living in outlying islands, such +as Aros, are answerable for their own security; there is none near by to +protect or even to help them; and the presence in such a spot of a crew +of foreign adventurers--poor, greedy, and most likely lawless--filled me +with apprehensions for my uncle's money, and even for the safety of his +daughter. I was still wondering how we were to get rid of them when I +came, all breathless, to the top of Aros. The whole world was shadowed +over; only in the extreme east, on a hill of the mainland, one last gleam +of sunshine lingered like a jewel; rain had begun to fall, not heavily, +but in great drops; the sea was rising with each moment, and already a +band of white encircled Aros and the nearer coasts of Grisapol. The boat +was still pulling seaward, but I now became aware of what had been hidden +from me lower down--a large, heavily sparred, handsome schooner, lying to +at the south end of Aros. Since I had not seen her in the morning when I +had looked around so closely at the signs of the weather, and upon these +lone waters where a sail was rarely visible, it was clear she must have +lain last night behind the uninhabited Eilean Gour, and this proved +conclusively that she was manned by strangers to our coast, for that +anchorage, though good enough to look at, is little better than a trap +for ships. With such ignorant sailors upon so wild a coast, the coming +gale was not unlikely to bring death upon its wings. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE GALE. + + +I found my uncle at the gable end, watching the signs of the weather, +with a pipe in his fingers. + +'Uncle,' said I, 'there were men ashore at Sandag Bay--' + +I had no time to go further; indeed, I not only forgot my words, but even +my weariness, so strange was the effect on Uncle Gordon. He dropped his +pipe and fell back against the end of the house with his jaw fallen, his +eyes staring, and his long face as white as paper. We must have looked +at one another silently for a quarter of a minute, before he made answer +in this extraordinary fashion: 'Had he a hair kep on?' + +I knew as well as if I had been there that the man who now lay buried at +Sandag had worn a hairy cap, and that he had come ashore alive. For the +first and only time I lost toleration for the man who was my benefactor +and the father of the woman I hoped to call my wife. + +'These were living men,' said I, 'perhaps Jacobites, perhaps the French, +perhaps pirates, perhaps adventurers come here to seek the Spanish +treasure ship; but, whatever they may be, dangerous at least to your +daughter and my cousin. As for your own guilty terrors, man, the dead +sleeps well where you have laid him. I stood this morning by his grave; +he will not wake before the trump of doom.' + +My kinsman looked upon me, blinking, while I spoke; then he fixed his +eyes for a little on the ground, and pulled his fingers foolishly; but it +was plain that he was past the power of speech. + +'Come,' said I. 'You must think for others. You must come up the hill +with me, and see this ship.' + +He obeyed without a word or a look, following slowly after my impatient +strides. The spring seemed to have gone out of his body, and he +scrambled heavily up and down the rocks, instead of leaping, as he was +wont, from one to another. Nor could I, for all my cries, induce him to +make better haste. Only once he replied to me complainingly, and like +one in bodily pain: 'Ay, ay, man, I'm coming.' Long before we had +reached the top, I had no other thought for him but pity. If the crime +had been monstrous the punishment was in proportion. + +At last we emerged above the sky-line of the hill, and could see around +us. All was black and stormy to the eye; the last gleam of sun had +vanished; a wind had sprung up, not yet high, but gusty and unsteady to +the point; the rain, on the other hand, had ceased. Short as was the +interval, the sea already ran vastly higher than when I had stood there +last; already it had begun to break over some of the outward reefs, and +already it moaned aloud in the sea-caves of Aros. I looked, at first, in +vain for the schooner. + +'There she is,' I said at last. But her new position, and the course she +was now lying, puzzled me. 'They cannot mean to beat to sea,' I cried. + +'That's what they mean,' said my uncle, with something like joy; and just +then the schooner went about and stood upon another tack, which put the +question beyond the reach of doubt. These strangers, seeing a gale on +hand, had thought first of sea-room. With the wind that threatened, in +these reef-sown waters and contending against so violent a stream of +tide, their course was certain death. + +'Good God!' said I, 'they are all lost.' + +'Ay,' returned my uncle, 'a'--a' lost. They hadnae a chance but to rin +for Kyle Dona. The gate they're gaun the noo, they couldnae win through +an the muckle deil were there to pilot them. Eh, man,' he continued, +touching me on the sleeve, 'it's a braw nicht for a shipwreck! Twa in ae +twalmonth! Eh, but the Merry Men'll dance bonny!' + +I looked at him, and it was then that I began to fancy him no longer in +his right mind. He was peering up to me, as if for sympathy, a timid joy +in his eyes. All that had passed between us was already forgotten in the +prospect of this fresh disaster. + +'If it were not too late,' I cried with indignation, 'I would take the +coble and go out to warn them.' + +'Na, na,' he protested, 'ye maunnae interfere; ye maunnae meddle wi' the +like o' that. It's His'--doffing his bonnet--'His wull. And, eh, man! +but it's a braw nicht for't!' + +Something like fear began to creep into my soul and, reminding him that I +had not yet dined, I proposed we should return to the house. But no; +nothing would tear him from his place of outlook. + +'I maun see the hail thing, man, Cherlie,' he explained--and then as the +schooner went about a second time, 'Eh, but they han'le her bonny!' he +cried. 'The _Christ-Anna_ was naething to this.' + +Already the men on board the schooner must have begun to realise some +part, but not yet the twentieth, of the dangers that environed their +doomed ship. At every lull of the capricious wind they must have seen +how fast the current swept them back. Each tack was made shorter, as +they saw how little it prevailed. Every moment the rising swell began to +boom and foam upon another sunken reef; and ever and again a breaker +would fall in sounding ruin under the very bows of her, and the brown +reef and streaming tangle appear in the hollow of the wave. I tell you, +they had to stand to their tackle: there was no idle men aboard that +ship, God knows. It was upon the progress of a scene so horrible to any +human-hearted man that my misguided uncle now pored and gloated like a +connoisseur. As I turned to go down the hill, he was lying on his belly +on the summit, with his hands stretched forth and clutching in the +heather. He seemed rejuvenated, mind and body. + +When I got back to the house already dismally affected, I was still more +sadly downcast at the sight of Mary. She had her sleeves rolled up over +her strong arms, and was quietly making bread. I got a bannock from the +dresser and sat down to eat it in silence. + +'Are ye wearied, lad?' she asked after a while. + +'I am not so much wearied, Mary,' I replied, getting on my feet, 'as I am +weary of delay, and perhaps of Aros too. You know me well enough to +judge me fairly, say what I like. Well, Mary, you may be sure of this: +you had better be anywhere but here.' + +'I'll be sure of one thing,' she returned: 'I'll be where my duty is.' + +'You forget, you have a duty to yourself,' I said. + +'Ay, man?' she replied, pounding at the dough; 'will you have found that +in the Bible, now?' + +'Mary,' I said solemnly, 'you must not laugh at me just now. God knows I +am in no heart for laughing. If we could get your father with us, it +would be best; but with him or without him, I want you far away from +here, my girl; for your own sake, and for mine, ay, and for your father's +too, I want you far--far away from here. I came with other thoughts; I +came here as a man comes home; now it is all changed, and I have no +desire nor hope but to flee--for that's the word--flee, like a bird out +of the fowler's snare, from this accursed island.' + +She had stopped her work by this time. + +'And do you think, now,' said she, 'do you think, now, I have neither +eyes nor ears? Do ye think I havenae broken my heart to have these braws +(as he calls them, God forgive him!) thrown into the sea? Do ye think I +have lived with him, day in, day out, and not seen what you saw in an +hour or two? No,' she said, 'I know there's wrong in it; what wrong, I +neither know nor want to know. There was never an ill thing made better +by meddling, that I could hear of. But, my lad, you must never ask me to +leave my father. While the breath is in his body, I'll be with him. And +he's not long for here, either: that I can tell you, Charlie--he's not +long for here. The mark is on his brow; and better so--maybe better so.' + +I was a while silent, not knowing what to say; and when I roused my head +at last to speak, she got before me. + +'Charlie,' she said, 'what's right for me, neednae be right for you. +There's sin upon this house and trouble; you are a stranger; take your +things upon your back and go your ways to better places and to better +folk, and if you were ever minded to come back, though it were twenty +years syne, you would find me aye waiting.' + +'Mary Ellen,' I said, 'I asked you to be my wife, and you said as good as +yes. That's done for good. Wherever you are, I am; as I shall answer to +my God.' + +As I said the words, the wind suddenly burst out raving, and then seemed +to stand still and shudder round the house of Aros. It was the first +squall, or prologue, of the coming tempest, and as we started and looked +about us, we found that a gloom, like the approach of evening, had +settled round the house. + +'God pity all poor folks at sea!' she said. 'We'll see no more of my +father till the morrow's morning.' + +And then she told me, as we sat by the fire and hearkened to the rising +gusts, of how this change had fallen upon my uncle. All last winter he +had been dark and fitful in his mind. Whenever the Roost ran high, or, +as Mary said, whenever the Merry Men were dancing, he would lie out for +hours together on the Head, if it were at night, or on the top of Aros by +day, watching the tumult of the sea, and sweeping the horizon for a sail. +After February the tenth, when the wealth-bringing wreck was cast ashore +at Sandag, he had been at first unnaturally gay, and his excitement had +never fallen in degree, but only changed in kind from dark to darker. He +neglected his work, and kept Rorie idle. They two would speak together +by the hour at the gable end, in guarded tones and with an air of secrecy +and almost of guilt; and if she questioned either, as at first she +sometimes did, her inquiries were put aside with confusion. Since Rorie +had first remarked the fish that hung about the ferry, his master had +never set foot but once upon the mainland of the Ross. That once--it was +in the height of the springs--he had passed dryshod while the tide was +out; but, having lingered overlong on the far side, found himself cut off +from Aros by the returning waters. It was with a shriek of agony that he +had leaped across the gut, and he had reached home thereafter in a fever- +fit of fear. A fear of the sea, a constant haunting thought of the sea, +appeared in his talk and devotions, and even in his looks when he was +silent. + +Rorie alone came in to supper; but a little later my uncle appeared, took +a bottle under his arm, put some bread in his pocket, and set forth again +to his outlook, followed this time by Rorie. I heard that the schooner +was losing ground, but the crew were still fighting every inch with +hopeless ingenuity and course; and the news filled my mind with +blackness. + +A little after sundown the full fury of the gale broke forth, such a gale +as I have never seen in summer, nor, seeing how swiftly it had come, even +in winter. Mary and I sat in silence, the house quaking overhead, the +tempest howling without, the fire between us sputtering with raindrops. +Our thoughts were far away with the poor fellows on the schooner, or my +not less unhappy uncle, houseless on the promontory; and yet ever and +again we were startled back to ourselves, when the wind would rise and +strike the gable like a solid body, or suddenly fall and draw away, so +that the fire leaped into flame and our hearts bounded in our sides. Now +the storm in its might would seize and shake the four corners of the +roof, roaring like Leviathan in anger. Anon, in a lull, cold eddies of +tempest moved shudderingly in the room, lifting the hair upon our heads +and passing between us as we sat. And again the wind would break forth +in a chorus of melancholy sounds, hooting low in the chimney, wailing +with flutelike softness round the house. + +It was perhaps eight o'clock when Rorie came in and pulled me +mysteriously to the door. My uncle, it appeared, had frightened even his +constant comrade; and Rorie, uneasy at his extravagance, prayed me to +come out and share the watch. I hastened to do as I was asked; the more +readily as, what with fear and horror, and the electrical tension of the +night, I was myself restless and disposed for action. I told Mary to be +under no alarm, for I should be a safeguard on her father; and wrapping +myself warmly in a plaid, I followed Rorie into the open air. + +The night, though we were so little past midsummer, was as dark as +January. Intervals of a groping twilight alternated with spells of utter +blackness; and it was impossible to trace the reason of these changes in +the flying horror of the sky. The wind blew the breath out of a man's +nostrils; all heaven seemed to thunder overhead like one huge sail; and +when there fell a momentary lull on Aros, we could hear the gusts +dismally sweeping in the distance. Over all the lowlands of the Ross, +the wind must have blown as fierce as on the open sea; and God only knows +the uproar that was raging around the head of Ben Kyaw. Sheets of +mingled spray and rain were driven in our faces. All round the isle of +Aros the surf, with an incessant, hammering thunder, beat upon the reefs +and beaches. Now louder in one place, now lower in another, like the +combinations of orchestral music, the constant mass of sound was hardly +varied for a moment. And loud above all this hurly-burly I could hear +the changeful voices of the Roost and the intermittent roaring of the +Merry Men. At that hour, there flashed into my mind the reason of the +name that they were called. For the noise of them seemed almost +mirthful, as it out-topped the other noises of the night; or if not +mirthful, yet instinct with a portentous joviality. Nay, and it seemed +even human. As when savage men have drunk away their reason, and, +discarding speech, bawl together in their madness by the hour; so, to my +ears, these deadly breakers shouted by Aros in the night. + +Arm in arm, and staggering against the wind, Rorie and I won every yard +of ground with conscious effort. We slipped on the wet sod, we fell +together sprawling on the rocks. Bruised, drenched, beaten, and +breathless, it must have taken us near half an hour to get from the house +down to the Head that overlooks the Roost. There, it seemed, was my +uncle's favourite observatory. Right in the face of it, where the cliff +is highest and most sheer, a hump of earth, like a parapet, makes a place +of shelter from the common winds, where a man may sit in quiet and see +the tide and the mad billows contending at his feet. As he might look +down from the window of a house upon some street disturbance, so, from +this post, he looks down upon the tumbling of the Merry Men. On such a +night, of course, he peers upon a world of blackness, where the waters +wheel and boil, where the waves joust together with the noise of an +explosion, and the foam towers and vanishes in the twinkling of an eye. +Never before had I seen the Merry Men thus violent. The fury, height, +and transiency of their spoutings was a thing to be seen and not +recounted. High over our heads on the cliff rose their white columns in +the darkness; and the same instant, like phantoms, they were gone. +Sometimes three at a time would thus aspire and vanish; sometimes a gust +took them, and the spray would fall about us, heavy as a wave. And yet +the spectacle was rather maddening in its levity than impressive by its +force. Thought was beaten down by the confounding uproar--a gleeful +vacancy possessed the brains of men, a state akin to madness; and I found +myself at times following the dance of the Merry Men as it were a tune +upon a jigging instrument. + +I first caught sight of my uncle when we were still some yards away in +one of the flying glimpses of twilight that chequered the pitch darkness +of the night. He was standing up behind the parapet, his head thrown +back and the bottle to his mouth. As he put it down, he saw and +recognised us with a toss of one hand fleeringly above his head. + +'Has he been drinking?' shouted I to Rorie. + +'He will aye be drunk when the wind blaws,' returned Rorie in the same +high key, and it was all that I could do to hear him. + +'Then--was he so--in February?' I inquired. + +Rorie's 'Ay' was a cause of joy to me. The murder, then, had not sprung +in cold blood from calculation; it was an act of madness no more to be +condemned than to be pardoned. My uncle was a dangerous madman, if you +will, but he was not cruel and base as I had feared. Yet what a scene +for a carouse, what an incredible vice, was this that the poor man had +chosen! I have always thought drunkenness a wild and almost fearful +pleasure, rather demoniacal than human; but drunkenness, out here in the +roaring blackness, on the edge of a cliff above that hell of waters, the +man's head spinning like the Roost, his foot tottering on the edge of +death, his ear watching for the signs of ship-wreck, surely that, if it +were credible in any one, was morally impossible in a man like my uncle, +whose mind was set upon a damnatory creed and haunted by the darkest +superstitions. Yet so it was; and, as we reached the bight of shelter +and could breathe again, I saw the man's eyes shining in the night with +an unholy glimmer. + +'Eh, Charlie, man, it's grand!' he cried. 'See to them!' he continued, +dragging me to the edge of the abyss from whence arose that deafening +clamour and those clouds of spray; 'see to them dancin', man! Is that no +wicked?' + +He pronounced the word with gusto, and I thought it suited with the +scene. + +'They're yowlin' for thon schooner,' he went on, his thin, insane voice +clearly audible in the shelter of the bank, 'an' she's comin' aye nearer, +aye nearer, aye nearer an' nearer an' nearer; an' they ken't, the folk +kens it, they ken wool it's by wi' them. Charlie, lad, they're a' drunk +in yon schooner, a' dozened wi' drink. They were a' drunk in the _Christ- +Anna_, at the hinder end. There's nane could droon at sea wantin' the +brandy. Hoot awa, what do you ken?' with a sudden blast of anger. 'I +tell ye, it cannae be; they droon withoot it. Ha'e,' holding out the +bottle, 'tak' a sowp.' + +I was about to refuse, but Rorie touched me as if in warning; and indeed +I had already thought better of the movement. I took the bottle, +therefore, and not only drank freely myself, but contrived to spill even +more as I was doing so. It was pure spirit, and almost strangled me to +swallow. My kinsman did not observe the loss, but, once more throwing +back his head, drained the remainder to the dregs. Then, with a loud +laugh, he cast the bottle forth among the Merry Men, who seemed to leap +up, shouting to receive it. + +'Ha'e, bairns!' he cried, 'there's your han'sel. Ye'll get bonnier nor +that, or morning.' + +Suddenly, out in the black night before us, and not two hundred yards +away, we heard, at a moment when the wind was silent, the clear note of a +human voice. Instantly the wind swept howling down upon the Head, and +the Roost bellowed, and churned, and danced with a new fury. But we had +heard the sound, and we knew, with agony, that this was the doomed ship +now close on ruin, and that what we had heard was the voice of her master +issuing his last command. Crouching together on the edge, we waited, +straining every sense, for the inevitable end. It was long, however, and +to us it seemed like ages, ere the schooner suddenly appeared for one +brief instant, relieved against a tower of glimmering foam. I still see +her reefed mainsail flapping loose, as the boom fell heavily across the +deck; I still see the black outline of the hull, and still think I can +distinguish the figure of a man stretched upon the tiller. Yet the whole +sight we had of her passed swifter than lightning; the very wave that +disclosed her fell burying her for ever; the mingled cry of many voices +at the point of death rose and was quenched in the roaring of the Merry +Men. And with that the tragedy was at an end. The strong ship, with all +her gear, and the lamp perhaps still burning in the cabin, the lives of +so many men, precious surely to others, dear, at least, as heaven to +themselves, had all, in that one moment, gone down into the surging +waters. They were gone like a dream. And the wind still ran and +shouted, and the senseless waters in the Roost still leaped and tumbled +as before. + +How long we lay there together, we three, speechless and motionless, is +more than I can tell, but it must have been for long. At length, one by +one, and almost mechanically, we crawled back into the shelter of the +bank. As I lay against the parapet, wholly wretched and not entirely +master of my mind, I could hear my kinsman maundering to himself in an +altered and melancholy mood. Now he would repeat to himself with maudlin +iteration, 'Sic a fecht as they had--sic a sair fecht as they had, puir +lads, puir lads!' and anon he would bewail that 'a' the gear was as +gude's tint,' because the ship had gone down among the Merry Men instead +of stranding on the shore; and throughout, the name--the +_Christ-Anna_--would come and go in his divagations, pronounced with +shuddering awe. The storm all this time was rapidly abating. In half an +hour the wind had fallen to a breeze, and the change was accompanied or +caused by a heavy, cold, and plumping rain. I must then have fallen +asleep, and when I came to myself, drenched, stiff, and unrefreshed, day +had already broken, grey, wet, discomfortable day; the wind blew in faint +and shifting capfuls, the tide was out, the Roost was at its lowest, and +only the strong beating surf round all the coasts of Aros remained to +witness of the furies of the night. + + + +CHAPTER V. A MAN OUT OF THE SEA. + + +Rorie set out for the house in search of warmth and breakfast; but my +uncle was bent upon examining the shores of Aros, and I felt it a part of +duty to accompany him throughout. He was now docile and quiet, but +tremulous and weak in mind and body; and it was with the eagerness of a +child that he pursued his exploration. He climbed far down upon the +rocks; on the beaches, he pursued the retreating breakers. The merest +broken plank or rag of cordage was a treasure in his eyes to be secured +at the peril of his life. To see him, with weak and stumbling footsteps, +expose himself to the pursuit of the surf, or the snares and pitfalls of +the weedy rock, kept me in a perpetual terror. My arm was ready to +support him, my hand clutched him by the skirt, I helped him to draw his +pitiful discoveries beyond the reach of the returning wave; a nurse +accompanying a child of seven would have had no different experience. + +Yet, weakened as he was by the reaction from his madness of the night +before, the passions that smouldered in his nature were those of a strong +man. His terror of the sea, although conquered for the moment, was still +undiminished; had the sea been a lake of living flames, he could not have +shrunk more panically from its touch; and once, when his foot slipped and +he plunged to the midleg into a pool of water, the shriek that came up +out of his soul was like the cry of death. He sat still for a while, +panting like a dog, after that; but his desire for the spoils of +shipwreck triumphed once more over his fears; once more he tottered among +the curded foam; once more he crawled upon the rocks among the bursting +bubbles; once more his whole heart seemed to be set on driftwood, fit, if +it was fit for anything, to throw upon the fire. Pleased as he was with +what he found, he still incessantly grumbled at his ill-fortune. + +'Aros,' he said, 'is no a place for wrecks ava'--no ava'. A' the years +I've dwalt here, this ane maks the second; and the best o' the gear clean +tint!' + +'Uncle,' said I, for we were now on a stretch of open sand, where there +was nothing to divert his mind, 'I saw you last night, as I never thought +to see you--you were drunk.' + +'Na, na,' he said, 'no as bad as that. I had been drinking, though. And +to tell ye the God's truth, it's a thing I cannae mend. There's nae +soberer man than me in my ordnar; but when I hear the wind blaw in my +lug, it's my belief that I gang gyte.' + +'You are a religious man,' I replied, 'and this is sin'. + +'Ou,' he returned, 'if it wasnae sin, I dinnae ken that I would care +for't. Ye see, man, it's defiance. There's a sair spang o' the auld sin +o' the warld in you sea; it's an unchristian business at the best o't; +an' whiles when it gets up, an' the wind skreights--the wind an' her are +a kind of sib, I'm thinkin'--an' thae Merry Men, the daft callants, +blawin' and lauchin', and puir souls in the deid thraws warstlin' the +leelang nicht wi' their bit ships--weel, it comes ower me like a glamour. +I'm a deil, I ken't. But I think naething o' the puir sailor lads; I'm +wi' the sea, I'm just like ane o' her ain Merry Men.' + +I thought I should touch him in a joint of his harness. I turned me +towards the sea; the surf was running gaily, wave after wave, with their +manes blowing behind them, riding one after another up the beach, +towering, curving, falling one upon another on the trampled sand. +Without, the salt air, the scared gulls, the widespread army of the sea- +chargers, neighing to each other, as they gathered together to the +assault of Aros; and close before us, that line on the flat sands that, +with all their number and their fury, they might never pass. + +'Thus far shalt thou go,' said I, 'and no farther.' And then I quoted as +solemnly as I was able a verse that I had often before fitted to the +chorus of the breakers:-- + + But yet the Lord that is on high, + Is more of might by far, + Than noise of many waters is, + As great sea billows are. + +'Ay,' said my kinsinan, 'at the hinder end, the Lord will triumph; I +dinnae misdoobt that. But here on earth, even silly men-folk daur Him to +His face. It is nae wise; I am nae sayin' that it's wise; but it's the +pride of the eye, and it's the lust o' life, an' it's the wale o' +pleesures.' + +I said no more, for we had now begun to cross a neck of land that lay +between us and Sandag; and I withheld my last appeal to the man's better +reason till we should stand upon the spot associated with his crime. Nor +did he pursue the subject; but he walked beside me with a firmer step. +The call that I had made upon his mind acted like a stimulant, and I +could see that he had forgotten his search for worthless jetsam, in a +profound, gloomy, and yet stirring train of thought. In three or four +minutes we had topped the brae and begun to go down upon Sandag. The +wreck had been roughly handled by the sea; the stem had been spun round +and dragged a little lower down; and perhaps the stern had been forced a +little higher, for the two parts now lay entirely separate on the beach. +When we came to the grave I stopped, uncovered my head in the thick rain, +and, looking my kinsman in the face, addressed him. + +'A man,' said I, 'was in God's providence suffered to escape from mortal +dangers; he was poor, he was naked, he was wet, he was weary, he was a +stranger; he had every claim upon the bowels of your compassion; it may +be that he was the salt of the earth, holy, helpful, and kind; it may be +he was a man laden with iniquities to whom death was the beginning of +torment. I ask you in the sight of heaven: Gordon Darnaway, where is the +man for whom Christ died?' + +He started visibly at the last words; but there came no answer, and his +face expressed no feeling but a vague alarm. + +'You were my father's brother,' I continued; 'You, have taught me to +count your house as if it were my father's house; and we are both sinful +men walking before the Lord among the sins and dangers of this life. It +is by our evil that God leads us into good; we sin, I dare not say by His +temptation, but I must say with His consent; and to any but the brutish +man his sins are the beginning of wisdom. God has warned you by this +crime; He warns you still by the bloody grave between our feet; and if +there shall follow no repentance, no improvement, no return to Him, what +can we look for but the following of some memorable judgment?' + +Even as I spoke the words, the eyes of my uncle wandered from my face. A +change fell upon his looks that cannot be described; his features seemed +to dwindle in size, the colour faded from his cheeks, one hand rose +waveringly and pointed over my shoulder into the distance, and the oft- +repeated name fell once more from his lips: 'The _Christ-Anna_!' + +I turned; and if I was not appalled to the same degree, as I return +thanks to Heaven that I had not the cause, I was still startled by the +sight that met my eyes. The form of a man stood upright on the cabin- +hutch of the wrecked ship; his back was towards us; he appeared to be +scanning the offing with shaded eyes, and his figure was relieved to its +full height, which was plainly very great, against the sea and sky. I +have said a thousand times that I am not superstitious; but at that +moment, with my mind running upon death and sin, the unexplained +appearance of a stranger on that sea-girt, solitary island filled me with +a surprise that bordered close on terror. It seemed scarce possible that +any human soul should have come ashore alive in such a sea as had rated +last night along the coasts of Aros; and the only vessel within miles had +gone down before our eyes among the Merry Men. I was assailed with +doubts that made suspense unbearable, and, to put the matter to the touch +at once, stepped forward and hailed the figure like a ship. + +He turned about, and I thought he started to behold us. At this my +courage instantly revived, and I called and signed to him to draw near, +and he, on his part, dropped immediately to the sands, and began slowly +to approach, with many stops and hesitations. At each repeated mark of +the man's uneasiness I grew the more confident myself; and I advanced +another step, encouraging him as I did so with my head and hand. It was +plain the castaway had heard indifferent accounts of our island +hospitality; and indeed, about this time, the people farther north had a +sorry reputation. + +'Why,' I said, 'the man is black!' + +And just at that moment, in a voice that I could scarce have recognised, +my kinsman began swearing and praying in a mingled stream. I looked at +him; he had fallen on his knees, his face was agonised; at each step of +the castaway's the pitch of his voice rose, the volubility of his +utterance and the fervour of his language redoubled. I call it prayer, +for it was addressed to God; but surely no such ranting incongruities +were ever before addressed to the Creator by a creature: surely if prayer +can be a sin, this mad harangue was sinful. I ran to my kinsman, I +seized him by the shoulders, I dragged him to his feet. + +'Silence, man,' said I, 'respect your God in words, if not in action. +Here, on the very scene of your transgressions, He sends you an occasion +of atonement. Forward and embrace it; welcome like a father yon creature +who comes trembling to your mercy.' + +With that, I tried to force him towards the black; but he felled me to +the ground, burst from my grasp, leaving the shoulder of his jacket, and +fled up the hillside towards the top of Aros like a deer. I staggered to +my feet again, bruised and somewhat stunned; the negro had paused in +surprise, perhaps in terror, some halfway between me and the wreck; my +uncle was already far away, bounding from rock to rock; and I thus found +myself torn for a time between two duties. But I judged, and I pray +Heaven that I judged rightly, in favour of the poor wretch upon the +sands; his misfortune was at least not plainly of his own creation; it +was one, besides, that I could certainly relieve; and I had begun by that +time to regard my uncle as an incurable and dismal lunatic. I advanced +accordingly towards the black, who now awaited my approach with folded +arms, like one prepared for either destiny. As I came nearer, he reached +forth his hand with a great gesture, such as I had seen from the pulpit, +and spoke to me in something of a pulpit voice, but not a word was +comprehensible. I tried him first in English, then in Gaelic, both in +vain; so that it was clear we must rely upon the tongue of looks and +gestures. Thereupon I signed to him to follow me, which he did readily +and with a grave obeisance like a fallen king; all the while there had +come no shade of alteration in his face, neither of anxiety while he was +still waiting, nor of relief now that he was reassured; if he were a +slave, as I supposed, I could not but judge he must have fallen from some +high place in his own country, and fallen as he was, I could not but +admire his bearing. As we passed the grave, I paused and raised my hands +and eyes to heaven in token of respect and sorrow for the dead; and he, +as if in answer, bowed low and spread his hands abroad; it was a strange +motion, but done like a thing of common custom; and I supposed it was +ceremonial in the land from which he came. At the same time he pointed +to my uncle, whom we could just see perched upon a knoll, and touched his +head to indicate that he was mad. + +We took the long way round the shore, for I feared to excite my uncle if +we struck across the island; and as we walked, I had time enough to +mature the little dramatic exhibition by which I hoped to satisfy my +doubts. Accordingly, pausing on a rock, I proceeded to imitate before +the negro the action of the man whom I had seen the day before taking +bearings with the compass at Sandag. He understood me at once, and, +taking the imitation out of my hands, showed me where the boat was, +pointed out seaward as if to indicate the position of the schooner, and +then down along the edge of the rock with the words 'Espirito Santo,' +strangely pronounced, but clear enough for recognition. I had thus been +right in my conjecture; the pretended historical inquiry had been but a +cloak for treasure-hunting; the man who had played on Dr. Robertson was +the same as the foreigner who visited Grisapol in spring, and now, with +many others, lay dead under the Roost of Aros: there had their greed +brought them, there should their bones be tossed for evermore. In the +meantime the black continued his imitation of the scene, now looking up +skyward as though watching the approach of the storm now, in the +character of a seaman, waving the rest to come aboard; now as an officer, +running along the rock and entering the boat; and anon bending over +imaginary oars with the air of a hurried boatman; but all with the same +solemnity of manner, so that I was never even moved to smile. Lastly, he +indicated to me, by a pantomime not to be described in words, how he +himself had gone up to examine the stranded wreck, and, to his grief and +indignation, had been deserted by his comrades; and thereupon folded his +arms once more, and stooped his head, like one accepting fate. + +The mystery of his presence being thus solved for me, I explained to him +by means of a sketch the fate of the vessel and of all aboard her. He +showed no surprise nor sorrow, and, with a sudden lifting of his open +hand, seemed to dismiss his former friends or masters (whichever they had +been) into God's pleasure. Respect came upon me and grew stronger, the +more I observed him; I saw he had a powerful mind and a sober and severe +character, such as I loved to commune with; and before we reached the +house of Aros I had almost forgotten, and wholly forgiven him, his +uncanny colour. + +To Mary I told all that had passed without suppression, though I own my +heart failed me; but I did wrong to doubt her sense of justice. + +'You did the right,' she said. 'God's will be done.' And she set out +meat for us at once. + +As soon as I was satisfied, I bade Rorie keep an eye upon the castaway, +who was still eating, and set forth again myself to find my uncle. I had +not gone far before I saw him sitting in the same place, upon the very +topmost knoll, and seemingly in the same attitude as when I had last +observed him. From that point, as I have said, the most of Aros and the +neighbouring Ross would be spread below him like a map; and it was plain +that he kept a bright look-out in all directions, for my head had +scarcely risen above the summit of the first ascent before he had leaped +to his feet and turned as if to face me. I hailed him at once, as well +as I was able, in the same tones and words as I had often used before, +when I had come to summon him to dinner. He made not so much as a +movement in reply. I passed on a little farther, and again tried parley, +with the same result. But when I began a second time to advance, his +insane fears blazed up again, and still in dead silence, but with +incredible speed, he began to flee from before me along the rocky summit +of the hill. An hour before, he had been dead weary, and I had been +comparatively active. But now his strength was recruited by the fervour +of insanity, and it would have been vain for me to dream of pursuit. Nay, +the very attempt, I thought, might have inflamed his terrors, and thus +increased the miseries of our position. And I had nothing left but to +turn homeward and make my sad report to Mary. + +She heard it, as she had heard the first, with a concerned composure, +and, bidding me lie down and take that rest of which I stood so much in +need, set forth herself in quest of her misguided father. At that age it +would have been a strange thing that put me from either meat or sleep; I +slept long and deep; and it was already long past noon before I awoke and +came downstairs into the kitchen. Mary, Rorie, and the black castaway +were seated about the fire in silence; and I could see that Mary had been +weeping. There was cause enough, as I soon learned, for tears. First +she, and then Rorie, had been forth to seek my uncle; each in turn had +found him perched upon the hill-top, and from each in turn he had +silently and swiftly fled. Rorie had tried to chase him, but in vain; +madness lent a new vigour to his bounds; he sprang from rock to rock over +the widest gullies; he scoured like the wind along the hill-tops; he +doubled and twisted like a hare before the dogs; and Rorie at length gave +in; and the last that he saw, my uncle was seated as before upon the +crest of Aros. Even during the hottest excitement of the chase, even +when the fleet-footed servant had come, for a moment, very near to +capture him, the poor lunatic had uttered not a sound. He fled, and he +was silent, like a beast; and this silence had terrified his pursuer. + +There was something heart-breaking in the situation. How to capture the +madman, how to feed him in the meanwhile, and what to do with him when he +was captured, were the three difficulties that we had to solve. + +'The black,' said I, 'is the cause of this attack. It may even be his +presence in the house that keeps my uncle on the hill. We have done the +fair thing; he has been fed and warmed under this roof; now I propose +that Rorie put him across the bay in the coble, and take him through the +Ross as far as Grisapol.' + +In this proposal Mary heartily concurred; and bidding the black follow +us, we all three descended to the pier. Certainly, Heaven's will was +declared against Gordon Darnaway; a thing had happened, never paralleled +before in Aros; during the storm, the coble had broken loose, and, +striking on the rough splinters of the pier, now lay in four feet of +water with one side stove in. Three days of work at least would be +required to make her float. But I was not to be beaten. I led the whole +party round to where the gut was narrowest, swam to the other side, and +called to the black to follow me. He signed, with the same clearness and +quiet as before, that he knew not the art; and there was truth apparent +in his signals, it would have occurred to none of us to doubt his truth; +and that hope being over, we must all go back even as we came to the +house of Aros, the negro walking in our midst without embarrassment. + +All we could do that day was to make one more attempt to communicate with +the unhappy madman. Again he was visible on his perch; again he fled in +silence. But food and a great cloak were at least left for his comfort; +the rain, besides, had cleared away, and the night promised to be even +warm. We might compose ourselves, we thought, until the morrow; rest was +the chief requisite, that we might be strengthened for unusual exertions; +and as none cared to talk, we separated at an early hour. + +I lay long awake, planning a campaign for the morrow. I was to place the +black on the side of Sandag, whence he should head my uncle towards the +house; Rorie in the west, I on the east, were to complete the cordon, as +best we might. It seemed to me, the more I recalled the configuration of +the island, that it should be possible, though hard, to force him down +upon the low ground along Aros Bay; and once there, even with the +strength of his madness, ultimate escape was hardly to be feared. It was +on his terror of the black that I relied; for I made sure, however he +might run, it would not be in the direction of the man whom he supposed +to have returned from the dead, and thus one point of the compass at +least would be secure. + +When at length I fell asleep, it was to be awakened shortly after by a +dream of wrecks, black men, and submarine adventure; and I found myself +so shaken and fevered that I arose, descended the stair, and stepped out +before the house. Within, Rorie and the black were asleep together in +the kitchen; outside was a wonderful clear night of stars, with here and +there a cloud still hanging, last stragglers of the tempest. It was near +the top of the flood, and the Merry Men were roaring in the windless +quiet of the night. Never, not even in the height of the tempest, had I +heard their song with greater awe. Now, when the winds were gathered +home, when the deep was dandling itself back into its summer slumber, and +when the stars rained their gentle light over land and sea, the voice of +these tide-breakers was still raised for havoc. They seemed, indeed, to +be a part of the world's evil and the tragic side of life. Nor were +their meaningless vociferations the only sounds that broke the silence of +the night. For I could hear, now shrill and thrilling and now almost +drowned, the note of a human voice that accompanied the uproar of the +Roost. I knew it for my kinsman's; and a great fear fell upon me of +God's judgments, and the evil in the world. I went back again into the +darkness of the house as into a place of shelter, and lay long upon my +bed, pondering these mysteries. + +It was late when I again woke, and I leaped into my clothes and hurried +to the kitchen. No one was there; Rorie and the black had both +stealthily departed long before; and my heart stood still at the +discovery. I could rely on Rorie's heart, but I placed no trust in his +discretion. If he had thus set out without a word, he was plainly bent +upon some service to my uncle. But what service could he hope to render +even alone, far less in the company of the man in whom my uncle found his +fears incarnated? Even if I were not already too late to prevent some +deadly mischief, it was plain I must delay no longer. With the thought I +was out of the house; and often as I have run on the rough sides of Aros, +I never ran as I did that fatal morning. I do not believe I put twelve +minutes to the whole ascent. + +My uncle was gone from his perch. The basket had indeed been torn open +and the meat scattered on the turf; but, as we found afterwards, no +mouthful had been tasted; and there was not another trace of human +existence in that wide field of view. Day had already filled the clear +heavens; the sun already lighted in a rosy bloom upon the crest of Ben +Kyaw; but all below me the rude knolls of Aros and the shield of sea lay +steeped in the clear darkling twilight of the dawn. + +'Rorie!' I cried; and again 'Rorie!' My voice died in the silence, but +there came no answer back. If there were indeed an enterprise afoot to +catch my uncle, it was plainly not in fleetness of foot, but in dexterity +of stalking, that the hunters placed their trust. I ran on farther, +keeping the higher spurs, and looking right and left, nor did I pause +again till I was on the mount above Sandag. I could see the wreck, the +uncovered belt of sand, the waves idly beating, the long ledge of rocks, +and on either hand the tumbled knolls, boulders, and gullies of the +island. But still no human thing. + +At a stride the sunshine fell on Aros, and the shadows and colours leaped +into being. Not half a moment later, below me to the west, sheep began +to scatter as in a panic. There came a cry. I saw my uncle running. I +saw the black jump up in hot pursuit; and before I had time to +understand, Rorie also had appeared, calling directions in Gaelic as to a +dog herding sheep. + +I took to my heels to interfere, and perhaps I had done better to have +waited where I was, for I was the means of cutting off the madman's last +escape. There was nothing before him from that moment but the grave, the +wreck, and the sea in Sandag Bay. And yet Heaven knows that what I did +was for the best. + +My uncle Gordon saw in what direction, horrible to him, the chase was +driving him. He doubled, darting to the right and left; but high as the +fever ran in his veins, the black was still the swifter. Turn where he +would, he was still forestalled, still driven toward the scene of his +crime. Suddenly he began to shriek aloud, so that the coast re-echoed; +and now both I and Rorie were calling on the black to stop. But all was +vain, for it was written otherwise. The pursuer still ran, the chase +still sped before him screaming; they avoided the grave, and skimmed +close past the timbers of the wreck; in a breath they had cleared the +sand; and still my kinsman did not pause, but dashed straight into the +surf; and the black, now almost within reach, still followed swiftly +behind him. Rorie and I both stopped, for the thing was now beyond the +hands of men, and these were the decrees of God that came to pass before +our eyes. There was never a sharper ending. On that steep beach they +were beyond their depth at a bound; neither could swim; the black rose +once for a moment with a throttling cry; but the current had them, racing +seaward; and if ever they came up again, which God alone can tell, it +would be ten minutes after, at the far end of Aros Roost, where the +seabirds hover fishing. + + + + +WILL O' THE MILL. + + +CHAPTER I. THE PLAIN AND THE STARS. + + +The Mill here Will lived with his adopted parents stood in a falling +valley between pinewoods and great mountains. Above, hill after hill, +soared upwards until they soared out of the depth of the hardiest timber, +and stood naked against the sky. Some way up, a long grey village lay +like a seam or a ray of vapour on a wooded hillside; and when the wind +was favourable, the sound of the church bells would drop down, thin and +silvery, to Will. Below, the valley grew ever steeper and steeper, and +at the same time widened out on either hand; and from an eminence beside +the mill it was possible to see its whole length and away beyond it over +a wide plain, where the river turned and shone, and moved on from city to +city on its voyage towards the sea. It chanced that over this valley +there lay a pass into a neighbouring kingdom; so that, quiet and rural as +it was, the road that ran along beside the river was a high thoroughfare +between two splendid and powerful societies. All through the summer, +travelling-carriages came crawling up, or went plunging briskly downwards +past the mill; and as it happened that the other side was very much +easier of ascent, the path was not much frequented, except by people +going in one direction; and of all the carriages that Will saw go by, +five-sixths were plunging briskly downwards and only one-sixth crawling +up. Much more was this the case with foot-passengers. All the light- +footed tourists, all the pedlars laden with strange wares, were tending +downward like the river that accompanied their path. Nor was this all; +for when Will was yet a child a disastrous war arose over a great part of +the world. The newspapers were full of defeats and victories, the earth +rang with cavalry hoofs, and often for days together and for miles around +the coil of battle terrified good people from their labours in the field. +Of all this, nothing was heard for a long time in the valley; but at last +one of the commanders pushed an army over the pass by forced marches, and +for three days horse and foot, cannon and tumbril, drum and standard, +kept pouring downward past the mill. All day the child stood and watched +them on their passage--the rhythmical stride, the pale, unshaven faces +tanned about the eyes, the discoloured regimentals and the tattered +flags, filled him with a sense of weariness, pity, and wonder; and all +night long, after he was in bed, he could hear the cannon pounding and +the feet trampling, and the great armament sweeping onward and downward +past the mill. No one in the valley ever heard the fate of the +expedition, for they lay out of the way of gossip in those troublous +times; but Will saw one thing plainly, that not a man returned. Whither +had they all gone? Whither went all the tourists and pedlars with +strange wares? whither all the brisk barouches with servants in the +dicky? whither the water of the stream, ever coursing downward and ever +renewed from above? Even the wind blew oftener down the valley, and +carried the dead leaves along with it in the fall. It seemed like a +great conspiracy of things animate and inanimate; they all went downward, +fleetly and gaily downward, and only he, it seemed, remained behind, like +a stock upon the wayside. It sometimes made him glad when he noticed how +the fishes kept their heads up stream. They, at least, stood faithfully +by him, while all else were posting downward to the unknown world. + +One evening he asked the miller where the river went. + +'It goes down the valley,' answered he, 'and turns a power of mills--six +score mills, they say, from here to Unterdeck--and is none the wearier +after all. And then it goes out into the lowlands, and waters the great +corn country, and runs through a sight of fine cities (so they say) where +kings live all alone in great palaces, with a sentry walling up and down +before the door. And it goes under bridges with stone men upon them, +looking down and smiling so curious it the water, and living folks +leaning their elbows on the wall and looking over too. And then it goes +on and on, and down through marshes and sands, until at last it falls +into the sea, where the ships are that bring parrots and tobacco from the +Indies. Ay, it has a long trot before it as it goes singing over our +weir, bless its heart!' + +'And what is the sea?' asked Will. + +'The sea!' cried the miller. 'Lord help us all, it is the greatest thing +God made! That is where all the water in the world runs down into a +great salt lake. There it lies, as flat as my hand and as innocent-like +as a child; but they do say when the wind blows it gets up into water- +mountains bigger than any of ours, and swallows down great ships bigger +than our mill, and makes such a roaring that you can hear it miles away +upon the land. There are great fish in it five times bigger than a bull, +and one old serpent as long as our river and as old as all the world, +with whiskers like a man, and a crown of silver on her head.' + +Will thought he had never heard anything like this, and he kept on asking +question after question about the world that lay away down the river, +with all its perils and marvels, until the old miller became quite +interested himself, and at last took him by the hand and led him to the +hilltop that overlooks the valley and the plain. The sun was near +setting, and hung low down in a cloudless sky. Everything was defined +and glorified in golden light. Will had never seen so great an expanse +of country in his life; he stood and gazed with all his eyes. He could +see the cities, and the woods and fields, and the bright curves of the +river, and far away to where the rim of the plain trenched along the +shining heavens. An over-mastering emotion seized upon the boy, soul and +body; his heart beat so thickly that he could not breathe; the scene swam +before his eyes; the sun seemed to wheel round and round, and throw off, +as it turned, strange shapes which disappeared with the rapidity of +thought, and were succeeded by others. Will covered his face with his +hands, and burst into a violent fit of tears; and the poor miller, sadly +disappointed and perplexed, saw nothing better for it than to take him up +in his arms and carry him home in silence. + +From that day forward Will was full of new hopes and longings. Something +kept tugging at his heart-strings; the running water carried his desires +along with it as he dreamed over its fleeting surface; the wind, as it +ran over innumerable tree-tops, hailed him with encouraging words; +branches beckoned downward; the open road, as it shouldered round the +angles and went turning and vanishing fast and faster down the valley, +tortured him with its solicitations. He spent long whiles on the +eminence, looking down the rivershed and abroad on the fat lowlands, and +watched the clouds that travelled forth upon the sluggish wind and +trailed their purple shadows on the plain; or he would linger by the +wayside, and follow the carriages with his eyes as they rattled downward +by the river. It did not matter what it was; everything that went that +way, were it cloud or carriage, bird or brown water in the stream, he +felt his heart flow out after it in an ecstasy of longing. + +We are told by men of science that all the ventures of mariners on the +sea, all that counter-marching of tribes and races that confounds old +history with its dust and rumour, sprang from nothing more abstruse than +the laws of supply and demand, and a certain natural instinct for cheap +rations. To any one thinking deeply, this will seem a dull and pitiful +explanation. The tribes that came swarming out of the North and East, if +they were indeed pressed onward from behind by others, were drawn at the +same time by the magnetic influence of the South and West. The fame of +other lands had reached them; the name of the eternal city rang in their +ears; they were not colonists, but pilgrims; they travelled towards wine +and gold and sunshine, but their hearts were set on something higher. +That divine unrest, that old stinging trouble of humanity that makes all +high achievements and all miserable failure, the same that spread wings +with Icarus, the same that sent Columbus into the desolate Atlantic, +inspired and supported these barbarians on their perilous march. There +is one legend which profoundly represents their spirit, of how a flying +party of these wanderers encountered a very old man shod with iron. The +old man asked them whither they were going; and they answered with one +voice: 'To the Eternal City!' He looked upon them gravely. 'I have +sought it,' he said, 'over the most part of the world. Three such pairs +as I now carry on my feet have I worn out upon this pilgrimage, and now +the fourth is growing slender underneath my steps. And all this while I +have not found the city.' And he turned and went his own way alone, +leaving them astonished. + +And yet this would scarcely parallel the intensity of Will's feeling for +the plain. If he could only go far enough out there, he felt as if his +eyesight would be purged and clarified, as if his hearing would grow more +delicate, and his very breath would come and go with luxury. He was +transplanted and withering where he was; he lay in a strange country and +was sick for home. Bit by bit, he pieced together broken notions of the +world below: of the river, ever moving and growing until it sailed forth +into the majestic ocean; of the cities, full of brisk and beautiful +people, playing fountains, bands of music and marble palaces, and lighted +up at night from end to end with artificial stars of gold; of the great +churches, wise universities, brave armies, and untold money lying stored +in vaults; of the high-flying vice that moved in the sunshine, and the +stealth and swiftness of midnight murder. I have said he was sick as if +for home: the figure halts. He was like some one lying in twilit, +formless preexistence, and stretching out his hands lovingly towards many- +coloured, many-sounding life. It was no wonder he was unhappy, he would +go and tell the fish: they were made for their life, wished for no more +than worms and running water, and a hole below a falling bank; but he was +differently designed, full of desires and aspirations, itching at the +fingers, lusting with the eyes, whom the whole variegated world could not +satisfy with aspects. The true life, the true bright sunshine, lay far +out upon the plain. And O! to see this sunlight once before he died! to +move with a jocund spirit in a golden land! to hear the trained singers +and sweet church bells, and see the holiday gardens! 'And O fish!' he +would cry, 'if you would only turn your noses down stream, you could swim +so easily into the fabled waters and see the vast ships passing over your +head like clouds, and hear the great water-hills making music over you +all day long!' But the fish kept looking patiently in their own +direction, until Will hardly knew whether to laugh or cry. + +Hitherto the traffic on the road had passed by Will, like something seen +in a picture: he had perhaps exchanged salutations with a tourist, or +caught sight of an old gentleman in a travelling cap at a carriage +window; but for the most part it had been a mere symbol, which he +contemplated from apart and with something of a superstitious feeling. A +time came at last when this was to be changed. The miller, who was a +greedy man in his way, and never forewent an opportunity of honest +profit, turned the mill-house into a little wayside inn, and, several +pieces of good fortune falling in opportunely, built stables and got the +position of post master on the road. It now became Will's duty to wait +upon people, as they sat to break their fasts in the little arbour at the +top of the mill garden; and you may be sure that he kept his ears open, +and learned many new things about the outside world as he brought the +omelette or the wine. Nay, he would often get into conversation with +single guests, and by adroit questions and polite attention, not only +gratify his own curiosity, but win the goodwill of the travellers. Many +complimented the old couple on their serving-boy; and a professor was +eager to take him away with him, and have him properly educated in the +plain. The miller and his wife were mightily astonished and even more +pleased. They thought it a very good thing that they should have opened +their inn. 'You see,' the old man would remark, 'he has a kind of talent +for a publican; he never would have made anything else!' And so life +wagged on in the valley, with high satisfaction to all concerned but +Will. Every carriage that left the inn-door seemed to take a part of him +away with it; and when people jestingly offered him a lift, he could with +difficulty command his emotion. Night after night he would dream that he +was awakened by flustered servants, and that a splendid equipage waited +at the door to carry him down into the plain; night after night; until +the dream, which had seemed all jollity to him at first, began to take on +a colour of gravity, and the nocturnal summons and waiting equipage +occupied a place in his mind as something to be both feared and hoped +for. + +One day, when Will was about sixteen, a fat young man arrived at sunset +to pass the night. He was a contented-looking fellow, with a jolly eye, +and carried a knapsack. While dinner was preparing, he sat in the arbour +to read a book; but as soon as he had begun to observe Will, the book was +laid aside; he was plainly one of those who prefer living people to +people made of ink and paper. Will, on his part, although he had not +been much interested in the stranger at first sight, soon began to take a +great deal of pleasure in his talk, which was full of good nature and +good sense, and at last conceived a great respect for his character and +wisdom. They sat far into the night; and about two in the morning Will +opened his heart to the young man, and told him how he longed to leave +the valley and what bright hopes he had connected with the cities of the +plain. The young man whistled, and then broke into a smile. + +'My young friend,' he remarked, 'you are a very curious little fellow to +be sure, and wish a great many things which you will never get. Why, you +would feel quite ashamed if you knew how the little fellows in these +fairy cities of yours are all after the same sort of nonsense, and keep +breaking their hearts to get up into the mountains. And let me tell you, +those who go down into the plains are a very short while there before +they wish themselves heartily back again. The air is not so light nor so +pure; nor is the sun any brighter. As for the beautiful men and women, +you would see many of them in rags and many of them deformed with +horrible disorders; and a city is so hard a place for people who are poor +and sensitive that many choose to die by their own hand.' + +'You must think me very simple,' answered Will. 'Although I have never +been out of this valley, believe me, I have used my eyes. I know how one +thing lives on another; for instance, how the fish hangs in the eddy to +catch his fellows; and the shepherd, who makes so pretty a picture +carrying home the lamb, is only carrying it home for dinner. I do not +expect to find all things right in your cities. That is not what +troubles me; it might have been that once upon a time; but although I +live here always, I have asked many questions and learned a great deal in +these last years, and certainly enough to cure me of my old fancies. But +you would not have me die like a dog and not see all that is to be seen, +and do all that a man can do, let it be good or evil? you would not have +me spend all my days between this road here and the river, and not so +much as make a motion to be up and live my life?--I would rather die out +of hand,' he cried, 'than linger on as I am doing.' + +'Thousands of people,' said the young man, 'live and die like you, and +are none the less happy.' + +'Ah!' said Will, 'if there are thousands who would like, why should not +one of them have my place?' + +It was quite dark; there was a hanging lamp in the arbour which lit up +the table and the faces of the speakers; and along the arch, the leaves +upon the trellis stood out illuminated against the night sky, a pattern +of transparent green upon a dusky purple. The fat young man rose, and, +taking Will by the arm, led him out under the open heavens. + +'Did you ever look at the stars?' he asked, pointing upwards. + +'Often and often,' answered Will. + +'And do you know what they are?' + +'I have fancied many things.' + +'They are worlds like ours,' said the young man. 'Some of them less; +many of them a million times greater; and some of the least sparkles that +you see are not only worlds, but whole clusters of worlds turning about +each other in the midst of space. We do not know what there may be in +any of them; perhaps the answer to all our difficulties or the cure of +all our sufferings: and yet we can never reach them; not all the skill of +the craftiest of men can fit out a ship for the nearest of these our +neighbours, nor would the life of the most aged suffice for such a +journey. When a great battle has been lost or a dear friend is dead, +when we are hipped or in high spirits, there they are unweariedly shining +overhead. We may stand down here, a whole army of us together, and shout +until we break our hearts, and not a whisper reaches them. We may climb +the highest mountain, and we are no nearer them. All we can do is to +stand down here in the garden and take off our hats; the starshine lights +upon our heads, and where mine is a little bald, I dare say you can see +it glisten in the darkness. The mountain and the mouse. That is like to +be all we shall ever have to do with Arcturus or Aldebaran. Can you +apply a parable?' he added, laying his hand upon Will's shoulder. 'It is +not the same thing as a reason, but usually vastly more convincing.' + +Will hung his head a little, and then raised it once more to heaven. The +stars seemed to expand and emit a sharper brilliancy; and as he kept +turning his eyes higher and higher, they seemed to increase in multitude +under his gaze. + +'I see,' he said, turning to the young man. 'We are in a rat-trap.' + +'Something of that size. Did you ever see a squirrel turning in a cage? +and another squirrel sitting philosophically over his nuts? I needn't +ask you which of them looked more of a fool.' + + + +CHAPTER II. THE PARSON'S MARJORY. + + +After some years the old people died, both in one winter, very carefully +tended by their adopted son, and very quietly mourned when they were +gone. People who had heard of his roving fancies supposed he would +hasten to sell the property, and go down the river to push his fortunes. +But there was never any sign of such in intention on the part of Will. On +the contrary, he had the inn set on a better footing, and hired a couple +of servants to assist him in carrying it on; and there he settled down, a +kind, talkative, inscrutable young man, six feet three in his stockings, +with an iron constitution and a friendly voice. He soon began to take +rank in the district as a bit of an oddity: it was not much to be +wondered at from the first, for he was always full of notions, and kept +calling the plainest common-sense in question; but what most raised the +report upon him was the odd circumstance of his courtship with the +parson's Marjory. + +The parson's Marjory was a lass about nineteen, when Will would be about +thirty; well enough looking, and much better educated than any other girl +in that part of the country, as became her parentage. She held her head +very high, and had already refused several offers of marriage with a +grand air, which had got her hard names among the neighbours. For all +that she was a good girl, and one that would have made any man well +contented. + +Will had never seen much of her; for although the church and parsonage +were only two miles from his own door, he was never known to go there but +on Sundays. It chanced, however, that the parsonage fell into disrepair, +and had to be dismantled; and the parson and his daughter took lodgings +for a month or so, on very much reduced terms, at Will's inn. Now, what +with the inn, and the mill, and the old miller's savings, our friend was +a man of substance; and besides that, he had a name for good temper and +shrewdness, which make a capital portion in marriage; and so it was +currently gossiped, among their ill-wishers, that the parson and his +daughter had not chosen their temporary lodging with their eyes shut. +Will was about the last man in the world to be cajoled or frightened into +marriage. You had only to look into his eyes, limpid and still like +pools of water, and yet with a sort of clear light that seemed to come +from within, and you would understand at once that here was one who knew +his own mind, and would stand to it immovably. Marjory herself was no +weakling by her looks, with strong, steady eyes and a resolute and quiet +bearing. It might be a question whether she was not Will's match in +stedfastness, after all, or which of them would rule the roost in +marriage. But Marjory had never given it a thought, and accompanied her +father with the most unshaken innocence and unconcern. + +The season was still so early that Will's customers were few and far +between; but the lilacs were already flowering, and the weather was so +mild that the party took dinner under the trellice, with the noise of the +river in their ears and the woods ringing about them with the songs of +birds. Will soon began to take a particular pleasure in these dinners. +The parson was rather a dull companion, with a habit of dozing at table; +but nothing rude or cruel ever fell from his lips. And as for the +parson's daughter, she suited her surroundings with the best grace +imaginable; and whatever she said seemed so pat and pretty that Will +conceived a great idea of her talents. He could see her face, as she +leaned forward, against a background of rising pinewoods; her eyes shone +peaceably; the light lay around her hair like a kerchief; something that +was hardly a smile rippled her pale cheeks, and Will could not contain +himself from gazing on her in an agreeable dismay. She looked, even in +her quietest moments, so complete in herself, and so quick with life down +to her finger tips and the very skirts of her dress, that the remainder +of created things became no more than a blot by comparison; and if Will +glanced away from her to her surroundings, the trees looked inanimate and +senseless, the clouds hung in heaven like dead things, and even the +mountain tops were disenchanted. The whole valley could not compare in +looks with this one girl. + +Will was always observant in the society of his fellow-creatures; but his +observation became almost painfully eager in the case of Marjory. He +listened to all she uttered, and read her eyes, at the same time, for the +unspoken commentary. Many kind, simple, and sincere speeches found an +echo in his heart. He became conscious of a soul beautifully poised upon +itself, nothing doubting, nothing desiring, clothed in peace. It was not +possible to separate her thoughts from her appearance. The turn of her +wrist, the still sound of her voice, the light in her eyes, the lines of +her body, fell in tune with her grave and gentle words, like the +accompaniment that sustains and harmonises the voice of the singer. Her +influence was one thing, not to be divided or discussed, only to be felt +with gratitude and joy. To Will, her presence recalled something of his +childhood, and the thought of her took its place in his mind beside that +of dawn, of running water, and of the earliest violets and lilacs. It is +the property of things seen for the first time, or for the first time +after long, like the flowers in spring, to reawaken in us the sharp edge +of sense and that impression of mystic strangeness which otherwise passes +out of life with the coming of years; but the sight of a loved face is +what renews a man's character from the fountain upwards. + +One day after dinner Will took a stroll among the firs; a grave beatitude +possessed him from top to toe, and he kept smiling to himself and the +landscape as he went. The river ran between the stepping-stones with a +pretty wimple; a bird sang loudly in the wood; the hill-tops looked +immeasurably high, and as he glanced at them from time to time seemed to +contemplate his movements with a beneficent but awful curiosity. His way +took him to the eminence which overlooked the plain; and there he sat +down upon a stone, and fell into deep and pleasant thought. The plain +lay abroad with its cities and silver river; everything was asleep, +except a great eddy of birds which kept rising and falling and going +round and round in the blue air. He repeated Marjory's name aloud, and +the sound of it gratified his ear. He shut his eyes, and her image +sprang up before him, quietly luminous and attended with good thoughts. +The river might run for ever; the birds fly higher and higher till they +touched the stars. He saw it was empty bustle after all; for here, +without stirring a feet, waiting patiently in his own narrow valley, he +also had attained the better sunlight. + +The next day Will made a sort of declaration across the dinner-table, +while the parson was filling his pipe. + +'Miss Marjory,' he said, 'I never knew any one I liked so well as you. I +am mostly a cold, unkindly sort of man; not from want of heart, but out +of strangeness in my way of thinking; and people seem far away from me. +'Tis as if there were a circle round me, which kept every one out but +you; I can hear the others talking and laughing; but you come quite +close. Maybe, this is disagreeable to you?' he asked. + +Marjory made no answer. + +'Speak up, girl,' said the parson. + +'Nay, now,' returned Will, 'I wouldn't press her, parson. I feel tongue- +tied myself, who am not used to it; and she's a woman, and little more +than a child, when all is said. But for my part, as far as I can +understand what people mean by it, I fancy I must be what they call in +love. I do not wish to be held as committing myself; for I may be wrong; +but that is how I believe things are with me. And if Miss Marjory should +feel any otherwise on her part, mayhap she would be so kind as shake her +head.' + +Marjory was silent, and gave no sign that she had heard. + +'How is that, parson?' asked Will. + +'The girl must speak,' replied the parson, laying down his pipe. 'Here's +our neighbour who says he loves you, Madge. Do you love him, ay or no?' + +'I think I do,' said Marjory, faintly. + +'Well then, that's all that could be wished!' cried Will, heartily. And +he took her hand across the table, and held it a moment in both of his +with great satisfaction. + +'You must marry,' observed the parson, replacing his pipe in his mouth. + +'Is that the right thing to do, think you?' demanded Will. + +'It is indispensable,' said the parson. + +'Very well,' replied the wooer. + +Two or three days passed away with great delight to Will, although a +bystander might scarce have found it out. He continued to take his meals +opposite Marjory, and to talk with her and gaze upon her in her father's +presence; but he made no attempt to see her alone, nor in any other way +changed his conduct towards her from what it had been since the +beginning. Perhaps the girl was a little disappointed, and perhaps not +unjustly; and yet if it had been enough to be always in the thoughts of +another person, and so pervade and alter his whole life, she might have +been thoroughly contented. For she was never out of Will's mind for an +instant. He sat over the stream, and watched the dust of the eddy, and +the poised fish, and straining weeds; he wandered out alone into the +purple even, with all the blackbirds piping round him in the wood; he +rose early in the morning, and saw the sky turn from grey to gold, and +the light leap upon the hill-tops; and all the while he kept wondering if +he had never seen such things before, or how it was that they should look +so different now. The sound of his own mill-wheel, or of the wind among +the trees, confounded and charmed his heart. The most enchanting +thoughts presented themselves unbidden in his mind. He was so happy that +he could not sleep at night, and so restless, that he could hardly sit +still out of her company. And yet it seemed as if he avoided her rather +than sought her out. + +One day, as he was coming home from a ramble, Will found Marjory in the +garden picking flowers, and as he came up with her, slackened his pace +and continued walking by her side. + +'You like flowers?' he said. + +'Indeed I love them dearly,' she replied. 'Do you?' + +'Why, no,' said he, 'not so much. They are a very small affair, when all +is done. I can fancy people caring for them greatly, but not doing as +you are just now.' + +'How?' she asked, pausing and looking up at him. + +'Plucking them,' said he. 'They are a deal better off where they are, +and look a deal prettier, if you go to that.' + +'I wish to have them for my own,' she answered, 'to carry them near my +heart, and keep them in my room. They tempt me when they grow here; they +seem to say, "Come and do something with us;" but once I have cut them +and put them by, the charm is laid, and I can look at them with quite an +easy heart.' + +'You wish to possess them,' replied Will, 'in order to think no more +about them. It's a bit like killing the goose with the golden eggs. It's +a bit like what I wished to do when I was a boy. Because I had a fancy +for looking out over the plain, I wished to go down there--where I +couldn't look out over it any longer. Was not that fine reasoning? Dear, +dear, if they only thought of it, all the world would do like me; and you +would let your flowers alone, just as I stay up here in the mountains.' +Suddenly he broke off sharp. 'By the Lord!' he cried. And when she +asked him what was wrong, he turned the question off and walked away into +the house with rather a humorous expression of face. + +He was silent at table; and after the night hid fallen and the stars had +come out overhead, he walked up and down for hours in the courtyard and +garden with an uneven pace. There was still a light in the window of +Marjory's room: one little oblong patch of orange in a world of dark blue +hills and silver starlight. Will's mind ran a great deal on the window; +but his thoughts were not very lover-like. 'There she is in her room,' +he thought, 'and there are the stars overhead:--a blessing upon both!' +Both were good influences in his life; both soothed and braced him in his +profound contentment with the world. And what more should he desire with +either? The fat young man and his councils were so present to his mind, +that he threw back his head, and, putting his hands before his mouth, +shouted aloud to the populous heavens. Whether from the position of his +head or the sudden strain of the exertion, he seemed to see a momentary +shock among the stars, and a diffusion of frosty light pass from one to +another along the sky. At the same instant, a corner of the blind was +lifted and lowered again at once. He laughed a loud ho-ho! 'One and +another!' thought Will. 'The stars tremble, and the blind goes up. Why, +before Heaven, what a great magician I must be! Now if I were only a +fool, should not I be in a pretty way?' And he went off to bed, +chuckling to himself: 'If I were only a fool!' + +The next morning, pretty early, he saw her once more in the garden, and +sought her out. + +'I have been thinking about getting married,' he began abruptly; 'and +after having turned it all over, I have made up my mind it's not +worthwhile.' + +She turned upon him for a single moment; but his radiant, kindly +appearance would, under the circumstances, have disconcerted an angel, +and she looked down again upon the ground in silence. He could see her +tremble. + +'I hope you don't mind,' he went on, a little taken aback. 'You ought +not. I have turned it all over, and upon my soul there's nothing in it. +We should never be one whit nearer than we are just now, and, if I am a +wise man, nothing like so happy.' + +'It is unnecessary to go round about with me,' she said. 'I very well +remember that you refused to commit yourself; and now that I see you were +mistaken, and in reality have never cared for me, I can only feel sad +that I have been so far misled.' + +'I ask your pardon,' said Will stoutly; 'you do not understand my +meaning. As to whether I have ever loved you or not, I must leave that +to others. But for one thing, my feeling is not changed; and for +another, you may make it your boast that you have made my whole life and +character something different from what they were. I mean what I say; no +less. I do not think getting married is worth while. I would rather you +went on living with your father, so that I could walk over and see you +once, or maybe twice a week, as people go to church, and then we should +both be all the happier between whiles. That's my notion. But I'll +marry you if you will,' he added. + +'Do you know that you are insulting me?' she broke out. + +'Not I, Marjory,' said he; 'if there is anything in a clear conscience, +not I. I offer all my heart's best affection; you can take it or want +it, though I suspect it's beyond either your power or mine to change what +has once been done, and set me fancy-free. I'll marry you, if you like; +but I tell you again and again, it's not worth while, and we had best +stay friends. Though I am a quiet man I have noticed a heap of things in +my life. Trust in me, and take things as I propose; or, if you don't +like that, say the word, and I'll marry you out of hand.' + +There was a considerable pause, and Will, who began to feel uneasy, began +to grow angry in consequence. + +'It seems you are too proud to say your mind,' he said. 'Believe me +that's a pity. A clean shrift makes simple living. Can a man be more +downright or honourable, to a woman than I have been? I have said my +say, and given you your choice. Do you want me to marry you? or will you +take my friendship, as I think best? or have you had enough of me for +good? Speak out for the dear God's sake! You know your father told you +a girl should speak her mind in these affairs.' + +She seemed to recover herself at that, turned without a word, walked +rapidly through the garden, and disappeared into the house, leaving Will +in some confusion as to the result. He walked up and down the garden, +whistling softly to himself. Sometimes he stopped and contemplated the +sky and hill-tops; sometimes he went down to the tail of the weir and sat +there, looking foolishly in the water. All this dubiety and perturbation +was so foreign to his nature and the life which he had resolutely chosen +for himself, that he began to regret Marjory's arrival. 'After all,' he +thought, 'I was as happy as a man need be. I could come down here and +watch my fishes all day long if I wanted: I was as settled and contented +as my old mill.' + +Marjory came down to dinner, looking very trim and quiet; and no sooner +were all three at table than she made her father a speech, with her eyes +fixed upon her plate, but showing no other sign of embarrassment or +distress. + +'Father,' she began, 'Mr. Will and I have been talking things over. We +see that we have each made a mistake about our feelings, and he has +agreed, at my request, to give up all idea of marriage, and be no more +than my very good friend, as in the past. You see, there is no shadow of +a quarrel, and indeed I hope we shall see a great deal of him in the +future, for his visits will always be welcome in our house. Of course, +father, you will know best, but perhaps we should do better to leave Mr. +Will's house for the present. I believe, after what has passed, we +should hardly be agreeable inmates for some days.' + +Will, who had commanded himself with difficulty from the first, broke out +upon this into an inarticulate noise, and raised one hand with an +appearance of real dismay, as if he were about to interfere and +contradict. But she checked him at once looking up at him with a swift +glance and an angry flush upon her cheek. + +'You will perhaps have the good grace,' she said, 'to let me explain +these matters for myself.' + +Will was put entirely out of countenance by her expression and the ring +of her voice. He held his peace, concluding that there were some things +about this girl beyond his comprehension, in which he was exactly right. + +The poor parson was quite crestfallen. He tried to prove that this was +no more than a true lovers' tiff, which would pass off before night; and +when he was dislodged from that position, he went on to argue that where +there was no quarrel there could be no call for a separation; for the +good man liked both his entertainment and his host. It was curious to +see how the girl managed them, saying little all the time, and that very +quietly, and yet twisting them round her finger and insensibly leading +them wherever she would by feminine tact and generalship. It scarcely +seemed to have been her doing--it seemed as if things had merely so +fallen out--that she and her father took their departure that same +afternoon in a farm-cart, and went farther down the valley, to wait, +until their own house was ready for them, in another hamlet. But Will +had been observing closely, and was well aware of her dexterity and +resolution. When he found himself alone he had a great many curious +matters to turn over in his mind. He was very sad and solitary, to begin +with. All the interest had gone out of his life, and he might look up at +the stars as long as he pleased, he somehow failed to find support or +consolation. And then he was in such a turmoil of spirit about Marjory. +He had been puzzled and irritated at her behaviour, and yet he could not +keep himself from admiring it. He thought he recognised a fine, perverse +angel in that still soul which he had never hitherto suspected; and +though he saw it was an influence that would fit but ill with his own +life of artificial calm, he could not keep himself from ardently desiring +to possess it. Like a man who has lived among shadows and now meets the +sun, he was both pained and delighted. + +As the days went forward he passed from one extreme to another; now +pluming himself on the strength of his determination, now despising his +timid and silly caution. The former was, perhaps, the true thought of +his heart, and represented the regular tenor of the man's reflections; +but the latter burst forth from time to time with an unruly violence, and +then he would forget all consideration, and go up and down his house and +garden or walk among the fir-woods like one who is beside himself with +remorse. To equable, steady-minded Will this state of matters was +intolerable; and he determined, at whatever cost, to bring it to an end. +So, one warm summer afternoon he put on his best clothes, took a thorn +switch in his hand, and set out down the valley by the river. As soon as +he had taken his determination, he had regained at a bound his customary +peace of heart, and he enjoyed the bright weather and the variety of the +scene without any admixture of alarm or unpleasant eagerness. It was +nearly the same to him how the matter turned out. If she accepted him he +would have to marry her this time, which perhaps was, all for the best. +If she refused him, he would have done his utmost, and might follow his +own way in the future with an untroubled conscience. He hoped, on the +whole, she would refuse him; and then, again, as he saw the brown roof +which sheltered her, peeping through some willows at an angle of the +stream, he was half inclined to reverse the wish, and more than half +ashamed of himself for this infirmity of purpose. + +Marjory seemed glad to see him, and gave him her hand without affectation +or delay. + +'I have been thinking about this marriage,' he began. + +'So have I,' she answered. 'And I respect you more and more for a very +wise man. You understood me better than I understood myself; and I am +now quite certain that things are all for the best as they are.' + +'At the same time--,' ventured Will. + +'You must be tired,' she interrupted. 'Take a seat and let me fetch you +a glass of wine. The afternoon is so warm; and I wish you not to be +displeased with your visit. You must come quite often; once a week, if +you can spare the time; I am always so glad to see my friends.' + +'O, very well,' thought Will to himself. 'It appears I was right after +all.' And he paid a very agreeable visit, walked home again in capital +spirits, and gave himself no further concern about the matter. + +For nearly three years Will and Marjory continued on these terms, seeing +each other once or twice a week without any word of love between them; +and for all that time I believe Will was nearly as happy as a man can be. +He rather stinted himself the pleasure of seeing her; and he would often +walk half-way over to the parsonage, and then back again, as if to whet +his appetite. Indeed there was one corner of the road, whence he could +see the church-spire wedged into a crevice of the valley between sloping +firwoods, with a triangular snatch of plain by way of background, which +he greatly affected as a place to sit and moralise in before returning +homewards; and the peasants got so much into the habit of finding him +there in the twilight that they gave it the name of 'Will o' the Mill's +Corner.' + +At the end of the three years Marjory played him a sad trick by suddenly +marrying somebody else. Will kept his countenance bravely, and merely +remarked that, for as little as he knew of women, he had acted very +prudently in not marrying her himself three years before. She plainly +knew very little of her own mind, and, in spite of a deceptive manner, +was as fickle and flighty as the rest of them. He had to congratulate +himself on an escape, he said, and would take a higher opinion of his own +wisdom in consequence. But at heart, he was reasonably displeased, moped +a good deal for a month or two, and fell away in flesh, to the +astonishment of his serving-lads. + +It was perhaps a year after this marriage that Will was awakened late one +night by the sound of a horse galloping on the road, followed by +precipitate knocking at the inn-door. He opened his window and saw a +farm servant, mounted and holding a led horse by the bridle, who told him +to make what haste he could and go along with him; for Marjory was dying, +and had sent urgently to fetch him to her bedside. Will was no horseman, +and made so little speed upon the way that the poor young wife was very +near her end before he arrived. But they had some minutes' talk in +private, and he was present and wept very bitterly while she breathed her +last. + + + +CHAPTER III. DEATH + + +Year after year went away into nothing, with great explosions and +outcries in the cities on the plain: red revolt springing up and being +suppressed in blood, battle swaying hither and thither, patient +astronomers in observatory towers picking out and christening new stars, +plays being performed in lighted theatres, people being carried into +hospital on stretchers, and all the usual turmoil and agitation of men's +lives in crowded centres. Up in Will's valley only the winds and seasons +made an epoch; the fish hung in the swift stream, the birds circled +overhead, the pine-tops rustled underneath the stars, the tall hills +stood over all; and Will went to and fro, minding his wayside inn, until +the snow began to thicken on his head. His heart was young and vigorous; +and if his pulses kept a sober time, they still beat strong and steady in +his wrists. He carried a ruddy stain on either cheek, like a ripe apple; +he stooped a little, but his step was still firm; and his sinewy hands +were reached out to all men with a friendly pressure. His face was +covered with those wrinkles which are got in open air, and which rightly +looked at, are no more than a sort of permanent sunburning; such wrinkles +heighten the stupidity of stupid faces; but to a person like Will, with +his clear eyes and smiling mouth, only give another charm by testifying +to a simple and easy life. His talk was full of wise sayings. He had a +taste for other people; and other people had a taste for him. When the +valley was full of tourists in the season, there were merry nights in +Will's arbour; and his views, which seemed whimsical to his neighbours, +were often enough admired by learned people out of towns and colleges. +Indeed, he had a very noble old age, and grew daily better known; so that +his fame was heard of in the cities of the plain; and young men who had +been summer travellers spoke together in _cafes_ of Will o' the Mill and +his rough philosophy. Many and many an invitation, you may be sure, he +had; but nothing could tempt him from his upland valley. He would shake +his head and smile over his tobacco-pipe with a deal of meaning. 'You +come too late,' he would answer. 'I am a dead man now: I have lived and +died already. Fifty years ago you would have brought my heart into my +mouth; and now you do not even tempt me. But that is the object of long +living, that man should cease to care about life.' And again: 'There is +only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the +dinner, the sweets come last.' Or once more: 'When I was a boy, I was a +bit puzzled, and hardly knew whether it was myself or the world that was +curious and worth looking into. Now, I know it is myself, and stick to +that.' + +He never showed any symptom of frailty, but kept stalwart and firm to the +last; but they say he grew less talkative towards the end, and would +listen to other people by the hour in an amused and sympathetic silence. +Only, when he did speak, it was more to the point and more charged with +old experience. He drank a bottle of wine gladly; above all, at sunset +on the hill-top or quite late at night under the stars in the arbour. The +sight of something attractive and unatttainable seasoned his enjoyment, +he would say; and he professed he had lived long enough to admire a +candle all the more when he could compare it with a planet. + +One night, in his seventy-second year, he awoke in bed in such uneasiness +of body and mind that he arose and dressed himself and went out to +meditate in the arbour. It was pitch dark, without a star; the river was +swollen, and the wet woods and meadows loaded the air with perfume. It +had thundered during the day, and it promised more thunder for the +morrow. A murky, stifling night for a man of seventy-two! Whether it +was the weather or the wakefulness, or some little touch of fever in his +old limbs, Will's mind was besieged by tumultuous and crying memories. +His boyhood, the night with the fat young man, the death of his adopted +parents, the summer days with Marjory, and many of those small +circumstances, which seem nothing to another, and are yet the very gist +of a man's own life to himself--things seen, words heard, looks +misconstrued--arose from their forgotten corners and usurped his +attention. The dead themselves were with him, not merely taking part in +this thin show of memory that defiled before his brain, but revisiting +his bodily senses as they do in profound and vivid dreams. The fat young +man leaned his elbows on the table opposite; Marjory came and went with +an apronful of flowers between the garden and the arbour; he could hear +the old parson knocking out his pipe or blowing his resonant nose. The +tide of his consciousness ebbed and flowed: he was sometimes half-asleep +and drowned in his recollections of the past; and sometimes he was broad +awake, wondering at himself. But about the middle of the night he was +startled by the voice of the dead miller calling to him out of the house +as he used to do on the arrival of custom. The hallucination was so +perfect that Will sprang from his seat and stood listening for the +summons to be repeated; and as he listened he became conscious of another +noise besides the brawling of the river and the ringing in his feverish +ears. It was like the stir of horses and the creaking of harness, as +though a carriage with an impatient team had been brought up upon the +road before the courtyard gate. At such an hour, upon this rough and +dangerous pass, the supposition was no better than absurd; and Will +dismissed it from his mind, and resumed his seat upon the arbour chair; +and sleep closed over him again like running water. He was once again +awakened by the dead miller's call, thinner and more spectral than +before; and once again he heard the noise of an equipage upon the road. +And so thrice and four times, the same dream, or the same fancy, +presented itself to his senses: until at length, smiling to himself as +when one humours a nervous child, he proceeded towards the gate to set +his uncertainty at rest. + +From the arbour to the gate was no great distance, and yet it took Will +some time; it seemed as if the dead thickened around him in the court, +and crossed his path at every step. For, first, he was suddenly +surprised by an overpowering sweetness of heliotropes; it was as if his +garden had been planted with this flower from end to end, and the hot, +damp night had drawn forth all their perfumes in a breath. Now the +heliotrope had been Marjory's favourite flower, and since her death not +one of them had ever been planted in Will's ground. + +'I must be going crazy,' he thought. 'Poor Marjory and her heliotropes!' + +And with that he raised his eyes towards the window that had once been +hers. If he had been bewildered before, he was now almost terrified; for +there was a light in the room; the window was an orange oblong as of +yore; and the corner of the blind was lifted and let fall as on the night +when he stood and shouted to the stars in his perplexity. The illusion +only endured an instant; but it left him somewhat unmanned, rubbing his +eyes and staring at the outline of the house and the black night behind +it. While he thus stood, and it seemed as if he must have stood there +quite a long time, there came a renewal of the noises on the road: and he +turned in time to meet a stranger, who was advancing to meet him across +the court. There was something like the outline of a great carriage +discernible on the road behind the stranger, and, above that, a few black +pine-tops, like so many plumes. + +'Master Will?' asked the new-comer, in brief military fashion. + +'That same, sir,' answered Will. 'Can I do anything to serve you?' + +'I have heard you much spoken of, Master Will,' returned the other; 'much +spoken of, and well. And though I have both hands full of business, I +wish to drink a bottle of wine with you in your arbour. Before I go, I +shall introduce myself.' + +Will led the way to the trellis, and got a lamp lighted and a bottle +uncorked. He was not altogether unused to such complimentary interviews, +and hoped little enough from this one, being schooled by many +disappointments. A sort of cloud had settled on his wits and prevented +him from remembering the strangeness of the hour. He moved like a person +in his sleep; and it seemed as if the lamp caught fire and the bottle +came uncorked with the facility of thought. Still, he had some curiosity +about the appearance of his visitor, and tried in vain to turn the light +into his face; either he handled the lamp clumsily, or there was a +dimness over his eyes; but he could make out little more than a shadow at +table with him. He stared and stared at this shadow, as he wiped out the +glasses, and began to feel cold and strange about the heart. The silence +weighed upon him, for he could hear nothing now, not even the river, but +the drumming of his own arteries in his ears. + +'Here's to you,' said the stranger, roughly. + +'Here is my service, sir,' replied Will, sipping his wine, which somehow +tasted oddly. + +'I understand you are a very positive fellow,' pursued the stranger. + +Will made answer with a smile of some satisfaction and a little nod. + +'So am I,' continued the other; 'and it is the delight of my heart to +tramp on people's corns. I will have nobody positive but myself; not +one. I have crossed the whims, in my time, of kings and generals and +great artists. And what would you say,' he went on, 'if I had come up +here on purpose to cross yours?' + +Will had it on his tongue to make a sharp rejoinder; but the politeness +of an old innkeeper prevailed; and he held his peace and made answer with +a civil gesture of the hand. + +'I have,' said the stranger. 'And if I did not hold you in a particular +esteem, I should make no words about the matter. It appears you pride +yourself on staying where you are. You mean to stick by your inn. Now I +mean you shall come for a turn with me in my barouche; and before this +bottle's empty, so you shall.' + +'That would be an odd thing, to be sure,' replied Will, with a chuckle. +'Why, sir, I have grown here like an old oak-tree; the Devil himself +could hardly root me up: and for all I perceive you are a very +entertaining old gentleman, I would wager you another bottle you lose +your pains with me.' + +The dimness of Will's eyesight had been increasing all this while; but he +was somehow conscious of a sharp and chilling scrutiny which irritated +and yet overmastered him. + +'You need not think,' he broke out suddenly, in an explosive, febrile +manner that startled and alarmed himself, 'that I am a stay-at-home, +because I fear anything under God. God knows I am tired enough of it +all; and when the time comes for a longer journey than ever you dream of, +I reckon I shall find myself prepared.' + +The stranger emptied his glass and pushed it away from him. He looked +down for a little, and then, leaning over the table, tapped Will three +times upon the forearm with a single finger. 'The time has come!' he +said solemnly. + +An ugly thrill spread from the spot he touched. The tones of his voice +were dull and startling, and echoed strangely in Will's heart. + +'I beg your pardon,' he said, with some discomposure. 'What do you +mean?' + +'Look at me, and you will find your eyesight swim. Raise your hand; it +is dead-heavy. This is your last bottle of wine, Master Will, and your +last night upon the earth.' + +'You are a doctor?' quavered Will. + +'The best that ever was,' replied the other; 'for I cure both mind and +body with the same prescription. I take away all pain and I forgive all +sins; and where my patients have gone wrong in life, I smooth out all +complications and set them free again upon their feet.' + +'I have no need of you,' said Will. + +'A time comes for all men, Master Will,' replied the doctor, 'when the +helm is taken out of their hands. For you, because you were prudent and +quiet, it has been long of coming, and you have had long to discipline +yourself for its reception. You have seen what is to be seen about your +mill; you have sat close all your days like a hare in its form; but now +that is at an end; and,' added the doctor, getting on his feet, 'you must +arise and come with me.' + +'You are a strange physician,' said Will, looking steadfastly upon his +guest. + +'I am a natural law,' he replied, 'and people call me Death.' + +'Why did you not tell me so at first?' cried Will. 'I have been waiting +for you these many years. Give me your hand, and welcome.' + +'Lean upon my arm,' said the stranger, 'for already your strength abates. +Lean on me as heavily as you need; for though I am old, I am very strong. +It is but three steps to my carriage, and there all your trouble ends. +Why, Will,' he added, 'I have been yearning for you as if you were my own +son; and of all the men that ever I came for in my long days, I have come +for you most gladly. I am caustic, and sometimes offend people at first +sight; but I am a good friend at heart to such as you.' + +'Since Marjory was taken,' returned Will, 'I declare before God you were +the only friend I had to look for.' So the pair went arm-in-arm across +the courtyard. + +One of the servants awoke about this time and heard the noise of horses +pawing before he dropped asleep again; all down the valley that night +there was a rushing as of a smooth and steady wind descending towards the +plain; and when the world rose next morning, sure enough Will o' the Mill +had gone at last upon his travels. + + + + +MARKHEIM + + +'Yes,' said the dealer, 'our windfalls are of various kinds. Some +customers are ignorant, and then I touch a dividend on my superior +knowledge. Some are dishonest,' and here he held up the candle, so that +the light fell strongly on his visitor, 'and in that case,' he continued, +'I profit by my virtue.' + +Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes had +not yet grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness in the shop. +At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, he +blinked painfully and looked aside. + +The dealer chuckled. 'You come to me on Christmas Day,' he resumed, +'when you know that I am alone in my house, put up my shutters, and make +a point of refusing business. Well, you will have to pay for that; you +will have to pay for my loss of time, when I should be balancing my +books; you will have to pay, besides, for a kind of manner that I remark +in you to-day very strongly. I am the essence of discretion, and ask no +awkward questions; but when a customer cannot look me in the eye, he has +to pay for it.' The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to his +usual business voice, though still with a note of irony, 'You can give, +as usual, a clear account of how you came into the possession of the +object?' he continued. 'Still your uncle's cabinet? A remarkable +collector, sir!' + +And the little pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tip-toe, +looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with +every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite +pity, and a touch of horror. + +'This time,' said he, 'you are in error. I have not come to sell, but to +buy. I have no curios to dispose of; my uncle's cabinet is bare to the +wainscot; even were it still intact, I have done well on the Stock +Exchange, and should more likely add to it than otherwise, and my errand +to-day is simplicity itself. I seek a Christmas present for a lady,' he +continued, waxing more fluent as he struck into the speech he had +prepared; 'and certainly I owe you every excuse for thus disturbing you +upon so small a matter. But the thing was neglected yesterday; I must +produce my little compliment at dinner; and, as you very well know, a +rich marriage is not a thing to be neglected.' + +There followed a pause, during which the dealer seemed to weigh this +statement incredulously. The ticking of many clocks among the curious +lumber of the shop, and the faint rushing of the cabs in a near +thoroughfare, filled up the interval of silence. + +'Well, sir,' said the dealer, 'be it so. You are an old customer after +all; and if, as you say, you have the chance of a good marriage, far be +it from me to be an obstacle. Here is a nice thing for a lady now,' he +went on, 'this hand glass--fifteenth century, warranted; comes from a +good collection, too; but I reserve the name, in the interests of my +customer, who was just like yourself, my dear sir, the nephew and sole +heir of a remarkable collector.' + +The dealer, while he thus ran on in his dry and biting voice, had stooped +to take the object from its place; and, as he had done so, a shock had +passed through Markheim, a start both of hand and foot, a sudden leap of +many tumultuous passions to the face. It passed as swiftly as it came, +and left no trace beyond a certain trembling of the hand that now +received the glass. + +'A glass,' he said hoarsely, and then paused, and repeated it more +clearly. 'A glass? For Christmas? Surely not?' + +'And why not?' cried the dealer. 'Why not a glass?' + +Markheim was looking upon him with an indefinable expression. 'You ask +me why not?' he said. 'Why, look here--look in it--look at yourself! Do +you like to see it? No! nor I--nor any man.' + +The little man had jumped back when Markheim had so suddenly confronted +him with the mirror; but now, perceiving there was nothing worse on hand, +he chuckled. 'Your future lady, sir, must be pretty hard favoured,' said +he. + +'I ask you,' said Markheim, 'for a Christmas present, and you give me +this--this damned reminder of years, and sins and follies--this +hand-conscience! Did you mean it? Had you a thought in your mind? Tell +me. It will be better for you if you do. Come, tell me about yourself. +I hazard a guess now, that you are in secret a very charitable man?' + +The dealer looked closely at his companion. It was very odd, Markheim +did not appear to be laughing; there was something in his face like an +eager sparkle of hope, but nothing of mirth. + +'What are you driving at?' the dealer asked. + +'Not charitable?' returned the other, gloomily. Not charitable; not +pious; not scrupulous; unloving, unbeloved; a hand to get money, a safe +to keep it. Is that all? Dear God, man, is that all?' + +'I will tell you what it is,' began the dealer, with some sharpness, and +then broke off again into a chuckle. 'But I see this is a love match of +yours, and you have been drinking the lady's health.' + +'Ah!' cried Markheim, with a strange curiosity. 'Ah, have you been in +love? Tell me about that.' + +'I,' cried the dealer. 'I in love! I never had the time, nor have I the +time to-day for all this nonsense. Will you take the glass?' + +'Where is the hurry?' returned Markheim. 'It is very pleasant to stand +here talking; and life is so short and insecure that I would not hurry +away from any pleasure--no, not even from so mild a one as this. We +should rather cling, cling to what little we can get, like a man at a +cliff's edge. Every second is a cliff, if you think upon it--a cliff a +mile high--high enough, if we fall, to dash us out of every feature of +humanity. Hence it is best to talk pleasantly. Let us talk of each +other: why should we wear this mask? Let us be confidential. Who knows, +we might become friends?' + +'I have just one word to say to you,' said the dealer. 'Either make your +purchase, or walk out of my shop!' + +'True true,' said Markheim. 'Enough, fooling. To business. Show me +something else.' + +The dealer stooped once more, this time to replace the glass upon the +shelf, his thin blond hair falling over his eyes as he did so. Markheim +moved a little nearer, with one hand in the pocket of his greatcoat; he +drew himself up and filled his lungs; at the same time many different +emotions were depicted together on his face--terror, horror, and resolve, +fascination and a physical repulsion; and through a haggard lift of his +upper lip, his teeth looked out. + +'This, perhaps, may suit,' observed the dealer: and then, as he began to +re-arise, Markheim bounded from behind upon his victim. The long, +skewerlike dagger flashed and fell. The dealer struggled like a hen, +striking his temple on the shelf, and then tumbled on the floor in a +heap. + +Time had some score of small voices in that shop, some stately and slow +as was becoming to their great age; others garrulous and hurried. All +these told out the seconds in an intricate, chorus of tickings. Then the +passage of a lad's feet, heavily running on the pavement, broke in upon +these smaller voices and startled Markheim into the consciousness of his +surroundings. He looked about him awfully. The candle stood on the +counter, its flame solemnly wagging in a draught; and by that +inconsiderable movement, the whole room was filled with noiseless bustle +and kept heaving like a sea: the tall shadows nodding, the gross blots of +darkness swelling and dwindling as with respiration, the faces of the +portraits and the china gods changing and wavering like images in water. +The inner door stood ajar, and peered into that leaguer of shadows with a +long slit of daylight like a pointing finger. + +From these fear-stricken rovings, Markheim's eyes returned to the body of +his victim, where it lay both humped and sprawling, incredibly small and +strangely meaner than in life. In these poor, miserly clothes, in that +ungainly attitude, the dealer lay like so much sawdust. Markheim had +feared to see it, and, lo! it was nothing. And yet, as he gazed, this +bundle of old clothes and pool of blood began to find eloquent voices. +There it must lie; there was none to work the cunning hinges or direct +the miracle of locomotion--there it must lie till it was found. Found! +ay, and then? Then would this dead flesh lift up a cry that would ring +over England, and fill the world with the echoes of pursuit. Ay, dead or +not, this was still the enemy. 'Time was that when the brains were out,' +he thought; and the first word struck into his mind. Time, now that the +deed was accomplished--time, which had closed for the victim, had become +instant and momentous for the slayer. + +The thought was yet in his mind, when, first one and then another, with +every variety of pace and voice--one deep as the bell from a cathedral +turret, another ringing on its treble notes the prelude of a waltz-the +clocks began to strike the hour of three in the afternoon. + +The sudden outbreak of so many tongues in that dumb chamber staggered +him. He began to bestir himself, going to and fro with the candle, +beleaguered by moving shadows, and startled to the soul by chance +reflections. In many rich mirrors, some of home design, some from Venice +or Amsterdam, he saw his face repeated and repeated, as it were an army +of spies; his own eyes met and detected him; and the sound of his own +steps, lightly as they fell, vexed the surrounding quiet. And still, as +he continued to fill his pockets, his mind accused him with a sickening +iteration, of the thousand faults of his design. He should have chosen a +more quiet hour; he should have prepared an alibi; he should not have +used a knife; he should have been more cautious, and only bound and +gagged the dealer, and not killed him; he should have been more bold, and +killed the servant also; he should have done all things otherwise: +poignant regrets, weary, incessant toiling of the mind to change what was +unchangeable, to plan what was now useless, to be the architect of the +irrevocable past. Meanwhile, and behind all this activity, brute +terrors, like the scurrying of rats in a deserted attic, filled the more +remote chambers of his brain with riot; the hand of the constable would +fall heavy on his shoulder, and his nerves would jerk like a hooked fish; +or he beheld, in galloping defile, the dock, the prison, the gallows, and +the black coffin. + +Terror of the people in the street sat down before his mind like a +besieging army. It was impossible, he thought, but that some rumour of +the struggle must have reached their ears and set on edge their +curiosity; and now, in all the neighbouring houses, he divined them +sitting motionless and with uplifted ear--solitary people, condemned to +spend Christmas dwelling alone on memories of the past, and now +startingly recalled from that tender exercise; happy family parties +struck into silence round the table, the mother still with raised finger: +every degree and age and humour, but all, by their own hearths, prying +and hearkening and weaving the rope that was to hang him. Sometimes it +seemed to him he could not move too softly; the clink of the tall +Bohemian goblets rang out loudly like a bell; and alarmed by the bigness +of the ticking, he was tempted to stop the clocks. And then, again, with +a swift transition of his terrors, the very silence of the place appeared +a source of peril, and a thing to strike and freeze the passer-by; and he +would step more boldly, and bustle aloud among the contents of the shop, +and imitate, with elaborate bravado, the movements of a busy man at ease +in his own house. + +But he was now so pulled about by different alarms that, while one +portion of his mind was still alert and cunning, another trembled on the +brink of lunacy. One hallucination in particular took a strong hold on +his credulity. The neighbour hearkening with white face beside his +window, the passer-by arrested by a horrible surmise on the +pavement--these could at worst suspect, they could not know; through the +brick walls and shuttered windows only sounds could penetrate. But here, +within the house, was he alone? He knew he was; he had watched the +servant set forth sweet-hearting, in her poor best, 'out for the day' +written in every ribbon and smile. Yes, he was alone, of course; and +yet, in the bulk of empty house above him, he could surely hear a stir of +delicate footing--he was surely conscious, inexplicably conscious of some +presence. Ay, surely; to every room and corner of the house his +imagination followed it; and now it was a faceless thing, and yet had +eyes to see with; and again it was a shadow of himself; and yet again +behold the image of the dead dealer, reinspired with cunning and hatred. + +At times, with a strong effort, he would glance at the open door which +still seemed to repel his eyes. The house was tall, the skylight small +and dirty, the day blind with fog; and the light that filtered down to +the ground story was exceedingly faint, and showed dimly on the threshold +of the shop. And yet, in that strip of doubtful brightness, did there +not hang wavering a shadow? + +Suddenly, from the street outside, a very jovial gentleman began to beat +with a staff on the shop-door, accompanying his blows with shouts and +railleries in which the dealer was continually called upon by name. +Markheim, smitten into ice, glanced at the dead man. But no! he lay +quite still; he was fled away far beyond earshot of these blows and +shoutings; he was sunk beneath seas of silence; and his name, which would +once have caught his notice above the howling of a storm, had become an +empty sound. And presently the jovial gentleman desisted from his +knocking, and departed. + +Here was a broad hint to hurry what remained to be done, to get forth +from this accusing neighbourhood, to plunge into a bath of London +multitudes, and to reach, on the other side of day, that haven of safety +and apparent innocence--his bed. One visitor had come: at any moment +another might follow and be more obstinate. To have done the deed, and +yet not to reap the profit, would be too abhorrent a failure. The money, +that was now Markheim's concern; and as a means to that, the keys. + +He glanced over his shoulder at the open door, where the shadow was still +lingering and shivering; and with no conscious repugnance of the mind, +yet with a tremor of the belly, he drew near the body of his victim. The +human character had quite departed. Like a suit half-stuffed with bran, +the limbs lay scattered, the trunk doubled, on the floor; and yet the +thing repelled him. Although so dingy and inconsiderable to the eye, he +feared it might have more significance to the touch. He took the body by +the shoulders, and turned it on its back. It was strangely light and +supple, and the limbs, as if they had been broken, fell into the oddest +postures. The face was robbed of all expression; but it was as pale as +wax, and shockingly smeared with blood about one temple. That was, for +Markheim, the one displeasing circumstance. It carried him back, upon +the instant, to a certain fair-day in a fishers' village: a gray day, a +piping wind, a crowd upon the street, the blare of brasses, the booming +of drums, the nasal voice of a ballad singer; and a boy going to and fro, +buried over head in the crowd and divided between interest and fear, +until, coming out upon the chief place of concourse, he beheld a booth +and a great screen with pictures, dismally designed, garishly coloured: +Brown-rigg with her apprentice; the Mannings with their murdered guest; +Weare in the death-grip of Thurtell; and a score besides of famous +crimes. The thing was as clear as an illusion; he was once again that +little boy; he was looking once again, and with the same sense of +physical revolt, at these vile pictures; he was still stunned by the +thumping of the drums. A bar of that day's music returned upon his +memory; and at that, for the first time, a qualm came over him, a breath +of nausea, a sudden weakness of the joints, which he must instantly +resist and conquer. + +He judged it more prudent to confront than to flee from these +considerations; looking the more hardily in the dead face, bending his +mind to realise the nature and greatness of his crime. So little a while +ago that face had moved with every change of sentiment, that pale mouth +had spoken, that body had been all on fire with governable energies; and +now, and by his act, that piece of life had been arrested, as the +horologist, with interjected finger, arrests the beating of the clock. So +he reasoned in vain; he could rise to no more remorseful consciousness; +the same heart which had shuddered before the painted effigies of crime, +looked on its reality unmoved. At best, he felt a gleam of pity for one +who had been endowed in vain with all those faculties that can make the +world a garden of enchantment, one who had never lived and who was now +dead. But of penitence, no, not a tremor. + +With that, shaking himself clear of these considerations, he found the +keys and advanced towards the open door of the shop. Outside, it had +begun to rain smartly; and the sound of the shower upon the roof had +banished silence. Like some dripping cavern, the chambers of the house +were haunted by an incessant echoing, which filled the ear and mingled +with the ticking of the clocks. And, as Markheim approached the door, he +seemed to hear, in answer to his own cautious tread, the steps of another +foot withdrawing up the stair. The shadow still palpitated loosely on +the threshold. He threw a ton's weight of resolve upon his muscles, and +drew back the door. + +The faint, foggy daylight glimmered dimly on the bare floor and stairs; +on the bright suit of armour posted, halbert in hand, upon the landing; +and on the dark wood-carvings, and framed pictures that hung against the +yellow panels of the wainscot. So loud was the beating of the rain +through all the house that, in Markheim's ears, it began to be +distinguished into many different sounds. Footsteps and sighs, the tread +of regiments marching in the distance, the chink of money in the +counting, and the creaking of doors held stealthily ajar, appeared to +mingle with the patter of the drops upon the cupola and the gushing of +the water in the pipes. The sense that he was not alone grew upon him to +the verge of madness. On every side he was haunted and begirt by +presences. He heard them moving in the upper chambers; from the shop, he +heard the dead man getting to his legs; and as he began with a great +effort to mount the stairs, feet fled quietly before him and followed +stealthily behind. If he were but deaf, he thought, how tranquilly he +would possess his soul! And then again, and hearkening with ever fresh +attention, he blessed himself for that unresting sense which held the +outposts and stood a trusty sentinel upon his life. His head turned +continually on his neck; his eyes, which seemed starting from their +orbits, scouted on every side, and on every side were half-rewarded as +with the tail of something nameless vanishing. The four-and-twenty steps +to the first floor were four-and-twenty agonies. + +On that first storey, the doors stood ajar, three of them like three +ambushes, shaking his nerves like the throats of cannon. He could never +again, he felt, be sufficiently immured and fortified from men's +observing eyes, he longed to be home, girt in by walls, buried among +bedclothes, and invisible to all but God. And at that thought he +wondered a little, recollecting tales of other murderers and the fear +they were said to entertain of heavenly avengers. It was not so, at +least, with him. He feared the laws of nature, lest, in their callous +and immutable procedure, they should preserve some damning evidence of +his crime. He feared tenfold more, with a slavish, superstitions terror, +some scission in the continuity of man's experience, some wilful +illegality of nature. He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, +calculating consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the defeated +tyrant overthrew the chess-board, should break the mould of their +succession? The like had befallen Napoleon (so writers said) when the +winter changed the time of its appearance. The like might befall +Markheim: the solid walls might become transparent and reveal his doings +like those of bees in a glass hive; the stout planks might yield under +his foot like quicksands and detain him in their clutch; ay, and there +were soberer accidents that might destroy him: if, for instance, the +house should fall and imprison him beside the body of his victim; or the +house next door should fly on fire, and the firemen invade him from all +sides. These things he feared; and, in a sense, these things might be +called the hands of God reached forth against sin. But about God himself +he was at ease; his act was doubtless exceptional, but so were his +excuses, which God knew; it was there, and not among men, that he felt +sure of justice. + +When he had got safe into the drawing-room, and shut the door behind him, +he was aware of a respite from alarms. The room was quite dismantled, +uncarpeted besides, and strewn with packing cases and incongruous +furniture; several great pier-glasses, in which he beheld himself at +various angles, like an actor on a stage; many pictures, framed and +unframed, standing, with their faces to the wall; a fine Sheraton +sideboard, a cabinet of marquetry, and a great old bed, with tapestry +hangings. The windows opened to the floor; but by great good fortune the +lower part of the shutters had been closed, and this concealed him from +the neighbours. Here, then, Markheim drew in a packing case before the +cabinet, and began to search among the keys. It was a long business, for +there were many; and it was irksome, besides; for, after all, there might +be nothing in the cabinet, and time was on the wing. But the closeness +of the occupation sobered him. With the tail of his eye he saw the +door--even glanced at it from time to time directly, like a besieged +commander pleased to verify the good estate of his defences. But in +truth he was at peace. The rain falling in the street sounded natural +and pleasant. Presently, on the other side, the notes of a piano were +wakened to the music of a hymn, and the voices of many children took up +the air and words. How stately, how comfortable was the melody! How +fresh the youthful voices! Markheim gave ear to it smilingly, as he +sorted out the keys; and his mind was thronged with answerable ideas and +images; church-going children and the pealing of the high organ; children +afield, bathers by the brookside, ramblers on the brambly common, kite- +flyers in the windy and cloud-navigated sky; and then, at another cadence +of the hymn, back again to church, and the somnolence of summer Sundays, +and the high genteel voice of the parson (which he smiled a little to +recall) and the painted Jacobean tombs, and the dim lettering of the Ten +Commandments in the chancel. + +And as he sat thus, at once busy and absent, he was startled to his feet. +A flash of ice, a flash of fire, a bursting gush of blood, went over him, +and then he stood transfixed and thrilling. A step mounted the stair +slowly and steadily, and presently a hand was laid upon the knob, and the +lock clicked, and the door opened. + +Fear held Markheim in a vice. What to expect he knew not, whether the +dead man walking, or the official ministers of human justice, or some +chance witness blindly stumbling in to consign him to the gallows. But +when a face was thrust into the aperture, glanced round the room, looked +at him, nodded and smiled as if in friendly recognition, and then +withdrew again, and the door closed behind it, his fear broke loose from +his control in a hoarse cry. At the sound of this the visitant returned. + +'Did you call me?' he asked, pleasantly, and with that he entered the +room and closed the door behind him. + +Markheim stood and gazed at him with all his eyes. Perhaps there was a +film upon his sight, but the outlines of the new comer seemed to change +and waver like those of the idols in the wavering candle-light of the +shop; and at times he thought he knew him; and at times he thought he +bore a likeness to himself; and always, like a lump of living terror, +there lay in his bosom the conviction that this thing was not of the +earth and not of God. + +And yet the creature had a strange air of the commonplace, as he stood +looking on Markheim with a smile; and when he added: 'You are looking for +the money, I believe?' it was in the tones of everyday politeness. + +Markheim made no answer. + +'I should warn you,' resumed the other, 'that the maid has left her +sweetheart earlier than usual and will soon be here. If Mr. Markheim be +found in this house, I need not describe to him the consequences.' + +'You know me?' cried the murderer. + +The visitor smiled. 'You have long been a favourite of mine,' he said; +'and I have long observed and often sought to help you.' + +'What are you?' cried Markheim: 'the devil?' + +'What I may be,' returned the other, 'cannot affect the service I propose +to render you.' + +'It can,' cried Markheim; 'it does! Be helped by you? No, never; not by +you! You do not know me yet; thank God, you do not know me!' + +'I know you,' replied the visitant, with a sort of kind severity or +rather firmness. 'I know you to the soul.' + +'Know me!' cried Markheim. 'Who can do so? My life is but a travesty +and slander on myself. I have lived to belie my nature. All men do; all +men are better than this disguise that grows about and stifles them. You +see each dragged away by life, like one whom bravos have seized and +muffled in a cloak. If they had their own control--if you could see +their faces, they would be altogether different, they would shine out for +heroes and saints! I am worse than most; myself is more overlaid; my +excuse is known to me and God. But, had I the time, I could disclose +myself.' + +'To me?' inquired the visitant. + +'To you before all,' returned the murderer. 'I supposed you were +intelligent. I thought--since you exist--you would prove a reader of the +heart. And yet you would propose to judge me by my acts! Think of it; +my acts! I was born and I have lived in a land of giants; giants have +dragged me by the wrists since I was born out of my mother--the giants of +circumstance. And you would judge me by my acts! But can you not look +within? Can you not understand that evil is hateful to me? Can you not +see within me the clear writing of conscience, never blurred by any +wilful sophistry, although too often disregarded? Can you not read me +for a thing that surely must be common as humanity--the unwilling +sinner?' + +'All this is very feelingly expressed,' was the reply, 'but it regards me +not. These points of consistency are beyond my province, and I care not +in the least by what compulsion you may have been dragged away, so as you +are but carried in the right direction. But time flies; the servant +delays, looking in the faces of the crowd and at the pictures on the +hoardings, but still she keeps moving nearer; and remember, it is as if +the gallows itself was striding towards you through the Christmas +streets! Shall I help you; I, who know all? Shall I tell you where to +find the money?' + +'For what price?' asked Markheim. + +'I offer you the service for a Christmas gift,' returned the other. + +Markheim could not refrain from smiling with a kind of bitter triumph. +'No,' said he, 'I will take nothing at your hands; if I were dying of +thirst, and it was your hand that put the pitcher to my lips, I should +find the courage to refuse. It may be credulous, but I will do nothing +to commit myself to evil.' + +'I have no objection to a death-bed repentance,' observed the visitant. + +'Because you disbelieve their efficacy!' Markheim cried. + +'I do not say so,' returned the other; 'but I look on these things from a +different side, and when the life is done my interest falls. The man has +lived to serve me, to spread black looks under colour of religion, or to +sow tares in the wheat-field, as you do, in a course of weak compliance +with desire. Now that he draws so near to his deliverance, he can add +but one act of service--to repent, to die smiling, and thus to build up +in confidence and hope the more timorous of my surviving followers. I am +not so hard a master. Try me. Accept my help. Please yourself in life +as you have done hitherto; please yourself more amply, spread your elbows +at the board; and when the night begins to fall and the curtains to be +drawn, I tell you, for your greater comfort, that you will find it even +easy to compound your quarrel with your conscience, and to make a +truckling peace with God. I came but now from such a deathbed, and the +room was full of sincere mourners, listening to the man's last words: and +when I looked into that face, which had been set as a flint against +mercy, I found it smiling with hope.' + +'And do you, then, suppose me such a creature?' asked Markheim. 'Do you +think I have no more generous aspirations than to sin, and sin, and sin, +and, at the last, sneak into heaven? My heart rises at the thought. Is +this, then, your experience of mankind? or is it because you find me with +red hands that you presume such baseness? and is this crime of murder +indeed so impious as to dry up the very springs of good?' + +'Murder is to me no special category,' replied the other. 'All sins are +murder, even as all life is war. I behold your race, like starving +mariners on a raft, plucking crusts out of the hands of famine and +feeding on each other's lives. I follow sins beyond the moment of their +acting; I find in all that the last consequence is death; and to my eyes, +the pretty maid who thwarts her mother with such taking graces on a +question of a ball, drips no less visibly with human gore than such a +murderer as yourself. Do I say that I follow sins? I follow virtues +also; they differ not by the thickness of a nail, they are both scythes +for the reaping angel of Death. Evil, for which I live, consists not in +action but in character. The bad man is dear to me; not the bad act, +whose fruits, if we could follow them far enough down the hurtling +cataract of the ages, might yet be found more blessed than those of the +rarest virtues. And it is not because you have killed a dealer, but +because you are Markheim, that I offer to forward your escape.' + +'I will lay my heart open to you,' answered Markheim. 'This crime on +which you find me is my last. On my way to it I have learned many +lessons; itself is a lesson, a momentous lesson. Hitherto I have been +driven with revolt to what I would not; I was a bond-slave to poverty, +driven and scourged. There are robust virtues that can stand in these +temptations; mine was not so: I had a thirst of pleasure. But to-day, +and out of this deed, I pluck both warning and riches--both the power and +a fresh resolve to be myself. I become in all things a free actor in the +world; I begin to see myself all changed, these hands the agents of good, +this heart at peace. Something comes over me out of the past; something +of what I have dreamed on Sabbath evenings to the sound of the church +organ, of what I forecast when I shed tears over noble books, or talked, +an innocent child, with my mother. There lies my life; I have wandered a +few years, but now I see once more my city of destination.' + +'You are to use this money on the Stock Exchange, I think?' remarked the +visitor; 'and there, if I mistake not, you have already lost some +thousands?' + +'Ah,' said Markheim, 'but this time I have a sure thing.' + +'This time, again, you will lose,' replied the visitor quietly. + +'Ah, but I keep back the half!' cried Markheim. + +'That also you will lose,' said the other. + +The sweat started upon Markheim's brow. 'Well, then, what matter?' he +exclaimed. 'Say it be lost, say I am plunged again in poverty, shall one +part of me, and that the worse, continue until the end to override the +better? Evil and good run strong in me, haling me both ways. I do not +love the one thing, I love all. I can conceive great deeds, +renunciations, martyrdoms; and though I be fallen to such a crime as +murder, pity is no stranger to my thoughts. I pity the poor; who knows +their trials better than myself? I pity and help them; I prize love, I +love honest laughter; there is no good thing nor true thing on earth but +I love it from my heart. And are my vices only to direct my life, and my +virtues to lie without effect, like some passive lumber of the mind? Not +so; good, also, is a spring of acts.' + +But the visitant raised his finger. 'For six-and-thirty years that you +have been in this world,' said be, 'through many changes of fortune and +varieties of humour, I have watched you steadily fall. Fifteen years ago +you would have started at a theft. Three years back you would have +blenched at the name of murder. Is there any crime, is there any cruelty +or meanness, from which you still recoil?--five years from now I shall +detect you in the fact! Downward, downward, lies your way; nor can +anything but death avail to stop you.' + +'It is true,' Markheim said huskily, 'I have in some degree complied with +evil. But it is so with all: the very saints, in the mere exercise of +living, grow less dainty, and take on the tone of their surroundings.' + +'I will propound to you one simple question,' said the other; 'and as you +answer, I shall read to you your moral horoscope. You have grown in many +things more lax; possibly you do right to be so--and at any account, it +is the same with all men. But granting that, are you in any one +particular, however trifling, more difficult to please with your own +conduct, or do you go in all things with a looser rein?' + +'In any one?' repeated Markheim, with an anguish of consideration. 'No,' +he added, with despair, 'in none! I have gone down in all.' + +'Then,' said the visitor, 'content yourself with what you are, for you +will never change; and the words of your part on this stage are +irrevocably written down.' + +Markheim stood for a long while silent, and indeed it was the visitor who +first broke the silence. 'That being so,' he said, 'shall I show you the +money?' + +'And grace?' cried Markheim. + +'Have you not tried it?' returned the other. 'Two or three years ago, +did I not see you on the platform of revival meetings, and was not your +voice the loudest in the hymn?' + +'It is true,' said Markheim; 'and I see clearly what remains for me by +way of duty. I thank you for these lessons from my soul; my eyes are +opened, and I behold myself at last for what I am.' + +At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rang through the house; +and the visitant, as though this were some concerted signal for which he +had been waiting, changed at once in his demeanour. + +'The maid!' he cried. 'She has returned, as I forewarned you, and there +is now before you one more difficult passage. Her master, you must say, +is ill; you must let her in, with an assured but rather serious +countenance--no smiles, no overacting, and I promise you success! Once +the girl within, and the door closed, the same dexterity that has already +rid you of the dealer will relieve you of this last danger in your path. +Thenceforward you have the whole evening--the whole night, if needful--to +ransack the treasures of the house and to make good your safety. This is +help that comes to you with the mask of danger. Up!' he cried; 'up, +friend; your life hangs trembling in the scales: up, and act!' + +Markheim steadily regarded his counsellor. 'If I be condemned to evil +acts,' he said, 'there is still one door of freedom open--I can cease +from action. If my life be an ill thing, I can lay it down. Though I +be, as you say truly, at the beck of every small temptation, I can yet, +by one decisive gesture, place myself beyond the reach of all. My love +of good is damned to barrenness; it may, and let it be! But I have still +my hatred of evil; and from that, to your galling disappointment, you +shall see that I can draw both energy and courage.' + +The features of the visitor began to undergo a wonderful and lovely +change: they brightened and softened with a tender triumph, and, even as +they brightened, faded and dislimned. But Markheim did not pause to +watch or understand the transformation. He opened the door and went +downstairs very slowly, thinking to himself. His past went soberly +before him; he beheld it as it was, ugly and strenuous like a dream, +random as chance-medley--a scene of defeat. Life, as he thus reviewed +it, tempted him no longer; but on the further side he perceived a quiet +haven for his bark. He paused in the passage, and looked into the shop, +where the candle still burned by the dead body. It was strangely silent. +Thoughts of the dealer swarmed into his mind, as he stood gazing. And +then the bell once more broke out into impatient clamour. + +He confronted the maid upon the threshold with something like a smile. + +'You had better go for the police,' said he: 'I have killed your master.' + + + + +THRAWN JANET + + +The Reverend Murdoch Soulis was long minister of the moorland parish of +Balweary, in the vale of Dule. A severe, bleak-faced old man, dreadful +to his hearers, he dwelt in the last years of his life, without relative +or servant or any human company, in the small and lonely manse under the +Hanging Shaw. In spite of the iron composure of his features, his eye +was wild, scared, and uncertain; and when he dwelt, in private +admonitions, on the future of the impenitent, it seemed as if his eye +pierced through the storms of time to the terrors of eternity. Many +young persons, coming to prepare themselves against the season of the +Holy Communion, were dreadfully affected by his talk. He had a sermon on +lst Peter, v. and 8th, 'The devil as a roaring lion,' on the Sunday after +every seventeenth of August, and he was accustomed to surpass himself +upon that text both by the appalling nature of the matter and the terror +of his bearing in the pulpit. The children were frightened into fits, +and the old looked more than usually oracular, and were, all that day, +full of those hints that Hamlet deprecated. The manse itself, where it +stood by the water of Dule among some thick trees, with the Shaw +overhanging it on the one side, and on the other many cold, moorish +hilltops rising towards the sky, had begun, at a very early period of Mr. +Soulis's ministry, to be avoided in the dusk hours by all who valued +themselves upon their prudence; and guidmen sitting at the clachan +alehouse shook their heads together at the thought of passing late by +that uncanny neighbourhood. There was one spot, to be more particular, +which was regarded with especial awe. The manse stood between the high +road and the water of Dule, with a gable to each; its back was towards +the kirk-town of Balweary, nearly half a mile away; in front of it, a +bare garden, hedged with thorn, occupied the land between the river and +the road. The house was two stories high, with two large rooms on each. +It opened not directly on the garden, but on a causewayed path, or +passage, giving on the road on the one hand, and closed on the other by +the tall willows and elders that bordered on the stream. And it was this +strip of causeway that enjoyed among the young parishioners of Balweary +so infamous a reputation. The minister walked there often after dark, +sometimes groaning aloud in the instancy of his unspoken prayers; and +when he was from home, and the manse door was locked, the more daring +schoolboys ventured, with beating hearts, to 'follow my leader' across +that legendary spot. + +This atmosphere of terror, surrounding, as it did, a man of God of +spotless character and orthodoxy, was a common cause of wonder and +subject of inquiry among the few strangers who were led by chance or +business into that unknown, outlying country. But many even of the +people of the parish were ignorant of the strange events which had marked +the first year of Mr. Soulis's ministrations; and among those who were +better informed, some were naturally reticent, and others shy of that +particular topic. Now and again, only, one of the older folk would warm +into courage over his third tumbler, and recount the cause of the +minister's strange looks and solitary life. + +* * * * * + +Fifty years syne, when Mr. Soulis cam first into Ba'weary, he was still a +young man--a callant, the folk said--fu' o' book learnin' and grand at +the exposition, but, as was natural in sae young a man, wi' nae leevin' +experience in religion. The younger sort were greatly taken wi' his +gifts and his gab; but auld, concerned, serious men and women were moved +even to prayer for the young man, whom they took to be a self-deceiver, +and the parish that was like to be sae ill-supplied. It was before the +days o' the moderates--weary fa' them; but ill things are like guid--they +baith come bit by bit, a pickle at a time; and there were folk even then +that said the Lord had left the college professors to their ain devices, +an' the lads that went to study wi' them wad hae done mair and better +sittin' in a peat-bog, like their forbears of the persecution, wi' a +Bible under their oxter and a speerit o' prayer in their heart. There +was nae doubt, onyway, but that Mr. Soulis had been ower lang at the +college. He was careful and troubled for mony things besides the ae +thing needful. He had a feck o' books wi' him--mair than had ever been +seen before in a' that presbytery; and a sair wark the carrier had wi' +them, for they were a' like to have smoored in the Deil's Hag between +this and Kilmackerlie. They were books o' divinity, to be sure, or so +they ca'd them; but the serious were o' opinion there was little service +for sae mony, when the hail o' God's Word would gang in the neuk of a +plaid. Then he wad sit half the day and half the nicht forbye, which was +scant decent--writin', nae less; and first, they were feared he wad read +his sermons; and syne it proved he was writin' a book himsel', which was +surely no fittin' for ane of his years an' sma' experience. + +Onyway it behoved him to get an auld, decent wife to keep the manse for +him an' see to his bit denners; and he was recommended to an auld +limmer--Janet M'Clour, they ca'd her--and sae far left to himsel' as to +be ower persuaded. There was mony advised him to the contrar, for Janet +was mair than suspeckit by the best folk in Ba'weary. Lang or that, she +had had a wean to a dragoon; she hadnae come forrit {140} for maybe +thretty year; and bairns had seen her mumblin' to hersel' up on Key's +Loan in the gloamin', whilk was an unco time an' place for a God-fearin' +woman. Howsoever, it was the laird himsel' that had first tauld the +minister o' Janet; and in thae days he wad have gane a far gate to +pleesure the laird. When folk tauld him that Janet was sib to the deil, +it was a' superstition by his way of it; an' when they cast up the Bible +to him an' the witch of Endor, he wad threep it doun their thrapples that +thir days were a' gane by, and the deil was mercifully restrained. + +Weel, when it got about the clachan that Janet M'Clour was to be servant +at the manse, the folk were fair mad wi' her an' him thegether; and some +o' the guidwives had nae better to dae than get round her door cheeks and +chairge her wi' a' that was ken't again her, frae the sodger's bairn to +John Tamson's twa kye. She was nae great speaker; folk usually let her +gang her ain gate, an' she let them gang theirs, wi', neither Fair-guid- +een nor Fair-guid-day; but when she buckled to, she had a tongue to deave +the miller. Up she got, an' there wasnae an auld story in Ba'weary but +she gart somebody lowp for it that day; they couldnae say ae thing but +she could say twa to it; till, at the hinder end, the guidwives up and +claught haud of her, and clawed the coats aff her back, and pu'd her doun +the clachan to the water o' Dule, to see if she were a witch or no, soum +or droun. The carline skirled till ye could hear her at the Hangin' +Shaw, and she focht like ten; there was mony a guidwife bure the mark of +her neist day an' mony a lang day after; and just in the hettest o' the +collieshangie, wha suld come up (for his sins) but the new minister. + +'Women,' said he (and he had a grand voice), 'I charge you in the Lord's +name to let her go.' + +Janet ran to him--she was fair wud wi' terror--an' clang to him, an' +prayed him, for Christ's sake, save her frae the cummers; an' they, for +their pairt, tauld him a' that was ken't, and maybe mair. + +'Woman,' says he to Janet, 'is this true?' + +'As the Lord sees me,' says she, 'as the Lord made me, no a word o't. +Forbye the bairn,' says she, 'I've been a decent woman a' my days.' + +'Will you,' says Mr. Soulis, 'in the name of God, and before me, His +unworthy minister, renounce the devil and his works?' + +Weel, it wad appear that when he askit that, she gave a girn that fairly +frichtit them that saw her, an' they could hear her teeth play dirl +thegether in her chafts; but there was naething for it but the ae way or +the ither; an' Janet lifted up her hand and renounced the deil before +them a'. + +'And now,' says Mr. Soulis to the guidwives, 'home with ye, one and all, +and pray to God for His forgiveness.' + +And he gied Janet his arm, though she had little on her but a sark, and +took her up the clachan to her ain door like a leddy of the land; an' her +scrieghin' and laughin' as was a scandal to be heard. + +There were mony grave folk lang ower their prayers that nicht; but when +the morn cam' there was sic a fear fell upon a' Ba'weary that the bairns +hid theirsels, and even the men folk stood and keekit frae their doors. +For there was Janet comin' doun the clachan--her or her likeness, nane +could tell--wi' her neck thrawn, and her heid on ae side, like a body +that has been hangit, and a girn on her face like an unstreakit corp. By +an' by they got used wi' it, and even speered at her to ken what was +wrang; but frae that day forth she couldnae speak like a Christian woman, +but slavered and played click wi' her teeth like a pair o' shears; and +frae that day forth the name o' God cam never on her lips. Whiles she +wad try to say it, but it michtnae be. Them that kenned best said least; +but they never gied that Thing the name o' Janet M'Clour; for the auld +Janet, by their way o't, was in muckle hell that day. But the minister +was neither to haud nor to bind; he preached about naething but the +folk's cruelty that had gi'en her a stroke of the palsy; he skelpt the +bairns that meddled her; and he had her up to the manse that same nicht, +and dwalled there a' his lane wi' her under the Hangin' Shaw. + +Weel, time gaed by: and the idler sort commenced to think mair lichtly o' +that black business. The minister was weel thocht o'; he was aye late at +the writing, folk wad see his can'le doon by the Dule water after twal' +at e'en; and he seemed pleased wi' himsel' and upsitten as at first, +though a' body could see that he was dwining. As for Janet she cam an' +she gaed; if she didnae speak muckle afore, it was reason she should +speak less then; she meddled naebody; but she was an eldritch thing to +see, an' nane wad hae mistrysted wi' her for Ba'weary glebe. + +About the end o' July there cam' a spell o' weather, the like o't never +was in that country side; it was lown an' het an' heartless; the herds +couldnae win up the Black Hill, the bairns were ower weariet to play; an' +yet it was gousty too, wi' claps o' het wund that rumm'led in the glens, +and bits o' shouers that slockened naething. We aye thocht it but to +thun'er on the morn; but the morn cam, an' the morn's morning, and it was +aye the same uncanny weather, sair on folks and bestial. Of a' that were +the waur, nane suffered like Mr. Soulis; he could neither sleep nor eat, +he tauld his elders; an' when he wasnae writin' at his weary book, he wad +be stravaguin' ower a' the countryside like a man possessed, when a' body +else was blythe to keep caller ben the house. + +Abune Hangin' Shaw, in the bield o' the Black Hill, there's a bit +enclosed grund wi' an iron yett; and it seems, in the auld days, that was +the kirkyaird o' Ba'weary, and consecrated by the Papists before the +blessed licht shone upon the kingdom. It was a great howff o' Mr. +Soulis's, onyway; there he would sit an' consider his sermons; and indeed +it's a bieldy bit. Weel, as he cam ower the wast end o' the Black Hill, +ae day, he saw first twa, an syne fower, an' syne seeven corbie craws +fleein' round an' round abune the auld kirkyaird. They flew laigh and +heavy, an' squawked to ither as they gaed; and it was clear to Mr. Soulis +that something had put them frae their ordinar. He wasnae easy fleyed, +an' gaed straucht up to the wa's; an' what suld he find there but a man, +or the appearance of a man, sittin' in the inside upon a grave. He was +of a great stature, an' black as hell, and his e'en were singular to see. +{144} Mr. Soulis had heard tell o' black men, mony's the time; but there +was something unco about this black man that daunted him. Het as he was, +he took a kind o' cauld grue in the marrow o' his banes; but up he spak +for a' that; an' says he: 'My friend, are you a stranger in this place?' +The black man answered never a word; he got upon his feet, an' begude to +hirsle to the wa' on the far side; but he aye lookit at the minister; an' +the minister stood an' lookit back; till a' in a meenute the black man +was ower the wa' an' rinnin' for the bield o' the trees. Mr. Soulis, he +hardly kenned why, ran after him; but he was sair forjaskit wi' his walk +an' the het, unhalesome weather; and rin as he likit, he got nae mair +than a glisk o' the black man amang the birks, till he won doun to the +foot o' the hill-side, an' there he saw him ance mair, gaun, hap, step, +an' lowp, ower Dule water to the manse. + +Mr. Soulis wasnae weel pleased that this fearsome gangrel suld mak' sae +free wi' Ba'weary manse; an' he ran the harder, an', wet shoon, ower the +burn, an' up the walk; but the deil a black man was there to see. He +stepped out upon the road, but there was naebody there; he gaed a' ower +the gairden, but na, nae black man. At the hinder end, and a bit feared +as was but natural, he lifted the hasp and into the manse; and there was +Janet M'Clour before his een, wi' her thrawn craig, and nane sae pleased +to see him. And he aye minded sinsyne, when first he set his een upon +her, he had the same cauld and deidly grue. + +'Janet,' says he, 'have you seen a black man?' + +'A black man?' quo' she. 'Save us a'! Ye're no wise, minister. There's +nae black man in a Ba'weary.' + +But she didnae speak plain, ye maun understand; but yam-yammered, like a +powney wi' the bit in its moo. + +'Weel,' says he, 'Janet, if there was nae black man, I have spoken with +the Accuser of the Brethren.' + +And he sat down like ane wi' a fever, an' his teeth chittered in his +heid. + +'Hoots,' says she, 'think shame to yoursel', minister;' an' gied him a +drap brandy that she keept aye by her. + +Syne Mr. Soulis gaed into his study amang a' his books. It's a lang, +laigh, mirk chalmer, perishin' cauld in winter, an' no very dry even in +the tap o' the simmer, for the manse stands near the burn. Sae doun he +sat, and thocht of a' that had come an' gane since he was in Ba'weary, +an' his hame, an' the days when he was a bairn an' ran daffin' on the +braes; and that black man aye ran in his heid like the ower-come of a +sang. Aye the mair he thocht, the mair he thocht o' the black man. He +tried the prayer, an' the words wouldnae come to him; an' he tried, they +say, to write at his book, but he could nae mak' nae mair o' that. There +was whiles he thocht the black man was at his oxter, an' the swat stood +upon him cauld as well-water; and there was other whiles, when he cam to +himsel' like a christened bairn and minded naething. + +The upshot was that he gaed to the window an' stood glowrin' at Dule +water. The trees are unco thick, an' the water lies deep an' black under +the manse; an' there was Janct washin' the cla'es wi' her coats kilted. +She had her back to the minister, an' he, for his pairt, hardly kenned +what he was lookin' at. Syne she turned round, an' shawed her face; Mr. +Soulis had the same cauld grue as twice that day afore, an' it was borne +in upon him what folk said, that Janet was deid lang syne, an' this was a +bogle in her clay-cauld flesh. He drew back a pickle and he scanned her +narrowly. She was tramp-trampin' in the cla'es, croonin' to hersel'; and +eh! Gude guide us, but it was a fearsome face. Whiles she sang louder, +but there was nae man born o' woman that could tell the words o' her +sang; an' whiles she lookit side-lang doun, but there was naething there +for her to look at. There gaed a scunner through the flesh upon his +banes; and that was Heeven's advertisement. But Mr. Soulis just blamed +himsel', he said, to think sae ill of a puir, auld afflicted wife that +hadnae a freend forbye himsel'; an' he put up a bit prayer for him and +her, an' drank a little caller water--for his heart rose again the +meat--an' gaed up to his naked bed in the gloaming. + +That was a nicht that has never been forgotten in Ba'weary, the nicht o' +the seeventeenth of August, seventeen hun'er' an twal'. It had been het +afore, as I hae said, but that nicht it was hetter than ever. The sun +gaed doun amang unco-lookin' clouds; it fell as mirk as the pit; no a +star, no a breath o' wund; ye couldnae see your han' afore your face, and +even the auld folk cuist the covers frae their beds and lay pechin' for +their breath. Wi' a' that he had upon his mind, it was gey and unlikely +Mr. Soulis wad get muckle sleep. He lay an' he tummled; the gude, caller +bed that he got into brunt his very banes; whiles he slept, and whiles he +waukened; whiles he heard the time o' nicht, and whiles a tyke yowlin' up +the muir, as if somebody was deid; whiles he thocht he heard bogles +claverin' in his lug, an' whiles he saw spunkies in the room. He +behoved, he judged, to be sick; an' sick he was--little he jaloosed the +sickness. + +At the hinder end, he got a clearness in his mind, sat up in his sark on +the bed-side, and fell thinkin' ance mair o' the black man an' Janet. He +couldnae weel tell how--maybe it was the cauld to his feet--but it cam' +in upon him wi' a spate that there was some connection between thir twa, +an' that either or baith o' them were bogles. And just at that moment, +in Janet's room, which was neist to his, there cam' a stramp o' feet as +if men were wars'lin', an' then a loud bang; an' then a wund gaed +reishling round the fower quarters of the house; an' then a' was aince +mair as seelent as the grave. + +Mr. Soulis was feared for neither man nor deevil. He got his tinder-box, +an' lit a can'le, an' made three steps o't ower to Janet's door. It was +on the hasp, an' he pushed it open, an' keeked bauldly in. It was a big +room, as big as the minister's ain, an' plenished wi' grand, auld, solid +gear, for he had naething else. There was a fower-posted bed wi' auld +tapestry; and a braw cabinet of aik, that was fu' o' the minister's +divinity books, an' put there to be out o' the gate; an' a wheen duds o' +Janet's lying here and there about the floor. But nae Janet could Mr. +Soulis see; nor ony sign of a contention. In he gaed (an' there's few +that wad ha'e followed him) an' lookit a' round, an' listened. But there +was naethin' to be heard, neither inside the manse nor in a' Ba'weary +parish, an' naethin' to be seen but the muckle shadows turnin' round the +can'le. An' then a' at aince, the minister's heart played dunt an' stood +stock-still; an' a cauld wund blew amang the hairs o' his heid. Whaten a +weary sicht was that for the puir man's een! For there was Janat hangin' +frae a nail beside the auld aik cabinet: her heid aye lay on her +shoother, her een were steeked, the tongue projekit frae her mouth, and +her heels were twa feet clear abune the floor. + +'God forgive us all!' thocht Mr. Soulis; 'poor Janet's dead.' + +He cam' a step nearer to the corp; an' then his heart fair whammled in +his inside. For by what cantrip it wad ill-beseem a man to judge, she +was hingin' frae a single nail an' by a single wursted thread for darnin' +hose. + +It's an awfu' thing to be your lane at nicht wi' siccan prodigies o' +darkness; but Mr. Soulis was strong in the Lord. He turned an' gaed his +ways oot o' that room, and lockit the door ahint him; and step by step, +doon the stairs, as heavy as leed; and set doon the can'le on the table +at the stairfoot. He couldnae pray, he couldnae think, he was dreepin' +wi' caul' swat, an' naething could he hear but the dunt-dunt-duntin' o' +his ain heart. He micht maybe have stood there an hour, or maybe twa, he +minded sae little; when a' o' a sudden, he heard a laigh, uncanny steer +upstairs; a foot gaed to an' fro in the cha'mer whaur the corp was +hingin'; syne the door was opened, though he minded weel that he had +lockit it; an' syne there was a step upon the landin', an' it seemed to +him as if the corp was lookin' ower the rail and doun upon him whaur he +stood. + +He took up the can'le again (for he couldnae want the licht), and as +saftly as ever he could, gaed straucht out o' the manse an' to the far +end o' the causeway. It was aye pit-mirk; the flame o' the can'le, when +he set it on the grund, brunt steedy and clear as in a room; naething +moved, but the Dule water seepin' and sabbin' doon the glen, an' yon +unhaly footstep that cam' ploddin doun the stairs inside the manse. He +kenned the foot over weel, for it was Janet's; and at ilka step that cam' +a wee thing nearer, the cauld got deeper in his vitals. He commanded his +soul to Him that made an' keepit him; 'and O Lord,' said he, 'give me +strength this night to war against the powers of evil.' + +By this time the foot was comin' through the passage for the door; he +could hear a hand skirt alang the wa', as if the fearsome thing was +feelin' for its way. The saughs tossed an' maned thegether, a lang sigh +cam' ower the hills, the flame o' the can'le was blawn aboot; an' there +stood the corp of Thrawn Janet, wi' her grogram goun an' her black mutch, +wi' the heid aye upon the shouther, an' the girn still upon the face +o't--leevin', ye wad hae said--deid, as Mr. Soulis weel kenned--upon the +threshold o' the manse. + +It's a strange thing that the saul of man should be that thirled into his +perishable body; but the minister saw that, an' his heart didnae break. + +She didnae stand there lang; she began to move again an' cam' slowly +towards Mr. Soulis whaur he stood under the saughs. A' the life o' his +body, a' the strength o' his speerit, were glowerin' frae his een. It +seemed she was gaun to speak, but wanted words, an' made a sign wi' the +left hand. There cam' a clap o' wund, like a cat's fuff; oot gaed the +can'le, the saughs skrieghed like folk; an' Mr. Soulis kenned that, live +or die, this was the end o't. + +'Witch, beldame, devil!' he cried, 'I charge you, by the power of God, +begone--if you be dead, to the grave--if you be damned, to hell.' + +An' at that moment the Lord's ain hand out o' the Heevens struck the +Horror whaur it stood; the auld, deid, desecrated corp o' the witch-wife, +sae lang keepit frae the grave and hirsled round by deils, lowed up like +a brunstane spunk and fell in ashes to the grund; the thunder followed, +peal on dirling peal, the rairing rain upon the back o' that; and Mr. +Soulis lowped through the garden hedge, and ran, wi' skelloch upon +skelloch, for the clachan. + +That same mornin', John Christie saw the Black Man pass the Muckle Cairn +as it was chappin' six; before eicht, he gaed by the change-house at +Knockdow; an' no lang after, Sandy M'Lellan saw him gaun linkin' doun the +braes frae Kilmackerlie. There's little doubt but it was him that +dwalled sae lang in Janet's body; but he was awa' at last; and sinsyne +the deil has never fashed us in Ba'weary. + +But it was a sair dispensation for the minister; lang, lang he lay ravin' +in his bed; and frae that hour to this, he was the man ye ken the day. + + + + +OLALLA + + +'Now,' said the doctor, 'my part is done, and, I may say, with some +vanity, well done. It remains only to get you out of this cold and +poisonous city, and to give you two months of a pure air and an easy +conscience. The last is your affair. To the first I think I can help +you. It fells indeed rather oddly; it was but the other day the Padre +came in from the country; and as he and I are old friends, although of +contrary professions, he applied to me in a matter of distress among some +of his parishioners. This was a family--but you are ignorant of Spain, +and even the names of our grandees are hardly known to you; suffice it, +then, that they were once great people, and are now fallen to the brink +of destitution. Nothing now belongs to them but the residencia, and +certain leagues of desert mountain, in the greater part of which not even +a goat could support life. But the house is a fine old place, and stands +at a great height among the hills, and most salubriously; and I had no +sooner heard my friend's tale, than I remembered you. I told him I had a +wounded officer, wounded in the good cause, who was now able to make a +change; and I proposed that his friends should take you for a lodger. +Instantly the Padre's face grew dark, as I had maliciously foreseen it +would. It was out of the question, he said. Then let them starve, said +I, for I have no sympathy with tatterdemalion pride. There-upon we +separated, not very content with one another; but yesterday, to my +wonder, the Padre returned and made a submission: the difficulty, he +said, he had found upon enquiry to be less than he had feared; or, in +other words, these proud people had put their pride in their pocket. I +closed with the offer; and, subject to your approval, I have taken rooms +for you in the residencia. The air of these mountains will renew your +blood; and the quiet in which you will there live is worth all the +medicines in the world.' + +'Doctor,' said I, 'you have been throughout my good angel, and your +advice is a command. But tell me, if you please, something of the family +with which I am to reside.' + +'I am coming to that,' replied my friend; 'and, indeed, there is a +difficulty in the way. These beggars are, as I have said, of very high +descent and swollen with the most baseless vanity; they have lived for +some generations in a growing isolation, drawing away, on either hand, +from the rich who had now become too high for them, and from the poor, +whom they still regarded as too low; and even to-day, when poverty forces +them to unfasten their door to a guest, they cannot do so without a most +ungracious stipulation. You are to remain, they say, a stranger; they +will give you attendance, but they refuse from the first the idea of the +smallest intimacy.' + +I will not deny that I was piqued, and perhaps the feeling strengthened +my desire to go, for I was confident that I could break down that barrier +if I desired. 'There is nothing offensive in such a stipulation,' said +I; 'and I even sympathise with the feeling that inspired it.' + +'It is true they have never seen you,' returned the doctor politely; 'and +if they knew you were the handsomest and the most pleasant man that ever +came from England (where I am told that handsome men are common, but +pleasant ones not so much so), they would doubtless make you welcome with +a better grace. But since you take the thing so well, it matters not. To +me, indeed, it seems discourteous. But you will find yourself the +gainer. The family will not much tempt you. A mother, a son, and a +daughter; an old woman said to be halfwitted, a country lout, and a +country girl, who stands very high with her confessor, and is, +therefore,' chuckled the physician, 'most likely plain; there is not much +in that to attract the fancy of a dashing officer.' + +'And yet you say they are high-born,' I objected. + +'Well, as to that, I should distinguish,' returned the doctor. 'The +mother is; not so the children. The mother was the last representative +of a princely stock, degenerate both in parts and fortune. Her father +was not only poor, he was mad: and the girl ran wild about the residencia +till his death. Then, much of the fortune having died with him, and the +family being quite extinct, the girl ran wilder than ever, until at last +she married, Heaven knows whom, a muleteer some say, others a smuggler; +while there are some who uphold there was no marriage at all, and that +Felipe and Olalla are bastards. The union, such as it was, was +tragically dissolved some years ago; but they live in such seclusion, and +the country at that time was in so much disorder, that the precise manner +of the man's end is known only to the priest--if even to him.' + +'I begin to think I shall have strange experiences,' said I. + +'I would not romance, if I were you,' replied the doctor; 'you will find, +I fear, a very grovelling and commonplace reality. Felipe, for instance, +I have seen. And what am I to say? He is very rustic, very cunning, +very loutish, and, I should say, an innocent; the others are probably to +match. No, no, senor commandante, you must seek congenial society among +the great sights of our mountains; and in these at least, if you are at +all a lover of the works of nature, I promise you will not be +disappointed.' + +The next day Felipe came for me in a rough country cart, drawn by a mule; +and a little before the stroke of noon, after I had said farewell to the +doctor, the innkeeper, and different good souls who had befriended me +during my sickness, we set forth out of the city by the Eastern gate, and +began to ascend into the Sierra. I had been so long a prisoner, since I +was left behind for dying after the loss of the convoy, that the mere +smell of the earth set me smiling. The country through which we went was +wild and rocky, partially covered with rough woods, now of the cork-tree, +and now of the great Spanish chestnut, and frequently intersected by the +beds of mountain torrents. The sun shone, the wind rustled joyously; and +we had advanced some miles, and the city had already shrunk into an +inconsiderable knoll upon the plain behind us, before my attention began +to be diverted to the companion of my drive. To the eye, he seemed but a +diminutive, loutish, well-made country lad, such as the doctor had +described, mighty quick and active, but devoid of any culture; and this +first impression was with most observers final. What began to strike me +was his familiar, chattering talk; so strangely inconsistent with the +terms on which I was to be received; and partly from his imperfect +enunciation, partly from the sprightly incoherence of the matter, so very +difficult to follow clearly without an effort of the mind. It is true I +had before talked with persons of a similar mental constitution; persons +who seemed to live (as he did) by the senses, taken and possessed by the +visual object of the moment and unable to discharge their minds of that +impression. His seemed to me (as I sat, distantly giving ear) a kind of +conversation proper to drivers, who pass much of their time in a great +vacancy of the intellect and threading the sights of a familiar country. +But this was not the case of Felipe; by his own account, he was a home- +keeper; 'I wish I was there now,' he said; and then, spying a tree by the +wayside, he broke off to tell me that he had once seen a crow among its +branches. + +'A crow?' I repeated, struck by the ineptitude of the remark, and +thinking I had heard imperfectly. + +But by this time he was already filled with a new idea; hearkening with a +rapt intentness, his head on one side, his face puckered; and he struck +me rudely, to make me hold my peace. Then he smiled and shook his head. + +'What did you hear?' I asked. + +'O, it is all right,' he said; and began encouraging his mule with cries +that echoed unhumanly up the mountain walls. + +I looked at him more closely. He was superlatively well-built, light, +and lithe and strong; he was well-featured; his yellow eyes were very +large, though, perhaps, not very expressive; take him altogether, he was +a pleasant-looking lad, and I had no fault to find with him, beyond that +he was of a dusky hue, and inclined to hairyness; two characteristics +that I disliked. It was his mind that puzzled, and yet attracted me. The +doctor's phrase--an innocent--came back to me; and I was wondering if +that were, after all, the true description, when the road began to go +down into the narrow and naked chasm of a torrent. The waters thundered +tumultuously in the bottom; and the ravine was filled full of the sound, +the thin spray, and the claps of wind, that accompanied their descent. +The scene was certainly impressive; but the road was in that part very +securely walled in; the mule went steadily forward; and I was astonished +to perceive the paleness of terror in the face of my companion. The +voice of that wild river was inconstant, now sinking lower as if in +weariness, now doubling its hoarse tones; momentary freshets seemed to +swell its volume, sweeping down the gorge, raving and booming against the +barrier walls; and I observed it was at each of these accessions to the +clamour, that my driver more particularly winced and blanched. Some +thoughts of Scottish superstition and the river Kelpie, passed across my +mind; I wondered if perchance the like were prevalent in that part of +Spain; and turning to Felipe, sought to draw him out. + +'What is the matter?' I asked. + +'O, I am afraid,' he replied. + +'Of what are you afraid?' I returned. 'This seems one of the safest +places on this very dangerous road.' + +'It makes a noise,' he said, with a simplicity of awe that set my doubts +at rest. + +The lad was but a child in intellect; his mind was like his body, active +and swift, but stunted in development; and I began from that time forth +to regard him with a measure of pity, and to listen at first with +indulgence, and at last even with pleasure, to his disjointed babble. + +By about four in the afternoon we had crossed the summit of the mountain +line, said farewell to the western sunshine, and began to go down upon +the other side, skirting the edge of many ravines and moving through the +shadow of dusky woods. There rose upon all sides the voice of falling +water, not condensed and formidable as in the gorge of the river, but +scattered and sounding gaily and musically from glen to glen. Here, too, +the spirits of my driver mended, and he began to sing aloud in a falsetto +voice, and with a singular bluntness of musical perception, never true +either to melody or key, but wandering at will, and yet somehow with an +effect that was natural and pleasing, like that of the of birds. As the +dusk increased, I fell more and more under the spell of this artless +warbling, listening and waiting for some articulate air, and still +disappointed; and when at last I asked him what it was he sang--'O,' +cried he, 'I am just singing!' Above all, I was taken with a trick he +had of unweariedly repeating the same note at little intervals; it was +not so monotonous as you would think, or, at least, not disagreeable; and +it seemed to breathe a wonderful contentment with what is, such as we +love to fancy in the attitude of trees, or the quiescence of a pool. + +Night had fallen dark before we came out upon a plateau, and drew up a +little after, before a certain lump of superior blackness which I could +only conjecture to be the residencia. Here, my guide, getting down from +the cart, hooted and whistled for a long time in vain; until at last an +old peasant man came towards us from somewhere in the surrounding dark, +carrying a candle in his hand. By the light of this I was able to +perceive a great arched doorway of a Moorish character: it was closed by +iron-studded gates, in one of the leaves of which Felipe opened a wicket. +The peasant carried off the cart to some out-building; but my guide and I +passed through the wicket, which was closed again behind us; and by the +glimmer of the candle, passed through a court, up a stone stair, along a +section of an open gallery, and up more stairs again, until we came at +last to the door of a great and somewhat bare apartment. This room, +which I understood was to be mine, was pierced by three windows, lined +with some lustrous wood disposed in panels, and carpeted with the skins +of many savage animals. A bright fire burned in the chimney, and shed +abroad a changeful flicker; close up to the blaze there was drawn a +table, laid for supper; and in the far end a bed stood ready. I was +pleased by these preparations, and said so to Felipe; and he, with the +same simplicity of disposition that I held already remarked in him, +warmly re-echoed my praises. 'A fine room,' he said; 'a very fine room. +And fire, too; fire is good; it melts out the pleasure in your bones. And +the bed,' he continued, carrying over the candle in that direction--'see +what fine sheets--how soft, how smooth, smooth;' and he passed his hand +again and again over their texture, and then laid down his head and +rubbed his cheeks among them with a grossness of content that somehow +offended me. I took the candle from his hand (for I feared he would set +the bed on fire) and walked back to the supper-table, where, perceiving a +measure of wine, I poured out a cup and called to him to come and drink +of it. He started to his feet at once and ran to me with a strong +expression of hope; but when he saw the wine, he visibly shuddered. + +'Oh, no,' he said, 'not that; that is for you. I hate it.' + +'Very well, Senor,' said I; 'then I will drink to your good health, and +to the prosperity of your house and family. Speaking of which,' I added, +after I had drunk, 'shall I not have the pleasure of laying my +salutations in person at the feet of the Senora, your mother?' + +But at these words all the childishness passed out of his face, and was +succeeded by a look of indescribable cunning and secrecy. He backed away +from me at the same time, as though I were an animal about to leap or +some dangerous fellow with a weapon, and when he had got near the door, +glowered at me sullenly with contracted pupils. 'No,' he said at last, +and the next moment was gone noiselessly out of the room; and I heard his +footing die away downstairs as light as rainfall, and silence closed over +the house. + +After I had supped I drew up the table nearer to the bed and began to +prepare for rest; but in the new position of the light, I was struck by a +picture on the wall. It represented a woman, still young. To judge by +her costume and the mellow unity which reigned over the canvas, she had +long been dead; to judge by the vivacity of the attitude, the eyes and +the features, I might have been beholding in a mirror the image of life. +Her figure was very slim and strong, and of a just proportion; red +tresses lay like a crown over her brow; her eyes, of a very golden brown, +held mine with a look; and her face, which was perfectly shaped, was yet +marred by a cruel, sullen, and sensual expression. Something in both +face and figure, something exquisitely intangible, like the echo of an +echo, suggested the features and bearing of my guide; and I stood awhile, +unpleasantly attracted and wondering at the oddity of the resemblance. +The common, carnal stock of that race, which had been originally designed +for such high dames as the one now looking on me from the canvas, had +fallen to baser uses, wearing country clothes, sitting on the shaft and +holding the reins of a mule cart, to bring home a lodger. Perhaps an +actual link subsisted; perhaps some scruple of the delicate flesh that +was once clothed upon with the satin and brocade of the dead lady, now +winced at the rude contact of Felipe's frieze. + +The first light of the morning shone full upon the portrait, and, as I +lay awake, my eyes continued to dwell upon it with growing complacency; +its beauty crept about my heart insidiously, silencing my scruples one +after another; and while I knew that to love such a woman were to sign +and seal one's own sentence of degeneration, I still knew that, if she +were alive, I should love her. Day after day the double knowledge of her +wickedness and of my weakness grew clearer. She came to be the heroine +of many day-dreams, in which her eyes led on to, and sufficiently +rewarded, crimes. She cast a dark shadow on my fancy; and when I was out +in the free air of heaven, taking vigorous exercise and healthily +renewing the current of my blood, it was often a glad thought to me that +my enchantress was safe in the grave, her wand of beauty broken, her lips +closed in silence, her philtre spilt. And yet I had a half-lingering +terror that she might not be dead after all, but re-arisen in the body of +some descendant. + +Felipe served my meals in my own apartment; and his resemblance to the +portrait haunted me. At times it was not; at times, upon some change of +attitude or flash of expression, it would leap out upon me like a ghost. +It was above all in his ill tempers that the likeness triumphed. He +certainly liked me; he was proud of my notice, which he sought to engage +by many simple and childlike devices; he loved to sit close before my +fire, talking his broken talk or singing his odd, endless, wordless +songs, and sometimes drawing his hand over my clothes with an +affectionate manner of caressing that never failed to cause in me an +embarrassment of which I was ashamed. But for all that, he was capable +of flashes of causeless anger and fits of sturdy sullenness. At a word +of reproof, I have seen him upset the dish of which I was about to eat, +and this not surreptitiously, but with defiance; and similarly at a hint +of inquisition. I was not unnaturally curious, being in a strange place +and surrounded by staring people; but at the shadow of a question, he +shrank back, lowering and dangerous. Then it was that, for a fraction of +a second, this rough lad might have been the brother of the lady in the +frame. But these humours were swift to pass; and the resemblance died +along with them. + +In these first days I saw nothing of any one but Felipe, unless the +portrait is to be counted; and since the lad was plainly of weak mind, +and had moments of passion, it may be wondered that I bore his dangerous +neighbourhood with equanimity. As a matter of fact, it was for some time +irksome; but it happened before long that I obtained over him so complete +a mastery as set my disquietude at rest. + +It fell in this way. He was by nature slothful, and much of a vagabond, +and yet he kept by the house, and not only waited upon my wants, but +laboured every day in the garden or small farm to the south of the +residencia. Here he would be joined by the peasant whom I had seen on +the night of my arrival, and who dwelt at the far end of the enclosure, +about half a mile away, in a rude out-house; but it was plain to me that, +of these two, it was Felipe who did most; and though I would sometimes +see him throw down his spade and go to sleep among the very plants he had +been digging, his constancy and energy were admirable in themselves, and +still more so since I was well assured they were foreign to his +disposition and the fruit of an ungrateful effort. But while I admired, +I wondered what had called forth in a lad so shuttle-witted this enduring +sense of duty. How was it sustained? I asked myself, and to what length +did it prevail over his instincts? The priest was possibly his inspirer; +but the priest came one day to the residencia. I saw him both come and +go after an interval of close upon an hour, from a knoll where I was +sketching, and all that time Felipe continued to labour undisturbed in +the garden. + +At last, in a very unworthy spirit, I determined to debauch the lad from +his good resolutions, and, way-laying him at the gate, easily pursuaded +him to join me in a ramble. It was a fine day, and the woods to which I +led him were green and pleasant and sweet-smelling and alive with the hum +of insects. Here he discovered himself in a fresh character, mounting up +to heights of gaiety that abashed me, and displaying an energy and grace +of movement that delighted the eye. He leaped, he ran round me in mere +glee; he would stop, and look and listen, and seem to drink in the world +like a cordial; and then he would suddenly spring into a tree with one +bound, and hang and gambol there like one at home. Little as he said to +me, and that of not much import, I have rarely enjoyed more stirring +company; the sight of his delight was a continual feast; the speed and +accuracy of his movements pleased me to the heart; and I might have been +so thoughtlessly unkind as to make a habit of these wants, had not chance +prepared a very rude conclusion to my pleasure. By some swiftness or +dexterity the lad captured a squirrel in a tree top. He was then some +way ahead of me, but I saw him drop to the ground and crouch there, +crying aloud for pleasure like a child. The sound stirred my sympathies, +it was so fresh and innocent; but as I bettered my pace to draw near, the +cry of the squirrel knocked upon my heart. I have heard and seen much of +the cruelty of lads, and above all of peasants; but what I now beheld +struck me into a passion of anger. I thrust the fellow aside, plucked +the poor brute out of his hands, and with swift mercy killed it. Then I +turned upon the torturer, spoke to him long out of the heat of my +indignation, calling him names at which he seemed to wither; and at +length, pointing toward the residencia, bade him begone and leave me, for +I chose to walk with men, not with vermin. He fell upon his knees, and, +the words coming to him with more cleanness than usual, poured out a +stream of the most touching supplications, begging me in mercy to forgive +him, to forget what he had done, to look to the future. 'O, I try so +hard,' he said. 'O, commandante, bear with Felipe this once; he will +never be a brute again!' Thereupon, much more affected than I cared to +show, I suffered myself to be persuaded, and at last shook hands with him +and made it up. But the squirrel, by way of penance, I made him bury; +speaking of the poor thing's beauty, telling him what pains it had +suffered, and how base a thing was the abuse of strength. 'See, Felipe,' +said I, 'you are strong indeed; but in my hands you are as helpless as +that poor thing of the trees. Give me your hand in mine. You cannot +remove it. Now suppose that I were cruel like you, and took a pleasure +in pain. I only tighten my hold, and see how you suffer.' He screamed +aloud, his face stricken ashy and dotted with needle points of sweat; and +when I set him free, he fell to the earth and nursed his hand and moaned +over it like a baby. But he took the lesson in good part; and whether +from that, or from what I had said to him, or the higher notion he now +had of my bodily strength, his original affection was changed into a dog- +like, adoring fidelity. + +Meanwhile I gained rapidly in health. The residencia stood on the crown +of a stony plateau; on every side the mountains hemmed it about; only +from the roof, where was a bartizan, there might be seen between two +peaks, a small segment of plain, blue with extreme distance. The air in +these altitudes moved freely and largely; great clouds congregated there, +and were broken up by the wind and left in tatters on the hilltops; a +hoarse, and yet faint rumbling of torrents rose from all round; and one +could there study all the ruder and more ancient characters of nature in +something of their pristine force. I delighted from the first in the +vigorous scenery and changeful weather; nor less in the antique and +dilapidated mansion where I dwelt. This was a large oblong, flanked at +two opposite corners by bastion-like projections, one of which commanded +the door, while both were loopholed for musketry. The lower storey was, +besides, naked of windows, so that the building, if garrisoned, could not +be carried without artillery. It enclosed an open court planted with +pomegranate trees. From this a broad flight of marble stairs ascended to +an open gallery, running all round and resting, towards the court, on +slender pillars. Thence again, several enclosed stairs led to the upper +storeys of the house, which were thus broken up into distinct divisions. +The windows, both within and without, were closely shuttered; some of the +stone-work in the upper parts had fallen; the roof, in one place, had +been wrecked in one of the flurries of wind which were common in these +mountains; and the whole house, in the strong, beating sunlight, and +standing out above a grove of stunted cork-trees, thickly laden and +discoloured with dust, looked like the sleeping palace of the legend. The +court, in particular, seemed the very home of slumber. A hoarse cooing +of doves haunted about the eaves; the winds were excluded, but when they +blew outside, the mountain dust fell here as thick as rain, and veiled +the red bloom of the pomegranates; shuttered windows and the closed doors +of numerous cellars, and the vacant, arches of the gallery, enclosed it; +and all day long the sun made broken profiles on the four sides, and +paraded the shadow of the pillars on the gallery floor. At the ground +level there was, however, a certain pillared recess, which bore the marks +of human habitation. Though it was open in front upon the court, it was +yet provided with a chimney, where a wood fire would he always prettily +blazing; and the tile floor was littered with the skins of animals. + +It was in this place that I first saw my hostess. She had drawn one of +the skins forward and sat in the sun, leaning against a pillar. It was +her dress that struck me first of all, for it was rich and brightly +coloured, and shone out in that dusty courtyard with something of the +same relief as the flowers of the pomegranates. At a second look it was +her beauty of person that took hold of me. As she sat back--watching me, +I thought, though with invisible eyes--and wearing at the same time an +expression of almost imbecile good-humour and contentment, she showed a +perfectness of feature and a quiet nobility of attitude that were beyond +a statue's. I took off my hat to her in passing, and her face puckered +with suspicion as swiftly and lightly as a pool ruffles in the breeze; +but she paid no heed to my courtesy. I went forth on my customary walk a +trifle daunted, her idol-like impassivity haunting me; and when I +returned, although she was still in much the same posture, I was half +surprised to see that she had moved as far as the next pillar, following +the sunshine. This time, however, she addressed me with some trivial +salutation, civilly enough conceived, and uttered in the same +deep-chested, and yet indistinct and lisping tones, that had already +baffled the utmost niceness of my hearing from her son. I answered +rather at a venture; for not only did I fail to take her meaning with +precision, but the sudden disclosure of her eyes disturbed me. They were +unusually large, the iris golden like Felipe's, but the pupil at that +moment so distended that they seemed almost black; and what affected me +was not so much their size as (what was perhaps its consequence) the +singular insignificance of their regard. A look more blankly stupid I +have never met. My eyes dropped before it even as I spoke, and I went on +my way upstairs to my own room, at once baffled and embarrassed. Yet, +when I came there and saw the face of the portrait, I was again reminded +of the miracle of family descent. My hostess was, indeed, both older and +fuller in person; her eyes were of a different colour; her face, besides, +was not only free from the ill-significance that offended and attracted +me in the painting; it was devoid of either good or bad--a moral blank +expressing literally naught. And yet there was a likeness, not so much +speaking as immanent, not so much in any particular feature as upon the +whole. It should seem, I thought, as if when the master set his +signature to that grave canvas, he had not only caught the image of one +smiling and false-eyed woman, but stamped the essential quality of a +race. + +From that day forth, whether I came or went, I was sure to find the +Senora seated in the sun against a pillar, or stretched on a rug before +the fire; only at times she would shift her station to the top round of +the stone staircase, where she lay with the same nonchalance right across +my path. In all these days, I never knew her to display the least spark +of energy beyond what she expended in brushing and re-brushing her +copious copper-coloured hair, or in lisping out, in the rich and broken +hoarseness of her voice, her customary idle salutations to myself. These, +I think, were her two chief pleasures, beyond that of mere quiescence. +She seemed always proud of her remarks, as though they had been +witticisms: and, indeed, though they were empty enough, like the +conversation of many respectable persons, and turned on a very narrow +range of subjects, they were never meaningless or incoherent; nay, they +had a certain beauty of their own, breathing, as they did, of her entire +contentment. Now she would speak of the warmth, in which (like her son) +she greatly delighted; now of the flowers of the pomegranate trees, and +now of the white doves and long-winged swallows that fanned the air of +the court. The birds excited her. As they raked the eaves in their +swift flight, or skimmed sidelong past her with a rush of wind, she would +sometimes stir, and sit a little up, and seem to awaken from her doze of +satisfaction. But for the rest of her days she lay luxuriously folded on +herself and sunk in sloth and pleasure. Her invincible content at first +annoyed me, but I came gradually to find repose in the spectacle, until +at last it grew to be my habit to sit down beside her four times in the +day, both coming and going, and to talk with her sleepily, I scarce knew +of what. I had come to like her dull, almost animal neighbourhood; her +beauty and her stupidity soothed and amused me. I began to find a kind +of transcendental good sense in her remarks, and her unfathomable good +nature moved me to admiration and envy. The liking was returned; she +enjoyed my presence half-unconsciously, as a man in deep meditation may +enjoy the babbling of a brook. I can scarce say she brightened when I +came, for satisfaction was written on her face eternally, as on some +foolish statue's; but I was made conscious of her pleasure by some more +intimate communication than the sight. And one day, as I set within +reach of her on the marble step, she suddenly shot forth one of her hands +and patted mine. The thing was done, and she was back in her accustomed +attitude, before my mind had received intelligence of the caress; and +when I turned to look her in the face I could perceive no answerable +sentiment. It was plain she attached no moment to the act, and I blamed +myself for my own more uneasy consciousness. + +The sight and (if I may so call it) the acquaintance of the mother +confirmed the view I had already taken of the son. The family blood had +been impoverished, perhaps by long inbreeding, which I knew to be a +common error among the proud and the exclusive. No decline, indeed, was +to be traced in the body, which had been handed down unimpaired in +shapeliness and strength; and the faces of to-day were struck as sharply +from the mint, as the face of two centuries ago that smiled upon me from +the portrait. But the intelligence (that more precious heirloom) was +degenerate; the treasure of ancestral memory ran low; and it had required +the potent, plebeian crossing of a muleteer or mountain contrabandista to +raise, what approached hebetude in the mother, into the active oddity of +the son. Yet of the two, it was the mother I preferred. Of Felipe, +vengeful and placable, full of starts and shyings, inconstant as a hare, +I could even conceive as a creature possibly noxious. Of the mother I +had no thoughts but those of kindness. And indeed, as spectators are apt +ignorantly to take sides, I grew something of a partisan in the enmity +which I perceived to smoulder between them. True, it seemed mostly on +the mother's part. She would sometimes draw in her breath as he came +near, and the pupils of her vacant eyes would contract as if with horror +or fear. Her emotions, such as they were, were much upon the surface and +readily shared; and this latent repulsion occupied my mind, and kept me +wondering on what grounds it rested, and whether the son was certainly in +fault. + +I had been about ten days in the residencia, when there sprang up a high +and harsh wind, carrying clouds of dust. It came out of malarious +lowlands, and over several snowy sierras. The nerves of those on whom it +blew were strung and jangled; their eyes smarted with the dust; their +legs ached under the burthen of their body; and the touch of one hand +upon another grew to be odious. The wind, besides, came down the gullies +of the hills and stormed about the house with a great, hollow buzzing and +whistling that was wearisome to the ear and dismally depressing to the +mind. It did not so much blow in gusts as with the steady sweep of a +waterfall, so that there was no remission of discomfort while it blew. +But higher upon the mountain, it was probably of a more variable +strength, with accesses of fury; for there came down at times a far-off +wailing, infinitely grievous to hear; and at times, on one of the high +shelves or terraces, there would start up, and then disperse, a tower of +dust, like the smoke of in explosion. + +I no sooner awoke in bed than I was conscious of the nervous tension and +depression of the weather, and the effect grew stronger as the day +proceeded. It was in vain that I resisted; in vain that I set forth upon +my customary morning's walk; the irrational, unchanging fury of the storm +had soon beat down my strength and wrecked my temper; and I returned to +the residencia, glowing with dry heat, and foul and gritty with dust. The +court had a forlorn appearance; now and then a glimmer of sun fled over +it; now and then the wind swooped down upon the pomegranates, and +scattered the blossoms, and set the window shutters clapping on the wall. +In the recess the Senora was pacing to and fro with a flushed countenance +and bright eyes; I thought, too, she was speaking to herself, like one in +anger. But when I addressed her with my customary salutation, she only +replied by a sharp gesture and continued her walk. The weather had +distempered even this impassive creature; and as I went on upstairs I was +the less ashamed of my own discomposure. + +All day the wind continued; and I sat in my room and made a feint of +reading, or walked up and down, and listened to the riot overhead. Night +fell, and I had not so much as a candle. I began to long for some +society, and stole down to the court. It was now plunged in the blue of +the first darkness; but the recess was redly lighted by the fire. The +wood had been piled high, and was crowned by a shock of flames, which the +draught of the chimney brandished to and fro. In this strong and shaken +brightness the Senora continued pacing from wall to wall with +disconnected gestures, clasping her hands, stretching forth her arms, +throwing back her head as in appeal to heaven. In these disordered +movements the beauty and grace of the woman showed more clearly; but +there was a light in her eye that struck on me unpleasantly; and when I +had looked on awhile in silence, and seemingly unobserved, I turned tail +as I had come, and groped my way back again to my own chamber. + +By the time Felipe brought my supper and lights, my nerve was utterly +gone; and, had the lad been such as I was used to seeing him, I should +have kept him (even by force had that been necessary) to take off the +edge from my distasteful solitude. But on Felipe, also, the wind had +exercised its influence. He had been feverish all day; now that the +night had come he was fallen into a low and tremulous humour that reacted +on my own. The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and +sudden harkenings, unstrung me; and when he dropped and broke a dish, I +fairly leaped out of my seat. + +'I think we are all mad to-day,' said I, affecting to laugh. + +'It is the black wind,' he replied dolefully. 'You feel as if you must +do something, and you don't know what it is.' + +I noted the aptness of the description; but, indeed, Felipe had sometimes +a strange felicity in rendering into words the sensations of the body. +'And your mother, too,' said I; 'she seems to feel this weather much. Do +you not fear she may be unwell?' + +He stared at me a little, and then said, 'No,' almost defiantly; and the +next moment, carrying his hand to his brow, cried out lamentably on the +wind and the noise that made his head go round like a millwheel. 'Who +can be well?' he cried; and, indeed, I could only echo his question, for +I was disturbed enough myself. + +I went to bed early, wearied with day-long restlessness, but the +poisonous nature of the wind, and its ungodly and unintermittent uproar, +would not suffer me to sleep. I lay there and tossed, my nerves and +senses on the stretch. At times I would doze, dream horribly, and wake +again; and these snatches of oblivion confused me as to time. But it +must have been late on in the night, when I was suddenly startled by an +outbreak of pitiable and hateful cries. I leaped from my bed, supposing +I had dreamed; but the cries still continued to fill the house, cries of +pain, I thought, but certainly of rage also, and so savage and discordant +that they shocked the heart. It was no illusion; some living thing, some +lunatic or some wild animal, was being foully tortured. The thought of +Felipe and the squirrel flashed into my mind, and I ran to the door, but +it had been locked from the outside; and I might shake it as I pleased, I +was a fast prisoner. Still the cries continued. Now they would dwindle +down into a moaning that seemed to be articulate, and at these times I +made sure they must be human; and again they would break forth and fill +the house with ravings worthy of hell. I stood at the door and gave ear +to them, till at, last they died away. Long after that, I still lingered +and still continued to hear them mingle in fancy with the storming of the +wind; and when at last I crept to my bed, it was with a deadly sickness +and a blackness of horror on my heart. + +It was little wonder if I slept no more. Why had I been locked in? What +had passed? Who was the author of these indescribable and shocking +cries? A human being? It was inconceivable. A beast? The cries were +scarce quite bestial; and what animal, short of a lion or a tiger, could +thus shake the solid walls of the residencia? And while I was thus +turning over the elements of the mystery, it came into my mind that I had +not yet set eyes upon the daughter of the house. What was more probable +than that the daughter of the Senora, and the sister of Felipe, should be +herself insane? Or, what more likely than that these ignorant and half- +witted people should seek to manage an afflicted kinswoman by violence? +Here was a solution; and yet when I called to mind the cries (which I +never did without a shuddering chill) it seemed altogether insufficient: +not even cruelty could wring such cries from madness. But of one thing I +was sure: I could not live in a house where such a thing was half +conceivable, and not probe the matter home and, if necessary, interfere. + +The next day came, the wind had blown itself out, and there was nothing +to remind me of the business of the night. Felipe came to my bedside +with obvious cheerfulness; as I passed through the court, the Senora was +sunning herself with her accustomed immobility; and when I issued from +the gateway, I found the whole face of nature austerely smiling, the +heavens of a cold blue, and sown with great cloud islands, and the +mountain-sides mapped forth into provinces of light and shadow. A short +walk restored me to myself, and renewed within me the resolve to plumb +this mystery; and when, from the vantage of my knoll, I had seen Felipe +pass forth to his labours in the garden, I returned at once to the +residencia to put my design in practice. The Senora appeared plunged in +slumber; I stood awhile and marked her, but she did not stir; even if my +design were indiscreet, I had little to fear from such a guardian; and +turning away, I mounted to the gallery and began my exploration of the +house. + +All morning I went from one door to another, and entered spacious and +faded chambers, some rudely shuttered, some receiving their full charge +of daylight, all empty and unhomely. It was a rich house, on which Time +had breathed his tarnish and dust had scattered disillusion. The spider +swung there; the bloated tarantula scampered on the cornices; ants had +their crowded highways on the floor of halls of audience; the big and +foul fly, that lives on carrion and is often the messenger of death, had +set up his nest in the rotten woodwork, and buzzed heavily about the +rooms. Here and there a stool or two, a couch, a bed, or a great carved +chair remained behind, like islets on the bare floors, to testify of +man's bygone habitation; and everywhere the walls were set with the +portraits of the dead. I could judge, by these decaying effigies, in the +house of what a great and what a handsome race I was then wandering. Many +of the men wore orders on their breasts and had the port of noble +offices; the women were all richly attired; the canvases most of them by +famous hands. But it was not so much these evidences of greatness that +took hold upon my mind, even contrasted, as they were, with the present +depopulation and decay of that great house. It was rather the parable of +family life that I read in this succession of fair faces and shapely +bodies. Never before had I so realised the miracle of the continued +race, the creation and recreation, the weaving and changing and handing +down of fleshly elements. That a child should be born of its mother, +that it should grow and clothe itself (we know not how) with humanity, +and put on inherited looks, and turn its head with the manner of one +ascendant, and offer its hand with the gesture of another, are wonders +dulled for us by repetition. But in the singular unity of look, in the +common features and common bearing, of all these painted generations on +the walls of the residencia, the miracle started out and looked me in the +face. And an ancient mirror falling opportunely in my way, I stood and +read my own features a long while, tracing out on either hand the +filaments of descent and the bonds that knit me with my family. + +At last, in the course of these investigations, I opened the door of a +chamber that bore the marks of habitation. It was of large proportions +and faced to the north, where the mountains were most wildly figured. The +embers of a fire smouldered and smoked upon the hearth, to which a chair +had been drawn close. And yet the aspect of the chamber was ascetic to +the degree of sternness; the chair was uncushioned; the floor and walls +were naked; and beyond the books which lay here and there in some +confusion, there was no instrument of either work or pleasure. The sight +of books in the house of such a family exceedingly amazed me; and I began +with a great hurry, and in momentary fear of interruption, to go from one +to another and hastily inspect their character. They were of all sorts, +devotional, historical, and scientific, but mostly of a great age and in +the Latin tongue. Some I could see to bear the marks of constant study; +others had been torn across and tossed aside as if in petulance or +disapproval. Lastly, as I cruised about that empty chamber, I espied +some papers written upon with pencil on a table near the window. An +unthinking curiosity led me to take one up. It bore a copy of verses, +very roughly metred in the original Spanish, and which I may render +somewhat thus-- + + Pleasure approached with pain and shame, + Grief with a wreath of lilies came. + Pleasure showed the lovely sun; + Jesu dear, how sweet it shone! + Grief with her worn hand pointed on, + Jesu dear, to thee! + +Shame and confusion at once fell on me; and, laying down the paper, I +beat an immediate retreat from the apartment. Neither Felipe nor his +mother could have read the books nor written these rough but feeling +verses. It was plain I had stumbled with sacrilegious feet into the room +of the daughter of the house. God knows, my own heart most sharply +punished me for my indiscretion. The thought that I had thus secretly +pushed my way into the confidence of a girl so strangely situated, and +the fear that she might somehow come to hear of it, oppressed me like +guilt. I blamed myself besides for my suspicions of the night before; +wondered that I should ever have attributed those shocking cries to one +of whom I now conceived as of a saint, spectral of mien, wasted with +maceration, bound up in the practices of a mechanical devotion, and +dwelling in a great isolation of soul with her incongruous relatives; and +as I leaned on the balustrade of the gallery and looked down into the +bright close of pomegranates and at the gaily dressed and somnolent +woman, who just then stretched herself and delicately licked her lips as +in the very sensuality of sloth, my mind swiftly compared the scene with +the cold chamber looking northward on the mountains, where the daughter +dwelt. + +That same afternoon, as I sat upon my knoll, I saw the Padre enter the +gates of the residencia. The revelation of the daughter's character had +struck home to my fancy, and almost blotted out the horrors of the night +before; but at sight of this worthy man the memory revived. I descended, +then, from the knoll, and making a circuit among the woods, posted myself +by the wayside to await his passage. As soon as he appeared I stepped +forth and introduced myself as the lodger of the residencia. He had a +very strong, honest countenance, on which it was easy to read the mingled +emotions with which he regarded me, as a foreigner, a heretic, and yet +one who had been wounded for the good cause. Of the family at the +residencia he spoke with reserve, and yet with respect. I mentioned that +I had not yet seen the daughter, whereupon he remarked that that was as +it should be, and looked at me a little askance. Lastly, I plucked up +courage to refer to the cries that had disturbed me in the night. He +heard me out in silence, and then stopped and partly turned about, as +though to mark beyond doubt that he was dismissing me. + +'Do you take tobacco powder?' said he, offering his snuff-box; and then, +when I had refused, 'I am an old man,' he added, 'and I may be allowed to +remind you that you are a guest.' + +'I have, then, your authority,' I returned, firmly enough, although I +flushed at the implied reproof, 'to let things take their course, and not +to interfere?' + +He said 'yes,' and with a somewhat uneasy salute turned and left me where +I was. But he had done two things: he had set my conscience at rest, and +he had awakened my delicacy. I made a great effort, once more dismissed +the recollections of the night, and fell once more to brooding on my +saintly poetess. At the same time, I could not quite forget that I had +been locked in, and that night when Felipe brought me my supper I +attacked him warily on both points of interest. + +'I never see your sister,' said I casually. + +'Oh, no,' said he; 'she is a good, good girl,' and his mind instantly +veered to something else. + +'Your sister is pious, I suppose?' I asked in the next pause. + +'Oh!' he cried, joining his hands with extreme fervour, 'a saint; it is +she that keeps me up.' + +'You are very fortunate,' said I, 'for the most of us, I am afraid, and +myself among the number, are better at going down.' + +'Senor,' said Felipe earnestly, 'I would not say that. You should not +tempt your angel. If one goes down, where is he to stop?' + +'Why, Felipe,' said I, 'I had no guess you were a preacher, and I may say +a good one; but I suppose that is your sister's doing?' + +He nodded at me with round eyes. + +'Well, then,' I continued, 'she has doubtless reproved you for your sin +of cruelty?' + +'Twelve times!' he cried; for this was the phrase by which the odd +creature expressed the sense of frequency. 'And I told her you had done +so--I remembered that,' he added proudly--'and she was pleased.' + +'Then, Felipe,' said I, 'what were those cries that I heard last night? +for surely they were cries of some creature in suffering.' + +'The wind,' returned Felipe, looking in the fire. + +I took his hand in mine, at which, thinking it to be a caress, he smiled +with a brightness of pleasure that came near disarming my resolve. But I +trod the weakness down. 'The wind,' I repeated; 'and yet I think it was +this hand,' holding it up, 'that had first locked me in.' The lad shook +visibly, but answered never a word. 'Well,' said I, 'I am a stranger and +a guest. It is not my part either to meddle or to judge in your affairs; +in these you shall take your sister's counsel, which I cannot doubt to be +excellent. But in so far as concerns my own I will be no man's prisoner, +and I demand that key.' Half an hour later my door was suddenly thrown +open, and the key tossed ringing on the floor. + +A day or two after I came in from a walk a little before the point of +noon. The Senora was lying lapped in slumber on the threshold of the +recess; the pigeons dozed below the eaves like snowdrifts; the house was +under a deep spell of noontide quiet; and only a wandering and gentle +wind from the mountain stole round the galleries, rustled among the +pomegranates, and pleasantly stirred the shadows. Something in the +stillness moved me to imitation, and I went very lightly across the court +and up the marble staircase. My foot was on the topmost round, when a +door opened, and I found myself face to face with Olalla. Surprise +transfixed me; her loveliness struck to my heart; she glowed in the deep +shadow of the gallery, a gem of colour; her eyes took hold upon mine and +clung there, and bound us together like the joining of hands; and the +moments we thus stood face to face, drinking each other in, were +sacramental and the wedding of souls. I know not how long it was before +I awoke out of a deep trance, and, hastily bowing, passed on into the +upper stair. She did not move, but followed me with her great, thirsting +eyes; and as I passed out of sight it seemed to me as if she paled and +faded. + +In my own room, I opened the window and looked out, and could not think +what change had come upon that austere field of mountains that it should +thus sing and shine under the lofty heaven. I had seen her--Olalla! And +the stone crags answered, Olalla! and the dumb, unfathomable azure +answered, Olalla! The pale saint of my dreams had vanished for ever; and +in her place I beheld this maiden on whom God had lavished the richest +colours and the most exuberant energies of life, whom he had made active +as a deer, slender as a reed, and in whose great eyes he had lighted the +torches of the soul. The thrill of her young life, strung like a wild +animal's, had entered into me; the force of soul that had looked out from +her eyes and conquered mine, mantled about my heart and sprang to my lips +in singing. She passed through my veins: she was one with me. + +I will not say that this enthusiasm declined; rather my soul held out in +its ecstasy as in a strong castle, and was there besieged by cold and +sorrowful considerations. I could not doubt but that I loved her at +first sight, and already with a quivering ardour that was strange to my +experience. What then was to follow? She was the child of an afflicted +house, the Senora's daughter, the sister of Felipe; she bore it even in +her beauty. She had the lightness and swiftness of the one, swift as an +arrow, light as dew; like the other, she shone on the pale background of +the world with the brilliancy of flowers. I could not call by the name +of brother that half-witted lad, nor by the name of mother that immovable +and lovely thing of flesh, whose silly eyes and perpetual simper now +recurred to my mind like something hateful. And if I could not marry, +what then? She was helplessly unprotected; her eyes, in that single and +long glance which had been all our intercourse, had confessed a weakness +equal to my own; but in my heart I knew her for the student of the cold +northern chamber, and the writer of the sorrowful lines; and this was a +knowledge to disarm a brute. To flee was more than I could find courage +for; but I registered a vow of unsleeping circumspection. + +As I turned from the window, my eyes alighted on the portrait. It had +fallen dead, like a candle after sunrise; it followed me with eyes of +paint. I knew it to be like, and marvelled at the tenacity of type in +that declining race; but the likeness was swallowed up in difference. I +remembered how it had seemed to me a thing unapproachable in the life, a +creature rather of the painter's craft than of the modesty of nature, and +I marvelled at the thought, and exulted in the image of Olalla. Beauty I +had seen before, and not been charmed, and I had been often drawn to +women, who were not beautiful except to me; but in Olalla all that I +desired and had not dared to imagine was united. + +I did not see her the next day, and my heart ached and my eyes longed for +her, as men long for morning. But the day after, when I returned, about +my usual hour, she was once more on the gallery, and our looks once more +met and embraced. I would have spoken, I would have drawn near to her; +but strongly as she plucked at my heart, drawing me like a magnet, +something yet more imperious withheld me; and I could only bow and pass +by; and she, leaving my salutation unanswered, only followed me with her +noble eyes. + +I had now her image by rote, and as I conned the traits in memory it +seemed as if I read her very heart. She was dressed with something of +her mother's coquetry, and love of positive colour. Her robe, which I +know she must have made with her own hands, clung about her with a +cunning grace. After the fashion of that country, besides, her bodice +stood open in the middle, in a long slit, and here, in spite of the +poverty of the house, a gold coin, hanging by a ribbon, lay on her brown +bosom. These were proofs, had any been needed, of her inborn delight in +life and her own loveliness. On the other hand, in her eyes that hung +upon mine, I could read depth beyond depth of passion and sadness, lights +of poetry and hope, blacknesses of despair, and thoughts that were above +the earth. It was a lovely body, but the inmate, the soul, was more than +worthy of that lodging. Should I leave this incomparable flower to +wither unseen on these rough mountains? Should I despise the great gift +offered me in the eloquent silence of her eyes? Here was a soul immured; +should I not burst its prison? All side considerations fell off from me; +were she the child of Herod I swore I should make her mine; and that very +evening I set myself, with a mingled sense of treachery and disgrace, to +captivate the brother. Perhaps I read him with more favourable eyes, +perhaps the thought of his sister always summoned up the better qualities +of that imperfect soul; but he had never seemed to me so amiable, and his +very likeness to Olalla, while it annoyed, yet softened me. + +A third day passed in vain--an empty desert of hours. I would not lose a +chance, and loitered all afternoon in the court where (to give myself a +countenance) I spoke more than usual with the Senora. God knows it was +with a most tender and sincere interest that I now studied her; and even +as for Felipe, so now for the mother, I was conscious of a growing warmth +of toleration. And yet I wondered. Even while I spoke with her, she +would doze off into a little sleep, and presently awake again without +embarrassment; and this composure staggered me. And again, as I marked +her make infinitesimal changes in her posture, savouring and lingering on +the bodily pleasure of the movement, I was driven to wonder at this depth +of passive sensuality. She lived in her body; and her consciousness was +all sunk into and disseminated through her members, where it luxuriously +dwelt. Lastly, I could not grow accustomed to her eyes. Each time she +turned on me these great beautiful and meaningless orbs, wide open to the +day, but closed against human inquiry--each time I had occasion to +observe the lively changes of her pupils which expanded and contracted in +a breath--I know not what it was came over me, I can find no name for the +mingled feeling of disappointment, annoyance, and distaste that jarred +along my nerves. I tried her on a variety of subjects, equally in vain; +and at last led the talk to her daughter. But even there she proved +indifferent; said she was pretty, which (as with children) was her +highest word of commendation, but was plainly incapable of any higher +thought; and when I remarked that Olalla seemed silent, merely yawned in +my face and replied that speech was of no great use when you had nothing +to say. 'People speak much, very much,' she added, looking at me with +expanded pupils; and then again yawned and again showed me a mouth that +was as dainty as a toy. This time I took the hint, and, leaving her to +her repose, went up into my own chamber to sit by the open window, +looking on the hills and not beholding them, sunk in lustrous and deep +dreams, and hearkening in fancy to the note of a voice that I had never +heard. + +I awoke on the fifth morning with a brightness of anticipation that +seemed to challenge fate. I was sure of myself, light of heart and foot, +and resolved to put my love incontinently to the touch of knowledge. It +should lie no longer under the bonds of silence, a dumb thing, living by +the eye only, like the love of beasts; but should now put on the spirit, +and enter upon the joys of the complete human intimacy. I thought of it +with wild hopes, like a voyager to El Dorado; into that unknown and +lovely country of her soul, I no longer trembled to adventure. Yet when +I did indeed encounter her, the same force of passion descended on me and +at once submerged my mind; speech seemed to drop away from me like a +childish habit; and I but drew near to her as the giddy man draws near to +the margin of a gulf. She drew back from me a little as I came; but her +eyes did not waver from mine, and these lured me forward. At last, when +I was already within reach of her, I stopped. Words were denied me; if I +advanced I could but clasp her to my heart in silence; and all that was +sane in me, all that was still unconquered, revolted against the thought +of such an accost. So we stood for a second, all our life in our eyes, +exchanging salvos of attraction and yet each resisting; and then, with a +great effort of the will, and conscious at the same time of a sudden +bitterness of disappointment, I turned and went away in the same silence. + +What power lay upon me that I could not speak? And she, why was she also +silent? Why did she draw away before me dumbly, with fascinated eyes? +Was this love? or was it a mere brute attraction, mindless and +inevitable, like that of the magnet for the steel? We had never spoken, +we were wholly strangers: and yet an influence, strong as the grasp of a +giant, swept us silently together. On my side, it filled me with +impatience; and yet I was sure that she was worthy; I had seen her books, +read her verses, and thus, in a sense, divined the soul of my mistress. +But on her side, it struck me almost cold. Of me, she knew nothing but +my bodily favour; she was drawn to me as stones fall to the earth; the +laws that rule the earth conducted her, unconsenting, to my arms; and I +drew back at the thought of such a bridal, and began to be jealous for +myself. It was not thus that I desired to be loved. And then I began to +fall into a great pity for the girl herself. I thought how sharp must be +her mortification, that she, the student, the recluse, Felipe's saintly +monitress, should have thus confessed an overweening weakness for a man +with whom she had never exchanged a word. And at the coming of pity, all +other thoughts were swallowed up; and I longed only to find and console +and reassure her; to tell her how wholly her love was returned on my +side, and how her choice, even if blindly made, was not unworthy. + +The next day it was glorious weather; depth upon depth of blue +over-canopied the mountains; the sun shone wide; and the wind in the +trees and the many falling torrents in the mountains filled the air with +delicate and haunting music. Yet I was prostrated with sadness. My +heart wept for the sight of Olalla, as a child weeps for its mother. I +sat down on a boulder on the verge of the low cliffs that bound the +plateau to the north. Thence I looked down into the wooded valley of a +stream, where no foot came. In the mood I was in, it was even touching +to behold the place untenanted; it lacked Olalla; and I thought of the +delight and glory of a life passed wholly with her in that strong air, +and among these rugged and lovely surroundings, at first with a +whimpering sentiment, and then again with such a fiery joy that I seemed +to grow in strength and stature, like a Samson. + +And then suddenly I was aware of Olalla drawing near. She appeared out +of a grove of cork-trees, and came straight towards me; and I stood up +and waited. She seemed in her walking a creature of such life and fire +and lightness as amazed me; yet she came quietly and slowly. Her energy +was in the slowness; but for inimitable strength, I felt she would have +run, she would have flown to me. Still, as she approached, she kept her +eyes lowered to the ground; and when she had drawn quite near, it was +without one glance that she addressed me. At the first note of her voice +I started. It was for this I had been waiting; this was the last test of +my love. And lo, her enunciation was precise and clear, not lisping and +incomplete like that of her family; and the voice, though deeper than +usual with women, was still both youthful and womanly. She spoke in a +rich chord; golden contralto strains mingled with hoarseness, as the red +threads were mingled with the brown among her tresses. It was not only a +voice that spoke to my heart directly; but it spoke to me of her. And +yet her words immediately plunged me back upon despair. + +'You will go away,' she said, 'to-day.' + +Her example broke the bonds of my speech; I felt as lightened of a +weight, or as if a spell had been dissolved. I know not in what words I +answered; but, standing before her on the cliffs, I poured out the whole +ardour of my love, telling her that I lived upon the thought of her, +slept only to dream of her loveliness, and would gladly forswear my +country, my language, and my friends, to live for ever by her side. And +then, strongly commanding myself, I changed the note; I reassured, I +comforted her; I told her I had divined in her a pious and heroic spirit, +with which I was worthy to sympathise, and which I longed to share and +lighten. 'Nature,' I told her, 'was the voice of God, which men disobey +at peril; and if we were thus humbly drawn together, ay, even as by a +miracle of love, it must imply a divine fitness in our souls; we must be +made,' I said--'made for one another. We should be mad rebels,' I cried +out--'mad rebels against God, not to obey this instinct.' + +She shook her head. 'You will go to-day,' she repeated, and then with a +gesture, and in a sudden, sharp note--'no, not to-day,' she cried, 'to- +morrow!' + +But at this sign of relenting, power came in upon me in a tide. I +stretched out my arms and called upon her name; and she leaped to me and +clung to me. The hills rocked about us, the earth quailed; a shock as of +a blow went through me and left me blind and dizzy. And the next moment +she had thrust me back, broken rudely from my arms, and fled with the +speed of a deer among the cork-trees. + +I stood and shouted to the mountains; I turned and went back towards the +residencia, waltzing upon air. She sent me away, and yet I had but to +call upon her name and she came to me. These were but the weaknesses of +girls, from which even she, the strangest of her sex, was not exempted. +Go? Not I, Olalla--O, not I, Olalla, my Olalla! A bird sang near by; +and in that season, birds were rare. It bade me be of good cheer. And +once more the whole countenance of nature, from the ponderous and stable +mountains down to the lightest leaf and the smallest darting fly in the +shadow of the groves, began to stir before me and to put on the +lineaments of life and wear a face of awful joy. The sunshine struck +upon the hills, strong as a hammer on the anvil, and the hills shook; the +earth, under that vigorous insulation, yielded up heady scents; the woods +smouldered in the blaze. I felt the thrill of travail and delight run +through the earth. Something elemental, something rude, violent, and +savage, in the love that sang in my heart, was like a key to nature's +secrets; and the very stones that rattled under my feet appeared alive +and friendly. Olalla! Her touch had quickened, and renewed, and strung +me up to the old pitch of concert with the rugged earth, to a swelling of +the soul that men learn to forget in their polite assemblies. Love +burned in me like rage; tenderness waxed fierce; I hated, I adored, I +pitied, I revered her with ecstasy. She seemed the link that bound me in +with dead things on the one hand, and with our pure and pitying God upon +the other: a thing brutal and divine, and akin at once to the innocence +and to the unbridled forces of the earth. + +My head thus reeling, I came into the courtyard of the residencia, and +the sight of the mother struck me like a revelation. She sat there, all +sloth and contentment, blinking under the strong sunshine, branded with a +passive enjoyment, a creature set quite apart, before whom my ardour fell +away like a thing ashamed. I stopped a moment, and, commanding such +shaken tones as I was able, said a word or two. She looked at me with +her unfathomable kindness; her voice in reply sounded vaguely out of the +realm of peace in which she slumbered, and there fell on my mind, for the +first time, a sense of respect for one so uniformly innocent and happy, +and I passed on in a kind of wonder at myself, that I should be so much +disquieted. + +On my table there lay a piece of the same yellow paper I had seen in the +north room; it was written on with pencil in the same hand, Olalla's +hand, and I picked it up with a sudden sinking of alarm, and read, 'If +you have any kindness for Olalla, if you have any chivalry for a creature +sorely wrought, go from here to-day; in pity, in honour, for the sake of +Him who died, I supplicate that you shall go.' I looked at this awhile +in mere stupidity, then I began to awaken to a weariness and horror of +life; the sunshine darkened outside on the bare hills, and I began to +shake like a man in terror. The vacancy thus suddenly opened in my life +unmanned me like a physical void. It was not my heart, it was not my +happiness, it was life itself that was involved. I could not lose her. I +said so, and stood repeating it. And then, like one in a dream, I moved +to the window, put forth my hand to open the casement, and thrust it +through the pane. The blood spurted from my wrist; and with an +instantaneous quietude and command of myself, I pressed my thumb on the +little leaping fountain, and reflected what to do. In that empty room +there was nothing to my purpose; I felt, besides, that I required +assistance. There shot into my mind a hope that Olalla herself might be +my helper, and I turned and went down stairs, still keeping my thumb upon +the wound. + +There was no sign of either Olalla or Felipe, and I addressed myself to +the recess, whither the Senora had now drawn quite back and sat dozing +close before the fire, for no degree of heat appeared too much for her. + +'Pardon me,' said I, 'if I disturb you, but I must apply to you for +help.' + +She looked up sleepily and asked me what it was, and with the very words +I thought she drew in her breath with a widening of the nostrils and +seemed to come suddenly and fully alive. + +'I have cut myself,' I said, 'and rather badly. See!' And I held out my +two hands from which the blood was oozing and dripping. + +Her great eyes opened wide, the pupils shrank into points; a veil seemed +to fall from her face, and leave it sharply expressive and yet +inscrutable. And as I still stood, marvelling a little at her +disturbance, she came swiftly up to me, and stooped and caught me by the +hand; and the next moment my hand was at her mouth, and she had bitten me +to the bone. The pang of the bite, the sudden spurting of blood, and the +monstrous horror of the act, flashed through me all in one, and I beat +her back; and she sprang at me again and again, with bestial cries, cries +that I recognised, such cries as had awakened me on the night of the high +wind. Her strength was like that of madness; mine was rapidly ebbing +with the loss of blood; my mind besides was whirling with the abhorrent +strangeness of the onslaught, and I was already forced against the wall, +when Olalla ran betwixt us, and Felipe, following at a bound, pinned down +his mother on the floor. + +A trance-like weakness fell upon me; I saw, heard, and felt, but I was +incapable of movement. I heard the struggle roll to and fro upon the +floor, the yells of that catamount ringing up to Heaven as she strove to +reach me. I felt Olalla clasp me in her arms, her hair falling on my +face, and, with the strength of a man, raise and half drag, half carry me +upstairs into my own room, where she cast me down upon the bed. Then I +saw her hasten to the door and lock it, and stand an instant listening to +the savage cries that shook the residencia. And then, swift and light as +a thought, she was again beside me, binding up my hand, laying it in her +bosom, moaning and mourning over it with dove-like sounds. They were not +words that came to her, they were sounds more beautiful than speech, +infinitely touching, infinitely tender; and yet as I lay there, a thought +stung to my heart, a thought wounded me like a sword, a thought, like a +worm in a flower, profaned the holiness of my love. Yes, they were +beautiful sounds, and they were inspired by human tenderness; but was +their beauty human? + +All day I lay there. For a long time the cries of that nameless female +thing, as she struggled with her half-witted whelp, resounded through the +house, and pierced me with despairing sorrow and disgust. They were the +death-cry of my love; my love was murdered; was not only dead, but an +offence to me; and yet, think as I pleased, feel as I must, it still +swelled within me like a storm of sweetness, and my heart melted at her +looks and touch. This horror that had sprung out, this doubt upon +Olalla, this savage and bestial strain that ran not only through the +whole behaviour of her family, but found a place in the very foundations +and story of our love--though it appalled, though it shocked and sickened +me, was yet not of power to break the knot of my infatuation. + +When the cries had ceased, there came a scraping at the door, by which I +knew Felipe was without; and Olalla went and spoke to him--I know not +what. With that exception, she stayed close beside me, now kneeling by +my bed and fervently praying, now sitting with her eyes upon mine. So +then, for these six hours I drank in her beauty, and silently perused the +story in her face. I saw the golden coin hover on her breaths; I saw her +eyes darken and brighter, and still speak no language but that of an +unfathomable kindness; I saw the faultless face, and, through the robe, +the lines of the faultless body. Night came at last, and in the growing +darkness of the chamber, the sight of her slowly melted; but even then +the touch of her smooth hand lingered in mine and talked with me. To lie +thus in deadly weakness and drink in the traits of the beloved, is to +reawake to love from whatever shock of disillusion. I reasoned with +myself; and I shut my eyes on horrors, and again I was very bold to +accept the worst. What mattered it, if that imperious sentiment +survived; if her eyes still beckoned and attached me; if now, even as +before, every fibre of my dull body yearned and turned to her? Late on +in the night some strength revived in me, and I spoke:-- + +'Olalla,' I said, 'nothing matters; I ask nothing; I am content; I love +you.' + +She knelt down awhile and prayed, and I devoutly respected her devotions. +The moon had begun to shine in upon one side of each of the three +windows, and make a misty clearness in the room, by which I saw her +indistinctly. When she rearose she made the sign of the cross. + +'It is for me to speak,' she said, 'and for you to listen. I know; you +can but guess. I prayed, how I prayed for you to leave this place. I +begged it of you, and I know you would have granted me even this; or if +not, O let me think so!' + +'I love you,' I said. + +'And yet you have lived in the world,' she said; after a pause, 'you are +a man and wise; and I am but a child. Forgive me, if I seem to teach, +who am as ignorant as the trees of the mountain; but those who learn much +do but skim the face of knowledge; they seize the laws, they conceive the +dignity of the design--the horror of the living fact fades from their +memory. It is we who sit at home with evil who remember, I think, and +are warned and pity. Go, rather, go now, and keep me in mind. So I +shall have a life in the cherished places of your memory: a life as much +my own, as that which I lead in this body.' + +'I love you,' I said once more; and reaching out my weak hand, took hers, +and carried it to my lips, and kissed it. Nor did she resist, but winced +a little; and I could see her look upon me with a frown that was not +unkindly, only sad and baffled. And then it seemed she made a call upon +her resolution; plucked my hand towards her, herself at the same time +leaning somewhat forward, and laid it on the beating of her heart. +'There,' she cried, 'you feel the very footfall of my life. It only +moves for you; it is yours. But is it even mine? It is mine indeed to +offer you, as I might take the coin from my neck, as I might break a live +branch from a tree, and give it you. And yet not mine! I dwell, or I +think I dwell (if I exist at all), somewhere apart, an impotent prisoner, +and carried about and deafened by a mob that I disown. This capsule, +such as throbs against the sides of animals, knows you at a touch for its +master; ay, it loves you! But my soul, does my soul? I think not; I +know not, fearing to ask. Yet when you spoke to me your words were of +the soul; it is of the soul that you ask--it is only from the soul that +you would take me.' + +'Olalla,' I said, 'the soul and the body are one, and mostly so in love. +What the body chooses, the soul loves; where the body clings, the soul +cleaves; body for body, soul to soul, they come together at God's signal; +and the lower part (if we can call aught low) is only the footstool and +foundation of the highest.' + +'Have you,' she said, 'seen the portraits in the house of my fathers? +Have you looked at my mother or at Felipe? Have your eyes never rested +on that picture that hangs by your bed? She who sat for it died ages +ago; and she did evil in her life. But, look-again: there is my hand to +the least line, there are my eyes and my hair. What is mine, then, and +what am I? If not a curve in this poor body of mine (which you love, and +for the sake of which you dotingly dream that you love me) not a gesture +that I can frame, not a tone of my voice, not any look from my eyes, no, +not even now when I speak to him I love, but has belonged to others? +Others, ages dead, have wooed other men with my eyes; other men have +heard the pleading of the same voice that now sounds in your ears. The +hands of the dead are in my bosom; they move me, they pluck me, they +guide me; I am a puppet at their command; and I but reinform features and +attributes that have long been laid aside from evil in the quiet of the +grave. Is it me you love, friend? or the race that made me? The girl +who does not know and cannot answer for the least portion of herself? or +the stream of which she is a transitory eddy, the tree of which she is +the passing fruit? The race exists; it is old, it is ever young, it +carries its eternal destiny in its bosom; upon it, like waves upon the +sea, individual succeeds to individual, mocked with a semblance of self- +control, but they are nothing. We speak of the soul, but the soul is in +the race.' + +'You fret against the common law,' I said. 'You rebel against the voice +of God, which he has made so winning to convince, so imperious to +command. Hear it, and how it speaks between us! Your hand clings to +mine, your heart leaps at my touch, the unknown elements of which we are +compounded awake and run together at a look; the clay of the earth +remembers its independent life and yearns to join us; we are drawn +together as the stars are turned about in space, or as the tides ebb and +flow, by things older and greater than we ourselves.' + +'Alas!' she said, 'what can I say to you? My fathers, eight hundred +years ago, ruled all this province: they were wise, great, cunning, and +cruel; they were a picked race of the Spanish; their flags led in war; +the king called them his cousin; the people, when the rope was slung for +them or when they returned and found their hovels smoking, blasphemed +their name. Presently a change began. Man has risen; if he has sprung +from the brutes, he can descend again to the same level. The breath of +weariness blew on their humanity and the cords relaxed; they began to go +down; their minds fell on sleep, their passions awoke in gusts, heady and +senseless like the wind in the gutters of the mountains; beauty was still +handed down, but no longer the guiding wit nor the human heart; the seed +passed on, it was wrapped in flesh, the flesh covered the bones, but they +were the bones and the flesh of brutes, and their mind was as the mind of +flies. I speak to you as I dare; but you have seen for yourself how the +wheel has gone backward with my doomed race. I stand, as it were, upon a +little rising ground in this desperate descent, and see both before and +behind, both what we have lost and to what we are condemned to go farther +downward. And shall I--I that dwell apart in the house of the dead, my +body, loathing its ways--shall I repeat the spell? Shall I bind another +spirit, reluctant as my own, into this bewitched and tempest-broken +tenement that I now suffer in? Shall I hand down this cursed vessel of +humanity, charge it with fresh life as with fresh poison, and dash it, +like a fire, in the faces of posterity? But my vow has been given; the +race shall cease from off the earth. At this hour my brother is making +ready; his foot will soon be on the stair; and you will go with him and +pass out of my sight for ever. Think of me sometimes as one to whom the +lesson of life was very harshly told, but who heard it with courage; as +one who loved you indeed, but who hated herself so deeply that her love +was hateful to her; as one who sent you away and yet would have longed to +keep you for ever; who had no dearer hope than to forget you, and no +greater fear than to be forgotten.' + +She had drawn towards the door as she spoke, her rich voice sounding +softer and farther away; and with the last word she was gone, and I lay +alone in the moonlit chamber. What I might have done had not I lain +bound by my extreme weakness, I know not; but as it was there fell upon +me a great and blank despair. It was not long before there shone in at +the door the ruddy glimmer of a lantern, and Felipe coming, charged me +without a word upon his shoulders, and carried me down to the great gate, +where the cart was waiting. In the moonlight the hills stood out +sharply, as if they were of cardboard; on the glimmering surface of the +plateau, and from among the low trees which swung together and sparkled +in the wind, the great black cube of the residencia stood out bulkily, +its mass only broken by three dimly lighted windows in the northern front +above the gate. They were Olalla's windows, and as the cart jolted +onwards I kept my eyes fixed upon them till, where the road dipped into a +valley, they were lost to my view forever. Felipe walked in silence +beside the shafts, but from time to time he would cheek the mule and seem +to look back upon me; and at length drew quite near and laid his hand +upon my head. There was such kindness in the touch, and such a +simplicity, as of the brutes, that tears broke from me like the bursting +of an artery. + +'Felipe,' I said, 'take me where they will ask no questions.' + +He said never a word, but he turned his mule about, end for end, retraced +some part of the way we had gone, and, striking into another path, led me +to the mountain village, which was, as we say in Scotland, the kirkton of +that thinly peopled district. Some broken memories dwell in my mind of +the day breaking over the plain, of the cart stopping, of arms that +helped me down, of a bare room into which I was carried, and of a swoon +that fell upon me like sleep. + +The next day and the days following the old priest was often at my side +with his snuff-box and prayer book, and after a while, when I began to +pick up strength, he told me that I was now on a fair way to recovery, +and must as soon as possible hurry my departure; whereupon, without +naming any reason, he took snuff and looked at me sideways. I did not +affect ignorance; I knew he must have seen Olalla. 'Sir,' said I, 'you +know that I do not ask in wantonness. What of that family?' + +He said they were very unfortunate; that it seemed a declining race, and +that they were very poor and had been much neglected. + +'But she has not,' I said. 'Thanks, doubtless, to yourself, she is +instructed and wise beyond the use of women.' + +'Yes,' he said; 'the Senorita is well-informed. But the family has been +neglected.' + +'The mother?' I queried. + +'Yes, the mother too,' said the Padre, taking snuff. 'But Felipe is a +well-intentioned lad.' + +'The mother is odd?' I asked. + +'Very odd,' replied the priest. + +'I think, sir, we beat about the bush,' said I. 'You must know more of +my affairs than you allow. You must know my curiosity to be justified on +many grounds. Will you not be frank with me?' + +'My son,' said the old gentleman, 'I will be very frank with you on +matters within my competence; on those of which I know nothing it does +not require much discretion to be silent. I will not fence with you, I +take your meaning perfectly; and what can I say, but that we are all in +God's hands, and that His ways are not as our ways? I have even advised +with my superiors in the church, but they, too, were dumb. It is a great +mystery.' + +'Is she mad?' I asked. + +'I will answer you according to my belief. She is not,' returned the +Padre, 'or she was not. When she was young--God help me, I fear I +neglected that wild lamb--she was surely sane; and yet, although it did +not run to such heights, the same strain was already notable; it had been +so before her in her father, ay, and before him, and this inclined me, +perhaps, to think too lightly of it. But these things go on growing, not +only in the individual but in the race.' + +'When she was young,' I began, and my voice failed me for a moment, and +it was only with a great effort that I was able to add, 'was she like +Olalla?' + +'Now God forbid!' exclaimed the Padre. 'God forbid that any man should +think so slightingly of my favourite penitent. No, no; the Senorita (but +for her beauty, which I wish most honestly she had less of) has not a +hair's resemblance to what her mother was at the same age. I could not +bear to have you think so; though, Heaven knows, it were, perhaps, better +that you should.' + +At this, I raised myself in bed, and opened my heart to the old man; +telling him of our love and of her decision, owning my own horrors, my +own passing fancies, but telling him that these were at an end; and with +something more than a purely formal submission, appealing to his +judgment. + +He heard me very patiently and without surprise; and when I had done, he +sat for some time silent. Then he began: 'The church,' and instantly +broke off again to apologise. 'I had forgotten, my child, that you were +not a Christian,' said he. 'And indeed, upon a point so highly unusual, +even the church can scarce be said to have decided. But would you have +my opinion? The Senorita is, in a matter of this kind, the best judge; I +would accept her judgment.' + +On the back of that he went away, nor was he thenceforward so assiduous +in his visits; indeed, even when I began to get about again, he plainly +feared and deprecated my society, not as in distaste but much as a man +might be disposed to flee from the riddling sphynx. The villagers, too, +avoided me; they were unwilling to be my guides upon the mountain. I +thought they looked at me askance, and I made sure that the more +superstitious crossed themselves on my approach. At first I set this +down to my heretical opinions; but it began at length to dawn upon me +that if I was thus redoubted it was because I had stayed at the +residencia. All men despise the savage notions of such peasantry; and +yet I was conscious of a chill shadow that seemed to fall and dwell upon +my love. It did not conquer, but I may not deny that it restrained my +ardour. + +Some miles westward of the village there was a gap in the sierra, from +which the eye plunged direct upon the residencia; and thither it became +my daily habit to repair. A wood crowned the summit; and just where the +pathway issued from its fringes, it was overhung by a considerable shelf +of rock, and that, in its turn, was surmounted by a crucifix of the size +of life and more than usually painful in design. This was my perch; +thence, day after day, I looked down upon the plateau, and the great old +house, and could see Felipe, no bigger than a fly, going to and fro about +the garden. Sometimes mists would draw across the view, and be broken up +again by mountain winds; sometimes the plain slumbered below me in +unbroken sunshine; it would sometimes be all blotted out by rain. This +distant post, these interrupted sights of the place where my life had +been so strangely changed, suited the indecision of my humour. I passed +whole days there, debating with myself the various elements of our +position; now leaning to the suggestions of love, now giving an ear to +prudence, and in the end halting irresolute between the two. + +One day, as I was sitting on my rock, there came by that way a somewhat +gaunt peasant wrapped in a mantle. He was a stranger, and plainly did +not know me even by repute; for, instead of keeping the other side, he +drew near and sat down beside me, and we had soon fallen in talk. Among +other things he told me he had been a muleteer, and in former years had +much frequented these mountains; later on, he had followed the army with +his mules, had realised a competence, and was now living retired with his +family. + +'Do you know that house?' I inquired, at last, pointing to the +residencia, for I readily wearied of any talk that kept me from the +thought of Olalla. + +He looked at me darkly and crossed himself. + +'Too well,' he said, 'it was there that one of my comrades sold himself +to Satan; the Virgin shield us from temptations! He has paid the price; +he is now burning in the reddest place in Hell!' + +A fear came upon me; I could answer nothing; and presently the man +resumed, as if to himself: 'Yes,' he said, 'O yes, I know it. I have +passed its doors. There was snow upon the pass, the wind was driving it; +sure enough there was death that night upon the mountains, but there was +worse beside the hearth. I took him by the arm, Senor, and dragged him +to the gate; I conjured him, by all he loved and respected, to go forth +with me; I went on my knees before him in the snow; and I could see he +was moved by my entreaty. And just then she came out on the gallery, and +called him by his name; and he turned, and there was she standing with a +lamp in her hand and smiling on him to come back. I cried out aloud to +God, and threw my arms about him, but he put me by, and left me alone. He +had made his choice; God help us. I would pray for him, but to what end? +there are sins that not even the Pope can loose.' + +'And your friend,' I asked, 'what became of him?' + +'Nay, God knows,' said the muleteer. 'If all be true that we hear, his +end was like his sin, a thing to raise the hair.' + +'Do you mean that he was killed?' I asked. + +'Sure enough, he was killed,' returned the man. 'But how? Ay, how? But +these are things that it is sin to speak of.' + +'The people of that house . . . ' I began. + +But he interrupted me with a savage outburst. 'The people?' he cried. +'What people? There are neither men nor women in that house of Satan's! +What? have you lived here so long, and never heard?' And here he put his +mouth to my ear and whispered, as if even the fowls of the mountain might +have over-heard and been stricken with horror. + +What he told me was not true, nor was it even original; being, indeed, +but a new edition, vamped up again by village ignorance and superstition, +of stories nearly as ancient as the race of man. It was rather the +application that appalled me. In the old days, he said, the church would +have burned out that nest of basilisks; but the arm of the church was now +shortened; his friend Miguel had been unpunished by the hands of men, and +left to the more awful judgment of an offended God. This was wrong; but +it should be so no more. The Padre was sunk in age; he was even +bewitched himself; but the eyes of his flock were now awake to their own +danger; and some day--ay, and before long--the smoke of that house should +go up to heaven. + +He left me filled with horror and fear. Which way to turn I knew not; +whether first to warn the Padre, or to carry my ill-news direct to the +threatened inhabitants of the residencia. Fate was to decide for me; +for, while I was still hesitating, I beheld the veiled figure of a woman +drawing near to me up the pathway. No veil could deceive my penetration; +by every line and every movement I recognised Olalla; and keeping hidden +behind a corner of the rock, I suffered her to gain the summit. Then I +came forward. She knew me and paused, but did not speak; I, too, +remained silent; and we continued for some time to gaze upon each other +with a passionate sadness. + +'I thought you had gone,' she said at length. 'It is all that you can do +for me--to go. It is all I ever asked of you. And you still stay. But +do you know, that every day heaps up the peril of death, not only on your +head, but on ours? A report has gone about the mountain; it is thought +you love me, and the people will not suffer it.' + +I saw she was already informed of her danger, and I rejoiced at it. +'Olalla,' I said, 'I am ready to go this day, this very hour, but not +alone.' + +She stepped aside and knelt down before the crucifix to pray, and I stood +by and looked now at her and now at the object of her adoration, now at +the living figure of the penitent, and now at the ghastly, daubed +countenance, the painted wounds, and the projected ribs of the image. The +silence was only broken by the wailing of some large birds that circled +sidelong, as if in surprise or alarm, about the summit of the hills. +Presently Olalla rose again, turned towards me, raised her veil, and, +still leaning with one hand on the shaft of the crucifix, looked upon me +with a pale and sorrowful countenance. + +'I have laid my hand upon the cross,' she said. 'The Padre says you are +no Christian; but look up for a moment with my eyes, and behold the face +of the Man of Sorrows. We are all such as He was--the inheritors of sin; +we must all bear and expiate a past which was not ours; there is in all +of us--ay, even in me--a sparkle of the divine. Like Him, we must endure +for a little while, until morning returns bringing peace. Suffer me to +pass on upon my way alone; it is thus that I shall be least lonely, +counting for my friend Him who is the friend of all the distressed; it is +thus that I shall be the most happy, having taken my farewell of earthly +happiness, and willingly accepted sorrow for my portion.' + +I looked at the face of the crucifix, and, though I was no friend to +images, and despised that imitative and grimacing art of which it was a +rude example, some sense of what the thing implied was carried home to my +intelligence. The face looked down upon me with a painful and deadly +contraction; but the rays of a glory encircled it, and reminded me that +the sacrifice was voluntary. It stood there, crowning the rock, as it +still stands on so many highway sides, vainly preaching to passers-by, an +emblem of sad and noble truths; that pleasure is not an end, but an +accident; that pain is the choice of the magnanimous; that it is best to +suffer all things and do well. I turned and went down the mountain in +silence; and when I looked back for the last time before the wood closed +about my path, I saw Olalla still leaning on the crucifix. + + + + +THE TREASURE OF FRANCHARD. + + +CHAPTER I. BY THE DYING MOUNTEBANK. + + +They had sent for the doctor from Bourron before six. About eight some +villagers came round for the performance, and were told how matters +stood. It seemed a liberty for a mountebank to fall ill like real +people, and they made off again in dudgeon. By ten Madame Tentaillon was +gravely alarmed, and had sent down the street for Doctor Desprez. + +The Doctor was at work over his manuscripts in one corner of the little +dining-room, and his wife was asleep over the fire in another, when the +messenger arrived. + +'Sapristi!' said the Doctor, 'you should have sent for me before. It was +a case for hurry.' And he followed the messenger as he was, in his +slippers and skull-cap. + +The inn was not thirty yards away, but the messenger did not stop there; +he went in at one door and out by another into the court, and then led +the way by a flight of steps beside the stable, to the loft where the +mountebank lay sick. If Doctor Desprez were to live a thousand years, he +would never forget his arrival in that room; for not only was the scene +picturesque, but the moment made a date in his existence. We reckon our +lives, I hardly know why, from the date of our first sorry appearance in +society, as if from a first humiliation; for no actor can come upon the +stage with a worse grace. Not to go further back, which would be judged +too curious, there are subsequently many moving and decisive accidents in +the lives of all, which would make as logical a period as this of birth. +And here, for instance, Doctor Desprez, a man past forty, who had made +what is called a failure in life, and was moreover married, found himself +at a new point of departure when he opened the door of the loft above +Tentaillon's stable. + +It was a large place, lighted only by a single candle set upon the floor. +The mountebank lay on his back upon a pallet; a large man, with a +Quixotic nose inflamed with drinking. Madame Tentaillon stooped over +him, applying a hot water and mustard embrocation to his feet; and on a +chair close by sat a little fellow of eleven or twelve, with his feet +dangling. These three were the only occupants, except the shadows. But +the shadows were a company in themselves; the extent of the room +exaggerated them to a gigantic size, and from the low position of the +candle the light struck upwards and produced deformed foreshortenings. +The mountebank's profile was enlarged upon the wall in caricature, and it +was strange to see his nose shorten and lengthen as the flame was blown +about by draughts. As for Madame Tentaillon, her shadow was no more than +a gross hump of shoulders, with now and again a hemisphere of head. The +chair legs were spindled out as long as stilts, and the boy set perched +atop of them, like a cloud, in the corner of the roof. + +It was the boy who took the Doctor's fancy. He had a great arched skull, +the forehead and the hands of a musician, and a pair of haunting eyes. It +was not merely that these eyes were large, or steady, or the softest +ruddy brown. There was a look in them, besides, which thrilled the +Doctor, and made him half uneasy. He was sure he had seen such a look +before, and yet he could not remember how or where. It was as if this +boy, who was quite a stranger to him, had the eyes of an old friend or an +old enemy. And the boy would give him no peace; he seemed profoundly +indifferent to what was going on, or rather abstracted from it in a +superior contemplation, beating gently with his feet against the bars of +the chair, and holding his hands folded on his lap. But, for all that, +his eyes kept following the Doctor about the room with a thoughtful +fixity of gaze. Desprez could not tell whether he was fascinating the +boy, or the boy was fascinating him. He busied himself over the sick +man: he put questions, he felt the pulse, he jested, he grew a little hot +and swore: and still, whenever he looked round, there were the brown eyes +waiting for his with the same inquiring, melancholy gaze. + +At last the Doctor hit on the solution at a leap. He remembered the look +now. The little fellow, although he was as straight as a dart, had the +eyes that go usually with a crooked back; he was not at all deformed, and +yet a deformed person seemed to be looking at you from below his brows. +The Doctor drew a long breath, he was so much relieved to find a theory +(for he loved theories) and to explain away his interest. + +For all that, he despatched the invalid with unusual haste, and, still +kneeling with one knee on the floor, turned a little round and looked the +boy over at his leisure. The boy was not in the least put out, but +looked placidly back at the Doctor. + +'Is this your father?' asked Desprez. + +'Oh, no,' returned the boy; 'my master.' + +'Are you fond of him?' continued the Doctor. + +'No, sir,' said the boy. + +Madame Tentaillon and Desprez exchanged expressive glances. + +'That is bad, my man,' resumed the latter, with a shade of sternness. +'Every one should be fond of the dying, or conceal their sentiments; and +your master here is dying. If I have watched a bird a little while +stealing my cherries, I have a thought of disappointment when he flies +away over my garden wall, and I see him steer for the forest and vanish. +How much more a creature such as this, so strong, so astute, so richly +endowed with faculties! When I think that, in a few hours, the speech +will be silenced, the breath extinct, and even the shadow vanished from +the wall, I who never saw him, this lady who knew him only as a guest, +are touched with some affection.' + +The boy was silent for a little, and appeared to be reflecting. + +'You did not know him,' he replied at last, 'he was a bad man.' + +'He is a little pagan,' said the landlady. 'For that matter, they are +all the same, these mountebanks, tumblers, artists, and what not. They +have no interior.' + +But the Doctor was still scrutinising the little pagan, his eyebrows +knotted and uplifted. + +'What is your name?' he asked. + +'Jean-Marie,' said the lad. + +Desprez leaped upon him with one of his sudden flashes of excitement, and +felt his head all over from an ethnological point of view. + +'Celtic, Celtic!' he said. + +'Celtic!' cried Madame Tentaillon, who had perhaps confounded the word +with hydrocephalous. 'Poor lad! is it dangerous?' + +'That depends,' returned the Doctor grimly. And then once more +addressing the boy: 'And what do you do for your living, Jean-Marie?' he +inquired. + +'I tumble,' was the answer. + +'So! Tumble?' repeated Desprez. 'Probably healthful. I hazard the +guess, Madame Tentaillon, that tumbling is a healthful way of life. And +have you never done anything else but tumble?' + +'Before I learned that, I used to steal,' answered Jean-Marie gravely. + +'Upon my word!' cried the doctor. 'You are a nice little man for your +age. Madame, when my _confrere_ comes from Bourron, you will communicate +my unfavourable opinion. I leave the case in his hands; but of course, +on any alarming symptom, above all if there should be a sign of rally, do +not hesitate to knock me up. I am a doctor no longer, I thank God; but I +have been one. Good night, madame. Good sleep to you, Jean-Marie.' + + + +CHAPTER II. MORNING TALK + + +Doctor Desprez always rose early. Before the smoke arose, before the +first cart rattled over the bridge to the day's labour in the fields, he +was to be found wandering in his garden. Now he would pick a bunch of +grapes; now he would eat a big pear under the trellice; now he would draw +all sorts of fancies on the path with the end of his cane; now he would +go down and watch the river running endlessly past the timber landing- +place at which he moored his boat. There was no time, he used to say, +for making theories like the early morning. 'I rise earlier than any one +else in the village,' he once boasted. 'It is a fair consequence that I +know more and wish to do less with my knowledge.' + +The Doctor was a connoisseur of sunrises, and loved a good theatrical +effect to usher in the day. He had a theory of dew, by which he could +predict the weather. Indeed, most things served him to that end: the +sound of the bells from all the neighbouring villages, the smell of the +forest, the visits and the behaviour of both birds and fishes, the look +of the plants in his garden, the disposition of cloud, the colour of the +light, and last, although not least, the arsenal of meteorological +instruments in a louvre-boarded hutch upon the lawn. Ever since he had +settled at Gretz, he had been growing more and more into the local +meteorologist, the unpaid champion of the local climate. He thought at +first there was no place so healthful in the arrondissement. By the end +of the second year, he protested there was none so wholesome in the whole +department. And for some time before he met Jean-Marie he had been +prepared to challenge all France and the better part of Europe for a +rival to his chosen spot. + +'Doctor,' he would say--'doctor is a foul word. It should not be used to +ladies. It implies disease. I remark it, as a flaw in our civilisation, +that we have not the proper horror of disease. Now I, for my part, have +washed my hands of it; I have renounced my laureation; I am no doctor; I +am only a worshipper of the true goddess Hygieia. Ah, believe me, it is +she who has the cestus! And here, in this exiguous hamlet, has she +placed her shrine: here she dwells and lavishes her gifts; here I walk +with her in the early morning, and she shows me how strong she has made +the peasants, how fruitful she has made the fields, how the trees grow up +tall and comely under her eyes, and the fishes in the river become clean +and agile at her presence.--Rheumatism!' he would cry, on some malapert +interruption, 'O, yes, I believe we do have a little rheumatism. That +could hardly be avoided, you know, on a river. And of course the place +stands a little low; and the meadows are marshy, there's no doubt. But, +my dear sir, look at Bourron! Bourron stands high. Bourron is close to +the forest; plenty of ozone there, you would say. Well, compared with +Gretz, Bourron is a perfect shambles.' + +The morning after he had been summoned to the dying mountebank, the +Doctor visited the wharf at the tail of his garden, and had a long look +at the running water. This he called prayer; but whether his adorations +were addressed to the goddess Hygieia or some more orthodox deity, never +plainly appeared. For he had uttered doubtful oracles, sometimes +declaring that a river was the type of bodily health, sometimes extolling +it as the great moral preacher, continually preaching peace, continuity, +and diligence to man's tormented spirits. After he had watched a mile or +so of the clear water running by before his eyes, seen a fish or two come +to the surface with a gleam of silver, and sufficiently admired the long +shadows of the trees falling half across the river from the opposite +bank, with patches of moving sunlight in between, he strolled once more +up the garden and through his house into the street, feeling cool and +renovated. + +The sound of his feet upon the causeway began the business of the day; +for the village was still sound asleep. The church tower looked very +airy in the sunlight; a few birds that turned about it, seemed to swim in +an atmosphere of more than usual rarity; and the Doctor, walking in long +transparent shadows, filled his lungs amply, and proclaimed himself well +contented with the morning. + +On one of the posts before Tentaillon's carriage entry he espied a little +dark figure perched in a meditative attitude, and immediately recognised +Jean-Marie. + +'Aha!' he said, stopping before him humorously, with a hand on either +knee. 'So we rise early in the morning, do we? It appears to me that we +have all the vices of a philosopher.' + +The boy got to his feet and made a grave salutation. + +'And how is our patient?' asked Desprez. + +It appeared the patient was about the same. + +'And why do you rise early in the morning?' he pursued. + +Jean-Marie, after a long silence, professed that he hardly knew. + +'You hardly know?' repeated Desprez. 'We hardly know anything, my man, +until we try to learn. Interrogate your consciousness. Come, push me +this inquiry home. Do you like it?' + +'Yes,' said the boy slowly; 'yes, I like it.' + +'And why do you like it?' continued the Doctor. '(We are now pursuing +the Socratic method.) Why do you like it?' + +'It is quiet,' answered Jean-Marie; 'and I have nothing to do; and then I +feel as if I were good.' + +Doctor Desprez took a seat on the post at the opposite side. He was +beginning to take an interest in the talk, for the boy plainly thought +before he spoke, and tried to answer truly. 'It appears you have a taste +for feeling good,' said the Doctor. 'Now, there you puzzle me extremely; +for I thought you said you were a thief; and the two are incompatible.' + +'Is it very bad to steal?' asked Jean-Marie. + +'Such is the general opinion, little boy,' replied the Doctor. + +'No; but I mean as I stole,' explained the other. 'For I had no choice. +I think it is surely right to have bread; it must be right to have bread, +there comes so plain a want of it. And then they beat me cruelly if I +returned with nothing,' he added. 'I was not ignorant of right and +wrong; for before that I had been well taught by a priest, who was very +kind to me.' (The Doctor made a horrible grimace at the word 'priest.') +'But it seemed to me, when one had nothing to eat and was beaten, it was +a different affair. I would not have stolen for tartlets, I believe; but +any one would steal for baker's bread.' + +'And so I suppose,' said the Doctor, with a rising sneer, 'you prayed God +to forgive you, and explained the case to Him at length.' + +'Why, sir?' asked Jean-Marie. 'I do not see.' + +'Your priest would see, however,' retorted Desprez. + +'Would he?' asked the boy, troubled for the first time. 'I should have +thought God would have known.' + +'Eh?' snarled the Doctor. + +'I should have thought God would have understood me,' replied the other. +'You do not, I see; but then it was God that made me think so, was it +not?' + +'Little boy, little boy,' said Dr. Desprez, 'I told you already you had +the vices of philosophy; if you display the virtues also, I must go. I +am a student of the blessed laws of health, an observer of plain and +temperate nature in her common walks; and I cannot preserve my equanimity +in presence of a monster. Do you understand?' + +'No, sir,' said the boy. + +'I will make my meaning clear to you,' replied the doctor. 'Look there +at the sky--behind the belfry first, where it is so light, and then up +and up, turning your chin back, right to the top of the dome, where it is +already as blue as at noon. Is not that a beautiful colour? Does it not +please the heart? We have seen it all our lives, until it has grown in +with our familiar thoughts. Now,' changing his tone, 'suppose that sky +to become suddenly of a live and fiery amber, like the colour of clear +coals, and growing scarlet towards the top--I do not say it would be any +the less beautiful; but would you like it as well?' + +'I suppose not,' answered Jean-Marie. + +'Neither do I like you,' returned the Doctor, roughly. 'I hate all odd +people, and you are the most curious little boy in all the world.' + +Jean-Marie seemed to ponder for a while, and then he raised his head +again and looked over at the Doctor with an air of candid inquiry. 'But +are not you a very curious gentleman?' he asked. + +The Doctor threw away his stick, bounded on the boy, clasped him to his +bosom, and kissed him on both cheeks. 'Admirable, admirable imp!' he +cried. 'What a morning, what an hour for a theorist of forty-two! No,' +he continued, apostrophising heaven, 'I did not know such boys existed; I +was ignorant they made them so; I had doubted of my race; and now! It is +like,' he added, picking up his stick, 'like a lovers' meeting. I have +bruised my favourite staff in that moment of enthusiasm. The injury, +however, is not grave.' He caught the boy looking at him in obvious +wonder, embarrassment, and alarm. 'Hullo!' said he, 'why do you look at +me like that? Egad, I believe the boy despises me. Do you despise me, +boy?' + +'O, no,' replied Jean-Marie, seriously; 'only I do not understand.' + +'You must excuse me, sir,' returned the Doctor, with gravity; 'I am still +so young. O, hang him!' he added to himself. And he took his seat again +and observed the boy sardonically. 'He has spoiled the quiet of my +morning,' thought he. 'I shall be nervous all day, and have a febricule +when I digest. Let me compose myself.' And so he dismissed his +pre-occupations by an effort of the will which he had long practised, and +let his soul roam abroad in the contemplation of the morning. He inhaled +the air, tasting it critically as a connoisseur tastes a vintage, and +prolonging the expiration with hygienic gusto. He counted the little +flecks of cloud along the sky. He followed the movements of the birds +round the church tower--making long sweeps, hanging poised, or turning +airy somersaults in fancy, and beating the wind with imaginary pinions. +And in this way he regained peace of mind and animal composure, conscious +of his limbs, conscious of the sight of his eyes, conscious that the air +had a cool taste, like a fruit, at the top of his throat; and at last, in +complete abstraction, he began to sing. The Doctor had but one air--, +'Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre;' even with that he was on terms of mere +politeness; and his musical exploits were always reserved for moments +when he was alone and entirely happy. + +He was recalled to earth rudely by a pained expression on the boy's face. +'What do you think of my singing?' he inquired, stopping in the middle of +a note; and then, after he had waited some little while and received no +answer, 'What do you think of my singing?' he repeated, imperiously. + +'I do not like it,' faltered Jean-Marie. + +'Oh, come!' cried the Doctor. 'Possibly you are a performer yourself?' + +'I sing better than that,' replied the boy. + +The Doctor eyed him for some seconds in stupefaction. He was aware that +he was angry, and blushed for himself in consequence, which made him +angrier. 'If this is how you address your master!' he said at last, with +a shrug and a flourish of his arms. + +'I do not speak to him at all,' returned the boy. 'I do not like him.' + +'Then you like me?' snapped Doctor Desprez, with unusual eagerness. + +'I do not know,' answered Jean-Marie. + +The Doctor rose. 'I shall wish you a good morning,' he said. 'You are +too much for me. Perhaps you have blood in your veins, perhaps celestial +ichor, or perhaps you circulate nothing more gross than respirable air; +but of one thing I am inexpugnably assured:--that you are no human being. +No, boy'--shaking his stick at him--'you are not a human being. Write, +write it in your memory--"I am not a human being--I have no pretension to +be a human being--I am a dive, a dream, an angel, an acrostic, an +illusion--what you please, but not a human being." And so accept my +humble salutations and farewell!' + +And with that the Doctor made off along the street in some emotion, and +the boy stood, mentally gaping, where he left him. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE ADOPTION. + + +Madame Desprez, who answered to the Christian name of Anastasie, +presented an agreeable type of her sex; exceedingly wholesome to look +upon, a stout _brune_, with cool smooth cheeks, steady, dark eyes, and +hands that neither art nor nature could improve. She was the sort of +person over whom adversity passes like a summer cloud; she might, in the +worst of conjunctions, knit her brows into one vertical furrow for a +moment, but the next it would be gone. She had much of the placidity of +a contented nun; with little of her piety, however; for Anastasie was of +a very mundane nature, fond of oysters and old wine, and somewhat bold +pleasantries, and devoted to her husband for her own sake rather than for +his. She was imperturbably good-natured, but had no idea of +self-sacrifice. To live in that pleasant old house, with a green garden +behind and bright flowers about the window, to eat and drink of the best, +to gossip with a neighbour for a quarter of an hour, never to wear stays +or a dress except when she went to Fontainebleau shopping, to be kept in +a continual supply of racy novels, and to be married to Doctor Desprez +and have no ground of jealousy, filled the cup of her nature to the brim. +Those who had known the Doctor in bachelor days, when he had aired quite +as many theories, but of a different order, attributed his present +philosophy to the study of Anastasie. It was her brute enjoyment that he +rationalised and perhaps vainly imitated. + +Madame Desprez was an artist in the kitchen, and made coffee to a nicety. +She had a knack of tidiness, with which she had infected the Doctor; +everything was in its place; everything capable of polish shone +gloriously; and dust was a thing banished from her empire. Aline, their +single servant, had no other business in the world but to scour and +burnish. So Doctor Desprez lived in his house like a fatted calf, warmed +and cosseted to his heart's content. + +The midday meal was excellent. There was a ripe melon, a fish from the +river in a memorable Bearnaise sauce, a fat fowl in a fricassee, and a +dish of asparagus, followed by some fruit. The Doctor drank half a +bottle _plus_ one glass, the wife half a bottle _minus_ the same +quantity, which was a marital privilege, of an excellent Cote-Rotie, +seven years old. Then the coffee was brought, and a flask of Chartreuse +for madame, for the Doctor despised and distrusted such decoctions; and +then Aline left the wedded pair to the pleasures of memory and digestion. + +'It is a very fortunate circumstance, my cherished one,' observed the +Doctor--'this coffee is adorable--a very fortunate circumstance upon the +whole--Anastasie, I beseech you, go without that poison for to-day; only +one day, and you will feel the benefit, I pledge my reputation.' + +'What is this fortunate circumstance, my friend?' inquired Anastasie, not +heeding his protest, which was of daily recurrence. + +'That we have no children, my beautiful,' replied the Doctor. 'I think +of it more and more as the years go on, and with more and more gratitude +towards the Power that dispenses such afflictions. Your health, my +darling, my studious quiet, our little kitchen delicacies, how they would +all have suffered, how they would all have been sacrificed! And for +what? Children are the last word of human imperfection. Health flees +before their face. They cry, my dear; they put vexatious questions; they +demand to be fed, to be washed, to be educated, to have their noses +blown; and then, when the time comes, they break our hearts, as I break +this piece of sugar. A pair of professed egoists, like you and me, +should avoid offspring, like an infidelity.' + +'Indeed!' said she; and she laughed. 'Now, that is like you--to take +credit for the thing you could not help.' + +'My dear,' returned the Doctor, solemnly, 'we might have adopted.' + +'Never!' cried madame. 'Never, Doctor, with my consent. If the child +were my own flesh and blood, I would not say no. But to take another +person's indiscretion on my shoulders, my dear friend, I have too much +sense.' + +'Precisely,' replied the Doctor. 'We both had. And I am all the better +pleased with our wisdom, because--because--' He looked at her sharply. + +'Because what?' she asked, with a faint premonition of danger. + +'Because I have found the right person,' said the Doctor firmly, 'and +shall adopt him this afternoon.' + +Anastasie looked at him out of a mist. 'You have lost your reason,' she +said; and there was a clang in her voice that seemed to threaten trouble. + +'Not so, my dear,' he replied; 'I retain its complete exercise. To the +proof: instead of attempting to cloak my inconsistency, I have, by way of +preparing you, thrown it into strong relief. You will there, I think, +recognise the philosopher who has the ecstasy to call you wife. The fact +is, I have been reckoning all this while without an accident. I never +thought to find a son of my own. Now, last night, I found one. Do not +unnecessarily alarm yourself, my dear; he is not a drop of blood to me +that I know. It is his mind, darling, his mind that calls me father.' + +'His mind!' she repeated with a titter between scorn and hysterics. 'His +mind, indeed! Henri, is this an idiotic pleasantry, or are you mad? His +mind! And what of my mind?' + +'Truly,' replied the Doctor with a shrug, 'you have your finger on the +hitch. He will be strikingly antipathetic to my ever beautiful +Anastasie. She will never understand him; he will never understand her. +You married the animal side of my nature, dear and it is on the spiritual +side that I find my affinity for Jean-Marie. So much so, that, to be +perfectly frank, I stand in some awe of him myself. You will easily +perceive that I am announcing a calamity for you. Do not,' he broke out +in tones of real solicitude--'do not give way to tears after a meal, +Anastasie. You will certainly give yourself a false digestion.' + +Anastasie controlled herself. 'You know how willing I am to humour you,' +she said, 'in all reasonable matters. But on this point--' + +'My dear love,' interrupted the Doctor, eager to prevent a refusal, 'who +wished to leave Paris? Who made me give up cards, and the opera, and the +boulevard, and my social relations, and all that was my life before I +knew you? Have I been faithful? Have I been obedient? Have I not borne +my doom with cheerfulness? In all honesty, Anastasie, have I not a right +to a stipulation on my side? I have, and you know it. I stipulate my +son.' + +Anastasie was aware of defeat; she struck her colours instantly. 'You +will break my heart,' she sighed. + +'Not in the least,' said he. 'You will feel a trifling inconvenience for +a month, just as I did when I was first brought to this vile hamlet; then +your admirable sense and temper will prevail, and I see you already as +content as ever, and making your husband the happiest of men.' + +'You know I can refuse you nothing,' she said, with a last flicker of +resistance; 'nothing that will make you truly happier. But will this? +Are you sure, my husband? Last night, you say, you found him! He may be +the worst of humbugs.' + +'I think not,' replied the Doctor. 'But do not suppose me so unwary as +to adopt him out of hand. I am, I flatter myself, a finished man of the +world; I have had all possibilities in view; my plan is contrived to meet +them all. I take the lad as stable boy. If he pilfer, if he grumble, if +he desire to change, I shall see I was mistaken; I shall recognise him +for no son of mine, and send him tramping.' + +'You will never do so when the time comes,' said his wife; 'I know your +good heart.' + +She reached out her hand to him, with a sigh; the Doctor smiled as he +took it and carried it to his lips; he had gained his point with greater +ease than he had dared to hope; for perhaps the twentieth time he had +proved the efficacy of his trusty argument, his Excalibur, the hint of a +return to Paris. Six months in the capital, for a man of the Doctor's +antecedents and relations, implied no less a calamity than total ruin. +Anastasie had saved the remainder of his fortune by keeping him strictly +in the country. The very name of Paris put her in a blue fear; and she +would have allowed her husband to keep a menagerie in the back garden, +let alone adopting a stable-boy, rather than permit the question of +return to be discussed. + +About four of the afternoon, the mountebank rendered up his ghost; he had +never been conscious since his seizure. Doctor Desprez was present at +his last passage, and declared the farce over. Then he took Jean-Marie +by the shoulder and led him out into the inn garden where there was a +convenient bench beside the river. Here he sat him down and made the boy +place himself on his left. + +'Jean-Marie,' he said very gravely, 'this world is exceedingly vast; and +even France, which is only a small corner of it, is a great place for a +little lad like you. Unfortunately it is full of eager, shouldering +people moving on; and there are very few bakers' shops for so many +eaters. Your master is dead; you are not fit to gain a living by +yourself; you do not wish to steal? No. Your situation then is +undesirable; it is, for the moment, critical. On the other hand, you +behold in me a man not old, though elderly, still enjoying the youth of +the heart and the intelligence; a man of instruction; easily situated in +this world's affairs; keeping a good table:--a man, neither as friend nor +host, to be despised. I offer you your food and clothes, and to teach +you lessons in the evening, which will be infinitely more to the purpose +for a lad of your stamp than those of all the priests in Europe. I +propose no wages, but if ever you take a thought to leave me, the door +shall be open, and I will give you a hundred francs to start the world +upon. In return, I have an old horse and chaise, which you would very +speedily learn to clean and keep in order. Do not hurry yourself to +answer, and take it or leave it as you judge aright. Only remember this, +that I am no sentimentalist or charitable person, but a man who lives +rigorously to himself; and that if I make the proposal, it is for my own +ends--it is because I perceive clearly an advantage to myself. And now, +reflect.' + +'I shall be very glad. I do not see what else I can do. I thank you, +sir, most kindly, and I will try to be useful,' said the boy. + +'Thank you,' said the Doctor warmly, rising at the same time and wiping +his brow, for he had suffered agonies while the thing hung in the wind. A +refusal, after the scene at noon, would have placed him in a ridiculous +light before Anastasie. 'How hot and heavy is the evening, to be sure! I +have always had a fancy to be a fish in summer, Jean-Marie, here in the +Loing beside Gretz. I should lie under a water-lily and listen to the +bells, which must sound most delicately down below. That would be a +life--do you not think so too?' + +'Yes,' said Jean-Marie. + +'Thank God you have imagination!' cried the Doctor, embracing the boy +with his usual effusive warmth, though it was a proceeding that seemed to +disconcert the sufferer almost as much as if he had been an English +schoolboy of the same age. 'And now,' he added, 'I will take you to my +wife.' + +Madame Desprez sat in the dining-room in a cool wrapper. All the blinds +were down, and the tile floor had been recently sprinkled with water; her +eyes were half shut, but she affected to be reading a novel as the they +entered. Though she was a bustling woman, she enjoyed repose between +whiles and had a remarkable appetite for sleep. + +The Doctor went through a solemn form of introduction, adding, for the +benefit of both parties, 'You must try to like each other for my sake.' + +'He is very pretty,' said Anastasie. 'Will you kiss me, my pretty little +fellow?' + +The Doctor was furious, and dragged her into the passage. 'Are you a +fool, Anastasie?' he said. 'What is all this I hear about the tact of +women? Heaven knows, I have not met with it in my experience. You +address my little philosopher as if he were an infant. He must be spoken +to with more respect, I tell you; he must not be kissed and +Georgy-porgy'd like an ordinary child.' + +'I only did it to please you, I am sure,' replied Anastasie; 'but I will +try to do better.' + +The Doctor apologised for his warmth. 'But I do wish him,' he continued, +'to feel at home among us. And really your conduct was so idiotic, my +cherished one, and so utterly and distantly out of place, that a saint +might have been pardoned a little vehemence in disapproval. Do, do +try--if it is possible for a woman to understand young people--but of +course it is not, and I waste my breath. Hold your tongue as much as +possible at least, and observe my conduct narrowly; it will serve you for +a model.' + +Anastasie did as she was bidden, and considered the Doctor's behaviour. +She observed that he embraced the boy three times in the course of the +evening, and managed generally to confound and abash the little fellow +out of speech and appetite. But she had the true womanly heroism in +little affairs. Not only did she refrain from the cheap revenge of +exposing the Doctor's errors to himself, but she did her best to remove +their ill-effect on Jean-Marie. When Desprez went out for his last +breath of air before retiring for the night, she came over to the boy's +side and took his hand. + +'You must not be surprised nor frightened by my husband's manners,' she +said. 'He is the kindest of men, but so clever that he is sometimes +difficult to understand. You will soon grow used to him, and then you +will love him, for that nobody can help. As for me, you may be sure, I +shall try to make you happy, and will not bother you at all. I think we +should be excellent friends, you and I. I am not clever, but I am very +good-natured. Will you give me a kiss?' + +He held up his face, and she took him in her arms and then began to cry. +The woman had spoken in complaisance; but she had warmed to her own +words, and tenderness followed. The Doctor, entering, found them +enlaced: he concluded that his wife was in fault; and he was just +beginning, in an awful voice, 'Anastasie--,' when she looked up at him, +smiling, with an upraised finger; and he held his peace, wondering, while +she led the boy to his attic. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE EDUCATION OF A PHILOSOPHER. + + +The installation of the adopted stable-boy was thus happily effected, and +the wheels of life continued to run smoothly in the Doctor's house. Jean- +Marie did his horse and carriage duty in the morning; sometimes helped in +the housework; sometimes walked abroad with the Doctor, to drink wisdom +from the fountain-head; and was introduced at night to the sciences and +the dead tongues. He retained his singular placidity of mind and manner; +he was rarely in fault; but he made only a very partial progress in his +studies, and remained much of a stranger in the family. + +The Doctor was a pattern of regularity. All forenoon he worked on his +great book, the 'Comparative Pharmacopoeia, or Historical Dictionary of +all Medicines,' which as yet consisted principally of slips of paper and +pins. When finished, it was to fill many personable volumes, and to +combine antiquarian interest with professional utility. But the Doctor +was studious of literary graces and the picturesque; an anecdote, a touch +of manners, a moral qualification, or a sounding epithet was sure to be +preferred before a piece of science; a little more, and he would have +written the 'Comparative Pharmacopoeia' in verse! The article 'Mummia,' +for instance, was already complete, though the remainder of the work had +not progressed beyond the letter A. It was exceedingly copious and +entertaining, written with quaintness and colour, exact, erudite, a +literary article; but it would hardly have afforded guidance to a +practising physician of to-day. The feminine good sense of his wife had +led her to point this out with uncompromising sincerity; for the +Dictionary was duly read aloud to her, betwixt sleep and waning, as it +proceeded towards an infinitely distant completion; and the Doctor was a +little sore on the subject of mummies, and sometimes resented an allusion +with asperity. + +After the midday meal and a proper period of digestion, he walked, +sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by Jean-Marie; for madame would +have preferred any hardship rather than walk. + +She was, as I have said, a very busy person, continually occupied about +material comforts, and ready to drop asleep over a novel the instant she +was disengaged. This was the less objectionable, as she never snored or +grew distempered in complexion when she slept. On the contrary, she +looked the very picture of luxurious and appetising ease, and woke +without a start to the perfect possession of her faculties. I am afraid +she was greatly an animal, but she was a very nice animal to have about. +In this way, she had little to do with Jean-Marie; but the sympathy which +had been established between them on the first night remained unbroken; +they held occasional conversations, mostly on household matters; to the +extreme disappointment of the Doctor, they occasionally sallied off +together to that temple of debasing superstition, the village church; +madame and he, both in their Sunday's best, drove twice a month to +Fontainebleau and returned laden with purchases; and in short, although +the Doctor still continued to regard them as irreconcilably +anti-pathetic, their relation was as intimate, friendly, and confidential +as their natures suffered. + +I fear, however, that in her heart of hearts, madame kindly despised and +pitied the boy. She had no admiration for his class of virtues; she +liked a smart, polite, forward, roguish sort of boy, cap in hand, light +of foot, meeting the eye; she liked volubility, charm, a little vice--the +promise of a second Doctor Desprez. And it was her indefeasible belief +that Jean-Marie was dull. 'Poor dear boy,' she had said once, 'how sad +it is that he should be so stupid!' She had never repeated that remark, +for the Doctor had raged like a wild bull, denouncing the brutal +bluntness of her mind, bemoaning his own fate to be so unequally mated +with an ass, and, what touched Anastasie more nearly, menacing the table +china by the fury of his gesticulations. But she adhered silently to her +opinion; and when Jean-Marie was sitting, stolid, blank, but not unhappy, +over his unfinished tasks, she would snatch her opportunity in the +Doctor's absence, go over to him, put her arms about his neck, lay her +cheek to his, and communicate her sympathy with his distress. 'Do not +mind,' she would say; 'I, too, am not at all clever, and I can assure you +that it makes no difference in life.' + +The Doctor's view was naturally different. That gentleman never wearied +of the sound of his own voice, which was, to say the truth, agreeable +enough to hear. He now had a listener, who was not so cynically +indifferent as Anastasie, and who sometimes put him on his mettle by the +most relevant objections. Besides, was he not educating the boy? And +education, philosophers are agreed, is the most philosophical of duties. +What can be more heavenly to poor mankind than to have one's hobby grow +into a duty to the State? Then, indeed, do the ways of life become ways +of pleasantness. Never had the Doctor seen reason to be more content +with his endowments. Philosophy flowed smoothly from his lips. He was +so agile a dialectician that he could trace his nonsense, when +challenged, back to some root in sense, and prove it to be a sort of +flower upon his system. He slipped out of antinomies like a fish, and +left his disciple marvelling at the rabbi's depth. + +Moreover, deep down in his heart the Doctor was disappointed with the ill- +success of his more formal education. A boy, chosen by so acute an +observer for his aptitude, and guided along the path of learning by so +philosophic an instructor, was bound, by the nature of the universe, to +make a more obvious and lasting advance. Now Jean-Marie was slow in all +things, impenetrable in others; and his power of forgetting was fully on +a level with his power to learn. Therefore the Doctor cherished his +peripatetic lectures, to which the boy attended, which he generally +appeared to enjoy, and by which he often profited. + +Many and many were the talks they had together; and health and moderation +proved the subject of the Doctor's divagations. To these he lovingly +returned. + +'I lead you,' he would say, 'by the green pastures. My system, my +beliefs, my medicines, are resumed in one phrase--to avoid excess. +Blessed nature, healthy, temperate nature, abhors and exterminates +excess. Human law, in this matter, imitates at a great distance her +provisions; and we must strive to supplement the efforts of the law. Yes, +boy, we must be a law to ourselves and for ourselves and for our +neighbours--lex armata--armed, emphatic, tyrannous law. If you see a +crapulous human ruin snuffing, dash from him his box! The judge, though +in a way an admission of disease, is less offensive to me than either the +doctor or the priest. Above all the doctor--the doctor and the purulent +trash and garbage of his pharmacopoeia! Pure air--from the neighbourhood +of a pinetum for the sake of the turpentine--unadulterated wine, and the +reflections of an unsophisticated spirit in the presence of the works of +nature--these, my boy, are the best medical appliances and the best +religious comforts. Devote yourself to these. Hark! there are the bells +of Bourron (the wind is in the north, it will be fair). How clear and +airy is the sound! The nerves are harmonised and quieted; the mind +attuned to silence; and observe how easily and regularly beats the heart! +Your unenlightened doctor would see nothing in these sensations; and yet +you yourself perceive they are a part of health.--Did you remember your +cinchona this morning? Good. Cinchona also is a work of nature; it is, +after all, only the bark of a tree which we might gather for ourselves if +we lived in the locality.--What a world is this! Though a professed +atheist, I delight to bear my testimony to the world. Look at the +gratuitous remedies and pleasures that surround our path! The river runs +by the garden end, our bath, our fishpond, our natural system of +drainage. There is a well in the court which sends up sparkling water +from the earth's very heart, clean, cool, and, with a little wine, most +wholesome. The district is notorious for its salubrity; rheumatism is +the only prevalent complaint, and I myself have never had a touch of it. +I tell you--and my opinion is based upon the coldest, clearest processes +of reason--if I, if you, desired to leave this home of pleasures, it +would be the duty, it would be the privilege, of our best friend to +prevent us with a pistol bullet.' + +One beautiful June day they sat upon the hill outside the village. The +river, as blue as heaven, shone here and there among the foliage. The +indefatigable birds turned and flickered about Gretz church tower. A +healthy wind blew from over the forest, and the sound of innumerable +thousands of tree-tops and innumerable millions on millions of green +leaves was abroad in the air, and filled the ear with something between +whispered speech and singing. It seemed as if every blade of grass must +hide a cigale; and the fields rang merrily with their music, jingling far +and near as with the sleigh-bells of the fairy queen. From their station +on the slope the eye embraced a large space of poplar'd plain upon the +one hand, the waving hill-tops of the forest on the other, and Gretz +itself in the middle, a handful of roofs. Under the bestriding arch of +the blue heavens, the place seemed dwindled to a toy. It seemed +incredible that people dwelt, and could find room to turn or air to +breathe, in such a corner of the world. The thought came home to the +boy, perhaps for the first time, and he gave it words. + +'How small it looks!' he sighed. + +'Ay,' replied the Doctor, 'small enough now. Yet it was once a walled +city; thriving, full of furred burgesses and men in armour, humming with +affairs;--with tall spires, for aught that I know, and portly towers +along the battlements. A thousand chimneys ceased smoking at the curfew +bell. There were gibbets at the gate as thick as scarecrows. In time of +war, the assault swarmed against it with ladders, the arrows fell like +leaves, the defenders sallied hotly over the drawbridge, each side +uttered its cry as they plied their weapons. Do you know that the walls +extended as far as the Commanderie? Tradition so reports. Alas, what a +long way off is all this confusion--nothing left of it but my quiet words +spoken in your ear--and the town itself shrunk to the hamlet underneath +us! By-and-by came the English wars--you shall hear more of the English, +a stupid people, who sometimes blundered into good--and Gretz was taken, +sacked, and burned. It is the history of many towns; but Gretz never +rose again; it was never rebuilt; its ruins were a quarry to serve the +growth of rivals; and the stones of Gretz are now erect along the streets +of Nemours. It gratifies me that our old house was the first to rise +after the calamity; when the town had come to an end, it inaugurated the +hamlet.' + +'I, too, am glad of that,' said Jean-Marie. + +'It should be the temple of the humbler virtues,' responded the Doctor +with a savoury gusto. 'Perhaps one of the reasons why I love my little +hamlet as I do, is that we have a similar history, she and I. Have I +told you that I was once rich?' + +'I do not think so,' answered Jean-Marie. 'I do not think I should have +forgotten. I am sorry you should have lost your fortune.' + +'Sorry?' cried the Doctor. 'Why, I find I have scarce begun your +education after all. Listen to me! Would you rather live in the old +Gretz or in the new, free from the alarms of war, with the green country +at the door, without noise, passports, the exactions of the soldiery, or +the jangle of the curfew-bell to send us off to bed by sundown?' + +'I suppose I should prefer the new,' replied the boy. + +'Precisely,' returned the Doctor; 'so do I. And, in the same way, I +prefer my present moderate fortune to my former wealth. Golden +mediocrity! cried the adorable ancients; and I subscribe to their +enthusiasm. Have I not good wine, good food, good air, the fields and +the forest for my walk, a house, an admirable wife, a boy whom I protest +I cherish like a son? Now, if I were still rich, I should indubitably +make my residence in Paris--you know Paris--Paris and Paradise are not +convertible terms. This pleasant noise of the wind streaming among +leaves changed into the grinding Babel of the street, the stupid glare of +plaster substituted for this quiet pattern of greens and greys, the +nerves shattered, the digestion falsified--picture the fall! Already you +perceive the consequences; the mind is stimulated, the heart steps to a +different measure, and the man is himself no longer. I have passionately +studied myself--the true business of philosophy. I know my character as +the musician knows the ventages of his flute. Should I return to Paris, +I should ruin myself gambling; nay, I go further--I should break the +heart of my Anastasie with infidelities.' + +This was too much for Jean-Marie. That a place should so transform the +most excellent of men transcended his belief. Paris, he protested, was +even an agreeable place of residence. 'Nor when I lived in that city did +I feel much difference,' he pleaded. + +'What!' cried the Doctor. 'Did you not steal when you were there?' + +But the boy could never be brought to see that he had done anything wrong +when he stole. Nor, indeed, did the Doctor think he had; but that +gentleman was never very scrupulous when in want of a retort. + +'And now,' he concluded, 'do you begin to understand? My only friends +were those who ruined me. Gretz has been my academy, my sanatorium, my +heaven of innocent pleasures. If millions are offered me, I wave them +back: _Retro_, _Sathanas_!--Evil one, begone! Fix your mind on my +example; despise riches, avoid the debasing influence of cities. +Hygiene--hygiene and mediocrity of fortune--these be your watchwords +during life!' + +The Doctor's system of hygiene strikingly coincided with his tastes; and +his picture of the perfect life was a faithful description of the one he +was leading at the time. But it is easy to convince a boy, whom you +supply with all the facts for the discussion. And besides, there was one +thing admirable in the philosophy, and that was the enthusiasm of the +philosopher. There was never any one more vigorously determined to be +pleased; and if he was not a great logician, and so had no right to +convince the intellect, he was certainly something of a poet, and had a +fascination to seduce the heart. What he could not achieve in his +customary humour of a radiant admiration of himself and his +circumstances, he sometimes effected in his fits of gloom. + +'Boy,' he would say, 'avoid me to-day. If I were superstitious, I should +even beg for an interest in your prayers. I am in the black fit; the +evil spirit of King Saul, the hag of the merchant Abudah, the personal +devil of the mediaeval monk, is with me--is in me,' tapping on his +breast. 'The vices of my nature are now uppermost; innocent pleasures +woo me in vain; I long for Paris, for my wallowing in the mire. See,' he +would continue, producing a handful of silver, 'I denude myself, I am not +to be trusted with the price of a fare. Take it, keep it for me, +squander it on deleterious candy, throw it in the deepest of the river--I +will homologate your action. Save me from that part of myself which I +disown. If you see me falter, do not hesitate; if necessary, wreck the +train! I speak, of course, by a parable. Any extremity were better than +for me to reach Paris alive.' + +Doubtless the Doctor enjoyed these little scenes, as a variation in his +part; they represented the Byronic element in the somewhat artificial +poetry of his existence; but to the boy, though he was dimly aware of +their theatricality, they represented more. The Doctor made perhaps too +little, the boy possibly too much, of the reality and gravity of these +temptations. + +One day a great light shone for Jean-Marie. 'Could not riches be used +well?' he asked. + +'In theory, yes,' replied the Doctor. 'But it is found in experience +that no one does so. All the world imagine they will be exceptional when +they grow wealthy; but possession is debasing, new desires spring up; and +the silly taste for ostentation eats out the heart of pleasure.' + +'Then you might be better if you had less,' said the boy. + +'Certainly not,' replied the Doctor; but his voice quavered as he spoke. + +'Why?' demanded pitiless innocence. + +Doctor Desprez saw all the colours of the rainbow in a moment; the stable +universe appeared to be about capsizing with him. 'Because,' said +he--affecting deliberation after an obvious pause--'because I have formed +my life for my present income. It is not good for men of my years to be +violently dissevered from their habits.' + +That was a sharp brush. The Doctor breathed hard, and fell into +taciturnity for the afternoon. As for the boy, he was delighted with the +resolution of his doubts; even wondered that he had not foreseen the +obvious and conclusive answer. His faith in the Doctor was a stout piece +of goods. Desprez was inclined to be a sheet in the wind's eye after +dinner, especially after Rhone wine, his favourite weakness. He would +then remark on the warmth of his feeling for Anastasie, and with inflamed +cheeks and a loose, flustered smile, debate upon all sorts of topics, and +be feebly and indiscreetly witty. But the adopted stable-boy would not +permit himself to entertain a doubt that savoured of ingratitude. It is +quite true that a man may be a second father to you, and yet take too +much to drink; but the best natures are ever slow to accept such truths. + +The Doctor thoroughly possessed his heart, but perhaps he exaggerated his +influence over his mind. Certainly Jean-Marie adopted some of his +master's opinions, but I have yet to learn that he ever surrendered one +of his own. Convictions existed in him by divine right; they were +virgin, unwrought, the brute metal of decision. He could add others +indeed, but he could not put away; neither did he care if they were +perfectly agreed among themselves; and his spiritual pleasures had +nothing to do with turning them over or justifying them in words. Words +were with him a mere accomplishment, like dancing. When he was by +himself, his pleasures were almost vegetable. He would slip into the +woods towards Acheres, and sit in the mouth of a cave among grey birches. +His soul stared straight out of his eyes; he did not move or think; +sunlight, thin shadows moving in the wind, the edge of firs against the +sky, occupied and bound his faculties. He was pure unity, a spirit +wholly abstracted. A single mood filled him, to which all the objects of +sense contributed, as the colours of the spectrum merge and disappear in +white light. + +So while the Doctor made himself drunk with words, the adopted stable-boy +bemused himself with silence. + + + +CHAPTER V. TREASURE TROVE. + + +The Doctor's carriage was a two-wheeled gig with a hood; a kind of +vehicle in much favour among country doctors. On how many roads has one +not seen it, a great way off between the poplars!--in how many village +streets, tied to a gate-post! This sort of chariot is +affected--particularly at the trot--by a kind of pitching movement to and +fro across the axle, which well entitles it to the style of a Noddy. The +hood describes a considerable arc against the landscape, with a solemnly +absurd effect on the contemplative pedestrian. To ride in such a +carriage cannot be numbered among the things that appertain to glory; but +I have no doubt it may be useful in liver complaint. Thence, perhaps, +its wide popularity among physicians. + +One morning early, Jean-Marie led forth the Doctor's noddy, opened the +gate, and mounted to the driving-seat. The Doctor followed, arrayed from +top to toe in spotless linen, armed with an immense flesh-coloured +umbrella, and girt with a botanical case on a baldric; and the equipage +drove off smartly in a breeze of its own provocation. They were bound +for Franchard, to collect plants, with an eye to the 'Comparative +Pharmacopoeia.' + +A little rattling on the open roads, and they came to the borders of the +forest and struck into an unfrequented track; the noddy yawed softly over +the sand, with an accompaniment of snapping twigs. There was a great, +green, softly murmuring cloud of congregated foliage overhead. In the +arcades of the forest the air retained the freshness of the night. The +athletic bearing of the trees, each carrying its leafy mountain, pleased +the mind like so many statues; and the lines of the trunk led the eye +admiringly upward to where the extreme leaves sparkled in a patch of +azure. Squirrels leaped in mid air. It was a proper spot for a devotee +of the goddess Hygieia. + +'Have you been to Franchard, Jean-Marie?' inquired the Doctor. 'I fancy +not.' + +'Never,' replied the boy. + +'It is ruin in a gorge,' continued Desprez, adopting his expository +voice; 'the ruin of a hermitage and chapel. History tells us much of +Franchard; how the recluse was often slain by robbers; how he lived on a +most insufficient diet; how he was expected to pass his days in prayer. A +letter is preserved, addressed to one of these solitaries by the superior +of his order, full of admirable hygienic advice; bidding him go from his +book to praying, and so back again, for variety's sake, and when he was +weary of both to stroll about his garden and observe the honey bees. It +is to this day my own system. You must often have remarked me leaving +the "Pharmacopoeia"--often even in the middle of a phrase--to come forth +into the sun and air. I admire the writer of that letter from my heart; +he was a man of thought on the most important subjects. But, indeed, had +I lived in the Middle Ages (I am heartily glad that I did not) I should +have been an eremite myself--if I had not been a professed buffoon, that +is. These were the only philosophical lives yet open: laughter or +prayer; sneers, we might say, and tears. Until the sun of the Positive +arose, the wise man had to make his choice between these two.' + +'I have been a buffoon, of course,' observed Jean-Marie. + +'I cannot imagine you to have excelled in your profession,' said the +Doctor, admiring the boy's gravity. 'Do you ever laugh?' + +'Oh, yes,' replied the other. 'I laugh often. I am very fond of jokes.' + +'Singular being!' said Desprez. 'But I divagate (I perceive in a +thousand ways that I grow old). Franchard was at length destroyed in the +English wars, the same that levelled Gretz. But--here is the point--the +hermits (for there were already more than one) had foreseen the danger +and carefully concealed the sacrificial vessels. These vessels were of +monstrous value, Jean-Marie--monstrous value--priceless, we may say; +exquisitely worked, of exquisite material. And now, mark me, they have +never been found. In the reign of Louis Quatorze some fellows were +digging hard by the ruins. Suddenly--tock!--the spade hit upon an +obstacle. Imagine the men fooling one to another; imagine how their +hearts bounded, how their colour came and went. It was a coffer, and in +Franchard the place of buried treasure! They tore it open like famished +beasts. Alas! it was not the treasure; only some priestly robes, which, +at the touch of the eating air, fell upon themselves and instantly wasted +into dust. The perspiration of these good fellows turned cold upon them, +Jean-Marie. I will pledge my reputation, if there was anything like a +cutting wind, one or other had a pneumonia for his trouble.' + +'I should like to have seen them turning into dust,' said Jean-Marie. +'Otherwise, I should not have cared so greatly.' + +'You have no imagination,' cried the Doctor. 'Picture to yourself the +scene. Dwell on the idea--a great treasure lying in the earth for +centuries: the material for a giddy, copious, opulent existence not +employed; dresses and exquisite pictures unseen; the swiftest galloping +horses not stirring a hoof, arrested by a spell; women with the beautiful +faculty of smiles, not smiling; cards, dice, opera singing, orchestras, +castles, beautiful parks and gardens, big ships with a tower of +sailcloth, all lying unborn in a coffin--and the stupid trees growing +overhead in the sunlight, year after year. The thought drives one +frantic.' + +'It is only money,' replied Jean-Marie. 'It would do harm.' + +'O, come!' cried Desprez, 'that is philosophy; it is all very fine, but +not to the point just now. And besides, it is not "only money," as you +call it; there are works of art in the question; the vessels were carved. +You speak like a child. You weary me exceedingly, quoting my words out +of all logical connection, like a parroquet.' + +'And at any rate, we have nothing to do with it,' returned the boy +submissively. + +They struck the Route Ronde at that moment; and the sudden change to the +rattling causeway combined, with the Doctor's irritation, to keep him +silent. The noddy jigged along; the trees went by, looking on silently, +as if they had something on their minds. The Quadrilateral was passed; +then came Franchard. They put up the horse at the little solitary inn, +and went forth strolling. The gorge was dyed deeply with heather; the +rocks and birches standing luminous in the sun. A great humming of bees +about the flowers disposed Jean-Marie to sleep, and he sat down against a +clump of heather, while the Doctor went briskly to and fro, with quick +turns, culling his simples. + +The boy's head had fallen a little forward, his eyes were closed, his +fingers had fallen lax about his knees, when a sudden cry called him to +his feet. It was a strange sound, thin and brief; it fell dead, and +silence returned as though it had never been interrupted. He had not +recognised the Doctor's voice; but, as there was no one else in all the +valley, it was plainly the Doctor who had given utterance to the sound. +He looked right and left, and there was Desprez, standing in a niche +between two boulders, and looking round on his adopted son with a +countenance as white as paper. + +'A viper!' cried Jean-Marie, running towards him. 'A viper! You are +bitten!' + +The Doctor came down heavily out of the cleft, and, advanced in silence +to meet the boy, whom he took roughly by the shoulder. + +'I have found it,' he said, with a gasp. + +'A plant?' asked Jean-Marie. + +Desprez had a fit of unnatural gaiety, which the rocks took up and +mimicked. 'A plant!' he repeated scornfully. 'Well--yes--a plant. And +here,' he added suddenly, showing his right hand, which he had hitherto +concealed behind his back--'here is one of the bulbs.' + +Jean-Marie saw a dirty platter, coated with earth. + +'That?' said he. 'It is a plate!' + +'It is a coach and horses,' cried the Doctor. 'Boy,' he continued, +growing warmer, 'I plucked away a great pad of moss from between these +boulders, and disclosed a crevice; and when I looked in, what do you +suppose I saw? I saw a house in Paris with a court and garden, I saw my +wife shining with diamonds, I saw myself a deputy, I saw you--well, I--I +saw your future,' he concluded, rather feebly. 'I have just discovered +America,' he added. + +'But what is it?' asked the boy. + +'The Treasure of Franchard,' cried the Doctor; and, throwing his brown +straw hat upon the ground, he whooped like an Indian and sprang upon Jean- +Marie, whom he suffocated with embraces and bedewed with tears. Then he +flung himself down among the heather and once more laughed until the +valley rang. + +But the boy had now an interest of his own, a boy's interest. No sooner +was he released from the Doctor's accolade than he ran to the boulders, +sprang into the niche, and, thrusting his hand into the crevice, drew +forth one after another, encrusted with the earth of ages, the flagons, +candlesticks, and patens of the hermitage of Franchard. A casket came +last, tightly shut and very heavy. + +'O what fun!' he cried. + +But when he looked back at the Doctor, who had followed close behind and +was silently observing, the words died from his lips. Desprez was once +more the colour of ashes; his lip worked and trembled; a sort of bestial +greed possessed him. + +'This is childish,' he said. 'We lose precious time. Back to the inn, +harness the trap, and bring it to yon bank. Run for your life, and +remember--not one whisper. I stay here to watch.' + +Jean-Marie did as he was bid, though not without surprise. The noddy was +brought round to the spot indicated; and the two gradually transported +the treasure from its place of concealment to the boot below the driving +seat. Once it was all stored the Doctor recovered his gaiety. + +'I pay my grateful duties to the genius of this dell,' he said. 'O, for +a live coal, a heifer, and a jar of country wine! I am in the vein for +sacrifice, for a superb libation. Well, and why not? We are at +Franchard. English pale ale is to be had--not classical, indeed, but +excellent. Boy, we shall drink ale.' + +'But I thought it was so unwholesome,' said Jean-Marie, 'and very dear +besides.' + +'Fiddle-de-dee!' exclaimed the Doctor gaily. 'To the inn!' + +And he stepped into the noddy, tossing his head, with an elastic, +youthful air. The horse was turned, and in a few seconds they drew up +beside the palings of the inn garden. + +'Here,' said Desprez--'here, near the table, so that we may keep an eye +upon things.' + +They tied the horse, and entered the garden, the Doctor singing, now in +fantastic high notes, now producing deep reverberations from his chest. +He took a seat, rapped loudly on the table, assailed the waiter with +witticisms; and when the bottle of Bass was at length produced, far more +charged with gas than the most delirious champagne, he filled out a long +glassful of froth and pushed it over to Jean-Marie. 'Drink,' he said; +'drink deep.' + +'I would rather not,' faltered the boy, true to his training. + +'What?' thundered Desprez. + +'I am afraid of it,' said Jean-Marie: 'my stomach--' + +'Take it or leave it,' interrupted Desprez fiercely; 'but understand it +once for all--there is nothing so contemptible as a precisian.' + +Here was a new lesson! The boy sat bemused, looking at the glass but not +tasting it, while the Doctor emptied and refilled his own, at first with +clouded brow, but gradually yielding to the sun, the heady, prickling +beverage, and his own predisposition to be happy. + +'Once in a way,' he said at last, by way of a concession to the boy's +more rigorous attitude, 'once in a way, and at so critical a moment, this +ale is a nectar for the gods. The habit, indeed, is debasing; wine, the +juice of the grape, is the true drink of the Frenchman, as I have often +had occasion to point out; and I do not know that I can blame you for +refusing this outlandish stimulant. You can have some wine and cakes. Is +the bottle empty? Well, we will not be proud; we will have pity on your +glass.' + +The beer being done, the Doctor chafed bitterly while Jean-Marie finished +his cakes. 'I burn to be gone,' he said, looking at his watch. 'Good +God, how slow you eat!' And yet to eat slowly was his own particular +prescription, the main secret of longevity! + +His martyrdom, however, reached an end at last; the pair resumed their +places in the buggy, and Desprez, leaning luxuriously back, announced his +intention of proceeding to Fontainebleau. + +'To Fontainebleau?' repeated Jean-Marie. + +'My words are always measured,' said the Doctor. 'On!' + +The Doctor was driven through the glades of paradise; the air, the light, +the shining leaves, the very movements of the vehicle, seemed to fall in +tune with his golden meditations; with his head thrown back, he dreamed a +series of sunny visions, ale and pleasure dancing in his veins. At last +he spoke. + +'I shall telegraph for Casimir,' he said. 'Good Casimir! a fellow of the +lower order of intelligence, Jean-Marie, distinctly not creative, not +poetic; and yet he will repay your study; his fortune is vast, and is +entirely due to his own exertions. He is the very fellow to help us to +dispose of our trinkets, find us a suitable house in Paris, and manage +the details of our installation. Admirable Casimir, one of my oldest +comrades! It was on his advice, I may add, that I invested my little +fortune in Turkish bonds; when we have added these spoils of the mediaeval +church to our stake in the Mahometan empire, little boy, we shall +positively roll among doubloons, positively roll! Beautiful forest,' he +cried, 'farewell! Though called to other scenes, I will not forget thee. +Thy name is graven in my heart. Under the influence of prosperity I +become dithyrambic, Jean-Marie. Such is the impulse of the natural soul; +such was the constitution of primaeval man. And I--well, I will not +refuse the credit--I have preserved my youth like a virginity; another, +who should have led the same snoozing, countryfied existence for these +years, another had become rusted, become stereotype; but I, I praise my +happy constitution, retain the spring unbroken. Fresh opulence and a new +sphere of duties find me unabated in ardour and only more mature by +knowledge. For this prospective change, Jean-Marie--it may probably have +shocked you. Tell me now, did it not strike you as an inconsistency? +Confess--it is useless to dissemble--it pained you?' + +'Yes,' said the boy. + +'You see,' returned the Doctor, with sublime fatuity, 'I read your +thoughts! Nor am I surprised--your education is not yet complete; the +higher duties of men have not been yet presented to you fully. A +hint--till we have leisure--must suffice. Now that I am once more in +possession of a modest competence; now that I have so long prepared +myself in silent meditation, it becomes my superior duty to proceed to +Paris. My scientific training, my undoubted command of language, mark me +out for the service of my country. Modesty in such a case would be a +snare. If sin were a philosophical expression, I should call it sinful. +A man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his +obligations. I must be up and doing; I must be no skulker in life's +battle.' + +So he rattled on, copiously greasing the joint of his inconsistency with +words; while the boy listened silently, his eyes fixed on the horse, his +mind seething. It was all lost eloquence; no array of words could +unsettle a belief of Jean-Marie's; and he drove into Fontainebleau filled +with pity, horror, indignation, and despair. + +In the town Jean-Marie was kept a fixture on the driving-seat, to guard +the treasure; while the Doctor, with a singular, slightly tipsy airiness +of manner, fluttered in and out of cafes, where he shook hands with +garrison officers, and mixed an absinthe with the nicety of old +experience; in and out of shops, from which he returned laden with costly +fruits, real turtle, a magnificent piece of silk for his wife, a +preposterous cane for himself, and a kepi of the newest fashion for the +boy; in and out of the telegraph office, whence he despatched his +telegram, and where three hours later he received an answer promising a +visit on the morrow; and generally pervaded Fontainebleau with the first +fine aroma of his divine good humour. + +The sun was very low when they set forth again; the shadows of the forest +trees extended across the broad white road that led them home; the +penetrating odour of the evening wood had already arisen, like a cloud of +incense, from that broad field of tree-tops; and even in the streets of +the town, where the air had been baked all day between white walls, it +came in whiffs and pulses, like a distant music. Half-way home, the last +gold flicker vanished from a great oak upon the left; and when they came +forth beyond the borders of the wood, the plain was already sunken in +pearly greyness, and a great, pale moon came swinging skyward through the +filmy poplars. + +The Doctor sang, the Doctor whistled, the Doctor talked. He spoke of the +woods, and the wars, and the deposition of dew; he brightened and babbled +of Paris; he soared into cloudy bombast on the glories of the political +arena. All was to be changed; as the day departed, it took with it the +vestiges of an outworn existence, and to-morrow's sun was to inaugurate +the new. 'Enough,' he cried, 'of this life of maceration!' His wife +(still beautiful, or he was sadly partial) was to be no longer buried; +she should now shine before society. Jean-Marie would find the world at +his feet; the roads open to success, wealth, honour, and post-humous +renown. 'And O, by the way,' said he, 'for God's sake keep your tongue +quiet! You are, of course, a very silent fellow; it is a quality I +gladly recognise in you--silence, golden silence! But this is a matter +of gravity. No word must get abroad; none but the good Casimir is to be +trusted; we shall probably dispose of the vessels in England.' + +'But are they not even ours?' the boy said, almost with a sob--it was the +only time he had spoken. + +'Ours in this sense, that they are nobody else's,' replied the Doctor. +'But the State would have some claim. If they were stolen, for instance, +we should be unable to demand their restitution; we should have no title; +we should be unable even to communicate with the police. Such is the +monstrous condition of the law. {263} It is a mere instance of what +remains to be done, of the injustices that may yet be righted by an +ardent, active, and philosophical deputy.' + +Jean-Marie put his faith in Madame Desprez; and as they drove forward +down the road from Bourron, between the rustling poplars, he prayed in +his teeth, and whipped up the horse to an unusual speed. Surely, as soon +as they arrived, madame would assert her character, and bring this waking +nightmare to an end. + +Their entrance into Gretz was heralded and accompanied by a most furious +barking; all the dogs in the village seemed to smell the treasure in the +noddy. But there was no one in the street, save three lounging landscape +painters at Tentaillon's door. Jean-Marie opened the green gate and led +in the horse and carriage; and almost at the same moment Madame Desprez +came to the kitchen threshold with a lighted lantern; for the moon was +not yet high enough to clear the garden walls. + +'Close the gates, Jean-Marie!' cried the Doctor, somewhat unsteadily +alighting. 'Anastasie, where is Aline?' + +'She has gone to Montereau to see her parents,' said madame. + +'All is for the best!' exclaimed the Doctor fervently. 'Here, quick, +come near to me; I do not wish to speak too loud,' he continued. +'Darling, we are wealthy!' + +'Wealthy!' repeated the wife. + +'I have found the treasure of Franchard,' replied her husband. 'See, +here are the first fruits; a pineapple, a dress for my ever-beautiful--it +will suit her--trust a husband's, trust a lover's, taste! Embrace me, +darling! This grimy episode is over; the butterfly unfolds its painted +wings. To-morrow Casimir will come; in a week we may be in Paris--happy +at last! You shall have diamonds. Jean-Marie, take it out of the boot, +with religious care, and bring it piece by piece into the dining-room. We +shall have plate at table! Darling, hasten and prepare this turtle; it +will be a whet--it will be an addition to our meagre ordinary. I myself +will proceed to the cellar. We shall have a bottle of that little +Beaujolais you like, and finish with the Hermitage; there are still three +bottles left. Worthy wine for a worthy occasion.' + +'But, my husband; you put me in a whirl,' she cried. 'I do not +comprehend.' + +'The turtle, my adored, the turtle!' cried the doctor; and he pushed her +towards the kitchen, lantern and all. + +Jean-Marie stood dumfounded. He had pictured to himself a different +scene--a more immediate protest, and his hope began to dwindle on the +spot. + +The Doctor was everywhere, a little doubtful on his legs, perhaps, and +now and then taking the wall with his shoulder; for it was long since he +had tasted absinthe, and he was even then reflecting that the absinthe +had been a misconception. Not that he regretted excess on such a +glorious day, but he made a mental memorandum to beware; he must not, a +second time, become the victim of a deleterious habit. He had his wine +out of the cellar in a twinkling; he arranged the sacrificial vessels, +some on the white table-cloth, some on the sideboard, still crusted with +historic earth. He was in and out of the kitchen, plying Anastasie with +vermouth, heating her with glimpses of the future, estimating their new +wealth at ever larger figures; and before they sat down to supper, the +lady's virtue had melted in the fire of his enthusiasm, her timidity had +disappeared; she, too, had begun to speak disparagingly of the life at +Gretz; and as she took her place and helped the soup, her eyes shone with +the glitter of prospective diamonds. + +All through the meal, she and the Doctor made and unmade fairy plans. +They bobbed and bowed and pledged each other. Their faces ran over with +smiles; their eyes scattered sparkles, as they projected the Doctor's +political honours and the lady's drawing-room ovations. + +'But you will not be a Red!' cried Anastasie. + +'I am Left Centre to the core,' replied the Doctor. + +'Madame Gastein will present us--we shall find ourselves forgotten,' said +the lady. + +'Never,' protested the Doctor. 'Beauty and talent leave a mark.' + +'I have positively forgotten how to dress,' she sighed. + +'Darling, you make me blush,' cried he. 'Yours has been a tragic +marriage!' + +'But your success--to see you appreciated, honoured, your name in all the +papers, that will be more than pleasure--it will be heaven!' she cried. + +'And once a week,' said the Doctor, archly scanning the syllables, 'once +a week--one good little game of baccarat?' + +'Only once a week?' she questioned, threatening him with a finger. + +'I swear it by my political honour,' cried he. + +'I spoil you,' she said, and gave him her hand. + +He covered it with kisses. + +Jean-Marie escaped into the night. The moon swung high over Gretz. He +went down to the garden end and sat on the jetty. The river ran by with +eddies of oily silver, and a low, monotonous song. Faint veils of mist +moved among the poplars on the farther side. The reeds were quietly +nodding. A hundred times already had the boy sat, on such a night, and +watched the streaming river with untroubled fancy. And this perhaps was +to be the last. He was to leave this familiar hamlet, this green, +rustling country, this bright and quiet stream; he was to pass into the +great city; his dear lady mistress was to move bedizened in saloons; his +good, garrulous, kind-hearted master to become a brawling deputy; and +both be lost for ever to Jean-Marie and their better selves. He knew his +own defects; he knew he must sink into less and less consideration in the +turmoil of a city life, sink more and more from the child into the +servant. And he began dimly to believe the Doctor's prophecies of evil. +He could see a change in both. His generous incredulity failed him for +this once; a child must have perceived that the Hermitage had completed +what the absinthe had begun. If this were the first day, what would be +the last? 'If necessary, wreck the train,' thought he, remembering the +Doctor's parable. He looked round on the delightful scene; he drank deep +of the charmed night air, laden with the scent of hay. 'If necessary, +wreck the train,' he repeated. And he rose and returned to the house. + + + +CHAPTER VI. A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, IN TWO PARTS. + + +The next morning there was a most unusual outcry, in the Doctor's house. +The last thing before going to bed, the Doctor had locked up some +valuables in the dining-room cupboard; and behold, when he rose again, as +he did about four o'clock, the cupboard had been broken open, and the +valuables in question had disappeared. Madame and Jean-Marie were +summoned from their rooms, and appeared in hasty toilets; they found the +Doctor raving, calling the heavens to witness and avenge his injury, +pacing the room bare-footed, with the tails of his night-shirt flirting +as he turned. + +'Gone!' he said; 'the things are gone, the fortune gone! We are paupers +once more. Boy! what do you know of this? Speak up, sir, speak up. Do +you know of it? Where are they?' He had him by the arm, shaking him +like a bag, and the boy's words, if he had any, were jolted forth in +inarticulate murmurs. The Doctor, with a revulsion from his own +violence, set him down again. He observed Anastasie in tears. +'Anastasie,' he said, in quite an altered voice, 'compose yourself, +command your feelings. I would not have you give way to passion like the +vulgar. This--this trifling accident must be lived down. Jean-Marie, +bring me my smaller medicine chest. A gentle laxative is indicated.' + +And he dosed the family all round, leading the way himself with a double +quantity. The wretched Anastasie, who had never been ill in the whole +course of her existence, and whose soul recoiled from remedies, wept +floods of tears as she sipped, and shuddered, and protested, and then was +bullied and shouted at until she sipped again. As for Jean-Marie, he +took his portion down with stoicism. + +'I have given him a less amount,' observed the Doctor, 'his youth +protecting him against emotion. And now that we have thus parried any +morbid consequences, let us reason.' + +'I am so cold,' wailed Anastasie. + +'Cold!' cried the Doctor. 'I give thanks to God that I am made of +fierier material. Why, madam, a blow like this would set a frog into a +transpiration. If you are cold, you can retire; and, by the way, you +might throw me down my trousers. It is chilly for the legs.' + +'Oh, no!' protested Anastasie; 'I will stay with you.' + +'Nay, madam, you shall not suffer for your devotion,' said the Doctor. 'I +will myself fetch you a shawl.' And he went upstairs and returned more +fully clad and with an armful of wraps for the shivering Anastasie. 'And +now,' he resumed, 'to investigate this crime. Let us proceed by +induction. Anastasie, do you know anything that can help us?' Anastasie +knew nothing. 'Or you, Jean-Marie?' + +'Not I,' replied the boy steadily. + +'Good,' returned the Doctor. 'We shall now turn our attention to the +material evidences. (I was born to be a detective; I have the eye and +the systematic spirit.) First, violence has been employed. The door was +broken open; and it may be observed, in passing, that the lock was dear +indeed at what I paid for it: a crow to pluck with Master Goguelat. +Second, here is the instrument employed, one of our own table-knives, one +of our best, my dear; which seems to indicate no preparation on the part +of the gang--if gang it was. Thirdly, I observe that nothing has been +removed except the Franchard dishes and the casket; our own silver has +been minutely respected. This is wily; it shows intelligence, a +knowledge of the code, a desire to avoid legal consequences. I argue +from this fact that the gang numbers persons of respectability--outward, +of course, and merely outward, as the robbery proves. But I argue, +second, that we must have been observed at Franchard itself by some +occult observer, and dogged throughout the day with a skill and patience +that I venture to qualify as consummate. No ordinary man, no occasional +criminal, would have shown himself capable of this combination. We have +in our neighbourhood, it is far from improbable, a retired bandit of the +highest order of intelligence.' + +'Good heaven!' cried the horrified Anastasie. 'Henri, how can you?' + +'My cherished one, this is a process of induction,' said the Doctor. 'If +any of my steps are unsound, correct me. You are silent? Then do not, I +beseech you, be so vulgarly illogical as to revolt from my conclusion. We +have now arrived,' he resumed, 'at some idea of the composition of the +gang--for I incline to the hypothesis of more than one--and we now leave +this room, which can disclose no more, and turn our attention to the +court and garden. (Jean-Marie, I trust you are observantly following my +various steps; this is an excellent piece of education for you.) Come +with me to the door. No steps on the court; it is unfortunate our court +should be paved. On what small matters hang the destiny of these +delicate investigations! Hey! What have we here? I have led on to the +very spot,' he said, standing grandly backward and indicating the green +gate. 'An escalade, as you can now see for yourselves, has taken place.' + +Sure enough, the green paint was in several places scratched and broken; +and one of the panels preserved the print of a nailed shoe. The foot had +slipped, however, and it was difficult to estimate the size of the shoe, +and impossible to distinguish the pattern of the nails. + +'The whole robbery,' concluded the Doctor, 'step by step, has been +reconstituted. Inductive science can no further go.' + +'It is wonderful,' said his wife. 'You should indeed have been a +detective, Henri. I had no idea of your talents.' + +'My dear,' replied Desprez, condescendingly, 'a man of scientific +imagination combines the lesser faculties; he is a detective just as he +is a publicist or a general; these are but local applications of his +special talent. But now,' he continued, 'would you have me go further? +Would you have me lay my finger on the culprits--or rather, for I cannot +promise quite so much, point out to you the very house where they +consort? It may be a satisfaction, at least it is all we are likely to +get, since we are denied the remedy of law. I reach the further stage in +this way. In order to fill my outline of the robbery, I require a man +likely to be in the forest idling, I require a man of education, I +require a man superior to considerations of morality. The three +requisites all centre in Tentaillon's boarders. They are painters, +therefore they are continually lounging in the forest. They are +painters, therefore they are not unlikely to have some smattering of +education. Lastly, because they are painters, they are probably immoral. +And this I prove in two ways. First, painting is an art which merely +addresses the eye; it does not in any particular exercise the moral +sense. And second, painting, in common with all the other arts, implies +the dangerous quality of imagination. A man of imagination is never +moral; he outsoars literal demarcations and reviews life under too many +shifting lights to rest content with the invidious distinctions of the +law!' + +'But you always say--at least, so I understood you'--said madame, 'that +these lads display no imagination whatever.' + +'My dear, they displayed imagination, and of a very fantastic order, +too,' returned the Doctor, 'when they embraced their beggarly profession. +Besides--and this is an argument exactly suited to your intellectual +level--many of them are English and American. Where else should we +expect to find a thief?--And now you had better get your coffee. Because +we have lost a treasure, there is no reason for starving. For my part, I +shall break my fast with white wine. I feel unaccountably heated and +thirsty to-day. I can only attribute it to the shock of the discovery. +And yet, you will bear me out, I supported the emotion nobly.' + +The Doctor had now talked himself back into an admirable humour; and as +he sat in the arbour and slowly imbibed a large allowance of white wine +and picked a little bread and cheese with no very impetuous appetite, if +a third of his meditations ran upon the missing treasure, the other two- +thirds were more pleasingly busied in the retrospect of his detective +skill. + +About eleven Casimir arrived; he had caught an early train to +Fontainebleau, and driven over to save time; and now his cab was stabled +at Tentaillon's, and he remarked, studying his watch, that he could spare +an hour and a half. He was much the man of business, decisively spoken, +given to frowning in an intellectual manner. Anastasie's born brother, +he did not waste much sentiment on the lady, gave her an English family +kiss, and demanded a meal without delay. + +'You can tell me your story while we eat,' he observed. 'Anything good +to-day, Stasie?' + +He was promised something good. The trio sat down to table in the +arbour, Jean-Marie waiting as well as eating, and the Doctor recounted +what had happened in his richest narrative manner. Casimir heard it with +explosions of laughter. + +'What a streak of luck for you, my good brother,' he observed, when the +tale was over. 'If you had gone to Paris, you would have played dick- +duck-drake with the whole consignment in three months. Your own would +have followed; and you would have come to me in a procession like the +last time. But I give you warning--Stasie may weep and Henri +ratiocinate--it will not serve you twice. Your next collapse will be +fatal. I thought I had told you so, Stasie? Hey? No sense?' + +The Doctor winced and looked furtively at Jean-Marie; but the boy seemed +apathetic. + +'And then again,' broke out Casimir, 'what children you are--vicious +children, my faith! How could you tell the value of this trash? It +might have been worth nothing, or next door.' + +'Pardon me,' said the Doctor. 'You have your usual flow of spirits, I +perceive, but even less than your usual deliberation. I am not entirely +ignorant of these matters.' + +'Not entirely ignorant of anything ever I heard of,' interrupted Casimir, +bowing, and raising his glass with a sort of pert politeness. + +'At least,' resumed the Doctor, 'I gave my mind to the subject--that you +may be willing to believe--and I estimated that our capital would be +doubled.' And he described the nature of the find. + +'My word of honour!' said Casimir, 'I half believe you! But much would +depend on the quality of the gold.' + +'The quality, my dear Casimir, was--' And the Doctor, in default of +language, kissed his finger-tips. + +'I would not take your word for it, my good friend,' retorted the man of +business. 'You are a man of very rosy views. But this robbery,' he +continued--'this robbery is an odd thing. Of course I pass over your +nonsense about gangs and landscape-painters. For me, that is a dream. +Who was in the house last night?' + +'None but ourselves,' replied the Doctor. + +'And this young gentleman?' asked Casimir, jerking a nod in the direction +of Jean-Marie. + +'He too'--the Doctor bowed. + +'Well; and if it is a fair question, who is he?' pursued the brother-in- +law. + +'Jean-Marie,' answered the Doctor, 'combines the functions of a son and +stable-boy. He began as the latter, but he rose rapidly to the more +honourable rank in our affections. He is, I may say, the greatest +comfort in our lives.' + +'Ha!' said Casimir. 'And previous to becoming one of you?' + +'Jean-Marie has lived a remarkable existence; his experience his been +eminently formative,' replied Desprez. 'If I had had to choose an +education for my son, I should have chosen such another. Beginning life +with mountebanks and thieves, passing onward to the society and +friendship of philosophers, he may be said to have skimmed the volume of +human life.' + +'Thieves?' repeated the brother-in-law, with a meditative air. + +The Doctor could have bitten his tongue out. He foresaw what was coming, +and prepared his mind for a vigorous defence. + +'Did you ever steal yourself?' asked Casimir, turning suddenly on Jean- +Marie, and for the first time employing a single eyeglass which hung +round his neck. + +'Yes, sir,' replied the boy, with a deep blush. + +Casimir turned to the others with pursed lips, and nodded to them +meaningly. 'Hey?' said he; 'how is that?' + +'Jean-Marie is a teller of the truth,' returned the Doctor, throwing out +his bust. + +'He has never told a lie,' added madame. 'He is the best of boys.' + +'Never told a lie, has he not?' reflected Casimir. 'Strange, very +strange. Give me your attention, my young friend,' he continued. 'You +knew about this treasure?' + +'He helped to bring it home,' interposed the Doctor. + +'Desprez, I ask you nothing but to hold your tongue,' returned Casimir. +'I mean to question this stable-boy of yours; and if you are so certain +of his innocence, you can afford to let him answer for himself. Now, +sir,' he resumed, pointing his eyeglass straight at Jean-Marie. 'You +knew it could be stolen with impunity? You knew you could not be +prosecuted? Come! Did you, or did you not?' + +'I did,' answered Jean-Marie, in a miserable whisper. He sat there +changing colour like a revolving pharos, twisting his fingers +hysterically, swallowing air, the picture of guilt. + +'You knew where it was put?' resumed the inquisitor. + +'Yes,' from Jean-Marie. + +'You say you have been a thief before,' continued Casimir. 'Now how am I +to know that you are not one still? I suppose you could climb the green +gate?' + +'Yes,' still lower, from the culprit. + +'Well, then, it was you who stole these things. You know it, and you +dare not deny it. Look me in the face! Raise your sneak's eyes, and +answer!' + +But in place of anything of that sort Jean-Marie broke into a dismal howl +and fled from the arbour. Anastasie, as she pursued to capture and +reassure the victim, found time to send one Parthian arrow--'Casimir, you +are a brute!' + +'My brother,' said Desprez, with the greatest dignity, 'you take upon +yourself a licence--' + +'Desprez,' interrupted Casimir, 'for Heaven's sake be a man of the world. +You telegraph me to leave my business and come down here on yours. I +come, I ask the business, you say "Find me this thief!" Well, I find +him; I say "There he is!" You need not like it, but you have no manner +of right to take offence.' + +'Well,' returned the Doctor, 'I grant that; I will even thank you for +your mistaken zeal. But your hypothesis was so extravagantly monstrous--' + +'Look here,' interrupted Casimir; 'was it you or Stasie?' + +'Certainly not,' answered the Doctor. + +'Very well; then it was the boy. Say no more about it,' said the brother- +in-law, and he produced his cigar-case. + +'I will say this much more,' returned Desprez: 'if that boy came and told +me so himself, I should not believe him; and if I did believe him, so +implicit is my trust, I should conclude that he had acted for the best.' + +'Well, well,' said Casimir, indulgently. 'Have you a light? I must be +going. And by the way, I wish you would let me sell your Turks for you. +I always told you, it meant smash. I tell you so again. Indeed, it was +partly that that brought me down. You never acknowledge my letters--a +most unpardonable habit.' + +'My good brother,' replied the Doctor blandly, 'I have never denied your +ability in business; but I can perceive your limitations.' + +'Egad, my friend, I can return the compliment,' observed the man of +business. 'Your limitation is to be downright irrational.' + +'Observe the relative position,' returned the Doctor with a smile. 'It +is your attitude to believe through thick and thin in one man's +judgment--your own. I follow the same opinion, but critically and with +open eyes. Which is the more irrational?--I leave it to yourself.' + +'O, my dear fellow!' cried Casimir, 'stick to your Turks, stick to your +stable-boy, go to the devil in general in your own way and be done with +it. But don't ratiocinate with me--I cannot bear it. And so, ta-ta. I +might as well have stayed away for any good I've done. Say good-bye from +me to Stasie, and to the sullen hang-dog of a stable-boy, if you insist +on it; I'm off.' + +And Casimir departed. The Doctor, that night, dissected his character +before Anastasie. 'One thing, my beautiful,' he said, 'he has learned +one thing from his lifelong acquaintance with your husband: the word +_ratiocinate_. It shines in his vocabulary, like a jewel in a muck-heap. +And, even so, he continually misapplies it. For you must have observed +he uses it as a sort of taunt, in the sense of to _ergotise_, implying, +as it were--the poor, dear fellow!--a vein of sophistry. As for his +cruelty to Jean-Marie, it must be forgiven him--it is not his nature, it +is the nature of his life. A man who deals with money, my dear, is a man +lost.' + +With Jean-Marie the process of reconciliation had been somewhat slow. At +first he was inconsolable, insisted on leaving the family, went from +paroxysm to paroxysm of tears; and it was only after Anastasie had been +closeted for an hour with him, alone, that she came forth, sought out the +Doctor, and, with tears in her eyes, acquainted that gentleman with what +had passed. + +'At first, my husband, he would hear of nothing,' she said. 'Imagine! if +he had left us! what would the treasure be to that? Horrible treasure, +it has brought all this about! At last, after he has sobbed his very +heart out, he agrees to stay on a condition--we are not to mention this +matter, this infamous suspicion, not even to mention the robbery. On +that agreement only, the poor, cruel boy will consent to remain among his +friends.' + +'But this inhibition,' said the Doctor, 'this embargo--it cannot possibly +apply to me?' + +'To all of us,' Anastasie assured him. + +'My cherished one,' Desprez protested, 'you must have misunderstood. It +cannot apply to me. He would naturally come to me.' + +'Henri,' she said, 'it does; I swear to you it does.' + +'This is a painful, a very painful circumstance,' the Doctor said, +looking a little black. 'I cannot affect, Anastasie, to be anything but +justly wounded. I feel this, I feel it, my wife, acutely.' + +'I knew you would,' she said. 'But if you had seen his distress! We +must make allowances, we must sacrifice our feelings.' + +'I trust, my dear, you have never found me averse to sacrifices,' +returned the Doctor very stiffly. + +'And you will let me go and tell him that you have agreed? It will be +like your noble nature,' she cried. + +So it would, he perceived--it would be like his noble nature! Up jumped +his spirits, triumphant at the thought. 'Go, darling,' he said nobly, +'reassure him. The subject is buried; more--I make an effort, I have +accustomed my will to these exertions--and it is forgotten.' + +A little after, but still with swollen eyes and looking mortally +sheepish, Jean-Marie reappeared and went ostentatiously about his +business. He was the only unhappy member of the party that sat down that +night to supper. As for the Doctor, he was radiant. He thus sang the +requiem of the treasure:-- + +'This has been, on the whole, a most amusing episode,' he said. 'We are +not a penny the worse--nay, we are immensely gainers. Our philosophy has +been exercised; some of the turtle is still left--the most wholesome of +delicacies; I have my staff, Anastasie has her new dress, Jean-Marie is +the proud possessor of a fashionable kepi. Besides, we had a glass of +Hermitage last night; the glow still suffuses my memory. I was growing +positively niggardly with that Hermitage, positively niggardly. Let me +take the hint: we had one bottle to celebrate the appearance of our +visionary fortune; let us have a second to console us for its +occultation. The third I hereby dedicate to Jean-Marie's wedding +breakfast.' + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF DESPREZ. + + +The Doctor's house has not yet received the compliment of a description, +and it is now high time that the omission were supplied, for the house is +itself an actor in the story, and one whose part is nearly at an end. Two +stories in height, walls of a warm yellow, tiles of an ancient ruddy +brown diversified with moss and lichen, it stood with one wall to the +street in the angle of the Doctor's property. It was roomy, draughty, +and inconvenient. The large rafters were here and there engraven with +rude marks and patterns; the handrail of the stair was carved in +countrified arabesque; a stout timber pillar, which did duty to support +the dining-room roof, bore mysterious characters on its darker side, +runes, according to the Doctor; nor did he fail, when he ran over the +legendary history of the house and its possessors, to dwell upon the +Scandinavian scholar who had left them. Floors, doors, and rafters made +a great variety of angles; every room had a particular inclination; the +gable had tilted towards the garden, after the manner of a leaning tower, +and one of the former proprietors had buttressed the building from that +side with a great strut of wood, like the derrick of a crane. Altogether, +it had many marks of ruin; it was a house for the rats to desert; and +nothing but its excellent brightness--the window-glass polished and +shining, the paint well scoured, the brasses radiant, the very prop all +wreathed about with climbing flowers--nothing but its air of a +well-tended, smiling veteran, sitting, crutch and all, in the sunny +corner of a garden, marked it as a house for comfortable people to +inhabit. In poor or idle management it would soon have hurried into the +blackguard stages of decay. As it was, the whole family loved it, and +the Doctor was never better inspired than when he narrated its imaginary +story and drew the character of its successive masters, from the Hebrew +merchant who had re-edified its walls after the sack of the town, and +past the mysterious engraver of the runes, down to the long-headed, dirty- +handed boor from whom he had himself acquired it at a ruinous expense. As +for any alarm about its security, the idea had never presented itself. +What had stood four centuries might well endure a little longer. + +Indeed, in this particular winter, after the finding and losing of the +treasure, the Desprez' had an anxiety of a very different order, and one +which lay nearer their hearts. Jean-Marie was plainly not himself. He +had fits of hectic activity, when he made unusual exertions to please, +spoke more and faster, and redoubled in attention to his lessons. But +these were interrupted by spells of melancholia and brooding silence, +when the boy was little better than unbearable. + +'Silence,' the Doctor moralised--'you see, Anastasie, what comes of +silence. Had the boy properly unbosomed himself, the little +disappointment about the treasure, the little annoyance about Casimir's +incivility, would long ago have been forgotten. As it is, they prey upon +him like a disease. He loses flesh, his appetite is variable and, on the +whole, impaired. I keep him on the strictest regimen, I exhibit the most +powerful tonics; both in vain.' + +'Don't you think you drug him too much?' asked madame, with an +irrepressible shudder. + +'Drug?' cried the Doctor; 'I drug? Anastasie, you are mad!' + +Time went on, and the boy's health still slowly declined. The Doctor +blamed the weather, which was cold and boisterous. He called in his +_confrere_ from Bourron, took a fancy for him, magnified his capacity, +and was pretty soon under treatment himself--it scarcely appeared for +what complaint. He and Jean-Marie had each medicine to take at different +periods of the day. The Doctor used to lie in wait for the exact moment, +watch in hand. 'There is nothing like regularity,' he would say, fill +out the doses, and dilate on the virtues of the draught; and if the boy +seemed none the better, the Doctor was not at all the worse. + +Gunpowder Day, the boy was particularly low. It was scowling, squally +weather. Huge broken companies of cloud sailed swiftly overhead; raking +gleams of sunlight swept the village, and were followed by intervals of +darkness and white, flying rain. At times the wind lifted up its voice +and bellowed. The trees were all scourging themselves along the meadows, +the last leaves flying like dust. + +The Doctor, between the boy and the weather, was in his element; he had a +theory to prove. He sat with his watch out and a barometer in front of +him, waiting for the squalls and noting their effect upon the human +pulse. 'For the true philosopher,' he remarked delightedly, 'every fact +in nature is a toy.' A letter came to him; but, as its arrival coincided +with the approach of another gust, he merely crammed it into his pocket, +gave the time to Jean-Marie, and the next moment they were both counting +their pulses as if for a wager. + +At nightfall the wind rose into a tempest. It besieged the hamlet, +apparently from every side, as if with batteries of cannon; the houses +shook and groaned; live coals were blown upon the floor. The uproar and +terror of the night kept people long awake, sitting with pallid faces +giving ear. + +It was twelve before the Desprez family retired. By half-past one, when +the storm was already somewhat past its height, the Doctor was awakened +from a troubled slumber, and sat up. A noise still rang in his ears, but +whether of this world or the world of dreams he was not certain. Another +clap of wind followed. It was accompanied by a sickening movement of the +whole house, and in the subsequent lull Desprez could hear the tiles +pouring like a cataract into the loft above his head. He plucked +Anastasie bodily out of bed. + +'Run!' he cried, thrusting some wearing apparel into her hands; 'the +house is falling! To the garden!' + +She did not pause to be twice bidden; she was down the stair in an +instant. She had never before suspected herself of such activity. The +Doctor meanwhile, with the speed of a piece of pantomime business, and +undeterred by broken shins, proceeded to rout out Jean-Marie, tore Aline +from her virgin slumbers, seized her by the hand, and tumbled downstairs +and into the garden, with the girl tumbling behind him, still not half +awake. + +The fugitives rendezvous'd in the arbour by some common instinct. Then +came a bull's-eye flash of struggling moonshine, which disclosed their +four figures standing huddled from the wind in a raffle of flying +drapery, and not without a considerable need for more. At the +humiliating spectacle Anastasie clutched her nightdress desperately about +her and burst loudly into tears. The Doctor flew to console her; but she +elbowed him away. She suspected everybody of being the general public, +and thought the darkness was alive with eyes. + +Another gleam and another violent gust arrived together; the house was +seen to rock on its foundation, and, just as the light was once more +eclipsed, a crash which triumphed over the shouting of the wind announced +its fall, and for a moment the whole garden was alive with skipping tiles +and brickbats. One such missile grazed the Doctor's ear; another +descended on the bare foot of Aline, who instantly made night hideous +with her shrieks. + +By this time the hamlet was alarmed, lights flashed from the windows, +hails reached the party, and the Doctor answered, nobly contending +against Aline and the tempest. But this prospect of help only awakened +Anastasie to a more active stage of terror. + +'Henri, people will be coming,' she screamed in her husband's ear. + +'I trust so,' he replied. + +'They cannot. I would rather die,' she wailed. + +'My dear,' said the Doctor reprovingly, 'you are excited. I gave you +some clothes. What have you done with them?' + +'Oh, I don't know--I must have thrown them away! Where are they?' she +sobbed. + +Desprez groped about in the darkness. 'Admirable!' he remarked; 'my grey +velveteen trousers! This will exactly meet your necessities.' + +'Give them to me!' she cried fiercely; but as soon as she had them in her +hands her mood appeared to alter--she stood silent for a moment, and then +pressed the garment back upon the Doctor. 'Give it to Aline,' she +said--'poor girl.' + +'Nonsense!' said the Doctor. 'Aline does not know what she is about. +Aline is beside herself with terror; and at any rate, she is a peasant. +Now I am really concerned at this exposure for a person of your +housekeeping habits; my solicitude and your fantastic modesty both point +to the same remedy--the pantaloons.' He held them ready. + +'It is impossible. You do not understand,' she said with dignity. + +By this time rescue was at hand. It had been found impracticable to +enter by the street, for the gate was blocked with masonry, and the +nodding ruin still threatened further avalanches. But between the +Doctor's garden and the one on the right hand there was that very +picturesque contrivance--a common well; the door on the Desprez' side had +chanced to be unbolted, and now, through the arched aperture a man's +bearded face and an arm supporting a lantern were introduced into the +world of windy darkness, where Anastasie concealed her woes. The light +struck here and there among the tossing apple boughs, it glinted on the +grass; but the lantern and the glowing face became the centre of the +world. Anastasie crouched back from the intrusion. + +'This way!' shouted the man. 'Are you all safe?' Aline, still +screaming, ran to the new comer, and was presently hauled head-foremost +through the wall. + +'Now, Anastasie, come on; it is your turn,' said the husband. + +'I cannot,' she replied. + +'Are we all to die of exposure, madame?' thundered Doctor Desprez. + +'You can go!' she cried. 'Oh, go, go away! I can stay here; I am quite +warm.' + +The Doctor took her by the shoulders with an oath. + +'Stop!' she screamed. 'I will put them on.' + +She took the detested lendings in her hand once more; but her repulsion +was stronger than shame. 'Never!' she cried, shuddering, and flung them +far away into the night. + +Next moment the Doctor had whirled her to the well. The man was there +and the lantern; Anastasie closed her eyes and appeared to herself to be +about to die. How she was transported through the arch she knew not; but +once on the other side she was received by the neighbour's wife, and +enveloped in a friendly blanket. + +Beds were made ready for the two women, clothes of very various sizes for +the Doctor and Jean-Marie; and for the remainder of the night, while +madame dozed in and out on the borderland of hysterics, her husband sat +beside the fire and held forth to the admiring neighbours. He showed +them, at length, the causes of the accident; for years, he explained, the +fall had been impending; one sign had followed another, the joints had +opened, the plaster had cracked, the old walls bowed inward; last, not +three weeks ago, the cellar door had begun to work with difficulty in its +grooves. 'The cellar!' he said, gravely shaking his head over a glass of +mulled wine. 'That reminds me of my poor vintages. By a manifest +providence the Hermitage was nearly at an end. One bottle--I lose but +one bottle of that incomparable wine. It had been set apart against Jean- +Marie's wedding. Well, I must lay down some more; it will be an interest +in life. I am, however, a man somewhat advanced in years. My great work +is now buried in the fall of my humble roof; it will never be +completed--my name will have been writ in water. And yet you find me +calm--I would say cheerful. Can your priest do more?' + +By the first glimpse of day the party sallied forth from the fireside +into the street. The wind had fallen, but still charioted a world of +troubled clouds; the air bit like frost; and the party, as they stood +about the ruins in the rainy twilight of the morning, beat upon their +breasts and blew into their hands for warmth. The house had entirely +fallen, the walls outward, the roof in; it was a mere heap of rubbish, +with here and there a forlorn spear of broken rafter. A sentinel was +placed over the ruins to protect the property, and the party adjourned to +Tentaillon's to break their fast at the Doctor's expense. The bottle +circulated somewhat freely; and before they left the table it had begun +to snow. + +For three days the snow continued to fall, and the ruins, covered with +tarpaulin and watched by sentries, were left undisturbed. The Desprez' +meanwhile had taken up their abode at Tentaillon's. Madame spent her +time in the kitchen, concocting little delicacies, with the admiring aid +of Madame Tentaillon, or sitting by the fire in thoughtful abstraction. +The fall of the house affected her wonderfully little; that blow had been +parried by another; and in her mind she was continually fighting over +again the battle of the trousers. Had she done right? Had she done +wrong? And now she would applaud her determination; and anon, with a +horrid flush of unavailing penitence, she would regret the trousers. No +juncture in her life had so much exercised her judgment. In the meantime +the Doctor had become vastly pleased with his situation. Two of the +summer boarders still lingered behind the rest, prisoners for lack of a +remittance; they were both English, but one of them spoke French pretty +fluently, and was, besides, a humorous, agile-minded fellow, with whom +the Doctor could reason by the hour, secure of comprehension. Many were +the glasses they emptied, many the topics they discussed. + +'Anastasie,' the Doctor said on the third morning, 'take an example from +your husband, from Jean-Marie! The excitement has done more for the boy +than all my tonics, he takes his turn as sentry with positive gusto. As +for me, you behold me. I have made friends with the Egyptians; and my +Pharaoh is, I swear it, a most agreeable companion. You alone are +hipped. About a house--a few dresses? What are they in comparison to +the "Pharmacopoeia"--the labour of years lying buried below stones and +sticks in this depressing hamlet? The snow falls; I shake it from my +cloak! Imitate me. Our income will be impaired, I grant it, since we +must rebuild; but moderation, patience, and philosophy will gather about +the hearth. In the meanwhile, the Tentaillons are obliging; the table, +with your additions, will pass; only the wine is execrable--well, I shall +send for some to-day. My Pharaoh will be gratified to drink a decent +glass; aha! and I shall see if he possesses that acme of organisation--a +palate. If he has a palate, he is perfect.' + +'Henri,' she said, shaking her head, 'you are a man; you cannot +understand my feelings; no woman could shake off the memory of so public +a humiliation.' The Doctor could not restrain a titter. 'Pardon me, +darling,' he said; 'but really, to the philosophical intelligence, the +incident appears so small a trifle. You looked extremely well--' + +'Henri!' she cried. + +'Well, well, I will say no more,' he replied. 'Though, to be sure, if +you had consented to indue--_A propos_,' he broke off, 'and my trousers! +They are lying in the snow--my favourite trousers!' And he dashed in +quest of Jean-Marie. + +Two hours afterwards the boy returned to the inn with a spade under one +arm and a curious sop of clothing under the other. + +The Doctor ruefully took it in his hands. 'They have been!' he said. +'Their tense is past. Excellent pantaloons, you are no more! Stay, +something in the pocket,' and he produced a piece of paper. 'A letter! +ay, now I mind me; it was received on the morning of the gale, when I was +absorbed in delicate investigations. It is still legible. From poor, +dear Casimir! It is as well,' he chuckled, 'that I have educated him to +patience. Poor Casimir and his correspondence--his infinitesimal, +timorous, idiotic correspondence!' + +He had by this time cautiously unfolded the wet letter; but, as he bent +himself to decipher the writing, a cloud descended on his brow. + +'_Bigre_!' he cried, with a galvanic start. + +And then the letter was whipped into the fire, and the Doctor's cap was +on his head in the turn of a hand. + +'Ten minutes! I can catch it, if I run,' he cried. 'It is always late. +I go to Paris. I shall telegraph.' + +'Henri! what is wrong?' cried his wife. + +'Ottoman Bonds!' came from the disappearing Doctor; and Anastasie and +Jean-Marie were left face to face with the wet trousers. Desprez had +gone to Paris, for the second time in seven years; he had gone to Paris +with a pair of wooden shoes, a knitted spencer, a black blouse, a country +nightcap, and twenty francs in his pocket. The fall of the house was but +a secondary marvel; the whole world might have fallen and scarce left his +family more petrified. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE WAGES OF PHILOSOPHY. + + +On the morning of the next day, the Doctor, a mere spectre of himself, +was brought back in the custody of Casimir. They found Anastasie and the +boy sitting together by the fire; and Desprez, who had exchanged his +toilette for a ready-made rig-out of poor materials, waved his hand as he +entered, and sank speechless on the nearest chair. Madame turned direct +to Casimir. + +'What is wrong?' she cried. + +'Well,' replied Casimir, 'what have I told you all along? It has come. +It is a clean shave, this time; so you may as well bear up and make the +best of it. House down, too, eh? Bad luck, upon my soul.' + +'Are we--are we--ruined?' she gasped. + +The Doctor stretched out his arms to her. 'Ruined,' he replied, 'you are +ruined by your sinister husband.' + +Casimir observed the consequent embrace through his eyeglass; then he +turned to Jean-Marie. 'You hear?' he said. 'They are ruined; no more +pickings, no more house, no more fat cutlets. It strikes me, my friend, +that you had best be packing; the present speculation is about worked +out.' And he nodded to him meaningly. + +'Never!' cried Desprez, springing up. 'Jean-Marie, if you prefer to +leave me, now that I am poor, you can go; you shall receive your hundred +francs, if so much remains to me. But if you will consent to stay'--the +Doctor wept a little--'Casimir offers me a place--as clerk,' he resumed. +'The emoluments are slender, but they will be enough for three. It is +too much already to have lost my fortune; must I lose my son?' + +Jean-Marie sobbed bitterly, but without a word. + +'I don't like boys who cry,' observed Casimir. 'This one is always +crying. Here! you clear out of this for a little; I have business with +your master and mistress, and these domestic feelings may be settled +after I am gone. March!' and he held the door open. + +Jean-Marie slunk out, like a detected thief. + +By twelve they were all at table but Jean-Marie. + +'Hey?' said Casimir. 'Gone, you see. Took the hint at once.' + +'I do not, I confess,' said Desprez, 'I do not seek to excuse his +absence. It speaks a want of heart that disappoints me sorely.' + +'Want of manners,' corrected Casimir. 'Heart, he never had. Why, +Desprez, for a clever fellow, you are the most gullible mortal in +creation. Your ignorance of human nature and human business is beyond +belief. You are swindled by heathen Turks, swindled by vagabond +children, swindled right and left, upstairs and downstairs. I think it +must be your imagination. I thank my stars I have none.' + +'Pardon me,' replied Desprez, still humbly, but with a return of spirit +at sight of a distinction to be drawn; 'pardon me, Casimir. You possess, +even to an eminent degree, the commercial imagination. It was the lack +of that in me--it appears it is my weak point--that has led to these +repeated shocks. By the commercial imagination the financier forecasts +the destiny of his investments, marks the falling house--' + +'Egad,' interrupted Casimir: 'our friend the stable-boy appears to have +his share of it.' + +The Doctor was silenced; and the meal was continued and finished +principally to the tune of the brother-in-law's not very consolatory +conversation. He entirely ignored the two young English painters, +turning a blind eyeglass to their salutations, and continuing his remarks +as if he were alone in the bosom of his family; and with every second +word he ripped another stitch out of the air balloon of Desprez's vanity. +By the time coffee was over the poor Doctor was as limp as a napkin. + +'Let us go and see the ruins,' said Casimir. + +They strolled forth into the street. The fall of the house, like the +loss of a front tooth, had quite transformed the village. Through the +gap the eye commanded a great stretch of open snowy country, and the +place shrank in comparison. It was like a room with an open door. The +sentinel stood by the green gate, looking very red and cold, but he had a +pleasant word for the Doctor and his wealthy kinsman. + +Casimir looked at the mound of ruins, he tried the quality of the +tarpaulin. 'H'm,' he said, 'I hope the cellar arch has stood. If it +has, my good brother, I will give you a good price for the wines.' + +'We shall start digging to-morrow,' said the sentry. 'There is no more +fear of snow.' + +'My friend,' returned Casimir sententiously, 'you had better wait till +you get paid.' + +The Doctor winced, and began dragging his offensive brother-in-law +towards Tentaillon's. In the house there would be fewer auditors, and +these already in the secret of his fall. + +'Hullo!' cried Casimir, 'there goes the stable-boy with his luggage; no, +egad, he is taking it into the inn.' + +And sure enough, Jean-Marie was seen to cross the snowy street and enter +Tentaillon's, staggering under a large hamper. + +The Doctor stopped with a sudden, wild hope. + +'What can he have?' he said. 'Let us go and see.' And he hurried on. + +'His luggage, to be sure,' answered Casimir. 'He is on the move--thanks +to the commercial imagination.' + +'I have not seen that hamper for--for ever so long,' remarked the Doctor. + +'Nor will you see it much longer,' chuckled Casimir; 'unless, indeed, we +interfere. And by the way, I insist on an examination.' + +'You will not require,' said Desprez, positively with a sob; and, casting +a moist, triumphant glance at Casimir, he began to run. + +'What the devil is up with him, I wonder?' Casimir reflected; and then, +curiosity taking the upper hand, he followed the Doctor's example and +took to his heels. + +The hamper was so heavy and large, and Jean-Marie himself so little and +so weary, that it had taken him a great while to bundle it upstairs to +the Desprez' private room; and he had just set it down on the floor in +front of Anastasie, when the Doctor arrived, and was closely followed by +the man of business. Boy and hamper were both in a most sorry plight; +for the one had passed four months underground in a certain cave on the +way to Acheres, and the other had run about five miles as hard as his +legs would carry him, half that distance under a staggering weight. + +'Jean-Marie,' cried the Doctor, in a voice that was only too seraphic to +be called hysterical, 'is it--? It is!' he cried. 'O, my son, my son!' +And he sat down upon the hamper and sobbed like a little child. + +'You will not go to Paris now,' said Jean-Marie sheepishly. + +'Casimir,' said Desprez, raising his wet face, 'do you see that boy, that +angel boy? He is the thief; he took the treasure from a man unfit to be +entrusted with its use; he brings it back to me when I am sobered and +humbled. These, Casimir, are the Fruits of my Teaching, and this moment +is the Reward of my Life.' + +'_Tiens_,' said Casimir. + +PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE +LONDON + + + + +Footnotes + + +{5} Boggy. + +{15} Clock + +{16} Enjoy. + +{140} To come forrit--to offer oneself as a communicant. + +{144} It was a common belief in Scotland that the devil appeared as a +black man. This appears in several witch trials and I think in Law's +_Memorials_, that delightful store-house of the quaint and grisly. + +{263} Let it be so, for my tale! + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRY MEN*** + + +******* This file should be named 344.txt or 344.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/344 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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