VI
SHOWING HOW RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND
It was full two days after the coming of the baronet and thefactor-lawyer Pengarvin before I saw my lady's face near-hand again, andsometimes I was glad for Richard Jennifer's sake, but oftener wouldcurse and swear because I was bound hand and foot and could not balk myenemy.
I knew Sir Francis and the lawyer still lingered on at ApplebyHundred--indeed, I saw them daily from my window--and Darius would betelling me that they waited upon the coming of some courier from thesouth. But this I disbelieved. Some such-like lie the baronet might havetold, I thought; but when I saw him walk abroad with Margery on his arm,pacing back and forth beneath the oaks and bending low to catch herlightest word with grave and courtly deference that none knew better howto feign, I knew wherefore he stayed--knew and raged afresh at my ownimpotence, and for the thought that Margery was wholly at the mercy ofthis devil.
Yours is a colder century than was ours, my dears. Your art has temperedlove and passion into sentiment, and hate you have learned to callaversion or dislike. But we of that simple-hearted elder time were moredownright; and I have writ the word I mean in saying that my love was atthe mercy of this fiend.
I know not how it is or why, but there are men who have this gift--somewinning way to turn a woman's head or touch her heart; and I knew wellthis gift was his. 'Twas not his face, for that was something less thanhandsome, to my fancy; nor yet his figure, though that was big andsoldierly enough. It was rather in some subtlety of manner, some powerof simulation whereby in any womanly heart he seemed to stand at willfor that which he was not.
As I have said, I knew him well enough; knew him incapable of love apartfrom passion, and that to him there was no sacredness in maiden chastityor wifely vows. So he but gained his end he cared no whit what followedafter; ruin, broken hearts, lost souls, a man slain now and then to keepthe scale from tipping--all were as one to him, or to the FrancisFalconnet I knew.
And touching marriage, with Margery or any other, I feared that lovewould have no word to say. Passion there might be, and that fiercedesire to have and wear which burns like any miser's fever in the blood;but never love as lovers measure it. Why, then, had he proposed toMargery? The answer did not tarry. Since he was now but a gentlemanvolunteer it was plain that he had squandered his estate, and so mightbrook the marriage chain if it were linked up with my father's acres.
It was a bait to lure such a gamester strongly. As matters stood with usin that wan summer of exhaustion and defeat, the king's cause waxed andgrew more hopeful day by day. And in event of final victory a landlessbaronet, marrying Margery's dower of Appleby Hundred, might snap hisfingers at the Jews who, haply, had driven him forth from England.
And as for Margery? Truly, she had told me, or as good as told me, thather maiden love had pledged itself a pawn for Jennifer's redeeming. Butthere be other things than love to sway a woman's will. This volunteercaptain with the winning way was of the _haute noblesse_, and he couldmake her Lady Falconnet. Moreover, he was with her day by day; and youmay mark this as you will; that a present suitor hath ever the trumpcards to play against the absent lover.
So, brooding over this, I wore out two most dismal days--the first inmany I had had to pass alone. But on the morning of the third the skywas lightened, though then the light was but a flash and darknessfollowed quickly after. She came again and brought me a visitor; it wasthis same Father Matthieu with whom she had jestingly compared me, andlest I should take my punishment too lightly, stayed but to make thegood priest known to me.
Now I was born and bred an heretic, by any papist's reckoning, but Ihave ever held it witless in that man who lets a creed obstruct afriendship. Moreover, this sweet-faced cleric was the friendliest ofmen; friendly, and yet the wiliest Jesuit of them all, since he read meat a glance and fell straightway to praising Margery.
"A truly sweet young demoiselle," he said, by way of foreword, no soonerwas the door closed behind her, and while he preached a sermon on thistext I grew to know and love him.
He was a little man, as bone and muscle go, with deep-set eyes, andfeatures kind and mild and fine as any woman's; some such face asLeonardo gave St. John, could that have been less youthful. I could nottell his order, though from his well-worn cassock girded at the waistwith a frayed bit of hempen cord he might have been a Little Brother ofthe Poor. But this I noted; that he was not tonsured, and his whitehair, soft and fine as Margery's, was like an aureole to the finelychiseled features. As missionary men of any creed are apt, he looked farolder than he really was; and when he came to tell me of his life amongthe Indians, it was patent how the years had multiplied upon him.
I listened, well enough content to learn him better by his own report.
"But you must find it thankless work; this gospeling in the wilderness,"I ventured, when all was said. "'Tis but a hermit's life for any man ofparts; and after all, when you have done your utmost, your converts arebut savages, as they were."
At this he smiled and shook his head. _"Non, Monsieur_, not so. You area soldier and can not see beyond your point of sword. _Mais, mon ami_,they have souls to save, these poor children of the forest, and they arefar more sinned against than sinning. I find them kind and true andfaithful; and some of them are noble, in their way."
I laughed. "I've read about those noble ones," I said. "'Twas in a bookcalled 'Hakluyt's Voyages.' Truly, I know them not as you do, for in myyouth I knew them most in war. We called them brave but cruel then; andwhen I was a boy I could have shown you where, within a mile of this,they burned poor Davie Davidson at the stake."
"Ah, yes; there has been much of that," he sighed. "But you mustconfess, Captain Ireton, that you English carry fire and sword amongthem, too."
From that he would have told me more about the savages, but I wasinterested nearer home. As I have said, I was like any prisoner in adungeon for lack of news, and so by degrees I fetched him round totelling me of what was going on beyond my window-sight of lawn andforest.
Brave deeds were to the fore, it seemed. At Ramsour's Mill, a few milesnorth and west, some little handful of determined patriots had bestedthrice their number of the king's partizans, and that without a leaderbigger than a county colonel. Lord Rawdon, in command of LordCornwallis's van, had come as far as Waxhaw Creek, but, beingunsupported, had withdrawn to Hanging Rock. Our Mr. Rutherford was onhis way to the Forks of Yadkin to engage the Tories gathering underColonel Bryan. As yet, it seemed, we had no force of any consequence totake the field against Cornwallis, though there were flying rumors of anarmy marching from Virginia, with a new-appointed general at its head.
On the whole it was the king's cause that prospered, and the rising waveof invasion bade fair to inundate the land. So thought my kindly gossip;and, having naught to gain or lose in the great war, or rather havingnaught to lose and everything to gain, whichever way these worldly cardsmight run, he was a fair, impartial witness.
As you may well suppose, this news awoke in me the lust of battle, and Imust chafe the more for having it. And while my visitor talked on, and Iwas listening with the outward ear, my brain was busy putting two andtwo together. How came it that the British outpost still remained atQueensborough, with my Lord Rawdon withdrawn and the patriot home guardwell down upon its rear? Some urgent reason for the stay there must be;and at that I remembered what Darius had told me of its captain'swaiting for some messenger from the south.
I scored this matter with a question mark, putting it aside to think onmore when I should be alone. And when the priest had told me all thenews at large, we came again to speak of Margery.
"I go and come through all this borderland," he said, when I had askedhim how and why he came to Appleby Hundred, "but it was mam'selle'smessage brought me here. She is my one ewe lamb in all this region, andI would journey far to see her."
I wondered pointedly at this, for in that day the West was fiercelyProtestant and the Mother Church had scanty footing in the borderland.
"But Mistress Margery is not a Catholic!" said I.
His look forgave the protest in the words.
"Indeed, she is, my son. Has she not told you?"
Now truly she had not told me so in any measured word or phrase; and yetI might have guessed it, since she had often spoken lovingly of thissame Father Matthieu. And yet it was incredible to me.
"But how--I do not understand how that can be," I stammered. "Surely,she told me she was of Huguenot blood on the mother's side, and thatis--"
The missionary's smile was lenient still, but full of meaning.
"Not all who wander from the Catholic fold are lost forever, CaptainIreton. The mother of this demoiselle lived all her life a Protestant, Ithink, but when she came to die she sent for me. And that is how herchild was sent to France and grew up convent-bred. Monsieur Stair gavehis promise at the mother's death-bed, and though he liked it not, hekept it."
"Aha, I see. And for this single lamb of your scant fold you brave theterrors of our heretic backwoods? It does you credit, Father Matthieu.The war fills all horizons now, mayhap, but I have seen the time inMecklenburg when your cassock would have been a challenge to the mob."
His smile was quite devoid of bitterness. "The time has not yet passed,"he said, gently. "I have been six weeks on the way from Maryland hither,hiding in the forest by day and faring on at night. Indeed, I was inhiding on a neighboring plantation when our demoiselle's messenger foundme."
This put me keen upon remembering what had gone before; how he had saidat first that she had sent for him. I thought it strange, knowing howperilous the time and place must be for such as he. But not until herose and, bidding me good day, left me to myself, did I so much as guessthe thing his coming meant. When I had guessed it; when I put this tothat--her telling me Sir Francis had proposed for her, and this hersending for the priest--the madness of my love for her was as naughtcompared to that anger which seized and racked me.
I know not how the hours of this black day were made to come and go,grinding me to dust and ashes in their passage, yet leaving me alive andkeen to suffer at the end.
A thousand times that day I lived in torment through the scene in whichthe priest had doubtless come to play his part of joiner. The stage forit would be the great room fronting south; the room my father used tocall our castle hall. For guests I thought there would be space enoughand some to spare, for, as you know, our Mecklenburg was patriot to thecore. But as to this, the bridegroom's troopers might fill out the tale,and in my heated fancy I could see them grouped beneath thecandle-sconces with belts and baldrics fresh pipe-clayed, and shakosdoffed, and _sabretaches_ well in front. "A man full-grown--a soldier,"she had said; and trooper-guests were fitting in such case.
From serving in a Catholic land I knew the customs of the Mother Church.So I could see the priest in cassock, alb and stole as he would standbefore some makeshift altar lit with candles. And as he stands they cometo kneel before him; my winsome Margery in all her royal beauty, a childto love, and yet an empress peerless in her woman's realm; and at herside, with his knee touching hers, this man who was a devil!
What wonder if I cursed and choked and cursed again when the maddeningthought of what all this should mean for my poor wounded Richard--andlater on, for Margery herself--possessed me? In which of these hotfever-gusts of rage the thought of interference came, I know not. Butthat it came at length--a thought and plan full-grown at birth--I doknow.
The pointing of the plan was desperate and simple. It was neither morenor less than this: I knew the house and every turn and passage in it,and when the hour should strike I said I should go down and skulk amongthe guests, and at the crucial moment find or seize a weapon and flingmyself upon this bridegroom as he should kneel before the altar.
With strength to bend him back and strike one blow, I saw not why itmight not win. And as for strength, I have learned this in war: that sothe rage be hot enough 'twill nerve a dying man to hack and hew and stabas with the strength of ten.
Although it was most terribly over-long in coming, the end of that blackday did come at last, and with it Darius to fetch my supper and thecandles. You may be sure I questioned him, and, if you know the blacks,you'll smile and say I had my labor for my pains--the which I had. Hisplace was at the quarters, and of what went on within the house he knewno more than I. But this he told me; that company surely was expected,and that some air of mystery was abroad.
When he was gone I ate a soldier's portion, knowing of old how ill athing it is to take an empty stomach into battle. For the same cause Idrank a second cup of wine,--'twas old madeira of my father'slaying-in,--and would have drunk a third but that the bottle would notyield it.
It was fully dark when I had finished, and, thinking ever on my plan,would strive afresh to weld its weakest link. This was the hazard of theweapon-getting. With full-blood health and strength I might have gonebare-handed; but as it was, I feared to take the chance. So with acandle I went a-prowling in the deep drawers of the old oakenclothes-press and in the escritoire which once had been my mother's, andfound no weapon bigger than a hairpin.
It was no great disappointment, for I had looked before with daylight inthe room. Besides, the wine was mounting, and when the search was donethe hazard seemed the less. So I could rush upon him unawares and put myknee against his back, I thought the Lord of Battles would give mestrength to break his neck across it.
At that I capped the candles, and, taking post in the deep bay of thewindow, set myself to watch for the lighting of the great room at thefront. This had two windows on my side, and while I could not see them,I knew that I should see the sheen of light upon the lawn.
The night was clear but moonless, and the thick-leafed masses of theoaks and hickories rose a wall of black to curtain half the hemisphereof starry sky. As always in our forest land, the hour was shrilly vocal,though to me the chirping din of frogs and insects hath ever stood forsilence. Somewhere beyond the thicket-wall an owl was callingmournfully, and I bethought me of that superstition--old as man, foraught I know--of how the hooting of an owl betokens death. And then Ilaughed, for surely death would come to one or more of those beneath myfather's roof within the compass of the night.
Behind the close-drawn curtain, though I could see it not, the virginforest darkened all the land; and from afar within its secret depths Iheard, or thought I heard, the dismal howling of the timber wolves.Below, the house was silent as the grave, and this seemed strange to me.For in the time of my youth a wedding was a joyous thing. Yet I wouldremember that these present times were perilous; and also that mybridegroom captained but a little band of troopers in a land but nowbecome fiercely debatable.
It must have been an hour or more before the sound of distance-muffledhoofbeats on the road broke in upon the chirping silence of the night. Ilooked and listened, straining eye and ear, hearing but little andseeing less until three shadowy horsemen issued from the curtain-wall ofblack beneath my window.
It was plain that others watched as well as I, for at their coming asheen of light burst from the opened door below, at which there weresword-clankings as of armed men dismounting, and then a few low-voicedwords of welcome. Followed quickly the closing of the door and silence;and when my eyes grew once again accustomed to the gloom, I saw belowthe horses standing head to head, and in the midst a man to hold them.
"So!" I thought; "but three in all, and one of them a servant. 'Twill bea scantly guested wedding." And then I raged within again to think ofhow my love should be thus dishonored in a corner when she should havethe world to clap its hands and praise her beauty.
At that, and while I looked, the lawn was banded farther on by twobroad beams of light; and then I knew my time was come.
Feeling my way across the darkened chamber I softly tried thedoor-latch. It yielded at the touch, but not the door. I pulled andbraced myself and pulled again. 'Twas but a waste of strength. The doorwas fast with that contrivance wherewith my father used to bar me inwhat time I was a boy and would go r
accooning with our negro hunters. Myenemy was no fool. He had been shrewd enough to lock me in against thechance of interruption.
I wish you might conceive the helpless horror grappling with me therebehind that fastened door; but this, indeed, you may not, having felt itnot. For one dazed moment I was sick as death with fear and frenzy and Iknow not what besides, and all the blackness of the night swam suddenred before my eyes. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, the madness leftme cool and sane, as if the fit had been the travail-pain of some newbirth of soul. And after that, as I remember, I knew not rage nor hastenor weakness--knew no other thing save this; that I had set myself atask to do and I would do it.
My window was in shape like half a cell of honeycomb, and close besideit on the outer wall there grew an ancient ivy-vine which more than oncehad held my weight when I was younger and would evade my father'svigilance.
I swung the casement noiselessly and clambered out, with hand and footin proper hold as if those youthful flittings of my boyhood days hadbeen but yesternight. A breathless minute later I was down and afoot onsolid ground; and then a thing chanced which I would had not. The manwhom I had called a servant turned and saw me.
"Halt! Who goes there?" he cried.
"A friend," said I, between my wishings for a weapon. For this servantof my prefigurings proved to be a trooper, booted, spurred and armed.
"By God, I think you lie," he said; and after that he said no more, forhe was down among the horses' hoofs and I upon him, kneeling hard toscant his breath for shoutings.
It grieves me now through all these years to think that I did kneel toohard upon this man. He was no enemy of mine, and did but do--or seek todo--his duty. But he would fight or die, and I must fight or die; and soit ended as such strivings will, with some grim crackling of ribs--andwhen I rose he rose not with me.
With all the fierce excitement of the struggle yet upon me, I stayed toknot the bridle reins upon his arm to make it plain that he had fallenat his post. That done, I took his sword as surer for my purpose than apistol; and hugging the deepest shadow of the wall, approached thenearer window. It was open wide, for the night was sultry warm, and fromwithin there came the clink of glass and now a toast and now a trooper'soath.
I drew myself by inches to the casement, which was high, finding somefoothold in the wall; and when I looked within I saw no wedding guests,no priest, no altar; only this: a table in the midst with bottles on it,and round it five men lounging at their ease and drinking to the king.Of these five two, the baronet and the lawyer, were known to me, and Ihave made them known to you. A third I guessed for Gilbert Stair. Theother two were strangers.
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