The Lady of the Mount
Page 7
CHAPTER VII
A DISTANT MENACE
But guests come and guests go; pastimes draw to a close, and the hourarrives when the curtain falls on the masque. The friends of my lady,however reluctantly, were obliged at last to forgo furtherholiday-making, depart from the Mount, and return to the court. Animposing cavalcade, gleaming in crimson and gold, they wended down thedark rock; laughing ladies, pranked-out cavaliers who waved theirperfumed hands with farewell kisses to the grim stronghold in thedesert, late their palace of pleasure, and to the young mistressthereof.
"Good-by, Elise!" The Marquis was last to go.
"Good-by."
He took her hand; held it to his lips. On the whole, he was notill-pleased. His wooing had apparently prospered; for, although themarriage had been long arranged, my lady's beauty and capriciousnesshad fanned in him the desire to appear a successful suitor for herheart as well as her hand. If sometimes she laughed and thus failed toreceive his delicate gallantries in the mood in which they weretendered, the Marquis' vanity only allowed him to conclude that a womandoes not laugh if she is displeased. It was enough that she found himdiverting; he served her; they were friends and had danced and riddenthrough the spring days in amicable fashion.
"Good-by," he repeated. "When are you coming to court again? TheQueen is sure to ask. I understand her Majesty is planning all mannerof brilliant entertainments, yet Versailles--without you, Elise!"
"Me?" arching her finely penciled brows. "Oh, I'm thinking of stayinghere, becoming a nun, and restoring the Mount to its old religiousprestige."
"Then I'll come back a monk," he returned in the same tone.
"If you come back at all!" provokingly. "There, go! The others willsoon be out of sight!"
"I, too--alas, Elise!"
He touched his horse; rode on, but soon looked back to where, against agreat, grim wall, stood a figure all in white gleaming in the sunshine.The Marquis stopped; drew from his breast a deep red rose, and, gazingupward, gracefully kissed the glowing token. Beneath the aureole ofgolden hair my lady's proud face rewarded him with a faint smile, andsomething--a tiny handkerchief--fluttered like a dove above thefrowning, time-worn rock. At that, with the eloquent gesture of atroubadour, he threw his arm backward, as if to launch the impress onthe rose to the crimson lips of the girl, and then, plying his spurs,galloped off.
And as he went at a pace, headlong if not dangerous and fitting theexigencies of the moment, my lord smiled. Truly had he presented aperfect, dainty and gallant figure for any woman's eyes, and the LadyElise, he fancied, was not the least discerning of her sex. And had heseen the girl, when an unkind angle of the wall hid him from sight, hisown nice estimate of the situation would have suffered no change. TheMount, which formerly had resounded to the life and merriment of thepeople from the court, on a sudden to her looked cold, barren, empty.
"Heigh-ho!" she murmured, stretching her arms toward that point wherehe--they--had vanished. "I shall die of ennui, I am sure!" Andthoughtfully retraced her steps to her own room.
But she did not long stay there; by way of makeshift for gaiety,substituted activity. The Mount, full of early recollections andtreasure-house mystery, furnished an incentive for exploration, and forseveral days she devoted herself to its study; now pausing for aninstant's contemplation of a sculptured thing of beauty, then beforesome closed door that held her, as at the threshold of a Bluebeard'sforbidden chamber.
One day, such a door stood open and her curiosity became cured. Shehad passed beneath a machicolated gateway, and climbing a stairway thatbegan in a watch-tower, found herself unexpectedly on a great platform.Here several men, unkempt, pale, like creatures from another world,were walking to and fro; but at sight of her, an order was issued andthey vanished through a trap--all save one, a misshapen dwarf whoremained to shut the iron door, adjust the fastening and turn aponderous key. For a moment she stood staring.
"Why did you do that?" she asked angrily.
"The Governor's orders," said the man, bowing hideously. "They are tosee no one."
"Then let them up at once! Do you hear? At once!"
And as he began to unlock the door, walked off. After that, herinterest in the rock waned; the Mount seemed but a prison; she,herself, desired only to escape from it.
"Have my saddle put on Saladin," she said to Beppo the next day, towardthe end of a long afternoon.
"Very well, my Lady. Who accompanies your Ladyship?"
"No one!" With slight emphasis. "I ride alone."
Beppo discretely suppressed his surprise. "Is your Ladyship going far?If so, I beg to remind that to-night is the change of the moon, and the'grand,' not the 'little' tide may be coming in."
"I was already aware of it, and shall keep between the Mount and theshore. Have my horse sent to the upper gate," she added, and soonafterward rode down.
The town was astir, and many looked after her as she passed; notkindly, but with the varying expressions she had of late begun tonotice. Again was she cognizant of that feeling of secret antagonism,even from these people whose houses clung to the very foundations ofher own abode, and her lips set tightly. Why did they hate her? Whatright had they to hate her? A sensation, almost of relief, came overher, when passing through the massive, feudal gate, she found herselfon the beach.
Still and languorous was the day; not a breath stirred above the tinyripples of the sand; a calm, almost unnatural, seemed to wrap the worldin its embrace. The girl breathed deeper, feeling the closeness of theair; her impatient eyes looked around; scanned the shore; to the left,low and flat--to the right, marked by the dark fringe of a forest.Which way should she go? Irresolutely she turned in the direction ofthe wood.
Saladin, her horse, seemed in unusually fine fettle, and the distanceseparating her from the land was soon covered; but still she continuedto follow the shore, swinging around and out toward a point somedistance seaward. Not until she had reached that extreme projection ofland, where the wooing green crept out from the forest as far as itmight, did she draw rein. Saladin stopped, albeit with protest,tossing his great head.
"You might as well make an end of that, sir!" said the girl, and,springing from the saddle, deftly secured him. Then turning her backtoward the Mount, a shadowy pyramid in the distance, she seated herselfin the grass with her eyes to the woods.
Not long, however, did my lady remain thus; soon rising, she walkedtoward the shadowy depths. At the verge she paused; her brows grewthoughtful; what was it the woods recalled? Suddenly, sheremembered--a boy she had met the night she left for school so longago, had told her he lived in them. She recalled, too, as a child, howthe woman, Marie, who had been maid to her mother, had tried tofrighten her about that sequestered domain, with tales of fierce wildanimals and unearthly creatures, visible and invisible, that roamedwithin.
She had no fear now, though faint rustlings and a pulsation of soundheld her listening. Then, through the leafy interstice, a gleaming andflashing, as if some one were throwing jewels to the earth, lured heron to the cause of the seeming enchantment--a tiny waterfall!
The moment passed; still she lingered. Around the Mount's high top,her own home, only transcendent silence reigned; here was shesurrounded by babbling voices and all manner of merry creatures--livelylittle squirrels; winged insects, romping in the twilight shade; aportly and well-satisfied appearing green monster who regarded heramicably from a niche of green. A butterfly, poised and waving itswings, held her a long time--until she was suddenly aroused by the woodgrowing darker. Raising her eyes, she saw through the green foliageoverhead that the bright sky had become sunless. At the same time arumbling detonation, faint, far-off, broke in upon the whisperings andtinklings of that wood nook. Getting up, she stood for a momentlistening; then walked away.
Near the verge of the sand, Saladin greeted her with impatience,tossing his head toward the darkening heavens. Nor did he wait untilshe was fairly seated before starting back at a rapid gait along th
eshore. But the girl offered no protest; her face showed onlyenjoyment. A little wild he might be at times, as became one of ruggedancestry, but never vicious, only headstrong! And she didn't mindthat--
Already had he begun to slack that first thundering pace when somethingwhite--a veil, perhaps, dropped from the cavalcade of lords and ladiessome days before on the land and wafted to the beach--fluttered like alive thing suddenly before him. In his tense mood, Saladin,affrighted, sprang to one side; then wheeling outright, madly took thebit in his teeth. Perforce his mistress resigned herself, sittingstraight and sure, with little hands hard and firm at the reins.Saladin was behaving very badly, but--at least he was superb, worthconquering, if--
A brief thrill of apprehension seized her as, again drawing near thepoint of land, he showed no signs of yielding; resisted all herattempts to turn, to direct him to it. With nostrils thrust forwardand breathing strong, he continued to choose his own course; to whirlher on; past the promontory; around into the great bay beyond--now avast expanse, or desert of sand, broken only, about half-way across, bythe small isle of Casque. Toward this rocky formation, a pygmy to thegreat Mount from which it lay concealed by the intervening projectionof land, the horse rushed.
On, on! In vain she still endeavored to stop him; thinking uneasily ofstories the fishermen told of this neighboring coast; of the sands thatoften shifted here, setting pitfalls for the unwary. She saw the skygrow yet darker, noted the nearer flashings of light, and heard thelouder rumblings that followed. Then presently another danger she hadlong been conscious of, on a sudden became real.
She saw, or thought she saw, a faint streak, like a silver line drawnacross the sky where the yellow sands touched the sombrous horizon.And Saladin seemed to observe it, too; to detect in it cause forwonder; reason for hesitation. At any rate, that headlong speed nowshowed signs of diminishing; he clipped and tossed the sand lessvigorously, and looked around at his mistress with wild, uneasy eyes.Again she spoke to him; pulled with all her strength at the reins, and,at once, he stopped.
None too soon! Great drops of rain had begun to fall, but the girl didnot notice them. The white line alone riveted her attention! Itseemed to grow broader; to acquire an intangible movement of its own;at the same time to give out a sound--a strange, low droning thatfilled the air. Heard for the first time, a stranger at the Mountwould have found it inexplicable; to the Governor's daughter, themenacing cadence left no room for doubt as to its origin.
The girl's cheek paled; her gaze swung in the opposite direction,toward the point of land, now so distant. Could they reach it? Shedid not believe they could; indeed, the "grand" tide coming up behindon the verge of the storm, faster than any horse could gallop, wouldovertake them midway. And Saladin seemed to know it also; beneath her,he trembled. Yet must they try, she thought, and had tightened thereins to turn, when looking ahead once more, she discerned a break inthe forbidding cliffs of the little island of Casque, and, back of thefissure, a shining spot which marked a tiny cove.
A moment she hesitated; what should she do? Ride toward the isle andthe white danger, or toward the point of mainland and from it? Eitheralternative was a desperate one, but the isle lay much nearer; andquickly, the brown eyes gleaming with sudden courage, she decided;touched her horse and pressed him forward.
But fast as she went the "grand" tide came faster; struck with a loud,menacing sound the seaward side of the isle and swung hungrily around.My lady cast over her shoulder a quick glance; the cove, however, wasnear; only a line of small rocks, jutting from the sand, separated herfrom it. If they could but pass, she thought; they had passed, shetold herself joyfully, when of a sudden the horse stumbled; fell.Thrown violently from his back, a moment was she cognizant of adeafening roar; a riotous advance of foam; above, a hundred birds thatscreamed distractedly; then all these sounds mingled; darknesssucceeded, and she remembered no more.