Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes

by Bronte Sisters

  In less than an hour they had rolled over the four miles of road which intervened between them and Verdopolis, passed through the wide streets of that city now all still & desolate & entered a great road which ran northward through an extensive forest, after two hours travelling through the dense gloom of woodland shade the carriage turned aside from the mainpath into a bye-way. they now struck still deeper into the brownish obscurity of oak & palm, elm & cedar, darkly & dimly branch rose above branch each uplifting a thicker canopy of night like foliage till not a single ray of light could find an opening by which to direct the belated traveller’s passing underneath. At last to lady Emily’s great satisfaction the trees began to grow thinner; gradually they assumed a scattered appearance & e’re long the carriage entered an open glade where standing in the full brilliancy of moonlight there appeared a lofty, & ruinous tower. Wall-flowers were waving from its mouldring battlements & ivy-tendrils twined gracefully round the stone mullions of windows from which the glass had long disappeared. Lady Emily shuddered as the carriage stopped before the iron gate of this dreary edifice.

  “this will be a dismal hole to sleep in” said she to herself “But why should I be afraid? St Clair is certainly the best judge of the places we ought to halt at”

  The door was now unfastened by a foot-man who as the Earl had not yet come up offered to assist her in getting out of the carriage. When she had descended the man proceeded to demand entrance, the loud clamourous din which was produced by the agitation of the rusty knocker strangely interrupted that profound & solemn silence which reigned through the primeval forest While it awoke a hollow echo within the grey desolate ruin. After a long pause the withdrawal of bolts & bars was heard. the portals slowly unfolded & revealed a figure whose appearance was in the most perfect keeping with every thing around, it was that of an old woman bent double with the weight of years: her countenance all wrinkled & shrivelled wore a settled expression of discontent while her small, red eyes gleamed with fiendlike malignity, in one shaking hand she held a huge bunch of rusty keys & in the other a dimly glimmering torch.

  “Well Bertha” said the footman “I have brought you a visitor, you must show her up to the highest chamber for I suppose there’s no other in a habitable condition.”

  uNo how should their I wonder” replied the hag in an angry mumbling tone “When no body’s slept in them for more than sixty long years, but what have you brought such a painted toy as this here for? there’s no good in the wind I think”

  “Silence you old witch” said the man “or I’ll cut your tongue out.” then addressing lady Emily he continued “I hope madam you’ll excuse such an attendant as she is for the present: had there been time to procure a better my master would not have failed to do so”

  Lady Emily replied “that she could make every allowance for old age “ & was proceeding to speak a few kind words to the miserable being when she turned abruptly away & muttering “follow me my fine madam an you want to see your sleeping-place” hobbled out of the appartment. Our heroine immediately complied with her request or rather command, & leaving the roofless hall in which she then stood, followed the hideous crone through a suite of damp empty rooms through which the wind was sighing in tones too wildly mournful not to communicate a feeling of sympathetic melancholy to the heart of every listener, at length they reached a room smaller than the others to which a canopy-couch with faded velvet curtains a few chairs, a table & an old-fashioned carved ward-robe gave a habitable if not a comfortable appearance, here the old woman stopped & placing the candle on the table said “Now here you may lie till tomorrow if spirits don’t run away with you”

  “Oh I have no fear of that” replied lady Emily forcing a laugh “but my good Bertha can you not light a fire in that grate for it’s very cold?”

  “No not I” replied the hag “I’ve something else to do indeed” & with these ungracious words she walked or rather crept out of the room.

  When she was gone lady Emily very naturally fell into a fit of rather sorrowful musing. The clandestine & secret nature of the past the dreariness of the present & the uncertainty of the future all contributed to impress her mind with the deepest gloom. Ere long however the image of St Clair rising like the sun above a threatening horizon dispelled the sadness which hung over her mind.

  “Soon” thought she “he will be here & then this decayed tower will to me wear the aspect of a kings palace”

  Scarcely had this consoling reflection been uttered in a half whispered soliloquy When a stately stride & jingling spurs sounded from the antichamber. the door which stood ajar was gently pushed open & the Earls tall form wrapped in a travelling cloak & with a plumed bonnet darkly shading his noble features appeared at the entrance.

  “You are come at last” said lady Emily. “How long you have been, I was almost beginning to fear that you had lost your way in that dismal wood”

  “Beautiful Creature” replied he in a tone which thrilled through her like an electrical shock “I would give every thing I possess on earth to be in reality an object of such tender interest in your eyes, but alas I fear that your sweet sympathy is directed to one who while I live shall never more hear it expressed by that silvery voice. Behold me fair lady & know into whose power you have fallen”

  So saying he flung off” at once the enshrouding cloak & hat & there stood before the horror stricken lady not the form of her lover St Clair but that of his rival Colonel Percy. The ghastly paleness which instantly overspread her face & the sudden clasping of her hands alone proclaimed what feelings passed through her mind as she beheld this unexpected apparition.

  “Come cheer up” continued the Colonel with a scornful smile. “It’s as well to settle your mind now for I swear by every-thing earthly or heavenly, sacred or profane that this painter-lover of yours, - this romancing arrow-shooting artist has seen your face for the last time” “Wretch” exclaimed lady Emily her eyes sparkling with scorn & hatred “Know that he whom you call my painter lover has higher & purer blood in his veins than you. he is Earl St Clair of Clan Albyn & you are but the dependent hanger on of a noble relative”

  “So he has told you” returned Percy “but damsel be he lord or limner I have fairly outwitted him this time, his chariot wheels tarried somewhat too long methinks. mine were better oiled - they ran smoother. I won the race & have borne off the prize triumphantly, he may now cry St Clair to the rescue but none of his plaided minions can reach the length of this dark & unknown retreat,”

  “Unprincipled villain” said lady Emily whose high spirit was now fully roused “you have acted treacherously, you have adopted means totally unbecoming the honour of a gentleman or never should I have been thus ensnared by your toils”

  “Humph” replied the colonel “I am not one of those punctilious fools who consider honour as the God of their Idolatry. Eavesdroppers, spys, or false-witnesses are all equally acceptable to me when there is a great end in View which can be more easily obtained by their assistance.”

  “Colonel Percy” said lady Emily “for I can call you by no name so detestable as your own do you intend to keep me in this tower or to send me back to Clydesdale Castle?”

  “I shall keep you here most assuredly till you promise to become my wife & then you shall re-appear in Verdopolis with a magnificence suitable to the future Duchess of Beaufort”

  “Then here I remain till death or some happier chance relieves me, for not all the tortures that man’s ingenuity could devise should ever induce me to marry one whose vices have sunk him so low in the ranks of humanity as yours have one who openly renounces the dominion of honnour & declares that he has given himself up to the blind guidance of his own depraved inclinations”

  “Excellently well preached” remarked the Colonel with a sneer “but fair worshipper of honnour this resolution will not prevent the proposed incarceration which shall be inflicted on you as a sort of punishment for having flagrantly violated the decrees of that Deity whose cause you so eloquently advocate,
pray my lady was it quite consistent with the dictates of honnour to deceive your old doting uncle and elope at midnight with an unknown adventurer?”

  this taunt was too much for lady Emily, the remembrance of her Uncle & of what his sufferings would be when her disappearance should be known instantly destroyed that semblance of dignity which pnde had taught her to assume in order to overawe her suitor’s fam- jhar insolence. She leant her head on her hand & burst into a flood of bitter tears.

  Those crystal drops” said the Colonel totally unmoved by her ress Tell me that it would be no very difficult matter to soften your apparently stubborn heart. could I but remain here one day longer I am certain that the powers of persuasion I possess would succeed in bringing my Queen of Beauty to reason but unfortunately dire necessity commands my immediate departure. Before Sunrise I ought to be in Verdopolis & day is already breaking over those eastern Hills. Farewell” he continued in a more serious tone, “Farewell lady Emily, I am going where their is likely to be hot work & perhaps some black rebel’s sabre may before long rid you of a sincere though rejected lover & the world of what most men call a villain.”

  “Farewell Colonel” replied his weeping captive “And remember that if such should be your fate the recollection of what you have this night done will not tend to alleviate the agonies of death”

  “Pshaw” said he with a reckless laugh “do you think I have any fears on that score? no my conscience if I ever had any has been long seared. Immortality finds no place in my creed & death is with me but an abbreviated term for lasting sleep.’ Once more farewell”

  with these words he snatched her hand kissed it fervently & departed. The twilight glimmer of dawn was now stealing through the narrow casements of lady Emily’s prison & falling on her face & person as she lay stretched on the tattered velvet couch where overcome with fatigue she had now thrown herself revealed a touching picture of Beauty in Distress.’ her hair hung in loose & neglected curls on her snowy neck & shoulder her eyes were closed her long dark lashes wet with tears rested motionless on her cheek except when a fresh drop trembled on their silken fringes, her face usually blooming was now pale as alabaster from the misery of the sleepless night she had passed. one white hand & arm supported her head on the pillow & the other confined the folds of the dark mantle in which she was still partially enveloped.

  After some time in spite of the wretchedness of her situation, separated it might be for ever from all she held dear on earth, & confined in a solitary ruin with no other attendant than the withered hag Bertha, she fell into a deep slumber & while she enjoys this temporary respite from affliction we will revert to other matters.

  CHAPTER THE SIXTH

  It is well known that the Great War between the Ashantee’s & Twelves ended, after many bloody & obstinate battles in the complete subjugation of the former, their prince being slain their nation nearly annihilated, their metropolis destroyed & the circumjacent country reduced to a condition of the wildest & most appalling desolation which the imagination of man can conceive. Quashie the Kings only son, then at the tender age of four or five years was taken prisoner. At the General Partition of booty he with other captives fell to the share of his Grace the Duke of Wellington from whom he experienced as much care & tenderness as if he had been that Monarch’s son instead of his slave. In these gilded fetters the young prince grew up, his literary education was duly cared for but he declined to profit by the instructions bestowed on him further than as it regarded the acquisition of the English & Ashantee languages & the capability of expressing himself in both by pen as well as tongue. In bodily exercises & military affairs however the case was different, everything relating to these he learnt with an avidity which showed how fully he inherited his father’s warlike spirit. At the age of seventeen, he was a tall handsome youth, black as jet & with an eye full of expression & fire, his disposition was bold, irritable, active, daring & at the same time deeply treacherous.

  It now began to appear that notwithstanding the care with which he had been treated by his conquerors he retained against them as if by instinct the most deeply rooted and inveterate hatred. Since his fifteenth year he had been accustomed to take long excursions by himself among the mountains & forests of Ashantee for the purpose as he said of hunting the wild animals that abound there, but subsequent events showed that his real employment during these expeditions was discovering & prompting to Rebellion the hidden tribes of Africans who after the Destruction of Coomassie & the slaughter of King Quamina had concealed themselves in fastnesses inaccessible to any but a native of the country. When he had sufficiently kindled in these Wl’d savages a spirit of slumbering discontent, & roused them to make an effort for regaining that independence as a nation which they had lost, he in conjunction with the celebrated brothers Budi & Benini formerly his father’s favourite counsellors unfurled the Royal standard of Ashantee & summoned the scattered remnant of that once mighty empire to join him without delay at the foot of Mount Pindus.

  It seemed as if this invocation had called from their graves a portion at least of the vast army which fourteen years since had reddened with their blood the lofty heights of Rosendale-Hill. Multitudes flocked to his banner from the mountain glens & caverns of Jibbel Kumri from the unexplored regions of Inner Africa & from the almost boundless Desert of Sahara, so that in a few weeks no less than fifteen thousand armed natives of a kingdom which was supposed to have been extirpated declared themselves ready to shed the last drop of their blood in vindication of Quashie the second’s claim to his ancestral throne. With this determination they marched toward Verdopolis & had arrived within four hundred miles of that City before intelligence of what had taken place reached the twelves. When the fact of this rebellion was known however the Duke of Wellington immediately desired that the punishment of the rebels might be left to him as the young viper who commanded them had been nourished on his own hearth & brought up by him with almost parental tenderness, his request was immediately granted & the duke despatched ten thousand troops under the command of General Leaf a descendant by the way of the famous Captain Leaf to stop the progress of the insurgents.

  When Quashie heard of the formidable force which was advancing against him he sent an ambassador to Gondar requesting assistance from the Abysinnian King & in the mean time commenced a very orderly retreat. Ras Michael who detested the British readily permitted an army of eight thousand soldiers to assist Quashie in his bold enterprise against them. With this reinforcement that young warrior ventured to give the enemy battle. An engagement accordingly ensued near Fateconda on the Senegal Which after a very obstinate contest ended rather in favour of the Verdopolitans though the victory they gained was of that nature that another similar one would have been total destruction. A fresh addition now arrived from Abyssinia so that the army of the rebels was very little the worse for their defeat, while Leafs force amounted barely to six thousand men. The Duke being informed of this state of things immediately ordered out sixteen regiments & placing himself at their head marched without delay to the scene of the action. On his arrival he found that the enemy had been joined by a large body of Moors from the North so that he was still far inferior in numbers but trusting to the superior discipline of his troops he determined to stand his ground without further reinforcement. Having given the reader this necessary information I will now proceed with my narrative in a more detailed & less historical style.

  It was a glorious evening in the end of summer when the hostile armies lay encamped on opposite banks of the river Senegal. The sun was slowly approaching the horizon of a speckless sky & threw his parting rays with softened brilliancy over a scene of unsurpassed loveliness. between the two hosts lay a beautiful valley where groves of delicate-leaved tamarind trees & tall palmyras sweetly shadowed the blue bright waters of the wandering stream. A cluster of deserted huts whose inhabitants had fled at the approach of soldiers crowned the gently-sloped aclivity which embosomed the glen. on one side in the largest of these the Duke of W
ellington had taken up his quaters & here he now sat surrounded by four of his principal officers. Two of these are already known to our readers being the Marquis of Charlesworth & Colonel Percy, of the remaining two the first was a middle- sized man with broad shoulders & spindle shanksf: his forehead was rather high his nose large & projecting, his mouth wide & his chin remarkably long, he was dressed in uniform with a star on his breast & large cambric ruffles at each wrist, the other was a little personage with jointless limbs, a chubby face & a pale pink wig of frizzled silk surmounted by a tall black hat on which was an ornament of carved wood, these officers were conversing with each other in undertones not to disturb the duke’s meditations who sat with his eyes fixed on the wide prospect which opened before him & which was bounded by a dim sweeping milk-white line indicating the commencement of the great sandy desert.

  Bobadil” said he suddenly addressing himself to the former of the two gentlemen I have just described “do you not perceive something moving in the direction of the enemies camp? it is under the shadow of that lofty hill to the north & appears like a dark & compact body of men, surely it is not some new ally?”