The Master of Ballantrae Robert Louis Stevenson

by Robert Louis Stevenson

  Anyway, he now practised one of his transitions; and so soon as the door closed behind my lord, and without the smallest change of voice, shifted from ordinary civil talk into a stream of insult.

  "My dear Henry, it is yours to play," he had been saying, and now continued: "It is a very strange thing how, even in so small a matter as a game of cards, you display your rusticity. You play, Jacob, like a bonnet laird, or a sailor in a tavern. The same dulness, the same petty greed, CETTE LENTEUR D'HEBETE QUI ME FAIT RAGER; it is strange I should have such a brother. Even Square- toes has a certain vivacity when his stake is imperilled; but the dreariness of a game with you I positively lack language to depict."

  Mr. Henry continued to look at his cards, as though very maturely considering some play; but his mind was elsewhere.

  "Dear God, will this never be done?" cries the Master. "QUEL LOURDEAU! But why do I trouble you with French expressions, which are lost on such an ignoramus? A LOURDEAU, my dear brother, is as we might say a bumpkin, a clown, a clodpole: a fellow without grace, lightness, quickness; any gift of pleasing, any natural brilliancy: such a one as you shall see, when you desire, by looking in the mirror. I tell you these things for your good, I assure you; and besides, Square-toes" (looking at me and stifling a yawn), "it is one of my diversions in this very dreary spot to toast you and your master at the fire like chestnuts. I have great pleasure in your case, for I observe the nickname (rustic as it is) has always the power to make you writhe. But sometimes I have more trouble with this dear fellow here, who seems to have gone to sleep upon his cards. Do you not see the applicability of the epithet I have just explained, dear Henry? Let me show you. For instance, with all those solid qualities which I delight to recognise in you, I never knew a woman who did not prefer me - nor, I think," he continued, with the most silken deliberation, "I think - who did not continue to prefer me."

  Mr. Henry laid down his cards. He rose to his feet very softly, and seemed all the while like a person in deep thought. "You coward!" he said gently, as if to himself. And then, with neither hurry nor any particular violence, he struck the Master in the mouth.

  The Master sprang to his feet like one transfigured; I had never seen the man so beautiful. "A blow!" he cried. "I would not take a blow from God Almighty!"

  "Lower your voice," said Mr. Henry. "Do you wish my father to interfere for you again?"

  "Gentlemen, gentlemen," I cried, and sought to come between them.

  The Master caught me by the shoulder, held me at arm's length, and still addressing his brother: "Do you know what this means?" said he.

  "It was the most deliberate act of my life," says Mr. Henry.

  "I must have blood, I must have blood for this," says the Master.

  "Please God it shall be yours," said Mr. Henry; and he went to the wall and took down a pair of swords that hung there with others, naked. These he presented to the Master by the points. "Mackellar shall see us play fair," said Mr. Henry. "I think it very needful."

  "You need insult me no more," said the Master, taking one of the swords at random. "I have hated you all my life."

  "My father is but newly gone to bed," said Mr. Henry. "We must go somewhere forth of the house."

  "There is an excellent place in the long shrubbery," said the Master.

  "Gentlemen," said I, "shame upon you both! Sons of the same mother, would you turn against the life she gave you?"

  "Even so, Mackellar," said Mr. Henry, with the same perfect quietude of manner he had shown throughout.

  "It is what I will prevent," said I.

  And now here is a blot upon my life. At these words of mine the Master turned his blade against my bosom; I saw the light run along the steel; and I threw up my arms and fell to my knees before him on the floor. "No, no," I cried, like a baby.

  "We shall have no more trouble with him," said the Master. "It is a good thing to have a coward in the house."

  "We must have light," said Mr. Henry, as though there had been no interruption.

  "This trembler can bring a pair of candles," said the Master.

  To my shame be it said, I was still so blinded with the flashing of that bare sword that I volunteered to bring a lantern.

  "We do not need a l-l-lantern," says the Master, mocking me. "There is no breath of air. Come, get to your feet, take a pair of lights, and go before. I am close behind with this - " making. the blade glitter as he spoke.

  I took up the candlesticks and went before them, steps that I would give my hand to recall; but a coward is a slave at the best; and even as I went, my teeth smote each other in my mouth. It was as he had said: there was no breath stirring; a windless stricture of frost had bound the air; and as we went forth in the shine of the candles, the blackness was like a roof over our heads. Never a word was said; there was never a sound but the creaking of our steps along the frozen path. The cold of the night fell about me like a bucket of water; I shook as I went with more than terror; but my companions, bare-headed like myself, and fresh from the warm ball, appeared not even conscious of the change.

  "Here is the place," said the Master. "Set down the candles."

  I did as he bid me, and presently the flames went up, as steady as in a chamber, in the midst of the frosted trees, and I beheld these two brothers take their places.

  "The light is something in my eyes," said the Master.

  "I will give you every advantage," replied Mr. Henry, shifting his ground, "for I think you are about to die." He spoke rather sadly than otherwise, yet there was a ring in his voice.

  "Henry Durie," said the Master, "two words before I begin. You are a fencer, you can hold a foil; you little know what a change it makes to hold a sword! And by that I know you are to fall. But see how strong is my situation! If you fall, I shift out of this country to where my money is before me. If I fall, where are you? My father, your wife - who is in love with me, as you very well know - your child even, who prefers me to yourself:- how will these avenge me! Had you thought of that, dear Henry?" He looked at his brother with a smile; then made a fencing-room salute.

  Never a word said Mr. Henry, but saluted too, and the swords rang together.

  I am no judge of the play; my head, besides, was gone with cold and fear and horror; but it seems that Mr. Henry took and kept the upper hand from the engagement, crowding in upon his foe with a contained and glowing fury. Nearer and nearer he crept upon the man, till of a sudden the Master leaped back with a little sobbing oath; and I believe the movement brought the light once more against his eyes. To it they went again, on the fresh ground; but now methought closer, Mr. Henry pressing more outrageously, the Master beyond doubt with shaken confidence. For it is beyond doubt he now recognised himself for lost, and had some taste of the cold agony of fear; or he had never attempted the foul stroke. I cannot say I followed it, my untrained eye was never quick enough to seize details, but it appears he caught his brother's blade with his left hand, a practice not permitted. Certainly Mr. Henry only saved himself by leaping on one side; as certainly the Master, lunging in the air, stumbled on his knee, and before he could move the sword was through his body.

  I cried out with a stifled scream, and ran in; but the body was already fallen to the ground, where it writhed a moment like a trodden worm, and then lay motionless.

  "Look at his left hand." said Mr. Henry.

  "It is all bloody," said I.

  "On the inside?" said he.

  "It is cut on the inside," said I.

  "I thought so," said he, and turned his back.

  I opened the man's clothes; the heart was quite still, it gave not a flutter.

  "God forgive us, Mr. Henry!" said I. "He is dead."

  "Dead?" he repeated, a little stupidly; and then with a rising tone, "Dead? dead?" says he, and suddenly cast his bloody sword upon the ground.

  "What must we do?" said I. "Be yourself, sir. It is too late now: you must be yourself."

  He turned and stared at me. "Oh, Mackellar!" says he, and put his
face in his hands.

  I plucked him by the coat. "For God's sake, for all our sakes, be more courageous!" said I. "What must we do?"

  He showed me his face with the same stupid stare.

  "Do?" says he. And with that his eye fell on the body, and "Oh!" he cries out, with his hand to his brow, as if he had never remembered; and, turning from me, made off towards the house of Durrisdeer at a strange stumbling run.

  I stood a moment mused; then it seemed to me my duty lay most plain on the side of the living; and I ran after him, leaving the candles on the frosty ground and the body lying in their light under the trees. But run as I pleased, he had the start of me, and was got into the house, and up to the hall, where I found him standing before the fire with his face once more in his hands, and as he so stood he visibly shuddered.

  "Mr. Henry, Mr. Henry," I said, "this will be the ruin of us all."

  "What is this that I have done?" cries he, and then looking upon me with a countenance that I shall never forget, "Who is to tell the old man?" he said.

  The word knocked at my heart; but it was no time for weakness. I went and poured him out a glass of brandy. "Drink that," said I, "drink it down." I forced him to swallow it like a child; and, being still perished with the cold of the night, I followed his example.

  "It has to be told, Mackellar," said he. "It must be told." And he fell suddenly in a seat - my old lord's seat by the chimney-side - and was shaken with dry sobs.

  Dismay came upon my soul; it was plain there was no help in Mr. Henry. "Well," said I, "sit there, and leave all to me." And taking a candle in my hand, I set forth out of the room in the dark house. There was no movement; I must suppose that all had gone unobserved; and I was now to consider how to smuggle through the rest with the like secrecy. It was no hour for scruples; and I opened my lady's door without so much as a knock, and passed boldly in.

  "There is some calamity happened," she cried, sitting up in bed.

  "Madam," said I, "I will go forth again into the passage; and do you get as quickly as you can into your clothes. There is much to be done."

  She troubled me with no questions, nor did she keep me waiting. Ere I had time to prepare a word of that which I must say to her, she was on the threshold signing me to enter.

  "Madam," said I, "if you cannot be very brave, I must go elsewhere; for if no one helps me to-night, there is an end of the house of Durrisdeer."

  "I am very courageous," said she; and she looked at me with a sort of smile, very painful to see, but very brave too.

  "It has come to a duel," said I.

  "A duel?" she repeated. "A duel! Henry and - "

  "And the Master," said I. "Things have been borne so long, things of which you know nothing, which you would not believe if I should tell. But to-night it went too far, and when he insulted you - "

  "Stop," said she. "He? Who?"

  "Oh! madam," cried I, my bitterness breaking forth, "do you ask me such a question? Indeed, then, I may go elsewhere for help; there is none here!"

  "I do not know in what I have offended you," said she. "Forgive me; put me out of this suspense."

  But I dared not tell her yet; I felt not sure of her; and at the doubt, and under the sense of impotence it brought with it, I turned on the poor woman with something near to anger.

  "Madam," said I, "we are speaking of two men: one of them insulted you, and you ask me which. I will help you to the answer. With one of these men you have spent all your hours: has the other reproached you? To one you have been always kind; to the other, as God sees me and judges between us two, I think not always: has his love ever failed you? To-night one of these two men told the other, in my hearing - the hearing of a hired stranger, - that you were in love with him. Before I say one word, you shall answer your own question: Which was it? Nay, madam, you shall answer me another: If it has come to this dreadful end, whose fault is it?"

  She stared at me like one dazzled. "Good God!" she said once, in a kind of bursting exclamation; and then a second time in a whisper to herself: "Great God! - In the name of mercy, Mackellar, what is wrong?" she cried. "I am made up; I can hear all."

  "You are not fit to hear," said I. "Whatever it was, you shall say first it was your fault."

  "Oh!" she cried, with a gesture of wringing her hands, "this man will drive me mad! Can you not put me out of your thoughts?"

  "I think not once of you," I cried. "I think of none but my dear unhappy master."

  "Ah!" she cried, with her hand to her heart, "is Henry dead?"

  "Lower your voice," said I. "The other."

  I saw her sway like something stricken by the wind; and I know not whether in cowardice or misery, turned aside and looked upon the floor. "These are dreadful tidings," said I at length, when her silence began to put me in some fear; "and you and I behove to be the more bold if the house is to be saved." Still she answered nothing. "There is Miss Katharine, besides," I added: "unless we bring this matter through, her inheritance is like to be of shame."

  I do not know if it was the thought of her child or the naked word shame, that gave her deliverance; at least, I had no sooner spoken than a sound passed her lips, the like of it I never heard; it was as though she had lain buried under a hill and sought to move that burthen. And the next moment she had found a sort of voice.

  "It was a fight," she whispered. "It was not - " and she paused upon the word.

  "It was a fair fight on my dear master's part," said I. "As for the other, he was slain in the very act of a foul stroke."

  "Not now!" she cried.

  "Madam," said I, "hatred of that man glows in my bosom like a burning fire; ay, even now he is dead. God knows, I would have stopped the fighting, had I dared. It is my shame I did not. But when I saw him fall, if I could have spared one thought from pitying of my master, it had been to exult in that deliverance."

  I do not know if she marked; but her next words were, "My lord?"

  "That shall be my part," said I.

  "You will not speak to him as you have to me?" she asked.

  "Madam," said I, "have you not some one else to think of? Leave my lord to me."

  "Some one else?" she repeated.

  "Your husband," said I. She looked at me with a countenance illegible. "Are you going to turn your back on him?" I asked.

  Still she looked at me; then her hand went to her heart again. "No," said she.

  "God bless you for that word!" I said. "Go to him now, where he sits in the hall; speak to him - it matters not what you say; give him your hand; say, 'I know all;' - if God gives you grace enough, say, 'Forgive me.'"

  "God strengthen you, and make you merciful," said she. "I will go to my husband."

  "Let me light you there," said I, taking up the candle.

  "I will find my way in the dark," she said, with a shudder, and I think the shudder was at me.

  So we separated - she down stairs to where a little light glimmered in the hall-door, I along the passage to my lord's room. It seems hard to say why, but I could not burst in on the old man as I could on the young woman; with whatever reluctance, I must knock. But his old slumbers were light, or perhaps he slept not; and at the first summons I was bidden enter.

  He, too, sat up in bed; very aged and bloodless he looked; and whereas he had a certain largeness of appearance when dressed for daylight, he now seemed frail and little, and his face (the wig being laid aside) not bigger than a child's. This daunted me; nor less, the haggard surmise of misfortune in his eye. Yet his voice was even peaceful as he inquired my errand. I set my candle down upon a chair, leaned on the bed-foot, and looked at him.

  "Lord Durrisdeer," said I, "it is very well known to you that I am a partisan in your family."

  "I hope we are none of us partisans," said he. "That you love my son sincerely, I have always been glad to recognise."

  "Oh! my lord, we are past the hour of these civilities," I replied. "If we are to save anything out of the fire, we must look the fact in its bare countenanc
e. A partisan I am; partisans we have all been; it is as a partisan that I am here in the middle of the night to plead before you. Hear me; before I go, I will tell you why."

  "I would always hear you, Mr. Mackellar," said he, "and that at any hour, whether of the day or night, for I would be always sure you had a reason. You spoke once before to very proper purpose; I have not forgotten that."

  "I am here to plead the cause of my master," I said. "I need not tell you how he acts. You know how he is placed. You know with what generosity, he has always met your other - met your wishes," I corrected myself, stumbling at that name of son. "You know - you must know - what he has suffered - what he has suffered about his wife."

  "Mr. Mackellar!" cried my lord, rising in bed like a bearded lion.

  "You said you would hear me," I continued. "What you do not know, what you should know, one of the things I am here to speak of, is the persecution he must bear in private. Your back is not turned before one whom I dare not name to you falls upon him with the most unfeeling taunts; twits him - pardon me, my lord - twits him with your partiality, calls him Jacob, calls him clown, pursues him with ungenerous raillery, not to be borne by man. And let but one of you appear, instantly he changes; and my master must smile and courtesy to the man who has been feeding him with insults; I know, for I have shared in some of it, and I tell you the life is insupportable. All these months it has endured; it began with the man's landing; it was by the name of Jacob that my master was greeted the first night."

  My lord made a movement as if to throw aside the clothes and rise. "If there be any truth in this - " said he.