CHAPTER XXXIII.
"I will have vengeance! I'll crush thy swelling pride! I'll still thy vaunting! I'll do a deed of blood! Now all idle forms are over-- Now open villany, now open hate-- Defend thy life!"
JOANNA BAILLIE.
"Let me but look upon 'her' face once more-- Let me but say farewell, my soul's beloved, And I will bless thee still."
MRS. HEMANS.
Some time had elapsed since King Ferdinand and his splendid army hadquitted Saragossa. He himself had not as yet headed any importantexpedition, but fixing his head-quarters at Seville, dispatched thencevarious detachments under experienced officers, to make sallies on theMoors, who had already enraged the Christian camp by the capture ofZahara. Arthur Stanley was with the Marquis of Cadiz, when this insultwas ably avenged by the taking of Albania, a most important post,situated within thirty miles of the capital. The Spaniards tookpossession of the city, massacred many of the inhabitants, placedstrong restrictions on those who surrendered, and strongly garrisonedevery tower and fort. Nor were they long inactive: the Moors resolvedto retake what they considered the very threshold of their capital;hastily assembled their forces, and regularly entered upon the siege.
While at Seville, the camp of Ferdinand had been joined by severalforeign chevaliers, amongst whom was an Italian knight, who hadexcited the attention and curiosity of many of the younger Spaniardsfrom the mystery environing him. He was never seen without his armor.His helmet always closed, keeping surlily aloof, he never mingled inthe brilliant jousts and tournaments of the camp, except when ArthurStanley chanced to be one of the combatants: he was then sure to befound in the lists, and always selected the young Englishman as hisopponent. At first this strange pertinacity was regarded more as acurious coincidence than actual design; but it occurred so often, thatat length it excited remark. Arthur himself laughed it off, suggestingthat the Italian had perhaps some grudge against England, and wishedto prove the mettle of her sons. The Italian deigned no explanation,merely saying that he supposed the Spanish jousts were governed by thesame laws as others, and he was therefore at liberty to choose his ownopponent. But Arthur was convinced that some cause existed for thismysterious hostility. Not wishing to create public confusion, hecontended himself by keeping a watch upon his movements. He found,however, that he did not watch more carefully than he was watched,and incensed at length, he resolved on calling his enemy publicly toaccount for his dishonorable conduct. This, however, he found mucheasier in theory than practice. The wily Italian, as if aware of hisintentions, skilfully eluded them; and as weeks passed without anyrecurrence of their secret attacks. Stanley, guided by his own frankand honorable feelings, believed his suspicions groundless, anddismissed them altogether. On the tumultuary entrance of theSpaniards, however, these suspicions were re-excited. Separated by thepress of contending warriors from the main body of his men, Stanleyplunged headlong into the thickest battalion of Moors, intending tocut his way through them to the Marquis of Cadiz, who was at thatmoment entering the town. His unerring arm and lightness of movementbore him successfully onward. A very brief space divided him from hisfriends: the spirited charger on which he rode, cheered by his handand voice, with one successful bound cleared the remaining impedimentsin his way, but at that moment, with a piercing cry of suffering,sprung high in the air and fell dead, nearly crushing his astonishedmaster with his weight. Happily for Stanley, the despairing anguish ofthe Moors at that moment at its height, from the triumphant entry ofthe Spaniards into their beloved Albania, aggravated by the shrieksof the victims in the unsparing slaughter, effectually turned theattention of those around him from his fall. He sprung up, utterlyunable to account for the death of his steed: the dastard blow hadbeen dealt from behind, and no Moor had been near but those in front.He looked hastily round him: a tall figure was retreating through thethickening _melee_, whose dull, red armor, and deep, black plume,discovered on the instant his identity. Arthur's blood tingled withjust indignation, and it was with difficulty that he restrainedhimself from following, and demanding on the instant, and at thesword's point, the meaning of the deed.
The sudden start, and muttered execration of the Italian, as Stanleyjoined the victorious group around the Marquis, convinced him that hisreappearance, and unhurt, was quite contrary to his mysterious enemy'sintention. The exciting events of the siege which followed, thealternate hope and fear of the Spaniards, reduced to great distressby the Moors having succeeded in turning the course of a river whichsupplied the city with water, and finally, the timely arrival ofsuccors under the Duke of Medina Sidonia, which compelled the Moors toraise the siege and disperse--the rejoicing attendant on so great andalmost unexpected a triumph, all combined to prevent any attention toindividual concerns. The Italian had not crossed Arthur's path again,except in the general attack or defence; and Stanley found thebest means of conquering his own irritation towards such secretmachinations, was to treat them with indifference and contempt.
The halls of Alhama were of course kept strongly manned; and a guard,under an experienced officer, constantly occupied the summit of alofty tower, situated on a precipitous height which commanded aview of the open country for miles, and overlooked the most distantapproach of the Moors. As was usual to Moorish architecture, the towerhad been erected on a rock, which on one side shelved down so straightand smooth, as to appear a continuance of the tower-wall, but formingfrom the battlements a precipice some thousand feet in depth. Thestrongest nerve turned sick and giddy to look beneath, and the side ofthe tower overlooking it was almost always kept unguarded.
It was near midnight when Stanley, who was that night on command,after completing his rounds, and perceiving every sentinel on duty,found himself unconsciously on the part of the tower we have named.So pre-occupied was his mind, that he looked beneath him withoutshrinking; and then retracing his steps some twenty or thirty yardsfrom the immediate and unprotected edge, wrapped his mantle closelyround him, and lying down, rested his head on his arm, and permittedthe full dominion of thought. He was in that dreamy mood, when thesilence and holiness of nature is so much more soothing than even thedearest sympathy of man; when every passing cloud and distant star,and moaning wind, speaks with a hundred tongues, and the immaterialspirit holds unconscious commune with beings invisible, and immaterialas itself. Above his head, heavy clouds floated over the dark azure ofthe heavens, sometimes totally obscuring the mild light of the fullmoon; at others merely shrouding her beams in a transparent veil,from which she would burst resplendently, sailing majestically along,seeming the more light and lovely from the previous shade. Onebrilliant planet followed closely on her track, and as the dark massesof clouds would rend asunder, portions of the heavens, studded withglittering stars, were visible, seeming like the gemmed dome of somemighty temple, whose walls and pillars, shrouded in black drapery,were lost in the distance on either side. Gradually, Stanley'sthoughts became indistinct; the stars seemed to lose their radiance,as covered by a light mist; a dark cloud appearing, in his halfdormant fancy, to take the gigantic proportions of a man, hovered onthe battlement. It became smaller and smaller, but still it seemeda cloud, through which the moonlight gleamed; but a thrill passedthrough him, as if telling of some impalpable and indefinable objectof dread. With a sudden effort he shook off the lethargy of halfsleep, and sprung to his feet, at the very moment a gleaming sword waspointed at his throat. "Ha, villain! at thy murderous work again!" heexclaimed, and another moment beheld him closed in deadly conflictwith his mysterious foe. A deep and terrible oath, and then a mockinglaugh, escaped his adversary; and something in those sounds, nervedStanley's arms with resistless power: he was sure he could not bemistaken, and he fought, not with the unguarded desire of one eagerto obtain satisfaction for personal injury--but he was calm, cool,collected, as threefold an avenger. For once, the demon-like cautionof the supposed Italian deserted him: discovery was inevitable, andhis sole aim was to compass the death of the hated forei
gner with hisown. He tried gradually to retreat to the very edge of the precipice,and Stanley's calm and cautious avoidance of the design lashed himinto yet fiercer desperation. Thick and fast, fell those tremendousblows. The Italian had the advantage in height and size, Stanley insteady coolness and prudent guard; the Italian sought only to slay hisadversary, caring not to defend himself; Arthur evidently endeavoredmerely to unhelm the traitor, and bring him but slightly wounded tothe ground. For several minutes there was no cessation in that fearfulclash of steel; the strokes were so rapid, so continued, a hundredcombatants might have seemed engaged. A moment they drew back, as ifto breathe; the Italian, with a despairing effort, raised his weaponand sprung forwards; Arthur lightly leaped aside, and the murderousstroke clove but the yielding earth. Another second, and ere theItalian had regained his equilibrium, Arthur's sword had descendedwith so true and sure a stroke that the clasp of the helmet gave way,the dark blood bubbled up from the cloven brow, he reeled and fell;and a long, loud shout from the officers and soldiers, who, at thesound of arms, had flocked round, proclaimed some stronger feelingthan simply admiration of Stanley's well-known prowess.
"Seize him! seize him! or by Heaven he will escape us yet!" were amongthe few words intelligible. "The daring villain, to come amongst us!Did he think for ever to elude Heaven's vengeance? Bind, fetter, holdhim; or his assistant fiends will release him still!"
Fiercely the fallen man had striven to extricate himself; butStanley's knee moved not from his breast, nor his sword from histhroat, until a strong guard had raised and surrounded him: "but thehorrible passions imprinted on those lived features were such, thathis very captors turned away shuddering.
"Hadst thou not had enough of blood and crime, thou human monster,that thou wouldst stain thy already blackened soul with, anothermidnight murder?" demanded Stanley, as he sternly confronted hisbaffled foe. "Don Luis Garcia, as men have termed thee, what claimhave I on thy pursuing and unchanging hate? With what dost thou chargeme? What wrong?"
"Wrong!" hoarsely and fiercely repeated Don Louis. "The wrong ofbaffled hate; of success, when I planned thy downfall; of escape,when I had sworn thy death! Did the drivelling idiots, who haunted,persecuted, excommunicated me from these realms, as some loathedreptile, dream that I would draw back from my sworn vengeance for suchas they? Poor, miserable fools, whom the first scent of danger wouldturn aside from the pursuit of hate! I staked my life on thine, andthe stake is lost; but what care I? My hate shall follow thee; witherthy bones with its curse; poison every joy; blight every hope; ranklein thy life blood! Bid thee seek health, and bite the dust for anguishbecause it flies thee! And for me. Ha, ha! Men may think to judgeme--torture, triumph, slay! Well, let them." And with a movement sosudden and so desperate, that to avert it was impossible, he burstfrom the grasp of his guards; and with one spring, stood firm andtriumphant on the farthest edge of the battlement. "Now follow me whodares!" he exclaimed; and, with a fearful mocking laugh; flung himselfheadlong down, ere the soldiers had recovered his first suddenmovement. Stanley alone retained presence of mind sufficient to dartforward, regardless of his own imminent danger, in the vain hope ofarresting the leap; but quick as were his movements, he only reachedthe brink in time to see the wretched man, one moment quivering inair, and lost the next in a dark abyss of shade.
A cry of mingled disappointment, horror, and execration, burst fromall around; and several of the soldiers hastened from the battlementsto the base of the rock, determined on fighting the arch-fiendhimself, if, as many of them firmly believed, he had rendered Don Luisinvulnerable to air, and would wait there to receive him. But eventhis heroic resolution was disappointed: the height was so tremendous,and the velocity of the fall so frightful, that the action of the airhad not only deprived him of life, but actually loosed the limbs fromthe trunk, and a fearfully mangled corpse was all that remained toglut the vengeance of the infuriated soldiers.
The confusion and excitement attending this important event, spreadlike wildfire; not only over Albania, but reaching to the Duke's campwithout the city. To send off the momentous information to theKing, was instantly decided upon; and young Stanley, as the personprincipally concerned, selected for the mission.
Ferdinand was astonished and indignant, and greatly disappointedthat justice had been so eluded; but that such a monster, whosemachinations seemed, in their subtlety and secrecy, to prevent alldefeat, no longer cumbered Spain, was in itself a relief so great bothto monarch and people, as after the first burst of indignation tocause universal rejoicings.
It so happened that Ferdinand had been desirous of Stanley's presencefor some weeks; letters from Isabella, some little time previous, hadexpressed an earnest desire for the young man's return to Saragossa,if only for a visit of a few days. This was then impossible. Threemonths had elapsed since Isabella's first communication; within thelast two she had not again reverted to Stanley; but the King, thinkingshe had merely refrained from doing so, because of its presentimpossibility, gladly seized the opportunity of his appearance atSeville, to dispatch him, as envoy extraordinary, on both public andprivate business, to the court of Arragon.
Isabella was surrounded by her ministers and nobles when Stanleywas conducted to her presence; she received him with cordiality andgraciousness, asked many and eager questions concerning her husbandand the progress of his arms, entered minutely into the affair of DonLuis, congratulated him on his having been the hand destined to unmaskthe traitor and bring him low; gave her full attention on the instantto the communications from the King, with which he was charged;occupied some hours in earnest and thoughtful deliberation with hercounsel, which, on perusal of the King's papers, she had summoneddirectly. And yet, through all this, Arthur fancied there was an evenunusual degree of sympathy and kindliness in the tone and look withwhich she addressed him individually; but he felt intuitively itwas sympathy with sorrow, not with joy. He was convinced that hisunexpected presence had startled and almost grieved her; and whyshould this be, if she had still the hope with which she had soinfused his spirit, when they had parted. His heart, so full ofelasticity a few hours previous, sunk chilled and pained within him,and it was with an effort impossible to have been denied, had it notbeen for the Queen's _unspoken_ but real sympathy; he roused himselfsufficiently to execute his mission.
But Isabella was too much the true and feeling woman, to permit theday to close without the private interview she saw Stanley needed;reality, sad as it was, she felt would be better than harrowingsuspense; and, in a few kindly words, the tale was told.
"I should have known it!" he exclaimed, when the first shock of bitterdisappointment permitted words. "My own true, precious Marie! Howdared I dream that for me thou wouldst sacrifice thy faith; all, allelse--joy, hope, strength; aye, life itself--but not thy God! Oh,Madam," he continued, turning passionately to the Queen, "thou hastnot condemned her to misery for this! Thou hast not revoked thy formerheavenly mercy, and delivered her over to the stern fathers of ourholy church? No, no! Isabella could not have done this!"
"Nor have we," replied the Queen, so mildly that Arthur flung himself ather feet, conjuring her to pardon his disrespectful words. "Give her tothee, without retracting her fearful misbelief, indeed we dared not, butfurther misery has not been inflicted. We have indeed done penance forour weakness, severe penance; for Father Tomas asserts that we have mostgrievously sinned; and more, have pledged ourselves most solemnly, thatwhat he may counsel for the entire uprooting of this horrible heresy,and accursed race, shall be followed, cost what it may, politically orprivately; but to refuse the last boon of the unhappy girl, who had sostrangely, perchance so bewilderingly, wound herself about myheart--Stanley, I must have changed my nature first!"
"Her last boon! Gracious Sovereign--"
"Nay, her last to her Sovereign, my friend. It may be that even yether errors may be abjured, and grace be granted in her solitude, tobecome in this world as the next, what we have prayed for; but we darenot hope it; nor must thou. She besought permis
sion to return to thehome of her childhood, pledging herself never to leave it, or minglewith her people or ours more."
"And she is there! God in Heaven bless, reward your Highness for themercy!" burst impetuously from Arthur. "I trust she is, nay, I believeit; for Jewess as she is, she would not pledge me false. In the garbof the novice, as she saved thee, Father Denis conducted her to thefrontiers of Castile. More we know not, for we asked not the site ofher home."
There was a few minutes' pause, and then, with beseeching eloquence,Arthur conjured the Sovereign to let him see her once, but once again.He asked no more, but he felt as if he could not sustain the agony ofeternal separation, without one last, last interview. He pledged hishonor, that no temptation of a secret union should interfere with thesentence of the Queen; that both would submit; only to permit themonce more to meet again.
Isabella hesitated, but not for long. Perhaps the secret hope arosethat Stanley's presence would effect that for which all else hadfailed; or that she really could not resist his passionate pleadings.
"One word of retraction, and even now she is thine.--And I will blessthee that thou gavest her to me again," she said in parting; but herown spirit told her the hope was vain.
Half an hour after this agitating interview Arthur Stanley was againon horseback, a deep hectic on either cheek; his eye bloodshot andstrained, traversing with the speed of lightning the open country, inthe direction of Castile.
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