XXIII.
THE POEM.
"I've shot my arrow o'er the house And hurt my brother."
--HAMLET.
When Miss Belinda first saw Paula, she did not, like her sister, remarkupon the elegance of her appearance, the growth of her beauty, or theevidences of increased refinement in the expression of her countenanceand the carriage of her form, but with her usual penetration notedsimply, the sadness in her eye and the tremulous motion of her lip.
"You had then become fond of your cousin?" queried she withcharacteristic bluntness.
Paula not understanding the motive of this remark, questioned her with alook.
"Young faces do not grow pale or bright eyes become troubled without acause. Grief for your cousin might explain it, but if you have sufferedfrom no grief--"
"My cousin was very kind to me," hurriedly interrupted Paula. "Her deathwas very sudden and very heart-rending."
"So it was;" returned Miss Belinda, "and I expected to see you look wornand sad but not restless and feverish. You have a living grief, Paula,what is it?"
The young girl started and looked down. For the first time in her lifeshe wished to avoid that penetrating glance. "If I have, I cannot talkof it," she murmured. "I have experienced so much this past week; mycoming away was so unexpected, that I hardly understand my own feelings,or realize just what it is that troubles me most. All that I know is,that I am very tired and so sad, it seems as if the sun would nevershine again."
"There is then something you have not written me?" inquired theinexorable Miss Belinda.
"The experiences of this last week could never be written,--or told,"returned Paula with a droop of her head. "Upon some things our betterwisdom places a stone which only the angels can roll away. The futurelies all open before us; do not let us disturb the past."
And Miss Belinda was forced to be content lest she should seem to beover anxious.
Not so the various neighbors and friends to whom the lengthened sojournof one of their number in an atmosphere of such wealth and splendor,possessed something of the charm of a forbidden romance. For monthsPaula was obliged to endure questions, that it required all herself-control to answer with calmness and propriety. But at length themost insatiable gossip amongst them was satisfied; Paula's figure was nolonger a novelty in their streets; curiosity languished and the younggirl was allowed to rest.
And now could those who loved her, discern that with the lapse of timeand the daily breathings of her native air, the sad white look had fadedfrom her face, leaving it a marvel of freshness and positive, ifsomewhat spiritualized, beauty. The print of deeper thoughts and holieryearnings was there, but no sign of blighted hopes or uncomprehendedpassions. A passing wind had blown the froth from off the cup, but hadnot disturbed the sparkle of the wine. She had looked in the face ofgrief, but had not as yet been clasped in her relentless arms. Only twothings could vitally disturb her; a letter from Cicely, or a suddenmeeting in the village streets with that elderly lady who haunted theJapha mansion. The former because it recalled a life around which herfancies still played with dangerous persistency, and the latter becauseit aroused vain and inexplicable conjectures as to that person's strangeand lingering look in her direction. Otherwise she was happy; finding inthis simple village-life a meaning and a purpose which her short butpassionate outlook on a broader field, had taught her, perhaps, both todetect and comprehend. She no longer walked solitary with nature. Thewoods, the mountains with all their varying panoply of exuberantverdure, had acquired a human significance. At her side went thememories of beloved faces, the thoughts of trusted friends. From theclouds looked forth a living eye, and in the sound of rustling leaf andsinging streamlet, spake the voices of human longing and human joy.
Her aunts had explained their position to Paula and she had responded byexpressing her determination to be a teacher. But they would not hear ofthat at present, and while she waited their pleasure in the matter, shedid what she could to assist them in their simple home-life and dailyduties, lending her beauty to tasks that would have made the eyes ofsome of her quondam admirers open with surprise, if only they could havefollowed the action of her hands, after having once caught a glimpse ofthe face that brightened above them. And so the summer months went byand September came.
There was to be an entertainment in the village and Paula was to assist.The idea had come from her aunt and was not to be rejected. In one ofthe strange incomprehensible moods which sometimes came upon her at thistime, she had written a poem, and nothing would do but that she mastread it before the assembled company of neighbors and friends, that wereto be gathered at the Squire's house on this gala evening. She did notwish to do it. The sacred sense of possession passes when we uncover ourtreasure to another's eyes, giving way to a lower feeling not to becourted by one of Paula's sensitive nature. Besides she would ratherhave poured this first outburst of secret enthusiasm into other earsthan these; but she had given her word and the ordeal must be submittedto. There are many who remember how she looked on that night. She hadarrayed herself for the occasion, in the prettiest of her dresses, andmindful of Ona's injunction, did not mar the effect of its soft anduniform gray with any hint of extraneous color. The result was that theysaw only her beauty; and what beauty! A very old man, an early settlerin the village, who had tottered out to enjoy a last glimpse of lifebefore turning his aged face to the wall, said it made the thought ofheaven a little more real. "I can go home and think how the angelslook," said he in his simple, half-childish way. And no one contradictedhim, for there was a still light on her face that was less of earth thanheaven, though why it should rest there to-night she least of all couldhave told, for her poem had to do with earth and its deepest passionsand its wildest unrest. It was a clarion blast, not a dreaming rhapsody,that lay coiled up in the paper she held in her hand.
My readers must pardon me if I give them Paula's poem, for without itthey would not understand its effect and consequent result. It wascalled, "The Defence of the Bride," and was of the old ballad order. Asshe rose to read, many of the younger ones in the audience begancautiously to move to one side, but at the first words, young as well asold paused and listened where they stood, for her voice was round andfull, and the memory of clashing spears and whirling battle-axes thatinformed the war-song which she had heard Bertram play, was with her, togive color to her tones and fire to her glance.
THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE.
He was coming from the altar when the tocsin rang alarm, With his fair young wife beside him, lovely in her bridal charm; But he was not one to palter with a duty, or to slight The trumpet-call of honor for his vantage or delight.
Turning from the bride beside him to his stern and martial train, From their midst he summoned to him the brothers of Germain; At the word they stepped before him, nine strong warriors brave and true, From the youngest to the eldest, Enguerrand to mighty Hugh.
"Sons of Germain, to your keeping do I yield my bride to-day. Guard her well as you do love me; guard her well and holily. Dearer than mine own soul to me, you will hold her as your life, 'Gainst the guile of seeming friendship and the force of open strife."
"We will guard her," cried they firmly; and with just another glance On the yearning and despairing in his young wife's countenance, Gallant Beaufort strode before them down the aisle and through the door, And a shadow came and lingered where the sunlight stood before.
Eight long months the young wife waited, watching from her bridal room For the coming of her husband up the valley forest's gloom. Eight long months the sons of Germain paced the ramparts and the wall, With their hands upon their halberds ready for the battle-call.
Then there came a sound of trumpets pealing up the vale below, And a dozen floating banners lit the forest with their glow, And the bride arose like morning when it feels the sunlight nigh, And her smile was like a rainbow flashing from a misty sky.
But the eldest son of Germain lifting voice from off the wall, Cried aloud, "It is a stranger's and not Sir Beaufort's call; Have you ne'er a slighted lover or a kinsman with a heart Base enough to seek his vengeance at the sharp end of the dart?"
"There is Sassard of the Mountains," answered she without guile, "While I wedded at the chancel, he stood mocking in the aisle; And my maidens say he swore there that for all my plighted vow, They would see me in his castle yet upon Morency's brow."
"It is Sassard and no other then," her noble guardian cried; "There is craft in yonder summons," and he rung his sword beside. "To the walls, ye sons of Germain! and as each would hold his life From the bitter shame of falsehood, let us hold our master's wife."
"Can you hold her, can you shield her from the breezes that await?" Cried the stinging voice of Sassard from his stand beside the gate. "If you have the power to shield her from the sunlight and the wind, You may shield her from stern Sassard when his falchion is untwined."
"We can hold her, we can shield her," leaped like fire from off the wall, And young Enguerrand the valiant, sprang out before them all. "And if breezes bring dishonor, we will guard her from their breath, Though we yield her to the keeping of the sacred arms of Death."
And with force that never faltered, did they guard her all that day, Though the strength of triple armies seemed to battle in the fray, The old castle's rugged ramparts holding firm against the foe, As a goodly dyke resisteth the whelming billow's flow.
But next morning as the sunlight rose in splendor over all, Hugh the mighty, sank heart-wounded in his station on the wall, At the noon the valiant Raoul of the merry eye and heart, Gave his beauty and his jestings to the foeman's jealous dart.
Gallant Maurice next sank faltering with a death wound 'neath his hair, But still fighting on till Sassard pressed across him up the stair.
Generous Clement followed after, crying as his spirit passed, "Sons of Germain to the rescue, and be loyal to the last!"
Gentle Jaspar, lordly Clarence, Sessamine the doughty brand, Even Henri who had yielded ne'er before to mortal hand; One by one they fall and perish, while the vaunting foemen pour Through the breach and up the courtway to the very turret's door.
Enguerrand and Stephen only now were left of all that nine, To protect the single stairway from the traitor's fell design; But with might as 'twere of thirty, did they wield the axe and brand, Striving in their desperation the fierce onslaught to withstand.
But what man of power so godlike he can stay the billow's wrack, Or with single-handed weapon hold an hundred foemen back!
As the sun turned sadly westward, with a wild despairing cry, Stephen bowed his noble forehead and sank down on earth to die.
"Ah ha!" then cried cruel Sassard with his foot upon the stair, "Have I come to thee, my boaster?" and he whirled his sword in air. "Thou who pratest of thy power to protect her to the death, What think'st thou now of Sassard and the wind's aspiring breath?"
"What I think let this same show you," answered fiery Enguerrand, And he poised his lofty battle-ax with sure and steady hand; "Now as Heaven loveth justice, may this deathly weapon fall On the murderer of my brothers and th' undoer of us all."
With one mighty whirl he sent it; flashing from his hand it came, Like the lightning from the heavens in a whirl of awful flame, And betwixt the brows of Sassard and his two false eyeballs passed, And the murderer sank before it, like a tree before the blast.
"Now ye minions of a traitor if you look for vengeance, come!" And his voice was like a trumpet when it clangs a victor home. But a cry from far below him rose like thunder upward, "Nay! Let them turn and meet the _husband_ if they hunger for the fray."
O the yell that sprang to heaven as that voice swept up the stair, And the slaughter dire that followed in another moment there! From the least unto the greatest, from the henchman to the lord, Not a man on all that stairway lived to sheath again his sword.
At the top that flame-bound forehead, at the base that blade of fire-- 'Twas the meeting of two tempests in their potency and ire. Ere the moon could falter inward with its pity and its woe, Beaufort saw the path before him unencumbered of the foe.
Saw his pathway unencumbered and strode up and o'er the floor, Even to the very threshold of his lovely lady's door, And already in his fancy did he see the golden beam Of her locks upon his shoulder and her sweet eyes' happy gleam:
When behold a form upstarting from the shadows at his side. That with naked sword uplifted barred the passage to his bride; It was Enguerrand the dauntless, but with staring eyes and hair Blowing wild about a forehead pale as snow in moonlit glare.
"Ah my master, we have held her, we have guarded her," he said, "Not a shadow of dishonor has so much as touched her head. Twenty wretches lie below there with the brothers of Germain, Twenty foemen of her honor that I, Enguerrand, have slain.
"But one other foe remaineth, one remaineth yet," he cried, "Which it fits this hand to punish ere you cross unto your bride. It is I, Enguerrand!" shrieked he; "and as I have slain the rest, So I smite this foeman also!"--and his sword plunged through his breast.
O the horror of that moment! "Art thou mad my Enguerrand?" Cried his master, striving wildly to withdraw the fatal brand. But the stern youth smiling sadly, started back from his embrace, While a flash like summer lightning, flickered direful on his face.
"Yes, a traitor worse than Sassard;" and he pointed down the stair, "For my heart has dared to love her whom my hand defended there. While the others fought for honor, I by passion was made strong, Set your heel upon my bosom for my soul has done you wrong.
"But," and here he swayed and faltered till his knee sank on the floor, Yet in falling turned his forehead ever toward that silent door; "But your warrior hand my master, may take mine without a stain, For my hand has e'er been loyal, and your enemy is slain."
A short silence followed the last word, then a burst of applausetestified to the appreciation of her audience, and Paula crept away tohide her blushing cheeks in the comparative darkness of a littlevine-covered balcony that jutted out from the ante-room. What were herthoughts as she leaned there! In the subsidence of any greatemotion--and Paula had felt every word she uttered--there is more orless of shock and tumult. She did not think, she only felt. Suddenly ahand was laid on her arm and a low voice whispered in her ear,
"Did you write that poem yourself?"
Turning, she encountered the shadowy form of a woman leaning close ather side and appearing in the dim light that shone on her from the lampsbeyond, an eager image of expectancy.
"Yes," returned Paula, "why do you ask?"
The woman, whoever she was, did not answer. "And you believe in suchdevotion as that!" she murmured. "You can understand a man, aye, or awoman either, risking happiness and fame, life and death, for the sakeof a trust! Such things are not folly to you! You could see a heartspill itself drop by drop through a longer vigil than the eight monthswatching on the ramparts, and not sneer at a fidelity that could notfalter because it had given its word? Speak; you write of faithfulnesswith a pen of fire, is your heart faithful too?"
There was something in these words, spoken as they were in a tone ofsuppressed passion, that startled and aroused Paula. Leaning forward,she endeavored to see the face of the woman who thus forcibly addressedher, but the light was too dim. The outline of a brow covered by someclose headgear was all she could detect.
"You speak earnestly," said Paula, "but that is what I like. Fidelity toa cause, or fidelity to a trust, demands the sympathy and admiration ofall honest and generous hearts. If I am ever called upon to maintaineither, I hope that my enthusiasm will not have all been expended inwords."
"You please
me," murmured the woman, "you please me; will you come andsee me and let me tell you a story to mate the poem you have given usto-night?"
The trembling eagerness of her tone it would be impossible to describe.Paula was thrilled by it. "If you will tell me who you are," said Paula,"I certainly will try and come. I should be glad to hear anything youhave to relate to me."
"I thought every one knew who I was," returned the woman; and drawingPaula back into the ante-room, she turned her face upon her. "Any onewill tell you where Margery Hamlin lives," said she. "Do not disappointme, and do not keep me waiting long." And with a nod and a deep strangesmile that made her aged face almost youthful, she entered the crowd anddisappeared from Paula's sight.
It was the woman whose nightly visits to the deserted home of the Japhashad once been the talk and was still the unsolved mystery of the town.
The Sword of Damocles: A Story of New York Life Page 24