Here, seeing mayhap how the words stung me she must needs repeat them: "Poor wretched soul, thou"rt far--far beneath my hate."
"Belike you"ll come to learn in time!" says I, beside myself. At this I saw the white hand clench itself, but her voice was tender as ever when she answered:
"Sorrow and suffering may lift a man to greatness if he be strong of soul or debase him to the brute if he be weak."
"Why then," says I, "begone to your gallants and leave me to the brutes."
"Nay, first will I do that which brought me!" and she showed the key of my gyves.
"Let be!" I cried, "I seek no freedom at your hands--let be, I say!"
"As you will!" says she, gently. "So endeth my hope of righting a great wrong. I have humbled myself to you to-night, Martin Conisby. I have begged and prayed you to forego your vengeance, to forgive the evil done, not so much for my father"s sake as for your own, and this because of the boy I dreamed a man enn.o.bled by his sufferings and one great enough to forgive past wrongs, since by forgiveness cometh regeneration. Here ends my dream--alas, you are but rogue and galley-slave after all. So shall I ever pity you greatly and greatly despise you!"
Then she turned slowly away and went from me, closing and locking the door, and left me once more in the black dark, but now full of yet blacker thoughts.
To be scorned by her! And she--a Brandon!
And now I (miserable wretch that I was) giving no thought to the possibility of my so speedy dissolution, raged in my bonds, wasting myself in futile imprecations against this woman who (as it seemed to me in my blind and brutish anger) had but come to triumph over me in my abas.e.m.e.nt. Thus of my wounded self-love did I make me a whip of scorpions whereby I knew an agony beyond expression.
CHAPTER XX
HOW I CAME OUT OF MY BONDS AND OF THE TERRORS OF A FIRE AT SEA
The Devil, ever zealous for the undoing of poor Humanity, surely findeth no readier ally than the blind and merciless Spirit of Mortified Pride. Thus I, minding the Lady Joan"s scornful look and the sting of her soft-spoke words, fell to black and raging fury, and vowed that since rogue and galley-slave she had named me, rogue she should find me in very truth henceforward if I might but escape my perilous situation.
And now it was that Chance or Fate or the Devil sent me a means whereby I might put this desperate and most unworthy resolution into practice; for scarce had I uttered this vow when a key turned softly in the lock, the door opened and closed stealthily, and though I could not see (it being pitch-dark) I knew that someone stood within a yard of me, and all with scarce a sound and never a word. And when this silence had endured a while, I spoke sudden and harsh:
"What now? Is it the noose so soon, or a knife sooner?"
I heard a quick-drawn breath, a soft footfall, and a small hand, groping in the dark, touched my cheek and crept thence to my helpless, manacled fist. "Who is it?" I demanded, blenching from the touch, "Who is it? Speak!"
"Hush!" whispered a voice in my ear, "It be only me, master.
Jimmy--little Jim as you was good to. Red Andy don"t beat me no more, he be afeared o" you. Good to me you was, master, an" so"s she--took me to be her page, she "ave--"
"Whom d"you mean, boy?"
"I mean Her! Her wi" the beautiful, kind eyes an" little feet! Her as sings! Her they calls "my lady." Her! Good t" me she is--an" so"s you, so I be come to ye, master."
"Ha--did she send you?"
"No, I just come to save you from being hung to-morrow like they says you must."
"And how shall you do this, boy?"
"First wi" this key, master--"
"Stay! Did she give you this key?"
"No, master--I took it!" So, albeit "twas very dark, the boy very soon had freed me of my shackles; which done (and all a-quiver with haste) he seizes my hand and tugs at it:
"Come, master!" he whispered, "This way--this way!" So with his little, rough hand in mine I suffered him to bring me whither he would in the dimness, for not a lanthorn burned anywhere, until at last he halted me at a ladder propped against a bulkhead and mounting before, bade me follow. Up I climbed forthwith, and so to a narrow trap or scuttle through which I clambered with no little to-do, and found myself in a strange place, the roof so low I could barely sit upright and so strait that I might barely lie out-stretched.
"Lie you here, master!" he whispers, "And for the love o" G.o.d don"t speak nor make a sound!" Saying which, he got him back through the scuttle, closing the trap after him, and I heard the clatter of the ladder as he removed it.
Hereupon, lying snug in my hiding-place, I presently became aware of a sweetness that breathed upon the air, a fragrance very faint but vastly pleasing, and fell a-wondering what this should be. My speculations were banished by the opening of a door near by and a light appeared, by which I saw myself lying in a narrow s.p.a.ce shut off by a valance or curtain that yet showed a strip of carpet beyond, and all at once upon this carpet came a little, buckled shoe. I was yet staring on this in dumb amaze when a voice spoke softly:
"Are you there, Martin Conisby? Hush, speak low I do command you!"
For answer I dragged myself into the light and stared up at the Lady Joan Brandon.
"Where am I?" I demanded.
"In my cabin," says she, meeting my scowl with eyes serene and all untroubled. "I had you brought hither to save you--"
"To save me! Ha, you--you to save me--"
"Because you are not man enough to die yet," she went on in her calm, grave voice, "so I will save you alive that haply you may grow more worthy."
"So "twas by your orders? The boy lied then!" says I choking with my anger. ""Twas you gave him the key! "Twas you bade him bring me hither--"
"Where none shall dare seek you!" says she, all unmoved by my bitter rage, "So do I give you life, Martin Conisby, praying G.o.d you may find your manhood one day--"
"Life!" quoth I, getting to my feet, "My life at your hands? Now look ye, madam, rather will I hang unjustly, rather will I endure again the shame of the lash--aye by G.o.d"s light, rather will I rot in chains or perish of plague than take my life at your hands. So now, madam, I"ll out of this perfumed nest and hang if I must!" saying which I turned to the door, but she checked me with a gesture.
"Stay!" she commanded, "Would you shame me?" And now though she fronted me with proud head erect, I saw her cheek flush painfully.
"Aye, verily!" quoth I, "A lady"s honour is delicate ware and not to be cheapened by such poor rogue as I! Fear nothing, lady, I will go as--"
I stopped all at once, as came footsteps without and a light tapping on the door.
"Who is it?" she called, lightly enough, and shot the bolt with nimble fingers.
"Only I, sweet coz," answered a gay voice, "And I come but to warn you not to venture on deck to-morrow till justice hath been done upon our prisoner."
"Shall you--hang him, Rupert?"
"a.s.suredly! "Tis a black rogue and merits a worse fate."
"Is he then tried and condemned already, Rupert?"
"Nay, though "twill be soon done. We have come on such evidence of his guilt as doth condemn him out of hand."
"What evidence, cousin?"
"His doublet all besmirched with his victim"s blood. The man is a very devil and must hang at dawn. So, Joan, stir not abroad in the morning until I come to fetch you. A fair, good night, sweet coz, and sweet dreams attend thee!" And away trips Sir Rupert and leaves us staring on one another, she proud and gracious in all her dainty finery and I a very hang-dog fellow, my worn garments smirched by the grime of my many hiding-places.
"Was this indeed your doublet?" she questioned at last.