Frank looked up with something like it smile.
"No, not all; wait till you hear me through."
Frank drew a long breath. "We got sick there, and Potts had us taken to the alms-house. There we all prayed for death, but only my father"s prayer was heard. He died of a broken heart. The rest of us lived on.
"Scarcely had my father been buried when Potts came to take us away. He insisted that we should leave the country, and offered to pay our way to America. We were all indifferent: we were paralyzed by grief. The alms-house was not a place that we could cling to, so we let ourselves drift, and allowed Potts to send us wherever he wished. We did not even hope for any thing better. We only hoped that somewhere or other we might all die. What else could we do? What else could I do? There was no friend to whom I could look: and if I ever thought of any thing, it was that America might possibly afford us a chance to get a living till death came.
"So we allowed ourselves to be sent wherever Potts chose, since it could not possibly make things worse than they were. He availed himself of our stolid indifference, put us as pa.s.sengers in the steerage on board of a crowded emigrant ship, the _Tec.u.mseh_, and gave us for our provisions some mouldy bread.
"We simply lived and suffered, and were all waiting for death, till one day an angel appeared who gave us a short respite, and saved us for a while from misery. This angel, Louis, was Paolo, the son of Langhetti.
"You look amazed. It was certainly an amazing thing that he should be on board the same ship with us. He was in the cabin. He noticed our misery without knowing who we were. He came to give us pity and help us. When at last he found out our names he fell on our necks, kissed us, and wept aloud.
"He gave up his room in the cabin to my mother and sister, and slept and lived with me. Most of all he cheered us by the lofty, spiritual words with which he bade us look with contempt upon the troubles of life and aspire after immortal happiness. Yes, Louis; Langhetti gave us peace.
"There were six hundred pa.s.sengers. The plague broke out among us. The deaths every day increased, and all were filled with despair. At last the sailors themselves began to die.
"I believe there was only one in all that ship who preserved calm reason and stood without fear during those awful weeks. That one was Langhetti.
He found the officers of the ship panic-stricken, so he took charge of the steerage, organized nurses, watched over every thing, encouraged every body, and labored night and day. In the midst of all I fell sick, and he nursed me back to life. Most of all, that man inspired fort.i.tude by the hope that beamed in his eyes, and by the radiancy of his smile.
"Never mind, Brandon," said he as I lay, I thought doomed. "Death is nothing. Life goes on. You will leave this pest-ship for a realm of light. Keep up your heart, my brother immortal, and praise G.o.d with your latest breath."
"I recovered, and then stood by his side as best I might. I found that he had never told my mother of my sickness. At last my mother and sister in the cabin fell sick. I heard of it some days after, and was prostrated again. I grew better after a time; but just as we reached quarantine, Langhetti, who had kept himself up thus far, gave out completely, and fell before the plague."
"Did he die?" asked Louis, in a faltering voice.
"Not on ship-board. He was carried ash.o.r.e senseless. My mother and sister were very low, and were also carried on sh.o.r.e. I, though weak, was able to nurse them all. My mother died first."
There was a long pause. At last Frank resumed:
"My sister gradually recovered: and then, through grief and fatigue, I fell sick for the third time. I felt it coming on. My sister nursed me; for a time I thought I was going to die. "Oh, Edith," I said, "when I die, devote your life while it lasts to Langhetti, whom G.o.d sent to us in our despair. Save his life even if you give up your own."
"After that I became delirious, and remained so for a long time. Weeks pa.s.sed; and when at last I revived the plague was stayed, and but few sick were on the island. My case was a lingering one, for this was the third attack of the fever. Why I didn"t die I can"t understand. There was no attendance. All was confusion, horror, and death.
"When I revived the first question was after Langhetti and Edith. No one knew any thing about them. In the confusion we had been separated, and Edith had died alone."
"Who told you that she died?" asked Louis, with a troubled look.
Frank looked at him with a face of horror.
"Can you bear what I am going to say?"
"Yes."
"When I was able to move about I went to see if any one could tell me about Edith and Langhetti. I heard an awful story; that the superintendent had gone mad and had been found trying to dig open a grave, saying that some one was _buried alive_. Who do you think? oh, my brother!"
"Speak!"
"Edith Brandon was the name he named."
"Be calm, Frank: I made inquiries myself at the island registry-office.
The clerk told me this story, but said that the woman who had charge of the dead a.s.serted that the grave was opened, and it was ascertained that absolute death had taken place.
"Alas!" said Frank, in a voice of despair, "I saw that woman--the keeper of the dead-house--the grave-digger"s wife. She told me this story, but it was with a troubled eye. I swore vengeance on her unless she told me the truth. She was alarmed, and said she would reveal all she knew if I swore to keep it to myself. I swore it. Can you bear to hear it, Louis?"
"Speak!"
"She said only this: "When the grave was opened it was found that Edith Brandon had not been dead when she was buried.""
Louis groaned, and, falling forward, buried his head in both his hands.
It was a long time before either of them spoke. At last Louis, without lifting his head, said:
"Go on."
"When I left the island I went to Quebec, but could not stay there. It was too near the place of horror. I went up the river, working my way as a laborer, to Montreal. I then sought for work, and obtained employment as porter in a warehouse. What mattered it? What was rank or station to me? I only wanted to keep myself from starvation and get a bed to sleep on at night.
"I had no hope or thought of any thing. The horrors through which I had pa.s.sed were enough to fill my mind. Yet above them all one horror was predominant, and never through the days and nights that have since elapsed has my soul ceased to quiver at the echo of two terrible words which have never ceased to ring through my brain--"Buried alive!"
"I lived on in Montreal, under an a.s.sumed name, as a common porter, and might have been living there yet; but one day as I came in I heard the name of "Brandon." Two of the clerks who were discussing the news in the morning paper happened to speak of an advertis.e.m.e.nt which had long been in the papers in all parts of Canada. It was for information about the Brandon family.
"I read the notice. It seemed to me at first that Potts was still trying to get control of us, but a moment"s reflection showed that to be improbable. Then the mention of "the friends of the family" made me think of Langhetti. I concluded that he had escaped death and was trying to find me out.
"I went to Toronto, and found that you had gone to New York. I had saved much of my wages, and was able to come here. I expected Langhetti, but found you."
"Why did you not think that it might be me?"
"Because I heard a threat of Potts about you, and took it for granted that he would succeed in carrying it out."
"What was the threat?"
"He found out somehow that my father had written a letter to you. I suppose they told him so at the village post-office. One day when he was in the room he said, with a laugh, alluding to the letter, "I"ll uncork that young Brandy-flask before long.""
"Well--the notice of my death appeared in the English papers."
Frank looked earnestly at him.
"And I accept it, and go under an a.s.sumed name."
"So do I. It is better."
"You thought Langhetti alive. Do you think he is?"
"I do not think so now."
"Why not?"
"The efforts which he made were enough to kill any man without the plague. He must have died."