"Now don"t you, Goody; be still, can"t you? What a tale for a marriage day!"
"Tally vally!" returned the grim hag, "many a blessing carries a curse in its arms, as the new moon carries the old. This won"t be one of your happy weddings, I tell ye."
"And why d" ye say that?"
"Did you ever see a man with a look like that make a happy husband? No, no! Can ye fancy the merry laugh o" childer in this house, or a babe on the father"s knee, or the happy, still smile on the mother"s winsome face, some few years hence? No, Madge! the devil has set his black claw on the man"s brow."
"Hush, hush, Goody Darkmans; he may hear o" ye!" said the second gossip, who, having now done all that remained to do, had seated herself down by the window, while the more ominous crone, leaning over Aram"s oak chair, uttered from thence her sibyl bodings.
"No," replied Mother Darkmans, "I seed him go out an hour agone, when the sun was just on the rise; and I said, when I seed him stroam into the wood yonder, and the ould leaves splashed in the damp under his feet, and his hat was aboon his brows, and his lips went so,--I said, says I, "t is not the man that will make a hearth bright that would walk thus on his marriage day. But I knows what I knows, and I minds what I seed last night."
"Why, what did you see last night?" asked the listener, with a trembling voice; for Plother Darkmans was a great teller of ghost and witch tales, and a certain ineffable awe of her dark gypsy features and malignant words had circulated pretty largely throughout the village.
"Why, I sat up here with the ould deaf woman, and we were a drinking the health of the man and his wife that is to be, and it was nigh twelve o" the clock ere I minded it was time to go home. Well, so I puts on my cloak, and the moon was up, an" I goes along by the wood, and up by Fairlegh Field, an" I was singing the ballad on Joe Wrench"s hanging, for the spirats had made me gamesome, when I sees somemut dark creep, creep, but iver so fast, arter me over the field, and making right ahead to the village. And I stands still, an" I was not a bit afeared; but sure I thought it was no living cretur, at the first sight. And so it comes up faster and faster, and then I sees it was not one thing, but a many, many things, and they darkened the whole field afore me. And what d" ye think they was? A whole body o" gray rats, thousands and thousands on "em; and they were making away from the outbuildings here. For sure they knew, the witch things, that an ill luck sat on the spot. And so I stood aside by the tree, an" I laughed to look on the ugsome creturs as they swept close by me, tramp, tramp! and they never heeded me a jot; but some on "em looked aslant at me with their glittering eyes, and showed their white teeth, as if they grinned, and were saying to me, "Ha, ha! Goody Darkmans, the house that we leave is a falling house, for the devil will have his own.""
In some parts of the country, and especially in that where our scene is laid, no omen is more superst.i.tiously believed evil than the departure of these loathsome animals from their accustomed habitation; the instinct which is supposed to make them desert an unsafe tenement is supposed also to make them predict, in desertion, ill fortune to the possessor. But while the ears of the listening gossip were still tingling with this narration, the dark figure of the student pa.s.sed the window, and the old women, starting up, appeared in all the bustle of preparation, as Aram now entered the apartment.
"A happy day, your honor; a happy good morning," said both the crones in a breath; but the blessing of the worse-natured was vented in so harsh a croak that Arum turned round as if struck by the sound, and still more disliking the well-remembered aspect of the person from whom it came, waved his hand impatiently, and bade them begone.
"A-whish, a-whish!" muttered Dame Darkmans,--"to spake so to the poor; but the rats never lie, the bonny things!"
Aram threw himself into his chair, and remained for some moments absorbed in a revery, which did not bear the aspect of gloom. Then, walking once or twice to and fro the apartment, he stopped opposite the chimney-piece, over which were slung the firearms, which he never omitted to keep charged and primed.
"Humph!" he said, half aloud, "ye have been but idle servants; and now ye are but little likely ever to requite the care I have bestowed upon you."
With that a faint smile crossed his features; and turning away, he ascended the stairs that led to the lofty chamber in which he had been so often wont to out.w.a.tch the stars,--
"The souls of systems, and the lords of life, Through their wide empires."
Before we follow him to his high and lonely retreat we will bring the reader to the manor-house, where all was already gladness and quiet but deep joy.
It wanted about three hours to that fixed for the marriage; and Aram was not expected at the manor-house till an hour before the celebration of the event. Nevertheless, the bells were already ringing loudly and blithely; and the near vicinity of the church to the house brought that sound, so inexpressibly buoyant and cheering, to the ears of the bride with a noisy merriment that seemed like the hearty voice of an old-fashioned friend who seeks in his greeting rather cordiality than discretion. Before her gla.s.s stood the beautiful, the virgin, the glorious form of Madeline Lester; and Ellinor, with trembling hands (and a voice between a laugh and a cry), was braiding up her sister"s rich hair, and uttering her hopes, her wishes, her congratulations. The small lattice was open, and the air came rather chillingly to the bride"s bosom.
"It is a gloomy morning, dearest Nell," said she, shivering; "the winter seems about to begin at last."
"Stay, I will shut the window. The sun is struggling with the clouds at present, but I am sure it will clear up by and by. You don"t, you don"t leave us--the word must out--till evening."
"Don"t cry!" said Madeline, half weeping herself, and sitting down, she drew Ellinor to her; and the two sisters, who had never been parted since birth, exchanged tears that were natural, though scarcely the unmixed tears of grief.
"And what pleasant evenings we shall have," said Madeline, holding her sister"s hands, "in the Christmas time! You will be staying with us, you know; and that pretty old room in the north of the house Eugene has already ordered to be fitted up for you. Well, and my dear father, and dear Walter, who will be returned long ere then, will walk over to see us, and praise my housekeeping, and so forth. And then, after dinner, we will draw near the fire,--I next to Eugene, and my father, our guest, on the other side of me, with his long gray hair and his good fine face, with a tear of kind feeling in his eye,--you know that look he has whenever he is affected. And at a little distance on the other side of the hearth will be you--and Walter; I suppose we must make room for him.
And Eugene, who will be then the liveliest of you all, shall read to us with his soft, clear voice, or tell us all about the birds and flowers and strange things in other countries. And then after supper we will walk half-way home across that beautiful valley--beautiful even in winter--with my father and Walter, and count the stars, and take new lessons in astronomy, and hear tales about the astrologers and the alchemists, with their fine old dreams. Ah! it will be such a happy Christmas! And then, when spring comes, some fine morning--finer than this--when the birds are about, and the leaves getting green, and the flowers springing up every day, I shall be called in to help your toilet, as you have helped mine, and to go with you to church, though not, alas! as your bridesmaid. Ah! whom shall we have for that duty?"
"Pshaw!" said Ellinor, smiling through her tears.
While the sisters were thus engaged, and Madeline was trying, with her innocent kindness of heart, to exhilarate the spirits, so naturally depressed, of her doting sister, the sound of carriage-wheels was heard in the distance,--nearer, nearer; now the sound stopped, as at the gate; now fast, faster,--fast as the postilions could ply whip and the horses tear along. While the groups in the church-yard ran forth to gaze, and the bells rang merrily all the while, two chaises whirled by Madeline"s window and stopped at the porch of the house. The sisters had flown in surprise to the cas.e.m.e.nt.
"It is, it is--good G.o.d! it is Walter," cried Ellinor; "but how pale he looks!"
"And who are those strange men with him?" faltered Madeline, alarmed, though she knew not why.
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDENT ALONE IN HIS CHAMBER.--THE INTERRUPTION.--FAITHFUL LOVE.
NEQUICQUAM thalamo graves Hastas....
Vitabis strepitumque et celerem sequi Ajacem.
--HORACE: Od. xv. lib. 1.
["In vain within your nuptial chamber will you shun the deadly spears,... the hostile shout, and Ajax eager in pursuit."]
Alone in his favorite chamber, the instruments of science around him, and books, some of astronomical research, some of less lofty but yet abstruser lore, scattered on the tables, Eugene Aram indulged the last meditation he believed likely to absorb his thoughts before that great change of life which was to bless solitude with a companion.
"Yes," said he, pacing the apartment with folded arms, "yes, all is safe! He will not again return; the dead sleeps now without a witness.
I may lay this working brain upon the bosom that loves me, and not start at night and think that the soft hand around my neck is the hangman"s gripe. Back to thyself, henceforth and forever, my busy heart! Let not thy secret stir from its gloomy depth! The seal is on the tomb; henceforth be the spectre laid. Yes, I must smooth my brow, and teach my lip restraint, and smile and talk like other men. I have taken to my hearth a watch, tender, faithful, anxious,--but a watch. Farewell the unguarded hour! The soul"s relief in speech, the dark and broken, yet how grateful, confidence with self, farewell! And come, thou veil!
subtle, close, unvarying, the everlasting curse of entire hypocrisy, that under thee, as night, the vexed world within may sleep, and stir not! and all, in truth concealment, may seem repose!"
As he uttered these thoughts, the student paused and looked on the extended landscape that lay below. A heavy, chill, and comfortless mist sat saddening over the earth. Not a leaf stirred on the autumnal trees, but the moist damps fell slowly and with a mournful murmur upon the unwaving gra.s.s. The outline of the morning sun was visible, but it gave forth no l.u.s.tre: a ring of watery and dark vapor girded the melancholy orb. Far at the entrance of the valley the wild fern showed red and faded, and the first march of the deadly winter was already heralded by that drear and silent desolation which cradles the winds and storms. But amidst this cheerless scene the distant note of the merry marriage-bell floated by, like the good spirit of the wilderness, and the student rather paused to hearken to the note than to survey the scene. "My marriage-bell!" said he. "Could I, two short years back, have dreamed of this? My marriage-bell! How fondly my poor mother, when first she learned pride for her young scholar, would predict this day, and blend its festivities with the honor and the wealth her son was to acquire!
Alas! can we have no science to count the stars and forebode the black eclipse of the future? But peace! peace! peace! I am, I will, I shall be happy now! Memory, I defy thee!"
He uttered the last words in a deep and intense tone; and turning away as the joyful peal again broke distinctly on his ear,--
"My marriage-bell! Oh, Madeline, how wondrously beloved, how unspeakably dear thou art to me! What hast thou conquered! How many reasons for resolve, how vast an army in the Past, has thy bright and tender purity overthrown! But thou--No, never shalt thou repent!" And for several minutes the sole thought of the soliloquist was love. But scarce consciously to himself, a spirit, not, to all seeming, befitted to that bridal-day,--vague, restless, impressed with the dark and fluttering shadow of coming change,--had taken possession of his breast, and did not long yield the mastery to any brighter and more serene emotion.
"And why," he said, as this spirit regained its empire over him, and he paused before the "starred tubes" of his beloved science,--"and why this chill, this shiver, in the midst of hope? Can the mere breath of the seasons, the weight or lightness of the atmosphere, the outward gloom or smile of the brute ma.s.s called Nature, affect us thus? Out on this empty science, this vain knowledge, this little lore, if we are so fooled by the vile clay and the common air from our one great empire, self! Great G.o.d! hast thou made us in mercy, or in disdain? Placed in this narrow world, darkness and cloud around us; no fixed rule for men; creeds, morals, changing in every clime, and growing like herbs upon the mere soil,--we struggle to dispel the shadows; we grope around; from our own heart and our sharp and hard endurance we strike our only light. For what? To show us what dupes we are,--creatures of accident, tools of circ.u.mstance, blind instruments of the scorner Fate; the very mind, the very reason, a bound slave to the desires, the weakness of the clay; affected by a cloud, dulled by the damps of the foul marsh; stricken from power to weakness, from sense to madness, to gaping idiocy, or delirious raving, by a putrid exhalation! A rheum, a chill, and Caesar trembles! The world"s G.o.ds, that slay or enlighten millions, poor puppets to the same rank imp which calls up the fungus or breeds the worm,--pah! How little worth is it in this life to be wise! Strange, strange, how my heart sinks. Well, the better sign, the better sign! In danger it never sank."
Absorbed in these reflections, Aram had not for some minutes noticed the sudden ceasing of the bell; but now, as he again paused from his irregular and abrupt pacings along the chamber, the silence struck him, and looking forth, and striving again to catch the note, he saw a little group of men, among whom he marked the erect and comely form of Rowland Lester, approaching towards the house.
"What!" he thought, "do they come for me? Is it so late? Have I played the laggard? Nay, it yet wants near an hour to the time they expected me. Well, some kindness, some attention from my good father-in-law; I must thank him for it. What! my hand trembles. How weak are these poor nerves; I must rest and recall my mind to itself!"
And indeed, whether or not from the novelty and importance of the event he was about to celebrate, or from some presentiment, occasioned, as he would fain believe, by the mournful and sudden change in the atmosphere, an embarra.s.sment, a wavering, a fear, very unwonted to the calm and stately self-possession of Eugene Aram, made itself painfully felt throughout his frame. He sank down in his chair and strove to re-collect himself; it was an effort in which he had just succeeded, when a loud knocking was heard at the outer door; it swung open; several voices were heard. Aram sprang up, pale, breathless, his lips apart.
"Great G.o.d!" he exclaimed, clasping his hands. ""Murderer!"--was that the word I heard shouted forth? The voice, too, is Walter Lester"s. Has he returned? Can he have learned--?"
To rush to the door, to throw across it a long, heavy iron bar, which would resist a.s.saults of no common strength, was his first impulse. Thus enabled to gain time for reflection, his active and alarmed mind ran over the whole field of expedient and conjecture. Again, "Murderer!"
"Stay me not," cried Walter, from below; "my hand shall seize the murderer!"
Guess was now over; danger and death were marching on him. Escape,--how?
whither? The height forbade the thought of flight from the cas.e.m.e.nt!
The door?--he heard loud steps already hurrying up the stairs; his hands clutched convulsively at his breast, where his fire-arms were generally concealed,--they were left below. He glanced one lightning glance round the room; no weapon of any kind was at hand. His brain reeled for a moment, his breath gasped, a mortal sickness pa.s.sed over his heart, and then the MIND triumphed over all. He drew up to his full height, folded his arms doggedly on his breast, and muttering, "The accuser comes,--I have it still to refute the charge!" he stood prepared to meet, nor despairing to evade, the worst.
As waters close over the object which divided them, all these thoughts, these fears, and this resolution had been but the work, the agitation, and the succeeding calm of the moment; that moment was past.
"Admit us!" cried the voice of Walter Lester, knocking fiercely at the door.
"Not so fervently, boy," said Lester, laying his hand on his nephew"s shoulder; "your tale is yet to be proved,--I believe it not. Treat him as innocent, I pray,--I command,--till you have shown him guilty."