"Then, madam, we shall be obliged to compel you to this step," replied De Guy, stung by the scorn of Emily, and distrusting the energy of Jaspar.
"Sir, your impertinence deserves a severer rebuke than I can administer!" said Emily, the blood mounting to her face.
"But it must be even so, madam," returned the attorney coolly. "Fate has so decreed. Your good uncle"s circ.u.mstances imperatively demand it."
"Is this so, uncle?"
"It is, Emily. You must submit to your fate, unpleasant though it may be," said Jaspar, looking at her with an absent stare.
"No, uncle, it shall not be so. I never will submit to such a fate. What circ.u.mstances do you refer to?"
"I am in this man"s power."
"G.o.d be with you, then! But I understand it all. He seeks my fortune, not myself. I would rather he had the whole of it, than become such a _thing_ as to marry that man!"
"Nay, lady, _you_ are of more worth to me than your fortune, large as it is. I have contracted with your uncle for your hand, and he must pay the price," said De Guy.
"He speaks truly, Emily. I have _sold_ you to him," replied Jaspar, vacantly.
Emily was stung to the quick. This remark, she supposed, was in allusion to her alleged condition; and the tears rose to her eyes, while the indignant blood mounted to her cheek.
"Uncle, do not brand your soul with infamy!" she said, quickly.
"What!" exclaimed Jaspar, roused to a burst of pa.s.sion.
"Be not a villain!" returned Emily, whose good-nature was sorely tried.
"Girl, beard not the lion in his den! I had half relented, but now I feel strong again!" and he rose and tottered to the table, on which his brandy-bottle stood. After taking a deep draught, he reseated himself.
"You must marry this man!" said he, fiercely striking the table with his fist.
"I never will!" replied Emily, trembling at Jaspar"s violence, but firm in her purpose.
"Remember! girl, remember what you are!" said Jaspar, pa.s.sionately.
"Enough of this," said Emily. "I leave you for--"
"Stay, lady! You must not leave the room," interrupted De Guy, laying his hand upon her arm.
"Remove your hand, villain, nor dare to pollute me with your touch!"
exclaimed Emily, shaking off his hand as though it had been contamination.
The hitherto placid features of the attorney darkened into a scowl of malignity, as he said,
"Madam, we have been too long subject to your caprice. Here let it end.
Know that mighty interests depend upon the union this day to be consummated, and we refuse longer to submit to your whims."
"Yes, Emily, the honor and safety of your family name depend upon your acquiescence in this plan," said Jaspar, whose pa.s.sion had moderated a little.
"I will never countenance any of your unhallowed plots," replied Emily, and she again moved towards the door.
"You leave not the room till you consent to this union," interposed De Guy.
"Stand from my path, or I will summon a.s.sistance!"
"Your summons would be in vain."
With a proud step and a curling lip, Emily attempted to advance; but De Guy seized her by the arm, and restrained her. She struggled to free herself from the villain"s grasp, without success. Knowing that Vernon was within hearing of her, she called "Jerome," at the top of her voice.
"No use, madam. The gentleman whose name you utter is a friend of mine,"
said the attorney. "He conveyed you here as an emissary of mine. Haven"t you known him before?" said De Guy, with a mixture of sarcasm and triumph in the tones of his squeaky voice.
The door-handle was at this moment seized on the outside. The door was wrenched and pushed, but it did not yield, for De Guy had taken the precaution to lock it.
"Who is there?" shouted the attorney, alarmed at the intrusion.
"Open," said Jerome, "or I force the door!"
"What does this mean?" asked Jaspar, who had remained a quiet spectator to the violence offered his niece.
"I will soon ascertain," said De Guy, dragging Emily after him, towards a large closet on the other side of the room.
"Help! help!" again screamed Emily; and, ere she had the second time uttered the word, a crash was heard, the library-door splintered, and Vernon stood in the room.
"How is this? Villain! traitor!" shouted De Guy, drawing from his pocket a revolver.
"Unhand the lady!" said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the same time, he drew from his pocket a pistol. "Unhand her!" and he approached the lawyer.
"Back, traitor, or you die!" said De Guy, in a voice which suddenly lost its silky tone, and was firm and round.
"Then I die like a man!" responded Vernon, still advancing.
Jaspar"s ferocious nature, stimulated to activity by the prospect of a fight, now promised to revive his spirits and nerve his arm. He advanced behind Vernon, and, ere he was aware, had clasped both hands around him.
Vernon tried to free himself from the bearish hug, and they both fell to the floor. Jaspar still held tight, and the struggle promised to be a severe one.
De Guy perceived the movement of Jaspar, and, as soon as the combatants had fallen to the floor, he restored the pistol to his pocket, so that, unembarra.s.sed, he might convey Emily to a place of security, until this unlooked-for contest was ended. Scarcely was the pistol in his pocket, when the window behind him flew open, and the attorney was in the iron grip of a powerful arm! Emily, freed from her a.s.sailant, retreated to the other side of the room, where, glancing in terror upon the new a.s.sault, she saw De Guy thrown violently upon the floor by her ever-present and ever-faithful slave, Hatchie!
The mulatto, having been allowed the liberty of the yard early in the evening before, had contrived to effect his escape from the calaboose, and had walked the whole distance from Now Orleans.
Henry Carroll and Dr. Vaudelier had heard the confusion, and judged that the conflict had begun with something more than the war of words.
Hatchie had scarcely done his work when Henry reached the library, and rescued Vernon from the hands of Jaspar.
The contest was ended, and the victors and vanquished stood contemplating each other in mute astonishment. Dr. Vaudelier, who had followed Henry into the room, a.s.sisted Jaspar to rise, and conducted him to a chair. The courage of the vanquished seemed entirely to have oozed out, and they remained doggedly considering the new state of things.
Hatchie bent over his fallen foe, and, drawing from his pocket the revolver and bowie-knife which rendered him a formidable person, he loosed his firm hold of him, as if it was an acknowledgment of weakness to hold him longer a close prisoner. Seizing the prostrate lawyer by the hair, he bade him rise, at the same time giving a sharp twist to the ornamental appendage of his cranium. But the hair yielded to the motion of his hand, and the entire scalp scaled off, bringing with it the huge parti-colored whiskers, and revealing a beautiful head of black, curly hair, where the mixed color had before predominated!
"What does this mean? Methinks I have seen that head of hair before,"
said Henry Carroll.