"_Love_, my pretty mountain sprite," replied the doctor, with a grim smile--"_love_! Years do not freeze the blood, nor still the heart of man!"
"Then, sir, if you love me, renounce all claim upon my hand, and save my guardian from impending ruin!"
"That I can never do!"
"Be it so, then, Dr. Wiseman. To you I will plead no more. Let us be turned out; I would die a death of lingering starvation sooner than wed with a cold-blooded monster like you!" exclaimed Gipsy, her old fiery spirit flashing from her eyes and radiating her face.
"And will you see those you love die, too?"
"Yes, even so; sooner than realize the living tomb of a marriage with you!"
"Ha! ha! ha! All very fine and affectionate, my dear; yet, marry me you _shall_!"
"Marry you? Not if I die for it!" flashed Gipsy, with blazing eyes.
"That we shall see presently. I think I have an argument in reserve that will bend your high spirit. You love Archie Rivers?"
"That is no business of yours, Dr. Wiseman!"
"No; no farther than that I am glad of it. Now, Gipsy Gower, I swear by all the heavens contain, unless you marry me, _he shall die on the scaffold_!"
"_What?_" gasped Gipsy, appalled by his low, fearful tone, even more than by his words.
"I say there is but one alternative; marry me, or see him die on the scaffold!"
"Ha! ha! that"s excellent. Are you going to hang him, Dr. Wiseman?"
mocked Gipsy.
"Laugh, girl; but beware! It is in my power to bring his head to the halter!"
"Where, if everybody had their dues, yours would have been long ago."
"Take care, madam; don"t carry your taunts too far--even my forbearance has its limits!"
"That"s more than can be said of your manners!"
The doctor"s sallow visage blanched with anger; but, subduing his wrath, he said:
"I can accuse him of the murder of young Henry Danvers, who was so mysteriously killed. There is circ.u.mstantial evidence against him strong enough to convict him in any court of justice in the world!"
"Archie kill Danvers? Why, you horrid old monster, you! Ain"t you afraid of the fate of Ananias and his better half, who never told half such a lie in their lives?"
"Lie or not, girl, it can be proved that he killed him. Listen, now,"
said the doctor, while his repulsive face lighted up with a look of fiendish exultation. "Archibald Rivers loved _you_--that was plain to every one. This Danvers came along and fell in love with you, too--that, likewise, can be duly proved. Your preference for the young sailor was observable from the first. Rivers was jealous, and I know many who can prove he often uttered threats of future vengeance against the midshipman. On the night of the _murder_, Archie was observed riding from here, in a violent rage. Half an hour afterward the sailor went for a ride over the hills. I can _swear_ that Archie Rivers followed him. I know he was not at home until late. Most probably, therefore, he followed Danvers, and murdered him treacherously. Jealousy will make a man do almost anything. In a court of justice, many more things than this can be proved; and if he dies on the scaffold, his blood will be upon your head."
Gipsy stood listening to his terrible words with blanched face, livid lips, and horror-stricken eyes. For a moment he thought she would faint.
The very power of life seemed stricken from her heart; but, by a powerful effort, she aroused herself from the deadly faintness creeping over her, and exclaimed, in a voice low with unspeakable horror:
"Fiend--demon incarnate! would you perjure your own soul! Would you become the murderer of your own nephew?"
"Murderer, forsooth! Is that what you call legal justice?"
"It would not be legal justice! Doctor Wiseman, I tell you, if you say Archie Rivers killed Danvers, you lie! Yes, meanest of vile wretches, I tell you, you lie!"
He leaped to his feet, glaring with rage, as though he would spring upon her, and rend her limb from limb. Before him she stood, her little form drawn up to its full height, defiant and daring--her dark face glaring with scorn and hatred. For a moment they stood thus--he quivering with impotent rage--she, proud, defying, and fearless. Then, sinking into his seat, he said, with stern calmness:
"No--I will restrain myself; but, daring girl, listen to me. As sure as yonder heaven is above us, if you refuse, so surely shall Squire Erliston and all belonging to him be turned from their home--to die, if they will; and Archibald Rivers shall perish by the hand of the hangman, scorned and hated by all, and knowing that you, for whom he would have given his life, have brought him to the scaffold. Gipsy Gower, his blood will cry for vengeance from the earth against you!"
He ceased. There was a wild, thrilling, intense solemnity in his tone, that made the blood curdle. One look at his fiendish face would have made you think Satan himself was before you.
And Gipsy! She had dropped, as if suddenly stricken by an unseen hand, to the floor; her face changed to the ghastly hue of death, the light dying out in her eyes: her very life seemed pa.s.sing away from the blue, quivering lips, from which no sound came; a thousand ages of suffering seemed concentrated in that one single moment of intense anguish.
But no spark of pity entered the heart that exulted in her agony. No; a demoniacal joy flashed from his snake-like eyes as he beheld that free, wild, untamed spirit broken at last, and lying in anguish at his feet.
"This struggle is the last. Now she will yield," was his thought, as he watched her.
"Gipsy!" he called.
She writhed at the sound of his voice.
"Gipsy!" he called again.
This time she looked up, lifting a face so like that of death that he started back involuntarily.
"What?" she asked, in a low, hollow voice of despair.
"Do you consent?"
She arose, and walked over until she stood before him. Appalled by her look, he arose in alarm and drew back.
"Consent!" she repeated, fixing her wild eyes on his frightened face; "yes, I consent to the living death of a marriage with you. And, Dr.
Wiseman, may my curse and the curse of Heaven cling to you like a garment of fire, now and forevermore, burning your miserable soul like a flame in this life, and consigning you to everlasting perdition in the next! May every torture and suffering that man can know follow the wronged orphan"s curse! In this life I will be your deadliest enemy, and in the next I will bear witness against you at the throne of G.o.d! To your very grave, and beyond, my undying hatred and revenge for the wrong you have done me shall be yours; and now I wish you joy of your bride!"
She pa.s.sed from the room like a spirit; and Dr. Wiseman, terrified and appalled, sank into a chair, with the vision of that death-like face, with its blazing eyes and wild, maniac words and wilder stare, haunting him until he shuddered with superst.i.tious terror.
"What a wife I will have!" he muttered; "a perfect little fiend. Mount Sunset will be dearly enough purchased with that young tempest for its mistress. The fiery spirit of the old Oranmores runs in her veins--that"s certain. And now, as there is nothing like striking the iron while it"s hot, I"ll go and report my success to that old dotard, the squire, and have the wedding-day fixed as soon as possible."
CHAPTER XXIV.
MAY AND DECEMBER.
"She looked to the river--looked to the hill-- And thought on the spirit"s prophecy; Then broke the silence stern and still: "Not you, but Fate, has vanquished me.""
LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.
"Celeste, Celeste! do not leave me. Oh! all the world has left me, and will you go, too? This heart--this restless, beating heart--will it never stop aching? Oh, Celeste! once I thought I had no heart; but by this dull, aching pain where it should be, I know I must have had one some time. Stay with me, Celeste. You are the only one in the world left for me to love now."