"Nay," said the old man, "I came to exhort thee to confession."
Barbara made a faint movement with her hand.
"Without that," continued the minister, "there is no hope. Governor Phipps has left his home, that his heart may be no longer wrung with our importunities, for I, even I, and Elizabeth my daughter--nay, the very wife of his bosom--have been on our knees before him to no avail. Now, that death treads so closely on our words, we, who have been thy honest accusers, would fain see thee sent safely beyond seas, rather than this fearful sentence should be fulfilled."
Barbara Stafford bent her face, shrouding it with both hands, while a flood of soft, sweet tears rained from her eyes. It was comforting to know that even these, her bitter enemies, had relented a little.
"Old man," she said, with gentle dignity, "I have nothing to confess connected with the crime of which you charge me."
"But without confession there can be no forgiveness; of that rest a.s.sured," pleaded the minister.
"Nor can I ask forgiveness for a crime which has never been committed.
Old man, I thank you for this kind intent, but it can be of no avail. I am a weak woman, it is true, and shrink from suffering, but that which G.o.d permits I will strive to endure with befitting courage."
"Unhappy woman," said the minister, regarding her with a look of intense compa.s.sion, "can nothing be done to persuade thee? Wouldst thou die and leave doubt on the soul of an old man who never meant evil by thee?"
The minister"s voice was low and entreating. He seemed about to weep.
Barbara went close to him.
"If it will avail to make you happier," she said, gently, "I can say of a truth that I believe you have dealt honestly with me, and when death comes, I, the victim and the sufferer, hold you free from all blame. If I have in any thing brought trouble under your roof, forgive me now before we part forever."
As she stood thus, bowed forward, with both hands up to her temples, there was something in the att.i.tude, and in the very depth of her sobs, that struck the old man with compa.s.sion. He stood up, and with his withered hands attempted to put back the hair from her face, as if she had been a little girl whose grief he pitied.
"Would to G.o.d thou hadst never crossed my path," he said; "or that I had now the power to save as it has been given me to destroy."
"Do not mourn for me, or blame yourself," answered the lady. "If it seems hard to die, it was harder still to live. Give me your blessing, Samuel Parris, for, despite the fate that threatens me, I do think you a Christian. So let us part in peace."
The old man lifted his hands, and blessed the woman he had destroyed.
Barbara turned to Norman Lovel. "Go with this good old man," she said.
"He is heavy-hearted to-night. Speak kindly to him, and come early in the morning. You will stay with me to the last."
"To the last!" answered the young man. Then he and the minister went out, leaving Barbara Stafford alone.
CHAPTER XLIX.
STRANGE TIDINGS.
When the footsteps of her visitors died away in the ante-room, she became conscious of the package which Norman Lovel had given her, and going up to a window sunk deep in the wall, and dim with dust, she broke the seal and began to read its contents. All at once her face lighted up. She read one pa.s.sage over and over again, clasped her hand in a delirium of sudden gladness, and cried out in her prison:
"Thank G.o.d! oh, thank my G.o.d that I have lived to know this! But to learn it now, with only a few hours of life. Father of heaven, grant me a little time--just a little time, in which I may taste all the fulness of this great blessing!"
She walked the room up and down, seized with a wild desire to go free.
Her bonds for the first time seemed insupportable. The sound of a turnkey near her door drew her that way. She beat against the ma.s.sive oak with her hand, calling aloud. A heavy key grated in its lock, and the man came in.
"Go," she said, handing him a piece of money; "send a messenger after the minister, Samuel Parris, who has left me but now. Say that I would speak with him at once. Lose no time, I beseech you."
The man closed the door, turned the key in its lock, and Barbara was alone again--alone, with what different thoughts to those that had occupied her when Lovel came in! Thrilling excitement, eager hope, a wild commotion of feelings forbade all connected thoughts. She walked the floor--she clasped and unclasped her hands--words of tender endearment dropped from her lips. Mine mine! mine! The baby that they told me was dead--so beautiful! so generous! Ah, after this wonderful blessing I should be ready to die. But now the fear of death is terrible. All the life within me rises up to reject it. I would live to a good old age. He, my son--my own dear son--should watch the gray hair stealing over my head, and love me all the better for them. It must be pleasant to grow old in the sight of one"s child. This is why he loved me so. I could not understand it--nor could he. How I longed to kiss him as he knelt before me not an hour since! To-morrow I shall see him again. To-morrow--oh, my G.o.d! what is to happen then!
She paused in her walk, and stood in the middle of the floor, struck dumb and white by a terrible thought. How fate mocked her! This revelation, which had thrilled her whole being with new-born joy, was after all only a temptation to entice her from the sacrifice she had resolved to make. On all sides events seemed forcing her on to death.
Now, when life might have been so sweet, she must turn resolutely away from it, and meet her awful fate. Pale still, dumb with mighty anguish, Barbara fell upon her knees and prayed. All things conspired against her. Death, that she had considered with such resignation an hour before, was now surrounded with the bitterness of revolt. Her heart yearned for the life which it still rejected.
She knelt and prayed, wringing her hands and crying on G.o.d for help--not to escape her doom, but to bear it now that existence had been made so precious. She arose firm and resolute, but not calm--that she could never be again. The struggle in her soul was terrible; but the spirit of self-abnegation grew strong within her, and would prevail.
When Samuel Parris entered the dungeon again, he scarcely recognized the prisoner; her cheeks were scarlet, her eyes like stars. A hundred lives seemed to have been crowded into that one hour.
Barbara went up to the minister, and took his hand with an eager grasp.
"A little while ago," she said, "you asked me to confess, and I refused.
I have now recalled you for that very purpose. I had intended to die and make no sign, but that resolve is broken up. Sit down, Samuel Parris, and listen to me."
"I listen," said the old man.
"It is not of this idle charge of witchcraft that I wish to speak," she said, hurriedly; "but of myself, my life, my history. Can you listen with patience?"
"With patience, and in all charity," was the solemn reply.
"But first I must have a promise--your solemn promise before G.o.d--that what I say to you shall not be revealed to any living soul till after my death. Samuel Parris, will you give me this promise? Remember it is a dying woman who asks it."
"Even if it prove a confession of guilt that you wish to make before me as a minister of the Most High, there would be no wrong in the promise; therefore I will give it."
"But there is no confession of sin to wound your ear or trouble your conscience; that which I have to say need not draw a blush to my own face, or a frown from yours. Have I your promise?"
"I have promised already," said the minister.
"Solemnly and before the G.o.d of heaven?"
"Every promise that a just man makes is registered in heaven. Lady, thou canst trust me. Never yet have I broken faith with man or woman."
"I can trust you--and I will. Samuel Parris, look at me."
Barbara unwound the lace scarf that was usually twisted about her head like a turban, and the waves of magnificent hair thus fully exposed fell loose upon her shoulders. Throwing all these golden tresses back from her forehead with a sweep of her two hands, she turned her face full upon the minister.
"Samuel Parris, do you know me?" The old man looked at her in dumb bewilderment. The scarlet burning in her cheeks, the splendor of her eyes, made his heart leap toward a full recognition. He could not answer, but stood gazing upon her with a strange, doubtful look. She dropped her hands; the hair fell in curling ma.s.ses down her back. Her face drooped forward. She was disappointed that he did not recognize her at once.
The thin features of Samuel Parris kindled up, first with doubt, then with fear, and again with positive conviction.
Her att.i.tude and the disposal of her hair revealed her to him.
Samuel Parris stood dumb and pale, gazing at her resolutely.
Neither of the two spoke. They looked in each other"s eyes afraid: at last the minister found voice.
"Alive!" he said, "alive! and here? Oh! my G.o.d, my G.o.d, what has thy servant done that he should see this day?"