"How do you purpose procuring this free pardon?"
"I! I know not how to procure it; I only wish it procured: the means are in your power, not mine."
"In mine!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Baronet with well-feigned astonishment; "you mistake, good Dalton, I have no interest at Whitehall; I would not ask a favour for myself."
"That is likely; but you must ask one for me."
"_Must!_" repeated Sir Robert, "is a strange word to use to me, Dalton."
"I"m not scholar enough to find a better," replied the other insolently.
"I cannot if I would," persisted the Baronet.
"One word more, then. The Protector"s plans render it impracticable for me to continue, as I have done, on the seas: I know that I am a marked man, and unless something be determined on, and speedily, I shall be exposed to that ignominy which, for my child"s sake, I would avoid.
Don"t talk to me of impossibilities; you _can_ obtain the pardon I desire, and, in one word, Sir Robert Cecil, you _must_!"
Sir Robert shook his head.
"At your pleasure, then, at your pleasure; but at your peril also. Mark me! I am not one to be thrown overboard, and make no struggle--I am not a baby to be strangled without crying! If I perish, facts shall arise from my grave--ay, if I were sunk a thousand fathoms in my own blue sea--facts that would---- You may well tremble and turn pale! The secret is still in our keeping; only remember, I fall not singly!"
"Insulting villain!" said Sir Robert, regaining his self-command; "you have now no facts, no proofs; the evidence is destroyed."
"It is _not_ destroyed, Robert Cecil," observed Dalton, calmly pulling a bundle of papers from his vest: "look here--and here--and here--do you not know your own hand-writing? you practised me first in deception: I had not forgotten your kind lessons, when in your presence I committed forged letters to the flames!"
The man laughed the laugh of contempt and bitter scorn as he held forward the doc.u.ments. For a few moments Sir Robert seemed petrified; his eyes glared on the papers, as if their frozen lids had not the power of shutting out the horrid proofs of his iniquity. Suddenly he made a desperate effort to secure them; but the steady eye and muscular arm of the smuggler prevented it.
"Hands off!" he exclaimed, whirling the Baronet from him, as if he had been a thing of straw; "you know my power, and you know my terms: there needs no more palaver about it."
"Will not gold serve your purpose?"
"No, I have enough of that: I want distinction and fame, a free pardon, and the command of one of your registered and acknowledged plunderers; or, mayhap, baptism for my own bright little Fire-fly, as the "Babe of Grace;" or--But, hang it, no--I"d sink the vessel first, and let her die, as she has lived, free, free, free! _I_ belong to a civilised set of beings, and must therefore be a slave, a slave to something or some one. Noll knows my talents well, knows that I am as good a commander, ay, and for the matter of that, would be as honest a one as the best."
He paused: the Baronet groaned audibly.
"We have one or two little jobs upon the coasts here of Kent and Ess.e.x, trifles that must, nevertheless, be attended to; but this day month, Sir Robert Cecil, we meet again. I will not longer keep you from your wife.
Gracious Heaven! where was I when mine expired! But farewell! I would not detain you for her sweet and gentle sake: she will be rewarded for her goodness to my child! Remember," he added, closing the door, "remember--one month, and Hugh Dalton!"
CHAPTER II.
Death! be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think"st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor Death---- * * * * *
----Why swell"st thou, then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally"; And Death shall be no more:--Death! thou shalt die.
DR. DONNE.
When Sir Robert Cecil returned to his wife"s chamber, all within was silent as the grave. He approached the bed; his daughter rose from the seat she had occupied by its side, and motioned him to be still, pointing at the same time to her mother, and intimating that she slept.
"Thank G.o.d for that!" he murmured, and drew his hand across his brow, while his chest heaved as if a heavy weight had been removed from it.
The attendants had left the room to obtain some necessary refreshment and repose, and father and daughter were alone with the sleeper in the chamber of death. The brow of Lady Cecil was calm, smooth, and unclouded, white as alabaster, and rendered still more beautiful by the few tresses of pale auburn hair that escaped from under the head-tire.
The features were of a n.o.ble yet softened character, although painfully emaciated; and not a shadow of colour tinged her upturned lip. Her sleep, though occasionally sound, was restless, and the long shadowy fingers, that lay on the embroidered coverlet, were now and then stirred, as if by bodily or mental suffering. There was an atmosphere of silence, not of repose, within the apartment, at once awful and oppressive; and Sir Robert breathed as if his breathings were but a continuation of suppressed sobs.
Constance Cecil, never in earlier life, never in after years, gracious and beautiful as she ever was, appeared half so interesting to her unhappy father as at that moment. There was at all times about her a majesty of mind and feeling that lent to her simplest word and action a dignity and power, which, though universally felt, it would have been impossible to define. If one could have procured for her a kingdom to reign over, or have chosen from the galaxy of heaven a region worthy her command, it must have been that pale and holy star, which, splendid and alone in the firmament, heralds the approach of day; so unfitted might she have been deemed to mingle with a world less pure, so completely placed by nature above all the littleness of ordinary life. Her n.o.ble and majestic form was the casket of a rich and holy treasure, and her father"s conscience had often quailed, when contemplating the severity of her youthful virtue. Dearly as he loved his wife, he respected his daughter more, and the bare idea that certain occurrences of former years might be known to her was as a poisoned dagger in his heart. He had been a daring, and was still an ambitious man--successful in all that men aim to succeed in; wealthy, honoured, and powerful, and--what is frequently more ardently sought for than all--feared; yet would he rather have sacrificed every advantage he had gained--every desire for which he had unhesitatingly bartered his own self-esteem--every distinction he had considered cheaply purchased at the price of conscience, than have lost the good opinion, the confiding love of his only child. Even now he looked upon her with mingled feelings of dread and affection, though her bearing was subdued and her lofty spirit bowed by sorrow, as she stood before him, the thick folds of her dressing-gown falling with cla.s.sic elegance to her feet, her fine hair pushed back from her forehead and carelessly twisted round her head, and her countenance deepened into an expression of the most intense anxiety: while, a.s.sured that the invalid slept on, she whispered into his ear words of consolation, if not of hope.
Lady Cecil had existed for some days in a state of frightful delirium, and, during that time, her ravings had been so loud and continued, that her present repose was elysium to those who loved her. Constance bent her knees, and prayed in silence, long and fervently, for support. Sir Robert, leaning back in the richly-cushioned chair, covered his face with his hands, withdrawing them only when the sleeper groaned or breathed more heavily. At length both felt as if death had indeed entered the chamber, so motionless lay the object of their love: they continued gazing from each other to the couch, until the misty light of morning streamed coldly through the open shutters. Another hour of sad watching pa.s.sed, and, with a long and deeply drawn sigh, the sufferer opened her eyes: they were no longer wild and wandering, but rested with calm intelligence on her husband and her child.
"It is long since I have seen you, except in strange dreams," she said, or rather murmured; "and now I shall be with you but for a very little time!"
Constance put to her lips a silver cup containing some refreshment, while Sir Robert supported her head on his arm.
"Call no one in. Constance--Cecil--my moments now are numbered:--draw back the curtains, that I may once more look upon the light of morning!"
Constance obeyed; and the full beams of day entered the room. "How beautiful! how glorious!" repeated the dying woman, as her sight drank in the reviving light; "it heralds me to immortality--where there is no darkness--no disappointment--no evil! How pale are the rays of that lamp, Cecil! How feeble man"s inventions, contrasted with the works of the Almighty!" Constance rose to extinguish it. "Let it be," she continued, feebly; "let it be, dearest; it has illumined my last night, and we will expire together." The affectionate daughter turned away to hide her tears; but when did the emotion of a beloved child escape a mother"s notice?--"Alas! my n.o.ble Constance weeping! I thought she, at all events, could have spared me this trial:--leave us for a few moments; let me not see you weep, Constance--let me not see it--tears enough have fallen in these halls;--do not mourn, my child, that your mother will find rest at last."
How often did Constantia remember these words! How often, when the heart that dictated such gentle chiding, had ceased to beat, did Constantia Cecil, gazing into the depths of the blue and mysterious sky, think upon her mother in heaven!
Lady Cecil had much to say to her husband during the remaining moments of her existence; but her breathing became so feeble, that he was obliged to lean over the couch to catch her words.
"We part, my own, and only beloved husband, for ever in this world;--fain would I linger yet a little, to recount how much I have loved you--in our more humble state--in this--oh! how falsely termed our prosperity. My heart has shared your feelings. In our late bitter trials, more than half my grief was, that you should suffer. Oh, Robert!
Robert! now, when I am about to leave you and all, for ever--how my heart clings--I fear, sinfully clings--to the remembrance of our earlier and purer happiness! My father"s house! The n.o.ble oak, where the ring-doves built, and under whose shadow we first met! The stream--where you and Herbert--wild, but affectionate brother!--Oh! Robert, do not blame me, nor start so at his name;--his only fault was his devotion to a most kind master!--but who, that lived under the gentle influence of Charles Stuart"s virtues, could have been aught but devoted?--And yet what deadly feuds came forth from this affection! Alas! his rich heritage has brought no blessing with it. I never could look upon these broad lands as ours--Would that his child had lived--and then--But they are all gone now--all gone!--Alas! what had we to do with courts, or courts with us?--Our domestic comforts have been blighted--our hearth left desolate--the children for whom you toiled, and hoped, and planned, have been removed from us--nipped in the bud, or the first blossoming!--And oh, Cecil! take the words of a dying woman to heart, when she tells you, that you will go down childless to your grave, if you do not absolve our beloved Constance from her promise to him whom she can neither respect nor love. She will complete the contract, though it should be her death-warrant, rather than let it be said a daughter of the house of Cecil acted dishonourably--she will complete it, Robert--she will complete it--and then die!"
Lady Cecil, overcome by emotion and exertion, fell back fainting and exhausted on her pillow. Recovering herself, however, after a brief pause she added, in a broken whispering voice, "Forgive me, my dear, dear husband;--my mind is wandering--my thoughts are unconnected--but my affection for you--for Constance--is strong in death. I mean not to pain you, but to warn--for the sake of our only child--of the only thing that remains to tell you of your wife. My breath trembles on my lips--there is a mist before mine eyes--call her in, that my spirit may depart--may ascend heavenward on the wings of prayer!--"
Sir Robert was moving towards the door, when her hand motioned him back.
"Promise--promise that you will never force her to wed that man!--more--that you yourself will break the contract!"
"Truly, and solemnly do I swear, that I will never force her to fulfil--nay, that I will never even urge her to its fulfilment."
The dying lady looked unsatisfied, and some unp.r.o.nounced words agitated her lips, as Constance entered unbidden, but most welcome. She knelt by her mother"s side, and took the hand so feebly but affectionately extended towards her. The fearful change that had occurred during her short absence was but too visible. The breath that touched her cheek was cold as the morning mist. The sufferer would have folded her hands in prayer, but the strength had departed before the spirit was gone.
Constance, seeing that the fine expression of life with which her upturned eyes had glittered was gradually pa.s.sing away, clasped her mother"s hands within her own: suddenly they struggled for freedom, and as her eye followed the pointing of her parent"s finger, she saw the lamp"s last beam flicker for a moment, and then expire!--Her mother, too, was dead!
It is ill to break upon the solitude of the dying, though it is good to enter into the solemn temple of death; it is a sad but a useful lesson to lift the pall; to raise the coffin-lid; to gaze upon all we loved, upon all that was bright, and pure, and beautiful, changing with a slow but certain change to decay and corruption. The most careless cannot move along the chamber of death without being affected by the awful presence of the King of Terrors. The holy quiet that ought to characterise a funeral procession is too frequently destroyed by the empty pomp and heartlessness which attend it; but in the death-chamber there is nothing of this; the very atmosphere seems impregnated with the stillness of the time when there was no life in the broad earth, and when only "G.o.d moved on the face of the waters." Our breath comes slowly and heavily to our lips, and we murmur forth our words as if the spirit watched to record them in the unchanging book of immortality.
In due time, the funeral train of Lady Cecil prepared to escort the corpse to its final home. Sir Robert was too ill, and too deeply afflicted to be present at the ceremony; and as he had no near relative, Sir Willmott Burrell of Burrell, the knight to whom his daughter"s hand was plighted, was expected to take his station as chief mourner. The people waited for some hours with untiring patience; the old steward paced backwards and forwards from the great gate, and at last took his stand there, looking out from between its bars, hoping that, wild and reckless as Burrell really was, he would not put so great an affront upon the Cecil family, as to suffer its late mistress to go thus unhonoured to the grave.
The day advanced, and as neither the gentleman, nor any one to show cause for his absence, appeared, strange whisperings and surmises arose amongst the crowd, which had a.s.sembled from all the villages on the island, as to the probable motive of this most ill-advised delay. More than one messenger was despatched to the top of Minster Church to look out and see if any person like Sir Willmott was crossing the King"s Ferry, the only outlet in general use from the island to the main land: but though the pa.s.sage-boat, conducted (as it was termed) by Jabez Tippet, was evidently employed as much as usual, there was no token to justify farther waiting. The Rev. Jonas Fleetword, one of the soundest of Puritan divines, stood like a statue of cast iron in the doorway, his arms folded on his breast, and his brow contracting into a narrow and fretted arch, as the minute-hand moved round and round the dial of the old clock. At length a.s.suming to himself the command, which in those times was as willingly ceded to the Reformed minister as it had formerly been to the not more arbitrary Catholic priest, he ordered the procession "to tarry no longer the coming of him whose feet were shod with heaviness, but to depart forthwith in the name of the Lord."
The place of interment was at East Church, a distance of about four miles from Cecil Place; and as they paced it but slowly, the increasing chill of the gathering clouds gave intimation that the prime of day was sinking into the eventide before the spire was in sight. As they at length ascended the hill, upon the summit of which was the vault of the Cecils, a young gentleman, mounted on a grey and n.o.ble charger, met the funeral train so suddenly, that those who preceded halted, and for a moment it was rumoured, that Sir Willmott Burrell, though late and last, had taken the lower road from King"s Ferry, and so arrived in time to behold the remains of her who was to have been his mother, deposited in the tomb.
When the people observed, however, that the salutation of respect made by the youth to the Rev. Jonas Fleetword was followed by no sign of recognition, they moved silently onward, marvelling amongst themselves at the young gentleman"s keeping a little in advance of the clergyman, so as to take the exact station which belonged to the chief mourner. He was habited in a suit of the deepest black; and though the cloak which fell in ample folds from his throat concealed his figure, yet his movements indicated that it was slight and graceful. His broad hat completely shaded his face, but the luxuriant curls of light air, which, moistened by the misty atmosphere, fell negligently beneath its brim, intimated that he was more akin to the Cavalier than the Roundhead.
By the time the ceremony was concluded, and the divine had finished one of those energetic and powerful appeals to the feelings which so effectually roused or subdued, as it pleased him to desire, darkness had nearly shrouded the surrounding landscape; and the mult.i.tude, whom respect or curiosity had a.s.sembled, retired from the churchyard, and wended to their homes. The year was in its third month, and the weather, which, when Hugh Dalton landed, had been clear and fine, was now foggy and cold:--
"The dewy night had with her frosty shade Immantled all the world, and the stiff ground Sparkled in ice----"