CHAPTER XXV.
TRIALS.
The general recovered; as slowly, indeed, as Emily had, but it is gratifying to add, as surely. And now that loving couple might be seen, weakly creeping out together, when the day was finest: tottering white December leaning on a sickly fragile May. There were no concealments now between them, no reservings, and heart-stricken Emily heard from her repentant father"s lips the story of her birth: she was, he said, his own daughter by a native princess, the Begum Dowlia Burruckjutli.
A bitter--bitter truth was that: the destruction of all her hopes, pleasures, and affections. It had now become to her a sin to love that dearest one of all things lovely on this earth: duty, paramount and stern, commanded her, without a shadow of reprieve, to execute on herself immediately the terrible sentence of banishing her own betrothed: nay, more, she must forget him, erase his precious image from her heart, and never, never see that brother more. And Charles must feel the same, and do the like; oh! sorrow, pa.s.sing words! and their two commingled souls must be violently wrenched apart; for such love in them were crime.
Dear children of affection--it is a dreadful lesson this for both of you; but most wise, most needful--or the hand that guideth all things, never would have sent it. Know ye not for comfort, that ye are of those to whom all things work together for good? Know ye not for counsel, that the excess of love is an idolatry that must be blighted? It is well, children, it is well, that ye should thus carry your wounded hearts for balm to the altar of G.o.d; it is well that ye should bow in meekness to His will, in readiness to His wisdom. Ye are learning the lesson speedily, as docile children should; and be a.s.sured of high reward from the Teacher who hath set it you. Poor Charles! white and wan, thy cheek is grown transparent with anxiety, and thy blue eye dim with hope deferred: poor Emmy, sick and weak, thou weariest Heaven with thy prayers, and waterest thy couch with thy tears. Yet, a little while; this discipline is good: storm and wind, frost and rushing rains, are as needful to the forest-tree as sun and gentle shower; the root is strengthening, and its fibres spreading out: and loving still each other with the best of human love, ye justly now have found out how to anchor all your strongest hopes, and deepest thoughts, on Him who made you for himself. Who knoweth? wisely acquiescing in His will, humbly trusting to His mercy, and bringing the holocaust of your inflamed affections as an offering of duty to your G.o.d--who knoweth? Cannot He interpose? will He not befriend you? For His arm is power, and His heart is love.
Days rolled on in dull monotony, and grew to weeks more slowly than before; earthly hopes had been levelled with the dust; life had forgotten to be joyous: there was, indeed, the calm, the peace, the resignation, the heavenly ante-past, and the soul-entrancing prayer; but human life to Emily was flat, wearisome, and void; she felt like a nun, immolated as to this world: even as Charles, too, had resolved to be an anchorite, a stern, hard, mortified man, who once had feelings and affections. The reaction in both those fond young hearts had even overstept the golden mean: and Mercy interposed to make all right, and to bless them in each other once again.
Only look at this _billet-doux_ from Charles, just come in, and dated Plymouth:
"Huzzah--for Emily and England: huzzah for the land of freedom! no secrets now--dear, dear old Jeanie Mackie has given me proofs positive: all I have to wish is that she could move: but she is very ill; so, as we touched here on the voyage up channel, I landed her and myself, thinking to kiss, within a day, my darling Emmy. But I cannot get her out of bed this morning, and dare not leave her: though an hour"s delay seems almost insupportable. If I possibly can manage it, I will bring the dear old faithful creature, wrapped in blankets, by chaise to-morrow. Tell my father all this: and say to him--he will understand, perhaps, though you may not, my blessed girl--say to him, that "he is mistaken, and all are mistaken--you are not what they think you." A thousand kisses. Expect, then, on bright to-morrow to see your happy, happy "CHARLES."
"P.S. Hip! hip! hip!--huzzah!"
Dearest Emily had taken up the note with fears and trembling: she laid it down, as they that reap in joy; and I never in my life saw any thing so beautiful as her eyes at that glad minute; the smile through the tear, the light through the gloom, the verdure of high summer springing through the Alpine snows, the mild and l.u.s.trous moon emerging from a baffled thunder-cloud.
And, although the general mournfully shook his head, distrustfully and despondingly; though he only uttered, "Poor children--dear children--would to Heaven that it could be so;"--and he, for one, was evidently innoculated, as before, with all the old thoughts of gloom, sadness, and anxiety;--still Emily hoped-for Charles hoped--and Jeanie Mackie was so certain.
CHAPTER XXVI.
JULIAN.
Next day, a fine summer afternoon, when our feeble convalescents had gone out together, they found the fresh air so invigorating, and themselves so much stronger, that they prolonged their walk half-way to Oxton. The pasture-meadows, rich and rank, were alive with flocks and herds; the blue sea lazily beat time, as, ticking out the seconds, it melodiously broke upon the sleeping sh.o.r.e; the darkly-flowing Mullet swept sounding to the sea between its tortuous banks; and upon that old high foot-path skirting the stream, now shady with hazels, and now flowery with meadow-sweet, crept our chastened pair.
Just as they were nearing a short angle in the river, the spot where Charles had been preserved, they noticed for the first time a rough-looking fisherman, who, unseen, had tracked their steps some hundred yards; he had a tarpaulin over his shoulder, very unnecessarily, as it would seem, on so fine and warm a day; and a slouching sou"-wester, worn askew, flapped across the strange man"s face.
He came on quickly, though cautiously, looking right and left; and Emily trembled on her guardian"s feeble arm. Yes--she is right; the fisherman approaches--she detects him through it all: and now he scorns disguise; flinging off his cap and the tarpaulin, stands before them--Julian!
"So, sir--you tremble now, do you, gallant general: give me the girl."
And he levelled at his father one of those double-barrelled pistols, full-c.o.c.k.
"Julian, my son, I forgive you, Julian; take my hand, boy."
"What--coward? now you can cringe, and fawn, eh? back with you!--the girl, I say." For poor Emily, wild with fear, was clinging to that weak old man.
Julian levelled again; indeed, indeed it was only as a threat; but his hand shook with pa.s.sion--the weapon was full-c.o.c.k, hair-triggered--shotted heavily as always--hark, hark!--And his father fell upon the turf, covered with blood!
When a wicked man tampers with unintended crime, even accident falls out against him. Many a one has richly merited death for many other sins, than that isolated, haply accidental one which he has hanged for.
Julian, horror-stricken, pale and trembling, flew instinctively to help his father: but Emily has circled him already with her arms; and listen, Julian--your dying father speaks to you.
"Boy, I forgive--I forgive: but--Emily, no, no, cannot, cannot be--Julian--she--she is your _sister_!" and the old man swooned away, from loss of blood and the excitement of that awful scene.
Not a word in reply said that poor sinner, maddened with his life-long crimes, the fratricide in will, the parricide in deed, and all for--a sister. But growing whiter as he stood, a marble man with bristling hair, he slowly drew the other pistol from his pocket, put the muzzle to his mouth, and, firing as he fell, leapt into the darkly-flowing Mullet!
The current, all too violent to sink in, and uncommissioned now to save, hurried its black burden to the sea; and a crimson streak of gore marked the track of the suicide.
The old man was not dead; but a brace of bullets taking effect upon his feeble frame--one through the shoulder, and another which had grazed his head--had been quite enough to make him seem so. Forgetful of all but that dear sufferer, and totally ignorant of Julian"s fate--for she neither saw nor heard any thing, nor feared even for her own imminent peril, while her father lay dying on the gra.s.s--Emily had torn off her scarf, and bound up, as well as she could, the ghastly scored head and broken shoulder. She succeeded in staunching the blood--for no great vessel had been severed--and so simple an application as gra.s.s dipped in water, proved to be a good specific. Then, to her exceeding joy, those eyes opened again, and that dear tongue faintly whispered--"Bless you."
Oh, that blessing! for it fell upon her heart: and fervently she knelt down there, and thanked the Great Preserver.
And now, for friendly help; there is no one near: and it is growing dusk; and she dared not leave him there alone one minute--for Julian--dreaded Julian, may return, and kill him. What shall she do? How to get him home? Alas, alas! he may die where he is lying.
Hark, Emmy, hark! The shouts of happy children bursting out of school!
See, dearest--see: here they come homewards merrily from Oxton.
Thus, rewarded through the instrumentality of her own benevolence, help was speedily obtained; and Mrs. Sainsbury"s invalid-chair, hurried to the spot by an escort of indignant rustics, soon conveyed the recovering patient to the comforts of his own home, and the appliances of medical a.s.sistance.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CHARLES"S RETURN; AND MRS. MACKIE"S EXPLANATION.
And now the happy day was come at length; that day formerly so hoped-for, latterly so feared, but last of all, hailed with the joy that trembles at its own intensity. The very morning after the sad occurrence it has just been my lot to chronicle--while the general was having his wounds dressed, slight ones, happily, but still he was not safe, as inflammation might ensue--while Mrs. Tracy was indulging in her third tumbler, mixed to whet her appet.i.te for shrimps--and while Emily was deciphering, for the forty thousandth time, Charles"s sanguine _billet-doux_--lo! a dusty chaise and smoking posters, and a sun-burnt young fellow springing out, and just upon the stairs--they were locked in each other"s arms!
Oh, the rapture of that instant! it can but happen once within a life.
Ye that have loved, remember such a meeting; and ye that never loved, conceive it if you can; for my pen hath little skill to paint so bright a pleasure. It is to be all heart, all pulse, all sympathy, all spirit--but the warm soft kiss, that rarified bloom of the Material.
How the sick old nurse got out, cased in many blankets; how she was bundled up stairs, and deposited safely on a sofa, no poet is alive to sing: to those who would record the payment of postillions, let me leave so sweet a theme.
The first fond greeting over, and those tumults of affection sobered down, Charles rejoiced to find how lovingly the general met him; the kind and good old man fell upon his neck, as the father in the parable.
Many things were then to be made known: and many questions answered, as best might be, about a mother and a brother; but well aware of all things ourselves, let us be satisfied that Charles heard in due time all they had to tell him; though neither Emily nor the general could explain what had become of Julian after that terrible encounter. In their belief, he had fled for very life, thinking he had killed his father.
Poor wretched man, thought Charles--on that same spot, too, where he would have murdered me! And for his mother--why came she not down eagerly and happily, as mothers ever do, to greet her long-lost son? Do not ask, Charles; do not press the question. Think her ill, dying, dead--any thing but--drunken. He ran to her room-door; but it was locked--luckily.
Now, Charles--now speedily to business; happy business that, if I may trust the lover"s flushing cheek, and Emily"s radiant eyes; but a mournful one too, and a fearful, if I turn my glance to that poor old man, wounded in body and stricken in mind--who waits to hear, in more despondency than hope, what he knows to be the bitter truth--the truth that must be told, to the misery of those dear children.
Faint and weak though she appeared, Jeanie Mackie"s waning life spirited up for the occasion; her dim eye kindled; her feeble frame was straight and strong; energy nerved her as she spoke; this hour is the errand of her being.
Long she spoke, and loudly, in her broad Scotch way; and the general objected many things, but was answered to them all; and there was close cross-questioning, slow-caution, keen examination of doc.u.ments and letters: catechisms, solecisms, Scottisms; reminiscences rubbed up, mistakes corrected; and the grand result of all, Emily a Stuart, and the general not her father! I am only enabled to give a brief account of that important colloquy.
It appears, that when Captain Tracy"s company was quartered to the west of the Gwalior, sent thither to guard the Begum Dowlia against sundry of her disaffected subjects, a certain Lieutenant James Stuart was one among those welcome brave allies. That our gallant Tracy was the beautiful Begum"s favourite soon became notorious to all; and not less so, that the Begum herself was precisely in the same interesting situation as Mrs. James Stuart. The two ladies, Pagan and Christian, were, technically speaking, running a race together. Well, just as times drew nigh, poor Lieutenant Stuart was unfortunately killed in an insurrection headed by some fanatics, who disapproved of foreign friends, and perhaps of their princess"s situation. His death proved fatal also to that kind and faithful wife of his--a dark Italian lady of high family, whose love for James had led her to follow him even into Central Hindoostan: she died in giving birth to a babe; and Jeanie Mackie, the lieutenant"s own foster-mother, who waited on his wife through all their travels, a.s.sisted the poor orphan into this bleak world, and loved it as her own.
Two days after all this, the Begum herself had need of Mrs. Mackie: for it was prudent to conceal some things, if she could, from certain Brahmins, who were to her what John Knox had erstwhile been to Mary: and Jeanie Mackie, burdened with her little Amy Stuart, aided in the birth of a female Tracy-Begum. So, the nurse tended both babes; and more than once had marvelled at their general resemblance; Amy"s mother looked out again from those dark eyes; there was not a shade between the children.
Now, Mrs. Mackie perceived, in a very little while, how fond both Christian and Pagan appeared of their own child; and how little notice was taken by any body of the poor Scotch gentleman"s orphan.
Accordingly, with a view to give her favourite all worldly advantages, she adroitly changed the children; and, while she was still kind and motherly to the little Tracy-Begum, she had the satisfaction to see her pet supposit.i.tiously brought up in all the splendours of an Eastern court.