"Oh, to think of my own dear father a-dying at a distance, and I never to see him alive no more in this world!" she burst forth, sobbing and crying.
"And oh, good Lord in heaven, what an awful night! I never did see sich a night in my life, with the rain pouring and pouring barrels full in a stream, and the river roaring around the house like a whole drove of lions!" she exclaimed, shuddering from head to foot.
"And an endless night as it is, oh, my goodness! But it must be near morning; I do think it must be near morning," she finally said, as she arose and laid the baby on the bed beside its mother, and then went to the window to look out for the dawn.
She started back with a cry of terror, and sank upon the nearest seat.
The cell, as I told you, was in the angle of the building, and had two windows--the one looking down upon Black River, and the other upon Bird Creek. Miss Tabby had peeped from that one which overlooked Bird Creek.
Day had dawned darkly and dimly, but the solitary woman saw enough to curdle her blood with horror.
The river and the creek, lashed to fury, had swollen so high that they were now merged into one body of water, and had risen nearly to the second story of the building. If Miss Tabby could have put her arm through the grated window, she might easily have reached down and dipped her hand in the rising water, for it was rising so fast that she could almost see it mount.
"Oh, my good gracious alive!" she cried, as she fell back on the chair--"it"s a flood! It"s a flood like that I heard mother talk about, which carried away the mills in ninety. It"s a flood! it"s a flood! And we shall all be drownded in this horrid cell, like blind kittens in a tub!"
And made desperate by terror, the old woman started up, and rushed to the barred and bolted door of the cell, and rapped and kicked with all her might, and threw herself against it, and called, loudly and frantically:
"HELP! MURDER! MURDER! HELP! Take us out, or we"ll all be drownded in ten minutes!"
But bolts and bars resisted all her strength, and the noise of winds and waters drowned her voice. And the same cause that rendered others deaf to her frenzied cries for help, prevented her from hearing the sounds of terror and confusion that came up from the story below--the groaning and crying of men locked up in their cells; the calling and shouting of warden and watchmen, rushing from corridor to corridor to release the prisoners from their imminent peril; the clattering of feet, the mingling of voices; in short, all the discordant notes that go to make up the infernal concert of a crowd surprised and maddened by sudden and general disaster.
There was also another reason why Miss Tabby"s cries for help could not be heard. Sybil Berners was the one solitary prisoner in this long and remote corridor. Her door was barred and bolted fast, and it was not deemed necessary to leave a night watch on duty near it. Thus, if they should happen to be forgotten in the general panic, they would certainly be drowned; for even if the thunder of waters, and the shouting of men, and crashing of timbers, had been less deafening and distracting, Miss Tabby"s voice would still have failed to reach the ears of the distant turnkeys.
From her fruitless efforts at the barred door, she rushed in desperation to the grated window. With a fearful shriek she threw her hands to her head, and rushed away again. The surrounding waters had risen within a foot of the window sill! She filled the air of the cell with her shrieks, as she rushed madly about from wall to wall, like a frenzied screaming macaw, beating itself against the bars of its cage.
"To lie drownded here in the cell like a cat in a tub! To be drownded like a cat in a tub!" was the burden of her death song.
And through all this Sybil slept the sleep of coma.
Suddenly the young babe awoke and added its shrill and feeble pipes to the horrible uproar.
The old maid had all a mother"s tenderness in her heart. In the midst of her own agony of terror she ceased to scream, and went and took the babe and cried gently over its fate, murmuring:
"Only a few hours old, and to die in this horrible den, my babe! Oh, my babe! And you not even baptized! Oh, my goodness, not even baptized!
What shall I do? Oh! what shall I do? Let you die without baptism? Oh, no, no! I never did baptize a child in my life, which I know I"m all unworthy to do it! But--but, I know the church allows any one to christen a child in danger of death. And so, my baby! Oh! my poor baby!"
And her voice broke down in tears as she bore the child to a table where there was a pitcher of water.
Very humbly and reverently the old maid performed the sacred ceremony that her faith taught her was essential to the child"s salvation. And she gave it the first name that came into her head--"Mary."
"There! now you are ready to go, my baby! Not that--that I really think the good Lord would ever keep you, my innocent one, out of His heaven, merely because you wasn"t christened! No, no, I don"t believe that either! But still it"s best to be on the safe side, when it"s so easy as sprinkling a little water and speaking a few words!--HUSH! I do believe they are coming to let us out at last!" exclaimed Miss Tabby, breaking off from her monologue, as through all the general uproar a crashing sound close at hand smote upon her ear!
She hastily laid the child upon the bed, and hurried to the door. No one was there, and the bolts and bars were fast as ever. But before she could turn around the window fell in with a tremendous clatter and bang--gla.s.s and grating ringing and shattering upon the floor.
Miss Tabby recoiled and squeezed herself against the wall in the corner.
She thought the window had been beaten in by the water, and she expected the flood to follow.
But a tall man in dark clothing leaped through the opening, striking the floor with a rebound, and then stood up and gazed around the dimly lighted cell.
His eyes fell upon Sybil, as she lay in coma on the bed.
"All right, Raphael! You were correct. This is the cell, and here she is. Come!" and he called to some one without.
A second figure, younger and slighter, jumped through the open window into the cell, and stood, like the first had done, peering around through the semi-darkness.
"Haste, Raphael! You were swift-footed enough to bring her here! Try to be almost as swift-footed to bear her hence!" cried the first man, seizing the form of Sybil and wrapping it hastily in the upper quilt.
As he was doing this, something rolled over and cried.
"Hallo! Here"s a baby! I never bargained for that!" exclaimed the man in astonishment.
"It is _her_ baby, father--the baby for whose sake the governor prolonged her life. Let me take it," pleaded the youth.
"Why the demon didn"t you tell me about this before?" angrily demanded the elder, while carefully wrapping up the patient.
"I knew no more than yourself, father. _You_ knew, as I and everybody did, that this child was expected, and that the governor respited the mother for its sake; but I didn"t know it had arrived until you spoke of it," said the youth.
"Ah! you are more quick-witted than I," laughed the man sarcastically.
"Let me take care of the babe, father," pleaded the boy.
"Why?"
"Because it must be rescued with her."
"Why, again?"
"Because she would break her heart without it."
"How do you know?"
"Oh, father, even a bird loves its birdling; and of course this tender-hearted lady loves her little one."
"She don"t seem to love anything now, or even to know anything. She is as stupid and lifeless as anything I ever saw that lived and breathed.
She is under the influence of opium, I should think," said the man, who had now the form of the unconscious woman well wound around with the quilt and laid over his breast and shoulder.
"Oh, no, she an"t, sir! no, she an"t--no sich a thing, sir! But she"s been in this here comotious condition, knowing nothing nor n.o.body, ever since the baby arrove!" said Miss Tabby, coming from her concealment, for she saw in these two men only benevolent individuals who had come to deliver her and her lady.
"Who the demon are you?" demanded the elder, turning sharply towards her.
"I an"t no demon, sir! though I am mistreated all as if I was one,"
whimpered Miss Tabby.
"Then who are you?"
"I"m her poor, faithful, misfortunate nurse, sir," snivelled Miss Tabby.
"Oh, you are!--Raphael, take the child into the boat! Never mind the old woman; let her drown!" said the elder man, laughing savagely.
"Oh, sir, don"t you do that! Don"t you leave me here to drown, sir! to die such a dismal death in this dark den!" pleaded Miss Tabby, catching hold of the man"s coat-tails.