Part 45 (1/2)
”An accursed signal that!”
When the midnight rider reached the churchyard, he dismounted from his horse, bound it to an elderberry tree, and replied to the signal with a trumpet-blast of his own, whereupon a spectral flame shot up among the tombstones.
”Do you hear that? The devils are answering one another.”
”It is either the devil or Valentine Kalondai.”
”If it be Valentine Kalondai he will come hither, and we will take him prisoner; but if it be the devil 'twere best to leave him alone.”
That was very sage advice, certainly.
The horseman found the churchyard-gate open and went in.
He went straight to the spot where he had seen the flames shoot up.
It was no will-o'-the-wisp, no perambulating spirit, but Simplex, who, to scare the watchers and guide Valentine, had ignited lycopodium powder from time to time.
”Hus.h.!.+” said he to his approaching friend, ”they are on the watch.”
”Let them watch!” murmured Valentine; ”I have a sword with me.
Though I should die on the spot for it, I mean to speak to my beloved.”
”You shall speak to her. Follow me! but duck your head that they may not see us.”
With that he led Valentine along among the graves till they came to a large monument. It was a red marble obelisk, surmounted by a wreathed urn. The bed round the grave was planted with violets and primroses with an ivy border. On the pediment lay several wreaths.
”Look there!” said Simplex, drawing a dark lantern from beneath his mantle; ”look and read!”
Valentine drew near and saw on the splendid monument the name, ”Augustus Zwirina,” followed by a long litany of the deeds and services of that distinguished citizen.
”Why have you led me to the grave of my mortal foe?” asked Valentine sternly.
”It is not your mortal foe who sleeps here,” returned Simplex, ”but pretty Michal. The night after they had buried your mortal foe, I came to the churchyard with the faithful Ali. Then we set to work and dug out the coffin of pretty Michal and brought it hither, and placed it where the coffin of Zwirina had been laid, and now you can be quite easy in your mind, for your beloved reposes in consecrated ground, and flowers bloom over her all the year round.”
Valentine threw himself with his face to the ground.
”Listen how the ghosts are weeping!” said one of the watchers to his comrade.
”Depend upon it, Beelzebub is tormenting them!”
”Don't look back or they'll twist your neck for you!”
After Valentine had wept to his heart's content, and consoled himself with the reflection that his tears would filter through the mound to his sleeping love and give her sweeter dreams, he arose and said to Simplex:
”But suppose the thing becomes known?”
”There are only three of us who know anything about it. One is Ali the Turk; your mother has emanc.i.p.ated him, and he has now gone home to Thessaly. The second is the grave, and the grave tells no tales.
I myself am the third, and I can keep as silent as the grave.”