Volume I Part 12 (1/2)

”'Ay, and I might take her sister there, and marry her to-day after the same fas.h.i.+on, and no law could say me ”nay.”'

”'Yes, here, Ma.s.singberd Heath; but not at Kirk-Yetholm.'

”'And why not?' inquired the ruffian, with a mocking laugh, that had, however, something shrill and wavering in it.

”'Because Kirk-Yetholm is over the Border, and, by the laws of Scotland, my niece Sinnamenta is your wife, proud man, and nothing but death can dissever the bond!'

”An awful silence succeeded my uncle's words. Ma.s.singberd Heath turned livid, and twice in vain essayed to speak; he was well nigh strangled by pa.s.sion.

”'I thank heaven, Rachel,' murmured my little sister, 'that I am not that shame to thee and to my race which I thought myself to be.'

”'You shall have but little to thank heaven for, girl, if this be true,'

cried her husband hoa.r.s.e with concentrated rage; 'somebody shall pay for this.'

”'It is true,' quoth my father, 'and you feel it to be so. Nothing remains, then, but to make the best of it. We do not seek anything at your hands, nor--'

”'Only the right of camping undisturbed about Fairburn,' interposed my uncle Morris, who was of a grasping disposition, and had planned the whole matter, I fear, not without an eye to the advantage of his tribe.

'You wouldn't treat your wife's family as trespa.s.sers.'

”'Certainly not,' returned Ma.s.singberd Heath, with bitterness; 'they shall be most welcome. I should be extremely sorry if they were to leave my neighbourhood just yet. In the meantime, however, I want my wife--my Wife. Come along with me, my pretty one.'

”He looked like a wild beast, within springing distance of his prey.

”'Oh, father, uncle, defend me!' cried the miserable girl. 'What have you done to bring this man's vengeance upon me?'

”'Ay, you are right there!' answered her husband, in a voice that froze my veins. 'That is still left for me--vengeance. Come along, I say; I hunger until it shall begin.'

”'Ma.s.singberd Heath,' cried I, throwing myself at his feet, 'for G.o.d's sake have mercy upon her; it is not her fault. She knew no more than you of all these things. Look how ill and pale she is--you above all men should have pity on her wretched condition. Oh leave her with us, leave my little sister here, and neither she nor we will ever trouble you, ever come near you. It shall be just the same as though you had never set eyes upon us; it shall indeed! Oh, you would not, could not surely be cruel to such a one as she.'

”I pointed to her as she stood clinging to her father's arm as much for support as in appeal, so beautiful, so pitiful, so weak; a spectacle to move a heart of stone.

”'Could I not be cruel,' returned he, with a grating laugh, 'ay, to even such a one as she? Ask her--ask her.'

”There was no occasion to put the question; you saw the answer in her shrinking form, her trembling limbs: his every word fell upon her like a blow.

”'She has not yet known, however, what I can be to my Wife,' continued he. 'Come, my pretty one, come.'

”'She shall not,' cried my father, vehemently; 'it shall never be in his power to hurt her.'

”'What! and I her husband?' exclaimed the other, mockingly. 'Both one until death us do part! Not come?'

”'He will kill her,' murmured my father; 'her blood will be on my head.'

”'Are you coming, wife?' cried Ma.s.singberd Heath, in a terrible voice; he stepped forward, and grasped her slender wrist with fingers of steel.

Morris and my father rushed forward, but the man had swung her behind him, placing himself between her and them, and at the same instant he had taken from his pocket a life-preserver--he carries it to this day--armed with which he was a match for five such men. 'And now,' cried he, 'what man shall stop me from doing what I will with my own?”'

”'I!' exclaimed a sudden voice, and with the word some dark ma.s.s launched itself so violently against the throat of Ma.s.singberd Heath that the giant toppled and fell; upon his huge breast, knife in hand, knelt Stanley Carew, his eyes gleaming with hate, his lithe body working like a panther's. He was not hesitating, not he, he was only drinking in a delicious draught of revenge, before he struck.