Part 63 (2/2)
”For my share in your escape,” answered the maiden, ”the honesty of my own intention will vindicate me in the sight of Heaven; and the safety of my father, whose fate depends on yours, will be my excuse to man.”
In a few words, she gave him the history of their capture, and its consequences. Cleveland cast up his eyes and raised his hands to Heaven, in thankfulness for the escape of the sisters from his evil companions, and then hastily added,--”But you are right, Minna; I must fly at all rates--for your father's sake I must fly.--Here, then, we part--yet not, I trust, for ever.”
”For ever!” answered a voice, that sounded as from a sepulchral vault.
They started, looked around them, and then gazed on each other. It seemed as if the echoes of the building had returned Cleveland's last words, but the p.r.o.nunciation was too emphatically accented.
”Yes, for ever!” said Norna of the Fitful-head, stepping forward from behind one of the ma.s.sive Saxon pillars which support the roof of the Cathedral. ”Here meet the crimson foot and the crimson hand. Well for both that the wound is healed whence that crimson was derived--well for both, but best, for him who shed it.--Here, then, you meet--and meet for the last time!”
”Not so,” said Cleveland, as if about to take Minna's hand; ”to separate me from Minna, while I have life, must be the work of herself alone.”
”Away!” said Norna, stepping betwixt them,--”away with such idle folly!--Nourish no vain dreams of future meetings--you part here, and you part for ever. The hawk pairs not with the dove; guilt matches not with innocence.--Minna Troil, you look for the last time on this bold and criminal man--Cleveland, you behold Minna for the last time!”
”And dream you,” said Cleveland, indignantly, ”that your mummery imposes on me, and that I am among the fools who see more than trick in your pretended art?”
”Forbear, Cleveland, forbear!” said Minna, her hereditary awe of Norna augmented by the circ.u.mstance of her sudden appearance. ”O, forbear!--she is powerful--she is but too powerful.--And do you, O Norna, remember my father's safety is linked with Cleveland's.”
”And it is well for Cleveland that I do remember it,” replied the Pythoness--”and that, for the sake of one, I am here to aid both. You, with your childish purpose, of pa.s.sing one of his bulk and stature under the disguise of a few paltry folds of wadmaal--what would your device have procured him but instant restraint with bolt and shackle?--I will save him--I will place him in security on board his bark. But let him renounce these sh.o.r.es for ever, and carry elsewhere the terrors of his sable flag, and his yet blacker name; for if the sun rises twice, and finds him still at anchor, his blood be on his own head.--Ay, look to each other--look the last look that I permit to frail affection,--and say, if ye _can_ say it, Farewell for ever!”
”Obey her,” stammered Minna; ”remonstrate not, but obey her.”
Cleveland, grasping her hand, and kissing it ardently, said, but so low that she only could hear it, ”Farewell, Minna, but _not_ for ever.”
”And now, maiden, begone,” said Norna, ”and leave the rest to the Reimkennar.”
”One word more,” said Minna, ”and I obey you. Tell me but if I have caught aright your meaning--Is Mordaunt Mertoun safe and recovered?”
”Recovered, and safe,” said Norna; ”else woe to the hand that shed his blood!”
Minna slowly sought the door of the Cathedral, and turned back from time to time to look at the shadowy form of Norna, and the stately and military figure of Cleveland, as they stood together in the deepening gloom of the ancient Cathedral. When she looked back a second time they were in motion, and Cleveland followed the matron, as, with a slow and solemn step, she glided towards one of the side aisles. When Minna looked back a third time, their figures were no longer visible. She collected herself, and walked on to the eastern door by which she had entered, and listened for an instant to the guard, who talked together on the outside.
”The Zetland girl stays a long time with this pirate fellow,” said one.
”I wish they have not more to speak about than the ransom of her father.”
”Ay, truly,” answered another, ”the wenches will have more sympathy with a handsome young pirate, than an old bed-ridden burgher.”
Their discourse was here interrupted by her of whom they were speaking; and, as if taken in the manner, they pulled off their hats, made their awkward obeisances, and looked not a little embarra.s.sed and confused.
Minna returned to the house where she lodged, much affected, yet, on the whole, pleased with the result of her expedition, which seemed to put her father out of danger, and a.s.sured her at once of the escape of Cleveland, and of the safety of young Mordaunt. She hastened to communicate both pieces of intelligence to Brenda, who joined her in thankfulness to Heaven, and was herself wellnigh persuaded to believe in Norna's supernatural pretensions, so much was she pleased with the manner in which they had been employed. Some time was spent in exchanging their mutual congratulations, and mingling tears of hope, mixed with apprehension; when, at a late hour in the evening, they were interrupted by Claud Halcro, who, full of a fidgeting sort of importance, not unmingled with fear, came to acquaint them, that the prisoner, Cleveland, had disappeared from the Cathedral, in which he had been permitted to walk, and that the Provost, having been informed that Minna was accessary to his flight, was coming, in a mighty quandary, to make enquiry into the circ.u.mstances.
When the worthy Magistrate arrived, Minna did not conceal from him her own wish that Cleveland should make his escape, as the only means which she saw of redeeming her father from imminent danger. But that she had any actual accession to his flight, she positively denied; and stated, ”that she had parted from Cleveland in the Cathedral, more than two hours since, and then left him in company with a third person, whose name she did not conceive herself obliged to communicate.”
”It is not needful, Miss Minna Troil,” answered Provost Torfe; ”for, although no person but this Captain Cleveland and yourself was seen to enter the Kirk of St. Magnus this day, we know well enough that your cousin, old Ulla Troil, whom you Zetlanders call Norna of Fitful-head, has been cruising up and down, upon sea and land, and air, for what I know, in boats and on ponies, and it may be on broomsticks; and here has been her dumb Drow, too, coming and going, and playing the spy on every one--and a good spy he is, for he can hear every thing, and tells nothing again, unless to his mistress. And we know, besides, that she can enter the Kirk when all the doors are fast, and has been seen there more than once, G.o.d save us from the Evil One!--and so, without farther questions asked, I conclude it was old Norna whom you left in the Kirk with this slas.h.i.+ng blade--and, if so, they may catch them again that can.--I cannot but say, however, pretty Mistress Minna, that you Zetland folks seem to forget both law and gospel, when you use the help of witchcraft to fetch delinquents out of a legal prison; and the least that you, or your cousin, or your father, can do, is to use influence with this wild fellow to go away as soon as possible, without hurting the town or trade, and then there will be little harm in what has chanced; for, Heaven knows, I did not seek the poor lad's life, so I could get my hands free of him without blame; and far less did I wish, that, through his imprisonment, any harm should come to worthy Magnus Troil of Burgh-Westra.”
”I see where the shoe pinches you, Mr. Provost,” said Claud Halcro, ”and I am sure I can answer for my friend Mr. Troil, as well as for myself, that we will say and do all in our power with this man, Captain Cleveland, to make him leave the coast directly.”
”And I,” said Minna, ”am so convinced that what you recommend is best for all parties, that my sister and I will set off early to-morrow morning to the House of Stennis, if Mr. Halcro will give us his escort, to receive my father when he comes ash.o.r.e, that we may acquaint him with your wish, and to use every influence to induce this unhappy man to leave the country.”
<script>