Volume Iii Part 14 (1/2)
”I cannot see him to-night: Tell him to come and speak with me to-morrow,” said Douglas.
”He craves only a few moments audience, Lord of Douglas; and he says, that, unless he is admitted, a visitor of another nature will wait on you forthwith.”
”What is the meaning of this?” said Douglas: ”Must my privacy be broken in upon, and my mind placed on the rack, at the pleasure of every fanatical devotee? Tell him that I will not be disturbed to-night. But--I think not what I am saying. Admit him. Well, reverend and holy father--madman rather! What is your important business with me?”
”That saintly vision has again been with me.”
”Out upon thee, maniac and liar! There has been no such thing with thee; and thou hast trumped up a story in order to keep the power of the Douglas under thy ghostly and interested controul.”
”If I am a visionary, Lord, it is for thyself to judge. I speak nothing as of myself, but the words of one that has sent me. If thou darest say they are the visions of a maniac, in future I keep them to myself, and do you abide by the consequences.”
”Thinkest thou that I will not, or that I dare not abide by any consequences? Hence! Begone!”
”Rash precipitate man! thou shall repent this! What interest can I possibly have in whispering these truths in thine ear? Did I ever ask or hint at a favour from thee? Or was aught ever, save thy own welfare, the purport of my messages? Adieu, my lord! There must another commissioner wait on you presently, and one who will elude the most vigilant of your sentinels.”
”Stay, Benjamin: Thou art, indeed, blameless. If thou hast ought to warn me of, say it and have done, for I am not in a mood to be trifled with.”
”I have been bid to caution you to look to yourself, for that there is treason within the walls of this castle. Will you answer me one or two queries truly and seriously, that I may know whether the being that commissioned me be a true spirit or a false one?”
”I will.”
”Have you got a private offer to a prodigious amount for the ransom of Lady Jane Howard?”
”Monk, thou hast had this from h.e.l.l.--I have.”
”Which thou hast rejected, with the secret intent of asking her in marriage yourself, should circ.u.mstances concur to favour the device?”
”It is false!--false as the source whence thou hadst it.”
”Ah! Then have I done! my informant is a false one.”
”Or, if I had, it was some pa.s.sing thought, which no man can gainsay, and for which none are accountable.”
”Neither is it true that you visited her in disguise last night?”
The Douglas gazed upon the monk in silence, with an eye in which there was an unnatural gleam of madness. He drew his breath three times, as if he would have spoken, but made no answer. The monk continued: ”If these are truths, then list to the following behest,--if they are false thou needest not regard it: There is a conspiracy among thy people for the rescue of Lady Jane. They have been bribed by unheard-of rewards. Thy guards are of course to be cut down, otherwise the rescue cannot be effected; and if thy own head is added to the convoy, the guerdons are all to be doubled.”
The Douglas started to his feet, and held up both his hands: ”By the blessed Virgin it is true!” exclaimed he--”True every word of it!
There have been pet.i.tions made to me for the use of certain keys already. Ay, and I have granted some of them too. I see through a part of the conspiracy. But I'll sift the traitors! I'll make carrion of them.”
”If I am rightly informed, it may yet be prevented without being made manifest, which would be greatly preferable. Beware of Kinlossie. And list, for my time is expired: If you value your own name, see not the face of Lady Jane again, till you present her to your sovereign.”
The monk retired with precipitation, and left the Douglas overwhelmed with tumultuary and adverse pa.s.sions. ”Still the Lady Jane Howard!”
said he to himself: ”Nothing but the Lady Jane Howard! Is it possible this can be an agent of hers? But the inference contradicts the whole scope and tendency of his missions. I must investigate this matter without delay.” He raised his small bugle to his mouth, for in those days that answered all the purposes of a house bell, and many more.
Every officer in castle or camp knew, by the blast blown, when his personal attendance was required. Douglas lifted his to his mouth,--but before he sounded it, the knight in waiting announced ”a lady.” No bolder heart than that of Douglas beat in a Scottish bosom.
Nevertheless it quaked; for he thought of the threatening of the monk, that another commissioner should visit him, whom his guards should not be able to repel. His agitation was now wrought up to the highest pitch, for he attempted to p.r.o.nounce some words, of which the knight knew not the import,--probably it was a command to expel her, or to call in some guards; but before the order could be understood or complied with, the lady herself entered. ”There she is, my lord!” said the knight in a whisper; ”and none of us know whence or how she came hither.”
The lady came slowly by, and the knight retired with all speed. She bore indeed the figure and form of the late princess, but the roses of youth and beauty were gone, and in their room a clayey paleness pervaded the features, which were even whiter than the cambric by which the face was surrounded. The figure held up its right hand as it advanced, and fixed its eyes on the earl; but no man to this day ever knew any thing farther of that conference. The knight in waiting, shortly after he had retired, heard a noise within as of a man choking and endeavouring to cry out; and, bringing two more attendants with him, they all three rushed into the apartment, and found the Douglas fallen back on the embroidered couch in a state of mental abstraction, or rather of total insensibility, and the lady was gone. They immediately applied themselves to the restoration of their lord, which they effected in a short time. Animation soon returned, but reason wavered in a state of insensibility for several hours. During that period he had for a number of times inquired who admitted that stranger, or who saw her depart? The men a.s.suring him each time, that no one saw her till she was observed standing in the anti-chamber; and that none was either admitted into the citadel or seen depart, save the starveling monk who attended him frequently as his confessor. ”There has been another lady,” they added, begging admission to your presence for a whole day and night, which has always been refused here, in consequence of your peremptory order. She has at the last resorted to the means always at a woman's command, tears and threatenings; and she vows, that if she is not admitted to an audience, you shall dearly repent it.”
”What, another still?” said the Douglas: ”No, I'll see no more women to-day, nor to-morrow, nor next day. Do you know, Eveldon, what I think of women?”