Part 16 (1/2)

I turned, and my glance falling suddenly upon the portrait which the young girl indicated, I shuddered. It was a long, thin, pale face, stamped with the cold rigidity of death, and with dark hollows under the eyes, which looked at you with a fixed, burning gaze of terrible intensity. There was a moment's silence.

”How she must have suffered!” I exclaimed, with a sinking of the heart.

”I know not how my mother made this frightful discovery,” continued Odile; ”but she knew of the mysterious attraction of the Black Plague, and of their meetings in Hugh's Tower,--all, in short,--but she never suspected my father. No! only she slowly pined away, as I am doing now.”

I hid my face in my hands, and the tears started involuntarily.

”One winter night,” she went on, ”when I was only ten years old, my mother, whose energy alone sustained her,--for she was in the last stages of a decline,--came to my room. I was sleeping, when suddenly a cold, nervous hand seized my wrist. I opened my eyes, and opposite me stood a woman; with one hand she held a torch, and with the other she held my arm, which felt as if clasped in a chill vise. Her dress was covered with snow, a convulsive trembling agitated her limbs, and her eyes burned with a dark fire through the white, disordered locks that hung about her face. It was my mother.

”'Odile, my child, rise and come with me! You must know everything!' she said.

”I dressed myself tremblingly, and leading me along the lonely corridors to Hugh's Tower, she showed me the staircase that led down to the chasm.

”'Your father will come out this way,' she said, pointing to the tower; 'he will come out with the she-wolf. Fear nothing! He cannot see you.'

”Hardly had she finished speaking, when my father appeared with the old woman, carrying his funereal burden. Taking me in her arms, my mother followed them, and I witnessed the scene on the Altenberg.

”'Look, child!' she cried; 'you must, for I am going to die, and you shall keep the secret! You shall watch over your father alone--all alone! The honor of our family depends upon it!'

”We returned. A fortnight later my mother died, leaving to me the accomplishment of her vow and the lesson of her example. I have faithfully discharged my trust, but oh, at what a cost! You have seen it! I have been obliged to disobey my father and make him wretched. My marriage could have accomplished nothing, though he does not know it, and to marry would have been to bring a stranger into our midst and betray the family secret. I resisted. No one in the Castle knows the nature of my father's malady, and had it not been for yesterday's crisis, which broke down my strength and prevented me from watching by my father, I should still have been the sole depositary of the secret.

G.o.d has willed otherwise; he has placed in your keeping the honor of our family.

”Such is my story, and in view of what you told me a few moments ago (and she colored charmingly), I feel that I need hardly ask you if you will share with me my burden, for my strength is unequal to it--I am bending beneath its weight.”

She had risen as she finished speaking. For all answer, I sprang forward, and throwing my arms about her I drew her close to me and covered her upturned face and forehead with pa.s.sionate kisses, and she rested, a delicious burden in my arms.

”Odile,” I cried, ”I will be all this and a thousand times more, if you will only consent to let me. I am the pet.i.tioner, not you; and in allowing me to share with you even the least of your trials, you make me forever your debtor. You have told me the reason of your vow, and in doing so you have removed the necessity for its further existence. Oh, Odile, may I hope--may I hope, I say, that if I can raise the spell which overhangs the Castle, and restore your father's health,--as the price of it, I may have your love?”

After a moment, she replied softly, as she gently disengaged herself from my arms:

”You may;” and she added, ”until then my first duty is ever to my father.”

I pressed the hand which she yielded to me to my lips, exclaiming with a smile, ”This seals the promise!”

Then I continued:

”And one thing more. We must seize this creature known as the Black Plague, and find out what she is, whence she comes, and what she wants here.”

”Oh,” she exclaimed, with a motion of her beautiful head, ”I fear that is impossible!”

”Who can say that?” I replied. ”I want only your permission, and I will undertake to seize the Plague at once.”

”Do as your judgment dictates. I consent to everything beforehand.”

I took a long and reluctant leave of Odile, and hurried jubilantly to Sperver's room.

CHAPTER XII.

WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.--HER DEATH.