Volume I Part 33 (1/2)
”Ere the curfew,” replied Cornelius.
”Look thee--'tis but a slender s.p.a.ce for mine art to work, and”--The seer, as he uttered this with great solemnity, entered the antechamber.
The gallant stood there, just meditating a retreat. A flush of anger and confusion pa.s.sed for a moment over Kelly's visage. Quickly recovering his self-possession, with a severe aspect, he stood before the intruder.
”Art come to listen or to watch?” abruptly interrogated the seer. ”Both be rare accomplishments truly for a youth of thy breeding.”
”Nay, good Master Kelly; I came but at thy bidding, and mine ears are not the heavier or the wiser for what they have heard, I trow.”
”I thought thee safe at morning prayers.”
”Nay,” replied Rodolf. ”There be too many bright eyes and blus.h.i.+ng cheeks for the seasoning of a man's devotions.”
”Cornelius, thou mayest retire. What mine art can compa.s.s shall not be lacking at thy need.”
The merchant, with a profound obeisance, withdrew. The seer adjusted his beard, carefully brushed the down from his velvet cap, and sate for a while as if abstracted from all outward intercourse. His keen quick eye became fixed, its l.u.s.tre imperceptibly waning. A cloud seemed to pa.s.s gradually over his sharp features, until their expression was absorbed, giving place to a look of mere lifeless inanity. A spectator might have fancied himself gazing at a sage of some remote era, conjured up from his dark resting-place. The wand of death seemed to have withered his shrunk visage for ages under the dim shadow of the grave.
Rodolf, aware that he was not to be interrupted when the gift was upon him, waited patiently the result of the seer's revelations. A considerable time had elapsed when the cloud began to roll away. His features gradually rea.s.sumed the attributes of life, as each separately felt the returning animation. His eyes rested full on the cavalier.
”I have had a vision, Rodolf.”
”To me is it not spoken?” inquired he.
”Yea, to thee!” The seer said this in a tone so hollow and energetic, and with a look of such thrilling awe, that even Rodolf shuddered. He seemed to feel his glance.
”Listen. The spirit warned me thus:--
”'The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.'”
”Nay, Master Kelly, thine art faileth this once, forsooth. To-night is the saint's vigil, yet lurk I not in the beam of a woman's favour; and ere another year I may be cured of the simples at my father's dwelling in the old castle.”
”The vision hath spoken, and it setteth not forth idle tales. Come to me anon, I will anoint and prepare my beryl and my divining mirror. Thou shall thyself behold some of the mysteries touching which I have warned thee beforetime. About noon return to my chamber.”
Rodolf withdrew into his own apartment. His countenance looked anxious and disturbed. He sat down, but his restlessness seemed to increase.
His posture was not the most easy and graceful that might be desired, nor calculated to set off his personal advantages, though now become the more needful, if, as the seer predicted, he should wive ere night--albeit his bride were yet unsought--nor wooed, nor won! Nothing could be more destructive to that easy self-satisfaction, that seductive and insinuating carriage, so essential to the fine gentleman of every age. There was a sort of angular irregularity in his movements, neither pleasant nor becoming; and his agitation so far overcame his better breeding that he really did cram his beard between at least three of his fingers. His rapier had, moreover, poked its way through his cloak, and the bright shoe-roses were nigh ruined, from the sudden crossings and disarrangements they had undergone. A considerable time had now elapsed; in the meanwhile his impatience had risen to an alarming height, insomuch that we would not have answered for the safety of his red cloth hose and silken doublet, had not noon been happily announced.
Raising the latch of the seer's chamber with considerable eagerness, he found the room completely dark. An unseen hand led him to a seat. Soon he heard a low murmuring chant, as though from voices at a remote distance. By degrees the words grew more articulate, shaping themselves into the same quaint distich that Kelly had repeated,--
”The stranger that hither comes o'er the broad sea Shall wed on the night of St Bartlemy.”
This was answered in a voice of considerable pathos; a burst of soft music filling up the interval. Gradually the eye began to feel sensible of the presence of surrounding objects, though in the ordinary way nothing could be distinguished; a faculty peculiarly sensitive with the loss of sight, and not quite dormant in the general ma.s.s of mankind. A faint gleam was soon perceptible, like the first blush of morning, apparently on the opposite side of the chamber. Becoming brighter, flashes of a dim, rainbow-coloured light crept slowly by, like the aurora sweeping over an illuminated cloud. Suddenly he saw, or his eyes deceived him, a female form shaping itself from these chaotic elements.
But it was observed only during the short intervals when the beams seemed to kindle with unusual brightness. Every flash, however, rendered the appearance more distinct. Dazzled and bewildered, the heated senses were become the victims of their own credulity, the mind receiving back its own reactions. Taking its impression probably from the occurrences of the morning, the eye rapidly moulded the figure into the likeness of Kate. Her eyes were turned upon him, beaming with that soft and melting expression he had so recently beheld. It was but momentary, or he could have persuaded himself that she looked on him with an air the most tender and compa.s.sionate. Never did fancy portray her in a form so lovely. Deep and indelible was the impression; and though it might be
”The imagination Become impregnate with her own desire,”
yet she had performed her office well. Not all the realities, all the blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the heart. The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued. Suddenly a blaze of light irradiated the apartment. Rodolf beheld, for one short glimpse, a Gothic hall. Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her feet. Madness seized him, agonising and intense. In vain he sought the features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his repose.
A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him. It arose with the speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind. All just and sober antic.i.p.ations, reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.
His first impulse was to seek his mistress. But--she had another lover!
The bare possibility of this event came o'er his bosom like the icy chill of the grave. He shuddered as it pa.s.sed; but the pang was too keen to return with the same intensity.