Volume II Part 61 (1/2)

”What is thy will with the wretched victim thou hast ensnared?” he inquired.

”I have told thee.”

”Thou wilt not convey him away bodily to his tormentors?”

”Unless they have a victim the inheritance may not be mine.” She said this with such a fiendish malice that made even the exorcist tremble.

His presence of mind, however, did not forsake him.

”The ring--I remember--there was a condition in the bond. In all such compacts there is ever a loophole for escape.”

”None that thou canst creep through,” she said, with a look of scorn.

”It is not permitted that the children of men be tempted above measure.”

”When that ring shall have strength to bind me, and not till then. All other bonds I rend asunder. Even adamant were as flaming tow.”

”Here is a ring of stout iron,” said Dee, pointing to an iron ring fixed by a stout staple in the wall. ”I think it would try thy boasted strength.”

”I could break it as the feeble reed.”

The Doctor shook his head incredulously.

”Try me. Thou shall find it no empty boast.”

She seemed proud that her words should be put to the test; and even proposed that her arms should be pinioned, and her body fastened with stout cords to the iron ring which had been prepared for this purpose.

”Thou shalt soon find which is the strongest,” said she, exultingly.

”I have broken bonds ere now to which these are but as a thread.”

She looked confident of success, and surveyed the whole proceeding with a look of unutterable scorn.

”Now do thy worst, thou wicked one,” said Dee, when he had finished.

But lo! a shriek that might have wakened the dead. She was unable to extricate herself, being held in spite of the most desperate efforts to escape. With a loud yell she cried out--

”Thou hast played me false, demon!”

”'Tis not thy demon,” said Dee; ”it is I that have circ.u.mvented thee.

In that iron ring is concealed the charmed one, wrought out by a cunning smith to this intent--to wit, the deliverance of a persecuted house.”

The Red Woman now appeared shorn of her strength. Her charms and her delusions were dispelled. She sank into the condition of a hopeless, wretched maniac, and was for some time closely confined to this chamber.

Buckley, recovering soon after, was united to Grace Ashton, who, it is confidently a.s.serted, and perhaps believed, was restored to immediate health when the charm was broken.

[20] Within the last few years, since this story was written, the old house itself has been levelled with the ground.

[21] In the 39th of Eliz. Sir John Biron held the manor of Rochdale, subsequently held by the Ramsays; but in the 13th of Charles I. it was reconveyed. The Biron family is more ancient than the Conquest. Gospatrick held lands of Ernais de Buron in the county of York, as appears by Domesday Book. Sir Nicholas Byron distinguished himself in the civil wars of Charles I.; and in consequence of his zeal in the royal cause the manor of Rochdale was sequestered. After the Restoration it reverted to the Byrons. Sir John, during these troubles, was made a peer, by the t.i.tle of Baron Byron of Rochdale. In 1823 the late Lord Byron sold the manor, after having been in possession of the family for nearly three centuries.