Part 34 (1/2)
”I fear thee not, but am prepared to withstand _thee_ and all thy works.”
”Beware! There's a black drop in thine own cup,” said she. ”Thou thyself hast sought counsel by forbidden arts, and I can crush thee in a moment.”
Dee looked as though vanquished on the sudden. He was not altogether clear from this charge, having, though at Kelly's instigation, been led somewhat further than was advisable into practices which in his heart he condemned. He, however, now felt convinced that Kelly had some hand in the business, knowing too that he would a.s.sociate with the most wicked and abandoned, if so be that he might compa.s.s his greedy and unhallowed desire.
”Depart whilst thou may,” she continued. ”I warn thee. Yonder inheritance is mine, though the silly damsel they have lost be the reputed heir. Aforetime I have told thee. Wronged of our rights, I have sold myself, aye body and soul, for revenge! By unjust persecutions we have been proscribed, those of the true faith have been forced to fly, and even our lands and our patrimony given to yon graceless heretics.”
”But why persecute this unoffending house?--they have not done _thee_ wrong.”
”It is commanded--the doom must be fulfilled. One condition only was appointed. A hard task, to wit--but what cannot power and ingenuity compa.s.s?--'When one shall pledge himself thine and for ever, then the inheritance thou seekest is thine also, which none shall take from thee.
But he too must be rendered up to me.' This was the doom! 'Tis fulfilled. He hath pledged himself body and soul, and that ring, if need be, is witness to his troth.”
”Is Grace Ashton living or dead?” inquired Dee, with a firm and penetrating glance.
”When he hath surrendered to his pledge it shall be told thee.”
”Wicked sorceress,” said the Doctor, rising in great anger, ”he shall not be thy victim; thine arts shall be countervailed. The powers of darkness are not, in the end, permitted to prevail, though for a time their devices seem to prosper. Listen, and answer me truly, or I will compel thee in such wise that thou darest not disobey. Was there none other condition to thy bond?”
The weird woman here broke forth into a laugh so wild and scornful, that the arch-fiend himself could hardly have surpa.s.sed it in malice.
”Fret not thyself,” she said, ”and I will tell thee. Know then I am scathless from all harm until that feeble ring shall be able to bind me; none other bonds may prevail.”
”This ring bind thee?”
”Even so--and as a blade of gra.s.s I could rend it! Judge then of my safety. Fire, air, and water--all the elements--cannot have the power to hurt me; I hold a charmed life. The price is paid!”
Dee looked curiously round the little thin ring which he held, and indeed it were hopeless to suppose so frail a fetter could restrain her.
”Thou hast told me the truth?”
”I have--on my hope of prospering in this pursuit of our patrimony.”
”And what is thy purpose with the lad?”
”I have need of him. He is my hostage to him whom I serve.”
”Thou wilt not take him by force?”
”I will not. He will follow whithersoever I lead. He has neither will nor power to disobey.”
”Grant a little s.p.a.ce I prithee. 'Tis a doleful doom for one so young.”
”To-morrow my time hath expired. Either he or I must be surrendered to----” Here she pointed downwards.
”Agreed. To-morrow, at this hour. We will be prepared.”
The witch unwillingly departed as she came. The closet door was shut as with a violent gust of wind, after which Dee sat pondering deeply on the matter, but unable to come to any satisfactory conclusion. He never suspected for one moment, what in this evil and matter-of-fact generation would have occurred even to the most credulous, to wit, that either insanity or fanaticism, aided by fortuitous events, if we may so speak, was the cause of this delusion, at least to the unhappy woman now the object of Dee's most abstruse speculations. His thoughts, however, would often recur to his quondam a.s.sociate Kelly, and, if in the neighbourhood, which he suspected, an interview with him might possibly be of use, and afford some clue to guide their proceedings.
Committing himself to a short repose, he determined to make diligent search for this mischievous individual,--having comforted in some measure the unhappy couple below stairs, who were in a state of great apprehension lest their son had already fallen a victim, and were ready to give up all for lost.
Early on the ensuing day, the Doctor bent his steps towards Clegg Hall, whence the old family of that name had been dispossessed, and from whom that mysterious individual, the Red Woman, claimed descent.
The air was fresh and bracing after the night's tempest. Traces of its fury, however, were plainly visible. Huge trees had been swept down, as though some giant hand had crushed them. Rising the hill towards Belfield, he stayed a moment to look round him. There was something in the loneliness and desertion of the spot that was congenial to his thoughts. The rooks cawed round their ancient inheritance, but all was ruin and disorder. His curiosity was excited; he had sufficient local knowledge to remember it was once an establishment of the Knights of St.