Part 27 (1/2)

FRESH ALARM IN THE VILLAGE.--LESTER'S VISIT TO ARAM.--A TRAIT OF DELICATE KINDNESS IN THE STUDENT.--MADELINE.--HER p.r.o.nENESS TO CONFIDE.--THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN LESTER AND ARAM.

--THE PERSONS BY WHOM IT IS INTERRUPTED.

Not my own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come, Can yet the lease of my true love controul.

--Shakspeare: Sonnets.

Commend me to their love, and I am proud, say, That my occasions have found time to use them Toward a supply of money; let the request Be fifty talents.

--Timon Of Athens.

The next morning the whole village was alive and bustling with terror and consternation. Another, and a yet more daring robbery, had been committed in the neighbourhood, and the police of the county town had been summoned, and were now busy in search of the offenders. Aram had been early disturbed by the officious anxiety of some of his neighbours; and it wanted yet some hours of noon, when Lester himself came to seek and consult with the Student.

Aram was alone in his large and gloomy chamber, surrounded, as usual, by his books, but not as usual engaged in their contents. With his face leaning on his hand, and his eyes gazing on a dull fire, that crept heavily upward through the damp fuel, he sate by his hearth, listless, but wrapt in thought.

”Well, my friend,” said Lester, displacing the books from one of the chairs, and drawing the seat near the Student's--”you have ere this heard the news, and indeed in a county so quiet as ours, these outrages appear the more fearful, from their being so unlooked for. We must set a guard in the village, Aram, and you must leave this defenceless hermitage and come down to us; not for your own sake,--but consider you will be an additional safeguard to Madeline. You will lock up the house, dismiss your poor old governante to her friends in the village, and walk back with me at once to the hall.”

Aram turned uneasily in his chair.

”I feel your kindness,” said he after a pause, ”but I cannot accept it--Madeline,” he stopped short at that name, and added in an altered voice; ”no, I will be one of the watch, Lester; I will look to her--to your--safety; but I cannot sleep under another roof. I am superst.i.tious, Lester--superst.i.tious. I have made a vow, a foolish one perhaps, but I dare not break it. And my vow binds me, save on indispensable and urgent necessity, not to pa.s.s a night any where but in my own home.”

”But there is necessity.”

”My conscience says not,” said Aram smiling: ”peace, my good friend, we cannot conquer men's foibles, or wrestle with men's scruples.”

Lester in vain attempted to shake Aram's resolution on this head; he found him immoveable, and gave up the effort in despair.

”Well,” said he, ”at all events we have set up a watch, and can spare you a couple of defenders. They shall reconnoitre in the neighbourhood of your house, if you persevere in your determination, and this will serve in some slight measure to satisfy poor Madeline.”

”Be it so,” replied Aram; ”and dear Madeline herself, is she so alarmed?”

And now in spite of all the more wearing and haggard thoughts that preyed upon his breast, and the dangers by which he conceived himself beset, the Student's face, as he listened with eager attention to every word that Lester uttered concerning his niece, testified how alive he yet was to the least incident that related to Madeline, and how easily her innocent and peaceful remembrance could allure him from himself.

”This room,” said Lester, looking round, ”will be, I conclude, after Madeline's own heart; but will you always suffer her here? students do not sometimes like even the gentlest interruption.”

”I have not forgotten that Madeline's comfort requires some more cheerful retreat than this,” said Aram, with a melancholy expression of countenance. ”Follow me, Lester; I meant this for a little surprise to her. But Heaven only knows if I shall ever show it to herself?”

”Why? what doubt of that can even your boding temper discover?”

”We are as the wanderers in the desert,” answered Aram, ”who are taught wisely to distrust their own senses: that which they gaze upon as the waters of existence, is often but a faithless vapour that would lure them to destruction.”

In thus speaking he had traversed the room, and, opening a door, showed a small chamber with which it communicated, and which Aram had fitted up with evident, and not ungraceful care. Every article of furniture that Madeline might most fancy, he had sent for from the neighbouring town.

And some of the lighter and more attractive books that he possessed, were ranged around on shelves, above which were vases, intended for flowers; the window opened upon a little plot that had been lately broken up into a small garden, and was already intersected with walks, and rich with shrubs.

There was something in this chamber that so entirely contrasted the one it adjoined, something so light, and cheerful, and even gay in its decoration and its tout ensemble, that Lester uttered an exclamation of delight and surprise. And indeed it did appear to him touching, that this austere scholar, so wrapt in thought, and so inattentive to the common forms of life, should have manifested this tender and delicate consideration. In another it would have been nothing, but in Aram, it was a trait, that brought involuntary tears to the eyes of the good Lester. Aram observed them: he walked hastily away to the window, and sighed heavily; this did not escape his friend's notice, and after commenting on the attractions of the little room--Lester said: ”You seem oppressed in spirits, Eugene: can any thing have chanced to disturb you, beyond, at least, these alarms which are enough to agitate the nerves of the hardiest of us?”

”No,” said Aram; ”I had no sleep last night, and my health is easily affected, and with my health my mind; but let us go to Madeline; the sight of her will revive me.”

They then strolled down to the Manor-house, and met by the way a band of the younger heroes of the village, who had volunteered to act as a patrole, and who were now marshalled by Peter Dealtry, in a fit of heroic enthusiasm.

Although it was broad daylight, and, consequently, there was little cause of immediate alarm, the worthy publican carried on his shoulder a musket on full c.o.c.k; and each moment he kept peeping about, as if not only every bush, but every blade of gra.s.s contained an ambuscade, ready to spring up the instant he was off his guard. By his side the redoubted Jacobina, who had transferred to her new master, the attachment she had originally possessed for the Corporal, trotted peeringly along, her tail perpendicularly c.o.c.ked, and her ears moving to and fro, with a most incomparable air of vigilant sagacity. The cautious Peter every now and then checked her ardour, as she was about to quicken her step, and enliven the march by the gambols better adapted to serener times.

”Soho, Jacobina, soho! gently, girl, gently; thou little knowest the dangers that may beset thee. Come up, my good fellows, come to the Spotted Dog; I will tap a barrel on purpose for you; and we will settle the plan of defence for the night. Jacobina, come in, I say, come in,--