Part 18 (1/2)

Perhaps even the firm nerves of the young man had been somewhat shaken by the horrors of that night, for never before had Lucius found any task so tedious, nor felt such fear from the slightest sound. Often did he interrupt himself to listen, when the wind shook the branches or rustled the leaves, almost certain that he could detect the noise of footsteps, and in constant expectation of being a.s.sailed from behind, while his hands were engaged with his work.

”I am ashamed of my weakness. Where is the boasted courage of an Englishman?--I am like a nervous girl!” muttered Lucius, when for the twentieth time he had turned his head to look round, that a foe might not take him unawares. ”It is harder to await the approach of danger alone, and in the dead hours of night, with the brain excited by a scene of murder such as I have just witnessed, than it would be to encounter any open danger under the clear light of day.

There!--happily my task is over at last!” exclaimed Lepine, as he covered in the entrance of the hole in which he had buried the box.

”The plate and jewels of Alcala are safe, and nothing remains for me to do but to find my way back to the city.”

But again difficulties beset the young stranger, who had never before traversed the cross-country way along which his pursuit of the robbers had led him. It would perhaps have been easy to Lucius to have retraced his steps if he had had daylight to guide him, but the beams of the moon were not sufficient to direct his course through that wild and desolate tract. Lucius wearied himself in vain attempts to regain the highroad to Seville. Seen by the uncertain light, one clump of trees so much resembled another that none could serve as a landmark.

Of dwellings there seemed to be none.

Lucius came at last to a stream, on whose sluggish current the moons.h.i.+ne faintly glimmered. He was at least certain that he had crossed no brook when following the track of the thieves, therefore he must have diverged from the way. The weary wanderer was glad to slake his thirst by the stream, and he then, by means of its water, removed as completely as he could the dark red stains from his dress.

”There is no use in my wandering further till day dawn and show me the way,” said the youth to himself. ”I will lie down and try to sleep.

There is little hards.h.i.+p in pa.s.sing a night on the ground in such a climate as this, and under such a glorious sky.”

Before Lucius gave way to the drowsiness which now overpowered him, he repeated, with the simple faith of a child, the prayer which he had first learned at his mother's knee, at the close of it returning fervent thanks for preservation in great danger, and almost unhoped-for success in a difficult quest. With Lucius and Aguilera religion showed its power over the soul in somewhat different ways.

Lucius had not the impetuosity of character, the pa.s.sion which, under the veil of reserve, animated the Spaniard born under more southern skies. Alcala's devotion had all the fervour of a first love. Had he continued to be a Romanist when his deepest feelings were stirred by religion, he would probably have become a missionary or a monk--have been a Dominic in asceticism, or a Xavier in active zeal. Alcala's love for his newly-found Lord was like a glorious stream bursting from mountain snows, springing over every obstacle, throwing up diamond spray, and wearing its own bright rainbow as a jewelled tiara. The religion of Lucius was a current, quiet but deep, which had flowed on through childhood, so that not even his mother could have told where it had first risen to light. Lucius would not, like Alcala, have begun his work of ministering to souls by reading aloud in a sick-room or preaching in a prison, no more than he would, like Alcala when yet unconverted, have dared death in the Plaza de Toros from an overstrained sense of honour. The one man was an Englishman, the other a Spaniard, and each showed national characteristics; but both had given themselves heart and soul to the Saviour, sought to live to His glory, and would have died for His sake.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE EARTHQUAKE.

Alcala, in his noisome prison, might well have envied Lucius his couch on the earth, and the pure fresh breezes which fanned the slumberer's brow. Whenever the prisoner awoke, it was with a sensation of stifling suffocation, which made him doubt how long his physical powers could hold out.

”Perhaps,” thought Alcala, ”a messenger more speedy than Spanish justice may one day come to release me. In the meantime _let patience have its perfect work_, my heavenly Father will bring a blessing out of all;” and, composed by such reflections, the cavalier would sink into slumber again. It was well that Alcala was able thus to s.n.a.t.c.h some hours of sleep, for the coming day was to be one of the most eventful and exciting ones of his life.

It has been said, ”Happy is the nation that has no history;” the words express wisdom condensed into wit; we read its truth in its converse.

In England, during late years, the progress of political events has produced none of those sudden, violent convulsions which shake society to its centre; the movement has rather resembled that of the earth in its...o...b..t, so quiet and regular that the bulk of the people scarcely know that motion goes on. But in unhappy Spain, instead of calm progress, there has ever and anon come a violent shock, as of an earthquake, overturning loftiest houses, throwing down highest pinnacles into the dust; an upheaving of the earth which, while it destroys much that is evil, endangers much that is good. We can only look for settled peace and prosperity in Spain to days when the Bible shall guide the counsels of her Senate, and control the pa.s.sions of her people.

Not many hours had pa.s.sed since the light of morning, forcing its way through gratings into the prison of Seville, had aroused its inmates to commence, as they thought, the dreary monotony of another day, when even the dungeon's depths were stirred by a consciousness that exciting scenes were pa.s.sing outside the walls. A look of expectation was on every face, every ear was bent to listen.

”Hark to the distant roar! One might deem that we were near the sea!”

cried one of the smugglers.

”It's a sea, I warrant ye, that will send many a proud galley to the bottom ere the sun go down,” observed a thief, whom his previous conversation had shown to be also a keen politician.

”It's a sea that won't be stilled by Claret's sprinkling drops of holy oil upon it!” said a gipsy; and what a devout Romanist must have deemed a profane jest, was received with a burst of laughter.

”Let the sea rage as it will,” observed Diego the chulo to Aguilera, ”so that it bear back to old Spain the n.o.blest man that ever drew breath in her air. I'll drink the health of Prim yet in a b.u.mper of wine, and down with--”

The chulo had not time to conclude his sentence, when the louder, nearer noise of _vivas_ from a thousand voices showed that the ma.s.sive prison door no longer dulled outer sounds, or obstructed the free pa.s.sage of the mob into the building. In surged the rus.h.i.+ng human torrent; in one minute the corridor was, as their voices showed, filled by an excited rabble; the next minute the dividing door was burst open! The mob rushed into the dungeon, its walls resounded with loud _vivas_, re-echoed by most of the prisoners thus suddenly released from confinement, and let loose to swell the numbers of the wild crowd. The noise and confusion which prevailed were so great that it was difficult at the first instant to gain a clear idea of what had occurred; but it was soon as well known in the prison as it was already through every corner of Seville, that great and exciting news had arrived from Madrid during the course of the night. The reins of power had suddenly been wrenched from the hand of Queen Isabella; the sovereign of Spain had fled the kingdom; her minions had barely escaped with their lives; the fabric of government was overthrown, and no one could tell what would replace it. Like the criminals from the dungeon, all the fiercer pa.s.sions of men were let loose, and who would have power to rule them?

If the prison of Seville had been suddenly filled almost to suffocation, it was nearly as suddenly emptied. There was nothing in it to tempt cupidity, nothing to retain the excited mob; and those who had been inmates of the gloomy abode were the most eager of the throng to rush forth into the free air. Robbers and murderers remembered that there might be palaces to plunder, and enemies to pursue. Aguilera found himself almost alone in the dungeon where, but a few minutes before, he had hardly had s.p.a.ce wherein to breathe. Diego only remained by him still.

”Shall we follow the rest, senor?” asked the chulo. ”There's not a jailer dare draw a bolt on us now. Methinks your prayer last night, like that of St. Paul, has been answered by an earthquake.”

”I will return to my house, if I have strength to reach it,” replied Alcala, making an effort to walk to the door. The cavalier was very desirous that at a time when anarchy and confusion prevailed throughout Seville, he should be in his home to protect the ladies of his family.