Part 64 (1/2)
”Oh, Ellen,” said he, ”pity and forgive me. Your mistress is gone, gone!--she knows n.o.body!”
”Stand aside,” she replied; ”stand aside all of you; let me to her.”
She knelt beside the settee, looked distractedly,--but keenly, at her for about half a minute--but there she sat, calm, pale, and unconscious.
At length she turned her eyes upon Ellen--for ever since the girl's entrance she had been gazing on vacancy--and immediately said:
”Oh! can you tell me where is William Reilly? They have taken me from him, and I cannot find him. Oh! will you tell me where is William Reilly?”
Ellen gave two or three rapid sobs; but, by a powerful effort, she somewhat composed herself.
”Miss Folliard,” she said, in a choking voice, however, ”darling Miss Folliard--my beloved mistress--_Cooleen Bawn_--oh, do you not know me--me, your own faithful Ellen, that loved you--and that loves you so well--ay, beyond father and mother, and all others living in this unhappy world? Oh, speak to me, dear mistress--speak to your own faithful Ellen, and only say that you know me, or only look upon me as if you did.”
Not a glance, however, of recognition followed those loving solicitations; but there, before them all, she sat, with the pale face, the sorrowful brow, and the vacant look. Ellen addressed her with equal tenderness again and again, but with the same melancholy effect. The effect was beyond question--reason had departed; the fair temple was there, but the light of the divinity that had been enshrined in it was no longer visible; it seemed to have been abandoned probably for ever. Ellen now finding that every effort to restore her to rational consciousness was ineffectual, rose up, and, looking about for a moment, her eyes rested upon her father.
”Oh, Ellen!” he exclaimed, ”spare me, spare me--you know I'm in your power. I neglected your honest and friendly warning, and now it is too late.”
”Poor man!” she replied, ”it is not she, but you, that is to be pitied.
No; after this miserable sight, never shall my lips breathe one syllable of censure against you. Your punishment is too dreadful for that. But when I look upon her--look upon her now--oh, my G.o.d! what is this?”--
”Help the girl,” said Mrs. Brown quickly, and with alarm. ”Oh, she has fallen--raise her up, Mr. Folliard. Oh, my G.o.d, Mrs. Hastings, what a scene is this!”
They immediately opened her stays, and conveyed her to another settee, where she lay for nearly a quarter of an hour in a calm and tranquil insensibility. With the aid of the usual remedies, however, she was, but with some difficulty, restored, after which she burst into tears, and wept for some time bitterly. At length she recovered a certain degree of composure, and, after settling her dress and luxuriant brown hair, aided by Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Hastings, she arose, and once more approaching her lovely, but unconscious, mistress, knelt down, and, clasping her hands, looked up to heaven, whilst she said:
”Here, I take the Almighty G.o.d to witness, that from this moment out I renounce father and mother, brother and sister, friend and relative, man and woman, and will abide by my dear unhappy _Cooleen Bawn_--that blighted flower before us--both by day and by night--through all seasons--through all places wherever she may go, or be brought, until it may please G.o.d to restore her to reason, or until death may close her sufferings, should I live so long, and have health and strength to carry out this solemn oath; so may G.o.d hear me, and a.s.sist me in my intention.”
She then rose, and, putting her arms around the fair girl, kissed her lips, and poured forth a copious flood of tears into her bosom.
”I am yours now,” she said, caressing her mournfully: ”I am yours now, my ever darling mistress; and from this hour forth nothing but death will ever separate your own Connor from you.”
Well and faithfully did she keep that generous and heroic oath. Ever, for many a long and hopeless year, was she to be found, both night and day, by the side of that beautiful but melancholy sufferer. No other hand ever dressed or undressed her; no other individual ever attended to her wants, or complied with those little fitful changes and caprices to which persons of her unhappy cla.s.s are subject. The consequence of this tender and devoted attachment was singular, but not by any means incompatible, we think, even with her situation. If Connor, for instance, was any short time absent, and another person supplied her place, the _Cooleen Bawn_, in whose n.o.ble and loving heart the strong instincts of affection could never die, uniformly appeared dissatisfied and uneasy, and looked around her, as if for some object that would afford her pleasure. On Ellen's reappearance a faint but placid smile would shed its feeble light over her countenance, and she would appear calm and contented; but, during all this time, word uttered she none, with the exception of those to which we have already alluded.
These were the only words she was known to utter, and no stranger ever came in her way to whom she did not repeat them. In this way her father, her maid, and herself pa.s.sed through a melancholy existence for better than six years, when a young physician of great promise happened to settle in the town of Sligo, and her father having heard of it had him immediately called in. After looking at her, however, he found himself accosted in the same terms we have already given:
”Oh! can you tell me where is William Reilly?”
”William Reilly will soon be with you,” he replied; ”he will soon be here.”
A start--barely, scarcely perceptible, was noticed by the keen eye of the physician; but it pa.s.sed away, and left nothing but that fixed and beautiful vacancy behind it.
”Sir,” said the physician, ”I do not absolutely despair of Miss Folliard's recovery: the influence of some deep excitement, if it could be made accessible, might produce a good effect; it was by a shock it came upon her, and I am of opinion that if she ever does recover it will be by something similar to that which induced her pitiable malady.”
”I will give a thousand pounds--five thousand--ten thousand, to any man who will be fortunate enough to restore her to reason,” said her father.
”One course,” proceeded the physician, ”I would recommend you to pursue; bring her about as much as you can; give her variety of scenery and variety of new faces; visit your friends, and bring her with you. This course may have some effect; as for medicine, it is of no use here, for her health is in every other respect good.”
He then took his leave, having first received a fee which somewhat astonished him.
His advice, however, was followed; her father and she, and Connor, during the summer and autumn months, visited among their acquaintances and friends, by whom they were treated with the greatest and most considerate kindness; but, so far as poor Helen was concerned, no symptom of any salutary change became visible; the long, dull blank of departed reason was still unbroken.
Better than seven years--and a half had now elapsed, when she and her father came by invitation to pay a visit to a Mr. Hamilton, grandfather to the late Dacre Hamilton of Monaghan, who--the grandfather we mean--was one of the most notorious priest-hunters of the day, We need not say that her faithful Connor was still in attendance. Old Folliard went riding out with his friend, for he was now so much debilitated as to be scarcely able to walk abroad for any distance, when, about the hour of two o'clock, a man in the garb, and with all the bearing of a perfect gentleman, knocked at the door, and inquired of the servant who opened it whether Miss Folliard were not there. The servant replied in the affirmative, upon which the stranger asked if he could see her.