the cliff like a sea-maw through the mist, and then a heavy flash and sparkle of the waters showed me it was a human creature that had fa'en into the waves.I was bold and strong, and familiar with the tide.I rushed in and grasped her gown, and drew her out and carried her on my shouthers--I could hae carried twa sic then--carried her to my hut, and laid her on my bed.Neighbours cam and brought help; but the words she uttered in her ravings, when she got back the use of speech, were such, that I was fain to send them awa, and get up word to Glenallan House.The Countess sent down her Spanish servant Teresa--if ever there was a fiend on earth in human form, that woman was ane.She and I were to watch the unhappy leddy, and let no other person approach.--God knows what Teresa's part was to hae been--she tauld it not to me--but Heaven took the conclusion in its ain hand.The poor leddy! she took the pangs of travail before her time, bore a male child, and died in the arms of me--of her mortal enemy!
Ay, _ye_ may weep--she was a sightly creature to see to--but think ye, if I didna mourn her then, that I can mourn her now?
Na, na, I left Teresa wi' the dead corpse and new-born babe, till I gaed up to take the Countess's commands what was to be done.Late as it was, I ca'd her up, and she gar'd me ca' up your brother''--``My brother?''
``Yes, Lord Geraldin, e'en your brother, that some said she aye wished to be her heir.At ony rate, he was the person maist concerned in the succession and heritance of the house of Glenallan.''
``And is it possible to believe, then, that my brother, out of avarice to grasp at my inheritance, would lend himself to such a base and dreadful stratagem?''
``Your mother believed it,'' said the old beldam with a fiendish laugh--``it was nae plot of my making; but what they did or said I will not say, because I did not hear.Lang and sair they consulted in the black wainscot dressing-room;and when your brother passed through the room where I was waiting, it seemed to me (and I have often thought sae since syne) that the fire of hell was in his cheek and een.But he had left some of it with his mother, at ony rate.She entered the room like a woman demented, and the first words she spoke were, `Elspeth Cheyne, did you ever pull a new-budded flower?'
I answered, as ye may believe, that I often had.`Then,' said she, `ye will ken the better how to blight the spurious and heretical blossom that has sprung forth this night to disgrace my father's noble house--See here;'--(and she gave me a golden bodkin)--`nothing but gold must shed the blood of Glenallan.This child is already as one of the dead, and since thou and Teresa alone ken that it lives, let it be dealt upon as ye will answer to me!' and she turned away in her fury, and left me with the bodkin in my hand.--Here it is; that and the ring of Miss Neville, are a' I hae preserved of my ill-gotten gear--for muckle was the gear I got.And weel hae I keepit the secret, but no for the gowd or gear either.''
Her long and bony hand held out to Lord Glenallan a gold bodkin, down which in fancy be saw the blood of his infant trickling.
``Wretch! had you the heart?''
``I kenna if I could hae had it or no.I returned to my cottage without feeling the ground that I trode on; but Teresa and the child were gane--a' that was alive was gane--naething left but the lifeless corpse.''
``And did you never learn my infant's fate?''
``I could but guess.I have tauld ye your mother's purpose, and I ken Teresa was a fiend.She was never mair seen in Scotland, and I have heard that she returned to her ain land.
A dark curtain has fa'en ower the past, and the few that witnessed ony part of it could only surmise something of seduction and suicide.You yourself''--``I know--I know it all,'' answered the Earl.
``You indeed know all that I can say--And now, heir of Glenallan, can you forgive me?''
``Ask forgiveness of God, and not of man,'' said the Earl, turning away.
``And how shall I ask of the pure and unstained what is denied to me by a sinner like mysell? If I hae sinned, hae Inot suffered?--Hae I had a day's peace or an hour's rest since these lang wet locks of hair first lay upon my pillow at Craigburnfoot?
--Has not my house been burned, wi' my bairn in the cradle?--Have not my boats been wrecked, when a' others weather'd the gale?--Have not a' that were near and dear to me dree'd penance for my sin?--Has not the fire had its share o' them--the winds had their part--the sea had her part?--And oh!'' she added, with a lengthened groan, looking first upwards towards Heaven, and then bending her eyes on the floor --``O that the earth would take her part, that's been lang lang wearying to be joined to it!''
Lord Glenallan had reached the door of the cottage, but the generosity of his nature did not permit him to leave the unhappy woman in this state of desperate reprobation.``May God forgive thee, wretched woman,'' he said, ``as sincerely as I do!--Turn for mercy to Him who can alone grant mercy, and may your prayers be heard as if they were mine own!--I will send a religious man.''
``Na, na--nae priest! nae priest!'' she ejaculated; and the door of the cottage opening as she spoke, prevented her from proceeding.
