" Pardon me, Monsieur," answered Desmarais, bow-
ing to the ground ; " one ought to get drunk some-
times, because the next morning one is sure to be
thoughtful; and, moreover, the practical philosopher
ought to indulge every emotion, in order to judge how
that emotion would affect another ; at least, this is my
opinion."

" Well, go."

" My most grateful thanks be with Monsieur; Mon-
sieur's nightly toilet is entirely prepared."

And away went Desmarais, with the light, yet slow,
step with which he was accustomed to combine ele-
gance with dignity.

I now passed into the room I had prepared for Isora's
boudoir. I found her leaning by the window, and I
perceived that she had been in tears. As I paused to



DEVEREUX. 337

contemplate her figure, so touchingly, yet so uncon-
sciously mournful in its beautiful and still posture, a
more joyous sensation than was wont to mingle with
my tenderness for her swelled at my heart " Yes,"
thought I, " you are no longer the solitary exile, or
the persecuted daughter of a noble but ruined race ;
you are not even the bride of a man who must seek
in foreign climes, through danger and through hard-
ship, to repair a broken fortune and establish an ad-
venturer's name ! At last the clouds have rolled from
the bright star of your fate wealth, and pomp, and
all that awaits the haughtiest of England's matrons
shall be yours." And at these thoughts, Fortune
seemed to me a gift a thousand times more precious than
much as my luxuries prized it it had ever seemed to
me before.

I drew near and laid my hand upon Isora's shoulder,
and kissed her cheek. She did not turn round, but
strove, by bending over my hand and pressing it to
her lips, to conceal that she had been weeping. I
thought it kinder to favour the artifice than to com-
plain of it. I remained silent for some moments, and
I then gave vent to the sanguine expectations for the
future which my new treasure entitled me to form. I
had already narrated to her the adventure of the day
before ; I now repeated the purport of my last inter-
view with Oswald ; and, growing more and more elated
as I proceeded, I dwelt at last upon the description of
my inheritance, as glowingly as if I had already re-

VOL. i. y



338 DEVERETJX.

covered it I painted to her imagination its rich
woods and its glassy lake, and the fitful and wander-
ing brook that, through brake and shade, went bound-
ing on its wild way ; I told her of my early roamings,
and dilated with a boy's rapture upon my favourite
haunts. I brought visibly before her glistening and
eager eyes the thick copse where, hour after hour, in
vague verse, and still vaguer dreams, I had so often
whiled away the day; the old tree which I had
climbed to watch the birds in their glad mirth, or
to listen unseen to the melancholy sound of the forest
deer ; the antique gallery and the vast hall, which, by
the dim twilights, I had paced with a religious awe,
and looked upon the pictured forms of my bold fathers,
and mused high and ardently upon my destiny to be ;
the old grey tower which I had consecrated to myself,
and the unwitnessed path which led to the yellow
beach, and the wide gladness of the solitary sea ; the
little arbour which my earliest ambition had reared,
that looked out upon the joyous flowers and the merry
fountain, and, through the ivy and the jessamine,
wooed the voice of the bird, and the murmur of the
summer bee ; and when I had exhausted my descrip-
tion, I turned to Isora, and said in a lower tone, " And
I shall visit these once more, and with you."

Isora sighed faintly, and it was not till I had pressed
her to speak that she said :

" I wish I could deceive myself, Morton, but I can-
not ; I cannot root from my heart an impression that I
shall never again quit this dull city, with its gloomy



DEVEREUX. 339

walls and its heavy air. A voice within me seems to
say ' Behold from this very window the boundaries
of your living wanderings ! ' "

Isora's words froze all niy previous exaltation. " It
is in vain," said I, after chiding her for her despond-
ency " it is in vain to tell me that you have for this
gloomy notion no other reason than that of a vague
presentiment. It is time now that I should press you
to a greater confidence upon all points consistent with
your oath to our mutual enemy than you have hitherto
given me. Speak, dearest; have you not some yet un-
revealed causes for alarm 1 ?"

It was but for a moment that Isora hesitated before
she answered with that quick tone which indicates that
we force words against the will.

" Yes, Morton, I mil tell you now, though I would
not before the event of this day. On the last day that
I saw that fearful man, he said, ' I warn you, Isora
D' Alvarez, that my love is far fiercer than hatred ; I
warn you that your bridals with Morton Devereux
shall be stained with blood. Become his wife, and
you perish ! Yea, though I suffer hell's tortures for
ever and for ever from that hour, my own hand shall
strike you to the heart !' Morton, these words have
thrilled through me again and again, as if again they
were breathed in my very ear; and I have often
started at night and thought the very knife glittered
at my breast. So long as our wedding was concealed,
and concealed so closely, I was enabled to quiet my
fears till they scarcely seemed to exist. But when our



340 DEVEREUX.

nuptials were to be made public, when I knew that
they were to reach the ears of that fierce and unac-
countable being, I thought I heard my doom pro-
nounced. This, mine own love, must excuse your
Isora, if she seemed ungrateful for your generous
eagerness to announce our union. And perhaps she
would not have acceded to it so easily as she has done,
were it not that, in the first place, she felt it was be-
neath your wife to suffer any terror so purely selfish
to make her shrink from the proud happiness of
being yours in the light of day ; and if she had not
felt (here. Isora hid her blushing face in my bosom)
that she was fated to give birth to another, and that
the announcement of our wedded love had become
necessary to your honour as to mine ! "

Though I was in reality awed even to terror by learn-
ing from Isora's lip so just a cause for her forebodings
though I shuddered with a horror surpassing even
my wrath, when I heard a threat so breathing of deadly
and determined passions yet I concealed my emotions,
and only thought of cheering and comforting Isora. I
represented to her how guarded and vigilant should
ever henceforth be the protection of her husband ; that
nothing should again separate him from her side ; that
the extreme malice and fierce persecution of this man
were sufficient even to absolve her conscience from the
oath of concealment she had taken ; that I would
procure from the sacred head of our church her own
absolution from that vow ; that the moment conceal-
ment was over, I could take steps to prevent the exe-



DEVEREUX. 341

cution of my rival's threats ; that, however near to me
he might be in blood, no consequences arising from a
dispute between us could be so dreadful as the least evil
to Isora ; and moreover, to appease her fears, that I
would solemnly promise he should never sustain personal
assault or harm from my hand ; in short, I said all that
my anxiety could dictate, and at last I succeeded in
quieting her fears, and she smiled as brightly as the
first time I had seen her in the little cottage of her
father. She seemed, however, averse to an absolution
from her oath, for she was especially scrupulous as to
the sanctity of those religious obligations ; but I secretly
resolved that her safety absolutely required it, and that
at all events I would procure absolution from my own
promise to her.

At last Isora, turning from that topic, so darkly
interesting, .pointed to the heavens, which, with their
thousand eyes of light, looked down upon us. " Tell
me, love," said she playfully, as her arm embraced me
yet more closely, " if among yonder stars we could
choose a home, which should we select 1 "

I pointed to one which lay to the left of the moon,
and which, though not larger, seemed to burn with an
intenser lustre than the rest. Since that night it has
ever been to me a fountain of deep and passionate
thought, a well wherein fears and hopes are buried, a
mirror in which, in stormy times, I have fancied to
read my destiny, and to find some mysterious omen of
my intended deeds, a haven which I believe others
have reached before me, and a home immortal and



342 DEVEKEUX.

unchanging, where, when niy wearied and fettered soul
is escaped, as a bird, it shall flee away, and have its
rest at last.

" What think you of my choice ? " said I. Isora
looked upward, but did not answer ; and as I gazed upon
her (while the pale light of heaven streamed quietly
upon her face) with her dark eyes, where the tear yet
lingered, though rather to soften than to dim, with her
noble, yet tender features, over which hung a melan-
choly calm, with her lips apart, and her rich locks
wreathing over her marble brow, and contrasted by a
single white rose (that rose I have now; I would not
lose one withered leaf of it for a kingdom !) her beauty
never seemed to me of so rare an order, nor did my soul
ever yearn towards her with so deep a love.

It was past midnight. All was hushed in our bridal
chamber. The single lamp, which hung above, burnt
still and clear ; and through the half-closed curtains of
the window, the moonlight looked in upon our couch,
quiet, and pure, and holy, as if it were charged with
blessings.

"Hush!" said Isora, gently; " do you not hear a
noise below 1 "

" Not a breath," said I ; " I hear not a breath, save
yours."

" It was my fancy, then ! " said Isora, " and it has
ceased now;" and she clung closer to my breast and
fell asleep. I looked on her peaceful and childish coun-
tenance with that concentrated and full delight with
which we clasp all that the universe holds dear to us,



DEVEREUX. 343

and feel as if the universe held naught beside and
thus sleep also crept upon me.

I awoke suddenly; I felt Isora trembling palpably
by my side. Before I could speak to her, I saw, stand-
ing at a little distance from the bed, a man wrapt in a
long dark cloak, and masked; but his eyes shone through
the mask, and they glared full upon me. He stood
with his arms folded, and perfectly motionless ; but at
the other end of the room, before the escritoire in which
I had locked the important packet, stood another man,
also masked, and wrapped in a disguising cloak of similar
hue and fashion. This man, as if alarmed, turned
suddenly, and I perceived then that the escritoire was
already opened, and that the packet was in his hand.
I tore myself from Isora's clasp I stretched my hand
to the table by my bedside, upon which I had left my
sword it was gone ! Ko matter ! I was young, strong,
fierce, and the stake at hazard was great. I sprung
from the bed, I precipitated myself upon the man who
held the packet. With one hand I grasped at the im-
portant document, with the other I strove to tear the
mask from the robber's face. He endeavoured rather
to shake me off than to attack me ; and it was not till
I had nearly succeeded in unmasking him that he drew
forth a short poniard, and stabbed me in the side. The
blow, which seemed purposely aimed to avoid a mortal
part, staggered me, but only for an instant. I renewed
my gripe at the packet I tore it from the robber's
hand, and collecting my strength, now fast ebbing away,
for one effort, I bore my assailant to the ground, and
fell struggling with him.



344 DEVEKEUX.

But my blood flowed fast from my wound, and my
antagonist, if less sinewy than myself, had greatly the
advantage in weight and size. Now for one moment I
was uppermost, but in the next his knee was upon my
chest, and his blade gleamed on high in the pale light
of the lamp and moon. I thought I beheld my death
would to God that I had ! With a piercing cry,
Isora sprang from the bed, flung herself before the lifted
blade of the robber, and arrested his arm. This man
had, in the whole contest, acted with a singular for-
bearance he did so now; he paused for a moment and
dropped his hand. Hitherto the other man had not
stirred from his mute position ; he now moved one step
towards us, brandishing a poniard like his comrade's.
Isora raised her hand supplicatingly towards him, and
cried out, " Spare him, spare Mm! Oh, mercy, mercy I"
"With one stride the murderer was by my side; he
muttered some words which passion seemed to render
inarticulate; and, half pushing aside his comrade, his
raised weapon flashed before my eyes, now dim and
reeling : I made a vain effort to rise the blade de-
scended Isora, unable to arrest it, threw herself before'
it her blood, her heart's blood, gushed over me I saw
and felt no more.

When I recovered my senses, my servants were round
me ; a deep red wet stain upon the sofa on which I
was laid brought the whole scene I had witnessed again
before me terrible and distinct. I sprang to my feet
and asked for Isora ; a low murmur caught my ear I
turned, and beheld a dark form stretched on the bed,



DEVEREUX. 345

and surrounded, like myself, "by gazers and menials. I
tottered towards that bed my bridal bed with a fierce
gesture motioned the crowd away : I heard my name
breathed audibly the next moment I was by Isora's
side. All pain, all weakness, all consciousness of my
wound, of my very self, were gone life seemed curdled
into a single agonising and fearful thought I fixed my
eyes upon hers ; and though there the film was gather-
ing dark and rapidly, I saw yet visible and unconquered
the deep love of that faithful and warm heart which
had lavished its life for mine.

I threw my arms around her I pressed my lips
wildly to hers. " Speak speak ! " I cried, and my
blood gushed over her with the effort ; " in mercy
speak ! "

Even in death and agony, the gentle being who had
been as wax unto my lightest wish, struggled to obey
me. " Do not grieve for me," she said, in a tremulous
and broken voice, " it is dearer to die for you than to
live ! "

Those were her last words. I felt her breath abruptly
cease. The heart, pressed to mine, was still ! I started
up in dismay the light shone full upon her face.
God ! that I should live to write that Isora was no
more !

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.



VOL. I.



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