Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
114
THE WEEKLY NOVELETTE.
“ Bid Captain Narvaez to my presence!”
In a short time the officer re-appeared.
“You told me that three of the pirates were still
alive in your hands, captain, did you not ?”
“ Yes, your excellency.”
“Thad forgotten to give orders regarding their dis-
posal. Let them be hung at sunrise on the plaza at the
Punta!”
“ Without trial or even a court martial ?”
“Ay, were they not taken in arms? Have they
given trial to one out of the thousands whom they have
slain? Let them die like dogs, as they are! O would
that their leader had been spared for my doom, but as
it is, the manner of his death will yet add to the depth
and bitterness of my revenge!”
The officer bowed, and left the room, to obey the
stern orders of his commander.
CHAPTER X.
“ Together, love, we'll roam, and share,
irs
lon:
Cheered by the skylark’s Deion song—
Or watch, across the easter!
The pale streaks spreading far aud nigh—
Or listen to the murmuring beat
Of brooks that bubble at our feet—
We'll rest beneath yon hillock green,
nd gaze upon the chequered scene.
See, o’er yon monuntain’s misty head
The brightening sun has upward sped;
Hasteniog its fervid beams to cool
On spangled mead, or dimpled pool;
Or drinking from each floweret fair
‘The diamond drops that glisten there:
Its shelving rays scarce peep between
The dewy leaves of valley green;
Reilecting back their glittering sheen
In thousand sparkles die
While over yonder mountain steep,
In chaster, colder lines they sweep,
Flinging its giant shadow men
er copse and greenwood n
And dyeing dark, with lessening shade,
Each verdant hill and grassy glade.”
Ir was a sweet spring morning, and a sweet scene
for a lovely spring-day sun to shine upon. At the foot
of the lofty “Montes de Hierro,” or Iron Mountains,
a few leagues to the southward of Havana, on the sea
coast, and in sight of the Table Land of Matanzas,
stood the country palace of Don Enrico Larranaga.
It was a princely mansion, and lovely was the spot
whereon it was erected. Between the mountains and
the sea a level space of table-land intervened, and this
was overgrown with fruit and flower trees, a tastefully
laid out park arranged with fountains, lakelets stocked
with beautiful fish and rare aquatic birds, meadow-
greens and flower-beds, through which the small gazelle-
like deer of the island wandered in tamed and fearless
herds, spread spaciously around the mansion. The
bright streams which leaped in sheets of foam adown
the mountain rocks, supplied the fountains, and here
and there rushed murmuring across the plain into the
sea beyond.
The space between the sea-side and the mountains
was narrow, but so completely filled up with beautiful
things, that its smallness would pass any eye unnoticed.
The lofty hills in its rear were beautiful, grand and
majestic. Out from their dark crevices whence the
silvery springs like bright-winged spirits leaped, green
vines and flowering shrubs grew, and clung to the dark
cliffs and topling rocks; evergreen trees fringed the
lofty heights, and threw their gnarled, fantastic limbs
out upon the background of cloudless sky, looking like
sentinels of Nature placed upon her out-posts to watch
the coming of her hour of doom.
Upon an almost inaccessible point of the cliff, direct-
ly above the pleasure-grounds which surrounded Don
Enrico’s palace, were the ruins of an ancient castle,
which was regarded by the superstitious peasantry who
lived around, with fear and awe, for they deemed that
it was haunted, and told strange tales of a spirit which
had been seen at night to come forth robed in white,
and to gaze mournfully down from the lofty and
crumbled battlements, and sing in strains so wild and
beautiful in their sadness, that though they feared her
and fled, their ears were charmed with the memory of
her melody.
And they told, too, of the shadows of men, and many
a legend of blood, and horror, and love’s wild romance
had they fastened upon this spot, which, however, none
of them ever dared to approach. Indeed, had they de-
sired so to do, it would’ have required a bold heart,
steady hand, and sure foot, to have reached those
heights. The castle had evidently been built when the
Spaniards first landed upon the island, as a stronghold
of safety where no enemy might easily approach.
Almost beneath the perpendicular rock on which
stood the ruined castle, a lovely little lake received the
bright contents of a spring which leaped in a sheet of
foam from a cleft in the rock above, filling the air with
a wild, clear gush of music, like the rush of a gale over
a single string of an Eolian harp when all the rest are
broken.
Between this lake and the rock, on a narrow mound
of moss which was shaded by the overhanging preci-
pice, at the time when we introduce the reader to this
scene, were seated two persons, whose appearance ac-
corded well with Nature’s beauty, for they too were
peerlessly fair.
One was a girl, not more than seventeen or eighteen,
whose long black hair stole in glossy and unconfined
curls adown a peerless neck, and over shoulders lovely
beyond our cold pen’s power to describe. Her cheek’s
rich hue told but of health and happiness, and her large
dark eyes were so lustrous and dewy, that they seemed
indeed the flowers of the soul’s garden. Long lashes
drooped over and softly shadowed them, and as she
laughed her voice seemed to mock the silvery fountain’s
clear dash, while from between her lips as like a rose-
bud-cleft, her small teeth glittered like pearls in a lovely
ruby set. Her bare arms were round and full, and so
fair, that one might almost wish to die by strangulation
with them around his neck, and as her form reclined
upon that soft mossy sod, it seemed to have uncon-
sciously found an attitude in which best to display its
every grace.
The one by her side was—reader, you have seen him
before. It was Juan, the handsome nephew of Don
Enrico.
The small hand of the lady was in his, and we know
not whether he was engaged in gazing upon the rich
jewels which hooped those tapering fingers, or admiring
the hand itself, as he thus sat in converse with her.
“ Dear Luella,” said he, ‘I am so happy once more
to find myself here where the air is fresh, and the birds
are singing, and the very flowers seem to be sweeter
than those in the town. Everything seems to welcome
me, too. The birds all seem to add to their mellow
notes, I am sure the deer gazed more brightly than ever
upon me as I passed through the park, and even that
bright fountain appears to have a voice of kindliness in
its gentle murmur !”
“You have spoken of the welcome of birds, and
flowers, and fountains, but not a word about Luella’s
greeting! Was her kiss colder than usual, thatit is so
soon forgotten?” said the maiden, sadly; but inex-
pressibly sweet was her sadness, as is the mellow twi-
light of a balmy summer eve. :
“No, dear cousin, I am not forgetfal or regardless of
your affectionate welcome, but my late life has cast
terms of compliment and courtly phrases from my
brain, and I fear that for a time you'll find me as rude
and uncouth as the sailors with whom I have lately
associated |”
“If you could learn rudeness from associating with
them, could you not learn gentleness now in my com-
pany ?”
“ Yes, dear cousin, am I not taking a lesson at this
moment? By the way, while I think of it, have you
done as you promised when we parted ?”
“ Unto what promise do you allude, Juan?”
“That you would come here to our favorite seat each
day at sunset and think of me, who was absent amid
perils and dangers !”
“T came, dear Juan, but onze, and—”
“ Thus you broke a promise which made me spend
an half hour at every sunset in thinking of my bright-
eyed cousin!” playfully interrupted the youth.
* Heer me, Juan, before you condemn me for break-
ing that promise. I came hither the evening after you
left, and was so sadly frightened that I shall never dare
to come here again alone !”
“What frightened you? I thought that Spanish
maidens were not to be scared by shadows!”
“T heard the spirit of the castle, and O Jven, never
heard mortal ear such strains before. S’~ sung a
melody that enchained me to the spot, and I lingered
here long after nightfall, and then almost dead with
terror, fled homeward, where I found Elizabetta almost
crazed with anxiety about me!”
“The spirit of the castle? Surely my cousin Luella
does not regard the superstitious fancies and tales of the
peasantry with a thought of truth !”
“O, Juan, had you heard the spirit’s song you would
not have spoken now so jestingly! Will you come
here with me this eve? Perchance again we may hear
the mystic voice !””
“T will come to laugh at your foolish fancies, dear
cousin !””
“ Or to learn that I have told you true, dear Juan !””
CHAPTER XI.
* Come, tell me all that thou hast seen,
And look thou tell me true!
Since I from Smaylho'me tower have been,
What did thy lady do?”
“T ant here, your excellency !” said a voice behind
the governor, Don Enrico, as he sat late at night in his
easy chair beside his writing cabinet.
With a quick start the nervous old man turned and
beheld Elizabetta, the nurse, for whom he had pre-
viously sent. It is several years since we have seen
her, reader, and you would scarce recognize in the
gray-haired duenna before you, the good-looking mid-
dle-aged woman who brought the pale and wounded
babe into that same room some seventeen years before,
yet this was the same.
“It is well!” was the quick, stern answer of Don
Enrico. “I have sent for you to know what has
occurred, since I last consulted you.”
“Nothing, your excellency, nothing unusual or
strange.”
“Have you noted the manner of Juan towards my
daughter ?”
“T have, your excellency.”
“ Doth he not love her?”
“As a cousin, not otherwise, I think, your ex-
cellency.”
“Doth he not seem to delight in her company?
Doth he not love to walk and ride and sing with her?
Is he not as constant in his attendance as her shadow ?”
“There are no others fitting to be his associates at
the villa; can your excellency éxpect if your daughter
is kept so secluded from society, that she will not en-
joy the company of her only companion ?”
“ Her only companion ?” angrily responded the gov-
ernor. ‘Have I not set you to be a continual guard
and watch over their actions ; to permit no intimacy
beyond the mere courtesy allowed by relationship ?”
“ You have, Don Enrico, and I have done my duty !”
answered the woman mildly, but firmly.
“He doth not dream of his birth, or that Luella is
other than his cousin?”
“No, your excellency, although I have heard him
complain that there was to him an unfathomable mys-
tery which tortured his heart, and he murmured about
strange expressions which had fallen from your lips !””
“It is well, Elizabetta. You must return and keep
strict watch and ward over them. I love my daughter
—she is my second-born, my pure and beautiful,—she
must not find the disgraceful fate of the first, who is—
The old man suddenly paused, as he noted a search-
ing look of anxious curiosity, and also a strange and
peculiar smile upon the woman’s face, and angrily bade
her begone and leave him to his own secrets.
After she had left the room, he remained in a quiet
and musing posture, at times audibly expressing his
thoughts, again muttering low and incoherently.
“Tt must be done soon, and the sooner the better !””
said be, as after a short time he arose from his chair,
