CHAPTER XIX
I slept all that night a deep unbroken slumber, waking with the first
glimpse of morning, calm and refreshed, but very sleepily perplexed at
my surroundings. It was only after long cogitations that the thread of
my
coming hither took form and shape. When at last I t:tI1 C\amilIed myself
in nly anteceflents, and reduced ~l~cul to ike melancholy piesent, I got
up
and looked from the window. A fair tract of country
260
ay outside, deep-wooded and undulating, with pastoral mead" ows in
between the hangers, and beyoun, in the open, that streamlet whose
prattle had been heard the night before lay spread into a broad rushy tarn
overgrown with green weeds and water things, and thon running on
through the flat, soft meadows of this hollow where the house was built,
wound into the far distance, where it ~oined something that shone in the
low white light like the gleam of a broader river. It was not a cheerful
morning, for it had rained much, and the chilly mist hung low and still
about these somber-wooded thickets, and the long grass bctween thenn;
the sleepy rooks in the nests upon the bare tree-tops were later to wing
than usual, cawing melancholy from the sodden boughs as thoLlgh loath
to leave them; and down below nothing sung or moved but the dark,
black merle flutter.ng along the co~:ert side, and the mavis tUlling a
plaintive and uncertain note from off the wet fir-tops.
When I had stared my full and learned little from the outlook, I nonned
those clothes that I had borrowed, and they were a happy choice. They
fitted me like a lady's glovo, and, as I laced and hooked and belted them
before a yellow mirror let into the black panel of my chamber door, I
could not but feel they looked a goodly fashion for one of my make and
bnild. I had not seemed so stalwart and so sleek, so straight in limb and
broad in shoulder, since I was a Saxoll thane. Then I belted on that pretty
sword round my nicely tapering middle, and ran my fingers through my
black eastern locks, arranging them trimly inside my high-standing frill,
and took another 300k or two intO the glass, and then with a derisive
smile -- -a little scornful at the seeret pleasure those fine feathers
gave me
-- I went forth.
Surely never did mortal mason build such a house before. The deeyest,
densest lorest path that ever my hunter's foot had trodden was sim-
ple~to those mazes of curly stairs and dim passages and wooden alleys
that led by tedious ways to nothing, and creaking, rotten steps that
beguiled the wanderer by sinuous repetitions from desolate wing to wing
and flight to flight. And all tne time that I wrestled with those labyrinthino
mazes in the struggle to reach latitunes I knew, not a sign could I see
of
iny host, not a whisper could I catch of human voice or familiar sound
in.
that dusty, desolate wilderness. Such an impenetrable stagnation hung
over that empty habitation that the crow of a distant cock or the yelp
of a
village cur would have been a blessed interruption, but neither broks the
vault-like, solemn stinness. From room to room I went, opening countless
doors at random, all leading into
261
epacious, moldy chambers, bare and tenautless, feeling my way by damp,
neglected wall and dangerous broken floo: h~gs to endless cobwebbed
windows, unbarring wooden casements and I.etting in the waterg light
that only made the imler deso^ lation more ghostly COuspiCIlOus, but
nothing human could I find, nor any prospect but that sanle one I had
seen before of damp woodlauns and marsh: water-meadowNs out
beyond.
Perhaps for half an hour had I adventured thus hopcle; ~;ly, lost in the
dusty bowels of that stupendous building; a~id then, just as I W aS near
despairing of an exit and medilating a leap from a casement on to the
St!,lly terraces below, ol~cning one final door, that might well have been
but a honscLold cupboard for the storing of linall and raimerlt, there'
.It
Hly iNeet, was the great main staircase, leading, by many a turn and
staging, to the central hall below. I put, with the pOint of my sword,
a
cross upon the outside of that cupboard door, so that I might know it
ay`Lill if need be, and then desce.lded.
Had you seon me coming down those Tunor steps in that Tunor finery,
my band upan the hilt of ¥ny lOllg steel rapier perked behind me, my
great ruLLl(3 and my curled musta he, my strong soldier limbs squeezed
into those sweet-fitti`~g sarill hose and sleeves, so stern and grim, so
lonely and silent in the white glimmer of the morning shh~e that came
from dista:lt lattice and painted oriel, you well might have thought me
scarcely flesh and blood -- son~e old Tudor ancestor of th.Lt old Tunor
hall stepped fron~ a painter's canvas just as he was in life, and come
with
beatless feet to see what cheer his gross descendants made of it where
he
had once lived so noisy and so jolly.
Down the steps I came, and into the banquet-llall, cmpty and deserted like
all else, and so sauntered to tha table-llsad where I had supped the
evening be£ore. Not one trace of humankind had I seen sinoe tlJe
night,
and yet -- that li(tle thing quite startled me -- the supper had been cleared
a`N~uN-, another napkin spread, another plate put out with fruit and
bread, and a la:ge beaker of good new milk stood by to fLuik them. I
stared hard at that simple-seeming meal, and could not comprehend it. I
was near sure the old man InL{1 not set it -- yet, if he had, why was there
but one plate, one phtee, one chair, one beaker? Was it meant for me or
him? What fingers had pulled that fruit, or drawn that milk still warm
from its source? I would wait, I thought, and strolled off to the windows,
and down them all slowly in turn, then back again, to idly hum a favorite
tune we had sung yesterday at Crecy. But still nothing came or stirred.
Then I went into
262
the hall and examined that trophy of weapons and tried them all, and then
unbarred the great door and went oat Upon the terrace, there to dangle
my satin legs ovel the balustrades dllring a long interval of gloomy
speculation; but not a leAf ~llS moving, not a sign or whisper could- I
see
of that strange old fellow who had brought me hitherto, and n0W dLl his
duty by his guest so quablbly.
At last I went back to the dining-place, and regarded that mysterious meal
with fixed attention. "~ow this," I thought, "is surely spread for me;
and if
it is not, then it shoul`d bc. the master of a house may get hin1 food
how
and when he likes, but the guest's share it put ready to his hand. I have
waited a long hour and morc, the surl is high, surely that learned pedant
conld not mean to belay his courtesy by starving a stranger visitor? I(O,
it
were certainly afieetation to wait longer; at the worst there must be more
where these good things can1e from." And being hungry, and having thlls
appeased my conscience, I clappeil my sword upon the table, atld fell to
~vork, and in a short space had made a light though suilicient moal, and
cleared everything eatable completely from the table.
I was the better for it, yet this strange solitune began to weigh Upon
me.
But a few hours since -- surely it was no more -- I had been in a busy
camp, bright with all the panoply of war, active, bustling; and here --
why,
the white mists seemed creeping through me, it was so dan~p and
melancholy, the tawny mildew of these walls seemed settlblg down upon
my spirit. Jove! I felt, by comparison of what I-had lJeen and was, already
touched with the clammy rottennoss of this place, and slowly turning into
a piece of crumbling lutl~ber, such as lay about on every hand -- a
tarnished, faded HlOUU ment to a life that was by-gone. Oh! I could not
stand the house, and, taking my cap and sword, strolled down the garden,
full of pensive thoughts, morose, uncarilJ~,, and su Oilt into the woods
'oeyond, and over hill and dalt, a lol~g nalk that set the stagnant blood
flowing in my sleopy VOhlS, am did me tOlliE good.
eaving the hall where so strange a night had been spent, I strode out
strongly over hill and dale for mile after mile, without a thought of where
the path might lead. I stall~ed on all day, and came back in the eveni~,o;
yet the only thing worthy of note upon that round was a familiarness of
sce'~o, a certain feeling of old acquaintance with plain and valley, which
possessed me when I had gone to the furthest limit of the walk. At one
hill-top I stopped and looked over a wide,
263
gently swelli ~a plttin of verdure, with a grassy knoll or two in bi~llt,
and
`~ o~ ~Is arld new w}leat-fielus shining emerald in the .'~plil sul~li~~.i~,
~shile far away the long clouns were IY;IJg steady over the dUn shine of
a
distant sea. I tlZought to mysslf, "Sure~- I 1~ave seen all this before.
Yonder knoll, standing tall anlong the lesser ones -- W}ly does it appeal
so
to ms? ~\un that d.stant flash of water there among the misty woodlands
a few miles to westward of it? Jove! I could, somehow, have S\N orn
there had been a river there even before I saw the shine. Some sense
withill me knows each swell and hollow of this fair country herc, and yet
n~now it not. 'l~hey were not my `xlXOfl ghldes that spread out beneath
me, and the distant strctl~ll swept rotlnct no such steEp as that castled
mount nherefrom I had set out for Crecy. I could not justify that spark
Of
vague rememl~rallc`?, and loug I sat and wondered how or when in a
wide life I had secu that valley, but fruitlesslv. N-ot fancy did not err,
though it was not for many davs I h~.ew it.
Then, after.a time, I turned homeward. Homeward, was it? wt~ll, it wa~
as much thitherivard as any way I knew, though, indced' I marveled as I
went why my feet should turn so uaturally t~aul: to that gloomy
mansion, peopled only by shadows and the smell Of sael suggestious.
Perhaps my mind just then was too inert to scek uew roads, and accepted
the easiest, after tl ~' manner of weak things, as the inevitable. he this
as it
may, I went back that wet, misty afternoon, alone with my nlelancholy
listlessness through the damp, dripping woods and coppices, where the
dead ferns looked red as hiood il~ the e~cning glow. I was so heedless
nost my way ouce or t~riee, and, when at lengt'r1 the dead frout of the
old house glimult?red out of the mist ahead, the carly night was seiting~
i~~, and that lank, dejected garden, those ruined terraces, and hn~nlred
staring, ermpty windows frowning down on the gra\ c-green court-yard
stones seemed more forsaken, more mourn'tal-looking even than it had
the night hefore.
1 found the front door ajar, exactly as it was left, and, groping about,
presently discovered the tinder and steel. I made a light, and laughed
a
little bitterly to think how much indeed I was at home; then, in bravado
and mockery, unsheathed my sword and went from room to room, in the
gathering dusk, stalking sr~lleil and watchful, with the gleam of light
held
above my hend, down esch Glamrlly corridor and vault-like chamber;
rapped with my hilt on casement and panels, and, listening to the gloomy
etho that ruplbled down that ghoulish palace, I pricked with my rapier-
point each swelling, rotten
264
curtain, I punctured every ghostly, swinging arras, and stabbed the black
shatiows in a score of dim recesses. B~~t nothing I found until, in one
of
these, my sword-point strutk something soft and yielding, and sunk in.
Jove! it startled me! 'Twas wondrous like a true, good stab through flesh
and bone; and my fingers tightened upon the pommel, and I sent the
blade home through that yielding, nnseen " something," and a span deep
into the rotten wall beyond; then looked to see what I had got. Faugh!
'twas but a woman's dress left on a rusty nail, a splendiLi raiment once
--
such as a noble girl m~ght wear, and a prhleess give -- padded and quilted
wondrously, with yards of stitching down the front, wherefrom rune
hands had torn gold filigree and pearl cmbroideries, and where the
wearer's heart had beat those rough fingers had left a faded rose still
tied
there by a love-l~not on a strand of amber silk -- a lovely gown once on
a
time no doubt, but now my sword had run it through and through from
back to bosom. Lord! }1OW it smelled of dead rose, and must, and moth.
I
shook it angrily fron~ my weapon, and left it there upon the rotten
boards, and WOllt on with my quest.
But neither high nor loiv, nor far nor near, was there to be found the
smallest trace of my host or any living mortal. At last, weary and wet,
and
oppressed wiTh those vast echoing solitunes, I we~it back to the great
hall, passed all the un~ touched litter I had made in the morning, and
so to
the banquet-place. I walked up the long black tables set solenm with
double rows of empty chairs, and lighted the lamp that stood at top. It
burned up brightly in a minute, and there beneath I saw the morning
meal had been removed, the supper-llapki
neatly laid, and bread, wine, and chese laid out afresh for one. So
unexpected was that neat array, so quaint, so Otlt of keeping with the
desolate mansion, that I laughed aloun, then paused, for down in the
great vaultyinterior of that house the echo took my laughter up, and the
lone merriment sounded wicked and inferual in those souness corridors.
Well, there was supper; while I was tired and hungry, I would not be
balked of it though all hell were laughing outside. In the vast empty grate
I made a merry fire with some old broken chairs -- a jolly, roaring blaze
that curled about the mighty iron dogs as though glad to warm the chilly
hearth again, and went flaming and twisting up the spacious chimney in
right gallant kind. Then I lifted the stopper of the wine-jar, and, finding
it
full of a good Rhenish vintage, set to work to mull it. I fetched a steel
gorget from the trophy in the hall, poured the liquor therein, and put
it by
the blaze to warm.
265
And tii . ?.tke the drink the more complete I spitted an apple OTI my r
`.
ier~point and toasted the pippin by the embers, thtTs making . wassail-
bowl of most superior sort.
I cat rd drank and supped very pleasarltly that evelling, while the stror.g
wind whistled among the chimTTeY-st.tcLs and rattled with uneartmy
persistence upon the caseruclTts, or opened and shut, now soft, now
fiercely, a score of crealsing distant doors. The splutterilTg rain came
down tTpon the fire by which I sat in my quaint finery, warming my
Tunor legs by that Tunor blaze; the tall spectral things of the g~trdeu
beyond the'ctirtainless windows nodded and bent before the storm; loose
strands of ivy bcat gently upon the panes like the wet long fingers of
ghostly vagrants in~plori'Tg admission; the water fc,1 with measured beat
UpOT1 the empty court-vard stones from. broken gargoyle and spout,
like the t'all of gellEly pattering feet, and the strangest sobbing noises
came from the hollo`,v wainscoting of that strange old dwelling-place.
But do yon thirlk I feared? I, who had lived so long and kno`,vn so much?
I, who four times had seen the substaTItia world dissolve intO nothing,
and had awoke to find a ne
earth, born from the dusty ashes of the past? I, who had stocl~ed four
times the void air with all I loved? I, for whom the shadowy fields of
the
unknown were so thickly habited? I, to whom the seeming material
wor'd again was so nnpeopled, so visionary and desolate'~ I mocked the
wild gossip of the .storm, and griTnl~y wove the infernal whispers of that
place into the thread of my fancies.
Hour by hour I sat and thought- -- thought of all the rosy pictures of
the
past, of all the bright beams of love I had~seen shina for me in maiden
eyes, all the wild glitter and delight of twenty fiery combats, all the
joy
and success, all the sorrow and pleasure of my woTIdrous life; and thus
thought and thought until ~ wore out even the storm, that went sighiTIg
away over the distant woodlands, and the fire, that died down to a
handful of white ashes, and the wine-pot that ran dry and empty with the
last fiames in the grate; and then I took my sword and the taper, and,
leaving the care of to-morrow to the coming sunrise, went up the solenm
staircase and threw myself upon the first dim couch in the first black
chamber that I met with.
I threw myself upon a bed dressed as I was, but could not sleep as soon
as
I wished. Indeed, a heavy drowsiness possessed me, and now I would
dream for a minute or two, and then start up and listen as some distant
door was opened, or
266
to the quaint gusts that roamed about those corrilors and seemed now
and then to hold whispered conolave outside my door. It was like a child,
I knew' to be so restless; but yet he who lives near to the unknown grows
by nature watchful. It did not seem possible, I had fathomed all the
mystery there was in that gloooly mansion, and so I dozed, and waked
and wondered, waiting in spite of nJYself for something more, all in the
deep shadow of my rotten bed-hangings; now speculating upon my host,
and why he tenatZted such a life-forsaken cavern, and eat and drank from
ancient crockery, and had store of moldy finery and rusty wealious; and
tilCII idly guessing who had last slept on this creaking, somber bcd, and
why the pillows smelled so much of moldiness and mildewN, or again
listening to the wail of the expiring wind amon5 the chimneys overhead,
and the dismal sunden drip of water falling somewhere. Perhaps I had
amused myself like that a'~ hour, and it was as near as might be
mictnigilt; the low, white moon was just aglimpse over the sighing tree-
tops in the wilderIIess outside. I had beell dozilig lightlv, whel~, On
a
sunden, my soldier ear distinctly catlght a footfall in the pRssttge without,
and, starting up t~OU my elbow in the black shadow of the bed) I gripped
the hilt of the sword that L~y along under the pillows and held my breath,
as, slowly the door was opened wide, and, before my astounded eyes, a
tall, dark figure entered.
It was all done so quietly that, beyoun the first footfall and the soft
click of
the 1ifting latch, I do not think a sound broke the heavy stinness that,
betweell hro pauses of the wind reigned throughout the empty house.
~rery gcntly that dusk~r shadow by my portal shut the door behind, and
it might have been only the outer air that entered with him, or something
in that presence itself, but a cold, damp breath of air pervaded all the
room as the latch fell back.
I did not fear, and yet my heart set off a-thumping against my ribs, and
my fingers tightered tlpon the fretled hilt of my Toledo blade, as that
thing, came slowly forward from the door, and, big and tall, and so far
indistinct, stalked slowly to the bed-foot, touching the posts like one
who,
in an uncertain light, reassures himself by the feel of well-known
landmarks, and so went round toward the latticed window. I did not stir,
but held my breath and st.1red hard at that black form, that, all
tm~nscious of my presence, slowly sauntered to the light and took form
and shape. In a minute it was by the lattice, and, to my stern, wondering
awe, there, in the pale white moonshine, looking down into the desolate
garden below with
267
a melancholy steadfastness, was the figure of a tall bl,l; ~;I anish gallant.
In
that white radiance, against the ebony h:~ lting of the room, he was
limned with extraordinary clearness. Indeed, he was a great silver column
now of stenciled brightness against the black voi`1 beyond, and I could
see every point and detail in his dress an.l fcatures as tho~agh it ~rere
broad cdaylight. He was -- or must I say, he Lad ~EESiQ -- -a tall, slim
man, long-jointed and sparse after the manner of his nation, and to-night
he wore something like the fashiou of the time -- black hose and shoes,
a
black-seeming w-aistceat, a loose out~door hood above it, a slouch cap,
a
\\;lJite ruffle, and a broad black leather belt with a Jagger dangling
from
it. tSo much was ordinary about him; but -- Jovel his face in that uncertain
twilight was frightful! It was cadaverous beyond expression, and tawny
and mean, and all the shadows on it were black and strong; and out of
that dreary parchment mask, making its lifelessness the more deadly by
theil glitter, shone two restless sunkell eyes. Hekept those yellow orbs
turned upor1 the garden, and then presently put up a hand and began
stroking his small pointed board, still seeming lost in thought, and next,
stretching out a finger -- and, lioth! what a wicked-looking talon it did
sceml -- the shape begaa drawing signs upon the mistiness of the
cdiamDnd panes. At the same time he began to mutter, and there was
something quaintly grewsome about those discounected syllables in the
midnight stinness; yet, thnagh I leaned forward and peered and listened,
nothing could I learn of what he wrote or said. He fascinated me. I forgot
to speak or act, and could only regard with dumb wolider that outlined
figure in the moonlight, and the long~dead face so dreadfully ashine with
life. So bewitched was I that had that ViSiOII turned and spokeo I should
have made the best shift to answer that were possible; there was some tie,
I felt, between him and me more tha
showed upon the surface of this chance meeting of ours -- something
which even as I write I feel is not yet quite explained, though I and that
shadow now know each other well. But, instead of speaking, that
presence, man or spirit, from the outer spaces, left off his scratching
on
the window, and, with a shrug of his Spanish shoulders and a malediction
in guttural Bisque, turned from the window-cell and walked across the
room. As he did so, I noticed -- what had been invisible before -- in his
left
hand a canvas bag, and, by the shape and weight of it, that bag seemed
full of money. I watched him as he stalked across the room, watched him
disappear into the shadow, and then listened, with every sense alert, to
the click
268
of the latch and the creak of the door as he left my eehamber by the
opposite side to that wherceat he entered.
As those faint, ghostly footsteps died away slowly down the corridor, my
native senses came back, and, in a trice, I was on foot, dressed as I had
lain
me down, and, snatching my sword and c10.1k ifl a fever of expectation,
I
ran over to the window and looked upon the writing. It was figures --
figures and sums in ancient Moorish arabesqtZe; and the long sharp nail-
m.`rks of that hideous midnight mathematician were still penciled clearly
on the moonlit dew.
My blood was now coursing finely i~l my VGillS, and, hot and eager to
see some more of this grim stranger, I strode across the room and
stepped out into the passage. At first it seemed that he had gone
completely, for all was so still and silent; but the wkite light outside
was
throwing squares of sil\Ter brightness from many narrow windows on
the dusty fioor -- and there he was, in a moment, crossing the furthest
patch, tall and silvery in that radiance, with his long, slim, black legs,
his
great ru~e, and flapping cloak, looking most wicked. I went forward,
making as little noise as might be, and seeing my ghostly friend every
r~ow and then, nutil, when we had traversed perhaps halL that deserted
mansion, I lost him where three ways divided, and went pluliging and
tripping forward, striving to be as silent as I could -- though why I know
not -- and making instead at every false step a noise that should have
startled even ghostly ears. But I was now well off the trail, and nothing
showed or answer d. It was black as hell in the sbadows, and white as day
where the moonbeams slanted in from the oriels, and through this chilly
chequer I went, feeling on by damp old walls and worm-eaten
wainscoting; slippin~ flown crumbling stairs that vTere as rotten as the
balus. ters which went to dust beneath my touch; opening sulleli oaken
doors and peering down the dreary wastes within; listenin~,, prying,
wondering -- but nowhele could I find that shadowy form again.
I followed the chase for many minutes far into a lonely deserted wing of
the old house, then paused irresolute. What was I to do~ I had my cloak
nL~olZ one hand, and my naked rapier was in the other, but no light, or
any means of making one. The vision had gone, and I found, now that the
chase had ended, and my blood began to tread a sober measure, it was
dank, chilly, and dismal in these black, draughty corridors. Worse still,
I
had lost all count and reckoning of where my bed had been, and, though
that were small matter in such a house, yet somehow I felt it were well
to
reach the vantage
269
ground of more familiar places w herein to waiL the morning. So, as
nearly as was possible, I groped back upon Iny footsteps by tedious ways
and empty chambers, low in heart and angry; Inow stopping to listen to
the fiLful moaning of the wiod or the patterillo rain spots on the glass,
er
some distant panels creaking in distuat cl~ambers; lralf thinking th.lt,
after
all, I ha'1 becu ~ fool, aml cozerlerl by s',me sleepy fancy. and so I
we~rt
back, dejected and dispirited, tintil prese~ltly I came to a gloomy arch
in a
lorlg corridor, tallestried across with heavy harlgings. Unthi~~kingly
I
lifttd thom, and there -- there3 as the curtairls l-,arted -- thirty paces
ofI, a
bright moonlit door-way gently opcntd, and into the light stepped that
same black-browed foreigller agairl.
I did what any other would have doue, thmrgh it was not valiant --
stepped back against the niche and drew the tapestry folds about me, and
so hidden waited. Down he samltered leisurely straight for my hidirrg-
place, and as he came there was full time to note every wri,~kle and
furrow on tlmt s~'hen , ashy face. IIoLh! he might have been a decent
gentlemall by davlight, but in the night-shine he looked mole like a
weekdead corpso than aught else, ar-rd, with e\7es glued to thoso
twinkling eyes of his, and bated breath and irresolute fingers hard set
upon my pommel-llilt, n waited. He came on without a pause or sign to
show that nR knew he was watched, and, as he crossed the last patch of
l~ght, I saw the bag of ~old was gone, and the hant1 that carried it was
wrapped in a bloody handkerohief. Another mi~lute and we wele not a
yard apart. What good was valor there, I thought? ~ hat good were
weapons or conrage against the malignity of such an infernal shadow? I
held back while he passed, a~al in a minute it was too late to stop him.
Yet
I could follow. Aun, half asharlled of that momorlt's weakrless, and with
my courage bundilrg up again, I starLed from my hiding-place, and,
brandishing my rapier, my cloak curled on my other arm as though I
werlt to meet some famous foncer, I rarl after the Spauiald. and nOW he
hOart1 mD, and, with one swift look over his shoulder and a startled
guttural cry, set off down the passage. From light to light he flashed,
and
shadow to shadow, I hot after him, my courage rampant now again, and
all the bitterness and disappointment of the last few days nervi,~g my
heart, until I felt I could exchange a thrust or two with the black arch-fiend
himself. "Twas a brief chase. At the bottom of the corridor stood a solid
oak partition -- I had him safe enough. I saw him come to that black
barrier and hesitate; whereon I shouted fiercely, and leaped forward, and
in another minute I
270
was there where he I~`d been -- and the corridor ~ras empty, and the
l,aneled partitio'1 was doorless and unmo`-ed, and not a sound l~roke the
stinness of that old house save rmy OWU angry crW, that the hollow
echoes were bandying about from ghostly room to roon1 and corridor to
ompty corridor.
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Chapter 20
