Kitobni o'qish: «The White Gauntlet»
Volume One – Chapter One
A woman in a wood – encountered accidentally, and alone. ’Tis an encounter to challenge curiosity – even though she be but a gipsy, or a peasant girl gathering sticks.
If a high-born dame, beautiful, – and, above all, bright-haired, – curiosity is no longer the word; but admiration, involuntary, unrestrained – bordering upon adoration. It is but the instinct of man’s heart to worship the fairest object, upon which man’s eye may rest; and this is a beautiful woman, with bright hair, met in the middle of a wood.
Marion Wade possessed all the conditions to merit such exalted admiration. She was high-born, beautiful, and bright-haired. She was alone in a wood.
It did not detract from the interest of the situation, that she was mounted on a white horse, carried a hawk on her hand, and was followed by a hound.
She was unaccompanied by human creature – hawk, hound, and horse being her only companions.
It must have been her choice to be thus unattended. Wishing it, the daughter of Sir Marmaduke Wade might have had for escort a score of retainers.
Autumn was in the sky: and along with it a noon-day sun. The golden light straggling through the leaves was reflected upon a field of blue, brilliant as the canopy whence it came. It was not the blue of the hyacinth gleaming in the forest glade, nor the modest violet that empurples the path. In October it could not be either. More attractive was that cerulean tint, seen in the iris of a woman’s eye – the eye of Marion Wade.
The sunbeams danced upon her yellow hair, with apparent delight, kissing its tresses of kindred colour – kissing her radiant cheek, that, even under the shadow of the trees, looked luminous.
What does she in the wild wood unguarded – unattended? Is she a-hawking?
The kestrel perched upon her gloved hand should say, yes. But more than once game has sprung up temptingly before her; and still the hood has been suffered to stay upon the hawk, and its jesses are retained in leash.
Has she lost her way – is she wandering?
Equally unlike. She is upon a path. A noble park is in sight, with a road that runs parallel to its palings. Through the trees she can obtain glimpses of a stately mansion standing within its enclosure. It is the famed park of Bulstrode – ancient as Alfred the Great. As she is the mistress of its mansion she cannot have lost her way? She cannot be wandering?
And yet, why does she fret her palfrey in its paces – now checking, now urging it onward? If not wandering in her way, surely is she astray in her thoughts?
She does not appear to be satisfied with the silent solitude of that forest path: she stops at short intervals, and leans forward in her saddle, as if listening for sounds.
Her behaviour would lead to the belief, that she is expecting some one?
A hoof-stroke is heard. There is a horseman coming through the wood. He is not yet in sight; but the sound of his horse’s hoofs striking the solid turf – tells that he is riding upon the track, and towards her.
There is an opening in the forest glade, of some six roods in extent. It is cut in twain by a path, which parts from the high road near one of the gates of Bulstrode Park; thence treading over the hills in a north-westerly direction.
On this path rides Marion Wade, straying, or dallying – certainly not travelling.
She has entered the aforementioned opening. Near its centre stands a tree – a beech of magnificent dimensions – whose wide-spreading boughs seem determined to canopy the whole area of the opening. The road runs beneath its branches.
Under its shadow, the fair equestrian checks her palfrey to a stand – as if to shelter, hawk, hound, and horse, from the fervent rays of the noon-day sun.
But no: her object is different. She has halted there to wait the approach of the horseman; and, at this moment, neither hawk, hound, nor horse claims the slightest share of her thoughts.
She sits scanning the road in the direction whence the hoof-strokes are heard. Her eyes sparkle with a pleasant anticipation.
The horseman soon appears, cantering around a corner – a rustic in rude garb, astride of a common roadster!
Surely he is not the expected one of Marion Wade?
The question is answered by the scornful exclamation that escapes from her pouted lips.
“’Sh! I might have known by the clattering it wasn’t the footfall of that noble steed. A peasant!”
The despised rustic rides on – as he passes making awkward obeisance, by a spasmodic pluck at his forelock.
His salutation is scarcely returned: or only with a nod, apparently supercilious. He wonders at this: for he knows that the lady is the daughter of Sir Marmaduke Wade – Mistress Marion – usually so condescending to, and a favourite with, all of his class. He cannot guess the chagrin he has given her.
He is soon out of her sight, and equally out of her thoughts: for it is not the sound of his departing hoof-strokes her ear is now re-quickened to catch; but others of bolder bound, and clearer resonance awaking the echoes of the wood.
These are soon heard more distinctly; and presently a second horseman appears, advancing around an angle of the road.
A striking contrast does the new comer present to the rustic who has just ridden past. A cavalier of elegant carriage, spurred and plumed; mounted on a superb steed, of jet-black colour – his counter clouted with flakes of snow-white froth loosened from his chamfering lips.
A glance at the horse is sufficient to show that he is the “noble steed” mentioned in that muttered soliloquy; and half a glance at the rider proclaims him the individual for whom Marion Wade has been waiting.
As yet she has not given him half a glance. She has not even turned her eyes in the direction whence he is approaching. She sits silent in her saddle, and to all appearance calmly indifferent. But this air of insouciance is only assumed. The quivering of the kestrel, roosted upon her wrist, tells that she is trembling; while the high heaving of her bosom indicates the presence of some strong emotion.
Going at a gentle gallop, the horseman glides out into the opening.
Perceiving the lady, he checks his steed to a slower pace – as if to pass more respectfully.
Marion continues to affect an air of non-observance – studied and severe: though the cavalier coming forward, is at that moment the sole subject of her thoughts.
Her reflections will disclose the character of these thoughts; and enable us to obtain an insight into the relations existing between these two splendid equestrians, whom chance, or design, has brought together upon the lonely forest road.
“If he should speak to me,” soliloquises the lady, “what shall I say to him? What can I? He must know it is not accident that has brought me hither – and now so often. If I thought he knew the truth, I should die of shame!
“I wish him to speak; and yet I fear it. Ah! there need be no fear. He will not. How many times has he passed me without a word! And yet his glances – do they not tell me that he would – Oh! – this etiquette of out high life – that without shame strangers may not be civil to one another!
“Would I were a peasant – and he the same – only handsome as he is now! ’Tis cruel, to be thus constrained by silly social custom! My sex, too, against me. I dare not speak first. Even in his eyes it would undo me!
“He is going to pass me as before? Is there no way by which this painful reticence may be removed?”
The fair equestrian appeared to ponder on some plan – only half-formed and half-resolved, as her muttered reflections indicated.
“Dare I do it? What would my proud father say, if he were to know? Even gentle cousin Lora would chide me? A stranger whose name I only know, and that’s all. Perhaps not a gentleman? Oh – yes – yes – yes! He can not be other. He may not be a lord of the land – but he is lord of my poor heart! I cannot restrain myself from soliciting him – even if it bring shame and repentance. I shall do it – I shall do it!”
The speech betrayed a determination. To do what?
The act itself, following close upon the words, answered the question. With a quick jerk the lady dislodged the kestrel from its perch, tossing the bird to the neck of her palfrey – where it clung, clutching the snow-white mane. Then drawing off her glove, a white gauntlet, she dropped it negligently by her side – permitting it to slide down the skirt of her riding-dress. It fell into the middle of the road.
A short moment intervened. The lady apparently unconscious of the loss she had sustained, tightened the rein upon her palfrey, and with a slight touch of the whip moved out from under the branches of the beech – her horse’s head turned in a direction opposite to that in which the cavalier was approaching.
At first she rode slowly – apparently desirous of being overtaken. Presently she increased the pace; then faster, and faster, until she went at a gallop – as though by a sudden change of thought she had determined to avoid an interview! The thick tresses of her golden hair escaping from the comb swept down upon the croup behind her. The natural red of her cheeks had become heightened to the hue of carmine. It was the suffusion of burning blushes. Her eyes were flashing with a strange excitement in an expression that spoke of something like shame. She had repented of what she had done, and dreaded to wait the consequence of the act!
For all that she was dying to look back, but dared not.
A turn in the road, at length, offered her the opportunity. As she reined her palfrey around the corner, she glanced towards the spot where she had abandoned her glove.
The tableau that saluted her eye was not displeasing. The cavalier, bending down from his saddle, was just lifting the gauntlet upon the point of his glistening rapier!
What would he do with it?
She waited not to see. Her palfrey passed behind the trees, and the horseman was hidden from her sight. On that splendid steed he might easily have overtaken her: but, although listening, as she rode on, she heard no hoof-stroke behind her.
She did not desire to be overtaken. For that day she had submitted herself to sufficient humiliation – self-administered – it is true; but she slackened not the pace, till she has passed through the gates of the park, and sighted the walls of the paternal mansion.
Volume One – Chapter Two
If tumultuous were the emotions of Marion Wade, as she let fall that significant token, not less so were those of Henry Holtspur as he took it up.
Had the lady remained a moment longer looking back, she would have seen her glove taken gently from the point of the cavalier’s sword, pressed with a wild fervour to his lips, and proudly placed alongside the plume in the frontlet of his beaver.
She only saw that her challenge had been accepted; and, with a thrill of sweet satisfaction, contending against a sense of shame, she had ridden rapidly away.
The cavalier, equally gratified, appeared also perplexed: as if hesitating whether he should follow. But the abrupt departure of the lady seemed to say that pursuit was prohibited; and, checking his ardour, along with his steed, he remained by the tree, under the shadow of which he had halted.
For some minutes he sate in his saddle, apparently absorbed in reflections. That they were not all of one character was evinced by the expression upon his countenance, which kept continually changing. Now it betokened triumph, with its concomitant pleasure; anon could be traced the lines that indicated doubt, accompanied by pain; and, once or twice, an expression that told of regret, or remorse, was visible. These facial changes will be better understood by giving in detail the thoughts that were causing them.
Was it intended for a challenge? Can I doubt it? Had the incident been alone, I might have deemed it accidental. But the many times we have met – and upon this lone road! Why should she come this way, unless – ? And her looks? On each occasion bolder, and lovelier! Oh! how sweet to be thus favoured! How different from that other love, that has had such unhappy ending! Then I was prized but for my position, my prospects, and my fortune. When these fell from me, only to be forsaken!
“If she love me, her love cannot rest on circumstances like these. She knows me not – not even my name! That she may have heard, can suggest neither rank, nor fortune. If she love me, it must be for myself? ’Tis a thrilling thought – thus to believe!”
The eye of the cavalier lighted up with an expression of triumph; and he sate proudly erect in his saddle.
Only for a short time did he preserve this high attitude. Reflections of a far different character succeeded, dissipating the happiness he had for the moment experienced.
“She will know in time? She must know? Even I, myself, must tell her the terrible secret. And then what is to become of this sweet, but transient, dream? It will be all over; and instead of her love, I shall become the object of her hatred – her scorn? O God! To think it must end thus! To think that I have won, and yet can never wear!”
The features of the speaker became overspread with a deep gloom.
“Why did I enter upon this intrigue? Why have I permitted it to proceed? Why do I desire its continuance? To all these questions the answer is the same. Who could have resisted? Who could resist? It is not in man’s nature to behold such beauty, without yearning to possess it. As Heaven is my witness, I have struggled to subdue this unholy passion – to destroy it – to pluck it forth from my bosom. I have tried to shun the presence of her who inspires it. Perhaps I might have succeeded, had not she. Alas! I have no longer the power to retreat. That is gone, and the will as well. I must on – on – like the insect lured by some fatal light, to a self-sought and certain destruction!”
It was then that remorse became plainly depicted upon the countenance of the cavalier. What could be causing it? That was a secret he scarcely dared declare to himself.
“After all,” he continued, a new train of thought seeming to suggest itself, “what if it be an accident – this, that has made me at once so happy, and yet so wretched? Her looks, too – those glances that have gladdened my heart, at the same time awaking within me a consciousness of wrongdoing, as, too ardently, I gave them back – may I not have misinterpreted them? If she intended that I should take up this glove – that I should restore it to her – why did she not stay to receive it? Perhaps I have been misconceiving her motives? After all, am I the victim of an illusion – following but an ignis fatuus kindled by my own vanity?”
At the moment the look of remorse gave place to one of chagrin. The cavalier appeared no longer to regret being too much loved; but rather that he might not be loved at all – a reflection far more painful.
“Surely! I cannot be mistaken. I saw it on her hand but the instant before – with the hawk perched upon it. I saw her suddenly fling the bird to the neck of the horse, and draw off the gauntlet, which the next moment fell from her fingers! Surely it was design?”
He raised his hand to his hat; took the glove from its place; and once more pressed it to his lips.
“Oh, that her hand were in it!” he enthusiastically exclaimed, yielding to a sweet fancy. “If it were her fingers I held thus to my lips – thus unresisting – then might I believe there was bliss upon earth!”
A footstep, falling upon his ear, interrupted the enraptured speech. It was light, betokening the proximity of a woman, or rather the presence of one: for, on turning, his eye rested upon a female figure, standing by the side of his horse.
The cavalier saw before him a comely face – and something more. He might have deemed it beautiful; but for that other still present to his intellectual eye, and altogether engrossing his thoughts.
It was a young girl who had thus silently intruded: and one worthy of a gracious reception, despite the peasant garb in which she had presented herself.
Both face and figure were such as could not be regarded with indifference, nor dismissed without reflection. Neither owed aught to the adornment of art; but to both had nature been liberal, even to profuseness.
A girl, closely approximating to womanhood, largely framed, and finely developed – in arms, limbs, bust, and body, exhibiting those oval outlines that indicate the possession of strong passions and powers.
Such was the creature who stood by the horse of Henry Holtspur.
But for their blackness, her eyes might have been likened to those of an eagle; but for its softness, her hair resembled the tail of his own steed – equally long and luxuriant; and her teeth – there could have been nothing whiter, even among the chalk of the Chilterns – her native hills.
Robed in silk, satin, or velvet, it was a form that would have done no discredit to a queen. Encircled with pearls or precious diamonds, it was a face of which a princess might have been proud. Even under the ordinary homespun of a rustic gown, that form looked queenly – beneath those glossy plaits of crow-black hair – bedecked with some freshly-plucked flowers – that face might have inspired envy in a princess.
In the glance bestowed upon her by the cavalier there was no sign – either of surprise or admiration. It was simply a look of recognition, accompanied by a nod, acknowledging her presence.
In the eye of the maiden there was no such indifference. The most careless observer could have told, that she was in love with the man upon whom she was now gazing.
The horseman took no heed of her admiring glances. Perhaps he noticed them not. His attention was altogether given to an object, which the girl held in her outstretched hand, and which was instantly transferred to his. It was a letter, sealed and directed to himself.
“Thanks!” said he, breaking open the seal. “Your father has brought this from Uxbridge, I suppose?”
“He has, sir. He sent me with it; and bid me ask you if there be an answer to go back. As you were not at the house, I brought it here. I hope I have done right, sir?”
“Oh, certainly! But how did you know where to find me? My tongueless attendant, Oriole, could not have told you?”
“He made sign, sir, that you had taken this road. I thought I should meet you here; and father said it might be important for you to have the letter at once.”
The red blood mantled higher upon the girl’s cheeks, as she offered this explanation. She knew she had exceeded her father’s instructions; which had been, simply, to leave the letter at “Stone Dean,” the residence of Henry Holtspur.
The cavalier, occupied with the epistle, noticed neither her blushes nor embarrassment.
“’Tis very considerate of you,” said he, turning gratefully towards the girl, as he finished reading the letter. “Your father has guessed correctly. It is of the greatest importance that I should have had this letter in good time. You may tell him that it needs no reply. I must answer it in person, and at once. But say, Mistress Betsey; what return can I make you for this kind service? You want a ribbon for your beautiful black hair? What colour is it to be? I think blue – such as those flowers are – does not so well become you. Shall it be a red one?”
The words, though courteously intended, fell with an unpleasant effect upon the ear of her to whom they were addressed. They were not the speeches to which she would fain have listened.
“Thanks, sir,” said she, in a tone that betrayed pique, or some other unlooked-for emotion. “A fine ribbon would scarce suit my coarse common hair. These flowers are good enough for it!”
“Ah! Mistress Betsey! Your beautiful tresses can bear this disparagement: you know they are neither coarse nor common. Nay; if you refuse the ribbon, you must accept the price of one. I cannot allow, that the essential service you have done me should go unrewarded. Take this piece of gold; and make purchase with it to suit yourself – scarf, gown, or gloves – whichever you please.”
Somewhat to the cavalier’s surprise, his liberal largess was rejected – not with scorn, but rather with an air of sadness – sufficiently marked to have been noticed by him, had he not been altogether unsuspicious of the cause.
“Well – well,” said he, putting back the coin into his purse, “I am sorry you will not permit me to make some amends for your kindness. Perhaps I may find an opportunity on some future occasion? Meanwhile I must be gone. The letter you have delivered summons me hence, – without delay. Many thanks, Mistress Betsey, and a fair good morning to you!”
A touch of the spur caused his chafing steed to spring out into the middle of the road; and the rider, heading him for the highway that conducted towards Uxbridge, soon swept round the corner – at the same instant, becoming lost to the sight of the dark-eyed damsel – whose glance, full of passion and disappointment, had followed him to the point of his disappearance.
