Captain Kyd Volume I Part 27

"Soul!" repeated the sorceress, with a writhing lip of derision; "_soul_!"

"Hast thou no soul, woman, in the name of G.o.d!" exclaimed the maiden, appalled by the emphasis she laid on the word as she repeated it a second time.

The sorceress gazed on her a moment fixedly ere she replied, and then advancing a pace towards her, said hoa.r.s.ely,

"Yes!"

"Woman," continued Kate, with solemn earnestness, turning pale at the manner in which she p.r.o.nounced this monosyllable, "I know thou art wicked and full of evil; but thou canst not have bartered thy eternal life? have made compact with Sathanas, at the hazard of thy salvation?"

Elpsy was moved with surprise by the energy with which she was addressed, and, banis.h.i.+ng her derisive smile, answered in a more natural tone,

"By compact no, lady! none save but with my own nature; even as all who are mortal do barter away their souls when they obey the devil within. I have served him in the shape of evil pa.s.sions till his I am, soul and body!"

"Say not so, Elpsy," said Kate, touched with pity by the sullen despair and abandonment of her manner, although in it not a shade of remorse or penitence was apparent even to her charitable gaze; "if you have sinned, there is forgiveness to be had of Heaven! It is not too late to secure your soul's future happiness. I know there is much that is kind and humane in you when you are not gored by insults, or under the influence of angry emotions. Abandon your course of life; seek forgiveness of Him who died for the chiefest of sinners. I pity you, Elpsy."

The sorceress hung her head upon her breast in silence: her bosom heaved with inward struggles; her harsh features became convulsed, and the maiden thought she saw a tear fall from her eyes to the ground.

Encouraged by these signs of good, she added, approaching her in a kindly manner,

"Cast off this a.s.sumed character, if, as I sincerely trust, it is not irrevocably made thine own by thy soul's price. I will furnish for thee a neat cottage not far from Cormac, the forester's, and thou shalt have the comforts about thee thy old age craves. Do not despair of forgiveness, Elpsy. G.o.d is merciful, and will meet thee in kindness more than half the way if--"

"Angel! fiend! mock me not!" shrieked the woman, suddenly lifting her face furrowed with tears, gnas.h.i.+ng her glittering teeth, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng, her clinched hands shaking with nervous excitement, and her whole bearing that of a pythoness enraged and fear-stricken. "There is no G.o.d--no heaven for me! Yes, I am bought, body and soul! Talk not to me of your Christ! For a moment I was carried back to childhood as you spoke," she continued, with a sudden change of manner; "for I have been once innocent as thyself. But 'tis past!" she cried, fiercely. "Your words can move me no more! They have pressed out the last drop of moisture that remained in my heart! I am adamant now--hard--hard--hard as iron! Ha, ha, ha! Elpsy a Christian! Accursed be the name!"

Kate Bellamont, at this sudden and terrific outbreak from one whom she believed had been softened by her words, retreated from the vehemence of her language and the savage wildness of her manner, with the look and att.i.tude of one who suddenly beholds the lion which he has tamed start suddenly from his playful embrace, and a.s.sume all at once the savage ferocity of his nature. She was astonished beyond expression by this unexpected ebullition of feeling, and her mind was appalled both by her terrible language and the new ground she had a.s.sumed.

"Elpsy, stand from the door and let me pa.s.s!" she said, with firmness, yet trembling through every fibre of her body, as Elpsy, after speaking, continued to gaze on her in gloomy silence, and with a lowering and menacing aspect.

"Nay," said the sorceress, placing herself full in the way, and speaking with more mildness even than was usual to her, "I have news that concerns thee."

"Me?"

"None else."

"Of what?"

"The young Lord of Lester."

"What of him? Thy looks--thy language--that fearful smile!"

"Dost love him?"

"It matters not to thee. Speak what thou hast to say, and quickly," she cried, with an indefinable foreboding of evil.

"Thou dost, maiden. It is written in every lineament; speaks in every action--yea, Robert of Lester is thy second self. Ha, ha, ha! Did I not say I held the key to thy soul--ay, and I can unlock it, too!"

Having, in the first heat of her vengeance at finding herself defeated by the course taken by Lester, resolved to divulge to Kate Bellamont the secret of his birth that she might triumph in her humility and wretchedness, Elpsy's fertile mind soon taught her how best to effect her malicious, and, save its wickedness, aimless purpose. She now, therefore, in a tone of a.s.sumed carelessness, added,

"But thou lovest him because he is n.o.ble like thyself! Were he lowly in name and humble in birth, thou wouldst scorn him," she added, with the manner of one who is trying the moral pulse of her victim: "this is ever the way with the highborn."

"Were he lower born than the hind who herds my father's kine, he would still be Lester, and n.o.ble to me!" she said, with a spirit that became her lofty beauty and devoted love.

"This will never do," muttered Elpsy, thoughtfully, intent on her cruel design, and forgetful of, and insensible to, the grat.i.tude due to the maiden for the kindly interest she had so recently expressed in her welfare; in repayment of which, with all the maliciousness of a demon, she was now taxing her ingenuity to dash from her lips the cup of happiness which young love had offered to them.

"Were he a cowherd, he would have a cowherd's common soul, maiden!"

"Being common he then could not be Lester. But being Lester, though a swineherd, that inherent n.o.bleness, that is the birthright of his nature, would s.h.i.+ne out through his mean garb and calling, and make him still, to my eyes, the Lester I love."

"Were he a slave--a serf--ay, chained to a galley, wouldst thou love him still?"

"If misfortune, and not crime, brought him to this degradation--then should I not love him less, but love him more!"

"If 'twere crime?"

"Couple it not with his name, woman," she said, with flas.h.i.+ng eyes. "But why this dark and subtle questioning? Speak, I command thee!"

"Thou hast no power to command me--I no will to obey. I will probe her yet deeper!" she muttered. "If, maiden, there were a stain upon his birth--"

"Well--" she quickly interrupted, with painful eagerness visible in every lineament of her beautiful countenance: for her feelings were highly wrought up, and, excited to expectation of something evil by the manner of her interrogator, she was all nerves and on the rack of torturing suspense. "Well--speak, prithee, woman! Why do you pause?"

"If 'twere proven he were a--a--"

"Say--"

"A--nay, 'twill wound thy ears!"

"Speak--I fear not--for I know thou canst lay no crime to his charge!"

"A _b.a.s.t.a.r.d_!" she said, laying a deliberate stress upon each syllable.

"Evil woman! away! Leave me!"

"It may be proved that he is not only this, but--"

"Away! Oh that I should listen to thy foul and slanderous speech."

"_Lowborn!_"

"In the name of Heaven, woman, cease! and give me way out, or I will alarm the castle, and have thee punished for this insolence!"

As the indignant girl spoke she prepared to pa.s.s her, when the woman laid her hand firmly on her wrist and detained her, while she said, in a serious and imperious manner,

"Maiden, hear me! I am not mocking thee! What if I can prove him to thee to be a lowborn b.a.s.t.a.r.d--the son of a peasant-girl, and palmed on Lady Lester as her own?"

"Thou canst do no such thing with all thy wicked arts to aid thee,"

scornfully replied the maiden.

"What if I could do it! Wouldst love him then?"

"Yes."