Captain Kyd Volume Ii Part 15

"Do I? But there is no mystery about thee that Elpsy cannot unravel."

"Speak, woman!"

"Thou darest not harm me, nor do injury to any one I would protect; for I have the key to thy secret, and, therefore, to thy life."

"Thou! Who am I, then? What secret?" he hoa.r.s.ely demanded.

She approached him, and whispered low in his ear.

He started back as if he had been struck with a dagger, and, staring upon her with wild surprise, in which intense alarm was mingled, cried,

"Who art thou, in Heaven's name?"

"Elpsy the sorceress!"

"But beside?"

"No matter."

"Wonderful woman! Thy unholy arts could alone have given thee this secret. Thou art indeed to be feared."

"Obey me, then, and secret it shall ever be."

"Speak; what would you?"

"Swear never to harbour revenge against this maiden, or any one of the house of Bellamont; of myself I speak not, for I do not fear thee! Dost thou swear?"

"By the sacred cross, I do."

"Thou art safe, then, so long as thou shalt keep thine oath. Go!"

The priest slowly left the chamber, and, as he closed the door behind him, the sorceress darted from the window upon the balcony, and disappeared in the darkness as suddenly as she had appeared, leaving the maiden overwhelmed with shame, anger, and wonder at the scenes and events in which she had borne so singular a part.

CHAPTER III.

"Lo! now in yonder deep and gloomy cave Th' unholy hags their spells of mischief weave-- Raise the infernal chant; while at the sound Dread Spirits seem to dance the caldron round, And fiends of awful shape from earth and h.e.l.l With direful portents aid the magic spell."

C. DONALD McLEOD.

When Robert Lester, now Kyd the pirate, left the presence of Kate Bellamont, without seeking the stone steps that descended to the lawn, he leaped from the low balcony to the ground, and strode, at a pace made quick and firm by the strength of his feelings, towards a gate that opened into the lane in which the inn of Jost Stoll was situated.

Avoiding the narrow street, though it was silent and deserted, he turned his footsteps aside towards the beach, and, winding round a ledge of rocks wildly piled together, with a few shrubs and a dwarf cedar or two clinging in the clefts, he came to the mouth of the ca.n.a.l, where his boat lay half hidden in the shadow of a huge overhanging rock.

"Who comes," challenged one of several men that were standing around.

He was too much wrapped in his own dark thoughts to hear or give reply, and was only roused to a consciousness of his position by the c.o.c.king of pistols and the repet.i.tion of the challenge in a sharper tone.

"The Silver Arrow!" he answered, briefly.

"The captain! Advance!" was the reply.

"Ho, Lawrence, you are alert. Yet it should be so, for we are surrounded by enemies. You must learn, nevertheless, to challenge lower under the guns of a fort. By the moving of lights and show of bustle on the ramparts, we have already drawn the attention of the honest Dutch warriors whom our English governors have seen fit to retain to man their works."

"It's to save linstocks, by making them touch off the pieces with their pipes," said Lawrence; "their powder always smells more of tobacco than sulphur."

"A truce to this. Man your oars and put off," said Kyd, in a stern tone.

The men knew by the change in his voice that their chief was in a humour that was not to be disregarded; and scarcely had the orders pa.s.sed from his lips, before every man was in his seat, with his oars elevated in the air. The c.o.xswain, Lawrence, at the same time took his place at the helm, and in a low tone said,

"All's ready."

"Shove off and let fall," cried Kyd, in the same suppressed tone, springing into the stern-sheets.

"What course, captain?"

"h.e.l.l Gate," was the deep response, as he seated himself in the stern and wrapped his cloak about him.

"Give way, lads," followed this information, from the c.o.xswain, and swiftly the barge shot out from the mouth of the ca.n.a.l; doubling the south point of the town, it moved rapidly up the narrow sound between Long and Manhattan Islands, now called East River, and was soon lost in the gloom.

When Kyd parted from Elpsy before the inn, she had remained standing in the place in which he had left her until his form was lost beneath the trees surrounding the White Hall; then, turning towards the street that led by a devious route in the direction of the north gate of the city, she walked a few moments rapidly along in the deep shade cast by the far-projecting roofs of the low Dutch mansions. Suddenly she stopped.

"He may have a faint heart," she muttered, as if her thoughts run upon the interview between the pirate and n.o.ble maiden. "She will not now accept him as Lester after I have told her who Lester has become. Oh, I did it to make him use force in his wooing. I would not have him, after all that has pa.s.sed in the last five years, win her with honour to herself. I would have her humbled. I would have her become Lady Lester against her own will. And if he has remaining in his memory a t.i.the of her former scorn of him, he will love to repay her thus. Yet I doubt. I will go back and see that I am not thwarted. Never shall I rest, in grave or out, till he is Lord of Lester, and Kate Bellamont his wedded wife."

She turned as she spoke, and, retracing her steps towards the inn, continued on past it towards the wicket that opened into the park, and, gliding beneath the trees, stole towards the window of the maiden's chamber, directed by the light that shone through the foliage that climbed about it. Aided by her white staff, she was cautiously ascending a flight of steps that connected the extremity of the balcony with the lawn, when she heard Kyd's angry words at parting, saw him rush forth, leap to the ground, and take his swift way towards his boat. Her first impulse was to call him back; but, suppressing it, she softly approached the window for the purpose of using her own fearful power over the minds of all with whom she came in contact, in giving a turn more favourable to her design to the alarmed maiden's mind. She was arrested by the entrance of the priest as she was in the act of entering the chamber, and drew instantly back into the shadow. But she gradually moved forward into the light of the lamp, and, as her eyes rested on his features, they grew bloodshotten with the intensity of her gaze. Her face was thrust forward almost into the room, her long scragged neck was stretched to its full length, and her whole person advanced with the utmost eagerness. It could not have been the words of the priest or his manner that caused an excitement so sudden and extraordinary. She evidently discovered in him a resemblance that surprised her, while it filled her soul with a savage and vengeful joy.

"It is he!" she gasped. "Ever before have I met him cowled! He, he alone! I would know him in h.e.l.l! Ha, I have lived for something! Oh, this knowledge is worth to me mines of gold! I would have sold my soul for it! The same brow, still almost as fair; the same mouth, the same rich light in the eyes, and, save his beard, almost as young as when last we met. Ha! 'tis he. We have met to some purpose now. Ho, ho! am I not getting work to do? This is a new matter on my hands. I will plot upon it. Ha, dares he? The h.o.a.ry lecher! Nay, she has flung him back!

'Tis a proper maiden!" she added, as she saw the priest foiled in his attempt to sully the purity of the n.o.ble girl's lips.

Thus run the current of the weird woman's thoughts. With fierce resentment, she listened to the interview between the confessor and his penitent; and when a second time she saw him approach her with unhallowed lip, she sprung upon him: but whether to save the honour of the maiden's cheek, or prompted by some feminine feeling known only to herself, will, if it is not already so, doubtless by-and-by be apparent.

After she had quitted the chamber she swiftly crossed the lawn towards the inn, turned up the narrow path that bordered the sluggish ca.n.a.l, and, following it to its termination near the wall, turned short round some low stone warehouses to the left, and ascended a narrow, steep street that run along close to the wall, and therefore had obtained the distinctive appellation of Wall-street. Getting close within its deep shadow, she glided along stealthily till she came to a double gate, over which hung a small lamp. Beneath the light, leaning against a guardhouse constructed on one side of the gate, she discovered a man with a firelock to his shoulder and a long pipe in his mouth. A few paces from him walked to and fro a second guard, who from time to time paused in his walk, and, in a listening att.i.tude, looked down the broad, open street that led from the gate to the Rondeel, as if expecting the approach of some one.

"Sacrement Donner vetter! 'Tish aight ov de klock, Hanse," he said, stopping and addressing his comrade as Elpsy approached; "te relief shall 'ave peen here py dish time, heh?"

"It vill pe te Schietam at frau Stoll's vat keeps dem," replied the other, with a grunt of a.s.sent.

"Hark, Hanse! dere ish von footshteps along te vall--no heh?"

"Tish te pigs and te cattlesh. An' if it vas de peoplesh, vat matter so dey pe inside ov te valls? It ish against te rogue from te outside ov te vall vot ve keep te guart here for."

"Goot, Hanse. Ve lets nopoty in, to pe shure--nor lets nopoty out neider, heh? Pots gevitter! Vot vas te pa.s.svoord, Hanse? I vas licht mein bipe mid te paper te captain left mid us."

"Yorck."

"Yorck. Petween ourshelves, Hanse, Ich don't like dis new name ov our old city ov Nieuve Amstertam. Dese Anclish names pe hart to shpeak.

'Twas a wrong ding, Hanse, to put away te olt name, heh?"