The Count of Nideck Part 16

I turned, and my glance falling suddenly upon the portrait which the young girl indicated, I shuddered. It was a long, thin, pale face, stamped with the cold rigidity of death, and with dark hollows under the eyes, which looked at you with a fixed, burning gaze of terrible intensity. There was a moment's silence.

"How she must have suffered!" I exclaimed, with a sinking of the heart.

"I know not how my mother made this frightful discovery," continued Odile; "but she knew of the mysterious attraction of the Black Plague, and of their meetings in Hugh's Tower,--all, in short,--but she never suspected my father. No! only she slowly pined away, as I am doing now."

I hid my face in my hands, and the tears started involuntarily.

"One winter night," she went on, "when I was only ten years old, my mother, whose energy alone sustained her,--for she was in the last stages of a decline,--came to my room. I was sleeping, when suddenly a cold, nervous hand seized my wrist. I opened my eyes, and opposite me stood a woman; with one hand she held a torch, and with the other she held my arm, which felt as if clasped in a chill vise. Her dress was covered with snow, a convulsive trembling agitated her limbs, and her eyes burned with a dark fire through the white, disordered locks that hung about her face. It was my mother.

"'Odile, my child, rise and come with me! You must know everything!' she said.

"I dressed myself tremblingly, and leading me along the lonely corridors to Hugh's Tower, she showed me the staircase that led down to the chasm.

"'Your father will come out this way,' she said, pointing to the tower; 'he will come out with the she-wolf. Fear nothing! He cannot see you.'

"Hardly had she finished speaking, when my father appeared with the old woman, carrying his funereal burden. Taking me in her arms, my mother followed them, and I witnessed the scene on the Altenberg.

"'Look, child!' she cried; 'you must, for I am going to die, and you shall keep the secret! You shall watch over your father alone--all alone! The honor of our family depends upon it!'

"We returned. A fortnight later my mother died, leaving to me the accomplishment of her vow and the lesson of her example. I have faithfully discharged my trust, but oh, at what a cost! You have seen it! I have been obliged to disobey my father and make him wretched. My marriage could have accomplished nothing, though he does not know it, and to marry would have been to bring a stranger into our midst and betray the family secret. I resisted. No one in the Castle knows the nature of my father's malady, and had it not been for yesterday's crisis, which broke down my strength and prevented me from watching by my father, I should still have been the sole depositary of the secret.

G.o.d has willed otherwise; he has placed in your keeping the honor of our family.

"Such is my story, and in view of what you told me a few moments ago (and she colored charmingly), I feel that I need hardly ask you if you will share with me my burden, for my strength is unequal to it--I am bending beneath its weight."

She had risen as she finished speaking. For all answer, I sprang forward, and throwing my arms about her I drew her close to me and covered her upturned face and forehead with pa.s.sionate kisses, and she rested, a delicious burden in my arms.

"Odile," I cried, "I will be all this and a thousand times more, if you will only consent to let me. I am the pet.i.tioner, not you; and in allowing me to share with you even the least of your trials, you make me forever your debtor. You have told me the reason of your vow, and in doing so you have removed the necessity for its further existence. Oh, Odile, may I hope--may I hope, I say, that if I can raise the spell which overhangs the Castle, and restore your father's health,--as the price of it, I may have your love?"

After a moment, she replied softly, as she gently disengaged herself from my arms:

"You may;" and she added, "until then my first duty is ever to my father."

I pressed the hand which she yielded to me to my lips, exclaiming with a smile, "This seals the promise!"

Then I continued:

"And one thing more. We must seize this creature known as the Black Plague, and find out what she is, whence she comes, and what she wants here."

"Oh," she exclaimed, with a motion of her beautiful head, "I fear that is impossible!"

"Who can say that?" I replied. "I want only your permission, and I will undertake to seize the Plague at once."

"Do as your judgment dictates. I consent to everything beforehand."

I took a long and reluctant leave of Odile, and hurried jubilantly to Sperver's room.

CHAPTER XII.

WE CHASE THE PLAGUE.--HER DEATH.

An hour after my conversation with Odile, Sperver and I were galloping hard over the plain from Nideck. The huntsman, bending over his horse's neck, set spurs to her from time to time, and the tall Mecklenberg, with flying mane and foaming lips, literally cleaved the air in her flight.

As for my mount, I believe he took the bit in his teeth, and ran away with me. Lieverle accompanied us, bounding along beside us like an arrow. We seemed to be borne along on the wings of the wind.

The towers of Nideck were far behind us, and Sperver was leading the way, as usual, when I shouted to him:

"Hallo, comrade! Pull up! Before we go any further, let us deliberate a little."

He wheeled about.

"Only tell me, Gaston, is it to right or left?"

"No, no! Come here. You must first know why I have started off this morning. In a word, we are going to catch the hag!"

An expression of supreme satisfaction lighted up the long, bronzed face of the old steward; his eyes sparkled.

"Ha, ha!" he exclaimed; "I knew it would come to that sooner or later."

With a movement of his shoulder, he slipped his rifle into his hand.

This significant movement opened my eyes.

"One moment, Sperver. We are not going to kill the Black Plague; we are going to take her alive."

"Alive!"

"Precisely; and to spare you future regrets, I warn you that the destiny of the old creature is identified with our master's. The ball that strikes her down kills the Count."

Sperver sat open-mouthed with amazement.

"Is this really so?"

"Positively."

There was a long silence; our horses tossing their heads at each other as if in salute, pawed the snow impatiently. Lieverle yawned expectantly and stretched out his long, snake-like body, and Sperver sat motionless, with his hand resting on his rifle.

"Well, then, we will try to take her living," he said at length; "we will handle her with kid gloves, since it must needs be so; but it is not such an easy matter as you think, Gaston."

Pointing with his extended hand to the mountains which lay unrolled about us in the form of a great amphitheatre, he added:

"You see before us the Altenberg, the Birkenwald, the Schneeberg, the Oxenhorn, the Rhethal, and the Behrenkopf, and if we were up a little higher, we could see fifty other peaks, extending clear into the plain of the Palatinate. Within this distance are rocks, ravines, defiles, torrents, and endless forests, and the old woman wanders everywhere through this wilderness. She has a sure foot and a good eye, and can scent you a good league away; so you see we shall have a pretty chase before us."

"If it were an easy thing to do, I shouldn't have chosen you out of all the people of the Castle."

"That sounds all very well. Still, if we can once get on her trail, I don't deny that with courage and patience--"

"As for her trail, don't worry about that; I will put you on it myself."