Foxholme Hall Part 13

Nearly a year had pa.s.sed since his arrival, when one day he espied a large s.h.i.+p, under full sail, approaching the island. The people were surprised, and many were much alarmed, for they had never before seen so extraordinary a sight. Some thought it some mighty sea-bird, and others some monster of the deep; but none could tell what the portend might forbode. On the s.h.i.+p came, and, casting anchor, several of the crew landed. They wandered about through the woods, singing and carousing, and otherwise amusing themselves. When also they happened to discover any of the cottages of the natives, they did not scruple to enter, and to appropriate anything which struck their fancy. Alonzo was attending to the affairs of state when news was brought him of the behaviour of the strangers, and that they were actually approaching the precincts of the Palace. On this he immediately sent out to put a stop to the mischief. As he was proceeding a shriek reached his ear. He knew the voice at once--it was that of the Princess Serena--and, rus.h.i.+ng on with the speed of lightning, he found her and her maidens in the rude grasp of the strangers. When they saw him and his followers, while some held fast the damsels, the rest advanced with arms in their hands to meet him. As, however, they got nearer to him, instead of attempting to run him through with their swords, they shouted out, "'Tis he! 'tis he! our long-lost chief! Why, brave Captain Alonzo, we thought you long since dead. What, don't you know us? Don't you remember Almagro, and Sancho, and Pedro?"

But Alonzo looked at them as on total strangers, for, of course, he could not remember having ever seen them before. "I know you only from your own confession and your deeds to be wicked villains," he exclaimed; "and I order you instantly to quit this island, or I shall hand you over to the laws of the realm. I spare you now. Begone, but remember my warning."

This made them very indignant. "What, not know your old friends? Come, come, you look very magnificent, doubtless, but we cannot let you or any other man interfere with our proceedings."

As they said this, some drew their swords, while others attempted to drag off Serena and her maidens. The magic weapon of Alonzo was in his hand in an instant, and as it struck the blades of the pirates, for such they were, it s.h.i.+vered them to atoms. Some of the pirates were killed, but Alonzo was merciful, and the Princess being placed in safety, he allowed the rest to escape, as they fled before him. That day he published a decree banis.h.i.+ng the pirates from the island, on pain of death if they remained. Instead of going, however, they hid themselves among the rocks on the sea-sh.o.r.e, for the purpose of issuing forth at night to weak their vengeance on one whom they supposed to have been their chief, but who had now become their enemy.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER SEVEN.

It required but one day to complete the year since the Princess Serena first beheld Alonzo, when, as they sat in her bower, watching the blue tranquil sea in the distance, he folded her in his arms, and told her, with a voice of tenderness, that he must for a short time quit her. In vain she endeavoured to draw from him the reason of his intended absence. He a.s.sured her that it would be but for a few short hours, that he must go to a distant part of the island, and that he would faithfully return. She entreated to be allowed to accompany him, but to that he could not consent. Had he entrusted his awful secret to her, though it would have terrified her to find that she had got a Spirit for a husband, it might have been happier for him.

Every argument which the Princess could use was employed in vain to induce the seeming Alonzo to remain; far more powerful were the stern decrees of Neptune. Once more pressing her to his heart, he tore himself from her, and rushed out along the beach till the tall rocks hid him from her sight. The Princess remained bathed in tears, and overcome with grief and forebodings of evil.

Meantime Alonzo wandered along the sh.o.r.e in search of some sequestered cavern, where he might leave in security the mortal form he wore, while he repaired, according to his bounden duty, to Neptune's conclave. For some time he could not satisfy himself, for he was naturally fearful of being disturbed or injured. Far, far better would it have been had he entrusted his body to the safe and loving care of the Princess. At last he discovered a cavern which could only be entered from the sea. Inside it there was a small extent of sand and several ledges of dry rock, to which the waters never reached. Nothing could be better suited to his purpose; so, standing at the mouth of the cave, he stretched out his hand over the sea, and uttered this potent spell:--

"Haste, wandering form, Dark mist o'er the main.

From wind and from storm, I call thee again.

I once bade thee retire, But now hither repair, Whether glowing in fire, Or sailing in air.

Again this stern spell, Dark shape, thou must hear, Come, come, whence you dwell, Haste hither, appear!"

As he spoke a thick mist seemed to rise from the sea in the horizon, extending upward, and growing denser and denser, till it a.s.sumed the faint outlines of Borasco's form. Then it glided forward, as if borne onward by a gentle wind, till it reached the mouth of the cavern.

Meantime Alonzo placed himself on an upper ledge of the rock in an att.i.tude of sleep, and forthwith his spirit pa.s.sed into his proper form, from which an awful voice uttered these words:--

"Rest thee, mortal form, rest here, Till I once again appear.

Cursed the hands that dare to smite thee, Or by injury to blight thee.

Let with horror fate condemn them, And the raging seas o'erwhelm them."

While he was thus speaking, Borasco glided over the sea till he disappeared in the far distance.

Now it happened, as we have said, that the pirates, whom Alonzo had ordered to quit the island, instead of so doing, had hid themselves among the rocks on the sea-sh.o.r.e, waiting for an opportunity to wreak their vengeance on him; and as they were rowing along in their boat, they reached the mouth of the cavern in which he had left the body of Alonzo. Leaving their boat secured to a rock, they jumped on to the sand.

"Ah, here is a secure place indeed, where we may remain concealed though all the people of the island were hunting for us, till an opportunity occurs for punis.h.i.+ng our traitor Captain," said Almagro, who was now chief of the band, and was afraid, should Alonzo return, of losing his authority.

"It's secure enough; but if the sea were to get up we should be caught, like mice in a trap," observed Sancho, one of the lieutenants. "Why, where's the boat?" As he spoke the boat drifted away from the cavern out of their reach.

"What clumsy fellow pretended to secure the boat? Ah, see, the sea is already rising," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Almagro, in a tone of horror.

The pirates were now compelled to retire higher up the cavern. What was their astonishment when, as they reached the further end, they saw before them the very man they had been seeking, as they supposed fast asleep. Immediately they held consultation what should be done.

Sancho, and some of the more merciful, were for binding him and carrying him off to their s.h.i.+p, but Almagro, who saw that thus his object would probably be defeated, was for destroying him while he slept. Several of the worst sided with him, and before Sancho could interfere, they sprang forward and plunged their daggers into Alonzo's form. Scarcely had they done so, when loud peals of thunder echoed along the rocks, vivid lightning flashed from the skies, and the foaming waves rushed up into the cavern.

In vain the guilty and affrighted pirates fled into the interior of the cave. The angry waters foamed up on every side. Shrieking they fled from rock to rock; still the waves rose higher and higher, and swept them far off into the boiling sea, while the dead body of Alonzo was carried away into the depths of the ocean.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER EIGHT.

The sun had risen twice upon the world, and again set, and now the moon was casting her silvery beams upon the dancing waves, when the Princess Serena went forth, on the sea-sh.o.r.e, to search for the brave Alonzo, for he returned not as he promised. Long she wandered up and down, and with anxious gaze watched the s.h.i.+ning ocean, but still he came not.

She listened for his voice, but no sound was heard, only the low murmur of the rippling water upon the yellow sand. Her heart sank with fear, and grief, hitherto a stranger to her, took possession of her bosom. At length she climbed to the summit of a high rock which overhung the sea.

There she stood, with straining eyes and arms stretched over the ocean, calling in a tone of anguish on Alonzo to return to her. As she uttered his name, a form, vast, shadowy, and majestic, appeared beneath the moonlight, and a voice, so soft it seemed a note of sweet music, p.r.o.nounced her name. The Princess listened with eagerness and astonishment. Again, from afar, came that low and sweetly solemn voice.

"Serena, Serena, Serena!" it said. Well did the Princess know the voice. It was Alonzo's. Though he was not seen, she felt that he was near her; nor did the vast form on the ocean bring any terror to her bosom.

"Serena, Serena!" repeated the voice.

"Serena, dearest, haste to me, And I will bear thee o'er the sea, To halls so rich, so bright, so fair, Sparkling with every jewel rare, Where you, beloved, in peace shall reign, The gentle guardian of the main.

Then, sweet Serena, come to me, And I will bear thee o'er the sea."

"Yes, beloved one, I will go to thee," she exclaimed, and fearlessly she sprang towards the bright ocean which slumbered below.

The waters sparkled as she fell, a joyous voice again uttered her name, and a form, though it was Borasco's, no longer hideous in her sight, received her in his arms.

The maidens of the Princess, when they saw the vast form of Borasco floating on the water, were horrified; but when they observed her throw herself off the rock, and watched her carried away in the arms of the seeming monster, they fled terrified to the palace, and reported what had occurred. At first there was some doubt thrown on the matter, and when the stranger Alonzo did not return, people went so far as to say that the unhappy Princess had, in a fit of madness, thrown herself into the sea for love of him. The enemies of Alonzo, who had heard the pirates claim as a friend, said that he was a pirate himself, and that he had carried off the Princess. At all events, the poor King was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his daughter, and called his chiefs together, to consult as to what could have become of her, or if means could be taken to recover her.

The sages differed for some time in their opinions. One said, "If she had jumped into the sea and was drowned, they could not expect her to return." Another observed that, if she had been carried away by a pirate, it was to be hoped that the pirate would bring her back again; while a third sagaciously remarked that, in order to recover her, not knowing where she was, it would be necessary to look for her.

At length one of the very oldest of the sages remembered the prophecy about which the King had dreamed on the night of the storm, when Alonzo came to the island. "There can be no doubt," he observed, "that the first part referred to the stranger who had rendered such signal service to the state, for which service he received, as guerdon great, the hand of the Princess.

"`But a sea-monster shall prey On his reward that day,'

"Means, evidently, that a sea-monster will carry off and prey upon the Princess, who was his reward."

The King and all his councillors acknowledged, with deep grief, that they saw the true interpretation of the prophecy, and from that time forth no one in the Island of Gracia doubted that the Princess had been carried off by a sea-monster.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER NINE.

The mighty Spirit of the Storm bore in his arms the gentle Serena rapidly across the ocean, till at length they arrived in front of a palace of crystal, which stood so completely at the very edge of the sea, that the walls which were reflected on its tranquil surface seemed to rise directly out of it. No words can describe the beauty and elegance of its architecture, the gracefulness of its delicate pillars, and the light tracery-work of its innumerable arches, all of the same pure, glistening substance, extending on either side, in a succession of airy colonnades, as far as the eye could reach, and, arch above arch, rising almost, it seemed, to the skies. No mortal workmen could have raised that wonderful edifice.

The portals flew wide open as Borasco and the Princess approached, and placing her on the crystal steps which led down beneath the water, he conducted her forward through a hall, which surpa.s.sed in beauty and magnificence even the exterior of the building, so light and airy, so richly adorned at the same time was it with polished coral and delicate tinted sh.e.l.ls, and emeralds, and precious stones of every description.

It far surpa.s.sed in beauty anything which Serena ever in her most romantic imaginings had conceived to exist in the world. Wonderful and strange as all appeared, no fear or misgivings of any description entered her bosom; for, although she saw that the shape beside her was wild and hideous, yet well she knew that the spirit which animated it was that which dwelt in the form of Alonzo, to which she had given her heart, her best, her deepest affections. A soft light radiated through the hall, and gentle music floated in the air, while forms of every graceful shape and hue appeared before them, and made obeisance as they pa.s.sed. They advanced slowly among lines of aerial beings towards a superb throne at the further end of the hall, the canopy over which appeared as if formed of a fountain of glittering water thrown upwards, and petrified before it could again reach the earth. Serena remained mute with astonishment, till by degrees she found words to express herself. "Is what I see around me the work of enchantment, and do I tread on fairy ground?" she exclaimed. "And you, my Alonzo, why have you led me hither, and why are you so strangely disguised?"

"You tread, my Serena, the halls of my crystal palace, the home I have prepared for you," answered Borasco. "Those bright gems are the same for which men toil and deem themselves happy if they gain a few, yet all you see and many more are yours."

"Oh, I care not for those sparkling gems. It is your love, Alonzo, I prize above all," said Serena, turning on him a look full of deep affection. "But why hide from me those features on which I fondly used to gaze?--Why envelop thus strangely your n.o.ble form?"

Borasco did not answer till he had placed her on the throne; then throwing himself before her on his knees, he told her of his plot to win her, and of all that had occurred, and implored her forgiveness. As he knelt, the thousands of Spirits who filled the hall followed his example. She answered in a gentle voice, that she had nothing to forgive; as she could scarcely find fault with him for falling in love with her.

"But who are the bright beings who fill these halls, and pay me so much respect?" she asked, as the graceful Spirits continued kneeling round her.

"They are," replied Borasco, "the Spirits of the summer air, the guardians of the moon-lit waves, the utterers of murmuring sounds, when the calm sea is hushed to rest. Each light and easy duty is confided to their care. They are the Spirits which obey my will, and you, my beloved one, shall from henceforth ride over them. See also the mighty Monarch of the Ocean comes to kneel before your throne."

As he spoke, a flourish of conch sh.e.l.ls was heard, and Neptune, in a superb car, followed by an innumerable band of Tritons, glided into the hall. Descending from his car, he knelt before the Princess, and exclaimed:--

"Welcome, fair Lady! since you come To these bright realms, my watery home; When I the happy tidings knew, I clave the limpid billow through, And hasten'd here to kneel before The Lady whom all hearts adore: For know, we rovers of the Sea, Are truly famed for gallantry, And when a beauteous Lady deigns To visit thus our broad domains, The sons of Ocean strive to show The pride with which their bosoms glow.

Then, Lady, deign our Queen to be, And we will serve thee loyally.

This crown marine in token wear, That Ocean's realms confess thy care, And to no other would I yield The trident sceptre which I wield.

Now then let all with loud acclaim And joy, our Ocean Queen proclaim!"

Neptune having presented a crown and sceptre to the Princess, the Tritons and Sea Spirits broke forth with a loud chorus:--