Amyas was quite bewildered; and to his mind the apparition seemed magical, and Frank prophetic; for as the figure came nearer, incredulous as he tried to be, there was no denying that the shape and the walk were exactly those of her, to find whom they had crossed the Atlantic.True, the figure was somewhat taller; but then, "she must be grown since I saw her," thought Amyas; and his heart for the moment beat as fiercely as Frank's.
But what was that behind her? Her shadow against the white wall of the house.Not so.Another figure, cloaked likewise, but taller far, was following on her steps.It was a man's.They could see that he wore a broad sombrero.It could not be Don Guzman, for he was at sea.Who then? Here was a mystery; perhaps a tragedy.And both brothers held their breaths, while Amyas felt whether his sword was loose in the sheath.
The Rose (if indeed it was she) was within ten yards of them, when she perceived that she was followed.She gave a little shriek.
The cavalier sprang forward, lifted his hat courteously, and joined her, bowing low.The moonlight was full upon his face.
"It is Eustace, our cousin! How came he here, in the name of all the fiends?""Eustace! Then that is she, after all!" said Frank, forgetting everything else in her.
And now flashed across Amyas all that had passed between him and Eustace in the moorland inn, and Parracombe's story, too, of the suspicious gipsy.Eustace had been beforehand with them, and warned Don Guzman! All was explained now: but how had he got hither?
"The devil, his master, sent him hither on a broomstick, I suppose:
or what matter how? Here he is; and here we are, worse luck!"And, setting his teeth, Amyas awaited the end.
The two came on, talking earnestly, and walking at a slow pace, so that the brothers could hear every word.
"What shall we do now?" said Frank."We have no right to be eavesdroppers.""But we must be, right or none." And Amyas held him down firmly by the arm.
"But whither are you going, then, my dear madam?" they heard Eustace say in a wheedling tone."Can you wonder if such strange conduct should cause at least sorrow to your admirable and faithful husband?""Husband!" whispered Frank faintly to Amyas."Thank God, thank God! I am content.Let us go."But to go was impossible; for, as fate would have it, the two had stopped just opposite them.
"The inestimable Senor Don Guzman--" began Eustace again.
"What do you mean by praising him to me in this fulsome way, sir?
Do you suppose that I do not know his virtues better than you?""If you do, madam" (this was spoken in a harder tone), "it were wise for you to try them less severely, than by wandering down towards the beach on the very night that you know his most deadly enemies are lying in wait to slay him, plunder his house, and most probably to carry you off from him.""Carry me off? I will die first!"
"Who can prove that to him? Appearances are at least against you.""My love to him, and his trust for me, sir!""His trust? Have you forgotten, madam, what passed last week, and why he sailed yesterday?"The only answer was a burst of tears.Eustace stood watching her with a terrible eye; but they could see his face writhing in the moonlight.
"Oh!" sobbed she at last."And if I have been imprudent, was it not natural to wish to look once more upon an English ship? Are you not English as well as I? Have you no longing recollections of the dear old land at home?"Eustace was silent; but his face worked more fiercely than ever.
"How can he ever know it?"
"Why should he not know it?"
"Ah!" she burst out passionately, "why not, indeed, while you are here? You, sir, the tempter, you the eavesdropper, you the sunderer of loving hearts! You, serpent, who found our home a paradise, and see it now a hell!""Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without a shadow of evidence?""Dare? I dare anything, for I know all! I have watched you, sir, and I have borne with you too long.""Me, madam, whose only sin towards you, as you should know by now, is to have loved you too well? Rose! Rose! have you not blighted my life for me--broken my heart? And how have I repaid you? How but by sacrificing myself to seek you over land and sea, that Imight complete your conversion to the bosom of that Church where a Virgin Mother stands stretching forth soft arms to embrace her wandering daughter, and cries to you all day long, 'Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!' And this is my reward!""Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt me no more! You have asked me what I dare; and I dare this, upon my own ground, and in my own garden, I, Donna Rosa de Soto, to bid you leave this place now and forever, after having insulted me by talking of your love, and tempted me to give up that faith which my husband promised me he would respect and protect.Go, sir!"The brothers listened breathless with surprise as much as with rage.Love and conscience, and perhaps, too, the pride of her lofty alliance, had converted the once gentle and dreamy Rose into a very Roxana; but it was only the impulse of a moment.The words had hardly passed her lips, when, terrified at what she had said, she burst into a fresh flood of tears; while Eustace answered calmly:
"I go, madam: but how know you that I may not have orders, and that, after your last strange speech, my conscience may compel me to obey those orders, to take you with me?""Me? with you?"
"My heart has bled for you, madam, for many a year.It longs now that it had bled itself to death, and never known the last worst agony of telling you--"And drawing close to her he whispered in her ear--what, the brothers heard not--but her answer was a shriek which rang through the woods, and sent the night-birds fluttering up from every bough above their heads.