He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off.It glided in like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all his heart and brain.He drew back to the other side of the lawn, and thought and thought--Should he ever get home? If he did, might he not get home a beggar? Beggar or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to go through that meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those reproaches, the forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark thunder-cloud for two weary years; to wipe out which by some desperate deed of glory he had wandered the wilderness, and wandered in vain.
Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage, he and his might Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war, chivalry to women; found a community which might be hereafter as strong a barrier against the encroachments of the Spaniard, as Manoa itself would have been.Who knew the wealth of the surrounding forests? Even if there were no gold, there were boundless vegetable treasures.What might he not export down the rivers? This might be the nucleus of a great commercial settlement--And yet, was even that worth while? To settle here only to torment his soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only to change one labor for another? Was not your dreamer right? Did they not all need rest? What if they each sat down among the flowers, beside an Indian bride? They might live like Christians, while they lived like the birds of heaven.--What a dead silence! He looked up and round; the birds had ceased to chirp; the parroquets were hiding behind the leaves; the monkeys were clustered motionless upon the highest twigs; only out of the far depths of the forest, the campanero gave its solemn toll, once, twice, thrice, like a great death-knell rolling down from far cathedral towers.Was it an omen? He looked up hastily at Ayacanora.She was watching him earnestly.Heavens! was she waiting for his decision? Both dropped their eyes.The decision was not to come from them.
A rustle! a roar! a shriek! and Amyas lifted his eyes in time to see a huge dark bar shoot from the crag above the dreamer's head, among the group of girls.
A dull crash, as the group flew asunder; and in the midst, upon the ground, the tawny limbs of one were writhing beneath the fangs of a black jaguar, the rarest and most terrible of the forest kings.Of one? But of which? Was it Ayacanora? And sword in hand, Amyas rushed madly forward; before he reached the spot those tortured limbs were still.
It was not Ayacanora, for with a shriek which rang through the woods, the wretched dreamer, wakened thus at last, sprang up and felt for his sword.Fool! he had left it in his hammock!
Screaming the name of his dead bride, he rushed on the jaguar, as it crouched above its prey, and seizing its head with teeth and nails, worried it, in the ferocity of his madness, like a mastiff-dog.
The brute wrenched its head from his grasp, and raised its dreadful paw.Another moment and the husband's corpse would have lain by the wife's.
But high in air gleamed Amyas's blade; down with all the weight of his huge body and strong arm, fell that most trusty steel; the head of the jaguar dropped grinning on its victim's corpse;"And all stood still, who saw him fall, While men might count a score.""O Lord Jesus," said Amyas to himself, "Thou hast answered the devil for me! And this is the selfish rest for which I would have bartered the rest which comes by working where Thou hast put me!"They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and buried it under soft moss and virgin mould; and so the fair clay was transfigured into fairer flowers, and the poor, gentle, untaught spirit returned to God who gave it.
And then Amyas went sadly and silently back again, and Parracombe walked after him, like one who walks in sleep.
Ebsworthy, sobered by the shock, entreated to come too: but Amyas forbade him gently,--"No, lad, you are forgiven.God forbid that I should judge you or any man! Sir John shall come up and marry you; and then, if it still be your will to stay, the Lord forgive you, if you be wrong;in the meanwhile, we will leave with you all that we can spare.
Stay here and pray to God to make you, and me too, wiser men."And so Amyas departed.He had come out stern and proud; but he came back again like a little child.