CHAPTER II. "Death! be not proud, though some have called thee For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthow, -Why swell'st thou, then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally; And Death shall be no more:-Death! thou shalt die." DR. DONNE. WHEN Sir Robert Cecil returned to his wife's chamber, all within was silent as the grave. He approached the bed; his daughter rose from the seat she had occupied by its side, and motioned him to be still, pointing at the same time to her mother, and intimating that she slept. "Thank God for that!" he murmured, and drew his hand across his brow, while his chest heaved as if a heavy weight had been removed from it. The attendants had left the room to obtain some necessary refreshment and repose, and father and daughter were alone with the sleeper in the chamber of death. The brow of Lady Cecil was calm, smooth, and unclouded, white as alabaster, and rendered still more beautiful by the few tresses of pale auburn hair that escaped from under the head-tire. The features were of a noble yet softened character, although painfully emaciated; and not a shadow of colour tinged her upturned lip. Her sleep, though occasionally sound, was restless, and the long shadowy fingers, that lay on the embroidered coverlet, were now and then stirred, as if by bodily or mental suffering. There was an atmosphere of silence, not of repose, within the apartment, at once awful and oppressive: and Sir Robert breathed as if his breathings were but a continuation of suppressed sobs. Constance Cecil, never in earlier life, never in after years, glorious and beautiful as she ever was, appeared half so interesting to her unhappy father as at that moment. There was at all times about her a majesty of mind and feeling that lent to her simplest word and action a dignity and power, which, though universally felt, it would have been impossible to define. If one could have procured for her a kingdom to reign over, or have chosen from the galaxy of heaven a region worthy her command, it must have been that pale and holy star, which, splendid and alone in the firmament, heralds the approach of day; so unfitted might she have been deemed to mingle with the world less pure, so completely placed by nature above all the littlenesses of ordinary life. Her noble and majestic form was the casket of a rich and holy treasure, and her father's conscience had often quailed, when contemplating the severity of her youthful virtue. Dearly as he loved his wife, he respected his daughter more, and the bare idea that certain occurrences of former years might be known to her was as a poisoned dagger in his heart. He had been a daring, and was still an ambitious man-successful in all that men aim to succeed in; wealthy, honoured, and powerful and-what is frequently more ardently sought for than all-feared; yet would he rather have sacrificed every advantage he had gained-every desire for which he had unhesitatingly bartered his own selfesteem-every distinction he had considered cheaply purchased at the price of conscience, than have lost the good opinion, the confiding love of his only child. Even now he looked upon her with mingled feelings of dread and affection, though her bearing was subdued and her lofty spirit bowed by sorrow, as she stood before him, the thick folds of her dressing-gown falling with classic elegance to her feet, her fine hair pushed back from her forehead and carelessly twisted round her head, and her countenance deepened into an expression of the most intense anxiety: while, assured that the invalid slept on, she whispered into his ear words of hope, if not of consolation. Lady Cecil had existed for some days in a state of frightful delirium, and during that time, her ravings had been so loud and continued, that her present repose was elysium to those who loved her. Constance bent her knees, and prayed in silence, long and fervently, for support. Sir Robert, leaning back in the richly cushioned chair, covered his face with his hands, withdrawing them only when the sleeper groaned or breathed more heavily. At length both felt as if death had, indeed, entered the chamber, so motionless lay the object of their love: they continued gazing from each other to the couch, until the misty light of morning streamed coldly through the open shutters. Another hour of sad watching passed, and, with a long and deeply drawn sigh, the sufferer opened her eyes: they were no longer wild and wandering, but rested with calm intelligence on her husband and her child. "It is long since I have seen you, except in strange dreams," she said, or rather murmured; "and now I shall be with you but for a very little time!" Constance put to her lips a silver cup containing some refreshment, while Sir Robert supported her head on his arm. "Call no one in. Constance-Cecil-my moments now are numbered:-draw back the curtains that I may once more look upon the light of morning!" Constance obeyed; and the full beams of day entered the room. "How beautiful! how glorious!" repeated the dying woman, as her sight drank in the reviving light; "it heralds me to immortality —where there is no darkness-no disappointment-no evil! How pale are the rays of that lamp, Cecil! How feeble man's inventions, contrasted with the works of the Almighty!" Constance rose to extinguish it. "Let it be," she continued, feebly; "let it be, dearest; it has illumined my last night, and we will expire together." The affectionate daughter turned away to hide her tears; but when did the emotion of a beloved child escape a mother's notice? -"Alas! my noble Constance weeping! I thought she, at all events, could have spared me this trial:-leave us for a few moments; let me not see you weep, Constance-let me not see it-tears enough have fallen in these halls ;-do not mourn, my child, that your mother will find rest at last." How often did Constantia remember these words! How often, when the heart that dictated such gentle chiding, had ceased to beat, did Constantia Cecil, gazing into the depths of the blue and mysterious sky, think upon her mother in heaven! Lady Cecil had much to say to her husband during the remaining moments of her existence; but her breathing became so feeble, that he was obliged to lean over the couch to catch her words. “We part, my own, and only beloved husband, for ever in this world;-fain would I linger yet a little, to recount how much I have loved you-in our more humble state-in this-oh! how falsely termed our prosperity. My heart has shared your feelings. In our late bitter trials, more than half my grief was, that you should suffer. Oh, Robert! Robert! now, when I am about to leave you and all, for ever-how my heart clings—I fear, sinfully clings, to the remembrance of our earlier and purer happiness! My father's house! The noble oak, where the ring-doves built, and under whose shadow we first met! The stream-where you and Herbertwild, but affectionate brother! Oh! Robert, do not blame me, nor start so at his name;-his only fault was his devotion to a most kind master!-but who, that lived under the gentle influence of Charles Stewart's virtues, could have been aught but devoted ?—And yet what deadly feuds came forth from this affection! Alas! his rich heritage has brought no blessing with it. I never could look upon these broad lands as ours-Would that his child had lived-and then-But they are all gone now-all gone!-Alas! what had we to do with courts, or courts with us?-Our domestic comforts have been blighted-our hearth left desolate-the children for whom you toiled, and hoped, and planned, have been removed from us-nipped in the bud, or the first blossoming! And oh, Cecil! take the words of a dying woman to heart, when she tells you, that you will go down childless to your grave, if you do not absolve our beloved Constance from her promise to him whom she can neither respect nor love. She will complete the contract, though it should be her death-warrant, rather than let it be said a daughter of the house of Cecil acted dishonourably-She will complete it, Robert-she will complete it-and then die!" I Lady Cecil, overcome by emotion and exertion, fell back fainting and exhausted on her pillow. Recovering herself, however, after a brief pause, she added, in a broken whispering voice, "Forgive me, my dear, dear husband;-my mind is wandering-my thoughts are unconnected-but my affection for you-for Constance is strong in death. mean not to pain you, but to warn—for the sake of our only child-of the only thing that remains to tell you of your wife. My breath trembles on my lips-there is a mist before mine eves-call her in, that my spirit may depart― may ascend heavenward on the wings of prayer!" Šir Robert was moving towards the door, when her hand motioned him back. "Promise-promise that you will never force her to wed that man! more-that you yourself will break the contract!" 66 Truly and solemnly do I swear, that I will never force her to fulfil-nay, that I will never even urge her to its fulfilment." The dying lady looked unsatisfied, and some unpronounced words agitated her lips, as Constance entered unbidden, but most welcome. She knelt by her mother's side, and took the hand so feebly but affectionately extended towards her. The fearful change that had occurred during her short absence was but too visible. The breath that touched her cheek was cold as the morning mist. The sufferer would have folded her hands in prayer, but the strength had departed before the spirit was gone. Constance, seeing that the fine expression of life with which her upturned eyes had glittered was gradually passing away, clasped her mother's hands within her own: suddenly they struggled for freedom, and as her eye followed the pointing of her parent's finger, she saw the lamp's last beam flicker for a moment, and then expire!-Her mother, too, was dead! It is ill to break upon the solitude of the dying, though it is good to enter into the solemn temple of death: it is a sad but a useful lesson to lift the pall; to raise the coffin-lid; to gaze upon all we loved, upon all that was bright, and pure, and beautiful, changing with a slow but certain change to decay and corruption. The most careless cannot move along the chamber of death without being affected by the awful presence of the King of Terrors. The holy quiet that ought to characterize a funeral procession is too frequently destroyed by the empty pomp and heartlessness which attend it; but in the death-chamber there is nothing of this; the very atmosphere seems impregnated with the stillness of the time when there was no life in the broad earth, and when only "God moved on the face of the waters." Our breath comes slowly and heavily to our lips, and we murmur forth our words as if the spirit watched to record them in the unchanging book of immortality. In due time, the funeral train of Lady Cecil prepared to escort the corpse to its final home. Sir Robert was too ill, and too deeply afflicted to be present at the ceremony; and as he had no near relative, Sir Willmot Burrell, of Burrell, the knight to whom his daughter's hand was plighted, was expected to take his station as chief mourner. The people waited for some hours with untiring patience; the old steward paced backwards and forwards from the great gate, and at last took his stand there, looking out from between its bars, hoping that, wild and reckless as Burrell really was, he would not put so great an affront upon the Cecil family, as to suffer its late mistress to go thus unhonoured to the grave. The day advanced, and as neither the gentleman, nor any one to show cause for his absence, appeared, strange whis perings and surmises arose amongst the crowd, which had assembled from all the villages on the island, as to the probable motive of this most ill-advised delay. More than one messenger was despatched to the top of Minster Church to look out and see if any person like Sir Willmott was crossing the King's ferry, the only outlet in general use from the island to the main land: but though the passage-boat, conducted (as it was termed) by Jabez Tippet, was evidently employed as much as usual, there was no token to justify |