Lola: a tale of the Rock

Front matter

LOLA VOL. Ill, a PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON LOLA: A TALE OF THE ROCK. BY ARTHUR GRIFFITHS, AUTHOR OF " THE QUEEN'S SHILLING," " MEMORIALS OF MILLBANK," ETC. ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE. 1876. CONTENTS OF VOL. III. CHAP. PAGE I. BACK AT ROSIA I II. WHO SPEAKS TO ME OF MUST? -5 III. SOME OLD FRIENDS FALL OUT .... 54 IV. BY RIGHT OF CAPTURE 83 V. A CLEAN PAIR OF HEELS I07 VI. LOLA'S DILEMMA I38 VII. IN FULL FLIGHT 164 VIII. VIATICUM 191 IX. WRONGS SET RIGHT 216 X. FRANK MISSING 242 XI. IN DURANCE 264 XII. FOUND 288 XIII. AT GRIMSWYCH LOLA: A TALE OF THE ROCK.

Chapter I. Back At Rosia

" Be patient and brave, my soul's own. Within a week or two I will follow you out, and then I swear nothing shall keep us longer apart." These were Frank's last words to Lola as they bade farewell on board the steam ship " Malabar," and for days they rang in her ears like the sweet music of church-bells, cheering her with the bright promise they contained. They nerved her, moreover, for VOL. in. A LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 2 this next meeting with her grandfather, to which she looked forward with a lively dread. How would he receive her, with coldness or with eager affection ? If the latter, she might forgive him perhaps for past treachery and rashness. After all, this terrible visit to England had proved far more enjoyable than she had believed possible. But if he were still unkind, still resolutely determined to forbid Frank's suit, then would she also be cold and reserved, speaking to him rarely, and if at all, only to upbraid him with his cruel treatment of the child he pretended to adore.

Bellota himself was even more nervous and uneasy at the prospect of our heroine's return. He could not defend, even to him self, the miserable trick he had played her ; he could not blame her if she bore him a certain grudge. She would perhaps remember only his treachery, giving him no credit for his good intentions. For he still con tinued to persuade himself that it had been entirely for her good that she should be kept out of the way of this designing villain who had gained — Satan only knew how — such a forcible hold upon her affections. A man more reasonable than Bellota would have been forced to qualify his distrust after hearing Frank's explicit offer of marriage, made openly as it was, and with unmistakable honesty of purpose. But Bellota could not have confidence in any one of the officer class.

They were all alike. This one was doubtless a libertine like the rest, a heartless rout, whose only desire was to heap disgrace — under the flimsy pretence of love — upon poor Lola, and ruin her even as her hapless mother had also been irreparably ruined and undone. So when these two, grandfather and grandchild, stood before each other upon the deck of the " Malabar," soon after she had dropped anchor in the Bay, they both paused, half in interrogation, each waiting for the other to make the first advance. But in that short pause Lola saw that the old man had sensibly aged, and was more infirm than when she had parted from him ; and as this conviction came LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 4 upon her, it softened her heart towards him, and she remembered only the past fondness of the old happy days, and not the one act of severity which was still so recent and fresh.

As for Don Mariano, he stopped short, doubting almost to believe his eyes. Was this really the same little Lola who had left him only a few months before ? She had gone a child, an inexperienced, unformed child, possessing all the nameless graces of early girlhood, but still in his eyes, merely a child, a tender bud, that had hardly as yet begun to blossom forth into beauty. She came back — so it appeared to him — with the air and aspect of a duchess. She had in this short interval grown into a woman — a tall, dignified woman, with so much majesty of demeanour, so much self-possession, such an air of high-breeding, that Bellota realised that she had passed, or was nearly passing, beyond his control. Undoubtedly she had gained much in England in manner and in outward appear ance; and this she owed, in the first place, to her constant association with the Ladies Fairfax, following which came the introduc tion, albeit short, to the best society in the great London world ; while something was also due to the good offices of Mrs Bridle, aided by the intelligent assistance of fashionable milliners.

But the outcome of it all was this graceful well-dressed dame, whom Bellota scarce recognised as one of his own flesh and blood. And then he prayed most devoutly that he might find her changed in disposition as well as in external aspect. He hoped, almost against hope, that she had learnt now to put a higher value upon herself, and that she would no longer cling so childishly to this first ill-advised attachment. They kissed each other, and he said simply — ■" Welcome home, child of my heart ! I rejoice to see you so stout and well." For the present, then, no word of that which had passed. It was better so. Lola was relieved and glad. That which could not be remedied or undone had better be buried out of sight, and if possible forgotten. LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. " And you, abuelo mio ? " asked Lola in a tone of tender solicitation that almost sent tears of joy into Bellota's eyes.

"You have not been ailing, I trust ? are you quite as hale and vigorous as of old ? " " In truth, no, Lola ; but the sight of your sweet face gives me new life. Come, then ; the boat is alongside ; let Jose see to the luggage, and we will come on shore." They landed at Waterport, crowded and busy ; and as our heroine gazed upon the once familiar scene, now half-effaced by a host of new sensations, her heart was touched. She was moved by the sights she saw, the sounds she heard ; they came back to her as might dim memories of childhood, reminding her of happy days gone past recall. For a moment she seemed as in a dream : all that was around her was so ghostlike and unreal. This moving, motley crowd, this Babel of tongues — all was so familiar and yet so strange. This feeling grew upon her as she passed with her grandfather into the town.

How small it was ! Everything seemed shrunk to half its size. The streets she remembered as wide imposing thoroughfares were contracted now to narrow, tortuous lanes ; the shops looked like pill-boxes, their contents second rate and mean. For carriages she saw nothing better than a tumbledown calesa, or a great, lumbering ambulance drawn by commissariat mules. And the cottage, when they reached it, seemed quite a poky place, its furniture dingy, all the home comforts, to which she had been of late accustomed, either altogether wanting or on the poorest scale. The small house seemed but a deserted dwelling, as empty and lonely as the chambers of her heart. Yet as the days passed, Lola did her best to grow contented with her lot. But the change was so sudden and so complete. One week in the midst of all the bustle and excitement of a London season, the next buried alive in this quiet corner of the far-off Rock.

Struggle as she might, she could not conceal from herself that she was miserable, moped almost to death. She had left all her gaiety behind her. There was an end to all LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. her joyous doings, to the flower-shows, balls, rides in the Row, to all the brilliant funcions which had made her recent life one rapid and continuous whirl of pleasure and delight. Here, on the Rock, there were neither sights nor sounds. She might perhaps watch the flowers in the garden grow, or the clouds creep across the sky overhead — what else ? She might listen to the blare of a distant bugle or the boom of the morning and evening gun — what more ? And she was much alone. Josefa, as we know, had disappeared, and the woman who had taken her place was dwarfed now into the mere servant, with whom she could hold none but the most distant intercourse.

Old Bellota went daily to his desk, but had he remained, he could not have hoped to fill even a small part of the great blank in our heroine's life. But her condition could not escape him altogether, and it gave him great concern. It grieved him to observe how completely her former light-heartedness had disappeared. She never broke out now into glad snatches of song, nor, as of old, teased him with her sallies and lively jests. At first he thought what she missed was the luxurious comfort to which she had recently been introduced in England, and, anxious to please her, he offered readily to surround her with everything just the same. Let her but express a wish, and if within reason, it should be gratified. A horse ? He would send over to Barbary for the best that could be bought for money in Mazagan or Mogador.

Carriages ? She might have half-a dozen. Dress ? Carte-blanche should be des patched to Worth and Madame Elise to furnish periodical supplies of all that was most gorgeous in the milliner's art. Nay, he would go further. blearing of the state and ceremony kept up at Fairfax, he expressed himself ready to re model his small household, and, even at great sacrifice to himself, to adopt now at the eleventh hour the manners and customs of the gentle folk at home. All this he would have gladly done, and more, to win back smiling cheerful ness to Lola's cheek. He meant well, and she was grateful to him for his thoughtful genero sity and kindness of heart. But although thus prodigal of offers, the one LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 10 thing for which she sighed he would not, nor could he, give her. It was not for the lost luxuries of the English home that she was pining now.

To such a simple nature as hers these things might be pleasing, but they were not indispensable. She could have surrendered all without a pang at once and for ever. No ; Rosia Cottage, nay the smallest hovel on the mountain-side, would have seemed a palace to her, if with it she gained her Paco too. It was for him that she longed. Looking back regretfully to the past happy days, and forward almost hopelessly to the future with hourly increasing anxiety, till at length she told herself that unless she heard of Frank again, and soon, her life would be almost too bur thensome to bear. Through these first few weeks Bellota had no notion whatever that Frank and Lola had met in England. She had not volunteered the information — why should she ? It would lead, perhaps, to some painful scene, only raising the old man's anger all to no purpose.

It was better not to precipitate matters. Lady Henriette had promised to write and intercede for the lovers, and Lola hoped great things from her kind advocacy. Indeed, the prospect of this coming letter, and with it news of Frank, was the only bright spot just now in her existence. The next English mail arrived while Don Mariano was at his office. Thither all his letters were taken. Among them were two for Lola. One he recognised as from Fairfax and Lady Henriette ; the other was in a man's hand writing. What man could be in correspondence with Dolores ? No man but one he thought, and that one Francis Wriottesley ; and as he turned the letter over and over, he longed to break the seal and set all doubts at rest. But he could not bring himself to this, although he felt that he would be justified in questioning his grandchild on the subject.

Then he opened his own letters, all of them on business, save one — that from Lady Henriette. This he read last ; and as he read a frown soon gathered darkly on his wrinkled brow. Her Ladyship had plunged almost at once into the matter she had at heart. She con fessed that she felt rather guilty at having LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 12 permitted Dolores and her lover to meet at her house, but they were evidently so much attached to each other that it seemed more than cruel to keep them apart. Besides, she had herself formed a high opinion of Mr Wriottesley, and was certain he would make Dolores entirely happy. Under these circumstances she now wrote, trusting that Mr Bellota would no longer place any obstacles in the way of the match. " Idiot that I was ! " cried the old man, crushing up the letter in his hand.

" What foul devil prompted me, I wonder, to send the child to that far-off land, away from my own personal care ? Had I kept her here or in Spain, this cursed rubio would never have got access to her ; but I must needs send her to England, away, far away, and there the chances were all against me, long-eared jackass that I was. Zopenco ! (blockhead) I am rightly served. But now — give her to him ? Never, never ! Not while I live ! " And then, with a violent exclamation, he tore open the other letter. He was no longer restrained by any feeling of propriety. He must and would know whether this came from the hated source he suspected. Eagerly he devoured its contents, groaning aloud in a fresh access of rage at every epithet of affection, one or more of which appeared in every sentence ; till by the time he had finished reading he had reached a perfect paroxysm of passion.

Frank declared at the end that he would return to Gibraltar within a week or two, vowing he would win Lola and carry her off right in her grandfather's teeth. " Win her ! " shouted Bellota, fairly stamp ing about the office in a fit of ungovernable fury. " Win her, and in my teeth ! We shall see. Is he or I the stronger ? At least I will be master of my own. Oh, wicked child ! Oh, treacherous women ! Oh, false-hearted, accursed lover ! " One and all in turn came in for some measure of his abuse, and the more loudly he reviled, the more fixed was his resolution to thwart all their plans. By and by, however, he grew somewhat LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 14 calmer, and as he mastered his passion, he began to consider what steps should be taken next. First of all, with a sudden impulse, he destroyed Frank's letter to Lola ; not one syllable of information should reach her if he had power to prevent it.

She should be cut off absolutely and completely this time, at least, from any intercourse with her lover. To render this separation the more certain, he resolved to remove Lola without delay to the custody of her cousins at Ximena, giving them strict charge never to suffer her out of their sight. There at least she would be in safe concealment when Wriottesley first returned, and thence, as soon as he had found it, she might be again removed to another, and, if possible, a spot still more secure. The old man's anger was by no means burnt out when he reached Rosia Cottage that night, and the smouldering embers blazed forth again into flame, when Lola came up to ask whether there had been any letters for her by the English mail. " Si, yes," said Bellota shortly. " Here is one, from your friend Lady Henriette ?

" No more ? " Did you expect others ? " he asked gruffly. Why do you question me ? " " You owe me obedience. Do you refuse to answer ? " " I had thought perhaps " — Her grandfather's eye was upon her, and her blush betrayed that she had hoped to hear from Frank. " Lola, Lady Henriette has written also to me," went on the old man. " And what did she say ? " Her heart was in a flutter. The supreme moment had come in which her fate and future happiness were to be decided. " You can ask me that ? Why assume this barefaced ignorance ? Oh, child, child ! you wring my heart. Have you no love, no pity for the poor old abuelo who has cherished you all these years ? Have you no regard for his wishes, no belief in his counsel ? Remember advice is like the dead — valued too late. . Will you not heed my LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. voice ?

Is my deep affection to be despised and spurned now, after these long years — all for that yellow-haired scoundrel, who would steal you from my side just as he would steal the dollars from my strong box to squander on his vices." " Abuelo, it is not thus that you will strengthen your cause. Your words may wound, but they cannot persuade me, nor can they hurt my Frank." She spoke with dignity, the dignity of despair. Already she understood that Lady Henriette's appeal was to be made in vain. " I cannot believe abuse of him." " No ; you would rather trust his lying and beguiling tongue. You believe him whom you have scarcely known twelve months rather than me — I who have had no thought but for you since first you drew breath in this miserable world." " I believe him because he has given me his entire trust, and he has mine.

We belono- 0 to each other now and for ever. What though you may oppose our union now, abuelo ? We can wait." " Wait till I am dead, perchance ? " " Pray, pray do not speak like that. Not even to save my Paco would I wish that one single hair of your head were hurt. I love you still, in spite of all. I love you — but I love Paco more. But you cannot keep us apart for ever. At least, we must meet in the world to come," said Dolores looking solemnly upwards. " He is a heretic. There is no place in Heaven for such as he." " I have faith in the goodness of God, and the intercession of our Holy Mother." Frank had become part of her religion as it were, and she could not believe that the difference of creeds would condemn her to lose him in the next world as well as in this. " I tell you plainly, Dolores, that with my consent you shall never marry him.

Not that you will wait for that, I suppose. So shameless a wretch as he you love, would not hesitate to persuade you to despise my authority — that of your only relative alive — quite as a thing of nought." " That proves how little you know Paco. VOL. III. B LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. But for him I should never have returned to Gibraltar at all." "Comof What is this?" cried Don Mari ano startled. " I was ready to wed him over there in England, and waited only till he should make the sign. But he was too loyal. He said it was my duty to come to you. That we must wait. He thought that ere long you would relent." " You obey him readily enough," said old Bellota with half a sneer. " Is it not natural ? He is my novio, my affianced lover." " And you obey me only because he tells you ! Things are come to a pretty pass indeed.

Oye, listen, heartless girl. I am tired of stooping to beg and pray. Will you give me your promise not to marry this man until you have first obtained my consent yes or no ? " "No, Sehor. Because if he wished it, I would marry him to-morrow." "Then you must take the consequences," cried Bellota excitedly. His patience was nearly exhausted. Had Lola been more yielding, had she bent herself to entreat his forbearance to beg piteously for his consent, he might have been more dis posed to give it. But her proud obstinacy, her disdainful contempt of his authority, began now to drive him to extremes. He grew more and more strong in his resolves to bring her to reason. He would keep her a close prisoner ; she should be starved into submission ; she should end her days, immured within the four strong walls of a convent.

At all hazards must his oath be preserved and Lola protected against herself. But he did not threaten her further than in the words spoken above, and Lola, in her excitement, chiefly occupied now with the effort to remain firm, did not take in the full meaning of these. Two days later Dona Teresa came quite by accident, so it seemed, to call at Rosia Cottage. Lola, suspecting nothing, received her very cordially. Doha Teresa was en chanted ; she could not find words strong LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 20 enough to express her admiration at the improvement in our heroine. " Of aid. ! would to Heaven I could send Ramona also to Inglaterra, came she back proud and graceful in bearing as thou, child of my heart. It is this same fashionable air she needs. And que de lujo what cost liness in your apparel !

That silk would be cheap at five hundred reals. And is it thus they dress the hair in London and in Paris, plain and without curls ? It pleases me much. And your jewels, they are new : that locket, a prenda a love-token. No ? And tell me, Lolita, they are rich these English ladies to whom you went, and lilulos, they had titles, and were of the high aristocracy of England ? Doubtless you spent with them the pleasant time. Balls, reunions, tertulias, rejoicings always. How tame and dull must this narrow fortress seem now that you have seen the world! Would that some of us had half your luck. But you no longer care for us, Lolita. Old friends are forgotten now for new." " Say not so. You and my cousins I shall always love. How fares it with them all at Agua Dulce ? " " They have but one thought just now ; they are longing to see you once again.

Ramona is dying to talk to you and hear of all that you have seen. When can you come to us ? You will not refuse ? Come, even for a day." There was so much guile in this quiet query, that it took Lola quite unawares. She was loath to leave the Rock lest Frank Wriottesley might arrive the moment her back was turned, yet she had no desire to be unfriendly to her relatives. Besides, it was in itself a boon to fly from her grandfather's cross face and unceasing upbraidings, and here an opportunity offered in the most natural way. She was quite unsuspicious and off her guard. It never occurred to her that this innocently couched invitation concealed another crafty plot against her peace of mind. She answered therefore readily, nay almost eagerly, that she also looked forward to the visit to the farm.

" And when, queridita ? " LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. 22 Doha Teresa was a dry old chip, but she could on occasion be affectionate. Just now the warmth of her manner was as genial, as the cold pink that comes on a snowy ridge at the time of a winter dawn. " To-day, at once, if you please." The sooner off, the sooner back; and the less chance of missing her lover on his return. " Well said," cried the other—" But hardly to-day. Don Mariano— he does not return till nightfall, will he not wish to see you before you leave ? " " I know not," replied Lola sadly. Time was when he could not brook to let her out of his sight ; but he was no longer the doting grandfather of her happy childish days. His love for her was gone, she feared ; burnt up and consumed in his fierce passionate dislike for Francis Wriottesley.

Doha Teresa remained for the night at the cottage, so Lola did not find herself again alone with her grandfather before they started. But he spoke to her kindly, much as if nothing had happened between them, and talked much of the quiet ease to be found in a country life. "Would that I could tear myself from this noisy town to end my days among the green slopes or in some sheltered valley of the Sierra." " Why not purchase land near to our Agua Dulce, cousin ? " suggested Teresa. " There is the Cortijo de Acemila ; the house is good and spacious, the vineyard of the best, and the spot retired." " Too retired," interposed Lola, who had no desire to be thus entombed alive. " Some day the mala gente, bad people, robbers, brigands from the Sierra, would descend to carry you off, abuelo, as prize."

" True," said Doha Teresa, " such things have been, when the chance of ransom is good." " I am but a pobre," cried Don Mariano crossing himself; "small profit to those who captured me." " Throw that bone to another dog," remarked Teresa slyly. " I and my children would be rich were we to touch but one day's gains that come to Crutchett's Ramp." " Foolishness ! It is not so. I have but few farthings, and I am old and feeble — they might LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. carry me off — what matter ? I should need no ransom ; my life is nearly spent — they might end it for all I care." He spoke sorrowfully and in a trembling voice, which appealed to Lola strongly, making her heart feel sore indeed. Hers seemed a crooked and a wayward fate. She had to choose between two evil paths. Either she must be faithless to the man whom she loved best in the world, or embitter with grief her grandfather's last days.

She rose from her seat and went round to kiss her grandfather once more fondly, as of old. " You will promise ? " he whispered eagerly. " I cannot, I cannot indeed," replied Lola sadly. Why was he thus obstinately bent on marring all the happiness of her young life ? And thus they parted for the night. Ere they again met, many strange things had happened to make this evening a point of departure very memorable to Lola.

Chapter II. Who Speaks To Me Of

" MUST " ? June mornings in the South of Spain are bright and beautiful, with a sun that is hot, or sometimes treacherous, even to those who call this the land of their birth. It behoved the ladies therefore to travel betimes, before the great heat of the day came on. Soon after six the steeds were at the door. For Teresa, a patient mule, bearing the chair-saddle or jamuga which Spanish ladies patronise when not disposed, or, more exactly, when unable to ride a la Inglesa ; this was provided also with a couple of feather pillows and a footstool to make her comfortable through the five-and twenty miles of jogging that lay between Rosia and her home. Lola rode her own saddle-horse, a long-tailed grey, owning a not LOLA : A TALE OF THE ROCK. remote kinship with the Bat, and renowned for its paces and its temper.

A third horse carried the mozo or groom, as well as a pair of deep pannier baskets known as capackos, wherein the luggage was bestowed. Although the visit to Agua Dulce was only for a few days, Doha Teresa persuaded Lola to take with her a quantity of clothes. The plea was that Ramona, and, for the matter of that, she herself, was anxious to inspect at leisure the most fashionable modes, such as people wore over yonder in the great world. So Lola good-naturedly packed up more than one of the chefs d' œuvres of the milliner's art, and filled a large box with other articles of apparel which it would be idle to particularise had I the power, which I have not. Not many months had passed since Lola had received her first lessons in horsemanship from her cousin Lucas, at the farm. Then it had been her highest ambition to assimilate herself to those proud, white-faced English women she had seen galloping to and fro upon the shores of the Bay.

Like them, she wished to wear a faultless Amazona, and to have no " MUST " ? 27 fear in the saddle. Few people could have denied that already she had attained the wish of her heart. As she started from the door of the cottage, with her well-fitting grey habit, her wide-brimmed grey hat looped up with black braid and carrying a costly ostrich feather, she looked like a reigning princess leaving the palace gate to ride through her dominions. Nor was homage wanting from subjects admiring and devoted. As she passed along the Line wall into the Alameda Garden, under the Southport gate, and through the town, every eye was turned upon her, and more than one young English officer on his road to the North Front, bound for a gallop before breakfast, returned to tell his comrades at the mess-table of the stunning girl he had seen that morning early while they were still in bed.