Through Fire and Water. A novel

Chapter I

" Terrors are turned upon me : they pursue my soul as the wind : and my welfare passeth away as a cloud." — Job. The evening appvoached when Hagav was bound to meet the old gipsy. The days had dvawn in since that time, and a gloomy sky had cuvtailed the usual houvs of twilight. Hagav had gone thvough hev duties mechani cally that day, and had been commended by Lady Shirley for her unusual attention. This had been unintentional, she had wound herself up to show no emotion, and acted like a machine. She took no notice of Anthony, who never relaxed his observation of her. He thought to obtain a coadjutor in his task, and addressed himself to Ella. "Ella, my cousin," he cried, catching hold vol. ii. 5 f of and detaining her by one of her golden curls, as she was leaving the room ; "it seems to me that thy young companion, Amoa, has some secret grief preying on her spirits.

Per haps she may confide in thee, and be made happier by thy sympathy." Ella straightened herself into the perfection of primness, immediately. " Let go my hair, cousin Anthony. I have nothing to do with Amoa. She is cross and wilful. I do not love her. If thou dost, cousin Anthony, it will be best for thee to look after her thyself." Anthony turned away. " It is vain to ex pect two animals of the same sex and size to live together in peace," he said. " How could my mother dream those two lovely girls would agree ?" When the evening was far advanced, Hagar, who had become paler and paler as the hour of her rendezvous with the gipsy drew near, wrapped the scarf which Anthony had given her round her shoulders, and stealing to the place where his belt was lying, she took the dirk from its sheath, and concealed it under the folds of her shawl.

In thus doing she was conscious of no defi nite plan — but she felt that she was going into a danger from which Anthony might have saved her, and would not ; and that now she must rely on her own vesouvces. If the old woman sought again to detain her, as she had done on the former occasion, Hagar would do her best to kUl her with that dagger. Anthony's watch over her had relaxed — his mother was a good chess-player, and had challenged him to a game. In the appre hension of being beaten, Anthony forgot Hagar, so she stole out of the room softly ; and Ella, whose gaze was fixed on the fine head of her cousin, as he pored over the boavd, thought only of him, with a jealous remem brance of the recommendation he had given her early in the day. Hagar entered the wood, and listened — all w7as silent.

It was so dark, and she felt so terror-stricken, that she was more than half inclined to return to the house, and take the consequences of breaking her tryst. Probably but for the sneers of Mistress Martha, and the contemptuous looks of young Ella, she would have thrown herself on the mercy of Lady Shirley and of Sir Anthony ; but she shrank from it all — from their self-congratulations on the fulfilment of the prophecies they had made with regard to her being found out who dis liked her, and from Norah's grief, and Lady 1—2 Shirley's mild disdain. She thought of all this, and moved forward as swiftly as the darkness permitted — the dagger in one hand, the bit of gold firmly clasped in the other. She was near the water now. She heard the regular lapping of the waves against the forest-clothed bank, whence she had looked out for Sir Anthony's coming.

She saw the dull sparkle of the water, when a star gleamed on it. Now she stood still, and looked around her, but it was too dark to distinguish anything. " Mother !" she said, in a low voice, fearful lest the dreaded creature should hear and answer; " Mother !" The response came, "I am here." The voice was so near her, that Haoar had to command herself, not to start nor shrink, so terrible to her was the proximity. " What hast thou brought V demanded the beldame. " Only a piece of red gold, mother." " Where is thy hand ?" the skinny hand touched Hagar's, and received the moidore. " And now, mother, I have performed my part of the agreement ; I must return, or I shall be missed." " Stop ! young mistress ; thou must not es cape yet. I must perform my promise, and give thee the husband to whom thou wert affianced in chddhood.

All shaU be done in decent order, Bomany fashion." She flung some powder from her hand on a heap of dead leaves and branches, and the flames leapt up and showed a hideous circle seated round the bonfire. They had silently filled up the path behind Hagar, so that she felt herself hemmed in by these grinning de mons, as they seemed to her. There were some with one eye lost, some squinted dia bolically ; the eyes of the aged were set round with yellow wrinkles, the colour of a toad, through which the pupils, like little sparks of fire, gave them the look in their restless movement of monkeys. The hair of all was matted, and either black or grey accord ing to their age. " Thou art welcome back to our tribe, sis ter," they said, in the Bomany language. " Thou art come in thy bvidal white, as is be fitting a maiden who longs to be a wife.

Thou hast lived in vooms with gilded walls, and cavpets on the floovs. Thou wilt give of thy abundance to thy brothers and sisters." " Peace," said the beldame. " There is one who is nearer than a brother or a sister ; come forth, bridegroom, and claim thy wife." A heavy-browed, ill-looking whelp of a man — the former groom of Saladin — stepped from the shadow of the trees, and came within the light of the bonfire. The old woman, who was the queen, repeated the formula in the face of the tribe : — " I, Ishmael Vest, hereby fulfil my troth, in the face of the tribe, and take Hagar Gorse for my wife, and will be true to her always." Then turning to Hagar, she said, " Bepeat : — I, Hagar Gorse, take Ishmael Vest for my husband, thereby fulfilling my troth in the presence of the tribe." Hagar refused, but such a clamour of discordant voices broke on her words, that her dissent was inaudible.

She glanced with terror, and loathing at the circle, very like a hunted animal encompassed by the enemy man, where might be the weakest point to try to escape. A child who had been sitting by his mother's side, had crept out of his place to push some sticks into the burning heap. " Husband ! take thy wife to thy tent. The tent is prepared, my daughter," muttered the toothless hag. Ishmael advanced, but Hagar, quick-eyed and fleet, rushed by him, and over turning the mother of the boy as she passed her, fled through the darkness. There w7as a general howl, and then a cry of encouragement to the deserted husband ; he started in pursuit, but the unlucky boy who had burnt his hand was crawling back to his mother for consolation, and Ishmael, unable to recover himself, tripped over him, and added to the pain the chUd was suffering by the crushing weight of his prostrate body.

This provoked the irascible mother, who dealt a sound cuff on the helpless head of her son's enemy, as he lay at her mercy. He gathered himself up, and continued his chase, stumbling through the deep shadows, made more treacherous by the flickering light from the bonfire. Hagar knew every by-path and turning of the forest, but so did he. Her object was to reach the open which led to the mansion. His was to intercept her before she attained security. To try to break through the under wood would be to ensure speedy destruction. In all her breathless terror she thought of this, and when she found her pursuer was determined to tire her out without pevmitting hev to escape by that means, she thought of the cottage in the wood wheve dwelt Ella's relatives, and determined to seek shelter with them for the night.

It is true that no good will existed between them. Dame Durdon had been grumpy because she saw that Hagar was equally favoured with her grand child, and Hagar had not been slow to pay the old woman back with insolence for her ill-will; still she did not believe they would refuse her shelter, and she made fov the walk which led to theh cottage, which was at the end of a path, so that theve was no escape beyond. Breathless, with beating heavt and staving eyes, like a hunted animal, she reached the door, and hammered with her fist. "Dame, mistress, let me in, for Heaven sake ! — let me in — there will be murder if thou dost not ! Save me ! — save me !" The dame and her husband were in bed — the sound awoke them. " Oh, John !" whispered the woman in terror, " some one cries murder — and it is so like Mary's voice."

The knocking was renewed louder, for this time Hagar used the handle of the dirk. The cries were renewed — plaintively, yet with increased horror, for a dark form was seen against the opening of the path, flying to wards her — " Let me in, for mercy's sake ! Save me ! save me !" The old woman half arose in the bed, the man held her back — " Don't thee meddle or make," said he ; " 'tis no affair of ours," and they lay down again. Then they heard one despairing shriek, and all was sUent, for Hagar, driven to despera tion, let go her hold of the latch of the door, which she felt she could not long cling to, and rushing forward to meet her foe, plunged the dagger into his breast, in a downward direction ; the point reached his heart, and with a sudden bound in the air, he fell for ward on his face, striking her down by the heaviness of his body.

She tried to free herself, and rise, but his arms and breast were on her feet ; raising herself on her elbows, and doubting; whether he were really disabled, and if she had indeed escaped, she drew herself from under the prostrate body. The scarf was the most difficult to release, from its length, but she dragged it away ultimately, and gathering it together, she stood breathless, looking down at the stiU heaving heap, half afraid of moving lest he should grasp her feet ; fearful of passing him, for his bulk blocked up the path. Thus she stood for a few minutes, shivering with terror. She had ceased to hope for help from the cottage. Perhaps they slept, perhaps they were not there — she must go home or she should be missed. Oh ! if she should meet any of that dreadful tribe. They would murder her, if they found out what she had done.

This thought nerved her to fly as soon as possible from the neighbourhood of the wounded man. She thought she heard his voice in a choked sound from the earth — she put out her arms and felt for and clasped the branch of a tree, and swung herself over the creature who blocked her path. Then she ran, till compelled to stop from the labouring of her breast. She had nearly reached the boundary path of the forest, when she heard voices conversing in the Romany tongue. She stood still, lest the branches should rustle by her movement, and listened. The woman was saying that Ishmael would be enriched by his marriage. He would not spare the stick on his young wife U she did not bring him gold and silver from the great house. The man wondered if he had caught her and brought her back to the tent. " Probably," the woman replied.

" He was a sturdy runner, and knew all the wood-paths, and the strength of that slip of a girl was nothing compared to his." Hagar listened, and thought of the dark bundle blocking up the pathway, and laughed inwardly and scornfully. Then she thought of the dagger : she had left it in the wound. It was Sir Anthony's dirk. What would he say when he missed it ? The thought entered her mind that she ought to go back and withdraw it from the body — but she dared not. He might have recovered sufficiently to seize and detain her. The bare suggestion made her shudder. No, she continued her flight to the mansion. When she reached her home the doors were all locked and barred. They believed her to have gone to her bed, as she was wont to do, if tired or sulky. This circumstance gave her no concern, she was so cat-like that she easUy climbed up by aid of the trellis-work placed to support the roses and sweetbrier, and gaining her window, she raised the sash softly, and crept into her small bed-chamber.

There was no light save the dull glimmer of the sky through the window, and she was fain to throw off her clothes and leave them on the floor, and creep into bed. There she soon slept, for she had been violently agitated both in mind and body ; and hers was a dreamless sleep of utter forgetfulness, which makes the apparition of painful realities to be doubly painful on the awakening. She was aroused by the tinkling of the first bell. It was a summons to arise and be in readiness fov the pvayevs which Lady Shirley would read half an hour after. She started up with the idea that she was late, and taking up the clothes hastily which she had left on the floor, the morning light showed ghastly on the stains of blood on the rosettes of her shoes, on her laced apron, and on her scarf, and on the corner of her dress.

It was the Sabbath morning, and Hagar was about to put on a richly-flowered silk and a finer apron in honour of the day. This was for tunate. She flung the stained apparel into a chest, and took from her wardrobe fresh clothing. These she hurried on, with trem bling fingers, for she dreaded the eyes which would glare at her with reproachful glances, should she be the last to enter the breakfast room. The second bell rang just as she had com pleted her toUette, and passed a yellow ribbon through the rich tresses of her black hair. Very pale she w7as when she entered the room, and met the eyes of Sir Anthony, who stood leaning his knuckles on the table cloth, ready to kneel when his mother should begin to read the prayers. He turned his fresh young face towards her, framed with his clustering curls, and smiled, as if with pleasure to see her again.

She had not said good-night on the previous evening, and Sir Anthony had thought that she had gone to bed in vexation at his pre-occupation in the game of chess he had been playing with his mother. The look seemed to Hagar full of pleading love. This was the impression also of Ella, whose eyes became clouded by tears. Hagar knelt with the rest, but she had no religious feeling because no settled convictions. She knew that her tribe did not believe in any God, though they had some dread worship of the sphits of darkness. They held all the doctrines of Christianity in contempt, and the long sermons and long prayers with which Hagar had been dosed had stiffened her mind against the doctrine they were intended to inculcate. Sometimes she burst into unex pected merriment at the gravest histories.

The idea of Jacob's covering himself with a skin to imitate his eldest brother's roughness, excited her uproarious mirth. " Why dost thou laugh ?" cried the lady, gravely. " It was so clever — that trick — and your God approved it !" When Esau said, " Hast thou no blessing for me ? Bless me also, my father ' " she knitted her brows, and said, " that she would throw stones at Jacob till he was dead if she ever saw him." Ella, like a good little girl, thought every thing right that she was instructed in. It was just, no doubt, that Esau should have been defrauded. Of course it was, or it would not have been so. Whatever is, is right, was the doctrine inculcated on her, and it was received by a docile pupil. Now, as Hagar knelt with her ivory-looking face against the rough needle-work of the chair bottoms, she felt herself more than ever estranged from those around her by the deed committed on the previous night.

She had been a horse-stealer before. Now she was a murderer. When would they find it ? Would he be really dead ? She had fancied that she had seen the dark heap moving as she looked back, doubting if she should return and pluck the dagger from its sheathing in the man's breast. She clenched her teeth firmly, acting in thought the blow over again. She did not regret it. She would even now repeat it, under the same circumstances. He, that coarse brute ! her husband. She did not see that noble head, with well-nurtured, flowing curls, now bent reverently on his pointed hands, but she knew he was there, glowing in the morning streams of sunshine, and she worshipped him in her heart. They all attended divine service that day. She had a dread lest she might be seized by the officers of justice, and claimed as the murderer ofthe gipsy found in the wood.

When walking through the park to the church, which stood on its borders, Hagar thought that all the church-goers looked gravely at her. It was not wonderful, for her usually softly tinted brown skin was nearly gray, her eyes wild, and her whole manner apprehensive. In the church she fancied that the clergy man looked at her, espeeiaUy when he repeated the commandment — " Thou shalt do no murder." " I would do it again," she thought, defiantly. " Yet again, and again, and again," and her colour came back to her cheeks, with her feeling of determination. When the seemingly interminable sermon had concluded the seventeenthly of its sub divisions, and they walked into the church yard, the cottagers were waiting about to curtsey and bow to " The FamUy," as they were called. Old Durdon, the husband of Dame Durdon, was leaning on a tombstone, with the determination seemingly of being noticed.

He stood up as the family passed, looking at each one steadfastly, as if he wished to speak. Hagar's tongue clove to the roof of her mouth. ■ No one thought of the old man but herself, for none but she knew what he had probably seen on leaving his cottage that morning. As Sir Anthony passed him, the old man hobbled after him just as they reached the park, and said, — ■ " Please, your honour, may I speak a word with you ?" r " Let me know the worst," thought Hagar. She had been walking beside EUa, but she pretended to have a thorn in her foot, and stooped to rectify the inconvenience, so that she could hear what was said. " Sir Anthony !" said the old labourer, in a sepulchral tone, " there are bad people about the place !" " Are there, my man?" replied Sir Anthony, carelessly, not affected by the solemnity of the exordium.

" I dare say we are no better than we should be." " Yes — I mean no, your honour. Something dreadful happened just outside my door, Sir Anthony." Hagar's uerves were strung to the greatest tension. " They cannot say I did it," she thought, with a clinging to hope, which is most natural when hope is leaving us utterly. " You see, sir," the old man continued, " it seems to me 'tis more your business than any body elses, and your honour had better look out." " The dirk !" thought Hagar. " Because it is on my land, I suppose," replied the young man, indifferently. " Well ! what is this dreadful thing ?" " Well, sir ! 'twas just before the break of the morning, when my wife — she is always a fanciful woman, and if you ever come to have a wife of your own, you'U find, Sir Anthony, that they are the aggravatingest creturs, when a man is sleeping, that ever was made to plague a body."

" Very like !" replied the young man, with an intelligent smile. " Yes, Sir Anthony, it is so, more the pity ; and my wife, she woke me up early in the night, and she says, ' John ! I hear Mary calling at the door.' ' Get out with thee,' said I. ' How can she be calling at the door, and she have been dead these fifteen year and over V So I spoke cross, and she was scart, and lay stUl and trirnbled. I heard the cries, and VOL. II. THROUGH FIRE AND AVATER. I said, ' Woman, thy bad thoughts have brought the evil spirits of the earth to torment us.' " Well, your honour, we dozed off both on us, and just before the day began to dawn, I heard something moving in the bushes, heavy like, and then I heard voices talking, only they seemed mixed — women's and men's. Then there was a great rustling, and, says I, ' Some body a felled one of the trees, and they are a-trying to drag it away.' " Your honour may warrant I lay still enough — a-shaking all over — and I did not stir out for an hour or more. ' It is a providence,' said I, ' that whatever it is, it is Sunday morning, so I can be as long as I like.' Well ! will you believe it, Sir Anthony, my wife, she was that curious that she got up afore me, went out, and when she was gone a few steps down the path, she gave a great screech, and cried ' Murder !' So I ran then, and there was a place in the path where there was blood, and the leaves were tored off the branches, and the fevn was down tvod.

Says I, ' It's a' been a murder, and Sir Anthony shall know on it, for lots of them fine young deer come here to feed every night, and the poachers have killed one o' them, and dragged away the poor cretur. So,' says I, ' I'll up and tell Sir Anthony that the gamekeepers arn't worth the coats they wear, nor the guns they 3 33 carry. Hagav dvew a long sigh of velief on heaving this sequel to the histovy. Aftev that she could affovd to run after Ella, for she spoke not at all to Anthony, resenting the refusal to take her with him to town. She felt as if she hated Anthony, in the plenitude of her rage at his refusal. It w-as a phase of her weather-cock passions. At another time she longed to see him once more alone, and to wring a consent that she might accompany him to London. The sternness of Puritanism which ruled " the court, the camp, the grove," under the influ ence of the Protector, still retained its power in the remote parts of England, though in the capital, vice appeared like a sudden mildew blight, covering everything and every one whose honour and propriety had been seem ingly untarnished under the reign of Crom well.

Anthony, after six months' sojourn at court, would have little scruple about taking a beautiful girl with him as his mistress, even though she had lived for many years 2—2 under his mothev's charge ; but he had been weU brought up, and the merry king had only reigned about three months at this period of my story.

Chapter II

" I gave to him a love token Ere he rode forth that day. O bonny love ! and was thy haste So swift thou couldst not stay ?" Hagar was very passionate, and very much in love. She had brought a flower from the garden, and came into the room where Sir Anthony was leaning against the window-sill, thinking of his intended presentation-at court. He hoped that Charles's memory might be short, for Anthony's father had been on the side of the Parliament, in the civil wars. " The worst is," thought the youth, " that he may forget his friends, and no one will remind him ; but the courtiers are certain to say, ' Sir Anthony what ? the son of that pestilent Puritan who fought against your majesty,' and — then there will be a catalogue of every battle and every skirmish in which my dad was opposed to the royal forces." oo _4J__J THROUGH FIRE AND WATER.

Hagar crept into the room. She was gene rally, when not carried away by a whirlwind of passionate excitement, very stealthy and cat-like in her movements. She would offer him the flower, and should he accept it she would re-urge her pleas to be taken to London with him, otherwise she would do something desperate — run away, and get to London after him in the best way she could. They would never catch her there — she would steal some money belonging to Lady Shirley ; what did it matter ? She would never miss it, and never require it if she did. Her bed would be as soft, and her rooms as warm, hev fire burn as brightly, and her dress be as costly, though Hagar should have carried off some of that gold which was tied up in bags of fifty guineas in each. She peered round the room with her large flashing eyes, and sought under her specula ting brows whether any one was in the room with her master to see her petitioning, and hearing, perhaps, its refusal ; but there was no one in sight, and she stood by Anthony with tears in her eyes, and silently offered him the deep crimson rose she had plucked for him.

He turned round, and being good-natured, he was touched by the tearful eyes fixed ou him so imploringly, but he had a kind of terror lest she should inconvenience him by her supplications. The fire which is not required inconveniences by its warmth. His second feeling was irritation. "What is it?" he said, petulantly. She held the rose towards him, which he pretended not to see. " Will you not take the rose, my lord ?" she asked. " Call me Sir Anthony or master," he said. " I am no lord." " Lord, because master," Hagar suggested. He took the flower from her hand, and in haled its warm rich perfume for an instant, when, with an exclamation of disgust, he flung it out of the window. There was an earwig concealed amongst the folded leaves, which Hagar could not have perceived without pull ing the petals open.

But Anthony gave no explanation of the disgrace he inflicted on the flower, and Hagar somehow applied the usage of the gift to his feeling towards herself. Her thin nostvils dilated, hev eyes spavkled with angev, she clenched hev small hands. Anthony spvang out of the window from the presence of the anger he had provoked, whilst she remained looking after him, with a white face and heaving chest. It was only for an instant that Hagar could pursue her train of thought, and her desire to inflict pain on the man she loved, in return for the helpless rage which was blazing in her breast. Ella came tripping up to her side. She pointed mockingly to the deep red rose lying on the green turf outside the window. " Pretty mistress," said the fair beauty, " thou art too forward with thy offers. He cares not for thee, and thou lovest him."

" Love him ! I hate him. I should like to stab him, to cut his throat !" said the girl, furiously. " He is obliged to thee fov thy kind wishes, and so would be his mothev," said Ella, " if she knew them." Hagav burst away from her companion. She felt that she should try to strangle her if she remained. Her short-lived anger with Anthony was over. She pursued the path he had taken, and saw him wandering away into the forest. Then a sudden terror seized her of the gipsies, and that they might entrap her master into some ambush and murder him. She was reckless what she did or said, if she could ensure his safety. Flying with the speed of an Indian runner, she overtook Anthony. " My lady says wUl you return to the house, Sir Anthony ? She wishes to speak to you of your journey to London." Anthony turned back willingly ; he had only strolled away out of idleness, and he pro ceeded sUently by Hagar's side till they reached Lady Shirley's presence.