A life's labyrinth

Front matter

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Chapter I

On a pleasant April morning in the year 18 — three young Englishmen, with their servants and guides, were traversing the road which lies between Athens and Corinth. He who rode first was Alfred, Earl of Kingscourt, a man of remarkable personal beauty. His regular features were almost severe in outline; but his dark brown eyes, friendly and fearless, softened the effect which might have been produced by the contour of his face. The owner of many rich acres in England and Scotland, which yielded him a princely income, he was the darling of society, angled for and coveted by numbers of aristocratic dowagers and their no less friendly daughters. So far his affections had remained entirely disengaged. Occupying himself with zeal in the various political and social questions of the day, his influence promised to make itself well and deeply felt. His companions were Bertin Rollis, also the younger son of an earl; and Captain Wilbraham, a distinguished officer of the Guards.

“We may be glad that we have escaped the

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attention of the brigands,” said Bertin, as the three friends rode slightly in advance of the rest of the party. “Still, the apprehension of danger has given zest to our journey.”

“A fig for such zest!” answered Captain Wilbraham. “Last year, on this very road, two Englishmen were taken prisoner by the rascals, and kept in durance six long months. One of them died of exposure; the other, after paying an enormous ransom, returned home, shattered both in body and mind.”

“There is not much prospect of danger,” remarked Lord Kingscourt. “We have reliable guides; the Consul said we might trust them entirely.”

“The guides and banditti are usually confederates,” said Bertin.

“However that maybe,” returned Kingscourt, “I have little fear that ours will play us false, having been so strongly recommended and munificently paid.”

At this moment the principal guide rode forward at a sharp trot. After he had passed them Kingscourt said :

“I admit that Paulos is not the owner of a very prepossessing countenance, but you can not deny that he is a picturesque -looking beggar.”

The others were silent. Meanwhile Paulos rode on, peering from side to side into the underbrush a life’s labyrinth.

which lined the road, and occasionally glancing backward.

“A lonely region,” observed Captain Wilbraham at length.

They were entering a narrow defile, grown with wild orange trees and bushes of various kinds ; above it high cliffs frowned menacingly down upon the travellers.

Suddenly the sharp notes of a whistle pierced the air. They drew rein quickly, hugging the rocky wall. At that instant a dozen men, in picturesque attire, sprang from the thick underbrush, barring the way. They were armed to the teeth. Pointing their pistols at the travellers, they shouted: “Do not touch your weapons!” While the leader cried out in good English: “If you offer any resistance, you will be shot down without mercy.”

Paying no attention to the threat, Kingscourt reached for his revolver. Rollis and Wilbraham followed his example. A quick glance convinced the former that the guides had betrayed them. Two of the servants had already thrown themselves on their knees before the robbers, and were crying loudly for mercy. The third, that of Lord Kingscourt, standing close to his master, awaited his pleasure.

“Four against fifteen,” said Kingscourt, allowing the hand which held the revolver to fall at

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his side. “The rogues are too many for us.”

“You are wise, my Lord,” rejoined the captain of the robbers, with a smile.

Incensed as he was, Lord Kingscourt could not but admire the carriage and bearing ol the robber; his voice and manners showed intelligence and culture.

“You are Spiridion?” he asked.

“I am Spiridion,” replied the other, coldly. “Be kind enough to surrender into my keeping your purses, jewels, watches, and everything of value you may have about you.”

So saying he pulled off his cap, in which the travellers speedily, if reluctantly, deposited the required valuables.

“You have no more money?” inquired the robber.

“That is all,” answered the trio with one accord.

“It is not satisfactory,” continued the captain. “I shall therefore be obliged to retain Lord Kingscourt and Mr. Rollis. Wil — Wil — Wilbraham (barbaric name!) may go free.”

“Why this discrimination ? ” asked Lord Kingscourt, angrily; although he knew the reason perfectly well.

“The Captain has but little money,” replied the robber, without hesitation, “and we need a messenger. Let him go hence at once to Athens ;

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and if matters can not be arranged there, proceed without delay to England, where he will say that Spiridion demands a ransom of twenty thousand pounds for Lord Kingscourt and five thousand for Mr. Rollis.” Turning to Captain Wilbraham, he went on, gravely: “Perhaps my Lord will send through you a demand upon his bankers — ”

“ ‘ My Lord ’ will do nothing of the kind ! ” cried the Earl, stepping forward. “I shall never be guilty of compounding a felony, even to save my life. Unless I am much mistaken, my government will take the matter in hand ; and then, my good Spiridion, beware ! ”

Once more Spiridion smiled, and this time there was defiance in his smile.

“Behind these rocky barriers, from the depths of my mountain caves, I defy the world, my Lord,” he answered; and his swarthy cheek, brown with the suns of many a campaign, took on a deeper hue. “Look you, gentlemen. I swear by all that is sacred to me, that if in three months’ time the ransom I have demanded be not forthcoming, I will send an ear from each of your handsome heads as a reminder to your friends; and if at the expiration of another month no attention is paid to my claims, I will send the two remaining ears to rejoin their fellows, with a right hand of each to keep them company. So

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piece by piece shall you be returned to your English home. Do you understand ? ”

His voice was low, his tones unruffled ; but the flush upon his cheek and the fire in his eye betrayed the depth of his resolve.

“Your words are air,” said Lord Kingscourt, with a contemptuous wave of the hand. “Of such stuff as this are braggarts made. What say you, Rollis? Is it not so?”

But before Rollis could speak, Spiridion interrupted him, and now there was anger in his voice.

“Captain Wilbraham,” he cried, “return as speedily as possible to Athens, there to await further instructions from me ! ”

Wilbraham looked at Lord Kingscourt, who slowly shook his head, but said nothing. Rollis, on the contrary, said, in a solicitous tone:

“Wilbraham, if nothing else can be done, follow the instructions of our Greek friend. He is undoubtedly in the ascendency here. For my part, I am anxious that when my ears return to England I may be able to accompany them.”

“Trust me,” replied Wilbraham, “to do all I can toward effecting your release.”

“ Enough ! ” Spiridion exclaimed, turning Wilbraham’s horse in the direction of Athens. “Let me have a word with you in private, sir.”

“Farewell!” cried the Captain, waving his hand.

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“Stay ! ” said Kingscourt. “My servant must go with you.”

“I will not leave you, my Lord! ” cried Briggs. “Where you go, I go also. I beseech you do not send me away.”

“Faithful servant! ” said Spiridion, with a grim smile. “I promise you, as a reward for your fidelity, that if your master’s ears are dispatched to England, your own shall bear them company.” Then, turning to the Earl, he continued: “And now, my Lord, permit me to lead you to my humble retreat. I can boast neither ancestral castles nor the society of the great ; but you will learn that I have the allegiance of stout hearts, whose fealty I would not exchange for all the honors of a king. Forward, comrades!”

Turning sharply as he spoke into a narrow path which led from the defile into the underbrush, they made a few steps onward, when Spiridion suddenly called:

“Halt, gentlemen! We find it necessary to blindfold your eyes; so that when your ransom is paid, you may not use your freedom to my detriment. Alessandro, Luigi, bind the eyes of the prisoners.”

The work was speedily accomplished, after which the hands of the captives were bound behind their backs; and, thus rendered helpless, the ascent of the rocky path was begun Not

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a word w~as spoken. At tlie end of three hours a halt was made ; all dismounted and pursued their way on foot, still in silence. At the expiration of another half hour a growth of underbrush was pushed aside, and the robbers, one by one, passed through what appeared to be a crevice in the rock. The captives were pushed through by those in the rear. A few steps, and they entered a large cave, which led to another of still greater size. Then the bandages were removed from their eyes, the thongs from their hands, and, with a sigh of relief, they lifted their heads and looked about them.

“A true banditti’s cave!” said Rollis to his friend, in a low voice.

Kingscourt made no reply, but gazed 'keenly around.

The cavern in which they found themselves was not only large, but also high and airy. Through an opening in the rear they could both see and hear the course of a tiny waterfall, which, tumbling over a large, irregular stone, disappeared into a crevice beneath, where it found an outlet. At the farthest end of the cave a cheerful fire was blazing, over which a huge kettle was steaming. Lanterns hung from the rocky roof, shedding a dull light, which gave a weird effect to the apartment.

“I wonder where the smoke finds exit?” said a life’s labyrinth.

Rollis, looking upward to the vaulted arch above him.

“Wherever that may be,” answered Kingscourt, speaking for the first time in many hours, “you may be sure there is a forest above it, so that all vestige of it may be lost.”

“No doubt you are admiring your surroundings,” remarked Spiridion, who had been occupied in the background, but who now came forward.

Neither of the young men made any reply.

“This apartment does not constitute our entire establishment,” Spiridion went on. “Although not quite what you might desire, nor what you would enjoy at home, we are able to give you separate apartments. Nevertheless, we do not try to make them so comfortable as strangers might wish; otherwise they would no doubt become indifferent as to ransom. Luigi,” he added, with a quick gesture of the hand, “conduct these gentlemen to their private apartments. They may desire to be alone.”

“Come! ” exclaimed the robber whom Spiridion had addressed.

They followed him in silence. After traversing the whole length of the larger chamber, they reached what appeared to be a hole in the solid rock, divided in two, and also separated from the outer hall by leathern curtains. But, unlike the large apartment, the walls were reeking

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with dampness. A couple of thick rugs lay upon the ground.

“ Strangers ,’ 1 said the Greek, “here you will sleep; those rugs will serve to keep you warm.”

“What! on the bare ground!” cried Rollis, indignantly.

“I would not put a dog in such a place,” said Kingscourt, peering into the gloom.

“You need not remain here long, gentlemen,” said the voice of Spiridion, who had followed in their rear. “The sooner you comply with my conditions, the sooner you may return to your beds of eider-down. As you will observe, the moisture of these walls might conduce toward the development of any rheumatic or consumptive tendency to which either of you might possibly be inclined. But,” with a significant shrug of the shoulders, “what can I do? I give you the best I have — for strangers. What say you, gentlemen?”

Kingscourt turned from him with an impatient gesture, but made no reply.

“You are a courteous host!” observed Rollis, with a laugh. “I can but wish you similar quarters some day.”

Spiridion laughed, turned on his heel and left them.

“You will be permitted to spend your waking hours in the hall,” said Luigi. “Shall we return?”

“That at least is something, for which we a life’s labyrinth.

should be thankful,” retorted Rollis, with a gloomy visage; adding as they retraced their steps: “Kingscourt, I fear that, unless assistance comes to us speedily, the end of three months will find us either dead or insane.”

The Earl made no reply.

Chapter II

The news of the capture of the Earl of Kingscourt caused a great sensation, not only in Greece and England, but through the whole civilized world. The intervention of the British Government was solicited and obtained in behalf of the prisoners; but as it appeared that the Grecian authorities were already doing everything in their power to ensure the capture of Spiridion and his band, as also the discovery of their secret whereabouts, nothing remained but to wait.

Meanwhile the friends of Lord Kingscourt and his companion were not idle. Confident that, in view of the enormous ransom demanded for them, Spiridion would be careful they should come to no harm until the specified period of time had elapsed, those friends held themselves in readiness to meet the demands at a moment’s notice. But twenty -five thousand pounds is a large sum of money; and there was irritation in the thought that not only individuals, but the cause of justice and humanity, were at the mercy of banditti, whose removal from the face of the earth would be an inestimable benefit.

To the captives, cut off as they were from all

communication with the outside world, time 16

A LIFE S LABYRINTH.

dragged like lead. With health undermined by the damp and unwholesome atmosphere, coupled with distasteful food, and longing for a breath of the fresh air now denied them, their lot soon became well-nigh unendurable. Although confinement had not lessened their courage, it had shown them how fallacious was any hope of recovering their liberty, save by the payment of the stipulated ransom.

As an incentive to the more speedy liberation of the prisoners, Spiridion had permitted Lord Kingscourt to write a couple of letters; but, through some unaccountable delay, Wilbraham had not received them until the morning of the day when, seeing that all other efforts were useless, he was on the point of returning to Athens with the money in hand. In company with two brother officers, friends of the unfortunate prisoners, he arrived at Triest just a day too late for the steamer it was incumbent on him to take if he wished to reach his friends in time. It was not until then that he began to realize the great peril of the prisoners, — a peril he was now powerless to avert, should Spiridion keep to the letter of the terms he had made on that fateful day three months before.

On the other hand, the captives, gaunt, holloweyed, and depressed in mind, were also alive to a full appreciation of the straits in which they a life’s labyrinth.

found themselves; and were beginning to fear that some unforeseen accident had occurred which would precipitate, in part at least, the dreadful fate with which they had been threatened by the chief of the banditti.

As they sat close to the fire, which was never extinguished in their underground abode, on the morning of the eventful day to which they had looked forward with alternate hope and fear, they presented a sorry spectacle. At the other end of the room the robbers were pursuing their customary avocations and amusements. The faithful Briggs sat on a bench near his master, his head sunk in his hands, dreading not his own fate, but that of the young Earl whom he had loved and served from infancy to manhood.

“Well, Rollis,” said Kingscourt, in alow voice, “the three months are at an end. What if Wilbraham should not have reached Athens yet ? Do you think — ”

“Beggin’ your pardon, my Lord!” interposed Briggs. “A messenger was early on the road this mornin’ — gone for the money. Said Luigi to me, i Briggs, it is money or ears to-day,’ says he.”

“What audacity! What indubitable evidence that the guides, and even some of the government officers, must be in the conspiracy, when a messenger from such a source and on such an a life’s labyrinth.

errand can go and come unchallenged ! ” said Rollis, with a burst of indignation.

“Yes,” replied Kingscourt, calmly, with a wan smile. “In England things are different. Without doubt, any attempt to intercept the messenger would result only in annihilation for us at this stage. They have the best of us in this situation.”

“You are looking ill, Kingscourt,” observed Rollis, as the Earl wiped his forehead with what had once been a fine cambric handkerchief, but which now looked like a limp and soiled rag. Somehow, this evidence of the results of captivity struck a tender chord in the heart of the young Englishman, so strongly did it appeal to his sense of the force of contrast.

“I am really physically out of sorts to-day,” was the reply. “It is something more than mental anxiety, I know. Doubtless this sort of life is telling on me.”

“Courage, my Lord!” whispered Briggs, leaning forward as he peered anxiously into the face of his master. “It may be an affair of only a couple of hours now.”

“Or of a couple of ears,” said Rollis, with a rueful attempt at facetiousness. “I do not think I am extraordinarily vain ; but I confess I do not like the prospect of having to go about the rest of my life with my hair hanging over the place

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where my ears should be. It would look very odd. Eh, Kingscourt ? ”

The Earl could not repress a smile at the comical picture which Rollis depicted in anticipation; but poor Briggs shook his head mournfully at the prospect.

At this moment there was a commotion at the other end of the hall. The heavy curtain separating the private quarters of Spiridion from the common room was lifted, and he stepped out hastily, as a man, booted and spurred, advanced from the entrance.

“Well, what news, Cyril?” he said to the newcomer.

“It looks bad, captain,” was the reply. “The Englishman can not be found in Athens.”

“What!” exclaimed the robber chief. “Nor sent a substitute?”

“No,” answered the other, briefly. “I have been in every hostelry in Athens, and he is not there, nor any one who represents him.”

“And the Consulate?”

“I went there, too — disguised, of course. Captain Wilbraham had not arrived, and no one in the vicinity knew aught of his movements.”

“Then, by the Prince of Darkness,” cried Spiridion, “I shall execute my threat to the letter without further delay!”

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“It may be, captain,” said the robber, “that Wilbraham is holding back until the very last hour, hoping that we may be discovered. They are scurrying about pretty lively in this neigh* borhood, I can tell you. I myself — ”

“Peace!” shouted Spiridion. “The day is near its close. Had Wilbraham meant to comply with my conditions, he would have placed himself in a position where you could have found him at its earliest dawn.”

“One moment,” said Lord Kingscourt, rising from the bench where he had been a silent listener.

“Not an instant! ” roared Spiridion. “My men are at hand, prompt, good and true. I will show your English friends that they can not trifle with Spiridion.”

“But I feel confident there has been unavoidable delay,” continued the Earl. “Some misunderstanding, some defect in arrangements — ” “That should have be n provided against,” Spiridion broke in. “You need not resume your seat, my Lord. Luigi, Alessandro, Delos, bind these men; for now I shall send three ears where I meant to send but two, and — ”

“What!” cried Rollis, also springing to his feet ; while Briggs leaned, open-mouthed and pallid, against the rocky side of the cavern. “You do not mean that you will execute that inhuman sentence here and now, — that you will

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not give us the benefit of this one day, not yet ended? ”

“That is what I mean,” replied the robber; and as he spoke the men about him began to move here and there in the execution of his order. Thongs were brought forth ; there was the glimmer and clash of knives being whetted for the grim office they were so soon to perform.

And then, by a sudden caprice of fate, as the doomed men waited, expectant, fearful in the midst of their captors, who stepped forward, rope and knife in hand, to bind and maim, the door of the cavern seemed illuminated by a vision, and the clear, young, melodious voice of a girl r ang through the vaulted roof as she cried:

“Spiridion, halt ! ”

To the bandits, as well as to the prisoners, who stood transfixed at the sight, the appearance of the beautiful young girl who stood in the rude doorway was that of an angel. Tall, fair and maidenly, with a wealth of golden hair falling in two heavy plaits below her waist, there was an air of dignity about her which at once stamped her as a child of noble lineage. She wore the national Greek costume, which served further to enhance her remarkable beauty. She might have been nineteen years of age, scarcely older. In spite of her address, her appearance was that

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of an English girl ; and she had spoken in English as though it were her native tongue.

Spiridion was surprised and agitated; while the murmurs of his band, as they looked at one another with indignant astonishment, boded no good to the fearless girl who stood in their midst.

“You here, lady!” exclaimed the robber chief, quickly regaining his self-control. “How and why did you discover our retreat?”

“How?” she replied. “By infinite toil, and through many devious ways. Why? To save, if not too late, these unfortunate prisoners.”

“ What do you know of them ?” asked Spiridion, with a menacing frown.

“Naught but what all the world is saying,” answered the girl. “As you must be well aware, Athens is ringing with their story. We in Corinth know it equally well. I have watched and waited for sight of you this many a day, Spiridion, trusting that, at my request, you would redeem the solemn promise made to me not many months ago; but all in vain. To-day, hearing the dreadful news that their expected friend had not arrived with the ransom, I set forth, with a prayer on my lips and the fire of hope burning in my heart; and, though many a time I was tempted to return, I still pressed on. Oh, it was a higher power than chance that threw me in the track of your messenger, Spiridion, scarce

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an hour ago! I knew you would have sent a messenger, and I watched for him, hidden behind the underbrush near the defile. Disguised though he was, I knew him; for, you remember, it was he who—”

“ Yes, yes !” interrupted the bandit. “ It matters not, lady, how you came, now that you are here. Say, do you know, daring girl, what is the penalty of such temerity as yours?”

“Nay, Spiridion,” she replied, as fearlessly as before. “Y"ou can not frighten and you will not fail me; for I have your solemn promise, and I do not doubt your honor.”

“And what do you ask of me?” inquired the robber chief.

“Freedom for these men,” she replied, indicating the captives with a wave of her hand.

Spiridion shook his head, while a low, significant murmur went through the group surrounding him.

The girl advanced a step nearer.

“Spiridion ! ” she cried, drawing from her bosom a long golden chain, to which was attached a silver reliquary in the form of a cross, together with a tiny statuette of Our Lady, also of silver, — “Spiridion, did you not swear, by the fragment of the True Cross contained in this reliquary, and by the image of Her through whose intercession you may yet find mercy, that if the time ever a life’s labyrinth.

came when I should wish to ask a favor at your hands, there was nothing in your power you would not grant me ? ”

“She speaks the truth,” said the robber, with a peculiar, apprehensive glance at his companions. “I did so swear — but now? The time, the place, the circumstances! Betrayal, ruin, may be the end of this, my lady,” he added, once more addressing her. “Are you aware that I am responsible to my followers for their personal safe - keeping ? that a ransom of twenty -five thousand pounds is at stake? that these captives, if released, will no doubt do all they can to throw us into the clutches of the law?”

“For the last I can not promise,” said the girl, in the same fearless tone she had hitherto assumed. “Surely that would be but natural — and right. You know too well, Spiridion, no honest Christian could consider the question of the money but as an extortion. And it should not be necessary for me to declare that I will not reveal the secret of this hiding-place. For the rest it is very simple. You have made me a solemn promise. I am here to exact its fulfilment.”

“But what of these?” he asked, again pointing to his companions. “ What if they should protest against the surrender of such a prize?”

“Spiridion,” cried the girl, “you but trifle now !

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There never was a crowned king with more absolute control of his subjects than you have of this otherwise lawless band. It is unworthy of you thus to seek shelter behind their voiceless protest. You know that your will is their irrevocable law. ”

“Comrades,” said the bandit, turning to the swarthy, picturesque group now standing shoulder to shoulder at his left, — “comrades, this lady is the good Samaritan, who, finding me wounded and bleeding by that unlucky fall some time ago, took me in, gave me shelter, and bound up my wounds. Under her gentle care I soon recovered; and, while taking care to conceal my identity, I made the promise she now comes to claim. Later, when captured and on the way to prison, glancing at a window, I recognized her, and saw that she knew me also. It was after my escape, when, disguised as a beggar, I asked and received charity at her hands, that I renewed the promise of which she has reminded me. Therefore, I am doubly her debtor; she has my pledge. What say you?”

“Spiridion has never yet broken his solemn word,” answered Constantine, his brother; “and shall he break it now?”

“No! no! no!” cried the others, in one voice.

“It is well,” said Spiridion, with a grim smile. “My lady, do you swear, as once I did, by that

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sacred relic, by the image of God’s Mother, never to betray, whether under duress or persuasion, the secret of this cavern?”

“I do swear it,” said the girl, raising her eyes to heaven, and solemnly clasping her hands, which held the sacred relics.

“It is enough!” said Spiridion. “Luigi, Alessandro, unbind your prisoners. Constantine, Delos, join the others in leading them forth, conveying them to the spot where they were captured. From thence they can easily find their way to Athens.”

Without waiting for a response, the chief abruptly turned away, and passed beyond the curtain of his own apartment.

Five minutes had not elapsed before the convoy was on its way. As they passed through the narrow crevice in the rock which led into the open, the prisoners, on whom strict silence had been enjoined, drew a long, fresh, grateful breath. Once more they felt the soft and kindly evening breeze upon their faces.

“One word,” said Lord Kingscourt, holding out his hand in the direction of the guard. “I wish, in behalf of my companions as well as myself, to thank the Heaven-sent messenger who has this day preserved us from a fate almost worse than death.”

“Silence!” muttered the leader, in a deep a life’s labyrinth.

whisper. “Would you betray us? If so, your lives shall pay the forfeit on the spot.”

“And shall we not even learn the name oi her who — ”

“Silence!” once more repeated Constantine, roughly pushing the Earl forward, bringing him in close proximity to his fair deliverer, who had preceded them along the path.

Whatever might have been the young girl’s wishes, she dared not speak in the face of so positive a command ; but as the silent procession filed past her, her eyes beamed with a glow of surprise and pleasure as she saw upon the little finger of Lord Kingscourt’s left hand a circlet of black pearls divided at regular intervals b}* diamonds. It was a Rosary ring.

Chapter III

At the southern extremity of the Gulf of Lepanto, not many miles from Corinth, there stood in a secluded spot a modest villa. But its broad verandas overlooked both bay and mountains; and, embowered in trees and shrubbery as it was, nothing could be more ideally perfect for a quiet, beautiful home. It was reached from the high-road through a deep and narrow valley; this road, however, was seldom used by the proprietor, who much preferred to communicate with the town by water. Well -cultivated orchards, containing figs, olives, oranges, and mulberries, bore testimony to the superintendence of the owner, as well as the thrift of the laborers, whose cottages, at a considerable distance from the house of the landlord, formed a little village in themselves.