Hildebrand; or, The Days of Queen Elizabeth, An Historic Romance, Vol. 3 of 3 Read online

  CHAPTER VII.

  Abigail had not quitted her bed-chamber long, on the morningheretofore specified, when Dame Shedlock, whom she had left ina deep sleep, awoke. Judging from the expression of her eyes,she awoke in the perfect possession of her senses; but, on beingclosely surveyed, her face still displayed certain traces offever, which showed that her sleep had not been refreshing. Thebright red spot, too, which has been described as capping hercheek, burned with unabated lustre; and in its contrast with herwhite forehead, and her parched and colourless lips, made thebeauty of her complexion look truly terrible.

  For some little time, she lay perfectly still, with her eyes,which seemed brighter than usual, turned towards heaven, andapparently rapt in prayer. As her eyes finally turned anotherway, the expression of her face changed, and became so radiantwith patience, that it actually affected her complexion; and itstraces of physical suffering, which have been pointed out above,were lost in the loveliness of its moral revelation.

  After lying thus for some brief space longer, she suddenlyaltered her position; and by planting her two hands firmly on thebed, in the manner of props, raised herself up. The achievementcost her all her strength; and when she had gained a sittingposture, she was obliged to pause a while, and catch for breathas if she were stifling.

  Several minutes elapsed before she recovered her breath. Eventhen, indeed, her respiration was not free, and was evidentlyeffected with an effort. But her difficulty of breathing did notinduce her to continue still. Once able to draw her breath, sheslowly turned her feet over the side of the bed, and alighted onthe floor. Then, supporting herself against the bed, and clingingwith one hand to the contiguous post of the bedstead, she raisedherself upright.

  Her body felt very light, yet her knees and ankles were so weakand feeble, that, notwithstanding her personal buoyancy, shecould hardly bring them to bear her up. A bright smile stole overher face as she noted their inefficiency; and while the smile wasyet traceable, she raised her head, and once more turned her eyestowards heaven. Quickly dropping her glance again, she plantedher left hand, which she had at liberty, steadily on the bed,and, relaxing her hold of the bed-post, stepped slowly forward,and thus moved along towards the chamber-door.

  She was obliged to halt several times on her way; but, pausingonly to recover her breath, she persevered in her purpose, andfinally gained the door.

  She appeared to hesitate somewhat as she drew the door open. Buther indecision, if such it were, endured but a brief period; and,drawing a deep breath, she once more set forward, and passed intothe passage without.

  On the same side of the passage, a little way in her front, therewas another door, opening into an adjoining bed-chamber. On herentry into the passage, her eye, without looking for any otherobject, turned straight here; and, leaning against the contiguouswall, she bent her steps thitherwards on the instant.

  Passing slowly along, she ultimately arrived at the door. Shethen hesitated a moment; but, quickly recovering herself, raisedher small hand, and threw the door open.

  Right before the doorway, at a few paces distance, was abedstead, which, like her own, had no drapery, and was every wayopen. It was occupied by a man, who, at the moment that DameShedlock made her appearance, had his face towards the door, andwas lying perfectly awake. It was her husband.

  Shedlock started up at this unexpected visit from his wife. Thescowl, however, that mounted to his face, had hardly collecteditself, when the ghost-like dame drew back, and disappeared.

  Now more surprised than before, and more enraged, the furiousPuritan sprang to the floor, determined to call her to an accountfor her intrusion. Assured of being able to avenge himself,however, his precipitation subsided when he gained his feet; and,previous to starting in pursuit of her, he tarried to put on hisclothes. His toilet achieved, he set out for his wife’s chamber.

  There was no one in the intermediate passage, and, passingquickly forward, he shortly gained the chamber-door. Tremblingwith rage, and muttering an indistinct execration, he threw thedoor violently open, and rushed into the room.

  The heavy tread of his feet, in his progress towards the bed, forwhich he made directly, no way effected the disposition of hiswife, although, strange to say, she was lying on her side in thebed, with her eyes fixed on his. As he came up to the bedside,he thought that her appearance of composure, though it wasreally and clearly unfeigned, had been put on to defy him; and,exasperated by this suspicion, he shook his clenched fist in herface. Still the dame was no way disturbed, and her glassy eyes,far from appealing for mercy, did not even flinch. The ruffiannow grew furious, and, relaxing his fist, he seized her by thearm, and dragged her forcibly up. _She was dead!_

  A thrill of horror shot through the bosom of Shedlock as he madethis discovery. A sudden thought struck him, that she was deadwhen, a few moments previous, she had visited him in his chamber,and that what he had then seen in her form was not her mortalself, but her immortal and disembodied spirit.

  The appalling surmise struck him to the soul. His face, alwayspale, became quite ghastly; his hair rose on end; and his framewas so agitated, that he could hardly bring his unnerved andtrembling step to lend him obedience.

  But his awe of his wife’s corpse quickly lent him sufficientvigour to flee. Still keeping his eye on the corpse, lest, inthe course of his retreat, it should rise upon him unawares, hesprang to the chamber-door, and darted out into the adjoiningpassage. Thence, with unabated speed, he passed to theneighbouring stairs, and pursued his flight to the hall below.

  The hall opened into a porch, leading into the park; but, atits lower end, there were two more doors, one of which, noticedin a former chapter, led to the chamber called the blue room;and the other, to the kitchen. It was to the latter door thatShedlock directed his steps; and, maintaining his original pace,he arrived thither speedily. Still overwhelmed with fear, he drewit open; and, with even increased impatience, passed through theaperture, and closed and bolted the door in his rear.

  At the same moment that he thus disappeared, the door at theupper end of the hall, leading into the porch, was cautiouslypushed open, and another man presented himself. On coming intothe doorway, he halted a while, and looked eagerly round.Seemingly assured by his survey, he ventured to pass in; and witha stealthy step, yet hasty withal, proceeded towards the doorwayby which Shedlock had just made his egress. It was Bernard Gray.

  He shortly arrived at the lower door, and, raising his hand tothe latch, sought to draw it open. To his surprise, however, itresisted his efforts, and he found that it was secured on theother side.

  “’Tis fast!” he muttered, at length. “Yet the paper must besecured. I will even venture to her chamber.”

  With these words, he turned to the contiguous stairs; and afterlistening a moment, and again looking round, passed quickly up tothe floor above. Breathless with his haste, he halted before thechamber which, from having been conducted there on the precedingday, he conceived to be occupied by Dame Shedlock.

  Though so anxious to avoid observation, he was afraid to enterthe chamber unannounced, or without some previous warning, lesthis sudden appearance should cause the dame alarm; and, toprevent any ill effect, he knocked two or three times on thepanel of the door. But no answer was rendered; and, after ashort interval, he cautiously opened the door, and stepped intothe chamber.

  Having once crossed the threshold, Bernard paused only to closethe door, and then, with a light but hasty step, made straightfor the bed. His first glance at its inmate told him she was acorpse.

  He gazed in her face for a full minute; and when, at the last, hewithdrew his glance, his eyes were filled with tears.

  “Who shall question thy ways, O, thou most Highest?” he said,clasping his wrinkled hands. “The Lord giveth, and the Lordtaketh away: blessed be the name of the Lord!”

  When he ceased speaking, a thought struck him that, as he hadfound her alone, the dame might have died unattended, and mightbe supposed to be yet living by the inattentive household.
Impressed with this belief, he determined to give the alarm,and took a step towards the door, which was only a few pacesdistant, with that view. But he quickly changed his resolution,and, retracing his step, turned to the bedside again. Here helooked once more at the corpse, and then, with a tenderness whichhis rugged appearance would hardly have prepared one to expect,placed his fingers on the dead matron’s eyelids, and fulfilledthe last sad office of closing them.

  He seemed now to recollect, for the first time since he hadentered the chamber, what was the business that had broughthim thither, and the recollection was certainly not calculatedto soothe or console him. He had come in search of the paperwhich was to establish the legitimacy of Hildebrand Clifford;but the demise of Dame Shedlock, who alone could furnish himwith that paper, and who had promised to place it in his hands,rendered the prospect of his achieving such an acquisition quitehopeless. What clue had he to the place in which it had beendeposited? With his forefinger pressed against his forehead, heproceeded to recall, word by word, all that had passed at theirlast meeting, between him and the dame; and pondered deliberatelyon each syllable. At length, he recollected that, as sheconcluded her disclosures, she had seemed to point at somethingover her shoulders. Hastily glancing over the head of the bed,his eye fell on the wardrobe, with which, it may be borne inmind, the course of our history has shown him to have beenconnected heretofore. With a beating heart, he sprang a pace ortwo forward, and drew the wardrobe-door open. It revealed a smallrecess, having no shelves, but a row of pegs, some four or fivein number, just below the ceiling, from which dangled severalarticles of female apparel. Bernard examined these separately,but, on the most searching investigation, they afforded him noclue, in any one particular, to the document he so earnestlysought.

  Though he had scarcely expected a more favourable result, theconviction that further search would be fruitless, howeverclosely he might pursue it, depressed him severely. Yet hefelt thoroughly assured that the document was somewhere in thewardrobe. He was speculating where it could be concealed, when,happening to look downwards, he perceived that the floor of thewardrobe, from the door to the wall, was covered with a rushmatting; and it suddenly occurred to him that the paper might behidden beneath. On surveying it closer, he found that the mattingwas nailed down; but this circumstance, as may be supposed,offered him but a trifling obstacle. Once possessed of the ideathat the paper was hidden under the matting, he stooped down;and, with the aid of a small clasp-knife (which, as he wore it athis girdle, was probably used generally for eating purposes),cut away the matting round the nails, and raised it up. There,indeed, was the paper, covered with dust, yet more precious tohim than tissue of gold.

  It was a leaf of the parish register; and was written over, incharacters not very distinct, on both sides. Several marriageswere recorded on it, but that which principally interestedBernard, and most concerned our history, was the first of all,and testified to the marriage of “Hildebrand Clifford, Esquire,and Mistress Philippa Gray.” But even the testimony to the othermarriages was not unimportant, as many of the parties it referredto, Bernard well knew, were yet living, and their evidence to thefact of their having been married at the times set forth, whileno record of the marriages could be found in the parish register(though they would be able to swear that it _was_ so recorded),would establish the truth and authenticity of the whole document.

  Bernard was overjoyed at its acquisition. Having glanced over it,he folded it carefully up, and placed it, with a circumspectioncommensurate with its value, within his vest, buttoning hisjerkin above. He then replaced the matting, and turned to retire.

  He lingered a moment at the side of the bed; but he was tooanxious to get clear off, now that he held such an invaluablepossession, to protract his pause. After one farewell glanceat his deceased friend, he hastened on to the door, and thencepassed to the outer passage.

  No one was about; and, with a light and hasty step, he proceededto the hall below, and onward to the porch. Thus he made hisegress unobserved.