The shadow of the box had disappeared, and so had the figure of the poor woman and her child; but I now heard a noise as of some one singing snatches of the Carnival of Venice to himself, and dancing as if practising a new step, with occasionally a tap tap on the floor, as if the performer had been the owner of a wooden leg.
"Come along, my lad," thought I; "why, what next, what next?"—on which the figure of a man, dressed in the old-fashioned coat commonly worn by physicians in Havanna, with frills at his wrists, and tight inexpressibles on, glided across the wall and disappeared. Presently I was conscious he was in the room, which became suddenly hot and choky, and, in fact, standing at my bedside, for I could hear some one breathe, although I had not the power of turning my neck to look at him.
"Have the kindness," said he, in some unknown tongue, but which was quite intelligible to me—"have the kindness to let me feel your pulse." Scarcely knowing what I did, I held out my hand. "Your nose, if you please," quoth the physician; on which he took it, big as it was, between his finger and thumb, and gave it such a squeeze, that it burst with a noise like thunder, and instantly relapsed into its former shape. At the report, I could hear the sentries on the walls a mile off, hailing—"quien viva, quien viva," along the whole line. The figure now came forward, so that I could see him. He was a tall and very handsome man, but his complexion, pale and ashy, had the self-radiant appearance of steel at a white heat; indeed the glow of his face was like to roast my skin into parchment. His features were good, but there was rather a peculiar cast in his eye. He wore a black silk cowl, which stuck out a little over his ears on each side, as if two small horns had been concealed under it; and he was dressed in deep black. One leg was symmetry itself, but the other was shaped like that of a satyr, and ended in a hoof; however, the shank was covered with a silk stocking, and the hoof by a curiously-shaped shoe, made by Hoby to fit with wonderful neatness.
"You will do very well now," said he, "so I will see how Mr Listado comes on;" and, as he turned to where he lay, I saw a small barbed tail, glowing like red-hot iron, protruding from between the voluminous skirts of his coat, that corruscated, and sent sparks all about the room. It kept twisting about like a live eel, and jerking in a fidgety manner; and I was puzzling myself how it did not burn the cloth of his skirts, when my attention was fixed on what the figure was doing. Listado was still sound asleep; there was a basin of water on a chair close to his head;—the figure dipped the end of the tail into it, when it instantly began to boil furiously, so that the spray of the bubbles, as they frothed and poppled about, burnt Listado's face, and he awoke.
"Who has scalded me in this way?" quoth he.
"Only have patience, my dear sir," said the physician; "it is all meant kindly,—merely to season you; merely to season you."
"Season me—season me to what, d—n me"—quoth Listado in a fury.
"With all the pleasure in life, my dear sir," said the figure, nipping off the tail of Listado's exclamation as if it had been a leech in the hands of my friend Majendie; "I will do any thing to oblige you, and d—d you shall be with all the comfort in life; only wait a moment;"—and he thereupon took a small very natty toasting fork out of his coat pocket; but, in the act, burnt his fingers against his red-hot tail. "Curse the tail," quoth he, as he pulled out the joints of the fork, until it was about a yard long. All this while Listado, blasted by the deep red glare into a dark crimson, lay like a big lobster newly boiled, looking at the physician's preparations, apparently fascinated, and without the power of motion. The figure now looked at me over his shoulder, and winked knowingly, when some vapour, like an escape from the safety-valve of a steam-boiler, puffed out of his mouth; but he apologized, and said, he had been smoking, although the flavour had more of brimstone than tobacco in it. "Good by, Mr Brail; I will come foryouby and by."—"You need not hurry, my dear fellow," thought I;—and so saying, he, with all the coolness in life, clapped the fork into Listado's stern-frame, and, begging pardon for the trouble he was putting him to, lifted him, writhing like an impaled frog, on the instrument, and as if he really had been no heavier. He then calmly walked right through the solid wall with him, as if it had been a cloud, and disappeared. I could hear Listado roaring lustily all the while, and the physician making numberless apologies, always concluding with "I shall be as gentle with you, Mr Listado, as your request to be d—d will permit."
At last the sounds died away, and I began to think of going to sleep; when an instrument that I at once knew to be our friend the physician's fork was thrust into me from below, through the mattrass. "Hillo, hillo, hillo," roared I; "this will never do, by"——
"What the devil do you grunt and growl so much in your sleep for?" shouted Listado.
"Devil!" quoth I, rubbing my eyes; "oh! confound the poached eggs."
About a fortnight after this, Listado and I, along with one of the young American officers, looked in at a monte-table and staked our doubloon a-piece; both of my friends lost, but I was most unaccountably fortunate; for, without knowing any thing of the game, or the chances of it, I found, when I rose to go away, that I had no less than fifty doubloons in my fob. As we left the house I noticed a stout, dark-complexioned young man, with great whiskers, dressed, like most of the others present, in a light gingham coat and white trowsers, but without either waistcoat or neckcloth, eye me very fiercely. He had been one of the heaviest sufferers by my winnings; and when I rose, he followed me. I thought nothing of this at the time, and walked on with the American and Listado, who had agreed to adjourn to a tavern to sup together; but I had had enough of suppers for some time, and therefore parted with them at the street corner, and bore up alone for Mr M——'s.
It was by this time near twelve o'clock at night, very dark and gusty; and as I proceeded, the rain splashed in my face, and there were several flashes of lightning, followed by loud claps of thunder. By one of the former I thought I saw the person from whom I had won so much, skulking behind a pillar that formed part of a colonnade in front of one of the public buildings; and I will not conceal that an uneasy feeling arose in my mind, as I recalled the numberless stories of Spanish vindictiveness to my recollection.
"Poo, poo," said I to myself, ashamed of my weakness—"all romance, all romance." As I spoke, I was nearly blinded by a flash of lightning, and clapt my hand to my eyes, "Ah—what is that?" I exclaimed, as I received a blow under my fifth rib, on the right side, that made me stagger to the wall. Another flash showed me the figure of the man, gliding rapidly away into the darkness. I put my hand to my side, and felt the blood streaming down. I had been wounded, and was becoming faint, faint. I tried to proceed, but could only stagger against a pillar, to which I clung. I could no longer breathe—every thing swam around me, and I became deadly cold. "I am gone!" I gasped out, as I sank on my knees, and leant my head against the wall. "Oh God, forgive my sins, and receive my soul—My mother—bless my poor mother!"——
*****
When my recollection returned, I was lying on a low bed, orquatre, without curtains or canopy of any kind, in the middle of a very large and lofty room. It was greatly darkened, but I could perceive, from the bright pensiles of light that streamed through the crevices of the closed shutters, that it was broad day. For some time, as my consciousness gradually awoke, I lay watching the motes dancing and revolving in the sunbeams, and then looked up towards the bare timbers of the floor above me. "WherecanI be—and whathashappened?" I murmured to myself.
"Hush!" said a low female voice close to me—"hush! Doctor Delaville says you are not to speak, sir,—not even to turn, if you can help it."
"Doctor Delaville—not speak! Call Lennox, will ye?" and I again began to waver.—"Mr Marline, how is her head? Oh, my side—merciful Providence! what has befallen—whatiswrong with me?"—as I tried to move round in order to see the person who had spoken. I effected my purpose so far as to half turn my face from the light—"Oh, Heaven have mercy on me!—my senses are gone, and I am mad." I shut my eyes, and under this heart-crushing belief, wept bitterly.
There was a large balcony or open window in the wall of the apartment farthest from the street, towards which I had turned my face, that opened into a room beyond, at a height of about three feet from the floor. It was fitted with shutters opening inwards, like those of the external windows. The saloon into which I looked was apparently a lofty room, and lighted, so far as I could judge, entirely from the roof. I also inferred that this part of the house projected back from the main building, and that it was lower, and overshadowed by green trees; for the light that shone from above was subdued, and green, and cold, and more like moonlight than that of the sun. On the walls beyond I could see pictures; and a piano stood near the window, and several sofas were scattered about, so that it appeared better furnished than most houses I had seen in the place; and I knew, that although I was certainly not in Mr M——'s house, neither was I in that of a Spaniard. There was a very handsome geranium, in an ornamented porcelain jar, in the window, which, in some measure, impeded my view at the top; although near the sill there was only the solitary stalk, naked of leaves. Presently, as my eyes got accustomed to the twilight, I noticed gloves, and bonnets, and several large green fans, lying on a table beyond the window, as if this had been the retreat of some of the females of the family; all continued as still as death—and the coolness and freshness of the apartment I looked into, was grateful beyond belief to my feverish eye and swimming brain. By and by I heard a rattling and creaking volante drive past, and the shouts of the driver to his mule, which excited me; and I once more asked the person who was sitting knitting beside me, where I was. "Hush, hush—until the doctor comes," was still the answer,—and I again turned my eyes in the direction of the balcony, and gloated on the flowers and leaves of the noble plant on the window-sill, which seemed jet black, as they twinkled in the breeze between me and the light. I could now hear the sea-breeze set in, and rush amongst the branches of the trees, and moan through the long galleries and lofty apartments of the house—slamming a shutter to here, and making a door bang there, and rustling the shawls, and bonnets, and female gear in the boudoir.
The effect of this on my shattered nerves was delightful; and, for the first time since I had recovered my recollection, I lay back with my heart full of gratitude to the Almighty for his mercy towards me. I now remembered that I had been wounded, and began to piece together in my mind the transactions at the gaming-table, and the various circumstances that had preceded my sallying forth, and wondering who had been the good Samaritan who had poured oil and wine into my wounds. I again looked earnestly round. "There—what do I see—whois that—whatis that? Oh, I am mad—I am mad—and all this is a dream." I looked again. The soft mysterious light already mentioned now floated over the figure of a tall and very handsome young man, dressed with great simplicity—a bluejacket, red striped shirt, open at the collar, with his loose black neckerchief untied, the ends hanging down on his bosom, and white trowsers. He was seated at an easel in the boudoir, under the geranium, and close to the window, with his profile towards me, a palette and paint-brush in one hand, while with a finger of the other he seemed to be in the act of tracing a line on the canvass before him. His complexion was very dark and sunburnt, his mouth and nose beautifully formed, and his forehead, on which the cold light from above was cast clear and strong, was very high and pale, contrasting finely with the bronzing of his lower features; his hair especially caught my attention—it was black, glossy, and curling. "Great God! is ithim, or his disembodied spirit?"
A young female, who until this moment I had scarcely noticed, stood behind his chair, and bent over him, looking also earnestly at the half-finished painting on the easel;—a tall and light-formed girl, very pale, and wearing her hair dressed high on her head without any ornament whatever; she was habited in a plain white frock, low cut at the bosom, with a pale green band round her waist, and had one of her beautifully-rounded arms extended over his shoulder, while the other rested on the back of his chair, as, with lips apart, she pointed to some particular part of the painting.
Both continued so perfectly immovable that I could not even discern his breathing, nor the heaving of her lovely bosom. "Were they beings of this world?—was it him in very truth?" At this moment the leaves of the trees above were agitated by the passing breeze, for small twittering shadows were suddenly cast on the faces and figures of the group, so as to alter the expression of the former in a startling way, making them flit and gibber, as it were. I thought some horrid change was coming o'er the spirit of my dream, as I exclaimed,—"Oh, no, no!—he is gone, poor fellow—gone—cold at the bottom of the sea—and I am mad—Oh God, I am a lunatic!" And I once more shut my eyes and wept, until I thought my very heart would have burst in twain; but they were blessed tears, for they revived me, and my soul felt lighter as I again thanked Heaven for my deliverance, and tried to convince myself that all I had seen was but the phantoms of my weakness. A minute might have fled before I looked up again, but the lovely delusion was gone, as the servant or nurse who was attending me, perceiving me so excited by what I had seen in the other apartment, had risen and closed the window-blinds; thus shutting out every thing in the room beyond from my view.
The doctor now arrived, and, sliding up to my bedside, made his enquiries as to how I felt, and was greatly pleased with my amendment. "This will be great joy to all of them, sir," said he, in broken English; "so, Mrs Gerard, give your patient his draught, and after the sleep I hope it will procure"——
I interrupted him. "Pray, doctor, how long have I been ill?—and how is all going on in the little Midge?—and in whose house am I?—and who were the young lady and gentleman that I saw?"
He laughed. "Why, Mr Brail, you have fired off one whole broadside of questions at me; but rest satisfied—all is right on board of de leetle vessel; and you are in my friend Mr Duquesné's house, who (if you will only take my advice, and try and obtain some rest, for you have not slept since you were wounded a week ago) will have the pleasure of paying his respects to you—and Miss Helen Hudson, too, longs——But I declare I am forgetting my own instructions—so not vone oder vord, monsieur,—not vone vord—Adieu until de afternoon." And he vanished out of the room in the same noiseless cat-like way he had entered it.
To obtain any information from the nurse that sat beside me, I knew was out of the question; so I took the medicine, and soon fell into a balmy sleep.
END OF VOLUME ONE.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO., PAUL'S WORK.