Rosa Lambert — page 266: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— ROSA LAMBERT. already partially avenging the wrong I had sus- tained, by the growing trepidation and vague terror I was exciting in him,—‘* you will some day be punished for your misdeeds; and in your last moments will the thought flash to you that if you could obtain my pardon your death would be attended with circumstances all the less bitter. And that pardon, in such a moment but only in such a moment,” I emphatically added, “ should be given!” At thisinstant there were loud cries of “ Look out! hold fast!” on the part of Williams and his friends. Quick as lightning did Wellesley bound towards me; and his arms were thrown around me, as a tremendous sea struck the bow of the vessel. For an instant I was blinded by the spray ; and through my brain rang as wild a cry of mortal anguish as ever vibrated there—a cry as wild as that which the wretched Andrew Winter sent forth from his lips when plunging down into the abyss from the summit of the Archway! My eyes, which I had closed, were opened again in a moment: the Marquis of Belmore had disappeared from the spot where he was standing a few seconds previously! All was horror and confusion on board the vessel: my looks were swept around— I beheld something dark on the waves at a little distance—a fresh cry thrilled through my brain— it came from the lips of Belmore—and it was Belmore who was struggling in the water! Ejaculations of horror had burst forth from the lips of all on board—gentlemen and sailors ;—and while some hastened to alter the sails so as to check the swift progress of the vessel, others lowered the boat. Williams vociferously called upon Wellesley to assist in doing something: but he tenaciously held me in his arms, It was not through cowardice: it was through that devoted and absorbing passion which he cherished for me: —yet at the instant he appeared a coward in my eyes; for methought he was paralysed, or rather bewildered with every kind of alarm. “For heaven’s sake help, Felix!” I exclaimed. “Leave me! I can take care of myself—I will hold fast to this rope! Go, go!—for heaven’s sake, do as they bid you!” “Wellesley, will you lend a hand here ?” thundered forth Williams, “ Your wife is in all safety—and there is a fellow-creature drown- ing !” Then Felix, hastily whispering an entreaty that I would hold fast, sprang to the spot where his succour was required in handling the sails, The boat was lowered by those who were addressing themselves to that particular duty: and again did a wild cry for help thrill from Belmore’s lips, rising high above the din with which the voices of nature herself were speaking in the sound of the ocean and the gushing of the wind. A thousand wild thoughts swept through my brain as | watched with intense anxiety the proceedings that were rapidly being carried out for the succour of the Marquis. Was it possible that my pre- sentiment—the strength of which I must candidly confess I had exaggerated in my words—was about to be fulfilled? was the author of the tremendous outrage I had sustained, to perish miserably before my eyes? As in the case of Andrew Winter, I had asked not of heayen the infliction of such a hideous penalty as this; and I shudderingly a i = eS a et ee ei rt atl eet eS ee a Te RE el © 7 ~e 255 recoiled from the idea that it was to be con- summated. Meanwhile the Marquis of Belmore had kept himself afloat: he was evidently.a good swimmer —and the boat was now darting towards him. I | watched its progress—and I watched his form too, as he struggled and battled for his life against the rolling waters. Williams himself was seated in the stern of the boat, guiding the helm: two of his sailors were plying the oars with all the energy and precision of which they were capable. Williams shouted out encouraging words to the wretched Marguis; and in the meantime the cutter itself was put about, so that it now was turning towards the exciting scene of the struggler in the waters and the advance of the succouring boat. Another loud ery of ineffable anguish thrilled through the gusty air, piercing my very brain as if with a barbed arrow: then a high wave bore the form of the Marquis past the boat, and nearer to the cutter. I looked over the side with feelings of the acutest suspense and of unutterable horror: I beheld the ghastly, distorted, terror- stricken countenance of the drowning man for a moment upturned towards me—and, O God! what a world of frightful eloquence was there in the expression of that face! I comprehended, as the coldest shuddering swept over me, that my prediction so singularly hazarded, was miraculously fulfilled: I knew as well as if the drowning one himself had sent thrilling forth from his lips a description of all he was at the moment expe- riencing,—I knew, I say, what was sweeping through his harrowed brain then and there! His very look seemed te say, “ Your prediction is ful- filled! Rose, you are avenged !”—and then, after one desperate but ineffectual effort to gain the boat, he disappeared from my view. I was smitten with a sensation so awful—a feeling so terrible—at this stupendous realization of my prophecy, that it appeared as if I received a sudden blow of a hammer; and I sank senseless upon the deck. When I returned to conscious- ness, I was lying upon a sofa in the cabin,— Wellesley bending over me, administering restora- tives, and beseeching me in the most piteous tones to open my eyes and speak to him. “The Marquis of Belmore ?” I gasped forth. “He is gone!” was the response: “he has disappeared Was it not horrible and shocking to a degree ?” “Yes—horrible and shocking!” I responded: and if Wellesley’s words had not thus convinced me that the tragedy was an actual and positive occurrence, I should have regarded it as a dream, “ Horrible and shocking!” I slowly repeated: and there was still a sensation of awful solemnity in my soul at the fearful fulfilment which my predic- tion had received. | “Do you feel better now, dearest, sweetest Rose ?” asked Wellesley, throwing his arms around my neck as he knelt by the side of the sofa on which I lay. ‘ You look very, very ill—horror seems stamped upon your countenance—your mind has evidently received a most painful shock 3 * Painful indeed!” I murmured, but in a me- chanical way, for I scarcely knew what I said: a tremendous consternation was upon me—I felt like one who had been smitten down and stunned by an awful calamity. 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