Beadle's Dime Library No. 316 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 ———s ts ON em ee —_ oe -” tution to those I have wronged, as far as lies in my power, [ will devote the remainder of my life to penance and prayer. Oh! I have sinned —grievously sinned!” ‘‘ Yet there is pardon for the guiltiest, cousin!” she replied, with timid firmness. ‘| know it—it isin that 1 trust,” he answered, with animation. ‘* May the blessed Virgin grant you life to accomplish your hely purposes,” she said, while her face glowed wit evotion. ‘* Achille— cousin! I must now bid you farewell.” ‘* But, the old man, my father?” inquired he, with sudden eagerness, as memory, though slowly, faithful to her task, brought up the past scenes of his early life— ‘* Lives he?” The heavy gate in front of the convent at that moment opened, with a startling sound, and she replied, hastily: “T know not, Achille. Your father—my be- loved uncle, and Henri, after accompanying me to this city, departed the next day for France, From neither have I since heard. He did speak of leaving Henri in France and visiting bis es- tate near Martinique. He may now reside there. Oh! what a tide of feeling—of sorrow!” she said, while her voico trembled with emo- tion, *‘ sorrow long sealed up in my heart, have you called forth! I must be more than human pow hn feel! God and heaven bless you! Fare- well! Once more pressing his hand, while tears told that nature would hold ber empire even within the walls and cloisters of a convent, she hastily glided to the furthest extremity of the hall, and swiftly ascending the winding staircase dimly lighted by a lamp, disappeared from bis eager gaze. His first impulse was to pursue her, although is purpose he himself could not have defined. This determination he however abandoned, as he heard the tramp of men, bearing a litter up the avenue. When they entered the hall ha had resumed his recumbent po-ture on the couch, where wakeful, and his brain teeming with busy thoughts, he passed in deep melancholy the re- mainder of the night. CHAPTER V. : A SORCERER. THe events connected with our romance, naturally divide themselves into several distinct parts. Pursuing this division, we now take up our tbread at the time of the escape of the Count D’Oyley and Constamza from Lafitte and account for the desperate determination of the Frenchman to slay the chief. After bis escape with Constanza, from the rendezvous of the buccaneers, he was taken on board ef his own frigate, Le Sultan. On gaining the deck, he hastily replied to the numerous questions addressed to him by his astonished officers. Informing them of his cap- ture, be issued orders for proceeding directly to the cavern, aod demolishing this rendezvous of the pirates, by spiking their guns, and otber- wise rendering it untenable as a fortified place, ne eveving of that day the frigate sailed with majestic motion into the Bay of Gonzaves, The flag of France waved over her quarter deck, and a long tier of guns bristled from each side, Her course was directly for the narrow pass between the two parallel ridges of rocks, which formed a communication from the sen, with the pirate’s grotto. A few minutes before sundown she anchored in deep water, within a few fathoms of the outermost rock terminating this ge. The setting sun flung his beams across the level waters of the bay, and the winds were dving away with the fading of the day- light, as Constanza—the crimson rays tinging ber brow with a rich glow—leaned from the cabin window, and with a thoughtful counte- nance, gazed on the evening sky, with its purple palaces of clouds, its winged creatures, and its mountains of gold and emerald, Her dreams— for although her eyes were fixed upon the gor- geous west, she was wrapped in aldreamy reverie of the past—were of her happy childhooc —her paternal home near the imperial city of Monte- vuma—ber aged father—bis sudden death, and all the various scenes through which she had passed, The character of Lafitte—his. crimes and bis virtues—the kindness and poble nature of Theodore—her capture and escape, all floated through ber mind, invested with their peculiar associations, ‘And am I at last happy?’ she said, half- inquiriogly. ‘'Oh! that my poor father were here to share my happiness! Can it be true that this is not a dream? Am I indeed free, and is D'Ovley indeed here?” ‘* Here! my sweet Constanza, and folding you in his arms,” said the count, who had entered the state-room unperceived—‘" here! to make you bappy, and terminate your sufferings.” Constanza leaned ber cheek upon his shoulder and with one arm encircling his neck, looked up into his face with the artless confidence of a child, while ber features became radiant with joy. But she spoke not—her happiness was too great, for utterance. A few. moments, he lin- ered in her pure embrace, and then breathed to her ear: Lafitte’s Lieutenant. + + oe ee se ee ee oe Cte es —— ‘When, dearest one, shall D’Ovley become your protector? Tell me now, while 1 hold you thus!” and.be clasped her closer to his heart. She made no reply, and the rich blood man- fled her brow, rivaling the crimson sun-glow which delicately suffused it. Her lips at length moved inaudibly, and her lover felt the small hand be held tremble like an imprisoned dove witbin his own. ‘Say, Constanza, my love? This evening may it be? Sbail not the chaplain of the frigate unite us this very hour? Refuse me not this re- quest!” he continued, ardently. She pressed bis hand and Jooked up into his face, her large black eyes full of confidence and love, whose eloquent expression spoke a deeper and more befitting language than words could convey, ‘Bless you, my sweet angel!” he exclaimed, reading with a Jover's skill the language of her speaking eyes; and their lips were united iu that first kiss of love, whose raptures to mortals, wedded or betrothed—if minstrels tell us truly— is never known but once. The count ascended to the deck to complete the preparations for bis expedition against the rock, From his knowledge of the pass, and means of access to the cave, he determined to conduct the expedition himself, It was his intention merely to proceed to the cavern, and leaving his men under the com- mand of one of his lieutenants, return to the frigate and be united to the fair maiden, whom from her childhood, when he first beheld her, the pride of her father’s eye and the idol of bis household, he had admired. In after years, when the Castilian ,\became an exile, he sought him ontin his retired villa in Jamaica, Buta few weeks only before it was attacked by the pirates he had renewed that admiration, which n few days beneath the same roof with the ob- ject of it, ripened into love. He left her for the purpose of cruising a few days in the neigh- borhood of Carthageéna, to return and find the villa'a scene of desolation, the venerable parent lying a corpse in his house, which was filled with armed soldiery, and the daughter, his beloved Constanza, carried off, no one could tell whither, by the buccaneer. Now, their scenes of danger and trial passed, he hoped forever, he was to fold her to his heart, bis bride! This hope filled his bosom with ecstasy, as with an elastic step and joyous eye he ascended to the deck. The boats were already alongside and manned, Delaying a moment to repeat his instructions to the chaplain in relation to the approaching cere- mony and commending Constanza to the atten- tion.of young Montville, be entered the cabin once more, to embrace and assure her of his speedy return, ‘“Why must you go, dearest D’Oyley?” she inquired, pleading!y; ‘‘I cannot trust you in that fearful cave again.” ‘I sball not stay, my love. LIalone can con- duct this expedition, which the safety of these seas renders it necessary should be undertaken,” ‘* But you will quickly return?” she inquired, detaining him. ‘‘ Before Venus, hovering in the rosy west,” he said, pointing to that planet, shining low in the western sky like a lesser moon, ‘‘shall wet her slipper in the sea, will I return to you,” The next moment he was standing in the stern of the boat, which, propelled by twelve oars, moved steadily and swiftly up the rocky passage to the cave, About. a quarter of a mile to the south of the grotto occupied by the buccaneers, a narrow tongue of land extended from tho cliff, strewn with loose rocks. Conneeted by rocks and sand-bars, with one of the parallel ridges con- fining the passage from the sea to the cave, it formed the southern and eastern boundary of the basin or lagoon, often before mentioned, Near its junction with the rocks of the pass, it was flat and covered with long grass, It was buried at noonday in shadow cast by the rocks which overhung it on every side but that open- ing to the beach, In this direction the sea was visible through a narrow gap, a few yards in breadth, In the back part of this area, whose surface was rather less than an acre, and bid by a pro- jecting rock forming its roof, stood a rude but, constructed of cane branches and bamboo leaves skillfully interwovev. A door facing the sea, was the only aperture in the rude habitation, which a@ wreath of blue smoke curling up its face indicated it to be.. The setting sun red- dened with bis beams the hideous features of a decrepit hag, with a sunken eye full of malig- nity, toothless jaws, grizzly wool, long and tangled, and a squalid figure bent nearly double with age and infirmity. Her name Oula, and the rude but, her habitation, She was on aged African siby], a degenerate peleatenh of the terrible deity, Fetish, or the Obeah, Through her incantations, charms, amulets, and prophecies, besides her skill in fortelling evil tidings, and her accuracy in giving the fortunes of. her deluded votaries, who usually were of her own hue, her name had become widely extended. Oceasionally some one of a paler complexion, from among the buccaneers, resorted te ber oy NSS hens and honored her art by seeking of her nowledge of their future destinies, a in the door of the but, her eye was fixed upon the advancing frigate, although she watched its approach with apparent indiffer. ence, But when tbe ship, lessening her sail, finally dropped her anchor within a third of a mile of her wild abode, her features gaye in- dication of interest. ‘* Quacha!” sbe called in a harsh yoice, as the ship swung to her anchor. t the sound of ber veice, a deformed negro emerged from the cabin, and stood sts her. His sizo indicated extreme youth, but bis Jarge features and the lines of sagaeity and cunning ‘drawn in his face, showed that he had seen many years, perhaps one-third of the number his mother, forin this relation she stood to him, herself counted, His head was Jarge, and cov- ered with straight,-shaggy hair, which fell in thick masses over bis eyes. It.was the head of an adult, pieces upon the shriveled body of a sickly child “Hoh, mummy!” he replied, coming forth from the hut where he had been lying, with bis head among the ashes, with which he had been cooking their evening meal, ‘Did you sa’ dat Spanis’ Martinezcome down in boat’ day, hugh?” she inquired, without turn- ing her head, ‘Kes, o? mum,” ‘* W’at I teli’ee "bout nebber call me ol’, you debble’s brat,” she said, in a loud, angry voice, niming a blow at bis bead with a Jong staff she held in her hand, which, from much practice, he dexterously evaded; and then improving his phraseology, replied: ‘* Kes, mummy.” ‘* W’at he come for, Quacha?” “Quacha don’t know, mummy. He sa’ he come see de ol’ Obi.” “Ol Obi ’g’in? be say dat?’ she asked, mut- tering; “Til ol’ Obi. him wit’ his black Span- vis’ fas.” ‘*Hoh! here be comes hese’f, mummy,” ex- claimed the hope and promise of tbe old bel- dam; and the athletic, firm-molded figure of the young Spaniard emerged from the path, which, winding among the rocks, led to the mainland, and he at once stood before them. ‘*Good-even’ to you, Oula,” he said, with an air in which superstitious reverence struggled with incredulity and an inclination to jest with the "4 ysterious being whose supernatural aid he sought. , *“Oula_ is’t, an’ good-e’en’,” she growled, ‘‘ Well, that’s better nor ol’ Obi,” she added, without turning her eyes from the frigate, ** You needn’t a Rees any thing is hid from QOula. W’at for is she Obi, if not to know eberyt’ing?” ‘Now be at peace, Oula, and harm me not with Obeah,” he said, soothingly, ‘tI meant not to anger you. Listen! do you know tke music of this gold?” he asked, shaking several gold-pieces in his hand—‘‘I have brought it to give you, Oula.” The eyes of the negress sparkled as she stretched forth her bony arm to grasp the coin, which he resigned to her greedy clutch. ‘*W'’at want for dese, Martinez? §’al] Oula Obi you’ en’my, show you de prize-ship, or find de white breast buckra missy for you?’ she said, slowly and carefully counting the money from one hand into the other. The Spaniard approached ber, and said, wih emphasis: ‘‘The last, Oula! Serve me, and you shall have five times the coin you clasp 80 tightly there.” _ *Come in, come in, Martinez,” said she, ris- ing upon her staff and hobbling jnto the hut. Obi can do nothin’ wid de fire-stars looking so bright,” With a paler brow and a faltering step, he entered the gloomy hut, half-filled with smoke, and hot and filthy from the fumes of tobacco and other nauseous herbs drying in the chin ney, which was rudely constructed of loce- stones, Closing the door, after commanding Quache to stay without and watch against intrusion she pointed Martinez toa seat u a f ragment of rock, and bidding him turn his back and ob- serve the strictest silence till she spoke, com- menced her mysterious preparations. Baring her sbriveled arms and seraggy neck, she passed her fingers through her tangled bair till it stood out from her head like the quills of a porcupine. Then taking from a box by the fire-place a tiara, or head-dress, made of in- numerable stuffed water snakes, curiously tn- terwoven, so that their heads were all turned outward, exhibiting to the eye of her credulous devotee a formidable and terrific coronet, she placed it upon her disheveled locks, appearing > second Medusa, From the same repository in which were con- tained her materials for practicing Obeah, she drew forth a necklace, strung with the claws and teeth of cats, the fangs of serpents and tha teeth of hanged men, which, with great solem- nity of manner, she passed three times around her neck. To this she suspended a little red bag, filled with grave-dirt and tied up witb the hair of a murdered woman. Bracolets of simi- lar materials as the necklace, with the addition to each of the beak of a parrot whieh bad been EGOMIGoDOOKS | | “eo