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CHAPTER LXVIII
A QUICK CONVERSION
"When is this horror to have an end? Only with my life? Am I, indeed, to pass the remainder of my days within this dismal cell? Days so happy, till that the happiest of all – its ill-starred night! And my love so strong, so confident – its reward seeming so nigh – all to be for nought – sweet dreams and bright hopes suddenly, cruelly extinguished! Nothing but darkness now; within my heart, in this gloomy place, everywhere around me! Oh, it is agony! When will it be over?"
It is the English girl who thus bemoans her fate – still confined in the convent, and the same cloister. Herself changed, however. Though but a few weeks have passed, the roses of her cheeks have become lilies, her lips wan, her features of sharper outline, the eyes retired in their sockets, with a look of woe unspeakable. Her form, too, has fallen away from the full ripe rounding that characterized it, though the wreck is concealed by a loose drapery of ample folds. For Sœur Marie now wears the garb of the Holy Sisterhood – hating it, as her words show.
She is seated on the pallet's edge while giving utterance to her sombre soliloquy; and without change of attitude, continues it, —
"Imprisoned I am – that's certain! And for no crime. It may be without hostility on the part of those who have done it. Perhaps, better it were so. Then there might be hope of my captivity coming to an end. As it is, there is none – none! I comprehend all now – the reason for bringing me here – keeping me – everything. And that reason remains – must, as long as I am alive! Merciful heaven!"
This exclamatory phrase is almost a shriek; despair sweeping through her soul, as she thinks of why she is there shut up. For hinging upon that is the hopelessness, almost a dead, drear certainty, she will never have deliverance!
Stunned by the terrible reflection, she pauses – even thought for the time stayed. But the throe passing, she again pursues her soliloquy, now in more conjectural strain, —
"Strange that no friend has come after me! No one caring for my fate – even to inquire! And he– no, that is not strange – only sadder, harder to think of. How could I expect or hope he would?
"But surely it is not so. I may be wronging them all – friends – relatives – even him. They may not know where I am? Cannot! How could they? I know not myself! only that it is France, and in a nunnery. But what part of France, and how I came to it, likely they are ignorant as I.
"And they may never know – never find out! If not, oh! what is to become of me? Father in heaven! Merciful Saviour! help me in my helplessness!"
After this phrensied outburst, a calmer interval succeeds, in which human instincts as thoughts direct her. She thinks, —
"If I could but find means to communicate with my friends – make known to them where I am, and how, then – Ah! 'tis hopeless. No one allowed near me but the attendant and that Sister Ursule. For compassion from either, I might just as well make appeal to the stones of the floor! The Sister seems to take delight in torturing me – every day doing or saying some disagreeable thing. I suppose, to humble, break, bring me to her purpose – that the taking of the veil. A nun! Never! It is not in my nature, and I would rather die than dissemble it!"
"Dissemble!" she repeats in a different accent. "That word helps me to a thought. Why should I not dissemble? I will."
Thus emphatically pronouncing, she springs to her feet, the expression of her features changing suddenly as her attitude. Then paces the floor to and fro, with hands clasped across her forehead, the white, attenuated fingers writhingly entwined in her hair.
"They want me to take the veil – the black one! So shall I, the blackest in all the convent's wardrobe if they wish it – ay, crape if they insist on it. Yes, I am resigned now – to that – anything. They can prepare the robes, vestments, all the adornments of their detested mummery; I am prepared, willing, to put them on. It's the only way – my only hope of regaining liberty. I see – am sure of it!"
She pauses, as if still but half resolved, then goes on, —
"I am compelled to this deception! Is it a sin? If so, God forgive me! But no – it cannot be! 'Tis justified by my wrongs – my sufferings!"
Another and longer pause, during which she seems profoundly to reflect. After it, saying, —
"I shall do so – pretend compliance; and begin this day – this very hour, if the opportunity arise. What should be my first pretence? I must think of it; practise, rehearse it. Let me see. Ah! I have it. The world has forsaken, forgotten me. Why then should I cling to it? Instead, why not in angry spite fling it off – as it has me? That's the way!"
A creaking at the cloister door tells of its key turning in the lock. Slight as is the sound, it acts on her as an electric shock, suddenly and altogether changing the cast of her countenance. The instant before half angry, half sad, it is now a picture of pious resignation. Her attitude different also. From striding tragically over the floor she has taken a seat, with a book in her hand, which she seems industriously perusing. It is that "Aid to Faith" recommended, but hitherto unread.
She is to all appearance so absorbed in its pages as not to notice the opening of the door, nor the footsteps of one entering. How natural her start, as she hears a voice, and, looking up, beholds Sœur Ursule!
"Ah!" ejaculates the latter, with an exultant air, as of a spider that sees a fly upon the edge of its web, "Glad, Marie, to find you so employed! It promises well, both for the peace of your mind and the good of your soul. You've been foolishly lamenting the world left behind: wickedly too. What is to compare with that to come? As dross-dirt, to gold or diamonds! The book you hold in your hand will tell you so. Doesn't it?"
"It does, indeed."
"Then profit by its instructions, and be sorry you have not sooner taken counsel from it."
"I am sorry, Sister Ursule."
"It would have comforted you – will now."
"It has already. Ah! so much! I would not have believed any book could give me the view of life it has done. I begin to understand what you've been telling me – to see the vanities of this earthly existence, how poor and empty they are in comparison with the bright joys of that other life. Oh! why did I not know it before?"
At this moment a singular tableau is exhibited within that convent cell – two female figures, one seated, the other standing – novice and nun; the former fair and young, the latter ugly and old. And still in greater contrast the expression upon their faces. That of the girl's downcast, demure lids over the eyes, less as if in innocence than repentant of some sin, while the glances of the woman show pleased surprise, struggling against incredulity!
Her suspicion still in the ascendant, Sœur Ursule stands regarding the disciple, so suddenly converted, with a look which seems to penetrate her very soul. It is borne without sign of quailing, and she at length comes to believe the penitence sincere, and that her proselytising powers have not been exerted in vain. Nor is it strange she should so deceive herself. It is far from being the first novice contre cœur she has broken upon the wheel of despair, and made content to taking a vow of lifelong seclusion from the world.
Convinced she has subdued the proud spirit of the English girl, and gloating over a conquest she knows will bring substantial reward to herself, she exclaims prayerfully, in mock-pious tone, —
"Blessed be Holy Mary for this new mercy! On your knees ma fille, and pray to her to complete the work she has begun!"
And upon her knees drops the novice, while the nun, as if deeming herself de trop in the presence of prayer, slips out of the cloister, silently shutting the door.
CHAPTER LXIX
A SUDDEN RELAPSE
For some time after the exit of Sœur Ursule, the English girl retains her seat, with the same demure look she had worn in the presence of the nun; while before her face the book is again open, as though she had returned to reading it. One seeing this might suppose her intensely interested in its contents. But she is not even thinking of them! Instead, of a sharp skinny ear, and a steel-grey eye – one or other of which she suspects to be covering the keyhole.
Her own ear is on the alert to catch sounds outside – the shuffling of feet, the rattle of rosary beads, or the swishing of a dress against the door.
She hears none; and at length satisfied that Sister Ursule's suspicions are spent, or her patience exhausted, she draws a free breath – the first since the séance commenced.
Then rising to her feet, she steps to a corner of the cell not commanded by the keyhole, and there dashes the book down, as though it had been burning her fingers!
"My first scene of deception," she mutters to herself – "first act of hypocrisy. Have I not played it to perfection?"
She draws a chair into the angle, and sits down upon it. For she is still not quite sure that the spying eye has been withdrawn from the aperture, or whether it may not have returned to it.
"Now that I've made a beginning," she murmurs on, "I must think what's to be done in continuance, and how the false pretence is to be kept up. What will they do? – and think? They'll be suspicious for a while, no doubt; look sharply after me, as ever! But that cannot last always; and surely they won't doom me to dwell for ever in this dingy hole! When I've proved my conversion real, by penance, obedience, and the like, I may secure their confidence, and by way of reward, get transferred to a more comfortable chamber. Ah! little care I for the comfort, if convenient, – with a window out of which one could look. Then I might have a hope of seeing – speaking to some one with heart less hard than Sister Ursule's, and that other creature – a very hag!"
"I wonder where the place is? Whether in the country, or in a town among houses? It may be the last – in the very heart of a great city, for all this death-like stillness! They build these religious prisons with walls so thick! And the voices I from time to time hear are all women's. Not one of a man amongst them! They must be the convent people themselves! Nuns and novices! Myself one of the latter! Ha! ha! I shouldn't have known it if Sister Ursule hadn't informed me. Novice, indeed – soon to be a nun! No! but a free woman – or dead! Death would be better than life like this!"
The derisive smile that for a moment played upon her features passes off, replaced by the same forlorn woe-begone look, as despair comes back to her heart. For she again recalls what she has read in books – very different from that so contemptuously tossed aside – of girls young and beautiful as herself – high-born ladies – surreptitiously taken from their homes – shut up as she – never more permitted to look on the sun's light, or bask in its beams, save within the gloomy cloisters of a convent, or its dismally shadowed grounds.
The prospect of such future for herself appals her, eliciting an anguished sigh – almost a groan.
"Ha!" she exclaims the instant after, and again with altered air, as though something had arisen to relieve her. "There are voices now! Still of women! Laughter! How strange it sounds! So sweet! I've not heard such since I've been here. It's the voice of a girl! It must be – so clear, so joyous. Yes! Surely it cannot come from any of the sisters? They are never joyful – never laugh."
She remains listening, soon to hear the laughter again, a second voice joining in it, both with the cheery ring of school girls at play. The sound comes in with the light – it could not well enter otherwise – and aware of this, she stands facing that way, with eyes turned upward. For the window is far above her head.
"Would that I could see out! If I only had something on which to stand!"
She sweeps the cell with her eyes, to see only the pallet, the frail chairs, a little table with slender legs, and a washstand – all too low. Standing upon the highest, her eyes would still be under the level of the sill.
She is about giving it up, when an artifice suggests itself. With wits sharpened, rather than dulled by her long confinement – she bethinks her of a plan, by which she may at least look out of the window. She can do that by upending the bedstead!
Rash, she would raise it on the instant. But she is not so; instead, considerate, more than ever cautious. And so proceeding, she first places a chair against the door in such position that its back blocks the keyhole. Then, dragging bed-clothes, mattress, and all to the floor, she takes hold of the wooden framework; and, exerting her whole strength, hoists it on end, tilted like a ladder against the wall. And as such it will answer her purpose, the strong webbing, crossed and stayed, to serve for steps.
A moment more, and she has mounted up, and stands, her chin resting on the window's ledge.
The window itself is a casement on hinges; one of those antique affairs, iron framed, with the panes set in lead. Small, though big enough for a human body to pass through, but for an upright bar centrally bisecting it.
She, balancing upon the bedstead, and looking out, thinks not of the bar now, nor takes note of the dimensions of the aperture. Her thoughts, as her glances, are all given to what she sees outside. At the first coup d'œil, the roofs and chimneys of houses, with all their appurtenances of patent smoke-curers, weathercocks, and lightning conductors; among them domes and spires, showing it a town with several churches.
Dropping her eyes lower, they rest upon a garden, or rather a strip of ornamental grounds, tree shaded, with walks, arbours, and seats, girt by a grey massive wall, high almost as the houses.
At a glance she takes in these inanimate objects; but does not dwell on any of them. For, soon as looking below, her attention becomes occupied with living forms, standing in groups, or in twos or threes strolling about the grounds. They are all women, and of every age; most of them wearing the garb of the nunnery, loose-flowing robes of sombre hue. A few, however, are dressed in the ordinary fashion of young ladies at a boarding school; and such they are – the pensionaires of the establishment.
Her eyes wandering from group to group, after a time become fixed upon two of the school-girls, who, linked arm in arm, are walking backward and forward directly in front. Why she particularly notices them, is that one of the two is acting in a singular manner; every time she passes under the window looking up to it, as though with a knowledge of something inside, in which she feels an interest! Her glances interrogative, are at the same time evidently snatched by stealth – as in fear of being observed by the others. Even her promenading companion seems unaware of them.
She inside the cloister, soon as her first surprise is over, regards this young lady with a fixed stare, forgetting all the others.
"What can it mean?" she asks herself. "So unlike the rest! Surely not French! Can she be English? She is very – very beautiful!"
The last, at least, is true, for the girl is, indeed, a beautiful creature, with features quite different from those around – all of them being of the French facial type, while hers are pronouncedly Irish.
By this the two are once more opposite the window, and the girl again looking up, sees behind the glass – dim with dust and spiders' webs – a pale face, with a pair of bright eyes gazing steadfastly at her.
She starts; but quickly recovering, keeps on as before. Then as she faces round at the end of the walk, still within view of the window, she raises her hand, with a finger laid upon her lips, seeming to say, plain as words could speak it, —
"Keep quiet! I know all about you, and why you are there."
The gesture is not lost upon the captive. But before she can reflect upon its significance, the great convent bell breaks forth in noisy clangour, causing a flutter among the figures outside, with a scattering helter-skelter; for it is the first summons to vespers, soon followed by the tinier tinkle of the angelus.
In a few seconds the grounds are deserted by all save one – the school-girl with the Irish features and eyes. She, having let go her companion's arm, and lingering behind the rest, makes a quick slant towards the window she has been watching; as she approaches it, significantly exposing something white she holds half hidden between her fingers!
It needs no further gesture to make known her intent. The English girl has already guessed it, as told by the iron casement grating back on its rusty hinges, and left standing ajar. On the instant of its opening, the white object parts from the hand that has been holding it, and, like a flash of light, passes through into the darksome cell, falling with a thud upon the floor.
Not a word goes with it; for she who has shown such dexterity, soon as delivering the missile, glides away – so speedily, she is still in time to join the queue moving on towards the convent chapel.
Cautiously reclosing the window, Sœur Marie descends the steps of her improvised ladder, and takes up the thing that had been tossed in; which she finds to be a letter shotted inside!
Despite her burning impatience, she does not open it till after restoring the bedstead to the horizontal, and replacing all as before. For now, as ever, she has need to be circumspect, and with better reasons.
At length, feeling secure, all the more from knowing the nuns are at their vesper devotions, she tears off the envelope, and reads, —
"Mary, – Monday night next, after midnight, if you look out of your window, you will see friends – among them
"JACK WINGATE."
"Jack Wingate!" she exclaims, with a look of strange intelligence lighting up her face. "A voice from dear old Wyeside! Hope of delivery at last!"
And overcome by her emotion, she sinks down upon the pallet; no longer looking sad, but with an expression contented, and beatified as that of the most devoté nun in the convent.
CHAPTER LXX
A JUSTIFIABLE ABDUCTION
It is a moonless November night, and a fog drifting down from the Pas de Calais envelopes Boulogne in its damp, clammy embrace. The great cathedral clock is tolling twelve midnight, and the streets are deserted, the last wooden-heeled soulier having ceased clattering over their cobble-stone pavements. If a foot passenger be abroad, he is some belated individual groping his way home from the Café de billars he frequents, or the Cercle to which he belongs. Even the sergens de ville are scarcer than usual, those seen being huddled up under the shelter of friendly porches, while the invisible ones are making themselves yet more snug inside cabarets, whose openness beyond licensed hours they wink at in return for the accommodation afforded.
It is, in truth, a most disagreeable night: cold as dark, for the fog has frost in it. For all, there are three men in the streets of Boulogne who regard neither its chillness nor obscurity. Instead, this last is just what they desire, and for days past have been waiting for.
They who thus delight in darkness are Major Mahon, Captain Ryecroft, and the waterman, Wingate. Not because they have thoughts of doing evil, for their purpose is of the very opposite character – to release a captive from captivity. The night has arrived when, in accordance with the promise made on that sheet of paper so dexterously pitched into her cloister, the Sœur Marie is to see friends in front of her window. They are the friends about to attempt taking her out of it.
They are not going blindly about the thing. Unlikely old campaigners as Mahon and Ryecroft would. During the interval since that warning summons was sent in, they have made thorough reconnaissance of the ground, taken stock of the convent's precincts and surroundings; in short, considered every circumstance of difficulty and danger. They are therefore prepared with all the means and appliances for effecting their design.
Just as the last stroke of the clock ceases its booming reverberation, they issue forth from Mahon's house; and, turning up the Rue Tintelleries, strike along a narrower street, which leads on toward the ancient cité.
The two officers walk arm in arm, Ryecroft, stranger to the place, needing guidance; while the boatman goes behind, with that carried aslant his shoulder, which, were it on the banks of the Wye, might be taken for a pair of oars. It is, nevertheless, a thing altogether different – a light ladder; though were it hundreds weight he would neither stagger nor groan under it. The errand he is upon knits his sinews, giving him the strength of a giant.
They proceed with extreme caution, all three silent as spectres. When any sound comes to their ears, as the shutting to of a door, or distant footfall upon the ill-paved trottoirs, they make instant stop, and stand listening – speech passing among themselves only in whispers. But as these interruptions are few, they make fair progress; and in less than twenty minutes after leaving the Major's house, they have reached the spot where the real action is to commence. This is in the narrow lane which runs along the enciente of the convent at back; a thoroughfare little used even in daytime, but after night solitary as a desert, and on this especial night dark as dungeon itself.
They know the allée well; have traversed it scores of times within the last few days and nights, and could go through it blindfold. And they also know the enclosure wall, with its exact height, just that of the cloister window beyond, and a little less than their ladder, which has been selected with an eye to dimensions.
While its bearer is easing it off his shoulder, and planting it firmly in place, a short whispered dialogue occurs between the other two, the Major saying, —
"We won't all three be needed for the work inside. One of us may remain here – nay, must! Those sergens de ville might be prowling about, or some of the convent people themselves: in which case we'll need warning before we dare venture back over the wall. If caught on the top of it, the petticoats obstructing – ay, or without them – 'twould go ill with us."
"Quite true," assents the Captain. "Which of us do you propose staying here? Jack?"
"Yes, certainly. And for more reasons than one. Excited as he is now, once getting his old flame into his arms, he'd be all on fire – perhaps with noise enough to awake the whole sleeping sisterhood, and bring them clamouring around us, like crows about an owl that had intruded into the rookery. Besides, there's a staff of male servants – for they have such – half a score of stout fellows, who'd show fight. A big bell, too, by ringing which they can rouse the town. Therefore, Master Jack must remain here. You tell him he must."
Jack is told, with reasons given, though not exactly the real ones. Endorsing them, the Major says, —
"Don't be so impatient, my good fellow! It will make but a few seconds' difference; and then you'll have your girl by your side, sure. Whereas, acting inconsiderately, you may never set eyes on her. The fight in the front will be easy. Our greatest danger's from behind; and you can do better in every way, as for yourself, by keeping the rear-guard."
He thus counselled is convinced: and, though much disliking it, yields prompt obedience. How could he otherwise? He is in the hands of men his superiors in rank as experience. And is it not for him they are there; risking liberty – it may be life?
Having promised to keep his impulsiveness in check, he is instructed what to do: simply to lie concealed under the shadow of the wall, and should any one be outside when he hears a low whistle, he is not to reply to it.
The signal so arranged, Mahon and Ryecroft mount over the wall, taking the ladder along with them, and leaving the waterman to reflect, in nervous anxiety, how near his Mary is, and yet how far off she still may be!
Once inside the garden, the other two strike off along a walk leading in the direction of the spot which is their objective point. They go as if every grain of sand pressed by their feet had a friend's life in it. The very cats of the convent could not traverse its grounds more silently.
Their caution is rewarded; for they arrive at the cloister sought, without interruption, to see its casement open, with a pale face in it – a picture of Madonna on a background of black, through the white film looking as if it were veiled.
But though dense the fog, it does not hinder them from perceiving that the expression of that face is one of expectancy; nor her from recognising them as the friends who were to be under the window. With that voice from the Wyeside still echoing in her ears, she sees her deliverers at hand! They have indeed come.
A woman of weak nerves would, under the circumstances, be excited – possibly cry out. But Sœur Marie is not such; and without uttering a word, even the slightest ejaculation, she stands still, and patiently waits while a wrench is applied to the rotten bar of iron, soon snapping it from its support, as though it were but a stick of maccaroni.
It is Ryecroft who performs this burglarious feat, and into his arms she delivers herself, to be conducted down the ladder; which is done without as yet a word having been exchanged between them.
Only after reaching the ground, and there is some feeling of safety, he whispers to her, —
"Keep up your courage, Mary! Your Jack is waiting for you outside the wall. Here, take my hand – "
"Mary! My Jack! And you – you – " Her voice becomes inaudible, and she totters back against the wall!
"She's swooning – has fainted!" mutters the Major; which Ryecroft already knows, having stretched out his arms, and caught her as she is sinking to the earth.
"It's the sudden change into the open air," he says. "We must carry her, Major. You go ahead with the ladder; I can manage the girl myself."
While speaking, he lifts the unconscious form, and bears it away. No light weight either, but to strength as his, only a feather.
The Major, going in advance with the ladder, guides him through the mist; and in a few seconds they reach the outer wall, Mahon giving a low whistle as he approaches. It is almost instantly answered by another from the outside, telling them the coast is clear.
And in three minutes after they are also on the outside, the girl still resting in Ryecroft's arms. The waterman wishes to relieve him, agonized by the thought that his sweetheart, who had passed unscathed, as it were, through the very gates of death, may, after all, be dead!
He urges it; but Mahon, knowing the danger of delay, forbids any sentimental interference, commanding Jack to re-shoulder the ladder, and follow as before.
Then striking off in Indian file, the Major first, the Captain with his burden in the centre, the boatman bringing up behind, they retrace their steps towards the Rue Tintelleries.
If Ryecroft but knew whom he is carrying, he would bear her, if not more tenderly, with far different emotions, and keener solicitude about her recovery from that swoon.
It is only after she is out of his arms, and lying upon a couch in Major Mahon's house – the hood drawn back, and the light shining on her face – that he experiences a thrill, strange and wild as ever felt by mortal man! No wonder – seeing it is Gwendoline Wynn!
"Gwen!" he exclaims, in a very ecstasy of joy, as her pulsing breast and opened eyes tell of returned consciousness.
"Vivian!" is the murmured rejoinder, their lips meeting in delirious contact.
Poor Jack Wingate!
