"God! God! have mercy on me!" she murmured, clasping her hands, as she
looked upon his features, which, when it was nearly morning, had been
tranquillised into forgetfulness--"God have mercy upon me--and upon him,
poor sleeper!"
"Who sleeps?" he exclaimed, starting from his couch--"He will not let
me sleep!--There! Constance, Constance, the ship is under weigh--she
spreads her white sails to the breeze, the ocean breeze--the breeze that
will not cool my brow!--And there--they drag him from the hold!--Look
how he struggles on the vessel's deck!--Spare him!--But no, do not spare
him: if he returns, where am I? Hush! did you hear that?--Hush! hush!
hush!" He stretched his hand, and bent his head in an attitude of deep
attention; then seizing her arm, repeated "hush!" until at last she
again inquired what disturbed him. "'Tis your mother, child; heard you
not that she said I murdered you? Speak, Constantia,--you are not dead?
I did not murder you--speak! I fired no pistol, and you did not fall!"
The sleep she had so unintentionally broken had been but of short
continuance during those weary hours; and the day was far advanced
before she had leisure to bestow a moment's thought upon the probable
turn that might be given to her future prospects by the sudden summons
of Sir Willmott Burrell to Hampton Court. But, upon whichever side she
turned, her destiny was dark, lowering, and fearful as the
thunder-storm. How her heart fainted when the form of her favourite
Barbara was present to her imagination, as she last held it bleeding on
her bosom! How mysterious was that death! how terrible! She would have
given worlds to look upon her but once more, for she could ill reconcile
the idea of that gentle girl's having a stormy sea-bed at her father's
hands--that rude, unhallowed man, the origin and nature of whose
influence over her own parent she now understood but too well.
Lady Frances Cromwell would have soothed her affliction had she known
how to do so, but comfort cannot be given to a sorrow whose source is
unknown. She entered her friend's watching-room, but could not prevail
upon her to take either repose or food; and hoping to catch the earliest
view of the physician, whose arrival she knew must be soon, she called
one of her women to attend her, and wandered up the hill to Minster,
where the beautiful ruins of Sexburga's nunnery commanded so extensive a
view of the entire island, and a considerable portion of the adjoining
country. The day had risen to one of unclouded beauty; the marshy coast
of Essex was cleared of its hovering fogs; and its green meadows
stretched away in the distance, until they were lost in the clear blue
sky. The southern part of the island, flat and uninteresting as it is,
looked gay and cheerful in the sun-light; for every little lake mirrored
the smiling heavens, and danced in diamond measures to the music of bee
and bird.