Rookwood Part 2

A smile, cold as a wintry sunbeam, played upon the s.e.xton's rigid lips.

"I will bear this no longer," cried Luke; "anger me not, or look to yourself. In a word, have you anything to tell me respecting her? if not, let me begone."

"I have. But I will not be hurried by a boy like you," replied Peter, doggedly. "Go, if you will, and take the consequences. My lips are sealed forever, and I have much to say--much that it behoves you to know."

"Be brief, then. When you sought me out this morning, in my retreat with the gipsy gang at Davenham Wood, you bade me meet you in the porch of Rookwood Church at midnight. I was true to my appointment."

"And I will keep my promise," replied the s.e.xton. "Draw closer, that I may whisper in thine ear. Of every Rookwood who lies around us--and all that ever bore the name, except Sir Piers himself--who lies in state at the hall--, are here--not one--mark what I say--not one male branch of the house but has been suspected----"

"Of what?"

"Of murder!" returned the s.e.xton, in a hissing whisper.

"Murder!" echoed Luke, recoiling.

"There is one dark stain--one foul blot on all. Blood--blood hath been spilt."

"By all?"

"Ay, and _such_ blood! theirs was no common crime. Even murder hath its degrees. Theirs was of the first cla.s.s."

"Their wives!--you cannot mean that?"

"Ay, their wives!--I do. You have heard it, then? Ha! ha! 'tis a trick they had. Did you ever hear the old saying?

_No mate ever brook would A Rook of the Rookwood!_

A merry saying it is, and true. No woman ever stood in a Rookwood's way but she was speedily removed--that's certain. They had all, save poor Sir Piers, the knack of stopping a troublesome woman's tongue, and practised it to perfection. A rare art, eh?"

"What have the misdeeds of his ancestry to do with Sir Piers," muttered Luke, "much less with my mother?"

"Everything. If he could not rid himself of his wife--and she is a match for the devil himself--, the _mistress_ might be more readily set aside."

"Have you absolute knowledge of aught?" asked Luke, his voice tremulous with emotion.

"Nay, I but hinted."

"Such hints are worse than open speech. Let me know the worst. Did he kill her?" And Luke glared at the s.e.xton as if he would have penetrated his secret soul.

But Peter was not easily fathomed. His cold, bright eye returned Luke's gaze steadfastly, as he answered, composedly:

"I have said all I know."

"But not all you _think_."

"Thoughts should not always find utterance, else we might often endanger our own safety, and that of others."

"An idle subterfuge--and, from you, worse than idle. I will have an answer, yea or nay. Was it poison--was it steel?"

"Enough--she died."

"No, it is not enough. When? Where?"

"In her sleep--in her bed."

"Why, that was natural."

A wrinkling smile crossed the s.e.xton's brow.

"What means that horrible gleam of laughter?" exclaimed Luke, grasping the shoulder of the man of graves with such force as nearly to annihilate him. "Speak, or I will strangle you. She died, you say, in her sleep?"

"She did so," replied the s.e.xton, shaking off Luke's hold.

"And was it to tell me that I had a mother's murder to avenge, that you brought me to the tomb of her destroyer--when he is beyond the reach of my vengeance?"

Luke exhibited so much frantic violence of manner and gesture, that the s.e.xton entertained some little apprehension that his intellects were unsettled by the shock of the intelligence. It was, therefore, in what he intended for a soothing tone that he attempted to solicit his grandson's attention.

"I will hear nothing more," interrupted Luke, and the vaulted chamber rang with his pa.s.sionate lamentations. "Am I the sport of this mocking fiend?" cried he, "to whom my agony is derision--my despair a source of enjoyment--beneath whose withering glance my spirit shrinks--who, with half-expressed insinuations, tortures my soul, awakening fancies that goad me on to dark and desperate deeds? Dead mother! upon thee I call.

If in thy grave thou canst hear the cry of thy most wretched son, yearning to avenge thee--answer me, if thou hast the power. Let me have some token of the truth or falsity of these wild suppositions, that I may wrestle against this demon. But no," added he, in accents of despair, "no ear listens to me, save his to whom my wretchedness is food for mockery."

"Could the dead hear thee, thy mother might do so," returned the s.e.xton.

"She lies within this s.p.a.ce."

Luke staggered back, as if struck by a sudden shot. He spoke not, but fell with a violent shock against a pile of coffins, at which he caught for support.

"What have I done?" he exclaimed, recoiling.

A thundering crash resounded through the vault. One of the coffins, dislodged from its position by his fall, tumbled to the ground, and, alighting upon its side, split asunder.

"Great Heavens! what is this?" cried Luke, as a dead body, clothed in all the hideous apparel of the tomb, rolled forth to his feet.

"It is your mother's corpse," answered the s.e.xton, coldly; "I brought you hither to behold it. But you have antic.i.p.ated my intentions."

"_This_ my mother?" shrieked Luke, dropping upon his knees by the body, and seizing one of its chilly hands, as it lay upon the floor, with the face upwards.

The s.e.xton took the candle from the sconce.

"Can this be death?" shouted Luke. "Impossible! Oh, G.o.d! she stirs--she moves. The light!--quick. I see her stir! This is dreadful!"

"Do not deceive yourself," said the s.e.xton, in a tone which betrayed more emotion than was his wont. "'Tis the bewilderment of fancy. She will never stir again."

And he shaded the candle with his hand, so as to throw the light full upon the face of the corpse. It was motionless, as that of an image carved in stone. No trace of corruption was visible upon the rigid, yet exquisite tracery of its features. A profuse cloud of raven hair, escaped from its swathements in the fall, hung like a dark veil over the bosom and person of the dead, and presented a startling contrast to the waxlike hue of the skin and the pallid cereclothes. Flesh still adhered to the hand, though it mouldered into dust within the gripe of Luke, as he pressed the fingers to his lips. The shroud was disposed like night-gear about her person, and from without its folds a few withered flowers had fallen. A strong aromatic odor, of a pungent nature, was diffused around; giving evidence that the art by which the ancient Egyptians endeavored to rescue their kindred from decomposition had been resorted to, to preserve the fleeting charms of the unfortunate Susan Bradley.

A pause of awful silence succeeded, broken only by the convulsive respiration of Luke. The s.e.xton stood by, apparently an indifferent spectator of the scene of horror. His eye wandered from the dead to the living, and gleamed with a peculiar and indefinable expression, half apathy, half abstraction. For one single instant, as he scrutinized the features of his daughter, his brow, contracted by anger, immediately afterwards was elevated in scorn. But otherwise you would have sought in vain to read the purport of that cold, insensible glance, which dwelt for a brief s.p.a.ce on the face of the mother, and settled eventually upon her son. At length the withered flowers attracted his attention. He stooped to pick up one of them.

"Faded as the hand that gathered ye--as the bosom on which ye were strewn!" he murmured. "No sweet smell left--but--faugh!" Holding the dry leaves to the flame of the candle, they were instantly ignited, and the momentary brilliance played like a smile upon the features of the dead.

Peter observed the effect. "Such was thy life," he exclaimed; "a brief, bright sparkle, followed by dark, utter extinction!"