CHAPTER LXXXIX
While time was yet a stranger to regulation, and ere the dial shewed itspassage; when it had no computation but by our feelings, our weariness,our occupations, or our passions; the sun which arose splendid uponfelicity, must have excited, by its quick parting rays, a surprisenearly incredulous; while that which gave light but to sorrow, may haveappeared, at its evening setting, to have revolved the whole year. Thisperiod, so long past, seemed now present to Lady Aurora and to Juliet;so uncounted flew the minutes; so unconscious were they that they hadmore than met, more than embraced, more than reciprocated their joy inacknowledged kindred; that each felt amazed as well as shocked, when asummons from Mrs Howel to Lady Aurora, told them that the day was fastwearing, away.
Lady Aurora reluctantly obeyed the call; and in thanksgiving, pious anddelighted, Juliet spent the interval of her absence.
It was not long; she returned precipitately; but colourless, trembling,and altered, though making an effort to smile: but the struggle againsther feelings ended in a burst of tears; and, again falling upon the neckof Juliet; 'Oh my sweet sister!' she cried, 'is your persecution neverto end?'
Juliet, though quickly alarmed, fondly answered, 'It is over already!While that precious appellation comes from your lips,--sweet title oftenderness and affection!--I feel above every danger!'
Lady Aurora, bitterly weeping, was compelled, then, to acknowledge thatshe had been hurried away by Mrs Howel, to be told that a foreigner, illdressed, and just arrived from the Continent, was demanding, in brokenEnglish, of every one that he met, some news of a young person calledMiss Ellis.
The exaltation of Juliet was instantly at an end; and, in an accent ofdespair, she uttered, 'Is it so soon, then, over!--my transientfelicity!'
Whether this foreigner were her persecutor himself, escaped anddisguised; or some emissary employed to claim or to entrap her, was allof doubt by which she was momentarily supported; for she felt asdetermined to resist an agent, as she thought herself incapable towithstand the principal.
Mrs Howel, who had heard of the search, represented to Lady Aurora, theextreme impropriety of her ladyship's intercourse with a person thussuspiciously pursued; at least till the opinion of Lord Denmeath couldbe known. But Lady Aurora, fully satisfied that this helpless fugitivewas her half-sister, was now as firm as she had hitherto been facile;and declared that, though her personal inclinations should still yieldto her respect for her uncle, her sense of filial duty to the memory ofher father, must bind her, openly and unreservedly, to sustain hisundoubted daughter.
A waiter now interrupted them, to demand admission to Miss Ellis for aforeigner.
'She is not here!--There is no Miss Ellis here! No suchperson!'--precipitately cried Lady Aurora; but the foreigner himself,who stood behind the waiter, glided into the room.
Lady Aurora nearly fainted; Juliet screamed and hid her face; theforeigner called out, 'Ah Mademoiselle Juliette! c'est, donc, vous! etvous ne me reconnoissez pas?'[14]
[Footnote 14: 'Ah, Miss Juliet! it is you then! and you do not knowme?']
'Ah heaven!' cried Juliet, uncovering her face; 'Ambroise! my good, myexcellent Ambroise! is it you?--and you only?'--Turning then,enraptured, to Lady Aurora, 'Kindest,' she cried, 'and tenderest ofhuman beings! condescend to receive, and to aid me to thank, thevaluable person to whom I owe my first deliverance!'
Lady Aurora, revived and charmed, poured forth the warmest praises;while Juliet, eagerly demanding news of the Marchioness; and whether hecould give any intelligence of the Bishop; saw his head droop, andseized with terrour, exclaimed, 'Oh Ambroise! am I miserable for ever!'
He hastened to assure her that they were both alive, and well; and, inthe ecstacy of her gratitude, upon the cessation of her first direfulsurmise, she promised to receive all other information with courage.
He shook his head, with an air the most sorrowful; and then relatedthat the Bishop, after delays, dangers, fruitless journies, anddisasters innumerable, which had detained him many months in theinteriour, had, at last, and most unfortunately, reached a port, whencehe was privately to embark for joining his niece, just as thecommissary, upon returning from his abortive expedition, was re-landed.By some cruel accident, the voice of the prelate reached his ear:immediate imprisonment, accompanied by treatment the most ignominious,ensued. Ambroise, who, for the satisfaction of the Marchioness, hadattended the Bishop to the coast, was seized also; and both wouldinevitably have been executed, had not a project occurred to thecommissary, of employing Ambroise to demand and recover his prey, andher dowry.
Ambroise stopt and wept.
Bloodless now became the face of Juliet, though with forced, yet decidedcourage, 'I understand you!' she cried, 'and Oh! if I can save him,--byany sacrifice, any devotion,--I am contented! and I ought to be happy!'
'Ah, cruel sister!' cried Lady Aurora; 'would you kill me?'--
Juliet, shedding a torrent of tears, tenderly embraced her.
'The Bishop,' Ambroise continued, 'no sooner comprehended than heforbade the attempt; but he was consigned, unheard, to a loathsome cell;and Ambroise was almost instantly embarked; with peremptory orders toacquaint _la citoyenne Julie_ that unless she returned immediately toher husband, in order to sign and seal, by his side, and as his wife,their joint claim to her portion, upon the terms that Lord Denmeath haddictated; the most tremendous vengeance should fall upon thehypocritical old priest, by every means the most terrible that could bedevised.'
'I am ready! quite ready!' cried the pale Juliet, with energy; 'I do notsacrifice, I save myself by preserving my honoured guardian!'
This eagerness to rescue her revered benefactor, which made her feelgloriously, though transiently, the exaltation of willing martyrdom,soon subsided into the deepest grief, upon seeing Lady Aurora,shivering, speechless, and nearly lifeless, sink despondingly upon theground.
Juliet, kneeling by her side, and pressing her nearly cold face to herbosom, bathed her cheeks, throat, and shoulders with fast falling tears;but felt incapable of changing her plan. Yet all her own anguish wasalmost intolerably embittered, by thus proving the fervour of anaffection, in which almost all her wishes might have been concentrated,but that honour, conscience, and religion united to snatch her from itsenjoyment.
The news that Lady Aurora was taken ill, spread quickly to Mrs Howel;and brought that lady to the apartment of Juliet in person. Lady Aurorawas already recovered, and seated in the folding arms of Juliet, withwhom her tears were bitterly, but silently mingling.
Mrs Howel, shocked and alarmed, summoned the female attendants toconduct her ladyship to her own apartment.
Lady Aurora would accept no aid save from Juliet; fondly leaning uponwhose arm she reached a sofa in her bed-chamber; where she assumed,though with cruel struggles against her yielding nature, voice andcourage to pronounce, 'My dear Mrs Howel, you have always been sosingularly good to me,--you have always done me so much honour, that youmust not, will not refuse to be kinder to me still, and to permit me tointroduce to you ... Miss Granville!... For this young lady, Mrs Howel,is my sister!... my very dear sister!'
Utterly confounded, Mrs Howel made a silent inclination of the head,with eyes superciliously cast down. The letter of Sir Jaspar Herringtonhad not failed to convince her that this was the real offspring of LordGranville; whose existence had never been doubted in the world, butwhose legitimacy had never been believed. Still, however, Mrs Howel, whowas now, from her own hard conduct, become the young orphan's personalenemy, flattered herself that means might be found to prevent thepublication of such a story; and determined to run no risk by appearingto give it credit; at the same time that, in her uncertainty of theevent, she softened the austerity of her manner; and gave orders to theservants to shew every possible respect to a person who had the honourto be admitted to Lady Aurora Granville.
Juliet was in too desperate a state for any thought, or care, relativeto Mrs Howel; and, having soothed Lady Aurora by promises of a speedyreturn, she hastened back t
o Ambroise.
She earnestly besought him, since her decision would be immutable, tomake immediate enquiries whence they might embark with the greatestexpedition.
Sadly, yet, so circumstanced, not unwillingly he agreed; and gave to heraching heart nearly the only joy of which it was susceptible, in thenews that the Marchioness was already at the sea-side, awaiting theexpected arrival of her darling daughter.
Ambroise had been entrusted, he said, by the commissary, with thiscruel office, from his well known fidelity to the Marchioness and to theBishop, which, where the alternative was so dreadful, would urge him,whatever might be his repugnance, to its faithful discharge. His ordershad been to proceed straight to Salisbury, whence, under the name ofMiss Ellis, he was to seek Juliet in every direction. And her variousadventures had made so much noise in that neighbourhood, that she hadbeen traced, with very little difficulty to Teignmouth.
Her terrible compliance being thus solemnly fixed, she left him toprepare for their departure the next morning, and returned to theafflicted Lady Aurora; by whose side she remained till midnight;struggling to sink her own sufferings, and to hide her shudderingdisgust and horrour, in administering words of comfort, and exhibitingan example of fortitude, to her weeping sister.
But when, early the next morning, with the dire idea of leave-taking,she re-visited the gentle mourner, she found her nourishing a hope thather Juliet might yet be melted to a change of plan. 'Oh my sister!' shecried, 'my whole heart cannot thus have been opened to affection, toconfidence, to fondest friendship, only to be broken by this dreadfulseparation! Our souls cannot have been knit together by ties of thesweetest trust, only to be rent for ever asunder! You will surelyreflect before you destroy us both? for do you think you can now be asingle victim?'
Dissolved with tenderness, yet agonized with grief, Juliet could butweep, and ejaculate half-pronounced blessings; while Lady Aurora, withrenovating courage, said, 'Ah! think, sweet Juliet, think, if ourfather,--was he not ours alike?--had lived to know the proud day ofreceiving his long lost, and so accomplished daughter, such as I see hernow!--would he not have said to me, 'Aurora! this is your sister! Youare equally my children; love her, then, tenderly, and let there be butone heart between you!'--And will you, then, Juliet, deliver us both upto wretchedness? Must I see you no more? And only have seen you, now, toembitter all the rest of my life?'
'Oh resistless Aurora!' cried the miserable Juliet, 'rend not thus myheart!--Think for me, my Aurora;--Think, as well as feel for me,--andthen--dispose of me as you will!'--
'I accept being the umpire, my Juliet! my tenderest sister! I accept it,and you are saved!--We are both saved!--for this would be a sacrificebeyond any call of duty!'--cried Lady Aurora, instantly reviving, notsimply to serenity, but to felicity, to rapture. Her tears were driedup, her eyes shone with delight, and smiles the softest and mostexpressive dimpled her chin, and played about her cheeks and mouth,while, with a transport new to her serene temperament, she embraced theappalled Juliet. ''Tis now, indeed,' she continued, 'I feel I have asister! 'Tis now I feel the force of kindred fondness! If you had notloved me with a sister's affection, you would not have listened to mysolicitations; and if you had not listened, such a disappointment, andyour loss together,--do you think I should have been strong enough tosurvive them?' But this enchantment lasted not long; she soon perceivedit was without participation, and her joy vanished, 'like the baselessfabric of a vision.' Anguish sat upon the brow of Juliet; fits ofshuddering horrour shook every limb; and her only answer to these tenderendearments was by tears and embraces; while she strove to hide heraltered and nearly distorted face upon Lady Aurora's shoulder.
'Speak to me, my sister!' cried Lady Aurora. 'Tell me that your pity forthe good Bishop is not stronger than all your love for me? than all yourvalue for your own security from barbarous brutality? than your trust inProvidence, that will surely protect so pious and exemplary a person?'
'No, Heaven forbid!' answered Juliet; 'but, when Providence permits usto see a way,--when it opens a path to us by which evil may be avoided,by which duty may be exerted,--ought the difficulties of that way, theperils of that path, to make us recoil from the attempt? When thenatural means are obvious, ought we to wait for some miracle?'
'Ah, my sister!' cried Lady Aurora, 'would you, then, still go? Have youyielded in mere transient compassion?'
'No, sweet Aurora, no! To ruin your peace would every way destroy Mine!Yet--what a fatality! to fear the very enjoyment of the familyprotection for which I have been sighing my whole life, lest I can enjoyit but by a crime! I abandon the post of honour, in leaving thebenefactor, the supporter, the preserver of my orphan existence, toperpetual chains, if not to massacre!--Or I break the tender heart ofthe gentlest, purest, and most beloved of sisters!'
Lady Aurora, now, looked all consternation; and, after a disturbedpause, 'If you think it wrong,' she cried, 'not to sacrificeyourself,--Oh my sister! let not mere commiseration for my weakness leadyou astray! We all know there is another world, in which we yet may meetagain!'
'Angel! angel!' cried Juliet, pressing Lady Aurora to her bosom. 'Youwill aid me, then, to do right' by nobly supporting yourself, you willhelp to keep me from sinking? Religion will give you strength of mind tosubmit to our worldly separation, and all my sufferings will beendurable, while they open to me the hope of a final re-union with myangel sister!'
They now mutually sought to re-animate each other. Piety strengthenedthe fortitude of Juliet, and supplied its place to Lady Aurora; and, insoft pity to each other, each strove to look away from, and beyond, allpresent and actual evil; and to work up their minds, by religious hopesand reflections, to an enthusiastic foretaste of the joys of futurity.