The Jolly Roger Tales: 60+ Pirate Novels, Treasure-Hunt Tales & Sea Adventures. Лаймен Фрэнк Баум

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">       It was Miranda pluck’d it from his shoulders.

       Old Play.

      Our wandering narrative must now return to Mordaunt Mertoun. — We left him in the perilous condition of one who has received a severe wound, and we now find him in the condition of a convalescent — pale, indeed, and feeble from the loss of much blood, and the effects of a fever which had followed the injury, but so far fortunate, that the weapon, having glanced on the ribs, had only occasioned a great effusion of blood, without touching any vital part, and was now wellnigh healed; so efficacious were the vulnerary plants and salves with which it had been treated by the sage Norna of Fitful Head.

      The matron and her patient now sat together in a dwelling in a remote island. He had been transported, during his illness, and ere he had perfect consciousness, first to her singular habitation near Fitful Head, and thence to her present abode, by one of the fishing-boats on the station of Burgh-Westra. For such was the command possessed by Norna over the superstitious character of her countrymen, that she never failed to find faithful agents to execute her commands, whatever these happened to *be; and, as her orders were generally given under injunctions of the strictest secrecy, men reciprocally wondered at occurrences, which had in fact been produced by their own agency, and that of their neighbours, and in which, had they communicated freely with each other, no shadow of the marvellous would have remained.

      Mordaunt was now seated by the fire, in an apartment indifferently well furnished, having a book in his hand, which he looked upon from time to time with signs of ennui and impatience; feelings which at length so far overcame him, that, flinging the volume on the table, he fixed his eyes on the fire, and assumed the attitude of one who is engaged in unpleasant meditation.

      Norna, who sat opposite to him, and appeared busy in the composition of some drug or unguent, anxiously left her seat, and, approaching Mordaunt, felt his pulse, making at the same time the most affectionate inquiries whether he felt any sudden pain, and where it was seated. The manner in which Mordaunt replied to these earnest inquiries, although worded so as to express gratitude for her kindness, while he disclaimed any feeling of indisposition, did not seem to give satisfaction to the Pythoness.

      “Ungrateful boy!” she said, “for whom I have done so much; you whom I have rescued, by my power and skill, from the very gates of death, — are you already so weary of me, that you cannot refrain from showing how desirous you are to spend, at a distance from me, the very first intelligent days of the life which I have restored you?”

      “You do me injustice, my kind preserver,” replied Mordaunt; “I am not tired of your society; but I have duties which recall me to ordinary life.”

      “Duties!” repeated Norna; “ and what duties can or ought to interfere with the gratitude which you owe to me? — Duties ‘ Your thoughts are on the use of your gun, or on clambering among the rocks in quest of seafowl. For these exercises your strength doth not yet fit you; and yet these are the duties to which you are so anxious to return!”

      “Not so, my good and kind mistress,” said Mordaunt. — ”To name one duty, out of many, which makes me seek to leave you, now that my strength permits, let me mention that of a son to his father.”

      “To your father! “ said Norna, with a laugh that had something in it almost frantic. “ Oh! you know not how we can in these islands, at once cancel such duties! And, for your h father,” she added, proceeding more calmly, “what has he done for you, to deserve the regard and duty you speak of? — Is he not the same, who, as you have long since told me, left you for so many years poorly nourished among strangers, without inquiring whether you were alive or dead, and only sending, from time to time, supplies in such fashion, as men 3 relieve the leprous wretch to whom they fling alms from a distance? And, in these later years, when he had made you the companion of his misery, he has been, by starts your pedagogue, by starts your tormentor, but never, Mordaunt, I never your father.”

      “Something of truth there is in what you say,” replied Mordaunt. “ My father is not fond; but he is, and has ever been, effectively kind. Men have not their affections in their power; and it is a child’s duty to be grateful for the benefits which he receives, even when coldly bestowed. My father has conferred instruction on me, and I am convinced he loves me. He is unfortunate; and, even if he loved me not”

      “And he does not love you,” said Norna hastily; “he never loved anything, or any one, save himself. He is unfortunate, but well are his misfortunes deserved. — O Mordaunt, you have one parent only, — one parent, who loves you as the drops of the heart-blood!”

      “I know I have but one parent,” replied Mordaunt; “ my mother has been long dead. — But your words contradict each other.”

      “They do not — they do not,” said Norna, in a paroxysm of the deepest feeling; “you have but one parent. Your unhappy mother is not dead — I would to God that she were! — but she is not dead. Thy mother is the only parent that loves thee; and I — I, Mordaunt,” throwing herself on his neck. am that most unhappy — yet most happy mother.”

      She closed him in a strict and convulsive embrace; and tears, the first, perhaps, which she had shed for many years, burst in torrents as she sobbed on his neck. Astonished at what he heard, felt, and saw — moved by the excess of her agitation, yet disposed to ascribe this burst of passion to insanity, — Mordaunt vainly endeavoured to tranquillise the mind of this extraordinary person.

      “Ungrateful boy!” she said, “ who but a mother would have watched over thee as I have watched? From the instant I saw thy father, when he little thought by whom he was observed, a space now many years back, I knew him well; and, under his charge, I saw you, then a stripling, — while Nature, speaking loud in my bosom, assured me, thou wert blood of my blood, and bone of my bone. Think how often you have wondered to see me, when least expected, in your places of pastime and resort! Think how often my eye has watched you on the giddy precipices, and muttered those charms which subdue the evil demons, who show themselves to the climber on the giddiest point of his path, and force him to quit his hold! Did I not hang around thy neck, in pledge of thy safety, that chain of gold, which an Elfin King gave to the founder of our race? Would I have given that dear gift to any but the son of my bosom? — Mordaunt, my power has done that for thee that a mere mortal mother would dread to think of. I have conjured the Mermaid at midnight, that thy bark might be prosperous on the Haaf! I have hushed the winds, and navies have flapped their empty sails against the mast in inactivity, that you might safely indulge your sport upon the crags!”

      Mordaunt, perceiving that she was growing yet wilder in her talk, endeavoured to frame an answer which should be at once indulgent, soothing, and calculated to allay the rising warmth of her imagination.

      “Dear Norna,” he said, “I have indeed many reasons to call you mother, who have bestowed so many benefits upon me; and from me you shall ever receive the affection and duty of a child. But the chain you mentioned, it has vanished from my neck — I have not seen it since the ruffian stabbed me.”

      “Alas! and can you think of it at this moment?” said Norna, in a sorrowful accent. — ” But be it so; — and know, it was I took it from thy neck, and tied it around the neck of her who is dearest to you; in token that the union betwixt you, which has been the only earthly wish which I have had the power to form, shall yet, even yet, be accomplished — ay,; although hell should open to forbid the banns!”

      “Alas!” said Mordaunt, with a sigh, “you remember not the difference betwixt our situation — her father is wealthy, and. I of ancient birth.”

      “Not more wealthy than will be the heir of Norna of Fitful J Head,” answered the Pythoness — ”not of better СКАЧАТЬ