The Second Macabre MEGAPACK®. Эдит Несбит

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СКАЧАТЬ the business on which he had been sent, could not be determined in less than ten days; and taking advantage of the time, he hastened to Wales, and reached his native village on the midnight of the second day. A beautiful moonlight shone on the traveller, as he rode rapidly along the avenue of fruit trees leading to the parsonage, but what was his surprise, when on stopping at the gate, he discovered a large and newly built house, standing in the midst of the shrubbery, while the mansion, where he was born, was already unroofed, the sashes taken out, and the whole apparently about to be pulled to pieces.

      Overcome by varied emotions, William now dismounted from his horse, relieved him of his saddle, and passing through a side gate, which was only fastened by a button, led the animal into the stable, then entering the garden, he roamed up and down its narrow walks, yielding to the remembrances of his boyhood, and quite undetermined whether to arouse his parent or not. “It is almost a pity to disturb them at this untimely hour,” he said; “in a short time dawn will break, and the night is so calm and beautiful that I can sleep here as well as at the foot of the mast.” With these words, he took his seat on the stone bench beneath the ancient yew trees and was soon fast asleep.

      He might have slumbered a half hour, when he was aroused by a dream, and on opening his eyes, what was his surprise to see a lady seated on the bench beside him. On looking at her, he perceived that she was about forty years of age; and although her face was very pale and rather expressionless, yet she was by no means unhandsome.

      Supposing her some acquaintance of his parents, then on a visit at their house, who had been probably induced by the summer temperature to enjoy the cool air of the garden, he politely observed, “You are perhaps surprised, Madam, to find a stranger intruding here at this time.”

      “No!” was her brief reply.

      “I am William Drummond. Do my parents expect me?” was his next question.

      “I know it. They do.”

      “Have you been long here?

      “Yes! a long while.”

      “I am astonished that my father never mentioned you in his letters.”

      “Perhaps he did.”

      “And I am also greatly delighted to find this comfortable new residence so superior to the old.”

      “I reside in the old.”

      “Indeed, why it seems almost pulled down.”

      “At least I will remain in it as long as it stands.”

      The young man was rather unpleasantly affected by the stranger’s brief, unceremonious manner, but anxious to learn further, he observed, “excuse me, Madam, if I inquire whether my father has learned through the papers, or any other way, the news of a conflict between my vessel, the “Vulture,” and an American privateer? I am exceedingly anxious to learn the name of the man who commanded the latter.”

      “He will know all tomorrow,” observed the woman in a hollow tone. “The Captain’s name was John Drummond.”

      “Gracious Heavens! are you sure of it?” cried William, springing up; but ere he could utter another word, the figure had vanished away. “Am I awake or dreaming,” he continued after a long pause, during which he looked wildly around him,” and yet all is so real; so life-like! What if I am losing my senses?. Surely I was not asleep! My mind seemed as awake as at this moment,” and with such doubts he tormented himself, till at daydawn he heard a window unbolted, and rushing into the house, was soon clasped in the arms of his delighted, but trembling parents.

      After several enquiries, William ventured to ask when they had last heard from his brother, and a hundred weight seemed to fall from his breast, on being informed that his last letter, dated from Boston, mentioned that he had taken command of a vessel about to sail for the Southern ocean, and that they must feel no uneasiness, should they hear nothing for a long period.

      Mrs. Drummond now turned the conversation to their new residence, which she described as being most convenient in every respect; adding, that the old parsonage was to be pulled down in a few days.

      “Dear Mother! was it not a strange notion to let it out to a lodger!” asked her son, immediately recalling his midnight companion.

      “I know of no lodgers but the mice, which I trust will not follow me into my new home, by reason of hammering in the old.”

      “No! no! I mean the lady whom I met last night sitting under the Yew-tree, and with whom I had some conversation.”

      The parents looked astonished at each other, while the mother exclaimed, “we have no lodger, who could this have been, and when their son described the interview, they both declared that he must have been dreaming, and with his memory refreshed by revisiting the home of his boyhood, had probably mingled the legend of “the Gray Lady” in his drowsy visions.

      William was almost ready to believe that their surmise might be true; and engrossed in subjects of mutual interest among which William’s adventures at sea were not forgotten, the day past till at evening a servant came in with a package of letters, among which the pastor immediately recognised the hand writing of a friend in Liverpool.

      Breaking it open, he commenced reading its contents, but presently it fell from his hands, and sinking back into his chair, he exclaimed, “Father in Heaven! It is too much! Too much!”

      “For God’s sake! what ails you?” cried William, as he sprang to the old man’s assistance.

      “Read this, my poor, unhappy son!” was the only reply.

      William picked up the sheet and read as follows:

      “Dear Friend—I regret to be the herald of most unhappy news. Jenkins & Son inform me, that they have just received a letter from Hudson & Co., Boston, who beg them to forward to you the following intelligence. You are aware that the above mentioned Boston house, some time since employed the services of your son, John Drummond, as Captain of one of their vessels equipped for the Southern Ocean. As the blockade of Boston, however, took place before the vessel could sail, Drummond, who favored the cause of the Americans, took command of the privateer Gray Shark instead, and changing his name to John Walker, so as to conceal his disloyalty from his parents until the end of the war, he bore many prizes into port, and was greatly valued by the Americans. The Gray Shark being lately engaged in conflict with the royal cruiser, the Vulture, was blown up from a cannon shot, which entered into his hold, and your son, together with every one on board, perished.”

      Thus was the unhappy truth established, which William had so long hoped might prove otherwise. His twin brother, the companion of his childhood, the friend, whose course he had so anxiously watched for many years, to be thus doomed to death through his means! Ah! he felt that the legend was too true, that his midnight companion was not the visitant of a disturbed dream!

      We will not attempt to describe the mournful hours that ensued. The mother sat overwhelmed with grief; the old pastor’s face grew almost stern, as he sought to repress his anguish; while unable to restrain his burst of agony, the hapless William lamented himself loudly and continually as the cause of his brother’s untimely fate. “Nay, it was Providence, I will not say fate, which has caused this dreadful event,” said the father, pressing his son’s hand in his.

      William tried to believe it, but it was long before he could be comforted.

      In the course of a few days, he set СКАЧАТЬ