Cruel As the Grave 31 – Southworth · Verses Across
Literature · Romance
Cruel As the Grave 31The Arrest
18
Literature · Romance
Cruel As the Grave 31
The Arrest
SouthworthEnglish
Had it pleased Heaven
To try me with affliction; had He rained
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head;
Steeped me in poverty to the very lips;
I could have found in some part of my soul
A drop of patience; but alas, to make me
A fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow, unmoving finger at!--SHAKESPEARE.
"Save me! Oh, save me!" she continued to cry, clinging wildly to her husband's bosom. "Save me from this deep degradation! This degradation worse than death!"
And it is certain that if the immediate sacrifice of his own life could have saved her, Lyon Berners would have willingly died for Sybil; or even if the drowning of that law officer could have delivered her, he would have incontinently pitched the man overboard; but as neither of these violent-means could possibly have served her, he could only clasp her closer to his heart, and consider what was to be done.
At length he looked up at the sheriff's officer, and said:
"I wish to have a word alone with my wife, if you will permit me."
The man hesitated.
"You can do it with perfect safety. We cannot possibly escape from this ship, you know; and besides, you can keep us in sight," he added.
Still the man hesitated, and at length inquired:
"Why do you wish to speak with her alone?"
"To try to soothe her spirits. I know it would be quite useless to tell you how entirely innocent this lady is of the heinous crime imputed to her; for even if you should believe her to be so, you would have to do your duty all the same."
"Yes, certainly; and a most distressing duty," put in the officer.
"This arrest has come upon her so suddenly, and when she is so utterly unprepared to meet it, that it has quite overcome her, as you see; but leave her alone with me for a few minutes, and I will try to calm her mind, and induce her to yield quietly to this necessity," added Lyon.
"Well, sir, I am indeed very willing to do all in my power to make this sad affair as little distressing to the lady as possible," answered the officer as he touched his companion on the shoulder, and they both walked off to some little distance.
As their retreating steps sounded upon the deck, Sybil raised her head from Lyon's breast and looked around with an expression half-frightened, half-relieved, and murmured:
"They are gone! They are gone!"
Then clasping her husband suddenly around the neck, and gazing wildly into his eyes, she exclaimed:
"You can save me, Lyon, you can save me from this deep dishonor that no Berners ever suffered before! There is but one way, Lyon, and there is but one moment. You have a small penknife; but it is enough. Open it, and strike it here, Lyon. One blow will be enough, if it is firmly struck! Here--Lyon! here, strike here!" And she placed her hand on her throat, under her ear, and gazed wildly, prayerfully in his face.
"Oh, Sybil!" he groaned, in an agony of despairing love.
"Quick! quick! Lyon! We have but this moment! Strike here now--now, this instant! Strike first, and then kiss me! kiss me as I die!"
"Sybil! Sybil, darling you wring my heart."
"I am not afraid of death, Lyon; I am only afraid of shame. Kill me, to save me, Lyon! Be a Roman husband. Slay your wife, to save her from shame!" she cried, gazing on him with great bright dilated eyes, where the fires of frenzy, if not of insanity, blazed.
"My best beloved! my only beloved! there can be no shame where there is no sin. I will save you, Sybil; I swear it by all my hopes of Heaven! I do not yet see clearly how; but I will do it," he said, solemnly, and pressing her again to his heart.
"Do it this way! do it this way!" she wildly entreated, never removing her frenzied eyes from his face.
"No, not that way, Sybil. But listen: there are safe means--sinless means that we may use for your deliverance. The journey back will be a long one, broken up by many stoppages at small hamlets and roadside inns. Escape from these will be comparatively easy. I have also about me, in money and notes, some five thousand dollars. With those I can purchase connivance or assistance. Besides, to farther our views, I shall offer our wagon and horses, which luckily were not sold, but remain at the livery-stable at Portsmouth--I shall offer them, I say, to the officer for his use, and try to persuade him to take us down to Blackville by that conveyance, which will be easier even for him, than by the public stage coach. Take courage, dear Sybil, and take patience; and above all, do not think of using any desperate means to escape this trouble. But trust in Divine Providence. And now, dear Sybil, we must not try the temper of these officers longer, especially as we have got to leave the ship before it sails."
And so saying, Lyon Berners beckoned the bailiffs to approach.
"I hope the lady feels better," said the elder one.
"She is more composed, and will go quietly," answered Mr. Berners.
"Then the captain says we must be in a hurry. So if there is anything you wish to have removed, you had better attend to it at once," said the man.
"I do not wish to leave the side of my wife for an instant; so if you would be so kind as to speak to the captain and ask him to have our luggage removed from our state-room and put upon the boat, I should feel much obliged."
Leaving his companion in charge of the prisoner, the senior officer went forward and gave his message. And the captain, with a seaman-like promptness, immediately executed the order.
Then Sybil's hat and cloak were brought her from the cabin, and she put them on and suffered herself to be led by her husband, and helped down to the boat. The Sheriff's officers followed, and when all were seated, the two boatmen laid to their oars, and the boat was rowed swiftly towards shore.
The husband and the wife sat side by side in the stern of the boat. His arm was wound around her waist, and her head was resting on his shoulder. No word was spoken between them in the presence of these strangers; but he was silently giving her all the support in his power, and she was really needing it all, for she was utterly overcome; not by the terrors of imprisonment or death, but by something infinitely worse, the horror of degradation.
All this time too Lyon Berners was maturing in his own mind a plan for her deliverance, which he was determined to begin to carry out as soon as they should reach the shore.
In a few minutes more the boat touched the wharf, and the party landed.
"I must trouble you to take my arm, Mrs. Berners," said the Sheriff's officer, drawing Sybil's hand under his elbow.
She would have shrunk back, but Lyon looked at her significantly, and she submitted.
"Where do you mean to take us first?" inquired Mr. Berners, in a low tone.
"I wish to make this matter as little painful to this lady as the circumstances will permit. So I shall take her for the present to a hotel, where she must of course be carefully guarded. To-night we shall start by the night coach for Staunton, en route for Blackville," answered the elder officer, as with Sybil on his arm he led the way into the town. Mr. Berners walked on the other side of his wife, and the second officer followed close behind.
"We thank you for your consideration, Mr.--Mr.--" began Lyon.
"Purley," continued the elder officer. "My name is Purley."
"I do not remember you among the officers of the Sheriff's staff, however."
"No; I am a new appointment. I must tell you, sir, that so strong was the feeling of sympathy for this lady, that not one of the bailiffs could be induced to serve the warrant; they resigned one after another."
"They all knew Sybil from her childhood up. I thank them, and will take care that they shall lose nothing in resigning their positions for her sake," said Lyon Berners with much warmth, while Sybil's heavy heart swelled with gratitude.
"And to tell the whole truth, had I known this lady, I should have felt the same reluctance to serving this warrant that was experienced by my predecessors in office."
"I can well believe you," answered Mr. Berners, gravely.
"Now, however, having undertaken the painful duty, I must discharge it faithfully," added the officer.
"Yes, Mr. Purley, but gently and considerately, I know. You will inflict as little of unmerited mortification as may be consistent with your duty."
"Heaven knows I will."
"Then I have a plan to propose, and a favor to ask of you."
"If I can gratify you with safety to the custody of my charge, I will do so; but here we are at the hotel now, and you had better wait until we get into a private sitting-room. The people of the place need not know that we are officers in charge of an accused party; but may be left to suppose that we are ordinary travellers."
"Oh, I thank you for that!" exclaimed Mr. Berners, warmly.
They entered the hotel, a second-class house in a cross street, where the elder officer asked for a private sitting-room, to which they were immediately shown.
As soon as the four were seated, Mr. Berners turned to the elder officer and broached his plan.
"You spoke of taking the night coach for Staunton. Now, if another conveyance could be found--a private conveyance that would be more comfortable for all parties, and would also be entirely under your own control--would you not be willing that we should travel by it?"
"Oh! if you are able and willing to furnish a private conveyance for the journey, and place it as you say at my own exclusive orders, I shall be happy to take the lady down that way, rather than expose her in a public stage coach."
"Thanks. I have a wagon and horses here at livery. They can be put to use at a few minutes' notice. So, if you prefer, you can start at once upon this journey, and make some twenty-five or thirty miles before night."
"Let us see the team first, and then we shall be able to judge," said the officer.
And after a few minutes' conversation it was arranged that Sybil should be left in charge of the second officer, and that Mr. Purley should go with Mr. Berners to the livery stable to look at the horses and wagon. These two went out together, and Purley took the precaution to lock the door and put the key in his pocket.
"Why have you done that?" inquired Lyon, reproachfully.
"Because women are irrational and impulsive. I have always found them so! She might suddenly cut and run; and although it wouldn't be a bit of use, you know, because she would be sure to be retaken in an hour or less time; yet, you see, it would cause a fuss, and be very unpleasant to me and you and her and everybody."
"I see," said Mr. Berners, with a sigh, acknowledging the truth of the position.
Meanwhile Sybil sat, absorbed in despair, and guarded by the second officer. Suddenly she heard her name softly murmured, and she looked up. The young bailiff stood before her. He was a sturdy looking young fellow, swarthy skinned, black haired, and black bearded.
"Miss Sybil, don't you know me? I beg your pardon! Mrs. Berners, don't you know me?" he inquired in a low tone, as if fearful of being heard.
Sybil looked at him in surprise, and answered hesitatingly:
"N-no.
"You forget people that you have been good to; but they don't forget you. Try to recollect me, Miss Sybil--Mrs. Berners."
"Your face seems familiar; but--"
"But you don't recollect it? Well, may be you may remember names better than faces. Have you any memory of a poor boy you used to help, named Bob Munson?"
"Bob Munson--oh, is it you? I know you now. But it has been so long since I saw you!" eagerly exclaimed Sybil.
"Eight years, Mrs. Berners; and I have been fighting the Indians on the frontier all that time. But I got my discharge, and came back with Captain Pendleton. You know it was him as I went out with, when he was a third lieutenant in the infantry. I 'listed out of liking for him, and we was together from one fort to another all these years, until Captain Pendleton got a long leave, and come home. I couldn't get leave, but the Captain got my discharge. And when he goes back to his regiment, I mean to enlist again and go with him."
"But how came you to be a sheriff's officer? and oh, above all, how could you come to take me?" reproachfully inquired Sybil.
"Oh, Miss--I mean, Madam,--can't you guess in your heart? When all the bailiffs throwed up their places rather than serve a warrant on you, and Mr. Purley, who was a stranger, got an appointment and kept it, they wanted another man. And then my captain said to me, 'Munson, apply for the place; I will back you. And then if you get it, you will have an opportunity of serving, and perhaps freeing, Mrs. Berners.' And a great deal more he said, to the same purpose, Ma'am; and so I did apply for the situation, and got it. And now, Madam, I am here to help you with my life, if necessary," added the young man, ardently.
"Give me your hand. God bless you, Bob! Help me all you can. I ought to be helped, for I am innocent," said Sybil, earnestly.
"Don't I know it? Don't everybody with any sense know it? Don't even old Purley know it, ever since he first clapped eyes on your face?"
"Heaven grant that all may soon!" prayed Sybil.
"They will be sure to, Miss--I mean Madam."
"Bob tell me: how was it that we were found out?"
"Well, you see, Miss--Ma'am--when you were at Dunville, where you was said to have staid all night, there was a fellow there who had a habit for which he ought to be hung--of looking through the key-holes and watching ladies when they thought themselves unseen. And this fellow saw you take off your red wig."
"And so discovered and denounced me?"
"No, he didn't, Ma'am; he didn't even suspect who you was. He took you for a circus woman. And as for reporting what he had seen to anybody in that house, it would have been as much as his life was worth. Old Colonel Purley--he's a uncle of our bailiff--old Colonel Purley would have peeled the skin offen his body, if he had a-known he had done such a mean thing in his tavern."
"Then how--"
"I'll tell you, Ma'am. It was this way. That fellow which, his name was Batkin, was on his way to Blackville. And all along the road he kept telling the yarn about the beautiful black-haired young lady he had seen, and who had disfigured herself by wearing of a red wig; and of course he raised suspicions there. And when he was questioned farther, he described the wagon and horses, and the man and the woman, so accurately that the authorities thought it worth while to take the description down; and old Purley has it in his pocket along with the warrant. And then, as I told you, the bailiffs all resigned rather than go after you; and old Purley had to be appointed. And I applied, and got appointed too, only to help you!"
"Heaven reward you for the kind thought! But, Bob, there were some of the old set found who were willing to take me; for they went to Annapolis after me, armed with warrant for my arrest."
"Yes; them two: Smith and Jones! Sink 'em! I've swore a oath to thrash 'em both within an inch of their lives the first time I set eyes on them! Well, they didn't find you, Satan burn 'em! that's one comfort."
"How was it that you found us?"
"Oh, Miss Sybil--Mrs. Berners, I should say--we did it easy when we once had got the clue. We went first to Dunville to inquire after the gray-bearded man and his red-headed daughter, and we learned the road you had taken, and followed you from stage to stage until we got to Norfolk. There we inquired in the neighborhood of the market, and found where you had put up. Then, at the 'Farmers' Hotel,' we were told, you had left for home that afternoon. Of course we knew that was a ruse. We knew that if you had left, it was for the deck of some outward bound ship. So we inquired, and found out that the Enterprise was to sail in the morning. And we staid at this house all night, and boarded the ship this morning as you saw."
"Oh, Bob! if you could have delayed for a half hour, the ship would have sailed, and I should have been free!" sighed Sybil.
"I did all I could to make a delay. I put laudanum in his coffee last night. I was afraid to put in too much for fear of killing him, so I suppose I didn't put in enough, for he laid wide awake all night."
"Ah, yes! that would be the effect of an under-dose of laudanum."
"Well then, Ma'am, I put back our watches a whole hour. But, bless you, he didn't go by the watches, he went by the sun; and as soon as it was light he was up, and he sent me down to order an early breakfast. And then I got a chance to put laudanum in his coffee again, and this time I overdid it and put in too much, for he tasted something wrong, and he said it was vile stuff, and he wouldn't drink it! No, Miss--Ma'am, I didn't neglect no means to let you get clean off. But you see it was no go this time; and I had to help old Purley to arrest you. I'm glad you didn't know me, hows'ever. And I would advise you not to know me at all whenever old Purley is about. Keep dark, Miss Sybil, and I'll find a way to get you off. I haven't been hiding and seeking and hunting among the red-skins these eight years for nothing. Hish-sh! Here they come," whispered Bob Munson, creeping away to the other end of the room, and putting himself on guard.
The elder officer unlocked the door, and entered, followed by Mr. Berners. He announced that the wagon was at the door, and that they were ready to start on the return journey. And then Purley gave his arm to Sybil, and led her to the wagon, and placed her on the back seat, while Mr. Berners and Bob Munson lingered behind, the former to gather up Sybil's little personal effects, and the latter to settle the hotel bill. But there was no opportunity, among the crowd of guests and servants, for Munson to make his friendly intentions known to Mr. Berners by any other means than a significant look and a pressure of the hand, which Lyon Berners could not more than half understand. He felt, however, that in his younger officer he and his unhappy wife had a friend. They went out together, followed closely by the hostler, who wanted his own fee; but both Mr. Berners and Bob Munson were too much annoyed by his presence to feel like rewarding his attendance.
Lyon Berners mounted to the seat beside his wife, and Bob Munson to that beside Purley, who held the reins. And in this manner they set out on their return journey.
They crossed the ferry without attracting particular attention.
