Alcott, Louisa May - SSC 20 (19 page)

 
          
All
the long summer days Ursula sat alone in her guarded room, tranquilly enjoying
the sunshine that flickered through the leaves with which Evan had tried to
mask the bars that shut out liberty but not heaven’s light. All the balmy
summer nights she lay on her narrow bed, haunted by dreams that made sleep a
penance and not a pleasure, or watched, with wakeful eyes, the black shadow of
a cross the moon cast upon her breast as it peered through the barred window
like a ghostly face. To no one did she reveal the thoughts that burdened her,
whitening her hair, furrowing her face and leaving on her forehead the impress
of a great grief which no human joy could ever efface.

 
          
One
autumn day Evan came hastening in full of a glad excitement, which for the
moment seemed to give him back the cheery youthfulness he was fast losing. He
found his cousin lying on the couch he had provided for her, for even the
prison officers respected that faithful love, and granted every favor in their
power. She, too, seemed to be blessed with a happy mood, for the gloom had left
her eyes, a peaceful smile sat on her lips, and when she spoke her voice was
musical, with an undertone of deep emotion.

 
          
“Bless
your tranquil face, Ursula! One would think you guessed my tidings without
telling. Yes, it is almost certain that the pardon will be granted, in answer
to my prayers. One more touch will win the men who hold your fate in their
hands, and that touch you can give by clearing up the mystery of Stahl’s strange
power over you. For your own sake and for mine do not deny me now.”

 
          
“I
will not.”

 
          
The
joy, surprise and satisfaction of the moment caused Evan to forget the sad
condition upon which this confidence could be accorded. He thought only of all
they had suffered, all they might yet enjoy if the pardon could be gained, and
holding that thin hand fast in both his own, he listened, with absorbing
interest, to the beloved voice that unfolded to him the romance within a
romance, which had made a tragedy of three lives.

 
          
“I
must take you far back into the past, Evan, for my secret is but the sequel of
one begun long before our birth. Our grandfather, as you know, was made
governor of an Indian province while still a young and comely man. One of the
native princes, though a conquered subject, remained his friend, and the sole
daughter of this prince loved the handsome Englishman with the despotic fervor
of her race. The prince offered the hand of the fair Naya to his friend, but
being already betrothed to an English girl, he courteously declined the
alliance. That insult, as she thought it, never was forgiven or forgotten by
the haughty princess; but, with the subtle craft of her half-savage nature, she
devised a vengeance which should not only fall upon the offender, but pursue
his descendants to the very last. No apparent breach was made in the friendship
of the prince and governor, even when the latter brought his young wife to the
residence. But from that hour Naya’s curse was on his house, unsuspected and
unsleeping, and as years went by the Fate of the Forrests became a tragical
story throughout British India, for the brothers, nephews and sons of Roger
Forrest all died violent or sudden deaths, and the old man himself was found
murdered in the jungle when at the height of fame and favor.

 
          
“Two
twin lads alone remained of all who had borne the name, and for a time the
fatal doom seemed averted, as they grew to manhood, married and seemed born to
know all the blessings which virtue and valor could deserve. But though the
princess and her father were dead, the curse was still relentlessly executed by
some of her kindred, for in the year of your birth your father vanished suddenly,
utterly, in broad day, yet left no trace behind, and from that hour to this no
clue to the lost man was ever found beyond a strong suspicion, which was never
confirmed. In that same year a horrible discovery was made, which shocked and
dismayed all Christian India, and was found hard of belief across the sea.
Among the tribes that infested certain provinces, intent on mischief and
difficult to subdue, was one class of assassins unknown even to the native
governments of the country, and entirely unsuspected
bv
the English. This society was as widely spread and carefully organized as it
was secret, powerful and fanatical. Its members worshipped a gloomy divinity
called Bohwanie, who, according to their heathen belief, was best propitiated
by human sacrifices. The name of these devotees was Phansegars, or Brothers of
the Good Work; and he who offered up the greatest number of victims was most
favored
bv
the goddess, and received a high place in
the Hindoo heaven. All
India
was filled with amazement and affright at
this discovery, and mysteries, till then deemed unfathomable, became as clear
as day. Among others the Fate of the Forrests was revealed; for by the
confession of the one traitor w ho betrayed the society, it appeared that the
old prince and his sons had been members of the brotherhood, which had its
higher and its lower grades, and when the young governor drew down upon himself
the wrath of Nava, her kindred avenged her bv propitiating Bohwanie w ith
victim after victim from our fated family, ahvays working so secretly that no
trace of their art remained but the seal of death.

 
          
“This
terrible discovery so dismayed mv father that, taking you, an orphan then, and
mv mother, he fled to
England
, hoping to banish the dreadful past from
his mind. But he never could, and it preved upon him night and
dav
. No male Forrest had escaped the doom since the curse
was spoken, and an unconquerable foreboding haunted him that sooner or later he
too should be sacrificed, though continents and oceans lay between him and the
avengers. The fact that the black brotherhood was discovered and destroyed
weighed little with him, for still a fear pursued him that Navas kindred would
hand down the curse from generation to generation, and execute with that
tenacitv of purpose which in that climate of the passions makes the humblest
foe worthy of fear. He doubted all men, confided his secret to none, not even
to his wife, and led a wandering life with us until my mother died. You
remember, Evan, that the same malady that destroyed her fell likewise upon you,
and that my father was forced to leave us in
Paris
, that he might comply with my mother’s last
desire and lay her in English ground. Before he went he took me apart and told
me the dark history of our unfortunate family, that I might be duly impressed
with the necessity of guarding you with a sleepless vigilance; for even then he
could not free himself from that ominous foreboding, soon, alas!
to
be confirmed. It was a strange confidence to place in a
girl of seventeen, but he had no friend at hand, and knowing how wholly I loved
you, how safe I was from the Eate of the Eorrests, he gave you to my charge and
left us for a week. You know he never came again, but found his ghostly fear a
sad reality in England, and on the day that was to give my mothers body to the
earth he was discovered dead in his bed, with the marks of fingers at his
throat, vet no other trace of his murderer ever appeared, and another dark
secret was buried in the grave. You remember the horror and the grief that
nearly killed me when the tidings came, and how from that hour there was a
little cloud between us, a cloud I could not lift because I had solemnly
promised my father that I would watch over you, yet conceal the fate that
menaced you, lest it should mar your peace as it had done his own. Evan, I have
kept my word till the danger is for ever past.”

 
          
She
paused there, but for a moment her cousin could only gaze at her, bewildered by
the sudden light let in by the gloomy past. Presently he said, impetuously:

 
          
“You
have, my faithful Ursula, and I will prove that I am grateful by watching over you
with
a vigilance
as sleepless and devoted as your own.
But tell me, was there nowhere in the world justice, power or wit enough to
stay that savage curse? Why did not my father, or yours, appeal to the laws of
either country and obtain redress?”

 
          
“They
did, and, like others, appealed in vain; for, till the Phan- segars were
discovered, they knew not whom to accuse. After that, as Naya’s kindred were
all gone but a few newly-converted women and harmless children, no magistrate
in
India
would condemn the innocent for the crimes of their race, and my father
had no proofs to bring against them. Few in
England
believed the seemingly incredible story
when it was related to them in the Indian reports. No, Evan, the w ily princess
entrusted her revenge to able hands, and well they did the work to the very
last, as w e have bitter cause to know’. Every member of the brotherhood, and
even helper of the curse, bore on his left arm the word ‘Bohwanie!’ in Hindoo
characters. You saw the sign on that dead arm. Do vou understand the secret
now?”

 
          
“Great heavens, Ursula!
Do you mean that Stahl, a Christian
man, belonged to this heathen league? Surely you wrong him there.”

 
          
“You
will not think so when I have told all. It seemed as horrible, as incredible to
me as now to you, when I first saw and comprehended on the night that changed
both our lives. Stahl suspected, from many unconscious betrayals of mine (my
dislike of India, mv anxiety for you, then absent, and a hundred indications
unseen bv other eyes) that I knew the secret of the curse; he proved it by whispering
the hated name of Bohwanie in my ear, and show ing me the fatal sign — I knew
it, for my father had told me that also. Need I tell you what recollections
rushed upon me when
I
saw it, what visions of blood rose red before my
panic-stricken eyes, how instantly I felt the truth of my instinctive aversion
to him, despite his charms of mind and manner, and, above all, how utterly I
was overpowered by a sense of your peril in the presence of your unknown enemy?
A single thought, hope, purpose ruled me, to save you at any cost, and guard
the secret still; for I felt that I possessed some power over that dread man,
and resolved to use it to the uttermost. You left us, and then I learned at
what a costly price I could purchase the life so dear to me. Stahl briefly told
me that his mother and one old woman w ere the last of Navas race, and w hen
his grandfather, who belonged to the brotherhood, suffered death with them, he
charged her to perpetuate the curse, as all the members of the family had
pledged themselves to do. She promised, and when my father left
India
she followed, but could not discover his
hiding-place, and with a blind faith in destiny, as native to her as her
superstition, she left time to bring her victim to her. While resting from her
quest in
Germany
she met and married Felix Stahl, the elder, a learned man, fond of the
mysticism and wisdom of the East, who found an irresistible charm in the
dark-eyed woman, who, for his sake, became a Christian in name, though she
still clung to her Pagan gods in secret. With such parents what wonder that the
son was the man we found him?
for
his father
bequeathed him his features, feeble health, rare learning and accomplishments;
his mother those Indian eyes that I never can forget, his fiery yet subtle
nature, the superstitious temperament and the fatal vow.

 
          
“While
the father lived she kept her secret hidden; when he died, Felix, then a man,
was told it, and having been carefully prepared by every art, every appeal to
the pride and passion of his race, every shadow years of hatred could bring to
blacken the memory of the first Forrest and the wrong he w as believed to have
done their ancestors, Felix was induced to take upon himself the fulfilment of
the family vow. Yet living in a Christian community, and having been bred up by
a virtuous father, it w as a hard task to assume, and only the commands of the
mother w hom he adored would have won compliance. I le was told that but two
Forrests now remained, one a girl who w as to go scatheless, the other a boy, w
⁷
ho,
sooner or later, was to fall by his hand, for he was now the last male of his
race as you of ours. How
⁷
his mother discovered these facts he never
knew’, unless from the old woman w ho came to them from
England
to die near her kin. I suspect that she was
the cause of my poor father’s death, though Stahl swore that he never knew of
it until I told him.

 
          
“After
much urging, many commands, he gave the promise, asking only freedom to do the
work as he would, for though the savage spirit of his Hindoo ancestors lived
again in him, the influence of civilization made the savage modes of vengeance
abhorrent to him. His mother soon followed the good professor, then leaving our
meeting still to chance, Felix went roaming up and down the world a solitary,
studious man, for ever haunted by the sinful deed he had promised to perform,
and whieh grew
⁷
ever more and more repugnant to him.