The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane Part 28

He replied yes, but after looking at me in silence a minute, as though to make out what I was driving at.

"And Caracas," says I, in the same tone, "is t'other side of those mountains?"

"Preciseamento!" says he, with a grin, holding up his hand with the tips of his thumb and second finger joined.

"How far is it to Valerias?" I asked.

"About six days' journey," says he in reply.

"And from Valerias to Caracas is no great matter," says I still, as if I knew the road well enough.

"The senhor knows that it is no distance at all," says he.

"Good," says I; "then, as our object is to get back to England rather than to trespa.s.s upon Dom Sebastian's hospitality, you shall carry us with you, for which service you shall be well paid. You shall have my bond for any reasonable sum."

He would have it that he needed no recompense, but I could see plainly that he was very well pleased with this turn, which did further convince me the matter was planned beforehand.

We pushed on till dusk, when we reached a collection of wooden huts, walled in with a palisade of stout wooden spikes, crossed in the manner of the letter X, and the s.p.a.ces so stuffed with thorns and p.r.i.c.kly herbs that no man (least of all a naked savage) could go either in or out, save by the postern gate at one side. In the midst of these huts stood a stone tower, pierced with little holes in the upper part, for the use of muskets in case of attack, as I thought.

We saw no women or children in this village, but only about a dozen wild, fierce Portugals, each with a long knife stuck in his girdle; and one, who seemed to have just returned from the chase, had his musket slung on behind to his bandeliero, and was dressed in a jerkin, breeches, and gaiters of leather. With their ragged beards, their sun-burnt skins, and savage air, they looked like so many brigands; yet were they as courteous as lackeys to us, helping us to dismount, and providing us with all that was necessary to our comfort. Most of the houses were mere sheds, used for the storing of powder, food, etc., for these Portugals, as I learnt, were hunters, who never slept under a roof except in the rainy season; but there was one well furnished and provided with sleeping-rooms to serve for the accommodation of the merchants, who came from time to time to truck their merchandise for the spoils brought hither by the hunters.

When we had supped, Lady Biddy, being fatigued with the day's journey, betook herself to her room, and I, having no inclination for society, lay myself down in a net hung from two beams in the roof, which is their manner of sleeping in these parts, and the first I had ever seen of such strange bed-places. There was a second net in this chamber for Lewis de Pino; but he, having business to do with the hunters, that we might start betimes the next morning, went out and joined them elsewhere, so that I was left alone to my meditations.

And here I took myself to task, as well I might, for having misbehaved myself in a very pitiful, paltry sort towards Lady Biddy from the first moment we set out on our journey. To make an honest confession, I had allowed myself once more to come under the dominion of that abominable jealousy which was my besetting vice. For this Lewis de Pino was one of those gallants we had discovered seated with Dom Sebastian on our arrival at Castello Lagos, and the most persistent in pa.s.sing his addresses to my lady; nay, he was so smitten with her charms that his eyes did seem to devour her as often as he looked at her. I had observed him more than once talking apart with the governor very earnestly: once touching hands as if on a bargain; and from this I concluded that we had been sold in a manner by the governor to Lewis de Pino to further the amorous designs of the latter upon Lady Biddy. Now this conviction should have drawn me closer to her as a friend and protector, and so it would, but I took it into my head that she looked too kindly on him.

In crossing the champaign she took no notice of him whatever, being concerned for our safety, and fearing Rodrigues would get upon our track ere we got to a place of safety; and all this while she was very silent and preoccupied, turning in her saddle now and again to look back, and asking me if I thought we should yet escape, etc., all in a very troubled and grave manner; but being come into the wood, and greatly relieved of her anxiety, she grew, as it was natural she should, very suddenly gay and sprightly. Just at that time Lewis de Pino came to her side with a compliment in Italian, which, as I say, he spoke indifferently well, and this brought the smile to her cheek.

"She has not smiled on me since we bade each other good-morning," says I to myself. "Nay, she would scarcely accept for a truth my a.s.surance of her safety; yet the moment this grinning Portugal comes to her side she forgets our peril and is blithe."

So we continued our way; he one side of my lady chatting and smiling, and I on the other glum and mumchance. Nor did I speak a single word for half an hour, when she says, turning to me with the smile Lewis de Pino had brought to her face:

"Have you nothing to say, Benet?"

On this, feeling ashamed to acknowledge the truth, I sought to excuse myself with a lie.

"I am thinking," says I, "of our peril, which is none of the least."

"Why," says she, "what have we to fear now? That man will never surely pursue us. .h.i.ther."

"No," says I; "very likely not; but I have heard no sounds of firing, and I do fear the governor, despite my warning, has yielded to some cunning artifice of Rodrigues; who by threat or torture may persuade him to fetch us back with his soldiery."

She translated my fears to Lewis de Pino, who replied that Dom Sebastian would perish in flames rather than be guilty of treachery.

"And I think so likewise," added Lady Biddy, when she had rendered this, "for these Portugals have n.o.bility stamped in their features."

"Ay," says I, "and cruelty stamped on their lips, and wickedness in their eyes as well."

"As for that," says she, laughing, "we are not all Puritans. You must admit," added she, with a malicious twinkle in her eye, for I fancy she perceived the secret of my dislike and would pique me for a punishment--"you must admit Senhor Lewis is a very handsome man."

"Yes," says I; "but I like him none the better for that."

Presently we came to a part where, the path growing narrower, there was room but for two to go abreast, and here Lewis de Pino, taking off his hat, made as though he would yield his place to me; but I, not to be outdone in civility, gave him back his salute and fell behind.

There were abundance of beauteous flowers and gay-plumed birds and curious growths on either side to please the eye and interest the mind; but I could not take my eyes off the two faces before me, turned towards each other, and flushed with pleasure.

"And why," I asked myself, as I lay in my net brooding on these things--"why should she not be pleased with the courteous and lively attentions of a well-favored and good-tempered companion? Had I made myself agreeable, instead of sitting like any stock for stupidity, she would have smiled on me. This was the first moment of ease, the first opportunity of pleasant conversation with one of her own degree, that she had enjoyed for many a day. Granted his talk, as you would believe in your prejudice and ignorance, was trivial, might it not yet have been amusing? Wouldn't you, Benet, rather sit an hour listening to the jests of a Merry Andrew than wait half as long for an oracle to deliver itself?"

But my lady, for all her amus.e.m.e.nt, did think of me--ay, I believe she was concerned for my silence and grieved at my moody humor. Perhaps she repented having wounded my feelings by treating my gravity lightly.

Still, she had too much spirit, too much proper pride, to humble herself by asking forgiveness; nay, delicate consideration for my feelings might have withheld her from humiliating me by taking my folly seriously.

Nevertheless, I say, she did think of me, and turning now and then pointed out to me some sweet flower or pretty bird. And how did I make a return for this gentle kindness? By answering in a cavalier and careless manner that was particularly detestable.

All these reflections came to my mind, I say, as I lay in the dark; and so I fell a-tormenting myself with reproaches to such a degree that had I been ten times as tired I could not have closed an eye.

Some time after, Lewis de Pino, a little the worse for liquor, as I judged, came into the chamber, clambered up into his net, and fell a-snoring like any pig, so that, maugre my condition, I did wish Lady Biddy could hear him.

I was still lying wide awake, thinking what a hound I was, when suddenly there fell upon my ear a sound like a woman wailing in grief. I could not believe this until I heard the sound a second time. Then I started on the instant to my feet, knowing there was no woman there but Lady Biddy; but forgetting the kind of bed in which I lay, and how no man but a rope-dancer could stand up in such a thing safely, I swung on one side and came down with a spank on the floor. At that noise, Lewis de Pino awoke with a grunt, but he fell asleep with another the next minute; and now, coming to my feet, I heard again that mournful, sorrowing cry. The door stood wide open. Outside all was still. Not a breath of air moved the leaves of the trees. The big stars looked down very peacefully. In the distance I saw the Portugals lying on the ground asleep like so many dogs; but nothing moved.

Then, again, as I stood there, my heart was pierced with the distant moan. I crept to the hut where Lady Biddy lay, and, tapping gently at the door, asked if she were in pain.

But she answered that it was not she who cried; at which my heart was comforted, for at the first I thought that maybe my sullen humor had moved her to tears.

So thinking the sound was but the note of a night-bird, of which there are many in these woods that have the most strange human voices of any living thing, I went back to my net, and presently fell asleep.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

AN EXPLANATION OF THAT CRY I HEARD IN THE NIGHT, WITH OTHER PERTINENT MATTER.

The next morning when we were mounted, and only waiting the order to start on our way, our ears were a.s.sailed by the piteous cry of a woman, which recalled to my mind the weeping I had heard in the night; but now the wailing was close at hand, coming from the midst of the huts where the tower stood. The next moment there sounded the sharp crack of a whip, followed by a scream of pain. At this the pretty color went out of Lady Biddy's cheek, and she called to Lewis de Pino, who stood talking with one of the hunters (and both as unconcerned as if they had been stone deaf), to know whence that cry came; but ere he could come smiling to her side to reply, the whole matter was explained by the appearance of five young Indian women bearing among them a long pole, to which they were attached by leather collars round their throats. The foremost of them was stanching her tears with her hands under the threat of the arquebusier conducting them, who had a short-stocked whip with a long lash in his hand, with which he tapped her shoulder menacingly as he spoke. These poor souls had never a bit of clothes on but a clout about their loins, and she who was trying to check her weeping had a long wheal across her neck, that stood out purple from her copper skin where the whip had fallen.

Lady Biddy was greatly shocked at the spectacle of this barbarity; nor could she smile on Lewis de Pino that day as she had the day before, which I was glad to observe; albeit he did all he could to set this matter in a fair light when we stopped at noon to dinner. He told her that slaves were one of the commodities he dealt in, and that if he did not occupy himself in this traffic another would, and maybe to their disadvantage, a.s.suring her they were better treated at his hands than by their own kinsmen, who, of their own free will, brought their wives and daughters down to the station to sell them for knives, axes, beads, and the like; justifying himself by the opinion of some very pious writers that all things being created for the use of man, Providence did furnish the savage heathens to be servants of Christians for the cultivation of spices, sugars, and other things necessary to their comfort.

"But," says Lady Biddy, "if their case is better as slaves than as free women, why does that poor soul weep?"

"Why," says he, "my man was forced to use his whip because she strove to hang herself by the neck to the pole the others carried; and you must agree that in every country those are deservingly punished who attempt to end a life given them to be a blessing to their fellow-creatures."

"Nay," says Lady Biddy, "that is no answer to my question. She wept ere she tried to end her miserable life, for a certainty, and I would know why she wept."

Lewis de Pino, making inquiries on this, learnt that the young woman had but recently been wedded, and that her husband losing his life in battle, she had been sold by her father, who could not be burthened with her.

"So you see, madam," says he, when he had imparted this, "we treat them no worse than they would be treated if we did not exist. Nevertheless, 'tis a trade I would gladly abandon, for the sight of their suffering--which I can not ignore--unmans me for my business, so that I often pay more for these slaves than they are worth, merely to secure them from the ill-treatment they would receive were they returned upon the hands of those who would be rid of them. Nay, the sight of that poor creature's tears so moves me that I will, if it please you, order her collar to be unbolted and give her freedom."

This the sly rogue offered, knowing well that Lady Biddy would not consent to an act which he himself had shown would be the greater cruelty, and with the sole intent, I take it, to insinuate himself into my lady's good graces. All that she desired, therefore, was that the young woman should be placed on one of the pack-mules until she had recovered from the exhaustion into which her grief had thrown her.

Whereupon Lewis de Pino, with as good grace as he could muster, ordered her leather collar to be unbolted, and a place to be made for her on one of the mules, making the young woman understand at the same time that it was by the wish of Lady Biddy that this indulgence was granted her. This she understood well enough, for being freed she rushes to Lady Biddy, embraces her knees, pressing her face against them; but this done, ere hand could be laid on her, she darted off with a cry like a startled blackbird into the wood.