Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf Part 42

"Mortal," said the demon, in his deepest and most serious tones, "I am here to place happiness--happiness ineffable--within thy reach. Nay, be not impatient: but listen to me for a few moments. 'Twas my power that conducted thy s.h.i.+p, amidst the fury of the storm which _He_ whose name I dare not mention raised, to the sh.o.r.es of this island. 'Twas my influence which yesterday, as thou wast seated on the sunny banks, filled thine imagination with those delicious thoughts of Nisida. And it was I also who, by the wonders of the mirage, showed thee the form of the only female inhabitant of this isle. And that one female, Wagner--that woman who is now as it were within thy reach--that lovely being whose presence on this island would teach thee to have no regret for the world from which you are separated, and whose eyes would cast forth rays of joy and gladness upon everything around--that charming lady, who has already decked herself with those flowers which her fair hands have woven into wildly fantastic arabesques, that being is thy Nisida, the Island Queen."

"Fiend! you mock--you deceive me," cried Fernand, wildly hovering between joyous hope and acute fear.

"Did I deceive thee, Wagner, when I showed thee thy Nisida in the power of the corsairs?" said the demon, with a smile of bitter, sardonic triumph. "I tell thee, then, that Nisida is on this island--there, in the very region into which thou wouldst descend, but to which thou wilt find no avenue save by my aid."

"Nisida is here--on this island," exclaimed Fernand in an ecstasy of joy.

"Yes--and Stephano, the bandit, likewise," added the demon. "It was his doublet which you found--it was he who slaked his thirst with the juice of the fruits which I, then invisible, beheld thee contemplate with attention."

"Stephano here also!" cried Wagner. "Oh! Nisida--to thy rescue!"

And he bounded forth from the cave, and was rus.h.i.+ng madly down one of the tortuous defiles leading toward the chasm, when the voice of the demon suddenly caused him to stop short.

"Fool!--insensate mortal!" said the fiend, with a derisive laugh. "How canst thou escape from these mountains? But tarry a moment--and behold thy Nisida--behold also her persecutor, who l.u.s.ts after her."

Thus speaking; he handed Wagner a magic telescope, which immediately brought the most remote objects to a distance of only a few yards.

Then what a delicious scene met Fernand's eyes! He beheld Nisida bathing in the sea--sporting like a mermaid with the wavelets--plunging into the refres.h.i.+ng depths--then wringing out the water from her long raven hair, now swimming and diving, then wading on her feet,--unconscious that a human eye beheld her.

At length she came forth from the sea, beauteous as a Venus rising from the ocean; and her toilet commenced upon the sand. But scarcely had she decked herself with the flowers which she had gathered early in the morning for the purpose, when she started and rose up; and then Wagner beheld a man approaching her from the nearest grove.

"That is Stephano Verrina!" murmured the demon in his ears.

Fernand uttered a cry of dismay, and threw down the telescope.

"You may save her--save her yet," said the demon, speaking in a tone of unusual haste. "In a few minutes she will be in his power--he is strong and desperate; be mine, and consent to serve me--and in a moment Nisida shall be clasped in thy arms--the arms of thee, her deliverer."

"No--no! I will save her without thine aid, dread fiend!" exclaimed Wagner, a prey to the most terrible excitement.

Then making the sign of the cross, he rushed forward to leap the yawning chasm; his feet touched the opposite side, but he lost his balance, reeled, and fell back into the tremendous abyss, while the demon, again baffled, and shrinking in horror from the emblem of Christianity, disappeared with cries of rage and vexation.

Down--down fell Wagner,--turning over and over in the hideous vacancy, and clutching vainly at the stunted shrubs and dead roots which projected from the rugged sides of the chasm.

In another moment he was swallowed up by the boiling torrent; but his senses did not leave him, and he felt himself hurried along with the furious speed of the mad waters. Thus nearly a minute pa.s.sed; and then his headlong course was suddenly arrested by the boughs of a tree, which, having given way at the root, bent over into the torrent. He clung to the boughs as if they were arms stretched out to rescue him; he raised himself from amidst the turbid waters--and in a few moments reached a bank which shelved upward to the edge of a dense forest.

Precisely on the opposite or inner side there was an opening in the rocks, and Wagner's eye could trace upward a steep but still practicable path, doubtless formed by some torrent of the spring, which was now dried up amidst the mountains above,--that path reaching to the very basis of the volcano.

Thus, had circ.u.mstances permitted him to exercise his patience and inst.i.tute a longer search among the defiles formed by the crags and rocks around the conical volcano, he would have discovered a means of safe egress from that region without daring the desperate leap of the chasm, desperate even for him, although he bore a charmed life, because his limbs might have been broken against the rugged sides of the precipice.

Between the opening to the steep path just spoken of, and the shelving bank on which Wagner now stood, there was so narrow a s.p.a.ce, that the bent tree stretched completely across the torrent; thus any one, descending from the mountains by the natural pathway, might cross by means of the tree to the side which Fernand had gained.

"This, then, must have been the route by which the villain Stephano emerged from the mountains," he said to himself, "and the fiend deceived me when he declared that I could not reach the plains below without his aid."

Such were his reflections as he hurried up the shelving bank: and when he reached the summit his glance embraced a scene already described to the reader.

For, flying wildly on toward the forest, was his beauteous Nisida, scattering flowers in her whirlwind progress, those flowers that had ere now decked her hair, her neck and her waist.

At some distance behind her was the bandit Stephano; with sword in hand he still maintained the chase, though breathless and ready to sink from exhaustion. Not an instant did Wagner tarry upon the top of the bank which he had reached; but darting toward Nisida, who was now scarce fifty yards from him, he gave vent to an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of joy.

She saw him--she beheld him: and her speed was checked in an instant with the overpowering emotion of wonder and delight.

Then, as he hurried along the verge of the forest to encounter her--to fold her in his fond embrace--to protect her,--she once more sprung forward, with outstretched arms, to fly into his arms, which were open to receive her. But at that instant there was a horrible rustling amidst the foliage of the huge tree beneath which she was hastening on;--a monstrous snake darted down with a gus.h.i.+ng sound, and in another moment the beauteous form of Nisida was encircled by its hideous coils.

Then fled that wondrous self-command which for long years she had exercised with such amazing success:--then vanished from her mind all the strong motives which had induced her to undertake so terrible a martyrdom as that of simulating the loss of two faculties most dear and most valuable to all human beings;--and with a cry of ineffable anguish, she exclaimed, "_Fernand, save me! save me!_"

CHAPTER XLIII.

NISIDA AND WAGNER.

Oh! with what astonishment and joy would Wagner have welcomed the sound of that voice, so long hushed, and now so musical even in its rending agony,--had not such an appalling incident broken the spell that for years had sealed the lips of his beloved! But he had no time for thought--there was not a moment for reflection. Nisida lay senseless on the ground, with the monster coiled around her--its long body hanging down from the bough to which it was suspended by the tail.

Simultaneously with the cry of anguish that had come from the lips of Nisida, exclamations of horror burst alike from Wagner and Stephano.

The latter stood transfixed as it were for a few moments, his eyes glaring wildly on the dreadful spectacle before him; then, yielding to the invincible terror that had seized upon him, he hurled away the sword--knowing not what he did in the excitement of his mind, and fled!

But the gleaming of the naked weapon in the sunbeams met Wagner's eyes as it fell, and darting toward it, he grasped it with a firm hand--resolving also to use it with a stout heart. Then he advanced toward the snake, which was comparatively quiescent--that portion of its long body which hung between the tree and the first coil that it made round the beauteous form of Nisida alone moving; and this motion was a waving kind of oscillation, like that of a bell-rope which a person holds by the end and swings gently.

But from the midst of the coils the hideous head of the monster stood out--its eyes gleaming malignantly upon Wagner as he approached.

Suddenly the reptile, doubtless alarmed by the flas.h.i.+ng of the bright sword, disengaged itself like lightning from the awful embrace in which it had retained the Lady Nisida, and sprung furiously toward Fernand.

But the blow that he aimed at its head was unerring and heavy; its skull was cloven in two--and it fell on the long gra.s.s, where it writhed in horrible convulsions for some moments, although its life was gone.

Words cannot be found to describe the delirium of joy which Wagner felt, when having thus slain the terrible anaconda, he placed his hand on Nisida's heart and felt that it beat--though languidly. He lifted her from the ground--he carried her in his arms to the bank of the limpid stream--and he sprinkled water upon her pale cheeks.

Slowly did she recover; and when her large black eyes at length opened, she uttered a fearful shriek, and closed them again--for with returning life the reminiscence of the awful embrace of the serpent came back also. But Wagner murmured words of sweet a.s.surance and consolation--of love and joy, in her ears; and she felt that it was no dream, but that she was really saved! Then, winding her arms round Fernand's neck, she embraced him in speechless and still almost senseless trance, for the idea of such happy deliverance was overpowering--amounting to an agony which a mortal creature could scarcely endure.

"Oh! Nisida," at length exclaimed Wagner, "was it a delusion produced by the horrors of that scene?--or did thy voice really greet mine ears ere now!"

There was a minute's profound silence--during which, as they sat upon the bank of the stream, locked in a fond embrace, their eyes were fixed with fascinating gaze upon each other, as if they could not contemplate each other too long--he in tenderness, and she in pa.s.sion.

"Yes, Fernand," said Nisida, breaking that deep silence at last, and speaking in a voice so mellifluously clear, so soft, so penetrating in its tone, that it realized all the fond ideas which her lover had conceived of what its nature would be if it were ever restored, "yes, Fernand, dearest Fernand," she repeated, "you did indeed hear my voice, and to _you_ never again shall I be mute."

Wagner could not allow her time to say more: he was almost wild with rapture! His Nisida was restored to him, and no longer Nisida the deaf and dumb, but Nisida who could hear the fond language which he addressed to her, and who could respond in the sweetest, most melting and delicious tones that ever came from woman's lips.

For a long time their hearts were too full, alike for total silence or connected conversation, and while the world from which they were cut off was entirely forgotten, they gathered so much happiness from the few words in which they indulged, and from all that they read in each other's eyes, that the emotions which they experienced might have furnished sensations for a lifetime.

At length--she scarcely knew how the subject began, although it might naturally have arisen of its own spontaneous suggestion--Nisida found herself speaking of the long period of deception which she had maintained in relation to her powers of speech and hearing.

"Thou lovest me well, dearest Fernand," she said in her musical Italian tones; "and thou would'st not create a pang in my heart? Then never seek to learn wherefore, when at the still tender age of fifteen, I resolved upon consummating so dreadful a sacrifice as to affect dumbness. The circ.u.mstances were, indeed, solemnly grave and strangely important, which demanded so awful a martyrdom. But well did I weigh all the misery and all the peril that such a self-devotion was sure to entail upon me.

I knew that I must exercise the most stern--the most remorseless--the most inflexible despotism over my emotions--that I must crush as it were the very feelings of my soul--that I must also observe a caution so unwearied and so constantly wakeful, that it would amount to a sensitiveness the most painful--and that I must prepare myself to hear the merry jest without daring to smile, or the exciting narrative of the world's stirring events without suffering my countenance to vary a hue!

Oh! I calculated--I weighed all this, and yet I was not appalled by the immensity of the task. I knew the powers of my own mind, and I did not deceive myself as to their extent. But, ah! how fearful was it at first to hear the sounds of human voices, and dare not respond to them; how maddening at times was it to listen to conversation in which I longed to join, and yet be compelled to sit like a pa.s.sionless statue! But mine was a will of iron strength--a resolution of indomitable power! Even when alone when I knew that I should not be overheard--I never essayed the powers of my voice, I never murmured a single syllable to myself so fearful was I lest the slightest use of the glorious gift of speech might render me weak in my purpose. And strange as it may seem to you, dearest Fernand, not even on this island did I yield to the temptation of suddenly breaking that long, that awful silence which I had imposed upon myself. And, until this day, one human being only, save myself, was acquainted with that mighty secret of ten long years, and that man was the generous-hearted, the n.o.ble-minded Dr. Duras. He it was who aided me in my project of simulating the forlorn condition of the deaf and dumb: he it was who bribed the turnkeys to admit me unquestioned to your cell in the prison of the ducal palace. And for years, perhaps, should I have retained my wondrous secret even from _you_, dearest Fernand; for through dangers of many kinds--in circ.u.mstances of the most trying nature, have I continued firm in my purpose; abjuring the faculty of speech even when it would have saved me from much cruel embarra.s.sment or from actual peril. Thus, when the villain Stephano Verrina bore me away by force from my native city, I maintained the seal upon my lips, trusting to circ.u.mstances to enable me to escape from his power without being compelled to betray a secret of such infinite value and importance to myself. But when I found that I was so narrowly watched at Leghorn that flight was impossible, I seriously debated, in my own mind, the necessity of raising an alarm in the house where I was kept a prisoner for two whole days; and then I reflected that I was in the power of a desperate bandit and his two devoted adherents, who were capable of any atrocity to forward their designs or prevent exposure. Lastly, when I was conveyed at dead of night on board the corsair-s.h.i.+p, the streets were deserted, and the pirates with whom Stephano was leagued, thronged the port. I therefore resigned myself to my fate, trusting still to circ.u.mstances, and retaining my secret. But that incident of to-day--oh!

it was enough to crush energies ten thousand times more powerful than mine: it was of so horrifying a nature as to be sufficient to loose the bands which confine the tongue of one really dumb."

And a strong shudder convulsed the entire form of Nisida, as she thus, by her own words, recalled so forcibly to mind that terrible event which had broken a spell of ten years' duration.

Fernand pressed her to his bosom, exclaiming, "Oh, beloved Nisida, how beautiful dost thou appear to me!--how soft and charming is that dear voice of thine! Let us not think of the past, at least not now; for I also have explanations to give thee," he added, slowly and mournfully; then, in a different and again joyous tone, he said: "Let us be happy in the conviction that we are restored to each other; let this be a holiday--nay, more," he added, sinking his voice almost to a whisper; "let it be the day on which we join our hands together in the sight of Heaven. No priest will bless our union, Nisida; but we will plight our vows--and G.o.d will accord us his blessing."