CHAPTER III.—(Continued.)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 18, 24 August 1883, Page 7

CHAPTER lll.—(Continued.)

THE TtTBBET PRISON.

On the following day the sun rose bright and glorious- As the young prisoner, after saying her morning-prayers, opened the window and stood on the balcoDy, the breeze from the sea, laden wit'i the perfume of the orange-blossoms, fanned her cheeks ; the birds chirped in the bushes beneath the turret— the whole scene bore anj aspect of smiling brightness which can hardly be conceived by those who bav«j not seen the first burst of spring in a southern climate. Amidst the wonderful beauty of Nature, suffering and misery seem more incongruous than under cloudy skies, and amidst (ruder scenes. As Geltruda's heart was expanding with the unconscious effect of all that loveliness, it was suddenly smittea by the thought of the poor, and the cruel destitution which she feared was still existing in the white hamlets dotting the sides of the purple hills ; but it must be diminishing, she hoped. There had been rain, and the land— that fair land which had been so long hard and unyielding — would soon open its treasures to its children. When she re-entered her room, her usual breakfast was on the table. The servant was gone. Geltruda bad conformed strictly to the orders given by her father ; and though Caterina, the maid who brought her meals, had often tried to infringe them, she had always refused to speak to her. Now and then, feeling curious to know if she was shut up, she tried to open the door, but always found it locked. During the first days of her captivity, it had been hard to subdue an indignant throb at that humiliating treatment ; but owing to the iapid advance in the spiritual life which she was daily making, and the constant study of the lives of St. Francis, St. Clare and, tbe saints most remarkable for humility, she began to understand and ■taste the sweetness of enduring shame and ill-usage, and even to smile with a holy joy when she heard the sound of the key, which the attendant had to get twice a day from the hands of the count, who commanded it to be, each time, brought back to him. In the course of the morning she went again to the balcony. She liked to say the "Angelus "with her eyes turned to the sanctuary of the Madonna, and in union of heart with the monks on the mountain and with her friends in the Übaldi palace. The mid-day chimes were ringing from many a tower on the heights, and in the valley, when she caught sight of a man on horseback rushing down thts road as if flying from pursuit. She knew him by his figure and the color of his horse. It was tbe physician who was always sent for from Taggia when any one was ill at the castle. He was not often summoned there, and was not much acquainted with the family. It was only when anyone appeared to be dangerously ill that the count went to such an expense. Why was he riding away in such desperate haste 7 and what were the cries which she heard in the direction of the entrance gate ? A Bickening fear seized her heart. Something dreadful must have happened. Some accident, some sudds a death, perhaps. She went to the door with a wild hope it would open. No ;it wa«, as usual, locked. She rang the bell so nervously and violently that it broke. Again returning to the balcony, she saw some of the servants flying away with vosiferatioa3, which indistinctly raashed her ears without her being able to make out a single word. She watched them rushing down the hill, and when they reached the road saw them stop short, retrace their steps, and, as if a sudden madness bad seized them, run in different directions ; some towards the seashore, some towards tbe mountains. At that moment she perceived, along the other side of the bed of the torrent which divides tne valley, but which is seldom filled with water except when the snow melts on the hills, a line of soldiers armed with muskets and carrying black flags. The suspense, |he bewilderment of that moment can hardly be described. A silence, deep as death, bad succeeded the cries which bad attended the departure of the fugitives. She strained her eyes in every direction. Beneath the walls of Taggia she could discern a great deal of movement, horses, men, and vehicles going about, groups of persons forming ; but on the side of the castle, and within reach of her voice no human being appeared in sight. The afternoon hours were passing away. She kept going backward and forward from her prie-Bleu. to tbe balcony, from the balcony to the locked door. At last, on the path from the mountains above the castle, she discerned a figure coming down the hill. She watched it with intense anxiety. As it came nearer she saw that it was one of the monka, and her heart beat with a strong hope. If it could but be Fra Mauro I and if be should glance at the turret window where for so many years she had displayed the signal warning off or encoui aging his approach ! Seizing a white handkerchief she waved it from the balcony, and for some time it seemed in vain. The monk went on his way through tbe valley, and her heaTt seemed to die within her as he passed the spot where the road to Castel Barco branched off. But just an instant afterward she saw him look back, and then he stopped short and seemed to hesitate. Again she waved as high as she could her ■white signa 1 , and then a wild cry of joy burst from her lips for the toonk was turning back, and coming up the road to the castle. It must be her old friend, Fra Mauro. " Thank God, tbank God ! " she murmured, clasping her hands on her breast. . - Jußt as the friar reached the steps leading to the terrace on which tbe gateway opened she lost sight of him, but not before she had made sure that it was Fra Mauro. She tried to call out so as to convey to him her need of assistance, but he disappeared, apparently without noticing her imploring cry, and then, for a whole hour, she neither saw nor heard anything of him. What was taking place 1 — what was he doing ? She knelt down in an agony; Suddenly the sound of a faltering voice reached her ears from the road under

the balcoiy. She rushed out, and saw Fra Mauro looking up towards her with so ghastly and livid a face that lie appeared like one rising from the grave. " SignoTa," he said with a trembling voice, " a fearful catastrophe has fallen on your house. How you come to have been spared I know not. Are you alone in this house of death ?f ' " O Father 1 whathas happened ? For weeks I have been locked up in this turret room. Have you seen my father 1 " Alas Imy child, I have just seea him die. I arrived in time to give him a last absolution. He knew me, I think : his lips moved." " O God ! and my brothers and BHtera ? " " They are all dead, my poor child I— some of the servants, too. There is not now a living soul left in the house." " Alas 1 I saw the others flying away. Who is it ?— what is it has killed them 1 " " God only knows 1 The angel of death has passed through the house. Did you say you were locked up ? " "Yes; I have been some weeks confined to this room. 'Tistoolong a tale too tell. Oh !my poor father." Aad with that cry Geltruda fell on her knees and looked wildly up to Heaven. The poor friar stood transfixed. The horrible sight he had seen appeared to have bewildered him. He was afraid of remaining or of going away. " What can Ido for you ?" he tremblingly asked. " Where is the key of your- room ? " " I know not," she said j" I cannot tell. Do not lose time— and your life perhaps— searching for it, but go and get help. A ladder against this wall would enable me to escape. Oh, do ! good Fatherdo go at once to the Übaldi palace and tell Carlo and his mother to send me help." " I will," Fra Mauro cried—" I will ; and God be with you meanwhile poor child 1 " ■As fast as his aged limbs would carry him tbe goud monk walked towards Taggia, and Geltruda remained alone. It was night by that time. A solemn silence reigned round the old house. The stars began to shine, one by .one, in the dark- blue sky, and the pale moon clothed with its ghastly light the scene of fearful horror which" its walls concealed. Geltruda, during the hours she remained in that lonely solitude, sometimes felt inclined to believe the whole thing was a bad dream, or that Fra Mauro had losfc his senses ; but she herself had seen the physician galloping away from the oastle and the servants fleeing from it. At first she felt almost afraid of going out of her mind during the time that she knew must elapse before help could reach her ; but she was never in danger of it. She made her up mind to die if it was God's will, at the foot of her crucifix, and read calmly the prayers for the agonizing which she hai heard her mother say by many a death-bed. There was no wildness in her thoughts. After preparing in the best way she could for her own death, she prayed for her departed kindred— her stern father, her thoughtless brothers ana sisters, enveloped in one common doom,- expiring close to her, and yet separated by the strange accident which hid sa^ed her ova life. Hereyes sought the little chapel where she had spent a night of anguish and prayer. The lamp was burning as usual, and visible through the window of the sanctuary. It seemed to speak to her like tbe voice of a friend. When the morning dawned she happened to glance towards the sea, and by the rosy light of the eastern sky a lateen sail was to be seen ; a vessel vras swiftly sailing from the coast. It seemed to fly over the blue, sparkling waves. She watched it disappearing in the distance with a sort of unconscious attention, little thinking it had been the messenger of death to her miserable home— of that terrible Black Death— that awful scourge, the very name of which froze the blood in the veins of the inhabitants of seaport towns and maddened them with terror.