Under the Witches' Moon: A Romantic Tale of Mediaeval Rome

It was the roar of an enraged beast and was succeeded by a heavy crash, as he let fall the coffin lid. A second later a second crash waked the midnight echoes of that silent place. In a burst of maniacal fury he had hurled the coffin from its trestles. Then he leaped down from the bench and flung all caution to the winds in the rage that possessed him. "It is a trick of the devil," he shouted. "They have laid a trap for us, and you have never even informed yourselves." There was foam about the corners of his mouth, the veins had swollen on his forehead, and from the mad bulging of his eyes spoke fury and abject terror. Bully as Tebaldo was, he could, on occasion, become a coward. "Away!" he shouted to his men. "Look to your weapons! Away!" Gamba muttered something under his breath, words the listener's ear could not catch. If it were a suggestion that the church should be searched, ere they abandoned it! But Tebaldo's answer speedily relieved his fears. "I'll take no chances," he barked. "Let us go separately. Myself first and do you follow and get clear of this quarter as best you may." Scarcely had the echoes of his footsteps died away, ere the others followed in a rush, fearful of being caught in some trap that was here laid for them, and restrained from flying on the instant but by their still greater fear of their master. Thanking Heaven for this miraculous deliverance, and for his own foresight in so arranging matters as to utterly mislead the ravishers, Tristan now devoted his whole attention to Hellayne. Her breathing had become deeper and more regular, so that in all respects she resembled one sunk into healthful slumber. He hoped she would waken before the elapse of many moments, for to try to bear her away in his arms would have been sheer madness. And now it occurred to him that he should have restoratives ready for the time of her regaining consciousness. Inspiration suggested to him the wine that should be stored in the sacristy for altar purposes. It was unconsecrated, and there could be no sacrilege in using it. He crept round to the front of the altar. At the angle a candle branch protruded at the height of his head. It held some three or four tapers and was so placed as to enable the priest to read his missal at early Mass on dark winter mornings. Tristan plucked one of the candles from its socket and, hastening down the church, lighted it from one of the burning tapers of the bier. Screening it with his hand he retraced his steps and regained the chancel. Then, turning to the left, he made for a door which gave access to the sacristy. It yielded and he passed down a short, stone flagged passage and entered a spacious chamber beyond. An oak settle was placed against one wall, and above it hung an enormous, rudely carved crucifix. On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, while a few vestments, suspended beside these, completed the appointments of the austere and white-washed chamber. Placing his candle on a cupboard, he opened one of the drawers. It was full of garments of different kinds, among which he noticed several monks' habits. Tristan rummaged to the bottom, only to find therein some odd pairs of sandals. Disappointed, Tristan closed the drawer and tried another, with no better fortune. Here were undervests of fine linen, newly washed and fragrant with rosemary. He abandoned the chest and gave his attention to the cupboard. It was locked, but the key was there. Tristan's candle reflected a blaze of gold and silver vessels, consecrated chalices, and several richly carved ciboria of solid gold, set with precious stones. But in a corner he discovered a dark brown, gourd-shaped object. It was a skin of wine and, with a half-suppressed cry of joy, he seized upon it. At that moment a piercing scream rang through the stillness of the church and startled him so that for some moments he stood frozen with terror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping into his brain. Had the ruffians remained hidden in the church? Had they returned? Did the screams imply that Hellayne had been awakened by their hands? A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that its first utterance had cast over him. Dropping the leathern bottle he sped back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the church. There, by the high altar, Tristan saw a form that seemed at first but a phantom, in which he presently recognized Hellayne, the dim rays of the distant tapers searching out the white robe with which her limbs were draped. She was alone, and he knew at once that it was but the natural fear consequent upon awakening in such a place, that had evoked the cry he had heard. "Hellayne!" he called, advancing swiftly to reassure her. "Hellayne!" There was a gasp, a moment's silence. "Tristan?" she cried questioningly. "What has happened? Why am I here?" He was beside her now and found her trembling like an aspen. "Something horrible has happened, my Hellayne," he replied. "But it is over now, and the evil is averted." "What is it?" she insisted, pale as death. "Why am I here?" "You shall learn presently." He stooped, to gather up the cloak, which had slipped from her shoulders. "Do you wrap this about you," he urged, assisting her with his own hands. "Are you faint, Hellayne?" "I scarce know," she answered, in a frightened voice. "There is a black horror upon me. Tell me," she implored again, "Why am I here? What does it all mean?" He drew her away now, promising to tell her everything once she were out of these forbidding surroundings. He assisted her to the sacristy and, seating her upon a settle, produced the wine skin. At first she babbled like a child, of not being thirsty, but he insisted. "It is not a matter of quenching your thirst, dearest Hellayne. The wine will warm and revive you! Come, dearest--drink!" She obeyed him now, and having got the first gulp down her throat, she took a long draught, which soon produced a healthier color, driving the ashen pallor from her cheeks. "I am cold, Tristan," she shuddered. He turned to the drawer in which he had espied the monks' habits and pulling one out, held it for her to put on. She sat there now in that garment of coarse black cloth, the cowl flung back upon her shoulder, the fairest postulant that ever entered upon a novitiate. "You are good to me, Tristan," she murmured plaintively, "and I have used you very ill! You do not love that other woman?" She paused, passing her hand across her brow. "Only you, dearest--only you!" "What is the hour?" she turned to him suddenly. It was a matter he left unheeded. He bade her brace herself, and take courage to listen to what he was about to tell. He assured her that the horror of it all was passed and that she had naught to fear. "But--how came I here?" she cried. "I must have lain in a swoon, for I remember nothing." And then her quick mind, leaping to a reasonable conclusion, and assisted perhaps by the memory of the shattered catafalque which she had seen, her eyes dilating with a curious affright as they were turned upon his own, she asked of a sudden: "Did you believe that I was dead?" "Yes," he replied with an unnatural calm in his voice. "Every one believed you were dead, Hellayne." And with this he told her the entire story of what had befallen, saving only his own part therein, nor did he try to explain his own opportune presence in the church. When he spoke of the coming of Tebaldo and his men she shuddered and closed her eyes. Only after he had concluded his tale did she turn them full upon him. Their brightness seemed to increase, and now he saw that she was weeping. "And you were there to save me, Tristan?" she murmured brokenly. "Oh, Tristan, it seems that you are ever at hand when I have need of you! You are, indeed, my one true friend--the one true friend that never fails me!" "Are you feeling stronger, Hellayne?" he asked abruptly. "Yes--I am stronger!" She rose as if to test her strength. "Indeed little ails me save the horror of this thing. The thought of it seems to turn me sick and dizzy." "Sit then and rest!" he enjoined. "Presently, when you feel equal to it, we shall start out!" "Whither shall we go?" she asked. "Why--to the abode of your liege lord." "Why--yes--" she answered at length, as though it had been the last suggestion she had expected. "And when he returns," she added, after a pause, "he will owe you no small thanks for your solicitude on my behalf." There was a pause. A hundred thoughts thronged Tristan's mind. Presently she spoke again. "Tristan," she inquired very gently, "what was it that brought you to the church?" "I came with the others, Hellayne," he replied, and, fearing such questions as might follow--questions he had been dreading ever since he brought her to the sacristy, he said: "If you are recovered, we had better set out." "I am not yet sufficiently recovered," she replied. "And, before we go, there are a few points in this strange adventure that I would have you make clear to me! Meanwhile we are very well here! If the good fathers do come upon us, what shall it signify?"-- Tristan groaned inwardly and grew more afraid than when Basil's men had broken into the church an hour ago. "What detained you after all had gone?" "I remained to pray," he answered, with a sense of irritation at her persistence. "What else was there to do in a church?" "To pray for me?" "Assuredly." "Dear, faithful heart," she murmured. "And I have used you so cruelly. But you merited my cruelty--Tristan! Say that you did, else must I perish of remorse." "Perchance I deserved it," he replied. "But perchance not so much as you bestowed, had you understood my motives," he said unguardedly. "If I had understood your motives?" she mused. "Ay--there is much I do not understand! Even in this night's business there are not wanting things that remain mysterious, despite the elucidations you have supplied. Tell me, Tristan--what was it that caused you to believe, that I still lived?" "I did not believe it," he blundered like a fool, never seeing whither her question led. "You did not?" she cried, with deep surprise, and now, when it was too late, he understood. "What was it then that induced you, to lift the coffin lid?"-- "You ask me more than I can tell you," he answered almost roughly, for fear lest the monks would come at any moment. She looked at him with eyes that were singularly luminous. "But I must know," she insisted. "Have I not the right? Tell me now! Was it that you wished to see my face once more before they gave me over to the grave?" "Perchance it was, Hellayne," he answered. Then he suggested their going, but she never heeded his anxiety. "Do you love me then so much, dearest Tristan?" He swung round to her now, and he knew that his face was white, whiter than the woman's had been when he had seen her in the coffin. His eyes seemed to burn in their sockets. A madness seized upon him and completely mastered him. He had undergone so much that day of grief, and that night the victim of a hundred emotions, that he no longer controlled himself. As it was, her words robbed him of the last lingering restraint. "Love you?" he replied, in a voice that was unlike his own. "You are dearer to me than all I have, all I am, all I ever hope to be! You are the guardian angel of my existence, the saint to whom I have turned mornings and evenings in my prayers! I love you more than life!" He paused, staggered by his own climax. The thought of what he had said and what the consequences must be, rushed suddenly upon him. He shivered as a man may shiver in waking from a trance. He dropped upon