Transcript

022 - Chapter 20 · Pirate

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty of the Pirate by Sir Walter Scott. His
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Dion
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Speaker 1: John's Salt Lake City, Utah. Is all the council that
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Speaker 1: we too have shared, the sister's vows, the hours that
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Speaker 1: we have spent when we have chid, the hasty footed
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Speaker 1: time for parting us, oh, and is all forgot midsummer
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Speaker 1: night's dream. The attention of Minna was powerfully arrested by
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Speaker 1: this tale of terror, which accorded with and explained many
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Speaker 1: broken hints respecting Norna which she had heard from her
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Speaker 1: father and other near relations. And she was for a
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Speaker 1: time so lost in surprise, not unmingled with horror, that
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Speaker 1: she did not even attempt to speak to her sister Brenda.
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Speaker 1: When at length she called her by her name, she
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Speaker 1: received no answer, and on touching her hand, she found
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Speaker 1: it cold as ice. Alarmed to the uttermost, she threw
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Speaker 1: open the lattice and the window shutters, and admitted at
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Speaker 1: once the free air and the pale glimmer of the
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Speaker 1: Hyperborean summer night. She then became sensible that her sister
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Speaker 1: was in a swoon. All thoughts concerning Norna her frightful
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Speaker 1: tale and her mysterious connection with the invisible world at
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Speaker 1: once vanished from Minna's thoughts, and she hastily ran to
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Speaker 1: the apartment of the old housekeeper to summon her aid,
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Speaker 1: without reflecting for a moment what sights she might encounter
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Speaker 1: in the long, dark passages which she had to traverse.
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Speaker 1: The old woman hastened to Brenda's assistance and instantly applied
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Speaker 1: such remedies as her experience suggested. But the poor girl's
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Speaker 1: nervous system had been so much agitated by the horrible
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Speaker 1: tale she had just heard, that, when recovered from her swoon,
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Speaker 1: her utmost endeavors to compose her mind could not prevent
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Speaker 1: her falling into a hysterical fit of some duration. This
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Speaker 1: also was subdued by the experience of old Euphannie Fay,
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Speaker 1: who was well versed in all the simple pharmacy used
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Speaker 1: by the natives of Zetland, and who, after administering a
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Speaker 1: composing draft distilled from simples and wild flowers, at length
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Speaker 1: saw her patient resigned to sleep. Minna stretched herself beside
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Speaker 1: her sister, kissed her cheek, and courted slumber in her turn.
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Speaker 1: But the more she invoked it the farther, it seemed
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Speaker 1: to fly from her eyelids, and if at times she
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Speaker 1: was disposed to sink into repose, the voice of the
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Speaker 1: involuntary parricide seemed again to sound in her ears and
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Speaker 1: startled her into consciousness. The early morning hour at which
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Speaker 1: they were accustomed to rise found the state of the
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Speaker 1: sisters different from what might have been expected, as sound
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Speaker 1: sleep had restored the spirit of Brenda's lightsome eye and
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Speaker 1: the rose on her laughing cheek, the transient indisposition of
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Speaker 1: the preceding night having left as little trouble on her
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Speaker 1: look as the fantastic terrors of Norna's tale had been
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Speaker 1: able to impress on her imagination. The looks of Menna,
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Speaker 1: on the contrary, were melancholy, downcast, and apparently exhausted by
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Speaker 1: watching and anxiety. They said a first little to each other,
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Speaker 1: as if afraid of touching a subject so fraught with
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Speaker 1: emotion as the scene of the preceding night. It was
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Speaker 1: not until they had performed together their devotions as usual
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Speaker 1: that Brenda, while lacing Minna's bodice, for they rendered the
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Speaker 1: services of the toilet to each other reciprocally, became aware
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Speaker 1: of the paleness of her sister's looks, and having ascertained
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Speaker 1: by a glance at the mirror that her own did
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Speaker 1: not wear the same dejection, she kissed Minna's cheek and said, affectionately,
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Speaker 1: Claudehulcro was right, my dearest sister, when his poetical folly
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Speaker 1: gave us these names of night and day. And wherefore
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Speaker 1: should you say so now, said Minna, because we each
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Speaker 1: are bravest in the season that we take our name from.
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Speaker 1: I was frightened well nigh to death by hearing those
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Speaker 1: things last night, which you endured with courageous firmness, And now,
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Speaker 1: when it is broad light, I can think of them
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Speaker 1: with composure, while you look as pale as a spirit
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Speaker 1: who was surprised by sunrise. You are lucky, Brenda, said
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Speaker 1: her sister gravely. Who can so soon forget such a
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Speaker 1: tale of wonder and horror? The horror, said Brenda, is
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Speaker 1: never to be forgotten, unless one could hope that the
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Speaker 1: unfortunate woman's excited imagination, which shows itself so active in
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Speaker 1: conjuring up apparitions, may have fixed on her an imaginary crime.
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Speaker 1: You believe nothing, then, said Minna of her interview at
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Speaker 1: the Dwarfy Stone, that wondrous place of which so many
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Speaker 1: tales are told, and which for so many centuries has
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Speaker 1: been reverenced as the work of a demon and as
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Speaker 1: his abode. I believe, said Brenda, that our unhappy relative
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Speaker 1: is no impostor, and therefore I believe that she was
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Speaker 1: at the Dwarfy Stone during a thunderstorm, that she sought
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Speaker 1: to shelter in it, and that during a swoon or
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Speaker 1: during sleep, perhaps some dream visited her, concerned with the
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Speaker 1: popular traditions with which she was so conversant. But I
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Speaker 1: cannot easily believe more. And yet the event, said Minna,
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Speaker 1: corresponded to the dark intimations of the vision. Pardon me,
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Speaker 1: said Brenda. I rather think the dream would never have
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Speaker 1: been put into shape, or perhaps remembered at all, but
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Speaker 1: for the event. She told us herself, she had nearly
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Speaker 1: forgot the vision till after her father's dreadful death. And
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Speaker 1: who shall warrant how much of what she then supposed
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Speaker 1: herself to remember was not the creation of her own fancy,
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Speaker 1: disordered as it naturally was by the horrid accident. Had
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Speaker 1: she really seen and conversed with an achromantic dwarf, she
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Speaker 1: was likely to remember the conversation long enough at least
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Speaker 1: I am sure I should, Brenda replied, Minna. You have
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Speaker 1: heard the Good Minister of the Crosskirk say that human
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Speaker 1: wisdom was worse than folly when it was applied to
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Speaker 1: mysteries beyond its comprehension, and that if we believe no
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Speaker 1: more than we could understand, we should resist the evidence
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Speaker 1: of our senses, which presented us at every turn circumstances
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Speaker 1: as certain as they were unintelligible. You are to learned yourself, sister,
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Speaker 1: answered Brenda, to meet the assistance of the Good Minister
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Speaker 1: of Crosskirk. But I think his doctrine only related to
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Speaker 1: the mysteries of our religion, which it is our duty
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Speaker 1: to receive without investigation or doubt. That in things occurring
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Speaker 1: in common life, as God has bestowed reason upon us,
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Speaker 1: we cannot act wrongly in employing it. But you, my
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Speaker 1: dear Minna, have a warmer fancy than mine, and are
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Speaker 1: willing to receive all those wonderful stories for truth, because
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Speaker 1: you love to think of sorcerers and dwarfs and water spirits,
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Speaker 1: and would like much to have a little trow or
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Speaker 1: fairy as the Scotch call them with a green coat
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Speaker 1: and a pair of wings as brilliant as the hues
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Speaker 1: of the starling's neck, especially to attend on you. It
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Speaker 1: would spare you at least the trouble of lacing my bodice,
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Speaker 1: said Minna, And of lacing it wrong too, For in
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Speaker 1: the heat of your argument you have missed two iselt holes.
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Speaker 1: That error shall be presently mended, said Brenda. And then,
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Speaker 1: as one of our friends might say, I will haul
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Speaker 1: tight and blay, but you draw your breath so deeply
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Speaker 1: that it will be a difficult matter. I only sighed,
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Speaker 1: said Minna, in some confusion, to think how soon you
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Speaker 1: can trifle with and ridicule the misfortunes of this extraordinary woman.
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Speaker 1: I do not ridicule them, God knows, replied Brenda, somewhat angrily.
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Speaker 1: It is you, Minna, who turn all I say in
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Speaker 1: truth and kindness to something harsh or wicked. I look
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Speaker 1: on Norna as a woman of very extraordinary abilities, which
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Speaker 1: are very often united with a strong cast of insanity.
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Speaker 1: And I consider her as better skilled in the signs
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Speaker 1: of the weather than any woman in Zeteland. But that
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Speaker 1: she has any power over the elements, I no more
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Speaker 1: believe than I do in the nursery stories of King Eric,
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Speaker 1: who could make the wind blow from the point he
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Speaker 1: set his cap. To Minna, somewhat nuddled with the obstinate
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Speaker 1: incredulity of her sister, replied sharply. And yet, Brenda, this
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Speaker 1: woman half mad woman, and the veriest impostor is the
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Speaker 1: person by whom you choose to be advised in the
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Speaker 1: matter next your own heart. At this moment, I do
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Speaker 1: not know what you mean, said Brenda, coloring deeply and
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Speaker 1: shifting to get away from her sister. But as she
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Speaker 1: was now undergoing the ceremony of being laced in her turn,
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Speaker 1: her sister had the means of holding her fast by
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Speaker 1: the silken string with which she was fastening the bodice,
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Speaker 1: and tapping her on the neck, which expressed by its
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Speaker 1: sudden writhe and sudden change to a scarlet hue, as
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Speaker 1: much pettish confusion as she had desired to provoke. She added,
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Speaker 1: more mildly, Is it not strange, Brenda, that used, as
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Speaker 1: we have been by the stranger Mordaunt Murtown, whose assurance
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Speaker 1: has brought him uninvited to a house where his presence
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Speaker 1: is so unacceptable, You should still look or think of
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Speaker 1: him with favor. Surely that you do so should be
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Speaker 1: a proof to you that there are such things as
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Speaker 1: spells in the country, and that you your self labor
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Speaker 1: under them. It is not for not that Mordaunt wears
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Speaker 1: a chain of elfin gold. Look to it, Brenda, and
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Speaker 1: be wise in time. I have nothing to do with
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Speaker 1: Mordaunt Murtown, answered Brenda hastily, nor do I know or
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Speaker 1: care what he or any other young man wears about
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Speaker 1: his neck. I could see all the gold chains of
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Speaker 1: all the bailies of Edinburgh that Lady Gloam speaks so
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Speaker 1: much of, without falling in fancy with any of the wearers,
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Speaker 1: And having thus complied with the female rule of pleading
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Speaker 1: not guilty in general to such an indictment, she immediately
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Speaker 1: resumed in a different tone. But to say the truth, Minna,
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Speaker 1: I think you and all of you have judged far
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Speaker 1: too hastily about this young friend of ours, who has
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Speaker 1: been so long our most intimate companion. Mind more, Daunt
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Speaker 1: Mertown is no more to me than he is to you,
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Speaker 1: who best know how little difference he made betwixt us
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Speaker 1: and that chain or no chain he lived with us
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Speaker 1: like a brother with two sisters, and yet you can
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Speaker 1: turn him off at once because a wandering seaman of
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Speaker 1: whom we know nothing, and a peddling jagger, whom we
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Speaker 1: do know to be a thief, a cheat, and a
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Speaker 1: liar speak words and carry tales in his disfavor. I
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Speaker 1: do not believe he ever said he could have his
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Speaker 1: choice of either of us, and only waited to see
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Speaker 1: which was to have Burgustra and Bretna's foe. I do
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Speaker 1: not believe he ever spoke such a word or harbored
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Speaker 1: such a thought as that of making a choice between us. Perhaps,
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Speaker 1: said Minna coldly, you may have had reason to know
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Speaker 1: that his choice was already determined. I will not endure this,
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Speaker 1: said Brenda, giving way to her natural vivacity and springing
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Speaker 1: from between her sister's hands, then turning round and facing her,
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Speaker 1: while her glowing cheek was rivaled in the deepness of
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Speaker 1: its crimson by as much of her neck and bosom
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Speaker 1: as the upper part of the half lazed bodice permitted
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Speaker 1: to be visible even from you, Minna, she said, I
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Speaker 1: will not endure this. You know that all my life
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Speaker 1: I have spoken the truth, and that I love the truth,
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Speaker 1: and I tell you that Mordaunt Mertown never in his
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Speaker 1: life made distinction betwixt you and me. Until here, some
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Speaker 1: feeling of consciousness stopped her short, and her sister replied
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Speaker 1: with a smile. Until when, Brenda, methinks, your love of
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Speaker 1: truth seems choked with the sentence you were bringing out,
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Speaker 1: until you cease to do him the justice he deserves,
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Speaker 1: said Brenda firmly. Since I must speak out, I have
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Speaker 1: little doubt that he will not long throw away his
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Speaker 1: friendship on you, who hold it so lightly. Be it so, said, Minna,
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Speaker 1: you are secure from my rivalry, either in his friendship
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Speaker 1: or love. But bethink you better, Brenda, this is no
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Speaker 1: scandal of Cleveland's. Cleveland is incapable of slander, no falsehood
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Speaker 1: of Bryce snail'sfoot, not one of our friends or acquaintance,
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Speaker 1: but says it has been the common talk of the
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Speaker 1: island that the daughters of Madnus Troyle were patiently awaiting
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Speaker 1: the choice of the nameless and birthless stranger, Mordaunt Mertown.
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Speaker 1: Is it fitting that this should be said of us,
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Speaker 1: the descendants of a Norwegian jaral and the daughters of
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Speaker 1: the first U dollar in Zeteland? Or would it be
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Speaker 1: modest or maidenly to submit to it unresented. Were we
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Speaker 1: the meanest lasses that ever lifted a milk pail? The
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Speaker 1: tongues of fools are no reproach, reply Brenda warmly. I
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Speaker 1: will never quit my own thoughts of an innocent friend
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Speaker 1: for the gossip of the island, which can put the
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Speaker 1: worst meaning on the most innocent actions. Here, but what
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Speaker 1: our friends say, repeated Minna here but the Lady glow
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Speaker 1: Rorem here. But Mattie and Clara groat Setter. If I
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Speaker 1: were to hear Lady glow Roum, said Brenda steadily, I
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Speaker 1: should listen to the worst tongue in Zeteland. And as
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Speaker 1: for Mattie and Clara groat Setter, they were both blithe
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Speaker 1: enough to get Mordaunt to sit betwixt them at dinner
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Speaker 1: the day before yesterday. As you might have observed yourself,
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Speaker 1: but that your ear was better engaged, your eyes at
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Speaker 1: least have been but indifferently engaged, Brenda, retorted the elder sister,
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Speaker 1: Since they were fixed on a young man whom all
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Speaker 1: the world but yourself believes to have talked of us
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Speaker 1: with the most insolent presumption. And even if he be
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Speaker 1: innocently charged, Lady Gloroum says, it is unmaidenly and bold
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Speaker 1: of you even to look in the direction where he sits,
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Speaker 1: knowing it must confirm such reports. I will look which
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Speaker 1: way I please, said Brenda, growing still warmer. Lady Glorom
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Speaker 1: shall neither rule my thoughts, nor my words, nor my eyes.
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Speaker 1: I hold mordaunt Mertoun to be innocent. I will look
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Speaker 1: at him as such, I will speak of him as such.
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Speaker 1: And if I did not speak to him also and
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Speaker 1: behave to him as usual, it is in obedience to
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Speaker 1: my father, and not for what Lady Glorotum and all
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Speaker 1: her nieces had she twenty instead of two, could think, wink,
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Speaker 1: nod or tattle about the matter that concern them. Not
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Speaker 1: alas Brenda answered Minna with calmness. This vivacity is more
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Speaker 1: than is required for the defense of the character of
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Speaker 1: a mere friend. Beware, he who ruined Norna's peace forever
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Speaker 1: was a stranger, admitted to her affections against the will
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Speaker 1: of her family. He was a stranger, replied Brenda, with emphasis,
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Speaker 1: not only in birth but in manners. She had not
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Speaker 1: been bred up with him from her youth. She had
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Speaker 1: not known the gentleness, the frankness of his disposition by
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Speaker 1: an intimacy of many years. He was indeed a stranger
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Speaker 1: in character, temper, birth, manners, and morals, some wandering adventurer,
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Speaker 1: perhaps whom chance or tempest had thrown upon the islands,
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Speaker 1: and who knew how to mask a false heart with
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Speaker 1: a frank brow. My good sister, take home your own warning.
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Speaker 1: There are other strangers at Bergwustra besides this poor Mordaunt Mertown.
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Speaker 1: Minna seemed for a moment overwhelmed with the rapidity with
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Speaker 1: which her sister retorted her suspicion and her caution. But
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Speaker 1: her natural loftiness of disposition enabled her to reply with
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Speaker 1: assumed composure. Were I to treat you, Brenda, with the
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Speaker 1: want of confidence you show towards me, I might reply
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Speaker 1: that Cleveland is no more to me than Mordaunt was,
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Speaker 1: or than young Swortuster, or Lawrence Erickson, or any other
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Speaker 1: favorite guest of my father's. Now is that I scorn
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Speaker 1: to deceive you, or to disguise my thoughts. I love
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Speaker 1: Clement Cleveland. Do not say so, my dearest sister, said Brenda,
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Speaker 1: abandoning at once the air of acrimony, with which the
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Speaker 1: conversation had been laterly conducted, and throwing her arms around
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Speaker 1: her sister's neck with looks and with a tone of
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Speaker 1: the most earnest affection. Do not say so, I implore you.
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Speaker 1: I will renounce mordaunt mertown. I will swear never to
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Speaker 1: speak to him again. But do not repeat that you
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Speaker 1: love this Cleveland. And why should I not repeat, said Minna,
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Speaker 1: disengaging herself gently from her sister's grasp, A sentiment in
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Speaker 1: which I glory the boldness, the strength and energy of
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Speaker 1: his character, to which command is natural and fear unknown.
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Speaker 1: These very properties which alarm you for my happiness are
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Speaker 1: the qualities which ensure it. Remember, Brenda, that when your
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Speaker 1: foot loved the calm, smooth sea beach, of this summer sea,
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Speaker 1: mine ever delighted in the summit of the precipice, when
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Speaker 1: the waves are in fury. And is it even that
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Speaker 1: which I dread, said Brenda. It is even that adventurous
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Speaker 1: disposition which now is urging you to the brink of
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Speaker 1: a precipice more dangerous than ever was washed by a
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Speaker 1: spring tide. This man, do not frown. I will say
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Speaker 1: no slander of him. But is he not even in
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Speaker 1: your own partial judgment, stern and overbearing, accustomed as you say,
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Speaker 1: to command, but for that very reason, commanding where he
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Speaker 1: has no right to do so, and leading whom it
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Speaker 1: would most become him to follow, rushing on danger rather
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Speaker 1: for its own sake than for any other object. And
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Speaker 1: can you think of being yoked with a spirit so
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Speaker 1: unsettled and stormy, whose life has hitherto been led in
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Speaker 1: scenes of death and peril, and who, even while sitting
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Speaker 1: by your side, cannot disguise his impatience again to engage
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Speaker 1: in them. A lover, methinks, should love his mistress better
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Speaker 1: than his own life. But yours, my dear Mina, loves
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Speaker 1: her less than the pleasure of inflicting death on others.
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Speaker 1: And it is even for that I love him, said Minna.
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Speaker 1: I am a daughter of the old dames of Norway,
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Speaker 1: who could send their lovers to battle with a smile,
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Speaker 1: and slay them with their own hands if they returned
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Speaker 1: with Dishonor my lover must scorn the mockeries by which
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Speaker 1: our degraded race strive for distinction, or must practice them
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Speaker 1: only in sport and in earnest of nobler dangers. No
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Speaker 1: wail striking bird nesting favorite for me, my lover must
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Speaker 1: be a sea king, or what else modern times may
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Speaker 1: give that draws near to that lofty character. Alas my
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Speaker 1: sister said, Brenda, it is now that I must, in
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Speaker 1: earnest begin to believe the force of spells and of charms.
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Speaker 1: You remember the Spanish story which you took from me
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Speaker 1: long since, because I said, in your admiration of the
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Speaker 1: chivalry of the olden times of Scandinavia, you rivaled the
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Speaker 1: extravagance of the hero ah Mina. Your color shows that
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Speaker 1: your conscience checks you and reminds you of the book
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Speaker 1: I mean, is it more wise think you to mistake
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Speaker 1: a windmill for a giant, or the commander of a
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Speaker 1: paltry corsair for a camp or a viking. Minna did
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Speaker 1: indeed color with anger at this insinuation, of which perhaps
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Speaker 1: she felt in some degree the truth. You have a right,
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Speaker 1: she said, to insult me, because you are possessed of
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Speaker 1: my secret. Brenda's soft heart could not resist this charge
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Speaker 1: of unkindness. She adjured her sister to pardon her, and
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Speaker 1: the natural gentleness of Minna's feelings could not resist her entreaties.
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Speaker 1: We are unhappy, She said, as she dried her sister's tears,
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Speaker 1: that we cannot see with the same eyes. Let us
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Speaker 1: not make each other more so by mutual insult and unkindness.
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Speaker 1: You have my secret. It will not, perhaps long be one,
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Speaker 1: for my father shall have the confidence to which he
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Speaker 1: is entitled. So soon have certain circumstances will permit me
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Speaker 1: to offer it meantime, I repeat, you have my secret,
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Speaker 1: and I more than suspect that I have yours in exchange,
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Speaker 1: though you refuse to own it. How Minna said Brenda.
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Speaker 1: Would you have me acknowledge for any one such feelings
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Speaker 1: as you allude to? Ere he has said the least
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Speaker 1: word that could justify such a confession, surely not. But
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Speaker 1: a hidden fire may be distinguished by heat as well
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Speaker 1: as flame. You understand these signs, Minna said Brenda, hanging
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Speaker 1: down her head and in vain endeavoring to suppress the
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Speaker 1: temptation to repartee which her sister's remark offered. But I
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Speaker 1: can only say that if ever I loved at all,
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Speaker 1: it shall not be until I have been asked to
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Speaker 1: do so once or twice at least, which has not
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Speaker 1: yet chanced to me. But do not let us renew
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Speaker 1: our quarrel, and rather let us think why Norna should
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Speaker 1: have told us that horrible tale, and to what she
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Speaker 1: expects it should lead. It must have been as a caution,
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Speaker 1: replied Minna, A caution which our situation, and I will
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Speaker 1: not deny it, which mine in particular might seem to
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Speaker 1: her to call for. But I am alike strong in
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Speaker 1: my own innocence and in the honor of Cleveland. Brenda
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Speaker 1: would fain have replied that she did not confide so
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Speaker 1: absolutely in the latter security as in the first, But
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Speaker 1: she was prudent and forbearing to awake the former painful discussion,
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Speaker 1: only replied, it is strange that Norna should have said
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Speaker 1: nothing more of her lover. Surely he could not desert
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Speaker 1: her in the extremity of misery to which he had
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Speaker 1: reduced her. There may be agonies of distress, said Minna,
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Speaker 1: after a pause in which the mind is so much
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Speaker 1: jarred that it ceases to be responsive even to the
26:59
Speaker 1: feelings which have most engrossed it. Her sorrow for her
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Speaker 1: lover may have been swallowed up in horror and despair,
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Speaker 1: or he might have fled from the islands in fear
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Speaker 1: of our father's vengeance, replied Brenda. If for fear or
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Speaker 1: faintness of heart, said Minna, looking upwards, he was capable
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Speaker 1: of flying from the ruin which he had occasioned, I
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Speaker 1: trust he has long ere this sustained the punishment which
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Speaker 1: Heaven reserves for the most base and dastardly of traitors
27:36
Speaker 1: and of cowards. Come, sister, we are ere this expected
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Speaker 1: at the breakfast board, and they went through their arm
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Speaker 1: in arm with much more of confidence than had lately
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Speaker 1: subsisted between them, the little quarrel which had taken place,
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Speaker 1: having served the purpose of a borasque or sudden squall,
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Speaker 1: which dispels miss and vapors and leaves fair weather behind it.
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Speaker 1: On their way to the breakfast apartment, they agreed that
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Speaker 1: it was unnecessary and might be imprudent to communicate to
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Speaker 1: their father the circumstance of the nocturnal visit, or to
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Speaker 1: let him observe that they now knew more than formerly
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Speaker 1: of the melancholy history of Norna. End of Chapter twenty