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She cast a third lock into the caldron as she repeated the line: the water boiled and hissed with a great noise, and the waves from the sea at the same time seemed to dash with a louder roar against the rocks below, and flung their spray with a heavy dash upon the roof. A fourth lock she cast into the flames, chanting,
"Prince of Fire! take the pledge!"
Instantly the place was illuminated as if with the most brilliant flashes of lightning, while the loudest thunder seemed to explode at his feet.
He started upright at this, for hitherto he had continued to kneel, overcome by what he was both a witness of and a trembling partic.i.p.ator in, and with every sign of mortal wonder and dread, cried,
"Sorceress! avaunt! I will no more of this!"
"Peace, mortal, peace!
Cease, mortal, cease!
See no word by thee be spoken Lest our magic charm be broken!"
As she chanted this reproof, she turned to the slave and continued in the same strain,
"Hast thou the murderous lead From the grave of the dead?"
"'Tis here," he said, prostrating himself, and giving to her, with divers mysterious ceremonies, a leaden bullet.
"Sought you the grave at midnight deep-- Dug you down where dead men sleep-- Search'd you--found you this charm'd ball-- Did you this in silence all?"
"I did," answered the monster, prostrating himself.
"Slave, 'tis well.
From fire and air We now prepare Our mystic spell!"
She commenced walking around the caldron, drawing mystic figures on the ground and in the air. At the end of the first circuit she chanted, with slow and solemn gestures and growing energy,
"A brother's hand must have shaped the lead"--
at the end of the second, with more spirit, she sung,
"From a brother's hand the ball have sped."
The third time she chanted, in a still more excited manner, while she danced about the caldron,
"And a brother's heart the ball have bled."
As she ended her third sibylline circuit around the fire, she turned to the slave and said,
"Is such this lead?
Swear by thy head!"
"It is," he responded, crossing his clasped hands across his forehead, and prostrating himself to the ground.
"'Tis well.
"Fire and water, perform thy task, A charmed life a mortal asks."
She now poured the water from the caldron, and, casting the lead into it, continued to dance round it, her gestures gradually increasing in wildness and energy, while in a low, monotonous tone she chanted unintelligibly certain mystic words, derived from the ancient Irish incantations. With folded arms the bucanier watched her aloof. At length she poured the melted lead into a shallow vessel containing water, when with a hissing noise it spread itself out into a shape resembling a human heart. Instantly the hut was darkened; loud unearthly noises filled the place; blue flames shot upward from the head of the sorceress and wizard slave, and, to the astonished bucanier, the apartment seemed to be filled with demoniac forms, flitting and gibbering about him.
Aghast and horror-struck, he cried aloud,
"Merciful Heaven, protect me!"
No sooner had the words gone from his mouth than the whole h.e.l.lish confusion and uproar ceased, while, with an expression of fierce wrath, she cried,
"By that word thou hast taken from the charm one half its power. It will protect thee from ball, but not from steel; from earth and fire, but not from water and air; else, with this amulet against thy heart, thou wouldst bear a charmed life."
"'Tis nothing lost," he answered, recklessly.
"If ball can harm me not, a strong arm, quick eye, and faithful cutla.s.s shall protect me against steel. Thou hast ensured me victory in love and revenge?"
"I have."
"More I ask not. Water can scarce drown one whose home is on the sea.
Air I fear not!"
"Take heed, lest one day thou die not in it!"
"Ha! what mean you?"
"Nothing. Kneel while I hang this amulet about thy neck."
Attaching to it a strand of her own long hair, she suspended it about his neck as he kneeled before her, chanting,
"Mystic charm, s.h.i.+eld from harm!
Winds and waves, Be his slaves!
Mortal, naught can injure thee, Spread thy sail and sweep the sea!
Vengeance now is in thy hand.
Be thy foe on sea or land!
If thy oath be kept not well, Ill befall thee with this spell!"
Instantly thunder seemed to shake the hut, which was filled with a sulphurous flame, while a repet.i.tion of the sounds he had before heard filled him with consternation; and, ere he could rise to his feet, he was struck to the earth by an unseen hand.
When he recovered himself the hut was deserted, and, save a ray of moonlight streaming through the roof, buried in total darkness.
Confused, his senses overpowered, and his imagination excited by the scenes he had been so prominent and pa.s.sive an actor in, he left the hut, the door of which was wide open, sought his boat, and roused his men, who, save Lawrence, had fallen asleep.
Giving his orders briefly, he put out from the Witch's Isle, and at midnight stood on the deck of his vessel. Shortly afterward he got under weigh, sailed down the Narrows and put out to sea. When the morning broke, great was the surprise and delight of the worthy people of New Amsterdam to find that the stranger had departed as silently and mysteriously as he had come; and many were the sage conjectures ventured the following evening by the worthies that gathered, as usual, about the stoop of the "Boat and Anchor," as to his character; and, sooth to say, they hit not far from the truth.
CHAPTER IV.
"She saw the n.o.ble in the peasant's garb, And dared to love--nay, more, she dared to brave The world's dread frown, to follow him afar Amid the danger of the stormy wave."
"He bore a charmed life. O'er earth and sea No fiend so feared, no spirit dread as he."
