Roland Cashel Volume Ii Part 45

"How do you mean?" cried Roland, in amazement.

"Simply, that for seven weeks I have lived beneath your roof. The narrative is too long for a moment like this; but enough if I tell you that it was a plot of Maritana's, who, had I not acceded to the notion, would have disguised herself and come hither, to watch and see with her own eyes how you played the great man. To save her from such a step, when all persuasion failed, I came here as the sailor Giovanni."

"You Giovanni?"

"Ay, Roland; and if wealth had not blinded you so effectually, you had soon seen through the counterfeit. As Giovanni, I saw your daily life,--the habits of your household; the sterling worth and fidelity of the men you made your friends; and let me tell you, Cashel, our old a.s.sociates of the Villa de las Noches were men of unblemished honor compared with those well-bred companions of your prosperity. Often and often have I been upon the brink of declaring myself, and then have I held back, sometimes from a curiosity to see the game played out, sometimes anxious to know how far this course of treachery might be carried on without its awakening your suspicions. At length, I actually grew weary of seeing you the dupe. I almost ceased to feel interest in one who could be imposed upon with such slender artifice. I forgot, Roland, that I was the looker-on, and not the player of the game. It was in this mood of mind I had half determined to leave your house, and suffer you to go down the stream as chance might pilot, when I discovered that treachery had taken a higher flight than I suspected; and that, not content with the slow breaching of your fortune by play and reckless waste, your utter ruin, your very beggary had been compa.s.sed!"

Cashel started back, and grasped the other's arm tightly, but never spoke.

"Are you still so infatuated as not to guess the traitor?" cried Enrique.

"You mean Linton?"

"I do."

"But are you certain of what you speak? or do you mistake the cunning devices of a subtle mind for the darker snares of downright treachery?"

"You shall hear," said Enrique. "Sit down hereupon this stone; I have some hours before I sail. The vessel leaves Limerick to-morrow for Naples; and thither I am bound, for Maritana is there. No, no, my dear friend, you must not ask me to stay; I have remained longer than I ought; but I waited for the time when I might be able to recompense you for having thus played the spy upon your actions. Hear me out patiently now, for that hour is come."

As Cashel seated himself beside Enrique, it was only by a great effort he could compose himself to listen, when a hundred questions came thronging to his mind, and doubts and inquiries, of every possible kind, demanded explanation.

"I will not waste your time nor my own by dwelling upon your losses at play. I may one day or another amuse you by showing how little chance our old Columbian friends would have had against these honorable and right honorable swindlers. That you should be the mark for artifice is natural enough; but I have little patience with your blindness in not seeing it. From the first hour of your arrival here, Linton set a watch upon your doings. Phillis was his princ.i.p.al agent. But even upon him Linton had his spies,--myself among the number. Ay, Roland, I was perhaps the only one he trusted! As I have said, Linton marked every step you took, heard all you said, read every letter that reached you.

Every night it was his practice, at a certain hour when you repaired to the cottage, to enter your dressing-room by a secret door that led from the theatre; and then, at his leisure, he ransacked your papers, examined your correspondence, searched through all the doc.u.ments which concerned your estate, possessing himself of information on every point of your circ.u.mstances. Nor was this all; he abstracted papers of value from amongst them, well knowing the carelessness of your habits, and with what little risk of detection his boldest darings were attended. I studied him long and closely. For a great while I could not detect the clew to his proceedings. I even at one time ascribed all to jealousy, for he _was_ jealous of the favor by which Lady Kilgoff distinguished you. This, however, could not explain all I saw, for it was on the subject of your fortune his deepest interest was excited. At last came his first move, and the whole game disclosed itself before me. There lay upon your table for several days a deed concerning the cottage where the old gentleman resided with his daughter. This, Linton, to my surprise, did not take away, but simply contented himself by placing it in such a prominent position as would in all likelihood attract your notice. To no purpose, however; you would seem to have tossed it over, among other papers, without attention. He went a step further; he broke the seal, and left the enclosure half open. Still it lay unminded. The next night he carried it off, but you never missed it."

"Nor was it of any consequence," broke in Cashel. "It was never perfected, and had neither my signature nor my seal."

"Are you certain of that?" said Enrique, smiling dubiously.

"I could swear to it."

"Look here, then," said the other, as he drew forth a pocket-book, from the folds of which he took a heavy package, and opened it before Cashel.

"Is that name, there,--that signature, 'Roland Cashel,'--yours?"

Cashel stared at the writing without speaking; his hands trembled as they held the paper, and his very frame shook with agitation.

"I never wrote it!" cried he, at last, with an effort almost convulsive.

"Yet, see if it be not witnessed; there are the names and address of two persons."

"It is a forgery; a clever one, I own, but still a forgery. I never signed that paper--never saw it till this instant."

"Well," said Enrique, slowly, "I scarcely expected so much of memory from you. It is true, as you say, you never did sign it; but _I_ did."

"You, Enrique,--you?" exclaimed Cashel.

"Yes, Roland. I accompanied Linton to Limerick at his request, dressed to personate _you_. We were met at the hotel by two persons summoned to witness this act of signature; of the meaning of which I, of course, appeared to know nothing; nor did I, indeed, till long afterwards discover the real significance."

"And how came you by it eventually?"

"By imitating Linton's own proceedings. I saw that for security he placed it in an iron box, which he carried with him to Limerick, and which contained another doc.u.ment of apparently far greater value. This casket was long enough in my company on that morning to enable me to take a model of the key, by which I afterwards had another made, and by means of which I obtained possession of both these papers--for here is the other."

"And when did you take them?"

"About an hour ago. I saw this drama was drawing to a finish. I knew that Linton's schemes were advancing more rapidly than I could follow; his increased confidence of manner proved to me his consciousness of strength, and yet I could neither unravel his cunning nor detect his artifice. Nothing then remained but to carry off these papers; and as the hour of my own departure drew nigh, there was no time to lose. There they are both. I hope you will be a more careful depositary than you have been hitherto."

"And where is Linton?" cried Roland, his pa.s.sionate eagerness for revenge mastering every other feeling.

"Still your guest. He dines and does the honors of your board to-day, as he did yesterday, and will to-morrow."

"Nay, by my oath, that he will never do more! The man is no coward, and he will not refuse me the _amende_ I 'll ask for."

"Were he on board, it is a loop and a leap I 'd treat him to," said Enrique.

"So should I, perhaps," said Cashel, "but the circ.u.mstances change with the place. Here he shall have the privilege of the cla.s.s he has belonged to and disgraced."

"Not a bit of it, Roland. He is an average member of the guild; the only difference being, with more than average ability. These fellows are all alike. Leave them, I say. Come and rough it with me in the Basque, where a gallant band are fighting for the true sovereign; or let us have another dash in the Far West, where the chase is as the peril and glory of war; or what say you to the East? a Circa.s.sian saddle and a cimeter would not be strange to us. Choose your own land, my boy, and let us meet this day month at Cadiz."

"But why leave me, Enrique? I never had more need of a true-hearted friend than now."

"No, I cannot stay; my last chance of seeing Maritana depends on my reaching Naples at once; and as to your affair with Linton, it will be one of those things of etiquette, and measured distance, and hair-trigger, in which a rough sailor like myself would be out of place."

"And Maritana--tell me of her. They said that Rica had come to England."

"Rica! He dared not set foot on sh.o.r.e. The fellow has few countries open to him now: nor is it known where he is."

"And is she alone? Is Maritana unprotected?"

"Alone, but not unprotected. The girl who has twice crossed the Cordilleras with a rifle on her shoulder need scarcely fear the insults of the coward herd that would molest her."

"But how is she living? In what rank--among what a.s.sociates?"

"I only know that she maintains a costly retinue at the 'Albergo Reale;'

that her equipages, her servants, her liveries, bespeak wealth without limit. She is a mystery to the city she inhabits. So much have I heard from others; from herself, a few lines reached me at Dieppe, begging me to see you, and--you will scarcely believe it--asking for a release from that bond of betrothal that pa.s.sed between you,--as if it could signify anything."

"Was the freedom thus obtained to be used in your favor, Enrique?"

The other grew purple, and it was a few seconds before he could answer.

"No; that is over forever. She has refused me as one so much below her that the very thought of an alliance would be degradation. The sailor--the buccaneer--raise his eyes to her whom princes seek in vain?

I go now to say my last farewell: so long as there dwells upon my mind the slenderest chance of meeting her, so long will hope linger in my heart; not the high hope that spirits one to glorious enterprise, but that feverish anxiety that unnerves the courage and shakes the purpose.

I cannot endure it any longer."

"Remain with me, then, for a day--for two at furthest--and we will go together to Naples."

"Do not ask me, Roland. Some accident--some one of those chances which befall each hour of life--might delay us; and then I might never see her more. She is to leave Naples by the end of the month, but to go whither, or how, she will not tell. Promise me to follow. Let us meet there; and then, if the world has not a faster hold upon you than I deem it has, we 'll seek our fortune together in new lands. What say you? is it a bargain?"

"Agreed," said Roland. "I'll leave this within a week, without it be my fate to quit it never. Let us rendezvous at Naples, then; and fortune shall decide what after."

"How hundreds of things press upon my mind, all of which, when I am gone, will be remembered, but which now are confusedly mingled up together! What warnings I meant to have given you! what cautions! and now I can think of nothing."