Phroso: A Romance

  CHAPTER XI

  THE LAST CARD

  In most families--at least among those that have any recorded historyto boast of or to deplore--there is a point of family pride: with oneit is grace of manner; with another, courage; with a third,statecraft; with a fourth, chivalrous loyalty to a lost cause or afallen prince. Tradition adds new sanction to the cherishedexcellence; it becomes the heirloom of the house, the mark of therace--in the end, perhaps, a superstition before which greater thingsgo down. If the men cling to it they are compensated by licence inother matters; the women are held in honour if they bear sons who donot fail in it. It becomes a new god, with its worship and its altar;and often the altar is laden with costly sacrifices. Wisdom has littlepart in the cult, and the virtues that are not hallowed by hereditaryrecognition are apt to go unhonoured and unpractised. I have heard itsaid, and seen it written, that we Wheatleys have, as a stock, fewmerits and many faults. I do not expect my career--if, indeed, I hadsuch an ambitious thing as a career in my life's wallet--to reversethat verdict. But no man has said or written of us that we do not keepfaith. Here is our pride and palladium. Promises we neither break norask back. We make them sometimes lightly; it is no matter: substance,happiness, life itself must be spent in keeping them. I had learntthis at my mother's knee. I myself had seen thousands and thousandspoured forth to a rascally friend on the strength of a schoolboypledge which my father made. 'Folly, folly!' cried the world. Whetherit were right or not, who knows? We wrapped ourselves in the scantymantle of our one virtue and went our way. We always--but a man growstedious when he talks of his ancestors; he is like a doting oldfellow, garrulous about his lusty youth. Enough of it. Yet not morethan enough, for I carried this religion of mine to Neopalia, andbuilt there an altar to it, and prepared for my altar the rarestsacrifice. Was I wrong? I do not care to ask.

  'His life is my life. For I love him as my life.' The words rang in myears, seeming to echo again through the silence that followed them:they were answered in my heart by beats of living blood. 'Was ittrue?' flashed through my brain. Was it truth or stratagem, a noblefalsehood or a more splendid boldness? I did not know. The words werestrange, yet to me they were not incredible. Had we not lived throughages together in those brief full hours in the old grey house? And theparting in the quiet evening had united while it feigned to sever. Ibelieve I shut my eyes, not to see the slender stately form that stoodbetween death and me. When I looked again, Demetri and his angrycomrades had fallen back and stood staring in awkward bewilderment,but the women had crowded in upon us with eager excited faces; onebroad-browed kindly creature had run to Phroso and caught her roundthe waist, and was looking in her eyes, and stroking her hand, andmurmuring soft woman's comforting. Demetri took a step forward.

  'Come, if you dare!' cried the woman, bold as a legion of men. 'Is adog like you to come near my Lady Euphrosyne?' And Phroso turned herface away from the men and hid it in the woman's bosom.

  Then came a cold rasping voice, charged with a bitter anger thatmasqueraded as amusement.

  'What is this comedy, cousin?' asked Constantine. 'You love this man?You, the Lady of the island--you who have pledged your troth to me?'He turned to the people, spreading out his hands.

  'You all know,' said he--'you all know that we are plighted to oneanother.'

  A murmuring assent greeted his words. 'Yes, they are betrothed,' Iheard half-a-dozen mutter, as they directed curious glances at Phroso.'Yes, while the old lord lived they were betrothed.'

  Then I thought it time for me to take a hand in the game; so I steppedforward, in spite of Kortes's restraining arm.

  'Be careful,' he whispered. 'Be careful.'

  I looked at him. His face was drawn and pale, like the face of a manin pain, but he smiled still in his friendly open fashion.

  'I must speak,' I said. I walked up to within two yards ofConstantine, the islanders giving way before me, and I said loudly anddistinctly:

  'Was that same betrothal before you married your wife or afterwards?'

  He sprang half-way up from his seat, as if to leap upon me, but hesank back again, his face convulsed with passion and his fingerspicking furiously at the turf by his side. 'His wife!' went round thering in amazed whisperings.

  'Yes, his wife,' said I. 'The wife who was with him when I saw him inmy country; the wife who came with him here, who was in the cottageon the hill, whom Vlacho would have dragged by force to her death, wholay last night yonder in the guardhouse. Where is she, ConstantineStefanopoulos? Or is she dead now, and you free to wed the LadyEuphrosyne? Is she alive, or has she by now learnt the secret of theStefanopouloi?'

  I do not know which made more stir among the people, my talk of hiswife or my hint about the secret. They crowded round me, hemming mein. I saw Phroso no more; but Kortes pushed his way to my side. Thenthe eyes of all turned on Constantine, where he sat with face workingand nails fiercely plucking the turf.

  'What is this lie?' he cried. 'I know nothing of a wife. True, therewas a woman in the cottage.'

  'Ay, there was a woman in the cottage,' said Kortes. 'And she was inthe guardhouse; but I did not know who she was, and I had no commandsconcerning her; and this morning she was gone.'

  'That woman is his wife,' said I; 'but he and Vlacho had planned tokill her, in order that he might marry your Lady and have your islandfor himself.'

  Demetri suddenly cried, with a great appearance of horror anddisgust:

  'Shall he live to speak such a slander against my lord?'

  But Demetri gained no attention. I had made too much impression.

  'Who was the woman, then,' said I, 'and where is she?'

  Constantine, tricky and resourceful, looked again on the dead Vlacho.

  'I may not tell my friend's secrets,' said he, with an admirableassumption of honour. 'And a foul blow has sealed Vlacho's lips.'

  'Yes,' cried I. 'Vlacho killed the old lord, and Vlacho brought thewoman! Indeed Vlacho serves my lord as well dead as when he lived! Fornow his lips are sealed. Come, then--Vlacho bought the island, andVlacho slew Spiro, and now Vlacho has slain himself! NeitherConstantine nor I have done anything; but it is all Vlacho--the usefulVlacho--Vlacho--Vlacho!'

  Constantine's face was a sight to see, and he looked no pleasanterwhen my irony wrung smiles from some of the men round him, whileothers bit their lips to stop smiles that sought to come.

  'Oh faithful servant!' I cried, apostrophising Vlacho, 'heavy are thysins! May'st thou find mercy for them!'

  I did not know what cards Constantine held. If he had succeeded inspiriting away his wife, by fair means or foul, he had the betterchance; but if she were still free, alive and free, then he played aperilous hand and was liable to be utterly confounded. Yet he wasforced to action; I had so moved the people that they looked for morethan mere protests from him.

  'The stranger who came to steal our island,' said he, skilfullyprejudicing me by this description, 'asks me where the woman is. But Iask it of him--where is she? For it stands with him to put her beforeyou that she may tell you whether I, Constantine Stefanopoulos, amlying to you. Yet how long is it since you doubted the words of theStefanopouloi and believed strangers rather than them?'

  His appeal won on them. They met it with murmured applause.

  'You know me, you know my family,' he cried. 'Yet you hearken to thedesperate words of a man who fights for his life with lies! How shallI satisfy you? For I have not the woman in my keeping. But have younot heard me when I swore my love for my cousin before you and the oldlord who is dead? Am I a man to be forsworn? Shall I swear to younow?'

  The current began to run strongly with him. He had called to his aidpatriotism, and the old clan-loyalty which bound the Neopalians tohis house, and they did not fail him. The islanders were ready totrust him if he would pledge himself to them.

  'Swear then!' they cried. 'Swear to us on the sacred picture that whatthe stranger says is a lie.'

  'On the sacred picture?' said he. 'Is it not too great and holy anoath for suc
h a matter? Is not my word enough for you?'

  But the old priest stepped forward.

  'It is a great matter,' said he, 'for it touches closely the honour ofyour house, my lord, and on it hangs a man's life. Is any oath toogreat when honour and life lie in the balance? Let your life standagainst his, for he who swears thus and falsely has no long life inNeopalia. Here we guard the honour of St Tryphon.'

  'Yes, swear on the picture,' cried the people. 'It is enough if youswear on the picture!'

  I could see that Constantine was not in love with the suggestion, buthe accepted it with tolerable grace, acquiescing in the old priest'sargument with a half-disdainful shrug. The people greeted his consentwith obvious pleasure, save only Demetri, who regarded him with adoubtful expression. Demetri knew the truth, and, though he would cuta throat with a light heart, he would shrink from a denial of the deedwhen sworn on the holy picture. Truly conscience works sometimes instrange ways, making the lesser sin the greater, and dwarfing vilecrimes to magnify their venial brethren. No, Demetri would not havesworn on the picture; and when he saw it brought to Constantine heshrank away from his leader, and I saw him privily and furtively crosshimself. But Constantine, freed by the scepticism he had learnt in theWest to practise the crimes the East had taught him, made littletrouble about it. When the ceremonies that had attended the oldwoman's oath earlier in the day had been minutely, solemnly, andtediously repeated, he swore before them as bravely as you please andthereby bid fair to write my death-warrant in his lying words. Forwhen the oath was done, the most awful names in heaven standingsanction to his perjury, and he ceased, saying, 'I have sworn,' theeyes of the men round him turned on me again and seemed to ask mesilently what plea for mercy I could now advance. But I caught at mychance.

  'Let Demetri swear,' said I coolly, 'that, so far as his knowledgegoes, the truth is no other than what the Lord Constantine has sworn.'

  'A subterfuge!' cried Constantine impatiently. 'What should Demetriknow of it?'

  'If he knows nothing it is easy for him to swear,' said I. 'Men of theisland, a man should have every chance for his life. I have given youback your island. Do this for me. Make Demetri swear. Ah, look at theman! See, he shakes, his face goes pale, there is a sweat on his brow.Why, why? Make him swear!'

  I should not have prevailed without the assisting evidence of therascal's face. It was as I said: he grew pale and sweated on theforehead; he cleared his throat hoarsely, but did not speak.Constantine's eyes said, 'Swear, fool, swear!'

  'Let Demetri also swear,' cried some. 'Yes, it is easy, if he knowsnothing.'

  Suddenly Phroso sprang forward.

  'Yes, let him swear,' she cried. 'Who is Chief here? Have I no power?Let him swear!' And she signed imperiously to the priest.

  They brought the picture to Demetri. He shrank from it as though itstouch would kill him.

  'In the name of Almighty God, as you hope for mercy; in the name ofour Lord the Saviour, as you pray for pity; in the name of the MostBlessed Spirit, whose Word is Truth; by the Most Holy Virgin, and byour Holy Saint--' began the old man. But Demetri cried hoarsely:

  'Take it away, take it away. I will not swear.'

  'Let him swear,' said Phroso, and this time the whole throng caught upher command and echoed it in fierce urgency.

  'Let him swear to tell the whole truth of what he knows, hidingnothing, according to the terms of the oath,' said the priest,pursuing his ritual.

  'He shall not swear,' cried Constantine, springing up. But he spoke todeaf ears and won only looks of new-born suspicion.

  'It is the custom of the island,' they growled. 'It has been done inNeopalia time out of mind.'

  'Yes,' said the priest. 'Time out of mind has a man been free to askthis oath of whomsoever he suspected. Swear, Demetri, as our Lady andour law bid.' And he ended the words of the oath.

  Demetri looked round to right, to left, and to right again. He soughtescape. There was none; his way was barred. His arms fell by his side.

  'Will you let me go unharmed if I speak the truth?' he asked sullenly.

  'Yes,' answered Phroso, 'if you speak the whole truth, you shall gounhurt.'

  The excitement was intense now; for Demetri took the oath, Constantinewatching, with pale strained face. Then followed a moment's uttersilence, broken an instant later by an irresistible outbreak ofwondering cries, for Demetri said, 'Follow me,' and turned and beganto walk in the direction of the town. 'Follow me,' he said again. 'Iwill tell the truth. I have served my lord well, but a man's soul ishis own. No master buys a man's soul. I will tell the truth.'

  The change in feeling was witnessed by what happened. At a sign fromthe priest Kortes and another each took one of Constantine's arms andraised him. He was trembling now and hardly able to set one footbefore the other. The dogs of justice were hard on his heels, and hewas a craven at heart. Thus bearing him with us, in procession wefollowed Demetri from the place of assembly back to the steep narrowstreet that ran up from the sea. On the way none spoke. In the middleI walked; and in front of me went Phroso, the woman who had come tocomfort her still holding her arm in hers.

  On Demetri led us with quick decisive steps; but when he came to thedoor of the inn which had belonged to that Vlacho whose body lay nowdeserted on the level grass above the seashore, he halted abruptly,then turned and entered. We followed, Constantine's supportersbringing him also with us. We passed through the large lower room andout of the house again into an enclosed yard, bounded on the seawardside by a low stone wall, towards which the ground sloped rapidly.Here Demetri stopped.

  'By my oath,' said he, 'and as God hears me! I knew not who this womanwas; but last night Vlacho bade me come with him to the cottage on thehill, and, if he called me, I was to come and help him to carry herto the house of my Lord Constantine. He called, and I, coming withKortes, found Vlacho dead. Kortes would not suffer me to touch thelady, but bade me stay with Vlacho. But when Kortes was gone andVlacho dead, I ran and told my lord what had happened. My lord wasgreatly disturbed and bade me come with him; so we came together tothe town and passed together by the guardhouse.'

  'Lies, foul lies,' cried Constantine; but they bade him be quiet, andDemetri continued in a composed voice:

  'There Kortes watched. My lord asked him whom he held prisoner; andwhen he heard that it was the Englishman, he sought to prevail onKortes to deliver him up; but Kortes would not without the command ofthe Lady Euphrosyne. Then my lord said, "Have you no other prisoner,Kortes?" Kortes answered, "There is a woman here whom we found in thecottage; but you gave me no orders concerning her, my lord, neitheryou, nor the Lady of the island." "I care nothing about her," said mylord with a shrug of his shoulders, and he and I turned away andwalked some paces up the street. Then, at my lord's bidding, Icrouched down with him in the shadow of a house and waited. Presently,when the clock had struck two, we saw Kortes come out from theguardhouse; and the woman was with him. Now we were but fifty feetfrom them, and the wind was blowing from them to us, and I heard whatthe lady said.'

  'It happened as he says,' interrupted Kortes in a grave tone. 'Ipromised secrecy, but I will speak now.'

  '"I must go to the Lady Euphrosyne," said she to Kortes,' continuedDemetri. '"I have something to say to her." Kortes answered, "She islodging at the house of the priest. It is the tenth house on the lefthand as you mount the hill." She thanked him, and he turned back intothe guardhouse, and we saw no more of him. The lady came slowly andfearfully up the road; my lord beside me laughed gently, and twisted asilk scarf in his hand; there was nobody in the street except my lord,the lady and me; and as she went by my lord sprang out on her, andtwisted the scarf across her mouth before she could cry out. Then heand I lifted her, and carried her swiftly down the street. We camehere, to Vlacho's inn; the door was open, for Vlacho had gone out; ithad not yet become known that he would never return. We carried herswiftly through the house and brought her where we stand now, and laidher on the ground. My lord tied her hands and her feet, so that shelay st
ill; her mouth was already gagged. Then my lord drew me asideand took five pieces of gold from his purse and said, looking into myeyes, "Is it enough?" I understood, and said, "It is enough, my lord,"and he pressed my hand and left me, without going again near thewoman. And I, having put the five pieces in my purse, drew my knifefrom its sheath and came and stood over the woman, looking how I mightbest strike the blow. She was gagged and tied and lay motionless. Butthe night was bright, and I saw her eyes fixed on mine. I stood longby her with my knife in my hand; then I knelt down by her to strike.But her eyes burned into my heart, and suddenly I seemed to hear Satanby my side, chuckling and whispering, "Strike, Demetri, strike! Artthou not damned already? Strike!" And I did not dare to look to theright or the left, for I felt the Fiend by me. So I shut my eyes andgrasped my knife; but the lady's eyes drew mine open again, although Istruggled to keep them shut. Now many devils seemed to be round me;and they were gleeful, saying, "Oh, he is ours! Yes, Demetri is ours.He will do this thing and then surely he is ours!" Suddenly I sobbed;and when my sob came, a gleam lighted the lady's eyes. Her eyes lookedlike the eyes of the Blessed Virgin in the church; I could not strikeher. I flung down my knife and fell to sobbing. As I sobbed the noiseof the devils ceased; and I seemed to hear instead a voice from abovethat said to me very softly, "Have I died to keep thy soul alive, andthou thyself wouldst kill it, Demetri?" I know not if any one spoke;but the night was very still, and I was afraid, and I cried low,"Alas, I am a sinner!" But the voice said, "Sin no more;" and the eyesof the lady implored me. But then they closed, and I saw that she hadfainted. And I raised her gently in my arms and carried her acrossthis piece of ground where we stand.'

  He ended, and stood for a moment silent and motionless. None of usspoke.

  'I took her,' said he, 'there, where the wall ends; for I knew thatVlacho had his larder there. The door of the larder was locked, but Iset the lady down and returned and took my knife from the ground, andI forced the lock and took her in, and laid her on the floor of thelarder. Then I returned to the house, and called to Panayiota,Vlacho's daughter, with whom I am of kin. When she came I charged herto watch the lady till I returned, saying that Vlacho had bidden mebring her here; for I meant to return in a few hours and carry thelady to some place of safety, if I could find one. Panayiota, fearingVlacho and having an affection for me, promised faithfully to keep thelady safe. Then I ran after my lord, and found him at the house, andtold him that the deed was done, and that I had hidden the body here;and I craved leave to return and make a grave for the body or carry itto the sea. But he said, "It will be soon enough in the evening. Weshall be quit of troubles by the evening. Does any one know?" Ianswered rashly, "Panayiota knows." And he was enraged, fearingPanayiota would betray us; but when he heard that she and I werelovers, he was appeased; yet I could not find means to leave him andreturn to the lady.'

  Demetri ended. Phroso, without a look at any one of us, steppedlightly to the spot he had described. There was a low hut there, witha stout wooden door. Phroso knocked on it, but there came no answer.She beckoned to Kortes, and he, coming, wrenched open the door, whichseemed to have been fastened by some makeshift arrangement. Kortesdisappeared for an instant; then he came out again and motioned withhis hand. We crowded round the door, I among the first. There, indeed,was a strange sight. For on the floor, propped against the side of thehut, sat a buxom girl; her eyes were closed, her lips parted, and shebreathed in heavy regular breaths; Panayiota had watched faithfullyall night, and now slept at her post. Yet her trust was not betrayed.On her lap rested the head of the lady whom Demetri had not found itin his heart to kill; the bonds with which she had been bound lay onthe floor by her; and she also, pale and with shadowed rings about hereyes, slept the sleep of utter exhaustion and weariness. We stoodlooking at the strange sight--a sudden gleam of peace and homelykindness breaking across the dark cloud of angry passions.

  'Hush,' said Phroso very softly. She stepped forward and fell on herknees by the sleeping woman, and she lightly kissed Constantine's wifeon the brow. 'Praise be to God!' said Phroso softly, and kissed heragain.