CHAPTER XIV.
March, the 9th day.
Dona Orosia sent for me at noon to-day. There was news to tell, and shechose to be the one to tell it.
I found her in her favourite seat,--a great soft couch, covered withrich Moorish stuffs, and placed under the shadow of the balcony thatoverlooks the sunny garden. Up each of the light pillars from whichspring the graceful arches that support this balcony climbs a mass ofblooming vines that weave their delicate tendrils round the railingabove and then trail downward again in festoons of swaying colour.Behind, in the luminous shadow, she lay coiled and half asleep; with alarge fan of bronze turkey-feathers in one lazy hand, the other teasingthe tawny hound which was stretched out at her feet.
She opened her great eyes as I came near.
"Ah! the little blue-eyed Margarita, the little saint who frowns whenmen worship at her shrine," she said slowly. "There is news for you. The_Virgen de la Mar_ arrived last night from Habana, bringing thecommands of the Council of Spain that the English prisoners heredetained be liberated forthwith. For it seems that there has beenpresented to the Council, through our ambassador to the English Court, amemorial, which clearly proves that these persons have given noprovocation to any subject of his Catholic Majesty, Charles the Secondof Spain, and are therefore unlawfully imprisoned. How like you that?"The waving fan was suddenly stilled, and the brilliant eyes half veiled.
"Is this true?" I asked, for my heart misgave me.
She laughed. "It is true that the _Virgen de la Mar_ has brought thoseorders to the Governor of San Augustin--and that my husband has receivedthem."
"Will he obey them, senora?"
"Will who obey them?" she asked; and there was a gleam of white teethunder the red, curling lip. "My husband, or the Governor of SanAugustin?"
"Are they not the same?"
"If you think so, little fool," she cried, half rising from her couch;"if you think so still, you would better go back to your chamber andpray yourself and your lover out of prison!"
I made no answer; I waited, without much hope, for what she would saynext. My heart was very full, but I would not pleasure her by weeping.
"Child," she continued, sinking back among the cushions and speaking ina slow, impressive manner, "there are _two_ Governors in SanAugustin--and they take their commands neither from the child-King, theQueen-mother, nor any of the Spanish Council. My husband is not one; heobeys them both by turns. His Excellency Don Pedro Melinza decrees thatthese orders from Spain shall be carried out except in the case of oneSenor Rivers, who will be held here to answer for an unprovoked assaulton one of his Majesty's subjects, whom he severely wounded; also forinciting others of his fellow prisoners to break their parole, and forvarious other offences against the peace of this garrison,--all of whichcharges Melinza will swear to be true."
"Is he so lost to honour? And will your husband uphold him in the lie?"
"Hear me out," she continued in the same tone. "Melinza also decidesthat these orders do not include the English senorita, Dona Margaret,whom he intends to detain here for----for reasons best known to himself;although the other Governor of San Augustin decrees"----she started upfrom her nest of pillows and continued in a wholly different tone: "_I_say--_I_ say--that you shall quit this place with the other prisoners,and my husband dares not oppose me! I am sick of your white face andyour saintly blue eyes; I am wearied to death of your company; but Iswear Melinza shall not have you! Therefore go you must, and speedily."
"And leave my betrothed at Don Pedro's mercy?"
"What is that to me? Let him rot in his dungeon. I care not--so I am ridof your white face."
She shut her eyes angrily and thrust out her slippered foot at thesleeping hound. He lifted his great head and yawned; then, gathering uphis huge bulk from the ground, he drew closer to his mistress's side andsniffed the air with solicitude, as though seeking a cause for herdispleasure. There was a dish of cakes beside her, and she took one inher white fingers and threw it to the dog. He let it fall to the ground,and nosed it doubtfully, putting forth an experimental tongue,--till,finding it to his taste, he swallowed it at a gulp. His mistresslaughed, and tossed him another, which disappeared in his great jaws. Athird met the same fate; but the fourth she extended to him in her pinkpalm, and, as he would have taken it she snatched the hand away. Againand again the poor brute strove to seize the proffered morsel, but eachtime it was lifted out of his reach; till finally his lithe body waslaunched upward, and he snapped both the cake and the hand that teasedhim.
'Twas the merest scratch, and truly the dog meant it not in anger; buton the instant Dona Orosia flushed crimson to her very brow, and,drawing up her silken skirt, she snatched a jewelled dagger from hergarter and plunged it to the hilt in the poor beast's throat. The redblood spouted, and the huge body dropped in a tawny heap.
I rushed forward and lifted the great head; but the eyes were glazed.
"Senora!" I cried, "senora! the poor brute loved you!"
She spurned the limp body with a careless foot, saying,--
"So did--once--the man who gave it me."
Then she clapped her hands, and the negro servant came and at hercommand dragged away the carcass, wiped the bloody floor, and brought abasin of clear water and a linen cloth to bathe the scratch on her hand.When he had gone she made me bind it up with her broidered kerchief andstamped her foot because I drew the knot over-tight.
"Dona Orosia," I said, when I had done it to her liking. "If all youcare for, in this other matter, is to get rid of my white face, I prayyou kill me with your dagger and ask your lord to let my love go free."
She looked up curiously. "Would you die for him?" she asked.
"Most willingly, an it please you to make my death his ransom."
Still she gazed at me and seemed strangely stirred. "Once I loved likethat," she said in musing tones. "I will tell thee a tale, child, for Ilike not the reproach in those blue eyes. Five years ago, when I was asyoung as thou art now, I lived with my parents in Valencia, where theflowers are even sweeter and the skies bluer than here in sunny Florida.I had a lover in those days, who followed me like my shadow, and, inspite of my old duenna, found many a moment to pour his passion in myears. He was a brave man and a handsome, and he won my heart from me.Though he had no great fortune I would have wed him willingly andfollowed him over land and sea. I never doubted him for a day; and whenhe came to my father's house with an old nobleman, his uncle and thehead of his family, I was well content; for my mother told me they hadasked for my hand and it had been promised. But when my father called mein at last to see my future husband, it was the old man who met me witha simper on his wrinkled face. I turned to the nephew; but he was gazingout of the window----"
She broke off with a fierce laugh and then added bitterly,--"And so Icame to marry my husband, the Governor of San Augustin!"
"The other was Don Pedro?"
"Has thy baby wit compassed that much? Yes, the other was Melinza."
"But if you once loved him why should there be hate between you now?"
"Why? thou little fool! Why?"--she put out one hand and drew me closer,so that she could look deep into my eyes. "Why does a woman ever hate aman? Canst tell me that?"
We gazed at each other so until I saw--I scarce know what I saw! My headswam, and of a sudden it came over me that when the angels fell fromheaven there must have been an awful beauty in their eyes!