YOL. 2.] Legends of Lampidosa.-The Spaniard. 169 of brass is called the era of counterfeit cannot possibly be an improvement; and these last cast such strong suspicions on one side of the question, that we are not surprised at the habits and propensities of young men of fashion, and only fear that the character of Lucretia has nobles and gentlemen; but although a LEGENDS OF LAMPIDOSA. THE SPANIARD. From the European Magazine. MONG the noble visitors assembled That quickness of invention so unfortu nately peculiar to women, prompted her at Bareges near the French Pyrenees, to shape a device which accident seemed none were more distinguished than the to favour. Passing by the room where Conde Manuel del Tormes and his her husband usually took his siesta, or beautiful wife Juana. The dispropor- evening repose; she saw the door halftion of their ages, characters, and exteri- opened, and the ill-fated packet lying ors was a subject of surprize to every on a writing-table surrounded with young cavalier, and of pity to every rouleaus and scattered dollars. The Spanish matron. His shrivelled fore faint light admitted by the closed jahead, bloated eyes, and cadaverous com- louses of the chamber discovered no one plexion, in which the jaundice of spleen in it, but she beard the deep and slow and suspicion was added to the olive breathings of a sleeper behind the drape. tint given by his native climate, afforded ry which shadowed a retired couch. a fearful contrast to the soft youthful Juana instantly took off her own wellcountenance of his consort. After a known bracelets, folded and sealed them short and reluctant stay at these celebra- in a paper shaped like the jeweller's packted medicinal springs, the Conde sud- et, of which the wax did not appear to denly announced his intended return to have been broken. It would not be difMadrid; where the pomp attached to ficult, she believed, to persuade her hushis high official station soothed his pride, band that they had been sent for some and prevented the indolent ennui which slight change or repairs, and the jeweldiseased his imagination. While he ler's discretion might be secured. Seaddressed his commands to Donna Ju- cretly blessing Don Manuel's unusual ana, a page entered with a small packet, want of curiosity and lethargic humour, which he received without casting his Juana stole with a sylph's step into the eye upon it and put into his vest. But dusky chamber, and without pausing to Juana saw it with very uneasy sensa- wonder at the numerous rouleaus, though tions, knowing that it contained a pair the opportunity excited a siniie, exchanof valuable bracelets which a jeweller at ged her packet for that which lay exBareges had been privately ordered to posed upon the table and fled back. prepare for her. Severely confined by But what surprise, perplexity, and disher husband's jealous parsimony, she had may, possessed her, when she broke the -been tempted to commit the fault com- wax and beheld, not the bracelets she non to inexperienced wives-the dan- had ordered, but a magnificent pair, of gerous fault of trusting disobedience to the rarest Peruvian gold enriched with a secrecy. Either by heedlessness or de- medallion representing a young man in sign, the bracelets, which had never a splendid English uniform! Its combeen intended to meet her lord's eye, panion contained a cypher and coronet had fallen into his hands; and a detec- of diamonds. Could this be the jeweltion, aggravated by attempted concealment, would be the inevitable result. • Evident by the taste and appearance of teh breed. ler's mistake, the stratagem of some gallant stranger, or part of a mystery managed by her husband? Whatever was the truth, her own imprudence and mis 170 Legends of Lumpidosa.-The Spaniard. [VOL. % fortune were irretrievable, as, on her cau- the English ambassadress gave a fête, tious return to the chamber-door, she which all the nobility of Madrid were found it closed and bolted. In silent invited to partake. Juana eagerly emand profound agony, sharpened by the braced the opportunity to seek a friendnecessity of disguise, Juana awaited the ship with this distinguished lady, half return of her husband, whose counte- determining to deposit the stolen jewels nance only expressed its usual sullen in her hands, that they might be restored coldness, while he completed her con- to their owner by her aid. Many officers fusion by enquiring for what purpose of high rank, attendants on the "Great she had privately ordered the bracelets Lord," were mingled with the assembly, which a jeweller had delivered to his whose chief attention was fixed on the page. Unprepared, disordered, and con- Conde del Tormes' beautiful wife. scious of error, Juana made a timid and With that quick and constant suspicion hesitating reply, which, though strictly which creates the danger it fears, Juana true, had all the aspect of falsehood. imagined some peculiar meaning in the She alleged, that compassion for a dis- occasional glance of a young Englishtressed and deserving artisan, had in- man, whose military dress resembled the duced her to order a pair of bracelets, portrait in the bracelet. A thousand which she had not thought sufficiently blushes pursued each other over her face, important to mention. Don Manuel and her downcast, yet attentive eye heard her with a mysterious smile, and carelessly answered, that he had determined to leave Bareges because he had been required to cede the chamber usually allotted to his siesta, for the accommodation of one of the numerous strangers lately arrived at the venta where they lodged. This last intelligence explained one part of the fatal mistake committed by Juana, and deepened the possible calamity. She had been seen, perhaps, by the new guest feloniously conveying away his jewels, and leaving in exchange a deposit which he might receive and expose as a token of preference! The loveliest rose-colour of modest shame spread over her cheeks at this thought, and her husband throwing the bracelets she had clandestinely purchased into her lap, smiled on her and departed in silence. This silence and this forgiving smile touched her innocent and generous heart with more remorse than his utmost bitterness could have excited. Softened by selfreproach into respectful timidity, she obeyed his commands to prepare for an immediate removal with unusual yet unaffected meekness. During their long journey to Madrid, she received no other notice than a cold monysyllable or an indirect glance, but the spirit of youth and innocence sustained her hopes and her efforts to conciliate. Many months passed without any recurrence to the unfortunate mistake at Bareges, when seemed to give assent to the enquiry expressed by his. The gracious gaiety of the ambassadress encouraged her young guest to ask the name of this Englishman. ""Tis my brother," replied her excellency smiling, "and he dares not ask an introduction to any Spanish belle because he has forfeited my favour by his negligence." Juana hazarded another question which her entertainer's sprightly tone invited, and the ambassadress uncovering her arm answered, "He promised to bring me bracelets of your purest Peruvian gold for this night, and you see me without any!-Listen to his exuse and praise its ingenuity. He tells me that his usual infirmity of walking in his sleep seized him at Bareges, where he dreamed that a music book lay before him, in which a Spanish ballad so strongly touched his fancy, that to distinguish the page, he left a folded paper in it; when he awoke, the packet which contained the bracelets intended for me, was gone. He remembers the room, the ballad, and the music-book, in which he pretends that he deposited it, most accurately: and if I may believe him, the ballad was "One of Lopez de Vega's," hastily interrupted Juana, and the music book was mine. We left Bareges suddenly before the owner of the bracelets could be guessed; but I have brought them to night, hoping that your kindness might assist me in restoring them." The ambassadress, with a smile VOL. 2.] Legends of Lampidosa.--The Spaniard. 173 full of benignity and archness, received Spain. He was alone in his chamber the bracelets from the young countess, arranging some important papers when whose blushes announced how much his valet entered leading three armed she doubted whether she owed most to agents of the police, who instantly conthe delicate invention of the brother or veyed him in a closed carriage to a the sister. But during the remainder secret prison. The Bishop of Cof the evening, her release from a dan- received him there. "You are accused," gerous dilemina gave an elastic ease to said the prelate with a stern air, "of seher movements, and a new lustre to her duction and assassination; and though countenance, of which more than one our principles of jurisprudence prohibit eye was fatally observant. any disclosure of the accuser's name The gala extended far beyond mid- and communications, I love England night, and the brother of the fair giver and its laws too much to withhold my was among the latest lingerers. Morn- protection from an Englishman. Thereing shone through the triellis of his bal- fore I tell you your valet is your accuser. cony when he reached his bed chamber, He saw you in the act of opening a where he saw, with great surprise, a certain coffer, and he directed us where large wooden chest, which had been to find it buried, in the orangery under brought, as his servant informed him, your balcony, You grow pale, and he only a few minutes before his return, has spoken truth!"" In England," by three strangers, who had received replied Clanharold after a short pause, his orders, they said, to lodge it there "I should have appealed to its laws to with great precaution. Our English protect me from imprisonment on an man prudently dismissed his valet be- unconfirmed pretence, and to my repu fore be unfastened the lid of this mys- tation for an answer to such a charge. terious coffer and raised the large folds It is no boast to say, that Englishmen of white linen within. Beneath them are not familiar with that ferocious lay the lifeless body of Juana, in the passion which urges men to murder what rich attire she had worn at his sister's they cannot possess or have possessed too banquet, with a chain of Peruvian gold long. When I tell you this, I only tell you twisted tightly round her neck, and tied that we are not monsters." Innocence itself in a fatal knot. Her right hand wore a would have shrunk from the Spaniard's white glove; the left was bare and dia- eye as he answered. "You are aware, figured by deep wounds.-At this then, that he accuses you of assassinating frightful spectacle a cry of horror escap- a woman!"-Clanharold felt the rashness ed Clanbarold; but presently collecting of his speech and the inference it admitted, his disordered senses, he began to con- but baffled his inquisitor by retorting sider what was most expedient at a crisis "can he prove it ?"-Stung by the conso perilous. He saw the snare prepared tempt in Clanharold's smile, the bishop for him, and had terrible proofs of the exclaimed, "The proof of innocence power, the malice, and the speed of the rests with you. A female strangled and contriver. The vindictive jealousy which cruelly wounded was conveyed to your had sacrificed so much loveliness might dwelling at midnight by men hired as also thirst for his life, though sheltered by accomplices, but now witnesses of the his national importance and family dis- crime. I adjure you as a minister of tinction. In a few hours Clanharold justice, and as the friend of your nabad devised and executed the plan tion's honour, which your public which appeared best fitted to his pur- amination would endanger, to confess pose, and several days passed without the truth. Where was the corpse deproducing any rumour relative to Ju- posited?"-" I know of none!" replied ana, except that she had left Madrid Clanbarold firmly; "nor have I adwith her husband, When the Conde's mitted any knowledge of the men you departure was well ascertained, the name. I have held no secret and disyoung Englishman, whose pride had honourable intercourse in Spain either forbidden any step resembling a retreat, with the living or the dead. This is began to feel the policy of quitting my answer, and the last I shall repeat." 174 Legends of Lampidosa.-The Spaniard. (VOL. 2 The prelate smiled indignantly and "Mine is with you!" returned the departed. But notwithstanding his first stranger raising his large eyes with a emotions of anger at the prisoner's dark fire in them." You are a priest, haughty defiance, his habitual caution, they say, and I want absolution for My joined to some generous feelings, en- master's secret !" he clenched his hands forced, perhaps, by the respect due to on his breast with a groan which expressed Clanharold's nation, rank, and family, agony even to suffocation, and fell insuspended his proceedings even beyond sensible on the ground. the usual degree of Spanish tardiness. The Judge had a heart worthy his Wearied with the misery of an impris- high station among Christain priests, onment which seemed purposely pro- and an understanding superior to the tracted, Clanharold's pride sunk at errors of Spanish jurisprudence. He length under the anxious entreaties of summoned his secretary and two conhis sister, and he consented to avail fidential assistants, who conveyed the himself of her aid. About this period, unhappy stranger to a chamber near her husband's official station rendered the holy tribunal, and carefully recalled another public banquet necessary, and his senses. When his eyes opened, she studiously included the Bishop of they fixed themselves on the mysterious Camong her guests. In the chief chest, which had been placed before him saloon, where the most numerous and by the prelate's order. "Has it struck brilliant part of the assembly were en- twelve, and is all done so soon!-Well, gaged in the Bolero, a stranger sud- carry it gently-my master is not yet at denly entered, whose extraordinary de- home""Carry the torch, then," said portment and attire fixed every eye upon the bishop's secretary." Here are three him. A mantle of grey silk, strangely of us to take the chest."-"O the dead painted, was wrapped round him; his weigh heavy but we will have no feet were bare, and his head covered torch; I know my way blindfolded." with a large hat of plaited straw, inter- The attendants understanding the motion woven with flowers. This fantastic of their master's eye, raised the chest figure moved slowly round the room, upon their shoulders, and accompanied looking wildly yet familiarly on the their guide through the dark and intricate assembly, and waving the remnant of a streets of Madrid, till they reached the white glove stained with blood. The house once occupied by Clanharold. females among the crowd endeavoured to Still preceded by the unknown, and hide themselves from the intrusion of a followed by the bishop muffled up, they maniac, but a few cavaliers ventured to entered the bedchamber where it had surround and question him. Still waving been first deposited. "Let us look at the glove, he only answered, "My her again before we leave her," said the Master's secret."-No one of the am- secretary affecting to apply his eye to a bassador's household had seen this person chink in the coffer. "It is my masenter, or could guess from whence he ter's secret!" exclaimed the maniac, came; but the ambassadress leading the pushing him back with the strength of Bishop of C towards him, directed insanity-"but this gold chain will pay his attention to the fragment of a gold for absolution--take it, father."chain concealed in the stranger's breast. "Follow me, my son," said the bishop, Dismissing every spectator, and closing "and the peace of penitence be with the doors of the saloon, the bishop laid thee!" his hand upon the maniac's shoulder, At the middle hour of the next night and attempted to take the golden chain Clanharold's musings were disturbed by from his vest. With the same vague the entrance of the prelate with a dark and fixed smile, he repeated, "My mas- and severe countenance. He accosted ter's secret," and covered it closer in him in few words, and announced the the folds of his silk mantle. 66 Do you certainty of his secret but final trial on know this hall?" said the inquisitor.- the following day. This information "Yes."-" And the business of this only raised the courage and the hopes night?"-"It is my master's secret." of the young prisoner, who apprehended "But what is your business here?"- nothing so much as the obscure and VOL. 2.] Legends of Lampidosa.—The Spaniard. 175 slow progress of the holy tribunal. No ed to me;-my roof has never been an pomp or circumstance was spared to asylum for infamy in any shape, and I render the judicial court imposing to know no Spanish woman to whom it is the Englishman's feelings when he en- due."-" He prevaricates!" interrupted "He tered it; but those feelings may be well the Conde, forgetting his own danger conjectured when he saw the chest which in his zeal to criminate an enemy-" he had been employed as Juana's coffin has spoken falsely!-let him remember standing in the centre, and her husband Bareges and the accommodating kindness at the bar. "Henry Viscount Clan- of his sister!"-A momentary blush harold," said the inferior judge rising passed over Clanharold's forehead, solemnly from his seat under a dark followed by a stern and deadly paleness. canopied recess, "we cite you here to "Under English laws," he said, dibear witness of the truth. Look on this recting his eyes towards the judges, man and answer us--are ye strangers to "frenzy and desperation are not allowed each other?" "We have never met to convict themselves; nor are the most before," replied Clanharold, evading a plausible assertions credited without distinct reply to a question which he proofs. All the witnesses err. If they feared might criminate a man unjustly can certify the fact of an assassination, suspected. "By the sanctity of that oath let them make known the manner, and which we have imposed on your veracity, name the victim."-" Beware!" said the we require you to communicate all you bishop, "the chief witness has confessed know of this chest."-" I know not what all. Do you venture to look upon this are its contents," he answered, still chain?" Clanharold instantly recogseeking safety in evasion. The Conde nised a fragment of the woven gold so fixed his slow eye on Clanharold as these fatally employed round Juana's neck. words were registered, and drew his lip "You cannot deny that you have inwards with a ghastly smile. Three seen the instrument of an unhappy lady's men were summoned next, and solemuly death; this glove is the counterpart of attested the conveyance of this chest, at one worn by her corpse, and the place of midnight, to the English nobleman's its interment is all we have to ask. You apartment, and professed their belief, stand here, not as a culprit, but as an that it contained a treasure expected by evidence against him; unless a contuhim. His valet followed with a precise macious silence renders you an accomand accurate detail of the circuinstances plice. Where is the body of Juana?" attending the opening of the lid, the groan which escaped his master, and the short stupor of agony which appeared to seize him, while excited by curiosity and suspicion he had watched his movements, Last came the miserable stranger, still clothed in his fantastic drapery, with the have seen no instrument of death, no blood-stained glove in his haud, and the place of secret interment, and to your broken chain fastened round his neck. last question I answer-my ignorance "Master! I have kept your secret!" he is absolute." The secretary of the triexclaimed and fainted. "Spare your bunal recorded this declaration, while efforts," said the Conde, coldly folding the only lamp which lighted the spahis arms over his breast- this wretch cious hall of justice was gradually can tell you nothing more than I avow. lowered over the coflin of Juana. H He knows his master's secret-he knows husband shuddered and turned away that an infamous woman left her husband's his face, while the bishop, executing house on the eve of St. Blasius's festival, the most awful office of his temporai and returned to it no more."-"And administration, advanced to pronounce you received her?" added the chief his sentence. "Manuel del Tormes, judge, addressing the English prisoner. accused and convicted by the assistants "My lord," replied Clanharold-"I of your guilt; and you, Henry Lord have already disclaimed the guilt imput- Clanharold, subjected to the penalty of Clanharold remained silent till this question had been thrice repeated. To its last solemn proposition he replied, "if the Conde is accused of murder, 1 have no evidence to give, but I fully and firmly believe hiin innocent. I |