All recoiled at the sound of his voice and the determined action by which it was accompanied; for the ecstasy of real desperation seldom fails to overpower the less energetic passions by which it may be opposed. The clergyman was the first to speak. 'In the name of God,' he said, 'receive an overture of peace from the meanest of His servants. What this honourable person demands, albeit it is urged with over violence, hath yet in it something of reason. Let him hear from Miss Lucy's own lips that she hath dutifully acceded to the will of her parents, and repenteth her of her covenant with him; and when he is assured of this he will depart in peace unto his own dwelling, and cumber us no more. Alas! the workings of the ancient Adam are strong even in the regenerate; surely we should have long-suffering with those who, being yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity, are swept forward by the uncontrollable current of worldly passion. Let then, the Master of Ravenswood have the interview on which he insisteth; it can but be as a passing pang to this honourable maiden, since her faith is now irrevocably pledged to the choice of her parents. Let it, I say, be this: it belongeth to my functions to entreat your honours' compliance with this headling overture.'
'Never!' answered Lady Ashton, whose rage had now overcome her first surprise and terror—'never shall this man speak in private with my daughter, the affianced bride of another! pass from this room who will, I remain here. I fear neither his violence nor his weapons, though some,' she said, glancing a look towards Colonel Ashton, 'who bear my name appear more moved by them.'
'For God's sake, madam,' answered the worthy divine, 'add not fuel to firebrands. The Master of Ravenswood cannot, I am sure, object to your presence, the young lady's state of health being considered, and your maternal duty. I myself will also tarry; peradventure my grey hairs may turn away wrath.'
'You are welcome to do so, sir,' said Ravenswood; 'and Lady Ashton is also welcome to remain, if she shall think proper; but let all others depart.'
'Ravenswood,' said Colonel Ashton, crossing him as he went out, 'you shall account for this ere long.'
'When you please,' replied Ravenswood.
'But I,' said Bucklaw, with a half smile, 'have a prior demand on your leisure, a claim of some standing.'
'Arrange it as you will,' said Ravenswood; 'leave me but this day in peace, and I will have no dearer employment on earth to-morrow than to give you all the satisfaction you can desire.'
The other gentlemen left the apartment; but Sir William Ashton lingered.
'Master of Ravenswood,' he said, in a conciliating tone, 'I think I have not deserved that you should make this scandal and outrage in my family. If you will sheathe your sword, and retire with me into my study, I will prove to you, by the most satisfactory arguments, the inutility of your present irregular procedure——'
'To-morrow, sir—to-morrow—to-morrow, I will hear you at length,' reiterated Ravenswood, interrupting him; 'this day hath its own sacred and indispensable business.'
He pointed to the door, and Sir William left the apartment.
Ravenswood sheathed his sword, uncocked and returned his pistol to his belt; walked deliberately to the door of the apartment, which he bolted; returned, raised his hat from his forehead, and gazing upon Lucy with eyes in which an expression of sorrow overcame their late fierceness, spread his dishevelled locks back from his face, and said, 'Do you know me, Miss Ashton? I am still Edgar Ravenswood.' She was silent, and he went on with increasing vehemence: 'I am still that Edgar Ravenswood who, for your affection, renounced the dear ties by which injured honour bound him to seek vengeance. I am that Ravenswood who, for your sake, forgave, nay, clasped hands in friendship with, the oppressor and pillager of his house, the traducer and murderer of his father.'
'My daughter,' answered Lady Ashton, interrupting him, 'has no occasion to dispute the identity of your person; the venom of your present language is sufficient to remind her that she speaks with the moral enemy of her father.'
'I pray you to be patient, madam,' answered Ravenswood; 'my answer must come from her own lips. Once more, Miss Lucy Ashton, I am that Ravenswood to whom you granted the solemn engagement which you now desire to retract and cancel.'
Lucy's bloodless lips could only falter out the words, 'It was my mother.'
'She speaks truly,' said Lady Ashton, 'it WAS I who, authorised alike by the laws of God and man, advised her, and concurred with her, to set aside an unhappy and precipitate engagement, and to annul it by the authority of Scripture itself.'
'Scripture!' said Ravenswood, scornfully.
'Let him hear the text,' said Lady Ashton, appealing to the divine, 'on which you yourself, with cautious reluctance, declared the nullity of the pretended engagement insisted upon by this violent man.'
The clergyman took his clasped Bible from his pocket, and read the following words: 'If a woman vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth, and her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her; then all her vows shall stand, and every vow wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.'
'And was it not even so with us?' interrrupted Ravenswood.
'Control thy impatience, young man,' answered the divine, 'and hear what follows in the sacred text: 'But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth, not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand; and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.'
'And was not,' said Lady Ashton, fiercely and triumphantly breaking in—'was not ours the case stated in the Holy Writ? Will this person deny, that the instant her parents heard of the vow, or bond, by which our daughter had bound her soul, we disallowed the same in the most express terms, and informed him by writing of our determination?'
'And is this all?' said Ravenswood, looking at Lucy. 'Are you willing to barter sworn faith, the exercise of free will, and the feelings of mutual affection to this wretched hypocritical sophistry?'
'Hear him!' said Lady Ashton, looking to the clergyman—'hear the blasphemer!'
'May God forgive him,' said Bide-the-Bent, 'and enlighten his ignorance!'
'Hear what I have sacrificed for you,' said Ravenswood, still addressing Lucy, 'ere you sanction what has been done in your name. The honour of an ancient family, the urgent advice of my best friends, have been in vain used to sway my resolution; neither the arguments of reason nor the portents of superstition have shaken my fidelity. The very dead have arisen to warn me, and their warning has been despised. Are you prepared to pierce my heart for its fidelity with the very weapon which my rash confidence entrusted to your grasp?'
'Master of Ravenswood,' said Lady Ashton, 'you have asked what questions you thought fit. You see the total incapacity of my daughter to answer you. But I will reply for her, and in a manner which you cannot dispute. You desire to know whether Lucy Ashton, of her own free will, desires to annual the engagement into which she has been trepanned. You have her letter under her own hand, demanding the surrender of it; and, in yet more full evidence of her purpose, here is the contract which she has this morning subscribed, in presence of this reverence gentleman, with Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw.'
Ravenswood gazed upon the deed as if petrified. 'And it was without fraud or compulsion,' said he, looking towards the clergyman, 'that Miss Ashton subscribed this parchment?'
'I couch it upon my sacred character.'
'This is indeed, madam, an undeniable piece of evidence,' said Ravenswood, sternly; 'and it will be equally unnecessary and dishonourable to waste another word in useless remonstrance or reproach. There, madam,' he said, laying down before Lucy the signed paper and the broken piece of gold—'there are the evidences of your first engagement; may you be more faithful to that which you have just formed. I will trouble you to return the corresponding tokens of my ill-placed confidence; I ought rather to say, of my egregious folly.'
Lucy returned the scornful glance of her lover with a gaze from which perception seemed to have been banished; yet she seemed partly to have understood his meaning, for she raised her hands as if to undo a blue ribbon which she wore around her neck. She was unable to accomplish her purpose, but Lady Ashton cut the ribbon asunder, and detached the broken piece of gold, which Miss Ashton had till then worn concealed in her bosom; the written counterpart of the lovers' engagement she for some time had had in her own possession. With a haughty courtesy, she delivered both to Ravenswood, who was much softened when he took the piece of gold.
'And she could wear it thus,' he said, speaking to himself—'could wear it in her very bosom—could wear it next to her heart—even when—— But complain avails not,' he said, dashing from his eye the tear which had
