VI.
That sundown, Pierre stood solitary in a low dungeon of the
city prison. The cumbersome stone ceiling almost rested on
his brow; so that the long tiers of massive cell-galleries above
seemed partly piled on him. His immortal, immovable,
bleached cheek was dry; but the stone cheeks of the walls
were trickling. The pent twilight of the contracted yard, coming
through the barred arrow-slit, fell in dim bars upon the
granite floor.
“Here, then, is the untimely, timely end;—Life's last chapter
well stitched into the middle! Nor book, nor author of
the book, hath any sequel, though each hath its last lettering!
—It is ambiguous still. Had I been heartless now, disowned,
and spurningly portioned off the girl at Saddle Meadows, then
had I been happy through a long life on earth, and perchance
through a long eternity in heaven! Now, 'tis merely hell in
both worlds. Well, be it hell. I will mold a trumpet of the
flames, and, with my breath of flame, breathe back my defiance!
But give me first another body! I long and long to
die, to be rid of this dishonored cheek.
Hung by the neck till
thou be dead.—Not if I forestall you, though!—Oh now to
live is death, and now to die is life; now, to my soul, were a
sword my midwife!—Hark!—the hangman?—who comes?”
“Thy wife and cousin—so they say;—hope they may be;
they may stay till twelve;” wheezingly answered a turnkey,
pushing the tottering girls into the cell, and locking the door
upon them.
“Ye two pale ghosts, were this the other world, ye were not
welcome. Away!—Good Angel and Bad Angel both!—For
Pierre is neuter now!”
“Oh, ye stony roofs, and seven-fold stony skies!—not thou
art the murderer, but thy sister hath murdered thee, my brother,
oh my brother!”
At these wailed words from Isabel, Lucy shrunk up like a
scroll, and noiselessly fell at the feet of Pierre.
He touched her heart.—“Dead!—Girl! wife or sister, saint
or fiend!”—seizing Isabel in his grasp—“in thy breasts, life for
infants lodgeth not, but death-milk for thee and me!—The
drug!” and tearing her bosom loose, he seized the secret vial
nesting there.
