The Midnight Queen Read online

  CHAPTER V. THE DWARF AND THE RUIN.

  The by-path down which Sir Norman rode, led to an inn, "The GoldenCrown," about a quarter of a mile from the ruin. Not wishing to takehis horse, lest it should lead to discovery, he proposed leaving it heretill his return; and, with this intention, and the strong desire for aglass of wine--for the heat and his ride made him extremely thirsty--hedismounted at the door, and consigning the animal to the care of ahostler, he entered the bar-room. It was not the most inviting placein the world, this same bar-room--being illy-lighted, dim withtobacco-smoke, and pervaded by a strong spirituous essence of strongerdrinks than malt or cold water. A number of men were loitering about,smoking, drinking, and discussing the all-absorbing topic of the plague,and the fires that might be kindled. There was a moment's pause, as SirNorman entered, took a seat, and called for a glass of sack, and thenthe conversation went on as before. The landlord hastened to supply hiswants by placing a glass and a bottle of wine before him, and Sir Normanfell to helping himself, and to ruminating deeply on the events of thenight. Rather melancholy these ruminations were, though to do the younggentleman justice, sentimental melancholy was not at all in his line;but then you will please to recollect he was in love, and when peoplecome to that state, they are no longer to be held responsible either fortheir thoughts or actions. It is true his attack had been a rapid one,but it was no less severe for that; and if any evil-minded critic isdisposed to sneer at the suddenness of his disorder, I have only to say,that I know from observation, not to speak of experience, that love atfirst sight is a lamentable fact, and no myth.

  Love is not a plant that requires time to flourish, but is quite capableof springing up like the gourd of Jonah full grown in a moment. Ouryoung friend, Sir Norman, had not been aware of the existence of theobject of his affections for a much longer space than two hours anda half, yet he had already got to such a pitch, that if he did notspeedily find her, he felt he would do something so desperate as toshake society to its utmost foundations. The very mystery of the affairspurred him on, and the romantic way in which she had been found, saved,and disappeared, threw such a halo of interest round her, that he wasinclined to think sometimes she was nothing but a shining vision fromanother world. Those dark, splendid eyes; that lovely marblelike face;those wavy ebon tresses; that exquisitely exquisite figure; yes, he feltthey were all a great deal too perfect for this imperfect and wickedworld. Sir Norman was in a very bad way, beyond doubt, but no worse thanmillions of young men before and after him; and he heaved a great manyprofound sighs, and drank a great many glasses of sack, and came to thesorrowful conclusion that Dame Fortune was a malicious jade, inclined topoke fun at his best affections, and make a shuttlecock of his heartfor the rest of his life. He thought, too, of Count L'Estrange; and thelonger he thought, the more he became convinced that he knew him well,and had met him often. But where? He racked his brain until, betweenlove, Leoline, and the count, he got that delicate organ into such amaze of bewilderment and distraction, that he felt he would be a caseof congestion, shortly, if he did not give it up. That the count'svoice was not the only thing about him assumed, he was positive; and hementally called over the muster-roll of his past friends, who spent halftheir time at Whitehall, and the other half going through the streets,making love to the honest citizens' pretty wives and daughters; butnone of them answered to Count L'Estrange. He could scarcely be aforeigner--he spoke English with too perfect an accent to be that; andthen he knew him, Sir Norman, as if he had been his brother. In short,there was no use driving himself insane trying to read so unreadablea riddle; and inwardly consigning the mysterious count to Old Nick, heswallowed another glass of sack, and quit thinking about him.

  So absorbed had Sir Norman been in his own mournful musings, that hepaid no attention whatever to those around him, and had nearly forgottentheir very presence, when one of them, with a loud cry, sprang tohis feet, and then fell writhing to the floor. The others, in dismay,gathered abut him, but the next instant fell back with a cry of, "He hasthe plague!" At that dreaded announcement, half of them scampered offincontinently; and the other half with the landlord at their head,lifted the sufferer whose groans and cries were heart-rendering, andcarried him out of the house. Sir Norman, rather dismayed himself, hadrisen to his feet, fully aroused from his reverie, and found himselfand another individual sole possessors of the premises. His companion hecould not very well make out; for he was sitting, or rather crouching,in a remote and shadowy corner, where nothing was clearly visible butthe glare of a pair of fiery eyes. There was a great redundancy of hair,too, about his head and face, indeed considerable more about the latterthan there seemed any real necessity for, and even with the imperfectglimpse he caught of him the young man set him down in his own mind asabout as hard-looking a customer as he had ever seen. The fiery eyeswere glaring upon him like those of a tiger, through a jungle of bushyhair, but their owner spoke never a word, though the other stared backwith compound interest. There they sat, beaming upon each other--onefiercely, the other curiously, until the re-appearance of the landlordwith a very lugubrious and woebegone countenance. It struck Sir Normanthat it was about time to start for the ruin; and, with an eye tobusiness, he turned to cross-examine mine host a trifle.

  "What have they done with that man?" he asked by way of preface.

  "Sent him to the pest-house," replied the landlord, resting his elbowson the counter and his chin in his hands, and staring dismally at theopposite wall. "Ah! Lord 'a' mercy on us! These be dreadful times!"

  "Dreadful enough!" said Sir Norman, sighing deeply, as he thought ofhis beautiful Leoline, a victim of the merciless pestilence. "Have therebeen many deaths here of the distemper?"

  "Twenty-five to-day!" groaned the man. "Lord! what will become of us?"

  "You seem rather disheartened," said Sir Norman, pouring out a glass ofwine and handing it to him. "Just drink this, and don't borrow trouble.They say sack is a sure specific against the plague."

  Mine host drained the bumper, and wiped his mouth, with another hollowgroan.

  "If I thought that, sir, I'd not be sober from one week's end tot'other; but I know well enough I will be in a plague-pit in less than aweek. O Lord! have mercy on us!"

  "Amen!" said Sir Norman, impatiently. "If fear has not taken away yourwits, my good sir, will you tell me what old ruin that is I saw a littleabove here as I rode up?"

  The man started from his trance of terror, and glanced, first at thefiery eyes in the corner, and then at Sir Norman, in evident trepidationof the question.

  "That ruin, sir? You must be a stranger in this place, surely, or youwould not need to ask that question."

  "Well, suppose I am a stranger? What then?"

  "Nothing, sir; only I thought everybody knew everything about thatruin."

  "But I do not, you see? So fill your glass again, and while you aredrinking it, just tell me what that everything comprises."

  Again the landlord glanced fearfully at the fiery eyes in the corner,and again hesitated.

  "Well!" exclaimed Sir Norman, at once surprised and impatient at histaciturnity, "Can't you speak man? I want you to tell me all about it."

  "There is nothing to tell, sir," replied the host, goaded todesperation. "It is an old, deserted ruin that's been here ever since Iremember; and that's all I know about it."

  While, he spoke, the crouching shape in the corner reared itselfupright, and keeping his fiery eyes still glaring upon Sir Norman,advanced into the light. Our young knight was in the act of raising hisglass to his lips; but as the apparition approached, he laid it downagain, untasted, and stared at it in the wildest surprise and intensestcuriosity. Truly, it was a singular-looking creature, not to say arather startling one. A dwarf of some four feet high, and at least fivefeet broad across the shoulders, with immense arms and head--a giant ineverything but height. His immense skull was set on such a trifle of aneck as to be scarcely worth mentioning, and was garnished by a violentmat of coarse, black hair, which also overran the
territory of hischeeks and chin, leaving no neutral ground but his two fiery eyes anda broken nose all twisted awry. On a pair of short, stout legs he woreimmense jack-boots, his Herculean shoulders and chest were adorned witha leathern doublet, and in the belt round his waist were conspicuouslystuck a pair of pistols and a dagger. Altogether, a more ugly orsinister gentleman of his inches it would have been hard to find in allbroad England. Stopping deliberately before Sir Norman, he placed a handon each hip, and in a deep, guttural voice, addressed him:

  "So, sir knight--for such I perceive you are--you are anxious to knowsomething of that old ruin yonder?"

  "Well," said Sir Norman, so far recovering from his surprise as to beable to speak, "suppose I am? Have you anything to say against it, mylittle friend?"

  "Oh, not in the least!" said the dwarf, with a hoarse chuckle. "Only,instead of wasting your breath asking this good man, who professes suchutter ignorance, you had better apply to me for information."

  Again Sir Norman surveyed the little Hercules from head to foot for amoment, in silence, as one, nowadays, would an intelligent gorilla.

  "You think so--do you? And what may you happen to know about it, mypretty little friend?"

  "O Lord!" exclaimed the landlord, to himself, with a frightened face,while the dwarf "grinned horribly a ghastly smile" from ear to ear.

  "So much, my good sir, that I would strongly advise you not to go nearit, unless you wish to catch something worse than the plague. There havebeen others--our worthy host, there, whose teeth, you may perceive, arechattering in his head, can tell you about those that have tried thetrick, and--"

  "Well?" said Sir Norman, curiously.

  "And have never returned to tell what they found!" concluded the littlemonster, with a diabolical leer. And as the landlord fell, gray andgasping, back in his seat, he broke out into a loud and hyena-likelaugh.

  "My dear little friend," said Sir Norman, staring at him in displeasedwonder, "don't laugh, if you can help it. You are unprepossessing enoughat best, but when you laugh, you look like the very (a downward gesture)himself!"

  Unheeding this advice, the dwarf broke again into an unearthlycachinnation, that frightened the landlord nearly into fits, andseriously discomposed the nervous system even of Sir Norman himself.Then, grinning like a baboon, and still transfixing our puissant youngknight with the same tiger-like and unpleasant glare, he nodded afarewell; and in this fashion, grinning, and nodding, and backing, hegot to the door, and concluding the interesting performance with a thirdhoarse and hideous laugh, disappeared in the darkness.

  For fully ten minutes after he was gone, the young man kept his eyesblankly fixed on the door, with a vague impression that he was sufferingfrom an attack of nightmare; for it seemed impossible that anything sopreposterously ugly as that dwarf could exist out of one. A deep groanfrom the landlord, however, convinced him that it was no disagreeablemidnight vision, but a brawny reality; and turning to that individual,he found him gasping, in the last degree of terror, behind the counter.

  "Now, who in the name of all the demons out of Hades may that uglyabortion be?" inquired Sir Norman.

  "O Lord! be merciful! sir, it's Caliban; and the only wonder is, he didnot leave you a bleeding corpse at his feet!"

  "I should like to see him try it. Perhaps he would have found that is agame two can play at! Where does he come from and who is he!"

  The landlord leaned over the counter, and placed a very pale andstartled face close to Sir Norman's.

  "That's just what I wanted to tell you, sir, but I was afraid to speakbefore him. I think he lives up in that same old ruin you were inquiringabout--at least, he is often seen hanging around there; but people aretoo much afraid of him to ask him any questions. Ah, sir, it's a strangeplace, that ruin, and there be strange stories afloat about it," saidthe man, with a portentious shake of the head.

  "What are they?" inquired Sir Norman. "I should particularly like toknow."

  "Well, sir, for one thing, some folks say it is haunted, on account ofthe queer lights and noises about it, sometimes; but, again, there beother folks, sir, that say the ghosts are alive, and that he"--noddingtoward the door--"is a sort of ringleader among them."

  "And who are they that cut up such cantrips in the old place, pray?"

  "Lord only knows, sir. I'm sure I don't. I never go near it myself; butthere are others who have, and some of them tell of the most beautifullady, all in white, with long, black hair, who walks on the battlementsmoonlight nights."

  "A beautiful lady, all in white, with long, black hair! Why, thatdescription applies to Leoline exactly."

  And Sir Norman gave a violent start, and arose to proceed to the placedirectly.

  "Don't you go near it, sir!" said the host, warningly. "Others havegone, as he told you, and never come back; for these be dreadful times,and men do as they please. Between the plague and their wickedness, theLord only knows what will become of us!"

  "If I should return here for my horse in an hour or two, I suppose I canget him?" sad Sir Norman, as he turned toward the door.

  "It's likely you can, sir, if I'm not dead by that time," said thelandlord, as he sank down again, groaning dismally, with his chinbetween his hands.

  The night was now profoundly dark; but Sir Norman knew the road and ruinwell, and, drawing his sword, walked resolutely on. The distance betweenit and the ruin was trifling, and in less than ten minutes it loomedup before him, a mass of deeper black in the blackness. No white visionfloated on the broken battlements this night, as Sir Norman lookedwistfully up at them; but neither was there any ungainly dwarf, withtwo-edged sword, guarding the ruined entrance; and Sir Norman passedunmolested in. He sought the spiral staircase which La Masque hadspoken of, and, passing carefully from one ancient chamber to another,stumbling over piles of rubbish and stones as he went, he reached it atlast. Descending gingerly its tortuous steepness, he found himself inthe mouldering vaults, and, as he trod them, his ear was greeted bythe sound of faint and far-off music. Proceeding farther, he hearddistinctly, mingled with it, a murmur of voices and laughter, and,through the chinks in the broken flags, he perceived a few faint raysof light. Remembering the directions of La Masque, and feeling intenselycurious, he cautiously knelt down, and examined the loose flagstonesuntil he found one he could raise; he pushed it partly aside, and, lyingflat on the stones, with his face to the aperture, Sir Norman beheld amost wonderful sight.