Farewell, Jervase Helwyse!" said she. "Keep my image in yourremembrance, as you behold it now.""Alas, lady!" he replied, in a tone no longer wild, but sad as afuneral bell. "We must meet shortly, when your face may wear anotheraspect- and that shall be the image that must abide within me."He made no more resistance to the violent efforts of thegentlemen and servants, who almost dragged him out of the apartment,and dismissed him roughly from the iron gate of the Province House.
Captain Langford, who had been very active in this affair, wasreturning to the presence of Lady Eleanore Rochcliffe, when heencountered the physician, Doctor Clarke, with whom he had held somecasual talk on the day of her arrival. The Doctor stood apart,separated from Lady Eleanore by the width of the room, but eying herwith such keen sagacity that Captain Langford involuntarily gave himcredit for the discovery of some deep secret.
"You appear to be smitten, after all, with the charms of thisqueenly maiden," said he, hoping thus to draw forth the physician'shidden knowledge.
"God forbid!" answered Doctor Clarke, with a grave smile; "and ifyou be wise you will put up the same prayer for yourself. Wo tothose who shall be smitten by this beautiful Lady Eleanore! But yonderstands the Governor- and I have a word or two for his private ear.
Good night!"
He accordingly advanced to Governor Shute, and addressed him inso low a tone that none of the by-standers could catch a word ofwhat he said, although the sudden change of his Excellency'****herto cheerful visage betokened that the communication could beof no agreeable import. A very few moments afterwards it was announcedto the guests that an unforeseen circumstance rendered it necessary toput a premature close to the festival.
The ball at the Province House supplied a topic of conversation forthe colonial metropolis for some days after its occurrence, andmight still longer have been the general theme, only that a subject ofall-engrossing interest thrust it, for a time, from the publicrecollection. This was the appearance of a dreadful epidemic, which,in that age and long before and afterwards, was wont to slay itshundreds and thousands on both sides of the Atlantic. On theoccasion of which we speak, it was distinguished by a peculiarvirulence, insomuch that it has left its traces- its pit-marks, to usean appropriate figure- on the history of the country, the affairs ofwhich were thrown into confusion by its ravages. At first, unlikeits ordinary course, the disease seemed to confine itself to thehigher circles of society, selecting its victims from among the proud,the well-born, and the wealthy, entering unabashed into statelychambers, and lying down with the slumberers in silken beds. Some ofthe most distinguished guests of the Province House- even those whomthe haughty Lady Eleanore Rochcliffe had deemed not unworthy of herfavor- were stricken by this fatal scourge. It was noticed, with anungenerous bitterness of feeling, that the four gentlemen- theVirginian, the British officer, the young clergyman, and theGovernor's secretary- who had been her most devoted attendants onthe evening of the ball, were the foremost on whom the plague strokefell. But the disease, pursuing its onward progress, soon ceased to beexclusively a prerogative of aristocracy. Its red brand was nolonger conferred like a noble's star, or an order of knighthood. Itthreaded its way through the narrow and crooked streets, and enteredthe low, mean, darksome dwellings, and laid its hand of death upon theartisans and laboring classes of the town. It compelled rich andpoor to feel themselves brethren then; and stalking to and froacross the Three Hills, with a fierceness which made it almost a newpestilence, there was that mighty conqueror- that scourge and horrorof our forefathers- the Small-Pox!
We cannot estimate the affright which this plague inspired of yore,by contemplating it as the fangless monster of the present day. Wemust remember, rather, with what awe we watched the gigantic footstepsof the Asiatic cholera, striding from shore to shore of theAtlantic, and marching like destiny upon cities far remote whichflight had already half depopulated. There is no other fear sohorrible and unhumanizing as that which makes man dread to breatheheaven's vital air lest it be poison, or to grasp the hand of abrother or friend lest the gripe of the pestilence should clutchhim. Such was the dismay that now followed in the track of thedisease, or ran before it throughout the town. Graves were hastilydug, and the pestilential relics as hastily covered, because thedead were enemies of the living, and strove to draw them headlong,as it were, into their own dismal pit. The public councils weresuspended, as if mortal wisdom might relinquish its devices, nowthat an unearthly usurper had found his way into the ruler'smansion. Had an enemy's fleet been hovering on the coast, or hisarmies trampling on our soil, the people would probably have committedtheir defence to that same direful conqueror who had wrought their owncalamity, and would permit no interference with his sway. Thisconqueror had a symbol of his triumphs. It was a blood-red flag,that fluttered in the tainted air, over the door of every dwellinginto which the Small-Pox had entered.
Such a banner was long since waving over the portal of the ProvinceHouse; for thence, as was proved by tracking its footsteps back, hadall this dreadful mischief issued. It had been traced back to a lady'sluxurious chamber- to the proudest of the proud- to her that was sodelicate, and hardly owned herself of earthly mould- to the haughtyone, who took her stand above human sympathies- to Lady Eleanore!
