THE INFLUENCE OF A CONFESSOR.
Hardly had the orphans quitted Dagobert's wife, when the poor woman, kneeling down, began to pray with fervor.Her tears, long restrained, now flowed abundantly; notwithstanding her sincere conviction that she had performed a religious duty in delivering up the girl's she waited with extreme fear her husband's return.Though blinded by her pious zeal, she could not hide from herself, that Dagobert would have good reason to be angry; and then this poor mother had also, under these untoward circumstances, to tell him of Agricola's arrest.
Every noise upon the stairs made Frances start with trembling anxiety;
after which, she would resume her fervent prayers, supplicating strength to support this new and arduous trial.At length, she heard a step upon the landing-place below, and, feeling sure this time that it was Dagobert, she hastily seated herself, dried her tears, and taking a sack of coarse cloth upon her lap, appeared to be occupied with sewing--though her aged hands trembled so much, that she could hardly hold the needle.
After some minutes the door opened, and Dagobert appeared.The soldier's rough countenance was stern and sad; as he entered, he flung his hat violently upon the table, so full of painful thought, that he did not at first perceive the absence of the orphans.
"Poor girl!" cried he."It is really terrible!"
"Didst see Mother Bunch? didst claim her?" said Frances hastily, forgetting for a moment her own fears.
"Yes, I have seen her--but in what a state--twas enough to break one's heart.I claimed her, and pretty loud too, I can tell you; but they said to me, that the commissary must first come to our place in order--" here Dagobert paused, threw a glance of surprise round the room, and exclaimed abruptly: "Where are the children?"
Frances felt herself seized with an icy shudder."My dear," she began in a feeble voice--but she was unable to continue.
"Where are Rose and Blanche! Answer me then! And Spoil-sport, who is not here either!"
"Do not be angry."
"Come," said Dagobert, abruptly, "I see you have let them go out with a neighbor--why not have accompanied them yourself, or let them wait for me, if they wished to take a walk; which is natural enough, this room being so dull.But I am astonished that they should have gone out before they had news of good Mother Bunch--they have such kind hearts.But how pale you are?" added the soldier looking nearer at Frances; "what is the matter, my poor wife? Are you ill?"
Dagobert took Frances's hand affectionately in his own but the latter, painfully agitated by these words, pronounced with touching goodness, bowed her head and wept as she kissed her husband's hand.The soldier, growing more and more uneasy as he felt the scalding tears of his wife, exclaimed: "You weep, you do not answer--tell me, then, the cause of your grief, poor wife! Is it because I spoke a little loud, in asking you how you could let the dear children go out with a neighbor? Remember their dying mother entrusted them to my care--'tis sacred, you see--and with them, I am like an old hen after her chickens," added he, laughing to enliven Frances.
"Yes, you are right in loving them!"
"Come, then--becalm--you know me of old.With my great, hoarse voice, I am not so bad a fellow at bottom.As you can trust to this neighbor, there is no great harm done; but, in future, my good Frances, do not take any step with regard to the children without consulting me.They asked, I suppose, to go out for a little stroll with Spoil-sport?"
"No, my dear!"
"No! Who is this neighbor, to whom you have entrusted them? Where has she taken them? What time will she bring them back?"
"I do not know," murmured Frances, in a failing voice.
"You do not know!" cried Dagobert, with indignation; but restraining himself, he added, in a tone of friendly reproach: "You do not know? You cannot even fix an hour, or, better still, not entrust them to any one?
The children must have been very anxious to go out.They knew that I should return at any moment, so why not wait for me--eh, Frances? I ask you, why did they not wait for me? Answer me, will you!--Zounds! you would make a saint swear!" cried Dagobert, stamping his foot; "answer me, I say!"
The courage of Frances was fast failing.These pressing and reiterated questions, which might end by the discovery of the truth, made her endure a thousand slow and poignant tortures.She preferred coming at once to the point, and determined to bear the full weight of her husband's anger, like a humble and resigned victim, obstinately faithful to the promise she had sworn to her confessor.
Not having the strength to rise, she bowed her head, allowed her arms to fall on either side of the chair, and said to her husband in a tone of the deepest despondency: "Do with me what you will--but do not ask what is become of the children--I cannot answer you."
If a thunderbolt had fallen at the feet of the soldier, he would not have been more violently, more deeply moved; he became deadly pale; his bald forehead was covered with cold sweat; with fixed and staring look, he remained for some moments motionless, mute, and petrified.Then, as if roused with a start from this momentary torpor, and filled with a terrific energy, he seized his wife by the shoulders, lifted her like a feather, placed her on her feet before him, and, leaning over her, exclaimed in a tone of mingled fury and despair: "The children!"
"Mercy! mercy!" gasped Frances, in a faint voice.
"Where are the children?" repeated Dagobert, as he shook with his powerful hands that poor frail body, and added in a voice of thunder:
"Will you answer? the children!"
"Kill me, or forgive me, I cannot answer you," replied the unhappy woman, with that inflexible, yet mild obstinacy, peculiar to timid characters, when they act from convictions of doing right.