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Page 13
"But could you not have prevented it?" continued the priest, eyeing the
man until he quailed.
Gilbert interposed.
"They are not to blame, Father," he said; "I did not expect the attack
myself, and none else could have prevented the blow."
"It bleeds much," pursued the priest, again examining the wound.
Gilbert made a step forward, but Father Omehr detained him, and
reluctantly the youth allowed himself to be supported by two of the
serfs of Stramen to the bed he had occupied during the night.
Margaret de Stramen, in the spirit of the age, had gone to the cell,
after discovering the nature of the young man's injury, and taken from
the basket she had brought some salves and stringents with which she
stood ready at the door. She washed the wound and dressed it with the
tenderness peculiar to woman, and received Gilbert's thanks with a
slight inclination of the head. Having completed her task, she drew the
priest aside, and, looking up into his face with evident emotion, said:
"Could there have been poison on the knife?"
Though spoken in a whisper, the youth must have heard it, for he smiled
at first, and the next moment became pale as death. Father Omehr noticed
the change upon his features, and replied loud enough to be overheard:
"No, no! it cannot be. Some momentary paroxysm prompted the deed; there
could have been no preparation, no predetermination."
"It is not for his sake," continued Margaret, in a still lower tone, and
withdrawing farther from the bed; "not for his sake I fear an
unfortunate result; but for our own. I know that it is Gilbert de Hers
who lies there, and I have drunk too deeply in the prejudices of our
family to repine at any calamity that may befall him. But this impious
outrage can insure nothing but the Divine vengeance upon our heads. If
he were borne down in battle, I perhaps should rejoice at heart at the
triumph of my father; but I would rather die than see him perish from a
noble confidence in the house of Stramen."
"You are not responsible, my child," rejoined her companion, "for the
blind violence of a crazy woman. I am confident that the wound is not
dangerous. Perhaps the accident, apparently so untoward, may in the end
be productive of good. We are too apt to receive as good what should be
avoided as evil, and to deem that a curse which should be considered a
blessing."
The young lady made no reply, but advanced to Gilbert's bedside.
"Believe me, sir," she began with dignity but in some confusion, "that I
sincerely regret the accident which has confined you here, and that I
desire and will pray for your speedy recovery. You cannot suspect the
house of Stramen of conniving at such a cowardly assault; they are too
powerful in the field to resort to such a pitiful stratagem. Our effort
shall now be to secure you from further violence."
The blood returned to Gilbert's cheek as she spoke. Feeble with pain and
the loss of blood, he with difficulty replied:
"I little expected ever to receive such kindness as you have shown me
from the daughter of my father's foes; but come what may, kind lady, I
shall never forget your services. I feel assured that the kinsmen of
her whom I address, could never be guilty of so ignoble an action."
It was not without pleasure that the noble maiden heard an answer so
flattering to her pride, and so earnestly pronounced. Her cheek became
brighter than Gilbert's as she bowed and left the apartment, attended by
the old woman servant.
We will leave Gilbert, for the present, in the care of Father Omehr, to
follow the footsteps of the fair lady of Stramen.
Margaret led the way rapidly to the border of the forest, where she had
left a groom with horses. She sprang lightly upon her spirited palfrey,
and exchanging a few words with the old woman, dismissed both domestics
to the castle, and galloped off alone in an opposite direction. As she
rode along, she was greeted with smiles and blessings by all who met
her; yet she seemed to heed but little the frequent reverence and
heartfelt salutation.
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