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Page 17
"During my convalescence, I learned that my cousin, soon after my
return, had been privately married to Elvira; and prompted by his evil
genius, and some of my enemies, had induced his wife to enter into the
plot, the result of which has already been briefly narrated. I do not
think she did it through malice, and doubtless little thought of the
consequences that were destined to follow; but whether so or not, her
punishment has, I think, been fully adequate to her crime; for the last
I heard of her, she was an inmate of a mad-house--remorse for her
conduct, the abuse heaped upon her by society, and her own severe fright
at the termination of the stratagem, having driven her insane. Now comes
the most tragic part of my narrative.
"When so far recovered as to again be abroad, I was cautioned by my
parents against my rash act; and for their sakes, I promised to be
temperate in all my movements; but, alas! how little we know when we
promise, what we may be in sooth destined to perform. On my father's
estate, about a mile distant from his residence, was a beautiful
grove--whither, for recreation, I was in the habit of repairing at all
periods of my life; and where, so soon as my strength permitted, after
my sickness, I rambled daily. About ten days from my recovery, as I was
taking my usual stroll through these grounds, I was suddenly confronted
by my cousin. His cheeks were hollow and pale, and his whole appearance
haggard in the extreme. His eyes, too, seemed to flash, or burn, as it
were, with an unearthly brightness; and his voice, as he addressed me,
was hoarse, and his manner hurried.
"'We meet well,' he said, 'well! I have watched for you long.'
"'Away!' cried I; 'tempt me no more--or something will follow I may
regret hereafter!'
"'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed he, in derision, with that peculiar, hollow
sound, which even now, as I recall it, makes my blood run cold:--'Say
you so, cousin?--I came for that;' and again he laughed as before. 'See
here--see here!' and he presented, as he spoke, with the butts toward
me, a brace of pistols. 'Here is what will settle all our animosities,'
he continued; 'take your choice, and be quick, or perchance we may be
interrupted.'
"'Are you mad,' cried I, 'that you thus seek my life, after the wrongs
you have done me?'
"'Mad!--ha, ha!--yes!--yes!--I believe I am,' he answered; 'and my wife
is mad also. I did you wrong, I know--went to apologise for it, and you
struck me down. Whatever the offence, a blow I never did and never will
forgive; so take your choice, and be quick, for one or both of us must
never quit this place alive.'
"'Away!' cried I, turning aside; 'I will not stain my hands with the
blood of my kin. Go! the world is large enough to hold us both.'
"'Coward!' hissed he; 'take that, then, and bear what I have borne;' and
with the palm of his hand he smote me on the cheek.
"I could bear no more--I was no longer myself--I was maddened with
passion--and snatching a pistol from his hand, which was still extended
toward me, without scarcely knowing what I did, I exclaimed, 'Your blood
be on your own head!'--and--and--Oh, Heaven!--pardon me, Ella--I--shot
him through the body."
Ella, who had partly risen from her seat, and was listening with
breathless attention, now uttered an exclamation of horror, and sunk
back, with features ghastly pale; while the other, burying his face in
his hands, shook his whole frame with convulsive sobs. For some time
neither spoke; and then the young man, slowly raising his face, which
was now a sad spectacle of the workings of grief and remorse, again
proceeded:
"Horror-stricken--aghast at what I had done--I stood for a moment,
gazing upon him weltering in his blood, with eyes that burned and seemed
starting from their sockets--with feelings that are indescribable--and
then rushing to him, I endeavored to raise him, and learn the extent of
his injury.
"'Fly!' said he, faintly, as I bent over him--'fly for your life! I have
got my due--I am mortally wounded--and if you remain, you will surely be
arrested as my murderer. Farewell, Algernon--the fault was mine--but
this you can not prove; and so leave me--leave me while you have
opportunity.'
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