第136章

List and the gipsy acquiesced.When they had all three amused themselves a little with their victim's infatuation, they dismissed the subject as one which had been sufficiently discussed, and began to talk in a jargon which the child did not understand.As their discourse appeared to relate to matters in which they were warmly interested, however, she deemed it the best time for escaping unobserved; and crept away with slow and cautious steps, keeping in the shadow of the hedges, or forcing a path through them or the dry ditches, until she could emerge upon the road at a point beyond their range of vision.Then she fled homeward as quickly as she could, torn and bleeding from the wounds of thorns and briars, but more lacerated in mind, and threw herself upon her bed, distracted.

The first idea that flashed upon her mind was flight, instant flight; dragging him from that place, and rather dying of want upon the roadside, than ever exposing him again to such terrible temptations.Then, she remembered that the crime was not to be committed until next night, and there was the intermediate time for thinking, and resolving what to do.Then, she was distracted with a horrible fear that he might be committing it at that moment; with a dread of hearing shrieks and cries piercing the silence of the night; with fearful thoughts of what he might be tempted and led on to do, if he were detected in the act, and had but a woman to struggle with.It was impossible to bear such torture.She stole to the room where the money was, opened the door, and looked in.

God be praised! He was not there, and she was sleeping soundly.

She went back to her own room, and tried to prepare herself for bed.But who could sleep--sleep! who could lie passively down, distracted by such terrors? They came upon her more and more strongly yet.Half undressed, and with her hair in wild disorder, she flew to the old man's bedside, clasped him by the wrist, and roused him from his sleep.

'What's this!' he cried, starting up in bed, and fixing his eyes upon her spectral face.

'I have had a dreadful dream,' said the child, with an energy that nothing but such terrors could have inspired.'A dreadful, horrible dream.I have had it once before.It is a dream of grey-haired men like you, in darkened rooms by night, robbing sleepers of their gold.Up, up!'

The old man shook in every joint, and folded his hands like one who prays.

'Not to me,' said the child, 'not to me--to Heaven, to save us from such deeds! This dream is too real.I cannot sleep, I cannot stay here, I cannot leave you alone under the roof where such dreams come.Up! We must fly.'

He looked at her as if she were a spirit--she might have been for all the look of earth she had--and trembled more and more.

'There is no time to lose; I will not lose one minute,' said the child.'Up! and away with me!'

'To-night?' murmured the old man.

'Yes, to-night,' replied the child.'To-morrow night will be too late.The dream will have come again.Nothing but flight can save us.Up!'

The old man rose from his bed: his forehead bedewed with the cold sweat of fear: and, bending before the child as if she had been an angel messenger sent to lead him where she would, made ready to follow her.She took him by the hand and led him on.As they passed the door of the room he had proposed to rob, she shuddered and looked up into his face.What a white face was that, and with what a look did he meet hers!

She took him to her own chamber, and, still holding him by the hand as if she feared to lose him for an instant, gathered together the little stock she had, and hung her basket on her arm.The old man took his wallet from her hands and strapped it on his shoulders--his staff, too, she had brought away--and then she led him forth.

Through the strait streets, and narrow crooked outskirts, their trembling feet passed quickly.Up the steep hill too, crowned by the old grey castle, they toiled with rapid steps, and had not once looked behind.

But as they drew nearer the ruined walls, the moon rose in all her gentle glory, and, from their venerable age, garlanded with ivy, moss, and waving grass, the child looked back upon the sleeping town, deep in the valley's shade: and on the far-off river with its winding track of light: and on the distant hills; and as she did so, she clasped the hand she held, less firmly, and bursting into tears, fell upon the old man's neck.