IN one of the deep valleys of the parish of Perranzabuloe,
which are remarkable for their fertility, and especially for the abundance of
fruit which the orchards produce, lived in days long ago, amidst a
rudely-civilised people, a farmer's labourer, his wife, with one child, a
daughter. The man and woman were equally industrious. The neatly white-washed
walls of their mud-built cottage, the well-kept gravelled paths, and
carefully-weeded beds of their small garden, in which flowers were cultivated
for ornament, and vegetables for use, proclaimed at once the character of the
inmates. In contrast with the neighbouring cottages, this one, although
smaller than many others, had a superior aspect, and the occupiers of it
exhibited a strong contrast to those peasants and miners amidst whom they
dwelt.
Pennaluna, as the man was called, or Penna the Proud, as he
was, in no very friendly spirit, named by his less thoughtful and more
impulsive fellows, was, as we have said, a farmer's labourer.
His master was a wealthy yeoman, and he, after many years'
experience, was so convinced of the exceeding industry and sterling honesty of
Penna, that he made him the manager of an outlying farm in this parish, under
the hind (or hine--the Saxon pronunciation is still retained in the West of
England), or general supervisor of this and numerous other extensive farms.
Penna was too great a favourite with the Squire to be a
favourite of the hind's; he was evidently jealous of him, and from not being
himself a man of very strict principles, he hated the unobtrusive goodness of
his underling, and was constantly on the watch to discover some cause of
complaint. It was not, however, often that he was successful in this. Every
task committed to the care of Penna,--and he was often purposely overtasked,
-- was executed with great care and despatch. With the wife of Penna, however,
the case was unfortunately different. Honour Penna was as industrious as her
husband, and to him she was in all respects a helpmate. She had, however,
naturally a proud spirit, and this had been encouraged in her youth by her
parents. Honour was very pretty as a girl, and, indeed, she retained much
beauty as a woman. The only education she received was the wild one of
experience, and this within a very narrow circle. She grew an ignorant girl,
amongst ignorant men and women, few of them being able to write their names,
and scarcely any of them to read. There was much native grace about her, and
she was flattered by the young men, and envied by the young women, of the
village,--the envy and the flattery being equally pleasant to her. In the
same village was born, and brought up, Tom Chenalls, who had, in the course of
years, become hind to the Squire. Tom, as a young man, had often expressed
himself fond of Honour, but he was always distasteful to the village maiden,
and eventually, while yet young, she was married to Pennaluna, who came from
the southern coast, bringing with him the recommendation of being a stranger,
and an exceedingly hard-working man, who was certain to earn bread, and
something more, for his wife and family. In the relations in which these
people were now placed towards each other, Chenalls had the opportunity of
acting ungenerously towards the Pennas. The man bore this uncomplainingly, but
the woman frequently quarrelled with him whom she felt was an enemy, and whom
she still regarded but as her equal. Chenalls was a skilled farmer, and hence
was of considerable value to the Squire; but although he was endured for his
farming knowledge and his business habits, he was never a favourite with his
employer. Penna, on the contrary, was an especial favourite, and the evidences
of this were so often brought strikingly under the observation of Chenalls,
that it increased the irritation of his hate, for it amounted to that. For
years things went on thus. There was the tranquil suffering of an oppressed
spirit manifested in Penna--the angry words and actions of his wife towards
the oppressor, .-- and, at the same time, as she with much fondness studied to
make their humble home comfortable for her husband, she reviled him not
unfrequently for the meek spirit with which he endured his petty, but still
trying, wrongs. The hind dared not venture on any positive act of wrong
towards those people, yet he lost no chance of annoying them, knowing that the
Squire's partiality for Penna would not allow him to venture beyond certain
bounds, even in this direction.
Penna's solace was his daughter. She had now reached her
eighteenth year, and with the well-developed form of a woman, she united the
simplicity of a child. Selina, as she was named, was in many respects
beautiful. Her features were regular, and had they been lighted up with more
mental fire, they would have been beautiful; but the constant repose, the want
of animation, left her face merely a pretty one. Her skin was beautifully
white, and transparent to the blue veins which traced their ways beneath it,
to the verge of that delicacy which indicates disease; but it did not pass
that verge. Selina was full of health, as her well moulded form at once
showed, and her clear blue eye distinctly told. At times there was a lovely
tint upon the cheek--not the hectic of consumptive beauty,--but a pure rosy
dye, suffused by the healthy life stream, when it flowed the fastest.
The village gossips, who were always busy with their
neighbours, said strange things of this girl. Indeed, it was commonly reported
that the real child of the Pennas was a remarkably plain child, in every
respect a different being from Selina. The striking difference between the
infant and the woman was variously explained by the knowing ones. Two stories
were, however, current for miles around the country. One was, that Selina's
mother was constantly seen gathering dew in the morning, with which to wash
her child, and that the fairies on the Towens had, in pure malice, aided her
in giving a temporary beauty to the girl, that it might lead to her betrayal
into crime. Why this malice, was never clearly made out.
The other story was, that Honour Penna constantly bathed the
child in a certain pool, amidst the arched rocks of Perran, which was a
favourite resort of the mermaids; that on one occasion the child, as if in a
paroxysm of joy, leapt from her arms into the water, and disappeared. The mother, as may well be supposed,
suffered a momentary agony of terror; but presently the babe swam up to the
surface of the water, its little face more bright and beautiful than it had
ever been before. Great was the mother's joy, and also--as the gossips say --
great her surprise at the sudden change in the appearance of her offspring.
The mother knew no difference in the child whom she pressed lovingly to her
bosom, but all the aged crones in the parish declared it to be a changeling.
This tale lived its day; but, as the girl grew on to womanhood, and showed
none of the special qualifications belonging either to fairies or mermaids, it
was almost forgotten. The uncomplaining father had solace for all his
sufferings in wandering over the beautiful sands with his daughter. Whether it
was when the summer seas fell in musical undulations on the shore, or when,
stirred by the winter tempests, the great Atlantic waves came up in grandeur,
and lashed the resisting sands in giant rage, those two enjoyed the solitude.
Hour after hour, from the setting sun time, until the clear cold moon flooded
the ocean with her smiles of light, would the father and child walk these
sands. They seemed never to weary of them and the ocean.
Almost every morning, throughout the milder seasons, Selina
was in the habit of bathing, and wild tales were told of the frantic joy
with
which she would play with the breaking billows. Sometimes floating over,
and
almost dancing on the crests of the waves, at other times rushing under
them,
and allowing the breaking waters to beat her to the sands, as though
they were
loving arms, endeavouring to encircle her form. Certain it is, that
Selina
greatly enjoyed her bath, but all the rest must be regarded as the
creations
of the imagination. The most eager to give a construction unfavourable
to the
simple mortality of the maiden was, however, compelled to acknowledge
that
there was no evidence in her general conduct to support their surmises.
Selina, as an only child, fared the fate of others who are unfortunately
so
placed, and was, as the phrase is, spoiled. She certainly was allowed to
follow her own inclinations without any check. Still her inclinations
were
bounded to working in the garden, and to leading her father to the
sea-shore.
Honour Penna, sometimes, it is true, did complain that Selina could not
be
trusted with the most ordinary domestic duty. Beyond this, there was one
other
cause of grief, that was, the increasing dislike which Selina exhibited
towards entering a church. The girl, notwithstanding the constant
excuses of
being sick, suffering from headache, having a pain in her side, and the
like,
was often taken, notwithstanding, by her mother to the church. It is
said that she always shuddered as she passed the church-stile, and
again on stepping from the porch into the church itself. When once
within the
house of prayer she evinced no peculiar liking or disliking, observing
respectfully all the rules during the performance of the church-service,
and
generally sleeping, or seeming to sleep, during the sermon. Selina
Pennaluna
had reached her eighteenth year; she was admired by many of the young
men of
the parish, but, as if surrounded by a spell, she appeared to keep them
all at
a distance from her. About this time, a nephew to the Squire, a young
soldier,
-- who had been wounded in the wars,--came into Cornwall to heal his
wounds,
and recover health, which had suffered in a trying campaign.
This young man, Walter Trewoofe, was a rare specimen of
manhood. Even now, shattered as he was by the combined influences of wounds,
an unhealthy climate, and dissipation, he could not but be admired for
fineness of form, dignity of carriage, and masculine beauty. It was, however,
but too evident, that this young man was his own idol, and that he expected
every one to bow down with him, and worship it. His uncle was proud of Walter,
and although the old gentleman could not fail to see many faults, yet he
regarded them as the follies of youth, and trusted to their correction with
the increase of years and experience. Walter, who was really suffering
severely, was ordered by his surgeon, at first, to take short walks on the
sea-shore, and, as he gained strength, to bathe. He was usually driven in his
uncle's pony-carriage to the edge of the sands. Then dismounting he would walk
for a short time, and quickly wearing, return in his carriage to the luxuriant
couches at the manor-house.
On some of those occasions Walter had observed the father and
daughter taking their solitary ramble. He was struck with the quiet beauty of
the girl, and seized an early opportunity of stopping Penna to make some
general inquiry respecting the bold and beautiful coast. From time to time
they thus met, and it would have been evident to any observer that Walter did
not so soon weary of the sands as formerly, and that Selina was not displeased
with the flattering things he said to her. Although the young soldier had
hitherto led a wild life, it would appear as if for a considerable period the
presence of goodness had repressed every tendency to evil in his ill-regulated
heart. He continued, therefore, for some time playing with his own feelings
and those of the childlike being who presented so much of romance, combined
with the most homely tameness, of character. Selina, it is true, had never yet
seen Walter except in the presence of her father, and it is questionable if
she had ever for one moment had a warmer feeling than that of the mere
pleasure--a silent pride--that a gentleman, at once so handsome, so refined,
and the nephew of her father's master, should pay her any attention. Evil eyes
were watching with wicked earnestness the growth of passion, and designing
hearts were beating quicker with a consciousness that they should eventually
rejoice in the downfall of innocence. Tom Chenalls hoped that he might achieve
a triumph, if he could but once asperse the character of Selina. He took his
measures accordingly. Having noticed the change in the general conduct of his
master's nephew, he argued that this was due to the refining influence of a
pure mind, acting on one more than ordinarily impressionable to either evil or
good.
Walter rapidly recovered health, and with renewed strength the
manly energy of his character began to develop itself. He delighted in
horse-exercise, and Chenalls had always the best horse on the farms at his
disposal. He was a good shot, and Chenalls was his guide to the best
shooting-grounds. He sometimes fished, and Chenalls knew exactly where the
choicest trout and the richest salmon were to be found. In fact, Chenalls
entered so fully into the tastes of the young man, that Walter found him
absolutely necessary to him to secure the enjoyments of a country life.
Having established this close intimacy, Chenalls never lost an
opportunity of talking with Walter respecting Selina Penna. He soon satisfied
himself that Walter, like most other young men who had led a dissipated life,
had but a very low estimate of women generally. Acting upon this, he at first
insinuated that Selina's innocence was but a mask, and at length he boldly
assured Walter that the cottage girl was to be won by him with a few words,
and that then he might put her aside at any time as a prize to some low-born
peasant. Chenalls never failed to impress on Walter the necessity of keeping
his uncle in the most perfect darkness, and of blinding the eyes of Selina's
parents. Penna was,--so thought Chenalls,--easily managed, but there was
more to be feared from the wife. Walter, however, with much artifice, having
introduced himself to Honour Penna, employed the magic of that flattery,
which, being properly applied, seldom fails to work its way to the heart of a
weak-minded woman. He became an especial favourite with Honour, and the
blinded mother was ever pleased at the attention bestowed with so little
assumption,--as she thought,--of pride, on her daughter, by one so much
above them. Walter eventually succeeded in separating occasionally, though not
often, Penna and his daughter. The witching whispers of unholy love were
poured into the trusting ear. Guileless herself, this child-woman suspected no
guile in others, least of all in one whom she had been taught to look upon as
a superior being to herself. Amongst the villagers, the constant attention of
Walter Trewoofe was the subject of gossip, and many an old proverb was quoted
by the elder women, ill-naturedly, and implying that evil must come of this
intimacy, Tom Chenalls was now employed by WaIter to contrive some means by
which he could remove Penna for a period from home. He was not long in doing
this. He lent every power of his wicked nature to aid the evil designs of the
young soldier, and thus he brought about that separation of father and child
which ended in her ruin.
Near the Land's End the squire possessed some farms, and one
of them was reported to be in such a state of extreme neglect, through the
drunkenness and consequent idleness of the tenant, that Chenalls soon obtained
permission to take the farm from this occupier, which he did in the most
unscrupulous disregard for law or right. It was then suggested that the only
plan by which a desirable occupier could be found, would be to get the farm
and farm-buildings into good condition, and that Penna, of all men, would be
the man to bring this quickly about. The squire was pleased with the plan.
Penna was sent for by him, and was proud of the confidence which his master
reposed in him. There was some sorrow on his leaving home. He subsequently
said that he had had many warnings not to go, but he felt that he dared not
disoblige a master who had trusted him so far--so he went.
Walter needed not any urging on the part of Chenalls, though
he was always ready to apply the spur when there was the least evidence of the
sense of right asserting itself in the young man's bosom. Week after week
passed on. Walter had rendered himself a necessity to Selina. Without her
admirer the world was cold and colourless. With him all was sunshine and
glowing tints.
Three months passed thus away, and during that period it had
only been possible for Penna to visit his home twice. The father felt that
something like a spirit of evil stood between him and his daughter. There was
no outward evidence of any change, but there was an inward sense--undefined,
yet deeply felt--like an overpowering fear--that some wrong had been done.
On parting, Penna silently but earnestly prayed that the deep dread might be
removed from his mind. There was an aged fisherman, who resided in a small
cottage built on the sands, who possessed all the superstitions of his class.
This old man had formed a father's liking for the simple-hearted maiden, and
he had persuaded himself that there really was some foundation for the tales
which the gossips told. To the fisherman, Walter Trewoofe was an evil genius.
He declared that no good ever came to him, if he met Walter when he was about
to go to sea. With this feeling he curiously watched the young man and maiden,
and he, in after days, stated his conviction that he had seen "merry maidens
rising from the depth of the waters, and floating under the billows to watch
Selina and her lover. He has also been heard to say that on more than one
occasion Walter himself had been terrified by sights and sounds. Certain,
however, it is, these were insufficient and the might of evil passions were
more powerful than any of the protecting influences of the unseen world.
Another three months had gone by, and Walter Trewoofe had
disappeared from Perranzabuloe. He had launched into the gay world of the
metropolis, and rarely, if ever, dreamed of the deep sorrow which was weighing
down the heart he had betrayed Penna returned home--his task was done--and
Chenalls had no reason for keeping him any longer from his wife and daughter
Clouds gathered slowly but unremittingly around him. His daughter retired into
herself no longer as of old reposing her whole soul on her father's heart. His
wife was somewhat changed too--she had some secret in her heart which she
feared to tell The home he had left was not the home to which he had returned
It soon became evident that some shock had shaken the delicate frame of his
daughter. She pined rapidly; and Penna was awakened to a knowledge of the
cause by the rude rejoicing of Chenalls, who declared "that all people who
kept themselves so much above other people were sure to be pulled down." On
one occasion he so far tempted Penna with sneers, at his having hope to secure
the young squire for a son-in-law, that the long-enduring man broke forth and
administered a severe blow upon his tormentor. This was duly reported to the
squire, and added thereto was a magnified story of a trap which had been set
by the Penna to catch young Walter; it was represented that even now they in
tended to press their claims, on account of grievous wrongs upon them, whereas
it could be proved that Walter was guiltless--that he was indeed the innocent
victim of designing people, who though to make money out of their assumed
misfortune. The squire made his inquiries, and there were not a few who
eagerly seized the opportunity to gain the friendship of Chenalls by
representing this family to have been hypocrites of the deepest dye; and the
poor girl especially was now loaded with a weight of iniquities of which she
had no knowledge. All this ended in the dismissal of Penna from the Squire's
service, and in his being deprived of the cottage in which he had taken so
much pride. Although thrown out upon the world a disgraced man, Penna faced
his difficulties manfully. He cast off, as it were, the primitive simplicity
of his character, and evidently worked with a firm resolve to beat down his
sorrows. He was too good a workman to remain long unemployed; and although his
new home was not his happy home as of old, there was no repining heard from
his lips. Weaker and weaker grew Selina, and it soon became evident to all,
that if she came from a spirit-world, to a spirit-world she must soon return.
Grief filled the hearts of her parents--it prostrated her mother, but the
effects of severe labour, and the efforts of a settled mind, appeared to
tranquillise the breast of her father. Time passed on, the wounds of the soul
grew deeper, and there lay, on a low bed, from which she had not strength to
move, the fragile form of youth with the countenance of age. The body was
almot powerless, but there beamed from the eye the evidences of a spirit
getting free from the chains of clay.
The dying girl was sensible of the presence of creations other
than mortal, and with these she appeared to hold converse, and to derive
solace from the communion. Penna and his wife alternately watched through the
night hours by the side of their loved child, and anxiously did they mark the
moment when the tide turned, in the full belief that she would be taken from
them when the waters of the ocean began to recede from the shore. Thus days
passed on, and eventually the sunlight of a summer morning shone in through
the small window of this humble cottage,--on a dead mother--and a living
babe.
The dead was buried in the churchyard on the sands, and the
living went on their ways, some rejoicingly and some in sorrow.
Once more Walter Trewoofe appeared in Perran-on-the-sands.
Penna would have sacrificed him to his hatred; he emphatically protested that
he had lived only to do so; but the good priest of the Oratory contrived to
lay the devil who had possession, and to convince Penna that the Lord would,
in His own good time, and in His own way, avenge the bitter wrong. Tom
Chenalls had his hour of triumph; but from the day on which Selina died
everything went wrong. The crops failed, the cattle died, hay-stacks and
corn-ricks caught fire, cows slipped their calves, horses fell lame, or
stumbled and broke their knees,--a succession of evils steadily pursued him.
Trials find but a short resting-place with the good; they may be bowed to the
earth with the weight of a sudden sorrow, but they look to heaven, and their
elasticity is restored. The evil-minded are crushed at once, and grovel on
the ground in irremediable misery. That Chenalls fled to drink in his troubles
appeared but the natural result to a man of his character. This unfitted him
for his duties, and he was eventually dismissed from his situation.
Notwithstanding that the Squire refused to listen to the appeals in favour of
Chenalls, which were urged upon him by Walter, and that indeed he forbade his
nephew to countenance "the scoundrel" in any way, Walter still continued his
friend. By his means Tom Chenalls secured a small cottage on the cliff, and
around it a little cultivated ground, the produce of which was his only
visible means of support. That lonely cottage was the scene, however, of
drunken carousals, and there the vicious young men, and the no less vicious
young women, of the district, went after nightfall, and kept "high carnival"
of sin. Walter Trewoofe came frequently amongst them; and as his purse usually
defrayed the costs of a debauch, he was regarded by all with especial favour.
One midnight, Walter, who had been dancing and drinking for
some hours, left the cottage wearied with his excesses, and although not
drunk, he was much excited with- wine. His pathway lay along the edge of the
cliffs, amidst bushes of furze and heath, and through several irregular,
zigzag ways. There were lateral paths striking off from one side of the main
path, and leading down to the sea-shore. Although it was moonlight, without
being actually aware of the error, Walter wandered into one of those; and
before he was awake to his mistake, he found himself on the sands. He cursed
his stupidity, and, uttering a blasphemous oath, he turned to retrace his
steps.
The most exquisite music which ever flowed from human ups fell
on his ear; he paused to listen, and collecting his unbalanced thoughts, he
discovered that it was the voice of a woman singing a melancholy dirge
"The stars are beautiful, when bright
They are mirror'd in the sea;
But they are pale beside that light
Which was so beautiful to me.
My angel child, my earth-born girl,
From all your kindred riven,
By the base deeds of a selfish churl,
And to a sand-grave driven!
How shall I win thee back to ocean?
How canst thou quit thy grave,
To share again the sweet emotion
Of gliding through the wave?"
Walter, led by the melancholy song, advanced slowly along the
sands. He discovered that the sweet, soft sounds proceeded from the other side
of a mass of rocks, which project far out over the sands, and that now, at
low-water, there was no difficulty in walking around it. Without hesitation he
did so, and he beheld, sitting at the mouth of a cavern, one of the most
beautiful women he had ever beheld. She continued her song, looking upwards to
the stars, not appearing to notice the intrusion of a stranger. Walter
stopped, and gazed on the lovely image before him with admiration and wonder,
mingled with something of terror. He dared not speak, but fixed, as if by
magic, he stood gazing on. After a few minutes, the maiden, suddenly
perceiving that a man was near her, uttered a piercing shriek, and made as if
to fly into the cavern. Walter sprang forward and seized her by the arm,
exclaiming, "Not yet, my pretty maiden, not yet." She stood still in the
position of flight, with her arm behind her, grasped by Walter, and turning
round her head, her dark eyes beamed with unnatural lustre upon him.
Impressionable he had ever been, but never had he experienced anything so
entrancing, and at the same time so painful, as that gaze. It was Selina's
face looking lovingly upon him, but it seemed to possess some new power--a
might of mind from which he felt it was impossible for him to escape. Walter
slackened his hold, and slowly allowed the arm to fall from his hand. The
maiden turned fully round upon him. "Go!" she said. He could not move. "Go,
man!" she repeated. He was powerless.
"Go to the grave where the sinless one sleepeth!
Bring her cold corse where her guarding one weepeth;
Look on her, love her again, ay! betray her,
And wreath with false smiles the pale face of her slayer!
Go, go! now, and feel the full force of my sorrow!
For the glut of my vengeance there cometh a morrow."
Walter was statue-like, and he awoke from this trance-like
state only when the waves washed his feet, and he became aware that even now
it was only by wading through the waters that he could return around the point
of rocks. He was alone. He called; no one answered. He sought wildly, as far
as he now dared, amidst the rocks, but the lovely woman was nowhere to be
discovered.
There was no real danger on such a night as this; therefore
Walter walked fearlessly through the gentle waves, and recovered the pathway
up from the sands. More than once he thought he heard a rejoicing laugh, which
was echoed in the rocks, but no one was to be seen. Walter reached his home and bed, but he
found no sleep; and in the morning he arose with a sense of wretchedness which
was entirely new to him. He feared to make any one of his rough companions a
confidant, although he felt this would have relieved his heart. He therefore
nursed the wound which he now felt, until a bitter remorse clouded his
existence. After some days, he was impelled to visit the grave - of the lost
one, and in the fullness of the most selfish sorrow, he sat on the sands and
shed tears. The priest of the Oratory observed him, and knowing Walter
Trewoofe, hesitated not to inquire into his cause of sorrow. His heart was
opened to the holy man, and the strange tale was told--the only result being,
that the priest felt satisfied it was but a vivid dream, which had resulted
from a brain over-excited by drink. He, however, counselled the young man,
giving him some religious instruction, and dismissed him with his blessing.
There was relief in this. For some days Walter did not venture to visit his
old haunt, the cottage of Chenalls. Since he could not be lost to his
companions without greatly curtailing their vicious enjoyments, he was hunted
up by Chenalls, and again enticed within the circle. His absence was explained
on the plea of illness. Walter was, however, an altered man; there was not the
same boisterous hilarity as formerly. He no longer abandoned himself without
restraint to the enjoyments of the time. If he ever, led on by his thoughtless
and rough-natured friends, assumed for a moment his usual mirth, it was
checked by some invisible power. On such occasions he would turn deadly pale,
look anxiously around, and fail back, as if ready to faint, on the nearest
seat. Under these influences, he lost health. His uncle, who was really
attached to his nephew, although he regretted his dissolute conduct, became
now seriously alarmed. Physicians were consulted in vain; the young man pined,
and the old gossips came to the conclusion that Walter Trewoofe was
ill-wished, and there was a general feeling that Penna or his wife was at the
bottom of it. Walter, living really on one idea, and that one the beautiful
face which was, and yet was not, that of Selina, resolved again to explore the
spot on which he had met this strange being, of whom nothing could be learned
by any of the covert inquiries he made. He lingered long ere he could resolve
on the task; but wearied, worn by the oppression of one undefined idea, in
which an intensity of love was mixed with a shuddering fear, he at last
gathered sufficient courage to seize an opportunity for again going to the
cavern. On this occasion, there being no moon, the night was dark, but the
stars shone brightly from a sky, cloudless, save a dark mist which hung
heavily over the western horizon. Every spot of ground being familiar to him,
who, boy and man, had traced it over many times, the partial darkness
presented no difficulty. Walter had scarcely reached the level sands, which
were left hard by the retiring tide, than he heard again the same magical
voice as before. But now the song was a joyous one, the burthen of it being --
"Join all hands--
Might and main,
Weave the sands,
Form a chain,
He, my lover,
Comes again!"
He could not entirely dissuade himself but that he heard this
repeated by many voices; but he put the thought aside, referring it, as well
he might, to the numerous echoes from the cavernous openings in the cliffs.
He reached the eastern side of the dark mass of rocks, from
the point of which the tide was slowly subsiding. The song had ceased, and a
low moaning sound - the soughing of the wind--passed along the shore. Walter
trembled with fear, and was on the point of returning, when a most flute-like
murmur rose from the other side of the rocky barrier, which was presently
moulded into words
"From your couch of glistering pearl,
Slowly, softly, come away;
Our sweet earth-child, lovely girl,
Died this day,--died this day."
Memory told Walter that truly was it the anniversary of Selina
Pennaluna's death, and to him every gentle wave falling on the shore sang, or
murmured --
"Died this day,--died this day."
The sand was left dry around the- point of the rocks, and
Walter impelled by a power which he could not control, walked onward. The
moment he appeared on the western side of the rock, a wild laugh burst into
the air, as if from the deep cavern before him, at the entrance of which sat
the same beautiful being whom he had formerly met. There was now an expression
of rare joy on her face, her eyes glistened with delight, and she extended her
arms. as if to welcome him.
"Was it ever your wont to move so slowly towards your loved
one?"
Walter heard it was Selina's voice. He saw it was Selina's
features; but he was conscious it was not Selina's form.
"Come, sit beside me, Walter, and let us talk of love." He sat
down without a word, and looked into the maiden's face with a vacant
expression of fondness. Presently she placed her hand upon his heart; a
shudder passed through his frame; but having passed, he felt no more pain, but
a rare intensity of delight. The maiden wreathed her arm around his neck, drew
Walter towards her, and then he remembered how often he had acted thus towards
Selina. She bent over him and looked into his eyes. In his mind's mirror he
saw himself looking thus into the eyes of his betrayed one.
"You loved her once?" said the maiden.
"I did indeed," answered Walter, with a sigh.
"As you loved her, so I love you," said the maiden, with a
smile which shot like a poisoned dart through Walter's heart. She lifted the
young man's head lovingly between her hands, and bending over him, pressed her
lips upon and kissed his forehead, Walter curiously felt that although he was
the kissed, yet that he was the kisser.
"Kisses," she said, "are as true at sea as they are false on
land. You men kiss the earth-born maidens to betray them. The kiss of a
sea-child is the seal of constancy. You are mine till death."
"Death!" almost shrieked Walter.
A full consciousness of his situation now broke upon Walter.
He had heard the tales of the gossips respecting the mermaid origin of Selina;
but he had laughed at them as an idle fancy. he now felt they were true. For
hours Walter was compelled to sit by the side of his beautiful tormentor,
every word of assumed love and rapture being a torture of the most exquisite
kind to him. He could not escape from the arms which were wound around him. He
saw the tide rising rapidly. He heard the deep voice of the winds coming over
the sea from the far west. He saw that which appeared at first as a dark mist,
shape itself into a dense black mass of cloud, and rise rapidly over the
star-bedecked space above him. He saw by the brilliant edge of light which
occasionally fringed the clouds that they were deeply charged with thunder.
There was something sublime in the steady motion of the storm; and now the
roll of the waves, which had been disturbed in the Atlantic, reached our
shores, and the breakers fell thunderingly within a few feet of Walter and his
companion. Paroxysms of terror shook him, and with each convulsion he felt
himself grasped with still more ardour, and pressed so closely to the maiden's
bosom, that he heard her heart dancing of joy.
At length his terrors gave birth to words, and he implored her
to let him go.
"The kiss of the sea-child is the seal of constancy." Walter
vehemently implored forgiveness. He confessed his deep iniquity. He promised a
life of penitence.
"Give me back the dead," said the maiden bitterly, and she
planted another kiss, which seemed to pierce his brain by its coldness, upon
his forehead.
The waves rolled around the rock on which;they sat; they
washed their seat. Walter was still in the female's grasp, and she lifted him
to a higher ledge. The storm approached. Lightnings struck down from the
heavens into the sands; and thunders roared along the iron cliffs. The mighty
waves grew yet more rash, and washed up to this strange pair, who now sat on
the highest pinnacle of the pile of rocks. Walter's terrors nearly overcame
him; but he was roused by a liquid stream of fire, which positively hissed by
him, followed immediately by a crash of thunder, which shook the solid earth.
Tom Chenall's cottage on the cliff burst into a blaze, and Walter saw, from
his place amidst the raging waters, a crowd of male and female roisterers rush
terrified out upon the heath, to be driven back by the pelting storm. The
climax of horrors appeared to surround Walter. He longed to end it in death,
but he could not die. His senses were quickened. He saw his wicked companion
and evil adviser struck to the ground, a blasted heap of ashes, by a lightning
stroke, and at the same moment he and his companion were borne off the rock on
the top of a mountainous wave, on which he floated; the woman holding him by
the hair of his head, and singing in a rejoicing voice, which was like a
silver bell heard amidst the deep base bellowings of the storm--
"Come away, come away,
O'er the waters wild!
Our earth-born child
Died this day, died this day.
"Come away, come away!
The tempest loud
Weaves the shroud
For him who did betray.
"Come away, come away!
Beneath the wave
Lieth the grave
Of him we slay, him we slay.
"Come away, come away!
He shall not rest
In earth's own breast
For many a day, many a day.
"Come away, come away!
By billows to
From coast to coast,
Like deserted boat
His corse shall float
Around the bay, around the bay."
Myriads of voices on that wretched night were heard amidst the
roar of the storm. The waves were seen covered with a multitudinous host, who
were tossing from one to the other the dying Walter Trewoofe, whose false
heart thus endured the vengeance of the mermaid, who had, in the fondness of
her soul, made the innocent child of humble parents the child of her adoption.
Appendix M.
[a] Several versions of the following story have been given me.
The general idea of the tale belongs to the north coast; but the fact of
mermaidens taking innocents under their charge was common around the Lizard, and
in some of the coves near the Land's End.
From Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt
