Edgar

“ Sir Eustace had lost no time in summoning the castle to arms, and to all appearances Edgar and his companions were caught in the iron jaws of a trap.
"We are lost, Master Edgar," cried Peter despairingly, as Edgar caught him up at the head of the winding staircase which, led downward to the dungeons they had left. "The alarm is sounded, and 'tis impossible that we can escape in face of the castle garrison."
"Courage, Peter!" cried Edgar. "Let me aid thee with Sir John. There is still a slender thread of hope left to us, and we must follow it." ”

“ My dear Edgar! You will be my son—Virginia’s brother!
Poe. (Lifting his face smiling) I will be happy! No more of that solitude lighted only by the eyes of ghouls! Here I have come into the light. I have found the sun. I see what my work should be—what Art is. She is beauty and joy. Her light should fall on life like morning on the hills. The clouds of passion and agony should never darken her face. O, I can paint her now ready for the embrace of the soul!
Mrs. C. I can not see things with your rapturous eyes, Edgar, but I know that your work will be noble, and I love you. ”

“ Thy father, lad, thou mayest well be proud of."
"I know, Matthew," said Edgar in a low voice. "And I know, too, that if earnest striving of mine can compass it, his memory will not be disgraced by me. It shall be my aim to live as nobly and to die as gallantly."
"Ye say well, lad. I hope thou wilt be as good as thy word. ”

“ Lift down the maid, Peter, and let us prize open the lid."
Peter obeyed, and in a moment the great chest lay open before them. It was full almost to the brim with the little black grains.
"A way of escape is opening before us!" cried Edgar, in a voice which vibrated with a new and mighty hope. "Beatrice, wilt thou permit us to leave thee and thy maid while we make a last attempt to carve a way to freedom? The risk is great, and it may well prove that we shall burst in the gates of death rather than wedge open those of life. But to remain here is to abandon hope." ”

“ This sweet child of a boy-father and girl-mother—the frail mother that died in her teens—he can never grow to be a proud, masterful, ambitious man—never aspire to wear his father's crown! Edgar's first-born, it is true, but not mine, and he can never be king. For Edgar and I are one; is it conceivable that he should oppose me in this—that we that are one in mind and soul shall at the last be divided and at enmity? Have we not said it an hundred times that we are one? One in all things except in passion. ”

“ Two of the men drew their knives and made as though to stop him, but Edgar, who still carried his sword naked in his hand, instantly attacked them. Two rapid thrusts from his practised hand and the men fell back, shrieking and snarling, leaving him free to pass unmolested through the door and down a passage into another alley on the farther side.
Edgar's exertions in running and climbing, burdened by the cripple lad, had been so great that he felt he must at once find a refuge, even if only a temporary one, or resign himself to selling his life as dearly as he could. ”

“ Matthew and Edgar had kept close to two of the riderless horses, and Edgar promptly slipped from his seat and approached them. They were too dead-beat to resist, and he was able to lead them into a thick covert close at hand. Here, after some trouble, a light fencing of branches hacked from the trees was built around them, and Matthew and Edgar could begin to think of rest. They were almost as dead-beat as the horses, and, without troubling to make themselves any sort of couch, flung themselves down amongst the bushes and slept the sleep of utter exhaustion. ”

“ I am a warrior's daughter, and I will not play the coward again."
"'Tis nothing. Myself I shall not forgive," muttered Edgar. In his prostration he had sunk back against the wall, his arms resting on the haft of his great axe and his head bowed down upon them. ”

“ Edgar looked at the priest, who motioned him to reply.
"Father Armand and I, Edgar Wintour, esquire of Wolsingham, command."
"And bitterly shall ye rue the day ye lifted hand against Eustace de Brin. Think ye to overcome me? Think ye I have no friends who will send hosts of men-at-arms to trample you into the mud whence ye came?"
"Sir Eustace de Brin," replied Edgar calmly, "think well over thy situation. No word will we allow to reach the outer world from this castle, and the men-at-arms of which thou speakest will never come to thine aid." ”

“ Edgar and Imogene turned their heads simultaneously and looked behind. At the same moment each caught a glance of the face and form they had seen a few nights previous in the grove near the cottage—the face that Edgar had declared he had seen in his dream! There it stood in the middle of the road, wrapped in a white, shaggy cloak, which gave the mysterious form a frightful appearance, and the face, pale and motionless, gazing after them. ”

“ And then he saw Gardner, with his hatchet-face over the pew-front as if he meant to leap it—Gardner and the other dear old watchdog!—and the sickening nervousness changed to a freakish joy, a mischievous delight. Edgar looked upset; he had forgotten poor old Edgar. There were the children, too—but it didn’t do to think of them. Edgar would understand. He would have done the same himself. He sent a brilliant smile to the men in the front pew, a smile so gaily defiant that Lancaster, far behind, wondered. ”

“ Edgar listened curiously; but Stella had that good genius of tact and courtesy that sometimes inspires children; and she made answer, 'Wilmet is my own dear sister, and I am very glad it is Alda that you have got.'
'Well said, you little ingenious morsel!' cried Edgar, laughing with delight, and catching her up in his arms. 'What does nature design this little being for, Adrian? To marry a great diplomat?'
'To do execution of some sort, I should say,' returned Sir Adrian; 'unless such alarming discretion cancels the effect of those eyes. ”

“ Now ye tell me that I have been rescued and that my honour is still my own. Canst now understand my relief, Edgar? 'Tis more difficult for me to understand how thou couldst have rescued me. It seems marvellous to one who for days tramped frantically up and down his cell like a caged beast, impotent to find a way of escape."
"Talk not nor think of that, Sir John, or thou wilt retard thy recovery. We, too, felt the dread spell of those fearful dungeons, but we were two, and could support one another's drooping spirits." ”

“ I believe that Edgar, in the innocence of his heart, thought that Fabian's headlong flirtation and flaunting success with the girl I loved in such meek and forlorn fashion formed a salutary experience for me.
For while the young actor invariably sloped from fishing excursions, and disappeared from picnics, and had a flower which I absolutely recognised in his buttonhole every day, Edgar contented himself with preaching to me a philosophical calm, and ignored my pathetic insinuations that he might do some unspecified good by 'speaking to' Fabian. ”

“ You may be distant when the blow falls which divides us. Edgar, I implore you, when you become a man, to let one consideration only guide you in your selection of a partner. Mark me—only one—see that she has a heart—a virtuous heart—and that it be yours entire. Despise wealth— beauty—family—look to nothing but that. Would to Heaven that I had!— Edgar—your happiness—your salvation, every thing, depends upon it. ”

“ The meeting of Edgar with the blinded Gloster is equally heart-rending; nothing can be more affecting than to see the ejected son become the father's guide, and the good angel, who under the disguise of insanity, saves him by an ingenious and pious fraud from the horror and despair of self-murder. ”

“ I had no objection now to Edgar marrying her; but how could I be true to my uncle or to myself, and answer this question affirmatively.
“Your countenance speaks for you,” he declared, and dropped the subject with the remark, “There will be no such announcement to-night. If Edgar’s hopes appear to stand in the way of any you might naturally cherish, you may eliminate them from your thoughts. And so I ask again, do you think you could love my Orpha; really love her for herself and not for her fortune? Love her as if she were the one woman in the world for you?” ”

“ Evidently, I had not yet found the key to his nature. Edgar at that moment was a mystery to me. But he should not remain so much longer.
Waiting for nothing, I addressed him as brother to brother. The haggard look in his eye had appealed to me. Would to God there was not the reason for it that I feared!
“Edgar, the message I sent up was a correct one. I come as an agent from Mr. John E. Miller with a letter and a package addressed to your name which you will remember is identical with my own. Do you know any such man?” ”

“ Thou art lucky," he went on, turning to Edgar, "to get as much."
"Lucky indeed," replied Edgar in a tone of weary indifference; "but can thine other prisoner spare the rugs?"
"Aye, they belong not--But what know ye--why talk ye of another prisoner?" cried Duprez savagely, as he began to suspect that he had told too much.
"Oh, nothing! Surely one might guess ye had other prisoners in so large a castle. Is this our food, friend Duprez? They do not intend to starve us at any rate. Doubtless we may expect a meal twice or thrice in the day?" ”

“ At what hour shall I call upon you tomorrow?"
"At any hour you like," answered Edgar. "The sooner the better, indeed. Will you say six in the morning?"
"Rather early," replied Captain M----; "but so be it. They are going to begin dancing, I see. Is that one of your amusements?"
"Not to-night," answered Edgar; and then after a pause, he added, in a low, meditative tone, "The Nameless Fisherman of the Nameless Lake! Was he a tall, exceedingly handsome man; a gentleman in every word, and look, and movement, with the most scrupulous taste in his dress?" ”

“ Edgar laughed with glee.
“Don’t you like her?” he asked.
“Not a fat lot,” said Paul. “Why, do you?”
“No!” The answer came with a deep ring of conviction. “No!” Edgar pursed up his lips. “I can’t say she’s much in my line.” He mused a little. Then: “But why do you call her ‘Nevermore’?” he asked.
“Well,” said Paul, “if she looks at a man she says haughtily ‘Nevermore,’ and if she looks at herself in the looking-glass she says disdainfully ‘Nevermore,’ and if she thinks back she says it in disgust, and if she looks forward she says it cynically.” ”

“ There was, however, no choice open, so Edgar again put the lad down and turned to the nearest door.
Throughout the flight the cripple lad had not spoken once, but now, noticing perhaps how his rescuer panted, and how their escape seemed as far off as ever, he found his tongue.
"Leave me behind, sir. Thou canst not escape burdened with me. Seek thine own safety. What need for both to perish?"
"I cannot leave thee, lad, once I have taken the task upon me. Fear not; while I still possess a sword I will never lose hope." ”

“ Do tell it us, Edgar. Of all your charming talks, what I like almost the best are your reminiscences. He has such a memory, Lettice; and so much penetration into the characters of persons: and the connection of things; that nothing is so delightful as when he will tell some old history of his earlier years. Do, dear Edgar, tell us all about this charming young curate of Briarwood."
"Flatterer! Coaxing flatterer! Don't believe a word she says, Miss Arnold. ”

“ It required some heartbreaking months for Edgar to learn that brain waves couldn't be stopped, but that the simple trick of introducing random electrical noise suspended all the brain functions.
"Fudge!" cursed Edgar, thinking of the wasted time.
Only a man filled with the longing which obsessed Edgar could have found the aching perseverance and brain-wrenching ingenuity the job needed. Only a man driven by a terrible master that rode in his glands. ”

“ And then it struck Arthur, how very much more he had to be thankful for, than he had thought. He looked at Edgar’s sad life, and then he thought of how very much brighter his own was. But he knew enough of dreariness, to be able to enter into Edgar’s sadness.
“Well, Edgar, I’ll tell you what. When my father and mother come home, I will get them to ask you to come to Ashton Grange, and you may be quite sure the people there will want you. I know I shall. I think, although you are such a queer fellow, that I like you very much, and I am so sorry you are so unhappy.” ”

“ The Opening of the Attack
"Let every man understand that silence is of far more importance than speed," said Edgar to the priest the following morning, as the latter put himself at the head of a body of forty men carrying spades in addition to their weapons. "If you do your work thoroughly and silently Peter and I will see that you are not disturbed."
"The work shall be done, and done well," responded the priest cheerfully. "See thou, Sir Squire, to thy part. To thee the conflict--and let it be victory, for defeat at the outset will be hard indeed to bear." ”

“ Even when well within the shelter of the woods, they still pressed breathlessly onward until they met a party of the peasants approaching the scene of the strange explosion with slow and timid steps. At the sight of Edgar's party they stopped and made as though to flee.
"Where is Father Armand?" cried Edgar quickly. "Fear not--we are flesh and blood. Take us to Father Armand--if he still lives."
With their fear changed into amazement the peasants clustered about the fugitives with every manifestation of joy and gladness. ”