Tahmeroo

“ Tahmeroo evidently heard these words; she struggled to get up, but sank back again, moaning out: “No, no, Tahmeroo is his wife!”
“You hear,” said Mary Derwent, looking up at her sister, who, still trembling with terror, clung to young Butler with all her strength, and seemed soothed by his expressions of tender interest. “This poor girl is his wife, his cruel words are killing her. Leave his arms, sister; stand up alone, and look upon the woman you have both wronged, asking God to forgive you!” ”

“ As she stood upon this steady watch, a horseman rode up the street, followed by a servant. Instead of galloping on, as so many had done during the day, he drew up before the jail, flung his bridle to the attendant, and going up to the door which Tahmeroo was eyeing so wistfully struck it a blow with the loaded handle of his riding-whip. ”

“ Grand-dame—queen—bring back Tahmeroo’s husband or let her die, now.”
“If he is killed, we will avenge him!” hissed Esther, clutching the hilt of the hunting-knife which she wore in her girdle. “Look up, Tahmeroo, we will have blood for blood!”
“That will not give him back to me,” said Tahmeroo, shuddering; “blood, always blood—I am sick of vengeance—I want my husband.”
“We can do nothing,” Esther replied; “nothing yet—Tahmeroo must be patient; she knows that the young chief is true to her.” ”

“ As Catharine Montour and Tahmeroo came down the river, urged to breathless speed by the shrieks of dying men and the fiendish yells of their captors, fugitive after fugitive fled to the water; some were shot down before their eyes; some making superhuman efforts, swam for the island, and, dashing across, either escaped or perished on the other side; the savages followed them like demons ”

“ They landed on the eastern shore of the island. Murray was drawing the canoes half on land, while Catharine dashed forward, expecting every instant to meet Tahmeroo with the family she had come to save. But instead of the females she sought, a half dozen men, white as death, with bloodshot eyes and hair erect with terror, dashed by, aiming for the gully on the eastern shore. They were fugitives from the battle, and reeled with the terrible exhaustion of swimming the river as they passed her with wild, staggering bounds. ”

“ Catharine’s arms released their hold and fell to her side; a sickly pallor gathered about her mouth, and her sad eyes grew dim.
“Everywhere the same!” she murmured, “everywhere! Life, life, if we could only escape it—cast it forth!”
“What do you say, mother? How white your lips are. Oh, you do pity Tahmeroo—hold me to your heart again, and tell me that you pity me!”
Catharine took the unhappy girl to her bosom in a long embrace, and Tahmeroo wept for a time in silence. But soon her impatience came back, and again she began pleading for aid to send after her husband. ”

“ She hurried down the hill towards a clump of black alders that overhung the river’s brink and unmoored a light canoe hitherto concealed beneath the dark foliage. Placing herself in the bottom, she gave two or three vigorous strokes with the paddle, and shot like a bird up the stream.
As Tahmeroo proceeded up the river the scenery, till then half-pastoral, half-sublime, became more savage and gloomy in its aspect. Huge rocks shot up against the sky in picturesque grandeur; the foliage which clothed them grew dusky in the waning light and fell back to the ravines in dark, heavy shadows. ”

“ I hear no sound abroad!” exclaimed Tahmeroo, starting from her mother’s arms, and looking apprehensively in her face.
Catharine rose to her feet, and went out into the camp. The island was wholly deserted, save by a few squaws and the usual guard around her tent. In a moment she returned with something of former energy in her manner.
“There is treachery intended here,” she said; “not an Indian is on the island. This bloodshed must be prevented. Hark! there are shots. I hear distant 319drums—that yell! God help the poor souls that must perish this day!” ”

“ At last a fleet of canoes came rounding a point—cast a ruddy light over the forest trees that fringed it in passing, and floated out on the broad bosom of the lake. In the foremost canoe sat a young man with his hat off, and the night winds softly lifting his hair.
“It is he! oh, mother, it is he!” said Tahmeroo. All at once her strength forsook her—the oars hung idly in her hands, and her face fell forward upon her bosom. She remembered how coldly Butler had parted from her, and became shy as a fawn. ”

“ And Tahmeroo was happy. She did not dream, poor child, that a new power had been added to her attractions since Butler had learned that she was heiress to a title and the vast wealth he could never hope to touch, except through her. Three weeks before, the selfish man would have laughed at the idea of a wild, bright girl like that breaking her heart from his indifference; now her life was very precious to him, and there was no degree of affectionate regard which he would not have feigned, rather than see her cheek grow a shade paler. ”

“ Then your whole life may be full of hope. Without this love, Tahmeroo would die; for it fills all the world to her. Oh, mother, I did not know how beautiful the earth was till he came; the water down which his canoe passes grows pure as I look; if his hand touches a flower, it brightens to a star under my eye; the winter-berries turn to gold as he gathers them for me; I could kneel down and kiss the moss which his foot has walked over; the sound of his moccasins, away off in the forest, makes my heart leap for joy. Is not this love, mother?”
Catharine sobbed aloud ”

“ Mary asked.
“Much—the white medicine is very powerful; he will help me, and you, too, you will not send Tahmeroo away miserable, and without some hope of seeing her lord again.”
The missionary looked at her earnestly, and the stern pallor of his face softened. That short year had wrought a great change in the poor girl. The habitual brown of her cheek had given place to a sickly pallor, her temples were hollow and sunken, and her black eyes blazed with a strange brilliancy, which betrayed the consuming fever within. ”

“ She looked on her mother. “They have found some means of crossing,” she said; “they will murder us when they see us warning their prey; but I will do it. Kiss me, mother—farewell!”
One wild kiss, a quick embrace, and Tahmeroo dashed up the path with the bound of a wild deer.
Catharine Montour turned wildly to her companion. “That cry! In—in!” she cried, vehemently, springing into the canoe. “They are upon the water; let them fire upon us if they will. Give me an oar; I can use one hand. Father of heaven! Did you hear that shout?”
Murray saw that no time was to be lost. ”

“ The blackened trees, dead, like their owner, shivered as the wind passed them burdened with that mournful wail. That little group of Indians, broken off from the great tribe by the curse of their chief, buried their queen among the blackened ruins, covered her grave with ashes, and sat down by it in patient desolation.
Then Tahmeroo glided among them like a ghost. “Old men,” she said, in the gentleness of solemn grief, “sit no longer in the ashes of my father’s curse. Gi-en-gwa-tah will listen to Catharine Montour’s child when she tells him all the sweet words which her mother left behind. ”

“ At her command, the warriors left behind by her mother-in-law and husband had gone out to spear salmon, and she was watching the picturesque effect of the canoes on the water, with a gentle thrill of admiration of which her heart had been incapable a few months before. Tahmeroo was at her feet, resting against her lap, and looking—oh, how wistfully!—far beyond the group of canoes with their flaming lights, that fell 209like meteors on the waters. Her heart, poor girl, was full of wild longings and those vague fears which always follow want of trust in a beloved object. ”

“ Last night my unhappy child came to the camp wild with the torture that wicked man had inflicted. I will not speak harshly of your sister: if her folly works sharper than wickedness, it is not your fault; but my business here was to warn her of the danger she is braving. I did not wish to see a person whose folly has already irritated a temper not particularly placable, but sent for you, because my child told me of your kindness—your true, generous courage. I wished to thank you—to impress you with the danger that hangs over your family if Tahmeroo receives farther wrong or insult here. ”

“ At the same time you have left behind you a helpless youth, whose expectations are fixed on your exertions; if you waste the time, what will you have to answer before God?”
Hatim then seized the hand of the fair damsel, which he had no sooner done than a female form issued from the foot of the throne, and struck him a blow which felled him to the ground. He opened his eyes, and on looking round him saw not a trace of the garden, the palace, the throne, or the damsels. A dreary and boundless wilderness presented itself to his view, which he knew to be the desert of Hawaida. ”

“ And Taheia leaped from her place; and the priest, the ruby-eyed,
Ran to the front of the terrace, and brandished his arms, and cried:
“Hold, O fools, he brings tidings!” and “Hold, ’tis the love of my heart!”
Till lo! in front of the terrace, Rua pierced with a dart.
Taheia cherished his head, and the aged priest stood by,
And gazed with eyes of ruby at Rua’s darkening eye.
“Taheia, here is the end, I die a death for a man.
I have given the life of my soul to save an unsavable clan. ”

“ Taheia, heavy of hair, leaped through the dark to his arms;
Taheia leaped to his clasp, and was folded in from alarms.
“Rua, beloved, here, see what your love has brought;
Coming—alas! returning—swift as the shuttle of thought;
Returning, alas! for to-night, with the beaten drum and the voice,
In the shine of many torches must the sleepless clan rejoice;
And Taheia the well-descended, the daughter of chief and priest,
Taheia must sit in her place in the crowded bench of the feast.” ”

“ Tavystoc, the fortified place upon the Tavy, which has been turned into Tavistock and has become famous, not for its Abbey, nor for its great men, but solely and simply for its Goose Fair; and Mary and Peter Tavy, who were not made of cob, or granite, or water, or tin, or any of those other things which made the fortune of the Tavy family, but were two simple animals of the human race, children of the river out of that portion of Dartmoor which it owns, two ignorant beings who took life seriously enough and were like the heather and gorse which surrounded them. ”

“ In a few days Hatim, being completely recovered from his late fatigue, said to his host, “My dear friend, I must now part with you, for I am on a journey to explore the mountain of Nida.”—“Let me prevail upon you to go no farther,” said the Hindoo, “for the route is long and dangerous, and it is not in man to reach your destined stage.”—“My trust is in God,” replied Hatim, “who can conduct me thither, and bring me back in safety.” ”

“ I long for death to relieve me of my sorrow, since the idol of my heart can never be mine.”
When Hatim heard the prince’s history, he said to him, “Despair not, my friend, for I expect to succeed; and if I gain the prize, the daughter shall be yours and the pearl mine.”—“Your proposal is generous,” replied the fairy prince, “but excuse me if I say, that I doubt your success.”—“Listen,” said Hatim, “and I will tell you the nature of this pearl, which not only resembles, but is the egg of a murghab. ”

“ In fact, he became more frantic and more enamoured of the beautiful fairy than the youth whose cause he had undertaken. Hatim thus spent three days and nights, forgetful of his friend, and regardless of food and drink. On the fourth night a feverish sleep overpowered his eyelids, and in his confused slumbers he heard a voice exclaiming, “Oh, Hatim! arise and know thyself; hast thou not devoted thy life to the service of thy Creator, and wilt thou now permit thyself to be guilty of a breach of trust?” ”

“ When the people were restored to their senses, what a spectacle they beheld! The desert was overspread with the entrails of Halūka, who now lay dead before them. The whole assembly, including the chief and his son, gathered around Hatim and prostrated themselves at his feet. They then addressed him: “Most learned Sir, tell us the reason why the monster has thus died as it were of his own accord.”—“You see,” replied Hatim, “the giant has come by his death, not from any weapon, but merely by the viewing of his own image, for he had never seen his own likeness in any other creature ”

“ For this reason, Sir, I have endeavored to do my best in his cause.”
The stranger then said, “Assuredly you must be Hatim himself; for with the exception of Hatim, there is not a man alive who would have acted in such a manner. Generous Hatim! God is beneficent, and to you will render the task easy; but remember, that hitherto no one has returned in safety from the desert of Hawaida, and the few who have thence retraced their steps became distracted in mind and lost to the world ”

“ Hatim replied, “I am on my way to the desert of Hawaida.” The stranger, on hearing this, said, “How came you to adopt so mad a resolution? has none of your friends been kind enough to prevent your journey?”—“Such,” said Hatim, “is my sincere intention; and placing my reliance on God, I have undertaken this task, and have proceeded thus far on my way. A prince, named Munir Shami, has fallen desperately in love with Husn Banu, the daughter of Burzakh the merchant. The lady has asked of the prince seven questions, the solution of which is beyond his power. ”

“ The Prince Munir Shami prostrated himself at Hatim’s feet, in order to give vent to his gratitude; but Hatim raised him to his bosom, and related to him all that he had seen.
Hatim, accompanied by the prince, waited upon Husn Banu, who, having veiled herself, most courteously received them, and addressing Hatim, she said, “Tell me, brave youth, what news have you brought?”—“An aged man,” replied Hatim, “in the desert of Hawaida once saw by the effect of magic a damsel of angelic form. ”