``Or even of the future, my good friend,'' said Flora, ``so far as earthly events are concerned; for how often have I pictured to myself the strong possibility of this horrid issue, and tasked myself to consider how I could support my part; and yet how far has all my anticipation fallen short of the unimaginable bitterness of this hour!''
``Dear Flora, if your strength of mind''------``Ay, there it is,'' she answered, somewhat wildly; ``there is Mr.Waverley, there is a busy devil at my heart that whispers ---but it were madness to listen to it---that the strength of mind on which Flora prided herself has murdered her brother!''
``Good God! how can you give utterance to a thought so shocking?''
``Ay, is it not so?---but yet it haunts me like a phantom:
I know it is unsubstantial and vain; but it will be present---will intrude its horrors on my mind---will whisper that my brother, as volatile as ardent, would have divided his energies amid a hundred objects.It was I who taught him to concentrate them, and to gage all on this dreadful and desperate cast.
Oh that I could recollect that I had but once said to him, `He that striketh with the sword shall die by the sword;' that I had but once said, Remain at home; reserve yourself, your vassals, your life, for enterprises within the reach of man.But oh, Mr.
Waverley, I spurred his fiery temper, and half of his ruin at least lies with his sister?''
The horrid idea which she had intimated Edward endeavoured to combat by every incoherent argument that occurred to him.
He recalled to her the principles on which both thought it their duty to act, and in which they had been educated.
``Do not think I have forgotten them,'' she said, looking up, with eager quickness; ``I do not regret his attempt because it was wrong---oh no! on that point I am armed---but because it was impossible it could end otherwise than thus.''
``Yet it did not always seem so desperate and hazardous as it was; and it would have been chosen by the bold spirit of Fergus whether you had approved it or no; your counsels only served to give unity and consistence to his conduct; to dignify, but not to precipitate, his resolution.'' Flora had soon ceased to listen to Edward, and was again intent upon her needle-work.
``Do you remember,'' she said, looking up with a ghastly smile, ``you once found me making Fergus's bride-favours, and now I am sewing his bridal-garment.Our friends here,'' she continued, with suppressed emotion, ``are to give hallowed earth in their chapel to the bloody relics of the last Vich Ian Vohr.But they will not all rest together; no---his head!---Ishall not have the last miserable consolation of kissing the cold lips of my dear, dear Fergus!''
The unfortunate Flora here, after one or two hysterical sobs, fainted in her chair.The lady, who had been attending in the ante-room, now entered hastily, and begged Edward to leave the room, but not the house.
When he was recalled, after the space of nearly half-an-hour, he found that, by a strong effort, Miss Mac-Ivor had greatly composed herself.It was then he ventured to urge Miss Bradwardine's claim to be considered as an adopted sister, and empowered to assist her plans for the future.
``I have had a letter from my dear Rose,'' she replied, ``to the same purpose.Sorrow is selfish and engrossing, or I would have written to express that, even in my own despair, I felt a gleam of pleasure at learning her happy prospects, and at hearing that the good old Baron has escaped the general wreck.Give this to my dearest Rose; it is her poor Flora's only ornament of value, and was the gift of a princess.'' She put into his hands a case containing the chain of diamonds with which she used to decorate her hair.``To me it is in future useless.The kindness of my friends has secured me a retreat in the convent of the Scottish Benedictine nuns in Paris.To-morrow---if indeed I can survive to-morrow---I set forward on my journey with this venerable sister.And now, Mr.Waverley, adieu! May you be as happy with Rose as your amiable dispositions deserve!
---and think sometimes on the friends you have lost.Do not attempt to see me again! it would be mistaken kindness.''
She gave him her hand, on which Edward shed a torrent of tears, and, with a faltering step, withdrew from the apartment, and returned to the town of Carlisle.At the inn he found a letter from his law friend, intimating that he would be admitted to Fergus next morning as soon as the Castle gates were opened, and permitted to remain with him till the arrival of the Sheriff gave signal for the fatal procession.
