Cruel As The Grave

Then Captain Pendleton arose and beckoned Miss Tabby Winterose to come

towards him. That lady came forward, whimpering as usual, but with an

immeasurably greater cause than she had ever possessed before.

"Close her eyes, straighten her limbs, arrange her dress. She is quite

dead," said the Captain.

Miss Tabby's voice was lifted up in weeping.

But wilder yet arose the sound of wailing, as the Scotch girl, with the

child in her arms, broke through the crowd and cast herself down beside

her dead mistress, crying: "Oh! and is it gone ye are, my bonny leddy? Dead and gone fra us, a' sae

suddenly! Oh, bairnie! look down on your puir mither, wham they have

murthered--the born deevils."

The poor child, frightened as much by the wild wailing of the nurse as

by the sight of his mother's ghastly form, began to scream and to hide

his head on Janet's bosom.

"Woman, this is barbarous. Take the boy away from this sight," exclaimed

Captain Pendleton, imperatively.

But Janet kept her ground, and continued to weep and wail and

apostrophize the dead mother, or appeal to the orphan child. And all the

women in the crowd whose tongues had hitherto been paralyzed with

horror, now broke forth in tears and sobs, and cries of sympathy and

compassion, and-"Oh, poor murdered young mother! Oh, poor orphaned babe!" or

lamentations to the same effect, broke forth on all sides.

"Mr. Berners, you are master of the house. I earnestly exhort you to

clear the room of all here, except Miss Winterose and ourselves," said

Captain Pendleton in an almost commanding tone.

"Friends and neighbors," cried Lyon Berners, lifting up his voice, so

that it could be heard all over the room, "I implore you to withdraw to

your own apartments. Your presence here only serves to distress

yourselves and embarrass us. And we have a duty to do to the dead."

The crowd began to disperse and move toward the doors when suddenly

Sybil Berners lifted her hand on high and called, in a commanding tone: "STOP!"

And all stopped and turned their eyes on her.

She was still very pale, but now also very calm; the most self-collected

one in that room of death.

"I have somewhat to say to you," she continued. "You all heard the dying

words of that poor dead woman, in which she accused me of having

murdered her; and your own averted eyes accuse me quite as strongly, and

my own aspect, perhaps, more strongly than either."

She paused and glanced at her crimsoned hand, and then looked around and

saw that her nearest neighbors and oldest friends, who had known her

longest and loved her best, now turned away their heads, or dropped

their eyes. She resumed: "The dead woman was mistaken; you are misled; and my very appearance is

deceptive. I will not deny that the woman was my enemy. Driven to

desperation, and in boiling blood, I might have been capable of doing

her a deadly mischief, but bravely and openly, as the sons and daughters

of my fiery race have done such things before this. But to go to her

chamber in the dead of night, and in darkness and secrecy--! No! I could

not have done that, if she had been ten times the enemy she was. Is

there one here who believes that the daughter of Bertram Berners could

be guilty of that or any other base deed?" she demanded, as her proud

glance swept around upon the faces of her assembled friends and

neighbors.