The Buccaneer - A Tale

It would have touched a heart, retaining any degree of feeling, to see

that young and beautiful woman within that damp and noisome

excavation--so damp that cold and slimy reptiles clung to, and crept

over, its floor and walls, while the blind worm nestled in the old

apertures formed to admit a little air; and the foul toad, and still

more disgusting eft, looked upon her, as they would say, "Thou art our

sister."

"And here," thought she, "must the only child of Manasseh Ben Israel

array herself, to meet the gaze of the proud beauty who would not deign

to notice the letter or the supplication of the despised Jewess; to meet

the gaze of the cold stern English, and of the cruel man who points the

finger of scorn against her he has destroyed. Yet I seek but justice,

but to be acknowledged as his wife, in the open day and before an

assembled people, and then he shall hear and see no more of the Rabbi's

daughter! I will hide myself from the world, and look upon all mankind

as I do upon him--with a bitter hatred!--Yet I was not always thus," she

continued, as she clasped a jewel on her arm: "The bracelet is too wide

for the shrunk flesh! Out, out upon thee, bauble! O that I could

thus--and thus--and thus--trample into this black and slimy earth, every

vestige of what I was, and have no more the power to think of what I am!

Is this the happiness I looked for? Are these the feelings of my

girlhood? My heart seems cold within me, cold to every thought but

vengeance! Even the burden I carry--it is part of him, and with the

groans that come in woman's travail I will mingle curses, deep and

blasting, on its head. O that I could cast it from me! And yet--and yet

it will be my own child!" And the feelings of the mother triumphed; for,

at that thought, the Jewess wept, and tears are as balm to an

overwrought mind, at once a relief and a consolation. Zillah wept, and

was humanised. After a little time, she arrayed herself in befitting

garments, but placed pistols within her bosom. Long before the appointed

hour, and despite the watchfulness of Sir Willmott's spies, she was

secreted near the ruined chapel adjoining Cecil Place.