"Raise me up, Robin--Robin--and move that chest on my right. Gently,
gently, Robin; it contains much that will make you rich when I am gone.
It would have been hard if the poor widow had not her tithe out of those
who came and went. I have sent for Mistress Cecil, but she has not come:
she thinks little about the lone widow of the Crag."
"Mother," replied Robin, "her own troubles are many."
"Ah! she knows not what secrets are in the old woman's keeping. She
comes not, and I have a story to tell that would be as poison to
her--ay, to body and soul! You must hear it, Robin, if no one else will.
But, first, hand me a drink of the strong waters. Ah, that will put
fresh life into me! Let the preachers preach their fill, nothing rouses
one like the strong waters!"
Robin did as she desired, but with evident unwillingness.
"Many years have gone," she continued, "yet, to the aged, many years
appear as yesterday. I was sitting by the door of this very cottage,
which had just been made public--for your poor father--(honest man that
he was, far above your mother in wisdom and goodness)--your poor father,
I say, had been drowned the winter before, and I was obliged to do
something to keep the children, and so thought of making the cottage a
public; well--I sat at the door, and you were in my arms."
The aged woman's mind appeared to wander for a few moments, as if she
was calling her thoughts from a long distance.
"It was night, dark, dark night, and many runagades had been about the
coast all day trafficking and trading and smuggling, and the gentry
helping them, for things were not strict then:--it was pitch dark, with
now and then a gleam of light from a bright cloud; and there came
towards me a gentleman I knew full well--a gallant, handsome gentleman:
he stood upon the rock that hangs over the sea, where the sea is ever
wildest. Presently some of the strange-looking men joined him, and they
talked and talked, though I heard them not, for the wind was whistling
around me, and I was watching you asleep."
The woman again paused, but soon resumed her story.
"Well, as I was saying, they talked; but soon I heard a cry through the
storm, and the next minute there was a gleam of light--I saw him
struggling; but darkness fell again, and on a sudden, while you would
clap your hands, came a scream for help. O God! O God! I hear it
now!--now I hear it!--Robin, another drink of the strong waters, that
will silence it!"