Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 1 (of 2): A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present dayLanaghan, Mrs.
History
Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume 1 (of 2): A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day
Lanaghan, Mrs.
Antigua -- Description and travel; Antigua -- History
raised in this island to join the expedition. I am resolved that
Master Raphe de Merefield be one of the gallants who shall serve
in that affair; a goodly bullet-shot or, albeit, a well-applied
stroke from the rapier of a Spaniard, may relieve me from his
machinations; or should he refuse to fight under the banner of
the commonwealth, verily, I know the malignancy of his father
cleaves so closely to him, that it will only be maintaining
Cromwell’s interest to have him properly secured, or we may see
another revolt when we least expect it.” Thus saying, the
governor walked forward a few paces, and shading his eyes from
the lingering sunbeams, scanned for a few moments the scene
before him.
What passed in the mind of Bridget during the foregoing
conversation it is unnecessary to relate, but the emotions called
up in the heart of the Carib girl while hearing her lover thus
traduced were violent and various. Hate, scorn, and revenge,
fired her eye, and sent a torrent of hot blood through her veins,
which, rushing to her face, turned the clear olive to a fiery
crimson. Yet so well was she accustomed to master her feelings,
that before her young mistress was sufficiently recovered to
commence another dialogue, she stood the same apparently calm
being, her hands folded across her breast; and only that her eye
was more dilated, and her cheek still slightly tinged, none could
tell that aught had moved her.
An exclamation from the governor, who had, for the last few
minutes, been intently gazing in one direction, arrested his
daughter’s attention, and, gliding to his elbow, she inquired if
he addressed her. “Look, Bridget,” replied her father, in a still
stern, but not unmusical voice—“look o’er yonder grove—dost thou
see aught moving?”—“Nothing, dearest father,” answered the
maiden, in her own sweet tones—“nothing but the bland zephyr
sporting amid the young green leaves, and playing its fairy music
upon them.” “Foolish enthusiast! But haste, girl!—fetch me the
wondrous instrument the lord-general gave me, and let me give yon
grove a sharper look—methinks it contains more inmates than we
wot of. I have heard of wild Indians and their deeds.”
Roused by his remarks, Zulmiera started forward, and in an
agitated voice which she in vain tried to stifle, exclaimed, “Oh,
no, your excellency, naught is there, save, as the Lady Bridget
saith, the whispering wind or the fly-birds as they seek their
leafy bower.” “Back, girl!” fiercely retorted the governor—“back
to thy place; who taught thee to hazard thy remarks? Methinks thy
cavalier masters might have made thee know thy station better.”
Again the blood rushed to the cheek and temples of Zulmiera—again
the eye flashed fire—but again she mastered her emotions;
exclaiming, however, as she did so, but in a voice too subdued to
reach her companion’s ear, “Rest till to-morrow’s night, proud
man, then wilt thou learn who governs here!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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