In the course of the next few months Mrs. Hetherington and her daughter
removed to the village of Bowness, on the banks of Windermere, as they
had friends living there; and it was arranged that the marriage should
take place in the parish church of that place.
The wedding day came. It was a glorious summer’s morning, and the
air was filled with the music of birds and the scent of flowers. The
wedding was to be very quiet, and but few guests had been invited.
Those who knew Lily well said that the ‘Red Lily had drooped.’ All the
brightness was out of her life, for she felt that her heart was beneath
the waves of the Bay of Biscay.
The wedding party had assembled in the church, and the ceremony had
commenced. When the grey-haired clergyman asked if anyone knew any just
cause or impediment why the man and woman should not be joined together
in the bonds of holy matrimony, there rose up a man in the body of the
church, and in a loud and steady voice exclaimed:
‘I forbid this marriage.’
Had a thunderbolt fallen through the roof the consternation and
confusion could not have been greater. With a great cry the Red Lily
threw up her arms, and then fell forward on her face in a swoon. For a
few moments Cornell stood as if petrified. His face was ghastly pale.
By this time the man had come forward to the altar rails, and then
Cornell found tongue.
‘Good God!’ he exclaimed, ‘is it possible that the dead can come to
life?’
‘No; but the living can thwart the machinations of a villain, and I
am here to do that,’ said Dick Fenton, for he it was. ‘This man,’
continued Dick, addressing the astonished spectators, ‘attempted to
murder me.’
No one moved. They were dumb with amazement, for they naturally thought
a madman was amongst them. Dick himself stooped and lifted up the
inanimate form of the Lily, and bore her into the vestry. Taking
advantage of the confusion--for everyone seemed bewildered--Cornell
stole from the church, got clear away, and was never heard of more.
It was some time before Lily recovered consciousness. It is better to
leave the reunion of the lovers to the imagination of the reader, for
words always fail to convey anything like an adequate notion of such
a scene. The news of the affair had rapidly spread over the village;
an enormous crowd had gathered about the church, and the uproar was
immense. The wedding party had to wait a considerable time before they
could get back to their homes; then explanations were given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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