The loss of his niece's cheerful society tended also to depress his spirits;and in order to dispel this despondency,which often crept upon his mind after his daily employment was over,he was wont frequently to prevail upon Schalken to accompany him home,and by his presence to dispel,in some degree,the gloom of his otherwise solitary supper.
One evening,the painter and his pupil were sitting by the fire,having accomplished a comfortable supper,and had yielded to that silent pensiveness sometimes induced by the process of digestion,when their reflections were disturbed by a loud sound at the street-door,as if occasioned by some person rushing forcibly and repeatedly against it.A domestic had run without delay to ascertain the cause of the disturbance,and they heard him twice or thrice interrogate the applicant for admis-sion,but without producing an answer or any cessation of the sounds.
They heard him then open the hall-door,and immediately there followed a light and rapid tread upon the staircase.Schalken laid his hand on his sword,and advanced towards the door.It opened before he reached it,and Rose rushed into the room.
She looked wild and haggard,and pale with exhaustion and terror;but her dress surprised them as much even as her unexpected appearance.It consisted of a kind of white woollen wrapper,made close about the neck,and descending to the very ground.It was much deranged and travel-soiled.The poor creature had hardly entered the chamber when she fell senseless on the floor.With some difficulty they succeeded in reviving her,and on recovering her senses she instantly ex-claimed,in a tone of eager,terrified impatience:
'Wine,wine,quickly,or I'm lost!'
Much alarmed at the strange agitation in which the call was made,they at once administered to her wishes,and she drank some wine with a haste and eagerness which surprised them.She had hardly swallowed it,when she exclaimed,with the same urgency:
'Food,food,at once,or I perish!'
A considerable fragment of a roast joint was upon the table,and Schalken immediately proceeded to cut some,but he was anticipated;for no sooner had she become aware of its presence than she darted at it with the rapacity of a vulture,and,seizing it in her hands she tore off the flesh with her teeth and swallowed it.
When the paroxysm of hunger had been a little appeased,she appeared suddenly to become aware how strange her conduct had been,or it may have been that other more agitating thoughts recurred to her mind,for she began to weep bitterly and to wring her hands.
'Oh!send for a minister of God,'said she;'I am not safe till he comes;send for him speedily.'
Gerard Douw despatched a messenger instantly,and prevailed on his niece to allow him to surrender his bedchamber to her use;he also persuaded her to retire to it at once and to rest;her consent was extorted upon the condition that they would not leave her for a moment.
'Oh that the holy man were here!'she said;'he can deliver me.The dead and the living can never be one--God has forbidden it.'
With these mysterious words she surrendered herself to their guidance,and they proceeded to the chamber which Gerard Douw had assigned to her use.
'Do not--do not leave me for a moment,'said she.'I am lost for ever if you do.'
Gerard Douw's chamber was approached through a spacious apartment,which they were now about to enter.Gerard Douw and Schalken each carried a was candle,so that a sufficient degree of light was cast upon all surrounding objects.They were now entering the large chamber,which,as I have said,communicated with Douw's apartment,when Rose suddenly stopped,and,in a whisper which seemed to thrill with horror,she said:
'O God!he is here--he is here!See,see--there he goes!'
She pointed towards the door of the inner room,and Schalken thought he saw a shadowy and ill-defined form gliding into that apartment.He drew his sword,and raising the candle so as to throw its light with increased distinctness upon the objects in the room,he entered the chamber into which the shadow had glided.No figure was there--nothing but the furniture which belonged to the room,and yet he could not be deceived as to the fact that something had moved before them into the chamber.
A sickening dread came upon him,and the cold perspiration broke out in heavy drops upon his forehead;nor was he more composed when he heard the increased urgency,the agony of entreaty,with which Rose implored them not to leave her for a moment.
'I saw him,'said she.'He's here!I
cannot be deceived--I know him.He's by me--he's with me--he's in the room.
Then,for God's sake,as you would save,do not stir from beside me!'
They at length prevailed upon her to lie down upon the bed,where she continued to urge them to stay by her.She frequently uttered incoherent sentences,repeating again and again,'The dead and the living cannot be one--God has forbidden it!'and then again,'Rest to the wakeful--sleep to the sleep-walkers.'
These and such mysterious and broken sentences she continued to utter until the clergyman arrived.
Gerard Douw began to fear,naturally enough,that the poor girl,owing to terror or ill-treatment,had become deranged;and he half suspected,by the suddenness of her appearance,and the unseasonableness of the hour,and,above all,from the wildness and terror of her manner,that she had made her escape from some place of confinement for lunatics,and was in immediate fear of pursuit.He resolved to summon medical advice as soon as the mind of his niece had been in some measure set at rest by the offices of the clergyman whose attendance she had so earnestly desired;and until this object had been attained,he did not venture to put any questions to her,which might possibly,by reviving painful or horrible recollections,increase her agitation.