The Witchs Head

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The Witch's Head
by
H. Rider Haggard
1884

Swell out, sad harmonies,
From the slow cadence of the gathering years;
For Life is bitter-sweet, yet bounds the flood
Of human fears
A death-crowned queen, from her hid throne she scatters
Smiles and tears

Until Time turn aside,
And we slip past him towards the wide increase
Of all things beautiful, then finding there
Our rest and peace;
The mournful strain is ended. Sorrow and song
Together cease.
A. M. Barber.

BOOK I
CHAPTER I
ERNEST'S APPEARANCE
"Come here, boy, let me look at you."
Ernest advanced a step or two and looked his uncle in the face. He was a noble-looking lad of about thirteen, with large dark eyes, black hair that curled over his head, and the unmistakable air of breeding that marks Englishmen of good race.
His uncle let his wandering glance stray round him, but, wandering as it was, it seemed to take him in from top to toe. Presently he spoke again:
"I like you, boy."
Ernest said nothing.
"Let me see--your second name is Beyton. I am glad they called you Beyton; it was your grandmother's maiden name, and a good old name too. Ernest Beyton Kershaw. By the way, have you ever seen anything of your other uncle, Sir Hugh Kershaw?"
The boy's cheek flushed.
"No, I have not; and I never wish to," he answered.
"Why not?"
"Because when my mother wrote to him before she died"--here the lad's voice choked--"just after the bank broke and she lost all her money, he wrote back and said that because his brother--I mean my father--had made a low marriage, that was no reason why he should support his child and widow; but he sent her five pounds to go on with. She sent it back."
"That was like your mother, she always had a high spirit. He must be a cur, and he does not speak the truth. Your mother comes of a better stock than the Kershaws. The Carduses are one of the oldest families in the Eastern counties. Why, boy, our family lived down in the Fens by Lynn there for centuries, until your grandfather, poor weak man, got involved in his great lawsuit and ruined us all. There, there, it has gone into the law, but it is coming back, it is coming back fast. This Sir Hugh has only one son, by the way. Do you know that if anything happened to him you would be next in the entail? At any rate you would get the baronetcy."
"I don't want his baronetcy," said Ernest, sulkily; "I will have nothing of his."
"A title, boy, is an incorporeal hereditament, for which the holder is indebted to nobody. It does not descend to him, it vests in him. But tell me, how long was this before your mother died--that he sent the five pounds, I mean?"
"About three months."
Mr. Cardus hesitated a little before he spoke again, tapping his white fingers nervously on the table.
"I hope my sister was not in want, Ernest?" he said, jerkily.
"For a fortnight before she died we had scarcely enough to eat," was the blunt reply.
Mr. Cardus turned himself to the window, and for a minute the light of the dull December day shone and glistened upon his brow and head, which was perfectly bald. Then before he spoke he drew himself back into the shadow, perhaps to hide something like a tear that shone in his soft black eyes.
"And why did she not appeal to me? I could have helped her."
"She said that when you had quarrelled with her about her marrying my father, you told her never to write or speak to you again, and that she never would."
"Then why did you not do it, boy? You knew how things were."
"Because we had begged once, and I would not beg again."
"Ah," muttered Mr. Cardus, "the old spirit cropping up. Poor Rose, nearly starving, and dying too, and I with so much which I do not want. O, boy, boy, when you are a man never set up an idol, for it frightens good spirits away. Nothing else can live in its temple; it is a place where all things are forgotten--duty, and the claims of blood, and sometimes those of honour too. Look now, I have my idol, and it has made me forget my sister and your mother. Had she not written at last when she was dying, I should have forgotten you too."
The boy looked up puzzled.
"An idol!"
"Yes," went on his uncle in his dreamy way--"an idol. Many people have them; they keep them in the cupboard with their family skeleton; sometimes the two are identical. And they call them by many names, too; frequently it is a woman's name; sometimes that of a passion; sometimes that of a vice, but a virtue's--not often."
"And what is the name of yours, uncle?" asked the wondering boy.
"Mine? O, never mind!"
At this moment a swing-door in the side of