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diff --git a/2139.txt b/2139.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41d0302 --- /dev/null +++ b/2139.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4319 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Alvira: the Heroine of Vesuvius, by A. J. O'Reilly + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alvira: the Heroine of Vesuvius + +Author: A. J. O'Reilly + +Posting Date: January 30, 2009 [EBook #2139] +Release Date: April, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALVIRA: THE HEROINE OF VESUVIUS *** + + + + +Produced by Brett Fishburne. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +Alvira: The Heroine of Vesuvius + + +by + +Rev. A. J. O'Reilly, D.D. + + + + +Introduction + + + +The Penitent Saints + + +The interesting and instructive character of this sensational narrative, +which we cull from the traditions of a past generation, must cover +the shortcomings of the pen that has labored to present it in an +English dress. + +We are aware that the propriety of drawing from the oblivion of +forgotten literature such a story will be questioned. The decay of +the chivalrous spirit of the middle ages, and the prudish, puritanical +code of morality that has superseded the simple manners of our +forefathers, render it hazardous to cast into the hands of the present +generation the thrilling records of sin and repentance such as they +were seen and recorded in days gone by. Yet in the midst of a +literature professedly false, and which paints in fascinating colors +the various phases of unrepented vice and crime, without the redeeming +shadows of honor and Christian morality, our little volume must fall +a welcome sunbeam. The strange career of our heroine constitutes a +sensational biography charming and beautiful in the moral it presents. + +The evils of mixed marriages, of secret societies, of intemperance, +and the indulgence of self-love in ardent and enthusiastic youth, find +here the record of their fatal influence on social life, reflected +through the medium of historical facts. Therefore we present to the +young a chapter of warning--a tale of the past with a deep moral for +the present. + +The circumstances of our tale are extraordinary. A young girl dresses +in male attire, murders her father, becomes an officer in the army, +goes through the horrors of battle, and dies a SAINT. + +Truly we have here matter sensational enough for the most exacting +novelist; but we disclaim all effort to play upon the passions, or +add another work of fiction to the mass of irreligious trash so powerful +in the employ of the evil one for the seduction of youth. In the +varied scenes of life there are many actions influenced by secret +motives known only to the heart that harbors them. Not all are +dishonorable. It takes a great deal of guilt to make a person as black +as he is painted by his enemies. Many a brave heart has, under the +garb of an impropriety, accomplished heroic acts of self-denial. + +History is teeming with instances where the love of creatures, and even +the holier and more sublime love of the Creator, have, in moments of +enthusiasm, induced tender females to forget the weakness of their +sex and successfully fulfil the spheres of manhood. These scenes, so +censurable, are extraordinary more from the rarity of their occurrence +than from the motives that inspire them, and thus our tale draws much +of its thrilling interest from the unique character of its details. + +"But what a saint!" we fancy we hear whispered by the fastidious and +scrupulous into whose hand our little work may fall. + +Inadvertently the thought will find a similar expression from the +superficial reader; but if we consider a little, our heroine presents +a career not more extraordinary than those that excite our surprise +in the lives of the penitent saints venerated on the alters of the +Church. Sanctity is not to be judged by antecedents. The soul +crimsoned with guilt may, in the crucible of repentance, become white +like the crystal snow before it touches the earth. This consoling +thought is not a mere assertion, but a matter of faith confirmed by +fact. There are as great names among the penitent saints of the +Church as amongst the few brilliant stars whose baptismal innocence +was never dimmed by any cloud. + +Advance the rule that the early excesses of the penitent stains must +debar them from the esteem their heroic repentance has won; then we +must tear to pieces the consoling volumes of hagiology, we must drag +down Paul, Peter, Augustine, Jerome, Magdalen, and a host of illustrious +penitents from their thrones amongst the galaxy of the elect, and cast +the thrilling records of their repentance into the oblivion their early +career would seem to merit. If we are to have no saints but those of +whom it is testified they never did a wrong act, then the catalogue +of sanctity will be reduced to baptized infants who died before coming +to the use of reason, and a few favored adults who could be counted +on the fingers. + +Is it not rather the spirit and practice of the Church to propose to +her erring children the heroic example of souls who passed through the +storms and trials of life, who had the same weaknesses to contend with, +the same enemies to combat, as they have, whose triumph is her glory +and her crown? The Catholic Church, which has so successfully promoted +the civilization of society and the moral regeneration of nations, +achieved her triumph by the conversion of those she first drew from +darkness. Placed as lights on the rocks of eternity, and shining on +us who are yet tossed about on the stormy seas of time, the penitent +saints serve us as saving beacons to guide our course during the +tempest. Many a feeble soul would have suffered shipwreck had it not +taken refuge near those tutelary towers where are suspended the memorial +deeds of the sainted heroes whose armor was sackcloth, whose watchword +the sigh of repentance poured out in the lonely midnight. + +While Augustine was struggling with the attractions of the world which +had seduced his warm African heart, whose gilded chains seemed once +so light, he animated himself to Christian courage by the examples of +virtue which he had seen crowned in the Church triumphant. + +"Canst thou not do," he said to himself, "what these have done? Timid +youths and tender maidens have abandoned the deceitful joys of time +for the imperishable goods of eternity; canst thou not do likewise? +Were these lions, and art thou a timid deer?" Thus this illustrious +penitent, who was one of the brightest lights of Christianity, has +made known to us the triumph he gained in his internal struggles by +the examples of his predecessors in the brave band of penitents who +shed a luminous ray on the pitchy darkness of his path. + +The life of St. Anthony, written by St. Athanasius, produced such a +sensation in the Christian world that the desolate caverns of Thebias +were not able to receive all who wished to imitate that holy solitary. +Roman matrons were then seen to create for themselves a solitude in +the heart of their luxurious capital; offices of the palace, bedizened +in purple and gold, deserted the court, amid the rejoicings of a +festival, for the date-tree and the brackish rivulets of Upper Egypt! + +Where, then, our error in drawing from the archives of the past another +beautiful and thrilling tale of repentance which may fall with cheerful +rays of encouragement on the soul engaged in the fierce combat with +self? + +To us the simple, touching story of Alvira has brought a charm and a +balm. Seeking to impart to others its interest, its amusement, and +its moral, we cast it afloat on the sea of literature, to meet, +probably, a premature grave in this age of irreligion and presumptuous +denial of the necessities of penance. + + + + +Contents + + +Chapter I. Page +Paris One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago . . . . . . 5 + +Chapter II. +The Usurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 + +Chapter III. +A Mixed Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 + +Chapter IV. +A Youth Trained in the Way he should Walk . . . . 18 + +Chapter V. +Our Heroines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 + +Chapter VI. +A Secret Revealed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 + +Chapter VII. +Tears on Earth, Joy in Heaven . . . . . . . . . . 42 + +Chapter VIII. +Madeleine's Happy Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 + +Chapter IX. +One Abyss Invokes Another . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 + +Chapter X. +On the Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + +Chapter XI. +The Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + +Chapter XII. +Geneva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + +Chapter XIII. +The Secret Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + +Chapter XIV. +The Freemason's Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + +Chapter XV. +Tragedy in the Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 + +Chapter XVI. +A Funeral in the Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + +Chapter XVII. +An Unwritten Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + +Chapter XVIII. +In Uniform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 + +Chapter XIX. +Remorse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 + +Chapter XX. +Naples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 + +Chapter XXI. +Engagement with Brigands . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + +Chapter XXII. +The Morning After the Battle . . . . . . . . . . 156 + +Chapter XXIII. +Return--A Triumph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 + +Chapter XXIV. +Alvira's Confession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + +Chapter XXV. +Honor Saved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 + +Chapter XXVI. +Repentance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + +Chapter XXVII. +The Privileges of Holy Souls . . . . . . . . . . 199 + +Chapter XXVIII. +A Vision of Purgatory--A Dear One Saved . . . . . 202 + +Chapter XXIX. +Unexpected Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 + +Chapter XXX. +Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 + + + + +Chapter I. + +Paris One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago. + + +"Paris is on fire!" "The Tuileries burnt!" "The Hotel de Ville in +ashes!" There are few who do not remember how the world was electrified +with the telegrams that a few years ago announced the destruction of +the French capital. It was the tragic finale of a disastrous war between +rival nations; yet the flames were not sent on high to the neutral +heavens to be the beacon of triumph and revenge of a conquering army, +but set on fire by its own people, who, in a fanaticism unequalled in +the history of nations would see their beautiful city a heap of ashes +rather than a flourishing capital in the power of its rightful rulers. +Fast were the devouring elements leaping through the palaces and superb +public buildings of the city; the petroleum flames were ascending from +basement to roof; streets were in sheets of fire; the charred beams +were breaking; the walls fell with thundering crash--the empress city +was indeed on fire. Like the winds unchained by the storm-god, the +passions of men marked their accursed sweep over the fairest city of +Europe in torrents of human blood and the wreck of material grandeur. + +Those who have visited the superb queen of cities as she once flourished +in our days could not, even in imagination, grasp the contrast between +Paris of the present and the Paris of two hundred years ago. With a +power more destructive than the petroleum of the Commune, we must, in +though, sweep away the Tuileries, the boulevards, the Opera-House and +superb buildings that surround the Champs Elysees; on their sites we +must build old, tottering, ill-shaped houses, six and seven stories +high, confining narrow and dirty streets that wind in lanes and alleys +into serpentine labyrinths, reeking with filthy odors and noxious +vapors. Fill those narrow streets with a lazy, ill-clad people--men +in short skirts and clogs, squatting on the steps of antiquated cafes, +smoking canes steeped in opium, awaiting the beck of some political +firebrand to tear each other to pieces--and in this description you +place before the mind's eye the city some writers have painted as +the Paris of two hundred years ago. + +But the old city has passed away. Like the fabulous creations we have +read of in the tales of childhood, palaces, temples, boulevards, and +theatres have sprung up on the site of the antiquated and labyrinthine +city. Under the dynasty of the Napoleons the capital was rebuilt with +lavish magnificence. Accustomed to gaze on the splendor of the sun, +we seldom advert to its real magnificence in our universe; but pour +its golden flood on the sightless eyeball, and all language would fail +to tell the impression upon the paralyzed soul. Thus, in a minor +degree, the emigrant from the southern seas who has been for years +amongst the cabins on the outskirts of uncultivated plains, where +cities were built of huts, where spireless churches of thatched roof +served for the basilicas of divine worship, and where public justice +was administered under canvas, is startled and delighted with the +refinement and civilization of his more favored fellow-mortal who lives +in the French capital. + +Paris has been rudely disfigured in the fury of her Communist storm; +yet, in the invincible energy of the French character, the people who +paid to the conquering nation in fifteen months nine milliards of +francs will restore the broken ornaments of the empress city. From +the smoking walls and unsightly ruins of bureaux and palaces that wring +a tear from the patriot, France will see life restored to the emblem +of her greatness, the phoenix-like, will rise on the horizon of time +to claim for the future generation her position among the first-rate +powers of Europe. + +To the old city we must wend our way in thought. Crossing the venerable +bridge at Notre Dame, we enter at once the Rue de Seine, where we +pause before the bank and residence of Cassier. + + + + +Chapter II. + +The Usurer. + + +At a desk in the office we observe a lowsized, whiskered man. +Intelligence beams from a lofty brow; sharp features an aquiline nose +tell of Jewish character; his eye glistens and dulls as the heaving +heart throbs with its tides of joy and sorrow. Speculation, that +glides at times into golden dreams, brightens his whole features with +a sunbeam of joy; but suddenly it is clouded. Some unseen intruder +casts a baneful shadow on the ungrasped prize; the features of the +usurer contract, the hand is clenched, the brow is wrinkled, and woe +betide the luckless debtor whose misfortunes would lead him to the +banker's bureau during the eclipse of his good-humor! + +Cassier was a banker by name, but in reality dealt in usurious loans, +Shylock-like wringing the pound of flesh from the victims of his +avarice. He was known and dreaded by all the honest tradesmen of the +city; the curse of the orphan and the widow, whom he unfeelingly drove +into the streets, followed in his path; the children stopped their +games and hid until he passed. That repulsive character which haunts +the evil-doers of society marked the aged banker as an object of dread +and scorn to his immediate neighbors. + +In religion Cassier at first strongly advocated the principles of +Lutheranism; but, as is ever the case with those set adrift on the sea +of doubt, freed from the anchor of faith, the definite character of +his belief was shipwrecked in a confusion of ideas. At length he +lapsed into the negative deism of the French infidels, just then +commencing to gain ground in France. He joined them, too, in open +blasphemies against God and plotting against the stability of the +Government. The blood chills at reading some of the awful oaths +administered to the partisans of those secret societies. They proposed +to war against God, to sweep away all salutary checks against the +indulgence of passion, to level the alter and the throne, and advocated +the claims of those impious theories that in modern times have found +their fullest development in Mormonism and Communism. + +Further on we shall find this noxious weed, that flourishes in the +vineyards whose hedges are broken down, producing its poisonous fruit. +But it was at this period of our history that he became a frequent +attendant at their reunions, returning at midnight, half intoxicated, +to pour into the horrified ears of his wife and children the issue of +the last blasphemous and revolutionary debate that marked the progress +and development of their impious tendencies. + +No wonder Heaven sent on the Cassier family the curse that forms the +thrill of our tragic memoir. + + + + +Chapter III. + +A Mixed Marriage. + + +The Catholic Church has placed restrictions on unions that are not +blessed by Heaven. Benedict XIV. has called them DETESTABLE. A +sad experience has proved the wisdom of the warning. When the love +that has existed in the blinding fervor of passion has subsided into +the realities of every-day life, the bond of nuptial duty will be +religion. But the conflict of religious sentiment produces a divided +camp. + +The offspring must of necessity be of negative faith. When intelligence +dawns on the young soul, its first reasoning powers are caught in a +dilemma. Reverential and filial awe chains the child to the father +and chains it to the mother; but the father may sternly command the +Methodist chapel for Sunday service; the mother will wish to see her +little one worship before the alters of the Church. Fear or love wins +the trusting child, but neither gains a sincere believer. + +See that young mother, silent and fretful; the rouge that grief gives +the moistened eye tells its own tale of secret weeping. + +Trusting, confiding in the power of young love, attracted by the wealth, +the family, or the manners of her suitor, she allows the indissoluble +tie to bind her in unholy wedlock. Soon the faith she has trifled +with assumes its mastery in her repentant heart, but liberty is gone; +for the dream of conjugal bliss which dazzled when making her choice, +she finds herself plunged for life into the most galling and +irremediable of human sorrows--secret domestic persecution. Few brave +the trial; the largest number go with the current to the greater evil +of apostasy. + +Cassier loved a beautiful Catholic girl named Madeleine. Blinded by +the stronger passion, he waived religious prejudice. He wooed, he +promised, he won. The timid Madeleine, beneath her rich suitor in +position, dazzled by wealth, and decoyed by the fair promises that +so often deceive the confiding character of girlhood, gave her hand +and her heart to a destiny she soon learned to lament. + +Fancy had built castles of future enjoyment; dress, ornament, and +society waved their fascinating wings over her path. Unacquainted +with their shadowy pleasures, her preparations for her nuptials were +a dream of joy, too soon to be blasted with the realities of suffering +that characterize the union not blessed by Heaven. Amid the music +and flowers, amid the congratulations of a thousand admiring friends, +with heart and step as light as childhood, Madeleine, like victims, +dressed in flowers and gold, led to the alter of Jupiter in the +Capitol of old, was conducted from the bridal alter to the sacrifice +of her future joy. Story oft told in the vicissitudes of betrayed +innocence and in the fate of those who build their happiness in the +castles of fancy: like the brilliancy of sunset her moment of pleasure +faded; the novelty and tinsel of her gilded home lost their charm, +and the virtue of her childhood was wrecked on golden rocks. She no +longer went to daily Mass; her visits to the convent became less +frequent, her dress lighter; her conversation, toned by the ideas of +pride and self-love reflected from the society she moved in, was profane +and irreligious; and soon the roses of Christian virtue that bloom in +the cheek of innocent maidenhood became sick and withered in the heated, +feverish air of perverse influences that tainted her gilded home. + +Sixteen years of sorrow and repentance had passed over Madeleine, +and found her, at the commencement of our narrative, the victim of +consumption and internal anguish, the more keen because the more secret. +The outward world believed her happy; many silly maidens, in moments +of vanity, deemed they could have gained heaven if they were possessed +of Madeleine's wealth, her jewels, her carriages, her dresses; but were +the veils that shroud the hypocrisy of human joy raised for the warning +of the uninitiated, many a noble heart like Madeleine's would show the +blight of disappointment, with the thorns thick and sharp under the +flowers that are strewn on their path. The sympathy of manhood, ever +flung over the couch of suffering beauty, must hover in sighs of +regret over the ill-fated Madeleine, whose discolored eye and attenuated +form, whose pallid cheek, furrowed by incessant tears, told the wreck +of a beautiful girl sinking to an early tomb. + +Her children--three in number--cause her deepest anxiety; they are the +heroes of our tale, and must at once be introduced to the reader. + + + + +Chapter IV. + +A Youth Trained in the Way He Should Walk. + + + To-morrow-- + 'Tis a period nowhere to be found + In all the hoary registers of time, + Unless, perchance, in the fool's calendar. + Wisdom disdains the word, nor holds society + With those who own it. + 'Tis Fancy's child, and Folly is its father; + Wrought of such stuff as dreams are, and as baseless + As the fantastic visions of the evening. + --Coulton. + + +Like one of those rare and beautiful flowers found on the mountain-side +in fellowship with plants of inferior beauty, the heir of the +Cassier family is a strange exception of heroic virtue in the midst +of a school of seduction. The saints were never exotics in their own +circle. Their early histories are filled with sad records confirming +the prophecy of our blessed Lord: "The world will hate you because +it loves not me." + +The student of hagiology recalls with a sight the touching fate of +a Dympna who was the martyred victim of a father's impiety; of a +Stanislaus pursued by brothers who thirsted for his blood; of a Damian +who nearly starved under his stepfather's cruelty; of martyrs led to +the criminal stone for decapitation by inhuman parents. + +Louis Marie, the eldest of Cassier's children, was of a naturally good +disposition. Through the solicitations of his mother and the guidance +of an unseen Providence that watched over his youth, he was early +sent to the care of the Jesuits. Under the direction of the holy and +sainted members of this order he soon gave hope of a religious and +virtuous manhood. Away from the scoffs of an unbelieving father and +the weakening seductions of pleasure, he opened his generous soul to +those salutary impressions of virtue which draw the soul to God and +enable it to despise the frivolities of life. + +The vacation, to other youths a time of pleasure, to Louis was tedious. +Though passionately attached to his mother, yet the impious and often +blasphemous remarks of his father chilled his heart; the levity with +which his sisters ridiculed his piety was very disagreeable; hence, +under the guidance of a supernatural call to grace, he longed to be +back with the kind fathers, where the quiet joys of study and solitude +far outweighed the short-lived excitement called pleasure by his +worldly sisters. This religious tendency found at last its consummation +in an act of heroic self-denial which leads us to scenes of touching +interest on the threshold of this extraordinary historical drama. + +At the time our narrative commences Louis was seriously meditating +his flight from home and the world to bury himself in some cloister +of religion. His studies of philosophy and history had convinced +him of the immortality of the soul and the vanity of all human +greatness. In his frequent meditations he became more and more +attracted towards the only lasting, imperishable Good which the soul +will one day find in its possession. "Made for God!" he would say to +himself, "my soul is borne with an impetuous impulse towards him; like +the dove sent from the ark, it floats over the vast waters, and seeks +in vain a resting place for its wearied wing; it must return again to +the ark." + +The history of the great ones of the world produced a deep impression +on Louis' mind. Emblazoned on the annals of the past he read the +names of great men who played their part for a brief hour on the stage +of life. They grasped for a moment the gilded bubble of wealth, of +glory, and power; but scarcely had they raised the cup of joy to their +lips when it was dashed from them by some stroke of misfortune or +death. The pageant of pride, the tinsel of glory, were not more +lasting than the fantastic castles that are built in the luminous +clouds that hang around the sunset. + +At college Louis was called on with his companions to write a thesis +on the downfall of Marius. Nothing more congenial to his convictions +or more encouraging to the deep resolution growing in his heart could +be selected. The picture he drew from the sad history of the +conqueror of the Cimbri was long remembered among his school companions. + +Marius was seven times Consul of Rome; in the hapless day of his +ascendancy he threatened to stain three-fourths of the empire with +human blood. Blasted in his golden dream of ambition, driven into +exile by victorious enemies, he was cast by a storm on the shores of +Africa, homeless and friendless; in cold and hunger he sought shelter +amidst the ruins of Carthage. Carthage, whose fallen towers lay in +crumbling masses around him, was once the rival city of imperial Rome +herself, and, under the able leadership of Hannibal, threatened to +wrest from the queen of the Seven Hills the rule of the world. Now +its streets are covered with grass; the wild scream of the bird of +solitude and the moanings of the night-owl mingle with the sobs of +a fallen demigod who once made the earth shake under his tyranny. + +Louis read of the facts and sayings that doled out the sad tale of +disappointment felt by those who seemed to possess all that the +wildest ambition could dream of. + +"Yesterday the world was not large enough for him," said a sage on the +death of Alexander the Great; "to-day he is content with six feet +of earth." + +"What a miserable tomb is erected to the man that once had temples +erected to his honor!" sighed a philosopher on viewing a mean monument +on the sea-shore erected to the great Pompey, who could raise armies +by stamping his feet. + +"This is all the great Saladin brings to the grave," was announced by +a courier who carried the great ruler's winding-sheet before him to +the grave. + +"Would I had been a poor lay brother," cried out the dying Philip II. +of Spain, "washing the plates in some obscure monastery, rather than +have borne the crown of Spain!" + +That which took most effect on the mind of Louis was the eloquence of +Ignatius when he met the young Xavier in the streets of Paris. "And +then?" asked by another saint of an ambitious youth, did not lose +its force with the holy youth who found himself, by some freak of +blind fortune heir to one of the millionaires of the French Capital. + +Louis, like St. Ignatius, would often stray to a shady corner of the +garden, and there, with eyes fixed on the blue vault of heaven, he +would sigh: "Oh! quam sordet tellus dum coelum aspicio"--"How vile +is earth whilst I look on heaven!" + +One evening Louis had wandered into the garden to give full vent to +a flood of thought that urged him on to give immediate answer to the +calls of grace. God was pleased to pour additional light on his soul; +and grace urged the immediate execution of his generous resolutions. +That very morning the angry temper of his father and the bitter +sarcasms against the faith Louis loved had embittered everything around +his home. In tears, but with the fearless ABANDON of the true call, +he resolved to quit his father's home that very night, and to break +his purpose to his mother. She was the only one he really loved, +and in wounding her tender heart was the hardest part of the sacrifice. +In filial deference he prepared his mind to break the matter to his +kind-hearted mother as gently as he could. He would submit the +resolution to our Blessed Lord in the most Holy Sacrament. + +Whilst going out to the venerable church of Notre Dame, a beautiful +caleche is at the door, and two young girls, dressed in extravagant +richness, are hurrying off to the fashionable rendezvous of the city; +mildly refusing the invitation to accompany them, he hastens to +accomplish the vows he has just taken before the altar. + +Leaving Louis to his devotions, we pause to catch a glimpse of the +lovely girls who see happiness in another but less successful manner. +The reader must know those interesting children bursting like fragrant +flowers into the bloom of their maidenhood; they are the sisters of +Louis, Alvira and Aloysia. Read those traits of innocence, of +character, of future promise; treasure the beautiful picture for future +reference; they are the heroines of our story. + + + + +Chapter V. + +Our Heroines. + + +Alvira was tall for her age; she had a graceful, majestic carriage, +and, although eminently handsome, there was a something in the tone +of her voice and in the impression of her features that reflected a +masculine firmness. Accomplished and intelligent, gay in society, +and affable to all, she was a general favorite amongst her school +companions. Yet she was at times of violent temper, and deep in the +recesses of her heart there lurked the germs of the strongest passions. +These passions, like lentils, grew with time and crept around that +heart, until they concealed the noble trunk they clung to and made it +their own. Alvira was often crimsoned with the blush of passion; a +gentle rebuke or a contradiction was sufficient to fire the hidden +mine and send to the countenance the flash of haughty indignation. +Whilst yet in her maidenhood she longed for distinction. Fame leaped +before her ardent imagination as a gilded bubble she loved to grasp. +Tales of knight-errantry and chivalry were always in her hands, and +bore their noxious fruit in the wild dreams of ambition they fired in +the girl's mind. Often, when alone with her sister, with book closed +in her hand and eye fixed on some article of furniture, her thoughts +would be away winning crowns of fame on battle-fields of her own +creation, urging on gallant knights to deeds of bravery, or arranging +with humbled foes the terms of peace. She would start from her reverie +with a sigh that told of the imprisonment of a bold, ambitious spirit +that felt itself destined to wield a needle rather than a sword. + +Aloysia is a sweet, blooming girl of fourteen. It often happens that +fruits borne on the same stem are different in color and taste; so +these two sisters were different in personal appearance and character. +Nature seems to have presided in a special manner over the moulding +of Aloysia's exquisite frame. The symmetry of her person, hand and +foot of charming delicacy, azure eye and rosy cheek, garlanded with +nature's golden tresses, and the sweet expression of innocence in her +features, would suggest her at once as a model for one of Raphael's +Madonnas. Her disposition, too, comported with the beauty of her +person. She loved retirement, and read only books of the noblest +sentiment. The poets were familiar to her; she copied and committed +to memory the passages of exquisite beauty. There was one feature in +her character which bore a marked influence on her future destinies: +it was her love for her sister. + +We do not believe at all times in the genuineness of brotherly or +sisterly love. Perhaps familiarity has deadened its keenness. Like +the appreciation of the sunlight which rushes with thrilling force on +the victim of blindness, separation or misfortune may rouse the dormant +affection and prove its nobility and its power; but in our experience +manifest fraternal charity is one of those things even the wise man +knew to be rare under the sun. Where we have been privileged to look +in behind the veil of the family circle, we are more convinced than +ever that fraternal affection an all the boasted nobility of sisterly +love dwindle down to a series of petty quarrels and jealousies as +painful as they are unchristian and unbecoming. The reserve, or rather +the hypocrisy of politeness, put on before strangers, is no criterion +of the inward domestic life. Some one has said of ladies, "A point +yielded or a pardon begged in public means so many hair-pullings +behind the scenes." But this is too sweeping; there are noble, glorious +exceptions in families where religion reigns, where fraternal charity +finds a congenial soil; for it blooms in the fragrance of the other +virtues, and is the first characteristic of a pious family. The world +around are told to look for this as a sign by which they are to +recognize the disciples of Him who loved so much. + +Aloysia, in a true, genuine feeling of love, was bound in adamantine +chains to her sister. Time and fortune, that shatter all human +institutions and prove human feelings, consolidated the union of their +hearts and their destinies. A stranger on stronger proof of the +influence of sisterly affection could not be adduced; it dragged the +beautiful, blushing Aloysia from the sphere of girlhood, to follow +in the track of hypocrisy and of bloodshed so desperately trodden by +her brave sister. + +Our tale opens when the two girls had finished their education and +were living in luxury and enjoyment. The days and hours passed merrily +by. They would read in the shade, play and sing on the harp, would +paint or work at wool, and in the afternoon, when the burning sun had +left the world to the shade of evening, they would drive out in a +magnificent attelage to the fashionable rendezvous of Paris. + +Dream too bright to last! On the horizon is gathering the dark cloud +that will dim the sunlight of their bliss, and cause them, in the dark +and trying hour of trouble, to look back with the sigh of regret over +the brilliant hours of youthful enjoyment. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +A Secret Revealed. + + + I thought to pass away before, and yet alive I am; + And in the fields all round I hear the bleating of the lamb. + How sadly, I remember, rose the morning of the year! + To die before the snow-drop came, and now the violet's here. + + Oh! sweet is the new violet that comes beneath the skies + And sweeter is the young lamb's voice to me that cannot rise; + And sweet is all the land about, and all the flowers that blow; + And sweeter far is death than life to me that long to go. + + --Tennyson. + + +It was a bright, cheerful morning in June. The sinking, feeble +Madeleine had requested her domestics to carry her to the conservatory, +that she might gaze again on the flowers that were soon to blossom +on her grave. Death had lingered in his approach. The gay, the +ambitious, and healthy he had taken all too soon; but for Madeleine, +WHO LONGED TO GO, he tarried. Her little violets had already given +their first fragrant kiss to breezes that passed with no mournful +cadence through the cypresses of the lonely cemetery. Crumbling in +her hand a faded rose, she breathed the thought so beautifully versified +in after-times by the immortal bard of Erin: + + So soon may I follow + When friendships decay, + And from love's shining circle + The gems drop away. + When true hearts lie withered + And fond ones are flown, + Oh! who would inhabit + This bleak world alone? + +The sentiment was prophetic: other flowers of affection will be withered +by the vicissitudes of destiny; fond ones will flee, leaving the world +a wilderness for her last hours! + +It often happens in the course of life that we are driven by some +inexplicable fatality to suffer those very afflictions we dread the +most. We are told of persons who trembled for a lifetime at the horrid +anticipation of being one day mad; it was the shadow of the judgement +that was creeping on them, which cast them finally amongst the victims +of the lunatic asylum. The suicide is the prophet of his own doom; +the presentiment of death by drowning has but too often ended in a +watery grave. Perhaps where the fibres of the heart are weakest, the +strain brought on them by excited fancy snaps them in the misfortune +that is dreaded; or perhaps some unseen spirit, charged with the decree +of our individual sorrow, casts the dark shadow of his wing over our +thoughts, and communicates the gloomy foreboding of a presentiment. +They dying mother had one of these heart-tearing presentiments, so +frequent and so mysterious in the history of human suffering. + +She was guilty of a species of maternal idolatry; centered in her child +Louis Marie as rays gathered up into a focus, were all her hopes, her +aspirations, her ideas of the future. If she could be assured she +would live to see her son leading the armies of the empire, ruling +in the cabinets of state or worshipped in the circles of the great +and learned, Heaven itself could not build up a greater joy in the +limited horizon of her hopes; but an awful conviction crept over her +that some misfortune would tear from her the object of her love like +the fruit torn from the stem, like the young branch from the oak. In +dreams she saw him struggling in the torrent which bore him away, or +dragged to the hills at the feet of a wild horse. More than once she +saw him on board a Government vessel, sailing with the hapless children +of guilt to the convict settlements of southern seas--not as a felon, +but an angel of light amongst the condemned.' + +Whilst Madeleine was sitting in the conservatory, musing over the gloomy +anticipations her dreams had cast over her thoughts, Louis Marie came +towards her. A beam of joy lit up her hectic cheek; she impressed +a kiss on the forehead of her darling son, and playfully reproved him +for the dreams that gave her so much trouble. + +"Mother," we fancy we hear Louis reply, "you would not surely give +much credence to the imaginary evils of a dream. You know nothing can +happen to us except by the arrangement of God; not even a hair can fall +to the ground without his permission. I remember in college I was +very much delighted with a thesis one of the fathers gave us on the +Providence of God; it was so strange and so consoling to think that +great Being who created so many millions of worlds, and keeps them +flying around him with immense velocity, could occupy himself with us +human beings, who are no more than insects moving on this world, which +is but a speck in the immensity of the universe. But I know how it +is--our souls are immortal, and hence we must soar higher than the +countless worlds, were they ten times as great. Our blessed Lord, by +coming amongst us and dying to save those souls, showed us that he +thought more of us than of the bird of the air or the lily of the +field, clothed in such charming magnificence. Is it unreasonable that, +since he has given to each star a course, to each lily and each bird +a time and a clime, he should also determine for us the course we +should follow for his greater glory? And what, mother, if some unseen, +invisible destiny should really call me away; if it were for the glory +of God and the salvation of souls, would you not rejoice?" + +Madeleine paused for a moment before venturing a reply. She trembled; +a struggle between affection and duty passed within. Pleased with the +rich flow of virtuous sentiment that made her still more proud of her +child, she had caught the end of a golden thread and wished to unravel +it further, but feared it would be snapped by some unpleasant discovery. +Full of excitement, and her eyes filled with a penetrating, enquiring +gaze upon Louis, she answered: + +"Louis, I should be false to the lessons I have endeavored to teach +you in these last fleeting hours of my ill-spent life, were I not to +rejoice in any destiny that would wrap up your future career in the +glory of God; but I fear the enthusiasm of your young heart will +misguide you. I know, from the serious tone of your voice and look +in asking that question, you have been feeling your way to make some +crushing disclosure. I saw you crying in the garden this afternoon, +and for some time past I have noticed a cloud of anxiety hanging over +you. I had determined the first moment we were alone to know the cause +of this trouble; and I now conjure you, by the affection and duty which +you owe me as your mother, to let me share in your anxieties and in +your councils." + +Louis had really come to broach the terrible secret to his mother, but +he had not yet courage; he struggled manfully to suppress internal +motions that might at any moment, like sullen rivers, overflow and +betray their existence in a flood of tears. Fearing to venture suddenly +on the subject that was fullest in his heart, he partly evaded his +mother's energetic appeal, and made such a reply as would elicit from +her quick perception the declaration that trembled on his lips. + +"If war were declared with our frontier foes, and our beloved King +commanded the youth of the country to gird on the sword for our national +defence, you, mother, would help me to buckle on mine?" + +"Yes, Louis, I would give you proudly to the cause of France," continued +Madeleine, feigning a patriotism she scarcely felt. "But, thanks be +to God, I am not called on now to claim an honor that is at best a +sacrifice and a calamity." + +"But, mother, the war is declared, and I am to be a soldier in a sacred +cause." + +"How!" cried Madeleine excitedly. "Are the followers of the Black +Prince again attacking us? The Turks seeking revenge for the defeat +of Lepanto? or Christian Spain still intoxicated with its own dream +of ambition? Whence come the sound of arms, Louis, to fire thy young +ambition? If I judge rightly, thy disposition leads thee more to +the cloister than to the battle-field." + +"'Tis so," replied Louis, who had adroitly brought the conversation +to the subject that occupied his thoughts, and to the announcement +that would ring with such thrill on his mother's ears. "And I am +going to join a religious community immediately, to become a soldier +in the great war of right against wrong--of this world against the +next. To this war the trumpet-calls of grace have summoned me, and +I come to ask the mother who would give me to the cause of my country +to do the same for Almighty God." + +A step was heard outside. Louis glided into the garden, and Madeleine +was again found by her husband buried in tears. + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Tears on Earth, Joy in Heaven. + + +Madeleine, with all the keenness of her maternal heart, had caught +the drift of Louis' mind, and felt the disclosure before it was made. +A rough, rude remark from Cassier, and he left her to the silence and +reflection she then vehemently desired. Reflection, in bringing before +her a beautiful but sad picture, crumbled before her mental vision the +castles that her affection and her hopes had built on the shadowy +basis of Louis' future temporal glory. She felt, however, from the +inspiration of faith a feeling of spiritual joy that he was called to +the higher destiny of a favorite of Heaven. Had the fire of divine +love glowed more fervently in her heart, she would feel the joy of +ecstasy, such as consoled the death-bled of the mothers of the saints +when the revelation of the sanctity of their children was the last +crown of earthly joy. Anticipating the privilege the fond maternal +heart would fain claim even in the kingdom free from all care, Madeleine +often found herself contemplating her son fighting the brave fight, +winning crown upon crown, and virtue flinging around him a shield more +impenetrable than the fabulous Aegis of pagan mythology. + +In the flippant boastings of Christian mothers there are many who +pretend they have the fire of faith and divine love like the brave +Machabean woman; but when the sore hour of real separation comes, the +soft, loving heart bends and weeps. Nature, corrupt nature, resists +the arrangements of God, and nature triumphs in the maternal tie. The +spirit of Madeleine had made the sacrifice of her son, but the rude +hand of nature swept the fibres of her heart and tore them asunder. + +Night has gathered around the house of Cassier. Sleep has brought the +silence of the tomb on the inmates. One alone is awake; gentle sobs +tell of a heart struggling with its own desires, but a faint ray of +moonlight shows him seeking strength on his knees before a crucifix. + +Guide him, ye angels, in the sublime destiny to which Heaven calls! +Treasure up those tears of affection; they are pearls for a crown in +eternity! A long, farewell look at the old homestead, and Louis has +fled. + +In the night, when all were asleep, he stole down-stairs and into the +silent street. The moon brightened the tears of his farewell; only +his guardian angel saw to register for his eternal crown, the inward +struggle in which he had trampled on every tie of affection and +pleasure. Disappearing in the narrow streets, he disappears also from +the pages of our narrative until, in the extraordinary vicissitudes +of time, he makes his appearance again in a scene both touching and +edifying. + +The morning dawn revealed the broken circle, the vacant chair in the +family. Cassier was confused. Whilst others wept he moved about in +deep thought. Stoic in his feelings and hardened in sympathies, he +still felt all the tender anxieties of an affectionate parent. There +are moments in the career of even the greatest sinners when sleeping +conscience is roused to remorse. The shock the old man received in +the loss of his amiable child opened his eyes to the unhappy state of +his own soul; every act of ridicule he cast on the religious tendencies +of Louis became arrows of memory to sting him with regret. + +But these were transient moments of a better light. As meteors, darting +across the sky, illumine for a few seconds the dark vault of heaven, +and in the sudden exit of their brilliant flash seem to leave greater +darkness in the night, thus the impulses of grace shot across the soul +of Cassier; he struggled in the grasp of an unseen power, but suddenly +lapsed into the awful callousness which characterizes the relapses of +confirmed guilt; he pretended to smile at his weakness, and found a +sorry relief in cursing and scoffing at everything the virtuous love. + +Yet he offered immense rewards for information that would bring him in +presence of the boy whose form he loved, but whose virtue he despised. +Like the pagan persecutors of old, he vainly hoped, by fear or the +tinsel of gold, to win back to the world and sin the magnanimous youth +who had broken through the stronger argument of a mother's tears. +Messengers were dispatched in every direction; the police scoured the +roads for miles outside the city; friends and acquaintances were warned +not to harbor the truant. + +A week passed, and no cheerful tidings came to lessen the gloom of +bereavement. That Providence which made Louis a vessel of election +had covered him with its protective shield, and bore him like a vessel +under propitious winds to the port of his destination. + +In all the soft tenderness of girlhood the two sisters lamented their +absconding brother. They, too, had been unkind to him. The sweet, +patient smile that ever met their taunts, the mild reproof when they +concealed his beads or prayer-book, his willingness to oblige on all +occasions, were remembered with tears. When sitting by the mother's +bed, the conversation invariably turned on Louis. In cruel fancy +they deepened the real sorrow of separation by casting imaginary +misfortunes on the track of the absent boy. One would sigh with the +ominous PERHAPS. + +"Poor Louis is now hungry!" + +"Perhaps he is now lying sick and footsore on the side of some highway, +without a friend, without money." + +"Perhaps he has fallen in with robbers and is stripped of the few +articles of dress he took with him." + +"Perhaps he is now sorry for leaving us," sighed the tender-hearted +Aloysia, "and would give the world to kiss again his poor sick mamma!" + +But futile tears flowed with each surmise. No welcome messenger +returned to bring tidings of the missing youth. + +'Tis thus we love virtue; we sigh over departed worth when its +brilliancy has faded from our sight. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +Madeleine's Happy Death. + + +Troubles, like migratory birds, never travel alone. As heavier billows +cling together and roll in rapid succession and in thundering force +on the rock-built barriers of nature, so the waves of trial and +misfortune break on frail humanity in crushing proximity. The second +and third billows of misfortune are fast undulating on the tide of time, +and will sweep over the home of Cassier, leaving it a miserable wreck, +a theme for the sympathy and the moral of a historian's pen. + +The weakened, consumptive frame of Madeleine did not long survive the +blow that Louis had prepared for her--not, indeed, in the sense of a +guilty and blood-stained hand, but with the merit of an Abraham who, +at the command of Heaven, prepared a funeral pyre for his child. +Madeleine could scarcely weep; the grief of nature was calmed by the +impulses of grace, and she felt in her heart a holy joy in the sublime +destinies of her son. Could we, in the face of the holy teachings of +the Church, institute a comparison between the mother of the soldier +and the mother of a priest? Amidst sighs that were but the convulsive +throes of a heart's emotion, she breathed often and aloud the "Deo +gratias" of the faithful soul. + +But like certain forces in nature that require but the slightest shock +to give them irresistible power, by which they burst through their +confining cells and set themselves free, the immortal spirit of +Madeleine burst its prison cell and soared to its home beyond the skies. + +We need not tarry over the painful, touching scene oft-told, and felt +sooner or later in every home. Like snow disappearing under the +sunshine, the life of Madeleine was fast melting away. At length, as +if she knew when the absorbing heat would melt the last crystal of the +vital principle, she summoned her family around her to wish them that +last thrilling farewell which is never erased from the tablet of memory. +In the farewell of the emigrant, torn by cruel fate from country and +friends, hope smiles in his tears; the fortune that drives away can +bring back; but the farewell of death leaves no fissure in its cloud +for the gleam of hope--it is final, terrible, and, on this side the +grave, irrevocable. + +With faltering voice she doled out the last terrible warning that speaks +so eloquently from the bed of death. + +Whilst the aged priest recited the Litanies she raised her last, dying +looks towards heaven, and whispered loud enough to be heard, "O Mary! +pray for my children." + +Madeleine was no more. Her last sigh was a prayer that went like +lightning to the throne of God from a repentant, reconciled spirit; at +the same moment her liberated soul had travelled the vast gulf between +time and eternity, and there, in the books held by the guardian angels +of her children, she saw registered the answer to her prayer. + +Madeleine was laid in a marble tomb amongst the first occupants of +Pere la Chaise. A small but artistic monument, still extant, and not +far from the famous tomb of Abelard and Eloise, would point out to the +curious or interested where sleeps among the great of the past the +much-loved Madeleine Cassier. + + "God's peace be with her!" they did say, + And laughed at their next breath. + O busy world! how poor is thy display + Of sympathy with death. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +One Abyss Invokes Another. + + +In times gone by, in the so-called darkness of the Middle Ages, there +were certain countries in Europe that believed in the existence of a +fiend or ghoul that inhabited lonely places and unfrequented woods, +and tore to pieces the imprudent traveller that ventured on its path. +This fiend of the desert and lonely wood was at best but a fabrication +of an excited fancy; it has long since passed away with the myths of +the past, and exists only in the nursery rhymes of our literature. +Yet in its place a malignant spirit of evil revels in the ruin of the +human race; it delights in the crowd; it loves the gaslight, the +lascivious song and wanton dance; it presides over our convivial +banquets with brow crowned with ivy and faded roses; whilst all the +unholy delights of earth sacrifice to it, in return it scatters amongst +its adorers all the ills and sorrows that flow from the curse of Eden, +making a libation to the infernal gods of the honor, the fortune, and +the lives of men. The ghoul or fiend of modern society is the demon +of alcohol. + +History records a remarkable victim in the ill fated Cassier. When +grief falls on the irreligious soul, it seeks relief in crime. The +shadow of death that fell on his family circle, and the flight of his +son in daring forgetfulness of his parental authority, which he had +overrated, broke the last link of Christian forbearance in his +unbelieving heart; when wearied of blaspheming the providence of God, +he quaffed the fatal cup which hell gives as a balm to its +sorrow-stricken votaries. + +A cloud of oblivion must hide from the tender gaze of the young and the +innocent the harrowing scenes that brought misery on his home, ruin on +his financial condition, and a deeper hue to the moral depravity of +his blighted character. + +One look of sympathy at our young heroines, and we will pass on to the +thrilling course of events. + +Like beautiful yachts on a stormy lake, without pilot, without hands +to steady the white sail to catch the favorable wind, Alvira and Aloysia +were tossed on a sea of trial which cast a baneful shadow over their +future destinies. Tears had cast the halo of their own peculiar beauty +over their delicate features; mourning and sombre costume wrapt around +them the gravity of sorrow and the adulation of a universal sympathy, +pretended or real, supplied the attentions that flattered and pleased +when they led the giddy world of fashion. The silence of grief hung +around the magnificent saloons, once so gay; the wardrobe that contained +the costly apparel, the casket that treasured the pearls of Ceylon and +gems of Golconda, were all closed and neglected. The treatment of +their father was an agony of domestic trouble, in which they were tried +as in a furnace. + +A few weeks, however, and the darkest hour of the storm had passed. +Moments of relaxation brought beams of sunlight through the dissolving +beams of sunlight through the dissolving clouds; drives, walks, and +even visits were gradually resumed. + +A fit of illness brought Cassier to his senses. A forced abstinence +for a few weeks saved him from the last and most terrible lot of +confirmed drunkenness; but ruin was written with his own hand on the +firm that made him wealthy. Quick-footed rumor, that hates the +well-being of man, was abroad at its deadly work; public confidence in +the bank began to wane, and each depositor lent the weight of his +individual interest to accelerate the financial crash. The stone set in +motion down the mountain assumes a force that no power could stay; on it +will go until it rests in the plain From the eminence of his boasted +wealth the usurer found this turn come to whirl around on the wheel of +fortune and yield to some other mortal, who is the toy of fortune, to +grasp for a moment the golden key of avarice and ambition. + +At length the crash has come. One of the largest depositors sends +notice that in a week he will withdraw his funds. + +Cassier saw ruin staring him in the face; when this sum was paid he +would be a pauper. He would not dig, and in the pride of his heart +he would not beg. Conscience, long seared in the path of impiety, has +no voice to warn, no staff to strike. Cassier, wise in his generation +of dishonesty, knows what he will do, and nerves himself for a +desperate undertaking which leads us deeper and deeper into the history +of crime, into the abysses of iniquity which invoke each other. + +In a few days Paris is startled. Cassier has fled, and robbed his +creditors of a million francs. + + + + +Chapter X. + +On the Trail. + + +Evening has fallen over the city, and the busy turmoil of the streets +had ceased; the laborer had repaired to his family, the wealthy had +gone to their suburban villas, and licentious youth had sought the +amusements over which darkness draws its veil. Politicians, +newsmongers, and travellers made the cafe salons ring with their +animated discussions. The policy of the Prime Minister, the +probabilities of war, the royal sports of Versailles, and daring deeds +of crime gathered from the police reports were inexhaustive topics for +debate. + +In one of the popular cafes there was a small gathering of men +threatening vengeance on the delinquent Cassier; they had more or less +suffered from his robbery, and they listened with avidity to every +rumor that might lead to the probability of his capture. Amongst them +there was an aged man of grayish beard, who was particularly loud and +zealous in his condemnation of the dishonest banker. He railed against +the Government, which, he said, was priest-ridden under the whip of +Mazarin; the imbecility of the police; and the apathy of the citizens, +who bore so peaceably such glaring acts of injustice and imposition. +He poured out a volume of calumny against the priesthood, and blasphemed +so as to cast a chill of terror through his less impious hearers. + +He was suddenly stopped in his harangue by the entrance of a stranger +in the coffee-room. He was a tall, thin man, wrapped in an over-cloak; +he paced majestically across the room, and took a seat opposite the +old man, who had suddenly become silent and was busily occupied reading +the criminal bulletin. Over the edges of his paper the old man took +a furtive glance at the stranger; their eyes met; a recognition +followed, but as silent and as deep as with the criminal and the Masonic +judge. + +The old man rang the bell, and called for writing materials. He hastily +scribbled a few words, closed, sealed the letter, then bade the waiter +take it to his eldest son, who had retired to his apartments. He +immediately took his hat and went out. + +"Who is that old man?" asked the tall stranger, rising and advancing +excitedly towards the waiter. + +"That's Senor Pereira from Cadiz," retorted the waiter. + +"Senor Pereira from Cadiz!" repeated the stranger. "No," he continued +emphatically; "he is Senor Cassier from Paris." + +"Cassier!" was muttered by the astounded debaters who had listened to +the vituperative philippics of the Portuguese merchant. + +"Cassier!" was echoed from the furthest end of the salon, where some +quiet and peaceful citizens were sipping their coffee and rum apart +from the stormy politics of the centre-table. + +Whilst an animated conversation was carried on two young lads came +running down-stairs and rushed into the street through the front door. + +"Who are those young men?" asked again the stranger of the waiter. + +"They are the sons of Senor Pereira," was the answer. + +"The sons of Pereira! They are the daughters of Cassier!" said the +stranger in a loud voice, who had now become the hero of the room and +had penetrated a deep and clever plot. + +He ran to the street, but the fugitives had disappeared in the darkness; +their gentle tread was not heard on the pavement, and no observer was +near to indicate the course they had taken. The whole scheme of +Cassier's bold disguise flashed with unerring conviction on the +stranger's mind--the voice, the eye, the gait were Cassier's. He was +familiar with the family, and in the hurried glance he got of the +youths rushing by the saloon door he thought he recognized the contour +of Alvira's beautiful face. He hastened to communicate his startling +discovery to the Superintendent of the Police, and the city was once +more in a state of excitement. + + + + +Chapter XI. + +The Flight. + + +The sensation caused by the startling failure and embezzlement of the +wealthy banker had scarcely subsided when the city rang with the news +of his clever disguise and daring escape. Angry Justice, foiled in her +revenge, lashed herself to rage, and moaned her defeat like the forest +queen robbed of her young. The Government feared the popular cry, +and proved its zeal by offering immense rewards for the arrest of the +delinquent banker. The country around the city was guarded, every +suspicious vehicle examined, and strangers ran the risk of being mobbed +before they could prove their identity. False rumors now and then ran +through the city, raising and quelling the passions like a tide. At +one time the culprit is caught and safely lodged in the Bastile; at +another he is as free as the deer on the plains. Cassier did escape, +but some incidents of the chase were perilous and exciting. + +Travelling in those days was slow and difficult. The giant steam-engines +that now sweep over hills and torrents with a speed that rivals the +swoop of the sea-bird were unknown. The rickety old diligence or +stage-coach was only found on the principal thoroughfares between the +large cities. + +Cassier knew these roads would be the first taken in pursuit, and +carefully avoided them. Seeking a destination where the chances of +detection would be lessened, he was attracted towards Geneva, already +famous as the hot-bed of secret societies and the rallying-point of +infidelity. He would reach it by a circuitous route. From Paris to +the historic old capital of Switzerland, in the centre of mountains +and the heart of Europe, was a herculean journey for the fugitives. + +On they went for two and three days' journey, stopping at humble inns +on the roadside where the news of the capital had not reached. Time +inured them to danger and calmed the fever of anxiety consequent upon +their hurried and hazardous flight. + +But the avenging law had followed in close pursuit. The officers of the +Government were directed from village to village; they found themselves +on the track of an old man and two beardless youths in naval cadet +costume. The chase became exciting. Wealth and fame awaited their +capture. + +One evening, in the glow of a magnificent sunset, Cassier and his +daughters were wending their way along one of the picturesque roads +of the Cote d'Or. They were on the slope of a shady mountain, and +through a vista of green foliage they could see the road they had +passed for miles in the distance. The silence of the mountainside +was unbroken, save by the music of wild birds and the roar of a torrent +that leaped through the moss-covered rocks towards the valley. The +wild flowers gave aromatic sweetness to the mountain-breeze, and the +orb of day, slowly sinking in a bank of luminous crimson clouds in the +distant horizon, made the scene all that could be painted by the most +brilliant fancy. Our young heroines gave frequent expression to their +delight, but their aged sire was silent and watchful. He frequently +took long and piercing looks on the road he had passed. Anxiety +mantled on his wrinkled brow; a foreboding of danger cast its prophetic +gloom over his spirits. + +Suddenly he turned from a long, fixed look through the trees, and with +a thrill of alarm cried out: "They are coming!" + +For a moment he gave the jaded horses the whip. He refused any further +information to the terrified girls; he bit his lip, drew his sword +close to him, and prepared for a struggle; for he had resolved to die +rather than go back a prisoner to Paris. + +The pursuers were each moment gaining ground; the costume of the +gendarmes was discernible as they galloped in a cloud of dust along +the plain. The hill was long and heavy before the wearied horses of +Cassier. He saw flight was vain; stratagem must come to his aid in +the emergency. + +At this moment he came to a turn in the mountain road where the trees +were thicker and the shade more dense. Like a skilful general in the +critical moment when victory and defeat hang, as it were, on the cast +of a die, he conceived instantaneously the plan of a desperate +expedient. He drew up his horses and bade his trembling children await +his return. + +Returning a few paces he secreted himself behind an oak-tree and calmly +awaited the arrival of the Government officers. + +Soon the clatter of the galloping horses was heard in the distance. +The wild scream of startled birds resounded through the groves; the +sun seemed to glow in a deeper crimson, the breezes sighed a mournful +cadence through the waving foliage. On the troopers came up the side +of the hill. Cassier had counted them--they are but two; despair has +lent courage to his heart, and will give a giant stroke to his aged +arm. + +At the sight of the suspected caleche drawn up in the shady road, one +of the pursuing officers gave spurs to his horse, and flew out before +his companion to seize the prey--to be the first captor of the +delinquent fugitive. Fatal indiscretion! Plunging along at desperate +speed, and dreaming of gold and renown, the burnished sword of Cassier +took his horse on the flank. Its rider fell to the earth; before he +had seen his enemy, the sword of Cassier had pierced his heart. + +A scream from the carriage announced that the scene had been witnessed +by tender girls who had not been accustomed to deeds of violence and +bloodshed. But the combat has now but commenced. The battle of the +Horatii and Curatii, on which an empire depended, was not more fierce. + +The second gendarme saw the fate of his companion; he reined his horse, +dismounted, and came with drawn sword to meet the Parisian banker, who +had now become a mountain bandit. + +When Greek met Greek in the days of old, the earth trembled. Never +was more equal or deadly fight. Cassier had learned the sword exercise +in his youth as a useful art; the police officer was a swordsman from +profession. For a moment sparks flew from the whirling, burnished +blades. The silence of deep resolve wrapt the features of the +combatant in fierce rigidity. Again and again they struck and parried, +struck and parried, until wearied nature gave feeble response to the +maddened soul. The aged Cassier felt, from his age and fatigue, about +to succumb; gathering all his strength for a desperate effort, he +threw his weight into a well-measured shoulder stroke, when, lo! his +antagonist's sword flew in pieces--the brave gendarme fell weltering +in the blood of his murdered companion. + +All is still again. The sun has gone down in murky splendor, the birds +are silent, and the solitude of the wild mountain-pass is like the +night, that is darker after the flash of the meteor. The hapless but +brave soldiers of justice lie in their armor on the field of battle; +the fresh blood gurgles from the gaping wounds, and the madness of +defeat is fiercely stamped on their bronzed features; one holds in +death-grasp the unsheathed sword he had not time to wield, the other +sill stares with open eye on the broken blade that proved his ruin. + +A heavy splash and a crimson streak in the foam announce that the +torrent has become the grave of the fallen police; the road, steeped +with blood, is covered with fresh earth; the scene that witnessed the +tragedy is fair and beautiful as before. Cassier, reassured, with +bold step and pulse of pride, turns towards his conveyance to resume +his journey. + +Aloysia was just recovering from a fainting fit, and her sister had +labored to restore her during the exciting moments of the deadly strife +that had just been concluded. Neither of them saw the perilous +situation of their father, and were thus saved the shock the extremity +of his peril was calculated to have produced. + +A few days found them safely across the frontiers of France, threading +the passes of the Alps, and away from the grasp of justice, that pursued +them in vain. + + + + +Chapter XII. + +Geneva. + + +As the wearied stag that has eluded the chasing dogs rests in safety +in the covert of its native mountains, our fugitives at length breathed +freely in the beautiful city of Geneva. Wild and grand as had been +the scenery they passed through, the excitement of the flight and the +fear of seizure had, to them, robbed nature of her charms. Ever and +anon, indeed, they had looked around with searching eyes, but not to +gaze in rapture on the snow-capped mountains, the green valleys, and +crystal streams; it was rather to peer along the road they had passed, +to see if any speck on the horizon would indicate the pursuing horses +of the gendarmes. But now for the first time the magnificence of the +Alpine scenery and the charm of the lovely queen of the Swiss valleys +burst on their view. Mont Blanc, already seen from the north, seemed +to lift its snowy drapery higher into the blue sky, and stood out more +majestic in its crystallized peaks when seen from the bridges of the +Rhone. Another firmament was seen through the clear azure water of +the beautiful lake; and although the air was cold and fresh in the icy +chill of the mountains, and nature stripped of her green, yet our +young heroines were charmed with their first view of the city, and +rejoiced in the prospect of a long sojourn. + +There are few spots in the world where the lovers of the sublimities +of nature can drink in such visual feasts as at Geneva. Since railways +have shortened distance and cut through mountains, there is no more +fashionable rendezvous for the world of art than the suburbs of the +Swiss capital. During the summer months every little nook on the +surrounding mountain-sides is occupied by artists of every sex and of +every nation. What juvenile album is complete without a sketch of +Mont Blanc? The old mountain stands out in its eternal majesty as a +vision of awful beauty for old and young; and many a noble soul has +been borne from the contemplation of the grandeur of nature to study +in awe the greatness of Him "who makes mountains his footstools." The +artificial beauties of the modern Geneva far surpass the old; yet those +mountains, those peaks and snows and lakes, were always there. It was +known to Constantine, and crept into importance and worth in proportion +as science and art were developed in the civilization of Europe. + +At the time we write the beautiful Swiss capital was one of the +principal seats of learning in Europe. But, alas! its literature was +blasted by the false principles of the Reformation. Like marble +cenotaphs that have corruption within, Geneva, clothed with all the +beauties of nature and art, was rotten to the core in her moral and +religious character. She became the mother of heresiarchs, the theatre +of infidelity, and by her press and preaching scattered far and wide +the wildest theories of deism and unbelief. All the secret societies +of the world were represented in her lodges, and within her walls, +were gathered men of desparate and socialistic politics who had sworn +to overturn as far as they could the authority of society, to despise +the rights of property, and to trample on the laws of order. There +was no city in the world guilty of more blasphemy than this beautiful +Geneva; and even to this day, as the sins of fathers descend to their +children, the teachings of Calvin, of Bayle, and of Servetus hang like +a chronic curse over the city to warp every noble feeling of Christian +virtue. + +Amongst the leaders of the secret societies, amongst the socialists +who plot the ruin of their fellow-citizens, and amongst the infidels +who blasphemously ridicule the mysteries of Christianity, we must now +seek the unfortunate Cassier, who has arrived in Geneva. + + + + +Chapter XIII. + +The Secret Societies. + + +To outsiders Masonry is a mystery. When Masons speak or write of +themselves they give the world to understand the are but a harmless +union for mutual benefit, and for the promotion of works of benevolence. +That such is the belief of many individuals in the lower grades of +Masonry, and even of some lodges amongst the thousands scattered over +the face of the earth, we have no doubt; but that charity in its varied +branches has been either the teaching or the fact amongst the great +bulk of Freemasons during the last two hundred years we unhesitatingly +deny. + +In the ceremony of making a master-mason, and in a dark room, with a +coffin in the centre covered with a pall, the brethren standing around +in attitudes denoting grief and sorrow, the mysterious official who +has the privilege of three stars before his name gives the aspirant +this interesting history of the origin and aim of his office. + +"Over the workmen who were building the temple erected by Solomon's +orders there presided Adoniram. There were about 3,000 workmen. That +each one might receive his due, Adoniram divided them into three +classes--apprentices, fellow-craftsmen, and masters. He entrusted +each class with a word, signs, and a grip by which they might be +recognized. Each class was to preserve the greatest secrecy as to +these signs and words. Three of the fellow-crafts, wishing to know +the word of the master, and by that means obtain his salary, hid +themselves in the temple, and each posted himself at a different gate. +At the usual time when Adoniram came to shut the gates of the temple, +the first of the three fellow-crafts met him, and demanded the word +of the masters. Adoniram refused to give it, and received a violent +blow with a stick on the head. He flies to another gate, is met, +challenged, and treated in a similar manner by the second. Flying to +the third door, he is killed by the fellow-craft posted there on his +refusing to betray the word. His assassins bury him under a heap of +ruins, and mark the spot with a branch of acacia. + +"Adoniram's absence gives great uneasiness to Solomon and the masters. +He is sought for everywhere; at length one of the masters discovers +a corpse, ad, taking it by the finger, the finger parts from the hand; +he takes it by the wrist, and it parts from the arm; when the master +in astonishment, cries out 'Mac Benac,' which the craft interprets by +the words, 'The flesh parts from the bones.'" + +The history finished, the adept is informed that the object of the +degree which he has just received is to recover the word lost by the +death of Adoniram, and to revenge this martyr of the Masonic secrecy. + +Thousands of years have rolled over since the alleged death of the +clerk of works at Solomon's temple, and if the streams of human blood +that his would-be avengers have caused to flow have not satiated this +blood-thirsty shade, those that Masons, Communists, Internationals, +and other secret societies will yet cause to flow in the cities of +Europe will surely avenge the ill fated Adoniram. + +It is also asserted by some Masons of strong powers of imagination +that they take their origin from the Eleusinian Mysteries. These were +pagan orgies attached to some Grecian temples. Surrounded by mysterious +ceremonies and symbols, and supported by every mythical and allegorical +illusion that could inspire awe or confidence, these mysteries were +very popular amongst the Greeks. + +"The mysteries of Eleusis," says the profound German mythologist, +Creuzer, "did not only teach resignation, but, as we see by the verses +of Homer to Ceres sung on those occasions, they afforded consoling +promises of a better futurity. 'Happy is the mortal,' it is said there, +'who hath been able to contemplate these grand scenes! But he who +hath not taken part in these holy ceremonies is fore ever deprived of +a like lot, even when death has drawn him down into its gloomy abodes.'" + +Harmless and absurd as these mysteries were in the commencement, they +afterwards lapsed into all the immoralities of pagan worship. But +to give such a remote, and even such a noble, origin to the frivolous +deism of modern Masonry is about as absurd as to say that men were +at one time all monkeys. + +The truth is, Freemasonry was never heard of until the latter part of +the Middle Ages. It found its infancy among the works of the great +cathedral of Strasburg. Erwin of Steinbach, the leading architect +employed in the erection of this beautiful and stupendous work of +architectural beauty, called around him other noted men from the +different cities of Germany, Switzerland, and France; he formed the +first lodge. The members became deputies for the formation of lodges +in other cities, and thus in 1459 the heads of these lodges assembled +at Ratisbon, and drew up their Act of Incorporation, which instituted +in perpetuity the lodge of Strasburg as the chief lodge, and its +president as the Grand Master of the Freemasons of Germany. + +The masters, journeymen, and apprentices formed a corporation having +special jurisdiction in different localities. In order not to be +confounded with the vulgar mechanics who could only use the hammer +and the trowel, the Freemasons invented signs of mutual recognition +and certain ceremonies of initiation. A traditionary secret was handed +down, revealed to the initiated, and that only according to the degrees +they had attained. They adopted for symbols the square, the level, +the compass, and the hammer. In some lodges and in higher grades +(for they differ almost in every nation) we find the Bible, compass, +and square only. But the Bible given to the aspirant he is to +understand he is to acknowledge no other law but that of Adam--the +law which Almighty god had engraved on his heart, and which is called +the law of nature (thereby rejecting the laws of the Church and +society). The compass recalls to his mind that God is the central +point of everything, from which everything is equally distant, and to +which everything is equally near. By the square he is to learn that +God made everything equal. The drift of these symbolic explanations +is obvious. + +In the ceremonies of initiation into the various degrees everything +was devised that could strike the imagination, awaken curiosity, or +excite terror. The awful oath that has been administered in some +Continental lodges would send a thrill of horror through every +right-minded person, whilst the lugubrious ceremonies the aspirant has +to pass elicit a smile--such, for instance, of leading the young Mason +with bandaged eyes around the inner temple, and in the higher grades +presenting him with a dagger, which he is to plunge into a manikin +stuffed with bladders full of blood, and declare that thus he will be +avenged of the death of Adoniram! Then he is instructed in the code +of secret signals by which he can recognize a brother on the street, +on the bench, or on the field of battle. Carousing till midnight is +a befitting finale to the proceedings of the lodge. + +The doctrines or religious code of the Masons are, as their symbols +indicate, deistic and anti-Christian. They openly shake off the +control of all religion, and pretend to be in possession of a secret +to make men better and happier than Christ, his apostles, and his +Church have made them or can make them. "The pretension," says +Professor Robertson, "is monstrous!" + +How is this exoteric teaching consistent with the full and final +revelation of divine truths? If in the deep midnight of heathenism +the sage had been justified in seeking in the mysteries of Eleusis +for a keener apprehension of the truths of primitive religion, how +does this justify the Mason, in the midday effulgence of Christianity, +in telling mankind he has a wonderful secret for advancing them in +virtue and happiness--a secret unknown to the incarnate God, and to +the Church with which he has promised the Paraclete should abide for +ever? And even the Protestant, who rejects the teaching of that +unerring Church, if he admits Christianity to be a final revelation, +must scout the pretensions of a society that claims the possession +of moral truths unknown to the Christian religion. + +Whatever may have been the original cast of the religious views of +the Masonic order, it is certain in its development it has become +impious and blaspheming. In the latter part of the seventeenth century +the Masonic lodges were the hot-beds of sedition and revolution; and +long before the popes from their high watch-tower of the Vatican had +hurled on these secret gatherings the anathema of condemnation, they +were interdicted in England by the Government of Queen Elizabeth; +they were checked in France by Louis XV. (1729); they were prescribed +in Holland in 1735, and successively in Flanders, in Sweden, in Poland, +in Spain, in Portugal, in Hungary, and in Switzerland. In Vienna, in +1743, a lodge was burst into by soldiers. The Freemasons had to give +up their swords and were conducted to prison; but as there were +personages of high rank among them, they were let free on parole and +their assemblies finally prohibited. These facts prove there was +something more than mutual benefit associations in Masonry. "When we +consider," says M. Picot, "that Freemasonry was born with irreligion; +that it grew up with it; that it has kept pace with its progress; that +it has never pleased any men but those who were impious or indifferent +about religion; and that it has always been regarded with disfavor +by zealous Catholics, we can only regard it as an institution bad in +itself and dangerous in its effects." + +Robinson of Edinburgh, who was a Protestant and at on time a Mason +himself, says: "I believe no ordinary brother will say that the +occupations of the lodges are anything better than frivolous, very +frivolous indeed. The distribution of charity needs to be no secret, +and it is but a small part of the employment of the meeting. Mere +frivolity can never occupy men come to age, and accordingly we see in +every part of Europe where Freemasonry has been established the lodges +have become seed-beds of public mischief." + +This was particularly true of the lodges of the central cities of +Europe in the latter part of the seventeenth century. They were not +only politically obnoxious to governments, but they became the agents +and supporters of all the heretical theories of the day, and their evil +effects were felt in the domestic circle. Like animals that hate the +light and crawl out from their hiding-places when the world is abandoned +by man, the members of those impious gatherings passed their nights in +mysterious conclave. Fancy can paint the scene: weak-minded men of +every shade of unbelief, men of dishonest and immoral sentiments, men +who, if justice had her due, should have swung on the gallows or eked +out a miserable existence in some criminal's cell, joined in league +to trample on the laws and constitution of order, and, in the awful +callousness of intoxication, uttering every blasphemous and improper +thought the evil one could suggest. What must have been the character +of the homes that received such men after their midnight revels? Many +a happy household has been turned into grief through their demoralizing +influence; mothers, wives, and daughters have often, in the lonely +hours of midnight, sat up with a scanty light and a dying fire awaiting +the late return of a son, a husband, or a brother; with many a sigh +they would trace the ruin of their domestic felicity and the wreck of +their family to some lodge of the secret societies. + +Before appealing to facts and bringing the reader to a scene of domestic +misery caused by those societies, we will conclude these remarks by +quoting one or two verses from a parody on a very popular American +song. We believe the lines representing the poor little child calling +in the middle of the night, in the cold and wet, at the Masonic lodge +for its father, to be as truthful in the realities of domestic +suffering as they are beautiful and touching in poetic sentiment: + + "Father, dear father, stop home with us pray + You never stop home with us now; + 'Tis always the 'lodge' or 'lodge business,' you say, + That will not home pleasures allow. + Poor mother says benevolence is all very well, + And your efforts would yield her delight, + If they did not take up so much of your time, + And keep you from home every night. + + "Father, dear father, stop home with us pray! + Poor mother's deserted, she said, + And she wept o'er your absence one night, till away + From our home to your lodge-room I sped. + A man with a red collar came out and smiled, + And patted my cheeks, cold and blue, + And I told him I was a good Templar's child, + And was waiting, dear father, for you. + + "Father, dear father, come home with me now; + You left us before half-past seven. + Don't say you'll come soon, with a frown on your brow; + 'Twill soon, father dear, be eleven. + Your supper is cold, for the fire is quite dead, + And mother to bed has gone, too; + And these were the very last words that she said; + 'I hate those Freemasons, I do!'" + + + + +Chapter XIV. + +The Freemason's Home. + + +Late on a dark night in the commencement of November, wind and rain +blowing with violence from the mountains, and the streets of Geneva +abandoned, we find our young heroines sitting in a comfortable room. +They are lounging on easy-chairs before a warm fire; the eldest is +reading, and the youngest, although dressed in the pretty uniform +of a naval cadet, is working at embroidery with colored wools. + +Alvira and Aloysia, at the command of their father, have still preserved +their disguise, at first irksome to their habits and delicacy of +maidenhood; but necessity and fear toned down their objection, and +they gradually accustomed themselves to the change. In girlish +simplicity they were pleased with the novelty of their position. They +knew each other as Charles and Henry, and by these names we must now +call them. + +The old clock of the church on the hill sent the mournful tones of the +eleventh hour over the silent city. Charles counted the solemn booms +of the church bell, and then, as if resuming the conversation with +Henry: "Eleven o'clock, and father not come home yet! I am sure I +don't know what keeps father out every night so late; if poor mother +were alive, she would never stand this." + +"But perhaps pa may have important business and can't come home," we +hear the amiable Henry suggesting. + +"Business! Nothing of the kind. He has got in amongst some old fools +who pretend to have more knowledge than their grandfathers, and are +deceiving old women of both sexes to such a degree that they actually +fancy they are inspired to make new Bibles, new commandments, and new +churches." + +"But father might be trying to put them right," replied Henry softly, +"and perhaps feels as you do. How sad to see them going astray!" + +"No," answered the other with greater animation, "he is as bad as any +of them. You remember long ago how he used to make poor mother cry +when speaking of the great mystery of Redemption; he called it the +greatest swindle the world ever saw. You remember what blasphemous +and insulting language he addressed to the Sisters of St. Vincent when +they asked for alms in honor of the Blessed Virgin; and you know how +he is always reading the most impious works. + +"He is now shut up in one of those mysterious rooms called Freemason +lodges, where, if report be true, the enemies of the Church and state +plot the ruin of mankind. Henry, he is not only an infidel and a +Freemason, but he is unkind to us." + +Saying these last words, Charles rose and paced up and down the room, +as if full of passion. + +Faith, like anemones that flourish in the depths of the ocean when the +surface is tossed with storm, was concealed in the heart of Charles, +and inspired those feelings of holy indignation which live in secret +in the heart even when passion rages in triumph without. + +Henry ventured a reply, but the excited manner of her sister checked +her, and, burying her face in her hands, she remained in silence. +Well she knew Charles was right, and in the deep sympathy of her +innocent, loving heart her feelings crept into prayer for her erring +parent, and silent tears suffused her eyes. + +Whilst the two girls were thus engaged--the one pacing the room and +biting her lips with annoyance, the other wrapt in prayer and tears--the +step of Cassier was heard on the stairs. + +It was unfortunate for Charles. He had given loose rein to his passion, +and it was at this moment beyond control. The scene reminds us of a +poor wife, the hapless victim of a drunkard's home, drawing on herself +brutal treatment, when, in the lonely hours of midnight and in the +pent-up feelings of a breaking heart, she would incautiously reprove +the maddened retch who is reeling home to her under the fumes of +intoxication; thus Charles gave vent to feelings she had long nursed +in her bosom, and spoke in disrespectful language of reproof to her +intoxicated father. + +Cassier had come from the carousals of the lodge. The fumes of the +old wines had reached his brain; the fearless and unexpected reproof +of Charles startled him. In an instant the demon of intemperance +reigned in his heart; without waiting to answer, he approached the +girl, gave her a severe slap on the face, and ordered her to her +apartments. + +Charles and Henry retired to a sleepless couch, and their pillow was +moistened with many bitter tears before the dawn of the morning. + +In a small spark commences the conflagration that destroys cities; +the broad river that flows with irresistible majesty through our plains +commences in a rivulet leaping and sparkling on the green hill-side; +the almighty avalanche that sweeps with the roar of thunder through +the Alpine ravines commences in a handful of loosened snow. Thus to +a thought, a guilty desire uncontrolled, may be traced the greatest +moral catastrophes. + +A cloud passed over the thoughts of Charles. From the momentous evening +she received the rebuke of her father, her heart became the battle-field +of contending emotions. She brooded in silence over imaginary wrongs, +and thus gave to a latent passion the first impulse that led to +disastrous consequences. Diseased fancy lent a charm to thoughts long +forgotten, and recalled the pictures of pride and ambition that had +so often gilded the horizon of her young hopes. To be free and have +wealth, she thought, was worth swimming across a river of blood to +gain. + +A temptation seized the thoughts of Charles. It clung to her like +the bloodsucker drawing fresh streams from young veins. Notwithstanding +her efforts to shake off the terrible temptation, and because she did +not seek aid in the sacraments of the Church, it lived and haunted +her in spite of her will. We tremble to write it--'twas to murder her +father. + + + + +Chapter XV. + +Tragedy in the Mountains. + + + Come, you spirits + That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, + And fill me from the crown to the toe topful + Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; + Stop up the access and passage to remorse, + That no compunctious visitings of nature + Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between + The effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts, + And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, + Wherever in your sightless substances + You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, + And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, + That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, + Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, + To cry, "Hold!, hold!" + --Macbeth. + + +Poor Alvira! Her morning dawned after a restless, sleepless night. +Phantoms of terror haunted her couch. The agonies of anticipated +remorse had cast a withering shadow on her thoughts. She could not +believe her own depravity in entertaining for a moment such a thrilling +temptation. + +Was it a dream? Was it the hallucination of a spirit of evil that +revels in the human passions? "I, who love my father notwithstanding +his faults, who would tremble at the gaze of my mother looking down +from heaven on my awful impiety, and would hear from her tomb her +scream of terror, her curse of vengeance on my parricidal guilt--could +I be the foolish wretch that would consent to a deed of crime which +would make me a fugitive from the face of men, and haunt my rest with +the ghost of a murdered father?" + +Thus Alvira mused. But a demon laughed at her tender conscience; deep +in hell they had forged a terrible temptation. They knew the walls +of the citadel of morality, built alone on natural virtue and unaided +by divine grace, would soon crumble before their powerful machinations. +In moments of sober reflection our resolutions are like prisms of +basalt, that will not be riven by the lightning, but which in the hour +of real trial prove to be ice-crystals that a sunbeam can dissolve. +The powers that wage war with frail humanity have hung on the portals +of the infernal kingdom, as trophies of triumph over man and insult +to God, the resolutions of mortals made in moments of fervor and +broken in weakness. + +Days roll on; they bring their sunshine and clouds, but no change in +the unhappy family; a change there was for the worse in the appalling +development of the infidel and socialistic tendencies of their impious +father. His language, less guarded, seemed to teem with new insults +against religion and God, and contributed to confirm the chill of +horror with which he was met by hapless children that sighed over the +loss of filial love. His late returns from the lodge, and occasionally +those sad ebullitions of intemperance, continued to be their deep +affliction. + +In proportion as love twines itself around the heart it absorbs all +other feelings, it draws the passions like lentils around itself; so +the contrary feeling of hatred, when permitted to enter the sanctuary +of the heart, assumes at once a tyrannical sway, whose wicked demands +of gratification become more and more imperious and exacting day by +day, and rears a throne that becomes impregnable in proportion as the +sun is allowed to set on its possessions. Even filial love has +withered under the shadow of Cassier's worthlessness. + +In lonely walks along the lake, in conversations, and in tears the two +girls lamented their fate. The beauty of virtue withered within their +bosoms. The resembled two beautiful flowers torn from their bed, and +cast with the weeds of the garden to taint in their decay the breezes +they would sweeten if left on their stem. They longed for the pleasures +that pleased in the day of prosperity; the dance, the banquet, and +those visits that won the momentary gratification of flattery and +admiration were sighed for. So irksome was the monotony and so +uncongenial the role forced upon them by disguise, they hailed with +joy the least circumstance that might be the harbinger of a change. + +It is at hand. Once more the excitement of chase! The vigilance of +their astute father has placed them again in the caleche, and spirited +horses are galloping from the Swiss capital. + +News from Paris has arrived; the failure, the flight, the reward, are +passed around in a sensational romance, and the disappearance of two +police officers lends the charms of mystery to the embellished rumor. +Cassier--the hero of the tale, the unsuspected guilty one--went around +and told the news with all the sanctimonious whining and eye-uplifting +of a ranting preacher. In the meantime he matured his plans, and +before suspicion could point her finger at him he fled to another +retreat to elude for a while the justice of man to meet his awful +doom from the hands of God. + +During the night Cassier and his children ascend the terrific pass of +the Tete Noir; he proposes to hide from the threatened storm in the +cloister of Martigny. This is a venerable Benedictine monastery, +erected in the eleventh century by a Catholic prince, under the +sanction of Urban II., possessing, besides many other privileges, +that of sanctuary for fugitive prisoners. + +The dangers of the road and the fear of pursuit lent additional terror +to the wild mountain scenery; at one moment they are dizzy looking +into awful chasms formed by huge perpendicular rocks; then the +overhanging cliffs would seem every moment to break from their frail +support and rush down the steep mountain in an avalanche of stone. +In cold that penetrated to the very bones, amidst the roar of torrents +leaping through caverns of ice, and in dangers unseen and therefore +more dreadful, they passed a restless journey through the mountains, +and arrived at the charming village of Martigny, over which the +monastery presided like the fortress of a mediaeval castle protecting +the feudal territory of the petty ruler. Wearied, but pleased at the +novel situation into which chance had cast them, Charles and Henry +approached the venerable pile with feelings of reverence they had +never felt. The silence of the tomb reigned around, and the old gate +was closed. Whilst wondering how men could come voluntarily to live +in such a solitude, and how they got the necessaries of life, a bell +tolled solemnly from one of the towers; its soft, mellow tones rolled +in sweet echoes across the mountains. Immediately the place became +thronged with men in the habit of the Benedictine Order, hastening to +and fro to commence their daily work. An aged porter bowed the +strangers into a neat apartment, and summoned the Superior. No +questions were asked, but comfortable rooms were appointed to them, +and they were conducted in silence to the refectory, where a plain +but substantial meal was placed before them. Thus commenced a visit +the most extraordinary in the records of this venerable mountain +cloister. + +Charles and Henry were charmed with everything, although they found +themselves in strange contrast with desires of worldly pleasure they +had recently entertained. The wild, rugged scenery, the solemn silence +of the house, and the sanctity of the mortified monks made a deep and +solemn impression on the tender hearts of the young visitors, who +felt the delicacy of their position in enjoying a forbidden hospitality. +The example of the evangelical perfection practised by these holy +servants of God insensibly drew Charles and Henry to love the sublime +virtues they practised. Nothing impressed them more than the solemn +chant of the Office at midnight. The slow, solemn enunciation of +each word by a choir of hoary anchorets rolled in majestic cadence +through the precipices of the mountains, and died away in the distant +ravines in echoes of heavenly harmony. + +An aged father was appointed to entertain the strangers. He led them +to points on the mountain where the view was most enchanting; skilled +in ancient monastic lore, he entertained them with anecdotes and +histories from which he drew the most instructive morals. One cheerful +afternoon, when seated on the rocks viewing a magnificent sunset, the +aged monk told them his own history. He had been a soldier of fortune. +In youth his ambition was as boundless as the horizon; he worshipped +his sword and loved the terrors of battle. Fortune smiled on his +hopes, and he moved on from grade to grade, until he became commander +of a division. + +He was present at the fatal field of Salzbach, where the great General +Turenne fell in the commencement of the battle. The aged warrior, +forgetting the gravity of his years and his habit, would speak in the +fire of other days, suiting his action to the word. + +He told his listeners the touching tale of his conversion. The death +of the beloved Turenne, and at the same time the demise of his mother, +made him enter seriously into self, repeating the farewell words of +a celebrated courtier who left the French court to don the habit: +"Some time of preparation should pass between the life of a solider +and his grave." He heard the great St. Vincent de Paul preaching on +the vanities of life; his resolutions were confirmed, and tears +started to his eyes as he recounted how happy he was in his home in +the cliffs and the clouds. + +Charles loved to hear the aged man's reminiscences of his military +career. Fired with chivalrous aspirations, she could spend a lifetime +in the regions of fancy so fervidly depicted from their Alpine retreat. +Poor Aloysia was attracted to the higher and more real glories of +the virtuous lives of these holy men. She felt she could stay with +them for ever; and there, in the secrecy of her own heart, and before +the alter of our Holy Mother, she made promises that shared in the +merits of vows. When free, she would give herself to the love of God +and the preparation for eternity in some secluded retreat of religion +and virginity. + +But the nearer the alter, the further from God. Reverse the picture, +and another must be contemplated. Is it the venerable cloister buried +in the snow, buffeted by the storm, and threatened by the avalanche? +is it the awful death of starvation hanging in all its gloomy +anticipations over the community isolated by the snow-storm from the +civilized world around? Or will it be the just indignation of the +holy monks in finding the true character of the refugees whom they +have sheltered in ignorance, contrary to the canons of the Church? +Or will the still more devastating and ruthless storm of religious +persecution seek the sanctuary in the clouds to desecrate it, to +scatter its inmates and wreck its cloisters? + +A calamity as thrilling and not less anticipated will fling a sad +memory around the venerable cloisters of Martigny. + +Cassier is in the group listening to the aged monk recount his +adventures; with knitted eyebrows he hears him moralizing on the awful +destiny of the future. He is a silent listener; the conversation +is carried on by the garrulous and interested youths and the happy, +virtuous old monk. A forced sobriety, or the atmosphere of virtue +which he dreads, has cast a gloom over him. His thoughts are still +reeking with the blasphemy of the Masonic lodges, and, though restrained +by politeness from intruding his unbelief, he expresses in scowls +and monosyllables his dissentient feelings. + +Charles still burns with indignation at her father's irreligion and +personal ill-treatment. Her flushed countenance and agitated manner +were at times indexes of passion, revenge, and self-love; for a moment +the feeling is strong and irresistible, then calms again with the +holier sentiments of remorse and self-condemnation. + +A morning as brilliant as ever lit up the glaciers of Mt. Blank rose +over the cloisters. Charles and Henry accompany their father on a +stroll through the mountain. They miss their kind Mentor, who is +on a retreat for some days. Henry, commencing to love solitude, strays +from her father and Charles to gather ferns and wild flowers creeping +from the crevices of the rocks, or rising with exquisite beauty from +a layer of snow. They are emblems of her own innocence and fragrant +as her virtue, growing in the wilderness and shedding their charms +on rocks and snow-peaks, instead of ornamenting gardens of culture +and beauty. Poor Aloysia would be more at home in some arbor of +innocence where angels love to tarry, and where the voice and gaze of +the worldly-minded have never fallen. + +Cassier and Charles had slowly climbed to a projecting rock where +nature had made a large table covered with grass. On one side the +ascent was easy, but the other overhung a frightful precipice. They +had entered into an animated conversation; Aloysia, down beneath, +could hear the sharp, quick answers of Charles, but, as such was usual +in the temper of Charles, she did not notice it. + +But lo! another moment, and a wild, shrill scream bade her look up; +her father was no longer on the ledge of rock, and Charles flung her +arms towards heaven and fell in a swoon on the edge of the precipice. + + + + +Chapter XVI. + +A Funeral in the Snow. + + +When Charles had recovered her consciousness, she found herself +reclining on the lap of Henry, who had been bathing her face with snow +and tears. A long, painful call of her name had reached the inmost +recess of her being whither consciousness had repaired. Springing +to her feet, startled as if from a frightful dream, she gazed around. +Memory and sight returned; folding her face in her hands, she cried +in a paroxysm of grief: "My God! what have I done?" + +This was the only intimation she ever gave Aloysia that in the heat +of passion she had pushed her father over the precipice; she was his +murderer. In their conversation the old man, more, perhaps, through +impiety than conviction, misrepresented the good monks. We will not +reproduce the stereotyped calumnies that even nowadays unbelievers love +to heap upon the religious communities of the Catholic Church. The +madness of passion took control in the breast of Charles. Scarcely +knowing what she did, she pushed her aged father towards the precipice; +he slipped, fell over into the chasm, and passed into eternity with +blasphemy on his guilty lips. + +The two sisters wept together for hours. Innocence, guilt, and +retribution blended together in a scene of awful tragedy amid the +glaciers of Mt. Blanc. + +Seldom in the deeds of brigandage, in crimes committed in dark caves +and lonely mountain paths, was there perpetrated a fouler murder; +seldom in the sensational records of human depravity do we find the +desperado of parricidal guilt under the delicate frame of girlhood. +Yet was she rather an instrument in the hands of avenging Heaven +than a monster of moral iniquity. At that moment the cup of iniquity +was full for the wretch who had long tested the mercy of God. That +Providence which blinded the Jews in judgement for ingratitude, and +made them the instruments for the fulfilment of eternal decrees of +redemption, withdrew from Alvira the protection that made her, whilst +she accepted the guilt, the instrument of judgment. + +Rising to her feet with a sense of her desperate condition, making a +few hurried explanations how her father slipped and lost his balance, +she approached tremblingly the fatal edge. Leaning over, she saw the +corpse of her father lying in a pool of blood in the deep chasm below. +The scene of that sad moment was indelibly impressed on her memory, +and in after-hours of remorse haunted her with its horrors. + +With nerve and courage, called forth by the awful circumstances of +the moment, they descended the mountain to the foot of the ravine +where the body lay in the snow. + +The descent was steep and treacherous, and guilty conscience made +Charles tremble lest at any moment she would lose footing and be +precipitated down the dark and gaping chasms formed by glaciers and +rocks. After hours of toil, and with imminent peril, they found the +body of Cassier. A dark pallor had clouded his features, a ghastly +stare, closed teeth, and clenched hand bespoke the last sentiment +of human passion. Alvira trembled and stood powerless for a few +moments. Still, necessity nerved her to action. She removed the +money and valuables from the body of her father, and, in the midst +of wailings that echoed mournfully through the lonely mountain, they +made a grave in the snow. Wrapping him in his cloak, they laid him +in a bank of soft crystals through which the blood had trickled in +crimson streams. + +Thrilling and sad for Aloysia and Alvira the last moments of this +funeral ceremony. Gently they placed the cold snow on the remains of +their father. The wild eagle swooped around in anger, and the wind +swept with ominous sighs through deep ravines of the rugged mountain. +The gigantic cliff over which Cassier had been hurled by his maddened +child frowned over them in awful majesty. It would be in centuries +to come the cenotaph of a dishonored tomb. The winter would come again +with fresh snow to cover this valley of death; the sun would pour its +cold rays on the frozen mound that marked the grave of Cassier. No +tear of affection would moisten the icy shroud, but, in sympathy for +the hapless child stained with his blood, whose crime was condoned in +the provocation caused, the world has cast its abhorrent curse on the +grave of the reprobate. + + "There let every noxious thing + Trail its filth and fix its sting; + In his ears and eyeballs tingling, + With his blood their poison mingling, + Till beneath the solar fires. + Rankling all, the curse expires." + + + + +Chapter XVII. + +An Unwritten Page. + + + The noise of life can ne'er so dull our ear, + Nor passion's waves, though in their wildest mood, + That oft above their surge we should not hear + The solemn voices of the great and good. + + As oft in icicles a flower remaineth + Unwithered until spring its buds unchain, + The young heart through lifes change a good retaineth, + And will exhume its summer leaves again. + + +When Charles and Henry had breathed their last sigh over the snowy +mound that covered the earthly remains of the hapless Cassier, they +continued their descent down the mountain. They dared not go back +to the cloister; they fled when no one pursued, for outraged +conscience is its own avenger. Each stir in the brushwood, a loosened +stone rolling quickly by, or the fluttering and scream of startled +birds of the solitude, made them tremble. + +Night was fast coming on; the sharp peaks of the Tete Noir were dimmed +with clouds, and frowned with ominous terror on the path of the +terrified fugitives. Through dangers of every kind, with bruises and +wounds all over their delicate frames, they reached in the night the +beautiful village of Chamounix. Refreshed with sleep and food, they +prepared themselves for their future course, which for a while will +be perilous, sensational, and extraordinary. + +Free from the control of an intemperate and tyrannical father, +possessing immense wealth, they cast themselves into a whirlpool of +deceitful pleasure, and for a while, in yielding to the longings of +misguided youth, hushed the qualms of conscience, which can only rest +in the bosom of virtue. + +Once more free, the thought naturally came of returning to the dress +that became their sex. Aloysia, whose sense of delicacy was still as +tender as the sensitive plant yielding to human touch, pleaded in +tears for a return to the simple ways of girlhood, to the life and +society more congenial to their habits and more in keeping with the +laws of God and nature. Alvira had yielded for a moment. But the love +of travel, which in those days could not be gratified in their true +condition of young and handsome girls without guardians, whilst in +their male disguise not a shadow of suspicion or impropriety would +interfere with them; the novelty of their condition, assuming each +day some new attractions; the curiosity innate in the feminine breast +to hear and see things outside her own circle; above all the +hallucinations flung on the path of disguise by the fiend of evil, +who thus intrigued for the final ruin of his unsuspecting victims, +made them agree mutually to pass a short time in travelling around as +naval cadets; then, tired and surfeited with their triumph over nature, +they hoped to retire into the sphere of utility destined for them by +Providence. + +But, to our own and to our readers' regret, we must pause in our +biography. The sources from which we cull these interesting details +have cast historic silence over our heroines' ramblings of three years. +What a volume of sensation they suggest! Were we given to the doubtful +utility of fictional biography, were we weak enough to enrich ourselves +by pandering to the morbid and often depraved longings of modern +literary taste, we might fill a couple of volumes with scenes of +excitement, of "hair-breadth 'scapes," and with heart-palpitating +suspenses of misplaced love. We could not draw a picture more +interesting or strange than those two sweet maidens in their disguise. +We see them in the salons of the wealthy, in the clubs of the +politicians, and at the billiard-tables of giddy youth who little dream +of the intrusion, which, if they understood, would make them more happy. +We fancy we see those youths, so polished, so gay, and withal so +handsome, the idols of the society they move in; we hear compliments +about those delicate hands, those small feet, those charming eyes. +Our sympathy would chronicle the end fate of many an unsuspecting +maiden who loved and pined in the dream of secret love towards the +young officers that had crossed their path, whilst they revelled in +cruel delight in their triumph over their own frail, tender-hearted +sex. Our tale might unravel the plottings of hopeful mothers who +vainly plied the utmost worldly ingenuity to gain for their daughters +already passed the meridian of youth such promising and charming +husbands. What skill it would demand to describe the chagrin of those +old and young ladies, if they discovered the fraud which so heartlessly +trifled with the sacred feeling of love! + +We will not tarry over imaginary incidents whilst terrible and +thrilling scenes are before us. The record of those extraordinary +maidens is only now commending in all its romantic attraction. It is +not the vicissitudes of an erring life that inspire our pen in this +brief sketch, but the merciful designs of Providence in following and +wresting from perdition a noble soul, endeared to heaven by the +prayers of a repentant mother, by the sighs of a saintly religious, +and by its own love for the immaculate Queen of Heaven. + +Alvira opens her soul to the impulses of grace, but in dangerous and +guilty procrastination she passes through some startling vicissitudes +before the Almighty, impatient as it were for her love, draws her to +him by one of the most touching miracles recorded in the wonders of +hagiology. We will hurry on to those events, which will warm our +hearts with love towards God, and make us look up with a deep feeling +of awe towards that "mercy which is above all his works." + +Three years of strange vicissitude rolled over the career of our +heroines. Some thousands of pounds gilded the path they passed over. +With all the recklessness of youth, they squandered their ill-gotten +money. Many a poor ruined family eked out a miserable existence, +whilst their gold, entrusted to the wretched banker who had gone to +his account, was flung recklessly on the tables of chance by the +children he had nursed in the school of iniquity. Like sand passing +through the fingers, like corn through perforated sack, their thousands +dwindled away, giving place to the bitter hour of retaliation, of +punishment, which will yet come for those hapless children of folly. + +It did not please Almighty God to hurry them to a dreadful judgement +by sudden or awful death. He has other and even keener pangs than +those of death, but they come rather from the hand of mercy than of +justice. They are the pangs of remorse, which tear the heart of their +victims with agonizing stings that are known only in the deep secrets +of the soul. A dark and secret hour of retribution is at hand for +Charles; the heavy but merciful hand of God will touch her, although +she will still follow the mad career of her hypocrisy and the wild +dreams of her ambition. + +Alvira, still in her disguise of Charles, endeavored to forget the +crimes she committed in the dissipation in which she indulged. Whilst +wealth and friends were around she feigned a gay heart and flattered +herself she was not so bad. She involuntarily blushed at rude remarks +made by gentlemen amongst whom she passed as a companion, and in the +unsullied innocence of her sister she found a guardian for herself. +They invariably shunned low society, and thus they won the esteem of +all; they passed as young men of virtue as well as of beauty and of +grace. The immorality that dishonored the manhood around them, the +indecency of the conversations they heard, and the open and blasphemous +impiety that often thrilled their dove-like hearts, made them form +a pleasing contrast with themselves and the corrupted society they +had now known to the core; yet, "Say not I have sinned, and what +evil hath befallen me." Who can flee from the eye of God? There's a +sting in the conviction of guilt that will follow its victim through +the ballroom, the mountain cave, or the cloister, to the very side +of the bed of death. + +It was when Charles and Henry found their money nearly gone, and the +prospect of poverty before them, they felt in all its painful +anticipations the prospect of a gloomy and unknown future. There is +no pang, perhaps, in nature so keen as that which pierces the rich +and ambitious when certain poverty stares them in the face; perhaps +'tis shame, perhaps 'tis pride, perhaps 'tis the despair that arises +from the shock of blasted hopes--or all together--that weight on the +sinking heart, and make each vital throb like the last heavy thud of +death. Then suicide has a charm and self-destruction a temptation. +Many a turbulent wave has closed the career of a the beggared +spendthrift and the thwarted man of ambition. + +Charles commenced now to suffer in anticipation all the pangs of coming +shame, poverty, and humiliation. With remorse returned the virtuous +impressions of childhood, instilled into her tender mind by her +penitent mother. She longed to return to the circle nature had +destined for her, but which seemed more difficult now than to commence +a new disguise. Although she yielded in all virtuous impulses to that +"procrastination which is the thief of time," yet in her after-career +there was a wonderful combination of events, extraordinary and +interesting, which prove a loving and forgiving Providence hearing the +prayer of a penitent mother. But we must raise the curtain and proceed +with the drama of sacred romance whose first cats have given so much +interest and sympathy. + + + + +Chapter XVIII. + +In Uniform. + + +It was a bright morning in November, in the year 1684. The people of +Milan were all flocking to the cathedral. It was the feast of the +great St. Charles. The magnificent Duomo which now covers the shrine +of this great saint was not in existence then; nevertheless, the +devotion of the people towards their apostle and patron was deep and +sincere. Perhaps in no city in Italy is there greater pomp thrown +around the patron's festival than at Milan. From morning to night +thousands gather around that venerated shrine. The prince with his +liveried servants, and the poor peasant with the snow-white handkerchief +tied on her head, kneel there side by side. From the first anniversary +of the great saint's death to the present day the musical services of +the great cathedral have been rendered by the greatest talent in Italy, +Professionals and amateurs flocked from every side to do honor to +the man who did so much honor to the city of Milan. Nowadays, since +science has shortened distance, it is one of the autumnal amusements +of the wealthy Englishman to be present at the Feast of St. Charles +at Milan. The gorgeous Duomo, hewn, as it were, out of Carrara +marble, covered with five thousand statues and pinnacles, illumined +with hundreds of thousands of lights swinging in the lofty aisles in +chandeliers of sparkling crystal; the majestic organs, accompanied +in musical harmony by hundreds of the best of human voices, rolling +in soul-stirring majesty over the heads of tens of thousands of the +kneeling children of the saint--all leave an impression never to be +forgotten. Although in modern days the city of Milan has nurtured in +her bosom some of the firebrands of Italian revolution, yet the city +honored with the names and relics of Ambrose, Augustine, and Charles +has yet thousands of pious and holy souls, who still gather with filial +devotion around the tombs of the sainted dead. + +On the morning of the festival of St. Charles our heroine awoke with +a heavy heart. She knew the city was astir and repairing to the +cathedral. How strange she should have chosen the name of Charles! +How great, how holy everything connected with that name! Could the +man of God who made it so venerable to his people meet the wretch who +had assumed it to dishonor it? Could even the pious people who flocked +to the cathedral know there was amongst them a Charles whose hands were +stained with parricidal guilt? Like the wicked man who fleeth when +no man pursueth, Charles trembled lest the indignation of the people, +of the saint, and of God should crush her in punishment of her sins. + +With thoughts like these she entered the cathedral. Henry was by her +side. The Pontifical High Mass had commenced, and the organ rolled +its majestic tones through the aisles of the old church. Immense +crowds had already gathered around the tomb, and Charles and Henry +repaired to a quiet and obscure portion of the building, where they +could observe without being observed. + +Some years had now passed since Charles had breathed a prayer. There +was something in everything around her that softened her heart; she +buried her face in her hands and wept. An eloquent panegyric was +preached by a Dominican Father. The peroration was an appeal to the +assembled thousands to kneel and implore the blessing of the saint +on the city and on themselves. Few sent a more fervent appeal than +the poor, sinful girls who shunned the gaze of the crowd. The prayer +of Charles was heard, and God, who works wonders in the least of his +works, brought about the conversion of this child of predestination +in a manner as strange as it is interesting. + +The crowd have left the cathedral. The lights are extinguished. The +service is over. Charles and Henry are amongst the last to leave. +On coming into the great square before the church they were surprised +to see large groups of men in deep conversation. Their excited and +animated manner showed at once something strange had happened. Men +of strange dress appeared also in the crowd. Charles enquired what +was the matter, and was informed that word had just come that +Charles II. of Spain had declared war with Naples, and, as the state +of Milan was subsidiary to the kingdom of the latter, he had sent +officers to cause an enrolment of troops. Large inducements were +offered to all who would join, and numbers of the youth of the city +had already given their names. + +Charles scarcely hesitated in coming to a conclusion. The reduced +state of their circumstances, the perfection of her disguise, and +the still unconquered ambition of her heart made the circumstance +a change of golden hope in the sinking prospects of her career. One +thought alone deterred her. Could the delicate frame and soul of +her little sister bear the hardships of a soldier's life? She breathed +her thoughts to Henry. The latter cried and trembled. The one and +only scene of blood she had witnessed still haunted her soul with +horror--'twas in the ravine near Chamounix. But Charles still urged +on the necessity of some desperate movement, and persuaded her, if +they succeeded in joining this new service as officers, their position +would be much the same as that they had passed through during the last +two years. Poor Henry had but one tie to live for in the world; she +preferred death to separation from her sister, and in the bravery of +sisterly affection, she told Charles she would swim by her side in +the river of blood she might cause to flow. + +The next morning found them enrolled as officers in the army of the +King of Naples. + + + + +Chapter XIX. + +Remorse. + + + They call'd her cold and proud, + Because her lip and brow + Amid the mirthful crowd + No kindred mirth avowed; + Alas! nor look nor language e'er reveal + How much the sad can love, the lonely feel. + + The peopled earth appears + A dreary desert wide; + Her gloominess and tears + The stern and gay deride. + O God! life's heartless mockeries who can bear + When grief is dumb and deep thought brings despair? + + +During the terrible storm that passed over the Church at the +commencement of the third century, we have a thrilling incident which +shows the terror and remorse of the pagan emperors when they returned +to their golden house after witnessing the execution of their martyred +victims. + +Diocletian, being enraged with Adrian, the governor of Aninoe--who, +from being an ardent persecutor of the Church, had become a fervent +follower of Christ--caused him to be dragged to Nicomedia, where, +seized with implacable rage a the sight of the constancy of the martyr, +who had once been his friend and confidant, he ordered him to be thrown +chained hand and foot, at the decline of day, into a deep pit, which +was filled with earth and stones before the emperor's eyes. When +the last cry of the victim had been stifled under the accumulated earth, +the emperor stamped on it with his feet and cried out in a tone of +defiance: "Now, Adrian, if thy Christ loves thee, let him show it." + +He then quitted the field of punishment, but felt himself so overpowered +by such an extraordinary feeling that he knew not whether it was the +termination of his passion or the commencement of his remorse. His +Thessalian courtiers bore him rapidly away from the accursed spot. +Night fell; Diocletian, agitated and restless, prepared to retire to +rest, for his head was burning. He entered his chamber, which was +hung around with purple, but the walls of which now seemed to distil +blood. He advanced a few steps, when, lo! a corpse appeared to rise +slowly on his golden couch; his bed was occupied by a spectre, and +near the costly lamp, which shed a pale light round the chamber, the +chains of the martyr seemed to descend from the ceiling. Diocletian +uttered a cry that might have penetrated the grave. His guards ran +in, but instantly grew pale, drew back, and, pointing to the object +which caused an icy sweat to cover the imperial brow, they said with +horror to each other: "It is the Christian." + +Thus a guilty conscience summons imaginary terrors around it. Cain +fled when no one pursued. Nero heard invisible trumpets ringing his +death-knell around the tomb of his mother. How often has the mountain +bandit, whose hand trembled not at murder, shuddered with fear, as +he hastened through the forest, at the sound of a branch waving in +the wind, or felt his hair stand erect with terror on beholding a +distant bush fantastically enlightened by the moon! Conscience has +made cowards of the most sanguinary freebooters and the most shameless +oppressors. The dreadful "worm that dieth not," and banishes every +cheerful thought from the guilty soul, is not inaptly compared to the +wretch we read of in the annals of Eastern crime, condemned to carry +about with him the dead and decomposing body of his murdered victim. + +It is not to be expected that Charles escaped the agonies of a guilty +conscience. From the moment she left the church in Milan the usual +and dreadful struggle between shame and grace, humility and pride, +commenced in her heart. Although now and then forgotten in the +excitement of the extraordinary disguise she had assumed, nevertheless +the feeling of remorse dampened every pleasure, and added to the +disguise of her person another disguise of false joy to her countenance. +This reaction caused an important feature in the life of Alvira during +her stay in the beautiful town of Messina, whither we must ask our +reader to follow our heroines to commence in their military career +the most interesting part of his historical romance. + +The Milanese recruits were busily engaged in going through military +instruction, when orders were received that the division should +sail immediately for Messina. There are few acquainted with the +military life who do not know how disagreeable are orders to move. +The bustle, the packing, the breaking up of associations, and the +inevitable want of comfort in the military march try the courage of +the brave man more than the din of battle, and robs the military +career of much of its boasted enthusiasm. The stalwart son of Mars, +who forgets there are such things as danger and fatigue in the exciting +hour of battle, will grumble his discontent at the inconveniences of +the hour of peace. We will leave it to the imagination of the reader +to conceive the feelings, the regrets and misgivings, of our young +heroines as their little vessel set sail from the town of Spezzia for +the fortress of Messina. Although their biographers say nothing of +their voyage, we cannot but imagine it was an unpleasant one. +Although the blue headlands of the Italian coast, and the snow-capped +Apennines in the distance, supplied the place of the compass, and their +calls at the different ports deprived their journey of the painful +monotony of a long sea-voyage, yet the associations, the cloud that +hung over their thoughts, embittered every source of pleasure. + +Arrived at Messina, Charles and Henry were quartered in the old +fortress. It was an antiquated, quadrangular edifice, perched high +up on the side of the hill, looking down on beautiful white houses +built one over the other, and descending in terraces to the sea. +Its old walls were dilapidated and discovered by the touch of time, +and threatened every minute, as it afterwards did in the earthquake +of 1769, to commence the awful avalanche of destruction that swept +this fair city into the sea. + +The first glimpse of their barracks did not rouse in Henry any +ejaculations of gladness. The old Castello, as the people called it, +ill-agreed with the noble edifices she was wont to call castles in +her earlier days--no lofty battlements crested with clouds; no +drawbridges swung on ponderous chains; no mysterious keeps haunted +with traditionary horrors; no myriads of archers in gold and blue to +rend the heavens with a mighty shout of welcome. Alvira's dream of +military glory was a veritable castle in the air in the presence of +the ruinous, ill-kept, and dilapidated fortress they had come to +reinforce. + +Everything around seemed to increase the gloom that hung over Charles's +heart. The ill-clad and poverty-stricken people, squatting in idleness +and dirt in the streets; the miserable shops; the doce far niente so +conspicuously characteristic of Italian towns, were contrasted with +the beautiful and busy capitals Charles and Henry had come from. But +nowhere was this contrast so keen as in their domestic arrangements. +The bleak apartments, the campbed, the iron washstand, and the rough +cuisine contrasted sadly with the magnificence of their father's +splendid mansion in Paris. No wonder our young heroines wept when +alone over the memories of the past. + +Charles and Henry kept together; they avoided all society; they loved +to ramble along the beautiful beach that ran for some miles on the +north side of the town, and there, in floods of tears, seek relief +for their broken hearts. Oh! how memory will on these occasions +wake up the happy past lost and gone, and the wicked past yet to be +atoned for. What heart weighted with the agony of remorse will not +feel the sting of guilt more keen in the rememberance of the blissful +days of innocence and childhood? Many a blue wave has wrapt in its +icy shroud the child of misfortune who was unable to bear the shame +and reproof of her own conscience. It was in the recollection of +virtuous childhood that Charles and Henry felt their greatest sorrows. +Every tender admonition of their dying mother; the instruction of the +aged abbe who prepared them for their first confession and communion; +and the piety and noble example of their little brother, Louis Marie, +who had fled in his childhood from the world they now hated, were +subjects often brought up in their lonely rambles. + +At night Charles would often awake with frightful dreams. The cold, +bloodstained face of her murdered father would come in awful proximity +to her. Her screams would bring her fellow-officers to her assistance, +but they knew not the cause of her terror. The young officers had +the sympathy of the whole garrison; even the people who saw them +return from their evening walk remarked them to be lonely and sad, +and their eyes often red from crying. + +Three long and miserable months were thus passed by our heroines at +Messina. They were now as skilful in their military exercises as +they were in their disguise. But wearied of the military life, and +longing to return to the society of their sex, they had determined +to leave, to declare who they were, and endeavor, by some means, to +get back to France. Whilst deliberating on this movement an incident +occurred which changed their plans and cast them again into an +extraordinary circle of vicissitudes. + + + + +Chapter XX. + +Naples. + + +Whilst Charles and Henry were one evening walking along the beautiful +beach they saw a ship nearing the land. A strong breeze was blowing +at the time, and whilst they paused to admire the noble bark, all +sails set, ploughing the crested billows, and floating over them like +an enormous sea-gull, she came nearer and nearer to the young officers. +Another minute the sails were lowered and anchor was cast. A small +boat was dispatched from the ship, and made for the beach just where +Charles and Henry were standing. They formed a thousand conjectures +of the meaning of this movement. When the boat came near the land, +a tall young man, dressed in the uniform of the Neapolitan service, +leaped on shore and advanced towards the young officers. + +A few words of recognition passed. He was a lieutenant in the +Neopolitan army, sent with despatches for the commandant of the garrison +of Messina to send two or three companies of the newly-enrolled troops +to the capital. + +On the way to the garrison he informed Charles and Henry that the war +was nearly at an end, but there was a great deal of disturbance and +sedition in the city of Naples, and that the garrison there had to be +doubled. The object in anchoring the ship on the coast was for fear +the garrison of Messina might have been surprised and taken by the +Carlists. Having assured himself all was safe, he entered the citadel +with the young officers, and was presented to the captain, to whom he +handed his despatches from headquarters. + +The next evening found Henry and Charles, with two hundred men, on +board the ship that had anchored on the coast the day before. The +The excitement and bustle of departure had silenced for a while all +feelings of remorse, and the old passions that reigned in the soul of +Charles rose again from their dormant state. Her eye flashed with +life and her lips quivered with joy; there was still within her grasp +the chance of fame. Ambition fanned the dying embers of decaying +hope, and every pious resolve was thrown aside until the course of +events would realize or blast her new dream of greatness. + +A few days brought them in sight of the beautiful capital of the +south of Italy. The modern aphorism, "See Naples and then die," was +said in other words in old times, when the Caesars and Senators of +the empire enriched its beautiful shores with superb villas. There +is not in Europe a bluer sky and, true in its refection of the azure +firmament, a bluer sea than around Naples. The coast undulates to +the sea in verdant slopes, which in autumn have a rich golden hue +from the yellow tinge of the vine-leaf. Its classic fame casts a halo +around its charms; its history in the far past, its terrible mountain +and periodical convulsions from the burning womb of the earth, render +it an object of attraction to all classes. + +Charles and Henry were quite alive to the impressions felt by tourists +when, whirled along by the panting steam-horse through the luxuriant +Campo Flice, they see for the first time the column of murky smoke +that rises to the clouds over the terrible Vesuvius. The old mountain +was then, as it is now, the terror and the attraction of tourists. +The catastrophes it has caused, the cities it has swallowed up in molten +ashes, the thunder of its roar when roused from its sleep, and the +unhealthy, sulphurous vapors ever vomited from its cone, render it a +veritable giant that the human race loves to see at a distance. + +Our heroines were already acquainted with the "Light-house of the +Mediterranean," and from afar the lofty and ever-blazing, active Etna; +hence Vesuvius was not so attractive as a volcano as in the halo of +classic lore that hung around it. At a distance the mountain seems +to be harmless, the blue outline of the lofty cone terminating in a +dense bank of smoke, like stormclouds gathering around the snowy peaks +of the distant Apennines; but when the adventurous tourist wishes to +approach nearer to its blazing crater, and toils up its torn and +blackened sides, he will see in the immense chasms and rents traces +of might convulsions. Deep rivers of molten lava that take twenty +and thirty years to cool; the quantity of ashes and cinders that could +change the whole face of a country and bury five cities in a few hours, +must tell of the enormous furnace raging in the bowels of the earth, +of which Vesuvius is but its chimney. + +Strange, Charles longed to see Vesuvius when but a tender girl in Paris. +She little thought the extraordinary course of human events would +bring her, not only under the shadow of the terrible mountain itself, +but send her through a most thrilling scene on its barren slopes. +Let us hasten on to the course of events that rendered the extraordinary +life of this girl so romantic. + + + + +Chapter XXI. + +Engagement with Brigands. + + +Arrived in Naples, our heroines were quartered in the Molo. This is +an old fortress still used as a barrack in Naples. Its massive, +quadrangular walls were erected in the middle ages, and have withstood +many a desperate siege in the civil wars of Italy. + +The detachment from the Messina garrison found the city in a state of +disturbance and confusion. Armed troops paraded the streets, houses +were burning on every side, and bands of revolutionists were running +frantically to and fro through the streets, yelling in the most +unearthly tones their whoops of political antagonism to the Government; +yet it was evident the Government had the upper hand, and the mob +was gradually dispersing; they fled from the city, and order was +restored. In the meantime word was received in Naples that a large +body of these ruffians had settled themselves on the sides of Vesuvius, +and supported themselves by the wholesale plunder and pillage of the +farms and villages on the slopes of the hill. An order was immediately +given that two hundred men should march to the mountain to destroy +this band of brigands. The company selected was that belonging to +Charles and Henry. + +The next day found our young heroines on the road to the field of +battle. We can fancy the position and thoughts of those tender, +delicate girls, marching side by side with the rough, bearded soldiers +of Italy--the one rejoicing in the wild dream of her foolish ambition; +the other trembling in her timid heart, and dragged into scenes she +loathed by the irresistible chain of affection which bound her to her +sister. + +No wonder the tender frame of girlhood yielded to the severity of the +march--for amongst those who were first to fail was the amiable Henry; +yet there were amongst the troops men whose constitutions were +shattered by the excesses of their youth, and Henry became less +remarkable as a young officer when stalwart men who had felt ere then +the fatigues of war were falling at her side. Charles hired a loose +horse in one of the villages they passed through, and thus arrived +fresh and strong at the place of encampment, a few miles from the +stronghold of the brigands. Henry came up in the afternoon, accompanied +by about thirty men who, like herself, failed under the fatigues of +the march. + +Rest under the circumstances was impossible. The brigands were all +around and no one could tell the moment of attack. Some men were sent +on as scouts to explore the hillside; they never returned. This was +sufficient indication of an ambuscade and the captain bravely determined +to march his whole force at once into their hiding-place, knowing, +when they were once surprised, they had no shelter afterwards. + +Those who have been to Mount Vesuvius, and who have had the hardihood +to seek the exquisite Lacryma produced on the southwester slopes of +the hill, will remember a peculiar ravine running for nearly a mile +from the sandy part of the cone, and covered with a stunted green +bush of fern-like leaves. It is the nearest green spot to the calcined +cone. It assumes a gentle declivity towards the sea, and is then lost +in the beautiful vineyards and gardens that cover the slopes of the +mountain down to the houses of Torre del Greco. The view from this +spot is magnificent. On the left is the beautiful town of Sorento, +with houses as white as snow, running in detached villas along the +sea-shore up to the smoky and roofless walls of Pompeii, whose unsightly +ruins lend contrast to the scene around. The azure bay seems to borrow +more of the blue of heaven as it stretches far away to the horizon; +the little steamers and innumerable yachts that ply between the islands +give the scene animation and variety. Around to the right we have the +classic hills of Baia, the Campo Santo in its fantastic architecture, +and then the green and leafy plains of the Campo Felice; beneath, the +great city with its four hundred thousand souls, its red tiles and +irregular masses of brick-work, contrasting with the gilded domes of +the superb churches; and above, the terrible cone, vomiting forth its +sulfurous smoke and darkening the sky with clouds of its own creation. + +The view that can be had from this place, and the interesting history +of every inch of the country around, render it one of the most romantic +spots in the world. But, alas! it is now, as it was two hundred years +ago, the home and retreat of those desperate Italian robbers known +as brigands. Woe betide the incautious traveller whom curiosity leads +through the vineyards of that lonely scene! The deeds of its outlawed +and daring inhabitants would fill volumes. It was here, too, as far +as we can learn, our heroines found their field of battle. + +The troops had scarcely entered this ravine when a sharp, shrill whistle +rang from one side of the mountain to the other. Immediately human +voices were heard on all sides, repeating in every pitch of tone, from +bass to soprano, the word "Rione." For several minutes the mountain +echoed with the weird sound of the brigand war-cry; the troops were +ordered to stand in readiness, and timid hearts like Henry's quailed +at the awful moment. + +The earth rumbled under their feet, and dark, bluish columns of smoke +curled in the air from the terrible cone; the sun was setting over the +beautiful Bay of Naples in the color of blood, and the air was +impregnated with the fumes of sulphur. The wilderness of the spot, +and nature's terrors convulsing the elements around, made, indeed, +the moment before battle a dreadful moment for the delicate children +of the French banker. + +A few minutes, and the battle was at its height. A long and dreadful +contest ensued. The numbers were about equal on both sides. +Fortunately, the brigands had not time to muster all at once, and the +royalist troops met them in small but desperate bands. No sooner was +one defeated than another and another poured down from the sides of +the mountain and disputed every inch of the way. The brigands fought +bravely, but were outnumbered, and towards midnight the bloodshed +ceased. All sounds had died away save the groans of the wounded and +dying, and now and then a solitary whoop of a brigand chief from the +distant hills, calling together the few straggling and scattered bands +of rebels. + +The moment the heat of the combat was over the first thought that struck +Charles was to look for Henry. They were separated in the confusion +of the fight. She ran through the men, but could not find her. Here +and there she could discern in the pale light of a clouded moon some +knot of soldiers binding up their wounds and recounting their escapes +and their triumphs. She hurriedly ran through them, enquiring for her +brother-officer, but none knew anything of her. She scanned every +feature, she called her in every group, but in vain--no Henry was +there. The awful thought struck her--and her heart nearly broke under +its pang--perhaps she is killed! She flew across the bloody path they +had passed; her mournful and shrill cry of "Enrico!" rolled over the +bodies of the slain, and was echoed again and again with plaintive +intensity from the surrounding hills. Sometimes she even fancied the +dying echo of her own shrill cry was the feeble answer of her wounded +sister; and when she would pause to listen again, the valley around +was wrapt in the stillness of death. At length she came to the spot +where the battle first commenced, and there, with a shriek that was +heard in the distant encampment, she found among the first victims of +that bloody night the lifeless corpse of her sister. + + + + +Chapter XXII. + +The Morning After the Battle. + + +The morning sun rose dimly in a bank of clouds. It found Charles +still clinging to the remains of poor Aloysia, and bathing with kisses +and tears the stiffened features of her beloved sister. With a silken +kerchief she had bandaged the fatal gash on her neck, believing she +might be only in a swoon and might recover. Hope, which is the last +comfort to abandon man in his most desperate condition, scarcely +retarded for Charles the awful reality of her bereavement. + +The pale moon that has rolled over so many generations, and lent its +dim, silvery light to so many thrilling vicissitudes, never looked +down on a sadder scene. Death has no pang equal to the blow it give +true affection. No language could describe what the heart feels on +occasions like this. There sat the delicate French girl, alone in the +dark night, on the side of Vesuvius, in the midst of the bleeding +victims of the bloody fight, and clasping to her heart the cold, +lifeless body of her ill-fated sister. + +Her sudden and awful end, swept, perhaps, into eternity without a +moment's notice, to be buried in the ashes of the volcano, amidst the +dishonored remains of outlaws and murderers--does not the thought +strike us that this sad fate was more the due of Alvira than the +innocent and harmless Aloysia? + +Alvira felt it, and her repentant heart was almost broke. + +"O Aloysia!" hear her moan over the angelic form, "you innocent and I +guilty; you slain, judged, and I free to heap greater ingratitude on +the Being who has saved me. Aloysia, forgive! Thou wert dragged up +unwillingly to these desperate scenes of bloodshed by my infatuation. +O God! strike me. I am the wretch; let this angel live to honor thee +in the angelic simplicity of innocence!" + +Never was a fairer flower blasted by the lightning of Heaven. Neither +Charles nor Henry knew what was before them in their march to Vesuvius. +To surround and capture a few runaways was perhaps the most they +expected; and Henry, in the confiding affection of her heart, clung +to Charles, determined to bear fatigue and hardship rather than be +separated from her. + +It must be a painful picture that fancy will paint of the last hour +of this lovely child. The anguish of her heart must have been keener +than the deep wound that sent the life-streams to mingle with the lava +of the mountain: no one to minister a drop of water to her parched +lips; no friendly voice to console her; the moans and imprecations of +the wounded brigands grating on her ears; the thought that her sister, +too, was perhaps lying in pain, and sinking from her wounds; and, above +all--that which, perhaps, sent the last blush to her cheek--the fear +of the discovery of her sex, and the rough gaze of a brutal soldiery. +But Heaven's sympathizing spirits were gathered around this child of +misfortune, and doubtless with her last sigh he breathed her pure +soul into their hands, and the last wish was answered--for she was +good and innocent before God. + +When the sun had fully risen, Charles was approached by a sergeant +of the troops, who announced to her that the captain had died during +the night from his wounds, and, as she was the senior officer, they +waited her orders. Dissembling her grief, Charles rose to her feet +and gave directions that the bodies of the captain and her brother +should be buried in their clothes and wrapped in the flag of the +country. The hardy veterans raised the delicate frame of Henry, and +carried it on a rude bier to the hut where the remains of the captain +were prepared for interment. Silent and solemn was the funeral cortege. +No drum, not a funeral note, was heard. Every eye was wet, and the +breast of Charles was not the only one that heaved the farewell sigh +over the young and beautiful officer. + +Charles stood by to see the last of her sister. The dark, black sand +was poured down on her lovely face, and silently and quickly her +mountain grave was filled by the blood-stained hands of her companions +in arms. + + + + +Chapter XXIII. + +Return--A Triumph. + + +Charles had dreamt a golden dream. Ambition's cup is full, but its +draught is bitter. On the march to Naples, in triumph, commanding +the royal troops, who had completely beaten the brigands, were glories +Charles never thought she was one day to obtain. With her return to +the city the war was ended, and the people were rejoicing in the +restoration of peace. The young captain who had returned so victorious +from Vesuvius was the lion of the day. The city gave her an ovation +far beyond her most sanguine hopes. Illuminations were instituted in +her honor, her name was shouted in the streets, and the nobles and +great ones of the state gathered around her as if the safety of the +kingdom had depended on her own personal efforts. For some time crowds +of lazzaroli gathered around the entrance of the Molo to see the young +and beautiful captain who had achieved such wonders; and we can fancy +how sweetly would ring on the ears of our ambitious heroine the shout +of the enthusiastic crowd sending far and wide the "Erira Carlo +Pimontel!" The King confirmed her position of captain, and sent her +the iron and golden crosses of honor, only given to the bravest of the +brave in those days of strife and warfare. + +But vanity of vanities, and all is vanity! Let us raise the veil of +deception that shrouds the emptiness of human joy. Alvira has now +gratified her heart's desires in everything she could have under the +sun. She had beauty, wealth, and fame, but she was like the pretty +moth that hovers around the flame of the candle, and finds its ruin +in the touch of the splendor it loves. Poor Alvira was another child +of Solomon that sighed over the emptiness of human joy; for bitter +disappointment is the sad tale ever told in the realization of misguided +hope. Often, at midnight, when the unknown captain would return from +the theatre or some festive entertainment given in her honor, she would +sit at her table, wearied and disgusted, and weep bitterly. The +unnatural restraint necessary to preserve her disguise, the separation +from all the comforts and sympathies common to her sex, and the painful +reminiscences of the past wrung tears of misery from her aching heart. +The dreams of Messina haunted her still, but increased in anguish +and terror, as her thoughts could now fly from the lonely cave on the +Alps to the battle-field on the side of Vesuvius. Again the pangs +of remorse poisoned every joy; again the angry countenance and clenched +hand of her murdered father would bend over her restless couch; and +again the scream of terror in the dark, silent midnight would summon +her friends around her. Deep and fervent the prayer that was poured +forth from that sad and breaking heart that some providential +circumstance would enable her to make the change she had no long +premeditated. That change is at hand. Her mother's prayer is still +pleading for her before the throne of God; he who cast an eye of mercy +on the erring Magdalen had already written the name of Alvira in the +book of life, and destined her to be one of the noblest models of +repentance that adorn the latter history of the Church. Let us come +to the sequel of this extraordinary history; but first we must introduce +our readers to a new character--a great and holy man, destined by +Providence to save Alvira, and give the most interesting and most +remarkable chapter in this romance of real life. + + + + +Chapter XXIV. + +Alvira's Confession. + + + Tremble, thou wretch, + Though hast within thee undivulged crimes, + Unwhipped of justice: hide thee, thou bloody hand; + Thou perjured, and thou simular man of virtue, + Thou art incestuous: caitiff, to pieces shake, + That under covert and convenient seeming + Hast practised on man's life: close pent-up guilts, + Rive your concealing continents, and cry + These dreadful summoners grace. + -- Lear. + + +It was a beautiful morning in the Lent of 1678. The sun had risen +over the Apennines, and flung its magnificence over the Bay of Naples. +The smoke of Vesuvius cast its shadow like a monstrous pine over the +vineyards and villas that adorned the mountain-side to the sea-shore. +The morning was such as Byron gazed on in fancy through the sorrowful +eyes of the eloquent heroine of one of his tragedies: + + + "So bright, so rolling back the clouds into + Vapors more lovely than the unclouded sky, + With golden pinnacles and snowy mountains, + And billows purpler than the ocean's, making + In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth, + So like we almost deem it permanent, + So fleeting we can scarcely call it aught + Beyond a vision, 'tis so transiently + Scattered along the eternal vault!" + + +Whilst the eight hour was chiming from the tower of the old Gesu there +issued from the monastery attacked to the church a priest accompanied +by an acolyte bearing a large, plain cross and ringing a small bell. +They moved in the direction of the mole or old fortress of the city. +Soon a crowd followed--some bare-headed; others, especially the females, +told their beads in silence. + +The traveller in Italy is aware of the pious custom practised by some +of the religious communities of preaching in the open air to the people +during the season of Lent. Extraordinary things are related of these +harangues. The lives of the sainted missionaries ring with tales of +the marvellous and miraculous powers given to God's servants when, in +moments of fire and zeal, they went from their cloisters like beings +of another world to awaken sinners to a sense of future terrors. At +one time we read of the saint's voice carried miraculously to a distance +of several miles; the peasant working in the fields would hear the +sweet sounds without seeing the speaker. At another the funeral +procession was arrested and the dead called from the bier to testify +to the truth of their teaching. Curing the cripple and restoring health +to the sick were of ordinary occurrence. Our blessed Lord told the +messengers who came to enquire about him to report his miracles as +a proof of his divinity: the blind see, the lame walk, the sick are +restored to health; but greater than all his reversions of the natural +laws were the humility and the mysterious arrangement of his providence +which he prophetically announced when he told his disciples that those +who should come after him would perform greater miracles than he. +There are few of the Thaumaturgi more celebrated than the humble father +who has just issued from the Gesu to thunder forth with superhuman +eloquence the truths of God and religion. + +No sooner had the people heard the little bell of the attendant and +seen the venerable priest leave the college than they gathered from +various quarters, and seemed to vie with each other in getting nearest +to him. + +He was a tall, thin man, his hair gray, shading a majestic forehead, +and but slightly wrinkled with the summers of over sixty years; his +eyes were partly closed, but when preaching they glowed with animation, +and were brightened by the tears that dimmed them; his long, wiry +fingers were interlocked and raised towards his breast in the attitude +of deep contemplation. The rough soutane and leather belt, the beads +and missionary cross partly hid in his breast, declared him to be a +follower of St. Ignatius. In the hallowed austerity of his whole +appearance, in the sweetness blended with religious gravity, and in +the respect and love manifested in the ever increasing crowd, one +easily learned he was more than an ordinary man. The people of Naples +knew him by the endearing name of Brother Francis; history has since +written his name in letters of gold on the alters of the Catholic +Church as St. Francis of Jerome. + +It must have been a treat to the people who heard such saints as Francis +of Jerome preach. Natural eloquences is a rare and powerful gift; +when guided by education and study, the talent exercises a marvellous +influence on man; but add to these two a zeal and fervor of spirit +such as burned in the mortified spirit of the man of God, and we have +a power that is nothing short of supernatural and irresistible. + +From a heart all aglow with divine love he soon enkindled in his hearers +that fire his divine Master came to kindle on earth. His sermons were +miracles. So great was the crowd around him at times that it would +be impossible for any human voice to reach his furthest hearers. Yet +every word of the great preacher went with silvery tone and moving +power, as if wafted on angel breathings, to the ears of sinners whom +chance or grace had brought to join the immense crowd that surrounded +his rude platform. Each sermon brought hundreds to repentance. Eyes +that were long dry melted into tears, and hearts that were strangers +to every sweet and holy influence throbbed with emotion. Efforts to +check the pent-up feelings were expressed by louder and convulsive +sobs; some knelt and prayed, others beat their breasts in the agony +of contrition. The immense concourse of people, simple and religious +minded, at all times impressionable, were, under the appeals of Francis, +moved as in times of public calamity, and the whole crowd swayed to +and fro as the deep moved by the storm--now trembling in terror, now +ashamed of sin and ingratitude, and again encouraged with hope, whose +cheerful beams the orator would cause to dart through the dark clouds +he himself had gathered over their mental vision. + +On one occasion a courtesan ridiculed from her bed-room window the +words of the saint. She fell dead immediately. When he heard of the +awful judgement passed on this hapless woman, he ordered her body to +be brought to him. Then, amidst a death-like silence, he cried out +in a voice of thunder that penetrated the regions of the damned: +"Catherine, where art thou now?" + +The soul answered with a shriek that sent a thrill through the assembled +thousands: "In hell!" + +Although in scenes of terror like these Francis thundered forth the +awful destinies of the judged, yet the mercy of God towards the sinner +was his favorite theme. He looked on himself as called in a special +manner to seek out the lost sheep, to soften down the roughness found +on the path of repentance, to aid in the struggles willing souls find +in their efforts at reformation. Francis knew, as all masters of the +spiritual life have learned, there is more power in the eloquence of +forgiving love than in the terrors of retribution; hence, with tears +and burning sentiments of sympathy for the erring children of men, +he led his hearers as it were by the hand to the Father of the +prodigal--to that Jesus who forgave and loved the penitent Magdalen. + +Francis has now ascended his platform. The crowd are swelling around. +He raises the sign of redemption over their heads; in a few majestic +sentences he commences his subject; the fire is kindling in his eye, +and the thunder is deepening in his splendid voice. The listeners +are wrapt in breathless attention. + +On the outskirts of the crowd there is a young officer, slender, +graceful, tidy to a fault. It is Alvira. + +She was passing down the Toledo, and had already heard the saint before +she had seen him. She had heard of the great preacher, but was afraid +to meet him. Grace had followed her in all her wanderings, and the +prayers of her mother were still heard at the throne of God. The crowd +is so great Alvira cannot pass to the Molo, where she was quartered +with her regiment. She must listen. + +Strange, consoling ways of divine grace! It was thee, O Lord! who +drew they servant from his convent on that auspicious morning; thou +did'st gather the crowd around him, and inspire him with the words +and theme of his moving discourse! It was thy mercy, smiling with +compassion on a noble but erring soul, which brought her to listen +to those words that would bring thy grace to her heart! + +Like one whose eye has caught a brilliant meteor flying through the +heavens, and remains gazing on it until it has disappeared, Alvira +could not remove her eyes from Francis. When she saw his saintly +figure standing on the rude platform, holding in his outstretched +hand the saving sign of redemption, she was seized with an unaccountable +feeling of awe. Although every word of the sermon was heard and +weighed, it seemed as if the pent-up memories of her soul took +precedence of her thoughts, and rushed on her with overwhelming force, +like the winds let loose by the storm-god of old. Everything strange +or sad in her past career lent its quota of color to the dark picture +remorse, with cruel and masterly hand, delineated before her troubled +spirit. The struggle, the agony she had learned to brave in the Duomo +at Milan and the fortress of Messina, rose again with hydra fangs +from the tomb of oblivion in which recent excitements had buried it. +None but her guardian angel knew her soul was once more the battle-field +of contending feelings. At length a crimson blush passed over her +marble features; a crystal tear-drop dimmed her eye; another sprang +from the reservoirs of the heart and stole down the blushing cheek. +Alvira wept. + +Tears have a language of their own deep and powerful; they tell of the +weakness of the human heart, not its triumphs; for passion has a throne +that tears may wash in vain. It is easier to drive the mighty river +from its long-loved bed than the soul from the normal state of its +gratified tendencies. + +"The heart," says St. Liguori, "where passion reigns, has become a +crystal vase filled with earth no longer penetrated by the rays of +the sun." The iron pedestal of passion's throne was not yet shivered +in the heart of Alvira, nor were tears a sign that the sun of grace +had pierced the crystal vase of the worldly heart. Great will be +the grace that will draw Alvira from the zenith of a golden dream in +which a triumphant ambition has placed her above her sex, and great +amongst the heroes of the manly sex she feigned. Her conversion will +be a miracle--a miracle of sweet violence, such as drew the Magdalens, +the Augustines, and the Cortonas from the trammels of vice to the holy +and happy path of repentance. + +The sermon is over. The crowd is still between Alvira and the Molo; +she must wait. + +The people are gradually dispersing. Some go to the church to follow +up the holy inspirations given, to throw themselves at the feet of a +confessor, to break the chains of sin; others hasten to their homes +or daily avocations, wondering, pleased, and sanctified in good desires +and resolutions that came gushing from their hearts. + +Alvira is standing to one side alone and wrapt in thought. Suddenly +she looks up. Something catches her eye. She starts; a tremble passes +from head to foot. She looks again; her worst terrors are realized. +It is--Father Francis is coming towards her! + +"But he can't be coming to me," she thought to herself. She looked +around to see if there were any other object to bring the father in +that direction; but there was no poor creature to ask his charity, no +poor cripple to seek his sympathy; she was almost alone. She could +have fled, but felt herself fixed to the ground, and with desperate +efforts endeavored to conceal her excitement. He approaches nearer; +with glistening eye she watches and hopes some fortuitous circumstances +may call him aside. Their glance meets; she blushes and trembles, +Father Francis is before her. + +For a moment he gazed on the young captain with a kind, penetrating +look; and a smile on his features seemed to express a friendly +recognition. Calling her by her assumed name, he said to her, almost +in a whisper: "Charles, go to confession; God wishes thee well." + +Alvira was relieved. The kind, gentle manner of the father calmed +the storm of conflicting fears. Rejecting the inward calls of grace, +and hoping she was not discovered, she replied with some hesitation: + +"But, father, I don't require to go to confession. I have not done +anything wrong." + +Her voice faltered, and the blush of conscious falsehood grew deeper +and deeper on her glowing features. + +Father Francis drew himself up with majesty; his eye beamed with the +glow of inspiration, and in a solemn reproof he addressed the trembling +girl: + +"You have done nothing wrong, nothing to merit the judgments of a +terrible God--you, who murdered your father in the snows of the Alps, +robbed him of ill-gotten wealth, spent it in gaming, and dragged your +innocent sister in the path or your own shameless adventure!" + +"Father! father!" cried Alvira, bursting into convulsive sobs. + +"Maria Alvira Cassier," continued the man of God in a milder tone, +"go and change those garments; cease this tale of guilty hypocrisy. +But--" + +Advancing towards her, he took her hand, and, resuming the paternal +smile that relaxed his solemn features and banished her fears, said +in a low tone: "But come with me to the Gesu." + +Alvira obeyed. She was thunderstruck. The revelation of the great +secrets of her life summoned up paralyzing fears; but, accustomed +to brave the succumbing weakness of the feminine character, and +encouraged by the paternal manner of the father, she did not faint, +but buried her face in her hands and wept. + +In silence she followed Father Francis. She skilfully concealed her +emotions; the tears were brushed away as rapidly as they overflowed. +In passing the squares that separated them from the church, Alvira +had resolved to unbosom herself to the good father. Like the angel +that led Peter from his prison, she knew this sainted man was destined +to lead her from the prison of her hypocrisy. Where grace has not +conquered, consequences are weighed, the future becomes too dark and +unknown for the cowardly heart, and temporal evils assume the weight +of eternal woes; the blinded self-love yields, and the moment of grace +is abandoned. But Alvira's conversion was complete, and, without one +doubt or fear for the future, she handed herself to the guidance of +the venerable father, who had learned by inspiration from heaven the +spiritual maladies of her soul. + +The whole of that day was spent in the church. She crouched into an +angle behind one of the large pillars. Like the dew that freshens +and vivifies the vegetation that has been dried up by the parching +sun, the exhilarating breathings of the divine Spirit spread over +her soul that peace which surpasseth all understanding. In the fervor +of her first real moments of prayer, the hours passed as seconds; +unmindful of food, of the duties incumbent on her military profession, +and of the busy world around, she was not roused from her reverie +until the golden floods of the setting sunlight fell in tinted splendor +through the stained-glass windows of the old Gothic church. + +As the church bells were merrily chiming the Ave Maria, a gentle tap +on her shoulder called her attention. It was Father Francis. He had +watched her all the day with a secret joy; he knew the value of moments +like these in maturing the resolutions of the converted soul, and, as +he had not yet completed his arrangements, he was afraid his penitent +might slip from him in the crowd and be exposed to temptations that +might discourage her; the cold blast of the world might shake to the +ground the fabric he had commenced to build. He bent his venerable +countenance to her ear, whispered a word of consolation, and bade her +not leave till he came for her. + +The father moved silently and thoughtfully through the sombre aisles; +now and then he would stop to converse with some child of grace, for +he had many awaiting his spiritual aid. With smiles of holy joy, he +imparted consolation to each, and sent them to their homes accompanied +by those spirits that rejoice in the conversion of the sinner. + +A few moments, and the lights were extinguished, the crowd is gone. +The cough and suppressed sigh are no longer heard from the deep aisles, +and the footsteps of the ever-changing crowd have ceased to clatter +on the marble pavement. The solitary lamp in the sanctuary cast a +fitful shadow through the silent and abandoned church, and was the +only indication of the presence of Him who rules in the vast spheres +of the heavens. Alvira felt happier in this lonely moment before the +Most Holy Sacrament. The fruit of years of penance, and the conquest +of turbulent, rebellious passions, have often been gained in moments +of fervor before the alter. Like sand, changed to transparent crystal +glass under the blow-pipe, the heart is melted and purified under the +fire of love that darts in invisible streams from the loving Victim +of the tabernacle. + +The closing of the church door and the rattling of carriage wheels in +the direction of the Chaja close an eventful day, recorded in golden +letter in heaven's history of repentant humanity. + + + + +Chapter XXV. + +Honor Saved. + + +A series of surprises followed this memorable conversion. Alvira's +absence from the garrison was the subject of serious comment. Rumor +was busy, and disposed of the young captain by every imaginable +violent death. One report seemed the most probable and gained ground. +It was thought the partisans of the defeated party, remembering the +victory of Vesuvius, and galled at the popularity of the young captain, +had waylaid and murdered him. At the same time the mangled body of +a young man was found washed into the river by the tide; it was +mutilated and disfigured beyond recognition; the populace claimed +it to be the body of their favorite, and loud and still rang the +indignant cry for vengeance. The city was in commotion. The +authorities were induced to believe the report, and large rewards were +offered for the apprehension of the murderers. 'Tis but a spark that +may set the wood on fire; and popular feeling, fired by a random rumor, +now blazed in all the fury of a political conflagration. + +In the midst of the commotion the commandant of the forces received +a polite note requesting his presence at the residence of the +Marchioness de Stefano. Puzzled at the strange summons, but polite +to a fault, he appeared in grand tenu at the appointed hour in the +salons of the Marchioness. A young lady was ushered in to the +apartment. She was dressed in black, wore no jewelry, and seemed a +little confused; a majestic mien set off some natural charms, but her +features had an expression of care and sadness such as is read on the +countenance of the loving fair one who has been widowed in her bloom. +Her eyes were red, for many tears had dimmed them; her voice was weak, +for shame had choked the utterances in their birth; her whole demeanor +expressed deep anxiety and trouble. + +The commandant was kind-hearted, but a stern ruler in those days of +trouble; he had seen in the revolutions of many years the miseries +and sorrows of life; though insensible to the horrors of the +battle-field, he felt a deep, touching sympathy with its real victims +who survive and suffer for years in silent woe, in affections that have +been ruthlessly blasted by cruel war. The feeling of compassion +towards the strange lady introduced to him were deeply enhanced by +the remarks by which she opened the conversation. + +"I sent for you, sir," commenced the lady in a subdued tone, "to speak +to you about Captain Charles Pimontel." + +The veteran soldier, believing she was his betrothed, that she was +torn by cruel destiny from the object of her affections, endeavored +to soothe her troubled spirit by the balm of kindness and consolation. + +"Ah! madame," he replied in his blandest manner, "if report be true, +a cruel fate has removed him for a while from thy embrace. Young, +brave, and amiable, he was the darling of our troops, and fortune +seemed to lead our gallant young captain to a brilliant career; but +some foul assassin's hand has cut the flower ere it bloomed; destiny, +as cruel as it has been mysterious, has darkened his sun ere yet it +shone in the zenith of day!" + +"Oh! sir, it may not yet be true that he has met such a sad fate," +retorted the lady. + +"Alas!" replied the commandant, "yesterday evening the youth's body +was washed up on our beach; the wounds of twenty stilettos gaped on +his mangled corpse, and the lampreys of our bay fed on his noble flesh +as they would on the vile slaves cast to them by the monster Nero. +These eyes have seen the horrid sight; though we could not recognize +the brave youth, we wept as if our own son had fallen by cowardly +hands." + +The old commandant was somewhat excited; before the warm tear had welled +from the fountains of sympathy, the young lady spoke in an animated +and excited manner: + +"But, sir, there is surely some mistake. It cannot be said Charles +Pimontel was murdered; does it follow because the unrecognized body +of some hapless victim of a street brawl has been washed on the beach +that it must necessarily be the body of the captain? Do you not think +his murderers would pay dearly for this attack on him? Have any +witnesses come forward to swear to his assassination? I will not +believe in his death until stronger proofs have been given; and I may +be intruding on the precious time of our commandant, but I have sought +this interview with you have found the murdered remains of Charles +Pimontel." + +"Love, madame," rejoined the commandant sentimentally, "clings to +forlorn hopes, and in its sea of trouble will grasp at straws. The +whole city has proclaimed the murder of the captain; our military +chapel is draped in gloom, and I have given orders that all the garrison +be in attendance on the morrow at the obsequies." + +The lady, who at first intended a strange surprise for the commanding +officer, began to fear things were going too far, and that no time +was to be lost in declaring the real fate of the captain. She arose +quickly, and, approaching near to him, spoke with strong emphasis: + +"I beseech you, sir, to stay these proceedings; I tell you on my word +of honor the captain is not dead." + +"Then you know something of him?" interrupted the commandant. "I +command you, madame, in the name of the King, to tell me of his +whereabouts. If he has, without sufficient cause, absented himself +from military duty, by my sword the rash youth shall be punished. +Besides playing the fool with the people, the inviolable sanctity of +the military constitutions has been violated. Madame, your lover, +perhaps, has forgotten himself over his cups. If secreted within these +walls, produce him, that he may know, for thy sake, and in consideration +of his first fault, the leniency of his sentence for violation of +our military rule." + +"Sir," replied the young woman, drawing herself up majestically, and +fearlessly confronting the aged officer, whose inviolable fidelity +to military honor made him warm in his indignation at the supposed +delinquency of his subaltern--"sir, the secret of the captain's absence +and his present abode is committed to me; but I shall not divulge the +information you ask until you promise me that, having shown you +reasonable cause for his seeming fault, you will not only acquit him +of his supposed crime of dereliction of duty, but that his honor shall +be preserved unstained before his fellow-officers and men." + +The proposition seemed honorable to the commandant, and he immediately +replied: + +"I swear by my sword it shall be so." + +"Then, sir, see before you the offender. I am Charles Pimontel!" + + + + +Chapter XXVI. + +Repentance. + + +On the road that led the traveller to the ancient village of Torre +del Greco, and about a mile from the populous parts of the city, there +stood a neat little cottage. In the front there was a flower garden, +small but charmingly pretty; the doors and windows were surrounded +with a woodbine creeper that gave an air of comfort to the little +dwelling. The door was ever closed. Few were seen to pass in and +out, and no noise ever betrayed the presence of its inmates. + +Here for many years our young penitent Alvira passed a holy and solitary +life. After the stirring scenes of the preceding chapters, Father +Francis procured from the military authorities for his Magdalen, as +he was wont to call her, the full pay of a captain as a retiring +pension. This remarkable circumstance may be authenticated by reference +to the military books still preserved in the archives of the Molo at +Naples. Her rank and pension were confirmed by the king. + +Under the able direction of the man of God, Alvira gave herself to +full correspondence with the extraordinary graces offered by our blessed +Lord. Her austerities and fervor increased until they reached the +degrees of heroic sanctity. She knelt and wept for hours before her +crucifix; she slept on hard boards and only allowed herself sufficient +to meet the demands of nature. She lived on herbs, and the fast of +Lent was so severe that Father Francis saw a miraculous preservation. +Long before daylight she knelt on the steps of the Gesu waiting for +the opening of the doors, and this austerity she never failed to +practice in the midst of rain or cold, until her last illness chained +her involuntarily to her couch, where her submission to the will of +God was equally meritorious. + +Several terrible scenes of judgement, sent by Almighty God on +unrepentant sinners, had, in the very commencement of her conversion, +a most salutary influence on the feeble struggles of Alvira. Her +confidence in the Blessed Virgin was much enhanced by a severe act +of St. Francis towards one of the members of the Congregation of the +Most Holy Mother. + +A young man of this congregation got suddenly rich, and, with wealth, +self-conceit and pride entered his heart. He considered it necessary, +to preserve his respectability, to separate himself from the humble +society he hitherto frequented, and cease to be a member of the +Congregation of the Madonna, composed of industrious and virtuous +youths who labored honestly for their livelihood. St. Francis, on +hearing of this slight on the congregation and insult to Mary, was +fired with a holy indignation. He sought the young man, and rang in +his ears the prophetic warnings which, in the case of this great saint, +were never uttered in vain to the unheeding. Again and again +St. Francis warned, but pride was still triumphant. One Sunday +afternoon, after the usual meeting of the confraternity, the saint +went to the alter of sodality; it was the altar of the Dolors. Seven +daggers seemed to pierce the Virgin's heart. Ascending the altar, +he cast a sorrowful glance on the weeping countenance of the Queen +of Sorrows, and said: "Most Holy Virgin, this young man has been for +you a most acute sword, piercing your heart; behold, I will relieve +you of it." So saying, he took one of the poniards from the statue, +and at the same time announced to the members that the proud young +man was expelled from the congregation. + +Let those who fancy that such reprobations have not a corresponding +echo in the judgements of God tremble in reading the effects of this +simple but terrible excommunication. + +Like sand through the perforated vessel, the young man's wealth passed +away; one month found him a cringing debtor, another found him a +beggar, a third found him dying in a public institution, abandoned +by God and man. + +On another occasion Alvira was present when a terrible judgement of +God upon a hardened sinner thrilled the whole city with awe. +St. Francis was preaching in one of the streets during Lent. He +happened to pause and address a crowd near the house of an impious, +ill conducted woman, who came immediately to her window to laugh and +mock at the man of God. Having gratified herself tot he disgust of +the crowd, she finally slammed to the window violently, uttering at +the same time some filthy and unbecoming remark. St. Francis stood +immovable fro a moment; his eye was fixed on heaven; and then, in a +voice head half over the city, he cried out: "My God, how terrible +are thy judgments! That unfortunate woman has dropped dead." + +The groans and confusion of the inmates soon convinced the crowd of +the awful fact, for the corpse of the hapless wretch was brought into +the street where it was exposed to the terrified people. + +These and similar instances of the judgement of God witnessed by Alvira +had a salutary effect on her trembling soul. The fear of God, which +is the beginning of wisdom, erected its watch-tower around the citadel +of her heart; the virtues, once entered, were not permitted to flee, +and soon won for this penitent soul the sweets of the illuminative +degree of sanctity. + +St. Francis, a master in the science of the saints, soon recognized +the extraordinary graces destined for this chosen soul. Full of +gratitude and love for God, he spared no effort to correspond with +the sublime destiny entrusted to him; hence in the after-history of +those two holy souls the marvels of virtue and sanctity intermingled, +so that at times it would seem doubtful whether the miracles recorded +were given to the exalted sanctity and zeal of the holy priest or to +the weeping virgin penitent, so privileged and so loved in the forgiving +memory of God. + +On one occasion a young mother lost her infant. Death had stricken +the little flower ere it had blossomed. The mother was poor and unable +to bury the child. With an unbounded confidence in the charity and +zeal of St. Francis, the bright thought struck her: If she could only +get this good man interested in her behalf, all would be accomplished. +Accordingly, she made for the church of the Gesu by daylight. Only +one individual was before her waiting for the church to be opened. +It was Magdalen. Even from Magdalen she concealed the object of her +early visit, and pressed closer to her heart the dead treasure she +intended as a present for Father Francis. The church opened; she stole +around the dark aisles, whence the daylight had not yet banished the +shades of night, and noiselessly approached the confessional of the +holy man. She placed the dead child on the seat, and hurried to some +recess of the great church, where she could watch the happy issue of +this ingenious mode of disposing of her child. The early morning +hours wore away, and at length the wished for moment came. The vestry +door is opened. The tall, mortified form of St. Francis appeared at +the foot of the altar. He prayed awhile, and rose to go to his +confessional. But the young mother watched with her heart leaping to +her mouth. He did not go to his tribunal; he moved majestically down +the church, and came to Magdalen's corner where Alvira was wrapt in +prayer. He whispered something to her. They prayed for a moment, +then Alvira flitted like a shadow through the dark aisles towards +the confessional of Father Francis. She entered and took the infant +child in her arms. The child was alive. The mother came rushing +from her hiding-place to claim the infant, and when she received it +into her embrace the man of God raised his index finger in the act +of warning, and with a sweet, forgiving smile on his countenance, +said to the young mother: "My child, don't put any more dead babies +in my confessional." + +Alvira had to undergo a severe trial in the absence of Father Francis. +He was directed by his superiors to commence his missions in the country +districts, and was virtually removed from Naples for some years. Before +leaving, he fortified his chosen children with salutary admonitions, +but for Alvira he had special words of encouragement and consolation. +It pleased God to let him know in her behalf that, in return for her +sincere repentance and deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin, before +her death three extraordinary favors would be conferred on her, which +would also be the warning of the setting sun of her career in life. +Alvira treasured his words in her heart, and in deep humility wondered +at the goodness of God. + + + + +Chapter XXVII. + +The Privileges of Holy Souls. + + +An extraordinary miracle is said, in the life of St. Francis, to have +taken place in the house where Alvira was present. St. Francis had +an aged brother living in the city--a man of eminent sanctity, but +suffering much from his infirmities. St. Francis prevailed on Alvira +to attend him and nurse him in his illness. He could not have been +trusted to more tender or willing hands. + +Virtue and affection lent their powerful aids to render Alvira a +charming nurse. But her labor of love was not very protracted, for +it pleased God to cast the last and fatal fever on Cataldus, the invalid +brother of the saint. At the time the malady was increasing and death +imminent, St. Francis was absent from the city on a mission to Recale, +a place about sixteen miles from Naples. Cataldus prayed to be +permitted to see his brother before death but the malady seemed to +increase so rapidly there was very slight probability of his return +in time. + +Alvira had retired to an adjoining apartment to seek relief in prayer. +She suddenly heard some strange sounds in the room of her patient. +She flew towards the chamber, and there, to her astonishment, she +beheld St. Francis embracing his brother. + +"Go," said the saintly man to the invalid--"go with courage and +confidence whither God thy father calls thee, and where the saints +await thee. Remember God is a good master, and know that in a short +time I will follow thee." + +Then drawing Alvira aside, he whispered to her: "My child, know that +Cataldus is going with rapid strides to eternity. You must still +assist him with love and patience. To-night at four he will die. +I must be away now, but I hope to see him again before he dies." + +Having thus spoken, alone and, contrary to his custom, without any +one to accompany him, he left the house. Cataldus, Alvira, and a +servant in the house testified to having seen him in Naples in their +house; the servant even testified that he entered through closed +doors; whilst two fathers who were with him at Recale gave sworn +testimony that St. Francis was with them at the very time he was +seen and spoken to at Naples. + +And when the hour foreseen by this great saint, in which death was to +place his cold hand on the brow of Cataldus, was at hand, the couch +of the dying was again blessed by his spirit; but Alvira did not on +this occasion see him, but she saw the recognition that cast a beam +of joy over the face of the dying man, and she heard the sweet accents +of consolation the saint was permitted to impart. + + + + +Chapter XXVIII. + +A Vision of Purgatory--A Dear One Saved. + + +Like lengthening shadows of evening creeping over the silent ruin, death +was fast drawing the shades of its final night over the austerities +and the virtues of Alvira. The promises of St. Francis filled her +heart with a cup of joy that rarely falls to the lot of mortals this +side of the grave. + +Vespers are finished at the Gesu; the organ is silent, the crowd have +departed, and, in the mellow twilight of an autumn eve, we discern +only a few pious souls crouched behind the pillars, or pouring forth +their last fervent aspirations before some favorite altar or saintly +shrine. Soon all have left, and the silence of the abandoned sanctuary +shrouds the fabric in greater solemnity. The aromatic incense still +floats in nebulous veils around the tabernacle. + +A loud breathing, an expression of joy from a dark recess, announced +the presence of some one still in the church. The sounds came from +the quarter known to the pious frequenters of the church as Magdalen's +corner, so named because there was near to it an altar dedicated to +the great penitent St. Magdalen, and because here St. Francis' Magdalen +spent long hours in tears and prayer. On the evening in question +Alvira had remained longer than usual to commune with Almighty God. +It was a festival day, and her soul felt all the glow of fervor and +spiritual joy which at times wraps the pious spirit into foretastes +of celestial happiness. The hours passed swiftly by, for fervent +prayer is not tedious to the loving. + +She pondered in her mind what could be the graces or favors promised +her in the last interview with her spiritual director. Her humility +had not dared to seek favors; she was still overwhelmed with the +thought of the bitter past; more time for repentance would be the +signal favor she would venture to solicit from the God she had so +much offended. + +Yet the mercy and goodness of God are more mysterious to us mortals +when we consider them lavished in extraordinary munificence on the +souls of poor sinners. When we feel crushed to the earth in our +unworthiness, the forgiving spirit of God lifts us up and pours around +us consolations which are the privilege of the innocent. Thus the +humble Alvira little dreamt what might be the grand consolations +destined for her; but the time of their fulfilment has come, and we +find her startled from an ecstasy in the church in which one of the +promised favors was bestowed on this child of grace. She described +to Father Francis what happened with many tears of joy. + +Whilst wrapt in prayer in the lonely moments that followed the +Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament and the closing of the church +doors, she suddenly saw the altar and sanctuary disappear, and in their +stead a luminous bank of moving clouds; they were white as the +snow-drift, and crystallized in a flood of light like Alpine peaks +in the winter sunshine. + +These clouds moved rapidly before her astonished gaze, occasionally +she saw through their rents a tinge of red flame that glowed in the +fleecy mist like the crimson linings of sunset. The brighter clouds +gradually faded; the flames became fiercer and more distinct; they +seemed to leap in fury around the altar and sanctuary. Alvira +struggled in doubt for a moment. Perhaps a real conflagration was +consuming the tabernacle. A scream of agony was already on her lips, +when the scene glided into a still more vivid reality, leaving no +doubt as to its character. In the burning element human beings +appeared writhing in pain; angels of dazzling brightness floated over +the fire, and every moment caught the outstretched arms of some +fortunate soul whose purgatorial probation had terminated; the angel +would carry the soul to a distant sphere of brightness whither +Alvira's weak mortal gaze could not follow. + +Suddenly there darted from the far light an angel clothed with the +brilliancy of the sun. With the speed of lightning he plunged far +down the purgatory fire; his brightness was so great that Alvira +could follow him even through the flames. There the angel found a +young, beautiful soul, deep in agony, clothed with crimson fire. A +smile of ineffable joy lit up the countenance of the sufferer--the +message from heaven was understood. The angel lifted this soul from +the fire, and, pausing for a moment on the peak of a lambent flame, +the angelic deliverer and the liberated soul, now became angelic +in brilliancy, paused to look and smile on Alvira. + +Her heart leaped, her soul trembled. She recognized the features. +In a convulsive effort to utter the loved name of Aloysia, the vision +passed away, and she found herself in the dark church and on the cold +flags, weeping away the overflow of a heart too full of joy. + + + + +Chapter XXIX. + +Unexpected Meeting. + + +Late on a cold night in the winter of 1706 a sick-call came to the +Jesuit college attached to the Gesu. Alvira Cassier was ill, and +requested the attendance of one of the fathers. + +Some months had passed since the consoling vision in which she saw +the purified soul of Aloysia carried to a crown of immortal bliss. +Since then the great St. Francis had passed to his crown. His holy +spirit hovered in protecting love over Alvira. She recurred to him +in her troubles, and always with remarkable success. Miracles of +cures and conversion, effected through the humble prayers of the +penitent and the powerful intercession of the deceased apostle, are +registered in the great book of life, to be read on the great +accounting-day. + +Alvira sighed over the prolongation of her exile. Her heart longed +to be with Christ; she soared in spirit over the abyss that separated +her from the object she loved. + +Yet two more signs were to announce the happy moment of her freedom. +She knew the fate of Aloysia, raised from the searching flame and +introduced to the saints, was the first of these favors promised +by St. Francis. The other was equally extraordinary. + +The illness of Alvira caused a sigh of regret at the Jesuit College. +Every one whose heart was interested in the glory of God would have +reason to sigh over her lost example, her influence over sinners, and +the edification of her exalted virtues. + +A priest is wrapped in his cloak; he carries the most Holy Sacrament +and the holy oils. A levite accompanies him, carrying a lamp and +ringing a bell. Unmindful of the inclemency of the weather, they +move on through the abandoned streets, now filled by crowds of unseen +angels, who take the place of man and honor the Holy of Holies. + +The priest is a young Frenchman who has just come to Naples. To +confer a favor on Alvira, the superior sent him to St. Francis's +penitent that she might have the consolation of her own language +at the trying hour of her death. He is a tall, thin figure on the +decline of manhood; in the graceful outline of features sweet and +attractive we read the marks of much mortification. A halo of religion +and sanctity envelopes him with that reverential awe we give to true +virtue. + +He has entered the room. Alvira starts. + +She has seen that face before; that noble brow; that lofty mien; +that irresistible sweetness of look. He is some acquaintance, perhaps +met casually in the rambles of youthful folly. Reverence for the +Blessed Sacrament banished further curiosity, and Alvira, with +closed eyes and hands folded on her crucifix, joined in the solemn +prayers recited on such occasions. + +When all the prescribed ceremonies were completed, the good priest +drew near the couch of the suffering invalid, and, allowing a moment +for a relaxation of thought and for conversation, mildly enquired if +she suffered much pain. + +"So they tell me you have come from Paris, my child," we fancy we hear +the good father commencing a conversation that leads to a strange +discovery. + +"Yes, father, 'tis my native city." + +"And what was your family name?" + +"Cassier." + +"Cassier!" replied the priest, with a thrill of surprise. "Did he +live in Rue de Seine?" + +"Yes, father." + +"You had a sister?" + +"Yes; but she is now in heaven. She was killed on Mount Vesuvius." +Alvira wept. + +A startling suspicion had crept over the good priest. Was it possible +that the invalid sinking into eternity in a sunset of sanctity and of +heroic penance, formerly the chivalrous captain of Vesuvian fame, +was no other than his own sister? + +"And what became of your brother?" asked the Jesuit after a pause, +and looking anxiously into Alvira's emaciated countenance. + +"Ah! father," she replied, "I would give worlds to know. About thirty +years ago, when our home was comfortable, he suddenly disappeared +from us; no one could tell what became of him; we knew he was called +by God to a holier life, and it was our impression at the time he +fled to join some strict religious order. Poor dear Aloysia and +myself used to pain him by turning his pious intentions to ridicule. +His disappearance broke my poor mother's heart, for she died very +soon afterwards." + +A long, deep silence ensued. Pere Augustin--for that was his name +in religion--held his hands clasped up at his lips whilst Alvira was +speaking. He remained motionless; his eyes were fixed on a spot on +the floor. It was evident a struggle was going on within him. There +could be no longer any doubt, and he was puzzled whether he should +declare himself at once to be the lost Louis Marie, or bide his time +and break it gently to her. As if seeking more time for deliberation, +he asked her another question "And, my child, what became of your +father?" + +Ah! how little did he dream of the wound he was tearing open. His +enquiry was the signal for a new burst of grief from the broken-hearted +Alvira. She buried her face in the pillow and wept violently. She +remained so for several minutes. This made Pere Augustin determine +his course of action. As he had caused her so much pain, he must now +console her by letting her know who he is. Drawing nearer to her, he +bade her be consoled, for he had some good news to give her; and +Alvira, after a great effort, raised her head and said: + +"It is kind of you father, very kind of you indeed, to take interest +in my affairs; but perhaps, as you are acquainted with Paris and +belong to the Society of Jesus, you many know something of my brother. +Poor Louis Marie! I should like to know if he is well, and happy, +and good. Do tell me, father, if you know anything of him." + +"Yes, I do," answered the father quickly. + +"Is he alive?" + +"Yes!" + +"And happy?" + +"Yes." + +"Where is he?" + +"Here!" cried Louis Marie, bursting into tears--"here, within the grasp +of your hand." + +Could joy be greater? Those two holy souls blended into one. Like +Benedict and Scholastica, they wept and smiled together in alternate +raptures of joy and grief. + + + + +Chapter XXX. + +Conclusion. + + + Now reft of all, faint, feeble, prest with age, + We mark her feelings in the last great stage; + The feverish hopes, the fears, the cares of life, + No more oppress her with torturing strife; + The chivalrous spirit of her early day + Has passed with beauty and with youth away. + As oft the traveller who beholds the sun + Sinking before him ere yet his journey's done, + Regrets in vain to lose its noontide power, + Yet hails the coolness of the evening hour, + She feels a holy and divine repose + Rest on her spirit in the twilight close; + Although her passions ruled in their might, + Now vanquished, brighter burns the inward light, + Guiding the spirit by its sacred ray + To cast its mortal oil and cares away, + And list its summons to eternal day. + + +Tossed on a restless ocean, and surviving a long and stormy voyage, +how the sight of the verdant hills and spires of the nearing port +must cheer the wearied mariner! Joy has its sunbeams to light up +every countenance. Merry the song that keeps tune with the revolving +capstan. Old memories are awakened and dormant affections roused; +the husband, the father, the exile, each has a train of though laden +with bright anticipations. Fancy and hope hasten to wave their magic +wings over the elated heart, and contribute the balm of ideal charms +to make even one moment of mortal life a happiness without alloy. + +The wearied mariner returning home, quaffing a cup of joy, is a faint +but truthful simile to represent the pious soul in sight of the port +of eternal bliss, where loved ones are hailing from afar their welcome +to the successful mariner from the troubled sea of time. Life has +its storms and its calms, its casualties and dangers; it also has the +bright twilight in the shadow of those eternal hills where existence +is immortal and joy beatific and unclouded. + +Alvira, the heroine of our sketch, is now the faithful soul standing +on the bark in view of her eternal home. + +The consolations promised by her sainted guardian have twice tolled +the death knell; once more some great joy will strike the last fibre +of her heart long tuned to spiritual happiness, and will break the +last chain that imprisons a spirit longing to soar on high. + +In the deceptive phases of the consumptive malady she rallied at times; +she felt stronger--would venture out to the homes of the poor, and +faint at the alter of Jesus. In her weakness she did not moderate +her austerities, save where the express command of her spiritual +director manifested to her the will of God. Her little cottage was +surrounded daily by the poor and sick, who were her friends, and many +and sincere were the blessings invoked over their benefactress. + +Long and interesting were her conversations with her brother Louis. +Her history as known to herself must have been replete with many +striking events besides those we have caught up from a scanty tradition +and a brief pamphlet biography. How the secrets of her rambles in +disguise must have brought the smile and the blush to the countenance +of her simple-minded and sainted brother! + +In deep and natural fraternal affection, which is more powerful when +mellowed by virtue, Pere Augustin saw the hand of death making each +day new traces on the frame of Alvira. The hectic flush, the frequent +faintings, and the cold, icy grasp of her hand told the energy of +the poison that gnawed at the vital cords. Sweet and gentle words +of encouragement ever flowed from his lips. With eye and finger ever +turning towards heaven, whither his own soul yearned, he calmed the +anxious and penitent spirit of Alvira, who still feared her repentance +was incomplete. + +She received Holy Communion every day from the hands of her brother. + +What ecstasies of grateful love filled her breast when preparing for +those blissful moments of union with our Blessed Lord! Deep and +eloquent the mysterious breathings of the pure, loving heart. It has +a language known and understood only by angels. As the sun melts the +rocky iceberg, the coldest heart melts under the loving, burning +Sun of the most Holy Eucharist. + +At length the bark is anchored in the port of rest; Alvira is summoned +to her crown. + +The midnight of July 16, 1717, finds her in her agony; the blest candle +is lighted; the faithful brother priest is kneeling by her bed; the +solemn wail of the privileged few of the grateful poor is carried in +mournful cadence from the chamber of death. + +Yet the bell has not tolled the third stroke of consolation. Could +she have misunderstood the prophetic voice of her sainted Father +Francis, who knew the secrets of God in her behalf? But no; the favor +will come--the last crowning, ineffable favor will come; it is at hand. + +Alvira has opened her eyes. She calls her brother near; with a smile, +the sweetest that ever lit up those expressive features, she told him +what the favor would be. Father Francis and the Blessed Virgin would +see her before she should die. + +Pere Augustin believes the shock of approaching dissolution has weakened +her reasoning faculty; he gently chides her, whispers some sweet +thought of humility, and breathes the holy name that banishes +temptation. + +But, lo! Alvira's features have changed; a glow of ecstatic beauty +has suffused around her; the light of another land is shed on her +couch. Recognition is read on her looks. + +Pere Augustin, whose innocence and virtue entitled him to understand +the privileges of the saints, saw the splendor of a heavenly light +that filled the room, and heard from Alvira's lips expressions that +left no doubt on his mind of the promised visit of celestial beings. + +The light faded, and from the feeble glare of the candle of death he +saw the holy spirit of his sister had fled; the sweetness of heavenly +joy still played on her marble features, and the smile that greeted +the heavenly visitors still rested on her lips. + +Pere Augustin stood over the couch he had bedewed with tears, and +taking a long and affectionate glance at the hollowed form of his +repentant sister, turned towards the weeping people; he raised his +hand towards heaven, and solemnly announced the event that gave a +festival to the angels. His voice faltered; he pronounced a short +and eloquent panegyric--"A saint is dead!" + +The tableau is worth remembering; 'tis the last beautiful scene in +the eventful career of Maria Alvira Cassier! + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Alvira: the Heroine of Vesuvius, by A. J. O'Reilly + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALVIRA: THE HEROINE OF VESUVIUS *** + +***** This file should be named 2139.txt or 2139.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/3/2139/ + +Produced by Brett Fishburne. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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