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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/22661-0.txt b/22661-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..975f8b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/22661-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1587 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Théophile Gautier + +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: Clarimonde + +Author: Théophile Gautier + +Translator: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22661] +Last Updated: October 1, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CLARIMONDE + +By Théophile Gautier + +Translated By Lafcadio Hearn + +1908 + + +Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a strange and +terrible one; and though I am sixty-six years of age, I scarcely dare +even now to disturb the ashes of that memory. To you I can refuse +nothing; but I should not relate such a tale to any less experienced +mind. So strange were the circumstances of my story, that I can scarcely +believe myself to have ever actually been a party to them. For more +than three years I remained the victim of a most singular and diabolical +illusion. Poor country priest though I was, I led every night in a +dream--would to God it had been all a dream!--a most worldly life, a +damning life, a life of Sardanapalus. One single look too freely cast +upon a woman well-nigh caused me to lose my soul; but finally by the +grace of God and the assistance of my patron saint, I succeeded in +casting out the evil spirit that possessed me. My daily life was long +interwoven with a nocturnal life of a totally different character. By +day I was a priest of the Lord, occupied with prayer and sacred things; +by night, from the instant that I closed my eyes I became a young +nobleman, a fine connoisseur in women, dogs, and horses; gambling, +drinking, and blaspheming; and when I awoke at early daybreak, it seemed +to me, on the other hand, that I had been sleeping, and had only dreamed +that I was a priest. Of this somnambulistic life there now remains to me +only the recollection of certain scenes and words which I cannot banish +from my memory; but although I never actually left the walls of my +presbytery, one would think to hear me speak that I were a man who, +weary of all worldly pleasures, had become a religious, seeking to end a +tempestuous life in the service of God, rather than a humble seminarist +who has grown old in this obscure curacy, situated in the depths of the +woods and even isolated from the life of the century. + +Yes, I have loved as none in the world ever loved--with an insensate +and furious passion--so violent that I am astonished it did not cause my +heart to burst asunder. Ah, what nights--what nights! + +From my earliest childhood I had felt a vocation to the priesthood, so +that all my studies were directed with that idea in view. Up to the +age of twenty-four my life had been only a prolonged novitiate. Having +completed my course of theology I successively received all the minor +orders, and my superiors judged me worthy, despite my youth, to pass the +last awful degree. My ordination was fixed for Easter week. + +I had never gone into the world. My world was confined by the walls of +the college and the seminary. I knew in a vague sort of a way that there +was something called Woman, but I never permitted my thoughts to dwell +on such a subject, and I lived in a state of perfect innocence. Twice +a year only I saw my infirm and aged mother, and in those visits were +comprised my sole relations with the outer world. + +I regretted nothing; I felt not the least hesitation at taking the last +irrevocable step; I was filled with joy and impatience. Never did a +betrothed lover count the slow hours with more feverish ardour; I slept +only to dream that I was saying mass; I believed there could be nothing +in the world more delightful than to be a priest; I would have refused +to be a king or a poet in preference. My ambition could conceive of no +loftier aim. + +I tell you this in order to show you that what happened to me could +not have happened in the natural order of things, and to enable you to +understand that I was the victim of an inexplicable fascination. + +At last the great day came. I walked to the church with a step so light +that I fancied myself sustained in air, or that I had wings upon my +shoulders. I believed myself an angel, and wondered at the sombre and +thoughtful faces of my companions, for there were several of us. I +had passed all the night in prayer, and was in a condition wellnigh +bordering on ecstasy. The bishop, a venerable old man, seemed to me God +the Father leaning over His Eternity, and I beheld Heaven through the +vault of the temple. + +You well know the details of that ceremony--the benediction, the +communion under both forms, the anointing of the palms of the hands with +the Oil of Catechumens, and then the holy sacrifice offered in concert +with the bishop. + +Ah, truly spake Job when he declared that the imprudent man is one who +hath not made a covenant with his eyes! I accidentally lifted my head, +which until then I had kept down, and beheld before me, so close that +it seemed that I could have touched her--although she was actually a +considerable distance from me and on the further side of the sanctuary +railing--a young woman of extraordinary beauty, and attired with royal +magnificence. It seemed as though scales had suddenly fallen from my +eyes. I felt like a blind man who unexpectedly recovers his sight. The +bishop, so radiantly glorious but an instant before, suddenly vanished +away, the tapers paled upon their golden candlesticks like stars in the +dawn, and a vast darkness seemed to fill the whole church. The charming +creature appeared in bright relief against the background of that +darkness, like some angelic revelation. She seemed herself radiant, and +radiating light rather than receiving it. + +I lowered my eyelids, firmly resolved not to again open them, that +I might not be influenced by external objects, for distraction had +gradually taken possession of me until I hardly knew what I was doing. + +In another minute, nevertheless, I reopened my eyes, for through my +eyelashes I still beheld her, all sparkling with prismatic colours, and +surrounded with such a penumbra as one beholds in gazing at the sun. + +Oh, how beautiful she was! The greatest painters, who followed ideal +beauty into heaven itself, and thence brought back to earth the true +portrait of the Madonna, never in their delineations even approached +that wildly beautiful reality which I saw before me. Neither the verses +of the poet nor the palette of the artist could convey any conception +of her. She was rather tall, with a form and bearing of a goddess. Her +hair, of a soft blonde hue, was parted in the midst and flowed back over +her temples in two rivers of rippling gold; she seemed a diademed +queen. Her forehead, bluish-white in its transparency, extended its calm +breadth above the arches of her eyebrows, which by a strange singularity +were almost black, and admirably relieved the effect of sea-green eyes +of unsustainable vivacity and brilliancy. What eyes! With a single flash +they could have decided a man’s destiny. They had a life, a limpidity, +an ardour, a humid light which I have never seen in human eyes; they +shot forth rays like arrows, which I could distinctly _see_ enter my +heart. I know not if the fire which illumined them came from heaven or +from hell, but assuredly it came from one or the other. That woman was +either an angel or a demon, perhaps both. Assuredly she never sprang +from the flank of Eve, our common mother. Teeth of the most lustrous +pearl gleamed in her ruddy smile, and at every inflection of her lips +little dimples appeared in the satiny rose of her adorable cheeks. There +was a delicacy and pride in the regal outline of her nostrils bespeaking +noble blood. Agate gleams played over the smooth lustrous skin of her +half-bare shoulders, and strings of great blonde pearls--almost equal +to her neck in beauty of colour--descended upon her bosom. From time +to time she elevated her head with the undulating grace of a startled +serpent or peacock, thereby imparting a quivering motion to the high +lace ruff which surrounded it like a silver trellis-work. + +She wore a robe of orange-red velvet, and from her wide ermine-lined +sleeves there peeped forth patrician hands of infinite delicacy, and so +ideally transparent that, like the fingers of Aurora, they permitted the +light to shine through them. + +All these details I can recollect at this moment as plainly as though +they were of yesterday, for notwithstanding I was greatly troubled at +the time, nothing escaped me; the faintest touch of shading, the little +dark speck at the point of the chin, the imperceptible down at the +corners of the lips, the velvety floss upon the brow, the quivering +shadows of the eyelashes upon the cheeks--I could notice everything with +astonishing lucidity of perception. + +And gazing I felt opening within me gates that had until then remained +closed; vents long obstructed became all clear, permitting glimpses of +unfamiliar perspectives within; life suddenly made itself visible to me +under a totally novel aspect. I felt as though I had just been born into +a new world and a new order of things. A frightful anguish commenced to +torture-my heart as with red-hot pincers. Every successive minute seemed +to me at once but a second and yet a century. Meanwhile the ceremony was +proceeding, and I shortly found myself transported far from that world +of which my newly born desires were furiously besieging the entrance. +Nevertheless I answered ‘Yes’ when I wished to say ‘No,’ though all +within me protested against the violence done to my soul by my tongue. +Some occult power seemed to force the words from my throat against my +will. Thus it is, perhaps, that so many young girls walk to the altar +firmly resolved to refuse in a startling manner the husband imposed +upon them, and that yet not one ever fulfils her intention. Thus it is, +doubtless, that so many poor novices take the veil, though they have +resolved to tear it into shreds at the moment when called upon to utter +the vows. One dares not thus cause so great a scandal to all present, +nor deceive the expectation of so many people. All those eyes, all those +wills seem to weigh down upon you like a cope of lead, and, moreover, +measures have been so well taken, everything has been so thoroughly +arranged beforehand and after a fashion so evidently irrevocable, that +the will yields to the weight of circumstances and utterly breaks down. + +As the ceremony proceeded the features of the fair unknown changed their +expression. Her look had at first been one of caressing tenderness; +it changed to an air of disdain and of mortification, as though at not +having been able to make itself understood. + +With an effort of will sufficient to have uprooted a mountain, I strove +to cry out that I would not be a priest, but I could not speak; my +tongue seemed nailed to my palate, and I found it impossible to express +my will by the least syllable of negation. Though fully awake, I felt +like one under the influence of a nightmare, who vainly strives to +shriek out the one word upon which life depends. + +She seemed conscious of the martyrdom I was undergoing, and, as though +to encourage me, she gave me a look replete with divinest promise. Her +eyes were a poem; their every glance was a song. + +She said to me: + +‘If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His +paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that +funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I +am Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah +offer thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in +one eternal kiss. + +‘Fling forth the wine of that chalice, and thou art free. I will conduct +thee to the Unknown Isles. Thou shalt sleep in my bosom upon a bed of +massy gold under a silver pavilion, for I love thee and would take thee +away from thy God, before whom so many noble hearts pour forth floods of +love which never reach even the steps of His throne!’ + +These words seemed to float to my ears in a rhythm of infinite +sweetness, for her look was actually sonorous, and the utterances of her +eyes were reechoed in the depths of my heart as though living lips had +breathed them into my life. I felt myself willing to renounce God, +and yet my tongue mechanically fulfilled all the formalities of +the ceremony. The fair one gave me another look, so beseeching, so +despairing that keen blades seemed to pierce my heart, and I felt my +bosom transfixed by more swords than those of Our Lady of Sorrows. + +All was consummated; I had become a priest. + +Never was deeper anguish painted on human face than upon hers. The +maiden who beholds her affianced lover suddenly fall dead at her side, +the mother bending over the empty cradle of her child, Eve seated at +the threshold of the gate of Paradise, the miser who finds a stone +substituted for his stolen treasure, the poet who accidentally permits +the only manuscript of his finest work to fall into the fire, could not +wear a look so despairing, so inconsolable. All the blood had abandoned +her charming face, leaving it whiter than marble; her beautiful arms +hung lifelessly on either side of her body as though their muscles +had suddenly relaxed, and she sought the support of a pillar, for her +yielding limbs almost betrayed her. As for myself, I staggered toward +the door of the church, livid as death, my forehead bathed with a sweat +bloodier than that of Calvary; I felt as though I were being strangled; +the vault seemed to have flattened down upon my shoulders, and it seemed +to me that my head alone sustained the whole weight of the dome. + +As I was about to cross the threshold a hand suddenly caught mine--a +woman’s hand! I had never till then touched the hand of any woman. +It was cold as a serpent’s skin, and yet its impress remained upon my +wrist, burnt there as though branded by a glowing iron. It was she. +‘Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done?’ she exclaimed in a low +voice, and immediately disappeared in the crowd. + +The aged bishop passed by. He cast a severe and scrutinising look upon +me. My face presented the wildest aspect imaginable: I blushed and +turned pale alternately; dazzling lights flashed before my eyes. A +companion took pity on me. He seized my arm and led me out. I could +not possibly have found my way back to the seminary unassisted. At the +corner of a street, while the young priest’s attention was momentarily +turned in another direction, a negro page, fantastically garbed, +approached me, and without pausing on his way slipped into my hand +a little pocket-book with gold-embroidered corners, at the same time +giving me a sign to hide it. I concealed it in my sleeve, and there kept +it until I found myself alone in my cell. Then I opened the clasp. There +were only two leaves within, bearing the words, ‘Clarimonde. At the +Concini Palace.’ So little acquainted was I at that time with the things +of this world that I had never heard of Clarimonde, celebrated as she +was, and I had no idea as to where the Concini Palace was situated. I +hazarded a thousand conjectures, each more extravagant than the last; +but, in truth, I cared little whether she were a great lady or a +courtesan, so that I could but see her once more. + +My love, although the growth of a single hour, had taken imperishable +root. I did not even dream of attempting to tear it up, so fully was I +convinced such a thing would be impossible. That woman had completely +taken possession of me. One look from her had sufficed to change my very +nature. She had breathed her will into my life, and I no longer lived +in myself, but in her and for her. I gave myself up to a thousand +extravagancies. I kissed the place upon my hand which she had touched, +and I repeated her name over and over again for hours in succession. I +only needed to close my eyes in order to see her distinctly as though +she were actually present; and I reiterated to myself the words she had +uttered in my ear at the church porch: ‘Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What +hast thou done?’ I comprehended at last the full horror of my situation, +and the funereal and awful restraints of the state into which I had just +entered became clearly revealed to me. To be a priest!--that is, to be +chaste, to never love, to observe no distinction of sex or age, to turn +from the sight of all beauty, to put out one’s own eyes, to hide for +ever crouching in the chill shadows of some church or cloister, to visit +none but the dying, to watch by unknown corpses, and ever bear about +with one the black soutane as a garb of mourning for oneself, so that +your very dress might serve as a pall for your coffin. + +And I felt life rising within me like a subterranean lake, expanding +and overflowing; my blood leaped fiercely through my arteries; my +long-restrained youth suddenly burst into active being, like the aloe +which blooms but once in a hundred years, and then bursts into blossom +with a clap of thunder. + +What could I do in order to see Clarimonde once more? I had no pretext +to offer for desiring to leave the seminary, not knowing any person in +the city. I would not even be able to remain there but a short time, +and was only waiting my assignment to the curacy which I must thereafter +occupy. I tried to remove the bars of the window; but it was at a +fearful height from the ground, and I found that as I had no ladder it +would be useless to think of escaping thus. And, furthermore, I could +descend thence only by night in any event, and afterward how should I be +able to find my way through the inextricable labyrinth of streets? +All these difficulties, which to many would have appeared altogether +insignificant, were gigantic to me, a poor seminarist who had fallen in +love only the day before for the first time, without experience, without +money, without attire. + +‘Ah!’ cried I to myself in my blindness, ‘were I not a priest I could +have seen her every day; I might have been her lover, her spouse. +Instead of being wrapped in this dismal shroud of mine I would have had +garments of silk and velvet, golden chains, a sword, and fair plumes +like other handsome young cavaliers. My hair, instead of being +dishonoured by the tonsure, would flow down upon my neck in waving +curls; I would have a fine waxed moustache; I would be a gallant.’ But +one hour passed before an altar, a few hastily articulated words, had +for ever cut me off from the number of the living, and I had myself +sealed down the stone of my own tomb; I had with my own hand bolted the +gate of my prison! I went to the window. The sky was beautifully blue; +the trees had donned their spring robes; nature seemed to be making +parade of an ironical joy. The _Place_ was filled with people, some +going, others coming; young beaux and young beauties were sauntering in +couples toward the groves and gardens; merry youths passed by, cheerily +trolling refrains of drinking-songs--it was all a picture of vivacity, +life, animation, gaiety, which formed a bitter contrast with my mourning +and my solitude. On the steps of the gate sat a young mother playing +with her child. She kissed its little rosy mouth still impearled with +drops of milk, and performed, in order to amuse it, a thousand divine +little puerilities such as only mothers know how to invent. The father +standing at a little distance smiled gently upon the charming group, and +with folded arms seemed to hug his joy to his heart. I could not endure +that spectacle. I closed the window with violence, and flung myself on +my bed, my heart filled with frightful hate and jealousy, and gnawed my +fingers and my bedcovers like a tiger that has passed ten days without +food. + +I know not how long I remained in this condition, but at last, while +writhing on the bed in a fit of spasmodic fury, I suddenly perceived +the Abbé Sérapion, who was standing erect in the centre of the room, +watching me attentively. Filled with shame of myself, I let my head fall +upon my breast and covered my face with my hands. + +‘Romuald, my friend, something very extraordinary is transpiring within +you,’ observed Sérapion, after a few moments’ silence; ‘your conduct is +altogether inexplicable. You--always so quiet, so pious, so gentle--you +to rage in your cell like a wild beast! Take heed, brother--do not +listen to the suggestions of the devil The Evil Spirit, furious that you +have consecrated yourself for ever to the Lord, is prowling around you +like a ravening wolf and making a last effort to obtain possession of +you. Instead of allowing yourself to be conquered, my dear Romuald, +make to yourself a cuirass of prayers, a buckler of mortifications, and +combat the enemy like a valiant man; you will then assuredly overcome +him. Virtue must be proved by temptation, and gold comes forth purer +from the hands of the assayer. Fear not. Never allow yourself to become +discouraged. The most watchful and steadfast souls are at moments liable +to such temptation. Pray, fast, meditate, and the Evil Spirit will +depart from you.’ + +The words of the Abbé Sérapion restored me to myself, and I became a +little more calm. ‘I came,’ he continued, ‘to tell you that you have +been appointed to the curacy of C------. The priest who had charge of +it has just died, and Monseigneur the Bishop has ordered me to have you +installed there at once. Be ready, therefore, to start to-morrow.’ +I responded with an inclination of the head, and the Abbé retired. I +opened my missal and commenced reading some prayers, but the letters +became confused and blurred under my eyes, the thread of the ideas +entangled itself hopelessly in my brain, and the volume at last fell +from my hands without my being aware of it. + +To leave to-morrow without having been able to see her again, to add yet +another barrier to the many already interposed between us, to lose +for ever all hope of being able to meet her, except, indeed, through a +miracle! Even to write to her, alas! would be impossible, for by whom +could I dispatch my letter? With my sacred character of priest, to whom +could I dare unbosom myself, in whom could I confide? I became a prey to +the bitterest anxiety. + +Then suddenly recurred to me the words of the Abbé Sérapion regarding +the artifices of the devil; and the strange character of the adventure, +the supernatural beauty of Clarimonde, the phosphoric light of her eyes, +the burning imprint of her hand, the agony into which she had thrown +me, the sudden change wrought within me when all my piety vanished in a +single instant--these and other things clearly testified to the work +of the Evil One, and perhaps that satiny hand was but the glove which +concealed his claws. Filled with terror at these fancies, I again picked +up the missal which had slipped from my knees and fallen upon the floor, +and once more gave myself up to prayer. + +Next morning Sérapion came to take me away. Two mules freighted with +our miserable valises awaited us at the gate. He mounted one, and I the +other as well as I knew how. + +As we passed along the streets of the city, I gazed attentively at all +the windows and balconies in the hope of seeing Clarimonde, but it was +yet early in the morning, and the city had hardly opened its eyes. Mine +sought to penetrate the blinds and window-curtains of all the palaces +before which we were passing. Sérapion doubtless attributed this +curiosity to my admiration of the architecture, for he slackened the +pace of his animal in order to give me time to look around me. At last +we passed the city gates and commenced to mount the hill beyond. When +we arrived at its summit I turned to take a last look at the place where +Clarimonde dwelt. The shadow of a great cloud hung over all the city; +the contrasting colours of its blue and red roofs were lost in the +uniform half-tint, through which here and there floated upward, like +white flakes of foam, the smoke of freshly kindled fires. By a +singular optical effect one edifice, which surpassed in height all the +neighbouring buildings that were still dimly veiled by the vapours, +towered up, fair and lustrous with the gilding of a solitary beam of +sunlight--although actually more than a league away it seemed +quite near. The smallest details of its architecture were plainly +distinguishable--the turrets, the platforms, the window-casements, and +even the swallow-tailed weather-vanes. + +‘What is that palace I see over there, all lighted up by the sun?’ I +asked Sérapion. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and having looked in +the direction indicated, replied: ‘It is the ancient palace which the +Prince Concini has given to the courtesan Clarimonde. Awful things are +done there!’ + +At that instant, I know not yet whether it was a reality or an illusion, +I fancied I saw gliding along the terrace a shapely white figure, +which gleamed for a moment in passing and as quickly vanished. It was +Clarimonde. + +Oh, did she know that at that very hour, all feverish and restless--from +the height of the rugged road which separated me from her, and which, +alas! I could never more descend--I was directing my eyes upon the +palace where she dwelt, and which a mocking beam of sunlight seemed to +bring nigh to me, as though inviting me to enter therein as its lord? +Undoubtedly she must have known it, for her soul was too sympathetically +united with mine not to have felt its least emotional thrill, and that +subtle sympathy it must have been which prompted her to climb--although +clad only in her nightdress--to the summit of the terrace, amid the icy +dews of the morning. + +The shadow gained the palace, and the scene became to the eye only +a motionless ocean of roofs and gables, amid which one mountainous +undulation was distinctly visible. Sérapion urged his mule forward, my +own at once followed at the same gait, and a sharp angle in the road at +last hid the city of S------ for ever from my eyes, as I was destined +never to return thither. At the close of a weary three-days’ journey +through dismal country fields, we caught sight of the cock upon the +steeple of the church which I was to take charge of, peeping above +the trees, and after having followed some winding roads fringed with +thatched cottages and little gardens, we found ourselves in front of the +façade, which certainly possessed few features of magnificence. A porch +ornamented with some mouldings, and two or three pillars rudely hewn +from sandstone; a tiled roof with counterforts of the same sandstone as +the pillars--that was all. To the left lay the cemetery, overgrown with +high weeds, and having a great iron cross rising up in its centre; to +the right stood the presbytery under the shadow of the church. It was a +house of the most extreme simplicity and frigid cleanliness. We entered +the enclosure. A few chickens were picking up some oats scattered upon +the ground; accustomed, seemingly, to the black habit of ecclesiastics, +they showed no fear of our presence and scarcely troubled themselves to +get out of our way. A hoarse, wheezy barking fell upon our ears, and we +saw an aged dog running toward us. + +It was my predecessor’s dog. He had dull bleared eyes, grizzled hair, +and every mark of the greatest age to which a dog can possibly attain. +I patted him gently, and he proceeded at once to march along beside me +with an air of satisfaction unspeakable. A very old woman, who had been +the housekeeper of the former curé, also came to meet us, and after +having invited me into a little back parlour, asked whether I intended +to retain her. I replied that I would take care of her, and the dog, and +the chickens, and all the furniture her master had bequeathed her at +his death. At this she became fairly transported with joy, and the +Abbé Sérapion at once paid her the price which she asked for her little +property. + +As soon as my installation was over, the Abbé Sérapion returned to the +seminary. I was, therefore, left alone, with no one but myself to look +to for aid or counsel. The thought of Clarimonde again began to haunt +me, and in spite of all my endeavours to banish it, I always found it +present in my meditations. One evening, while promenading in my little +garden along the walks bordered with box-plants, I fancied that I saw +through the elm-trees the figure of a woman, who followed my every +movement, and that I beheld two sea-green eyes gleaming through the +foliage; but it was only an illusion, and on going round to the other +side of the garden, I could find nothing except a footprint on the +sanded walk--a footprint so small that it seemed to have been made +by the foot of a child. The garden was enclosed by very high walls. I +searched every nook and corner of it, but could discover no one there. +I have never succeeded in fully accounting for this circumstance, which, +after all, was nothing compared with the strange things which happened +to me afterward. + +For a whole year I lived thus, filling all the duties of my calling +with the most scrupulous exactitude, praying and fasting, exhorting and +lending ghostly aid to the sick, and bestowing alms even to the extent +of frequently depriving myself of the very necessaries of life. But I +felt a great aridness within me, and the sources of grace seemed closed +against me. I never found that happiness which should spring from the +fulfilment of a holy mission; my thoughts were far away, and the words +of Clarimonde were ever upon my lips like an involuntary refrain. Oh, +brother, meditate well on this! Through having but once lifted my eyes +to look upon a woman, through one fault apparently so venial, I have for +years remained a victim to the most miserable agonies, and the happiness +of my life has been destroyed for ever. + +I will not longer dwell upon those defeats, or on those inward victories +invariably followed by yet more terrible falls, but will at once proceed +to the facts of my story. One night my door-bell was long and violently +rung. The aged housekeeper arose and opened to the stranger, and the +figure of a man, whose complexion was deeply bronzed, and who was richly +clad in a foreign costume, with a poniard at his girdle, appeared under +the rays of Barbara’s lantern. Her first impulse was one of terror, but +the stranger reassured her, and stated that he desired to see me at once +on matters relating to my holy calling. Barbara invited him upstairs, +where I was on the point of retiring. The stranger told me that his +mistress, a very noble lady, was lying at the point of death, and +desired to see a priest. I replied that I was prepared to follow him, +took with me the sacred articles necessary for extreme unction, and +descended in all haste. Two horses black as the night itself stood +without the gate, pawing the ground with impatience, and veiling their +chests with long streams of smoky vapour exhaled from their nostrils. He +held the stirrup and aided me to mount upon one; then, merely laying his +hand upon the pommel of the saddle, he vaulted on the other, pressed +the animal’s sides with his knees, and loosened rein. The horse bounded +forward with the velocity of an arrow. Mine, of which the stranger held +the bridle, also started off at a swift gallop, keeping up with his +companion. We devoured the road. The ground flowed backward beneath us +in a long streaked line of pale gray, and the black silhouettes of +the trees seemed fleeing by us on either side like an army in rout. We +passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that I felt my flesh creep +in the chill darkness with superstitious fear. The showers of bright +sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod feet of our +horses remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and had any one +at that hour of the night beheld us both--my guide and myself--he must +have taken us for two spectres riding upon nightmares. Witch-fires ever +and anon flitted across the road before us, and the night-birds +shrieked fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond, where we beheld +at intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wild cats. The manes of the +horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat streamed over their +flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils hard and fast. But +when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated them by uttering +a strange, gutteral, unearthly cry, and the gallop recommenced with +fury. At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black mass pierced +through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before us, the +hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden drawbridge, and +we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two +enormous towers. Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle. +Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction, +and above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing. +I obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture--columns, +arcades, flights of steps, stairways--a royal voluptuousness and elfin +magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland. A negro page--the +same who had before brought me the tablet from Clarimonde, and whom +I instantly recognised--approached to aid me in dismounting, and the +major-domo, attired in black velvet with a gold chain about his neck, +advanced to meet me, supporting himself upon an ivory cane. Large tears +were falling from his eyes and streaming over his cheeks and white +beard. ‘Too late!’ he cried, sorrowfully shaking his venerable head. +‘Too late, sir priest! But if you have not been able to save the soul, +come at least to watch by the poor body.’ + +He took my arm and conducted me to the death-chamber. I wept not less +bitterly than he, for I had learned that the dead one was none other +than that Clarimonde whom I had so deeply and so wildly loved. A +_prie-dieu_ stood at the foot of the bed; a bluish flame flickering in a +bronze patern filled all the room with a wan, deceptive light, here +and there bringing out in the darkness at intervals some projection +of furniture or cornice. In a chiselled urn upon the table there was a +faded white rose, whose leaves--excepting one that still held--had all +fallen, like odorous tears, to the foot of the vase. A broken black +mask, a fan, and disguises of every variety, which were lying on the +armchairs, bore witness that death had entered suddenly and unannounced +into that sumptuous dwelling. Without daring to cast my eyes upon the +bed, I knelt down and commenced to repeat the Psalms for the Dead, with +exceeding fervour, thanking God that He had placed the tomb between +me and the memory of this woman, so that I might thereafter be able to +utter her name in my prayers as a name for ever sanctified by death. +But my fervour gradually weakened, and I fell insensibly into a reverie. +That chamber bore no semblance to a chamber of death. In lieu of the +fetid and cadaverous odours which I had been accustomed to breathe +during such funereal vigils, a languorous vapour of Oriental perfume--I +know not what amorous odour of woman--softly floated through the tepid +air. That pale light seemed rather a twilight gloom contrived for +voluptuous pleasure, than a substitute for the yellow-flickering +watch-tapers which shine by the side of corpses. I thought upon the +strange destiny which enabled me to meet Clarimonde again at the very +moment when she was lost to me for ever, and a sigh of regretful anguish +escaped from my breast. Then it seemed to me that some one behind me +had also sighed, and I turned round to look. It was only an echo. But in +that moment my eyes fell upon the bed of death which they had till then +avoided. The red damask curtains, decorated with large flowers worked in +embroidery and looped up with gold bullion, permitted me to behold the +fair dead, lying at full length, with hands joined upon her bosom. She +was covered with a linen wrapping of dazzling whiteness, which formed +a strong contrast with the gloomy purple of the hangings, and was of so +fine a texture that it concealed nothing of her body’s charming form, +and allowed the eye to follow those beautiful outlines--undulating like +the neck of a swan--which even death had not robbed of their supple +grace. She seemed an alabaster statue executed by some skilful sculptor +to place upon the tomb of a queen, or rather, perhaps, like a slumbering +maiden over whom the silent snow had woven a spotless veil. + +I could no longer maintain my constrained attitude of prayer. The air +of the alcove intoxicated me, that febrile perfume of half-faded roses +penetrated my very brain, and I commenced to pace restlessly up and down +the chamber, pausing at each turn before the bier to contemplate the +graceful corpse lying beneath the transparency of its shroud. Wild +fancies came thronging to my brain. I thought to myself that she might +not, perhaps, be really dead; that she might only have feigned death for +the purpose of bringing me to her castle, and then declaring her love. +At one time I even thought I saw her foot move under the whiteness of +the coverings, and slightly disarrange the long straight folds of the +winding-sheet. + +And then I asked myself: ‘Is this indeed Clarimonde? What proof have I +that it is she? Might not that black page have passed into the service +of some other lady? Surely, I must be going mad to torture and afflict +myself thus!’ But my heart answered with a fierce throbbing: ‘It is she; +it is she indeed!’ I approached the bed again, and fixed my eyes with +redoubled attention upon the object of my incertitude. Ah, must I +confess it? That exquisite perfection of bodily form, although purified +and made sacred by the shadow of death, affected me more voluptuously +than it should have done; and that repose so closely resembled slumber +that one might well have mistaken it for such. I forgot that I had come +there to perform a funeral ceremony; I fancied myself a young bridegroom +entering the chamber of the bride, who all modestly hides her fair face, +and through coyness seeks to keep herself wholly veiled. Heartbroken +with grief, yet wild with hope, shuddering at once with fear and +pleasure, I bent over her and grasped the corner of the sheet. I lifted +it back, holding my breath all the while through fear of waking her. My +arteries throbbed with such violence that I felt them hiss through my +temples, and the sweat poured from my forehead in streams, as though I +had lifted a mighty slab of marble. There, indeed, lay Clarimonde, even +as I had seen her at the church on the day of my ordination. She was not +less charming than then. With her, death seemed but a last coquetry. The +pallor of her cheeks, the less brilliant carnation of her lips, her long +eyelashes lowered and relieving their dark fringe against that white +skin, lent her an unspeakably seductive aspect of melancholy chastity +and mental suffering; her long loose hair, still intertwined with some +little blue flowers, made a shining pillow for her head, and veiled the +nudity of her shoulders with its thick ringlets; her beautiful hands, +purer, more diaphanous, than the Host, were crossed on her bosom in an +attitude of pious rest and silent prayer, which served to counteract all +that might have proven otherwise too alluring--even after death--in the +exquisite roundness and ivory polish of her bare arms from which the +pearl bracelets had not yet been removed. I remained long in mute +contemplation, and the more I gazed, the less could I persuade myself +that life had really abandoned that beautiful body for ever. I do not +know whether it was an illusion or a reflection of the lamplight, but it +seemed to me that the blood was again commencing to circulate under that +lifeless pallor, although she remained all motionless. I laid my hand +lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not colder than her hand on the +day when it touched mine at the portals of the church. I resumed my +position, bending my face above her, and bathing her cheek with the warm +dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair and helplessness, +what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long watch! Vainly did I +wish that I could have gathered all my life into one mass that I might +give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains the flame which +devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of eternal +separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet pleasure +of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my only +love.... Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, and +the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of mine. +Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former +brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed +them around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. ‘Ah, it is thou, +Romuald!’ she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last +vibrations of a harp. ‘What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for +thee that I am dead; but we are now betrothed: I can see thee and visit +thee. Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to +tell thee, and I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment +recalled. We shall soon meet again.’ + +Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain +me still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered +the chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment +palpitated at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly’s wing, then +it detached itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing +with it the soul of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell +insensible upon the bosom of the beautiful dead. + +When I came to myself again I was lying on the bed in my little room at +the presbytery, and the old dog of the former curé was licking my +hand, which had been hanging down outside of the covers. Barbara, all +trembling with age and anxiety, was busying herself about the room, +opening and shutting drawers, and emptying powders into glasses. On +seeing me open my eyes, the old woman uttered a cry of joy, the dog +yelped and wagged his tail, but I was still so weak that I could not +speak a single word or make the slightest motion. Afterward I learned +that I had lain thus for three days, giving no evidence of life beyond +the faintest respiration. Those three days do not reckon in my life, nor +could I ever imagine whither my spirit had departed during those three +days; I have no recollection of aught relating to them. Barbara told me +that the same coppery-complexioned man who came to seek me on the night +of my departure from the presbytery had brought me back the next morning +in a close litter, and departed immediately afterward. When I became +able to collect my scattered thoughts, I reviewed within my mind all the +circumstances of that fateful night. At first I thought I had been the +victim of some magical illusion, but ere long the recollection of other +circumstances, real and palpable in themselves, came to forbid that +supposition. I could not believe that I had been dreaming, since Barbara +as well as myself had seen the strange man with his two black horses, +and described with exactness every detail of his figure and apparel. +Nevertheless it appeared that none knew of any castle in the +neighbourhood answering to the description of that in which I had again +found Clarimonde. + +One morning I found the Abbé Sérapion in my room. Barbara had advised +him that I was ill, and he had come with all speed to see me. Although +this haste on his part testified to an affectionate interest in me, yet +his visit did not cause me the pleasure which it should have done. The +Abbé Sérapion had something penetrating and inquisitorial in his +gaze which made me feel very ill at ease. His presence filled me with +embarrassment and a sense of guilt. At the first glance he divined my +interior trouble, and I hated him for his clairvoyance. + +While he inquired after my health in hypocritically honeyed accents, +he constantly kept his two great yellow lion-eyes fixed upon me, and +plunged his look into my soul like a sounding-lead. Then he asked me +how I directed my parish, if I was happy in it, how I passed the leisure +hours allowed me in the intervals of pastoral duty, whether I had +become acquainted with many of the inhabitants of the place, what was my +favourite reading, and a thousand other such questions. I answered these +inquiries as briefly as possible, and he, without ever waiting for +my answers, passed rapidly from one subject of query to another. That +conversation had evidently no connection with what he actually wished to +say. At last, without any premonition, but as though repeating a piece +of news which he had recalled on the instant, and feared might otherwise +be forgotten subsequently, he suddenly said, in a clear vibrant voice, +which rang in my ears like the trumpets of the Last Judgment: + +‘The great courtesan Clarimonde died a few days ago, at the close of +an orgie which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something +infernally splendid. The abominations of the banquets of Belshazzar and +Cleopatra were re-enacted there. Good God, what age are we living in? +The guests were served by swarthy slaves who spoke an unknown tongue, +and who seemed to me to be veritable demons. The livery of the very +least among them would have served for the gala-dress of an emperor. +There have always been very strange stories told of this Clarimonde, and +all her lovers came to a violent or miserable end. They used to say that +she was a ghoul, a female vampire; but I believe she was none other than +Beelzebub himself.’ + +He ceased to speak, and commenced to regard me more attentively than +ever, as though to observe the effect of his words on me. I could not +refrain from starting when I heard him utter the name of Clarimonde, and +this news of her death, in addition to the pain it caused me by reason +of its coincidence with the nocturnal scenes I had witnessed, filled +me with an agony and terror which my face betrayed, despite my utmost +endeavours to appear composed. Sérapion fixed an anxious and severe +look upon me, and then observed: ‘My son, I must warn you that you are +standing with foot raised upon the brink of an abyss; take heed lest you +fall therein. Satan’s claws are long, and tombs are not always true to +their trust. The tombstone of Clarimonde should be sealed down with a +triple seal, for, if report be true, it is not the first time she has +died. May God watch over you, Romuald!’ + +And with these words the Abbé walked slowly to the door. I did not see +him again at that time, for he left for S------ almost immediately. + +I became completely restored to health and resumed my accustomed duties. +The memory of Clarimonde and the words of the old Abbé were constantly +in my mind; nevertheless no extraordinary event had occurred to verify +the funereal predictions of Sérapion, and I had commenced to believe +that his fears and my own terrors were over-exaggerated, when one +night I had a strange dream. I had hardly fallen asleep when I heard my +bed-curtains drawn apart, as their rings slided back upon the curtain +rod with a sharp sound. I rose up quickly upon my elbow, and beheld +the shadow of a woman standing erect before me. I recognised Clarimonde +immediately. She bore in her hand a little lamp, shaped like those which +are placed in tombs, and its light lent her fingers a rosy transparency, +which extended itself by lessening degrees even to the opaque and milky +whiteness of her bare arm. Her only garment was the linen winding-sheet +which had shrouded her when lying upon the bed of death. She sought to +gather its folds over her bosom as though ashamed of being so scantily +clad, but her little hand was not equal to the task. She was so white +that the colour of the drapery blended with that of her flesh under +the pallid rays of the lamp. Enveloped with this subtle tissue which +betrayed all the contour of her body, she seemed rather the marble +statue of some fair antique bather than a woman endowed with life. But +dead or living, statue or woman, shadow or body, her beauty was still +the same, only that the green light of her eyes was less brilliant, and +her mouth, once so warmly crimson, was only tinted with a faint tender +rosiness, like that of her cheeks. The little blue flowers which I had +noticed entwined in her hair were withered and dry, and had lost nearly +all their leaves, but this did not prevent her from being charming--so +charming that, notwithstanding the strange character of the adventure, +and the unexplainable manner in which she had entered my room, I felt +not even for a moment the least fear. + +She placed the lamp on the table and seated herself at the foot of my +bed; then bending toward me, she said, in that voice at once silvery +clear and yet velvety in its sweet softness, such as I never heard from +any lips save hers: + +‘I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and it must have seemed +to thee that I had forgotten thee. But I come from afar off, very far +off, and from a land whence no other has ever yet returned. There is +neither sun nor moon in that land whence I come: all is but space and +shadow; there is neither road nor pathway: no earth for the foot, no air +for the wing; and nevertheless behold me here, for Love is stronger than +Death and must conquer him in the end. Oh what sad faces and fearful +things I have seen on my way hither! What difficulty my soul, returned +to earth through the power of will alone, has had in finding its body +and reinstating itself therein! What terrible efforts I had to make ere +I could lift the ponderous slab with which they had covered me! See, the +palms of my poor hands are all bruised! Kiss them, sweet love, that they +may be healed!’ She laid the cold palms of her hands upon ray mouth, one +after the other. I kissed them, indeed, many times, and she the while +watched me with a smile of ineffable affection. + +I confess to my shame that I had entirely forgotten the advice of the +Abbé Sérapion and the sacred office wherewith I had been invested. I had +fallen without resistance, and at the first assault. I had not even +made the least effort to repel the tempter. The fresh coolness of +Clarimonde’s skin penetrated my own, and I felt voluptuous tremors pass +over my whole body. Poor child! in spite of all I saw afterward, I can +hardly yet believe she was a demon; at least she had no appearance +of being such, and never did Satan so skilfully conceal his claws and +horns. She had drawn her feet up beneath her, and squatted down on the +edge of the couch in an attitude full of negligent coquetry. From time +to time she passed her little hand through my hair and twisted it into +curls, as though trying how a new style of wearing it would become my +face. I abandoned myself to her hands with the most guilty pleasure, +while she accompanied her gentle play with the prettiest prattle. The +most remarkable fact was that I felt no astonishment whatever at so +extraordinary ah adventure, and as in dreams one finds no difficulty +in accepting the most fantastic events as simple facts, so all these +circumstances seemed to me perfectly natural in themselves. + +‘I loved thee long ere I saw thee, dear Romuald, and sought thee +everywhere. Thou wast my dream, and I first saw thee in the church at +the fatal moment. I said at once, “It is he!” I gave thee a look into +which I threw all the love I ever had, all the love I now have, all +the love I shall ever have for thee--a look that would have damned a +cardinal or brought a king to his knees at my feet in view of all his +court. Thou remainedst unmoved, preferring thy God to me! + +‘Ah, how jealous I am of that God whom thou didst love and still lovest +more than me! + +‘Woe is me, unhappy one that I am! I can never have thy heart all to +myself, I whom thou didst recall to life with a kiss--dead Clarimonde, +who for thy sake bursts asunder the gates of the tomb, and comes to +consecrate to thee a life which she has resumed only to make thee +happy!’ + +All her words were accompanied with the most impassioned caresses, which +bewildered my sense and my reason to such an extent, that I did not fear +to utter a frightful blasphemy for the sake of consoling her, and to +declare that I loved her as much as God. + +Her eyes rekindled and shone like chrysoprases. ‘In truth?--in very +truth?--as much as God!’ she cried, flinging her beautiful arms around +me. ‘Since it is so, thou wilt come with me; thou wilt follow me +whithersoever I desire. Thou wilt cast away thy ugly black habit. Thou +shalt be the proudest and most envied of cavaliers; thou shalt be my +lover! To be the acknowledged lover of Clarimonde, who has refused +even a Pope! That will be something to feel proud of. Ah, the fair, +unspeakably happy existence, the beautiful golden life we shall live +together! And when shall we depart, my fair sir?’ + +‘To-morrow! To-morrow!’ I cried in my delirium. + +‘To-morrow, then, so let it be!’ she answered. ‘In the meanwhile I shall +have opportunity to change my toilet, for this is a little too light +and in nowise suited for a voyage. I must also forthwith notify all +my friends who believe me dead, and mourn for me as deeply as they are +capable of doing. The money, the dresses, the carriages--all will be +ready. I shall call for thee at this same hour. Adieu, dear heart!’ And +she lightly touched my forehead with her lips. The lamp went out, the +curtains closed again, and all became dark; a leaden, dreamless sleep +fell on me and held me unconscious until the morning following. + +I awoke later than usual, and the recollection of this singular +adventure troubled me during the whole day. I finally persuaded myself +that it was a mere vapour of my heated imagination. Nevertheless its +sensations had been so vivid that it was difficult to persuade myself +that they were not real, and it was not without some presentiment of +what was going to happen that I got into bed at last, after having +prayed God to drive far from me all thoughts of evil, and to protect the +chastity of my slumber. + +I soon fell into a deep sleep, and my dream was continued. The curtains +again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion, +pale in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her +cheeks, but gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling-dress of +green velvet, trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to +allow a glimpse of satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick +ringlets from beneath a broad black felt hat, decorated with white +feathers whimsically twisted into various shapes. In one hand she held a +little riding-whip terminated by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly +with it, and exclaimed: ‘Well, my fine sleeper, is this the way you +make your preparations? I thought I would find you up and dressed. Arise +quickly, we have no time to lose.’ + +I leaped out of bed at once. + +‘Come, dress yourself, and let us go,’ she continued, pointing to +a little package she had brought with her. ‘The horses are becoming +impatient of delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have +been by this time at least ten leagues distant from here.’ + +I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel +herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my +awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made +a mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up +before me a little pocket-mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver +filigree-work, and playfully asked: ‘How dost find thyself now? Wilt +engage me for thy valet de chambre?’ + +I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognise myself. +I resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles +a block of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one +reflected in the mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly +tickled by the metamorphosis. + +That elegant apparel, that richly embroidered vest had made of me +a totally different personage, and I marvelled at the power of +transformation owned by a few yards of cloth cut after a certain +pattern. The spirit of my costume penetrated my very skin and within ten +minutes more I had become something of a coxcomb. + +In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns +up and down the room. Clari-monde watched me with an air of maternal +pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. ‘Come, enough of +this child’s play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and +we may not get there in time.’ She took my hand and led me forth. All +the doors opened before her at a touch, and we passed by the dog without +awaking him. + +At the gate we found Margheritone waiting, the same swarthy groom who +had once before been my-escort. He held the bridles of three horses, all +black like those which bore us to the castle--one for me, one for him, +one for Clarimonde. Those horses must have been Spanish genets born of +mares fecundated by a zephyr, for they were fleet as the wind itself, +and the moon, which had just risen at our departure to light us on the +way, rolled over the sky like a wheel detached from her own chariot. We +beheld her on the right leaping from tree to tree, and putting herself +out of breath in the effort to keep up with us. Soon we came upon +a level plain where, hard by a clump of trees, a carriage with four +vigorous horses awaited us. We entered it, and the postillions urged +their animals into a mad gallop. I had one arm around Clarimonde’s +waist, and one of her hands clasped in mine; her head leaned upon my +shoulder, and I felt her bosom, half bare, lightly pressing against +my arm. I had never known such intense happiness. In that hour I had +forgotten everything, and I no more remembered having ever been a priest +than I remembered what I had been doing in my mother’s womb, so great +was the fascination which the evil spirit exerted upon me. From that +night my nature seemed in some sort to have become halved, and there +were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I +believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman, at +another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could +no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I discover +where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite +young lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the +dissolute habits of the young lord. Two spirals entangled and confounded +the one with the other, yet never touching, would afford a fair +representation of this bicephalic life which I lived. Despite the +strange character of my condition, I do not believe that I ever +inclined, even for a moment, to madness. I always retained with extreme +vividness all the perceptions of my two lives. Only there was one absurd +fact which I could not explain to myself--namely, that the consciousness +of the same individuality existed in two men so opposite in character. +It was an anomaly for which I could not account--whether I believed +myself to be the curé of the little village of C------, or _Il Signor +Romualdo_, the titled lover of Clarimonde. + +Be that as it may, I lived, at least I believed that I lived, in Venice. +I have never been able to discover rightly how much of illusion and how +much of reality there was in this fantastic adventure. We dwelt in a +great palace on the Canaleio, filled with frescoes and statues, and +containing two Titians in the noblest style of the great master, which +were hung in Clarimonde’s chamber. It was a palace well worthy of a +king. We had each our gondola, our _barcarolli_ in family livery, +our music hall, and our special poet. Clarimonde always lived upon a +magnificent scale; there was something of Cleopatra in her nature. As +for me, I had the retinue of a prince’s son, and I was regarded with as +much reverential respect as though I had been of the family of one of +the twelve Apostles or the four Evangelists of the Most Serene Republic. +I would not have turned aside to allow even the Doge to pass, and I do +not believe that since Satan fell from heaven, any creature was ever +prouder or more insolent than I. I went to the Ridotto, and played with +a luck which seemed absolutely infernal. I received the best of all +society--the sons of ruined families, women of the theatre, shrewd +knaves, parasites, hectoring swashbucklers. But notwithstanding the +dissipation of such a life, I always remained faithful to Clarimonde. +I loved her wildly. She would have excited satiety itself, and chained +inconstancy. To have Clarimonde was to have twenty mistresses; ay, +to possess all women: so mobile, so varied of aspect, so fresh in new +charms was she all in herself--a very chameleon of a woman, in sooth. +She made you commit with her the infidelity you would have committed +with another, by donning to perfection the character, the attraction, +the style of beauty of the woman who appeared to please you. She +returned my love a hundred-fold, and it was in vain that the young +patricians and even the Ancients of the Council of Ten made her the most +magnificent proposals. A Foscari even went so far as to offer to espouse +her. She rejected all his overtures. Of gold she had enough. She wished +no longer for anything but love--a love youthful, pure, evoked by +herself, and which should be a first and last passion. I would have been +perfectly happy but for a cursed nightmare which recurred every night, +and in which I believed myself to be a poor village curé, practising +mortification and penance for my excesses during the day. Reassured by +my constant association with her, I never thought further of the strange +manner in which I had become acquainted with Clarimonde. But the words +of the Abbé Sérapion concerning her recurred often to my memory, and +never ceased to cause me uneasiness. + +For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; +her complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned +could not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat +it. They all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called +a second time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she +became colder and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as +upon that memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish +unspeakable to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my +agony, smiled upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those +who feel that they must die. + +One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little +table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her +for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally +inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed +forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. +Her eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and +ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her. She leaped out +of her bed with animal agility--the agility, as it were, of an ape or a +cat--and sprang upon my wound, which she commenced to suck with an air +of unutterable pleasure. She swallowed the blood in little mouthfuls, +slowly and carefully, like a connoisseur tasting a wine from Xeres or +Syracuse. Gradually her eyelids half closed, and the pupils of her green +eyes became oblong instead of round. From time to time she paused in +order to kiss my hand, then she would recommence to press her lips to +the lips of the wound in order to coax forth a few more ruddy drops. +When she found that the blood would no longer come, she arose with eyes +liquid and brilliant, rosier than a May dawn; her face full and fresh, +her hand warm and moist--in fine, more beautiful than ever, and in the +most perfect health. + +‘I shall not die! I shall not die!’ she cried, clinging to my neck, half +mad with joy. ‘I can love thee yet for a long time. My life is thine, +and all that is of me comes from thee. A few drops of thy rich and noble +blood, more precious and more potent than all the elixirs of the earth, +have given me back life.’ + +This scene long haunted my memory, and inspired me with strange +doubts in regard to Clarimonde; and the same evening, when slumber had +transported me to my presbytery, I beheld the Abbé Sérapion, graver +and more anxious of aspect than ever. He gazed attentively at me, and +sorrowfully exclaimed: ‘Not content with losing your soul, you now +desire also to lose your body. Wretched young man, into how terrible +a plight have you fallen!’ The tone in which he uttered these words +powerfully affected me, but in spite of its vividness even that +impression was soon dissipated, and a thousand other cares erased it +from my mind. At last one evening, while looking into a mirror whose +traitorous position she had not taken into account, I saw Clarimonde in +the act of emptying a powder into the cup of spiced wine which she had +long been in the habit of preparing after our repasts. I took the +cup, feigned to carry it to my lips, and then placed it on the nearest +article of furniture as though intending to finish it at my leisure. +Taking advantage of a moment when the fair one’s back was turned, I +threw the contents under the table, after which I retired to my chamber +and went to bed, fully resolved not to sleep, but to watch and discover +what should come of all this mystery. I did not have to wait long, +Clarimonde entered in her nightdress, and having removed her apparel, +crept into bed and lay down beside me. When she felt assured that I +was asleep, she bared my arm, and drawing a gold pin from her hair, +commenced to murmur in a low voice: + +‘One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since +thou lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful +blood, so brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! +Sleep, my god, my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy +life what I must to keep my own from being for ever extinguished. But +that I love thee so much, I could well resolve to have other lovers +whose veins I could drain; but since I have known thee all other men +have become hateful to me.... Ah, the beautiful arm! How round it is! +How white it is! How shall I ever dare to prick this pretty blue vein!’ +And while thus murmuring to herself she wept, and I felt her tears +raining on my arm as she clasped it with her hands. At last she took the +resolve, slightly punctured me with her pin, and commenced to suck up +the blood which oozed from the place. Although she swallowed only a few +drops, the fear of weakening me soon seized her, and she carefully tied +a little band around my arm, afterward rubbing the wound with an unguent +which immediately cicatrised it. Further doubts were impossible. The +Abbé Sérapion was right. Notwithstanding this positive knowledge, +however, I could not cease to love Clarimonde, and I would gladly of +my own accord have given her all the blood she required to sustain her +factitious life. Moreover, I felt but little fear of her. The woman +seemed to plead with me for the vampire, and what I had already heard +and seen sufficed to reassure me completely. In those days I had +plenteous veins, which would not have been so easily exhausted as at +present; and I would not have thought of bargaining for my blood, drop +by drop. I would rather have opened myself the veins of my arm and said +to her: ‘Drink, and may my love infiltrate itself throughout thy body +together with my blood!’ I carefully avoided ever making the least +reference to the narcotic drink she had prepared for me, or to the +incident of the pin, and we lived in the most perfect harmony. + +Yet my priestly scruples commenced to torment me more than ever, and +I was at a loss to imagine what new penance I could invent in order to +mortify and subdue my flesh. Although these visions were involuntary, +and though I did not actually participate in anything relating to them, +I could not dare to touch the body of Christ with hands so impure and a +mind defiled by such debauches whether real or imaginary. In the effort +to avoid falling under the influence of these wearisome hallucinations, +I strove to prevent myself from being overcome by sleep. I held my +eyelids open with my fingers, and stood for hours together leaning +upright against the wall, fighting sleep with all my might; but the dust +of drowsiness invariably gathered upon my eyes at last, and finding all +resistance useless, I would have to let my arms fall in the extremity +of despairing weariness, and the current of slumber would again bear +me away to the perfidious shores. Sérapion addressed me with the most +vehement exhortations, severely reproaching me for my softness and want +of fervour. Finally, one day when I was more wretched than usual, he +said to me: ‘There is but one way by which you can obtain relief from +this continual torment, and though it is an extreme measure it must be +made use of; violent diseases require violent remedies. I know where +Clarimonde is buried. It is necessary that we shall disinter her +remains, and that you shall behold in how pitiable a state the object of +your love is. Then you will no longer be tempted to lose your soul for +the sake of an unclean corpse devoured by worms, and ready to crumble +into dust. That will assuredly restore you to yourself.’ For my part, I +was so tired of this double life that I at once consented, desiring to +ascertain beyond a doubt whether a priest or a gentleman had been the +victim of delusion. I had become fully resolved either to kill one of +the two men within me for the benefit of the other, or else to kill +both, for so terrible an existence could not last long and be endured. +The Abbé Sérapion provided himself with a mattock, a lever, and a +lantern, and at midnight we wended our way to the cemetery of ------, +the location and place of which were perfectly familiar to him. After +having directed the rays of the dark lantern upon the inscriptions of +several tombs, we came at last upon a great slab, half concealed by +huge weeds and devoured by mosses and parasitic plants, whereupon we +deciphered the opening lines of the epitaph: + + Here lies Clarimonde + Who was famed in her life-time + As the fairest of women.* + + * Ici gît Clarimonde + Qui fut de son vivant + La plus belle du monde. + + The broken beauty of the lines is unavoidably + lost in the translation. + +‘It is here without a doubt,’ muttered Sérapion, and placing his lantern +on the ground, he forced the point of the lever under the edge of the +stone and commenced to raise it. The stone yielded, and he proceeded to +work with the mattock. Darker and more silent than the night itself, I +stood by and watched him do it, while he, bending over his dismal toil, +streamed with sweat, panted, and his hard-coming breath seemed to have +the harsh tone of a death rattle. It was a weird scene, and had any +persons from without beheld us, they would assuredly have taken us +rather for profane wretches and shroud-stealers than for priests of God. +There was something grim and fierce in Sérapion’s zeal which lent him +the air of a demon rather than of an apostle or an angel, and his great +aquiline face, with all its stern features, brought out in strong relief +by the lantern-light, had something fearsome in it which enhanced the +unpleasant fancy. I felt an icy sweat come out upon my forehead in huge +beads, and my hair stood up with a hideous fear. Within the depths of my +own heart I felt that the act of the austere Sérapion was an abominable +sacrilege; and I could have prayed that a triangle of fire would issue +from the entrails of the dark clouds, heavily rolling above us, +to reduce him to cinders. The owls which had been nestling in the +cypress-trees, startled by the gleam of the lantern, flew against it +from time to time, striking their dusty wings against its panes, and +uttering plaintive cries of lamentation; wild foxes yelped in the far +darkness, and a thousand sinister noises detached themselves from the +silence. At last Séra-pion’s mattock struck the coffin itself, making +its planks re-echo with a deep sonorous sound, with that terrible sound +nothingness utters when stricken. He wrenched apart and tore up the +lid, and I beheld Clarimonde, pallid as a figure of marble, with hands +joined; her white winding-sheet made but one fold from her head to her +feet. A little crimson drop sparkled like a speck of dew at one corner +of her colourless mouth. Sérapion, at this spectacle, burst into fury: +‘Ah, thou art here, demon! Impure courtesan! Drinker of blood and gold! +‘And he flung holy water upon the corpse and the coffin, over which he +traced the sign of the cross with his sprinkler. Poor Clarimonde had +no sooner been touched by the blessed spray than her beautiful body +crumbled into dust, and became only a shapeless and frightful mass of +cinders and half-calcined bones. + +‘Behold your mistress, my Lord Romuald!’ cried the inexorable priest, as +he pointed to these sad remains. ‘Will you be easily tempted after this +to promenade on the Lido or at Fusina with your beauty?’ I covered my +face with my hands, a vast ruin had taken place within me. I returned +to my presbytery, and the noble Lord Romuald, the lover of Clarimonde, +separated himself from the poor priest with whom he had kept such +strange company so long. But once only, the following night, I saw +Clarimonde. She said to me, as she had said the first time at the +portals of the church: ‘Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done? +Wherefore have hearkened to that imbecile priest? Wert thou not happy? +And what harm had I ever done thee that thou shouldst violate my poor +tomb, and lay bare the miseries of my nothingness? All communication +between our souls and our bodies is henceforth for ever broken. Adieu! +Thou wilt yet regret me!’ She vanished in air as smoke, and I never saw +her more. + +Alas! she spoke truly indeed. I have regretted her more than once, and I +regret her still. My soul’s peace has been very dearly bought. The +love of God was not too much to replace such a love as hers. And this, +brother, is the story of my youth. Never gaze upon a woman, and walk +abroad only with eyes ever fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and +watchful one may be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one +lose eternity. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Théophile Gautier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + +***** This file should be named 22661-0.txt or 22661-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/6/22661/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/22661-0.zip b/22661-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b56b38 --- /dev/null +++ b/22661-0.zip diff --git a/22661-8.txt b/22661-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be7b7a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/22661-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1586 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Thophile Gautier + +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: Clarimonde + +Author: Thophile Gautier + +Translator: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CLARIMONDE + +By Thophile Gautier + +Translated By Lafcadio Hearn + +1908 + + +Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a strange and +terrible one; and though I am sixty-six years of age, I scarcely dare +even now to disturb the ashes of that memory. To you I can refuse +nothing; but I should not relate such a tale to any less experienced +mind. So strange were the circumstances of my story, that I can scarcely +believe myself to have ever actually been a party to them. For more +than three years I remained the victim of a most singular and diabolical +illusion. Poor country priest though I was, I led every night in a +dream--would to God it had been all a dream!--a most worldly life, a +damning life, a life of Sardanapalus. One single look too freely cast +upon a woman well-nigh caused me to lose my soul; but finally by the +grace of God and the assistance of my patron saint, I succeeded in +casting out the evil spirit that possessed me. My daily life was long +interwoven with a nocturnal life of a totally different character. By +day I was a priest of the Lord, occupied with prayer and sacred things; +by night, from the instant that I closed my eyes I became a young +nobleman, a fine connoisseur in women, dogs, and horses; gambling, +drinking, and blaspheming; and when I awoke at early daybreak, it seemed +to me, on the other hand, that I had been sleeping, and had only dreamed +that I was a priest. Of this somnambulistic life there now remains to me +only the recollection of certain scenes and words which I cannot banish +from my memory; but although I never actually left the walls of my +presbytery, one would think to hear me speak that I were a man who, +weary of all worldly pleasures, had become a religious, seeking to end a +tempestuous life in the service of God, rather than a humble seminarist +who has grown old in this obscure curacy, situated in the depths of the +woods and even isolated from the life of the century. + +Yes, I have loved as none in the world ever loved--with an insensate +and furious passion--so violent that I am astonished it did not cause my +heart to burst asunder. Ah, what nights--what nights! + +From my earliest childhood I had felt a vocation to the priesthood, so +that all my studies were directed with that idea in view. Up to the +age of twenty-four my life had been only a prolonged novitiate. Having +completed my course of theology I successively received all the minor +orders, and my superiors judged me worthy, despite my youth, to pass the +last awful degree. My ordination was fixed for Easter week. + +I had never gone into the world. My world was confined by the walls of +the college and the seminary. I knew in a vague sort of a way that there +was something called Woman, but I never permitted my thoughts to dwell +on such a subject, and I lived in a state of perfect innocence. Twice +a year only I saw my infirm and aged mother, and in those visits were +comprised my sole relations with the outer world. + +I regretted nothing; I felt not the least hesitation at taking the last +irrevocable step; I was filled with joy and impatience. Never did a +betrothed lover count the slow hours with more feverish ardour; I slept +only to dream that I was saying mass; I believed there could be nothing +in the world more delightful than to be a priest; I would have refused +to be a king or a poet in preference. My ambition could conceive of no +loftier aim. + +I tell you this in order to show you that what happened to me could +not have happened in the natural order of things, and to enable you to +understand that I was the victim of an inexplicable fascination. + +At last the great day came. I walked to the church with a step so light +that I fancied myself sustained in air, or that I had wings upon my +shoulders. I believed myself an angel, and wondered at the sombre and +thoughtful faces of my companions, for there were several of us. I +had passed all the night in prayer, and was in a condition wellnigh +bordering on ecstasy. The bishop, a venerable old man, seemed to me God +the Father leaning over His Eternity, and I beheld Heaven through the +vault of the temple. + +You well know the details of that ceremony--the benediction, the +communion under both forms, the anointing of the palms of the hands with +the Oil of Catechumens, and then the holy sacrifice offered in concert +with the bishop. + +Ah, truly spake Job when he declared that the imprudent man is one who +hath not made a covenant with his eyes! I accidentally lifted my head, +which until then I had kept down, and beheld before me, so close that +it seemed that I could have touched her--although she was actually a +considerable distance from me and on the further side of the sanctuary +railing--a young woman of extraordinary beauty, and attired with royal +magnificence. It seemed as though scales had suddenly fallen from my +eyes. I felt like a blind man who unexpectedly recovers his sight. The +bishop, so radiantly glorious but an instant before, suddenly vanished +away, the tapers paled upon their golden candlesticks like stars in the +dawn, and a vast darkness seemed to fill the whole church. The charming +creature appeared in bright relief against the background of that +darkness, like some angelic revelation. She seemed herself radiant, and +radiating light rather than receiving it. + +I lowered my eyelids, firmly resolved not to again open them, that +I might not be influenced by external objects, for distraction had +gradually taken possession of me until I hardly knew what I was doing. + +In another minute, nevertheless, I reopened my eyes, for through my +eyelashes I still beheld her, all sparkling with prismatic colours, and +surrounded with such a penumbra as one beholds in gazing at the sun. + +Oh, how beautiful she was! The greatest painters, who followed ideal +beauty into heaven itself, and thence brought back to earth the true +portrait of the Madonna, never in their delineations even approached +that wildly beautiful reality which I saw before me. Neither the verses +of the poet nor the palette of the artist could convey any conception +of her. She was rather tall, with a form and bearing of a goddess. Her +hair, of a soft blonde hue, was parted in the midst and flowed back over +her temples in two rivers of rippling gold; she seemed a diademed +queen. Her forehead, bluish-white in its transparency, extended its calm +breadth above the arches of her eyebrows, which by a strange singularity +were almost black, and admirably relieved the effect of sea-green eyes +of unsustainable vivacity and brilliancy. What eyes! With a single flash +they could have decided a man's destiny. They had a life, a limpidity, +an ardour, a humid light which I have never seen in human eyes; they +shot forth rays like arrows, which I could distinctly _see_ enter my +heart. I know not if the fire which illumined them came from heaven or +from hell, but assuredly it came from one or the other. That woman was +either an angel or a demon, perhaps both. Assuredly she never sprang +from the flank of Eve, our common mother. Teeth of the most lustrous +pearl gleamed in her ruddy smile, and at every inflection of her lips +little dimples appeared in the satiny rose of her adorable cheeks. There +was a delicacy and pride in the regal outline of her nostrils bespeaking +noble blood. Agate gleams played over the smooth lustrous skin of her +half-bare shoulders, and strings of great blonde pearls--almost equal +to her neck in beauty of colour--descended upon her bosom. From time +to time she elevated her head with the undulating grace of a startled +serpent or peacock, thereby imparting a quivering motion to the high +lace ruff which surrounded it like a silver trellis-work. + +She wore a robe of orange-red velvet, and from her wide ermine-lined +sleeves there peeped forth patrician hands of infinite delicacy, and so +ideally transparent that, like the fingers of Aurora, they permitted the +light to shine through them. + +All these details I can recollect at this moment as plainly as though +they were of yesterday, for notwithstanding I was greatly troubled at +the time, nothing escaped me; the faintest touch of shading, the little +dark speck at the point of the chin, the imperceptible down at the +corners of the lips, the velvety floss upon the brow, the quivering +shadows of the eyelashes upon the cheeks--I could notice everything with +astonishing lucidity of perception. + +And gazing I felt opening within me gates that had until then remained +closed; vents long obstructed became all clear, permitting glimpses of +unfamiliar perspectives within; life suddenly made itself visible to me +under a totally novel aspect. I felt as though I had just been born into +a new world and a new order of things. A frightful anguish commenced to +torture-my heart as with red-hot pincers. Every successive minute seemed +to me at once but a second and yet a century. Meanwhile the ceremony was +proceeding, and I shortly found myself transported far from that world +of which my newly born desires were furiously besieging the entrance. +Nevertheless I answered 'Yes' when I wished to say 'No,' though all +within me protested against the violence done to my soul by my tongue. +Some occult power seemed to force the words from my throat against my +will. Thus it is, perhaps, that so many young girls walk to the altar +firmly resolved to refuse in a startling manner the husband imposed +upon them, and that yet not one ever fulfils her intention. Thus it is, +doubtless, that so many poor novices take the veil, though they have +resolved to tear it into shreds at the moment when called upon to utter +the vows. One dares not thus cause so great a scandal to all present, +nor deceive the expectation of so many people. All those eyes, all those +wills seem to weigh down upon you like a cope of lead, and, moreover, +measures have been so well taken, everything has been so thoroughly +arranged beforehand and after a fashion so evidently irrevocable, that +the will yields to the weight of circumstances and utterly breaks down. + +As the ceremony proceeded the features of the fair unknown changed their +expression. Her look had at first been one of caressing tenderness; +it changed to an air of disdain and of mortification, as though at not +having been able to make itself understood. + +With an effort of will sufficient to have uprooted a mountain, I strove +to cry out that I would not be a priest, but I could not speak; my +tongue seemed nailed to my palate, and I found it impossible to express +my will by the least syllable of negation. Though fully awake, I felt +like one under the influence of a nightmare, who vainly strives to +shriek out the one word upon which life depends. + +She seemed conscious of the martyrdom I was undergoing, and, as though +to encourage me, she gave me a look replete with divinest promise. Her +eyes were a poem; their every glance was a song. + +She said to me: + +'If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His +paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that +funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I +am Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah +offer thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in +one eternal kiss. + +'Fling forth the wine of that chalice, and thou art free. I will conduct +thee to the Unknown Isles. Thou shalt sleep in my bosom upon a bed of +massy gold under a silver pavilion, for I love thee and would take thee +away from thy God, before whom so many noble hearts pour forth floods of +love which never reach even the steps of His throne!' + +These words seemed to float to my ears in a rhythm of infinite +sweetness, for her look was actually sonorous, and the utterances of her +eyes were reechoed in the depths of my heart as though living lips had +breathed them into my life. I felt myself willing to renounce God, +and yet my tongue mechanically fulfilled all the formalities of +the ceremony. The fair one gave me another look, so beseeching, so +despairing that keen blades seemed to pierce my heart, and I felt my +bosom transfixed by more swords than those of Our Lady of Sorrows. + +All was consummated; I had become a priest. + +Never was deeper anguish painted on human face than upon hers. The +maiden who beholds her affianced lover suddenly fall dead at her side, +the mother bending over the empty cradle of her child, Eve seated at +the threshold of the gate of Paradise, the miser who finds a stone +substituted for his stolen treasure, the poet who accidentally permits +the only manuscript of his finest work to fall into the fire, could not +wear a look so despairing, so inconsolable. All the blood had abandoned +her charming face, leaving it whiter than marble; her beautiful arms +hung lifelessly on either side of her body as though their muscles +had suddenly relaxed, and she sought the support of a pillar, for her +yielding limbs almost betrayed her. As for myself, I staggered toward +the door of the church, livid as death, my forehead bathed with a sweat +bloodier than that of Calvary; I felt as though I were being strangled; +the vault seemed to have flattened down upon my shoulders, and it seemed +to me that my head alone sustained the whole weight of the dome. + +As I was about to cross the threshold a hand suddenly caught mine--a +woman's hand! I had never till then touched the hand of any woman. +It was cold as a serpent's skin, and yet its impress remained upon my +wrist, burnt there as though branded by a glowing iron. It was she. +'Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done?' she exclaimed in a low +voice, and immediately disappeared in the crowd. + +The aged bishop passed by. He cast a severe and scrutinising look upon +me. My face presented the wildest aspect imaginable: I blushed and +turned pale alternately; dazzling lights flashed before my eyes. A +companion took pity on me. He seized my arm and led me out. I could +not possibly have found my way back to the seminary unassisted. At the +corner of a street, while the young priest's attention was momentarily +turned in another direction, a negro page, fantastically garbed, +approached me, and without pausing on his way slipped into my hand +a little pocket-book with gold-embroidered corners, at the same time +giving me a sign to hide it. I concealed it in my sleeve, and there kept +it until I found myself alone in my cell. Then I opened the clasp. There +were only two leaves within, bearing the words, 'Clarimonde. At the +Concini Palace.' So little acquainted was I at that time with the things +of this world that I had never heard of Clarimonde, celebrated as she +was, and I had no idea as to where the Concini Palace was situated. I +hazarded a thousand conjectures, each more extravagant than the last; +but, in truth, I cared little whether she were a great lady or a +courtesan, so that I could but see her once more. + +My love, although the growth of a single hour, had taken imperishable +root. I did not even dream of attempting to tear it up, so fully was I +convinced such a thing would be impossible. That woman had completely +taken possession of me. One look from her had sufficed to change my very +nature. She had breathed her will into my life, and I no longer lived +in myself, but in her and for her. I gave myself up to a thousand +extravagancies. I kissed the place upon my hand which she had touched, +and I repeated her name over and over again for hours in succession. I +only needed to close my eyes in order to see her distinctly as though +she were actually present; and I reiterated to myself the words she had +uttered in my ear at the church porch: 'Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What +hast thou done?' I comprehended at last the full horror of my situation, +and the funereal and awful restraints of the state into which I had just +entered became clearly revealed to me. To be a priest!--that is, to be +chaste, to never love, to observe no distinction of sex or age, to turn +from the sight of all beauty, to put out one's own eyes, to hide for +ever crouching in the chill shadows of some church or cloister, to visit +none but the dying, to watch by unknown corpses, and ever bear about +with one the black soutane as a garb of mourning for oneself, so that +your very dress might serve as a pall for your coffin. + +And I felt life rising within me like a subterranean lake, expanding +and overflowing; my blood leaped fiercely through my arteries; my +long-restrained youth suddenly burst into active being, like the aloe +which blooms but once in a hundred years, and then bursts into blossom +with a clap of thunder. + +What could I do in order to see Clarimonde once more? I had no pretext +to offer for desiring to leave the seminary, not knowing any person in +the city. I would not even be able to remain there but a short time, +and was only waiting my assignment to the curacy which I must thereafter +occupy. I tried to remove the bars of the window; but it was at a +fearful height from the ground, and I found that as I had no ladder it +would be useless to think of escaping thus. And, furthermore, I could +descend thence only by night in any event, and afterward how should I be +able to find my way through the inextricable labyrinth of streets? +All these difficulties, which to many would have appeared altogether +insignificant, were gigantic to me, a poor seminarist who had fallen in +love only the day before for the first time, without experience, without +money, without attire. + +'Ah!' cried I to myself in my blindness, 'were I not a priest I could +have seen her every day; I might have been her lover, her spouse. +Instead of being wrapped in this dismal shroud of mine I would have had +garments of silk and velvet, golden chains, a sword, and fair plumes +like other handsome young cavaliers. My hair, instead of being +dishonoured by the tonsure, would flow down upon my neck in waving +curls; I would have a fine waxed moustache; I would be a gallant.' But +one hour passed before an altar, a few hastily articulated words, had +for ever cut me off from the number of the living, and I had myself +sealed down the stone of my own tomb; I had with my own hand bolted the +gate of my prison! I went to the window. The sky was beautifully blue; +the trees had donned their spring robes; nature seemed to be making +parade of an ironical joy. The _Place_ was filled with people, some +going, others coming; young beaux and young beauties were sauntering in +couples toward the groves and gardens; merry youths passed by, cheerily +trolling refrains of drinking-songs--it was all a picture of vivacity, +life, animation, gaiety, which formed a bitter contrast with my mourning +and my solitude. On the steps of the gate sat a young mother playing +with her child. She kissed its little rosy mouth still impearled with +drops of milk, and performed, in order to amuse it, a thousand divine +little puerilities such as only mothers know how to invent. The father +standing at a little distance smiled gently upon the charming group, and +with folded arms seemed to hug his joy to his heart. I could not endure +that spectacle. I closed the window with violence, and flung myself on +my bed, my heart filled with frightful hate and jealousy, and gnawed my +fingers and my bedcovers like a tiger that has passed ten days without +food. + +I know not how long I remained in this condition, but at last, while +writhing on the bed in a fit of spasmodic fury, I suddenly perceived +the Abb Srapion, who was standing erect in the centre of the room, +watching me attentively. Filled with shame of myself, I let my head fall +upon my breast and covered my face with my hands. + +'Romuald, my friend, something very extraordinary is transpiring within +you,' observed Srapion, after a few moments' silence; 'your conduct is +altogether inexplicable. You--always so quiet, so pious, so gentle--you +to rage in your cell like a wild beast! Take heed, brother--do not +listen to the suggestions of the devil The Evil Spirit, furious that you +have consecrated yourself for ever to the Lord, is prowling around you +like a ravening wolf and making a last effort to obtain possession of +you. Instead of allowing yourself to be conquered, my dear Romuald, +make to yourself a cuirass of prayers, a buckler of mortifications, and +combat the enemy like a valiant man; you will then assuredly overcome +him. Virtue must be proved by temptation, and gold comes forth purer +from the hands of the assayer. Fear not. Never allow yourself to become +discouraged. The most watchful and steadfast souls are at moments liable +to such temptation. Pray, fast, meditate, and the Evil Spirit will +depart from you.' + +The words of the Abb Srapion restored me to myself, and I became a +little more calm. 'I came,' he continued, 'to tell you that you have +been appointed to the curacy of C------. The priest who had charge of +it has just died, and Monseigneur the Bishop has ordered me to have you +installed there at once. Be ready, therefore, to start to-morrow.' +I responded with an inclination of the head, and the Abb retired. I +opened my missal and commenced reading some prayers, but the letters +became confused and blurred under my eyes, the thread of the ideas +entangled itself hopelessly in my brain, and the volume at last fell +from my hands without my being aware of it. + +To leave to-morrow without having been able to see her again, to add yet +another barrier to the many already interposed between us, to lose +for ever all hope of being able to meet her, except, indeed, through a +miracle! Even to write to her, alas! would be impossible, for by whom +could I dispatch my letter? With my sacred character of priest, to whom +could I dare unbosom myself, in whom could I confide? I became a prey to +the bitterest anxiety. + +Then suddenly recurred to me the words of the Abb Srapion regarding +the artifices of the devil; and the strange character of the adventure, +the supernatural beauty of Clarimonde, the phosphoric light of her eyes, +the burning imprint of her hand, the agony into which she had thrown +me, the sudden change wrought within me when all my piety vanished in a +single instant--these and other things clearly testified to the work +of the Evil One, and perhaps that satiny hand was but the glove which +concealed his claws. Filled with terror at these fancies, I again picked +up the missal which had slipped from my knees and fallen upon the floor, +and once more gave myself up to prayer. + +Next morning Srapion came to take me away. Two mules freighted with +our miserable valises awaited us at the gate. He mounted one, and I the +other as well as I knew how. + +As we passed along the streets of the city, I gazed attentively at all +the windows and balconies in the hope of seeing Clarimonde, but it was +yet early in the morning, and the city had hardly opened its eyes. Mine +sought to penetrate the blinds and window-curtains of all the palaces +before which we were passing. Srapion doubtless attributed this +curiosity to my admiration of the architecture, for he slackened the +pace of his animal in order to give me time to look around me. At last +we passed the city gates and commenced to mount the hill beyond. When +we arrived at its summit I turned to take a last look at the place where +Clarimonde dwelt. The shadow of a great cloud hung over all the city; +the contrasting colours of its blue and red roofs were lost in the +uniform half-tint, through which here and there floated upward, like +white flakes of foam, the smoke of freshly kindled fires. By a +singular optical effect one edifice, which surpassed in height all the +neighbouring buildings that were still dimly veiled by the vapours, +towered up, fair and lustrous with the gilding of a solitary beam of +sunlight--although actually more than a league away it seemed +quite near. The smallest details of its architecture were plainly +distinguishable--the turrets, the platforms, the window-casements, and +even the swallow-tailed weather-vanes. + +'What is that palace I see over there, all lighted up by the sun?' I +asked Srapion. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and having looked in +the direction indicated, replied: 'It is the ancient palace which the +Prince Concini has given to the courtesan Clarimonde. Awful things are +done there!' + +At that instant, I know not yet whether it was a reality or an illusion, +I fancied I saw gliding along the terrace a shapely white figure, +which gleamed for a moment in passing and as quickly vanished. It was +Clarimonde. + +Oh, did she know that at that very hour, all feverish and restless--from +the height of the rugged road which separated me from her, and which, +alas! I could never more descend--I was directing my eyes upon the +palace where she dwelt, and which a mocking beam of sunlight seemed to +bring nigh to me, as though inviting me to enter therein as its lord? +Undoubtedly she must have known it, for her soul was too sympathetically +united with mine not to have felt its least emotional thrill, and that +subtle sympathy it must have been which prompted her to climb--although +clad only in her nightdress--to the summit of the terrace, amid the icy +dews of the morning. + +The shadow gained the palace, and the scene became to the eye only +a motionless ocean of roofs and gables, amid which one mountainous +undulation was distinctly visible. Srapion urged his mule forward, my +own at once followed at the same gait, and a sharp angle in the road at +last hid the city of S------ for ever from my eyes, as I was destined +never to return thither. At the close of a weary three-days' journey +through dismal country fields, we caught sight of the cock upon the +steeple of the church which I was to take charge of, peeping above +the trees, and after having followed some winding roads fringed with +thatched cottages and little gardens, we found ourselves in front of the +faade, which certainly possessed few features of magnificence. A porch +ornamented with some mouldings, and two or three pillars rudely hewn +from sandstone; a tiled roof with counterforts of the same sandstone as +the pillars--that was all. To the left lay the cemetery, overgrown with +high weeds, and having a great iron cross rising up in its centre; to +the right stood the presbytery under the shadow of the church. It was a +house of the most extreme simplicity and frigid cleanliness. We entered +the enclosure. A few chickens were picking up some oats scattered upon +the ground; accustomed, seemingly, to the black habit of ecclesiastics, +they showed no fear of our presence and scarcely troubled themselves to +get out of our way. A hoarse, wheezy barking fell upon our ears, and we +saw an aged dog running toward us. + +It was my predecessor's dog. He had dull bleared eyes, grizzled hair, +and every mark of the greatest age to which a dog can possibly attain. +I patted him gently, and he proceeded at once to march along beside me +with an air of satisfaction unspeakable. A very old woman, who had been +the housekeeper of the former cur, also came to meet us, and after +having invited me into a little back parlour, asked whether I intended +to retain her. I replied that I would take care of her, and the dog, and +the chickens, and all the furniture her master had bequeathed her at +his death. At this she became fairly transported with joy, and the +Abb Srapion at once paid her the price which she asked for her little +property. + +As soon as my installation was over, the Abb Srapion returned to the +seminary. I was, therefore, left alone, with no one but myself to look +to for aid or counsel. The thought of Clarimonde again began to haunt +me, and in spite of all my endeavours to banish it, I always found it +present in my meditations. One evening, while promenading in my little +garden along the walks bordered with box-plants, I fancied that I saw +through the elm-trees the figure of a woman, who followed my every +movement, and that I beheld two sea-green eyes gleaming through the +foliage; but it was only an illusion, and on going round to the other +side of the garden, I could find nothing except a footprint on the +sanded walk--a footprint so small that it seemed to have been made +by the foot of a child. The garden was enclosed by very high walls. I +searched every nook and corner of it, but could discover no one there. +I have never succeeded in fully accounting for this circumstance, which, +after all, was nothing compared with the strange things which happened +to me afterward. + +For a whole year I lived thus, filling all the duties of my calling +with the most scrupulous exactitude, praying and fasting, exhorting and +lending ghostly aid to the sick, and bestowing alms even to the extent +of frequently depriving myself of the very necessaries of life. But I +felt a great aridness within me, and the sources of grace seemed closed +against me. I never found that happiness which should spring from the +fulfilment of a holy mission; my thoughts were far away, and the words +of Clarimonde were ever upon my lips like an involuntary refrain. Oh, +brother, meditate well on this! Through having but once lifted my eyes +to look upon a woman, through one fault apparently so venial, I have for +years remained a victim to the most miserable agonies, and the happiness +of my life has been destroyed for ever. + +I will not longer dwell upon those defeats, or on those inward victories +invariably followed by yet more terrible falls, but will at once proceed +to the facts of my story. One night my door-bell was long and violently +rung. The aged housekeeper arose and opened to the stranger, and the +figure of a man, whose complexion was deeply bronzed, and who was richly +clad in a foreign costume, with a poniard at his girdle, appeared under +the rays of Barbara's lantern. Her first impulse was one of terror, but +the stranger reassured her, and stated that he desired to see me at once +on matters relating to my holy calling. Barbara invited him upstairs, +where I was on the point of retiring. The stranger told me that his +mistress, a very noble lady, was lying at the point of death, and +desired to see a priest. I replied that I was prepared to follow him, +took with me the sacred articles necessary for extreme unction, and +descended in all haste. Two horses black as the night itself stood +without the gate, pawing the ground with impatience, and veiling their +chests with long streams of smoky vapour exhaled from their nostrils. He +held the stirrup and aided me to mount upon one; then, merely laying his +hand upon the pommel of the saddle, he vaulted on the other, pressed +the animal's sides with his knees, and loosened rein. The horse bounded +forward with the velocity of an arrow. Mine, of which the stranger held +the bridle, also started off at a swift gallop, keeping up with his +companion. We devoured the road. The ground flowed backward beneath us +in a long streaked line of pale gray, and the black silhouettes of +the trees seemed fleeing by us on either side like an army in rout. We +passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that I felt my flesh creep +in the chill darkness with superstitious fear. The showers of bright +sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod feet of our +horses remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and had any one +at that hour of the night beheld us both--my guide and myself--he must +have taken us for two spectres riding upon nightmares. Witch-fires ever +and anon flitted across the road before us, and the night-birds +shrieked fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond, where we beheld +at intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wild cats. The manes of the +horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat streamed over their +flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils hard and fast. But +when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated them by uttering +a strange, gutteral, unearthly cry, and the gallop recommenced with +fury. At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black mass pierced +through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before us, the +hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden drawbridge, and +we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two +enormous towers. Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle. +Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction, +and above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing. +I obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture--columns, +arcades, flights of steps, stairways--a royal voluptuousness and elfin +magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland. A negro page--the +same who had before brought me the tablet from Clarimonde, and whom +I instantly recognised--approached to aid me in dismounting, and the +major-domo, attired in black velvet with a gold chain about his neck, +advanced to meet me, supporting himself upon an ivory cane. Large tears +were falling from his eyes and streaming over his cheeks and white +beard. 'Too late!' he cried, sorrowfully shaking his venerable head. +'Too late, sir priest! But if you have not been able to save the soul, +come at least to watch by the poor body.' + +He took my arm and conducted me to the death-chamber. I wept not less +bitterly than he, for I had learned that the dead one was none other +than that Clarimonde whom I had so deeply and so wildly loved. A +_prie-dieu_ stood at the foot of the bed; a bluish flame flickering in a +bronze patern filled all the room with a wan, deceptive light, here +and there bringing out in the darkness at intervals some projection +of furniture or cornice. In a chiselled urn upon the table there was a +faded white rose, whose leaves--excepting one that still held--had all +fallen, like odorous tears, to the foot of the vase. A broken black +mask, a fan, and disguises of every variety, which were lying on the +armchairs, bore witness that death had entered suddenly and unannounced +into that sumptuous dwelling. Without daring to cast my eyes upon the +bed, I knelt down and commenced to repeat the Psalms for the Dead, with +exceeding fervour, thanking God that He had placed the tomb between +me and the memory of this woman, so that I might thereafter be able to +utter her name in my prayers as a name for ever sanctified by death. +But my fervour gradually weakened, and I fell insensibly into a reverie. +That chamber bore no semblance to a chamber of death. In lieu of the +fetid and cadaverous odours which I had been accustomed to breathe +during such funereal vigils, a languorous vapour of Oriental perfume--I +know not what amorous odour of woman--softly floated through the tepid +air. That pale light seemed rather a twilight gloom contrived for +voluptuous pleasure, than a substitute for the yellow-flickering +watch-tapers which shine by the side of corpses. I thought upon the +strange destiny which enabled me to meet Clarimonde again at the very +moment when she was lost to me for ever, and a sigh of regretful anguish +escaped from my breast. Then it seemed to me that some one behind me +had also sighed, and I turned round to look. It was only an echo. But in +that moment my eyes fell upon the bed of death which they had till then +avoided. The red damask curtains, decorated with large flowers worked in +embroidery and looped up with gold bullion, permitted me to behold the +fair dead, lying at full length, with hands joined upon her bosom. She +was covered with a linen wrapping of dazzling whiteness, which formed +a strong contrast with the gloomy purple of the hangings, and was of so +fine a texture that it concealed nothing of her body's charming form, +and allowed the eye to follow those beautiful outlines--undulating like +the neck of a swan--which even death had not robbed of their supple +grace. She seemed an alabaster statue executed by some skilful sculptor +to place upon the tomb of a queen, or rather, perhaps, like a slumbering +maiden over whom the silent snow had woven a spotless veil. + +I could no longer maintain my constrained attitude of prayer. The air +of the alcove intoxicated me, that febrile perfume of half-faded roses +penetrated my very brain, and I commenced to pace restlessly up and down +the chamber, pausing at each turn before the bier to contemplate the +graceful corpse lying beneath the transparency of its shroud. Wild +fancies came thronging to my brain. I thought to myself that she might +not, perhaps, be really dead; that she might only have feigned death for +the purpose of bringing me to her castle, and then declaring her love. +At one time I even thought I saw her foot move under the whiteness of +the coverings, and slightly disarrange the long straight folds of the +winding-sheet. + +And then I asked myself: 'Is this indeed Clarimonde? What proof have I +that it is she? Might not that black page have passed into the service +of some other lady? Surely, I must be going mad to torture and afflict +myself thus!' But my heart answered with a fierce throbbing: 'It is she; +it is she indeed!' I approached the bed again, and fixed my eyes with +redoubled attention upon the object of my incertitude. Ah, must I +confess it? That exquisite perfection of bodily form, although purified +and made sacred by the shadow of death, affected me more voluptuously +than it should have done; and that repose so closely resembled slumber +that one might well have mistaken it for such. I forgot that I had come +there to perform a funeral ceremony; I fancied myself a young bridegroom +entering the chamber of the bride, who all modestly hides her fair face, +and through coyness seeks to keep herself wholly veiled. Heartbroken +with grief, yet wild with hope, shuddering at once with fear and +pleasure, I bent over her and grasped the corner of the sheet. I lifted +it back, holding my breath all the while through fear of waking her. My +arteries throbbed with such violence that I felt them hiss through my +temples, and the sweat poured from my forehead in streams, as though I +had lifted a mighty slab of marble. There, indeed, lay Clarimonde, even +as I had seen her at the church on the day of my ordination. She was not +less charming than then. With her, death seemed but a last coquetry. The +pallor of her cheeks, the less brilliant carnation of her lips, her long +eyelashes lowered and relieving their dark fringe against that white +skin, lent her an unspeakably seductive aspect of melancholy chastity +and mental suffering; her long loose hair, still intertwined with some +little blue flowers, made a shining pillow for her head, and veiled the +nudity of her shoulders with its thick ringlets; her beautiful hands, +purer, more diaphanous, than the Host, were crossed on her bosom in an +attitude of pious rest and silent prayer, which served to counteract all +that might have proven otherwise too alluring--even after death--in the +exquisite roundness and ivory polish of her bare arms from which the +pearl bracelets had not yet been removed. I remained long in mute +contemplation, and the more I gazed, the less could I persuade myself +that life had really abandoned that beautiful body for ever. I do not +know whether it was an illusion or a reflection of the lamplight, but it +seemed to me that the blood was again commencing to circulate under that +lifeless pallor, although she remained all motionless. I laid my hand +lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not colder than her hand on the +day when it touched mine at the portals of the church. I resumed my +position, bending my face above her, and bathing her cheek with the warm +dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair and helplessness, +what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long watch! Vainly did I +wish that I could have gathered all my life into one mass that I might +give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains the flame which +devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of eternal +separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet pleasure +of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my only +love.... Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, and +the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of mine. +Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former +brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed +them around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. 'Ah, it is thou, +Romuald!' she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last +vibrations of a harp. 'What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for +thee that I am dead; but we are now betrothed: I can see thee and visit +thee. Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to +tell thee, and I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment +recalled. We shall soon meet again.' + +Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain +me still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered +the chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment +palpitated at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly's wing, then +it detached itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing +with it the soul of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell +insensible upon the bosom of the beautiful dead. + +When I came to myself again I was lying on the bed in my little room at +the presbytery, and the old dog of the former cur was licking my +hand, which had been hanging down outside of the covers. Barbara, all +trembling with age and anxiety, was busying herself about the room, +opening and shutting drawers, and emptying powders into glasses. On +seeing me open my eyes, the old woman uttered a cry of joy, the dog +yelped and wagged his tail, but I was still so weak that I could not +speak a single word or make the slightest motion. Afterward I learned +that I had lain thus for three days, giving no evidence of life beyond +the faintest respiration. Those three days do not reckon in my life, nor +could I ever imagine whither my spirit had departed during those three +days; I have no recollection of aught relating to them. Barbara told me +that the same coppery-complexioned man who came to seek me on the night +of my departure from the presbytery had brought me back the next morning +in a close litter, and departed immediately afterward. When I became +able to collect my scattered thoughts, I reviewed within my mind all the +circumstances of that fateful night. At first I thought I had been the +victim of some magical illusion, but ere long the recollection of other +circumstances, real and palpable in themselves, came to forbid that +supposition. I could not believe that I had been dreaming, since Barbara +as well as myself had seen the strange man with his two black horses, +and described with exactness every detail of his figure and apparel. +Nevertheless it appeared that none knew of any castle in the +neighbourhood answering to the description of that in which I had again +found Clarimonde. + +One morning I found the Abb Srapion in my room. Barbara had advised +him that I was ill, and he had come with all speed to see me. Although +this haste on his part testified to an affectionate interest in me, yet +his visit did not cause me the pleasure which it should have done. The +Abb Srapion had something penetrating and inquisitorial in his +gaze which made me feel very ill at ease. His presence filled me with +embarrassment and a sense of guilt. At the first glance he divined my +interior trouble, and I hated him for his clairvoyance. + +While he inquired after my health in hypocritically honeyed accents, +he constantly kept his two great yellow lion-eyes fixed upon me, and +plunged his look into my soul like a sounding-lead. Then he asked me +how I directed my parish, if I was happy in it, how I passed the leisure +hours allowed me in the intervals of pastoral duty, whether I had +become acquainted with many of the inhabitants of the place, what was my +favourite reading, and a thousand other such questions. I answered these +inquiries as briefly as possible, and he, without ever waiting for +my answers, passed rapidly from one subject of query to another. That +conversation had evidently no connection with what he actually wished to +say. At last, without any premonition, but as though repeating a piece +of news which he had recalled on the instant, and feared might otherwise +be forgotten subsequently, he suddenly said, in a clear vibrant voice, +which rang in my ears like the trumpets of the Last Judgment: + +'The great courtesan Clarimonde died a few days ago, at the close of +an orgie which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something +infernally splendid. The abominations of the banquets of Belshazzar and +Cleopatra were re-enacted there. Good God, what age are we living in? +The guests were served by swarthy slaves who spoke an unknown tongue, +and who seemed to me to be veritable demons. The livery of the very +least among them would have served for the gala-dress of an emperor. +There have always been very strange stories told of this Clarimonde, and +all her lovers came to a violent or miserable end. They used to say that +she was a ghoul, a female vampire; but I believe she was none other than +Beelzebub himself.' + +He ceased to speak, and commenced to regard me more attentively than +ever, as though to observe the effect of his words on me. I could not +refrain from starting when I heard him utter the name of Clarimonde, and +this news of her death, in addition to the pain it caused me by reason +of its coincidence with the nocturnal scenes I had witnessed, filled +me with an agony and terror which my face betrayed, despite my utmost +endeavours to appear composed. Srapion fixed an anxious and severe +look upon me, and then observed: 'My son, I must warn you that you are +standing with foot raised upon the brink of an abyss; take heed lest you +fall therein. Satan's claws are long, and tombs are not always true to +their trust. The tombstone of Clarimonde should be sealed down with a +triple seal, for, if report be true, it is not the first time she has +died. May God watch over you, Romuald!' + +And with these words the Abb walked slowly to the door. I did not see +him again at that time, for he left for S------ almost immediately. + +I became completely restored to health and resumed my accustomed duties. +The memory of Clarimonde and the words of the old Abb were constantly +in my mind; nevertheless no extraordinary event had occurred to verify +the funereal predictions of Srapion, and I had commenced to believe +that his fears and my own terrors were over-exaggerated, when one +night I had a strange dream. I had hardly fallen asleep when I heard my +bed-curtains drawn apart, as their rings slided back upon the curtain +rod with a sharp sound. I rose up quickly upon my elbow, and beheld +the shadow of a woman standing erect before me. I recognised Clarimonde +immediately. She bore in her hand a little lamp, shaped like those which +are placed in tombs, and its light lent her fingers a rosy transparency, +which extended itself by lessening degrees even to the opaque and milky +whiteness of her bare arm. Her only garment was the linen winding-sheet +which had shrouded her when lying upon the bed of death. She sought to +gather its folds over her bosom as though ashamed of being so scantily +clad, but her little hand was not equal to the task. She was so white +that the colour of the drapery blended with that of her flesh under +the pallid rays of the lamp. Enveloped with this subtle tissue which +betrayed all the contour of her body, she seemed rather the marble +statue of some fair antique bather than a woman endowed with life. But +dead or living, statue or woman, shadow or body, her beauty was still +the same, only that the green light of her eyes was less brilliant, and +her mouth, once so warmly crimson, was only tinted with a faint tender +rosiness, like that of her cheeks. The little blue flowers which I had +noticed entwined in her hair were withered and dry, and had lost nearly +all their leaves, but this did not prevent her from being charming--so +charming that, notwithstanding the strange character of the adventure, +and the unexplainable manner in which she had entered my room, I felt +not even for a moment the least fear. + +She placed the lamp on the table and seated herself at the foot of my +bed; then bending toward me, she said, in that voice at once silvery +clear and yet velvety in its sweet softness, such as I never heard from +any lips save hers: + +'I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and it must have seemed +to thee that I had forgotten thee. But I come from afar off, very far +off, and from a land whence no other has ever yet returned. There is +neither sun nor moon in that land whence I come: all is but space and +shadow; there is neither road nor pathway: no earth for the foot, no air +for the wing; and nevertheless behold me here, for Love is stronger than +Death and must conquer him in the end. Oh what sad faces and fearful +things I have seen on my way hither! What difficulty my soul, returned +to earth through the power of will alone, has had in finding its body +and reinstating itself therein! What terrible efforts I had to make ere +I could lift the ponderous slab with which they had covered me! See, the +palms of my poor hands are all bruised! Kiss them, sweet love, that they +may be healed!' She laid the cold palms of her hands upon ray mouth, one +after the other. I kissed them, indeed, many times, and she the while +watched me with a smile of ineffable affection. + +I confess to my shame that I had entirely forgotten the advice of the +Abb Srapion and the sacred office wherewith I had been invested. I had +fallen without resistance, and at the first assault. I had not even +made the least effort to repel the tempter. The fresh coolness of +Clarimonde's skin penetrated my own, and I felt voluptuous tremors pass +over my whole body. Poor child! in spite of all I saw afterward, I can +hardly yet believe she was a demon; at least she had no appearance +of being such, and never did Satan so skilfully conceal his claws and +horns. She had drawn her feet up beneath her, and squatted down on the +edge of the couch in an attitude full of negligent coquetry. From time +to time she passed her little hand through my hair and twisted it into +curls, as though trying how a new style of wearing it would become my +face. I abandoned myself to her hands with the most guilty pleasure, +while she accompanied her gentle play with the prettiest prattle. The +most remarkable fact was that I felt no astonishment whatever at so +extraordinary ah adventure, and as in dreams one finds no difficulty +in accepting the most fantastic events as simple facts, so all these +circumstances seemed to me perfectly natural in themselves. + +'I loved thee long ere I saw thee, dear Romuald, and sought thee +everywhere. Thou wast my dream, and I first saw thee in the church at +the fatal moment. I said at once, "It is he!" I gave thee a look into +which I threw all the love I ever had, all the love I now have, all +the love I shall ever have for thee--a look that would have damned a +cardinal or brought a king to his knees at my feet in view of all his +court. Thou remainedst unmoved, preferring thy God to me! + +'Ah, how jealous I am of that God whom thou didst love and still lovest +more than me! + +'Woe is me, unhappy one that I am! I can never have thy heart all to +myself, I whom thou didst recall to life with a kiss--dead Clarimonde, +who for thy sake bursts asunder the gates of the tomb, and comes to +consecrate to thee a life which she has resumed only to make thee +happy!' + +All her words were accompanied with the most impassioned caresses, which +bewildered my sense and my reason to such an extent, that I did not fear +to utter a frightful blasphemy for the sake of consoling her, and to +declare that I loved her as much as God. + +Her eyes rekindled and shone like chrysoprases. 'In truth?--in very +truth?--as much as God!' she cried, flinging her beautiful arms around +me. 'Since it is so, thou wilt come with me; thou wilt follow me +whithersoever I desire. Thou wilt cast away thy ugly black habit. Thou +shalt be the proudest and most envied of cavaliers; thou shalt be my +lover! To be the acknowledged lover of Clarimonde, who has refused +even a Pope! That will be something to feel proud of. Ah, the fair, +unspeakably happy existence, the beautiful golden life we shall live +together! And when shall we depart, my fair sir?' + +'To-morrow! To-morrow!' I cried in my delirium. + +'To-morrow, then, so let it be!' she answered. 'In the meanwhile I shall +have opportunity to change my toilet, for this is a little too light +and in nowise suited for a voyage. I must also forthwith notify all +my friends who believe me dead, and mourn for me as deeply as they are +capable of doing. The money, the dresses, the carriages--all will be +ready. I shall call for thee at this same hour. Adieu, dear heart!' And +she lightly touched my forehead with her lips. The lamp went out, the +curtains closed again, and all became dark; a leaden, dreamless sleep +fell on me and held me unconscious until the morning following. + +I awoke later than usual, and the recollection of this singular +adventure troubled me during the whole day. I finally persuaded myself +that it was a mere vapour of my heated imagination. Nevertheless its +sensations had been so vivid that it was difficult to persuade myself +that they were not real, and it was not without some presentiment of +what was going to happen that I got into bed at last, after having +prayed God to drive far from me all thoughts of evil, and to protect the +chastity of my slumber. + +I soon fell into a deep sleep, and my dream was continued. The curtains +again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion, +pale in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her +cheeks, but gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling-dress of +green velvet, trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to +allow a glimpse of satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick +ringlets from beneath a broad black felt hat, decorated with white +feathers whimsically twisted into various shapes. In one hand she held a +little riding-whip terminated by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly +with it, and exclaimed: 'Well, my fine sleeper, is this the way you +make your preparations? I thought I would find you up and dressed. Arise +quickly, we have no time to lose.' + +I leaped out of bed at once. + +'Come, dress yourself, and let us go,' she continued, pointing to +a little package she had brought with her. 'The horses are becoming +impatient of delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have +been by this time at least ten leagues distant from here.' + +I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel +herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my +awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made +a mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up +before me a little pocket-mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver +filigree-work, and playfully asked: 'How dost find thyself now? Wilt +engage me for thy valet de chambre?' + +I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognise myself. +I resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles +a block of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one +reflected in the mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly +tickled by the metamorphosis. + +That elegant apparel, that richly embroidered vest had made of me +a totally different personage, and I marvelled at the power of +transformation owned by a few yards of cloth cut after a certain +pattern. The spirit of my costume penetrated my very skin and within ten +minutes more I had become something of a coxcomb. + +In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns +up and down the room. Clari-monde watched me with an air of maternal +pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. 'Come, enough of +this child's play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and +we may not get there in time.' She took my hand and led me forth. All +the doors opened before her at a touch, and we passed by the dog without +awaking him. + +At the gate we found Margheritone waiting, the same swarthy groom who +had once before been my-escort. He held the bridles of three horses, all +black like those which bore us to the castle--one for me, one for him, +one for Clarimonde. Those horses must have been Spanish genets born of +mares fecundated by a zephyr, for they were fleet as the wind itself, +and the moon, which had just risen at our departure to light us on the +way, rolled over the sky like a wheel detached from her own chariot. We +beheld her on the right leaping from tree to tree, and putting herself +out of breath in the effort to keep up with us. Soon we came upon +a level plain where, hard by a clump of trees, a carriage with four +vigorous horses awaited us. We entered it, and the postillions urged +their animals into a mad gallop. I had one arm around Clarimonde's +waist, and one of her hands clasped in mine; her head leaned upon my +shoulder, and I felt her bosom, half bare, lightly pressing against +my arm. I had never known such intense happiness. In that hour I had +forgotten everything, and I no more remembered having ever been a priest +than I remembered what I had been doing in my mother's womb, so great +was the fascination which the evil spirit exerted upon me. From that +night my nature seemed in some sort to have become halved, and there +were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I +believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman, at +another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could +no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I discover +where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite +young lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the +dissolute habits of the young lord. Two spirals entangled and confounded +the one with the other, yet never touching, would afford a fair +representation of this bicephalic life which I lived. Despite the +strange character of my condition, I do not believe that I ever +inclined, even for a moment, to madness. I always retained with extreme +vividness all the perceptions of my two lives. Only there was one absurd +fact which I could not explain to myself--namely, that the consciousness +of the same individuality existed in two men so opposite in character. +It was an anomaly for which I could not account--whether I believed +myself to be the cur of the little village of C------, or _Il Signor +Romualdo_, the titled lover of Clarimonde. + +Be that as it may, I lived, at least I believed that I lived, in Venice. +I have never been able to discover rightly how much of illusion and how +much of reality there was in this fantastic adventure. We dwelt in a +great palace on the Canaleio, filled with frescoes and statues, and +containing two Titians in the noblest style of the great master, which +were hung in Clarimonde's chamber. It was a palace well worthy of a +king. We had each our gondola, our _barcarolli_ in family livery, +our music hall, and our special poet. Clarimonde always lived upon a +magnificent scale; there was something of Cleopatra in her nature. As +for me, I had the retinue of a prince's son, and I was regarded with as +much reverential respect as though I had been of the family of one of +the twelve Apostles or the four Evangelists of the Most Serene Republic. +I would not have turned aside to allow even the Doge to pass, and I do +not believe that since Satan fell from heaven, any creature was ever +prouder or more insolent than I. I went to the Ridotto, and played with +a luck which seemed absolutely infernal. I received the best of all +society--the sons of ruined families, women of the theatre, shrewd +knaves, parasites, hectoring swashbucklers. But notwithstanding the +dissipation of such a life, I always remained faithful to Clarimonde. +I loved her wildly. She would have excited satiety itself, and chained +inconstancy. To have Clarimonde was to have twenty mistresses; ay, +to possess all women: so mobile, so varied of aspect, so fresh in new +charms was she all in herself--a very chameleon of a woman, in sooth. +She made you commit with her the infidelity you would have committed +with another, by donning to perfection the character, the attraction, +the style of beauty of the woman who appeared to please you. She +returned my love a hundred-fold, and it was in vain that the young +patricians and even the Ancients of the Council of Ten made her the most +magnificent proposals. A Foscari even went so far as to offer to espouse +her. She rejected all his overtures. Of gold she had enough. She wished +no longer for anything but love--a love youthful, pure, evoked by +herself, and which should be a first and last passion. I would have been +perfectly happy but for a cursed nightmare which recurred every night, +and in which I believed myself to be a poor village cur, practising +mortification and penance for my excesses during the day. Reassured by +my constant association with her, I never thought further of the strange +manner in which I had become acquainted with Clarimonde. But the words +of the Abb Srapion concerning her recurred often to my memory, and +never ceased to cause me uneasiness. + +For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; +her complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned +could not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat +it. They all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called +a second time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she +became colder and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as +upon that memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish +unspeakable to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my +agony, smiled upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those +who feel that they must die. + +One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little +table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her +for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally +inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed +forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. +Her eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and +ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her. She leaped out +of her bed with animal agility--the agility, as it were, of an ape or a +cat--and sprang upon my wound, which she commenced to suck with an air +of unutterable pleasure. She swallowed the blood in little mouthfuls, +slowly and carefully, like a connoisseur tasting a wine from Xeres or +Syracuse. Gradually her eyelids half closed, and the pupils of her green +eyes became oblong instead of round. From time to time she paused in +order to kiss my hand, then she would recommence to press her lips to +the lips of the wound in order to coax forth a few more ruddy drops. +When she found that the blood would no longer come, she arose with eyes +liquid and brilliant, rosier than a May dawn; her face full and fresh, +her hand warm and moist--in fine, more beautiful than ever, and in the +most perfect health. + +'I shall not die! I shall not die!' she cried, clinging to my neck, half +mad with joy. 'I can love thee yet for a long time. My life is thine, +and all that is of me comes from thee. A few drops of thy rich and noble +blood, more precious and more potent than all the elixirs of the earth, +have given me back life.' + +This scene long haunted my memory, and inspired me with strange +doubts in regard to Clarimonde; and the same evening, when slumber had +transported me to my presbytery, I beheld the Abb Srapion, graver +and more anxious of aspect than ever. He gazed attentively at me, and +sorrowfully exclaimed: 'Not content with losing your soul, you now +desire also to lose your body. Wretched young man, into how terrible +a plight have you fallen!' The tone in which he uttered these words +powerfully affected me, but in spite of its vividness even that +impression was soon dissipated, and a thousand other cares erased it +from my mind. At last one evening, while looking into a mirror whose +traitorous position she had not taken into account, I saw Clarimonde in +the act of emptying a powder into the cup of spiced wine which she had +long been in the habit of preparing after our repasts. I took the +cup, feigned to carry it to my lips, and then placed it on the nearest +article of furniture as though intending to finish it at my leisure. +Taking advantage of a moment when the fair one's back was turned, I +threw the contents under the table, after which I retired to my chamber +and went to bed, fully resolved not to sleep, but to watch and discover +what should come of all this mystery. I did not have to wait long, +Clarimonde entered in her nightdress, and having removed her apparel, +crept into bed and lay down beside me. When she felt assured that I +was asleep, she bared my arm, and drawing a gold pin from her hair, +commenced to murmur in a low voice: + +'One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since +thou lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful +blood, so brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! +Sleep, my god, my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy +life what I must to keep my own from being for ever extinguished. But +that I love thee so much, I could well resolve to have other lovers +whose veins I could drain; but since I have known thee all other men +have become hateful to me.... Ah, the beautiful arm! How round it is! +How white it is! How shall I ever dare to prick this pretty blue vein!' +And while thus murmuring to herself she wept, and I felt her tears +raining on my arm as she clasped it with her hands. At last she took the +resolve, slightly punctured me with her pin, and commenced to suck up +the blood which oozed from the place. Although she swallowed only a few +drops, the fear of weakening me soon seized her, and she carefully tied +a little band around my arm, afterward rubbing the wound with an unguent +which immediately cicatrised it. Further doubts were impossible. The +Abb Srapion was right. Notwithstanding this positive knowledge, +however, I could not cease to love Clarimonde, and I would gladly of +my own accord have given her all the blood she required to sustain her +factitious life. Moreover, I felt but little fear of her. The woman +seemed to plead with me for the vampire, and what I had already heard +and seen sufficed to reassure me completely. In those days I had +plenteous veins, which would not have been so easily exhausted as at +present; and I would not have thought of bargaining for my blood, drop +by drop. I would rather have opened myself the veins of my arm and said +to her: 'Drink, and may my love infiltrate itself throughout thy body +together with my blood!' I carefully avoided ever making the least +reference to the narcotic drink she had prepared for me, or to the +incident of the pin, and we lived in the most perfect harmony. + +Yet my priestly scruples commenced to torment me more than ever, and +I was at a loss to imagine what new penance I could invent in order to +mortify and subdue my flesh. Although these visions were involuntary, +and though I did not actually participate in anything relating to them, +I could not dare to touch the body of Christ with hands so impure and a +mind defiled by such debauches whether real or imaginary. In the effort +to avoid falling under the influence of these wearisome hallucinations, +I strove to prevent myself from being overcome by sleep. I held my +eyelids open with my fingers, and stood for hours together leaning +upright against the wall, fighting sleep with all my might; but the dust +of drowsiness invariably gathered upon my eyes at last, and finding all +resistance useless, I would have to let my arms fall in the extremity +of despairing weariness, and the current of slumber would again bear +me away to the perfidious shores. Srapion addressed me with the most +vehement exhortations, severely reproaching me for my softness and want +of fervour. Finally, one day when I was more wretched than usual, he +said to me: 'There is but one way by which you can obtain relief from +this continual torment, and though it is an extreme measure it must be +made use of; violent diseases require violent remedies. I know where +Clarimonde is buried. It is necessary that we shall disinter her +remains, and that you shall behold in how pitiable a state the object of +your love is. Then you will no longer be tempted to lose your soul for +the sake of an unclean corpse devoured by worms, and ready to crumble +into dust. That will assuredly restore you to yourself.' For my part, I +was so tired of this double life that I at once consented, desiring to +ascertain beyond a doubt whether a priest or a gentleman had been the +victim of delusion. I had become fully resolved either to kill one of +the two men within me for the benefit of the other, or else to kill +both, for so terrible an existence could not last long and be endured. +The Abb Srapion provided himself with a mattock, a lever, and a +lantern, and at midnight we wended our way to the cemetery of ------, +the location and place of which were perfectly familiar to him. After +having directed the rays of the dark lantern upon the inscriptions of +several tombs, we came at last upon a great slab, half concealed by +huge weeds and devoured by mosses and parasitic plants, whereupon we +deciphered the opening lines of the epitaph: + + Here lies Clarimonde + Who was famed in her life-time + As the fairest of women.* + + * Ici gt Clarimonde + Qui fut de son vivant + La plus belle du monde. + + The broken beauty of the lines is unavoidably + lost in the translation. + +'It is here without a doubt,' muttered Srapion, and placing his lantern +on the ground, he forced the point of the lever under the edge of the +stone and commenced to raise it. The stone yielded, and he proceeded to +work with the mattock. Darker and more silent than the night itself, I +stood by and watched him do it, while he, bending over his dismal toil, +streamed with sweat, panted, and his hard-coming breath seemed to have +the harsh tone of a death rattle. It was a weird scene, and had any +persons from without beheld us, they would assuredly have taken us +rather for profane wretches and shroud-stealers than for priests of God. +There was something grim and fierce in Srapion's zeal which lent him +the air of a demon rather than of an apostle or an angel, and his great +aquiline face, with all its stern features, brought out in strong relief +by the lantern-light, had something fearsome in it which enhanced the +unpleasant fancy. I felt an icy sweat come out upon my forehead in huge +beads, and my hair stood up with a hideous fear. Within the depths of my +own heart I felt that the act of the austere Srapion was an abominable +sacrilege; and I could have prayed that a triangle of fire would issue +from the entrails of the dark clouds, heavily rolling above us, +to reduce him to cinders. The owls which had been nestling in the +cypress-trees, startled by the gleam of the lantern, flew against it +from time to time, striking their dusty wings against its panes, and +uttering plaintive cries of lamentation; wild foxes yelped in the far +darkness, and a thousand sinister noises detached themselves from the +silence. At last Sra-pion's mattock struck the coffin itself, making +its planks re-echo with a deep sonorous sound, with that terrible sound +nothingness utters when stricken. He wrenched apart and tore up the +lid, and I beheld Clarimonde, pallid as a figure of marble, with hands +joined; her white winding-sheet made but one fold from her head to her +feet. A little crimson drop sparkled like a speck of dew at one corner +of her colourless mouth. Srapion, at this spectacle, burst into fury: +'Ah, thou art here, demon! Impure courtesan! Drinker of blood and gold! +'And he flung holy water upon the corpse and the coffin, over which he +traced the sign of the cross with his sprinkler. Poor Clarimonde had +no sooner been touched by the blessed spray than her beautiful body +crumbled into dust, and became only a shapeless and frightful mass of +cinders and half-calcined bones. + +'Behold your mistress, my Lord Romuald!' cried the inexorable priest, as +he pointed to these sad remains. 'Will you be easily tempted after this +to promenade on the Lido or at Fusina with your beauty?' I covered my +face with my hands, a vast ruin had taken place within me. I returned +to my presbytery, and the noble Lord Romuald, the lover of Clarimonde, +separated himself from the poor priest with whom he had kept such +strange company so long. But once only, the following night, I saw +Clarimonde. She said to me, as she had said the first time at the +portals of the church: 'Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done? +Wherefore have hearkened to that imbecile priest? Wert thou not happy? +And what harm had I ever done thee that thou shouldst violate my poor +tomb, and lay bare the miseries of my nothingness? All communication +between our souls and our bodies is henceforth for ever broken. Adieu! +Thou wilt yet regret me!' She vanished in air as smoke, and I never saw +her more. + +Alas! she spoke truly indeed. I have regretted her more than once, and I +regret her still. My soul's peace has been very dearly bought. The +love of God was not too much to replace such a love as hers. And this, +brother, is the story of my youth. Never gaze upon a woman, and walk +abroad only with eyes ever fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and +watchful one may be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one +lose eternity. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Thophile Gautier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + +***** This file should be named 22661-8.txt or 22661-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/6/22661/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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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: Clarimonde + +Author: Théophile Gautier + +Translator: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22661] +Last Updated: October 1, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + CLARIMONDE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Théophile Gautier + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated By Lafcadio Hearn <br /> <br /> <br /> 1908 + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a strange and + terrible one; and though I am sixty-six years of age, I scarcely dare even + now to disturb the ashes of that memory. To you I can refuse nothing; but + I should not relate such a tale to any less experienced mind. So strange + were the circumstances of my story, that I can scarcely believe myself to + have ever actually been a party to them. For more than three years I + remained the victim of a most singular and diabolical illusion. Poor + country priest though I was, I led every night in a dream—would to + God it had been all a dream!—a most worldly life, a damning life, a + life of Sardanapalus. One single look too freely cast upon a woman + well-nigh caused me to lose my soul; but finally by the grace of God and + the assistance of my patron saint, I succeeded in casting out the evil + spirit that possessed me. My daily life was long interwoven with a + nocturnal life of a totally different character. By day I was a priest of + the Lord, occupied with prayer and sacred things; by night, from the + instant that I closed my eyes I became a young nobleman, a fine + connoisseur in women, dogs, and horses; gambling, drinking, and + blaspheming; and when I awoke at early daybreak, it seemed to me, on the + other hand, that I had been sleeping, and had only dreamed that I was a + priest. Of this somnambulistic life there now remains to me only the + recollection of certain scenes and words which I cannot banish from my + memory; but although I never actually left the walls of my presbytery, one + would think to hear me speak that I were a man who, weary of all worldly + pleasures, had become a religious, seeking to end a tempestuous life in + the service of God, rather than a humble seminarist who has grown old in + this obscure curacy, situated in the depths of the woods and even isolated + from the life of the century. + </p> + <p> + Yes, I have loved as none in the world ever loved—with an insensate + and furious passion—so violent that I am astonished it did not cause + my heart to burst asunder. Ah, what nights—what nights! + </p> + <p> + From my earliest childhood I had felt a vocation to the priesthood, so + that all my studies were directed with that idea in view. Up to the age of + twenty-four my life had been only a prolonged novitiate. Having completed + my course of theology I successively received all the minor orders, and my + superiors judged me worthy, despite my youth, to pass the last awful + degree. My ordination was fixed for Easter week. + </p> + <p> + I had never gone into the world. My world was confined by the walls of the + college and the seminary. I knew in a vague sort of a way that there was + something called Woman, but I never permitted my thoughts to dwell on such + a subject, and I lived in a state of perfect innocence. Twice a year only + I saw my infirm and aged mother, and in those visits were comprised my + sole relations with the outer world. + </p> + <p> + I regretted nothing; I felt not the least hesitation at taking the last + irrevocable step; I was filled with joy and impatience. Never did a + betrothed lover count the slow hours with more feverish ardour; I slept + only to dream that I was saying mass; I believed there could be nothing in + the world more delightful than to be a priest; I would have refused to be + a king or a poet in preference. My ambition could conceive of no loftier + aim. + </p> + <p> + I tell you this in order to show you that what happened to me could not + have happened in the natural order of things, and to enable you to + understand that I was the victim of an inexplicable fascination. + </p> + <p> + At last the great day came. I walked to the church with a step so light + that I fancied myself sustained in air, or that I had wings upon my + shoulders. I believed myself an angel, and wondered at the sombre and + thoughtful faces of my companions, for there were several of us. I had + passed all the night in prayer, and was in a condition wellnigh bordering + on ecstasy. The bishop, a venerable old man, seemed to me God the Father + leaning over His Eternity, and I beheld Heaven through the vault of the + temple. + </p> + <p> + You well know the details of that ceremony—the benediction, the + communion under both forms, the anointing of the palms of the hands with + the Oil of Catechumens, and then the holy sacrifice offered in concert + with the bishop. + </p> + <p> + Ah, truly spake Job when he declared that the imprudent man is one who + hath not made a covenant with his eyes! I accidentally lifted my head, + which until then I had kept down, and beheld before me, so close that it + seemed that I could have touched her—although she was actually a + considerable distance from me and on the further side of the sanctuary + railing—a young woman of extraordinary beauty, and attired with + royal magnificence. It seemed as though scales had suddenly fallen from my + eyes. I felt like a blind man who unexpectedly recovers his sight. The + bishop, so radiantly glorious but an instant before, suddenly vanished + away, the tapers paled upon their golden candlesticks like stars in the + dawn, and a vast darkness seemed to fill the whole church. The charming + creature appeared in bright relief against the background of that + darkness, like some angelic revelation. She seemed herself radiant, and + radiating light rather than receiving it. + </p> + <p> + I lowered my eyelids, firmly resolved not to again open them, that I might + not be influenced by external objects, for distraction had gradually taken + possession of me until I hardly knew what I was doing. + </p> + <p> + In another minute, nevertheless, I reopened my eyes, for through my + eyelashes I still beheld her, all sparkling with prismatic colours, and + surrounded with such a penumbra as one beholds in gazing at the sun. + </p> + <p> + Oh, how beautiful she was! The greatest painters, who followed ideal + beauty into heaven itself, and thence brought back to earth the true + portrait of the Madonna, never in their delineations even approached that + wildly beautiful reality which I saw before me. Neither the verses of the + poet nor the palette of the artist could convey any conception of her. She + was rather tall, with a form and bearing of a goddess. Her hair, of a soft + blonde hue, was parted in the midst and flowed back over her temples in + two rivers of rippling gold; she seemed a diademed queen. Her forehead, + bluish-white in its transparency, extended its calm breadth above the + arches of her eyebrows, which by a strange singularity were almost black, + and admirably relieved the effect of sea-green eyes of unsustainable + vivacity and brilliancy. What eyes! With a single flash they could have + decided a man’s destiny. They had a life, a limpidity, an ardour, a humid + light which I have never seen in human eyes; they shot forth rays like + arrows, which I could distinctly <i>see</i> enter my heart. I know not if + the fire which illumined them came from heaven or from hell, but assuredly + it came from one or the other. That woman was either an angel or a demon, + perhaps both. Assuredly she never sprang from the flank of Eve, our common + mother. Teeth of the most lustrous pearl gleamed in her ruddy smile, and + at every inflection of her lips little dimples appeared in the satiny rose + of her adorable cheeks. There was a delicacy and pride in the regal + outline of her nostrils bespeaking noble blood. Agate gleams played over + the smooth lustrous skin of her half-bare shoulders, and strings of great + blonde pearls—almost equal to her neck in beauty of colour—descended + upon her bosom. From time to time she elevated her head with the + undulating grace of a startled serpent or peacock, thereby imparting a + quivering motion to the high lace ruff which surrounded it like a silver + trellis-work. + </p> + <p> + She wore a robe of orange-red velvet, and from her wide ermine-lined + sleeves there peeped forth patrician hands of infinite delicacy, and so + ideally transparent that, like the fingers of Aurora, they permitted the + light to shine through them. + </p> + <p> + All these details I can recollect at this moment as plainly as though they + were of yesterday, for notwithstanding I was greatly troubled at the time, + nothing escaped me; the faintest touch of shading, the little dark speck + at the point of the chin, the imperceptible down at the corners of the + lips, the velvety floss upon the brow, the quivering shadows of the + eyelashes upon the cheeks—I could notice everything with astonishing + lucidity of perception. + </p> + <p> + And gazing I felt opening within me gates that had until then remained + closed; vents long obstructed became all clear, permitting glimpses of + unfamiliar perspectives within; life suddenly made itself visible to me + under a totally novel aspect. I felt as though I had just been born into a + new world and a new order of things. A frightful anguish commenced to + torture-my heart as with red-hot pincers. Every successive minute seemed + to me at once but a second and yet a century. Meanwhile the ceremony was + proceeding, and I shortly found myself transported far from that world of + which my newly born desires were furiously besieging the entrance. + Nevertheless I answered ‘Yes’ when I wished to say ‘No,’ though all within + me protested against the violence done to my soul by my tongue. Some + occult power seemed to force the words from my throat against my will. + Thus it is, perhaps, that so many young girls walk to the altar firmly + resolved to refuse in a startling manner the husband imposed upon them, + and that yet not one ever fulfils her intention. Thus it is, doubtless, + that so many poor novices take the veil, though they have resolved to tear + it into shreds at the moment when called upon to utter the vows. One dares + not thus cause so great a scandal to all present, nor deceive the + expectation of so many people. All those eyes, all those wills seem to + weigh down upon you like a cope of lead, and, moreover, measures have been + so well taken, everything has been so thoroughly arranged beforehand and + after a fashion so evidently irrevocable, that the will yields to the + weight of circumstances and utterly breaks down. + </p> + <p> + As the ceremony proceeded the features of the fair unknown changed their + expression. Her look had at first been one of caressing tenderness; it + changed to an air of disdain and of mortification, as though at not having + been able to make itself understood. + </p> + <p> + With an effort of will sufficient to have uprooted a mountain, I strove to + cry out that I would not be a priest, but I could not speak; my tongue + seemed nailed to my palate, and I found it impossible to express my will + by the least syllable of negation. Though fully awake, I felt like one + under the influence of a nightmare, who vainly strives to shriek out the + one word upon which life depends. + </p> + <p> + She seemed conscious of the martyrdom I was undergoing, and, as though to + encourage me, she gave me a look replete with divinest promise. Her eyes + were a poem; their every glance was a song. + </p> + <p> + She said to me: + </p> + <p> + ‘If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His + paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that + funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I am + Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah offer + thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in one + eternal kiss. + </p> + <p> + ‘Fling forth the wine of that chalice, and thou art free. I will conduct + thee to the Unknown Isles. Thou shalt sleep in my bosom upon a bed of + massy gold under a silver pavilion, for I love thee and would take thee + away from thy God, before whom so many noble hearts pour forth floods of + love which never reach even the steps of His throne!’ + </p> + <p> + These words seemed to float to my ears in a rhythm of infinite sweetness, + for her look was actually sonorous, and the utterances of her eyes were + reechoed in the depths of my heart as though living lips had breathed them + into my life. I felt myself willing to renounce God, and yet my tongue + mechanically fulfilled all the formalities of the ceremony. The fair one + gave me another look, so beseeching, so despairing that keen blades seemed + to pierce my heart, and I felt my bosom transfixed by more swords than + those of Our Lady of Sorrows. + </p> + <p> + All was consummated; I had become a priest. + </p> + <p> + Never was deeper anguish painted on human face than upon hers. The maiden + who beholds her affianced lover suddenly fall dead at her side, the mother + bending over the empty cradle of her child, Eve seated at the threshold of + the gate of Paradise, the miser who finds a stone substituted for his + stolen treasure, the poet who accidentally permits the only manuscript of + his finest work to fall into the fire, could not wear a look so + despairing, so inconsolable. All the blood had abandoned her charming + face, leaving it whiter than marble; her beautiful arms hung lifelessly on + either side of her body as though their muscles had suddenly relaxed, and + she sought the support of a pillar, for her yielding limbs almost betrayed + her. As for myself, I staggered toward the door of the church, livid as + death, my forehead bathed with a sweat bloodier than that of Calvary; I + felt as though I were being strangled; the vault seemed to have flattened + down upon my shoulders, and it seemed to me that my head alone sustained + the whole weight of the dome. + </p> + <p> + As I was about to cross the threshold a hand suddenly caught mine—a + woman’s hand! I had never till then touched the hand of any woman. It was + cold as a serpent’s skin, and yet its impress remained upon my wrist, + burnt there as though branded by a glowing iron. It was she. ‘Unhappy man! + Unhappy man! What hast thou done?’ she exclaimed in a low voice, and + immediately disappeared in the crowd. + </p> + <p> + The aged bishop passed by. He cast a severe and scrutinising look upon me. + My face presented the wildest aspect imaginable: I blushed and turned pale + alternately; dazzling lights flashed before my eyes. A companion took pity + on me. He seized my arm and led me out. I could not possibly have found my + way back to the seminary unassisted. At the corner of a street, while the + young priest’s attention was momentarily turned in another direction, a + negro page, fantastically garbed, approached me, and without pausing on + his way slipped into my hand a little pocket-book with gold-embroidered + corners, at the same time giving me a sign to hide it. I concealed it in + my sleeve, and there kept it until I found myself alone in my cell. Then I + opened the clasp. There were only two leaves within, bearing the words, + ‘Clarimonde. At the Concini Palace.’ So little acquainted was I at that + time with the things of this world that I had never heard of Clarimonde, + celebrated as she was, and I had no idea as to where the Concini Palace + was situated. I hazarded a thousand conjectures, each more extravagant + than the last; but, in truth, I cared little whether she were a great lady + or a courtesan, so that I could but see her once more. + </p> + <p> + My love, although the growth of a single hour, had taken imperishable + root. I did not even dream of attempting to tear it up, so fully was I + convinced such a thing would be impossible. That woman had completely + taken possession of me. One look from her had sufficed to change my very + nature. She had breathed her will into my life, and I no longer lived in + myself, but in her and for her. I gave myself up to a thousand + extravagancies. I kissed the place upon my hand which she had touched, and + I repeated her name over and over again for hours in succession. I only + needed to close my eyes in order to see her distinctly as though she were + actually present; and I reiterated to myself the words she had uttered in + my ear at the church porch: ‘Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou + done?’ I comprehended at last the full horror of my situation, and the + funereal and awful restraints of the state into which I had just entered + became clearly revealed to me. To be a priest!—that is, to be + chaste, to never love, to observe no distinction of sex or age, to turn + from the sight of all beauty, to put out one’s own eyes, to hide for ever + crouching in the chill shadows of some church or cloister, to visit none + but the dying, to watch by unknown corpses, and ever bear about with one + the black soutane as a garb of mourning for oneself, so that your very + dress might serve as a pall for your coffin. + </p> + <p> + And I felt life rising within me like a subterranean lake, expanding and + overflowing; my blood leaped fiercely through my arteries; my + long-restrained youth suddenly burst into active being, like the aloe + which blooms but once in a hundred years, and then bursts into blossom + with a clap of thunder. + </p> + <p> + What could I do in order to see Clarimonde once more? I had no pretext to + offer for desiring to leave the seminary, not knowing any person in the + city. I would not even be able to remain there but a short time, and was + only waiting my assignment to the curacy which I must thereafter occupy. I + tried to remove the bars of the window; but it was at a fearful height + from the ground, and I found that as I had no ladder it would be useless + to think of escaping thus. And, furthermore, I could descend thence only + by night in any event, and afterward how should I be able to find my way + through the inextricable labyrinth of streets? All these difficulties, + which to many would have appeared altogether insignificant, were gigantic + to me, a poor seminarist who had fallen in love only the day before for + the first time, without experience, without money, without attire. + </p> + <p> + ‘Ah!’ cried I to myself in my blindness, ‘were I not a priest I could have + seen her every day; I might have been her lover, her spouse. Instead of + being wrapped in this dismal shroud of mine I would have had garments of + silk and velvet, golden chains, a sword, and fair plumes like other + handsome young cavaliers. My hair, instead of being dishonoured by the + tonsure, would flow down upon my neck in waving curls; I would have a fine + waxed moustache; I would be a gallant.’ But one hour passed before an + altar, a few hastily articulated words, had for ever cut me off from the + number of the living, and I had myself sealed down the stone of my own + tomb; I had with my own hand bolted the gate of my prison! I went to the + window. The sky was beautifully blue; the trees had donned their spring + robes; nature seemed to be making parade of an ironical joy. The <i>Place</i> + was filled with people, some going, others coming; young beaux and young + beauties were sauntering in couples toward the groves and gardens; merry + youths passed by, cheerily trolling refrains of drinking-songs—it + was all a picture of vivacity, life, animation, gaiety, which formed a + bitter contrast with my mourning and my solitude. On the steps of the gate + sat a young mother playing with her child. She kissed its little rosy + mouth still impearled with drops of milk, and performed, in order to amuse + it, a thousand divine little puerilities such as only mothers know how to + invent. The father standing at a little distance smiled gently upon the + charming group, and with folded arms seemed to hug his joy to his heart. I + could not endure that spectacle. I closed the window with violence, and + flung myself on my bed, my heart filled with frightful hate and jealousy, + and gnawed my fingers and my bedcovers like a tiger that has passed ten + days without food. + </p> + <p> + I know not how long I remained in this condition, but at last, while + writhing on the bed in a fit of spasmodic fury, I suddenly perceived the + Abbé Sérapion, who was standing erect in the centre of the room, watching + me attentively. Filled with shame of myself, I let my head fall upon my + breast and covered my face with my hands. + </p> + <p> + ‘Romuald, my friend, something very extraordinary is transpiring within + you,’ observed Sérapion, after a few moments’ silence; ‘your conduct is + altogether inexplicable. You—always so quiet, so pious, so gentle—you + to rage in your cell like a wild beast! Take heed, brother—do not + listen to the suggestions of the devil The Evil Spirit, furious that you + have consecrated yourself for ever to the Lord, is prowling around you + like a ravening wolf and making a last effort to obtain possession of you. + Instead of allowing yourself to be conquered, my dear Romuald, make to + yourself a cuirass of prayers, a buckler of mortifications, and combat the + enemy like a valiant man; you will then assuredly overcome him. Virtue + must be proved by temptation, and gold comes forth purer from the hands of + the assayer. Fear not. Never allow yourself to become discouraged. The + most watchful and steadfast souls are at moments liable to such + temptation. Pray, fast, meditate, and the Evil Spirit will depart from + you.’ + </p> + <p> + The words of the Abbé Sérapion restored me to myself, and I became a + little more calm. ‘I came,’ he continued, ‘to tell you that you have been + appointed to the curacy of C———. The priest who had + charge of it has just died, and Monseigneur the Bishop has ordered me to + have you installed there at once. Be ready, therefore, to start + to-morrow.’ I responded with an inclination of the head, and the Abbé + retired. I opened my missal and commenced reading some prayers, but the + letters became confused and blurred under my eyes, the thread of the ideas + entangled itself hopelessly in my brain, and the volume at last fell from + my hands without my being aware of it. + </p> + <p> + To leave to-morrow without having been able to see her again, to add yet + another barrier to the many already interposed between us, to lose for + ever all hope of being able to meet her, except, indeed, through a + miracle! Even to write to her, alas! would be impossible, for by whom + could I dispatch my letter? With my sacred character of priest, to whom + could I dare unbosom myself, in whom could I confide? I became a prey to + the bitterest anxiety. + </p> + <p> + Then suddenly recurred to me the words of the Abbé Sérapion regarding the + artifices of the devil; and the strange character of the adventure, the + supernatural beauty of Clarimonde, the phosphoric light of her eyes, the + burning imprint of her hand, the agony into which she had thrown me, the + sudden change wrought within me when all my piety vanished in a single + instant—these and other things clearly testified to the work of the + Evil One, and perhaps that satiny hand was but the glove which concealed + his claws. Filled with terror at these fancies, I again picked up the + missal which had slipped from my knees and fallen upon the floor, and once + more gave myself up to prayer. + </p> + <p> + Next morning Sérapion came to take me away. Two mules freighted with our + miserable valises awaited us at the gate. He mounted one, and I the other + as well as I knew how. + </p> + <p> + As we passed along the streets of the city, I gazed attentively at all the + windows and balconies in the hope of seeing Clarimonde, but it was yet + early in the morning, and the city had hardly opened its eyes. Mine sought + to penetrate the blinds and window-curtains of all the palaces before + which we were passing. Sérapion doubtless attributed this curiosity to my + admiration of the architecture, for he slackened the pace of his animal in + order to give me time to look around me. At last we passed the city gates + and commenced to mount the hill beyond. When we arrived at its summit I + turned to take a last look at the place where Clarimonde dwelt. The shadow + of a great cloud hung over all the city; the contrasting colours of its + blue and red roofs were lost in the uniform half-tint, through which here + and there floated upward, like white flakes of foam, the smoke of freshly + kindled fires. By a singular optical effect one edifice, which surpassed + in height all the neighbouring buildings that were still dimly veiled by + the vapours, towered up, fair and lustrous with the gilding of a solitary + beam of sunlight—although actually more than a league away it seemed + quite near. The smallest details of its architecture were plainly + distinguishable—the turrets, the platforms, the window-casements, + and even the swallow-tailed weather-vanes. + </p> + <p> + ‘What is that palace I see over there, all lighted up by the sun?’ I asked + Sérapion. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and having looked in the + direction indicated, replied: ‘It is the ancient palace which the Prince + Concini has given to the courtesan Clarimonde. Awful things are done + there!’ + </p> + <p> + At that instant, I know not yet whether it was a reality or an illusion, I + fancied I saw gliding along the terrace a shapely white figure, which + gleamed for a moment in passing and as quickly vanished. It was + Clarimonde. + </p> + <p> + Oh, did she know that at that very hour, all feverish and restless—from + the height of the rugged road which separated me from her, and which, + alas! I could never more descend—I was directing my eyes upon the + palace where she dwelt, and which a mocking beam of sunlight seemed to + bring nigh to me, as though inviting me to enter therein as its lord? + Undoubtedly she must have known it, for her soul was too sympathetically + united with mine not to have felt its least emotional thrill, and that + subtle sympathy it must have been which prompted her to climb—although + clad only in her nightdress—to the summit of the terrace, amid the + icy dews of the morning. + </p> + <p> + The shadow gained the palace, and the scene became to the eye only a + motionless ocean of roofs and gables, amid which one mountainous + undulation was distinctly visible. Sérapion urged his mule forward, my own + at once followed at the same gait, and a sharp angle in the road at last + hid the city of S——— for ever from my eyes, as I was + destined never to return thither. At the close of a weary three-days’ + journey through dismal country fields, we caught sight of the cock upon + the steeple of the church which I was to take charge of, peeping above the + trees, and after having followed some winding roads fringed with thatched + cottages and little gardens, we found ourselves in front of the façade, + which certainly possessed few features of magnificence. A porch ornamented + with some mouldings, and two or three pillars rudely hewn from sandstone; + a tiled roof with counterforts of the same sandstone as the pillars—that + was all. To the left lay the cemetery, overgrown with high weeds, and + having a great iron cross rising up in its centre; to the right stood the + presbytery under the shadow of the church. It was a house of the most + extreme simplicity and frigid cleanliness. We entered the enclosure. A few + chickens were picking up some oats scattered upon the ground; accustomed, + seemingly, to the black habit of ecclesiastics, they showed no fear of our + presence and scarcely troubled themselves to get out of our way. A hoarse, + wheezy barking fell upon our ears, and we saw an aged dog running toward + us. + </p> + <p> + It was my predecessor’s dog. He had dull bleared eyes, grizzled hair, and + every mark of the greatest age to which a dog can possibly attain. I + patted him gently, and he proceeded at once to march along beside me with + an air of satisfaction unspeakable. A very old woman, who had been the + housekeeper of the former curé, also came to meet us, and after having + invited me into a little back parlour, asked whether I intended to retain + her. I replied that I would take care of her, and the dog, and the + chickens, and all the furniture her master had bequeathed her at his + death. At this she became fairly transported with joy, and the Abbé + Sérapion at once paid her the price which she asked for her little + property. + </p> + <p> + As soon as my installation was over, the Abbé Sérapion returned to the + seminary. I was, therefore, left alone, with no one but myself to look to + for aid or counsel. The thought of Clarimonde again began to haunt me, and + in spite of all my endeavours to banish it, I always found it present in + my meditations. One evening, while promenading in my little garden along + the walks bordered with box-plants, I fancied that I saw through the + elm-trees the figure of a woman, who followed my every movement, and that + I beheld two sea-green eyes gleaming through the foliage; but it was only + an illusion, and on going round to the other side of the garden, I could + find nothing except a footprint on the sanded walk—a footprint so + small that it seemed to have been made by the foot of a child. The garden + was enclosed by very high walls. I searched every nook and corner of it, + but could discover no one there. I have never succeeded in fully + accounting for this circumstance, which, after all, was nothing compared + with the strange things which happened to me afterward. + </p> + <p> + For a whole year I lived thus, filling all the duties of my calling with + the most scrupulous exactitude, praying and fasting, exhorting and lending + ghostly aid to the sick, and bestowing alms even to the extent of + frequently depriving myself of the very necessaries of life. But I felt a + great aridness within me, and the sources of grace seemed closed against + me. I never found that happiness which should spring from the fulfilment + of a holy mission; my thoughts were far away, and the words of Clarimonde + were ever upon my lips like an involuntary refrain. Oh, brother, meditate + well on this! Through having but once lifted my eyes to look upon a woman, + through one fault apparently so venial, I have for years remained a victim + to the most miserable agonies, and the happiness of my life has been + destroyed for ever. + </p> + <p> + I will not longer dwell upon those defeats, or on those inward victories + invariably followed by yet more terrible falls, but will at once proceed + to the facts of my story. One night my door-bell was long and violently + rung. The aged housekeeper arose and opened to the stranger, and the + figure of a man, whose complexion was deeply bronzed, and who was richly + clad in a foreign costume, with a poniard at his girdle, appeared under + the rays of Barbara’s lantern. Her first impulse was one of terror, but + the stranger reassured her, and stated that he desired to see me at once + on matters relating to my holy calling. Barbara invited him upstairs, + where I was on the point of retiring. The stranger told me that his + mistress, a very noble lady, was lying at the point of death, and desired + to see a priest. I replied that I was prepared to follow him, took with me + the sacred articles necessary for extreme unction, and descended in all + haste. Two horses black as the night itself stood without the gate, pawing + the ground with impatience, and veiling their chests with long streams of + smoky vapour exhaled from their nostrils. He held the stirrup and aided me + to mount upon one; then, merely laying his hand upon the pommel of the + saddle, he vaulted on the other, pressed the animal’s sides with his + knees, and loosened rein. The horse bounded forward with the velocity of + an arrow. Mine, of which the stranger held the bridle, also started off at + a swift gallop, keeping up with his companion. We devoured the road. The + ground flowed backward beneath us in a long streaked line of pale gray, + and the black silhouettes of the trees seemed fleeing by us on either side + like an army in rout. We passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that + I felt my flesh creep in the chill darkness with superstitious fear. The + showers of bright sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod + feet of our horses remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and + had any one at that hour of the night beheld us both—my guide and + myself—he must have taken us for two spectres riding upon + nightmares. Witch-fires ever and anon flitted across the road before us, + and the night-birds shrieked fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond, + where we beheld at intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wild cats. + The manes of the horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat + streamed over their flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils + hard and fast. But when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated + them by uttering a strange, gutteral, unearthly cry, and the gallop + recommenced with fury. At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black + mass pierced through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before + us, the hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden drawbridge, + and we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two + enormous towers. Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle. + Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction, and + above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing. I + obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture—columns, + arcades, flights of steps, stairways—a royal voluptuousness and + elfin magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland. A negro page—the + same who had before brought me the tablet from Clarimonde, and whom I + instantly recognised—approached to aid me in dismounting, and the + major-domo, attired in black velvet with a gold chain about his neck, + advanced to meet me, supporting himself upon an ivory cane. Large tears + were falling from his eyes and streaming over his cheeks and white beard. + ‘Too late!’ he cried, sorrowfully shaking his venerable head. ‘Too late, + sir priest! But if you have not been able to save the soul, come at least + to watch by the poor body.’ + </p> + <p> + He took my arm and conducted me to the death-chamber. I wept not less + bitterly than he, for I had learned that the dead one was none other than + that Clarimonde whom I had so deeply and so wildly loved. A <i>prie-dieu</i> + stood at the foot of the bed; a bluish flame flickering in a bronze patern + filled all the room with a wan, deceptive light, here and there bringing + out in the darkness at intervals some projection of furniture or cornice. + In a chiselled urn upon the table there was a faded white rose, whose + leaves—excepting one that still held—had all fallen, like + odorous tears, to the foot of the vase. A broken black mask, a fan, and + disguises of every variety, which were lying on the armchairs, bore + witness that death had entered suddenly and unannounced into that + sumptuous dwelling. Without daring to cast my eyes upon the bed, I knelt + down and commenced to repeat the Psalms for the Dead, with exceeding + fervour, thanking God that He had placed the tomb between me and the + memory of this woman, so that I might thereafter be able to utter her name + in my prayers as a name for ever sanctified by death. But my fervour + gradually weakened, and I fell insensibly into a reverie. That chamber + bore no semblance to a chamber of death. In lieu of the fetid and + cadaverous odours which I had been accustomed to breathe during such + funereal vigils, a languorous vapour of Oriental perfume—I know not + what amorous odour of woman—softly floated through the tepid air. + That pale light seemed rather a twilight gloom contrived for voluptuous + pleasure, than a substitute for the yellow-flickering watch-tapers which + shine by the side of corpses. I thought upon the strange destiny which + enabled me to meet Clarimonde again at the very moment when she was lost + to me for ever, and a sigh of regretful anguish escaped from my breast. + Then it seemed to me that some one behind me had also sighed, and I turned + round to look. It was only an echo. But in that moment my eyes fell upon + the bed of death which they had till then avoided. The red damask + curtains, decorated with large flowers worked in embroidery and looped up + with gold bullion, permitted me to behold the fair dead, lying at full + length, with hands joined upon her bosom. She was covered with a linen + wrapping of dazzling whiteness, which formed a strong contrast with the + gloomy purple of the hangings, and was of so fine a texture that it + concealed nothing of her body’s charming form, and allowed the eye to + follow those beautiful outlines—undulating like the neck of a swan—which + even death had not robbed of their supple grace. She seemed an alabaster + statue executed by some skilful sculptor to place upon the tomb of a + queen, or rather, perhaps, like a slumbering maiden over whom the silent + snow had woven a spotless veil. + </p> + <p> + I could no longer maintain my constrained attitude of prayer. The air of + the alcove intoxicated me, that febrile perfume of half-faded roses + penetrated my very brain, and I commenced to pace restlessly up and down + the chamber, pausing at each turn before the bier to contemplate the + graceful corpse lying beneath the transparency of its shroud. Wild fancies + came thronging to my brain. I thought to myself that she might not, + perhaps, be really dead; that she might only have feigned death for the + purpose of bringing me to her castle, and then declaring her love. At one + time I even thought I saw her foot move under the whiteness of the + coverings, and slightly disarrange the long straight folds of the + winding-sheet. + </p> + <p> + And then I asked myself: ‘Is this indeed Clarimonde? What proof have I + that it is she? Might not that black page have passed into the service of + some other lady? Surely, I must be going mad to torture and afflict myself + thus!’ But my heart answered with a fierce throbbing: ‘It is she; it is + she indeed!’ I approached the bed again, and fixed my eyes with redoubled + attention upon the object of my incertitude. Ah, must I confess it? That + exquisite perfection of bodily form, although purified and made sacred by + the shadow of death, affected me more voluptuously than it should have + done; and that repose so closely resembled slumber that one might well + have mistaken it for such. I forgot that I had come there to perform a + funeral ceremony; I fancied myself a young bridegroom entering the chamber + of the bride, who all modestly hides her fair face, and through coyness + seeks to keep herself wholly veiled. Heartbroken with grief, yet wild with + hope, shuddering at once with fear and pleasure, I bent over her and + grasped the corner of the sheet. I lifted it back, holding my breath all + the while through fear of waking her. My arteries throbbed with such + violence that I felt them hiss through my temples, and the sweat poured + from my forehead in streams, as though I had lifted a mighty slab of + marble. There, indeed, lay Clarimonde, even as I had seen her at the + church on the day of my ordination. She was not less charming than then. + With her, death seemed but a last coquetry. The pallor of her cheeks, the + less brilliant carnation of her lips, her long eyelashes lowered and + relieving their dark fringe against that white skin, lent her an + unspeakably seductive aspect of melancholy chastity and mental suffering; + her long loose hair, still intertwined with some little blue flowers, made + a shining pillow for her head, and veiled the nudity of her shoulders with + its thick ringlets; her beautiful hands, purer, more diaphanous, than the + Host, were crossed on her bosom in an attitude of pious rest and silent + prayer, which served to counteract all that might have proven otherwise + too alluring—even after death—in the exquisite roundness and + ivory polish of her bare arms from which the pearl bracelets had not yet + been removed. I remained long in mute contemplation, and the more I gazed, + the less could I persuade myself that life had really abandoned that + beautiful body for ever. I do not know whether it was an illusion or a + reflection of the lamplight, but it seemed to me that the blood was again + commencing to circulate under that lifeless pallor, although she remained + all motionless. I laid my hand lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not + colder than her hand on the day when it touched mine at the portals of the + church. I resumed my position, bending my face above her, and bathing her + cheek with the warm dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair + and helplessness, what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long + watch! Vainly did I wish that I could have gathered all my life into one + mass that I might give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains + the flame which devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of + eternal separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet + pleasure of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my + only love.... Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, + and the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of mine. + Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former + brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed them + around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. ‘Ah, it is thou, + Romuald!’ she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last + vibrations of a harp. ‘What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for thee + that I am dead; but we are now betrothed: I can see thee and visit thee. + Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to tell thee, and + I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment recalled. We shall + soon meet again.’ + </p> + <p> + Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain me + still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered the + chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment palpitated + at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly’s wing, then it detached + itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing with it the soul + of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell insensible upon the + bosom of the beautiful dead. + </p> + <p> + When I came to myself again I was lying on the bed in my little room at + the presbytery, and the old dog of the former curé was licking my hand, + which had been hanging down outside of the covers. Barbara, all trembling + with age and anxiety, was busying herself about the room, opening and + shutting drawers, and emptying powders into glasses. On seeing me open my + eyes, the old woman uttered a cry of joy, the dog yelped and wagged his + tail, but I was still so weak that I could not speak a single word or make + the slightest motion. Afterward I learned that I had lain thus for three + days, giving no evidence of life beyond the faintest respiration. Those + three days do not reckon in my life, nor could I ever imagine whither my + spirit had departed during those three days; I have no recollection of + aught relating to them. Barbara told me that the same coppery-complexioned + man who came to seek me on the night of my departure from the presbytery + had brought me back the next morning in a close litter, and departed + immediately afterward. When I became able to collect my scattered + thoughts, I reviewed within my mind all the circumstances of that fateful + night. At first I thought I had been the victim of some magical illusion, + but ere long the recollection of other circumstances, real and palpable in + themselves, came to forbid that supposition. I could not believe that I + had been dreaming, since Barbara as well as myself had seen the strange + man with his two black horses, and described with exactness every detail + of his figure and apparel. Nevertheless it appeared that none knew of any + castle in the neighbourhood answering to the description of that in which + I had again found Clarimonde. + </p> + <p> + One morning I found the Abbé Sérapion in my room. Barbara had advised him + that I was ill, and he had come with all speed to see me. Although this + haste on his part testified to an affectionate interest in me, yet his + visit did not cause me the pleasure which it should have done. The Abbé + Sérapion had something penetrating and inquisitorial in his gaze which + made me feel very ill at ease. His presence filled me with embarrassment + and a sense of guilt. At the first glance he divined my interior trouble, + and I hated him for his clairvoyance. + </p> + <p> + While he inquired after my health in hypocritically honeyed accents, he + constantly kept his two great yellow lion-eyes fixed upon me, and plunged + his look into my soul like a sounding-lead. Then he asked me how I + directed my parish, if I was happy in it, how I passed the leisure hours + allowed me in the intervals of pastoral duty, whether I had become + acquainted with many of the inhabitants of the place, what was my + favourite reading, and a thousand other such questions. I answered these + inquiries as briefly as possible, and he, without ever waiting for my + answers, passed rapidly from one subject of query to another. That + conversation had evidently no connection with what he actually wished to + say. At last, without any premonition, but as though repeating a piece of + news which he had recalled on the instant, and feared might otherwise be + forgotten subsequently, he suddenly said, in a clear vibrant voice, which + rang in my ears like the trumpets of the Last Judgment: + </p> + <p> + ‘The great courtesan Clarimonde died a few days ago, at the close of an + orgie which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something + infernally splendid. The abominations of the banquets of Belshazzar and + Cleopatra were re-enacted there. Good God, what age are we living in? The + guests were served by swarthy slaves who spoke an unknown tongue, and who + seemed to me to be veritable demons. The livery of the very least among + them would have served for the gala-dress of an emperor. There have always + been very strange stories told of this Clarimonde, and all her lovers came + to a violent or miserable end. They used to say that she was a ghoul, a + female vampire; but I believe she was none other than Beelzebub himself.’ + </p> + <p> + He ceased to speak, and commenced to regard me more attentively than ever, + as though to observe the effect of his words on me. I could not refrain + from starting when I heard him utter the name of Clarimonde, and this news + of her death, in addition to the pain it caused me by reason of its + coincidence with the nocturnal scenes I had witnessed, filled me with an + agony and terror which my face betrayed, despite my utmost endeavours to + appear composed. Sérapion fixed an anxious and severe look upon me, and + then observed: ‘My son, I must warn you that you are standing with foot + raised upon the brink of an abyss; take heed lest you fall therein. + Satan’s claws are long, and tombs are not always true to their trust. The + tombstone of Clarimonde should be sealed down with a triple seal, for, if + report be true, it is not the first time she has died. May God watch over + you, Romuald!’ + </p> + <p> + And with these words the Abbé walked slowly to the door. I did not see him + again at that time, for he left for S——— almost + immediately. + </p> + <p> + I became completely restored to health and resumed my accustomed duties. + The memory of Clarimonde and the words of the old Abbé were constantly in + my mind; nevertheless no extraordinary event had occurred to verify the + funereal predictions of Sérapion, and I had commenced to believe that his + fears and my own terrors were over-exaggerated, when one night I had a + strange dream. I had hardly fallen asleep when I heard my bed-curtains + drawn apart, as their rings slided back upon the curtain rod with a sharp + sound. I rose up quickly upon my elbow, and beheld the shadow of a woman + standing erect before me. I recognised Clarimonde immediately. She bore in + her hand a little lamp, shaped like those which are placed in tombs, and + its light lent her fingers a rosy transparency, which extended itself by + lessening degrees even to the opaque and milky whiteness of her bare arm. + Her only garment was the linen winding-sheet which had shrouded her when + lying upon the bed of death. She sought to gather its folds over her bosom + as though ashamed of being so scantily clad, but her little hand was not + equal to the task. She was so white that the colour of the drapery blended + with that of her flesh under the pallid rays of the lamp. Enveloped with + this subtle tissue which betrayed all the contour of her body, she seemed + rather the marble statue of some fair antique bather than a woman endowed + with life. But dead or living, statue or woman, shadow or body, her beauty + was still the same, only that the green light of her eyes was less + brilliant, and her mouth, once so warmly crimson, was only tinted with a + faint tender rosiness, like that of her cheeks. The little blue flowers + which I had noticed entwined in her hair were withered and dry, and had + lost nearly all their leaves, but this did not prevent her from being + charming—so charming that, notwithstanding the strange character of + the adventure, and the unexplainable manner in which she had entered my + room, I felt not even for a moment the least fear. + </p> + <p> + She placed the lamp on the table and seated herself at the foot of my bed; + then bending toward me, she said, in that voice at once silvery clear and + yet velvety in its sweet softness, such as I never heard from any lips + save hers: + </p> + <p> + ‘I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and it must have seemed + to thee that I had forgotten thee. But I come from afar off, very far off, + and from a land whence no other has ever yet returned. There is neither + sun nor moon in that land whence I come: all is but space and shadow; + there is neither road nor pathway: no earth for the foot, no air for the + wing; and nevertheless behold me here, for Love is stronger than Death and + must conquer him in the end. Oh what sad faces and fearful things I have + seen on my way hither! What difficulty my soul, returned to earth through + the power of will alone, has had in finding its body and reinstating + itself therein! What terrible efforts I had to make ere I could lift the + ponderous slab with which they had covered me! See, the palms of my poor + hands are all bruised! Kiss them, sweet love, that they may be healed!’ + She laid the cold palms of her hands upon ray mouth, one after the other. + I kissed them, indeed, many times, and she the while watched me with a + smile of ineffable affection. + </p> + <p> + I confess to my shame that I had entirely forgotten the advice of the Abbé + Sérapion and the sacred office wherewith I had been invested. I had fallen + without resistance, and at the first assault. I had not even made the + least effort to repel the tempter. The fresh coolness of Clarimonde’s skin + penetrated my own, and I felt voluptuous tremors pass over my whole body. + Poor child! in spite of all I saw afterward, I can hardly yet believe she + was a demon; at least she had no appearance of being such, and never did + Satan so skilfully conceal his claws and horns. She had drawn her feet up + beneath her, and squatted down on the edge of the couch in an attitude + full of negligent coquetry. From time to time she passed her little hand + through my hair and twisted it into curls, as though trying how a new + style of wearing it would become my face. I abandoned myself to her hands + with the most guilty pleasure, while she accompanied her gentle play with + the prettiest prattle. The most remarkable fact was that I felt no + astonishment whatever at so extraordinary ah adventure, and as in dreams + one finds no difficulty in accepting the most fantastic events as simple + facts, so all these circumstances seemed to me perfectly natural in + themselves. + </p> + <p> + ‘I loved thee long ere I saw thee, dear Romuald, and sought thee + everywhere. Thou wast my dream, and I first saw thee in the church at the + fatal moment. I said at once, “It is he!” I gave thee a look into which I + threw all the love I ever had, all the love I now have, all the love I + shall ever have for thee—a look that would have damned a cardinal or + brought a king to his knees at my feet in view of all his court. Thou + remainedst unmoved, preferring thy God to me! + </p> + <p> + ‘Ah, how jealous I am of that God whom thou didst love and still lovest + more than me! + </p> + <p> + ‘Woe is me, unhappy one that I am! I can never have thy heart all to + myself, I whom thou didst recall to life with a kiss—dead + Clarimonde, who for thy sake bursts asunder the gates of the tomb, and + comes to consecrate to thee a life which she has resumed only to make thee + happy!’ + </p> + <p> + All her words were accompanied with the most impassioned caresses, which + bewildered my sense and my reason to such an extent, that I did not fear + to utter a frightful blasphemy for the sake of consoling her, and to + declare that I loved her as much as God. + </p> + <p> + Her eyes rekindled and shone like chrysoprases. ‘In truth?—in very + truth?—as much as God!’ she cried, flinging her beautiful arms + around me. ‘Since it is so, thou wilt come with me; thou wilt follow me + whithersoever I desire. Thou wilt cast away thy ugly black habit. Thou + shalt be the proudest and most envied of cavaliers; thou shalt be my + lover! To be the acknowledged lover of Clarimonde, who has refused even a + Pope! That will be something to feel proud of. Ah, the fair, unspeakably + happy existence, the beautiful golden life we shall live together! And + when shall we depart, my fair sir?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘To-morrow! To-morrow!’ I cried in my delirium. + </p> + <p> + ‘To-morrow, then, so let it be!’ she answered. ‘In the meanwhile I shall + have opportunity to change my toilet, for this is a little too light and + in nowise suited for a voyage. I must also forthwith notify all my friends + who believe me dead, and mourn for me as deeply as they are capable of + doing. The money, the dresses, the carriages—all will be ready. I + shall call for thee at this same hour. Adieu, dear heart!’ And she lightly + touched my forehead with her lips. The lamp went out, the curtains closed + again, and all became dark; a leaden, dreamless sleep fell on me and held + me unconscious until the morning following. + </p> + <p> + I awoke later than usual, and the recollection of this singular adventure + troubled me during the whole day. I finally persuaded myself that it was a + mere vapour of my heated imagination. Nevertheless its sensations had been + so vivid that it was difficult to persuade myself that they were not real, + and it was not without some presentiment of what was going to happen that + I got into bed at last, after having prayed God to drive far from me all + thoughts of evil, and to protect the chastity of my slumber. + </p> + <p> + I soon fell into a deep sleep, and my dream was continued. The curtains + again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion, pale + in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her cheeks, but + gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling-dress of green velvet, + trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to allow a glimpse of + satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick ringlets from beneath a + broad black felt hat, decorated with white feathers whimsically twisted + into various shapes. In one hand she held a little riding-whip terminated + by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly with it, and exclaimed: ‘Well, + my fine sleeper, is this the way you make your preparations? I thought I + would find you up and dressed. Arise quickly, we have no time to lose.’ + </p> + <p> + I leaped out of bed at once. + </p> + <p> + ‘Come, dress yourself, and let us go,’ she continued, pointing to a little + package she had brought with her. ‘The horses are becoming impatient of + delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have been by this + time at least ten leagues distant from here.’ + </p> + <p> + I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel + herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my + awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made a + mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up before me + a little pocket-mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver + filigree-work, and playfully asked: ‘How dost find thyself now? Wilt + engage me for thy valet de chambre?’ + </p> + <p> + I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognise myself. I + resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles a block + of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one reflected in the + mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly tickled by the + metamorphosis. + </p> + <p> + That elegant apparel, that richly embroidered vest had made of me a + totally different personage, and I marvelled at the power of + transformation owned by a few yards of cloth cut after a certain pattern. + The spirit of my costume penetrated my very skin and within ten minutes + more I had become something of a coxcomb. + </p> + <p> + In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns up + and down the room. Clari-monde watched me with an air of maternal + pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. ‘Come, enough of this + child’s play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and we may + not get there in time.’ She took my hand and led me forth. All the doors + opened before her at a touch, and we passed by the dog without awaking + him. + </p> + <p> + At the gate we found Margheritone waiting, the same swarthy groom who had + once before been my-escort. He held the bridles of three horses, all black + like those which bore us to the castle—one for me, one for him, one + for Clarimonde. Those horses must have been Spanish genets born of mares + fecundated by a zephyr, for they were fleet as the wind itself, and the + moon, which had just risen at our departure to light us on the way, rolled + over the sky like a wheel detached from her own chariot. We beheld her on + the right leaping from tree to tree, and putting herself out of breath in + the effort to keep up with us. Soon we came upon a level plain where, hard + by a clump of trees, a carriage with four vigorous horses awaited us. We + entered it, and the postillions urged their animals into a mad gallop. I + had one arm around Clarimonde’s waist, and one of her hands clasped in + mine; her head leaned upon my shoulder, and I felt her bosom, half bare, + lightly pressing against my arm. I had never known such intense happiness. + In that hour I had forgotten everything, and I no more remembered having + ever been a priest than I remembered what I had been doing in my mother’s + womb, so great was the fascination which the evil spirit exerted upon me. + From that night my nature seemed in some sort to have become halved, and + there were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one + moment I believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a + gentleman, at another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. + I could no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I + discover where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite + young lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the + dissolute habits of the young lord. Two spirals entangled and confounded + the one with the other, yet never touching, would afford a fair + representation of this bicephalic life which I lived. Despite the strange + character of my condition, I do not believe that I ever inclined, even for + a moment, to madness. I always retained with extreme vividness all the + perceptions of my two lives. Only there was one absurd fact which I could + not explain to myself—namely, that the consciousness of the same + individuality existed in two men so opposite in character. It was an + anomaly for which I could not account—whether I believed myself to + be the curé of the little village of C———, or <i>Il + Signor Romualdo</i>, the titled lover of Clarimonde. + </p> + <p> + Be that as it may, I lived, at least I believed that I lived, in Venice. I + have never been able to discover rightly how much of illusion and how much + of reality there was in this fantastic adventure. We dwelt in a great + palace on the Canaleio, filled with frescoes and statues, and containing + two Titians in the noblest style of the great master, which were hung in + Clarimonde’s chamber. It was a palace well worthy of a king. We had each + our gondola, our <i>barcarolli</i> in family livery, our music hall, and + our special poet. Clarimonde always lived upon a magnificent scale; there + was something of Cleopatra in her nature. As for me, I had the retinue of + a prince’s son, and I was regarded with as much reverential respect as + though I had been of the family of one of the twelve Apostles or the four + Evangelists of the Most Serene Republic. I would not have turned aside to + allow even the Doge to pass, and I do not believe that since Satan fell + from heaven, any creature was ever prouder or more insolent than I. I went + to the Ridotto, and played with a luck which seemed absolutely infernal. I + received the best of all society—the sons of ruined families, women + of the theatre, shrewd knaves, parasites, hectoring swashbucklers. But + notwithstanding the dissipation of such a life, I always remained faithful + to Clarimonde. I loved her wildly. She would have excited satiety itself, + and chained inconstancy. To have Clarimonde was to have twenty mistresses; + ay, to possess all women: so mobile, so varied of aspect, so fresh in new + charms was she all in herself—a very chameleon of a woman, in sooth. + She made you commit with her the infidelity you would have committed with + another, by donning to perfection the character, the attraction, the style + of beauty of the woman who appeared to please you. She returned my love a + hundred-fold, and it was in vain that the young patricians and even the + Ancients of the Council of Ten made her the most magnificent proposals. A + Foscari even went so far as to offer to espouse her. She rejected all his + overtures. Of gold she had enough. She wished no longer for anything but + love—a love youthful, pure, evoked by herself, and which should be a + first and last passion. I would have been perfectly happy but for a cursed + nightmare which recurred every night, and in which I believed myself to be + a poor village curé, practising mortification and penance for my excesses + during the day. Reassured by my constant association with her, I never + thought further of the strange manner in which I had become acquainted + with Clarimonde. But the words of the Abbé Sérapion concerning her + recurred often to my memory, and never ceased to cause me uneasiness. + </p> + <p> + For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; her + complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned could + not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat it. They + all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called a second + time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she became colder + and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as upon that + memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish unspeakable + to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my agony, smiled + upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those who feel that + they must die. + </p> + <p> + One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little + table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her + for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally + inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed + forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. Her + eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and + ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her. She leaped out + of her bed with animal agility—the agility, as it were, of an ape or + a cat—and sprang upon my wound, which she commenced to suck with an + air of unutterable pleasure. She swallowed the blood in little mouthfuls, + slowly and carefully, like a connoisseur tasting a wine from Xeres or + Syracuse. Gradually her eyelids half closed, and the pupils of her green + eyes became oblong instead of round. From time to time she paused in order + to kiss my hand, then she would recommence to press her lips to the lips + of the wound in order to coax forth a few more ruddy drops. When she found + that the blood would no longer come, she arose with eyes liquid and + brilliant, rosier than a May dawn; her face full and fresh, her hand warm + and moist—in fine, more beautiful than ever, and in the most perfect + health. + </p> + <p> + ‘I shall not die! I shall not die!’ she cried, clinging to my neck, half + mad with joy. ‘I can love thee yet for a long time. My life is thine, and + all that is of me comes from thee. A few drops of thy rich and noble + blood, more precious and more potent than all the elixirs of the earth, + have given me back life.’ + </p> + <p> + This scene long haunted my memory, and inspired me with strange doubts in + regard to Clarimonde; and the same evening, when slumber had transported + me to my presbytery, I beheld the Abbé Sérapion, graver and more anxious + of aspect than ever. He gazed attentively at me, and sorrowfully + exclaimed: ‘Not content with losing your soul, you now desire also to lose + your body. Wretched young man, into how terrible a plight have you + fallen!’ The tone in which he uttered these words powerfully affected me, + but in spite of its vividness even that impression was soon dissipated, + and a thousand other cares erased it from my mind. At last one evening, + while looking into a mirror whose traitorous position she had not taken + into account, I saw Clarimonde in the act of emptying a powder into the + cup of spiced wine which she had long been in the habit of preparing after + our repasts. I took the cup, feigned to carry it to my lips, and then + placed it on the nearest article of furniture as though intending to + finish it at my leisure. Taking advantage of a moment when the fair one’s + back was turned, I threw the contents under the table, after which I + retired to my chamber and went to bed, fully resolved not to sleep, but to + watch and discover what should come of all this mystery. I did not have to + wait long, Clarimonde entered in her nightdress, and having removed her + apparel, crept into bed and lay down beside me. When she felt assured that + I was asleep, she bared my arm, and drawing a gold pin from her hair, + commenced to murmur in a low voice: + </p> + <p> + ‘One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since thou + lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful blood, so + brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! Sleep, my god, + my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy life what I must + to keep my own from being for ever extinguished. But that I love thee so + much, I could well resolve to have other lovers whose veins I could drain; + but since I have known thee all other men have become hateful to me.... + Ah, the beautiful arm! How round it is! How white it is! How shall I ever + dare to prick this pretty blue vein!’ And while thus murmuring to herself + she wept, and I felt her tears raining on my arm as she clasped it with + her hands. At last she took the resolve, slightly punctured me with her + pin, and commenced to suck up the blood which oozed from the place. + Although she swallowed only a few drops, the fear of weakening me soon + seized her, and she carefully tied a little band around my arm, afterward + rubbing the wound with an unguent which immediately cicatrised it. Further + doubts were impossible. The Abbé Sérapion was right. Notwithstanding this + positive knowledge, however, I could not cease to love Clarimonde, and I + would gladly of my own accord have given her all the blood she required to + sustain her factitious life. Moreover, I felt but little fear of her. The + woman seemed to plead with me for the vampire, and what I had already + heard and seen sufficed to reassure me completely. In those days I had + plenteous veins, which would not have been so easily exhausted as at + present; and I would not have thought of bargaining for my blood, drop by + drop. I would rather have opened myself the veins of my arm and said to + her: ‘Drink, and may my love infiltrate itself throughout thy body + together with my blood!’ I carefully avoided ever making the least + reference to the narcotic drink she had prepared for me, or to the + incident of the pin, and we lived in the most perfect harmony. + </p> + <p> + Yet my priestly scruples commenced to torment me more than ever, and I was + at a loss to imagine what new penance I could invent in order to mortify + and subdue my flesh. Although these visions were involuntary, and though I + did not actually participate in anything relating to them, I could not + dare to touch the body of Christ with hands so impure and a mind defiled + by such debauches whether real or imaginary. In the effort to avoid + falling under the influence of these wearisome hallucinations, I strove to + prevent myself from being overcome by sleep. I held my eyelids open with + my fingers, and stood for hours together leaning upright against the wall, + fighting sleep with all my might; but the dust of drowsiness invariably + gathered upon my eyes at last, and finding all resistance useless, I would + have to let my arms fall in the extremity of despairing weariness, and the + current of slumber would again bear me away to the perfidious shores. + Sérapion addressed me with the most vehement exhortations, severely + reproaching me for my softness and want of fervour. Finally, one day when + I was more wretched than usual, he said to me: ‘There is but one way by + which you can obtain relief from this continual torment, and though it is + an extreme measure it must be made use of; violent diseases require + violent remedies. I know where Clarimonde is buried. It is necessary that + we shall disinter her remains, and that you shall behold in how pitiable a + state the object of your love is. Then you will no longer be tempted to + lose your soul for the sake of an unclean corpse devoured by worms, and + ready to crumble into dust. That will assuredly restore you to yourself.’ + For my part, I was so tired of this double life that I at once consented, + desiring to ascertain beyond a doubt whether a priest or a gentleman had + been the victim of delusion. I had become fully resolved either to kill + one of the two men within me for the benefit of the other, or else to kill + both, for so terrible an existence could not last long and be endured. The + Abbé Sérapion provided himself with a mattock, a lever, and a lantern, and + at midnight we wended our way to the cemetery of ———, + the location and place of which were perfectly familiar to him. After + having directed the rays of the dark lantern upon the inscriptions of + several tombs, we came at last upon a great slab, half concealed by huge + weeds and devoured by mosses and parasitic plants, whereupon we deciphered + the opening lines of the epitaph: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Here lies Clarimonde + Who was famed in her life-time + As the fairest of women.* + + * Ici gît Clarimonde + Qui fut de son vivant + La plus belle du monde. + + The broken beauty of the lines is unavoidably + lost in the translation. +</pre> + <p> + ‘It is here without a doubt,’ muttered Sérapion, and placing his lantern + on the ground, he forced the point of the lever under the edge of the + stone and commenced to raise it. The stone yielded, and he proceeded to + work with the mattock. Darker and more silent than the night itself, I + stood by and watched him do it, while he, bending over his dismal toil, + streamed with sweat, panted, and his hard-coming breath seemed to have the + harsh tone of a death rattle. It was a weird scene, and had any persons + from without beheld us, they would assuredly have taken us rather for + profane wretches and shroud-stealers than for priests of God. There was + something grim and fierce in Sérapion’s zeal which lent him the air of a + demon rather than of an apostle or an angel, and his great aquiline face, + with all its stern features, brought out in strong relief by the + lantern-light, had something fearsome in it which enhanced the unpleasant + fancy. I felt an icy sweat come out upon my forehead in huge beads, and my + hair stood up with a hideous fear. Within the depths of my own heart I + felt that the act of the austere Sérapion was an abominable sacrilege; and + I could have prayed that a triangle of fire would issue from the entrails + of the dark clouds, heavily rolling above us, to reduce him to cinders. + The owls which had been nestling in the cypress-trees, startled by the + gleam of the lantern, flew against it from time to time, striking their + dusty wings against its panes, and uttering plaintive cries of + lamentation; wild foxes yelped in the far darkness, and a thousand + sinister noises detached themselves from the silence. At last Séra-pion’s + mattock struck the coffin itself, making its planks re-echo with a deep + sonorous sound, with that terrible sound nothingness utters when stricken. + He wrenched apart and tore up the lid, and I beheld Clarimonde, pallid as + a figure of marble, with hands joined; her white winding-sheet made but + one fold from her head to her feet. A little crimson drop sparkled like a + speck of dew at one corner of her colourless mouth. Sérapion, at this + spectacle, burst into fury: ‘Ah, thou art here, demon! Impure courtesan! + Drinker of blood and gold! ‘And he flung holy water upon the corpse and + the coffin, over which he traced the sign of the cross with his sprinkler. + Poor Clarimonde had no sooner been touched by the blessed spray than her + beautiful body crumbled into dust, and became only a shapeless and + frightful mass of cinders and half-calcined bones. + </p> + <p> + ‘Behold your mistress, my Lord Romuald!’ cried the inexorable priest, as + he pointed to these sad remains. ‘Will you be easily tempted after this to + promenade on the Lido or at Fusina with your beauty?’ I covered my face + with my hands, a vast ruin had taken place within me. I returned to my + presbytery, and the noble Lord Romuald, the lover of Clarimonde, separated + himself from the poor priest with whom he had kept such strange company so + long. But once only, the following night, I saw Clarimonde. She said to + me, as she had said the first time at the portals of the church: ‘Unhappy + man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done? Wherefore have hearkened to that + imbecile priest? Wert thou not happy? And what harm had I ever done thee + that thou shouldst violate my poor tomb, and lay bare the miseries of my + nothingness? All communication between our souls and our bodies is + henceforth for ever broken. Adieu! Thou wilt yet regret me!’ She vanished + in air as smoke, and I never saw her more. + </p> + <p> + Alas! she spoke truly indeed. I have regretted her more than once, and I + regret her still. My soul’s peace has been very dearly bought. The love of + God was not too much to replace such a love as hers. And this, brother, is + the story of my youth. Never gaze upon a woman, and walk abroad only with + eyes ever fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and watchful one may + be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one lose eternity. lose + eternity. <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Théophile Gautier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + +***** This file should be named 22661-h.htm or 22661-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/6/22661/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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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: Clarimonde + +Author: Theophile Gautier + +Translator: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CLARIMONDE + +By Theophile Gautier + +Translated By Lafcadio Hearn + +1908 + + +Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a strange and +terrible one; and though I am sixty-six years of age, I scarcely dare +even now to disturb the ashes of that memory. To you I can refuse +nothing; but I should not relate such a tale to any less experienced +mind. So strange were the circumstances of my story, that I can scarcely +believe myself to have ever actually been a party to them. For more +than three years I remained the victim of a most singular and diabolical +illusion. Poor country priest though I was, I led every night in a +dream--would to God it had been all a dream!--a most worldly life, a +damning life, a life of Sardanapalus. One single look too freely cast +upon a woman well-nigh caused me to lose my soul; but finally by the +grace of God and the assistance of my patron saint, I succeeded in +casting out the evil spirit that possessed me. My daily life was long +interwoven with a nocturnal life of a totally different character. By +day I was a priest of the Lord, occupied with prayer and sacred things; +by night, from the instant that I closed my eyes I became a young +nobleman, a fine connoisseur in women, dogs, and horses; gambling, +drinking, and blaspheming; and when I awoke at early daybreak, it seemed +to me, on the other hand, that I had been sleeping, and had only dreamed +that I was a priest. Of this somnambulistic life there now remains to me +only the recollection of certain scenes and words which I cannot banish +from my memory; but although I never actually left the walls of my +presbytery, one would think to hear me speak that I were a man who, +weary of all worldly pleasures, had become a religious, seeking to end a +tempestuous life in the service of God, rather than a humble seminarist +who has grown old in this obscure curacy, situated in the depths of the +woods and even isolated from the life of the century. + +Yes, I have loved as none in the world ever loved--with an insensate +and furious passion--so violent that I am astonished it did not cause my +heart to burst asunder. Ah, what nights--what nights! + +From my earliest childhood I had felt a vocation to the priesthood, so +that all my studies were directed with that idea in view. Up to the +age of twenty-four my life had been only a prolonged novitiate. Having +completed my course of theology I successively received all the minor +orders, and my superiors judged me worthy, despite my youth, to pass the +last awful degree. My ordination was fixed for Easter week. + +I had never gone into the world. My world was confined by the walls of +the college and the seminary. I knew in a vague sort of a way that there +was something called Woman, but I never permitted my thoughts to dwell +on such a subject, and I lived in a state of perfect innocence. Twice +a year only I saw my infirm and aged mother, and in those visits were +comprised my sole relations with the outer world. + +I regretted nothing; I felt not the least hesitation at taking the last +irrevocable step; I was filled with joy and impatience. Never did a +betrothed lover count the slow hours with more feverish ardour; I slept +only to dream that I was saying mass; I believed there could be nothing +in the world more delightful than to be a priest; I would have refused +to be a king or a poet in preference. My ambition could conceive of no +loftier aim. + +I tell you this in order to show you that what happened to me could +not have happened in the natural order of things, and to enable you to +understand that I was the victim of an inexplicable fascination. + +At last the great day came. I walked to the church with a step so light +that I fancied myself sustained in air, or that I had wings upon my +shoulders. I believed myself an angel, and wondered at the sombre and +thoughtful faces of my companions, for there were several of us. I +had passed all the night in prayer, and was in a condition wellnigh +bordering on ecstasy. The bishop, a venerable old man, seemed to me God +the Father leaning over His Eternity, and I beheld Heaven through the +vault of the temple. + +You well know the details of that ceremony--the benediction, the +communion under both forms, the anointing of the palms of the hands with +the Oil of Catechumens, and then the holy sacrifice offered in concert +with the bishop. + +Ah, truly spake Job when he declared that the imprudent man is one who +hath not made a covenant with his eyes! I accidentally lifted my head, +which until then I had kept down, and beheld before me, so close that +it seemed that I could have touched her--although she was actually a +considerable distance from me and on the further side of the sanctuary +railing--a young woman of extraordinary beauty, and attired with royal +magnificence. It seemed as though scales had suddenly fallen from my +eyes. I felt like a blind man who unexpectedly recovers his sight. The +bishop, so radiantly glorious but an instant before, suddenly vanished +away, the tapers paled upon their golden candlesticks like stars in the +dawn, and a vast darkness seemed to fill the whole church. The charming +creature appeared in bright relief against the background of that +darkness, like some angelic revelation. She seemed herself radiant, and +radiating light rather than receiving it. + +I lowered my eyelids, firmly resolved not to again open them, that +I might not be influenced by external objects, for distraction had +gradually taken possession of me until I hardly knew what I was doing. + +In another minute, nevertheless, I reopened my eyes, for through my +eyelashes I still beheld her, all sparkling with prismatic colours, and +surrounded with such a penumbra as one beholds in gazing at the sun. + +Oh, how beautiful she was! The greatest painters, who followed ideal +beauty into heaven itself, and thence brought back to earth the true +portrait of the Madonna, never in their delineations even approached +that wildly beautiful reality which I saw before me. Neither the verses +of the poet nor the palette of the artist could convey any conception +of her. She was rather tall, with a form and bearing of a goddess. Her +hair, of a soft blonde hue, was parted in the midst and flowed back over +her temples in two rivers of rippling gold; she seemed a diademed +queen. Her forehead, bluish-white in its transparency, extended its calm +breadth above the arches of her eyebrows, which by a strange singularity +were almost black, and admirably relieved the effect of sea-green eyes +of unsustainable vivacity and brilliancy. What eyes! With a single flash +they could have decided a man's destiny. They had a life, a limpidity, +an ardour, a humid light which I have never seen in human eyes; they +shot forth rays like arrows, which I could distinctly _see_ enter my +heart. I know not if the fire which illumined them came from heaven or +from hell, but assuredly it came from one or the other. That woman was +either an angel or a demon, perhaps both. Assuredly she never sprang +from the flank of Eve, our common mother. Teeth of the most lustrous +pearl gleamed in her ruddy smile, and at every inflection of her lips +little dimples appeared in the satiny rose of her adorable cheeks. There +was a delicacy and pride in the regal outline of her nostrils bespeaking +noble blood. Agate gleams played over the smooth lustrous skin of her +half-bare shoulders, and strings of great blonde pearls--almost equal +to her neck in beauty of colour--descended upon her bosom. From time +to time she elevated her head with the undulating grace of a startled +serpent or peacock, thereby imparting a quivering motion to the high +lace ruff which surrounded it like a silver trellis-work. + +She wore a robe of orange-red velvet, and from her wide ermine-lined +sleeves there peeped forth patrician hands of infinite delicacy, and so +ideally transparent that, like the fingers of Aurora, they permitted the +light to shine through them. + +All these details I can recollect at this moment as plainly as though +they were of yesterday, for notwithstanding I was greatly troubled at +the time, nothing escaped me; the faintest touch of shading, the little +dark speck at the point of the chin, the imperceptible down at the +corners of the lips, the velvety floss upon the brow, the quivering +shadows of the eyelashes upon the cheeks--I could notice everything with +astonishing lucidity of perception. + +And gazing I felt opening within me gates that had until then remained +closed; vents long obstructed became all clear, permitting glimpses of +unfamiliar perspectives within; life suddenly made itself visible to me +under a totally novel aspect. I felt as though I had just been born into +a new world and a new order of things. A frightful anguish commenced to +torture-my heart as with red-hot pincers. Every successive minute seemed +to me at once but a second and yet a century. Meanwhile the ceremony was +proceeding, and I shortly found myself transported far from that world +of which my newly born desires were furiously besieging the entrance. +Nevertheless I answered 'Yes' when I wished to say 'No,' though all +within me protested against the violence done to my soul by my tongue. +Some occult power seemed to force the words from my throat against my +will. Thus it is, perhaps, that so many young girls walk to the altar +firmly resolved to refuse in a startling manner the husband imposed +upon them, and that yet not one ever fulfils her intention. Thus it is, +doubtless, that so many poor novices take the veil, though they have +resolved to tear it into shreds at the moment when called upon to utter +the vows. One dares not thus cause so great a scandal to all present, +nor deceive the expectation of so many people. All those eyes, all those +wills seem to weigh down upon you like a cope of lead, and, moreover, +measures have been so well taken, everything has been so thoroughly +arranged beforehand and after a fashion so evidently irrevocable, that +the will yields to the weight of circumstances and utterly breaks down. + +As the ceremony proceeded the features of the fair unknown changed their +expression. Her look had at first been one of caressing tenderness; +it changed to an air of disdain and of mortification, as though at not +having been able to make itself understood. + +With an effort of will sufficient to have uprooted a mountain, I strove +to cry out that I would not be a priest, but I could not speak; my +tongue seemed nailed to my palate, and I found it impossible to express +my will by the least syllable of negation. Though fully awake, I felt +like one under the influence of a nightmare, who vainly strives to +shriek out the one word upon which life depends. + +She seemed conscious of the martyrdom I was undergoing, and, as though +to encourage me, she gave me a look replete with divinest promise. Her +eyes were a poem; their every glance was a song. + +She said to me: + +'If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His +paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that +funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I +am Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah +offer thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in +one eternal kiss. + +'Fling forth the wine of that chalice, and thou art free. I will conduct +thee to the Unknown Isles. Thou shalt sleep in my bosom upon a bed of +massy gold under a silver pavilion, for I love thee and would take thee +away from thy God, before whom so many noble hearts pour forth floods of +love which never reach even the steps of His throne!' + +These words seemed to float to my ears in a rhythm of infinite +sweetness, for her look was actually sonorous, and the utterances of her +eyes were reechoed in the depths of my heart as though living lips had +breathed them into my life. I felt myself willing to renounce God, +and yet my tongue mechanically fulfilled all the formalities of +the ceremony. The fair one gave me another look, so beseeching, so +despairing that keen blades seemed to pierce my heart, and I felt my +bosom transfixed by more swords than those of Our Lady of Sorrows. + +All was consummated; I had become a priest. + +Never was deeper anguish painted on human face than upon hers. The +maiden who beholds her affianced lover suddenly fall dead at her side, +the mother bending over the empty cradle of her child, Eve seated at +the threshold of the gate of Paradise, the miser who finds a stone +substituted for his stolen treasure, the poet who accidentally permits +the only manuscript of his finest work to fall into the fire, could not +wear a look so despairing, so inconsolable. All the blood had abandoned +her charming face, leaving it whiter than marble; her beautiful arms +hung lifelessly on either side of her body as though their muscles +had suddenly relaxed, and she sought the support of a pillar, for her +yielding limbs almost betrayed her. As for myself, I staggered toward +the door of the church, livid as death, my forehead bathed with a sweat +bloodier than that of Calvary; I felt as though I were being strangled; +the vault seemed to have flattened down upon my shoulders, and it seemed +to me that my head alone sustained the whole weight of the dome. + +As I was about to cross the threshold a hand suddenly caught mine--a +woman's hand! I had never till then touched the hand of any woman. +It was cold as a serpent's skin, and yet its impress remained upon my +wrist, burnt there as though branded by a glowing iron. It was she. +'Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done?' she exclaimed in a low +voice, and immediately disappeared in the crowd. + +The aged bishop passed by. He cast a severe and scrutinising look upon +me. My face presented the wildest aspect imaginable: I blushed and +turned pale alternately; dazzling lights flashed before my eyes. A +companion took pity on me. He seized my arm and led me out. I could +not possibly have found my way back to the seminary unassisted. At the +corner of a street, while the young priest's attention was momentarily +turned in another direction, a negro page, fantastically garbed, +approached me, and without pausing on his way slipped into my hand +a little pocket-book with gold-embroidered corners, at the same time +giving me a sign to hide it. I concealed it in my sleeve, and there kept +it until I found myself alone in my cell. Then I opened the clasp. There +were only two leaves within, bearing the words, 'Clarimonde. At the +Concini Palace.' So little acquainted was I at that time with the things +of this world that I had never heard of Clarimonde, celebrated as she +was, and I had no idea as to where the Concini Palace was situated. I +hazarded a thousand conjectures, each more extravagant than the last; +but, in truth, I cared little whether she were a great lady or a +courtesan, so that I could but see her once more. + +My love, although the growth of a single hour, had taken imperishable +root. I did not even dream of attempting to tear it up, so fully was I +convinced such a thing would be impossible. That woman had completely +taken possession of me. One look from her had sufficed to change my very +nature. She had breathed her will into my life, and I no longer lived +in myself, but in her and for her. I gave myself up to a thousand +extravagancies. I kissed the place upon my hand which she had touched, +and I repeated her name over and over again for hours in succession. I +only needed to close my eyes in order to see her distinctly as though +she were actually present; and I reiterated to myself the words she had +uttered in my ear at the church porch: 'Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What +hast thou done?' I comprehended at last the full horror of my situation, +and the funereal and awful restraints of the state into which I had just +entered became clearly revealed to me. To be a priest!--that is, to be +chaste, to never love, to observe no distinction of sex or age, to turn +from the sight of all beauty, to put out one's own eyes, to hide for +ever crouching in the chill shadows of some church or cloister, to visit +none but the dying, to watch by unknown corpses, and ever bear about +with one the black soutane as a garb of mourning for oneself, so that +your very dress might serve as a pall for your coffin. + +And I felt life rising within me like a subterranean lake, expanding +and overflowing; my blood leaped fiercely through my arteries; my +long-restrained youth suddenly burst into active being, like the aloe +which blooms but once in a hundred years, and then bursts into blossom +with a clap of thunder. + +What could I do in order to see Clarimonde once more? I had no pretext +to offer for desiring to leave the seminary, not knowing any person in +the city. I would not even be able to remain there but a short time, +and was only waiting my assignment to the curacy which I must thereafter +occupy. I tried to remove the bars of the window; but it was at a +fearful height from the ground, and I found that as I had no ladder it +would be useless to think of escaping thus. And, furthermore, I could +descend thence only by night in any event, and afterward how should I be +able to find my way through the inextricable labyrinth of streets? +All these difficulties, which to many would have appeared altogether +insignificant, were gigantic to me, a poor seminarist who had fallen in +love only the day before for the first time, without experience, without +money, without attire. + +'Ah!' cried I to myself in my blindness, 'were I not a priest I could +have seen her every day; I might have been her lover, her spouse. +Instead of being wrapped in this dismal shroud of mine I would have had +garments of silk and velvet, golden chains, a sword, and fair plumes +like other handsome young cavaliers. My hair, instead of being +dishonoured by the tonsure, would flow down upon my neck in waving +curls; I would have a fine waxed moustache; I would be a gallant.' But +one hour passed before an altar, a few hastily articulated words, had +for ever cut me off from the number of the living, and I had myself +sealed down the stone of my own tomb; I had with my own hand bolted the +gate of my prison! I went to the window. The sky was beautifully blue; +the trees had donned their spring robes; nature seemed to be making +parade of an ironical joy. The _Place_ was filled with people, some +going, others coming; young beaux and young beauties were sauntering in +couples toward the groves and gardens; merry youths passed by, cheerily +trolling refrains of drinking-songs--it was all a picture of vivacity, +life, animation, gaiety, which formed a bitter contrast with my mourning +and my solitude. On the steps of the gate sat a young mother playing +with her child. She kissed its little rosy mouth still impearled with +drops of milk, and performed, in order to amuse it, a thousand divine +little puerilities such as only mothers know how to invent. The father +standing at a little distance smiled gently upon the charming group, and +with folded arms seemed to hug his joy to his heart. I could not endure +that spectacle. I closed the window with violence, and flung myself on +my bed, my heart filled with frightful hate and jealousy, and gnawed my +fingers and my bedcovers like a tiger that has passed ten days without +food. + +I know not how long I remained in this condition, but at last, while +writhing on the bed in a fit of spasmodic fury, I suddenly perceived +the Abbe Serapion, who was standing erect in the centre of the room, +watching me attentively. Filled with shame of myself, I let my head fall +upon my breast and covered my face with my hands. + +'Romuald, my friend, something very extraordinary is transpiring within +you,' observed Serapion, after a few moments' silence; 'your conduct is +altogether inexplicable. You--always so quiet, so pious, so gentle--you +to rage in your cell like a wild beast! Take heed, brother--do not +listen to the suggestions of the devil The Evil Spirit, furious that you +have consecrated yourself for ever to the Lord, is prowling around you +like a ravening wolf and making a last effort to obtain possession of +you. Instead of allowing yourself to be conquered, my dear Romuald, +make to yourself a cuirass of prayers, a buckler of mortifications, and +combat the enemy like a valiant man; you will then assuredly overcome +him. Virtue must be proved by temptation, and gold comes forth purer +from the hands of the assayer. Fear not. Never allow yourself to become +discouraged. The most watchful and steadfast souls are at moments liable +to such temptation. Pray, fast, meditate, and the Evil Spirit will +depart from you.' + +The words of the Abbe Serapion restored me to myself, and I became a +little more calm. 'I came,' he continued, 'to tell you that you have +been appointed to the curacy of C------. The priest who had charge of +it has just died, and Monseigneur the Bishop has ordered me to have you +installed there at once. Be ready, therefore, to start to-morrow.' +I responded with an inclination of the head, and the Abbe retired. I +opened my missal and commenced reading some prayers, but the letters +became confused and blurred under my eyes, the thread of the ideas +entangled itself hopelessly in my brain, and the volume at last fell +from my hands without my being aware of it. + +To leave to-morrow without having been able to see her again, to add yet +another barrier to the many already interposed between us, to lose +for ever all hope of being able to meet her, except, indeed, through a +miracle! Even to write to her, alas! would be impossible, for by whom +could I dispatch my letter? With my sacred character of priest, to whom +could I dare unbosom myself, in whom could I confide? I became a prey to +the bitterest anxiety. + +Then suddenly recurred to me the words of the Abbe Serapion regarding +the artifices of the devil; and the strange character of the adventure, +the supernatural beauty of Clarimonde, the phosphoric light of her eyes, +the burning imprint of her hand, the agony into which she had thrown +me, the sudden change wrought within me when all my piety vanished in a +single instant--these and other things clearly testified to the work +of the Evil One, and perhaps that satiny hand was but the glove which +concealed his claws. Filled with terror at these fancies, I again picked +up the missal which had slipped from my knees and fallen upon the floor, +and once more gave myself up to prayer. + +Next morning Serapion came to take me away. Two mules freighted with +our miserable valises awaited us at the gate. He mounted one, and I the +other as well as I knew how. + +As we passed along the streets of the city, I gazed attentively at all +the windows and balconies in the hope of seeing Clarimonde, but it was +yet early in the morning, and the city had hardly opened its eyes. Mine +sought to penetrate the blinds and window-curtains of all the palaces +before which we were passing. Serapion doubtless attributed this +curiosity to my admiration of the architecture, for he slackened the +pace of his animal in order to give me time to look around me. At last +we passed the city gates and commenced to mount the hill beyond. When +we arrived at its summit I turned to take a last look at the place where +Clarimonde dwelt. The shadow of a great cloud hung over all the city; +the contrasting colours of its blue and red roofs were lost in the +uniform half-tint, through which here and there floated upward, like +white flakes of foam, the smoke of freshly kindled fires. By a +singular optical effect one edifice, which surpassed in height all the +neighbouring buildings that were still dimly veiled by the vapours, +towered up, fair and lustrous with the gilding of a solitary beam of +sunlight--although actually more than a league away it seemed +quite near. The smallest details of its architecture were plainly +distinguishable--the turrets, the platforms, the window-casements, and +even the swallow-tailed weather-vanes. + +'What is that palace I see over there, all lighted up by the sun?' I +asked Serapion. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and having looked in +the direction indicated, replied: 'It is the ancient palace which the +Prince Concini has given to the courtesan Clarimonde. Awful things are +done there!' + +At that instant, I know not yet whether it was a reality or an illusion, +I fancied I saw gliding along the terrace a shapely white figure, +which gleamed for a moment in passing and as quickly vanished. It was +Clarimonde. + +Oh, did she know that at that very hour, all feverish and restless--from +the height of the rugged road which separated me from her, and which, +alas! I could never more descend--I was directing my eyes upon the +palace where she dwelt, and which a mocking beam of sunlight seemed to +bring nigh to me, as though inviting me to enter therein as its lord? +Undoubtedly she must have known it, for her soul was too sympathetically +united with mine not to have felt its least emotional thrill, and that +subtle sympathy it must have been which prompted her to climb--although +clad only in her nightdress--to the summit of the terrace, amid the icy +dews of the morning. + +The shadow gained the palace, and the scene became to the eye only +a motionless ocean of roofs and gables, amid which one mountainous +undulation was distinctly visible. Serapion urged his mule forward, my +own at once followed at the same gait, and a sharp angle in the road at +last hid the city of S------ for ever from my eyes, as I was destined +never to return thither. At the close of a weary three-days' journey +through dismal country fields, we caught sight of the cock upon the +steeple of the church which I was to take charge of, peeping above +the trees, and after having followed some winding roads fringed with +thatched cottages and little gardens, we found ourselves in front of the +facade, which certainly possessed few features of magnificence. A porch +ornamented with some mouldings, and two or three pillars rudely hewn +from sandstone; a tiled roof with counterforts of the same sandstone as +the pillars--that was all. To the left lay the cemetery, overgrown with +high weeds, and having a great iron cross rising up in its centre; to +the right stood the presbytery under the shadow of the church. It was a +house of the most extreme simplicity and frigid cleanliness. We entered +the enclosure. A few chickens were picking up some oats scattered upon +the ground; accustomed, seemingly, to the black habit of ecclesiastics, +they showed no fear of our presence and scarcely troubled themselves to +get out of our way. A hoarse, wheezy barking fell upon our ears, and we +saw an aged dog running toward us. + +It was my predecessor's dog. He had dull bleared eyes, grizzled hair, +and every mark of the greatest age to which a dog can possibly attain. +I patted him gently, and he proceeded at once to march along beside me +with an air of satisfaction unspeakable. A very old woman, who had been +the housekeeper of the former cure, also came to meet us, and after +having invited me into a little back parlour, asked whether I intended +to retain her. I replied that I would take care of her, and the dog, and +the chickens, and all the furniture her master had bequeathed her at +his death. At this she became fairly transported with joy, and the +Abbe Serapion at once paid her the price which she asked for her little +property. + +As soon as my installation was over, the Abbe Serapion returned to the +seminary. I was, therefore, left alone, with no one but myself to look +to for aid or counsel. The thought of Clarimonde again began to haunt +me, and in spite of all my endeavours to banish it, I always found it +present in my meditations. One evening, while promenading in my little +garden along the walks bordered with box-plants, I fancied that I saw +through the elm-trees the figure of a woman, who followed my every +movement, and that I beheld two sea-green eyes gleaming through the +foliage; but it was only an illusion, and on going round to the other +side of the garden, I could find nothing except a footprint on the +sanded walk--a footprint so small that it seemed to have been made +by the foot of a child. The garden was enclosed by very high walls. I +searched every nook and corner of it, but could discover no one there. +I have never succeeded in fully accounting for this circumstance, which, +after all, was nothing compared with the strange things which happened +to me afterward. + +For a whole year I lived thus, filling all the duties of my calling +with the most scrupulous exactitude, praying and fasting, exhorting and +lending ghostly aid to the sick, and bestowing alms even to the extent +of frequently depriving myself of the very necessaries of life. But I +felt a great aridness within me, and the sources of grace seemed closed +against me. I never found that happiness which should spring from the +fulfilment of a holy mission; my thoughts were far away, and the words +of Clarimonde were ever upon my lips like an involuntary refrain. Oh, +brother, meditate well on this! Through having but once lifted my eyes +to look upon a woman, through one fault apparently so venial, I have for +years remained a victim to the most miserable agonies, and the happiness +of my life has been destroyed for ever. + +I will not longer dwell upon those defeats, or on those inward victories +invariably followed by yet more terrible falls, but will at once proceed +to the facts of my story. One night my door-bell was long and violently +rung. The aged housekeeper arose and opened to the stranger, and the +figure of a man, whose complexion was deeply bronzed, and who was richly +clad in a foreign costume, with a poniard at his girdle, appeared under +the rays of Barbara's lantern. Her first impulse was one of terror, but +the stranger reassured her, and stated that he desired to see me at once +on matters relating to my holy calling. Barbara invited him upstairs, +where I was on the point of retiring. The stranger told me that his +mistress, a very noble lady, was lying at the point of death, and +desired to see a priest. I replied that I was prepared to follow him, +took with me the sacred articles necessary for extreme unction, and +descended in all haste. Two horses black as the night itself stood +without the gate, pawing the ground with impatience, and veiling their +chests with long streams of smoky vapour exhaled from their nostrils. He +held the stirrup and aided me to mount upon one; then, merely laying his +hand upon the pommel of the saddle, he vaulted on the other, pressed +the animal's sides with his knees, and loosened rein. The horse bounded +forward with the velocity of an arrow. Mine, of which the stranger held +the bridle, also started off at a swift gallop, keeping up with his +companion. We devoured the road. The ground flowed backward beneath us +in a long streaked line of pale gray, and the black silhouettes of +the trees seemed fleeing by us on either side like an army in rout. We +passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that I felt my flesh creep +in the chill darkness with superstitious fear. The showers of bright +sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod feet of our +horses remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and had any one +at that hour of the night beheld us both--my guide and myself--he must +have taken us for two spectres riding upon nightmares. Witch-fires ever +and anon flitted across the road before us, and the night-birds +shrieked fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond, where we beheld +at intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wild cats. The manes of the +horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat streamed over their +flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils hard and fast. But +when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated them by uttering +a strange, gutteral, unearthly cry, and the gallop recommenced with +fury. At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black mass pierced +through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before us, the +hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden drawbridge, and +we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two +enormous towers. Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle. +Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction, +and above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing. +I obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture--columns, +arcades, flights of steps, stairways--a royal voluptuousness and elfin +magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland. A negro page--the +same who had before brought me the tablet from Clarimonde, and whom +I instantly recognised--approached to aid me in dismounting, and the +major-domo, attired in black velvet with a gold chain about his neck, +advanced to meet me, supporting himself upon an ivory cane. Large tears +were falling from his eyes and streaming over his cheeks and white +beard. 'Too late!' he cried, sorrowfully shaking his venerable head. +'Too late, sir priest! But if you have not been able to save the soul, +come at least to watch by the poor body.' + +He took my arm and conducted me to the death-chamber. I wept not less +bitterly than he, for I had learned that the dead one was none other +than that Clarimonde whom I had so deeply and so wildly loved. A +_prie-dieu_ stood at the foot of the bed; a bluish flame flickering in a +bronze patern filled all the room with a wan, deceptive light, here +and there bringing out in the darkness at intervals some projection +of furniture or cornice. In a chiselled urn upon the table there was a +faded white rose, whose leaves--excepting one that still held--had all +fallen, like odorous tears, to the foot of the vase. A broken black +mask, a fan, and disguises of every variety, which were lying on the +armchairs, bore witness that death had entered suddenly and unannounced +into that sumptuous dwelling. Without daring to cast my eyes upon the +bed, I knelt down and commenced to repeat the Psalms for the Dead, with +exceeding fervour, thanking God that He had placed the tomb between +me and the memory of this woman, so that I might thereafter be able to +utter her name in my prayers as a name for ever sanctified by death. +But my fervour gradually weakened, and I fell insensibly into a reverie. +That chamber bore no semblance to a chamber of death. In lieu of the +fetid and cadaverous odours which I had been accustomed to breathe +during such funereal vigils, a languorous vapour of Oriental perfume--I +know not what amorous odour of woman--softly floated through the tepid +air. That pale light seemed rather a twilight gloom contrived for +voluptuous pleasure, than a substitute for the yellow-flickering +watch-tapers which shine by the side of corpses. I thought upon the +strange destiny which enabled me to meet Clarimonde again at the very +moment when she was lost to me for ever, and a sigh of regretful anguish +escaped from my breast. Then it seemed to me that some one behind me +had also sighed, and I turned round to look. It was only an echo. But in +that moment my eyes fell upon the bed of death which they had till then +avoided. The red damask curtains, decorated with large flowers worked in +embroidery and looped up with gold bullion, permitted me to behold the +fair dead, lying at full length, with hands joined upon her bosom. She +was covered with a linen wrapping of dazzling whiteness, which formed +a strong contrast with the gloomy purple of the hangings, and was of so +fine a texture that it concealed nothing of her body's charming form, +and allowed the eye to follow those beautiful outlines--undulating like +the neck of a swan--which even death had not robbed of their supple +grace. She seemed an alabaster statue executed by some skilful sculptor +to place upon the tomb of a queen, or rather, perhaps, like a slumbering +maiden over whom the silent snow had woven a spotless veil. + +I could no longer maintain my constrained attitude of prayer. The air +of the alcove intoxicated me, that febrile perfume of half-faded roses +penetrated my very brain, and I commenced to pace restlessly up and down +the chamber, pausing at each turn before the bier to contemplate the +graceful corpse lying beneath the transparency of its shroud. Wild +fancies came thronging to my brain. I thought to myself that she might +not, perhaps, be really dead; that she might only have feigned death for +the purpose of bringing me to her castle, and then declaring her love. +At one time I even thought I saw her foot move under the whiteness of +the coverings, and slightly disarrange the long straight folds of the +winding-sheet. + +And then I asked myself: 'Is this indeed Clarimonde? What proof have I +that it is she? Might not that black page have passed into the service +of some other lady? Surely, I must be going mad to torture and afflict +myself thus!' But my heart answered with a fierce throbbing: 'It is she; +it is she indeed!' I approached the bed again, and fixed my eyes with +redoubled attention upon the object of my incertitude. Ah, must I +confess it? That exquisite perfection of bodily form, although purified +and made sacred by the shadow of death, affected me more voluptuously +than it should have done; and that repose so closely resembled slumber +that one might well have mistaken it for such. I forgot that I had come +there to perform a funeral ceremony; I fancied myself a young bridegroom +entering the chamber of the bride, who all modestly hides her fair face, +and through coyness seeks to keep herself wholly veiled. Heartbroken +with grief, yet wild with hope, shuddering at once with fear and +pleasure, I bent over her and grasped the corner of the sheet. I lifted +it back, holding my breath all the while through fear of waking her. My +arteries throbbed with such violence that I felt them hiss through my +temples, and the sweat poured from my forehead in streams, as though I +had lifted a mighty slab of marble. There, indeed, lay Clarimonde, even +as I had seen her at the church on the day of my ordination. She was not +less charming than then. With her, death seemed but a last coquetry. The +pallor of her cheeks, the less brilliant carnation of her lips, her long +eyelashes lowered and relieving their dark fringe against that white +skin, lent her an unspeakably seductive aspect of melancholy chastity +and mental suffering; her long loose hair, still intertwined with some +little blue flowers, made a shining pillow for her head, and veiled the +nudity of her shoulders with its thick ringlets; her beautiful hands, +purer, more diaphanous, than the Host, were crossed on her bosom in an +attitude of pious rest and silent prayer, which served to counteract all +that might have proven otherwise too alluring--even after death--in the +exquisite roundness and ivory polish of her bare arms from which the +pearl bracelets had not yet been removed. I remained long in mute +contemplation, and the more I gazed, the less could I persuade myself +that life had really abandoned that beautiful body for ever. I do not +know whether it was an illusion or a reflection of the lamplight, but it +seemed to me that the blood was again commencing to circulate under that +lifeless pallor, although she remained all motionless. I laid my hand +lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not colder than her hand on the +day when it touched mine at the portals of the church. I resumed my +position, bending my face above her, and bathing her cheek with the warm +dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair and helplessness, +what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long watch! Vainly did I +wish that I could have gathered all my life into one mass that I might +give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains the flame which +devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of eternal +separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet pleasure +of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my only +love.... Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, and +the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of mine. +Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former +brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed +them around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. 'Ah, it is thou, +Romuald!' she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last +vibrations of a harp. 'What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for +thee that I am dead; but we are now betrothed: I can see thee and visit +thee. Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to +tell thee, and I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment +recalled. We shall soon meet again.' + +Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain +me still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered +the chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment +palpitated at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly's wing, then +it detached itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing +with it the soul of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell +insensible upon the bosom of the beautiful dead. + +When I came to myself again I was lying on the bed in my little room at +the presbytery, and the old dog of the former cure was licking my +hand, which had been hanging down outside of the covers. Barbara, all +trembling with age and anxiety, was busying herself about the room, +opening and shutting drawers, and emptying powders into glasses. On +seeing me open my eyes, the old woman uttered a cry of joy, the dog +yelped and wagged his tail, but I was still so weak that I could not +speak a single word or make the slightest motion. Afterward I learned +that I had lain thus for three days, giving no evidence of life beyond +the faintest respiration. Those three days do not reckon in my life, nor +could I ever imagine whither my spirit had departed during those three +days; I have no recollection of aught relating to them. Barbara told me +that the same coppery-complexioned man who came to seek me on the night +of my departure from the presbytery had brought me back the next morning +in a close litter, and departed immediately afterward. When I became +able to collect my scattered thoughts, I reviewed within my mind all the +circumstances of that fateful night. At first I thought I had been the +victim of some magical illusion, but ere long the recollection of other +circumstances, real and palpable in themselves, came to forbid that +supposition. I could not believe that I had been dreaming, since Barbara +as well as myself had seen the strange man with his two black horses, +and described with exactness every detail of his figure and apparel. +Nevertheless it appeared that none knew of any castle in the +neighbourhood answering to the description of that in which I had again +found Clarimonde. + +One morning I found the Abbe Serapion in my room. Barbara had advised +him that I was ill, and he had come with all speed to see me. Although +this haste on his part testified to an affectionate interest in me, yet +his visit did not cause me the pleasure which it should have done. The +Abbe Serapion had something penetrating and inquisitorial in his +gaze which made me feel very ill at ease. His presence filled me with +embarrassment and a sense of guilt. At the first glance he divined my +interior trouble, and I hated him for his clairvoyance. + +While he inquired after my health in hypocritically honeyed accents, +he constantly kept his two great yellow lion-eyes fixed upon me, and +plunged his look into my soul like a sounding-lead. Then he asked me +how I directed my parish, if I was happy in it, how I passed the leisure +hours allowed me in the intervals of pastoral duty, whether I had +become acquainted with many of the inhabitants of the place, what was my +favourite reading, and a thousand other such questions. I answered these +inquiries as briefly as possible, and he, without ever waiting for +my answers, passed rapidly from one subject of query to another. That +conversation had evidently no connection with what he actually wished to +say. At last, without any premonition, but as though repeating a piece +of news which he had recalled on the instant, and feared might otherwise +be forgotten subsequently, he suddenly said, in a clear vibrant voice, +which rang in my ears like the trumpets of the Last Judgment: + +'The great courtesan Clarimonde died a few days ago, at the close of +an orgie which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something +infernally splendid. The abominations of the banquets of Belshazzar and +Cleopatra were re-enacted there. Good God, what age are we living in? +The guests were served by swarthy slaves who spoke an unknown tongue, +and who seemed to me to be veritable demons. The livery of the very +least among them would have served for the gala-dress of an emperor. +There have always been very strange stories told of this Clarimonde, and +all her lovers came to a violent or miserable end. They used to say that +she was a ghoul, a female vampire; but I believe she was none other than +Beelzebub himself.' + +He ceased to speak, and commenced to regard me more attentively than +ever, as though to observe the effect of his words on me. I could not +refrain from starting when I heard him utter the name of Clarimonde, and +this news of her death, in addition to the pain it caused me by reason +of its coincidence with the nocturnal scenes I had witnessed, filled +me with an agony and terror which my face betrayed, despite my utmost +endeavours to appear composed. Serapion fixed an anxious and severe +look upon me, and then observed: 'My son, I must warn you that you are +standing with foot raised upon the brink of an abyss; take heed lest you +fall therein. Satan's claws are long, and tombs are not always true to +their trust. The tombstone of Clarimonde should be sealed down with a +triple seal, for, if report be true, it is not the first time she has +died. May God watch over you, Romuald!' + +And with these words the Abbe walked slowly to the door. I did not see +him again at that time, for he left for S------ almost immediately. + +I became completely restored to health and resumed my accustomed duties. +The memory of Clarimonde and the words of the old Abbe were constantly +in my mind; nevertheless no extraordinary event had occurred to verify +the funereal predictions of Serapion, and I had commenced to believe +that his fears and my own terrors were over-exaggerated, when one +night I had a strange dream. I had hardly fallen asleep when I heard my +bed-curtains drawn apart, as their rings slided back upon the curtain +rod with a sharp sound. I rose up quickly upon my elbow, and beheld +the shadow of a woman standing erect before me. I recognised Clarimonde +immediately. She bore in her hand a little lamp, shaped like those which +are placed in tombs, and its light lent her fingers a rosy transparency, +which extended itself by lessening degrees even to the opaque and milky +whiteness of her bare arm. Her only garment was the linen winding-sheet +which had shrouded her when lying upon the bed of death. She sought to +gather its folds over her bosom as though ashamed of being so scantily +clad, but her little hand was not equal to the task. She was so white +that the colour of the drapery blended with that of her flesh under +the pallid rays of the lamp. Enveloped with this subtle tissue which +betrayed all the contour of her body, she seemed rather the marble +statue of some fair antique bather than a woman endowed with life. But +dead or living, statue or woman, shadow or body, her beauty was still +the same, only that the green light of her eyes was less brilliant, and +her mouth, once so warmly crimson, was only tinted with a faint tender +rosiness, like that of her cheeks. The little blue flowers which I had +noticed entwined in her hair were withered and dry, and had lost nearly +all their leaves, but this did not prevent her from being charming--so +charming that, notwithstanding the strange character of the adventure, +and the unexplainable manner in which she had entered my room, I felt +not even for a moment the least fear. + +She placed the lamp on the table and seated herself at the foot of my +bed; then bending toward me, she said, in that voice at once silvery +clear and yet velvety in its sweet softness, such as I never heard from +any lips save hers: + +'I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and it must have seemed +to thee that I had forgotten thee. But I come from afar off, very far +off, and from a land whence no other has ever yet returned. There is +neither sun nor moon in that land whence I come: all is but space and +shadow; there is neither road nor pathway: no earth for the foot, no air +for the wing; and nevertheless behold me here, for Love is stronger than +Death and must conquer him in the end. Oh what sad faces and fearful +things I have seen on my way hither! What difficulty my soul, returned +to earth through the power of will alone, has had in finding its body +and reinstating itself therein! What terrible efforts I had to make ere +I could lift the ponderous slab with which they had covered me! See, the +palms of my poor hands are all bruised! Kiss them, sweet love, that they +may be healed!' She laid the cold palms of her hands upon ray mouth, one +after the other. I kissed them, indeed, many times, and she the while +watched me with a smile of ineffable affection. + +I confess to my shame that I had entirely forgotten the advice of the +Abbe Serapion and the sacred office wherewith I had been invested. I had +fallen without resistance, and at the first assault. I had not even +made the least effort to repel the tempter. The fresh coolness of +Clarimonde's skin penetrated my own, and I felt voluptuous tremors pass +over my whole body. Poor child! in spite of all I saw afterward, I can +hardly yet believe she was a demon; at least she had no appearance +of being such, and never did Satan so skilfully conceal his claws and +horns. She had drawn her feet up beneath her, and squatted down on the +edge of the couch in an attitude full of negligent coquetry. From time +to time she passed her little hand through my hair and twisted it into +curls, as though trying how a new style of wearing it would become my +face. I abandoned myself to her hands with the most guilty pleasure, +while she accompanied her gentle play with the prettiest prattle. The +most remarkable fact was that I felt no astonishment whatever at so +extraordinary ah adventure, and as in dreams one finds no difficulty +in accepting the most fantastic events as simple facts, so all these +circumstances seemed to me perfectly natural in themselves. + +'I loved thee long ere I saw thee, dear Romuald, and sought thee +everywhere. Thou wast my dream, and I first saw thee in the church at +the fatal moment. I said at once, "It is he!" I gave thee a look into +which I threw all the love I ever had, all the love I now have, all +the love I shall ever have for thee--a look that would have damned a +cardinal or brought a king to his knees at my feet in view of all his +court. Thou remainedst unmoved, preferring thy God to me! + +'Ah, how jealous I am of that God whom thou didst love and still lovest +more than me! + +'Woe is me, unhappy one that I am! I can never have thy heart all to +myself, I whom thou didst recall to life with a kiss--dead Clarimonde, +who for thy sake bursts asunder the gates of the tomb, and comes to +consecrate to thee a life which she has resumed only to make thee +happy!' + +All her words were accompanied with the most impassioned caresses, which +bewildered my sense and my reason to such an extent, that I did not fear +to utter a frightful blasphemy for the sake of consoling her, and to +declare that I loved her as much as God. + +Her eyes rekindled and shone like chrysoprases. 'In truth?--in very +truth?--as much as God!' she cried, flinging her beautiful arms around +me. 'Since it is so, thou wilt come with me; thou wilt follow me +whithersoever I desire. Thou wilt cast away thy ugly black habit. Thou +shalt be the proudest and most envied of cavaliers; thou shalt be my +lover! To be the acknowledged lover of Clarimonde, who has refused +even a Pope! That will be something to feel proud of. Ah, the fair, +unspeakably happy existence, the beautiful golden life we shall live +together! And when shall we depart, my fair sir?' + +'To-morrow! To-morrow!' I cried in my delirium. + +'To-morrow, then, so let it be!' she answered. 'In the meanwhile I shall +have opportunity to change my toilet, for this is a little too light +and in nowise suited for a voyage. I must also forthwith notify all +my friends who believe me dead, and mourn for me as deeply as they are +capable of doing. The money, the dresses, the carriages--all will be +ready. I shall call for thee at this same hour. Adieu, dear heart!' And +she lightly touched my forehead with her lips. The lamp went out, the +curtains closed again, and all became dark; a leaden, dreamless sleep +fell on me and held me unconscious until the morning following. + +I awoke later than usual, and the recollection of this singular +adventure troubled me during the whole day. I finally persuaded myself +that it was a mere vapour of my heated imagination. Nevertheless its +sensations had been so vivid that it was difficult to persuade myself +that they were not real, and it was not without some presentiment of +what was going to happen that I got into bed at last, after having +prayed God to drive far from me all thoughts of evil, and to protect the +chastity of my slumber. + +I soon fell into a deep sleep, and my dream was continued. The curtains +again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion, +pale in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her +cheeks, but gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling-dress of +green velvet, trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to +allow a glimpse of satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick +ringlets from beneath a broad black felt hat, decorated with white +feathers whimsically twisted into various shapes. In one hand she held a +little riding-whip terminated by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly +with it, and exclaimed: 'Well, my fine sleeper, is this the way you +make your preparations? I thought I would find you up and dressed. Arise +quickly, we have no time to lose.' + +I leaped out of bed at once. + +'Come, dress yourself, and let us go,' she continued, pointing to +a little package she had brought with her. 'The horses are becoming +impatient of delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have +been by this time at least ten leagues distant from here.' + +I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel +herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my +awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made +a mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up +before me a little pocket-mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver +filigree-work, and playfully asked: 'How dost find thyself now? Wilt +engage me for thy valet de chambre?' + +I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognise myself. +I resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles +a block of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one +reflected in the mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly +tickled by the metamorphosis. + +That elegant apparel, that richly embroidered vest had made of me +a totally different personage, and I marvelled at the power of +transformation owned by a few yards of cloth cut after a certain +pattern. The spirit of my costume penetrated my very skin and within ten +minutes more I had become something of a coxcomb. + +In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns +up and down the room. Clari-monde watched me with an air of maternal +pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. 'Come, enough of +this child's play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and +we may not get there in time.' She took my hand and led me forth. All +the doors opened before her at a touch, and we passed by the dog without +awaking him. + +At the gate we found Margheritone waiting, the same swarthy groom who +had once before been my-escort. He held the bridles of three horses, all +black like those which bore us to the castle--one for me, one for him, +one for Clarimonde. Those horses must have been Spanish genets born of +mares fecundated by a zephyr, for they were fleet as the wind itself, +and the moon, which had just risen at our departure to light us on the +way, rolled over the sky like a wheel detached from her own chariot. We +beheld her on the right leaping from tree to tree, and putting herself +out of breath in the effort to keep up with us. Soon we came upon +a level plain where, hard by a clump of trees, a carriage with four +vigorous horses awaited us. We entered it, and the postillions urged +their animals into a mad gallop. I had one arm around Clarimonde's +waist, and one of her hands clasped in mine; her head leaned upon my +shoulder, and I felt her bosom, half bare, lightly pressing against +my arm. I had never known such intense happiness. In that hour I had +forgotten everything, and I no more remembered having ever been a priest +than I remembered what I had been doing in my mother's womb, so great +was the fascination which the evil spirit exerted upon me. From that +night my nature seemed in some sort to have become halved, and there +were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I +believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman, at +another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could +no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I discover +where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite +young lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the +dissolute habits of the young lord. Two spirals entangled and confounded +the one with the other, yet never touching, would afford a fair +representation of this bicephalic life which I lived. Despite the +strange character of my condition, I do not believe that I ever +inclined, even for a moment, to madness. I always retained with extreme +vividness all the perceptions of my two lives. Only there was one absurd +fact which I could not explain to myself--namely, that the consciousness +of the same individuality existed in two men so opposite in character. +It was an anomaly for which I could not account--whether I believed +myself to be the cure of the little village of C------, or _Il Signor +Romualdo_, the titled lover of Clarimonde. + +Be that as it may, I lived, at least I believed that I lived, in Venice. +I have never been able to discover rightly how much of illusion and how +much of reality there was in this fantastic adventure. We dwelt in a +great palace on the Canaleio, filled with frescoes and statues, and +containing two Titians in the noblest style of the great master, which +were hung in Clarimonde's chamber. It was a palace well worthy of a +king. We had each our gondola, our _barcarolli_ in family livery, +our music hall, and our special poet. Clarimonde always lived upon a +magnificent scale; there was something of Cleopatra in her nature. As +for me, I had the retinue of a prince's son, and I was regarded with as +much reverential respect as though I had been of the family of one of +the twelve Apostles or the four Evangelists of the Most Serene Republic. +I would not have turned aside to allow even the Doge to pass, and I do +not believe that since Satan fell from heaven, any creature was ever +prouder or more insolent than I. I went to the Ridotto, and played with +a luck which seemed absolutely infernal. I received the best of all +society--the sons of ruined families, women of the theatre, shrewd +knaves, parasites, hectoring swashbucklers. But notwithstanding the +dissipation of such a life, I always remained faithful to Clarimonde. +I loved her wildly. She would have excited satiety itself, and chained +inconstancy. To have Clarimonde was to have twenty mistresses; ay, +to possess all women: so mobile, so varied of aspect, so fresh in new +charms was she all in herself--a very chameleon of a woman, in sooth. +She made you commit with her the infidelity you would have committed +with another, by donning to perfection the character, the attraction, +the style of beauty of the woman who appeared to please you. She +returned my love a hundred-fold, and it was in vain that the young +patricians and even the Ancients of the Council of Ten made her the most +magnificent proposals. A Foscari even went so far as to offer to espouse +her. She rejected all his overtures. Of gold she had enough. She wished +no longer for anything but love--a love youthful, pure, evoked by +herself, and which should be a first and last passion. I would have been +perfectly happy but for a cursed nightmare which recurred every night, +and in which I believed myself to be a poor village cure, practising +mortification and penance for my excesses during the day. Reassured by +my constant association with her, I never thought further of the strange +manner in which I had become acquainted with Clarimonde. But the words +of the Abbe Serapion concerning her recurred often to my memory, and +never ceased to cause me uneasiness. + +For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; +her complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned +could not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat +it. They all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called +a second time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she +became colder and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as +upon that memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish +unspeakable to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my +agony, smiled upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those +who feel that they must die. + +One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little +table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her +for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally +inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed +forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. +Her eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and +ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her. She leaped out +of her bed with animal agility--the agility, as it were, of an ape or a +cat--and sprang upon my wound, which she commenced to suck with an air +of unutterable pleasure. She swallowed the blood in little mouthfuls, +slowly and carefully, like a connoisseur tasting a wine from Xeres or +Syracuse. Gradually her eyelids half closed, and the pupils of her green +eyes became oblong instead of round. From time to time she paused in +order to kiss my hand, then she would recommence to press her lips to +the lips of the wound in order to coax forth a few more ruddy drops. +When she found that the blood would no longer come, she arose with eyes +liquid and brilliant, rosier than a May dawn; her face full and fresh, +her hand warm and moist--in fine, more beautiful than ever, and in the +most perfect health. + +'I shall not die! I shall not die!' she cried, clinging to my neck, half +mad with joy. 'I can love thee yet for a long time. My life is thine, +and all that is of me comes from thee. A few drops of thy rich and noble +blood, more precious and more potent than all the elixirs of the earth, +have given me back life.' + +This scene long haunted my memory, and inspired me with strange +doubts in regard to Clarimonde; and the same evening, when slumber had +transported me to my presbytery, I beheld the Abbe Serapion, graver +and more anxious of aspect than ever. He gazed attentively at me, and +sorrowfully exclaimed: 'Not content with losing your soul, you now +desire also to lose your body. Wretched young man, into how terrible +a plight have you fallen!' The tone in which he uttered these words +powerfully affected me, but in spite of its vividness even that +impression was soon dissipated, and a thousand other cares erased it +from my mind. At last one evening, while looking into a mirror whose +traitorous position she had not taken into account, I saw Clarimonde in +the act of emptying a powder into the cup of spiced wine which she had +long been in the habit of preparing after our repasts. I took the +cup, feigned to carry it to my lips, and then placed it on the nearest +article of furniture as though intending to finish it at my leisure. +Taking advantage of a moment when the fair one's back was turned, I +threw the contents under the table, after which I retired to my chamber +and went to bed, fully resolved not to sleep, but to watch and discover +what should come of all this mystery. I did not have to wait long, +Clarimonde entered in her nightdress, and having removed her apparel, +crept into bed and lay down beside me. When she felt assured that I +was asleep, she bared my arm, and drawing a gold pin from her hair, +commenced to murmur in a low voice: + +'One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since +thou lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful +blood, so brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! +Sleep, my god, my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy +life what I must to keep my own from being for ever extinguished. But +that I love thee so much, I could well resolve to have other lovers +whose veins I could drain; but since I have known thee all other men +have become hateful to me.... Ah, the beautiful arm! How round it is! +How white it is! How shall I ever dare to prick this pretty blue vein!' +And while thus murmuring to herself she wept, and I felt her tears +raining on my arm as she clasped it with her hands. At last she took the +resolve, slightly punctured me with her pin, and commenced to suck up +the blood which oozed from the place. Although she swallowed only a few +drops, the fear of weakening me soon seized her, and she carefully tied +a little band around my arm, afterward rubbing the wound with an unguent +which immediately cicatrised it. Further doubts were impossible. The +Abbe Serapion was right. Notwithstanding this positive knowledge, +however, I could not cease to love Clarimonde, and I would gladly of +my own accord have given her all the blood she required to sustain her +factitious life. Moreover, I felt but little fear of her. The woman +seemed to plead with me for the vampire, and what I had already heard +and seen sufficed to reassure me completely. In those days I had +plenteous veins, which would not have been so easily exhausted as at +present; and I would not have thought of bargaining for my blood, drop +by drop. I would rather have opened myself the veins of my arm and said +to her: 'Drink, and may my love infiltrate itself throughout thy body +together with my blood!' I carefully avoided ever making the least +reference to the narcotic drink she had prepared for me, or to the +incident of the pin, and we lived in the most perfect harmony. + +Yet my priestly scruples commenced to torment me more than ever, and +I was at a loss to imagine what new penance I could invent in order to +mortify and subdue my flesh. Although these visions were involuntary, +and though I did not actually participate in anything relating to them, +I could not dare to touch the body of Christ with hands so impure and a +mind defiled by such debauches whether real or imaginary. In the effort +to avoid falling under the influence of these wearisome hallucinations, +I strove to prevent myself from being overcome by sleep. I held my +eyelids open with my fingers, and stood for hours together leaning +upright against the wall, fighting sleep with all my might; but the dust +of drowsiness invariably gathered upon my eyes at last, and finding all +resistance useless, I would have to let my arms fall in the extremity +of despairing weariness, and the current of slumber would again bear +me away to the perfidious shores. Serapion addressed me with the most +vehement exhortations, severely reproaching me for my softness and want +of fervour. Finally, one day when I was more wretched than usual, he +said to me: 'There is but one way by which you can obtain relief from +this continual torment, and though it is an extreme measure it must be +made use of; violent diseases require violent remedies. I know where +Clarimonde is buried. It is necessary that we shall disinter her +remains, and that you shall behold in how pitiable a state the object of +your love is. Then you will no longer be tempted to lose your soul for +the sake of an unclean corpse devoured by worms, and ready to crumble +into dust. That will assuredly restore you to yourself.' For my part, I +was so tired of this double life that I at once consented, desiring to +ascertain beyond a doubt whether a priest or a gentleman had been the +victim of delusion. I had become fully resolved either to kill one of +the two men within me for the benefit of the other, or else to kill +both, for so terrible an existence could not last long and be endured. +The Abbe Serapion provided himself with a mattock, a lever, and a +lantern, and at midnight we wended our way to the cemetery of ------, +the location and place of which were perfectly familiar to him. After +having directed the rays of the dark lantern upon the inscriptions of +several tombs, we came at last upon a great slab, half concealed by +huge weeds and devoured by mosses and parasitic plants, whereupon we +deciphered the opening lines of the epitaph: + + Here lies Clarimonde + Who was famed in her life-time + As the fairest of women.* + + * Ici git Clarimonde + Qui fut de son vivant + La plus belle du monde. + + The broken beauty of the lines is unavoidably + lost in the translation. + +'It is here without a doubt,' muttered Serapion, and placing his lantern +on the ground, he forced the point of the lever under the edge of the +stone and commenced to raise it. The stone yielded, and he proceeded to +work with the mattock. Darker and more silent than the night itself, I +stood by and watched him do it, while he, bending over his dismal toil, +streamed with sweat, panted, and his hard-coming breath seemed to have +the harsh tone of a death rattle. It was a weird scene, and had any +persons from without beheld us, they would assuredly have taken us +rather for profane wretches and shroud-stealers than for priests of God. +There was something grim and fierce in Serapion's zeal which lent him +the air of a demon rather than of an apostle or an angel, and his great +aquiline face, with all its stern features, brought out in strong relief +by the lantern-light, had something fearsome in it which enhanced the +unpleasant fancy. I felt an icy sweat come out upon my forehead in huge +beads, and my hair stood up with a hideous fear. Within the depths of my +own heart I felt that the act of the austere Serapion was an abominable +sacrilege; and I could have prayed that a triangle of fire would issue +from the entrails of the dark clouds, heavily rolling above us, +to reduce him to cinders. The owls which had been nestling in the +cypress-trees, startled by the gleam of the lantern, flew against it +from time to time, striking their dusty wings against its panes, and +uttering plaintive cries of lamentation; wild foxes yelped in the far +darkness, and a thousand sinister noises detached themselves from the +silence. At last Sera-pion's mattock struck the coffin itself, making +its planks re-echo with a deep sonorous sound, with that terrible sound +nothingness utters when stricken. He wrenched apart and tore up the +lid, and I beheld Clarimonde, pallid as a figure of marble, with hands +joined; her white winding-sheet made but one fold from her head to her +feet. A little crimson drop sparkled like a speck of dew at one corner +of her colourless mouth. Serapion, at this spectacle, burst into fury: +'Ah, thou art here, demon! Impure courtesan! Drinker of blood and gold! +'And he flung holy water upon the corpse and the coffin, over which he +traced the sign of the cross with his sprinkler. Poor Clarimonde had +no sooner been touched by the blessed spray than her beautiful body +crumbled into dust, and became only a shapeless and frightful mass of +cinders and half-calcined bones. + +'Behold your mistress, my Lord Romuald!' cried the inexorable priest, as +he pointed to these sad remains. 'Will you be easily tempted after this +to promenade on the Lido or at Fusina with your beauty?' I covered my +face with my hands, a vast ruin had taken place within me. I returned +to my presbytery, and the noble Lord Romuald, the lover of Clarimonde, +separated himself from the poor priest with whom he had kept such +strange company so long. But once only, the following night, I saw +Clarimonde. She said to me, as she had said the first time at the +portals of the church: 'Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done? +Wherefore have hearkened to that imbecile priest? Wert thou not happy? +And what harm had I ever done thee that thou shouldst violate my poor +tomb, and lay bare the miseries of my nothingness? All communication +between our souls and our bodies is henceforth for ever broken. Adieu! +Thou wilt yet regret me!' She vanished in air as smoke, and I never saw +her more. + +Alas! she spoke truly indeed. I have regretted her more than once, and I +regret her still. My soul's peace has been very dearly bought. The +love of God was not too much to replace such a love as hers. And this, +brother, is the story of my youth. Never gaze upon a woman, and walk +abroad only with eyes ever fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and +watchful one may be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one +lose eternity. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Theophile Gautier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + +***** This file should be named 22661.txt or 22661.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/6/22661/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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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: Clarimonde + +Author: Théophile Gautier + +Translator: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22661] +Last Updated: October 1, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + CLARIMONDE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Théophile Gautier + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated By Lafcadio Hearn <br /> <br /> <br /> 1908 + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a strange and + terrible one; and though I am sixty-six years of age, I scarcely dare even + now to disturb the ashes of that memory. To you I can refuse nothing; but + I should not relate such a tale to any less experienced mind. So strange + were the circumstances of my story, that I can scarcely believe myself to + have ever actually been a party to them. For more than three years I + remained the victim of a most singular and diabolical illusion. Poor + country priest though I was, I led every night in a dream—would to + God it had been all a dream!—a most worldly life, a damning life, a + life of Sardanapalus. One single look too freely cast upon a woman + well-nigh caused me to lose my soul; but finally by the grace of God and + the assistance of my patron saint, I succeeded in casting out the evil + spirit that possessed me. My daily life was long interwoven with a + nocturnal life of a totally different character. By day I was a priest of + the Lord, occupied with prayer and sacred things; by night, from the + instant that I closed my eyes I became a young nobleman, a fine + connoisseur in women, dogs, and horses; gambling, drinking, and + blaspheming; and when I awoke at early daybreak, it seemed to me, on the + other hand, that I had been sleeping, and had only dreamed that I was a + priest. Of this somnambulistic life there now remains to me only the + recollection of certain scenes and words which I cannot banish from my + memory; but although I never actually left the walls of my presbytery, one + would think to hear me speak that I were a man who, weary of all worldly + pleasures, had become a religious, seeking to end a tempestuous life in + the service of God, rather than a humble seminarist who has grown old in + this obscure curacy, situated in the depths of the woods and even isolated + from the life of the century. + </p> + <p> + Yes, I have loved as none in the world ever loved—with an insensate + and furious passion—so violent that I am astonished it did not cause + my heart to burst asunder. Ah, what nights—what nights! + </p> + <p> + From my earliest childhood I had felt a vocation to the priesthood, so + that all my studies were directed with that idea in view. Up to the age of + twenty-four my life had been only a prolonged novitiate. Having completed + my course of theology I successively received all the minor orders, and my + superiors judged me worthy, despite my youth, to pass the last awful + degree. My ordination was fixed for Easter week. + </p> + <p> + I had never gone into the world. My world was confined by the walls of the + college and the seminary. I knew in a vague sort of a way that there was + something called Woman, but I never permitted my thoughts to dwell on such + a subject, and I lived in a state of perfect innocence. Twice a year only + I saw my infirm and aged mother, and in those visits were comprised my + sole relations with the outer world. + </p> + <p> + I regretted nothing; I felt not the least hesitation at taking the last + irrevocable step; I was filled with joy and impatience. Never did a + betrothed lover count the slow hours with more feverish ardour; I slept + only to dream that I was saying mass; I believed there could be nothing in + the world more delightful than to be a priest; I would have refused to be + a king or a poet in preference. My ambition could conceive of no loftier + aim. + </p> + <p> + I tell you this in order to show you that what happened to me could not + have happened in the natural order of things, and to enable you to + understand that I was the victim of an inexplicable fascination. + </p> + <p> + At last the great day came. I walked to the church with a step so light + that I fancied myself sustained in air, or that I had wings upon my + shoulders. I believed myself an angel, and wondered at the sombre and + thoughtful faces of my companions, for there were several of us. I had + passed all the night in prayer, and was in a condition wellnigh bordering + on ecstasy. The bishop, a venerable old man, seemed to me God the Father + leaning over His Eternity, and I beheld Heaven through the vault of the + temple. + </p> + <p> + You well know the details of that ceremony—the benediction, the + communion under both forms, the anointing of the palms of the hands with + the Oil of Catechumens, and then the holy sacrifice offered in concert + with the bishop. + </p> + <p> + Ah, truly spake Job when he declared that the imprudent man is one who + hath not made a covenant with his eyes! I accidentally lifted my head, + which until then I had kept down, and beheld before me, so close that it + seemed that I could have touched her—although she was actually a + considerable distance from me and on the further side of the sanctuary + railing—a young woman of extraordinary beauty, and attired with + royal magnificence. It seemed as though scales had suddenly fallen from my + eyes. I felt like a blind man who unexpectedly recovers his sight. The + bishop, so radiantly glorious but an instant before, suddenly vanished + away, the tapers paled upon their golden candlesticks like stars in the + dawn, and a vast darkness seemed to fill the whole church. The charming + creature appeared in bright relief against the background of that + darkness, like some angelic revelation. She seemed herself radiant, and + radiating light rather than receiving it. + </p> + <p> + I lowered my eyelids, firmly resolved not to again open them, that I might + not be influenced by external objects, for distraction had gradually taken + possession of me until I hardly knew what I was doing. + </p> + <p> + In another minute, nevertheless, I reopened my eyes, for through my + eyelashes I still beheld her, all sparkling with prismatic colours, and + surrounded with such a penumbra as one beholds in gazing at the sun. + </p> + <p> + Oh, how beautiful she was! The greatest painters, who followed ideal + beauty into heaven itself, and thence brought back to earth the true + portrait of the Madonna, never in their delineations even approached that + wildly beautiful reality which I saw before me. Neither the verses of the + poet nor the palette of the artist could convey any conception of her. She + was rather tall, with a form and bearing of a goddess. Her hair, of a soft + blonde hue, was parted in the midst and flowed back over her temples in + two rivers of rippling gold; she seemed a diademed queen. Her forehead, + bluish-white in its transparency, extended its calm breadth above the + arches of her eyebrows, which by a strange singularity were almost black, + and admirably relieved the effect of sea-green eyes of unsustainable + vivacity and brilliancy. What eyes! With a single flash they could have + decided a man’s destiny. They had a life, a limpidity, an ardour, a humid + light which I have never seen in human eyes; they shot forth rays like + arrows, which I could distinctly <i>see</i> enter my heart. I know not if + the fire which illumined them came from heaven or from hell, but assuredly + it came from one or the other. That woman was either an angel or a demon, + perhaps both. Assuredly she never sprang from the flank of Eve, our common + mother. Teeth of the most lustrous pearl gleamed in her ruddy smile, and + at every inflection of her lips little dimples appeared in the satiny rose + of her adorable cheeks. There was a delicacy and pride in the regal + outline of her nostrils bespeaking noble blood. Agate gleams played over + the smooth lustrous skin of her half-bare shoulders, and strings of great + blonde pearls—almost equal to her neck in beauty of colour—descended + upon her bosom. From time to time she elevated her head with the + undulating grace of a startled serpent or peacock, thereby imparting a + quivering motion to the high lace ruff which surrounded it like a silver + trellis-work. + </p> + <p> + She wore a robe of orange-red velvet, and from her wide ermine-lined + sleeves there peeped forth patrician hands of infinite delicacy, and so + ideally transparent that, like the fingers of Aurora, they permitted the + light to shine through them. + </p> + <p> + All these details I can recollect at this moment as plainly as though they + were of yesterday, for notwithstanding I was greatly troubled at the time, + nothing escaped me; the faintest touch of shading, the little dark speck + at the point of the chin, the imperceptible down at the corners of the + lips, the velvety floss upon the brow, the quivering shadows of the + eyelashes upon the cheeks—I could notice everything with astonishing + lucidity of perception. + </p> + <p> + And gazing I felt opening within me gates that had until then remained + closed; vents long obstructed became all clear, permitting glimpses of + unfamiliar perspectives within; life suddenly made itself visible to me + under a totally novel aspect. I felt as though I had just been born into a + new world and a new order of things. A frightful anguish commenced to + torture-my heart as with red-hot pincers. Every successive minute seemed + to me at once but a second and yet a century. Meanwhile the ceremony was + proceeding, and I shortly found myself transported far from that world of + which my newly born desires were furiously besieging the entrance. + Nevertheless I answered ‘Yes’ when I wished to say ‘No,’ though all within + me protested against the violence done to my soul by my tongue. Some + occult power seemed to force the words from my throat against my will. + Thus it is, perhaps, that so many young girls walk to the altar firmly + resolved to refuse in a startling manner the husband imposed upon them, + and that yet not one ever fulfils her intention. Thus it is, doubtless, + that so many poor novices take the veil, though they have resolved to tear + it into shreds at the moment when called upon to utter the vows. One dares + not thus cause so great a scandal to all present, nor deceive the + expectation of so many people. All those eyes, all those wills seem to + weigh down upon you like a cope of lead, and, moreover, measures have been + so well taken, everything has been so thoroughly arranged beforehand and + after a fashion so evidently irrevocable, that the will yields to the + weight of circumstances and utterly breaks down. + </p> + <p> + As the ceremony proceeded the features of the fair unknown changed their + expression. Her look had at first been one of caressing tenderness; it + changed to an air of disdain and of mortification, as though at not having + been able to make itself understood. + </p> + <p> + With an effort of will sufficient to have uprooted a mountain, I strove to + cry out that I would not be a priest, but I could not speak; my tongue + seemed nailed to my palate, and I found it impossible to express my will + by the least syllable of negation. Though fully awake, I felt like one + under the influence of a nightmare, who vainly strives to shriek out the + one word upon which life depends. + </p> + <p> + She seemed conscious of the martyrdom I was undergoing, and, as though to + encourage me, she gave me a look replete with divinest promise. Her eyes + were a poem; their every glance was a song. + </p> + <p> + She said to me: + </p> + <p> + ‘If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His + paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that + funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I am + Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah offer + thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in one + eternal kiss. + </p> + <p> + ‘Fling forth the wine of that chalice, and thou art free. I will conduct + thee to the Unknown Isles. Thou shalt sleep in my bosom upon a bed of + massy gold under a silver pavilion, for I love thee and would take thee + away from thy God, before whom so many noble hearts pour forth floods of + love which never reach even the steps of His throne!’ + </p> + <p> + These words seemed to float to my ears in a rhythm of infinite sweetness, + for her look was actually sonorous, and the utterances of her eyes were + reechoed in the depths of my heart as though living lips had breathed them + into my life. I felt myself willing to renounce God, and yet my tongue + mechanically fulfilled all the formalities of the ceremony. The fair one + gave me another look, so beseeching, so despairing that keen blades seemed + to pierce my heart, and I felt my bosom transfixed by more swords than + those of Our Lady of Sorrows. + </p> + <p> + All was consummated; I had become a priest. + </p> + <p> + Never was deeper anguish painted on human face than upon hers. The maiden + who beholds her affianced lover suddenly fall dead at her side, the mother + bending over the empty cradle of her child, Eve seated at the threshold of + the gate of Paradise, the miser who finds a stone substituted for his + stolen treasure, the poet who accidentally permits the only manuscript of + his finest work to fall into the fire, could not wear a look so + despairing, so inconsolable. All the blood had abandoned her charming + face, leaving it whiter than marble; her beautiful arms hung lifelessly on + either side of her body as though their muscles had suddenly relaxed, and + she sought the support of a pillar, for her yielding limbs almost betrayed + her. As for myself, I staggered toward the door of the church, livid as + death, my forehead bathed with a sweat bloodier than that of Calvary; I + felt as though I were being strangled; the vault seemed to have flattened + down upon my shoulders, and it seemed to me that my head alone sustained + the whole weight of the dome. + </p> + <p> + As I was about to cross the threshold a hand suddenly caught mine—a + woman’s hand! I had never till then touched the hand of any woman. It was + cold as a serpent’s skin, and yet its impress remained upon my wrist, + burnt there as though branded by a glowing iron. It was she. ‘Unhappy man! + Unhappy man! What hast thou done?’ she exclaimed in a low voice, and + immediately disappeared in the crowd. + </p> + <p> + The aged bishop passed by. He cast a severe and scrutinising look upon me. + My face presented the wildest aspect imaginable: I blushed and turned pale + alternately; dazzling lights flashed before my eyes. A companion took pity + on me. He seized my arm and led me out. I could not possibly have found my + way back to the seminary unassisted. At the corner of a street, while the + young priest’s attention was momentarily turned in another direction, a + negro page, fantastically garbed, approached me, and without pausing on + his way slipped into my hand a little pocket-book with gold-embroidered + corners, at the same time giving me a sign to hide it. I concealed it in + my sleeve, and there kept it until I found myself alone in my cell. Then I + opened the clasp. There were only two leaves within, bearing the words, + ‘Clarimonde. At the Concini Palace.’ So little acquainted was I at that + time with the things of this world that I had never heard of Clarimonde, + celebrated as she was, and I had no idea as to where the Concini Palace + was situated. I hazarded a thousand conjectures, each more extravagant + than the last; but, in truth, I cared little whether she were a great lady + or a courtesan, so that I could but see her once more. + </p> + <p> + My love, although the growth of a single hour, had taken imperishable + root. I did not even dream of attempting to tear it up, so fully was I + convinced such a thing would be impossible. That woman had completely + taken possession of me. One look from her had sufficed to change my very + nature. She had breathed her will into my life, and I no longer lived in + myself, but in her and for her. I gave myself up to a thousand + extravagancies. I kissed the place upon my hand which she had touched, and + I repeated her name over and over again for hours in succession. I only + needed to close my eyes in order to see her distinctly as though she were + actually present; and I reiterated to myself the words she had uttered in + my ear at the church porch: ‘Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou + done?’ I comprehended at last the full horror of my situation, and the + funereal and awful restraints of the state into which I had just entered + became clearly revealed to me. To be a priest!—that is, to be + chaste, to never love, to observe no distinction of sex or age, to turn + from the sight of all beauty, to put out one’s own eyes, to hide for ever + crouching in the chill shadows of some church or cloister, to visit none + but the dying, to watch by unknown corpses, and ever bear about with one + the black soutane as a garb of mourning for oneself, so that your very + dress might serve as a pall for your coffin. + </p> + <p> + And I felt life rising within me like a subterranean lake, expanding and + overflowing; my blood leaped fiercely through my arteries; my + long-restrained youth suddenly burst into active being, like the aloe + which blooms but once in a hundred years, and then bursts into blossom + with a clap of thunder. + </p> + <p> + What could I do in order to see Clarimonde once more? I had no pretext to + offer for desiring to leave the seminary, not knowing any person in the + city. I would not even be able to remain there but a short time, and was + only waiting my assignment to the curacy which I must thereafter occupy. I + tried to remove the bars of the window; but it was at a fearful height + from the ground, and I found that as I had no ladder it would be useless + to think of escaping thus. And, furthermore, I could descend thence only + by night in any event, and afterward how should I be able to find my way + through the inextricable labyrinth of streets? All these difficulties, + which to many would have appeared altogether insignificant, were gigantic + to me, a poor seminarist who had fallen in love only the day before for + the first time, without experience, without money, without attire. + </p> + <p> + ‘Ah!’ cried I to myself in my blindness, ‘were I not a priest I could have + seen her every day; I might have been her lover, her spouse. Instead of + being wrapped in this dismal shroud of mine I would have had garments of + silk and velvet, golden chains, a sword, and fair plumes like other + handsome young cavaliers. My hair, instead of being dishonoured by the + tonsure, would flow down upon my neck in waving curls; I would have a fine + waxed moustache; I would be a gallant.’ But one hour passed before an + altar, a few hastily articulated words, had for ever cut me off from the + number of the living, and I had myself sealed down the stone of my own + tomb; I had with my own hand bolted the gate of my prison! I went to the + window. The sky was beautifully blue; the trees had donned their spring + robes; nature seemed to be making parade of an ironical joy. The <i>Place</i> + was filled with people, some going, others coming; young beaux and young + beauties were sauntering in couples toward the groves and gardens; merry + youths passed by, cheerily trolling refrains of drinking-songs—it + was all a picture of vivacity, life, animation, gaiety, which formed a + bitter contrast with my mourning and my solitude. On the steps of the gate + sat a young mother playing with her child. She kissed its little rosy + mouth still impearled with drops of milk, and performed, in order to amuse + it, a thousand divine little puerilities such as only mothers know how to + invent. The father standing at a little distance smiled gently upon the + charming group, and with folded arms seemed to hug his joy to his heart. I + could not endure that spectacle. I closed the window with violence, and + flung myself on my bed, my heart filled with frightful hate and jealousy, + and gnawed my fingers and my bedcovers like a tiger that has passed ten + days without food. + </p> + <p> + I know not how long I remained in this condition, but at last, while + writhing on the bed in a fit of spasmodic fury, I suddenly perceived the + Abbé Sérapion, who was standing erect in the centre of the room, watching + me attentively. Filled with shame of myself, I let my head fall upon my + breast and covered my face with my hands. + </p> + <p> + ‘Romuald, my friend, something very extraordinary is transpiring within + you,’ observed Sérapion, after a few moments’ silence; ‘your conduct is + altogether inexplicable. You—always so quiet, so pious, so gentle—you + to rage in your cell like a wild beast! Take heed, brother—do not + listen to the suggestions of the devil The Evil Spirit, furious that you + have consecrated yourself for ever to the Lord, is prowling around you + like a ravening wolf and making a last effort to obtain possession of you. + Instead of allowing yourself to be conquered, my dear Romuald, make to + yourself a cuirass of prayers, a buckler of mortifications, and combat the + enemy like a valiant man; you will then assuredly overcome him. Virtue + must be proved by temptation, and gold comes forth purer from the hands of + the assayer. Fear not. Never allow yourself to become discouraged. The + most watchful and steadfast souls are at moments liable to such + temptation. Pray, fast, meditate, and the Evil Spirit will depart from + you.’ + </p> + <p> + The words of the Abbé Sérapion restored me to myself, and I became a + little more calm. ‘I came,’ he continued, ‘to tell you that you have been + appointed to the curacy of C———. The priest who had + charge of it has just died, and Monseigneur the Bishop has ordered me to + have you installed there at once. Be ready, therefore, to start + to-morrow.’ I responded with an inclination of the head, and the Abbé + retired. I opened my missal and commenced reading some prayers, but the + letters became confused and blurred under my eyes, the thread of the ideas + entangled itself hopelessly in my brain, and the volume at last fell from + my hands without my being aware of it. + </p> + <p> + To leave to-morrow without having been able to see her again, to add yet + another barrier to the many already interposed between us, to lose for + ever all hope of being able to meet her, except, indeed, through a + miracle! Even to write to her, alas! would be impossible, for by whom + could I dispatch my letter? With my sacred character of priest, to whom + could I dare unbosom myself, in whom could I confide? I became a prey to + the bitterest anxiety. + </p> + <p> + Then suddenly recurred to me the words of the Abbé Sérapion regarding the + artifices of the devil; and the strange character of the adventure, the + supernatural beauty of Clarimonde, the phosphoric light of her eyes, the + burning imprint of her hand, the agony into which she had thrown me, the + sudden change wrought within me when all my piety vanished in a single + instant—these and other things clearly testified to the work of the + Evil One, and perhaps that satiny hand was but the glove which concealed + his claws. Filled with terror at these fancies, I again picked up the + missal which had slipped from my knees and fallen upon the floor, and once + more gave myself up to prayer. + </p> + <p> + Next morning Sérapion came to take me away. Two mules freighted with our + miserable valises awaited us at the gate. He mounted one, and I the other + as well as I knew how. + </p> + <p> + As we passed along the streets of the city, I gazed attentively at all the + windows and balconies in the hope of seeing Clarimonde, but it was yet + early in the morning, and the city had hardly opened its eyes. Mine sought + to penetrate the blinds and window-curtains of all the palaces before + which we were passing. Sérapion doubtless attributed this curiosity to my + admiration of the architecture, for he slackened the pace of his animal in + order to give me time to look around me. At last we passed the city gates + and commenced to mount the hill beyond. When we arrived at its summit I + turned to take a last look at the place where Clarimonde dwelt. The shadow + of a great cloud hung over all the city; the contrasting colours of its + blue and red roofs were lost in the uniform half-tint, through which here + and there floated upward, like white flakes of foam, the smoke of freshly + kindled fires. By a singular optical effect one edifice, which surpassed + in height all the neighbouring buildings that were still dimly veiled by + the vapours, towered up, fair and lustrous with the gilding of a solitary + beam of sunlight—although actually more than a league away it seemed + quite near. The smallest details of its architecture were plainly + distinguishable—the turrets, the platforms, the window-casements, + and even the swallow-tailed weather-vanes. + </p> + <p> + ‘What is that palace I see over there, all lighted up by the sun?’ I asked + Sérapion. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and having looked in the + direction indicated, replied: ‘It is the ancient palace which the Prince + Concini has given to the courtesan Clarimonde. Awful things are done + there!’ + </p> + <p> + At that instant, I know not yet whether it was a reality or an illusion, I + fancied I saw gliding along the terrace a shapely white figure, which + gleamed for a moment in passing and as quickly vanished. It was + Clarimonde. + </p> + <p> + Oh, did she know that at that very hour, all feverish and restless—from + the height of the rugged road which separated me from her, and which, + alas! I could never more descend—I was directing my eyes upon the + palace where she dwelt, and which a mocking beam of sunlight seemed to + bring nigh to me, as though inviting me to enter therein as its lord? + Undoubtedly she must have known it, for her soul was too sympathetically + united with mine not to have felt its least emotional thrill, and that + subtle sympathy it must have been which prompted her to climb—although + clad only in her nightdress—to the summit of the terrace, amid the + icy dews of the morning. + </p> + <p> + The shadow gained the palace, and the scene became to the eye only a + motionless ocean of roofs and gables, amid which one mountainous + undulation was distinctly visible. Sérapion urged his mule forward, my own + at once followed at the same gait, and a sharp angle in the road at last + hid the city of S——— for ever from my eyes, as I was + destined never to return thither. At the close of a weary three-days’ + journey through dismal country fields, we caught sight of the cock upon + the steeple of the church which I was to take charge of, peeping above the + trees, and after having followed some winding roads fringed with thatched + cottages and little gardens, we found ourselves in front of the façade, + which certainly possessed few features of magnificence. A porch ornamented + with some mouldings, and two or three pillars rudely hewn from sandstone; + a tiled roof with counterforts of the same sandstone as the pillars—that + was all. To the left lay the cemetery, overgrown with high weeds, and + having a great iron cross rising up in its centre; to the right stood the + presbytery under the shadow of the church. It was a house of the most + extreme simplicity and frigid cleanliness. We entered the enclosure. A few + chickens were picking up some oats scattered upon the ground; accustomed, + seemingly, to the black habit of ecclesiastics, they showed no fear of our + presence and scarcely troubled themselves to get out of our way. A hoarse, + wheezy barking fell upon our ears, and we saw an aged dog running toward + us. + </p> + <p> + It was my predecessor’s dog. He had dull bleared eyes, grizzled hair, and + every mark of the greatest age to which a dog can possibly attain. I + patted him gently, and he proceeded at once to march along beside me with + an air of satisfaction unspeakable. A very old woman, who had been the + housekeeper of the former curé, also came to meet us, and after having + invited me into a little back parlour, asked whether I intended to retain + her. I replied that I would take care of her, and the dog, and the + chickens, and all the furniture her master had bequeathed her at his + death. At this she became fairly transported with joy, and the Abbé + Sérapion at once paid her the price which she asked for her little + property. + </p> + <p> + As soon as my installation was over, the Abbé Sérapion returned to the + seminary. I was, therefore, left alone, with no one but myself to look to + for aid or counsel. The thought of Clarimonde again began to haunt me, and + in spite of all my endeavours to banish it, I always found it present in + my meditations. One evening, while promenading in my little garden along + the walks bordered with box-plants, I fancied that I saw through the + elm-trees the figure of a woman, who followed my every movement, and that + I beheld two sea-green eyes gleaming through the foliage; but it was only + an illusion, and on going round to the other side of the garden, I could + find nothing except a footprint on the sanded walk—a footprint so + small that it seemed to have been made by the foot of a child. The garden + was enclosed by very high walls. I searched every nook and corner of it, + but could discover no one there. I have never succeeded in fully + accounting for this circumstance, which, after all, was nothing compared + with the strange things which happened to me afterward. + </p> + <p> + For a whole year I lived thus, filling all the duties of my calling with + the most scrupulous exactitude, praying and fasting, exhorting and lending + ghostly aid to the sick, and bestowing alms even to the extent of + frequently depriving myself of the very necessaries of life. But I felt a + great aridness within me, and the sources of grace seemed closed against + me. I never found that happiness which should spring from the fulfilment + of a holy mission; my thoughts were far away, and the words of Clarimonde + were ever upon my lips like an involuntary refrain. Oh, brother, meditate + well on this! Through having but once lifted my eyes to look upon a woman, + through one fault apparently so venial, I have for years remained a victim + to the most miserable agonies, and the happiness of my life has been + destroyed for ever. + </p> + <p> + I will not longer dwell upon those defeats, or on those inward victories + invariably followed by yet more terrible falls, but will at once proceed + to the facts of my story. One night my door-bell was long and violently + rung. The aged housekeeper arose and opened to the stranger, and the + figure of a man, whose complexion was deeply bronzed, and who was richly + clad in a foreign costume, with a poniard at his girdle, appeared under + the rays of Barbara’s lantern. Her first impulse was one of terror, but + the stranger reassured her, and stated that he desired to see me at once + on matters relating to my holy calling. Barbara invited him upstairs, + where I was on the point of retiring. The stranger told me that his + mistress, a very noble lady, was lying at the point of death, and desired + to see a priest. I replied that I was prepared to follow him, took with me + the sacred articles necessary for extreme unction, and descended in all + haste. Two horses black as the night itself stood without the gate, pawing + the ground with impatience, and veiling their chests with long streams of + smoky vapour exhaled from their nostrils. He held the stirrup and aided me + to mount upon one; then, merely laying his hand upon the pommel of the + saddle, he vaulted on the other, pressed the animal’s sides with his + knees, and loosened rein. The horse bounded forward with the velocity of + an arrow. Mine, of which the stranger held the bridle, also started off at + a swift gallop, keeping up with his companion. We devoured the road. The + ground flowed backward beneath us in a long streaked line of pale gray, + and the black silhouettes of the trees seemed fleeing by us on either side + like an army in rout. We passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that + I felt my flesh creep in the chill darkness with superstitious fear. The + showers of bright sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod + feet of our horses remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and + had any one at that hour of the night beheld us both—my guide and + myself—he must have taken us for two spectres riding upon + nightmares. Witch-fires ever and anon flitted across the road before us, + and the night-birds shrieked fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond, + where we beheld at intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wild cats. + The manes of the horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat + streamed over their flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils + hard and fast. But when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated + them by uttering a strange, gutteral, unearthly cry, and the gallop + recommenced with fury. At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black + mass pierced through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before + us, the hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden drawbridge, + and we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two + enormous towers. Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle. + Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction, and + above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing. I + obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture—columns, + arcades, flights of steps, stairways—a royal voluptuousness and + elfin magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland. A negro page—the + same who had before brought me the tablet from Clarimonde, and whom I + instantly recognised—approached to aid me in dismounting, and the + major-domo, attired in black velvet with a gold chain about his neck, + advanced to meet me, supporting himself upon an ivory cane. Large tears + were falling from his eyes and streaming over his cheeks and white beard. + ‘Too late!’ he cried, sorrowfully shaking his venerable head. ‘Too late, + sir priest! But if you have not been able to save the soul, come at least + to watch by the poor body.’ + </p> + <p> + He took my arm and conducted me to the death-chamber. I wept not less + bitterly than he, for I had learned that the dead one was none other than + that Clarimonde whom I had so deeply and so wildly loved. A <i>prie-dieu</i> + stood at the foot of the bed; a bluish flame flickering in a bronze patern + filled all the room with a wan, deceptive light, here and there bringing + out in the darkness at intervals some projection of furniture or cornice. + In a chiselled urn upon the table there was a faded white rose, whose + leaves—excepting one that still held—had all fallen, like + odorous tears, to the foot of the vase. A broken black mask, a fan, and + disguises of every variety, which were lying on the armchairs, bore + witness that death had entered suddenly and unannounced into that + sumptuous dwelling. Without daring to cast my eyes upon the bed, I knelt + down and commenced to repeat the Psalms for the Dead, with exceeding + fervour, thanking God that He had placed the tomb between me and the + memory of this woman, so that I might thereafter be able to utter her name + in my prayers as a name for ever sanctified by death. But my fervour + gradually weakened, and I fell insensibly into a reverie. That chamber + bore no semblance to a chamber of death. In lieu of the fetid and + cadaverous odours which I had been accustomed to breathe during such + funereal vigils, a languorous vapour of Oriental perfume—I know not + what amorous odour of woman—softly floated through the tepid air. + That pale light seemed rather a twilight gloom contrived for voluptuous + pleasure, than a substitute for the yellow-flickering watch-tapers which + shine by the side of corpses. I thought upon the strange destiny which + enabled me to meet Clarimonde again at the very moment when she was lost + to me for ever, and a sigh of regretful anguish escaped from my breast. + Then it seemed to me that some one behind me had also sighed, and I turned + round to look. It was only an echo. But in that moment my eyes fell upon + the bed of death which they had till then avoided. The red damask + curtains, decorated with large flowers worked in embroidery and looped up + with gold bullion, permitted me to behold the fair dead, lying at full + length, with hands joined upon her bosom. She was covered with a linen + wrapping of dazzling whiteness, which formed a strong contrast with the + gloomy purple of the hangings, and was of so fine a texture that it + concealed nothing of her body’s charming form, and allowed the eye to + follow those beautiful outlines—undulating like the neck of a swan—which + even death had not robbed of their supple grace. She seemed an alabaster + statue executed by some skilful sculptor to place upon the tomb of a + queen, or rather, perhaps, like a slumbering maiden over whom the silent + snow had woven a spotless veil. + </p> + <p> + I could no longer maintain my constrained attitude of prayer. The air of + the alcove intoxicated me, that febrile perfume of half-faded roses + penetrated my very brain, and I commenced to pace restlessly up and down + the chamber, pausing at each turn before the bier to contemplate the + graceful corpse lying beneath the transparency of its shroud. Wild fancies + came thronging to my brain. I thought to myself that she might not, + perhaps, be really dead; that she might only have feigned death for the + purpose of bringing me to her castle, and then declaring her love. At one + time I even thought I saw her foot move under the whiteness of the + coverings, and slightly disarrange the long straight folds of the + winding-sheet. + </p> + <p> + And then I asked myself: ‘Is this indeed Clarimonde? What proof have I + that it is she? Might not that black page have passed into the service of + some other lady? Surely, I must be going mad to torture and afflict myself + thus!’ But my heart answered with a fierce throbbing: ‘It is she; it is + she indeed!’ I approached the bed again, and fixed my eyes with redoubled + attention upon the object of my incertitude. Ah, must I confess it? That + exquisite perfection of bodily form, although purified and made sacred by + the shadow of death, affected me more voluptuously than it should have + done; and that repose so closely resembled slumber that one might well + have mistaken it for such. I forgot that I had come there to perform a + funeral ceremony; I fancied myself a young bridegroom entering the chamber + of the bride, who all modestly hides her fair face, and through coyness + seeks to keep herself wholly veiled. Heartbroken with grief, yet wild with + hope, shuddering at once with fear and pleasure, I bent over her and + grasped the corner of the sheet. I lifted it back, holding my breath all + the while through fear of waking her. My arteries throbbed with such + violence that I felt them hiss through my temples, and the sweat poured + from my forehead in streams, as though I had lifted a mighty slab of + marble. There, indeed, lay Clarimonde, even as I had seen her at the + church on the day of my ordination. She was not less charming than then. + With her, death seemed but a last coquetry. The pallor of her cheeks, the + less brilliant carnation of her lips, her long eyelashes lowered and + relieving their dark fringe against that white skin, lent her an + unspeakably seductive aspect of melancholy chastity and mental suffering; + her long loose hair, still intertwined with some little blue flowers, made + a shining pillow for her head, and veiled the nudity of her shoulders with + its thick ringlets; her beautiful hands, purer, more diaphanous, than the + Host, were crossed on her bosom in an attitude of pious rest and silent + prayer, which served to counteract all that might have proven otherwise + too alluring—even after death—in the exquisite roundness and + ivory polish of her bare arms from which the pearl bracelets had not yet + been removed. I remained long in mute contemplation, and the more I gazed, + the less could I persuade myself that life had really abandoned that + beautiful body for ever. I do not know whether it was an illusion or a + reflection of the lamplight, but it seemed to me that the blood was again + commencing to circulate under that lifeless pallor, although she remained + all motionless. I laid my hand lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not + colder than her hand on the day when it touched mine at the portals of the + church. I resumed my position, bending my face above her, and bathing her + cheek with the warm dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair + and helplessness, what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long + watch! Vainly did I wish that I could have gathered all my life into one + mass that I might give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains + the flame which devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of + eternal separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet + pleasure of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my + only love.... Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, + and the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of mine. + Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former + brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed them + around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. ‘Ah, it is thou, + Romuald!’ she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last + vibrations of a harp. ‘What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for thee + that I am dead; but we are now betrothed: I can see thee and visit thee. + Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to tell thee, and + I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment recalled. We shall + soon meet again.’ + </p> + <p> + Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain me + still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered the + chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment palpitated + at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly’s wing, then it detached + itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing with it the soul + of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell insensible upon the + bosom of the beautiful dead. + </p> + <p> + When I came to myself again I was lying on the bed in my little room at + the presbytery, and the old dog of the former curé was licking my hand, + which had been hanging down outside of the covers. Barbara, all trembling + with age and anxiety, was busying herself about the room, opening and + shutting drawers, and emptying powders into glasses. On seeing me open my + eyes, the old woman uttered a cry of joy, the dog yelped and wagged his + tail, but I was still so weak that I could not speak a single word or make + the slightest motion. Afterward I learned that I had lain thus for three + days, giving no evidence of life beyond the faintest respiration. Those + three days do not reckon in my life, nor could I ever imagine whither my + spirit had departed during those three days; I have no recollection of + aught relating to them. Barbara told me that the same coppery-complexioned + man who came to seek me on the night of my departure from the presbytery + had brought me back the next morning in a close litter, and departed + immediately afterward. When I became able to collect my scattered + thoughts, I reviewed within my mind all the circumstances of that fateful + night. At first I thought I had been the victim of some magical illusion, + but ere long the recollection of other circumstances, real and palpable in + themselves, came to forbid that supposition. I could not believe that I + had been dreaming, since Barbara as well as myself had seen the strange + man with his two black horses, and described with exactness every detail + of his figure and apparel. Nevertheless it appeared that none knew of any + castle in the neighbourhood answering to the description of that in which + I had again found Clarimonde. + </p> + <p> + One morning I found the Abbé Sérapion in my room. Barbara had advised him + that I was ill, and he had come with all speed to see me. Although this + haste on his part testified to an affectionate interest in me, yet his + visit did not cause me the pleasure which it should have done. The Abbé + Sérapion had something penetrating and inquisitorial in his gaze which + made me feel very ill at ease. His presence filled me with embarrassment + and a sense of guilt. At the first glance he divined my interior trouble, + and I hated him for his clairvoyance. + </p> + <p> + While he inquired after my health in hypocritically honeyed accents, he + constantly kept his two great yellow lion-eyes fixed upon me, and plunged + his look into my soul like a sounding-lead. Then he asked me how I + directed my parish, if I was happy in it, how I passed the leisure hours + allowed me in the intervals of pastoral duty, whether I had become + acquainted with many of the inhabitants of the place, what was my + favourite reading, and a thousand other such questions. I answered these + inquiries as briefly as possible, and he, without ever waiting for my + answers, passed rapidly from one subject of query to another. That + conversation had evidently no connection with what he actually wished to + say. At last, without any premonition, but as though repeating a piece of + news which he had recalled on the instant, and feared might otherwise be + forgotten subsequently, he suddenly said, in a clear vibrant voice, which + rang in my ears like the trumpets of the Last Judgment: + </p> + <p> + ‘The great courtesan Clarimonde died a few days ago, at the close of an + orgie which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something + infernally splendid. The abominations of the banquets of Belshazzar and + Cleopatra were re-enacted there. Good God, what age are we living in? The + guests were served by swarthy slaves who spoke an unknown tongue, and who + seemed to me to be veritable demons. The livery of the very least among + them would have served for the gala-dress of an emperor. There have always + been very strange stories told of this Clarimonde, and all her lovers came + to a violent or miserable end. They used to say that she was a ghoul, a + female vampire; but I believe she was none other than Beelzebub himself.’ + </p> + <p> + He ceased to speak, and commenced to regard me more attentively than ever, + as though to observe the effect of his words on me. I could not refrain + from starting when I heard him utter the name of Clarimonde, and this news + of her death, in addition to the pain it caused me by reason of its + coincidence with the nocturnal scenes I had witnessed, filled me with an + agony and terror which my face betrayed, despite my utmost endeavours to + appear composed. Sérapion fixed an anxious and severe look upon me, and + then observed: ‘My son, I must warn you that you are standing with foot + raised upon the brink of an abyss; take heed lest you fall therein. + Satan’s claws are long, and tombs are not always true to their trust. The + tombstone of Clarimonde should be sealed down with a triple seal, for, if + report be true, it is not the first time she has died. May God watch over + you, Romuald!’ + </p> + <p> + And with these words the Abbé walked slowly to the door. I did not see him + again at that time, for he left for S——— almost + immediately. + </p> + <p> + I became completely restored to health and resumed my accustomed duties. + The memory of Clarimonde and the words of the old Abbé were constantly in + my mind; nevertheless no extraordinary event had occurred to verify the + funereal predictions of Sérapion, and I had commenced to believe that his + fears and my own terrors were over-exaggerated, when one night I had a + strange dream. I had hardly fallen asleep when I heard my bed-curtains + drawn apart, as their rings slided back upon the curtain rod with a sharp + sound. I rose up quickly upon my elbow, and beheld the shadow of a woman + standing erect before me. I recognised Clarimonde immediately. She bore in + her hand a little lamp, shaped like those which are placed in tombs, and + its light lent her fingers a rosy transparency, which extended itself by + lessening degrees even to the opaque and milky whiteness of her bare arm. + Her only garment was the linen winding-sheet which had shrouded her when + lying upon the bed of death. She sought to gather its folds over her bosom + as though ashamed of being so scantily clad, but her little hand was not + equal to the task. She was so white that the colour of the drapery blended + with that of her flesh under the pallid rays of the lamp. Enveloped with + this subtle tissue which betrayed all the contour of her body, she seemed + rather the marble statue of some fair antique bather than a woman endowed + with life. But dead or living, statue or woman, shadow or body, her beauty + was still the same, only that the green light of her eyes was less + brilliant, and her mouth, once so warmly crimson, was only tinted with a + faint tender rosiness, like that of her cheeks. The little blue flowers + which I had noticed entwined in her hair were withered and dry, and had + lost nearly all their leaves, but this did not prevent her from being + charming—so charming that, notwithstanding the strange character of + the adventure, and the unexplainable manner in which she had entered my + room, I felt not even for a moment the least fear. + </p> + <p> + She placed the lamp on the table and seated herself at the foot of my bed; + then bending toward me, she said, in that voice at once silvery clear and + yet velvety in its sweet softness, such as I never heard from any lips + save hers: + </p> + <p> + ‘I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and it must have seemed + to thee that I had forgotten thee. But I come from afar off, very far off, + and from a land whence no other has ever yet returned. There is neither + sun nor moon in that land whence I come: all is but space and shadow; + there is neither road nor pathway: no earth for the foot, no air for the + wing; and nevertheless behold me here, for Love is stronger than Death and + must conquer him in the end. Oh what sad faces and fearful things I have + seen on my way hither! What difficulty my soul, returned to earth through + the power of will alone, has had in finding its body and reinstating + itself therein! What terrible efforts I had to make ere I could lift the + ponderous slab with which they had covered me! See, the palms of my poor + hands are all bruised! Kiss them, sweet love, that they may be healed!’ + She laid the cold palms of her hands upon ray mouth, one after the other. + I kissed them, indeed, many times, and she the while watched me with a + smile of ineffable affection. + </p> + <p> + I confess to my shame that I had entirely forgotten the advice of the Abbé + Sérapion and the sacred office wherewith I had been invested. I had fallen + without resistance, and at the first assault. I had not even made the + least effort to repel the tempter. The fresh coolness of Clarimonde’s skin + penetrated my own, and I felt voluptuous tremors pass over my whole body. + Poor child! in spite of all I saw afterward, I can hardly yet believe she + was a demon; at least she had no appearance of being such, and never did + Satan so skilfully conceal his claws and horns. She had drawn her feet up + beneath her, and squatted down on the edge of the couch in an attitude + full of negligent coquetry. From time to time she passed her little hand + through my hair and twisted it into curls, as though trying how a new + style of wearing it would become my face. I abandoned myself to her hands + with the most guilty pleasure, while she accompanied her gentle play with + the prettiest prattle. The most remarkable fact was that I felt no + astonishment whatever at so extraordinary ah adventure, and as in dreams + one finds no difficulty in accepting the most fantastic events as simple + facts, so all these circumstances seemed to me perfectly natural in + themselves. + </p> + <p> + ‘I loved thee long ere I saw thee, dear Romuald, and sought thee + everywhere. Thou wast my dream, and I first saw thee in the church at the + fatal moment. I said at once, “It is he!” I gave thee a look into which I + threw all the love I ever had, all the love I now have, all the love I + shall ever have for thee—a look that would have damned a cardinal or + brought a king to his knees at my feet in view of all his court. Thou + remainedst unmoved, preferring thy God to me! + </p> + <p> + ‘Ah, how jealous I am of that God whom thou didst love and still lovest + more than me! + </p> + <p> + ‘Woe is me, unhappy one that I am! I can never have thy heart all to + myself, I whom thou didst recall to life with a kiss—dead + Clarimonde, who for thy sake bursts asunder the gates of the tomb, and + comes to consecrate to thee a life which she has resumed only to make thee + happy!’ + </p> + <p> + All her words were accompanied with the most impassioned caresses, which + bewildered my sense and my reason to such an extent, that I did not fear + to utter a frightful blasphemy for the sake of consoling her, and to + declare that I loved her as much as God. + </p> + <p> + Her eyes rekindled and shone like chrysoprases. ‘In truth?—in very + truth?—as much as God!’ she cried, flinging her beautiful arms + around me. ‘Since it is so, thou wilt come with me; thou wilt follow me + whithersoever I desire. Thou wilt cast away thy ugly black habit. Thou + shalt be the proudest and most envied of cavaliers; thou shalt be my + lover! To be the acknowledged lover of Clarimonde, who has refused even a + Pope! That will be something to feel proud of. Ah, the fair, unspeakably + happy existence, the beautiful golden life we shall live together! And + when shall we depart, my fair sir?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘To-morrow! To-morrow!’ I cried in my delirium. + </p> + <p> + ‘To-morrow, then, so let it be!’ she answered. ‘In the meanwhile I shall + have opportunity to change my toilet, for this is a little too light and + in nowise suited for a voyage. I must also forthwith notify all my friends + who believe me dead, and mourn for me as deeply as they are capable of + doing. The money, the dresses, the carriages—all will be ready. I + shall call for thee at this same hour. Adieu, dear heart!’ And she lightly + touched my forehead with her lips. The lamp went out, the curtains closed + again, and all became dark; a leaden, dreamless sleep fell on me and held + me unconscious until the morning following. + </p> + <p> + I awoke later than usual, and the recollection of this singular adventure + troubled me during the whole day. I finally persuaded myself that it was a + mere vapour of my heated imagination. Nevertheless its sensations had been + so vivid that it was difficult to persuade myself that they were not real, + and it was not without some presentiment of what was going to happen that + I got into bed at last, after having prayed God to drive far from me all + thoughts of evil, and to protect the chastity of my slumber. + </p> + <p> + I soon fell into a deep sleep, and my dream was continued. The curtains + again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion, pale + in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her cheeks, but + gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling-dress of green velvet, + trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to allow a glimpse of + satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick ringlets from beneath a + broad black felt hat, decorated with white feathers whimsically twisted + into various shapes. In one hand she held a little riding-whip terminated + by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly with it, and exclaimed: ‘Well, + my fine sleeper, is this the way you make your preparations? I thought I + would find you up and dressed. Arise quickly, we have no time to lose.’ + </p> + <p> + I leaped out of bed at once. + </p> + <p> + ‘Come, dress yourself, and let us go,’ she continued, pointing to a little + package she had brought with her. ‘The horses are becoming impatient of + delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have been by this + time at least ten leagues distant from here.’ + </p> + <p> + I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel + herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my + awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made a + mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up before me + a little pocket-mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver + filigree-work, and playfully asked: ‘How dost find thyself now? Wilt + engage me for thy valet de chambre?’ + </p> + <p> + I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognise myself. I + resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles a block + of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one reflected in the + mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly tickled by the + metamorphosis. + </p> + <p> + That elegant apparel, that richly embroidered vest had made of me a + totally different personage, and I marvelled at the power of + transformation owned by a few yards of cloth cut after a certain pattern. + The spirit of my costume penetrated my very skin and within ten minutes + more I had become something of a coxcomb. + </p> + <p> + In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns up + and down the room. Clari-monde watched me with an air of maternal + pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. ‘Come, enough of this + child’s play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and we may + not get there in time.’ She took my hand and led me forth. All the doors + opened before her at a touch, and we passed by the dog without awaking + him. + </p> + <p> + At the gate we found Margheritone waiting, the same swarthy groom who had + once before been my-escort. He held the bridles of three horses, all black + like those which bore us to the castle—one for me, one for him, one + for Clarimonde. Those horses must have been Spanish genets born of mares + fecundated by a zephyr, for they were fleet as the wind itself, and the + moon, which had just risen at our departure to light us on the way, rolled + over the sky like a wheel detached from her own chariot. We beheld her on + the right leaping from tree to tree, and putting herself out of breath in + the effort to keep up with us. Soon we came upon a level plain where, hard + by a clump of trees, a carriage with four vigorous horses awaited us. We + entered it, and the postillions urged their animals into a mad gallop. I + had one arm around Clarimonde’s waist, and one of her hands clasped in + mine; her head leaned upon my shoulder, and I felt her bosom, half bare, + lightly pressing against my arm. I had never known such intense happiness. + In that hour I had forgotten everything, and I no more remembered having + ever been a priest than I remembered what I had been doing in my mother’s + womb, so great was the fascination which the evil spirit exerted upon me. + From that night my nature seemed in some sort to have become halved, and + there were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one + moment I believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a + gentleman, at another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. + I could no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I + discover where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite + young lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the + dissolute habits of the young lord. Two spirals entangled and confounded + the one with the other, yet never touching, would afford a fair + representation of this bicephalic life which I lived. Despite the strange + character of my condition, I do not believe that I ever inclined, even for + a moment, to madness. I always retained with extreme vividness all the + perceptions of my two lives. Only there was one absurd fact which I could + not explain to myself—namely, that the consciousness of the same + individuality existed in two men so opposite in character. It was an + anomaly for which I could not account—whether I believed myself to + be the curé of the little village of C———, or <i>Il + Signor Romualdo</i>, the titled lover of Clarimonde. + </p> + <p> + Be that as it may, I lived, at least I believed that I lived, in Venice. I + have never been able to discover rightly how much of illusion and how much + of reality there was in this fantastic adventure. We dwelt in a great + palace on the Canaleio, filled with frescoes and statues, and containing + two Titians in the noblest style of the great master, which were hung in + Clarimonde’s chamber. It was a palace well worthy of a king. We had each + our gondola, our <i>barcarolli</i> in family livery, our music hall, and + our special poet. Clarimonde always lived upon a magnificent scale; there + was something of Cleopatra in her nature. As for me, I had the retinue of + a prince’s son, and I was regarded with as much reverential respect as + though I had been of the family of one of the twelve Apostles or the four + Evangelists of the Most Serene Republic. I would not have turned aside to + allow even the Doge to pass, and I do not believe that since Satan fell + from heaven, any creature was ever prouder or more insolent than I. I went + to the Ridotto, and played with a luck which seemed absolutely infernal. I + received the best of all society—the sons of ruined families, women + of the theatre, shrewd knaves, parasites, hectoring swashbucklers. But + notwithstanding the dissipation of such a life, I always remained faithful + to Clarimonde. I loved her wildly. She would have excited satiety itself, + and chained inconstancy. To have Clarimonde was to have twenty mistresses; + ay, to possess all women: so mobile, so varied of aspect, so fresh in new + charms was she all in herself—a very chameleon of a woman, in sooth. + She made you commit with her the infidelity you would have committed with + another, by donning to perfection the character, the attraction, the style + of beauty of the woman who appeared to please you. She returned my love a + hundred-fold, and it was in vain that the young patricians and even the + Ancients of the Council of Ten made her the most magnificent proposals. A + Foscari even went so far as to offer to espouse her. She rejected all his + overtures. Of gold she had enough. She wished no longer for anything but + love—a love youthful, pure, evoked by herself, and which should be a + first and last passion. I would have been perfectly happy but for a cursed + nightmare which recurred every night, and in which I believed myself to be + a poor village curé, practising mortification and penance for my excesses + during the day. Reassured by my constant association with her, I never + thought further of the strange manner in which I had become acquainted + with Clarimonde. But the words of the Abbé Sérapion concerning her + recurred often to my memory, and never ceased to cause me uneasiness. + </p> + <p> + For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; her + complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned could + not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat it. They + all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called a second + time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she became colder + and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as upon that + memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish unspeakable + to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my agony, smiled + upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those who feel that + they must die. + </p> + <p> + One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little + table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her + for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally + inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed + forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. Her + eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and + ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her. She leaped out + of her bed with animal agility—the agility, as it were, of an ape or + a cat—and sprang upon my wound, which she commenced to suck with an + air of unutterable pleasure. She swallowed the blood in little mouthfuls, + slowly and carefully, like a connoisseur tasting a wine from Xeres or + Syracuse. Gradually her eyelids half closed, and the pupils of her green + eyes became oblong instead of round. From time to time she paused in order + to kiss my hand, then she would recommence to press her lips to the lips + of the wound in order to coax forth a few more ruddy drops. When she found + that the blood would no longer come, she arose with eyes liquid and + brilliant, rosier than a May dawn; her face full and fresh, her hand warm + and moist—in fine, more beautiful than ever, and in the most perfect + health. + </p> + <p> + ‘I shall not die! I shall not die!’ she cried, clinging to my neck, half + mad with joy. ‘I can love thee yet for a long time. My life is thine, and + all that is of me comes from thee. A few drops of thy rich and noble + blood, more precious and more potent than all the elixirs of the earth, + have given me back life.’ + </p> + <p> + This scene long haunted my memory, and inspired me with strange doubts in + regard to Clarimonde; and the same evening, when slumber had transported + me to my presbytery, I beheld the Abbé Sérapion, graver and more anxious + of aspect than ever. He gazed attentively at me, and sorrowfully + exclaimed: ‘Not content with losing your soul, you now desire also to lose + your body. Wretched young man, into how terrible a plight have you + fallen!’ The tone in which he uttered these words powerfully affected me, + but in spite of its vividness even that impression was soon dissipated, + and a thousand other cares erased it from my mind. At last one evening, + while looking into a mirror whose traitorous position she had not taken + into account, I saw Clarimonde in the act of emptying a powder into the + cup of spiced wine which she had long been in the habit of preparing after + our repasts. I took the cup, feigned to carry it to my lips, and then + placed it on the nearest article of furniture as though intending to + finish it at my leisure. Taking advantage of a moment when the fair one’s + back was turned, I threw the contents under the table, after which I + retired to my chamber and went to bed, fully resolved not to sleep, but to + watch and discover what should come of all this mystery. I did not have to + wait long, Clarimonde entered in her nightdress, and having removed her + apparel, crept into bed and lay down beside me. When she felt assured that + I was asleep, she bared my arm, and drawing a gold pin from her hair, + commenced to murmur in a low voice: + </p> + <p> + ‘One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since thou + lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful blood, so + brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! Sleep, my god, + my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy life what I must + to keep my own from being for ever extinguished. But that I love thee so + much, I could well resolve to have other lovers whose veins I could drain; + but since I have known thee all other men have become hateful to me.... + Ah, the beautiful arm! How round it is! How white it is! How shall I ever + dare to prick this pretty blue vein!’ And while thus murmuring to herself + she wept, and I felt her tears raining on my arm as she clasped it with + her hands. At last she took the resolve, slightly punctured me with her + pin, and commenced to suck up the blood which oozed from the place. + Although she swallowed only a few drops, the fear of weakening me soon + seized her, and she carefully tied a little band around my arm, afterward + rubbing the wound with an unguent which immediately cicatrised it. Further + doubts were impossible. The Abbé Sérapion was right. Notwithstanding this + positive knowledge, however, I could not cease to love Clarimonde, and I + would gladly of my own accord have given her all the blood she required to + sustain her factitious life. Moreover, I felt but little fear of her. The + woman seemed to plead with me for the vampire, and what I had already + heard and seen sufficed to reassure me completely. In those days I had + plenteous veins, which would not have been so easily exhausted as at + present; and I would not have thought of bargaining for my blood, drop by + drop. I would rather have opened myself the veins of my arm and said to + her: ‘Drink, and may my love infiltrate itself throughout thy body + together with my blood!’ I carefully avoided ever making the least + reference to the narcotic drink she had prepared for me, or to the + incident of the pin, and we lived in the most perfect harmony. + </p> + <p> + Yet my priestly scruples commenced to torment me more than ever, and I was + at a loss to imagine what new penance I could invent in order to mortify + and subdue my flesh. Although these visions were involuntary, and though I + did not actually participate in anything relating to them, I could not + dare to touch the body of Christ with hands so impure and a mind defiled + by such debauches whether real or imaginary. In the effort to avoid + falling under the influence of these wearisome hallucinations, I strove to + prevent myself from being overcome by sleep. I held my eyelids open with + my fingers, and stood for hours together leaning upright against the wall, + fighting sleep with all my might; but the dust of drowsiness invariably + gathered upon my eyes at last, and finding all resistance useless, I would + have to let my arms fall in the extremity of despairing weariness, and the + current of slumber would again bear me away to the perfidious shores. + Sérapion addressed me with the most vehement exhortations, severely + reproaching me for my softness and want of fervour. Finally, one day when + I was more wretched than usual, he said to me: ‘There is but one way by + which you can obtain relief from this continual torment, and though it is + an extreme measure it must be made use of; violent diseases require + violent remedies. I know where Clarimonde is buried. It is necessary that + we shall disinter her remains, and that you shall behold in how pitiable a + state the object of your love is. Then you will no longer be tempted to + lose your soul for the sake of an unclean corpse devoured by worms, and + ready to crumble into dust. That will assuredly restore you to yourself.’ + For my part, I was so tired of this double life that I at once consented, + desiring to ascertain beyond a doubt whether a priest or a gentleman had + been the victim of delusion. I had become fully resolved either to kill + one of the two men within me for the benefit of the other, or else to kill + both, for so terrible an existence could not last long and be endured. The + Abbé Sérapion provided himself with a mattock, a lever, and a lantern, and + at midnight we wended our way to the cemetery of ———, + the location and place of which were perfectly familiar to him. After + having directed the rays of the dark lantern upon the inscriptions of + several tombs, we came at last upon a great slab, half concealed by huge + weeds and devoured by mosses and parasitic plants, whereupon we deciphered + the opening lines of the epitaph: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Here lies Clarimonde + Who was famed in her life-time + As the fairest of women.* + + * Ici gît Clarimonde + Qui fut de son vivant + La plus belle du monde. + + The broken beauty of the lines is unavoidably + lost in the translation. +</pre> + <p> + ‘It is here without a doubt,’ muttered Sérapion, and placing his lantern + on the ground, he forced the point of the lever under the edge of the + stone and commenced to raise it. The stone yielded, and he proceeded to + work with the mattock. Darker and more silent than the night itself, I + stood by and watched him do it, while he, bending over his dismal toil, + streamed with sweat, panted, and his hard-coming breath seemed to have the + harsh tone of a death rattle. It was a weird scene, and had any persons + from without beheld us, they would assuredly have taken us rather for + profane wretches and shroud-stealers than for priests of God. There was + something grim and fierce in Sérapion’s zeal which lent him the air of a + demon rather than of an apostle or an angel, and his great aquiline face, + with all its stern features, brought out in strong relief by the + lantern-light, had something fearsome in it which enhanced the unpleasant + fancy. I felt an icy sweat come out upon my forehead in huge beads, and my + hair stood up with a hideous fear. Within the depths of my own heart I + felt that the act of the austere Sérapion was an abominable sacrilege; and + I could have prayed that a triangle of fire would issue from the entrails + of the dark clouds, heavily rolling above us, to reduce him to cinders. + The owls which had been nestling in the cypress-trees, startled by the + gleam of the lantern, flew against it from time to time, striking their + dusty wings against its panes, and uttering plaintive cries of + lamentation; wild foxes yelped in the far darkness, and a thousand + sinister noises detached themselves from the silence. At last Séra-pion’s + mattock struck the coffin itself, making its planks re-echo with a deep + sonorous sound, with that terrible sound nothingness utters when stricken. + He wrenched apart and tore up the lid, and I beheld Clarimonde, pallid as + a figure of marble, with hands joined; her white winding-sheet made but + one fold from her head to her feet. A little crimson drop sparkled like a + speck of dew at one corner of her colourless mouth. Sérapion, at this + spectacle, burst into fury: ‘Ah, thou art here, demon! Impure courtesan! + Drinker of blood and gold! ‘And he flung holy water upon the corpse and + the coffin, over which he traced the sign of the cross with his sprinkler. + Poor Clarimonde had no sooner been touched by the blessed spray than her + beautiful body crumbled into dust, and became only a shapeless and + frightful mass of cinders and half-calcined bones. + </p> + <p> + ‘Behold your mistress, my Lord Romuald!’ cried the inexorable priest, as + he pointed to these sad remains. ‘Will you be easily tempted after this to + promenade on the Lido or at Fusina with your beauty?’ I covered my face + with my hands, a vast ruin had taken place within me. I returned to my + presbytery, and the noble Lord Romuald, the lover of Clarimonde, separated + himself from the poor priest with whom he had kept such strange company so + long. But once only, the following night, I saw Clarimonde. She said to + me, as she had said the first time at the portals of the church: ‘Unhappy + man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done? Wherefore have hearkened to that + imbecile priest? Wert thou not happy? And what harm had I ever done thee + that thou shouldst violate my poor tomb, and lay bare the miseries of my + nothingness? All communication between our souls and our bodies is + henceforth for ever broken. Adieu! Thou wilt yet regret me!’ She vanished + in air as smoke, and I never saw her more. + </p> + <p> + Alas! she spoke truly indeed. I have regretted her more than once, and I + regret her still. My soul’s peace has been very dearly bought. The love of + God was not too much to replace such a love as hers. And this, brother, is + the story of my youth. Never gaze upon a woman, and walk abroad only with + eyes ever fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and watchful one may + be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one lose eternity. lose + eternity. <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Clarimonde, by Théophile Gautier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLARIMONDE *** + +***** This file should be named 22661-h.htm or 22661-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/6/22661/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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