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diff --git a/37285.txt b/37285.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..473ba94 --- /dev/null +++ b/37285.txt @@ -0,0 +1,28920 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Works of Honore de Balzac, by Honore de Balzac + +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: The Works of Honore de Balzac + About Catherine de' Medici, Seraphita and Other Stories + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + James Waring + +Release Date: September 1, 2011 [EBook #37285] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF HONORE DE BALZAC *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Josephine Paolucci +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + +THE WORKS OF HONORE De BALZAC + +About Catherine de' Medici + +Seraphita + +AND OTHER STORIES + +With Introductions by + +GEORGE SAINTSBURY + +UNIVERSITY EDITION + +AVIL PUBLISHING COMPANY +PHILADELPHIA. + +COPYRIGHTED 1901 + +BY + +John D. Avil + +_All Rights Reserved_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + + PAGE + +_INTRODUCTION_ ix + +_ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI_: + (_Sur Catherine de Medicis_) + +PREFACE 3 + +PART I. THE CALVINIST MARTYR 44 + + " II. THE RUGGIERI'S SECRET 233 + + " III. THE TWO DREAMS 308 + +_GAMBARA_ 327 + + (_Gambara_) + + +PART II + +_INTRODUCTION_ ix + +_SERAPHITA_: + + (_Seraphita_) + +I. SERAPHITUS 2 + +II. SERAPHITA 22 + +III. SERAPHITA--SERAPHITUS 40 + +IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY 82 + +V. THE FAREWELL 112 + +VI. THE ROAD TO HEAVEN 123 + +VII. THE ASSUMPTION 134 + +_LOUIS LAMBERT_ 145 + + (_Louis Lambert_) + +_THE EXILES_ + + (_Les Proscrits_) + + ALMAE SORORI 259 + +_MAITRE CORNELIUS_ 293 + + (_Maitre Cornelius_) + +_THE ELIXIR OF LIFE_ 359 + + (_L'Elixir de longue Vie_) + + (Translators, CLARA BELL AND JAMES WARING) + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +PART I + +QUADRANGLE OF THE COLLEGE OF VENDOME WHERE +BALZAC WAS EDUCATED _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +"I AM CHAUDIEU!" 53 + +PLACED HIMSELF IN FRONT OF A LOOKING-GLASS 328 + + +PART II + +TOWER IN WHICH BALZAC PASSED MOST OF HIS TIME +AT COLLEGE 164 + +HE NOW SAW WITH A TERRIFIED SHUDDER THAT THERE +WAS A BRIGHT LIGHT ON THE STAIRS, AND PERCEIVED +CORNELIUS, IN HIS OLD DALMATIC, CARRYING +HIS LAMP 324 + + + + +ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI + +AND + +GAMBARA + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +This book (as to which it is important to remember the _Sur_ if injustice +is not to be done to the intentions of the author) has plenty of interest +of more kinds than one; but it is perhaps more interesting because of the +place it holds in Balzac's work than for itself. He had always considerable +hankerings after the historical novel: his early and lifelong devotion to +Scott would sufficiently account for that. More than one of the _Oeuvres +de Jeunesse_ attempts the form in a more or less conscious way: the +_Chouans_, the first successful book, definitely attempts it; but by far +the most ambitious attempt is to be found in the book before us. It is most +probable that it was of this, if of anything of his own, that Balzac was +thinking when, in 1846, he wrote disdainfully to Madame Hanska about Dumas, +and expressed himself towards _Les Trois Mousquetaires_ (which had whiled +him through a day of cold and inability to work) nearly as ungratefully as +Carlyle did towards Captain Marryat. And though it is, let it be repeated, +a mistake, and a rather unfair mistake, to give such a title to the book as +might induce readers to regard it as a single and definite novel, of which +Catherine is the heroine, though it is made up of three parts written at +very different times, it has a unity which the introduction shows to some +extent, and which a rejected preface given by M. de Lovenjoul shows still +better. + +To understand this, we must remember that Balzac, though not exactly an +historical scholar, was a considerable student of history; and that, +although rather an amateur politician, he was a constant thinker and writer +on political subjects. We must add to these remembrances the fact of his +intense interest in all such matters as Alchemy, the Elixir of Life, and so +forth, to which the sixteenth century in general, and Catherine de' Medici +in particular, were known to be devoted. All these interests of his met in +the present book, the parts of which appeared in inverse order, and the +genesis of which is important enough to make it desirable to incorporate +some of the usual bibliographical matter in the substance of this preface. +The third and shortest, _Les Deux Reves_, a piece partly suggestive of the +famous _Prophecy of Cazotte_ and other legends of the Revolution (but with +more retrospective than prospective view), is dated as early as 1828 +(before the turning-point), and was actually published in a periodical in +1830. _La Confidence des Ruggieri_, written in 1836 (and, as I have noted +in the general introduction, according to its author, in a single night) +followed, and _Le Martyr Calviniste_, which had several titles, and was +advertised as in preparation for a long time, did not come till 1841. + +It is unnecessary to say that all are interesting. The personages, both +imaginary and historical, appear at times in a manner worthy of Balzac; +many separate scenes are excellent; and, to those who care to perceive +them, the various occupations of the author appear in the most interesting +manner. Politically, his object was, at least by his own account, to defend +the maxim that private and public morality are different; that the policy +of a state cannot be, and ought not to be, governed by the same +considerations of duty to its neighbors as those which ought to govern the +conduct of an individual. The very best men--those least liable to the +slightest imputation of corrupt morals and motives--have endorsed this +principle; though it has been screamed at by a few fanatics, a somewhat +larger number of persons who found their account in so doing, and a great +multitude of hasty, dense, or foolish folk. But it was something of a mark +of that amateurishness which spoilt Balzac's dealing with the subject to +choose the sixteenth century for his text. For every cool-headed student of +history and ethics will admit that it was precisely the abuse of this +principle at this time, and by persons of whom Catherine de' Medici, if not +the most blamable, has had the most blame put on her, that brought the +principle itself into discredit. Between the assertion that the strictest +morality of the Sermon on the Mount must obtain between nation and nation, +between governor and governed, and the maxim that in politics the end of +public safety justifies _any_ means whatever, there is a perfectly immense +gulf fixed. + +If, however, we turn from this somewhat academic point, and do not dwell +very much on the occult and magical sides of the matter, interesting as +they are, we shall be brought at once face to face with the question, Is +the handling of this book the right and proper one for an historical novel? +Can we in virtue of it rank Balzac (this is the test which he would +himself, beyond all question, have accepted) a long way above Dumas and +near Scott? + +I must say that I can see no possibility of answer except, "Certainly not." +For the historical novel depends almost more than any other division of the +kind upon interest of story. Interest of story is not, as has been several +times pointed out, at any time Balzac's main appeal, and he has succeeded +in it here less than in most other places. He has discussed too much; he +has brought in too many personages without sufficient interest of plot; +but, above all, he exhibits throughout an incapacity to handle his +materials in the peculiar way required. How long he was before he grasped +"the way to do it," even on his own special lines, is the commonplace and +refrain of all writing about him. Now, to this special kind he gave +comparatively little attention, and the result is that he mastered it less +than any other. In the best stories of Dumas (and the best number some +fifteen or twenty at least) the interest of narrative, of adventure, of +what will happen to the personages, takes you by the throat at once, and +never lets you go till the end. There is little or nothing of this sort +here. The three stories are excellently well-informed studies, very curious +and interesting in divers ways. The _Ruggieri_ is perhaps something more; +but it is, as its author no doubt honestly entitled it, much more an _Etude +Philosophique_ than an historical novelette. In short, this was not +Balzac's way. We need not be sorry--it is very rarely necessary to be +that--that he tried it; we may easily forgive him for not recognizing the +ease and certainty with which Dumas trod the path. But we should be most of +all thankful that he did not himself enter it frequently, or ever pursue it +far. + +The most important part of the bibliography of the book has been given +above. The rest is a little complicated, and for its ins and outs reference +must be made to the usual authority. It should be enough to say that the +_Martyr_, under the title of _Les Lecamus_, first appeared in the _Siecle_ +during the spring of 1841. Souverain published it as a book two years later +with the other two, as _Catherine de Medicis Expliquee_. The second part, +entitled, not _La Confidence_, but _Le Secret des Ruggieri_, had appeared +much earlier in the _Chronique de Paris_ during the winter of 1836-37, and +had been published as a book in the latter year; it was joined to +_Catherine de Medicis Expliquee_ as above. The third part, after appearing +in the _Monde_ as early as May 1830, also appeared in the _Deux Mondes_ for +December of the same year, then became one of the _Romans et Contes +Philosophiques_, then an _Etude Philosophique_, and in 1843 joined +_Catherine de Medicis Expliquee_. The whole was inserted in the _Comedie_ +in 1846. + + G. S. + + * * * * * + +_Gambara_ exhibits a curious and, it must be admitted, a somewhat +incoherent mixture of two of Balzac's chief outside interests--Italy and +music. In his helter-skelter ramblings, indulged in despite his enormous +literary labors, he took many a peep at Italy; and it is evident that for +him the country exercised a powerful fascination. In his eyes it was +ideal--ideal in its music, in its painting, and in those who fanned the +fires divine. His affection for Italy was, in fact, about as ardent and +untutored as that for the arts. The story of _Gambara_ is an illustration +of these two sentiments; it can best be understood when the author's +attitude is known. + +There is a little about the forceful character of Andrea Marcosini that +reminds one of de Marsay. He has an inherent nobleness unknown to the +latter, but unfortunately made subservient to a banality which even the +genius of Balzac cannot efface. This marring clause of the Count and +Marianna is hardly to be excused on the ground of dramatic necessity, since +other themes of this nature are not cloyed by baser earth. The introductory +scene in the restaurant is good, and stands out brightly contrasted with +Gambara's music-ravings and the faint echo of Giardini's cookery conceits. +Each is but the quest of something unattained--a note more grandly uttered +in _La Peau de Chagrin_, or _La Recherche de l'Absolu_, or the wonderful +sketch, _Le Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu_. But as a fresh embodiment of this +thought, _Gambara_ may be welcomed, for in such themes as these the +novelist is most distinctly in his element. + +The first appearance of _Gambara_ was in the _Revue et Gazette Musicale de +Paris_ during July and August 1837, in four chapters and a conclusion. In +1839 it was included in a book with the _Cabinet des Antiques_. Ten years +later it was included as _Le Livre des Douleurs_ with _Seraphita_, _Les +Proscrits_, and _Massimilla Doni_. It took its place in the _Comedie_ in +1846. + + + + +ABOUT CATHERINE DE' MEDICI + + _To Monsieur le Marquis de Pastoret, Member of the + Academie des Beaux-Arts._ + + +When we consider the amazing number of volumes written to ascertain the +spot where Hannibal crossed the Alps, without our knowing to this day +whether it was, as Whitaker and Rivaz say, by Lyons, Geneva, the +Saint-Bernard, and the Valley of Aosta; or, as we are told by Letronne, +Follard, Saint-Simon, and Fortia d'Urban, by the Isere, Grenoble, +Saint-Bonnet, Mont Genevre, Fenestrella, and the Pass of Susa, or, +according to Larauza, by the Mont Cenis and Susa; or, as Strabo, Polybius +and de Luc tell us, by the Rhone, Vienne, Yenne, and the Mont du Chat; or, +as certain clever people opine, by Genoa, la Bochetta, and la Scrivia--the +view I hold, and which Napoleon had adopted--to say nothing of the vinegar +with which some learned men have dressed the Alpine rocks, can we wonder, +Monsieur le Marquis, to find modern history so much neglected that some +most important points remain obscure, and that the most odious calumnies +still weigh on names which ought to be revered?--And it may be noted +incidentally that by dint of explanations it has become problematical +whether Hannibal ever crossed the Alps at all. Father Menestrier believes +that the Scoras spoken of by Polybius was the Saome; Letronne, Larauza, and +Schweighauser believe it to be the Isere; Cochard, a learned man of Lyons, +identifies it with the Drome. But to any one who has eyes, are there not +striking geographical and linguistic affinities between Scoras and Scrivia, +to say nothing of the almost certain fact that the Carthaginian fleet lay +at la Spezzia or in the Gulf of Genoa? + +I could understand all this patient research if the battle of Cannae could +be doubted; but since its consequences are well known, what is the use of +blackening so much paper with theories that are but the Arabesque of +hypothesis, so to speak; while the most important history of later times, +that of the Reformation, is so full of obscurities that the name remains +unknown of the man[A] who was making a boat move by steam at Barcelona at +the time when Luther and Calvin were inventing the revolt of mind? + +We, I believe, after having made, each in his own way, the same +investigation as to the great and noble character of Catherine de' Medici, +have come to the same opinion. So I thought that my historical studies on +the subject might be suitably dedicated to a writer who has labored so long +on the history of the Reformation; and that I should thus do public homage, +precious perhaps for its rarity, to the character and fidelity of a man +true to the Monarchy. + + PARIS, _January 1842_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] The inventor of this experiment was probably Salomon of Caux, not of +Caus. This great man was always unlucky; after his death even his name was +misspelt. Salomon, whose original portrait, at the age of forty-six, was +discovered by the author of the _Human Comedy_, was born at Caux, in +Normandy. + + + + +PREFACE + + +When men of learning are struck by a historical blunder, and try to correct +it, "Paradox!" is generally the cry; but to those who thoroughly examine +the history of modern times, it is evident that historians are privileged +liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs, exactly as most of the +newspapers of the day express nothing but the opinions of their readers. + +Historical independence of thought has been far less conspicuous among lay +writers than among the priesthood. The purest light thrown on history has +come from the Benedictines, one of the glories of France--so long, that is +to say, as the interests of the monastic orders are not in question. Since +the middle of the eighteenth century, some great and learned +controversialists have arisen who, struck by the need for rectifying +certain popular errors to which historians have lent credit, have published +some remarkable works. Thus Monsieur Launoy, nicknamed the Evicter of +Saints, made ruthless war on certain saints who have sneaked into the +Church Calendar. Thus the rivals of the Benedictines, the two little known +members of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, began their +_memoires_, their studious notes, full of patience, erudition, and logic, +on certain obscure passages of history. Thus Voltaire, with an unfortunate +bias, and sadly perverted passions, often brought the light of his +intellect to bear on historical prejudices. Diderot, with this end in view, +began a book--much too long--on a period of the history of Imperial Rome. +But for the French Revolution, criticism, as applied to history, might +perhaps have laid up the materials for a good and true history of France, +for which evidence had long been amassed by the great French Benedictines. +Louis XVI., a man of clear mind, himself translated the English work, +which so much agitated the last century, in which Walpole tried to explain +the career of Richard III. + +How is it that persons so famous as kings and queens, so important as +generals of great armies, become objects of aversion or derision? Half the +world hesitates between the song on Marlborough and the history of England, +as they do between popular tradition and history as concerning Charles IX. + +At all periods when great battles are fought between the masses and the +authorities, the populace creates an _ogresque_ figure--to coin a word for +the sake of its exactitude. Thus in our own time, but for the _Memorials of +Saint-Helena_, and the controversies of Royalists and Bonapartists, there +was scarcely a chance but that Napoleon would have been misunderstood. +Another Abbe de Pradt or two, a few more newspaper articles, and Napoleon +from an Emperor would have become an Ogre. + +How is error propagated and accredited? The mystery is accomplished under +our eyes without our discerning the process. No one suspects how greatly +printing has helped to give body both to the envy which attends persons in +high places, and to the popular irony which sums up the converse view of +every great historical fact. For instance, every bad horse in France that +needs flogging is called after the Prince de Polignac; and so who knows +what opinion the future may hold as to the Prince de Polignac's _coup +d'Etat_? In consequence of a caprice of Shakespeare's--a stroke of revenge +perhaps, like that of Beaumarchais on Bergasse (Begearss)--Falstaff, in +England, is a type of the grotesque; his name raises a laugh, he is the +King of Buffoons. Now, instead of being enormously fat, ridiculously +amorous, vain, old, drunken, and a corrupter of youth, Falstaff was one of +the most important figures of his time, a Knight of the Garter, holding +high command. At the date of Henry V.'s accession, Falstaff was at most +four-and-thirty. This General, who distinguished himself at the battle of +Agincourt, where he took the Duc d'Alencon prisoner, in 1420 took the town +of Montereau, which was stoutly defended. Finally, under Henry VI., he beat +ten thousand Frenchmen with fifteen hundred men who were dropping with +fatigue and hunger. So much for valor! + +If we turn to literature, Rabelais, among the French, a sober man who drank +nothing but water, is thought of as a lover of good cheer and a persistent +sot. Hundreds of absurd stories have been coined concerning the author of +one of the finest books in French literature, _Pantagruel_. + +Aretino, Titian's friend, and the Voltaire of his day, is now credited with +a reputation, in complete antagonism with his works and character, which he +acquired by his over free wit, characteristic of the writings of an age +when gross jests were held in honor, and queens and cardinals indited tales +which are now considered licentious. Instances might be infinitely +multiplied. + +In France, and at the most important period of our history, Catherine de' +Medici has suffered more from popular error than any other woman, unless it +be Brunehaut or Fredegonde; while Marie de' Medici, whose every action was +prejudicial to France, has escaped the disgrace that should cover her name. +Marie dissipated the treasure amassed by Henri IV.; she never purged +herself of the suspicion that she was cognizant of his murder; Epernon, who +had long known Ravaillac, and who did not parry his blow, was _intimate_ +with the Queen; she compelled her son to banish her from France, where she +was fostering the rebellion of her other son, Gaston; and Richelieu's +triumph over her on the _Journee des Dupes_ was due solely to the +Cardinal's revealing to Louis XIII. certain documents secreted after the +death of Henri IV. + +Catherine de' Medici, on the contrary, saved the throne of France, she +maintained the Royal authority under circumstances to which more than one +great prince would have succumbed. Face to face with such leaders of the +factions and ambitions of the houses of Guise and of Bourbon as the two +Cardinals de Lorraine and the two "Balafres," the two Princes de Conde, +Queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV., the Connetable de Montmorency, Calvin, +the Colignys, and Theodore de Beze, she was forced to put forth the rarest +fine qualities, the most essential gifts of statesmanship, under the fire +of the Calvinist press. These, at any rate, are indisputable facts. And to +the student who digs deep into the history of the sixteenth century in +France, the figure of Catherine de' Medici stands out as that of a great +king. + +When once calumnies are undermined by facts laboriously brought to light +from under the contradictions of pamphlets and false anecdotes, everything +is explained to the glory of this wonderful woman, who had none of the +weakness of her sex, who lived chaste in the midst of the gallantries of +the most licentious Court in Europe, and who, notwithstanding her lack of +money, erected noble buildings, as if to make good the losses caused by the +destructive Calvinists, who injured Art as deeply as they did the body +politic. + +Hemmed in between a race of princes who proclaimed themselves the heirs of +Charlemagne, and a factious younger branch that was eager to bury the +Connetable de Bourbon's treason under the throne; obliged, too, to fight +down a heresy on the verge of devouring the Monarchy, without friends, and +aware of treachery in the chiefs of the Catholic party and of republicanism +in the Calvinists, Catherine used the most dangerous but the surest of +political weapons--Craft. She determined to deceive by turns the party that +was anxious to secure the downfall of the House of Valois, the Bourbons who +aimed at the Crown, and the Reformers--the Radicals of that day, who +dreamed of an impossible republic, like those of our own day, who, however, +have nothing to reform. Indeed, so long as she lived, the Valois sat on the +throne. The great de Thou understood the worth of this woman when he +exclaimed, on hearing of her death: + +"It is not a woman, it is Royalty that dies in her!" + +Catherine had, in fact, the sense of Royalty in the highest degree, and she +defended it with admirable courage and persistency. The reproaches flung +at her by Calvinist writers are indeed her glory; she earned them solely by +her triumphs. And how was she to triumph but by cunning? Here lies the +whole question. + +As to violence--that method bears on one of the most hotly disputed points +of policy, which, in recent days, has been answered here, on the spot where +a big stone from Egypt has been placed to wipe out the memory of regicide, +and to stand as an emblem of the materialistic policy which now rules us; +it was answered at les Carmes and at the Abbaye; it was answered on the +steps of Saint Roch; it was answered in front of the Louvre in 1830, and +again by the people against the King, as it has since been answered once +more by la Fayette's "best of all republics" against the republican +rebellion, at Saint-Merri and the Rue Transnonnain. + +Every power, whether legitimate or illegitimate, must defend itself when it +is attacked; but, strange to say, while the people is heroic when it +triumphs over the nobility, the authorities are murderers when they oppose +the people! And, finally, if after their appeal to force they succumb, they +are regarded as effete idiots. The present Government (1840) will try to +save itself, by two laws, from the same evil as attacked Charles X., and +which he tried to scotch by two decrees. Is not this a bitter mockery? May +those in power meet cunning with cunning? Ought they to kill those who try +to kill them? + +The massacres of the Revolution are the reply to the massacre of +Saint-Bartholomew. The People, being King, did by the nobility and the King +as the King and the nobility did by the rebels in the sixteenth century. +And popular writers, who know full well that, under similar conditions, the +people would do the same again, are inexcusable when they blame Catherine +de' Medici and Charles IX. + +"All power is a permanent conspiracy," said Casimir Perier, when teaching +what power ought to be. We admire the anti-social maxims published by +audacious writers; why, then, are social truths received in France with +such disfavor when they are boldly stated? This question alone +sufficiently accounts for historical mistakes. Apply the solution of this +problem to the devastating doctrines which flatter popular passion, and to +the conservative doctrines which would repress the ferocious or foolish +attempts of the populace, and you will see the reason why certain +personages are popular or unpopular. Laubardemont and Laffemas, like some +people now living, were devoted to the maintenance of the power they +believed in. Soldiers and judges, they obeyed a Royal authority. D'Orthez, +in our day, would be discharged from office for misinterpreting orders from +the Ministry, but Charles X. left him to govern his province. The power of +the masses is accountable to no one; the power of one is obliged to account +to its subjects, great and small alike. + +Catherine, like Philip II. and the Duke of Alva, like the Guises and +Cardinal Granvelle, foresaw the future to which the Reformation was dooming +Europe. They saw monarchies, religion, and power all overthrown. Catherine, +from the Cabinet of the French kings, forthwith issued sentence of death on +that inquiring spirit which threatened modern society--a sentence which +Louis XIV. finally carried out. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was a +measure that proved unfortunate, simply in consequence of the irritation +Louis XIV. had aroused in Europe. At any other time England, Holland, and +the German Empire would not have encouraged on their territory French +exiles and French rebels. + +Why, in these days, refuse to recognize the greatness which the majestic +adversary of that most barren heresy derived from the struggle itself? +Calvinists have written strongly against Charles IX.'s stratagems; but +travel through France: as you see the ruins of so many fine churches +destroyed, and consider the vast breaches made by religious fanatics in the +social body; when you learn the revenges they took, while deploring the +mischief of individualism--the plague of France to-day, of which the germ +lay in the questions of liberty of conscience which they stirred up--you +will ask yourself on which side were the barbarians. There are always, as +Catherine says in the third part of this Study, "unluckily, in all ages, +hypocritical writers ready to bewail two hundred scoundrels killed in due +season." Caesar, who tried to incite the Senate to pity for Catiline's +party, would very likely have conquered Cicero if he had had newspapers and +an Opposition at his service. + +Another consideration accounts for Catherine's historical and popular +disfavor. In France the Opposition has always been Protestant, because its +policy has never been anything but negative; it has inherited the theories +of the Lutherans, the Calvinists, and the Protestants on the terrible texts +of liberty, tolerance, progress, and philanthropy. The opponents of power +spent two centuries in establishing the very doubtful doctrine of freewill. +Two more were spent in working out the first corollary of freewill--liberty +of conscience. Our age is striving to prove the second--political liberty. + +Standing between the fields already traversed and the fields as yet +untrodden, Catherine and the Church proclaimed the salutary principle of +modern communities, _Una fides, unus Dominus_, but asserting their right of +life and death over all innovators. Even if she had been conquered, +succeeding times have shown that Catherine was right. The outcome of +freewill, religious liberty, and political liberty (note, this does not +mean _civil_ liberty) is France as we now see it. + +And what is France in 1840? A country exclusively absorbed in material +interests, devoid of patriotism, devoid of conscience; where authority is +powerless; where electoral rights, the fruit of freewill and political +liberty, raise none but mediocrities; where brute force is necessary to +oppose the violence of the populace; where discussion, brought to bear on +the smallest matter, checks every action of the body politic; and where +individualism--the odious result of the indefinite subdivision of property, +which destroys family cohesion--will devour everything, even the nation, +which sheer selfishness will some day lay open to invasion. Men will say, +"Why not the Tzar?" as they now say, "Why not the Duc d'Orleans?" We do +not care for many things even now; fifty years hence we shall care for +nothing. + +Therefore, according to Catherine--and according to all who wish to see +Society soundly organized--man as a social unit, as a subject, has no +freewill, has no right to accept the dogma of liberty of conscience, or to +have political liberty. Still, as no community can subsist without some +guarantee given to the subject against the sovereign, the subject derives +from that certain liberties under restrictions. Liberty--no, but +liberties--yes; well defined and circumscribed liberties. This is in the +nature of things. For instance, it is beyond human power to fetter freedom +of thought; and no sovereign may ever tamper with money. + +The great politicians who have failed in this long contest--it has gone on +for five centuries--have allowed their subjects wide liberties; but they +never recognize their liberty to publish anti-social opinions, nor the +unlimited freedom of the subject. To them the words _subject_ and _free_ +are, politically speaking, a contradiction in terms; and, in the same way, +the statement that all citizens are equal is pure nonsense, and +contradicted by Nature every hour. To acknowledge the need for religion, +the need for authority, and at the same time to leave all men at liberty to +deny religion, to attack its services, to oppose the exercise of authority +by the public and published expression of opinion, is an impossibility such +as the Catholics of the sixteenth century would have nothing to say to. +Alas! the triumph of Calvinism will cost France more yet than it has ever +done; for the sects of to-day--religious, political, humanitarian, and +leveling--are the train of Calvinism; and when we see the blunders of those +in power, their contempt for intelligence, their devotion to those material +interests in which they seek support, and which are the most delusive of +all props, unless by the special aid of Providence the genius of +destruction must certainly win the day from the genius of conservatism. The +attacking forces, who have nothing to lose, and everything to win, are +thoroughly in agreement; whereas their wealthy opponents refuse to make +any sacrifice of money or of self-conceit to secure defenders. + +Printing came to the aid of the resistance inaugurated by the Vaudois and +the Albigenses. As soon as human thought--no longer condensed, as it had +necessarily been in order to preserve the most communicable form--had +assumed a multitude of garbs and become the very people, instead of +remaining in some sense divinely axiomatic, there were two vast armies to +contend with--that of ideas and that of men. Royal power perished in the +struggle, and we, in France, at this day are looking on at its last +coalition with elements which make it difficult, not to say impossible. + +Power is action; the electoral principle is discussion. No political action +is possible when discussion is permanently established. So we ought to +regard the woman as truly great who foresaw that future, and fought it so +bravely. The House of Bourbon was able to succeed to the House of Valois, +and owed it to Catherine de' Medici that it found that crown to wear. If +the second Balafre had been alive, it is very doubtful that the Bearnais, +strong as he was, could have seized the throne, seeing how dearly it was +sold by the Duc de Mayenne and the remnant of the Guise faction. The +necessary steps taken by Catherine, who had the deaths of Francois II. and +Charles IX. on her soul--both dying opportunely for her safety--are not, it +must be noted, what the Calvinist and modern writers blame her for! Though +there was no poisoning, as some serious authors have asserted, there were +other not less criminal plots. It is beyond question that she hindered Pare +from saving one, and murdered the other morally by inches. + +But the swift death of Francois II. and the skilfully contrived end of +Charles IX. did no injury to Calvinist interests. The causes of these two +events concerned only the uppermost sphere, and were never suspected by +writers or by the lower orders at the time; they were guessed only by de +Thou, by l'Hopital, by men of the highest talents, or the chiefs of the two +parties who coveted and clung to the Crown, and who thought such means +indispensable. + +Popular songs, strange to say, fell foul of Catherine's morality. The +anecdote is known of a soldier who was roasting a goose in the guardroom of +the Chateau of Tours while Catherine and Henri IV. were holding a +conference there, and who sang a ballad in which the Queen was insultingly +compared to the largest cannon in the hands of the Calvinists. Henri IV. +drew his sword to go out and kill the man; Catherine stopped him, and only +shouted out: + +"It is Catherine who provides the goose!" + +Though the executions at Amboise were attributed to Catherine, and the +Calvinists made that able woman responsible for all the inevitable +disasters of the struggle, she must be judged by posterity, like +Robespierre at a future date. + +And Catherine was cruelly punished for her preference for the Duc d'Anjou, +which made her hold her two elder sons so cheap. Henri III. having ceased, +like all spoilt children, to care for his mother, rushed voluntarily into +such debauchery as made him, what the mother had made Charles IX., a +childless husband, a king without an heir. Unhappily, Catherine's youngest +son, the Duc d'Alencon, died--a natural death. The Queen-mother made every +effort to control her son's passions. History preserves the tradition of a +supper to nude women given in the banqueting-hall at Chenonceaux on his +return from Poland, but it did not cure Henri III. of his bad habits. + +This great Queen's last words summed up her policy, which was indeed so +governed by good sense that we see the Cabinets of every country putting it +into practice in similar circumstances. + +"Well cut, my son," said she, when Henri III. came to her, on her deathbed, +to announce that the enemy of the throne had been put to death. "Now you +must sew up again." + +She thus expressed her opinion that the sovereign must make friends with +the House of Lorraine, and make it useful, as the only way to hinder the +effects of the Guises' hatred, by giving them a hope of circumventing the +King. But this indefatigable cunning of the Italian and the woman was +incompatible with Henri III.'s life of debauchery. When once the Great +Mother was dead, the Mother of Armies (_Mater castrorum_), the policy of +the Valois died too. + + * * * * * + +Before attempting to write this picture of manners in action, the author +patiently and minutely studied the principal reigns of French history, the +quarrels of the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, and those of the Guises and +the Valois, each in the forefront of a century. His purpose was to write a +picturesque history of France. Isabella of Bavaria, Catherine and Marie de' +Medici, each fills a conspicuous place, dominating from the fourteenth to +the seventeenth centuries, and leading up to Louis XIV. + +Of these three queens, Catherine was the most interesting and the most +beautiful. Hers was a manly rule, not disgraced by the terrible amours of +Isabella, nor those, even more terrible though less known, of Marie de' +Medici. Isabella brought the English into France to oppose her son, was in +love with her brother-in-law, the Duc d'Orleans, and with Boisbourdon. +Marie de' Medici's account is still heavier. Neither of them had any +political genius. + +In the course of these studies and comparisons, the author became convinced +of Catherine's greatness; by initiating himself into the peculiar +difficulties of her position, he discerned how unjust historians, biased by +Protestantism, had been to this queen; and the outcome was the three +sketches here presented, in which some erroneous opinions of her, of those +who were about her, and of the aspect of the times, are combated. + +The work is placed among my Philosophical Studies, because it illustrates +the spirit of a period, and plainly shows the influence of opinions. + +But before depicting the political arena on which Catherine comes into +collision with the two great obstacles in her career, it is necessary to +give a short account of her previous life from the point of view of an +impartial critic, so that the reader may form a general idea of this large +and royal life up to the time when the first part of this narrative opens. + +Never at any period, in any country, or in any ruling family was there more +contempt felt for legitimacy than by the famous race of the Medici (in +French commonly written and pronounced Medicis). They held the same opinion +of monarchy as is now professed in Russia: The ruler on whom the crown +devolves is the real and legitimate monarch. Mirabeau was justified in +saying, "There has been but one mesalliance in my family--that with the +Medici;" for, notwithstanding the exertions of well-paid genealogists, it +is certain that the Medici, till the time of Averardo de' Medici, +gonfaloniere of Florence in 1314, were no more than Florentine merchants of +great wealth. The first personage of the family who filled a conspicuous +place in the history of the great Tuscan Republic was Salvestro de' Medici, +gonfaloniere in 1378. This Salvestro had two sons--Cosmo and Lorenzo de' +Medici. + +From Cosmo descended Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Duc de Nemours, the Duke +of Urbino, Catherine's father, Pope Leo X., Pope Clement VII., and +Alessandro, not indeed Duke of Florence, as he is sometimes called, but +Duke _della citta di Penna_, a title created by Pope Clement VII. as a step +towards that of Grand Duke of Tuscany. + +Lorenzo's descendants were Lorenzino--the Brutus of Florence--who killed +Duke Alessandro; Cosmo, the first Grand Duke, and all the rulers of +Florence till 1737, when the family became extinct. + +But neither of the two branches--that of Cosmo or that of +Lorenzo--succeeded in a direct line, till the time when Marie de' Medici's +father subjugated Tuscany, and the Grand Dukes inherited in regular +succession. Thus Alessandro de' Medici, who assumed the title of Duke +_della citta di Penna_, and whom Lorenzino assassinated, was the son of the +Duke of Urbino, Catherine's father, by a Moorish slave. Hence Lorenzino, +the legitimate son of Lorenzo, had a double right to kill Alessandro, both +as a usurper in the family and as an oppressor of the city. Some historians +have indeed supposed that Alessandro was the son of Clement VII. The event +that led to the recognition of this bastard as head of the Republic was his +marriage with Margaret of Austria, the natural daughter of Charles V. + +Francesco de' Medici, the husband of Bianca Capello, recognized as his son +a child of low birth bought by that notorious Venetian lady; and, strange +to say, Fernando, succeeding Francesco, upheld the hypothetical rights of +this boy. Indeed, this youth, known as Don Antonio de' Medici, was +recognized by the family during four ducal reigns; he won the affection of +all, did them important service, and was universally regretted. + +Almost all the early Medici had natural children, whose lot was in every +case splendid. The Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, Pope Clement VII., was the +illegitimate son of Giuliano I. Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici was also a +bastard, and he was within an ace of being Pope and head of the family. + +Certain inventors of anecdote have a story that the Duke of Urbino, +Catherine's father, told her: "_A figlia d'inganno non manca mai +figliuolanza_" (A clever woman can always have children, _a propos_ to some +natural defect in Henri, the second son of Francois I., to whom she was +betrothed). This Lorenzo de' Medici, Catherine's father, had married, for +the second time, in 1518, Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, and died in +1519, a few days after his wife, who died in giving birth to Catherine. +Catherine was thus fatherless and motherless as soon as she saw the light. +Hence the strange events of her childhood, chequered by the violent +struggles of the Florentines, in the attempt to recover their liberty, +against the Medici who were determined to govern Florence, but who were so +circumspect in their policy that Catherine's father took the title of Duke +of Urbino. + +At his death, the legitimate head of the House of the Medici was Pope Leo +X., who appointed Giuliano's illegitimate son, Giulio de' Medici, then +Cardinal, Governor of Florence. Leo X. was Catherine's grand-uncle, and +this Cardinal Giulio, afterwards Clement VII., was her _left-handed_ uncle +only. This it was which made Brantome so wittily speak of that Pope as an +"uncle in Our Lady." + +During the siege by the Medici to regain possession of Florence, the +Republican party, not satisfied with having shut up Catherine, then nine +years old, in a convent, after stripping her of all her possessions, +proposed to expose her to the fire of the artillery, between two +battlements--the suggestion of a certain Battista Cei. Bernardo Castiglione +went even further in a council held to determine on some conclusion to the +business; he advised that, rather than surrender Catherine to the Pope who +demanded it, she should be handed over to the tender mercies of the +soldiers. All revolutions of the populace are alike. Catherine's policy, +always in favor of royal authority, may have been fostered by such scenes, +which an Italian girl of nine could not fail to understand. + +Alessandro's promotion, to which Clement VII., himself a bastard, largely +contributed, was no doubt owing partly to the fact of his being +illegitimate, and to Charles V.'s affection for his famous natural daughter +Margaret. Thus the Pope and the Emperor were moved by similar feelings. At +this period Venice was mistress of the commerce of the world; Rome governed +its morals; Italy was still supreme, by the poets, the generals, and the +statesmen who were her sons. At no other time has any one country had so +curious or so various a multitude of men of genius. There were so many, +that the smallest princelings were superior men. Italy was overflowing with +talent, daring, science, poetry, wealth, and gallantry, though rent by +constant internal wars, and at all times the arena on which conquerors met +to fight for her fairest provinces. + +When men are so great, they are not afraid to confess their weakness; +hence, no doubt, this golden age for bastards. And it is but justice to +declare that these illegitimate sons of the Medici were ardent for the +glory and the advancement of the family, alike in possessions and in power. +And as soon as the Duke _della citta di Penna_, the Moorish slave's son, +was established as Tyrant of Florence, he took up the interest shown by +Pope Clement VII. for Lorenzo II.'s daughter, now eleven years of age. + +As we study the march of events and of men in that strange sixteenth +century, we must never forget that the chief element of political conduct +was unremitting craft, destroying in every nature the upright conduct, the +_squareness_ which imagination looks for in eminent men. In this, +especially, lies Catherine's absolution. This observation, in fact, +disposes of all the mean and foolish accusations brought against her by the +writers of the reformed faith. It was indeed the golden age of this type of +policy, of which Machiavelli and Spinoza formulated the code, and Hobbes +and Montesquieu; for the Dialogue of "Sylla and Eucrates" expresses +Montesquieu's real mind, which he could not set forth in any other form in +consequence of his connection with the Encyclopedists. These principles are +to this day the unconfessed morality of every Cabinet where schemes of vast +dominion are worked out. In France we were severe on Napoleon when he +exerted this Italian genius which was in his blood, and its plots did not +always succeed; but Charles V., Catherine, Philip II., Giulio II., would +have done just as he did in the affairs of Spain. + +At the time when Catherine was born, history, if related from the point of +view of honesty, would seem an impossible romance. Charles V., while forced +to uphold the Catholic Church against the attacks of Luther, who by +threatening the tiara threatened his throne, allowed Rome to be besieged, +and kept Pope Clement VII. in prison. This same Pope, who had no more +bitter foe than Charles V., cringed to him that he might place Alessandro +de' Medici at Florence, and the Emperor gave his daughter in marriage to +the bastard Duke. No sooner was he firmly settled there than Alessandro, in +concert with the Pope, attempted to injure Charles V. by an alliance, +through Catherine de' Medici, with Francis I., and both promised to assist +the French king to conquer Italy. + +Lorenzino de' Medici became Alessandro's boon companion, and pandered to +him to get an opportunity of killing him; and Filippo Strozzi, one of the +loftiest spirits of that age, regarded this murder with such high esteem +that he vowed that each of his sons should marry one of the assassin's +daughters. The sons religiously fulfilled the father's pledge at a time +when each of them, under Catherine's protection, could have made a splendid +alliance; for one was Doria's rival, and the other Marshal of France. + +Cosmo de' Medici, Alessandro's successor, avenged the death of the Tyrant +with great cruelty, and persistently for twelve years, during which his +hatred never flagged against the people who had, after all, placed him in +power. He was eighteen years of age when he succeeded to the government; +his first act was to annul the rights of Alessandro's legitimate sons, at +the time when he was avenging Alessandro! Charles V. confirmed the +dispossession of his grandson, and recognized Cosmo instead of Alessandro's +son. + +Cosmo, raised to the throne by Cardinal Cibo, at once sent the prelate into +exile. Then Cardinal Cibo accused his creature, Cosmo, the first Grand +Duke, of having tried to poison Alessandro's son. The Grand Duke, as +jealous of his authority as Charles V. was of his, abdicated, like the +Emperor, in favor of his son Francesco, after ordering the death of Don +Garcias, his other son, in revenge for that of Cardinal Giovanni de' +Medici, whom Garcias had assassinated. + +Cosmo I. and his son Francesco, who ought to have been devoted, soul and +body, to the Royal House of France, the only power able to lend them +support, were the humble servants of Charles V. and Philip II., and +consequently the secret, perfidious, and cowardly foes of Catherine de' +Medici, one of the glories of their race. + +Such are the more important features--contradictory and illogical +indeed--the dishonest acts, the dark intrigues of the House of the Medici +alone. From this sketch some idea may be formed of the other princes of +Italy and Europe. Every envoy from Cosmo I. to the Court of France had +secret instructions to poison Strozzi, Queen Catherine's relation, when he +should find him there. Charles V. had three ambassadors from Francis I. +murdered. + + * * * * * + +It was early in October 1533 that the Duke _della citta di Penna_ left +Florence for Leghorn, accompanied by Catherine de' Medici, sole heiress of +Lorenzo II. The Duke and the Princess of Florence, for this was the title +borne by the girl, now fourteen years of age, left the city with a large +following of servants, officials, and secretaries, preceded by men-at-arms, +and escorted by a mounted guard. The young Princess as yet knew nothing of +her fate, excepting that the Pope and Duke Alessandro were to have an +interview at Leghorn; but her uncle, Filippo Strozzi, soon told her of the +future that lay before her. + +Filippo Strozzi had married Clarissa de' Medici, whole sister to Lorenzo +de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, Catherine's father; but this union, arranged +quite as much with a view to converting one of the stoutest champions of +the popular cause to the support of Medici as to secure the recall of that +then exiled family, never shook the tenets of the rough soldier who was +persecuted by his party for having consented to it. In spite of some +superficial change of conduct, somewhat overruled by this alliance, he +remained faithful to the popular side, and declared against the Medici as +soon as he perceived their scheme of subjugating Florence. This great man +even refused the offer of a principality from Leo X. At that time Filippo +Strozzi was a victim to the policy of the Medici, so shifty in its means, +so unvarying in its aim. + +After sharing the Pope's misfortunes and captivity, when, surprised by +Colonna, he took refuge in the castle of Saint-Angelo, he was given up by +Clement VII. as a hostage and carried to Naples. As soon as the Pope was +free, he fell upon his foes, and Strozzi was then near being killed; he was +forced to pay an enormous bribe to get out of the prison, where he was +closely guarded. As soon as he was at liberty, with the natural +trustfulness of an honest man, he was simple enough to appear before +Clement VII., who perhaps had flattered himself that he was rid of him. The +Pope had so much to be ashamed of that he received Strozzi very +ungraciously. Thus Strozzi had very early begun his apprenticeship to the +life of disaster, which is that of a man who is honest in politics, and +whose conscience will not lend itself to the caprices of opportunity, whose +actions are pleasing only to virtue, which is persecuted by all--by the +populace, because it withstands their blind passions; by authority, because +it resists its usurpations. + +The life of these great citizens is a martyrdom, through which they have +nothing to support them but the strong voice of conscience, and the sense +of social duty, which in all cases dictates their conduct. + +There were many such men in the Republic of Florence, all as great as +Strozzi and as masterly as their adversaries on the Medici side, though +beaten by Florentine cunning. In the conspiracy of the Pazzi, what can be +finer than the attitude of the head of that house? His trade was immense, +and he settled all his accounts with Asia, the Levant, and Europe before +carrying out that great plot, to the end that his correspondents should not +be the losers if he should fail. + +And the history of the rise of the Medici family in the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries is one of the finest that remains unwritten, though men +of great genius have attempted it. It is not the history of a republic, or +of any particular community or phase of civilization; it is the history of +political man, and the eternal history of political developments, that of +usurpers and conquerors. + +On his return to Florence, Filippo Strozzi restored the ancient form of +government, and banished Ippolito de' Medici, another bastard, as well as +Alessandro, with whom he was now acting. But he then was afraid of the +inconstancy of the populace; and as he dreaded Pope Clement's vengeance, he +went to take charge of a large commercial house he had at Lyons in +correspondence with his bankers at Venice and Rome, in France, and in +Spain. A strange fact! These men, who bore the burden of public affairs as +well as that of a perennial struggle with the Medici, to say nothing of +their squabbles with their own party, could also endure the cares of +commerce and speculation, of banking with all its complications, which the +vast multiplicity of coinages and frequent forgeries made far more +difficult then than now. The word banker is derived from the bench on which +they sat, and which served also to ring the gold and silver pieces on. +Strozzi found in his adored wife's death a pretext to offer to the +Republican party, whose police is always all the more terrible because +everybody is a voluntary spy in the name of Liberty, which justifies all +things. + +Filippo's return to Florence happened just at the time when the city was +compelled to bow to Alessandro's yoke; but he had previously been to see +Pope Clement, with whom matters were so promising that his feelings towards +Strozzi had changed. In the moment of triumph the Medici so badly needed +such a man as Strozzi, were it only to lend a grace to Alessandro's +assumption of dignity, that Clement persuaded him to sit on the bastard's +council, which was about to take oppressive measures, and Filippo had +accepted a diploma as senator. But for the last two years and a half--like +Seneca and Burrhus with Nero--he had noted the beginnings of tyranny. He +found himself the object of distrust to the populace, and so little in +favor with the Medici, whom he opposed, that he foresaw a catastrophe. And +as soon as he heard from Alessandro of the negotiations for the marriage of +Catherine with a French Prince, which were perhaps to be concluded at +Leghorn, where the contracting powers had agreed to meet, he resolved to go +to France and follow the fortunes of his niece, who would need a guardian. +Alessandro, delighted to be quit of a man so difficult to manage in what +concerned Florence, applauded this decision, which spared him a murder, and +advised Strozzi to place himself at the head of Catherine's household. + +In point of fact, to dazzle the French Court, the Medici had constituted a +brilliant suite for the young girl whom they quite incorrectly styled the +Princess of Florence, and who was also called the Duchess of Urbino. The +procession, at the head of it Duke Alessandro, Catherine, and Strozzi, +consisted of more than a thousand persons, exclusive of the escort and +serving-men; and when the last of them were still at the gate of Florence, +the foremost had already got beyond the first village outside the +town--where straw plait for hats is now made. + +It was beginning to be generally known that Catherine was to marry a son of +Francis the First, but as yet it was no more than a rumor which found +confirmation in the country from this triumphant progress from Florence to +Leghorn. From the preparations required, Catherine suspected that her +marriage was in question, and her uncle revealed to her the abortive scheme +of her ambitious family, who had aspired to the hand of the Dauphin. Duke +Alessandro still hoped that the Duke of Albany might succeed in changing +the determination of the French King, who, though anxious to secure the aid +of the Medici in Italy, would only give them the Duc d'Orleans. This +narrowness lost Italy to France, and did not hinder Catherine from being +Queen. + +This Duke of Albany, the son of Alexander Stuart, brother of James III. of +Scotland, had married Anne de la Tour de Boulogne, sister to Madeleine, +Catherine's mother; he was thus her maternal uncle. It was through her +mother that Catherine was so rich and connected with so many families; for, +strangely enough, Diane de Poitiers, her rival, was also her cousin. Jean +de Poitiers, Diane's father, was son of Jeanne de la Tour de Boulogne, the +Duchess of Urbino's aunt. Catherine was also related to Mary Stuart, her +daughter-in-law. + +Catherine was now informed that her dower in money would amount to a +hundred thousand ducats. The ducat was a gold piece as large as one of our +old louis d'or, but only half as thick. Thus a hundred thousand ducats in +those days represented, in consequence of the high value of gold, six +millions of francs at the present time, the ducat being worth about twelve +francs. The importance of the banking-house of Strozzi, at Lyons, may be +imagined from this, as it was his factor there who paid over the twelve +hundred thousand livres in gold. The counties of Auvergne and Lauraguais +also formed part of Catherine's portion, and the Pope Clement VII. made her +a gift of a hundred thousand ducats more in jewels, precious stones, and +other wedding gifts, to which Duke Alessandro contributed. + +On reaching Leghorn, Catherine, still so young, must have been flattered by +the extraordinary magnificence displayed by Pope Clement VII., her "uncle +in Our Lady," then the head of the House of Medici, to crush the Court of +France. He had arrived at the port in one of his galleys hung with crimson +satin trimmed with gold fringe, and covered with an awning of cloth of +gold. This barge, of which the decorations had cost nearly twenty thousand +ducats, contained several rooms for the use of Henri de France's future +bride, furnished with the choicest curiosities the Medici had been able to +collect. The oarsmen, magnificently dressed, and the seamen were under the +captaincy of a Prior of the Order of the Knights of Rhodes. The Pope's +household filled three more barges. + +The Duke of Albany's galleys, moored by the side of the Pope's, formed, +with these, a considerable flotilla. + +Duke Alessandro presented the officers of Catherine's household to the +Pope, with whom he held a secret conference, introducing to him, as seems +probable, Count Sebastian Montecuculi, who had just left the Emperor's +service--rather suddenly, it was said--and the two Generals, Antonio de +Leyva and Fernando Gonzaga. Was there a premeditated plan between these two +bastards to make the Duc d'Orleans the Dauphin? What was the reward +promised to Count Sebastian Montecuculi, who, before entering the service +of Charles V., had studied medicine? History is silent on these points. We +shall see indeed in what obscurity the subject is wrapped. It is so great +that some serious and conscientious historians have recently recognized +Montecuculi's innocence. + +Catherine was now officially informed by the Pope himself of the alliance +proposed for her. The Duke of Albany had had great difficulty in keeping +the King of France to his promise of giving even his second son to +Catherine de' Medici; and Clement's impatience was so great, he was so much +afraid of seeing his schemes upset either by some intrigue on the part of +the Emperor, or by the haughtiness of France, where the great nobles cast +an evil eye on this union, that he embarked forthwith and made for +Marseilles. He arrived there at the end of October 1533. + +In spite of his splendor, the House of the Medici was eclipsed by the +sovereign of France. To show to what a pitch these great bankers carried +their magnificence, the dozen pieces given by the Pope in the bride's +wedding purse consisted of gold medals of inestimable historical interest, +for they were at that time unique. But Francis I., who loved festivity and +display, distinguished himself on this occasion. The wedding feasts for +Henri de Valois and Catherine went on for thirty-four days. It is useless +to repeat here details which may be read in every history of Provence and +Marseilles as to this famous meeting between the Pope and the King of +France, which was the occasion of a jest of the Duke of Albany's as to the +duty of fasting; a retort recorded by Brantome which vastly amused the +Court, and shows the tone of manners at that time. + +Though Henri de Valois was but three weeks older than Catherine, the Pope +insisted on the immediate consummation of the marriage between these two +children, so greatly did he dread the subterfuges of diplomacy and the +trickery commonly practised at that period. Clement, indeed, anxious for +proof, remained thirty-four days at Marseilles, in the hope, it is said, of +some visible evidence in his young relation, who at fourteen was +marriageable. And it was, no doubt, when questioning Catherine before his +departure, that he tried to console her by the famous speech ascribed to +Catherine's father: "_A figlia d'inganno, non manca mai la figliuolanza_." + +The strangest conjectures have been given to the world as to the causes of +Catherine's barrenness during ten years. Few persons nowadays are aware +that various medical works contain suppositions as to this matter, so +grossly indecent that they could not be repeated.[B] This gives some clue +to the strange calumnies which still blacken this Queen, whose every action +was distorted to her injury. The reason lay simply with her husband. It is +sufficient evidence that at a time when no prince was shy of having natural +children, Diane de Poitiers, far more highly favored than his wife, had no +children; and nothing is commoner in surgical experience than such a +malformation as this Prince's, which gave rise to a jest of the ladies of +the Court, who would have made him Abbe de Saint-Victor, at a time when the +French language was as free as the Latin tongue. After the Prince was +operated on, Catherine had ten children. + +The delay was a happy thing for France. If Henri II. had had children by +Diane de Poitiers, it would have caused serious political complications. At +the time of his treatment, the Duchesse de Valentinois was in the second +youth of womanhood. These facts alone show that the history of Catherine +de' Medici remains to be entirely re-written; and that, as Napoleon very +shrewdly remarked, the history of France should be in one volume only, or +in a thousand. + +When we compare the conduct of Charles V. with that of the King of France +during the Pope's stay at Marseilles, it is greatly to the advantage of +Francis--as indeed in every instance. Here is a brief report of this +meeting as given by a contemporary:-- + +"His Holiness the Pope, having been conducted to the Palace prepared for +him, as I have said, outside the port, each one withdrew to his chamber +until the morrow, when his said Holiness prepared to make his entry. Which +was done with great sumptuousness and magnificence, he being set on a +throne borne on the shoulders of two men in his pontifical habit, saving +only the tiara, while before him went a white palfry bearing the Holy +Sacrament, the said palfrey being led by two men on foot in very fine +raiment holding a bridle of white silk. After him came all the cardinals in +their habit, riding their pontifical mules, and Madame the Duchess of +Urbino in great magnificence, with a goodly company of ladies and gentlemen +alike of France and of Italy. And the Pope, with all this company, being +come to the place prepared where they should lodge, each one withdrew; and +all this was ordered and done without any disorder or tumult. Now, while as +the Pope was making his entry, the King crossed the water in his frigate +and went to lodge there whence the Pope had come, to the end that on the +morrow he might come from thence to pay homage to the Holy Father, as +beseemed a most Christian King. + +"The King being then ready, set forth to go to the Palace where the Pope +was, accompanied by the Princes of his blood, Monseigneur the Duc de +Vendosmois (father of the Vidame de Chartres), the Comte de Saint-Pol, +Monsieur de Montmorency, and Monsieur de la Roche-sur-Yon, the Duc de +Nemours (brother to the Duke of Savoy who died at that place), the Duke of +Albany, and many others, counts, barons, and nobles, the Duc de Montmorency +being at all times about the King's person. The King, being come to the +Palace, was received by the Pope and all the College of Cardinals assembled +in consistory, with much civility (_fort humainement_). This done, each one +went to the place appointed to him, and the King took with him many +cardinals to feast them, and among them Cardinal de' Medici, the Pope's +nephew, a very magnificent lord with a fine escort. On the morrow, those +deputed by his Holiness and by the King began to treat of those matters +whereon they had met to agree. First of all, they treated of the question +of faith, and a bull was read for the repression of heresy, and to hinder +things from coming to a greater combustion (_une plus grande combustion_) +than they are in already. Then was performed the marriage ceremony between +the Duc d'Orleans, the King's second son, and Catherine de' Medici, Duchess +of Urbino, his Holiness' niece, under conditions the same, or nearly the +same, as had been formerly proposed to the Duke of Albany. The said +marriage was concluded with great magnificence, and our Holy Father married +them.[C] This marriage being thus concluded, the Holy Father held a +consistory, wherein he created four cardinals to wait on the King, to wit: +Cardinal le Veneur, heretofore Bishop of Lisieux and High Almoner; Cardinal +de Boulogne, of the family of la Chambre, half-brother on his mother's side +to the Duke of Albany; Cardinal de Chatillon of the family of Coligny, +nephew to the Sire de Montmorency; and Cardinal de Givry." + +When Strozzi paid down the marriage portion in the presence of the Court, +he observed some surprise on the part of the French nobles; they said +pretty loudly that it was a small price for such a mesalliance--what would +they say to-day? Cardinal Ippolito replied: + +"Then you are not informed as to your King's secrets. His Holiness consents +to bestow on France three pearls of inestimable price--Genoa, Milan, and +Naples." + +The Pope left Count Sebastian Montecuculi to present himself at the French +Court, where he made an offer of his services, complaining of Antonio de +Leyva and Fernando Gonzaga, for which reason he was accepted. Montecuculi +was not one of Catherine's household, which was composed entirely of French +ladies and gentlemen; for, by a law of the realm which the Pope was +rejoiced to see carried out, Catherine was naturalized by letters patent +before her marriage. Montecuculi was at first attached to the household of +the Queen, Charles V.'s sister. Then, not long after, he entered the +Dauphin's service in the capacity of cupbearer. + +The Duchesse d'Orleans found herself entirely swamped at the Court of +Francis I. Her young husband was in love with Diane de Poitiers, who was +certainly her equal in point of birth, and a far greater lady. The daughter +of the Medici took rank below Queen Eleanor, Charles V.'s sister, and the +Duchesse d'Etampes, whose marriage to the head of the family of de Brosse +had given her one of the most powerful positions and highest titles in +France. Her aunt, the Duchess of Albany, the Queen of Navarre, the Duchesse +de Guise, the Duchesse de Vendome, the wife of the Connetable, and many +other women, by their birth and privileges as well as by their influence in +the most sumptuous Court ever held by a French King--not excepting Louis +XIV.--wholly eclipsed the daughter of the Florentine merchants, who was +indeed more illustrious and richer through the Tour de Boulogne family than +through her descent from the Medici. + +Filippo Strozzi, a republican at heart, regarded his niece's position as so +critical and difficult, that he felt himself incapable of directing her in +the midst of conflicting interests, and deserted her at the end of a year, +being indeed recalled to Italy by the death of Clement VII. Catherine's +conduct, when we remember that she was but just fifteen, was a marvel of +prudence. She very adroitly attached herself to the King, her +father-in-law, leaving him as rarely as possible; she was with him on +horseback, in hunting, and in war. + +Her adoration of Francis I. saved the House of Medici from all suspicion +when the Dauphin died poisoned. At that time Catherine and the Duc +d'Orleans were at the King's headquarters in Provence, for France had +already been invaded by Charles V., the King's brother-in-law. The whole +Court had remained on the scene of the wedding festivities, now the theatre +of the most barbarous war. Just as Charles V., compelled to retreat, had +fled, leaving the bones of his army in Provence, the Dauphin was returning +to Lyons by the Rhone. Stopping at Tournon for the night, to amuse himself, +he went through some athletic exercises, such as formed almost the sole +education he or his brother received, in consequence of their long +detention as hostages. The Prince being very hot--it was in the month of +August--was so rash as to ask for a glass of water, which was given to him, +iced, by Montecuculi. The Dauphin died almost instantaneously. + +The King idolized his son. The Dauphin was indeed, as historians are +agreed, a very accomplished Prince. His father, in despair, gave the utmost +publicity to the proceedings against Montecuculi, and placed the matter in +the hands of the most learned judges of the day. + +After heroically enduring the first tests of torture without confessing +anything, the Count made an avowal by which he fully implicated the Emperor +and his two generals, Antonio de Leyva and Fernando Gonzaga. This, however, +did not satisfy Francis I. Never was a case more solemnly thrashed out than +this. An eye-witness gives the following account of what the King did:-- + +"The King called all the Princes of the Blood, and all the Knights of his +Order, and many other high personages of the realm, to meet at Lyons; the +Pope's Legate and Nuncio, the cardinals who were of his Court, and the +ambassadors of England, Scotland, Portugal, Venice, Ferrara, and others; +together with all the princes and great nobles of foreign countries, both +of Italy and of Germany, who were at that time residing at his Court, +to-wit: The Duke of Wittemberg, in Allemaigne; the Dukes of Somma, of +Arianna, and of Atria; the Princes of Melphe [Malfi?] (who had desired to +marry Catherine), and of Stilliano, Neapolitan; the Marquis di Vigevo, of +the House of Trivulzio, Milanese; the Signor Giovanni Paolo di Ceri, Roman; +the Signor Cesare Fregose, Genoese; the Signor Annibale Gonzaga, Mantuan, +and many more. Who being assembled, he caused to be read in their presence, +from the beginning to the end, the trial of that wretched man who had +poisoned his late Highness the Dauphin, with all the interrogations, +confessions, confrontings, and other proceedings usual in criminal trials, +not choosing that the sentence should be carried out until all those +present had given their opinion on this monstrous and miserable matter." + +Count Montecuculi's fidelity and devotion may seem extraordinary in our day +of universal indiscretion, when everybody, and even Ministers, talk over +the most trivial incidents in which they have put a finger; but in those +times princes could command devoted servants, or knew how to choose them. +There were monarchical Moreys then, because there was faith. Never look for +great things from self-interest: interests may change; but look for +anything from feeling, from religious faith, monarchical faith, patriotic +faith. These three beliefs alone can produce a Berthereau of Geneva, a +Sydney or a Strafford in England, assassins to murder Thomas a Becket, or a +Montecuculi; Jacques Coeur and Jeanne d'Arc, or Richelieu and Danton; a +Bonchamp, a Talmont, or a Clement, a Chabot. + +Charles V. made use of the highest personages to carry out the murder of +three ambassadors from Francis I. A year later Lorenzino, Catherine's +cousin, assassinated Duke Alessandro after three years of dissimulation, +and in circumstances which gained him the surname of the Florentine Brutus. +The rank of the victim was so little a check on such undertakings that +neither Leo X. nor Clement VII. seems to have died a natural death. +Mariana, the historian of Philip II., almost jests in speaking of the death +of the Queen of Spain, a Princess of France, saying that "for the greater +glory of the Spanish throne God suffered the blindness of the doctors who +treated the Queen for dropsy." When King Henri II. allowed himself to utter +a scandal which deserved a sword-thrust, he could find la Chataignerie +willing to take it. At that time royal personages had their meals served to +them in padlocked boxes of which they had the key. Hence the _droit de +cadenas_, the _right of the padlock_, an honor which ceased to exist in the +reign of Louis XIV. + +The Dauphin died of poison, the same perhaps as caused the death of MADAME, +under Louis XIV. Pope Clement had been dead two years; Duke Alessandro, +steeped in debauchery, seemed to have no interest in the Duc d'Orleans' +elevation. Catherine, now seventeen years old, was with her father-in-law, +whom she devotedly admired; Charles V. alone seemed to have an interest in +the Dauphin's death, because Francis I. intended his son to form an +alliance which would have extended the power of France. Thus the Count's +confession was very ingeniously based on the passions and policy of the +day. Charles V. had fled after seeing his troops overwhelmed in Provence, +and with them his good fortune, his reputation, and his hopes of +aggrandizement. And note, that even if an innocent man had confessed under +torture, the King afterwards gave him freedom of speech before an august +assembly, and in the presence of men with whom innocence had a fair chance +of a hearing. The King wanted the truth, and sought it in good faith. + +In spite of her now brilliant prospects, Catherine's position at court was +unchanged by the Dauphin's death; her childlessness made a divorce seem +probable when her husband should become king. The Dauphin was now enslaved +by Diane de Poitiers, who had dared to be the rival of Madame d'Etampes. +Catherine was therefore doubly attentive and insinuating to her +father-in-law, understanding that he was her sole mainstay. + +Thus the first ten years of Catherine's married life were spent in the +unceasing regrets caused by repeated disappointments when she hoped to have +a child, and the vexations of her rivalry with Diane. Imagine what the life +must be of a princess constantly spied on by a jealous mistress who was +favored by the Catholic party, and by the strong support the Senechale had +acquired through the marriage of her daughters--one to Robert de la Mark, +Duc de Bouillon, Prince de Sedan; the other to Claude de Lorraine, Duc +d'Aumale. + +Swamped between the party of the Duchesse d'Etampes and that of the +Senechale (the title borne by Diane de Poitiers during the reign of Francis +I.), who divided the Court and political feeling between the two mortal +foes, Catherine tried to be the friend of both the Duchess and Diane de +Poitiers. She, who was to become so great a queen, played the part of a +subaltern. Thus she served her apprenticeship to the double-faced policy +which afterwards was the secret clue to her life. At a later date the queen +found herself between the Catholics and the Calvinists, as the woman had +been, for ten years, between Madame d'Etampes and Madame de Poitiers. + +She studied the contradictions of French policy. Francis upheld Calvin and +the Lutherans, to annoy Charles V. Then, after having covertly and +patiently fostered the Reformation in Germany, after tolerating Calvin's +presence at the Court of Navarre, he turned against it with undisguised +severity. So Catherine could see the Court and the women of the Court +playing with the fire of heresy; Diane at the head of the Catholic party +with the Guises, only because the Duchesse d'Etampes was on the side of +Calvin and the Protestants. + +This was Catherine's political education; and in the King's private circle +she could study the mistakes made by the Medici. The Dauphin was +antagonistic to his father on every point; he was a bad son. He forgot the +hardest but the truest axiom of Royalty, namely, that the throne is a +responsible entity, and that a son who may oppose his father during his +lifetime must carry out his policy on succeeding to the throne. Spinoza, +who was as deep a politician as he was a great philosopher, says, in +treating of the case of a king who has succeeded to another by a revolution +or by treason: "If the new King hopes to secure his throne and protect his +life, he must display so much zeal in avenging his predecessor's death that +no one shall feel tempted to repeat such a crime. But to avenge him +worthily it is not enough that he should shed the blood of his subjects; he +must confirm the maxims of him whose place he fills, and walk in the same +ways of government." + +It was the application of this principle which gave the Medici to Florence. +Cosmo I., Alessandro's successor, eleven years later instigated the murder, +at Venice, of the Florentine Brutus, and, as has been said, persecuted the +Strozzi without mercy. It was the neglect of this principle that overthrew +Louis XVI. That King was false to every principle of government when he +reinstated the Parlements suppressed by his grandfather. Louis XV. had been +clear-sighted; the Parlements, and especially that of Paris, were quite +half to blame for the disorders that necessitated the assembling of the +States-General. Louis XV.'s mistake was that when he threw down that +barrier between the throne and the people, he did not erect a stronger one, +that he did not substitute for the Parlements a strong constitutional rule +in the provinces. There lay the remedy for the evils of the Monarchy, the +voting power for taxation and the incidence of the taxes, with consent +gradually won to the reforms needed in the monarchical rule. + + * * * * * + +Henri II.'s first act was to give all his confidence to the Connetable de +Montmorency, whom his father had desired him to leave in banishment. The +Connetable de Montmorency, with Diane de Poitiers, to whom he was closely +attached, was master of the kingdom. Hence Catherine was even less powerful +and happy as Queen of France than she had been as the Dauphiness. + +At first, from the year 1543, she had a child every year for ten years, and +was fully taken up by her maternal functions during that time, which +included the last years of Francis I.'s reign, and almost the whole of her +husband's. It is impossible not to detect in this constant child-bearing +the malicious influence of a rival who thus kept the legitimate wife out of +the way. This feminine and barbarous policy was no doubt one of Catherine's +grievances against Diane. Being thus kept out of the tide of affairs, this +clever woman spent her time in observing all the interests of the persons +at Court, and all the parties formed there. The Italians who had followed +her excited violent suspicions. After the execution of Montecuculi, the +Connetable de Montmorency, Diane, and most of the crafty politicians at +Court were racked with doubts of the Medici; but Francis I. always scouted +them. Still the Gondi, the Biraguas, the Strozzi, the Ruggieri, the +Sardini, in short, all who were classed as the Italians who had arrived in +Catherine's wake, were compelled to exercise every faculty of wit, policy, +and courage to enable them to remain at Court under the burden of disfavor +that weighed on them. During the supremacy of Diane de Poitiers, +Catherine's obligingness went so far that some clever folks have seen in it +an evidence of the profound dissimulation to which she was compelled by men +and circumstances, and by the conduct of Henri II. But it is going too far +to say that she never asserted her rights as a wife and a queen. Her ten +children (besides one miscarriage) were a sufficient explanation of the +King's conduct, who was thus set free to spend his time with Diane de +Poitiers. But the King certainly never fell short of what he owed to +himself; he gave the Queen an entry worthy of any that had previously taken +place, on the occasion of her coronation. The records of the _Parlement_ +and of the Exchequer prove that these two important bodies went to meet +Catherine outside Paris, as far as Saint-Lazare. Here, indeed, is a passage +from du Tillet's narrative:-- + +"A scaffolding had been erected at Saint-Lazare, whereon was a throne +(which du Tillet calls a chair of state, _chaire de parement_). Catherine +seated herself on this, dressed in a surcoat, or sort of cape of ermine, +covered with jewels; beneath it a bodice, with a court train, and on her +head a crown of pearls and diamonds; she was supported by the Marechale de +la Mark, her lady of honor. Around her, standing, were the princes of the +Blood and other princes and noblemen richly dressed, with the Chancellor of +France in a robe of cloth of gold in a pattern on a ground of red +cramoisy.[D] In front of the Queen and on the same scaffolding were seated, +in two rows, twelve duchesses and countesses, dressed in surcoats of +ermine, stomachers, trains, and fillets, that is to say, coronets, whether +duchesses or countesses. There were the Duchesse d'Estouteville, de +Montpensier--the elder and the younger--the Princesse de la Roche-sur-Yon; +the Duchesses de Guise, de Nivernois, d'Aumale, de Valentinois (Diane de +Poitiers); Mademoiselle the legitimized bastard 'of France' (a title given +to the King's daughter Diane, who became Duchesse de Castro-Farnese, and +afterwards Duchesse de Montmorency-Damville), Madame la Connetable, and +Mademoiselle de Nemours, not to mention the other ladies who could find no +room. The four _capped_ Presidents (_a mortier_), with some other members +of the Court and the chief clerk, du Tillet, went up on to the platform and +did their service, and the First President Lizet, kneeling on one knee, +addressed the Queen. The Chancellor, likewise on one knee, made response. +She made her entrance into Paris at about three in the afternoon, riding in +an open litter, Madame Marguerite de France sitting opposite to her, and by +the side of the litter came the Cardinals d'Amboise, de Chatillon, de +Boulogne, and de Lenoncourt, in their rochets. She got out at the Church of +Notre-Dame, and was received by the clergy. After she had made her prayer, +she was carried along the Rue de la Calandre to the Palace, where the royal +supper was spread in the great hall. She sat there in the middle at a +marble table, under a canopy of velvet powdered with gold fleurs de lys." + +It will here be fitting to controvert a popular error which some persons +have perpetuated, following Sauval in the mistake. It has been said that +Henri II. carried his oblivion of decency so far as to place his mistress' +initials even on the buildings which Catherine had advised him to undertake +or to carry on at such lavish expense. But the cipher, which is to be seen +at the Louvre, amply refutes those who have so little comprehension as to +lend credit to such nonsense, a gratuitous slur on the honor of our kings +and queens. The H for Henri and the two C's, face to face, for Catherine +seem indeed to make two D's for Diane; and this coincidence was no doubt +pleasing to the King. But it is not the less certain that the royal cipher +was officially constructed of the initials of the King and the Queen. And +this is so true, that the same cipher is still to be seen on the +corn-market in Paris which Catherine herself had built. It may also be +found in the crypt of Saint-Denis on Catherine's tomb, which she caused to +be constructed during her lifetime by the side of that of Henri II., and on +which she is represented from life by the sculptor to whom she sat. + +On a solemn occasion, when he was setting out on an expedition to Germany, +Henri II. proclaimed Catherine Regent during his absence, as also in the +event of his death--on March 25, 1552. Catherine's bitterest enemy, the +author of the _Discours merveilleux sur les deportements de Catherine II._, +admits that she acquitted herself of these functions to the general +approbation, and that the King was satisfied with her administration. Henri +II. had men and money at the right moment. And after the disastrous day of +Saint-Quentin, Catherine obtained from the Parisians considerable sums, +which she forwarded to Compiegne, whither the King had come. + +In politics Catherine made immense efforts to acquire some little +influence. She was clever enough to gain over to her interests the +Connetable de Montmorency, who was all-powerful under Henri II. The King's +terrible reply to Montmorency's insistency is well known. This answer was +the result of the good advice given by Catherine in the rare moments when +she was alone with the King, and could explain to him the policy of the +Florentines, which was to set the magnates of a kingdom by the ears and +build up the sovereign authority on the ruins--Louis XI.'s system, +subsequently carried out by Richelieu. Henri II., who saw only through the +eyes of Diane and the Connetable, was quite a feudal King, and on friendly +terms with the great Houses of the realm. + +After an ineffectual effort in her favor made by the Connetable, probably +in the year 1556, Catherine paid great court to the Guises, and schemed to +detach them from Diane's party so as to set them in opposition to +Montmorency. But, unfortunately, Diane and the Connetable were as virulent +against the Protestants as the Guises were. Hence their antagonism lacked +the virus which religious feeling would have given it. Besides, Diane +boldly defied the Queen's plans by coquetting with the Guises and giving +her daughter to the Duc d'Aumale. She went so far that she has been accused +by some writers of granting more than smiles to the gallant Cardinal de +Lorraine.[E] + +The signs of grief and the ostentatious regret displayed by Catherine on +the King's death cannot be regarded as genuine. The fact that Henri II. had +been so passionately and faithfully attached to Diane de Poitiers made it +incumbent on Catherine that she should play the part of a neglected wife +who idolized her husband; but, like every clever woman, she carried on her +dissimulation, and never ceased to speak with tender regret of Henri II. +Diane herself, it is well known, wore mourning all her life for her +husband, Monsieur de Breze. Her colors were black and white, and the King +was wearing them at the tournament when he was fatally wounded. Catherine, +in imitation no doubt of her rival, wore mourning for the King to the end +of her life. + +On the King's death, the Duchesse de Valentinois was shamelessly deserted +and dishonored by the Connetable de Montmorency, a man in every respect +beneath his reputation. Diane sent to offer her estate and Chateau of +Chenonceaux to the Queen. Catherine then replied in the presence of +witnesses, "I can never forget that she was all the joy of my dear Henri; I +should be ashamed to accept, I will give her an estate in exchange. I would +propose that of Chaumont-on-the-Loire." The deed of exchange was, in fact, +signed at Blois in 1559. Diane, whose sons-in-law were the Duc d'Aumale and +the Duc de Bouillon, kept her whole fortune and died peacefully in 1566 at +the age of sixty-six. She was thus nineteen years older than Henri II. +These dates, copied from the epitaph on her tomb by an historian who +studied the question at the end of the last century, clear up many +historical difficulties; for many writers have said she was forty when her +father was sentenced in 1523, while others have said she was but sixteen. +She was, in fact, four-and-twenty. + +After reading everything both for and against her conduct with Francis I., +at a time when the House of Poitiers was in the greatest danger, we can +neither confirm nor deny anything. It is a passage of history that still +remains obscure. We can see by what happens in our own day how history is +falsified, as it were, in the making. + +Catherine, who founded great hopes on her rival's age, several times made +an attempt to overthrow her. On one occasion she was very near the +accomplishment of her hopes. In 1554, Madame Diane, being ill, begged the +King to go to Saint-Germain pending her recovery. This sovereign coquette +would not be seen in the midst of the paraphernalia of doctors, nor bereft +of the adjuncts of dress. To receive the King on his return, Catherine +arranged a splendid _ballet_, in which five or six young ladies were to +address him in verse. She selected for the purpose Miss Fleming, related to +her uncle, the Duke of Albany, and one of the loveliest girls imaginable, +fair and golden-haired; then a young connection of her own, Clarissa +Strozzi, with magnificent black hair and rarely fine hands; Miss Lewiston, +maid of honor to Mary Stuart; Mary Stuart herself; Madame Elizabeth de +France, the unhappy Queen of Spain; and Madame Claude. Elizabeth was nine +years old, Claude eight, and Mary Stuart twelve. Obviously, the Queen aimed +at showing off Clarissa Strozzi and Miss Fleming without other rivals in +the King's eyes. The King succumbed: he fell in love with Miss Fleming, and +she bore him a son, Henri de Valois, Comte d'Angouleme, Grand Prior of +France. + +But Diane's influence and position remained unshaken. Like Madame de +Pompadour later with Louis XV., the Duchesse de Valentinois was forgiving. +But to what sort of love are we to ascribe this scheme on Catherine's part? +Love of power or love of her husband? Women must decide. + +A great deal is said in these days as to the license of the press; but it +is difficult to imagine to what a pitch it was carried when printing was a +new thing. Aretino, the Voltaire of his time, as is well known, made +monarchs tremble, and foremost of them all Charles V. But few people know +perhaps how far the audacity of pamphleteers could go. This Chateau of +Chenonceaux had been given to Diane, nay, she was entreated to accept it, +to induce her to overlook one of the most horrible publications ever hurled +at a woman, one which shows how violent was the animosity between her and +Madame d'Etampes. In 1537, when she was eight-and-thirty, a poet of +Champagne, named Jean Voute, published a collection of Latin verses, and +among them three epigrams aimed at her. We must conclude that the poet was +under high patronage from the fact that his volume is introduced by an +_eulogium_ written by Simon Macrin, the King's First Gentleman of the +Bedchamber. Here is the only passage quotable to-day from these epigrams, +which bear the title: _In Pictaviam, anum aulicam_. (Against _la Poitiers_, +an old woman of the Court.) + + "Non trahit esca ficta praedam." + +"A painted bait catches no game," says the poet, after telling her that she +paints her face and buys her teeth and hair; and he goes on: "Even if you +could buy the finest essence that makes a woman, you would not get what you +want of your lover, for you would need to be living, and you are dead." + +This volume, printed by Simon de Colines, was dedicated "To a Bishop!"--To +Francois Bohier, the brother of the man who, to save his credit at Court +and atone for his crime, made an offering on the accession of Henri II. of +the chateau of Chenonceaux, built by his father, Thomas Bohier, Councillor +of State under four Kings: Louis XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., and +Francis I. What were the pamphlets published against Madame de Pompadour +and Marie Antoinette in comparison with verses that might have been +written by Martial! Voute must have come to a bad end. Thus the estate and +chateau of Chenonceaux cost Diane nothing but the forgiveness of an +offence--a duty enjoined by the Gospel. Not being assessed by a jury, the +penalties inflicted on the Press were rather severer then than they are +now. + +The widowed Queens of France were required to remain for forty days in the +King's bedchamber, seeing no light but that of the tapers; they might not +come out till after the funeral. This inviolable custom annoyed Catherine +greatly; she was afraid of cabals. She found a way to evade it. The +Cardinal de Lorraine coming out one morning--at such a time! at such a +juncture!--from the house of "the fair Roman," a famous courtesan of that +day, who lived in the Rue Culture-Sainte-Catherine, was roughly handled by +a party of roisterers. "Whereat his Holiness was much amazed," says Henri +Estienne, "and gave it out that heretics were lying in wait for him."--And +on this account the Court moved from Paris to Saint-Germain. The Queen +would not leave the King her son behind, but took him with her. + +The accession of Francis II., the moment when Catherine proposed to seize +the reins of power, was a disappointment that formed a cruel climax to the +twenty-six years of endurance she had already spent at the French Court. +The Guises, with incredible audacity, at once usurped the sovereign power. +The Duc de Guise was placed in command of the army, and the Connetable de +Montmorency was shelved. The Cardinal took the control of the finances and +the clergy. + +Catherine's political career opened with one of those dramas which, though +it was less notorious than some others, was not the less horrible, and +initiated her no doubt into the agitating shocks of her life. Whether it +was that Catherine, after vainly trying the most violent remedies, had +thought she might bring the King back to her through jealousy; whether on +coming to her second youth she had felt it hard never to have known love, +she had shown a warm interest in a gentleman of royal blood, Francois de +Vendome, son of Louis de Vendome--the parent House of the Bourbons--the +Vidame de Chartres, the name by which he is known to history. Catherine's +covert hatred of Diane betrayed itself in many ways, which historians, +studying only political developments, have failed to note with due +attention. Catherine's attachment to the Vidame arose from an insult +offered by the young man to the favorite. Diane looked for the most +splendid matches for her daughters, who were indeed of the best blood in +the kingdom. Above all, she was ambitious of an alliance with the Royal +family. And her second daughter, who became the Duchesse d'Aumale, was +proposed in marriage to the Vidame, whom Francis I., with sage policy, kept +in poverty. For, in fact, when the Vidame de Chartres and the Prince de +Conde first came to Court, Francis I. gave them appointments! What? the +office of chamberlains in ordinary, with twelve hundred crowns a year, as +much as he bestowed on the humblest of his gentlemen. And yet, though Diane +offered him immense wealth, some high office under the Crown, and the +King's personal favor, the Vidame refused. And then this Bourbon, factious +as he was, married Jeanne, daughter of the Baron d'Estissac, by whom he had +no children. + +This proud demeanor naturally commended the Vidame to Catherine, who +received him with marked favor, and made him her devoted friend. Historians +have compared the last Duc de Montmorency, who was beheaded at Toulouse, +with the Vidame de Chartres for his power of charming, his merits, and his +talents. + +Henri II. was not jealous; he did not apparently think it possible that a +Queen of France could fail in her duty, or that a Medici could forget the +honor done her by a Valois. When the Queen was said to be flirting with the +Vidame de Chartres, she had been almost deserted by the King since the +birth of her last child. So this attempt came to nothing--as the King died +wearing the colors of Diane de Poitiers. + +So, at the King's death, Catherine was on terms of gallant familiarity with +the Vidame, a state of things in no way out of harmony with the manners of +the time, when love was at once so chivalrous and so licentious that the +finest actions seemed as natural as the most blamable. But, as usual, +historians have blundered by regarding exceptional cases as the rule. + +Henri II.'s four sons nullified every pretension of the Bourbons, who were +all miserably poor, and crushed under the scorn brought upon them by the +Connetable de Montmorency's treason, in spite of the reasons which had led +him to quit the country. The Vidame de Chartres, who was to the first +Prince de Conde what Richelieu was to Mazarin, a father in politics, a +model, and yet more a master in gallantry, hid the vast ambition of his +family under a semblance of levity. Being unable to contend with the +Guises, the Montmorencys, the Princes of Scotland, the Cardinals, and the +Bouillons, he aimed at distinction by his gracious manners, his elegance, +and his wit, which won him the favors of the most charming women, and the +heart of many he never thought about. He was a man privileged by nature, +whose fascinations were irresistible, and who owed to his love affairs the +means of keeping up his rank. The Bourbons would not have taken offence, +like Jarnac, at la Chataignerie's scandal; they were very ready to accept +lands and houses from their mistresses--witness the Prince de Conde, who +had the estate of Saint-Valery from Madame la Marechale de Saint-Andre. + +During the first twenty days of mourning for Henri II., a sudden change +came over the Vidame's prospects. Courted by the Queen-mother, and courting +her as a man may court a queen, in the utmost secrecy, he seemed fated to +play an important part; and Catherine, in fact, resolved to make him +useful. The Prince received letters from her to the Prince de Conde, in +which she pointed out the necessity for a coalition against the Guises. The +Guises, informed of this intrigue, made their way into the Queen's chamber +to compel her to sign an order consigning the Vidame to the Bastille, and +Catherine found herself under the cruel necessity of submitting. The +Vidame died after a few months' captivity, on the day when he came out of +prison, a short time before the Amboise conspiracy. + +This was the end of Catherine de' Medici's first and only love affair. +Protestant writers declared that the Queen had him poisoned to bury the +secret of her gallantries in the tomb. + +Such was this woman's apprenticeship to the exercise of royal power. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[B] See _Bayle_. Art. _Fernel_. + +[C] At that time in French, as in Italian, the words _marry_ and _espouse_ +were used in a contrary sense to their present meaning. _Marier_ was the +fact of being married, _epouser_ was the priestly function. + +[D] The old French word _cramoisi_ did not mean merely a crimson red, but +denoted a special excellence of the dye. (See Rabelais.) + +[E] Some satirist of the time has left the following lines on Henri II. [in +which the pun on the words Sire and Cire (wax) would be lost in +translation]:-- + + "Sire, si vous laissez, comme Charles desire, + Comme Diane veut, par trop vous gouverner, + Fondre, petrir, mollir, refondre, retourner, + Sire, vous n'etes plus, vous n'etes plus que cire." + +Charles was the Cardinal de Lorraine. + + + + +PART I + +THE CALVINIST MARTYR + + +Few persons in these days know how artless were the dwellings of the +citizens of Paris in the sixteenth century, and how simple their lives. +This very simplicity of habits and thought perhaps was the cause of the +greatness of this primitive citizen class--for they were certainly great, +free and noble, more so perhaps than the citizens of our time. Their +history remains to be written; it requires and awaits a man of genius. +Inspired by an incident which, though little known, forms the basis of this +narrative, and is one of the most remarkable in the history of the citizen +class, this reflection will no doubt occur to every one who shall read it +to the end. Is it the first time in history that the conclusion has come +before the facts? + +In 1560, the houses of the Rue de la Vieille-Pelleterie lay close to the +left bank of the Seine, between the Pont Notre-Dame and the Pont au Change. +The public way and the houses occupied the ground now given up to the +single path of the present quay. Each house, rising from the river, had a +way down to it by stone or wooden steps, defended by strong iron gates, or +doors of nail-studded timber. These houses, like those of Venice, had a +door to the land and one to the water. At the moment of writing this +sketch, only one house remains of this kind as a reminiscence of old Paris, +and that is doomed soon to disappear; it stands at the corner of the +Petit-Pont, the little bridge facing the guard-house of the Hotel-Dieu. + +Of old each dwelling presented, on the river side, the peculiar +physiognomy stamped on it either by the trade and the habits of its owners, +or by the eccentricity of the constructions devised by them for utilizing +or defiling the Seine. The bridges being built, and almost all choked up by +more mills than were convenient for the requirements of navigation, the +Seine in Paris was divided into as many pools as there were bridges. Some +of these old Paris basins would have afforded delightful studies of color +for the painter. What a forest of timbers was built into the cross-beams +that supported the mills, with their immense sails and wheels! What curious +effects were to be found in the joists that shored up the houses from the +river. Genre painting as yet, unfortunately, was not, and engraving in its +infancy; so we have no record of the curious scenes which may still be +found, on a small scale, in some provincial towns where the rivers are +fringed with wooden houses, and where, as at Vendome, for instance, the +pools, overgrown with tall grasses, are divided by railings to separate the +various properties on each bank. + +The name of this street, which has now vanished from the map, sufficiently +indicates the kind of business carried on there. At that time the merchants +engaged in any particular trade, far from dispersing themselves about the +city, gathered together for mutual protection. Being socially bound by the +guild which limited their increase, they were also united into a +brotherhood by the Church. This kept up prices. And then the masters were +not at the mercy of their workmen, and did not yield, as they do now, to +all their vagaries; on the contrary, they took charge of them, treated them +as their children, and taught them the finer mysteries of their craft. A +workman, to become a master, was required to produce a masterpiece--always +an offering to the patron saint of the guild. And will you venture to +assert that the absence of competition diminished their sense of +perfection, or hindered beauty of workmanship, when your admiration of the +work of the older craftsmen has created the new trade of dealers in +_bric-a-brac_? + +In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the fur trade was one of the most +flourishing industries. The difficulty of obtaining furs, which, coming +from the North, necessitated long and dangerous voyages, gave a high value +to skins and furriers' work. Then, as now, high prices led to demand, for +vanity knows no obstacles. + +In France, and in other kingdoms, not only was the use of furs restricted +by law to the great nobility, as is proved by the part played by ermine in +ancient coats-of-arms; but certain rare furs, such as _vair_, which was +beyond doubt imperial sable, might be worn only by kings, dukes, and men of +high rank holding certain offices. _Vair_ (a name still used in heraldry, +_vair_ and _counter vair_) was sub-divided into _grand vair_ and _menu +vair_. The word has within the last hundred years fallen so completely into +disuse, that in hundreds of editions of Perrault's fairy tales, +Cinderella's famous slipper, probably of fur, _menu vair_, has become a +glass slipper, _pantoufle de verre_. Not long since a distinguished French +poet was obliged to restore and explain the original spelling of this word, +for the edification of his brethren of the press, when giving an account of +the "Cenerentola," in which a ring is substituted for the symbolical +slipper--an unmeaning change. + +The laws against the use of fur were, of course, perpetually transgressed, +to the great advantage of the furriers. The high price of textiles and of +furs made a garment in those days a durable thing, in keeping with the +furniture, armor, and general details of the sturdy life of the time. A +nobleman or lady, every rich man as well as every citizen, possessed at +most two dresses for each season, and they lasted a lifetime or more. These +articles were bequeathed to their children. Indeed, the clauses relating to +weapons and raiment in marriage contracts, in these days unimportant by +reason of the small value of clothes that are constantly renewed, were at +that period of great interest. High prices had led to durability. + +A lady's outfit represented a vast sum of money; it was included in her +fortune, and safely bestowed in those enormous chests which endanger the +ceilings of modern houses. The full dress of a lady in 1840 would have been +the _deshabille_ of a fine lady of 1540. The discovery of America, the +facility of transport, the destruction of social distinctions, which has +led to the effacement of visible distinctions, have all contributed to +reduce the furrier's craft to the low ebb at which it stands, almost to +nothing. The article sold by a furrier at the same price as of old--say +twenty livres--has fallen in value with the money: the livre or franc was +then worth twenty of our present money. The citizen's wife or the courtesan +who, in our day, trims her cloak with sable, does not know that in 1440 a +malignant constable of the watch would have taken her forthwith into +custody, and haled her before the judge at le Chatelet. The English ladies +who are so fond of ermine are unconscious of the fact that formerly none +but queens, duchesses, and the Chancellor of France were permitted to wear +this royal fur. There are at this day various ennobled families bearing the +name of Pelletier or Lepelletier, whose forebears were obviously wealthy +furriers; for most of our citizen names were originally surnames of that +kind. + + * * * * * + +This digression not only explains the long squabbles as to precedence which +the Drapers' Guild carried on for two centuries with the Mercers and the +Furriers, each insisting on marching first, as being the most important, +but also accounts for the consequence of one Master Lecamus, a furrier +honored with the patronage of the two Queens, Catherine de' Medici and Mary +Stuart, as well as that of the legal profession, who for twenty years had +been the Syndic of his Corporation, and who lived in this street. The house +occupied by Lecamus was one of the three forming the three corners of the +cross-roads at the end of the Pont au Change, where only the tower now +remains that formed the fourth corner. At the angle of this house, forming +the corner of the bridge and of the quay, now called the Quai aux Fleurs, +the architect had placed a niche for a Madonna, before whom tapers +constantly burned, with posies of real flowers in their season, and +artificial flowers in the winter. + +On the side towards the Rue du Pont, as well as on that to the Rue de la +Vieille-Pelleterie, the house was supported on wooden pillars. All the +houses of the trading quarters were thus constructed, with an arcade +beneath, where foot passengers walked under cover on a floor hardened by +the mud they brought in, which made it a rather rough pavement. In all the +towns of France these arcades have been called _piliers_--in England +_rows_--a general term to which the name of a trade is commonly added, as +"Piliers des Halles," "Piliers de la Boucherie." These covered ways, +required by the changeable and rainy climate of Paris, gave the town a +highly characteristic feature, but they have entirely disappeared. Just as +there now remains one house only on the river-bank, so no more than about a +hundred feet are left of the old _Piliers_ in the market, the last that +have survived till now; and in a few days this remnant of the gloomy +labyrinth of old Paris will also be destroyed. The existence of these +relics of the Middle Ages is, no doubt, incompatible with the splendor of +modern Paris. And these remarks are not intended as a lament over those +fragments of the old city, but as a verification of this picture by the +last surviving examples now falling into dust, and to win forgiveness for +such descriptions, which will be precious in the future which is following +hard on the heels of this age. + +The walls were of timber covered with slates. The spaces between the +timbers had been filled up with bricks, in a way that may still be seen in +some provincial towns, laid in a zigzag pattern known as _Point de +Hongrie_. The window-sills and lintels, also of wood, were handsomely +carved, as were the corner tabernacle above the Madonna, and the pillars in +front of the shop. Every window, every beam dividing the stories, was +graced with arabesques of fantastic figures and animals wreathed in scrolls +of foliage. On the street side, as on the river side, the house was crowned +with a high-pitched roof having a gable to the river and one to the +street. This roof, like that of a Swiss chalet, projected far enough to +cover a balcony on the second floor, with an ornamental balustrade; here +the mistress might walk under shelter and command a view of the street, or +of the pool shut in between two bridges and two rows of houses. + +Houses by the river were at that time highly valued. The system of drainage +and water supply was not yet invented; the only main drain was one round +Paris, constructed by Aubriot, the first man of genius and determination +who--in the time of Charles V.--thought of sanitation for Paris. Houses +situated like this of the Sieur Lecamus found in the river a necessary +water-supply, and a natural outlet for rain water and waste. The vast works +of this kind under the direction of the Trade Provosts are only now +disappearing. None but octogenarians can still remember having seen the +pits which swallowed up the surface waters, in the Rue Montmartre, Rue du +Temple, etc. These hideous yawning culverts were in their day of +inestimable utility. Their place will probably be for ever marked by the +sudden rising of the roadway over what was their open channel--another +archaeological detail which, in a couple of centuries, the historian will +find inexplicable. + +One day, in 1816, a little girl, who had been sent to an actress at the +Ambigu with some diamonds for the part of a queen, was caught in a storm, +and so irresistibly swept away by the waters to the opening of the drain in +the Rue du Temple, that she would have been drowned in it but for the help +of a passer-by, who was touched by her cries. But she had dropped the +jewels, which were found in a man-hole. This accident made a great +commotion, and gave weight to the demands for the closing of these gulfs +for swallowing water and little girls. These curious structures, five feet +high, had more or less movable gratings, which led to the flooding of +cellars when the stream produced by heavy rain was checked by the grating +being choked with rubbish, which the residents often forgot to remove. + +The front of Master Lecamus' shop was a large window, but filled in with +small panes of leaded glass, which made the place very dark. The furs for +wealthy purchasers were carried to them for inspection. To those who came +to buy in the shop, the goods were displayed outside between the pillars, +which, during the day, were always more or less blocked by tables and +salesmen sitting on stools, as they could still be seen doing under the +arcade of the Halles some fifteen years since. From these outposts the +clerks, apprentices, and sewing girls could chat, question, and answer each +other, and hail the passer-by in a way which Walter Scott has depicted in +the _Fortunes of Nigel_. The signboard, representing an ermine, was hung +out as we still see those of village inns, swinging from a handsome arm of +pierced and gilt ironwork. Over the ermine were these words: + + + LECAMUS + + Furrier + + To Her Majesty the Queen and the King our + Sovereign Lord + +On one side, and on the other: + + "To Her Majesty the Queen Mother + And to the Gentlemen of the Parlement." + +The words "To Her Majesty the Queen" had been lately added; the gilt +letters were new. This addition was a consequence of the recent changes +produced by Henri II.'s sudden and violent death, which overthrew many +fortunes at Court, and began that of the Guises. + +The back shop looked over the river. In this room sat the worthy citizen +and his wife, Mademoiselle Lecamus. The wife of a man who was not noble had +not at any time any right to the title of Dame, or lady; but the wives of +the citizens of Paris were allowed to call themselves Demoiselle (as we +might say Mistress), as part of the privileges granted and confirmed to +their husbands by many kings to whom they had rendered great services. +Between this back room and the front shop was a spiral ladder or staircase +of wood, a sort of corkscrew leading up to the next story, where the furs +were stored, to the old couple's bedroom, and again to the attics, lighted +by dormer windows, where their children slept, the maid-servant, the +clerks, and the apprentices. + +This herding of families, servants, and apprentices, and the small space +allotted to each in the dwelling, where the apprentices all slept in one +large room under the tiles, accounts for the enormous population at that +time crowded together in Paris on a tenth of the ground now occupied by the +city, and also for the many curious details of mediaeval life, and the +cunning love affairs, though these, _pace_ the grave historian, are nowhere +recorded but by the story writers, and without them would have been lost. + +At this time a grand gentleman--such as the Admiral de Coligny, for +instance--had three rooms for himself in Paris, and his people lived in a +neighboring hostelry. There were not fifty mansions in all Paris, not fifty +palaces, that is to say, belonging to the sovereign princes or great +vassals, whose existence was far superior to that of the greatest German +rulers, such as the Duke of Bavaria or the Elector of Saxony. + +The kitchen in the Lecamus' house was on the river side below the back +shop. It had a glass door opening on to an ironwork balcony, where the cook +could stand to draw up water in a pail and to wash the household linen. +Thus the back shop was at once the sitting-room, the dining-room, and the +counting-house. It was in this important room--always fitted with +richly-carved wood, and adorned by some chest or artistic article of +furniture--that the merchant spent most of his life; there he had jolly +suppers after his day's work; there were held secret debates on the +political interests of the citizens and the Royal family. The formidable +guilds of Paris could at that time arm a hundred thousand men. Their +resolutions were stoutly upheld by their serving-men, their clerks, their +apprentices, and their workmen. Their Provost was their commander-in-chief, +and they had, in the Hotel de Ville, a palace where they had a right to +assemble. + +In that famous "citizens' parlor" (_parlouer aux bourgeois_) very solemn +decisions were taken. But for the continual sacrifices which had made war +unendurable to the Guilds, wearied out with losses and famine, Henri IV., a +rebel-made king, might never have entered Paris. + +Every reader may now imagine for himself the characteristic appearance of +this corner of Paris where the bridge and the Quay now open out, where the +trees rise from the Quai aux Fleurs, and where nothing is left of the past +but the lofty and famous clock-tower whence the signal was tolled for the +Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew. Strange coincidence! One of the houses built +round the foot of that tower--at that time surrounded by wooden shops--the +house of the Lecamus, was to be the scene of one of the incidents that led +to that night of horrors, which proved, unfortunately, propitious rather +than fatal to Calvinism. + + * * * * * + +At the moment when this story begins, the audacity of the new religious +teaching was setting Paris by the ears. A Scotchman, named Stuart, had just +assassinated President Minard, that member of the Parlement to whom public +opinion attributed a principal share in the execution of Anne du Bourg, a +councillor burnt on the Place de Greve after the tailor of the late King, +who had been tortured in the presence of Henri II. and Diane de Poitiers. +Paris was so closely watched, that the archers on guard compelled every +passer-by to pray to the Virgin, in order to detect heretics, who yielded +unwillingly, or even refused to perform an act opposed to their +convictions. + +The two archers on guard at the corner of the Lecamus' house had just gone +off duty; thus Christophe, the furrier's son, strongly suspected of +deserting the Catholic faith, had been able to go out without fear of being +compelled to adore the Virgin's image. At seven in the evening of an April +day, 1560, night was falling, and the apprentices, seeing only a few +persons walking along the arcades on each side of the street, were carrying +in the goods laid out for inspection preparatory to closing the house and +the shop. Christophe Lecamus, an ardent youth of two-and-twenty, was +standing in the door, apparently engaged in looking after the apprentices. + +[Illustration: "I am Chaudieu!"] + +"Monsieur," said one of these lads to Christophe, pointing out a man who +was pacing to and fro under the arcade with a doubtful expression, "that is +probably a spy or a thief, but whatever he is, such a lean wretch cannot be +an honest man. If he wanted to speak to us on business, he would come up +boldly instead of creeping up and down as he is doing.--And what a face!" +he went on, mimicking the stranger, "with his nose hidden in his cloak! +What a jaundiced eye, and what a starved complexion!" + +As soon as the stranger thus described saw Christophe standing alone in the +doorway, he hastily crossed from the opposite arcade where he was walking, +came under the pillars of the Lecamus' house, and passing along by the shop +before the apprentices had come out again to close the shutters, he went up +to the young man. + +"I am Chaudieu!" he said in a low voice. + +On hearing the name of one of the most famous ministers, and one of the +most heroic actors in the terrible drama called the Reformation, Christophe +felt such a thrill as a faithful peasant would have felt on recognizing his +King under a disguise. + +"Would you like to see some furs?" said Christophe, to deceive the +apprentices whom he heard behind him. "Though it is almost dark, I can show +you some myself." + +He invited the minister to enter, but the man replied that he would rather +speak to him out of doors. Christophe fetched his cap and followed the +Calvinist. + +Chaudieu, though banished by an edict, as secret plenipotentiary of +Theodore de Beze and Calvin--who directed the Reformation in France from +Geneva--went and came, defying the risk of the horrible death inflicted by +the Parlement, in concert with the Church and the Monarch, on a leading +reformer, the famous Anne du Bourg. This man, whose brother was a captain +in the army, and one of Admiral Coligny's best warriors, was the arm used +by Calvin to stir up France at the beginning of the twenty-two years of +religious wars which were on the eve of an outbreak. This preacher of the +reformed faith was one of those secret wheels which may best explain the +immense spread of the Reformation. + +Chaudieu led Christophe down to the edge of the water by an underground +passage like that of the Arche Marion, filled in some ten years since. This +tunnel between the house of Lecamus and that next it ran under the Rue de +la Vieille-Pelleterie, and was known as le Pont aux Fourreurs. It was used +by the dyers of the Cite as a way down to the river to wash their thread, +silk, and materials. A little boat lay there, held and rowed by one man. In +the bows sat a stranger, a small man, and very simply dressed. In an +instant the boat was in the middle of the river, and the boatman steered it +under one of the wooden arches of the Pont au Change, where he quickly +secured it to an iron ring. No one had said a word. + +"Here we may talk in safety, there are neither spies nor traitors," said +Chaudieu to the two others. "Are you filled with the spirit of +self-sacrifice that should animate a martyr? Are you ready to suffer all +things for our holy Cause? Do you fear the torments endured by the late +King's tailor, and the Councillor du Bourg, which of a truth await us all?" +He spoke to Christophe, looking at him with a radiant face. + +"I will testify to the Gospel," replied Christophe simply, looking up at +the windows of the back shop. + +The familiar lamp standing on a table, where his father was no doubt +balancing his books, reminded him by its mild beam of the peaceful life and +family joys he was renouncing. It was a brief but complete vision. The +young man's fancy took in the homely harmony of the whole scene--the +places where he had spent his happy childhood, where Babette Lallier +lived, his future wife, where everything promised him a calm and busy life; +he saw the past, he saw the future, and he sacrificed it all. At any rate, +he staked it. + +Such were men in those days. + +"We need say no more," cried the impetuous boatman. "We know him for one of +the saints. If the Scotchman had not dealt the blow, he would have killed +the infamous Minard." + +"Yes," said Lecamus, "my life is in the hands of the brethren, and I devote +it with joy for the success of the Reformation. I have thought of it all +seriously. I know what we are doing for the joy of the nations. In two +words, the Papacy makes for celibacy, the Reformation makes for the family. +It is time to purge France of its monks, to restore their possessions to +the Crown, which will sell them sooner or later to the middle classes. Let +us show that we can die for our children, and to make our families free and +happy!" + +The young enthusiast's face, with Chaudieu's, the boatman's, and that of +the stranger seated in the bows, formed a picture that deserves to be +described, all the more so because such a description entails the whole +history of that epoch, if it be true that it is given to some men to sum up +in themselves the spirit of their age. + +Religious reform, attempted in Germany by Luther, in Scotland by John Knox, +and in France by Calvin, found partisans chiefly among those of the lower +classes who had begun to think. The great nobles encouraged the movement +only to serve other interests quite foreign to the religious question. +These parties were joined by adventurers, by gentlemen who had lost all, by +youngsters to whom every form of excitement was acceptable. But among the +artisans and men employed in trade, faith was genuine, and founded on +intelligent interests. The poorer nations at once gave their adherence to a +religion which brought the property of the Church back to the State, which +suppressed the convents, and deprived the dignitaries of the Church of +their enormous revenues. Everybody in trade calculated the profits from +this religious transaction, and devoted themselves to it body, soul, and +purse; and among the youth of the French citizen class, the new preaching +met that noble disposition for self-sacrifice of every kind which animates +the young to whom egoism is unknown. + +Eminent men, penetrating minds, such as are always to be found among the +masses, foresaw the Republic in the Reformation, and hoped to establish +throughout Europe a form of government like that of the United Netherlands, +which at last triumphed over the greatest power of the time--Spain, ruled +by Philip II., and represented in the Low Countries by the Duke of Alva. +Jean Hotoman was at that time planning the famous book in which this scheme +is set forth, which diffused through France the leaven of these ideas, +stirred up once more by the League, subdued by Richelieu, and afterwards by +Louis XIV., to reappear with the Economists and the Encyclopedists under +Louis XV., and burst into life under Louis XVI.; ideas which were always +approved by the younger branches, by the House of Orleans in 1789, as by +the House of Bourbon in 1589. + +The questioning spirit is the rebellious spirit. A rebellion is always +either a cloak to hide a prince, or the swaddling wrapper of a new rule. +The House of Bourbon, a younger branch than the Valois, was busy at the +bottom of the Reformation. At the moment when the little boat lay moored +under the arch of the Pont au Change, the question was further complicated +by the ambition of the Guises, the rivals of the Bourbons. Indeed, the +Crown as represented by Catherine de' Medici could, for thirty years, hold +its own in the strife by setting these two factions against each other; +whereas later, instead of being clutched at by many hands, the Crown stood +face to face with the people without a barrier between; for Richelieu and +Louis XIV. had broken down the nobility, and Louis XV. had overthrown the +Parlements. Now a king alone face to face with a nation, as Louis XVI. was, +must inevitably succumb. + +Christophe Lecamus was very typical of the ardent and devoted sons of the +people. His pale complexion had that warm burnt hue which is seen in some +fair people; his hair was of a coppery yellow; his eyes were bluish-gray, +and sparkled brightly. In them alone was his noble soul visible, for his +clumsy features did not disguise the somewhat triangular shape of a plain +face by lending it the look of dignity which a man of rank can assume, and +his forehead was low, and characteristic only of great energy. His vitality +seemed to be seated no lower down than his chest, which was somewhat +hollow. Sinewy, rather than muscular, Christophe was of tough texture, lean +but wiry. His sharp nose showed homely cunning, and his countenance +revealed intelligence of the kind that acts wisely on one point of a +circle, but has not the power of commanding the whole circumference. His +eyes, set under brows that projected like a penthouse, and faintly outlined +with light down, were surrounded with broad light-blue circles, with a +sheeny white patch at the root of the nose, almost always a sign of great +excitability. Christophe was of the people--the race that fights and allows +itself to be deceived; intelligent enough to understand and to serve an +idea, too noble to take advantage of it, too magnanimous to sell himself. + +By the side of old Lecamus' only son, Chaudieu, the ardent minister, lean +from watchfulness, with brown hair, a yellow skin, a contumacious brow, an +eloquent mouth, fiery hazel eyes, and a short rounded chin, symbolized that +Christian zeal which gave the Reformation so many fanatical and earnest +preachers, whose spirit and boldness fired whole communities. This +aide-de-camp of Calvin and Theodore de Beze contrasted well with the +furrier's son. He represented the living cause of which Christophe was the +effect. You could not have conceived of the active firebrand of the popular +machine under any other aspect. + +The boatman, an impetuous creature, tanned by the open air, the dews of +night, and the heats of the day, with firmly set lips, quick motions, a +hungry, tawny eye like a vulture's, and crisp black hair, was the +characteristic adventurer who risks his all in an undertaking as a gambler +stakes his whole fortune on a card. Everything in the man spoke of terrible +passions and a daring that would flinch at nothing. His quivering muscles +were as able to keep silence as to speak. His look was assertive rather +than noble. His nose, upturned but narrow, scented battle. He seemed active +and adroit. In any age you would have known him for a party leader. He +might have been Pizarro, Hernando Cortez, or Morgan the Destroyer if there +had been no Reformation--a doer of violent deeds. + +The stranger who sat on a seat, wrapped in his cloak, evidently belonged to +the highest social rank. The fineness of his linen, the cut, material, and +perfume of his raiment, the make and texture of his gloves, showed a man of +the Court, as his attitude, his haughtiness, his cool demeanor, and his +flashing eye revealed a man of war. His appearance was at first somewhat +alarming, and inspired respect. We respect a man who respects himself. +Though short and hunchbacked, his manner made good all the defects of his +figure. The ice once broken, he had the cheerfulness of decisiveness and an +indescribable spirit of energy which made him attractive. He had the blue +eyes and the hooked nose of the House of Navarre, and the Spanish look of +the marked physiognomy that was characteristic of the Bourbon kings. + +With three words the scene became of the greatest interest. + +"Well, then," said Chaudieu, as Christophe Lecamus made his profession of +faith, "this boatman is la Renaudie; and this is Monseigneur the Prince de +Conde," he added, turning to the hunchback. + +Thus the four men were representative of the faith of the people, the +intellect of eloquence, the arm of the soldier, and Royalty cast into the +shade. + +"You will hear what we require of you," the minister went on, after +allowing a pause for the young man's astonishment. "To the end that you may +make no mistakes, we are compelled to initiate you into the most important +secrets of the Reformation." + +The Prince and la Renaudie assented by a gesture, when the minister ceased +speaking, to allow the Prince to say something if he should wish it. Like +all men of rank engaged in conspiracies, who make it a principle not to +appear before some critical moment, the Prince kept silence. Not from +cowardice: at such junctures he was the soul of the scheme, shrank from no +danger, and risked his head; but with a sort of royal dignity, he left the +explanation of the enterprise to the preacher, and was content to study the +new instrument he was compelled to make use of. + +"My son," said Chaudieu in Huguenot phraseology, "we are about to fight the +first battle against the Roman whore. In a few days our soldiers must +perish at the stake, or the Guises must be dead. So, ere long, the King and +the two Queens will be in our power. This is the first appeal to arms by +our religion in France, and France will not lay them down till she has +conquered--it is of the nation that I speak, and not of the kingdom. Most +of the nobles of the kingdom see what the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duke +his brother are driving at. Under pretence of defending the Catholic faith, +the House of Lorraine claims the Crown of France as its inheritance. It +leans on the Church, and has made it a formidable ally; the monks are its +supporters, its acolytes and spies. It asserts itself as a protector of the +throne it hopes to usurp, of the Valois whom it hopes to destroy. + +"We have decided to rise up in arms, and it is because the liberties of the +people are threatened as well as the interests of the nobility. We must +stifle in its infancy a faction as atrocious as that of the Bourguignons, +who of old put Paris and France to fire and sword. A Louis XI. was needed +to end the quarrel between the Burgundians and the Crown, but now a Prince +of Conde will prevent the Lorraines from going too far. This is not a civil +war; it is a duel between the Guises and the Reformation--a duel to the +death! We will see their heads low, or they shall crush ours!" + +"Well spoken!" said the Prince. + +"In these circumstances, Christophe," la Renaudie put in, "we must neglect +no means of strengthening our party--for there is a party on the side of +the Reformation, the party of offended rights, of the nobles who are +sacrificed to the Guises, of the old army leaders so shamefully tricked at +Fontainebleau, whence the Cardinal banished them by erecting gibbets to +hang those who should ask the King for the price of their outfit and +arrears of pay." + +"Yes, my son," said Chaudieu, seeing some signs of terror in Christophe, +"that is what requires us to triumph by fighting instead of triumphing by +conviction, and martyrdom. The Queen-mother is ready to enter into our +views; not that she is prepared to abjure the Catholic faith--she has not +got so far as that, but she may perhaps be driven to it by our success. Be +that as it may, humiliated and desperate as she is at seeing the power she +had hoped to wield at the King's death in the grasp of the Guises, and +alarmed by the influence exerted by the young Queen Marie, who is their +niece and partisan, Queen Catherine will be inclined to lend her support to +the princes and nobles who are about to strike a blow for her deliverance. +At this moment, though apparently devoted to the Guises, she hates them, +longs for their ruin, and will make use of us to oppose them; but +Monseigneur can make use of her to oppose all the others. The Queen-mother +will consent to all we propose. We have the Connetable on our +side--Monseigneur has just seen him at Chantilly, but he will not stir +without orders from his superiors. Being Monseigneur's uncle, he will not +leave us in the lurch, and our generous Prince will not hesitate to rush +into danger to enlist Anne de Montmorency. + +"Everything is ready; and we have cast our eyes on you to communicate to +Queen Catherine our treaty of alliance, our schemes for edicts, and the +basis of the new rule. The Court is at Blois. Many of our friends are +there; but those are our future chiefs--and, like Monseigneur," and he +bowed to the Prince, "they must never be suspected; we must sacrifice +ourselves for them. The Queen-mother and our friends are under such close +espionage, that it is impossible to communicate with them through any one +who is known, or of any consequence. Such a person would at once be +suspected, and would never be admitted to speak with Madame Catherine. God +should indeed give us at this moment the shepherd David with his sling to +attack Goliath de Guise. Your father--a good Catholic, more's the pity--is +furrier to the two Queens; he always has some garment or trimming in hand +for them; persuade him to send you to the Court. You will arouse no +suspicions, and will not compromise Queen Catherine. Any one of our leaders +might lose his head for an imprudence which should give rise to a suspicion +of the Queen-mother's connivance with us. But where a man of importance, +once caught out, gives a clue to suspicions, a nobody like you escapes +scot-free.--You see! The Guises have so many spies, that nowhere but in the +middle of the river can we talk without fear. So you, my son, are like a +man on guard, doomed to die at his post. Understand, if you are taken, you +are abandoned by us all. If need be, we shall cast opprobrium and disgrace +on you. If we shall be forced to it, we should declare that you were a +creature of the Guises whom they sent to play a part to implicate us. So +what we ask of you is entire self-sacrifice. + +"If you perish," said the Prince de Conde, "I pledge my word as a gentleman +that your family shall be a sacred trust to the House of Navarre; I will +bear it in my heart and serve it in every way." + +"That word, my Lord, is enough," replied Christophe, forgetting that this +leader of faction was a Gascon. "We live in times when every man, prince or +citizen, must do his duty." + +"That is a true Huguenot! If all our men were like him," said la Renaudie, +laying his hand on Christophe's shoulder, "we should have won by +to-morrow." + +"Young man," said the Prince, "I meant to show you that while Chaudieu +preaches and the gentleman bears arms, the prince fights. Thus, in so +fierce a game every stake has its value." + +"Listen," said la Renaudie; "I will not give you the papers till we reach +Beaugency, for we must run no risks on the road. You will find me on the +quay there; my face, voice, and clothes will be so different, that you may +not recognize me. But I will say to you, 'Are you a _Guepin_?' and you must +reply, 'At your service.'--As to the manner of proceeding, I will tell you. +You will find a horse at _la Pinte fleurie_, near Saint-Germain +l'Auxerrois. Ask there for Jean le Breton, who will take you to the stable +and mount you on a nag of mine known to cover thirty leagues in eight +hours. Leave Paris by the Bussy Gate. Breton has a pass for me; take it for +yourself and be off, riding round outside the towns. You should reach +Orleans by daybreak." + +"And the horse?" asked Lecamus. + +"He will hold out till you get to Orleans," replied la Renaudie. "Leave him +outside the suburb of Bannier, for the gates are well guarded; we must not +arouse suspicion. You, my friend, must play your part well. You must make +up any story that may seem to you best to enable you to go to the third +house on your left on entering Orleans; it is that of one Tourillon, a +glover. Knock three raps on the door and call out, 'In the service of +Messieurs de Guise!' The man affects to be a fanatical _Guisard_; we four +only know that he is on our side. He will find you a boatman, such another +as himself of course, but devoted to our cause. Go down to the river at +once, get into a boat painted green with a white border. You ought to be at +Beaugency by noonday to-morrow. There I will put you in the way of getting +a boat to carry you down to Blois without running any danger. Our enemies +the Guises do not command the Loire, only the river-ports. + +"You may thus see the Queen in the course of to-morrow or of the next day." + +"Your words are graven here," said Christophe, touching his forehead. + +Chaudieu embraced his son with religious fervency; he was proud of him. + +"The Lord protect you!" he said, pointing to the sunset which crimsoned the +old roofs covered with shingles, and shot fiery gleams among the forest of +beams round which the waters foamed. + +"You are of the stock of old Jacques Bonhomme," said la Renaudie to +Christophe, wringing his hand. + +"We shall meet again, _Monsieur_," said the Prince, with a gesture of +infinite graciousness, almost of friendliness. + +With a stroke of the oar, la Renaudie carried the young conspirator back to +the steps leading up to the house, and the boat vanished at once under the +arches of the Pont au Change. + +Christophe shook the iron gate that closed the entrance from the river-side +and called out; Mademoiselle Lecamus heard him, opened one of the windows +of the back-shop, and asked how he came there. Christophe replied that he +was half-frozen, and that she must first let him in. + +"Young master," said la Bourguignonne, "you went out by the street door and +come in by the river-gate? Your father will be in a pretty rage." + +Christophe, bewildered by the secret conference which had brought him into +contact with the Prince de Conde, la Renaudie, and Chaudieu, and even more +agitated by the expected turmoil of an imminent civil war, made no reply; +he hurried up from the kitchen to the back-shop. There, on seeing him, his +mother, who was a bigoted old Catholic, could not contain herself. + +"I will wager," she broke out, "that the three men you were talking to were +ref----" + +"Silence, wife," said the prudent old man, whose white head was bent over a +book. "Now, my lazy oafs," he went on to three boys who had long since +finished supper, "what are you waiting for to take you to bed? It is eight +o'clock. You must be up by five in the morning. And first you have the +President de Thou's robes and cap to carry home. Go all three together, and +carry sticks and rapiers. If you meet any more ne'er-do-weels of your own +kidney, at any rate there will be three of you." + +"And are we to carry the ermine surcoat ordered by the young Queen, which +is to be delivered at the Hotel de Soissons, from whence there is an +express to Blois and to the Queen-mother?" asked one of the lads. + +"No," said the Syndic; "Queen Catherine's account amounts to three thousand +crowns, and I must get the money. I think I will go to Blois myself." + +"I should not think of allowing you, at your age, father, and in such times +as these, to expose yourself on the high-roads. I am two-and-twenty; you +may send me on this errand," said Christophe, with an eye on a box which he +had no doubt contained the surcoat. + +"Are you glued to the bench?" cried the old man to the apprentices, who +hastily took up their rapiers and capes, and Monsieur de Thou's fur gown. + +This illustrious man was to be received on the morrow by the Parlement as +their President; he had just signed the death-warrant of the Councillor du +Bourg, and was fated, before the year was out, to sit in judgment on the +Prince de Conde. + +"La Bourguignonne," said the old man, "go and ask my neighbor Lallier if he +will sup with us this evening, furnishing the wine; we will give the +meal.--And, above all, tell him to bring his daughter." + + * * * * * + +The Syndic of the Guild of Furriers was a handsome old man of sixty, with +white hair and a broad high forehead. As furrier to the Court for forty +years past, he had witnessed all the revolutions in the reign of Francis +I., and had retained his royal patent in spite of feminine rivalries. He +had seen the arrival at Court of Catherine de' Medici, then but just +fifteen; he had seen her succumb to the Duchesse d'Etampes, her +father-in-law's mistress, and to the Duchesse de Valentinois, mistress to +the late King, her husband. But through all these changes the furrier had +got into no difficulties, though the Court purveyors often fell into +disgrace with the ladies they served. His prudence was as great as his +wealth. He maintained an attitude of excessive humility. Pride had never +caught him in its snares. The man was so modest, so meek, so obliging, so +poor--at Court and in the presence of queens, princesses, and +favorites--that his servility had saved his shop-sign. + +Such a line of policy betrayed, of course, a cunning and clear-sighted man. +Humble as he was to the outer world, at home he was a despot. He was the +unquestioned master in his own house. He was highly respected by his fellow +merchants and derived immense consideration from his long tenure of the +first place in business. Indeed, he was gladly helpful to others; and among +the services he had done, the most important perhaps was the support he had +long afforded to the most famous surgeon of the sixteenth century--Ambroise +Pare, who owed it to Lecamus that he could pursue his studies. In all the +disputes that arose between the merchants of the guild, Lecamus was for +conciliatory measures. Thus general esteem had confirmed his supremacy +among his equals, while his assumed character had preserved him the favor +of the Court. + +Having, for political reasons, manoeuvred in his parish for the glory of +his trade, he did what was needful to keep himself in a sufficient odor of +sanctity with the priest of the Church of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs, who +regarded him as one of the men most devoted in all Paris to the Catholic +faith. Consequently, when the States-General were convoked, Lecamus was +unanimously elected to represent the third estate by the influence of the +priests, which was at that time enormous in Paris. + +This old man was one of those deep and silent ambitious men who for fifty +years are submissive to everybody in turn, creeping up from place to place, +no one knowing how, till they are seen peacefully seated in a position +which no one, not even the boldest, would have dared to admit was the goal +of his ambition at the beginning of his life--so long was the climb, so +many gulfs were there to leap, into which he might fall! Lecamus, who had +hidden away a large fortune, would run no risks, and was planning a +splendid future for his son. Instead of that personal ambition which often +sacrifices the future to the present, he had family ambition, a feeling +that seems lost in these days, smothered by the stupid regulation of +inheritance by law. Lecamus foresaw himself President of the Paris +Parlement in the person of his grandson. + +Christophe, the godson of the great historian de Thou, had received an +excellent education, but it had led him to scepticism and inquiry, which +indeed were increasing apace among the students and Faculties of the +University. Christophe was at present studying for the bar, the first step +to a judgeship. The old furrier pretended to be undecided as to his son's +career; sometimes he would make Christophe his successor, and sometimes he +would have him a pleader; but in his heart he longed to see this son in the +seat of a Councillor of the Parlement. The furrier longed to place the +house of Lecamus on a par with the old and honored families of Paris +citizens which had produced a Pasquier, a Mole, a Miron, a Seguier, +Lamoignon, du Tillet, Lecoigneux, Lescalopier, the Goix, the Arnaulds,--all +the famous sheriffs and high-provosts of corporations who had rallied to +defend the throne. + +To the end that Christophe might in that day do credit to his rank, he +wanted him to marry the daughter of the richest goldsmith in the Cite, his +neighbor Lallier, whose nephew, at a later day, presented the keys of Paris +to Henry IV. The most deeply rooted purpose in the good man's heart was to +spend half his own fortune and half of Lallier's in the purchase of a +lordly estate, a long and difficult matter in those days. + +But he was too deep a schemer, and knew the times too well, to overlook the +great movements that were being hatched; he saw plainly, and saw truly, +when he looked forward to the division of the kingdom into two camps. The +useless executions on the Place de l'Estrapade, that of Henri II.'s tailor, +and that, still more recent, of the Councillor Anne du Bourg, besides the +connivance of the reigning favorite in the time of Francis I., and of many +nobles now, at the progress of reform, all were alarming indications. The +furrier was determined, come what might, to remain faithful to the Church, +the Monarchy, and the Parlement, but he was secretly well content that his +son should join the Reformation. He knew that he had wealth enough to +ransom Christophe if the lad should ever compromise himself seriously; and +then, if France should turn Calvinist, his son could save the family in any +furious outbreaks in the capital such as the citizens could vividly +remember, and as would recur again and again through four reigns. + +Like Louis XI., the old furrier never confessed these thoughts even to +himself; his cunning completely deceived his wife and his son. For many a +day this solemn personage had been the recognized head of the most populous +quarter of Paris--the heart of the city--bearing the title of _Quartenier_, +which became notorious fifteen years later. Clothed in cloth, like every +prudent citizen who obeyed the sumptuary laws, Master Lecamus--the Sieur +Lecamus, a title he held in virtue of an edict of Charles V. permitting the +citizens of Paris to purchase _Seigneuries_, and their wives to assume the +fine title of _demoiselle_ or mistress--wore no gold chain, no silk; only a +stout doublet with large buttons of blackened silver, wrinkled hose drawn +up above his knee, and leather shoes with buckles. His shirt, of fine +linen, was pulled out, in the fashion of the time, into full puffs through +his half-buttoned waistcoat and slashed trunks. + +Though the full light of the lamp fell on the old man's broad and handsome +head, Christophe had no inkling of the thoughts hidden behind that rich +Dutch-looking complexion; still he understood that his old father meant to +take some advantage of his affection for pretty Babette Lallier. And +Christophe, as a man who had laid his own schemes, smiled sadly when he +heard the invitation sent to his fair mistress. + +As soon as la Bourguignonne and the apprentices were gone, old Lecamus +looked at his wife with an expression that fully showed his firm and +resolute temper. + +"You will never rest till you have got the boy hanged with your damned +tongue!" said he in stern tones. + +"I would rather see him hanged, but saved, than alive and a Huguenot," was +the gloomy reply. "To think that the child I bore within me for nine months +should not be a good Catholic, but hanker after the heresies of Colas--that +he must spend all eternity in hell----" and she began to cry. + +"You old fool!" said the furrier, "then give him a chance of life, if only +to convert him! Why, you said a thing, before the apprentices, which might +set our house on fire, and roast us all in it like fleas in straw." + +The mother crossed herself, but said nothing. + +"As for you," said the good man, with a scrutinizing look at his son, "tell +me what you were doing out there on the water with----Come close to me +while I speak to you," he added, seizing his son by the arm, and drawing +him close to him while he whispered in the lad's ear--"with the Prince de +Conde." Christophe started. "Do you suppose that the Court furrier does not +know all their faces? And do you fancy that I am not aware of what is going +on? Monseigneur the Grand Master has ordered out troops to Amboise. And +when troops are removed from Paris to Amboise while the Court is at Blois, +when they are marched by way of Chartres and Vendome instead of by Orleans, +the meaning is pretty clear, heh? Trouble is brewing. + +"If the Queens want their surcoats, they will send for them. The Prince de +Conde may be intending to kill Messieurs de Guise, who on their part mean +to get rid of him perhaps. Of what use can a furrier's son be in such a +broil? When you are married, when you are a pleader in the Parlement, you +will be as cautious as your father. A furrier's son has no business to be +of the new religion till all the rest of the world is. I say nothing +against the Reformers; it is no business of mine; but the Court is +Catholic, the two Queens are Catholics, the Parlement is Catholic; we serve +them with furs, and we must be Catholic. + +"You do not stir from here, Christophe, or I will place you with your +godfather the President de Thou, who will keep you at it, blackening paper +night and day, instead of leaving you to blacken your soul in the +hell-broth of these damned Genevese." + +"Father," said Christophe, leaning on the back of the old man's chair, +"send me off to Blois with Queen Marie's surcoat, and to ask for the money, +or I am a lost man. And you love me----" + +"Lost!" echoed his father, without any sign of surprise. "If you stay here, +you will not be lost. I shall know where to find you." + +"I shall be killed." + +"Why?" + +"The most zealous Huguenots have cast their eyes on me to serve them in a +certain matter, and if I fail to do what I have just promised, they will +kill me in the street, in the face of day, here, as Minard was killed. But +if you send me to the Court on business of your own, I shall probably be +able to justify my action to both parties. Either I shall succeed for them +without running any risk, and so gain a good position in the party; or, if +the danger is too great, I can do your business only." + +The old man started to his feet as if his seat were of red-hot iron. + +"Wife," said he, "leave us, and see that no one intrudes on Christophe and +me." + +When Mistress Lecamus had left the room, the furrier took his son by a +button and led him to the corner of the room which formed the angle towards +the bridge. + +"Christophe," said he, quite into his son's ear, as he had just now spoken +of the Prince de Conde, "be a Huguenot if that is your pet vice, but with +prudence, in your secret heart, and not in such a way as to be pointed at +by every one in the neighborhood. What you have just now told me shows me +what confidence the leaders have in you.--What are you to do at the Court?" + +"I cannot tell you," said Christophe; "I do not quite know that myself +yet." + +"H'm, h'm," said the old man, looking at the lad, "the young rascal wants +to hoodwink his father. He will go far!--Well, well," he went on, in an +undertone, "you are not going to Blois to make overtures to the Guises, nor +to the little King our Sovereign, nor to little Queen Mary. All these are +Catholics; but I could swear that the Italian Queen owes the Scotch woman +and the Lorraines some grudge: I know her. She has been dying to put a +finger in the pie. The late King was so much afraid of her that, like the +jewelers, he used diamond to cut diamond, one woman against another. Hence +Queen Catherine's hatred of the poor Duchesse de Valentinois, from whom she +took the fine Chateau of Chenonceaux. But for Monsieur le Connetable, the +Duchess would have had her neck wrung at least---- + +"Hands off, my boy! Do not trust yourself within reach of the Italian +woman, whose only passions are in her head; a bad sort that.--Ay, the +business you are sent to the Court to do will give you a bad headache, I +fear," cried the father, seeing that Christophe was about to speak. "My +boy, I have two schemes for your future life; you will not spoil them by +being of service to Queen Catherine. But, for God's sake, keep your head on +your shoulders! And the Guises would cut it off as la Bourguignonne cuts +off a turnip, for the people who are employing you would throw you over at +once." + +"I know that, father," said Christophe. + +"And you are so bold as that! You know it, and you will risk it?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Why, the Devil's in it!" cried the old man, hugging his son, "we may +understand each other; you are your father's son.--My boy, you will be a +credit to the family, and your old father may be plain with you, I +see.--But do not be more of a Huguenot than the Messieurs de Coligny; and +do not draw your sword. You are to be a man of the pen; stick to your part +as a sucking lawyer.--Well, tell me no more till you have succeeded. If I +hear nothing of you for four days after you reach Blois, that silence will +tell me that you are in danger. Then the old man will follow to save the +young one. I have not sold furs for thirty years without knowing the seamy +side of a Court robe. I can find means of opening doors." + +Christophe stared with amazement at hearing his father speak thus; but he +feared some parental snare, and held his tongue. + +Then he said: + +"Very well, make up the account; write a letter to the Queen. I must be off +this moment, or dreadful things will happen." + +"Be off? But how?" + +"I will buy a horse.--Write, for God's sake!" + +"Here! Mother! Give your boy some money," the furrier called out to his +wife. + +She came in, flew to her chest, and gave a purse to Christophe, who +excitedly kissed her. + +"The account was ready," said his father; "here it is. I will write the +letter." + +Christophe took the bill and put it in his pocket. + +"But at any rate you will sup with us," said the goodman. "In this +extremity you and the Lallier girl must exchange rings." + +"Well, I will go to fetch her," cried Christophe. + +The young man feared some indecision in his father, whose character he did +not thoroughly appreciate; he went up to his room, dressed, took out a +small trunk, stole downstairs, and placed it with his cloak and rapier +under a counter in the shop. + +"What the devil are you about?" asked his father, hearing him there. + +"I do not want any one to see my preparations for leaving; I have put +everything under the counter," he whispered in reply. + +"And here is the letter," said his father. + +Christophe took the paper, and went out as if to fetch their neighbor. + +A few moments after Christophe had gone out, old Lallier and his daughter +came in, preceded by a woman-servant carrying three bottles of old wine. + +"Well, and where is Christophe?" asked the furrier and his wife. + +"Christophe?" said Babette; "we have not seen him." + +"A pretty rogue is my son!" cried Lecamus. "He tricks me as if I had no +beard. Why, old gossip, what will come to us? We live in times when the +children are all too clever for their fathers!" + +"But he has long been regarded by all the neighbors as a mad follower of +Colas," said Lallier. + +"Defend him stoutly on that score," said the furrier to the goldsmith. +"Youth is foolish, and runs after anything new; but Babette will keep him +quiet, she is even newer than Calvin." + +Babette smiled. She truly loved Christophe, was affronted by everything +that was ever said against him. She was a girl of the good old middle-class +type, brought up under her mother's eye, for she had never left her; her +demeanor was as gentle and precise as her features; she was dressed in +stuff of harmonious tones of gray; her ruff, plainly pleated, was a +contrast by its whiteness to her sober gown; on her head was a black velvet +cap, like a child's hood in shape, but trimmed, on each side of her face, +with frills and ends of tan-colored gauze. Though she was fair-haired, with +a white skin, she seemed cunning and crafty, though trying to hide her +wiliness under the expression of a simple and honest girl. + +As long as the two women remained in the room, coming to and fro to lay the +cloth, and place the jugs, the large pewter dishes, and the knives and +forks, the goldsmith and his daughter, the furrier and his wife, sat in +front of the high chimney-place, hung with red serge and black fringes, +talking of nothing. It was in vain that Babette asked where Christophe +could be; the young Huguenot's father and mother made ambiguous replies; +but as soon as the party had sat down to their meal, and the two maids +were in the kitchen, Lecamus said to his future daughter-in-law: + +"Christophe is gone to the Court." + +"To Blois! What a journey to take without saying good-bye to me!" said +Babette. + +"He was in a great hurry," said his old mother. + +"Old friend," said the furrier to Lallier, taking up the thread of the +conversation, "we are going to see hot work in France; the Reformers are +astir." + +"If they win the day, it will only be after long fighting, which will be +very bad for trade," said Lallier, incapable of looking higher than the +commercial point of view. + +"My father, who had seen the end of the wars between the Bourguignons and +the Armagnacs, told me that our family would never have lived through them +if one of his grandfathers--his mother's father--had not been one of the +Goix, the famous butchers at the Halle, who were attached to the +Bourguignons, while the other, a Lecamus, was on the side of the Armagnacs; +they pretended to be ready to flay each other before the outer world, but +at home they were very good friends. So we will try to save Christophe. +Perhaps a time may come when he will save us." + +"You are a cunning dog, neighbor," said the goldsmith. + +"No," replied Lecamus. "The citizen class must take care of itself, the +populace and the nobility alike owe it a grudge. Everybody is afraid of the +middle class in Paris excepting the King, who knows us to be his friends." + +"You who know so much, and who have seen so much," said Babette timidly, +"pray tell me what it is that the Reformers want." + +"Ay, tell us that, neighbor!" cried the goldsmith. "I knew the late King's +tailor, and I always took him to be a simple soul, with no great genius; he +was much such another as you are, they would have given him the Host +without requiring him to confess, and all the time he was up to his eyes in +this new religion.--He! a man whose ears were worth many hundred thousand +crowns. He must have known some secrets worth hearing for the King and +Madame de Valentinois to be present when he was tortured." + +"Ay! and terrible secrets too," said the furrier. "The Reformation, my +friends," he went on, in a low voice, "will give the Church lands back to +the citizen class. When ecclesiastical privileges are annulled, the +Reformers mean to claim equality of taxation for the nobles and the middle +class, and to have only the King above all alike--if indeed they have a +king at all." + +"What, do away with the Throne?" cried Lallier. + +"Well, neighbor," said Lecamus, "in the Low Countries the citizens govern +themselves by provosts over them, who elect a temporary chief." + +"God bless me! Neighbor, we might do all these fine things, and still be +Catholics," said the goldsmith. + +"We are too old to see the triumph of the middle class in Paris, but it +will triumph, neighbor, all in good time! Why, the King is bound to rely on +us to hold his own, and we have always been well paid for our support. And +the last time all the citizens were ennobled, and they had leave to buy +manors, and take the names of their estates without any special letters +patent from the King. You and I, for instance, grandsons of the Goix in the +female line, are we not as good as many a nobleman?" + +This speech was so alarming to the goldsmith and the two women, that it was +followed by a long silence. The leaven of 1789 was already germinating in +the blood of Lecamus, who was not yet so old but that he lived to see the +daring of his class under the Ligue. + +"Is business pretty firm in spite of all this turmoil?" Lallier asked the +furrier's wife. + +"It always upsets trade a little," said she. + +"Yes, and so I have a great mind to make a lawyer of my son," added +Lecamus. "People are always going to law." + +The conversation then dwelt on the commonplace, to the goldsmith's great +satisfaction, for he did not like political disturbances or over-boldness +of thought. + +The banks of the Loire, from Blois as far as Angers, were always greatly +favored by the two last branches of the Royal Family who occupied the +throne before the advent of the Bourbons. This beautiful valley so well +deserves the preference of kings, that one of our most elegant writers +describes it as follows:--"There is a province in France which is never +sufficiently admired. As fragrant as Italy, as flowery as the banks of the +Guadalquivir, beautiful besides with its own peculiar beauty. Wholly +French, it has always been French, unlike our Northern provinces, debased +by Teutonic influence, or our Southern provinces, which have been the +concubines of the Moors, of the Spaniards, of every nation that has coveted +them--this pure, chaste, brave, and loyal tract is Touraine! There is the +seat of historic France. Auvergne is Auvergne, Languedoc is Languedoc and +nothing more; but Touraine is France, and the truly national river to us is +the Loire which waters Touraine. We need not, therefore, be surprised to +find such a quantity of monuments in the departments which have taken their +names from that of the Loire and its derivations. At every step in that +land of enchantment we come upon a picture of which the foreground is the +river, or some calm reach, in whose liquid depths are mirrored a chateau, +with its turrets, its woods, and its dancing springs. It was only natural +that large fortunes should centre round spots where Royalty preferred to +live, and where it so long held its Court, and that distinguished birth and +merit should crowd thither and build palaces on a par with Royalty itself." + +Is it not strange, indeed, that our sovereigns should never have taken the +advice indirectly given them by Louis XI., and have made Tours the capital +of the kingdom? Without any very great expenditure, the Loire might have +been navigable so far for trading vessels and light ships of war. There the +seat of Government would have been safe from surprise and high-handed +invasion. There the strongholds of the north would not have needed such +sums for their fortifications, which alone have cost as much money as all +the splendors of Versailles. If Louis XIV. had listened to Vauban's +advice, and had his palace built at Mont-Louis, between the Loire and the +Cher, perhaps the Revolution of 1789 would never have taken place. + +So these fair banks bear, at various spots, clear marks of royal favor. The +chateaux of Chambord, Blois, Amboise, Chenonceaux, Chaumont, +Plessis-les-Tours, all the residences built by kings' mistresses, by +financiers, and noblemen, at Veretz, Azay-le-Rideau, Usse, Villandri, +Valencay, Chanteloup, and Duretal, some of which have disappeared, though +most are still standing, are splendid buildings, full of the wonders of the +period that has been so little appreciated by the literary sect of +Mediaevalists. + +Of all these chateaux, that of Blois, where the Court was then residing, is +the one on which the magnificence of the Houses of Orleans and of Valois +has most splendidly set its stamp; and it is the most curious to +historians, archaeologists, and Catholics. At that time it stood quite +alone. The town, enclosed in strong walls with towers, lay below the +stronghold, for at that time the chateau served both as a citadel and as a +country residence. Overlooking the town, of which the houses, then as now, +climb the hill on the right bank of the river, their blue slate roofs in +close array, there is a triangular plateau, divided by a stream, now +unimportant since it runs underground, but in the fifteenth century, as +historians tell us, flowing at the bottom of a rather steep ravine, part of +which remains as a deep hollow way, almost a precipice, between the suburb +and the chateau. + +It was on this plateau, with a slope to the north and south, that the +Comtes de Blois built themselves a "castel" in the architecture of the +twelfth century, where the notorious Thibault le Tricheur, Thibault le +Vieux, and many more held a court that became famous. In those days of pure +feudal rule, when the King was no more than _inter pares primus_ (the first +among equals), as a King of Poland finely expressed it, the Counts of +Champagne, of Blois, and of Anjou, the mere Barons of Normandy, and the +Dukes of Brittany lived in the style of sovereigns and gave kings to the +proudest kingdoms. The Plantagenets of Anjou, the Lusignans of Poitou, the +Roberts and Williams of Normandy, by their audacious courage mingled their +blood with royal races, and sometimes a simple knight, like du Glaicquin +(or du Guesclin), refused royal purple and preferred the Constable's sword. + +When the Crown had secured Blois as a royal demesne, Louis XII., who took a +fancy to the place, perhaps to get away from Plessis and its sinister +associations, built on to the chateau, at an angle, so as to face east and +west, a wing connecting the residence of the Counts of Blois with the older +structure, of which nothing now remains but the immense hall where the +States-General sat under Henri III. Francis I., before he fell in love with +Chambord, intended to finish the chateau by building on the other two sides +of a square; but he abandoned Blois for Chambord, and erected only one +wing, which in his time and in that of his grandsons practically +constituted the chateau. + +This third building of Francis I.'s is much more extensive and more highly +decorated than the Louvre _de Henri II._, as it is called. It is one of the +most fantastic efforts of the architecture of the Renaissance. Indeed, at a +time when a more reserved style of building prevailed, and no one cared for +the Middle Ages, a time when literature was not so intimately allied with +art as it now is, la Fontaine wrote of the Chateau of Blois in his +characteristically artless language: "Looking at it from outside, the part +done by order of Francis I. pleased me more than all the rest; there are a +number of little windows, little balconies, little colonnades, little +ornaments, not regularly ordered, which make up something great which I +found very pleasing." + +Thus the Chateau of Blois had the attraction of representing three +different kinds of architecture--three periods, three systems, three +dynasties. And there is not, perhaps, any other royal residence which in +this respect can compare with it. The vast building shows, in one +enclosure, in one courtyard, a complete picture of that great product of +national life and manners which Architecture always is. + +At the time when Christophe was bound for the Court, that portion of the +precincts on which a fourth palace now stands--the wing added seventy years +later, during his exile, by Gaston, Louis XIII.'s rebellious brother--was +laid out in pastures and terraced gardens, picturesquely scattered among +the foundation stones and unfinished towers begun by Francis I. These +gardens were joined by a bold flying bridge--which some old inhabitants +still alive saw destroyed--to a garden on the other side of the chateau, +which by the slope of the ground lay on the same level. The gentlemen +attached to Queen Anne de Bretagne, or those who approached her with +petitions from her native province, to discuss, or to inform her of the +state of affairs there, were wont to await her pleasure here, her _lever_, +or the hour of her walking out. Hence history has handed down to us as the +name of this pleasaunce _Le Perchoir aux Bretons_ (the Breton's Perch); it +now is an orchard belonging to some private citizen, projecting beyond the +Place des Jesuites. That square also was then included in the domain of +this noble residence which had its upper and its lower gardens. At some +distance from the Place des Jesuites, a summer-house may still be seen +built by Catherine de' Medici, as local historians tell us, to accommodate +her hot baths. This statement enables us to trace the very irregular +arrangement of the gardens which went up and down hill, following the +undulations of the soil; the land about the chateau is indeed very uneven, +a fact which added to its strength, and, as we shall see, caused the +difficulties of the Duc de Guise. + +The gardens were reached by corridors and terraces; the chief corridor was +known as the Galerie des Cerfs (or stags), on account of its decorations. +This passage led to a magnificent staircase, which undoubtedly suggested +the famous double staircase at Chambord, and which led to the apartments on +each floor. + +Though la Fontaine preferred the chateau of Francis I. to that of Louis +XII., the simplicity of the _Pere du Peuple_ may perhaps charm the genuine +artist, much as he may admire the splendor of the more chivalrous king. The +elegance of the two staircases which lie at the two extremities of Louis +XII.'s building, the quantity of fine and original carving, of which, +though time has damaged them, the remains are still the delight of +antiquaries; everything, to the almost cloister-like arrangement of the +rooms, points to very simple habits. As yet the Court was evidently +nonexistent, or had not attained such development as Francis I. and +Catherine de' Medici subsequently gave it, to the great detriment of feudal +manners. As we admire the brackets, the capitals of some of the columns, +and some little figures of exquisite delicacy, it is impossible not to +fancy that Michel Colomb, the great sculptor, the Michael Angelo of +Brittany, must have passed that way to do his Queen Anne a pleasure, before +immortalizing her on her father's tomb--the last Duke of Brittany. + +Whatever la Fontaine may say, nothing can be more stately than the +residence of Francis, the magnificent King. Thanks to I know not what +coarse indifference, perhaps to utter forgetfulness, the rooms occupied by +Catherine de' Medici and her son Francis II. still remain almost in their +original state. The historian may reanimate them with the tragical scenes +of the Reformation, of which the struggle of the Guises and the Bourbons +against the House of Valois formed a complicated drama played out on this +spot. + +The buildings of Francis I. quite crush the simpler residence of Louis XII. +by sheer mass. From the side of the lower gardens, that is to say, from the +modern Place des Jesuites, the chateau is twice as lofty as from the side +towards the inner court. The ground floor, in which are the famous +corridors, is the second floor in the garden front. Thus the first floor, +where Queen Catherine resided, is in fact the third, and the royal +apartments are on the fourth above the lower garden, which at that time was +divided from the foundations by a very deep moat. Thus the chateau, +imposing as it is from the court, seems quite gigantic when seen from the +Place as la Fontaine saw it, for he owns that he never had been into the +court or the rooms. From the Place des Jesuites every detail looks small. +The balconies you can walk along, the colonnades of exquisite workmanship, +the sculptured windows--their recesses within, as large as small rooms, and +used, in fact, at that time as boudoirs--have a general effect resembling +the painted fancies of operatic scenery when the artist represents a fairy +palace. But once inside the court, the infinite delicacy of this +architectural ornamentation is displayed, to the joy of the amazed +spectator, though the stories above the ground floor are, even there, as +high as the Pavillon de l'Horloge at the Tuileries. + +This part of the building, where Catherine and Mary Stuart held magnificent +court, had in the middle of the facade a hexagonal hollow tower, up which +winds a staircase in stone, an arabesque device invented by giants and +executed by dwarfs to give this front the effect of a dream. The balustrade +of the stairs rises in a spiral of rectangular panels composing the five +walls of the tower, and forming at regular intervals a transverse cornice, +enriched outside and in with florid carvings in stone. This bewildering +creation, full of delicate and ingenious details and marvels of +workmanship, by which these stones speak to us, can only be compared to the +overcharged and deeply cut ivory carvings that come from China, or are made +at Dieppe. In short, the stone is like lace. Flowers and figures of men and +animals creep down the ribs, multiply at every step, and crown the vault +with a pendant, in which the chisels of sixteenth century sculptors have +outdone the artless stone-carvers who, fifty years before, had made the +pendants for two staircases in Louis XII.'s building. Though we may be +dazzled as we note these varied forms repeated with infinite prolixity, we +nevertheless perceive that Francis I. lacked money for Blois, just as Louis +XIV. did for Versailles. In more than one instance a graceful head looks +out from a block of stone almost in the rough. More than one fanciful boss +is but sketched with a few strokes of the chisel, and then abandoned to the +damp, which has overgrown it with green mould. On the facade, by the side +of one window carved like lace, another shows us the massive frame eaten +into by time, which has carved it after a manner of its own. + +The least artistic, the least experienced eye finds here a delightful +contrast between this front, rippling with marvels of design, and the inner +front of Louis XII.'s chateau, consisting on the ground floor of arches of +the airiest lightness, upheld by slender columns, resting on elegant +balustrades, and two stories above with windows wrought with charming +severity. Under the arches runs a gallery, of which the walls were painted +in fresco; the vaulting too must have been painted, for some traces are +still visible of that magnificence, imitated from Italian architecture--a +reminiscence of our Kings' journeys thither when the Milanese belonged to +them. + +Opposite the residence of Francis I. there was at that time the chapel of +the Counts of Blois, its facade almost harmonizing with the architecture of +Louis XII.'s building. No figure of speech can give an adequate idea of the +solid dignity of these three masses of building. In spite of the varieties +of style, a certain imposing royalty, showing the extent of its fear by the +magnitude of its defences, held the three buildings together, different as +they were; two of them flanking the immense hall of the States-General, as +vast and lofty as a church. + +And certainly neither the simplicity nor the solidity of those citizen +lives which were described at the beginning of this narrative--lives in +which Art was always represented--was lacking to this royal residence. +Blois was the fertile and brilliant example which found a living response +from citizens and nobles, from money and rank, alike in towns and in the +country. You could not have wished that the home of the King who ruled +Paris as it was in the sixteenth century should be other than this. The +splendid raiment of the upper classes, the luxury of feminine attire, must +have seemed singularly suited to the elaborate dress of the curiously +wrought stones. + +From floor to floor, as he mounted the wonderful stairs of his castle of +Blois, the King of France could see further and further over the beautiful +Loire, which brought him news of all his realm, which it parts into two +confronted and almost rival halves. If, instead of placing Chambord in a +dead and gloomy plain two leagues away, Francis I. had built a Chambord to +complete Blois on the site of the gardens, where Gaston subsequently +erected his palace, Versailles would never have existed, and Blois would +inevitably have become the capital of France. + +Four Valois and Catherine de' Medici lavished their wealth on the Chateau +of Blois, but any one can guess how prodigal the sovereigns were, only from +seeing the thick dividing wall, the spinal column of the building, with +deep alcoves cut into its substance, secret stairs and closets contrived +within it, surrounding such vast rooms as the council hall, the guardroom, +and the royal apartments, in which a company of infantry now finds ample +quarters. Even if the visitor should fail to understand at a first glance +that the marvels of the interior are worthy of those of the exterior, the +remains of Catherine de' Medici's room--into which Christophe was presently +admitted--are sufficient evidence of the elegant art which peopled these +rooms with lively fancies, with salamanders sparkling among flowers, with +all the most brilliant hues of the palette of the sixteenth century +decorating the darkest staircase. In that room the observer may still see +the traces of that love of gilding which Catherine had brought from Italy, +for the princesses of her country loved (as the author above quoted +delightfully expresses it) to overlay the chateaux of France with the gold +gained in trade by their ancestors, and to stamp the walls of royal rooms +with the sign of their wealth. + +The Queen-mother occupied the rooms on the first floor that had formerly +been those of Queen Claude de France, Francis I.'s wife; and the delicate +sculpture is still to be seen of double C's, with a device in pure white of +swans and lilies, signifying _Candidior candidis_, the whitest of the +white, the badge of that Queen whose name, like Catherine's, began with C, +and equally appropriate to Louis XII.'s daughter and to the mother of the +Valois; for notwithstanding the violence of Calvinist slander, no doubt was +ever thrown on Catherine de' Medici's enduring fidelity to Henri II. + +The Queen-mother, with two young children still on her hands--a boy, +afterwards the Duc d'Alencon, and Marguerite, who became the wife of Henri +IV., and whom Charles IX. called Margot--needed the whole of this first +floor. + +King Francis II. and his Queen Mary Stuart had the royal apartments on the +second floor that Francis I. had occupied, and which were also those of +Henri III. The royal apartments, and those of the Queen-mother, are divided +from end to end of the chateau into two parts by the famous party wall, +four feet thick, which supports the thrust of the immensely thick walls of +the rooms. Thus on the lower as well as on the upper floor the rooms are in +two distinct suites. That half which, facing the south, is lighted from the +court, held the rooms for state receptions and public business; while, to +escape the heat, the private rooms had a north aspect, where there is a +splendid frontage with arcades and balconies, and a view over the county of +the Vendomois, the _Perchoir aux Bretons_, and the moats of the town--the +only town mentioned by the great fable writer, the admirable la Fontaine. + +Francis I.'s chateau at that time ended at an enormous tower, only begun, +but intended to mark the vast angle the palace would have formed in turning +a flank; Gaston subsequently demolished part of its walls to attach his +palace to the tower; but he never finished the work, and the tower remains +a ruin. This royal keep was used as a prison, or, according to popular +tradition, as _oubliettes_. What poet would not feel deep regret or weep +for France as he wanders now through the hall of this magnificent chateau, +and sees the exquisite arabesques of Catherine de' Medici's room, +whitewashed and almost smothered by order of the governor of the barracks +at the time of the cholera--for this royal residence is now a barrack. + +The paneling of Catherine de' Medici's closet, of which more particular +mention will presently be made, is the last relic of the rich furnishing +collected by five artistic kings. + +As we make our way through this labyrinth of rooms, halls, staircases, and +turrets, we can say with horrible certainty, "Here Mary Stuart cajoled her +husband in favor of the Guises. There those Guises insulted Catherine. +Later, on this very spot, the younger _Balafre_ fell under the swords of +the avengers of the Crown. A century earlier Louis XII. signaled from that +window to invite the advance of his friend the Cardinal d'Amboise. From +this balcony d'Epernon, Ravaillac's accomplice, welcomed Queen Marie de' +Medici, who, it is said, knew of the intended regicide and left things to +take their course!" + +In the chapel where Henri IV. and Marguerite de Valois were betrothed--the +last remnant of the old chateau of the Counts of Blois--the regimental +boots are made. This wonderful structure, where so many styles are +combined, where such great events have been accomplished, is in a state of +ruin which is a disgrace to France. How grievous it is to those who love +the memorial buildings of old France, to feel that ere long these eloquent +stones will have gone the way of the house at the corner of the Rue de la +Vieille-Pelleterie: they will survive, perhaps, only in these pages. + + * * * * * + +It is necessary to observe that, in order to keep a keener eye on the +Court, the Guises, though they had a mansion in the town, which is still to +be seen, had obtained permission to reside above the rooms of Louis XII. in +the apartments since used by the Duchesse de Nemours, in the upper story on +the second floor. + +Francis II. and his young Queen, Mary Stuart, in love like two children of +sixteen, as they were, had been suddenly transferred, one cold winter's +day, from Saint-Germain, which the Duc de Guise thought too open to +surprise, to the stronghold, as it then was, of Blois, isolated on three +sides by precipitous slopes, while its gates were strictly guarded. The +Guises, the Queen's uncles, had the strongest reasons for not living in +Paris, and for detaining the Court in a place which could be easily guarded +and defended. + +A struggle for the throne was being carried on, which was not ended till +twenty-eight years later, in 1588, when, in this same chateau of Blois, +Henri III., bitterly humiliated by the House of Lorraine, under his +mother's very eyes, planned the death of the boldest of the Guises, the +second Balafre (or scarred), son of the first Balafre, by whom Catherine +de' Medici was tricked, imprisoned, spied on, and threatened. + +Indeed, the fine Chateau of Blois was to Catherine the strictest prison. On +the death of her husband, who had always kept her in leading-strings, she +had hoped to rule; but, on the contrary, she found herself a slave to +strangers, whose politeness was infinitely more cruel than the brutality of +jailers. She could do nothing that was not known. Those of her ladies who +were attached to her either had lovers devoted to the Guises, or Argus eyes +watching over them. Indeed, at that time the conflict of passions had the +capricious vagaries which they always derive from the powerful antagonism +of two hostile interests in the State. Love-making, which served Catherine +well, was also an instrument in the hands of the Guises. Thus the Prince de +Conde, the leader of the Reformed party, was attached to the Marechale de +Saint-Andre, whose husband was the Grand Master's tool. The Cardinal, who +had learned from the affair of the Vidame de Chartres that Catherine was +unconquered rather than unconquerable, was paying court to her. Thus the +play of passions brought strange complications into that of politics, +making a double game of chess, as it were, in which it was necessary to +read both the heart and brain of a man, and to judge, on occasion, whether +one would not belie the other. + +Though she lived constantly under the eye of the Cardinal de Lorraine or of +his brother, the Duc Francois de Guise, who both distrusted her, +Catherine's most immediate and shrewdest enemy was her daughter-in-law, +Queen Mary, a little fair girl as mischievous as a waiting-maid, as proud +as a Stuart might be who wore three crowns, as learned as an ancient +scholar, as tricky as a school-girl, as much in love with her husband as a +courtesan of her lover, devoted to her uncles, whom she admired, and +delighted to find that King Francis, by her persuasion, shared her high +opinion of them. A mother-in-law is always a person disliked by her +daughter-in-law, especially when she has won the crown and would like to +keep it--as Catherine had imprudently too plainly shown. Her former +position, when Diane de Poitiers ruled King Henri II., had been more +endurable; at least she had enjoyed the homage due to a Queen, and the +respect of the Court; whereas, now, the Duke and the Cardinal, having none +about them but their own creatures, seemed to take pleasure in humiliating +her. Catherine, a prisoner among courtiers, was the object, not every day, +but every hour, of blows offensive to her dignity; for the Guises persisted +in carrying on the same system as the late King had employed to thwart her. + +The six-and-thirty years of disaster which devastated France may be said to +have begun with the scene in which the most perilous part had been allotted +to the son of the Queen's furrier--a part which makes him the leading +figure in this narrative. The danger into which this zealous reformer was +falling became evident in the course of the morning when he set out from +the river-port of Beaugency, carrying precious documents which compromised +the loftiest heads of the nobility, and embarked for Blois in company with +a crafty partisan, the indefatigable la Renaudie, who had arrived on the +quay before him. + +While the barque conveying Christophe was being wafted down the Loire +before a light easterly breeze, the famous Cardinal de Lorraine, and the +second Duc de Guise, one of the greatest war captains of the time, were +considering their position, like two eagles on a rocky peak, and looking +cautiously round before striking the first great blow by which they tried +to kill the Reformation in France. This was to be struck at Amboise, and it +was repeated in Paris twelve years later, on the 24th August 1572. + +In the course of the previous night, three gentlemen, who played an +important part in the twelve years' drama that arose from this double plot +by the Guises on one hand and the Reformers on the other, had arrived at +the chateau at a furious gallop, leaving their horses half dead at the +postern gate, held by captains and men who were wholly devoted to the Duc +de Guise, the idol of the soldiery. + +A word must be said as to this great man, and first of all a word to +explain his present position. + +His mother was Antoinette de Bourbon, great-aunt of Henri IV. But of what +account are alliances! At this moment he aimed at nothing less than his +cousin de Conde's head. Mary Stuart was his niece. His wife was Anne, +daughter of the Duke of Ferrara. The Grand Connetable Anne de Montmorency +addressed the Duc de Guise as "Monseigneur," as he wrote to the King, and +signed himself "Your very humble servant." Guise, the Grand Master of the +King's household, wrote, in reply, "Monsieur le Connetable," and signed, as +in writing to the Parlement, "Your faithful friend." + +As for the Cardinal, nicknamed the Transalpine Pope, and spoken of by +Estienne as "His Holiness," the whole Monastic Church of France was on his +side, and he treated with the Pope as his equal. He was vain of his +eloquence, and one of the ablest theologians of his time, while he kept +watch over France and Italy by the instrumentality of three religious +Orders entirely devoted to him, who were on foot for him day and night, +serving him as spies and reporters. + +These few words are enough to show to what a height of power the Cardinal +and the Duke had risen. In spite of their wealth and the revenues of their +officers, they were so entirely disinterested, or so much carried away by +the tide of politics, and so generous too, that both were in debt--no doubt +after the manner of Caesar. Hence, when Henri III. had seen his threatening +foe murdered, the second Balafre, the House of Guise was inevitably ruined. +Their vast outlay for above a century, in hope of seizing the Crown, +accounts for the decay of this great House under Louis XIII. and Louis +XIV., when the sudden end of MADAME revealed to all Europe how low a +Chevalier de Lorraine had fallen. + +So the Cardinal and the Duke, proclaiming themselves the heirs of the +deposed Carlovingian kings, behaved very insolently to Catherine de' +Medici, their niece's mother-in-law. The Duchesse de Guise spared Catherine +no mortification; she was an Este, and Catherine de' Medici was the +daughter of self-made Florentine merchants, whom the sovereigns of Europe +had not yet admitted to their royal fraternity. Francis I. had regarded his +son's marriage with a Medici as a mesalliance, and had only allowed it in +the belief that this son would never be the Dauphin. Hence his fury when +the Dauphin died, poisoned by the Florentine Montecuculi. + +The Estes refused to recognize the Medici as Italian princes. These +time-honored merchants were, in fact, struggling with the impossible +problem of maintaining a throne in the midst of Republican institutions. +The title of Grand Duke was not bestowed on the Medici till much later by +Philip II., King of Spain; and they earned it by treason to France, their +benefactress, and by a servile attachment to the Court of Spain, which was +covertly thwarting them in Italy. + +"Flatter none but your enemies!" This great axiom, uttered by Catherine, +would seem to have ruled all the policy of this merchant race, which never +lacked great men till its destinies had grown great, and which broke down a +little too soon under the degeneracy which is always the end of royal +dynasties and great families. + +For three generations there was a prelate and a warrior of the House of +Lorraine; but, which is perhaps not less remarkable, the Churchman had +always shown--as did the present Cardinal--a singular likeness to Cardinal +Ximenes, whom the Cardinal de Richelieu also resembled. These five prelates +all had faces that were at once mean and terrifying; while the warrior's +face was of that Basque and mountain type which reappears in the features +of Henri IV. In both the father and the son it was seamed by a scar, which +did not destroy the grace and affability that bewitched their soldiers as +much as their bravery. + +The way and the occasion of the Grand Master's being wounded is not without +interest here, for it was healed by the daring of one of the personages of +this drama, Ambroise Pare, who was under obligation to the Syndic of the +furriers. At the siege of Calais the Duke's head was pierced by a lance +which, entering below the right eye, went through to the neck below the +left ear, the end broke off and remained in the wound. The Duke was lying +in his tent in the midst of the general woe, and would have died but for +the bold promptitude and devotion of Ambroise Pare. + +"The Duke is not dead, gentlemen," said Pare, turning to the bystanders, +who were dissolved in tears. "But he soon will be," he added, "unless I +treat him as if he were, and I will try it at the risk of the worst that +can befall me.... You see!" + +He set his left foot on the Duke's breast, took the stump of the lance with +his nails, loosened it by degrees, and at last drew the spear-head out of +the wound, as if it had been from some senseless object instead of a man's +head. Though he cured the Prince he had handled so boldly, he could not +hinder him from bearing to his grave the terrible scar from which he had +his name. His son also had the same nickname for a similar reason. + +Having gained entire mastery over the King, who was ruled by his wife, as a +result of the passionate and mutual affection which the Guises knew how to +turn to account, the two great Princes of Lorraine reigned over France, and +had not an enemy at Court but Catherine de' Medici. And no great +politician ever played a closer game. The respective attitudes of Henri +II.'s ambitious widow, and of the no less ambitious House of Lorraine, was +symbolized, as it were, by the positions they held on the terrace of the +chateau on the very morning when Christophe was about to arrive there. The +Queen-mother, feigning extreme affection for the Guises, had asked to be +informed as to the news brought by the three gentlemen who had arrived from +different parts of the kingdom; but she had been mortified by a polite +dismissal from the Cardinal. She was walking at the further end of the +pleasaunce above the Loire, where she was having an observatory erected for +her astrologer, Ruggieri; the building may still be seen, and from it a +wide view is to be had over the beautiful valley. The two Guises were on +the opposite side overlooking the Vendomois, the upper part of the town, +the Perchoir aux Bretons, and the postern gate of the chateau. + +Catherine had deceived the brothers, tricking them by an assumption of +dissatisfaction; for she was really very glad to be able to speak with one +of the gentlemen who had come in hot haste, and who was in her secret +confidence; who boldly played a double game, but who was, to be sure, well +paid for it. This gentleman was Chiverni, who affected to be the mere tool +of the Cardinal de Lorraine, but who was in reality in Catherine's service. +Catherine had two other devoted allies in the two Gondis, creatures of her +own; but they, as Florentines, were too open to the suspicions of the +Guises to be sent into the country; she kept them at the Court, where their +every word and action was closely watched, but where they, on their side, +watched the Guises and reported to Catherine. These two Italians kept a +third adherent to the Queen-mother's faction, Biraguc, a clever Piedmontese +who, like Chiverni, pretended to have abandoned Catherine to attach himself +to the Guises, and who encouraged them in their undertakings while spying +for Catherine. + +Chiverni had arrived from Ecouen and Paris. The last to ride in was +Saint-Andre, Marshal of France, who rose to be such an important personage +that the Guises adopted him as the third of the triumvirate they formed +against Catherine in the following year. But earlier than either of these, +Vieilleville, the builder of the Chateau of Duretal, who had also by his +devotion to the Guises earned the rank of Marshal, had secretly come and +more secretly gone, without any one knowing what the mission might be that +the Grand Master had given him. Saint-Andre, it was known, had been +instructed to take military measures to entice all the reformers who were +under arms to Amboise, as the result of a council held by the Cardinal de +Lorraine, the Due de Guise, Birague, Chiverni, Vieilleville, and +Saint-Andre. As the heads of the House of Lorraine thus employed Birague, +it is to be supposed that they trusted to their strength, for they knew +that he was attached to the Queen-mother; but it is possible that they kept +him about them with a view to discovering their rival's secret designs, as +she allowed him to attend them. In those strange times the double part +played by some political intriguers was known to both the parties who +employed them; they were like cards in the hands of players, and the +craftiest won the game. + +All through this sitting the brothers had been impenetrably guarded. +Catherine's conversation with her friends will, however, fully explain the +purpose of this meeting, convened by the Guises in the open air, at break +of day, in the terraced garden, as though every one feared to speak within +the walls full of ears of the Chateau of Blois. + +The Queen-mother, who had been walking about all the morning with the two +Gondis, under pretence of examining the observatory that was being built, +but, in fact, anxiously watching the hostile party, was presently joined by +Chiverni. She was standing at the angle of the terrace opposite the Church +of Saint-Nicholas, and there feared no listeners. The wall is as high as +the church-towers, and the Guises always hold council at the other corner +of the terrace, below the dungeon then begun, walking to and from the +Perchoir des Bretons and the arcade by the bridge which joined the gardens +to the Perchoir. There was nobody at the bottom of the ravine. + +Chiverni took the Queen's hand to kiss it, and slipped into her fingers a +tiny letter without being seen by the Italians. Catherine quickly turned +away, walked to the corner of the parapet, and read as follows:-- + + "You are powerful enough to keep the balance true + between the great ones, and to make them contend as to + which shall serve you best; you have your house full of + kings, and need not fear either Lorraines or Bourbons + so long as you set them against each other; for both + sides aim at snatching the crown from your children. Be + your advisers' mistress, and not their slave; keep up + each side by the other; otherwise the kingdom will go + from bad to worse, and great wars may ensue. + + L'HOPITAL." + +The Queen placed this letter in the bosom of her stomacher, reminding +herself to burn it as soon as she should be alone. + +"When did you see him?" she asked Chiverni. + +"On returning from seeing the Connetable at Melun; he was going though with +the Duchesse de Berri, whom he was most anxious to convey in safety to +Savoy, so as to return here and enlighten the Chancellor Olivier, who is, +in fact, the dupe of the Lorraines. Monsieur de l'Hopital is resolved to +adhere to your cause, seeing the aims that Messieurs de Guise have in view. +And he will hasten back as fast as possible to give you his vote in the +Council." + +"Is he sincere?" said Catherine. "For you know that when the Lorraines +admitted him to the Council, it was to enable them to rule." + +"L'Hopital is a Frenchman of too good a stock not to be honest," said +Chiverni; "besides, that letter is a sufficient pledge." + +"And what answer does the Connetable send to these gentlemen?" + +"He says the King is his master, and he awaits his orders. On this reply, +the Cardinal, to prevent any resistance, will propose to appoint his +brother Lieutenant-General of the realm." + +"So soon!" cried Catherine in dismay. "Well, and did Monsieur de l'Hopital +give you any further message for me?" + +"He told me, madame, that you alone can stand between the throne and +Messieurs de Guise." + +"But does he suppose that I will use the Huguenots as a means of defence?" + +"Oh, madame," cried Chiverni, surprised by her perspicacity, "we never +thought of placing you in such a difficult position." + +"Did he know what a position I am in?" asked the Queen calmly. + +"Pretty nearly. He thinks you made a dupe's bargain when, on the death of +the late King, you accepted for your share the fragments saved from the +ruin of Madame Diane. Messieurs de Guise thought they had paid their debt +to the Queen by gratifying the woman." + +"Yes," said Catherine, looking at the two Gondis, "I made a great mistake +there." + +"A mistake the gods might make!" replied Charles de Gondi. + +"Gentlemen," said the Queen, "if I openly take up the cause of the +Reformers, I shall be the slave of a party." + +"Madame," said Chiverni eagerly, "I entirely agree with you. You must make +use of them, but not let them make use of you." + +"Although, for the moment, your strength lies there," said Charles de +Gondi, "we must not deceive ourselves; success and failure are equally +dangerous!" + +"I know it," said the Queen. "One false move will be a pretext eagerly +seized by the Guises to sweep me off the board!" + +"A Pope's niece, the mother of four Valois, the Queen of France, the widow +of the most ardent persecutor of the Huguenots, an Italian and a Catholic, +the aunt of Leo X.,--can you form an alliance with the Reformation?" asked +Charles de Gondi. + +"On the other hand," Albert replied, "is not seconding the Guises +consenting to usurpation? You have to deal with a race that looks to the +struggle between the Church and the Reformation to give them a crown for +the taking. You may avail yourself of Huguenot help without abjuring the +Faith." + +"Remember, madame, that your family, which ought to be wholly devoted to +the King of France, is at this moment in the service of the King of Spain," +said Chiverni. "And it would go over to the Reformation to-morrow if the +Reformation could make the Duke of Florence King!" + +"I am very well inclined to give the Huguenots a helping hand for a time," +said Catherine, "were it only to be revenged on that soldier, that priest, +and that woman!" + +And with an Italian glance, her eye turned on the Duke and the Cardinal, +and then to the upper rooms of the chateau where her son lived and Mary +Stuart. "Those three snatched the reins of government from my hands," she +went on, "when I had waited for them long enough while that old woman held +them in my place." + +She jerked her head in the direction of Chenonceaux, the chateau she had +just exchanged for Chaumont with Diane de Poitiers. "_Ma_," she said in +Italian, "it would seem that these gentry of the Geneva bands have not wit +enough to apply to me!--On my honor, I cannot go to meet them! And not one +of you would dare to carry them a message." She stamped her foot. "I hoped +you might have met the hunchback at Ecouen," she said to Chiverni. "He has +brains." + +"He was there, madame," replied Chiverni, "but he could not induce the +Connetable to join him. Monsieur de Montmorency would be glad enough to +overthrow the Guises, who obtained his dismissal; but he will have nothing +to do with heresy." + +"And who, gentlemen, is to crush these private whims that are an offence to +Royalty? By Heaven! these nobles must be made to destroy each other--as +Louis XI. made them, the greatest of your kings. In this kingdom there are +four or five parties, and my son's is the weakest of them all." + +"The Reformation is an idea," remarked Charles de Gondi, "and the parties +crushed by Louis the Eleventh were based only on interest." + +"There is always an idea to back up interest," replied Chiverni. "In Louis +XI.'s time the idea was called the Great Fief!" + +"Use heresy as an axe," said Albert de Gondi. "You will not incur the odium +of executions." + +"Ha!" said the Queen, "but I know nothing of the strength or the schemes of +these folks, and I cannot communicate with them through any safe channel. +If I were found out in any such conspiracy, either by the Queen, who +watches me as if I were an infant in arms, or by my two jailers, who let no +one come into the chateau, I should be banished from the country, and taken +back to Florence under a formidable escort captained by some ruffianly +Guisard! Thank you, friends!--Oh, daughter-in-law! I hope you may some day +be a prisoner in your own house; then you will know what you have inflicted +on me!" + +"Their schemes!" exclaimed Chiverni. "The Grand Master and the Cardinal +know them; but those two foxes will not tell. If you, madame, can make them +tell, I will devote myself to you, and come to an understanding with the +Prince de Conde." + +"Which of their plans have they failed to conceal from you?" asked the +Queen, glancing towards the brothers de Guise. + +"Monsieur de Vieilleville and Monsieur de Saint-Andre have just had their +orders, of which we know nothing; but the Grand Master is concentrating his +best troops on the left bank, it would seem. Within a few days you will +find yourself at Amboise. The Grand Master came to this terrace to study +the position, and he does not think Blois favorable to his private schemes. +Well, then, what does he want?" said Chiverni, indicating the steep cliffs +that surround the chateau. "The Court could nowhere be safer from sudden +attack than it is here." + +"Abdicate or govern," said Albert de Gondi in the Queen's ear as she stood +thinking. + +A fearful expression of suppressed rage flashed across the Queen's handsome +ivory-pale face.--She was not yet forty, and she had lived for twenty-six +years in the French Court, absolutely powerless, she, who ever since she +had come there had longed to play the leading part. + +"Never so long as this son lives! His wife has bewitched him!" + +After a short pause these terrible words broke from her in the language of +Dante. + +Catherine's exclamation had its inspiration in a strange prediction, spoken +a few days before at the Chateau of Chaumont, on the opposite bank of the +Loire, whither she had gone with her astrologer Ruggieri to consult a +famous soothsayer. This woman was brought to meet her by Nostradamus, the +chief of those physicians who in that great sixteenth century believed in +the occult sciences, with Ruggieri, Cardan, Paracelsus, and many more. This +fortune-teller, of whose life history has no record, had fixed the reign of +Francis II. at one year's duration. + +"And what is your opinion of all this?" Catherine asked Chiverni. + +"There will be fighting," said the cautious gentleman. "The King of +Navarre----" + +"Oh! say the Queen!" Catherine put in. + +"Very true, the Queen," said Chiverni, smiling, "has made the Prince de +Conde the chief of the reformed party; he, as a younger son, may dare much; +and Monsieur le Cardinal talks of sending for him to come here." + +"If only he comes!" cried the Queen, "I am saved!" + +So it will be seen that the leaders of the great Reforming movement had +been right in thinking of Catherine as an ally. + +"This is the jest of it," said the Queen; "the Bourbons are tricking the +Huguenots, and Master Calvin, de Beze, and the rest are cheating the +Bourbons; but shall we be strong enough to take in the Huguenots, the +Bourbons, and the Guises? In front of three such foes we are justified in +feeling our pulse," said she. + +"They have not the King," replied Albert. "You must always win, having the +King on your side." + +"_Maladetta Maria!_" said Catherine, between her teeth. + +"The Guises are already thinking of diverting the affections of the middle +class," said Birague. + + * * * * * + +The hope of snatching the Crown had not been premeditated by the two heads +of the refractory House of Guise; there was nothing to justify the project +or the hope; circumstances suggested such audacity. The two Cardinals and +the two _Balafres_ were, as it happened, four ambitious men, superior in +political gifts to any of the men about them. Indeed, the family was only +subdued at last by Henri IV., himself a leader of faction, brought up in +the great school of which Catherine and the Guises were the teachers--and +he had profited by their lessons. + +At this time these two brothers were the arbiters of the greatest +revolution attempted in Europe since that carried through in England under +Henry VIII., which had resulted from the invention of printing. They were +the enemies of the Reformation, the power was in their hands, and they +meant to stamp out heresy; but Calvin, their opponent, though less famous +than Luther, was a stronger man. Calvin saw Government where Luther had +only seen Dogma. Where the burly, beer-drinking, uxorious German fought +with the Devil, flinging his inkstand at the fiend, the man of Picardy, +frail and unmarried, dreamed of plans of campaign, of directing battles, of +arming princes, and of raising whole nations by disseminating republican +doctrines in the hearts of the middle classes, so as to make up, by +increased progress in the Spirit of Nations, for his constant defeats on +the battle-field. + +The Cardinal de Lorraine and the Duc de Guise knew quite as well as Philip +II. and the Duke of Alva where the Monarchy was aimed at, and how close the +connection was between Catholicism and sovereignty. Charles V., intoxicated +with having drunk too deeply of Charlemagne's cup, and trusting too much in +the strength of his rule, for he believed that he and Soliman might divide +the world between them, was not at first conscious that his front was +attacked; as soon as Cardinal Granvelle showed him the extent of the +festering sore, he abdicated. + +The Guises had a startling conception; they would extinguish heresy with a +single blow. They tried to strike that blow for the first time at Amboise, +and they made a second attempt on Saint-Bartholomew's Day; this time they +were in accord with Catherine de' Medici, enlightened as she was by the +flames of twelve years' wars, and yet more by the ominous word "Republic" +spoken and even published at a later date by the writers of the +Reformation, whose ideas Lecamus, the typical citizen of Paris, had already +understood. The two Princes, on the eve of striking a fatal blow to the +heart of the nobility, in order to cut it off from the first from a +religious party whose triumph would be its ruin, were now discussing the +means of announcing their _Coup d'Etat_ to the King, while Catherine was +conversing with her four counselors. + +"Jeanne d'Albret knew what she was doing when she proclaimed herself the +protectress of the Huguenots! She has in the Reformation a battering-ram +which she makes good play with!" said the Grand Master, who had measured +the depth of the Queen of Navarre's scheming. + +Jeanne d'Albret was, in point of fact, one of the cleverest personages of +her time. + +"Theodore de Beze is at Nerac, having taken Calvin's orders." + +"What men those common folk can lay their hands on!" cried the Duke. + +"Ay, we have not a man on our side to match that fellow la Renaudie," said +the Cardinal. "He is a perfect Catiline." + +"Men like him always act on their own account," replied the Duke. "Did not +I see la Renaudie's value? I loaded him with favors, I helped him to get +away when he was condemned by the Bourgogne Parlement, I got him back into +France by obtaining a revision of his trial, and I intended to do all I +could for him, while he was plotting a diabolical conspiracy against us. +The rascal has effected an alliance between the German Protestants and the +heretics in France by smoothing over the discrepancies of dogma between +Luther and Calvin. He has won over the disaffected nobles to the cause of +the Reformation without asking them to abjure Catholicism. So long ago as +last year he had thirty commanders on his side! He was everywhere at once: +at Lyons, in Languedoc, at Nantes. Finally, he drew up the Articles settled +in Council and distributed throughout Germany, in which theologians declare +that it is justifiable to use force to get the King out of our hands, and +this is being disseminated in every town. Look for him where you will, you +will nowhere find him! + +"Hitherto I have shown him nothing but kindness! We shall have to kill him +like a dog, or to make a bridge of gold for him to cross and come into our +house." + +"Brittany and Languedoc, the whole kingdom indeed, is being worked upon to +give us a deadly shock," said the Cardinal. "After yesterday's festival, I +spent the rest of the night in reading all the information sent me by my +priesthood; but no one is involved but some impoverished gentlemen and +artisans, people who may be either hanged or left alive, it matters not +which. The Colignys and the Condes are not yet visible, though they hold +the threads of the conspiracy." + +"Ay," said the Duke; "and as soon as that lawyer Avenelles had let the cat +out of the bag, I told Braguelonne to give the conspirators their head: +they have no suspicions, they think they can surprise us, and then perhaps +the leaders will show themselves. My advice would be that we should allow +ourselves to be beaten for forty-eight hours----" + +"That would be half-an-hour too long," said the Cardinal in alarm. + +"How brave you are!" retorted la Balafre. + +The Cardinal went on with calm indifference: + +"Whether the Prince de Conde be implicated or no, if we are assured that he +is the leader, cut off his head. What we want for that business is judges +rather than soldiers, and there will never be any lack of judges! Victory +in the Supreme Court is always more certain than on the field of battle, +and costs less." + +"I am quite willing," replied the Duke. "But do you believe that the Prince +de Conde is powerful enough to inspire such audacity in those who are sent +on first to attack us? Is there not----?" + +"The King of Navarre," said the Cardinal. + +"A gaby who bows low in my presence," replied the Duke. "That Florentine +woman's graces have blinded you, I think----" + +"Oh, I have thought of that already," said the prelate. "If I aim at a +gallant intimacy with her, is it not that I may read to the bottom of her +heart?" + +"She has no heart," said his brother sharply. "She is even more ambitious +than we are." + +"You are a brave commander," said the Cardinal; "but take my word for it, +our skirts are very near touching, and I made Mary Stuart watch her +narrowly before you ever suspected her. Catherine has no more religion in +her than my shoe. If she is not the soul of the conspiracy, it is not for +lack of goodwill; but we will draw her out and see how far she will support +us. Till now I know for certain that she has not held any communication +with the heretics." + +"It is time that we should lay everything before the King, and the +Queen-mother, who knows nothing," said the Duke, "and that is the only +proof of her innocence. La Renaudie will understand from my arrangements +that we are warned. Last night Nemours must have been following up the +detachments of the Reformed party, who were coming in by the cross-roads, +and the conspirators will be compelled to attack us at Amboise; I will let +them all in.--Here," and he pointed to the three steep slopes of rock on +which the Chateau de Blois is built, just as Chiverni had done a moment +since, "we should have a fight with no result; the Huguenots could come and +go at will. Blois is a hall with four doors, while Amboise is a sack." + +"I will not leave the Florentine Queen," said the Cardinal. + +"We have made one mistake," remarked the Duke, playing with his dagger, +tossing it in the air, and catching it again by the handle; "we ought to +have behaved to her as to the Reformers, giving her liberty to move, so as +to take her in the act." + +The Cardinal looked at his brother for a minute, shaking his head. + +"What does Pardaillan want?" the Duke exclaimed, seeing this young +gentleman coming along the terrace. Pardaillan was to become famous for his +fight with la Renaudie, in which both were killed. + +"Monseigneur, a youth sent here by the Queen's furrier is at the gate, and +says that he has a set of ermine to deliver to Her Majesty. Is he to be +admitted?" + +"To be sure; an ermine surcoat she spoke of but yesterday," said the +Cardinal. "Let the shop-clerk in. She will need the mantle for her journey +by the Loire." + +"Which way did he come, that he was not stopped before reaching the gate?" +asked the Grand Master. + +"I do not know," said Pardaillan. + +"I will go to see him in the Queen's rooms," said la Balafre. "Tell him to +await her _lever_ in the guardroom. But, Pardaillan, is he young?" + +"Yes, Monseigneur; he says he is Lecamus' son." + +"Lecamus is a good Catholic," said the Cardinal, who, like the Duke, was +gifted with a memory like Caesar's. "The priest of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs +trusts him, for he is officer of the peace for the Palace." + +"Make this youth chat with the Captain of the Scotch Guard, all the same," +said the Grand Master, with an emphasis which gave the words a very pointed +meaning. "But Ambroise is at the chateau; through him we shall know at once +if he really is the son of Lecamus, who was formerly his very good friend. +Ask for Ambroise Pare." + +At this moment the Queen came towards the brothers, who hurried to meet her +with marks of respect, in which Catherine never failed to discern deep +irony. + +"Gentlemen," said she, "will you condescend to inform me of what is going +on? Is the widow of your late sovereign of less account in your esteem than +Messieurs de Vieilleville, Birague, and Chiverni?" + +"Madame," said the Cardinal, with an air of gallantry, "our first duty as +men, before all matters of politics, is not to alarm ladies by false +rumors. This morning, indeed, we have had occasion to confer on State +affairs. You will pardon my brother for having in the first instance given +orders on purely military matters which must be indifferent to you--the +really important points remain to be discussed. If you approve, we will all +attend the _lever_ of the King and Queen; it is close on the hour." + +"Why, what is happening, Monsieur le Grand Maitre?" asked Catherine, +affecting terror. + +"The Reformation, madame, is no longer a mere heresy; it is a party which +is about to take up arms and seize the King." + +Catherine, with the Cardinal, the Duke, and the gentlemen, made their way +towards the staircase by the corridor, which was crowded with courtiers who +had not the right of _entree_, and who ranged themselves against the wall. + +Gondi, who had been studying the Princes of Lorraine while Catherine was +conversing with them, said in good Tuscan and in Catherine's ear these two +words, which became bywords, and which express one aspect of that royally +powerful nature: + +"_Odiate e aspettate!_" Hate and wait. + +Pardaillan, who had delivered to the officer on guard at the gatehouse the +order to admit the messenger from the Queen's furrier, found Christophe +standing outside the portico and staring at the facade built by good King +Louis XII., whereon there was at that time an even more numerous array of +sculptured figures of the coarsest buffoonery--if we may judge by what has +survived. The curious will detect, for instance, a figure of a woman carved +on the capital of one of the columns of the gateway holding up her skirts, +and saucily exhibiting "what Brunel displayed to Marphise" to a burly monk +crouching in the capital of the corresponding column at the other jamb of +this gate, above which once stood a statue of Louis XII. Several of the +windows of this front, ornamented in this grotesque taste, and now +unfortunately destroyed, amused, or seemed to amuse, Christophe, whom the +gunners of the Guard were already pelting with their pleasantries. + +"He would like to be lodged there, he would," said the sergeant-at-arms, +patting his store of charges for his musket, which hung from his belt in +the sugar-loaf-shaped cartridges. + +"Hallo, you from Paris, you never saw so much before!" said a soldier. + +"He recognizes good King Louis!" said another. + +Christophe affected not to hear them, and tried to look even more +helplessly amazed, so that his look of blank stupidity was an excellent +recommendation to Pardaillan. + +"The Queen is not yet risen," said the young officer. "Come and wait in the +guardroom." + +Christophe slowly followed Pardaillan. He purposely lingered to admire the +pretty covered balcony with an arched front, where, in the reign of Louis +XII., the courtiers could wait under cover till the hour of reception if +the weather was bad, and where at this moment some of the gentlemen +attached to the Guises were grouped; for the staircase, still so well +preserved, which led to their apartments is at the end of that gallery, in +a tower of which the architecture is greatly admired by the curious. + +"Now, then! have you come here to study graven images?" cried Pardaillan, +seeing Lecamus riveted in front of the elegant stonework of the outer +parapet which unites--or, if you will, separates--the columns of each +archway. + +Christophe followed the young captain to the grand staircase, not without +glancing at this almost Moorish-looking structure from top to bottom with +an expression of ecstasy. On this fine morning the court was full of +captains-at-arms and of courtiers chatting in groups; and their brilliant +costumes gave life to the scene, in itself so bright, for the marvels of +architecture that decorated the facade were still quite new. + +"Come in here," said Pardaillan to Lecamus, signing to him to follow him +through the carved door on the second floor, which was thrown open by a +sentry on his recognizing Pardaillan. + +Christophe's amazement may easily be imagined on entering this guardroom, +so vast, that the military genius of our day has cut it across by a +partition to form two rooms. It extends, in fact, both on the second floor, +where the King lived, and on the first, occupied by the Queen-mother, for a +third of the length of the front towards the court, and is lighted by two +windows to the left and two to the right of the famous staircase. The young +captain made his way toward the door leading to the King's room, which +opened out of this hall, and desired one of the pages-in-waiting to tell +Madame Dayelle, one of the Queen's ladies, that the furrier was in the +guardroom with her surcoats. + +At a sign from Pardaillan, Christophe went to stand by the side of an +officer seated on a low stool in the corner of a chimney-place as large as +his father's shop, at one end of this vast hall opposite another exactly +like it at the other end. In talking with this gentleman, Christophe +succeeded in interesting him by telling him the trivial details of his +trade; and he seemed so completely the craftsman, that the officer +volunteered this opinion to the captain of the Scotch Guard, who came in to +cross-question the lad while scrutinizing him closely out of the corner of +his eye. + +Though Christophe Lecamus had had ample warning, he still did not +understand the cold ferocity of the interested parties between whom +Chaudieu had bid him stand. To an observer who should have mastered the +secrets of the drama, as the historian knows them now, it would have seemed +terrible to see this young fellow, the hope of two families, risking his +life between two such powerful and pitiless machines as Catherine and the +Guises. But how few brave hearts ever know the extent of their danger! From +the way in which the quays of the city and the chateau were guarded, +Christophe had expected to find snares and spies at every step, so he +determined to conceal the importance of his errand and the agitation of his +mind under the stupid tradesman's stare, which he had put on before +Pardaillan, the officer of the Guard, and the captain. + +The stir which in a royal residence attends the rising of the King began to +be perceptible. The nobles, leaving their horses with their pages or grooms +in the outer court, for no one but the King and Queen was allowed to enter +the inner court on horseback, were mounting the splendid stairs in twos and +threes and filling the guardroom, a large room with two fireplaces--where +the huge mantels are now bereft of adornment, where squalid red tiles have +taken the place of the fine mosaic flooring, where royal hangings covered +the rough walls now daubed with whitewash, and where every art of an age +unique in its splendor was displayed at its best. + +Catholics and Protestants poured in as much to hear the news and study each +other's faces as to pay their court to the King. His passionate affection +for Mary Stuart, which neither the Queen-mother nor the Guises attempted to +check, and Mary's politic submissiveness in yielding to it, deprived the +King of all power; indeed, though he was now seventeen, he knew nothing of +Royalty but its indulgences, and of marriage nothing but the raptures of +first love. In point of fact, everybody tried to ingratiate himself with +Queen Mary and her uncles, the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grand Master of +the Household. + +All this bustle went on under the eyes of Christophe, who watched each +fresh arrival with very natural excitement. A magnificent curtain, on each +side of it a page and a yeoman of the Scotch Guard then on duty, showed him +the entrance to that royal chamber, destined to be fatal to the son of the +Grand Master, for the younger Balafre fell dead at the foot of the bed now +occupied by Mary Stuart and Francis II. The Queen's ladies occupied the +chimney-place opposite to that where Christophe was still chatting with the +captain of the Guard. This fireplace, by its position, was the seat of +honor, for it is built into the thick wall of the council-room, between the +door into the royal chamber and that into the council-room, so that the +ladies and gentlemen who had a right to sit there were close to where the +King and the Queens must pass. The courtiers were certain to see Catherine; +for her maids of honor, in mourning, like the rest of the Court, came up +from her rooms conducted by the Countess Fieschi, and took their place on +the side next the council-room, facing those of the young Queen, who, led +by the Duchesse de Guise, took the opposite angle next the royal +bedchamber. + +Between the courtiers and the young ladies, all belonging to the first +families in the kingdom, a space was kept of some few paces, which none but +the greatest nobles were permitted to cross. The Countess Fieschi and the +Duchesse de Guise were allowed by right of office to be seated in the midst +of their noble charges, who all remained standing. + +One of the first to mingle with these dangerous bevies was the Duc de +Orleans, the King's brother, who came down from his rooms above, attended +by his tutor, Monsieur de Cypierre. This young Prince, who was destined to +reign before the end of the year, under the name of Charles IX., at the age +of ten was excessively shy. The Duc d'Anjou and the Duc d'Alencon, his two +brothers, and the infant Princess Marguerite, who became the wife of Henri +IV., were still too young to appear at Court, and remained in their +mother's apartments. The Duc d'Orleans, richly dressed in the fashion of +the time, in silk trunk hose, a doublet of cloth of gold, brocaded with +flowers in black, and a short cloak of embroidered velvet, all black, for +he was still in mourning for the late King his father, bowed to the two +elder ladies, and joined the group of his mother's maids of honor. Strongly +disliking the Guisards (the adherents of the Guises), he replied coldly to +the Duchess' greeting, and went to lean his elbow on the back of the +Countess Fieschi's tall chair. + +His tutor, Monsieur de Cypierre, one of the finest characters of that age, +stood behind him as a shield. Amyot, in a simple abbe's gown, also attended +the Prince; he was his instructor as well as being the teacher of the three +other royal children, whose favor was afterwards so advantageous to him. + +Between this chimney-place "of honor" and that at the further end of the +hall--where the Guards stood in groups with their captain, a few courtiers, +and Christophe carrying his box--the Chancellor Olivier, l'Hopital's patron +and predecessor, in the costume worn ever since by the Chancellors of +France, was walking to and fro with Cardinal de Tournon, who had just +arrived from Rome, and with whom he exchanged a few phrases in murmurs. On +them was centered the general attention of the gentlemen packed against the +wall dividing the hall from the King's bedroom, standing like a living +tapestry against the rich figured hangings. In spite of the serious state +of affairs, the Court presented the same appearance as every Court must, in +every country, at every time, and in the midst of the greatest perils. +Courtiers always talk of the most trivial subjects while thinking of the +gravest, jesting while watching every physiognomy, and considering +questions of love and marriage with heiresses in the midst of the most +sanguinary catastrophes. + +"What did you think of yesterday's fete?" asked Bourdeilles, the Lord of +Brantome, going up to Mademoiselle de Piennes, one of the elder Queen's +maids of honor. + +"Monsieur du Baif and Monsieur du Bellay had had the most charming ideas," +said she, pointing to the two gentlemen who had arranged everything, and +who were standing close at hand. "I thought it in atrocious taste," she +added in a whisper. + +"You had no part in it?" said Miss Lewiston from the other side. + +"What are you reading, madame?" said Amyot to Madame Fieschi. + +"_Amadis de Gaule_, by the Seigneur des Essarts, purveyor-in-ordinary to +the King's Artillery." + +"A delightful work," said the handsome girl, who became famous as la +Fosseuse, when she was lady-in-waiting to Queen Margaret of Navarre. + +"The style is quite new," remarked Amyot. "Shall you adopt such +barbarisms?" he asked, turning to Brantome. + +"The ladies like it! What is to be said?" cried Brantome, going forward to +bow to Madame de Guise, who had in her hand Boccaccio's _Famous Ladies_. +"There must be some ladies of your House there, madame," said he. "But +Master Boccaccio's mistake was that he did not live in these days; he would +have found ample matter to enlarge his volumes." + +"How clever Monsieur de Brantome is!" said the beautiful Mademoiselle de +Limeuil to the Countess Fieschi. "He came first to us, but he will stay +with the Guises." + +"Hush!" said Madame Fieschi, looking at the fair Limeuil. "Attend to what +concerns you----" + +The young lady turned to the door. She was expecting Sardini, an Italian +nobleman, whom, subsequently, she made marry her after a little accident +that overtook her in the Queen's dressing-room, and which procured her the +honor of having a queen for her midwife. + +"By Saint Alipantin, Mademoiselle Davila seems to grow prettier every +morning," said Monsieur de Robertet, Secretary of State, as he bowed to the +Queen-mother's ladies. + +The advent of the Secretary of State, though he was exactly as important as +a Cabinet Minister in these days, made no sensation whatever. + +"If you think that, monsieur, do lend me the epigram against Messieurs de +Guise; I know you have it," said Mademoiselle Davila to Robertet. + +"I have it no longer," replied the Secretary, going across to speak to +Madame de Guise. + +"I have it," said the Comte de Grammont to Mademoiselle Davila; "but I will +lend it you on only one condition." + +"On condition----? For shame!" said Madame Fieschi. + +"You do not know what I want," replied Grammont. + +"Oh, that is easy to guess," said la Limeuil. + +The Italian custom of calling ladies, as French peasants call their wives, +la Such-an-one, was at that time the fashion at the Court of France. + +"You are mistaken," the Count replied eagerly; "what I ask is, that a +letter should be delivered to Mademoiselle de Matha, one of the maids on +the other side--a letter from my cousin de Jarnac." + +"Do not compromise my maids; I will give it her myself," said the Countess +Fieschi. "Have you heard any news of what is going on in Flanders?" she +asked Cardinal de Tournon. "Monsieur d'Egmont is at some new pranks, it +would seem." + +"He and the Prince of Orange," said Cypierre, with a highly expressive +shrug. + +"The Duke of Alva and Cardinal de Granvelle are going there, are they not, +monsieur?" asked Amyot of Cardinal de Tournon, who stood, uneasy and +gloomy, between the two groups after his conversation with the Chancellor. + +"We, happily, are quiet, and have to defy heresy only on the stage," said +the young Duke, alluding to the part he had played the day before, that of +a Knight subduing a Hydra with the word "Reformation" on its brow. + +Catherine de' Medici, agreeing on this point with her daughter-in-law, had +allowed a theatre to be constructed in the great hall, which was +subsequently used for the meetings of the States at Blois, the hall between +the buildings of Louis XII. and those of Francis I. + +The Cardinal made no reply, and resumed his walk in the middle of the hall, +talking in a low voice to Monsieur de Robertet and the Chancellor. Many +persons know nothing of the difficulties that Secretaryships of State, now +transformed into Cabinet Ministries, met with in the course of their +establishment, and how hard the Kings of France found it to create them. At +that period a Secretary like Robertet was merely a clerk, of hardly any +account among the princes and magnates who settled the affairs of State. +There were at that time no ministerial functionaries but the Superintendent +of Finance, the Chancellor, and the Keeper of the King's Seals. The King +granted a seat in the Council, by letters patent, to such of his subjects +as might, in his opinion, give useful advice in the conduct of public +affairs. A seat in the Council might be given to a president of a law court +in the Parlement, to a bishop, to an untitled favorite. Once admitted to +the Council, the subject strengthened his position by getting himself +appointed to one of the Crown offices to which a salary was attached--the +government of a province, a constable's sword, a marshal's baton, the +command of the Artillery, the post of High Admiral, the colonelcy of some +military corps, the captaincy of the galleys--or often some function at +Court, such as that of Grand Master of the Household, then held by the Duc +de Guise. + +"Do you believe that the Duc de Nemours will marry Francoise?" asked Madame +de Guise of the Duc d'Orleans' instructor. + +"Indeed, madame, I know nothing but Latin," was the reply. + +This made those smile who were near enough to hear it. Just then the +seduction of Francoise de Rohan by the Duc de Nemours was the theme of +every conversation; but as the Duc de Nemours was cousin to the King, and +also allied to the House of Valois through his mother, the Guises regarded +him as seduced rather than as a seducer. The influence of the House of +Rohan was, however, so great, that after Francis II.'s death the Duc de +Nemours was obliged to quit France in consequence of the lawsuit brought +against him by the Rohans, which was compromised by the offices of the +Guises. His marriage to the Duchesse de Guise, after Poltrot's +assassination, may account for the Duchess' question to Amyot, by +explaining some rivalry, no doubt, between her and Mademoiselle de Rohan. + +"Look, pray, at that party of malcontents," said the Comte de Grammont, +pointing to Messieurs de Coligny, Cardinal de Chatillon, Danville, Thore, +Moret, and several other gentlemen suspected of meddling in the +Reformation, who were standing all together between two windows at the +lower end of the hall. + +"The Huguenots are on the move," said Cypierre. "We know that Theodore de +Beze is at Nerac to persuade the Queen of Navarre to declare herself on +their side by publicly renouncing the Catholic faith," he added, with a +glance at the Bailli d'Orleans, who was Chancellor to the Queen of Navarre, +and a keen observer of the Court. + +"She will do it," said the Bailli d'Orleans drily. + +This personage, the Jacques Coeur of his day, and one of the richest +middle-class men of his time, was named Groslot, and was envoy from Jeanne +d'Albret to the French Court. + +"Do you think so?" said the Chancellor of France to the Chancellor of +Navarre, quite understanding the full import of Groslot's remark. + +"Don't you know," said the rich provincial, "that the Queen of Navarre has +nothing of the woman in her but her sex? She is devoted to none but manly +things; her mind is strong in important matters, and her heart undaunted by +the greatest adversities." + +"Monsieur le Cardinal," said the Chancellor Olivier to Monsieur de Tournon, +who had heard Groslot, "what do you think of such boldness?" + +"The Queen of Navarre does well to choose for her Chancellor a man from +whom the House of Lorraine will need to borrow, and who offers the King his +house when there is a talk of moving to Orleans," replied the Cardinal. + +The Chancellor and the Cardinal looked at each other, not daring to speak +their thoughts; but Robertet expressed them, for he thought it necessary to +make a greater display of devotion to the Guises than these great men, +since he was so far beneath them. + +"It is most unfortunate that the House of Navarre, instead of abjuring the +faith of their fathers, do not abjure the spirit of revenge and rebellion +inspired by the Connetable de Bourbon. We shall see a repetition of the +wars of the Armagnacs and the Bourguignons." + +"No," said Groslot, "for there is something of Louis XI. in the Cardinal de +Lorraine." + +"And in Queen Catherine too," observed Robertet. + +At this moment Madame Dayelle, Mary Stuart's favorite waiting-woman, +crossed the room, and went to the Queen's chamber. The appearance of the +waiting-woman made a little stir. + +"We shall be admitted directly," said Madame Fieschi. + +"I do not think so," said the Duchesse de Guise. "Their Majesties will come +out, for a State Council is to be held." + +La Dayelle slipped into the royal chamber after scratching at the door, a +deferential custom introduced by Catherine de' Medici, and adopted by the +French Court. + +"What is the weather like, my dear Dayelle?" asked Queen Mary, putting her +fair fresh face out between the curtains. + +"Oh! madame----" + +"What is the matter, Dayelle? You might have the bowmen at your heels----" + +"Oh! madame--is the King still sleeping?" + +"Yes." + +"We are to leave the castle, and Monsieur le Cardinal desired me to tell +you so, that you might suggest it to the King." + +"Do you know why, my good Dayelle?" + +"The Reformers mean to carry you off." + +"Oh, this new religion leaves me no peace! I dreamed last night that I was +in prison--I who shall wear the united crowns of the three finest kingdoms +in the world." + +"Indeed! but, madame, it was only a dream." + +"Carried off! That would be rather amusing.--But for the sake of religion, +and by heretics--horrible!" + +The Queen sprang out of bed and seated herself in front of the fireplace in +a large chair covered with red velvet, after wrapping herself in a loose +black velvet gown handed to her by Dayelle, which she tied about the waist +with a silken cord. Dayelle lighted the fire, for the early May mornings +are cool on the banks of the Loire. + +"Then did my uncles get this news in the course of the night?" the Queen +inquired of Dayelle, with whom she was on familiar terms. + +"Early this morning Messieurs de Guise were walking on the terrace to avoid +being overheard, and received there some messengers arriving in hot haste +from various parts of the kingdom where the Reformers are busy. Her +Highness the Queen-mother went out with her Italians hoping to be +consulted, but she was not invited to join the council." + +"She must be furious." + +"All the more so because she had a little wrath left over from yesterday," +replied Dayelle. "They say she was far from rejoiced by the sight of your +Majesty in your dress of woven gold and your pretty veil of tan-colored +crape----" + +"Leave us now, my good Dayelle; the King is waking. Do not let any one in, +not even those who have the _entree_. There are matters of State in hand, +and my uncles will not disturb us." + +"Why, my dear Mary, are you out of bed already? Is it daylight?" said the +young King, rousing himself. + +"My dear love, while we were sleeping, malignants have been wide awake, and +compel us to leave this pleasant home." + +"What do you mean by malignants, my sweetheart? Did we not have the most +delightful festival last evening but for the Latin which those gentlemen +insisted on dropping into our good French?" + +"Oh!" said Mary, "that is in the best taste, and Rabelais brought Latin +into fashion." + +"Ah! you are so learned, and I am only sorry not to be able to do you honor +in verse. If I were not King, I would take back Master Amyot from my +brother, who is being made so wise----" + +"You have nothing to envy your brother for; he writes verses and shows them +to me, begging me to show him mine. Be content, you are by far the best of +the four, and will be as good a king as you are a charming lover. Indeed, +that perhaps is the reason your mother loves you so little. But be easy; I, +dear heart, will love you for all the world." + +"It is no great merit in me to love such a perfect Queen," said the young +King. "I do not know what hindered me from embracing you before the whole +Court last night, when you danced the _branle_ with tapers. I could see how +all the women looked serving-wenches by you, my sweet Marie!" + +"For plain prose your language is charming, my dear heart: it is love that +speaks, to be sure. And, you know, my dear, that if you were but a poor +little page, I should still love you just as much as I now do, and yet it +is a good thing to be able to say, 'My sweetheart is a King!'" + +"Such a pretty arm! Why must we get dressed? I like to push my fingers +through your soft hair and tangle your golden curls. Listen, pretty one; I +will not allow you to let your women kiss your fair neck and your pretty +shoulders any more! I am jealous of the Scotch mists for having touched +them." + +"Will you not come to see my beloved country? The Scotch would love you, +and there would be no rebellions, as there are here." + +"Who rebels in our kingdom?" said Francois de Valois, wrapping himself in +his gown, and drawing his wife on to his knee. + +"Yes, this is very pretty play," said she, withdrawing her cheek from his +kiss. "But you have to reign, if you please, my liege." + +"Who talks of reigning?--This morning I want to----" + +"Need you say 'I want to,' when you can do what you will?--That is the +language of neither king nor lover. However, that is not the matter on +hand--we have important business to attend to." + +"Oh!" said the King, "it is a long time since we have had any business to +do.--Is it amusing?" + +"Not at all," said Mary; "we must make a move." + +"I will wager, my pretty one, that you have seen one of your uncles, who +manage matters so well that, at seventeen, I am a King only in name. I +really know not why, since the first Council, I have ever sat at one; they +could do everything quite as well by setting a crown on my chair; I see +everything through their eyes, and settle matters blindfold." + +"Indeed, monsieur," said the Queen, standing up and assuming an air of +annoyance, "you had agreed never again to give me the smallest trouble on +that score, but to leave my uncles to exercise your royal power for the +happiness of your people. A nice people they are! Why, if you tried to +govern them unaided, they would swallow you whole like a strawberry. They +need warriors to rule them--a stern master gloved with iron; while you--you +are a charmer whom I love just as you are, and should not love if you were +different--do you hear, my lord?" she added, bending down to kiss the boy, +who seemed inclined to rebel against this speech, but who was mollified by +the caress. + +"Oh, if only they were not your uncles!" cried Francis. "I cannot endure +that Cardinal; and when he puts on his insinuating air and his submissive +ways, and says to me with a bow, 'Sire, the honor of the Crown and the +faith of your fathers is at stake, your Majesty will never allow----' and +this and that--I am certain he toils for nothing but his cursed House of +Lorraine." + +"How well you mimic him!" cried the Queen. "But why do you not make these +Guises inform you of what is going forward, so as to govern by and by on +your own account when you are of full age? I am your wife, and your honor +is mine. We will reign, sweetheart--never fear! But all will not be roses +for us till we are free to please ourselves. There is nothing so hard for a +King as to govern! + +"Am I the Queen now, I ask you? Do you think that your mother ever fails to +repay me in evil for what good my uncles may do for the glory of your +throne? And mark the difference! My uncles are great princes, descendants +of Charlemagne, full of goodwill, and ready to die for you; while this +daughter of a leech, or a merchant, Queen of France by a mere chance, is as +shrewish as a citizen's wife who is not mistress in her house. The Italian +woman is provoked that she cannot set every one by the ears, and she is +always coming to me with her pale, solemn face, and then with her pinched +lips she begins: 'Daughter, you are the Queen; I am only the second lady in +the kingdom'--she is furious, you see, dear heart--'but if I were in your +place, I would not wear crimson velvet while the Court is in mourning, and +I would appear in public with my hair plainly dressed and with no jewels, +for what is unseemly in any lady is even more so in a queen. Nor would I +dance myself; I would only see others dance!' That is the kind of thing she +says to me." + +"Oh, dear Heaven!" cried the King, "I can hear her! Mercy, if she only +knew----" + +"Why, you still quake before her. She wearies you--say so? We will send her +away. By my faith, that she should deceive you might be endured, but to be +so tedious----" + +"In Heaven's name, be silent, Marie," said the King, at once alarmed and +delighted. "I would not have you lose her favor." + +"Never fear that she will quarrel with me, with the three finest crowns in +the world on my head, my little King," said Mary Stuart. "Even though she +hates me for a thousand reasons, she flatters me, to win me from my +uncles." + +"Hates you?" + +"Yes, my angel! And if I had not a thousand such proofs as women can give +each other, and such as women only can understand, her persistent +opposition to our happy love-making would be enough. Now, is it my fault if +your father could never endure Mademoiselle de' Medici? In short, she likes +me so little, that you had to be quite in a rage to prevent our having +separate sets of rooms here and at Saint-Germain. She declared that it was +customary for the Kings and Queens of France. Customary!--It was your +father's custom; that is quite intelligible. As to your grandfather, +Francis, the good man established the practice for the convenience of his +love affairs. So be on your guard; if we are obliged to leave this place, +do not let the Grand Master divide us." + +"If we leave? But I do not intend to leave this pretty chateau, whence we +see the Loire and all the country around--a town at our feet, the brightest +sky in the world above us, and these lovely gardens. Or if I go, it will be +to travel with you in Italy and see Raphael's pictures and Saint-Peter's at +Rome." + +"And the orange-trees. Ah, sweet little King, if you could know how your +Mary longs to walk under orange-trees in flower and fruit! Alas! I may +never see one! Oh! to hear an Italian song under those fragrant groves, on +the shore of a blue sea, under a cloudless sky, and to clasp each other +thus!----" + +"Let us be off," said the King. + +"Be off!" cried the Grand Master, coming in. "Yes, Sire, you must be off +from Blois. Pardon my boldness; but circumstances overrule etiquette, and I +have come to beg you to call a Council." + +Mary and Francis had started apart on being thus taken by surprise, and +they both wore the same expression of offended sovereign Majesty. + +"You are too much the Grand Master, Monsieur de Guise," said the young +King, suppressing his wrath. + +"Devil take lovers!" muttered the Cardinal in Catherine's ear. + +"My son," replied the Queen-mother, appearing behind the Cardinal, "the +safety of your person is at stake as well as of your kingdom." + +"Heresy was awake while you slept, Sire," said the Cardinal. + +"Withdraw into the hall," said the little King; "we will hold a Council." + +"Madame," said the Duke to the Queen, "your furrier's son has come with +some furs which are seasonable for your journey, as we shall probably ride +by the Loire.--But he also wishes to speak with madame," he added, turning +to the Queen-mother. "While the King is dressing, would you and Her Majesty +dismiss him forthwith, so that this trifle may no further trouble us." + +"With pleasure," replied Catherine; adding to herself, "If he thinks to be +rid of me by such tricks, he little knows me." + +The Cardinal and the Duke retired, leaving the two Queens with the King. As +he went through the guardroom to go to the council-chamber, the Grand +Master desired the usher to bring up the Queen's furrier. + +When Christophe saw this official coming towards him from one end of the +room to the other, he took him, from his dress, to be some one of +importance, and his heart sank within him; but this sensation, natural +enough at the approach of a critical moment, became sheer terror when the +usher, whose advance had the effect of directing the eyes of the whole +splendid assembly to Christophe with his bundles and his abject looks, said +to him: + +"Their Highnesses the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grand Master desire to +speak to you in the council-room." + +"Has any one betrayed me?" was the thought of this hapless envoy of the +Reformers. + +Christophe followed the usher, his eyes bent on the ground, and never +looked up till he found himself in the spacious council-room--as large +almost as the guardroom. The two Guises were alone, standing in front of +the splendid chimney-place that backed against that in the guardroom, where +the maids of honor were grouped. + +"You have come from Paris? Which road did you take?" the Cardinal said to +Christophe. + +"I came by water, monseigneur," replied the lad. + +"And how did you get into Blois?" said the Grand Master. + +"By the river port, monseigneur." + +"And no one interfered with you?" said the Duke, who was examining the +young man closely. + +"No, monseigneur. I told the first soldier, who made as though he would +stop me, that I had come on duty to wait on the two Queens, and that my +father is furrier to their Majesties." + +"What is doing in Paris?" asked the Cardinal. + +"They are still trying to discover the murderer who killed President +Minard." + +"Are not you the son of my surgeon's greatest friend?" asked the Duc de +Guise, deceived by Christophe's expression of candor, now that his fears +were allayed. + +"Yes, monseigneur." + +The Grand Master went out, hastily lifted the curtain which screened the +double doors of the council-chamber, and showed his face to the crowd, +among whom he looked for the King's surgeon-in-chief. Ambroise Pare, +standing in a corner, was aware of a glance shot at him by the Duke, and +went to him. Ambroise, already inclined to the Reformed religion, ended by +adopting it; but the friendship of the Guises and of the French kings +preserved him from the various disasters that befell the heretics. The +Duke, who felt that he owed his life to Ambroise Pare, had appointed him +surgeon-in-chief to the King within a few days past. + +"What is it, monseigneur," said the leech. "Is the King ill? I should not +be surprised." + +"Why?" + +"The Queen is too fascinating," said the surgeon. + +"Ah!" replied the Duke, surprised. "However, that is not the case," he +went on after a pause. "Ambroise, I want you to see a friend of yours," and +he led him on to the threshold of the council-chamber door and pointed to +Christophe. + +"Ah, to be sure," cried the surgeon, holding out his hand to the youth. +"How is your father, my boy?" + +"Very well, Master Ambroise," Christophe replied. + +"And what are you doing at Court?" Pare went on. "It is not your business +to carry parcels; your father wants to make a lawyer of you. Do you want +the protection of these two great Princes to become a pleader?" + +"Why, yes, indeed," replied Christophe, "but for my father's sake; and if +you can intercede for us, add your entreaties," he went on, with a piteous +air, "to obtain an order from Monseigneur the Grand Master for the payment +of the moneys due to my father, for he does not know which way to turn----" + +The Cardinal and his brother looked at each other, and seemed to be +satisfied. + +"Leave us now," said the Grand Master to Ambroise with a nod.--"And you, my +friend," he added to Christophe, "settle your business quickly, and get +back to Paris. My secretary will give you a pass, for, by Heaven, the roads +will not be pleasant to travel on!" + +Neither of the brothers had the slightest suspicion of the important +interests that lay in Christophe's hands, being now quite assured that he +was certainly the son of Lecamus, a good Catholic, purveyor to the Court, +and that he had come solely to get his money. + +"Take him round to be near the door of the Queen's chamber; she will ask +for him no doubt," said the Cardinal to the surgeon. + + * * * * * + +While the furrier's son was being thus cross-questioned in the +council-room, the King had left his mother and the Queen together, having +gone into his dressing-room, which was beyond a room adjoining the bedroom. + +Catherine, standing in the recess of the deep window, was looking out on +the gardens lost in melancholy thought. She foresaw that one of the +greatest commanders of the age, in the course of that morning, in the very +next hour, would take the place of her son the King, under the terrible +title of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. In the face of such peril she +was alone, without a plan, without defence. Indeed, as she stood there in +her mourning, which she had not ceased to wear since the death of Henri +II., she might have been compared to a phantom, so still were her pale +features as she stood absorbed in thought. Her black eyes seemed to wander +in the indecision for which great politicians are so often blamed, which in +them is the result of the breadth of sight which enables them to see every +difficulty, and to balance one against the other, adding up the sum-total +of risk before taking a part. There was a ringing in her ears, a turmoil in +her blood; but she stood there, nevertheless, calm and dignified, while +gauging the depths of the political abyss beyond the real gulf that lay at +her feet. + +Since the day when the Vidame de Chartres had been arrested, this was the +second of those terrible days of which there were henceforth to be so many +in the course of her royal career; but she never again made a mistake in +the school of power. Though the sceptre seemed always to fly from her +grasp, she meant to seize it, and, in fact, did seize it, by that sheer +force of will which had never given way to the scorn of her father-in-law, +Francis I., and his Court--by whom, though Dauphiness, she had been so +little thought of--nor to the constant denials of Henri II., nor to the +unresting antagonism of her rival, Diane de Poitiers. A man would not have +understood this Queen in check; but Mary Stuart, so fair, so crafty, so +clever, so girlish, and yet so omniscient, watched her out of the corner of +her eye while affecting to warble an Italian air with an indifferent +countenance. Without understanding the tempest of ambition which brought a +cold moisture to the Florentine Queen's brow, the pretty Scotch girl, with +her saucy face, knew that the high position of her uncle the Duc de Guise +was filling Catherine with suppressed fury. Now, nothing amused her so +much as watching her mother-in-law, whom she regarded as an intriguing +adventuress, who, having been humbled, was always prepared for revenge. The +face of the elder was grave and gloomy, a little cadaverous, by reason of +the livid complexion of the Italians, which by daylight looks like yellow +ivory, though by candle-light it is dazzling; while the younger face was +bright and fresh. At sixteen Mary Stuart had that creamy fairness for which +she was so famous. Her bright, rosy face, with clearly-cut features, +sparkled with childish mischief, very frankly expressed in the regular arch +of her brows, the brightness of her eyes, and the pert smile of her pretty +mouth. She had then in perfection that kittenish grace which +nothing--neither captivity nor the sight of the horrible block--ever +completely quelled. + +Thus these two Queens, one in the morning, the other in the summer of life, +were at this time a perfect contrast. Catherine was an imposing sovereign, +an impenetrable widow, with no passion but the love of power. Mary was a +feather-brained and light-hearted wife, who thought of her crowns as +playthings. One looked forward to impending misfortunes; she even had a +glimpse of the murder of the Guises, guessing that this would be the only +way to strike down men who were capable of raising themselves above the +throne and the Parlement; she saw rivers of blood in a long struggle--the +other little dreamed that she would herself be murdered by form of law. + +A curious reflection brought a little calm to the Italian Queen. + +"According to the soothsayer and to Ruggieri's forecast, this reign is soon +to end. My difficulties will not last," thought she. + +And thus, strange to say, an occult science, now forgotten--judicial +astrology--was a support to Catherine at this juncture, as it was +throughout her life; for the belief grew constantly from seeing the +predictions of those who practised it realized with the greatest +exactitude. + +"You are very serious, madame," said Mary Stuart, taking from Dayelle's +hands her little cap, pinched down over the parting of her hair with two +frilled wings of handsome lace beyond the puffs of wavy yellow hair that +shadowed her temples. + +The painters of the time have so amply perpetuated this cap, that it now +belongs essentially to the Queen of Scots, though it was Catherine who +invented it when she went into mourning for Henri II.; but she could not +wear it with such good effect as her daughter-in-law, to whom it was +infinitely more becoming. And this was not the smallest of the grievances +harbored by the Queen-mother against the young Queen. + +"Does your Majesty mean that for a reproof?" said Catherine, turning to her +daughter-in-law. + +"I owe respect, and should not dare----" said the Scotch-woman meaningly, +with a glance at Dayelle. + +Between the two Queens the favorite waiting-woman stood like the +figure-head on a fire-dog; an approving smile might cost her her life. + +"How can I be as gay as you after losing the late King, and when I see my +son's kingdom on the eve of a conflagration?" + +"Politics do not much concern women," replied Mary Stuart. "Besides, my +uncles are there." + +These two sentences, in the circumstances, were two poisoned arrows. + +"Let us see our furs then," the Italian replied, "and so turn our minds to +our own business, while your uncles settle that of the kingdom." + +"Oh, but we shall attend the Council, madame; we are of more use there than +you suppose." + +"We?" said Catherine, with feigned astonishment. "I, for my part, do not +know Latin!" + +"You fancy me so learned?" said Mary Stuart, with a laugh. "Nay, madame, I +swear to you that at this moment I am studying in the hope of rivaling the +Medici and of knowing some day how to heal the wounds of the country." + +This sharp shaft pierced Catherine to the heart, for it was an allusion to +the origin of the Medici, who were descended, as some said, from a leech, +or, as others had it, from a rich drug merchant. She had no reply ready. +Dayelle colored when her mistress looked to her for the applause which +everybody, and even queens, expect from their inferiors when they have no +better audience. + +"Your witticisms, madame, cannot, unfortunately, heal either the maladies +of the State or those of the Church," said Catherine, with calm and +dignified coldness. "My forefathers' knowledge of such matters won them +thrones; while you, if you persist in jesting in the midst of danger, are +like enough to lose yours." + +At this juncture Dayelle opened the door to Christophe, shown in by the +chief physician himself after scratching at the door. + +The young Reformer wanted to study Catherine's countenance, and affected a +shyness, which was natural enough on finding himself in this place; but he +was surprised by Mary's eagerness. She rushed at the boxes to look at her +surcoat. + +"Madame," said Christophe, addressing Catherine. + +He turned his back on the other Queen and Dayelle, promptly taking +advantage of the attention the two were devoting to the furs to strike a +bold blow. + +"What do you want of me?" asked Catherine, looking keenly at him. + +Christophe had placed the agreement proposed by the Prince de Conde, with +the Reformer's plan of action and an account of their forces, over his +heart, between his cloth jerkin and his shirt, wrapped inside the furrier's +bill of what Queen Catherine owed him. + +"Madame," said he, "my father is in dreadful want of money, and if you +would condescend to look through the accounts," he added, unfolding the +paper and slipping the agreement under it, "you will see that your Majesty +owes him six thousand crowns. May your goodness have pity on us! See, +madame." + +And he held out the document. + +"Read it. This dates so far back as the accession of the late King." + +Catherine was bewildered by the preamble to the address, but she did not +lose her presence of mind; she hastily rolled up the paper, admiring the +young man's readiness and daring. She saw from these masterly tactics that +he would understand her, so she tapped him on the head with the roll of +paper, and said:--"You are very ill advised, my young friend, in handing +the bill in before the furs. Learn some knowledge of women! You must never +ask for your money till we are perfectly satisfied." + +"Is that the tradition?" said the young Queen to her mother-in-law, who +made no reply. + +"Ah, mesdames, excuse my father," said Christophe. "If he had not wanted +the money, you would not have your furs. The country is up in arms, and +there is so much danger on the roads, that only our great need induced me +to come. No one else would risk his life." + +"This lad is quite fresh," said Mary Stuart, smiling. + +It is not superfluous to the better understanding of this important little +scene to remark that a surcoat was, as the name implies, a sort of +close-fitting jacket or spencer which ladies wore over their dress, and +which wrapped them closely, shaped down to the hips. This garment protected +the back, chest, and throat from the cold. Surcoats were lined with fur +which turned up over the stuff, forming a more or less wide border. Mary +Stuart while trying on her surcoat was looking at herself in a large +Venetian mirror, to see the effect of it at the back; thus she had left her +mother-in-law liberty to glance at the packet of papers, of which the +volume might otherwise have excited her suspicions. + +"Does a man ever speak to a lady of the dangers he has incurred when he is +safe and sound in her presence?" said she, turning round on Christophe. + +"Oh, madame, I have your account too," said he, looking at her with +well-acted simplicity. + +The young Queen looked at him from head to foot without taking the paper; +but she observed, without drawing any conclusions at the moment, that he +had taken Queen Catherine's bill out of his breast, and drew hers out of +his pocket. Nor did she see in the lad's eyes the admiration that her +beauty won her from all the world; but she was thinking so much of her +surcoat, that she did not at once wonder what could be the cause of his +indifference. + +"Take it, Dayelle," said she to the waiting-woman. "You can give the +account to Monsieur de Versailles (Lomenie), and desire him, from me, to +pay it." + +"Indeed, madame, but if you do not give me an order signed by the King, or +by His Highness the Grand Master, who is at hand, your gracious promise +will have no effect." + +"You are rather hastier than beseems a subject, my friend," said Mary +Stuart. "So you do not believe in royal promises?" + +The King came in dressed in his long silk hose and trunks, the breeches of +the time, but wore neither doublet nor cloak; he had only a rich wrapper of +velvet lined throughout with fur; for wrapper, a word of modern use, can +alone describe the _neglige_ of this apparel. + +"Who is the rascal that doubts your word?" said the young King, who, though +at a distance, had heard his wife's speech. + +The door of the King's closet was hidden by the bed. This closet was +subsequently called the old closet (_le Cabinet vieux_) to distinguish it +from the splendid painted closet constructed for Henri III. on the other +side of the room adjoining the hall of the States-General. Henri III. hid +the assassins in the old closet, and sent to desire the Duc de Guise to +attend him there; while he, during the murder, remained concealed in the +new closet, whence he emerged only to see this overweening subject die--a +subject for whom there could be no prison, no tribunal, no judges, no laws +in the kingdom. But for these dreadful events, the historian could now +hardly identify the former uses of these rooms and halls filled with +soldiers. A sergeant writes to his sweetheart on the spot where Catherine +gravely considered her struggle with parties. + +"Come, my boy," said the Queen-mother; "I will see that you are paid. Trade +must flourish, and money is its main sinew." + +"Ay, go, my good youth," said the young Queen, laughing; "my august mother +understands matters of trade better than I do." + +Catherine was about to leave the room without replying to this innuendo; +but it struck her that her indifference might arouse suspicions, and she +retorted on her daughter-in-law: + +"And you, my dear, trade in love." + +Then she went downstairs. + +"Put all those things away, Dayelle.--And come to the council-room, Sire," +said the young Queen to the King, enchanted at having to decide the +important question of the lieutenancy of the kingdom in her mother-in-law's +absence. + +Mary Stuart took the King's arm. Dayelle went out first, speaking a word to +the pages, and one of them--young Teligny, fated to perish miserably on the +night of Saint-Bartholomew--shouted out: + +"The King." + +On hearing the cry, the two musketeers carried arms, and the two pages led +the way towards the council-chamber between the line of courtiers on one +side and the line formed by the maids of honor to the two Queens on the +other. All the members of the Council then gathered round the door of the +hall, which was at no great distance from the staircase. The Grand Master, +the Cardinal, and the Chancellor advanced to meet the two young sovereigns, +who smiled to some of the maids, or answered the inquiries of some of the +Court favorites more intimate than the rest. + +The Queen, however, evidently impatient, dragged Francis II. on towards the +vast council-room. As soon as the heavy thud of the arquebuses dropping on +the floor again announced that the royal pair had gone in, the pages put on +their caps, and the conversations in the various groups took their course +again on the gravity of the business about to be discussed. + +"Chiverni was sent to fetch the Connetable, and he has not come," said one. + +"There is no prince of the blood present," remarked another. + +The Chancellor and Monsieur de Tournon looked anxious. + +"The Grand Master has sent word to the Keeper of the Seals to be sure not +to fail to attend this Council; a good many letters patent will be issued, +no doubt." + +"How is it that the Queen-mother remains below, in her own rooms, at such a +juncture?" + +"They are going to make things hot for us," said Groslot to Cardinal de +Chatillon. + +In short, every one had something to say. Some were pacing the room from +end to end, others were flitting round the maids of honor, as though it +could be possible to catch a few words through a wall three feet thick, or +two doors and the heavy curtains that screened them. + +The King, seated at one end of the long table covered with blue velvet, +which stood in the middle of the room, his young Queen in an armchair at +his side, was waiting for his mother. Robertet was mending his pens. The +two Cardinals, the Grand Master, the Chancellor, the Keeper of the +Seals--in short, the whole assembly, looked at the little King, wondering +why he did not give the word for them all to be seated. + +"Are we to sit in council in the absence of the Queen-mother?" the +Chancellor asked, addressing the young King. + +The two Guises ascribed Catherine's absence to some cunning trick of their +niece's. Then, spurred by a significant look, the much daring Cardinal said +to the King: + +"Is it your Majesty's goodwill that we should proceed without madame your +mother?" + +Francis, not daring to have an opinion of his own, replied: + +"Gentlemen, be seated." + +The Cardinal briefly pointed out the dangers of the situation. This great +politician, who showed astounding skill in this business, broached the +question of the lieutenancy amid utter silence. The young King was, no +doubt, conscious of an awkwardness, and guessed that his mother had a real +sense of the rights of the Crown, and a knowledge of the danger that +threatened his power, for he replied to a direct question on the Cardinal's +part: + +"We will wait for my mother." + +Enlightened by this inexplicable delay on Queen Catherine's part, Mary +Stuart suddenly recalled in a single flash of thought three incidents which +were clear in her memory. In the first place, the bulk of the packet +presented to her mother-in-law, which she had seen, though so inattentive +at the moment (for a woman who seems to see nothing is still a lynx), then +the place where Christophe had carried them to separate them from hers. + +"Why?" she said to herself. And then she remembered the boy's cold look, +which she at once ascribed to the Reformers' hatred of the Guises' niece. A +voice within her cried, "Is he not an envoy from the Huguenots?" + +Acting, as all hasty persons do, on the first impulse, she exclaimed: + +"I myself will go and fetch my mother." + +She rushed away and down the stairs, to the great amazement of the +gentlemen and ladies of the Court. She went down to her mother-in-law's +rooms, crossed the guardroom, opened the door of the bedroom as stealthily +as a thief, crept noiselessly over the carpet as silently as a shadow, and +could see her nowhere. Then she thought she could surprise her in the +splendid private room between the bedroom and the oratory. The arrangement +of this oratory is perfectly recognizable to this day; the fashion of the +time then allowed it to serve all the purposes in private life which are +now served by a boudoir. + +By a piece of good-fortune, quite unaccountable when we see in how squalid +a state the Crown has left this chateau, the beautiful paneling of +Catherine's closet exists to this day; in the fine carving the curious may +still discern traces of Italian magnificence, and discover the +hiding-places the Queen-mother had contrived there. + +A somewhat exact description of these curiosities is indeed indispensable +to a comprehension of the scene that took place there. The woodwork at that +time consisted of about a hundred and eighty small oblong panels, of which +a hundred or so still remain, each carved with a different design, +obviously suggested by the most elegant Italian arabesques. The wood is +holm-oak; the red ground which is found under the coat of limewash, applied +at the time of the cholera--a quite useless precaution--shows plainly that +these panels were gilt; and in spots where the whitewash has rubbed off we +see that some portions of the design were in color, blue, red, or green +against the gold background. The number of these panels shows an evident +intention to cheat investigation; but if there could be a doubt, the keeper +of the chateau, while holding up Catherine's memory to the execration of +all living men, shows to visitors, at the bottom of the paneling, and on a +level with the floor, a somewhat heavy skirting which can be raised, and +under which there are a number of ingenious springs. By pressing a knob +thus concealed, the Queen could open certain of these panels, known to her +alone, behind which lay a hiding-place of the same oblong shape as the +panels, but of varying depth. To this day a practised hand would find it +difficult to detect which of these panels would open on its invisible +hinges; and when the eye was diverted by the skilfully combined colors and +gilding that covered the cracks, it is easy to imagine that it was +impossible to discover one or two panels among nearly two hundred. + +At the moment when Mary Stuart laid her hand on the somewhat elaborate +latch of the door to the closet, the Italian Queen, having convinced +herself already of the importance of the Prince de Conde schemes, had just +pressed the spring hidden by the skirting, one of the panels had fallen +open, and Catherine had turned to the table to take up the papers and hide +them, to turn her attention to the safeguard of the devoted messenger who +had brought them to her. When she heard the door open, she at once guessed +that no one but Queen Mary would venture to come in unannounced. + +"You are lost," she said to Christophe, seeing that she could neither hide +the papers nor close the panel promptly enough to preserve the secret of +her hiding-place. + +Christophe's only reply was a sublime look. + +"_Povero mio!_" said Catherine, before turning to her daughter-in-law. +"Treason, madame!" she exclaimed. "I have them fast! Send for the Cardinal +and the Duke. And be sure," she added, pointing to Christophe, "that this +fellow does not escape!" + +Thus in an instant this masterful woman saw that it would be necessary to +give up the hapless young man; she could not hide him, it was impossible to +help him to escape; and besides, though a week ago he might have been +saved, now the Guises had, since that morning, been aware of the +conspiracy, and they too must have the lists which she held in her hand, +and were drawing all the Reformers into a trap. And so, pleased at finding +her adversaries in the mind she had hoped for, now that the plot had become +known, policy required her to assume the merit of discovering it. + +These dreadful considerations flashed through her mind in the brief moment +while the young Queen was opening the door. Mary Stuart stood silent for an +instant. Her expression lost its brightness and assumed that keenness which +suspicion always gives the eye, and which in her was terrible by the sudden +contrast. She looked from Christophe to the Queen-mother, and from the +Queen-mother to Christophe, with a glance of malignant doubt. Then she +snatched up a bell, which brought in one of Catherine's maids of honor. + +"Mademoiselle du Rouet, send in the captain of the Guard," said Mary +Stuart, in breach of every law of etiquette, necessarily set aside in such +circumstances. + +While the young Queen gave her order, Catherine stood looking at +Christophe, as much as to say, "Courage!" The young Reformer understood, +and replied by an expression which conveyed, "Sacrifice me, as they have +sacrificed me!" + +"Put your trust in me," Catherine answered by a gesture. + +Then when her daughter-in-law turned upon her, she was deeply engaged in +examining the papers. + +"You are of the Reformed religion?" said Mary Stuart to Christophe. + +"Yes, madame." + +"Then I was not mistaken," she muttered to herself, as she read in the +young man's eyes the same expression in which coldness and aversion lurked +behind a look of humility. + +Pardaillan appeared at once, sent down by the two Princes of Lorraine and +the King. The captain sent for by Mary Stuart followed this young man--a +most devoted adherent of the Guises. + +"Go from me to the King, beg him, with the Cardinal and the Grand Master, +to come here at once, and tell them I would not take such a liberty but +that something of serious importance has occurred.--Go, Pardaillan.--And +you, Lewiston, keep guard over this Reformed traitor," she added to the +Scotchman in their native tongue, pointing to Christophe. + +The two Queens did not speak till the King came. It was a terrible pause. +Mary Stuart had shown her mother-in-law the whole extent of the part her +uncles made her play; her unsleeping and habitual distrust stood revealed; +and her youthful conscience felt how disgraceful such a part must be to a +great Queen. Catherine, on her side, had betrayed herself in her alarm, and +feared that she had been understood; she was trembling for the future. The +two women, one ashamed and furious, the other vicious but calm, withdrew +into the window bay, one leaning on the right side, the other on the left; +but their looks were so expressive, that each turned away, and with a +common instinct looked out of the window at the sky. These two women, +clever as they were, at that moment had no more wit than the commonest. +Perhaps it is always so when circumstances overpower men. There is always a +moment when even genius is conscious of its smallness in the presence of a +great catastrophe. + +As for Christophe, he felt like a man falling into an abyss. Lewiston, the +Scotch captain, listened to the silence, looking at the furrier's son and +the two Queens with a soldier's curiosity. The King's entrance put an end +to this painful situation. + +The Cardinal went straight up to Queen Catherine. + +"I have in my hand all the threads of the plot hatched by the heretics; +they sent this boy to me carrying this treaty and these documents," said +Catherine in an undertone. + +While Catherine was explaining matters to the Cardinal, Queen Mary was +speaking a few words in the Grand Master's ear. + +"What is this all about?" asked the young King, standing alone amid this +conflict of violent interests. + +"The proofs of what I was telling your Majesty are already to hand," said +the Cardinal, seizing the papers. + +The Duc de Guise, unmindful of the fact that he was interrupting him, drew +his brother aside and said in a whisper: + +"This then makes me Lieutenant-General without any opposition." + +A keen glance was the Cardinal's only reply, by which he conveyed to his +brother that he had already appreciated the advantages to be derived from +Catherine's false position. + +"Who sent you?" asked the Duke of Christophe. + +"Chaudieu the preacher," he replied. + +"Young man, you lie," said the Duke roughly. "It was the Prince de Conde." + +"The Prince de Conde, monseigneur," replied Christophe, with a look of +surprise. "I never saw him. I belong to the Palais. I am working under +Monsieur de Thou. I am his clerk, and he does not know that I have joined +the religion. I only submitted to the preacher's entreaties." + +"That will do," said the Cardinal.--"Call Monsieur de Robertet," he added +to Lewiston, "for this young villain is craftier than old politicians. He +has taken us in, my brother and me, when we should have given him the Host +without confession." + +"You are no child, by Heaven!" cried the Duke, "and you shall be treated as +a man." + +"They hoped to win over your august mother," said the Cardinal, turning to +the King, and trying to lead him aside to bring him to his way of thinking. + +"Alas!" replied Catherine, speaking to her son with a reproachful air, and +stopping him just as the Cardinal was taking him into the oratory to +subjugate him with dangerous eloquence, "you here see the effect of the +position I am placed in. I am supposed to rebel against my lack of +influence in public affairs--I, the mother of four princes of the House of +Valois." + +The young King prepared to listen. Mary Stuart, seeing his brow knit, led +him off into the window recess, where she cajoled him with gentle speeches +in a low voice; much the same, no doubt, as those she had lavished on him +when he rose. + +The two brothers meanwhile read the papers handed over to them by the +Queen-mother. Finding in them much information of which their spies and +Monsieur de Braguelonne, the governor of the Chatelet, knew nothing, they +were inclined to believe in Catherine's good faith. Robertet came in and +had private instructions with regard to Christophe. The hapless tool of the +leaders of the Reformation was led away by four men of the Scotch Guard, +who took him downstairs and handed him over to Monsieur de Montresor, the +Provost of the chateau. This terrible personage himself escorted Christophe +with five or six sergeants to the prison situated in the vaulted cellars of +the now ruined tower, which the verger of the chateau of Blois shows the +visitor, and says that these were the _oubliettes_. + +After such an event the Council could only be an empty form: the King, the +young Queen, the Grand Master, and the Cardinal de Lorraine went back to +the council-room, taking with them Catherine, quite conquered, who only +spoke to approve of the measures demanded by the Guises. In spite of some +slight opposition on the part of the Chancellor Olivier, the only person +to utter a word suggesting the independence needful to the exercise of his +functions, the Duc de Guise was appointed Lieutenant-General of the +kingdom. Robertet carried the motions with a promptitude arguing such +devotion as might be well called complicity. + +The King, with his mother on his arm, once more crossed the guardroom, and +announced to the Court that he proposed to move to Amboise on the following +day. This royal residence had been unused since Charles VIII. had very +involuntarily killed himself there by striking his head against the +pediment of a door that was being carved for him, believing that he could +pass under the scaffolding without bending his head. Catherine, to mask the +schemes of the Guises, had announced her intention of finishing the chateau +of Amboise on behalf of the Crown at the same time as her own chateau of +Chenonceaux. But no one was deceived by this pretence, and the Court +anticipated strange events. + + * * * * * + +After spending about two hours in accustoming himself to the darkness of +his dungeon, Christophe found that it was lined with boards, clumsy indeed, +but thick enough to make the square box healthy and habitable. The door, +like that into a pig-sty, had compelled him to bend double to get into it. +On one side of this trap a strong iron grating admitted a little air and +light from the passage. This arrangement, exactly like that of the crypts +at Venice, showed very plainly that the architect of the chateau of Blois +belonged to the Venetian school, which gave so many builders to Europe in +the Middle Ages. By sounding the walls above the woodwork, Christophe +discovered that the two walls which divided this cell from two others, to +the right and left, were built of brick; and as he knocked, to estimate the +thickness of the wall, he was not a little surprised to hear some one +knocking on the other side. + +"Who are you?" asked his neighbor, speaking into the corridor. + +"I am Christophe Lecamus." + +"And I," said the other voice, "am Captain Chaudieu. I was caught this +evening at Beaugency; but, happily, there is nothing against me." + +"Everything is discovered," said Christophe; "so you are saved from the +worst of it." + +"We have three thousand men at this present time in the forests of +Vendomois, all men determined enough to seize the Queen-mother and the King +on their journey. Happily, la Renaudie was cleverer than I; he escaped. You +had just set out when the Guisards caught us." + +"But I know nothing of la Renaudie." + +"Pooh! my brother told me everything," replied the captain. + +On hearing this, Christophe went back to his bench and made no further +reply to anything the so-called captain could say to him, for he had had +enough experience of the law to know how necessary it was to be cautious in +prison. + +In the middle of the night he saw the pale gleam of a lantern in the +passage, after hearing the unlocking of the ponderous bolts that closed the +iron door of the cellar. The provost himself had come to fetch Christophe. +This attention to a man who had been left in the dungeon without food +struck Christophe as strange; but the upset at Court had, no doubt, led to +his being forgotten. One of the provost's sergeants bound his hands with a +cord, which he held till they had reached one of the low rooms in Louis +XII.'s part of the chateau, which evidently was the ante-room to the +apartments of some person of importance. The sergeant and the provost bid +him be seated on a bench, where the sergeant tied his feet as he had +already tied his hands. At a sign from Monsieur de Montresor, the sergeant +then left them. + +"Now listen to me, my young friend," said the provost to Christophe, and +the lad observed that he was in full dress at that hour of the night, for +his fingers fidgeted with the collar of his Order. This circumstance made +the furrier's son thoughtful; he saw that there was more to come. At this +moment, certainly, they could not be going either to try him or to hang +him. + +"My young friend, you may spare yourself much suffering by telling me here +and now all you know of the communications between Queen Catherine and +Monsieur de Conde. Not only will you not be hurt, but you will be taken +into the service of Monseigneur, the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, who +likes intelligent people, and who was favorably impressed by your looks. +The Queen-mother is to be packed off to Florence, and Monsieur de Conde +will no doubt stand his trial. So, take my word for it, small men will do +well to attach themselves to the great men in power.--Tell me everything, +and it will be to your advantage." + +"Alas, monsieur," replied Christophe, "I have nothing to say. I have +confessed all I know to Messieurs de Guise in the Queen's room. Chaudieu +persuaded me to place those papers in the hands of the Queen-mother, by +making me believe that the peace of the country was involved." + +"You never saw the Prince de Conde?" + +"Never," said Christophe. + +Thereupon Monsieur de Montresor left Christophe and went into an adjoining +room. + +Christophe was not long left to himself. The door by which he had entered +soon opened for several men to pass in, who did not shut it, letting +various far from pleasant sounds come in from the courtyard. Blocks of wood +and instruments were brought in, evidently intended to torture the +Reformers' messenger. Christophe's curiosity soon found matter for +reflection in the preparations the newcomers were making under his very +eyes. Two coarse and poorly-clad varlets obeyed the orders of a powerful +and thick-set man, who, on coming in, had a look at Christophe like that of +a cannibal at his victim; he had scrutinized him from head to foot, taking +stock of his sinews, of their strength and power of resistance, with the +calculating eye of a connoisseur. This man was the Blois executioner. +Backwards and forwards several times, his men brought in a mattress, wooden +wedges, planks, and other objects, of which the use seemed neither obvious +nor hopeful to the unhappy boy for whom the preparations were being made, +and whose blood ran cold in his veins with apprehension, which though vague +was appalling. Two other men came in when Monsieur de Montresor reappeared. + +"What, is nothing ready yet?" said the chief provost, to whom the two +newcomers bowed respectfully. "Do you know," he went on to the big man and +his two satellites, "that Monsieur le Cardinal supposes you to be getting +on with your work?--Doctor," he added, turning to one of the newcomers, +"here is your man," and he pointed to Christophe. + +The doctor went up to the prisoner, untied his hands, and sounded his back +and chest. Science quite seriously repeated the torturer's investigation. +Meanwhile, a servant in the livery of the House of Guise brought in several +chairs, a table, and all the materials for writing. + +"Begin your report," said Monsieur de Montresor to the second person who +had come in, dressed in black, who was a clerk. + +Then he came back to stand by Christophe, to whom he said very mildly: + +"My boy, the Chancellor, having learned that you refuse to give +satisfactory replies to my questions, has decided that you must be put to +the torture--ordinary and extraordinary." + +"Is he in good health, and can he bear it?" the clerk asked of the doctor. + +"Yes," said the man of medicine, a physician attached to the House of +Lorraine. + +"Well, then, retire to the adjoining room; we will send for you if it is +necessary to consult you." + +The physician left the room. + +His first panic past, Christophe collected all his courage. The hour of his +martyrdom was come. He now looked on with cold curiosity at the +arrangements made by the executioner and his varlets. After hastily making +up a bed, they proceeded to prepare a machine called the boot, consisting +of boards, between which each leg of the victim was placed, surrounded with +pads. The machinery used by bookbinders to press the volumes between two +boards, which they tighten with cords, will give a very exact idea of the +way in which each leg was encased. It is easy, then, to imagine the effect +of a wedge driven home by a mallet between the two cases in which the legs +were confined, and which, being tightly bound with rope, could not yield. +The wedges were driven in at the knees and ankles, as if to split a log of +wood. The choice of these two spots where there is least flesh, and where, +in consequence, the wedge found room at the expense of the bones, made this +form of torture horribly painful. In ordinary torture four wedges were +driven in--two at the knees and two at the ankles; in extraordinary torture +as many as eight were employed, if the physician pronounced that the +victim's powers of endurance were not exhausted. + +At this period the boots were also applied to the hands; but as time +pressed, the Cardinal, the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and the +Chancellor spared Christophe this. + +The preamble to the examination was written; the provost himself had +dictated a few sentences, walking about the room with a meditative air, and +requiring Christophe to tell him his name--Christian name--age, and +profession; then he asked him from whom he had received the papers he had +delivered to the Queen. + +"From Chaudieu the minister," said he. + +"Where did he give them to you?" + +"At my own home in Paris." + +"When he handed them to you, he must have told you whether the Queen-mother +would receive you well." + +"He told me nothing of the kind," replied Christophe. "He only desired me +to give them secretly to Queen Catherine." + +"Then have you often seen Chaudieu, that he knew that you were coming +here?" + +"It was not from me that he heard that I was to carry the furs to the two +Queens, and at the same time to ask in my father's behalf for the money +owed him by the Queen-mother; nor had I time to ask him who had told him." + +"But those papers, given to you without any wrapper or seal, contain a +treaty between the rebels and Queen Catherine. You must have known that +they exposed you to the risk of suffering the punishment dealt out to those +who are implicated in a rebellion." + +"Yes." + +"The persons who induced you to commit an act of high treason must have +promised you some reward and the Queen-mother's patronage." + +"I did it out of attachment to Chaudieu, the only person I saw." + +"Then you persist in declaring that you did not see the Prince de Conde?" + +"Yes." + +"Did not the Prince de Conde tell you that the Queen-mother was inclined to +enter into his views in antagonism to the Guises?" + +"I did not see him." + +"Take care. One of your accomplices, la Renaudie, is arrested. Strong as he +is, he could not resist the torture that awaits you, and at last confessed +that he, as well as the Prince, had had speech with you. If you wish to +escape the anguish of torture, I beg you to tell the simple truth. Then +perhaps you may win your pardon." + +Christophe replied that he could not tell anything of which he had no +knowledge, nor betray accomplices, when he had none. On hearing this, the +provost nodded to the executioner, and went back into the adjoining room. + +On seeing this, Christophe knit his brows, wrinkling his forehead with a +nervous spasm, and preparing to endure. He clenched his fists with such a +rigid clutch that the nails ran into the flesh without his feeling it. The +three men took him up, carried him to the camp bed, and laid him there, his +legs hanging down. While the executioner tied him fast with stout ropes, +his two men each fitted a leg into a boot; the cords were tightened by +means of a wrench without giving the victim any great pain. When each leg +was thus held in a vise, the executioner took up his mallet and his wedges, +and looked alternately at the sufferer and the clerk. + +"Do you persist in your denial?" said the clerk. + +"I have told the truth," replied Christophe. + +"Then go on," said the clerk, shutting his eyes. + +The cords were tightened to the utmost, and this moment, perhaps, was the +most agonizing of all the torture; the flesh was so suddenly compressed +that the blood was violently thrown back into the trunk. The poor boy could +not help screaming terribly; he seemed about to faint. The doctor was +called back. He felt Christophe's pulse, and desired the executioner to +wait for a quarter of an hour before driving in the wedges, to give time +for the blood to recover its circulation and sensation to return. + +The clerk charitably told Christophe that if he could not better endure +even the beginnings of the suffering he could not escape, he would do +better to reveal all he knew; but Christophe's only reply was: + +"The King's tailor! the King's tailor!" + +"What do you mean by saying that?" asked the clerk. + +"Foreseeing the torments I shall go through," said Christophe, slowly, to +gain time and to rest, "I am summoning all my strength, and trying to +reinforce it by remembering the martyrdom endured for the sacred cause of +the Reformation by the late King's tailor, who was tortured in the presence +of the King and of Madame de Valentinois; I will try to be worthy of him!" + +While the physician was advising the hapless man not to drive his torturers +to extremities, the Cardinal and the Duke, impatient to know the results of +this examination, came in and desired Christophe to reveal the truth at +once. The furrier's son repeated the only confession he would allow himself +to make, implicating nobody but Chaudieu. + +The Princes nodded. On this, the executioner and his foreman seized their +mallets, each took a wedge and drove it home between the boots, one +standing on the right, and the other on the left. The executioner stood at +the knees, the assistant at the ankles, opposite. The eyes of the witnesses +of this hideous act were fixed on Christophe's, who, excited no doubt by +the presence of these grand personages, flashed such a look at them that +his eyes sparkled like flame. + +At the two next wedges a horrible groan escaped him. Then when he saw the +men take up the wedges for the severer torture, he remained silent; but his +gaze assumed such dreadful fixity, and flashed at the two Princes such a +piercing magnetic fluid, that the Duke and the Cardinal were both obliged +to look down. Philippe le Bel had experienced the same defeat when he +presided at the torture by hammer, inflicted in his presence on the +Templars. This consisted in hitting the victim on the chest with one arm of +the balanced hammer used to coin money, which was covered with a leather +pad. There was one knight whose eyes were so fixed on the King that he was +fascinated, and could not take his gaze off the sufferer. At the third blow +the King rose and went away, after hearing himself called upon to appear +before the judgment of God within a year--as he did. + +At the fifth wedge, the first of the greater torture, Christophe said to +the Cardinal: + +"Cut my misery short, monseigneur; it is useless." + +The Cardinal and the Duke withdrew, and Christophe could hear from the next +room these words, spoken by Queen Catherine: + +"Go on, go on; after all, he is only a heretic!" + +She thought it prudent to appear more severe to her accomplice than his +executioners were. + +The sixth and seventh wedges were driven in, and Christophe complained no +more, his face shone with a strange radiance, due, no doubt, to the immense +strength he derived from fanatical excitement. In what else but in feeling +can we hope to find the fulcrum enabling a man to endure such anguish? At +last, when the executioner was about to insert the eighth wedge, Christophe +smiled. This dreadful torment had lasted one hour. + +The clerk went to fetch the leech, to know whether the eighth wedge could +be driven in without endangering the sufferer's life. The Duke meanwhile +came in again to see Christophe. + +"By our Lady! you are a fine fellow," said he, leaning down to speak in his +ear. "I like a brave man. Enter my service, you shall be happy and rich, my +favors will heal your bruised limbs; I will ask you to do nothing cowardly, +like rejoining your own party to betray their plans; there are always +plenty of traitors, and the proof is to be found in the prisons of Blois. +Only tell me on what terms are the Queen-mother and the Prince de Conde." + +"I know nothing about it, monseigneur," cried Lecamus. + +The doctor came in, examined the victim, and pronounced that he could bear +the eighth wedge. + +"Drive it in," said the Cardinal. "After all, as the Queen says, he is only +a heretic," he added, with a hideous smile at Christophe. + +Catherine herself slowly came in from the adjoining room, stood in front of +Christophe, and gazed at him coldly. She was the object of attentive +scrutiny to the two brothers, who looked alternately at the Queen-mother +and her accomplice. The whole future life of this ambitious woman depended +on this solemn scrutiny; she felt the greatest admiration for Christophe's +courage, and she looked at him sternly; she hated the Guises, and she +smiled upon them. + +"Come," said she, "young man, confess that you saw the Prince de Conde; you +will be well rewarded." + +"Oh, madame, what a part you are playing!" cried Christophe, in pity for +her. + +The Queen started. + +"He is insulting me! Is he not to be hanged?" said she to the two brothers, +who stood lost in thought. + +"What a woman!" cried the Grand Master, who was consulting his brother in +the window recess. + +"I will stay in France and be revenged," thought the Queen. "Proceed, he +must confess or let him die!" she exclaimed, addressing Monsieur de +Montresor. + +The provost turned away, the executioners were busy, Catherine had an +opportunity of giving the martyr a look, which no one else saw, and which +fell like dew on Christophe. The great Queen's eyes seemed to glisten with +moisture; they were, in fact, full of tears, two tears at once repressed +and dry. The wedge was driven home, one of the boards between which it was +inserted split. Christophe uttered a piercing cry; then his face became +radiant; he thought he was dying. + +"Let him die," said the Cardinal, echoing Queen Catherine's words with a +sort of irony. "No, no," he added to the provost, "do not let us lose this +clue." + +The Duke and the Cardinal held a consultation in a low voice. + +"What is to be done with him?" asked the executioner. + +"Send him to prison at Orleans," said the Duke.--"And, above all," he said +to Monsieur de Montresor, "do not hang him without orders from me." + +The excessive sensitiveness of every internal organ, strung to the highest +pitch by the endurance which worked upon every nerve in his frame, no less +affected every sense in Christophe. He alone heard these words spoken by +the Duc de Guise in the Cardinal's ear: + +"I have not given up all hope of hearing the truth from this little man." + +As soon as the two Princes had left the room, the executioners unpacked the +victim's legs, with no attempt at gentle handling. + +"Did you ever see a criminal with such fortitude?" said the head man to his +assistants. "The rogue has lived through the infliction of the eighth +wedge; he ought to have died. I am the loser of the price of his body." + +"Untie me without hurting me, my good friends," said poor Christophe. "Some +day I will reward you." + +"Come, show some humanity," said the doctor. "Monseigneur the Duke esteems +the young man, and commended him to my care," cried the leech. + +"I am off to Amboise with my men," said the executioner roughly. "Take care +of him yourself. And here is the jailer." + +The executioner went off, leaving Christophe in the hands of the +smooth-spoken doctor, who, with the help of Christophe's warder, lifted him +on to a bed, gave him some broth, which he made him swallow, sat down by +his side, felt his pulse, and tried to comfort him. + +"You are not dying," he said, "and you must feel a comfort to your mind +when you reflect that you have done your duty. The Queen charged me to take +good care of you," he added, in a low voice. + +"The Queen is very good," said Christophe, in whom acute anguish had +developed wonderful lucidity of mind, and who, after enduring so much, was +determined not to spoil the results of his devotion. "But she might have +saved me so much suffering by not delivering me to my tormentors, and by +telling them herself the secrets, of which I know nothing." + +On hearing this reply, the doctor put on his cap and cloak and left +Christophe to his fate, thinking it vain to hope to gain anything from a +man of that temper. The jailer had the poor boy carried on a litter by four +men to the town prison, where Christophe fell asleep, in that deep slumber +which, it is said, comes upon almost every mother after the dreadful pains +of childbirth. + + * * * * * + +The two Princes of Lorraine, when they transferred the Court to Amboise, +had no hope of finding there the leader of the Reformed party, the Prince +de Conde, whom they had ordered to appear in the King's name to take him in +a snare. As a vassal of the Crown, and as a Prince of the Blood, Conde was +bound to obey the behest of the King. Not to come to Amboise would be a +felony; but, by coming, he would place himself in the power of the Crown. +Now, at this moment, the Crown, the Council, the Court, and every kind of +power, were in the hands of the Duc de Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine. + +In this difficult dilemma, the Prince de Conde showed the spirit of +decisiveness and astuteness, which made him a worthy representative of +Jeanne d'Albret and the brave General of the Reformers' forces. He traveled +at the heels of the last conspirators to Vendome to support them in case +of success. But when this first rush to arms ended in the brief skirmish in +which the flower of the nobility whom Calvin had misled all perished, the +Prince, and a following of fifty gentlemen, arrived at the chateau +d'Amboise the very day after this affair, which the Guises, with crafty +policy, spoke of as the riots at Amboise. On hearing of the Prince's +advance, the Duke sent out the Marechal de Saint-Andre to receive him with +an escort of a hundred men-at-arms. When the Bearnais came to the gate of +the chateau, the marshal in command refused to admit the Prince's suite. + +"You must come in alone, sir," said the Chancellor Olivier, Cardinal de +Tournon, and Birague, who awaited him outside the portcullis. + +"And why?" + +"You are suspected of felony," replied the Chancellor. + +The Prince, who saw that his party was being cut off by the Duc de Nemours, +quietly replied: + +"If that is the case, I will go in to my cousin alone and prove my +innocence." + +He dismounted and conversed with perfect freedom with Birague, Tournon, the +Chancellor Olivier, and the Duc de Nemours, from whom he asked details of +the riot. + +"Monseigneur," said the Duc de Nemours, "the rebels had sympathizers inside +Amboise. Captain Lanoue had got in some men-at-arms, who opened the gate to +them through which they got into the town, and of which they had the +command----" + +"That is to say, you got them into a sack," replied the Prince, looking at +Birague. + +"If they had been supported by the attack that was to have been made on the +Porte des Bons-Hommes by Captain Chaudieu, the preacher's brother, they +would have succeeded," said the Duc de Nemours, "but, from the position I +had taken up, in obedience to the Duc de Guise, Captain Chaudieu was +obliged to make a detour to avoid fighting me. Instead of arriving at night +like the rest, that rebel did not come up till daybreak, just as the +King's troops had crushed those who had got into the town." + +"And you had a reserve to recapture the gate that had been given up to +them?" + +"Monsieur le Marechal de Saint-Andre was on the spot with five hundred +men." + +The Prince warmly praised these military manoeuvres. + +"To have acted thus," said he in conclusion, "the Lieutenant-General must +have known the Reformers' secrets. They have evidently been betrayed." + +The Prince was treated with greater strictness at each step. After being +parted from his followers on entering the chateau, the Cardinal and the +Chancellor stood in his way when he turned to the stairs leading to the +King's apartments. + +"We are instructed by the King, sir, to conduct you to your own rooms." + +"Am I then a prisoner?" + +"If that were the King's purpose, you would not be attended by a Prince of +the Church and by me," replied the Chancellor. + +The two functionaries led the Prince to an apartment where a guard--of +honor so called--was allotted to him, and where he remained for several +hours without seeing any one. From his window he looked out on the Loire, +the rich country which makes such a beautiful valley between Amboise and +Tours, and he was meditating on his situation, wondering what the Guises +might dare to do to his person, when he heard the door of his room open, +and saw the King's fool come in, Chicot, who had once been in his service. + +"I heard you were in disgrace," said the Prince. + +"You cannot think how sober the Court has become since the death of Henri +II." + +"And yet the King loves to laugh, surely." + +"Which King? Francis II. or Francis of Lorraine?" + +"Are you so fearless of the Duke that you speak so?" + +"He will not punish me for that, sir," replied Chicot, smiling. + +"And to what do I owe the honor of this visit?" + +"Was it not due to you after your coming here? I have brought you my cap +and bauble." + +"I cannot get out then?" + +"Try!" + +"And if I do get out?" + +"I will confess that you have won the game by playing against the rules." + +"Chicot, you frighten me.--Have you been sent by some one who is interested +in my fate?" + +Chicot nodded "Yes." He went nearer to the Prince, and conveyed to him that +they were watched and overheard. + +"What have you to say to me?" asked Monsieur de Conde. + +"That nothing but daring can get you out of the scrape," said the fool, +whispering the words into his ear. "And this is from the Queen-mother." + +"Tell those who have sent you," replied the Prince, "that I should never +have come to this chateau if I had anything to blame myself for, or to +fear." + +"I fly to carry your bold reply," said the fool. + +Two hours later, at one in the afternoon, before the King's dinner, the +Chancellor and Cardinal de Tournon came to fetch the Prince to conduct him +to Francis II. in the great hall where the Council had sat. There, before +all the Court, the Prince de Conde affected surprise at the cool reception +the King had given him, and he asked the reason. + +"You are accused, cousin," said the Queen-mother sternly, "of having +meddled with the plots of the Reformers, and you must prove yourself a +faithful subject and a good Catholic if you wish to avert the King's anger +from your House." + +On hearing this speech, spoken by Catherine in the midst of hushed silence, +as she stood with her hand in the King's arm and with the Duc d'Orleans on +her left hand, the Prince de Conde drew back three steps, and with an +impulse of dignified pride laid his hand on his sword, looking at the +persons present. + +"Those who say so, madame, lie in their throat!" he exclaimed in angry +tones. + +He flung his glove at the King's feet, saying: + +"Let the man who will maintain his calumny stand forth!" + +A shiver ran through the whole Court when the Duc de Guise was seen to quit +his place; but instead of picking up the glove as they expected, he went up +to the intrepid hunchback. + +"If you need a second, Prince, I beg of you to accept my services," said +he. "I will answer for you, and will show the Reformers how greatly they +deceive themselves if they hope to have you for their leader." + +The Prince de Conde could not help offering his hand to the +Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. Chicot picked up the glove and restored +it to Monsieur de Conde. + +"Cousin," said the boy-King, "you should never draw your sword but in +defence of your country.--Come to dinner." + +The Cardinal de Lorraine, puzzled by his brother's action, led him off to +their rooms. The Prince de Conde, having weathered the worst danger, gave +his hand to Queen Mary Stuart to lead her to the dining-room; but, while +making flattering speeches to the young Queen, he was trying to discern +what snare was at this moment being laid for him by the Balafre's policy. +In vain he racked his brain, he could not divine the Guises' scheme; but +Queen Mary betrayed it. + +"It would have been a pity," said she, laughing, "to see so clever a head +fall; you must allow that my uncle is magnanimous." + +"Yes, madame, for my head fits no shoulders but my own, although one is +larger than the other.--But is it magnanimity in your uncle? Has he not +rather gained credit at a cheap rate? Do you think it such an easy matter +to have the law of a Prince of the Blood?" + +"We have not done yet," replied she. "We shall see how you behave at the +execution of the gentlemen, your friends, over which the Council have +determined to make the greatest display." + +"I shall do as the King does," said Conde. + +"The King, the Queen-mother, and I shall all be present, with all the Court +and the Ambassadors----" + +"Quite a high day?" said the Prince ironically. + +"Better than that," said the young Queen, "an _auto-da-fe_, a function of +high political purport. The gentlemen of France must be subjugated by the +Crown; they must be cured of their taste for faction and manoeuvring----" + +"You will not cure them of their warlike temper by showing them their +danger, madame, and at this game you risk the Crown itself," replied the +Prince. + +At the end of this dinner, which was gloomy enough, Queen Mary was so +unfortunately daring as to turn the conversation publicly on the trial +which the nobles, taken under arms, were at that moment undergoing, and to +speak of the necessity for giving the utmost solemnity to their execution. + +"But, madame," said Francis II., "is it not enough for the King of France +to know that the blood of so many brave gentlemen must be shed? Must it be +a cause of triumph?" + +"No, sir, but an example," replied Catherine. + +"Your grandfather and your father were in the habit of seeing heretics +burned," said Mary Stuart. + +"The kings who reigned before me went their way," said Francis, "and I mean +to go mine." + +"Philip II.," Catherine went on, "who is a great king lately, when he was +in the Netherlands, had an _auto-da-fe_ postponed till he should have +returned to Valladolid." + +"What do you think about it, cousin?" said the King to the Prince de Conde. + +"Sir, you cannot avoid going; the Papal Nuncio and the Ambassadors must be +present. For my part, I am delighted to go if the ladies are to be of the +party." + +The Prince, at a glance from Catherine de' Medici, had boldly taken his +line. + +While the Prince de Conde was being admitted to the chateau of Amboise, the +furrier to the two Queens was also arriving from Paris, brought thither by +the uneasiness produced by the reports of the Rebellion, not only in +himself and his family, but also in the Lalliers. + +At the gate of the chateau, when the old man craved admission, the captain +of the Guard, at the words "Queen's furrier," answered at once: + +"My good man, if you want to be hanged, you have only to set foot in the +courtyard." + +On hearing this, the unhappy father sat down on a rail a little way off, to +wait till some attendant on either of the Queens, or some woman of the +Court, should pass him, to ask for some news of his son; but he remained +there the whole day without seeing anybody he knew, and was at last obliged +to go down into the town, where he found a lodging, not without difficulty, +in an inn on the Square where the executions were to take place. He was +obliged to pay a livre a day to secure a room looking out on the Square. + +On the following day, he was brave enough to look on from his window at the +rebels who had been condemned to the wheel, or to be hanged, as men of +minor importance; and the Syndic of the Furriers' Guild was glad enough not +to find his son among the sufferers. + +When it was all over, he went to place himself in the clerk's way. Having +mentioned his name, and pressed a purse full of crown-pieces into the man's +hand, he begged him to see whether, in the three former days of execution, +the name of Christophe Lecamus had occurred. The registrar, touched by the +despairing old father's manners and tone of voice, conducted him to his own +house. After carefully comparing notes, he could assure the old man that +the said Christophe was not among those who had hitherto been executed, nor +was he named among those who were to die within the next few days. + +"My dear master," said the clerk to the furrier, "the Parlement is now +engaged in trying the lords and gentlemen concerned in the business, and +the principal leaders. So, possibly, your son is imprisoned in the chateau, +and will be one in the magnificent execution for which my lords the Duc de +Guise and the Cardinal de Lorraine are making great preparations. +Twenty-seven barons are to be beheaded, with eleven counts and seven +marquises, fifty gentlemen in all, and leaders of the Reformers. As the +administration of justice in Touraine has no connection with that of the +Paris Parlement, if you positively must have some news of your son, go to +my Lord the Chancellor Olivier, who, by the orders of the +Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, has the management of the proceedings." + +Three times did the poor old man go to the Chancellor's house and stand in +a file of people in the courtyard, in common with an immense number of +people who had come to pray for their relations' lives; but as titled folks +were admitted before the middle class, he was obliged to give up all hope +of speaking with the Chancellor, though he saw him several times coming out +of his house to go either to the chateau or to the Commission appointed by +the Parlement, along a way cleared for him by soldiers, between two hedges +of petitioners who were thrust aside. + +It was a dreadful scene of misery, for among this crowd were wives, +daughters, and mothers, whole families in tears. Old Lecamus gave a great +deal of gold to the servants at the chateau, enjoining on them that they +should deliver certain letters he wrote to la Dayelle, Queen Mary's +waiting-woman, or to the Queen-mother's woman; but the lackeys took the +good man's money, and then, by the Cardinal's orders, handed all letters to +the Provost of the Law Court. As a consequence of their unprecedented +cruelty, the Princes of Lorraine had cause to fear revenge; and they never +took greater precautions than during the stay of the Count at Amboise, so +that neither the most effectual bribery, that of gold, nor the most +diligent inquiries brought the furrier any light as to his son's fate. He +wandered about the little town in a melancholy way, watching the tremendous +preparations that the Cardinal was making for the shocking spectacle at +which the Prince de Conde was to be present. + +Public curiosity was being stimulated, by every means in use at the time, +from Paris to Nantes. The execution had been announced from the pulpit by +every preacher, in a breath with the King's victory over the heretics. + +Three elegant stands, the centre one apparently to be the finest of the +three, were being erected against the curtain-wall of the chateau, at the +foot of which the execution was to take place. All round the open space +raised wooden seats were being put up, after the fashion of an +amphitheatre, to accommodate the enormous crowd attracted by the notoriety +of this _auto-da-fe_. About ten thousand persons were camping out in the +fields on the day before this hideous spectacle. The roofs were crowded +with spectators, and windows were let for as much as ten livres, an +enormous sum at that time. + +The unhappy father had, as may be supposed, secured one of the best places +for commanding a view of the Square where so many men of family were to +perish, on a huge scaffold erected in the middle, and covered with black +cloth. On the morning of the fatal day, the headsman's block, on which the +victim laid his head, kneeling in front of it, was placed on the scaffold, +and an armchair, hung with black, for the Recorder of the Court, whose duty +it was to call the condemned by name and read their sentence. The enclosure +was guarded from early morning by the Scotch soldiers and the men-at-arms +of the King's household, to keep the crowd out till the hour of the +executions. + +After a solemn mass in the chapel of the chateau and in every church in the +town, the gentlemen were led forth, the last survivors of all the +conspirators. These men, some of whom had been through the torture chamber, +were collected round the foot of the scaffold, and exhorted by monks, who +strove to persuade them to renounce the doctrines of Calvin. But not one +would listen to these preachers, turned on to them by the Cardinal de +Lorraine, among whom, no doubt, these gentlemen feared that there might be +some spies on behalf of the Guises. + +To escape being persecuted with these exhortations, they began to sing a +psalm turned into French verse by Clement Marot. Calvin, as is well known, +had decreed that God should be worshiped in the mother-tongue of every +country, from motives of common sense as well as from antagonism to the +Roman Church. It was a pathetic moment for all those among the throng, who +felt for these gentlemen, when they heard this verse sung at the moment +when the Court appeared on the scene: + + Lord, help us in our need! + Lord, bless us with Thy grace! + And on the saints in sore distress + Let shine Thy glorious face! + +The eyes of the Reformers all centered on the Prince de Conde, who was +intentionally placed between Queen Mary and the Duc d'Orleans. Queen +Catherine de' Medici sat next her son, with the Cardinal on her left. The +Papal Nuncio stood behind the two Queens. The Lieutenant-General of the +kingdom was on horseback, below the Royal stand, with two marshals of +France and his captains. As soon as the Prince de Conde appeared, all the +gentlemen sentenced to death, to whom he was known, bowed to him, and the +brave hunchback returned the salutation. + +"It is hard," said he to the Duc d'Orleans, "not to be civil to men who are +about to die." + +The two other grand stands were filled by invited guests, by courtiers, and +the attendants on their Majesties; in short, the rank and fashion of the +chateau from Blois, who thus rushed from festivities to executions, just as +they afterwards rushed from the pleasures of Court life to the perils of +war, with a readiness which to foreigners will always be one of the +mainsprings of their policy in France. The poor Syndic of the Furriers' +Guild felt the keenest joy at failing to discern his son among the +fifty-seven gentlemen condemned to death. + +At a signal from the Duc de Guise, the clerk, from the top of the scaffold, +called out at once, in a loud voice: + +"Jean-Louis-Alberic, Baron de Raunay, guilty of heresy, of the crime of +high treason, and of bearing arms against the King's Majesty." + +A tall, handsome man mounted the scaffold with a firm step, bowed to the +people and to the Court, and said: + +"The indictment is false; I bore arms to deliver the King from his enemies +of Lorraine!" + +He laid his head on the block, and it fell. + +The Reformers sang: + + Thou, Lord, hast proved our faith + And searched our soul's desire, + And purified our froward hearts, + As silver proved by fire. + +"Robert-Jean-Rene Briquemaut, Comte de Villemongis, guilty of high treason +and rebellion against the King," cried the Recorder. + +The Count dipped his hands in the Baron de Raunay's blood, and said: + +"May this blood be on the head of those who are truly guilty!" + +The Reformers sang on: + + Thou, Lord, hast led our feet + Where foes had laid their snare; + To Thee, O Lord, the glory be, + Though we should perish there. + +"Confess, my lord Nuncio," said the Prince de Conde, "that if French +gentlemen know how to plot, they also know how to die." + +"What hatred you are entailing on the heads of your children, brother," +said the Duchesse de Guise to the Cardinal de Lorraine. + +"The sight makes me feel sick," said the young King, who had turned pale at +the sight of all this bloodshed. + +"Pooh! Rebels!" said Catherine de' Medici. + +Still the hymn went on, still the axe was plied. At last the sublime +spectacle of men who could die singing, and, above all, the impression +produced on the crowd by the gradual dwindling of the voices, became +stronger than the terror inspired by the Guises. + +"Mercy!" cried the mob, when they heard at last only the feeble chant of a +single victim, reserved till the last, as being the most important. + +He was standing alone at the foot of the steps leading up to the scaffold, +and sang: + + Lord, help us in our need! + Lord, bless us with Thy grace! + And on the saints in sore distress + Let shine Thy glorious face! + +"Come, Duc de Nemours," said the Prince de Conde, who was tired of his +position; "you, to whom the securing of the victory is due, and who helped +to entrap all these people,--do not you feel that you ought to ask the life +of this one? It is Castelnau, who, as I was told, had your promise for +courteous treatment when he surrendered----" + +"Did I wait to see him here before trying to save him?" said the Duc de +Nemours, stung by this bitter reproof. + +The clerk spoke slowly, intentionally, no doubt: + +"Michel-Jean-Louis, Baron de Castelnau-Chalosse, accused and convicted of +the crime of high treason, and of fighting against his Majesty the King." + +"No," retorted Castelnau haughtily; "it can be no crime to oppose the +tyranny and intended usurpation of the Guises!" + +The headsman, who was tired, seeing some stir in the royal seats, rested on +his axe. + +"Monsieur le Baron," said he, "I should be glad not to hurt you. One minute +may perhaps save you." + +And all the people shouted again for mercy. + +"Come," said the King, "a pardon for poor Castelnau, who saved the Duc +d'Orleans." + +The Cardinal intentionally misinterpreted the word "Come." He nodded to the +executioner, and Castelnau's head fell at the moment when the King +pronounced his pardon. + +"That one goes to your account, Cardinal," said Catherine. + +On the day after this horrible massacre, the Prince de Conde set out for +Navarre. + +This affair made a great sensation throughout France and in every foreign +Court. The torrents of noble blood then shed caused the Chancellor Olivier +such deep grief, that this admirable judge, seeing the end at which the +Guises were aiming, felt that he was not strong enough to hold his own +against them. Although they had made him what he was, he would not +sacrifice his duty and the Monarchy to them; he retired from public life, +suggesting that l'Hopital should be his successor. Catherine, on hearing of +Olivier's choice, proposed Birague for the post of Chancellor, and urged +her request with great pertinacity. The Cardinal, who knew nothing of the +note written to Catherine by l'Hopital, and who believed him still faithful +to the House of Lorraine, upheld him as Birague's rival, and the +Queen-mother affected to be overridden. + +L'Hopital was no sooner appointed than he took steps to prevent the +introduction into France of the Holy Office, which the Cardinal de Lorraine +wished to establish; and he so effectually opposed the Anti-Gallican +measures and policy of the Guises, and showed himself so sturdy a +Frenchman, that within three months of his appointment he was exiled, to +reduce his spirit, to his estate of le Vignay, near Etampes. + +Old Lecamus impatiently waited till the Court should leave Amboise, for he +could find no opportunity of speaking to either Queen Mary or Queen +Catherine; but he hoped to be able to place himself in their way at the +time when the Court should be moving along the river-bank on the way back +to Blois. The furrier dressed himself as a poor man, at the risk of being +seized as a spy, and favored by this disguise, he mingled with the beggars +who stood by the wayside. + +After the departure of the Prince de Conde, the Duke and the Cardinal +thought that they had silenced the Reformed party, and they left the +Queen-mother a little more liberty. Lecamus knew that Catherine, instead of +traveling in a litter, liked to ride on horseback on a _planchette_, as it +was called, a side saddle with a foot-rest. This sort of stirrup was +invented by or for Catherine, who, having hurt her leg, rested both feet on +a velvet sling, sitting sideways, and supporting one knee in a hollow cut +in the saddle. As the Queen had very fine legs, she was accused of having +hit on this device for displaying them. + +Thus the old man was able to place himself in sight of the Queen-mother; +but when she saw him, she affected anger. + +"Go away from hence, good man, and let no one see you speaking to me," she +said with some anxiety. "Get yourself appointed delegate to the +States-General from the corporation of Paris Guilds, and be on my side in +the Assembly at Orleans, you will then hear something definite about your +son----" + +"Is he alive?" said the old man. + +"Alas!" said the Queen, "I hope it." + +And Lecamus was obliged to return home with this sad reply, and the secret +as to the convocation of the States-General, which the Queen had told him. + + * * * * * + +Some days before this, the Cardinal de Lorraine had received information as +to the guilt of the Court of Navarre. At Lyons, and at Mouvans in Dauphine, +the Reformers, commanded by the most enterprising of the Bourbon princes, +had tried to inflame the population. This daring attempt, after the +dreadful executions at Amboise, astonished the Guises, who, to put an end +to heresy, no doubt, by some means of which they kept the secret, proposed +to assemble the States-General at Orleans. Catherine de' Medici, who saw a +support for her own policy in the representations of the nation, consented +with joy. The Cardinal, who aimed at recapturing his prey, and overthrowing +the House of Bourbon, convoked the States solely to secure the presence of +the Prince de Conde and of the King of Navarre, Antoine de Bourbon, father +of Henri IV. He then meant to make use of Christophe to convict the Prince +of high treason if he were able once more to get him into the King's power. + +After spending two months in the prison of Blois, Christophe one morning +was carried out on a litter lying on a mattress, was embarked on a barge, +and taken up the river to Orleans before a westerly breeze. He reached that +town the same evening, and was taken to the famous tower of Saint-Aignan. +Christophe, who knew not what to make of his transfer, had time enough for +meditation on his behavior and on his future prospects. There he remained +two months more, on his bed, unable to use his legs. His bones were +crushed. When he begged to be allowed the help of a surgeon, the jailer +told him that his orders with regard to his prisoner were so strict that he +dared not allow any one else even to bring him his food. This severity, of +which the effect was absolutely solitary confinement, surprised Christophe. +His idea was that he must be either hanged or released; he knew nothing +whatever of the events happening at Amboise. + +In spite of the secret warnings to remain at home sent to them by Catherine +de' Medici, the two chiefs of the House of Bourbon determined to appear at +the meeting of the States-General, since autograph letters from the King +were reassuring; and when the Court was settling at Orleans, Groslot, the +Chancellor of Navarre, announced their advent, to the surprise of all. + +Francis II. took up his quarters in the house of the Chancellor of Navarre, +who was also the Bailli or Recorder of Orleans. This man Groslot, whose +double appointment is one of the odd features of a time when Reformers were +in possession of abbeys--Groslot, the Jacques Coeur of Orleans, one of +the richest citizens of his day, did not leave his name to his house. It +came to be known as the _Bailliage_, having been purchased, no doubt, from +his heirs, by the Crown, or by the provincial authorities, to be the seat +of that tribunal. This elegant structure, built by the citizens of the +sixteenth century, adds a detail to the history of a time when the King, +the nobility, and the middle class vied with each other in wealth, +elegance, and splendor; especially in their dwellings--as may be seen at +Varangeville, Ango's magnificent manor-house, and the Hotel d'Hercules, as +it is called, in Paris, which still exists, but in a condition that is the +despair of archaeologists and of lovers of mediaeval art. + +Those who have been to Orleans can hardly have failed to observe the Hotel +de Ville in the Place de l'Estape. This townhall is the Old Bailli's Court, +the Hotel Groslot, the most illustrious and most neglected house in +Orleans. + +The remains of this hotel plainly show to the archaeologist's eye how +magnificent it must once have been, at a time when citizens built their +houses more of wood than of stone, and the upper ranks alone had the right +to build manor-houses, a word of special meaning. Since it served as the +King's residence at a time when the Court made so much display of pomp and +luxury, the Hotel Groslot must then have been the largest and finest house +in Orleans. + +It was on the Place de l'Estape that the Guises and the King held a review +of the municipal guard, to which Monsieur de Cypierre was nominated captain +during the King's visit. At that time, the Cathedral of +Sainte-Croix--afterwards finished by Henri IV., who desired to set the seal +to his conversion--was being built, and the surrounding ground, strewn with +blocks of stone and encumbered with piles of timber, was held by the +Guises, who lodged in the Bishop's palace, now destroyed. + +The town was in military occupation, and the measures adopted by the Guises +plainly showed how little liberty they intended to give to the +States-General, while the delegates flocked into the town and raised the +rents of the most wretched lodgings. The Court, the municipal militia, the +nobles, and the citizens all alike expected some _Coup d'Etat_; and their +expectations were fulfilled when the Princes of the Blood arrived. + +As soon as the two Princes entered the King's room, the Court saw with +dismay how insolent was the behavior of the Cardinal de Lorraine, who, to +assert his audacious pretensions, kept his head covered, while the King of +Navarre before him was bareheaded. Catherine de' Medici stood with downcast +eyes, not to betray her indignation. A solemn explanation then took place +between the young King and the two heads of the younger branch. It was +brief, for at the first words spoken by the Prince de Conde, Francis II. +closed the discussion by saying: + +"My lords and cousins, I fancied the incident of Amboise was at an end; it +is not so, and we shall see cause to regret our indulgence!" + +"It is not the King who speaks thus," said the Prince de Conde, "but +Messieurs de Guise." + +"Good-day, monsieur," said the little King, crimson with rage. + +As he went through the great hall, the Prince was stopped by the two +captains of the Guards. When the officer of the French Guard stepped +forward, the Prince took a letter out of the breast of his doublet and +said, in the presence of all the Court: + +"Can you read me this, Monsieur de Maille-Breze?" + +"With pleasure," said the French captain:-- + + "'Cousin, come in all security; I give you my royal + word that you may. If you need a safe conduct, these + presents will serve you.'" + +"And signed----?" said the bold and mischievous hunchback. + +"Signed 'Francois,'" said Maille. + +"Nay, nay," replied the Prince, "it is signed 'Your good cousin and friend, +Francois!'--Gentlemen," he went on, turning to the Scotch Guard, "I will +follow you to the prison whither you are to escort me by the King's orders. +There is enough noble spirit in this room to understand that." + +The utter silence that reigned in the room might have enlightened the +Guises, but silence is the last thing that princes listen to. + +"Monseigneur," said the Cardinal de Tournon, who was following the Prince, +"since the day at Amboise you have taken steps in opposition to royal +authority at Lyons and at Mouvans in Dauphine--things of which the King +knew nothing when he addressed you in those terms." + +"Rascals!" cried the Prince, laughing. + +"You made a public declaration against the Mass, and in favor of +heresy----" + +"We are masters in Navarre," said the Prince. + +"In Bearn, you mean! But you owe homage to the Crown," replied the +President de Thou. + +"Ah, you are here, President!" exclaimed the Prince ironically. "And is all +the Parlement with you?" + +With these words the Prince flashed a look of contempt at the Cardinal and +left the room; he understood that his head was in peril. + +On the following day, when Messieurs de Thou, de Viole, d'Espesse, Bourdin +the public prosecutor, and du Tillet, the chief clerk, came into his +prison, he kept them standing, and expressed his regrets at seeing them +engaged on a business which did not concern them; then he said to the +clerk: + +"Write." + +And he dictated as follows: + +"I, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, peer of the realm, Marquis de Conti, +Comte de Soissons, Prince of the Blood of France, formally refuse to +recognize any Commission appointed to try me, inasmuch as that by virtue of +my rank and the privileges attaching to every member of the Royal Family, I +can only be attainted, heard, and judged by a Parlement of all the peers in +their places, the Chambers in full assembly, and the King seated on the bed +of justice.--You ought to know this better than any one, gentlemen, and +this is all you will get of me. For the rest, I trust in God and my Right." + +The magistrates proceeded nevertheless, in spite of the determined silence +of the Prince. + +The King of Navarre was at liberty, but closely watched; his prison was a +wider one than the Prince's, and that was the whole difference between his +position and his brother's; for the heads of the King and the Prince were +to be felled at the same time. + +So Christophe was so closely confined by order of the Cardinal and the +Lieutenant-General of the kingdom only to afford proof to the judges of the +Prince's guilt. The letters found on the person of La Sagne, the Prince's +secretary, intelligible to a statesman, were not clear enough for the +judges. The Cardinal had thought of bringing the Prince accidentally face +to face with Christophe, who had been placed, not without a purpose, in a +lower room of the tower of Saint-Aignan, and the window looked out on the +yard. Each time he was examined by the magistrates, Christophe entrenched +himself in systematic denial, which naturally prolonged the affair till the +meeting of the States-General. + +Lecamus, who had made a point of getting himself elected by the citizens of +Paris as a deputy for the "Third Estate," came to Orleans a few days after +the Prince's arrest. This event, of which he had news at Etampes, increased +his alarms, for he understood--he who alone in the world knew of his son's +interview with the Prince under the Pont au Change--that Christophe's fate +was bound up with that of the rashly daring head of the Reformation party. +So he determined to study the mysterious interests which had become so +entangled at Court since the States had met, so as to hit upon some plan +for rescuing his son. It was in vain to think of having recourse to Queen +Catherine, who refused to receive the furrier. No one of the Court to whom +he had access could give him any satisfactory information with regard to +Christophe, and he had sunk to such depths of despair that he was about to +address himself to the Cardinal, when he heard that Monsieur de Thou had +accepted the office of one of the judges of the Prince de Conde--a blot on +the good fame of that great jurist. The Syndic went to call on his son's +patron, and learned that Christophe was alive but a prisoner. + +Tourillon, the glover, to whose house la Renaudie had sent Christophe, had +offered a room to the Sieur Lecamus for the whole time during which the +States-General should be sitting. He believed the furrier to be, like +himself, secretly attached to the Reformed religion; but he soon perceived +that a father who fears for his son's life thinks no more of shades of +religious dogma; he throws himself soul and body on the mercy of God, never +thinking of the badge he wears before men. + +The old man, repulsed at every attempt, wandered half-witless about the +streets. Against all his expectations, his gold was of no avail; Monsieur +de Thou had warned him that even if he should bribe some servant of the +Guise household, he would only be so much out of pocket, for the Duke and +the Cardinal allowed nothing to be known concerning Christophe. This judge, +whose fair fame is somewhat tarnished by the part he played at this +juncture, had tried to give the unhappy father some hope; but he himself +trembled for his godson's life, and his consolations only added to the +furrier's alarm. The old man was always prowling round the house; in three +months he grew quite thin. + +His only hope now lay in the warm friendship which had so long bound him to +the Hippocrates of the sixteenth century. Ambroise Pare tried to say a word +to Queen Mary as he came out of the King's room; but the instant he +mentioned Christophe, the daughter of the Stuarts, annoyed by the prospect +before her in the event of any ill befalling the King, whom she believed to +have been poisoned by the Reformers, as he had been taken suddenly ill, +replied: + +"If my uncles would take my opinion, such a fanatic would have been hanged +before now." + +On the evening when this ominous reply had been repeated to Lecamus by his +friend Pare, on the Place de l'Estape, he went home half dead, and retired +to his room, refusing to eat any supper. + +Tourillon, very uneasy, went upstairs, and found the old man in tears; and +as the poor furrier's feeble eyes showed the reddened and wrinkled linings +of the lids, the glover believed that they were tears of blood. + +"Be comforted, father," said the Huguenot, "the citizens of Orleans are +enraged at seeing their town treated as if it had been taken by assault, +and guarded by Monsieur de Cypierre's soldiery. If the Prince de Conde's +life should be in danger, we should very soon demolish the tower of +Saint-Aignan, for the whole town is on the Reformers' side, and would rise +in rebellion, you may be quite certain." + +"But even if the Guises were seized, would their death give me back my +son?" said the unhappy father. + +At this instant there was a timid rap at the outer door; Tourillon went +down to open it. It was quite dark. In these troubled times the master of +every household took elaborate precautions. Tourillon looked out through +the bars of a wicket in the door, and saw a stranger, whose accent betrayed +him as an Italian. This man, dressed in black, asked to see Lecamus on +matters of business, and Tourillon showed him in. At the sight of the +stranger the old furrier quaked visibly, but the visitor had time to lay a +finger on his lips. Lecamus, understanding the gesture, immediately said: + +"You have come to offer furs for sale, I suppose?" + +"_Si_," replied the stranger in Italian, with an air of privity. + +This man was, in fact, the famous Ruggieri, the Queen-mother's astrologer. +Tourillon went downstairs, perceiving that he was not wanted. + +"Where can we talk without fear of being overheard?" said the astute +Florentine. + +"Only in the open fields," replied Lecamus. "But we shall not be allowed +out of the town; you know how strictly the gates are guarded. No one can +pass out without an order from Monsieur de Cypierre, not even a member of +the Assembly like myself. Indeed, at to-morrow's sitting we all intend to +complain of this restriction on our liberty." + +"Work like a mole, never let your paws be seen in any kind of business," +replied the wily Florentine. "To-morrow will no doubt be a decisive day. +From my calculations, to-morrow, or soon after, you will perhaps see your +son." + +"God grant it! Though you are said to deal only with the Devil!" + +"Come and see me at home," said the astrologer, smiling. "I watch the stars +from the tower belonging to the Sieur Touchet du Beauvais, the Lieutenant +of the Bailiwick, whose daughter has found favor in the eyes of the little +Duc d'Orleans. I have cast the girl's horoscope, and it does in fact +portend that she will become a great lady and be loved by a King. The +Lieutenant is a clever fellow, he is interested in science, and the Queen +found me lodgings with the good man, who is cunning enough to be a rabid +Guisard till Charles IX. comes to the throne." + +The furrier and the astrologer made their way to the Sieur du Beauvais' +house without being seen or interfered with; and in the event of Lecamus +being discovered, Ruggieri meant to afford him a pretext in his desire to +consult the astrologer as to his son's fate. + +When they had climbed to the top of the turret where the astrologer had +established himself, Lecamus said: + +"Then my son is really alive?" + +"At present," said the Italian. "But we must make haste to save him. +Remember, O seller of skins, that I would not give two farthings for yours +if in the whole course of your life you breathe one word of what I am about +to tell you." + +"The warning is not needed, master. I have been furrier to the Court since +the time of the late King Louis XII., and this is the fourth reign I have +lived under." + +"And you may soon say the fifth," replied Ruggieri. + +"What do you know of my son?" + +"Well, he has been through the torture-chamber." + +"Poor boy!" sighed the old man, looking up to heaven. + +"His knees and ankles are a little damaged, but he has gained royal +protection, which will be over him as long as he lives," the Florentine +added, on seeing the father's horror. "Your little Christophe has done good +service to our great Queen Catherine. If we can get your son out of the +clutches of the Cardinal, you will see him Councillor in the Parlement +yet. And a man would let his bones be broken three times over to find +himself in the good graces of that beloved sovereign--a real genius she, +who will triumph over every obstacle. + +"I have cast the horoscope of the Duc de Guise: he will be killed within a +year. Come now, Christophe did meet the Prince de Conde----" + +"You know the future, do not you know the past?" the furrier put in. + +"I am not questioning you, I am informing you, good man. Well, your son +will be placed to-morrow where the Prince will pass by. If he recognizes +him, or if the Prince recognizes your son, Monsieur de Conde forfeits his +head. As to what would become of his accomplice--God only knows! But be +easy. Neither your son nor the Prince is doomed to die; I have read their +destiny; they will live. But by what means they may escape I know not. Now +we will do what we can, apart from the certainty of my calculations. +Monsieur de Conde shall get a prayer-book to-morrow, delivered to him by a +safe hand, in which he shall find a warning. God grant that your son may be +secretive, for he can have no warning! And a mere flash of recognition +would cost the Prince his life. Thus, although the Queen-mother has every +reason to depend on Christophe's fidelity----" + +"He has been put to cruel tests," cried the furrier. + +"Do not speak in that way. Do you suppose that the Queen is dancing for +joy? She is indeed going to take her measures exactly as though the Guises +had decided on the Prince's death; and she is wise, that shrewd and prudent +Queen! Now she counts on you to help her in every way. You have some +influence in the 'Third Estate,' where you are the representative of the +Guilds of Paris; and even if the Guisards should promise to set your son at +liberty, try to deceive them and stir up your class against the Princes of +Lorraine. Vote for the Queen-mother as Regent; the King of Navarre will +give his assent to that publicly, to-morrow, in the Assembly." + +"But the King?" + +"The King will die," said Ruggieri; "I have read it in the stars. What the +Queen requires of you in the Assembly is very simple; but she needs a +greater service from you than that. You maintained the great Ambroise Pare +while he was a student; you are his friend----" + +"Ambroise loves the Duc de Guise in these days better than he loves me," +said the furrier. "And he is right; he owes his place to him. Still, he is +faithful to the King. And, although he has a leaning towards the +Reformation, he will do nothing but his duty." + +"A plague on all honest men!" cried the Florentine. "Ambroise boasted this +evening that he could pull the little King through. If the King recovers +his health, the Guises must triumph, the Princes are dead men, the House of +Bourbon is extinct, we go back to Florence, your son is hanged, and the +Guises will make short work of the rest of the Royal Family----" + +"Great God!" cried Lecamus. + +"Do not exclaim in that way; it is like a citizen who knows nothing of +Court manners; but go forthwith to Ambroise, and find out what he means to +do to save the King. If it seems at all certain, come and tell me what the +operation is in which he has such faith." + +"But----" Lecamus began. + +"Obey me blindly, my good friend, otherwise you will be dazzled." + +"He is right," thought the furrier. + +And he went off to the King's surgeon, who lived in an inn in the Place du +Martroi. + + * * * * * + +At this juncture Catherine de' Medici found herself, politically speaking, +in the same extremities as she had been in when Christophe had seen her at +Blois. Though she had inured herself to the struggle, and had exerted her +fine intellect in that first defeat, her situation, though precisely the +same now as then, was even more critical and dangerous than at the time of +the riots at Amboise. Events had grown in magnitude, and the Queen had +grown with them. Though she seemed to proceed in agreement with the Princes +of Lorraine, Catherine held the threads of a conspiracy skilfully plotted +against her terrible associates, and was only waiting for a favorable +moment to drop her mask. + +The Cardinal had just found himself deceived by Catherine. The crafty +Italian had seen in the younger branch of the Royal Family an obstacle she +could use to check the pretensions of the Guises; and, in spite of the +counsel of the two Gondis, who advised her to leave the Guises to act with +what violence they could against the Bourbons, she had, by warning the +Queen of Navarre, brought to nought the plot to seize Bearn concerted by +the Guises with the King of Spain. As this State secret was known only to +themselves and to Catherine, the Princes of Lorraine were assured of her +betrayal, and they wished to send her back to Florence; but to secure +proofs of Catherine's treachery to the State--the House of Lorraine was the +State--the Duke and Cardinal had just made her privy to their scheme for +making away with the King of Navarre. + +The precautions which were immediately taken by Antoine de Bourbon proved +to the brothers that this secret, known but to three people, had been +divulged by the Queen-mother. The Cardinal de Lorraine accused Catherine of +her breach of faith in the presence of the King, threatening her with +banishment if any fresh indiscretions on her part should imperil the State. +Catherine, seeing herself in imminent danger, was compelled to act as a +high-handed sovereign. She gave ample proof indeed of her fine abilities, +but it must also be confessed that she was well served by the friends she +trusted. + +L'Hopital sent her a letter in these terms: + + "Do not allow a Prince of the Blood to be killed by a + committee, or you will soon be carried off yourself." + +Catherine sent Birague to le Vignay, desiring the Chancellor to come to +the Assembly of the States-General, although he was in banishment. Birague +returned the same evening with l'Hopital, halting within three leagues of +Orleans, and the Chancellor thus declared himself on the side of the +Queen-mother. + +Chiverni, whose fidelity was with good reason regarded as doubtful by the +Guises, had fled from Orleans, and by a forced march, which nearly was his +death, he reached Ecouen in ten hours. He there told the Connetable de +Montmorency of the danger his nephew the Prince de Conde was in, and of the +encroachments of the Guises. Anne de Montmorency, furious at learning that +the Prince owed his life merely to the sudden illness of which Francis II. +was dying, marched up with fifteen hundred horse and a hundred gentlemen +under arms. The more effectually to surprise the Guises, he had avoided +Paris, coming from Ecouen to Corbeil, and from Corbeil to Pithiviers by the +Valley of the Essonne. + +"Man to man, and both to pull, leaves each but little wool!" he said, on +the occasion of this dashing advance. + +Anne de Montmorency, who had been the preserver of France when Charles V. +invaded Provence, and the Duc de Guise, who had checked the Emperor's +second attempt at Metz, were, in fact, the two greatest French warriors of +their time. + +Catherine had waited for the right moment to stir up the hatred of the man +whom the Guises had overthrown. The Marquis de Simeuse, in command of the +town of Gien, on hearing of the advance of so considerable a force as the +Connetable brought with him, sprang to horse, hoping to warn the Duke in +time. The Queen-mother, meanwhile, certain that the Connetable would come +to his nephew's rescue, and confident of the Chancellor's devotion to the +royal cause, had fanned the hopes and encouraged the spirit of the Reformed +party. The Colignys and the adherents of the imperiled House of Bourbon had +made common cause with the Queen-mother's partisans; a coalition between +various antagonistic interests, attacked by a common foe, was silently +formed in the Assembly of the States, where the question was boldly +broached of making Catherine Regent of France in the event of the young +King's death. Catherine herself, whose faith in astrology was far greater +than her belief in Church dogmas, had ventured to extremes against her foes +when she saw her son dying at the end of the time fixed as his term of life +by the famous soothsayer brought to the chateau de Chaumont by Nostradamus. + +A few days before the terrible close of his reign, Francis II. had chosen +to go out on the Loire, so as not to be in the town at the hour of the +Prince de Conde's intended execution. Having surrendered the Prince's head +to the Cardinal de Lorraine, he feared a riot quite as much as he dreaded +the supplications of the Princesse de Conde. As he was embarking, a fresh +breeze, such as often sweeps the Loire at the approach of winter, gave him +so violent an earache that he was forced to return home; he went to bed, +never to leave it alive. + +In spite of the disagreement of the physicians, who, all but Chapelain, +were his enemies and opponents, Ambroise Pare maintained that an abscess +had formed in the head, and that if no outlet were pierced the chances of +the King's death were greater every day. + +In spite of the late hour and the rigorous enforcement of the curfew at +that time in Orleans, which was ruled as in a state of siege, Pare's lamp +was shining in his window where he was studying. Lecamus called to him from +below; and when he had announced his name, the surgeon gave orders that his +old friend should be admitted. + +"You give yourself no rest, Ambroise, and while saving the lives of others +you will wear out your own," said the furrier as he went in. + +Indeed, there sat the surgeon, his books open, his instruments lying about, +and before him a skull not long since buried, dug up from the grave, and +perforated. + +"I must save the King." + +"Then you are very sure you can, Ambroise?" said the old man, shuddering. + +"As sure as I am alive. The King, my good old friend, has some evil humor +festering on his brain, which will fill it up, and the danger is pressing; +but by piercing the skull I let the matter out and free his head. I have +already performed this operation three times; it was invented by a +Piedmontese, and I have been so lucky as to improve upon it. The first time +it was at the siege of Metz, on Monsieur de Pienne, whom I got out of the +scrape, and who has only been all the wiser for it; the second time it +saved the life of a poor man on whom I wished to test the certainty of this +daring operation to which Monsieur de Pienne had submitted; the third time +was on a gentleman in Paris, who is now perfectly well. Trepanning--for +that is the name given to it--is as yet little known. The sufferers object +to it on the score of the imperfection of the instrument, but that I have +been able to improve. So now I am experimenting on this head, to be sure of +not failing to-morrow on the King's." + +"You must be very sure of yourself, for your head will be in danger if +you----" + +"I will wager my life that he is cured," replied Pare, with the confidence +of genius. "Oh, my good friend, what is it to make a hole in a skull with +due care? It is what soldiers do every day with no care at all." + +"But do you know, my boy," said the citizen, greatly daring, "that if you +save the King, you ruin France? Do you know that your instrument will place +the crown of the Valois on the head of a Prince of Lorraine, calling +himself the direct heir of Charlemagne? Do you know that surgery and +politics are, at this moment, at daggers drawn? Yes, the triumph of your +genius will be the overthrow of your religion. If the Guises retain the +Regency, the blood of the Reformers will flow in streams! Be a great +citizen rather than a great surgeon, and sleep through to-morrow morning, +leaving the King's room free to those leeches who, if they do not save the +King, will save France." + +"I!" cried Pare. "I--leave a man to die when I can cure him? Never! If I am +to be hanged for a Calvinist, I will go to the chateau, all the same, +right early to-morrow. Do not you know that the only favor I mean to ask, +when I have saved the King, is your Christophe's life? There will surely be +a moment when Queen Mary can refuse me nothing?" + +"Alas, my friend, has not the little King already refused the Princesse de +Conde any pardon for her husband? Do not kill your religion by enabling the +man to live who ought to die." + +"Are you going to puzzle yourself by trying to find out how God means to +dispose of things in the future?" said Pare. "Honest folks have but one +motto--'Do your duty, come what may.'--I did this at the siege of Calais +when I set my foot on the Grand Master; I risked being cut down by all his +friends and attendants, and here I am, surgeon to the King; I am a +Reformer, and yet I can call the Guises my friends.--I will save the King!" +cried the surgeon, with the sacred enthusiasm of conviction that genius +knows, "and God will take care of France!" + +There was a knock at the door, and a few minutes later one of Ambroise +Pare's servants gave a note to Lecamus, who read aloud these ominous words: + + "A scaffold is being erected at the Convent of the + Recollets for the beheading of the Prince de Conde + to-morrow." + +Ambroise and Lecamus looked at each other, both overpowered with horror. + +"I will go and make sure," said the furrier. + +Out on the square, Ruggieri took Lecamus by the arm, asking what was Pare's +secret for saving the King; but the old man, fearing some treachery, +insisted on going to see the scaffold. So the astrologer and the furrier +went together to the Recollets, where, in fact, they found carpenters at +work by torchlight. + +"Hey day, my friend," said Lecamus to one of them; "what business is +this?" + +"We are preparing to hang some heretics, since the bleeding at Amboise did +not cure them," said a young friar, who was superintending the workmen. + +"Monseigneur the Cardinal does well," said the prudent Ruggieri. "But in my +country we do even better." + +"What do you do?" + +"We burn them, brother." + +Lecamus was obliged to lean on the astrologer; his legs refused to carry +him, for he thought that his son might next day be swinging to one of those +gibbets. The poor old man stood between two sciences--astrology and +medicine; each promised to save his son, for whom the scaffold was visibly +rising. In this confusion of mind he was as wax in the hands of the +Florentine. + +"Well, my most respectable vendor of _vair_, what have you to say to these +pleasantries of Lorraine?" said Ruggieri. + +"Woe the day! You know I would give my own skin to see my boy's safe and +sound." + +"That is what I call talking like a skinner," replied the Italian. "But if +you will explain to me the operation that Ambroise proposes to perform on +the King, I will guarantee your son's life." + +"Truly?" cried the old furrier. + +"What shall I swear by?" said Ruggieri. + +On this the unhappy old man repeated his conversation with Pare to the +Italian, who was off, leaving the disconsolate father in the road the +instant he had heard the great surgeon's secret. + +"Whom the devil does he mean mischief to?" cried Lecamus, as he saw +Ruggieri running at his utmost speed towards the Place de l'Estape. + + * * * * * + +Lecamus knew nothing of the terrible scene which was going on by the King's +bedside, and which had led to the order being given for the erection of the +scaffold for the Prince, who had been sentenced in default, as it were, +though his execution was postponed for the moment by the King's illness. + +There was no one in the hall, on the stairs, or in the courtyard of the +Bailli's house but those on actual duty. The crowd of courtiers had +resorted to the lodgings of the King of Navarre, who, by the law of the +land, was Regent. The French nobles, terrified indeed by the insolence of +the Guises, felt an impulse to close their ranks round the chief of the +younger branch, seeing that the Queen-mother was subservient to the Guises, +and not understanding her Italian policy. Antoine de Bourbon, faithful to +his secret compact with Catherine, was not to renounce his claim to the +regency in her favor till the States-General should have voted on the +question. + +This absolute desertion had struck the Grand Master when, on his return +from a walk through the town--as a precautionary measure--he found no one +about the King but the friends dependent on his fortunes. The room where +Francis II.'s bed had been placed adjoins the great hall of the bailiff's +residence, and was at that time lined with oak paneling. The ceiling, +formed of narrow boards, skilfully adjusted and painted, showed an +arabesque pattern in blue on a gold ground, and a piece of it, pulled down +about fifty years ago, has been preserved by a collector of antiquities. +This room, hung with tapestry, and the floor covered with a carpet, was so +dark that the burning tapers scarcely gave it light. The enormous bedstead, +with four columnar posts and silk curtains, looked like a tomb. On one side +of the bed, by the King's pillow, were Queen Mary and the Cardinal de +Lorraine; on the other sat Catherine in an armchair. The +physician-in-ordinary, the famous Jean Chapelain, afterwards in attendance +on Charles IX., was standing by the fireplace. Perfect silence reigned. + +The young King, pale and slight, lost in the sheets, was hardly to be seen, +with his small, puckered face on the pillow. The Duchesse de Guise, seated +on a stool, was supporting Mary Stuart; and near Catherine, in a window +recess, Madame de Fieschi was watching the Queen-mother's looks and +gestures, for she understood the perils of her position. + +In the great hall, notwithstanding the late hour, Monsieur de Cypierre, the +Duc d'Orleans' tutor, appointed to be governor of the town, occupied a +chimney corner with the two Gondis. Cardinal de Tournon, who at this crisis +had taken part with Queen Catherine, on finding himself treated as an +inferior by the Cardinal de Lorraine, whose equal he undoubtedly was in the +Church, was conversing in a low voice with the brothers Gondi. The Marechal +de Vieilleville and Monsieur de Saint-Andre, Keeper of the Seals, were +discussing in whispers the imminent danger of the Guises. + +The Duc de Guise crossed the hall, glancing hastily about him, and bowed to +the Duc d'Orleans, whom he recognized. + +"Monseigneur," said he, "this may give you a lesson in the knowledge of +men. The Catholic nobility of the kingdom have crowded round a heretic +prince, believing that the States assembled will place the Regency in the +hands of the heir to the traitor who so long kept your illustrious +grandfather a prisoner." + +And after this speech, which was calculated to make a deep impression on +the prince's mind, he went into the bedroom where the young King was lying, +not so much asleep as heavily drowsy. As a rule, the Duc de Guise had the +art of overcoming, by his affable expression, the sinister appearance of +his scarred features; but at this moment he could not force a smile, seeing +the instrument of power quite broken. The Cardinal, whose civic courage was +equal to his brother's military valor, came forward a step or two to meet +the Lieutenant-General. + +"Robertet believes that little Pinard has been bought over by the +Queen-mother," he said in his ear, as he led him back into the hall. "He +has been made use of to work on the members of the Assembly." + +"Bah! what matters our being betrayed by a secretary, when there is treason +everywhere?" cried the Duke. "The town is for the Reformers, and we are on +the eve of a revolt. Yes! the _Guepins_ are malcontents," he added, giving +the people of Orleans their common nickname, "and if Pare cannot save the +King, we shall see a desperate outbreak. Before long we shall have to lay +siege to Orleans, which is a vermin's nest of Huguenots." + +"In the last minute," said the Cardinal, "I have been watching that Italian +woman, who sits there without a spark of feeling. She is waiting for her +son's death, God forgive her!--I wonder whether it would not be well to +arrest her and the King of Navarre too." + +"It is more than enough to have the Prince de Conde in prison," replied the +Duke. + +The sound of a horse ridden at top-speed came up from the gate. The two +Princes went to the window, and by the light of the gatekeeper's torch and +of the cresset that was always burning under the gateway, the Duke +recognized in the rider's hat the famous cross of Lorraine, which the +Cardinal had made the badge of their partisans. He sent one of the +men-at-arms, who stood in the ante-room, to say that the newcomer was to be +admitted; and he went to the head of the stairs to meet him, followed by +his brother. + +"What is the news, my dear Simeuse?" asked the Duke, with the charming +manner he always had for a soldier, as he recognized the Commandant of +Gien. + +"The Connetable is entering Pithiviers; he left Ecouen with fifteen hundred +horse and a hundred gentlemen----" + +"Have they any following?" said the Duke. + +"Yes, monseigneur," replied Simeuse. "There are two thousand six hundred of +them in all. Some say that Thore is behind with a troop of infantry. If +Montmorency amuses himself with waiting for his son, you have time before +you to undo him." + +"And is that all you know? Are his motives for this rush to arms commonly +reported?" + +"Anne speaks as little as he writes; do you go and meet him, brother, while +I will greet him here with his nephew's head," said the Cardinal, ordering +an attendant to fetch Robertet. + +"Vieilleville," cried the Duke to the Marshal, who came in, "the +Connetable de Montmorency has dared to take up arms. If I go out to meet +him, will you be responsible for keeping order in the town?" + +"The instant you are out of it, the townsfolk will rise; and who can +foresee the issue of a fray between horsemen and citizens in such narrow +streets?" replied the Marshal. + +"My Lord!" said Robertet, flying up the stairs, "the Chancellor is at the +gates, and insists on coming in; are we to admit him?" + +"Yes, admit him," said the Cardinal de Lorraine. "The Constable and the +Chancellor together would be too dangerous; we must keep them apart. We +were finely tricked by the Queen-mother when we elected l'Hopital to that +office." + +Robertet nodded to a captain who awaited the reply at the foot of the +stairs, and returned quickly to take the Cardinal's orders. + +"My Lord," said he, making a last effort, "I take the liberty of +representing to you that the sentence requires the approval of the King in +Council. If you violate the law for a Prince of the Blood, it will not be +respected in favor of a Cardinal or of a Duc de Guise." + +"Pinard has disturbed your mind, Robertet," said the Cardinal sternly. "Do +you not know that the King signed the warrant on the day when he went out, +leaving it to us to carry it out?" + +"Though you are almost requiring my head of me when you give me this +duty--which, however, will be that of the town-provost--I obey, my Lord." + +The Grand Master heard the debate without wincing; but he took his brother +by the arm, and led him to a corner of the hall. + +"Of course," said he, "the direct heirs of Charlemagne have the right to +take back the crown which was snatched from their family by Hugues Capet; +but--can they? The pear is not ripe.--Our nephew is dying, and all the +Court is gone over to the King of Navarre." + +"The King's heart failed him; but for that, the Bearnais would have been +stabbed," replied the Cardinal, "and we could easily have disposed of the +children." + +"We are in a bad position here," said the Duke. "The revolt in the town +will be supported by the States-General. L'Hopital, whom we have befriended +so well, and whose elevation Queen Catherine opposed, is now our foe, and +we need the law on our side. The Queen-mother has too many adherents now to +allow of our sending her away.--And besides, there are three more boys!" + +"She is no longer a mother; she is nothing but a queen," said the Cardinal. +"In my opinion, this is the very moment to be rid of her. Energy, and again +energy! that is what I prescribe." + +Having said this, the Cardinal went back into the King's room, and the Duke +followed him. The prelate went straight up to Catherine. + +"The papers found on La Sagne, the Prince de Conde's secretary, have been +communicated to you," said he. "You know that the Bourbons mean to dethrone +your children?" + +"I know it all," said the Queen. + +"Well, then, will you not have the King of Navarre arrested?" + +"There is a Lieutenant-General of the kingdom," replied she. + +At this moment Francis complained of the most violent pain in his ear, and +began to moan lamentably. The physician left the fireplace, where he was +warming himself, and came to examine the patient's head. + +"Well, monsieur?" said the Grand Master, addressing him. + +"I dare not apply a compress to draw the evil humors. Master Ambroise has +undertaken to save his Majesty by an operation, and I should annoy him by +doing so." + +"Put it off till to-morrow," said Catherine calmly, "and be present, all of +you medical men; for you know what calumnies the death of a prince gives +ground for." + +She kissed her son's hands and withdrew. + +"How coolly that audacious trader's daughter can speak of the Dauphin's +death, poisoned as he was by Montecuculi, a Florentine of her suite!" cried +Mary Stuart. + +"Marie," said the little King, "my grandfather never cast a suspicion on +her innocence." + +"Cannot we hinder that woman from coming here to-morrow?" said the Queen in +an undertone to her two uncles. + +"What would become of us if the King should die?" replied the Cardinal. +"Catherine would hurl us all into his grave." + +And so that night the question stood plainly stated between Catherine de' +Medici and the House of Lorraine. The arrival of the Chancellor and the +Connetable de Montmorency pointed to rebellion, and the dawn of the morrow +would prove decisive. + +On the following day the Queen-mother was the first to appear. She found no +one in her son's room but Mary Stuart, pale and fatigued from having passed +the night in prayer by the bedside. The Duchesse de Guise had kept the +Queen company, and the maids of honor had relieved each other. The young +King was asleep. + +Neither the Duke nor the Cardinal had yet appeared. The prelate, more +daring than the soldier, had spent this last night, it is said, in vehement +argument, without being able to induce the Duke to proclaim himself King. +With the States-General sitting in the town, and the prospect of a battle +to be fought with the Constable, the "Balafre" did not think the +opportunity favorable; he refused to arrest the Queen-mother, the +Chancellor, Cardinal de Tournon, the Gondis, Ruggieri, and Birague, in face +of the revolt that would inevitably result from such violent measures. He +made his brother's schemes dependent on the life of Francis II. + +Perfect silence reigned in the King's bedchamber. Catherine, attended by +Madame de Fieschi, came to the bedside and gazed at her son with an +admirable assumption of grief. She held her handkerchief to her eyes, and +retreated to the window, where Madame de Fieschi brought her a chair. From +thence she could look down into the courtyard. + +It had been agreed between Catherine and Cardinal de Tournon that if +Montmorency got safely into the town, he, the Cardinal, would come to her, +accompanied by the two Gondis; in case of disaster, he was to come alone. +At nine in the morning the two Princes of Lorraine, accompanied by their +suite, who remained in the hall, came to the King's room. The captain on +duty had informed them that Ambroise Pare had but just arrived with +Chapelain and three other physicians, prompted by Catherine, and all hating +Ambroise. + +In a few minutes the great hall of the Bailliage presented precisely the +same appearance as the guardroom at Blois on the day when the Duc de Guise +was appointed Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and when Christophe was +tortured; with only this difference, that then love and glee reigned in the +royal rooms, and that the Guises were triumphant; whereas now death and +grief prevailed, and the Princes of Lorraine felt the power slipping from +their grasp. + +The maids of honor of the two Queens were grouped on opposite sides of the +great fireplace, where an immense fire was blazing. The room was full of +courtiers. + +The news, repeated no one knows by whom, of a bold plan of Ambroise Pare's +for saving the King's life, brought in every gentleman who had any right to +appear at Court. The outer steps of the house and the courtyard were +thronged with anxious groups. The scaffold erected for the Prince, opposite +the Convent of the Recollets, astonished all the nobles. People spoke in +whispers, and here, as at Blois, the conversation was a medley of serious +and frivolous subjects, of grave and trivial talk. They were beginning to +feel used to turmoils, to sudden rebellion, to a rush to arms, to revolts, +to the great and sudden events which marked the long period during which +the House of Valois was dying out, in spite of Queen Catherine's efforts. +Deep silence was kept for some distance outside the bedroom door, where two +men-at-arms were on guard, with two pages, and the captain of the Scotch +company. + +Antoine de Bourbon, a prisoner in his lodgings, finding himself neglected, +understood the hopes of the courtiers; he was overwhelmed at hearing of the +preparations made during the night for his brother's execution. + +In front of the hall fireplace stood one of the finest and grandest figures +of his time, the Chancellor de l'Hopital, in his crimson robes bordered +with ermine, and wearing his square cap, in right of his office. This brave +man, regarding his benefactors as the leaders of a rebellion, had espoused +the cause of his king, as represented by the Queen-mother; and at the risk +of his head he had gone to Ecouen to consult the Connetable de Montmorency. +No one dared to disturb the meditations in which he was plunged. Robertet, +the Secretary of State, two marshals of France, Vieilleville and +Saint-Andre, and the Keeper of the Seals, formed a group in front of the +Chancellor. + +The men of the Court were not actually laughing, but their tone was +sprightly, especially among those who were disaffected to the Guises. + +The Cardinal had at last secured Stuart, the Scotchman who had murdered +President Minard, and was arranging for his trial at Tours. He had also +confined in the chateaux of Blois and of Tours a considerable number of +gentlemen who had seemed compromised, to inspire a certain degree of terror +in the nobles; they, however, were not terrified, but saw in the +Reformation a fulcrum for the love of resistance they derived from a +feeling of their inborn equality with the King. Now, the prisoners at Blois +had contrived to escape, and, by a singular fatality, those who had been +shut up at Tours had just followed their example. + +"Madame," said the Cardinal de Chatillon to Madame de Fieschi, "if any one +takes an interest in the prisoners from Tours, they are in the greatest +danger." + +On hearing this speech, the Chancellor looked round at the group of the +elder Queen's maids of honor. + +"Yes, for young Desvaux, the Prince de Conde's equerry, who was imprisoned +at Tours, added a bitter jest to his escape. He is said to have written a +note to Messieurs de Guise to this effect: + + "'We have heard of the escape of your prisoners at + Blois; it has grieved us so much, that we are about to + run after them; we will bring them back to you as soon + as we have arrested them.'" + +Though he relished this pleasantry, the Chancellor looked sternly at +Monsieur de Chatillon. + +At this instant louder voices were heard in the King's bedchamber. The two +marshals, with Robertet and the Chancellor, went forward, for it was not +merely a question of life and death to the King; everybody was in the +secret of the danger to the Chancellor, to Catherine, and to her adherents. +The silence that ensued was absolute. + +Ambroise had examined the King; the moment seemed favorable for the +operation; if it were not performed, he might die at any moment. As soon as +the brothers de Guise came in, he explained to them the causes of the +King's sufferings, and demonstrated that in such extremities trepanning was +absolutely necessary. He only awaited the decision of the physicians. + +"Pierce my son's skull as if it were a board, and with that horrible +instrument!" cried Catherine de' Medici. "Maitre Ambroise, I will not +permit it." + +The doctors were consulting, but Catherine spoke so loud that, as she +intended, her words were heard in the outer room. + +"But, madame, if that is the only hope of saving him?" said Mary Stuart, +weeping. + +"Ambroise," said Catherine, "remember that you answer for the King with +your head." + +"We are opposed to the means proposed by Maitre Ambroise," said the three +physicians. "The King may be saved by injecting a remedy into the ear which +will release the humors through that passage." + +The Duc de Guise, who was studying Catherine's face, suddenly went up to +her, and led her into the window-bay. + +"You, madame," said he, "wish your son to die; you are in collusion with +your enemies, and that since we came from Blois. This morning Councillor +Viole told your furrier's son that the Prince de Conde was to be beheaded. +That young man, who, under torture, had denied all knowledge of the Prince +de Conde, gave him a farewell greeting as he passed the window of the lad's +prison. You looked on at your hapless accomplice's sufferings with royal +indifference. Now, you are opposed to your eldest son's life being saved. +You will force us to believe that the death of the Dauphin, which placed +the crown on the head of the late King, was not natural, but that +Montecuculi was your----" + +"Monsieur le Chancelier!" Catherine called out, and at this signal Madame +de Fieschi threw open the double doors of the bedchamber. + +The persons assembled in the hall could thus see the whole scene in the +King's room: the little King, deadly pale, his features sunk, his eyes dim, +but repeating the word "Marie," while he held the hand of the young Queen, +who was weeping; the Duchesse de Guise standing, terrified by Catherine's +audacity; the two Princes of Lorraine, not less anxious, but keeping close +to the Queen-mother, and resolved to have her arrested by Maille-Breze; and +finally, the great surgeon Ambroise Pare, with the King's physician. He +stood holding his instruments, but not daring to perform the operation, for +which perfect quiet was as necessary as the approbation of the medical +authorities. + +"Monsieur le Chancelier," said Catherine, "Messieurs de Guise wish to +authorize a strange operation on the King's person. Ambroise proposes to +perforate his head. I, as his mother, and one of the commission of Regency, +protest against what seems to me to be high treason. The three physicians +are in favor of an injection which, to me, seems quite as efficacious and +less dangerous than the cruel process recommended by Ambroise." + +At these words there was a dull murmur in reply. The Cardinal admitted the +Chancellor, and then shut the bedroom doors. + +"But I am Lieutenant-General of the realm," said the Duc de Guise, "and you +must understand, Monsieur le Chancelier, that Ambroise, surgeon to his +Majesty, answers for the King's life." + +"Well, since this is the state of affairs," said the great Ambroise Pare, +"I know what to be doing." + +He put out his arm over the bed. + +"This bed and the King are mine," said he. "I constitute myself the sole +master, and singly responsible; I know the duties of my office, and I will +operate on the King without the physicians' sanction." + +"Save him!" cried the Cardinal, "and you shall be the richest man in +France." + +"Only go on!" said Mary Stuart, pressing Pare's hand. + +"I cannot interfere," said the Chancellor, "but I shall record the +Queen-mother's protest." + +"Robertet," the Duc de Guise called out. + +Robertet came in, and the Duke pointed to the Chancellor. + +"You are Chancellor of France," he said, "in the place of this felon. +Monsieur de Maille, take Monsieur de l'Hopital to prison with the Prince de +Conde.--As to you, madame," and he turned to Catherine, "your protest will +not be recognized, and you would do well to remember that such actions need +the support of adequate force. I am acting as a faithful and loyal subject +of King Francis II., my sovereign.--Proceed, Ambroise," he said to the +surgeon. + +"Monsieur de Guise," said l'Hopital, "if you use any violence, either on +the person of the King or on that of his Chancellor, remember that in the +hall without there is enough French nobility to arrest all traitors." + +"Gentlemen, gentlemen," said the surgeon, "if you prolong this debate, you +may as well shout 'Vive Charles IX.,' for King Francis is dying." + +Catherine stood unmoved, looking out of window. + +"Well, then, we will use force to remain masters in the King's bedroom," +said the Cardinal, trying to keep the door; but he was startled and +horrified, for the great hall was quite deserted. The Court, sure that the +King was dying, had gone back to Antoine of Navarre. + +"Come; do it, do it," cried Mary Stuart to Ambroise.--"I and you, Duchess," +she said to Madame de Guise, "will protect you." + +"Nay, madame," said Pare, "my zeal carried me too far; the doctors, with +the exception of my friend Chapelain, are in favor of the injection; I must +yield to them. If I were physician and surgeon-in-chief, he could be +saved!--Give it me," he said, taking a small syringe from the hand of the +chief physician, and filling it. + +"Good God!" cried Mary Stuart; "I command you----" + +"Alas! madame," replied Pare, "I am subordinate to these gentlemen." + +The young Queen and the Duchesse de Guise stood between the surgeon and the +doctors and the other persons present. The chief physician held the King's +head, and Ambroise made the injection into the ear. The two Princes of +Lorraine were watchful; Robertet and Monsieur de Maille stood motionless. +At a sign from Catherine, Madame de Fieschi left the room unnoticed. At the +same instant l'Hopital boldly threw open the door of the King's bedroom. + +"I have arrived in the nick of time," exclaimed a man, whose hasty steps +rang through the hall, and who, in another minute, was at the door of the +King's room. "What, gentlemen! You thought to cut off my fine nephew, the +Prince de Conde's head?--You have roused the lion from his lair, and here +he is!" added the Connetable de Montmorency.--"Ambroise, you are not to +stir up my King's brains with your instruments! The Kings of France do not +allow themselves to be knocked about in that way unless by their enemies' +sword in fair fight! The first Prince of the Blood, Antoine de Bourbon, the +Prince de Conde, the Queen-mother, and the Chancellor are all opposed to +the operation." + +To Catherine's great satisfaction, the King of Navarre and the Prince de +Conde both made their appearance. + +"What is the meaning of this?" said the Duc de Guise, laying his hand on +his poniard. + +"As Lord High Constable, I have dismissed all the sentinels from their +posts. Blood and thunder! we are not in an enemy's country, I suppose. The +King our Master is surrounded by his subjects, and the States-General of +the realm may deliberate in perfect liberty. I have just come from the +Assembly, gentlemen; I laid before it the protest of my nephew de Conde, +who has been rescued by three hundred gentlemen. You meant to let the royal +blood, and to decimate the nobility of France. Henceforth I shall not trust +anything you propose, Messieurs de Lorraine. And if you give the order for +the King's head to be opened, by this sword, which saved France from +Charles V., I say it shall not be done----!" + +"All the more so," said Ambroise Pare, "because it is too late, suffusion +has begun." + +"Your reign is over, gentlemen," said Catherine to the two Guises, seeing +from Pare's manner that there was now no hope. + +"You, madame, have killed your son!" said Mary Stuart, springing like a +lioness from the bed to the window, and seizing the Italian Queen by the +arm with a vehement clutch. + +"My dear," replied Catherine de' Medici, with a keen, cold look that +expressed the hatred she had suppressed for six months past, "you, to whose +violent passion this death is due, will now go to reign over your own +Scotland--and you will go to-morrow. I am now Regent in fact as well as in +name." + +The three physicians had made a sign to the Queen-mother. + +"Gentlemen," she went on, addressing the Guises, "it is an understood thing +between Monsieur de Bourbon--whom I hereby appoint Lieutenant-General of +the kingdom--and myself that the conduct of affairs is our business.--Come, +Monsieur le Chancelier." + +"The King is dead!" said the Grand Master, obliged to carry out the +functions of his office. + +"God save King Charles IX.!" cried the gentleman who had come with the King +of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, and the Constable. + +The ceremonies performed when a King of France dies were carried out in +solitude. When the king-at-arms called out three times in the great hall, +"The King is dead!" after the official announcement by the Duc de Guise, +there were but a few persons present to answer--"God save the King!" + +The Queen-mother, to whom the Countess Fieschi brought the Duc d'Orleans, +now Charles IX., left the room leading the boy by the hand, and followed by +the whole Court. Only the two Guises, the Duchesse de Guise, Mary Stuart, +and Dayelle remained in the room where Francis II. had breathed his last, +with two guards at the door, the Grand Master's pages and the Cardinal's, +and their two private secretaries. + +"Vive la France!" shouted some of the Reformers, a first cry of opposition. + +Robertet, who owed everything to the Duke and the Cardinal, terrified by +their schemes and their abortive attempts, secretly attached himself to the +Queen-mother, whom the Ambassadors of Spain, England, the German Empire, +and Poland met on the stairs, at their head Cardinal Tournon, who had gone +to call them after looking up from the courtyard to Catherine de' Medici +just as she was protesting against Ambroise Pare's operation. + +"Well, the sons of Louis d'Outre-Mer, the descendants of Charles de +Lorraine, have proved cravens," said the Cardinal to the Duke. + +"They would have been packed off to Lorraine," replied his brother. "I +declare to you, Charles," he went on, "if the crown were there for the +taking, I would not put out my hand for it. That will be my son's task." + +"Will he ever have the army and the Church on his side as you have?" + +"He will have something better." + +"What?" + +"The people." + +"And there is no one to mourn for him but me--the poor boy who loved me so +well!" said Mary Stuart, holding the cold hand of her first husband. + +"How can we be reconciled to the Queen?" said the Cardinal. + +"Wait till she quarrels with the Huguenots," said the Duchess. + +The clashing interests of the House of Bourbon, of Catherine, of the +Guises, and of the Reformers produced such confusion in Orleans, that it +was not till three days after that the King's body, quite forgotten where +it lay, was placed in a coffin by obscure serving men, and carried to +Saint-Denis in a covered vehicle, followed only by the Bishop of Senlis and +two gentlemen. When this dismal little procession arrived at the town of +Etampes, a follower of the Chancellor de l'Hopital attached to the hearse +this bitter inscription, which history has recorded: "Tanneguy du Chastel, +where are you? Yet you too were French!" A stinging innuendo, striking at +Catherine, Mary Stuart, and the Guises. For what Frenchman does not know +that Tanneguy du Chastel spent thirty thousand crowns (a million of francs +in these days) on the obsequies of Charles VII., the benefactor of his +family? + + * * * * * + +As soon as the tolling bells announced the death of Francis II., and the +Connetable de Montmorency had thrown open the gates of the town, Tourillon +went up to his hayloft and made his way to a hiding-place. + +"What, can he be dead?" exclaimed the glover. + +On hearing the voice, a man rose and replied, "_Pret a servir_" ("Ready to +serve," or "Ready, aye ready"), the watchword of the Reformers of Calvin's +sect. + +This man was Chaudieu, to whom Tourillon related the events of the last +week, during which he had left the preacher alone in his hiding-place, with +a twelve-ounce loaf for his sole sustenance. + +"Be off to the Prince de Conde, brother, ask him for a safe-conduct for me, +and find me a horse," cried the preacher. "I must set out this moment." + +"Write him a line then, that I may be admitted." + +"Here," said Chaudieu, after writing a few lines, "ask for a pass from the +King of Navarre, for under existing circumstances I must hasten to Geneva." + +Within two hours all was ready, and the zealous minister was on his way to +Geneva, escorted by one of the King of Navarre's gentlemen, whose secretary +Chaudieu was supposed to be, and who was the bearer of instructions to the +Reformed party in Dauphine. + +Chaudieu's sudden departure was at once permitted, to further the interests +of Queen Catherine, who, to gain time, made a bold suggestion which was +kept a profound secret. This startling scheme accounts for the agreement so +unexpectedly arrived at between the Queen and the leaders of the Protestant +party. The crafty woman had, as a guarantee of her good faith, expressed a +desire to heal the breach between the two Churches in an assembly which +could be neither a Synod, nor a Council, nor a Convocation, for which +indeed a new name was needed, and, above all else, Calvin's consent. It may +be said in passing, that, when this mystery came out, it led to the +alliance of the Guises with the Connetable de Montmorency against Catherine +and the King of Navarre--a strange coalition, known to history as the +Triumvirate, because the Marechal de Saint-Andre was the third person in +this purely Catholic combination, to which Catherine's strange proposal for +a meeting gave rise. The Guises were then enabled to judge very shrewdly of +Catherine's policy; they saw that the Queen cared little enough for this +assembly, and only wanted to temporize with her allies till Charles IX. +should be of age; indeed, they deceived Montmorency by making him believe +in a collusion between Catherine and the Bourbons, while Catherine was +taking them all in. The Queen, it will be seen, had in a short time made +great strides. + +The spirit of argument and discussion which was then in the air was +particularly favorable to this scheme. The Catholics and the Huguenots were +all to shine in turn in this tournament of words. Indeed, that is exactly +what happened. Is it not extraordinary that historians should have mistaken +the Queen's shrewdest craft for hesitancy? Catherine never went more +directly to the end she had in view than when she seemed to have turned her +back on it. So the King of Navarre, incapable of fathoming Catherine's +motives, despatched Chaudieu to Calvin; Chaudieu having secretly intended +to watch the course of events at Orleans, where he ran, every hour, the +risk of being seized and hanged without trial, like any man who had been +condemned to banishment. + +At the rate of traveling then possible Chaudieu could not reach Geneva +before the month of February, the negotiations could not be completed till +March, and the meeting could not be called till the beginning of May 1561. +Catherine intended to amuse the Court meanwhile, and lull party-feeling by +the King's coronation, and by his first Bed of Justice in the Parlement +when l'Hopital and de Thou passed the royal letter, by which Charles IX. +intrusted the Government of the kingdom to his mother, seconded by Antoine +de Navarre as Lieutenant-General of the realm--the weakest prince of his +time. + +Was it not one of the strangest things of that day to see a whole kingdom +in suspense for the Yea or Nay of a French citizen, risen from obscurity, +and living at Geneva? The Pope of Rome held in check by the Pope of Geneva? +The two Princes of Lorraine, once so powerful, paralyzed by the brief +concord between the first Prince of the Blood, the Queen-mother, and +Calvin? Is it not one of the most pregnant lessons that history has +preserved to kings, a lesson that should teach them to judge of men, to +give genius its due without any hesitation, and to seek it out, as Louis +XIV. did, wherever God has hidden it? + +Calvin, whose real name was not Calvin, but Cauvin, was the son of a cooper +at Noyon, in Picardy. Calvin's birth-place accounts to a certain degree +for the obstinacy mingled with eccentric irritability which characterized +the arbiter of the destinies of France in the sixteenth century. No one is +less known than this man, who was the maker of Geneva and of the spirit of +its people. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who knew little of history, was utterly +ignorant of this man's influence on his Republic. + +At first, indeed, Calvin, dwelling in one of the humblest houses in the +upper town, near the Protestant Church of Saint-Pierre, over a carpenter's +shop--one point of resemblance between him and Robespierre--had no great +authority in Geneva. His influence was for a long time checked by the +hatred of the Genevese. + +In the sixteenth century Geneva could boast of Farel, one of those famous +citizens who have remained unknown to the world, some of them even to +Geneva itself. In the year 1537, or thereabouts, this Farel attached Calvin +to Geneva by pointing out to him that it might become the stronghold of a +reformation more thorough than that of Luther. Farel and Cauvin looked on +Lutheranism as an incomplete achievement, ineffectual, and with no hold on +France. Geneva, lying between France and Italy, speaking the French tongue, +was admirably placed for communicating with Germany, Italy, and France. +Calvin adopted Geneva as the seat of his spiritual fortunes, and made it +the citadel of his dogmas. At Farel's request, the town council of Geneva +authorized Calvin to lecture on theology in the month of September 1538. +Calvin left preaching to Farel, his first disciple, and patiently devoted +himself to teaching his doctrine. His authority, which in later years of +his life was paramount, took long to establish. The great leader met with +serious difficulties; he was even banished from Geneva for some time in +consequence of the austerity of his doctrines. There was a party of very +good folk who clung to the old luxury and customs of their fathers. But, as +is always the case, these worthy people dreaded ridicule; they would not +admit what was the real object of their struggles, and the battle was +fought over details apart from the real question. + +Calvin insisted on leavened bread being used for the Sacrament, and on +there being no holy days but Sunday. These innovations were disapproved of +at Berne and at Lausanne. The Genevese were required to conform to the +ritual of Switzerland. Calvin and Farel resisted; their political enemies +made a pretext of this refractoriness to exile them from Geneva, whence +they were banished for some years. At a later period Calvin came back in +triumph, invited by his flock. + +Such persecution is always a consecration of moral power when the prophet +can wait. And this return was the era of this Mahomet. Executions began, +and Calvin organized his religious Terror. As soon as this commanding +spirit reappeared, he was admitted to the citizenship of Geneva; but after +fourteen years' residence there, he was not yet on the Council. At the time +when Catherine was despatching a minister to treat with him, this king in +the realm of thought had no title but that of Pastor of the Church of +Geneva. Indeed, Calvin never had more than a hundred and fifty francs a +year in money, fifteen hundred-weight of corn and two casks of wine for his +whole remuneration. His brother, a tailor, kept a shop a few paces away +from the Place Saint-Pierre, in a street where one of Calvin's +printing-places may still be seen. + +Such disinterestedness, which in Voltaire and Baker was lacking, but which +is conspicuous in the life of Rabelais, of Campanella, of Luther, of Vico, +of Descartes, of Malebranche, of Spinoza, of Loyola, of Kant, and of +Jean-Jacques Rousseau, surely forms a noble setting for these sublime and +ardent souls. + +Robespierre's life, so like that of Calvin, can alone perhaps enable our +contemporaries to understand Calvin's. He, founding his power on a similar +basis, was as cruel and as tyrannical as the Arras lawyer. It is strange +too that Picardy--Arras and Noyon--should have given to the world these two +great instruments of reform. Those who examine into the motives of the +executions ordered by Calvin will find, on a different scale, no doubt, +all of 1793 at Geneva. Calvin had Jacques Gruet beheaded "for having +written impious letters and worldly verse, and labored to overthrow Church +ordinances." Just consider this sentence, and ask yourself if the worst +despotism can show in its annals a more absurdly preposterous indictment. + +Valentin Gentilis, condemned to death for involuntary heresy, escaped the +scaffold only by making more humiliating amends than ever were inflicted by +the Catholic Church. Seven years before the conference presently to be held +in Calvin's house on the Queen-mother's proposals, Michel Servet (or +Servetus), a Frenchman, passing through Geneva, was put in prison, tried, +condemned on Calvin's testimony, and burned alive for having attacked the +mystery of the Trinity in a work which had not been either composed or +printed at Geneva. Compare with this the eloquent defence of Jean-Jacques +Rousseau, whose book, attacking the Catholic religion, written in France +and published in Holland, was indeed burned by the hand of the executioner; +but the writer, a foreigner, was only banished from the kingdom, where he +had been trying to strike at the fundamental truths of religion and +government; and compare the conduct of the Parlement with that of the +Genevese tyrant. + +Bolsee, again, was brought to judgment for having other ideas than Calvin +on the subject of predestination. Weigh all this, and say whether +Fouquier-Tinville did anything worse. Calvin's fierce religious intolerance +was, morally speaking, more intense, more implacable, than the fierce +political intolerance of Robespierre. On a wider stage than was offered by +Geneva, Calvin would have shed more blood than the terrible apostle of +political equality, as compared with Catholic equality. + +Three centuries earlier a monk, also a son of Picardy, had led the whole of +Western Europe to invade the East. Peter the Hermit, Calvin, and +Robespierre, sons of the same soil, at intervals of three centuries, were, +in a political sense, the levers of Archimedes. Each in turn was an +embodied idea finding its fulcrum in the interests of man. + +Calvin is, beyond doubt, the--almost unrecognized--maker of that dismal +town of Geneva, where, only ten years since, a man, pointing out a carriage +gate--the first in the town, for till then there had only been house doors +in Geneva--said, "Through that gate luxury drove into Geneva." Calvin, by +the severity of his sentences and the austerity of his doctrine, introduced +the hypocritical feeling that has been well called Puritanism [the nearest +English equivalent perhaps to the French word _momerie_]. Good conduct, +according to the _momiers_ or puritans, lay in renouncing the arts and the +graces of life, in eating well but without luxury, and in silently amassing +money without enjoying it otherwise than as Calvin enjoyed his power--in +fancy. + +Calvin clothed the citizens in the same gloomy livery as he threw over life +in general. He formed in the Consistory a perfect Calvinist inquisition, +exactly like the revolutionary tribunal instituted by Robespierre. The +Consistory handed over the victims to be condemned by the Council, which +Calvin ruled through the Consistory just as Robespierre ruled the +Convention through the Jacobin Club. Thus an eminent magistrate of Geneva +was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, to lose his office, and to be +prohibited from ever filling any other, because he led a dissolute life and +had made friends among Calvin's foes. In this way Calvin was actually a +legislator; it was he who created the austere manners, sober, respectable, +hideously dull, but quite irreproachable, which have remained unchanged in +Geneva to this day; they prevailed there indeed before the English habits +were formed that are universally known as Puritanism, under the influence +of the Cameronians, the followers of Cameron, a Frenchman who trod in +Calvin's steps. These manners have been admirably described by Walter +Scott. + +The poverty of this man, an absolute sovereign, who treated as a power with +other powers, asking for their treasure, demanding armies, and filling his +hands with their money for the poor, proves that the Idea, regarded as the +sole means of dominion, begets political misers, men whose only enjoyment +is intellectual, and who, like the Jesuits, love power for its own sake. +Pitt, Luther, Calvin, and Robespierre, all these _Harpagons_ in greed of +dominion, died penniless. History has preserved the inventory made in +Calvin's rooms after his death, and everything, including his books, was +valued at fifty crowns. Luther's possessions amounted to as much; indeed, +his widow, the famous Catherine de Bora, was obliged to petition for a +pension of fifty crowns bestowed on her by a German Elector. + +Potemkin, Mazarin, and Richelieu, men of thought and action, who all three +founded or prepared the foundations of empires, each left three hundred +millions of francs; but these men had a heart, they loved women and the +arts, they built and conquered; while, with the exception of Luther, whose +wife was the Helen of this Iliad, none of the others could accuse himself +of ever having felt his heart throb for a woman. + +This brief history was needed to explain Calvin's position at Geneva. + +One day early in February 1561, on one of the mild evenings which occur at +that time of year on the shores of Lake Leman, two men on horseback arrived +at Pre-l'Eveque, so called from the ancient residence of the Bishop of +Geneva, driven out thirty years before. These two men, acquainted, no +doubt, with the law of Geneva as to the closing of the gates, very +necessary then, and absurd enough in these days, rode towards the Porte de +Rives; but they suddenly drew rein at the sight of a man of fifty, walking +with the help of a woman-servant's arm, and evidently returning to the +town. This personage, rather stout in figure, walked slowly and with +difficulty, dragging one foot before the other with evident pain, and +wearing broad, laced shoes of black velvet. + +"It is he," said Chaudieu's companion, who dismounted, gave his bridle to +the preacher, and went forward open-armed to meet the master. + +The man on foot, who was in fact Jean Calvin, drew back to avoid the +embrace, and cast the severest glance at his disciple. At the age of fifty +Calvin looked like a man of seventy. Thick-set and fat, he seemed all the +shorter because frightful pain from the stone obliged him to walk much +bent. These sufferings were complicated with attacks of the worst form of +gout. Anybody might have quaked at the aspect of that face, almost as broad +as it was long, and bearing no more signs of good-nature, in spite of its +roundness, than that of the dreadful King Henry VIII., whom Calvin, in +fact, resembled. His sufferings, which never gave him a reprieve, were +visible in two deep furrows on each side of his nose, following the line of +his moustache, and ending, like it, in a full gray beard. + +This face, though red and inflamed like a drunkard's, showed patches where +his complexion was yellow; still, and in spite of the velvet cap that +covered his massive, broad head, it was possible to admire a large and +nobly formed forehead, and beneath it two sparkling brown eyes, which in +moments of wrath could flash fire. Whether by reason of his bulk, or +because his neck was too thick and short, or as a consequence of late hours +and incessant work, Calvin's head seemed sunk between his broad shoulders, +which compelled him to wear a quite shallow, pleated ruff, on which his +face rested like John the Baptist's in the charger. Between his moustache +and his beard there peeped, like a rose, a sweet and eloquent mouth, small, +and fresh, and perfectly formed. This face was divided by a square nose +remarkable for its long aquiline outline, resulting in high-lights at the +tip, significantly in harmony with the prodigious power expressed in this +magnificent head. + +Though it was difficult to detect in these features any trace of the +constant headaches which tormented Calvin in the intervals of a slow fever +that was consuming him, pain, constantly defied by study and a strong will, +gave this apparently florid face a terrible tinge, attributable, no doubt, +to the hue of the layer of fat due to the sedentary habits of a hard +worker. It bore the marks of the perpetual struggle of a sickly temperament +against one of the strongest wills known in the history of mankind. Even +the lips, though beautiful, expressed cruelty. A chaste life, indispensable +to vast projects, and compulsory in such conditions of sickly health, had +set its stamp on the face. There was regret in the serenity of that mighty +brow, and suffering in the gaze of the eyes, whose calmness was a terror. + +Calvin's dress gave effect to his head, for he wore the famous black cloth +gown, belted with a cloth band and brass buckle, which was adopted as the +costume of Calvinist preachers, and which, having nothing to attract the +eye, directed all the spectator's attention to the face. + +"I am in too great pain to embrace you, Theodore," said Calvin to the +elegant horseman. + +Theodore de Beze, at that time two-and-forty, and, by Calvin's desire, a +free citizen of Geneva for two years past, was the most striking contrast +to the terrible minister to whom he had given his allegiance. Calvin, like +all men of the middle class who have risen to moral supremacy, like all +inventors of a social system, was consumed with jealousy. He abhorred his +disciples, would suffer no equal, and could not endure the slightest +contradiction. However, between him and Theodore de Beze the difference was +so great; this elegant gentleman, gifted with a charming appearance, +polished, courteous, and accustomed to Court life, was, in his eyes, so +unlike all his fierce Janissaries, that for him he set aside his usual +impulses. He never loved him, for this crabbed lawgiver knew absolutely +nothing of friendship; but having no fear of finding his successor in him, +he liked to play with Theodore, as Richelieu at a later time played with +his cat. He found him pliant and amusing. When he saw that de Beze +succeeded to perfection in every mission, he took delight in the polished +tool of which he believed himself to be the soul and guide; so true is it +that even those men who seem most surly cannot live without some semblance +of affection. + +Theodore was Calvin's spoilt child. The great Reformer never scolded him, +overlooked his irregularities, his love affairs, his handsome dress, and +his choice language. Possibly Calvin was well content to show that the +Reformation could hold its own even among Court circles. Theodore de Beze +wanted to introduce a taste for art, letters, and poetry into Geneva, and +Calvin would listen to his schemes without knitting his grizzled brows. +Thus the contrast of character and person was as complete as the contrast +of mind in these two celebrated men. + +Calvin accepted Chaudieu's very humble bow, and replied by slightly bending +his head. Chaudieu slipped the bridles of both horses over his right arm +and followed the two great Reformers, keeping on the right of Theodore de +Beze, who was walking on Calvin's right. Calvin's housekeeper ran forward +to prevent the gate being shut, by telling the captain of the Guard that +the Pastor had just had a severe attack of pain. + +Theodore de Beze was a native of the Commune of Vezelay, the first to +demand for itself corporate government, of which the curious tale has been +told by one of the Thierrys. Thus the spirit of citizenship and resistance +which were endemic at Vezelay no doubt contributed an item to the great +rising of the Reformers in the person of this man, who is certainly a most +singular figure in the history of heresy. + +"So you still suffer great pain?" said Theodore to Calvin. + +"The sufferings of the damned, a Catholic would say," replied the Reformer, +with the bitterness that colored his least remarks. "Ah! I am going fast, +my son, and what will become of you when I am gone?" + +"We will fight by the light of your writings," said Chaudieu. + +Calvin smiled; his purple face assumed a more gracious expression, and he +looked kindly on Chaudieu. + +"Well, have you brought me any news?" he asked. "Have they killed a great +many of us?" he added, with a smile, and a sort of mocking glee sparkled in +his brown eyes. + +"No," said Chaudieu; "peace is the order of the day." + +"So much the worse, so much the worse!" cried Calvin. "Every form of peace +would be a misfortune if it were not always, in fact, a snare. Our strength +lies in persecution. Where should we be if the Church took up the +Reformation?" + +"Indeed," said Theodore, "that is what the Queen-mother seems inclined to +do." + +"She is quite capable of it," said Calvin. "I am studying that woman." + +"From hence?" cried Chaudieu. + +"Does distance exist for the spirit?" said Calvin severely, regarding the +interruption as irreverent. "Catherine longs for power, and women who aim +at that lose all sense of honor and faith.--What is in the wind?" + +"Well, she suggests a sort of Council," said Theodore de Beze. + +"Near Paris?" asked Calvin roughly. + +"Yes." + +"Ah! that is well!" said Calvin. + +"And we are to try to come to an understanding, and draw up a public Act to +consolidate the two Churches." + +"Ah! if only she had courage enough to separate the French Church from the +Court of Rome, and to create a patriarch in France, as in the Greek +Church!" cried the Reformer, whose eyes glistened at this idea, which would +place him on a throne. "But, my son, can a Pope's niece be truthful? She +only wants to gain time." + +"And do not we need time to recover from our check at Amboise, and to +organize some formidable resistance in various parts of the kingdom?" + +"She has sent away the Queen of Scotland," said Chaudieu. + +"That is one less, then," said Calvin, as they passed through the Porte de +Rives. "Elizabeth of England will keep her busy. Two neighboring queens +will soon be fighting; one is handsome, and the other ugly enough--a first +cause of irritation; and then there is the question of legitimacy----" + +He rubbed his hands, and his glee had such a ferocious taint that de Beze +shuddered, for he too saw the pool of blood at which his master was +gazing. + +"The Guises have provoked the House of Bourbon," said de Beze after a +pause; "they broke the stick between them at Orleans." + +"Ay," said Calvin; "and you, my son, did not believe me when, as you last +started for Nerac, I told you that we should end by stirring up war to the +death between the two branches of the royal family in France. + +"So at last I have a court, a king, a dynasty on my side. My doctrine has +had its effect on the masses. The citizen class understand me; henceforth +they will call those who go to Mass idolaters, those who paint the walls of +their place of worship, and put up pictures and statues there. Oh, the +populace find it far easier to demolish cathedrals and palaces than to +discuss justification by faith or the real presence! Luther was a wrangler, +I am an army! He was a reasoner, I am a system! He, my child, was but a +tormentor, I am a Tarquin! + +"Yes, they of the truth will destroy churches, will tear down pictures, +will make millstones of the statues to grind the bread of the people. There +are bodies in great States, I will have only individuals; bodies are too +resistant, and see clearly when individuals are blind. + +"Now, we must combine this agitating doctrine with political interests, to +consolidate it and to keep up the material of my armies. I have satisfied +the logic of thrifty minds and thinking brains by this bare, undecorated +worship which lifts religion into the sphere of the ideal. I have made the +mob understand the advantages of the suppression of ceremonial. + +"Now it is your part, Theodore, to enlist people's interests. Do not +overstep that line. In the way of doctrine everything has been done, +everything has been said; add not one jot! Why does Cameron, that little +_pasteur_ in Gascony, meddle with writing?" + +Calvin, Theodore de Beze, and Chaudieu went along the streets of the upper +town and through the crowd, without any attention being paid to the men who +were unchaining the mob in cities and ravaging France. After this +terrifying harangue, they walked on in silence, till they reached the +little square of Saint-Pierre, and made their way towards the minister's +dwelling. Calvin's lodging consisted of three rooms on the second floor of +this house, which is hardly known, and of which no one ever tells you in +Geneva--where, indeed, there is no statue to Calvin. The rooms were floored +and wainscoted with pine, and on one side there were a kitchen and a +servant's room. The entrance, as is commonly the case in Genevese houses, +was through the kitchen, which opened into a small room with two windows, +parlor, dining, and drawing-room in one. Next to this was the study where, +for fourteen years, Calvin's mind had carried on the battle with pain, and +beyond was his bedroom. Four oak chairs with tapestry seats, placed round a +long table, formed all the furniture of the sitting-room. A white +earthenware stove in one corner of the room gave out a pleasant warmth; +paneling of unvarnished pine covered the walls, and there was no other +decoration. The bareness of the place was quite in keeping with the frugal +and simple life led by the Reformer. + +"Well," said de Beze, as he went in, taking advantage of a few minutes when +Chaudieu had left them to put up the horses at a neighboring inn, "what am +I to do? Will you agree to this meeting?" + +"Certainly," said Calvin. "You, my son, will bear the brunt of the +struggle. Be decisive, absolute. Nobody, neither the Queen, nor the Guises, +nor I want pacification as a result; it would not suit our purpose. I have +much confidence in Duplessis-Mornay. Give him the leading part. We are +alone----" said he, with a suspicious glance into the kitchen, of which the +door was open, showing two shirts and some collars hung to dry on a line, +"Go and shut all the doors.--Well," he went on, when Theodore had done his +bidding, "we must compel the King of Navarre to join the Guises and the +Connetable de Montmorency, by advising him to desert Queen Catherine de' +Medici. Let us take full advantage of his weakness; he is but a poor +creature. If he prove a turncoat to the Italian woman, she, finding herself +bereft of his support, must inevitably join the Prince de Conde and +Coligny. Such a manoeuvre may possibly compromise her so effectually that +she must remain on our side----" + +Theodore de Beze raised the hem of Calvin's gown and kissed it. + +"Oh, master," said he, "you are indeed great!" + +"Unfortunately, I am dying, my dear Theodore. If I should die before seeing +you again," he went on, whispering in the ear of his Minister for Foreign +Affairs, "remember to strike a great blow by the hand of one of our +martyrs." + +"Another Minard to be killed?" + +"Higher than a lawyer." + +"A king!" + +"Higher still. The man who wants to be king." + +"The Duc de Guise?" cried Theodore, with a gesture of dismay. + +"Well," cried Calvin, fancying that he discerned refusal, or at least an +instinct of resistance, and failing to notice the entrance of Chaudieu, +"have we not a right to strike as we are struck? Yes, and in darkness and +silence! May we not return wound for wound, and death for death? Do the +Catholics hesitate to lay snares for us and kill us? I trust to you! Burn +their churches. Go on, my sons! If you have any devoted youths----" + +"I have," Chaudieu put in. + +"Use them as weapons of war. To triumph, we may use every means. The +Balafre, that terrible man of war, is, like me, more than a man; he is a +dynasty, as I am a system; he is capable of annihilating us! Death to the +Duc de Guise!" + +"I should prefer a peaceful victory, brought about by time and reason," +said de Beze. + +"By time!" cried Calvin, flinging over his chair. "By reason! Are you mad? +Conquer by reason? Do you know nothing of men, you who live among +them--idiot? What is so fatal to my teaching, thrice-dyed simpleton, is +that it is based on reason. By the thunders of Saint Paul, by the sword of +the Mighty! Pumpkin as you are, Theodore, cannot you see the power that the +catastrophe at Amboise has given to my reforms? Ideas can never grow till +they are watered with blood. The murder of the Duc de Guise would give rise +to a fearful persecution, and I hope for it with all my might! To us +reverses are more favorable than success! The Reformation can be beaten and +endure, do you hear, oaf? Whereas Catholicism is overthrown if we win a +single battle. + +"What are these lieutenants of mine? Wet rags and not men! Guts on two +legs! Christened baboons! O God, wilt Thou not grant me another ten years +to live? If I die too soon, the cause of religion is lost in the hands of +such rascals! + +"You are as helpless as Antoine de Navarre! Begone! leave me! I must have a +better messenger! You are an ass, a popinjay, a poet! Go, write your +Catullics, your Tibullics, your acrostics! Hoo!" + +The pain he suffered was entirely swamped by the fires of his wrath. Gout +vanished before this fearful excitement. Calvin's face was blotched with +purple, like the sky before a storm. His broad forehead shone. His eyes +flashed fire. He was not like the same man. He let himself give way to this +sort of epileptic frenzy, almost madness, which was habitual with him; but, +then, struck by the silence of his two listeners, and observing Chaudieu, +who said to de Beze, "The burning bush of Horeb!" the minister sat down, +was dumb, and covered his face with his hands, with their thickened joints, +and his fingers quivered in spite of their strength. + +A few minutes later, while still trembling from the last shocks of this +tempest--the result of his austere life--he said in a broken voice: + +"My vices, which are many, are less hard to subdue than my impatience! Ah! +wild beast, shall I never conquer you?" he exclaimed, striking his breast. + +"My beloved master," said de Beze in a caressing tone, taking his hands and +kissing them, "Jove thunders, but he can smile." + +Calvin looked at his disciple with a softened expression. + +"Do not misunderstand me, my friends," he said. + +"I understand that the shepherds of nations have terrible burdens to bear," +replied Theodore. "You have a world on your shoulders." + +"I," said Chaudieu, who had become thoughtful under the master's abuse, +"have three martyrs on whom we can depend. Stuart, who killed the +President, is free----" + +"That will not do," said Calvin mildly, and smiling, as a great man can +smile when fair weather follows a storm on his face, as if he were ashamed +of the tempest. "I know men. He who kills one President will not kill a +second." + +"Is it absolutely necessary?" said de Beze. + +"What, again?" cried Calvin, his nostrils expanding. "There, go; you will +put me in a rage again. You have my decision.--You, Chaudieu, walk in your +own path, and keep the Paris flock together. God be with you.--Dinah! Light +my friends out." + +"Will you not allow me to embrace you?" said de Beze with emotion. "Who can +tell what the morrow will bring forth? We may be imprisoned in spite of +safe-conducts----" + +"And yet you want to spare them!" said Calvin, embracing de Beze. + +He took Chaudieu's hand, saying: + +"Mind you, not Huguenots, not Reformers: be Calvinists! Speak only of +Calvinism.--Alas! this is not ambition, for I am a dying man!--Only, +everything of Luther's must be destroyed, to the very names of Lutheran and +Lutheranism." + +"Indeed, divine man, you deserve such honor!" cried Chaudieu. + +"Uphold uniformity of creed. Do not allow any further examination or +reconstruction. If new sects arise from among us, we are lost." + +To anticipate events and dismiss Theodore de Beze, who returned to Paris +with Chaudieu, it may be said that Poltrot, who, eighteen months later, +fired a pistol at the Duc de Guise, confessed, under torture, that he had +been urged to the crime by Theodore de Beze; however, he retracted his +statement at a later stage. Indeed. Bossuet, who weighed all the historical +evidence, did not think that the idea of this attempt was due to Theodore +de Beze. Since Bossuet, however, a dissertation of an apparently trivial +character, _a propos_ to a famous ballad, enabled a compiler of the +eighteenth century to prove that the song sung throughout France by the +Huguenots on the death of the Duc de Guise was written by Theodore de Beze; +and, moreover, that the well-known ballad or lament on Malbrouck--the Duke +of Marlborough--is plagiarized from Theodore de Beze.[F] + + * * * * * + +On the day when Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu reached Paris, the Court had +returned thither from Reims, where Charles IX. had been crowned. This +ceremony, to which Catherine gave unusual splendor, making it the occasion +of great festivities, enabled her to gather round her the leaders of every +faction. + +After studying the various parties and interests, she saw a choice of two +alternatives--either to enlist them on the side of the Throne, or to set +them against each other. The Connetable de Montmorency, above all else a +Catholic, whose nephew, the Prince de Conde, was the leader of the +Reformation, and whose children also had a leaning to that creed, blamed +the Queen-mother for allying herself with that party. The Guises, on their +side, worked hard to gain over Antoine de Bourbon, a Prince of no strength +of character, and attach him to their faction, and his wife, the Queen of +Navarre, informed by de Beze, allowed this to be done. These difficulties +checked Catherine, whose newly-acquired authority needed a brief period of +tranquillity; she impatiently awaited Calvin's reply by de Beze and +Chaudieu, sent to the great Reformer on behalf of the Prince de Conde, the +King of Navarre, Coligny, d'Andelot, and Cardinal de Chatillon. + +Meanwhile, the Queen-mother was true to her promises to the Prince de +Conde. The Chancellor quashed the trial, in which Christophe was involved, +by referring the case to the Paris Parlement, and they annulled the +sentence pronounced by the Commission, declaring it incompetent to try a +Prince of the Blood. The Parlement re-opened the trial by the desire of the +Guises and the Queen-mother. La Sagne's papers had been placed in +Catherine's hands, and she had burnt them. This sacrifice was the first +pledge given, quite vainly, by the Guises to the Queen-mother. The +Parlement, not having this decisive evidence, reinstated the Prince in all +his rights, possessions, and honors. + +Christophe, thus released when Orleans was in all its excitement over the +King's accession, was excluded from the case, and, as a compensation for +his sufferings, was passed as a pleader by Monsieur de Thou. + +The Triumvirate--the coalition of interests which were imperiled by +Catherine's first steps in authority--was hatching under her very eyes. +Just as in chemistry hostile elements fly asunder at the shock that +disturbs their compulsory union, so in politics the alliance of +antagonistic interests can never last long. Catherine fully understood +that, sooner or later, she must fall back on the Connetable and the Guises +to fight the Huguenots. The convocation, which served to flatter the vanity +of the orators on each side, and as an excuse for another imposing ceremony +after that of the coronation, to clear the blood-stained field for the +religious war that had, indeed, already begun, was as futile in the eyes of +the Guises as it was in Catherine's. The Catholics could not fail to be the +losers; for the Huguenots, under the pretence of discussion, would be able +to proclaim their doctrine in the face of all France, under the protection +of the King and his mother. The Cardinal de Lorraine, flattered by +Catherine into the hope of conquering the heretics by the eloquence of the +Princes of the Church, induced his brother to consent. To the Queen-mother +six months of peace meant much. + +A trivial incident was near wrecking the power which Catherine was so +laboriously building up. This is the scene as recorded by history; it +occurred on the very day when the envoys from Geneva arrived at the Hotel +de Coligny in the Rue Bethisy, not far from the Louvre. At the coronation, +Charles IX., who was much attached to his instructor, Amyot, made him High +Almoner of France. This affection was fully shared by the Duc d'Anjou +(Henri III.), who also was Amyot's pupil. + +Catherine heard this from the two Gondis on the way home from Reims to +Paris. She had relied on this Crown appointment to gain her a supporter in +the Church, and a person of importance to set against the Cardinal de +Lorraine; she had intended to bestow it on Cardinal de Tournon, so as to +find in him, as in l'Hopital, a second crutch--to use her own words. On +arriving at the Louvre, she sent for the preceptor. Her rage at seeing the +catastrophe that threatened her policy from the ambition of this self-made +man--the son of a shoemaker--was such that she addressed him in this +strange speech recorded by certain chroniclers: + +"What! I can make the Guises cringe, the Colignys, the Montmorencys, the +House of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, and I am to be balked by a +priestling like you, who were not content to be Bishop of Auxerre!" + +Amyot excused himself. He had, in fact, asked for nothing; the King had +appointed him of his own free will to this office, of which he, a humble +teacher, regarded himself as unworthy. + +"Rest assured, Master," for it was by this name that the Kings Charles IX. +and Henri III. addressed this great writer, "that you will not be left +standing for twenty-four hours unless you induce your pupil to change his +mind." + +Between death promised him in such an uncompromising way, and the +abdication of the highest ecclesiastical office in the kingdom, the +shoemaker's son, who had grown covetous, and hoped perhaps for a Cardinal's +hat, determined to temporize. He hid in the abbey of Saint-Germain en Laye. + +At his first dinner, Charles IX., not seeing Amyot, asked for him. Some +Guisard, no doubt, told the King what had passed between Amyot and the +Queen-mother. + +"What!" cried he, "has he been made away with because I created him High +Almoner?" + +He went off to his mother in the violent state of a child when one of his +fancies is contravened. + +"Madame," said he, as he entered her room, "did I not comply with your +wishes, and sign the letter you asked of me for the Parlement, by virtue of +which you govern my kingdom? Did you not promise me, when you laid it +before me, that my will should be yours? and now the only favor I have +cared to bestow excites your jealousy.--The Chancellor talks of making me +of age at fourteen, three years from hence, and you treat me as a +child!--By God, but I mean to be King, and as much a King as my father and +grandfather were kings!" + +The tone and vehemence with which he spoke these words were a revelation to +Catherine of her son's true character; it was like a blow from a bludgeon +on her heart. + +"And he speaks thus to me," thought she, "to me, who made him +King."--"Monsieur," she said, "the business of being King in such times as +these is a difficult one, and you do not yet know the master minds you have +to deal with. You will never have any true and trustworthy friend but your +mother, or other adherents than those whom she long since attached to her, +and but for whom you would perhaps not be alive at this day. The Guises are +averse both to your position and your person, I would have you know. If +they could sew me up in a sack and throw me into the river," said she, +pointing to the Seine, "they would do it to-night. Those Lorrainers feel +that I am a lioness defending her cubs, and that stays the bold hands they +stretch out to clutch the crown. To whom, to what is your preceptor +attached? where are his allies? what is his authority? what services can he +do you? what weight will his words have? Instead of gaining a buttress to +uphold your power, you have undermined it. + +"The Cardinal de Lorraine threatens you; he plays the King, and keeps his +hat on his head in the presence of the first Prince of the Blood; was it +not necessary to counter-balance him with another cardinal, invested with +authority equal to his own? Is Amyot, a shoemaker who might tie the bows of +his shoes, the man to defy him to his face?--Well, well, you are fond of +Amyot. You have appointed him! Your first decision shall be respected, my +Lord! But before deciding any further, have the kindness to consult me. +Listen to reasons of State, and your boyish good sense will perhaps agree +with my old woman's experience before deciding, when you know all the +difficulties." + +"You must bring back my master!" said the King, not listening very +carefully to the Queen, on finding her speech full of reproofs. + +"Yes, you shall have him," replied she. "But not he, nor even that rough +Cypierre, can teach you to reign." + +"It is you, my dear mother," he exclaimed, mollified by his triumph, and +throwing off the threatening and sly expression which Nature had stamped on +his physiognomy. + +Catherine sent Gondi to find the High Almoner. When the Florentine had +discovered Amyot's retreat, and the Bishop heard that the courtier came +from the Queen, he was seized with terror, and would not come out of the +Abbey. In this extremity Catherine was obliged to write to him herself, and +in such terms that he came back and obtained the promise of her support, +but only on condition of his obeying her blindly in all that concerned the +King. + +This little domestic tempest being lulled, Catherine came back to the +Louvre. It was more than a year since she had left it, and she now held +council with her nearest friends as to how she was to deal with the young +King, whom Cypierre had complimented on his firmness. + +"What is to be done?" said she to the two Gondis, Ruggieri, Birague, and +Chiverni, now tutor and Chancellor to the Duc d'Anjou. + +"First of all," said Birague, "get rid of Cypierre; he is not a courtier, +he will never fall in with your views, and will think he is doing his duty +by opposing you." + +"Whom can I trust?" cried the Queen. + +"One of us," said Birague. + +"By my faith," said Gondi, "I promise to make the King as pliant as the +King of Navarre." + +"You let the late King die to save your other children; well, then, do as +the grand Signors of Constantinople do: crush this one's passions and +fancies," said Albert de Gondi. "He likes the arts, poetry, hunting, and a +little girl he saw at Orleans; all this is quite enough to occupy him." + +"Then you would be the King's tutor?" said Catherine, to the more capable +of the two Gondis. + +"If you will give me the necessary authority; it might be well to make me a +Marshal of France and a Duke. Cypierre is too small a man to continue in +that office. Henceforth the tutor of a King of France should be a Marshal +and Duke, or something of the kind----" + +"He is right," said Birague. + +"Poetry and hunting," said Catherine, in a dreamy voice. + +"We will hunt and make love!" cried Gondi. + +"Besides," said Chiverni, "you are sure of Amyot, who will always be afraid +of a drugged cup in case of disobedience, and with Gondi you will have the +King in leading strings." + +"You were resigned to the loss of one son to save the three others and the +Crown; now you must have the courage to keep this one _occupied_ to save +the kingdom--to save yourself perhaps," said Ruggieri. + +"He has just offended me deeply," said Catherine. + +"He does not know how much he owes you; and if he did, you would not be +safe," Birague replied with grave emphasis. + +"It is settled," said the Queen, on whom this reply had a startling effect; +"you are to be the King's governor, Gondi. The King must make me a return +in favor of one of my friends for the concession I have made for that +cowardly Bishop. But the fool has lost the Cardinal's hat; so long as I +live I will hinder the Pope from fitting it to his head! We should have +been very strong with Cardinal de Tournon to support us. What a trio they +would have made: he as High Almoner with l'Hopital and de Thou! As to the +citizens of Paris, I mean to make my son coax them over, and we will lean +on them." + +And Gondi was, in fact, made a Marshal, created Duc de Retz and tutor to +the King, within a few days. + +This little council was just over when Cardinal de Tournon came to announce +to the Queen the messengers from Calvin. Admiral Coligny escorted them to +secure them respectful treatment at the Louvre. The Queen summoned her +battalion of maids of honor, and went into the great reception-room built +by her husband, which no longer exists in the Louvre of our day. + +At that time the staircase of the Louvre was in the clock-tower. +Catherine's rooms were in the older part of the building, part of which +survives in the Cour du Musee. The present staircase to the galleries was +built where the _Salle des ballets_ was before it. A _ballet_ at that time +meant a sort of dramatic entertainment performed by all the Court. + +Revolutionary prejudice led to the most ridiculous mistake as to Charles +IX. _a propos_ to the Louvre. During the Revolution a belief defamatory of +this King, whose character has been caricatured, made a monster of him. +Chenier's tragedy was written under the provocation of a tablet hung up on +the window of the part of the palace that projects towards the Quay. On it +were these words, "From this window Charles IX. of execrable memory fired +on the citizens of Paris." It may be well to point out to future historians +and studious persons that the whole of that side of the Louvre, now called +the Old Louvre--the projecting wing at a right angle to the Quay, connected +the galleries with the Louvre by what is called the Galerie d'Apollon, and +the Louvre with the Tuileries by the picture gallery--was not in existence +in the time of Charles IX. The principal part of the site of the +river-front, where lies the garden known as le Jardin de l'Infante, was +occupied by the Hotel de Bourbon, which belonged, in fact, to the House of +Navarre. It would have been physically impossible for Charles IX. to fire +from the _Louvre de Henri II._ on a boat full of Huguenots crossing the +Seine, though he could see the river from some windows, which are now +built up, in that part of the palace. + +Even if historians and libraries did not possess maps in which the Louvre +at the time of Charles IX. is perfectly shown, the building bears in itself +the refutation of the error. The several Kings who have contributed to this +vast structure have never failed to leave their cipher on the work in some +form of monogram. The venerable buildings, now all discolored, of that part +of the Louvre that goes down to the Quay bear the initials of Henri II. and +of Henri IV.; quite different from those of Henri III., who added to his H +Catherine's double C in a way that looks like D to superficial observers. +It was Henri IV. who was able to add his own palace, the Hotel de Bourbon, +with its gardens and domain, on to the Louvre. He first thought of uniting +Catherine de' Medici's palace to the Louvre by finishing the galleries, of +which the exquisite sculpture is too little appreciated. + +But if no plan of Paris under Charles IX. were in existence, nor the +monograms of the two Henrys, the difference in the architecture would be +enough to give the lie to this calumny. The rusticated bosses of the Hotel +de la Force, and of this portion of the Louvre, are precisely +characteristic of the transition from the architecture of the Renaissance +to the architecture of Henri III., Henri IV., and Louis XIII. + +This archaeological digression, in harmony, to be sure, with the pictures at +the beginning of this narrative, enables us to see the aspect of this other +part of Paris, of which nothing now remains but that portion of the Louvre, +where the beautiful bas-reliefs are perishing day by day. + +When the Court was informed that the Queen was about to give audience to +Theodore de Beze and Chaudieu, introduced by Admiral Coligny, every one who +had a right to go into the throne room hastened to be present at this +interview. It was about six o'clock; Admiral Coligny had supped, and was +picking his teeth as he walked upstairs between the two Calvinists. This +playing with a toothpick was a confirmed habit with the Admiral; he +involuntarily picked his teeth in the middle of a battle when meditating a +retreat. "Never trust the Admiral's toothpick, the Constable's 'No,' or +Catherine's 'Yes,'"--was one of the proverbs of the Court at the time. And +after the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, the mob made horrible mockery of +the Admiral's body, which hung for three days at Montfaucon, by sticking a +grotesque toothpick between his teeth. Chroniclers have recorded this +hideous jest. And, indeed, this trivial detail in the midst of a tremendous +catastrophe is just like the Paris mob, which thoroughly deserves this +grotesque parody of a line of Boileau's: + + Le Francais, ne malin, crea la guillotine. + +(The Frenchman, a born wag, invented the guillotine.) + +In all ages, the Parisians have made fun before, during, and after the most +terrible revolutions. + +Theodore de Beze was in Court dress, black silk long hose, slashed shoes, +full trunks, a doublet of black silk, also slashed, and a little black +velvet cloak, over which fell a fine white ruff, deeply gauffered. He wore +the tuft of beard called a _virgule_ (a comma) and a moustache. His sword +hung by his side, and he carried a cane. All who know the pictures at +Versailles, or the portraits by Odieuvre, know his round and almost jovial +face, with bright eyes, and the remarkably high and broad forehead, which +is characteristic of the poets and writers of that time. De Beze had a +pleasant face, which did him good service. He formed a striking contrast to +Coligny, whose austere features are known to all, and to the bitter and +bilious-looking Chaudieu, who wore the preacher's gown and Calvinist bands. + +The state of affairs in the Chamber of Deputies in our own day, and that, +no doubt, in the Convention too, may enable us to understand how at that +Court and at that time persons, who six months after would be fighting to +the death and waging heinous warfare, would meanwhile meet, address each +other with courtesy, and exchange jests. + +When Coligny entered the room, Birague, who would coldly advise the +massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, and the Cardinal de Lorraine, who would tell +his servant Besme not to miss the Admiral, came forward to meet him, and +the Piedmontese said, with a smile: + +"Well, my dear Admiral, so you have undertaken to introduce these gentlemen +from Geneva?" + +"And you will count it to me for a crime, perhaps," replied the Admiral in +jest, "while, if you had undertaken it, you would have scored it as a +merit." + +"Master Calvin, I hear, is very ill," said the Cardinal de Lorraine to +Theodore de Beze. "I hope we shall not be suspected of having stirred his +broth for him!" + +"Nay, monseigneur, you would lose too much by that," said Theodore de Beze +shrewdly. + +The Duc de Guise, who was examining Chaudieu, stared at his brother and +Birague, who were both startled by this speech. + +"By God!" exclaimed the Cardinal, "heretics are of the right faith in keen +politics!" + +To avoid difficulties, the Queen, who was announced at this moment, +remained standing. She began by conversing with the Connetable, who spoke +eagerly of the scandal of her admitting Calvin's envoys to her presence. + +"But, you see, my dear Constable, we receive them without ceremony." + +"Madame," said the Admiral, approaching Catherine, "these are the two +doctors of the new religion who have come to an understanding with Calvin, +and have taken his instructions as to a meeting where the various Churches +of France may compromise their differences." + +"This is Monsieur Theodore de Beze, my wife's very great favorite," said +the King of Navarre, coming forward and taking de Beze by the hand. + +"And here is Chaudieu!" cried the Prince de Conde. "My friend the Duc de +Guise knows the captain," he added, looking at la Balafre; "perhaps he +would like to make acquaintance with the minister." + +This sally made everybody laugh, even Catherine. + +"By my troth," said the Duc de Guise, "I am delighted to see a man who can +so well choose a follower, and make use of him in his degree. One of your +men," said he to the preacher, "endured, without dying or confessing +anything, the extreme of torture; I fancy myself brave, but I do not know +that I could endure so well!" + +"Hm!" observed Ambroise Pare, "you said not a word when I pulled the spear +out of your face at Calais." + +Catherine, in the middle of the semicircle formed right and left of the +maids of honor and Court officials, kept silence. While looking at the two +famous Reformers, she was trying to penetrate them with her fine, +intelligent, black eyes, and study them thoroughly. + +"One might be the sheath and the other the blade," Albert de Gondi said in +her ear. + +"Well, gentlemen," said Catherine, who could not help smiling, "has your +master given you liberty to arrange a public conference where you may +convert to the Word of God those modern Fathers of the Church who are the +glory of our realm?" + +"We have no master but the Lord," said Chaudieu. + +"Well, you acknowledge some authority in the King of France?" said +Catherine, smiling, and interrupting the minister. + +"And a great deal in the Queen," added de Beze, bowing low. + +"You will see," she went on, "that the heretics will be my most dutiful +subjects." + +"Oh, madame!" cried Coligny, "what a splendid kingdom we will make for you! +Europe reaps great profit from our divisions. It has seen one-half of +France set against the other for fifty years past." + +"Have we come here to hear chants in praise of heretics?" said the +Connetable roughly. + +"No, but to bring them to amendment," answered the Cardinal de Lorraine in +a whisper, "and we hope to achieve it by a little gentleness." + +"Do you know what I should have done in the reign of the King's father?" +said Anne de Montmorency. "I should have sent for the Provost to hang those +two rascals high and dry on the Louvre gallows." + +"Well, gentlemen, and who are the learned doctors you will bring into the +field?" said the Queen, silencing the Constable with a look. + +"Duplessis-Mornay and Theodore de Beze are our leaders," said Chaudieu. + +"The Court will probably go to the chateau of Saint-Germain; and as it +would not be seemly that this colloquy should take place in the same town, +it shall be held in the little town of Poissy," replied Catherine. + +"Shall we be safe there, madame?" asked Chaudieu. + +"Oh!" said the Queen, with a sort of simplicity, "you will, no doubt, know +what precautions to take. Monsieur the Admiral will make arrangements to +that effect with my cousins de Guise and Montmorency." + +"Fie on it all!" said the Constable; "I will have no part in it." + +The Queen took Chaudieu a little way apart. + +"What do you do to your sectarians to give them such a spirit?" said she. +"My furrier's son was really sublime." + +"We have faith," said Chaudieu. + +At this moment the room was filled with eager groups, all discussing the +question of this assembly, which, from the Queen's suggestion, was already +spoken of as the "Convocation of Poissy." Catherine looked at Chaudieu, and +felt it safe to say: + +"Yes, a new faith." + +"Ah, madame, if you were not blinded by your connection with the Court of +Rome, you would see that we are returning to the true doctrine of Jesus +Christ, who, while sanctifying the equality of souls, has given all men on +earth equal rights." + +"And do you think yourself the equal of Calvin?" said Catherine shrewdly. +"Nay, nay, we are equals only in church. What, really? Break all bonds +between the people and the throne?" cried Catherine. "You are not merely +heretics; you rebel against obedience to the King while avoiding all +obedience to the Pope." + +She sharply turned away, and returned to Theodore de Beze. + +"I trust to you, monsieur," she said, "to carry through this conference +conscientiously. Take time over it." + +"I fancied," said Chaudieu to the Prince de Conde, the King of Navarre, and +Admiral Coligny, "that affairs of State were taken more seriously." + +"Oh, we all know exactly what we mean," said the Prince de Conde, with a +significant glance at Theodore de Beze. + +The hunchback took leave of his followers to keep an assignation. This +great Prince and party leader was one of the most successful gallants of +the Court; the two handsomest women of the day fought for him with such +infatuation, that the Marechale de Saint-Andre, the wife of one of the +coming Triumvirate, gave him her fine estate at Saint-Valery to win him +from the Duchesse de Guise, the wife of the man who had wanted to bring his +head under the axe; being unable to wean the Duc de Nemours from his +flirtations with Mademoiselle de Rohan, she fell in love, meanwhile, with +the leader of the Reformed party. + +"How different from Geneva!" said Chaudieu to Theodore de Beze on the +little bridge by the Louvre. + +"They are livelier here, and I cannot imagine why they are such traitors," +replied de Beze. + +"Meet a traitor with a traitor-and-a-half," said Chaudieu in a whisper. "I +have saints in Paris that I can rely on, and I mean to make a prophet of +Calvin. Christophe will rid us of the most dangerous of our enemies." + +"The Queen-mother, for whom the poor wretch endured torture, has already +had him passed, by high-handed orders, as pleader before the Parlement, and +lawyers are more apt to be tell-tales than assassins. Remember Avenelles, +who sold the secret of our first attempt to take up arms." + +"But I know Christophe," said Chaudieu, with an air of conviction, as he +and the Calvinist parted. + + * * * * * + +Some days after the reception of Calvin's secret envoys by Catherine, and +towards the end of that year--for the year then began at Easter, and the +modern calendar was not adopted till this very reign--Christophe, still +stretched on an armchair, was sitting on that side of the large sombre room +where our story began, in such a position as to look out on the river. His +feet rested on a stool. Mademoiselle Lecamus and Babette Lallier had just +renewed the application of compresses, soaked in a lotion brought by +Ambroise, to whose care Catherine had commended Christophe. When once he +was restored to his family, the lad had become the object of the most +devoted care. Babette, with her father's permission, came to the house +every morning, and did not leave till the evening. Christophe, a subject of +wonder to the apprentices, gave rise in the neighborhood to endless tales, +which involved him in poetic mystery. He had been put to torture, and the +famous Ambroise Pare was exerting all his skill to save him. What, then, +had he done to be treated so? On this point neither Christophe nor his +father breathed a word. Catherine, now all-powerful, had an interest in +keeping silence, and so had the Prince de Conde. The visits of Ambroise +Pare, the surgeon to the King and to the House of Guise, permitted by the +Queen-mother and the Princes of Lorraine to attend a youth accused of +heresy, added to the singularity of this business, which no one could see +through. And then the priest of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs came several +times to see his churchwarden's son, and these visits made the causes of +Christophe's condition even more inexplicable. + +The old furrier, who had a plan of his own, replied evasively when his +fellows of the guild, traders, and friends spoke of his son:-- + +"I am very happy, neighbor, to have been able to save him! You know! it is +well not to put your finger between the wood and the bark. My son put his +hand to the stake and took out fire enough to burn my house down!--They +imposed on his youth, and we citizens never get anything but scorn and harm +by hanging on to the great. This quite determines me to make a lawyer of my +boy; the law courts will teach him to weigh his words and deeds. The young +Queen, who is now in Scotland, had a great deal to do with it; but perhaps +Christophe was very imprudent too. I went through terrible grief.--All this +will probably lead to my retiring from business; I will never go to Court +any more. My son has had enough of the Reformation now; it has left him +with broken arms and legs. But for Ambroise, where should I be?" + +Thanks to these speeches and to his prudence, a report was spread in the +neighborhood that Christophe no longer followed the creed of Colas. Every +one thought it quite natural that the old Syndic should wish to see his son +a lawyer in the Parlement, and thus the priest's calls seemed quite a +matter of course. In thinking of the old man's woes, no one thought of his +ambition, which would have been deemed monstrous. + +The young lawyer, who had spent ninety days on the bed put up for him in +the old sitting-room, had only been out of it for a week past, and still +needed the help of crutches to enable him to walk. Babette's affection and +his mother's tenderness had touched Christophe deeply; still, having him in +bed, the two women lectured him soundly on the subject of religion. +President de Thou came to see his godson, and was most paternal. +Christophe, as a pleader in the Parlement, ought to be a Catholic, he would +be pledged to it by his oath; and the President, who never seemed to doubt +the young man's orthodoxy, added these important words: + +"You have been cruelly tested, my boy. I myself know nothing of the reasons +Messieurs de Guise had for treating you thus; but now I exhort you to live +quietly henceforth, and not to interfere in broils, for the favor of the +King and Queen will not be shown to such as brew storms. You are not a +great enough man to drive a bargain with the King, like the Duke and the +Cardinal. If you want to be councillor in the Parlement some day, you can +only attain that high office by serious devotion to the cause of Royalty." + +However, neither Monsieur de Thou's visit, nor Babette's charms, nor the +entreaties of Mademoiselle Lecamus his mother, had shaken the faith of the +Protestant martyr. Christophe clung all the more stoutly to his religion in +proportion to what he had suffered for it. + +"My father will never allow me to marry a heretic," said Babette in his +ear. + +Christophe replied only with tears, which left the pretty girl speechless +and thoughtful. + +Old Lecamus maintained his dignity as a father and a Syndic, watched his +son, and said little. The old man, having got back his dear Christophe, was +almost vexed with himself, and repentant of having displayed all his +affection for his only son; but secretly he admired him. At no time in his +life had the furrier pulled so many wires to gain his ends; for he could +see the ripe harvest of the crop sown with so much toil, and wished to +gather it all. + +A few days since he had had a long conversation with Christophe alone, +hoping to discover the secret of his son's tenacity. Christophe, who was +not devoid of ambition, believed in the Prince de Conde. The Prince's +generous speech--which was no more than the stock-in-trade of princes--was +stamped on his heart. He did not know that Conde had wished him at the +devil at the moment when he bid him such a touching farewell through the +bars of his prison at Orleans. + +"A Gascon would have understood," the Prince had said to himself. + +And in spite of his admiration for the Prince, Christophe cherished the +deepest respect for Catherine, the great Queen who had explained to him in +a look that she was compelled by necessity to sacrifice him, and then, +during his torture, had conveyed to him in another glance an unlimited +promise by an almost imperceptible tear. + +During the deep calm of the ninety days and nights he had spent in +recovering, the newly-made lawyer thought over the events at Blois and at +Orleans. He weighed, in spite of himself, it may be said, the influence of +these two patrons; he hesitated between the Queen and the Prince. He had +certainly done more for Catherine than for the Reformation; and the young +man's heart and mind, of course, went forth to the Queen, less by reason of +this difference than because she was a woman. In such a case a man will +always found his hopes on a woman rather than on a man. + +"I immolated myself for her--what will she not do for me?" + +This was the question he almost involuntarily asked himself as he recalled +the tone in which she had said, "My poor boy!" + +It is difficult to conceive of the pitch of self-consciousness reached by a +man alone and sick in bed. Everything, even the care of which he is the +object, tends to make him think of himself alone. By exaggerating the +Prince de Conde's obligations to him, Christophe looked forward to +obtaining some post at the Court of Navarre. The lad, a novice still in +politics, was all the more forgetful of the anxieties which absorb party +leaders, and of the swift rush of men and events which overrule them, +because he lived almost in solitary imprisonment in that dark parlor. Every +party is bound to be ungrateful when it is fighting for dear life; and when +it has won the day, there are so many persons to be rewarded, that it is +ungrateful still. The rank and file submit to this oblivion, but the +captains turn against the new master who for so long has marched as their +equal. + +Christophe, the only person to remember what he had suffered, already +reckoned himself as one of the chiefs of the Reformation by considering +himself as one of its martyrs. Lecamus, the old wolf of trade, acute and +clear-sighted, had guessed his son's secret thoughts; indeed, all his +manoeuvring was based on the very natural hesitancy that possessed the +lad. + +"Would not it be fine," he had said the day before to Babette, "to be the +wife of a Councillor to the Parlement; you would be addressed as madame." + +"You are crazy, neighbor," said Lallier. "In the first place, where would +you find ten thousand crowns a year in landed estate, which a Councillor +must show, and from whom could you purchase a connection? The Queen-mother +and Regent would have to give all her mind to it to get your son into the +Parlement; and he smells of the stake too strongly to be admitted." + +"What would you give, now, to see your daughter a Councillor's wife?" + +"You want to sound the depth of my purse, you old fox!" exclaimed Lallier. + +Councillor to the Parlement! The words distracted Christophe's brain. + +Long after the conference was over, one morning when Christophe sat gazing +at the river, which reminded him of the scene that was the beginning of all +this story, of the Prince de Conde, la Renaudie, and Chaudieu, of his +journey to Blois, and of all he hoped for, the Syndic came to sit down by +his son with ill-disguised glee under an affectation of solemnity. + +"My boy," said he, "after what took place between you and the heads of the +riot at Amboise, they owed you so much that your future might very well be +cared for by the House of Navarre." + +"Yes," replied Christophe. + +"Well," his father went on, "I have definitely applied for permission for +you to purchase a legal business in Bearn. Our good friend Pare undertook +to transmit the letters I wrote in your name to the Prince de Conde and +Queen Jeanne.--Here, read this reply from Monsieur de Pibrac, +Vice-Chancellor of Navarre:-- + + + "_To Master Lecamus, Syndic of the Guild of Furriers._ + + "His Highness the Prince de Conde bids me express to + you his regret at being unable to do anything for his + fellow-prisoner in the Tour de Saint-Aignan, whom he + remembers well, and to whom, for the present, he offers + the place of man-at-arms in his own company, where he + will have the opportunity of making his way as a man of + good heart--which he is. + + "The Queen of Navarre hopes for an occasion of + rewarding Master Christophe, and will not fail. + + "And with this, Monsieur le Syndic, I pray God have you + in His keeping. + + PIBRAC, + "_Chancellor of Navarre_. + + "Nerac." + + +"Nerac! Pibrac! Crac!" cried Babette. "There is nothing to be got out of +these Gascons; they think only of themselves." + +Old Lecamus was looking at his son with ironical amusement. + +"And he wants to set a poor boy on horseback whose knees and ankles were +pounded up for him!" cried the mother. "What a shameful mockery!" + +"I do not seem to see you as a Councillor in Navarre," said the old +furrier. + +"I should like to know what Queen Catherine would do for me if I petitioned +her," said Christophe, much crest-fallen. + +"She made no promises," said the old merchant, "but I am sure she would not +make a fool of you, and would remember your sufferings. Still, how could +she make a councillor-at-law of a Protestant citizen?" + +"But Christophe has never abjured!" exclaimed Babette. "He may surely keep +his own secret as to his religious opinions." + +"The Prince de Conde would be less scornful of a Councillor to the +Parlement of Paris," said Lecamus. + +"A Councillor, father! Is it possible?" + +"Yes, if you do nothing to upset what I am managing for you. My neighbor +Lallier here is ready to pay two hundred thousand livres, if I add as much +again, for the purchase of a fine estate entailed on the heirs male, which +we will hand over to you." + +"And I will add something more for a house in Paris," said Lallier. + +"Well, Christophe?" said Babette. + +"You are talking without the Queen," replied the young lawyer. + +Some days after this bitter mortification, an apprentice brought this brief +note to Christophe: + +"Chaudieu wishes to see his son." + +"Bring him in," said Christophe. + +"O my saint and martyr!" cried the preacher, embracing the young man, "have +you got over your sufferings?" + +"Yes, thanks to Pare." + +"Thanks to God, who gave you strength to endure them! But what is this I +hear? You have passed as a pleader, you have taken the oath of fidelity, +you have confessed the Whore, the Catholic, Apostolic, Romish Church." + +"My father insisted." + +"But are we not to leave father and mother and children and wife for the +sacred cause of Calvinism, and to suffer all things?--Oh, Christophe, +Calvin, the great Calvin, the whole party, the whole world, the future +counts on your courage and your greatness of soul! We want your life." + +There is this strange feature in the mind of man: the most devoted, even in +the act of devoting himself, always builds up a romance of hope even in the +most perilous crisis. Thus, when on the river under the Pont au Change, the +prince, the soldier, and the preacher had required Christophe to carry to +Queen Catherine the document which, if discovered, would have cost him his +life, the boy had trusted to his wit, to chance, to his perspicacity, and +had boldly marched on between the two formidable parties--the Guises and +the Queen--who had so nearly crushed him. While in the torture-chamber he +still had said to himself, "I shall live through it--it is only pain!" + +But at this brutal command, "Die!" to a man who was still helpless, hardly +recovered from the injuries he had suffered, and who clung all the more to +life for having seen death so near, it was impossible to indulge in any +such illusions. + +Christophe calmly asked, "What do you want of me?" + +"To fire a pistol bravely, as Stuart fired at Minard." + +"At whom?" + +"The Duc de Guise." + +"Assassination?" + +"Revenge!--Have you forgotten the hundred gentlemen massacre on one +scaffold! A child, little d'Aubigne, said as he saw the butchery, 'They +have beheaded all France.'" + +"We are to take blows and not to return them, is the teaching of the +Gospel," replied Christophe. "If we are to imitate the Catholics, of what +use is it to reform the Church?" + +"Oh, Christophe, they have made a lawyer of you, and you argue!" said +Chaudieu. + +"No, my friend," the youth replied. "But principles are ungrateful, and you +and yours will only be the playthings of the House of Bourbon." + +"Oh, Christophe, if you had only heard Calvin, you would know that we can +turn them like a glove! The Bourbons are the glove, and we the hand." + +"Read this," said Christophe, handing Pibrac's letter to the minister. + +"Alas, boy! you are ambitious; you can no longer sacrifice yourself;" and +Chaudieu went away. + + * * * * * + +Not long after this visit, Christophe, with the families of Lallier and +Lecamus, had met to celebrate the plighting of Babette and Christophe in +the old parlor, whence Christophe's couch was now removed, for he could +climb the stairs now, and was beginning to drag himself about without +crutches. It was nine in the evening, and they waited for Ambroise Pare. +The family notary was sitting at a table covered with papers. The furrier +was selling his house and business to his head-clerk, who was to pay forty +thousand livres down for the house, and to mortgage it as security for the +stock-in-trade, besides paying twenty thousand livres on account. + +Lecamus had purchased for his son a magnificent house in the Rue de +Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs, built of stone by Philibert de l'Orme, as a +wedding gift. The Syndic had also spent two hundred and fifty thousand +livres out of his fortune, Lallier paying an equal sum, for the acquisition +of a fine manor and estate in Picardy, for which five hundred thousand +livres were asked. This estate being a dependence of the Crown, letters +patent from the King--called letters of rescript--were necessary, besides +the payment of considerable fines and fees. Thus the actual marriage was to +be postponed till the royal signature could be obtained. + +Though the citizens of Paris had obtained the right of purchasing manors +and lands, the prudence of the Privy Council had placed certain +restrictions on the transfer of lands belonging to the Crown; and the +estate on which Lecamus had had his eye for the last ten years was one of +these. Ambroise had undertaken to produce the necessary permission this +very evening. Old Lecamus went to and fro between the sitting-room and the +front door with an impatience that showed the eagerness of his ambition. + +At last Ambroise appeared. + +"My good friend!" exclaimed the surgeon in a great fuss, and looking at the +supper-table, "what is your napery like?--Very good.--Now bring waxlights, +and make haste, make haste. Bring out the best of everything you have." + +"What is the matter?" asked the priest of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs. + +"The Queen-mother and the King are coming to sup with you," replied the +surgeon. "The Queen and King expect to meet here an old Councillor, whose +business is to be sold to Christophe, and Monsieur de Thou, who has managed +the bargain. Do not look as if you expected them; I stole out of the +Louvre." + +In an instant all were astir. Christophe's mother and Babette's aunt +trotted about in all the flurry of housewives taken by surprise. In spite +of the confusion into which the announcement had thrown the party, +preparations were made with miraculous energy. Christophe, amazed, +astounded, overpowered by such condescension, stood speechless, looking on +at all the bustle. + +"The Queen and the King here!" said the old mother. + +"The Queen?" echoed Babette; "but what for, what to do?" + +Within an hour everything was altered; the old room was smartened up, the +table shone. A sound of horses was heard in the street. The gleam of +torches carried by the mounted escort brought all the neighbors' noses to +the windows. The rush was soon over; no one was left under the arcade but +the Queen-mother and her son, King Charles IX., Charles de Gondi, Master of +the Wardrobe, and tutor to the King; Monsieur de Thou, the retiring +Councillor; Pinard, Secretary of State, and two pages. + +"Good folks," said the Queen as she went in, "the King, my son, and I have +come to sign the marriage contract of our furrier's son, but on condition +that he remains a Catholic. Only a Catholic can serve in the Parlement, +only a Catholic can own lands dependent on the Crown, only a Catholic can +sit at table with the King--what do you say, Pinard?" + +The Secretary of State stepped forward, holding the letters patent. + +"If we are not all Catholics here," said the little King, "Pinard will +throw all the papers into the fire; but we are all Catholics?" he added, +looking round proudly enough at the company. + +"Yes, Sire," said Christophe Lecamus, bending the knee, not without +difficulty, and kissing the hand the young King held out to him. + +Queen Catherine, who also held out her hand to Christophe, pulled him up +rather roughly, and leading him into a corner, said: + +"Understand, boy, no subterfuges! We are playing an honest game?" + +"Yes, madame," he said, dazzled by this splendid reward and by the honor +the grateful Queen had done him. + +"Well, then, Master Lecamus, the King, my son, and I permit you to purchase +the offices and appointments of this good man Groslay, Councillor to the +Parlement, who is here," said the Queen. "I hope, young man, that you will +follow in the footsteps of your Lord President." + +De Thou came forward and said: + +"I will answer for him, madame." + +"Very well, then proceed, notary," said Pinard. + +"Since the King, our master, does us the honor of signing my daughter's +marriage-contract," cried Lallier, "I will pay the whole price of the +estate." + +"The ladies may be seated," said the young King graciously. "As a wedding +gift to the bride, with my mother's permission, I remit my fines and fees." + +Old Lecamus and Lallier fell on their knees and kissed the boy-King's hand. + +"By Heaven, Sire, what loads of money these citizens have!" said Gondi in +his ear. + +And the young King laughed. + +"Their Majesties being so graciously inclined," said old Lecamus, "will +they allow me to present to them my successor in the business, and grant +him the royal patent as furrier to their Majesties?" + +"Let us see him," said the King, and Lecamus brought forward his successor, +who was white with alarm. + +Old Lecamus was shrewd enough to offer the young King a silver cup which he +had bought from Benvenuto Cellini when he was staying in Paris at the Tour +de Nesle, at a cost of not less than two thousand crowns. + +"Oh, mother! what a fine piece of work!" cried the youth, lifting the cup +by its foot. + +"It is Florentine," said Catherine. + +"Pardon me, madame," said Lecamus; "it was made in France, though by a +Florentine. If it had come from Florence, it should have been the Queen's; +but being made in France, it is the King's." + +"I accept it, my friend," cried Charles IX., "and henceforth I drink out of +it." + +"It is good enough," the Queen remarked, "to be included among the Crown +treasure." + +"And you, Master Ambroise," she went on in an undertone, turning to the +surgeon, and pointing to Christophe, "have you cured him? Will he walk?" + +"He will fly," said the surgeon, with a smile. "You have stolen him from us +very cleverly!" + +"The abbey will not starve for lack of one monk!" replied the Queen, in the +frivolous tone for which she has been blamed, but which lay only on the +surface. + +The supper was cheerful; the Queen thought Babette pretty, and, like the +great lady she was, she slipped a diamond ring on the girl's finger in +compensation for the value of the silver cup. + +King Charles IX., who afterwards was perhaps rather too fond of thus +invading his subjects' homes, supped with a good appetite; then, on a word +from his new tutor, who had been instructed, it is said, to efface the +virtuous teaching of Cypierre, he incited the President of Parlement, the +old retired councillor, the Secretary of State, the priest, the notary, and +the citizens to drink so deep, that Queen Catherine rose to go at the +moment when she saw that their high spirits were becoming uproarious. + +As the Queen rose, Christophe, his father, and the two women took up tapers +to light her as far as the door of the shop. Then Christophe made so bold +as to pull the Queen's wide sleeve and give her a meaning look. Catherine +stopped, dismissed the old man and the women with a wave of her hand, and +said to the young man--"What?" + +"If you can make any use of the information, madame," said he, speaking +close to the Queen's ear, "I can tell you that assassins are plotting +against the Duc de Guise's life." + +"You are a loyal subject," said Catherine with a smile, "and I will never +forget you." + +She held out her hand, famous for its beauty, drawing off her glove as a +mark of special favor. And Christophe, as he kissed that exquisite hand, +was more Royalist than ever. + +"Then I shall be rid of that wretch without my having anything to do with +it," was her reflection as she put on her glove. + +She mounted her mule and returned to the Louvre with her two pages. + +Christophe drank, but he was gloomy; Pare's austere face reproached him for +his apostasy; however, later events justified the old Syndic. Christophe +would certainly never have escaped in the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew; +his wealth and lands would have attracted the butchers. History has +recorded the cruel fate of the wife of Lallier's successor, a beautiful +woman, whose naked body remained hanging by the hair for three days to one +of the starlings of the Pont au Change. Babette could shudder then as she +reflected that such a fate might have been hers if Christophe had remained +a Calvinist, as the Reformers were soon generally called. Calvin's ambition +was fulfilled, but not till after his death. + + * * * * * + +This was the origin of the famous Lecamus family of lawyers. Tallemant des +Reaux was mistaken in saying they had come from Picardy. It was afterwards +to the interest of the Lecamus family to refer their beginnings to the time +when they had acquired their principal estate, situated in that province. + +Christophe's son, and his successor under Louis XIII., was father of that +rich President Lecamus, who in Louis XIV.'s time built the magnificent +mansion which divided with the Hotel Lambert the admiration of Parisians +and foreigners, and which is certainly one of the finest buildings in +Paris. This house still exists in the Rue de Thorigny, though it was +pillaged at the beginning of the Revolution, as belonging to Monsieur de +Juigne, Archbishop of Paris. All the paintings were then defaced, and the +lodgers who have since dwelt there have still further damaged it. This fine +residence, earned in the old house in the Rue de la Pelleterie, still shows +what splendid results were then the outcome of family spirit. We may be +allowed to doubt whether modern individualism, resulting from the repeated +equal division of property, will ever raise such edifices. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[F] See note at the end of this volume. + + + + +PART II + +THE RUGGIERI'S SECRET + + +Between eleven o'clock and midnight, towards the end of October 1573, two +Florentines, brothers, Albert de Gondi, Marshal of France, and Charles de +Gondi la Tour, Master of the Wardrobe to King Charles IX., were sitting at +the top of a house in the Rue Saint-Honore on the edge of the gutter. Such +gutters were made of stone; they ran along below the roof to catch the +rain-water, and were pierced here and there with long gargoyles carved in +the form of grotesque creatures with gaping jaws. In spite of the zeal of +the present generation in the destruction of ancient houses, there were +still in Paris many such gutter-spouts when, not long since, the police +regulations as to waste-pipes led to their disappearance. A few sculptured +gutters are still to be seen in the Saint-Antoine quarter, where the low +rents have kept owners from adding rooms in the roof. + +It may seem strange that two persons invested with such important functions +should have chosen a perch more befitting cats. But to any one who has +hunted through the historical curiosities of that time, and seen how many +interests were complicated about the throne, so that the domestic politics +of France can only be compared to a tangled skein of thread, these two +Florentines are really cats, and quite in their place in the gutter. Their +devotion to the person of Catherine de' Medici, who had transplanted them +to the French Court, required them to shirk none of the consequences of +their intrusion there. + +But to explain how and why these two courtiers were perched up there, it +will be necessary to relate a scene which had just taken place within a +stone's throw of this gutter, at the Louvre, in the fine brown room--which +is, perhaps, all that remains of Henri II.'s apartments--where the Court +was in attendance after supper on the two Queens and the King. At that time +middle-class folk supped at six o'clock, and men of rank at seven; but +people of exquisite fashion supped between eight and nine; it was the meal +we nowadays call dinner. + +Some people have supposed that etiquette was the invention of Louis XIV.; +but this is a mistake; it was introduced into France by Catherine de' +Medici, who was so exacting that the Connetable Anne de Montmorency had +more difficulty in obtaining leave to ride into the courtyard of the Louvre +than in winning his sword, and even then the permission was granted only on +the score of his great age. Etiquette was slightly relaxed under the first +three Bourbon Kings, but assumed an Oriental character under Louis the +Great, for it was derived from the Lower Empire, which borrowed it from +Persia. In 1573 not only had very few persons a right to enter the +courtyard of the Louvre with their attendants and torches, just as in Louis +XIV.'s time only dukes and peers might drive under the porch, but the +functions which gave the privilege of attending their Majesties after +supper could easily be counted. The Marechal de Retz, whom we have just +seen keeping watch on the gutter, once offered a thousand crowns of that +day to the clerk of the closet to get speech of Henri III. at an hour when +he had no right of _entree_. And how a certain venerable historian mocks at +a view of the courtyard of the chateau of Blois, into which the draughtsman +introduced the figure of a man on horseback! + +At this hour, then, there were at the Louvre none but the most eminent +persons in the kingdom. Queen Elizabeth of Austria and her mother-in-law, +Catherine de' Medici, were seated to the left of the fireplace. In the +opposite corner the King, sunk in his armchair, affected an apathy +excusable on the score of digestion, for he had eaten like a prince +returned from hunting. Possibly, too, he wished to avoid speech in the +presence of so many persons whose interest it was to detect his thoughts. + +The courtiers stood, hat in hand, at the further end of the room. Some +conversed in undertones; others kept an eye on the King, hoping for a +glance or a word. One, being addressed by the Queen-mother, conversed with +her for a few minutes. Another would be so bold as to speak a word to +Charles IX., who replied with a nod or a short answer. A German noble, the +Count of Solern, was standing in the chimney corner by the side of Charles +V.'s grand-daughter, with whom he had come to France. Near the young Queen, +seated on a stool, was her lady-in-waiting, the Countess Fieschi, a +Strozzi, and related to Catherine. The beautiful Madame de Sauves, a +descendant of Jacques Coeur, and mistress in succession of the King of +Navarre, of the King of Poland, and of the Duc d'Alencon, had been invited +to supper, but she remained standing, her husband being merely a Secretary +of State. Behind these two ladies were the two Gondis, talking to them. +They alone were laughing of all the dull assembly. Gondi, made Duc de Retz +and Gentleman of the Bedchamber, since obtaining the Marshal's baton though +he had never commanded an army, had been sent as the King's proxy to be +married to the Queen at Spires. This honor plainly indicated that he, like +his brother, was one of the few persons whom the King and Queen admitted to +a certain familiarity. + +On the King's side the most conspicuous figure was the Marechal de +Tavannes, who was at Court on business; Neufville de Villeroy, one of the +shrewdest negotiators of the time, who laid the foundation of the fortunes +of his family; Messieurs de Birague and de Chiverni, one in attendance on +the Queen-mother, the other Chancellor of Anjou and of Poland, who, knowing +Catherine's favoritism, had attached himself to Henry III., the brother +whom Charles IX. regarded as an enemy; Strozzi, a cousin of Queen +Catherine's, and a few more gentlemen, among whom were to be noted the old +Cardinal de Lorraine, and his nephew, the young Duc de Guise, both very +much kept at a distance by Catherine and by the King. These two chiefs of +the Holy Alliance, afterwards known as the League, established some years +since with Spain, made a display of the submission of servants who await +their opportunity to become the masters; Catherine and Charles IX. were +watching each other with mutual attention. + +At this Court--as gloomy as the room in which it had assembled--each one +had reasons for sadness or absence of mind. The young Queen was enduring +all the torments of jealousy, and disguised them ineffectually by +attempting to smile at her husband, whom she adored as a pious woman of +infinite kindness. Marie Touchet, Charles IX.'s only mistress, to whom he +was chivalrously faithful, had come home a month since from the chateau of +Fayet, in Dauphine, whither she had retired for the birth of her child; and +she had brought back with her the only son Charles IX. ever had--Charles, +at first Comte d'Auvergne, and afterwards Duc d'Angouleme. + +Besides the grief of seeing her rival the mother of the King's son, while +she had only a daughter, the poor Queen was enduring the mortification of +complete desertion. During his mistress' absence, the King had made it up +with his wife with a vehemence which history mentions as one of the causes +of his death. Thus Marie Touchet's return made the pious Austrian princess +understand how little her husband's heart had been concerned in his +love-making. Nor was this the only disappointment the young Queen had to +endure in this matter; till now Catherine de' Medici had seemed to be her +friend; but, in fact, her mother-in-law, for political ends, had encouraged +her son's infidelity, and preferred to support the mistress rather than the +wife. And this is the reason why. + +When Charles IX. first confessed his passion for Marie Touchet, Catherine +looked with favor on the girl for reasons affecting her own prospects of +dominion. Marie Touchet was brought to Court at a very early age, at the +time of life when a girl's best feelings are in their bloom; she loved the +King passionately for his own sake. Terrified at the gulf into which +ambition had overthrown the Duchesse de Valentinois, better known as Diane +de Poitiers, she was afraid too, no doubt, of Queen Catherine, and +preferred happiness to splendor. She thought perhaps that a pair of lovers +so young as she and the King were could not hold their own against the +Queen-mother. + +And, indeed, Marie, the only child of Jean Touchet, the lord of Beauvais +and le Quillard, King's Councillor, and Lieutenant of the Bailiwick of +Orleans, half-way between the citizen class and the lowest nobility, was +neither altogether a noble nor altogether _bourgeoise_, and was probably +ignorant of the objects of innate ambition aimed at by the Pisseleus and +the Saint-Valliers, women of family who were struggling for their families +with the secret weapons of love. Marie Touchet, alone, and of no rank, +spared Catherine de' Medici the annoyance of finding in her son's mistress +the daughter of some great house who might have set up for her rival. + +Jean Touchet, a wit in his day, to whom some poets dedicated their works, +wanted nothing of the Court. Marie, a young creature, with no following, as +clever and well-informed as she was simple and artless, suited the +Queen-mother to admiration, and won her warm affection. + +In point of fact, Catherine persuaded the Parlement to acknowledge the son +which Marie Touchet bore to the King in the month of April, and she granted +him the title of Comte d'Auvergne, promising the King that she would leave +the boy her personal estate, the _Comtes_ of Auvergne and Lauraguais. +Afterwards, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, disputed the gift when she became +Queen of France, and annulled it; but later still, Louis XIII., out of +respect to the Royal blood of the Valois, indemnified the Comte d'Auvergne +by making him Duc d'Angouleme. + +Catherine had already given Marie Touchet, who asked for nothing, the manor +of Belleville, an estate without a title, near Vincennes, whither she came +when, after hunting, the King slept at that Royal residence. Charles IX. +spent the greater part of his later days in that gloomy fortress, and, +according to some authors, ended his days there as Louis XII. had ended +his. Though it was very natural that a lover so entirely captivated should +lavish on the woman he adored fresh proofs of affection when he had to +expiate his legitimate infidelities, Catherine, after driving her son back +to his wife's arms, certainly pleaded for Marie Touchet as women can, and +had won the King back to his mistress again. Whatever could keep Charles +IX. employed in anything but politics was pleasing to Catherine; and the +kind intentions she expressed towards this child for the moment deceived +Charles IX., who was beginning to regard her as his enemy. + +The motives on which Catherine acted in this business escaped the +discernment of the Queen, who, according to Brantome, was one of the +gentlest Queens that ever reigned, and who did no harm nor displeasure to +any one, even reading her Hours in secret. But this innocent Princess began +to perceive what gulfs yawn round a throne, a terrible discovery which +might well make her feel giddy; and some still worse feeling must have +inspired her reply to one of her ladies, who, at the King's death, observed +to her that if she had had a son, she would be Queen-mother and Regent: + +"Ah, God be praised that He never gave me a son! What would have come of +it? The poor child would have been robbed, as they tried to rob the King my +husband, and I should have been the cause of it.--God has had mercy on the +kingdom, and has ordered everything for the best." + +This Princess, of whom Brantome thinks he has given an ample description +when he had said that she had a complexion of face as fine and delicate as +that of the ladies of her Court, and very pleasing, and that she had a +beautiful shape though but of middle height, was held of small account at +the Court; and the King's state affording her an excuse for her double +grief, her demeanor added to the gloomy hues of a picture to which a young +Queen less cruelly stricken than she was might have given some brightness. +The pious Elizabeth was at this crisis a proof of the fact that qualities +which add lustre to a woman in ordinary life may be fatal in a Queen. A +Princess who did not devote her whole night to prayer would have been a +valuable ally for Charles IX., who found no help either in his wife or in +his mistress. + +As to the Queen-mother, she was absorbed in watching the King; he during +supper had made a display of high spirits, which she interpreted as assumed +to cloak some plan against herself. Such sudden cheerfulness was in too +strong a contrast to the fractious humor he had betrayed by his persistency +in hunting, and by a frenzy of toil at his forge, where he wrought iron, +for Catherine to be duped by it. Though she could not guess what statesman +was lending himself to these schemes and plots--for Charles IX. could put +his mother's spies off the scent--Catherine had no doubt that some plan +against her was in the wind. + +The unexpected appearance of Tavannes, arriving at the same time as +Strozzi, whom she had summoned, had greatly aroused her suspicions. By her +power of organization Catherine was superior to the evolution of +circumstances; but against sudden violence she was powerless. + +As many persons know nothing of the state of affairs, complicated by the +multiplicity of parties which then racked France, each leader having his +own interests in view, it is needful to devote a few words to describing +the dangerous crisis in which the Queen-mother had become entangled. And as +this will show Catherine de' Medici in a new light, it will carry us to the +very core of this narrative. + +Two words will fully summarize this strange woman, so interesting to study, +whose influence left such deep traces on France. These two words are +dominion and astrology. Catherine de' Medici was excessively ambitious; she +had no passion but for power. Superstitious and a fatalist, as many a man +of superior mind has been, her only sincere belief was in the occult +sciences. Without this twofold light, she must always remain misunderstood; +and by giving the first place to her faith in astrology, a light will be +thrown on the two philosophical figures of this Study. + +There was a man whom Catherine clung to more than to her children; this man +was Cosmo Ruggieri. She gave him rooms in her Hotel de Soissons; she had +made him her chief counselor, instructing him to tell her if the stars +ratified the advice and common-sense of her ordinary advisers. + +Certain curious antecedent facts justified the power which Ruggieri exerted +over his mistress till her latest breath. One of the most learned men of +the sixteenth century was beyond doubt the physician to Catherine's father, +Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino. This leech was known as Ruggiero the +elder (_vecchio Ruggier_, and in French _Roger l'Ancien_, with authors who +have written concerning alchemy), to distinguish him from his two sons, +Lorenzo Ruggiero, called the Great by writers on the Cabala, and Cosmo +Ruggiero, Catherine's astrologer, also known as _Roger_ by various French +historians. French custom altered their name to Ruggieri, as it did +Catherine's from Medici to Medicis. + +The elder Ruggieri, then, was so highly esteemed by the family of the +Medici that the two Dukes, Cosmo and Lorenzo, were godfathers to his sons. +In his capacity of mathematician, astrologer, and physician to the Ducal +House--three offices that were often scarcely distinguished--he cast the +horoscope of Catherine's nativity, in concert with Bazile, the famous +mathematician. At that period the occult sciences were cultivated with an +eagerness which may seem surprising to the sceptical spirits of this +supremely analytical age, who perhaps may find in this historical sketch +the germ of the positive sciences which flourish in the nineteenth +century--bereft, however, of the poetic grandeur brought to them by the +daring speculators of the sixteenth; for they, instead of applying +themselves to industry, exalted art and vivified thought. The protection +universally granted to these sciences by the sovereigns of the period was +indeed justified by the admirable works of inventors who, starting from the +search for the _magnum opus_, arrived at astonishing results. + +Never, in fact, were rulers more curious for these mysteries. The Fugger +family, in whom every modern Lucullus must recognize his chiefs, and every +banker his masters, were beyond a doubt men of business, not to be caught +nodding; well, these practical men, while lending the capitalized wealth of +Europe to the sovereigns of the sixteenth century--who ran into debt quite +as handsomely as those of to-day--these illustrious entertainers of Charles +V. furnished funds for the retorts of Paracelsus. At the beginning of the +sixteenth century, Ruggieri the elder was the head of that secret college +whence came Cardan, Nostradamus, and Agrippa, each in turn physician to the +Valois; and all the astronomers, astrologers, and alchemists who at that +period crowded to the Courts of the Princes of Christendom, and who found +especial welcome and protection in France from Catherine de' Medici. + +In the horoscope cast for Catherine by Bazile and Ruggieri the elder, the +principal events of her life were predicted with an accuracy that is enough +to drive disbelievers to despair. This forecast announced the disasters +which, during the siege of Florence, affected her early life, her marriage +with a Prince of France, his unexpected accession to the throne, the birth +and the number of her children. Three of her sons were to reign in +succession, her two daughters were to become queens; all were to die +childless. And this was all so exactly verified, that many historians have +regarded it as a prophecy after the event. + +It is well known that Nostradamus brought to the chateau of Chaumont, +whither Catherine went at the time of la Renaudie's conspiracy, a woman who +had the gift of reading the future. Now in the time of Francis II., when +the Queen's sons were still children and in good health, before Elizabeth +de Valois had married Philip II. of Spain, or Marguerite de Valois had +married Henri de Bourbon, King of Navarre, Nostradamus and this soothsayer +confirmed all the details of the famous horoscope. + +This woman, gifted no doubt with second-sight, and one of the extensive +association of indefatigable inquirers for the _magnum opus_, though her +life has evaded the ken of history, foretold that the last of these +children to wear the crown would perish assassinated. Having placed the +Queen in front of a magical mirror in which a spinning-wheel was reflected, +each child's face appearing at the end of a spoke, the soothsayer made the +wheel turn, and the Queen counted the number of turns. Each turn was a year +of a reign. When Henri IV. was placed on the wheel, it went round +twenty-two times. The woman--some say it was a man--told the terrified +Queen that Henri de Bourbon would certainly be King of France, and reign so +many years. Queen Catherine vowed a mortal hatred of the Bearnais on +hearing that he would succeed the last, murdered Valois. + +Curious to know what sort of death she herself would die, she was warned to +beware of Saint-Germain. Thenceforth, thinking that she would be imprisoned +or violently killed at the chateau of Saint-Germain, she never set foot in +it, though, by its nearness to Paris, it was infinitely better situated for +her plans than those where she took refuge with the King in troubled times. +When she fell ill, a few days after the Duc de Guise was assassinated, +during the assembly of the States-General at Blois, she asked the name of +the prelate who came to minister to her. She was told that his name was +Saint-Germain. + +"I am a dead woman!" she cried. + +She died the next day, having lived just the number of years allotted to +her by every reading of her horoscope. + +This scene, known to the Cardinal de Lorraine, who ascribed it to the Black +Art, was being realized; Francis II. had reigned for two turns only of the +wheel, and Charles IX. was achieving his last. When Catherine spoke these +strange words to her son Henri as he set out for Poland, "You will soon +return!" they must be ascribed to her faith in the occult sciences, and not +to any intention of poisoning Charles IX. Marguerite de France was now +Queen of Navarre; Elizabeth was Queen of Spain; the Duc d'Anjou was King of +Poland. + +Many other circumstances contributed to confirm Catherine's belief in the +occult sciences. On the eve of the tournament where Henri II. was mortally +wounded, Catherine saw the fatal thrust in a dream. Her astrological +council, consisting of Nostradamus and the two Ruggieri, had foretold the +King's death. History has recorded Catherine's earnest entreaties that he +should not enter the lists. The prognostic, and the dream begotten of the +prognostic, were verified. + +The chronicles of the time relate another and not less strange fact. The +courier who brought news of the victory of Moncontour arrived at night, +having ridden so hard that he had killed three horses. The Queen-mother was +roused, and said, "I knew it." + +"In fact," says Brantome, "she had the day before announced her son's +success and some details of the fight." + +The astrologer attached to the House of Bourbon foretold that the youngest +of the Princes in direct descent from Saint-Louis, the son of Antoine de +Bourbon, would be King of France. This prophecy, noted by Sully, was +fulfilled precisely as described by the horoscope, which made Henri IV. +remark that by dint of lies these astrologers hit on the truth. + +Be this as it may, most of the clever men of the time believed in the +far-reaching "science of the Magi," as it was called by the masters of +astrology--or sorcery, as it was termed by the people--and they were +justified by the verification of horoscopes. + +It was for Cosmo Ruggieri, her mathematician and astrologer--her wizard, if +you will--that Catherine erected the pillar against the corn-market in +Paris, the only remaining relic of the Hotel de Soissons. Cosmo Ruggieri, +like confessors, had a mysterious influence which satisfied him, as it does +them. His secret ambition, too, was superior to that of vulgar minds. This +man, depicted by romance-writers and playwrights as a mere juggler, held +the rich abbey of Saint-Mahe in Lower Brittany, and had refused high +ecclesiastical preferment; the money he derived in abundance from the +superstitious mania of the time was sufficient for his private +undertakings; and the Queen's hand, extended to protect his head, preserved +every hair of it from harm. + +As to Catherine's devouring thirst for dominion, her desire to acquire +power was so great that, in order to grasp it, she could ally herself with +the Guises, the enemies of the throne; and to keep the reins of State in +her own hands, she adopted every means, sacrificing her friends, and even +her children. This woman could not live without the intrigues of rule, as a +gambler cannot live without the excitement of play. Though she was an +Italian and a daughter of the luxurious Medici, the Calvinists, though they +calumniated her plentifully, never accused her of having a lover. + +Appreciating the maxim "Divide to reign," for twelve years she had been +constantly playing off one force against another. As soon as she took the +reins of government into her hands, she was compelled to encourage discord +to neutralize the strength of two rival Houses and save the throne. This +necessary system justified Henri II.'s foresight. Catherine was the +inventor of the political see-saw, imitated since by every Prince who has +found himself in a similar position; she upheld, by turns, the Calvinists +against the Guises, and the Guises against the Calvinists. Then, after +using the two creeds to check each other in the heart of the people, she +set the Duc d'Anjou against Charles IX. After using things to counteract +each other, she did the same with men, always keeping the clue to their +interests in her own hands. + +But in this tremendous game, which requires the head of a Louis XI. or a +Louis XVIII., the player inevitably is the object of hatred to all parties, +and is condemned to win unfailingly, for one lost battle makes every +interest his enemy, until indeed by dint of winning he ends by finding no +one to play against him. The greater part of Charles IX.'s reign was the +triumph of the domestic policy carried out by this wonderful woman. What +extraordinary skill Catherine must have brought into play to get the chief +command of the army given to the Duc d'Anjou, under a brave young King +thirsting for glory, capable and generous--and in the face of the +Connetable Anne de Montmorency! The Duc d'Anjou, in the eyes of all Europe, +reaped the honors of Saint-Bartholomew's Day, while Charles IX. had all the +odium. After instilling into the King's mind a spurious and covert jealousy +of his brother, she worked upon this feeling so as to exhaust Charles IX.'s +really fine qualities in the intrigues of rivalry with his brother. +Cypierre, their first tutor, and Amyot, Charles IX.'s preceptor, had made +their royal charge so noble a man, and had laid the foundations of so great +a reign, that the mother hated the son from the very first day when she +feared to lose her power after having conquered it with so much difficulty. + +These facts have led certain historians to believe that the Queen-mother +had a preference for Henri III.; but her behavior at this juncture proves +that her heart was absolutely indifferent towards her children. The Duc +d'Anjou, when he went to govern Poland, robbed her of the tool she needed +to keep Charles IX.'s mind fully occupied by these domestic intrigues, +which had hitherto neutralized his energy by giving food to his vehement +feelings. Catherine then hatched the conspiracy of la Mole and Coconnas, in +which the Duc d'Alencon had a hand; and he, when he became Duc d'Anjou on +his brother's being made King, lent himself very readily to his mother's +views, and displayed an ambition which was encouraged by his sister +Marguerite, Queen of Navarre. + +This plot, now ripened to the point which Catherine desired, aimed at +putting the young Duke and his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, at the +head of the Calvinists, at seizing Charles IX., thus making the King, who +had no heir, a prisoner, and leaving the throne free for the Duke, who +proposed to establish Calvinism in France. Only a few days before his +death, Calvin had won the reward he hoped for--the Reformed creed was +called Calvinism in his honor. + +La Mole and Coconnas had been arrested fifty days before the night on which +this scene opens, to be beheaded in the following April; and if le +Laboureur and other judicious writers had not amply proved that they were +the victims of the Queen-mother, Cosmo Ruggieri's participation in the +affair would be enough to show that she secretly directed it. This man, +suspected and hated by the King for reasons which will be presently +sufficiently explained, was implicated by the inquiries. He admitted that +he had furnished la Mole with an image representing the King and stabbed to +the heart with two needles. This form of witchcraft was at that time a +capital crime. This kind of bedevilment (called in French _envouter_, from +the Latin _vultus_, it is said) represented one of the most infernal +conceptions that hatred could imagine, and the word admirably expresses the +magnetic and terrible process carried on, in occult science, by constantly +active malevolence on the person devoted to death; its effects being +incessantly suggested by the sight of the wax figure. The law at that time +considered, and with good reason, that the idea thus embodied constituted +high treason. Charles IX. desired the death of the Florentine; Catherine, +more powerful, obtained from the Supreme Court, through the intervention of +her Councillor Lecamus, that her astrologer should be condemned only to the +galleys. As soon as the King was dead, Ruggieri was pardoned by an edict of +Henri III.'s, who reinstated him in his revenues and received him at Court. + + * * * * * + +Catherine had, by this time, struck so many blows on her son's heart, that +at this moment he was only anxious to shake off the yoke she had laid on +him. Since Marie Touchet's absence, Charles IX., having nothing to occupy +him, had taken to observing very keenly all that went on around him. He had +set very skilful snares for certain persons whom he had trusted, to test +their fidelity. He had watched his mother's proceedings, and had kept her +in ignorance of his own, making use of all the faults she had inculcated in +order to deceive her. Eager to efface the feeling of horror produced in +France by the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, he took an active interest in +public affairs, presided at the council, and tried by well-planned measures +to seize the reins of government. Though the Queen might have attempted to +counteract her son's endeavors by using all the influence that maternal +authority and her habit of dominion could have over his mind, the downward +course of distrust is so rapid that, at the first leap, the son had gone +too far to be recalled. + +On the day when his mother's words to the King of Poland were repeated to +Charles IX., he already felt so ill that the most hideous notions dawned on +his mind; and when such suspicions take possession of a son and a King, +nothing can remove them. In fact, on his deathbed his mother was obliged to +interrupt him, exclaiming, "Do not say that, monsieur!" when Charles IX., +intrusting his wife and daughter to the care of Henri IV., was about to put +him on his guard against Catherine. + +Though Charles IX. never failed in the superficial respect of which she was +so jealous, and she never called the Kings, her sons, anything but +monsieur, the Queen-mother had, for some months past, detected in Charles' +manner the ill-disguised irony of revenge held in suspense. But he must be +a clever man who could deceive Catherine. She held in her hand this +conspiracy of the Duc d'Alencon and la Mole, so as to be able to divert +Charles' efforts at emancipation by his new rivalry of a brother; but +before making use of it, she was anxious to dissipate the want of +confidence which might make her reconciliation with the King +impossible--for how could he leave the power in the hands of a mother who +was capable of poisoning him? + +Indeed, at this juncture she thought herself so far in danger that she had +sent for Strozzi, her cousin, a soldier famous for his death. She held +secret councils with Birague and the Gondis, and never had she so +frequently consulted the oracle of the Hotel de Soissons. + +Though long habits of dissimulation and advancing years had given Catherine +that Abbess-like countenance, haughty and ascetic, expressionless and yet +deep, reserved but scrutinizing, and so remarkable for any student of her +portraits, those about her perceived a cloud over this cold, Florentine +mirror. No sovereign was ever a more imposing figure than this woman had +made herself since the day when she had succeeded in coercing the Guises +after the death of Francis II. Her black velvet hood, with a peak over the +forehead, for she never went out of mourning for Henri II., was, as it +were, a womanly cowl round her cold, imperious features, to which she +could, however, on occasion, give insinuating Italian charm. She was so +well made, that she introduced the fashion for women to ride on horseback +in such a way as to display their legs; this is enough to prove that hers +were of perfect form. Every lady in Europe thenceforth rode on a +side-saddle, _a la planchette_, for France had long set the fashions. + +To any one who can picture this impressive figure, the scene in the great +room that evening has an imposing aspect. The two Queens, so unlike in +spirit, in beauty, and in dress, and almost at daggers drawn, were both +much too absent-minded to give the impetus for which the courtiers waited +to raise their spirits. + +The dead secret of the drama which, for the past six months, the son and +mother had been cautiously playing, was guessed by some of their followers; +the Italians, more especially, had kept an attentive lookout, for if +Catherine should lose the game, they would all be the victims. Under these +circumstances, at a moment when Catherine and her son were vying with each +other in subterfuges, the King was the centre of observation. + +Charles IX., tired by a long day's hunting, and by the serious reflections +he brooded over in secret, looked forty this evening. He had reached the +last stage of the malady which killed him, and which gave rise to grave +suspicions of poison. According to de Thou, the Tacitus of the Valois, the +surgeon found unaccountable spots in the King's body (_ex causa incognita +reperti livores_). His funeral was even more carelessly conducted than that +of Francis II. Charles the Ninth was escorted from Saint-Lazare to +Saint-Denis by Brantome and a few archers of the Guard commanded by the +Comte de Solern. This circumstance, added to the mother's supposed hatred +of her son, may confirm the accusation brought against her by de Thou; at +least it gives weight to the opinion here expressed, that she cared little +for any of her children, an indifference which is accounted for by her +faith in the pronouncement of astrology. Such a woman could not care for +tools that were to break in her hands. Henri III. was the last King under +whom she could hope to reign; and that was all. + +In our day it seems allowable to suppose that Charles IX. died a natural +death. His excesses, his manner of life, the sudden development of his +powers, his last struggles to seize the reins of government, his desire to +live, his waste of strength, his last sufferings and his last pleasures, +all indicate, to impartial judges, that he died of disease of the lungs, a +malady at that time little understood, and of which nothing was known; and +its symptoms might lead Charles himself to believe that he was poisoned. + +The real poison given him by his mother lay in the evil counsels of the +courtiers with whom she surrounded him, who induced him to waste his +intellectual and physical powers, and who thus were the cause of a disease +which was purely incidental and not congenital. + +Charles the Ninth, at this period of his life more than at any other, bore +the stamp of a sombre dignity not unbecoming in a King. The majesty of his +secret thoughts was reflected in his face, which was remarkable for the +Italian complexion he inherited from his mother. This ivory pallor, so +beautiful by artificial light, and so well suited with an expression of +melancholy, gave added effect to his deep blue eyes showing narrowly under +thick eyelids, and thus acquiring that keen acumen which imagination +pictures in the glance of a King, while their color was an aid to +dissimulation. Charles' eyes derived an awe-inspiring look from his high, +marked eyebrows--accentuating a lofty forehead--which he could lift or +lower with singular facility. His nose was long and broad, and thick at the +tip--a true lion's nose; he had large ears; light reddish hair; lips of the +color of blood, the lips of a consumptive man; the upper lip thin and +satirical, the lower full enough to indicate fine qualities of feeling. + +The wrinkles stamped on his brow in early life, when terrible anxieties had +blighted its freshness, made his face intensely interesting--more than one +had been caused by remorse for the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, a deed +which had been craftily foisted on him; but there were two other lines on +his face which would have been eloquent to any student who at that time +could have had a special revelation of the principles of modern physiology. +These lines made a deep furrow from the cheek-bones to each corner of the +mouth, and betrayed the efforts made by an exhausted organization to +respond to mental strain and to violent physical enjoyment. Charles IX. was +worn out. The Queen-mother, seeing her work, must have felt some remorse, +unless, indeed, politics stifle such a feeling in all who sit under the +purple. If Catherine could have foreseen the effects of her intrigues on +her son, she might perhaps have shrunk from them? + +It was a terrible spectacle. The King, by nature so strong, had become +weak; the spirit, so nobly tempered, was racked by doubts; this man, the +centre of authority, felt himself helpless; the naturally firm temper had +lost confidence in its power. The warrior's valor had degenerated into +ferocity, reserve had become dissimulation, the refined and tender passion +of the Valois was an insatiable thirst for pleasure. This great man, +misprized, perverted, with every side of his noble spirit chafed to a sore, +a King without power, a loving heart without a friend, torn a thousand ways +by conflicting schemes, was, at four-and-twenty, the melancholy image of a +man who has found everything wanting, who distrusts every one, who is ready +to stake his all, even his life. Only lately had he understood his mission, +his power, his resources, and the obstacles placed by his mother in the way +of the pacification of the kingdom; and the light glowed in a broken lamp. + +Two men, for whom the King had so great a regard that he had saved one from +the massacre of Saint-Bartholomew, and had dined with the other at a time +when his enemies accused him of poisoning the King--his chief physician +Jean Chapelain, and the great surgeon Ambroise Pare--had been sent for from +the country by Catherine, and, obeying the summons in hot haste, arrived at +the King's bedtime. They looked anxiously at their sovereign, and some of +the courtiers made whispered inquiries, but they answered with due reserve, +saying nothing of the sentence each had secretly pronounced. Now and again +the King would raise his heavy eyelids and try to conceal from the +bystanders the glance he shot at his mother. Suddenly he rose, and went to +stand in front of the fireplace. + +"Monsieur de Chiverni," said he, "why do you keep the title of Chancellor +of Anjou and Poland? Are you our servant or our brother's?" + +"I am wholly yours, Sire," replied Chiverni, with a bow. + +"Well, then, come to-morrow; I mean to send you to Spain, for strange +things are doing at the Court of Madrid, gentlemen." + +The King looked at his wife and returned to his chair. + +"Strange things are doing everywhere," he added in a whisper to Marshal +Tavannes, one of the favorites of his younger days. And he rose to lead the +partner of his youthful pleasures into the recess of an oriel window, +saying to him: + +"I want you; stay till the last. I must know whether you will be with me or +against me. Do not look astonished. I am breaking the leading strings. My +mother is at the bottom of all the mischief here. In three months I shall +either be dead, or be really King. As you love your life, silence! You are +in my secret with Solern and Villeroy. If the least hint is given, it will +come from one of you three.--Do not keep too close to me; go and pay your +court to my mother; tell her that I am dying, and that you cannot regret +it, for that I am but a poor creature." + +Charles IX. walked round the room leaning on his old favorite's shoulder, +and discussing his sufferings with him, to mislead inquisitive persons; +then, fearing that his coldness might be too marked, he went to talk with +the two Queens, calling Birague to his side. + +Just then Pinard glided in at the door and came up to Queen Catherine, +slipping in like an eel, close to the wall. He murmured two words in the +Queen-mother's ear, and she replied with an affirmative nod. The King did +not ask what this meant, but he went back to his chair with a scowl round +the room of horrible rage and jealousy. This little incident was of immense +importance in the eyes of all the Court. This exertion of authority without +any appeal to the King was like the drop of water that makes the glass +overflow. The young Queen and Countess Fieschi withdrew without the King's +paying her the least attention, but the Queen-mother attended her +daughter-in-law to the door. Though the misunderstanding between the mother +and son lent enormous interest to the movements, looks, and attitude of +Catherine and Charles IX., their cold composure plainly showed the +courtiers that they were in the way; as soon as the Queen had gone they +took their leave. At ten o'clock no one remained but certain intimate +persons--the two Gondis, Tavannes, the Comte de Solern, Birague, and the +Queen-mother. + +The King sat plunged in the deepest melancholy. This silence was fatiguing. +Catherine seemed at a loss; she wished to retire, and she wanted the King +to attend her to the door, but Charles remained obstinately lost in +thought; she rose to bid him good-night, Charles was obliged to follow her +example; she took his arm, and went a few steps with him to speak in his +ear these few words: + +"Monsieur, I have matters of importance to discuss with you." + +As she left, the Queen-mother met the eyes of the Gondis reflected in a +glass, and gave them a significant glance, which her son could not see--all +the more so because he himself was exchanging meaning looks with the Comte +de Solern and Villeroy; Tavannes was absorbed in thought. + +"Sire," said the Marechal de Retz, coming out of his meditations, "you +seem right royally bored. Do you never amuse yourself nowadays? Heaven +above us! where are the times when we went gadding about the streets of +nights?" + +"Yes, those were good times," said the King, not without a sigh. + +"Why not be off now?" said Monsieur de Birague, bowing himself out, with a +wink at the Gondis. + +"I always think of that time with pleasure," cried the Marechal de Retz. + +"I should like to see you on the roofs, Monsieur le Marechal," said +Tavannes. "_Sacre chat d'Italie_, if you might but break your neck," he +added in an undertone to the King. + +"I know not whether you or I should be nimblest at jumping across a yard or +a street; but what I do know is, that neither of us is more afraid of death +than the other," replied the Duc de Retz. + +"Well, sir, will you come to scour the town as you did when you were +young?" said the Master of the Wardrobe to the King. + +Thus at four-and-twenty the unhappy King was no longer thought young, even +by his flatterers. Tavannes and the King recalled, like two schoolfellows, +some of the good tricks they had perpetrated in Paris, and the party was +soon made up. The two Italians, being dared to jump from roof to roof +across the street, pledged themselves to follow where the King should lead. +They all went to put on common clothes. + +The Comte de Solern, left alone with the King, looked at him with +amazement. The worthy German, though filled with compassion as he +understood the position of the King of France, was fidelity and honor +itself, but he had not a lively imagination. King Charles, surrounded by +enemies, and trusting no one, not even his wife--who, not knowing that his +mother and all her servants were inimical to him, had committed some little +indiscretions--was happy to have found in Monsieur de Solern a devotion +which justified complete confidence. Tavannes and Villeroy were only partly +in the secret. The Comte de Solern alone knew the whole of the King's +schemes; and he was in every way very useful to his master, inasmuch as +that he had a handful of confidential and attached men at his orders who +obeyed him blindly. Monsieur de Solern, who held a command in the Archers +of the Guard, had for some days been picking from among his men some who +were faithful in their adherence to the King, to form a chosen company. The +King could think of everything. + +"Well, Solern," said Charles IX., "we were needing a pretext for spending a +night out of doors. I had the excuse, of course, of Madame de Belleville; +but this is better, for my mother can find out what goes on at Marie's +house." + +Monsieur de Solern, as he was to attend the King, asked if he might not go +the rounds with some of his Germans, and to this Charles consented. By +eleven o'clock the King, in better spirits now, set out with his three +companions to explore the neighborhood of the Rue Saint-Honore. + +"I will take my lady by surprise," said Charles to Tavannes as they went +along the Rue de l'Autruche. + +To make this nocturnal ploy more intelligible to those who may be ignorant +of the topography of old Paris, it will be necessary to explain the +position of the Rue de l'Autruche. The part of the Louvre, begun by Henri +II., was still being built amid the wreck of houses. Where the wing now +stands looking over the Pont des Arts, there was at that time a garden. In +the place of the Colonnade there were a moat and a drawbridge on which, +somewhat later, a Florentine, the Marechal d'Ancre, met his death. Beyond +this garden rose the turrets of the Hotel de Bourbon, the residence of the +princes of that branch till the day when the Constable's treason (after he +was ruined by the confiscation of his possessions, decreed by Francis I., +to avoid having to decide between him and his mother) put an end to the +trial that had cost France so dear, by the confiscation of the Constable's +estates. + +This chateau, which looked well from the river, was not destroyed till the +time of Louis XIV. + +The Rue de l'Autruche ran from the Rue Saint-Honore, ending at the Hotel de +Bourbon on the quay. This street, named de l'Autriche on some old plans, +and de l'Austruc on others, has, like many more, disappeared from the map. +The Rue des Poulies would seem to have been cut across the ground occupied +by the houses nearest to the Rue Saint-Honore. Authors have differed, too, +as to the etymology of the name. Some suppose it to be derived from a +certain Hotel d'Osteriche (_Osterrichen_) inhabited in the fourteenth +century by a daughter of that house who married a French nobleman. Some +assert that this was the site of the Royal Aviaries, whither, once on a +time, all Paris crowded to see a living ostrich. + +Be it as it may, this tortuous street was made notable by the residences of +certain princes of the blood, who dwelt in the vicinity of the Louvre. +Since the sovereign had deserted the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where for +several centuries he had lived in the Bastille, and removed to the Louvre, +many of the nobility had settled near the palace. The Hotel de Bourbon had +its fellow in the old Hotel d'Alencon in the Rue Saint-Honore. This, the +palace of the Counts of that name, always an appanage of the Crown, was at +this time owned by Henri II.'s fourth son, who subsequently took the title +of Duc d'Anjou, and who died in the reign of Henri III., to whom he gave no +little trouble. The estate then reverted to the Crown, including the old +palace, which was pulled down. In those days a prince's residence was a +vast assemblage of buildings; to form some idea of its extent, we have only +to go and see the space covered by the Hotel de Soubise, which is still +standing in the Marais. Such a palace included all the buildings necessary +to these magnificent lives, which may seem almost problematical to many +persons to see how poor is the state of a prince in these days. There were +immense stables, lodgings for physicians, librarians, chancellor, +chaplains, treasurers, officials, pages, paid servants, and lackeys, +attached to the Prince's person. + +Not far from the Rue Saint-Honore, in a garden belonging to the Hotel, +stood a pretty little house built in 1520 by command of the celebrated +Duchesse d'Alencon, which had since been surrounded with other houses +erected by merchants. Here the King had installed Marie Touchet. Although +the Duc d'Alencon was engaged in a conspiracy against the King at that +time, he was incapable of annoying him in such a matter. + +As the King was obliged to pass by his lady's door on his way down the Rue +Saint-Honore, where at that time highway robbers had no opportunities +within the Barriere des Sergents, he could hardly avoid stopping there. +While keeping a lookout for some stroke of luck--a belated citizen to be +robbed, or the watch to be thrashed--the King scanned every window, peeping +in wherever he saw lights, to see what was going on, or to overhear a +conversation. But he found his good city in a provokingly peaceful state. +On a sudden, as he came in front of the house kept by a famous perfumer +named Rene, who supplied the Court, the King was seized with one of those +swift inspirations which are suggested by antecedent observation, as he saw +a bright light shining from the topmost window of the roof. + +This perfumer was strongly suspected of doctoring rich uncles when they +complained of illness; he was credited at Court with the invention of the +famous _Elixir a successions_--the Elixir of Inheritance--and had been +accused of poisoning Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV.'s mother, who was buried +without her head having been opened, in spite of the express orders of +Charles IX., as a contemporary tells us. For two months past the King had +been seeking some stratagem to enable him to spy out the secrets of Rene's +laboratory, whither Cosmo Ruggieri frequently resorted. Charles intended, +if anything should arouse his suspicions, to take steps himself without the +intervention of the Police or the Law, over whom his mother would exert the +influence of fear or of bribery. + +It is beyond all doubt that during the sixteenth century, and the years +immediately preceding and following it, poisoning had been brought to a +pitch of perfection which remains unknown to modern chemistry, but which +is indisputably proved by history. Italy, the cradle of modern science, was +at that time the inventor and mistress of these secrets, many of which are +lost. Romancers have made such extravagant use of this fact, that whenever +they introduce Italians they make them play the part of assassins and +poisoners. + +But though Italy had then the monopoly of those subtle poisons of which +historians tell us, we must regard her supremacy in toxicology merely as +part of her pre-eminence in all branches of knowledge and in the arts, in +which she led the way for all Europe. The crimes of the period were not +hers alone; she served the passions of the age, as she built magnificently, +commanded armies, painted glorious frescoes, sang songs, loved Queens, and +directed politics. At Florence this hideous art had reached such +perfection, that a woman dividing a peach with a duke could make use of a +knife of which one side only was poisoned, and, eating the untainted half, +dealt death with the other. A pair of perfumed gloves introduced a mortal +malady by the pores of the hand; poison could be concealed in a bunch of +fresh roses of which the fragrance, inhaled but once, meant certain death. +Don Juan of Austria, it is said, was poisoned by a pair of boots. + +So King Charles had a right to be inquisitive, and it is easy to imagine +how greatly the dark suspicions which tormented him added to his eagerness +to detect Rene in the act. + +The old fountain, since rebuilt, at the corner of the Rue de l'Arbre-Sec, +afforded this illustrious crew the necessary access to the roof of a house, +which the King pretended that he wished to invade, not far from Rene's. +Charles, followed by his companions, began walking along the roofs, to the +great terror of the good folks awakened by these marauders, who would call +to them, giving them some coarsely grotesque name, listen to family +squabbles or love-makings, or do some vexatious damage. + +When the two Gondis saw Tavannes and the King clambering along the roof +adjoining Rene's, the Marechal de Retz sat down, saying he was tired, and +his brother remained with him. + +"So much the better," thought the King, glad to be quit of his spies. + +Tavannes made fun of the two Italians, who were then left alone in the +midst of perfect silence in a place where they had only the sky above them +and the cats for listeners. And the brothers took advantage of this +position to speak out thoughts which they never would have uttered +elsewhere--thoughts suggested by the incidents of the evening. + +"Albert," said the Grand Master to the Marshal, "the King will get the +upper hand of the Queen; we are doing bad business so far as our fortunes +are concerned by attaching ourselves to Catherine's. If we transfer our +services to the King now, when he is seeking some support against his +mother, and needs capable men to rely upon, we shall not be turned out like +wild beasts when the Queen-mother is banished, imprisoned, or killed." + +"You will not get far, Charles, by that road," the Marshal replied. "You +will follow your master into the grave, and he has not long to live; he is +wrecked by dissipation; Cosmo Ruggieri has foretold his death next year." + +"A dying boar has often gored the hunter," said Charles de Gondi. "This +plot of the Duc d'Alencon with the King of Navarre and the Prince de Conde, +of which la Mole and Coconnas are taking the _onus_, is dangerous rather +than useful. In the first place, the King of Navarre, whom the Queen-mother +hopes to take in the fact, is too suspicious of her, and will have nothing +to do with it. He means to get the benefit of the conspiracy and run none +of the risks. And now, the last idea is to place the crown on the head of +the Duc d'Alencon, who is to turn Calvinist." + +"_Budelone!_ Dolt that you are, do not you see that this plot enables our +Queen to learn what the Huguenots can do with the Duc d'Alencon, and what +the King means to do with the Huguenots? For the King is temporizing with +them. And Catherine, to set the King riding on a wooden horse, will betray +the plot which must nullify his schemes." + +"Ay!" said Charles de Gondi, "by dint of taking our advice she can beat us +at our own game. That is very good." + +"Good for the Duc d'Anjou, who would rather be King of France than King of +Poland; I am going to explain matters to him." + +"You are going, Albert?" + +"To-morrow. Is it not my duty to attend the King of Poland? I shall join +him at Venice, where the Signori have undertaken to amuse him." + +"You are prudence itself." + +"_Che bestia!_ I assure you solemnly that there is not the slightest danger +for either of us at Court. If there were, should I leave? I would stick to +our kind mistress." + +"Kind!" said the Grand Master. "She is the woman to drop her tools if she +finds them too heavy." + +"_O coglione!_ You call yourself a soldier, and are afraid of death? Every +trade has its duties, and our duty is to Fortune. When we attach ourselves +to monarchs who are the fount of all temporal power, and who protect and +ennoble and enrich our families, we have to give them such love as inflames +the soul of the martyr for heaven; when they sacrifice us for the throne we +may perish, for we die as much for ourselves as for them, but our family +does not perish.--_Ecco_; I have said!" + +"You are quite right, Albert; you have got the old duchy of Retz." + +"Listen to me," said the Duc de Retz. "The Queen has great hopes of the +Ruggieri and their arts to reconcile her to her son. When that artful youth +refused to have anything to do with Rene, our Queen easily guessed what her +son's suspicions were. But who can tell what the King has in his pocket? +Perhaps he is only doubting as to what fate he intends for his mother; he +hates her, you understand? He said something of his purpose to the Queen, +and the Queen talked of it to Madame de Fieschi; Madame de Fieschi carried +it on to the Queen-mother, and since then the King has kept out of his +wife's way." + +"It was high time----" said Charles de Gondi. + +"What to do?" asked the Marshal. + +"To give the King something to do," replied the Grand Master, who, though +he was on less intimate terms with Catherine than his brother, was not less +clear-sighted. + +"Charles," said de Retz gravely, "I have started on a splendid road; but if +you want to be a Duke, you must, like me, be our mistress' ready tool. She +will remain Queen; she is the strongest. Madame de Sauves is still devoted +to her; and the King of Navarre and the Duc d'Alencon are devoted to Madame +de Sauves; Catherine will always have them in leading strings under this +King, as she will have them under King Henri III. Heaven send he may not be +ungrateful!" + +"Why?" + +"His mother does too much for him." + +"Hark! There is a noise in the Rue Saint-Honore," cried Charles de Gondi. +"Rene's door is being locked. Cannot you hear a number of men? They must +have taken the Ruggieri." + +"The devil! What a piece of prudence! The King has not shown his usual +impetuosity. But where will he imprison them?--Let us see what is going +on." + +The brothers reached the corner of the Rue de l'Autruche at the moment when +the King was entering his mistress' house. By the light of the torches held +by the gatekeeper they recognized Tavannes and the Ruggieri. + +"Well, Tavannes," the Grand Master called out as he ran after the King's +companion, who was making his way back to the Louvre, "what adventures have +you had?" + +"We dropped on a full council of wizards, and arrested two who are friends +of yours, and who will explain for the benefit of French noblemen by what +means you, who are not Frenchmen, have contrived to clutch two Crown +offices," said Tavannes, half in jest. + +"And the King?" asked the Grand Master, who was not much disturbed by +Tavannes' hostility. + +"He is staying with his mistress." + +"We have risen to where we stand by the most absolute devotion to our +masters, a brilliant and noble career which you too have adopted, my dear +Duke," replied the Marechal de Retz. + + * * * * * + +The three courtiers walked on in silence. As they bid each other +good-night, rejoining their retainers, who escorted them home, two men +lightly glided along the Rue de l'Autruche in the shadow of the wall. These +were the King and the Comte de Solern, who soon reached the river-bank at a +spot where a boat and rowers, engaged by the German Count, were awaiting +them. In a few minutes they had reached the opposite shore. + +"My mother is not in bed," cried the King, "she will see us; we have not +made a good choice of our meeting-place." + +"She will think some duel is in the wind," said Solern. "And how is she to +distinguish who we are at this distance?" + +"Well! Even if she sees me!" cried Charles IX. "I have made up my mind +now." + +The King and his friend jumped on shore, and hurried off towards the Pre +aux Clercs. On arriving there, the Comte de Solern, who went first, +parleyed with a man on sentry, with whom he exchanged a few words, and who +then withdrew to a group of others. + +Presently two men, who seemed to be princes by the way the outposts saluted +them, left the spot where they were in hiding behind some broken fencing, +and came to the King, to whom they bent the knee; but Charles IX. raised +them before they could touch the ground, saying: + +"No ceremony; here we are all gentlemen together." + +These three were now joined by a venerable old man, who might have been +taken for the Chancellor de l'Hopital, but that he had died the year +before. Then all four walked on as quickly as possible to reach a spot +where their conversation could not be overheard by their retainers, and +Solern followed them at a little distance to keep guard over the King. This +faithful servant felt some doubts which Charles did not share, for to him +indeed life was too great a burden. The Count was the only witness to the +meeting on the King's side. + +It soon became interesting. + +"Sire," said one of the speakers, "the Connetable de Montmorency, the best +friend the King, your father, had, and possessed of all his secrets, agreed +with the Marechal de Saint-Andre that Madame Catherine should be sewn up in +a sack and thrown into the river. If that had been done, many good men +would be alive now." + +"I have executions enough on my conscience, monsieur," replied the King. + +"Well, Sire," said the youngest of the four gentlemen, "from the depths of +exile Queen Catherine would still manage to interfere and find men to help +her. Have we not everything to fear from the Guises, who, nine years since, +schemed for a monstrous Catholic alliance, in which your Majesty is not +included, and which is a danger to the throne? This alliance is a Spanish +invention--for Spain still cherishes the hope of leveling the Pyrenees. +Sire, Calvinism can save France by erecting a moral barrier between this +nation and one that aims at the empire of the world. If the Queen-mother +finds herself in banishment, she will throw herself on Spain and the +Guises." + +"Gentlemen," said the King, "I will have you to know that, with your help, +and with peace established on a basis of confidence, I will undertake to +make every soul in the kingdom quake. By God and every sacred relic! it is +time that the Royal authority should assert itself. Understand this +clearly; so far, my mother is right, power is slipping from your grasp, as +it is from mine. Your estates, your privileges are bound to the throne; +when you have allowed religion to be overthrown, the hands you are using as +tools will turn against the Monarchy and against you. + +"I have had enough of fighting ideas with weapons that cannot touch them. +Let us see whether Protestantism can make its way if left to itself; above +all, let us see what the spirit of that faction means to attack. The +Admiral, God be merciful to him, was no enemy of mine. He swore to me that +he would restrain the revolt within the limits of spiritual feeling, and in +the temporal kingdom secure mastery to the King and submissive subjects. +Now, gentlemen, if the thing is still in your power, set an example, and +help your sovereign to control the malcontents who are disturbing the peace +of both parties alike. War robs us of all our revenue, and ruins the +country; I am weary of this troubled State--so much so, that, if it should +be absolutely necessary, I would sacrifice my mother. I would do more; I +would have about me a like number of Catholics and of Protestants, and I +would hang Louis XI.'s axe over their heads to keep them equal. If +Messieurs de Guise plot a Holy Alliance which endangers the Crown, the +executioner shall begin on them. + +"I understand the griefs of my people, and am quite ready to cut freely at +the nobles who bring trouble on our country. I care little for questions of +conscience; I mean henceforth to have submissive subjects who will work, +under my rule, at the prosperity of the State. + +"Gentlemen, I give you ten days to treat with your adherents, to break up +your plots, and return to me, who will be a father to you. If you are +refractory, you will see great changes. I shall make use of smaller men +who, at my bidding, will rush upon the great lords. I will follow the +example of a king who pacified his realm by striking down greater men than +you are who dared to defy him. If Catholic troops are wanting, I can appeal +to my brother of Spain to defend a threatened throne; nay, and if I need a +Minister to carry out my will, he will lend me the Duke of Alva." + +"In that event, Sire, we can find Germans to fight your Spaniards," said +one of the party. + +"I may remind you, cousin," said Charles IX. coldly, "that my wife's name +is Elizabeth of Austria; your allies on that side might fail you. But take +my advice; let us fight this alone without calling in the foreigner. You +are the object of my mother's hatred, and you care enough for me to play +the part of second in my duel with her--well, then, listen. You stand so +high in my esteem, that I offer you the office of High Constable; you will +not betray us as the other has done." + +The Prince thus addressed took the King's hand in a friendly grasp, +exclaiming: + +"God's 'ounds, brother, that is indeed forgiving evil! But, Sire, the head +cannot move without the tail, and our tail is hard to drag along. Give us +more than ten days. We still need at least a month to make the rest hear +reason. By the end of that time we shall be the masters." + +"A month, so be it; Villeroy is my only plenipotentiary. Take no word but +his, whatever any one may say." + +"One month," said the three other gentlemen; "that will be enough time." + +"Gentlemen," said the King, "we are but five, all men of mettle. If there +is any treachery, we shall know with whom to deal." + +The three gentlemen left the King with every mark of deep respect and +kissed his hand. + +As the King recrossed the Seine, four o'clock was striking by the Louvre +clock. + +Queen Catherine was still up. + +"My mother is not gone to bed," said Charles to the Comte de Solern. + +"She too has her forge," said the German. + +"My dear Count, what must you think of a king who is reduced to +conspiracy?" said Charles IX. bitterly, after a pause. + +"I think, Sire, that if you would only allow me to throw that woman into +the river, as our young friend said, France would soon be at peace." + +"Parricide!--and after Saint-Bartholomew's!" said the King. "No, no--Exile. +Once fallen, my mother would not have an adherent or a partisan." + +"Well, then, Sire," the Count went on, "allow me to take her into custody +now, at once, and escort her beyond the frontier; for by to-morrow she will +have won you round." + +"Well," said the King, "come to my forge; no one can hear us there. +Besides, I am anxious that my mother should know nothing of the arrest of +the Ruggieri. If she knows I am within, the good lady will suspect nothing, +and we will concert the measures for arresting her." + +When the King, attended by Solern, went into the low room which served as +his workshop, he smiled as he pointed to his forge and various tools. + +"I do not suppose," said he, "that of all the kings France may ever have, +there will be another with a taste for such a craft. But when I am really +King, I shall not forge swords; they shall all be sheathed." + +"Sire," said the Comte de Solern, "the fatigues of tennis, your work at the +forge, hunting, and--may I say it?--love-making, are chariots lent you by +the Devil to hasten your journey to Saint-Denis." + +"Ah, Solern!" said the King sadly, "if only you could feel the fire they +have set burning in my heart and body. Nothing can slake it.--Are you sure +of the men who are guarding the Ruggieri?" + +"As sure as of myself." + +"Well, in the course of this day I shall have made up my mind. Think out +the means of acting, and I will give you my final instructions at five this +evening, at Madame de Belleville's." + + * * * * * + +The first gleams of daybreak were struggling with the lights in the King's +workshop, where the Comte de Solern had left him alone, when he heard the +door open and saw his mother, looking like a ghost in the gloom. Though +Charles IX. was highly strung and nervous, he did not start, although under +the circumstances this apparition had an ominous and grotesque aspect. + +"Monsieur," said she, "you are killing yourself----" + +"I am fulfilling my horoscopes," he retorted, with a bitter smile. "But +you, madame, are you as ill as I am?" + +"We have both watched through the night, monsieur, but with very different +purpose. When you were setting out to confer with your bitterest enemies in +the open night, and hiding it from your mother, with the connivance of +Tavannes and the Gondis, with whom you pretended to be scouring the town, I +was reading dispatches which prove that a terrible conspiracy is hatching, +in which your brother the Duc d'Alencon is implicated with your +brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, and half the +nobility of your kingdom. Their plan is no less than to snatch the Crown +from you by taking possession of your person. These gentlemen have already +a following of fifty thousand men, all good soldiers." + +"Indeed!" said the King incredulously. + +"Your brother is becoming a Huguenot," the Queen went on. + +"My brother joining the Huguenots?" cried Charles, brandishing the iron bar +he held. + +"Yes. The Duc d'Alencon, a Huguenot at heart, is about to declare himself. +Your sister, the Queen of Navarre, has scarcely a tinge of affection left +for you. She loves Monsieur le Duc d'Alencon, she loves Bussy, and she also +loves little la Mole." + +"What a large heart!" said the King. + +"Little la Mole, to grow great," the Queen went on, "can think of no better +means than making a King of France to his mind. Then, it is said, he is to +be High Constable." + +"That damned Margot!" cried the King. "This is what comes of her marrying a +heretic----" + +"That would be nothing; but then there is the head of the younger branch, +whom you have placed near the throne against my warnings, and who only +wants to see you all kill each other! The House of Bourbon is the enemy of +the House of Valois. Mark this, monsieur, a younger branch must always be +kept in abject poverty, for it is born with the spirit of conspiracy, and +it is folly to give it weapons when it has none, or to leave them in its +possession when it takes them. The younger branches must be impotent for +mischief--that is the law of sovereignty. The sultans of Asia observe it. + +"The proofs are upstairs in my closet, whither I begged you to follow me +when we parted last night, but you had other projects. Within a month, if +we do not take a high hand, your fate will be that of Charles the Simple." + +"Within a month!" exclaimed Charles, amazed at the coincidence of this +period with the term fixed by the princes that very night. "In a month we +shall be the masters," thought he to himself, repeating their words. "You +have proofs, madame?" he asked aloud. + +"They are unimpeachable, monsieur; they are supplied by my daughter +Marguerite. Terrified by the probable outcome of such a coalition, in spite +of her weakness for your brother d'Alencon, the throne of the Valois lay, +for once, nearer to her heart than all her amours. She asks indeed, as the +reward of her revelation, that la Mole shall go scot free; but that +popinjay seems to me to be a rogue we ought to get rid of, as well as the +Comte de Coconnas, your brother d'Alencon's right-hand man. As to the +Prince de Conde, that boy would agree to anything so long as I may be flung +into the river; I do not know if that is his idea of a handsome return on +his wedding-day for the pretty wife I got him. + +"This is a serious matter, monsieur. You spoke of predictions! I know of +one which says that the Bourbons will possess the throne of the Valois; and +if we do not take care, it will be fulfilled. Do not be vexed with your +sister, she has acted well in this matter." + +"My son," she went on, after a pause, with an assumption of tenderness in +her tone, "many evil-minded persons, in the interest of the Guises, want to +sow dissension between you and me, though we are the only two persons in +the realm whose interests are identical. Reflect. You blame yourself now, I +know, for Saint-Bartholomew's night; you blame me for persuading you to it. +But Catholicism, monsieur, ought to be the bond of Spain, France, and +Italy, three nations which by a secretly and skilfully worked scheme may, +in the course of time, be united under the House of Valois. Do not forfeit +your chances by letting the cord slip which includes these three kingdoms +in the pale of the same faith. + +"Why should not the Valois and the Medici carry out, to their great glory, +the project of Charles V., who lost his head? Let those descendants of Jane +the Crazy people the new world which they are grasping at. The Medici, +masters of Florence and Rome, will subdue Italy to your rule; they will +secure all its advantages by a treaty of commerce and alliance, and +recognize you as their liege lord for the fiefs of Piedmont, the Milanese, +and Naples over which you have rights. These, monsieur, are the reasons for +the war to the death we are waging with the Huguenots. Why do you compel us +to repeat these things? + +"Charlemagne made a mistake when he pushed northwards. France is a body of +which the heart is on the Gulf of Lyons, and whose two arms are Spain and +Italy. Thus we should command the Mediterranean, which is like a basket +into which all the wealth of the East is poured to the benefit of the +Venetians now, in the teeth of Philip II. + +"And if the friendship of the Medici and your inherited rights can thus +entitle you to hope for Italy, force, or alliance, or perhaps inheritance, +may give you Spain. There you must step in before the ambitious House of +Austria, to whom the Guelphs would have sold Italy, and who still dream of +possessing Spain. Though your wife is a daughter of that line, humble +Austria, hug her closely to stifle her! There lie the enemies of your +dominion, since from thence comes aid for the Reformers.--Do not listen to +men who would profit by our disagreement, and who fill your head with +trouble by representing me as your chief enemy at home. Have I hindered you +from having an heir? Is it my fault that your mistress has a son and your +wife only a daughter? Why have you not by this time three sons, who would +cut off all this sedition at the root?--Is it my part, monsieur, to reply +to these questions? If you had a son, would Monsieur d'Alencon conspire +against you?" + +As she spoke these words, Catherine fixed her eyes on Charles IX. with the +fascinating gaze of a bird of prey on its victim. The daughter of the +Medici was beautiful in her way; her real feelings illumined her face, +which, like that of a gambler at the green-table, was radiant with +ambitious greed. Charles IX. saw her no longer as the mother of one man, +but, as she had been called, the mother of armies and empires (_mater +castrorum_). Catherine had spread the pinions of her genius, and was boldly +soaring in the realm of high politics of the Medici and the Valois, +sketching the vast plans which had frightened Henri II., and which, +transmitted by the Medici to Richelieu, were stored in the Cabinet of the +House of Bourbon. But Charles IX., seeing his mother take so many +precautions, supposed them to be necessary, and wondered to what end she +was taking them. He looked down; he hesitated; his distrust was not to be +dispelled by words. + +Catherine was astonished to see what deeply founded suspicion lurked in her +son's heart. + +"Well, monsieur," she went on, "do you not choose to understand me? What +are we, you and I, compared with the eternity of a royal Crown? Do you +suspect me of any purposes but those which must agitate us who dwell in the +sphere whence empires are governed?" + +"Madame," said he, "I will follow you to your closet--we must act----" + +"Act?" cried Catherine. "Let them go their way and take them in the act; +the law will rid you of them. For God's sake, monsieur, let them see us +smiling." + +The Queen withdrew. The King alone remained standing for a minute, for he +had sunk into extreme dejection. + +"On which side are the snares?" he said aloud. "Is it she who is deceiving +me, or they? What is the better policy? _Deus! discerne causam meam_," he +cried, with tears in his eyes. "Life is a burden to me. Whether natural or +compulsory, I would rather meet death than these contradictory torments," +he added, and he struck the hammer on his anvil with such violence that +the vaults of the Louvre quaked. "Great God!" he exclaimed, going out and +looking up at the sky, "Thou for whose holy religion I am warring, give me +the clearness of Thine eyes to see into my mother's heart by questioning +the Ruggieri." + + * * * * * + +The little house inhabited by the Lady of Belleville, where Charles had +left his prisoners, was the last but one in the Rue de l'Autruche, near the +Rue Saint-Honore. The street-gate, guarded by two little lodges built of +brick, looked very plain at a time when gates and all their accessories +were so elaborately treated. The entrance consisted of two stone pillars, +diamond-cut, and the architrave was graced with the reclining figure of a +woman holding a cornucopia. The gate, of timber covered with heavy iron +scroll-work, had a wicket peephole at the level of the eye for spying any +one who desired admittance. In each lodge a porter lived, and Charles' +caprice insisted that a gatekeeper should be on the watch day and night. + +There was a little courtyard in front of the house paved with Venetian +mosaic. At that time, when carriages had not been invented, and ladies rode +on horseback or in litters, the courtyards could be splendid with no fear +of injury from horses or vehicles. We must constantly bear these facts in +mind to understand the narrowness of the streets, the small extent of the +forecourts, and various other details of the dwellings of the fifteenth +century. + +The house, of one story above the ground floor, had at the top a sculptured +frieze, on which rested a roof sloping up from all the four sides to a flat +space at the top. The sides were pierced by dormer-windows adorned with +architraves and side-posts, which some great artist had chiseled into +delicate arabesques. All the three windows of the first-floor rooms were +equally conspicuous for this embroidery in stone, thrown into relief by the +red-brick walls. On the ground floor a double flight of outside steps, +elegantly sculptured--the balcony being remarkable for a true lovers' +knot--led to the house door, decorated in the Venetian style with stone +cut into pointed lozenges, a form of ornament that was repeated on the +window-jambs on each side of the door. + +A garden laid out in the fashion of the time, and full of rare flowers, +occupied a space behind the house of equal extent with the forecourt. A +vine hung over the walls. A silver pine stood in the centre of a grass +plot; the flower borders were divided from the turf by winding paths +leading to a little bower of clipped yews at the further end. The garden +walls, covered with a coarse mosaic of colored pebbles, pleased the eye by +a richness of color that harmonized with the hues of the flowers. The +garden front of the house, like the front to the court, had a pretty +balcony from the middle window over the door; and on both facades alike the +architectural treatment of this middle window was carried up to the frieze +of the cornice, with a bow that gave it the appearance of a lantern. The +sills of the other windows were inlaid with fine marbles let into the +stone. + +Notwithstanding the perfect taste evident in this building, it had a look +of gloom. It was shut out from the open day by neighboring houses and the +roofs of the Hotel d'Alencon, which cast their shadow over the courtyard +and garden; then absolute silence prevailed. Still, this silence, this +subdued light, this solitude, were restful to a soul that could give itself +up to a single thought, as in a cloister where we may meditate, or in a +snug home where we may love. + +Who can fail now to conceive of the interior elegance of this dwelling, the +only spot in all his kingdom where the last Valois but one could pour out +his heart, confess his sufferings, give play to his taste for the arts, and +enjoy the poetry he loved--pleasures denied him by the cares of his most +ponderous royalty. There alone were his lofty soul and superior qualities +appreciated; there alone, for a few brief months, the last of his life, +could he know the joys of fatherhood, to which he abandoned himself with +the frenzy which his presentiment of an imminent and terrible death lent to +all his actions. + +In the afternoon of this day, Marie was finishing her toilet in her +oratory--the ladies' boudoir of that time. She was arranging the curls of +her fine black hair, so as to leave a few locks to turn over a new velvet +coif, and was looking attentively at herself in the mirror. + +"It is nearly four o'clock! That interminable Council must be at an end by +now," said she to herself. "Jacob is back from the Louvre, where they are +greatly disturbed by reason of the number of councillors convened, and by +the duration of the sitting. What can have happened, some disaster? Dear +Heaven! does _he_ know how the spirit is worn by waiting in vain? He is +gone hunting, perhaps. If he is amused, all is well. If I see him happy, I +shall forget my sorrows----" + +She pulled down her bodice round her waist, that there might not be a +wrinkle in it, and turned to see how her dress fitted in profile; but then +she saw the King reclining on a couch. The carpeted floors deadened the +sound of footsteps so effectually, that he had come in without being heard. + +"You startled me," she said, with a cry of surprise, which she instantly +checked. + +"You were thinking of me, then?" said the King. + +"When am I not thinking of you?" she asked him, sitting down by his side. + +She took off his cap and cloak, and passed her hands through his hair as if +to comb it with her fingers. Charles submitted without speaking. Marie +knelt down to study her royal Master's pale face, and discerned in it the +lines of terrible fatigue and of a more devouring melancholy than any she +had ever been able to scare away. She checked a tear, and kept silence, not +to irritate a grief she as yet knew nothing of by some ill-chosen word. She +did what tender wives do in such cases; she kissed the brow seamed with +precocious wrinkles and the hollow cheeks, trying to breathe the freshness +of her own spirit into that careworn soul through its infusion into gentle +caresses, which, however, had no effect. She raised her head to the level +of the King's, embracing him fondly with her slender arms, and then laid +her face on his laboring breast, waiting for the opportune moment to +question the stricken man. + +"My Charlot, will you not tell your poor, anxious friend what are the +thoughts that darken your brow and take the color from your dear, red +lips?" + +"With the exception of Charlemagne," said he, in a dull, hollow voice, +"every King of France of the name of Charles has come to a miserable end." + +"Pooh!" said she. "What of Charles VIII.?" + +"In the prime of life," replied the King, "the poor man knocked his head +against a low doorway in the chateau d'Amboise, which he was decorating +splendidly, and he died in dreadful pain. His death gave the Crown to our +branch." + +"Charles VII. reconquered his kingdom." + +"Child, he died"--and the King lowered his voice--"of starvation, in the +dread of being poisoned by the Dauphin, who had already caused the death of +his fair Agnes. The father dreaded his son. Now, the son dreads his +mother!" + +"Why look back on the past?" said she, remembering the terrible existence +of Charles VI. + +"Why not, dear heart? Kings need not have recourse to diviners to read the +fate that awaits them; they have only to study history. I am at this time +engaged in trying to escape the fate of Charles the Simple, who was bereft +of his crown, and died in prison after seven years' captivity." + +"Charles V. drove out the English!" she cried triumphantly. + +"Not he, but du Guesclin; for he, poisoned by Charles of Navarre, +languished in sickness." + +"But Charles IV.?" said she. + +"He married three times and had no heir, in spite of the masculine beauty +that distinguished the sons of Philip the Handsome. The first Valois +dynasty ended in him. The second Valois will end in the same way. The Queen +has only brought me a daughter, and I shall die without leaving any child +to come, for a minority would be the greatest misfortune that could befall +the kingdom. Besides, if I had a son, would he live?--Charles is a name of +ill-omen, Charlemagne exhausted all the luck attending it. If I could be +King of France again, I would not be called Charles X." + +"Who then aims at your crown?" + +"My brother d'Alencon is plotting against me. I see enemies on every +side----" + +"Monsieur," said Marie, with an irresistible pout. "Tell me some merrier +tales." + +"My dearest treasure," said the King vehemently, "never call me _Monsieur_, +even in jest. You remind me of my mother, who incessantly offends me with +that word. I feel as if she deprived me of my crown. She says 'My son' to +the Duc d'Anjou, that is to say, the King of Poland." + +"Sire," said Marie, folding her hands as if in prayer, "there is a realm +where you are adored, which your Majesty fills entirely with glory and +strength; and there the word Monsieur means my gentle lord." + +She unclasped her hands, and with a pretty action pointed to her heart. The +words were so sweetly musical--_musiquees_, to use an expression of the +period, applied to love songs--that Charles took Marie by the waist, raised +her with the strength for which he was noted, seated her on his knee, and +gently rubbed his forehead against the curls his mistress had arranged with +such care. + +Marie thought this a favorable moment; she ventured on a kiss or two, which +Charles allowed rather than accepted; then, between two kisses, she said: + +"If my people told the truth, you were scouring Paris all night, as in the +days when you played the scapegrace younger son?" + +"Yes," said the King, who sat lost in thought. + +"Did not you thrash the watch and rob certain good citizens?--And who are +the men placed under my guard, and who are such criminals that you have +forbidden all communication with them? No girl was ever barred in with +greater severity than these men, who have had neither food nor drink. +Solern's Germans have not allowed any one to go near the room where you +left them. Is it a joke? Or is it a serious matter?" + +"Yes," said the King, rousing himself from his reverie, "last night I went +scampering over the roofs with Tavannes and the Gondis. I wanted to have +the company of my old comrades in folly. But our legs are not what they +were; we did not dare jump across the streets. However, we crossed two +courtyards by leaping from roof to roof. The last time, however, when we +alighted on a gable close by this, as we clung to the bar of a chimney, we +decided, Tavannes and I, that we could not do it again. If either of us had +been alone, he would not have tried it." + +"You were the first to jump, I will wager." + +The King smiled. + +"I know why you risk your life so." + +"Hah, fair sorceress!" + +"You are weary of life." + +"Begone with witchcraft! I am haunted by it!" said the King, grave once +more. + +"My witchcraft is love," said she, with a smile. "Since the happy day when +you first loved me, have I not always guessed your thoughts? And if you +will suffer me to say so, the thoughts that torment you to-day are not +worthy of a King." + +"Am I a King?" said he bitterly. + +"Can you not be King? What did Charles VII. do, whose name you bear? He +listened to his mistress, my lord, and he won back his kingdom, which was +invaded by the English then as it is now by the adherents of the New +Religion. Your last act of State opened the road you must follow: +Exterminate heresy." + +"You used to blame the stratagem," said Charles, "and now----" + +"It is accomplished," she put in. "Besides, I am of Madame Catherine's +opinion. It was better to do it yourself than to leave it to the Guises." + +"Charles VII. had only men to fight against, and I have to battle with +ideas," the King went on. "You may kill men; you cannot kill words! The +Emperor Charles V. gave up the task; his son, Don Philip, is spending +himself in the attempt. We shall die of it, we kings. On whom can I depend? +On my right, with the Catholics I find the Guises threatening me; on my +left, the Calvinists will never forgive the death of my poor Father +Coligny, nor the blood-letting of August; besides, they want to be rid of +us altogether. And in front of me, my mother----" + +"Arrest her; reign alone," said Marie, whispering in his ear. + +"I wanted to do so yesterday--but I do not to-day. You speak of it lightly +enough." + +"There is no such great distance between the daughter of an apothecary and +the daughter of a leech," said Marie Touchet, who would often laugh at the +parentage falsely given her. + +The King knit his brows. + +"Marie, take no liberties. Catherine de' Medici is my mother, and you ought +to tremble at----" + +"But what are you afraid of?" + +"Poison!" cried the King, beside himself. + +"Poor boy!" said Marie, swallowing her tears, for so much strength united +to so much weakness moved her deeply. "Oh!" she went on, "how you make me +hate Madame Catherine, who used to seem so kind; but her kindness seems to +be nothing but perfidy. Why does she do me so much good and you so much +evil? While I was away in Dauphine I heard a great many things about the +beginning of your reign which you had concealed from me; and the Queen your +mother seems to have been the cause of all your misfortunes." + +"How?" said the King, with eager interest. + +"Women whose soul and intentions are pure rule the men they love through +their virtues; but women who do not truly wish them well find a motive +power in their evil inclinations. Now the Queen has turned many fine +qualities in you into vices, and made you believe that your bad ones were +virtues. Was that acting a mother's part?--Be a tyrant like Louis XI., make +everybody dreadfully afraid of you, imitate Don Philip, banish the +Italians, hunt out the Guises, and confiscate the estates of the +Calvinists; you will rise to stand in solitude, and you will save the +Crown. The moment is favorable; your brother is in Poland." + +"We are two infants in politics," said Charles bitterly. "We only know how +to love. Alas! dear heart, yesterday I could think of all this; I longed to +achieve great things. Puff! my mother has blown down my house of cards. +From afar difficulties stand out as clearly as mountain peaks. I say to +myself, 'I will put an end to Calvinism; I will bring Messieurs de Guise to +their senses; I will cut adrift from the Court of Rome; I will rely wholly +on the people of the middle class;' in short, at a distance everything +looks easy, but when we try to climb the mountains, the nearer we get, the +more obstacles we discern. + +"Calvinism in itself is the last thing the party-leaders care about; and +the Guises, those frenzied Catholics, would be in despair if the Calvinists +were really exterminated. Every man thinks of his own interests before all +else, and religious opinions are but a screen for insatiable ambition. +Charles IX.'s party is the weakest of all; those of the King of Navarre, of +the King of Poland, of the Duc d'Alencon, of the Condes, of the Guises, of +my mother, form coalitions against each other, leaving me alone even in the +Council Chamber. In the midst of so many elements of disturbance my mother +is the stronger, and she has just shown me that my plans are inane. We are +surrounded by men who defy the law. The axe of Louis XI. of which you speak +is not in our grasp. The Parlement would never sentence the Guises, nor the +King of Navarre, nor the Condes, nor my brothers. It would think it was +setting the kingdom in a blaze. What is wanted is the courage to command +murder; the throne must come to that, with these insolent wretches who have +nullified justice; but where can I find faithful hands? The Council I held +this morning disgusted me with everything--treachery on all sides, +antagonistic interests everywhere! + +"I am tired of wearing the crown; all I ask is to die in peace." + +And he sank into gloomy somnolence. + +"Disgusted with everything!" echoed Marie Touchet sadly, but respecting her +lover's heavy torpor. + +Charles was, in fact, a prey to utter prostration of mind and body, +resulting from over-fatigue of every faculty, and enhanced by the dejection +caused by the vast scale of his misfortunes and the evident impossibility +of overcoming them in the face of such a multiplicity of difficulties as +genius itself takes alarm at. The King's depression was proportionate to +the height to which his courage and his ideas had soared during the last +few months; and now a fit of nervous melancholy, part, in fact, of his +malady, had come over him as he left the long sitting of the Council he had +held in his closet. Marie saw that he was suffering from a crisis when +everything is irritating and importunate--even love; so she remained on her +knees, her head in the King's lap as he sat with his fingers buried in her +hair without moving, without speaking, without sighing, and she was equally +still. Charles IX. was sunk in the lethargy of helplessness; and Marie, in +the dark despair of a loving woman, who can see the border-line ahead where +love must end. + +Thus the lovers sat for some little time in perfect silence, in the mood +when every thought is a wound, when the clouds of a mental storm hide even +the remembrance of past happiness. + +Marie believed herself to be in some sort to blame for this terrible +dejection. She wondered, not without alarm, whether the King's extravagant +joy at welcoming her back, and the vehement passion she could not contend +with, were not helping to wreck his mind and frame. As she looked up at her +lover, her eyes streaming with tears that bathed her face, she saw tears in +his eyes too and on his colorless cheeks. This sympathy, uniting them even +in sorrow, touched Charles IX. so deeply, that he started up like a horse +that feels the spur. He put his arm round Marie's waist, and before she +knew what he was doing had drawn her down on the couch. + +"I will be King no more!" he said. "I will be nothing but your lover, and +forget everything in that joy. I will die happy, and not eaten up with the +cares of a throne." + +The tone in which he spoke, the fire that blazed in eyes, just now so dull, +instead of pleasing Marie, gave her a terrible pang; at that moment she +blamed her love for contributing to the illness of which the King was +dying. + +"You forget your prisoners," said she, starting up suddenly. + +"What do I care about the men? They have my permission to kill me." + +"What? Assassins!" said she. + +"Do not be uneasy, we have them safe, dear child.--Now, think not of them, +but of me. Say, do you not love me?" + +"Sire!" she cried. + +"Sire!" he repeated, flashing sparks from his eyes, so violent was his +first surge of fury at his mistress' ill-timed deference. "You are in +collusion with my mother." + +"Great God!" cried Marie, turning to the picture over her praying-chair, +and trying to get to it to put up a prayer. "Oh! make him understand me!" + +"What!" said the King sternly. "Have you any sin on your soul?" + +And still holding her in his arms, he looked deep into her eyes. "I have +heard of the mad passion of one d'Entragues for you," he went on, looking +wildly at her, "and since their grandfather Capitaine Balzac married a +Visconti of Milan, those rascals hesitate at nothing." + +Marie gave the King such a look of pride that he was ashamed. Just then the +cry was heard of the infant Charles de Valois from the adjoining room; he +was just awake, and his nurse was no doubt bringing him to his mother. + +"Come in, la Bourguignonne," said Marie, taking the child from his nurse +and bringing him to the King. "You are more of a child than he," she said, +half angry, but half pleased. + +"He is a fine boy," said Charles IX., taking his son in his arms. + +"No one but me can know how like you he is," said Marie. "He has your smile +and ways already." + +"What, so young?" said the King, smiling. + +"Men will never believe such things," said she; "but look, my Charlot, play +with him, look at him--now, am I not right?" + +"It is true," said the King, startled by a movement on the infant's part, +which struck him as the miniature reproduction of a trick of his own. + +"Pretty flower!" said his mother. "He will never go away from me; he will +never make me unhappy." + +The King played with the child, tossing it, kissing it with entire +devotion, speaking to it in those vague and foolish words, the +onomatopoeia of mothers and nurses; his voice was childlike, his brow +cleared, joy came back to his saddened countenance; and when Marie saw that +her lover had forgotten everything, she laid her head on his shoulder and +whispered in his ear: + +"Will not you tell me, my Charlot, why you put assassins in my keeping, and +who these men are, and what you intend to do with them? And whither were +you going across the roofs? I hope there was no woman in the case." + +"Then you still love me so well?" said the King, caught by the bright flash +of one of those questioning looks which women can give at a critical +moment. + +"You could doubt me," replied she, as the tears gathered under her +beautiful girlish eyelids. + +"There are women in my adventure, but they are witches. Where was I?" + +"We were quite near here, on the gable of a house," said Marie. "In what +street?" + +"In the Rue Saint-Honore, my jewel," said the King, who seemed to have +recovered himself, and who, as he recalled his ideas, wanted to give his +mistress some notion of the scene that was about to take place here. "As I +crossed it in pursuit of some sport, my eyes were attracted by a bright +light in a top window of the house inhabited by Rene, my mother's perfumer +and glover--yours too, the whole Court's. I have strong suspicions as to +what goes on in that man's house, and if I am poisoned that is where the +poison is prepared." + +"I give him up to-morrow," said Marie. + +"What, you have still dealt with him since I left him?" said the King. "My +life was here," he added gloomily, "and here no doubt they have arranged +for my death." + +"But, my dear boy, I have but just come home from Dauphine with our +Dauphin," said she, with a smile, "and I have bought nothing of Rene since +the Queen of Navarre died.--Well, go on; you climbed up to Rene's +roof----?" + +"Yes," the King went on. "In a moment I, followed by Tavannes, had reached +a spot whence, without being seen, I could see into the devil's kitchen, +and note certain things which led me to take strong measures. Do you ever +happen to have noticed the attics that crown that damned Florentine's +house? All the windows to the street are constantly kept shut excepting the +last, from which the Hotel de Soissons can be seen, and the column my +mother had erected for her astrologer Cosmo Ruggieri. There is a room in +this top story with a corridor lighted from the inner yard, so that in +order to see what is being done within, a man must get to a perch which no +one would ever think of climbing, the coping of a high wall which ends +against the roof of Rene's house. The creatures who placed the alembics +there to distil death, trusted to the faint hearts of the Parisians to +escape inspection; but they counted without their Charles de Valois. I +crept along the gutter, and supported myself against the window jamb with +my arm round the neck of a monkey that is sculptured on it." + +"And what did you see, dear heart?" said Marie, in alarm. + +"A low room where deeds of darkness are plotted," replied the King. "The +first thing on which my eyes fell was a tall old man seated in a chair, +with a magnificent beard like old l'Hopital's, and dressed, like him, in +black velvet. The concentrated rays of a brightly burning lamp fell on his +high forehead, deeply furrowed by hollow lines, on a crown of white hair +and a calm, thoughtful face, pale with vigils and study. His attention was +divided between a manuscript on parchment several centuries old, and two +lighted stoves on which some heretical mixtures were cooking. Neither the +floor nor the ceiling was visible; they were so covered with animals hung +up there, skeletons, dried herbs, minerals, and drugs, with which the place +was stuffed; here some books and retorts, with chests full of instruments +for magic and astrology; there diagrams for horoscopes, phials, wax +figures, and perhaps the poisons he concocts for Rene in payment for the +shelter and hospitality bestowed on him by my mother's glover. + +"Tavannes and I were startled, I can tell you, at the sight of this +diabolical arsenal; for merely at the sight of it one feels spellbound, and +but that my business is to be King of France, I should have been +frightened. 'Tremble for us both,' said I to Tavannes. + +"But Tavannes' eyes were riveted on the most mysterious object. On a couch +by the old man's side lay a girl at full length, of the strangest beauty, +as long and slender as a snake, as white as an ermine, as pale as death, as +motionless as a statue. Perhaps it was a woman just dug out of her grave, +for she seemed to be still wrapped in her shroud; her eyes were fixed, and +I could not see her breathe. The old wretch paid no sort of heed to her. I +watched him so curiously that his spirit I believe passed into me. By dint +of studying him, at last I admired that searching eye, keen and bold, in +spite of the chills of age; that mouth, mobile with thoughts that came from +what seemed a single fixed desire, graven in a myriad wrinkles. Everything +in the man spoke of a hope which nothing can discourage and nothing dismay. +His attitude, motionless but full of thrilling life, his features so +chiseled, so deeply cut by a passion that has done the work of the +sculptor's tool, that mind dead-set on some criminal or scientific purpose, +that searching intelligence on the track of Nature though conquered by her, +and bent, without having broken, under the burden of an enterprise it will +never give up, threatening creation with fire borrowed from itself----I was +fascinated for a moment. + +"That old man was more a King than I, for his eye saw the whole world and +was its master. I am determined to temper no more swords; I want to float +over abysses, as that old man does; his science seems to me a sovereignty. +In short, I believe in these occult sciences." + +"You, the eldest son, and the defender of the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and +Roman Church!" cried Marie. + +"I." + +"Why, what has come over you? Go on; I will be frightened for you, and you +shall be brave for me." + +"The old man looked at the clock and rose," the King went on. "He left the +room, how I could not see, but I heard him open the window towards the Rue +Saint-Honore. Presently a light shone out, and then I saw another light, +answering to the old man's, by which we could perceive Cosmo Ruggieri on +the top of the column. + +"'Oh, ho! They understand each other,' said I to Tavannes, who at once +thought the whole affair highly suspicious, and was quite of my opinion +that we should seize these two men, and at once make a search in their +abominable workshop. But before proceeding to a raid, we wanted to see what +would happen. By the end of a quarter of an hour the door of the laboratory +opened, and Cosmo Ruggieri, my mother's adviser--the bottomless pit in +which all the Court secrets are buried, of whom wives crave help against +their husbands and their lovers, and husbands and lovers take counsel +against faithless women, who gains money out of the past and the future, +taking it from every one, who sells horoscopes, and is supposed to know +everything,--that half-demon came in saying to the old man, 'Good-evening, +brother.' + +"He had with him a horrible little old woman, toothless, hunchbacked, +crooked, and bent like a lady's marmoset, but far more hideous; she was +wrinkled like a withered apple, her skin was of the color of saffron, her +chin met her nose, her mouth was a hardly visible slit, her eyes were like +the black spots of the deuce on dice, her brow expressed a bitter temper, +her hair fell in gray locks from under a dirty coif; she walked with a +crutch; she stank of devilry and the stake; and she frightened us, for +neither Tavannes nor I believed that she was a real woman; God never made +one so horrible as she. + +"She sat down on a stool by the side of the fair white serpent with whom +Tavannes was falling in love. + +"The two brothers paid no heed to either the old woman or the young one, +who, side by side, formed a horrible contrast. On one hand life in death, +on the other death in life." + +"My sweet poet!" cried Marie, kissing the King. + +"'Good-evening, Cosmo,' the old alchemist replied. And then both men looked +at the stove.--'What is the power of the moon to-night?' the old man asked +Cosmo.--'Why, _caro Lorenzo_,' my mother's astrologer replied, 'the high +tides of September are not yet over; it is impossible to read anything in +the midst of such confusion.'--'And what did the Orient say this +evening?'--'He has just discovered,' said Cosmo, 'that there is a creative +force in the air which gives back to the earth all it takes from it; he +concludes, with us, that everything in this world is the outcome of a slow +transformation, but all the various forms are of one and the same +matter.'--'That is what my predecessor thought,' replied Lorenzo. 'This +morning Bernard Palissy was telling me that the metals are a result of +compression, and that fire, which parts all things, joins all things also; +fire has the power of compressing as well as that of diffusing. That worthy +has a spark of genius in him.' + +"Though I was placed where I could not be seen, Cosmo went up to the dead +girl, and taking her hand, he said, 'There is some one near! Who is +it?'--'The King,' said she. + +"I at once showed myself, knocking on the window-pane; Ruggieri opened the +window, and I jumped into this wizard's kitchen, followed by Tavannes. + +"'Yes, the King,' said I to the two Florentines, who seemed +terror-stricken. 'In spite of your furnaces and books, your witches and +your learning, you could not divine my visit.--I am delighted to see the +famous Lorenzo Ruggieri, of whom the Queen my mother speaks with such +mystery,' said I to the old man, who rose and bowed.--'You are in this +kingdom without my consent, my good man. Whom are you working for here, +you, who from father to son have dwelt in the heart of the House of the +Medici? Listen to me. You have your hand in so many purses, that the most +covetous would by this have had their fill of gold; you are far too cunning +to plunge unadvisedly into criminal courses, but you ought not either to +rush like feather-brains into this kitchen; you must have some secret +schemes, you who are not content with gold or with power? Whom do you +serve, God or the Devil? What are you concocting here? I insist on the +whole truth. I am honest man enough to hear and keep the secret of your +undertakings, however blamable they may be. So tell me everything without +concealment. If you deceive me, you will be sternly dealt with. But Pagan +or Christian, Calvinist or Mohammedan, you have my Royal word for it that +you may leave the country unpunished, even if you have some peccadilloes to +confess. At any rate, I give you the remainder of this night and to-morrow +morning to examine your consciences, for you are my prisoners, and you must +now follow me to a place where you will be guarded like a treasure.' + +"Before yielding to my authority, the two Florentines glanced at each other +with a wily eye, and Lorenzo Ruggieri replied that I might be certain that +no torture would wring their secrets from them; that in spite of their +frail appearance, neither pain nor human feeling had any hold on them. +Confidence alone could win from their lips what their mind had in its +keeping. I was not to be surprised if at that moment they treated on an +equal footing with a King who acknowledged no one above him but God, for +that their ideas also came from God alone. Hence they demanded of me such +confidence as they would grant. So, before pledging themselves to answer my +questions without reserve, they desired me to place my left hand in the +young girl's and my right hand in the old woman's. Not choosing to let them +suppose that I feared any devilry, I put out my hands. Lorenzo took the +right and Cosmo the left, and each placed one in the hand of a woman, so +there I was like Jesus Christ between the two thieves. All the time the two +witches were studying my hands, Cosmo held a mirror before me, desiring me +to look at myself, while his brother talked to the two women in an unknown +tongue. Neither Tavannes nor I could catch the meaning of a single +sentence. + +"We set seals on every entrance to this laboratory before bringing away the +men, and Tavannes undertook to keep guard till Bernard Palissy and +Chapelain, my physician-in-chief, shall go there to make a close +examination of all the drugs stored or made there. It was to hinder their +knowing anything of the search going on in their kitchen, and to prevent +their communicating with any one whatever outside--for they might have sent +some message to my mother--that I brought these two demons to be shut up +here with Solern's Germans to watch them, who are as good as the stoutest +prison-walls. Rene himself is confined to his room under the eye of +Solern's groom, and the two witches also. And now, sweetheart, as I hold +the key of the Cabala, the kings of Thunes, the chiefs of witchcraft, the +princes of Bohemia, the masters of the future, the inheritors of all the +famous soothsayers, I will read and know your heart, and at last we will +know what is to become of us." + +"I shall be very glad if you can lay my heart bare," said Marie without +showing the least alarm. + +"I know why necromancers do not frighten you; you cast spells yourself." + +"Will you not have some of these peaches?" said she, offering him some +fine fruit on a silver-gilt plate. "Look at these grapes and pears; I went +myself to gather them all at Vincennes." + +"Then I will eat some, for there can be no poison in them but the philters +distilled from your fingers." + +"You ought to eat much fruit, Charles; it would cool your blood, which you +scorch by such violent living." + +"And ought I not to love you less too?" + +"Perhaps----" said she. "If what you love is bad for you,--and I have +thought so--I should find power in my love to refuse to let you have it. I +adore Charles far more than I love the King, and I want the man to live +without the troubles that make him sad and anxious." + +"Royalty is destroying me." + +"It is so," replied she. "If you were only a poor prince like your +brother-in-law the King of Navarre, that wretched debauchee who has not a +sou or a stitch of his own, who has merely a poor little kingdom in Spain +where he will never set foot, and Bearn in France, which yields him +scarcely enough to live on, I should be happy, much happier than if I were +really Queen of France." + +"But are you not much more than the Queen? King Charles is hers only for +the benefit of the kingdom, for the Queen, after all, is part of our +politics." + +Marie smiled with a pretty little pout, saying: + +"We all know that, my liege.--And my sonnet--is it finished?" + +"Dear child, it is as hard to write verses as to draw up an edict of +pacification. I will finish them for you soon. Ah God! life sits lightly on +me here, would I could never leave you!--But I must, nevertheless, examine +the two Florentines. By all the sacred relics, I thought one Ruggieri quite +enough in France, and behold there are two! Listen, my dearest heart, you +have a good mother-wit, you would make a capital lieutenant of police, for +you detect everything----" + +"Well, Sire, we women take all we dread for granted, and to us what is +probable is certain; there is all our subtlety in two words." + +"Well, then, help me to fathom these two men. At this moment every +determination I may come to depends on this examination. Are they innocent? +Are they guilty?--Behind them stands my mother." + +"I hear Jacob on the winding stair," said Marie. + +Jacob was the King's favorite body servant, who accompanied him in all his +amusements; he now came to ask whether his Master would wish to speak to +the two prisoners. + +At a nod of consent, the mistress of the house gave some orders. + +"Jacob," said she, "make every one in the place leave the house, excepting +the nurse and Monsieur le Dauphin d'Auvergne--they may stay. Do you remain +in the room downstairs; but first of all shut the windows, draw the +curtains, and light the candles." + +The King's impatience was so great that, while these preparations were +being made, he came to take his place in a large settle, and his pretty +mistress seated herself by his side in the nook of a wide, white marble +chimney-place, where a bright fire blazed on the hearth. In the place of a +mirror hung a portrait of the King, in a red velvet frame. Charles rested +his elbow on the arm of the seat, to contemplate the two Italians at his +ease. + +The shutters shut, and the curtains drawn, Jacob lighted the candles in a +sort of candelabrum of chased silver, placing it on a table at which the +two Florentines took their stand--seeming to recognize the candlestick as +the work of their fellow-townsman, Benvenuto Cellini. Then the effect of +this rich room, decorated in the King's taste, was really brilliant. The +russet tone of the tapestries looked better than by daylight. The +furniture, elegantly carved, reflected the light of the candles and of the +fire in its shining bosses. The gilding, judiciously introduced, sparkled +here and there like eyes, and gave relief to the brown coloring that +predominated in this nest for lovers. + +Jacob knocked twice, and at a word brought in the two Florentines. Marie +Touchet was immediately struck by the grand presence which distinguished +Lorenzo in the sight of great and small alike. This austere and venerable +man, whose silver beard was relieved against an overcoat of black velvet, +had a forehead like a marble dome. His severe countenance, with two black +eyes that darted points of fire, inspired a thrill as of a genius emerged +from the deepest solitude, and all the more impressive because its power +was not dulled by contact with other men. It was as the steel of a blade +that has not yet been used. + +Cosmo Ruggieri wore the Court dress of the period. Marie nodded to the +King, to show him that he had not exaggerated the picture, and to thank him +for introducing her to this extraordinary man. + +"I should have liked to see the witches too," she whispered. + +Charles IX., sunk again in brooding, made no reply; he was anxiously +nipping off some crumbs of bread that happened to lie on his doublet and +hose. + +"Your science cannot work on the sky, nor compel the sun to shine, +Messieurs de Florence," said the King, pointing to the curtains which had +been drawn to shut out the gray mist of Paris. "There is no daylight." + +"Our science, Sire, enables us to make a sky as we will," said Lorenzo +Ruggieri. "The weather is always fair for those who work in a laboratory by +the light of a furnace." + +"That is true," said the King.--"Well, father," said he, using a word he +was accustomed to employ to old men, "explain to us very clearly the object +of your studies." + +"Who will guarantee us impunity?" + +"The word of a King!" replied Charles, whose curiosity was greatly excited +by this question. + +Lorenzo Ruggieri seemed to hesitate, and Charles exclaimed: + +"What checks you? we are alone." + +"Is the King of France here?" asked the old man. + +Charles IX. reflected for a moment, then he replied, "No." + +"But will he not come?" Lorenzo urged. + +"No," replied Charles, restraining an impulse of rage. + +The imposing old man took a chair and sat down. Cosmo, amazed at his +boldness, dared not imitate his brother. + +Charles IX. said, with severe irony: + +"The King is not here, monsieur, but you are in the presence of a lady +whose permission you ought to wait for." + +"The man you see before you, madame," said the grand old man, "is as far +above kings as kings are above their subjects, and you shall find me +courteous, even when you know my power." + +Hearing these bold words, spoken with Italian emphasis, Charles and Marie +looked at each other and then at Cosmo, who, with his eyes fixed on his +brother, seemed to be asking himself, "How will he get himself out of the +awkward position we are in?" + +In fact, one person only could appreciate the dignity and skill of Lorenzo +Ruggieri's first move; not the King, nor his young mistress, over whom the +elder man had cast the spell of his audacity, but his not less wily brother +Cosmo. Though he was superior to the cleverest men at Court, and perhaps to +his patroness Catherine de' Medici, the astrologer knew Lorenzo to be his +master. + +The learned old man, buried in solitude, had gauged the sovereigns of the +earth, almost all of them wearied out by the perpetual shifting of +politics; for at that time great crises were so sudden, so far reaching, so +fierce, and so unexpected! He knew their satiety, their lassitude; he knew +with what eagerness they pursued all that was new, strange, or uncommon; +and, above all, how glad they were to rise now and then to intellectual +regions so as to escape from the perpetual struggle with men and things. To +those who have exhausted politics, nothing remains but abstract thought; +this Charles V. had proved by his abdication. + +Charles IX., who made sonnets and swords to recreate himself after the +absorbing business of an age when the Throne was in not less ill-odor than +the King, and when Royalty had only its cares and none of its pleasures, +could not but be strangely startled by Lorenzo's audacious negation of his +power. Religious impiety had ceased to be surprising at a time when +Catholicism was closely inquired into; but the subversion of all religion, +assumed as a groundwork for the wild speculations of mystical arts, +naturally amazed the King, and roused him from his gloomy absence of mind. +Besides, a victory to be won over mankind was an undertaking which would +make every other interest seem trivial in the eyes of the Ruggieri. An +important debt to be paid depended on this idea to be suggested to the +King; the brothers could not ask for this, and yet they must obtain it. The +first thing was to make Charles IX. forget his suspicions by making him +jump at some new idea. + +The two Italians knew full well that in this strange game their lives were +at stake; and the glances--deferent but proud--that they exchanged with +Marie and the King, whose looks were keen and suspicious, were a drama in +themselves. + +"Sire," said Lorenzo Ruggieri, "you have asked for the truth. But to show +her to you naked, I must bid you sound the well, the pit, from which she +will rise. I pray you let the gentleman, the poet, forgive us for saying +what the Eldest Son of the Church may regard as blasphemy--I do not believe +that God troubles himself about human affairs." + +Though fully resolved to preserve his sovereign indifference, Charles IX. +could not control a gesture of surprise. + +"But for that conviction, I should have no faith in the miraculous work to +which I have devoted myself. But, to carry it out, I must believe it; and +if the hand of God rules all things, I am a madman. So, be it known to the +King, we aim at winning a victory over the immediate course of human +nature. + +"I am an alchemist, Sire; but do not suppose, with the vulgar, that I am +striving to make gold. The composition of gold is not the end, but only an +incident of our researches; else we should not call our undertaking _Magnum +Opus_, the great work. The Great Work is something far more ambitious than +that. If I, at this day, could recognize the presence of God in matter, the +fire of the furnaces that have been burning for centuries would be +extinguished to-morrow at my bidding. + +"But make no mistake--to deny the direct interference of God is not to deny +God. We place the Creator of all things far above the level to which +religions reduce Him. Those who hope for immortality are not to be accused +of Atheism. Following the example of Lucifer, we are jealous of God, and +jealousy is a proof of violent love. Though this doctrine lies at the root +of out labors, all adepts do not accept it. Cosmo," said the old man, +indicating his brother, "Cosmo is devout; he pays for masses for the repose +of our father's soul, and he goes to hear them. Your mother's astrologer +believes in the Divinity of Christ, in the Immaculate Conception, and in +Transubstantiation; he believes in the Pope's indulgences, and in hell--he +believes in an infinite number of things.--His hour is not yet come, for I +have read his horoscope; he will live to be nearly a hundred. He will live +through two reigns, and see two Kings of France assassinated----" + +"Who will be----?" asked the King. + +"The last of the Valois and the first of the Bourbons," replied Lorenzo. +"But Cosmo will come to my way of thinking. In fact, it is impossible to be +an alchemist and a Catholic; to believe in the dominion of man over matter, +and in the supreme power of mind." + +"Cosmo will live to be a hundred?" said the King, knitting his brows in the +terrible way that was his wont. + +"Yes, Sire," said Lorenzo decisively. "He will die peacefully in his bed." + +"If it is in your power to predict the moment of your death, how can you be +ignorant of the result of your inquiries?" asked the King. And he smiled +triumphantly as he looked at Marie Touchet. + +The brothers exchanged a swift look of satisfaction. + +"He is interested in alchemy," thought they, "so we are safe." + +"Our prognostics are based on the existing relations of man to nature; but +the very point we aim at is the complete alteration of those relations," +replied Lorenzo. + +The King sat thinking. + +"But if you are sure that you must die, you are assured of defeat," said +Charles IX. + +"As our predecessors were," replied Lorenzo, lifting his hand and letting +it drop with a solemn and emphatic gesture, as dignified as his thoughts. +"But your mind has rushed on to the goal of our attempts, Sire; we must +come back again, Sire! Unless you know the ground on which our edifice is +erected, you may persist in saying that it will fall, and judge this +science, which has been pursued for centuries by the greatest minds, as the +vulgar judge it." + +The King bowed assent. + +"I believe, then, that this earth belongs to man, that he is master of it, +and may appropriate all the forces, all the elements thereof. Man is not a +creature proceeding directly from the hand of God, but the result of the +principle diffused throughout the infinite Ether, wherein myriads of beings +are produced; and these have no resemblance to each other between star and +star, because the conditions of life are everywhere different. Ay, my +Liege, the motion we call life has its source beyond all visible worlds; +creation draws from it as the surrounding conditions may require, and the +minutest beings share in it by taking all they are able, at their own risk +and peril; it is their part to defend themselves from death. This is the +sum total of alchemy. + +"If man, the most perfect animal on this globe, had within him a fraction +of the Godhead, he could not perish--but he does perish. To escape from +this dilemma, Socrates and his school invented the soul. I--the successor +of the great unknown kings who have ruled this science--I am for the old +theories against the new; I believe in the transmutation of matter which I +can see, as against the eternity of a soul which I cannot see. I do not +acknowledge the world of souls. If such a world existed, the substances, of +which the beautiful combination produces your body--and which, in madame +are so dazzling--would not separate and resolve themselves after your death +to return each to its own place; the water to water, the fire to fire, the +metal to metal, just as when my charcoal is burnt its elements are restored +to their original molecules. + +"Though you say that something lives on, it is not we ourselves; all that +constitutes our living self perishes. + +"Now, it is my living self that I desire to perpetuate beyond the common +term of life; it is the present manifestation for which I want to secure +longer duration. What! trees live for centuries, and men shall live but for +years, while those are passive and we are active; while they are motionless +and speechless, and we walk and talk! No creature on earth ought to be +superior to us either in power or permanency. We have already expanded our +senses; we can see into the stars. We ought to be able to extend our life. +I place life above power. Of what use is power if life slips from us? + +"A rational man ought to have no occupation but that of seeking--not +whether there is another life--but the secret on which our present life is +based, so as to be able to prolong it at will!--This is the desire that has +silvered my hair. But I walk on boldly in the darkness, leading to battle +those intellects which share my faith. Life will some day be ours." + +"But how?" cried the King, starting to his feet. + +"The first condition of our faith is the belief that this world is for man; +you must grant me that," said Lorenzo. + +"Well and good, so be it!" said Charles de Valois, impatient, but already +fascinated. + +"Well, then, Sire, if we remove God from this world, what is left but man? +Now let us survey our domain. The material world is composed of elements; +those elements have a first principle within them. All these principles +resolve themselves into one which is gifted with motion. The number Three +is the formula of creation: Matter? Motion, Production!" + +"Proof, proof? Pause there!" cried the King. + +"Do you not see the effects?" replied Lorenzo. "We have analyzed in our +crucibles the acorn from which an oak would have risen as well as the +embryo which would have become a man; from these small masses of matter a +pure element was derived to which some force, some motion would have been +added. In the absence of a Creator, must not that first principle be able +to assume the external forms which constitute our world? For the phenomena +of life are everywhere the same. Yes, in metals as in living beings, in +plants as in man, life begins by an imperceptible embryo which develops +spontaneously. There is a first principle! We must detect it at the point +where it acts on itself, where it is one, where it is a Principle before it +is a Creature, a cause before it is an effect; then we shall see it +Absolute--formless, but capable of assuming all the forms we see it take. + +"When we are face to face with this particle or atom, and have detected its +motion from the starting point, we shall know its laws; we are thenceforth +its masters, and able to impose on it the form we may choose, among all we +see; we shall possess gold, having the world, and can give ourselves +centuries of life to enjoy our wealth. That is what we seek, my disciples +and I. All our powers, all our thoughts are directed to that search; +nothing diverts us from it. One hour wasted on any other passion would be +stolen from our greatness! You have never found one of your hunting-dogs +neglectful of the game or the death, and I have never known one of my +persevering subjects diverted by a woman or a thought of greed. + +"If the adept craves for gold and power, that hunger comes of our +necessities; he clutches at fortune as a thirsty hound snatches a moment +from the chase to drink, because his retorts demand a diamond to consume, +or ignots to be reduced to powder. Each one has his line of work. This one +seeks the secret of vegetable nature, he studies the torpid life of plants, +he notes the parity of motion in every species and the parity of nutrition; +in every case he discerns that sun, air, and water are needed for +fertility and nourishment. Another investigates the blood of animals. A +third studies the laws of motion generally and its relation to the orbits +of the stars. Almost all love to struggle with the intractable nature of +metals; for though we find various elements in everything, we always find +metals the same throughout, down to their minutest particles. + +"Hence the common error as to our labors. Do you see all these patient +toilers, these indefatigable athletes, always vanquished, and always +returning to the assault? Humanity, Sire, is at our heels, as your huntsman +is at the heels of the pack. It cries to us, 'Hurry on! Overlook nothing! +Sacrifice everything, even a man--you who sacrifice yourselves! Hurry +onward! Cut off the head and hands of Death, my foe!' + +"Yes, Sire, we are animated by a sentiment on which the happiness depends +of generations to come. We have buried many men--and what men!--who have +died in the pursuit. When we set foot on that road it is not to work for +ourselves: we may perish without discovering the secret. And what a death +is that of a man who does not believe in a future life! We are glorious +martyrs; we bear the selfishness of the whole race in our hearts; we live +in our successors. On our way we discover secrets which enrich the +mechanical and liberal arts. Our furnaces shed gleams of light which help +society to possess more perfect forms of industry. Gunpowder was discovered +in our retorts; we shall conquer the thunder yet. Our patient vigils may +overthrow politics." + +"Can that be possible!" cried the King, sitting up again on the settle. + +"Why not?" replied the Grand Master of the New Templars. "_Tradidit mundum +disputationibus!_ God has given us the world. Listen to this once again! +Man is lord on earth and matter is his. Every means, every power is at his +service. What created us? A motion. What power keeps life in us? A motion. +And should not science grasp this motion? Nothing on earth is lost, nothing +flies off from our planet to go elsewhere; if it were so, the stars would +fall on one another. The waters of the Deluge are all here, and not a drop +lost. Around us, above, below, are the elements whence have proceeded the +innumerable millions of men who have trodden the earth, before and since +the Deluge. What is it that remains to be done? To detect the +disintegrating force; on the other hand, to discover the combining force. +We are the outcome of a visible toil. When the waters covered our globe, +men came forth from them who found the elements of life in the earth's +covering, in the atmosphere, and in food. Earth and air, then, contain the +first principle of human transformations; these go on under our eyes, by +the agency of what is under our eyes; hence we can discover the secret by +not confining our efforts to the span of one man's life, but making the +task endure as long as mankind itself. We have, in fact, attacked matter as +a whole; Matter, in which I believe, and which I, Grand Master of our +Order, am bent on penetrating. + +"Christopher Columbus gave a world to the King of Spain; I am seeking to +give the King of France a people that shall never die.--I, an outpost on +the remotest frontier which cuts us off from the knowledge of things, a +patient student of atoms, I destroy forms, I dissolve the bonds of every +combination, I imitate Death to enable me to imitate Life. In short, I +knock incessantly at the door of Creation, and shall still knock till my +latest day. When I die, my knocker will pass into other hands not less +indefatigable, as unknown giants bequeathed it to me. + +"Fabulous images, never understood, such as those of Prometheus, of Ixion, +of Adonis, of Pan, etc., which are part of the religious beliefs of every +people and in every age, show us that this hope had its birth with the +human race. Chaldaea, India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, and the Moors have +transmitted Magian lore, the highest of all the occult sciences, the +storehouse of the results of generations of watchers. Therein lay the bond +of the noble and majestic Order of the Temple. When he burned the Templars, +a predecessor of yours, Sire, only burned men; their secrets remain with +us. The reconstruction of the Temple is the watchword of an unrecognized +people, a race of intrepid seekers, all looking to the Orient of life, all +brethren, all inseparable, united by an idea, stamped with the seal of +toil. I am the sovereign of this people, their chief by election and not by +birth. I guide them all towards the essence of life! Grand Master, +Rosicrucians, companions, adepts, we all pursue the invisible molecule +which escapes our crucibles, and still evades our sight; but we shall make +ourselves eyes manifold more powerful than those bestowed on us by nature; +we shall get to the primitive atom, the corpuscular element so +perseveringly sought by all the sages who have preceded us in the sublime +pursuit. + +"Sire, when a man stands astride on that abyss, and has at his command +divers so intrepid as my brethren, other human interests look very small; +hence we are not dangerous. Religious disputes and political struggles are +far from us; we are immeasurably beyond them. Those who contend with nature +do not condescend to take men by the throat. + +"Moreover, every result in our science is appreciable; we can measure every +effect, we can predict it, whereas in the combinations which include men +and their interests everything is unstable. We shall submit the diamond to +our crucible; we shall make diamonds; we shall make gold! Like one of our +craft at Barcelona, we shall make ships move by the help of a little water +and fire. We shall dispense with the wind, nay, we shall make the wind, we +shall make light and renew the face of empires by new industries!--But we +will never stoop to mount a throne to be _gehennaed_ by nations." + +Notwithstanding his desire to avoid being entrapped by Florentine cunning, +the King, as well as his simple-minded mistress, was by this time caught +and carried away in the rhetoric and rhodomontade of this pompous and +specious flow of words. The lovers' eyes betrayed how much they were +dazzled by the vision of mysterious riches spread out before them; they +saw, as it were, subterranean caverns in long perspective full of toiling +gnomes. The impatience of curiosity dissipated the alarms of suspicion. + +"But, then," exclaimed the King, "you are great politicians, and can +enlighten us." + +"No, Sire," said Lorenzo simply. + +"Why not?" asked the King. + +"Sire, it is given to no one to be able to predict what will come of a +concourse of some thousands of men; we may be able to tell what one man +will do, how long he will live, and whether he will be lucky or unlucky; +but we cannot tell how several wills thrown together will act, and any +calculation of the swing of their interests is even more difficult, for +interests are men _plus_ things; only in solitude can we discern the +general aspect of the future. The Protestantism that is devouring you will +be devoured in its turn by its practical outcome, which, in its day, will +become a theory too. Europe, so far, has not gone further than religion; +to-morrow it will attack Royalty." + +"Then the night of Saint-Bartholomew was a great conception?" + +"Yes, Sire; for when the people triumph, they will have their +Saint-Bartholomew. When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people +will attack the great, and after the great they will fall upon the rich. +Finally, when Europe is no more than a dismembered herd of men for lack of +leaders, it will be swallowed up by vulgar conquerors. The world has +presented a similar spectacle twenty times before, and Europe is beginning +again. Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When +man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps. Science is the soul of +mankind, and we are its pontiffs; and those who study the soul care but +little for the body." + +"How far have you gone?" asked the King. + +"We move but slowly; but we never lose what we have once conquered." + +"So you, in fact, are the King of the Wizards," said Charles IX., piqued at +finding himself so small a personage in the presence of this man. + +The imposing Grand Master of Adepts flashed a look at him that left him +thunder-stricken. + +"You are the King of men," replied he; "I am the King of Ideas. Besides, if +there were real wizards, you could not have burned them!" he added, with a +touch of irony. "We too have our martyrs." + +"But by what means," the King went on, "do you cast nativities? How did you +know that the man near your window last night was the King of France? What +power enabled one of your race to foretell to my mother the fate of her +three sons? Can you, the Grand Master of the Order that would fain knead +the world,--can you, I say, tell me what the Queen my mother is thinking at +this moment?" + +"Yes, Sire." + +The answer was spoken before Cosmo could pull his brother's coat to warn +him. + +"You know why my brother, the King of Poland, is returning home?" + +"Yes, Sire." + +"And why?" + +"To take your place." + +"Our bitterest enemies are our own kith and kin," cried the King, starting +up in a fury, and striding up and down the room. "Kings have no brothers, +no sons, no mother! Coligny was right; my executioners are in the +conventicles, they are at the Louvre. You are either impostors or +regicides!--Jacob, call in Solern." + +"My Lord," said Marie Touchet, "the Ruggieri have your word of honor. You +have chosen to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge; do not complain +of its bitterness." + +The King smiled with an expression of deep contempt; his material +sovereignty seemed small in his eyes in comparison with the supreme +intellectual sovereignty of old Lorenzo Ruggieri. Charles IX. could +scarcely govern France; the Grand Master of the Rosicrucians commanded an +intelligent and submissive people. + +"Be frank; I give you my word as a gentleman that your reply, even if it +should contain the avowal of the worst crimes, shall be as though it had +never been spoken," the King said. "Do you study poisons?" + +"To know what will secure life, it is needful to know what will cause +death." + +"You have the secret of many poisons?" + +"Yes, but in theory only, and not in practice; we know them, but do not use +them." + +"Has my mother asked for any?" + +"The Queen-mother, Sire, is far too clever to have recourse to such means. +She knows that the sovereign who uses poison shall perish by poison; the +Borgias, and Bianca, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, are celebrated examples of +the dangers incurred by those who use such odious means. At Court +everything is known. You can kill a poor wretch outright; of what use, +then, is it to poison him? But if you attempt the life of conspicuous +persons, what chance is there of secrecy? Nobody could have fired at +Coligny but you, or the Queen-mother, or one of the Guises. No one made any +mistake about that. Take my word for it, in politics poison cannot be used +twice with impunity; princes always have successors. + +"As to smaller men, if, like Luther, they become sovereigns by the power of +ideas, by killing them you do not kill their doctrine.--The Queen is a +Florentine; she knows that poison can only be the instrument of private +vengeance. My brother, who has never left her since she came to France, +knows how deeply Madame Diane aggrieved her; she never thought of poisoning +her, and she could have done so. What would the King your father have said? +No woman would have been more thoroughly justified, or more certain of +impunity. But Madame de Valentinois is alive to this day." + +"And the magic of wax images?" asked the King. + +"Sire," said Cosmo, "these figures are so entirely innocuous that we lend +ourselves to such magic to satisfy blind passions, like physicians who give +bread pills to persons who fancy themselves sick. A desperate woman +imagines that by stabbing the heart of an image she brings disaster on the +faithless lover it represents. What can we say? These are our taxes." + +"The Pope sells indulgences," said Lorenzo Ruggieri, smiling. + +"Does my mother make use of such images?" + +"Of what use would such futile means be to her who can do what she will?" + +"Could Queen Catherine save you at this moment?" asked Charles ominously. + +"We are in no danger, Sire," said Lorenzo calmly. "I knew before I entered +this house that I should leave it safe and sound, as surely as I know the +ill-feeling that the King will bear my brother a few days hence; but, even +if he should run some risk, he will triumph. Though the King reigns by the +sword, he also reigns by justice," he added, in allusion to the famous +motto on a medal struck for Charles IX. + +"You know everything; I shall die before long, and that is well," returned +the King, hiding his wrath under feverish impatience. "But how will my +brother die, who, according to you, is to be Henri III.?" + +"A violent death." + +"And Monsieur d'Alencon?" + +"He will never reign." + +"Then Henri de Bourbon will be King?" + +"Yes, Sire." + +"And what death will he die?" + +"A violent death." + +"And when I am dead, what will become of madame?" asked the King, turning +to Marie Touchet. + +"Madame de Belleville will marry, Sire." + +"You are impostors!--Send them away, my Lord," said Marie Touchet. + +"Dear heart, the Ruggieri have my word as a gentleman," said Charles, +smiling. "Will Marie have children?" + +"Yes--and madame will live to be more than eighty." + +"Must I have them hanged?" said the King to his mistress.--"And my son, +the Comte d'Auvergne?" said Charles, rising to fetch the child. + +"Why did you tell him that I should marry?" said Marie Touchet to the two +brothers during the few moments when they were alone. + +"Madame," replied Lorenzo with dignity, "the King required us to tell the +truth, and we told it." + +"Then it is true?" said she. + +"As true as that the Governor of Orleans loves you to distraction." + +"But I do not love him," cried she. + +"That is true, madame," said Lorenzo. "But your horoscope shows that you +are to marry the man who at this present loves you." + +"Could you not tell a little lie for my sake?" said she with a smile. "For +if the King should believe your forecast----" + +"Is it not necessary that he should believe in our innocence?" said Cosmo, +with a glance full of meaning. "The precautions taken by the King against +us have given us reason, during the time we spent in your pretty jail, to +suppose that the occult sciences must have been maligned in his ears." + +"Be quite easy," replied Marie; "I know him, and his doubts are dispelled." + +"We are innocent," said the old man haughtily. + +"So much the better; for at this moment the King is having your laboratory +searched and your crucibles and phials examined by experts." + +The brothers looked at each other and smiled. + +Marie took this smile for the irony of innocence; but it meant: "Poor +simpletons! Do you suppose that if we know how to prepare poisons, we do +not also know how to conceal them?" + +"Where are the King's people, then?" asked Cosmo. + +"In Rene's house," replied Marie; and the Ruggieri exchanged a glance which +conveyed from each to each the same thought, "The Hotel de Soissons is +inviolable!" + +The King had so completely thrown off his suspicions, that when he went to +fetch his son, and Jacob intercepted him to give him a note written by +Chapelain, he opened it in the certainty of finding in it what his +physician told him concerning his visit to the laboratory, where all that +had been discovered bore solely on alchemy. + +"Will he live happy?" asked the King, showing his infant son to the two +alchemists. + +"This is Cosmo's concern," said Lorenzo, turning to his brother. + +Cosmo took the child's little hand and studied it carefully. + +"Monsieur," said Charles IX. to the elder man, "if you are compelled to +deny the existence of the spirit to believe that your enterprise is +possible, tell me how it is that you can doubt that which constitutes your +power. The mind you desire to annihilate is the torch that illumines your +search. Ah, ha! Is not that moving while denying the fact of motion?" cried +he, and pleased at having hit on this argument, he looked triumphantly at +his mistress. + +"Mind," said Lorenzo Ruggieri, "is the exercise of an internal sense, just +as the faculty of seeing various objects and appreciating their form and +color is the exercise of our sight. That has nothing to do with what is +assumed as to another life. Mind--thought--is a faculty which may cease +even during life with the forces that produce it." + +"You are logical," said the King with surprise. "But alchemy is an +atheistical science." + +"Materialist, Sire, which is quite a different thing. Materialism is the +outcome of the Indian doctrines transmitted through the mysteries of Isis +to Chaldaea and Egypt, and brought back to Greece by Pythagoras, one of the +demi-gods among men; his doctrine of transmigration is the mathematics of +materialism, the living law of its phases. Each of the different creations +which make up the earthly creation possesses the power of retarding the +impulse that drags it into another form." + +"Then alchemy is the science of sciences!" cried Charles IX., fired with +enthusiasm. "I must see you at work." + +"As often as you will, Sire. You cannot be more eager than the Queen your +mother." + +"Ah! That is why she is so much attached to you!" cried the King. + +"The House of Medici has secretly encouraged our research for almost a +century past." + +"Sire," said Cosmo, "this child will live nearly a hundred years; he will +meet with some checks, but will be happy and honored, having in his veins +the blood of the Valois." + +"I will go to see you," said the King, who had recovered his good humor. +"You can go." + +The brothers bowed to Marie and Charles IX. and withdrew. They solemnly +descended the stairs, neither looking at each other nor speaking; they did +not even turn to look up at the windows from the courtyard, so sure were +they that the King's eye was on them; and, in fact, as they turned to pass +through the gate, they saw Charles IX. at a window. + +As soon as the alchemist and the astrologer were in the Rue de l'Autruche, +they cast a look in front and behind to see that no one was either +following them or waiting for them, and went on as far as the Louvre moat +without speaking a word; but there, finding that they were alone, Lorenzo +said to Cosmo in the Florentine Italian of the time: + +"_Affe d'Iddio! como le abbiamo infinocchiato!_" (By God, we have caught +them finely!) + +"_Gran merces! a lui sta di spartojarsi_"--(Much good may it do him; he +must make what he can of it)--said Cosmo. "May the Queen do as much for me! +We have done a good stroke for her." + + * * * * * + +Some days after this scene, which had struck Marie Touchet no less than the +King, in one of those moments when in the fulness of joy the mind is in +some sort released from the body, Marie exclaimed: + +"Charles, I understand Lorenzo Ruggieri; but Cosmo said nothing." + +"That is true," said the King, startled by this sudden flash of light, +"and there was as much falsehood as truth in what they said. Those Italians +are as slippery as the silk they spin." + +This suspicion explains the hatred of Cosmo that the King betrayed on the +occasion of the trial on the conspiracy of la Mole and Coconnas. When he +found that Cosmo was one of the contrivers of that plot, the King believed +himself duped by the two Italians; for it proved to him that his mother's +astrologer did not devote himself exclusively to studying the stars, +fulminating powder and final atoms. Lorenzo had then left the country. + +In spite of many persons' incredulity of such things, the events which +followed this scene confirmed the prophecies uttered by the Ruggieri. + +The King died three months later. The Comte de Gondi followed Charles IX. +to the tomb, as he had been told that he would by his brother, the Marechal +de Retz, a friend of the Ruggieri, and a believer in their foresight. + +Marie Touchet married Charles de Balzac, Marquis d'Entragues, Governor of +Orleans, by whom she had two daughters. The more famous of these two, the +Comte d'Auvergne's half-sister, was Henri IV.'s mistress, and at the time +of Biron's conspiracy tried to place her brother on the throne of France +and oust the Bourbons. + +The Comte d'Auvergne, made Duc d'Angouleme, lived till the reign of Louis +XIV. He coined money in his province, altering the superscription; but +Louis XIV. did not interfere, so great was his respect for the blood of the +Valois. + +Cosmo lived till after the accession of Louis XIII.; he saw the fall of the +House of Medici in France, and the overthrow of the Concini. History has +taken care to record that he died an atheist--that is to say, a +materialist. + +The Marquise d'Entragues was more than eighty when she died. + +Lorenzo and Cosmo had for their disciple the famous Comte de Saint-Germain, +who became notorious under Louis XV. The great alchemist was not less than +a hundred and thirty years old, the age to which some biographers say +Marion Delorme attained. The Count may have heard from the Ruggieri +anecdotes of the Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew and of the reigns of the +Valois, in which they could at pleasure assume a part by speaking in the +first person. The Comte de Saint-Germain is the last professor of alchemy +who explained the science well, but he left no writings. The doctrine of +the Cabala set forth in this volume was derived from that mysterious +personage. + +It is a strange thing! Three men's lives, that of the old man from whom +this information was obtained, that of the Comte de Saint-Germain, and that +of Cosmo Ruggieri, embrace European history from the reign of Francis I. to +that of Napoleon. Only fifty lives of equal length would cover the time to +as far back as the first known epoch of the world.--"What are fifty +generations for studying the mysteries of life?" the Comte de Saint-Germain +used to say. + + PARIS, _November-December 1836_. + + + + +PART III + +THE TWO DREAMS + + +In 1786 Bodard de Saint-James, treasurer to the Navy, was of all the +financiers of Paris the one whose luxury gave rise to most remark and +gossip. At that time he was building his famous _Folly_ at Neuilly, and his +wife bought, to crown the tester of her bed, a plume of feathers of which +the price had dismayed the Queen. It was far easier then than now to make +oneself the fashion and be talked of by all Paris; a witticism was often +quite enough, or the caprice of a woman. + +Bodard lived in the fine house in the Place Vendome which the +farmer-general Dange had not long since been compelled to quit. This +notorious Epicurean was lately dead; and on the day when he was buried, +Monsieur de Bievre, his intimate friend, had found matter for a jest, +saying that now one could cross the Place Vendome without danger (or +Dange). This allusion to the terrific gambling that went on in the deceased +man's house was his funeral oration. The house is that opposite to the +Chancellerie. + +To complete Bodard's history as briefly as possible, he was a poor +creature, he failed for fourteen millions of francs after the Prince de +Guemenee. His clumsiness in not anticipating that Serene bankruptcy--to use +an expression of Lebrun-Pindare's--led to his never even being mentioned. +He died in a garret, like Bourvalais, Bouret, and many others. + +Madame de Saint-James indulged an ambition of never receiving any but +people of quality--a stale absurdity that is ever new. To her the cap of a +lawyer in the Parlement was but a small affair; she wanted to see her rooms +filled with persons of title who had at least the minor privileges of +_entree_ at Versailles. To say that many blue ribbons were to be seen in +the lady's house would be untrue; but it is quite certain that she had +succeeded in winning the civility and attention of some members of the +Rohan family, as was proved subsequently in the too famous case of the +Queen's necklace. + +One evening--it was, I believe, in August 1786--I was greatly surprised to +see in this millionaire's room, precise as she was in the matter of proofs +of rank, two new faces, which struck me as being of decidedly inferior +birth. + +She came up to me as I stood in a window recess, where I had intentionally +ensconced myself. + +"Do tell me," said I, with a questioning glance at one of these strangers, +"who is that specimen? How did he get into your house?" + +"He is a charming man." + +"Do you see him through the prism of love, or am I mistaken in him?" + +"You are not mistaken," she replied, laughing; "he is as ugly as a toad; +but he has done me the greatest service a woman can accept from a man." + +As I looked at her with mischievous meaning, she hastened to add: "He has +entirely cured me of the ugly red patches which spoiled my complexion and +made me look like a peasant woman." + +I shrugged my shoulders with disgust. + +"A quack!" I exclaimed. + +"No," said she, "he is a physician to the Court pages. He is clever and +amusing, I assure you; and he has written books too. He is a very learned +physicist." + +"If his literary style is like his face!----" said I, smiling. + +"And the other?" + +"What other?" + +"That little prim man, as neat as a doll, and who looks as if he drank +verjuice." + +"He is a man of good family," said she. "He has come from some province--I +forget which.--Ah! yes, from Artois. He is in Paris to wind up some affair +that concerns the Cardinal, and His Eminence has just introduced him to +Monsieur de Saint-James. They have agreed in choosing Monsieur de +Saint-James to be arbitrator. In that the gentleman from the provinces has +not shown much wisdom. What are people thinking of when they place a case +in that man's hands? He is as gentle as a lamb, and as shy as a girl. His +Eminence is most kind to him." + +"What is it about?" said I. + +"Three hundred thousand livres," said she. + +"What! a lawyer?" I asked, with a little start of astonishment. + +"Yes," replied she. + +And, somewhat disturbed by having to make this humiliating confession, +Madame Bodard returned to her game of faro. + +Every table was made up. I had nothing to do or to say. I had just lost two +thousand crowns to Monsieur de Laval, whom I had met in a courtesan's +drawing-room. I went to take a seat in a deep chair near the fire. If ever +on this earth there was an astonished man, it certainly was I on +discovering that my opposite neighbor was the Controller-General. Monsieur +de Calonne seemed to be drowsy, or else he was absorbed in one of those +brown studies which come over a statesman. When I pointed out the Minister +to Beaumarchais, who came to speak to me, the creator of _Figaro_ explained +the mystery without speaking a word. He pointed first to my head and then +to Bodard's in an ingeniously significant way, by directing his thumb to +one and his little finger to the other, with the rest of the fingers +closed. My first impulse was to go and say something sharp to Calonne, but +I sat still; in the first place, because I intended to play the favorite a +trick, and also because Beaumarchais had somewhat familiarly seized my +hand. + +"What is it, monsieur?" said I. + +With a wink he indicated the Minister. + +"Do not wake him," he said in a low tone; "we may be only too thankful when +he sleeps." + +"But even sleeping is a scheme of finance," said I. + +"Certainly it is," replied the statesman, who had read our words by the +mere motion of our lips. "And would to God we could sleep a long time; +there would not be such an awakening as you will see!" + +"Monseigneur," said the play-writer, "I owe you some thanks." + +"What for?" + +"Monsieur de Mirabeau is gone to Berlin. I do not know whether in this +matter of the Waters we may not both be drowned." + +"You have too much memory and too little gratitude," replied the Minister +drily, vexed at this betrayal of one of his secrets before me. + +"Very possibly," said Beaumarchais, greatly nettled. "But I have certain +millions which may square many accounts." Calonne affected not to have +heard. + +It was half-past twelve before the card-tables broke up. Then we sat down +to supper--ten of us: Bodard and his wife, the Controller-General, +Beaumarchais, the two strangers, two pretty women whose names may not be +mentioned, and a farmer-general named, I think, Lavoisier. Of thirty +persons whom I had found on entering the drawing-room but these ten +remained. And the two "specimens" would only stay to supper on the pressing +invitation of the lady of the house, who thought she could discharge her +debt to one by giving him a meal, and asked the other perhaps to please her +husband, to whom she was doing the civil--wherefore I know not. Monsieur de +Calonne was a power, and if any one had cause to be annoyed it would have +been I. + +The supper was at first deadly dull. The two men and the farmer-general +weighed on us. I signed to Beaumarchais to make the son of Esculapius, by +whom he was sitting, drink till he was tipsy, giving him to understand that +I would deal with the lawyer. As this was the only kind of amusement open +to us, and as it gave promise of some blundering impertinence on the part +of the two strangers, which amused us by anticipation, Monsieur de Calonne +smiled on the scheme. In two seconds the ladies had entered into our +Bacchic plot. By significant glances they expressed their readiness to play +their part, and the wine of Sillery crowned our glasses again and again +with silvery foam. The surgeon was easy enough to deal with; but as I was +about to pour out my neighbor's second glass, he told me with the cold +politeness of a money-lender that he would drink no more. + +At this time, by what chance I know not, Madame de Saint-James had turned +the conversation on the wonderful suppers to the Comte de Cagliostro, given +by the Cardinal de Rohan. My attention was not too keenly alive to what the +mistress of the house was saying; for since her reply I had watched, with +invincible curiosity, my neighbor's pinched, thin face, of which the +principal feature was a nose at once wide and sharp, which made him at +times look very like a ferret. Suddenly his cheeks flushed as he heard +Madame de Saint-James disputing with Monsieur de Calonne. + +"But I assure you, monsieur," said she in a positive tone, "that I have +seen Queen Cleopatra." + +"I believe it, madame," said my neighbor. "I have spoken to Catherine de' +Medici." + +"Oh! oh!" said Monsieur de Calonne. + +The words spoken by the little provincial had an indescribably sonorous +tone--to use a word borrowed from physical science. This sudden clearness +of enunciation, from a man who till now had spoken very little and very +low, in the best possible taste, surprised us in the highest degree. + +"Why, he is talking!" exclaimed the surgeon, whom Beaumarchais had worked +up to a satisfactory condition. + +"His neighbor must have touched a spring," replied the satirist. + +Our man colored a little as he heard these words, though they were spoken +in a murmur. + +"And what was the late lamented Queen like?" asked Calonne. + +"I will not assert that the person with whom I supped last night was +Catherine de' Medici herself; such a miracle must seem as impossible to a +Christian as to a philosopher," replied the lawyer, resting his finger-tips +lightly on the table, and leaning back in his chair as if preparing to +speak at some length. "But, at any rate, I can swear that that woman was as +like to Catherine de' Medici as though they had been sisters. The lady I +saw wore a black velvet dress, absolutely like that which the Queen is +wearing in the portrait belonging to the King; on her head was the +characteristic black velvet cap; her complexion was colorless, and her face +the face you know. I could not help expressing my surprise to His Eminence. +The suddenness of the apparition was all the more wonderful because +Monsieur le Comte de Cagliostro could not guess the name of the personage +in whose company I wished to be. I was utterly amazed. The magical +spectacle of a supper where such illustrious women of the past were the +guests robbed me of my presence of mind. When, at about midnight, I got +away from this scene of witchcraft, I almost doubted my own identity. + +"But all these marvels seemed quite natural by comparison with the strange +hallucination under which I was presently to fall. I know not what words I +can use to describe the condition of my senses. But I can declare, in all +sincerity of heart, that I no longer wonder that there should have been, of +old, spirits weak enough--or strong enough--to believe in the mysteries of +magic and the power of the Devil. For my part, till I have ampler +information, I regard the apparitions of which Cardan and certain other +thaumaturgists have spoken as quite possible." + +These words, pronounced with incredible eloquence of tone, were of a nature +to rouse extreme curiosity in those present. Our looks all centered on the +orator, and we sat motionless. Our eyes alone showed life as they reflected +the bright wax lights in the candlesticks. By dint of watching the +stranger, we fancied we could see an emanation from the pores of his face, +and especially from those of his brow, of the inner feelings that wholly +possessed him. This man, apparently so cold and strictly reserved, seemed +to have within him a hidden fire, of which the flame came forth to us. + +"I know not," he went on, "whether the figure I had seen called up made +itself invisible to follow me; but as soon as I had laid my head on my +pillow, I saw the grand shade of Catherine rise before me. I instinctively +felt myself in a luminous sphere; for my eyes, attracted to the Queen with +painful fixity, saw her alone. Suddenly she bent over me----" + +At these words the ladies with one consent betrayed keener curiosity. + +"But," said the lawyer, "I do not know whether I ought to go on; although I +am inclined to think that it was but a dream, what remains to be told is +serious." + +"Does it bear on religion?" asked Beaumarchais. + +"Or is it in any way indecent?" asked Calonne. "These ladies will forgive +it." + +"It bears on government," replied the lawyer. + +"Go on," said the Minister. "Voltaire, Diderot, and their like have done +much to educate our ears." + +The Controller-General was all attention, and his neighbor, Madame de +Genlis, became absorbed. The stranger still hesitated. Then Beaumarchais +exclaimed impetuously: + +"Come, proceed, Maitre! Do not you know that when the laws leave folks so +little liberty, people revenge themselves by laxity of manners?" + +So the lawyer went on: + +"Whether it was that certain ideas were fermenting in my soul, or that I +was prompted by some unknown power, I said to her: + +"'Ah, madame, you committed a very great crime.' + +"'Which?' she asked in a deep voice. + +"'That for which the signal was given by the Palace clock on the 24th of +August.' + +"She smiled scornfully, and some deep furrows showed on her pallid cheeks. + +"'Do you call that a crime?' replied she; 'it was only an accident. The +undertaking was badly managed, and the good result we looked for +failed--for France, for all Europe, and for the Catholic Church. How could +we help it? Our orders were badly carried out. We could not find so many +Montlucs as we needed. Posterity will not give us credit for the defective +communications which hindered us from giving our work the unity of impulse +which is necessary to any great _Coup d'Etat_; that was our misfortune. If +by the 25th of August not the shadow of a Huguenot had been left in France, +I should have been regarded to the remotest posterity as a noble +incarnation of Providence. How often have the clear-seeing spirits of +Sixtus V., of Richelieu, of Bossuet, secretly accused me of having failed +in my undertaking, after daring to conceive of it! And how many regrets +attended my death! + +"'The disease was still rife thirty years after that Saint-Bartholomew's +night; and it had caused the shedding of ten times more noble blood in +France than was left to be shed on August 26, 1572. The revocation of the +Edict of Nantes, for which you had medals struck, cost more tears, more +blood and money, and killed more prosperity in France than three +Saint-Bartholomews. Letellier, with a dip of ink, carried into effect the +decree which the Crown had secretly desired since my day; but though on +August 25, 1572, this tremendous execution was necessary, on August 25, +1685, it was useless. Under Henri de Valois' second son heresy was scarcely +pregnant; under Henri de Bourbon's second son the teeming mother had cast +her spawn over the whole world. + +"'You accuse me of crime, and you raise statues to the son of Anne of +Austria! But he and I aimed at the same end. He succeeded; I failed; but +Louis XIV. found the Protestants disarmed, while in my day they had +powerful armies, statesmen, captains, and Germany to back them.' + +"On hearing these words slowly spoken, I felt within me a tremulous thrill. +I seemed to scent the blood of I know not what victims. Catherine had grown +before me. She stood there like an evil genius, and I felt as if she wanted +to get into my conscience to find rest there----" + +"He must have dreamed that," said Beaumarchais, in a low voice. "He +certainly never invented it." + +"'My reason is confounded,' said I to the Queen. 'You pride yourself on an +action which three generations have condemned and held accursed, and----' + +"'Add,' said she, 'that writers have been more unjust to me than my +contemporaries were. No one undertakes my defence. I am accused of +ambition--I who was so rich and a Queen. I am taxed with cruelty--I who +have but two decapitations on my conscience. And to the most impartial +minds I am still, no doubt, a great riddle. Do you really believe that I +was governed by feelings of hatred, that I breathed only vengeance and +fury?' She smiled scornfully. 'I was as calm and cold as Reason itself. I +condemned the Huguenots without pity, but without anger; they were the +rotten orange in my basket. If I had been Queen of England, I should have +judged the Catholics in the same way, if they had been seditious. To give +our power any vitality at that period, only one God could be allowed in the +State, only one faith and one master. Happily for me, I left my excuse +recorded in one sentence. When Birague brought me a false report of the +loss of the battle of Dreux--"Well and good," said I, "then we will go to +Sermon."--Hate the leaders of the New Religion? I esteemed them highly, and +I did not know them. If I ever felt an aversion for any political +personage, it was for that cowardly Cardinal de Lorraine, and for his +brother, a wily and brutal soldier, who had me watched by their spies. They +were my children's enemies; they wanted to snatch the crown from them; I +saw them every day, and they were more than I could bear. If we had not +carried out the plan for Saint-Bartholomew's Day, the Guises would have +done it with the help of Rome and its monks. The Ligue, which had no power +till I had grown old, would have begun in 1573.' + +"'But, madame,' said I, 'instead of commanding that horrible +butchery--excuse my frankness--why did you not employ the vast resources of +your political genius in giving the Reformers the wise institutions which +made Henri IV.'s reign so glorious and peaceful?' + +"She smiled again, shrugging her shoulders, and her hollow wrinkles gave +her pale features an ironical expression full of bitterness. + +"'After a furious struggle a nation needs repose,' said she. 'That is the +secret of that reign. But Henri IV. committed two irremediable blunders. He +ought neither to have abjured Protestantism nor to have left France +Catholic after his own conversion. He alone has ever been in a position to +change the face of France without a shock. Either not a single stole, or +not a single conventicle! That is what he ought to have seen. To leave two +hostile principles at work in a government with nothing to balance them is +a crime in a King; it is sowing the seed of revolutions. It belongs to God +alone to leave good and evil for ever at odds in the work of His hand. But +this sentence was perhaps inscribed at the foundations of Henri IV.'s +policy, and perhaps it was what led to his death. It is impossible that +Sully should not have cast a covetous eye on the immense possessions of the +clergy--though the clergy were not their sole masters, for the nobles +dissipated at least two-thirds of the Church revenues. Sully the Reformer +owned abbeys nevertheless.' She paused, to think, as it seemed. + +"'But does it occur to you,' said she, 'that you are asking a Pope's niece +her reason for remaining Catholic?'--Again she paused--'And, after all, I +would just as soon have been a Calvinist,' she went on, with a gesture of +indifference. 'Can the superior men of your age still think that religion +had really anything to do with that great trial, the most tremendous of +those that Europe has been required to decide--a vast revolution retarded +by trivial causes, which will not hinder it from overflowing the whole +world, since I failed to stop it.--A revolution,' said she, with a look of +deep meaning, 'which is still progressing, and which you may achieve.--Yes, +_You_, who hear me!' + +"I shuddered. + +"'What! Has no one yet understood that old interests on one hand, and on +the other new interests, had taken Rome and Luther to be their standards of +battle! What! When Louis IX., to avoid a somewhat kindred struggle, dragged +after him a population a hundred times greater than that I condemned to +death, and left them in the sands of Egypt, he earned the title of Saint, +while I!--But I,' she added, 'failed.' + +"She looked down and stood silent for a minute. It was no longer a Queen +that I beheld, but rather one of those Druidesses of old who sacrificed +men, and could unroll the pages of the future while exhuming the lore of +the past. But she presently raised her royal and majestic face. + +"'By directing the attention of the middle classes to the abuses of the +Roman Church,' said she, 'Luther and Calvin gave birth in Europe to a +spirit of investigation which inevitably led the nations to examine +everything. Examination leads to doubt. Instead of the faith indispensable +to social existence, they brought in their train, and long after them, an +inquisitive philosophy, armed with hammers, and greedy of destruction. +Science, with its false lights, sprang glittering from the womb of heresy. +Reform in the Church was not so much what was aimed at as the indefinite +liberty of man, which is fatal to power. I have seen that. The result of +the successes of the Reformers in their contest against the +priesthood--even at that time better armed and more formidable than the +Crown--was the destruction of the monarchical power raised with so much +difficulty by Louis XI. on the ruins of feudality. Their aim was nothing +less than the annihilation of Religion and Royalty, and over their wreck +the middle classes of all lands were to join in a common compact. Thus this +contest was war to the death between these new allies and ancient laws and +beliefs. The Catholics were the representative expression of the material +interests of the Crown, the Nobility, and the Priesthood. + +"'It was a duel to the death between two giants; the night of +Saint-Bartholomew was, unfortunately, only a wound. Remember that, to save +a few drops of blood at the right moment, a torrent had to be shed at a +later day. There is a misfortune which the Intelligence that looks down on +a kingdom cannot avert; that, namely, of having no peers by whom to be +judged when he succumbs under the burden of events. My peers are few; fools +are in the majority; these two propositions account for everything. If my +name is held in execration in France, the inferior minds which constitute +the mass of every generation are to blame. + +"'In such great crises as I have been through, reigning does not mean +holding audience, reviewing troops, and signing decrees. I may have made +mistakes; I was but a woman. But why was there no man then living who was +superior to the age? The Duke of Alva had a soul of iron, Philip II. was +stultified by Catholic dogmas, Henri IV. was a gambler and a libertine, the +Admiral was systematically pig-headed. Louis XI. had lived too soon; +Richelieu came too late. Whether it were virtuous or criminal, whether the +Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew is attributed to me or no, I accept the +burden. I shall always stand between those two great men as a visible link +in an unrecognized chain. Some day paradoxical writers will wonder whether +nations have not sometimes given the name of executioner to those who, in +fact, were victims. Not once only will mankind be ready to immolate a God +rather than accuse itself! You are all ready to shed tears for two hundred +louts, when you refuse them for the woes of a generation, of a century, of +the whole world! And you also forget that political liberty, the peace of a +nation, and science itself are gifts for which Fate demands a heavy tax in +blood!' + +"'May the nations never be happy at less cost?' cried I, with tears in my +eyes. + +"'Great Truths leave their wells only to find fresh vigor in baths of +blood. Christianity itself, the essence of all truth, since it proceeds +from God, was not established without martyrs. Has not blood flowed in +torrents? Must it not forever flow?--You will know--you who are to be one +of the builders of the social edifice founded by the apostles. As long as +you use your instruments to level heads, you will be applauded; then, when +you want to take up the trowel, you will be killed.' + +"'Blood! blood!'--the words rang in my brain like the echo of a bell. + +"'According to you,' said I, 'Protestantism has the same right as you have +to argue thus?' + +"But Catherine had vanished as though some draught of air had extinguished +the supernatural light which enabled my mind to see the figure which had +grown to gigantic proportions. I had suddenly discerned in myself an +element which assimilated the horrible doctrines set forth by the Italian +Queen. + +"I woke in a sweat, and in tears; and at the moment when reason, triumphing +within me, assured me in her mild tones that it was not the function of a +King, nor even of a nation, to practise these principles, worthy only of a +people of atheists----" + +"And how are perishing monarchies to be saved?" asked Beaumarchais. + +"God is above all, monsieur," replied my neighbor. + +"Well, then," said Monsieur de Calonne, with the flippancy which +characterized him, "we have always the resource of believing ourselves to +be instruments in the hand of God, as the gospel according to Bossuet has +it." + +As soon as the ladies understood that the whole scene was a conversation +between the Queen and the lawyer, they had begun whispering. Indeed, I have +spared the reader the exclamations and interruptions with which they broke +into the lawyer's narrative. However, such phrases as, "What a deadly +bore!" and "My dear, when will he have done?" reached my ear. + +When the stranger ceased speaking, the ladies were silent. Monsieur Bodard +was asleep. The surgeon being half drunk, Lavoisier, Beaumarchais, and I +alone had been listening; Monsieur de Calonne was playing with the lady at +his side. + +At this moment the silence was almost solemn. The light of the tapers +seemed to me to have a magical hue. A common sentiment linked us by +mysterious bonds to this man who, to me, suggested the inexplicable effects +of fanaticism. It needed nothing less than the deep hollow voice of +Beaumarchais' neighbor to rouse us. + +"I too dreamed!" he exclaimed. + +I then looked more particularly at the surgeon, and felt an indescribable +sentiment of horror. His earthy complexion, his features, large but vulgar, +were the exact expression of what I must be allowed to call _la canaille_, +the rough mob. A few specks of dull blue and black dotted his skin like +spots of mud, and his eyes flashed with sinister fires. The face looked +more ominous perhaps than it really was, because a powdered wig _a la +frimas_ crowned his head with snow. + +"That man must have buried more than one patient," said I to my neighbor. + +"I would not trust my dog to his care," he replied. + +"I hate him involuntarily," said I. + +"I despise him," replied he. + +"And yet how unjust!" cried I. + +"Oh! bless me, by the day after to-morrow he may be as famous as Volange +the actor," replied the stranger. + +Monsieur de Calonne pointed to the surgeon with a gesture that seemed to +convey, "This fellow might amuse us." + +"And did you too dream of a Queen?" asked Beaumarchais. + +"No, I dreamed of a people," said he with emphasis, making us laugh. "I was +attending a patient whose leg I was to amputate the next day----" + +"And you found a people in your patient's thigh?" asked Monsieur de +Calonne. + +"Exactly so!" replied the surgeon. + +"Is not he amusing?" cried Madame de Genlis. + +"I was greatly surprised," the speaker went on, never heeding these +interruptions, and stuffing his hands into his breeches pockets, "to find +some one to talk to in that leg. I had the strange power of entering into +my patient. When I first found myself in his skin, I discerned there an +amazing number of tiny beings, moving, thinking, and arguing. Some lived in +the man's body, and some in his mind. His ideas were creatures that were +born, grew, and died; they were sick, gay, healthy, sad--and all had +personal individuality. They fought or fondled. A few ideas flew forth and +went to dwell in the world of intellect. Suddenly I understood that there +are two worlds--the visible and the invisible universe; that the earth, +like man, has a body and a soul. A new light was cast on nature, and I +perceived its immensity when I saw the ocean of beings everywhere +distributed in masses and in species, all of one and the same living +matter, from marble rocks up to God. A magnificent sight! In short, there +was a universe in my patient. When I inserted my lancet in his gangrened +leg, I destroyed a thousand such beings.--You laugh, ladies, at the idea +that you are a prey to a thousand creatures----" + +"No personalities," said Monsieur de Colonne, "speak for yourself and your +patient." + +"My man, horrified at the outcry of his animalcules, wanted to stop the +operation; but I persisted, telling him that malignant creatures were +already gnawing at his bones. He made a motion to resist me, not +understanding that what I was doing was for his good, and my lancet pierced +me in the side----" + +"He is too stupid," said Lavoisier. + +"No, he is drunk," replied Beaumarchais. + +"But, gentlemen, my dream has a meaning," cried the surgeon. + +"Oh, oh!" cried Bodard, waking, "my leg is asleep!" + +"Your animalcules are dead," said his wife. + +"That man has a vocation," said my neighbor, who had imperturbably stared +at the surgeon all the time he was talking. + +"It is to Monsieur's vocation what action is to speech, or the body to the +soul," said the ugly guest. + +But his tongue was heavy, and he got confused; he could only utter +unintelligible words. Happily, the conversation took another turn. By the +end of half an hour we had forgotten the surgeon to the Court pages, and he +was asleep. + +When we rose from table, the rain was pouring in torrents. + +"The lawyer is no fool," said I to Beaumarchais. + +"Oh! he is dull and cold. But you see the provinces can still produce good +folks who take political theories and the history of France quite +seriously. It is a leaven that will spread." + +"Have you a carriage?" Madame de Saint-James asked me. + +"No," said I shortly. "I did not know that I should want it this evening. +You thought, perhaps, that I should take home the Controller-General? Did +he come to your house _en polisson_?" (the fashionable name at the time for +a person who drove his own carriage at Marly dressed as a coachman). Madame +de Saint-James left me hastily, rang the bell, ordered her husband's +carriage, and took the lawyer aside. + +"Monsieur de Robespierre, will you do me the favor of seeing Monsieur Marat +home, for he is incapable of standing upright?" said she. + +"With pleasure, madame," replied Monsieur de Robespierre with an air of +gallantry; "I wish you had ordered me to do something more difficult." + + PARIS, _January 1828_. + + +NOTE. + +This is the song published by the Abbe de la Place in his collection of +interesting fragments, in which may be found the dissertation alluded to. +[It will be seen that it goes to the old tune of _Malbrouk s'en va-t-en +guerre_.] + + +THE DUC DE GUISE'S BURIAL. + + Qui veut ouir chanson? (_Bis._) + C'est du Grand Duc de Guise; + Et bon bon bon bon, + Di dan di dan don, + C'est du Grand Duc de Guise! + (This last line was spoken, no doubt, in a comic tone.) + _Qui est mort et enterre._ + + Qui est mort et enterre. (_Bis._) + Aux quatre coins du poele, + Et bon bon bon bon, + Di dan di dan don, + _Quatre gentilshomm's y avoit_. + + Quatre gentilshomm's y avoit. (_Bis._) + L'un portoit son grand casque, + Et bon, etc. + _Et l'autre ses pistolets._ + + Et l'autre ses pistolets. (_Bis._) + Et l'autre son epee, + Et bon, etc. + _Qui tant d'Hugu'nots a tues._ + + Qui tant d'Hugu'nots a tues. (_Bis._) + Venoit le quatrieme, + Et bon, etc. + _Qui etoit le plus dolent._ + + Qui etoit le plus dolent; (_Bis._) + Apres venoient les pages, + Et bon, etc. + _Et les valets de pied._ + + Et les valets de pied, (_Bis._) + Avecque de grands crepes, + Et bon, etc. + _Et des souliers cires._ + + Et des souliers cires. (_Bis._) + Et des beaux bas d'estame, + Et bon, etc. + _Et des culottes de piau._ + + Et des culottes de piau. (_Bis._) + La ceremonie faite, + Et bon, etc., + _Chacun s'alla coucher._ + + Chacun s'alla coucher: (_Bis._) + Les uns avec leurs femmes, + Et bon, etc. + _Et les autres tout seuls._ + +The discovery of these curious verses seems to prove, to a certain extent, +the guilt of Theodore de Beze, who tried to mitigate the horror caused by +this murder by turning it to ridicule. The principal merit of this song +lay, it would appear, in the tune. + + + + +GAMBARA + +_To Monsieur le Marquis de Belloy_ + + It was sitting by the fire, in a mysterious and + magnificent retreat,--now a thing of the past but + surviving in our memory,--whence our eyes commanded a + view of Paris from the heights of Bellevue to those of + Belleville, from Montmartre to the triumphal Arc de + l'Etoile, that one morning, refreshed by tea, amid the + myriad suggestions that shoot up and die like rockets + from your sparkling flow of talk, lavish of ideas, you + tossed to my pen a figure worthy of Hoffmann,--that + casket of unrecognized gems, that pilgrim seated at the + gate of Paradise with ears to hear the songs of the + angels but no longer a tongue to repeat them, playing + on the ivory keys with fingers crippled by the stress + of divine inspiration, believing that he is expressing + celestial music to his bewildered listeners. + + It was you who created GAMBARA; I have only clothed + him. Let me render unto Caesar the things that are + Caesar's, regretting only that you do not yourself take + up the pen at a time when gentlemen ought to wield it + as well as the sword, if they are to save their + country. You may neglect yourself, but you owe your + talents to us. + + +New Year's Day of 1831 was pouring out its packets of sugared almonds, four +o'clock was striking, there was a mob in the Palais-Royal, and the +eating-houses were beginning to fill. At this moment a coupe drew up at the +_perron_ and a young man stepped out; a man of haughty appearance, and no +doubt a foreigner; otherwise he would not have displayed the aristocratic +_chasseur_ who attended him in a plumed hat, nor the coat of arms which the +heroes of July still attacked. + +This gentleman went into the Palais-Royal, and followed the crowd round +the galleries, unamazed at the slowness to which the throng of loungers +reduced his pace; he seemed accustomed to the stately step which is +ironically nicknamed the ambassador's strut; still, his dignity had a touch +of the theatrical. Though his features were handsome and imposing, his hat, +from beneath which thick black curls stood out, was perhaps tilted a little +too much over the right ear, and belied his gravity by a too rakish effect. +His eyes, inattentive and half closed, looked down disdainfully on the +crowd. + +"There goes a remarkably good-looking young man," said a girl in a low +voice, as she made way for him to pass. + +"And who is only too well aware of it!" replied her companion aloud--who +was very plain. + +After walking all round the arcades, the young man looked by turns at the +sky and at his watch, and with a shrug of impatience went into a +tobacconist's shop, lighted a cigar, and placed himself in front of a +looking-glass to glance at his costume, which was rather more ornate than +the rules of French taste allow. He pulled down his collar and his black +velvet waistcoat, over which hung many festoons of the thick gold chain +that is made at Venice; then, having arranged the folds of his cloak by a +single jerk of his left shoulder, draping it gracefully so as to show the +velvet lining, he started again on parade, indifferent to the glances of +the vulgar. + +As soon as the shops were lighted up and the dusk seemed to him black +enough, he went out into the square in front of the Palais-Royal, but as a +man anxious not to be recognized; for he kept close under the houses as far +as the fountain, screened by the hackney-cab stand, till he reached the Rue +Froid-Manteau, a dirty, poky, disreputable street--a sort of sewer +tolerated by the police close to the purified purlieus of the Palais-Royal, +as an Italian major-domo allows a careless servant to leave the sweepings +of the rooms in a corner of the staircase. + +[Illustration: Placed himself in front of a looking-glass] + +The young man hesitated. He might have been a bedizened citizen's wife +craning her neck over a gutter swollen by the rain. But the hour was not +unpropitious for the indulgence of some discreditable whim. Earlier, he +might have been detected; later, he might find himself cut out. Tempted by +a glance which is encouraging without being inviting, to have followed a +young and pretty woman for an hour, or perhaps for a day, thinking of her +as a divinity and excusing her light conduct by a thousand reasons to her +advantage; to have allowed oneself to believe in a sudden and irresistible +affinity; to have pictured, under the promptings of transient excitement, a +love-adventure in an age when romances are written precisely because they +never happen; to have dreamed of balconies, guitars, stratagems, and bolts, +enwrapped in Almaviva's cloak; and, after inditing a poem in fancy, to stop +at the door of a house of ill-fame, and, crowning all, to discern in +Rosina's bashfulness a reticence imposed by the police--is not all this, I +say, an experience familiar to many a man who would not own it? + +The most natural feelings are those we are least willing to confess, and +among them is fatuity. When the lesson is carried no further, the Parisian +profits by it, or forgets it, and no great harm is done. But this would +hardly be the case with this foreigner, who was beginning to think he might +pay too dearly for his Paris education. + +This personage was a Milanese of good family, exiled from his native +country, where some "liberal" pranks had made him an object of suspicion to +the Austrian Government. Count Andrea Marcosini had been welcomed in Paris +with the cordiality, essentially French, that a man always finds there, +when he has a pleasant wit, a sounding name, two hundred thousand francs a +year, and a prepossessing person. To such a man banishment could but be a +pleasure tour; his property was simply sequestrated, and his friends let +him know that after an absence of two years he might return to his native +land without danger. + +After rhyming _crudeli affanni_ with _i miei tiranni_ in a dozen or so of +sonnets, and maintaining as many hapless Italian refugees out of his own +purse, Count Andrea, who was so unlucky as to be a poet, thought himself +released from patriotic obligations. So, ever since his arrival, he had +given himself up recklessly to the pleasures of every kind which Paris +offers _gratis_ to those who can pay for them. His talents and his handsome +person won him success among women, whom he adored collectively as beseemed +his years, but among whom he had not as yet distinguished a chosen one. And +indeed this taste was, in him, subordinate to those for music and poetry +which he had cultivated from his childhood; and he thought success in these +both more difficult and more glorious to achieve than in affairs of +gallantry, since nature had not inflicted on him the obstacles men take +most pride in defying. + +A man, like many another, of complex nature, he was easily fascinated by +the comfort of luxury, without which he could hardly have lived; and, in +the same way, he clung to the social distinctions which his principles +contemned. Thus his theories as an artist, a thinker, and a poet were in +frequent antagonism with his tastes, his feelings, and his habits as a man +of rank and wealth; but he comforted himself for his inconsistencies by +recognizing them in many Parisians, like himself liberal by policy and +aristocrats by nature. + +Hence it was not without some uneasiness that he found himself, on December +31, 1830, under a Paris thaw, following at the heels of a woman whose dress +betrayed the most abject, inveterate, and long-accustomed poverty, who was +no handsomer than a hundred others to be seen any evening at the play, at +the opera, in the world of fashion, and who was certainly not so young as +Madame de Manerville, from whom he had obtained an assignation for that +very day, and who was perhaps waiting for him at that very hour. + +But in the glance at once tender and wild, swift and deep, which that +woman's black eyes had shot at him by stealth, there was such a world of +buried sorrows and promised joys! And she had colored so fiercely when, on +coming out of a shop where she had lingered a quarter of an hour, her look +frankly met the Count's, who had been waiting for her hard by! In fact, +there were so many _buts_ and _ifs_, that, possessed by one of those mad +temptations for which there is no word in any language, not even in that of +the orgy, he had set out in pursuit of this woman, hunting her down like a +hardened Parisian. + +On the way, whether he kept behind or ahead of this damsel, he studied +every detail of her person and her dress, hoping to dislodge the insane and +ridiculous fancy that had taken up an abode in his brain; but he presently +found in his examination a keener pleasure than he had felt only the day +before in gazing at the perfect shape of a woman he loved, as she took her +bath. Now and again, the unknown fair, bending her head, gave him a look +like that of a kid tethered with its head to the ground, and finding +herself still the object of his pursuit, she hurried on as if to fly. +Nevertheless, each time that a block of carriages, or any other delay, +brought Andrea to her side, he saw her turn away from his gaze without any +signs of annoyance. These signals of restrained feelings spurred the +frenzied dreams that had run away with him, and he gave them the rein as +far as the Rue Froid-Manteau, down which, after many windings, the damsel +vanished, thinking she had thus spoilt the scent of her pursuer, who was, +in fact, startled by this move. + +It was now quite dark. Two women, tattooed with rouge, who were drinking +black-currant liqueur at a grocer's counter, saw the young woman and called +her. She paused at the door of the shop, replied in a few soft words to the +cordial greeting offered her, and went on her way. Andrea, who was behind +her, saw her turn into one of the darkest yards out of this street, of +which he did not know the name. The repulsive appearance of the house where +the heroine of his romance had been swallowed up made him feel sick. He +drew back a step to study the neighborhood, and finding an ill-looking man +at his elbow, he asked him for information. The man, who held a knotted +stick in his right hand, placed the left on his hip and replied in a single +word: + +"Scoundrel!" + +But on looking at the Italian, who stood in the light of a street-lamp, he +assumed a servile expression. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said he, suddenly changing his tone. "There is a +restaurant near this, a sort of table-d'hote, where the cooking is pretty +bad and they serve cheese in the soup. Monsieur is in search of the place, +perhaps, for it is easy to see that he is an Italian--Italians are fond of +velvet and of cheese. But if monsieur would like to know of a better +eating-house, an aunt of mine, who lives a few steps off, is very fond of +foreigners." + +Andrea raised his cloak as high as his moustache, and fled from the street, +spurred by the disgust he felt at this foul person, whose clothes and +manner were in harmony with the squalid house into which the fair unknown +had vanished. He returned with rapture to the thousand luxuries of his own +rooms, and spent the evening at the Marquise d'Espard's to cleanse himself, +if possible, of the smirch left by the fancy that had driven him so +relentlessly during the day. + +And yet, when he was in bed, the vision came back to him, but clearer and +brighter than the reality. The girl was walking in front of him; now and +again as she stepped across a gutter her skirts revealed a round calf; her +shapely hips swayed as she walked. Again Andrea longed to speak to her--and +he dared not, he, Marcosini, a Milanese nobleman! Then he saw her turn into +the dark passage where she had eluded him, and blamed himself for not +having followed her. + +"For, after all," said he to himself, "if she really wished to avoid me and +put me off her track, it is because she loves me. With women of that stamp, +coyness is a proof of love. Well, if I had carried the adventure any +further, it would, perhaps, have ended in disgust. I will sleep in peace." + +The Count was in the habit of analyzing his keenest sensations, as men do +involuntarily when they have as much brains as heart, and he was surprised +when he saw the strange damsel of the Rue Froid-Manteau once more, not in +the pictured splendor of his dream but in the bare reality of dreary fact. +And, in spite of it all, if fancy had stripped the woman of her livery of +misery, it would have spoilt her for him; for he wanted her, he longed for +her, he loved her--with her muddy stockings, her slipshod feet, her straw +bonnet! He wanted her in the very house where he had seen her go in. + +"Am I bewitched by vice, then?" he asked himself in dismay. "Nay, I have +not yet reached that point. I am but three-and-twenty, and there is nothing +of the senile fop about me." + +The very vehemence of the whim that held possession of him to some extent +reassured him. This strange struggle, these reflections, and this love in +pursuit may perhaps puzzle some persons who are accustomed to the ways of +Paris life; but they may be reminded that Count Andrea Marcosini was not a +Frenchman. + +Brought up by two abbes, who, in obedience to a very pious father, had +rarely let him out of their sight, Andrea had not fallen in love with a +cousin at the age of eleven, or seduced his mother's maid by the time he +was twelve; he had not studied at school, where a lad does not learn only, +or best, the subjects prescribed by the State; he had lived in Paris but a +few years, and he was still open to those sudden but deep impressions +against which French education and manners are so strong a protection. In +southern lands a great passion is often born of a glance. A gentleman of +Gascony who had tempered strong feelings by much reflection had fortified +himself by many little recipes against sudden apoplexies of taste and +heart, and he advised the Count to indulge at least once a month in a wild +orgy to avert those storms of the soul which, but for such precautions, are +apt to break out at inappropriate moments. Andrea now remembered this +advice. + +"Well," thought he, "I will begin to-morrow, January 1st." + + * * * * * + +This explains why Count Andrea Marcosini hovered so shyly before turning +down the Rue Froid-Manteau. The man of fashion hampered the lover, and he +hesitated for some time; but after a final appeal to his courage he went +on with a firm step as far as the house, which he recognized without +difficulty. + +There he stopped once more. Was the woman really what he fancied her? Was +he not on the verge of some false move? + +At this juncture he remembered the Italian table-d'hote, and at once jumped +at a middle course, which would serve the ends alike of his curiosity and +of his reputation. He went in to dine, and made his way down the passage; +at the bottom, after feeling about for some time, he found a staircase with +damp, slippery steps, such as to an Italian nobleman could only seem a +ladder. + +Invited to the first floor by the glimmer of a lamp and a strong smell of +cooking, he pushed a door which stood ajar and saw a room dingy with dirt +and smoke, where a wench was busy laying a table for about twenty +customers. None of the guests had yet arrived. + +After looking round the dimly lighted room where the paper was dropping in +rags from the walls, the gentleman seated himself by a stove which was +roaring and smoking in the corner. + +Attracted by the noise the Count made in coming in and disposing of his +cloak, the major-domo presently appeared. Picture to yourself a lean, +dried-up cook, very tall, with a nose of extravagant dimensions, casting +about him from time to time, with feverish keenness, a glance that he meant +to be cautious. On seeing Andrea, whose attire bespoke considerable +affluence, Signor Giardini bowed respectfully. + +The Count expressed his intention of taking his meals as a rule in the +society of some of his fellow-countrymen; he paid in advance for a certain +number of tickets, and ingenuously gave the conversation a familiar bent to +enable him to achieve his purpose quickly. + +Hardly had he mentioned the woman he was seeking when Signor Giardini, with +a grotesque shrug, looked knowingly at his customer, a bland smile on his +lips. + +"_Basta!_" he exclaimed. "_Capisco._ Your Excellency has come spurred by +two appetites. La Signora Gambara will not have wasted her time if she has +gained the interest of a gentleman so generous as you appear to be. I can +tell you in a few words all we know of the woman, who is really to be +pitied. + +"The husband is, I believe, a native of Cremona and has just come here from +Germany. He was hoping to get the Tedeschi to try some new music and some +new instruments. Isn't it pitiable?" said Giardini, shrugging his +shoulders. "Signor Gambara, who thinks himself a great composer, does not +seem to me very clever in other ways. An excellent fellow with sense and +wit, and sometimes very agreeable, especially when he has had a few glasses +of wine--which does not often happen, for he is desperately poor; night and +day he toils at imaginary symphonies and operas instead of trying to earn +an honest living. His poor wife is reduced to working for all sorts of +people--the women on the streets! What is to be said? She loves her husband +like a father, and takes care of him like a child. + +"Many a young man has dined here to pay his court to madame; but not one +has succeeded," said he, emphasizing the word. "La Signora Marianna is an +honest woman, monsieur, much too honest, worse luck for her! Men give +nothing for nothing nowadays. So the poor soul will die in harness. + +"And do you suppose that her husband rewards her for her devotion? Pooh, my +lord never gives her a smile! And all their cooking is done at the baker's; +for not only does the wretched man never earn a sou; he spends all his wife +can make on instruments which he carves, and lengthens, and shortens, and +sets up and takes to pieces again till they produce sounds that would scare +a cat; then he is happy. And yet you will find him the mildest, the +gentlest of men. And he is not idle; he is always at it. What is to be +said? He is crazy and does not know his business. I have seen him, +monsieur, filing and forging his instruments and eating black bread with an +appetite that I envied him--I, who have the best table in Paris. + +"Yes, Excellenza, in a quarter of an hour you shall know the man I am. I +have introduced certain refinements into Italian cookery that will amaze +you! Excellenza, I am a Neapolitan--that is to say, a born cook. But of +what use is instinct without knowledge? Knowledge! I have spent thirty +years in acquiring it, and you see where it has left me. My history is that +of every man of talent. My attempts, my experiments, have ruined three +restaurants in succession at Naples, Parma, and Rome. To this day, when I +am reduced to make a trade of my art, I more often than not give way to my +ruling passion. I give these poor refugees some of my choicest dishes. I +ruin myself! Folly! you will say? I know it; but how can I help it? Genius +carries me away, and I cannot resist concocting a dish which smiles on my +fancy. + +"And they always know it, the rascals! They know, I can promise you, +whether I or my wife has stood over the fire. And what is the consequence? +Of sixty-odd customers whom I used to see at my table every day when I +first started in this wretched place, I now see twenty on an average, and +give them credit for the most part. The Piedmontese, the Savoyards, have +deserted, but the connoisseurs, the true Italians, remain. And there is no +sacrifice that I would not make for them. I often give them a dinner for +five and twenty sous which has cost me double." + +Signor Giardini's speech had such a full flavor of Neapolitan cunning that +the Count was delighted, and could have fancied himself at Gerolamo's. + +"Since that is the case, my good friend," said he familiarly to the cook, +"and since chance and your confidence have let me into the secret of your +daily sacrifices, allow me to pay double." + +As he spoke Andrea spun a forty-franc piece on the stove, out of which +Giardini solemnly gave him two francs and fifty centimes in change, not +without a certain ceremonious mystery that amused him hugely. + +"In a few minutes now," the man added, "you will see your _donnina_. I +will seat you next the husband, and if you wish to stand in his good +graces, talk about music. I have invited every one for this evening, poor +things. Being New Year's Day, I am treating the company to a dish in which +I believe I have surpassed myself." + +Signor Giardini's voice was drowned by the noisy greetings of the guests, +who streamed in two and two, or one at a time, after the manner of +tables-d'hote. Giardini stayed by the Count, playing the showman by telling +him who the company were. He tried by his witticisms to bring a smile to +the lips of a man who, as his Neapolitan instinct told him, might be a +wealthy patron to turn to good account. + +"This one," said he, "is a poor composer who would like to rise from +song-writing to opera, and cannot. He blames the managers, +music-sellers,--everybody, in fact, but himself, and he has no worse enemy. +You can see--what a florid complexion, what self-conceit, how little +firmness in his features! he is made to write ballads. The man who is with +him, and looks like a match-hawker, is a great musical celebrity--Gigelmi, +the greatest Italian conductor known; but he has gone deaf, and is ending +his days in penury, deprived of all that made it tolerable. Ah! here comes +our great Ottoboni, the most guileless old fellow on earth; but he is +suspected of being the most vindictive of all who are plotting for the +regeneration of Italy. I cannot think how they can bear to banish such a +good old man." + +And here Giardini looked narrowly at the Count, who, feeling himself under +inquisition as to his politics, entrenched himself in Italian +impassibility. + +"A man whose business it is to cook for all comers can have no political +opinions, Excellenza," Giardini went on. "But to see that worthy man, who +looks more like a lamb than a lion, everybody would say what I say, were it +before the Austrian ambassador himself. Besides, in these times liberty is +no longer proscribed; it is going its rounds again. At least, so these good +people think," said he, leaning over to speak in the Count's ear, "and why +should I thwart their hopes? I, for my part, do not hate an absolute +government. Excellenza, every man of talent is for despotism! + +"Well, though full of genius, Ottoboni takes no end of pains to educate +Italy; he writes little books to enlighten the intelligence of the children +and the common people, and he smuggles them very cleverly into Italy. He +takes immense trouble to reform the moral sense of our luckless country, +which, after all, prefers pleasure to freedom,--and perhaps it is right." + +The Count preserved such an impenetrable attitude that the cook could +discover nothing of his political views. + +"Ottoboni," he ran on, "is a saint; very kind-hearted; all the refugees are +fond of him; for, Excellenza, a liberal may have his virtues. Oho! Here +comes a journalist," said Giardini, as a man came in dressed in the absurd +way which used to be attributed to a poet in a garret; his coat was +threadbare, his boots split, his hat shiny, and his overcoat deplorably +ancient. "Excellenza, that poor man is full of talent, and incorruptibly +honest. He was born into the wrong times, for he tells the truth to +everybody; no one can endure him. He writes theatrical articles for two +small papers, though he is clever enough to work for the great dailies. +Poor fellow! + +"The rest are not worth mentioning, and Your Excellency will find them +out," he concluded, seeing that on the entrance of the musician's wife the +Count had ceased to listen to him. + + * * * * * + +On seeing Andrea here, Signora Marianna started visibly and a bright flush +tinged her cheeks. + +"Here he is!" said Giardini, in an undertone, clutching the Count's arm and +nodding to a tall man. "How pale and grave he is, poor man! His hobby has +not trotted to his mind to-day, I fancy." + +Andrea's prepossession for Marianna was crossed by the captivating charm +which Gambara could not fail to exert over every genuine artist. The +composer was now forty; but although his high brow was bald and lined with +a few parallel, but not deep, wrinkles; in spite, too, of hollow temples +where the blue veins showed through the smooth, transparent skin, and of +the deep sockets in which his black eyes were sunk, with their large lids +and light lashes, the lower part of his face made him still look young, so +calm was its outline, so soft the modeling. It could be seen at a glance +that in this man passion had been curbed to the advantage of the intellect; +that the brain alone had grown old in some great struggle. + +Andrea shot a swift look at Marianna, who was watching him. And he noted +the beautiful Italian head, the exquisite proportion and rich coloring that +revealed one of those organizations in which every human power is +harmoniously balanced, he sounded the gulf that divided this couple, +brought together by fate. Well content with the promise he inferred from +this dissimilarity between the husband and wife, he made no attempt to +control a liking which ought to have raised a barrier between the fair +Marianna and himself. He was already conscious of feeling a sort of +respectful pity for this man, whose only joy she was, as he understood the +dignified and serene acceptance of ill fortune that was expressed in +Gambara's mild and melancholy gaze. + +After expecting to see one of the grotesque figures so often set before us +by German novelists and writers of _libretti_, he beheld a simple, +unpretentious man, whose manners and demeanor were in nothing strange and +did not lack dignity. Without the faintest trace of luxury, his dress was +more decent than might have been expected from his extreme poverty, and his +linen bore witness to the tender care which watched over every detail of +his existence. Andrea looked at Marianna with moistened eyes; and she did +not color, but half smiled, in a way that betrayed, perhaps, some pride at +this speechless homage. The Count, too thoroughly fascinated to miss the +smallest indication of complaisance, fancied that she must love him, since +she understood him so well. + +From this moment he set himself to conquer the husband rather than the +wife, turning all his batteries against the poor Gambara, who quite +guilelessly went on eating Signor Giardini's _bocconi_, without thinking of +their flavor. + +The Count opened the conversation on some trivial subject, but at the first +words he perceived that this brain, supposed to be infatuated on one point, +was remarkably clear on all others, and saw that it would be far more +important to enter into this very clever man's ideas than to flatter his +conceits. + +The rest of the company, a hungry crew whose brain only responded to the +sight of a more or less good meal, showed much animosity to the luckless +Gambara, and waited only till the end of the first course, to give free +vent to their satire. A refugee, whose frequent leer betrayed ambitious +schemes on Marianna, and who fancied he could establish himself in her good +graces by trying to make her husband ridiculous, opened fire to show the +newcomer how the land lay at the table-d'hote. + +"It is a very long time since we have heard anything about the opera on +'Mahomet'!" cried he, with a smile at Marianna. "Can it be that Paolo +Gambara, wholly given up to domestic cares, absorbed by the charms of the +chimney-corner, is neglecting his superhuman genius, leaving his talents to +get cold and his imagination to go flat?" + +Gambara knew all the company; he dwelt in a sphere so far above them all +that he no longer cared to repel an attack. He made no reply. + +"It is not given to everybody," said the journalist, "to have an intellect +that can understand Monsieur Gambara's musical efforts, and that, no doubt, +is why our divine maestro hesitates to come before the worthy Parisian +public." + +"And yet," said the ballad-monger, who had not opened his mouth but to +swallow everything that came within his reach, "I know some men of talent +who think highly of the judgments of Parisian critics. I myself have a +pretty reputation as a musician," he went on, with an air of diffidence. "I +owe it solely to my little songs in _vaudevilles_, and the success of my +dance music in drawing-rooms; but I propose ere long to bring out a mass +composed for the anniversary of Beethoven's death, and I expect to be +better appreciated in Paris than anywhere else. You will perhaps do me the +honor of hearing it?" he said, turning to Andrea. + +"Thank you," said the Count. "But I do not conceive that I am gifted with +the organs needful for the appreciation of French music. If you were dead, +monsieur, and Beethoven had composed the mass, I would not have failed to +attend the performance." + +This retort put an end to the tactics of those who wanted to set Gambara +off on his high horse to amuse the new guest. Andrea was already conscious +of an unwillingness to expose so noble and pathetic a mania as a spectacle +for so much vulgar shrewdness. It was with no base reservation that he kept +up a desultory conversation, in the course of which Signor Giardini's nose +not infrequently interposed between two remarks. Whenever Gambara uttered +some elegant repartee or some paradoxical aphorism, the cook put his head +forward, to glance with pity at the musician and with meaning at the Count, +muttering in his ear, "_E matto_!" + +Then came a moment when the _chef_ interrupted the flow of his judicial +observations to devote himself to the second course, which he considered +highly important. During his absence, which was brief, Gambara leaned +across to address Andrea. + +"Our worthy host," said he, in an undertone, "threatens to regale us to-day +with a dish of his own concocting, which I recommend you to avoid, though +his wife has had an eye on him. The good man has a mania for innovations. +He ruined himself by experiments, the last of which compelled him to fly +from Rome without a passport--a circumstance he does not talk about. After +purchasing the goodwill of a popular restaurant he was trusted to prepare a +banquet given by a lately made Cardinal, whose household was not yet +complete. Giardini fancied he had an opportunity for distinguishing +himself--and he succeeded! for that same evening he was accused of trying +to poison the whole conclave, and was obliged to leave Rome and Italy +without waiting to pack up. This disaster was the last straw. Now," and +Gambara put his finger to his forehead and shook his head. + +"He is a good fellow, all the same," he added. "My wife will tell you that +we owe him many a good turn." + +Giardini now came in carefully bearing a dish which he set in the middle of +the table, and he then modestly resumed his seat next to Andrea, whom he +served first. As soon as he had tasted the mess, the Count felt that an +impassable gulf divided the second mouthful from the first. He was much +embarrassed, and very anxious not to annoy the cook, who was watching him +narrowly. Though a French _restaurateur_ may care little about seeing a +dish scorned if he is sure of being paid for it, it is not so with an +Italian, who is not often satiated with praises. + +To gain time, Andrea complimented Giardini enthusiastically, but he leaned +over to whisper in his ear, and slipping a gold piece into his hand under +the table, begged him to go out and buy a few bottles of champagne, leaving +him free to take all the credit of the treat. + +When the Italian returned, every plate was cleared, and the room rang with +praises of the master-cook. The champagne soon mounted these southern +brains, and the conversation, till now subdued in the stranger's presence, +overleaped the limits of suspicious reserve to wander far over the wide +fields of political and artistic opinions. + +Andrea, to whom no form of intoxication was known but those of love and +poetry, had soon gained the attention of the company and skilfully led it +to a discussion of matters musical. + +"Will you tell me, monsieur," said he to the composer of dance-music, "how +it is that the Napoleon of these tunes can condescend to usurp the place of +Palestrina, Pergolesi, and Mozart,--poor creatures who must pack and vanish +at the advent of that tremendous Mass for the Dead?" + +"Well, monsieur," replied the composer, "a musician always finds it +difficult to reply when the answer needs the co-operation of a hundred +skilled executants. Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, without an orchestra, +would be of no great account." + +"Of no great account!" said Marcosini. "Why, all the world knows that the +immortal author of _Don Giovanni_ and the _Requiem_ was named Mozart; and I +am so unhappy as not to know the name of the inexhaustible writer of +quadrilles which are so popular in our drawing-rooms----" + +"Music exists independently of execution," said the retired conductor, who, +in spite of his deafness, had caught a few words of the conversation. "As +he looks through the C-minor symphony by Beethoven, a musician is +transported to the world of fancy on the golden wings of the subject in +G-natural repeated by the horns in E. He sees a whole realm, by turns +glorious in dazzling shafts of light, gloomy under clouds of melancholy, +and cheered by heavenly strains." + +"The new school has left Beethoven far behind," said the ballad-writer, +scornfully. + +"Beethoven is not yet understood," said the Count. "How can he be +excelled?" + +Gambara drank a large glass of champagne, accompanying the draught by a +covert smile of approval. + +"Beethoven," the Count went on, "extended the limits of instrumental music, +and no one has followed in his track." + +Gambara assented with a nod. + +"His work is especially noteworthy for simplicity of construction and for +the way the scheme is worked out," the Count went on. "Most composers make +use of the orchestral parts in a vague, incoherent way, combining them for +a merely temporary effect; they do not persistently contribute to the whole +mass of the movement by their steady and regular progress. Beethoven +assigns its part to each tone-quality from the first. Like the various +companies which, by their disciplined movements, contribute to winning a +battle, the orchestral parts of a symphony by Beethoven obey the plan +ordered for the interest of all, and are subordinate to an admirably +conceived scheme. + +"In this he may be compared to a genius of a different type. In Walter +Scott's splendid historical novels, some personage, who seems to have least +to do with the action of the story, intervenes at a given moment and leads +up to the climax by some thread woven into the plot." + +"_E vero!_" remarked Gambara, to whom common sense seemed to return in +inverse proportion to sobriety. + +Andrea, eager to carry the test further, for a moment forgot all his +predilections; he proceeded to attack the European fame of Rossini, +disputing the position which the Italian school has taken by storm, night +after night for more than thirty years, on a hundred stages in Europe. He +had undertaken a hard task. The first words he spoke raised a strong murmur +of disapproval; but neither repeated interruptions, nor exclamations, nor +frowns, nor contemptuous looks, could check this determined advocate of +Beethoven. + +"Compare," said he, "that sublime composer's works with what by common +consent is called Italian music. What feebleness of ideas, what limpness of +style! That monotony of form, those commonplace cadenzas, those endless +bravura passages introduced at haphazard irrespective of the dramatic +situation, that recurrent _crescendo_ that Rossini brought into vogue, are +now an integral part of every composition; those vocal fireworks result in +a sort of babbling, chattering, vaporous music, of which the sole merit +depends on the greater or less fluency of the singer and his rapidity of +vocalization. + +"The Italian school has lost sight of the high mission of art. Instead of +elevating the crowd, it has condescended to the crowd; it has won its +success only by accepting the suffrages of all comers, and appealing to the +vulgar minds which constitute the majority. Such a success is mere street +juggling. + +"In short, the compositions of Rossini, in whom this music is personified, +with those of the writers who are more or less of his school, to me seem +worthy at best to collect a crowd in the street round a grinding organ, as +an accompaniment to the capers of a puppet show. I even prefer French +music, and I can say no more. Long live German music!" cried he, "when it +is tuneful," he added in a low voice. + +This sally was the upshot of a long preliminary discussion, in which, for +more than a quarter of an hour, Andrea had divagated in the upper sphere of +metaphysics, with the ease of a somnambulist walking over the roofs. + +Gambara, keenly interested in all this transcendentalism, had not lost a +word; he took up his parable as soon as Andrea seemed to have ended, and a +little stir of revived attention was evident among the guests, of whom +several had been about to leave. + +"You attack the Italian school with much vigor," said Gambara, somewhat +warmed to his work by the champagne, "and, for my part, you are very +welcome. I, thank God, stand outside this more or less melodic frippery. +Still, as a man of the world, you are too ungrateful to the classic land +whence Germany and France derived their first teaching. While the +compositions of Carissimi, Cavalli, Scarlatti, and Rossi were being played +throughout Italy, the violin players of the Paris opera house enjoyed the +singular privilege of being allowed to play in gloves. Lulli, who extended +the realm of harmony, and was the first to classify discords, on arriving +in France found but two men--a cook and a mason--whose voice and +intelligence were equal to performing his music; he made a tenor of the +former, and transformed the latter into a bass. At that time Germany had no +musician excepting Sebastian Bach.--But you, monsieur, though you are so +young," Gambara added, in the humble tone of a man who expects to find his +remarks received with scorn or ill-nature, "must have given much time to +the study of these high matters of art; you could not otherwise explain +them so clearly." + +This word made many of the hearers smile, for they had understood nothing +of the fine distinctions drawn by Andrea. Giardini, indeed, convinced that +the Count had been talking mere rhodomontade, nudged him with a laugh in +his sleeve, as at a good joke in which he flattered himself that he was a +partner. + +"There is a great deal that strikes me as very true in all you have said," +Gambara went on; "but be careful. Your argument, while reflecting on +Italian sensuality, seems to me to lean towards German idealism, which is a +no less fatal heresy. If men of imagination and good sense, like you, +desert one camp only to join the other; if they cannot keep to the happy +medium between two forms of extravagance, we shall always be exposed to the +satire of the sophists, who deny all progress, who compare the genius of +man to this table-cloth, which, being too short to cover the whole of +Signor Giardini's table, decks one end at the expense of the other." + +Giardini bounded in his seat as if he had been stung by a horse-fly, but +swift reflection restored him to his dignity as a host; he looked up to +heaven and again nudged the Count, who was beginning to think the cook more +crazy than Gambara. + +This serious and pious way of speaking of art interested the Milanese +extremely. Seated between these two distracted brains, one so noble and the +other so common, and making game of each other to the great entertainment +of the crowd, there was a moment when the Count found himself wavering +between the sublime and its parody, the farcical extremes of human life. +Ignoring the chain of incredible events which had brought them to this +smoky den, he believed himself to be the plaything of some strange +hallucination, and thought of Gambara and Giardini as two abstractions. + +Meanwhile, after a last piece of buffoonery from the deaf conductor in +reply to Gambara, the company had broken up laughing loudly. Giardini went +off to make coffee, which he begged the select few to accept, and his wife +cleared the table. The Count, sitting near the stove between Marianna and +Gambara, was in the very position which the mad musician thought most +desirable, with sensuousness on one side and idealism on the other. +Gambara, finding himself for the first time in the society of a man who did +not laugh at him to his face, soon diverged from generalities to talk of +himself, of his life, his work, and the musical regeneration of which he +believed himself to be the Messiah. + +"Listen," said he, "you who so far have not insulted me, I will tell you +the story of my life; not to make a boast of my perseverance, which is no +virtue of mine, but to the greater glory of Him who has given me His +strength. You seem kind and pious; if you do not believe in me at least you +will pity me. Pity is human; faith comes from God." + +Andrea turned and drew back under his chair the foot that had been seeking +that of the fair Marianna, fixing his eyes on her while listening to +Gambara. + + * * * * * + +"I was born at Cremona, the son of an instrument maker, a fairly good +performer and an even better composer," the musician began. "Thus at an +early age I had mastered the laws of musical construction in its twofold +aspects, the material and the spiritual; and as an inquisitive child I +observed many things which subsequently recurred to the mind of the +full-grown man. + +"The French turned us out of our own home--my father and me. We were ruined +by the war. Thus, at the age of ten I entered on the wandering life to +which most men have been condemned whose brains were busy with innovations, +whether in art, science, or politics. Fate, or the instincts of their mind +which cannot fit into the compartments where the trading class sit, +providentially guides them to the spots where they may find teaching. Led +by my passion for music I wandered throughout Italy from theatre to +theatre, living on very little, as men can live there. Sometimes I played +the bass in an orchestra, sometimes I was on the boards in the chorus, +sometimes under them with the carpenters. Thus I learned every kind of +musical effect, studying the tones of instruments and of the human voice, +wherein they differed and how they harmonized, listening to the score and +applying the rules taught me by my father. + +"It was hungry work, in a land where the sun always shines, where art is +all pervading, but where there is no pay for the artist, since Rome is but +nominally the Sovereign of the Christian world. Sometimes made welcome, +sometimes scouted for my poverty, I never lost courage. I heard a voice +within me promising me fame. + +"Music seemed to me in its infancy, and I think so still. All that is left +to us of musical effort before the seventeenth century, proves to me that +early musicians knew melody only; they were ignorant of harmony and its +immense resources. Music is at once a science and an art. It is rooted in +physics and mathematics, hence it is a science; inspiration makes it an +art, unconsciously utilizing the theorems of science. It is founded in +physics by the very nature of the matter it works on. Sound is air in +motion. The air is formed of constituents which, in us, no doubt, meet with +analogous elements that respond to them, sympathize, and magnify them by +the power of the mind. Thus the air must include a vast variety of +molecules of various degrees of elasticity, and capable of vibrating in as +many different periods as there are tones from all kinds of sonorous +bodies; and these molecules, set in motion by the musician and falling on +our ear, answer to our ideas, according to each man's temperament. I myself +believe that sound is identical in its nature with light. Sound is light, +perceived under another form; each acts through vibrations to which man is +sensitive and which he transforms, in the nervous centres, into ideas. + +"Music, like painting, makes use of materials which have the property of +liberating this or that property from the surrounding medium and so +suggesting an image. The instruments in music perform this part, as color +does in painting. And whereas each sound produced by a sonorous body is +invariably allied with its major third and fifth, whereas it acts on grains +of fine sand lying on stretched parchment so as to distribute them in +geometrical figures that are always the same, according to the +pitch,--quite regular when the combination is a true chord, and indefinite +when the sounds are dissonant,--I say that music is an art conceived in the +very bowels of nature. + +"Music is subject to physical and mathematical laws. Physical laws are but +little known, mathematics are well understood; and it is since their +relations have been studied, that the harmony has been created to which we +owe the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini, grand geniuses, +whose music is undoubtedly nearer to perfection than that of their +precursors, though their genius, too, is unquestionable. The old masters +could sing, but they had not art and science at their command,--a noble +alliance which enables us to merge into one the finest melody and the power +of harmony. + +"Now, if a knowledge of mathematical laws gave us these four great +musicians, what may we not attain to if we can discover the physical laws +in virtue of which--grasp this clearly--we may collect, in larger or +smaller quantities, according to the proportions we may require, an +ethereal substance diffused in the atmosphere which is the medium alike of +music and of light, of the phenomena of vegetation and of animal life! Do +you follow me? Those new laws would arm the composer with new powers by +supplying him with instruments superior to those now in use, and perhaps +with a potency of harmony immense as compared with that now at his command. +If every modified shade of sound answers to a force, that must be known to +enable us to combine all these forces in accordance with their true laws. + +"Composers work with substances of which they know nothing. Why should a +brass and a wooden instrument--a bassoon and horn--have so little identity +of tone, when they act on the same matter, the constituent gases of the +air? Their differences proceed from some displacement of those +constituents, from the way they act on the elements which are their +affinity and which they return, modified by some occult and unknown +process. If we knew what the process was, science and art would both be the +gainers. Whatever extends science enhances art. + +"Well, these are the discoveries I have guessed and made. Yes," said +Gambara, with increasing vehemence, "hitherto men have noted effects rather +than causes. If they could but master the causes, music would be the +greatest of the arts. Is it not the one which strikes deepest to the soul? +You see in painting no more than it shows you; in poetry you have only what +the poet says; music goes far beyond this. Does it not form your taste, and +rouse dormant memories? In a concert-room there may be a thousand souls; a +strain is flung out from Pasta's throat, the execution worthily answering +to the ideas that flashed through Rossini's mind as he wrote the air. That +phrase of Rossini's, transmitted to those attentive souls, is worked out in +so many different poems. To one it presents a woman long dreamed of; to +another, some distant shore where he wandered long ago. It rises up before +him with its drooping willows, its clear waters, and the hopes that then +played under its leafy arbors. One woman is reminded of the myriad feelings +that tortured her during an hour of jealousy, while another thinks of the +unsatisfied cravings of her heart, and paints in the glowing hues of a +dream an ideal lover, to whom she abandons herself with the rapture of the +woman in the Roman mosaic who embraces a chimera; yet a third is thinking +that this very evening some hoped-for joy is to be hers, and rushes by +anticipation into the tide of happiness, its dashing waves breaking against +her burning bosom. Music alone has this power of throwing us back on +ourselves; the other arts give us infinite pleasure. But I am digressing. + +"These were my first ideas, vague indeed; for an inventor at the beginning +only catches glimpses of the dawn, as it were. So I kept these glorious +ideas at the bottom of my knapsack, and they gave me spirit to eat the dry +crust I often dipped in the water of a spring. I worked, I composed airs, +and, after playing them on any instrument that came to hand, I went off +again on foot across Italy. Finally, at the age of two-and-twenty, I +settled in Venice, where for the first time I enjoyed rest and found myself +in a decent position. I there made the acquaintance of a Venetian nobleman +who liked my ideas, who encouraged me in my investigations, and who got me +employment at the Venice theatre. + +"Living was cheap, lodging inexpensive. I had a room in that Capello +palace from which the famous Bianca came forth one evening to become a +Grand Duchess of Tuscany. And I would dream that my unrecognized fame would +also emerge from thence one day to be crowned. + +"I spent my evenings at the theatre and my days in work. Then came +disaster. The performance of an opera in which I had experimented, trying +my music, was a failure. No one understood my score for the _Martiri_. Set +Beethoven before the Italians and they are out of their depth. No one had +patience enough to wait for the effect to be produced by the different +motives given out by each instrument, which were all at last to combine in +a grand _ensemble_. + +"I had built some hopes on the success of the _Martiri_, for we votaries of +the blue divinity Hope always discount results. When a man believes himself +destined to do great things, it is hard not to fancy them achieved; the +bushel always has some cracks through which the light shines. + +"My wife's family lodged in the same house, and the hope of winning +Marianna, who often smiled at me from her window, had done much to +encourage my efforts. I now fell into the deepest melancholy as I sounded +the depths of the gulf I had dropped into; for I foresaw plainly a life of +poverty, a perpetual struggle in which love must die. Marianna acted as +genius does; she jumped across every obstacle, both feet at once. I will +not speak of the little happiness which shed its gilding on the beginning +of my misfortunes. Dismayed at my failure, I decided that Italy was not +intelligent enough, and too much sunk in the dull round of routine to +accept the innovations I conceived of; so I thought of going to Germany. + +"I traveled thither by way of Hungary, listening to the myriad voices of +nature, and trying to reproduce that sublime harmony by the help of +instruments which I constructed or altered for the purpose. These +experiments involved me in vast expenses which had soon exhausted my +savings. And yet those were our golden days. In Germany I was appreciated. +There has been nothing in my life more glorious than that time. I can think +of nothing to compare with the vehement joys I found by the side of +Marianna, whose beauty was then of really heavenly radiance and splendor. +In short, I was happy. + +"During that period of weakness I more than once expressed my passion in +the language of earthly harmony. I even wrote some of those airs, just like +geometrical patterns, which are so much admired in the world of fashion +that you move in. But as soon as I made a little way I met with insuperable +obstacles raised by my rivals, all hypercritical or unappreciative. + +"I had heard of France as being a country where novelties were favorably +received, and I wanted to get there; my wife had a little money and we came +to Paris. Till then no one had actually laughed in my face; but in this +dreadful city I had to endure that new form of torture, to which abject +poverty ere long added its bitter sufferings. Reduced to lodging in this +mephitic quarter, for many months we have lived exclusively on Marianna's +sewing, she having found employment for her needle in working for the +unhappy prostitutes who make this street their hunting ground. Marianna +assures me that among those poor creatures she has met with such +consideration and generosity as I, for my part, ascribe to the ascendency +of virtue so pure that even vice is compelled to respect it." + +"Hope on," said Andrea. "Perhaps you have reached the end of your trials. +And while waiting for the time when my endeavor, seconding yours, shall set +your labors in a true light, allow me, as a fellow-countryman and an artist +like yourself, to offer you some little advance on the undoubted success of +your score." + +"All that has to do with matters of material existence I leave to my wife," +replied Gambara. "She will decide as to what we may accept without a blush +from so thorough a gentleman as you seem to be. For my part,--and it is +long since I have allowed myself to indulge such full confidences,--I must +now ask you to allow me to leave you. I see a melody beckoning to me, +dancing and floating before me, bare and quivering, like a girl entreating +her lover for her clothes which he has hidden. Good-night. I must go and +dress my mistress. My wife I leave with you." + +He hurried away, as a man who blames himself for the loss of valuable time; +and Marianna, somewhat embarrassed, prepared to follow him. + +Andrea dared not detain her. + +Giardini came to the rescue. + +"But you heard, signora," said he. "Your husband has left you to settle +some little matters with the Signor Conte." + +Marianna sat down again, but without raising her eyes to Andrea, who +hesitated before speaking. + +"And will not Signor Gambara's confidence entitle me to his wife's?" he +said in agitated tones. "Can the fair Marianna refuse to tell me the story +of her life?" + +"My life!" said Marianna. "It is the life of the ivy. If you wish to know +the story of my heart, you must suppose me equally destitute of pride and +of modesty if you can ask me to tell it after what you have just heard." + +"Of whom, then, can I ask it?" cried the Count, in whom passion was +blinding his wits. + +"Of yourself," replied Marianna. "Either you understand me by this time, or +you never will. Try to ask yourself." + +"I will, but you must listen. And this hand, which I am holding, is to lie +in mine as long as my narrative is truthful." + +"I am listening," said Marianna. + +"A woman's life begins with her first passion," said Andrea. "And my dear +Marianna began to live only on the day when she first saw Paolo Gambara. +She needed some deep passion to feed upon, and, above all, some interesting +weakness to shelter and uphold. The beautiful woman's nature with which she +is endowed is perhaps not so truly passion as maternal love. + +"You sigh, Marianna? I have touched one of the aching wounds in your heart. +It was a noble part for you to play, so young as you were,--that of +protectress to a noble but wandering intellect. You said to yourself: +'Paolo will be my genius; I shall be his common sense; between us we shall +be that almost divine being called an angel,--the sublime creature that +enjoys and understands, reason never stifling love.' + +"And then, in the first impetus of youth, you heard the thousand voices of +nature which the poet longed to reproduce. Enthusiasm clutched you when +Paolo spread before you the treasures of poetry, while seeking to embody +them in the sublime but restricted language of music; you admired him when +delirious rapture carried him up and away from you, for you liked to +believe that all this devious energy would at last come down and alight as +love. But you knew not the tyrannous and jealous despotism of the ideal +over the minds that fall in love with it. Gambara, before meeting you, had +given himself over to the haughty and overbearing mistress, with whom you +have struggled for him to this day. + +"Once, for an instant, you had a vision of happiness. Paolo, tumbling from +the lofty sphere where his spirit was constantly soaring, was amazed to +find reality so sweet; you fancied that his madness would be lulled in the +arms of love. But before long Music again clutched her prey. The dazzling +mirage which had cheated you into the joys of reciprocal love made the +lonely path on which you had started look more desolate and barren. + +"In the tale your husband has just told me, I could read, as plainly as in +the contrast between your looks and his, all the painful secrets of that +ill-assorted union, in which you have accepted the sufferer's part. Though +your conduct has been unfailingly heroical, though your firmness has never +once given way in the exercise of your painful duties, perhaps, in the +silence of lonely nights, the heart that at this moment is beating so +wildly in your breast, may, from time to time, have rebelled. Your +husband's superiority was in itself your worst torment. If he had been less +noble, less single-minded, you might have deserted him; but his virtues +upheld yours; you wondered, perhaps, whether his heroism or your own would +be the first to give way. + +"You clung to your really magnanimous task as Paolo clung to his chimera. +If you had had nothing but a devotion to duty to guide and sustain you, +triumph might have seemed easier; you would only have had to crush your +heart, and transfer your life into the world of abstractions; religion +would have absorbed all else, and you would have lived for an idea, like +those saintly women who kill all the instincts of nature at the foot of the +altar. But the all-pervading charm of Paolo, the loftiness of his mind, his +rare and touching proofs of tenderness, constantly drag you down from that +ideal realm where virtue would fain maintain you; they perennially revive +in you the energies you have exhausted in contending with the phantom of +love. You never suspected this! The faintest glimmer of hope led you on in +pursuit of the sweet vision. + +"At last the disappointments of many years have undermined your +patience,--an angel would have lost it long since,--and now the apparition +so long pursued is no more than a shade without substance. Madness that is +so nearly allied to genius can know no cure in this world. When this +thought first struck you, you looked back on your past youth, sacrificed, +if not wasted; you then bitterly discerned the blunder of nature that had +given you a father when you looked for a husband. You asked yourself +whether you had not gone beyond the duty of a wife in keeping yourself +wholly for a man who was bound up in his science. Marianna, leave your hand +in mine; all I have said is true. And you looked about you--but now you +were in Paris, not in Italy, where men know how to love----" + +"Oh! Let me finish the tale," cried Marianna. "I would rather say things +myself. I will be honest; I feel that I am speaking to my truest friend. +Yes, I was in Paris when all you have expressed so clearly took place in my +mind; but when I saw you I was saved, for I had never met with the love I +had dreamed of from my childhood. My poor dress and my dwelling-place had +hidden me from the eyes of men of your class. A few young men, whose +position did not allow of their insulting me, were all the more +intolerable for the levity with which they treated me. Some made game of my +husband, as if he were merely a ridiculous old man; others basely tried to +win his good graces to betray me; one and all talked of getting me away +from him, and none understood the devotion I feel for a soul that is so far +away from us only because it is so near heaven, for that friend, that +brother, whose handmaid I will always be. + +"You alone understood, did you not? the tie that binds me to him. Tell me +that you feel a sincere and disinterested regard for my Paolo----" + +"I gladly accept your praises," Andrea interrupted; "but go no further; do +not compel me to contradict you. I love you, Marianna, as we love in the +beautiful country where we both were born. I love you with all my soul and +with all my strength; but before offering you that love, I will be worthy +of yours. I will make a last attempt to give back to you the man you have +loved so long and will love forever. Till success or defeat is certain, +accept without any shame the modest ease I can give you both. We will go +to-morrow and choose a place where he may live. + +"Have you such regard for me as will allow you to make me the partner in +your guardianship?" + +Marianna, surprised at such magnanimity, held out her hand to the Count, +who went away, trying to evade the civilities of Giardini and his wife. + + * * * * * + +On the following day Giardini took the Count up to the room where the +Gambaras lodged. Though Marianna fully knew her lover's noble soul,--for +there are natures which quickly enter into each other's spirit,--Marianna +was too good a housewife not to betray her annoyance at receiving such a +fine gentleman in so humble a room. Everything was exquisitely clean. She +had spent the morning in dusting her motley furniture, the handiwork of +Signor Giardini, who had put it together, at odd moments of leisure, out of +the fragments of the instruments rejected by Gambara. + +Andrea had never seen anything quite so crazy. To keep a decent countenance +he turned away from a grotesque bed, contrived by the ingenious cook in the +case of an old harpsichord, and looked at Marianna's narrow couch, of which +the single mattress was covered with a white muslin counterpane, a +circumstance that gave rise in his mind to some sad but sweet thoughts. + +He wished to speak of his plans and of his morning's work; but Gambara, in +his enthusiasm, believing that he had at last met with a willing listener, +took possession of him, and compelled him to listen to the opera he had +written for Paris. + +"In the first place, monsieur," said the composer, "allow me to explain the +subject in a few words. Here, the hearers receiving a musical impression do +not work it out in themselves, as religion bids us work out the texts of +Scripture in prayer. Hence it is very difficult to make them understand +that there is in nature an eternal melody, exquisitely sweet, a perfect +harmony, disturbed only by revolutions independent of the divine will, as +passions are uncontrolled by the will of men. + +"I, therefore, had to seek a vast framework in which effect and cause might +both be included; for the aim of my music is to give a picture of the life +of nations from the loftiest point of view. My opera, for which I myself +wrote the _libretto_, for a poet would never have fully developed the +subject, is the life of Mahomet,--a figure in whom the magic of Sabaeanism +combined with the Oriental poetry of the Hebrew Scriptures to result in one +of the greatest human epics, the Arab dominion. Mahomet certainly derived +from the Hebrews the idea of a despotic government, and from the religion +of the shepherd tribes or Sabaeans the spirit of expansion which created the +splendid empire of the Khalifs. His destiny was stamped on him in his +birth, for his father was a heathen and his mother a Jewess. Ah! my dear +Count, to be a great musician a man must be very learned. Without knowledge +he can get no local color and put no ideas into his music. The composer who +sings for singing's sake is an artisan, not an artist. + +"This magnificent opera is the continuation of the great work I projected. +My first opera was called _The Martyrs_, and I intend to write a third on +Jerusalem delivered. You perceive the beauty of this trilogy and what a +variety of motives it offers,--the Martyrs, Mahomet, the Deliverance of +Jerusalem: the God of the West, the God of the East, and the struggle of +their worshipers over a tomb. But we will not dwell on my fame, now for +ever lost. + +"This is the argument of my opera." He paused. "The first act," he went on, +"shows Mahomet as a porter to Kadijah, a rich widow with whom his uncle +placed him. He is in love and ambitious. Driven from Mecca, he escapes to +Medina, and dates his era from his flight, the _Hegira_. In the second act +he is a Prophet, founding a militant religion. In the third, disgusted with +all things, having exhausted life, Mahomet conceals the manner of his death +in the hope of being regarded as a god,--last effort of human pride. + +"Now you shall judge of my way of expressing in sound a great idea, for +which poetry could find no adequate expression in words." + +Gambara sat down to the piano with an absorbed gaze, and his wife brought +him the mass of papers forming his score; but he did not open them. + +"The whole opera," said he, "is founded on a bass, as on a fruitful soil. +Mahomet was to have a majestic bass voice, and his wife necessarily had a +contralto. Kadijah was quite old--twenty! Attention! This is the overture. +It begins with an _andante_ in C major, triple time. Do you hear the +sadness of the ambitious man who is not satisfied with love? Then, through +his lamentation, by a transition to the key of E flat, _allegro_, common +time, we hear the cries of the epileptic lover, his fury and certain +warlike phrases, for the mighty scimitar of the Khalifs begins to gleam +before him. The charms of the one and only woman give him the impulse to +multiplied loves which strikes us in _Don Giovanni_. Now, as you hear these +themes, do you not catch a glimpse of Mahomet's Paradise? + +"And next we have a _cantabile_ (A flat major, six-eight time), that might +expand the soul that is least susceptible to music. Kadijah has understood +Mahomet! Then Kadijah announces to the populace the Prophet's interviews +with the Angel Gabriel (_maestoso sostenuto_ in F major). The magistrates +and priests, power and religion, feeling themselves attacked by the +innovator, as Christ and Socrates also attacked effete or worn-out powers +and religions, persecute Mahomet and drive him out of Mecca (_stretto_ in C +major). Then comes my beautiful dominant (G major, common time). Arabia now +harkens to the Prophet; horsemen arrive (G major, E flat, B flat, G minor, +and still common time). The mass of men gathers like an avalanche; the +false Prophet has begun on a tribe the work he will achieve over a world (G +major). + +"He promises the Arabs universal dominion, and they believe him because he +is inspired. The _crescendo_ beings (still in the dominant). Here come some +flourishes (in C major) from the brass, founded on the harmony, but +strongly marked, and asserting themselves as an expression of the first +triumphs. Medina has gone over to the Prophet, and the whole army marches +on Mecca (an explosion of sound in C major). The whole power of the +orchestra is worked up like a conflagration; every instrument is employed; +it is a torrent of harmony. + +"Suddenly the _tutti_ is interrupted by a flowing air (on the minor third). +You hear the last strain of devoted love. The woman who had upheld the +great man dies concealing her despair, dies at the moment of triumph for +him in whom love has become too overbearing to be content with one woman; +and she worships him enough to sacrifice herself to the greatness of the +man who is killing her. What a blaze of love! + +"Then the Desert rises to overrun the world (back to C major). The whole +strength of the orchestra comes in again, collected in a tremendous quintet +grounded on the fundamental bass,--and he is dying! Mahomet is +world-weary; he has exhausted everything. Now he craves to die a god. +Arabia, in fact, worships and prays to him, and we return to the first +melancholy strain (C minor) to which the curtain rose. + +"Now, do you not discern," said Gambara, ceasing to play, and turning to +the Count, "in this picturesque and vivid music--abrupt, grotesque, or +melancholy, but always grand--the complete expression of the life of an +epileptic, mad for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all his +defects as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster into a +triumph? Did not you feel a sense of his fascination exerted over a greedy +and lustful race, in this overture, which is an epitome of the opera?" + +At first calm and stern, the maestro's face, in which Andrea had been +trying to read the ideas he was uttering in inspired tones, though the +chaotic flood of notes afforded no clue to them, had by degrees glowed with +fire and assumed an impassioned force that infected Marianna and the cook. +Marianna, too, deeply affected by certain passages in which she recognized +a picture of her own position, could not conceal the expression of her eyes +from Andrea. + +Gambara wiped his brow, and shot a glance at the ceiling of such fierce +energy that he seemed to pierce it and soar to the very skies. + +"You have seen the vestibule," said he; "we will now enter the palace. The +opera begins:-- + +"Act I. Mahomet, alone on the stage, begins with an air (F natural, common +time), interrupted by a chorus of camel-drivers gathered round a well at +the back of the stage (they sing in contrary time--twelve-eight). What +majestic woe! It will appeal to the most frivolous women, piercing to their +inmost nerves if they have no heart. Is not this the very expression of +crushed genius?" + +To Andrea's great astonishment,--for Marianna was accustomed to +it,--Gambara contracted his larynx to such a pitch that the only sound was +a stifled cry not unlike the bark of a watch-dog that has lost its voice. A +slight foam came to the composer's lips and made Andrea shudder. + +"His wife appears (A minor). Such a magnificent duet! In this number I have +shown that Mahomet has the will and his wife the brains. Kadijah announces +that she is about to devote herself to an enterprise that will rob her of +her young husband's love. Mahomet means to conquer the world; this his wife +has guessed, and she supports him by persuading the people of Mecca that +her husband's attacks of epilepsy are the effect of his intercourse with +the angels (chorus of the first followers of Mahomet, who come to promise +him their aid, C sharp minor, _sotto voce_). Mahomet goes off to seek the +Angel Gabriel (_recitative_ in F major). His wife encourages the disciples +(_aria_, interrupted by the chorus; gusts of chanting support Kadijah's +broad and majestic air, A major). + +"Abdallah, the father of Ayesha,--the only maiden Mahomet had found really +innocent, wherefore he changed the name of Abdallah to Abubekir (the father +of the virgin),--comes forward with Ayesha and sings against the chorus, in +strains which rise above the other voices and supplement the air sung by +Kadijah in contrapuntal treatment. Omar, the father of another maiden who +is to be Mahomet's concubine, follows Abubekir's example; he and his +daughter join in to form a quintette. The girl Ayesha is first soprano, +Hafsa second soprano; Abubekir is a bass, Omar a baritone. + +"Mahomet returns, inspired. He sings his first _bravura_ air, the beginning +of the _finale_ (E major), promising the empire of the world to those who +believe in him. The Prophet, seeing the two damsels, then, by a gentle +transition (from B major to G major), addresses them in amorous tones. Ali, +Mahomet's cousin, and Khaled, his greatest general, both tenors, now arrive +and announce the persecution; the magistrates, the military, and the +authorities have all proscribed the Prophet (_recitative_). Mahomet +declares in an invocation (in C) that the Angel Gabriel is on his side, and +points to a pigeon that is seen flying away. The chorus of believers +responds in accents of devotion (on a modulation to B major). The soldiers, +magistrates, and officials then come on (_tempo di marcia_, common time, B +major). A chorus in two divisions (_stretto_ in E major). Mahomet yields to +the storm (in a descending phrase of diminished sevenths) and makes his +escape. The fierce and gloomy tone of this _finale_ is relieved by the +phrases given to the three women who foretell Mahomet's triumph, and these +motives are further developed in the third act in the scene where Mahomet +is enjoying his splendor." + +The tears rose to Gambara's eyes, and it was only upon controlling his +emotion that he went on. + +"Act II. The religion is now established. The Arabs are guarding the +Prophet's tent while he speaks with God (chorus in A minor). Mahomet +appears (a prayer in F). What a majestic and noble strain is this that +forms the bass of the voices, in which I have perhaps enlarged the borders +of melody. It was needful to express the wonderful energy of this great +human movement which created an architecture, a music, a poetry of its own, +a costume and manners. As you listen, you are walking under the arcades of +the Generalife, the carved vaults of the Alhambra. The runs and trills +depict that delicate mauresque decoration, and the gallant and valorous +religion which was destined to wage war against the gallant and valorous +chivalry of Christendom. A few brass instruments awake in the orchestra, +announcing the Prophet's first triumph (in a broken _cadenza_). The Arabs +adore the Prophet (E flat major), and Khaled, Amru, and Ali arrive (_tempo +di marcia_). The armies of the faithful have taken many towns and +subjugated the three Arabias. Such a grand recitative!--Mahomet rewards his +generals by presenting them with maidens. + +"And here," said Gambara, sadly, "there is one of those wretched ballets, +which interrupt the thread of the finest musical tragedies! But Mahomet +elevates it once more by his great prophetic scene, which poor Monsieur +Voltaire begins with these words: + + "Arabia's time at last has come! + +"He is interrupted by a chorus of triumphant Arabs (twelve-eight time, +_accelerando_). The tribes arrive in crowds; the horns and brass reappear +in the orchestra. General rejoicings ensue, all the voices joining in by +degrees, and Mahomet announces polygamy. In the midst of all this triumph, +the woman who has been of such faithful service to Mahomet sings a +magnificent air (in B major). 'And I,' says she, 'am I no longer loved?' +'We must part. Thou art but a woman, and I am a Prophet; I may still have +slaves but no equal.' Just listen to this duet (G sharp minor). What +anguish! The woman understands the greatness her hands have built up; she +loves Mahomet well enough to sacrifice herself to his glory; she worships +him as a god, without criticising him,--without murmuring. Poor woman! His +first dupe and his first victim! + +"What a subject for the _finale_ (in B major) is her grief, brought out in +such sombre hues against the acclamations of the chorus, and mingling with +Mahomet's tones as he throws his wife aside as a tool of no further use, +still showing her that he can never forget her! What fireworks of triumph! +what a rush of glad and rippling song go up from the two young voices +(first and second soprano) of Ayesha and Hafsa, supported by Ali and his +wife, by Omar and Abubekir! Weep!--rejoice!--Triumph and tears! Such is +life." + +Marianna could not control her tears, and Andrea was so deeply moved that +his eyes were moist. The Neapolitan cook was startled by the magnetic +influence of the ideas expressed by Gambara's convulsive accents. + +The composer looked round, saw the group, and smiled. + +"At last you understand me!" said he. + +No conqueror, led in pomp to the Capitol under the purple beams of glory, +as the crown was placed on his head amid the acclamations of a nation, ever +wore such an expression. The composer's face was radiant, like that of a +holy martyr. No one dispelled the error. A terrible smile parted Marianna's +lips. The Count was appalled by the guilelessness of this mania. + +"Act III," said the enchanted musician, reseating himself at the piano. +"(_Andantino, solo._) Mahomet in his seraglio, surrounded by women, but not +happy. Quartette of Houris (A major). What pompous harmony, what trills as +of ecstatic nightingales! Modulation (into F sharp minor). The theme is +stated (on the dominant E and repeated in F major). Here every delight is +grouped and expressed to give effect to the contrast of the gloomy _finale_ +of the first act. After the dancing, Mahomet rises and sings a grand +_bravura_ air (in F minor), repelling the perfect and devoted love of his +first wife, but confessing himself conquered by polygamy. Never has a +musician had so fine a subject! The orchestra and the chorus of female +voices express the joys of the Houris, while Mahomet reverts to the +melancholy strain of the opening. Where is Beethoven," cried Gambara, "to +appreciate this prodigious reaction of my opera on itself? How completely +it all rests on the bass. + +"It is thus that Beethoven composed his E minor symphony. But his heroic +work is purely instrumental, whereas here, my heroic phrase is worked out +on a sextette of the finest human voices, and a chorus of the faithful on +guard at the door of the sacred dwelling. I have every resource of melody +and harmony at my command, an orchestra and voices. Listen to the utterance +of all these phases of human life, rich and poor;--battle, triumph, and +exhaustion! + +"Ali arrives, the Koran prevails in every province (duet in D minor). +Mahomet places himself in the hands of his two fathers-in-law; he will +abdicate his rule and die in retirement to consolidate his work. A +magnificent sextette (B flat major). He takes leave of all (solo in F +natural). His two fathers-in-law, constituted his vicars or Khalifs, appeal +to the people. A great triumphal march, and a prayer by all the Arabs +kneeling before the sacred house, the Kasbah, from which a pigeon is seen +to fly away (the same key). This prayer, sung by sixty voices and led by +the women (in B flat), crowns the stupendous work expressive of the life +of nations and of man. Here you have every emotion, human and divine." + +Andrea gazed at Gambara in blank amazement. Though at first he had been +struck by the terrible irony of the situation,--this man expressing the +feelings of Mahomet's wife without discovering them in Marianna,--the +husband's hallucination was as nothing compared with the composer's. There +was no hint even of a poetical or musical idea in the hideous cacophony +with which he had deluged their ears; the first principles of harmony, the +most elementary rules of composition, were absolutely alien to this chaotic +structure. Instead of the scientifically compacted music which Gambara +described, his fingers produced sequences of fifths, sevenths, and octaves, +of major thirds, progressions of fourths with no supporting bass,--a medley +of discordant sounds struck out haphazard in such a way as to be +excruciating to the least sensitive ear. It is difficult to give any idea +of the grotesque performance. New words would be needed to describe this +impossible music. + +Andrea, painfully affected by this worthy man's madness, colored, and stole +a glance at Marianna; while she, turning pale and looking down, could not +restrain her tears. In the midst of this chaos of notes, Gambara had every +now and then given vent to his rapture in exclamations of delight. He had +closed his eyes in ecstasy; had smiled at his piano; had looked at it with +a frown; put out his tongue at it after the fashion of the inspired +performer,--in short, was quite intoxicated with the poetry that filled his +brain, and that he had vainly striven to utter. The strange discords that +clashed under his fingers had obviously sounded in his ears like celestial +harmonies. + +A deaf man, seeing the inspired gaze of his blue eyes open on another +world, the rosy glow that tinged his cheeks, and, above all, the heavenly +serenity which ecstasy stamped on his proud and noble countenance, would +have supposed that he was looking on at the improvisation of a really great +artist. The illusion would have been all the more natural because the +performance of this mad music required immense executive skill to achieve +such fingering. Gambara must have worked at it for years. + +Nor were his hands alone employed; his feet were constantly at work with +complicated pedaling; his body swayed to and fro; the perspiration poured +down his face while he toiled to produce a great _crescendo_ with the +feeble means the thankless instrument placed at his command. He stamped, +puffed, shouted; his fingers were as swift as the serpent's double tongue; +and finally, at the last crash on the keys, he fell back in his chair, +resting his head on the top of it. + +"_Per Bacco!_ I am quite stunned," said the Count as he left the house. "A +child dancing on the keyboard would make better music." + +"Certainly mere chance could not more successfully avoid hitting two notes +in concord than that possessed creature has done during the past hour," +said Giardini. + +"How is it that the regular beauty of Marianna's features is not spoiled by +incessantly hearing such a hideous medley?" said the Count to himself. +"Marianna will certainly grow ugly." + +"Signor, she must be saved from that," cried Giardini. + +"Yes," said Andrea. "I have thought of that. Still, to be sure that my +plans are not based on error, I must confirm my doubts by another +experiment. I will return and examine the instruments he has invented. +To-morrow, after dinner, we will have a little supper. I will send in some +wine and little dishes." + +The cook bowed. + +Andrea spent the following day in superintending the arrangement of the +rooms where he meant to install the artist in a humble home. + +In the evening the Count made his appearance, and found the wine, according +to his instructions, set out with some care by Marianna and Giardini. +Gambara proudly exhibited the little drums, on which lay the powder by +means of which he made his observations on the pitch and quality of the +sounds emitted by his instruments. + +"You see," said he, "by what simple means I can prove the most important +propositions. Acoustics thus can show me the analogous effects of sound on +every object of its impact. All harmonies start from a common centre and +preserve the closest relations among themselves; or rather, harmony, like +light, is decomposable by our art as a ray is by a prism." + +He then displayed the instruments constructed in accordance with his laws, +explaining the changes he had introduced into their constitution. And +finally he announced that to conclude this preliminary inspection, which +could only satisfy a superficial curiosity, he would perform on an +instrument that contained all the elements of a complete orchestra, and +which he called a _Panharmonicon_. + +"If it is the machine in that huge case, which brings down on us the +complaints of the neighborhood whenever you work at it, you will not play +on it long," said Giardini. "The police will interfere. Remember that!" + +"If that poor idiot stays in the room," said Gambara in a whisper to the +Count, "I cannot possibly play." + +Andrea dismissed the cook, promising a handsome reward if he would keep +watch outside and hinder the neighbors or the police from interfering. +Giardini, who had not stinted himself while helping Gambara to wine, was +quite willing. + +Gambara, without being drunk, was in the condition when every power of the +brain is over-wrought; when the walls of the room are transparent; when the +garret has no roof, and the soul soars in the empyrean of spirits. + +Marianna, with some little difficulty, removed the covers from an +instrument as large as a grand piano, but with an upper case added. This +strange-looking instrument, besides this second body and its keyboard, +supported the openings or bells of various wind instruments and the closed +funnels of a few organ pipes. + +"Will you play me the prayer you say is so fine at the end of your opera?" +said the Count. + +To the great surprise of both Marianna and the Count, Gambara began with a +succession of chords that proclaimed him a master; and their astonishment +gave way first to amazed admiration and then to perfect rapture, effacing +all thought of the place and the performer. The effects of a real orchestra +could not have been finer than the voices of the wind instruments, which +were like those of an organ and combined wonderfully with the harmonies of +the strings. But the unfinished condition of the machine set limits to the +composer's execution, and his idea seemed all the greater; for, often, the +very perfection of a work of art limits its suggestiveness to the recipient +soul. Is not this proved by the preference accorded to a sketch rather than +a finished picture when on their trial before those who interpret a work in +their own mind rather than accept it rounded off and complete? + +The purest and serenest music that Andrea had ever listened to rose up from +under Gambara's fingers like the vapor of incense from an altar. The +composer's voice grew young again, and, far from marring the noble melody, +it elucidated it, supported it, guided it,--just as the feeble and +quavering voice of an accomplished reader, such as Andrieux, for instance, +can expand the meaning of some great scene by Corneille or Racine by +lending personal and poetical feeling. + +This really angelic strain showed what treasures lay hidden in that +stupendous opera, which, however, would never find comprehension so long as +the musician persisted in trying to explain it in his present demented +state. His wife and the Count were equally divided between the music and +their surprise at this hundred-voiced instrument, inside which a stranger +might have fancied an invisible chorus of girls were hidden, so closely did +some of the tones resemble the human voice; and they dared not express +their ideas by a look or a word. Marianna's face was lighted up by a +radiant beam of hope which revived the glories of her youth. This +renascence of beauty, co-existent with the luminous glow of her husband's +genius, cast a shade of regret on the Count's exquisite pleasure in this +mysterious hour. + +"You are our good genius!" whispered Marianna. "I am tempted to believe +that you actually inspire him; for I, who never am away from him, have +never heard anything like this." + +"And Kadijah's farewell!" cried Gambara, who sang the _cavatina_ which he +had described the day before as sublime, and which now brought tears to the +eyes of the lovers, so perfectly did it express the loftiest devotion of +love. + +"Who can have taught you such strains?" cried the Count. + +"The Spirit," said Gambara. "When he appears, all is fire. I see the +melodies there before me; lovely, fresh in vivid hues like flowers. They +beam on me, they ring out,--and I listen. But it takes a long, long time to +reproduce them." + +"Some more!" said Marianna. + +Gambara, who could not tire, played on without effort or antics. He +performed his overture with such skill, bringing out such rich and original +musical effects, that the Count was quite dazzled, and at last believed in +some magic like that commanded by Paganini and Liszt,--a style of execution +which changes every aspect of music as an art, by giving it a poetic +quality far above musical inventions. + +"Well, Excellenza, and can you cure him?" asked Giardini, as Andrea came +out. + +"I shall soon find out," replied the Count. "This man's intellect has two +windows; one is closed to the world, the other is open to the heavens. The +first is music, the second is poetry. Till now he has insisted on sitting +in front of the shuttered window; he must be got to the other. It was you, +Giardini, who first started me in the right track, by telling me that your +client's mind was clearer after drinking a few glasses of wine." + +"Yes," cried the cook, "and I can see what your plan is." + +"If it is not too late to make the thunder of poetry audible to his ears, +in the midst of the harmonies of some noble music, we must put him into a +condition to receive it and appreciate it. Will you help me to intoxicate +Gambara, my good fellow? Will you be none the worse for it?" + +"What do you mean, Excellenza?" + +Andrea went off without answering him, laughing at the acumen still left to +this cracked wit. + +On the following day he called for Marianna, who had spent the morning in +arranging her dress,--a simple but decent outfit, on which she had spent +all her little savings. The transformation would have destroyed the +illusions of a mere dangler; but Andrea's caprice had become a passion. +Marianna, diverted of her picturesque poverty, and looking like any +ordinary woman of modest rank, inspired dreams of wedded life. + +He handed her into a hackney coach, and told her of the plans he had in his +head; and she approved of everything, happy in finding her admirer more +lofty, more generous, more disinterested than she had dared to hope. He +took her to a little apartment, where he had allowed himself to remind her +of his good offices by some of the elegant trifles which have a charm for +the most virtuous women. + +"I will never speak to you of love till you give up all hope of your +Paolo," said the Count to Marianna, as he bid her good-bye at the Rue +Froid-Manteau. "You will be witness to the sincerity of my attempts. If +they succeed, I may find myself unequal to keeping up my part as a friend; +but in that case I shall go far away, Marianna. Though I have firmness +enough to work for your happiness, I shall not have so much as will enable +me to look on at it." + +"Do not say such things. Generosity, too, has its dangers," said she, +swallowing down her tears. "But are you going now?" + +"Yes," said Andrea; "be happy, without any drawbacks." + + * * * * * + +If Giardini might be believed, the new treatment was beneficial to both +husband and wife. Every evening after his wine, Gambara seemed less +self-centered, talked more, and with great lucidity; he even spoke at last +of reading the papers. Andrea could not help quaking at his unexpectedly +rapid success; but though his distress made him aware of the strength of +his passion, it did not make him waver in his virtuous resolve. + +One day he called to note the progress of this singular cure. Though the +state of the patient at first gave him satisfaction, his joy was dashed by +Marianna's beauty, for an easy life had restored its brilliancy. He called +now every evening to enjoy calm and serious conversation, to which he +contributed lucid and well considered arguments controverting Gambara's +singular theories. He took advantage of the remarkable acumen of the +composer's mind as to every point not too directly bearing on his manias, +to obtain his assent to principles in various branches of art, and apply +them subsequently to music. All was well so long as the patient's brain was +heated with the fumes of wine; but as soon as he had recovered--or, rather, +lost--his reason, he was a monomaniac once more. + +However, Paolo was already more easily diverted by the impression of +outside things; his mind was more capable of addressing itself to several +points at a time. + +Andrea, who took an artistic interest in his semi-medical treatment, +thought at last that the time had come for a great experiment. He would +give a dinner at his own house, to which he would invite Giardini for the +sake of keeping the tragedy and the parody side by side, and afterwards +take the party to the first performance of _Robert le Diable_. He had seen +it in rehearsal, and he judged it well fitted to open his patient's eyes. + +By the end of the second course, Gambara was already tipsy, laughing at +himself with a very good grace; while Giardini confessed that his own +culinary innovations were not worth a rush. Andrea had neglected nothing +that could contribute to this twofold miracle. The wines of Orvieto and of +Montefiascone, conveyed with the peculiar care needed in moving them, +Lachrymachristi and Giro,--all the heady liqueurs of _la cara +Patria_,--went to their brains with the intoxication alike of the grape +and of fond memory. At dessert the musician and the cook both abjured every +heresy; one was humming a _cavatina_ by Rossini, and the other piling +delicacies on his plate and washing them down with Maraschino from Zara, to +the prosperity of the French _cuisine_. + +The Count took advantage of this happy frame of mind, and Gambara allowed +himself to be taken to the opera like a lamb. + +At the first introductory notes Gambara's intoxication appeared to clear +away and make way for the feverish excitement which sometimes brought his +judgment and his imagination into perfect harmony; for it was their +habitual disagreement, no doubt, that caused his madness. The ruling idea +of that great musical drama appeared to him, no doubt, in its noble +simplicity, like a lightning flash, illuminating the utter darkness in +which he lived. To his unsealed eyes this music revealed the immense +horizons of a world in which he found himself for the first time, though +recognizing it as that he had seen in his dreams. He fancied himself +transported into the scenery of his native land, where that beautiful +Italian landscape begins at what Napoleon so cleverly described as the +_glacis_ of the Alps. Carried back by memory to the time when his young and +eager brain was as yet untroubled by the ecstasy of his too exuberant +imagination he listened with religious awe and would not utter a single +word. The Count respected the internal travail of his soul. Till half-past +twelve Gambara sat so perfectly motionless that the frequenters of the +opera house took him, no doubt, for what he was--a man drunk. + +On their return, Andrea began to attack Meyerbeer's work, in order to wake +up Gambara, who sat sunk in the half-torpid state common in drunkards. + +"What is there in that incoherent score to reduce you to a condition of +somnambulism?" asked Andrea, when they got out at his house. "The story of +_Robert le Diable_, to be sure, is not devoid of interest, and Holtei has +worked it out with great skill in a drama that is very well written and +full of strong and pathetic situations; but the French librettist has +contrived to extract from it the most ridiculous farrago of nonsense. The +absurdities of the libretti of Vesari and Schikander are not to compare +with those of the words of Robert le Diable; it is a dramatic nightmare, +which oppresses the hearer without deeply moving him. + +"And Meyerbeer has given the devil a too prominent part. Bertram and Alice +represent the contest between right and wrong, the spirits of good and +evil. This antagonism offered a splendid opportunity to the composer. The +sweetest melodies, in juxtaposition with harsh and crude strains, was the +natural outcome of the form of the story; but in the German composer's +score the demons sing better than the saints. The heavenly airs belie their +origin, and when the composer abandons the infernal motives he returns to +them as soon as possible, fatigued with the effort of keeping aloof from +them. Melody, the golden thread that ought never to be lost throughout so +vast a plan, often vanishes from Meyerbeer's work. Feeling counts for +nothing, the heart has no part in it. Hence we never come upon those happy +inventions, those artless scenes, which captivate all our sympathies and +leave a blissful impression on the soul. + +"Harmony reigns supreme, instead of being the foundation from which the +melodic groups of the musical picture stand forth. These discordant +combinations, far from moving the listener, arouse in him a feeling +analogous to that which he would experience on seeing a rope-dancer hanging +to a thread and swaying between life and death. Never does a soothing +strain come in to mitigate the fatiguing suspense. It really is as though +the composer had had no other object in view than to produce a baroque +effect without troubling himself about musical truth or unity, or about the +capabilities of human voices which are swamped by this flood of +instrumental noise." + +"Silence, my friend!" cried Gambara. "I am still under the spell of that +glorious chorus of hell, made still more terrible by the long trumpets,--a +new method of instrumentation. The broken _cadenzas_ which give such force +to Robert's scene, the _cavatina_ in the fourth act, the _finale_ of the +first, all hold me in the grip of a supernatural power. No, not even +Gluck's declamation ever produced so prodigious an effect, and I am amazed +by such skill and learning." + +"Signor Maestro," said Andrea, smiling, "allow me to contradict you. Gluck, +before he wrote, reflected long; he calculated the chances, and he decided +on a plan which might be subsequently modified by his inspirations as to +detail, but hindered him from ever losing his way. Hence his power of +emphasis, his declamatory style thrilling with life and truth. I quite +agree with you that Meyerbeer's learning is transcendent; but science is a +defect when it evicts inspiration, and it seems to me that we have in this +opera the painful toil of a refined craftsman who in his music has but +picked up thousands of phrases out of other operas, damned or forgotten, +and appropriated them, while extending, modifying, or condensing them. But +he has fallen into the error of all selectors of _centos_,--an abuse of +good things. This clever harvester of notes is lavish of discords, which, +when too often introduced, fatigue the ear till those great effects pall +upon it which a composer should husband with care to make the more +effective use of them when the situation requires it. These enharmonic +passages recur to satiety, and the abuse of the plagal cadence deprives it +of its religious solemnity. + +"I know, of course, that every musician has certain forms to which he +drifts back in spite of himself; he should watch himself so as to avoid +that blunder. A picture in which there were no colors but blue and red +would be untrue to nature, and fatigue the eye. And thus the constantly +recurring rhythm in the score of _Robert le Diable_ makes the work, as a +whole, appear monotonous. As to the effect of the long trumpets, of which +you speak, it has long been known in Germany; and what Meyerbeer offers us +as a novelty was constantly used by Mozart, who gives just such a chorus to +the devils in _Don Giovanni_." + +By plying Gambara, meanwhile, with fresh libations, Andrea thus strove, by +his contradictoriness, to bring the musician back to a true sense of music, +by proving to him that his so-called mission was not to try to regenerate +an art beyond his powers, but to seek to express himself in another form; +namely, that of poetry. + +"But, my dear Count, you have understood nothing of that stupendous musical +drama," said Gambara, airily, as standing in front of Andrea's piano he +struck the keys, listened to the tone, and then seated himself, meditating +for a few minutes as if to collect his ideas. + +"To begin with, you must know," said he, "that an ear as practised as mine +at once detected that labor of choice and setting of which you spoke. Yes, +the music has been selected, lovingly, from the storehouse of a rich and +fertile imagination wherein learning has squeezed every idea to extract the +very essence of music. I will illustrate the process." + +He rose to carry the candles into the adjoining room, and before sitting +down again he drank a full glass of Giro, a Sardinian wine, as full of fire +as the old wines of Tokay can inspire. + +"Now, you see," said Gambara, "this music is not written for misbelievers, +nor for those who know not love. If you have never suffered from the +virulent attacks of an evil spirit who shifts your object just as you are +taking aim, who puts a fatal end to your highest hopes,--in one word, if +you have never felt the devil's tail whisking over the world, the opera of +_Robert le Diable_ must be to you, what the Apocalypse is to those who +believe that all things will end with them. But if, persecuted and +wretched, you understand that Spirit of Evil,--the monstrous ape who is +perpetually employed in destroying the work of God,--if you can conceive of +him as having, not indeed loved, but ravished, an almost divine woman, and +achieved through her the joy of paternity; as so loving his son that he +would rather have him eternally miserable with himself than think of him as +eternally happy with God; if, finally, you can imagine the mother's soul +for ever hovering over the child's head to snatch it from the atrocious +temptations offered by its father,--even then you will have but a faint +idea of this stupendous drama, which needs but little to make it worthy of +comparison with Mozart's _Don Giovanni_. _Don Giovanni_ is in its +perfection the greater, I grant; _Robert le Diable_ expresses ideas, _Don +Giovanni_ arouses sensations. _Don Giovanni_ is as yet the only musical +work in which harmony and melody are combined in exactly the right +proportions. In this lies its only superiority, for _Robert_ is the richer +work. But how vain are such comparisons since each is so beautiful in its +own way! + +"To me, suffering as I do from the demon's repeated shocks, Robert spoke +with greater power than to you; it struck me as being at the same time vast +and concentrated. + +"Thanks to you, I have been transported to the glorious land of dreams +where our senses expand, and the world works on a scale which is gigantic +as compared with man." + +He was silent for a space. + +"I am trembling still," said the ill-starred artist, "from the four bars of +cymbals which pierced to my marrow as they open that short, abrupt +introduction with its solo for trombone, its flutes, oboes, and clarionet, +all suggesting the most fantastic effects of color. The _andante_ in C +minor is a foretaste of the subject of the evocation of the ghosts in the +abbey, and gives grandeur to the scene by anticipating the spiritual +struggle. I shivered." + +Gambara pressed the keys with a firm hand and expanded Meyerbeer's theme in +a masterly _fantasia_, a sort of outpouring of his soul after the manner of +Liszt. It was no longer the piano, it was a whole orchestra that they +heard; the very genius of music rose before them. + +"That is worthy of Mozart!" he exclaimed. "See how that German can handle +his chords, and through what masterly modulations he raises the image of +terror to come to the dominant C. I can hear all hell in it! + +"The curtain rises. What do I see? The only scene to which we gave the +epithet infernal: an orgy of knights in Sicily. In that chorus in F every +human passion is unchained in a bacchanalian _allegro_. Every thread by +which the devil holds us is pulled. Yes, that is the sort of glee that +comes over men when they dance on the edge of a precipice; they make +themselves giddy. What _go_ there is in that chorus! + +"Against that chorus--the reality of life--the simple life of every-day +virtue stands out in the air, in G minor, sung by Raimbaut. For a moment it +refreshed my spirit to hear the simple fellow, representative of verdurous +and fruitful Normandy, which he brings to Robert's mind in the midst of his +drunkenness. The sweet influence of his beloved native land lends a touch +of tender color to this gloomy opening. + +"Then comes the wonderful air in C major, supported by the chorus in C +minor, so expressive of the subject. '_Je suis Robert!_' he immediately +breaks out. The wrath of the prince, insulted by his vassal, is already +more than natural anger; but it will die away, for memories of his +childhood come to him, with Alice, in the bright and graceful _allegro_ in +A major. + +"Can you not hear the cries of the innocent dragged into this infernal +drama,--a persecuted creature? '_Non, non_,'" sang Gambara, who made the +consumptive piano sing. "His native land and tender emotions have come back +to him; his childhood and its memories have blossomed anew in Robert's +heart. And now his mother's shade rises up, bringing with it soothing +religious thoughts. It is religion that lives in that beautiful song in E +major, with its wonderful harmonic and melodic progression in the words: + + "Car dans les cieux, comme sur la terre, + Sa mere va prier pour lui. + +"Here the struggle begins between the unseen powers and the only human +being who has the fire of hell in his veins to enable him to resist them; +and to make this quite clear, as Bertram comes on, the great musician has +given the orchestra a passage introducing a reminiscence of Raimbaut's +ballad. What a stroke of art! What cohesion of all the parts! What solidity +of structure! + +"The devil is there, in hiding, but restless. The conflict of the +antagonistic powers opens with Alice's terror; she recognizes the devil of +the image of Saint Michael in her village. The musical subject is worked +out through an endless variety of phases. The antithesis indispensable in +opera is emphatically presented in a noble _recitative_, such as a Gluck +might have composed, between Bertram and Robert: + + "Tu ne sauras jamais a quel exces je t'aime. + +"In that diabolical C minor, Bertram, with his terrible bass, begins his +work of undermining which will overthrow every effort of the vehement, +passionate man. + +"Here, everything is appalling. Will the crime get possession of the +criminal? Will the executioner seize his victim? Will sorrow consume the +artist's genius? Will the disease kill the patient? or, will the guardian +angel save the Christian? + +"Then comes the _finale_, the gambling scene in which Bertram tortures his +son by rousing him to tremendous emotions. Robert, beggared, frenzied, +searching everything, eager for blood, fire, and sword, is his own son; in +this mood he is exactly like his father. What hideous glee we hear in +Bertram's words: '_Je ris de tes coups!_' And how perfectly the Venetian +_barcarole_ comes in here. Through what wondrous transitions the diabolical +parent is brought on to the stage once more to make Robert throw the dice. + +"This first act is overwhelming to any one capable of working out the +subjects in his very heart, and lending them the breadth of development +which the composer intended them to call forth. + +"Nothing but love could now be contrasted with this noble symphony of song, +in which you will detect no monotony, no repetition of means and effects. +It is one, but many; the characteristic of all that is truly great and +natural. + +"I breathe more freely; I find myself in the elegant circle of a gallant +court; I hear Isabella's charming phrases, fresh, but almost melancholy, +and the female chorus in two divisions, and in _imitation_, with a +suggestion of the Moorish coloring of Spain. Here the terrifying music is +softened to gentler hues, like a storm dying away, and ends in the florid +prettiness of a duet wholly unlike anything that has come before it. After +the turmoil of a camp full of errant heroes, we have a picture of love. +Poet! I thank thee! My heart could not have borne much more. If I could not +here and there pluck the daisies of a French light opera, if I could not +hear the gentle wit of a woman able to love and to charm, I could not +endure the terrible deep note on which Bertram comes in, saying to his son: +'_Si je le permets!_' when Robert has promised the princess he adores that +he will conquer with the arms she has bestowed on him. + +"The hopes of the gambler cured by love, the love of a most beautiful +woman,--did you observe that magnificent Sicilian, with her hawk's eye +secure of her prey? (What interpreters that composer has found!) the hopes +of the man are mocked at by the hopes of hell in the tremendous cry: '_A +toi, Robert de Normandie!_' + +"And are not you struck by the gloom and horror of those long-held notes, +to which the words are set: '_Dans la foret prochaine_'? We find here all +the sinister spells of _Jerusalem Delivered_, just as we find all chivalry +in the chorus with the Spanish lilt, and in the march tune. How original is +the _allegro_ with the modulations of the four cymbals (tuned to C, D, C, +G,)! How elegant is the call to the lists! The whole movement of the heroic +life of the period is there; the mind enters into it; I read in it a +romance, a poem of chivalry. The _exposition_ is now finished; the +resources of music would seem to be exhausted; you have never heard +anything like it before; and yet it is homogeneous. You have had life set +before you, and its one and only _crux_: 'Shall I be happy or unhappy?' is +the philosopher's query. 'Shall I be saved or damned?' asks the Christian." + +With these words Gambara struck the last chord of the chorus, dwelt on it +with a melancholy modulation, and then rose to drink another large glass of +Giro. This half-African vintage gave his face a deeper flush, for his +passionate and wonderful sketch of Meyerbeer's opera had made him turn a +little pale. + +"That nothing may be lacking to this composition," he went on, "the great +artist has generously added the only _buffo_ duet permissible for a devil: +that in which he tempts the unhappy troubadour. The composer has set +jocosity side by side with horror--a jocosity in which he mocks at the only +realism he had allowed himself amid the sublime imaginings of his work--the +pure calm love of Alice and Raimbaut; and their life is overshadowed by the +forecast of evil. + +"None but a lofty soul can feel the noble style of these _buffo_ airs; they +have neither the superabundant frivolity of Italian music nor the vulgar +accent of French commonplace; rather have they the majesty of Olympus. +There is the bitter laughter of a divine being mocking the surprise of a +troubadour Don-Juanizing himself. But for this dignity we should be too +suddenly brought down to the general tone of the opera, here stamped on +that terrible fury of diminished sevenths which resolves itself into an +infernal waltz, and finally brings us face to face with the demons. + +"How emphatically Bertram's couplet stands out in B minor against that +diabolical chorus, depicting his paternity, but mingling in fearful despair +with these demoniacal strains. + +"Then comes the delightful transition of Alice's reappearance, with the +_ritornel_ in B flat. I can still hear that air of angelical +simplicity--the nightingale after a storm. Thus the grand leading idea of +the whole is worked out in the details; for what could be more perfectly in +contrast with the tumult of devils tossing in the pit than that wonderful +air given to Alice? '_Quand j'ai quitte la Normandie._' + +"The golden thread of melody flows on, side by side with the mighty +harmony, like a heavenly hope; it is embroidered on it, and with what +marvelous skill! Genius never lets go of the science that guides it. Here +Alice's song is in B flat leading into F sharp, the key of the demon's +chorus. Do you hear the tremolo in the orchestra? The host of devils clamor +for Robert. + +"Bertram now reappears, and this is the culminating point of musical +interest; after a _recitative_, worthy of comparison with the finest work +of the great masters, comes the fierce conflict in E flat between two +tremendous forces--one on the words '_Oui, tu me connais!_' on a diminished +seventh; the other, on that sublime F, '_Le ciel est avec moi._' Hell and +the Crucifix have met for battle. Next we have Bertram threatening Alice, +the most violent pathos ever heard--the Spirit of Evil expatiating +complacently, and, as usual, appealing to personal interest. Robert's +arrival gives us the magnificent unaccompanied trio in A flat, the first +skirmish between the two rival forces and the man. And note how clearly +that is expressed," said Gambara, epitomizing the scene with such passion +of expression as startled Andrea. + +"All this avalanche of music, from the clash of cymbals in common time, has +been gathering up to this contest of three voices. The magic of evil +triumphs! Alice flies, and you have the duet in D between Bertram and +Robert. The devil sets his talons in the man's heart; he tears it to make +it his own; he works on every feeling. Honor, hope, eternal and infinite +pleasures--he displays them all. He places him, as he did Jesus, on the +pinnacle of the Temple, and shows him all the treasures of the earth, the +storehouse of sin. He nettles him to flaunt his courage; and the man's +nobler mind is expressed in his exclamation: + + "Des chevaliers de ma patrie + L'honneur toujours fut le soutien! + +"And finally, to crown the work, the theme comes in which sounded the note +of fatality at the beginning. Thus, the leading strain, the magnificent +call to the dead: + + "Nonnes qui reposez sous cette froide pierre, + M'entendez-vous? + +"The career of the music, gloriously worked out, is gloriously finished by +the _allegro vivace_ of the bacchanalian chorus in D minor. This, indeed, +is the triumph of hell! Roll on, harmony, and wrap us in a thousand folds! +Roll on, bewitch us! The powers of darkness have clutched their prey; they +hold him while they dance. The great genius, born to conquer and to reign, +is lost! The devils rejoice, misery stifles genius, passion will wreck the +knight!" + +And here Gambara improvised a _fantasia_ of his own on the bacchanalian +chorus, with ingenious variations, and humming the air in a melancholy +drone as if to express the secret sufferings he had known. + +"Do you hear the heavenly lamentations of neglected love?" he said. +"Isabella calls to Robert above the grand chorus of knights riding forth to +the tournament, in which the _motifs_ of the second act reappear to make it +clear that the third act has all taken place in a supernatural sphere. This +is real life again. This chorus dies away at the approach of the hellish +enchantment brought by Robert with the talisman. The deviltry of the third +act is to be carried on. Here we have the duet with the viol; the rhythm is +highly expressive of the brutal desires of a man who is omnipotent, and the +Princess, by plaintive phrases, tries to win her lover back to moderation. +The musician has here placed himself in a situation of great difficulty, +and has surmounted it in the loveliest number of the whole opera. How +charming is the melody of the _cavatina 'Grace pour toi!_' All the women +present understood it well; each saw herself seized and snatched away on +the stage. That part alone would suffice to make the fortune of the opera. +Every woman felt herself engaged in a struggle with some violent lover. +Never was music so passionate and so dramatic. + +"The whole world now rises in arms against the reprobate. This _finale_ may +be criticised for its resemblance to that of _Don Giovanni_; but there is +this immense difference: in Isabella we have the expression of the noblest +faith, a true love that will save Robert, for he scornfully rejects the +infernal powers bestowed on him, while Don Giovanni persists in his +unbelief. Moreover, that particular fault is common to every composer who +has written a _finale_ since Mozart. The _finale_ to _Don Giovanni_ is one +of those classic forms that are invented once for all. + +"At last religion wins the day, uplifting the voice that governs worlds, +that invites all sorrow to come for consolation, all repentance to be +forgiven and helped. + +"The whole house was stirred by the chorus: + + "Malheureux ou coupables, + Hatez-vous d'accourir! + +"In the terrific tumult of raving passions, the holy Voice would have been +unheard; but at this critical moment it sounds like thunder; the divine +Catholic Church rises glorious in light. And here I was amazed to find that +after such lavish use of harmonic treasure, the composer had come upon a +new vein with the splendid chorus: '_Gloire a la Providence_' in the manner +of Haendel. + +"Robert rushes on with his heartrending cry: '_Si je pouvais prier!_' and +Bertram, driven by the infernal decree, pursues his son, and makes a last +effort. Alice has called up the vision of the Mother, and now comes the +grand trio to which the whole opera has led up: the triumph of the soul +over matter, of the Spirit of Good over the Spirit of Evil. The strains of +piety prevail over the chorus of hell, and happiness appears glorious; but +here the music is weaker. I only saw a cathedral instead of hearing a +concert of angels in bliss, and a divine prayer consecrating the union of +Robert and Isabella. We ought not to have been left oppressed by the spells +of hell; we ought to emerge with hope in our heart. + +"I, as musician and a Catholic, wanted another prayer like that in _Mose_. +I should have liked to see how Germany would contend with Italy, what +Meyerbeer could do in rivalry with Rossini. + +"However, in spite of this trifling blemish, the writer cannot say that +after five hours of such solid music, a Parisian prefers a bit of ribbon to +a musical masterpiece. You heard how the work was applauded; it will go +through five hundred performances! If the French really understand that +music----" + +"It is because it expresses ideas," the Count put in. + +"No; it is because it sets forth in a definite shape a picture of the +struggle in which so many perish, and because every individual life is +implicated in it through memory. Ah! I, hapless wretch, should have been +too happy to hear the sound of those heavenly voices I have so often +dreamed of." + +Hereupon Gambara fell into a musical day-dream, improvising the most lovely +melodious and harmonious _cavatina_ that Andrea would ever hear on earth; a +divine strain divinely performed on a theme as exquisite as that of _O +filii et filiae_, but graced with additions such as none but the loftiest +musical genius could devise. + +The Count sat lost in keen admiration; the clouds cleared away, the blue +sky opened, figures of angels appeared lifting the veil that hid the +sanctuary, and the light of heaven poured down. + +There was a sudden silence. + +The Count, surprised at the cessation of the music, looked at Gambara, who, +with fixed gaze, in the attitude of a visionary, murmured the word: "God!" + +Andrea waited till the composer had descended from the enchanted realm to +which he had soared on the many-hued wings of inspiration, intending to +show him the truth by the light he himself would bring down with him. + +"Well," said he, pouring him out another bumper of wine and clinking +glasses with him, "this German has, you see, written a sublime opera +without troubling himself with theories, while those musicians who write +grammars of harmony may, like literary critics, be atrocious composers." + +"Then you do not like my music?" + +"I do not say so. But if, instead of carrying musical principles to an +extreme--which takes you too far--you would simply try to arouse our +feelings, you would be better understood, unless indeed you have mistaken +your vocation. You are a great poet." + +"What," cried Gambara, "are twenty-five years of study all in vain? Am I to +learn the imperfect language of men when I have the key to the heavenly +tongue? Oh, if you are right,--I should die." + +"No, no. You are great and strong; you would begin life again, and I would +support you. We would show the world the noble and rare alliance of a rich +man and an artist in perfect sympathy and understanding." + +"Do you mean it?" asked Gambara, struck with amazement. + +"As I have told you, you are a poet more than a musician." + +"A poet, a poet! It is better than nothing. But tell me truly, which do you +esteem most highly, Mozart or Homer?" + +"I admire them equally." + +"On your honor?" + +"On my honor." + +"H'm! Once more. What do you think of Meyerbeer and Byron?" + +"You have measured them by naming them together." + +The Count's carriage was in waiting. The composer and his noble physician +ran downstairs, and in a few minutes they were with Marianna. + +As they went in, Gambara threw himself into his wife's arms, but she drew +back a step and turned away her head; the husband also drew back and beamed +on the Count. + +"Oh, monsieur!" said Gambara in a husky voice, "you might have left me my +illusions." He hung his head, and then fell. + +"What have you done to him? He is dead drunk!" cried Marianna, looking +down at her husband with a mingled expression of pity and disgust. + +The Count, with the help of his servant, picked up Gambara and laid him on +his bed. + +Then Andrea left, his heart exultant with horrible gladness. + + * * * * * + +The Count let the usual hour for calling slip past next day, for he began +to fear lest he had duped himself and had made this humble couple pay too +dear for their improved circumstances and added wisdom, since their peace +was destroyed for ever. + +At last Giardini came to him with a note from Marianna. + +"Come," she wrote, "the mischief is not so great as you so cruelly meant it +to be." + +"Excellenza," said the cook, while Andrea was making ready, "you treated us +splendidly last evening. But apart from the wine, which was excellent, your +steward did not put anything on the table that was worthy to set before a +true epicure. You will not deny, I suppose, that the dish I sent up to you +on the day when you did me the honor to sit down at my board, contained the +quintessence of all those that disgraced your magnificent service of plate? +And when I awoke this morning I remembered the promise you once made me of +a place as _chef_. Henceforth I consider myself as a member of your +household." + +"I thought of the same thing a few days ago," replied Andrea. "I mentioned +you to the secretary of the Austrian Embassy, and you have permission to +recross the Alps as soon as you please. I have a castle in Croatia which I +rarely visit. There you may combine the offices of gatekeeper, butler, and +steward, with two hundred crowns a year. Your wife will have as much for +doing all the rest of the work. You may make all the experiments you please +_in anima vili_, that is to say on the stomach of my vassals. Here is a +cheque for your traveling expenses." + +Giardini kissed the Count's hand after the Neapolitan fashion. + +"Excellenza," said he, "I accept the cheque, but beg to decline the place. +It would dishonor me to give up my art by losing the opinion of the most +perfect epicures, who are certainly to be found in Paris." + +When Andrea arrived at Gambara's lodgings, the musician rose to welcome +him. + +"My generous friend," said he, with the utmost frankness, "you either took +advantage, last evening, of the weakness of my brain to make a fool of me, +or else your brain is no more capable of standing the test of the heady +liquors of our native Latium, than mine is. I will assume this latter +hypothesis; I would rather doubt your digestion than your heart. Be this as +it may, henceforth I drink no more wine--for ever. The abuse of good liquor +last evening led me into much guilty folly. When I remember that I very +nearly----" He gave a glance of terror at Marianna. "As to the wretched +opera you took me to hear, I have thought it over, and it is, after all, +music written on ordinary lines, a mountain of piled-up notes, _verba et +voces_. It is but the dregs of the nectar I can drink in deep draughts as I +reproduce the heavenly music that I hear! It is a patchwork of airs of +which I could trace the origin. The passage, '_Gloire a la Providence_' is +too much like a bit of Haendel; the chorus of knights is closely related to +the Scotch air in _La Dame Blanche_; in short, if this opera is a success, +it is because the music is borrowed from everybody's--so it ought to be +popular. + +"I will say good-bye to you, my dear friend. I have had some ideas seething +in my brain since the morning that only wait to soar up to God on the wings +of song, but I wished to see you. Good-bye; I must ask forgiveness of the +Muse. We shall meet at dinner to-night--but no wine; at any rate, none for +me. I am firmly resolved----" + +"I give him up!" cried Andrea, flushing red. + +"And you restore my sense of conscience," said Marianna. "I dared not +appeal to it! My friend, my friend, it is no fault of ours; he does not +want to be cured." + +Six years after this, in January 1837, such artists as were so unlucky as +to damage their wind or stringed instruments, generally took them to the +Rue Froid-Manteau, to a squalid and horrible house, where, on the fifth +floor, dwelt an old Italian named Gambara. + +For five years past he had been left to himself, deserted by his wife; he +had gone through many misfortunes. An instrument on which he had relied to +make his fortune, and which he called a _Panharmonicon_, had been sold by +order of the Court on the public square, Place du Chatelet, together with a +cartload of music paper scrawled with notes. The day after the sale, these +scores had served in the market to wrap up butter, fish, and fruit. + +Thus the three grand operas of which the poor man would boast, but which an +old Neapolitan cook, who was now but a patcher up of broken meats, declared +to be a heap of nonsense, were scattered throughout Paris on the trucks of +costermongers. But at any rate, the landlord had got his rent and the +bailiffs their expenses. + +According to the Neapolitan cook--who warmed up for the street-walkers of +the Rue Froid-Manteau the fragments left from the most sumptuous dinners in +Paris--Signora Gambara had gone off to Italy with a Milanese nobleman, and +no one knew what had become of her. Worn out with fifteen years of misery, +she was very likely ruining the Count by her extravagant luxury, for they +were so devotedly adoring that, in all his life, Giardini could recall no +instance of such a passion. + +Towards the end of that very January, one evening when Giardini was +chatting with a girl who had come to buy her supper, about the divine +Marianna--so poor, so beautiful, so heroically devoted, and who had, +nevertheless, "gone the way of them all," the cook, his wife, and the +street-girl saw coming towards them a woman fearfully thin, with a +sun-burned, dusty face; a nervous walking skeleton, looking at the numbers, +and trying to recognize a house. + +"_Ecco la Marianna!_" exclaimed the cook. + +Marianna recognized Giardini, the erewhile cook, in the poor fellow she +saw, without wondering by what series of disasters he had sunk to keep a +miserable shop for second-hand food. She went in and sat down, for she had +come from Fontainebleau. She had walked fourteen leagues that day, after +begging her bread from Turin to Paris. + +She frightened that terrible trio! Of all her wondrous beauty nothing +remained but her fine eyes, dimmed and sunken. The only thing faithful to +her was misfortune. + +She was welcomed by the skilled old instrument mender, who greeted her with +unspeakable joy. + +"Why, here you are, my poor Marianna!" said he, warmly. "During your +absence they sold up my instrument and my operas." + +It would have been difficult to kill the fatted calf for the return of the +Samaritan, but Giardini contributed the fag end of a salmon, the trull paid +for wine, Gambara produced some bread, Signora Giardini lent a cloth, and +the unfortunates all supped together in the musician's garret. + +When questioned as to her adventures, Marianna would make no reply; she +only raised her beautiful eyes to heaven and whispered to Giardini: + +"He married a dancer!" + +"And how do you mean to live?" said the girl. "The journey has ruined you, +and----" + +"And made me an old woman," said Marianna. "No, that is not the result of +fatigue or hardship, but of grief." + +"And why did you never send your man here any money?" asked the girl. + +Marianna's only answer was a look, but it went to the woman's heart. + +"She is proud with a vengeance!" she exclaimed. "And much good it has done +her!" she added, in Giardini's ear. + +All that year musicians took especial care of their instruments, and +repairs did not bring in enough to enable the poor couple to pay their way; +the wife, too, did not earn much by her needle, and they were compelled to +turn their talents to account in the lowest form of employment. They would +go out together in the dark to the Champs Elysees and sing duets, which +Gambara, poor fellow, accompanied on a wretched guitar. On the way, +Marianna, who on these expeditions covered her head with a sort of veil of +coarse muslin, would take her husband to a grocer's shop in the Faubourg +Saint-Honore and give him two or three thimblefuls of brandy to make him +tipsy; otherwise he could not play. Then they would stand up together in +front of the smart people sitting on the chairs, and one of the greatest +geniuses of the time, the unrecognized Orpheus of Modern Music, would +perform passages from his operas--pieces so remarkable that they could +extract a few half-pence from Parisian supineness. When some _dilettante_ +of comic operas happened to be sitting there and did not recognize from +what work they were taken, he would question the woman dressed like a Greek +priestess, who held out a bottle-stand of stamped metal in which she +collected charity. + +"I say, my dear, what is that music out of?" + +"The opera of _Mahomet_," Marianna would reply. + +As Rossini composed an opera called _Mahomet II._, the amateur would say to +his wife, sitting at his side: + +"What a pity it is that they will never give us at the Italiens any operas +by Rossini but those we know. That is really very fine music!" + +And Gambara would smile. + + * * * * * + +Only a few days since, this unhappy couple had to pay the trifling sum of +thirty-six francs as arrears of rent for the cock-loft in which they lived +resigned. The grocer would not give them credit for the brandy with which +Marianna plied her husband to enable him to play. Gambara was, +consequently, so unendurably bad that the ears of the wealthy were +irresponsive, and the tin bottle-stand remained empty. + +It was nine o'clock in the evening. A handsome Italian, the Principessa +Massimilla Di Varese, took pity on the poor creatures; she gave them forty +francs and questioned them, discerning from the woman's thanks that she was +a Venetian. Prince Emilio would know the history of their woes, and +Marianna told it, making no complaints of God or men. + +"Madame," said Gambara, as she ended, for he was sober, "we are the victims +of our own superiority. My music is good. But as soon as music transcends +feeling and becomes an idea, only persons of genius should be the hearers, +for they alone are capable of responding to it! It is my misfortune that I +have heard the chorus of angels, and believed that men could understand +those strains. The same thing happens to women when their love assumes a +divine aspect: men cannot understand them." + +This speech was well worth the forty francs bestowed by Massimilla; she +took out a second gold piece, and told Marianna she would write to Andrea +Marcosini. + +"Do not write to him, madame!" exclaimed Marianna. "And God grant you to be +always beautiful!" + +"Let us provide for them," said the Princess to her husband; "for this man +has remained faithful to the Ideal which we have killed." + +As he saw the gold pieces, Gambara shed tears; and then a vague +reminiscence of old scientific experiments crossed his mind, and the +hapless composer, as he wiped his eyes, spoke these words, which the +circumstances made pathetic: + +"Water is a product of burning." + + PARIS, _June 1837_. + + + + +SERAPHITA + +AND OTHER STORIES + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The contents of the present volume stand alone in the _Comedie Humaine_, or +nearly alone; but they are very closely connected with each other. And to +those who care to trace the connection of an author's nature and his work +(without tracing--useless as it may be in some cases, and superfluous in +most--it will never be possible for any one to appreciate Balzac to the +full), they have an interest not inferior to that of any other portion. In +one of them, moreover, _Seraphita_, we shall find Balzac's most successful +and brilliant essays of style as style--essays so different from his +general practice, that they have raised some curious speculations. It is +known that, in the early thirties, Balzac and Gautier were a good deal +together, and even worked in some sort of collaboration. In one of his +books, _Beatrix_, Balzac has printed a passage which, as it happens, is +known to be Gautier's, and there is a good deal in _Seraphita_ which may be +suspected of a similar origin. + +To those who care for the story, or who are attracted to the _Comedie_ as a +varied storehouse of observation of ordinary life, this volume must seem, +and, I believe, almost invariably does seem, rather dreary and repellent +stuff. To others, it yields in interest to no volume of the _Comedie_, +though the interest may be of a peculiar and special kind. As most people +who know anything at all about Balzac are aware, Louis Lambert is Balzac +himself; the _Traite de la Volonte_ was actually written, and destroyed by +an irate schoolmaster; and most of the incidents brought in have more or +less foundation in fact. The same, of course, cannot be said of _Les +Proscrits_ and _Seraphita_. But the former, while belonging in kind +generally to the _Etudes Philosophiques_, connects itself on another side +with the _Contes Drolatiques_, and with Balzac's not rare studies of the +Middle Ages. About these he seems always to have had a hankering to write, +which was due partly to his lifelong cult of Sir Walter, and partly to a +curious delusion that he was himself a born historical novelist. +_Seraphita_, on the other hand, has a sort of kinship with other products +of the 1830 period. + +But all the books are perhaps most interesting to us, first, as showing +Balzac's specially "philosophic" velleities; and secondly, as exhibiting a +side of him which is apt to be overlooked--his character as a reader and a +student. + +The "philosophy" has been rather variously judged. It has seldom been taken +very seriously; but attempts have sometimes been made to discover in it +anticipations of later discoveries or, to adopt a much safer word, +theories. These anticipation-hunts rarely send the hunter home with an +empty bag, but it is as rarely that the game is of certain quality. Indeed, +if we remember that even in the widest and vaguest sense, "philosophy" was +practically exhausted many hundred years ago--that new philosophies are +only the old ones with their coats and trousers turned, scoured, dyed, and +altered somewhat in fashion--it would be very odd if a clever man, even +with no regular training or special vocation, did not anticipate more or +less what others of his contemporaries are going to think. For the rest, +Balzac's philosophy is of a distinctly loose sort, and may very well have +occurred to him in whole or in part when he was a studious, if irregularly +studious, school-boy. It is, indeed, very much of the kind to which +schoolboys of some brains are as prone as men of riper years, and in which +they are perhaps as likely to attain a result, or what looks like it. + +The second bearing of these curious books is more tangible. It is certain +that Balzac, unlike Dickens, his fellow _voyant_, and still more unlike +most of the "realists" who claim kindred with him, was a very great reader. +In his period of production, despite the enormous expense of time which his +methods of writing imposed on him, he seems to have read a great deal; in +his boyhood and in the ten years of his apprenticeship he seems to have +read enormously. He certainly never attained to exact scientific or +scholarly knowledge of any subject by means of books. He did not know +literature or history, much less philosophy, as he knew legal procedure and +the theory of speculation, the signboards of Paris, and not a little of +what went on inside Parisian waistcoats and under Parisian hats. But he had +a vast amount of "fine confused" reading, as the Swedenborgian learning of +_Seraphita_, no less than the not altogether alien lore of _Sur Catherine +de Medicis_, shows. He was even, as not a few passages in his reviews, in +his other miscellaneous writings, and in his letters show, rather inclined +to overvalue and plume himself upon this reading. Nor was it without +effect, both good and bad, on his work. On the one hand, it added to that +slightly undigested character which, with rare exceptions, is +characteristic of him; on the other, it largely helped the appearance of +variety, fulness, encyclopaedic knowledge, and interest which is the +complement and atonement of this undigestedness. Balzac was really a "full" +man in reading as well as thought; and of this reading fulness, the batch +of books before us is perhaps the most striking example. + +_Louis Lambert_ appeared first (as _Notice Biographique sur L. L._) in +1832, in the _Nouveaux Contes Philosophiques_; then in February 1833 as a +small volume by itself, a good deal enlarged, and entitled _Histoire +intellectuelle de L. L._; then, with its actual dimensions, in a collection +entitled _Le Livre Mystique_, published by Werdet in 1835. In 1842, with +_Seraphita_, but apparently (I have not seen the book) not with _Les +Proscrits_, it was again published by Charpentier; and in 1846 it joined +the _Comedie_. _Les Proscrits_ first appeared in the _Revue de Paris_ for +May 1831, and was almost immediately included in the _Romans et Contes +Philosophiques_. Its fortunes, after it was joined to its companions, have +been told, as have those of _Seraphita_. This last appeared first in the +_Revue de Paris_ for June and July 1834. In 1840 it became an _Etude +Philosophique_ with _Les Proscrits_, _Gambara_, and _Massimilla Doni_. + + G. S. + + * * * * * + +In order to heighten the narrative tone of this volume, we append here two +of Balzac's freshest short stories, though written--at any rate, +published--about the same time. They belong to the _Marana_ group, which +includes some of the finest of the smaller efforts. + +_Maitre Cornelius_, which, by the way, is interesting in its dedication to +Count Georges Mniszech, partakes of the character of a "Conte drolatique" +thrown out of the scheme of those _Contes_. But it very worthily completes, +in its own way, one of the most remarkable volumes of the old collection. +This story first appeared in the _Revue de Paris_ for December 1831. + +_L'Elixir de longue Vie_, in which Balzac acknowledges (I do not know +whether by trick or not) indebtedness to Hoffmann or somebody else, is +also "style 1830," and, to speak with perfect frankness, would have been +done much better by Merimee or Gautier than by Balzac. But it is done well. +There is an onward sweep and rush that is distinctly Balzacian. +Nevertheless, at the end we want the touch of Hoffmann rather than that of +Balzac; we find something that is not quite perfect, that wants another +hand. Even as it is, we would not change for anything else, but we have the +sense that the same thing by another person might have been still better. +_L'Elixir de longue Vie_ was published first in the _Revue de Paris_, +October 1830. + + + + +SERAPHITA + + + _To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Countess Rzewuska._ + + Madame,--Here is the work you desired of me; in + dedicating it to you I am happy to offer you some token + of the respectful affection you allow me to feel for + you. If I should be accused of incapacity after trying + to extract from the depths of mysticism this book, + which demanded the glowing poetry of the East under the + transparency of our beautiful language; the blame be + yours! Did you not compel me to the effort--such an + effort as Jacob's--by telling me that even the most + imperfect outline of the figure dreamed of by you, as + it has been by me from my infancy, would still be + something in your eyes? Here, then, is that + something.--Why cannot this book be set apart + exclusively for those lofty spirits who, like you, are + preserved from worldly pettiness by solitude! They + might impress on it the melodious rhythm which it + lacks, and which, in the hands of one of our poets, + might have made it the glorious epic for which France + still waits. Still, they will accept it from me as one + of those balustrades, carved by some artist full of + faith, on which the pilgrim leans to meditate on the + end of man, while gazing at the choir of a fine church. + + I remain, Madame, with respect, your faithful servant, + + DE BALZAC. + + PARIS, _August 23, 1835_. + + + + +I + +SERAPHITUS + + +On seeing the Norwegian coast as outlined on the map, what imagination can +fail to be amazed at its fantastic contour--long tongues of granite, round +which the surges of the North Sea are for ever moaning? Who has not dreamed +of the majestic spectacle of these beachless shores, these endless creeks, +and inlets, and little bays, no two of which are alike, and each a pathless +gulf? Would it not seem as though Nature had amused herself by +representing, in an indestructible hieroglyphic, the symbol of life in +Norway, by giving its coast the configuration of the bones of an enormous +fish? For fishing is the staple of commerce, and almost the sole article of +food to a handful of men who cling, like a tuft of lichen, to those barren +rocks. On a land extending over fourteen degrees of longitude there are +scarcely seven hundred thousand souls. Owing to the inglorious dangers and +the perpetual snow that these Norwegian peaks offer to the traveler--the +very name of Norway makes one cold--their sublime beauty remains inviolate +and harmonizes with certain human phenomena, which took place +there--equally unknown, at least to romance, and of which this is the +story. + +When one of these inlets, a mere fissure in the sight of the eider-ducks, +is wide enough to prevent the sea from freezing over in the rocky prison it +tosses and struggles in, the inhabitants call such a little gulf a fjord, a +word which most geographers have tried to adopt into their respective +languages. In spite of the general resemblance of all these channels, each +has its own individuality; the sea penetrates into all these breaches, but +in each the rocks are differently riven, and their contorted precipices +defy the terms of geometry: here the crest is toothed like a saw; there its +sides are too perpendicular to allow the snow to rest on them, or the +glorious clumps of northern pines to take root; further on, the convulsions +of the globe have rounded off some soft declivity, a lovely valley +furnished with stage on stage of dark-plumed trees. You feel inclined to +call this land Marine Switzerland. + +One of these gulfs, lying between Dronthjem and Christiania, is called +Stromfiord. If the Stromfiord is not the most beautiful of these scenes, it +has at least the merit of presenting the earthly magnificence of Norway, +and of having been the background to the scenes of a really heavenly +romance. + +The general outline of the Stromfiord is, at a first glance, that of a +funnel forced open by the sea. The entrance made by the waves is the record +of a contest between the ocean and the granite, two equally powerful +elements--one by its inertia, the other by its motion. The proof lies in +some half-sunken rocks of fantastic shapes which prohibit the entrance of +vessels. The hardy sons of the soil can in some places leap from rock to +rock, undismayed by a gulf a hundred fathoms deep and six feet wide. Here +and there a frail and ill-balanced block of gneiss, thrown across, joins +two crags, or hunters or fishermen have flung some pine-trees, by way of a +bridge, from one perpendicular cliff to another, where the sea murmurs +unceasingly below. + +This dangerous inlet turns to the right with a serpentine twist, where it +meets a mountain rising three hundred fathoms above the surface of the sea, +its foot forming a vertical shelf half a league in length, where the +unyielding granite does not begin to split into rifts and inequalities till +at about two hundred feet above the water. Thus the sea, rushing violently +in, is no less violently driven back, by the resistant inertia of the +mountain, towards the opposite shore, which the rebounding waves have worn +into gentle indentations. The fiord is closed at the head by a cliff of +gneiss, crowned with forest, whence a stream falls in cascades, forms a +river when the snows melt, spreads into a lake of considerable extent, and +escapes with a rush, carrying down old pine-trees and ancient larches, +hardly perceptible in the tumbling torrent. Flung by the fall to the bottom +of the abyss, these trees presently come to the surface again, and combine +in a tangle, forming islets which are stranded on the left bank, where the +inhabitants of the little village built on the Stromfiord find them +splintered, broken, sometimes entire, but always stripped of their leaves +and branches. + +The mountain, which thus receives at its feet the assaults of the sea, and +on its head the buffeting of the north wind, is the Falberg. Its summit, +always wrapped in a mantle of ice and snow, is the highest in Norway, where +the vicinity of the Pole produces, at a level of eighteen hundred feet +above the sea, such cold as prevails elsewhere on the highest mountains on +the globe. The crest of this cliff, perpendicular on the side towards the +sea, shelves gradually away to the east down to the falls of the Sieg, by a +succession of slopes where the cold allows no vegetation but heath and +much-enduring shrubs. That part of the fiord where the waters escape under +the thick forest is called Siegdalen, or the valley of the Sieg--the name +of the river. + +The bay opposite to the cliffs of the Falberg is the valley of Jarvis--a +pretty spot overlooked by hills covered with fir-trees, larches, and birch, +with a few oaks and beeches, the thickest and most variously colored +hangings Nature ever affords to this wild northern scenery. The eye can +easily distinguish the line where the ground, warmed by the sun's rays, +first admits of culture and shows the first signs of the Norwegian flora. +At this part the gulf is wide enough to allow the waters flung back by the +Falberg to die murmuring on the lowest ledge of the hills, where the strand +is softly fringed with fine sand, mingled with mica, tiny crystals, and +pretty pebbles of porphyry and many-colored marbles brought from Sweden by +the river, with waifs from the sea, and shells and ocean weeds tossed up by +storms from the Pole or from the South. + +At the foot of the Jarvis hills is the village, consisting of about two +hundred wooden houses, inhabited by a population that live there, lost, +like the swarms of bees in a forest, happily vegetating and extorting a +living from the wilderness around them. The unrecognized existence of this +village is easily explained. Few of its men were bold enough to venture out +among the rocks to reach the open sea and attempt the fishing which the +Norwegians carry on to a great extent on less dangerous parts of the coast. +The various fish in the fiord partly supplies the food of the inhabitants; +the pasture land in the valleys affords milk and butter; a few plots of +good land allow them to reap a harvest of rye, of hemp, and vegetables, +which they manage to protect against the bitter cold and the transient but +terrible heat of the sun, showing true Norwegian ingenuity in this twofold +conflict. The absence of communications, either by land, where roads are +impracticable, or by sea, where only small boats can thread the watery +labyrinths of the fiord, hinders them from acquiring wealth by the sale of +their timber. It would cost an equally enormous sum to clear the channel at +the entrance or to open up a road to the interior. + +The roads from Christiania to Dronthjem all make a bend round the +Stromfiord, crossing the Sieg by a bridge several leagues above the falls; +the coast between the Jarvis valley and Dronthjem is covered with +impenetrable forests, and the Falberg is divided from Christiania by +inaccessible precipices. The village of Jarvis might perhaps have opened +communications with Sweden by way of the Sieg, but to bring it into touch +with civilization the Stromfiord needed a man of genius. The genius indeed +came: a poet, a pious Swede, who died admiring and respecting the beauties +of the land as being one of the grandest of the Creator's works. + +Those of my readers who have been gifted by study with that "mind's eye," +whose rapid perception can throw on the soul, as on a canvas, the most +diverse landscapes of the world, may now readily conceive of the general +aspect of the Stromfiord. They alone, perhaps, will be able to thread their +tortuous way through the reef of the inlet where the sea fights and foams; +to glide on its swell below the shelves of the Falberg, whose white peaks +mingle with the misty clouds of a sky that is almost constantly pearl-gray; +to admire the dented margin of the pretty sheet of water; to hear the falls +of the Sieg, which drops in long streamers on to a picturesque medley of +large trees tossed in confusion, some upright, some hidden among boulders +of gneiss; and at last to rest on the smiling pictures offered to the eye +by the lower hills of Jarvis, whence rise the noblest products of the north +in clumps, in myriads: here, birch-trees, as graceful as girls and, like +them, gently stooping; there, pillared aisles of beech with centennial, +mossy trunks; all the contrast of these various shades of green, of white +clouds among black pine-trees, of heath-grown commons in every shade of +purple--all the colors, all the fragrance, the unknown marvels, in short, +of this vegetation. + +Expand the proportions of this amphitheatre, soar up to the clouds, lose +yourself in the caves of the rocks where the walruses hide, still your +fancy will never be equal to the riches, the poetry of this Norwegian +scene. For can your thought ever be as vast as the ocean that bounds the +land, as fantastic as the strange forms assumed by the forests, as the +clouds, the shadows, the changes of light? + +Do you see now, above the meadows on the shore, on the furthest fold of the +plain that undulates at the foot of the high hills of Jarvis, two or three +hundred houses, roofed with _noever_, a kind of thatch of birch bark; +frail-looking dwellings, quite low, and suggesting silkworms flung there on +a mulberry leaf brought by the wind? Above these humble and peaceful +dwellings is a church, built with a simplicity that harmonizes with the +poverty of the village. A graveyard lies round the chancel of this church; +the parsonage is seen beyond. A little higher, on a knoll of the hillside, +stands a dwelling, the only one built of stone, and for that reason called +by the natives the Castle--the Swedish Castle. + +In fact, a rich man had come from Sweden thirty years before this story +opens and settled at Jarvis, trying to improve its fortunes. This little +mansion, erected with a view to tempting the inhabitants to build the like, +was remarkable for its substantial character, for a garden wall--a rare +thing in Norway, where, in spite of the abundance of stone, wood is used +for all the fences, even for those that divide the fields. The house, thus +protected from snow, stood on a mound in the midst of a vast courtyard. The +windows were screened by those verandas of immense depth supported on large +squared fir-trunks, which give Northern buildings a sort of patriarchal +expression. + +From under their shelter the savage bareness of the Falberg could easily be +seen, and the infinitude of the open ocean be compared with the drop of +water in the foam-flecked gulf; the portentous rush of the Sieg could be +heard, though from afar the sheet of water looked motionless, where it +threw itself into its granite bowl hedged in for three leagues round with +vast glaciers--in short, the whole landscape where the scene is laid of the +supernatural but simple events of this narrative. + +The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the hardest in the memory of Europe; the +Norway sea froze in every fiord, where the violence of the undertow +commonly prevents the ice from forming. A wind, in its effects resembling +the Spanish desert wind, had swept the ice of the Stromfiord by drifting +the snow to the head of the gulf. It was long since the good folks of +Jarvis had seen the vast mirror of the pool in winter reflecting the sky--a +curious effect here in the heart of the hills whose curves were effaced +under successive layers of snow, the sharpest peaks, like the deepest +hollows, forming mere faint undulations under the immense sheet thrown by +nature over the landscape now so dolefully dazzling and monotonous. The +long hangings of the Sieg, suddenly frozen, described a vast arch, behind +which the traveler might have walked sheltered from the storm if any one +had been bold enough to venture across country. But the dangers of any +expedition kept the boldest hunters within doors, fearing that they might +fail to discern under the snow the narrow paths traced along the edge of +the precipices, the ravines, and the cliffs. Not a creature gave life to +this white desert reigned over by the Polar blast, whose voice alone was +sometimes though rarely heard. + +The sky, always gray, gave the pool a hue of tarnished steel. Now and again +an eider-duck might fly across with impunity, thanks to the thick down that +shelters the dreams of the wealthy, who little know the dangers that +purchase it; but the bird--like the solitary Bedouin who traverses the +sands of Africa--was neither seen nor heard; in the torpid air, bereft of +electric resonance, the rush of its wings was noiseless, its joyous cry +unheard. What living eye could endure the sparkle of that precipice hung +with glittering icicles, and the hard reflections from the snows, scarcely +tinted on the peaks by the beams of the pallid sun which peeped out now and +then like a dying thing anxious to prove that it still lives? Many a time, +when the rack of gray clouds, driven in squadrons over the mountains and +pine forests, hid the sky with their dense shroud, the earth, for lack of +heavenly lights, had an illumination of its own. + +Here, then, were met all the majestic attributes of the eternal cold that +reigns at the Pole, of which the most striking is such royal silence as +absolute monarchs dwell in. Every condition carried to excess has the +appearance of negation, or the stamp of apparent death; is not life the +conflict of two forces? Here nothing showed a sign of life. One force +alone, the barren force of frost, reigned supreme. The beating of the open +sea even did not penetrate to this silent hollow, so full of sound during +the three brief months when nature hurriedly produces the uncertain harvest +needful to support this patient race. A few tall fir-trees protruded their +dark pyramids loaded with festoons of snow; and the droop of their boughs, +bending under these heavy beards, gave a finishing touch to the mourning +aspect of the heights, where they were seen as black points. + +Every family clung to the fireside in a house carefully closed, with a +store of biscuit, run butter, dried fish, and provisions laid in to stand +seven months of winter. Even the smoke of these dwellings was scarcely +visible; they were all nearly buried in snow, of which the weight was +broken by long planks starting from the roof, and supported at some +distance from the walls on strong posts, thus forming a covered way round +the house. During these dreadful winters the women weave and dye the stuffs +of wool or linen of which the clothes are made; while the men for the most +part read, or else lose themselves in those prodigious meditations which +have given birth to the grand theories, the mystical dreams of the North, +its beliefs and its studies--so thorough on certain points of science that +they have probed to the core; a semi-monastic mode of life, which forces +the soul back on itself, to feed on itself, and which makes the Norwegian +peasant a being apart in the nations of Europe. + +This, then, was the state of things on the Stromfiord in the first year of +the nineteenth century, about the middle of the month of May. + +One morning, when the sun was blazing down into the heart of this +landscape, lighting up the flashes of the ephemeral diamonds produced by +the crystallized surface of the snow and ice, two persons crossed the gulf +and flew along the shelves of the Falberg, mounting towards the summit from +ledge to ledge. Were they two human beings, or were they arrows? Any one +who should have seen them would have taken them for two eiders soaring with +one consent below the clouds. Not the most superstitious fisherman, not the +most daring hunter, would have supposed that human creatures could have the +power of pursuing a path along the faint lines traced on the granite sides, +where this pair were, nevertheless, gliding along with the appalling skill +of somnambulists, when, utterly unconscious of the laws of gravity and the +perils of the least false step, they run along a roof, preserving their +balance under the influence of an unknown power. + +"Stop here, Seraphitus," said a pale girl, "and let me take breath. I would +look only at you as we climbed the walls of this abyss; if I had not, what +would have become of me? But, at the same time, I am but a feeble creature. +Do I tire you?" + +"No," said the being on whose arm she leaned. "Let us go on, Minna; the +spot where we are standing is not firm enough to remain on." + +Once more the snow hissed off from the long boards attached to their feet, +and they presently reached the first angular crag which chance had thrown +out boldly from the face of the precipice. The person whom Minna had +addressed as Seraphitus poised himself on his right heel to raise the lath +of about six feet long, and as narrow as a child's shoe, which was fastened +to his boot by two straps of walrus skin; this lath, about an inch thick, +had a sole of reindeer skin, and the hair, pressed back against the snow, +brought him to a full stop. By turning his left foot, on which this +snow-shoe (or _ski_) was not less than twelve feet in length, he was able +to turn nimbly round, he returned to his timid companion, lifted her up in +spite of his awkward footgear, and set her down on a rocky seat, after +dusting away the snow with his pelisse. + +"You are safe here, Minna, and may tremble at your ease." + +"We have already reached a third of the height of the Ice-cap," said she, +looking at the peak, which she called by its popular Norwegian name. "I do +not yet believe----" + +But she was too much out of breath to talk; she smiled at Seraphitus, who, +without replying, held her up, his hand on her heart, listening to its +palpitations, as rapid as those of a startled fledgling. + +"It often beats as fast as that when I have been running," said she. + +Seraphitus bowed, without any contempt or coldness. In spite of the grace +of this reply, which made it almost sweet, it nevertheless betrayed a +reserve which in a woman would have been intoxicatingly provoking. +Seraphitus clasped the girl to him, and Minna took the caress for an +answer, and sat looking at him. As Seraphitus raised his head, tossing +back the golden locks of his hair with an almost impatient jerk, he saw +happiness in his companion's eyes. + +"Yes, Minna," said he, in a paternal tone that was peculiarly charming in a +youth scarcely full grown, "look at me. Do not look down." + +"Why?" + +"Do you want to know?--Try then." + +Minna gave one hasty glance at her feet, and cried out like a child that +has met a tiger. The dreadful influence of the void had seized her, and one +look had been enough to give it to her. The fiord, greedy of its prey, had +a loud voice, stunning her by ringing in her ears, as though to swallow her +up more surely by coming between her and life. From her hair to her feet, +all down her back, ran a shudder, at first of cold; but then it seemed to +fire her nerves with intolerable heat, throbbed in her veins, and made her +limbs feel weak from electrical shocks, like those caused by touching the +electrical eel. Too weak to resist, she felt herself drawn by some unknown +force to the bottom of the cliff, where she fancied she could see a monster +spouting venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes fascinated her, and whose +yawning jaws crunched his prey by anticipation. + +"I am dying, my Seraphitus, having loved no one but you," said she, +mechanically moving to throw herself down. + +Seraphitus blew softly on her brow and eyes. Suddenly, as a traveler is +refreshed by a bath, Minna had forgotten that acute anguish; it had +vanished under that soothing breath, which penetrated her frame and bathed +it in balsamic effluence, as swiftly as the breath had passed through the +air. + +"Who and what are you?" said she, with an impulse of delicious alarm. "But +I know.--You are my life.--How can you look down into the gulf without +dying?" she asked after a pause. + +Seraphitus left Minna clinging to the granite, and went as a shadow might +have done to stand on the edge of the crag, his eyes sounding the bottom of +the fiord, defying its bewildering depths; his figure did not sway, his +brow was as white and calm as that of a marble statue--deep meeting deep. + +"Seraphitus, if you love me, come back!" cried the girl. "Your danger +brings back all my torments. Who--who are you to have such superhuman +strength at your age?" she asked, feeling his arms around her once more. + +"Why," said Seraphitus, "you can look into far vaster space without a +qualm;" and raising his hand, the strange being pointed to the blue halo +formed by the clouds round a clear opening just over their heads, in which +they could see the stars, though it was daylight, in consequence of some +atmospheric laws not yet fully explained. + +"But what a difference!" she said, smiling. + +"You are right," he replied; "we are born to aspire skywards. Our native +home, like a mother's face, never frightens its children." + +His voice found an echo in his companion's soul; she was silent. + +"Come! let us go on," said he. + +They rushed on together by the paths faintly visible along the mountain +side, devouring the distance, flying from shelf to shelf, from ledge to +ledge, with the swiftness of the Arab horse, that bird of the desert. In a +few minutes they reached a green carpet of grass, moss, and flowers, on +which no one yet had ever rested. + +"What a pretty _soe_!" cried Minna, giving the native name to this little +meadow; "but how comes it here, so high up?" + +"Here, indeed, the Norwegian vegetation ceases," said Seraphitus; "and if a +few plants and flowers thrive on this spot, it is thanks to the shelter of +the rock which protects them from the Polar cold.--Put this spray in your +bosom, Minna," he went on, plucking a flower; "take this sweet creature on +which no human eye has yet rested, and keep the unique blossom in memory of +this day, unique in your life! You will never again find a guide to lead +you to this _soeter_." + +He hastily gave her a hybrid plant which his eagle eye had discerned among +the growth of _silene acaulis_ and saxifrage, a real miracle developed +under the breath of angels. Minna seized it with childlike eagerness; a +tuft of green, as transparent and vivid as an emerald, composed of tiny +leaves curled into cones, light brown at the heart, shaded softly to green +at the point, and cut into infinitely delicate teeth. These leaves were so +closely set that they seemed to mingle in a dense mass of dainty rosettes. +Here and there this cushion was studded with white stars edged with a line +of gold, and from the heart of each grew a bunch of purple stamens without +a pistil. A scent that seemed to combine that of the rose and of the +orange-blossom, but wilder and more ethereal, gave a heavenly charm to this +mysterious flower, at which Seraphitus gazed with melancholy, as though its +perfume had expressed to him a plaintive thought, which he alone +understood. To Minna this amazing blossom seemed a caprice of Nature, who +had amused herself by endowing a handful of gems with the freshness, +tenderness, and fragrance of a plant. + +"Why should it be unique? Will it never reproduce its kind?" said she to +Seraphitus, who colored and changed the subject. + +"Let us sit down--turn round--look! At such a height you will perhaps not +be frightened. The gulfs are so far below that you cannot measure their +depth; they have the level perspective of the sea, the indefiniteness of +the clouds, the hue of the sky. The ice in the fiord is an exquisite +turquoise, the pine forests are visible only as dim brown streaks. To us +the depths may well be thus disguised." + +Seraphitus spoke these words with that unction of tone and gesture which is +known only to those who have attained to the highest places on the +mountains of the earth, and which is so involuntarily assumed that the most +arrogant master finds himself prompted to treat his guide as a brother, and +never feels himself the superior till they have descended into the valleys +where men dwell. + +He untied Minna's snow-shoes, kneeling at her feet. The girl did not notice +it, so much was she amazed at the imposing spectacle of the Norwegian +panorama--the long stretch of rocks lying before her at a glance, so much +was she struck by the perennial solemnity of those frozen summits, for +which words have no expression. + +"We have not come here by unaided human strength!" said she, clasping her +hands. "I must be dreaming!" + +"You call a fact supernatural, because you do not know its cause," he +replied. + +"Your answers are always stamped with some deep meaning," said she. "With +you I understand everything without an effort.--Ah! I am free!" + +"Your snow-shoes are off, that is all." + +"Oh!" cried she, "and I would fain have untied yours, and have kissed your +feet!" + +"Keep those speeches for Wilfrid," said Seraphitus mildly. + +"Wilfrid!" echoed Minna in a tone of fury, which died away as she looked at +her companion. "You are never angry!" said she, trying, but in vain, to +take his hand. "You are in all things so desperately perfect!" + +"Whence you infer that I have no feelings?" + +Minna was startled at a glance so penetratingly thrown into her mind. + +"You prove to me that we understand each other," replied she, with the +grace of a loving woman. + +Seraphitus gently shook his head, with a flashing look that was at once +sweet and sad. + +"You who know everything," Minna went on, "tell me why the alarm I felt +below, by your side, is dissipated now that I am up here; why I dare for +the first time to look you in the face; whereas, down there, I scarce dare +steal a glance at you?" + +"Perhaps up here we have cast off the mean things of the earth," said he, +pulling off his pelisse. + +"I never saw you so beautiful," said Minna, sitting down on a mossy stone, +and gazing in contemplation of the being who had thus brought her to a part +of the mountain which from afar seemed inaccessible. + +Never, in fact, had Seraphitus shone with such brilliant splendor--the only +expression that can do justice to the eagerness of his face and the aspect +of his person. Was this radiance due to the effulgence given to the +complexion by the pure mountain air and the reflection from the snow? Was +it the result of an internal impetus which still excites the frame at the +moment it is resting after long exertion? Was it produced by the sudden +contrast between the golden glow of sunshine and the gloom of the clouds +through which this pretty pair had passed? + +To all these causes we must perhaps add the effects of one of the most +beautiful phenomena that human nature can offer. If some skilled +physiologist had studied this being, who, to judge by the boldness of his +brow and the light in his eyes at this moment, was a youth of seventeen; if +he had sought the springs of this blooming life under the whitest skin that +the North ever bestowed on one of its sons, he would, no doubt, have +believed in the existence of a phosphoric fluid in the sinews that seemed +to shine through the skin, or in the constant presence of an internal glow, +which tinted Seraphitus as a light shines through an alabaster vase. +Delicately slender as his hands were--he had taken off his gloves to loosen +Minna's sandals--they seemed to have such strength as the Creator has given +to the diaphanous joints of a crab. The fire that blazed in his eyes +rivaled the rays of the sun; he seemed not to receive but to give out +light. His frame, as slight and fragile as a woman's, was that of a nature +feeble in appearance, but whose strength is always adequate to its desires, +which are sometimes strong. Seraphitus, though of middle height, seemed +taller as seen in front; he looked as if he fain would spring upwards. His +hair, with its light curls, as if touched by a fairy hand and tossed by a +breeze, added to the illusion produced by his airy attitude; but this +absolutely effortless mien was the outcome rather of a mental state than of +physical habit. + +Minna's imagination seconded this constant hallucination; it would have +affected any beholder, for it gave to Seraphitus the appearance of one of +the beings we see in our happiest dreams. No familiar type can give any +idea of this face, to Minna so majestically manly, though in the sight of +a man its feminine grace would have eclipsed the loveliest heads by +Raphael. That Painter of Heaven has frequently given a sort of tranquil joy +and tender suavity to the lines of his angelic beauties; but without seeing +Seraphitus himself, what mind can conceive of the sadness mingled with hope +which half clouded the ineffable feelings expressed in his features? Who +could picture to himself, even in the artist's dream, where all things are +possible, the shadows cast by mysterious awe on that too intellectual brow, +which seemed to interrogate the skies, and always to pity the earth? That +head could tower disdainful, like a noble bird of prey whose cries rend the +air, or bow resigned, like the turtle-dove whose voice sheds tenderness in +the depths of the silent forest. + +Seraphitus had a complexion of surprising whiteness, made all the more +remarkable by red lips, brown eyebrows, and silky lashes, the only details +that broke the pallor of a face whose perfect regularity did not hinder the +strong expression of his feelings; they were mirrored there without shock +or violence, but with the natural, majestic gravity we like to attribute to +superior beings. Everything in those monumental features spoke of strength +and repose. + +Minna stood up to take the young man's hand, hoping to draw him down to her +so as to press on that fascinating brow a kiss of admiration rather than of +love; but one look from his eyes, a look that went through her as a sunbeam +goes through a glass prism, froze the poor child. She felt the gulf between +them without understanding it; she turned away her head and wept. Suddenly +a strong hand was round her waist, and a voice full of kindness said: + +"Come." + +She obeyed, resting her head in sudden relief on the young man's heart; +while he, measuring his steps by hers in gentle and attentive conformity, +led her to a spot whence they could behold the dazzling beauty of the Polar +scenery. + +"But before I look or listen, tell me, Seraphitus, why do you repulse me? +Have I displeased you? And how? Tell me. I do not want to call anything my +own; I would that my earthly possessions should be yours, as the riches of +my heart already are; that light should come to me only from your eyes, as +my mind is dependent on yours; then I should have no fear of offending you, +since I should but reflect the impulses of your soul, the words of your +heart, the light of your light, as we send up to God the meditations by +which He feeds our spirit.--I would be wholly you!" + +"Well, Minna, a constant aspiration is a promise made by the future. Hope +on!--Still, if you would be pure always, unite the thought of the Almighty +to your earthly affections. Thus will you love all creatures, and your +heart will soar high!" + +"I will do whatever you desire," said she, looking up at him timidly. + +"I cannot be your companion," said Seraphitus sadly. + +He suppressed some reflections, raised his arms in the direction of +Christiania, which was visible as a speck on the horizon, and said: + +"Look!" + +"We are indeed small," said she. + +"Yes; but we become great by feeling and intellect," said Seraphitus. "The +knowledge of things, Minna, begins with us; the little we know of the laws +of the visible world enables us to conceive of the immensity of higher +spheres. I know not whether the time is ripe for talking thus to you; but I +so long to communicate to you the flame of my hopes! Some day, perhaps, we +may meet in the world where love never dies." + +"Why not now and for ever?" said she in a murmur. + +"Here nothing is permanent!" said he in a tone of scorn. "The transient +joys of earthly love are false lights which reveal to some souls the dawn +of more durable bliss, just as the discovery of a law of nature enables +certain privileged minds to deduct a whole system. Is not our perishable +happiness here below an earnest of some other more perfect happiness, as +the earth, a mere fragment of the universe, testifies to the universe? We +cannot measure the orbit of the Divine mind, of which we are but atoms as +minute as God is great; but we may have our intuitions of its vastness, we +may kneel, adore, and wait. Men are constantly mistaken in their science, +not seeing that everything on their globe is relative and subordinate to a +general cycle, an incessant productiveness which inevitably involves +progress, and an aim. Man himself is not the final creation; if he were, +God would not exist." + +"How have you had time to learn so many things?" said the girl. + +"They are memories," replied he. + +"To me you are more beautiful than anything I see." + +"We are one of the greatest works of God. Has He not bestowed on us the +faculty of reflecting nature, concentrating it in ourselves by thought, and +making it a stepping-stone from which to fly to Him? We love each other in +proportion to what is heavenly in our souls.--But do not be unjust, Minna; +look at the scene displayed at our feet; is it not grand? The ocean lies +spread like a floor, the mountains are like the walls of an amphitheatre, +the ether above is like the suspended velarium of the theatre, and we can +inhale the mind of God as a perfume. + +"Look! the storms that wreck vessels filled with men from hence appear like +mere froth; if you look above you all is serene; we see a diadem of stars. +The shades of earthly expression are here lost. Thus supported by nature so +attenuated by space, do you not feel your mind to be deep rather than keen? +Are you not conscious of more loftiness than enthusiasm, of more energy +than will? Have you not feelings to which nothing within us can give +utterance? Do you not feel your wings?--Let us pray!" + +Seraphitus knelt, crossing his hands over his bosom, and Minna fell on her +knees weeping. Thus they remained for some minutes, and for some minutes +the blue halo that quivered in the sky above them spread, and rays of light +fell round the unconscious pair. + +"Why do you not weep when I cannot help it?" said Minna in a broken voice. + +"Those who are pure in spirit shed no tears," replied Seraphitus, rising. +"Why should I weep? I no longer see human misery. Here all is good and +shines in majesty. Below I hear the supplications and the lament of the +harp of suffering, sounding under the hands of the spirit held captive. +Here I listen to the concert of harmonious harps. Below, you have hope, the +beautiful rudiment of faith; but here faith reigns, the realization of +hope!" + +"You can never love me, I am too imperfect; you disdain me," said the girl. + +"Minna, the violet hidden at the foot of the oak says to itself, 'The sun +does not love me, he never comes.'--The sun says, 'If I fell on her, that +poor little flower would perish!' Because he is the flower's friend he lets +his beams steal through the oak-leaves, subduing them to tint the petals of +the blossom he loves.--I feel I am not sufficiently shrouded, and fear lest +you should see me too clearly; you would quail if you knew me too well. +Listen; I have no taste for the fruits of the earth; I have understood your +joys too well; like the debauched Emperors of Pagan Rome, I am disgusted +with all things, for I have the gift of vision.--Leave me for ever," added +Seraphitus sorrowfully. + +He went away to sit down on a projecting rock, his head drooping on his +breast. + +"Why thus drive me to despair?" said Minna. + +"Go from me!" cried Seraphitus; "I can give nothing that you want. Your +love is too gross for me. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid is a man, a +man tested by passion, who will clasp you in his sinewy arms, and make you +feel his broad, strong hand. He has fine black hair, eyes full of human +feeling, a heart that fires the words of his lips with a lava torrent. He +will crush you with caresses. He will be your lover, your husband. Go to +Wilfrid!" + +Minna was crying bitterly. + +"Dare you tell me that you do not love him?" he added in a voice that +pierced her like a dagger. + +"Mercy! Mercy! My Seraphitus!" + +"Love him, poor child of earth, to which fate irrevocably rivets you," said +the terrible Seraphitus, seizing the girl with such force as dragged her to +the brink of the _soeter_, whence the prospect was so extensive that a +young creature full of enthusiasm might easily fancy that she was above the +world. "I wanted a companion to go with me to the realm of light; I thought +to show her this ball of clay, and I find you still cling to it. Adieu! +Remain as you are, enjoy through your senses, obey your nature; turn pale +with pale men, blush with women, play with children, pray with sinners, +look up to heaven when you are stricken; tremble, hope, yearn; you will +have a comrade, you still may laugh and weep, give and receive.--For me--I +am an exile far from heaven; like a monster, far from earth! My heart beats +for none; I live in myself, for myself alone. I feel through my spirit, I +breathe by my brain, I see by my mind, I am dying of impatience and +longing. No one here below can satisfy my wishes or soothe my eagerness; +and I have forgotten how to weep. I am alone.--I am resigned, and can +wait." + +Seraphitus looked at the flowery knoll on which he had placed Minna, and +then turned towards the frowning summits, round whose peaks heavy clouds +had gathered, into which he seemed to fling his next thoughts. + +"Do you hear that delightful music, Minna?" said he, in his dove-like +tones, for the eagle had ended his cry. "Might one not fancy that it was +the harmony of those Eolian harps which poets imagine in the midst of +forests and mountains? Do you see the shadowy forms moving among those +clouds? Do you discern the winged feet of those who deck the sky with such +hangings? Those sounds refresh the soul; Heaven will ere long shed the +blossoms of spring, a flash blazes up from the Pole. Let us fly--it is +time!" + +In an instant they had replaced their snow-shoes and were descending the +Falberg by the steep slopes down to the valley of the Sieg. Some miraculous +intelligence guided their steps--or rather their flight. When a crevasse +covered with snow lay before them, Seraphitus seized Minna, and with a +swift rush dashed, scarce the weight of a bird, across the frail bridge +that covered a chasm. Many a time, by just pushing his companion, he +deviated slightly to avoid a cliff or tree, a block of stone which he +seemed to see through the snow, as certain mariners, accustomed to the sea, +discern a shoal by the color, the eddy, and the recoil of the water. + +When they had reached the roads of the Siegdahl, and they could proceed +without hesitation in a straight line down to the ice on the fiord, +Seraphitus spoke. + +"You have nothing more to say to me?" he asked Minna. + +"I fancied," replied the girl respectfully, "that you wished to think in +silence." + +"Make haste, pretty one, the night is falling," said he. + +Minna was startled at hearing the new voice, so to speak, in which her +guide spoke. A voice as clear as a girl's, dissipating the fantastic +flashes of the dream in which she had been walking. Seraphitus was +abdicating his manly strength, and his looks were losing their too keen +insight. Presently the fair couple were gliding across the fiord; they +reached the snowy level that lay between the margin of the bay and the +first houses of Jarvis; then, urged by the waning light, they hurried up to +the parsonage as if climbing the steps of an enormous stairway. + +"My father will be uneasy," said Minna. + +"No," said Seraphitus. + +At this moment they stopped at the porch of the humble dwelling where +Pastor Becker, the minister of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his +daughter's return to supper. + +"Dear Pastor Becker," said Seraphitus, "I have brought your daughter back +safe and sound." + +"Thank you, mademoiselle," said the old man, laying his spectacles on the +book. "You must be tired." + +"Not in the least," said Minna, on whose brow her companion had just +breathed. + +"Dear child, will you come to tea with me the evening after to-morrow?" + +"With pleasure, dear." + +"Pastor Becker, will you bring her?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +Seraphitus nodded prettily, bowed to the old man, and left, and in a few +minutes was in the courtyard of the Swedish Castle. An old servant of +eighty came out under the wide veranda carrying a lantern. Seraphitus +slipped off the snow-shoes with the grace of a woman, ran into the +sitting-room, dropped on to a large divan covered with skins, and lay down. + +"What will you take?" said the old man, lighting the enormously long tapers +that are used in Norway. + +"Nothing, David; I am too tired." + +Seraphitus threw off the sable-lined pelisse, wrapped it about him, and was +asleep. The old servant lingered a few minutes in loving contemplation of +the strange being resting under his gaze, and whose sex the most learned +man would have been puzzled to pronounce on. Seeing him as he lay, wrapped +in his usual garment, which was as much like a woman's dressing-gown as a +man's overcoat, it was impossible to believe that the slender feet that +hung down, as if to display the delicacy with which nature had moulded +them, were not those of a young girl; but the brow, the profile, seemed the +embodiment of human strength carried to its highest pitch. + +"She is suffering, and will not tell me," thought the old man. "She is +dying like a flower scorched by too fierce a sunbeam." + +And the old man wept. + + + + +II. + +SERAPHITA. + + +In the course of the evening David came into the drawing-room. + +"I know who is coming," said Seraphita in a sleepy voice. "Wilfrid may come +in." + +On hearing these words, a man at once appeared, and came to sit down by +her. + +"My dear Seraphita, are you ill? You look paler than usual." + +She turned languidly towards him, after tossing back her hair like a pretty +woman overpowered by sick headache and too feeble to complain. + +"I was foolish enough," said she, "to cross the fiord with Minna; we have +been up the Falberg." + +"Did you want to kill yourself?" cried he, with a lover's alarm. + +"Do not be uneasy, my good Wilfrid, I took great care of your Minna." + +Wilfrid struck the table violently with his hand, took a few steps towards +the door with an exclamation of pain; then he came back and began to +reproach her. + +"Why so much noise if you suppose me to be suffering?" said Seraphita. + +"I beg your pardon, forgive me," said he, kneeling down. "Speak harshly to +me, require anything of me that your cruel woman's caprice may suggest to +you as hardest to be endured, but, my beloved, do not doubt my love! You +use Minna like a hatchet to hit me with again and again. Have some mercy!" + +"Why speak thus, my friend, when you know that such words are useless?" she +replied, looking at him with a gaze that became at last so soft that what +Wilfrid saw was not Seraphita's eyes, but a fluid light shimmering like the +last vibrations of a song full of Italian languor. + +"Ah! anguish cannot kill!" cried he. + +"Are you in pain?" said she, in a voice which produced on him the same +effect as her look. "What can I do for you?" + +"Love me, as I love you!" + +"Poor Minna!" said she. + +"I never bring any weapons!" cried Wilfrid. + +"You are in a detestable temper," said Seraphita, smiling. "Have I not +spoken nicely, like the Parisian ladies of whom you tell me love stories?" + +Wilfrid sat down, folded his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. + +"I forgive you," said he, "for you know not what you do." + +"Oh!" retorted she, "every woman from Eve downwards knows when she is doing +good or evil." + +"I believe it," said he. + +"I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our intuition is just what makes us so perfect. +What you men have to learn, we feel." + +"Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?" + +"Because you do not love me." + +"Great God!" + +"Why then do you complain of anguish?" + +"You are terrible this evening, Seraphita. You are a perfect demon!" + +"No; but I have the gift of understanding, and that is terrifying. +Suffering, Wilfrid, is a light thrown on life." + +"Why did you go up the Falberg?" + +"Minna will tell you; I am too tired to speak. You must talk, you who know +everything, who have learned everything and forgotten nothing, and have +gone through so many social experiences. Amuse me; I am listening." + +"What can I tell you that you do not know! Indeed, your request is a +mockery. You recognize nothing that is worldly, you analyze its +terminology, you demolish its laws, its manners, feelings, sciences, by +reducing them to the proportions they assume when we take our stand outside +the globe." + +"You see, my friend, I am not a woman. You are wrong to love me. What! I +quit the ethereal regions of strength you attribute to me; I make myself +humble and insignificant to stoop after the manner of the poor female of +every species--and you at once uplift me! Then, when I am crushed and +broken, I crave your help; I want your arm, and you repulse me! We do not +understand each other." + +"You are more malignant this evening than I have ever known you." + +"Malignant?" said she, with a flashing look that melted every sentiment +into one heavenly emotion. "No; I am weary, that is all. Then, leave me, my +friend. Will not that be a due exercise of your rights as a man? We are +always to charm you, to recreate you, always to be cheerful, and have no +whims but those that amuse you.--What shall I do, my friend? Shall I sing, +or dance, when fatigue has deprived me of voice and of the use of my legs? +Yes, gentlemen, at our last gasp we still must smile on you! That, I +believe, you call your sovereignty!--Poor women! I pity them. You abandon +them when they are old; tell me, have they then no longer heart or soul? +Well, and I am more than a hundred, Wilfrid. Go--go to kneel at Minna's +feet." + +"Oh, my one, eternal love!" + +"Do you know what eternity is? Be silent, Wilfrid.--You desire me, but you +do not love me.--Tell me, now, do not I remind you of some coquette you +have met?" + +"I certainly do not see you now as the pure and heavenly maiden I saw for +the first time in the church at Jarvis." + +As he spoke Seraphita passed her hands over her brow, and when she +uncovered her face Wilfrid was astonished at the religious and saintly +expression it wore. + +"You are right, my friend. I am always wrong to set foot on your earth." + +"Yes, beloved Seraphita, be my star.--Never descend from the place whence +you shed such glorious light on me." + +He put out his hand to take the girl's, but she withdrew it, though without +disdain or anger. Wilfrid hastily rose and went to stand by the window, +turning towards it so that Seraphita should not see a few tears that filled +his eyes. + +"Why these tears?" she asked. "You are no longer a boy, Wilfrid. Come back +to me, I insist.--You are vexed with me, when it is I who should be angry. +You see I am not well, and you compel me by some foolish doubts to think +and speak, or participate in whims and ideas that fatigue me. If you at all +understood my nature, you would have given me some music; you would have +soothed my weariness; but you love me for your own sake, not for myself." + +The storm which raged in Wilfrid's soul was stilled by these words; he came +back slowly to contemplate the bewitching creature who reclined under his +eyes, softly pillowed, her head resting on her hand, and her elbow in an +insinuating attitude. + +"You fancy I do not like you," she went on. "You are mistaken. Listen, +Wilfrid. You are beginning to know a great deal, and you have suffered +much. Allow me to explain your thoughts. You wanted to take my hand." + +She sat up, and her graceful movement seemed to shed gleams of light. + +"Does not a girl who allows a man to take her hand make a promise, and +ought she not to keep it? You know full well that I can never be yours. Two +feelings rule the love that attracts the women of this earth: either they +devote themselves to suffering creatures, degraded and guilty, whom they +desire to comfort, to raise, to redeem; or they give themselves wholly to +superior beings, sublime and strong, whom they are fain to worship and +understand--by whom they are too often crushed. You have been degraded, but +you have purified yourself in the fires of repentance, and you now are +great; I feel myself too small to be your equal, and I am too religious to +humble myself to any power but that of the Most High. Your life, my friend, +may thus be stated; we are in the North, among the clouds, where +abstractions are familiar to our minds." + +"Seraphita, you kill me when you talk so," he replied. "It is always +torture to me to see you thus apply the monstrous science which strips all +human things of the properties they derive from time, space, form, when you +regard them mathematically under some ultimate simplest expression, as +geometry does with bodies, abstracting dimensions from substance." + +"Well, Wilfrid, I submit.--Look at this bearskin rug which my poor David +has spread. What do you think of it?" + +"I like it very well." + +"You did not know I had that _Doucha Greka_?" + +It was a sort of pelisse made of cashmere lined with black fox-skin; the +name means, "warm to the soul." + +"Do you suppose," said she, "that any sovereign in any court possesses a +fur wrap to match it?" + +"It is worthy of her who wears it!" + +"And whom you think very beautiful?" + +"Human words are inapplicable to her; she must be addressed heart to +heart." + +"Wilfrid, it is kind of you to soothe my griefs with such sweet +words--which you have spoken to others." + +"Good-bye." + +"Stay. I love you truly, and Minna too, believe me, but to me you two are +one being. Thus combined you are as a brother, or, if you will, a sister to +me. Marry each other, let me see you happy before quitting for ever this +sphere of trial and sorrow. Dear me! the most ordinary women have made +their lovers obey their will. They have said 'Be silent!' and their lovers +were mute. They have said 'Die!' and men have died. They have said 'Love me +from afar!' the lovers have remained at a distance like courtiers in the +presence of a king. They have said 'Go, marry!' and the men have married. +Now, I want you to be happy, and you refuse. Have I then no power?--Well, +Wilfrid--come close to me--Yes, I should be sorry to see you married to +Minna; but when you see me no more, then--promise me to make her your wife. +Heaven intends you for each other." + +"I have heard you with rapture, Seraphita. Incomprehensible as your words +are, they are like a charm. But what, indeed, do you mean?" + +"To be sure; I forget to be foolish, to be the poor creature in whose +weakness you delight. I torture you, and you came to this wild country to +find rest--you who are racked by the fierce throes of misunderstood genius, +worn out by the patient labors of science, who have almost stained your +hands by crime, and worn the chains of human justice." + +Wilfrid had fallen half dead on the floor. Seraphita breathed on the young +man's brow, and he fell calmly asleep, lying at her feet. + +"Sleep, rest," said she, rising. + +After laying her hands on Wilfrid's forehead, the following phrases fell +from her lips, one by one, each in a different tone, but alike melodious +and full of a kindly spirit that seemed to emanate from her countenance in +misty undulations like the light shed by the heathen goddess on the beloved +shepherd in his sleep. + +"I may show myself to you, dear Wilfrid, as I am, to you who are strong. + +"The hour is come, the hour when the shining lights of the future cast +their reflections on the soul, the hour when the soul moves, feeling itself +free. + +"It is granted to me now to tell you how well I love you. Do you not see +what my love is, a love devoid of self-interest, a feeling full of you +alone, a love which follows you into the future, to light up your future, +for such love is the true light. Do you now perceive how ardently I long to +see you released from the life that is a burden to you, and nearer to the +world where love rules for ever? Is not love for a lifetime only sheer +suffering? Have you not felt a longing for eternal love? Do you not now +understand to what ecstasy a being can rise when he is double through +loving Him who never betrays his love, Him before whom all bow and worship! + +"I would I had wings, Wilfrid, to cover you withal; I would I had strength +to give you that you might know the foretaste of the world where the purest +joys of the purest union known on earth would cast a shadow in the light +that there perennially enlightens and rejoices all hearts! + +"Forgive a friendly soul for having shown you in one word a vision of your +faults with the charitable intention of lulling the acute torments of your +remorse. Listen to the choir of forgiveness! Refresh your spirit by +inhaling the dawn that shall rise for you beyond the gloom of death! Yes, +for your life lies there. + +"My words shall wear for you the glorious garb of dreams, and appear as +forms of flame descending to visit you. Rise! Rise to the heights whence +men see each other truly, though tiny and crowded as the sands of the +seashore. Humanity is unrolled before you as a ribbon; look at the endless +hues of that flower of the gardens of Heaven.--Do you see those who lack +intelligence, those who are beginning to be tinged by it, those who have +been tried, those who are in the circle of love, and those in wisdom, who +aspire to celestial illumination? + +"Do you understand, through these thoughts made visible, the destination of +man--whence he comes, whither he is tending? Keep on your road. When you +shall reach your journey's end, you will hear the trumpet call of +omnipotence and loud shouts of victory, and harmonies, only one of which +would shake the earth, but which are lost in a world where there is neither +East nor West. + +"Do you perceive, dear, much-tried one, that but for the torpor and the +veil of sleep, such visions would rend and carry away your intellect, as +the wind of a tempest rends and sweeps away a light sail, and would rob a +man for ever of his reason? Do you perceive that the soul alone, raised to +its highest power, and even in a dream, can scarce endure the consuming +effluence of the Spirit? + +"Fly, fly again through the realms of light and glory, admire, hurry on. As +you fly you are resting, you go forward without fatigue. Like all men, you +would fain dwell always thus bathed in these floods of fragrance and light, +where you are wandering free of your unconscious body, speaking in thought +only. Hurry, fly, rejoice for a moment in the wings you will have earned +when love is so perfect in you that you shall cease to have any senses, +that you shall be all intellect and all love! The higher you soar, the less +can you conceive of the gulf beneath.--Now, gaze at me for a moment, for +you will henceforth see me but darkly, as you behold me by the light of the +dull sun of the earth!" + +Seraphita stole up with her head gently bent on one side, her hair flowing +about her in the airy pose which the sublimest painters have attributed to +messengers from heaven; the folds of her dress had the indescribable grace +which makes the artist, the man to whom everything is an expression of +feeling, stop to gaze at the exquisite flowing veil of the antique statue +of Polyhymnia. + +Then she extended her hand and Wilfrid rose. + +When he looked at Seraphita, the fair girl was lying on the bearskin, her +head resting on her hand, her face calm, her eyes shining. Wilfrid gazed at +her in silence, but his features expressed respectful awe, and he looked at +her timidly. + +"Yes, dear one," said he at last, as if answering a question, "whole worlds +divide us! I submit; I can only adore you. But what is to become of me thus +lonely?" + +"Wilfrid, have you not your Minna?" + +He hung his head. + +"Oh, do not be so scornful! a woman can understand everything by love. When +she fails to understand, she feels; when she cannot feel, she sees; when +she can neither see, nor feel, nor understand--well, that angel of earth +divines your need, to protect you and to hide her protection under the +grace of love." + +"Seraphita, am I worthy to love a woman?" + +"You are suddenly grown very modest! Is this a snare? A woman is always so +much touched to find her weakness glorified!--Well, the evening after +to-morrow, come to tea. You will find our good Pastor Becker, and you will +see Minna, the most guileless creature I ever knew in this world.--Now +leave me, my friend; I must say long prayers this evening in expiation of +my sins." + +"How can you sin?" + +"My poor, dear friend, is not the abuse of power the sin of pride? I have +been, I think, too arrogant to-day.--Now go. Till to-morrow." + +"Till to-morrow!" Wilfrid feebly echoed, with a long look at the being of +whom he desired to carry away an indelible memory. + +Though he meant to leave, he remained standing for some moments outside, +looking at the lights that beamed from the windows of the Swedish castle. + +"What was it that I saw?" he asked himself. "No, it was not a single being, +but a whole creation. I retain, of that world seen through veils and mists, +a ringing echo like the remembrance of departed pain, or like the +dizziness caused by dreams in which we hear the moaning of past generations +mingling with the harmonious voices of higher spheres, where all is light +and love. Am I awake? Do I still slumber? Have I not yet opened my sleeping +eyes, those eyes before whose sight luminous spaces stretch into +infinitude, eyes that can discern those spaces?--In spite of the night and +the cold, my head is still on fire. I will go to the manse. Between the +pastor and his daughter I may recover my balance." + +But he did not yet leave the spot whence he could see into Seraphita's +sitting-room. This mysterious being seemed to be the radiant centre of a +circle which formed an atmosphere about her rarer than that which surrounds +others: he who came within it found himself involved in a vortex of light +and of consuming thoughts. Wilfrid, obliged to struggle against this +inexplicable force, did not triumph without considerable efforts; but when +he had got out of the precincts of the house, he recovered his freedom of +will, walked quickly to the parsonage, and presently found himself under +the lofty wooden porch that served as an entrance hall to Pastor Becker's +house. He pushed open the first door, packed with birch bark, against which +the snow had drifted, and knocked eagerly at the inner door, saying: + +"Will you allow me to spend the evening with you, Pastor Becker?" + +"Yes," was the answer in two voices speaking as one. + +On entering the parlor, Wilfrid was gradually brought back to real life. He +bowed very cordially to Minna, shook hands with the minister, and then +looked about him on a scene which soothed the excitement of his physical +nature, in which a process was going on resembling that which sometimes +takes place in men accustomed to long contemplation. When some powerful +conception carries away a man of science or a poet on its chimera-like +wings, and isolates him from the external surroundings that hedge him in on +earth, soaring with him through those boundless regions where vast masses +of fact appear as abstractions and the most stupendous works of nature +seem but images, woe to him if some sudden noise rouses his senses and +recalls his wandering soul to its prison of bone and flesh! The collision +of the two powers: body and spirit, one of which has something of the +invisible element of lightning; while the other, like all tangible forms, +has a certain soft resistancy which for the moment defies destruction--this +collision, or, to be accurate, this terrible reunion, gives rise to +unspeakable suffering. The body has cried out for the fire that consumes +it, and the flame has recaptured its prey. But this fusion cannot take +place without the ebullition, the crepitation and convulsions, of which +chemistry affords visible examples when two hostile elements are sundered +that have been joined by its act. + +For some days past, whenever Wilfrid went to Seraphita's house, his body +there fell into an abyss. By a single look this wonderful creature +translated him in the spirit to the sphere whither meditation carries the +learned, whither prayer transports the pious soul, whither his eye can +carry the artist, and sleep can waft some dreamers; for each there is a +call bidding him to that empyrean void, for each a guide to lead him +there--for all there is anguish in the return. There alone is the veil +rent, there alone is Revelation seen without disguise--an ardent and awful +disclosure of the unknown sphere of which the soul brings back nought but +fragments. To Wilfrid, an hour spent with Seraphita was often like the +dream so dear to the opium eater, in which each nerve-fibre becomes the +focus of radiating rapture. He came away exhausted, like a girl who should +try to keep up with the pace of a giant. + +The sharp, punishing cold began to subdue the agony of trepidation caused +by the re-amalgamation of the two elements in his nature thus violently +wrenched asunder; then he always made his way to the manse, attracted to +Minna by his thirst for the scenes of homely life, as an European traveler +thirsts for his native land when home-sickness seizes him in the midst of +the fairy splendors that tempted him to the East. + +At this moment the visitor, more exhausted than he had ever been before, +dropped into a chair and looked about him for some minutes, like a man +aroused from sleep. Pastor Becker and his daughter, accustomed no doubt to +their guest's eccentricity, went on with their occupations. + +The room was decorated with a collection of Norwegian insects and shells. +These curiosities, ingeniously arranged on the background of yellow +pinewood with which the wall was wainscoted, formed a colored ornamentation +to which tobacco smoke had imparted a soberer tone. At the further end, +opposite the door, was an enormous wrought-iron stove, carefully rubbed by +the maid-servant till it shone like polished steel. + +Pastor Becker was seated in a large armchair, covered with worsted work, +near the stove and in front of a table, his feet in a foot-muff, while he +read from a folio supported on other books to form a sort of desk. On his +right stood a beer-jug and a glass; on his left a smoky lamp fed with fish +oil. The minister was a man of about sixty years; his face of the type so +often painted by Rembrandt: the small, keen eyes set in circles of fine +wrinkles under thick grizzled brows; white hair falling in two silky locks +from beneath a black velvet cap; a broad, bald forehead, and the shape of +face which a heavy chin made almost square, and, added to this, the +self-possessed calm that betrays to the observer some conscious power--the +sovereignty conferred by wealth, by the judical authority of the +burgomaster, by the conviction of Art, or the stolid tenacity of happy +ignorance. The handsome old man, whose substantial build revealed sound +health, was wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough cloth with no ornament but +the binding. He gravely held a long meerschaum pipe in his mouth, blowing +off the tobacco smoke at regular intervals, and watching its fantastic +spirals with a speculative eye, while endeavoring, no doubt, to assimilate +and digest by meditation the ideas of the author whose works he was +studying. + +On the other side of the stove, near the door that led into the kitchen, +Minna was dimly visible through the fog of smoke, to which she seemed to be +inured. In front of her, on a small table, were the various implements of a +needle-woman; a pile of towels and stockings to be mended, and a lamp like +that which shone on the white pages of the book in which her father seemed +to be absorbed. Her fresh, young face, delicately pure in outline, +harmonized with the innocence that shone on her white brow and in her +bright eyes. She sat forward on her chair, leaning a little towards the +light to see the better, unconsciously showing the grace of her figure. She +was already dressed for the evening in a white calico wrapper; a plain, +cambric cap, with no ornament but its frill, covered her hair. Though lost +in some secret meditation, she counted without mistake the threads in the +towel, or the stitches in her stocking. Thus she presented the most +complete and typical image of woman born to earthly duties, whose eye might +pierce the clouds of the sanctuary, while a mind at once humble and +charitable kept her on the level of man. Wilfrid, from his armchair between +the two tables, contemplated the harmonious picture with a sort of rapture; +the clouds of smoke were not out of keeping. + +The single window which gave light to the room in the summer was now +carefully closed. For a curtain, an old piece of tapestry hung from a rod +in heavy folds. There was no attempt at the picturesque or showy--austere +simplicity, genuine homeliness, the unpretentiousness of nature, all the +habits of domestic life free from troubles and anxieties. Many dwellings +leave the impression of a dream; the dazzling flash of transient pleasure +seems to hide a ruin under the chill smile of luxury; but this parlor was +sublimely real, harmonious in color, and apt to suggest patriarchal ideas +of a busy and devout life. + +The silence was broken only by the heavy step of the maid preparing the +supper, and by the singing in the pan of the dried fish she was frying in +salt butter, after the fashion of the country. + +"Will you smoke a pipe?" said the pastor presently, when he thought that +Wilfrid would heed him. + +"No, thank you, dear Pastor Becker," he replied. + +"You seem less well than usual this evening," said Minna, struck by the +visitor's weak voice. + +"I am always so when I have been to the castle." + +Minna was startled. + +"A strange creature dwells there, Pastor Becker," he went on after a pause. +"I have been six months in the village, and have never dared to question +you about her; and to-night I have to do violence to my feelings even to +speak of her. At first I greatly regretted to find my travels interrupted +by the winter, and to be obliged to remain here; for the last two months, +however, the chains binding me to Jarvis have been more closely riveted, +and I fear I may end my days here.--You know how I first met Seraphita, and +the impression made on me by her eyes and her voice, and how at last I was +admitted to visit her though she receives nobody. On the very first day, I +came to you for information concerning that mysterious creature. Then began +for me the series of enchantments----" + +"Of enchantments?" exclaimed the pastor, shaking out the ashes of his pipe +into a coarse pan of sand that served him as a spittoon. "Are enchantments +possible?" + +"You, certainly, who at this very moment are so conscientiously studying +Jean Wier's book of _Incantations_, will understand the account I can give +you of my sensations," Wilfrid replied quickly. "If we study nature +attentively, alike in its great revolutions and in its minutest works, it +is impossible not to admit the possibility of enchantment--giving the word +its fullest meaning. Man can create no force; he can but use the only +existing force, which includes all others, namely, Motion--the +incomprehensible Breath of the Sovereign Maker of the Universe. The +elements are too completely separated for the hand of man to combine them; +the only miracle he can work consists in the mingling of two hostile +substances. Even so, gunpowder is akin to thunder! + +"As to effecting an act of creation, and that suddenly!--All creation needs +time, and time will neither hurry nor turn backwards at our bidding. Hence, +outside us, plastic nature obeys laws whose order and procedure cannot be +reversed by any human effort. + +"But after conceding this to mere matter, it would be unreasonable to deny +the existence, within us, of a vast power, of which the effects are so +infinitely various that past generations have not yet completely classified +them. I will say nothing of man's faculty of abstracting his mind, of +comprehending nature in the limits of speech, a stupendous fact, of which +common minds think no more than they think out the act of motion, but which +led Indian Theosophists to speak of creation by the Word, to which they +also attributed the contrary power. The tiniest item of their daily food--a +grain of rice, whence proceeds a whole creature, which presently results in +a grain of rice again--afforded them so complete a symbol of the creative +Word and the synthetical Word, that it seemed a simple matter to apply the +system to the creation of worlds. + +"Most men would do well to be content with the grain of rice that lies at +the origin of every genesis. Saint John, when he said that the Word was in +God, only complicated the difficulty. + +"But the fruition, the germination, and the blossoming of our ideas is but +a trifle if we compare this property, which is distributed among so many +men, with the wholly personal faculty of communicating it to certain more +or less efficient forces by means of concentration, and thus raising it to +the third, ninth, or twenty-seventh power, giving it a hold on masses, and +obtaining magical results by concentrating the action of Nature. What I +call enchantments are the stupendous dramas played out between two +membranes on the canvas of the brain. In the unexplored realms of the +spiritual world we meet with certain beings armed with these astounding +faculties--comparable only to the terrible powers of gases in the physical +world--beings who can combine with other beings, can enter into them as an +active cause, and work magic in them, against which their hapless victims +are defenceless; they cast a spell on them, override them, reduce them to +wretched serfdom, and crush them with the weight and magnificent sway of a +superior nature; acting, now like the gymnotus which electrifies and numbs +the fisherman; now, again, like a dose of phosphorus which intensifies the +sense of life or hastens its projection; sometimes like opium, which lulls +corporeal nature, frees the spirit from its bondage, sends it soaring above +the world, shows it the universe through a prism, and extracts for it the +nourishment that best pleases it; and sometimes like catalepsy, which +annuls every faculty to enhance a single vision. + +"Miracles, spells, incantations, witchcrafts, in short all the facts that +are incorrectly called supernatural, can only be possible and accounted for +by the authority with which some other mind compels us to accept the +effects of a mysterious law of optics which magnifies, or diminishes, or +exalts creation, enables it to move within us independently of our will, +distorts or embellishes it, snatches us up to heaven, or plunges us into +hell--the two terms by which we express the excess of rapture or of pain. +These phenomena are within us, not outside us. + +"The being we call Seraphita seems to me to be one of those rare and +awe-inspiring spirits to whom it is given to constrain men, to coerce +nature, and share the occult powers of God. The course of her enchantments +on me began by her compelling me to silence. Every time I dared wish to +question you about her, it seemed to me that I was about to reveal a secret +of which I was bound to be the impeccable guardian; whenever I was about to +speak, a burning seal was set on my lips, and I was the involuntary slave +of this mysterious prohibition. You see me now, for the hundredth time, +crushed, broken, by having played with the world of hallucinations that +dwells in that young thing, to you so gentle and frail, to me the most +ruthless magician. Yes--to me she is a sorceress who bears in her right +hand an invisible instrument to stir the world with, and in her left the +thunderbolt that dissolves everything at her command. In short, I can no +longer behold her face; it is unendurably dazzling. + +"I have for the last few days been wandering round this abyss of madness +too helplessly to keep silence any longer. I have, therefore, seized a +moment when I find courage enough to resist the monster that drags me to +her presence without asking whether I have strength enough to keep up with +his flight.--Who is she? Did you know her as a child? Was she ever born? +Had she parents? Was she conceived by the union of sun and ice?--She +freezes and she burns; she comes forth and then vanishes like some coy +truth; she attracts and repels me; she alternately kills and vivifies me; I +love her and I hate her!--I cannot live thus. I must be either in heaven +altogether, or in hell." + +Pastor Becker, his refilled pipe in one hand and in the other the stopper, +listened to Wilfrid with a mysterious expression, glancing occasionally at +his daughter, who seemed to understand this speech, in harmony with the +being it referred to. Wilfrid was as splendid as Hamlet struggling against +his father's ghost, to whom he speaks when it rises visible to him alone +amid the living. + +"This is very much the tone of a man in love," said the good man simply. + +"In love!" cried Wilfrid, "yes, to ordinary apprehensions; but, my dear Mr. +Becker, no words can describe the frenzy with which I rush to meet this +wild creature." + +"Then you do love her?" said Minna reproachfully. + +"Mademoiselle, I endure such strange agitation when I see her, and such +deep dejection when I see her not, that in any other man they would be +symptoms of love; but love draws two beings ardently together, while +between her and me a mysterious gulf constantly yawns, which chills me +through when I am in her presence, but of which I cease to be conscious +when we are apart. I leave her each time in greater despair; I return each +time with greater ardor, like a scientific inquirer seeking for Nature's +secrets and for ever baffled; like a painter who yearns to give life to +his canvas, and wrecks himself and every resource of art in the futile +attempt." + +"Yes, that strikes me as very true," said the girl. + +"How should you know, Minna?" asked the old man. + +"Ah! father, if you had been with us this morning to the summit of the +Falberg, and had seen her praying, you would not ask me. You would say, as +Wilfrid did the first time he saw her in our place of worship, 'She is the +Spirit of Prayer!'" + +A few moments of silence ensued. + +"It is true!" cried Wilfrid. "She has nothing in common with the creatures +who writhe in the pits of this world." + +"On the Falberg!" the old pastor exclaimed. "How did you manage to get +there?" + +"I do not know," said Minna. "The expedition is to me now like a dream of +which only the remembrance survives. I should not believe in it, perhaps, +but for this substantial proof." + +She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to him. They all three +fixed their eyes on the pretty saxifrage, still quite fresh, which under +the gleam of the lamps shone amid the clouds of smoke like another light. + +"This is supernatural," said the old man, seeing a flower in bloom in the +winter. + +"An abyss!" cried Wilfrid, fevered by the perfume. + +"The flower fills me with rapture," said Minna. "I fancy I can still hear +his speech, which is the music of the mind, as I still see the light of his +gaze, which is love." + +"Let me entreat you, my dear Pastor Becker, to relate the life of +Seraphita--that enigmatical flower of humanity whose image I see in this +mysterious blossom." + +"My dear guest," said the minister, blowing a puff of tobacco-smoke, "to +explain the birth of this being, it will be necessary to disentangle for +you the obscurest of all Christian creeds; but it is not easy to be clear +when discussing the most incomprehensible of all revelations, the latest +flame of faith, they say, that has blazed on our ball of clay.--Do you know +anything of Swedenborg?" + +"Nothing but his name. Of himself, his writings, his religion, I am wholly +ignorant." + +"Well, then, I will tell you all about Swedenborg." + + + + +III + +SERAPHITA--SERAPHITUS + + +After a pause, while the pastor seemed to be collecting his thoughts, he +went on as follows:-- + +"Emanuel von Swedenborg was born at Upsala, in Sweden, in the month of +January 1688, as some authors say, or, according to his epitaph, in 1689. +His father was bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived to the age of eighty-five, +and died in London on the 29th March 1772. I use the word 'died' to express +a change of condition only. According to his disciples, Swedenborg has been +at Jarvis and in Paris since that time.--Permit me, my dear friend," said +the pastor, with a gesture to check interruption, "I am relating the tale +without affirming or denying the facts. Listen, and when I have done you +can think what you choose. I will warn you when I myself judge, criticise, +or dispute the doctrines, so as to show my intellectual neutrality between +reason and the man himself. + +"Emanuel Swedenborg's life was divided into two distinct phases," Becker +went on. "From 1688 till 1745 Baron Emanuel von Swedenborg was known in the +world as a man of vast learning, esteemed and beloved for his virtues, +always blameless, and invariably helpful. While filling important public +posts in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, several important +books on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, which were of +value in the scientific world. He invented a method of constructing docks +to receive vessels; he treated many very important questions, from the +height of the flood-tide to the position of the earth in space. He +discovered the way to construct more efficient locks on canals, as well as +simpler methods for the smelting of metals. In short, he never took up a +science without advancing it. + +"In his youth he studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and the Oriental languages, +and became so familiar with these tongues that several celebrated +professors constantly consulted him, and he was enabled to discover in +Tartary some traces of the earliest book of God's Word, called the _Book of +the Wars of Jehovah_, and of the Judgments mentioned by Moses (Numbers xxi. +14, 15), by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel. The wars of the Lord are said to +be the historical portion, and the Judgments the prophetic portion, of this +book, written prior to _Genesis_. Swedenborg even asserted that the Book of +Jasher, or of the Upright, mentioned by Joshua, existed in Eastern Tartary +with the worship by Correspondences. A Frenchman, I have been told, has +recently confirmed Swedenborg's anticipations by announcing the discovery +at Bagdad of several parts of the Bible unknown in Europe. + +"In 1785, on the occasion of the discussion on animal magnetism started in +Paris, and raised almost throughout Europe, in which most men of science +took an eager part, Monsieur de Thome defended Swedenborg's memory in a +reply to the assertions so rashly made by the Commissioners appointed by +the King of France to inquire into this subject. These gentlemen stated +that there was no theory accounting for the action of the lodestone, +whereas Swedenborg had made it his study so early as in 1720. Monsieur de +Thome took the opportunity to point out the reasons for the neglect in +which the most celebrated savants had left the name of the learned Swede, +so as to be free to plunder his volumes and use his treasures in their own +works. 'Some of the most illustrious,' said Monsieur de Thome, alluding to +Buffon's _Theory of the Earth_, 'are mean enough to dress in the peacock's +plumage without giving him the credit.' Finally, by several convincing +quotations from Swedenborg's encyclopaedic writings, he proved that this +great prophet had outstripped by many centuries the slow progress of human +learning; and, indeed, to read his works is enough to carry conviction on +this point. + +"In one passage he is the precursor of the present system of chemistry, +announcing that the products of organic nature can all be decomposed and +resolved into two pure elements; that water, air, and fire are not +elements; in another he goes in a few words to the heart of magnetic +mystery, and thus anticipates Mesmer.--In short," said the minister, +pointing to a long shelf between the stove and the window, on which were +books of various sizes, "there are seventeen works by him; one of them, +published in 1734, _Studies in Philosophy and Mineralogy_, consists of +three folio volumes. + +"These books, which bear witness to Swedenborg's practical knowledge, were +given to me by Baron Seraphitus, his cousin, and Seraphita's father. + +"In 1740 Swedenborg sank into complete silence, never relaxing it excepting +to renounce temporal studies and to think exclusively of the spiritual +world. + +"He received his first commands from heaven in 1745. This is how he relates +his call: + +"'One evening, in London, after he had dined, eating heartily, a thick mist +filled the room. When the darkness cleared away, a being that had assumed a +human form rose up in a corner of the room and said in a terrible voice, +"Do not eat so much." He then fasted completely. Next evening the same man +was visible, radiant with light, and said to him: + +"'"I am sent by God, who has chosen thee to set forth to men the meaning of +His word and His creation. I will dictate what thou shalt write." + +"The vision lasted but a few minutes. The angel, he said, was clad in +purple. + +"During that night the eyes of his _inner man_ were opened and enabled to +see into the heavens, into the world of spirits, and into hell, three +different circles, where he met persons he had known who had perished from +their human state, some long ago, and some quite recently. From that time +Swedenborg always lived the spiritual life, and remained in this world as a +being sent from God. + +"Though his mission was disputed by the incredulous, his conduct was +visibly that of a being superior to human weakness. In the first instance, +though limited by his means to the strictest necessaries, he gave away +immense sums, and was known to be the means of restoring, in various +commercial towns, some great houses of business that had failed, or were +failing. No one who appealed to his generosity went away without being +helped on the spot. An incredulous Englishman, going in search of him, met +him in Paris, and he has recorded that Swedenborg's doors were always left +open. One day his servant complained of this neglect, which exposed him to +suspicion if his master should be robbed. + +"'Let him make his mind easy,' said Swedenborg, smiling; 'I forgive him +want of faith; he cannot see the guardian who keeps watch before my door.' + +"And, in fact, in whatever country he might be living, his doors were never +shut, and he never lost anything. + +"When he was at Gothenburg, a town sixty miles away from Stockholm, three +days before the news arrived of the great fire that raged at Stockholm, he +had announced the hour at which it had begun, adding that his house was +unharmed--which was true. + +"The Queen of Sweden, when at Berlin, told the King, her brother, that one +of her ladies being summoned to repay a sum of money which she knew that +her husband had returned before his death, being unable to find the +receipt, had gone to Swedenborg and begged him to inquire of her husband +where the proof of payment could be. On the following day Swedenborg told +her the place where the receipt was; then, in accordance with the lady's +desire, he called upon the dead man to appear to his wife, and she saw her +husband, in a dream, in the dressing-gown he had worn before his death, and +he showed her the document in the place mentioned by Swedenborg, where in +fact it lay hidden. + +"One day, on sailing from London in the ship of a Captain Dixon, he heard a +lady asking if there were a good stock of provisions on board. + +"'You will not need a very large quantity,' said he. 'In a week, at two +o'clock, we shall be in the port of Stockholm,' and it was so. + +"The state of second sight, into which Swedenborg could pass at will in +relation to earthly things, astonishing as it was to all who knew him, by +it marvelous results, was no more than a weaker development of his power of +seeing into the skies. + +"Of all his visions, those in which he traveled to other astral worlds are +not the least curious, and his descriptions are no doubt surprisingly +artless in their details. A man whose great scientific acquirements are +beyond question, who combined in his brain conception, will, and +imagination, would certainly have invented something better if he had +invented at all. Nor does the fantastic literature of the East contain +anything that can have suggested the idea of this bewildering narrative +full of poetic germs, if we may compare a work of faith to the writings of +Arab fancy. + +"The account of his being snatched up by the angel who guided him in his +first voyage is sublime to a degree as far beyond the poems of Klopstock, +Milton, Tasso, and Dante, as the earth, by God's will, is from the sun. +This chapter, which forms the introduction to his _Treatise on the Astral +Worlds_, has never been published; it remains among the oral traditions +left by Swedenborg to the three disciples who were dearest to him. M. +Silverichm has it in writing. Baron Seraphitus sometimes tried to tell me +of it; but his memory of his cousin was so vivid that he stopped after a +few words, and fell into a reverie from which nothing could rouse him. + +"The discourse in which the angel proved to Swedenborg that those planets +are not created to wander uninhabited, crushes all human science, the Baron +assured me, under the grandeur of its divine logic. + +"According to the Seer, the inhabitants of Jupiter do not affect the +sciences, which they call Shades; those of Mercury object to the expression +of ideas by words, which they think too material, and they have a language +of the eye; those of Saturn are persistently tormented by evil spirits; +those of the Moon are as small as children of six years old, their voice +proceeds from the stomach, and they creep about; those of Venus are of +gigantic stature, but very stupid, and live by robbery; part of that +planet, however, is inhabited by beings of great gentleness, who live +loving to do good. Finally, he describes the customs of the people who +dwell on those globes, and gives an account of the general purpose of their +existence as part of the universe in terms so precise, adding explanations +which agree so well with the effects of their apparent motion in the system +of the universe, that some day, perhaps, scientific men will drink of these +luminous founts. Here," said the pastor, taking down a volume and opening +it at a page where a marker was placed, "these are the words which conclude +this great work: 'If any one should doubt my having been transported to so +many astral earths, let him remember my remarks as to distances in the +other life. They exist only in relation to the external form of man; now I, +having been inwardly constituted like the angelic spirits of those globes, +have been enabled to know them.' + +"The circumstances to which we owed the residence in this district of Baron +Seraphitus, Swedenborg's dearly loved cousin, made me intimately familiar +with every fact of the life of that extraordinary man. + +"Not long since he was accused of imposture in some European newspapers, +which reported the following facts as related in a letter from the +Chevalier Beylon. Swedenborg, 'informed,' it was said, 'by some senators of +a secret correspondence between the late Queen of Sweden and her brother, +the Prince of Prussia, revealed the contents to that Princess, leaving her +to believe that he had acquired the information by supernatural means. A +man of the highest credit, Monsieur Charles-Leonard von Stahlhammer, +Captain of the King's Guard and Knight of the Sword, refuted this calumny +in a letter.'" + +The pastor hunted through some papers in his table-drawer, found a +newspaper, and handed it to Wilfrid, who read aloud the following letter: + + "STOCKHOLM, _May 18, 1788_. + + "I have read with astonishment the letter reporting the + interview between the famous Swedenborg and Queen + Louisa-Ulrica. All the circumstances are falsified; and + I hope the writer will pardon me if I show him how + greatly he is mistaken, by giving here an exact + account, of which the truth can be attested by several + personages of distinction who were present, and who are + still living. + + "In 1758, not long after the Prince of Prussia's death, + Swedenborg came to Court; he was in the habit of doing + so very regularly. No sooner did the Queen see him than + she asked, 'By the way, Baron Assessor, have you seen + my brother?' Swedenborg said he had not, and the Queen + replied, 'If you should see him, greet him from me.' + + "She had no idea in saying this but of a jest; it did + not occur to her to ask for any information concerning + her brother. + + "A week later--not twenty-four days, nor for a private + audience--Swedenborg came again, but so early that the + Queen had not yet left her own apartment, known as the + white room, where she was chatting with her ladies of + honor and other ladies about the Court. Swedenborg did + not wait for the Queen to come out. He went into her + private room and spoke in her ear. The Queen, quite + astounded, turned faint, and it took some time to + revive her. When she had recovered herself, she said to + those about her, 'God alone and my brother could know + what he has just told me!' And she said he had spoken + of her last correspondence with the Prince, of which + the subject had been known to themselves only. + + "I cannot explain how Swedenborg gained his knowledge + of this secret; but what I can aver on my honor is that + neither Count H----, as the author of the letter + states, nor any one else, had intercepted or read the + Queen's letters. The Senate had at that time allowed + her to write to her brother in the strictest + confidence, regarding the correspondence as a matter + perfectly indifferent to the State. It is evident that + the writer of that letter knew nothing of Count H----'s + character. That distinguished gentleman, who did his + country important service, combines with intellectual + talent fine qualities of the heart, and his advanced + years have not deteriorated his noble gifts. Throughout + his official career he has been equally remarkable for + enlightened political views and the most scrupulous + integrity, and he was always the declared enemy of + secret intrigues and covert devices, which he regarded + as the basest means to any end. + + "Nor did the writer know Swedenborg the Assessor; the + only weak point in this thoroughly honest man was his + belief in apparitions and spirits; but I knew him for a + long time, and I can positively state that he was as + well assured that he certainly did talk and mingle with + spirits as I am at this moment of writing these lines. + As a citizen and as a friend, he was a man of absolute + integrity, with a horror of imposture, and he led an + exemplary life. + + "Hence the account given of the incident by the + Chevalier de Beylon is without foundation; and the + visit said to have been paid to Swedenborg, at night, + by Counts H---- and T---- is a pure invention. + + "The writer of the letter may rest assured that I am + anything rather than a follower of Swedenborg; nothing + but the love of truth has moved me to relate with + accuracy a fact that has often been told with details + that are incorrect; and I affirm what I have here + written to be the truth, and sign it with my name." + +"The proofs of his mission given by Swedenborg to the families of Prussia +and Sweden no doubt formed a basis for the belief he inspired in several +personages of the two Courts," the pastor went on, replacing the newspaper +in his drawer. "At the same time, I cannot tell you all the facts of his +material and visible life; his habits precluded their being exactly known. +He lived in strict retirement, never trying to grow rich or to rise to +fame. He was even remarkable for a sort of repugnance to proselytizing; he +spoke freely to very few persons, and never communicated those gifts but +to those who were conspicuous for faith, wisdom, and love. He could read at +a glance the frame of mind in which each one approached him, and could make +seers of those whom he desired to touch with his inward Word. + +"After the year 1745 his disciples never saw him do a single thing from a +merely human motive. + +"One man only, a Swedish priest named Matthesius, accused him of madness. +By a singular coincidence this Matthesius, the enemy of Swedenborg and his +writings, went mad not long after, and was living a few years since at +Stockholm on a pension allowed him by the King of Sweden. + +"A discourse in honor of Swedenborg was composed with great care as to the +details of his life, and read at a general meeting in the Hall of the Royal +Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, by Monsieur de Sandel, Councillor to the +College of Mines, in 1786. Finally, a deposition laid before the Lord Mayor +of London testifies to the smallest circumstances of Swedenborg's last +illness and death under the ministrations of Pastor Ferelius, a Swedish +ecclesiastic of the highest respectability. The persons attesting declared +that, far from recanting, Swedenborg always averred the truth of his +writings. + +"'In a hundred years' time,' said he, 'my doctrines will govern the +Church.' + +"He foretold very precisely the day and hour of his death. On that day, +Sunday, March 29th, 1772, he asked what o'clock it was. + +"'Five o'clock,' was the answer. + +"'It is all over,' said he. 'God bless you!' + +"And ten minutes after he died quite calmly with a gentle sigh. Thus, +moderation, simplicity, and solitude were the features of his life. + +"Whenever he had finished writing a treatise, he took ship to have it +printed in London or in Holland, and never talked about it. He thus +published twenty-seven works in all, written, as he declared, at the +dictation of angels. Whether or no this be true, few men are capable of +enduring this flaming language. + +"Here they all are," said the minister, pointing to an upper shelf on which +stood about sixty volumes. "The seven books on which the Spirit of God has +shed its brightest light are: _The Delights of Wisdom in Conjugal Love_; +_Heaven and Hell_; _the Apocalypse Explained_; _An Exposition of the Inward +Sense_; _On the Divine Love_; _The True Christian Religion_; _The Angelic +Wisdom of the Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of those who share +the Eternity and Immensity of God_. + +"His explanation of the _Apocalypse_ begins with these words," said the +pastor, opening the volume that was lying near him: "'Herein I have written +nothing of my own; I have spoken at the bidding of the Lord, who said to +John, by the same angel, "Thou shalt not seal the words of this prophecy."' + +"My dear sir," the good man went on, looking at Wilfrid, "many a winter +night have I quaked in every limb while reading the tremendous works in +which this man sets forth the greatest marvels in perfect good faith. + +"'I have seen,' says he, 'the heavens and the angels. The spiritual man +sees spiritual man far more clearly than the earthly man sees earthly man. +I obey the command of the Lord who hath given it to me to do. Men are free +not to believe me; I cannot put others into the state into which God hath +put me. It is not in my power to make them hold conversation with the +angels, nor to work a miracle in predisposing their understanding; they +themselves must be the agents of their angelical exaltation. For +twenty-eight years now I have dwelt in the spiritual world with the angels, +and yet on earth with men; for it hath pleased the Lord to open the eyes of +my spirit as he opened the eyes of Paul, of Daniel, and of Elisha.' + +"Certain persons, however, have had visions of the spiritual world through +the complete severance of their external body and their inner man by +somnambulism. In that state, Swedenborg tells us in his _Treatise on +Angelic Wisdom_, man may be raised to celestial light, because, the +physical senses being in abeyance, heavenly influences act on the inner +man without interference. + +"A good many persons who do not doubt that Swedenborg had celestial +revelations, still do not regard all his writings as equally stamped with +divine inspiration. Others insist on a complete acceptance of Swedenborg, +while confessing his obscurities; but they think that it was the +imperfection of earthly language that hindered the prophet in expressing +his spiritual visions, so that such obscurities disappear before the eyes +of those who are regenerate by faith; to use a striking expression of his +favorite disciple's, the flesh is begotten externally. + +"To poets and writers he is infinitely marvelous; to seers it is all +absolute truth. His descriptions have been a matter of scandal to some +Christians; critics have laughed at the 'celestial substance' of his +temples, his golden palaces, his magnificent mansions where angels flutter +and play; others have ridiculed his groves of mystical trees, and gardens +where flowers have speech, where the air is white, and mystical +gems--sardonyx, carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, cyanite, chalcedony, +and beryl, the Urim and Thummim--are endowed with motion, express celestial +truths, and may be questioned, since they reply by variations of light +(_True Religion_, 217, 218). Some very good men will not recognize his +worlds where colors are heard in delicious concerts, where words are +flames, and the Word is written in inflected letters (_True Religion_, +278). Even in the North some writers have made fun of his gates of pearl, +of the diamonds with which the houses of his New Jerusalem are paved and +furnished, where the humblest utensils are made of the rarest materials. + +"'But,' his disciples argue, 'though such substances are sparely +distributed in this world, is that any reason why they should not be +abundant in another? On earth they are but earthly, while in heaven they +are seen under celestial aspects in relation to the angelic state.' And +Swedenborg would quote on such points the great words of Jesus Christ, 'If +I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if +I tell you of heavenly things?' (John iii. 12.) + +"I, sir, have read Swedenborg from beginning to end," the pastor went on, +with an emphatic gesture. "I may say it with pride, since I have preserved +my reason. As you read you must either lose your wits or become a seer. +Though I have escaped both forms of madness, I have often felt unknown +raptures, deep amazement, inward joy such as can only come of the fulness +of truth, the evidence of heavenly illumination. Everything here below +shrinks, dwindles, as the soul studies the burning pages of those writings. +It is impossible not to be struck with astonishment on reflecting that +within the space of thirty years this man published twenty-five quarto +volumes on the truths of the spiritual world, written in Latin, the +shortest containing five hundred pages, and all in small print. He left +twenty more, it is said, in London, in the care of his nephew, M. +Silverichm, formerly chaplain to the King of Sweden. Certainly the man who, +between twenty and sixty, spent himself in publishing a sort of +encyclopedia, must have had supernatural help to enable him to compose +these prodigious treatises, at an age when the powers of man are beginning +to fail. + +"In these works there are thousands of propositions, all numbered, none of +them contradictory. Method, preciseness, and a collected mind are +everywhere conspicuous, all based on the one fact of the existence of +angels. His _True Religion_, in which his whole dogma is summed up, is a +work of powerful lucidity, and was conceived and carried out when he was +eighty-three years of age. His ubiquity, his omniscience, have indeed never +been disproved by his critics or his enemies. + +"Nevertheless, even when I was soaked, so to speak, in this torrent of +celestial illumination, God did not open my inward eye; I judged of these +writings by the reason of an unregenerate man. I have often been of opinion +that Swedenborg, the _inspired_, must have misunderstood the angels. I +laughed at many visions, which, according to the seers, I ought reverently, +to believe in. I could not, for instance, appreciate the inflected writing +of the angels, nor their belts of thicker or thinner gold. Though the +statement, 'There are solitary angels,' at first struck me as singularly +pathetic, I could not reconcile this loneliness with their manner of +marriage. I did not see why the Virgin Mary should wear white satin robes +in heaven. I dared question why the giant demons Enakim and Hephilim came +again and again to fight with the Cherubim in the Apocalyptic fields of +Armageddon. I fail to see how the Satanic and heavenly angels can still +loud discussions. Baron Seraphitus replied to me that these details +referred to the angels who are yet on earth in human form. + +"The visions of the Swedish prophet are often disfigured by grotesque +touches. One of his _Memorabilia_--the name he gives them--begins with +these words: 'I saw the spirits met together, and they had hats on their +heads.' In another of these _Memorabilia_ he received from heaven a small +paper on which, he says, he saw the letters used by primitive races, +composed of curved lines with little rings curling upwards. For clearer +proof of this communication from heaven I should have liked him to deposit +this document with the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm. + +"After all, I may be wrong; the material absurdities that are scattered +throughout his works have spiritual meanings perhaps. Otherwise, how can we +account for the growing influence of his doctrine? His followers now number +more than seven hundred thousand souls, partly in the United States of +America, where many sects have joined them in a body, and partly in +England, where there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of +Manchester alone. Men no less distinguished by their learning than by their +worldly rank--some in Germany, and some in Prussia and the North--have +publicly adopted Swedenborg's beliefs, which indeed are more consolatory +than those of many another Christian communion. + +"I should now like to expound to you in a few short words the capital +points of the doctrines set forth by Swedenborg to his Church; but such an +abridgment, from memory, would necessarily be defective. I can, therefore, +only enlarge on the arcana connected with the birth of Seraphita." + +Here the pastor paused while meditating apparently to collect his +reminiscences, and then he went on:-- + +"Having proved mathematically that man shall live for ever in an upper or a +lower sphere, Swedenborg gives the title of angelic spirits to such beings +as, in this world, are prepared for heaven, where they become angels. +According to him, God did not create angels independently; there are none +but those who have been human beings on earth. Thus the earth is the +nursery ground for heaven. The angels are not angels by original nature; +they are transformed into angels by an intimate union with God which God +never refuses, the very essence of God being never negative, but always +active (_Angelic Wisdom_). + +"Angelic spirits, then, go through three natures of love, for man can only +be regenerate by stages (_True Religion_). First, love of self: the supreme +expression of it is human genius, of which the works are worshiped. Next, +love of the world at large, which produces prophets and those great men +whom the earth accepts as guides, and hails as divine. Finally, love of +heaven, which forms angelic spirits. These spirits are, so to speak, the +flowers of humanity, which is epitomized, and strives to be epitomized, in +them. They must have either the love or the wisdom of heaven; but they must +dwell in that love before they dwell in wisdom. Thus the first +transformation of man is to love. To achieve this first grade, in his +previous existences he must have gone through hope and charity, which +engender in him the gifts of faith and prayer. The ideas gained by the +exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each new human embodiment +within which the metamorphoses of the inner man are hidden. Nothing avails +separately; hope is inseparable from charity, faith from prayer; the four +faces of this figure are equally important. 'For lack of one virtue,' says +he, 'the angelic spirit is as a flawed pearl.' Thus each existence is a +sphere into which are absorbed the celestial treasures of the former one. +The great perfection of the angelic spirits comes of this mysterious +progress, by which nothing is lost of the qualities successively acquired +till they attain to their most glorious incarnation; for, at every fresh +transformation, they unconsciously lose something of the flesh and its +works. + +"When he lives in love man has thrown off all his evil passions; hope, +charity, faith, and prayer have, to use the word of Isaiah, _winnowed_ his +inner man, which must no longer be polluted by any earthly affection. Hence +the great lesson in Saint Luke, 'Provide yourselves a treasure in the +heavens that faileth not,' and the teaching of Jesus Christ that we should +leave this world to men, for it is theirs, and purify ourselves and go to +the Father. + +"The second transformation is to wisdom. Wisdom is that apprehension of +heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love. The spirit of love +has triumphed over force; as a result of having conquered every earthly +passion, he loves God blindly; but the spirit of wisdom has intelligence +and knowledge of why he loves. The wings of the first are spread and bear +him up to God; the wings of the second are folded in awe derived from +knowledge: he knows God. One incessantly desires to see God, and soars up +to Him; the other stands near to Him and trembles. + +"The union of a spirit of love with a spirit of wisdom lifts the creature +into the divine state in which the soul is woman and the body man--the +final expression of humanity, in which the spirit is supreme over the form, +and the form still contends with the divine spirit; for the form, which is +the flesh, is ignorant and rebellious, and would fain remain gross. It is +this supreme conflict which gives rise to the inexpressible anguish which +the heavens alone can see, and which Christ endured in the Garden of +Olives. After death, the first heaven opens to receive this purified +compound human nature. Thus men die in despair, while spirits die in +ecstasy. Hence the natural state, in which are all unregenerate beings; the +spiritual state, in which are the angelic spirits; and the divine state, in +which the angel dwells before bursting its husk, are the three degrees of +existence by which man attains to heaven. + +"A sentence of Swedenborg's will admirably explain to you the difference +between the natural and the spiritual states: 'To men,' says he, 'the +natural passes into the spiritual; they regard the world under its visible +forms, and perceive it in a reality adjusted to their senses. But to the +angelic spirit the spiritual passes into the natural; he regards the world +in its inmost spirit, not under its outer form.' + +"Hence our human sciences are but the analysis of form. The learned of this +world are purely superficial, as their knowledge is; their inner man is of +no avail except to preserve an aptitude for apprehension and truth. The +angelic spirit goes far beyond this. His knowledge is the thought of which +human science is the mere utterance; he derives a knowledge of things from +the Word by studying the correspondences through which the worlds are +harmonized with the heavens. The Word of God was written entirely by such +correspondences; it contains a hidden or spiritual meaning which cannot be +understood without the study of correspondences. 'There are,' says +Swedenborg (_Celestial Doctrine_), 'innumerable arcana in the inward +meaning of the correspondences.' + +"Those men who have laughed to scorn the books in which the prophets have +treasured the Word, were in such a state of ignorance as men are in, who, +in this world, knowing nothing of a science, mock the truths of that +science. To know the correspondences of the Word with heavenly things, to +know the correspondences that exist between the visible and ponderable +things of the earthly globe and invisible and imponderable things of the +spiritual world, is to 'have the heavens in your understanding.' + +"Every object of every creation proceeded from the hand of God, and has, +therefore, necessarily a hidden meaning, as we see in those grand words of +Isaiah, 'The earth is as a garment' (Isaiah li. 6). This mysterious tie +between the smallest atoms of matter and the heavens constitutes what +Swedenborg calls a _Celestial Arcanum_. Indeed, his _Treatise on the +Celestial Arcana_, in which he explains the correspondences or symbolism +of the natural and spiritual, containing, as Jacob Boehm has it, the 'sign +and sealing of all things,' contains no less than thirteen thousand +propositions, filling sixteen volumes. 'This wonderful apprehension of +correspondences which the grace of God vouchsafed to Swedenborg,' says one +of his disciples, 'is the secret of the interest taken in his works.' +According to this commentator, 'everything is derived from heaven, +everything returns to heaven. The prophet's words are sublime and lucid; he +speaks in the heavens, and is understood on earth. A volume might be +written on any one of his phrases.' And, among a thousand others, he quotes +this text: 'The realm of heaven,' says Swedenborg (_Arcana Celestia_), 'is +the realm of impulsion. Action takes form in heaven, and thence in the +world, and by degrees in the minutest details of earthly life; earthly +effects being thus continuous with heavenly causes, the result in every +case is correspondent and symbolical. Man is the link of union between the +Natural and the Spiritual.' + +"Angelic spirits, then, inevitably know the correspondences that link each +earthly thing to heaven, and they know the inmost sense of the prophetic +words which foretell their evolution. Thus, to these spirits everything +here below has its hidden meaning. The smallest flower is a thought, a life +answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a +persistent intuition. To them the adulteries and debauchery of which the +Scripture and the Prophets speak, and which are often misapprehended by +self-styled scribes, signify the state of the souls who in this world +persist in debasing themselves with earthly affections, and so confirm +their divorce from heaven. Clouds symbolize the veils that shroud God. The +candlesticks, the shewbread, the horses and riders, the whores, the +jewels,--everything in the Scriptures has for them a super-sensual meaning, +and reveals the future of earthly history in its relation to heaven. They +can all enter into the truth of the declarations of Saint John, which human +science demonstrates, and substantially proves at a later time, such as +this, 'pregnant,' says Swedenborg, 'with many human sciences': 'I saw a +new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were +passed away' (Rev. xxi. 1). They know the suppers where 'they eat the flesh +of kings, and the flesh of captives, and the flesh of mighty men,' to which +[the fowls] are bidden by an angel standing in the sun (Rev. xix. 17, 18). +They see the woman with wings, clothed with the sun, and the man always +armed. 'The horse of the Apocalypse,' says Swedenborg, 'is the visible +image of the human intellect ridden by death, because it bears in itself +the element of its own destruction.' Finally, they recognize the nations +hidden under forms which, to the ignorant, seem grotesque. + +"When a man is prepared to receive the prophetical insufflation of +correspondences, the Spirit of the Word moves within him; he then sees that +creations are but transformations; it gives vitality to his intellect, and +a burning thirst for truth which can only be quenched in heaven. In +proportion to the greater or less perfection of his inner man he can +conceive of the power of the angelic spirit; and guided by desire, the +least perfect state of unregenerate man, he proceeds to hope, which opens +before him the world of spirits, and thence to prayer, which is the key of +heaven. + +"What human creature could fail to desire to become worthy of passing into +the sphere of those intellects that live in secret by love or wisdom? +During their life on earth those spirits remain pure; they neither see, nor +think, nor speak as other men do. + +"There are two modes of perception--the external and the internal. Man is +wholly external; the angelic spirit is wholly internal. The spirit +penetrates the sense of numbers; it masters them all and knows their +meanings. It is lord of motion, and is one with everything by ubiquity: +'One angel is present to another whenever he will,' says the Swedish Seer +(_Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love_), for he has the power of escaping +from the body, and sees the heavens as the prophets saw them, and as +Swedenborg himself saw them. + +"'In this state,' he says, in the _True Religion_, 'the spirit of a man is +borne from one place to another, his body remaining where it is, a state in +which I lived for twenty-six years.' This is the meaning to be given to the +Bible phrase, 'The Spirit carried me.' + +"Angelic wisdom is to human wisdom what the numberless forces of Nature are +to its action, which is single. Everything lives again, moves, and exists +in the spirit, for it is in God, as it is expressed in these words of Saint +Paul, _In Deo sumus, movemur et vivimus_ (In God we live and move and have +our being, Acts xvii. 28). Earth offers no obstacle to it, as the Word +offers no difficulties. Its nearness to the divine state enables it to see +the thought of God veiled by the Word, just as the spirit dwelling inwardly +can communicate with the hidden meaning of all the things of this world. +Science is the language of the temporal world; love is that of the +spiritual world. Man, indeed, describes more than he explains; while the +angelic spirit sees and understands. Science saddens man; love enraptures +the angel; science is still seeking, love has found. Man judges of Nature +in relation to itself; the angelic spirit judges of it in relation to +heaven. In short, to the spirits everything speaks. + +"The spirits are in the secret of the reciprocal harmony of creations; they +are in accord with the spirit of sounds, with the spirit of colors, with +the spirit of vegetable life; they can question minerals, and minerals +reply to their thoughts. What, to them, are the learning and the treasures +of earth when they can constantly command them by their sight, and when the +worlds of which men think so much are for the spirits no more than the +topmost step whence they will fly up to God? Heavenly love, or heavenly +wisdom, are visibly with them, seen by the elect in a halo of light that +envelops them. Their innocence, of which a child's innocence is the +external image, has knowledge which children have not; they are innocent, +and they know. + +"'And,' says Swedenborg, 'the innocence of heaven makes so deep an +impression on the soul, that those who enjoy it feel a rapture which goes +with them all through life, as I myself have experienced.' 'It is enough, +perhaps,' he says elsewhere, 'to have the smallest inkling of it to +transform one for ever, and, by desiring to go to heaven, to enter into the +sphere of hope.' + +"His doctrine of marriage may be summed up in a few words: + +"'The Lord took the beauty and grace of man's life and infused them into +woman. When man is disunited from this beauty and elegance of life, he is +austere, sad, or savage; when he is reunited to them, he is happy, he is +complete.' + +"The angels are for ever in the perfection of beauty. Their marriages take +place with miraculous ceremonies. To such an union, from which no children +are born, man brings Understanding, woman brings Will; they become one +being--one flesh on earth; then, after putting on the heavenly body, they +go to heaven. On earth, in the natural state, the mutual affection of the +two sexes leads to lust, which is an _effect_, producing fatigue and +disgust; but in their heavenly form, the pair, having become one spirit, +finds in itself a cause of perpetual joys. Swedenborg had seen such an +union of spirits, who, as Saint Luke has written, 'neither marry nor are +given in marriage,' and this union leads to none but spiritual pleasures. +An angel offered to take him to witness such a marriage, and bore him away +on his wings; the wings are only symbolical, and not an earthly reality. He +clothed him in his festal garment; and Swedenborg, seeing himself arrayed +in light, asked the reason. + +"'On such occasions,' replied the angel, 'our robes light up and shine and +are nuptial garments' (_The Delight of Wisdom in Conjugal Love_). + +"He then saw two angels who came--one from the South, and the other from +the East. The angel from the South rode in a chariot drawn by two white +horses, whose reins were of the color and the radiance of the morning; but +when they came close to him in heaven, he saw no more of the chariot or +horses. The angel from the East, clothed in purple, and the angel from the +South, in hyacinth color, rushed together like two breaths of wind, and +were one; one was an angel of Love, and the other an angel of Wisdom. +Swedenborg's guide told him that on earth these two angels had been bound +by an inward sympathy, and constantly united, though divided by space. +Consent, which is the essence of happy marriage on earth, is the habitual +condition of angels in heaven. Love is the light of their world. + +"The perpetual ecstasy of the angels is produced by the faculty, bestowed +on them by God, of giving back to Him the joy they have in Him. This +reciprocity of the infinite constitutes their life. In heaven they too +become infinite by partaking of the essential nature of God, who is +self-subsistent. Such is the vastness of the heavens where the angels +dwell, that if man were endowed with vision as constantly rapid as the +transmission of light from the sun to the earth, and if he gazed through +all eternity, his eyes would find no horizon to rest on. Light alone can be +an emblem of the joys of heaven. 'It is,' says he (_Angelic Wisdom_), 'an +effluence of the virtue of God, a pure emanation from His glory, compared +to which our most brilliant day is dark. It is omnipotent, it renews +everything, and cannot be absorbed; it surrounds the angel, putting him +into contact with God by infinite joys which are felt to multiply and +reproduce themselves to infinity. This light kills the man who is not +prepared to receive it. No one on earth, or indeed in the heavens, can look +on God and live. This is why it is written (Exodus xix. 12, 21-23), 'Set +bounds unto the people round about [the Mount] ... lest they break through +... and many of them perish.' And again (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), 'When Moses +came down with the two tables of testimony, the skin of his face shone, and +Moses put a veil upon his face till he had done speaking with the people.' +The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ also testifies to the light shed by a +messenger from heaven and the extreme joy of the angels in being for ever +bathed in it. 'His face,' says Saint Matthew (xvii. 2), 'did shine as the +sun, and His raiment was as white as the light ... and a bright cloud +overshadowed the disciples.' + +"When a planet is inhabited only by beings who reject the Lord and misprize +His Word, when the angelic spirits have gathered from the four winds, God +sends a destroying angel to alter the whole mass of that rebellious world, +which, in the vast spaces of the universe, is to Him what an infertile seed +is in the natural world. As he approaches that globe, the destroying angel, +riding on a cornet, reverses it on its axis and makes the continents become +the bottom of the sea, the highest mountains then are islands, and the +lands hitherto covered by the seas reappear in all their freshness, obeying +the laws of Genesis; thus the Word of God is in power once more on a new +earth, which everywhere shows the effects of terrestrial waters and +celestial fires. The light the angel brings down from heaven makes the sun +pale. Then, as Isaiah saith (ii. 10, 19), men will enter into the holes of +the rocks and hide themselves in the dust. 'They will cry to the mountains +and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb' (Rev. vi. +16). The Lamb is the great emblem of the angels who are unrecognized and +persecuted on earth. + +"Christ Himself hath said, 'Blessed are they that mourn! Blessed are the +meek! Blessed are the peacemakers.' All Swedenborg is there: Suffer, +believe, and love. To love truly, must we not have suffered; must we not +believe? Love begets strength, and strength gives wisdom; this is +intelligence, for strength and wisdom include will. Is not true intellect +composed of knowledge, will, and wisdom, the three attributes of the +angelic spirit? + +"'If the universe has a meaning, that surely is the worthiest of God,' said +Monsieur Saint-Martin to me when I saw him during his visit to Sweden. + +"But," the minister went on, after a pause, "of what value can these shreds +be, snatched from a work so vast that the only way to give you an idea of +it is to compare it to a river of light, a torrent of flame? When a man +plunges into it, he is carried away by an overwhelming flood. Dante +Alighieri's poem seems a mere speck to the reader who will dive into the +innumerable passages in which Swedenborg has given actuality to the +heavenly spheres, just as Beethoven builds up palaces of harmony out of +thousands of notes, and architects construct cathedrals of thousands of +stones. He flings you up to infinite heights, where your mind sometimes +fails to bear you up. It is necessary certainly to have a powerful brain if +you are to come back sane and safe to our social notions. + +"Swedenborg was especially attached to Baron Seraphitz, whose name, +according to an old Swedish custom, had from time immemorial taken the +Latin suffix _us_. The Baron was the Swedish prophet's most zealous +disciple; the eyes of his inner man had been opened by the Seer, who had +prepared him to live in conformity with commands from on high. He was in +search of a woman with the angelic spirit, and Swedenborg showed her to him +in a vision. His bride was the daughter of a shoemaker in London; in her, +said Swedenborg, the life of heaven shone brightly, and she had gone +through the first tests. After the prophet was translated, the Baron came +to Jarvis to solemnize his heavenly nuptials in the practice of prayer. For +my part, sir, I, who am no seer, could only note the earthly life of the +couple, and it was undoubtedly that of the saints whose virtues are the +glory of the Roman Church. They alleviated the sufferings of the +inhabitants, giving them a portion which does not suffice to live on +without work, but which is then sufficient for their needs; those who lived +with them never saw them moved to anger or impatience; they were invariably +gentle and beneficent, full of amiability, graciousness, and true kindness; +their marriage was the harmony of two souls in constant union. Two +eider-ducks in equal flight, a sound and its echo, the thought and the +word, are but imperfect images of that union. Here they were loved by +everybody with an affection which can only be compared to the love of +plants for the sun. + +"The wife was simple in her manners and beautiful to behold; her face was +lovely, and her dignity worthy of the most august personage. + +"In 1783, in the twenty-sixth year of her age, this woman bore a child; it +was a time of solemn rejoicing. The husband and wife took leave of the +world, telling me that they had no doubt that they should be transformed +when the child should have shed the garb of flesh, which would need their +care until she should have received strength to live by herself. The child +was born, and was this Seraphita with whom we are just now concerned; for +the nine months before her birth her father and mother lived in greater +retirement than before, uplifting themselves to heaven by prayer. Their +hope was that they might see Swedenborg, and faith procured its fulfilment. +On the day of Seraphita's birth, Swedenborg appeared in Jarvis, and filled +the room where the babe was born with light. His words, it is said, were: + +"'The work is accomplished; the heavens rejoice!' + +"The servants in the house heard strange sounds of music, brought, they +declared, by the winds from the four points of the compass. + +"The spirit of Swedenborg led the father out of the house and out on the +fiord, where it left him. Some men of Jarvis, going up to the Baron, heard +him repeating these soothing words from Scripture--'How beautiful upon the +mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings!' + +"I was setting out from the manse to go to the castle, intending to baptize +the child, and carry out the duties enjoined on me by law, when I met the +Baron. + +"'Your ministrations are superfluous,' said he; 'our child is to be +nameless on earth. You will not baptize with earthly waters one who has +been bathed in fires from heaven. This child will always be a flower; you +will not see it grow old; you will see it pass away. You have existence, it +has life; you have external senses, it has not; it is wholly inward.' The +words were uttered in a supernatural voice, which impressed me even more +than the brightness of his face, which shed a radiance. His whole +appearance was a realization of the fantastic ideas we form of inspired +men, as we read the prophecies in the Bible. Still, such effects are not +rare in our mountains, where the nitre formed in the permanent snows +produces singular effects on our persons. + +"I asked him the cause of his agitation. + +"'Swedenborg has appeared; I have just parted from him; I have breathed the +air of heaven,' said he. + +"'Under what form did he appear to you?' I asked. + +"'Under his mortal aspect, dressed as he was the last time I saw him in +London with Richard Shearsmith, near Coldbath Fields, in July 1771. He had +on his shot velveteen coat with steel buttons, a high waistcoat, a white +cravat, and the same imposing wig, with heavy, powdered curls at the side, +and the hair combed back from the forehead, showing that broad and luminous +brow in harmony with his large, square face, so full of calm power. I +recognized his nose with its open, ardent nostrils; the mouth that always +smiled--an angel's mouth, from which fell these words of promised +happiness, "We meet again, soon!" And I felt the glory of heavenly love.' + +"The conviction stamped on the Baron's face prohibited any discussion; I +listened in silence; his voice had an infectious fervor that warmed me to +the core; his enthusiasm stirred my heart, as another man's anger can +thrill one's nerves. I followed him, without speaking, home to his house, +where I saw the nameless child lying mysteriously wrapped on her mother's +bosom. Seraphita heard me come in, and raised her head towards me; her eyes +were not those of an ordinary infant; to express the impression they +produced on me, I can only say they already saw and understood. + +"The childhood of this predestined being was marked by some extraordinary +circumstances of climate. For nine years our winters were milder and our +summers longer than usual. This phenomenon gave rise to much discussion +among the learned; but their explanations, which seemed inadequate to the +Doctors of the Academy, made the Baron smile when I repeated them to him. + +"Seraphita was never seen perfectly nude, as children are sometimes; she +was never touched by the hand of man or woman; she lay spotless on her +mother's breast, and she never cried. Old David will confirm these facts if +you question him about his mistress, for whom he feels such veneration as +the king whose name he bears had for the Ark of God. + +"At the age of nine the child began to be absorbed in prayer. Prayer is her +life; you saw her in our church on Christmas Day, the only day she ever +comes there. She is placed apart from the other worshipers by a +considerable distance. If this space is not left about her, she is ill. +Indeed, she spends most of her time indoors. The details of her life are, +however, unknown; she never shows herself; her faculties, her feelings are +essentially inward; she is commonly in the state of mystical contemplation, +which, as Papist writers tell us, was familiar to the first Christian +recluses, in whom dwelt the tradition of Christ's teaching. Her +understanding, her soul, her body, everything about her, is as virginal as +the snow on our mountains. At ten years old she was what you see her now. + +"When she was nine her father and mother died at the same instant without +pain, without any visible malady, after naming the hour at which they +should cease to breathe. She, standing at their feet, looked on them with a +calm eye, displaying neither grief, nor pain, nor joy, nor curiosity; her +father and mother smiled at her. + +"When we went in to carry away the two bodies, she said: + +"'Take them away!' + +"'Seraphita,' said I, for we called her by that name, 'are you not grieved +by your father's and mother's death? They loved you so well.' + +"'Dead?' said she. 'No, they are still in me. This is nothing,' she added, +pointing to the bodies they were taking away. + +"This was the third time I had seen her since her birth. It is difficult to +see her in church; she stands near the pillar that supports the pulpit, in +such a dark corner that it is hardly possible to discern her features. + +"Of all the servants of the house, none were left at the time of that event +but old David, who, though he is eighty-two years old, manages to do all +his mistress' needs. Some of the people of Jarvis have strange tales about +the girl. Their stories having assumed some consistency in a land that is +greatly addicted to mysteries, I set to work to study Jean Wier's 'Treatise +on Sorcery,' and other works on demonology, in which the effects on man of +the supernatural (so-called) are recorded, in search of facts analogous to +what are ascribed to her----" + +"Then you do not believe in her?" asked Wilfrid. + +"Indeed, yes," said the pastor with simplicity, "in so far that I regard +her as a most fantastic creature, spoilt by her parents, who have turned +her brain by the religious notions I have set forth to you." + +Minna shook her head in a gentle expression of negation. + +"Poor girl!" the pastor went on, "she has inherited from her parents the +fatal enthusiasm which misleads mystics and makes them more or less crazy. +She fasts in a way that drives poor David to despair. The good old man is +like some frail plant that trembles at a breath of wind and basks in the +smallest gleam of sunshine. His mistress, whose incomprehensible language +he has adopted, is to him the breeze and sunshine; to him her feet are +diamonds, her forehead crowned with stars; she moves environed by a white +and luminous halo; her voice has an accompaniment of music; she has the +gift of becoming invisible. Ask to see her; he will tell you that she is +wandering through astral worlds. It is difficult to believe such fables. +Every such miracle, you know, is more or less like the story of the Golden +Tooth: we have a Golden Tooth at Jarvis, that is all. + +"For instance, Duncker, the fisherman, declares that he has seen her +plunging into the fiord and coming to the surface in the form of an +eider-duck, or walking on the waves during a storm. Fergus, who tends the +herds on the _soeter_, says that, in rainy weather, he has seen the sky +always clear over the Swedish castle, and always blue over Seraphita's head +if she goes out. Several women hear the chords of an immense organ when +Seraphita comes to church, and ask their neighbors quite seriously if they +also do not hear it. + +"However, my daughter, to whom Seraphita has taken a great fancy these two +years past, has heard no music, and has not perceived the heavenly perfumes +which embalm the air, they say, wherever she goes. Minna has often come +home full of a simple girl's admiration for the beauties of the spring; she +is enraptured by the fragrance of the first tender larch shoots, the +fir-trees, and the flowers they have enjoyed together; but after our long +winter nothing can be more natural than such intense delight. There is +nothing very remarkable in the conversation of that being, is there, my +child?" + +"His secrets are not mine," replied Minna. "When I am with him, I know all +things; away from him, I know nothing; with him, I cease to be myself; away +from him, I forget that more perfect life. Seeing him is as a dream, of +which my remembrance depends on his will. I may have heard, when with him, +the music of which Bancker's wife and Erikson's speak, and forget it when +we are apart; I may have perceived those celestial perfumes and have beheld +marvels, and yet know nothing of them here." + +"What has most surprised me since I first knew her," said the pastor to +Wilfrid, "is that she should allow you to approach her." + +"To approach her!" said the stranger. "She has never allowed me to kiss nor +even to touch her hand. The first time I saw her she abashed me by her +look, and said, 'You are welcome here; you were due to come.' It was as +though she knew me. I trembled.--My fear makes me believe in her." + +"And my love," said Minna, without a blush. + +"Are you making fun of me?" said the pastor, laughing with good humor; +"you, my child, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love; and you, sir, in +making yourself out to be a Spirit of Wisdom?" + +He drank off a glass of beer, and did not observe a singular look which +Wilfrid gave to Minna. + +"Jesting apart," Becker went on, "I was greatly amazed to hear that those +two crazy girls had gone to-day for the first time to the top of the +Falberg; but is not that some exaggeration? The girls must have simply +climbed some hill; the summit of the Falberg is inaccessible." + +"Father," said Minna, in some agitation, "I must then have been in the +power of the demon; for I climbed the Falberg with him." + +"This is a serious matter," said the pastor. "Minna has never told a lie." + +"My dear sir," said Wilfrid, "I can assure you, Seraphita exerts the most +extraordinary power over me; I know not what words can give any idea of it. +She has told me things which no one but I could know." + +"Somnambulism!" cried the old man. "Various cases of that kind are reported +by Jean Wier as phenomena easy to account for, and known of old in Egypt." + +"Lend me the theosophical works of Swedenborg," said Wilfrid. "I long to +plunge into those lakes of light; you have made me thirst for them." + +Pastor Becker handed a volume to Wilfrid, who immediately began to read. It +was about nine o'clock in the evening. The maid had just brought in the +supper, and Minna made the tea. The meal ended, all three sat silently +occupied; the pastor read Jean Wier's "Treatise on Demonology;" Wilfrid +lost himself in the study of Swedenborg; Minna sewed and dreamed over her +recollections. It was a thoroughly Norwegian scene, a peaceful, studious +evening, full of thought--a flower under the snow. Wilfrid, as he read the +writings of the prophet, was alive only to his inward senses. Now and again +the pastor, with a half-serious, half-ironical gesture, pointed him out to +Minna, who smiled rather sadly. To Minna, Seraphitus smiled down upon them, +floating above the cloud of tobacco smoke in which they were wrapped. + +Midnight struck. Suddenly the outer door was violently pushed open; heavy +but hasty steps, the steps of a terrified old man, were heard in the sort +of small hall between the two doors. Then David burst into the room. + +"Violence! Violence!" he cried. "Come! all of you, come! The Satans are +unchained; they wear mitres of flame! Adonis, Vertumnus, the Sirens! They +are tempting her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain. Come and drive them +out." + +"Do you recognize the language of Swedenborg, pure and unmixed?" said the +pastor, laughing. + +But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with +streaming hair and wild eyes, his legs trembling, and covered with snow, +stood shaking as if he were buffeted by a stormy wind. + +"What has happened?" asked Minna. + +"Well, the Satans hope and purpose to conquer her." + +The words made Wilfrid's heart beat. + +"For nearly five hours she has been standing up with her eyes raised to +heaven, her arms uplifted; she is in torment; she calls upon God. I cannot +cross the line; hell has set Vertumni to guard it. They have raised a +barrier of iron between her and her old David. If she wants me, what can I +do? Help me! Come and pray!" + +The poor old man's despair was terrible to behold. + +"The glory of God protects her; but if she were to yield to violence?" he +said, with persuasive good faith. + +"Silence, David, do not talk so wildly. These are facts to be verified.--We +will go with you," said the pastor, "and you will see that there are +neither Vertumni in the house, nor Satans, nor Sirens." + +"Your father is blind," David whispered to Minna. + +Wilfrid, on whom his first reading of a treatise by Swedenborg, hasty as it +had been, had produced a powerful effect, was already in the passage +putting on his snow-shoes. Minna was ready in a moment. They rushed off to +the Swedish Castle, leaving the two old men to follow. + +"Do you hear that cracking?" said Wilfrid. + +"The ice is moving in the fiord," said Minna; "the spring will soon be +here." + +Wilfrid said no more. When they were in the courtyard, they both felt that +they had no right, no strength, to enter the house. + +"What do you think of her?" asked Wilfrid. + +"What a blaze of light!" cried Minna, standing in front of the drawing-room +window. "There he is--great God! and how beautiful! Oh, my Seraphitus, take +me to thee!" + +The girl's outcry was inward and inaudible. She saw Seraphitus standing +lightly shrouded in an opal-tinted mist, which was diffused for a short +distance all about the apparently phosphorescent body. + +"How lovely she is!" was Wilfrid's mental exclamation. + +Pastor Becker now came up with David; he saw his daughter and the stranger +in front of the window, came close to them, looked into the room, and said: + +"Well, David, she is saying her prayers." + +"But try to go in, sir." + +"Why disturb her when she is praying?" replied the pastor. + +At this moment a ray of moonlight from beyond the Falberg fell on the +window. They all looked round, startled by this natural phenomenon; but +when they turned again to look at Seraphita, she had vanished. + +"That is strange!" said Wilfrid in surprise. + +"But I hear exquisite strains," said Minna. + +"Well, what next?" said the pastor; "she is going to bed, no doubt." + +David had gone in. They walked home in silence; all three interpreted this +vision in a different sense. Pastor Becker felt doubt; Minna felt +adoration; Wilfrid, desire. + + * * * * * + +Wilfrid was a man of six-and-thirty. Though built on a large scale, he was +not ill-proportioned. He was of a middle height, like most men who are +superior to the common herd; his chest and shoulders were broad, and his +neck was short, as in men whose heart is near their head; he had thick, +fine black hair, and his eyes, of a tawny brown, had a sunny sparkle in +them that showed how eagerly his nature absorbed light. If his strong and +irregular features were lacking in that internal calm which is given by a +life free from storms, they revealed the inexhaustible forces of ardent +senses and instinctive appetites; just as his movements showed the +perfection of physical structure, adaptability of nature, and responsive +action. This man might hold his own with the savage; might hear, as he +does, the footfall of the enemy in the depths of the forest, scent his +trail in the air, and see a friendly signal on the remote horizon. His +sleep was light, like that of creatures alert against surprise. His frame +quickly adapted itself to the climate of any country whither his stormy +life might lead him. Art and Science alike would have admired this +organization as a sort of human model; everything was truly balanced, heart +and movement, intelligence and will. + +At first sight he might seem to be classed with those purely instinctive +beings who abandon themselves wholly to material needs; but, early in life, +he had made his way in the social world to which his feelings had committed +him; reading had raised his intelligence, meditation had improved his mind, +science had expanded his understanding. He had studied the laws of +humanity, and the play of interests moved to action by the passions, and he +seemed to have been long familiar with the abstract notions on which +society is founded. He had grown pale over books, which are human actions +in death; he had kept late hours in the midst of festivities in many a +European capital; he had waked up in many strange beds; he had slept +perhaps on a battle-field on the night before the fight, and the night +after a victory; his tempestuous youth might have tossed him on to the deck +of a pirate ship in the most dissimilar quarters of the globe; thus he was +experienced in living human action. So he knew the present and the past; +both chapters of history--that of the elder and that of the present time. + +Many men have been, like Wilfrid, equally strong of hand, heart, and brain; +and, like him, they have generally misused this threefold power. + +But though this man's outward husk was still akin to the scum of humanity, +he certainly belonged no less to the sphere where force is intelligent. +Notwithstanding the wrappers in which his soul was shrouded, there were in +him those indescribable symptoms visible to the eye of the pure-hearted, of +children whose innocence has never felt the blighting breath of evil +passions, of old men who have triumphed over theirs; and these signs +revealed a Cain to whom hope yet remained, and who seemed to be seeking +absolution at the ends of the earth. Minna suspected the slave of glory in +this man; Seraphita recognized it; both admired and pitied him. Whence had +they this intuition? Nothing can be simpler or, at the same time, more +extraordinary. As soon as man desires to penetrate the secrets of nature, +where there is no real secret, all that is needed is sight; he can see that +the marvelous is the outcome of the simple. + +"Seraphitus," said Minna, one evening a few days after Wilfrid's arrival at +Jarvis, "you read this stranger's soul, while I have only a vague +impression of him. He freezes or he warms me; but you seem to know the +reason of this frost and this heat; you can tell me, for you know all about +him." + +"Yes, I have seen the causes," said Seraphitus, his heavy eyelids closing +over his eyes. + +"By what power?" asked the inquisitive Minna. + +"I have the gift of specialism," he replied. "Specialism constitutes a sort +of inward vision which penetrates all things, and you can understand its +processes only by a comparison. In the great cities of Europe, where works +of art are produced by which the human hand endeavors to represent the +effects of moral nature as well as those of physical nature, there are some +sublime geniuses who express their ideas in marble. The sculptor works on +the marble; he shapes it, and puts into it a world of thought. There are +such marbles to which the hand of man has given the power of representing a +wholly sublime or a wholly evil aspect of humanity; most beholders see in +these a human figure and nothing more; others, a little higher in the scale +of human beings, discern some part of the thoughts rendered by the +sculptor, and admire the form; but those who are initiated into the secrets +of Art are in sympathy with the sculptor; when they see his work they +recognize in it the whole world of his thoughts. These are the princes of +Art; they bear in themselves a mirror in which nature is reflected with all +its most trifling details. + +"Well, in me there is a mirror in which moral nature is reflected with all +its causes and effects. I can read the past and the future by thus looking +into the conscience. You still ask me how? Suppose the marble to be a man's +body, and the sculptor to be feeling passion, vice, or crime, virtue, +error, or repentance; then you will understand how I could read the +stranger's soul, though you will not understand specialism; to imagine what +that gift is you must possess it." + +Though Wilfrid was akin to both the primitive and widely different types of +men--men of might and men of mind--his excesses, his stormy life, and his +sins had often shown him the way of faith; for doubt has two sides--the +side of light and the side of darkness. Wilfrid had too thoroughly squeezed +the world in both its aspects--matter and spirit--not to have felt the +thirst of the unknown, the longing for the Beyond which comes to most men +who have knowledge, power, and will. But neither his knowledge, nor his +actions, nor his will had due guidance. He had escaped from social life +from necessity, as a criminal flies to the cloister. Remorse, the virtue of +the weak, could not touch him. Remorse is impotence; it will sin again. +Only repentance is strong; it can end everything. But Wilfrid, in traveling +through the world, which he had made his sanctuary, nowhere found balm for +his wounds; nowhere had he found a nature to which he could attach himself. +Despair had dried up in him the well-spring of desire. His was one of those +spirits which, having come to a conflict with passion, have proved +themselves the stronger, and so have nothing left to clutch in their +talons; spirits which, the opportunity failing them for putting themselves +at the head of their peers to trample a whole people under their horse's +hoofs, would pay the price of a dreadful martyrdom for the gift of a faith +to be wrecked upon; like lofty rocks waiting for the touch of a staff which +never comes, to enable them to shed springs of running water. + +Tossed among the snows of Norway by one of the purposes of his restless and +inquiring life, the winter had taken him by surprise at Jarvis. On the day +when he first saw Seraphita, the meeting wiped out all memories of his past +life. This girl gave him such intense agitation as he had fancied was dead +for ever. The ashes burst into flame again, and were blown away by the +first breath of that voice. Who has known what it is to become young and +pure again after growing cold with age and foul with impurities? Wilfrid +loved suddenly, as he had never loved; he loved in secret, with faith and +awe and hidden frenzies. His life was disturbed to its very source at the +mere thought of seeing Seraphita. When he heard her speak, he was borne +away to unknown worlds; he was dumb in her presence--she bewitched him. + +Here, under the snows, amid the ice-fields, this heavenly flower had +blossomed on the stem--the flower to which his hopes went up, till now +deceived, whose mere presence gave rise to the new aspirations, the ideas, +the feelings, that crowd around us to lift us up to higher realms, as +angels transport the elect to heaven in the symbolical pictures suggested +to painters by some familiar spirit. Celestial odors softened the granite +of this rock, light endowed with language poured forth the divine melodies +which escort the pilgrim on his way to heaven. Having drained the cup of +earthly love and crushed it with his teeth, he now saw the cup of election, +sparkling with limpid waters, the chalice that gives a thirst for unfading +joys to all who approach it with lips of faith so ardent that the crystal +does not break at their touch. He had met with the walls of brass he had +been seeking throughout the world that he might climb them. + +He flew to Seraphita, intending to express to her the vehemence of a +passion under which he was plunging, like the horse in the story under the +bronze rider whom nothing can move, who sits firm, and whose weight grows +greater as the fiery steed tries to throw him. He went to tell her his +life, to display the greatness of his soul by the greatness of his sins, to +show her the ruins in his desert. But as soon as he had entered the +precincts, and found himself in the vast domain surveyed by those eyes +whose heavenly blue knew no limits in the present or in the past, he became +as calm and submissive as a lion when, rushing on his prey in the African +plain, he scents a love message on the wings of the breeze, and stands +still. A gulf opened before him in which the words of his delirium were +lost, and whence a voice came up that transformed him: he was a boy again, +a boy of sixteen, shy and bashful before this maiden of the tranquil brow, +this white creature whose immovable calm was like the stern impassibility +of human justice. And the struggle had never ceased till this evening when, +with a single look, she had at length stricken him down like a hawk, which, +after describing bewildering spirals round its prey, makes it drop stunned +before carrying it off to its eyrie. + +We have long struggles with ourself, of which the outcome is one of our +actions; they are, as it were, the inner side of human nature. This inner +side is God's; the outer side belongs to men. + +More than once had Seraphita chosen to show Wilfrid that she knew that +motley inner part which forms the second life of most men. She had often +said to him, in her dove-like tone, when Wilfrid had vowed on the way up +that he would carry her off to be his own possession, "Why so much +vehemence?" Wilfrid, when alone, was strong enough to utter the cry of +rebellion he had given vent to at Pastor Becker's, to be soothed by the old +man's narrative. This man--a mocker, a scorner--at last saw the light of a +starlike belief rising in his darkness; he wondered whether Seraphita were +not an exile from the upper spheres on her homeward road. He did not offer +this Norwegian lily the homage of such idealization as lovers of every land +are apt to squander; he really believed in her divinity. + +Why was she buried in the depths of this fiord? What was she doing there? +Unanswerable questions crowded on his mind. What could happen between him +and her? What fate had led him hither? + +To him Seraphita was the motionless statue, as light as a shade, that Minna +had just seen standing on the brink of the abyss. Seraphita could thus +confront every abyss, and nothing could hurt her; the line of her brow +would be unmoved, the light in her eye would never tremble. His love, then, +was without hope, but not without curiosity. + +From the first moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature in this +sorceress, who had told him the secret of his life in harmonious dreams, he +resolved to try to subjugate her, to keep her, to steal her from heaven, +where perhaps they awaited her. He would be the representative of humanity, +of this earth, recapturing their prey. His pride, the only sentiment which +can uplift a man for any length of time, would make him rejoice in that +triumph for the rest of his life. At the mere thought his blood boiled in +his veins, his heart swelled. If he could not succeed, he would crush her. +It is so natural to destroy what you cannot get possession of, to deny what +you do not understand, to insult what you covet. + +Next day Wilfrid, full of the ideas to which the extraordinary spectacle he +had witnessed had naturally given rise, wanted to cross-question David, and +came to see him, making a pretext of his wish for news of Seraphita. Though +Pastor Becker thought the poor old man was childish, the stranger trusted +to his own perspicacity to guide him in discovering the grains of truth the +old serving-man might drop in the torrent of his wandering talk. + +David had the rigid but undecided expression of a man of eighty; under his +white hair his brow showed deep wrinkles, forming broken stratifications, +and his whole face was furrowed like the dry bed of a torrent. All his +vitality seemed to be concentrated in his eyes, where a spark still +gleamed; but that light even was hidden behind clouds, and might be either +the fitful activity of a feeble mind, or the stupid glare of intoxication. +His slow, heavy movements betrayed the chill of old age, and seemed to +communicate it to any one who gazed at him for long, for he had the +strength of inertia. His narrow intelligence awoke only at the sound of his +mistress' voice, at the sight or the thought of her. She was the soul of +this merely material wreck. When David was alone you would have thought him +a corpse; if Seraphita appeared, or spoke, or was spoken of, the dead rose +from the grave and recovered motion and speech. + +Never were the dry bones that the breath of God shall revive in the valley +of Jehoshaphat--never was that Apocalyptic parable more vividly realized +than in this Lazarus perennially called forth from the sepulchre by the +voice of this young girl. His mode of speech, always highly figurative, and +often incomprehensible, kept the villagers from talking to him; but they +greatly respected a mind so far removed from the vulgar routine; it +commands the instinctive reverence of common folk. + +Wilfrid found David in the outer room apparently asleep, close to the +stove. Like a dog recognizing a friend's approach, the old man opened his +eyes, saw the stranger, and did not stir. + +"Well, where is she?" asked Wilfrid, sitting down by the old man. + +David fluttered his fingers in the air to represent the flight of a bird. + +"She is not still in pain?" asked Wilfrid. + +"None but those beings who are plighted to heaven can suffer without any +diminution of their love; that is the seal of true faith," said the old man +gravely, like an instrument responding to a chance touch. + +"Who tells you to say that?" + +"The spirit." + +"What happened, after all, last evening? Did you force your way past the +Vertumni on guard? Did you steal in between the Mammons?" + +"Yes," replied David, waking as if from a dream. + +The mist before his eye cleared off under a flash that came from within, +and which made it grow gradually as bright as an eagle's, as intelligent as +a poet's. + +"What then did you see?" asked Wilfrid, amazed at this sudden change. + +"I saw Species and Shapes, I heard the Spirit of All Things; I saw the +Rebellion of the Wicked, I listened to the words of the Good. Seven devils +appeared, seven archangels came down to them. The archangels stood afar, +they were veiled, and looked on. The devils were close at hand, they +glittered and moved. Mammon was there in a shell of pearl, in the guise of +a beautiful naked woman; his body was as dazzling as the snow, no human +form can be so perfect; and he said, 'I am all pleasure, and thou shalt +possess me!'--Lucifer, the Prince of Serpents, came in his royal attire; he +was as a man, as beautiful as an angel, and he said, 'The human race shall +serve thee!'--The Queen of the Covetous, she who never restores that which +she has taken--the Sea herself appeared in her mantle of green; she opened +her bosom and showed her store of gems, she vomited treasures and offered +them as a gift; she tossed up waves of sapphire and emerald; her creatures +were disturbed, they came forth from their hiding-places and spoke; the +fairest of the pearls spread butterflies' wings, she listened, and spoke in +sea-melodies, saying, 'We are both daughters of suffering, we are sisters; +wait for me; we will fly together; I have only to be changed into a woman.' +The bird that has the talons of an eagle and the legs of a lion, the head +of a woman and a horse's quarters--the Animal--crouched before her and +licked her feet, and promised seven hundred years of plenty to this +well-beloved daughter. + +"The most formidable of all, the Child, came to her very knee, weeping, and +saying, 'Can you forsake me, so feeble and helpless? Mother, stay with me!' +He played with the others, he shed idleness in the air; heaven itself might +have yielded to his lament. The Virgin of pure song brought music that +debauches the soul. The Kings of the East passed by with their slaves, +their armies, and their women; the Wounded clamored for help, the Wretched +held out their hands: 'Do not leave us, do not leave us!' was their cry. + +"I too cried, 'Do not leave us; we will worship you--only stay!' + +"Flowers burst from their seeds, and wrapped her in perfume, which said, +'Stay!' The Giant Anakim came down from Jupiter, bringing Gold and his +comrades, and all the Spirits of the astral worlds who had followed him, +and they all said, 'We will be thine for seven hundred years.' At last +Death got off his pale horse and said, 'I will obey thee!' And they all +fell on their faces at her feet; if you could but have seen them! They +filled a vast plain, and all cried to her, 'We have fed thee; thou art our +child; do not forsake us!' + +"Life came up from the red waters and said, 'I will not desert thee!' Then, +finding Seraphita speechless, she suddenly blazed like the sun, and +exclaimed, 'I am the Light!'--'The light is there!' replied Seraphita, +pointing to clouds where the archangels were astir. But she was worn out; +Desire had broken her on the rack; she could only cry aloud, 'My God!' + +"How many Angelic Spirits who have climbed the hill, and are on the point +of reaching the summit, have stumbled on a stone that has made them fall +and roll back into the depths!--All these fallen Spirits marveled at her +constancy; they stood there a motionless chorus, weeping, and saying, +'Courage!' At last she had triumphed over Desire, unchained to rend her in +every Shape and Species. She remained praying; and when she raised her +eyes, she saw the feet of the angels flying back to heaven." + +"She saw the feet of the angels?" repeated Wilfrid. + +"Yes," said the old man. + +"This was a dream that she told you?" asked Wilfrid. + +"A dream as real as that you are alive," replied David. "I was there." + +The old servant's calm conviction struck Wilfrid, who went away, wondering +whether these visions were at all less extraordinary than those of which +Swedenborg wrote, and of which he had read the evening before. + +"If spirits exist, they must surely act," said he to himself as he went +into the manse, where he found the pastor alone. + +"My dear pastor," said he, "Seraphita is human only in form, and her form +is unaccountable. Do not regard me as mad or in love: conviction cannot be +argued away. Convert my belief into a scientific hypothesis, and let us try +to understand all this. To-morrow we will go to see her together." + +"And then?" said the minister. + +"If her eye knows no limitation of space, if her thought is the sight of +the intellect, allowing her to apprehend the essence of things and to +connect them with the general evolution of the universe; if, in a word, she +knows and sees everything, let us get the Pythoness onto her tripod, and +compel the eagle to spread its wings, by threats. Help me! I breathe a +consuming fire; I must extinguish it, or be devoured by it. In short, I see +my prey; I will have it." + +"It will be a conquest difficult of achievement," said the minister, "for +the poor girl is----" + +"Is?"----said Wilfrid. + +"Mad," said the pastor. + +"I will not dispute her madness," said Wilfrid, "so long as you do not +dispute her superiority. Dear Pastor Becker, she has often put me to the +blush by her learning. Has she traveled much?" + +"From her house to the fiord." + +"She has never been away!" cried Wilfrid. "Then she must have read a great +deal?" + +"Not a page, not a jot. I am the only person in Jarvis who has any books. +Swedenborg's writings, the only works in the hamlet, are here; she has +never borrowed a single volume." + +"Have you ever tried to converse with her?" + +"Of what use would it be?" + +"No one has dwelt under her roof?" + +"She has no friends but you and Minna; no servant but old David." + +"And she has never learned anything of Science or Art?" + +"From whom?" said the pastor. + +"Then, when she discusses such matters very pertinently, as she has often +done with me, what would you infer?" + +"That the girl may, perhaps, during all these years of silence, have +acquired such faculties as were possessed by Apollonius of Tyana, and by +certain so-called wizards, who were burned by the Inquisition, which +rejected the idea of second sight." + +"When she talks Arabic, what can you say?" + +"The history of medicine contains many accredited instances of women who +spoke languages they did not understand." + +"What can I do?" said Wilfrid. "She knows things concerning my past life of +which the secret lay in me." + +"We will see if she can tell me any thoughts that I have never spoken to +any one," said Pastor Becker. + +Minna came into the room. + +"Well, my child, and how is your Spirit-friend?" + +"He is suffering, father," said she, bowing to Wilfrid. "The passions of +humanity, tricked out in their false splendor, tortured him in the night, +and spread incredible pomp before his eyes.--But you treat all these things +as mere fables." + +"Fables as delightful to him who reads them in his brain as those of the +_Arabian Nights_ are to ordinary minds," said her father, smiling. + +"Then, did not Satan," she retorted, "transport the Saviour to the summit +of the Temple and show Him the kingdoms at His feet?" + +"The Evangelists," replied Becker, "did not so effectually correct their +text but that several versions exist." + +"You, then, believe in the reality of these apparitions?" Wilfrid asked of +Minna. + +"Who can doubt that hears him tell of them?" + +"Him?--Who?" asked Wilfrid. + +"He who dwells there," said Minna, pointing to the castle. + +"You speak of Seraphita?" said Wilfrid, surprised. + +The girl hung her head, with a gentle but mischievous glance at him. + +"Yes, you too take pleasure in confusing my mind.--Who is she? What is your +idea of her?" + +"What I feel is inexplicable," said Minna, coloring. + +"You are both mad!" said the pastor. + +"Then we meet to-morrow," said Wilfrid, as he left. + + + + +IV + +THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + + +There are spectacles to which all the material magnificence at man's +command is made to contribute. Whole tribes of slaves or divers go forth to +seek in the sands of the sea, in the bowels of the rocks, the pearls and +diamonds that adorn the spectators. These treasures, handed down from heir +to heir, have blazed on crowned heads, and might be the most veracious +historians of humanity if they could but speak. Have they not seen the joys +and woes of the greatest as well as of the humblest? They have been +everywhere--worn with pride at high festivals; carried in despair to the +money-lender; stolen amid blood and pillage; treasured in miracles of +artistic workmanship contrived for their safe keeping. Excepting +Cleopatra's pearl, not one has perished. + +The great and the rich are assembled to see a king crowned--a monarch whose +raiment is the work of men's hands, but who, in all his glory, is arrayed +in purple less exquisite than that of a humble flower. These festivities, +blazing with light, bathed in music through which the words of men strive +to be heard in thunder,--all these works of man can be crushed by a +thought, a feeling. The mind of man can bring to his ken light more +glorious, can make him hear more tuneful harmonies, show him among clouds +the glittering constellations he may question; and the heart can do yet +more! Man may stand face to face with a single being and find in a single +word, a single look, a burden so heavy to be borne, a light so intense, a +sound so piercing, that he can but yield and kneel. The truest splendors +are not in outward things, but in ourselves. + +To a learned man, is not some secret of science a whole new world of +wonders? But do the clarions of force, the gems of wealth, the music of +triumph, the concourse of the crowd, do honor to his joy? No. He goes off +to some remote nook, where a man, often pale and feeble, whispers a single +word in his ear. That word, like a torch in an underground passage, lights +up the whole of science. + +Every human conception, arrayed in the most attractive forms that mystery +can invent, once gathered round a blind man sitting in the mud by a +roadside. The three worlds--the Natural, Spiritual, and Divine--were +revealed to an unhappy Florentine exile; as he went he was escorted by the +happy and by the suffering, by those who prayed and those who cursed, by +angels and by the damned. When He who came from God, who knew and could do +all things, appeared to three of His disciples, it was one evening at the +common table of a poor little inn; there and then the Light broke forth, +bursting material husks, and showing its spiritual power. They saw Him in +His glory, and the earth clung to their feet no more than as the sandals +they could slip off them. + +The pastor, Wilfrid, and Minna were all three excited to alarm at going to +the house of the extraordinary being they proposed to question. To each of +them the Swedish castle was magnified into the scene of a stupendous +spectacle, like those of which the composition and color are so skilfully +arranged by poets, where the actors, though imaginary to men, are real to +those who are beginning to enter into the spiritual world. On the seats of +that amphitheatre the pastor beheld arrayed the dark legions of doubt, his +gloomy ideas, his vicious syllogisms in argument; he called up the various +philosophical and religious sects, ever contentious, and all embodied in +the shape of a fleshless system, as lean as the figure of Time as imagined +by man--the old mower who with one hand raises the scythe, and in the other +carries a meagre world, the world of human life. + +Wilfrid saw there his first illusions and his last hopes; he imagined human +destiny incarnate there and all its struggles; religion and its triumphant +hierarchies. + +Minna vaguely found heaven there, seen through a vista; love held up a +curtain embroidered with mystical figures, and the harmonious sounds that +fell on her ears increased her curiosity. Hence this evening was to them +what the supper at Emmaus was to the three travelers, what a vision was to +Dante, what an inspiration was to Homer; to them, too, the three aspects of +the world were to be revealed, veils rent, doubts dispelled, darkness +lightened. Human nature in all its phases, and awaiting illumination, could +find no better representatives than this young girl, this man, and these +two elders, one of them learned enough to be sceptical, the other ignorant +enough to believe. No scene could be simpler in appearance or more +stupendous in fact. + +On entering, shown in by old David, they found Seraphita standing by the +table, on which were spread the various items constituting a Tea, a meal +which takes the place in the north of the pleasures of wine-drinking, +reserved for southern lands. Nothing certainly betrayed in her--or in +him--a wondrous being who had the power of appearing under two distinct +forms, nothing that showed the various forces she could command. With a +homely desire to make her three guests comfortable, Seraphita bid David to +feed the stove with wood. + +"Good-evening, neighbors," said she. "Dear Pastor Becker, you did well to +come; you see me alive, perhaps, for the last time. This winter has killed +me.--Be seated, pray," she added to Wilfrid.--"And you, Minna, sit there," +and she pointed to an armchair near the young man. "You have brought your +work, I see. Did you find out the stitch? The pattern is very pretty. For +whom is it to be? For your father or for this gentleman?" and she turned to +Wilfrid. "We must not allow him to leave without some remembrance of the +damsels of Norway." + +"Then you were in pain again yesterday?" asked Wilfrid. + +"That is nothing," she replied. "Such pain makes me glad; it is +indispensable to escape from life." + +"Then you are not afraid of dying?" said the minister, smiling, for he did +not believe in her illness. + +"No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying--to some death means victory, +to some it is defeat." + +"And you think you have won?" said Minna. + +"I do not know," said she. "Perhaps it is only a step more." + +The milky radiance of her brow seemed to fade, her eyes fell under her +lids, which slowly closed. This simple circumstance distressed the three +inquirers, who sat quite still. The pastor was the boldest. + +"My dear girl," said he, "you are candor itself; you are also divinely +kind. I want more of you this evening than the dainties of your tea-table. +If we may believe what some people say, you know some most wonderful +things; and if so, would it not be an act of charity to clear up some of +our doubts?" + +"Oh yes!" said Seraphita, with a smile. "They say that I walk on the +clouds; I am on familiar terms with the eddies in the fiord; the sea is a +horse I have saddled and bridled; I know where the singing flower grows, +where the talking light shines, where living colors blaze that scent the +air; I have Solomon's ring; I am a fairy; I give my orders to the wind, and +it obeys me like a submissive slave; I can see the treasures in the mine; I +am the virgin whom pearls rush to meet, and----" + +"And we walk unharmed on the Falberg," Minna put in. + +"What, you too?" replied the Being with a luminous glance at the girl, +which quite upset her. "If I had not the power of reading through your +brows the wish that has brought you here, should I be what you think I +am?" she went on, including them all in her captivating gaze, to David's +great satisfaction, and he went off rubbing his hands.--"Yes," she went on +after a pause, "you all came overflowing with childish curiosity. You, my +dear pastor, wondered whether it were possible that a girl of seventeen +should know even one of the thousand secrets which learned men seek +diligently with their noses to the ground instead of with their eyes raised +to heaven! Now, if I were to show you how and where plant life and animal +life mingle, you would begin to doubt your doubts.--You plotted to +cross-question me, confess?" + +"Yes, beloved Seraphita," said Wilfrid. "But is not such a desire natural +to man?" + +"And do you want to worry this child?" she said, laying her hand on Minna's +hair with a caressing gesture. + +The girl looked up, and seemed to long to be merged in the Being before +her. + +"The word is given for all," the mysterious Being went on very gravely. +"Woe to him who should keep silence even in the midst of the desert, +thinking that none would hear. Everything speaks, everything hears here +below. The word moves worlds.--I hope, Pastor Becker, not to speak in vain. +I know what difficulties trouble you most: would it not be a miracle if I +could at once apprehend all the past experiences of your conscience? Well, +that miracle will be accomplished.--Listen to me: you have never confessed +your doubts in their full extent; I alone, immovable in my faith, can set +them before you, and frighten you at your own image. You are on the darkest +declivity of doubt. You do not believe in God, and everything on earth is +of secondary importance to the man who attacks the first cause of +everything. + +"Let us set aside the discussions thrashed out without result by false +philosophers. Generations of Spiritualists have made no less vain efforts +to disprove the existence of matter than generations of Materialists have +made to disprove the existence of the Spirit. Why these contests? Does not +man, as he is, afford undeniable proofs of both? Is he not an union of +matter and spirit? Only a madman can refuse to find an atom of matter in +the human frame; when it is decomposed, natural science finds no difference +between its elements and those of other animals. The idea which is produced +in man by the power of comparing several different objects, on the other +hand, does not seem to come within the domain of matter. On this I give no +opinion; we have to deal with your doubts, not with my convictions. + +"But to you, as to most thoughtful men, the relations which you have the +faculty of discerning between things, of which the real existence is made +certain to you through your senses, do not, I suppose, seem _material_. The +natural Universe, then, of things and beings meets in man with the +supernatural Universe of likeness or difference which he can discern +between the innumerable forms in nature--relations so various that they +seem to be infinite; for if, till the present day, no one has been able to +enumerate the created things of this earth only, what man can ever +enumerate their relations to each other? Is not the small fraction with +which you are familiar, in regard to the grand total, as an unit to the +infinite? + +"Hence here you find yourself already made aware of the existence of the +infinite, and this necessarily leads you to conceive of a purely spiritual +sphere. Hence, too, man is in himself sufficient evidence of these two +modes of life: Matter and Spirit. In him ends a finite, visible universe; +in him begins an infinite and invisible universe--two worlds that do not +know each other. Have the pebbles of the fiord any cognizance of their +relative shapes, are they conscious of the colors seen in them by the eye +of man, do they hear the music of the ripples that dance over them? Let us +then leap the gulf we cannot fathom, the unthinkable union of a material +with a spiritual universe, the concept of a visible, ponderable, tangible +creation, conterminous with an invisible, imponderable, intangible +creation; absolutely dissimilar, separated by a void, united by +indisputable points of contact, and meeting in a being who belongs to both! +Let us, I say, mingle in one world these two worlds, which, in your +philosophy, can never coalesce, and which, in fact, do coalesce. + +"However abstract man may call it, the relation which binds two things +together must stamp its mark. Where? On what? We have not now to inquire to +what degree of rarity matter may be reduced. If that were indeed the +question, I do not see why He who has linked the stars together at +immeasurable distances by physical laws, to veil His face withal, should +not have created substances that could think, nor why you will not allow +that He should have given thought a body. + +"To you, then, your invisible, moral, or mental universe, and your visible, +physical universe, constitute one and the same matter. We will not divide +bodies from their properties, nor objects from their relations. Everything +that exists, that weighs upon and overwhelms us from above and beneath us, +before us or within us; all that our eyes or our minds apprehend, all that +is named or nameless, must, to reduce the problem of Creation to the +standard of your logic, be a finite mass of matter; if it were infinite, +God could not be its master. Thus, according to you, dear pastor, by +whatever scheme you propose to introduce God, who is infinite, into this +finite mass of matter, God could no longer exist with such attributes as +are ascribed to Him by man. If we seek Him through facts, He is not; if we +seek Him through reason, still He is not; both spiritually and materially +God is impossible. Let us hearken to the word of human reason driven to its +utmost consequences. + +"If we now conceive of God face to face with, this stupendous whole, we +find only two conditions of relationship possible: Either God and Matter +were contemporaneous, or God was alone and pre-existent. If all the wisdom +that has enlightened the human race from the first day of its existence +could be collected in one vast brain, that monstrous brain could invent no +third mode of being, short of denying both God and Matter. Human +philosophers may pile up mountains of words and ideas. Religions may +accumulate emblems and beliefs, revelations and mysteries, still we are +forced on to this terrible dilemma, and must choose one of the two +propositions it offers. However, you have not much choice, for each leads +the human mind to scepticism. + +"The problem being thus stated, what signifies Spirit or Matter? What does +it signify which way the worlds are moving if once the Being who guides +them is proved to be absurd? Of what use is it to inquire whether man is +advancing towards heaven or coming back from it, whether Creation is +tending upwards towards the spirit, or downwards towards matter, if the +worlds we question can give no answer? Of what consequence are theogonies +and their armies, theologies and their dogmas, when, whichever alternative +man chooses in answer to the problem, his God is no more? + +"Let us examine the first: Suppose God and matter to have been co-existent +from the beginning. Can He be God who suffers the action and co-existence +of a substance that is not Himself? On this theory God is but a secondary +agent constrained to organize matter. Who constrained Him? And as between +that coarser other half and Him, who was to decide? Who paid the Great +Workman for the six days' labor attributed to Him? If there were, indeed, +some coercing force which was neither God nor matter, if God were compelled +to make the machinery of the universe, it would be no less absurd to call +Him God than to call a slave set to turn a mill a Roman citizen. And, in +fact, the difficulty is just as insoluble in the case of that Supreme +Intelligence as in that of God Himself. It only carries the problem a step +further back; and is not this like the Indian philosophers, who place the +world on a tortoise, and the tortoise on an elephant, but cannot say on +what their elephant's feet rest? Can we conceive that this Supreme Will, +evolved from the conflict of God with matter--this God greater than +God--should have existed during eternity without Willing what He Willed, +granting that eternity can be divided into two periods? Wherever God may +be, if He knew not what His future Will would be, what becomes of His +intuitive perceptions? And of these two eternities, which is the +superior--uncreated eternity or created eternity? + +"If God from all eternity willed that the world should be what it is, this +fresh view of necessity, which is in harmony no doubt with the motion of a +Sovereign Intelligence, implies the co-eternity of matter. Whether matter +be co-eternal by the Divine Will, which must at all times be at one with +itself, or whether it be independently co-eternal, since the power of God +must be absolute, it perishes if He has not His freewill. He would always +have found within Himself a supreme reason which would have ruled Him. Is +God God if He cannot separate Himself from the works of His creation in +subsequent as well as in anterior eternity? + +"This aspect of the problem is then insoluble so far as cause is concerned. +Let us examine it in its effects. + +"If God the Creator, under compulsion to create the universe from all +eternity, is inconceivable, He is no less so as perpetually one with His +work. God, eternally constrained to exist in His creatures, is no less +dishonored than in His former position as a workman. Can you conceive of a +God who can no more be independent of His work than dependent on it? Can He +destroy it without treason to Himself? Consider and make your choice: +Whether He should some day destroy it, or not destroy it; either +alternative is equally fatal to attributes, without which He cannot +subsist. Is the world a mere experiment, a perishable mould which must be +destroyed? Then God must be inconsistent and impotent. Inconsistent--for +ought He not to have known the issue before making the experiment, and why +does He delay destroying that which is to be destroyed? Impotent--or how +else could He have created an imperfect world? + +"And if an imperfect creation belies the faculties that man ascribes to +God, let us, on the other hand, suppose it to be perfect. This idea is in +harmony with our conception of a God of supreme intelligence who could make +no mistake; but, then, why any deterioration? Why Regeneration? Then a +perfect world is necessarily indestructible, its forms must be +imperishable; it can neither advance nor retrocede; it rolls on in an +eternal orbit whence it can never deviate. Thus is God dependent on His +work; thus it is co-eternal with Him, which brings us back to one of the +propositions which most audaciously attacks God. If the universe is +imperfect, it allows of advance and progress; if perfect, it is stationary. +If it is impossible to conceive of a progressive God, not knowing from all +eternity what the result would be of His creation, can we then admit a +stationary God? Would not that be the apotheosis of matter, the greatest +possible negation? Under the first hypothesis, God deceases by want of +power; under the second, He deceases by the force of inertia. + +"Hence, alike in the conception and the execution of creation, to every +honest mind the notion of matter as contemporaneous with God is a denial of +God. + +"Compelled to choose between these two aspects of the question, in order to +govern the nations, many generations of great thinkers have chosen the +second. This gave rise to the dogma of two moral elements, as conceived of +by the Magians, which has spread in Europe under the image of Satan +contending with the Father of all. But are not this dogmatic formula and +the endless deifications that are derived from it crimes of high treason to +the divine Majesty? By what other name can we call a belief that makes the +personification of Evil the rival of God, for ever struggling in the throes +of a supreme intellect without any hope of victory? The laws of statics +show that two forces thus placed must neutralize each other. + +"Now, turn to the other side of the problem: God was pre-existent and +alone. + +"We need not reproduce the former arguments, which are equally strong in +relation to the division of eternity into two periods--uncreated and +created. We will also set aside the question of the motion or the +immobility of worlds, and restrict ourselves to the inherent difficulties +of this second thesis. + +"If God pre-existed alone, the universe proceeded from Him; matter is the +emanation of His essence. Then matter is not. Every form is but a veil +hiding the Divine Spirit. Then, the world is eternal; then, the world is +God! But is not this formula even more fatal than the former one to the +attributes assigned to God by human reason? Does matter, as emanating from +God, and always one with Him, account for the existing conditions of +matter? How are we to believe that the Almighty, supremely good in His +nature and His acts, could beget things so unlike Himself that He is not in +all things and everywhere the same? Were there in Him certain evil +constituents which He rejected from Him?--A conjecture more terrible than +offensive or ridiculous, inasmuch as it includes the two theorems which, in +our former argument, we proved to be inadmissible. God must be One, and +cannot divide Himself without infringing the most important of His +attributes. Is it possible to conceive of a portion of God which is not +God? + +"This hypothesis seemed so impious to the Roman Church, that she made God's +Omnipresence, even in the smallest fragments of the Eucharist, an article +of Faith. + +"How, then, are we to conceive of an Omnipotent Intelligence which yet +cannot conquer? How unite it with Nature, unless by direct conquest? But +Nature seeks and combines, reproduces, dies, and is born again; it is even +more agitated in the creative effort than when all is in a state of fusion; +it suffers and groans; it is ignorant, degenerate, does evil, makes +mistakes, destroys itself, disappears, and begins again. How are we to +justify the almost universal eclipse of the Divine element? Why is Death? +Why was the spirit of evil, the monarch of this earth, sent forth from a +supremely good God--good alike in His essence and His faculties, who could +have produced nothing that was not like Himself? + +"And if, setting aside this relentless issue which leads us at once to the +absurd, we go into details, what purpose can we ascribe to the world? If +all is God, all is at once effect and cause; or, more accurately, cause and +effect do not exist. Like God, all is one; and you can discern no +starting-point and no end. Can the real end be, possibly, a rotation of +matter growing more and more rare? But whatever the end may be, is not the +mechanism of such matter proceeding from God and returning to God, a mere +child's plaything? Why should He embody Himself so grossly? Under what form +is God most completely God? Which wins the day, spirit or matter, when +neither of those modes of being can be wrong? Who can possibly discern God +in this perennial toil by which He divides Himself into two natures--one +omniscient, the other knowing nothing? Can you conceive of God as playing +at being man, laughing His own labors to scorn, dying on Friday to rise +again on Sunday, and carrying on the farce from age to age while knowing +the end from all eternity; and never telling Himself, the Creature, what He +is doing as Creator? + +"The God of the former hypothesis, null as He is by sheer inertia, seems +more possible--if we had to choose between impossibilities--than that +stupid mocking God who destroys Himself when two portions of humanity meet +weapon in hand. Comical as this ultimate expression of the second aspect of +the problem may be, it was that chosen by half the human race among nations +that had created certain gay mythologies. These amorous nations were +consistent; to them everything was a God, even fear and its cowardice, even +crime and its bacchanals. If we accept Pantheism, the faith of some great +human geniuses, who can tell where reason lies? Is it with the savage +running free in the desert, clothed in his nakedness, lordly and always +right in his actions whatever they may be, listening to the sun and talking +to the sea? Is it with the civilized man, whose greatest pleasures are due +to falsehoods, who hews and hammers Nature to make the gun he carries on +his shoulder, who has applied his intelligence to hasten the hour of his +death, and create maladies that taint his pleasures? When the scourge of +pestilence, or the ploughshare of war, or the genius of the desert had +passed over a spot of earth, annihilating everything, which came off +best--the Nubian savage or the patrician of Thebes? + +"Your scepticism permeates from above downwards. Your doubts include +everything, the end as well as the means. If the physical world seems +inexplicable, the moral world proves even more against God. Where, then, is +progress? If everything goes on improving, why do we die as children? Why +do not nations, at any rate, perpetuate themselves? Is the world that +proceeded from God, that is contained in God, stationary? Do we live but +once? Or do we live for ever? If we live but once, coerced by the advance +of the Great All, of which we have no knowledge given us, let us do what we +will! If we are eternal, let everything pass! Can the creature be guilty +because it exists when changes are going on? If it sins at the moment of +some great transformation, shall it be punished for it after having been +the victim? What becomes of divine goodness if it refuses to place us at +once in the realms of happiness--if such there be? What becomes of God's +foreknowledge if He does not know the results of the trials to which He +subjects us? What is this alternative proposed to man by all His creeds, +between stewing in an eternal caldron and wandering in a white robe with a +palm in his hand and a halo to crown him? Can this pagan invention be the +supreme promise of God? + +"And what magnanimous spirit but sees how unworthy of man and God alike is +virtue out of self-interest, the eternity of joys offered by every creed to +those who, during a few brief hours of existence, fulfil certain monstrous +and often unnatural conditions? Is it not preposterous to endow man with +vehement senses and then forbid his gratifying them? + +"Besides, to what end these trivial objections when good and evil alike are +negatived? Does evil exist? If matter in all its manifestations is evil, +evil is God. + +"The faculty of reason, as well as the faculty of feeling, being bestowed +on man for his use, nothing can be more pardonable than to seek a meaning +in human suffering and to inquire into the future; if this rigid and +rigorous logic leads us to such conclusions, what confusion is here! The +world has then no stability; nothing moves on, and nothing stands still; +everything changes, but nothing is destroyed; everything renews itself and +reappears; for, if your mind cannot unanswerably prove an end, it is +equally impossible to prove the annihilation of the smallest atom of +matter: it may be transformed, but not destroyed. Though blind force may +prove the atheist's position, intelligent force is inscrutable; for, if it +proceeds from God, ought it to encounter any obstacles; ought it not to +conquer them immediately? + +"Where is God? If the living are not aware of Him, will the dead find Him? + +"Crumble into dust, O idolatries and creeds! Fall, O too feeble keystones +of the social arches, for ye have never retarded the destruction, the +death, the oblivion, that have come upon all the nations of the past, +however securely they were founded. Fall, O morality and justice! Our +crimes are but relative, they are divine results of which the causes are +unknown to us! Everything is God. Either we are God, or God is not! Child +of an age of which each year has left on your brow the cold touch of its +scepticism--Old Man! this is the sum total of your science and your long +meditations! + +"Dear Pastor Becker, you have rested your head on the pillow of doubt, +finding it the easiest solution, acting indeed like the majority of the +human race. They say to themselves, 'We will think no more of this question +if God will not vouchsafe us an algebraic demonstration for its solution, +while He has given us so many that lead us safely up from the earth to the +stars----' + +"Now, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I missed them? Have I not, +on the contrary, precisely stated them?--Either the dogma of the two +elementary principles, an antagonism in which God is destroyed by the very +fact that He--who is Almighty--plays at a struggle; or the ridiculous +Pantheism in which all things being God, God is no more--these two founts, +whence flow the creeds to whose triumph the earth is devoted, are equally +pernicious. + +"There, between us, lies the two-edged axe with which you behead the +white-haired Ancient of Days whom you enthrone on painted clouds! + +"Now, give me the axe!" + +The pastor and Wilfrid looked at the girl in a sort of dismay. + +"Belief," said Seraphita in her gentle voice--for the man had been speaking +hitherto--"belief is a gift! Belief is feeling. To believe in God, you must +feel God. This sense is a faculty slowly acquired by the human being, as +those wonderful powers are acquired which you admire in great men--in +warriors, artists, men of science--those who act, those who produce, those +who know. Thought, a bundle of the relations which you discern between +different things, is an intellectual language that may be learned, is it +not? Belief, a bundle of heavenly truths, is in the same way a language, +but as far above thought as thought is above instinct. This language too +can be learned. + +"The believer answers in a single cry, a single sign; faith places in his +hand a flaming sword which cuts and throws light on everything. The seer +does not come down again from heaven; he contemplates it and is silent. +There is a being who both believes and sees, who has knowledge and power, +who loves, prays, and waits. That being is resigned, and aspires to the +realm of light; he has neither the believer's lofty scorn, nor the Seer's +dumbness; he both listens and replies. To him the doubt of the dark ages is +not a lethal weapon, but a guiding clue; he accepts the battle in whatever +guise; he can accommodate his tongue to every language; he is never wroth, +he pities; he neither condemns nor kills, he redeems and comforts; he has +not the harshness of an aggressor, but rather the mild fluidity of light +which penetrates and warms and lights up every place. In his eyes +scepticism is not impiety, is not blasphemy, is not a crime; it is a stage +of transition whence a man must go forward towards the light, or back into +the darkness. + +"So now, dear Pastor, let us reason together. You do not believe in God. +Why?--God, as you express it, is incomprehensible and inexplicable. I grant +it. I will not retort that to comprehend God altogether is to be God. I +will not tell you that you deny what you think inexplicable simply to give +myself a right of affirming what seems to me believable. To you there is an +evident fact dwelling within you. In you matter is conterminous with +intelligence; and yet you think that human intelligence will end in +darkness, in doubt, in nothingness? Even if God seems to you +incomprehensible and inexplicable, confess at least that in all physical +phenomena you recognize in Him a consistent and exquisite Craftsman. + +"Then why should His logic end at man, as His most finished work? Though +the question may not be convincing, it deserves some consideration at any +rate. Though you deny God, to give a basis to your doubts, you happily can +appreciate certain double-edged truths which demolish your arguments as +effectually as your arguments demolish God. + +"We both admit that matter and spirit are two separate creations, neither +of which contains the other; that the spiritual world consists of infinite +relations to which the finite material world gives rise; and that whereas +no one on earth has ever been able to identify himself by a sheer effort of +mind with the sum-total of earthly creations, all the more certainly can he +not rise to an apprehension of the relations which the spirit discerns +between these creations. So I might end the matter with one blow by denying +you the faculty of understanding God, just as you deny the pebbles by the +fiord the faculty of counting or of seeing themselves. How do you know that +they may not deny the existence of man, though man uses them to build his +house with? + +"There is one fact which overthrows you--Infinitude. If you feel it within +you, how is it that you do not recognize the consequences? Can the finite +fully apprehend the infinite? If you cannot comprehend the relations which, +by your own admission, are infinite, how can you comprehend the remote +finality in which they are summed up? Order, of which the manifestation is +one of your needs, being infinite, can your finite reason comprehend it? + +"Nor need you inquire why man cannot comprehend all he can conceive of, +for he likewise can conceive of much that he cannot comprehend. If I were +to prove to you that your mind is ignorant of everything that lies within +its grasp, would you grant me that it is impossible for it to conceive of +what lies beyond it? Should I not be justified, then, in saying, 'One of +the alternatives which bring God to nought at the bar of your judgment must +be true and the other false; Creation exists, you feel the need for an end; +must not that end be a noble one? Now, if in man matter is conterminous +with intelligence, why can you not be satisfied to grant that human +intelligence ends where the light begins of those superior spheres for +which is reserved the intuition of the God who, to you, is merely an +insoluble problem? + +"The species lower than man have no comprehension of the universe; you +have. Why should there not be, above man again, species more intelligent +than he? Before using his powers to take measure of God, would not man do +well to know more about himself? Before defying the stars that give him +light, before attacking transcendent truths, ought he not rather to verify +the truths that immediately concern him? + +"But I should answer the negations of doubt by negation. Well, then, I ask +you: Is there here on earth a single thing so self-evident that I am bound +to believe in it? I will show you in a minute that you believe firmly in +things that can act and yet are not beings, that can give birth to thought +and yet are not spirits, in living abstractions which the understanding +cannot grasp under any shape, which nowhere exist, but which you can +everywhere find; which have no possible names--though you have given them +names; which, like the God in human form whom you conceive of, perish +before the inexplicable, the incomprehensible, and the absurd. And I will +ask you: If you admit these things, why do you reserve your doubts for God? + +"You believe in Number as the foundation on which rests the edifice of what +you call the exact sciences. Without number mathematics are impossible. +Well, then, what impossible being, to whom life everlasting should be +granted, could ever finish counting--and in what sufficiently concise +language could he utter--the numbers contained in the infinite number of +which the existence is demonstrated by your reason. Ask the greatest human +genius, and suppose him to sit for a thousand years leaning on a table, his +head in his hands, what would he answer? + +"You know neither where number begins, where it pauses, nor where it ends. +Now you call it time, anon you call it space; by number only does anything +exist; but for number all substance would be one and the same; it alone +differentiates and modifies matter. Number is to your mind what it is to +matter, an intangible agent. But will you then make a god of it? Is it a +being? Is it a breath of God sent forth to organize the material universe, +wherein nothing takes shape but as a result of divisibility which is an +effect of number? The most minute as well as the most immense objects in +creation are distinguished from each other by quantity, quality, dimension, +and force,--are not these all conditions of number? That number is infinite +is a fact proved to your intellect, but of which no material proof is +obtainable. A mathematician will tell you that infinity of number is +certain, but cannot be demonstrated. And, my dear Pastor, believers will +tell you that God is Number endowed with motion, to be felt but not proved. +He, like the unit, is the origin of number though having nothing in common +with numbers. The existence of Number depends on that of the unit, which is +not a number, but the parent of them all. And God, dear Pastor Becker, is a +stupendous Unit, having nothing in common with His creations, but their +Parent nevertheless. + +"You must grant me that you are equally ignorant as to where number begins +or ends, and as to where created eternity begins or ends? Why, then, if you +believe in number, should you deny God? Does not creation hold a place +between the infinite of inorganic substances and the infinite of the Divine +spheres, as the unit stands between the infinite of fractions--lately +termed decimals--and the infinite numbers you call whole numbers? Men alone +on earth comprehend number, the first step to the forecourt leading to +God, and even there reason stumbles. What! you can neither measure nor +grasp the primary abstraction proposed to you, and you want to apply your +puny standard to the ends of God's purpose? What if I should cast you into +the bottomless depths of Motion, the force which organizes number? + +"If I were to tell you that the universe is nothing but Number and Motion, +we should already, you see, be speaking a different language. I understand +both terms; you do not. What, then, if I should go on to say that motion +and number are generated by the Word? This term, the Supreme Reason of +seers and prophets, who of old heard the voice of God that overthrew St. +Paul, is a laughing-stock to you--you men, though your own visible +works--communities, monuments, actions, and passions--all are the outcome +of your own feeble Word; and though without speech you would still be no +higher than the Orang of the woods, the great ape that is so nearly akin to +the Negro. + +"Well, you believe firmly in number and motion, inexplicable and +incomprehensible as force and result, though I might apply to their +existence the same logical dilemma as just now relieved you of the +necessity of acknowledging that of God. You, a powerful reasoner, will +surely relieve me of the necessity for proving that the Infinite must be +everywhere the same, and that it is inevitably one? God alone is the +Infinite, for there obviously cannot be two Infinites. If, to use words in +their human sense, anything proved to you here on earth strikes you as +infinite, you may be sure you have in that a glimpse of one aspect of God. + +"To proceed: you have found for yourselves a place in the Infinite of +number; you have fitted it to your stature by creating arithmetic--if you +can be said to create anything--the basis on which everything is built up, +even society. Arithmetic, or the use of number, has organized the moral +world, just as number, the only thing in which your professing Atheists +believe, organizes physical creation. This science of numbers ought to be +absolute, like everything that is intrinsically true; but it is, in fact, +purely relative, it has no absolute existence. You can give no proof of its +reality. + +"To begin with, though this science is apt at summing up organized +substances, it is impotent as applied to organizing forces, since these are +infinite, whereas the former are finite. Man, whose intellect can conceive +of the Infinite, cannot deal with it as a whole; if he could, he would be +God. Hence your arithmetic, as applied to finite things and not to the +Infinite, is true in relation to the details you apprehend, but false in +relation to the whole which you cannot apprehend. Though nature does not +vary in her organizing forces and her elementary causes, which are +infinite, she is never the same in her finite results. Hence in all nature +you will find no two objects exactly alike. + +"Thus, in the order of nature, two and two can never really make four, +since the units would have to be exactly equal; and you know that it is +impossible to find two leaves alike on one tree, or two specimens alike of +the same species of tree. This axiom of arithmetic then, which is false as +regards visible nature, is no less false in the invisible nature of your +abstractions, where there is the same dissimilarity in your ideas which are +derived from the objects of the visible world, only extended in their +relations; in fact, differences are even more strongly marked there than +elsewhere. Everything there being modified by the temperament, the +strength, the manners, and the habits of individuals, who are never alike, +the most trifling matters are representative of personal character. + +"If man has ever succeeded in creating an unit, it was, no doubt, by +assigning equal weight and value to certain pieces of gold. Well, add a +rich man's ducat to a poor man's, and tell yourself that to the public +treasury these are equal quantities; but in the eyes of a thoughtful man, +one, morally speaking, is unquestionably greater than the other; one +represents a month's happiness, the other the most transient caprice. Two +and two only make four in the sense of a false and monstrous abstraction. + +"A fraction, again, has no existence in nature, since what you call a part +is a thing complete in itself; and does it not often happen--and have we +not proof of the fact--that the hundredth part of some substance may be +stronger than what you call the whole? And if a fraction has no existence +in the natural world, far less does it exist in the moral world, where +ideas and feelings may be as various as the species of the vegetable +kingdom, but are always a whole. The theory of fractions, then, is another +concession of the mind. Number, with its 'infinitely small' and its +'infinite total,' is a power of which a small part only is known to you, +while its extent evades you. You have built a little cottage in the +infinitude of number; you have adorned it with hieroglyphics very learnedly +designed and painted; and you have said, 'Everything is here!' + +"From abstract number we will pass on to number as applied to solids. Your +geometry states it as an axiom that a straight line is the shortest way +from one point to another; and astronomy shows you that God has given +motion only in curves. Here, then, in the same science, are two facts +equally well proved--one by the evidence of your senses, aided by the +telescope; the other by the testimony of your mind; but one contradicts the +other. Man, who is liable to error, asserts one, and the Maker of the +worlds--whom you have never found in error--contradicts it. Who can decide +between rectilinear and curvilinear geometry?--between the theory of +straight lines and the theory of curved lines? If, in His work, the +mysterious Maker, who attains His ends with miraculous directness, only +makes use of the straight line to divide it at a right angle and obtain a +curve, man himself cannot rely on it: the bullet a man wishes to send in a +straight line follows a curve, and when you want to hit a point in space +with certainty you propel the ball on its cruel parabola. Not one of your +learned men has arrived at the simple induction that the curved line is +that of the material world, and the straight line that of the spiritual +world; that one is the theory of finite creation, and the other the theory +of the infinite. Man alone--he alone here on earth having any +consciousness of the infinite--can know the straight line; he alone, in a +special organ, has the sense of the vertical. May not the predilection for +curved lines in some men be an indication of the impurity of their nature, +still too closely allied to the material substances which engender us? and +may not the love for straight lines, seen in lofty minds, be in them a +presentiment of heaven? Between these two lines lies a gulf as wide as +between the Finite and the Infinite, between Matter and Spirit, between Man +and the Idea, between Motion and the Thing moved, between the Creature and +God. Borrow the wings of Divine Love and you may cross that gulf. Beyond it +the revelation of the Word begins! + +"The things you call material are nowhere devoid of thickness; lines are +the edges of solids having a power of action which you ignore in your +theorems, and that makes them false in relation to bodies regarded as a +whole; hence the constant destruction of human works, to which you have +unwittingly given active properties. Nature knows nothing but solid bodies; +your science deals only with combinations of surfaces. And so nature +constantly gives the lie to all your laws: can you name one to which no +fact makes an exception? The laws of statics are contradicted by a thousand +incidents in physics; a fluid overthrows the most stupendous mountains, and +so proves that the heaviest substances may be upheaved by imponderable +agents. Your laws of acoustics and optics are nullified by the sounds you +hear in your brain during sleep, and by the light of an electric flash, of +which the rays are often overpowering. You do not know how light is brought +to your intelligence, any more than you know the simple and natural process +by which it is changed to ruby, sapphire, opal, and emerald on the neck of +an Indian bird, while it lies dim and gray on the same bird under the misty +sky of Europe, nor why it beams perpetually white here in the heart of the +polar regions. You cannot tell whether color is a faculty with which bodies +are endowed, or an effect produced by the diffusion of light. + +"You believe the whole sea to be salt without having ascertained that it is +so in its deepest places. + +"You recognize the existence of various substances which traverse what you +call the Void: substances intangible under any known form assumed by +matter, and which meet and combine with it in spite of every obstacle. That +being the case, you believe in the results obtained by chemistry, though as +yet it knows no method of estimating the changes produced by the currents +to and fro of those substances as they pass through your crystals and your +instruments on the inappreciable waves of heat or of light, conducted or +repelled by the affinities of metals or vitrified flint. You obtain no +substances but what are dead, out of which you have driven the unknown +force which resists decomposition in all earthly things, the force of which +attraction, undulation, cohesion, and polarity are manifestations. + +"Life is the mind of body; bodies are but a mode of detaining it, of +delaying it in its transit; if bodies were themselves living things, they +would be a cause; they would not die. When a man establishes the results of +the motion of which every form of creation has its share in proportion to +its power of absorbing it, you call him a Learned Man, as though genius +consisted in explaining what exists. Genius should lift its eyes above +effects. All your learned men would laugh if you should say to them, 'There +is a certain connecting relation between two beings, such as that if one of +them were here and the other in Java, they might feel the same sensation at +the same instant, and be aware of the fact, and question and answer each +other without a mistake.' And yet there are some mineral substances which +exhibit sympathies as far reaching as that of which I speak. You believe in +the power of electricity when it is fixed on the lodestone, but you deny it +as emanating from the soul. According to you, the moon, whose influence +over the tides seems to you proven, has none over the winds, over +vegetation, or over men; it can move the sea and eat into glass, but it +cannot affect the sick; it has undoubted effects on one-half of the human +race; none on the other half. These are your most precious convictions. + +"We may go further: You believe in physics; but your physics are based, +like the Catholic religion, on an act of faith. Do they not recognize an +external force apart from bodies to which it imparts movement? You see its +effects, but what is it? Where is it? What is its essence, its life? Has it +any limits?----And you deny God! + +"Thus most of your scientific axioms, though true in relation to man, are +false in relation to the Whole. Science is one, and you have divided it. To +know the true sense of the laws of phenomena, would it not be necessary to +know the correlations existing between the phenomena and the laws of the +whole? There is in all things an appearance, a presentment, which strikes +your sense; behind this presentment there is a soul moving--the body, and +the faculty. Where are the relations which hold things together studied or +taught? Nowhere. Have you, then, no absolute finality? Your best +ascertained theses rest on an analysis of the forms of matter, while the +spirit is constantly neglected. + +"There is a supreme science of which some men--too late--get a glimpse, +though they dare not own it. These men perceive the necessity for +considering all bodies, not merely from the point of view of their +mathematical properties, but also from that of their whole relations and +occult affinities. + +"The greatest of you all discerned, towards the end of his life, that all +things were at the same time cause and effect reciprocally; that the +visible worlds were co-ordinated to each other and captive to invisible +spheres. He groaned over having tried to establish absolute principles. +When counting his worlds, like grains of sand scattered throughout the +ether, he explained their connection by the laws of planetary and molecular +attraction. You hailed that man.--Well, and I tell you that he died in +despair. Assuming that the centrifugal and centripetal forces, which he +invented to account for the universe, were absolutely equal, the universe +would stand still, and he insisted on motion, though in an undefined +direction; but assuming the forces to be unequal, the worlds must at once +fall into confusion. Thus his laws were not final; there was another +problem still higher than that of attraction, on which his spurious glory +was founded. The pull of the stars against each other, and the centripetal +tendency of their individual motion, did not hinder him from seeking the +branch from which the whole cluster was hanging. Unhappy man; the more he +extended space, the heavier was his load. He told you that every part was +in equilibrium; but whither was the whole bound? + +"He contemplated the space, infinite in the eyes of men, that is filled +with the groups of worlds, of which a small number are registered by our +telescopes, while its immensity is proved by the rapidity of light. This +sublime contemplation gave him a conception of the infinitude of worlds, +planted in space like flowers in a meadow, which are born like infants, +grow like men, die like old men, which live by assimilating from their +atmosphere the substances proper to nourish them, which have a centre and +principle of life, which protect themselves from each other by an +intervening space, which constitute a grand whole, that has its own life, +its own destination. + +"At this prospect the man trembled. He knew that life is produced by the +union of the Thing with its first Principle; that death, or inertia--or +gravitation--is caused by a rupture between the Thing and the motion proper +to it; and he thus foresaw the crash of worlds, in ruins if God should +withhold His Word. Then he set to work to seek the traces of that Word in +the Apocalypse. You all thought him mad. Know this: he strove to earn +forgiveness for his genius. + +"Wilfrid, you came to request me to resolve equations, to fly on a +rain-cloud, to plunge into the fiord and reappear as a swan. If science or +miracle were the end of humanity, Moses would have left you a calculus of +fluxions; Jesus Christ would have cleared up the dark places of science; +His apostles would have told you whence come those immense trains of gas or +of fused metals which rush revolving on a nucleus, solidifying as they seek +a place in the ether, and are sometimes violently projected within range of +a system where they are absorbed by a star, or crash into it by their +shock, or dissolve it by the infusion of deadly vapors. St. Paul, instead +of bidding you live in God, would have explained to you that nutrition is +the secret bond among all creation, and the visible bond among all living +animals. In our own day, the greatest miracle would be to square the +circle, a problem which you pronounce impossible, but which has no doubt +been solved in the progress of worlds by the intersection of some +mathematical line, whose curves are apparent to the eye of spirits elevated +to the highest spheres. + +"Believe me, miracles are within us and not without us. Thus have natural +effects been wrought, which the nations deemed to be supernatural. Would +not God have been unjust if He had vouchsafed to show His power to some +generations, and had refused it to others? The Brazen Rod belongs to all. +Neither Moses nor Jacob, neither Zoroaster nor Paul, nor Pythagoras nor +Swedenborg, neither the most obscure evangelists nor the most amazing of +God's prophets, have been superior to what you might become. Only, nations +have their day of faith. If positive science were indeed the end of all +human effort, how is it--confess now--that every social community, every +great centre to which men gather, is invariably broken up by Providence? If +civilization were the final cause of the human species, could intelligence +perish? Would it perennially continue to be a purely individual possession? + +"The greatness of all the nations that have ever been great has been +founded on exceptions: when the exception ceased to be, the power was dead. +Would not the Seers, the Prophets, the Evangelists, have laid their hand on +science instead of relying on faith; would they not have hammered at your +brains rather than have touched your hearts? They all came to drive the +nations to God; they all proclaimed the way of life in the simple words +which lead to the Heavenly Kingdom; and fired with love and faith, and +inspired by the Word which hovers over the nations, compels them, vivifies +them, and uplifts them, they never used it for any human end. Your great +geniuses, poets, kings, and sages are swallowed up with their towns, and +the desert has buried them under a shroud of sand; while the names of +these good shepherds still are blessed and survive every catastrophe. + +"We can never agree on any point. Gulfs lie between us. You are on the side +of darkness, I live in the true light. + +"Is this the word you desired of me? I utter it with joy; it may change +you. Know, then, that there are sciences of Matter and sciences of the +Spirit. Where you see bodies, I see forces tending towards each other by a +creative impulse. To me the character of a body is the sign-manual of its +first principles and the expression of its properties. These principles +give rise to certain affinities which elude you, but which are connected +with centres. The different species to which life is distributed are +unfailing springs which communicate with each other. Each has its specific +function. + +"Man is at once cause and effect; he is nourished, but he nourishes in +return. When you call God the Creator, you belittle Him. He did not, as you +imagine, create plants, animals, and the stars; could He act by such +various means? Must He not have proceeded by unity of purpose? He emitted +principles which were compelled to develop in accordance with His general +laws, and subject to the conditions of their environment. + +"In point of fact, all the affinities are bound together by immediate +similarities; the life of worlds is attracted to centres by a greedy +aspiration, just as you are all driven by hunger to seek nourishment. To +give you an instance of affinities linked to similarities: the secondary +law on which the creations of your mind rest--music, a celestial art--is +the active evidence of this principle: is it not an assemblage of sounds +harmonized by number? Is not sound a condition of the air under +compression, dilatation, and repercussion? You know of what the air is +composed? Azote, carbon, and oxygen. Since you can produce no sound in a +vacuum, it is evident that music and the human voice are the result of +organic chemical elements, acting in unison with the same substances +prepared within you by your mind, and co-ordinated by means of light, the +great foster-mother of this globe; for can you have cogitated on the +quantities of nitre deposited by the snows, on the discharge of thunder, on +plants which derive from the air the elements they contain, and have failed +to conclude that it is the sun that fuses and diffuses the subtle essence +which nourishes all things here below? Swedenborg truly said, 'The earth is +a man.' + +"All your sciences of to-day, which make you so great in your own eyes, are +a mere trifle compared with the light that floods the Seer. + +"Cease, cease to question me; we speak a different language. I have used +yours for once, to throw a flash of faith upon your souls, to cast a corner +of my mantle over you, and tempt you away to the glorious regions of +prayer. Is it God's part to stoop to you? Is it not yours rather to rise to +Him? If human reason has so soon exhausted the limits of its powers merely +by laying God out to prove His existence, without succeeding in doing so, +is it not evident that it must seek some other way of knowing Him? That +other way is in ourselves. The Seer and the believer have within themselves +eyes more piercing than are those eyes which are bent on things of earth, +and they discern a dawn. + +"Understand this saying: Your most exact sciences, your boldest +speculations, your brightest flashes of light, are but clouds. Above them +all is the sanctuary whence the true Light is shed." + +She sat down and was silent; and her calm features betrayed not the least +sign of the trepidation which commonly disturbs an orator after his least +inflamed speech. + +Wilfrid whispered into the pastor's ear, leaning over him to do so: + +"Who told her all this?" + +"I do not know," was the reply. + +"He was milder on the Falberg," Minna remarked. + +Seraphita passed her hands over her eyes, and said with a smile: + +"You are very pensive this evening, gentlemen. You treat me and Minna like +men to whom you would talk politics or discuss trade, while we are but +girls to whom you should tell fairy-tales while drinking tea, as is the +custom in our evenings in Norway.--Come, Pastor Becker, tell me some Saga +which I do not know. That of Frithiof, in which you believe, and which you +promised to tell me, or the story of the peasant's son who has a ship that +speaks and has a soul? I dream of the frigate _Ellida_. Is it not on that +fairy vessel that girls should sail the seas?" + +"Since we have come down to Jarvis again," said Wilfrid, whose eyes were +fixed on Seraphita as those of a robber hidden in the gloom are fixed on +the spot where treasure lies, "tell me why you do not marry?" + +"You are all born widowers or widows," replied she. "My marriage was +decided on at my birth; I am betrothed----" + +"To whom?" they all asked in a breath. + +"Allow me to keep my secret," said she. "I promise, if our father will +grant it, to invite you to that mysterious wedding." + +"Is it to be soon?" + +"I am waiting." + +A long silence ensued. + +"The spring is come," said Seraphita. "The noise of waters and of breaking +ice has begun; will you not come to hail the first springtime of the new +century?" + +She rose and, followed by Wilfrid, went to a window which David had thrown +open. After the long stillness of winter, the vast waters were stirring +beneath the ice, and sang through the fiord like music; for there are +sounds which distance glorifies, and which reach the ear in waves that seem +to bring refreshment and light. + +"Cease, Wilfrid," said she, "cease to cherish evil thoughts whose triumph +will be a torment to endure. Who could fail to read your wishes in the +sparkle of your eyes? Be good; take a step in well-doing! Is it not a step +beyond the mere love of men to sacrifice yourself entirely to the happiness +of the one you love? Submit to me, and I will lead you into a path where +you will attain to all the greatness you dream of, and where love will be +really infinite." + +She left Wilfrid lost in thought. + +"Can this gentle creature really be the prophetess who but now flashed +lightnings from her eyes, whose words thundered about the worlds, whose +hand wielded the axe of Doubt in defiance of our sciences?" said he to +himself. "Have we been asleep for these few minutes?" + +"Minna," said Seraphitus, returning to the pastor's daughter, "the eagles +gather where the dead lie, the turtle-dove flies to the springs of living +water under green and peaceful groves. The eagle soars to the skies, the +dove descends from them. Venture no more into regions where you will find +neither fountains nor shade. If this morning you could not look into the +gulf without destruction, keep your powers for him who will love you. Go, +poor child, I am betrothed, as you know." + +Minna rose and went with Seraphitus to the window, where Wilfrid still was +standing. They could all three hear the Sieg leaping under the force of the +upper waters, which were bringing down the trees that had been frozen into +the ice. The fiord had found its voice again. Illusion was over. They +wondered at Nature bursting her bonds, and answering in noble harmonies to +the Spirit whose call had awakened her. + +When the three guests had left this mysterious being, they were filled with +an indefinable feeling which was not sleep, nor torpor, nor astonishment, +but a mixture of all three, which was neither twilight nor daybreak, but +which made them long for light. They were all very thoughtful. + +"I begin to think that she is a spirit veiled in human form," said the +pastor. + +Wilfrid, in his own room again, calmed and convinced, knew not how to +contend with powers so divinely majestic. + +Minna said to herself: + +"Why will he not allow me to love him?" + + + + +V + +THE FAREWELL + + +There is in man a phenomenon which is the despair of those reflective minds +who endeavor to find some meaning in the march of social vicissitudes, and +to formulate some laws of progress for the movement of intellect. However +serious a fact may be, or, if supernatural facts could exist, however +magnificent a miracle could be, publicly performed, the lightning flash of +the fact, the thunderbolt of the miracle would be lost in the moral ocean, +and the surface, rippled for an instant by some slight ebullition, would at +once resume the level of its ordinary swell. + +Does the Voice, to be more surely heeded, pass through an animal's jaws? +Does the Hand write in strange characters on the cornice of the hall where +the Court is reveling? Does the Eye light up the King's slumbers? Does the +Prophet read the dream? Does Death, when summoned, stand in the luminous +space where a man's faculties revive? Does the Spirit crush matter at the +foot of the mystical ladder of the seven spiritual worlds hung one above +another in space, and seen by the floods of light that fall in cascades +down the steps of the heavenly floor? Still, however deep the inner +revelation, however distinct the outward sign, by the morrow Balaam doubts +both his ass and himself; Belteshazzar and Pharaoh call in seers to explain +the sign--Daniel or Moses. + +The Spirit descends, snatches a man above the earth, opens the seas and +shows him the bottom of them, calls up vanished generations, gives life to +the dry bones thickly strewn in the great valley; the Apostle writes the +_Apocalypse_; and twenty centuries later human science confirms the Apostle +and translates his figures of speech into axioms. What difference does it +make? The mass of people live to-day as they lived yesterday, as they lived +in the first Olympiad, as they lived the first day after creation, and on +the eve of the great cataclysm. Doubt drowns everything in its waters. The +same waves beat, with the self-same ebb and flow, on the human granite that +hems in the sea of intellect. + +Man asks himself whether indeed he saw what he saw, whether he really heard +the words that were spoken, whether the fact was a fact, and the idea +really an idea; and then he goes on his way, he thinks of his business, he +obeys the inevitable servitor of Death--Forgetfulness, who throws his black +cloak over the old humanity of which the younger has no remembrance. Man +never ceases to move, to go on, to grow as a vegetable grows, till the day +when the axe falls. If this flood-like force, this mounting pressure of +bitter waters, hinders all progress, it also, no doubt, is a warning of +death. None but the loftier spirits open to faith can discern Jacob's +mystical stair. + +After listening to the reply in which Seraphita, being so urgently +questioned, had unrolled the divine scroll, as an organ fills a church with +its roar, and shows the power of the musical universe by flooding the most +inaccessible vaults with its solemn notes, playing, like light, among the +frail wreaths of the capitals, Wilfrid went home, appalled at having seen +the world in ruins, and, above the ruins, a light unknown, shed by the hand +of that young creature. + +On the following day he was still thinking of it, but his terrors were +allayed; he was not in ruins, nor even changed--his passions and ideas woke +up fresh and vigorous. + +He went to breakfast with the Minister, and found him lost in the study of +Jean Wier's treatise, which he had been looking through that morning to be +able to reassure his visitor. With the childlike simplicity of a sage, the +pastor had turned down the leaves at some pages where Jean Wier adduced +authentic evidence demonstrating the possibility of such things as had +happened the day before; for to the learned an idea is an event, whereas +the greatest events are to them hardly an idea. + +By the time these two philosophers had swallowed their fifth cup of tea, +that mystical evening seemed quite natural. The heavenly truths were more +or less substantial arguments, and open to discussion. Seraphita was a more +or less eloquent girl; allowance must be made for her exquisite voice, her +enchanting beauty, her fascinating manner, all the oratorical skill by +which an actor can put a world of feelings and ideas into a sentence which +in itself is often quite commonplace. + +"Pooh!" said the good minister, with a little philosophical grimace, as he +spread a slice of bread with salt butter, "the answer to all these riddles +is six feet beneath the mould!" + +"At the same time," said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, "I cannot understand +how a girl of sixteen can know so many things; for she squeezed everything +into her speech as if it were in a vise." + +"But only read the story of the Italian girl who, at twelve years old, +could speak forty-two languages, ancient and modern," said the pastor. "And +again, that of the monk who read thought by smell. These are in Jean Wier, +and in a dozen other treatises which I will give you to read, a thousand +proofs rather than one." + +"I daresay, my dear Pastor; but Seraphita remains to me a wife it would be +divine joy to possess." + +"She is all intellect," replied the minister dubiously. + +Some days passed by, during which the snow in the valleys insensibly melted +away; the greenery of the forests peeped through like a fresh growth; +Norwegian nature made itself beautiful in anticipation of its brief bridal +day. All this time, though the milder temperature allowed of open-air +exercise, Seraphita remained in solitary seclusion. Thus Wilfrid's passion +was enhanced by the aggravating vicinity of the girl he loved, and who +refused to be seen. When the inscrutable being admitted Minna, Minna could +detect the symptoms of an inward fever; Seraphita's voice was hollow, and +her complexion was wan; whereas hitherto its transparency might have been +compared by a poet to that of the diamond, it now had the sheen of the +topaz. + +"Have you seen her?" asked Wilfrid, who had prowled round the house, +awaiting Minna's return. + +"We shall lose him!" said the girl, her eyes filling with tears. + +"Do not try to fool me!" cried the stranger, controlling the vehemence of +tone that expressed his fury. "You can only love Seraphita as one girl +loves another, not with such love as I feel for her. You cannot conceive +what peril you would be in if there were anything to alarm my +jealousy.--Why can I not go to see her? Is it you who raise difficulties?" + +"I cannot think," said Minna, calm on the surface, but quaking with mortal +terror, "what right you have to sound the depths of my heart.--Yes, I love +him," she went on, summoning the courage of conviction to confess the faith +of her soul. "But my jealousy, though natural to love, fears nobody here. +Alas! What I am jealous of is some unconfessed feeling in which he is +absorbed. Between him and me lies a space I can never abridge. I want to +know whether the stars love him more than I, whether they or I would be the +more eagerly devoted to his happiness? Why, why, should I not be free to +declare my affection? In the presence of death we may all confess our +attachment--and Seraphitus is dying." + +"Minna, indeed you are under a mistake; the siren round whom my desires +have so often hovered, who allows me to admire her as she reclines on her +couch, so graceful, fragile, and suffering, is not a man." + +"Nay," replied Minna, in some agitation, "he whose powerful hand guided me +over the Falberg to the soeter under the shelter of the Ice-cap up +there"--and she pointed to the peak--"is certainly not a mere, weak girl. +If you had but heard her prophesy! Her poetry is the music of thought. No +young girl could have had the solemn depth of voice which stirred my soul." + +"What certainty have you----?" Wilfrid began. + +"None but that of my heart!" replied Minna in confusion, and hastily +interrupting the speaker. + +"Well, but I," cried Wilfrid, with a terrible glance of murderous eagerness +and desire, "I, who know what the extent of her power is over me--I will +prove your mistake." + +At this moment, when words were rushing to Wilfrid's tongue as vehemently +as ideas in his head, he saw Seraphita come out of the Swedish Castle, +followed by David. The sight of her soothed his effervescent state. + +"Look," said he; "none but a woman can have that grace and languor." + +"He is ill; it is his last walk!" said Minna. + +At a sign from his mistress, David left her, and she advanced towards +Wilfrid and Minna. + +"Let us go to the falls of the Sieg," said the mysterious being; it was the +wish of a sufferer which all hasten to accede to. + +A thin, white haze hung over the heights and dales of the fiord, and the +peaks, glittering like stars, pierced above it, giving it the effect of a +milky way moving onwards. Through this earth-born vapor the sun was visible +as a globe of red-hot iron. In spite of these last freaks of winter, gusts +of mild air, bringing the scent of the birch-trees, already covered with +their yellow flowers, and the rich perfume exhaled by the larches, whose +silky tufts were all displayed--breezes warm with the incense and the +breathing of the earth testified to the exquisite springtime of Northern +lands, the brief rapture of a most melancholy nature. + +The wind was beginning to roll away the veil of mist that hardly hid the +view of the gulf. The birds were singing. + +Where the sun had not dried off the frost that trickled down the road in +murmuring rills, the bark of the trees was pleasing to the eye by its +fantastic appearance. + +They all three went along the strand in silence. Wilfrid and Minna were +lost in contemplation of the magical scene after their long endurance of +the monotonous winter landscape. Their companion was pensive, and walked as +though trying to distinguish one voice in the concert. They reached the +rocks between which the Sieg tumbles, at the end of the long avenue of +ancient fir-trees which the torrent had cut in meandering through the +forest, a path covered in by a groined arch of boughs, meeting like those +of a cathedral. From thence the whole of the fiord was seen, and the sea +sparkled on the horizon like a steel blade. At this instant the clouds +vanished, showing the blue sky. Down in the hollows and round the trees the +air was full of floating sparkles, the diamond dust swept up by a light +breeze, and dazzling gems of drops were hanging at the tip of the branches +of each pyramid. The torrent was rolling below; a smoke came up from the +surface, tinted in the sunshine with every hue of light; its beams, +decomposed, displayed perfect rainbows of the seven colors, like the play +of a thousand prisms meeting and crossing there. This wild shore was +curtained with various kinds of lichen, a rich web, sheeny with moisture, +like some gorgeous hanging of silk. Heath, already in blossom, crowned the +rocks with flowers in skilful disorder. All this stirring foliage, tempted +by the living waters, hung their heads over it like hair; the larches waved +their lace-like arms, as if caressing the pines, that stood rigid like +careworn old men. + +This luxuriant display was a contrast to the solemnity of the antique +colonnades of the forests, range upon range on the hillside, and to the +broad sheet of the fiord, in which the torrent drowned its fury at the feet +of the three spectators. Beyond it all, the open sea closed in this +picture, traced by the greatest of poets--Chance--to which we owe the +medley beauty of creation when left, as it would seem, to itself. Jarvis +was a speck almost lost in this landscape, in this immensity--sublime, as +everything is, which, having but a brief existence, offers a transient +image of perfection; for by a law, fatal only to our sight, creations that +appear perfect, the delight of our heart and of our eyes, have but one +spring to live here. + +At the top of that cliff these three beings might easily fancy themselves +alone in all the world. + +"How exquisite!" exclaimed Wilfrid. + +"Nature sings its hymns," said Seraphita. "Is not this music delicious? +Confess now, Wilfrid, no woman you ever knew could create for herself so +magnificent a retreat. Here I experience a feeling that the sight of great +cities rarely inspires, and which makes me long to remain here, lying +among these grasses of such rapid growth. Then, with my eyes on the sky, my +heart laid bare, lost in the sense of immensity, I could let myself listen +to the sighs of the flower, which, scarcely released from its primitive +nature, would fain run about; and to the cries of the eider, aggrieved at +having only wings, while I thought of the cravings of man, who has +something of everything, and who also is for ever full of desires!--But +this, Wilfrid, is a woman's poetic fancy! You can find a voluptuous thought +in that hazy expanse of water; in those fantastic veils, behind which +nature plays like some coquettish bride; and in this atmosphere, where she +perfumes her green hair for her bridal. You would fain see the form of a +naiad in that wreath of mist, and I, as you think, ought to hear a manly +voice in the torrent." + +"And is not love in it all, like a bee in a flower?" replied Wilfrid, who, +seeing in her for the first time some trace of earthly feeling, thought it +a favorable moment for the expression of his fervent affection. + +"Always the same?" said Seraphita, laughing, Minna having left them; the +girl was climbing a crag where she had seen some blue saxifrages. + +"Always!" exclaimed Wilfrid. "Listen," he said, with an imperious glance +that met a panoply of adamant, "you know not who I am, nor what my power +is, nor what I demand. Do not reject my last entreaty. Be mine, for the +sake of the world within your heart! Be mine, that my conscience may be +pure, that a heavenly voice may sound in my ears and inspire me aright in +the undertaking I have vowed to carry out, impelled by my hatred of the +nations, but to be achieved for their welfare if only you are with me. What +nobler mission may a woman dream of?--I came to these lands meditating a +great scheme." + +"And you are prepared to sacrifice it and its glories," said she, "to a +very simple girl, whom you will love, and who will guide you into a +peaceful path?" + +"What do I care? I only want you! This is my secret," he replied, going on +with his speech. "I have traveled all over the North, the great workshop +where the new races are produced who overspread the earth like floods of +humanity sent forth to renew worn-out civilization. I wanted to have begun +my work on one of these points, conquering there the ascendency that force +and intellect can assert over a small race; to have trained it to battle, +to have declared war, and have sent it raging like a conflagration to +consume Europe, while shouting to these 'Liberty!' to those 'Plunder!' to +some 'Glory!' to others 'Pleasure!' I, standing meanwhile like the image of +Fate, pitiless and cruel, moving like the storm which assimilates from the +atmosphere the atoms of which the lightning is compounded, and feeding on +men like a rapacious monster. I should then have conquered Europe; she is +now at a period when she looks for the coming of the new Messiah, who is to +devastate the world and to reform the nations. Europe can believe in no one +but Him who will trample her under foot. + +"Some day historians and poets would have justified my existence, have +magnified me, have ascribed great ideas to me--to me, to whom this huge +pleasantry, written in blood, is but revenge. + +"But, dear Seraphita, what I have seen has disgusted me with the North; +force here is too blind, and I crave for the Indies. A duel with a selfish, +cowardly, and mercenary government fascinates me more. Besides, it is +easier to arouse the imagination of the races that dwell at the foot of +Caucasus than to convince the minds of men in these frozen lands. I am +tempted to cross the Russian steppes, to reach the frontiers of Asia, to +cover it as far as the Ganges with my victorious flood of human beings, and +then I shall overthrow the English rule. Seven men, at different periods, +have already carried out such a scheme. I shall renew Art, as the Saracens +did when Mahomet cast them over Europe. I will not be so sordid a king as +those who now govern the ancient provinces of the Roman Empire, quarreling +with their subjects over custom-house dues. No, nothing shall arrest the +flash of my gaze or the storm of my speech! My feet, like those of Genghis +Khan, shall cover a third of the globe; my hand shall grasp Asia as did +that of Aurung Zeeb. + +"Be my partner; take your seat, fair and lovely being, on a throne. I have +never doubted my success, but with you to dwell in my heart, I should be +certain of it." + +"I have reigned already," said Seraphita. + +The words were like the blow dealt by the axe of a skilful woodsman at the +root of a sapling, felling it at once. Men alone can know what a storm a +woman can rouse in a man's soul when he has been trying to impress her with +his strength or his power, his intellect or his superiority, and the +capricious fair nods her head and says, "Oh, that is nothing!" or, with a +bored smile, observes, "I know all that," when power is as nought to her. + +"What!" cried Wilfrid in despair, "the riches of Art, the wealth of the +world, the splendor of a court----" + +She checked him by a mere curl of her lips, and said: + +"Beings more powerful than you are have offered me more." + +"Well, have you no soul, then, that you are not fascinated by the prospect +of consoling a great man who will sacrifice everything to dwell with you in +a little home by the side of a lake?" + +"Why," said she, "I am loved with a boundless love." + +"By whom?" cried Wilfrid, going towards Seraphita with a frenzied gesture, +as if to fling her into the foaming falls of the Sieg. + +She looked at him; his arm dropped; and she pointed to Minna, who came +running down, all rose and white, and as pretty as the flowers she carried +in her hand. + +"My child!" said Seraphitus, going forward to meet her. + +Wilfrid stood on the edge of the cliff as motionless as a statue, lost in +thought, longing to cast himself into the flow of the torrent, like one of +the fallen trees that passed under his eyes and vanished in the abyss +beneath. + +"I gathered them for you," said Minna, giving the nose-gay to the being +she adored. "One of them--this one," said she, picking out a particular +blossom, "is like the flower we gathered on the Falberg." + +Seraphitus looked at the blossom and then at Minna. + +"Why do you question me thus? Do you doubt me?" + +"No," said the girl, "my confidence in you is unbounded. While you are far +more beautiful to me than this beautiful scenery, you also seem to me to be +superior in intelligence to all the rest of humanity. When I have been with +you, I seem to have communed with God. I only wish----" + +"What?" asked Seraphitus, with a flashing look that revealed to the girl +the vast distance that divided them. + +"I wish I could suffer in your stead." + +"This is the most dangerous of Thy creatures," thought Seraphitus. "Is it a +criminal thought, O God, to long to present her to Thee?--Have you +forgotten," he said aloud, "all I told you up there?" and he pointed +upwards to the peak of the Ice-cap. + +"Now he is terrible again!" thought Minna with a shudder. + +The roar of the Sieg formed an accompaniment to the thoughts of these three +beings, who stood together for a few minutes on a projecting slab of rock, +parted, as they were, by immeasurable gulfs in the spiritual world. + +"Teach me then, Seraphitus," said Minna, in a voice as silvery as a pearl +and as gentle as the movements of a sensitive plant. "Teach me what I must +do to avoid loving you? Who could fail to admire you? And love is the +admiration that is never tired." + +"Poor child!" said Seraphitus, turning pale, "only one Being can be loved +thus." + +"Who is that?" asked Minna. + +"You shall know!" was the reply in the weak voice of one who lies down to +die. + +"Help! He is dying!" cried Minna. + +Wilfrid hastened forward, and seeing this being reclining gracefully on a +block of gneiss over which time had thrown its carpet of velvet, its +glistening lichens, and dusky mosses, lustrous in the sunshine,-- + +"She is lovely!" he exclaimed. + +"This is the last glance I may give to nature in travail," said Seraphita, +collecting all her strength to rise. She went to the edge of the cliff, +whence she could see the whole of the sublime landscape, but lately wrapped +in its mantle of snow, now full of life, green and flowery. + +"Farewell," said she, "oh, burning hotbed of love! whence everything tends +from the centre to the utmost circumference, while the extremities are +gathered up, like a woman's hair, to be spun into the unknown plait by +which thou art linked, in the invisible ether, to the Divine Idea! + +"Behold him who is bending over the furrow, watered with his sweat, and +pausing for an instant to look up to heaven; behold her who gathers the +children in to feed them from her breast; him who knots the ropes in the +fury of the tempest; her who sits in the niche of a rock awaiting her +father; and, again, all those who hold out their hands for help after +spending their life in thankless toil? Peace and courage to them all, and +to all farewell! + +"Do you hear the cry of the soldier who dies unknown, the wrath of the man +who laments, disappointed, in the desert? Peace and courage to all, to all +farewell! Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth; but farewell, +too, ye races without a native land, and farewell, lands without a +people--seeking each other. Farewell, above all, to thee, sublime exile, +who knowest not where to lay thy head! Farewell, dear innocence, dragged +away by the hair of your head for having loved too well! Farewell, mothers +sitting by your dying sons! Farewell, holy, broken-hearted wives! Farewell, +O ye who are poor, young, weak, and suffering, whose woes I have so often +made my own! Farewell, all ye who gravitate in the sphere of instinct, +suffering there for others! + +"Farewell, ye discoverers who seek the East through the thick darkness of +abstractions as grand as first principles; and ye martyrs of thought, led +by thought to the true light! Farewell, realms of inquiry, where I can hear +the moans of insulted genius, the sigh of the sage to whom light comes--too +late! + +"I perceive the angelic harmonies, the wafted fragrance, the incense from +the heart exhaled by those who move on, praying, comforting, diffusing +divine light and heavenly balm to sorrowing souls. Courage, Choir of Love! +to whom the nations cry, 'Comfort us! Protect us!' Courage, and farewell! + +"Farewell, rock of granite, thou shalt become a flower; farewell, flower, +thou shalt be a dove; farewell, dove, thou shalt be a woman; farewell, +woman, thou shalt be Suffering; farewell, man, thou shalt be Belief; +farewell, you, who shall be all love and prayer!" + +Exhausted by fatigue, this inexplicable being for the first time leaned on +Wilfrid and Minna to support her back to her house. Wilfrid and Minna felt +some mysterious contagion from her touch. They had gone but a few steps +when they met David in tears. + +"She is going to die; why have you brought her here?" he exclaimed from +afar. + +Seraphita was lifted up by the old man, who had recovered the strength of +youth, and he flew with her to the door of the Swedish castle, like an +eagle carrying some white lamb to his eyrie. + + + + +VI + +THE ROAD TO HEAVEN + + +On the day after Seraphita had had this foretaste of her end, and had +bidden farewell to the earth, as a prisoner looks at his cell before +quitting it for ever, she was suffering such pain as compelled her to +remain in the absolute quietude of those who endure extreme anguish. +Wilfrid and Minna went to see her, and found her lying on her couch of +furs. Her soul, still shrouded in the flesh, shone through the veil, +bleaching it, as it were, from day to day. The progress made by the spirit +in undermining the last barrier which divided it from the infinite was +called sickness; the hour of life was named death. David wept to see his +mistress suffering, and refused to listen to her consolations; the old man +was as unreasonable as a child. The pastor was urgent on Seraphita to take +some remedies; but all was in vain. + +One morning she asked for the two she had been so fond of, telling them +that this was the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in great +alarm; they knew that they were about to lose her. Seraphita smiled at +them, as those smile who are departing to a better world; her head drooped +like a flower overweighted with dew, which opens its cup for the last time +and exhales its last fragrance to the air. She looked at them with sadness, +of which they were the cause; she had ceased to think of herself, and they +felt this without being able to express their grief, mingled as it was with +gratitude. + +Wilfrid remained standing, silent and motionless, lost in such +contemplation as is suggested by things so vast that they make us +understand, here on earth, the Supreme Immensity. Minna, emboldened by the +weakness of this powerful being, or perhaps by her dread of losing her +beloved for ever, bent down and murmured, "Seraphitus--let me follow you!" + +"Can I hinder you?" + +"But why do you not love me enough to remain here?" + +"I could not love anything here." + +"What, then, do you love?" + +"Heaven." + +"Are you worthy of heaven if you thus despise God's creatures here?" + +"Minna, can we love two beings at the same time? Is the Best-beloved really +the Best-beloved if He does not fill the whole heart? Ought He not to be +the first and last and only One? Does not she who is all love quit the +world for her Beloved? Her whole family becomes but a memory; she has but +one relation--it is He! Her soul is no longer her own, but His! If she +keeps anything within her that is not His, she does not love; no, she does +not love! Is loving half-heartedly loving at all? The voice of the Beloved +makes her all glad and flows through her veins like a purple tide, redder +than the blood; His look is a light that flashes through her, she is fused +with Him; where He is all is beautiful. He is warmth to her soul, He lights +everything; near Him, is it ever cold or dark to her? He is never absent; +He is always within us, we think in Him, with Him, for Him. That, Minna, is +how I love Him." + +"Whom?" said Minna, gripped by consuming jealousy. + +"God!" replied Seraphitus, whose voice flashed upon their souls like a +beacon light of freedom blazing from hill to hill--"God, who never betrays +us! God, who does not desert us, but constantly fulfils our desires, and +who alone can perennially satisfy His creatures with infinite and unmixed +joys! God, who is never weary, and who only has smiles! God, ever new, who +pours His treasures into the soul, who purifies it without bitterness, who +is all harmony, all flame! God, who enters into us to blossom there, who +fulfils all our aspirations, who never calls us to account if we are His, +but gives Himself wholly, ravishes us, and expands and multiplies us in +Himself--God, in short! + +"Minna, I love you because you may be His! I love you because if you come +to Him you will be mine." + +"Then lead me to Him," said she, kneeling down. "Take me by the hand; I +will leave you no more." + +"Lead us, Seraphita," cried Wilfrid vehemently, coming forward to kneel +with Minna. "Yes, you have made me thirst for the Light and thirst for the +Word; I thirst with the love you have implanted in my heart, I will cherish +your soul in mine; impart your Will, and I will do whatsoever you bid me +do. If I may not win you, I will treasure every feeling that you can infuse +into me as part of you! If I cannot be united to you but by my strength +alone, I will cling as flame clings to what it consumes.--Speak!" + +"Angel!" cried the incomprehensible being, with a look that seemed to +enfold them in an azure mantle. "Angel! heaven is thine inheritance!" + +And a great silence fell after this cry, which rang in the souls of Wilfrid +and Minna like the first chord of some celestial symphony. + +"If you desire to train your feet to walk in the way that leads to heaven, +remember that the first steps are rough," said the suffering soul. "God +must be sought for His own sake. In that sense He is a jealous God, He will +have you altogether His; but when you have given yourself to Him, He never +abandons you. I will leave you the keys of the kingdom where His light +shines, where you will everywhere be in the bosom of the Father, in the +heart of the Bridegroom. No sentinel guards the gates; you can enter from +any side; His palace, His treasures, His sceptre, nothing is forbidden; He +says to all, 'Take them freely!' But you must will to go thither. You must +start as for a journey, leave your home, give up your plans, bid farewell +to your friends--father, mother, sister, even the infant brother that +cries--an eternal farewell, for you will never return, any more than +martyrs bound for the stake returned to their homes; you must, in short, +strip yourself of the feelings and possessions to which men cling; +otherwise, you will not be wholly given up to your enterprise. + +"Do for God what you would have done for your ambitious schemes, what you +do when you take up an art, what you did when you loved a creature more +than Him, or when you were studying some secret of human knowledge. Is not +God Knowledge itself, Love itself, the Fount of all poetry? Is not His +treasure a thing to covet? His treasure is inexhaustible, His poetry is +infinite, His love unchangeable, His knowledge infallible and full of +mysteries. Cling to nothing, then; He will give you All! Yes, in His heart +you will find possessions beyond all compare with those you leave on earth. + +"What I tell you is the truth. You will have His power, you will be allowed +to use it as you use anything that belongs to your lover or your mistress. + +"Alas! most men doubt, lack faith, will, and perseverance. Though some set +out on the road, they presently look back and return. Few are they who know +how to choose between these two extremes--to go or to stay; heaven or the +muck-heap. All hesitate. Weakness leads to wandering, passion to evil ways, +vice as a habit clogs the feet, and man makes no progress towards a better +state. + +"Every being passes a preliminary life in the Sphere of Instinct, laboring +with endless toil to amass earthly treasures, only to recognize their +futility at last. But how many times must we live through this first life +before quitting it fit to begin another stage of trial in the Sphere of +Abstractions, where the mind is exercised in false science, and the spirit +is at last weary of human speech--for, matter being exhausted, the spirit +prevails? How many forms must the being elect to heaven wear out, before he +has learned the preciousness of silence, and of the solitude whose +star-strewn steppes are the floor of the spiritual world? It is after +testing and trying the void that his eyes turn to the right path. Then +there are other existences to be worn through or ever he may reach the road +where the Light shines. + +"Death marks a stage on this journey. After that, his experience is in a +reversed order; it takes a whole life, perhaps, to acquire the virtues that +are the antithesis of the errors in which he has previously lived. + +"Thus, first we live the life of suffering, where torments make us thirst +for love. Next comes the life of loving, where devotion to the creature +teaches us devotion to the Creator; where the virtues of love, its thousand +sacrifices, its angelic hope, its joys paid for by grief, its patience and +resignation, excite an appetite for things divine. After this comes the +life during which we seek, in silence, the traces of the Word, and become +humble and charitable. Then the life of high desire; finally, the life of +prayer. There we find eternal sunshine; there are flowers, there is +fruition! + +"The qualities we acquire, and which slowly grow up in us, are the +invisible bonds binding each of these existences to the next; the soul +alone remembers them, since matter has no memory for spiritual things. The +mind alone preserves a tradition of former states. This unbroken legacy of +the past to the present, and of the present to the future, is the secret of +human genius: some have the gift of form, some the gift of number, some the +gift of harmony; these are all steps in the way to the Light. Yes, whoever +possesses one of these gifts, touches the infinite at one spot. + +"The Word, of which I have here uttered a few axioms, has been distributed +over the earth, which has reduced it to powder, and infused it into its +works, its doctrines, its poetry. If the tiniest speck of it shines on a +work, you say, 'This is great; this is true; this is sublime!' And that +mere atom vibrates within you, giving you a foretaste of heaven. Thus, one +has sickness, to divide him from the world; another has solitude, bringing +him near to God; a third poetry; in short, everything that throws you in on +yourself, striking you and crushing you, is a ringing call from the Divine +Sphere. + +"When a being has traced the first furrow straight, it is enough to make +the others by; one single profound thought, a voice once heard, an acute +pang, a single echo that finds the Word in you, changes your soul for ever. +Every road leads to God; hence you have many chances of finding Him if you +walk straight on. When the happy day dawns that finds you with your foot on +the road, starting on your pilgrimage, the earth knows no more of you, it +understands you no more, you are no longer in harmony with it, it rejects +you. + +"Those who come to know these things, and who speak a few utterances of the +true Word, find not where to lay their head; they are hunted like wild +beasts, and often perish on the scaffold amid the rejoicing of the +assembled populace; but angels open the gates of heaven to them. So your +destination is a secret between you and God, as love is a secret between +two hearts. You are as the hidden treasure over which men trample, greedy +for gold, but not knowing that it is there. + +"Your life is one of incessant activity. Each act has a purpose that tends +to God, just as when you love, your acts and thoughts are full of the +creature you love; but love and its joys, love and its sensual pleasures, +is but an imperfect image of the infinite love that unites you to the +Celestial Bridegroom. Every earthly joy is succeeded by anguish and +dissatisfaction; for love to bring no disgust in its train, death must +quench it at the fiercest, or ever you see the ashes; but God transforms +our miseries into raptures, joy is multiplied by itself, it constantly +increases, and knows no bounds. + +"Thus, in the earthly life a transient love is ended by enduring +tribulations; whereas, in the spiritual life, the tribulations of a day end +in infinite joys. Your soul is for ever glad. You feel God close to you, in +you; He gives a flavor of holiness to all things, He shines in your soul, +He seals you with His sweetness, He weans you from the earth for your own +sake, and makes you care for it for His sake by suffering you to use His +power. You do, in His name, the works He inspires you to do; you wipe away +tears; you act for Him; you have nothing of your own; like Him, you love +all creatures with inextinguishable love; you long to see them all marching +towards Him, as a truly loving woman would fain see all the nations of the +earth obedient to her Beloved. + +"The last life--that in which all previous lives are summed up--is the life +of prayer; in it every power is strung to the highest pitch, and its merits +will open the gates of heaven to the being made perfect. Who can make you +understand the greatness, the majesty, the power of prayer? Oh that my +voice may be as thunder in your hearts, and that it may change them! Be +now, forthwith, what you will become after trials. There are certain +privileged beings--prophets, seers, evangelists, martyrs, all who suffer +for the Word or who have declared it--these souls cross the human spheres +at a single bound, and rise at once to prayer. So, too, do those who are +consumed by the flame of faith. Be ye then such a daring pair! God accepts +such temerity; He loves those who take Him with violence, He never rejects +such as can force their way to Him. Understand this: Desire, the torrent +of will, is so potent in a man, that a single jet forcibly emitted is +enough to win anything, a single cry is often enough when uttered under the +stress of faith. Be ye one of those beings, full of force, will, and love! +Be victorious over the earth! Let the hunger and thirst for God possess you +wholly; run to Him as the thirsting hart runs to the water-brook. Desire +will give you wings; tears, the flowers of repentance, will fall like a +heavenly baptism, whence your nature will come forth purified. From the +bosom of these waters leap into prayer! + +"Silence and meditation are efficacious means of entering on this road; God +always reveals Himself to the solitary and contemplative man. By this +method the necessary separation is effected between matter, which has so +long held you shrouded in darkness, and the spirit, which is born in you +and gives you light, and day will dawn in your soul. Your broken heart +receives the light which floods it; you no longer feel convictions, but +dazzling certainties. The poet has expression, the sage meditates, the +righteous man acts; but he who is on the frontier of the divine worlds +prays, and his prayer is expression, meditation, and action all in one! +Yes, his prayer contains everything, includes everything; it completes your +nature by showing you the Spirit and the Way. + +"Prayer is the fair and radiant daughter of all the human virtues, the arch +connecting heaven and earth, the sweet companion that is alike the lion and +the dove; and prayer will give you the key of heaven. As pure and as bold +as innocence, as strong as all things are that are entire and single, this +fair and invincible queen rests on the material world; she has taken +possession of it; for, like the sun, she casts about it a sphere of light. +The universe belongs to him who will, who can, who knows how to pray; but +he must will, he must be able, and he must know how--in one word, he must +have power, faith, and wisdom. And, indeed, when prayer is the outcome of +so many trials, it is the consummation of all truth, of all power, of all +emotion. The offspring of the laborious, slow, and persistent development +of every natural property, and alive by the divine insufflation of the +Word, she has enchantments in her hand, she is the crown of +worship--neither material worship, which has its symbols, nor spiritual +worship, which has its formulas, but worship of the divine order. + +"We do not then say prayers; prayer lights up within us, and is a faculty +which acts of itself: it acquires the vital activity which lifts it above +all forms; it links the soul to God, and you are joined to Him as the root +of a tree is joined to the earth; the elements of things flow in your +veins, and you live the life of the worlds themselves. Prayer bestows +external conviction by enabling you to penetrate the world of matter +through a cohesion of all your faculties with elementary substances; it +bestows internal conviction by evolving your very essence, and mingling it +with that of the spiritual spheres. + +"To pray thus you must attain to absolute freedom from the flesh; you must +be refined in the furnace to the purity of a diamond; for that perfect +communion can only be achieved by absolute quiescence, the stilling of +every storm. Yes, prayer, literally an aspiration of the soul set wholly +free from the body, bears up every power, applying them all to the constant +and persistent union of the visible and the invisible. When you possess the +gift of praying without weariness, with love, assurance, force, and +intelligence, your spiritualized nature soon attains to power. It passes +beyond everything, like the whirlwind or the thunder, and partakes of the +nature of God. You acquire alacrity of spirit; in one instant you can be +present in every region; you are borne, like the Word itself, from one end +of the world to the other. There is a harmony--you join in it; there is a +light--you see it; there is a melody--its counterpart is in you. In that +frame you will feel your intellect expanding, growing, and its insight +reaching to prodigious distances; in fact, to the spirit, time and space +are not. Distance and duration are proportions proper to matter; and spirit +and matter have nothing in common. + +"Although these things proceed in silence and stillness, without +disturbance or external emotion, everything is action in prayer; but vital +action, devoid of all substantiality, refined like the motion of worlds +into a pure and invisible force. It comes down from above like light, and +gives life to the souls that lie in its rays, as nature lies in those of +the sun. It everywhere resuscitates virtue, purifies and sanctifies action, +peoples the solitude, and gives a foretaste of eternal bliss. When once you +have known the ecstasy of the divine transport that comes of your internal +struggles, there is no more to be said; when once you have grasped the +sistrum on which to praise God, you will never lay it down. Hence the +isolation in which angelic spirits dwell and their scorn of all that +constitutes human joys. + +"I say unto you, they are cut off from the number of those who must die; if +they understand their speech, they no longer understand their ideas; they +are amazed by their doings, by what is termed politics, by earthly laws and +communities; to them there are no mysteries, nothing but truth. Those who +have attained the degree at which their eyes can discern the gates of +heaven, and who, without casting a single glance behind, without expressing +a single regret, can look down upon the worlds and read their +destinies,--those, I say, are silent, and wait and endure the last +conflict; the last is the hardest, resignation is the supreme virtue. To +dwell in exile and make no complaint, to have no care for things on earth +and yet to smile, to belong to God and be left among men! + +"Do you not plainly hear the voice that cries to you, 'On! on!' Often in a +celestial vision the angels descend and wrap you in song. Then you must see +them soar back to the hive without a tear, without a murmur. To murmur +would be to fail. Resignation is the fruit that ripens at the gate of +heaven. How impressive and beautiful are the calm smile, the unruffled brow +of the resigned creature! How radiant the light that adorns his face! Those +who come within his range grow better; his look is penetrating and +pathetic. He triumphs merely by his presence, more eloquent in his silence +than the prophet in his speech. He stands alert like a faithful dog +listening for his master. + +"Stronger than love, more eager than hope, greater than faith, Resignation +is the adorable maiden who, prone on the earth, clings for an instant to +the palm she has won by leaving the print of her pure white feet; and when +she is no more, men come in crowds and say, 'Behold!' God preserves her +there as an image, and at her feet creep all the shapes and species of +animal life seeking their way. Now and again she shakes and sheds the light +that emanates from her hair, and we see; she speaks, and we listen; and all +say to one another, 'A miracle!' + +"Often she triumphs in the name of God; men in their terror deny her and +put her to death; she lays down her sword and smiles at the stake after +saving the nations! + +"How many pardoned angels have stepped from martyrdom to heaven! Sinai and +Golgotha are not here nor there. The angel is crucified everywhere, and in +every sphere. Sighs go up to God from every world. The earth on which we +live is one ear of the harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast field +where flowers are grown for heaven. + +"In short, God is everywhere the same, and it is easy everywhere to go to +Him by prayer." + +After these words, falling as from the lips of a second Hagar in the +desert, and stirring the souls they pierced like the spears shot by the +fiery word of Isaiah, the Being was silent to collect some little remaining +strength. Neither Wilfrid nor Minna dared to speak. Then on a sudden HE sat +up to die. + +"Soul of the universe, oh God, whom I love for Thyself! Thou, Judge and +Father, gauge a fervor that knows no limit but Thine infinite goodness! +Impart to me Thine essence and Thy faculties, that I may be more truly +Thine! Take me, that I may no longer be my own. If I am not duly purified, +cast me back into the furnace. If I am not finely moulded, let me be made +into some useful ploughshare or victorious sword. Grant me some glorious +martyrdom to proclaim Thy word. Even if Thou reject me, I will bless Thy +justice. If my exceeding love may win in a moment what hard and patient +labor may not obtain, snatch me up in Thy chariot of fire! Whether Thou +shalt grant me to triumph or to suffer again, blessed be Thou! But if I +suffer for Thee, is not that a triumph! Take me--seize, snatch, drag me +away! Or, if Thou wilt, reject me! Thou art He whom I worship, and who can +do no wrong.--Ah!" he cried after a pause, "the bonds are breaking. Pure +spirits, holy throng, come forth from the depths, fly over the surface of +the luminous flood! The hour has struck, come, gather round me. We will +sing at the gates of the sanctuary, our chants shall disperse the last +lingering clouds. We will unite to hail the morn of everlasting day. Behold +the dawn of the true Light! Why cannot I take my friends with +me?--Farewell, poor earth, farewell!" + + + + +VII + +THE ASSUMPTION + + +This last hymn was not uttered in words, nor expressed by gestures, nor by +any of the signs which serve men as a means of communicating their +thoughts, but as the soul speaks to itself; for, at the moment when +Seraphita was revealed in her true nature, her ideas were no longer +enslaved to human language. The vehemence of her last prayer had broken the +bonds. Like a white dove, the soul hovered for a moment above this body, of +which the exhausted materials were about to dissever. + +The aspiration of this soul to heaven was so infectious, that Wilfrid and +Minna failed to discern death as they saw the radiant spark of life. + +They had fallen on their knees when Seraphitus had turned to the dawn, and +they were inspired by his ecstasy. + +The fear of the Lord, who creates man anew and purges him of his dross, +consumed their hearts. Their eyes were closed to the things of the earth, +and opened to the glories of heaven. + +Though surprised by the trembling before God which overcame some of those +seers known to men as prophets, they still trembled, like them, when they +found themselves within the circle where the glory of the Spirit was +shining. + +Then the veil of the flesh, which had hitherto hidden him from them, +insensibly faded away, revealing the divine substance. They were left in +the twilight of the dawn, whose pale light prepared them to see the true +light, and to hear the living word without dying of it. + +In this condition they both began to understand the immeasurable distances +that divide the things of earth from the things of heaven. + +The life on whose brink they stood, trembling and dazzled in a close +embrace, as two children take refuge side by side to gaze at a +conflagration--that Life gave no hold to the senses. The Spirit was above +them; it shed fragrance without odor, and melody without the help of sound; +here, where they knelt, there were neither surfaces, nor angles, nor +atmosphere. They dared no longer question him nor gaze on him, but remained +under his shadow, as under the burning rays of the tropical sun we dare not +raise our eyes for fear of being blinded. + +They felt themselves near to him, though they could not tell by what means +they thus found themselves, as in a dream, on the border line of the +visible and the invisible, nor how they had ceased to see the visible and +perceived the invisible. + +They said to themselves, "If he should touch us, we shall die!" But the +Spirit was in the infinite, and they did not know that in the infinite time +and space are not, that they were divided from him by gulfs, though +apparently so near. Their souls not being prepared to receive a complete +knowledge of the faculties of that life, they only perceived it darkly, +apprehending it according to their weakness. + +Otherwise, when the Living Word rang forth, of which the distant sound fell +on their ear, its meaning entering into their soul as life enters into a +body, a single tone of that Word would have swept them away, as a whirl of +fire seizes a straw. + +Thus they beheld only what their nature, upheld by the power of the Spirit, +allowed them to see; they heard only so much as they were able to hear. + +Still, in spite of these mitigations, they shuddered as they heard the +voice of the suffering soul, the hymn of the Spirit awaiting life, and +crying out for it. That cry froze the very marrow in their bones. + +The Spirit knocked at the sacred gate. + +"What wilt thou?" asked a choir, whose voice rang through all the worlds. + +"To go to God." + +"Hast thou conquered?" + +"I have conquered the flesh by abstinence; I have vanquished false speech +by silence; I have vanquished false knowledge by humility; I have +vanquished pride by charity; I have vanquished the earth by love; I have +paid my tribute of suffering; I am purified by burning for the faith; I +have striven for life by prayer; I wait adoring, and I am resigned." + +But no reply came. + +"The Lord be praised!" said the Spirit, believing himself rejected. His +tears flowed, and fell in dew on the kneeling witnesses, who shuddered at +the judgments of God. + +On a sudden, the trumpets sounded for the victory of the Angel in this last +test; their music filled space, like a sound met by an echo; it rang +through it, making the universe tremble. Wilfrid and Minna felt the world +shrink under their feet. They shivered, shaken by the terrors of +apprehending the mystery that was to be accomplished. + +There was, in fact, a vast stir, as though the eternal legions were forming +to march, and gathering in spiral order. The worlds spun round, like clouds +swept away by a mad whirlwind. It was all in a moment. The veils were rent; +they saw far above them, as it were, a star immeasurably brighter than the +brightest star in the skies; it fell from its place like a thunderbolt, +still flashing like the lightning, paling in its flight all that they had +ever hitherto thought to be light. + +This was the messenger bearing the good tidings, and the plume in his +helmet was a flame of life. He left behind him a wake, filled up at once by +the waves of the luminous flood he passed through. + +He bore a palm and a sword; with the palm he touched the Spirit, and it was +transfigured; its white wings spread without a sound. + +At the communication of the Light, which changed the Spirit into a seraph, +the garb of heavenly armor that clothed its glorious form, shed such +radiance that the two seers were blinded. And, like the three apostles to +whose sight Jesus appeared, Wilfrid and Minna were conscious of the burden +of their bodies, which hindered them from complete and unclouded intuition +of the Word and the True Life. + +They saw the nakedness of their souls, and could measure their lack of +brightness by comparison with the halo of the seraph, in which they stood +as a shameful spot. They felt an ardent desire to rush back into the mire +of the universe, to endure trial there, so as to be able some day to utter +at the sacred gate the answer spoken by the glorified Spirit. + +That seraph knelt down by the gate of the sanctuary, which he could at last +see face to face, and said, pointing to them: + +"Grant them to see more clearly. They will love the Lord, and proclaim His +Word." + +In answer to this prayer, a veil fell. Whether the unknown power that laid +a hand on the two seers did for a moment annihilate their physical bodies, +or whether it released their spirit to soar free, they were aware of a +separation in themselves of the pure from the impure. + +Then the seraph's tears rose round them in the form of a vapor which hid +the lower worlds from their eyes, and wrapped them round and carried them +away, and gave them oblivion of earthly meanings, and the power of +understanding the sense of divine things. The True Light appeared; it shed +light on all creation, which, to them, looked barren indeed when they saw +the source whence the worlds, earthly, spiritual, and divine, derive +motion. + +Each world had a centre to which tended every atom of the sphere; these +worlds were themselves each an atom tending to the centre of their species. +Each species had its centre in the vast celestial region that is in +communion with the inexhaustible and flaming _motor power of all that +exists_. Thus, from the most vast to the smallest of the worlds, and from +the smallest sphere to the minutest atom of the creation that constitutes +it, each thing was an individual, and yet all was one. + +What, then, was the purpose of the Being, immutable in Essence and Faculty, +but able to communicate them without loss, able to manifest them as +phenomena without separating them from Himself, and causing everything +outside Himself to be a creation immutable in its essence and mutable in +its form? The two guests bidden to this high festival could only see the +order and arrangement of beings, and wonder at their immediate ends. None +but angels could go beyond that, and know the means and understand the +purpose. + +But that which those two chosen ones could contemplate, and of which they +carried away the evidence to be a light to their souls for ever after, was +the certainty of the action of worlds and beings, and a knowledge of the +effort with which they all tend to a final result. They heard the various +parts of the infinite forming a living melody; and at each beat, when the +concord made itself felt as a deep expiration, the worlds, carried on by +this unanimous motion, bowed to the Omnipotent One, who in His +unapproachable centre made all things issue from Him and return to Him. +This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed to be the rhythm of +the holy hymn that was echoed and sustained from age to age. + +Wilfrid and Minna now understood some of the mysterious words of the being +who on earth had appeared to them under the form which was intelligible to +each--Seraphitus to one, Seraphita to the other--seeing that here all was +homogeneous. Light gave birth to melody, and melody to light; colors were +both light and melody; motion was number endowed by the Word; in short, +everything was at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that, +everything existing in everything else, extension knew no limits, and the +angels could traverse it everywhere to the utmost depths of the infinite. + +They saw then how puerile were the human sciences of which they had heard. +Before them lay a view without any horizon, an abyss into which ardent +craving invited them to plunge; but burdened with their hapless bodies, +they had the desire without the power. + +The seraph lightly spread his wings to take his flight, and did not look +back at them--he had nothing now in common with the earth. + +He sprang upwards; the vast span of his dazzling pinions covered the two +seers like a beneficent shade, allowing them to raise their eyes and see +him borne away in his glory escorted by the rejoicing archangel. He mounted +like a beaming sun rising from the bosom of the waters; but, more happy he +than the day star, and destined to more glorious ends, he was not bound, +like inferior creatures, to a circular orbit; he followed the direct line +of the infinite, tending undeviatingly to the central one, to be lost there +in life eternal, and to absorb into his faculties and into his essence the +power of rejoicing through love and the gift of comprehending through +wisdom. + +The spectacle that was then suddenly unveiled to the eyes of the two seers +overpowered them by its vastness, for they felt like atoms whose smallness +was comparable only to the minutest fraction which infinite divisibility +allows man to conceive of, brought face to face with the infinitely +numerous which God alone can contemplate as He contemplates Himself. + +What humiliation and what greatness in those two points, strength and love, +which the seraph's first desire had placed as two links uniting the +immensity of the inferior universe to the immensity of the superior +universe! They understood the invisible bonds by which material worlds are +attached to the spiritual worlds. As they recalled the stupendous efforts +of the greatest human minds, they discerned the principle of melody as they +heard the songs of heaven which gave them all the sensations of color, +perfume, and thought, and reminded them of the innumerable details of all +the creations, as an earthly song can revive the slenderest memories of +love. + +Strung by the excessive exaltation of their faculties to a pitch for which +there is no word in any language, for a moment they were suffered to glance +into the divine sphere. There all was gladness. Myriads of angels winged +their way with one consent and without confusion, all alike but all +different, as simple as the wild rose, as vast as worlds. + +Wilfrid and Minna did not see them come nor go; they suddenly pervaded the +infinite with their presence, as stars appear in the unfathomable ether. +The blaze of all their diadems flashed into light in space, as the heavenly +fire is lighted when the day rises among mountains. Waves of light fell +from their hair, and their movements gave rise to undulating throbs like +the dancing waves of a phosphorescent sea. + +The two seers could discern the seraph as a darker object amid deathless +legions, whose wings were as the mighty plumage of a forest swept by the +breeze. And then, as though all the arrows of a quiver were shot off at +once, the spirits dispelled with a breath every vestige of his former +shape; as the seraph mounted higher he was purified, and ere long he was no +more than a filmy image of what they had seen when he was first +transfigured--lines of fire with no shadow. Up and up, receiving a fresh +gift at each circle, while the sign of his election was transmitted to the +highest heaven, whither he mounted purer and purer. + +None of the voices ceased; the hymn spread in all its modes: + +"Hail to him who rises to life! Come, flower of the worlds, diamond passed +through the fire of affliction, pearl without spot, desire without flesh, +new link between earth and heaven, be thou Light! Conquering spirit, queen +of the world, fly to take thy crown; victorious over the earth, receive thy +diadem! Be one of us!" + +The angel's virtues reappeared in all their beauty. His first longing for +heaven was seen in the grace of tender infancy. His deeds adorned him with +brightness like constellations; his acts of faith blazed like the hyacinth +of the skies, the hue of the stars. Charity decked him with oriental +pearls, treasured tears. Divine love bowered him in roses, and his pious +resignation by its whiteness divested him of every trace of earthliness. + +Soon, to their eyes, he was no more than a speck of flame, growing more and +more intense, its motion lost in the melodious acclamations that hailed his +arrival in heaven. + +The celestial voices made the two exiles weep. + +Suddenly the silence of death spread like a solemn veil from the highest to +the lowest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into unutterable expectancy. +At that instant the seraph was lost in the heart of the sanctuary, where he +received the gift of eternal life. + +Then they were aware of an impulse of intense adoration, which filled them +with rapture mingled with awe. They felt that every being had fallen +prostrate in the divine spheres, in the spiritual spheres, and in the +worlds of darkness. The angels bent the knee to do honor to his glory, the +spirits bent the knee to testify to their eagerness, and in the abyss all +knelt, shuddering with awe. + +A mighty shout of joy broke out, as a choked spring breaks forth again, +tossing up its thousands of flower-like jets, mirroring the sun which turns +the sparkling drops to diamond and pearl, at the instant when the seraph +emerged, a blaze of light, crying: + +"Eternal! Eternal! Eternal!" + +The worlds heard him and acknowledged him; he became one with them as God +is, and took possession of the infinite. + +The seven divine worlds were aroused by his voice and answered him. + +At this instant there was a great rush, as if whole stars were purified and +went up in dazzling glory to be eternal. Perhaps the seraph's first duty +was to call all creations filled with the Word to come to God. + +But the hallelujah was already dying away in the ears of Wilfrid and Minna, +like the last waves of dying music. The glories of heaven were already +vanishing, like the hues of a setting sun amid curtains of purple and gold. + +Death and impurity were repossessing themselves of their prey. + + * * * * * + +As they resumed the bondage of the flesh from which their spirit had for a +moment been released by a sublime trance, the two mortals felt as on +awakening in the morning from a night of splendid dreams, of which +reminiscences float in the brain, though the senses have no knowledge of +them, and human language would fail to express them. The blackness of the +limbo into which they fell was the sphere where the sun of visible worlds +shines. + +"We must go down again," said Wilfrid to Minna. + +"We will do as he bids us," replied she. "Having seen the worlds moving on +towards God, we know the right way.--Our starry diadems are above!" + +They fell into the abyss, into the dust of the lower worlds, and suddenly +saw the earth as it were a crypt, of which the prospect was made clear to +them by the light they brought back in their souls, for it still wrapped +them in a halo, and through it they still vaguely heard the vanishing +harmonies of heaven. This was the spectacle which of old fell on the mind's +eye of the prophets. Ministers of various religions, all calling themselves +true, kings consecrated by force and fear, warriors and conquerors sharing +the nations, learned men and rich lording it over a refractory and +suffering populace whom they trampled under foot,--these were all attended +by their followers and their women, all were clad in robes of gold, silver +and azure, covered with pearls and gems torn from the bowels of the earth +or from the depths of the sea by the perennial toil of sweating and +blaspheming humanity. But in the eyes of the exiles this wealth and +splendor, harvested with blood, were but filthy rags. + +"What do ye here in motionless ranks?" asked Wilfrid. + +They made no answer. + +"What do ye here in motionless ranks?" + +But they made no answer. + +Wilfrid laid his hands on them and shouted: + +"What do ye here in motionless ranks?" + +By a common impulse they all opened their robes and showed him their +bodies, dried up, eaten by worms, corrupt, falling to dust, and consumed by +horrible diseases. "Ye lead the nations to death," said Wilfrid; "ye have +defiled the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. Ye have eaten +the herb of the field, and now ye would kill the lambs! Do ye think that +there is justification in showing your wounds? I shall warn those of my +brethren who still can hear the Voice, that they may slake their thirst at +the springs that you have hidden." + +"Let us save our strength for prayer," said Minna. "It is not your mission +to be a prophet, nor a redeemer, nor an evangelist. We are as yet only on +the margin of the lowest sphere; let us strive to cleave through space on +the pinions of prayer." + +"You are my sole love!" + +"You are my sole strength!" + +"We have had a glimpse of the higher mysteries; we are, each to the other, +the only creatures here below with whom joy and grief are conceivable. Come +then, we will pray; we know the road, we will walk in it." + +"Give me your hand," said the girl. "If we always walk together, the path +will seem less rough and not so long." + +"Only with you," said the young man, "could I traverse that vast desert +without allowing myself to repine." + +"And we will go to heaven together!" said she. + +The clouds fell, forming a dark canopy. Suddenly the lovers found +themselves kneeling by a dead body, which old David was protecting from +prying curiosity, and insisted on burying with his own hands. + +Outside, the first summer of the nineteenth century was in all its glory; +the lovers fancied they could hear a voice in the sunbeams. They breathed +heavenly perfume from the new-born flowers, and said as they took each +other by the hand: + +"The vast ocean that gleams out there is an image of that we saw above!" + +"Whither are you going?" asked Pastor Becker. + +"We mean to go to God," said they. "Come with us, father." + + GENEVA AND PARIS, + _December 1833--November 1835_. + + + + +LOUIS LAMBERT + +DEDICATION: + +"_Et nunc et semper dilectae dicatum._" + + +Louis Lambert was born in 1797 at Montoire, a little town in the Vendomois, +where his father owned a tannery of no great magnitude, and intended that +his son should succeed him; but his precocious bent for study modified the +paternal decision. For, indeed, the tanner and his wife adored Louis, their +only child, and never contradicted him in anything. + +At the age of five Louis had begun by reading the Old and New Testaments; +and these two Books, including so many books, had sealed his fate. Could +that childish imagination understand the mystical depths of the Scriptures? +Could it so early follow the flight of the Holy Spirit across the worlds? +Or was it merely attracted by the romantic touches which abound in those +Oriental poems! Our narrative will answer these questions to some readers. + +One thing resulted from this first reading of the Bible: Louis went all +over Montoire begging for books, and he obtained them by those winning ways +peculiar to children, which no one can resist. While devoting himself to +these studies under no sort of guidance, he reached the age of ten. + +At that period substitutes for the army were scarce; rich families secured +them long beforehand to have them ready when the lots were drawn. The poor +tanner's modest fortune did not allow of their purchasing a substitute for +their son, and they saw no means allowed by law for evading the +conscription but that of making him a priest; so, in 1807, they sent him to +his maternal uncle, the parish priest of Mer, another small town on the +Loire, not far from Blois. This arrangement at once satisfied Louis' +passion for knowledge, and his parents' wish not to expose him to the +dreadful chances of war; and, indeed, his taste for study and precocious +intelligence gave grounds for hoping that he might rise to high fortunes in +the Church. + +After remaining for about three years with his uncle, an old and not +uncultured Oratorian, Louis left him early in 1811 to enter the college at +Vendome, where he was maintained at the cost of Madame de Stael. + +Lambert owed the favor and patronage of this celebrated lady to chance, or +shall we not say to Providence, who can smooth the path of forlorn genius? +To us, indeed, who do not see below the surface of human things, such +vicissitudes, of which we find many examples in the lives of great men, +appear to be merely the result of physical phenomena; to most biographers +the head of a man of genius rises above the herd as some noble plant in the +fields attracts the eye of a botanist in its splendor. This comparison may +well be applied to Louis Lambert's adventure; he was accustomed to spend +the time allowed him by his uncle for holidays at his father's house; but +instead of indulging, after the manner of schoolboys, in the sweets of the +delightful _far niente_ that tempts us at every age, he set out every +morning with part of a loaf and his books, and went to read and meditate in +the woods, to escape his mother's remonstrances, for she believed such +persistent study to be injurious. How admirable is a mother's instinct! +From that time reading was in Louis a sort of appetite which nothing could +satisfy; he devoured books of every kind, feeding indiscriminately on +religious works, history, philosophy, and physics. He has told me that he +found indescribable delight in reading dictionaries for lack of other +books, and I readily believed him. What scholar has not many a time found +pleasure in seeking the probable meaning of some unknown word? The analysis +of a word, its physiognomy and history, would be to Lambert matter for long +dreaming. But these were not the instinctive dreams by which a boy +accustoms himself to the phenomena of life, steels himself to every moral +or physical perception--an involuntary education which subsequently brings +forth fruit both in the understanding and character of a man; no, Louis +mastered the facts, and he accounted for them after seeking out both the +principle and the end with the mother wit of a savage. Indeed, from the age +of fourteen, by one of those startling freaks in which nature sometimes +indulges, and which proved how anomalous was his temperament, he would +utter quite simply ideas of which the depth was not revealed to me till a +long time after. + +"Often," he has said to me when speaking of his studies, "often have I made +the most delightful voyage, floating on a word down the abyss of the past, +like an insect embarked on a blade of grass tossing on the ripples of a +stream. Starting from Greece, I would get to Rome, and traverse the whole +extent of modern ages. What a fine book might be written of the life and +adventures of a word! It has, of course, received various stamps from the +occasions on which it has served its purpose; it has conveyed different +ideas in different places; but is it not still grander to think of it under +the three aspects of soul, body, and motion? Merely to regard it in the +abstract, apart from its functions, its effects, and its influence, is +enough to cast one into an ocean of meditations? Are not most words colored +by the idea they represent? Then, to whose genius are they due? If it takes +great intelligence to create a word, how old may human speech be? The +combination of letters, their shapes, and the look they give to the word, +are the exact reflection, in accordance with the character of each nation, +of the unknown beings whose traces survive in us. + +"Who can philosophically explain the transition from sensation to thought, +from thought to word, from the word to its hieroglyphic presentment, from +hieroglyphics to the alphabet, from the alphabet to written language, of +which the eloquent beauty resides in a series of images, classified by +rhetoric, and forming, in a sense, the hieroglyphics of thought? Was it not +the ancient mode of representing human ideas as embodied in the forms of +animals that gave rise to the shapes of the first signs used in the East +for writing down language? Then has it not left its traces by tradition on +our modern languages, which have all seized some remnant of the primitive +speech of nations, a majestic and solemn tongue whose grandeur and +solemnity decrease as communities grow old; whose sonorous tones ring in +the Hebrew Bible, and still are noble in Greece, but grow weaker under the +progress of successive phases of civilization? + +"Is it to this time-honored spirit that we owe the mysteries lying buried +in every human word? In the word _True_ do we not discern a certain +imaginary rectitude? Does not the compact brevity of its sound suggest a +vague image of chaste nudity and the simplicity of Truth in all things? The +syllable seems to me singularly crisp and fresh. + +"I chose the formula of an abstract idea on purpose, not wishing to +illustrate the case by a word which should make it too obvious to the +apprehension, as the word _Flight_ for instance, which is a direct appeal +to the senses. + +"But is it not so with every root word? They all are stamped with a living +power that comes from the soul, and which they restore to the soul through +the mysterious and wonderful action and reaction between thought and +speech. Might we not speak of it as a lover who finds on his mistress' lips +as much love as he gives? Thus, by their mere physiognomy, words call to +life in our brain the beings which they serve to clothe. Like all beings, +there is but one place where their properties are at full liberty to act +and develop. But the subject demands a science to itself perhaps!" + +And he would shrug his shoulders as much as to say, "But we are too high +and too low!" + +Louis' passion for reading had on the whole been very well satisfied. The +cure of Mer had two or three thousand volumes. This treasure had been +derived from the plunder committed during the Revolution in the neighboring +chateaux and abbeys. As a priest who had taken the oath, the worthy man +had been able to choose the best books from among these precious libraries, +which were sold by the pound. In three years Louis Lambert had assimilated +the contents of all the books in his uncle's library that were worth +reading. The process of absorbing ideas by means of reading had become in +him a very strange phenomenon. His eye took in six or seven lines at once, +and his mind grasped the sense with a swiftness as remarkable as that of +his eye; sometimes even one word in a sentence was enough to enable him to +seize the gist of the matter. + +His memory was prodigious. He remembered with equal exactitude the ideas he +had derived from reading, and those which had occurred to him in the course +of meditation or conversation. Indeed, he had every form of memory--for +places, for names, for words, things, and faces. He not only recalled any +object at will, but he saw them in his mind, situated, lighted, and colored +as he had originally seen them. And this power he could exert with equal +effect with regard to the most abstract efforts of the intellect. He could +remember, as he said, not merely the position of a sentence in the book +where he had met with it, but the frame of mind he had been in at remote +dates. Thus his was the singular privilege of being able to retrace in +memory the whole life and progress of his mind, from the ideas he had first +acquired to the last thought evolved in it, from the most obscure to the +clearest. His brain, accustomed in early youth to the mysterious mechanism +by which human faculties are concentrated, drew from this rich treasury +endless images full of life and freshness, on which he fed his spirit +during those lucid spells of contemplation. + +"Whenever I wish it," said he to me in his own language, to which a fund of +remembrance gave precocious originality, "I can draw a veil over my eyes. +Then I suddenly see within me a camera obscura, where natural objects are +reproduced in purer forms than those under which they first appeared to my +external sense." + +At the age of twelve his imagination, stimulated by the perpetual exercise +of his faculties, had developed to a point which permitted him to have such +precise concepts of things which he knew only from reading about them, that +the image stamped on his mind could not have been clearer if he had +actually seen them, whether this was by a process of analogy or that he was +gifted with a sort of second sight by which he could command all nature. + +"When I read the story of the battle of Austerlitz," said he to me one day, +"I saw every incident. The roar of the cannon, the cries of the fighting +men rang in my ears, and made my inmost self quiver; I could smell the +powder; I heard the clatter of horses and the voices of men; I looked down +on the plain where armed nations were in collision, just as if I had been +on the heights of Santon. The scene was as terrifying as a passage from the +Apocalypse." On the occasions when he brought all his powers into play, and +in some degree lost consciousness of his physical existence, and lived on +only by the remarkable energy of his mental powers, whose sphere was +enormously expanded, he left space behind him, to use his own words. + +But I will not here anticipate the intellectual phases of his life. +Already, in spite of myself, I have reversed the order in which I ought to +tell the history of this man, who transferred all his activities to +thinking, as others throw all their life into action. + +A strong bias drew his mind to mystical studies. + +"_Abyssus abyssum_," he would say. "Our spirit is abysmal and loves the +abyss. In childhood, manhood, and old age we are always eager for mysteries +in whatever form they present themselves." + +This predilection was disastrous; if indeed his life can be measured by +ordinary standards, or if we may gauge another's happiness by our own or by +social notions. This taste for the "things of heaven," another phrase he +was fond of using, this _mens divinior_, was due perhaps to the influence +produced on his mind by the first books he read at his uncle's. Saint +Theresa and Madame Guyon were a sequel to the Bible; they had the +first-fruits of his manly intelligence, and accustomed him to those swift +reactions of the soul of which ecstasy is at once the result and the means. +This line of study, this peculiar taste, elevated his heart, purified, +ennobled it, gave him an appetite for the divine nature, and suggested to +him the almost womanly refinement of feeling which is instinctive in great +men; perhaps their sublime superiority is no more than the desire to devote +themselves which characterizes woman, only transferred to the greatest +things. + +As a result of these early impressions, Louis passed immaculate through his +school life; this beautiful virginity of the senses naturally resulted in +the richer fervor of his blood, and in increased faculties of mind. + +The Baroness de Stael, forbidden to come within forty leagues of Paris, +spent several months of her banishment on an estate near Vendome. One day, +when out walking, she met on the skirts of the park the tanner's son, +almost in rags, and absorbed in reading. The book was a translation of +_Heaven and Hell_. At that time Monsieur Saint-Martin, Monsieur de Gence, +and a few other French or half German writers were almost the only persons +in the French Empire to whom the name of Swedenborg was known. Madame de +Stael, greatly surprised, took the book from him with the roughness she +affected in her questions, looks, and manners, and with a keen glance at +Lambert,-- + +"Do you understand all this?" she asked. + +"Do you pray to God?" said the child. + +"Why? yes!" + +"And do you understand Him?" + +The Baroness was silent for a moment; then she sat down by Lambert, and +began to talk to him. Unfortunately, my memory, though retentive, is far +from being so trustworthy as my friend's, and I have forgotten the whole of +the dialogue excepting those first words. + +Such a meeting was of a kind to strike Madame de Stael very greatly; on her +return home she said but little about it, notwithstanding an effusiveness +which in her became mere loquacity; but it evidently occupied her thoughts. + +The only person now living who preserves any recollection of the incident, +and whom I catechised to be informed of what few words Madame de Stael had +let drop, could with difficulty recall these words spoken by the Baroness +as describing Lambert, "He is a real seer." + +Louis failed to justify in the eyes of the world the high hopes he had +inspired in his protectress. The transient favor she showed him was +regarded as a feminine caprice, one of the fancies characteristic of artist +souls. Madame de Stael determined to save Louis Lambert alike from serving +the Emperor or the Church, and to preserve him for the glorious destiny +which, she thought, awaited him; for she made him out to be a second Moses +snatched from the waters. Before her departure she instructed a friend of +hers, Monsieur de Corbigny, to send her Moses in due course to the High +School at Vendome; then she probably forget him. + + * * * * * + +Having entered this college at the age of fourteen, early in 1811, Lambert +would leave it at the end of 1814, when he had finished the course of +Philosophy. I doubt whether during the whole time he ever heard a word of +his benefactress--if indeed it was the act of a benefactress to pay for a +lad's schooling for three years without a thought of his future prospects, +after diverting him from a career in which he might have found happiness. +The circumstances of the time, and Louis Lambert's character, may to a +great extent absolve Madame de Stael for her thoughtlessness and her +generosity. The gentleman who was to have kept up communications between +her and the boy left Blois just at the time when Louis passed out of the +college. The political events that ensued were then a sufficient excuse for +this gentleman's neglect of the Baroness' protege. The authoress of +_Corinne_ heard no more of her little Moses. + +A hundred louis, which she placed in the hands of Monsieur de Corbigny, who +died, I believe, in 1812, was not a sufficiently large sum to leave +lasting memories in Madame de Stael, whose excitable nature found ample +pasture during the vicissitudes of 1814 and 1815, which absorbed all her +interest. + +At this time Louis Lambert was at once too proud and too poor to go in +search of a patroness who was traveling all over Europe. However, he went +on foot from Blois to Paris in the hope of seeing her, and arrived, +unluckily, on the very day of her death. Two letters from Lambert to the +Baroness remained unanswered. The memory of Madame de Stael's good +intentions with regard to Louis remains, therefore, only in some few young +minds, struck, as mine was, by the strangeness of the story. + +No one who had not gone through the training at our college could +understand the effect usually made on our minds by the announcement that a +"new boy" had arrived, or the impression that such an adventure as Louis +Lambert's was calculated to produce. + +And here a little information must be given as to the primitive +administration of this institution, originally half-military and +half-monastic, to explain the new life which there awaited Lambert. Before +the Revolution, the Oratorians, devoted, like the Society of Jesus, to the +education of youth--succeeding the Jesuits, in fact, in certain of their +establishments--had various provincial houses, of which the most famous +were the colleges of Vendome, of Tournon, of la Fleche, Pont-Levoy, +Sorreze, and Juilly. That at Vendome, like the others, I believe, turned +out a certain number of cadets for the army. The abolition of educational +bodies, decreed by the Convention, had but little effect on the college at +Vendome. When the first crisis had blown over, the authorities recovered +possession of their buildings; certain Oratorians, scattered about the +country, came back to the college and re-opened it under the old rules, +with the habits, practices, and customs which gave this school a character +with which I have seen nothing at all comparable in any that I have visited +since I left that establishment. + +Standing in the heart of the town, on the little river Loir which flows +under its walls, the college possesses extensive precincts, carefully +enclosed by walls, and including all the buildings necessary for an +institution on that scale: a chapel, a theatre, an infirmary, a bakehouse, +gardens, and water supply. This college is the most celebrated home of +learning in all the central provinces, and receives pupils from them and +from the colonies. Distance prohibits any frequent visits from parents to +their children. + +The rule of the House forbids holidays away from it. Once entered there, a +pupil never leaves till his studies are finished. With the exception of +walks taken under the guidance of the Fathers, everything is calculated to +give the School the benefit of conventual discipline; in my day the tawse +was still a living memory, and the classical leather strap played its +terrible part with all the honors. The punishments originally invented by +the Society of Jesus, as alarming to the moral as to the physical man, was +still in force in all the integrity of the original code. + +Letters to parents were obligatory on certain days, so was confession. Thus +our sins and our sentiments were all according to pattern. Everything bore +the stamp of monastic rule. I well remember, among other relics of the +ancient order, the inspection we went through every Sunday. We were all in +our best, placed in file like soldiers to await the arrival of the two +inspectors who, attended by the tutors and the tradesmen, examined us from +the three points of view of dress, health, and morals. + +The two or three hundred pupils lodged in the establishment were divided, +according to ancient custom, into the _minimes_ (the smallest), the little +boys, the middle boys, and the big boys. The division of the _minimes_ +included the eighth and seventh classes; the little boys formed the sixth, +fifth, and fourth; the middle boys were classed as third and second; and +the first class comprised the senior students--of philosophy, rhetoric, the +higher mathematics, and chemistry. Each of these divisions had its own +building, classrooms, and playground, in the large common precincts on to +which the classrooms opened, and beyond which was the refectory. + +This dining-hall, worthy of an ancient religious Order, accommodated all +the school. Contrary to the usual practice in educational institutions, we +were allowed to talk at our meals, a tolerant Oratorian rule which enabled +us to exchange plates according to our taste. This gastronomical barter was +always one of the chief pleasures of our college life. If one of the +"middle" boys at the head of his table wished for a helping of lentils +instead of dessert--for we had dessert--the offer was passed down from one +to another; "Dessert for lentils!" till some other epicure had accepted; +then the plate of lentils was passed up to the bidder from hand to hand, +and the plate of dessert returned by the same road. Mistakes were never +made. If several identical offers were made, they were taken in order, and +the formula would be, "Lentils number one for dessert number one." The +tables were very long; our incessant barter kept everything moving; we +transacted it with amazing eagerness; and the chatter of three hundred +lads, the bustling to and fro of the servants employed in changing the +plates, setting down the dishes, handing the bread, with the tours of +inspection of the masters, made this refectory at Vendome a scene unique in +its way, and the amazement of visitors. + +To make our life more tolerable, deprived as we were of all communication +with the outer world and of family affection, we were allowed to keep +pigeons and to have gardens. Our two or three hundred pigeon-houses, with a +thousand birds nesting all round the outer wall, and above thirty garden +plots, were a sight even stranger than our meals. But a full account of the +peculiarities which made the college at Vendome a place unique in itself +and fertile in reminiscences to those who spent their boyhood there, would +be weariness to the reader. Which of us all but remembers with delight, +notwithstanding the bitterness of learning, the eccentric pleasures of that +cloistered life? The sweetmeats purchased by stealth in the course of our +walks, permission obtained to play cards and devise theatrical performances +during the holidays, such tricks and freedom as were necessitated by our +seclusion; then, again, our military band, a relic of the cadets; our +academy, our chaplain, our Father professors, and all our games permitted +or prohibited, as the case might be; the cavalry charges on stilts, the +long slides made in winter, the clatter of our clogs; and, above all, the +trading transactions with "the shop" set up in the courtyard itself. + +This shop was kept by a sort of cheap-jack, of whom big and little boys +could procure--according to his prospectus--boxes, stilts, tools, Jacobin +pigeons, and Nuns, Mass-books--an article in small demand--penknives, +paper, pens, pencils, ink of all colors, balls and marbles; in short, the +whole catalogue of the most treasured possessions of boys, including +everything from sauce for the pigeons we were obliged to kill off, to the +earthenware pots in which we set aside the rice from supper to be eaten at +next morning's breakfast. Which of us is so unhappy as to have forgotten +how his heart beat at the sight of this booth, open periodically during +play-hours on Sundays, to which we went, each in his turn, to spend his +little pocket-money; while the smallness of the sum allowed by our parents +for these minor pleasures required us to make a choice among all the +objects that appealed so strongly to our desires? Did ever a young wife, to +whom her husband, during the first days of happiness, hands, twelve times a +year, a purse of gold, the budget of her personal fancies, dream of so many +different purchases, each of which would absorb the whole sum, as we +imagined possible on the eve of the first Sunday in each month? For six +francs during one night we owned every delight of that inexhaustible shop! +and during Mass every response we chanted was mixed up in our minds with +our secret calculations. Which of us all can recollect ever having had a +sou left to spend on the Sunday following? And which of us but obeyed the +instinctive law of social existence by pitying, helping, and despising +those pariahs who, by the avarice or poverty of their parents, found +themselves penniless? + +Any one who forms a clear idea of this huge college, with its monastic +buildings in the heart of a little town, and the four plots in which we +were distributed as by a monastic rule, will easily conceive of the +excitement that we felt at the arrival of a new boy, a passenger suddenly +embarked on the ship. No young duchess, on her first appearance at Court, +was ever more spitefully criticised than the new boy by the youths in his +division. Usually during the evening play-hour before prayers, those +sycophants who were accustomed to ingratiate themselves with the Fathers +who took it in turns two and two for a week to keep an eye on us, would be +the first to hear on trustworthy authority: "There will be a new boy +to-morrow!" and then suddenly the shout, "A New Boy!--A New Boy!" rang +through the courts. We hurried up to crowd round the superintendent and +pester him with questions: + +"Where was he coming from? What was his name? Which class would he be in?" +and so forth. + +Louis Lambert's advent was the subject of a romance worthy of the _Arabian +Nights_. I was in the fourth class at the time--among the little boys. Our +housemasters were two men whom we called Fathers from habit and tradition, +though they were not priests. In my time there were indeed but three +genuine Oratorians to whom this title legitimately belonged; in 1814 they +all left the college, which had gradually become secularized, to find +occupation about the altar in various country parishes, like the cure of +Mer. + +Father Haugoult, the master for the week, was not a bad man, but of very +moderate attainments, and he lacked the tact which is indispensable for +discerning the different characters of children, and graduating their +punishment to their powers of resistance. Father Haugoult, then, began very +obligingly to communicate to his pupils the wonderful events which were to +end on the morrow in the advent of the most singular of "new boys." Games +were at an end. All the children came round in silence to hear the story of +Louis Lambert, discovered, like an aerolite, by Madame de Stael, in a +corner of the wood. Monsieur Haugoult had to tell us all about Madame de +Stael; that evening she seemed to me ten feet high; I saw at a later time +the picture of Corinne, in which Gerard represents her as so tall and +handsome; and, alas! the woman painted by my imagination so far transcended +this, that the real Madame de Stael fell at once in my estimation, even +after I read her book of really masculine power, _De l'Allemagne_. + +But Lambert at that time was an even greater wonder. Monsieur Mareschal, +the headmaster, after examining him, had thought of placing him among the +senior boys. It was Louis' ignorance of Latin that placed him so low as the +fourth class, but he would certainly leap up a class every year; and, as a +remarkable exception, he was to be one of the "Academy." _Proh pudor!_ we +were to have the honor of counting among the "little boys" one whose coat +was adorned with the red ribbon displayed by the "Academicians" of Vendome. +These Academicians enjoyed distinguished privileges; they often dined at +the director's table, and held two literary meetings annually, at which we +were all present to hear their elucubrations. An Academician was a great +man in embryo. And if every Vendome scholar would speak the truth, he would +confess that, in later life, an Academician of the great French Academy +seemed to him far less remarkable than the stupendous boy who wore the +cross and the imposing red ribbon which were the insignia of our "Academy." + +It was very unusual to be one of that illustrious body before attaining to +the second class, for the Academicians were expected to hold public +meetings every Thursday during the holidays, and to read tales in verse or +prose, epistles, essays, tragedies, dramas--compositions far above the +intelligence of the lower classes. I long treasured the memory of a story +called the "Green Ass," which was, I think, the masterpiece of this unknown +Society. In the fourth, and an Academician! This boy of fourteen, a poet +already, the protege of Madame de Stael, a coming genius, said Father +Haugoult, was to be one of us! a wizard, a youth capable of writing a +composition or a translation while we were being called in to lessons, and +of learning his lessons by reading them through but once. Louis Lambert +bewildered all our ideas. And Father Haugoult's curiosity and impatience to +see this new boy added fuel to our excited fancy. + +"If he has pigeons, he can have no pigeon-house; there is not room for +another. Well, it cannot be helped," said one boy, since famous as an +agriculturist. + +"Who will sit next to him?" said another. + +"Oh, I wish I might be his chum!" cried an enthusiast. + +In school language, the word here rendered chum--_faisant_, or, in some +schools, _copin_--expressed a fraternal sharing of the joys and evils of +your childish existence, a community of interests that was fruitful of +squabbling and making friends again, a treaty of alliance offensive and +defensive. It is strange, but never in my time did I know brothers who were +chums. If man lives by his feelings, he thinks perhaps that he will make +his life the poorer if he merges an affection of his own choosing in a +natural tie. + +The impression made upon me by Father Haugoult's harangue that evening is +one of the most vivid reminiscences of my childhood; I can compare it with +nothing but my first reading of _Robinson Crusoe_. Indeed, I owe to my +recollection of these prodigious impressions an observation that may +perhaps be new as to the different sense attached to words by each hearer. +The word in itself has no final meaning; we affect a word more than it +affects us; its value is in relation to the images we have assimilated and +grouped round it; but a study of this fact would require considerable +elaboration, and lead us too far from our immediate subject. + +Not being able to sleep, I had a long discussion with my next neighbor in +the dormitory as to the remarkable being who on the morrow was to be one of +us. This neighbor, who became an officer, and is now a writer with lofty +philosophical views, Barchou de Penhoen, has not been false to his +predestination, nor to the hazard of fortune by which the only two scholars +of Vendome, of whose fame Vendome ever hears, were brought together in the +same classroom, on the same form, and under the same roof. Our comrade +Dufaure had not, when this book was published, made his appearance in +public life as a lawyer. The translator of Fichte, the expositor and friend +of Ballanche, was already interested, as I myself was, in metaphysical +questions; we often talked nonsense together about God, ourselves, and +nature. He at that time affected pyrrhonism. Jealous of his place as +leader, he doubted Lambert's precocious gifts; while I, having lately read +_Les Enfants celebres_, overwhelmed him with evidence, quoting young +Montcalm, Pico della Mirandola, Pascal--in short, a score of early +developed brains, anomalies that are famous in the history of the human +mind, and Lambert's predecessors. + +I was at the time passionately addicted to reading. My father, who was +ambitious to see me in the Ecole Polytechnique, paid for me to have a +special course of private lessons in mathematics. My mathematical master +was the librarian of the college, and allowed me to help myself to books +without much caring what I chose to take from the library, a quiet spot +where I went to him during play-hours to have my lesson. Either he was no +great mathematician, or he was absorbed in some grand scheme, for he very +willingly left me to read when I ought to have been learning, while he +worked at I knew not what. So, by a tacit understanding between us, I made +no complaints of being taught nothing, and he said nothing of the books I +borrowed. + +Carried away by this ill-timed mania, I neglected my studies to compose +poems, which certainly can have shown no great promise, to judge by a line +of too many feet which became famous among my companions--the beginning of +an epic on the Incas: + + "O Inca! O roi infortune et malheureux!" + +In derision of such attempts, I was nicknamed the Poet, but mockery did not +cure me. I was always rhyming, in spite of good advice from Monsieur +Mareschal, the headmaster, who tried to cure me of an unfortunately +inveterate passion by telling me the fable of a linnet that fell out of the +nest because it tried to fly before its wings were grown. I persisted in my +reading; I became the least emulous, the idlest, the most dreamy of all the +division of "little boys," and consequently the most frequently punished. + +This autobiographical digression may give some idea of the reflections I +was led to make in anticipation of Lambert's arrival. I was then twelve +years old. I felt sympathy from the first for the boy whose temperament had +some points of likeness to my own. I was at last to have a companion in +day-dreams and meditations. Though I knew not yet what glory meant, I +thought it glory to be the familiar friend of a child whose immortality was +foreseen by Madame de Stael. To me Louis Lambert was as a giant. + +The looked-for morrow came at last. A minute before breakfast we heard the +steps of Monsieur Mareschal and of the new boy in the quiet courtyard. +Every head was turned at once to the door of the classroom. Father +Haugoult, who participated in our torments of curiosity, did not sound the +whistle he used to reduce our mutterings to silence and bring us back to +our tasks. We then saw this famous new boy, whom Monsieur Mareschal was +leading by the hand. The superintendent descended from his desk, and the +headmaster said to him solemnly, according to etiquette: "Monsieur, I have +brought you Monsieur Louis Lambert; will you place him in the fourth class? +He will begin work to-morrow." + +Then, after speaking a few words in an undertone to the class-master, he +said: + +"Where can he sit?" + +It would have been unfair to displace one of us for a newcomer; so as there +was but one desk vacant, Louis Lambert came to fill it, next to me, for I +had last joined the class. Though we still had some time to wait before +lessons were over, we all stood up to look at Louis Lambert. Monsieur +Mareschal heard our mutterings, saw how eager we were, and said, with the +kindness that endeared him to us all: + +"Well, well, but make no noise; do not disturb the other classes." + +These words set us free to play some little time before breakfast, and we +all gathered round Lambert while Monsieur Mareschal walked up and down the +courtyard with Father Haugoult. + +There were about eighty of us little demons, as bold as birds of prey. +Though we ourselves had all gone through this cruel novitiate, we showed no +mercy on a newcomer, never sparing him the mockery, the catechism, the +impertinence, which were inexhaustible on such occasions, to the +discomfiture of the neophyte, whose manners, strength, and temper were thus +tested. Lambert, whether he was stoical or dumfounded, made no reply to any +questions. One of us thereupon remarked that he was no doubt of the school +of Pythagoras, and there was a shout of laughter. The new boy was +thenceforth Pythagoras through all his life at the college. At the same +time, Lambert's piercing eye, the scorn expressed in his face for our +childishness, so far removed from the stamp of his own nature, the easy +attitude he assumed, and his evident strength in proportion to his years, +infused a certain respect into the veriest scamps among us. For my part, I +kept near him, absorbed in studying him in silence. + + * * * * * + +Louis Lambert was slightly built, nearly five feet in height; his face was +tanned, and his hands were burnt brown by the sun, giving him an appearance +of manly vigor, which, in fact, he did not possess. Indeed, two months +after he came to the college, when studying in the classroom had faded his +vivid, so to speak, vegetable coloring, he became as pale and white as a +woman. + +His head was unusually large. His hair, of a fine, bright black in masses +of curls, gave wonderful beauty to his brow, of which the proportions were +extraordinary even to us heedless boys, knowing nothing, as may be +supposed, of the auguries of phrenology, a science still in its cradle. The +distinction of this prophetic brow lay principally in the exquisitely +chiseled shape of the arches under which his black eyes sparkled, and +which had the transparency of alabaster, the line having the unusual beauty +of being perfectly level to where it met the top of the nose. But when you +saw his eyes it was difficult to think of the rest of his face, which was +indeed plain enough, for their look was full of a wonderful variety of +expression; they seemed to have a soul in their depths. At one moment +astonishingly clear and piercing, at another full of heavenly sweetness, +those eyes became dull, almost colorless, as it seemed, when he was lost in +meditation. They then looked like a window from which the sun had suddenly +vanished after lighting it up. His strength and his voice were no less +variable; equally rigid, equally unexpected. His tone could be as sweet as +that of a woman compelled to own her love; at other times it was labored, +rough, rugged, if I may use such words in a new sense. As to his strength, +he was habitually incapable of enduring the fatigue of any game, and seemed +weakly, almost infirm. But during the early days of his school-life, one of +our little bullies having made game of this sickliness, which rendered him +unfit for the violent exercise in vogue among his fellows, Lambert took +hold with both hands of one of the class-tables, consisting of twelve large +desks, face to face and sloping from the middle; he leaned back against the +class-master's desk, steadying the table with his feet on the cross-bar +below, and said: + +"Now, ten of you try to move it!" + +I was present, and can vouch for this strange display of strength; it was +impossible to move the table. + +Lambert had the gift of summoning to his aid at certain times the most +extraordinary powers, and of concentrating all his forces on a given point. +But children, like men, are wont to judge of everything by first +impressions, and after the first few days we ceased to study Louis; he +entirely belied Madame de Stael's prognostications, and displayed none of +the prodigies we looked for in him. + +After three months at school, Louis was looked upon as a quite ordinary +scholar. I alone was allowed really to know that sublime--why should I not +say divine?--soul, for what is nearer to God than genius in the heart of a +child? The similarity of our tastes and ideas made us friends and chums; +our intimacy was so brotherly that our schoolfellows joined our two names; +one was never spoken without the other, and to call either they always +shouted "Poet-and-Pythagoras!" Some other names had been known coupled in a +like manner. Thus for two years I was the school friend of poor Louis +Lambert; and during that time my life was so identified with his, that I am +enabled now to write his intellectual biography. + +It was long before I fully knew the poetry and the wealth of ideas that lay +hidden in my companion's heart and brain. It was not till I was thirty +years of age, till my experience was matured and condensed, till the flash +of an intense illumination had thrown a fresh light upon it, that I was +capable of understanding all the bearings of the phenomena which I +witnessed at that early time. I benefited by them without understanding +their greatness or their processes; indeed, I have forgotten some, or +remember only the most conspicuous facts; still, my memory is now able to +co-ordinate them, and I have mastered the secrets of that fertile brain by +looking back to the delightful days of our boyish affection. So it was time +alone that initiated me into the meaning of the events and facts that were +crowded into that obscure life, as into that of many another man who is +lost to science. Indeed, this narrative, so far as the expression and +appreciation of many things is concerned, will be found full of what may be +termed moral anachronisms, which perhaps will not detract from its peculiar +interest. + +[Illustration: Tower in which Balzac passed most of his time at college] + + * * * * * + +In the course of the first few months after coming to Vendome, Louis became +the victim of a malady which, though the symptoms were invisible to the eye +of our superiors, considerably interfered with the exercise of his +remarkable gifts. Accustomed to live in the open air, and to the freedom of +a purely haphazard education, happy in the tender care of an old man who +was devoted to him, used to meditating in the sunshine, he found it very +hard to submit to college rules, to walk in the ranks, to live within the +four walls of a room where eighty boys were sitting in silence on wooden +forms each in front of his desk. His senses were developed to such +perfection as gave them the most sensitive keenness, and every part of him +suffered from this life in common. + +The effluvia that vitiated the air, mingled with the odors of a classroom +that was never clean or free from the fragments of our breakfasts or +snacks, affected his sense of smell, the sense which, being more +immediately connected than the others with the nerve-centres of the brain, +must, when shocked, cause invisible disturbance to the organs of thought. + +Besides these elements of impurity in the atmosphere, there were lockers in +the classrooms in which the boys kept their miscellaneous plunder--pigeons +killed for fete days, or tidbits filched from the dinner-table. In each +classroom, too, there was a large stone slab, on which two pails full of +water were kept standing, a sort of sink, where we every morning washed our +faces and hands, one after another, in the master's presence. We then +passed on to a table, where women combed and powdered our hair. Thus the +place, being cleaned but once a day before we were up, was always more or +less dirty. In spite of numerous windows and lofty doors, the air was +constantly fouled by the smells from the washing-place, the hairdressing, +the lockers, and the thousand messes made by the boys, to say nothing of +their eighty closely packed bodies. And this sort of _humus_, mingling with +the mud we brought in from the playing-yard, produced a suffocatingly +pestilent muck-heap. + +The loss of the fresh and fragrant country air in which he had hitherto +lived, the change of habits and strict discipline, combined to depress +Lambert. With his elbow on his desk and his head supported on his left +hand, he spent the hours of study gazing at the trees in the court or the +clouds in the sky; he seemed to be thinking of his lessons; but the master, +seeing his pen motionless, or the sheet before him still a blank, would +call out: + +"Lambert, you are doing nothing!" + +This "_you are doing nothing_!" was a pin-thrust that wounded Louis to the +quick. And then he never earned the rest of play-time; he always had +impositions to write. The imposition, a punishment which varies according +to the practice of different schools, consisted at Vendome of a certain +number of lines to be written out in play hours. Lambert and I were so +overpowered with impositions, that we had not six free days during the two +years of our school friendship. But for the books we took out of the +library, which maintained some vitality in our brains, this system of +discipline would have reduced us to idiotcy. Want of exercise is fatal to +children. The habit of preserving a dignified appearance, begun in tender +infancy, has, it is said, a visible effect on the constitution of royal +personages when the faults of such an education are not counteracted by the +life of the battle-field or the laborious sport of hunting. And if the laws +of etiquette and Court manners can act on the spinal marrow to such an +extent as to affect the pelvis of kings, to soften their cerebral tissue, +and so degenerate the race, what deep-seated mischief, physical and moral, +must result in schoolboys from the constant lack of air, exercise, and +cheerfulness! + +Indeed, the rules of punishment carried out in schools deserve the +attention of the Office of Public Instruction when any thinkers are to be +found there who do not think exclusively of themselves. + +We incurred the infliction of an imposition in a thousand ways. Our memory +was so good that we never learned a lesson. It was enough for either of us +to hear our class-fellows repeat the task in French, Latin, or grammar, and +we could say it when our turn came; but if the master, unfortunately, took +it into his head to reverse the usual order and call upon us first, we very +often did not even know what the lesson was; then the imposition fell in +spite of our most ingenious excuses. Then we always put off writing our +exercises till the last moment; if there were a book to be finished, or if +we were lost in thought, the task was forgotten--again an imposition. How +often have we scribbled an exercise during the time when the head-boy, +whose business it was to collect them when we came into school, was +gathering them from the others! + +In addition to the moral misery which Lambert went through in trying to +acclimatize himself to college life, there was a scarcely less cruel +apprenticeship through which every boy had to pass: to those bodily +sufferings which seemed infinitely varied. The tenderness of a child's skin +needs extreme care, especially in winter, when a school-boy is constantly +exchanging the frozen air of the muddy playing-yard for the stuffy +atmosphere of the classroom. The "little boys" and the smallest of all, for +lack of a mother's care, were martyrs to chilblains and chaps so severe +that they had to be regularly dressed during the breakfast hour; but this +could only be very indifferently done to so many damaged hands, toes, and +heels. A good many of the boys indeed were obliged to prefer the evil to +the remedy; the choice constantly lay between their lessons waiting to be +finished or the joys of a slide, and waiting for a bandage carelessly put +on, and still more carelessly cast off again. Also it was the fashion in +the school to gibe at the poor, feeble creatures who went to be doctored; +the bullies vied with each other in snatching off the rags which the +infirmary nurse had tied on. Hence, in winter, many of us, with half-dead +feet and fingers, sick with pain, were incapable of work, and punished for +not working. The Fathers, too often deluded by shammed ailments, would not +believe in real suffering. + +The price paid for our schooling and board also covered the cost of +clothing. The committee contracted for the shoes and clothes supplied to +the boys; hence the weekly inspection of which I have spoken. This plan, +though admirable for the manager, is always disastrous to the managed. Woe +to the boy who indulged in the bad habit of treading his shoes down at +heel, of cracking the shoe-leather, or wearing out the soles too fast, +whether from a defect in his gait, or by fidgeting during lessons in +obedience to the instinctive need of movement common to all children. That +boy did not get through the winter without great suffering. In the first +place, his chilblains would ache and shoot as badly as a fit of the gout; +then the rivets and pack-thread intended to repair the shoes would give +way, or the broken heels would prevent the wretched shoes from keeping on +his feet; he was obliged to drag them wearily along the frozen roads, or +sometimes to dispute their possession with the clay soil of the district; +the water and snow got in through some unnoticed crack or ill-sewn patch, +and the foot would swell. + +Out of sixty boys, not ten perhaps could walk without some special form of +torture; and yet they all kept up with the body of the troop, dragged on by +the general movement, as men are driven through life by life itself. Many a +time some proud-tempered boy would shed tears of rage while summoning his +remaining energy to run ahead and get home again in spite of pain, so +sensitively afraid of laughter or of pity--two forms of scorn--is the still +tender soul at that age. + +At school, as in social life, the strong despise the feeble without knowing +in what true strength consists. + +Nor was this all. No gloves. If by good hap a boy's parents, the infirmary +nurse, or the headmaster gave gloves to a particularly delicate lad, the +wags or the big boys of the class would put them on the stove, amused to +see them dry and shrivel; or if the gloves escaped the marauders, after +getting wet they shrunk as they dried for want of care. No, gloves were +impossible. Gloves were a privilege, and boys insist on equality. + +Louis Lambert fell a victim to all these varieties of torment. Like many +contemplative men, who, when lost in thought, acquire a habit of mechanical +motion, he had a mania for fidgeting with his shoes, and destroyed them +very quickly. His girlish complexion, the skin of his ears and lips, +cracked with the least cold. His soft, white hands grew red and swollen. He +had perpetual colds. Thus he was a constant sufferer till he became inured +to school-life. Taught at last by cruel experience, he was obliged to "look +after his things," to use the school phrase. He was forced to take care of +his locker, his desk, his clothes, his shoes; to protect his ink, his +books, his copy-paper, and his pens from pilferers; in short, to give his +mind to the thousand details of our trivial life, to which more selfish and +commonplace minds devoted such strict attention--thus infallibly securing +prizes for "proficiency" and "good conduct"--while they were overlooked by +a boy of the highest promise, who, under the hand of an almost divine +imagination, gave himself up with rapture to the flow of his ideas. + +This was not all. There is a perpetual struggle going on between the +masters and the boys, a struggle without truce, to be compared with nothing +else in the social world, unless it be the resistance of the opposition to +the ministry in a representative government. But journalists and opposition +speakers are probably less prompt to take advantage of a weak point, less +extreme in resenting an injury, and less merciless in their mockery than +boys are in regard to those who rule over them. It is a task to put angels +out of patience. An unhappy class-master must then not be too severely +blamed, ill-paid as he is, and consequently not too competent, if he is +occasionally unjust or out of temper. Perpetually watched by a hundred +mocking eyes, and surrounded with snares, he sometimes revenges himself for +his own blunders on the boys who are only too ready to detect them. + +Unless for serious misdemeanors, for which there were other forms of +punishment, the strap was regarded at Vendome as the _ultima ratio Patrum_. +Exercises forgotten, lessons ill learned, common ill behavior were +sufficiently punished by an imposition, but offended dignity spoke in the +master through the strap. Of all the physical torments to which we were +exposed, certainly the most acute was that inflicted by this leathern +instrument, about two fingers wide, applied to our poor little hands with +all the strength and all the fury of the administrator. To endure this +classical form of correction, the victim knelt in the middle of the room. +He had to leave his form and go to kneel down near the master's desk under +the curious and generally merciless eyes of his fellows. To sensitive +natures these preliminaries were an introductory torture, like the journey +from the Palais de Justice to the Place de Greve which the condemned used +to make to the scaffold. + +Some boys cried out and shed bitter tears before or after the application +of the strap; others accepted the infliction with stoic calm; it was a +question of nature; but few could control an expression of anguish in +anticipation. + +Louis Lambert was constantly enduring the strap, and owed it to a +peculiarity of his physiognomy of which he was for a long time quite +unconscious. Whenever he was suddenly roused from a fit of abstraction by +the master's cry, "You are doing nothing!" it often happened that, without +knowing it, he flashed at his teacher a look full of fierce contempt, and +charged with thought, as a Leyden jar is charged with electricity. This +look, no doubt, discomfited the master, who, indignant at this unspoken +retort, wished to cure his scholar of that thunderous flash. + +The first time the Father took offence at this ray of scorn, which struck +him like a lightning-flash, he made this speech, as I well remember: + +"If you look at me again in that way, Lambert, you will get the strap." + +At these words every nose was in the air, every eye looked alternately at +the master and at Louis. The observation was so utterly foolish, that the +boy again looked at the Father, overwhelming him with another flash. From +this arose a standing feud between Lambert and his master, resulting in a +certain amount of "strap." Thus did he first discover the power of his eye. + +The hapless poet, so full of nerves, as sensitive as a woman, under the +sway of chronic melancholy, and as sick with genius as a girl with love +that she pines for, knowing nothing of it;--this boy, at once so powerful +and so weak, transplanted by "Corinne" from the country he loved, to be +squeezed in the mould of a collegiate routine to which every spirit and +every body must yield, whatever their range or temperament, accepting its +rule and its uniform as gold is crushed into round coin under the press; +Louis Lambert suffered in every spot where pain can touch the soul or the +flesh. Stuck on a form, restricted to the acreage of his desk, a victim of +the strap and to a sickly frame, tortured in every sense, environed by +distress--everything compelled him to give his body up to the myriad +tyrannies of school life; and, like the martyrs who smiled in the midst of +suffering, he took refuge in heaven, which lay open to his mind. Perhaps +this life of purely inward emotions helped him to see something of the +mysteries he so entirely believed in! + +Our independence, our illicit amusements, our apparent waste of time, our +persistent indifference, our frequent punishments and aversion for our +exercises and impositions, earned us a reputation, which no one cared to +controvert, for being an idle and incorrigible pair. Our masters treated us +with contempt, and we fell into utter disgrace with our companions, from +whom we concealed our secret studies for fear of being laughed at. This +hard judgment, which was injustice in the masters, was but natural in our +schoolfellows. We could neither play ball, nor run races, nor walk on +stilts. On exceptional holidays, when amnesty was proclaimed and we got a +few hours of freedom, we shared in none of the popular diversions of the +school. Aliens from the pleasures enjoyed by the others, we were outcasts, +sitting forlorn under a tree in the playing-ground. The Poet-and-Pythagoras +formed an exception and led a life apart from the life of the rest. + +The penetrating instinct and unerring conceit of schoolboys made them feel +that we were of a nature either far above or far beneath their own; hence +some simply hated our aristocratic reserve, others merely scorned our +ineptitude. These feelings were equally shared by us without our knowing +it; perhaps I have but now divined them. We lived exactly like two rats, +huddled into the corner of the room where our desks were, sitting there +alike during lesson time and play hours. This strange state of affairs +inevitably and in fact placed us on a footing of war with all the other +boys in our division. Forgotten for the most part, we sat there very +contentedly; half happy, like two plants, two images who would have been +missed from the furniture of the room. But the most aggressive of our +schoolfellows would sometimes torment us, just to show their malignant +power, and we responded with stolid contempt, which brought many a +thrashing down on the Poet-and-Pythagoras. + +Lambert's home-sickness lasted for many months. I know no words to describe +the dejection to which he was a prey. Louis has taken the glory off many a +masterpiece for me. We had both played the part of the "Leper of Aosta," +and had both experienced the feelings described in Monsieur de Maistre's +story, before we read them as expressed by his eloquent pen. A book may, +indeed, revive the memories of our childhood, but it can never compete with +them successfully. Lambert's woes had taught me many a chant of sorrow far +more appealing than the finest passages in "Werther." And, indeed, there is +no possible comparison between the pangs of a passion condemned, whether +rightly or wrongly, by every law, and the grief of a poor child pining for +the glorious sunshine, the dews of the valley, and liberty. Werther is the +slave of desire; Louis Lambert was an enslaved soul. Given equal talent, +the more pathetic sorrow, founded on desires which, being purer, are the +more genuine, must transcend the wail even of genius. + +After sitting for a long time with his eyes fixed on a lime-tree in the +playground, Louis would say just a word; but that word would reveal an +infinite speculation. + +"Happily for me," he exclaimed one day, "there are hours of comfort when I +feel as though the walls of the room had fallen and I were away--away in +the fields! What a pleasure it is to let oneself go on the stream of one's +thoughts as a bird is borne up on its wings!" + +"Why is green a color so largely diffused throughout creation?" he would +ask me. "Why are there so few straight lines in nature? Why is it that man, +in his structures, rarely introduces curves? Why is it that he alone, of +all creatures, has a sense of straightness?" + +These queries revealed long excursions in space. He had, I am sure, seen +vast landscapes, fragrant with the scent of woods. He was always silent and +resigned, a living elegy, always suffering but unable to complain of +suffering. An eagle that needed the world to feed him, shut in between four +narrow, dirty walls; and thus his life became an ideal life in the +strictest meaning of the words. Filled as he was with contempt of the +almost useless studies to which we were harnessed, Louis went on his +skyward way absolutely unconscious of the things about us. + +I, obeying the imitative instinct that is so strong in childhood, tried to +regulate my life in conformity with his. And Louis the more easily infected +me with the sort of torpor in which deep contemplation leaves the body, +because I was younger and more impressionable than he. Like two lovers, we +got into the habit of thinking together in a common reverie. His intuitions +had already acquired that acuteness which must surely characterize the +intellectual perceptiveness of great poets and often bring them to the +verge of madness. + +"Do you ever feel," said he to me one day, "as though imagined suffering +affected you in spite of yourself? If, for instance, I think with +concentration of the effect that the blade of my penknife would have in +piercing my flesh, I feel an acute pain as if I had really cut myself; only +the blood is wanting. But the pain comes suddenly, and startles me like a +sharp noise breaking profound silence. Can an idea cause physical +pain?--What do you say to that, eh?" + +When he gave utterance to such subtle reflections, we both fell into +artless meditation; we set to work to detect in ourselves the inscrutable +phenomena of the origin of thoughts, which Lambert hoped to discover in +their earliest germ, so as to describe some day the unknown process. Then, +after much discussion, often mixed up with childish notions, a look would +flash from Lambert's eager eyes; he would grasp my hand, and a word from +the depths of his soul would show the current of his mind. + +"Thinking is seeing," said he one day, carried away by some objection +raised as to the first principles of our organization. "Every human science +is based on deduction, which is a slow process of seeing by which we work +up from the effect to the cause; or, in a wider sense, all poetry, like +every work of art, proceeds from a swift vision of things." + +He was a spiritualist (as opposed to materialism); but I would venture to +contradict him, using his own arguments to consider the intellect as a +purely physical phenomenon. We both were right. Perhaps the words +materialism and spiritualism express the two faces of the same fact. His +considerations on the substance of the mind led to his accepting, with a +certain pride, the life of privation to which we were condemned in +consequence of our idleness and our indifference to learning. He had a +certain consciousness of his own powers which bore him up through his +spiritual cogitations. How delightful it was to me to feel his soul acting +on my own! Many a time have we remained sitting on our form, both buried in +one book, having quite forgotten each other's existence, and yet not apart; +each conscious of the other's presence, and bathing in an ocean of thought, +like two fish swimming in the same waters. + +Our life, apparently, was merely vegetating; but we lived through our heart +and brain. + +Lambert's influence over my imagination left traces that still abide. I +used to listen hungrily to his tales, full of the marvels which make men, +as well as children, rapturously devour stories in which truth assumes the +most grotesque forms. His passion for mystery, and the credulity natural to +the young, often led us to discuss Heaven and Hell. Then Louis, by +expounding Swedenborg, would try to make me share in his beliefs concerning +angels. In his least logical arguments there were still amazing +observations as to the powers of man, which gave his words that color of +truth without which nothing can be done in any art. The romantic end he +foresaw as the destiny of man was calculated to flatter the yearning which +tempts blameless imaginations to give themselves up to beliefs. Is it not +during the youth of a nation that its dogmas and idols are conceived? And +are not the supernatural beings before whom the people tremble the +personification of their feelings and their magnified desires? + + * * * * * + +All that I can now remember of the poetical conversations we held together +concerning the Swedish prophet, whose works I have since had the curiosity +to read, may be told in a few paragraphs. + +In each of us there are two distinct beings. According to Swedenborg, the +angel is an individual in whom the inner being conquers the external being. +If a man desires to earn his call to be an angel, as soon as his mind +reveals to him his twofold existence, he must strive to foster the delicate +angelic essence that exists within him. If, for lack of a lucid +appreciation of his destiny, he allows bodily action to predominate, +instead of confirming his intellectual being, all his powers will be +absorbed in the use of his external senses, and the angel will slowly +perish by the materialization of both natures. In the contrary case, if he +nourishes his inner being with the aliment needful to it, the soul triumphs +over matter and strives to get free. + +When they separate by the act of what we call death, the angel, strong +enough then to cast off its wrappings, survives and begins its real life. +The infinite variety which differentiates individual men can only be +explained by this twofold existence, which, again, is proved and made +intelligible by that variety. + +In point of fact, the wide distance between a man whose torpid intelligence +condemns him to evident stupidity, and one who, by the exercise of his +inner life, has acquired the gift of some power, allows us to suppose that +there is as great a difference between men of genius and other beings as +there is between the blind and those who see. This hypothesis, since it +extends creation beyond all limits, gives us, as it were, the clue to +heaven. The beings who, here on earth, are apparently mingled without +distinction, are there distributed, according to their inner perfection, in +distinct spheres whose speech and manners have nothing in common. In the +invisible world, as in the real world, if some native of the lower spheres +comes, all unworthy, into a higher sphere, not only can he never understand +the customs and language there, but his mere presence paralyzes the voice +and hearts of those who dwell therein. + +Dante, in his _Divine Comedy_, had perhaps some slight intuition of those +spheres which begin in the world of torment, and rise, circle on circle, to +the highest heaven. Thus Swedenborg's doctrine is the product of a lucid +spirit noting down the innumerable signs by which the angels manifest their +presence among men. + +This doctrine, which I have endeavored to sum up in a more or less +consistent form, was set before me by Lambert with all the fascination of +mysticism, swathed in the wrappings of the phraseology affected by mystical +writers: an obscure language full of abstractions, and taking such effect +on the brain, that there are books by Jacob Boehm, Swedenborg, and Madame +Guyon, so strangely powerful that they give rise to phantasies as various +as the dreams of the opium-eater. Lambert told me of mystical facts so +extraordinary, he so acted on my imagination, that he made my brain reel. +Still, I loved to plunge into that realm of mystery, invisible to the +senses, in which every one likes to dwell, whether he pictures it to +himself under the indefinite ideal of the Future, or clothes it in the more +solid guise of romance. These violent revulsions of the mind on itself gave +me, without my knowing it, a comprehension of its power, and accustomed me +to the workings of the mind. + +Lambert himself explained everything by his theory of the angels. To him +pure love--love as we dream of it in youth--was the coalescence of two +angelic natures. Nothing could exceed the fervency with which he longed to +meet a woman angel. And who better than he could inspire or feel love? If +anything could give an impression of an exquisite nature, was it not the +amiability and kindliness that marked his feelings, his words, his actions, +his slightest gestures, the conjugal regard that united us as boys, and +that we expressed when we called ourselves _chums_? + +There was no distinction for us between my ideas and his. We imitated each +other's handwriting, so that one might write the tasks of both. Thus, if +one of us had a book to finish and to return to the mathematical master, he +could read on without interruption while the other scribbled off his +exercise and imposition. We did our tasks as though paying a task on our +peace of mind. If my memory does not play me false, they were sometimes of +remarkable merit when Lambert did them. But on the foregone conclusion that +we were both of us idiots, the master always went through them under a +rooted prejudice, and even kept them to read to be laughed at by our +schoolfellows. + +I remember one afternoon, at the end of the lesson, which lasted from two +till four, the master took possession of a page of translation by Lambert. +The passage began with, _Caius Gracchus_, _vir nobilis_; Lambert had +construed this by "Caius Gracchus had a noble heart." + +"Where do you find 'heart' in _nobilis_?" said the Father sharply. + +And there was a roar of laughter, while Lambert looked at the master in +some bewilderment. + +"What would Madame la Baronne de Stael say if she could know that you make +such nonsense of a word that means of noble family, of patrician rank?" + +"She would say that you were an ass!" said I in a muttered tone. + +"Master Poet, you will stay in for a week," replied the master, who +unfortunately overheard me. + +Lambert simply repeated, looking at me with inexpressible affection, "_Vir +nobilis!_" + +Madame de Stael was, in fact, partly the cause of Lambert's troubles. On +every pretext masters and pupils threw the name in his teeth, either in +irony or in reproof. + +Louis lost no time in getting himself "kept in" to share my imprisonment. +Freer thus than in any other circumstances, we could talk the whole day +long in the silence of the dormitories, where each boy had a cubicle six +feet square, the partitions consisting at the top of open bars. The doors, +fitted with gratings, were locked at night and opened in the morning under +the eye of the Father whose duty it was to superintend our rising and going +to bed. The creak of these gates, which the college servants unlocked with +remarkable expedition, was a sound peculiar to that college. These little +cells were our prison, and boys were sometimes shut up there for a month at +a time. The boys in these coops were under the stern eye of the prefect, a +sort of censor who stole up at certain hours, or at unexpected moments, +with a silent step, to hear if we were talking instead of writing our +impositions. But a few walnut shells dropped on the stairs, or the +sharpness of our hearing, almost always enabled us to beware of his +joining, so we could give ourselves up without anxiety to our favorite +studies. However, as books were prohibited, our prison hours were chiefly +filled up with metaphysical discussions, or with relating singular facts +connected with the phenomena of mind. + +One of the most extraordinary of these incidents beyond question is this, +which I will here record, not only because it concerns Lambert, but because +it perhaps was the turning-point of his scientific career. By the law of +custom in all schools, Thursday and Sunday were holidays; but the services, +which we were made to attend very regularly, so completely filled up +Sunday, that we considered Thursday our only real day of freedom. After +once attending Mass, we had a long day before us to spend in walks in the +country round the town of Vendome. The manor of Rochambeau was the most +interesting object of our excursions, perhaps by reason of its distance; +the smaller boys were very seldom taken on so fatiguing an expedition. +However, once or twice a year the class-masters would hold out Rochambeau +as a reward for diligence. + +In 1812, towards the end of the spring, we were to go there for the first +time. Our anxiety to see this famous chateau of Rochambeau, where the owner +sometimes treated the boys to milk, made us all very good, and nothing +hindered the outing. Neither Lambert nor I had ever seen the pretty valley +of the Loir where the house stood. So his imagination and mine were much +excited by the prospect of this excursion, which filled the school with +traditional glee. We talked of it all the evening, planning to spend in +fruit or milk such money as we had saved, against all the habits of +school-life. + +After dinner next day, we set out at half-past twelve, each provided with a +square hunch of bread, given to us for our afternoon snack. And off we +went, as gay as swallows, marching in a body on the famous chateau with an +eagerness which would at first allow of no fatigue. When we reached the +hill, whence we looked down on the house standing half-way down the slope, +on the devious valley through which the river winds and sparkles between +meadows in graceful curves--a beautiful landscape, one of those scenes to +which the keen emotions of early youth or of love lend such a charm, that +it is wise never to see them again in later years--Louis Lambert said to +me, "Why, I saw this last night in a dream." + +He recognized the clump of trees under which we were standing, the grouping +of the woods, the color of the water, the turrets of the chateau, the +details, the distance, in fact every part of the prospect which we looked +on for the first time. We were mere children; I, at any rate, who was but +thirteen; Louis, at fifteen, might, have the precocity of genius, but at +that time we were incapable of falsehood in the most trivial matters of our +life as friends. Indeed, if Lambert's powerful mind had any presentiment of +the importance of such facts, he was far from appreciating their whole +bearing; and he was quite astonished by this incident. I asked him if he +had not perhaps been brought to Rochambeau in his infancy, and my question +struck him; but after thinking it over, he answered in the negative. This +incident, analogous to what may be known of the phenomena of sleep in +several persons, will illustrate the beginnings of Lambert's line of +talent; he took it, in fact, as the basis of a whole system, using a +fragment--as Cuvier did in another branch of inquiry--as a clue to the +reconstruction of a complete system. + +At this moment we were sitting together on an old oak-stump, and after a +few minutes' reflection, Louis said to me: + +"If the landscape did not come to me--which it is absurd to imagine--I must +have come here. If I was here while I was asleep in my cubicle, does not +that constitute a complete severance of my body and my inner being? Does it +not prove some inscrutable locomotive faculty in the spirit with effects +resembling those of locomotion in the body? Well, then, if my spirit and my +body can be severed during sleep, why should I not insist on their +separating in the same way while I am awake? I see no half-way mean between +the two propositions. + +"But if we go further into details: Either the facts are due to the action +of a faculty which brings out a second being to whom my body is merely a +husk, since I was in my cell, and yet I saw the landscape--and this upsets +many systems; or the facts took place either in some nerve centre, of which +the name is yet to be discovered, where our feelings dwell and move; or +else in the cerebral centre, where ideas are formed. This last hypothesis +gives rise to some strange questions. I walked, I saw, I heard. Motion is +inconceivable but in space, sound acts only at certain angles or on +surfaces, color is caused only by light. If, in the dark, with my eyes +shut, I saw, in myself, colored objects; if I heard sounds in the most +perfect silence and without the conditions requisite for the production of +sound; if without stirring I traversed wide tracts of space, there must be +inner faculties independent of the external laws of physics. Material +nature must be penetrable by the spirit. + +"How is it that men have hitherto given so little thought to the phenomena +of sleep, which seem to prove that man has a double life? May there not be +a new science lying beneath them?" he added, striking his brow with his +hand. "If not the elements of a science, at any rate the revelation of +stupendous powers in man; at least they prove a frequent severance of our +two natures, the fact I have been thinking out for a very long time. At +last, then, I have hit on evidence to show the superiority that +distinguishes our latent senses from our corporeal senses! _Homo duplex!_ + +"And yet," he went on, after a pause, with a doubtful shrug, "perhaps we +have not two natures; perhaps we are merely gifted with personal and +perfectible qualities, of which the development within us produces certain +unobserved phenomena of activity, penetration, and vision. In our love of +the marvelous, a passion begotten of our pride, we have translated these +effects into poetical inventions, because we did not understand them. It is +so convenient to deify the incomprehensible! + +"I should, I own, lament over the loss of my illusions. I so much wished to +believe in our twofold nature and in Swedenborg's angels. Must this new +science destroy them? Yes; for the study of our unknown properties involves +us in a science that appears to be materialistic, for the Spirit uses, +divides, and animates the Substance; but it does not destroy it." + +He remained pensive, almost sad. Perhaps he saw the dreams of his youth as +swaddling clothes that he must soon shake off. + +"Sight and hearing are, no doubt, the sheaths for a very marvelous +instrument," said he, laughing at his own figure of speech. + +Always when he was talking to me of Heaven and Hell, he was wont to treat +of Nature as being master; but now, as he pronounced these last words, big +with prescience, he seemed to soar more boldly than ever above the +landscape, and his forehead seemed ready to burst with the afflatus of +genius. His powers--mental powers we must call them till some new term is +found--seemed to flash from the organs intended to express them. His eyes +shot out thoughts; his uplifted hand, his silent but tremulous lips were +eloquent; his burning glance was radiant; at last his head, as though too +heavy, or exhausted by too eager a flight, fell on his breast. This +boy--this giant--bent his head, took my hand and clasped it in his own, +which was damp, so fevered was he for the search for truth; then, after a +pause, he said: + +"I shall be famous!--And you too," he added after a pause. "We will both +study the Chemistry of the Will." + +Noble soul! I recognized his superiority, though he took great care never +to make me feel it. He shared with me all the treasures of his mind, and +regarded me as instrumental in his discoveries, leaving me the credit of my +insignificant contributions. He was always as gracious as a woman in love; +he had all the bashful feeling, the delicacy of soul which make life happy +and pleasant to endure. + + * * * * * + +On the following day he began writing what he called a _Treatise on the +Will_; his subsequent reflections led to many changes in its plan and +method; but the incident of that day was certainly the germ of the work, +just as the electric shock always felt by Mesmer at the approach of a +particular man-servant was the starting-point of his discoveries in +magnetism, a science till then interred under the mysteries of Isis, of +Delphi, of the cave of Trophonius, and rediscovered by that prodigious +genius, close on Lavater, and the precursor of Gall. + +Lambert's ideas, suddenly illuminated by this flash of light, assumed +vaster proportions; he disentangled certain truths from his many +acquisitions and brought them into order; then, like a founder, he cast the +model of his work. At the end of six months' indefatigable labor, Lambert's +writings excited the curiosity of our companions, and became the object of +cruel practical jokes which led to a fatal issue. + +One day one of the masters, who was bent on seeing the manuscripts, +enlisted the aid of our tyrants, and came to seize, by force, a box that +contained the precious papers. Lambert and I defended it with incredible +courage. The trunk was locked, our aggressors could not open it, but they +tried to smash it in the struggle, a stroke of malignity at which we +shrieked with rage. Some of the boys, with a sense of justice, or struck +perhaps by our heroic defence, advised the attacking party to leave us in +peace, crushing us with insulting contempt. But suddenly, brought to the +spot by the noise of a battle, Father Haugoult roughly intervened, +inquiring as to the cause of the fight. Our enemies had interrupted us in +writing our impositions, and the class-master came to protect his slaves. +The foe, in self-defence, betrayed the existence of the manuscript. The +dreadful Haugoult insisted on our giving up the box; if we should resist, +he would have it broken open. Lambert gave him the key; the master took out +the papers, glanced through them, and said, as he confiscated them: + +"And it is for such rubbish as this that you neglect your lessons!" + +Large tears fell from Lambert's eyes, wrung from him as much by a sense of +his offended moral superiority as by the gratuitous insult and betrayal +that he had suffered. We gave the accusers a glance of stern reproach: had +they not delivered us over to the common enemy? If the common law of school +entitled them to thrash us, did it not require them to keep silence as to +our misdeeds? + +In a moment they were no doubt ashamed of their baseness. + +Father Haugoult probably sold the _Treatise on the Will_ to a local grocer, +unconscious of the scientific treasure, of which the germs thus fell into +unworthy hands. + + * * * * * + +Six months later I left the school, and I do not know whether Lambert ever +recommenced his labors. Our parting threw him into a mood of the darkest +melancholy. + +It was in memory of the disaster that befell Louis' book that, in the tale +which comes first in these _Etudes_, I adopted the title invented by +Lambert for a work of fiction, and gave the name of a woman who was dear to +him to a girl characterized by her self-devotion; but this is not all I +have borrowed from him: his character and occupations were of great value +to me in writing that book, and the subject arose from some reminiscences +of our youthful meditations. This present volume is intended as a modest +monument, a broken column, to commemorate the life of the man who +bequeathed to me all he had to leave--his thoughts. + +In that boyish effort Lambert had enshrined the ideas of a man. Ten years +later, when I met some learned men who were devoting serious attention to +the phenomena that had struck us and that Lambert had so marvelously +analyzed, I understood the value of his work, then already forgotten as +childish. I at once spent several months in recalling the principal +theories discovered by my poor schoolmate. Having collected my +reminiscences, I can boldly state that, by 1812, he had proved, divined, +and set forth in his Treatise several important facts of which, as he had +declared, evidence was certain to come sooner or later. His philosophical +speculations ought undoubtedly to gain him recognition as one of the great +thinkers who have appeared at wide intervals among men, to reveal to them +the bare skeleton of some science to come, of which the roots spread +slowly, but which, in due time, bring forth fair fruit in the intellectual +sphere. Thus a humble artisan, Bernard Palissy, searching the soil to find +minerals for glazing pottery, proclaimed, in the sixteenth century, with +the infallible intuition of genius, geological facts which it is now the +glory of Cuvier and Buffon to have demonstrated. + +I can, I believe, give some idea of Lambert's Treatise by stating the chief +propositions on which it was based; but, in spite of myself, I shall strip +them of the ideas in which they were clothed, and which were indeed their +indispensable accompaniment. I started on a different path, and only made +use of those of his researches which answered the purpose of my scheme. I +know not, therefore, whether as his disciple I can faithfully expound his +views, having assimilated them in the first instance so as to color them +with my own. + +New ideas require new words, or a new and expanded use of old words, +extended and defined in their meaning. Thus Lambert, to set forth the basis +of his system, had adopted certain common words that answered to his +notions. The word Will he used to connote the medium in which the mind +moves, or to use a less abstract expression, the mass of power by which man +can reproduce, outside himself, the actions constituting his external life. +Volition--a word due to Locke--expressed the act by which a man exerts his +will. The word Mind, or Thought, which he regarded as the quintessential +product of the Will, also represented the medium in which the ideas +originate to which thought gives substance. The Idea, a name common to +every creation of the brain, constituted the act by which man uses his +mind. Thus the Will and the Mind were the two generating forces; the +Volition and the Idea were the two products. Volition, he thought, was the +Idea evolved from the abstract state to a concrete state, from its +generative fluid to a solid expression, so to speak, if such words may be +taken to formulate notions so difficult of definition. According to him, +the Mind and Ideas are the motion and the outcome of our inner +organization, just as the Will and Volition are of our external activity. + +He gave the Will precedence over the Mind. + +"You must will before you can think," he said. "Many beings live in a +condition of Willing without ever attaining to the condition of Thinking. +In the North, life is long; in the South, it is shorter; but in the North +we see torpor, in the South a constant excitability of the Will, up to the +point where from an excess of cold or of heat the organs are almost +nullified." + +The use of the word "medium" was suggested to him by an observation he had +made in his childhood, though, to be sure, he had no suspicion then of its +importance, but its singularity naturally struck his delicately alert +imagination. His mother, a fragile, nervous woman, all sensitiveness and +affection, was one of those beings created to represent womanhood in all +the perfection of her attributes, but relegated by a mistaken fate to too +low a place in the social scale. Wholly loving, and consequently wholly +suffering, she died young, having thrown all her energies into her motherly +love. Lambert, a child of six, lying, but not always sleeping, in a cot by +his mother's bed, saw the electric sparks from her hair when she combed it. +The man of fifteen made scientific application of this fact which had +amused the child, a fact beyond dispute, of which there is ample evidence +in many instances, especially of women who by a sad fatality are doomed to +let unappreciated feelings evaporate in the air, or some superabundant +power run to waste. + +In support of his definitions, Lambert propounded a variety of problems to +be solved, challenges flung out to science, though he proposed to seek the +solution for himself. He inquired, for instance, whether the element that +constitutes electricity does not enter as a base into the specific fluid +whence our Ideas and Volitions proceed? Whether the hair, which loses its +color, turns white, falls out, or disappears, in proportion to the decay or +crystallization of our thoughts, may not be in fact a capillary system, +either absorbent or diffusive, and wholly electrical? Whether the fluid +phenomena of the Will, a matter generated within us, and spontaneously +reacting under the impress of conditions as yet unobserved, were at all +more extraordinary than those of the invisible and intangible fluid +produced by a voltaic pile, and applied to the nervous system of a dead +man? Whether the formation of Ideas and their constant diffusion was less +incomprehensible than evaporation of the atoms, imperceptible indeed, but +so violent in their effects, that are given off from a grain of musk +without any loss of weight. Whether, granting that the function of the skin +is purely protective, absorbent, excretive, and tactile, the circulation of +the blood and all its mechanism would not correspond with the +transubstantiation of our Will, as the circulation of the nerve fluid +corresponds to that of the Mind? Finally, whether the more or less rapid +affluence of these two real substances may not be the result of a certain +perfection or imperfection of organs whose conditions require +investigation in every manifestation? + +Having set forth these principles, he proposed to class the phenomena of +human life in two series of distinct results, demanding, with the ardent +insistency of conviction, a special analysis for each. In fact, having +observed in almost every type of created thing two separate motions, he +assumed, nay, he asserted, their existence in our human nature, and +designated this vital antithesis Action and Reaction. + +"A desire," he said, "is a fact completely accomplished in our will before +it is accomplished externally." + +Hence the sum-total of our Volitions and our Ideas constitutes Action, and +the sum-total of our external acts he called Reaction. + +When I subsequently read the observations made by Bichat on the duality of +our external senses, I was really bewildered by my recollections, +recognizing the startling coincidences between the views of that celebrated +physiologist and those of Louis Lambert. They both died too young, and they +had with equal steps arrived at the same strange truths. Nature has in +every case been pleased to give a twofold purpose to the various apparatus +that constitute her creatures; and the twofold action of the human +organism, which is now ascertained beyond dispute, proves by a mass of +evidence in daily life how true were Lambert's deductions as to Action and +Reaction. + +The inner Being, the Being of Action--the word he used to designate an +unknown specialization--the mysterious nexus of fibrils to which we owe the +inadequately investigated powers of thought and will--in short, the +nameless entity which sees, acts, foresees the end, and accomplishes +everything before expressing itself in any physical phenomenon--must, in +conformity with its nature, be free from the physical conditions by which +the external Being of Reaction, the visible man, is fettered in its +manifestation. From this followed a multitude of logical explanation as to +those results of our twofold nature which appear the strangest, and a +rectification of various systems in which truth and falsehood are mingled. + +Certain men, having had a glimpse of some phenomena of the natural working +of the Being of Action, were, like Swedenborg, carried away above this +world by their ardent soul, thirsting for poetry, and filled with the +Divine Spirit. Thus, in their ignorance of the causes and their admiration +of the facts, they pleased their fancy by regarding that inner man as +divine, and constructing a mystical universe. Hence we have angels! A +lovely illusion which Lambert would never abandon, cherishing it even when +the sword of his logic was cutting off their dazzling wings. + +"Heaven," he would say, "must, after all, be the survival of our perfected +faculties, and hell the void into which our unperfected faculties are cast +away." + +But how, then, in the ages when the understanding had preserved the +religious and spiritualist impressions, which prevailed from the time of +Christ till that of Descartes, between faith and doubt, how could men help +accounting for the mysteries of our nature otherwise than by divine +interposition? Of whom but of God Himself could sages demand an account of +an invisible creature so actively and so reactively sensitive, gifted with +faculties so extensive, so improvable by use, and so powerful under certain +occult influences, that they could sometimes see it annihilate, by some +phenomenon of sight or movement, space in its two manifestations--Time and +Distance--of which the former is the space of the intellect, the latter is +physical space? Sometimes they found it reconstructing the past, either by +the power of retrospective vision, or by the mystery of a palingenesis not +unlike the power a man might have of detecting in the form, integument, and +embryo in a seed, the flowers of the past, and the numberless variations of +their color, scent, and shape; and sometimes, again, it could be seen +vaguely foreseeing the future, either by its apprehension of final causes, +or by some phenomenon of physical presentiment. + +Other men, less poetically religious, cold, and argumentative--quacks +perhaps, but enthusiasts in brain at least, if not in heart--recognizing +some isolated examples of such phenomena, admitted their truth while +refusing to consider them as radiating from a common centre. Each of these +was, then, bent on constructing a science out of a simple fact. Hence arose +demonology, judicial astrology, the black arts, in short, every form of +divination founded on circumstances that were essentially transient, +because they varied according to men's temperament, and to conditions that +are still completely unknown. + +But from these errors of the learned, and from the ecclesiastical trials +under which fell so many martyrs to their own powers, startling evidence +was derived of the prodigious faculties at the command of the Being of +Action, which, according to Lambert, can abstract itself completely from +the Being of Reaction, bursting its envelope, and piercing walls by its +potent vision; a phenomenon known to the Hindoos, as missionaries tell us, +by the name of _Tokeiad_; or again, by another faculty, can grasp in the +brain, in spite of its closest convolutions, the ideas which are formed or +forming there, and the whole of past consciousness. + +"If apparitions are not impossible," said Lambert, "they must be due to a +faculty of discerning the ideas which represent man in his purest essence, +whose life, imperishable perhaps, escapes our grosser senses, though they +may become perceptible to the inner being when it has reached a high degree +of ecstasy, or a great perfection of vision." + +I know--though my remembrance is now vague--that Lambert, by following the +results of Mind and Will step by step, after he had established their laws, +accounted for a multitude of phenomena which, till then, had been regarded +with reason as incomprehensible. Thus wizards, men possessed, those gifted +with second sight, and demoniacs of every degree--the victims of the Middle +Ages--became the subject of explanations so natural, that their very +simplicity often seemed to me the seal of their truth. The marvelous gifts +which the Church of Rome, jealous of all mysteries, punished with the +stake, were, in Louis' opinion, the result of certain affinities between +the constituent elements of matter and those of mind, which proceed from +the same source. The man holding a hazel rod when he found a spring of +water was guided by some antipathy or sympathy of which he was unconscious; +nothing but the eccentricity of these phenomena could have availed to give +some of them historic certainty. + +Sympathies have rarely been proved; they afford a kind of pleasure which +those who are so happy as to possess them rarely speak of unless they are +abnormally singular, and even then only in the privacy of intimate +intercourse, where everything is buried. But the antipathies that arise +from the inversion of affinities have, very happily, been recorded when +developed in famous men. Thus, Bayle had hysterics when he heard water +splashing, Scaliger turned pale at the sight of water-cress, Erasmus was +thrown into a fever by the smell of fish. These three antipathies were +connected with water. The Duc d'Epernon fainted at the sight of a hare, +Tycho-Brahe at that of a fox, Henri III. at the presence of a cat, the +Marechal d'Albret at the sight of a wild hog; these antipathies were +produced by animal emanations, and often took effect at a great distance. +The Chevalier de Guise, Marie de' Medici, and many other persons, have felt +faint at seeing a rose even in a painting. Lord Bacon, whether he were +forewarned or no of an eclipse of the moon, always fell into a syncope +while it lasted; and his vitality, suspended while the phenomenon lasted, +was restored as soon as it was over without his feeling any further +inconvenience. These effects of antipathy, all well authenticated, and +chosen from among many which history has happened to preserve, are enough +to give a clue to the sympathies which remain unknown. + +This fragment of Lambert's investigations, which I remember from among his +essays, will throw a light on the method on which he worked. I need not +emphasize the obvious connection between this theory and the collateral +sciences projected by Gall and Lavater; they were its natural corollary; +and every more or less scientific brain will discern the ramifications by +which it is inevitably connected with the phrenological observations of one +and the speculations on physiognomy of the other. + +Mesmer's discovery, so important, though as yet so little appreciated, was +also embodied in a single section of this treatise, though Louis did not +know the Swiss doctor's writings--which are few and brief. + +A simple and logical inference from these principles led him to perceive +that the will might be accumulated by a contractile effort of the inner +man, and then, by another effort, projected, or even imparted, to material +objects. Thus, the whole force of a man must have the property of reacting +on other men, and of infusing into them an essence foreign to their own, if +they could not protect themselves against such an aggression. The evidence +of this theorem of the science of humanity is, of course, very +multifarious; but there is nothing to establish it beyond question. We have +only the notorious disaster of Marius and his harangue to the Cimbrian +commanded to kill him, or the august injunction of a mother to the Lion of +Florence, in historic proof of instances of such lightning flashes of mind. +To Lambert, then, Will and Thought were _living forces_; and he spoke of +them in such a way as to impress his belief on the hearer. To him these two +forces were, in a way, visible, tangible. Thought was slow or alert, heavy +or nimble, light or dark; he ascribed to it all the attributes of an active +agent, and thought of it as rising, resting, waking, expanding, growing +old, shrinking, becoming atrophied, or resuscitating; he described its +life, and specified all its actions by the strangest words in our language, +speaking of its spontaneity, its strength, and all its qualities with a +kind of intuition which enabled him to recognize all the manifestations of +its substantial existence. + +"Often," said he, "in the midst of quiet and silence, when our inner +faculties are dormant, when we have given ourselves up to sweet repose, +when a sort of darkness reigns within us, and we are lost in the +contemplation of things outside us, an idea suddenly flies forth, and +rushes with the swiftness of lightning across the infinite space which our +inner vision allows us to perceive. This radiant idea, springing into +existence like a will-o'-the-wisp, dies out never to return; an ephemeral +life, like that of babes who give their parents such infinite joy and +sorrow; a sort of still-born blossom in the fields of the mind. Sometimes +an idea, instead of springing forcibly into life and dying unembodied, +dawns gradually, hovers in the unknown limbo of the organs where it has its +birth; exhausts us by long gestation, develops, is itself fruitful, grows +outwardly in all the grace of youth and the promising attributes of a long +life; it can endure the closest inspection, invites it, and never tires the +sight; the investigation it undergoes commands the admiration we give to +works slowly elaborated. Sometimes ideas are evolved in a swarm; one brings +another; they come linked together; they vie with each other; they fly in +clouds, wild and headlong. Again, they rise up pallid and misty, and perish +for want of strength or of nutrition; the vital force is lacking. Or again, +on certain days, they rush down into the depths to light up that immense +obscurity; they terrify us and leave the soul dejected. + +"Ideas are a complete system within us, resembling a natural kingdom, a +sort of flora, of which the iconography will one day be outlined by some +man who will perhaps be accounted a madman. + +"Yes, within us and without, everything testifies to the livingness of +those exquisite creations, which I compare with flowers in obedience to +some unutterable revelation of their true nature! + +"Their being produced as the final cause of man is, after all, not more +amazing than the production of perfume and color in a plant. Perfumes _are_ +ideas, perhaps! + +"When we consider that the line where flesh ends and the nail begins +contains the invisible and inexplicable mystery of the constant +transformation of a fluid into horn, we must confess that nothing is +impossible in the marvelous modifications of human tissue. + +"And are there not in our inner nature phenomena of weight and motion +comparable to those of physical nature? Suspense, to choose an example +vividly familiar to everybody, is painful only as a result of the law in +virtue of which the weight of a body is multiplied by its velocity. The +weight of the feeling produced by suspense increases by the constant +addition of past pain to the pain of the moment. + +"And then, to what, unless it be to the electric fluid, are we to attribute +the magic by which the Will enthrones itself so imperiously in the eye to +demolish obstacles at the behest of genius, thunders in the voice, or +filters, in spite of dissimulation, through the human frame? The current of +that sovereign fluid, which, in obedience to the high pressure of thought +or of feeling, flows in a torrent or is reduced to a mere thread, and +collects to flash in lightnings, is the occult agent to which are due the +evil or the beneficent efforts of Art and Passion--intonation of voice, +whether harsh or suave, terrible, lascivious, horrifying or seductive by +turns, thrilling the heart, the nerves, or the brain at our will; the +marvels of the touch, the instrument of the mental transfusions of a myriad +artists, whose creative fingers are able, after passionate study, to +reproduce the forms of nature; or, again, the infinite gradations of the +eye from dull inertia to the emission of the most terrifying gleams. + +"By this system God is bereft of none of His rights. Mind, as a form of +matter, has brought me a new conviction of His greatness." + +After hearing him discourse thus, after receiving into my soul his look +like a ray of light, it was difficult not to be dazzled by his conviction +and carried away by his arguments. The Mind appeared to me as a purely +physical power, surrounded by its innumerable progeny. It was a new +conception of humanity under a new form. + +This brief sketch of the laws which, as Lambert maintained, constitute the +formula of our intellect, must suffice to give a notion of the prodigious +activity of his spirit feeding on itself. Louis had sought for proofs of +his theories in the history of great men, whose lives, as set forth by +their biographers, supply very curious particulars as to the operation of +their understanding. His memory allowed him to recall such facts as might +serve to support his statements; he had appended them to each chapter in +the form of demonstrations, so as to give to many of his theories an almost +mathematical certainty. The works of Cardan, a man gifted with singular +powers of insight, supplied him with valuable materials. He had not +forgotten that Apollonius of Tyana had, in Asia, announced the death of the +tyrant with every detail of his execution, at the very hour when it was +taking place in Rome; nor that Plotinus, when far away from Porphyrius, was +aware of his friend's intention to kill himself, and flew to dissuade him; +nor the incident in the last century, proved in the face of the most +incredulous mockery ever known--an incident most surprising to men who were +accustomed to regard doubt as a weapon against the fact alone, but simple +enough to believers--the fact that Alphonzo-Maria di Liguori, Bishop of +Saint-Agatha, administered consolations to Pope Ganganelli, who saw him, +heard him, and answered him, while the Bishop himself, at a great distance +from Rome, was in a trance at home, in the chair where he commonly sat on +his return from Mass. On recovering consciousness, he saw all his +attendants kneeling beside him, believing him to be dead: "My friends," +said he, "the Holy Father is just dead." Two days later a letter confirmed +the news. The hour of the Pope's death coincided with that when the Bishop +had been restored to his natural state. + +Nor had Lambert omitted the yet more recent adventure of an English girl +who was passionately attached to a sailor, and set out from London to seek +him. She found him, without a guide, making her way alone in the North +American wilderness, reaching him just in time to save his life. + +Louis had found confirmatory evidence in the mysteries of the ancients, in +the acts of the martyrs--in which glorious instances may be found of the +triumph of human will, in the demonology of the Middle Ages, in criminal +trials and medical researches; always selecting the real fact, the +probable phenomenon, with admirable sagacity. + +All this rich collection of scientific anecdotes, culled from so many +books, most of them worthy of credit, served no doubt to wrap parcels in; +and this work, which was curious, to say the least of it, as the outcome of +a most extraordinary memory, was doomed to destruction. + +Among the various cases which added to the value of Lambert's _Treatise_ +was an incident that had taken place in his own family, of which he had +told me before he wrote his essay. This fact, bearing on the post-existence +of the inner man, if I may be allowed to coin a new word for a phenomenon +hitherto nameless, struck me so forcibly that I have never forgotten it. +His father and mother were being forced into a lawsuit, of which the loss +would leave them with a stain on their good name, the only thing they had +in the world. Hence their anxiety was very great when the question first +arose as to whether they should yield to the plaintiff's unjust demands, or +should defend themselves against him. The matter came under discussion one +autumn evening, before a turf fire in the room used by the tanner and his +wife. Two or three relations were invited to this family council, and among +others Louis' maternal great-grandfather, an old laborer, much bent, but +with a venerable and dignified countenance, bright eyes, and a bald, yellow +head, on which grew a few locks of thin, white hair. Like the Obi of the +Negroes, or the Sagamore of the Indian savage, he was a sort of oracle, +consulted on important occasions. His land was tilled by his grandchildren, +who fed and served him; he predicted rain and fine weather, and told them +when to mow the hay and gather the crops. The barometric exactitude of his +forecasts was quite famous, and added to the confidence and respect he +inspired. For whole days he would sit immovable in his armchair. This state +of rapt meditation often came upon him since his wife's death; he had been +attached to her with the truest and most faithful affection. + +This discussion was held in his presence, but he did not seem to give much +heed to it. + +"My children," said he, when he was asked for his opinion, "this is too +serious a matter for me to decide on alone. I must go and consult my wife." + +The old man rose, took his stick, and went out, to the great astonishment +of the others, who thought him daft. He presently came back and said: + +"I did not have to go so far as the graveyard; your mother came to meet me; +I found her by the brook. She tells me that you will find some receipts in +the hands of a notary at Blois, which will enable you to gain your suit." + +The words were spoken in a firm tone; the old man's demeanor and +countenance showed that such an apparition was habitual with him. In fact, +the disputed receipts were found, and the lawsuit was not attempted. + +This event, under his father's roof and to his own knowledge, when Louis +was nine years old, contributed largely to his belief in Swedenborg's +miraculous visions, for in the course of that philosopher's life he +repeatedly gave proof of the power of sight developed in his Inner Being. +As he grew older, and as his intelligence was developed, Lambert was +naturally led to seek in the laws of nature for the causes of the miracle +which, in his childhood, had captivated his attention. What name can be +given to the chance which brought within his ken so many facts and books +bearing on such phenomena, and made him the principal subject and actor in +such marvelous manifestations of mind? + +If Lambert had no other title to fame than the fact of his having +formulated, in his sixteenth year, such a psychological dictum as +this:--"The events which bear witness to the action of the human race, and +are the outcome of its intellect, have causes by which they are +preconceived, as our actions are accomplished in our mind before they are +reproduced by the outer man; presentiments or predictions are the +perception of these causes"--I think we may deplore in him a genius equal +to Pascal, Lavoisier, or Laplace. His chimerical notions about angels +perhaps overruled his work too long; but was it not in trying to make gold +that the alchemists unconsciously created chemistry? At the same time, +Lambert, at a later period, studied comparative anatomy, physics, geometry, +and other sciences bearing on his discoveries, and this was undoubtedly +with the purpose of collecting facts and submitting them to analysis--the +only torch that can guide us through the dark places of the most +inscrutable work of nature. He had too much good sense to dwell among the +clouds of theories which can all be expressed in a few words. In our day, +is not the simplest demonstration based on facts more highly esteemed than +the most specious system though defended by more or less ingenious +inductions? But as I did not know him at the period of his life when his +cogitations were, no doubt, the most productive of results, I can only +conjecture what the bent of his work must have been from that of his first +efforts of thought. + +It is easy to see where his _Treatise on the Will_ was faulty. Though +gifted already with the powers which characterize superior men, he was but +a boy. His brain, though endowed with a great faculty for abstractions, was +still full of the delightful beliefs that hover around youth. Thus his +conception, while at some points it touched the ripest fruits of his +genius, still, by many more, clung to the smaller elements of its germs. To +certain readers, lovers of poetry, what he chiefly lacked must have been a +certain vein of interest. + +But his work bore the stamp of the struggle that was going on in that noble +Spirit between the two great principles of Spiritualism and Materialism, +round which so many a fine genius has beaten its way without ever daring to +amalgamate them. Louis, at first purely Spiritualist, had been irresistibly +led to recognize the Material conditions of Mind. Confounded by the facts +of analysis at the moment when his heart still gazed with yearning at the +clouds that floated in Swedenborg's heaven, he had not yet acquired the +necessary powers to produce a coherent system, compactly cast in a piece, +as it were. Hence certain inconsistencies that have left their stamp even +on the sketch here given of his first attempts. Still, incomplete as his +work may have been, was it not the rough copy of a science of which he +would have investigated the secrets at a later time, have secured the +foundations, have examined, deduced, and connected the logical sequence? + + * * * * * + +Six months after the confiscation of the _Treatise on the Will_ I left +school. Our parting was unexpected. My mother, alarmed by a feverish attack +which for some months I had been unable to shake off, while my inactive +life induced symptoms of _coma_, carried me off at four or five hours' +notice. The announcement of my departure reduced Lambert to dreadful +dejection. + +"Shall I ever see you again?" said he in his gentle voice, as he clasped me +in his arms. "You will live," he went on, "but I shall die. If I can, I +will come back to you." + +Only the young can utter such words with the accent of conviction that +gives them the impressiveness of prophecy, of a pledge, leaving a terror of +its fulfilment. For a long time indeed I vaguely looked for the promised +apparition. Even now there are days of depression, of doubt, alarm, and +loneliness, when I am forced to repel the intrusion of that sad parting, +though it was not fated to be the last. + +When I crossed the yard by which we left, Lambert was at one of the +refectory windows to see me pass. By my request my mother obtained leave +for him to dine with us at the inn, and in the evening I escorted him back +to the fatal gate of the college. No lover and his mistress ever shed more +tears at parting. + +"Well, good-bye; I shall be left alone in this desert!" said he, pointing +to the playground where two hundred boys were disporting themselves and +shouting. "When I come back half dead with fatigue from my long excursions +through the fields of thought, on whose heart can I rest? I could tell you +everything in a look. Who will understand me now?--Good-bye! I could wish I +had never met you; I should not know all I am losing." + +"And what is to become of me?" said I. "Is not my position a dreadful one. +_I_ have nothing here to uphold me!" and I slapped my forehead. + +He shook his head with a gentle gesture, gracious and sad, and we parted. + +At that time Louis Lambert was about five feet five inches in height; he +grew no more. His countenance, which was full of expression, revealed his +sweet nature. Divine patience, developed by harsh usage, and the constant +concentration needed for his meditative life, had bereft his eyes of the +audacious pride which is so attractive in some faces, and which had so +shocked our masters. Peaceful mildness gave charm to his face, an exquisite +serenity that was never marred by a tinge of irony or satire; for his +natural kindliness tempered his conscious strength and superiority. He had +pretty hands, very slender, and almost always moist. His frame was a +marvel, a model for a sculptor; but our iron-gray uniform, with gilt +buttons and knee-breeches, gave us such an ungainly appearance that +Lambert's fine proportions and firm muscles could only be appreciated in +the bath. When we swam in our pool in the Loir, Louis was conspicuous by +the whiteness of his skin, which was unlike the different shades of our +schoolfellows' bodies mottled by the cold, or blue from the water. +Gracefully formed, elegant in his attitudes, delicate in hue, never +shivering after his bath, perhaps because he avoided the shade and always +ran into the sunshine, Louis was like one of those cautious blossoms that +close their petals to the blast and refuse to open unless to a clear sky. +He ate little, and drank water only; either by instinct or by choice he was +averse to any exertion that made a demand on his strength; his movements +were few and simple, like those of Orientals or of savages, with whom +gravity seems a condition of nature. + +As a rule, he disliked everything that resembled any special care for his +person. He commonly sat with his head a little inclined to the left, and so +constantly rested his elbows on the table, that the sleeves of his coats +were soon in holes. + +To this slight picture of the outer man I must add a sketch of his moral +qualities, for I believe I can now judge him impartially. + +Though naturally religious, Louis did not accept the minute practices of +the Roman ritual; his ideas were more intimately in sympathy with Saint +Theresa and Fenelon, and several Fathers and certain Saints, who, in our +day, would be regarded as heresiarchs or atheists. He was rigidly calm +during the services. His own prayers went up in gusts, in aspirations, +without any regular formality; in all things he gave himself up to nature, +and would not pray, any more than he would think, at any fixed hour. In +chapel he was equally apt to think of God or to meditate on some problem of +philosophy. + +To him Jesus Christ was the most perfect type of his system. _Et Verbum +caro factum est_ seemed a sublime statement intended to express the +traditional formula of the Will, the Word, and the Act made visible. +Christ's unconsciousness of His Death--having so perfected His inner Being +by divine works, that one day the invisible form of it appeared to His +disciples--and the other Mysteries of the Gospels, the magnetic cures +wrought by Christ, and the gift of tongues, all to him confirmed his +doctrine. I remember once hearing him say on this subject, that the +greatest work that could be written nowadays was a History of the Primitive +Church. And he never rose to such poetic heights as when, in the evening, +as we conversed, he would enter on an inquiry into miracles, worked by the +power of Will during that great age of faith. He discerned the strongest +evidence of his theory in most of the martyrdoms endured during the first +century of our era, which he spoke of as _the great era of the Mind_. + +"Do not the phenomena observed in almost every instance of the torments so +heroically endured by the early Christians for the establishment of the +faith, amply prove that Material force will never prevail against the force +of Ideas or the Will of man?" he would say. "From this effect, produced by +the Will of all, each man may draw conclusions in favor of his own." + +I need say nothing of his views on poetry or history, nor of his judgment +on the masterpieces of our language. There would be little interest in the +record of opinions now almost universally held, though at that time, from +the lips of a boy, they might seem remarkable. Louis was capable of the +highest flights. To give a notion of his talents in two words, he could +have written _Zadig_ as wittily as Voltaire; he could have thought out the +Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates as powerfully as Montesquieu. His +rectitude of character made him desire above all else in a work that it +should bear the stamp of utility; at the same time, his refined taste +demanded novelty of thought as well as of form. One of his most remarkable +literary observations, which will serve as a clue to all the others, and +show the lucidity of his judgment, is this, which has ever dwelt in my +memory, "The Apocalypse is written ecstasy." He regarded the Bible as a +part of the traditional history of the antediluvian nations which had taken +for its share the new humanity. He thought that the mythology of the Greeks +was borrowed both from the Hebrew Scriptures and from the sacred Books of +India, adapted after their own fashion by the beauty-loving Hellenes. + +"It is impossible," said he, "to doubt the priority of the Asiatic +Scriptures; they are earlier than our sacred books. The man who is candid +enough to admit this historical fact sees the whole world expand before +him. Was it not on the Asiatic highland that the few men took refuge who +were able to escape the catastrophe that ruined our globe--if, indeed, men +had existed before that cataclysm or shock? A serious query, the answer to +which lies at the bottom of the sea. The anthropogony of the Bible is +merely a genealogy of a swarm escaping from the human hive which settled on +the mountainous slopes of Thibet between the summits of the Himalaya and +the Caucasus. + +"The character of the primitive ideas of that horde called by its lawgiver +the people of God, no doubt to secure its unity, and perhaps also to induce +it to maintain his laws and his system of government--for the Books of +Moses are a religious, political, and civil code--that character bears the +authority of terror; convulsions of nature are interpreted with stupendous +power as a vengeance from on high. In fact, since this wandering tribe knew +none of the ease enjoyed by a community settled in a patriarchal home, +their sorrows as pilgrims inspired them with none but gloomy poems, +majestic but blood-stained. In the Hindoos, on the contrary, the spectacle +of the rapid recoveries of the natural world, and the prodigious effects of +sunshine, which they were the first to recognize, gave rise to happy images +of blissful love, to the worship of Fire and of the endless +personifications of reproductive force. These fine fancies are lacking in +the Book of the Hebrews. A constant need of self-preservation amid all the +dangers and the lands they traversed to reach the Promised Land engendered +their exclusive race-feeling and their hatred of all other nations. + +"These three Scriptures are the archives of an engulfed world. Therein lies +the secret of the extraordinary splendor of those languages and their +myths. A grand human history lies beneath those names of men and places, +and those fables which charm us so irresistibly, we know not why. Perhaps +it is because we find in them the native air of renewed humanity." + +Thus, to him, this threefold literature included all the thoughts of man. +Not a book could be written, in his opinion, of which the subject might not +there be discerned in its germ. This view shows how learnedly he had +pursued his early studies of the Bible, and how far they had led him. +Hovering, as it were, over the heads of society, and knowing it solely from +books, he could judge it coldly. + +"The law," said he, "never puts a check on the enterprises of the rich and +great, but crushes the poor, who, on the contrary, need protection." + +His kind heart did not therefore allow him to sympathize in political +ideas; his system led rather to the passive obedience of which Jesus set +the example. During the last hours of my life at Vendome, Louis had ceased +to feel the spur to glory; he had, in a way, had an abstract enjoyment of +fame; and having opened it, as the ancient priests of sacrifice sought to +read the future in the hearts of men, he had found nothing in the entrails +of his chimera. Scorning a sentiment so wholly personal: "Glory," said he, +"is but beatified egoism." + +Here, perhaps, before taking leave of this exceptional boyhood, I may +pronounce judgment on it by a rapid glance. + +A short time before our separation, Lambert said to me: + +"Apart from the general laws which I have formulated--and this, perhaps, +will be my glory--laws which must be those of the human organism, the life +of man is Movement determined in each individual by the pressure of some +inscrutable influence--by the brain, the heart, or the sinews. All the +innumerable modes of human existence result from the proportions in which +these three generating forces are more or less intimately combined with the +substances they assimilate in the environment they live in." + +He stopped short, struck his forehead, and exclaimed: "How strange! In +every great man whose portrait I have remarked, the neck is short. Perhaps +nature requires that in them the heart should be nearer to the brain!" + +Then he went on: + +"From that, a sum-total of action takes its rise which constitutes social +life. The man of sinew contributes action or strength; the man of brain, +genius; the man of heart, faith. But," he added sadly, "faith sees only the +clouds of the sanctuary; the Angel alone has light." + +So, according to his own definitions, Lambert was all brain and all heart. +It seems to me that his intellectual life was divided into three marked +phases. + +Under the impulsion, from his earliest years, of a precocious activity, +due, no doubt, to some malady--or to some special perfection--of organism, +his powers were concentrated on the functions of the inner senses and a +superabundant flow of nerve-fluid. As a man of ideas, he craved to satisfy +the thirst of his brain, to assimilate every idea. Hence his reading; and +from his reading, the reflections that gave him the power of reducing +things to their simplest expression, and of absorbing them to study them in +their essence. Thus, the advantages of this splendid stage, acquired by +other men only after long study, were achieved by Lambert during his bodily +childhood: a happy childhood, colored by the studious joys of a born poet. + +The point which most thinkers reach at last was to him the starting-point, +whence his brain was to set out one day in search of new worlds of +knowledge. Though as yet he knew it not, he had made for himself the most +exacting life possible, and the most insatiably greedy. Merely to live, was +he not compelled to be perpetually casting nutriment into the gulf he had +opened in himself? Like some beings who dwell in the grosser world, might +he not die of inanition for want of feeding abnormal and disappointed +cravings? Was not this a sort of debauchery of the intellect which might +lead to spontaneous combustion, like that of bodies saturated with alcohol? + +I had seen nothing of this first phase of his brain-development; it is only +now, at a later day, that I can thus give an account of its prodigious +fruit and results. Lambert was now thirteen. + +I was so fortunate as to witness the first stage of the second period. +Lambert was cast into all the miseries of school-life--and that, perhaps, +was his salvation--it absorbed the superabundance of his thoughts. After +passing from concrete ideas to their purest expression, from words to their +ideal import, and from that import to principles, after reducing everything +to the abstract, to enable him to live he yearned for yet other +intellectual creations. Quelled by the woes of school and the critical +development of his physical constitution, he became thoughtful, dreamed of +feeling, and caught a glimpse of new sciences--positively masses of ideas. +Checked in his career, and not yet strong enough to contemplate the higher +spheres, he contemplated his inmost self. I then perceived in him the +struggle of the Mind reacting on itself, and trying to detect the secrets +of its own nature, like a physician who watches the course of his own +disease. + +At this stage of weakness and strength, of childish grace and superhuman +powers, Louis Lambert is the creature who, more than any other, gave me a +poetical and truthful image of the being we call an angel, always excepting +one woman whose name, whose features, whose identity, and whose life I +would fain hide from all the world, so as to be sole master of the secret +of her existence, and to bury it in the depths of my heart. + + * * * * * + +The third phase I was not destined to see. It began when Lambert and I were +parted, for he did not leave college till he was eighteen, in the summer of +1815. He had at that time lost his father and mother about six months +before. Finding no member of his family with whom his soul could +sympathize, expansive still, but, since our parting, thrown back on +himself, he made his home with his uncle, who was also his guardian, and +who, having been turned out of his benefice as a priest who had taken the +oaths, had come to settle at Blois. There Louis lived for some time; but +consumed ere long by the desire to finish his incomplete studies, he came +to Paris to see Madame de Stael, and to drink of science at its highest +fount. The old priest, being very fond of his nephew, left Louis free to +spend his whole little inheritance in his three years' stay in Paris, +though he lived very poorly. This fortune consisted of but a few thousand +francs. + +Lambert returned to Blois at the beginning of 1820, driven from Paris by +the sufferings to which the impecunious are exposed there. He must often +have been a victim to the secret storms, the terrible rage of mind by which +artists are tossed to judge from the only fact his uncle recollected, and +the only letter he preserved of all those which Louis Lambert wrote to him +at that time, perhaps because it was the last and the longest. + +To begin with the story. Louis one evening was at the Theatre-Francais, +seated on a bench in the upper gallery, near to one of the pillars which, +in those days, divided off the third row of boxes. On rising between the +acts, he saw a young woman who had just come into the box next him. The +sight of this lady, who was young, pretty, well dressed, in a low bodice no +doubt, and escorted by a man for whom her face beamed with all the charms +of love, produced such a terrible effect on Lambert's soul and senses, that +he was obliged to leave the theatre. If he had not been controlled by some +remaining glimmer of reason, which was not wholly extinguished by this +first fever of burning passion, he might perhaps have yielded to the almost +irresistible desire that came over him to kill the young man on whom the +lady's looks beamed. Was not this a reversion, in the heart of the Paris +world, to the savage passion that regards women as its prey, an effect of +animal instinct combining with the almost luminous flashes of a soul +crushed under the weight of thought? In short, was it not the prick of the +penknife so vividly imagined by the boy, felt by the man as the thunderbolt +of his most vital craving--for love? + +And now, here is the letter that depicts the state of his mind as it was +struck by the spectacle of Parisian civilization. His feelings, perpetually +wounded no doubt in that whirlpool of self-interest, must always have +suffered there; he probably had no friend to comfort him, no enemy to give +tone to his life. Compelled to live in himself alone, having no one to +share his subtle raptures, he may have hoped to solve the problem of his +destiny by a life of ecstasy, adopting an almost vegetative attitude, like +an anchorite of the early Church, and abdicating the empire of the +intellectual world. + +This letter seems to hint at such a scheme, which is a temptation to all +lofty souls at periods of social reform. But is not this purpose, in some +cases, the result of a vocation? Do not some of them endeavor to +concentrate their powers by long silence, so as to emerge fully capable of +governing the world by word or by deed? Louis must, assuredly, have found +much bitterness in his intercourse with men, or have striven hard with +Society in terrible irony, without extracting anything from it, before +uttering so strident a cry, and expressing, poor fellow, the desire which +satiety of power and of all earthly things has led even monarchs to +indulge! + +And perhaps, too, he went back to solitude to carry out some great work +that was floating inchoate in his brain. We would gladly believe it as we +read this fragment of his thoughts, betraying the struggle of his soul at +the time when youth was ending and the terrible power of production was +coming into being, to which we might have owed the works of the man. + +This letter connects itself with the adventure at the theatre. The incident +and the letter throw light on each other, body and soul were tuned to the +same pitch. This tempest of doubts and asseverations, of clouds and of +lightnings that flash before the thunder, ending by a starved yearning for +heavenly illumination, throws such a light on the third phase of his +education as enables us to understand it perfectly. As we read these lines, +written at chance moments, taken up when the vicissitudes of life in Paris +allowed, may we not fancy that we see an oak at that stage of its growth +when its inner expansion bursts the tender green bark, covering it with +wrinkles and cracks, when its majestic stature is in preparation--if indeed +the lightnings of heaven and the axe of man shall spare it? + +This letter, then, will close, alike for the poet and the philosopher, this +portentous childhood and unappreciated youth. It finishes off the outline +of this nature in its germ. Philosophers will regret the foliage +frost-nipped in the bud; but they will, perhaps, find the flowers expanding +in regions far above the highest places of the earth. + + + "PARIS, _September-October 1819_. + + "DEAR UNCLE,--I shall soon be leaving this part of the + world, where I could never bear to live. I find no one + here who likes what I like, who works at my work, or is + amazed at what amazes me. Thrown back on myself, I eat + my heart out in misery. My long and patient study of + Society here has brought me to melancholy conclusions, + in which doubt predominates. + + "Here, money is the mainspring of everything. Money is + indispensable, even for going without money. But though + that dross is necessary to any one who wishes to think + in peace, I have not courage enough to make it the sole + motive power of my thoughts. To make a fortune, I must + take up a profession; in two words, I must, by + acquiring some privilege of position or of + self-advertisement, either legal or ingeniously + contrived, purchase the right of taking day by day out + of somebody else's purse a certain sum which, by the + end of the year, would amount to a small capital; and + this, in twenty years, would hardly secure an income of + four or five thousand francs to a man who deals + honestly. An advocate, a notary, a merchant, any + recognized professional, has earned a living for his + later days in the course of fifteen or sixteen years + after ending his apprenticeship. + + "But I have never felt fit for work of this kind. I + prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, + contemplation to activity. I am absolutely devoid of + the constant attention indispensable to the making of a + fortune. Any mercantile venture, any need for using + other people's money would bring me to grief, and I + should be ruined. Though I have nothing, at least at + the moment, I owe nothing. The man who gives his life + to the achievement of great things in the sphere of + intellect, needs very little; still, though twenty sous + a day would be enough, I do not possess that small + income for my laborious idleness. When I wish to + cogitate, want drives me out of the sanctuary where my + mind has its being. What is to become of me? + + "I am not frightened at poverty. If it were not that + beggars are imprisoned, branded, scorned, I would beg, + to enable me to solve at my leisure the problems that + haunt me. Still, this sublime resignation, by which I + might emancipate my mind, through abstracting it from + the body, would not serve my end. I should still need + money to devote myself to certain experiments. But for + that, I would accept the outward indigence of a sage + possessed of both heaven and earth. A man need only + never stoop, to remain lofty in poverty. He who + struggles and endures, while marching on to a glorious + end, presents a noble spectacle; but who can have the + strength to fight here? We can climb cliffs, but it is + unendurable to remain for ever tramping the mud. + Everything here checks the flight of a spirit that + strives towards the future. + + "I should not be afraid of myself in a desert cave; I + am afraid of myself here. In the desert I should be + alone with myself, undisturbed; here man has a thousand + wants which drag him down. You go out walking, absorbed + in dreams; the voice of the beggar asking an alms + brings you back to this world of hunger and thirst. You + need money only to take a walk. Your organs of sense, + perpetually wearied by trifles, never get any rest. The + poet's sensitive nerves are perpetually shocked, and + what ought to be his glory becomes his torment; his + imagination is his cruelest enemy. The injured workman, + the poor mother in childbed, the prostitute who has + fallen ill, the foundling, the infirm and aged--even + vice and crime here find a refuge and charity; but the + world is merciless to the inventor, to the man who + thinks. Here everything must show an immediate and + practical result. Fruitless attempts are mocked at, + though they may lead to the greatest discoveries; the + deep and untiring study that demands long concentration + of every faculty is not valued here. The State might + pay talent as it pays the bayonet; but it is afraid of + being taken in by mere cleverness, as if genius could + be counterfeited for any length of time. + + "Ah, my dear uncle, when monastic solitude was + destroyed, uprooted from its home at the foot of + mountains, under green and silent shade, asylums ought + to have been provided for those suffering souls who, by + an idea, promote the progress of nations or prepare + some new and fruitful development of science." + + + "_September 20th._ + + "The love of study brought me hither, as you know. I + have met really learned men, amazing for the most part; + but the lack of unity in scientific work almost + nullifies their efforts. There is no Head of + instruction or of scientific research. At the Museum a + professor argues to prove that another in the Rue + Saint-Jacques talks nonsense. The lecturer at the + College of Medicine abuses him of the College de + France. When I first arrived, I went to hear an old + Academician who taught five hundred youths that + Corneille was a haughty and powerful genius; Racine, + elegiac and graceful; Moliere, inimitable; Voltaire, + supremely witty; Bossuet and Pascal, incomparable in + argument. A professor of philosophy may make a name by + explaining how Plato is Platonic. Another discourses on + the history of words, without troubling himself about + ideas. One explains AEschylus, another tells you that + communes were communes, and neither more nor less. + These original and brilliant discoveries, diluted to + last several hours, constitute the higher education + which is to lead to giant strides in human knowledge. + + "If the Government could have an idea, I should suspect + it of being afraid of any real superiority, which, once + roused, might bring Society under the yoke of an + intelligent rule. Then nations would go too far and too + fast; so professors are appointed to produce + simpletons. How else can we account for a scheme devoid + of method or any notion of the future? + + "The _Institut_ might be the central government of the + moral and intellectual world; but it has been ruined + lately by its subdivision into separate academies. So + human science marches on, without a guide, without a + system, and floats haphazard with no road traced out. + + "This vagueness and uncertainty prevails in politics as + well as in science. In the order of nature means are + simple, the end is grand and marvelous; here in + science, as in government, the means are stupendous, + the end is mean. The force which in nature proceeds at + an equal pace, and of which the sum is constantly being + added to itself--the A+A from which everything is + produced--is destructive in society. Politics, at the + present time, place human forces in antagonism to + neutralize each other, instead of combining them to + promote their action to some definite end. + + "Looking at Europe alone, from Caesar to Constantine, + from the puny Constantine to the great Attila, from the + Huns to Charlemagne, from Charlemagne to Leo X., from + Leo X. to Philip II., from Philip II. to Louis XIV.; + from Venice to England, from England to Napoleon, from + Napoleon to England, I see no fixed purpose in + politics; its constant agitation has led to no + progress. + + "Nations leave witnesses to their greatness in + monuments, and to their happiness in the welfare of + individuals. Are modern monuments as fine as those of + the ancients? I doubt it. The arts, which are the + direct outcome of the individual, the products of + genius or of handicraft, have not advanced much. The + pleasures of Lucullus were as good as those of Samuel + Bernard, of Beaujon, or of the King of Bavaria. And + then human longevity has diminished. + + "Thus, to those who will be candid, man is still the + same; might is his only law, and success his only + wisdom. + + "Jesus Christ, Mahomet, and Luther only lent a + different hue to the arena in which youthful nations + disport themselves. + + "No development of politics has hindered civilization, + with its riches, its manners, its alliance of the + strong against the weak, its ideas, and its delights, + from moving from Memphis to Tyre, from Tyre to Baalbek, + from Tadmor to Carthage, from Carthage to Rome, from + Rome to Constantinople, from Constantinople to Venice, + from Venice to Spain, from Spain to England--while no + trace is left of Memphis, of Tyre, of Carthage, of + Rome, of Venice, or Madrid. The soul of those great + bodies has fled. Not one of them has preserved itself + from destruction, nor formulated this axiom: When the + effect produced ceases to be in a ratio to its cause, + disorganization follows. + + "The most subtle genius can discover no common bond + between great social facts. No political theory has + ever lasted. Governments pass away, as men do, without + handing down any lesson, and no system gives birth to + a system better than that which came before it. What + can we say about politics when a Government directly + referred to God perished in India and Egypt; when the + rule of the Sword and of the Tiara are past; when + Monarchy is dying; when the Government of the People + has never been alive; when no scheme of intellectual + power as applied to material interests has ever proved + durable, and everything at this day remains to be done + all over again, as it has been at every period when man + has turned to cry out, 'I am in torment!' + + "The code, which is considered Napoleon's greatest + achievement, is the most Draconian work I know of. + Territorial subdivision carried out to the uttermost, + and its principle confirmed by the equal division of + property generally, must result in the degeneracy of + the nation and the death of the Arts and Sciences. The + land, too much broken up, is cultivated only with + cereals and small crops; the forests, and consequently + the rivers, are disappearing; oxen and horses are no + longer bred. Means are lacking both for attack and for + resistance. If we should be invaded, the people must be + crushed; it has lost its mainspring--its leaders. This + is the history of deserts! + + "Thus the science of politics has no definite + principles, and it can have no fixity; it is the spirit + of the hour, the perpetual application of strength + proportioned to the necessities of the moment. The man + who should foresee two centuries ahead would die on the + place of execution, loaded with the imprecations of the + mob, or else--which seems worse--would be lashed with + the myriad whips of ridicule. Nations are but + individuals, neither wiser nor stronger than man, and + their destinies are identical. If we reflect on man, is + not that to consider mankind? + + "By studying the spectacle of society perpetually + storm-tossed in its foundations as well as in its + results, in its causes as well as in its actions, while + philanthropy is but a splendid mistake, and progress is + vanity, I have been confirmed in this truth: Life is + within and not without us; to rise above men, to + govern them, is only the part of an aggrandized + schoolmaster; and those men who are capable of rising + to the level whence they can enjoy a view of the world + should not look at their own feet." + + + "_November 4th._ + + "I am no doubt occupied with weighty thoughts, I am on + the way to certain discoveries, an invincible power + bears me toward a luminary which shone at an early age + on the darkness of my moral life; but what name can I + give to the power that ties my hands and shuts my + mouth, and drags me in a direction opposite to my + vocation? I must leave Paris, bid farewell to the books + in the libraries, those noble centres of illumination, + those kindly and always accessible sages, and the + younger geniuses with whom I sympathize. Who is it that + drives me away? Chance or Providence? + + "The two ideas represented by those words are + irreconcilable. If Chance does not exist, we must admit + fatalism, that is to say, the compulsory co-ordination + of things under the rule of a general plan. Why then do + we rebel? If man is not free, what becomes of the + scaffolding of his moral sense? Or, if he can control + his destiny, if by his own freewill he can interfere + with the execution of the general plan, what becomes of + God? + + "Why did I come here? If I examine myself, I find the + answer: I find in myself axioms that need developing. + But why then have I such vast faculties without being + suffered to use them? If my suffering could serve as an + example, I could understand it; but no, I suffer + unknown. + + "This is perhaps as much the act of Providence as the + fate of the flower that dies unseen in the heart of the + virgin forest, where no one can enjoy its perfume or + admire its splendor. Just as that blossom vainly sheds + its fragrance to the solitude, so do I, here in a + garret, give birth to ideas that no one can grasp. + + "Yesterday evening I sat eating bread and grapes in + front of my window with a young doctor named Meyraux. + We talked as men do whom misfortune has joined in + brotherhood, and I said to him: + + "'I am going away; you are staying. Take up my ideas + and develop them.' + + "'I cannot!' said he, with bitter regret; 'my feeble + health cannot stand so much work, and I shall die young + of my struggle with penury.' + + "We looked up at the sky and grasped hands. We first + met at the Comparative Anatomy course, and in the + galleries of the Museum, attracted thither by the same + study--the unity of geological structure. In him this + was the presentiment of genius sent to open a new path + in the fallows of intellect; in me it was a deduction + from a general system. + + "My point is to ascertain the real relation that may + exist between God and man. Is not this a need of the + age? Without the highest assurance, it is impossible to + put bit and bridle on the social factions that have + been let loose by the spirit of scepticism and + discussion, and which are now crying aloud: 'Show us a + way in which we may walk and find no pitfalls in our + way!' + + "You will wonder what comparative anatomy has to do + with a question of such importance to the future of + society. Must we not attain to the conviction that man + is the end of all earthly means before we ask whether + he too is not the means to some end? If man is bound up + with everything, is there not something above him with + which he again is bound up? If he is the end-all of the + unexplained transmutations that lead up to him, must he + not be also the link between the visible and invisible + creations? + + "The activity of the universe is not absurd; it must + tend to an end, and that end is surely not a social + body constituted as ours is! There is a fearful gulf + between us and heaven. In our present existence we can + neither be always happy nor always in torment; must + there not be some tremendous change to bring about + Paradise and Hell, two images without which God cannot + exist to the mind of the vulgar? I know that a + compromise was made by the invention of the Soul; but + it is repugnant to me to make God answerable for human + baseness, for our disenchantments, our aversions, our + degeneracy. + + "Again, how can we recognize as divine the principle + within us which can be overthrown by a few glasses of + rum? How conceive of immaterial faculties which matter + can conquer, and whose exercise is suspended by a grain + of opium? How imagine that we shall be able to feel + when we are bereft of the vehicles of sensation? Why + must God perish if matter can be proved to think? Is + the vitality of matter in its innumerable + manifestations--the effect of its instincts--at all + more explicable than the effects of the mind? Is not + the motion given to the worlds enough to prove God's + existence, without our plunging into absurd + speculations suggested by pride? And if we pass, after + our trials, from a perishable state of being to a + higher existence, is not that enough for a creature + that is distinguished from other creatures only by more + perfect instincts? If in moral philosophy there is not + a single principle which does not lead to the absurd, + or cannot be disproved by evidence, is it not high time + that we should set to work to seek such dogmas as are + written in the innermost nature of things? Must we not + reverse philosophical science? + + "We trouble ourselves very little about the supposed + void that must have pre-existed for us, and we try to + fathom the supposed void that lies before us. We make + God responsible for the future, but we do not expect + Him to account for the past. And yet it is quite as + desirable to know whether we have any roots in the past + as to discover whether we are inseparable from the + future. + + "We have been Deists or Atheists in one direction only. + + "Is the world eternal? Was the world created? We can + conceive of no middle term between these two + propositions; one, then, is true and the other false! + Take your choice. Whichever it may be, God, as our + reason depicts Him, must be deposed, and that amounts + to denial. The world is eternal: then, beyond question, + God has had it forced upon Him. The world was created: + then God is an impossibility. How could He have + subsisted through an eternity, not knowing that He + would presently want to create the world? How could He + have failed to foresee all the results? + + "Whence did He derive the essence of creation? + Evidently from Himself. If, then, the world proceeds + from God, how can you account for evil? That Evil + should proceed from Good is absurd. If evil does not + exist, what do you make of social life and its laws? On + all hands we find a precipice! On every side a gulf in + which reason is lost! Then social science must be + altogether reconstructed. + + "Listen to me, uncle; until some splendid genius shall + have taken account of the obvious inequality of + intellects and the general sense of humanity, the word + God will be constantly arraigned, and Society will rest + on shifting sands. The secret of the various moral + zones through which man passes will be discovered by + the analysis of the animal type as a whole. That animal + type has hitherto been studied with reference only to + its differences, not to its similitudes; in its organic + manifestations, not in its faculties. Animal faculties + are perfected in direct transmission, in obedience to + laws which remain to be discovered. These faculties + correspond to the forces which express them, and those + forces are essentially material and divisible. + + "Material faculties! Reflect on this juxtaposition of + words. Is not this a problem as insoluble as that of + the first communication of motion to matter--an + unsounded gulf of which the difficulties were + transposed rather than removed by Newton's system? + Again, the universal assimilation of light by + everything that exists on earth demands a new study of + our globe. The same animal differs in the tropics of + India and in the North. Under the angular or the + vertical incidence of the sun's rays nature is + developed the same, but not the same; identical in its + principles, but totally dissimilar in its outcome. The + phenomenon that amazes our eyes in the zoological world + when we compare the butterflies of Brazil with those of + Europe, is even more startling in the world of Mind. A + particular facial angle, a certain amount of brain + convolutions, are indispensable to produce Columbus, + Raphael, Napoleon, Laplace, or Beethoven; the sunless + valley produces the cretin--draw your own conclusions. + Why such differences, due to the more or less ample + diffusion of light to men? The masses of suffering + humanity, more or less active, fed, and enlightened, + are a difficulty to be accounted for, crying out + against God. + + "Why in great joy do we always want to quit the earth? + whence comes the longing to rise which every creature + has known or will know? Motion is a great soul, and its + alliance with matter is just as difficult to account + for as the origin of thought in man. In these days + science is one; it is impossible to touch politics + independent of moral questions, and these are bound up + with scientific questions. It seems to me that we are + on the eve of a great human struggle; the forces are + there; only I do not see the General." + + + "November 25. + + "Believe me, dear uncle, it is hard to give up the life + that is in us without a pang. I am returning to Blois + with a heavy grip at my heart; I shall die then, taking + with me some useful truths. No personal interest + debases my regrets. Is earthly fame a guerdon to those + who believe that they will mount to a higher sphere? + + "I am by no means in love with the two syllables _Lam_ + and _bert_; whether spoken with respect or with + contempt over my grave, they can make no change in my + ultimate destiny. I feel myself strong and energetic; I + might become a power; I feel in myself a life so + luminous that it might enlighten a world, and yet I am + shut up in a sort of mineral, as perhaps indeed are the + colors you admire on the neck of an Indian bird. I + should need to embrace the whole world, to clasp and + recreate it; but those who have done this, who have + thus embraced and remoulded it began--did they not?--by + being a wheel in the machine. I can only be crushed. + Mahomet had the sword; Jesus had the cross; I shall die + unknown. I shall be at Blois for a day, and then in my + coffin. + + "Do you know why I have come back to Swedenborg after + vast studies of all religions, and after proving to + myself, by reading all the works published within the + last sixty years by the patient English, by Germany, + and by France, how deeply true were my youthful views + about the Bible? Swedenborg undoubtedly epitomizes all + the religions--or rather the one religion--of humanity. + Though forms of worship are infinitely various, neither + their true meaning nor their metaphysical + interpretation has ever varied. In short, man has, and + has had, but one religion. + + "Sivaism, Vishnuism, and Brahmanism, the three + primitive creeds, originating as they did in Thibet, in + the valley of the Indus, and on the vast plains of the + Ganges, ended their warfare some thousand years before + the birth of Christ by adopting the Hindoo Trimourti. + The Trimourti is our Trinity. From this dogma Magianism + arose in Persia; in Egypt, the African beliefs and the + Mosaic law; the worship of the Cabiri, and the + polytheism of Greece and Rome. While by this + ramification of the Trimourti the Asiatic myths became + adapted to the imaginations of various races in the + lands they reached by the agency of certain sages whom + men elevated to be demi-gods--Mithra, Bacchus, Hermes, + Hercules, and the rest--Buddha, the great reformer of + the three primeval religions, lived in India, and + founded his Church there, a sect which still numbers + two hundred millions more believers than Christianity + can show, while it certainly influenced the powerful + Will both of Jesus and of Confucius. + + "Then Christianity raised her standard. Subsequently + Mahomet fused Judaism and Christianity, the Bible and + the Gospel, in one book, the Koran, adapting them to + the apprehension of the Arab race. Finally, Swedenborg + borrowed from Magianism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and + Christian mysticism all the truth and divine beauty + that those four great religious books hold in common, + and added to them a doctrine, a basis of reasoning, + that may be termed mathematical. + + "Any man who plunges into those religious waters, of + which the sources are not all known, will find proofs + that Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, + and Swedenborg had identical principles and aimed at + identical ends. + + "The last of them all, Swedenborg, will perhaps be the + Buddha of the North. Obscure and diffuse as his + writings are, we find in them the elements of a + magnificent conception of society. His Theocracy is + sublime, and his creed is the only acceptable one to + superior souls. He alone brings man into immediate + communion with God, he gives a thirst for God, he has + freed the majesty of God from the trappings in which + other human dogmas have disguised Him. He left Him + where He is, making His myriad creations and creatures + gravitate towards Him through successive + transformations which promise a more immediate and more + natural future than the Catholic idea of Eternity. + Swedenborg has absolved God from the reproach attaching + to Him in the estimation of tender souls for the + perpetuity of revenge to punish the sin of a moment--a + system of injustice and cruelty. + + "Each man may know for himself what hope he has of life + eternal, and whether this world has any rational sense. + I mean to make the attempt. And this attempt may save + the world, just as much as the cross at Jerusalem or + the sword at Mecca. These were both the offspring of + the desert. Of the thirty-three years of Christ's life, + we only know the history of nine; His life of seclusion + prepared Him for His life of glory. And I too crave for + the desert!" + +Notwithstanding the difficulties of the task, I have felt it my duty to +depict Lambert's boyhood, the unknown life to which I owe the only happy +hours, the only pleasant memories, of my early days. Excepting during those +two years I had nothing but annoyances and weariness. Though some happiness +was mine at a later time, it was always incomplete. + +I have been diffuse, I know; but in default of entering into the whole wide +heart and brain of Louis Lambert--two words which inadequately express the +infinite aspects of his inner life--it would be almost impossible to make +the second part of his intellectual history intelligible--a phase that was +unknown to the world and to me, but of which the mystical outcome was made +evident to my eyes in the course of a few hours. Those who have not already +dropped this volume, will, I hope, understand the events I still have to +tell, forming as they do a sort of second existence lived by this +creature--may I not say this creation?--in whom everything was to be so +extraordinary, even his end. + + * * * * * + +When Louis returned to Blois, his uncle was eager to procure him some +amusement; but the poor priest was regarded as a perfect leper in that +godly-minded town. No one would have anything to say to a revolutionary who +had taken the oaths. His society, therefore, consisted of a few individuals +of what were then called liberal or patriotic, or constitutional opinions, +on whom he would call for a rubber of whist or of boston. + +At the first house where he was introduced by his uncle, Louis met a young +lady, whose circumstances obliged her to remain in this circle, so +contemned by those of the fashionable world, though her fortune was such as +to make it probable that she might by and by marry into the highest +aristocracy of the province. Mademoiselle Pauline de Villenoix was sole +heiress to the wealth amassed by her grandfather, a Jew named Salomon, who, +contrary to the customs of his nation, had, in his old age, married a +Christian and a Catholic. He had an only son, who was brought up in his +mother's faith. At his father's death young Salomon purchased what was +known at that time as a _savonnette a vilain_ (literally _a cake of soap +for a serf_), a small estate called Villenoix, which he contrived to get +registered with a baronial title, and took its name. He died unmarried, but +he left a natural daughter, to whom he bequeathed the greater part of his +fortune, including the lands of Villenoix. He appointed one of his uncles, +Monsieur Joseph Salomon, to be the girl's guardian. The old Jew was so +devoted to his ward that he seemed willing to make great sacrifices for +the sake of marrying her well. But Mademoiselle de Villenoix's birth, and +the cherished prejudice against Jews that prevails in the provinces, would +not allow of her being received in the very exclusive circle which, rightly +or wrongly, considers itself noble, notwithstanding her own large fortune +and her guardian's. + +Monsieur Joseph Salomon was resolved that if she could not secure a country +squire, his niece should go to Paris and make choice of a husband among the +peers of France, liberal or monarchical; as to happiness, that he believed +he could secure her by the terms of the marriage contract. + +Mademoiselle de Villenoix was now twenty. Her remarkable beauty and gifts +of mind were surer guarantees of happiness than those offered by money. Her +features were of the purest type of Jewish beauty; the oval lines, so noble +and maidenly, have an indescribable stamp of the ideal, and seem to speak +of the joys of the East, its unchangeably blue sky, the glories of its +lands, and the fabulous riches of life there. She had fine eyes, shaded by +deep eyelids, fringed with thick, curled lashes. Biblical innocence sat on +her brow. Her complexion was of the pure whiteness of the Levite's robe. +She was habitually silent and thoughtful, but her movements and gestures +betrayed a quiet grace, as her speech bore witness to a woman's sweet and +loving nature. She had not, indeed, the rosy freshness, the fruit-like +bloom which blush on a girl's cheek during her careless years. Darker +shadows, with here and there a redder vein, took the place of color, +symptomatic of an energetic temper and nervous irritability, such as many +men do not like to meet with in a wife, while to others they are an +indication of the most sensitive chastity and passion mingled with pride. + +As soon as Louis saw Mademoiselle de Villenoix, he discerned the angel +within. The richest powers of his soul, and his tendency to ecstatic +reverie, every faculty within him was at once concentrated in boundless +love, the first love of a young man, a passion which is strong indeed in +all, but which in him was raised to incalculable power by the perennial +ardor of his senses, the character of his ideas, and the manner in which +he lived. This passion became a gulf, into which the hapless fellow threw +everything; a gulf whither the mind dare not venture, since his, flexible +and firm as it was, was lost there. There all was mysterious, for +everything went on in that moral world, closed to most men, whose laws were +revealed to him--perhaps to his sorrow. + +When an accident threw me in the way of his uncle, the good man showed me +into the room which Lambert had at that time lived in. I wanted to find +some vestiges of his writings, if he should have left any. There, among his +papers, untouched by the old man from that fine instinct of grief that +characterizes the aged, I found a number of letters, too illegible ever to +have been sent to Mademoiselle de Villenoix. My familiarity with Lambert's +writing enabled me in time to decipher the hieroglyphics of this shorthand, +the result of impatience and a frenzy of passion. Carried away by his +feelings, he had written without being conscious of the irregularity of +words too slow to express his thoughts. He must have been compelled to copy +these chaotic attempts, for the lines often ran into each other; but he was +also afraid perhaps of not having sufficiently disguised his feelings, and +at first, at any rate, he had probably written his love-letters twice over. + +It required all the fervency of my devotion to his memory, and the sort of +fanaticism which comes of such a task, to enable me to divine and restore +the meaning of the five letters that here follow. These documents, +preserved by me with pious care, are the only material evidence of his +overmastering passion. Mademoiselle de Villenoix has no doubt destroyed the +real letters that she received, eloquent witnesses to the delirium she +inspired. + +The first of these papers, evidently a rough sketch, betrays by its style +and by its length the many emendations, the heartfelt alarms, the +innumerable terrors caused by a desire to please; the changes of expression +and the hesitation between the whirl of ideas that beset a man as he +indites his first love-letter--a letter he never will forget, each line +the result of a reverie, each word the subject of long cogitation, while +the most unbridled passion known to man feels the necessity of the most +reserved utterance, and like a giant stooping to enter a hovel, speaks +humbly and low, so as not to alarm a girl's soul. + +No antiquary ever handled his palimpsests with greater respect than I +showed in reconstructing these mutilated documents of such joy and +suffering as must always be sacred to those who have known similar joy and +grief. + + +I + +"Mademoiselle, when you have read this letter, if you ever should read it, +my life will be in your hands, for I love you; and to me, the hope of being +loved is life. Others, perhaps, ere now, have, in speaking of themselves, +misused the words I must employ to depict the state of my soul; yet, I +beseech you to believe in the truth of my expressions; though weak, they +are sincere. Perhaps I ought not thus to proclaim my love. Indeed, my heart +counseled me to wait in silence till my passion should touch you, that I +might the better conceal it if its silent demonstrations should displease +you; or till I could express it even more delicately than in words if I +found favor in your eyes. However, after having listened for long to the +coy fears that fill a youthful heart with alarms, I write in obedience to +the instinct which drags useless lamentations from the dying. + +"It has needed all my courage to silence the pride of poverty, and to +overleap the barriers which prejudice erects between you and me. I have had +to smother many reflections to love you in spite of your wealth; and as I +write to you, am I not in danger of the scorn which women often reserve for +professions of love, which they accept only as one more tribute of +flattery? But we cannot help rushing with all our might towards happiness, +or being attracted to the life of love as a plant is to the light; we must +have been very unhappy before we can conquer the torment, the anguish, of +those secret deliberations when reason proves to us by a thousand arguments +how barren our yearning must be if it remains buried in our hearts, and +when hopes bid us dare everything. + +"I was happy when I admired you in silence; I was so lost in the +contemplation of your beautiful soul, that only to see you left me hardly +anything further to imagine. And I should not now have dared to address you +if I had not heard that you were leaving. What misery has that one word +brought upon me! Indeed, it is my despair that has shown me the extent of +my attachment--it is unbounded. Mademoiselle, you will never know--at +least, I hope you may never know--the anguish of dreading lest you should +lose the only happiness that has dawned on you on earth, the only thing +that has thrown a gleam of light in the darkness of misery. I understood +yesterday that my life was no more in myself, but in you. There is but one +woman in the world for me, as there is but one thought in my soul. I dare +not tell you to what a state I am reduced by my love for you. I would have +you only as a gift from yourself; I must therefore avoid showing myself to +you in all the attractiveness of dejection--for is it not often more +impressive to a noble soul than that of good fortune? There are many things +I may not tell you. Indeed, I have too lofty a notion of love to taint it +with ideas that are alien to its nature. If my soul is worthy of yours, and +my life pure, your heart will have a sympathetic insight, and you will +understand me! + +"It is the fate of man to offer himself to the woman who can make him +believe in happiness; but it is your prerogative to reject the truest +passion if it is not in harmony with the vague voices in your heart--that I +know. If my lot, as decided by you, must be adverse to my hopes, +mademoiselle, let me appeal to the delicacy of your maiden soul and the +ingenuous compassion of a woman to burn my letter. On my knees I beseech +you to forget all! Do not mock at a feeling that is wholly respectful, and +that is too deeply graven on my heart ever to be effaced. Break my heart, +but do not rend it! Let the expression of my first love, a pure and +youthful love, be lost in your pure and youthful heart! Let it die there as +a prayer rises up to die in the bosom of God! + +"I owe you much gratitude: I have spent delicious hours occupied in +watching you, and giving myself up to the faint dreams of my life; do not +crush these long but transient joys by some girlish irony. Be satisfied not +to answer me. I shall know how to interpret your silence; you will see me +no more. If I must be condemned to know for ever what happiness means, and +to be for ever bereft of it; if, like a banished angel, I am to cherish the +sense of celestial joys while bound for ever to a world of sorrow--well, I +can keep the secret of my love as well as that of my griefs.--And farewell! + +"Yes, I resign you to God, to whom I will pray for you, beseeching Him to +grant you a happy life; for even if I am driven from your heart, into which +I have crept by stealth, still I shall ever be near you. Otherwise, of what +value would the sacred words be of this letter, my first and perhaps my +last entreaty? If I should ever cease to think of you, to love you whether +in happiness or in woe, should I not deserve my punishment?" + + +II + +"You are not going away! And I am loved! I, a poor, insignificant creature! +My beloved Pauline, you do not yourself know the power of the look I +believe in, the look you gave me to tell me that you had chosen me--you so +young and lovely, with the world at your feet! + +"To enable you to understand my happiness, I should have to give you a +history of my life. If you had rejected me, all was over for me. I have +suffered too much. Yes, my love for you, my comforting and stupendous love, +was a last effort of yearning for the happiness my soul strove to reach--a +soul crushed by fruitless labor, consumed by fears that make me doubt +myself, eaten into by despair which has often urged me to die. No one in +the world can conceive of the terrors my fateful imagination inflicts on +me. It often bears me up to the sky, and suddenly flings me to earth again +from prodigious heights. Deep-seated rushes of power, or some rare and +subtle instance of peculiar lucidity, assure me now and then that I am +capable of great things. Then I embrace the universe in my mind, I knead, +shape it, inform it, I comprehend it--or fancy that I do; then suddenly I +awake--alone, sunk in blackest night, helpless and weak; I forget the light +I saw but now, I find no succor; above all, there is no heart where I may +take refuge. + +"This distress of my inner life affects my physical existence. The nature +of my character gives me over to the raptures of happiness as defenceless +as when the fearful light of reflection comes to analyze and demolish them. +Gifted as I am with the melancholy faculty of seeing obstacles and success +with equal clearness, according to the mood of the moment, I am happy or +miserable by turns. + +"Thus, when first I met you, I felt the presence of an angelic nature, I +breathed an air that was sweet to my burning breast, I heard in my soul the +voice that never can be false, telling me that here was happiness; but +perceiving all the barriers that divided us, I understood for the first +time what worldly prejudices were; I understood the vastness of their +pettiness, and these difficulties terrified me more than the prospect of +happiness could delight me. At once I felt the awful reaction which casts +my expansive soul back on itself; the smile you had brought to my lips +suddenly turned to a bitter grimace, and I could only strive to keep calm, +while my soul was boiling with the turmoil of contradictory emotions. In +short, I experienced that gnawing pang to which twenty-three years of +suppressed sighs and betrayed affections have not inured me. + +"Well, Pauline, the look by which you promised that I should be happy +suddenly warmed my vitality, and turned all my sorrows into joy. Now, I +could wish that I had suffered more. My love is suddenly full-grown. My +soul was a wide territory that lacked the blessing of sunshine, and your +eyes have shed light on it. Beloved providence! you will be all in all to +me, orphan as I am, without a relation but my uncle. You will be my whole +family, as you are my whole wealth, nay, the whole world to me. Have you +not bestowed on me every gladness man can desire in that +chaste--lavish--timid glance? + +"You have given me incredible self-confidence and audacity. I can dare all +things now. I came back to Blois in deep dejection. Five years of study in +the heart of Paris had made me look on the world as a prison. I had +conceived of vast schemes, and dared not speak of them. Fame seemed to me a +prize for charlatans, to which a really noble spirit should not stoop. +Thus, my ideas could only make their way by the assistance of a man bold +enough to mount the platform of the press, and to harangue loudly the +simpletons he scorns. This kind of courage I have not. I ploughed my way +on, crushed by the verdict of the crowd, in despair at never making it hear +me. I was at once too humble and too lofty! I swallowed my thoughts as +other men swallow humiliations. I had even come to despise knowledge, +blaming it for yielding no real happiness. + +"But since yesterday I am wholly changed. For your sake I now covet every +palm of glory, every triumph of success. When I lay my head on your knees, +I could wish to attract to you the eyes of the whole world, just as I long +to concentrate in my love every idea, every power that is in me. The most +splendid celebrity is a possession that genius alone can create. Well, I +can, at my will, make for you a bed of laurels. And if the silent ovation +paid to science is not all you desire, I have within me the sword of the +Word; I could run in the path of honor and ambition where others only +crawl. + +"Command me, Pauline; I will be whatever you will. My iron will can do +anything--I am loved! Armed with that thought, ought not a man to sweep +everything before him? The man who wants all can do all. If you are the +prize of success, I enter the lists to-morrow. To win such a look as that +you bestowed on me, I would leap the deepest abyss. Through you I +understand the fabulous achievements of chivalry and the most fantastic +tales of the _Arabian Nights_. I can believe now in the most fantastic +excesses of love, and in the success of a prisoner's wildest attempt to +recover his liberty. You have aroused the thousand virtues that lay dormant +within me--patience, resignation, all the powers of my heart, all the +strength of my soul. I live by you and--heavenly thought!--for you. +Everything now has a meaning for me in life. I understand everything, even +the vanities of wealth. + +"I find myself shedding all the pearls of the Indies at your feet; I fancy +you reclining either on the rarest flowers, or on the softest tissues, and +all the splendor of the world seems hardly worthy of you, for whom I would +I could command the harmony and the light that are given out by the harps +of seraphs and the stars of heaven! Alas! a poor, studious poet, I offer +you in words treasures I cannot bestow; I can only give you my heart, in +which you reign for ever. I have nothing else. But are there no treasures +in eternal gratitude, in a smile whose expression will perpetually vary +with perennial happiness, under the constant eagerness of my devotion to +guess the wishes of your loving soul? Has not one celestial glance given us +assurance of always understanding each other? + +"I have a prayer now to be said to God every night--a prayer full of you: +'Let my Pauline be happy!' And will you fill all my days as you now fill my +heart? + +"Farewell, I can but trust you to God alone!" + + +III + +"Pauline! tell me if I can in any way have displeased you yesterday? Throw +off the pride of heart which inflicts on me the secret tortures that can be +caused by one we love. Scold me if you will! Since yesterday, a vague, +unutterable dread of having offended you pours grief on the life of feeling +which you had made so sweet and so rich. The lightest veil that comes +between two souls sometimes grows to be a brazen wall. There are no venial +crimes in love! If you have the very spirit of that noble sentiment, you +must feel all its pangs, and we must be unceasingly careful not to fret +each other by some heedless word. + +"No doubt, my beloved treasure, if there is any fault, it is in me. I +cannot pride myself in the belief that I understand a woman's heart in all +the expansion of its tenderness, all the grace of its devotedness; but I +will always endeavor to appreciate the value of what you vouchsafe to show +me of the secrets of yours. + +"Speak to me! Answer me soon! The melancholy into which we are thrown by +the idea of a wrong done is frightful; it casts a shroud over life, and +doubts on everything. + +"I spent this morning sitting on the bank by the sunken road, gazing at the +turrets of Villenoix, not daring to go to our hedge. If you could imagine +all I saw in my soul! What gloomy visions passed before me under the gray +sky, whose cold sheen added to my dreary mood! I had dark presentiments! I +was terrified lest I should fail to make you happy. + +"I must tell you everything, my dear Pauline. There are moments when the +spirit of vitality seems to abandon me. I feel bereft of all strength. +Everything is a burden to me; every fibre of my body is inert, every sense +is flaccid, my sight grows dim, my tongue is paralyzed, my imagination is +extinct, desire is dead--nothing survives but my mere human vitality. At +such times, though you were in all the splendor of your beauty, though you +should lavish on me your subtlest smiles and tenderest words, an evil +influence would blind me, and distort the most ravishing melody into +discordant sounds. At those times--as I believe--some argumentative demon +stands before me, showing me the void beneath the most real possessions. +This pitiless demon mows down every flower, and mocks at the sweetest +feelings, saying: 'Well--and then?' He mars the fairest work by showing me +its skeleton, and reveals the mechanism of things while hiding the +beautiful results. + +"At those terrible moments, when the evil spirit takes possession of me, +when the divine light is darkened in my soul without my knowing the cause, +I sit in grief and anguish, I wish myself deaf and dumb, I long for death +to give me rest. These hours of doubt and uneasiness are perhaps +inevitable; at any rate, they teach me not to be proud after the flights +which have borne me to the skies where I have gathered a full harvest of +thoughts; for it is always after some long excursion in the vast fields of +the intellect, and after the most luminous speculations, that I tumble, +broken and weary, into this limbo. At such a moment, my angel, a wife would +doubt my love for her--at any rate, she might. If she were capricious, +ailing, or depressed, she would need the comforting overflow of ingenious +affection, and I should not have a glance to bestow on her. It is my shame, +Pauline, to have to tell you that at such times I could weep with you, but +that nothing could make me smile. + +"A woman can always conceal her troubles; for her child, or for the man she +loves, she can laugh in the midst of suffering. And could not I, for you, +Pauline, imitate the exquisite reserve of a woman? Since yesterday I have +doubted my own power. If I could displease you once, if I failed once to +understand you, I dread lest I should often be carried out of our happy +circle by my evil demon. Supposing I were to have many of those dreadful +moods, or that my unbounded love could not make up for the dark hours of my +life--that I were doomed to remain such as I am?--Fatal doubts! + +"Power is indeed a fatal possession if what I feel within me is power. +Pauline, go! Leave me, desert me! Sooner would I endure every ill in life +than endure the misery of knowing that you were unhappy through me. + +"But, perhaps, the demon has had such empire over me only because I have +had no gentle, white hands about me to drive him off. No woman has ever +shed on me the balm of her affection; and I know not whether, if love +should wave his pinions over my head in these moments of exhaustion, new +strength might not be given to my spirit. This terrible melancholy is +perhaps a result of my isolation, one of the torments of a lonely soul +which pays for its hidden treasures with groans and unknown suffering. +Those who enjoy little shall suffer little; immense happiness entails +unutterable anguish! + +"How terrible a doom! If it be so, must we not shudder for ourselves, we +who are superhumanly happy? If nature sells us everything at its true +value, into what pit are we not fated to fall? Ah! the most fortunate +lovers are those who die together in the midst of their youth and love! How +sad it all is! Does my soul foresee evil in the future? I examine myself, +wondering whether there is anything in me that can cause you a moment's +anxiety. I love you too selfishly perhaps? I shall be laying on your +beloved head a burden heavy out of all proportion to the joy my love can +bring to your heart. If there dwells in me some inexorable power which I +must obey--if I am compelled to curse when you pray, if some dark thought +coerces me when I would fain kneel at your feet and play as a child, will +you not be jealous of that wayward and tricky spirit? + +"You understand, dearest heart, that what I dread is not being wholly +yours; that I would gladly forego all the sceptres and the palms of the +world to enshrine you in one eternal thought, to see a perfect life and an +exquisite poem in our rapturous love; to throw my soul into it, drown my +powers, and wring from each hour the joys it has to give! + +"Ah, my memories of love are crowding back upon me, the clouds of despair +will lift. Farewell. I leave you now to be more entirely yours. My beloved +soul, I look for a line, a word that may restore my peace of mind. Let me +know whether I really grieved my Pauline, or whether some uncertain +expression of her countenance misled me. I could not bear to have to +reproach myself after a whole life of happiness, for ever having met you +without a smile of love, a honeyed word. To grieve the woman I +love--Pauline, I should count it a crime. Tell me the truth, do not put me +off with some magnanimous subterfuge, but forgive me without cruelty." + + +FRAGMENT. + +"Is so perfect an attachment happiness? Yes, for years of suffering would +not pay for an hour of love. + +"Yesterday, your sadness, as I suppose, passed into my soul as swiftly as a +shadow falls. Were you sad or suffering? I was wretched. Whence came my +distress? Write to me at once. Why did I not know it? We are not yet +completely one in mind. At two leagues' distance or at a thousand I ought +to feel your pains and sorrows. I shall not believe that I love you till my +life is so bound up with yours that our life is one, till our hearts, our +thoughts are one. I must be where you are, see what you see, feel what you +feel, be with you in thought. Did not I know, at once, that your carriage +had been overthrown and you were bruised? But on that day I had been with +you, I had never left you, I could see you. When my uncle asked me what +made me turn so pale, I answered at once, 'Mademoiselle de Villenoix has +had a fall.' + +"Why, then, yesterday, did I fail to read your soul? Did you wish to hide +the cause of your grief? However, I fancied I could feel that you were +arguing in my favor, though in vain, with that dreadful Salomon, who +freezes my blood. That man is not of our heaven. + +"Why do you insist that our happiness, which has no resemblance to that of +other people, should conform to the laws of the world? And yet I delight +too much in your bashfulness, your religion, your superstitions, not to +obey your lightest whim. What you do must be right; nothing can be purer +than your mind, as nothing is lovelier than your face, which reflects your +divine soul. + +"I shall wait for a letter before going along the lanes to meet the sweet +hour you grant me. Oh! if you could know how the sight of those turrets +makes my heart throb when I see them edged with light by the moon, our only +confidante." + + +IV + +"Farewell to glory, farewell to the future, to the life I had dreamed of! +Now, my well-beloved, my glory is that I am yours, and worthy of you; my +future lies entirely in the hope of seeing you; and is not my life summed +up in sitting at your feet, in lying under your eyes, in drawing deep +breaths in the heaven you have created for me? All my powers, all my +thoughts must be yours, since you could speak those thrilling words, 'Your +sufferings must be mine!' Should I not be stealing some joys from love, +some moments from happiness, some experiences from your divine spirit, if I +gave my hours to study--ideas to the world and poems to the poets? Nay, +nay, my very life, I will treasure everything for you; I will bring to you +every flower of my soul. Is there anything fine enough, splendid enough, in +all the resources of the world, or of intellect, to do honor to a heart so +rich, so pure as yours--the heart to which I dare now and again to unite my +own? Yes, now and again, I dare believe that I can love as much as you do. + +"And yet, no; you are the angel-woman; there will always be a greater charm +in the expression of your feelings, more harmony in your voice, more grace +in your smile, more purity in your looks than in mine. Let me feel that you +are the creature of a higher sphere than that I live in; it will be your +pride to have descended from it; mine, that I should have deserved you; and +you will not perhaps have fallen too far by coming down to me in my poverty +and misery. Nay, if a woman's most glorious refuge is in a heart that is +wholly her own, you will always reign supreme in mine. Not a thought, not a +deed, shall ever pollute this heart, this glorious sanctuary, so long as +you vouchsafe to dwell in it--and will you not dwell in it for ever? Did +you not enchant me by the words, 'Now and for ever?' _Nunc et semper!_ And +I have written these words of our ritual below your portrait--words worthy +of you, as they are of God. He is _nunc et semper_, as my love is. + +"Never, no, never, can I exhaust that which is immense, infinite, +unbounded--and such is the feeling I have for you; I have imagined its +immeasurable extent, as we measure space by the dimensions of one of its +parts. I have had ineffable joys, whole hours filled with delicious +meditation, as I have recalled a single gesture or the tone of a word of +yours. Thus there will be memories of which the magnitude will overpower +me, if the reminiscence of a sweet and friendly interview is enough to make +me shed tears of joy, to move and thrill my soul, and to be an +inexhaustible well-spring of gladness. Love is the life of angels! + +"I can never, I believe, exhaust my joy in seeing you. This rapture, the +least fervid of any, though it never can last long enough, has made me +apprehend the eternal contemplation in which seraphs and spirits abide in +the presence of God; nothing can be more natural, if from His essence there +emanates a light as fruitful of new emotions as that of your eyes is, of +your imposing brow, and your beautiful countenance--the image of your soul. +Then, the soul, our second self, whose pure form can never perish, makes +our love immortal. I would there were some other language than that I use +to express to you the ever-new ecstasy of my love; but since there is one +of our own creating, since our looks are living speech, must we not meet +face to face to read in each other's eyes those questions and answers from +the heart, that are so living, so penetrating, that one evening you could +say to me, 'Be silent!' when I was not speaking. Do you remember it, dear +life? + +"When I am away from you in the darkness of absence, am I not reduced to +use human words, too feeble to express heavenly feelings? But words at any +rate represent the marks these feelings leave in my soul, just as the word +God imperfectly sums up the notions we form of that mysterious First Cause. +But, in spite of the subtleties and infinite variety of language, I have no +words that can express to you the exquisite union by which my life is +merged into yours whenever I think of you. + +"And with what word can I conclude when I cease writing to you, and yet do +not part from you? What can _farewell_ mean, unless in death? But is death +a farewell? Would not my spirit be then more closely one with yours? Ah! my +first and last thought; formerly I offered you my heart and life on my +knees; now what fresh blossoms of feelings can I discover in my soul that I +have not already given you? It would be a gift of a part of what is wholly +yours. + +"Are you my future? How deeply I regret the past! I would I could have back +all the years that are ours no more, and give them to you to reign over, as +you do over my present life. What indeed was that time when I knew you not? +It would be a void but that I was so wretched." + + +FRAGMENT. + +"Beloved angel, how delightful last evening was! How full of riches your +dear heart is! And is your love endless, like mine? Each word brought me +fresh joy, and each look made it deeper. The placid expression of your +countenance gave our thoughts a limitless horizon. It was all as infinite +as the sky, and as bland as its blue. The refinement of your adored +features repeated itself by some inexplicable magic in your pretty +movements and your least gestures. I knew that you were all graciousness, +all love, but I did not know how variously graceful you could be. +Everything combined to urge me to tender solicitations, to make me ask the +first kiss that a woman always refuses, no doubt that it may be snatched +from her. You, dear soul of my life, will never guess beforehand what you +may grant to my love, and will yield perhaps without knowing it! You are +utterly true, and obey your heart alone. + +"The sweet tones of your voice blended with the tender harmonies that +filled the quiet air, the cloudless sky. Not a bird piped, not a breeze +whispered--solitude, you, and I. The motionless leaves did not quiver in +the beautiful sunset hues which are both light and shadow. You felt that +heavenly poetry--you who experienced so many various emotions, and who so +often raised your eyes to heaven to avoid answering me. You who are proud +and saucy, humble and masterful, who give yourself to me so completely in +spirit and in thought, and evade the most bashful caress. Dear witcheries +of the heart! They ring in my ears; they sound and play there still. Sweet +words but half spoken, like a child's speech, neither promise nor +confession, but allowing love to cherish its fairest hopes without fear or +torment! How pure a memory for life! What a free blossoming of all the +flowers that spring from the soul, which a mere trifle can blight, but +which, at that moment, everything warmed and expanded. + +"And it will be always so, will it not, my beloved? As I recall, this +morning, the fresh and living delights revealed to me in that hour, I am +conscious of a joy which makes me conceive of true love as an ocean of +everlasting and ever-new experiences, into which we may plunge with +increasing delight. Every day, every word, every kiss, every glance, must +increase it by its tribute of past happiness. Hearts that are large enough +never to forget must live every moment in their past joys as much as in +those promised by the future. This was my dream of old, and now it is no +longer a dream! Have I not met on this earth with an angel who has made me +know all its happiness, as a reward, perhaps, for having endured all its +torments? Angel of heaven, I salute thee with a kiss. + +"I shall send you this hymn of thanksgiving from my heart, I owe it to you; +but it can hardly express my gratitude or the morning worship my heart +offers up day by day to her who epitomized the whole gospel of the heart in +this divine word: 'Believe.'" + + +V + +"What! no further difficulties, dearest heart! We shall be free to belong +to each other every day, every hour, every minute, and for ever! We may be +as happy for all the days of our life as we now are by stealth, at rare +intervals! Our pure, deep feelings will assume the expression of the +thousand fond acts I have dreamed of. For me your little foot will be +bared, you will be wholly mine! Such happiness kills me; it is too much for +me. My head is too weak, it will burst with the vehemence of my ideas. I +cry and I laugh--I am possessed! Every joy is as an arrow of flame; it +pierces and burns me. In fancy you rise before my eyes, ravished and +dazzled by numberless and capricious images of delight. + +"In short, our whole future life is before me--its torrents, its still +places, its joys; it seethes, it flows on, it lies sleeping; then again it +awakes fresh and young. I see myself and you side by side, walking with +equal pace, living in the same thought; each dwelling in the other's heart, +understanding each other, responding to each other as an echo catches and +repeats a sound across wide distances. + +"Can life be long when it is thus consumed hour by hour? Shall we not die +in a first embrace? What if our souls have already met in that sweet +evening kiss which almost overpowered us--a feeling kiss, but the crown of +my hopes, the ineffectual expression of all the prayers I breathe while we +are apart, hidden in my soul like remorse? + +"I, who would creep back and hide in the hedge only to hear your footsteps +as you went homewards--I may henceforth admire you at my leisure, see you +busy, moving, smiling, prattling! An endless joy! You cannot imagine all +the gladness it is to me to see you going and coming; only a man can know +that deep delight. Your least movement gives me greater pleasure than a +mother even can feel as she sees her child asleep or at play. I love you +with every kind of love in one. The grace of your least gesture is always +new to me. I fancy I could spend whole nights breathing your breath; I +would I could steal into every detail of your life, be the very substance +of your thoughts--be your very self. + +"Well, we shall, at any rate, never part again! No human alloy shall ever +disturb our love, infinite in its phases and as pure as all things are +which are One--our love, vast as the sea, vast as the sky! You are mine! +all mine! I may look into the depths of your eyes to read the sweet soul +that alternately hides and shines there, to anticipate your wishes. + +"My best-beloved, listen to some things I have never yet dared to tell you, +but which I may confess to you now. I felt a certain bashfulness of soul +which hindered the full expression of my feelings, so I strove to shroud +them under the garb of thoughts. But now I long to lay my heart bare before +you, to tell you of the ardor of my dreams, to reveal the boiling demands +of my senses, excited, no doubt, by the solitude in which I have lived, +perpetually fired by conceptions of happiness, and aroused by you, so fair +in form, so attractive in manner. How can I express to you my thirst for +the unknown rapture of possessing an adored wife, a rapture to which the +union of two souls by love must give frenzied intensity. Yes, my Pauline, I +have sat for hours in a sort of stupor caused by the violence of my +passionate yearning, lost in the dream of a caress as though in a +bottomless abyss. At such moments my whole vitality, my thoughts and +powers, are merged and united in what I must call desire, for lack of a +word to express that nameless delirium. + +"And I may confess to you now that one day, when I would not take your hand +when you offered it so sweetly--an act of melancholy prudence that made you +doubt my love--I was in one of those fits of madness when a man could +commit a murder to possess a woman. Yes, if I had felt the exquisite +pressure you offered me as vividly as I heard your voice in my heart, I +know not to what lengths my passion might not have carried me. But I can be +silent, and suffer a great deal. Why speak of this anguish when my visions +are to become realities? It will be in my power now to make life one long +love-making! + +"Dearest love, there is a certain effect of light on your black hair which +could rivet me for hours, my eyes full of tears, as I gazed at your sweet +person, were it not that you turn away and say, 'For shame; you make me +quite shy!' + +"To-morrow, then, our love is to be made known! Oh, Pauline! the eyes of +others, the curiosity of strangers, weigh on my soul. Let us go to +Villenoix, and stay there far from every one. I should like no creature in +human form to intrude into the sanctuary where you are to be mine; I could +even wish that, when we are dead, it should cease to exist--should be +destroyed. Yes, I would fain hide from all nature a happiness which we +alone can understand, alone can feel, which is so stupendous that I throw +myself into it only to die--it is a gulf! + +"Do not be alarmed by the tears that have wetted this page; they are tears +of joy. My only blessing, we need never part again!" + + * * * * * + +In 1823 I traveled from Paris to Touraine by _diligence_. At Mer we took up +a passenger for Blois. As the guard put him into that part of the coach +where I had my seat, he said jestingly: + +"You will not be crowded, Monsieur Lefebvre!"--I was, in fact, alone. + +On hearing this name, and seeing a white-haired old man, who looked eighty +at least, I naturally thought of Lambert's uncle. After a few ingenious +questions, I discovered that I was not mistaken. The good man had been +looking after his vintage at Mer, and was returning to Blois. I then asked +for some news of my old "chum." At the first word, the old priest's face, +as grave and stern already as that of a soldier who has gone through many +hardships, became more sad and dark; the lines on his forehead were +slightly knit, he set his lips, and said, with a suspicious glance: + +"Then you have never seen him since you left the College?" + +"Indeed, I have not," said I. "But we are equally to blame for our +forgetfulness. Young men, as you know, lead such an adventurous and +storm-tossed life when they leave their school-forms, that it is only by +meeting that they can be sure of an enduring affection. However, a +reminiscence of youth sometimes comes as a reminder, and it is impossible +to forget entirely, especially when two lads have been such friends as we +were. We went by the name of the Poet-and-Pythagoras." + +I told him my name; when he heard it, the worthy man grew gloomier than +ever. + +"Then you have not heard his story?" said he. "My poor nephew was to be +married to the richest heiress in Blois; but the day before his wedding he +went mad." + +"Lambert! Mad!" cried I in dismay. "But from what cause? He had the finest +memory, the most strongly-constituted brain, the soundest judgment, I ever +met with. Really a great genius--with too great a passion for mysticism +perhaps; but the kindest heart in the world. Something most extraordinary +must have happened?" + +"I see you knew him well," said the priest. + +From Mer, till we reached Blois, we talked only of my poor friend, with +long digressions, by which I learned the facts I have already related in +the order of their interest. I confessed to his uncle the character of our +studies and of his nephew's predominant ideas; then the old man told me of +the events that had come into Lambert's life since our parting. From +Monsieur Lefebvre's account, Lambert had betrayed some symptoms of madness +before his marriage; but they were such as are common to men who love +passionately, and seemed to me less startling when I knew how vehement his +love had been and when I saw Mademoiselle de Villenoix. In the country, +where ideas are scarce, a man overflowing with original thought and devoted +to a system, as Louis was, might well be regarded as eccentric, to say the +least. His language would, no doubt, seem the stranger because he so rarely +spoke. He would say, "That man does not dwell in my heaven," where any one +else would have said, "We are not made on the same pattern." Every clever +man has his own quirks of speech. The broader his genius, the more +conspicuous are the singularities which constitute the various degrees of +eccentricity. In the country an eccentric man is at once set down as half +mad. + +Hence Monsieur Lefebvre's first sentences left me doubtful of my +schoolmate's insanity. I listened to the old man, but I criticised his +statements. + +The most serious symptom had supervened a day or two before the marriage. +Louis had had some well-marked attacks of catalepsy. He had once remained +motionless for fifty-nine hours, his eyes staring, neither speaking nor +eating; a purely nervous affection, to which persons under the influence of +violent passion are liable; a rare malady, but perfectly well known to the +medical faculty. What was really extraordinary was that Louis should not +have had several previous attacks, since his habits of rapt thought and the +character of his mind would predispose him to them. But his temperament, +physical and mental, was so admirably balanced, that it had no doubt been +able to resist the demands on his strength. The excitement to which he had +been wound up by the anticipation of acute physical enjoyment, enhanced by +a chaste life and a highly-strung soul, had no doubt led to these attacks, +of which the results are as little known as the cause. + +The letters that have by chance escaped destruction show very plainly a +transition from pure idealism to the most intense sensualism. + +Time was when Lambert and I had admired this phenomenon of the human mind, +in which he saw the fortuitous separation of our two natures, and the signs +of a total removal of the inner man, using its unknown faculties under the +operation of an unknown cause. This disorder, a mystery as deep as that of +sleep, was connected with the scheme of evidence which Lambert had set +forth in his _Treatise on the Will_. And when Monsieur Lefebvre spoke to me +of Louis' first attack, I suddenly remembered a conversation we had had on +the subject after reading a medical book. + +"Deep meditation and rapt ecstasy are perhaps the undeveloped germs of +catalepsy," he said in conclusion. + +On the occasion when he so concisely formulated this idea, he had been +trying to link mental phenomena together by a series of results, following +the processes of the intellect step by step, from their beginnings as those +simple, purely animal impulses of instinct, which are all-sufficient to +many human beings, particularly to those men whose energies are wholly +spent in mere mechanical labor; then, going on to the aggregation of ideas +and rising to comparison, reflection, meditation, and finally ecstasy and +catalepsy. Lambert, of course, in the artlessness of youth, imagined that +he had laid down the lines of a great work when he thus built up a scale of +the various degrees of man's mental powers. + +I remember that, by one of those chances which seem like predestination, we +got hold of a great Martyrology, in which the most curious narratives are +given of the total abeyance of physical life which a man can attain to +under the paroxysms of the inner life. By reflecting on the effects of +fanaticism, Lambert was led to believe that the collected ideas to which we +give the name of feelings may very possibly be the material outcome of some +fluid which is generated in all men, more or less abundantly, according to +the way in which their organs absorb, from the medium in which they live, +the elementary atoms that produce it. We went crazy over catalepsy; and +with the eagerness that boys throw into every pursuit, we endeavored to +endure pain by thinking of something else. We exhausted ourselves by making +experiments not unlike those of the epileptic fanatics of the last century, +a religious mania which will some day be of service to the science of +humanity. I would stand on Lambert's chest, remaining there several minutes +without giving him the slightest pain; but notwithstanding these crazy +attempts, we did not achieve an attack of catalepsy. + +This digression seemed necessary to account for my first doubts, which +were, however, completely dispelled by Monsieur Lefebvre. + +"When this attack had passed off," said he, "my nephew sank into a state of +extreme terror, a dejection that nothing could overcome. He thought himself +unfit for marriage. I watched him with the care of a mother for her child, +and found him preparing to perform on himself the operation to which +Origen believed he owed his talents. I at once carried him off to Paris, +and placed him under the care of Monsieur Esquirol. All through our journey +Louis sat sunk in almost unbroken torpor, and did not recognize me. The +Paris physicians pronounced him incurable, and unanimously advised his +being left in perfect solitude, with nothing to break the silence that was +needful for his very improbable recovery, and that he should live always in +a cool room with a subdued light.--Mademoiselle de Villenoix, whom I had +been careful not to apprise of Louis' state," he went on, blinking his +eyes, "but who was supposed to have broken off the match, went to Paris and +heard what the doctors had pronounced. She immediately begged to see my +nephew, who hardly recognized her; then, like the noble soul she is, she +insisted on devoting herself to giving him such care as might tend to his +recovery. She would have been obliged to do so if he had been her husband, +she said, and could she do less for him as her lover? + +"She removed Louis to Villenoix, where they have been living for two +years." + +So, instead of continuing my journey, I stopped at Blois to go to see +Louis. Good Monsieur Lefebvre would not hear of my lodging anywhere but at +his house, where he showed me his nephew's room with the books and all else +that had belonged to him. At every turn the old man could not suppress some +mournful exclamation, showing what hopes Louis' precocious genius had +raised, and the terrible grief into which this irreparable ruin had plunged +him. + +"That young fellow knew everything, my dear sir!" said he, laying on the +table a volume containing Spinoza's works. "How could so well organized a +brain go astray?" + +"Indeed, monsieur," said I, "was it not perhaps the result of its being so +highly organized? If he really is a victim to the malady as yet unstudied +in all its aspects, which is known simply as madness, I am inclined to +attribute it to his passion. His studies and his mode of life had strung +his powers and faculties to a degree of energy beyond which the least +further strain was too much for nature; Love was enough to crack them, or +to raise them to a new form of expression which we are maligning perhaps, +by ticketing it without due knowledge. In fact, he may perhaps have +regarded the joys of marriage as an obstacle to the perfection of his inner +man and his flight towards spiritual spheres." + +"My dear sir," said the old man, after listening to me with attention, +"your reasoning is, no doubt, very sound; but even if I could follow it, +would this melancholy logic comfort me for the loss of my nephew?" + +Lambert's uncle was one of those men who live only by their affections. + + * * * * * + +I went to Villenoix on the following day. The kind old man accompanied me +to the gates of Blois. When we were out on the road to Villenoix, he +stopped me and said: + +"As you may suppose, I do not go there. But do not forget what I have said; +and in Mademoiselle de Villenoix's presence affect not to perceive that +Louis is mad." + +He remained standing on the spot where I left him, watching me till I was +out of sight. + +I made my way to the chateau of Villenoix, not without deep agitation. My +thoughts were many at each step on this road, which Louis had so often +trodden with a heart full of hopes, a soul spurred on by the myriad darts +of love. The shrubs, the trees, the turns of the winding road where little +gullies broke the banks on each side, were to me full of strange interest. +I tried to enter into the impressions and thoughts of my unhappy friend. +Those evening meetings on the edge of the coombe, where his lady-love had +been wont to find him, had, no doubt, initiated Mademoiselle de Villenoix +into the secrets of that vast and lofty spirit, as I had learned them all +some years before. + +But the thing that most occupied my mind, and gave to my pilgrimage the +interest of intense curiosity, in addition to the almost pious feelings +that led me onwards, was that glorious faith of Mademoiselle de +Villenoix's which the good priest had told me of. Had she in the course of +time been infected with her lover's madness, or had she so completely +entered into his soul that she could understand all its thoughts, even the +most perplexed? I lost myself in the wonderful problem of feeling, passing +the highest inspirations of passion and the most beautiful instances of +self-sacrifice. That one should die for the other is an almost vulgar form +of devotion. To live faithful to one love is a form of heroism that +immortalized Mademoiselle Dupuis. When the great Napoleon and Lord Byron +could find successors in the hearts of women they had loved, we may well +admire Bolingbroke's widow; but Mademoiselle Dupuis could feed on the +memories of many years of happiness, whereas Mademoiselle de Villenoix, +having known nothing of love but its first excitement, seemed to me to +typify love in its highest expression. If she were herself almost crazy, it +was splendid; but if she had understood and entered into his madness, she +combined with the beauty of a noble heart a crowning effort of passion +worthy to be studied and honored. + +When I saw the tall turrets of the chateau, remembering how often poor +Lambert must have thrilled at the sight of them, my heart beat anxiously. +As I recalled the events of our boyhood, I was almost a sharer in his +present life and situation. At last I reached a wide, deserted courtyard, +and I went into the hall of the house without meeting a soul. There the +sound of my steps brought out an old woman, to whom I gave a letter written +to Mademoiselle de Villenoix by Monsieur Lefebvre. In a few minutes this +woman returned to bid me enter, and led me to a low room, floored with +black-and-white marble; the Venetian shutters were closed, and at the end +of the room I dimly saw Louis Lambert. + +"Be seated, monsieur," said a gentle voice that went to my heart. + +Mademoiselle de Villenoix was at my side before I was aware of her +presence, and noiselessly brought me a chair, which at first I would not +accept. It was so dark that at first I saw Mademoiselle de Villenoix and +Lambert only as two black masses perceived against the gloomy background. I +presently sat down under the influence of the feeling that comes over us, +almost in spite of ourselves, under the obscure vault of a church. My eyes, +full of the bright sunshine, accustomed themselves gradually to this +artificial night. + +"Monsieur is your old school-friend," she said to Louis. + +He made no reply. At last I could see him, and it was one of those +spectacles that are stamped on the memory for ever. He was standing, his +elbows resting on the cornice of the low wainscot, which threw his body +forward, so that it seemed bowed under the weight of his bent head. His +hair was as long as a woman's, falling over his shoulders and hanging about +his face, giving him a resemblance to the busts of the great men of the +time of Louis XIV. His face was perfectly white. He constantly rubbed one +leg against the other, with a mechanical action that nothing could have +checked, and the incessant friction of the bones made a doleful sound. Near +him was a bed of moss on boards. + +"He very rarely lies down," said Mademoiselle de Villenoix; "but whenever +he does, he sleeps for several days." + +Louis stood, as I beheld him, day and night with a fixed gaze, never +winking his eyelids as we do. Having asked Mademoiselle de Villenoix +whether a little more light would hurt our friend, on her reply I opened +the shutters a little way, and could see the expression of Lambert's +countenance. Alas! he was wrinkled, white-headed, his eyes dull and +lifeless as those of the blind. His features seemed all drawn upwards to +the top of his head. I made several attempts to talk to him, but he did not +hear me. He was a wreck snatched from the grave, a conquest of life from +death--or of death from life! + +I stayed for about an hour, sunk in unaccountable dreams, and lost in +painful thought. I listened to Mademoiselle de Villenoix, who told me every +detail of this life--that of a child in arms. + +Suddenly Louis ceased rubbing his legs together, and said slowly: + +"The angels are white." + +I cannot express the effect produced upon me by this utterance, by the +sound of the voice I had loved, whose accents, so painfully expected, had +seemed to be lost for ever. My eyes filled with tears in spite of every +effort. An involuntary instinct warned me, making me doubt whether Louis +had really lost his reason. I was indeed well assured that he neither saw +nor heard me; but the sweetness of his tone, which seemed to reveal +heavenly happiness, gave his speech an amazing effect. These words, the +incomplete revelation of an unknown world, rang in our souls like some +glorious distant bells in the depth of a dark night. I was no longer +surprised that Mademoiselle de Villenoix considered Lambert to be perfectly +sane. The life of the soul had perhaps subdued that of the body. His +faithful companion had, no doubt--as I had at that moment--intuitions of +that melodious and beautiful existence to which we give the name of Heaven +in its highest meaning. + +This woman, this angel, always was with him, seated at her embroidery +frame; and each time she drew the needle out she gazed at Lambert with sad +and tender feeling. Unable to endure this terrible sight--for I could not, +like Mademoiselle de Villenoix, read all his secrets--I went out, and she +came with me to walk for a few minutes and talk of herself and of Lambert. + +"Louis must, no doubt, appear to be mad," said she. "But he is not, if the +term mad ought only to be used in speaking of those whose brain is for some +unknown cause diseased, and who can show no reason in their actions. +Everything in my husband is perfectly balanced. Though he did not actively +recognize you, it is not that he did not see you. He has succeeded in +detaching himself from his body, and discerns us under some other +aspect--what that is, I know not. When he speaks, he utters wondrous +things. Only it often happens that he concludes in speech an idea that had +its beginning in his mind; or he may begin a sentence and finish it in +thought. To other men he seems insane; to me, living as I do in his mind, +his ideas are quite lucid. I follow the road his spirit travels; and though +I do not know every turning, I can reach the goal with him. + +"Which of us has not often known what it is to think of some futile thing +and be led on to some serious reflection through the ideas or memories it +brings in its train? Not unfrequently, after speaking about some trifle, +the simple starting-point of a rapid train of reflections, a thinker may +forget or be silent as to the abstract connection of ideas leading to his +conclusion, and speak again only to utter the last link in the chain of his +meditations. + +"Inferior minds, to whom this swift mental vision is a thing unknown, who +are ignorant of the spirit's inner workings, laugh at the dreamer; and if +he is subject to this kind of obliviousness, regard him as a madman. Louis +is always in this state; he soars perpetually through the spaces of +thought, traversing them with the swiftness of a swallow; I can follow him +in his flight. This is the whole history of his madness. Some day, perhaps, +Louis will come back to the life in which we vegetate; but if he breathes +the air of heaven before the time when we may be permitted to do so, why +should we desire to have him down among us? I am content to hear his heart +beat, and all my happiness is to be with him. Is he not wholly mine? In +three years, twice at intervals he was himself for a few days; once in +Switzerland, where we went, and once in an island off the wilds of +Brittany, where we took some sea-baths. I have twice been very happy! I can +live on memory." + +"But do you write down the things he says?" I asked. + +"Why should I?" said she. + +I was silent; human knowledge was indeed as nothing in this woman's eyes. + +"At those times, when he talked a little," she added, "I think I have +recorded some of his phrases, but I left it off; I did not understand him +then." + +I asked her for them by a look; she understood me. This is what I have been +able to preserve from oblivion. + + +I + +Everything here on earth is produced by an ethereal substance which is the +common element of various phenomena, known inaccurately as electricity, +heat, light, the galvanic fluid, the magnetic fluid, and so forth. The +universal distribution of this substance, under various forms, constitutes +what is commonly known as Matter. + + +II + +The brain is the alembic to which the Animal conveys what each of its +organizations, in proportion to the strength of that vessel, can absorb of +that Substance, which returns it transformed into Will. + +The Will is a fluid inherent in every creature endowed with motion. Hence +the innumerable forms assumed by the Animal, the results of its +combinations with that Substance. The Animal's instincts are the product of +the coercion of the environment in which it develops. Hence its variety. + + +III + +In Man the Will becomes a power peculiar to him, and exceeding in intensity +that of any other species. + + +IV + +By constant assimilation, the Will depends on the Substance it meets with +again and again in all its transmutations, pervading them by Thought, which +is a product peculiar to the human Will, in combination with the +modifications of that Substance. + + +V + +The innumerable forms assumed by Thought are the result of the greater or +less perfection of the human mechanism. + + +VI + +The Will acts through organs commonly called the five senses, which, in +fact, are but one--the faculty of Sight. Feeling and tasting, hearing and +smelling, are Sight modified to the transformations of the Substance which +Man can absorb in two conditions: untransformed and transformed. + + +VII + +Everything of which the form comes within the cognizance of the one sense +of Sight may be reduced to certain simple bodies of which the elements +exist in the air, the light, or in the elements of air and light. Sound is +a condition of the air; colors are all conditions of light; every smell is +a combination of air and light; hence the four aspects of Matter with +regard to Man--sound, color, smell, and shape--have the same origin, for +the day is not far off when the relationship of the phenomena of air and +light will be made clear. + +Thought, which is allied to Light, is expressed in words which depend on +sound. To man, then, everything is derived from the Substance, whose +transformations vary only through Number--a certain quantitative +dissimilarity, the proportions resulting in the individuals or objects of +what are classed as Kingdoms. + + +VIII + +When the Substance is absorbed in sufficient number (or quantity) it makes +of man an immensely powerful mechanism, in direct communication with the +very element of the Substance, and acting on organic nature in the same +way as a large stream when it absorbs the smaller brooks. Volition sets +this force in motion independently of the Mind. By its concentration it +acquires some of the qualities of the Substance, such as the swiftness of +light, the penetrating power of electricity, and the faculty of saturating +a body; to which must be added that it apprehends what it can do. + +Still, there is in man a primordial and overruling phenomenon which defies +analysis. Man may be dissected completely; the elements of Will and Mind +may perhaps be found; but there still will remain beyond apprehension the x +against which I once used to struggle. That x is the Word, the Logos, whose +communication burns and consumes those who are not prepared to receive it. +The Word is for ever generating the Substance. + + +IX + +Rage, like all our vehement demonstrations, is a current of the human force +that acts electrically; its turmoil when liberated acts on persons who are +present even though they be neither its cause nor its object. Are there not +certain men who by a discharge of Volition can sublimate the essence of the +feelings of the masses? + + +X + +Fanaticism and all emotions are living forces. These forces in some beings +become rivers that gather in and sweep away everything. + + +XI + +Though Space _is_, certain faculties have the power of traversing it with +such rapidity that it is as though it existed not. From your own bed to the +frontiers of the universe there are but two steps: Will and Faith. + + +XII + +Facts are nothing; they do not subsist; all that lives of us is the Idea. + + +XIII + +The realm of Ideas is divided into three spheres: that of Instinct, that of +Abstractions, that of Specialism. + + +XIV + +The greater part, the weaker part of visible humanity, dwells in the Sphere +of Instinct. The _Instinctives_ are born, labor, and die without rising to +the second degree of human intelligence, namely, Abstraction. + + +XV + +Society begins in the sphere of Abstraction. If Abstraction, as compared +with Instinct, is an almost divine power, it is nevertheless incredibly +weak as compared with the gift of Specialism, which is the formula of God. +Abstraction comprises all nature in a germ, more virtually than a seed +contains the whole system of a plant and its fruits. From Abstraction are +derived laws, arts, social ideas, and interests. It is the glory and the +scourge of the earth: its glory because it has created social life; its +scourge because it allows man to evade entering into Specialism, which is +one of the paths to the Infinite. Man measures everything by Abstractions: +Good and Evil, Virtue and Crime. Its formula of equity is a pair of scales, +its justice is blind. God's justice sees: there is all the difference. + +There must be intermediate Beings, then, dividing the sphere of Instinct +from the sphere of Abstractions, in whom the two elements mingle in an +infinite variety of proportions. Some have more of one, some more of the +other. And there are also some in which the two powers neutralize each +other by equality of effect. + + +XVI + +Specialism consists in seeing the things of the material universe and the +things of the spiritual universe in all their ramifications original and +causative. The greatest human geniuses are those who started from the +darkness of Abstraction to attain to the light of Specialism. (Specialism, +_species_, sight; speculation, or seeing everything, and all at once; +_Speculum_, a mirror or means of apprehending a thing by seeing the whole +of it.) Jesus had the gift of Specialism; He saw each fact in its root and +in its results, in the past where it had its rise, and in the future where +it would grow and spread; His sight pierced into the understanding of +others. The perfection of the inner eye gives rise to the gift of +Specialism. Specialism brings with it Intuition. Intuition is one of the +faculties of the Inner Man, of which Specialism is an attribute. Intuition +acts by an imperceptible sensation of which he who obeys it is not +conscious: for instance, Napoleon instinctively moving from a spot struck +immediately afterwards by a cannon ball. + + +XVII + +Between the sphere of Abstraction and that of Specialism, as between those +of Abstraction and Instinct, there are beings in whom the attributes of +both combine and produce a mixture; these are men of genius. + + +XVIII + +Specialism is necessarily the most perfect expression of man, and he is the +link binding the visible world to the higher worlds; he acts, sees, and +feels by his inner powers. The man of Abstraction thinks. The man of +Instinct acts. + + +XIX + +Hence man has three degrees. That of Instinct, below the average; that of +Abstraction, the general average; that of Specialism, above the average. +Specialism opens to man his true career; the Infinite dawns on him; he sees +what his destiny must be. + + +XX + +There are three worlds--the Natural, the Spiritual, and the Divine. +Humanity passes through the Natural world, which is not fixed either in its +essence or its faculties. The Spiritual world is fixed in its essence and +unfixed in its faculties. The Divine world is fixed in its faculties and +its essence both. Hence there is necessarily a Material worship, a +Spiritual worship, and a Divine worship: three forms expressed in action, +speech, and prayer, or, in other words, in deed, apprehension, and love. +Instinct demands deed; Abstraction is concerned with Ideas; Specialism sees +the end, it aspires to God with presentiment or contemplation. + + +XXI + +Hence, perhaps, some day the converse of _Et Verbum caro factum est_ will +become the epitome of a new Gospel, which will proclaim that The Flesh +shall be made the Word and become the Utterance of God. + + +XXII + +The Resurrection is the work of the Wind of Heaven sweeping over the +worlds. The angel borne on the Wind does not say: "Arise, ye dead"; he +says, "Arise, ye who live!" + + * * * * * + +Such are the meditations which I have with great difficulty cast in a form +adapted to our understanding. There are some others which Pauline +remembered more exactly, wherefore I know not, and which I wrote from her +dictation; but they drive the mind to despair when, knowing in what an +intellect they originated, we strive to understand them. I will quote a few +of them to complete my study of this figure; partly, too, perhaps, because, +in these last aphorisms, Lambert's formulas seem to include a larger +universe than the former set, which would apply only to zoological +evolution. Still, there is a relation between the two fragments, evident to +those persons--though they be but few--who love to dive into such +intellectual deeps. + + +I + +Everything on earth exists solely by motion and number. + + +II + +Motion is, so to speak, number in action. + + +III + +Motion is the product of a force generated by the Word and by Resistance, +which is Matter. But for Resistance, Motion would have had no results; its +action would have been infinite. Newton's gravitation is not a law, but an +effect of the general law of universal motion. + + +IV + +Motion, acting in proportion to Resistance, produces a result which is +Life. As soon as one or the other is the stronger, Life ceases. + + +V + +No portion of Motion is wasted; it always produces number; still, it can be +neutralized by disproportionate resistance, as in minerals. + + +VI + +Number, which produces variety of all kinds, also gives rise to Harmony, +which, in the highest meaning of the word, is the relation of parts to the +whole. + + +VII + +But for Motion, everything would be one and the same. Its products, +identical in their essence, differ only by Number, which gives rise to +faculties. + + +VIII + +Man looks to faculties; angels look to the Essence. + + +IX + +By giving his body up to elemental action, man can achieve an inner union +with the Light. + + +X + +Number is intellectual evidence belonging to man alone; by it he acquires +knowledge of the Word. + + +XI + +There is a Number beyond which the impure cannot pass: the Number which is +the limit of creation. + + +XII + +The Unit was the starting-point of every product: compounds are derived +from it, but the end must be identical with the beginning. Hence this +Spiritual formula: the compound Unit, the variable Unit, the fixed Unit. + + +XIII + +The Universe is the Unit in variety. Motion is the means; Number is the +result. The end is the return of all things to the Unit, which is God. + + +XIV + +Three and Seven are the two chief Spiritual numbers. + + +XV + +Three is the formula of created worlds. It is the Spiritual Sign of the +creation, as it is the Material Sign of dimension. In fact, God has worked +by curved lines only: the Straight Line is an attribute of the Infinite; +and man, who has the presentiment of the Infinite, reproduces it in his +works. Two is the number of generation. Three is the number of Life which +includes generation and offspring. Add the sum of four, and you have Seven, +the formula of Heaven. Above all is God; He is the Unit. + + * * * * * + +After going in to see Louis, once more, I took leave of his wife and went +home, lost in ideas so adverse to social life that, in spite of a promise +to return to Villenoix, I did not go. + +The sight of Louis had had some mysteriously sinister influence over me. I +was afraid to place myself again in that heavy atmosphere, where ecstasy +was contagious. Any man would have felt, as I did, a longing to throw +himself into the infinite, just as one soldier after another killed himself +in a certain sentry box where one had committed suicide in the camp at +Boulogne. It is a known fact that Napoleon was obliged to have the hut +burned which had harbored an idea that had become a mortal infection. + +Louis' room had perhaps the same fatal effect as that sentry box. + +These two facts would then be additional evidence in favor of his theory +of the transfusion of Will. I was conscious of strange disturbances, +transcending the most fantastic results of taking tea, coffee, or opium, of +dreams or of fever--mysterious agents, whose terrible action often sets our +brains on fire. + +I ought perhaps to have made a separate book of these fragments of thought, +intelligible only to certain spirits who have been accustomed to lean over +the edge of abysses in the hope of seeing to the bottom. The life of that +mighty brain, which split up on every side perhaps, like a too vast empire, +would have been set forth in the narrative of this man's visions--a being +incomplete for lack of force or of weakness; but I preferred to give an +account of my own impressions rather than to compose a more or less +poetical romance. + + * * * * * + +Louis Lambert died at the age of twenty-eight, September 25, 1824, in his +true love's arms. He was buried by her desire in an island in the park at +Villenoix. His tombstone is a plain stone cross, without name or date. Like +a flower that has blossomed on the margin of a precipice, and drops into +it, its colors and fragrance all unknown, it was fitting that he too should +fall. Like many another misprized soul, he had often yearned to dive +haughtily into the void, and abandon there the secrets of his own life. + +Mademoiselle de Villenoix would, however, have been quite justified in +recording his name on that cross with her own. Since her partner's death, +reunion has been her constant, hourly hope. But the vanities of woe are +foreign to faithful souls. + +Villenoix is falling into ruin. She no longer resides there; to the end, no +doubt, that she may the better picture herself there as she used to be. She +had said long ago: + +"His heart was mine; his genius is with God." + + CHATEAU DE SACHE, _June-July 1832_. + + + + +THE EXILES + +ALMAE SORORI + + +In the year 1308 few houses were yet standing on the Island formed by the +alluvium and sand deposited by the Seine above the Cite, behind the Church +of Notre-Dame. The first man who was so bold as to build on this strand, +then liable to frequent floods, was a constable of the watch of the City of +Paris, who had been able to do some service to their Reverences the Chapter +of the Cathedral; and in return the Bishop leased him twenty-five perches +of land, with exemption from all feudal dues or taxes on the buildings he +might erect. + +Seven years before the beginning of this narrative, Joseph Tirechair, one +of the sternest of Paris constables, as his name [Tear Flesh] would +indicate, had, thanks to his share of the fines collected by him for +delinquencies committed within the precincts of the Cite, been able to +build a house on the bank of the Seine just at the end of the Rue du +Port-Saint-Landry. To protect the merchandise landed on the strand, the +municipality had constructed a sort of break-water of masonry, which may +still be seen on some old plans of Paris, and which preserved the piles of +the landing-place by meeting the rush of water and ice at the upper end of +the Island. The constable had taken advantage of this for the foundation of +his house, so that there were several steps up to his door. + +Like all the houses of that date, this cottage was crowned by a peaked +roof, forming a gable-end to the front, or half a diamond. To the great +regret of historians, but two or three examples of such roofs survive in +Paris. A round opening gave light to a loft, where the constable's wife +dried the linen of the Chapter, for she had the honor of washing for the +Cathedral--which was certainly not a bad customer. On the first floor were +two rooms, let to lodgers at a rent, one year with another, of forty sous +_Parisis_ each, an exorbitant sum, that was however justified by the luxury +Tirechair had lavished on their adornment. Flanders tapestry hung on the +walls, and a large bed with a top valance of green serge, like a peasant's +bed, was amply furnished with mattresses, and covered with good sheets of +fine linen. Each room had a stove called a _chauffe-doux_; the floor, +carefully polished by Dame Tirechair's apprentices, shone like the woodwork +of a shrine. Instead of stools, the lodgers had deep chairs of carved +walnut, the spoils probably of some raided castle. Two chests with pewter +mouldings, and tables on twisted legs, completed the fittings, worthy of +the most fastidious knights-banneret whom business might bring to Paris. + +The windows of those two rooms looked out on the river. From one you could +only see the shores of the Seine, and the three barren islands, of which +two were subsequently joined together to form the Ile Saint-Louis; the +third was the Ile de Louviers. From the other could be seen, down a vista +of the Port-Saint-Landry, the buildings on the Greve, the Bridge of +Notre-Dame, with its houses, and the tall towers of the Louvre, but lately +built by Philippe-Auguste to overlook the then poor and squalid town of +Paris, which suggests so many imaginary marvels to the fancy of modern +romancers. + +The ground floor of Tirechair's house consisted of a large hall, where his +wife's business was carried on, through which the lodgers were obliged to +pass on their way to their own rooms up a stairway like a mill-ladder. +Behind this were a kitchen and a bedroom, with a view over the Seine. A +tiny garden, reclaimed from the waters, displayed at the foot of this +modest dwelling its beds of cabbages and onions, and a few rose-bushes, +sheltered by palings, forming a sort of hedge. A little structure of lath +and mud served as a kennel for a big dog, the indispensable guardian of so +lonely a dwelling. Beyond this kennel was a little plot, where the hens +cackled whose eggs were sold to the Canons. Here and there on this patch of +earth, muddy or dry according to the whimsical Parisian weather, a few +trees grew, constantly lashed by the wind, and teased and broken by the +passer-by--willows, reeds, and tall grasses. + +The Eyot, the Seine, the landing-place, the house, were all overshadowed on +the west by the huge basilica of Notre-Dame casting its cold gloom over the +whole plot as the sun moved. Then, as now, there was not in all Paris a +more deserted spot, a more solemn or more melancholy prospect. The noise of +waters, the chanting of priests, or the piping of the wind, were the only +sounds that disturbed this wilderness, where lovers would sometimes meet to +discuss their secrets when the church-folks and clergy were safe in church +at the services. + + * * * * * + +One evening in April in the year 1308, Tirechair came home in a remarkably +bad temper. For three days past everything had been in good order on the +King's highway. Now, as an officer of the peace, nothing annoyed him so +much as to feel himself useless. He flung down his halbert in a rage, +muttered inarticulate words as he pulled off his doublet, half red and half +blue, and slipped on a shabby camlet jerkin. After helping himself from the +bread-box to a hunch of bread, and spreading it with butter, he seated +himself on a bench, looked round at his four whitewashed walls, counted the +beams of the ceiling, made a mental inventory of the household goods +hanging from the nails, scowled at the neatness which left him nothing to +complain of, and looked at his wife, who said not a word as she ironed the +albs and surplices from the sacristy. + +"By my halidom," he said, to open the conversation, "I cannot think, +Jacqueline, where you go to catch your apprenticed maids. Now, here is +one," he went on, pointing to a girl who was folding an altar-cloth, +clumsily enough, it must be owned, "who looks to me more like a damsel +rather free of her person than a sturdy country wench. Her hands are as +white as a fine lady's! By the Mass! and her hair smells of essences, I +verily believe, and her hose are as fine as a queen's. By the two horns of +Old Nick, matters please me but ill as I find them here." + +The girl colored, and stole a look at Jacqueline, full of alarm not unmixed +with pride. The mistress answered her glance with a smile, laid down her +work, and turned to her husband. + +"Come now," said she, in a sharp tone, "you need not harry me. Are you +going to accuse me next of some underhand tricks? Patrol your roads as much +as you please, but do not meddle here with anything but what concerns your +sleeping in peace, drinking your wine, and eating what I set before you, or +else, I warn you, I will have no more to do with keeping you healthy and +happy. Let any one find me a happier man in all the town," she went on, +with a scolding grimace. "He has silver in his purse, a gable over the +Seine, a stout halbert on one hand, an honest wife on the other, a house as +clean and smart as a new pin! And he growls like a pilgrim smarting from +Saint Anthony's fire!" + +"Hey day!" exclaimed the sergeant of the watch, "do you fancy, Jacqueline, +that I have any wish to see my house razed down, my halbert given to +another, and my wife standing in the pillory?" + +Jacqueline and the dainty journeywoman turned pale. + +"Just tell me what you are driving at," said the washerwoman sharply, "and +make a clean breast of it. For some days, my man, I have observed that you +have some maggot twisting in your poor brain. Come up, then, and have it +all out. You must be a pretty coward indeed if you fear any harm when you +have only to guard the common council and live under the protection of the +Chapter! Their Reverences the Canons would lay the whole bishopric under an +interdict if Jacqueline brought a complaint of the smallest damage." + +As she spoke, she went straight up to her husband and took him by the arm. + +"Come with me," she added, pulling him up and out on to the steps. + +When they were down by the water in their little garden, Jacqueline looked +saucily in her husband's face. + +"I would have you to know, you old gaby, that when my lady fair goes out, a +piece of gold comes into our savings-box." + +"Oh, ho!" said the constable, who stood silent and meditative before his +wife. But he presently said, "Any way, we are done for.--What brings the +dame to our house?" + +"She comes to see the well-favored young clerk who lives overhead," replied +Jacqueline, looking up at the window that opened on to the vast landscape +of the Seine valley. + +"The Devil's in it!" cried the man. "For a few base crowns you have ruined +me, Jacqueline. Is that an honest trade for a sergeant's decent wife to +ply? And, be she Countess or Baroness, the lady will not be able to get us +out of the trap in which we shall find ourselves caught sooner or later. +Shall we not have to square accounts with some puissant and offended +husband? for, by the Mass, she is fair to look upon!" + +"But she is a widow, I tell you, gray gander! How dare you accuse your wife +of foul play and folly? And the lady has never spoken a word to yon gentle +clerk; she is content to look on him and think of him. Poor lad! he would +be dead of starvation by now but for her, for she is as good as a mother to +him. And he, the sweet cherub! it is as easy to cheat him as to rock a +new-born babe. He believes his pence will last for ever, and he has eaten +them through twice over in the past six months." + +"Woman," said the sergeant, solemnly pointing to the Place de Greve, "do +you remember seeing, even from this spot, the fire in which they burnt the +Danish woman the other day?" + +"What then?" said Jacqueline, in a fright. + +"What then?" echoed Tirechair. "Why, the two men who lodge with us smell of +scorching. Neither Chapter nor Countess nor Protector can serve them. Here +is Easter come round; the year is ending; we must turn our company out of +doors, and that at once. Do you think you can teach an old constable how +to know a gallows-bird? Our two lodgers were on terms with la Porette, that +heretic jade from Denmark or Norway, whose last cries you heard from here. +She was a brave witch; she never blenched at the stake, which was proof +enough of her compact with the Devil. I saw her as plain as I see you; she +preached to the throng, and declared she was in heaven and could see God. + +"And since that, I tell you, I have never slept quietly in my bed. My lord, +who lodges over us, is of a surety more of a wizard than a Christian. On my +word as an officer, I shiver when that old man passes near me; he never +sleeps of nights; if I wake, his voice is ringing like a bourdon of bells, +and I hear him uttering incantations in the language of hell. Have you ever +seen him eat an honest crust of bread or a hearth-cake made by a good +Catholic baker? His brown skin has been scorched and tanned by hell-fires. +Marry, and I tell you his eyes hold a spell like those of serpents. +Jacqueline, I will have none of those two men under my roof. I see too much +of the law not to know that it is well to have nothing to do with it.--You +must get rid of our two lodgers; the elder, because I suspect him; the +youngster, because he is too pretty. They neither of them seem to me to +keep Christian company. The boy is ever staring at the moon, the stars, and +the clouds, like a wizard watching for the hour when he shall mount his +broomstick; the other old rogue certainly makes some use of the poor boy +for his black art. My house stands too close to the river as it is, and +that risk of ruin is bad enough without bringing down fire from heaven, or +the love affairs of a countess. I have spoken. Do not rebel." + +In spite of her sway in the house, Jacqueline stood stupefied as she +listened to the edict fulminated against his lodgers by the sergeant of the +watch. She mechanically looked up at the window of the room inhabited by +the old man, and shivered with horror as she suddenly caught sight of the +gloomy, melancholy face, and the piercing eye that so affected her husband, +accustomed as he was to dealing with criminals. + +At that period, great and small, priests and laymen, all trembled before +the idea of any supernatural power. The word "magic" was as powerful as +leprosy to root up feelings, break social ties, and freeze piety in the +most generous soul. It suddenly struck the constable's wife that she never, +in fact, had seen either of her lodgers exercising any human function. +Though the younger man's voice was as sweet and melodious as the tones of a +flute, she so rarely heard it that she was tempted to think his silence the +result of a spell. As she recalled the strange beauty of that +pink-and-white face, and saw in memory the fine fair hair and moist +brilliancy of those eyes, she believed they were indeed the artifices of +the Devil. She remembered that for days at a time she had never heard the +slightest sound from either room. Where were the strangers during all those +hours? + +Suddenly the most singular circumstances recurred to her mind. She was +completely overmastered by fear, and could even discern witchcraft in the +rich lady's interest in this young Godefroid, a poor orphan who had come +from Flanders to study at the University of Paris. She hastily put her hand +into one of her pockets, pulled out four livres of Tournay in large silver +coinage, and looked at the pieces with an expression of avarice mingled +with terror. + +"That, at any rate, is not false coin," said she, showing the silver to her +husband. "Besides," she went on, "how can I turn them out after taking next +year's rent paid in advance?" + +"You had better inquire of the Dean of the Chapter," replied Tirechair. "Is +not it his business to tell us how we should deal with these extraordinary +persons?" + +"Ay, truly extraordinary," cried Jacqueline. "To think of their cunning; +coming here under the very shadow of Notre-Dame! Still," she went on, "or +ever I ask the Dean, why not warn that fair and noble lady of the risk she +runs?" + +As she spoke, Jacqueline went into the house with her husband, who had not +missed a mouthful. Tirechair, as a man grown old in the tricks of his +trade, affected to believe that the strange lady was in fact a work-girl; +still, this assumed indifference could not altogether cloak the timidity +of a courtier who respects a royal incognito. At this moment six was +striking by the clock of Saint-Denis du Pas, a small church that stood +between Notre-Dame and the Port-Saint-Landry--the first church erected in +Paris, on the very spot where Saint-Denis was laid on the gridiron, as +chronicles tell. The hour flew from steeple to tower all over the city. +Then suddenly confused shouts were heard on the left bank of the Seine, +behind Notre-Dame, in the quarter where the schools of the University +harbored their swarms. + +At this signal, Jacqueline's elder lodger began to move about his room. The +sergeant, his wife, and the strange lady listened while he opened and shut +his door, and the old man's heavy step was heard on the steep stair. The +constable's suspicions gave such interest to the advent of this personage, +that the lady was startled as she observed the strange expression of the +two countenances before her. Referring the terrors of this couple to the +youth she was protecting--as was natural in a lover--the young lady +awaited, with some uneasiness, the event thus heralded by the fears of her +so-called master and mistress. + +The old man paused for a moment on the threshold to scrutinize the three +persons in the room, and seemed to be looking for his young companion. This +glance of inquiry, unsuspicious as it was, agitated the three. Indeed, +nobody, not even the stoutest man, could deny that Nature had bestowed +exceptional powers on this being, who seemed almost supernatural. Though +his eyes were somewhat deeply shaded by the wide sockets fringed with long +eyebrows, they were set, like a kite's eyes, in eyelids so broad, and +bordered by so dark a circle sharply defined on his cheek, that they seemed +rather to be prominent. These singular eyes had in them something +indescribably domineering and piercing, which took possession of the soul +by a grave and thoughtful look, a look as bright and lucid as that of a +serpent or a bird, but which held one fascinated and crushed by the swift +communication of some tremendous sorrow, or of some superhuman power. + +Every feature was in harmony with this eye of lead and of fire, at once +rigid and flashing, stern and calm. While in this eagle eye earthly +emotions seemed in some sort extinct, the lean, parched face also bore +traces of unhappy passions and great deeds done. The nose, which was narrow +and aquiline, was so long that it seemed to hang on by the nostrils. The +bones of the face were strongly marked by the long, straight wrinkles that +furrowed the hollow cheeks. Every line in the countenance looked dark. It +would suggest the bed of a torrent where the violence of former floods was +recorded in the depth of the water-courses, which testified to some +terrible, unceasing turmoil. Like the ripples left by the oars of a boat on +the waters, deep lines, starting from each side of his nose, marked his +face strongly, and gave an expression of bitter sadness to his mouth, which +was firm and straight-lipped. Above the storm thus stamped on his +countenance, his calm brow rose with what may be called boldness, and +crowned it as with a marble dome. + +The stranger preserved that intrepid and dignified manner that is +frequently habitual with men inured to disaster, and fitted by nature to +stand unmoved before a furious mob and to face the greatest dangers. He +seemed to move in a sphere apart, where he poised above humanity. His +gestures, no less than his look, were full of irresistible power; his lean +hands were those of a soldier; and if your own eyes were forced to fall +before his piercing gaze, you were no less sure to tremble when by word or +action he spoke to your soul. He moved in silent majesty that made him seem +a king without his guard, a god without his rays. + +His dress emphasized the ideas suggested by the peculiarities of his mien +and face. Soul, body, and garb were in harmony, and calculated to impress +the coldest imagination. He wore a sort of sleeveless gown of black cloth, +fastened in front, and falling to the calf, leaving the neck bare with no +collar. His doublet and boots were likewise black. On his head was a black +velvet cap like a priest's, sitting in a close circle above his forehead, +and not showing a single hair. It was the strictest mourning, the +gloomiest habit a man could wear. But for a long sword that hung by his +side from a leather belt which could be seen where his surcoat hung open, a +priest would have hailed him as a brother. Though of no more than middle +height, he appeared tall; and, looking him in the face, he seemed a giant. + +"The clock has struck, the boat is waiting; will you not come?" + +At these words, spoken in bad French, but distinctly audible in the +silence, a little noise was heard in the other top room, and the young man +came down as lightly as a bird. + +When Godefroid appeared, the lady's face turned crimson; she trembled, +started, and covered her face with her white hands. + +Any woman might have shared her agitation at the sight of this youth of +about twenty, of a form and stature so slender that at a first glance he +might have been taken for a mere boy, or a young girl in disguise. His +black cap--like the _beret_ worn by the Basque people--showed a brow as +white as snow, where grace and innocence shone with an expression of divine +sweetness--the light of a soul full of faith. A poet's fancy would have +seen there the star which, in some old tale, a mother entreats the fairy +godmother to set on the forehead of an infant abandoned, like Moses, to the +waves. Love lurked in the thousand fair curls that fell over his shoulders. +His throat, truly a swan's throat, was white and exquisitely round. His +blue eyes, bright and liquid, mirrored the sky. His features and the mould +of his brow were refined and delicate enough to enchant a painter. The +bloom of beauty, which in a woman's face causes men such indescribable +delight, the exquisite purity of outline, the halo of light that bathes the +features we love, were here combined with a masculine complexion, and with +strength as yet but half developed, in the most enchanting contrast. His +was one of those melodious countenances which even when silent speak and +attract us. And yet, on marking it attentively, the incipient blight might +have been detected which comes of a great thought or a passion, the faint +yellow tinge that made him seem like a young leaf opening to the sun. + +No contrast could be greater or more startling than that seen in the +companionship of these two men. It was like seeing a frail and graceful +shrub that has grown from the hollow trunk of some gnarled willow, withered +by age, blasted by lightning, standing decrepit; one of those majestic +trees that painters love; the trembling sapling takes shelter there from +storms. One was a god, the other was an angel; one the poet that feels, the +other the poet that expresses--a prophet in sorrow, a levite in prayer. + +They went out together without speaking. + +"Did you mark how he called him to him?" cried the sergeant of the watch +when the footsteps of the couple were no longer audible on the strand. "Are +not they a demon and his familiar?" + +"Phooh!" puffed Jacqueline. "I felt smothered! I never marked our two +lodgers so carefully. 'Tis a bad thing for us women that the Devil can wear +so fair a mien!" + +"Ay, cast some holy water on him," said Tirechair, "and you will see him +turn into a toad.--I am off to tell the office all about them." + +On hearing this speech, the lady roused herself from the reverie into which +she had sunk, and looked at the constable, who was donning his red-and-blue +jacket. + +"Whither are you off to?" she asked. + +"To tell the justices that wizards are lodging in our house very much +against our will." + +The lady smiled. + +"I," said she, "am the Comtesse de Mahaut," and she rose with a dignity +that took the man's breath away. "Beware of bringing the smallest trouble +on your guests. Above all, respect the old man; I have seen him in the +company of your Lord the King, who entreated him courteously; you will be +ill advised to trouble him in any way. As to my having been here--never +breathe a word of it, as you value your life." + +She said no more, but relapsed into thought. + +Presently she looked up, signed to Jacqueline, and together they went up +into Godefroid's room. The fair Countess looked at the bed, the carved +chairs, the chest, the tapestry, the table, with a joy like that of the +exile who sees on his return the crowded roofs of his native town nestling +at the foot of a hill. + +"If you have not deceived me," she said to Jacqueline, "I promise you a +hundred crowns in gold." + +"Behold, madame," said the woman, "the poor angel is confiding--here is all +his treasure." + +As she spoke, Jacqueline opened a drawer in the table and showed some +parchments. + +"God of mercy!" cried the Countess, snatching up a document that caught her +eye, on which she read, _Gothofredus Comes Gantiacus_ (Godefroid, Count of +Ghent). + +She dropped the parchment, and passed her hand over her brow; then, +feeling, no doubt, that she had compromised herself by showing so much +emotion, she recovered her cold demeanor. + +"I am satisfied," said she. + +She went downstairs and out of the house. The constable and his wife stood +in their doorway, and saw her take the path to the landing-place. + +A boat was moored hard by. When the rustle of the Countess' approach was +audible, a boatman suddenly stood up, helped the fair laundress to take her +seat in it, and rowed with such strength as to make the boat fly like a +swallow down the stream. + +"You are a sorry fellow," said Jacqueline, giving the officer's shoulder a +familiar slap. "We have earned a hundred gold crowns this morning." + +"I like harboring lords no better than harboring wizards. And I know not, +of the two, which is the more like to bring us to the gallows," replied +Tirechair, taking up his halbert. "I will go my rounds over by Champfleuri; +God protect us, and send me to meet some pert jade out in her bravery of +gold rings to glitter in the shade like a glow-worm!" + +Jacqueline, alone in the house, hastily went up to the unknown lord's room +to discover, if she could, some clue to this mysterious business. Like some +learned men who give themselves infinite pains to complicate the clear and +simple laws of nature, she had already invented a chaotic romance to +account for the meeting of these three persons under her humble roof. She +hunted through the chest, examined everything, but could find nothing +extraordinary. She saw nothing on the table but a writing-case and some +sheets of parchment; and as she could not read, this discovery told her +nothing. A woman's instinct then took her into the young man's room, and +from thence she descried her two lodgers crossing the river in the ferry +boat. + +"They stand like two statues," said she to herself. "Ah, ha! They are +landing at the Rue du Fouarre. How nimble he is, the sweet youth! He jumped +out like a bird. By him the old man looks like some stone saint in the +Cathedral.--They are going to the old School of the Four Nations. Presto! +they are out of sight.--And this is where he lives, poor cherub!" she went +on, looking about the room. "How smart and winning he is! Ah! your fine +gentry are made of other stuff than we are." + +And Jacqueline went down again after smoothing down the bed-coverlet, +dusting the chest, and wondering for the hundredth time in six months: + +"What in the world does he do all the blessed day? He cannot always be +staring at the blue sky and the stars that God has hung up there like +lanterns. That dear boy has known trouble. But why do he and the old man +hardly ever speak to each other?" + +Then she lost herself in wonderment and in thoughts which, in her woman's +brain, were tangled like a skein of thread. + +The old man and his young companion had gone into one of the schools for +which the Rue du Fouarre was at that time famous throughout Europe. At the +moment when Jacqueline's two lodgers arrived at the old School des Quatre +Nations, the celebrated Sigier, the most noted Doctor of Mystical Theology +of the University of Paris, was mounting his pulpit in a spacious low room +on a level with the street. The cold stones were strewn with clean straw, +on which several of his disciples knelt on one knee, writing on the other, +to enable them to take notes from the Master's improvised discourse, in the +shorthand abbreviations which are the despair of modern decipherers. + +The hall was full, not of students only, but of the most distinguished men +belonging to the clergy, the court, and the legal faculty. There were some +learned foreigners, too--soldiers and rich citizens. The broad faces were +there, with prominent brows and venerable beards, which fill us with a sort +of pious respect for our ancestors when we see their portraits from the +Middle Ages. Lean faces, too, with burning, sunken eyes, under bald heads +yellow from the labors of futile scholasticism, contrasted with young and +eager countenances, grave faces, warlike faces, and the ruddy cheeks of the +financial class. + +These lectures, dissertations, theses, sustained by the brightest geniuses +of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, roused our forefathers to +enthusiasm. They were to them their bull-fights, their Italian opera, their +tragedy, their dancers; in short, all their drama. The performance of +Mysteries was a later thing than these spiritual disputations, to which, +perhaps, we owe the French stage. Inspired eloquence, combining the +attractions of the human voice skilfully used, with daring inquisition into +the secrets of God, sufficed to satisfy every form of curiosity, appealed +to the soul, and constituted the fashionable entertainment of the time. Not +only did Theology include the other sciences, it was science itself, as +grammar was science to the Ancient Greeks; and those who distinguished +themselves in these duels, in which the orators, like Jacob, wrestled with +the Spirit of God, had a promising future before them. Embassies, +arbitrations between sovereigns, chancellorships, and ecclesiastical +dignities were the meed of men whose rhetoric had been schooled in +theological controversy. The professor's chair was the tribune of the +period. + +This system lasted till the day when Rabelais gibbeted dialectics by his +merciless satire, as Cervantes demolished chivalry by a narrative comedy. + +To understand this amazing period and the spirit which dictated its +voluminous, though now forgotten, masterpieces, to analyze it, even to its +barbarisms, we need only examine the Constitutions of the University of +Paris and the extraordinary scheme of instruction that then obtained. +Theology was taught under two faculties--that of Theology properly so +called, and that of Canon Law. The faculty of Theology, again, had three +sections--Scholastic, Canonical, and Mystic. It would be wearisome to give +an account of the attributes of each section of the science, since one +only, namely, Mystic, is the subject of this _Etude_. + +Mystical Theology included the whole of Divine Revelation and the +elucidation of the Mysteries. And this branch of ancient theology has been +secretly preserved with reverence even to our own day; Jacob Boehm, +Swedenborg, Martinez Pasqualis, Saint-Martin, Molinos, Madame Guyon, Madame +Bourignon, and Madame Krudener, the extensive sect of the Ecstatics, and +that of the Illuminati, have at different periods duly treasured the +doctrines of this science, of which the aim is indeed truly startling and +portentous. In Doctor Sigier's day, as in our own, man has striven to gain +wings to fly into the sanctuary where God hides from our gaze. + +This digression was necessary to give a clue to the scene at which the old +man and the youth from the island under Notre-Dame had come to be audience; +it will also protect this narrative from all blame on the score of +falsehood and hyperbole, of which certain persons of hasty judgment might +perhaps suspect me. + +Doctor Sigier was a tall man in the prime of life. His face, rescued from +oblivion by the archives of the University, had singular analogies with +that of Mirabeau. It was stamped with the seal of fierce, swift, and +terrible eloquence. But the Doctor bore on his brow the expression of +religious faith that his modern double had not. His voice, too, was of +persuasive sweetness, with a clear and pleasing ring in it. + +At this moment the daylight, that was stintingly diffused through the +small, heavily-leaded window-panes, tinted the assembly with capricious +tones and powerful contrasts from the chequered light and shade. Here, in a +dark corner, eyes shone brightly, their dark heads under the sunbeams +gleamed light above faces in shadow, and various bald heads, with only a +circlet of white hair, were distinguished among the crowd like battlements +silvered by moonlight. Every face was turned towards the Doctor, mute but +impatient. The drowsy voices of other lecturers in the adjoining schools +were audible in the silent street like the murmuring of the sea; and the +steps of the two strangers, as they now came in, attracted general +attention. Doctor Sigier, ready to begin, saw the stately senior standing, +looked round for a seat for him, and then finding none, as the place was +full, came down from his place, went to the newcomer, and with great +respect, led him to the platform of his professor's chair, and there gave +him his stool to sit upon. The assembly hailed this mark of deference with +a murmur of approval, recognizing the old man as the orator of a fine +thesis admirably argued not long since at the Sorbonne. + +The stranger looked down from his raised position on the crowd below with +that deep glance that held a whole poem of sorrow, and those who met his +eye felt an indescribable thrill. The lad, following the old man, sat down +on one of the steps, leaning against the pulpit in a graceful and +melancholy attitude. The silence was now profound, and the doorway and even +the street were blocked by scholars who had deserted the other classes. + +Doctor Sigier was to-day to recapitulate, in the last of a series of +discourses, the views he had set forth in the former lectures on the +Resurrection, Heaven, and Hell. His strange doctrine responded to the +sympathies of the time, and gratified the immoderate love of the +marvelous, which haunts the mind of man in every age. This effort of man to +clutch the infinite, which for ever slips through his ineffectual grasp, +this last tourney of thought against thought, was a task worthy of an +assembly where the brightest luminaries of the age had met, and where the +most stupendous human imagination ever known, perhaps, at that moment +shone. + +The Doctor began by summing up in a mild and even tone the principal points +he had so far established: + + "No intellect was the exact counterpart of another. Had + man any right to require an account of his Creator for + the inequality of powers bestowed on each? Without + attempting to penetrate rashly into the designs of God, + ought we not to recognize the fact that by reason of + their general diversity intelligences could be classed + in spheres? From the sphere where the least degree of + intelligence gleamed, to the most translucent souls who + could see the road by which to ascend to God, was there + not an ascending scale of spiritual gift? And did not + spirits of the same sphere understand each other like + brothers in soul, in flesh, in mind, and in feeling?" + +From this the Doctor went on to unfold the most wonderful theories of +sympathy. He set forth in Biblical language the phenomena of love, of +instinctive repulsion, of strong affinities which transcend the laws of +space, of the sudden mingling of souls which seem to recognize each other. +With regard to the different degrees of strength of which our affections +are capable, he accounted for them by the place, more or less near the +centre, occupied by beings in their respective circles. + +He gave mathematical expression to God's grand idea in the co-ordination of +the various human spheres. "Through man," he said, "these spheres +constituted a world intermediate between the intelligence of the brute and +the intelligence of the angels." As he stated it, the divine Word nourishes +the spiritual Word, the spiritual Word nourishes the living Word, the +living Word nourishes the animal Word, the animal Word nourishes the +vegetable Word, and the vegetable Word is the expression of the life of the +barren Word. These successive evolutions, as of a chrysalis, which God thus +wrought in our souls, this infusorial life, so to speak, communicated from +each zone to the next, more vivid, more spiritual, more perceptive in its +ascent, represented, rather dimly no doubt, but marvelously enough to his +inexperienced hearers, the impulse given to Nature by the Almighty. +Supported by many texts from the Sacred Scriptures, which he used as a +commentary on his own statements to express by concrete images the abstract +arguments he felt to be wanting, he flourished the Spirit of God like a +torch over the deep secrets of creation, with an eloquence peculiar to +himself, and accents that urged conviction on his audience. As he unfolded +his mysterious system and all its consequences, he gave a key to every +symbol and justified the vocation, the special gifts, the genius, the +talent of each human being. + +Then, instinctively becoming physiological, he remarked on the resemblance +to certain animals stamped on some human faces, accounting for them by +primordial analogies and the upward tendency of all creation. He showed his +audience the workings of Nature, and assigned a mission and a future to +minerals, plants, and animals. Bible in hand, after thus spiritualizing +Matter and materializing Spirit, after pointing to the Will of God in all +things, and enjoining respect for His smallest works, he suggested the +possibility of rising by faith from sphere to sphere. + +This was the first portion of his discourse, and by adroit digressions he +applied the doctrine of his system to feudalism. The poetry--religious and +profane--and the abrupt eloquence of that period had a grand opening in +this vast theory, wherein the Doctor had amalgamated all the philosophical +systems of the ancients, and from which he brought them out again +classified, transfigured, purified. The false dogmas of two adverse +principles and of Pantheism were demolished at his word, which proclaimed +the Divine Unity, while ascribing to God and His angels the knowledge, the +ends to which the means shone resplendent to the eyes of man. Fortified by +the demonstrations that proved the existence of the world of Matter, Doctor +Sigier constructed the scheme of a spiritual world dividing us from God by +an ascending scale of spheres, just as the plant is divided from man by an +infinite number of grades. He peopled the heavens, the stars, the planets, +the sun. + +Quoting Saint Paul, he invested man with a new power; he might rise, from +globe to globe, to the very Fount of eternal life. Jacob's mystical ladder +was both the religious formula and the traditional proof of the fact. He +soared through space, carrying with him the passionate souls of his hearers +on the wings of his word, making them feel the infinite, and bathing them +in the heavenly sea. Then the Doctor accounted logically for hell by +circles placed in inverse order to the shining spheres that lead to God, in +which torments and darkness take the place of the Spirit and of light. Pain +was as intelligible as rapture. The terms of the comparison were present in +the conditions of human life and its various atmospheres of suffering and +of intellect. Thus the most extraordinary traditions of hell and purgatory +were quite naturally conceivable. + +He gave the fundamental _rationale_ of virtue with admirable clearness. A +pious man, toiling onward in poverty, proud of his good conscience, at +peace with himself, and steadfastly true to himself in his heart in spite +of the spectacle of exultant vice, was a fallen angel doing penance, who +remembered his origin, foresaw his guerdon, accomplished his task, and +obeyed his glorious mission. The sublime resignation of Christians was then +seen in all its glory. He depicted martyrs at the burning stake, and almost +stripped them of their merit by stripping them of their sufferings. He +showed their inner angel as dwelling in the heavens, while the outer man +was tortured by the executioner's sword. He described angels dwelling among +men, and gave tokens by which to recognize them. + +He next strove to drag from the very depths of man's understanding the real +sense of the word fall, which occurs in every language. He appealed to the +most widely-spread traditions in evidence of this one true origin, +explaining, with much lucidity, the passion all men have for rising, +mounting--an instinctive ambition, the perennial revelation of our destiny. + +He displayed the whole universe at a glance, and described the nature of +God Himself circulating in a full tide from the centre to the extremities, +and from the extremities to the centre again. Nature was one and +homogeneous. In the most seemingly trivial, as in the most stupendous work, +everything obeyed that law; each created object reproduced in little an +exact image of that nature--the sap in the plant, the blood in man, the +orbits of the planets. He piled proof on proof, always completing his idea +by a picture musical with poetry. + +And he boldly anticipated every objection. He thundered forth an eloquent +challenge to the monumental works of science and human excrescences of +knowledge, such as those which societies use the elements of the earthly +globe to produce. He asked whether our wars, our disasters, our depravity +could hinder the great movement given by God to all the globes; and he +laughed human impotence to scorn by pointing to their efforts everywhere in +ruins. He cried upon the manes of Tyre, Carthage, and Babylon; he called +upon Babel and Jerusalem to appear; and sought, without finding them, the +transient furrows made by the ploughshare of civilization. Humanity floated +on the surface of the earth as a ship whose wake is lost in the calm level +of ocean. + +These were the fundamental notions set forth in Doctor Sigier's address, +all wrapped in the mystical language and strange school Latin of the time. +He had made a special study of the Scriptures, and they supplied him with +the weapons with which he came before his contemporaries to hasten their +progress. He hid his boldness under his immense learning, as with a cloak, +and his philosophical bent under a saintly life. At this moment, after +bringing his hearers face to face with God, after packing the universe into +an idea, and almost unveiling the idea of the world, he gazed down on the +silent, throbbing mass, and scrutinized the stranger with a look. Then, +spurred on, no doubt, by the presence of this remarkable personage, he +added these words, from which I have eliminated the corrupt Latinity of the +Middle Ages:-- + +"Where, think you, may a man find these fruitful truths if not in the heart +of God Himself?--What am I?--The humble interpreter of a single line left +to us by the greatest of the Apostles--a single line out of thousands all +equally full of light. Before us, Saint Paul said, '_In Deo vivimus movemur +et sumus_.' In our day, less believing and more learned, or better +instructed and more sceptical, we should ask the Apostle, 'To what end this +perpetual motion? Whither leads this life divided into zones? Wherefore an +intelligence that begins with the obscure perfection of marble and proceeds +from sphere to sphere up to man, up to the angel, up to God? Where is the +Fount, where is the ocean, if life, attaining to God across worlds and +stars, through Matter and Spirit, has to come down again to some other +goal?' + +"You desire to see both aspects of the universe at once. You would adore +the Sovereign on condition of being suffered to sit for an instant on His +throne. Mad fools that we are! We will not admit that the most intelligent +animals are able to understand our ideas and the object of our actions; we +are merciless to the creatures of the inferior spheres, and exile them from +our own; we deny them the faculty of divining human thoughts, and yet we +ourselves would fain master the highest of all ideas--the Idea of the Idea! + +"Well, go then, start! Fly by faith up from globe to globe, soar through +space! Thought, love, and faith are its mystical keys. Traverse the +circles, reach the throne! God is more merciful than you are; He opens His +temple to all His creatures. Only, do not forget the pattern of Moses; put +your shoes from off your feet cast off all filth, leave your body far +behind; otherwise you shall be consumed; for God--God is Light!" + +Just as Doctor Sigier spoke these grand words, his face radiant, his hand +uplifted, a sunbeam pierced through an open window, like a magic jet from a +fount of splendor, a long triangular shaft of gold that lay like a scarf +over the whole assembly. They all clapped their hands, for the audience +accepted this effect of the sinking sun as a miracle. There was a universal +cry of: + +"_Vivat! Vivat!_" + +The very sky seemed to shed approval. Godefroid, struck with reverence, +looked from the old man to Doctor Sigier; they were talking together in an +undertone. + +"All honor to the Master!" said the stranger. + +"What is such transient honor?" replied Sigier. + +"I would I could perpetuate my gratitude," said the older man. + +"A line written by you is enough!" said the Doctor. "It would give me +immortality, humanly speaking." + +"Can I give what I have not?" cried the elder. + +Escorted by the crowd, which followed in their footsteps, like courtiers +round a king, at a respectful distance, Godefroid, with the old man and the +Doctor, made their way to the oozy shore, where as yet there were no +houses, and where the ferryman was waiting for them. The Doctor and the +stranger were talking together, not in Latin nor in any Gallic tongue, but +in an unknown language, and very gravely. They pointed with their hands now +to heaven and now to the earth. Sigier, to whom the paths by the river were +familiar, guided the venerable stranger with particular care to the narrow +planks which here and there bridged the mud; the following watched them +inquisitively; and some of the students envied the privileged boy who might +walk with these two great masters of speech. Finally, the Doctor took leave +of the stranger, and the ferry-boat pushed off. + +At the moment when the boat was afloat on the wide river, communicating its +motion to the soul, the sun pierced the clouds like a conflagration blazing +up on the horizon, and poured forth a flood of light, coloring slate +roof-tops and humbler thatch with a ruddy glow and tawny reflections, +fringed Philippe Auguste's towers with fire, flooded the sky, dyed the +waters, gilded the plants, and aroused the half-sleeping insects. The +immense shaft of light set the clouds on fire. It was like the last verse +of the daily hymn. Every heart was thrilled; nature in such a moment is +sublime. + +As he gazed at the spectacle, the stranger's eyes moistened with the +tenderest of human tears: Godefroid too was weeping; his trembling hand +touched that of the elder man, who, looking round, confessed his emotion. +But thinking his dignity as a man compromised, no doubt, to redeem it, he +said in a deep voice: + +"I weep for my native land. I am an exile! Young man, in such an hour as +this I left my home. There, at this hour, the fireflies are coming out of +their fragile dwellings and clinging like diamond sparks to the leaves of +the iris. At this hour the breeze, as sweet as the sweetest poetry, rises +up from a valley bathed in light, bearing on its wings the richest +fragrance. On the horizon I could see a golden city like the Heavenly +Jerusalem--a city whose name I may not speak. There, too, a river winds. +But that city and its buildings, that river of which the lovely vistas, and +the pools of blue water, mingled, crossed, and embraced each other, which +gladdened my sight and filled me with love--where are they? + +"At that hour the waters assumed fantastic hues under the sunset sky, and +seemed to be painted pictures; the stars dropped tender streaks of light, +the moon spread its pleasing snares; it gave another life to the trees, to +the color and form of things, and a new aspect to the sparkling water, the +silent hills, the eloquent buildings. The city spoke, it glittered, it +called to me to return! + +"Columns of smoke rose up by the side of the ancient pillars, whose marble +sheen gleamed white through the night; the lines of the horizon were still +visible through the mists of evening; all was harmony and mystery. Nature +would not say farewell; she desired to keep me there. Ah! It was all in all +to me; my mother and my child, my wife and my glory! The very bells +bewailed my condemnation. Oh, land of marvels! It is as beautiful as +heaven. From that hour the wide world has been my dungeon. Beloved land, +why hast thou rejected me? + +"But I shall triumph there yet!" he cried, speaking with an accent of such +intense conviction and such a ringing tone, that the boatman started as at +a trumpet call. + +The stranger was standing in a prophetic attitude and gazing southwards +into the blue, pointing to his native home across the skyey regions. The +ascetic pallor of his face had given place to a glow of triumph, his eyes +flashed, he was as grand as a lion shaking his mane. + +"But you, poor child," he went on, looking at Godefroid, whose cheeks were +beaded with glittering tears, "have you, like me, studied life from +blood-stained pages? What can you have to weep for, at your age?" + +"Alas!" said Godefroid, "I regret a land more beautiful than any land on +earth--a land I never saw and yet remember. Oh, if I could but cleave the +air on beating wings, I would fly----" + +"Whither?" asked the exile. + +"Up there," replied the boy. + +On hearing this answer, the stranger seemed surprised; he looked darkly at +the youth, who remained silent. They seemed to communicate by an +unspeakable effusion of the spirit, hearing each other's yearnings in the +teeming silence, and going forth side by side, like two doves sweeping the +air on equal wing, till the boat, touching the strand of the island, roused +them from their deep reverie. + +Then, each lost in thought, they went together to the sergeant's house. + +"And so the boy believes that he is an angel exiled from heaven!" thought +the tall stranger. "Which of us all has a right to undeceive him? Not I--I, +who am so often lifted by some magic spell so far above the earth; I who am +dedicate to God; I who am a mystery to myself. Have I not already seen the +fairest of the angels dwelling in this mire? Is this child more or less +crazed than I am? Has he taken a bolder step in the way of faith? He +believes, and his belief no doubt will lead him into some path of light +like that in which I walk. But though he is as beautiful as an angel, is he +not too feeble to stand fast in such a struggle?" + +Abashed by the presence of his companion, whose voice of thunder expressed +to him his own thoughts, as lightning expresses the will of Heaven, the boy +was satisfied to gaze at the stars with a lover's eyes. Overwhelmed by a +luxury of sentiment, which weighed on his heart, he stood there timid and +weak--a midge in the sunbeams. Sigier's discourse had proved to them the +mysteries of the spiritual world; the tall, old man was to invest them with +glory; the lad felt them in himself, though he could in no way express +them. The three represented in living embodiment Science, Poetry, and +Feeling. + + * * * * * + +On going into the house, the Exile shut himself into his room, lighted the +inspiring lamp, and gave himself over to the ruthless demon of Work, +seeking words of the silence and ideas of the night. Godefroid sat down in +his window sill, by turns gazing at the moon reflected in the water, and +studying the mysteries of the sky. Lost in one of the trances that were +frequent with him, he traveled from sphere to sphere, from vision to +vision, listening for obscure rustlings and the voices of angels, and +believing that he heard them; seeing, or fancying that he saw, a divine +radiance in which he lost himself; striving to attain the far-away goal, +the source of all light, the fount of all harmony. + +Presently the vast clamor of Paris, brought down on the current, was +hushed; lights were extinguished one by one in the houses; silence spread +over all; and the huge city slept like a tired giant. + +Midnight struck. The least noise, the fall of a leaf, or the flight of a +jackdaw changing its perching-place among the pinnacles of Notre-Dame, +would have been enough to bring the stranger's mind to earth again, to have +made the youth drop from the celestial heights to which his soul had soared +on the wings of rapture. + +And then the old man heard with dismay a groan mingling with the sound of a +heavy fall--the fall, as his experienced ear assured him, of a dead body. +He hastened into Godefroid's room, and saw him lying in a heap with a long +rope tight round his neck, the end meandering over the floor. + +When he had untied it, the poor lad opened his eyes. + +"Where am I?" he asked, with a hopeful gleam. + +"In your own room," said the elder man, looking with surprise at +Godefroid's neck, and at the nail to which the cord had been tied, and +which was still in the knot. + +"In heaven?" said the boy, in a voice of music. + +"No; on earth!" + +Godefroid rose and walked along the path of light traced on the floor by +the moon through the window, which stood open; he saw the rippling Seine, +the willows and plants on the island. A misty atmosphere hung over the +waters like a smoky floor. + +On seeing the view, to him so heartbreaking, he folded his hands over his +bosom, and stood in an attitude of despair; the Exile came up to him with +astonishment on his face. + +"You meant to kill yourself?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Godefroid, while the stranger passed his hand about his neck +again and again to feel the place where the rope had tightened on it. + +But for some slight bruises, the young man had been but little hurt. His +friend supposed that the nail had given way at once under the weight of the +body, and the terrible attempt had ended in a fall without injury. + +"And why, dear lad, did you try to kill yourself?" + +"Alas!" said Godefroid, no longer restraining the tears that rolled down +his cheeks, "I heard the Voice from on high; it called me by name! It had +never named me before, but this time it bade me to Heaven! Oh, how sweet is +that voice!--As I could not fly to Heaven," he added artlessly, "I took the +only way we know of going to God." + +"My child! oh, sublime boy!" cried the old man, throwing his arms round +Godefroid, and clasping him to his heart. "You are a poet; you can boldly +ride the whirlwind! Your poetry does not proceed from your heart; your +living, burning thoughts, your creations, move and grow in your soul.--Go, +never reveal your ideas to the vulgar! Be at once the altar, the priest, +and the victim! + +"You know Heaven, do you not? You have seen those myriads of angels, +white-winged, and holding golden sistrums, all soaring with equal flight +towards the Throne, and you have often seen their pinions moving at the +breath of God as the trees of the forest bow with one consent before the +storm. Ah, how glorious is unlimited space! Tell me." + +The stranger clasped Godefroid's hand convulsively, and they both gazed at +the firmament, whence the stars seemed to shed gentle poetry which they +could bear. + +"Oh, to see God!" murmured Godefroid. + +"Child!" said the old man suddenly, in a sterner voice, "have you so soon +forgotten the holy teaching of our good master, Doctor Sigier? In order to +return, you to your heavenly home, and I to my native land on earth, must +we not obey the voice of God? We must walk on resignedly in the stony paths +where His almighty finger points the way. Do not you quail at the thought +of the danger to which you exposed yourself? Arriving there without being +bidden, and saying, 'Here I am!' before your time, would you not have been +cast back into a world beneath that where your soul now hovers? Poor +outcast cherub! Should you not rather bless God for having suffered you to +live in a sphere where you may hear none but heavenly harmonies? Are you +not as pure as a diamond, as lovely as a flower? + +"Think what it is to know, like me, only the City of Sorrows!--Dwelling +there I have worn out my heart.--To search the tombs for their horrible +secrets; to wipe hands steeped in blood, counting them over night after +night, seeing them rise up before me imploring forgiveness which I may not +grant; to mark the writhing of the assassin and the last shriek of his +victim; to listen to appalling noises and fearful silence, the silence of a +father devouring his dead sons; to wonder at the laughter of the damned; to +look for some human form among the livid heaps wrung and trampled by crime; +to learn words such as living men may not hear without dying; to call +perpetually on the dead, and always to accuse and condemn!--Is that +living?" + +"Cease!" cried Godefroid; "I cannot see you or hear you any further! My +reason wanders, my eyes are dim. You light a fire within me which consumes +me." + +"And yet I must go on!" said the senior, waving his hand with a strange +gesture that worked on the youth like a spell. + +For a moment the old man fixed Godefroid with his large, weary, lightless +eyes; then he pointed with one finger to the ground. A gulf seemed to open +at his bidding. He remained standing in the doubtful light of the moon; it +lent a glory to his brow which reflected an almost solar gleam. Though at +first a somewhat disdainful expression lurked in the wrinkles of his face, +his look presently assumed the fixity which seems to gaze on an object +invisible to the ordinary organs of sight. His eyes, no doubt, were seeing +then the remoter images which the grave has in store for us. + +Never, perhaps, had this man presented so grand an aspect. A terrible +struggle was going on in his soul, and reacted on his outer frame; strong +man as he seemed to be, he bent as a reed bows under the breeze that comes +before a storm. Godefroid stood motionless, speechless, spellbound; some +inexplicable force nailed him to the floor; and, as happens when our +attention takes us out of ourselves while watching a fire or a battle, he +was wholly unconscious of his body. + +"Shall I tell you the fate to which you were hastening, poor angel of love? +Listen! It has been given to me to see immeasurable space, bottomless +gulfs in which, all human creations are swallowed up, the shoreless sea +whither flows the vast stream of men and of angels. As I made my way +through the realms of eternal torment, I was sheltered under the cloak of +an immortal--the robe of glory due to genius, and which the ages hand +on--I, a frail mortal! When I wandered through the fields of light where +the happy souls play, I was borne up by the love of a woman, the wings of +an angel; resting on her heart, I could taste the ineffable pleasures whose +touch is more perilous to us mortals than are the torments of the worser +world. + +"As I achieved my pilgrimage through the dark regions below I had mounted +from torture to torture, from crime to crime, from punishment to +punishment, from awful silence to heartrending cries, till I reached the +uppermost circle of Hell. Already, from afar, I could see the glory of +Paradise shining at a vast distance; I was still in darkness, but on the +borders of day. I flew, upheld by my Guide, borne along by a power akin to +that which, during our dreams, wafts us to spheres invisible to the eye of +the body. The halo that crowned our heads scared away the shades as we +passed, like impalpable dust. Far above us the suns of all the worlds shone +with scarce so much light as the twinkling fireflies of my native land. I +was soaring towards the fields of air where, round about Paradise, the +bodies of light are in closer array, where the azure is easy to pass +through, where worlds innumerable spring like flowers in a meadow. + +"There, on the last level of the circles where those phantoms dwell that I +had left behind me, like sorrows one would fain forget, I saw a vast shade. +Standing in an attitude of aspiration, that soul looked eagerly into space; +his feet were riveted by the will of God to the topmost point of the +margin, and he remained for ever in the painful strain by which we project +our purpose when we long to soar, as birds about to take wing. I saw the +man; he neither looked at us nor heard us; every muscle quivered and +throbbed; at each separate instant he seemed to feel, though he did not +move, all the fatigue of traversing the infinite that divided him from +Paradise where, as he gazed steadfastly, he believed he had glimpses of a +beloved image. At this last gate of Hell, as at the first, I saw the stamp +of despair even in hope. The hapless creature was so fearfully held by some +unseen force, that his anguish entered into my bones and froze my blood. I +shrank closer to my Guide, whose protection restored me to peace and +silence. + +"Suddenly the Shade gave a cry of joy--a cry as shrill as that of the +mother bird that sees a hawk in the air, or suspects its presence. We +looked where he was looking, and saw, as it were, a sapphire, floating high +up in the abysses of light. The glowing star fell with the swiftness of a +sunbeam when it flashes over the horizon in the morning and its first rays +shoot across the world. The Splendor became clearer and grew larger; +presently I beheld the cloud of glory in which the angels move--a shining +vapor that emanates from their divine substance, and that glitters here and +there like tongues of flame. A noble face, whose glory none may endure that +have not won the mantle, the laurel, and the palm--the attribute of the +Powers--rose above this cloud as white and pure as snow. It was Light +within light. His wings as they waved shed dazzling ripples in the spheres +through which he descended, as the glance of God pierces through the +universe. At last I saw the archangel in all his glory. The flower of +eternal beauty that belongs to the angels of the Spirit shone in him. In +one hand he held a green palm branch, in the other a sword of flame: the +palm to bestow on the pardoned soul, the sword to drive back all the hosts +of Hell with one sweep. As he approached, the perfumes of Heaven fell upon +us as dew. In the region where the archangel paused, the air took the hues +of opal, and moved in eddies of which he was the centre. He paused, looked +at the Shade, and said: + +"'To-morrow.' + +"Then he turned heavenwards once more, spread his wings, and clove through +space as a vessel cuts through the waves, hardly showing her white sails +to the exiles left on some deserted shore. + +"The Shade uttered appalling cries, to which the damned responded from the +lowest circle, the deepest in the immensity of suffering, to the more +peaceful zone near the surface on which we were standing. This worst +torment of all had appealed to all the rest. The turmoil was swelled by the +roar of a sea of fire which formed a bass to the terrific harmony of +endless millions of suffering souls. + +"Then suddenly the Shade took flight through the doleful city, and down to +its place at the very bottom of Hell; but as suddenly it came up again, +turned, soared through the endless circles in every direction, as a +vulture, confined for the first time in a cage, exhausts itself in vain +efforts. The Shade was free to do this; he could wander through the zones +of Hell icy, fetid, or scorching without enduring their pangs; he glided +into that vastness as a sunbeam makes its way into the deepest dark. + +"'God has not condemned him to any torment,' said the Master; 'but not one +of the souls you have seen suffering their various punishments would +exchange his anguish for the hope that is consuming this soul.' + +"And just then the Shade came back to us, brought thither by an +irresistible force which condemned him to parch on the verge of Hell. My +divine Guide, guessing my curiosity, touched the unhappy Shade with his +palm-branch. He, who was perhaps trying to measure the age of sorrow that +divided him from that ever-vanishing 'To-morrow,' started and gave a look +full of all the tears he had already shed. + +"'You would know my woe?' said he sadly. 'Oh, I love to tell it. I am here, +Teresa is above; that is all. On earth we were happy, we were always +together. When I saw my loved Teresa Donati for the first time, she was ten +years old. We loved each other even then, not knowing what love meant. Our +lives were one; I turned pale if she were pale, I was happy in her joy; we +gave ourselves up to the pleasure of thinking and feeling together; and we +learned what love was, each through the other. We were wedded at Cremona; +we never saw each other's lips but decked with the pearls of a smile; our +eyes always shone; our hair, like our desires, flowed together; our heads +were always bent over one book when we read, our feet walked in equal step. +Life was one long kiss, our home was a nest. + +"'One day, for the first time, Teresa turned pale and said, "I am in +pain!"--And I was not in pain! + +"'She never rose again. I saw her sweet face change, her golden hair +fade--and I did not die! She smiled to hide her sufferings, but I could +read them in her blue eyes, of which I could interpret the slightest +trembling. "Honorino, I love you!" said she, at the very moment when her +lips turned white, and she was clasping my hand still in hers when death +chilled them. So I killed myself that she might not lie alone in her +sepulchral bed, under her marble sheet. Teresa is above, and I am here. I +could not bear to leave her, but God has divided us. Why, then, did He +unite us on earth? He is jealous! Paradise was no doubt so much the fairer +on the day when Teresa entered in. + +"'Do you see her? She is sad in her bliss; she is parted from me! Paradise +must be a desert to her.' + +"'Master,' said I with tears, for I thought of my love, 'when this one +shall desire Paradise for God's sake alone, shall he not be delivered?' And +the Father of Poets mildly bowed his head in sign of assent. + +"We departed, cleaving the air, and making no more noise than the birds +that pass overhead sometimes when we lie in the shade of a tree. It would +have been vain to try to check the hapless shade in his blasphemy. It is +one of the griefs of the angels of darkness that they can never see the +light even when they are surrounded by it. He would not have understood +us." + + * * * * * + +At this moment the swift approach of many horses rang through the +stillness, the dog barked, the constable's deep growl replied; the +horsemen dismounted, knocked at the door; the noise was so unexpected that +it seemed like some sudden explosion. + +The two exiles, the two poets, fell to earth through all the space that +divides us from the skies. The painful shock of this fall rushed through +their veins like strange blood, hissing as it seemed, and full of scorching +sparks. Their pain was like an electric discharge. The loud, heavy step of +a man-at-arms sounded on the stairs with the iron clank of his sword, his +cuirass, and spurs; a soldier presently stood before the astonished +stranger. + +"We can return to Florence," said the man, whose bass voice sounded soft as +he spoke in Italian. + +"What is that you say?" asked the old man. + +"The _Bianchi_ are triumphant." + +"Are you not mistaken?" asked the poet. + +"No, dear Dante!" replied the soldier, whose warlike tones rang with the +thrill of battle and the exultation of victory. + +"To Florence! To Florence! Ah, my Florence!" cried Dante Alighieri, drawing +himself up, and gazing into the distance. In fancy he saw Italy; he was +gigantic. + +"But I--when shall I be in Heaven?" said Godefroid, kneeling on one knee +before the immortal poet, like an angel before the sanctuary. + +"Come to Florence," said Dante in compassionate tones. "Come! when you see +its lovely landscape from the heights of Fiesole you will fancy yourself in +Paradise." + +The soldier smiled. For the first time, perhaps for the only time in his +life, Dante's gloomy and solemn features wore a look of joy; his eyes and +brow expressed the happiness he has depicted so lavishly in his vision of +Paradise. He thought perhaps that he heard the voice of Beatrice. + +A light step, and the rustle of a woman's gown, were audible in the +silence. Dawn was now showing its first streaks of light. The fair Comtesse +de Mahaut came in and flew to Godefroid. + +"Come, my child, my son! I may at last acknowledge you. Your birth is +recognized, your rights are under the protection of the King of France, and +you will find Paradise in your mother's heart." + +"I hear, I know, the voice of Heaven!" cried the youth in rapture. + +The exclamation roused Dante, who saw the young man folded in the Countess' +arms. He took leave of them with a look, and left his young companion on +his mother's bosom. + +"Come away!" he cried in a voice of thunder. "Death to the Guelphs!" + + PARIS, _October 1831_. + + + + +MAITRE CORNELIUS + +_To Monsieur Le Comte Georges Mniszech._ + + Some envious persons, when they see one of the oldest + and most illustrious of Sarmatian names adorning this + page, may imagine that I am endeavoring, as goldsmiths + do, to enhance a piece of modern work by the addition + of an ancient gem,--a fashion of the day. But you, my + dear Count, and a few others, will know that I aim at + paying my debt to talent, old memories, and friendship. + + +In 1479, on All Saints' day, at the moment when this tale opens, vespers +were just over in the cathedral of Tours. The Archbishop Helie de +Bourdeilles rose from his throne, himself to pronounce the blessing on the +worshipers. The sermon had been lengthy, dusk had fallen before the service +was ended, and utter darkness prevailed in many parts of the great church, +of which the towers, at that time, were not finished. + +However, a considerable number of tapers were burning in honor of the +saints, on the triangular frames constructed for the display of these pious +offerings, of which the virtue and meaning have never been fully +understood. The candles on every altar and the candelabra in the choir were +all flaming. These masses of light, irregularly occurring among the forest +of pillars and arches that sustain the three aisles of the cathedral, +scarcely illuminated the vast body of the church; for, by throwing the deep +shadows of the piers across the upper portions of the building, they gave +rise to a thousand fantastic effects which added to the gloom in which +arches, vaulting, and chapels were now wrapped,--dark enough as they were +even in broad daylight. + +The congregation presented effects that were not less picturesque. Some +figures were so dimly visible in the doubtful light that they might have +been taken for phantoms; others, hit by some side-light, caught the eye +like the principal heads in a picture. Statues seemed to live, and men +seemed turned to stone. Here and there eyes sparkled in the recess of a +pillar; the stone had sight, the marble spoke, the vault reechoed sighs, +the whole structure was endowed with life. + +The life of a people can show no more solemn scene, no more majestic +moment. Men, in masses, always need action to produce a poetical effect; +still, in these homes of religious thought, where human wealth is wedded to +celestial splendor, there is an incredible sublimity in silence; there is +awe in these bended knees and hope in these uplifted hands. The concord of +feeling with which all the assembled souls fly heavenward, produces an +indescribably spiritual effect. The mystical exaltation of the united +believers reacts on each individual; the feeble are no doubt borne upwards +on the full tide of this ocean of love and faith. + +Prayer, an electrical force, thus snatches our nature upwards. This +involuntary union of so many wills, all equally humbled to earth, all +equally lifted to heaven, contains, no doubt, the secret of the magical +influences exerted by the chanting of the priests and the music of the +organ, the perfume and pomp of the altar, the voice of the crowd and its +meditations in silence. + +Hence we need not be surprised when we see, in the middle ages, that so +many love affairs had their beginnings in church, after long hours of +ecstasy--passions which often had no saintly ending and for which the +woman, as she always must, ended by doing penance. Religious emotion had +certainly, at that time, some affinity with love; it was either the element +or the end of it. Love was still a second religion; it still had its fine +frenzies, its artless superstitions, its sublime emotion in harmony with +those of Christianity. + +The manners of the time also help to explain the alliance between religion +and love. In the first place, society never mingled but in front of the +altar. Lords and vassals, men and women, were nowhere equal but in church. +There alone could lovers meet and exchange their vows. Then Church +Festivals were the only spectacles; a woman's soul was more deeply stirred +within the walls of a cathedral than it now is at a ball or an opera. And +does not every strong emotion bring a woman round to love? Thus, by dint of +forming part of life, and identifying itself with every act, religion had +become the moving principle of virtue and vice alike. Religion was mixed up +with science, with politics, with eloquence, with crime; on the throne or +in the skin of the poor and suffering; it was all-pervading. + +These semi-learned reflections will perhaps certify to the truth of this +_Etude_, though some of its details may scandalize the improved propriety +of our age--a little too strait-laced perhaps, as we all know. + +At the instant when the priests ceased their chanting, the last notes of +the organ mingling with the throbbing _Amen_ sent out from the deep-chested +choir-men, while a faint murmur still lingered under the remoter vaults and +the devout assembly awaited the prelate's benedictory words, a citizen, in +a hurry to get home, or fearing to lose his purse in the crowd going out, +gently stole away, at the risk of being regarded as a bad Catholic. A +gentleman, who had lurked till now close to one of the enormous pillars of +the choir, where he was shrouded in the shadow, hastened to take the place +left vacant by the worthy burgess. As soon as he reached it, he hid his +face in the feathers that adorned his tall gray cap, and knelt down on a +chair in a contrite attitude that might have deceived an inquisitor. + +His neighbors, having stared curiously at the youth, appeared to recognize +him and turned to their devotions once more with a significant shrug, by +which they all expressed the same idea--a sarcastic mocking thought, an +unspoken scandal. Two old women nodded their heads and exchanged glances +which seemed to read the future. + +The chair taken by the young man was close to a chapel built in between two +pillars, and closed by an iron railing. At that time the Chapter was wont +to let out at a high figure the use of the side chapels situated outside +the ambulatory, to certain lordly families, who thus had a right to occupy +them exclusively, with their people, during divine service. This form of +simony is practised even now. A lady had her chapel in church, as in our +day she has a box at the opera. The lessees of these privileged nooks were, +however, expected to decorate and keep up the altars in them. Thus each one +made it a point of honor to make his chapel as sumptuous as possible, a +form of vanity very acceptable to the Church. + +In this chapel, close to the railing, knelt a young lady, on a handsome +square of red velvet with gold tassels, close to the spot but just now +occupied by the worthy citizen. A silver-gilt lamp, hanging from the roof +of the chapel in front of a magnificent altar, shed a dim light on the Book +of Hours that the lady held. This book shook violently in her hand as the +young gentleman came towards her. + +"_Amen!_" and to this response, chanted in a sweet voice with terrible +agitation, happily drowned in the general noise, she added in a low tone: +"You will ruin me!" + +The words were spoken with an innocence to which any man of delicate +feeling could not fail to submit; it went piercingly to the heart; but the +stranger, carried away no doubt by a tumult of passion that stifled his +conscience, remained in his seat, and slightly raised his head to look +hastily into the chapel. + +"He is asleep," he replied in a voice so carefully modulated that the words +could only be heard by the lady as a sound is heard in its echo. + +The young woman turned pale, her eyes were furtively raised for an instant +from the vellum page to glance at an old man whom the youth was studying. +What a terrible understanding was conveyed by that look! When the lady had +examined the old man, she drew a deep breath and raised her beautiful +brow, adorned with a precious jewel, to a picture representing the Virgin; +this simple gesture and attitude, with her glistening eye, revealed her +life with imprudent candor; if she had been wicked, she would have +dissimulated her feelings. + +The person who inspired such terror in these lovers was a little old +hunchback, almost bald, with a fierce expression of face, and a large +dingy-gray beard cut square into a broad fan. The Cross of Saint-Michael +glittered on his breast; his hands, which were coarse, strong, and rough, +with gray hairs, had no doubt been clasped, but had fallen a little apart +in the sleep he had so imprudently allowed to overtake him. His right hand +seemed about to drop on to the handle of his dagger, of which the hilt was +guarded by a large shell of pierced iron; from the way he had arranged the +weapon, the handle was just below his hand; if by ill chance he should +touch it, beyond a doubt he would wake and look at his wife. His sardonic +mouth and the sharp turn of his chin were characteristic signs of a +malignant wit, of a coldly cruel shrewdness, which would enable him to +guess everything, because he could imagine anything. His yellow forehead +was wrinkled like that of a man accustomed to believe nothing, to weigh +everything, to test the exact meaning and value of every human action as a +miser rings every gold piece. His frame was large-boned and strongly knit, +he might be nervous and consequently irritable--in short, an ogre spoiled +in the making. + +When her terrible lord would wake, the young lady evidently would be in +danger. This jealous husband would not fail to note the difference between +the old burgess, whose presence had given him no umbrage, and the newcomer, +a young courtier, smart and genteel. + +"_Libera nos a malo!_" said she, trying to convey her fears to the young +man. + +He, on his part, raised his head and gazed at her. There were tears in his +eyes, tears of love or despair. Seeing this, the lady started, and lost her +head. They had both, no doubt, held out for a long time, and perhaps could +no longer resist a passion encouraged day after day by invincible +obstacles, brooded by fears, and emboldened by youth. The lady was not +perfectly beautiful, but her pale complexion betrayed a secret grief which +made her interesting. She was elegant and had the most magnificent hair +imaginable. Watched over by a tiger, she was risking her life perhaps by +uttering a word, by allowing her hand to be taken, by meeting his look. If +ever love had been more deeply buried in two hearts, or more rapturously +confessed, no passion could ever have been more dangerous. + +It may easily be understood that to these two beings, the air, the sounds +about them, the noise of steps on the pavement,--things utterly indifferent +to other men,--had some peculiarities, some perceptible properties which +they alone detected. Love enabled them, perhaps, to find a faithful +messenger even in the icy cold hands of the old priests to whom they +confessed their sins, or from whom they received the Host, kneeling at the +altar. It was a deep love, love graven on the soul like a scar on the body +which remains for life. As the two young people looked at each other, the +woman seemed to say to her lover: "Let us perish, but be one!" and the +gentleman seemed to reply: "We will be one, but we will not perish!" + +But then, with a melancholy jerk of the head, she pointed out to him an +elderly duenna and a couple of pages. The duenna was asleep. The pages were +but boys, and seemed perfectly reckless of any good or ill that might +befall their master. + +"Do not be frightened as you go out, but go just where you are led." + +The young man had scarcely murmured these words, when the old gentleman's +hand slipped down on to the handle of his weapon. At the touch of the cold +iron he woke with a start, and his tawny eyes at once turned to his wife. +By a peculiarity rarely bestowed, even on men of genius, he awoke with a +brain as alert, and ideas as clear, as if he had never slept. He was +jealous. + +Though the young man kept one eye on his mistress, he watched her husband +out of the other; he rose at once, and vanished behind a pillar, just as +the old fellow's hands began to move; then he went off as lightly as a +bird. The lady's eyes were fixed on her book. She pretended to be reading, +and tried to seem calm; but she could not hinder herself from reddening, +nor her heart from beating with unwonted violence. + +The old man heard the vehement throbs that were audible in the chapel, and +observed the extraordinary flush that had mounted to his wife's cheeks, +brow, and eyelids; he looked cautiously about him, but seeing no one whom +he could suspect, he said: + +"What is troubling you, _ma mie_?" + +"The smell of the incense makes me squeamish," said she. + +"Then is it not good to-day?" said he. + +In spite of this comment, the wily old man affected to believe in this +excuse; still, he suspected some secret treason, and resolved to watch more +carefully over his treasure. + +The Benediction was pronounced. The crowd, without waiting for the end of +_in secula seculorum_, hurried to the church door like a torrent. The old +lord, as was his custom, waited quietly till the general rush was +moderated, and then went forth, sending the duenna in front with the +youngest page, who carried a lantern on a pole; he gave his arm to his wife +and the other page followed. Just as the old gentleman had reached the side +door opening into the eastern part of the cloisters, by which he usually +went out, a crowd of people turned back from the mass that was blocking the +front porch, surging in towards the aisle where he and his people were +standing, and this compact body prevented his retracing his steps. The +gentleman and his wife were, in fact, pushed out by the tremendous pressure +of the crowd. The husband tried to get through first, dragging the lady by +the arm; but at this juncture he was violently pulled into the street, and +his wife was snatched from him by a stranger. + +The sinister hunchback at once understood that this was a deep-laid plot +into which he had fallen. Repenting now of his long nap, he collected all +his strength; with one hand he clutched at his wife's gown, and with the +other he tried to cling to the door-post. But the frenzy of love won the +day from the fury of jealousy. The young man took his mistress round the +waist, and snatched her away with such strength of despair that the tissue +of silk and gold, the brocade, and whalebone gave way, and split with a +crash. The sleeve was left in her husband's hand. + +A roar like a lion's rose above the shouts of the multitude, and an awful +voice was heard bellowing these words: + +"Help! Poitiers! Here, to the door! The Comte de Saint-Vallier's people! +Help, this way, help!" + +And the Comte Aymar de Poitiers, Sire de Saint-Vallier, tried to draw his +sword, and get a way cleared for him to pass; but he found himself closely +surrounded by thirty or forty gentlemen whom it would have been dangerous +to wound. Several of these, men of the highest rank, answered him with +gibes, as they hauled him out to the cloister. + +The ravisher, with the swiftness of lightning, had led the Countess to an +open chapel, where he found her a seat on a wooden bench behind a +confessional. By the light of the tapers burning before the image of the +saint to whom the chapel was dedicated, they looked at each other for a +moment in silence, clasping hands, and mutually amazed at their daring. The +Countess had not the heart to blame the young man for the audacity to which +she owed this first and only instant of happiness. + +"Will you fly with me into the adjacent territory?" he asked her eagerly. +"I have at hand a pair of English jennets which will carry us thirty +leagues without drawing rein." + +"Oh," cried she sweetly, "where in the world can you find asylum for a +daughter of Louis XI.?" + +"To be sure," replied the gentleman, bewildered by this difficulty, which +he had overlooked. + +"Why, then, did you tear me from my husband?" she asked in some terror. + +"Alas!" replied he, "I had not thought of the agitation I should feel on +finding myself by your side, on hearing you speak to me. I had conceived of +two or three plans, and now that I see you, I feel as if everything were +achieved." + +"But I am lost," said the Countess. + +"We are saved," replied the gentleman, with the blind enthusiasm of love. +"Listen to me----" + +"It will cost me my life," she went on, letting the tears flow which had +gathered in her eyes. "The Count will kill me,--this evening, perhaps. But +go to the King, tell him of all the torments his daughter has endured for +five years past. He loved me well when I was a child. He was wont to laugh +and call me Mary-full-of-grace because I was so ugly. Oh, if he could know +to what a man he gave me, he would be in a terrible rage! I have never +dared to complain, out of pity for the Count. And, besides, how should my +voice reach the King's ears? My confessor even is a spy for Saint-Vallier. +I therefore lent myself to this criminal escape, in the hope of enlisting a +champion. But--dare I trust----Oh!" she cried, breaking off and turning +pale; "here is the page." + +The unhappy Countess tried to make a veil of her hands to hide her face. + +"Fear nothing," said the young man; "he is on our side. You may make use of +him in all security; he is mine. When the Count comes in search of you, he +will warn us in time. In that confessional," he went on in an undertone, +"is a canon who is a friend of mine. He will say that he has rescued you +from the fray and led you, under his protection, to this chapel. Thus +everything is prepared for deceiving Saint-Vallier." + +On hearing this, the Countess dried away her tears, but her brow was +clouded with alarm. + +"There is no deceiving him," said she. "He will know everything this +evening. Beware of his revenge. Go to Le Plessis, see the King, tell him +that----" + +She hesitated, but something gave her courage to tell the secrets of her +married life, and she went on. + +"Yes, tell him that to secure his mastery over me the Count has me bled in +both arms and exhausts me. Tell him he has dragged me by my hair--tell him +I am a prisoner--say that----" + +Her heart was bursting, sobs choked her throat, a few tears fell again, and +in her agitation she allowed the young man to kiss her hand while he +uttered incoherent phrases. + +"No one may speak to the King, poor child! Though I am the nephew of the +grand captain of the crossbowmen, I cannot get into Le Plessis this night. +My beloved lady, my beautiful queen!----Good God! how she has suffered! +Marie, let me say two words to you or we are lost!" + +"What is to become of us?" said she. + +The Countess discerned on the blackened wall a picture of the Virgin on +which the light fell, and she cried out: + +"Holy Mother of God, give us counsel." + +"To-night," the gentleman went on, "I will be in your house." + +"How?" she asked, very simply. + +They were in such great peril that their fondest words seemed bereft of +tenderness. + +"I am going this evening to propose myself as an apprentice to Maitre +Cornelius, the King's treasurer. I have succeeded in obtaining a letter of +introduction which will secure his receiving me. His house is close to +yours. Once under that old rascal's roof, by the help of a silken ladder I +can find my way to your rooms." + +"Oh!" cried she, petrified with dismay, "if you love me, do not go to +Maitre Cornelius." + +"Why!" cried he, clasping her to his heart with all the strength of his +youth. "Then you love me?" + +"Yes," said she. "Are you not my only hope? You are a gentleman; I place +my honor in your hands. And indeed," she went on with dignified confidence, +"I am too unfortunate for you co betray my trust. But to what end is all +this? Go, leave me to die rather than take up your abode with Cornelius. Do +you not know that all his apprentices----" + +"Have been hanged?" said the gentleman, laughing. "Do you suppose that his +treasure tempts me?" + +"Nay, nay, do not go there; you will be the victim of some sorcery." + +"I cannot pay too dearly for the honor of serving you," replied he, giving +her a look of such ardor as made her lower her eyes. + +"And my husband?" said she. + +"Here is something to send him to sleep," replied the young man, taking a +small phial out of his belt. + +"Not for ever?" said the Countess, trembling. + +The young man's reply was a gesture of horror. + +"I would have challenged him to single combat, if he were not so old," he +said. "But God forbid I should rescue you from him by giving him a +philter." + +"Forgive me," said the Countess, blushing. "I am cruelly punished for my +sins. In a moment of despair I did wish to kill the Count; I feared lest +you might wish the same. My grief is great that I have not yet had an +opportunity of confessing that wicked thought, but I feared that he would +be told of it and he would be revenged. You are ashamed of me?" she added, +hurt by the young man's silence. "I deserve your blame!" + +She flung the phial violently to the ground, and it broke. + +"Do not come," she went on; "the Count sleeps lightly. It is my duty to +await the aid of Heaven. And that is what I will do." + +She rose to go. + +"Ah!" cried the young man, "bid me kill him, and I will do it, madame. You +will see me this evening." + +"I was wise to waste that drug," she replied, her voice husky with the joy +of finding herself so ardently beloved. "The dread of awaking my husband +will save us from ourselves." + +"I plight my life to you," said the youth as he held her hand. + +"If the King desires it, the Pope may annul my marriage; then we may be +united," said she, giving him a look full of rapturous hope. + +"Here comes Monseigneur," cried the page, hurrying up. + +Instantly the gentleman, amazed at the shortness of the time he had spent +with his mistress, and at the Count's swift movements, snatched a kiss +which the lady could not refuse. + +"This evening!" he repeated, as he slipped out of the chapel. + +Favored by the darkness, the lover made his way to the great entrance, +creeping from pillar to pillar along the shaft of shadow cast across the +church by each great column. + +An old canon suddenly stepped out of the confessional and seated himself by +the Countess, after gently closing the gate, while the page marched gravely +up and down outside, with the composure of an assassin. + +A glare of light heralded the Count; escorted by a party of friends and +retainers carrying torches, he himself held his drawn sword. His gloomy +gaze seemed to pierce the darkness, and search the deepest corners of the +cathedral. + +"Monseigneur, madame is here," said the page, going to meet him. + +The Lord of Saint-Vallier found his wife kneeling in front of the altar, +and the canon standing by her, reading his breviary. At this sight he shook +the gate furiously as if to give vent to his rage. + +"What are you doing with a naked sword in hand in this church?" asked the +priest. + +"Father, this gentleman is my husband," said the Countess. + +The priest took the key out of his sleeve and opened the chapel gate. The +Count almost involuntarily glanced round the confessional, and then went +into it; then he stood listening to the silence of the place. + +"Monsieur," said his wife, "you owe your thanks to this venerable canon who +gave me shelter here." + +The Sire de Saint-Vallier turned pale with anger, and dared not look at his +friends, who had come to laugh at him rather than to help him. He sharply +replied: + +"Thank the Lord, Father. I will find some way to repay you." + +He took his wife by the arm, and without giving her time to make her +courtesy to the canon, he signed to his people and went away, without a +word to those who had given him their company. There was something ominous +in his silence. + +Impatient to be at home, and puzzling his brain for some means of +discovering the truth, he made his way along the winding streets which at +that time led from the cathedral to the porch of the Chancery office, where +stood the noble mansion then recently built by the Chancellor Juvenal des +Ursins, on the site of an old fortress given by Charles VII. to that +faithful servant as a reward for his splendid services. There began a +street which has since been named Rue de la Scellerie, in memory of the +office of the Great Seal which long stood there. It connected old Tours +with the borough of Chateauneuf, where stood the famous Abbey of +Saint-Martin, of which many kings were content to be canons. For about a +hundred years, and after long discussions, this borough had been +incorporated with the city. + +Many of the streets adjacent to the Rue de la Scellerie, in the heart now +of modern Tours, were already built; but the finest houses, and more +particularly that of the Treasurer Xancoings, still standing in the Rue du +Commerce, were actually situated in the commune of Chateauneuf. + +It was past this that the Sire de Saint-Vallier's torch-bearers led the +way, to that part of the town which lay by the river Loire; he mechanically +followed, casting a dark glance now and again at his wife and at the page, +hoping to detect a look of mutual understanding between them which might +throw some light on this most puzzling adventure. + +At last the Count found himself in the Rue du Murier, where his house was. +When the whole party had gone in, and the ponderous gate was shut, profound +silence reigned in the narrow street where a few magnates at that time +resided; for this side of the town was near to Le Plessis, the King's usual +residence, enabling the courtiers to attend him at a moment's notice. The +last house in this street was the last house in the town, and belonged to +Maitre Cornelius Hoogworst, an old merchant from Brabant, whom the King +Louis XI. honored with his confidence in such financial transactions as his +astute policy required outside his realm. For reasons favoring the tyranny +he exerted over his wife, the Comte de Saint-Vallier had settled in a +mansion adjoining Maitre Cornelius' house. + +The topography of the buildings will explain the advantages they offered to +a jealous husband. The Count's house, known as the Hotel de Poitiers, had a +garden, shut in on the north by the wall and moat that had been the +boundary of the ancient borough of Chateauneuf skirted by the embankment +then lately constructed by Louis XI. between Tours and Le Plessis. On that +side dogs defended the entrance to the premises, which, on the east, were +divided from the neighboring houses by a large courtyard, and on the west +backed on to the house occupied by Maitre Cornelius. The street front faced +south. Thus isolated on three sides, the suspicious and wily old Count was +safe against all intruders but the inhabitants of the Brabant house, of +which the roofs and chimneys were undistinguishable from those of the Hotel +de Poitiers. The windows to the street were narrow, cut in the stone walls, +and barred with iron; the door, low and arched like the entrance to our +ancient prisons, was strong enough to resist any attack. A stone bench for +mounting on horseback was close to the porch. + +On seeing the side view of the houses occupied by Maitre Cornelius and the +Comte de Poitiers, it could easily be supposed that they had both been +built by the same architect, and constructed for tyrants. Both, with their +sinister appearance, resembled little strongholds, and would have stood a +siege for some time against a furious mob. They were protected by turrets +at the corners, such as lovers of antiquities may yet see in some towns +where the hammer of the destroyer has not found employment. The openings, +which were everywhere narrow, allowed of the shutters and doors being +constructed of extraordinary strength and clamped with iron. The riots and +civil wars which were so frequent in those quarrelsome times amply +justified these precautions. + +As six o'clock struck by the clock of the Abbey of Saint-Martin, the +Countess' lover walked past the Hotel de Poitiers, pausing a moment to hear +the noise made by the Count's retainers over their supper. After glancing +up at the room he might suppose to be that of his lady-love, he went on to +the door of the next house. Everywhere on his way the young man had heard +sounds of mirth from the feasters in every house doing honor to the +holyday. From every window ineffectually shuttered came beams of light; +chimneys were smoking, and the savor of roast meats gave cheer to the +streets. Religious service being over, the whole town was reveling, and +giving out confused sounds which the imagination can fancy better than +words can describe them. + +But here there was total silence; for in these two houses dwelt passions +which never rejoice. Beyond them the open country was still; and here, +under the shadow of the abbey towers of Saint-Martin, the two dumb houses, +apart from the rest and standing in the darkest part of the tortuous +street, looked like a leper's home. The building opposite to them belonged +to certain state criminals, and was under sequestration. Any young man +could not fail to be easily impressed by so sudden a contrast. And, indeed, +on the verge of embarking in a horribly perilous enterprise, the gentleman +stood pensive in front of the goldsmith's house, recalling the various +tales he had heard of Maitre Cornelius and his proceedings, which had +inspired the Countess with such lively fears. + +At that period a warrior, a lover even, every man quaked at the word +"magic." There were few imaginations that could be incredulous of +extraordinary facts, or indifferent to tales of wonder. And this lover of +Madame de Saint-Vallier (one of Louis XI.'s daughters by Madame de +Sassenage, in Dauphine), brave as he might be, could not but think twice +before venturing into a house that was full of sorceries. + +The history of Maitre Cornelius Hoogworst will fully account for the +confidence he had inspired in the Comte de Saint-Vallier, for the lady's +terror, and for the hesitancy that gave pause to the lover. But to enable +the nineteenth century reader to understand clearly how events apparently +commonplace had been deemed supernatural, to make him enter into the +terrors of that olden time, it is necessary to interrupt the narrative and +glance at the previous career of Maitre Cornelius. + +Cornelius Hoogworst, one of the wealthiest merchants of Ghent, having +incurred the displeasure of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, had found a refuge +and protection at the Court of Louis XI. The King was quite alive to the +advantages he might derive from a man in communication with the principal +houses of Flanders, Venice, and Brabant; he granted to Maitre Cornelius +letters of nobility and naturalization; nay, he flattered him,--a rare +thing with Louis XI. And, indeed the Fleming liked the King as well as the +King liked the Fleming. Crafty, suspicious, avaricious; equally astute, +equally well-informed, equally superior to their time, they understood each +other to perfection; they dropped and took up again with equal readiness, +the one his conscience and the other his religion; they worshiped the same +Virgin--one from conviction, the other from flattery; finally, if we may +believe the jealous statements of Olivier le Daim and Tristan, the King +resorted to the goldsmith's house to take his pleasure--as Louis XI. took +it. History has taken care to preserve the memory of this monarch's +licentious tastes, for he was not averse to a debauch. The old Fleming, no +doubt, found it pleasant and profitable to lend himself to his royal +patron's caprices and indulgences. + +Cornelius had now lived in Tours for nine years. During these nine years +incidents had occurred under his roof which made him the object of general +execration. On arriving he had spent large sums on the house, with a view +to securing his treasures. The ingenuity secretly exerted on his behalf by +the locksmiths of the town, the singular precautions he had taken to get +them into his house, in such a way as to feel sure of their compulsory +secrecy, were for a long time the subject of a thousand wonderful tales +which furnished the evening gossip of Touraine. The old man's extraordinary +devices led to the idea that he was possessed of Oriental wealth. The +story-tellers of the province which was the birth-place of romance in +France built chambers of gold and precious stones in the Fleming's +dwelling, never failing to ascribe his immense riches to unholy compacts. + +Cornelius had brought with him originally a couple of Flemish varlets, an +old woman, and a young apprentice of mild and attractive appearance; this +youth served him as secretary, cashier, factotum, and messenger. + +In the course of the first year of his residence at Tours, a considerable +robbery was effected from his premises. Judicial investigation proved that +the theft had been committed by someone living in the house. The old miser +had his two men and his apprentice put in prison. The young lad was weakly; +he died under torture, still protesting his innocence. The two men +confessed, to escape torture; but on being asked by the judge where the +stolen money was hidden, they were silent; so, after fresh tortures, they +were tried, condemned, and hanged. On their way to the gallows they still +declared that they were guiltless, after the manner of all men to be +hanged. + +The town of Tours talked over the strange business for many a day. But the +criminals were Flemings, so the interest excited in the unfortunate men and +the youthful clerk soon died out. In those days war and sedition supplied +perpetual excitement, and to-day's drama extinguished yesterday's tragedy. + +Maitre Cornelius, more affected by the loss of so large a sum than by the +death of his three retainers, now lived alone with the old woman who was +his sister. He obtained from the King the privilege of using the state +couriers for his private business, put up his mules with a muleteer in the +neighborhood, and thenceforth lived in perfect solitude, seeing scarce +anyone but the King, and transacting his business through the medium of the +Jews--crafty arithmeticians, who served him faithfully for the sake of his +omnipotent interest. + +Some time after this event, the King himself placed with his old +_torconnier_ a young orphan in whom he took a great interest. Louis XI. +commonly called Maitre Cornelius by the old name of _torconnier_, which, in +the reign of Saint-Louis, had meant an usurer, a tax-collector, a man who +squeezed money out of folks by extortionate means. The word _tortionnaire_, +a legal term still in use, in fact, explains the word _torconnier_, which +was often written _tortionneur_. This poor lad devoted himself to the +goldsmith's interest, succeeded in satisfying his master and winning his +favor. One winter's night the diamonds placed in Cornelius' keeping by the +King of England were stolen, and suspicion fell on the orphan lad. Louis +XI. was all the more severe with him because he had answered for his +honesty. So, after a summary inquiry, the hapless boy was hanged before the +Provost Marshal. + +Nobody dared go to learn the arts of banking and exchange from Maitre +Cornelius. Nevertheless two young men of the town, youths of honor and +anxious to win a fortune, one after the other entered his service. Large +robberies from the treasurer's house at once ensued; the circumstances of +the crimes, and the way in which they were carried out, pointed clearly to +some collusion between the thieves and the inmates of the house; it was +impossible that the newcomers should escape accusation. The Fleming, more +and more vindictive and suspicious, at once laid the matter before the +King, who placed the cases in his Provost's hands. Each was promptly tried, +and more promptly punished. + +But the patriotism of the citizens was opposed to Tristan's swift +proceedings. Guilty or no, the two young men were regarded as victims, and +Cornelius as a ruffian. The two families thrown into mourning were persons +in high esteem, their complaints met with sympathy, and step by step they +succeeded in persuading everyone to believe in the innocence of all the men +that the King's treasurer had sent to the gallows. Some declared that this +cruel miser was imitating the King and trying to set terror and the gibbet +between himself and the world; that he had never been robbed at all; that +these horrible executions were brought about by cold self-interest; and +that he only wanted to be quit of all alarms about his treasure. + +The immediate result of these popular rumors was to isolate Cornelius. The +good folks of Tours treated him as one plague-stricken, spoke of him as the +extortioner, and called his house La Malemaison (the House of Ill). Even if +the usurer could have found a youth bold enough to take service with him, +the inhabitants of the town would have hindered it by their sayings. The +most favorable opinions about Maitre Cornelius were those expressed by men +who regarded him only as a sinister personage. In some he inspired +involuntary terrors, in others, the deep respect that is always paid to +unlimited power or great wealth; to some he had the attraction of mystery. +His mode of life, his countenance, and the King's favor justified every +rumor of which he was the subject. + +Since the death of his persecutor, the Duke of Burgundy, Cornelius +frequently traveled in foreign parts, and during his absence the King had +his house guarded by a company of his Scottish guard. This royal care led +the courtiers to suppose that the old man had left his fortune to Louis XI. +The Fleming rarely went out; the gentlemen about the Court visited him +frequently; he was ready enough to lend them money, but he was whimsical. +On certain days he would not give them a sou _Parisis_; on the morrow he +would offer them enormous sums, always at a high rate of interest and on +good security. He was, however, a good Catholic, and attended the services +regularly; but he went to Saint-Martin at a very early hour, and as he had +purchased a chapel in perpetuity, there, as elsewhere, he was divided from +other Christians. + +A proverb which became popular at this period and survived at Tours for a +long time was the saying: "You have crossed the usurer's path; woe will +befall you." "You have crossed the usurer's path" accounted for sudden +ailments, involuntary depression, and the evil turns of fortune. Even at +Court Cornelius was credited with the fatal influence which, in Italy, +Spain, and the East, superstition has named the Evil Eye. + +But for the terrible power of Louis XI., which was extended like a shield +over his house, the populace would, on the slenderest pretext, have +demolished the Malemaison of the Rue du Murier. And yet it was by Cornelius +that the first mulberry trees in Tours had been planted, and at that time +the inhabitants had regarded him as a good genius. Who then may trust to +popular favor? + +Certain gentlemen who had met Maitre Cornelius in foreign lands had been +amazed by his good humor. At Tours he was constantly gloomy and +absent-minded; but he always came back there. Some inexplicable attraction +always brought him home to his dismal house in the Rue du Murier. Like the +snail whose life is inseparable from that of his shell, he confessed to the +King that he never felt so happy as behind the time-eaten stones, the bolts +of his little bastille, albeit he knew that in the event of Louis' death it +would be the most dangerous spot on earth to him. + +"The devil is amusing himself at the expense of our friend the +_torconnier_," said Louis XI. to his barber, a few days before the festival +of All Saints. "He complains of having been robbed again! But there is +nobody this time for him to hang--unless he hangs himself. If the old +vagabond did not come to ask me whether I had carried off by mistake a +chain of rubies he had been meaning to sell me? By the Mass! I do not steal +what I have only to take, said I." + +"And was he frightened?" asked the barber. + +"Misers are afraid but of one thing," replied the King. "My gossip the +usurer knows full well that I should not flay him for nothing; otherwise I +should be unjust, and I have never done anything that was not just and +necessary." + +"And yet the old hulk cheats you," replied the barber. + +"You only wish that were true, heh?" said the King, with a cunning leer at +the barber. + +"Nay, Sire," replied the man, with an oath; "but there would be a snug +fortune to divide between you and the devil." + +"That will do," said the King. "Do not put mischief into my head. My gossip +is a more faithful friend than all the men whose fortunes I have +made--possibly because he owes me nothing." + +Thus, for two years past, Cornelius lived alone with his sister, who was +believed to be a witch. A tailor who lived hard by declared that he had +often seen her at night waiting on the roof to fly off to her Sabbath. This +statement was all the more extraordinary because the old miser shut his +sister up in a room of which the windows were barred with iron. + +Cornelius in his old age, fearing more and more that men should rob him, +had conceived a hatred for all the world excepting the King, whom he +esteemed highly. He had sunk into deep misanthropy; but, in his passion for +gold, the assimilation of the metal with his very substance had become more +and more complete, and, as is commonly the case with misers, his avarice +increased with age. He was suspicious even of his sister, though she was +perhaps more avaricious and thrifty than himself, and outdid him in sordid +inventiveness. There was something mysterious and questionable in their way +of life. The old woman so rarely took bread from the baker, and was so +seldom seen at market, that the least credulous observers had at last +attributed to these strange beings the knowledge of some occult means of +sustaining life. Some, who meddled in alchemy, said that Maitre Cornelius +could make gold. The learned declared that he had discovered the universal +panacea. And to most of the country folk, when the townspeople spoke of +him, he was a chimerical creature, so that they would come out of curiosity +to stare at his house. + + * * * * * + +The young gentleman, sitting on a bench by the house facing that of Maitre +Cornelius, looked at the Malemaison and the Hotel de Poitiers by turns. The +moon shed high lights on the salient parts, lending color by the contrast +of light and shade on the sculpture in relief. The play of this capricious +pale light gave a somewhat sinister expression to both houses. Nature +seemed to lend herself to the superstitious notions that hung about the +place. + +The gentleman recalled all the many traditions which made Cornelius an +object at once of curiosity and dread. Though the vehemence of his passion +confirmed him in his determination to get into the house and to stay there +as long as might be necessary to carry out his projects, he hesitated +before taking this final step, though well aware that he should do so. But +who, in the critical hours of life, does not love to listen to +presentiments and play see-saw, as it were, over the abyss of futurity? As +a lover worthy of his love, the youth feared lest he should perish before +the Countess' love should grace his life. + +This secret hesitancy was so painfully absorbing that he did not feel the +cold wind that blew round his legs and against the projecting masses of the +houses. If he entered the goldsmith's service, he must renounce his name, +as he had already doffed his handsome garb as a nobleman. In the event of +disaster, he could make no appeal to the privileges of his birth or the +protection of his friends but at the cost of destroying the Comtesse de +Saint-Vallier beyond all rescue. If the old lord suspected her of having a +lover, he was capable of roasting her in an iron cage by a slow fire, of +torturing her to death day by day in the depths of some dungeon. + +As he looked down on the wretched clothes in which he was disguised, the +gentleman was ashamed of his own appearance. To behold his black leather +belt, his clumsy shoes, his wrinkled hose, his frieze breeches, and his +gray cloth jerkin, he might be the follower of some mean sergeant of the +law. To a nobleman of the fifteenth century it was as bad as death to play +the part of pauper townsman and renounce the privileges of his rank. Still, +to climb the roof of the mansion where his mistress sat weeping; to creep +down the chimney or run along the parapet, crawling from gutter to gutter +till he reached her window; to risk his life, if only he might sit by her +side on a silken cushion, in front of a good fire, during the slumbers of +that sinister husband, whose snore would enhance their rapture; to defy +heaven and earth; to exchange the most audacious embrace; to speak words +which would inevitably be punished by death, or at least by a bloody +struggle,--all these enchanting visions, with the romantic perils of the +adventure brought him to a decision. The smaller the prize of his +endeavor,--were it only to be that he should once more kiss his lady's +hand,--the more determined was he to dare everything, prompted by the +chivalrous and impassioned spirit of the time. Then he did not really +suppose that the Countess would dare to refuse him the sweetest reward of +love, in the midst of such mortal dangers. The adventure was too perilous, +too impossible, not to be carried through to the end. + +At this juncture every bell in the town rang the curfew. The law had +fallen into disuse, but in the provinces the hour was still tolled, for +customs die slowly in the country. Though the lights were not put out, the +captains of the watch stretched chains across the streets. Many doors were +bolted and barred; the steps of a few belated citizens were heard in the +distance as they made their way, surrounded by their followers, armed to +the teeth and carrying lanterns; and then, ere long, the town, gagged as it +were, seemed to fall asleep, fearing no attack from malefactors, unless by +way of the roof. + +And at that time the house-tops were a recognized highway during the night. +The streets were so narrow in country towns, and even in Paris, that +robbers could jump from one side to the other. This dangerous game was a +constant amusement to King Charles IX. in his youth, if we may believe the +memoirs of the time. + +Fearing to be too late in presenting himself to Maitre Cornelius, the young +gentleman was on the point of rising to knock at the door of the House of +Evil, when, on looking at it, his attention was riveted by a sort of +vision, such as the writers of the day would have called diabolical. He +rubbed his eyes as if to clear them, and a thousand different emotions +flashed through his brain. On each side of the door he beheld a face framed +between the bars of a sort of loophole. At first he supposed these faces to +be grotesque masks carved in stone, so wrinkled were they, so angular, +twisted, exaggerated, and motionless; they were tanned,--that is to say, +brown; but the cold and the moonlight enabled him to detect the slight +white cloud of thin breath coming out of the two blue noses, and at last he +could make out in each haggard face, under shaggy eyebrows, a pair of +china-blue eyes that sparkled with a pale light, like those of a wolf +crouching in a thicket when he hears the hounds in full cry. The uneasy +gleam of those eyes rested so fixedly on him, that, after meeting it during +the moment when he was studying these singular objects, he felt like a bird +put up by a sporting dog; a fevered spasm clutched at his heart, but was +at once controlled. These two faces were beyond a doubt those of Cornelius +and his sister. + +The gentleman at once affected to be examining the street and to be in +search of a dwelling of which the address was written on a card that he +took out of his pocket, trying to read it by the moonlight; he then went +straight up to the extortioner's door and gave three knocks, which echoed +within the house as if this were the portal of a cellar. A small light +became visible, and an eye was applied to a small and strongly barred +wicket. + +"Who is there?" + +"A friend, sent by Oosterlinck of Bruges." + +"What do you want?" + +"To be let in." + +"Your name?" + +"Philippe Goulenoire." + +"Have you letters of introduction?" + +"Here they are." + +"Put them in through the box." + +"Where is it?" + +"To the left." + +Philippe Goulenoire put the letter into a slit in an iron chest below a +loophole window. + +"The devil!" thought he. "It is evident that the King comes here, for as +many precautions are observed as he takes at Le Plessis." + +He waited in the street about a quarter of an hour longer. At the end of +that time he heard the old man say to his sister: + +"Shut the traps inside the door." + +Then a clatter of chains and iron echoed through the porch. Philippe heard +bolts drawn and locks creak; finally a small, low door, sheathed with iron, +opened so as to afford the smallest chink through which a man might +squeeze. At the risk of tearing his clothes, Philippe crept rather than +walked into the Malemaison. A toothless old woman with a face like a +fiddle, and eyebrows like the handles of a caldron, who could not have put +a nut between the tip of her nose and her chin, colorless, sallow, with +hollow temples and an appearance of being constructed of nothing but bone +and sinew, silently led the stranger into a low sitting-room, while +Cornelius prudently kept in the rear. + +"Be seated there," said she to Philippe, pointing to a three-legged stool +that stood in the corner of a huge chimney-place of carved stone, though +there was no fire on the hearth. + +On the opposite side of this fireplace was a walnut-wood table with twisted +legs, on which there were an egg in a plate and ten or twelve hard strips +of dry bread cut with parsimonious exactitude. Two stools, on one of which +the old woman seated herself, showed that the good folks were in the act of +supping. + +Cornelius went to close two iron shutters, protecting the peepholes, no +doubt, through which they had so long been gazing into the street; then he +came back to his place. Philippe, as he called himself, now saw the brother +and sister take it in turns, with perfect gravity, to dip a strip of bread +into the egg, with the same precision as soldiers use in dipping their +spoon into the tin pot; but they scarcely colored them, in order that the +egg might last out the full allowance of strips of bread. This was +performed in perfect silence. + +While he ate, Cornelius studied the sham apprentice with as much care and +shrewdness as if he had been made of gold bezants. Philippe, feeling an icy +cloak fall on his shoulders, was tempted to look about him; but, with the +prudence born of a love-adventure, he took care not to cast even a furtive +glance at the walls, for he was well aware that if Cornelius saw him in the +act he would not keep an inquisitive man in the house. So he restricted +himself to fixing a modest eye now on the egg, now on the old maid, and +anon he contemplated his future master. + +Louis' treasurer resembled that monarch; he had even caught some of his +tricks, as not unfrequently happens when people live together in intimacy. +The Fleming's thick eyebrows almost hid his eyes; but when he raised them +a little his glance was bright, penetrating, and full of energy,--the look +of men who are used to be silent, and to whom concentration of mind is a +familiar habit. His thin lips, finely puckered with upright lines, gave him +a keenly subtle expression. The lower part of his face, indeed, vaguely +suggested a fox's muzzle; still, a lofty and prominent brow, deeply +furrowed, seemed to reveal some great and fine qualities,--a noble soul +whose flights had been checked by experience, while the bitter lessons of +life had quenched it and thrust it down into the deepest secret places of +this strange being. He was certainly no ordinary miser, and his passion no +doubt covered intense joys and secret conceptions. + +"At what rate are Venetian sequins doings?" he suddenly asked his intending +apprentice. + +"At three-quarters, at Bruges; at one, at Ghent." + +"What is the freight on the Scheldt?" + +"Three sous _Parisis_." + +"Nothing new in Ghent?" + +"Lieven d'Herde's brother is ruined." + +"Indeed!" + +After allowing this exclamation to escape him, the old man covered his +knees with the skirt of his dalmatic, a sort of robe of black velvet in +front, with wide sleeves and no collar. The magnificent material was shiny +with wear. This relic of the handsome dress he had been wont to wear as +president of the tribunal of _Parchons_--a position which had brought upon +him the Duke of Burgundy's enmity--was no more than a rag. + +Philippe was not cold; he was bathed in sweat, trembling lest he should be +required to answer any further questions. So far the brief information he +had extracted the day before from a Jew, whose life he had once saved, had +proved sufficient, thanks to his good memory, and to the Jew's thorough +knowledge of the money-lender's manners and habits. But the young gentleman +who, in the first flush of enterprise, had been full of confidence, now +began to perceive the many difficulties of the business. The terrible +Fleming's solemn gravity and perfect coolness were telling on him. And +besides, he felt himself under lock and key, and could picture all the +Provost's cords at Maitre Cornelius' command. + +"Have you supped?" said the miser, in a tone which plainly meant "Do not +sup." + +In spite of her brother's tone the old woman was startled; she looked at +their young inmate as if to gauge the capacity of the stomach she would be +expected to fill, and then said with a false smile: + +"You have not got your name for nothing, for your hair and moustache are +blacker than the devil's tail." + +"I have supped," replied he. + +"Very well," said the miser; "then come to see me again to-morrow. I have +long been accustomed to dispense with the services of an apprentice. +Besides, the night brings good counsel." + +"Nay, by Saint-Bavon! monsieur, I am from Flanders. I know nobody here, the +chains are up. I shall be cast into prison. However," he added, frightened +at the eagerness with which he had spoken, "of course, if it suits your +convenience, I will go." + +The oath had a strange effect on the old Fleming. + +"Well, well. By Saint-Bavon! you shall sleep here." + +"But----" his sister began in dismay. + +"Silence," said Cornelius. "Oosterlinck, in his letter, answers for this +youth. Have we not a hundred thousand livres in hand belonging to +Oosterlinck?" he whispered in her ear; "and is not that good security?" + +"And supposing he were to steal the Bavarian jewels? He looks far more like +a thief than a Fleming." + +"Hark!" exclaimed the old man, listening. + +The two misers listened. Vaguely, an instant after the hush, a noise of +men's steps was heard, far away on the further side of the city moat. + +"It is the round of the watch at Le Plessis," said the sister. + +"Come, give me the key of the apprentice's room," Cornelius went on. + +The old maid was about to take up the lamp. + +"What, are you going to leave us together without a light?" cried +Cornelius, with evident meaning. "Cannot you move about in the dark at your +age? Is it so difficult to find that key?" + +The old woman understood the meaning behind these words, and went away. + +As he looked after this extraordinary creature, just as she reached the +door, Philippe Goulenoire could cast a furtive glance round the room +unobserved by his master. It was wainscoted with oak half-way up, and the +walls were hung with yellow leather, patterned with black; but what most +struck him was a firelock musket with its long spring dagger attached. This +new and terrible weapon lay close by Cornelius. + +"How do you propose to earn your living?" asked the usurer. + +"I have but little money," replied Goulenoire, "but I know some good trade +recipes. If you will give me no more than a sou on every mark I earn for +you, I shall be content." + +"A sou! a sou!" cried the miser; "but that is a great deal." + +Hereupon the old hag came in again. + +"Come," said Cornelius to Philippe. + +They went out into the entrance, and mounted a newel stair that ran up a +turret close by the side of the living-room. On the first floor the young +man paused. + +"Nay, nay," said Cornelius. "The devil! why, these are the premises where +the King takes his pleasure." + +The architect had constructed the lodging for the apprentice under the +conical roof of the staircase tower. It was a small circular room, with +stone walls, cold and devoid of ornament. This tower stood in the middle of +the front to the courtyard, which, as usual in provincial towns, was narrow +and dark. Beyond and through the iron gratings of an arcade, there was a +meagre garden, or rather a mulberry orchard, tended no doubt by Cornelius +himself. + +All this the youth could see through the loopholes in the turret, by the +light of the moon, which happily shone brightly. A truckle-bed, a stool, a +stone pitcher, and a rickety chest formed the furniture of this cage. The +light was admitted through tiny square slits at regular intervals below the +outer cornice of the structure, forming its ornamentation, no doubt, in +character with this pleasing style of architecture. + +"Here is your room. It is simple and strong. There is everything needed for +sleep. Good-night. Do not leave it as the others did." + +After giving his new apprentice a parting glance fraught with many +meanings, Cornelius locked and double-locked the door, and carried away the +key. He went downstairs again, leaving his man as much at his wit's end as +a bell-founder who finds his mould empty. Alone, without a light, sitting +on a stool in this little garret, which his four precursors had quitted +only for the gallows, the young fellow felt like a wild animal caught in a +sack. He sprang on to the stool, and stood on tiptoe to look out of the +little loopholes through which the white light came in. He could thence see +the Loire, the beautiful hills of Saint-Cyr, and the gloomy splendor of Le +Plessis, where a few lights twinkled from the deep-set windows. Further +away lay the fair fields of Touraine and the silvery reaches of the great +river. Every detail of the pleasing landscape had at this moment an +unwonted charm. Window-panes, water-pools, the roofs of the houses, +glittered like gems in the tremulous moonbeams. + +The young man could not altogether suppress some sweet but painful feeling. + +"If it should be for the last time," thought he. + +And he stood there, already tasting the terrible emotion his adventure had +promised, and abandoning himself to the fears of a prisoner who still has a +gleam of hope. Every difficulty added to his mistress' beauty. She was to +him no longer a woman, but a supernatural being, seen through the hot +vapors of desire. + +A faint cry, which he fancied proceeded from the Hotel de Poitiers, +brought him to himself and to a sense of his situation. As he sat down on +the bed to meditate on the matter, he heard a soft rustle on the winding +stair. He listened with all his ears; and presently the words, "He is in +bed," spoken by the old woman, reached his ear. + +By an accident of which the architect was unaware, the least sound below +was echoed in the turret room, so that the sham apprentice did not lose one +of the movements of the miser and his sister, who were spying on him. He +undressed, got into bed, and pretended to sleep, spending the time during +which his two hosts remained on the watch on the turret steps, in devising +the means for getting out of his prison and into the Hotel de Poitiers. By +about ten o'clock Cornelius and his sister, convinced that their apprentice +was asleep, went to their own rooms. + +The young man listened keenly to the dull remote sounds made by the +Flemings, and fancied he could guess where they slept; they must, he +thought, occupy the whole of the second floor. + +As in all houses of that date, that floor was in the roof, with dormer +windows richly ornamented with carved stone pediments. The roof was also +edged by a sort of parapet, concealing the gutters for conducting the +rain-water to the spouts, mimicking crocodiles' heads, which shed it into +the street. The youth, who had studied his bearings as cunningly as a cat +could have done, expected to find a means of getting from the tower on to +the roof, and climbing along the gutter as far as Madame de Saint-Vallier's +window, by the help of the water-spouts; but he had not known that the +windows of the turret would be so small that it was impossible to pass +through them. So he resolved to get out on the roof by the window that +lighted the second-floor landing of the turret stair. + +To execute this bold scheme, he must get out of his room, and Cornelius had +the key. The young gentleman had taken the precaution of arming himself +with one of the daggers, which were at this time in use for dealing the +death-blow, the _coup de grace_, in single combat, when the adversary +prayed that it might end. This horrible weapon had one edge as sharp as a +razor, and the other toothed like a saw, with the teeth turned in a +contrary sense to the thrust as it entered the body. The youth now proposed +to use this dagger as a saw to cut the lock out from the wooden door. +Happily for him, the staple proved to be attached to the inner side of the +lintel by four large screws. By the help of his poniard he succeeded, not +without difficulty, in unscrewing the staple which kept him a prisoner, and +he carefully laid the screws on the chest. + +By midnight he was free, and crept downstairs without his shoes to +reconnoitre the ground. He was not a little surprised to find an open door +to a passage leading to several rooms, and he saw at the end of it a window +opening on to the V-shaped space between the roofs of the Hotel de Poitiers +and that of the Malemaison, which met here. Nothing could express his joy, +unless it were the vow he forthwith made to the Holy Virgin to found a mass +in her honor, at the famous parish church of Escrignoles. After studying +from thence the tall and vast chimneys of the Hotel de Poitiers, he went +back again to fetch his weapon; but he now saw with a terrified shudder +that there was a bright light on the stairs, and perceived Cornelius in his +old dalmatic, carrying his lamp, his eyes wide open and fixed on the +corridor, while he stood like a spectre at the entrance. + +"If I open the window and leap out on the roof, he will hear me," thought +the young man. + +But the terrible Fleming was coming on--coming as the hour of death steals +on the criminal. In this extremity, Goulenoire, his wits quickened by love, +recovered his presence of mind; he shrank into the recess of a door, +squeezing himself into the corner, and waited for the usurer to pass him. +As soon as Cornelius, holding his lamp before him, was just at the angle +where the youth could make a draught by blowing, he puffed out the light. + +[Illustration: He now saw with a terrified shudder that there was a bright +light on the stairs, and perceived Cornelius, in his old dalmatic, carrying +his lamp.] + +Cornelius muttered a Dutch oath and some incoherent words; but he turned +back. The gentleman then flew up to his room, seized his weapon, ran back +to the thrice-blessed window, opened it cautiously, and sprang out on to +the roof. + +Once free and under the sky, he almost fainted with joy. The excitement of +danger or the audacity of his enterprise perhaps caused his agitation; +victory is often as full of risk as the battle. He leaned against a +parapet, trembling with satisfaction, and asked himself: + +"Now, by which of those chimneys can I get into her room?" + +He looked at them all. With the instinct of a lover, he touched them by +turns to feel in which there had been a fire. When he had made up his mind, +the gallant youth fixed his dagger firmly in the joint between two stones, +attached his rope-ladder, and threw it down the chimney; and then, without +a qualm, trusting to his good blade, climbed down to his mistress. He knew +not whether the Comte de Saint-Vallier were asleep or awake, but he was +fully bent on clasping the Countess in his arms even if it should cost two +men their life. He gently set foot on the still warm ashes; he yet more +gently stooped down and saw the Countess seated in an armchair. + +By the light of the lamp, pale and trembling with joy, the timid woman +pointed to Saint-Vallier in bed, a few yards off. You may suppose that +their burning and silent kiss found no echo but in their hearts. + + * * * * * + +By nine next morning, just as Louis XI. was coming out of chapel, after +attending mass, he found Maitre Cornelius in his path. + +"Good luck, gossip," said he, curtly, as he pulled his cap straight. + +"Sire, I will gladly pay a thousand gold crowns for a moment's speech of +your Majesty, seeing that I have discovered the thief who stole the ruby +chain and all the jewels." + +"Let us hear this," said Louis XI., coming out into the courtyard of Le +Plessis, followed by his treasurer, by Coyctier his physician, by Olivier +le Daim, and the captain of the Scottish Guard. "Tell me your business. We +are to have another man hanged for you, then? Here, Tristan!" + +The Provost Marshal, who was marching up and down the courtyard, came up +slowly, like a dog proud of his fidelity. The group paused under a tree. +The King sat down on a bench; the courtiers formed a circle round him. + +"Sire, I have been fairly trapped by a pretended Fleming," said Cornelius. + +"He must be a wily knave indeed, then," said the King, shaking his head. + +"Ay, truly," replied the goldsmith. "But I am not sure that he might not +have beguiled you even. How was I to suspect a poor wight recommended to me +by Oosterlinck, a man for whom I hold a hundred thousand livres? Nay, but I +will wager that the Jew's seal is a forgery. In short, Sire, this morning I +found myself robbed of the jewels you admired for their beauty. They have +been stolen from me, Sire! The Elector of Bavaria's jewels stolen! The +villains respect no man. They would rob you of your kingdom if you were not +on the alert. Forthwith I went up to the room where I had bestowed this +apprentice, who is certainly a past master of thieving. This time proofs +are not lacking. He had unscrewed the staple of the lock; but on his +return, the moon having set, he could not lay hands on all the screws. +Thus, by good hap, as I went in, I trod on a screw. He was asleep, the +varlet, for he was tired out. Fancy this, gentlemen; he had descended into +my room by the chimney. To-morrow, or rather this evening, I will have it +hot for him. We always learn something from these villains. He had about +him a silken ladder, and his clothes bear the traces of his traveling over +the roofs and through the chimney. He thought to live with me and bring me +to ruin, the bold varlet! Now, where has he buried the jewels? The +country-folk saw him early in the morning coming back across the roofs. He +had accomplices waiting for him on the dyke you made. Ah, my lord, you are +yourself the accomplice of thieves who come in boats; and, snap! they +carry away what they will, and no traces left! However, we have the leader, +a daring scapegrace, a rascal who would do credit to a gentleman's mother. +Ay, he will look well hanging on a gibbet, and with a screw of the +torture-chamber he will confess all. And is not this a matter for the honor +of your rule? There should be no robbers under so great a King!" + +But the King had long since ceased to listen. He was sunk in one of the +gloomy moods that became frequent with him during the later years of his +life. Silence reigned. + +"This is your business man," said he at length, to Tristan. "Go and search +out this matter." + +He rose, and went forward a few steps; his courtiers left him to himself. +He then perceived Cornelius, who, mounted on his mule, was going off in +company with the Provost. + +"And the thousand crowns?" said the King. + +"Nay, Sire, you are too great a King! No sum of money could pay for your +justice----" + +Louis XI. smiled. The courtiers envied the old Fleming his bold tongue and +many privileges; he rode off at a good pace, down the avenue of +mulberry-trees that led from Le Plessis to Tours. + +Exhausted by fatigue, the young gentleman was, in fact, sleeping soundly. +On his return from his adventure of gallantry, he had ceased to feel such +spirit and ardor for defending himself against distant and perhaps +imaginary dangers, as had inspired him to rush on perilous delights. So he +had postponed till morning the task of cleaning his soiled raiment and +effacing the traces of his success. It was a great blunder, but one towards +which everything tended. When, in the absence of the moon, which had set +while he was happy with his love, he failed to find all the screws of the +vexatious staple, he lost patience. Then, with the happy recklessness of a +man full of contentment, or longing for rest, he trusted to the good luck +of his fate, which had so far served him so well. He did, indeed, make a +sort of bargain with himself, in virtue of which he was to wake at +daybreak; but the events of the day and the excitements of the night +hindered him from keeping the promise. Happiness is oblivious. The +goldsmith seemed less formidable to the young gentleman as he lay on the +hard truckle-bed whence so many of his predecessors had risen only to go to +execution, and this recklessness was his undoing. + +While the King's treasurer was on his way back from Plessis-les-Tours, +escorted by the Provost and his terrible bowmen, the self-styled Goulenoire +was being watched by the old sister, who sat knitting stockings for +Cornelius on one of the steps of the turret stair, never heeding the cold. + +The youth, meanwhile, was prolonging the joys of that enchanting night, +ignorant of the disaster which was coming down on him at a gallop. He was +dreaming. His dreams, like all the visions of youth, were so vividly +colored that he was unconscious of where illusion began and reality ended. +He saw himself on a cushion at the lady's feet; his head on her knees warm +with affection; he was listening to the tale of the persecutions and petty +tyranny the Count had so long inflicted on his wife; he wept with the +Countess, who was, in fact, of all his natural children the daughter Louis +XI. loved best; he promised her that he would go on the morrow and reveal +all the facts to that terrible father. They had settled everything in their +mind, annulling the marriage and imprisoning the husband, while they +themselves might at any moment be the victims of his sword if the least +sound had roused him. But in his dream the light of the lamp, the flame in +their eyes, the hues of stuffs and tapestries, were brighter than in fact; +a richer perfume exhaled from their night garments; there was more love in +the air, more glow in the atmosphere, than there had been in reality. And +the Marie of his dream was far less obdurate than the living Marie had +been, to the languishing looks, the insinuating prayers, the magical +questioning, the expressive silence, the voluptuous solicitation, the +affected generosity which make the first moments of passion so fiercely +ardent, and rouse lovers' souls to increased intoxication at each step in +their love. + +In accordance with the jurisprudence of love in those days Marie de +Saint-Vallier granted her adorer the superficial privileges of _la petite +oie_; that is to say, she willingly allowed him to kiss her feet, her robe, +her hands, and her throat; she confessed her love; she accepted her lover's +attentions and vows; she would permit him to die for her; she allowed +herself to encourage an intoxication to which this half reserve, severe and +often cruel as it was, gave added heat; but she was herself immovable, and +would promise the highest reward of love only as the price of her +deliverance. To annul a marriage in those days recourse to Rome was +necessary. The parties needed the devotion of a few cardinals, and had to +appear in the presence of the Sovereign Pontiff armed with the King's +protection. Marie wished to owe her liberty to love, that she might resign +it into love's hands. + +In those days almost every woman had power enough so to establish her +empire in the heart of a man as to make his passion the history of his +whole life, the mainspring of the highest resolve. But then ladies could be +numbered in France; they were so many sovereigns; they had a noble pride; +their lovers belonged to them rather than they to the men; their love often +cost much bloodshed, and to be accepted by them dangers had to be faced. + +But in his dream Marie was merciful, and deeply touched by the devotion of +her beloved, and she made little resistance to the handsome youth's +vehement passion. Which was the real Marie? Did the so-called apprentice +see the true woman in his dream? Was the lady he had found in the Hotel de +Poitiers merely wearing a mask of virtue? The question is a delicate one, +and the honor of the ladies requires that it should remain undecided. + +At the very moment when the dream-Marie was about perhaps to forego her +high dignity as his mistress, the lover felt himself gripped by an iron +hand, and the sharp tones of the Provost thus addressed him: + +"Come, you midnight Christian, who go feeling about for heaven. Come, wake +up!" + +Philippe saw Tristan's swarthy face and recognized his sardonic smile; and +then on the steps of the spiral stairs he saw Cornelius and his sister, and +behind them the Provost's men-at-arms. At this sight, at the aspect of all +those diabolical countenances expressing hatred or else the vile curiosity +of men accustomed to the hangman's office, Philippe Goulenoire sat up in +bed and rubbed his eyes. + +"'Sdeath!" cried he, snatching his dagger from under his pillow. "It is +time to be trying knife-play!" + +"Oh, ho!" cried Tristan. "I smell the gentleman! It strikes me that we have +here Georges d'Estouteville, nephew to the grand captain of the +crossbowmen." + +On hearing his true name proclaimed by Tristan, young d'Estouteville +thought less of himself than of the danger his unhappy mistress would be in +if he were recognized. To divert suspicion, he exclaimed: + +"By all the devils, help! All good vagabonds, help!" + +After this terrible outcry, uttered by a man who was absolutely desperate, +the young courtier with one tremendous bound, poniard in hand, rushed out +to the stairs. But the Provost's followers were used to such adventures. As +soon as Georges d'Estouteville had reached the steps, they dexterously +captured him, undaunted by the vigorous thrust he made at one of them, +which fortunately slipped on the man's breastplate. They disarmed him, tied +his hands, and threw him back on his bed under the eyes of their chief, who +stood thoughtful and immovable. + +Tristan silently examined the prisoner's hands, and scratching his chin he +pointed them out to Cornelius, saying: + +"Those are no more the hands of a robber than those of an apprentice. He is +of noble birth." + +"Say rather of ignoble earth," cried the Fleming, dolefully. "My good +Tristan, whether he be noble or base-born, the villain has undone me. I +would I might see him at this moment with his hands and feet toasting, or +fitted into your neat little boots. He is beyond a doubt the captain of the +invisible legion of devils who know all my secrets, open all my locks, rob +me, and kill me by inches. They are rich by now, my friend. Ah! But this +time we will have their treasure, for this fellow looks like the King of +Egypt. I shall get back my precious rubies and vast sums of money; our good +King shall have his hands full of crowns." + +"Oh, our hiding-places are safer than yours!" said Georges, smiling. + +"Ah, the damned villain, he confesses!" exclaimed the miser. + +The Provost Marshal, meanwhile, had been examining the prisoner's clothes +and the lock. + +"Was it you who unscrewed all those rivets?" + +Georges made no reply. + +"Oh, very well; hold your tongue if you like. You will confess presently to +Saint-Rack-bones," said Tristan. + +"Ah, now you talk sense!" cried Cornelius. + +"Lead him away," said the Provost. + +Georges d'Estouteville asked permission to dress. At a sign from their +master, the men-at-arms dressed the prisoner with the dexterous rapidity of +a nurse who takes advantage of a moment when her baby is quiet, to change +its clothes. + + * * * * * + +A great crowd had collected in the Rue du Murier. Their murmurs grew louder +every moment, and seemed to threaten a riot. Rumors of the theft had been +rife in the town from an early hour. Popular sympathy was in favor of the +apprentice, who was said to be young and good-looking, and there was a +general revival of hatred against Cornelius; so there was never a good +mother's son, nor a young woman blest with neat feet and a rosy face, who +was not eager to see the victim. There was a fearful uproar as soon as +Georges appeared in the street, led by one of the Provost's men who, though +mounted on a horse, held the strong leather thong by which the prisoner was +secured, twisted round his arm, while the young man's hands were tightly +tied. Whether it was merely to see Philippe Goulenoire, or in the hope of a +rescue, those behind pushed those in front close up to the guard of +cavalry posted outside the Malemaison. At this instant Cornelius and his +sister slammed the door and closed the shutters with the vehemence of panic +terror. Tristan, who was not accustomed to respect the populace, saw that +the mob was not yet master, and cared not a straw for any riot. + +"Push on, push on!" said he to his men. + +At their master's word the bowmen urged their horses towards the end of the +street. And then, seeing two or three inquisitive mortals fallen under the +horses' feet, and some others crushed against the walls where they were +being stifled, the crowd that had collected took the wiser part and went +home again. + +"Make way for the King's justice!" cried Tristan. "What business have you +here? Do you want to be hanged, too? Go home, good folks, your roast meat +is burning! Now then, goodwife, your husband's hose need mending; go back +to your needle." + +Although these facetious remarks showed that the Provost was in high good +humor, the most daring fled from him as if he were the Black Death. Just as +the crowd began to give way, Georges d'Estouteville was startled to see, at +one of the windows of the Hotel de Poitiers, his beloved Marie de +Saint-Vallier, laughing with the Count. She was laughing at him, the +unhappy, devoted lover, who was going to death for her sake. Nay, perhaps +she only was amused by those in the crowd whose caps had been knocked off +by the archer's accoutrements. + +A man must be three and twenty and rich indeed in illusions, must dare to +trust in a woman's love, must love with all the powers of his being, and, +after risking his life with joy on the faith of a kiss, must feel himself +betrayed, ere he can understand the rage, hatred, and despair that surged +up in the young man's soul as he saw his mistress laughing and vouchsafing +him only a cold and indifferent glance. She had, no doubt, been there some +time, for her arms rested on a cushion. She was evidently quite +comfortable, and her old ogre quite content. He was laughing, too,--curse +him for a hunchback! + +A tear or two trickled from the young man's eyes; but when Marie saw them, +she hastily drew back. And suddenly Georges' eyes were dry, for he descried +the red and black feathers of the page who was devoted to him. + +The Count did not observe the movements of that cautious servant, who came +in on tiptoe. The page spoke a word in his mistress' ear, and then Marie +came back to the window. She contrived to evade the watchful eye of her +tyrant long enough to flash a look at her lover--the look of a woman who +has skilfully deceived her Argus--bright with the fires of love and the +triumph of hope. + +"I am watching over you." If she had shouted the words, it could not have +expressed so many things as this glance, embodying a thousand thoughts, and +charged with the alarms, the joys, the perils, of their situation. It bore +him from heaven to martyrdom, and from martyrdom to heaven. And so the +young man, light-hearted and content, marched on to execution, counting the +anguish of the torture-chamber as a small price for the raptures of love. + +As Tristan was turning out of the Rue du Murier, his men drew up at the +presence of an officer of the Scottish Guard, who rode up at full tilt. + +"What is to do?" asked the Provost. + +"Nothing that concerns you," replied the officer, scornfully. "The King has +sent me to summon the Comte and Comtesse de Saint-Vallier, whom he bids to +dine at his table." + +Hardly had the Provost reached the quay of Le Plessis when the Count and +his wife, both riding, she on a white mule and he on his horse, and +followed by two pages, came up with the bowmen to enter the precincts of +the chateau in their company. The whole party went but slowly. Georges was +on foot, between two men-at-arms, one of whom still led him by the thong. + +Tristan, the Count, and his wife naturally led the van, and the criminal +came behind. The younger page, mingling with the bowmen, was questioning +them, or from time to time addressing the prisoner; and he cleverly seized +an opportunity to say in an undertone: + +"I climbed over the garden wall of Le Plessis, and carried a letter that +madame had written to the King. She thought she would have died when she +heard that you were accused of theft. Be of good courage; she will speak +for you." + +Love had already lent the Countess courage and craft. When she had laughed, +her attitude and mirth were due to the heroism women can display in the +great crises of life. + +Notwithstanding the singular caprice which led the author of _Quentin +Durward_ to place the chateau of Plessis-les-Tours on a height, we are +compelled to leave it where it really stood at that time, in a hollow, +protected on two sides by the Cher and the Loire, and again by the canal, +named by Louis XI. the Canal Sainte-Anne in honor of his favorite daughter, +Madame de Beaujeu. By uniting the two rivers between Tours and Le Plessis, +this canal was at once a formidable protection to the stronghold and a +valuable highway for trade. On the side next to the broad and fertile plain +of Brehemont, the park was enclosed behind a moat, of which the enormous +width and depth are sufficiently shown by what remains. + +Thus, at a period when the power of artillery was in its infancy, the +position of Le Plessis, long since chosen by Louis XI. as his favorite +retreat, might be regarded as impregnable. The chateau itself was built of +brick and stone, and not in any way remarkable, but it was surrounded by +fine groves, and from its windows, through the alleys of the park +(_Plexitium_), the loveliest views possible could be seen. And no rival +mansion was to be found anywhere near this lovely palace standing exactly +in the middle of the little plain enclosed for the King within four +effectual bulwarks of water. If tradition may be trusted, Louis XI. +occupied the western wing, and he could from his room see at once the +course of the Loire, and beyond the river the pretty valley watered by the +Choisille, and part of the hills of Saint-Cyr; from the windows overlooking +the courtyard he commanded the entrance to his fortress, and the quay by +which his favorite residence was connected with the city of Tours. The +King's suspicious temper gives weight to this tradition. And certainly, if +Louis XI. had but lavished in the building of this palace such +architectural magnificence as Francois I. afterwards indulged at Chambord, +the home of the kings of France would have been permanently fixed in +Touraine. This beautiful spot, and its lovely scenery, have only to be seen +to prove its superiority over the situation of any other royal residence. + +Louis XI., now in his fifty-seventh year, had scarcely three more years to +live, and was already made aware of the approach of death by attacks of +illness. Delivered now from his enemies, and on the eve of adding to the +kingdom of France all the possessions of the duchy of Burgundy, by means of +a marriage, arranged by Desquerdes, the captain-general of his army in +Flanders, between the Dauphin and Marguerite, sole heiress of Burgundy; +having secured his authority in every part of his realm, while still +planning wise improvements, he saw time slipping from his grasp, nothing +left to him but the troubles of advancing years. Deceived by everybody, +even by his creatures, experience had increased his natural +distrustfulness. The desire to live had become in him the egoism of a king +who had made himself one incarnate with his people, and who craved for long +life to carry out vast schemes. + +Everything that the good sense of public-spirited statesmen or the instinct +of revolution has since achieved in reforming the monarchy, Louis XI. had +thought out. Equality of taxation, and that of all subjects in the eye of +the Law--the Sovereign was the Law then--were objects he boldly strove for. +On the day before All Saints he had assembled certain learned goldsmiths to +establish uniform weights and measures throughout France, as he had already +established uniform authority. Thus his great mind soared eagle-like above +the whole kingdom, and Louis XI. added to the cautiousness of a king the +eccentricities that are natural to men of lofty genius. + +So grand a figure would at no period have appeared more poetical or more +dignified. A strange mixture of contrasts! A great will in a feeble frame; +a mind incredulous as to earthly things, credulous as concerned religious +practices; a man combating two forces greater than himself--the present and +the future: the future, when he dreaded to endure torment, which made him +sacrifice so largely to the Church; the present, his actual life, for whose +sake he was a slave to Coyctier. This King, who could crush whom he would, +was crushed by remorse, and yet more by sickness, in the midst of all the +mysterious prestige that enwraps a suspicious king, in whom all power +centres. + +It was the stupendous and always impressive struggle of man in the fullest +expression of his power, rebelling against nature. + + * * * * * + +While waiting till the dinner hour, at that time between eleven o'clock and +noon, Louis XI., after a short walk, was sitting in a large tapestried +armchair in the chimney-corner of his own room. Olivier le Daim and +Coyctier, the leech, looked at each other without a word, standing in a +window-bay, and respecting their master's slumbers. The only sound to be +heard was that made in the ante-room by the two chamberlains-in-waiting, as +they paced to and fro; the Sire de Montresor and Jean Dufou, Sire de +Montbazon. These two, gentlemen of the Touraine, kept an eye on the captain +of the Scottish Guard, who was probably asleep in his chair, as was his +custom. + +The King seemed to be dozing; his head was sunk on his breast; his cap, +pulled over his brow, almost concealed his eyes. Thus huddled in his raised +throne, which was surmounted by a crown, he looked like a man who had +fallen asleep in the midst of some deep calculation. + +At this moment Tristan and his party were crossing the bridge of +Sainte-Anne over the canal, at about two hundred paces from the entrance to +the chateau. + +"Who goes there?" asked the King. + +The courtiers looked inquiringly at each other in surprise. + +"He is dreaming," whispered Coyctier. + +"_Pasques Dieu!_" cried the King. "Do you take me for a fool? Somebody is +coming across the bridge. To be sure, I am sitting by the chimney, and of +course can hear the sound more clearly than you can. That natural effect +might be utilized----" + +"What a man!" said Olivier le Daim. + +Louis XI. rose and went to the window, whence he could look out on the +town; then he saw the High Provost, and exclaimed: + +"Ah ha! Here is my old gossip with his thief. And there, too, comes my +little Marie de Saint-Vallier. I had forgotten that little matter. +Olivier," he went on, addressing the barber, "go and tell Monsieur de +Montbazon to put us some fine Burgundy on the table; and see that the cook +gives us lampreys. Madame la Comtesse dearly likes them both. May I eat +lampreys?" he added after a pause, with an uneasy look at Coyctier. + +His attendant's only reply was to examine his master's face. The two men +made a picture. + +History and romance have consecrated the brown camlet overcoat, and trunks +of the same material worn by Louis XI. His cap, garnished with pewter +medals, and his collar of the Order of Saint-Michael, are no less famous; +but no writer, no painter, has ever shown us the terrible King's face in +his later days: a sickly face, hollow, yellow, and tawny, every feature +expressive of bitter cunning and icy irony. There was, indeed, a noble brow +to this mask, a brow furrowed with lines and seamed with lofty thought, but +on his cheeks and lips a singularly vulgar and common stamp. Certain +details of that countenance would have led to the conclusion that it +belonged to some debauched old vine-grower, some miserly tradesman; but +then, through these vague suggestions and the decrepitude of a dying old +man, the King flashed out, the man of power and action. His eyes, pale and +yellow, looked extinct; but a spark lurked within of courage and wrath, +which at the least touch would flame up into consuming fires. + +The physician was a sturdy citizen, dressed in black, with a florid, keen, +and greedy face, giving himself airs of importance. + +The setting of these two figures was a room paneled with walnut wood, and +hung with fine Flemish tapestry above the wainscot; the ceiling, supported +on carved beams, was already blackened by smoke. The furniture and +bedstead, inlaid with arabesques in white metal, would seem more valuable +now than they really were at that time, when the arts were beginning to +produce so many masterpieces. + +"Lamprey is very bad for you," replied the physician.[G] + +"What am I to eat, then?" the King humbly asked. + +"Some widgeon, with salt. Otherwise you are so full of bile that you might +die on All Souls' day." + +"To-day?" cried the King, in great alarm. + +"Oh, be easy, Sire, I am here," replied Coyctier. "Try not to fret, and +amuse yourself a little." + +"Ah," said the King, "my daughter used to be skilled in that difficult +art." + +Just then Imbert de Bastarnay, Sire de Montresor and de Bridore, gently +knocked at the royal door. By the King's leave he came in, announcing the +Comte and Comtesse de Saint-Vallier. Louis nodded. Marie entered the room, +followed by her old husband, who allowed her to precede him. + +"Good-day, my children," said the King. + +"Sire," said the lady in a whisper, as she embraced him, "I would fain +speak with you in private." + +Louis XI. made as though he had not heard her. + +"Dufou, hola!" cried he, in a hollow voice. + +Dufou, Lord of Montbazon and high cupbearer of France, hastened in. + +"Go to the steward; I must have a widgeon for dinner. Then go to Madame de +Beaujeu and tell her that I dine alone to-day. Do you know, madame," the +King went on, affecting some little anger, "that you neglect me? It is +nearly three years since I saw you last. Come, come hither, pretty one," he +added, sitting down and holding out his arms to her. "How thin you are! +What do you do to make her so thin? Heh?" he suddenly asked, turning to the +Count. + +The jealous wretch gave his wife such a pathetic look that she was almost +sorry for him. + +"It is happiness, Sire," he replied. + +"Oh, ho! You are too fond of each other," said the King, holding his +daughter upright on his knees. "Well, well, I see I was right, then, when I +called you Marie-pleine-de-Grace. Coyctier, leave us! Now, what do you want +of me?" he added, to his daughter, as the leech disappeared. "When you sent +me your----" + +In such peril Marie audaciously laid her hand on the King's mouth, and said +in his ear: + +"I always thought you secret and keen-witted----" + +"Saint-Vallier," said the King, laughing, "I believe that Bridore has +something to say to you." + +The Count left the room; but he shrugged one shoulder in a way his wife +knew only too well; she could guess the jealous monster's thoughts, and +concluded that she must be on her guard against his malignancy. + +"Now tell me, child, how do you think I am looking? Am I much altered?" + +"Gramercy, my lord, do you want the truth? Or shall I speak you fair?" + +"No," said he, in a husky voice, "I want to know where I stand." + +"In that case, you look but ill to-day. But I trust my truthfulness may not +mar the success of my business." + +"What is it?" asked the King, passing one of his hands over his knitted +brows. + +"Well, Sire," said she, "the young man who has been arrested in the house +of your treasurer Cornelius, and who is at this present in the hands of +your Provost Marshal, is innocent of stealing the jewels of Bavaria." + +"How do you know?" asked the King. + +Marie hung her head, and blushed. + +"I need not ask if there is a love-affair at the bottom of this," said +Louis XI., gently raising his daughter's face, and stroking her chin. "If +you do not confess every morning, child, you will go to hell." + +"And cannot you oblige me without violating my secret thoughts?" + +"What would be the pleasure of that?" exclaimed the King, seeing that there +might be some amusement in the matter. + +"Oh, but you would not wish your pleasure to cost me sorrow?" + +"Heh! sly puss, do not you trust me?" + +"Well, then, my lord, set this young gentleman free." + +"Oh, ho! So he is a gentleman!" cried the King. "Then he is not an +apprentice?" + +"He is most certainly innocent," said she. + +"I do not see it in that light," said the King, coldly. "I am the supreme +judge in my kingdom, and it is my duty to punish malefactors." + +"Fay, come, do not put on your considering face. Grant me the young man's +life!" + +"Would not that be giving you back what is your own?" + +"Sire," said she, "I am honest and virtuous. You are mocking me." + +"Well, then," said the King, "as I cannot see my way in this business, let +Tristan throw some light upon it." + +Marie de Sassenage turned pale. With a violent effort she said: + +"Sire, I assure you that you will be in despair if you do. The so-called +thief has stolen nothing. If you will promise me his pardon, I will tell +you everything, even if you should visit it on me." + +"Oh, ho! This looks serious," said Louis XI., setting his cap aside. +"Speak, my child." + +"Well," said she, in a low voice, and speaking with her lips close to her +father's ear, "the gentleman spent the night in my room." + +"He may have gone to see you, and yet have robbed Cornelius--a double +larceny." + +"Sire, I have your blood in my veins, and I am not the woman to love a +vagabond. This gentleman is the nephew of the captain-general of your +crossbowmen." + +"Go on," said the King. "It is very hard to get anything out of you." + +As he spoke, Louis flung his daughter off to some distance; and she stood +trembling while he ran to the door into the next room, but on tiptoe, and +without making a sound. A moment since the light from a window in the outer +room, shining beneath the door, had shown him the shadow of a pair of feet +close to the entrance. He suddenly opened the iron-bound door, and +surprised the Comte de Saint-Vallier, who was listening. + +"_Pasques Dieu!_" cried he, "this is such insolence as deserves the axe." + +"My liege," said Saint-Vallier, boldly, "I would rather have the axe at my +neck than the ornament of the married on my forehead." + +"You may live to have both," said the King. "Not a man of you all is secure +against those two misfortunes, my lords. Go into the farther ante-room. +Conyngham," he went on, addressing the Scottish captain, "were you asleep? +And where is Monsieur Bridore? Do you allow me to be thus invaded? _Pasques +Dieu!_ the plainest citizen in Tours is better served than I am." + +Having thus vented his anger, Louis came back into his room; but he took +care to draw the tapestry curtains which covered the door on the inner +side, less for the purpose of moderating the cold draught than of +smothering the King's words. + +"And so, daughter," said he, amusing himself by teasing her, as a cat plays +with a mouse it has caught, "Georges d'Estouteville was your gallant +yesterday?" + +"Oh, no, Sire!" + +"No? Then by Saint-Carpion! he deserves to die. The villain did not think +my daughter fair enough perhaps." + +"Oh, if that is all," said she, "I assure you he kissed my feet and hands +with such ardor as might have melted the most virtuous wife. He loves me, +but honestly, as a gentleman should." + +"And do you take me for Saint-Louis that you foist such a tale on me? A +youngster of that pattern would have risked his life to kiss your slippers +or your sleeve! Nay, nay----" + +"Ay, my lord, but it is true. Still he came for another reason." + +As she spoke, it struck Marie that she had imperiled her husband's life, +for Louis at once eagerly inquired: + +"For what?" + +The adventure was amusing him hugely. He certainly did not expect the +strange revelations now made by his daughter, after stipulating for her +husband's pardon. + +"Oh, ho! Monsieur de Saint-Vallier, so this is the way you draw the blood +royal!" cried the King, his eyes blazing with wrath. + +At this moment the bell of Le Plessis rang to call the King's escort to +arms. Leaning on his daughter's arm, Louis XI. appeared on the threshold +and found his guard in attendance. He first glanced dubiously at the Comte +de Saint-Vallier, considering the sentence he was about to pronounce on +him. + +The deep silence was broken by Tristan's footsteps coming up the grand +stairs. He came into the room, and advancing to the King said: + +"Sire, the matter is settled!" + +"What, all over?" said the King. + +"Our man is in the priest's hands. He confessed to the theft after a screw +of the rack." + +The Countess sighed and turned pale; she could not even command her voice +as she looked at the King. This glance was not lost on Saint-Vallier, who +said in an undertone: + +"I am undone. The thief is known to my wife!" + +"Silence!" cried the King. "There is some one here of whom I am tired. Go +quickly and stop the execution," he added, turning to the Provost. "You +will answer to me for the criminal; your life for his, my friend! This +affair must be thoroughly searched out, and I reserve the judgment. +Provisionally, set the prisoner at large. I shall know where to find him; +these robbers have hiding-places that they love, dens where they lurk. Make +it known to Cornelius that I purpose going to his house this very evening +to conduct the inquiry. Monsieur de Saint-Vallier," the King went on, +fixing his eyes on the Count, "I have heard of all your doings. All the +blood in your body cannot pay for one drop of mine; do you know that? By +our Lady of Clery, you have been guilty of high treason. Did I give you so +sweet a wife that you might make her pale and haggard? Marry, my lord! You +go to your own house at this moment, and make you ready there for a long +journey." + +The mere habit of cruelty made the King pause on these words, but he +presently added: + +"You will set forth this night to treat of my business with the Signors of +Venice. Do not be uneasy; I will bring your wife home with me this evening +to my chateau of Le Plessis; there, at least, she will be safe. Henceforth +I shall take better care of her than I have done since you wedded her." + +Marie, as she heard these words, silently pressed her father's arm to thank +him for his clemency and good grace. As to Louis, he was laughing in his +sleeve. + +Louis XI. dearly loved to interfere in his subjects' concerns, and was ever +ready to mingle in his own royal person in scenes of middle-class life. +This fancy, severely blamed by some historians, was no more than the +passion for the _incognito_ which is one of the chief amusements of +princes, a sort of temporary abdication which enables them to bring a +breath of work-a-day life into an existence which is insipid for lack of +opposition; but then Louis XI. played at an _incognito_ without any +disguise. In this sort of adventures, too, he was always good-humored, and +did his utmost to be pleasant to the citizen class, of whom he had made +friends and allies against the feudal lords. + +It was now some little time since he had an opportunity of thus making +himself popular, or taking up the defence of a man enmeshed in some +actionable offence, so he was ready to enter vehemently into Maitre +Cornelius' alarms and the Countess' secret griefs. + +Several times during dinner he said to his daughter: + +"But who can have robbed my old gossip? He has lost more than twelve +hundred thousand crowns' worth of jewels, stolen within the last eight +years. Twelve hundred thousand crowns, my lords," he repeated, looking +round on the gentlemen in attendance. "By our Lady, for such a sum of money +a great many absolutions may be bought of the Court of Rome. I could have +embanked the Loire for the money, or, better still, have conquered +Piedmont--a fine bulwark, ready made, for our kingdom." + + * * * * * + +When dinner was ended, Louis XI. led away his daughter, his physician, and +the Provost Marshal, and made his way with an escort of his guard to the +Hotel de Poitiers, where, as he had expected, he found the Comte de +Saint-Vallier, who was awaiting his wife, perhaps to get rid of her. + +"Monsieur," said the King, "I had instructed you to depart as soon as +possible. Take leave of your wife and get across the frontier; you will be +granted an escort of honor. As to your instructions and letters of credit, +they will be at Venice sooner than you." + +Louis gave his orders, adding certain secret instructions, to a lieutenant +of the Scottish Guard, who was to take a company and attend his envoy to +Venice. Saint-Vallier went off in great haste, after giving his wife a cold +kiss, which he would gladly have rendered fatal. + +As soon as the Countess had retired to her room, Louis proceeded to the +Malemaison, very anxious to see the end of the dismal farce that was going +on under his gossip the usurer's roof, and flattering himself that, being +the King, he would have keen wit enough to detect the robbers' secrets. + +It was not without apprehension that Cornelius saw his master's company. + +"And are all these folks part of the ceremony?" he asked in a low voice. +Louis could not help smiling at the terrors of the old miser and his +sister. + +"No, gossip," replied he, "be quite easy. They will sup with us at my +house; we shall go into the matter alone. I am such a good justiciary that +I wager ten thousand crowns I find the criminal." + +"Let us find him, my lord, and never mind the wager." + +They went into the closet where the Fleming stored his treasures. Here King +Louis, having first examined the case which had contained the Elector of +Bavaria's jewels, and then the chimney down which the thief was supposed to +have come, easily proved to the goldsmith that his suspicions were +unfounded, inasmuch as there was no soot on the hearth--where, indeed, a +fire was rarely kindled--and no trace of any kind in the chimney. Moreover, +the chimney opened to a part of the roof that was practically inaccessible. +Finally, after two hours spent in investigations characterized by the +sagacity which distinguished the King's distrustful temper, it was proved +to a demonstration that no one could have got into the miser's treasury. +There was no mark of violence on any of the locks, inside or out, nor on +the iron coffers containing his gold and silver and the costly jewels +pledged by wealthy borrowers. + +"If the robber opened this board," said Louis XI., "why did he take only +the Bavarian jewels? Why should he have left this pearl necklace? A strange +thief, indeed!" + +At this reflection the hapless miser turned pale; the King and he eyed each +other for a moment. + +"Well, then, my liege, what was the robber doing whom you have taken under +your protection, and who certainly was out during the night?" + +"If you have not guessed, master, I desire that you never will; it is one +of my secrets." + +"Then the devil haunts me!" said the goldsmith, lamentably. + +Under any other circumstances the King would have laughed at his +treasurer's exclamation; but he stood thinking and gazing at Maitre +Cornelius with the scrutiny familiar to men of genius and authority, as if +he could see into the man's brain. The Fleming, in fact, was terrified, +thinking he had offended his formidable master. + +"Angel or devil, I will have the malefactor!" the King suddenly exclaimed. +"If you are robbed this night, I will know by whom to-morrow. Call up that +old ape, your sister," he added. + +Cornelius almost hesitated to leave the King alone in the room that +contained his treasure; however, he went, coerced by the strength of the +bitter smile that curled Louis' faded lips. And in spite of his confidence, +he soon returned, followed by the old woman. + +"Have you any flour?" asked the King. + +"To be sure! we have laid in our store for the winter," said she. + +"Well, then, bring it here," said the King. + +"And what would you be doing with our flour, Sire?" cried she in alarm, and +not in the least awed by the presence of majesty, like all persons +possessed by a ruling passion. + +"You old fool, will you do as our gracious liege bids you?" cried +Cornelius. "Does the King want your flour?" + +"This is what I buy fine flour for," muttered she, on the stairs. "Oh, my +good flour!" + +She turned back to say to the King: + +"Is it your royal whim, my lord, to examine my flour?" + +But at last she returned with one of the linen bags, which from time +immemorial have been used in Touraine for carrying provisions to or from +market--walnuts, fruit, or corn. This sack was half full of flour. The +housewife opened it, and timidly showed it to the King, looking at him with +the swift stolen glances by which old maids, as it would seem, hope to cast +venom on a man. + +"It is worth six sous the measure," said she. + +"What matter!" replied the King. "Sprinkle it on the floor, and above all +strew it very evenly, as if there had been a light fall of snow." + +The old woman did not understand. The order dismayed her more than the end +of the world could have done. + +"My flour, my liege--on the floor--why----" + +Maitre Cornelius, who had an inkling, though a vague one, of the King's +idea, snatched the bag, and sprinkled the flour gently on the boards. The +old woman shuddered, and held out her hand for the bag; as soon as her +brother restored it to her, she vanished with a deep sigh. + +Cornelius took a feather broom and began spreading the flour with it over +the floor till it lay like a sheet of snow, walking backwards towards the +door, followed by the King, who seemed greatly amused by the proceedings. +When they were at the threshold, Louis XI. said to his gossip: + +"Are there two keys to the lock?" + +"No, Sire." + +The King examined the structure of the door, which was strengthened by +large iron plates and bars. All the parts of this armor centered round a +lock with a secret, of which Cornelius alone had the key. After +investigating it thoroughly, Louis sent for Tristan, and bid him to set a +watch with the utmost secrecy that night, some in the mulberry-trees on the +quay, and on the parapets of the neighboring houses; but first to collect +all his men to escort him back to Le Plessis, so as to make it appear that +he, the King, was not supping with Maitre Cornelius. Then he desired the +miser to be so particular in closing every window, that not a glimmer of +light could pierce through, and to order a light meal, so as not to give a +hint that His Majesty was sleeping there that night. + +The King set out in state by the dyke road and returned privily, with only +two attendants, by the rampart gate to the house of his friend the miser. +Everything was so well arranged that all the townsfolk and courtiers +supposed that the King had chosen to go back to the chateau, and would sup +with the treasurer on the morrow. The miser's sister confirmed this notion +by buying some green sauce from the best maker, whose shop was close to the +_quarroir aux herbes_, since called the carroir de Beaune, in honor of a +splendid white marble fountain which the unfortunate Semblancay (Jacques de +Beaune) sent for from Italy to adorn the capital of his province. + +At about eight in the evening, when the King was at supper with his leech, +Cornelius and the captain of the Scottish Guard, talking gayly and +forgetting that he was Louis XI. and ill, and almost dying, perfect silence +reigned outside, and the passers-by, nay, even a thief, might have supposed +the dwelling to be uninhabited. + +"I hope," said the King, laughing, "that my gossip may be robbed this +night, to satisfy my curiosity. And see to it, gentlemen, that no one +leaves his chamber to-morrow morning without my orders, under pain of +serious punishment." + +Thereupon they all went to bed. + + * * * * * + +Next morning Louis XI. was the first to leave his room, and he made his way +towards Cornelius' treasure-room. He was not a little surprised to detect +the prints of a large foot on the stairs and in the passages of the house. +Carefully avoiding these precious marks, he went to the door of the miser's +closet and found it locked, with no traces of violence. He examined the +direction of the footprints, but as they gradually grew fainter and at last +left no mark, it was impossible to discover how the robber had escaped. + +"Ah ha! gossip," cried the King to Cornelius, "you have been robbed, that +is very certain!" + +At these words the old Fleming came out, a prey to evident horror. Louis +XI. led him to look at the footprints on the boards, and while examining +them once more, the King, having by chance observed the miser's slippers, +recognized the shape of the sole of which so many copies were stamped on +the flooring. He said not a word, and suppressed a laugh, remembering how +many innocent men had been hanged. + +Cornelius hurried into his strong room. The King, bidding him make a fresh +footprint by the side of those already visible, convinced him that the +thief was none other than himself. + +"The pearl necklace is missing!" cried Cornelius. "There is witchcraft in +this. I have not left my room." + +"We will find out about that at once," said the King, puzzled by the +goldsmith's evident good faith. + +He called the men of the watch into his room and asked them: + +"Marry now, what did you see in the night?" + +"Ah, Sire! a magical sight!" replied the lieutenant. "Your Majesty's +treasurer stealing downstairs close to the wall, and so nimbly that at +first we took him for a spectre." + +"I!" cried Cornelius, who then stood silent and motionless as a paralyzed +creature. + +"You may go, all of you," said Louis, addressing the bowmen, "and tell +Monsieur Conyngham, Coyctier, Bridore, and Tristan that they may get out of +bed and come here. You have incurred pain of death," said Louis, coldly, to +the miser, who, happily, did not hear him, "for you have at least ten on +your soul!" + +The King laughed, a grim, noiseless laugh, and paused. + +"But be easy," he went on, as he noticed the strange pallor that overspread +the old man's face; "you are better to bleed than to kill. And in +consideration of a handsome fine, paid into my coffers, you may escape the +clutches of justice; but if you do not build at least a chapel to the +Virgin, you are in jeopardy of finding warm and anxious work before you for +all eternity." + +"Twelve hundred and thirty and eighty-eight thousand crowns make thirteen +hundred and seventeen thousand crowns," replied Cornelius, mechanically, +absorbed in calculations. "Thirteen hundred and seventeen thousand crowns +misappropriated!" + +"He must have buried them in some hidden spot," said the King, who was +beginning to think the sum a royal prize. "This is the lodestone that has +always attracted him hither--he smelt his gold." + +Hereupon Coyctier came in. Noticing the treasurer's attitude, he watched +him keenly while the King was relating the adventure. + +"My lord," replied the physician, "there is nothing supernatural in the +business. Our friend here has the peculiarity of walking in his sleep. This +is the third case I have met with of this singular malady. If you should be +pleased to witness its effects, you might see this old man walking without +danger on the parapet of the roof any night when he should be seized by it. +In the two men I have already studied, I discovered a curious connection +between the instincts of this nocturnal vitality and their business or +occupations by day." + +"Ah, Maitre Coyctier, you are indeed most learned!" + +"Am I not your physician?" retorted the leech, insolently. + +On this reply Louis XI. made a little movement which was a familiar trick +with him when he had hit on a good idea--a gesture of hastily pushing his +cap up. + +"In such cases," Coyctier went on, "men transact their business in their +sleep. As our friend here is not averse to hoarding, he has quietly yielded +to his favorite habit. Indeed, he probably has an attack whenever, during +the day, he has been in alarm for his treasure." + +"_Pasques Dieu!_ and what a treasure!" cried the King. + +"Where is it?" asked Cornelius, who, by a singular peculiarity of our +nature, heard all that the King and his leech were saying, though almost +stunned by his reflections and his misfortune. + +"Oh!" replied Coyctier, with a coarse, diabolical laugh, "somnambulists +have no recollection of their acts and deeds when they awake." + +"Leave us!" said the King. + +When Louis XI. was alone with his gossip, he looked at him with a cold +chuckle. + +"Worshipful Master Hoogworst," said he, bowing low, "all treasure-trove in +France belongs to the King." + +"Yes, my liege, it is all yours; and our lives and fortunes are in your +hands; but hitherto you have been so merciful as to take no more than you +found necessary." + +"Listen to me, gossip. If I help you to recover this treasure, you may, in +all confidence and without fear, divide it with me." + +"No, Sire, I will not divide it. It shall be all yours, when I am dead. But +what scheme have you for finding it?" + +"I have only to watch you, myself, while you are taking your nocturnal +walks. Any one but myself would be a danger." + +"Ah, Sire," replied Cornelius, falling at the King's feet, "you are the +only man in the kingdom whom I would trust with that office, and I shall +find means to prove my gratitude for your kindness to your humble servant +by doing my utmost to promote the marriage of the Heiress of Bourgogne to +Monseigneur the Dauphin. There indeed is a treasure, not, to be sure, in +crown-pieces, but in land, which will nobly round out your dominions!" + +"Pshaw, Fleming, you are deceiving me!" said the King, knitting his brows, +"or you have played me false." + +"Nay, Sire, can you doubt my devotion--you, the only man I love?" + +"Words, words!" said the King, turning to face the miser. "You ought not to +have waited for this to be of use to me. You are selling me your +patronage--_Pasques Dieu!_ to me--Louis the Eleventh! Are you the master, +I would know, and am I the servant?" + +"Ah, my liege," replied the old usurer, "I had hoped to give you an +agreeable surprise by news of the communications I had established with the +men of Ghent. I expected confirmation of it by the hand of Oosterlinck's +apprentice. But what has become of him?" + +"Enough," said the King. "Another error. I do not choose that any one +should interfere, uncalled for, in my concerns. Enough! I must think all +this over." + +Maitre Cornelius found the agility of youth to fly to the lower room, where +his sister was sitting. + +"Oh, Jeanne, dear heart, we have somewhere a hoard where I have hidden the +thirteen hundred thousand crowns. And I--I am the thief!" + +Jeanne Hoogworst rose from her stool, starting to her feet as if the seat +were of red-hot iron. The shock was so frightful to an old woman accustomed +for many years to exhaust herself by voluntary abstinence, that she quaked +in every limb and felt a terrible pain in her back. By degrees her color +faded, and her face, in which the wrinkles made any change very difficult +to detect, gradually fell, while her brother explained to her the disease +to which he was a victim, and the strange situation in which they both +stood. + +"King Louis and I," said he in conclusion, "have just been telling each +other as many lies as two miracle-mongers. You see, child, if he were to +watch me, he would be sole master of the secret of the treasure. No one in +the world but the King can spy on my nocturnal movements. Now I do not know +that the King's conscience, near on death as he is, could stand out against +thirteen hundred and seventeen thousand crowns. We must be beforehand with +him, find the nest, and send all treasure to Ghent. Now you alone----" + +Cornelius suddenly stopped short, as if he were gauging the heart of this +King, who, at two and twenty, had dreamed of parricide. When the treasurer +had made up his mind as to Louis XI., he hastily rose, as a man in a hurry +to escape some danger. + +At this sudden movement, his sister, too weak or too strong for such a +crisis, fell down flat; she was dead. Cornelius lifted her up and shook her +violently, saying: + +"This is no time for dying; you will have time enough for that afterwards. +Oh! it is all over! Wretched creature, she could never do the right +thing----" + +He closed her eyes and laid her on the floor. But then the kind and noble +feelings that lurked at the bottom of his heart came to the surface, and +almost forgetting his undiscovered treasure, he cried out in sorrow: + +"My poor companion! what, have I lost you--you who understood me so well? +Ah! you were my real treasure. There, there, lies the treasure. With you I +have lost all my peace of mind, all my affections. If you had but known how +well it would have paid you to live only two nights longer, you would not +have died, if only to please me, poor little woman. I say, Jeanne--thirteen +hundred and seventeen thousand crowns! No, even that does not rouse you. +No, she is dead, quite dead!" + +He thereupon sat down and said no more, but two large tears gathered in his +eyes and rolled down his hollow cheeks; then with many an "Ah!" and sigh he +locked the room up and returned to the King. Louis was startled by the +grief he saw written on his old friend's features. + +"What is this?" said he. + +"Alas, Sire, a misfortune never comes single. My sister is dead. She has +gone below before me," and he pointed to the ground with startling +emphasis. + +"Enough, enough!" said Louis XI., who did not like to hear any mention of +death. + +"You are my heir. I care for nothing now. Here are my keys. Hang me, if it +is your good pleasure. Take everything; search the house; it is full of +gold. I give it all to you." + +"Come, come, gossip," said the King, half moved by the sight of this +strange anguish, "we will discover the hoard some fine night, and the sight +of so much riches will revive your taste for life. I will come again this +week." + +"Whenever Your Majesty pleases." + +At these words, the King, who had gone a few steps towards the door, turned +sharply round, and the two men looked at each other with an expression that +no brush, nor words, could render. + +"Good-bye, gossip," said Louis, at last, in a sharp voice, as he put his +bonnet straight. + +"May God and the Virgin keep you in their good grace!" the usurer replied +humbly, as he escorted the King to the street. + +After so long a friendship these two men found a barrier raised between +them by distrust and money, whereas they had hitherto been quite agreed on +matters of money and distrust; but they knew each other so well, they were +so much in the habit of intimacy, that the King could guess from the +miser's tone as he rashly said, "Whenever Your Majesty pleases," the +annoyance his visits would thenceforth be to his treasurer, just as +Cornelius had discerned a declaration of war in the way Louis had said +"Good-bye, gossip." + +So Louis XI. and his banker parted, very uncertain as to what, for the +future, their demeanor was to be. The monarch, indeed, knew the Fleming's +secret; but the Fleming on his part could, through his connections, secure +the grandest conquest any king of France had yet achieved--that of the +domains of the House of Burgundy, which were just then the object of envy +to every sovereign in Europe. + +The famous Margaret's choice would be guided by the good folks of Ghent and +the Flemings about her. Hoogworst's gold and influence would tell for a +great deal in the negotiations opened by Desquerdes, the captain to whom +Louis XI. had given the command of the army on the Belgian frontier. Thus +these two master foxes were in the position of duelists whose strength had +been neutralized by some stroke of fate. + +And whether it was that from that day the King's health had failed visibly, +or that Cornelius in part promoted the arrival in France of Marguerite of +Burgundy, who came to Amboise in July 1438 to be married to the Dauphin in +the chapel of the chateau, the King claimed no fine from his treasurer and +no trial was held; but they remained in the half-cordial terms of an armed +friendship. + +Happily for the miser, a rumor got about that his sister had committed the +thefts, and that she had been privily executed by Tristan. Otherwise, and +if the true story had become known, the whole town would have risen in arms +to destroy the Malemaison before the King could possibly have defended it. + +However, if all this historical guesswork has some foundation with regard +to Louis XI.'s inaction, Master Cornelius Hoogworst cannot be accused of +supineness. He spent the first days after this fatal morning in a constant +hurry. Like a beast of prey shut up in a cage, he came and went, scenting +gold in every corner of his dwelling; he examined every cranny; he tapped +the walls; he demanded his treasure of the trees in the garden, of the +foundations, of the turret roofs, of earth, and of heaven. Often he would +stand for hours looking at everything around him, his eyes searching +vacancy. He tried the miracles and second-sight of magic powers, +endeavoring to see his gold through space and solid obstacles. + +He was constantly absorbed in one overwhelming thought, consumed by an idea +that gnawed at his vitals, and yet more cruelly racked by the perennial +torments of his duel with himself, since his love of gold had turned to +rend itself; it was a sort of incomplete suicide comprehending all the +pangs of living and of dying. Never had a vice so effectually entrapped +itself; for the miser who inadvertently locks himself into the subterranean +cell where his wealth is buried, has, like Sardanapalus, the satisfaction +of perishing in the midst of it. But Cornelius, at once the robber and the +robbed, and in the secret of neither, possessed, and yet did not possess, +his treasures--a quite new, quite whimsical form of torture, but +perpetually excruciating. + +Sometimes, almost oblivious, he would leave the little wicket of his door +open, and then the passers-by could see the shriveled old man standing in +the middle of his neglected garden, perfectly motionless, and looking at +any who stopped to gaze at him, with a fixed stare, a lurid glare, that +froze them with terror. If by chance he went out into the streets of the +town, you would have thought he was a stranger; he never knew where he was, +nor whether it was the sun or the moon that were shining. He would often +ask his way of the persons he met, fancying himself at Ghent, and he seemed +always to be looking for his lost treasure. + +The most irrepressible and most incorporate of all human ideas,--that by +which a man identifies himself by creating outside and apart from his +person the whole fictitious entity which he calls his property,--this demon +idea had its talons constantly clutching at the miser's soul. + +Then, in the midst of his torments, Fear would rise up with all the +feelings that come in its train. For, in fact, two men knew his secret--the +secret which he himself did not know. Louis XI. or Coyctier might post +their spies to watch his movements while he was asleep, and discover the +unknown gulf into which he had flung his wealth with the blood of so many +innocent men; for Remorse kept watch with Fear. + +To preserve his lost riches from being snatched from him while he lived, +during the early days after his disaster, he took the utmost precaution to +avoid sleeping, and his connection with the commercial world enabled him to +procure the strongest anti-narcotics. His wakeful nights must have been +terrible; he was alone to struggle against the night and silence, against +remorse and fear, and all the thoughts that man has most effectually +personified--instinctively, no doubt, in obedience to some law of the mind, +true, though not yet proved. + +In short, this man, strong as he was; this heart, annealed by the life of +politics and commerce; this genius, though unknown to history,--was doomed +to succumb under the horrors of the torments he himself had created. +Crushed by some reflection even more cruel than all that had gone before, +he cut his throat with a razor. + +His death almost exactly coincided in time with the King's, so that the +House of Evil was plundered by the mob. Some of the older inhabitants of +the province asserted that a revenue farmer named Bohier had found the +extortioner's treasure, and had employed it in building the beginnings of +the chateau of Chenonceaux, that wonderful palace which, in spite of the +lavish outlay of several kings and the fine taste of Diane de Poitiers and +her rival Catherine de' Medici, is still unfinished. + + * * * * * + +Happily for Marie de Sassenage, the Comte de Saint-Vallier died, as is well +known, as ambassador to Venice. The family did not become extinct. After +the Count's departure his wife had a son, whose fortunes were famous in the +history of France under the reign of Francois I. He was saved by his +daughter, the famous Diane de Poitiers, Louis XI.'s illegitimate +great-granddaughter; and she became the illegal wife, the adored mistress, +of Henri II.; for in that noble family bastardy and love were hereditary. + + CHATEAU DE SACHE, _November and December_ 1831. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[G] _Le physicien_: this word then lately substituted for _maitre myrrhe_ +(or leech) has been retained in English. It was generally used in France at +that time.--_Balzac._ + + + + +THE ELIXIR OF LIFE + +TO THE READER + + +At the very outset of the writer's literary career, a friend, long since +dead, gave him the subject of this Study. Later on he found the same story +in a collection published about the beginning of the present century. To +the best of his belief, it is some stray fancy of the brain of Hoffmann of +Berlin; probably it appeared in some German almanac, and was omitted in the +published editions of his collected works. The _Comedie Humaine_ is +sufficiently rich in original creations for the author to own to this +innocent piece of plagiarism: when, like the worthy La Fontaine, he has +told unwittingly, and after his own fashion, a tale already related by +another. This is not one of the hoaxes in vogue in the year 1830, when +every author wrote his "tale of horror" for the amusement of young ladies. +When you have read the account of Don Juan's decorous parricide, try to +picture to yourself the part which would be played under very similar +circumstances by honest folk who, in this nineteenth century, will take a +man's money and undertake to pay him a life annuity on the faith of a +chill, or let a house to an ancient lady for the term of her natural life +Would they be for resuscitating their clients? I should dearly like a +connoisseur in consciences to consider how far there is a resemblance +between a Don Juan and fathers who marry their children to great +expectations. Does humanity, which, according to certain philosophers, is +making progress, look on the art of waiting for dead men's shoes as a step +in the right direction? To this art we owe several honorable professions, +which open up ways of living on death. There are people who rely entirely +on an expected demise; who brood over it, crouching each morning upon a +corpse, that serves again for their pillow at night. To this class belong +bishops' coadjutors, cardinals' supernumeraries, _tontiniers_, and the +like. Add to the list many delicately scrupulous persons eager to buy +landed property beyond their means, who calculate with dry logic and in +cold blood the probable duration of the life of a father or of a +stepmother, some old man or woman of eighty or ninety, saying to +themselves, "I shall be sure to come in for it in three years' time, and +then----" A murderer is less loathsome to us than a spy. The murderer may +have acted on a sudden mad impulse; he may be penitent and amend; but a spy +is always a spy, night and day, in bed, at table, as he walks abroad; his +vileness pervades every moment of his life. Then what must it be to live +when every moment of your life is tainted with murder? And have we not just +admitted that a host of human creatures in our midst are led by our laws, +customs, and usages to dwell without ceasing on a fellow-creature's death? +There are men who put the weight of a coffin into their deliberations as +they bargain for Cashmere shawls for their wives, as they go up the +staircase of a theatre, or think of going to the Bouffons, or of setting up +a carriage; who are murderers in thought when dear ones, with the +irresistible charm of innocence, hold up childish foreheads to be kissed +with a "Good-night, father!" Hourly they meet the gaze of eyes that they +would fain close for ever, eyes that still open each morning to the light, +like Belvidero's in this Study. God alone knows the number of those who are +parricides in thought. Picture to yourself the state of mind of a man who +must pay a life annuity to some old woman whom he scarcely knows; both live +in the country with a brook between them, both sides are free to hate +cordially, without offending against the social conventions that require +two brothers to wear a mask if the older will succeed to the entail, and +the other to the fortune of a younger son. The whole civilization of Europe +turns upon the principle of hereditary succession as upon a pivot; it would +be madness to subvert the principle; but could we not, in an age that +prides itself upon its mechanical inventions, perfect this essential +portion of the social machinery? + +If the author has preserved the old-fashioned style of address _To the +Reader_ before a work wherein he endeavors to represent all literary forms, +it is for the purpose of making a remark that applies to several of the +Studies, and very specially to this. Every one of his compositions has been +based upon ideas more or less novel, which, as it seemed to him, needed +literary expression; he can claim priority for certain forms and for +certain ideas which have since passed into the domain of literature, and +have there, in some instances, become common property; so that the date of +the first publication of each Study cannot be a matter of indifference to +those of his readers who would fain do him justice. + +Reading brings us unknown friends, and what friend is like a reader? We +have friends in our own circle who read nothing of ours. The author hopes +to pay his debt, by dedicating this work _Diis ignotis_. + + * * * * * + +One winter evening, in a princely palace at Ferrara, Don Juan Belvidero was +giving a banquet to a prince of the house of Este. A banquet in those times +was a marvelous spectacle which only royal wealth or the power of a mightly +lord could furnish forth. Seated about a table lit up with perfumed tapers, +seven laughter-loving women were interchanging sweet talk. The white marble +of the noble works of art about them stood out against the red stucco +walls, and made strong contrasts with the rich Turkey carpets. Clad in +satin, glittering with gold, and covered with gems less brilliant than +their eyes, each told a tale of energetic passions as diverse as their +styles of beauty. They differed neither in their ideas nor in their +language; but the expression of their eyes, their glances, occasional +gestures, or the tones of their voices supplied a commentary, dissolute, +wanton, melancholy, or satirical, to their words. + +One seemed to be saying--"The frozen heart of age might kindle at my +beauty." + +Another--"I love to lounge upon cushions, and think with rapture of my +adorers." + +A third, a neophyte at these banquets, was inclined to blush. "I feel +remorse in the depths of my heart! I am a Catholic, and afraid of hell. But +I love you, I love you so that I can sacrifice my hereafter to you." + +The fourth drained a cup of Chian wine. "Give me a joyous life!" she cried; +"I begin life afresh each day with the dawn. Forgetful of the past, with +the intoxication of yesterday's rapture still upon me, I drink deep of +life--a whole lifetime of pleasure and of love!" + +The woman who sat next to Juan Belvidero looked at him with a feverish +glitter in her eyes. She was silent. Then--"I should need no hired bravo to +kill my lover if he forsook me!" she cried at last, and laughed, but the +marvelously wrought gold comfit box in her fingers was crushed by her +convulsive clutch. + +"When are you to be Grand Duke?" asked the sixth. There was the frenzy of a +Bacchante in her eyes, and her teeth gleamed between the lips parted with a +smile of cruel glee. + +"Yes, when is that father of yours going to die?" asked the seventh, +throwing her bouquet at Don Juan with bewitching playfulness. It was a +childish girl who spoke, and the speaker was wont to make sport of sacred +things. + +"Oh! don't talk about it," cried Don Juan, the young and handsome giver of +the banquet. "There is but one eternal father, and, as ill luck will have +it, he is mine." + +The seven Ferrarese, Don Juan's friends, the Prince himself, gave a cry of +horror. Two hundred years later, in the days of Louis XV., people of taste +would have laughed at this witticism. Or was it, perhaps, that at the +outset of an orgy there is a certain unwonted lucidity of mind? Despite the +taper light, the clamor of the senses, the gleam of gold and silver, the +fumes of wine, and the exquisite beauty of the women, there may perhaps +have been in the depths of the revelers' hearts some struggling glimmer of +reverence for things divine and human, until it was drowned in glowing +floods of wine! Yet even then the flowers had been crushed, eyes were +growing dull, and drunkenness, in Rabelais' phrase, had "taken possession +of them down to their sandals." + +During that brief pause a door opened; and as once the Divine presence was +revealed at Belshazzar's feast, so now it seemed to be manifest in the +apparition of an old white-haired servant, who tottered in, and looked +sadly from under knitted brows at the revelers. He gave a withering glance +at the garlands, the golden cups, the pyramids of fruit, the dazzling +lights of the banquet, the flushed scared faces, the hues of the cushions +pressed by the white arms of the women. + +"My lord, your father is dying!" he said; and at those solemn words, +uttered in hollow tones, a veil of crape seemed to be drawn over the wild +mirth. + +Don Juan rose to his feet with a gesture to his guests that might be +rendered by, "Excuse me; this kind of thing does not happen every day." + +Does it so seldom happen that a father's death surprises youth in the +full-blown splendor of life, in the midst of the mad riot of an orgy? Death +is as unexpected in his caprice as a courtesan in her disdain; but death is +truer--Death has never forsaken any man. + +Don Juan closed the door of the banqueting-hall; and as he went down the +long gallery, through the cold and darkness, he strove to assume an +expression in keeping with the part he had to play; he had thrown off his +mirthful mood, as he had thrown down his table napkin, at the first thought +of this _role_. The night was dark. The mute servitor, his guide to the +chamber where the dying man lay, lighted the way so dimly that Death, aided +by cold, silence, and darkness, and it may be by a reaction of +drunkenness, could send some sober thoughts through the spendthrift's soul. +He examined his life, and became thoughtful, like a man involved in a +lawsuit on his way to the Court. + +Bartolommeo Belvidero, Don Juan's father, was an old man of ninety, who had +devoted the greatest part of his life to business pursuits. He had acquired +vast wealth in many a journey in magical Eastern lands, and knowledge, so +it was said, more valuable than the gold and diamonds, which had almost +ceased to have any value for him. + +"I would give more to have a tooth in my head than for a ruby," he would +say at times with a smile. The indulgent father loved to hear Don Juan's +story of this and that wild freak of youth. "So long as these follies amuse +you, dear boy----" he would say laughingly, as he lavished money on his +son. Age never took such pleasure in the sight of youth; the fond father +did not remember his own decaying powers while he looked on that brilliant +young life. + +Bartolommeo Belvidero, at the age of sixty, had fallen in love with an +angel of peace and beauty. Don Juan had been the sole fruit of this late +and short-lived love. For fifteen years the widower had mourned the loss of +his beloved Juana; and to this sorrow of age, his son and his numerous +household had attributed the strange habits that he had contracted. He had +shut himself up in the least comfortable wing of his palace, and very +seldom left his apartments; even Don Juan himself must first ask permission +before seeing his father. If this hermit, unbound by vows, came or went in +his palace or in the streets of Ferrara, he walked as if he were in a +dream, wholly engrossed, like a man at strife with a memory, or a wrestler +with some thought. + +The young Don Juan might give princely banquets, the palace might echo with +clamorous mirth, horses pawed the ground in the courtyards, pages quarreled +and flung dice upon the stairs, but Bartolommeo ate his seven ounces of +bread daily and drank water. A fowl was occasionally dressed for him, +simply that the black poodle, his faithful companion, might have the +bones. Bartolommeo never complained of the noise. If huntsmen's horns and +baying dogs disturbed his sleep during his illness, he only said, "Ah! Don +Juan has come back again." Never on earth has there been a father so little +exacting and so indulgent; and, in consequence, young Belvidero, accustomed +to treat his father unceremoniously, had all the faults of a spoiled child. +He treated old Bartolommeo as a wilful courtesan treats an elderly adorer; +buying indemnity for insolence with a smile, selling good-humor, submitting +to be loved. + +Don Juan, beholding scene after scene of his younger years, saw that it +would be a difficult task to find his father's indulgence at fault. Some +new-born remorse stirred the depths of his heart; he felt almost ready to +forgive this father now about to die for having lived so long. He had an +accession of filial piety, like a thief's return in thought to honesty at +the prospect of a million adroitly stolen. + +Before long Don Juan had crossed the lofty, chilly suite of rooms in which +his father lived; the penetrating influences of the damp close air, the +mustiness diffused by old tapestries and presses thickly covered with dust +had passed into him, and now he stood in the old man's antiquated room, in +the repulsive presence of the deathbed, beside a dying fire. A flickering +lamp on a Gothic table sent broad uncertain shafts of light, fainter or +brighter, across the bed, so that the dying man's face seemed to wear a +different look at every moment. The bitter wind whistled through the +crannies of the ill-fitting casements; there was a smothered sound of snow +lashing the windows. The harsh contrast of these sights and sounds with the +scenes which Don Juan had just quitted was so sudden that he could not help +shuddering. He turned cold as he came towards the bed; the lamp flared in a +sudden vehement gust of wind and lighted up his father's face; the features +were wasted and distorted; the skin that cleaved to their bony outlines had +taken wan livid hues, all the more ghastly by force of contrast with the +white pillows on which he lay. The muscles about the toothless mouth had +contracted with pain and drawn apart the lips; the moans that issued +between them with appalling energy found an accompaniment in the howling of +the storm without. + +In spite of every sign of coming dissolution, the most striking thing about +the dying face was its incredible power. It was no ordinary spirit that +wrestled there with Death. The eyes glared with strange fixity of gaze from +the cavernous sockets hollowed by disease. It seemed as if Bartolommeo +sought to kill some enemy sitting at the foot of his bed by the intent gaze +of dying eyes. That steady remorseless look was the more appalling because +the head that lay upon the pillow was passive and motionless as a skull +upon a doctor's table. The outlines of the body, revealed by the coverlet, +were no less rigid and stiff; he lay there as one dead, save for those +eyes. There was something automatic about the moaning sounds that came from +the mouth. Don Juan felt something like shame that he must be brought thus +to his father's bedside, wearing a courtesan's bouquet, redolent of the +fragrance of the banqueting-chamber and the fumes of wine. + +"You were enjoying yourself!" the old man cried as he saw his son. + +Even as he spoke the pure high notes of a woman's voice, sustained by the +sound of the viol on which she accompanied her song, rose above the rattle +of the storm against the casements, and floated up to the chamber of death. +Don Juan stopped his ears against the barbarous answer to his father's +speech. + +"I bear you no grudge, my child," Bartolommeo went on. + +The words were full of kindness, but they hurt Don Juan; he could not +pardon this heart-searching goodness on his father's part. + +"What a remorseful memory for me!" he cried, hypocritically. + +"Poor Juanino," the dying man went on, in a smothered voice, "I have always +been so kind to you, that you could not surely desire my death?" + +"Oh, if it were only possible to keep you here by giving up a part of my +own life!" cried Don Juan. + +("We can always _say_ this sort of thing," the spendthrift thought; "it is +as if I laid the whole world at my mistress' feet.") + +The thought had scarcely crossed his mind when the old poodle barked. Don +Juan shivered; the response was so intelligent that he fancied the dog must +have understood him. + +"I was sure that I could count upon you, my son!" cried the dying man. "I +shall live. So be it; you shall be satisfied. I shall live, but without +depriving you of a single day of your life." + +"He is raving," thought Don Juan. Aloud he added, "Yes, dearest father, +yes; you shall live, of course, as long as I live, for your image will be +for ever in my heart." + +"It is not that kind of life that I mean," said the old noble, summoning +all his strength to sit up in bed; for a thrill of doubt ran through him, +one of those suspicions that come into being under a dying man's pillow. +"Listen, my son," he went on, in a voice grown weak with that last effort, +"I have no more wish to give up life than you to give up wine and +mistresses, horses and hounds, and hawks and gold----" + +"I can well believe it," thought the son; and he knelt down by the bed and +kissed Bartolommeo's cold hands. "But, father, my dear father," he added +aloud, "we must submit to the will of God." + +"I am God!" muttered the dying man. + +"Do not blaspheme!" cried the other, as he saw the menacing expression on +his father's face. "Beware what you say; you have received extreme unction, +and I should be inconsolable if you were to die before my eyes in mortal +sin." + +"Will you listen to me?" cried Bartolommeo, and his mouth twitched. + +Don Juan held his peace; an ugly silence prevailed. Yet above the muffled +sound of the beating of the snow against the windows rose the sounds of the +beautiful voice and the viol in unison, far off and faint as the dawn. The +dying man smiled. + +"Thank you," he said, "for bringing those singing voices and the music, a +banquet, young and lovely women with fair faces and dark tresses, all the +pleasure of life! Bid them wait for me; for I am about to begin life anew." + +"The delirium is at its height," said Don Juan to himself. + +"I have found out a way of coming to life again," the speaker went on. +"There, just look in that table drawer, press the spring hidden by the +griffin, and it will fly open." + +"I have found it, father." + +"Well, then, now take out a little phial of rock crystal." + +"I have it." + +"I have spent twenty years in----" but even as he spoke the old man felt +how very near the end had come, and summoned all his dying strength to say, +"As soon as the breath is out of me, rub me all over with that liquid, and +I shall come to life again." + +"There is very little of it," his son remarked. + +Though Bartolommeo could no longer speak, he could still hear and see. When +those words dropped from Don Juan, his head turned with appalling +quickness, his neck was twisted like the throat of some marble statue which +the sculptor had condemned to remain stretched out for ever, the wide eyes +had come to have a ghastly fixity. + +He was dead, and in death he lost his last and sole illusion. + +He had sought a shelter in his son's heart, and it had proved to be a +sepulchre, a pit deeper than men dig for their dead. The hair on his head +had risen and stiffened with horror, his agonized glance still spoke. He +was a father rising in just anger from his tomb, to demand vengeance at the +throne of God. + +"There! it is all over with the old man!" cried Don Juan. + +He had been so interested in holding the mysterious phial to the lamp, as a +drinker holds up the wine-bottle at the end of a meal, that he had not seen +his father's eyes fade. The cowering poodle looked from his master to the +elixir, just as Don Juan himself glanced again and again from his father +to the flask. The lamplight flickered. There was a deep silence; the viol +was mute. Juan Belvidero thought that he saw his father stir, and trembled. +The changeless gaze of those accusing eyes frightened him; he closed them +hastily, as he would have closed a loose shutter swayed by the wind of an +autumn night. He stood there motionless, lost in a world of thought. + +Suddenly the silence was broken by a shrill sound like the creaking of a +rusty spring. It startled Don Juan; he all but dropped the phial. A sweat, +colder than the blade of a dagger, issued through every pore. It was only a +piece of clockwork, a wooden cock that sprang out and crowed three times, +an ingenious contrivance by which the learned of that epoch were wont to be +awakened at the appointed hour to begin the labors of the day. Through the +windows there came already a flush of dawn. The thing, composed of wood, +and cords, and wheels, and pulleys, was more faithful in its service than +he in his duty to Bartolommeo--he, a man with that peculiar piece of human +mechanism within him that we call a heart. + +Don Juan the sceptic shut the flask again in the secret drawer in the +Gothic table--he meant to run no more risks of losing the mysterious +liquid. + +Even at that solemn moment he heard the murmur of a crowd in the gallery, a +confused sound of voices, of stifled laughter and light footfalls, and the +rustling of silks--the sounds of a band of revelers struggling for gravity. +The door opened, and in came the Prince and Don Juan's friends, the seven +courtesans, and the singers, disheveled and wild like dancers surprised by +the dawn, when the tapers that have burned through the night struggle with +the sunlight. + +They had come to offer the customary condolence to the young heir. + +"Oho! is poor Don Juan really taking this seriously?" said the Prince in +Brambilla's ear. + +"Well, his father was very good," she returned. + +But Don Juan's night-thoughts had left such unmistakable traces on his +features, that the crew was awed into silence. The men stood motionless. +The women, with wine-parched lips and cheeks marbled with kisses, knelt +down and began a prayer. Don Juan could scarce help trembling when he saw +splendor and mirth and laughter and song and youth and beauty and power +bowed in reverence before Death. But in those times, in that adorable Italy +of the sixteenth century, religion and revelry went hand in hand; and +religious excess became a sort of debauch, and a debauch a religious rite! + +The Prince grasped Don Juan's hand affectionately, then when all faces had +simultaneously put on the same grimace--half-gloomy, half-indifferent--the +whole masque disappeared, and left the chamber of death empty. It was like +an allegory of life. + +As they went down the staircase, the Prince spoke to Rivabarella: "Now, who +would have taken Don Juan's impiety for a boast? He loves his father." + +"Did you see that black dog?" asked La Brambilla. + +"He is enormously rich now," sighed Bianca Cavatolino. + +"What is that to me?" cried the proud Veronese (she who had crushed the +comfit-box). + +"What does it matter to you, forsooth?" cried the Duke. "With his money he +is as much a prince as I am." + +At first Don Juan was swayed hither and thither by countless thoughts, and +wavered between two decisions. He took counsel with the gold heaped up by +his father, and returned in the evening to the chamber of death, his whole +soul brimming over with hideous selfishness. He found all his household +busy there. "His lordship" was to lie in state to-morrow; all Ferrara would +flock to behold the wonderful spectacle; and the servants were busy decking +the room and the couch on which the dead man lay. At a sign from Don Juan +all his people stopped, dumfounded and trembling. + +"Leave me alone here," he said, and his voice was changed, "and do not +return until I leave the room." + +When the footsteps of the old servitor, who was the last to go, echoed but +faintly along the paved gallery, Don Juan hastily locked the door, and, +sure that he was quite alone, "Let us try," he said to himself. + +Bartolommeo's body was stretched on a long table. The embalmers had laid a +sheet over it, to hide from all eyes the dreadful spectacle of a corpse so +wasted and shrunken that it seemed like a skeleton, and only the face was +uncovered. This mummy-like figure lay in the middle of the room. The limp +clinging linen lent itself to the outlines it shrouded--so sharp, bony, and +thin. Large violet patches had already begun to spread over the face; the +embalmers' work had not been finished too soon. + +Don Juan, strong as he was in his scepticism, felt a tremor as he opened +the magic crystal flask. When he stood over that face, he was trembling so +violently, that he was actually obliged to wait for a moment. But Don Juan +had acquired an early familiarity with evil; his morals had been corrupted +by a licentious court, a reflection worthy of the Duke of Urbino crossed +his mind, and it was a keen sense of curiosity that goaded him into +boldness. The devil himself might have whispered the words that were +echoing through his brain, _Moisten one of the eyes with the liquid_! He +took up a linen cloth, moistened it sparingly with the precious fluid, and +passed it lightly over the right eyelid of the corpse. The eye unclosed.... + +"Aha!" said Don Juan. He gripped the flask tightly, as we clutch in dreams +the branch from which we hang suspended over a precipice. + +For the eye was full of life. It was a young child's eye set in a death's +head; the light quivered in the depths of its youthful liquid brightness. +Shaded by the long dark lashes, it sparkled like the strange lights that +travelers see in lonely places in winter nights. The eye seemed as if it +would fain dart fire at Don Juan; he saw it thinking, upbraiding, +condemning, uttering accusations, threatening doom; it cried aloud, and +gnashed upon him. All anguish that shakes human souls was gathered there; +supplications the most tender, the wrath of kings, the love in a girl's +heart pleading with the headsman; then, and after all these, the deeply +searching glance a man turns on his fellows as he mounts the last step of +the scaffold. Life so dilated in this fragment of life that Don Juan shrank +back; he walked up and down the room, he dared not meet that gaze, but he +saw nothing else. The ceiling and the hangings, the whole room was sown +with living points of fire and intelligence. Everywhere those gleaming eyes +haunted him. + +"He might very likely have lived another hundred years!" he cried +involuntarily. Some diabolical influence had drawn him to his father, and +again he gazed at that luminous spark. The eyelid closed and opened again +abruptly; it was like a woman's sign of assent. It was an intelligent +movement. If a voice had cried "Yes!" Don Juan could not have been more +startled. + +"What is to be done?" he thought. + +He nerved himself to try to close the white eyelid. In vain. + +"Kill it? That would perhaps be parricide," he debated with himself. + +"Yes," the eye said, with a strange sardonic quiver of the lid. + +"Aha!" said Don Juan to himself, "here is witchcraft at work!" And he went +closer to crush the thing. A great tear trickled over the hollow cheeks, +and fell on Don Juan's hand. + +"It is scalding!" he cried. He sat down. The struggle exhausted him; it was +as if, like Jacob of old, he was wrestling with an angel. + +At last he rose. "So long as there is no blood----" he muttered. + +Then, summoning all the courage needed for a coward's crime, he +extinguished the eye, pressing it with the linen cloth, turning his head +away. A terrible groan startled him. It was the poor poodle, who died with +a long-drawn howl. + +"Could the brute have been in the secret?" thought Don Juan, looking down +at the faithful creature. + +Don Juan Belvidero was looked upon as a dutiful son. He reared a white +marble monument on his father's tomb, and employed the greatest sculptors +of the time upon it. He did not recover perfect ease of mind till the day +when his father knelt in marble before Religion, and the heavy weight of +the stone had sealed the mouth of the grave in which he had laid the one +feeling of remorse that sometimes flitted through his soul in moments of +physical weariness. + +He had drawn up a list of the wealth heaped up by the old merchant in the +East, and he became a miser: had he not to provide for a second lifetime? +His views of life were the more profound and penetrating; he grasped its +significance, as a whole, the better, because he saw it across a grave. All +men, all things, he analyzed once and for all; he summed up the Past, +represented by its records; the Present in the law, its crystallized form; +the Future, revealed by religion. He took spirit and matter, and flung them +into his crucible, and found--Nothing. Thenceforward he became DON JUAN. + +At the outset of his life, in the prime of youth and the beauty of youth, +he knew the illusions of life for what they were; he despised the world, +and made the utmost of the world. His felicity could not have been of the +bourgeois kind, rejoicing in periodically recurrent _bouilli_, in the +comforts of a warming-pan, a lamp of a night, and a new pair of slippers +once a quarter. Nay, rather he seized upon existence as a monkey snatches a +nut, and after no long toying with it, proceeds deftly to strip off the +mere husks to reach the savory kernel within. + +Poetry and the sublime transports of passion scarcely reached ankle-depth +with him now. He in nowise fell into the error of strong natures who +flatter themselves now and again that little souls will believe in a great +soul, and are willing to barter their own lofty thoughts of the future for +the small change of our life-annuity ideas. He, even as they, had he +chosen, might well have walked with his feet on the earth and his head in +the skies; but he liked better to sit on earth, to wither the soft, fresh, +fragrant lips of a woman with kisses, for, like Death, he devoured +everything without scruple as he passed; he would have full fruition; he +was an Oriental lover, seeking prolonged pleasures easily obtained. He +sought nothing but a woman in women, and cultivated cynicism, until it +became with him a habit of mind. When his mistress, from the couch on which +she lay, soared and was lost in regions of ecstatic bliss, Don Juan +followed suit, earnest, expansive, serious as any German student. But he +said I, while she, in the transports of intoxication, said We. He +understood to admiration the art of abandoning himself to the influence of +a woman; he was always clever enough to make her believe that he trembled +like some boy fresh from college before his first partner at a dance, when +he asks her, "Do you like dancing?" But, no less, he could be terrible at +need, could unsheathe a formidable sword and make short work of +Commandants. Banter lurked beneath his simplicity, mocking laughter behind +his tears--for he had tears at need, like any woman nowadays who says to +her husband, "Give me a carriage, or I shall go into a consumption." + +For the merchant the world is a bale of goods or a mass of circulating +bills; for most young men it is a woman, and for a woman here and there it +is a man; for a certain order of mind it is a salon, a coterie, a quarter +of the town, or some single city; but Don Juan found his world in himself. + +This model of grace and dignity, this captivating wit, moored his bark by +every shore; but wherever he was led he was never carried away, and was +only steered in a course of his own choosing. The more he saw, the more he +doubted. He watched men narrowly, and saw how, beneath the surface, courage +was often rashness; and prudence, cowardice; generosity, a clever piece of +calculation; justice, a wrong; delicacy, pusillanimity; honesty, a _modus +vivendi_; and by some strange dispensation of fate, he must see that those +who at heart were really honest, scrupulous, just, generous, prudent, or +brave were held cheaply by their fellow-men. + +"What a cold-blooded jest!" said he to himself. "It was not devised by a +God." + +From that time forth he renounced a better world, and never uncovered +himself when a Name was pronounced, and for him the carven saints in the +churches became works of art. He understood the mechanism of society too +well to clash wantonly with its prejudices; for, after all, he was not as +powerful as the executioner, but he evaded social laws with the wit and +grace so well rendered in the scene with M. Dimanche. He was, in fact, +Moliere's Don Juan, Goethe's Faust, Byron's Manfred, Mathurin's +Melmoth--great allegorical figures drawn by the greatest men of genius in +Europe, to which Mozart's harmonies, perhaps, do no more justice that +Rossini's lyre. Terrible allegorical figures that shall endure as long as +the principle of evil existing in the heart of man shall produce a few +copies from century to century. Sometimes the type becomes half-human when +incarnate as a Mirabeau, sometimes it is an inarticulate force in a +Bonaparte, sometimes it overwhelms the universe with irony as a Rabelais; +or, yet again, it appears when a Marechal de Richelieu elects to laugh at +human beings instead of scoffing at things, or when one of the most famous +of our ambassadors goes a step further and scoffs at both men and things. +But the profound genius of Juan Belvidero anticipated and resumed all +these. All things were a jest to him. His was the life of a mocking spirit. +All men, all institutions, all realities, all ideas were within its scope. +As for eternity, after half an hour of familiar conversation with Pope +Julius II. he had said, laughing: + +"If it is absolutely necessary to make a choice, I would rather believe in +God than in the Devil; power combined with goodness always offers more +resources than the spirit of Evil can boast." + +"Yes; still God requires repentance in this present world----" + +"So you always think of your indulgences," returned Don Juan Belvidero. +"Well, well, I have another life in reserve in which to repent of the sins +of my previous existence." + +"Oh, if you regard old age in that light," cried the Pope, "you are in +danger of canonization----" + +"After your elevation to the Papacy nothing is incredible." And they went +to watch the workmen who were building the huge basilica dedicated to Saint +Peter. + +"Saint Peter, as the man of genius who laid the foundation of our double +power," the Pope said to Don Juan, "deserves this monument. Sometimes, +though, at night, I think that a deluge will wipe all this out as with a +sponge, and it will be all to begin over again." + +Don Juan and the Pope began to laugh; they understood each other. A fool +would have gone on the morrow to amuse himself with Julius II. in Raphael's +studio or at the delicious Villa Madama; not so Belvidero. He went to see +the Pope as pontiff, to be convinced of any doubts that he (Don Juan) +entertained. Over his cups the Rovere would have been capable of denying +his own infallibility and of commenting on the Apocalypse. + + * * * * * + +Nevertheless, this legend has not been undertaken to furnish materials for +future biographies of Don Juan; it is intended to prove to honest folk that +Belvidero did not die in a duel with stone, as some lithographers would +have us believe. + +When Don Juan Belvidero reached the age of sixty he settled in Spain, and +there in his old age he married a young and charming Andalusian wife. But +of set purpose he was neither a good husband nor a good father. He had +observed that we are never so tenderly loved as by women to whom we +scarcely give a thought. Dona Elvira had been devoutly brought up by an old +aunt in a castle a few leagues from San Lucar in a remote part of +Andalusia. She was a model of devotion and grace. Don Juan foresaw that +this would be a woman who would struggle long against a passion before +yielding, and therefore hoped to keep her virtuous until his death. It was +a jest undertaken in earnest, a game of chess which he meant to reserve +till his old age. Don Juan had learned wisdom from the mistakes made by his +father Bartolommeo; he determined that the least details of his life in +old age should be subordinated to one object--the success of the drama +which was to be played out upon his deathbed. + +For the same reason the largest part of his wealth was buried in the +cellars of his palace at Ferrara, whither he seldom went. As for the rest +of his fortune, it was invested in a life annuity, with a view to give his +wife and children an interest in keeping him alive; but this Machiavellian +piece of foresight was scarcely necessary. His son, young Felipe Belvidero, +grew up as a Spaniard as religiously conscientious as his father was +irreligious, in virtue, perhaps, of the old rule, "A miser has a +spendthrift son." The Abbot of San-Lucar was chosen by Don Juan to be the +director of the consciences of the Duchess of Belvidero and her son Felipe. +The ecclesiastic was a holy man, well shaped, and admirably well +proportioned. He had fine dark eyes, a head like that of Tiberius, worn +with fasting, bleached by an ascetic life, and, like all dwellers in the +wilderness, was daily tempted. The noble lord had hopes, it may he, of +despatching yet another monk before his term of life was out. + +But whether because the Abbot was every whit as clever as Don Juan himself, +or Dona Elvira possessed more discretion or more virtue than Spanish wives +are usually credited with, Don Juan was compelled to spend his declining +years beneath his own roof, with no more scandal under it than if he had +been an ancient country parson. Occasionally he would take wife and son to +task for negligence in the duties of religion, peremptorily insisting that +they should carry out to the letter the obligations imposed upon the flock +by the Court of Rome. Indeed, he was never so well pleased as when he had +set the courtly Abbot discussing some case of conscience with Dona Elvira +and Felipe. + +At length, however, despite the prodigious care that the great magnifico, +Don Juan Belvidero, took of himself, the days of decrepitude came upon him, +and with those days the constant importunity of physical feebleness, an +importunity all the more distressing by contrast with the wealth of +memories of his impetuous youth and the sensual pleasures of middle age. +The unbeliever who in the height of his cynical humor had been wont to +persuade others to believe in laws and principles at which he scoffed, must +repose nightly upon a _perhaps_. The great Duke, the pattern of good +breeding, the champion of many a carouse, the proud ornament of Courts, the +man of genius, the graceful winner of hearts that he had wrung as +carelessly as a peasant twists an osier withe, was now the victim of a +cough, of a ruthless sciatica, of an unmannerly gout. His teeth gradually +deserted him, as at the end of an evening the fairest and best-dressed +women take their leave one by one till the room is left empty and desolate. +The active hands became palsy-stricken, the shapely legs tottered as he +walked. At last, one night, a stroke of apoplexy caught him by the throat +in its icy clutch. After that fatal day he grew morose and stern. + +He would reproach his wife and son with their devotion, casting it in their +teeth that the affecting and thoughtful care that they lavished so tenderly +upon him was bestowed because they knew that his money was invested in a +life annuity. Then Elvira and Felipe would shed bitter tears and redouble +their caresses, and the wicked old man's insinuating voice would take an +affectionate tone--"Ah, you will forgive me, will you not, dear friends, +dear wife? I am rather a nuisance. Alas, Lord in heaven, how canst Thou use +me as the instrument by which Thou provest these two angelic creatures? I +who should be the joy of their lives am become their scourge...." + +In this manner he kept them tethered to his pillow, blotting out the memory +of whole months of fretfulness and unkindness in one short hour when he +chose to display for them the ever-new treasures of his pinchbeck +tenderness and charm of manner--a system of paternity that yielded him an +infinitely better return than his own father's indulgence had formerly +gained. At length his bodily infirmities reached a point when the task of +laying him in bed became as difficult as the navigation of a felucca in the +perils of an intricate channel. Then came the day of his death; and this +brilliant sceptic, whose mental faculties alone had survived the most +dreadful of all destructions, found himself between his two special +antipathies--the doctor and the confessor. But he was jovial with them. Did +he not see a light gleaming in the future beyond the veil? The pall that is +like lead for other men was thin and translucent for him; the light-footed, +irresistible delights of youth danced beyond it like shadows. + + * * * * * + +It was on a beautiful summer evening that Don Juan felt the near approach +of death. The sky of Spain was serene and cloudless; the air was full of +the scent of orange-blossom; the stars shed clear, pure gleams of light; +nature without seemed to give the dying man assurance of resurrection; a +dutiful and obedient son sat there watching him with loving and respectful +eyes. Towards eleven o'clock he desired to be left alone with this +single-hearted being. + +"Felipe," said the father, in tones so soft and affectionate that the young +man trembled, and tears of gladness came to his eyes; never had that stern +father spoken his name in such a tone. "Listen, my son," the dying man went +on. "I am a great sinner. All my life long, however, I have thought of my +death. I was once the friend of the great Pope Julius II.; and that +illustrious Pontiff, fearing lest the excessive excitability of my senses +should entangle me in mortal sin between the moment of my death and the +time of my anointing with the holy oil, gave me a flask that contains a +little of the holy water that once issued from the rock in the wilderness. +I have kept the secret of this squandering of a treasure belonging to Holy +Church, but I am permitted to reveal the mystery _in articulo mortis_ to my +son. You will find the flask in a drawer in that Gothic table that always +stands by the head of the bed.... The precious little crystal flask may be +of use yet again for you, dearest Felipe. Will you swear to me, by your +salvation, to carry out my instructions faithfully?" + +Felipe looked at his father, and Don Juan was too deeply learned in the +lore of the human countenance not to die in peace with that look as his +warrant, as his own father had died in despair at meeting the expression in +his son's eyes. + +"You deserved to have a better father," Don Juan went on. "I dare to +confess, my child, that while the reverend Abbot of San-Lucar was +administering the Viaticum I was thinking of the incompatibility of the +co-existence of two powers so infinite as God and the Devil----" + +"Oh, father!" + +"And I said to myself, when Satan makes his peace he ought surely to +stipulate for the pardon of his followers, or he will be the veriest +scoundrel. The thought haunted me; so I shall go to hell, my son, unless +you carry out my wishes." + +"Oh, quick; tell me quickly, father." + +"As soon as I have closed my eyes," Don Juan went on, "and that may be in a +few minutes, you must take my body before it grows cold and lay it on a +table in this room. Then put out the lamp; the light of the stars should be +sufficient. Take off my clothes, reciting _Aves_ and _Paters_ the while, +raising your soul to God in prayer, and carefully anoint my lips and eyes +with this holy water; begin with the face, and proceed successively to my +limbs and the rest of my body; my dear son, the power of God is so great +that you must be astonished at nothing." + +Don Juan felt death so near, that he added in a terrible voice, "Be careful +not to drop the flask." + +Then he breathed his last gently in the arms of his son, and his son's +tears fell fast over his sardonic, haggard features. + +It was almost midnight when Don Felipe Belvidero laid his father's body +upon the table. He kissed the sinister brow and the gray hair; then he put +out the lamp. + +By the soft moonlight that lit strange gleams across the country without, +Felipe could dimly see his father's body, a vague white thing among the +shadows. The dutiful son moistened a linen cloth with the liquid, and, +absorbed in prayer, he anointed the revered face. A deep silence reigned. +Felipe heard faint, indescribable rustlings; it was the breeze in the +tree-tops, he thought. But when he had moistened the right arm, he felt +himself caught by the throat, a young strong hand held him in a tight +grip--it was his father's hand! He shrieked aloud; the flask dropped from +his hand and broke in pieces. The liquid evaporated; the whole household +hurried into the room, holding torches aloft. That shriek had startled +them, and filled them with as much terror as if the Trumpet of the Angel +sounding on the Last Day had rung through earth and sky. The room was full +of people, and a horror-stricken crowd beheld the fainting Felipe upheld by +the strong arm of his father, who clutched him by the throat. They saw +another thing, an unearthly spectacle--Don Juan's face grown young and +beautiful as Antinoues, with its dark hair and brilliant eyes and red lips, +a head that made horrible efforts, but could not move the dead, wasted +body. + +An old servitor cried, "A miracle! a miracle!" and all the Spaniards +echoed, "A miracle! a miracle!" + +Dona Elvira, too pious to attribute this to magic, sent for the Abbot of +San-Lucar; and the Prior beholding the miracle with his own eyes, being a +clever man, and withal an Abbot desirous of augmenting his revenues, +determined to turn the occasion to profit. He immediately gave out that Don +Juan would certainly be canonized; he appointed a day for the celebration +of the apotheosis in his convent, which thenceforward, he said, should be +called the convent of San Juan of Lucar. At these words a sufficiently +facetious grimace passed over the features of the late Duke. + +The taste of the Spanish people for ecclesiastical solemnities is so well +known, that it should not be difficult to imagine the religious pantomime +by which the Convent of San-Lucar celebrated the translation of the +_blessed Don Juan Belvidero_ to the abbey-church. The tale of the partial +resurrection had spread so quickly from village to village, that a day or +two after the death of the illustrious nobleman the report had reached +every place within fifty miles of San-Lucar, and it was as good as a play +to see the roads covered already with crowds flocking in on all sides, +their curiosity whetted still further by the prospect of a _Te Deum_ sung +by torchlight. The old abbey church of San-Lucar, a marvelous building +erected by the Moors, a mosque of Allah, which for three centuries had +heard the name of Christ, could not hold the throng that poured in to see +the ceremony. Hidalgos in their velvet mantles, with their good swords at +their sides, swarmed like ants, and were so tightly packed in among the +pillars that they had not room to bend the knees, which never bent save to +God. Charming peasant girls, in the basquina that defines the luxuriant +outlines of their figures, lent an arm to white-haired old men. Young men, +with eyes of fire, walked beside aged crones in holiday array. Then came +couples tremulous with joy, young lovers led thither by curiosity, +newly-wedded folk; children timidly clasping each other by the hand. This +throng, so rich in coloring, in vivid contrasts, laden with flowers, +enameled like a meadow, sent up a soft murmur through the quiet night. Then +the great doors of the church opened. + +Late comers who remained without saw afar, through the three great open +doorways, a scene of which the theatrical illusions of modern opera can +give but a faint idea. The vast church was lighted up by thousands of +candles, offered by saints and sinners alike eager to win the favor of this +new candidate for canonization, and these self-commending illuminations +turned the great building into an enchanted fairyland. The black archways, +the shafts and capitals, the recessed chapels with gold and silver gleaming +in their depths, the galleries, the Arab traceries, all the most delicate +outlines of that delicate sculpture, burned in the excess of light like the +fantastic figures in the red heart of a brazier. At the further end of the +church, above that blazing sea, rose the high altar like a splendid dawn. +All the glories of the golden lamps and silver candlesticks, of banners and +tassels, of the shrines of the saints and votive offerings, paled before +the gorgeous brightness of the reliquary in which Don Juan lay. The +blasphemer's body sparkled with gems, and flowers, and crystal, with +diamonds and gold, and plumes white as the wings of seraphim; they had set +it up on the altar, where the pictures of Christ had stood. All about him +blazed a host of tall candles; the air quivered in the radiant light. The +worthy Abbot of San-Lucar, in pontifical robes, with his mitre set with +precious stones, his rochet and golden crosier, sat enthroned in imperial +state among his clergy in the choir. Rows of impassive aged faces, +silver-haired old men clad in fine linen albs, were grouped about him, as +the saints who confessed Christ on earth are set by painters, each in his +place, about the throne of God in heaven. The precentor and the dignitaries +of the chapter, adorned with the gorgeous insignia of ecclesiastical +vanity, came and went through the clouds of incense, like stars upon their +courses in the firmament. + +When the hour of triumph arrived, the bells awoke the echoes far and wide, +and the whole vast crowd raised to God the first cry of praise that begins +the _Te Deum_. A sublime cry! High, pure notes, the voices of women in +ecstasy, mingled in it with the sterner and deeper voices of men; thousands +of voices sent up a volume of sound so mighty, that the straining, groaning +organ-pipes could not dominate that harmony. But the shrill sound of +children's singing among the choristers, the reverberation of deep bass +notes, awakened gracious associations, visions of childhood, and of man in +his strength, and rose above that entrancing harmony of human voices +blended in one sentiment of love. + +_Te Deum laudamus!_ + +The chant went up from the black masses of men and women kneeling in the +cathedral, like a sudden breaking out of light in darkness, and the silence +was shattered as by a peal of thunder. The voices floated up with the +clouds of incense that had begun to cast thin bluish veils over the +fanciful marvels of the architecture, and the aisles were filled with +splendor and perfume and light and melody. Even at the moment when that +music of love and thanksgiving soared up to the altar, Don Juan, too well +bred not to express his acknowledgments, too witty not to understand how to +take a jest, bridled up in his reliquary, and responded with an appalling +burst of laughter. Then the Devil having put him in mind of the risk he +was running of being taken for an ordinary man, a saint, a Boniface, a +Pantaleone, he interrupted the melody of love by a yell, the thousand +voices of hell joined in it. Earth blessed, Heaven banned. The church was +shaken to its ancient foundations. + +_Te Deum laudamus!_ cried the many voices. + +"Go to the devil, brute beasts that you are! _Dios!_ _Dios!_ _Garajos +demonios!_ Idiots! What fools you are with your dotard God!" and a torrent +of imprecations poured forth like a stream of red-hot lava from the mouth +of Vesuvius. + +"_Deus Sabaoth!... Sabaoth!_" cried the believers. + +"You are insulting the majesty of Hell," shouted Don Juan, gnashing his +teeth. In another moment the living arm struggled out of the reliquary, and +was brandished over the assembly in mockery and despair. + +"The saint is blessing us," cried the old women, children, lovers, and the +credulous among the crowd. + +And note how often we are deceived in the homage we pay; the great man +scoffs at those who praise him, and pays compliments now and again to those +whom he laughs at in the depths of his heart. + +Just as the Abbot, prostrate before the altar, was chanting "_Sancte +Johannes, ora pro nobis!_" he heard a voice exclaim sufficiently +distinctly: "_O coglione!_" + +"What can be going on up there?" cried the Sub-prior, as he saw the +reliquary move. + +"The saint is playing the devil," replied the Abbot. + +Even as he spoke the living head tore itself away from the lifeless body, +and dropped upon the sallow cranium of the officiating priest. + +"Remember Dona Elvira!" cried the thing, with its teeth set fast in the +Abbot's head. + +The Abbot's horror-stricken shriek disturbed the ceremony; all the +ecclesiastics hurried up and crowded about their chief. + +"Idiot, tell us now if there is a God!" the voice cried, as the Abbot, +bitten through the brain, drew his last breath. + + PARIS, _October 1830_. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Works of Honore de Balzac, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF HONORE DE BALZAC *** + +***** This file should be named 37285.txt or 37285.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/8/37285/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Josephine Paolucci +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +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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