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In fact, he has written, since early +youth, romances, drama, history, novels, tales, chronicles, dramatic +criticism, literary criticism, military correspondence, virtually +everything! He was elected to the French Academy in 1888. + +Claretie was educated at the Lycee Bonaparte, and was destined for a +commercial career. He entered a business-house as bookkeeper, but was at +the same time contributing already to newspapers and reviews. In 1862 we +find him writing for the Diogene; under the pseudonym, "Olivier de +Jalin," he sends articles to La France; his nom-deplume in L'Illustration +is "Perdican"; he also contributes to the Figaro, 'L'Independence Belge, +Opinion Nationale' (1867-1872); he signs articles in the 'Rappel; as +"Candide"; in short, his fecundity in this field of literature is very +great. He is today a most popular journalist and writes for the 'Presse, +Petit Journal, Temps', and others. He has not succeeded as a politician. +Under the second Empire he was often in collision with the Government; in +1857 he was sentenced to pay a fine of 1,000 francs, which was a splendid +investment; more than once lectures to be given by him were prohibited +(1865-1868); in 1871 he was an unsuccessful candidate for L'Assemblee +Nationale, both for La Haute Vienne and La Seine. Since that time he has +not taken any active part in politics. Perhaps we should also mention +that as a friend of Victor Noir he was called as a witness in the process +against Peter Bonaparte; and that as administrator of the Comedie +Francaise he directed, in 1899, an open letter to the "President and +Members of the Court Martial trying Captain Dreyfus" at Rennes, +advocating the latter's acquittal. So much about Claretie as a +politician! + +The number of volumes and essays written by Jules Claretie surpasses +imagination, and it is, therefore, almost impossible to give a complete +list. As a historian he has selected mostly revolutionary subjects. The +titles of some of his prominent works in this field are 'Les Derniers +Montagnards (1867); Histoire de la Revolution de 1870-71 (second edition, +1875, 5 vols.); La France Envahie (1871); Le Champ de Bataille de Sedan +(1871); Paris assiege and Les Prussiens chez eux (1872); Cinq Ans apres, +L'Alsace et la Lorraine depuis l'Annexion (1876); La Guerre Nationale +1870-1871', etc., most of them in the hostile, anti-German vein, natural +to a "Chauvinist"; 'Ruines et Fantomes (1873). Les Femmes de la +Revolution (1898)' contains a great number of portraits, studies, and +criticisms, partly belonging to political, partly to literary, history. +To the same category belong: Moliere, sa Vie et ses OEuvres (1873); +Peintres et Sculpteurs Contemporains, and T. B. Carpeaux (1875); L'Art et +les Artistes Contemporains (1876)', and others. Quite different from the +above, and in another phase of thought, are: 'Voyages d'un Parisien +(1865); Journees de Voyage en Espagne et France (1870); Journees de +Vacances (1887)'; and others. + +It is, however, as a novelist that the fame of Claretie will endure. He +has followed the footsteps of George Sand and of Balzac. He belongs to +the school of "Impressionists," and, although he has a liking for +exceptional situations, wherefrom humanity does not always issue without +serious blotches, he yet is free from pessimism. He has no nervous +disorder, no "brain fag," he is no pagan, not even a nonbeliever, and has +happily preserved his wholesomeness of thought; he is averse to exotic +ideas, extravagant depiction, and inflammatory language. His novels and +tales contain the essential qualities which attract and retain the +reader. Some of his works in chronological order, omitting two or three +novels, written when only twenty or twenty-one years old, are: +'Pierrille, Histoire de Village (1863); Mademoiselle Cachemire (1867); +Un Assassin, also known under the title Robert Burat (1867); Madeleine +Bertin, replete with moderated sentiment, tender passion, and exquisite +scenes of social life (1868); Les Muscadins (1874, 2 vols.); Le Train No. +17 (1877); La Maison Vide (1878); Le Troisieme dessous (1879); La +Maitresse (1880); Monsieur le Ministre (1882); Moeurs du Jour (1883); Le +Prince Zilah (1884), crowned by the Academy four years before he was +elected; Candidat!(1887); Puyjoli (1890); L'Americaine (1892); La +Frontiere (1894); Mariage Manque (1894); Divette (1896); L'Accusateur +(1897), and others. + +It is, perhaps, interesting to know that after the flight of the Imperial +family from the Tuileries, Jules Claretie was appointed to put into order +the various papers, documents, and letters left behind in great chaos, +and to publish them, if advisable. + +Very numerous and brilliant have also been the incursions of Jules +Claretie into the theatrical domain, though he is a better novelist than +playwright. He was appointed director of the Comedie Francaise in 1885. +His best known dramas and comedies are: 'La Famille de Gueux, in +collaboration with Della Gattina (Ambigu, 1869); Raymond Lindey (Menus +Plaisirs, 1869, forbidden for some time by French censorship); Les +Muscadins (Theatre Historique, 1874); Un Pyre (with Adrien Decourcelle, +Gymnase, 1874); Le Regiment de Champagne (Theatre Historique, 1877); +Monsieur le Ministre, together with Dumas fils and Busnach (Gymnase, +1883); and Prince Zilah (Gymnase, 1885). + +Some of them, as will be noticed, are adapted to the stage from his +novels. In Le Regiment de Champagne, at least, he has written a little +melodramatically. But thanks to the battles, fumes of powder, muskets, +and cannons upon the stage the descendants of Jean Chauvin accept it with +frenetic applause. In most of the plays, however, he exhibits a rather +nervous talent, rich imagination, and uses very scintillating and +picturesque language, if he is inclined to do so--and he is very often +inclined. He received the "Prix Vitet" in 1879 from the Academy for Le +Drapeau. Despite our unlimited admiration for Claretie the journalist, +Claretie the historian, Claretie the dramatist, and Claretie the art- +critic, we think his novels conserve a precious and inexhaustible mine +for the Faguets and Lansons of the twentieth century, who, while +frequently utilizing him for the exemplification of the art of fiction, +will salute him as "Le Roi de la Romance." + + COMPTE D'HAUSSONVILLE + de L'Academie Francaise. + + + +PRINCE ZILAH + +BOOK 1. + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BETROTHAL FETE + +"Excuse me, Monsieur, but pray tell me what vessel that is over there." + +The question was addressed to a small, dark man, who, leaning upon the +parapet of the Quai des Tuileries, was rapidly writing in a note-book +with a large combination pencil, containing a knife, a pen, spare leads, +and a paper-cutter--all the paraphernalia of a reporter accustomed to the +expeditions of itinerant journalism. + +When he had filled, in his running hand, a leaf of the book, the little +man tore it hastily off, and extended it to a boy in dark blue livery +with silver buttons, bearing the initial of the newspaper, L'Actualite; +and then, still continuing to write, he replied: + +"Prince Andras Zilah is giving a fete on board one of the boats belonging +to the Compagnie de la Seine." + +"A fete? Why?" + +"To celebrate his approaching marriage, Monsieur." + +"Prince Andras! Ah!" said the first speaker, as if he knew the name +well; "Prince Andras is to be married, is he? And who does Prince Andras +Zil--" + +"Zilah! He is a Hungarian, Monsieur." + +The reporter appeared to be in a hurry, and, handing another leaf to the +boy, he said: + +"Wait here a moment. I am going on board, and I will send you the rest +of the list of guests by a sailor. They can prepare the article from +what you have, and set it up in advance, and I will come myself to the +office this evening and make the necessary additions." + +"Very well, Monsieur Jacquemin." + +"And don't lose any of the leaves." + +"Oh, Monsieur Jacquemin! I never lose anything!" + +"They will have some difficulty, perhaps, in reading the names--they are +all queer; but I shall correct the proof myself." + +"Then, Monsieur," asked the lounger again, eager to obtain all the +information he could, "those people who are going on board are almost all +foreigners?" + +"Yes, Monsieur; yes, Monsieur; yes, Monsieur!" responded jacquemin, +visibly annoyed. "There are many foreigners in the city, very many; and +I prefer them, myself, to the provincials of Paris." + +The other did not seem to understand; but he smiled, thanked the +reporter, and strolled away from the parapet, telling all the people he +met: "It is a fete! Prince Andras, a Hungarian, is about to be married. +Prince Andras Zilah! A fete on board a steamer! What a droll idea!" + +Others, equally curious, leaned over the Quai des Tuileries and watched +the steamer, whose tricolor flag at the stern, and red streamers at the +mastheads, floated with gay flutterings in the fresh morning breeze. The +boat was ready to start, its decks were waxed, its benches covered with +brilliant stuffs, and great masses of azaleas and roses gave it the +appearance of a garden or conservatory. There was something highly +attractive to the loungers on the quay in the gayly decorated steamer, +sending forth long puffs of white smoke along the bank. A band of dark- +complexioned musicians, clad in red trousers, black waistcoats heavily +embroidered in sombre colors, and round fur caps, played odd airs upon +the deck; while bevies of laughing women, almost all pretty in their +light summer gowns, alighted from coupes and barouches, descended the +flight of steps leading to the river, and crossed the plank to the boat, +with little coquettish graces and studied raising of the skirts, allowing +ravishing glimpses of pretty feet and ankles. The defile of merry, witty +Parisiennes, with their attendant cavaliers, while the orchestra played +the passionate notes of the Hungarian czardas, resembled some vision of a +painter, some embarkation for the dreamed-of Cythera, realized by the +fancy of an artist, a poet, or a great lord, here in nineteenth century +Paris, close to the bridge, across which streamed, like a living +antithesis, the realism of crowded cabs, full omnibuses, and hurrying +foot-passengers. + +Prince Andras Zilah had invited his friends, this July morning, to a +breakfast in the open air, before the moving panorama of the banks of the +Seine. + +Very well known in Parisian society, which he had sought eagerly with an +evident desire to be diverted, like a man who wishes to forget, the +former defender of Hungarian independence, the son of old Prince Zilah +Sandor, who was the last, in 1849, to hold erect the tattered standard of +his country, had been prodigal of his invitations, summoning to his side +his few intimate friends, the sharers of his solitude and his privacy, +and also the greater part of those chance fugitive acquaintances which +the life of Paris inevitably gives, and which are blown away as lightly +as they appeared, in a breath of air or a whirlwind. + +Count Yanski Varhely, the oldest, strongest, and most devoted friend of +all those who surrounded the Prince, knew very well why this fanciful +idea had come to Andras. At forty-four, the Prince was bidding farewell +to his bachelor life: it was no folly, and Yanski saw with delight that +the ancient race of the Zilahs, from time immemorial servants of +patriotism and the right, was not to be extinct with Prince Andras. +Hungary, whose future seemed brightening; needed the Zilahs in the future +as she had needed them in the past. + +"I have only one objection to make to this marriage," said Varhely; "it +should have taken place sooner." But a man can not command his heart to +love at a given hour. When very young, Andras Zilah had cared for +scarcely anything but his country; and, far from her, in the bitterness +of exile, he had returned to the passion of his youth, living in Paris +only upon memories of his Hungary. He had allowed year after year to +roll by, without thinking of establishing a home of his own by marriage. +A little late, but with heart still warm, his spirit young and ardent, +and his body strengthened rather than worn out by life, Prince Andras +gave to a woman's keeping his whole being, his soul with his name, the +one as great as the other. He was about to marry a girl of his own +choice, whom he loved romantically; and he wished to give a surrounding +of poetic gayety to this farewell to the past, this greeting to the +future. The men of his race, in days gone by, had always displayed a +gorgeous, almost Oriental originality: the generous eccentricities of one +of Prince Andras's ancestors, the old Magyar Zilah, were often cited; he +it was who made this answer to his stewards, when, figures in hand, they +proved to him, that, if he would farm out to some English or German +company the cultivation of his wheat, corn, and oats, he would increase +his revenue by about six hundred thousand francs a year: + +"But shall I make these six hundred thousand francs from the nourishment +of our laborers, farmers, sowers, and gleaners? No, certainly not; I +would no more take that money from the poor fellows than I would take the +scattered grains from the birds of the air." + +It was also this grandfather of Andras, Prince Zilah Ferency, who, when +he had lost at cards the wages of two hundred masons for an entire year, +employed these men in constructing chateaux, which he burned down at the +end of the year to give himself the enjoyment of fireworks upon +picturesque ruins. + +The fortune of the Zilahs was then on a par with the almost fabulous, +incalculable wealth of the Esterhazys and Batthyanyis. Prince Paul +Esterhazy alone possessed three hundred and fifty square leagues of +territory in Hungary. The Zichys, the Karolyis and the Szchenyis, +poorer, had but two hundred at this time, when only six hundred families +were proprietors of six thousand acres of Hungarian soil, the nobles of +Great Britain possessing not more than five thousand in England. The +Prince of Lichtenstein entertained for a week the Emperor of Austria, his +staff and his army. Old Ferency Zilah would have done as much if he had +not always cherished a profound, glowing, militant hatred of Austria: +never had the family of the magnate submitted to Germany, become the +master, any more than it had bent the knee in former times to the +conquering Turk. + +From his ancestors Prince Andras inherited, therefore, superb liberality, +with a fortune greatly diminished by all sorts of losses and misfortunes +--half of it confiscated by Austria in 1849, and enormous sums expended +for the national cause, Hungarian emigrants and proscribed compatriots. +Zilah nevertheless remained very rich, and was an imposing figure in +Paris, where, some years before, after long journeyings, he had taken up +his abode. + +The little fete given for his friends on board the Parisian steamer was a +trifling matter to the descendant of the magnificent Magyars; but still +there was a certain charm about the affair, and it was a pleasure for the +Prince to see upon the garden-like deck the amusing, frivolous, elegant +society, which was the one he mingled with, but which he towered above +from the height of his great intelligence, his conscience, and his +convictions. It was a mixed and bizarre society, of different +nationalities; an assemblage of exotic personages, such as are met with +only in Paris in certain peculiar places where aristocracy touches +Bohemianism, and nobles mingle with quasi-adventurers; a kaleidoscopic +society, grafting its vices upon Parisian follies, coming to inhale the +aroma and absorb the poison of Paris, adding thereto strange +intoxications, and forming, in the immense agglomeration of the old +French city, a sort of peculiar syndicate, an odd colony, which belongs +to Paris, but which, however, has nothing of Paris about it except its +eccentricities, which drive post-haste through life, fill the little +journals with its great follies, is found and found again wherever Paris +overflows--at Dieppe, Trouville, Vichy, Cauteret, upon the sands of +Etretat, under the orange-trees of Nice, or about the gaming tables of +Monaco, according to the hour, season, and fashion. + +This was the sort of assemblage which, powdered, perfumed, exquisitely +dressed, invaded, with gay laughter and nervous desire to be amused, the +boat chartered by the Prince. Above, pencil in hand, the little dark man +with the keen eyes, black, pointed beard and waxed moustache, continued +to take down, as the cortege defiled before him, the list of the invited +guests: and upon the leaves fell, briskly traced, names printed a hundred +times a day in Parisian chronicles among the reports of the races of +first representations at the theatres; names with Slav, Latin, or Saxon +terminations; Italian names, Spanish, Hungarian, American names; each of +which represented fortune, glory, power, sometimes scandal--one of those +imported scandals which break out in Paris as the trichinae of foreign +goods are hatched there. + +The reporter wrote on, wrote ever, tearing off and handing to the page +attached to 'L'Actualite' the last leaves of his list, whereon figured +Yankee generals of the War of the Rebellion, Italian princesses, American +girls flirting with everything that wore trousers; ladies who, rivals of +Prince Zilah in wealth, owned whole counties somewhere in England; great +Cuban lords, compromised in the latest insurrections and condemned to +death in Spain; Peruvian statesmen, publicists, and military chiefs at +once, masters of the tongue, the pen, and the revolver; a crowd of +originals, even a Japanese, an elegant young man, dressed in the latest +fashion, with a heavy sombrero which rested upon his straight, inky-black +hair, and which every minute or two he took off and placed under his left +arm, to salute the people of his acquaintance with low bows in the most +approved French manner. + +All these odd people, astonishing a little and interesting greatly the +groups of Parisians gathered above on the sidewalks, crossed the gangway +leading to the boat, and, spreading about on the deck, gazed at the banks +and the houses, or listened to the czardas which the Hungarian musicians +were playing with a sort of savage frenzy beneath the French tricolor +united to the three colors of their own country. + +The Tzigani thus saluted the embarkation of the guests; and the clear, +bright sunshine enveloped the whole boat with a golden aureole, joyously +illuminating the scene of feverish gayety and childish laughter. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BARONESS'S MATCHMAKING + +The Prince Zilah met his guests with easy grace, on the deck in front of +the foot-bridge. He had a pleasant word for each one as they came on +board, happy and smiling at the idea of a breakfast on the deck of a +steamer, a novel amusement which made these insatiable pleasure-seekers +forget the fashionable restaurants and the conventional receptions of +every day. + +"What a charming thought this was of yours, Prince, so unexpected, so +Parisian, ah, entirely Parisian!" + +In almost the same words did each newcomer address the Prince, who +smiled, and repeated a phrase from Jacquemin's chronicles: "Foreigners +are more Parisian than the Parisians themselves." + +A smile lent an unexpected charm to the almost severe features of the +host. His usual expression was rather sad, and a trifle haughty. His +forehead was broad and high, the forehead of a thinker and a student +rather than that of a soldier; his eyes were of a deep, clear blue, +looking directly at everything; his nose was straight and regular, and +his beard and moustache were blond, slightly gray at the corners of the +mouth and the chin. His whole appearance, suggesting, as it did, reserved +strength and controlled passion, pleased all the more because, while +commanding respect, it attracted sympathy beneath the powerful exterior, +you felt there was a tender kindliness of heart. + +There was no need for the name of Prince Andras Zilah--or, as they say in +Hungary, Zilah Andras--to have been written in characters of blood in the +history of his country, for one to divine the hero in him: his erect +figure, the carriage of his head, braving life as it had defied the +bullets of the enemy, the strange brilliance of his gaze, the sweet +inflections of his voice accustomed to command, and the almost caressing +gestures of his hand used to the sword--all showed the good man under the +brave, and, beneath the indomitable soldier, the true gentleman. + +When they had shaken the hand of their host, the guests advanced to the +bow of the boat to salute a young girl, an exquisite, pale brunette, with +great, sad eyes, and a smile of infinite charm, who was half-extended in +a low armchair beneath masses of brilliant parti-colored flowers. A +stout man, of the Russian type, with heavy reddish moustaches streaked +with gray, and an apoplectic neck, stood by her side, buttoned up in his +frock-coat as in a military uniform. + +Every now and then, leaning over and brushing with his moustaches her +delicate white ear, he would ask: + +"Are you happy, Marsa?" + +And Marsa would answer with a smile ending in a sigh, as she vaguely +contemplated the scene before her: + +"Yes, uncle, very happy." + +Not far from these two was a little woman, still very pretty, although of +a certain age--the age of embonpoint--a brunette, with very delicate +features, a little sensual mouth, and pretty rosy ears peeping forth from +skilfully arranged masses of black hair. With a plump, dimpled hand, she +held before her myopic eyes a pair of gold-mounted glasses; and she was +speaking to a man of rather stern aspect, with a Slav physiognomy, a +large head, crowned with a mass of crinkly hair as white as lamb's wool, +a long, white moustache, and shoulders as broad as an ox; a man already +old, but with the robust strength of an oak. He was dressed neither well +nor ill, lacking distinction, but without vulgarity. + +"Indeed, my dear Varhely, I am enchanted with this idea of Prince Andras. +I am enjoying myself excessively already, and I intend to enjoy myself +still more. Do you know, this scheme of a breakfast on the water is +simply delightful! Don't you find it so? Oh! do be a little jolly, +Varhely!" + +"Do I seem sad, then, Baroness?" + +Yanski Varhely, the friend of Prince Andras, was very happy, however, +despite his rather sombre air. He glanced alternately at the little +woman who addressed him, and at Marsa, two very different types of +beauty: Andras's fiancee, slender and pale as a beautiful lily, and the +little Baroness Dinati, round and rosy as a ripe peach. And he was +decidedly pleased with this Marsa Laszlo, against whom he had +instinctively felt some prejudice when Zilah spoke to him for the first +time of marrying her. To make of a Tzigana--for Marsa was half Tzigana-- +a Princess Zilah, seemed to Count Varhely a slightly bold resolution. +The brave old soldier had never understood much of the fantastic caprices +of passion, and Andras seemed to him in this, as in all other things, +just a little romantic. But, after all, the Prince was his own master, +and whatever a Zilah did was well done. So, after reflection, Zilah's +marriage became a joy to Varhely, as he had just been declaring to the +fiancee's uncle, General Vogotzine. + +Baroness Dinati was therefore wrong to suspect old Yanski Varhely of any +'arriere-pensee'. How was it possible for him not to be enchanted, when +he saw Andras absolutely beaming with happiness? + +They were now about to depart, to raise the anchor and glide down the +river along the quays. Already Paul Jacquemin, casting his last leaves +to the page of L'Actualite, was quickly descending the gangplank. Zilah +scarcely noticed him, for he uttered a veritable cry of delight as he +perceived behind the reporter a young man whom he had not expected. + +"Menko! My dear Michel!" he exclaimed, stretching out both hands to the +newcomer, who advanced, excessively pale. "By what happy chance do I see +you, my dear boy?" + +"I heard in London that you were to give this fete. The English +newspapers had announced your marriage, and I did not wish to wait +longer--I----." + +He hesitated a little as he spoke, as if dissatisfied, troubled, and a +moment before (Zilah had not noticed it) he had made a movement as if to +go back to the quay and leave the boat. + +Michel Menko, however, had not the air of a timid man. He was tall, +thin, of graceful figure, a man of the world, a military diplomat. For +some reason or other, at this moment, he exhibited a certain uneasiness +in his face, which ordinarily bore a rather brilliant color, but which +was now almost sallow. He was instinctively seeking some one among the +Prince's guests, and his glance wandered about the deck with a sort of +dull anger. + +Prince Andras saw only one thing in Menko's sudden appearance; the young +man, to whom he was deeply attached, and who was the only relative he had +in the world (his maternal grandmother having been a Countess Menko), his +dear Michel, would be present at his marriage. He had thought Menko ill +in London; but the latter appeared before him, and the day was decidedly +a happy one. + +"How happy you make me, my dear fellow!" he said to him in a tone of +affection which was almost paternal. + +Each demonstration of friendship by the Prince seemed to increase the +young Count's embarrassment. Beneath a polished manner, the evidence of +an imperious temperament appeared in the slightest glance, the least +gesture, of this handsome fellow of twenty-seven or twenty-eight years. +Seeing him pass by, one could easily imagine him with his fashionable +clothes cast aside, and, clad in the uniform of the Hungarian hussars, +with closely shaven chin, and moustaches brushed fiercely upward, +manoeuvring his horse on the Prater with supple grace and nerves like +steel. + +Menko's gray eyes, with blue reflections in them, which made one think of +the reflection of a storm in a placid lake, became sad when calm, but +were full of a threatening light when animated. The gaze of the young +man had precisely this aggressive look when he discovered, half hidden +among the flowers, Marsa seated in the bow of the boat; then, almost +instantaneously a singular expression of sorrow or anguish succeeded, +only in its turn to fade away with the rapidity of the light of a falling +star; and there was perfect calm in Menko's attitude and expression when +Prince Zilah said to him: + +"Come, Michel, let me present you to my fiancee. Varhely is there also." + +And, taking Menko's arm, he led him toward Marsa. "See," he said to the +young girl, "my happiness is complete." + +She, as Michel Menko bowed low before her, coldly and almost +imperceptibly inclined her dark head, while her large eyes, under the +shadow of their heavy lashes, seemed vainly trying to meet the gray eyes +of the young man. + +Andras beckoned Varhely to come to Marsa, who was white as marble, and +said softly, with a hand on the shoulder of each of the two friends, who +represented to him his whole life--Varhely, the past; Michel Menko, his +recovered youth and the future. + +"If it were not for that stupid superstition which forbids one to +proclaim his happiness, I should tell you how happy I am, very happy. +Yes, the happiest of men," he added. + +Meanwhile, the little Baroness Dinati, the pretty brunette, who had just +found Varhely a trifle melancholy, had turned to Paul Jacquemin, the +accredited reporter of her salon. + +"That happiness, Jacquemin," she said, with a proud wave of the hand, "is +my work. Without me, those two charming savages, so well suited to each +other, Marsa and Andras Zilah, would never have met. On what does +happiness depend!" + +"On an invitation card engraved by Stern," laughed Jacquemin. "But you +have said too much, Baroness. You must tell me the whole story. Think +what an article it would make: The Baroness's Matchmaking! The romance! +Quick, the romance! The romance, or death!" + +"You have no idea how near you are to the truth, my dear Jacquemin: it is +indeed a romance; and, what is more, a romantic romance. A romance which +has no resemblance to--you have invented the word--those brutalistic +stories which you are so fond of." + +"Which I am very fond of, Baroness, I confess, especially when they are +just a little--you know!" + +"But this romance of Prince Andras is by no means just a little--you +know! It is--how shall I express it? It is epic, heroic, romantic--what +you will. I will relate it to you." + +"It will sell fifty thousand copies of our paper," gayly exclaimed +Jacquemin, opening his ears, and taking notes mentally. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE STORY OF THE ZILAHS + +Andras Zilah, Transylvanian Count and Prince of the Holy Empire, was one +of those heroes who devote their whole lives to one aim, and, when they +love, love always. + +Born for action, for chivalrous and incessant struggle, he had sacrificed +his first youth to battling for his country. "The Hungarian was created +on horseback," says a proverb, and Andras did not belie the saying. In +'48, at the age of fifteen, he was in the saddle, charging the Croatian +hussars, the redcloaks, the terrible darkskinned Ottochan horsemen, +uttering frightful yells, and brandishing their big damascened guns. +It seemed then to young Andras that he was assisting at one of the +combats of the Middle Ages, during one of those revolts against the +Osmanlis, of which he had heard so much when a child. + +In the old castle, with towers painted red in the ancient fashion, where +he was born and had grown up, Andras, like all the males of his family +and his country, had been imbued with memories of the old wars. A few +miles from his father's domain rose the Castle of the Isle, which, in the +middle of the sixteenth century, Zringi had defended against the Turks, +displaying lofty courage and unconquerable audacity, and forcing Soliman +the Magnificent to leave thirty thousand soldiers beneath the walls, the +Sultan himself dying before he could subjugate the Hungarian. Often had +Andras's father, casting his son upon a horse, set out, followed by a +train of cavaliers, for Mohacz, where the Mussulmans had once overwhelmed +the soldiers of young King Louis, who died with his own family and every +Hungarian who was able to carry arms. Prince Zilah related to the little +fellow, who listened to him with burning tears of rage, the story of the +days of mourning and the terrible massacres which no Hungarian has ever +forgotten. Then he told him of the great revolts, the patriotic +uprisings, the exploits of Botzkai, Bethlen Gabor, or Rakoczy, whose +proud battle hymn made the blood surge through the veins of the little +prince. + +Once at Buda, the father had taken the son to the spot, where, in 1795, +fell the heads of noble Hungarians, accused of republicanism; and he said +to him, as the boy stood with uncovered head: + +"This place is called the Field of Blood. Martinowitz was beheaded here +for his faith. Remember, that a man's life belongs to his duty, and not +to his happiness." + +And when he returned to the great sombre halls of the castle, whence in +bygone days the Turks had driven out his ancestors, and whence, in their +turn, throwing off the yoke of the conquerors, his ancestors had driven +out the Turks, little Prince Andras found again examples before him in +the giants in semi-oriental costumes, glittering in steel or draped in +purple, who looked down upon him from their frames; smoke-blackened +paintings wherein the eagle eyes and long moustaches of black hussars, +contemporaries of Sobieski, or magnates in furred robes, with aigrettes +in their caps, and curved sabres garnished with precious stones and +enamel, attracted and held spellbound the silent child, while through the +window floated in, sung by some shepherd, or played by wandering Tzigani, +the refrain of the old patriotic ballad 'Czaty Demeter', the origin of +which is lost in the mist of ages + + Remember, oh, yes! remember our ancestors! Brave, proud Magyars, + when you left the land of the Scythians, brave ancestors, great + forefathers, you did not suspect that your sons would be slaves! + Remember, oh, yes! remember our ancestors! + +Andras did remember them, and he knew by heart their history. He knew +the heroism of Prince Zilah Sandor falling in Mohacz in 1566 beside his +wife Hanska who had followed him, leaving in the cradle her son Janski, +whose grandson, Zilah Janos, in 1867, at the very place where his +ancestor had been struck, sabred the Turks, crying: "Sandor and Hanska, +look down upon me; your blood avenges you!" + +There was not one of those men, whose portraits followed the child with +their black eyes, who was not recorded in the history of his country for +some startling deed or noble sacrifice. All had fought for Hungary: the +greater part had died for her. There was a saying that the deathbed of +the Zilahs was a bloody battleground. When he offered his name and his +life to Maria Theresa, one of the Zilah princes had said proudly to the +Empress: "You demand of the Hungarians gold, they bring you steel. The +gold was to nourish your courtiers, the steel will be to save your crown. +Forward!" These terrible ancestors were, besides, like all the magnates +of Hungary, excessively proud of their nobility and their patriarchal +system of feudalism. They knew how to protect their peasants, who were +trained soldiers, how to fight for them, and how to die at their head; +but force seemed to them supreme justice, and they asked nothing but +their sword with which to defend their right. Andras's father, Prince +Sandor, educated by a French tutor who had been driven from Paris by the +Revolution, was the first of all his family to form any perception of a +civilization based upon justice and law, and not upon the almighty power +of the sabre. The liberal education which he had received, Prince Sandor +transmitted to his son. The peasants, who detested the pride of the +Magyars, and the middle classes of the cities, mostly tradesmen who +envied the castles of these magnates, soon became attracted, fascinated, +and enraptured with this transformation in the ancient family of the +Zilahs. No man, not even Georgei, the Spartanlike soldier, nor the +illustrious Kossuth, was more popular in 1849, at the time of the +struggle against Austria, than Prince Sandor Zilah and his son, then a +handsome boy of sixteen, but strong and well built as a youth of twenty. + +At this youthful age, Andras Zilah had been one of those magnates, who, +the 'kalpach' on the head, the national 'attila' over the shoulder and +the hand upon the hilt of the sword, had gone to Vienna to plead before +the Emperor the cause of Hungary. They were not listened to, and one +evening, the negotiations proving futile, Count Batthyanyi said to +Jellachich: + +"We shall soon meet again upon the Drave!" + +"No," responded the Ban of Croatia, "I will go myself to seek you upon +the Danube!" + +This was war; and Prince Sandor went, with his son, to fight bravely for +the old kingdom of St. Stephen against the cannon and soldiers of +Jellachich. + +All these years of blood and battle were now half forgotten by Prince +Andras; but often Yanski Varhely, his companion of those days of +hardship, the bold soldier who in former times had so often braved the +broadsword of the Bohemian cuirassiers of Auersperg's regiment, would +recall to him the past with a mournful shake of the head, and repeat, +ironically, the bitter refrain of the song of defeat: + + Dance, dance, daughters of Hungary! + Tread now the measure so long delayed. + Murdered our sons by the shot or the hangman! + In this land of pleasure, oh! be not dismayed;-- + Now is the time, brown daughters of Hungary, + To dance to the measure of true hearts betrayed! + +And then, these melancholy words calling up the memory of disaster, all +would revive before Andras Zilah's eyes--the days of mourning and the +days of glory; the exploits of Bem; the victories of Dembiski; the +Austrian flags taken at Goedolloe; the assaults of Buda; the defence of +Comorn; Austria, dejected and defeated, imploring the aid of Russia; +Hungary, beaten by the force of numbers, yet resisting Paskiewich as she +had resisted Haynau, and appealing to Europe and the world in the name of +the eternal law of nations, which the vanquished invoke, but which is +never listened to by the countries where the lion is tearing his prey. +And again, Zilah would remember the heroic fatherland struck down at +Temesvar; the remnants of an armed people in refuge at Arad; and Klapka +still holding out in the island of Comorn at the moment when Georgei had +surrendered. Then, again, the obscure deaths of his comrades; the +agonies in the ditches and in the depths of the woods; the last +despairing cries of a conquered people overwhelmed by numbers: + +Dance, dance, daughters of Hungary! + +All this bloody past, enveloped as in a crimson cloud, but glorious with +its gleams of hope and its flashes of victory, the Prince would revive +with old Varhely, in the corner of whose eye at intervals a tear would +glisten. + +They both saw again the last days of Comorn, with the Danube at the foot +of the walls, and the leaves of the trees whirling in the September wind, +and dispersed like the Hungarians themselves; and the shells falling upon +the ramparts; and the last hours of the siege; and the years of mournful +sadness and exile; their companions decimated, imprisoned, led to the +gallows or the stake; the frightful silence and ruin falling like a +winding-sheet over Hungary; the houses deserted, the fields laid waste, +and the country, fertile yesterday, covered now with those Muscovite +thistles, which were unknown in Hungary before the year of massacre, and +the seeds of which the Cossack horses had imported in their thick manes +and tails. + +Beloved Hungary, whose sons, disdaining the universe, used proudly to +boast: "Have we not all that man needs? Banat, which gives us wheat; +Tisza, wine; the mountain, gold and salt. Our country is sufficient for +her children!" And this country, this fruitful country, was now covered +with gibbets and corpses. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"WHEN HUNGARY IS FREE!" + +All these bitter memories Prince Andras, in spite of the years that had +passed, kept ever in his mind one sad and tragic event--the burial of his +father, Sandor Zilah, who was shot in the head by a bullet during an +encounter with the Croats early in the month of January, 1849. + +Prince Sandor was able to grasp the hand of his son, and murmur in the +ear of this hero of sixteen: + +"Remember! Love and defend the fatherland!" + +Then, as the Austrians were close at hand, it was necessary to bury the +Prince in a trench dug in the snow, at the foot of a clump of fir-trees. + +Some Hungarian 'honveds, bourgeois' militia, and Varhely's hussars held +at the edge of the black opening resinous torches, which the wintry wind +shook like scarlet plumes, and which stained the snow with great red +spots of light. Erect, at the head of the ditch, his fingers grasping +the hand of Yanski Varhely, young Prince Andras gazed upon the earthy +bed, where, in his hussar's uniform, lay Prince Sandor, his long blond +moustache falling over his closed mouth, his blood-stained hands crossed +upon his black embroidered vest, his right hand still clutching the +handle of his sabre, and on his forehead, like a star, the round mark of +the bit of lead that had killed him. + +Above, the whitened branches of the firs looked like spectres, and upon +the upturned face of the dead soldier fell flakes of snow like congealed +tears. Under the flickering of the torch-flames, blown about by the +north wind, the hero seemed at times to move again, and a wild desire +came to Andras to leap down into the grave and snatch away the body. He +was an orphan now, his mother having died when he was an infant, and he +was alone in the world, with only the stanch friendship of Varhely and +his duty to his country to sustain him. + +"I will avenge you, father," he whispered to the patriot, who could no +longer hear his words. + +The hussars and honveds had advanced, ready to fire a final salvo over +the grave of the Prince, when, suddenly, gliding between the ranks of the +soldiers, appeared a band of Tzigani, who began to play the March of +Rakoczy, the Hungarian Marseillaise, the stirring melody pealing forth in +the night-air, and lending a certain mysteriously touching element to the +sad scene. A quick shudder ran through the ranks of the soldiers, ready +to become avengers. + +The national hymn rang out like a song of glory over the resting-place of +the vanquished. The soul of the dead seemed to speak in the voice of the +heroic music, recalling to the harassed contestants for liberty the great +days of the revolts of the fatherland, the old memories of the struggles +against the Turks, the furious charges of the cavaliers across the free +puszta, the vast Hungarian plain. + +And while, with long sweeps of his arm, the chief of the Tzigani marked +the measure, and the 'czimbalom' poured forth its heartrending notes, +it seemed to the poor fellows gathered about that the music of the March +of Rakoczy summoned a whole fantastic squadron of avengers, horsemen with +floating pelisses and herons' plumes in their hats, who, erect in their +saddles and with sabres drawn, struck, struck the frightened enemy, and +recovered, foot by foot, the conquered territory. There was in this +exalted march a sound of horses' hoofs, the clash of arms, a shaking of +the earth under the gallop of horsemen, a flash of agraffes, a rustle of +pelisses in the wind, an heroic gayety and a chivalrous bravery, like the +cry of a whole people of cavaliers sounding the charge of deliverance. + +And the young Prince, gazing down upon his dead father, remembered how +many times those mute lips had related to him the legend of the czardas, +that legend, symbolic of the history of Hungary, summing up all the +bitter pain of the conquest, when the beautiful dark girls of +Transylvania danced, their tears burning their cheeks, under the lash of +the Osmanlis. At first, cold and motionless, like statues whose calm +looks silently insulted their possessors, they stood erect beneath the +eye of the Turk; then little by little, the sting of the master's whip +falling upon their shoulders and tearing their sides and cheeks, their +bodies twisted in painful, revolted spasms; the flesh trembled under the +cord like the muscles of a horse beneath the spur; and, in the morbid +exaltation of suffering, a sort of wild delirium took possession of them, +their arms were waved in the air, their heads with hair dishevelled were +thrown backward, and the captives, uttering a sound at once plaintive and +menacing, danced, their dance, at first slow and melancholy, becoming +gradually active, nervous, and interrupted by cries which resembled sobs. +And the Hungarian czardas, symbolizing thus the dance of these martyrs, +kept still, will always keep, the characteristic of contortions under the +lash of bygone days; and, slow and languishing at first, then soon quick +and agitated, tragically hysterical, it also is interrupted by melancholy +chords, dreary, mournful notes and plaintive accents like drops of blood +from a wound-from the mortal wound of Prince Sandor, lying there in his +martial uniform. + +The bronzed Tzigani, fantastically illumined by the red glare of the +torches, stood out against the white background like demons of revenge; +and the hymn, feverish, bold, ardent, echoed through the snow-covered +branches like a hurricane of victory. They were wandering musicians, +who, the evening before, had been discovered in a neighboring village by +some of Jellachich's Croats, and whom Prince Sandor had unceremoniously +rescued at the head of his hussars; and they had come, with their ancient +national airs, the voice of their country, to pay their debt to the +fallen hero. + +When they had finished, the wintry night-wind bearing away the last notes +of their war-song, the pistols of the hussars and the guns of the honveds +discharged a salute over the grave. The earth and snow were shovelled in +upon the body of Sandor Zilah, and Prince Andras drew away, after marking +with a cross the place where his father reposed. + +A few paces away, he perceived, among the Tzigani musicians, a young +girl, the only woman of the tribe, who wept with mournful sobbings like +the echoes of the deserts of the Orient. + +He wondered why the girl wept so bitterly, when he, the son, could not +shed a tear. + +"Because Prince Zilah Sandor was valiant among the valiant," she replied, +in answer to his question, "and he died because he would not wear the +talisman which I offered him." + +Andras looked at the girl. + +"What talisman?" + +"Some pebbles from the lakes of Tatra, sewn up in a little leather bag." + +Andras knew what a powerful superstition is attached by the people of +Hungary to these deep lakes of Tatra, the "eyes of the sea," where, say +the old legends, the most beautiful carbuncle in the world lies hidden, +a carbuncle which would sparkle like the sun, if it could be discovered, +and which is guarded by frogs with diamond eyes and with lumps of pure +gold for feet. He felt more touched than astonished at the superstition +of the Tzigana, and at the offer which, the evening before, Prince Sandor +had refused with a smile. + +"Give me what you wished to give my father," he said. "I will keep it in +memory of him." + +A bright, joyous light flashed for a moment across the face of the +Tzigana. She extended to the young Prince the little bag of leather +containing several small, round pebbles like grains of maize. + +"At all events," exclaimed the young. girl, "there will be one Zilah +whom the balls of the Croats will spare for the safety of Hungary." + +Andras slowly detached from his shoulder the silver agraffe, set with +opals, which clasped his fur pelisse, and handed it to the gypsy, who +regarded it with admiring eyes as it flashed in the red light. + +"The day when my father is avenged," he said, "and our Hungary is free, +bring me this jewel, and you and yours come to the castle of the Zilahs. +I will give you a life of peace in memory of this night of mourning." + +Already, at a distance, could be heard a rapid fusillade about the +outposts. The Austrians had perhaps perceived the light from the +torches, and were attempting a night attack. + +"Extinguish the torches!" cried Yanski Varhely. + +The resinous knots hissed as they were thrust into the snow, and the +black, sinister night of winter, with the cries of the wind in the +branches, fell upon the troop of men, ready to die as their chief had +died; and all disappeared vision, phantoms--the Tzigani silently taking +refuge in the sombre forest, while here and there could be heard the +rattle of the ramrods as the honveds loaded their guns. + +This January night appeared now to Andras as an almost fantastic dream. +Since then he had erected a mausoleum of marble on the very spot where +Prince Sandor fell; and of all the moments of that romantic, picturesque +war, the agonizing moment, the wild scene of the burial of his father, +was most vivid in his memory--the picture of the warrior stretched in the +snow, his hand on the handle of his sword, remained before his eyes, +imperishable in its melancholy majesty. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"MY FATHER WAS A RUSSIAN!" + +When the war was over, the Prince roamed sadly for years about Europe-- +Europe, which, unmindful of the martyrs, had permitted the massacre of +the vanquished. It was many years before he could accustom himself to +the idea that he had no longer a country. He counted always upon the +future; it was impossible that fate would forever be implacable to a +nation. He often repeated this to Yanski Varhely, who had never forsaken +him--Yanski Varhely, the impoverished old hussar, the ruined gentleman, +now professor of Latin and mathematics at Paris, and living near the +Prince off the product of his lessons and a small remnant he had managed +to save from the wreck of his property. + +"Hungary will spring up again, Yanski; Hungary is immortal!" Andras +would exclaim. + +"Yes, on one condition," was Varhely's response. "She must arrive at a +comprehension that if she has succumbed, it is because she has committed +faults. All defeats have their geneses. Before the enemy we were not a +unit. There were too many discussions, and not enough action; such a +state of affairs is always fatal." + +The years brought happy changes to Hungary. She practically regained her +freedom; by her firmness she made the conquest of her own autonomy by the +side of Austria. Deak's spirit, in the person of Andrassy, recovered the +possession of power. But neither Andras nor Varhely returned to their +country. The Prince had become, as he himself said with a smile, "a +Magyar of Paris." He grew accustomed to the intellectual, refined life +of the French city; and this was a consolation, at times, for the exile +from his native land. + +"It is not a difficult thing to become bewitched with Paris," he would +say, as if to excuse himself. + +He had no longer, it is true, the magnificent landscapes of his youth; +the fields of maize, the steppes, dotted here and there with clumps of +wild roses; the Carpathian pines, with their sombre murmur; and all the +evening sounds which had been his infancy's lullaby; the cowbells, +melancholy and indistinct; the snapping of the great whips of the czikos; +the mounted shepherds, with their hussar jackets, crossing the plains +where grew the plants peculiar to the country; and the broad horizons +with the enormous arms of the windmills outlined against the golden +sunset. But Paris, with its ever-varying seductions, its activity in art +and science, its perpetual movement, had ended by becoming a real need to +him, like a new existence as precious and as loved as the first. The +soldier had become a man of letters, jotting down for himself, not for +the public, all that struck him in his observation and his reading; +mingling in all societies, knowing them all, but esteeming only one, that +of honest people; and thus letting the years pass by, without suspecting +that they were flying, regarding himself somewhat as a man away on a +visit, and suddenly awaking one fine morning almost old, wondering how he +had lived all this time of exile which, despite many mental troubles, +seemed to him to have lasted only a few months. + +"We resemble," he said to Varhely, "those emigrants who never unpack +their boxes, certain that they are soon to return home. They wait, and +some day, catching a glimpse of themselves in a glass, they are amazed to +find wrinkles and gray hairs." + +No longer having a home in his own country, Prince Andras had never +dreamed of making another abroad. He hired the sumptuous hotel he +inhabited at the top of the Champs Elysees, when houses were rather +scattered there. Fashion, and the ascensional movement of Paris toward +the Arc de Triomphe, had come to seek him. His house was rich in +beautiful pictures and rare books, and he sometimes received there his +few real friends, his companions in troublous times, like Varhely. He +was generally considered a little of a recluse, although he loved society +and showed himself, during the winter, at all entertainments where, by +virtue of his fame and rank, he would naturally be expected to be +present. But he carried with him a certain melancholy and gravity, which +contrasted strongly with the frivolous trivialities and meaningless +smiles of our modern society. In the summer, he usually passed two +months at the seashore, where Varhely frequently joined him; and upon the +leafy terrace of the Prince's villa the two friends had long and +confidential chats, as they watched the sun sink into the sea. + +Andras had never thought of marrying. At first, he had a sort of feeling +that he was doomed to an early death, ever expecting a renewal of the +struggle with Austria; and he thought at that time that the future would +bring to him his father's fate--a ball in the forehead and a ditch. +Then, without knowing it, he had reached and passed his fortieth year. + +"Now it is too late," he said, gayly. "The psychological moment is long +gone by. We shall both end old bachelors, my good Varhely, and spend our +evenings playing checkers, that mimic warfare of old men." + +"Yes, that is all very well for me, who have no very famous name to +perpetuate; but the Zilahs should not end with you. I want some sturdy +little hussar whom I can teach to sit a horse, and who also will call me +his good old Yanski." + +The Prince smiled, and then replied, gravely, almost sadly: "I greatly +fear that one can not love two things at once; the heart is not elastic. +I chose Hungary for my bride, and my life must be that of a widower." + +In the midst of the austere and thoughtful life he led, Andras preserved, +nevertheless, a sort of youthful buoyancy. Many men of thirty were less +fresh in mind and body than he. He was one of those beings who die, as +they have lived, children: even the privations of the hardest kind of an +existence can not take away from them that purity and childlike trust +which seem to be an integral part of themselves, and which, although they +may be betrayed, deceived and treated harshly by life, they never wholly +lose; very manly and heroic in time of need and danger, they are by +nature peculiarly exposed to treasons and deceptions which astonish but +do not alter them. Since man, in the progress of time, must either +harden or break to pieces, the hero in them is of iron; but, on the other +hand, their hearts are easily wounded by the cruel hand of some woman or +the careless one of a child. + +Andras Zilah had not yet loved deeply, as it was in his nature to love. +More or less passing caprices had not dried up the spring of real passion +which was at the bottom of his heart. But he had not sought this love; +for he adored his Hungary as he would have loved a woman, and the bitter +recollection of her defeat gave him the impression of a love that had +died or been cruelly betrayed. + +Yanski, on the whole, had not greatly troubled himself to demonstrate +mathematically or philosophically that a "hussar pupil" was an absolute +necessity to him. People can not be forced, against their will, to +marry; and the Prince, after all, was free, if he chose, to let the name +of Zilah die with him. + +"Taking life as it is," old Varhely would growl, "perhaps it isn't +necessary to bring into the world little beings who never asked to come +here." And yet breaking off in his pessimism, and with a vision before +his eyes of another Andras, young, handsome, leading his hussars to the +charge "and yet, it is a pity, Andras, it is a pity." + +The decisions of men are more often dependent upon chance than upon their +own will. Prince Andras received an invitation to dinner one day from +the little Baroness Dinati, whom he liked very much, and whose husband, +Orso Dinati, one of the defenders of Venice in the time of Manin, had +been his intimate friend. The house of the Baroness was a very curious +place; the reporter Jacquemin, who was there at all times, testing the +wines and correcting the menus, would have called it "bizarre." The +Baroness received people in all circles of society; oddities liked her, +and she did not dislike oddities. Very honest, very spirituelle, an +excellent woman at heart, she gave evening parties, readings from +unheard-of books, and performances of the works of unappreciated +musicians; and the reporters, who came to absorb her salads and drink her +punch, laughed at her in their journals before their supper was digested. + +The Prince, as we have said, was very fond of the Baroness, with an +affection which was almost fraternal. He pardoned her childishness and +her little absurdities for the sake of her great good qualities. "My +dear Prince," she said to him one day, "do you know that I would throw +myself into the fire for you?" + +"I am sure of it; but there would not be any great merit in your doing +so." + +"And why not, please?" + +"Because you would not run any risk of being burned. This must be so, +because you receive in your house a crowd of highly suspicious people, +and no one has ever suspected you yourself. You are a little salamander, +the prettiest salamander I ever met. You live in fire, and you have +neither upon your face nor your reputation the slightest little scorch." + +"Then you think that my guests are"---- + +"Charming. Only, they are of two kinds: those whom I esteem, and who do +not amuse me--often; and those who amuse me, and whom I esteem--never." + +"I suppose you will not come any more to the Rue Murillo, then?" + +"Certainly I shall--to see you." + +And it really was to see her that the Prince went to the Baroness +Dinati's, where his melancholy characteristics clashed with so many +worldly follies and extravagances. The Baroness seemed to have a +peculiar faculty in choosing extraordinary guests: Peruvians, formerly +dictators, now become insurance agents, or generals transformed into +salesmen for some wine house; Cuban chiefs half shot to pieces by the +Spaniards; Cretes exiled by the Turks; great personages from +Constantinople, escaped from the Sultan's silken bowstring, and +displaying proudly their red fez in Paris, where the opera permitted them +to continue their habits of polygamy; Americans, whose gold-mines or +petroleum-wells made them billionaires for a winter, only to go to pieces +and make them paupers the following summer; politicians out of a place; +unknown authors; misunderstood poets; painters of the future-in short, +the greater part of the people who were invited by Prince Andras to his +water-party, Baroness Dinati having pleaded for her friends and obtained +for them cards of invitation. It was a sort of ragout of real and shady +celebrities, an amusing, bustling crowd, half Bohemian, half +aristocratic, entirely cosmopolitan. Prince Andras remembered once +having dined with a staff officer of Garibaldi's army on one side of him, +and the Pope's nuncio on the other. + +On a certain evening the Baroness was very anxious that the Prince should +not refuse her latest invitation. + +"I am arranging a surprise for you," she said. "I am going to have to +dinner"-- + +"Whom? The Mikado? The Shah of Persia?" + +"Better than the Mikado. A charming young girl who admires you +profoundly, for she knows by heart the whole history of your battles of +1849. She has read Georgei, Klapka, and all the rest of them; and she is +so thoroughly Bohemian in heart, soul and race, that she is universally +called the Tzigana." + +"The Tzigana?" + +This simple word, resembling the clank of cymbals, brought up to Prince +Andras a whole world of recollections. 'Hussad czigany'! The rallying +cry of the wandering musicians of the puszta had some element in it like +the cherished tones of the distant bells of his fatherland. + +"Ah! yes, indeed, my dear Baroness," he said; "that is a charming +surprise. I need not ask if your Tzigana is pretty; all the Tzigani of +my country are adorable, and I am sure I shall fall in love with her." + +The Prince had no notion how prophetic his words were. The Tzigana, whom +the Baroness requested him to take in to dinner, was Marsa, Marsa Laszlo, +dressed in one of the black toilettes which she affected, and whose +clear, dark complexion, great Arabian eyes, and heavy, wavy hair seemed +to Andras's eyes to be the incarnation, in a prouder and more refined +type, of the warm, supple, nervous beauty of the girls of his country. + +He was surprised and strangely fascinated, attracted by the incongruous +mixture of extreme refinement and a sort of haughty unconventionality he +found in Marsa. A moment before, he had noticed how silent, almost rigid +she was, as she leaned back in her armchair; but now this same face was +strangely animated, illumined by some happy emotion, and her eyes burned +like coals of fire as she fixed them upon Andras. + +During the whole dinner, the rest of the dining-room disappeared to the +Prince; he saw only the girl at his side; and the candles and polished +mirrors were only there to form a sparkling background for her pale, +midnight beauty. + +"Do you know, Prince," said Marsa, in her rich, warm contralto voice, +whose very accents were like a caress, "do you know that, among all those +who fought for our country, you are the one admiration of my life?" + +He smiled, and mentioned more illustrious names. + +"No, no," she answered; "those are not the names I care for, but yours. +I will tell you why." + +And she recalled, in a voice vibrating with emotion, all that Prince +Zilah Sandor and his son had attempted, twenty years before, for the +liberty of Hungary. She told the whole story in the most vivid manner; +had her age permitted her to have been present at those battles, she +could not have related them with more spirited enthusiasm. + +"I know, perfectly, how, at the head of your hussars, you wrested from +the soldiers of Jellachich the first standard captured by the Hungarians +from the ranks of Austria. Shall I tell you the exact date? and the day +of the week? It was Thursday." + +The whole history, ignored, forgotten, lost in the smoke of more recent +wars, the strange, dark-eyed girl, knew day by day, hour by hour; and +there, in that Parisian dining-room, surrounded by all that crowd, where +yesterday's 'bon mot', the latest scandal, the new operetta, were +subjects of paramount importance, Andras, voluntarily isolated, saw +again, present and living, his whole heroic past rise up before him, as +beneath the wave of a fairy's wand. + +"But how do you know me so well?" he asked, fixing his clear eyes upon +Marsa Laszlo's face. "Was your father one of my soldiers?" + +"My father was a Russian," responded Marsa, abruptly, her voice suddenly +becoming harsh and cutting. + +"A Russian?" + +"Yes, a Russian," she repeated, emphasizing the word with a sort of dull +anger. "My mother alone was a Tzigana, and my mother's beauty was part +of the spoils of those who butchered your soldiers?" + +In the uproar of conversation, which became more animated with the +dessert, she could not tell him of the sorrows of her life; and yet, +he guessed there was some sad story in the life of the young girl, +and almost implored her to speak, stopping just at the limit where +sympathy might change into indiscretion. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, as she was silent, with a dark shadow +overspreading her face. "I have no right to know your life simply +because you are so well acquainted with mine." + +"Oh! you!" she said, with a sad smile; "your life is history; mine is +drama, melodrama even. There is a great difference." + +"Pardon my presumption!" + +"Oh! I will willingly tell you of my life, if the existence of a useless +being like myself can interest you; but not here in the noise of this +dinner. It would be absurd," with a change of tone, "to mingle tears +with champagne. By-and-bye! By-and-bye!" + +She made an evident effort to appear gay, like the pretty women who were +there, and who, despite their prettiness, seemed to Andras perfectly +insignificant; but she did not succeed in driving away the cloud of +sadness which overshadowed her exquisite, dark face. And in the ears of +the Prince rang again the bitter accents of that voice saying in a harsh, +almost revolted tone: + +"Yes, a Russian! My father was a Russian!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A GYPSY PRINCESS + +The mystery which seemed to envelop Marsa, the flash of anger with which +she had spoken of the Russian who was her father, all attracted the +Prince toward her; and he experienced a deliciously disquieting +sentiment, as if the secret of this girl's existence were now grafted +upon his own life. + +She seemed to have no wish to keep her secret from him. At their first +meeting, during the conversation which followed the dinner and the +musical exhibition given by extraordinary musicians with long, unkempt +locks, Marsa, trusting with a sort of joy to the one whom she regarded as +a hero, told Prince Andras the story of her life. + +She related to him the assault made by soldiers of Paskiewich upon the +little Hungarian village, and how her grandfather, leaving his czimbalom, +had fired upon the Russians from the ranks of the honveds. There was a +combat, or rather a butchery, in the sole street of the town, one of the +last massacres of the campaign. The Russians destroyed everything, +shooting down the prisoners, and burning the poor little houses. There +were some women among the Hungarians and Tzigani; they had loaded the +guns of the wounded, comforted the dying and avenged the dead. Many of +them were killed. One of them, the youngest and prettiest, a gypsy, was +seized by the Russian officer, and, when peace was declared soon after, +carried off by him to Russia. This was Tisza Laszlo, Marsa's mother. +The officer, a great Russian nobleman, a handsome fellow and extremely +rich, really loved her with a mad sort of love. He forced her to become +his mistress; but he tried in every way to make her pardon the brutality +of his passion; keeping her half a captive in his castle near Moscow, +and yet offering her, by way of expiation, not only his fortune but his +name, the princely title of which the Tchereteff s, his ancestors, had +been so proud, and which the daughter of wandering Tzigani refused with +mingled hatred and disgust. Princess? She, the gypsy, a Russian +princess? The title would have appeared to her like a new and still more +abhorrent stigma. He implored her, but she was obdurate. It was a +strange, tragic existence these two beings led, shut up in the immense +castle, from the windows of which Tisza could perceive the gilded domes +of Moscow, the superb city in which she would never set her foot, +preferring the palace, sad and gloomy as a cell. Alone in the world, +the sole survivor of her massacred tribe, the Russians to her were the +murderers of her people, the assassins of the free musicians with eagle +profiles she used to follow as they played the czardas from village to +village. + +She never saw Prince Tchereteff, handsome, generous, charming, loving her +and trembling before her glance although he had ruthlessly kidnapped her +from her country, that she did not think of him, sword in hand, entering +the burning Hungarian village, his face reddened by the flames, as the +bayonets of his soldiers were reddened with blood. She hated this tall +young man, his drooping moustache, his military uniform, his broad +figure, his white-gloved hands: he represented to the imprisoned Tzigana +the conqueror and murderer of her people. And yet a daughter was born to +them. She had defended herself with the cries of a tigress; and then she +had longed to die, to die of hunger, since, a close prisoner, she could +not obtain possession of a weapon, nor cast herself into the water. She +had lived, nevertheless, and then her daughter reconciled her to life. +The child which was born to her was all in all to Tizsa. Marsa was an +exact reproduction, feature by feature, of her mother, and, strange to +say, daughters generally resembling the father, had nothing of +Tchereteff, nothing Russian about her: on the contrary, she was all +Tzigana--Tzigana in the clear darkness of her skin, in her velvety eyes, +and her long, waving black hair, with its bronze reflections, which the +mother loved to wind about her thin fingers. + +Her beauty, faded by long, slow sorrow, Tisza found again in her child, +a true daughter of Hungary like herself; and, as Marsa grew up, she told +her the legends, the songs, the heroism, the martyrdom, of Hungary, +picturing to the little girl the great, grassy plain, the free puszta, +peopled with a race in whose proud language the word honor recurs again +and again. + +Marsa grew up in the Muscovite castle, loving nothing in the world except +her mother, and regarding with frightened eyes the blond stranger who +sometimes took her upon his knees and gazed sadly into her face. Before +this man, who was her father, she felt as if she were in the presence of +an enemy. As Tisza never went out, Marsa rarely quitted the castle; and, +when she went to Moscow, she hastened to return to her mother. The very +gayeties of that noisy city weighed upon her heart; for she never forgot +the war-tales of the Tzigana, and, perhaps, among the passers-by was the +wretch who had shot down her grandfather, old Mihal. + +The Tzigana cultivated, with a sort of passion, a love of far-off Hungary +and a hatred for the master in the impressionable mind of her daughter. +There is a Servian proverb which says, that when a Wallachian has crossed +the threshold the whole house becomes Wallachian. Tisza did not wish the +house to become Hungarian; but she did wish that the child of her loins +should be and should remain Hungarian. + +The servants of Prince Tchereteff never spoke of their mistress except as +The Tzigana, and this was the name which Marsa wished to bear also. It +seemed to her like a title of nobility. + +And the years passed without the Tzigana pardoning the Russian, and +without Marsa ever having called him father. + +In the name of their child, the Prince one day solemnly asked Tisza +Laszlo to consent to become his wife, and the mother refused. + +"But our daughter?" said the Prince. + +"My daughter? She will bear the name of her mother, which at least is +not a Russian name." + +The Prince was silenced. + +As Marsa grew up, Moscow became displeasing to the Prince. He had his +daughter educated as if she were destined to be the Czarina. He summoned +to the castle a small army of instructors, professors of music and +singing; French, English, and German masters, drawing masters, etc., etc. +The young girl, with the prodigious power of assimilation peculiar to her +race, learned everything, loving knowledge for its own sake, but, +nevertheless, always deeply moved by the history of that unknown country, +which was that of her mother, and even her own, the land of her heart and +her soul-Hungary. She knew, from her mother, about all its heroes: +Klapka, Georgei, Dembiski; Bem, the conqueror of Buda; Kossuth, the +dreamer of a sort of feudal liberty; and those chivalrous Zilah princes, +father and son, the fallen martyr and the living hero. + +Prince Tchereteff, French in education and sentiment, wished to take to +France the child, who did not bear his name, but whom he adored. France +also exercised a powerful fascination over Marsa's imagination; and she +departed joyously for Paris, accompanied by the Tzigana, her mother, who +felt like a prisoner set at liberty. To quit Russian soil was in itself +some consolation, and who knew? perhaps she might again see her dear +fatherland. + +Tisza, in fact, breathed more freely in Paris, repeating however, like a +mournful refrain, the proverb of her country: Away from Hungary, life is +not life. The Prince purchased, at Maisons-Lafitte, not far from the +forest of Saint-Germain, a house surrounded by an immense garden. Here, +as formerly at Moscow, Tisza and the Prince lived together, and yet +apart--the Tzigana, implacable in her resentment, bitterly refusing all +pardon to the Russian, and always keeping alive in Marsa a hatred of all +that was Muscovite; the Prince, disconsolate, gloomy, discouraged between +the woman whom he adored and whose heart he could not win, and the girl, +so wonderfully beautiful, the living portrait of her mother, and who +treated him with the cold respect one shows to a stranger. + +Not long after their arrival in Paris, a serious heart trouble attacked +Marsa's father. He summoned to his deathbed the Tzigana and her +daughter; and, in a sort of supreme confession, he openly asked his +child, before the mother, to forgive him for her birth. + +"Marsa," he said, slowly, "your birth, which should make the joy of my +existence, is the remorse of my whole life. But I am dying of the love +which I can not conquer. Will you kiss me as a token that you have +pardoned me?" + +For the first time, perhaps, Marsa's lips, trembling with emotion, then +touched the Prince's forehead. But, before kissing him, her eyes had +sought those of her mother, who bowed her head in assent. + +"And you," murmured the dying Prince, "will you forgive me, Tisza?" + +The Tzigana saw again her native village in flames, her brothers dead, +her father murdered, and this man, now lying thin and pale amid the +pillows, erect, with sabre drawn, crying: "Courage! Charge! Forward!" + +Then she saw herself dragged almost beneath a horse's hoofs, cast into a +wagon with wrists bound together, carried in the rear of an army with the +rest of the victor's spoils, and immured within Russian walls. She felt +again on her lips the degradation of the first kiss of this man whose +suppliant, pitiful love was hideous to her. + +She made a step toward the dying man as if to force herself to whisper, +"I forgive you;" but all the resentment and suffering of her life mounted +to her heart, almost stifling her, and she paused, going no farther, and +regarding with a haggard glance the man whose eyes implored her pardon, +and who, after raising his pale face from the pillow, let his head fall +back again with one long, weary sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE STORY OF MARSA + +Prince Tchereteff left his whole fortune to Marsa Laszlo, leaving her in +the hands of his uncle Vogotzine, an old, ruined General, whose property +had been confiscated by the Czar, and who lived in Paris half imbecile +with fear, having become timid as a child since his release from Siberia, +where he had been sent on some pretext or other, no one knew exactly the +reason why. + +It had been necessary to obtain the sovereign intervention of the Czar-- +that Czar whose will is the sole law, a law above laws--to permit Prince +Tchereteff to give his property to a foreigner, a girl without a name. +The state would gladly have seized upon the fortune, as the Prince had no +other relative save an outlaw; but the Czar graciously gave his +permission, and Marsa inherited. + +Old General Vogotzine was, in fact, the only living relative of Prince +Tchereteff. In consideration of a yearly income, the Prince charged him +to watch over Marsa, and see to her establishment in life. Rich as she +was, Marsa would have no lack of suitors; but Tisza, the half-civilized +Tzigana, was. not the one to guide and protect a young girl in Paris. +The Prince believed Vogotzine to be less old and more acquainted with +Parisian life than he really was, and it was a consolation to the father +to feel that his daughter would have a guardian. + +Tisza did not long survive the Prince. She died in that Russian house, +every stone of which she hated, even to the Muscovite crucifix over the +door, which her faith, however, forbade her to have removed; she died +making her daughter swear that the last slumber which was coming to her, +gently lulling her to rest after so much suffering, should be slept in +Hungarian soil; and, after the Tzigana's death, this young girl of +twenty, alone with Vogotzine, who accompanied her on the gloomy journey +with evident displeasure, crossed France, went to Vienna, sought in the +Hungarian plain the place where one or two miserable huts and some +crumbling walls alone marked the site of the village burned long ago by +Tchereteff's soldiers; and there, in Hungarian soil, close to the spot +where the men of her tribe had been shot down, she buried the Tzigana, +whose daughter she so thoroughly felt herself to be, that, in breathing +the air of the puszta, she seemed to find again in that beloved land +something already seen, like a vivid memory of a previous existence. + +And yet, upon the grave of the martyr, Marsa prayed also for the +executioner. She remembered that the one who reposed in the cemetery of +Pere-Lachaise, beneath a tomb in the shape of a Russian dome, was her +father, as the Tzigana, interred in Hungary, was her mother; and she +asked in her prayer, that these two beings, separated in life, should +pardon each other in the unknown, obscure place of departed souls. + +So Marsa Laszlo was left alone in the world. She returned to France, +which she had become attached to, and shut herself up in the villa of +Maisons-Lafitte, letting old Vogotzine install himself there as a sort of +Mentor, more obedient than a servant, and as silent as a statue; and this +strange guardian, who had formerly fought side by side with Schamyl, and +cut down the Circassians with the sang-froid of a butcher's boy wringing +the neck of a fowl, and who now scarcely dared to open his lips, as if +the entire police force of the Czar had its eye upon him; this old +soldier, who once cared nothing for privations, now, provided he had his +chocolate in the morning, his kummel with his coffee at breakfast, and a +bottle of brandy on the table all day--left Marsa free to think, act, +come and go as she pleased. + +She had accepted the Prince's legacy, but with this mental reservation +and condition, that the Hungarian colony of Paris should receive half of +it. It seemed to her that the money thus given to succor the compatriots +of her mother would be her father's atonement. She waited, therefore, +until she had attained her majority; and then she sent this enormous sum +to the Hungarian aid society, saying that the donor requested that part +of the amount should be used in rebuilding the little village in +Transylvania which had been burned twenty years before by Russian troops. +When they asked what name should be attached to so princely a gift, Marsa +replied: "That which was my mother's and which is mine, The Tzigana." +More than ever now did she cling to that cognomen of which she was so +proud. + +"And," she said to Zilah, after she had finished the recital of her +story, "it is because I am thus named that I have the right to speak to +you of yourself." + +Prince Andras listened with passionate attention to the beautiful girl, +thus evoking for him the past, confident and even happy to speak and make +herself known to the man whose life of heroic devotion she knew so well. + +He was not astonished at her sudden frankness, at the confidence +displayed at a first meeting; and it seemed to him that he had long been +acquainted with this Tzigana, whose very name he had been ignorant of a +few hours before. It appeared to him quite simple that Marsa should +confide in him, as he on his side would have related to her his whole +life, if she had asked it with a glance from her dark eyes. He felt that +he had reached one of the decisive moments of his life. Marsa called up +visions of his youth-his first tender dreams of love, rudely broken by +the harsh voice of war; and he felt as he used to feel, in the days long +gone by, when he sat beneath the starry skies of a summer night and +listened to the old, heart-stirring songs of his country and the laughter +of the brown maidens of Budapest. + +"Prince," said Marsa Laszlo, suddenly, "do you know that I have been +seeking you for a long time, and that when the Baroness Dinati presented +you to me, she fulfilled one of my most ardent desires?" + +"Me, Mademoiselle? You have been seeking me?" + +"Yes, you. Tisza, of whom I spoke to you, my Tzigana mother, who bore +the name of the blessed river of our country, taught me to repeat your +name. She met you years ago, in the saddest moment of your life." + +"Your mother?" said Andras, waiting anxiously for the young girl to +continue. + +"Yes, my mother." + +She pointed to the buckle which clasped the belt of her dress. + +"See," she said. + +Andras felt a sudden pang, which yet was not altogether pain, dart +through his heart, and his eyes wandered questioningly from the buckle to +Marsa's face. Smiling, but her beautiful lips mute, Marsa seemed to say +to him: "Yes, it is the agraffe which you detached from your soldier's +pelisse and gave to an unknown Tzigana near your father's grave." + +The silver ornament, incrusted with opals, recalled sharply to Prince +Zilah that sad January night when the dead warrior had been laid in his +last resting-place. He saw again the sombre spot, the snowy fir-trees, +the black trench, and the broad, red reflections of the torches, which, +throwing a flickering light upon the dead, seemed to reanimate the pale, +cold face. + +And that daughter of the wandering musicians who had, at the open grave, +played as a dirge, or, rather, as a ringing hymn of resurrection and +deliverance, the chant of the fatherland-that dark girl to whom he had +said: "Bring me this jewel, and come and live in peace with the Zilahs" +--was the mother of this beautiful, fascinating creature, whose every +word, since he had first met her a few hours before, had exercised such a +powerful effect upon him. + +"So," he said, slowly, with a sad smile, "your mother's talisman was +worth more than mine. I have kept the lake pebbles she gave me, and +death has passed me by; but the opals of the agraffe did not bring +happiness to your mother. It is said that those stones are unlucky. +Are you superstitious?" + +"I should not be Tisza's daughter if I did not believe a little in all +that is romantic, fantastic, improbable, impossible even. Besides, the +opals are forgiven now: for they have permitted me to show you that you +were not unknown to me, Prince; and, as you see, I wear this dear agraffe +always. It has a double value to me, since it recalls the memory of my +poor mother and the name of a hero." + +She spoke these words in grave, sweet accents, which seemed more +melodious to Prince Andras than all the music of Baroness Dinati's +concert. He divined that Marsa Laszlo found as much pleasure in speaking +to him as he felt in listening. As he gazed at her, a delicate flush +spread over Marsa's pale, rather melancholy face, tingeing even her +little, shell-like ears, and making her cheeks glow with the soft, warm +color of a peach. + +Just at this moment the little Baroness came hastily up to them, and, +with an assumed air of severity, began to reproach Marsa for neglecting +the unfortunate musicians, suddenly breaking off to exclaim: + +"Really, you are a hundred times prettier than ever this evening, my dear +Marsa. What have you been doing to yourself?" + +"Oh! it is because I am very happy, I suppose," replied Marsa. + +"Ah! my dear Prince," and the Baroness broke into a merry peal of +laughter, "it is you, O ever-conquering hero, who have worked this +miracle." + +But, as if she had been too hasty in proclaiming aloud her happiness, the +Tzigana suddenly frowned, a harsh, troubled look crept into her dark +eyes, and her cheeks became pale as marble, while her gaze was fixed upon +a tall young man who was crossing the salon and coming toward her. + +Instinctively Andras Zilah followed her look. Michel Menko was advancing +to salute Marsa Laszlo, and take with affectionate respect the hand which +Andras extended to him. + +Marsa coldly returned the low bow of the young man, and took no part in +the conversation which followed. Menko remained but a few moments, +evidently embarrassed at his reception; and after his departure, Zilah, +who had noticed the Tzigana's coldness, asked her if she knew his friend. + +"Very well," she said, in a peculiar tone. + +"It would be difficult to imagine so from the way in which you received +him," said Andras, laughing. "Poor Michel! Have you any reason to be +angry with him?" + +"None." + +"I like him very much. He is a charming boy, and his father was one of +my companions in arms. I have been almost a guardian to his son. We are +kinsmen, and when the young count entered diplomacy he asked my advice, +as he hesitated to serve Austria. I told him that, after having fought +Austria with the sword, it was our duty to absorb it by our talents and +devotion. Was I not right? Austria is to-day subservient to Hungary, +and, when Vienna acts, Vienna glances toward Pesth to see if the Magyars +are satisfied. Michel Menko has therefore served his country well; and I +don't understand why he gave up diplomacy. He makes me uneasy: he seems +to me, like all young men of his generation, a little too undecided what +object to pursue, what duty to fulfil. He is nervous, irresolute. We +were more unfortunate but more determined; we marched straight on without +that burden of pessimism with which our successors are loaded down. I am +sorry that Michel has resigned his position: he had a fine future before +him, and he would have made a good diplomatist." + +"Too good, perhaps," interrupted Marsa, dryly. + +"Ah, decidedly," retorted the Prince, with a smile, "you don't like my +poor Menko." + +"He is indifferent to me;" and the way in which she pronounced the words +was a terrible condemnation of Michel Menko. "But," added the Tzigana, +"he himself has told me all that you have said of him. He, on his side, +has a great affection and a deep veneration for you; and it is not +astonishing that it should be so, for men like you are examples for men +like him, and--" + +She paused abruptly, as if unwilling to say more. + +"And what?" asked the Prince. + +"Nothing. 'Examples' is enough; I don't know what I was going to say." + +She made a little gesture with her pretty hand as if to dismiss the +subject; and, after wondering a moment at the girl's singular reticence +after her previous frankness, Andras thought only of enjoying her grace +and charm, until the Tzigana gave him her hand and bade him good-night, +begging him to remember that she would be very happy and proud to receive +him in her own house. + +"But, indeed," she added, with a laugh which displayed two rows of pearly +teeth, "it is not for me to invite you. That is a terrible breach of the +proprieties. General!" + +At her call, from a group near by, advanced old General Vogotzine, whom +Zilah had not noticed since the beginning of the evening. Marsa laid her +hand on his arm, and said, distinctly, Vogotzine being a little deaf: + +"Prince Andras Zilah, uncle, will do us the honor of coming to see us at +Maisons-Lafitte." + +"Ah! Ah! Very happy! Delighted! Very flattering of you, Prince," +stammered the General, pulling his white moustache, and blinking his +little round eyes. "Andras Zilah! Ah! 1848! Hard days, those! All +over now, though! All over now! Ah! Ah! We no longer cut one +another's throats! No! No! No longer cut one another's throats!" + +He held out to Andras his big, fat hand, and repeated, as he shook that +of the Prince: + +"Delighted! Enchanted! Prince Zilah! Yes! Yes!" + +In another moment they were gone, and the evening seemed to Andras like a +vision, a beautiful, feverish dream. + +He sent away his coupe, and returned home on foot, feeling the need of +the night air; and, as he walked up the Champs-Elysees beneath the starry +sky, he was surprised to find a new, youthful feeling at his heart, +stirring his pulses like the first, soft touch of spring. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +"HAVE I NO RIGHT TO BE HAPPY" + +There was a certain womanly coquetry, mingled with a profound love of the +soil where her martyred mother reposed, in the desire which Marsa Laszlo +had to be called the Tzigana, instead of by her own name. The Tzigana! +This name, as clear cut, resonant and expressive as the czimbaloms of the +Hungarian musicians, lent her an additional, original charm. She was +always spoken of thus, when she was perceived riding her pure-blooded +black mare, or driving, attached to a victoria, a pair of bay horses of +the Kisber breed. Before the horses ran two superb Danish hounds, of a +lustrous dark gray, with white feet, eyes of a peculiar blue, rimmed with +yellow, and sensitive, pointed ears--Duna and Bundas, the Hungarian names +for the Danube and the Velu. + +These hounds, and an enormous dog of the Himalayas, with a thick, yellow +coat and long, sharp teeth, a half-savage beast, bearing the name of +Ortog (Satan), were Marsa's companions in her walks; and their submission +to their young mistress, whom they could have knocked down with one pat +of their paws, gave the Tzigana reputation for eccentricity; which, +however, neither pleased nor displeased her, as she was perfectly +indifferent to the opinion of the public at large. + +She continued to inhabit, near the forest of Saint-Germain, beyond the +fashionable avenues, the villa, ornamented with the holy Muscovite icon, +which Prince Tchereteff had purchased; and she persisted in remaining +there alone with old Vogotzine, who regarded her respectfully with his +round eyes, always moist with 'kwass' or brandy. + +Flying the crowded city, eager for space and air, a true daughter of +Hungary, Marsa loved to ride through the beautiful, silent park, down the +long, almost deserted avenues, toward the bit of pale blue horizon +discernible in the distance at the end of the sombre arch formed by the +trees. Birds, startled by the horses' hoofs, rose here and there out of +the bushes, pouring forth their caroling to the clear ether; and Marsa, +spurring her thoroughbred, would dash in a mad gallop toward a little, +almost unknown grove of oaks, with thickets full of golden furze and pink +heather, where woodcutters worked, half buried in the long grass peppered +with blue cornflowers and scarlet poppies. + +Or, at other times, with Duna and Bundas bounding before her, +disappearing, returning, disappearing again with yelps of joy, it was +Marsa's delight to wander alone under the great limes of the Albine +avenue--shade over her head, silence about her--and then slowly, by way +of a little alley bordered with lofty poplars trembling at every breath +of wind, to reach the borders of the forest. In ten steps she would +suddenly find herself plunged in solitude as in a bath of verdure, shade +and oblivion. The sweet silence surrounding her calmed her, and she +would walk on and on though the thick grass under the great trees. The +trunks of the giant oaks were clothed in robes of emerald moss, and wild +flowers of all descriptions raised their heads amid the grass. There was +no footstep, no sound; a bee lazily humming, a brilliant butterfly +darting across the path, something quick and red flashing up a tree-- +a squirrel frightened by the Danish hounds; that was all. And Marsa was +happy with the languorous happiness which nature gives, her forehead +cooled by the fresh breeze, her eyes rested by the deep green which hid +the shoes, her whole being refreshed by the atmosphere of peace which +fell from the trees. + +Then, calling her dogs, she would proceed to a little farmhouse, and, +sitting down under the mulberry trees, wait until the farmer's wife +brought her some newly baked bread and a cup of milk, warm from the cows. +Then she would remain idly there, surrounded by chickens, ducks, and +great, greedy geese, which she fed, breaking the bread between her white +fingers, while Duna and Bundas crouched at her feet, pricking up their +ears, and watching these winged denizens of the farmyard, which Marsa +forbade them to touch. Finally the Tzigana would slowly wend her way +home, enter the villa, sit down before the piano, and play, with +ineffable sweetness, like souvenirs of another life, the free and +wandering life of her mother, the Hungarian airs of Janos Nemeth, the sad +"Song of Plevna," the sparkling air of "The Little Brown Maid of +Budapest," and that bitter; melancholy romance, "The World holds but One +Fair Maiden," a mournful and despairing melody, which she preferred to +all others, because it responded, with its tearful accents, to a +particular state of her own heart. + +The girl was evidently concealing some secret suffering. The bitter +memory of her early years? Perhaps. Physical pain? Possibly. She had +been ill some years before, and had been obliged to pass a winter at Pau. +But it seemed rather some mental anxiety or torture which impelled the +Tzigana to seek solitude and silence in her voluntary retreat. + +The days passed thus in that villa of Maisons-Lafitte, where Tisza died. +Very often, in the evening, Marsa would shut herself up in the solitude +of that death-chamber, which remained just as her mother had left it. +Below, General Vogotzine smoked his pipe, with a bottle of brandy for +company: above, Marsa prayed. + +One night she went out, and through the sombre alleys, in the tender +light of the moon, made her way to the little convent in the Avenue Egle, +where the blue sisters were established; those sisters whom she often met +in the park, with their full robes of blue cloth, their white veils, a +silver medallion and crucifix upon their breasts, and a rosary of wooden +beads suspended at their girdles. The little house of the community was +shut, the grating closed. The only sign of life was in the lighted +windows of the chapel. + +Marsa paused there, leaning her heated brow against the cold bars of +iron, with a longing for death, and a terrible temptation to end all by +suicide. + +"Who knows?" she murmured. "Perhaps forgetfulness, deep, profound +forgetfulness, lies within these walls." Forgetfulness! Marsa, then, +wished to forget? What secret torture gave to her beautiful face that +expression so bitter, so terrible in its agony? + +She stood leaning there, gazing at the windows of the chapel. Broken +words of prayers, of muttered verses and responses, reached her like the +tinkling of far-off chimes, like the rustling of invisible wings. The +blue sisters, behind those walls, were celebrating their vesper service. + +Does prayer drive away anguish and heartrending memories? + +Marsa was a Catholic, her mother having belonged to the minority of +Tzigani professing the faith of Rome; and Tisza's daughter could, +therefore, bury her youth and beauty in the convent of the blue sisters. + +The hollow murmur of the verses and prayers, which paused, began again, +and then died away in the night like sighs, attracted her, and, like the +trees of the forest, gave her an impression of that peace, that deep +repose, which was the longed-for dream of her soul. + +But, suddenly, the Tzigana started, removed her gaze from the light +streaming through the blue and crimson glass, and hurried away, crying +aloud in the darkness: + +"No! repose is not there. And, after all, where is repose? Only in +ourselves! It can be found nowhere, if it is not in the heart!" + +Then, after these hours of solitude, this longing for the cloister, this +thirsting for annihilation and oblivion, Marsa would experience a desire +for the dashing, false, and frivolous life of Paris. She would quit +Maisons, taking with her a maid, or sometimes old Vogotzine, go to some +immense hotel, like the Continental or the Grand, dine at the table +d'hote, or in the restaurant, seeking everywhere bustle and noise, the +antithesis of the life of shade and silence which she led amid the leafy +trees of her park. She would show herself everywhere, at races, +theatres, parties--as when she accepted the Baroness Dinati's invitation; +and, when she became nauseated with all the artificiality of worldly +life, she would return eagerly to her woods, her dogs and her solitude, +and, if it were winter, would shut herself up for long months in her +lonely, snow-girt house. + +And was not this existence sweet and pleasant, compared with the life led +by Tisza in the castle of the suburbs of Moscow? + +In this solitude, in the villa of Maisons-Lafitte, Andras Zilah was again +to see Marsa Laszlo. He came not once, but again and again. He was, +perhaps, since the death of Prince Tchereteff, the only man General +Vogotzine had seen in his niece's house, and Marsa was always strangely +happy when Andras came to see her. + +"Mademoiselle is very particular when Prince Zilah is coming to Maisons," +said her maid to her. + +"Because Prince Zilah is not a man like other men. He is a hero. In my +mother's country there is no name more popular than his." + +"So I have heard Count Menko say to Mademoiselle." + +If it were the maid's wish to remove all happiness from her mistress's +face, she had met with complete success. + +At the name of Menko, Marsa's expression became dark and threatening. +Prince Andras had noticed this same change in the Tzigana's face, when he +was speaking to her at Baroness Dinati's. + +The Prince had forgotten no detail of that first fascinating interview, +at which his love for the Tzigana was born. This man, who had hardly any +other desire than to end in peace a life long saddened by defeat and +exile, suddenly awoke to a happy hope of a home and family joys. He was +rich, alone in the world, and independent; and he was, therefore, free to +choose the woman to be made his princess. No caste prejudice prevented +him from giving his title to the daughter of Tisza. The Zilahs, in +trying to free their country, had freed themselves from all littleness; +and proud, but not vain, they bore but slight resemblance to those +Magyars of whom Szechenyi, the great count, who died of despair in 1849, +said: "The overweening haughtiness of my people will be their ruin." + +The last of the Zilahs did not consider his pride humiliated by loving +and wedding a Tzigana. Frankly, in accents of the deepest love and the +most sincere devotion, Andras asked Marsa Laszlo if she would consent to +become his wife. But he was terrified at the expression of anguish which +passed over the pale face of the young girl. + +Marsa, Princess Zilah! Like her mother, she would have refused from a +Tchereteff this title of princess which Andras offered her, nay, laid at +her feet with passionate tenderness. But--Princess Zilah! + +She regarded with wild eyes the Prince, who stood before her, timid and +with trembling lips, awaiting her reply. But, as she did not answer, he +stooped over and took her hands in his. + +"What is it?" he cried; for Marsa's fingers were icy. + +It cost the young girl a terrible effort to prevent herself from losing +consciousness. + +"But speak to me, Marsa," exclaimed Andras, "do not keep me in suspense." + +He had loved her now for six months, and an iron hand seemed to clutch +the heart of this man, who had never known what it was to fear, at the +thought that perhaps Marsa did not return his love. + +He had, doubtless, believed that he had perceived in her a tender feeling +toward himself which had emboldened him to ask her to be his wife. But +had be been deceived? Was it only the soldier in him that had pleased +Marsa? Was he about to suffer a terrible disappointment? Ah, what folly +to love, and to love at forty years, a young and beautiful girl like +Marsa! + +Still, she made him no answer, but sat there before him like a statue, +pale to the lips, her dark eyes fixed on him in a wild, horrified stare. + +Then, as he pressed her, with tears in his voice, to speak, she forced +her almost paralyzed tongue to utter a response which fell, cruel as a +death-sentence, upon the heart of the hero: + +"Never!" + +Andras stood motionless before her in such terrible stillness that she +longed to throw herself at his feet and cry out: "I love you! I love +you! But your wife--no, never!" + +She loved him? Yes, madly-better than that, with a deep, eternal +passion, a passion solidly anchored in admiration, respect and esteem; +with an unconquerable attraction toward what represented, to her harassed +soul, honor without a blemish, perfect goodness in perfect courage, the +immolation of a life to duty, all incarnate in one man, radiant in one +illustrious name--Zilah. + +And Andras himself divined something of this feeling; he felt that Marsa, +despite her enigmatical refusal, cared for him in a way that was +something more than friendship; he was certain of it. Then, why did she +command him thus with a single word to despair? "Never!" She was not +free, then? And a question, for which he immediately asked her pardon by +a gesture, escaped, like the appeal of a drowning man, from his lips: + +"Do you love some one else, Marsa?" + +She uttered a cry. + +"No! I swear to you--no!" + +He urged her, then, to explain what was the meaning of her refusal, of +the fright she had just shown; and, in a sort of nervous hysteria which +she forced herself to control, in the midst of stifled sobs, she told him +that if she could ever consent to unite herself to anyone, it would be to +him, to him alone, to the hero of her country, to him whose chivalrous +devotion she had admired long before she knew him, and that now-- And +here she stopped short, just on the brink of an avowal. + +"Well, now? Now?" demanded Andras, awaiting the word which, in her +overstrung condition, Marsa had almost spoken. "Now?" + +But she did not speak these words which Zilah begged for with newly +awakened hope. She longed to end this interview which was killing her, +and in broken accents asked him to excuse her, to forgive her--but she +was really ill. + +"But if you are suffering, I can not, I will not leave you." + +"I implore you. I need to be alone." + +"At least you will permit me to come to-morrow, Marsa, and ask for your +answer?" + +"My answer? I have given it to you." + +"No! No! I do not accept that refusal. No! you did not know what you +were saying. I swear to you, Marsa, that without you life is impossible +to me; all my existence is bound up in yours. You will reflect there was +an accent in your voice which bade me hope. I will come again to-morrow. +Tomorrow, Marsa. What you have said to-day does not count. Tomorrow, +to-morrow; and remember that I adore you." + +And she, shuddering at the tones of his voice, not daring to say no, and +to bid him an eternal farewell, let him depart, confident, hopeful, +despite the silence to which she obstinately, desperately clung. Then, +when Andras was gone, at the end of her strength, she threw herself, like +a mad woman, down upon the divan. Once alone, she gave way utterly, +sobbing passionately, and then, suddenly ceasing, with wild eyes fixed +upon vacancy, to mutter with dry, feverish lips: + +"Yet--it is life he brings to me--happiness he offers me. Have I no +right to be happy--I? My God! To be the wife of such a man! To love +him--to devote myself to him-to make his existence one succession of +happy days! To be his slave, his thing! Shall I marry him? Or--shall +I kill myself? Kill myself!" with a horrible, agonizing laugh. "Yes, +that is the only thing for me to do. But--but--I am a coward, now that +I love him--a coward! a coward! a miserable wretch!" And she fell +headlong forward, crouching upon the floor in a fierce despair, as if +either life or reason was about to escape from her forever. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +"O LIBERTY! O LOVE! THESE TWO I NEED!" + +When Zilah came the next day he found Marsa perfectly calm. At first he +only questioned her anxiously as to her health. + +"Oh! I am well," she replied, smiling a little sadly; and, turning to +the piano at which she was seated, she began to play the exquisitely sad +romance which was her favorite air. + +"That is by Janos Nemeth, is it not?" asked the Prince. + +"Yes, by Janos Nemeth. I am very fond of his music; it is so truly +Hungarian in its spirit." + +The music fell upon the air like sighs--like the distant tones of a bell +tolling a requiem--a lament, poetic, mournful, despairing, yet ineffably +sweet and tender, ending in one deep, sustained note like the last clod +of earth falling upon a new-made grave. + +"What is that called, Marsa?" said Andras. + +She made no reply. + +Rising, he looked at the title, printed in Hungarian; then, leaning over +the Tzigana till his breath fanned her cheek, he murmured: + +"Janos Nemeth was right. The world holds but one fair maiden." + +She turned very pale, rose from the piano, and giving him her hand, said: + +"It is almost a madrigal, my dear Prince, is it not? I am going to be +frank with you. You love me, I know; and I also love you. Will you give +me a month to reflect? A whole month?" + +"My entire life belongs to you now," said the Prince. "Do with it what +you will." + +"Well! Then in a month I will give you your answer," she said firmly. + +"But," said Andras, smiling beneath his blond moustache, "remember that +I once, took for my motto the verses of Petoefi. You know well those +beautiful verses of our country: + + O Liberty! O Love! + These two I need. + My chosen meed, + To give my love for Liberty, + My life for Love. + +"Well," he added, "do you know, at this moment the Andras Zilah of +'forty-eight would almost give liberty, that passion of his whole life, +for your love, Marsa, my own Marsa, who are to me the living incarnation +of my country." + +Marsa was moved to the depths of her heart at hearing this man speak such +words to her. The ideal of the Tzigana, as it is of most women, was +loyalty united with strength. Had she ever, in her wildest flights of +fancy, dreamed that she should hear one of the heroes of the war of +independence, a Zilah Andras, supplicate her to bear his name? + +Marsa knew Yanski Varhely. The Prince had brought him to see her at +Maisons-Lafitte. She was aware that Count Varhely knew the Prince's most +secret thoughts, and she was certain that Andras had confided all his +hopes and his fears to his old friend. + +"What do you think would become of the Prince if I should not marry him?" +she asked him one day without warning. + +"That is a point-blank question which I hardly expected," said Yanski, +gazing at her in astonishment. "Don't you wish to become a Zilah?" + +Any hesitation even seemed to him insulting, almost sacrilegious. + +"I don't say that," replied the Tzigana, "but I ask you what would become +of the Prince if, for one reason or another--" + +"I can very easily inform you," interrupted Varhely. "The Prince, as you +must be aware, is one of those men who love but once during their lives. +Upon my word of honor, I believe that, if you should refuse him, he would +commit some folly, some madness, something--fatal. Do you understand?" + +"Ah!" ejaculated Marsa, with an icy chill in her veins. + +"That is my opinion," continued Yanski, harshly. "He is wounded. It +remains with you to decide whether the bullet be mortal or not." + +Varhely's response must have had great weight in Marsa Laszlo's +reflections, full of anguish, fever, revolt and despair as they were, +during the few weeks preceding the day upon which she had promised to +tell Prince Andras if she would consent to become his wife or not. It +was a yes, almost as curt as another refusal, which fell at last from the +lips of the Tzigana. But the Prince was not cool enough to analyze an +intonation. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed, "I have suffered so much during these weeks of +doubt; but this happiness makes amends for all." + +"Do you know what Varhely said to me?" asked Marsa. + +"Yes, I know." + +"Well, since the Zilahs treat their love-affairs as they do their duels, +and risk their whole existence, so be it! I accept. Your existence for +mine! Gift for gift! I do not wish you to die!" + +He did not try to understand her; but he took her burning hands between +his own, and covered them with kisses. And she, with trembling lip, +regarded, through her long eyelashes, the brave man who now bent before +her, saying: "I love you." + +Then, in that moment of infinite happiness, on the threshold of the new +life which opened before her, she forgot all to think only of the +reality, of the hero whose wife she was to be. His wife! So, as in a +dream, without thinking, without resisting, abandoning herself to the +current which bore her along, not trying to take account of time or of +the future, loving, and beloved, living in a sort of charmed +somnambulism, the Tzigana watched the preparations for her marriage. + +The Prince, with the impatience of a youth of twenty, had urged an early +day for their union. He announced his engagement to the society, at once +Parisian and foreign, of which he formed a part; and this marriage of the +Magyar with the Tzigana was an event in aristocratic circles. There was +an aroma of chivalrous romance about this action of Prince Andras, who +was rich enough and independent enough to have married, if he had wished, +a shepherdess, like the kings of fairy tales. + +"Isn't it perfectly charming?" exclaimed the little Baroness Dinati, +enthusiastically. "Jacquemin, my dear friend, I will give you all the +details of their first meeting. You can make a delicious article out of +it, delicious!" + +The little Baroness was almost as delighted as the Prince. Ah! what a +man that Zilah was! He would give, as a wedding-gift to the Tzigana, the +most beautiful diamonds in the world, those famous Zilah diamonds, which +Prince Joseph had once placed disdainfully upon his hussar's uniform when +he charged the Prussian cuirassiers of Ziethen, sure of escaping the +sabre cuts, and not losing a single one of the stones during the combat. +It was said that Marsa, until she was his wife, would not accept any +jewels from the Prince. The opals in the silver agraffe were all she +wanted. + +"You know them, don't you, Jacquemin? The famous opals of the Tzigana? +Put that all in, every word of it." + +"Yes, it is chic enough." answered the reporter. "It is very romantic, +a little too much so; my readers will never believe it. Never mind, +though, I will write it all up in my best manner." + +The fete on board the steamer, given by the Prince in honor of his +betrothal, had been as much talked of as a sensational first night at the +Francais, and it added decidedly to the romantic prestige of Andras +Zilah. There was not a marriageable young girl who was not a little in +love with him, and their mothers envied the luck of the Tzigana. + +"It is astonishing how jealous the mammas are," said the Baroness, gayly. +"They will make me pay dearly for having been the matchmaker; but I am +proud of it, very proud. Zilah has good taste, that is all. And, as for +him, I should have been in love with him myself, if I had not had my +guests to attend to. Ah, society is as absorbing as a husband!" + +Upon the boat, Paul Jacquemin did not leave the side of the matchmaker. +He followed her everywhere. He had still to obtain a description of the +bride's toilettes, the genealogy of General Vogotzine, a sketch of the +bridegroom's best friend, Varhely, and a thousand other details. + +"Where will the wedding take place?" he asked the Baroness. + +"At Maisons-Lafitte. Oh! everything is perfect, my dear Jacquemin, +perfect! An idyl! All the arrangements are exquisite, exquisite! +I only wish that you had charge of the supper." + +Jacquemin, general overseer of the Baroness's parties in the Rue Murillo, +did not confess himself inferior to any one as an epicure. He would +taste the wines, with the air of a connoisseur, holding his glass up to +the light, while the liquor caressed his palate, and shutting his eyes as +if more thoroughly to decide upon its merits. + +"Pomard!" would slowly fall from his lips, or "Acceptable Musigny!" +"This Chambertin is really very fair!" "The Chateau Yquem is not half +bad!" etc., etc. And the next morning would appear in the reports, +which he wrote himself under various pseudonyms: "Our compliments to our +friend Jacquemin, if he had anything to do with the selection of the +wines, in addition to directing the rehearsals of the Baroness's +operetta, which latter work he most skilfully accomplished. Jacquemin +possesses talents of all kinds; he knows how to make the best of all +materials. As the proverb says, 'A good mill makes everything flour.'" + +Jacquemin had already cast an eye over the menu of the Prince's fete, and +declared it excellent, very correct, very pure. + + .................... + +The steamer was at last ready to depart, and Prince Zilah had done the +honors to all his guests. It started slowly off, the flags waving +coquettishly in the breeze, while the Tzigani musicians played with +spirit the vibrating notes of the March of Rakoczy, that triumphant air +celebrating the betrothal of Zilah, as it had long ago saluted the burial +of his father. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"IS FATE SO JUST?" + +"We are moving! We are off!" cried the lively little Baroness. "I hope +we shan't be shipwrecked," retorted Jacquemin; and he then proceeded to +draw a comical picture of possible adventures wherein figured white +bears, icebergs, and death by starvation. "A subject for a novel,-- +'The Shipwreck of the Betrothed.'" + +As they drew away from Paris, passing the quays of Passy and the taverns +of Point-du-jour, tables on wooden horses were rapidly erected, and +covered with snowy cloths; and soon the guests of the Prince were seated +about the board, Andras between Marsa and the Baroness, and Michel Menko +some distance down on the other side of the table. The pretty women and +fashionably dressed men made the air resound with gayety and laughter, +while the awnings flapped joyously in the wind, and the boat glided on, +cutting the smooth water, in which were reflected the long shadows of the +aspens and willows on the banks, and the white clouds floating in the +clear sky. Every now and then a cry of admiration would be uttered at +some object in the panorama moving before them, the slopes of Suresnes, +the black factories of Saint-Denis with their lofty chimneys, the red- +roofed villas of Asnieres, or the heights of Marly dotted with little +white houses. + +"Ah! how pretty it is! How charming!" + +"Isn't it queer that we have never known anything about all this? It is +a veritable voyage of discovery." + +"Ladies and gentlemen," cried, above the other voices, Jacquemin, whom +Zilah did not know, and to whom the Baroness had made him give a card of +invitation, "we are now entering savage countries. It is Kamtschatka, or +some such place, and there must be cannibals here." + +The borders of the Seine, which were entirely fresh to them, and which +recalled the pictures of the salon, were a delightful novelty to these +people, accustomed to the dusty streets of the city. + +Seated between the Prince and the Japanese, and opposite Varhely and +General Vogotzine, the Baroness thoroughly enjoyed her breakfast. Prince +Andras had not spared the Tokay--that sweet, fiery wine, of which the +Hungarians say proudly: "It has the color and the price of gold;" and the +liquor disappeared beneath the moustache of the Russian General as in a +funnel. The little Baroness, as she sipped it with pretty little airs of +an epicure, chatted with the Japanese, and, eager to increase her +culinary knowledge, asked him for the receipt for a certain dish which +the little yellow fellow had made her taste at a dinner given at his +embassy. + +"Send it to me, will you, Yamada? I will have my cook make it; nothing +gives me so much pleasure as to be able to offer to my guests a new and +strange dish. I will give you the receipt also, Jacquemin. Oh! it is +such an odd-tasting dish! It gives you a sensation of having been +poisoned." + +"Like the guests in Lucrezia Borgia," laughed the Parisian Japanese. + +"Do you know Lucrezia Borgia?" + +"Oh, yes; they have sung it at Yokohama. Oh! we are no longer savages, +Baroness, believe me. If you want ignorant barbarians, you must seek the +Chinese." + +The little Japanese was proud of appearing so profoundly learned in +European affairs, and his gimlet eyes sought an approving glance from +Paul Jacquemin or Michel Menko; but the Hungarian was neither listening +to nor thinking of Yamada. He was entirely absorbed in the contemplation +of Marsa; and, with lips a little compressed, he fixed a strange look +upon the beautiful young girl to whom Andras was speaking, and who, very +calm, almost grave, but evidently happy, answered the Prince with a sweet +smile. + +There was a sort of Oriental grace about Marsa, with her willowy figure, +flexible as a Hindoo convolvulus, and her dark Arabian eyes fringed with +their heavy lashes. Michel Menko took in all the details of her beauty, +and evidently suffered, suffered cruelly, his eyes invincibly attracted +toward her. In the midst of these other women, attired in robes of the +last or the next fashion, of all the colors of the rainbow, Marsa, in her +gown of black lace, was by far the loveliest of them all. Michel watched +her every movement; but she, quiet, as if a trifle weary, spoke but +little, and only in answer to the Prince and Varhely, and, when her +beautiful eyes met those of Menko, she turned them away, evidently +avoiding his look with as much care as he sought hers. + +The breakfast over, they rose from the table, the men lighting cigars, +and the ladies seeking the mirrors in the cabin to rearrange their +tresses disheveled by the wind. + +The boat stopped at Marly until it was time for the lock to be opened, +before proceeding to Maisons-Lafitte, where Marsa was to land. Many of +the passengers, with almost childish gayety, landed, and strolled about +on the green bank. + +Marsa was left alone, glad of the silence which reigned on the steamer +after the noisy chatter of a moment ago. She leaned over the side of the +boat, listening idly to the swish of the water along its sides. + +Michel Menko was evidently intending to approach her, and he had made a +few steps toward her, when he felt a hand laid upon his shoulder. He +turned, thinking it was the Prince; but it was Yanski Varhely, who said +to the young man: + +"Well, my dear Count, you did right to come from London to this fete. +Not only is Zilah delighted to see you, but the fantastic composition of +the guests is very curious. Baroness Dinati has furnished us with an +'ollapodrida' which would have pleased her husband. There is a little of +everything. Doesn't it astonish you?" + +"No," said Michel. "This hybrid collection is representative of modern +society. I have met almost all these faces at Nice; they are to be seen +everywhere." + +"To me," retorted Yanski, in his guttural voice, "these people are +phenomena." + +"Phenomena? Not at all. Life of to-day is so complicated that the most +unexpected people and events find their place in it. You have not lived, +Varhely, or you have lived only for your idol, your country, and +everything amazes you. If you had, like me, wandered all over the world, +you would not be astonished at anything; although, to tell the truth"-- +and the young man's voice became bitter, trenchant, and almost +threatening--" we have only to grow old to meet with terrible surprises, +very hard to bear." + +As he spoke, he glanced, involuntarily perhaps, at Marsa Laszlo, leaning +on the railing just below him. + +"Oh! don't speak of old age before you have passed through the trials +that Zilah and I have," responded Varhely. "At eighteen, Andras Zilah +could have said: 'I am old.' He was in mourning at one and the same time +for all his people and for our country. But you! You have grown up, my +dear fellow, in happy times. Austria, loosening her clutch, has +permitted you to love and serve our cause at your ease. You were born +rich, you married the most charming of women"-- + +Michel frowned. + +"That is, it is true, the sorrow of your life," continued Varhely. "It +seems to me only yesterday that you lost the poor child." + +"It is over two years, however," said Michel, gravely. "Two years! How +time flies!" + +"She was so charming," said old Yanski, not perceiving the expression of +annoyance mingled with sadness which passed over the young man's face. +"I knew your dear wife when she was quite small, in her father's house. +He gave me an asylum at Prague, after the capitulation signed by Georgei. +Although I was an Hungarian, and he a Bohemian, her father and I were +great friends." + +"Yes," said Menko, rapidly, "she often spoke of you, my dear Varhely. +They taught her to love you, too. But," evidently seeking to turn the +conversation to avoid a subject which was painful to him, "you spoke of +Georgei. Ah! our generation has never known your brave hopes; and your +grief, believe me, was better than our boredom. We are useless +encumberers of the earth. Upon my word, it seems to me that we are +unsettled, enfeebled, loving nothing and loving everything, ready to +commit all sorts of follies. I envy you those days of battle, those +magnificent deeds of 'forty-eight and 'forty-nine. To fight thus was to +live!" + +But even while he spoke, his thin face became more melancholy, and his +eyes again sought the direction of Prince Andras's fiancee. + +After a little more desultory conversation, he strolled away from +Varhely, and gradually approached Marsa, who, her chin resting on her +hand, and her eyes lowered, seemed absorbed in contemplation of the +ceaseless flow of the water. + +Greatly moved, pulling his moustache, and glancing with a sort of +uneasiness at Prince Andras, who was promenading on the bank with the +Baroness, Michel Menko paused before addressing Marsa, who had not +perceived his approach, and who was evidently far away in some day-dream. + +Gently, hesitatingly, and in a low voice, he at last spoke her name: + +"Marsa!" + +The Tzigana started as if moved by an electric shock, and, turning +quickly, met the supplicating eyes of the young man. + +"Marsa!" repeated Michel, in a humble tone of entreaty. + +"What do you wish of me?" she said. "Why do you speak to me? You must +have seen what care I have taken to avoid you." + +"It is that which has wounded me to the quick. You are driving me mad. +If you only knew what I am suffering!" + +He spoke almost in a whisper, and very rapidly, as if he felt that +seconds were worth centuries. + +She answered him in a cutting, pitiless tone, harsher even than the +implacable look in her dark eyes. "You suffer? Is fate so just as that? +You suffer?" + +Her tone and expression made Michel Menko tremble as if each syllable of +these few words was a blow in the face. + +"Marsa!" he exclaimed, imploringly. "Marsa!" + +"My name is Marsa Laszlo; and, in a few days, I shall be Princess Zilah," +responded the young girl, passing haughtily by him, "and I think you will +hardly force me to make you remember it." + +She uttered these words so resolutely, haughtily, almost disdainfully, +and accompanied them with such a flash from her beautiful eyes that Menko +instinctively bowed his head, murmuring: + +"Forgive me!" + +But he drove his nails into the palm of his clenched hand as he saw her +leave that part of the boat, and retire as far from him as she could, as +if his presence were an insult to her. Tears of rage started into the +young man's eyes as he watched her graceful figure resume its former +posture of dreamy absorption. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A RIVER FETE + +Close alongside of the Prince's boat, waiting also for the opening of the +lock, was one of those great barges which carry wood or charcoal up and +down the Seine. + +A whole family often lives on board these big, heavy boats. The smoke of +the kitchen fire issues from a sort of wooden cabin where several human +beings breathe, eat, sleep, are born and die, sometimes without hardly +ever having set foot upon the land. Pots of geranium or begonia give a +bit of bright color to the dingy surroundings; and the boats travel +slowly along the river, impelled by enormous oars, which throw long +shadows upon the water. + +It was this motionless barge that Marsa was now regarding. + +The hot sun, falling upon the boat, made its brown, wet sides sparkle +like the brilliant wings of some gigantic scarabee; and, upon the +patched, scorched deck, six or seven half-naked, sunburned children, boys +and girls, played at the feet of a bundle of rags and brown flesh, which +was a woman, a young woman, but prematurely old and wasted, who was +nursing a little baby. + +A little farther off, two men-one tough and strong, a man of thirty, whom +toil had made forty, the other old, wrinkled, white-haired and with skin +like leather, father and grandfather, doubtless, of the little brats +beyond--were eating bread and cheese, and drinking, turn by turn, out of +a bottle of wine, which they swallowed in gulps. The halt was a rest to +these poor people. + +As Marsa watched them, she seemed to perceive in these wanderers of the +river, as in a vision, those other wanderers of the Hungarian desert, her +ancestors, the Tzigani, camped in the puszta, the boundless plain, +crouched down in the long grass beneath the shade of the bushes, and +playing their beautiful national airs. She saw the distant fires of the +bivouac of those unknown Tzigani whose daughter she was; she seemed to +breathe again the air of that country she had seen but once, when upon a +mournful pilgrimage; and, in the presence of that poor bargeman's wife, +with her skin tanned by the sun, she thought of her dead, her cherished +dead, Tisza. + +Tisza! To the gipsy had doubtless been given the name of the river on +the banks of which she had been born. They called the mother Tisza, in +Hungary, as in Paris they called the daughter the Tzigana. And Marsa was +proud of her nickname; she loved these Tzigani, whose blood flowed in her +veins; sons of India, perhaps, who had descended to the valley of the +Danube, and who for centuries had lived free in the open air, electing +their chiefs, and having a king appointed by the Palatine--a king, who +commanding beggars, bore, nevertheless, the name of Magnificent; +indestructible tribes, itinerant republics, musicians playing the old +airs of their nation, despite the Turkish sabre and the Austrian police; +agents of patriotism and liberty, guardians of the old Hungarian honor. + +These poor people, passing their lives upon the river as the Tzigani +lived in the fields and hedges, seemed to Marsa like the very spectres of +her race. More than the musicians with embroidered vests did the poor +prisoners of the solitary barge recall to her the great proscribed family +of her ancestors. + +She called to the children playing upon the sunbeaten deck: "Come here, +and hold up your aprons!" + +They obeyed, spreading out their little tattered garments. "Catch +these!" she cried. + +They could not believe their eyes. From the steamer she threw down to +them mandarins, grapes, ripe figs, yellow apricots, and great velvety +peaches; a rain of dainties which would have surprised a gourmand: the +poor little things, delighted and afraid at the same time, wondered if +the lady, who gave them such beautiful fruit, was a fairy. + +The mother then rose; and, coming toward Marsa to thank her, her sunburnt +skin glowing a deeper red, the poor woman, with tears in her tired eyes, +and a wan smile upon her pale lips, touched, surprised, happy in the +pleasure of her children, murmured, faltering and confused: + +"Ah! Madame! Madame! how good you are! You are too good, Madame!" + +"We must share what we have!" said Marsa, with a smile. "See how happy +the children are!" + +"Very happy, Madame. They are not accustomed to such things. Say 'Thank +you,' to the beautiful lady. Say 'Thank you,' Jean; you are the oldest. +Say like this: 'Thank-you-Ma-dame.'" + +"Thank-you-Ma-dame" faltered the boy, raising to Marsa big, timid eyes, +which did not understand why anybody should either wish him ill or do him +a kindness. And other low, sweet little voices repeated, like a refrain: +"Thank-you-Ma-dame." + +The two men, in astonishment, came and stood behind the children, and +gazed silently at Marsa. + +"And your baby, Madame?" said the Tzigana, looking at the sleeping +infant, that still pressed its rosy lips to the mother's breast. "How +pretty it is! Will you permit me to offer it its baptismal dress?" + +"Its baptismal dress?" repeated the mother. + +"Oh, Madame!" ejaculated the father, twisting his cap between his +fingers. + +"Or a cloak, just as you please," added Marsa. + +The poor people on the barge made no reply, but looked at one another in +bewilderment. + +"Is it a little girl?" asked the Tzigana. + +"No, Madame, no," responded the mother. "A boy." + +"Come here, jean," said Marsa to the oldest child. "Yes, come here, my +little man." + +Jean came forward, glancing askance at his mother, as if to know whether +he should obey. + +"Here, jean," said the young girl, "this is for your baby brother." + +And into the little joined hands of the boy, Marsa let fall a purse, +through whose meshes shone yellow pieces of gold. + +The people of the barge thought they were dreaming, and stood open- +mouthed in amazement, while Jean cried out: + +"Mamma, see, mamma! Mamma! Mamma!" + +Then the younger bargeman said to Marsa: + +"Madame, no, no! we can not accept. It is too much. You are too good. +Give it back, Jean." + +"It is true, Madame," faltered his wife. "It is impossible. It is too +much." + +"You will cause me great pain if you refuse to accept it," said Marsa. +"Chance has brought us together for a moment, and I am superstitious. +I would like to have the little children pray that those I love--that the +one I love may be happy." And she turned her eyes upon Prince Andras, +who had returned to the deck, and was coming toward her. + +The lock was now opened. + +"All aboard!" shouted the captain of the steamer. + +The poor woman upon the barge tried to reach the hand of Marsa to kiss +it. + +"May you be happy, Madame, and thank you with all our hearts for your +goodness to both big and little." + +The two bargemen bowed low in great emotion, and the whole bevy of little +ones blew kisses to the beautiful lady in the black dress, whom the +steamer was already bearing away. + +"At least tell us your name, Madame," cried the father. "Your name, that +we may never forget you." + +A lovely smile appeared on Marsa's lips, and, in almost melancholy +accents, she said: + +"My name!" Then, after a pause, proudly: "The Tzigana!" + +The musicians, as she spoke, suddenly struck up one of the Hungarian +airs. Then, as in a flying vision, the poor bargemen saw the steamer +move farther and farther away, a long plume of smoke waving behind it. + +Jacquemin, hearing one of those odd airs, which in Hungary start all feet +moving and keeping time to the music, exclaimed: + +"A quadrille! Let us dance a quadrille! An Hungarian quadrille!" + +The poor people on the barge listened to the music, gradually growing +fainter and fainter; and they would have believed that they had been +dreaming, if the purse had not been there, a fortune for them, and the +fruit which the children were eating. The mother, without understanding, +repeated that mysterious name: "The Tzigana." + +And Marsa also gazed after them, her ears caressed by the czardas of the +musicians. The big barge disappeared in the distance in a luminous haze; +but the Tzigana could still vaguely perceive the little beings perched +upon the shoulders of the men, and waving, in sign of farewell, pieces of +white cloth which their mother had given them. + +A happy torpor stole over Marsa; and, while the guests of the Baroness +Dinati, the Japanese Yamada, the English heiresses, the embassy attaches, +all these Parisian foreigners, led by Jacquemin, the director of the +gayety, were organizing a ballroom on the deck, and asking the Tzigani +for polkas of Fahrbach and waltzes of Strauss, the young girl heard the +voice of Andras murmur low in her ear: + +"Ah! how I love you! And do you love me, Marsa?" + +"I am happy," she answered, without moving, and half closing her eyes, +"and, if it were necessary for me to give my life for you, I would give +it gladly." + +In the stern of the boat, Michel Menko watched, without seeing them, +perhaps, the fields, the houses of Pecq, the villas of Saint-Germain, +the long terrace below heavy masses of trees, the great plain beside +Paris with Mont Valerien rising in its midst, the two towers of the +Trocadero, whose gilded dome sparkled in the sun, and the bluish-black +cloud which hung over the city like a thick fog. + +The boat advanced very slowly, as if Prince Andras had given the order to +delay as much as possible the arrival at Maisons-Lafitte, where the whole +fete would end for him, as Marsa was to land there. Already, upon the +horizon could be perceived the old mill, with its broad, slated roof. +The steeple of Sartrouville loomed up above the red roofs of the houses +and the poplars which fringe the bank of the river. A pale blue light, +like a thin mist, enveloped the distant landscape. + +"The dream is over," murmured Marsa. + +"A far more beautiful one will soon begin," said Andras, "and that one +will be the realization of what I have waited for all my life and never +found--love." + +Marsa turned to the Prince with a look full of passionate admiration and +devotion, which told him how thoroughly his love was returned. + +The quadrille had ended, and a waltz was beginning. The little Japanese, +with his eternal smile, like the bronze figures of his country, was +dancing with a pre-raphaelite English girl. + +"How well you dance," she said. + +"If we only had some favors," replied the Japanese, showing his teeth in +a grin, "I would lead the cotillon." + +The boat stopped at last at Maisons-Lafitte. The great trees of the park +formed a heavy mass, amid which the roof of the villa was just +discernible. + +"What a pity it is all over," cried the Baroness, who was ruddy as a +cherry with the exercise of dancing. "Let us have another; but Maisons- +Lafitte is too near. We will go to Rouen the next time; or rather, I +invite you all to a day fete in Paris, a game of polo, a lunch, a garden +party, whatever you like. I will arrange the programme with Yamada and +Jacquemin." + +"Willingly," responded the Japanese, with a low bow. "To collaborate +with Monsieur Jacquemin will be very amusing." + +As Marsa Laszlo was leaving the boat, Michel Menko stood close to the +gangway, doubtless on purpose to speak to her; and, in the confusion of +landing, without any one hearing him, he breathed in her ear these brief +words: + +"At your house this evening. I must see you." + +She gave him an icy glance. Michel Menko's eyes were at once full of +tears and flames. + +"I demand it!" he said, firmly. + +The Tzigana made no reply; but, going to Andras Zilah, she took his arm; +while Michel, as if nothing had happened, raised his hat. + +General Vogotzine, with flaming face, followed his niece, muttering, as +he wiped the perspiration unsteadily from his face: + +"Fine day! Fine day! By Jove! But the sun was hot, though! Ah, and +the wines were good!" + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man's life belongs to his duty, and not to his happiness +All defeats have their geneses +Foreigners are more Parisian than the Parisians themselves +One of those beings who die, as they have lived, children +Playing checkers, that mimic warfare of old men +Superstition which forbids one to proclaim his happiness +The Hungarian was created on horseback +There were too many discussions, and not enough action +Would not be astonished at anything +You suffer? Is fate so just as that + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Zilah, v1 +by Jules Claretie + + + + + + +PRINCE ZILAH + +By JULES CLARETIE + + + +BOOK 2. + + +CHAPTER XII + +A DARK PAGE + +As Marsa departed with Vogotzine in the carriage which had been waiting +for them on the bank, she waved her hand to Zilah with a passionate +gesture, implying an infinity of trouble, sadness, and love. The Prince +then returned to his guests, and the boat, which Marsa watched through +the window of the carriage, departed, bearing away the dream, as she had +said to Andras. During the drive home she did not say a word. By her +side the General grumbled sleepily of the sun, which, the Tokay aiding, +had affected his head. But, when Marsa was alone in her chamber, the cry +which was wrung from her breast was a cry of sorrow, of despairing anger: + +"Ah, when I think--when I think that I am envied!" + +She regretted having allowed Andras to depart without having told him on +the spot, the secret of her life. She would not see him again until the +next day, and she felt as if she could never live through the long, dull +hours. She stood at the window, wrapped in thought, gazing mechanically +before her, and still hearing the voice of Michel Menko hissing like a +snake in her ear. What was it this man had said? She did not dare to +believe it. "I demand it!" He had said: "I demand it!" Perhaps some +one standing near had heard it. "I demand it!" + +Evening came. Below the window the great masses of the chestnut-trees +and the lofty crests of the poplars waved in the breeze like forest +plumes, their peaks touched by the sun setting in a sky of tender blue, +while the shadowy twilight crept over the park where, through the +branches, patches of yellow light, like golden and copper vapors, still +gave evidence of the god of day. + +Marsa, her heart full of a melancholy which the twilight increased, +repeated over and over again, with shudders of rage and disgust, those +three words which Michel Menko had hurled at her like a threat: "I demand +it!" Suddenly she heard in the garden the baying of dogs, and she saw, +held in check by a domestic, Duna and Bundas, bounding through the masses +of flowers toward the gate, where a man appeared, whom Marsa, leaning +over the balcony, recognized at once. + +"The wretch!" she exclaimed between her clenched teeth. It was Menko. + +He must have debarked before reaching Paris, and have come to Maisons- +Lafitte in haste. + +Marsa's only thought, in the first moment of anger, was to refuse to see +him. "I can not," she thought, "I will not!" Then suddenly her mind +changed. It was braver and more worthy of her to meet the danger face to +face. She rang, and said to the domestic who answered the bell: "Show +Count Menko into the little salon." + +"We shall see what he will dare," muttered the Tzigana, glancing at the +mirror as if to see whether she appeared to tremble before danger and an +enemy. + +The little salon into which the young Count was introduced was in the +left wing of the villa; and it was Marsa's favorite room, because it was +so quiet there. She had furnished it with rare taste, in half Byzantine +and half Hindoo fashion--a long divan running along the wall, covered +with gray silk striped with garnet; Persian rugs cast here and there at +random; paintings by Petenkofen--Hungarian farms and battle-scenes, +sentinels lost in the snow; two consoles loaded with books, reviews, and +bric-a-brac; and a round table with Egyptian incrustations, covered with +an India shawl, upon which were fine bronzes of Lanceray, and little +jewelled daggers. + +This salon communicated with a much larger one, where General Vogotzine +usually took his siesta, and which Marsa abandoned to him, preferring the +little room, the windows of which, framed in ivy, looked out upon the +garden, with the forest in the distance. + +Michel Menko was well acquainted with this little salon, where he had +more than once seen Marsa seated at the piano playing her favorite airs. +He remembered it all so well, and, nervously twisting his moustache, he +longed for her to make her appearance. He listened for the frou-frou of +Marsa's skirts on the other side of the lowered portiere which hung +between the two rooms; but he heard no sound. + +The General had shaken hands with Michel, as he passed through the large +salon, saying, in his thick voice: + +"Have you come to see Marsa? You have had enough of that water-party, +then? It was very pretty; but the sun was devilish hot. My head is +burning now; but it serves me right for not remaining quiet at home." + +Then he raised his heavy person from the armchair he had been sitting in, +and went out into the garden, saying: "I prefer to smoke in the open air; +it is stifling in here." Marsa, who saw Vogotzine pass out, let him go, +only too willing to have him at a distance during her interview with +Michel Menko; and then she boldly entered the little salon, where the +Count, who had heard her approach, was standing erect as if expecting +some attack. + +Marsa closed the door behind her; and, before speaking a word, the two +faced each other, as if measuring the degree of hardihood each possessed. +The Tzigana, opening fire first, said, bravely and without preamble: + +"Well, you wished to see me. Here I am! What do you want of me?" + +"To ask you frankly whether it is true, Marsa, that you are about to +marry Prince Zilah." + +She tried to laugh; but her laugh broke nervously off. She said, +however, ironically: + +"Oh! is it for that that you are here?" + +"Yes." + +"It was perfectly useless, then, for you to take the trouble: you ask me +a thing which you know well, which all the world knows, which all the +world must have told you, since you had the audacity to be present at +that fete to-day." + +"That is true," said Michel, coldly; "but I only learned it by chance. +I wished to hear it from your own lips." + +"Do I owe you any account of my conduct?" asked Marsa, with crushing +hauteur. + +He was silent a moment, strode across the room, laid his hat down upon +the little table, and suddenly becoming humble, not in attitude, but in +voice, said: + +"Listen, Marsa: you are a hundred times right to hate me. I have +deceived you, lied to you. I have conducted myself in a manner unworthy +of you, unworthy of myself. But to atone for my fault--my crime, if you +will--I am ready to do anything you order, to be your miserable slave, +in order to obtain the pardon which I have come to ask of you, and which +I will ask on my knees, if you command me to do so." + +The Tzigana frowned. + +"I have nothing to pardon you, nothing to command you," she said with an +air more wearied than stern, humiliating, and disdainful. "I only ask +you to leave me in peace, and never appear again in my life." + +"So! I see that you do not understand me," said Michel, with sudden +brusqueness. + +"No, I acknowledge it, not in the least." + +"When I asked you whether you were to marry Prince Andras, didn't you +understand that I asked you also another thing: Will you marry me, me-- +Michel Menko?" + +"You!" cried the Tzigana. + +And there was in this cry, in this "You!" ejaculated with a rapid +movement of recoil-amazement, fright, scorn, and anger. + +"You!" she said again. And Michel Menko felt in this word a mass of +bitter rancor and stifled hatred which suddenly burst its bonds. + +"Yes, me!" he said, braving the insult of Marsa's cry and look. "Me, +who love you, and whom you have loved!" + +"Ah, don't dare to say that!" she cried, drawing close to the little +table where the daggers rested amid the objects of art. "Don't be vile +enough to speak to me of a past of which nothing remains to me but +disgust! Let not one word which recalls it to me mount to your lips, +not one, you understand, or I will kill you like the coward you are!" + +"Do so, Marsa!" he cried with wild, mad passion. "I should die by your +hand, and you would not marry that man!" + +Afraid of herself, wresting her eyes from the glittering daggers, she +threw herself upon the divan, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, and +watched, with the look of a tigress, Michel, who said to her now, in a +voice which trembled with the tension of his feelings: "You must know +well, Marsa, that death is not the thing that can frighten a man like me! +What does frighten me is that, having lost you once, I may lose you +forever; to know that another will be your husband, will love you, will +receive your kisses. The very idea that that is possible drives me +insane. I feel myself capable of any deed of madness to prevent it. +Marsa! Marsa! You did love me once!" + +"I love honor, truth, justice," said Marsa, sternly and implacably. +"I thought I loved you; but I never did." + +"You did not love me?" he said. + +This cruel recalling of the past, which was the remorse of her life, was +like touching her flesh with a red-hot iron. + +"No, no, no! I did not love you! I repeat, I thought I loved you. +What did I know of life when I met you? I was suffering, ill; I thought +myself dying, and I never heard a word of pity fall from any other lips +than yours. I thought you were a man of honor. You were only a wretch. +You deceived me; you represented yourself to me as free--and you were +married. Weakly--oh, I could kill myself at the very thought!-- +I listened to you! I took for love the trite phrases you had used to +dozens of other women; half by violence, half by ruse, you became my +lover. I do not know when--I do not know how. I try to forget that +horrible dream; and when, deluded by you, thinking that what I felt for +you was love, for I did think so, I imagined that I had given myself for +life to a man worthy of the deepest devotion, ready for all sacrifices +for me, as I felt myself to be for him; when you had taken me, body and +soul, I learn by what? by a trifling conversation, by a chance, in a +crowded ballroom--that, this Michel Menko, whose name I was to bear, who +was to be my husband; this Count Menko, this man of honor, the one in +whom I believed blindly, was married! Married at Vienna, and had already +given away the name on which he traded! Oh, it is hideous!" And the +Tzigana, whose whole body was shuddering with horror, recoiled +instinctively to the edge of the divan as at the approach of some +detested contact. + +Michel, his face pale and convulsed, had listened to her with bowed head. + +"All that you say is the truth, Marsa; but I will give my life, my whole +life, to expiate that lie!" + +"There are infamies which are never effaced. There is no pardon for him +who has no excuse." + +"No excuse? Yes, Marsa; I have one! I have one: I loved you!" + +"And because you loved me, was it necessary for you to betray me, lie to +me, ruin me?" + +"What could I do? I did not love the woman I had married; you dawned on +me like a beautiful vision; I wished, hoping I know not what impossible +future, to be near you, to make you love me, and I did not dare to +confess that I was not free. If I lied to you, it was because I trembled +at not being able to surround you with my devotion; it was because I was +afraid to lose your love, knowing that the adoration I had for you would +never die till my heart was cold and dead! Upon all that is most sacred, +I swear this to you! I swear it!" + +He then recalled to her, while she sat rigid and motionless with an +expression of contempt and disdain upon her beautiful, proud lips, their +first meetings; that evening at Lady Brolway's, in Pau, where he had met +her for the first time; their conversation; the ineffaceable impression +produced upon him by her beauty; that winter season; the walks they had +taken together beneath the trees, which not a breath of wind stirred; +their excursions in the purple and gold valleys, with the Pyrenees in the +distance crowned with eternal snow. Did she not remember their long +talks upon the terrace, the evenings which felt like spring, and that day +when she had been nearly killed by a runaway horse, and he had seized the +animal by the bridle and saved her life? Yes, he had loved her, loved +her well; and it was because, possessing her love, he feared, like a +second Adam, to see himself driven out of paradise, that he had hidden +from Marsa the truth. If she had questioned one of the Hungarians or +Viennese, who were living at Pau, she could doubtless have known that +Count Menko, the first secretary of the embassy of Austria-Hungary at +Paris, had married the heiress of one of the richest families of Prague; +a pretty but unintelligent girl, not understanding at all the character +of her husband; detesting Vienna and Paris, and gradually exacting from +Menko that he should live at Prague, near her family, whose ancient ideas +and prejudices and inordinate love of money displeased the young +Hungarian. He was left free to act as he pleased; his wife would +willingly give up a part of her dowry to regain her independence. It was +only just, she said insolently, that, having been mistaken as to the +tastes of the man she had married for reasons of convenience rather than +of inclination, she should pay for her stupidity. Pay! The word made +the blood mount to Menko's face. If he had not been rich, as he was, he +would have hewn stone to gain his daily bread rather than touch a penny +of her money. He shook off the yoke the obstinate daughter of the +Bohemian gentleman would have imposed upon him, and departed, brusquely +breaking a union in which both husband and wife so terribly perceived +their error. + +Marsa might have known of all this if she had, for a moment, doubted +Menko's word. But how was she to suspect that the young Count was +capable of a lie or of concealing such a secret? Besides, she knew +hardly any one at Pau, as her physicians had forbidden her any +excitement; at the foot of the Pyrenees, she lived, as at Maisons- +Lafitte, an almost solitary life; and Michel Menko had been during that +winter, which he now recalled to Marsa, speaking of it as of a lost Eden, +her sole companion, the only guest of the house she inhabited with +Vogotzine in the neighborhood of the castle. + +Poor Marsa, enthusiastic, inexperienced, her heart enamored with +chivalrous audacity, intrepid courage, all the many virtues which were +those of Hungary herself; Marsa, her mind imbued from her infancy with +the almost fantastic recitals of the war of independence, and later, with +her readings and reflections; Marsa, full of the stories of the heroic +past-must necessarily have been the dupe of the first being who, coming +into her life, was the personal representative of the bravery and charm +of her race. So, when she encountered one day Michel Menko, she was +invincibly attracted toward him by something proud, brave, and +chivalrous, which was characteristic of the manly beauty of the young +Hungarian. She was then twenty, very ignorant of life, her great +Oriental eyes seeing nothing of stern reality; but, with all her +gentleness, there was a species of Muscovite firmness which was betrayed +in the contour of her red lips. It was in vain that sorrow had early +made her a woman; Marsa remained ignorant of the world, without any other +guide than Vogotzine; suffering and languid, she was fatally at the mercy +of the first lie which should caress her ear and stir her heart. From +the first, therefore, she had loved Michel; she had, as she herself said, +believed that she loved him with a love which would never end, a very +ingenuous love, having neither the silliness of a girl who has just left +the convent, nor the knowledge of a Parisienne whom the theatre and the +newspapers have instructed in all things. Michel, then, could give to +this virgin and pliable mind whatever bent he chose; and Marsa, pure as +the snow and brave as her own favorite heroes, became his without +resistance, being incapable of divining a treachery or fearing a lie. +Michel Menko, moreover, loved her madly; and he thought only of winning +and keeping the love of this incomparable maiden, exquisite in her +combined gentleness and pride. The folly of love mounted to his brain +like intoxication, and communicated itself to the poor girl who believed +in him as if he were the living faith; and, in the madness of his +passion, Michel, without being a coward, committed a cowardly action. + +No: a coward he certainly was not. He was one of those nervous natures, +as prompt to hope as to despair, going to all extremes, at times +foolishly gay, and at others as grave and melancholy as Hamlet. There +were days when Menko did not value his life at a penny, and when he asked +himself seriously if suicide were not the simplest means to reach the +end; and again, at the least ray of sunshine, he became sanguine and +hopeful to excess. Of undoubted courage, he would have faced the muzzle +of a loaded cannon out of mere bravado, at the same time wondering, with +a sarcastic smile upon his lips, 'Cui bono'? + +He sometimes called heroism a trick; and yet, in everyday life, he had +not much regard for tricksters. Excessively fond of movement, activity, +and excitement, he yet counted among his happiest days those spent in +long meditations and inactive dreams. He was a strange combination of +faults and good qualities, without egregious vices, but all his virtues +capable of being annihilated by passion, anger, jealousy, or grief. With +such a nature, everything was possible: the sublimity of devotion, or a +fall into the lowest infamy. He often said, in self-analysis: "I am +afraid of myself." In short, his strength was like a house built upon +sand; all, in a day, might crumble. + +"If I had to choose the man I should prefer to be," he said once, "I +would be Prince Andras Zilah, because he knows neither my useless +discouragements, apropos of everything and nothing, nor my childish +delights, nor my hesitations, nor my confidence, which at times +approaches folly as my misanthropy approaches injustice; and because, +in my opinion, the supreme virtue in a man is firmness." + +The Zilahs were connected by blood with the Menkos, and Prince Andras was +very fond of this young man, who promised to Hungary one of those +diplomats capable of wielding at once the pen and the sword, and who in +case of war, before drawing up a protocol, would have dictated its terms, +sabre in hand. Michel indeed stood high with his chief in the embassy, +and he was very much sought after in society. Before the day he met +Marsa, he had, to tell the truth, only experienced the most trivial love- +affairs. + +He did not speak of his wife at Pau any more than he did on the +boulevards. She lived far away, in the old city of Prague, and troubled +Michel no more than if she had never existed. Perhaps he had forgotten, +really forgotten, with that faculty of forgetfulness which belongs to the +imaginative, that he was married, when he encountered Marsa, the candid, +pure-hearted girl, who did not reflect nor calculate, but simply believed +that she had met a man of honor. + +So, what sudden revolt, humiliation, and hatred did the poor child feel +when she learned that the man in whom she had believed as in a god had +deceived her, lied to her! He was married. He had treated her as the +lowest of women; perhaps he had never even loved her! The very thought +made her long to kill herself, or him, or both. She, unhappy, miserable +woman, was ruined, ruined forever! + +She had certainly never stopped to think where the love she had for +Michel would lead her. She thought of nothing except that Michel was +hers, and she was his, and she believed that their love would last +forever. She did not think that she had long to live, and her existence +seemed to her only a breath which any moment might cease. Why had she +not died before she knew that Menko had lied? + +All deception seemed hideous to Marsa Laszlo, and this hideousness she +had discovered in the man to whom she had given herself, believing in the +eternity as well as in the loyalty of his love. + +It was at a ball, at the English embassy, after her return from Pau, +that, while smiling and happy, she overheard between two Viennese, +strangers to her, this short dialogue, every word of which was like a +knife in her heart: "What a charming fellow that Menko is!" "Yes; is his +wife ugly or a humpback? or is he jealous as Othello? She is never +seen." "His wife! Is he married?" "Yes: he married a Blavka, the +daughter of Angel Blavka, of Prague. Didn't you know it?" + +Married! + +Marsa felt her head reel, and the sudden glance she cast at the speakers +silenced, almost terrified them. Half insane, she reached home, she +never knew how. The next day Michel Menko presented himself at her +apartments in the hotel where she was living; she ordered him out of her +presence, not allowing him to offer any excuse or explanation. + +"You are married, and you are a coward!" + +He threw himself at her knees, and implored her to listen to him. + +"Go! Go!" + +"But our love, Marsa? For I love you, and you love me." + +"I hate and scorn you. My love is dead. You have killed it. All is +over. Go! And let me never know that there exists a Michel Menko in the +world! Never! Never! Never!" + +He felt his own cowardice and shame, and he disappeared, not daring again +to see the woman whose love haunted him, and who shut herself away from +the world more obstinately than ever. She left Paris, and in the +solitude of Maisons-Lafitte lived the life of a recluse, while Michel +tried in vain to forget the bitterness of his loss. The Tzigana hoped +that she was going to die, and bear away with her forever the secret of +her betrayal. But no; science had been mistaken; the poor girl was +destined to live. In spite of her sorrow and anguish, her beauty +blossomed in the shade, and she seemed each day to grow more lovely, +while her heart became more sad, and her despair more poignant. + +Then death, which would not take Marsa, came to another, and gave Menko +an opportunity to repair and efface all. He learned that his wife had +died suddenly at Prague, of a malady of the heart. This death, which +freed him, produced a strange effect upon him, not unmingled with +remorse. Poor woman! She had worthily borne his name, after all. +Unintelligent, cold, and wrapped up in her money, she had never +understood him; but, perhaps, if he had been more patient, things might +have gone better between them. + +But no; Marsa was his one, his never-to-be-forgotten love. As soon as he +heard of his freedom, he wrote her a letter, telling her that he was able +now to dispose of his future as he would, imploring her to pardon him, +offering her not his love, since she repelled it, but his name, which was +her right--a debt of honor which he wished her to acquit with the +devotion of his life. Marsa answered simply with these words: "I will +never bear the name of a man I despise." + +The wound made in her heart by Menko's lie was incurable; the Tzigana +would never forgive. He tried to see her again, confident that, if he +should be face to face with her, he could find words to awaken the past +and make it live again; but she obstinately refused to see him, and, as +she did not go into society, he never met her. Then he cast himself, +with a sort of frenzy, into the dissipation of Paris, trying to forget, +to forget at any cost: failing in this, he resigned his position at the +embassy, and went away to seek adventure, going to fight in the Balkans +against the Russians, only to return weary and bored as he had departed, +always invincibly and eternally haunted by the image of Marsa, an image +sad as a lost love, and grave as remorse. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"MY LETTERS OR MYSELF" + +It was that past, that terrible past, which Michel Menko had dared to +come and speak of to the Tzigana. At first, she had grown crimson with +anger, as if at an insult; now, by a sudden opposite sentiment, as she +listened to him recalling those days, she felt an impression of deadly +pain as if an old wound had been reopened. Was it true that all this had +ever existed? Was it possible, even? + +The man who had been her lover was speaking to her; he was speaking to +her of his love; and, if the terrible agony of memory had not burned in +her heart, she would have wondered whether this man before her, this sort +of stranger, had ever even touched her hand. + +She waited, with the idle curiosity of a spectator who had no share in +the drama, for the end of Menko's odious argument: "I lied because I +loved you!" + +He returned again and again, in the belief that women easily forgive the +ill-doing of which they are the cause, to that specious plea, and Marsa +asked herself, in amazement, what aberration had possession of this man +that he should even pretend to excuse his infamy thus. + +"And is that," she said at last, "all that you have to say to me? +According to you, the thief has only to cry 'What could I do? I loved +that money, and so I stole it.' Ah," rising abruptly, "this interview +has lasted too long! Good-evening!" + +She walked steadily toward the door; but Michel, hastening round the +other side of the table, barred her exit, speaking in a suppliant tone, +in which, however, there was a hidden threat: + +"Marsa! Marsa, I implore you, do not marry Prince Andras! Do not marry +him if you do not wish some horrible tragedy to happen to you and me!" + +"Really?" she retorted. "Do I understand that it is you who now +threaten to kill me?" + +"I do not threaten; I entreat, Marsa. But you know all that there is in +me at times of madness and folly. I am almost insane: you know it well. +Have pity upon me! I love you as no woman was ever loved before; I live +only in you; and, if you should give yourself to another--" + +"Ah!" she said, interrupting him with a haughty gesture, "you speak to me +as if you had a right to dictate my actions. I have given you my +forgetfulness after giving you my love. That is enough, I think. +Leave me!" + +"Marsa!" + +"I have hoped for a long time that I was forever delivered from your +presence. I commanded you to disappear. Why have you returned?" + +"Because, after I saw you one evening at Baroness Dinati's (do you +remember? you spoke to the Prince for the first time that evening), I +learned, in London, of this marriage. If I have consented to live away +from you previously, it was because, although you were no longer mine, +you at least were no one else's; but I will not--pardon me, I can not-- +endure the thought that your beauty, your grace, will be another's. +Think of the self-restraint I have placed upon myself! Although living +in Paris, I have not tried to see you again, Marsa, since you drove me +from your presence; it was by chance that I met you at the Baroness's; +but now--" + +"It is another woman you have before you. A woman who ignores that she +has listened to your supplications, yielded to your prayers. It is a +woman who has forgotten you, who does not even know that a wretch has +abused her ignorance and her confidence, and who loves--who loves as one +loves for the first time, with a pure and holy devotion, the man whose +name she is to bear." + +"That man I respect as honor itself. Had it been another, I should +already have struck him in the face. But you who accuse me of having +lied, are you going to lie to him, to him?" + +Marsa became livid, and her eyes, hollow as those of a person sick to +death, flamed in the black circles which surrounded them. + +"I have no answer to make to one who has no right to question me," she +said. "But, should I have to pay with my life for the moment of +happiness I should feel in placing my hand in the hand of a hero, I would +grasp that moment!" + +"Then," cried Menko, "you wish to push me to extremities! And yet I have +told you there are certain hours of feverish insanity in which I am +capable of committing a crime." + +"I do not doubt it," replied the young girl, coldly. "But, in fact, you +have already done that. There is no crime lower than that of treachery." + +"There is one more terrible," retorted Michel Menko. "I have told you +that I loved you. I love you a hundred times more now than ever before. +Jealousy, anger, whatever sentiment you choose to call it, makes my blood +like fire in my veins! I see you again as you were. I feel your kisses +on my lips. I love you madly, passionately! Do you understand, Marsa? +Do you understand?" and he approached with outstretched hands the +Tzigana, whose frame was shaken with indignant anger. "Do you +understand? I love you still. I was your lover, and I will, I will be +so again." + +"Ah, miserable coward!" cried the Tzigana, with a rapid glance toward +the daggers, before which stood Menko, preventing her from advancing, and +regarding her with eyes which burned with reckless passion, wounded self- +love, and torturing jealousy. "Yes, coward!" she repeated, "coward, +coward to dare to taunt me with an infamous past and speak of a still +more infamous future!" + +"I love you!" exclaimed Menko again. + +"Go!" she cried, crushing him with look and gesture. "Go! I order you +out of my presence, lackey! Go!" + +All the spirit of the daughters of the puszta, the violent pride of her +Hungarian blood, flashed from her eyes; and Menko, fascinated, gazed at +her as if turned to stone, as she stood there magnificent in her anger, +superb in her contempt. + +"Yes, I will go to-day," he said at last, "but tomorrow night I shall +come again, Marsa. As my dearest treasure, I have preserved the key of +that gate I opened once to meet you who were waiting for me in the shadow +of the trees. Have you forgotten that, also? You say you have forgotten +all." + +And as he spoke, she saw again the long alley behind the villa, ending in +a small gate which, one evening after the return from Pau, Michel opened, +and came, as he said, to meet her waiting for him. It was true. Yes, it +was true. Menko did not lie this time! She had waited for him there, +two years before, unhappy girl that she was! All that hideous love she +had believed lay buried in Pau as in a tomb. + +"Listen, Marsa," continued Menko, suddenly recovering, by a strong effort +of the will, his coolness, "I must see you once again, have one more +opportunity to plead my cause. The letters you wrote to me, those dear +letters which I have covered with my kisses and blistered with my tears, +those letters which I have kept despite your prayers and your commands, +those letters which have been my only consolation--I will bring them to +you to-morrow night. Do you understand me?" + +Her great eyes fixed, and her lips trembling horribly, Marsa made no +reply. + +"Do you understand me, Marsa?" he repeated, imploring and threatening at +once. + +"Yes," she murmured at last. + +She paused a moment; then a broken, feverish laugh burst from her lips, +and she continued, with stinging irony: + +"Either my letters or myself! It is a bargain pure and simple! Such a +proposition has been made once before--it is historical--you probably +remember it. In that case, the woman killed herself. I shall act +otherwise, believe me!" + +There was in her icy tones a threat, which gave pleasure to Michel Menko. +He vaguely divined a danger. "You mean?" he asked. + +"I mean, you must never again appear before me. You must go to London, +to America; I don't care where. You must be dead to the one you have +cowardly betrayed. You must burn or keep those letters, it little +matters to me which; but you must still be honorable enough not to use +them as a weapon against me. This interview, which wearies more than it +angers me, must be the last. You must leave me to my sorrows or my joys, +without imagining that you could ever have anything in common with a +woman who despises you. You have crossed the threshold of this house for +the last time. Or, if not--Ah! if not--I swear to you that I have energy +enough and resolution enough to defend myself alone, and alone to punish +you! In your turn, you understand me, I imagine?" + +"Certainly," said Michel. "But you are too imprudent, Marsa. I am not a +man to make recoil by speaking of danger. Through the gate, or over the +wall if the gate is barricaded, I shall come to you again, and you will +have to listen to me." + +The lip of the Tzigana curled disdainfully. + +"I shall not even change the lock of that gate, and besides, the large +gate of the garden remains open these summer nights. You see that you +have only to come. But I warn you neither to unlock the one nor to pass +through the other. It is not I whom you will find at the rendezvous." + +"Still, I am sure that it would be you, blarsa, if I should tell you that +to-morrow evening I shall be under the window of the pavilion at the end +of the garden, and that you must meet me there to receive from my hand +your letters, all your letters, which I shall bring you." + +"Do you think so?" + +"I am certain of it." + +"Certain? Why?" + +"Because you will reflect." + +"I have had time to reflect. Give me another reason." + +"Another reason is that you can not afford to leave such proofs in my +hands. I assure you that it would be folly to make of a man like me, who +would willingly die for you, an open and implacable enemy." + +"I understand. A man like you would die willingly for a woman, but he +insults and threatens her, like the vilest of men, with a punishment more +cruel than death itself. Well! it matters little to me. I shall not be +in the pavilion where you have spoken to me of your love, and I will have +it torn down and the debris of it burned within three days. I shall not +await you. I shall never see you again. I do not fear you. And I leave +you the right of doing with those letters what you please!" + +Then, surveying him from head to foot, as if to measure the degree of +audacity to which he could attain, "Adieu!" she said. + +"Au revoir!" he rejoined coldly, giving to the salutation an emphasis +full of hidden meaning. + +The Tzigana stretched out her hand, and pulled a silken bellcord. + +A servant appeared. + +"Show this gentleman out," she said, very quietly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"HAVE I THE RIGHT TO LIE?" + +Then the Tzigana,'s romance, in which she had put all her faith and her +belief, had ended, like a bad dream, she said to herself: "My life is +over!" + +What remained to her? Expiation? Forgetfulness? + +She thought of the cloister and the life of prayer of those blue sisters +she saw under the trees of Maisons-Lafitte. She lived in the solitude of +her villa, remaining there during the winter in a melancholy tete-a-tete +with old Vogotzine, who was always more or less under the effect of +liquor. Then, as death would not take her, she gradually began to go +into Parisian society, slowly forgetting the past, and the folly which +she had taken for love little by little faded mistily away. It was like +a recovery from an illness, or the disappearance of a nightmare in the +dawn of morning. Now, Marsa Laszlo, who, two years before, had longed +for annihilation and death, occasionally thought the little Baroness +Dinati right when she said, in her laughing voice: "What are you thinking +of, my dear child? Is it well for a girl of your age to bury herself +voluntarily and avoid society?" She was then twenty-four: in three or +four years she had aged mentally ten; but her beautiful oval face had +remained unchanged, with the purity of outline of a Byzantine Madonna. + +Then--life has its awakenings--she met Prince Andras: all her admirations +as a girl, her worship of patriotism and heroism, flamed forth anew; her +heart, which she had thought dead, throbbed, as it had never throbbed +before, at the sound of the voice of this man, truly loyal, strong and +gentle, and who was (she knew it well, the unhappy girl!) the being for +whom she was created, the ideal of her dreams. She loved him silently, +but with a deep and eternal passion; she loved him without saying to +herself that she no longer had any right to love. Did she even think of +her past? Does one longer think of the storm when the wind has driven +off the heavy, tear-laden clouds, and the thunder has died away in the +distance? It seemed to her now that she had never had but one name in +her heart, and upon her lips--Zilah. + +And then this man, this hero, her hero, asked her hand, and said to her, +"I love you." + +Andras loved her! With what a terrible contraction of the heart did she +put to herself the formidable question: "Have I the right to lie? Shall +I have the courage to confess?" + +She held in her grasp the most perfect happiness a woman could hope for, +the dream of her whole life; and, because a worthless scoundrel had +deceived her, because there were, in her past, hours which she remembered +only to curse, effaced hours, hours which appeared to her now never to +have existed, was she obliged to ruin her life, to break her heart, and, +herself the victim, to pay for the lie uttered by a coward? Was it +right? Was it just? Was she to be forever bound to that past, like a +corpse to its grave? What! She had no longer the right to love? no +longer the right to live? + +She adored Andras; she would have given her life for him. And he also +loved her; she was the first woman who had ever touched his heart. He +had evidently felt himself isolated, with his old chivalrous ideas, in a +world devoted to the worship of low things, tangible successes, and +profitable realities. He was, so to speak, a living anachronism in the +midst of a society which had faith in nothing except victorious +brutalities, and which marched on, crushing, beneath its iron-shod heels, +the hopes and visions of the enthusiastic. He recalled those evenings +after a battle when, in the woods reddened by the setting sun, his father +and Varhely said to him: "Let us remain to the last, and protect the +retreat!" And it seemed to him that, amid the bestialities of the moment +and the vulgarities of the century, he still protected the retreat of +misunderstood virtues and generous enthusiasms; and it pleased him to be +the rear guard of chivalry in defeat. + +He shut himself up obstinately in his isolation, like Marsa in her +solitude; and he did not consider himself ridiculously absurd or +foolishly romantic, when he remembered that his countrymen, the +Hungarians, were the only people, perhaps, who, in the abasement of all +Europe before the brutality of triumph and omnipotent pessimism, had +preserved their traditions of idealism, chivalry, and faith in the old +honor; the Hungarian nationality was also the only one which had +conquered its conquerors by its virtues, its persistence in its hopes, +its courage, its contempt of all baseness, its extraordinary heroism, and +had finally imposed its law upon Austria, bearing away the old empire as +on the croup of its horse toward the vast plains of liberty. The ideal +would, therefore, have its moments of victory: an entire people proved it +in history. + +"Let this world boast," said Andras, "of the delights of its villainy, +and grovel in all that is low and base. Life is not worth living unless +the air one breathes is pure and free! Man is not the brother of swine!" + +And these same ideas, this same faith, this same dreamy nature and +longing for all that is generous and brave, he suddenly found again in +the heart of Marsa. She represented to him a new and happy existence. +Yes, he thought, she would render him happy; she would understand him, +aid him, surround him with the fondest love that man could desire. And +she, also, thinking of him, felt herself capable of any sacrifice. Who +could tell? Perhaps the day would come when it would be necessary to +fight again; then she would follow him, and interpose her breast between +him and the balls. What happiness to die in saving him! But, no, no! +To live loving him, making him happy, was her duty now; and was it +necessary to renounce this delight because hated kisses had once soiled +her lips? No, she could not! And yet--and yet, strict honor whispered +to Marsa, that she should say No to the Prince; she had no right to his +love. + +But, if she should reject Andras, he would die, Varhely had said it. +She would then slay two beings, Andras and herself, with a single word. +She! She did not count! But he! And yet she must speak. But why +speak? Was it really true that she had ever loved another? Who was it? +The one whom she worshipped with all her heart, with all the fibres of +her being, was Andras! Oh, to be free to love him! Marsa's sole hope +and thought were now to win, some day, forgiveness for having said +nothing by the most absolute devotion that man had ever encountered. +Thinking continually these same thoughts, always putting off taking a +decision till the morrow, fearing to break both his heart and hers, +the Tzigana let the time slip by until the day came when the fete in +celebration of her betrothal was to take place. And on that very day +Michel Menko appeared before her, not abashed, but threatening. Her +dream of happiness ended in this reality--Menko saying: "You have been +mine; you shall be mine again, or you are lost!" + +Lost! And how? + +With cold resolution, Marsa Laszlo asked herself this question, terrible +as a question of life or death: + +"What would the Prince do, if, after I became his wife, he should learn +the truth?" + +"What would he do? He would kill me," thought the Tzigana. "He would +kill me. So much the better!" It was a sort of a bargain which she +proposed to herself, and which her overwhelming love dictated. + +"To be his wife, and with my life to pay for that moment of happiness! +If I should speak now, he would fly from me, I should never see him +again--and I love him. Well, I sacrifice what remains to me of existence +to be happy for one short hour!" She grew to think that she had a right +thus to give her life for her love, to belong to Andras, to be the wife +of that hero if only for a day, and to die then, to die saying to him: +"I was unworthy of you, but I loved you; here, strike!" Or rather to say +nothing, to be loved, to take opium or digitalis, and to fall asleep with +this last supremely happy thought: "I am his wife, and he loves me!" +What power in the world could prevent her from realizing her dream? +Would she resemble Michel in lying thus? No; since she would immediately +sacrifice herself without hesitation, with joy, for the honor of her +husband. + +"Yes, my life against his love. I shall be his wife and die!" + +She did not think that, in sacrificing her life, she would condemn Zilah +to death. Or rather, with one of those subterfuges by which we +voluntarily deceive ourselves, she thought: "He will be consoled for my +death, if he ever learns what I was." But why should he ever learn it? +She would take care to die so that it should be thought an accident. + +Marsa's resolve was taken. She had contracted a debt, and she would pay +it with her blood. Michel now mattered little to her, let him do what he +would. The young man's threat: "To-morrow night!" returned to her mind +without affecting her in the least. The contemptuous curl of her lip +seemed silently to brave Michel Menko. + +In all this there was a different manifestation of her double nature: in +her love for Andras and her longing to become his wife, the blood of the +Tzigana, her mother, spoke; Prince Tchereteff, the Russian, on the other +hand, revived in her silent, cold bravado. + +She lay down to rest, still feverish from the struggle, and worn out, +slept till morning, to awaken calm, languid, but almost happy. + +She passed the whole of the following day in the garden, wondering at +times if the appearance of Menko and his tomorrow were not a dream, a +nightmare. Tomorrow? That was to-day. + +"Yes, yes, he will come! He is quite capable of coming," she murmured. + +She despised him enough to believe that he would dare, this time, to keep +his word. + +Lying back in a low wicker chair, beneath a large oak, whose trunk was +wreathed with ivy, she read or thought the hours away. A Russian belt, +enamelled with gold and silver, held together her trailing white robes of +India muslin, trimmed with Valenciennes, and a narrow scarlet ribbon +encircled her throat like a line of blood. The sunlight, filtering +through the leaves, flickered upon her dress and clear, dark cheeks, +while, near by, a bush of yellow roses flung its fragrance upon the air. +The only sound in the garden was the gentle rustle of the trees, which +recalled to her the distant murmur of the sea. Gradually she entirely +forgot Michel, and thought only of the happy moments of the previous day, +of the boat floating down the Seine past the silvery willows on the banks +of the sparkling water, of the good people on the barge calling out to +her, "Be happy! be happy!" and the little children throwing smiling +kisses to her. + +A gentle languor enveloped the warm, sunny garden. Old Sol poured his +golden light down upon the emerald turf, the leafy trees, the brilliant +flowerbeds and the white walls of the villa. Under the green arch of the +trees, where luminous insects, white and flame-colored butterflies, +aimlessly chased one another, Marsa half slumbered in a sort of +voluptuous oblivion, a happy calm, in that species of nirvana which the +open air of summer brings. She felt herself far away from the entire +world in that corner of verdure, and abandoned herself to childish hopes +and dreams, in profound enjoyment of the beautiful day. + +The Baroness Dinati came during the afternoon to see Marsa; she fluttered +out into the garden, dressed in a clinging gown of some light, fluffy +material, with a red umbrella over her head; and upon her tiny feet, of +all things in the world, ebony sabots, bearing her monogram in silver +upon the instep. It was a short visit, made up of the chatter and gossip +of Paris. Little Jacquemin's article upon Prince Zilah's nautical fete +had created a furore. That little Jacquemin was a charming fellow; Marsa +knew him. No! Really? What! she didn't know Jacquemin of +'L'Actualite'? Oh! but she must invite him to the wedding, he would +write about it, he wrote about everything; he was very well informed, was +Jacquemin, on every subject, even on the fashions. + +"Look! It was he who told me that these sabots were to be worn. The +miserable things nearly mademe break my neck when I entered the carriage; +but they are something new. They attract attention. Everybody says, +What are they? And when one has pretty feet, not too large, you know," +etc., etc. + +She rattled on, moistening her pretty red lips with a lemonade, and +nibbling a cake, and then hastily departed just as Prince Andras's +carriage stopped before the gate. The Baroness waved her hand to him +with a gay smile, crying out: + +"I will not take even a minute of your time. You have to-day something +pleasanter to do than to occupy yourself with poor, insignificant me!" + +Marsa experienced the greatest delight in seeing Andras, and listening to +the low, tender accents of his voice; she felt herself to be loved and +protected. She gave herself up to boundless hopes--she, who had before +her, perhaps, only a few days of life. She felt perfectly happy near +Andras; and it seemed to her that to-day his manner was tenderer, the +tones of his voice more caressing, than usual. + +"I was right to believe in chimeras," he said, "since all that I longed +for at twenty years is realized to-day. Very often, dear Marsa, when I +used to feel sad and discouraged, I wondered whether my life lay behind +me. But I was longing for you, that was all. I knew instinctively that +there existed an exquisite woman, born for me, my wife--my wife! and I +waited for you." + +He took her hands, and gazed upon her face with a look of infinite +tenderness. + +"And suppose that you had not found me?" she asked. + +"I should have continued to drag out a weary existence. Ask Varhely what +I have told him of my life." + +Marsa felt her heart sink within her; but she forced herself to smile. +All that Varhely had said to her returned to her mind. Yes, Zilah had +staked his very existence upon her love. To drag aside the veil from his +illusion would be like tearing away the bandages from a wound. +Decidedly, the resolution she had taken was the best one--to say nothing, +but, in the black silence of suicide, which would be at once a +deliverance and a punishment, to disappear, leaving to Zilah only a +memory. + +But why not die now? Ah! why? why? To this eternal question Marsa +made reply, that, for deceiving him by becoming his wife, she would pay +with her life. A kiss, then death. In deciding to act a lie, she +condemned herself. She only sought to give to her death the appearance +of an accident, not wishing to leave to Andras the double memory of a +treachery and a crime. + +She listened to the Prince as he spoke of the future, of all the +happiness of their common existence. She listened as if her resolution +to die had not been taken, and as if Zilah was promising her, not a +minute, but an eternity, of joy. + +General Vogotzine and Marsa accompanied the Prince to the station, he +having come to Maisons by the railway. The Tzigana's Danish hounds went +with them, bounding about Andras, and licking his hands as he caressed +them. + +"They already know the master," laughed Vogotzine. "I have rarely seen +such gentle animals," remarked the Prince. + +"Gentle? That depends!" said Marsa. + +After separating from the Prince, she returned, silent and abstracted, +with Vogotzine. She saw Andras depart with a mournful sadness, and a +sudden longing to have him stay--to protect her, to defend her, to be +there if Michel should come. + +It was already growing dark when they reached home. Marsa ate but little +at dinner, and left Vogotzine alone to finish his wine. + +Later, the General came, as usual, to bid his niece goodnight. He found +Marsa lying upon the divan in the little salon. + +"Don't you feel well? What is the matter?" + +"Nothing." + +"I feel a little tired, and I was going to bed. You don't care to have +me keep you company, do you, my dear?" + +Sometimes he was affectionate to her, and sometimes he addressed her with +timid respect; but Marsa never appeared to notice the difference. + +"I prefer to remain alone," she answered. + +The General shrugged his shoulders, bent over, took Marsa's delicate hand +in his, and kissed it as he would have kissed that of a queen. + +Left alone, Marsa lay there motionless for more than an hour. Then she +started suddenly, hearing the clock strike eleven, and rose at once. + +The domestics had closed the house. She went out by a back door which +was used by the servants, the key of which was in the lock. + +She crossed the garden, beneath the dark shadows of the trees, with a +slow, mechanical movement, like that of a somnambulist, and proceeded to +the kennel, where the great Danish hounds and the colossus of the +Himalayas were baying, and rattling their chains. + +"Peace, Ortog! Silence, Duna!" + +At the sound of her voice, the noise ceased as by enchantment. + +She pushed open the door of the kennel, entered, and caressed the heads +of the dogs, as they placed their paws upon her shoulders. Then she +unfastened their chains, and in a clear, vibrating voice, said to them: + +"Go!" + +She saw them bound out, run over the lawn, and dash into the bushes, +appearing and disappearing like great, fantastic shadows, in the pale +moonlight. Then, slowly, and with the Muscovite indifference which her +father, Prince Tchereteff, might have displayed when ordering a spy or a +traitor to be shot, she retraced her steps to the house, where all seemed +to sleep, murmuring, with cold irony, in a sort of impersonal +affirmation, as if she were thinking not of herself, but of another: + +"Now, I hope that Prince Zilah's fiancee is well guarded!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"AS CLINGS THE LEAF UNTO THE TREE" + +Michel Menko was alone in the little house he had hired in Paris, in the +Rue d'Aumale. He had ordered his coachman to have his coupe in readiness +for the evening. "Take Trilby," he said. "He is a better horse than +Jack, and we have a long distance to go; and take some coverings for +yourself, Pierre. Until this evening, I am at home to no one." + +The summer day passed very slowly for him in the suspense of waiting. He +opened and read the letters of which he had spoken to Marsa the evening +before; they always affected him like a poison, to which he returned +again and again with a morbid desire for fresh suffering--love-letters, +the exchange of vows now borne away as by a whirlwind, but which revived +in Michel's mind happy hours, the only hours of his life in which he had +really lived, perhaps. These letters, dated from Pau, burned him like a +live coal as he read them. They still retained a subtle perfume, a +fugitive aroma, which had survived their love, and which brought Marsa +vividly before his eyes. Then, his heart bursting with jealousy and +rage, he threw the package into the drawer from which he had taken it, +and mechanically picked up a volume of De Musset, opening to some page +which recalled his own suffering. Casting this aside, he took up another +book, and his eyes fell upon the passionate verses of the soldier-poet, +Petoefi, addressed to his Etelka: + + Thou lovest me not? What matters it? + My soul is linked to thine, + As clings the leaf unto the tree: + Cold winter comes; it falls; let be! + So I for thee will pine. My fate pursues me to the tomb. + Thou fliest? Even in its gloom + Thou art not free. + What follows in thy steps? Thy shade? + Ah, no! my soul in pain, sweet maid, + E'er watches thee. + +"My soul is linked to thine, as clings the leaf unto the tree!" Michel +repeated the lines with a sort of defiance in his look, and longed +impatiently and nervously for the day to end. + +A rapid flush of anger mounted to his face as his valet entered with a +card upon a salver, and he exclaimed, harshly: + +"Did not Pierre give you my orders that I would receive no one?" + +"I beg your pardon, Monsieur; but Monsieur Labanoff insisted so +strongly--" + +"Labanoff?" repeated Michel. + +"Monsieur Labanoff, who leaves Paris this evening, and desires to see +Monsieur before his departure." + +The name of Labanoff recalled to Michel an old friend whom he had met in +all parts of Europe, and whom he had not seen for a long time. He liked +him exceedingly for a sort of odd pessimism of aggressive philosophy, a +species of mysticism mingled with bitterness, which Labanoff took no +pains to conceal. The young Hungarian had, perhaps, among the men of his +own age, no other friend in the world than this Russian with odd ideas, +whose enigmatical smile puzzled and interested him. + +He looked at the clock. Labanoff's visit might make the time pass until +dinner. + +"Admit Monsieur Labanoff!" + +In a few moments Labanoff entered. He was a tall, thin young man, with a +complexion the color of wax, flashing eyes, and a little pointed +mustache. His hair, black and curly, was brushed straight up from his +forehead. He had the air of a soldier in his long, closely buttoned +frock-coat. + +It was many months since these two men had met; but they had been long +bound together by a powerful sympathy, born of quiet talks and +confidences, in which each had told the other of similar sufferings. +A long deferred secret hope troubled Labanoff as the memory of Marsa +devoured Menko; and they had many times exchanged dismal theories upon +the world, life, men, and laws. Their common bitterness united them. +And Michel received Labanoff, despite his resolution to receive no one, +because he was certain that he should find in him the same suffering as +that expressed by De Musset and Petoefi. + +Labanoff, to-day, appeared to him more enigmatical and gloomy than ever. +From the lips of the Russian fell only words of almost tragical mystery. + +Menko made him sit down by his side upon a divan, and he noticed that an +extraordinary fever seemed to burn in the blue eyes of his friend. + +"I learned that you had returned from London," said Labanoff; "and, as I +was leaving Paris, I wished to see you before my departure. It is +possible that we may never see each other again." + +"Why?" + +"I am going to St. Petersburg on pressing business." + +"Have you finished your studies in Paris?" + +"Oh! I had already received my medical diploma when I came here. I have +been living in Paris only to be more at my ease to pursue--a project +which interests me." + +"A project?" + +Menko asked the question mechanicaljy, feeling very little curiosity to +know Labanoff's secret; but the Russian's face wore a strange, ironical +smile as he answered: + +"I have nothing to say on that subject, even to the man for whom I have +the most regard." + +His brilliant eyes seemed to see strange visions before them. He +remained silent for a moment, and then rose with an abrupt movement. + +"There," he said, "that is all I had to tell you, my dear Menko. Now, +'au revoir', or rather, good-by; for, as I said before, I shall probably +never see you again." + +"And why, pray?" + +"Oh! I don't know; it is an idea of mine. And then, my beloved Russia +is such a strange country. Death comes quickly there." + +He had still upon his lips that inexplicable smile, jesting and sad at +once. + +Menko grasped the long, white hand extended to him. + +"My dear Labanoff, it is not difficult to guess that you are going on +some dangerous errand." Smiling: "I will not do you the injustice to +believe you a nihilist." + +Labanoff's blue eyes flashed. + +"No," he said, "no, I am not a nihilist. Annihilation is absurd; but +liberty is a fine thing!" + +He stopped short, as if he feared that he had already said too much. + +"Adieu, my dear Menko." + +The Hungarian detained him with a gesture, saying, with a tremble in his +voice: + +"Labanoff! You have found me when a crisis in my life is also impending. +I am about, like yourself, to commit a great folly; a different one from +yours, no doubt. However, I have no right to tell you that you are about +to commit some folly." + +"No," calmly replied the Russian, very pale, but still smiling, "it is +not a folly." + +"But it is a danger?" queried Menko. + +Labanoff made no reply. + +"I do not know either," said Michel, "how my affair will end. But, since +chance has brought us together today, face to face--" + +"It was not chance, but my own firm resolution to see you again before my +departure." + +"I know what your friendship for me is, and it is for that reason that I +ask you to tell me frankly where you will be in a month." + +"In a month?" repeated Labanoff. + +"Give me the route you are going to take? Shall you be a fixture at St. +Petersburg?" + +"Not immediately," responded the Russian, slowly, his gaze riveted upon +Menko. "In a month I shall still be at Warsaw. At St. Petersburg the +month after." + +"Thanks. I only ask you to let me know, in some way, where you are." + +"Why?" + +"Because, I should like to join you." + +"You!" + +"It is only a fancy," said Menko, with an attempt at a laugh. "I am +bored with life--you know it; I find it a nuisance. If we did not spur +it like an old, musty horse, it would give us the same idiotic round of +days. I do not know--I do not wish to know--why you are going to Russia, +and what this final farewell of which you have just spoken signifies; +I simply guess that you are off on some adventure, and it is possible +that I may ask you to allow me to share it." + +"Why?" said Labanoff, coldly. "You are not a Russian." + +Menko smiled, and, placing his hands upon the thin shoulders of his +friend, he said: + +"Those words reveal many things. It is well that they were not said +before an agent of police." + +"Yes," responded Labanoff, firmly. "But I am not in the habit of +recklessly uttering my thoughts; I know that I am speaking now to Count +Menko." + +"And Count Menko will be delighted, my dear Labanoff, if you will let him +know where, in Poland or Russia, he must go, soon, to obtain news of you. +Fear nothing: neither there nor here will I question you. But I shall be +curious to know what has become of you, and you know that I have enough +friendship for you to be uneasy about you. Besides, I long to be on the +move; Paris, London, the world, in short, bores me, bores me, bores me!" + +"The fact is, it is stupid, egotistical and cowardly," responded +Labanoff. + +He again held out to Menko his nervous hand, burning, like his blue eyes, +with fever. + +"Farewell!" he said. + +"No, no, 'au revoir'!" + +"'Au revoir' be it then. I will let you know what has become of me." + +"And where you are?" + +"And where I am." + +"And do not be astonished if I join you some fine morning." + +"Nothing ever astonishes me," said the Russian. "Nothing!" + +And in that word nothing were expressed profound disgust with life and +fierce contempt of death. + +Menko warmly grasped his friend's thin and emaciated hand; and, the last +farewell spoken to the fanatic departing for some tragical adventure, the +Hungarian became more sombre and troubled than before, and Labanoff's +appearance seemed like a doubtful apparition. He returned to his longing +to see the end of the most anxious day of his life. + +At last, late in the evening, Michel entered his coupe, and was driven +away-down the Rue d'Aumale, through the Rue Pigalle and the Rue de Douai, +to the rondpoint of the Place Clichy, the two lanterns casting their +clear light into the obscurity. The coupe then took the road to Maisons- +Lafitte, crossing the plain and skirting wheat-fields and vineyards, with +the towering silhouette of Mont Valerien on the left, and on the right, +sharply defined against the sky, a long line of hills, dotted with woods +and villas, and with little villages nestling at their base, all plunged +in a mysterious shadow. + +Michel, with absent eyes, gazed at all this, as Trilby rapidly trotted +on. He was thinking of what lay before him, of the folly he was about to +commit, as he had said to Labanoff. It was a folly; and yet, who could +tell? Might not Marsa have reflected? Might she not; alarmed at his +threats, be now awaiting him? Her exquisite face, like a lily, rose +before him; an overwhelming desire to annihilate time and space took +possession of him, and he longed to be standing, key in hand, before the +little gate in the garden wall. + +He was well acquainted with the great park of Maisons-Lafitte, with the +white villas nestling among the trees. On one side Prince Tchereteff's +house looked out upon an almost desert tract of land, on which a +racecourse had been mapped out; and on the other extended with the +stables and servants' quarters to the forest, the wall of the Avenue +Lafitte bounding the garden. In front of the villa was a broad lawn, +ending in a low wall with carved gates, allowing, through the branches of +the oaks and chestnuts, a view of the hills of Cormeilles. + +After crossing the bridge of Sartrouville, Michel ordered his coachman to +drive to the corner of the Avenue Corneille, where he alighted in the +shadow of a clump of trees. + +"You will wait here, Pierre," he said, "and don't stir till I return." + +He walked past the sleeping houses, under the mysterious alleys of the +trees, until he reached the broad avenue which, cutting the park in two, +ran from the station to the forest. The alley that he was seeking +descended between two rows of tall, thick trees, forming an arch +overhead, making it deliciously cool and shady in the daytime, but now +looking like a deep hole, black as a tunnel. Pushing his way through the +trees and bushes, and brushing aside the branches of the acacias, the +leaves of which fell in showers about him, Michel reached an old wall, +the white stones of which were overgrown with ivy. Behind the wall the +wind rustled amid the pines and oaks like the vague murmur of a coming +storm. And there, at the end of the narrow path, half hidden by the ivy, +was the little gate he was seeking. He cautiously brushed aside the +leaves and felt for the keyhole; but, just as he was about to insert the +key, which burned in his feverish fingers, he stopped short. + +Was Marsa awaiting him? Would she not call for help, drive him forth, +treat him like a thief? + +Suppose the gate was barred from within? He looked at the wall, and saw +that by clinging to the ivy he could reach the top. He had not come here +to hesitate. No, a hundred times no! + +Besides, Marsa was certainly there, trembling, fearful, cursing him +perhaps, but still there. + +"No," he murmured aloud in the silence, "were even death behind that +gate, I would not recoil." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +"IT IS A MAN THEY ARE DEVOURING!" + +Michel Menko was right. The beautiful Tzigana was awaiting him. + +She stood at her window, like a spectre in her white dress, her hands +clutching the sill, and her eyes striving to pierce the darkness which +enveloped everything, and opened beneath her like a black gulf. With +heart oppressed with fear, she started at the least sound. + +All she could see below in the garden were the branches defined against +the sky; a single star shining through the leaves of a poplar, like a +diamond in a woman's tresses; and under the window the black stretch of +the lawn crossed by a band of a lighter shade, which was the sand of the +path. The only sound to be heard was the faint tinkle of the water +falling into the fountain. + +Her glance, shifting as her thoughts, wandered vaguely over the trees, +the open spaces which seemed like masses of heavy clouds, and the sky set +with constellations. She listened with distended ears, and a shudder +shook her whole body as she heard suddenly the distant barking of a dog. + +The dog perceived some one. Was it Menko? + +No: the sound, a howling rather than a barking, came from a long +distance, from Sartrouville, beyond the Seine. + +"It is not Duna or Bundas," she murmured, "nor Ortog. What folly to +remain here at the window! Menko will not come. Heaven grant that he +does not come!" + +And she sighed a happy sigh as if relieved of a terrible weight. + +Suddenly, with a quick movement, she started violently back, as if some +frightful apparition had risen up before her. + +Hoarse bayings, quite different from the distant barking of a moment +before, rent the air, and were repeated more and more violently below +there in the darkness. This time it was indeed the great Danish hounds +and the shaggy colossus of the Himalayas, which were precipitating +themselves upon some prey. + +"Great God! He is there, then! He is there!" whispered Marsa, paralyzed +with horror. + +There was something gruesome in the cries of the dogs, By the continued +repetition of the savage noises, sharp, irritated, frightful snarls and +yelps, Marsa divined some horrible struggle in the darkness, of a man +against the beasts. Then all her terror seemed to mount to her lips in a +cry of pity, which was instantly repressed. She steadied herself against +the window, striving, with all her strength, to reason herself into +calmness. + +"It was his own wish," she thought. + +Did she not know, then, what she was doing when, wishing to place a +living guard between herself and danger, she had descended to the kennel +and unloosed the ferocious animals, which, recognizing her voice, had +bounded about her and licked her hands with many manifestations of joy? +She had ascended again to her chamber and extinguished the light, around +which fluttered the moths, beating the opal shade with their downy wings; +and, in the darkness, drinking in the nightair at the open window, she +had waited, saying to herself that Michel Menko would not come; but, if +he did come, it was the will of fate that he should fall a victim to the +devoted dogs which guarded her. + +Why should she pity him? + +She hated him, this Michel. He had threatened her, and she had defended +herself, that was all. Ortog's teeth were made for thieves and +intruders. No pity! No, no--no pity for such a coward, since he had +dared-- + +But yet, as the ferocious bayings of the dogs below became redoubled in +their fury, she imagined, in terror, a crunching of bones and a tearing +of flesh; and, as her imagination conjured up before her Michel fighting, +in hideous agony, against the bites of the dogs, she shuddered; she was +afraid, and again a stifled cry burst forth from her lips. A sort of +insanity took possession of her. She tried to cry out for mercy as if +the animals could hear her; she sought the door of her chamber, groping +along the wall with her hands outspread before her, in order to descend +the staircase and rush out into the garden; but her limbs gave way +beneath her, and she sank an inert mass upon the carpet in an agony of +fear and horror. + +"My God! My God! It is a man they are devouring;" and her voice died +away in a smothered call for help. + +Then she suddenly raised her head, as if moved by an electric shock. + +There was no more noise! Nothing! The black night had all at once +returned to its great, mysterious silence. Marsa experienced a sensation +of seeing a pall stretched over a dead body. And in the darkness there +seemed to float large spots of blood. + +"Ah! the unhappy man!" she faltered. + +Then, again, the voices of the dogs broke forth, rapid, angry, still +frightfully threatening. The animals appeared now to be running, and +their bayings became more and more distant. + +What had happened? + +One would have said that they were dragging away their prey, tearing it +with hideous crimson fangs. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MARSA'S GUARDIANS. + +Was Michel Menko indeed dead? We left him just as he was turning the key +in the little gate in the wall. He walked in boldly, and followed a path +leading to an open space where was the pavilion he had spoken of to +Marsa. He looked to see whether the windows of the pavilion were +lighted, or whether there were a line of light under the door. No: the +delicate tracery of the pagoda-like structure showed dimly against the +sky; but there was no sign of life. Perhaps, however, Marsa was there in +the darkness. + +He would glide under the window and call. Then, hearing him and +frightened at so much audacity, she would descend. + +He advanced a few steps toward the pavilion; but, all at once, in the +part of the garden which seemed lightest, upon the broad gravel walk, +he perceived odd, creeping shadows, which the moon, emerging from a +cloud, showed to be dogs, enormous dogs, with their ears erect, which, +with abound and a low, deep growl, made a dash toward him with outspread +limbs--a dash terrible as the leap of a tiger. + +A quick thought illumined Michel's brain like a flash of electricity: +"Ah! this is Marsa's answer!" He had just time to mutter, with raging +irony: + +"I was right, she was waiting for me!" + +Then, before the onslaught of the dogs, he recoiled, clasping his hands +upon his breast and boldly thrusting out his elbows to ward off their +ferocious attacks. With a sudden tightening of the muscles he repulsed +the Danish hounds, which rolled over writhing on the ground, and then, +with formidable baying, returned more furiously still to the charge. + +Michel Menko had no weapon. + +With a knife he could have defended himself, and slit the bellies of the +maddened animals; but he had nothing! Was he to be forced, then, to fly, +pursued like a fox or a deer? + +Suppose the servants, roused by the noise of the dogs, should come in +their turn, and seize him as a thief? At all events, that would be +comparative safety; at least, they would rescue him from these monsters. +But no: nothing stirred in the silent, impassive house. + +The hounds, erect upon their hind legs, rushed again at Michel, who, +overturning them with blows from his feet, and striking them violently in +the jaws, now staggered back, Ortog having leaped at his throat. By a +rapid movement of recoil, the young man managed to avoid being strangled; +but the terrible teeth of the dog, tearing his coat and shirt into +shreds, buried themselves deep in the flesh of his shoulder. + +The steel-like muscles and sinewy strength of the Hungarian now stood him +in good stead. He must either free himself, or perish there in the +hideous carnage of a quarry. He seized with both hands, in a viselike +grip, Ortog's enormous neck, and, at the same time, with a desperate +jerk, shook free his shoulder, leaving strips of his flesh between the +jaws of the animal, whose hot, reeking breath struck him full in the +face. With wild, staring eyes, and summoning up, in an instinct of +despair, all his strength and courage, he buried his fingers in Ortog's +neck, and drove his nails through the skin of the colossus, which struck +and beat with his paws against the young man's breast. The dog's tongue +hung out of his mouth, under the suffocating pressure of the hands of the +human being struggling for his life. As he fought thus against Ortog, +the Hungarian gradually retreated, the two hounds leaping about him, now +driven off by kicks (Duna's jaw was broken), and now, with roars of rage +and fiery eyes, again attacking their human prey. + +One of them, Bundas, his teeth buried in Michel's left thigh, shook him, +trying to throw him to the ground. A slip, and all would be over; if he +should fall upon the gravel, the man would be torn to pieces and crunched +like a deer caught by the hounds. + +A terrible pain nearly made Michel faint--Bundas had let go his hold, +stripping off a long tongue of flesh; but, in a moment, it had the same +effect upon him as that of the knife of a surgeon opening a vein, and the +weakness passed away. The unfortunate man still clutched, as in a death- +grip, Ortog's shaggy neck, and he perceived that the struggles of the dog +were no longer of the same terrible violence; the eyes of the ferocious +brute were rolled back in his head until they looked like two large balls +of gleaming ivory. Michel threw the heavy mass furiously from him, and +the dog, suffocated, almost dead, fell upon the ground with a dull, heavy +sound. + +Menko had now to deal only with the Danish hounds, which were rendered +more furious than ever by the smell of blood. One of them, displaying +his broken teeth in a hideous, snarling grin, hesitated a little to renew +the onslaught, ready, as he was, to spring at his enemy's throat at the +first false step; but the other, Bundas, with open mouth, still sprang at +Michel, who repelled, with his left arm, the attacks of the bloody jaws. +Suddenly a hollow cry burst from his lips like a death-rattle, forced +from him as the dog buried his fangs in his forearm, until they nearly +met. It seemed to him that the end had now come. + +Each second took away more and more of his strength. The tremendous +tension of muscles and nerves, which had been necessary in the battle +with Ortog, and the blood he had lost, his whole left side being gashed +as with cuts from a knife, weakened him. He calculated, that, unless he +could reach the little gate before the other dog should make up his mind +to leap upon him, he was lost, irredeemably lost. + +Bundas did not let go his hold, but twisting himself around Michel's +body, he clung with his teeth to the young man's lacerated arm; the +other, Duna, bayed horribly, ready to spring at any moment. + +Michel gathered together all the strength that remained to him, and ran +rapidly backward, carrying with him the furious beast, which was crushing +the very bones of his arm. + +He reached the end of the walk, and the gate was there before him. +Groping in the darkness with his free hand, he found the key, turned it, +and the gate flew open. Fate evidently did not wish him to perish. + +Then, in the same way as he had shaken off Ortog, whom he could now hear +growling and stumbling over the gravel a little way off, Michel freed his +arm from Bundas, forcing his fingers and nails into the animal's ears; +and the moment he had thrown the brute to the ground, he dashed through +the gate, and slammed it to behind him, just as the two dogs together +were preparing to leap again upon him. + +Then, leaning against the gate, and steadying himself, so as not to fall, +he stood there weak and faint, while the dogs, on the other side of the +wooden partition which now separated him from death--and what a death! +erect upon their hind legs, like rampant, heraldic animals, tried to +break through, cracking, in their gory jaws, long strips of wood torn +from the barrier which kept them from their human prey. + +Michel never knew how long he remained there, listening to the hideous +growling of his bloodthirsty enemies. At last the thought came to him +that he must go; but how was he to drag himself to the place where Pierre +was waiting for him? It was so far! so far! He would faint twenty +times before reaching there. Was he about to fail now after all he had +gone through? + +His left leg was frightfully painful; but he thought he could manage to +walk with it. His left shoulder and arm, however, at the least movement, +caused him atrocious agony, as if the bones had been crushed by the wheel +of some machine. He sought for his handkerchief, and enveloped his +bleeding arm in it, tying the ends of it with his teeth. Then he +tottered to a woodpile near by, and, taking one of the long sticks, he +managed with its aid to drag himself along the alley, while through the +branches the moon looked calmly down upon him. + +He was worn out, and his head seemed swimming in a vast void, when he +reached the end of the alley, and saw, a short way off down the avenue, +the arch of the old bridge near which the coupe had stopped. One effort +more, a few steps, and he was there! He was afraid now of falling +unconscious, and remaining there in a dying condition, without his +coachman even suspecting that he was so near him. + +"Courage!" he murmured. "On! On!" + +Two clear red lights appeared-the lanterns of the coup. "Pierre!" cried +Michel in the darkness, "Pierre!" But he felt that his feeble voice +would not reach the coachman, who was doubtless asleep on his box. Once +more he gathered together his strength, called again, and advanced a +little, saying to himself that a step or two more perhaps meant safety. +Then, all at once, he fell prostrate upon his side, unable to proceed +farther; and his voice, weaker and weaker, gradually failed him. + +Fortunately, the coachman had heard him cry, and realized that something +had happened. He jumped from his box, ran to his master, lifted him up, +and carried him to the carriage. As the light of the lamps fell on the +torn and bloody garments of the Count, whose pallid and haggard face was +that of a dead man, Pierre uttered a cry of fright. + +"Great heavens! Where have you been?" he exclaimed. "You have been +attacked?" + +"The coup--place me in the coup." + +"But there are doctors here. I will go--" + +"No--do nothing. Make no noise. Take me to Paris--I do not wish any one +to know--To Paris--at once," and he lost consciousness. + +Pierre, with some brandy he luckily had with him, bathed his master's +temples, and forced a few drops between his lips; and, when the Count had +recovered, he whipped up his horse and galloped to Paris, growling, with +a shrug of the shoulders: + +"There must have been a woman in this. Curse the women! They make all +the trouble in the world." + +It was daybreak when the coup reached Paris. + +Pierre heard, as they passed the barrier, a laborer say to his mate + +"That's a fine turnout. I wish I was in the place of the one who is +riding inside!" + +"So do I!" returned the other. + +And Pierre thought, philosophically: "Poor fools! If they only knew!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +"THERE IS NO NEED OF ACCUSING ANYONE." + +At the first streak of daylight, Marsa descended, trembling, to the +garden, and approached the little gate, wondering what horror would meet +her eyes. + +Rose-colored clouds, like delicate, silky flakes of wool, floated across +the blue sky; the paling crescent of the moon, resembling a bent thread +of silver wire, seemed about to fade mistily away; and, toward the east, +in the splendor of the rising sun, the branches of the trees stood out +against a background of burnished gold as in a Byzantine painting. The +dewy calm and freshness of the early morning enveloped everything as in a +bath of purity and youth. + +But Marsa shuddered as she thought that perhaps this beautiful day was +dawning upon a dead body. She stopped abruptly as she saw the gardener, +with very pale face, come running toward her. + +"Ah, Mademoiselle, something terrible has happened! Last night the dogs +barked and barked; but they bark so often at the moon and the shadows, +that no one got up to see what was the matter." + +"Well--well?" gasped Marsa, her hand involuntarily seeking her heart. + +"Well, there was a thief here last night, or several of them, for poor +Ortog is half strangled; but the rascals did not get away scot free. +The one who came through the little path to the pavilion was badly +bitten; his tracks can be followed in blood for a long distance a very +long distance." + +"Then," asked Marsa, quickly, "he escaped? He is not dead?" + +"No, certainly not. He got away." + +"Ah! Thank heaven for that!" cried the Tzigana, her mind relieved of a +heavy weight. + +"Mademoiselle is too good," said the gardener. "When a man enters, like +that, another person's place, he exposes himself to be chased like a +rabbit, or to be made mincemeat of for the dogs. He must have had big +muscles to choke Ortog, the poor beast!--not to mention that Duna's teeth +are broken. But the scoundrel got his share, too; for he left big +splashes of blood upon the gravel." + +"Blood!" + +"The most curious thing is that the little gate, to which there is no +key, is unlocked. They came in and went out there. If that idiot of a +Saboureau, whom General Vogotzine discharged--and rightly too, +Mademoiselle--were not dead, I should say that he was at the bottom +of all this." + +"There is no need of accusing anyone," said Marsa, turning away. + +The gardener returned to the neighborhood of the pavilion, and, examining +the red stains upon the ground, he said: "All the same, this did not +happen by itself. I am going to inform the police!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"A BEAUTIFUL DREAM" + +It was the eve of the marriage-day of Prince Andras Zilah and +Mademoiselle Marsa Laszlo, and Marsa sat alone in her chamber, where +the white robes she was to wear next day were spread out on the bed; +alone for the last time--to-morrow she would be another's. + +The fiery Tzigana, who felt in her heart, implacable as it was to evil +and falsehood, all capabilities of devotion and truth, was condemned to +lie, or to lose the love of Prince Andras, which was her very life. +There was no other alternative. No, no: since she had met this man, +superior to all others, since he loved her and she loved him, she would +take an hour of his life and pay for that hour with her own. She had no +doubt but that an avowal would forever ruin her in Andras's eyes. No, +again and forever no: it was much better to take the love which fate +offered her in exchange for her life. + +And, as she threw herself back in her chair with an expression of +unchangeable determination in her dark, gazelle-like eyes, there suddenly +came into her mind the memory of a day long ago, when, driving along the +road from Maisons-Lafitte to Saint-Germain, she had met some wandering +gipsies, two men and a woman, with copper-colored skins and black eyes, +in which burned, like a live coal, the passionate melancholy of the race. +The woman, a sort of long spear in her hand, was driving some little +shaggy ponies, like those which range about the plains of Hungary. +Bound like parcels upon the backs of these ponies were four or five +little children, clothed in rags, and covered with the dust of the road. +The woman, tall, dark and faded, a sort of turban upon her head, held out +her hand toward Marsa's carriage with a graceful gesture and a broad +smile--the supplicating smile of those who beg. A muscular young fellow, +his crisp hair covered with a red fez, her brother--the woman was old, or +perhaps she was less so than she seemed, for poverty brings wrinkles-- +walked by her side behind the sturdy little ponies. Farther along, +another man waited for them at a corner of the road near a laundry, +the employees of which regarded him with alarm, because, at the end of a +rope, the gipsy held a small gray bear. As she passed by them, Marsa +involuntarily exclaimed, in the language of her mother "Be szomoru!" +(How sad it is!) The man, at her words, raised his head, and a flash of +joy passed over his face, which showed, or Marsa thought so (who knows? +perhaps she was mistaken), a love for his forsaken country. Well, now, +she did not know why, the remembrance of these poor beings returned to +her, and she said to herself that her ancestors, humble and insignificant +as these unfortunates in the dust and dirt of the highway, would have +been astonished and incredulous if any one had told them that some day a +girl born of their blood would wed a Zilah, one of the chiefs of that +Hungary whose obscure and unknown minstrels they were! Ah! what an +impossible dream it seemed, and yet it was realized now. + +At all events, a man's death did not lie between her and Zilah. Michel +Menko, after lying at death's door, was cured of his wounds. She knew +this from Baroness Dinati, who attributed Michel's illness to a sword +wound secretly received for some woman. This was the rumor in Paris. +The young Count had, in fact, closed his doors to every one; and no one +but his physician had been admitted. What woman could it be? The little +Baroness could not imagine. + +Marsa thought again, with a shudder, of the night when the dogs howled; +but, to tell the truth, she had no remorse. She had simply defended +herself! The inquiry begun by the police had ended in no definite +result. At Maisons-Lafitte, people thought that the Russian house had +been attacked by some thieves who had been in the habit of entering +unoccupied houses and rifling them of their contents. They had even +arrested an old vagabond, and accused him of the attempted robbery at +General Vogotzine's; but the old man had answered: "I do not even know +the house." But was not this Menko a hundred times more culpable than a +thief? It was more and worse than money or silver that he had dared to +come for: it was to impose his love upon a woman whose heart he had well- +nigh broken. Against such an attack all weapons were allowable, even +Ortog's teeth. The dogs of the Tzigana had known how to defend her; and +it was what she had expected from her comrades. + +Had Michel Menko died, Marsa would have said, with the fatalism of the +Orient: "It was his own will!" She was grateful, however, to fate, for +having punished the wretch by letting him live. Then she thought no more +of him except to execrate him for having poisoned her happiness, and +condemned her either to a silence as culpable as a lie, or to an avowal +as cruel as a suicide. + +The night passed and the day came at last, when it was necessary for +Marsa to become the wife of Prince Andras, or to confess to him her +guilt. She wished that she had told him all, now that she had not the +courage to do so. She had accustomed herself to the idea that a woman is +not necessarily condemned to love no more because she has encountered a +coward who has abused her love. She was in an atmosphere of illusion and +chimera; what was passing about her did not even seem to exist. Her +maids dressed her, and placed upon her dark hair the bridal veil: she +half closed her eyes and murmured: + +"It is a beautiful dream." + +A dream, and yet a reality, consoling as a ray of light after a hideous +nightmare. Those things which were false, impossible, a lie, +a phantasmagoria born of a fever, were Michel Menko, the past years, +the kisses of long ago, the threats of yesterday, the bayings of the +infuriated dogs at that shadow which did not exist. + +General Vogotzine, in a handsome uniform, half suffocated in his high +vest, and with a row of crosses upon his breast--the military cross of +St. George, with its red and black ribbon; the cross of St. Anne, with +its red ribbon; all possible crosses--was the first to knock at his +niece's door, his sabre trailing upon the floor. + +"Who is it?" said Marsa. + +"I, Vogotzine." + +And, permission being given him, he entered the room. + +The old soldier walked about his niece, pulling his moustache, as if he +were conducting an inspection. He found Marsa charming. Pale as her +white robe, with Tizsa's opal agraffe at her side, ready to clasp the +bouquet of flowers held by one of her maids, she had never been so +exquisitely beautiful; and Vogotzine, who was rather a poor hand at +turning a compliment, compared her to a marble statue. + +"How gallant you are this morning, General," she said, her heart bursting +with emotion. + +She waved away, with a brusque gesture, the orange-flowers which her maid +was about to attach to her corsage. + +"No," she said. "Not that! Roses." + +"But, Mademoiselle " + +"Roses," repeated Marsa. "And for my hair white rosebuds also." + +At this, the old General risked another speech. + +"Do you think orange-blossoms are too vulgar, Marsa? By Jove! They +don't grow in the ditches, though!" + +And he laughed loudly at what he considered wit. But a frowning glance +from the Tzigana cut short his hilarity; and, with a mechanical movement, +he drew himself up in a military manner, as if the Czar were passing by. + +"I will leave you to finish dressing, my dear," he said, after a moment. + +He already felt stifled in the uniform, which he was no longer accustomed +to wear, and he went out in the garden to breathe freer. While waiting +there for Zilah, he ordered some cherry cordial, muttering, as he drank +it: + +"It is beautiful August weather. They will have a fine day; but I shall +suffocate!" + +The avenue was already filled with people. The marriage had been much +discussed, both in the fashionable colony which inhabited the park and in +the village forming the democratic part of the place; even from +Sartrouville and Mesnil, people had come to see the Tzigana pass in her +bridal robes. + +"What is all that noise?" demanded Vogotzine of the liveried footman. + +"That noise, General? The inhabitants of Maisons who have come to see +the wedding procession." + +"Really? Ah! really? Well, they haven't bad taste. They will see a +pretty woman and a handsome uniform." And the General swelled out his +breast as he used to do in the great parades of the time of Nicholas, and +the reviews in the camp of Tsarskoe-Selo. + +Outside the garden, behind the chestnut-trees which hid the avenue, there +was a sudden sound of the rolling of wheels, and the gay cracking of +whips. + +"Ah!" cried the General, "It is Zilah!" + +And, rapidly swallowing a last glass of the cordial, he wiped his +moustache, and advanced to meet Prince Andras, who was descending from +his carriage. + +Accompanying the Prince were Yanski Varhely, and an Italian friend of +Zilah's, Angelo Valla, a former minister of the Republic of Venice, in +the time of Manin. Andras Zilah, proud and happy, appeared to have +hardly passed his thirtieth year; a ray of youth animated his clear eyes. +He leaped lightly out upon the gravel, which cracked joyously beneath his +feet; and, as he advanced through the aromatic garden, to the villa where +Marsa awaited him, he said to himself that no man in the world was +happier than he. + +Vogotzine met him, and, after shaking his hand, asked him why on earth he +had not put on his national Magyar costume, which the Hungarians wore +with such graceful carelessness. + +"Look at me, my dear Prince! I am in full battle array!" + +Andras was in haste to see Marsa. He smiled politely at the General's +remark, and asked him where his niece was. + +"She is putting on her uniform," replied Vogotzine, with a loud laugh +which made his sabre rattle. + +Most of the invited guests were to go directly to the church of Maisons. +Only the intimate friends came first to the house, Baroness Dinati, +first of all, accompanied by Paul Jacquemin, who took his eternal notes, +complimenting both Andras and the General, the latter especially eager to +detain as many as possible to the lunch after the ceremony. Vogotzine, +doubtless, wished to show himself in all the eclat of his majestic +appetite. + +Very pretty, in her Louis Seize gown of pink brocade, and a Rembrandt hat +with a long white feather (Jacquemin, who remained below, had already +written down the description in his note-book), the little Baroness +entered Marsa's room like a whirlwind, embracing the young girl, and +going into ecstasy over her beauty. + +"Ah! how charming you are, my dear child! You are the ideal of a bride! +You ought to be painted as you are! And what good taste to wear roses, +and not orange-flowers, which are so common, and only good for shopgirls. +Turn around! You are simply exquisite." + +Marsa, paler than her garments, looked at herself in the glass, happy in +the knowledge of her beauty, since she was about to be his, and yet +contemplating the tall, white figure as if it were not her own image. + +She had often felt this impression of a twofold being, in those dreams +where one seems to be viewing the life of another, or to be the +disinterested spectator of one's own existence. + +It seemed to her that it was not she who was to be married, or that +suddenly the awakening would come. + +"The Prince is below," said the Baroness Dinati. + +"Ah!" said Marsa. + +She started with a sort of involuntary terror, as this very name of +Prince was at once that of a husband and that of a judge. But when, +superb in the white draperies, which surrounded her like a cloud of +purity, her long train trailing behind her, she descended the stairs, +her little feet peeping in and out like two white doves, and appeared at +the door of the little salon where Andras was waiting, she felt herself +enveloped in an atmosphere of love. The Prince advanced to meet her, his +face luminous with happiness; and, taking the young girl's hands, he +kissed the long lashes which rested upon her cheek, saying, as he +contemplated the white vision of beauty before him: + +"How lovely you are, my Marsa! And how I love you!" + +The Prince spoke these words in a tone, and with a look, which touched +the deepest depths of Marsa's heart. + +Then they exchanged those words, full of emotion, which, in their eternal +triteness, are like music in the ears of those who love. Every one had +withdrawn to the garden, to leave them alone in this last, furtive, happy +minute, which is never found again, and which, on the threshold of the +unknown, possesses a joy, sad as a last farewell, yet full of hope as the +rising of the sun. + +He told her how ardently he loved her, and how grateful he was to her for +having consented, in her youth and beauty, to become the wife of a quasi- +exile, who still kept, despite his efforts, something of the melancholy +of the past. + +And she, with an outburst of gratitude, devotion, and love, in which all +the passion of her nature and her race vibrated, said, in a voice which +trembled with unshed tears: + +"Do not say that I give you my life. It is you who make of a girl of the +steppes a proud and honored wife, who asks herself why all this happiness +has come to her." Then, nestling close to Andras, and resting her dark +head upon his shoulder, she continued: "We have a proverb, you remember, +which says, Life is a tempest. I have repeated it very often with bitter +sadness. But now, that wicked proverb is effaced by the refrain of our +old song, Life is a chalet of pearls." + +And the Tzigana, lost in the dream which was now a tangible reality, +saying nothing, but gazing with her beautiful eyes, now moist, into the +face of Andras, remained encircled in his arms, while he smiled and +whispered, again and again, "I love you!" + +All the rest of the world had ceased to exist for these two beings, +absorbed in each other. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE BRIDAL DAY + +The little Baroness ran into the room, laughing, and telling them how +late it was; and Andras and Marsa, awakened to reality, followed her to +the hall, where Varhely, Vogotzine, Angelo Valla, Paul Jacquemin and +other guests were assembled as a sort of guard of honor to the bride and +groom. + +Andras and the Baroness, with Varhely, immediately entered the Prince's +carriage; Vogotzine taking his place in the coupe with Marsa. Then there +was a gay crackling of the gravel, a flash of wheels in the sunlight, a +rapid, joyous departure. Clustered beneath the trees in the ordinarily +quiet avenues of Maisons, the crowd watched the cortege; and old +Vogotzine good-humoredly displayed his epaulettes and crosses for the +admiration of the people who love uniforms. + +As she descended from the carriage, Marsa cast a superstitious glance at +the facade of the church, a humble facade, with a Gothic porch and cheap +stained-glass windows, some of which were broken; and above a plaster +tower covered with ivy and surmounted with a roughly carved cross. She +entered the church almost trembling, thinking again how strange was this +fate which united, before a village altar, a Tzigana and a Magyar. She +walked up the aisle, seeing nothing, but hearing about her murmurs of +admiration, and knelt down beside Andras, upon a velvet cushion, near +which burned a tall candle, in a white candlestick. + +The little church, dimly lighted save where the priest stood, was hushed +to silence, and Marsa felt penetrated with deep emotion. She had really +drunk of the cup of oblivion; she was another woman, or rather a young +girl, with all a young girl's purity and ignorance of evil. It seemed to +her that the hated past was a bad dream; one of those unhealthy +hallucinations which fly away at the dawn of day. + +She saw, in the luminous enclosure of the altar, the priest in his white +stole, and the choir boys in their snowy surplices. The waxen candles +looked like stars against the white hangings of the chancel; and above +the altar, a sweet-faced Madonna looked down with sad eyes upon the man +and woman kneeling before her. Through the parti-colored windows, +crossed with broad bands of red, the branches of the lindens swayed in +the wind, and the fluttering tendrils of the ivy cast strange, flickering +shadows of blue, violet, and almost sinister scarlet upon the guests +seated in the nave. + +Outside, in the square in front of the church, the crowd waited the end +of the ceremony. Shopgirls from the Rue de l'Eglise, and laundresses +from the Rue de Paris, curiously contemplated the equipages, with their +stamping horses, and the coachmen, erect upon their boxes, motionless, +and looking neither to the right nor the left. Through the open door of +the church, at the end of the old oak arches, could be seen Marsa's +white, kneeling figure, and beside her Prince Zilah, whose blond head, as +he stood gazing down upon his bride, towered above the rest of the party. + +The music of the organ, now tremulous and low, now strong and deep, +caused a profound silence to fall upon the square; but, as the last note +died away, there was a great scrambling for places to see the procession +come out. + +Above the mass of heads, the leaves of the old lindens rustled with a +murmur which recalled that of the sea; and now and then a blossom of a +yellowish white would flutter down, which the girls disputed, holding up +their hands and saying: + +"The one who catches it will have a husband before the year is out!" + +A poor old blind man, cowering upon the steps of the sanctuary, was +murmuring a monotonous prayer, like the plaint of a night bird. + +Yanski Varhely regarded the scene with curiosity, as he waited for the +end of the ceremony. Somewhat oppressed by the heavy atmosphere of the +little church, and being a Huguenot besides, the old soldier had come out +into the open air, and bared his head to the fresh breeze under the +lindens. + +His rugged figure had at first a little awed the crowd; but they soon +began to rattle on again like a brook over the stones. + +Varhely cast, from time to time, a glance into the interior of the +church. Baroness Dinati was now taking up the collection for the poor, +holding the long pole of the alms-box in her little, dimpled hands, and +bowing with a pretty smile as the coins rattled into the receptacle. + +Varhely, after a casual examination of the ruins of an old castle which +formed one side of the square, was about to return to the church, when a +domestic in livery pushed his way through the crowd, and raising himself +upon his toes, peered into the church as if seeking some one. After a +moment the man approached Yanski, and, taking off his hat, asked, +respectfully: + +"Is it to Monsieur Varhely that I have the honor to speak?" + +"Yes," replied Yanski, a little surprised. + +"I have a package for Prince Andras Zilah: would Monsieur have the +kindness to take charge of it, and give it to the Prince? I beg +Monsieur's pardon; but it is very important, and I am obliged to go +away at once. I should have brought it to Maisons yesterday." + +As he spoke, the servant drew from an inside pocket a little package +carefully wrapped, and sealed with red sealing-wax. + +"Monsieur will excuse me," he said again, "but it is very important." + +"What is it?" asked Varhely, rather brusquely. "Who sent it?" + +"Count Michel Menko." + +Varhely knew very well (as also did Andras), that Michel had been +seriously ill; otherwise, he would have been astonished at the young +man's absence from the wedding of the Prince. + +He thought Michel had probably sent a wedding present, and he took the +little package, twisting it mechanically in his hands. As he did so, he +gave a slight start of surprise; it seemed as if the package contained +letters. + +He looked at the superscription. The name of Prince Andras Zilah was +traced in clear, firm handwriting, and, in the left-hand corner, Michel +Menko had written, in Hungarian characters: "Very important! With the +expression of my excuses and my sorrow." And below, the signature "Menko +Mihaly." + +The domestic was still standing there, hat in hand. "Monsieur will be +good enough to pardon me," he said; "but, in the midst of this crowd, I +could not perhaps reach his Excellency, and the Count's commands were so +imperative that--" + +"Very well," interrupted Varhely. "I will myself give this to the Prince +immediately." + +The domestic bowed, uttered his thanks, and left Varhely vaguely uneasy +at this mysterious package which had been brought there, and which Menko +had addressed to the Prince. + +With the expression of his excuses and his sorrow! Michel doubtless +meant that he was sorry not to be able to join Andras's friends--he who +was one of the most intimate of them, and whom the Prince called "my +child." Yes, it was evidently that. But why this sealed package? and +what did it contain? Yanski turned it over and over between his fingers, +which itched to break the wrapper, and find out what was within. + +He wondered if there were really any necessity to give it to the Prince. +But why should he not? What folly to think that any disagreeable news +could come from Michel Menko! The young man, unable to come himself to +Maisons, had sent his congratulations to the Prince, and Zilah would be +glad to receive them from his friend. That was all. There was no +possible trouble in all this, but only one pleasure the more to Andras. + +And Varhely could not help smiling at the nervous feeling a letter +received under odd circumstances or an unexpected despatch sometimes +causes. The envelope alone, of some letters, sends a magnetic thrill +through one and makes one tremble. The rough soldier was not accustomed +to such weaknesses, and he blamed himself as being childish, for having +felt that instinctive fear which was now dissipated. + +He shrugged his shoulders, and turned toward the church. + +From the interior came the sound of the organ, mingled with the murmur of +the guests as they rose, ready to depart. The wedding march from the +Midsummer Night's Dream pealed forth majestically as the newly-married +pair walked slowly down the aisle. Marsa smiled happily at this music of +Mendelssohn, which she had played so often, and which was now singing for +her the chant of happy love. She saw the sunshine streaming through the +open doorway, and, dazzled by this light from without, her eyes fixed +upon the luminous portal, she no longer perceived the dim shadows of the +church. + +Murmurs of admiration greeted her as she appeared upon the threshold, +beaming with happiness. The crowd, which made way for her, gazed upon +her with fascinated eyes. The door of Andras's carriage was open; Marsa +entered it, and Andras, with a smile of deep, profound content, seated +himself beside her, whispering tenderly in the Tzigana's ear as the +carriage drove off: + +"Ah! how I love you! my beloved, my adored Marsa! How I love you, and +how happy I am!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +"THE TZIGANA IS THE MOST LOVED OF ALL!" + +The chimes rang forth a merry peal, and Mendelssohn's music still +thundered its triumphal accents, as the marriage guests left the church. + +"It is a beautiful wedding, really a great success! The bride, the +decorations, the good peasants and the pretty girls--everything is simply +perfect. If I ever marry again," laughed the Baroness, "I shall be +married in the country." + +"You have only to name the day, Baroness," said old Vogotzine, inspired +to a little gallantry. + +And Jacquemin, with a smile, exclaimed, in Russian: + +"What a charming speech, General, and so original! I will make a note of +it." + +The carriages rolled away toward Marsa's house through the broad avenues, +turning rapidly around the fountains of the park, whose jets of water +laughed as they fell and threw showers of spray over the masses of +flowers. Before the church, the children disputed for the money and +bonbons Prince Andras had ordered to be distributed. In Marsa's large +drawing-rooms, where glass and silver sparkled upon the snowy cloth, +servants in livery awaited the return of the wedding-party. In a moment +there was an assault, General Vogotzine leading the column. All +appetites were excited by the drive in the fresh air, and the guests did +honor to the pates, salads, and cold chicken, accompanied by Leoville, +which Jacquemin tasted and pronounced drinkable. + +The little Baroness was ubiquitous, laughing, chattering, enjoying +herself to her heart's content, and telling every one that she was to +leave that very evening for Trouviile, with trunks, and trunks, and +trunks--a host of them! But then, it was race-week, you know! + +With her eyeglasses perched upon her little nose, she stopped before a +statuette, a picture, no matter what, exclaiming, merrily: + +"Oh, how pretty that is! How pretty it is! It is a Tanagra! How queer +those Tanagras are. They prove that love existed in antiquity, don't +they, Varhely? Oh! I forgot; what do you know about love?" + +At last, with a glass of champagne in her hand, she paused before a +portrait of Marsa, a strange, powerful picture, the work of an artist +who knew how to put soul into his painting. + +"Ah! this is superb! Who painted it, Marsa?" + +"Zichy," replied Marsa. + +"Ah, yes, Zichy! I am no longer astonished. By the way, there is +another Hungarian artist who paints very well. I have heard of him. +He is an old man; I don't exactly remember his name, something like +Barabas." + +"Nicolas de Baratras," said Varhely. + +"Yes, that's it. It seems he is a master. But your Zichy pleases me +infinitely. He has caught your eyes and expression wonderfully; it is +exactly like you, Princess. I should like to have my portrait painted by +him. His first name is Michel, is it not?" + +She examined the signature, peering through her eyeglass, close to the +canvas. + +"Yes, I knew it was. Michel Zichy!" + +This name of "Michel!" suddenly pronounced, sped like an arrow through +Marsa's heart. She closed her eyes as if to shut out some hateful +vision, and abruptly quitted the Baroness, who proceeded to analyze +Zichy's portrait as she did the pictures in the salon on varnishing day. +Marsa went toward other friends, answering their flatteries with smiles, +and forcing herself to talk and forget. + +Andras, in the midst of the crowd where Vogotzine's loud laugh alternated +with the little cries of the Baroness, felt a complex sentiment: he +wished his friends to enjoy themselves and yet he longed to be alone with +Marsa, and to take her away. They were to go first to his hotel in +Paris; and then to some obscure corner, probably to the villa of Sainte- +Adresse, until September, when they were going to Venice, and from there +to Rome for the winter. + +It seemed to the Prince that all these people were taking away from him a +part of his life. Marsa belonged to them, as she went from one to +another, replying to the compliments which desperately resembled one +another, from those of Angelo Valla, which were spoken in Italian, +to those of little Yamada, the Parisianized Japanese. Andras now longed +for the solitude of the preceding days; and Baroness Dinati, shaking her +finger at him, said: "My dear Prince, you are longing to see us go, +I know you are. Oh! don't say you are not! I am sure of it, and I can +understand it. We had no lunch at my marriage. The Baron simply carried +me off at the door of the church. Carried me off! How romantic that +sounds! It suggests an elopement with a coach and four! Have no fear, +though; leave it to me, I will disperse your guests!" + +She flew away before Zilah could answer; and, murmuring a word in the +ears of her friends, tapping with her little hand upon the shoulders of +the obstinate, she gradually cleared the rooms, and the sound of the +departing carriages was soon heard, as they rolled down the avenue. + +Andras and Marsa were left almost alone; Varhely still remaining, and the +little Baroness, who ran up, all rosy and out of breath, to the Prince, +and said, gayly, in her laughing voice: + +"Well! What do you say to that? all vanished like smoke, even +Jacquemin, who has gone back by train. The game of descampativos, +which Marie Antoinette loved to play at Trianon, must have been a little +like this. Aren't you going to thank me? Ah! you ingrate!" + +She ran and embraced Marsa, pressing her cherry lips to the Tzigana's +pale face, and then rapidly disappeared in a mock flight, with a gay +little laugh and a tremendous rustle of petticoats. + +Of all his friends, Varhely was the one of whom Andras was fondest; +but they had not been able to exchange a single word since the morning. +Yanski had been right to remain till the last: it was his hand which the +Prince wished to press before his departure, as if Varhely had been his +relative, and the sole surviving one. + +"Now," he said to him, "you have no longer only a brother, my dear +Varhely; you have also a sister who loves and respects you as I love +and respect you myself." + +Yanski's stern face worked convulsively with an emotion he tried to +conceal beneath an apparent roughness. + +"You are right to love me a little," he said, brusquely, "because I am +very fond of you--of both of you," nodding his head toward Marsa. +"But no respect, please. That makes me out too old." + +The Tzigana, taking Vogotzine's arm, led him gently toward the door, +a little alarmed at the purple hue of the General's cheeks and forehead. +"Come, take a little fresh air," she said to the old soldier, who +regarded her with round, expressionless eyes. + +As they disappeared in the garden, Varhely drew from his pocket the +little package given to him by Menko's valet. + +"Here is something from another friend! It was brought to me at the door +of the church." + +"Ah! I thought that Menko would send me some word of congratulation," +said Andras, after he had read upon the envelope the young Count's +signature. "Thanks, my dear Varhely." + +"Now," said Yanski, "may happiness attend you, Andras! I hope that you +will let me hear from you soon." + +Zilah took the hand which Varhely extended, and clasped it warmly in both +his own. + +Upon the steps Varhely found Marsa, who, in her turn, shook his hand. + +"Au revoir, Count." + +"Au revoir, Princess." + +She smiled at Andras, who accompanied Varhely, and who held in his hand +the package with the seals unbroken. + +"Princess!" she said. "That is a title by which every one has been +calling me for the last hour; but it gives me the greatest pleasure to +hear it spoken by you, my dear Varhely. But, Princess or not, I shall +always be for you the Tzigana, who will play for you, whenever you wish +it, the airs of her country--of our country--!" + +There was, in the manner in which she spoke these simple words, a gentle +grace which evoked in the mind of the old patriot memories of the past +and the fatherland. + +"The Tzigana is the most charming of all! The Tzigana is the most loved +of all!" he said, in Hungarian, repeating a refrain of a Magyar song. + +With a quick, almost military gesture, he saluted Andras and Marsa as +they stood at the top of the steps, the sun casting upon them dancing +reflections through the leaves of the trees. + +The Prince and Princess responded with a wave of the hand; and General +Vogotzine, who was seated under the shade of a chestnut-tree, with his +coat unbuttoned and his collar open, tried in vain to rise to his feet +and salute the departure of the last guest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A DREAM SHATTERED + +They were alone at last; free to exchange those eternal vows which they +had just taken before the altar and sealed with a long, silent pressure +when their hands were united; alone with their love, the devoted love +they had read so long in each other's eyes, and which had burned, in the +church, beneath Marsa's lowered lids, when the Prince had placed upon her +finger the nuptial ring. + +This moment of happiness and solitude after all the noise and excitement +was indeed a blessed one! + +Andras had placed upon the piano of the salon Michel Menko's package, +and, seated upon the divan, he held both Marsa's hands in his, as she +stood before him. + +"My best wishes, Princess!" he said. "Princess! Princess Zilah! That +name never sounded so sweet in my ears before! My wife! My dear and +cherished wife!" As she listened to the music of the voice she loved, +Marsa said to herself, that sweet indeed was life, which, after so many +trials, still had in reserve for her such joys. And so deep was her +happiness, that she wished everything could end now in a beautiful dream +which should have no awakening,. + +"We will depart for Paris whenever you like," said the Prince. + +"Yes," she exclaimed, sinking to his feet, and throwing her arms about +his neck as he bent over her, "let us leave this house; take me away, +take me away, and let a new life begin for me, the life I have longed for +with you and your love!" + +There was something like terror in her words, and in the way she clung to +this man who was her hero. When she said "Let us leave this house," she +thought, with a shudder, of all her cruel suffering, of all that she +hated and which had weighed upon her like a nightmare. She thirsted for +a different air, where no phantom of the past could pursue her, where she +should feel free, where her life should belong entirely to him. + +"I will go and take off this gown," she murmured, rising, "and we will +run away like two eloping lovers." + +"Take off that gown? Why? It would be such a pity! You are so lovely +as you are!" + +"Well," said Marsa, glancing down upon him with an almost mutinous smile, +which lent a peculiar charm to her beauty, "I will not change this white +gown, then; a mantle thrown over it will do. And you will take your wife +in her bridal dress to Paris, my Prince, my hero--my husband!" + +He rose, threw his arms about her, and, holding her close to his heart, +pressed one long, silent kiss upon the exquisite lips of his beautiful +Tzigana. + +She gently disengaged herself from his embrace, with a shivering sigh; +and, going slowly toward the door, she turned, and threw him a kiss, +saying: + +"I will come back soon, my Andras!" + +And, although wishing to go for her mantle, nevertheless she still stood +there, with her eyes fixed upon the Prince and her mouth sweetly +tremulous with a passion of feeling, as if she could not tear herself +away. + +The piano upon which Andras had cast the package given him by Varhely was +there between them; and the Prince advanced a step or two, leaning his +hand upon the ebony cover. As Marsa approached for a last embrace before +disappearing on her errand, her glance fell mechanically upon the small +package sealed with red wax; and, as she read, in the handwriting she +knew so well, the address of the Prince and the signature of Michel +Menko, she raised her eyes violently to the face of Prince Zilah, as if +to see if this were not a trap; if, in placing this envelope within her +view, he were not trying to prove her. There was in her look fright, +sudden, instinctive fright, a fright which turned her very lips to ashes; +and she recoiled, her eyes returning fascinated to the package, while +Andras, surprised at the unexpected expression of the Tzigana's convulsed +features, exclaimed, in alarm: + +"What is it, Marsa? What is the matter?" + +"I--I" + +She tried to smile. + +"Nothing--I do not know! I--" + +She made a desperate effort to look him in the face; but she could not +remove her eyes from that sealed package bearing the name Menko. + +Ah! that Michel! She had forgotten him! Miserable wretch! He returned, +he threatened her, he was about to avenge himself: she was sure of it! + +That paper contained something horrible. What could Michel Menko have to +say to Prince Andras, writing him at such an hour, except to tell him +that the wretched woman he had married was branded with infamy? + +She shuddered from head to foot, steadying herself against the piano, her +lips trembling nervously. + +"I assure you, Marsa--" began the Prince, taking her hands. "Your hands +are cold. Are you ill?" + +His eyes followed the direction of Marsa's, which were still riveted upon +the piano with a dumb look of unutterable agony. + +He instantly seized the sealed package, and, holding it up, exclaimed: + +"One would think that it was this which troubled you!" + +"O Prince! I swear to you!--" + +"Prince?" + +He repeated in amazement this title which she suddenly gave him; she, +who called him Andras, as he called her Marsa. Prince? He also, in his +turn, felt a singular sensation of fright, wondering what that package +contained, and if Marsa's fate and his own were not connected with some +unknown thing within it. + +"Let us see," he said, abruptly breaking the seals, "what this is." + +Rapidly, and as if impelled, despite herself, Marsa caught the wrist of +her husband in her icy hand, and, terrified, supplicating, she cried, in +a wild, broker voice: + +"No, no, I implore you! No! Do not read it! Do not read it!" + +He contemplated her coldly, and, forcing himself to be calm, asked: + +"What does this parcel of Michel Menko's contain?" + +"I do not know," gasped Marsa. "But do not read it! In the name of the +Virgin" (the sacred adjuration of the Hungarians occurring to her mind, +in the midst of her agony), "do not read it!" + +"But you must be aware, Princess," returned Andras, "that you are taking +the very means to force me to read it." + +She shivered and moaned, there was such a change in the way Andras +pronounced this word, which he had spoken a moment before in tones so +loving and caressing--Princess. + +Now the word threatened her. + +"Listen! I am about to tell you: I wished--Ah! My God! My God! +Unhappy woman that I am! Do not read, do not read!" + +Andras, who had turned very pale, gently removed her grasp from the +package, and said, very slowly and gravely, but with a tenderness in +which hope still appeared: + +"Come, Marsa, let us see; what do you wish me to think? Why do you wish +me not to read these letters? for letters they doubtless are. What have +letters sent me by Count Menko to do with you? You do not wish me to +read them?" + +He paused a moment, and then, while Marsa's eyes implored him with the +mute prayer of a person condemned to death by the executioner, he +repeated: + +"You do not wish me to read them? Well, so be it; I will not read them, +but upon one condition: you must swear to me, understand, swear to me, +that your name is not traced in these letters, and that Michel Menko has +nothing in common with the Princess Zilah." + +She listened, she heard him; but Andras wondered whether she understood, +she stood so still and motionless, as if stupefied by the shock of a +moral tempest. + +"There is, I am certain," he continued in the same calm, slow voice, +"there is within this envelope some lie, some plot. I will not even know +what it is. I will not ask you a single question, and I will throw these +letters, unread, into the fire; but swear to me, that, whatever this +Menko, or any other, may write to me, whatever any one may say, is an +infamy and a calumny. Swear that, Marsa." + +"Swear it, swear again? Swear always, then? Oath upon oath? Ah! it is +too much!" she cried, her torpor suddenly breaking into an explosion of +sobs and cries. "No! not another lie, not one! Monsieur, I am a wretch, +a miserable woman! Strike me! Lash me, as I lash my dogs! I have +deceived you! Despise me! Hate me! I am unworthy even of pity! The +man whose letters you hold revenges himself, and stabs me, has been--my +lover!" + +"Michel!" + +"The most cowardly, the vilest being in the world! If he hated me, he +might have killed me; he might have torn off my veil just now, and struck +me across the lips. But to do this, to do this! To attack you, you, +you! Ah! miserable dog; fit only to be stoned to death! Judas! Liar +and coward! Would to heaven I had planted a knife in his heart!" + +"Ah! My God!" murmured the Prince, as if stabbed himself. + +At this cry of bitter agony from Andras Zilah, Marsa's imprecations +ceased; and she threw herself madly at his feet; while he stood erect and +pale--her judge. + +She lay there, a mass of white satin and lace, her loosened hair falling +upon the carpet, where the pale bridal flowers withered beneath her +husband's heel; and Zilah, motionless, his glance wandering from the +prostrate woman to the package of letters which burned his fingers, +seemed ready to strike, with these proofs of her infamy, the distracted +Tzigana, a wolf to threaten, a slave to supplicate. + +Suddenly he leaned over, seized her by the wrists, and raised her almost +roughly. + +"Do you know," he said, in low, quivering tones, "that the lowest of +women is less culpable than you? Ten times, a hundred times, less +culpable! Do you know that I have the right to kill you?" + +"Ah! that, yes! Do it! do it! do it!" she cried, with the smile of a +mad woman. + +He pushed her slowly from him. + +"Why have you committed this infamy? It was not for my fortune; you are +rich." + +Marsa moaned, humiliated to the dust by this cold contempt. She would +have preferred brutal anger; anything, to this. + +"Ah! your fortune!" she said, finding a last excuse for herself out of +the depth of her humiliation, which had now become eternal; "it was not +that, nor your name, nor your title that I wished: it was your love!" + +The heart of the Prince seemed wrung in a vise as this word fell from +those lips, once adored, nay, still adored, soiled as they were. + +"My love!" + +"Yes, your love, your love alone! I would have confessed all, been your +mistress, your slave, your thing, if I--I had not feared to lose you, to +see myself abased in the eyes of you, whom I adored! I was afraid, +afraid of seeing you fly from me--yes, that was my crime! It is +infamous, ah! I know it; but I thought only of keeping you, you alone; +you, my admiration, my hero, my life, my god! I deserve to be punished; +yes, yes, I deserve it--But those letters--those letters which you would +have cast into the fire if I had not revealed the secret of my life--you +told me so yourself--I might have sworn what you asked, and you would +have believed me--I might have done so; but no, it would have been too +vile, too cowardly! Ah! kill me! That is what I deserve, that is what--" + +"Where are you going?" she cried, interrupting herself, her eyes dilated +with fear, as she saw that Zilah, without answering, was moving toward +the door. + +She forgot that she no longer had the right to question; she only felt, +that, once gone, she would never see him again. Ah! a thousand times a +blow with a knife rather than that! Was this the way the day, which +began so brightly, was to end? + +"Where are you going?" + +"What does that matter to you?" + +"True! I beg your pardon. At least--at least, Monsieur, one word, I +implore. What are your commands? What do you wish me to do? There must +be laws to punish those who have done what I have done! Shall I accuse +myself, give myself up to justice? Ah! speak to me! speak to me!" + +"Live with Michel Menko, if he is still alive after I have met him!" +responded Andras, in hard, metallic tones, waving back the unhappy woman +who threw herself on her knees, her arms outstretched toward him. + +The door closed behind him. For a moment she gazed after him with +haggard eyes: and then, dragging herself, her bridal robes trailing +behind her, to the door, she tried to call after him, to detain the man +whom she adored, and who was flying from her; but her voice failed her, +and, with one wild, inarticulate cry, she fell forward on her face, with +a horrible realization of the immense void which filled the house, this +morning gay and joyous, now silent as a tomb. + +And while the Prince, in the carriage which bore him away, read the +letters in which Marsa spoke of her love for another, and that other the +man whom he called "my child;" while he paused in this agonizing reading +to ask himself if it were true, if such a sudden annihilation of his +happiness were possible, if so many misfortunes could happen in such a +few hours; while he watched the houses and trees revolve slowly by him, +and feared that he was going mad--Marsa's servants ate the remnants of +the lunch, and drank what was left of the champagne to the health of the +Prince and Princess Zilah. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +"THE WORLD HOLDS BUT ONE FAIR MAIDEN" + +Paris, whose everyday gossip has usually the keenness and eagerness of +the tattle of small villages, preserves at times, upon certain serious +subjects, a silence which might be believed to be generous. Whether it +is from ignorance or from respect, at all events it has little to say. +There are vague suspicions of the truth, surmises are made, but nothing +is affirmed; and this sort of abdication of public malignity is the most +complete homage that can be rendered either to character or talent. + +The circle of foreigners in Paris, that contrasted society which circled +and chattered in the salon of the Baroness Dinati, could not, of +necessity, be ignorant that the Princess Zilah, since the wedding which +had attracted to Maisons-Lafitte a large part of the fashionable world, +had not left her house, while Prince Andras had returned to Paris alone. + +There were low-spoken rumors of all sorts. It was said that Marsa had +been attacked by an hereditary nervous malady; and in proof of this were +cited the visits made at Maisons-Lafitte by Dr. Fargeas, the famous +physician of Salpetriere, who had been summoned in consultation with Dr. +Villandry. These two men, both celebrated in their profession, had been +called in by Vogotzine, upon the advice of Yanski Varhely, who was more +Parisian and better informed than the General. + +Vogotzine was dreadfully uneasy, and his brain seemed ready to burst with +the responsibility thrust upon him. Since the terrible day of the +marriage--Vogotzine shrugged his shoulders in anger and amazement when +he uttered this word marriage--Marsa had not recovered from a sort of +frightened stupor; and the General, terrified at his niece's condition, +was really afraid of going insane himself. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" he said, "all this is deplorably sad." + +After the terrible overthrow of all her hopes, Marsa was seized with a +fever, and she lay upon her bed in a frightful delirium, which entirely +took away the little sense poor old Vogotzine had left. Understanding +nothing of the reason of Zilah's disappearance, the General listened in +childish alarm to Marsa, wildly imploring mercy and pity of some +invisible person. The unhappy old man would have faced a battalion of +honveds or a charge of bashi-bazouks rather than remain there in the +solitary house, with the delirious girl whose sobs and despairing appeals +made the tears stream down the face of this soldier, whose brain was now +weakened by drink, but who had once contemplated with a dry eye, whole +ditches full of corpses, which some priest, dressed in mourning, blessed +in one mass. + +Vogotzine hastened to Paris, and questioned Andras; but the Prince +answered him in a way that permitted of no further conversation upon the +subject. + +"My personal affairs concern myself alone." + +The General had not energy enough to demand an explanation; and he bowed, +saying that it was certainly not his business to interfere; but he +noticed that Zilah turned very pale when he told him that it would be a +miracle if Marsa recovered from the fever. + +"It is pitiful!" he said. + +Zilah cast a strange look at him, severe and yet terrified. + +Vogotzine said no more; but he went at once to Dr. Fargeas, and asked him +to come as soon as possible to Maisons-Lafitte. + +The doctor's coupe in a few hours stopped before the gate through which +so short a time ago the gay marriage cortege had passed, and Vogotzine +ushered him into the little salon from which Marsa had once driven Menko. + +Then the General sent for Mademoiselle--or, rather, Madame, as he +corrected himself with a shrug of his shoulders. But suddenly he became +very serious as he saw upon the threshold Marsa, whose fever had +temporarily left her, and who could now manage to drag herself along, +pale and wan, leaning upon the arm of her maid. + +Dr. Fargeas cast a keen glance at the girl, whose eyes, burning with +inward fire, alone seemed to be living. + +"Madame," said the doctor, quietly, when the General had made a sign to +his niece to listen to the stranger, "General Vogotzine has told me that +you were suffering. I am a physician. Will you do me the honor and the +kindness to answer my questions?" + +"Yes," said the General, "do, my dear Marsa, to please me." + +She stood erect, not a muscle of her face moving; and, without replying, +she looked steadily into the doctor's eyes. In her turn, she was +studying him. It was like a defiance before a duel. + +Then she said suddenly, turning to Vogotzine: + +"Why have you brought a physician? I am not ill." + +Her voice was clear, but low and sad, and it was an evident effort for +her to speak. + +"No, you are not ill, my dear child; but I don't know--I don't +understand--you make me a little uneasy, a very little. You know if I, +your old uncle, worried you even a little, you would not feel just right +about it, would you now?" + +With which rather incoherent speech, he tried to force a smile; but +Marsa, taking no notice of him, turned slowly to the doctor, who had not +removed his eyes from her face. + +"Well," she said, dryly, "what do you want? What do you wish to ask me? +What shall I tell you? Who requested you to come here?" + +Vogotzine made a sign to the maid to leave the room. + +"I told you, I have come at the General's request," said Fargeas, with a +wave of his hand toward Vogotzine. + +Marsa only replied: "Ah!" But it seemed to the doctor that there was a +world of disappointment and despair expressed in this one ejaculation. + +Then she suddenly became rigid, and lapsed into one of those stupors +which had succeeded the days of delirium, and had frightened Vogotzine so +much. + +"There! There! Look at her!" exclaimed the old man. + +Fargeas, without listening to the General, approached Marsa, and placed +her in a chair near the window. He looked in her eyes, and placed his +hand upon her burning forehead; but Marsa made no movement. + +"Are you in pain?" he asked, gently. + +The young girl, who a moment before had asked questions and still seemed +interested a little in life, stirred uneasily, and murmured, in an odd, +singing voice: + +"I do not know!" + +"Did you sleep last night?" + +"I do not know!" + +"How old are you?" asked Fargeas, to test her mental condition. + +"I do not know!" + +The physician's eyes sought those of the General. Vogotzine, his face +crimson, stood by the chair, his little, round eyes blinking with emotion +at each of these mournful, musical responses. + +"What is your name?" asked the doctor, slowly. + +She raised her dark, sad eyes, and seemed to be seeking what to reply; +then, wearily letting her head fall backward, she answered, as before: + +"I do not know!" + +Vogotzine, who had become purple, seized the doctor's arm convulsively. + +"She no longer knows even her own name!" + +"It will be only temporary, I hope," said the doctor. "But in her +present state, she needs the closest care and attention." + +"I have never seen her like this before, never since--since the first +day," exclaimed the General, in alarm and excitement. "She tried to kill +herself then; but afterward she seemed more reasonable, as you saw just +now. When she asked you who sent you, I thought Ah! at last she is +interested in something. But now it is worse than ever. Oh! this is +lively for me, devilish lively!" + +Fargeas took between his thumb and finger the delicate skin of the +Tzigana, and pinched her on the neck, below the ear. Marsa did not stir. + +"There is no feeling here," said the doctor; "I could prick it with a pin +without causing any sensation of pain." Then, again placing his hand +upon Marsa's forehead, he tried to rouse some memory in the dormant +brain: + +"Come, Madame, some one is waiting for you. Your uncle--your uncle +wishes you to play for him upon the piano! Your uncle! The piano!" + +"The World holds but One Fair Maiden!" hummed Vogotzine, trying to give, +in his husky voice, the melody of the song the Tzigana was so fond of. + +Mechanically, Marsa repeated, as if spelling the word: "The piano! +piano!" and then, in peculiar, melodious accents, she again uttered her +mournful: "I do not know!" + +This time old Vogotzine felt as if he were strangling; and the doctor, +full of pity, gazed sadly down at the exquisitely beautiful girl, with +her haggard, dark eyes, and her waxen skin, sitting there like a marble +statue of despair. + +"Give her some bouillon," said Fargeas. "She will probably refuse it in +her present condition; but try. She can be cured," he added; "but she +must be taken away from her present surroundings. Solitude is necessary, +not this here, but--" + +"But?" asked Vogotzine, as the doctor paused. + +"But, perhaps, that of an asylum. Poor woman!" turning again to Marsa, +who had not stirred. "How beautiful she is!" + +The doctor, greatly touched, despite his professional indifference, left +the villa, the General accompanying him to the gate. It was decided that +he should return the next day with Villandry and arrange for the +transportation of the invalid to Dr. Sims's establishment at Vaugirard. +In a new place her stupor might disappear, and her mind be roused from +its torpor; but a constant surveillance was necessary. Some pretext must +be found to induce Marsa to enter a carriage; but once at Vaugirard, the +doctor gave the General his word that she should be watched and taken +care of with the utmost devotion. + +Vogotzine felt the blood throb in his temples as he listened to the +doctor's decision. The establishment at Vaugirard! His niece, the +daughter of Prince Tchereteff, and the wife of Prince Zilah, in an insane +asylum! + +But he himself had not the right to dispose of Marsa's liberty; the +consent of the Prince was necessary. It was in vain for Andras to refuse +to have his life disturbed; it was absolutely necessary to find out from +him what should be done with Marsa, who was his wife and Princess Zilah. + +The General also felt that he was incapable of understanding anything, +ignorant as he was of the reasons of the rupture, of Zilah's anger +against the Tzigana, and of the young girl's terrible stupor; and, as he +drank his cherry cordial or his brandy, wondered if he too were insane, +as he repeated, like his niece: + +"I do not know! I do not know!" + +He felt obliged, however, to go and tell the Prince of the opinion of the +illustrious physician of Salpetriere. + +Then he asked Zilah: + +"What is your decision?" + +"General," replied Andras, "whatever you choose to do is right. But, +once for all, remember that I wish henceforth to live alone, entirely +alone, and speak to me neither of the future nor of the past, which is +cruel, nor of the present, which is hopeless. I have determined---" + +"What?" + +"To live hereafter an absolutely selfish life!" + +"That will change you," returned the General, in amazement. + +"And will console me," added Andras. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Life is a tempest +Nervous natures, as prompt to hope as to despair +No answer to make to one who has no right to question me +Nothing ever astonishes me +Poverty brings wrinkles + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Zilah, v2 +by Jules Claretie + + + + + + +PRINCE ZILAH + +By JULES CLARETIE + + + +BOOK 3. + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A LITTLE PARISIAN ROMANCE + +The very evening of the day when the package of letters had killed in +Andras all happiness and all faith, the Hungarian prince presented +himself in the Rue d'Aumale, to seek Michel Menko. + +Menko! That boy whom he had loved almost as a brother, that man for whom +he had hoped a glorious future, Michel, Michel Menko, had betrayed him, +and struck him with the perfidy of a coward. Yes, at the door of the +church, when it was too late, or rather, at a time when the blow would be +surer and the wound more deadly--then Menko had said to him: "My dear +Prince, the woman whom you love, the woman whom you have married, has +been my mistress. Here, read, see how she loved me!" + +Had Michel been before him, Andras would have seized the young man by the +throat, and strangled him on the spot; but, when he reached the Rue +d'Aumale, he did not find Menko. + +"The Count left town yesterday," said the servant, in answer to his +question. + +"Yesterday! Where has he gone?" + +"The Count must have taken the steamer to-day at Havre for New York. +The Count did not tell us exactly where he was going, however, but to +America, somewhere. We only know, the coachman Pierre, and myself, that +the Count will not return again to Paris. We are still in his service, +however, and are to await his orders." + +Hesitating a little, the servant added: + +"Have I not the honor to speak to Prince Zilah?" + +"Why?" asked Andras. + +The valet replied with a humble but very sincere air: + +"Because, if Monseigneur should hear from the Count, and there is any +question of the package which I took to Maisons-Lafitte this morning for +Monseigneur--" + +"Well?" said Andras. + +"Monseigneur would greatly oblige me if he would not let the Count know +that I did not fulfil his orders last evening." + +"Last evening? What do you mean? Explain yourself!" said the Prince, +sternly. + +"When he left yesterday, the Count expressly ordered me to take the +package to Monseigneur that very evening. I beg Monseigneur's pardon; +but I had an invitation to a wedding, and I did not carry out the Count's +instructions until this morning. But, as Monseigneur was not at home, +I took the train to Maisons-Lafitte. I hope that I did not arrive too +late. The Count was very particular about it, and I should be very sorry +if my negligence has done any harm." + +Andras listened, gazing intently upon the face of the servant, who was a +little discountenanced by this silent inquisition. + +"So Count Menko wished the package to be delivered to me yesterday?" + +"I beg Monseigneur not to tell the Count that he was not obeyed." + +"Yesterday?" repeated Andras. + +"Yes, yesterday, Monseigneur. The Count departed, thinking it would be +done; and, indeed, he had a right to think so. I am very careful, +Monseigneur, very careful; and if Monseigneur should some day have need +of a--" + +The Prince stopped the valet with a gesture. It was repugnant to Andras +to have this man mixed up in a secret of his life; and such a secret! +But the domestic was evidently ignorant what a commission Menko had +confided to him: in his eyes, the package, containing such letters, was +like any other package. Andras was persuaded of this by the attitude of +the man, humiliated at having failed in his duty. + +A word more exchanged with the valet, and Andras would have felt +humiliated himself. But he had gained from the conversation the idea +that Menko had not wished to insult him in his happiness, but to reveal +all to him before the ceremony had yet been celebrated. It was as +atrocious, but not so cowardly. Menko had wished to attack Marsa, rather +than Andras; this was visible in the express commands given to his valet. +And upon what a trifle had it depended, whether the name of Zilah should +be borne by this woman! Upon what? Upon a servant's feast! Life is +full of strange chances. The hands of that low-born valet had held for +hours his happiness and his honor--his honor, Andras Zilah's--the honor +of all his race! + +The Prince returned to his hotel, which he had left that morning thinking +that he would soon bring there the woman he then adored, but whom he now +despised and hated. Oh! he would know where Menko had gone; him he could +punish; as for Marsa, she was now dead to him. + +But where, in the whirlpool of the New World, would this Michel Menko +disappear? and how could he find him? + +The days passed; and Zilah had acquired almost the certainty that Menko +had not embarked at Havre. Perhaps he had not quitted Europe. He might, +some day or another, in spite of what the valet had said, reappear in +Paris; and then-- + +Meanwhile, the Prince led the life of a man wounded to the heart; seeking +solitude, and shutting himself in his hotel, in the Rue Balzac, like a +wolf in his den; receiving no one but Varhely, and sometimes treating +even old Yanski coldly; then, suddenly emerging from his retirement, +and trying to take up his life again; appearing at the meetings of the +Hungarian aid society, of which he was president; showing himself at the +races, at the theatre, or even at Baroness Dinati's; longing to break the +dull monotony of his now ruined life; and, with a sort of bravado, +looking society and opinion full in the face, as if to surprise a smile +or a sneer at his expense, and punish it. + +He had, however, no right to complain of the sentiment which was felt +for him, for every one respected and admired him. At first, it is true, +society, and in particular that society of Parisian foreigners in which +Prince Andras mingled, had tried to find out why he had broken so +suddenly with the woman he had certainly married for love. Public +curiosity, aroused and excited, had sought to divine the secret of the +romance. "If it does not get into the newspapers," they said, "it will +be fortunate." And society was even astonished that the journals had not +already discovered the key to this Parisian mystery. + +But society, after all as fickle as it is curious (one of its little +vices chasing away the other), turned suddenly to another subject; forgot +the rupture of Marsa and Andras, and saw in Zilah only a superior being, +whose lofty soul forced respect from the frivolous set accustomed to +laugh at everything. + +A lofty soul, yes, but a soul in torment. Varhely alone, among them all, +knew anything of the suffering which Andras endured. He was no longer +the same man. His handsome face, with its kindly eyes and grave smile, +was now constantly overshadowed. He spoke less, and thought more. +On the subject of his sadness and his grief, Andras never uttered a word +to any one, not even to his old friend; and Yanski, silent from the day +when he had been an unconscious messenger of ill, had not once made any +allusion to the past. + +Although he knew nothing, Varhely had, nevertheless, guessed everything, +and at once. The blow was too direct and too cruelly simple for the old +Hungarian not to have immediately exclaimed, with rage: + +"Those were love-letters, and I gave them to him! Idiot that I was! I +held those letters in my hand; I might have destroyed them, or crammed +them one by one down Menko's throat! But who could have suspected such +an infamy? Menko! A man of honor! Ah, yes; what does honor amount to +when there is a woman in question? Imbecile! And it is irreparable now, +irreparable!" + +Varhely also was anxious to know where Menko had gone. They did not know +at the Austro-Hungarian embassy. It was a complete disappearance, +perhaps a suicide. If the old Hungarian had met the young man, he would +at least have gotten rid of part of his bile. But the angry thought that +he, Varhely, had been associated in a vile revenge which had touched +Andras, was, for the old soldier, a constant cause for ill-humor with +himself, and a thing which, in a measure, poisoned his life. + +Varhely had long been a misanthrope himself; but he tried to struggle +against his own temperament when he saw Andras wrapping himself up in +bitterness and gloomy thoughts. + +Little by little, Zilah allowed himself to sink into that state where not +only everything becomes indifferent to us, but where we long for another +suffering, further pain, that we may utter more bitter cries, more +irritated complaints against fate. It seems then that everything is dark +about us, and our endless night is traversed by morbid visions, and +peopled with phantoms. The sick man--for the one who suffers such +torture is sick--would willingly seek a new sorrow, like those wounded +men who, seized with frenzy, open their wounds themselves, and irritate +them with the point of a knife. Then, misanthropy and disgust of life +assume a phase in which pain is not without a certain charm. There is a +species of voluptuousness in this appetite for suffering, and the +sufferer becomes, as it were, enamored of his own agony. + +With Zilah, this sad state was due to a sort of insurrection of his +loyalty against the many infamies to be met with in this world, which he +had believed to be only too full of virtues. + +He now considered himself an idiot, a fool, for having all his life +adored chimeras, and followed, as children do passing music, the fanfares +of poetic chivalry. Yes, faith, enthusiasm, love, were so many cheats, +so many lies. All beings who, like himself, were worshippers of the +ideal, all dreamers of better things, all lovers of love, were inevitably +doomed to deception, treason, and the stupid ironies of fate. And, full +of anger against himself, his pessimism of to-day sneering at his +confidence of yesterday, he abandoned himself with delight to his +bitterness, and he took keen joy in repeating to himself that the secret +of happiness in this life was to believe in nothing except treachery, and +to defend oneself against men as against wolves. + +Very rarely, his real frank, true nature would come to the fore, and he +would say: + +"After all, are the cowardice of one man, and the lie of one woman, to be +considered the crime of entire humanity?" + +Why should he curse, he would think, other beings than Marsa and Menko? +He had no right to hate any one else; he had no enemy that he knew of, +and he was honored in Paris, his new country. + +No enemy? No, not one. And yet, one morning, with his letters, his +valet brought him a journal addressed to "Prince Zilah," and, on +unfolding it, Andras's attention was attracted to two paragraphs in the +column headed "Echoes of Paris," which were marked with a red-lead +pencil. + +It was a number of 'L'Actualite', sent through the post by an unknown +hand, and the red marks were evidently intended to point out to the +Prince something of interest to himself. + +Andras received few journals. A sudden desire seized him, as if he had a +presentiment of what it contained, to cast this one into the fire without +reading it. For a moment he held it in his fingers ready to throw it +into the grate. Then a few words read by accident invincibly prevented +him. + +He read, at first with poignant sorrow, and then with a dull rage, the +two paragraphs, one of which followed the other in the paper. + +"A sad piece of news has come to our ears," ran the first paragraph, "a +piece of news which has afflicted all the foreign colony of Paris, and +especially the Hungarians. The lovely and charming Princess Z., whose +beauty was recently crowned with a glorious coronet, has been taken, +after a consultation of the princes of science (there are princes in all +grades), to the establishment of Dr. Sims, at Vaugirard, the rival of the +celebrated asylum of Dr. Luys, at Ivry. Together with the numerous +friends of Prince A. Z., we hope that the sudden malady of the Princess +Z. will be of short duration." + +So Marsa was now the patient, almost the prisoner, of Dr. Sims! The +orders of Dr. Fargeas had been executed. She was in an insane asylum, +and Andras, despite himself, felt filled with pity as he thought of it. + +But the red mark surrounded both this first "Echo of Paris," and the one +which followed it; and Zilah, impelled now by eager curiosity, proceeded +with his reading. + +But he uttered a cry of rage when he saw, printed at full length, given +over to common curiosity, to the eagerness of the public for scandal, and +to the malignity of blockheads, a direct allusion to his marriage--worse +than that, the very history of his marriage placed in an outrageous +manner next to the paragraph in which his name was almost openly written. +The editor of the society journal passed directly from the information in +regard to the illness of Princess Z. to an allegorical tale in which +Andras saw the secret of his life and the wounds of his heart laid bare. + + A LITTLE PARISIAN ROMANCE + Like most of the Parisian romances of to-day, the little romance in + question is an exotic one. Paris belongs to foreigners. When the + Parisians, whose names appear in the chronicles of fashion, are not + Americans, Russians, Roumanians, Portuguese, English, Chinese, or + Hungarians, they do not count; they are no longer Parisians. The + Parisians of the day are Parisians of the Prater, of the Newski + Perspective or of Fifth Avenue; they are no longer pureblooded + Parisians. Within ten years from now the boulevards will be + situated in Chicago, and one will go to pass his evenings at the + Eden Theatre of Pekin. So, this is the latest Parisian romance: + Once upon a time there was in Paris a great lord, a Moldavian, or a + Wallachian, or a Moldo-Wallachian (in a word, a Parisian--a Parisian + of the Danube, if you like), who fell in love with a young Greek, + or Turk, or Armenian (also of Paris), as dark-browed as the night, + as beautiful as the day. The great lord was of a certain age, that + is, an uncertain age. The beautiful Athenian or Georgian, or + Circassian, was young. The great lord was generally considered to + be imprudent. But what is to be done when one loves? Marry or + don't marry, says Rabelais or Moliere. Perhaps they both said it. + Well, at all events, the great lord married. It appears, if well- + informed people are to be believed, that the great Wallachian lord + and the beautiful Georgian did not pass two hours after their + marriage beneath the same roof. The very day of their wedding, + quietly, and without scandal, they separated, and the reason of this + rupture has for a long time puzzled Parisian high-life. It was + remarked, however, that the separation of the newly-married pair was + coincident with the disappearance of a very fashionable attache who, + some years ago, was often seen riding in the Bois, and who was then + considered to be the most graceful waltzer of the Viennese, or + Muscovite, or Castilian colony of Paris. We might, if we were + indiscreet, construct a whole drama with these three people for our + dramatis personae,; but we wish to prove that reporters (different + in this from women) sometimes know how to keep a secret. For those + ladies who are, perhaps, still interested in the silky moustaches of + the fugitive ex-diplomat, we can add, however, that he was seen at + Brussels a short time ago. He passed through there like a shooting + star. Some one who saw him noticed that he was rather pale, and + that he seemed to be still suffering from the wounds received not + long ago. As for the beautiful Georgian, they say she is in despair + at the departure of her husband, the great Wallachian lord, who, in + spite of his ill-luck, is really a Prince Charming. + +Andras Zilah turned rapidly to the signature of this article. The +"Echoes of Paris" were signed Puck. Puck? Who was this Puck? How could +an unknown, an anonymous writer, a retailer of scandals, be possessed of +his secret? For Andras believed that his suffering was a secret; he had +never had an idea that any one could expose it to the curiosity of the +crowd, as this editor of L'Actualite had done. He felt an increased rage +against the invisible Michel Menko, who had disappeared after his infamy; +and it seemed to him that this Puck, this unknown journalist, was an +accomplice or a friend of Michel Menko, and that, behind the pseudonym of +the writer, he perceived the handsome face, twisted moustache and haughty +smile of the young Count. + +"After all," he said to himself, "we shall soon find out. Monsieur Puck +must be less difficult to unearth than Michel Menko." + +He rang for his valet, and was about to go out, when Yanski Varhely was +announced. + +The old Hungarian looked troubled, and his brows were contracted in a +frown. He could not repress a movement of anger when he perceived, upon +the Prince's table, the marked number of L'Actualite. + +Varhely, when he had an afternoon to get rid of, usually went to the +Palais-Royal. He had lived for twenty years not far from there, in a +little apartment near Saint-Roch. Drinking in the fresh air, under the +striped awning of the Cafe de la Rotunde, he read the journals, one after +the other, or watched the sparrows fly about and peck up the grains in +the sand. Children ran here and there, playing at ball; and, above the +noise of the promenaders, arose the music of the brass band. + +It was chiefly the political news he sought for in the French or foreign +journals. He ran through them all with his nose in the sheets, which he +held straight out by the wooden file, like a flag. With a rapid glance, +he fell straight upon the Hungarian names which interested him--Deak +sometimes, sometimes Andrassy; and from a German paper he passed to an +English, Spanish, or Italian one, making, as he said, a tour of Europe, +acquainted as he was with almost all European languages. + +An hour before he appeared at the Prince's house, he was seated in the +shade of the trees, scanning 'L'Actualite', when he suddenly uttered an +oath of anger (an Hungarian 'teremtete!') as he came across the two +paragraphs alluding to Prince Andras. + +Varhely read the lines over twice, to convince himself that he was not +mistaken, and that it was Prince Zilah who was designated with the +skilfully veiled innuendo of an expert journalist. There was no chance +for doubt; the indistinct nationality of the great lord spoken of thinly +veiled the Magyar characteristics of Andras, and the paragraph which +preceded the "Little Parisian Romance" was very skilfully arranged to let +the public guess the name of the hero of the adventure, while giving to +the anecdote related the piquancy of the anonymous, that velvet mask of +scandal-mongers. + +Then Varhely had only one idea. + +"Andras must not know of this article. He scarcely ever reads the +journals; but some one may have sent this paper to him." + +And the old misanthrope hurried to the Prince's hotel, thinking this: +that there always exist people ready to forward paragraphs of this kind. + +When he perceived 'L'Actualite' upon the Prince's table, he saw that his +surmise was only too correct, and he was furious with himself for +arriving too late. + +"Where are you going?" he asked Andras, who was putting on his gloves. + +The Prince took up the marked paper, folded it slowly, and replied: + +"I am going out." + +"Have you read that paper?" + +"The marked part of it, yes." + +"You know that that sheet is never read, it has no circulation whatever, +it lives from its advertisements. There is no use in taking any notice +of it." + +"If there were question only of myself, I should not take any notice of +it. But they have mixed up in this scandal the name of the woman to whom +I have given my name. I wish to know who did it, and why he did it." + +"Oh! for nothing, for fun! Because this Monsieur--how does he sign +himself?--Puck had nothing else to write about." + +"It is certainly absurd," remarked Zilah, "to imagine that a man can live +in the ideal. At every step the reality splashes you with mud." + +As he spoke, he moved toward the door. + +"Where are you going?" asked Varhely again. + +"To the office of this journal." + +"Do not commit such an imprudence. The article, which has made no stir +as yet, will be read and talked of by all Paris if you take any notice of +it, and it will be immediately commented upon by the correspondents of +the Austrian and Hungarian journals." + +"That matters little to me!" said the Prince, resolutely. "Those people +will only do what their trade obliges them to. But, before everything, +I am resolved to do my duty. That is my part in this matter." + +"Then I will accompany you." + +"No," replied Andras, "I ask you not to do that; but it is probable that +to-morrow I shall request you to serve as my second." + +"A duel?" + +"Exactly." + +"With Monsieur--Puck?" + +"With whoever insults me. The name is perfectly immaterial. But since +he escapes me and she is irresponsible--and punished--I regard as an +accomplice of their infamy any man who makes allusion to it with either +tongue or pen. And, my dear Varhely, I wish to act alone. Don't be +angry; I know that in your hands my honor would be as faithfully guarded +as in my own." + +"Without any doubt," said Varhely, in an odd tone, pulling his rough +moustache, "and I hope to prove it to you some day." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE HOME OF "PUCK" + +Prince Zilah did not observe at all the marked significance old Yanski +gave to this last speech. He shook Varhely's hand, entered a cab, and, +casting a glance at the journal in his hands, he ordered the coachman to +drive to the office of 'L'Actualite', Rue Halevy, near the Opera. + +The society journal, whose aim was represented by its title, had its +quarters on the third floor in that semi-English section where bars, +excursion agencies, steamboat offices, and manufacturers of travelling- +bags give to the streets a sort of Britannic aspect. The office of +'L'Actualite' had only recently been established there. Prince Zilch +read the number of the room upon a brass sign and went up. + +In the outer office there were only two or three clerks at work behind +the grating. None of these had the right to reveal the names hidden +under pseudonyms; they did not even know them. Zilch perceived, through +an open door, the reporters' room, furnished with a long table covered +with pens, ink, and pads of white paper. This room was empty; the +journal was made up in the evening, and the reporters were absent. + +"Is there any one who can answer me?" asked the Prince. + +"Probably the secretary can," replied a clerk. "Have you a card, +Monsieur? or, if you will write your name upon a bit of paper, it will +do." + +Andras did so; the clerk opened a door in the corridor and disappeared. +After a minute or two he reappeared, and said to the Prince: + +"If you will follow me, Monsieur Freminwill see you." + +Andras found himself in the presence of a pleasant-looking middle-aged +man, who was writing at a modest desk when the Hungarian entered, and who +bowed politely, motioning him to be seated. + +As Zilch sat down upon the sofa, there appeared upon the threshold of a +door, opposite the one by which he had entered, a small, dark, elegantly +dressed young man, whom Andras vaguely remembered to have seen somewhere, +he could not tell where. The newcomer was irreproachable in his +appearance, with his clothes built in the latest fashion, snowy linen, +pale gray gloves, silver-headed cane, and a single eyeglass, dangling +from a silken cord. + +He bowed to Zilch, and, going up to the secretary, he said, rapidly: + +"Well! since Tourillon is away, I will report the Enghien races. I am +going there now. Enghien isn't highly diverting, though. The swells and +the pretty women so rarely go there; they don't affect Enghien any more. +But duty before everything, eh, Fremin?" + +"You will have to hurry," said Fremin, looking at his watch, "or you will +miss your train." + +"Oh! I have a carriage below." + +He clapped his confrere on the shoulder, bowed again to Zilah, and +hurried away, while Fremin, turning to the Prince, said: + +"I am at your service, Monsieur," and waited for him to open the +conversation. + +Zilah drew from his pocket the copy of L'Actualite, and said, very +quietly: + +"I should like to know, Monsieur, who is meant in this article here." + +And, folding the paper, with the passage which concerned him uppermost, +he handed it to the secretary. + +Fremin glanced at the article. + +"Yes, I have seen this paragraph," he said; "but I am entirely ignorant +to whom it alludes. I am not even certain that it is not a fabrication, +invented out of whole cloth." + +"Ah!" said Zilah. "The author of the article would know, I suppose?" + +"It is highly probable," replied Fremin, with a smile. + +"Will you tell me, then, the name of the person who wrote this?" + +"Isn't the article signed?" + +"It is signed Puck. That is not a name." + +"A pseudonym is a name in literature," said Fremin. "I am of the +opinion, however, that one has always the right to demand to see a face +which is covered by a mask. But the person who makes this demand should +be personally interested. Does this story, to which you have called my +attention, concern you, Monsieur?" + +"Suppose, Monsieur," answered Zilah, a little disconcerted, for he +perceived that he had to do with a courteous, well-bred man, "suppose +that the man who is mentioned, or rather insulted, here, were my best +friend. I wish to demand an explanation of the person who wrote this +article, and to know, also, if it was really a journalist who composed +those lines." + +"You mean?--" + +"I mean that there may be people interested in having such an article +published, and I wish to know who they are." + +"You are perfectly justified, Monsieur; but only one person can tell you +that--the writer of the article." + +"It is for that reason, Monsieur, that I desire to know his name." + +"He does not conceal it," said Fremin. "The pseudonym is only designed +as a stimulant to curiosity; but Puck is a corporeal being." + +"I am glad to hear it," said Zilah. "Now, will you be kind enough to +give me his name?" + +"Paul Jacquemin." + +Zilah knew the name well, having seen it at the end of a report of his +river fete; but he hardly thought Jacquemin could be so well informed. +Since he had lived in France, the Hungarian exile had not been accustomed +to regard Paris as a sort of gossiping village, where everything is found +out, talked over, and commented upon with eager curiosity, and where +every one's aim is to appear to have the best and most correct +information. + +"I must ask you now, Monsieur, where Monsieur Paul Jacquemin lives?" + +"Rue Rochechouart, at the corner of the Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne." + +"Thank you, Monsieur," said Andras, rising, the object of his call having +been accomplished. + +"One moment," said Fremin, "if you intend to go at once to Monsieur +Jacquemin's house, you will not find him at home just now." + +"Why not?" + +"Because you saw him here a few minutes ago, and he is now on his way to +Enghien." + +"Indeed!" said the Prince. "Very well, I will wait." + +He bade farewell to Fremin, who accompanied him to the door; and, when +seated in his carriage, he read again the paragraph of Puck--that Puck, +who, in the course of the same article, referred many times to the +brilliancy of "our colleague Jacquemin," and complacently cited the +witticisms of "our clever friend Jacquemin." + +Zilah remembered this Jacquemin now. It was he whom he had seen taking +notes upon the parapet of the quay, and afterward at the wedding, where +he had been brought by the Baroness Dinati. It was Jacquemin who was +such a favorite with the little Baroness; who was one of the licensed +distributors of celebrity and quasi-celebrity for all those who live upon +gossip and for gossip-great ladies who love to see their names in print, +and actresses wild over a new role; who was one of the chroniclers of +fashion, received everywhere, flattered, caressed, petted; whom the +Prince had just seen, very elegant with his stick and eyeglass, and his +careless, disdainful air; and who had said, like a man accustomed to +every magnificence, fatigued with luxury, blase with pleasure, and caring +only for what is truly pschutt (to use the latest slang): "Pretty women +so rarely go there!" + +Zilah thought that, as the Baroness had a particular predilection for +Jacquemin, it was perhaps she, who, in her gay chatter, had related the +story to the reporter, and who, without knowing it probably, assuredly +without wishing it, had furnished an article for 'L'Actualite'. In all +honor, Jacquemin was really the spoiled child of the Baroness, the +director of the entertainments at her house. With a little more conceit, +Jacquemin, who was by no means lacking in that quality, however, might +have believed that the pretty little woman was in love with him. The +truth is, the Baroness Dinati was only in love with the reporter's +articles, those society articles in which he never forgot her, but paid, +with a string of printed compliments, for his champagne and truffles. + +"And yet," thought Zilah, "no, upon reflection, I am certain that the +Baroness had nothing to do with this outrage. Neither with intention nor +through imprudence would she have given any of these details to this +man." + +Now that the Prince knew his real name, he might have sent to Monsieur +Puck, Varhely, and another of his friends. Jacquemin would then give an +explanation; for of reparation Zilah thought little. And yet, full of +anger, and not having Menko before him, he longed to punish some one; +he wished, that, having been made to suffer so himself, some one should +expiate his pain. He would chastise this butterfly reporter, who had +dared to interfere with his affairs, and wreak his vengeance upon him as +if he were the coward who had fled. And, besides, who knew, after all, +if this Jacquemin were not the confidant of Menko? Varhely would not +have recognized in the Prince the generous Zilah of former times, full of +pity, and ready to forgive an injury. + +Andras could not meet Jacquemin that day, unless he waited for him at the +office of 'L'Actualite' until the races were over, and he therefore +postponed his intended interview until the next day. + +About eleven o'clock in the morning, after a sleepless night, he sought- +the Rue Rochechouart, and the house Fremin had described to him. It was +there: an old weather-beaten house, with a narrow entrance and a +corridor, in the middle of which flowed a dirty, foul-smelling stream of +water; the room of the concierge looked like a black hole at the foot of +the staircase, the balusters and walls of which were wet with moisture +and streaked with dirt; a house of poor working-people, many stories +high, and built in the time when this quarter of Paris was almost a +suburb. + +Andras hesitated at first to enter, thinking that he must be mistaken. +He thought of little Jacquemin, dainty and neat as if he had just stepped +out of a bandbox, and his disdainful remarks upon the races of Enghien, +where the swells no longer went. It was not possible that he lived here +in this wretched, shabby place. + +The concierge replied to the Prince, however, when he asked for +Jacquemin: "Yes, Monsieur, on the fifth floor, the door to the right;" +and Zilah mounted the dark stairs. + +When he reached the fifth floor, he did not yet believe it possible that +the Jacquemin who lived there was the one he had seen the day before, the +one whom Baroness Dinati petted, "our witty colleague Jacquemin." + +He knocked, however, at the door on the right, as he had been directed. +No one came to open it; but he could hear within footsteps and indistinct +cries. He then perceived that there was a bell-rope, and he pulled it. +Immediately he heard some one approaching from within. + +He felt a singular sensation of concentrated anger, united to a fear that +the Jacquemin he was in search of was not there. + +The door opened, and a woman appeared, young, rather pale, with pretty +blond hair, somewhat disheveled, and dressed in a black skirt, with a +white dressing-sack thrown over her shoulders. + +She smiled mechanically as she opened the door, and, as she saw a strange +face, she blushed crimson, and pulled her sack together beneath her chin, +fastening it with a pin. + +"Monsieur Jacquemin?" said Andras, taking off his hat. + +"Yes, Monsieur, he lives here," replied the young woman, a little +astonished. + +"Monsieur Jacquemin, the journalist?" asked Andras. + +"Yes, yes, Monsieur," she answered with a proud little smile, which Zilah +was not slow to notice. She now opened the door wide, and said, stepping +aside to let the visitor pass: + +"Will you take the trouble to come in, Monsieur?" She was not accustomed +to receive calls (Jacquemin always making his appointments at the +office); but, as the stranger might be some one who brought her husband +work, as she called it, she was anxious not to let him go away before she +knew what his errand was. + +"Please come in, Monsieur!" + +The Prince entered, and, crossing the entry in two steps, found himself +in a small dining-room opening directly out of the kitchen, where three +tiny little children were playing, the youngest, who could not have been +more than eighteen months, crawling about on the floor. Upon the ragged +oilcloth which covered the table, Zilah noticed two pairs of men's +gloves, one gray, the other yellow, and a heap of soiled white cravats. +Upon a wooden chair, by the open door of the kitchen, was a tub full of +shirts, which the young woman had doubtless been washing when the bell +rang. + +The cries Zilah had heard came from the children, who were now silent, +staring at the tall gentleman, who looked at them in surprise. + +The young woman was small and very pretty, but with the pallor of fatigue +and overwork; her lips were beautifully chiselled, but almost colorless; +and she was so thin that her figure had the frail appearance of an +unformed girl. + +"Will you sit down, Monsieur?" she asked, timidly, advancing a cane- +bottomed chair. + +Everything in these poor lodgings was of the most shabby description. +In a cracked mirror with a broken frame were stuck cards of invitation, +theatre checks, and race tickets admitting to the grand stand. Upon a +cheap little table with broken corners was a heap of New Year's cards, +bonbon boxes, and novels with soiled edges. Upon the floor, near the +children, were some remnants of toys; and the cradle in which the baby +slept at night was pushed into a corner with a child's chair, the arms of +which were gone. + +Zilah was both astonished and pained. He had not expected to encounter +this wretched place, the poorly clad children, and the woman's timid +smile. + +"Is Monsieur Jacquemin at home?" he asked abruptly, desiring to leave at +once if the man whom he sought was not there. + +"No, Monsieur; but he will not be long away. Sit down, Monsieur, +please!" + +She entreated so gently, with such an uneasy air at the threatened +departure of this man who had doubtless brought some good news for her +husband, that the Prince mechanically obeyed, thinking again that there +was evidently some mistake, and that it was not, it could not be, here +that Jacquemin lived. + +"Is it really your husband, Madame, who writes under the signature of +Puck in 'L'Actualite'?" he asked. The same proud smile appeared again +upon her thin, wan face. + +"Yes, Monsieur, yes, it is really he!" she replied. She was so happy +whenever any one spoke to her of her Paul. She was in the habit of +taking copies of L'Actualite to the concierge, the grocer, and the +butcher; and she was so proud to show how well Paul wrote, and what fine +connections he had--her Paul, whom she loved so much, and for whom she +sat up late at night when it was necessary to prepare his linen for some +great dinner or supper he was invited to. + +"Oh! it is indeed he, Monsieur," she said again, while Zilah watched her +and listened in silence. "I don't like to have him use pseudonyms, as he +calls them. It gives me so much pleasure to see his real name, which is +mine too, printed in full. Only it seems that it is better sometimes. +Puck makes people curious, and they say, Who can it be? He also signed +himself Gavroche in the Rabelais, you know, which did not last very long. +You are perhaps a journalist also, Monsieur?" + +"No," said Zilah. + +"Ah! I thought you were! But, after all, perhaps you are right. It is a +hard profession, I sometimes think. You have to be out so late. If you +only knew, Monsieur, how poor Paul is forced to work even at night! +It tires him so, and then it costs so much. I beg your pardon for +leaving those gloves like that before you. I was cleaning them. He does +not like cleaned gloves, though; he says it always shows. Well, I am a +woman, and I don't notice it. And then I take so much care of all that. +It is necessary, and everything costs so dear. You see I--Gustave, don't +slap your little sister! you naughty boy!" + +And going to the children, her sweet, frank eyes becoming sad at a +quarrel between her little ones, she gently took the baby away from the +oldest child, who cried, and went into a corner to pout, regarding his +mother with the same impudent air which Zilah had perceived in the curl +of Jacquemin's lips when the reporter complained of the dearth of pretty +women. + +"It is certainly very astonishing that he does not come home," continued +the young wife, excusing to Zilah the absence of her Paul. "He often +breakfasts, however, in the city, at Brebant's. It seems that it is +necessary for him to do so. You see, at the restaurant he talks and +hears news. He couldn't learn all that he knows here very well, could +he? I don't know much of things that must be put in a newspaper." + +And she smiled a little sad smile, making even of her humility a pedestal +for the husband so deeply loved and admired. + +Zilah was beginning to feel ill at ease. He had come with anger, +expecting to encounter the little fop whom he had seen, and he found this +humble and devoted woman, who spoke of her Paul as if she were speaking +of her religion, and who, knowing nothing of the life of her husband, +only loving him, sacrificed herself to him in this almost cruel poverty +(a strange contrast to the life of luxury Jacquemin led elsewhere), with +the holy trust of her unselfish love. + +"Do you never accompany your husband anywhere?" asked Andras. + +"I? Oh, never!" she replied, with a sort of fright. "He does not wish +it--and he is right. You see, Monsieur, when he married me, five years +ago, he was not what he is now; he was a railway clerk. I was a working- +girl; yes, I was a seamstress. Then it was all right; we used to walk +together, and we went to the theatre; he did not know any one. It is +different now. You see, if the Baroness Dinati should see me on his arm, +she would not bow to him, perhaps." + +"You are mistaken, Madame," said the Hungarian, gently. "You are the one +who should be bowed to first." + +She did not understand, but she felt that a compliment was intended, and +she blushed very red, not daring to say any more, and wondering if she +had not chatted too much, as Jacquemin reproached her with doing almost +every day. + +"Does Monsieur Jacquemin go often to the theatre?" asked Andras, after a +moment's pause. + +"Yes; he is obliged to do so." + +"And you?" + +"Sometimes. Not to the first nights, of course. One has to dress +handsomely for them. But Paul gives me tickets, oh, as many as I want! +When the plays are no longer drawing money, I go with the neighbors. +But I prefer to stay at home and see to my babies; when I am sitting in +the theatre, and they are left in charge of the concierge, I think, +Suppose anything should happen to them! And that idea takes away all my +pleasure. Still, if Paul stayed here--but he can not; he has his writing +to do in the evenings. Poor fellow, he works so hard! Well!" with a +sigh, "I don't think that he will be back to-day. The children will eat +his beefsteak, that's all; it won't do them any harm." + +As she spoke, she took some pieces of meat from an almost empty cupboard, +and placed them on the table, excusing herself for doing so before Zilah. + +And he contemplated, with an emotion which every word of the little woman +increased, this poor, miserable apartment, where the wife lived, taking +care of her children, while the husband, Monsieur Puck or Monsieur +Gavroche, paraded at the fancy fairs or at the theatres; figured at the +races; tasted the Baroness Dinati's wines, caring only for Johannisberg +with the blue and gold seal of 1862; and gave to Potel and Chabot, in his +articles, lessons in gastronomy. + +Then Madame Jacquemin, feeling instinctively that she had the sympathy of +this sad-faced man who spoke to her in such a gentle voice, related her +life to him with the easy confidence which poor people, who never see the +great world, possess. She told him, with a tender smile, the entirely +Parisian idyl of the love of the working-girl for the little clerk who +loved her so much and who married her; and of the excursions they used to +take together to Saint-Germain, going third-class, and eating their +dinner upon the green grass under the trees, and then enjoying the funny +doings of the painted clowns, the illuminations, the music, and the +dancing. Oh! they danced and danced and danced, until she was so tired +that she slept all the way home with her head on his shoulder, dreaming +of the happy day they had had. + +"That was the best time of my life, Monsieur. We were no richer than we +are now; but we were more free. He was with me more, too: now, he +certainly makes me very proud with his beautiful articles; but I don't +see him; I don't see him any more, and it makes me very sad. Oh! if it +were not for that, although we are not millionaires, I should be very +happy; yes, entirely, entirely happy." + +There was, in the simple, gentle resignation of this poor girl, +sacrificed without knowing it, such devoted love for the man who, in +reality, abandoned her, that Prince Andras felt deeply moved and touched. +He thought of the one leading a life of pleasure, and the other a life of +fatigue; of this household touching on one side poverty, and, on the +other, wealth and fashion; and he divined, from the innocent words of +this young wife, the hardships of this home, half deserted by the +husband, and the nervousness and peevishness of Jacquemin returning to +this poor place after a night at the restaurants or a ball at Baroness +Dinati's. He heard the cutting voice of the elegant little man whom his +humble wife contemplated with the eyes of a Hindoo adoring an idol; he +was present, in imagination, at those tragically sorrowful scenes which +the wife bore with her tender smile, poor woman, knowing of the life of +her Paul only those duties of luxury which she herself imagined, +remaining a seamstress still to sew the buttons on the shirts and gloves +of her husband, and absolutely ignorant of all the entertainments where, +in an evening, would sometimes be lost, at a game of cards, the whole +monthly salary of Monsieur Puck! And Zilah said to himself, that this +was, perhaps, the first time that this woman had ever been brought in +contact with anything pertaining to her husband's fashionable life-- +and in what shape?--that of a man who had come to demand satisfaction for +an injury, and to say to Jacquemin: "I shall probably kill you, +Monsieur!" + +And gradually, before the spectacle of this profound love, of this humble +and holy devotion of the unselfish martyr with timid, wistful eyes, who +leaned over her children, and said to them, sweetly, "Yes, you are +hungry, I know, but you shall have papa's beefsteak," while she herself +breakfasted off a little coffee and a crust of bread, Andras Zilah felt +all his anger die away; and an immense pity filled his breast, as he saw, +as in a vision of what the future might have brought forth, a terrible +scene in this poor little household: the pale fair-haired wife, already +wasted and worn with constant labor, leaning out of the window yonder, +or running to the stairs and seeing, covered with blood, wounded, wounded +to death perhaps, her Paul, whom he, Andras, had come to provoke to a +duel. + +Ah! poor woman! Never would he cause her such anguish and sorrow. +Between his sword and Jacquemin's impertinent little person, were now +this sad-eyed creature, and those poor little children, who played there, +forgotten, half deserted, by their father, and who would grow up, Heaven +knows how! + +"I see that Monsieur Jacquemin will not return," he said, rising +hurriedly, "and I will leave you to your breakfast, Madame." + +"Oh! you don't trouble me at all, Monsieur. I beg your pardon again for +having given my children their breakfast before you." + +"Farewell, Madame," said Andras, bowing with the deepest respect. + +"Then, you are really going, Monsieur? Indeed, I am afraid he won't come +back. But please tell me what I shall say to him your errand was. If it +is some good news, I should be so glad, so glad, to be the first to tell +it to him. You are, perhaps, although you say not, the editor of some +paper which is about to be started. He spoke to me, the other day, of a +new paper. He would like to be a dramatic critic. That is his dream, he +says. Is it that, Monsieur?" + +"No, Madame; and, to tell you the truth, there is no longer any need for +me to see your husband. But I do not regret my visit; on the contrary-- +I have met a noble woman, and I offer her my deepest respect." + +Poor, unhappy girl! She was not used to such words; she blushingly +faltered her thanks, and seemed quite grieved at the departure of this +man, from whom she had expected some good luck for her husband. + +"The life of Paris has its secrets!" thought Zilah, as he slowly +descended the stairs, which he had mounted in such a different frame of +mind, so short a time before. + +When he reached the lower landing, he looked up, and saw the blond head +of the young woman, leaning over above, and the little hands of the +children clutching the damp railing. + +Then Prince Andras Zilah took off his hat, and again bowed low. + +On his way from the Rue Rochechouart to his hotel he thought of the thin, +pale face of the Parisian grisette, who would slowly pine away, deceived +and disdained by the man whose name she bore. Such a fine name! Puck or +Gavroche! + +"And she would die rather than soil that name. This Jacquemin has found +this pearl of great price, and hid it away under the gutters of Paris! +And I--I have encountered--what? A miserable woman who betrayed me! +Ah! men and women are decidedly the victims of chance; puppets destined +to bruise one another!" + +On entering his hotel, he found Yanski Varhely there, with an anxious +look upon his rugged old face. + +"Well?" + +"Well-nothing!" + +And Zilah told his friend what he had seen. + +"A droll city, this Paris!" he said, in conclusion. "I see that it is +necessary to go up into the garrets to know it well." + +He took a sheet of paper, sat down, and wrote as follows: + + MONSIEUR:--You have published an article in regard to Prince Andras + Zilah, which is an outrage. A devoted friend of the Prince had + resolved to make you pay dearly for it; but there is some one who + has disarmed him. That some one is the admirable woman who bears so + honorably the name which you have given her, and lives so bravely + the life you have doomed her to. Madame Jacquemin has redeemed the + infamy of Monsieur Puck. But when, in the future, you have to speak + of the misfortunes of others, think a little of your own existence, + and profit by the moral lesson given you by--AN UNKNOWN. + +"Now," said Zilah, "be so kind, my dear Varhely, as to have this note +sent to Monsieur Puck, at the office of 'L'Actualite' and ask your +domestic to purchase some toys, whatever he likes--here is the money-- +and take them to Madame Jacquemin, No. 25 Rue Rochechouart. Three toys, +because there are three children. The poor little things will have +gained so much, at all events, from this occurrence." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +"AM I AVENGED?" + +After this episode, the Prince lived a more solitary existence than +before, and troubled himself no further about the outside world. Why +should he care, that some penny-aliner had slipped those odious lines +into a newspaper? His sorrow was not the publishing of the treachery, +it was the treachery itself; and his hourly suffering caused him to long +for death to end his torture. + +"And yet I must live," he thought, "if to exist with a dagger through +one's heart is to live." + +Then, to escape from the present, he plunged into the memories of the +war, as into a bath of oblivion, a strange oblivion, where he found all +his patriotic regrets of other days. He read, with spasmodic eagerness, +the books in which Georgei and Klapka, the actors of the drama, presented +their excuses, or poured forth their complaints; and it seemed to him +that his country would make him forget his love. + +In the magnificent picture-gallery, where he spent most of his time, his +eyes rested upon the battle-scenes of Matejks, the Polish artist, and the +landscapes of Munkacsy, that painter of his own country, who took his +name from the town of Munkacs, where tradition says that the Magyars +settled when they came from the Orient, ages ago. Then a bitter longing +took possession of him to breathe a different air, to fly from Paris, and +place a wide distance between himself and Marsa; to take a trip around +the world, where new scenes might soften his grief, or, better still, +some accident put an end to his life; and, besides, chance might bring +him in contact with Menko. + +But, just as he was ready to depart, a sort of lassitude overpowered him; +he felt the inert sensation of a wounded man who has not the strength to +move, and he remained where he was, sadly and bitterly wondering at times +if he should not appeal to the courts, dissolve his marriage, and demand +back his name from the one who had stolen it. + +Appeal to the courts? The idea of doing that was repugnant to him. +What! to hear the proud and stainless name of the Zilahs resound, +no longer above the clash of sabres and the neighing of furious horses, +but within the walls of a courtroom, and in presence of a gaping crowd +of sensation seekers? No! silence was better than that; anything was +better than publicity and scandal. Divorce! He could obtain that, since +Marsa, her mind destroyed, was like one dead. And what would a divorce +give him? His freedom? He had it already. But what nothing could give +back, was his ruined faith, his shattered hopes, his happiness lost +forever. + +At times he had a wild desire to see Marsa again, and vent once more upon +her his anger and contempt. When he happened to see the name of Maisons- +Lafitte, his body tingled from head to foot, as by an electric shock. +Maisons! The sunlit garden, the shaded alleys, the glowing parterres of +flowers, the old oaks, the white-walled villa, all appeared before him, +brutally distinct, like a lost, or rather poisoned, Eden! And, besides, +she, Marsa, was no longer there; and the thought that the woman whom he +had so passionately loved, with her exquisite, flower-like face, was shut +up among maniacs at Vaugirard, caused him the acutest agony. The asylum +which was Marsa's prison was so constantly in his mind that he felt the +necessity of flight, in order not to allow his weakness to get the bettor +of him, lest he should attempt to see Marsa again. + +"What a coward I am!" he thought. + +One evening he announced to Varhely that he was going to the lonely villa +of Sainte-Adresse, where they had so many times together watched the sea +and talked of their country. + +"I am going there to be alone, my dear Yanski," he said, "but to be with +you is to be with myself. I hope that you will accompany me." + +"Most certainly," replied Varhely. + +The Prince took only one domestic, wishing to live as quietly and +primitively as possible; but Varhely, really alarmed at the rapid change +in the Prince, and the terrible pallor of his face, followed him, hoping +at least to distract him and arouse him from his morbidness by talking +over with him the great days of the past, and even, if possible, to +interest him in the humble lives of the fishermen about him. + +Zilah and his friend, therefore, passed long hours upon the terrace of +the villa, watching the sun set at their feet, while the grayish-blue sea +was enveloped in a luminous mist, and the fading light was reflected upon +the red walls and white blinds of the houses, and tinged with glowing +purple the distant hills of Ingouville. + +This calm, quiet spot gradually produced upon Andras the salutary effect +of a bath after a night of feverish excitement. His reflections became +less bitter, and, strange to relate, it was rough old Yanski Varhely, +who, by his tenderness and thoughtfulness, led his friend to a more +resigned frame of mind. + +Very often, after nightfall, would Zilah descend with him to the shore +below. The sea lay at their feet a plain of silver, and the moonbeams +danced over the waves in broken lines of luminous atoms; boats passed to +and fro, their red lights flashing like glowworms; and it seemed to +Andras and Varhely, as they approached the sea, receding over the wet, +gleaming sands, that they were walking upon quicksilver. + +As they strolled and talked together here, it seemed to Andras that this +grief was, for the moment, carried away by the fresh, salt breeze; and +these two men, in a different manner buffeted by fate, resembled two +wounded soldiers who mutually aid one another to advance, and not to fall +by the way before the combat is over. Yanski made special efforts to +rouse in Andras the old memories of his fatherland, and to inspire in him +again his love for Hungary. + +"Ah! I used to have so many hopes and dreams for her future," said +Andras; "but idealists have no chance in the world of to-day; so now I am +a man who expects nothing of life except its ending. And yet I would +like to see once again that old stone castle where I grew up, full of +hopes! Hopes? Bah! pretty bubbles, that is all!" + +One morning they walked along the cliffs, past the low shanties of the +fishermen, as far as Havre; and, as they were sauntering through the +streets of the city, Varhely grasped the Prince's arm, and pointed to an +announcement of a series of concerts to be given at Frascati by a band of +Hungarian gipsies. + +"There," he said, "you will certainly emerge from your retreat to hear +those airs once more." + +"Yes," replied Andras, after a moment's hesitation. + +That evening found him at the casino; but his wound seemed to open again, +and his heart to be grasped as in an iron hand, as he listened to the +plaintive cries and moans of the Tzigani music. Had the strings of the +bows played these czardas upon his own sinews, laid bare, he would not +have trembled more violently. Every note of the well-known airs fell +upon his heart like a corrosive tear, and Marsa, in all her dark, tawny +beauty, rose before him. The Tzigani played now the waltzes which Marsa +used to play; then the slow, sorrowful plaint of the "Song of Plevna;" +and then the air of Janos Nemeth's, the heart-breaking melody, to the +Prince like the lament of his life: 'The World holds but One Fair +Maiden'. And at every note he saw again Marsa, the one love of his +existence. + +"Let us go!" he said suddenly to Yanski. + +But, as they were about to leave the building, they almost ran into a +laughing, merry group, led by the little Baroness Dinati, who uttered a +cry of delight as she perceived Andras. + +"What, you, my dear Prince! Oh, how glad I am to see you!" + +And she took his arm, all the clan which accompanied her stopping to +greet Prince Zilah. + +"We have come from Etretat, and we are going back there immediately. +There was a fair at Havre in the Quartier Saint-Francois, and we have +eaten up all we could lay our hands on, broken all Aunt Sally's pipes, +and purchased all the china horrors and hideous pincushions we could +find. They are all over there in the break. We are going to raffle them +at Etretat for the poor." + +The Prince tried to excuse himself and move on, but the little Baroness +held him tight. + +"Why don't you come to Etretat? It is charming there. We don't do +anything but eat and drink and talk scandal--Oh, yes! Yamada sometimes +gives us some music. Come here, Yamada!" + +The Japanese approached, in obedience to her call, with his eternal grin +upon his queer little face. + +"My dear Prince," rattled on the Baroness, "you don't know, perhaps, that +Yamada is the most Parisian of Parisians? Upon my word, these Japanese +are the Parisians of Asia! Just fancy what he has been doing at Etretat! +He has been writing a French operetta!" + +"Japanese!" corrected Yamada, with an apologetic bow. + +"Oh, Japanese! Parisian Japanese, then! At all events, it is very +funny, and the title is Little Moo-Moo! There is a scene on board a +flower-decked boat! Oh, it is so amusing, so original, so natural! +and a delightful song for Little Moo-Moo!" + +Then, as Zilah glanced at Varhely, uneasy, and anxious to get away, the +Baroness puckered up her rosy lips and sang the stanzas of the Japanese +maestro. + +Why, sung by Judic or Theo, it would create a furore! All Paris would be +singing. + +"Oh, by the way," she cried, suddenly interrupting herself, "what have you +done to Jacquemin? Yes, my friend Jacquemin?" + +"Jacquemin?" repeated Zilah; and he thought of the garret in the Rue +Rochechouart, and the gentle, fairhaired woman, who was probably at this +very moment leaning over the cribs of her little children--the children +of Monsieur Puck, society reporter of 'L'Actualite' + +"Yes! Why, Jacquemin has become a savage; oh, indeed! a regular savage! +I wanted to bring him to Etretat; but no, he wouldn't come. It seems +that he is married. Jacquemin married! Isn't it funny? He didn't seem +like a married man! Poor fellow! Well, when I invited him, he refused; +and the other day, when I wanted to know the reason, he answered me (that +is why I speak to you about it), 'Ask Prince Zilah'! So, tell me now, +what have you done to poor Jacquemin?" + +"Nothing," said the Prince. + +"Oh, yes, you have; you have changed him! He, who used to go everywhere +and be so jolly, now hides himself in his den, and is never seen at all. +Just see how disagreeable it is! If he had come with us, he would have +written an account in 'L'Actualite' of Little Moo-Moo, and Yamada's +operetta would already be celebrated." + +"So," continued the Baroness, "when I return to Paris, I am going to hunt +him up. A reporter has no right to make a bear of himself!" + +"Don't disturb him, if he cares for his home now," said Zilah, gravely. +"Nothing can compensate for one's own fireside, if one loves and is +loved." + +At the first words of the Prince, the Baroness suddenly became serious. + +"I beg your pardon," she said, dropping his arm and holding out her tiny +hand: "please forgive me for having annoyed you. Oh, yes, I see it! +I have annoyed you. But be consoled; we are going at once, and then, +you know, that if there is a creature who loves you, respects you, +and is devoted to you, it is this little idiot of a Baroness! +Goodnight!" + +"Good-night'." said Andras, bowing to the Baroness's friends, Yamada and +the other Parisian exotics. + +Glad to escape, Varhely and the Prince returned home along the seashore. +Fragments of the czardas from the illuminated casino reached their ears +above the swish of the waves. Andras felt irritated and nervous. +Everything recalled to him Marsa, and she seemed to be once more taking +possession of his heart, as a vine puts forth fresh tendrils and clings +again to the oak after it has been torn away. + +"She also suffers!" he said aloud, after they had walked some distance +in silence. + +"Fortunately!" growled Varhely; and then, as if he wished to efface his +harshness, he added, in a voice which trembled a little: "And for that +reason she is, perhaps, not unworthy of pardon." + +"Pardon!" + +This cry escaped from Zilah in accents of pain which struck Varhely like +a knife. + +"Pardon before punishing--the other!" exclaimed the Prince, angrily. + +The other! Yanski Varhely instinctively clinched his fist, thinking, +with rage, of that package of letters which he had held in his hands, +and which he might have destroyed if he had known. + +It was true: how was pardon possible while Menko lived? + +No word more was spoken by either until they reached the villa; then +Prince Zilah shook Yanski's hand and retired to his chamber. Lighting +his lamp, he took out and read and reread, for the hundredth time +perhaps, certain letters--letters not addressed to him--those letters +which Varhely had handed him, and with which Michel Menko had practically +struck him the day of his marriage. + +Andras had kept them, reading them over at times with an eager desire for +further suffering, drinking in this species of poison to irritate his +mental pain as he would have injected morphine to soothe a physical one. +These letters caused him a sensation analogous to that which gives repose +to opium-eaters, a cruel shock at first, sharp as the prick of a knife, +then, the pain slowly dying away, a heavy stupor. + +The whole story was revived in these letters of Marsa to Menko:--all the +ignorant, credulous love of the young girl for Michel, then her +enthusiasm for love itself, rather than for the object of her love, +and then, again--for Menko had reserved nothing, but sent all together-- +the bitter contempt of Marsa, deceived, for the man who had lied to her. + +There were, in these notes, a freshness of sentiment and a youthful +credulity which produced the impression of a clear morning in early +spring, all the frankness and faith of a mind ignorant of evil and +destitute of guile; then, in the later ones, the spontaneous outburst of +a heart which believes it has given itself forever, because it thinks it +has encountered incorruptible loyalty and undying devotion. + +As he read them over, Andras shook with anger against the two who had +deceived him; and also, and involuntarily, he felt an indefined, timid +pity for the woman who had trusted and been deceived--a pity he +immediately drove away, as if he were afraid of himself, afraid of +forgiving. + +"What did Varhely mean by speaking to me of pardon?" he thought. "Am I +yet avenged?" + +It was this constant hope that the day would come when justice would be +meted out to Menko's treachery. The letters proved conclusively that +Menko had been Marsa's lover; but they proved, at the same time, that +Michel had taken advantage of her innocence and ignorance, and lied +outrageously in representing himself as free, when he was already bound +to another woman. + +All night long Andras Zilah sat there, inflicting torture upon himself, +and taking a bitter delight in his own suffering; engraving upon his +memory every word of love written by Marsa to Michel, as if he felt the +need of fresh pain to give new strength to his hatred. + +The next morning at breakfast, Varhely astonished him by announcing that +he was going away. + +"To Paris?" + +"No, to Vienna," replied Yanski, who looked somewhat paler than usual. + +"What an idea! What are you going to do there, Varhely?" + +"Angelo Valla arrived yesterday at Havre. He sent for me to come to his +hotel this morning. I have just been there. Valla has given me some +information in regard to a matter of interest to myself, which will +require my presence at Vienna. So I am going there." + +Prince Zilah was intimately acquainted with the Valla of whom Varhely +spoke; he had been one of the witnesses of his marriage. Valla was a +former minister of Manin; and, since the siege of Venice, he had lived +partly in Paris and partly in Florence. He was a man for whom Andras +Zilah had the greatest regard. + +"When do you go?" asked the Prince of Varhely. + +"In an hour. I wish to take the fast mail from Paris this evening." + +"Is it so very pressing, then?" + +"Very pressing," replied Varhely. "There is another to whose ears the +affair may possibly come, and I wish to get the start of him." + +"Farewell, then," said Andras, considerably surprised; "come back as soon +as you can." + +He was astonished at the almost violent pressure of the hand which +Varhely gave him, as if he were departing for a very long journey. + +"Why didn't Valla come to see me?" he asked. "He is one of the few I am +always glad to see." + +"He had no time. He had to be away again at once, and he asked me to +excuse him to you." + +The Prince did not make any further attempt to find out what was the +reason of his friend's sudden flight, for Varhely was already descending +the steps of the villa. + +Andras then felt a profound sensation of loneliness, and he thought again +of the woman whom his imagination pictured haggard and wan in the asylum +of Vaugirard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +"WHAT MATTERS IT HOW MUCH WE SUFFER?" + +Two hours after Varhely had gone, a sort of feverish attraction drew +Prince Andras to the spot where, the night before, he had listened to the +Tzigana airs. + +Again, but alone this time, he drank in the accents of the music of his +country, and sought to remember the impression produced upon him when +Marsa had played this air or that one, this sad song or that czardas. +He saw her again as she stood on the deck of the steamer, watching the +children on the barge as they threw her kisses of farewell. More +troubled than ever, nervous and suffering, Zilah returned home late in +the afternoon, opened the desk where he kept Marsa's letters, and one by +one, impelled by some inexplicable sentiment, he burned them, the flame +of the candle devouring the paper, whose subtle perfume mounted to his +nostrils for the last time like a dying sigh, while the wind carried off, +through the window into the infinite, the black dust of those fateful +letters, those remnants of dead passion and of love betrayed--and the +past was swept away. + +The sun was slowly descending in an atmosphere of fire, while toward +Havre a silvery mist over the hills and shore heralded the approach of +chaste Dian's reign. The reflections of the sunset tinged with red and +orange the fishing boats floating over the calm sea, while a long fiery +streak marked the water on the horizon, growing narrower and narrower, +and changing to orange and then to pale yellow as the disk of the sun +gradually disappeared, and the night came on, enveloping the now inactive +city, and the man who watched the disappearance of the last fragments of +a detested love, of the love of another, of a love which had torn and +bruised his heart. And, strange to say, for some inexplicable reason, +Prince Andras Zilah now regretted the destruction of those odious +letters. It seemed to him, with a singular displacement of his +personality, that it was something of himself, since it was something of +her, that he had destroyed. He had hushed that voice which said to +another, "I love you," but which caused him the same thrill as if she had +murmured the words for him. They were letters received by his rival +which the wind carried out, an impalpable dust, over the sea; and he felt +--such folly is the human heart capable of--the bitter regret of a man +who has destroyed a little of his past. + +The shadows crept over him at the same time that they crept over the sea. + +"What matters it how much we suffer, or how much suffering we cause," he +murmured, "when, of all our loves, our hearts, ourselves, there remains, +after a short lapse of time--what? That!" And he watched the last atom +of burned paper float away in the deepening twilight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE STRICKEN SOUL + +His loneliness now weighed heavily upon Andras. His nerves were shaken +by the memories which the czardas of the Tzigani musicians had evoked; +and it seemed to him that the place was deserted now that they had +departed, and Varhely had gone with them. In the eternal symphony of the +sea, the lapping of the waves upon the shingle at the foot of the +terrace, one note was now lacking, the resonant note of the czimbalom +yonder in the gardens of Frascati. The vibration of the czimbalom was +like a call summoning up the image of Marsa, and this image took +invincible possession of the Prince, who, with a sort of sorrowful anger +which he regarded as hatred, tried in vain to drive it away. + +What was the use of remaining at Sainte-Adresse, when the memories he +sought to flee came to find him there, and since Marsa's presence haunted +it as if she had lived there by his side? + +He quitted Havre, and returned to Paris; but the very evening of his +return, in the bustle and movement of the Champs-Elysees, the long avenue +dotted with lights, the flaming gas-jets of the cafe concerts, the bursts +of music, he found again, as if the Tzigana were continually pursuing +him, the same phantom; despite the noise of people and carriages upon the +asphalt, the echoes of the "Song of Plevna," played quite near him by +some Hungarian orchestra, reached him as upon the seashore at Havre; and +he hastened back to his hotel, to shut himself up, to hear nothing, see +nothing, and escape from the fantastic, haunting pursuit of this +inevitable vision. + +He could not sleep; fever burned in his blood. He rose, and tried to +read; but before the printed page he saw continually Marsa Laszlo, like +the spectre of his happiness. + +"How cowardly human nature is!" he exclaimed, hurling away the book. +"Is it possible that I love her still? Shall I love her forever?" + +And he felt intense self-contempt at the temptation which took possession +of him to see once more Maisons-Lafitte, where he had experienced the +most terrible grief of his life. What was the use of struggling? He had +not forgotten, and he never could forget. + +If he had been sincere with himself, he would have confessed that he was +impelled by his ever-living, ever-present love toward everything which +would recall Marsa to him, and that a violent, almost superhuman effort +was necessary not to yield to the temptation. + +About a week after the Prince's return to Paris, his valet appeared one +day with the card of General Vogotzine. It was on Andras's lips to +refuse to see him; but, in reality, the General's visit caused him a +delight which he would not acknowledge to himself. He was about to hear +of hey. He told the valet to admit Vogotzine, hypocritically saying to +himself that it was impossible, discourteous, not to receive him. + +The old Russian entered, timid and embarrassed, and was not much +reassured by Zilah's polite but cold greeting. + +The General, who for some extraordinary reason had not had recourse to +alcohol to give him courage, took the chair offered him by the Prince. +He was a little flushed, not knowing exactly how to begin what he had to +say; and, being sober, he was terribly afraid of appearing, like an +idiot. + +"This is what is the matter," he said, plunging at once in medias res. +"Doctor Fargeas, who sent me, might have come himself; but he thought +that I, being her uncle, should--" + +"You have come to consult me about Marsa," said Andras, unconsciously +glad to pronounce her name. + +"Yes," began the General, becoming suddenly intimidated, "of--of Marsa. +She is very ill-Marsa is. Very ill. Stupor, Fargeas says. She does not +say a word-nothing. A regular automaton! It is terrible to see her-- +terrible--terrible." + +He raised his round, uneasy eyes to Andras, who was striving to appear +calm, but whose lips twitched nervously. + +"It is impossible to rouse her," continued Vogotzine. "The, doctors can +do nothing. There is no hope except in an--an--an experiment." + +"An experiment?" + +"Yes, exactly, exactly--an experiment. You see he--he wanted to know if +--(you must pardon me for what I am about to propose; it is Doctor +Fargeas's idea)--You see--if--if--she should see--(I suppose--these are +not my words)--if she should see you again at Doctor Sims's establishment +--the emotion--the--the--Well, I don't know exactly what Doctor Fargeas +does hope; but I have repeated to you his words--I am simply, quite +simply, his messenger." + +"The doctor," said Andras, calmly, "would like--your niece to see me +again?" + +"Yes, yes; and speak to you. You see, you are the only one for whom--" + +The Prince interrupted the General, who instantly became as mute as if he +were in the presence of the Czar. + +"It is well. But what Doctor Fargeas asks of me will cause me intense +suffering." + +Vogotzine did not open his lips. + +"See her again? He wishes to revive all my sorrow, then!" + +Vogotzine waited, motionless as if on parade. + +After a moment or two, Andras saying no more, the General thought that he +might speak. + +"I understand. I knew very well what your answer would be. I told the +doctor so; but he replied, 'It is a question of humanity. The Prince +will not refuse.'" + +Fargeas must have known Prince Zilah's character well when he used the +word humanity. The Prince would not have refused his pity to the lowest +of human beings; and so, never mind what his sufferings might be, if his +presence could do any good, he must obey the doctor. + +"When does Doctor Fargeas wish me to go?" + +"Whenever you choose. The doctor is just now at Vaugirard, on a visit to +his colleague, and--" + +"Do not let us keep him waiting!" + +Vogotzine's eyes brightened. + +"Then you consent? You will go?" + +He tried to utter some word of thanks, but Andras cut him short, saying: + +"I will order the carriage." + +"I have a carriage," said Vogotzine, joyously. "We can go at once." + +Zilah was silent during the drive; and Vogotzine gazed steadily out of +the window, without saying a word, as the Prince showed no desire to +converse. + +They stopped before a high house, evidently built in the last century, +and which was probably formerly a convent. The General descended heavily +from the coupe, rang the bell, and stood aside to let Zilah pass before +him. + +The Prince's emotion was betrayed in a certain stiffness of demeanor, and +in his slow walk, as if every movement cost him an effort. He stroked +his moustache mechanically, and glanced about the garden they were +crossing, as if he expected to see Marsa at once. + +Dr. Fargeas appeared very much pleased to see the Prince, and he thanked +him warmly for having come. A thin, light-haired man, with a pensive +look and superb eyes, accompanied Fargeas, and the physician introduced +him to the Prince as Dr. Sims. + +Dr. Sims shared the opinion of his colleague. Having taken the invalid +away, and separated her from every thing that could recall the past, the +physicians thought, that, by suddenly confronting her with a person so +dear to her as Prince Zilah, the shock and emotion might rouse her from +her morbid state. + +Fargeas explained to the Prince why he had thought it best to transport +the invalid from Maisons-Lafitte to Vaugirard, and he thanked him for +having approved of his determination. + +Zilah noticed that Fargeas, in speaking of Marsa, gave her no name or +title. With his usual tact, the doctor had divined the separation; and +he did not call Marsa the Princess, but, in tones full of pity, spoke of +her as the invalid. + +"She is in the garden," said Dr. Sims, when Fargeas had finished +speaking. "Will you see her now?" + +"Yes," said the Prince, in a voice that trembled slightly, despite his +efforts to control it. + +"We will take a look at her first; and then, if you will be so kind, show +yourself to her suddenly. It is only an experiment we are making. If +she does not recognize you, her condition is graver than I think. If she +does recognize you, well, I hope that we shall be able to cure her. +Come!" + +Dr. Sims motioned the Prince to precede them. + +"Shall I accompany you, gentlemen?" asked Vogotzine. + +"Certainly, General!" + +"You see, I don't like lunatics; they produce a singular effect upon me; +they don't interest me at all. But still, after all, she is my niece!" + +And he gave a sharp pull to his frock-coat, as he would have tightened +his belt before an assault. + +They descended a short flight of steps, and found themselves in a large +garden, with trees a century old, beneath which were several men and +women walking about or sitting in chairs. + +A large, new building, one story high, appeared at one end of the garden; +in this were the dormitories of Dr. Sims's patients. + +"Are those people insane?" asked Zilah, pointing to the peaceful groups. + +"Yes," said Dr. Sims; "it requires a stretch of the imagination to +believe it, does it not? You can speak to them as we pass by. All these +here are harmless." + +"Shall we cross the garden?" + +"Our invalid is below there, in another garden, behind that house." + +As he passed by, Zilah glanced curiously at these poor beings, who bowed, +or exchanged a few words with the two physicians. It seemed to him that +they had the happy look of people who had reached the desired goal. +Vogotzine, coughing nervously, kept close to the Prince and felt very ill +at ease. Andras, on the contrary, found great difficulty in realizing +that he was really among lunatics. + +"See," said Dr. Sims, pointing out an old gentleman, dressed in the style +of 1840, like an old-fashioned lithograph of a beau of the time of +Gavarni, "that man has been more than thirty-five years in the +institution. He will not change the cut of his garments, and he is very +careful to have his tailor make his clothes in the same style he dressed +when he was young. He is very happy. He thinks that he is the enchanter +Merlin, and he listens to Vivian, who makes appointments with him under +the trees." + +As they passed the old man, his neck imprisoned in a high stock, his +surtout cut long and very tight in the waist, and his trousers very full +about the hips and very close about the ankles, he bowed politely. + +"Good-morning, Doctor Sims! Good-morning, Doctor Fargeas!" + +Then, as the director of the establishment approached to speak, he placed +a finger upon his lips: + +"Hush," he said. "She is there! Don't speak, or she will go away." And +he pointed with a sort of passionate veneration to an elm where Vivian +was shut up, and whence she would shortly emerge. + +"Poor devil!" murmured Vogotzine. + +This was not what Zilah thought, however. He wondered if this happy +hallucination which had lasted so many years, these eternal love-scenes +with Vivian, love-scenes which never grew stale, despite the years and +the wrinkles, were not the ideal form of happiness for a being condemned +to this earth. This poetical monomaniac lived with his dreams realized, +finding, in an asylum of Vaugirard, all the fascinations and chimeras of +the Breton land of golden blossoms and pink heather, all the +intoxicating, languorous charm of the forest of Broceliande. + +"He has within his grasp what Shakespeare was content only to dream of. +Insanity is, perhaps, simply the ideal realized:" + +"Ah!" replied Dr. Fargeas, "but the real never loses its grip. Why does +this monomaniac preserve both the garments of his youth, which prevent +him from feeling his age, and the dream of his life, which consoles him +for his lost reason? Because he is rich. He can pay the tailor who +dresses him, the rent of the pavilion he inhabits by himself, and the +special servants who serve him. If he were poor, he would suffer." + +"Then," said Zilah, "the question of bread comes up everywhere, even in +insanity." + +"And money is perhaps happiness, since it allows of the purchase of +happiness." + +"Oh!" said the Prince, "for me, happiness would be--" + +"What?" + +"Forgetfulness." + +And he followed with his eyes Vivian's lover, who now had his ear glued +to the trunk of the tree, and was listening to the voice which spoke only +to him. + +"That man yonder," said Dr. Sims, indicating a man, still young, who was +coming toward them, "is a talented writer whose novels you have doubtless +read, and who has lost all idea of his own personality. Once a great +reader, he now holds all literature in intense disgust; from having +written so much, he has grown to have a perfect horror of words and +letters, and he never opens either a book or a newspaper. He drinks in +the fresh air, cultivates flowers, and watches the trains pass at the +foot of the garden." + +"Is he happy?" asked Andras. + +"Very happy." + +"Yes, he has drunk of the waters of Lethe," rejoined the Prince. + +"I will not tell you his name," whispered Dr. Sims, as the man, a thin, +dark-haired, delicate-featured fellow, approached them; "but, if you +should speak to him and chance to mention his name, he would respond +'Ah! yes, I knew him. He was a man of talent, much talent.' There +is nothing left to him of his former life." + +And Zilah thought again that it was a fortunate lot to be attacked by one +of these cerebral maladies where the entire being, with its burden of +sorrows, is plunged into the deep, dark gulf of oblivion. + +The novelist stopped before the two physicians. + +"The mid-day train was three minutes and a half late," he said, quietly: +"I mention the fact to you, doctor, that you may have it attended to. +It is a very serious thing; for I am in the habit of setting my watch +by that train." + +"I will see to it," replied Dr. Sims. "By the way, do you want any +books?" + +In the same quiet tone the other responded: + +"What for?" + +"To read." + +"What is the use of that?" + +"Or any newspapers? To know--" + +"To know what?" he interrupted, speaking with extreme volubility. +"No, indeed! It is so good to know nothing, nothing, nothing! Do the +newspapers announce that there are no more wars, no more poverty, +illness, murders, envy, hatred or jealousy? No! The newspapers do not +announce that. Then, why should I read the newspapers? Good-day, +gentlemen." + +The Prince shuddered at the bitter logic of this madman, speaking with +the shrill distinctness of the insane. But Vogotzine smiled. + +"Why, these idiots have rather good sense, after all," he remarked. + +When they reached the end of the garden, Dr. Sims opened a gate which +separated the male from the female patients, and Andras perceived several +women walking about in the alleys, some of them alone, and some +accompanied by attendants. In the distance, separated from the garden by +a ditch and a high wall, was the railway. + +Zilah caught his breath as he entered the enclosure, where doubtless +among the female forms before him was that of the one he had loved. He +turned to Dr. Sims with anxious eyes, and asked: + +"Is she here?" + +"She is here," replied the doctor. + +The Prince hesitated to advance. He had not seen her since the day he +had felt tempted to kill her as she lay in her white robes at his feet. +He wondered if it were not better to retrace his steps and depart hastily +without seeing her. + +"This way," said Fargeas. "We can see through the bushes without being +seen, can we not, Sims?" + +"Yes, doctor." + +Zilah resigned himself to his fate; and followed the physicians without +saying a word; he could hear the panting respiration of Vogotzine +trudging along behind him. All at once the Prince felt a sensation as of +a heavy hand resting upon his heart. Fargeas had exclaimed: + +"There she is!" + +He pointed, through the branches of the lilac-bushes, to two women who +were approaching with slow steps, one a light-haired woman in a nurse's +dress, and the other in black garments, as if in mourning for her own +life, Marsa herself. + +Marsa! She was coming toward Zilah; in a moment, he would be able to +touch her, if he wished, through the leaves! Even Vogotzine held his +breath. + +Zilah eagerly questioned Marsa's face, as if to read thereon a secret, +to decipher a name--Menko's or his own. Her exquisite, delicate features +had the rigidity of marble; her dark eyes were staring straight ahead, +like two spots of light, where nothing, nothing was reflected. Zilah +shuddered again; she alarmed him. + +Alarm and pity! He longed to thrust aside the bushes, and hasten with +extended arms toward the pale vision before him. It was as if the moving +spectre of his love were passing by. But, with a strong effort of will, +he remained motionless where he was. + +Old Vogotzine seemed very ill at ease. Dr. Fargeas was very calm; and, +after a questioning glance at his colleague, he said distinctly to the +Prince: + +"Now you must show yourself!" + +The physician's order, far from displeasing Zilah, was like music in his +ears. He was beginning to doubt, if, after all, Fargeas intended to +attempt the experiment. He longed, with keen desire, to speak to Marsa; +to know if his look, his breath, like a puff of wind over dying ashes, +would not rekindle a spark of life in those dull, glassy eyes. + +What was she thinking of, if she thought at all? What memory vacillated +to and fro in that vacant brain? The memory of himself, or of--the +other? He must know, he must know! + +"This way," said Dr. Sims. "We will go to the end of the alley, and meet +her face to face." + +"Courage!" whispered Fargeas. + +Zilah followed; and, in a few steps, they reached the end of the alley, +and stood beneath a clump of leafy trees. The Prince saw, coming to him, +with a slow but not heavy step, Marsa--no, another Marsa, the spectre or +statue of Marsa. + +Fargeas made a sign to Vogotzine, and the Russian and the two doctors +concealed themselves behind the trees. + +Zilah, trembling with emotion, remained alone in the middle of the walk. + +The nurse who attended Marsa, had doubtless received instructions from +Dr. Sims; for, as she perceived the Prince, she fell back two or three +paces, and allowed Marsa to go on alone. + +Lost in her stupor, the Tzigana advanced, her dark hair ruffled by the +wind; and, still beautiful although so thin, she moved on, without seeing +anything, her lips closed as if sealed by death, until she was not three +feet from Zilah. + +He stood waiting, his blue eyes devouring her with a look, in which there +were mingled love, pity, and anger. When the Tzigana reached him, and +nearly ran into him in her slow walk, she stopped suddenly, like an +automaton. The instinct of an obstacle before her arrested her, and she +stood still, neither recoiling nor advancing. + +A few steps away, Dr. Fargeas and Dr. Sims studied her stony look, in +which there was as yet neither thought nor vision. + +Still enveloped in her stupor, she stood there, her eyes riveted upon +Andras. Suddenly, as if an invisible knife had been plunged into her +heart, she started back. Her pale marble face became transfigured, and +an expression of wild terror swept across her features; shaking with a +nervous trembling, she tried to call out, and a shrill cry, which rent +the air, burst from her lips, half open, like those of a tragic mask. +Her two arms were stretched out with the hands clasped; and, falling upon +her knees, she--whose light of reason had been extinguished, who for so +many days had only murmured the sad, singing refrain: "I do not know; I +do not know!"--faltered, in a voice broken with sobs: "Forgive! +Forgive!" + +Then her face became livid, and she would have fallen back unconscious if +Zilah had not stooped over and caught her in his arms. + +Dr. Sims hastened forward, and, aided by the nurse, relieved him of his +burden. + +Poor Vogotzine was as purple as if he had had a stroke of apoplexy. + +"But, gentlemen," said the Prince, his eyes burning with hot tears, "it +will be horrible if we have killed her!" + +"No, no," responded Fargeas; "we have only killed her stupor. Now leave +her to us. Am I not right, my dear Sims? She can and must be cured!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +"LET THE DEAD PAST BURY ITS DEAD" + +Prince Andras had heard no news of Varhely for a long time. He only knew +that the Count was in Vienna. + +Yanski had told the truth when he said that he had been summoned away by +his friend, Angelo Valla. + +They were very much astonished, at the Austrian ministry of foreign +affairs, to see Count Yanski Varhely, who, doubtless, had come from Paris +to ask some favor of the minister. The Austrian diplomats smiled as they +heard the name of the old soldier of '48 and '49. So, the famous fusion +of parties proclaimed in 1875 continued! Every day some sulker of former +times rallied to the standard. Here was this Varhely, who, at one time, +if he had set foot in Austria-Hungary, would have been speedily cast into +the Charles barracks, the jail of political prisoners, now sending in his +card to the minister of the Emperor; and doubtless the minister and the +old commander of hussars would, some evening, together pledge the new +star of Hungary, in a beaker of rosy Crement! + +"These are queer days we live in!" thought the Austrian diplomats. + +The minister, of whom Yanski Varhely demanded an audience, his Excellency +Count Josef Ladany, had formerly commanded a legion of Magyar students, +greatly feared by the grenadiers of Paskiewisch, in Hungary. The +soldiers of Josef Ladany, after threatening to march upon Vienna, had +many times held in check the grenadiers and Cossacks of the field- +marshal. Spirited and enthusiastic, his fair hair floating above his +youthful forehead like an aureole, Ladany made war like a patriot and a +poet, reciting the verses of Petoefi about the camp-fires, and setting +out for battle as for a ball. He was magnificent (Varhely remembered him +well) at the head of his students, and his floating, yellow moustaches +had caused the heart of more than one little Hungarian patriot to beat +more quickly. + +Varhely would experience real pleasure in meeting once more his old +companion in arms. He remembered one afternoon in the vineyards, when +his hussars, despite the obstacles of the vines and the irregular ground, +had extricated Ladany's legion from the attack of two regiments of +Russian infantry. Joseph Ladany was standing erect upon one of his +cannon for which the gunners had no more ammunition, and, with drawn +sabre, was rallying his companions, who were beginning to give way before +the enemy. Ah, brave Ladany! With what pleasure would Varhely grasp his +hand! + +The former leader had doubtless aged terribly--he must be a man of fifty- +five or fifty-six, to-day; but Varhely was sure that Joseph Ladany, now +become minister, had preserved his generous, ardent nature of other days. + +As he crossed the antechambers and lofty halls which led to the +minister's office, Varhely still saw, in his mind's eye, Ladany, sabre in +hand, astride of the smoking cannon. + +An usher introduced him into a large, severe-looking room, with a lofty +chimney-piece, above which hung a picture of the Emperor-King in full +military uniform. Varhely at first perceived only some large armchairs, +and an enormous desk covered with books; but, in a moment, from behind +the mass of volumes, a man emerged, smiling, and with outstretched hand: +the old hussar was amazed to find himself in the presence of a species of +English diplomat, bald, with long, gray side-whiskers and shaven lip and +chin, and scrupulously well dressed. + +Yanski's astonishment was so evident that Josef Ladany said, still +smiling: + +"Well, don't you recognize me, my dear Count?" His voice was pleasant, +and his manner charming; but there was something cold and politic in his +whole appearance which absolutely stupefied Varhely. If he had seen him +pass in the street, he would never have recognized, in this elegant +personage, the young man, with yellow hair and long moustaches, who sang +war songs as he sabred the enemy. + +And yet it was indeed Ladany; it was the same clear eye which had once +commanded his legion with a single look; but the eye was often veiled now +beneath a lowered eyelid, and only now and then did a glance shoot forth +which seemed to penetrate a man's most secret thoughts. The soldier had +become the diplomat. + +"I had forgotten that thirty years have passed!" thought Varhely, a +little saddened. + +Count Ladany made his old comrade sit down in one of the armchairs, and +questioned him smilingly as to his life, his friendships, Paris, Prince +Zilah, and led him gradually and gracefully to confide what he, Varhely, +had come to ask of the minister of the Emperor of Austria. + +Varhely felt more reassured. Josef Ladany seemed to him to have remained +morally the same. The moustache had been cut off, the yellow hair had +fallen; but the heart was still young and without doubt Hungarian. + +"You can," he said, abruptly, "render me a service, a great service. +I have never before asked anything of anybody; but I have taken this +journey expressly to see you, and to ask you, to beg you rather, to--" + +"Go on, my dear Count. What you desire will be realized, I hope." + +But his tone had already become colder, or perhaps simply more official. + +"Well," continued Varhely, "what I have come to ask of you is; in memory +of the time when we were brothers in arms" (the minister started +slightly, and stroked his whiskers a little nervously), "the liberty of a +certain man, of a man whom you know." + +"Ah! indeed!" said Count Josef. + +He leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and, through +his half-opened eyelids, examined Varhely, who looked him boldly in the +face. + +The contrast between these two men was striking; the soldier with his +hair and moustache whitened in the harness, and the elegant government +official with his polished manners; two old-time companions who had heard +the whistling of the same balls. + +"This is my errand," said Varhely. "I have the greatest desire that one +of our compatriots, now a prisoner in Warsaw, I think--at all events, +arrested at Warsaw a short time ago--should be set at liberty. It is of +the utmost importance to me," he added, his lips turning almost as white +as his moustache. + +"Oh!" said the minister. "I fancy I know whom you mean." + +"Count Menko." + +"Exactly! Menko was arrested by the Russian police on his arrival at the +house of a certain Labanoff, or Ladanoff--almost my name in Russian. +This Labanoff, who had lately arrived from Paris, is suspected of a plot +against the Czar. He is not a nihilist, but simply a malcontent; and, +besides that, his brain is not altogether right. In short, Count Menko +is connected in some way, I don't know how, with this Labanoff. He went +to Poland to join him, and the Russian police seized him. I think myself +that they were quite right in their action." + +"Possibly," said Varhely; "but I do not care to discuss the right of the +Russian police to defend themselves or the Czar. What I have come for is +to ask you to use your influence with the Russian Government to obtain +Menko's release." + +"Are you very much interested in Menko?" + +"Very much," replied Yanski, in a tone which struck the minister as +rather peculiar. + +"Then," asked Count Ladany with studied slowness, "you would like?--" + +"A note from you to the Russian ambassador, demanding Menko's release. +Angelo Valla--you know him--Manin's former minister--" + +"Yes, I know," said Count Josef, with his enigmatical smile. + +"Valla told me of Menko's arrest. I knew that Menko had left Paris, and +I was very anxious to find where he had gone. Valla learned, at the +Italian embassy in Paris, of the affair of this Labanoff and of the real +or apparent complicity of Michel Menko; and he told me about it. When we +were talking over the means of obtaining the release of a man held by +Muscovite authority, which is not an easy thing, I know, we thought of +you, and I have come to your Excellency as I would have gone to the chief +of the Legion of Students to demand his aid in a case of danger!" + +Yanski Varhely was no diplomat; and his manner of appealing to the +memories of the past was excessively disagreeable to the minister, who, +however, allowed no signs of his annoyance to appear. + +Count Ladany was perfectly well acquainted with the Warsaw affair. As an +Hungarian was mixed up in it, and an Hungarian of the rank and standing +of Count Menko, the Austro-Hungarian authorities had immediately been +advised of the whole proceeding. There were probably no proofs of actual +complicity against Menko; but, as Josef Ladany had said, it seemed +evident that he had come to Poland to join Labanoff. An address given to +Menko by Labanoff had been found, and both were soon to depart for St. +Petersburg. Labanoff had some doubtful acquaintances in the Russian +army: several officers of artillery, who had been arrested and sent to +the mines, were said to be his friends. + +"The matter is a grave one," said the Count. "We can scarcely, for one +particular case, make our relations more strained with a--a friendly +nation, relations which so many others--I leave you to divine who, my +dear Varhely--strive to render difficult. And yet, I would like to +oblige you; I would, I assure you." + +"If Count Menko is not set at liberty, what will happen to him?" asked +Yanski. + +"Hmm--he might, although a foreigner, be forced to take a journey to +Siberia." + +"Siberia! That is a long distance off, and few return from that +journey," said Varhely, his voice becoming almost hoarse. "I would give +anything in the world if Menko were free!" + +"It would have been so easy for him not to have been seized by the +Russian police." + +"Yes; but he is. And, I repeat, I have come to you to demand his +release. Damn it! Such a demand is neither a threat nor a cases belli." + +The minister calmed the old hussar with a gesture. + +"No," he replied, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth; +"but it is embarrassing, embarrassing! Confound Menko! He always was a +feather-brain! The idea of his leaving diplomacy to seek adventures! +He must know, however, that his case is--what shall I say?--embarrassing, +very embarrassing. I don't suppose he had any idea of conspiring. He is +a malcontent, this Menko, a malcontent! He would have made his mark in +our embassies. The devil take him! Ah! my dear Count, it is very +embarrassing, very embarrassing!" + +The minister uttered these words in a calm, courteous, polished manner, +even when he said "The devil take him!" He then went on to say, that he +could not make Varhely an absolute promise; he would look over the papers +in the affair, telegraph to Warsaw and St. Petersburg, make a rapid study +of what he called again the "very embarrassing" case of Michel Menko, and +give Varhely an answer within twenty-four hours. + +"That will give you a chance to take a look at our city, my dear Count. +Vienna has changed very much. Have you seen the opera-house? It is +superb. Hans Makart is just exhibiting a new picture. Be sure to see +it, and visit his studio, too; it is well worth examining. I have no +need to tell you that I am at your service to act as your cicerone, and +show you all the sights." + +"Are any of our old friends settled here?" asked Varhely. + +"Yes, yes," said the minister, softly. "But they are deputies, +university professors, or councillors of the administration. All +changed! all changed!" + +Then Varhely wished to know if certain among them whom he had not +forgotten had "changed," as the minister said. + +"Where is Armand Bitto?" + +"Dead. He died very poor." + +"And Arpad Ovody, Georgei's lieutenant, who was so brave at the assault +of Buda? I thought that he was killed with that bullet through his +cheek." + +"Ovody? He is at the head of the Magyar Bank, and is charged by the +ministry with the conversion of the six per cent. Hungarian loan. He is +intimately connected with the Rothschild group. He has I don't know how +many thousand florins a year, and a castle in the neighborhood of +Presburg. A great collector of pictures, and a very amiable man!" + +"And Hieronymis Janos, who wrote such eloquent proclamations and calls to +arms? Kossuth was very fond of him." + +"He is busy, with Maurice Jokai, preparing a great book upon the Austro- +Hungarian monarchy, a book patronized by the Archduke Rudolph. He will +doubtless edit the part relative to the kingdom of Saint Stephen." + +"Ha! ha! He will have a difficult task when he comes to the recital of +the battle at Raab against Francis Joseph in person! He commanded at +Raab himself, as you must remember well." + +"Yes, he did, I remember," said the minister. Then, with a smile, he +added: "Bah! History is written, not made. Hieronymis Janos's book will +be very good, very good!" + +"I don't doubt it. What about Ferency Szilogyi? Is he also writing +books under the direction of the Archduke Rudolph?" + +"No! no! Ferency Szilogyi is president of the court of assizes, and a +very good magistrate he is." + +"He! an hussar?" + +"Oh! the world changes! His uniform sleeps in some chest, preserved in +camphor. Szilogyi has only one fault: he is too strongly anti-Semitic." + +"He! a Liberal?" + +"He detests the Israelites, and he allows it to be seen a little too +much. He embarrasses us sometimes. But there is one extenuating +circumstance--he has married a Jewess!" + +This was said in a light, careless, humorously sceptical tone. + +"On the whole," concluded the minister, "Armand Bitto, who is no longer +in this world, is perhaps the most fortunate of all." + +Then, turning to Yanski with his pleasant smile, and holding out his +delicate, well-kept hand, which had once brandished the sabre, he said: + +"My dear Varhely, you will dine with me to-morrow, will you not? It is a +great pleasure to see you again! Tomorrow I shall most probably give you +an answer to your request--a request which I am happy, very happy, to +take into consideration. I wish also to present you to the Countess. +But no allusions to the past before her! She is a Spaniard, and she +would not understand the old ideas very well. Kossuth, Bem, and Georgei +would astonish her, astonish her! I trust to your tact, Varhely. And +then it is so long ago, so very long ago, all that. Let the dead past +bury its dead! Is it understood?" + +Yanski Varhely departed, a little stunned by this interview. He had +never felt so old, so out of the fashion, before. Prince Zilah and he +now seemed to him like two ancestors of the present generation--Don +Quixotes, romanticists, imbeciles. The minister was, as Jacquemin would +have said, a sly dog, who took the times as he found them, and left +spectres in peace. Well, perhaps he was right! + +"Ah, well," thought the old hussar, with an odd smile, "there is the age +of moustaches and the age of whiskers, that is all. Ladany has even +found a way to become bald: he was born to be a minister!" + +It little mattered to him, however, this souvenir of his youth found with +new characteristics. If Count Josef Ladany rescued Menko from the police +of the Czar, and, by setting him free, delivered him to him, Varhely, all +was well. By entering the ministry, Ladany would thus be at least useful +for something. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +"TO SEEK FORGETFULNESS" + +The negotiations with Warsaw, however, detained Yanski Varhely at Vienna +longer than he wished. Count Josef evidently went zealously to work to +obtain from the Russian Government Menko's release. He had promised +Varhely, the evening he received his old comrade at dinner, that he would +put all the machinery at work to obtain the fulfilment of his request. +"I only ask you, if I attain the desired result, that you will do +something to cool off that hotheaded Menko. A second time he would not +escape Siberia." + +Varhely had made no reply; but the very idea that Michel Menko might be +free made his head swim. There was, in the Count's eagerness to obtain +Menko's liberty, something of the excitement of a hunter tracking his +prey. He awaited Michel's departure from the fortress as if he were a +rabbit in its burrow. + +"If he is set at liberty, I suppose that we shall know where he goes," he +said to the minister. + +"It is more than probable that the government of the Czar will trace his +journey for him. You shall be informed." + +Count Ladany did not seek to know for what purpose Varhely demanded, with +such evident eagerness, this release. It was enough for him that his old +brother-in-arms desired it, and that it was possible. + +"You see how everything is for the best, Varhely," he said to him one +morning. "Perhaps you blamed me when you learned that I had accepted a +post from Austria. Well, you see, if I did not serve the Emperor, I +could not serve you!" + +During his sojourn at Vienna, Varhely kept himself informed, day by day, +as to what was passing in Paris. He did not write to Prince Zilah, +wishing, above everything, to keep his errand concealed from him; but +Angelo Valla, who had remained in France, wrote or telegraphed whatever +happened to the Prince. + +Marsa Laszlo was cured; she had left Dr. Sims's institution, and returned +to the villa of Maisons-Lafitte. + +The poor girl came out of her terrible stupor with the distaste to +take up the thread of life which sometimes comes after a night of +forgetfulness in sleep. This stupor, which might have destroyed her, +and the fever which had shaken her, seemed to her sweet and enviable +now compared to this punishment: To live! To live and think! + +And yet--yes, she wished to live to once more see Andras, whose look, +fixed upon her, had rekindled the extinct intellectual flame of her +being. She wished to live, now that her reason had returned to her, +to live to wrest from the Prince a word of pardon. It could not be +possible that her existence was to end with the malediction of this man. +It seemed to her, that, if she should ever see him face to face, she +would find words of desperate supplication which would obtain her +absolution. + +Certainly--she repented it bitterly every hour, now that the punishment +of thinking and feeling had been inflicted upon her--she had acted +infamously, been almost as criminal as Menko, by her silence and deceit-- +her deceit! She, who hated a lie! But she longed to make the Prince +understand that the motive of her conduct was the love which she had for +him. Yes, her love alone! There was no other reason, no other, for her +unpardonable treachery. He did not think it now, without any doubt. +He must accuse her of some base calculation or vile intrigue. But she +was certain that, if she could see him again, she would prove to him that +the only cause of her conduct was her unquenchable love for him. + +"Let him only believe that, and then let him fly me forever, if he likes! +Forever! But I cannot endure to have him despise me, as he must!" + +It was this hope which now attached her to life. After her return to +Maisons-Lafitte from Vaugirard, she would have killed herself if she had +not so desired another interview where she could lay bare her heart. +Not daring to appear before Andras, not even thinking of such a thing as +seeking him, she resolved to wait some opportunity, some chance, she knew +not what. Suddenly, she thought of Yanski Varhely. Through Varhely, she +might be able to say to Andras all that she wished her husband--her +husband! the very word made her shudder with shame--to know of the +reason of her crime. She wrote to the old Hungarian; but, as she +received no response, she left Maisons-Lafitte and went to Varhely's +house. They did not know there, where the Count was; but Monsieur Angelo +Valla would forward any letters to him. + +She then begged the Italian to send to Varhely a sort of long confession, +in which she asked his aid to obtain from the Prince the desired +interview. + +The letter reached Yanski while he was at Vienna. He answered it with a +few icy words; but what did that matter to Marsa? It was not Varhely's +rancor she cared for, but Zilah's contempt. She implored him again, in a +letter in which she poured out her whole soul, to return, to be there +when she should tell the Prince all her remorse--the remorse which was +killing her, and making of her detested beauty a spectre. + +There was such sincerity in this letter, wherein a conscience sobbed, +that, little by little, in spite of his rough exterior, the soldier, more +accessible to emotion than he cared to have it appear, was softened, and +growled beneath his moustache + +"So! So! She suffers. Well, that is something." + +He answered Marsa that he would return when he had finished a work he had +vowed to accomplish; and, without explaining anything to the Tzigana, he +added, at the end of his letter, these words, which, enigmatical as they +were, gave a vague, inexplicable hope to Marsa "And pray that I may +return soon!" + +The day after he had sent this letter to Maisons-Lafitte, Varhely +received from Ladany a message to come at once to the ministry. + +On his arrival there, Count Josef handed him a despatch. The Russian +minister of foreign affairs telegraphed to his colleague at Vienna, that +his Majesty the Czar consented to the release of Count Menko, implicated +in the Labanoff affair. Labanoff would probably be sent to Siberia the +very day that Count Menko would receive a passport and an escort to the +frontier. Count Menko had chosen Italy for his retreat, and he would +start for Florence the day his Excellency received this despatch. + +"Well, my dear minister," exclaimed Varhely, "thank you a thousand times. +And, with my thanks, my farewell. I am also going to Florence." + +"Immediately?" + +"Immediately." + +"You will arrive there before Menko." + +"I am in a hurry," replied Varhely, with a smile. + +He went to the telegraph office, after leaving the ministry, and sent a +despatch to Angelo Valla, at Paris, in which he asked the Venetian to +join him in Florence. Valla had assured him that he could rely on him +for any service; and Varhely left Vienna, certain that he should find +Manin's old minister at Florence. + +"After all, he has not changed so much," he said to himself, thinking of +Josef Ladany. "Without his aid, Menko would certainly have escaped me. +Ladany has taken the times as they are: Zilah and I desire to have them +as they should be. Which is right?" + +Then, while the train was carrying him to Venice, he thought: Bah! it was +much better to be a dupe like himself and Zilah, and to die preserving, +like an unsurrendered flag, one's dream intact. + +To die? + +Yes! After all, Varhely might, at this moment, be close to death; but, +whatever might be the fate which awaited him at the end of his journey, +he found the road very long and the engine very slow. + +At Venice he took a train which carried him through Lombardy into +Tuscany; and at Florence he found Angelo Valla. + +The Italian already knew, in regard to Michel Menko, all that it was +necessary for him to know. Before going to London, Menko, on his return +from Pau, after the death of his wife, had retired to a small house he +owned in Pistoja; and here he had undoubtedly gone now. + +It was a house built on the side of a hill, and surrounded with olive- +trees. Varhely and Valla waited at the hotel until one of Balla's +friends, who lived at Pistoja, should inform him of the arrival of the +Hungarian count. And Menko did, in fact, come there three days after +Varhely reached Florence. + +"To-morrow, my dear Valla," said Yanski, "you will accompany me to see +Menko?" + +"With pleasure," responded the Italian. + +Menko's house was some distance from the station, at the very end of the +little city. + +The bell at the gate opening into the garden, had been removed, as if to +show that the master of the house did not wish to be disturbed. Varhely +was obliged to pound heavily upon the wooden barrier. The servant who +appeared in answer to his summons, was an Hungarian, and he wore the +national cap, edged with fur. + +"My master does not receive visitors," he answered when Yanski asked him, +in Italian, if Count Menko were at home. + +"Go and say to Menko Mihaly," said Varhely, this time in Hungarian, "that +Count Varhely is here as the representative of Prince Zilah!" + +The domestic disappeared, but returned almost immediately and opened the +gate. Varhely and Valla crossed the garden, entered the house, and found +themselves face to face with Menko. + +Varhely would scarcely have recognized him. + +The former graceful, elegant young man had suddenly aged: his hair was +thin and gray upon the temples, and, instead of the carefully trained +moustache of the embassy attache, a full beard now covered his emaciated +cheeks. + +Michel regarded the entrance of Varhely into the little salon where he +awaited him, as if he were some spectre, some vengeance which he had +expected, and which did not astonish him. He stood erect, cold and +still, as Yanski advanced toward him; while Angelo Valla remained in the +doorway, mechanically stroking his smoothly shaven chin. + +"Monsieur," said Varhely, "for months I have looked forward impatiently +to this moment. Do not doubt that I have sought you." + +"I did not hide myself," responded Menko. + +"Indeed? Then may I ask what was your object in going to Warsaw?" + +"To seek-forgetfulness," said the young man, slowly and sadly. + +This simple word--so often spoken by Zilah--which had no more effect upon +the stern old Hungarian than a tear upon a coat of mail, produced a +singular impression upon Valla. It seemed to him to express +unconquerable remorse. + +"What you have done can not be forgotten," said Varhely. + +"No more than what I have suffered." + +"You made me the accomplice of the most cowardly and infamous act a man +could commit. I have come to you to demand an explanation." + +Michel lowered his eyes at these cutting words, his thin face paling, and +his lower lip trembling; but he said nothing. At last, after a pause, he +raised his eyes again to the face of the old Hungarian, and, letting the +words fall one by one, he replied: + +"I am at your disposal for whatever you choose to demand, to exact. +I only desire to assure you that I had no intention of involving you in +an act which I regarded as a cruel necessity. I wished to avenge myself. +But I did not wish my vengeance to arrive too late, when what I had +assumed the right to prevent had become irreparable." + +"I do not understand exactly," said Varhely. + +Menko glanced at Valla as if to ask whether he could speak openly before +the Italian. + +"Monsieur Angelo Valla was one of the witnesses of the marriage of Prince +Andras Zilah," said Yanski. + +"I know Monsieur," said Michel, bowing to Valla. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed abruptly, his whole manner changing. "There was a +man whom I respected, admired and loved. That man, without knowing it, +wrested from me the woman who had been the folly, the dream, and the +sorrow of my life. I would have done anything to prevent that woman from +bearing the name of that man." + +"You sent to the Prince letters written to you by that woman, and that, +too, after the Tzigana had become Princess Zilah." + +"She had let loose her dogs upon me to tear me to pieces. I was insane +with rage. I wished to destroy her hopes also. I gave those letters to +my valet with absolute orders to deliver them to the Prince the evening +before the wedding. At the same hour that I left Paris, the letters +should have been in the hands of the man who had the right to see them, +and when there was yet time for him to refuse his name to the woman who +had written them. My servant did not obey, or did not understand. Upon +my honor, this is true. He kept the letters twenty-four hours longer +than I had ordered him to do; and it was not she whom I punished, but I +struck the man for whom I would have given my life." + +"Granted that there was a fatality of this sort in your conduct," +responded Varhely, coldly, "and that your lackey did not understand your +commands: the deed which you committed was none the less that of a +coward. You used as a weapon the letters of a woman, and of a woman whom +you had deceived by promising her your name when it was no longer yours +to give!" + +"Are you here to defend Mademoiselle Marsa Laszlo?" asked Michel, a +trifle haughtily. + +"I am here to defend the Princess Zilah, and to avenge Prince Andras. I +am here, above all, to demand satisfaction for your atrocious action in +having taken me as the instrument of your villainy." + +"I regret it deeply and sincerely," replied Menko; "and I am at your +orders." + +The tone of this response admitted of no reply, and Yanski and Valla took +their departure. + +Valla then obtained another second from the Hungarian embassy, and two +officers in garrison at Florence consented to serve as Menko's friends. +It was arranged that the duel should take place in a field near Pistoja. + +Valla, anxious and uneasy, said to Varhely: + +"All this is right and proper, but--" + +"But what?" + +"But suppose he kills you? The right is the right, I know; but leaden +bullets are not necessarily on the side of the right, and--" + +"Well," interrupted Yanski, "in case of the worst, you must charge +yourself, my dear Valla, with informing the Prince how his old friend +Yanski Varhely defended his honor--and also tell him of the place where +Count Menko may be found. I am going to attempt to avenge Zilah. If I +do not succeed, 'Teremtete'!" ripping out the Hungarian oath, "he will +avenge me, that is all! Let us go to supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +"IF MENKO WERE DEAD!" + +Prince Zilah, wandering solitary in the midst of crowded Paris, was +possessed by one thought, one image impossible to drive away, one name +which murmured eternally in his ears--Marsa; Marsa, who was constantly +before his eyes, sometimes in the silvery shimmer of her bridal robes, +and sometimes with the deathly pallor of the promenader in the garden of +Vaugirard; Marsa, who had taken possession of his being, filling his +whole heart, and, despite his revolt, gradually overpowering all other +memories, all other passions! Marsa, his last love, since nothing was +before him save the years when the hair whitens, and when life weighs +heavily upon weary humanity; and not only his last love, but his only +love! + +Oh! why had he loved her? Or, having loved her, why had she not +confessed to him that that coward of a Menko had deceived her! Who +knows? He might have pardoned her, perhaps, and accepted the young girl, +the widow of that passion. Widow? No, not while Menko lived. Oh! if he +were dead! + +And Zilah repeated, with a fierce longing for vengeance: "If he were +dead!" That is, if there were not between them, Zilah and Marsa, the +abhorred memory of the lover! + +Well! if Menko were dead? + +When he feverishly asked himself this question, Zilah recalled at the +same time Marsa, crouching at his feet, and giving no other excuse than +this: "I loved you! I wished to belong to you, to be your wife!" + +His wife! Yes, the beautiful Tzigana he had met at Baroness Dinati's was +now his wife! He could punish or pardon. But he had punished, since he +had inflicted upon her that living death--insanity. And he asked himself +whether he should not pardon Princess Zilah, punished, repentant, almost +dying. + +He knew that she was now at Maisons, cured of her insanity, but still ill +and feeble, and that she lived there like a nun, doing good, dispensing +charity, and praying--praying for him, perhaps. + +For him or for Menko? + +No, for him! She was not vile enough to have lied, when she asked, +implored, besought death from Zilah who held her life or death in his +hands. + +"Yes, I had the right to kill her, but--I have the right to pardon also," +thought Zilah. + +Ah, if Menko were dead! + +The Prince gradually wrought himself into a highly nervous condition, +missing Varhely, uneasy at his prolonged absence, and never succeeding in +driving away Marsa's haunting image. He grew to hate his solitary home +and his books. + +"I shall not want any breakfast," he said one morning to his valet; and, +going out, he descended the Champs-Elysees on foot. + +At the corner of the Place de la Madeleine, he entered a restaurant, and +sat down near a window, gazing mechanically at this lively corner of +Paris, at the gray facade of the church, the dusty trees, the asphalt, +the promenaders, the yellow omnibuses, the activity of Parisian life. + +All at once he was startled to hear his name pronounced and to see before +him, with his hand outstretched, as if he were asking alms, old General +Vogotzine, who said to him, timidly: + +"Ah, my dear Prince, how glad I am to see you! I was breakfasting over +there, and my accursed paper must have hidden me. Ouf! If you only +knew! I am stifling!" + +"Why, what is the matter?" asked Andras. + +"Matter? Look at me! I must be as red as a beet!" + +Poor Vogotzine had entered the restaurant for breakfast, regretting the +cool garden of Maisons-Lafitte, which, now that Marsa no longer sat +there, he had entirely to himself. After eating his usual copious +breakfast, he had imprudently asked the waiter for a Russian paper; and, +as he read, and sipped his kummel, which he found a little insipid and +almost made him regret the vodka of his native land, his eyes fell upon a +letter from Odessa, in which there was a detailed description of the +execution of three nihilists, two of them gentlemen. It told how they +were dragged, tied to the tails of horses, to the open square, each of +them bearing upon his breast a white placard with this inscription, in +black letters: "Guilty of high treason." Then the wretched General +shivered from head to foot. Every detail of the melodramatic execution +seemed burned into his brain as with a red-hot iron. He fancied he could +see the procession and the three gibbets, painted black; beside each +gibbet was an open ditch and a black coffin covered with a dark gray +pall. He saw, in the hollow square formed by a battalion of Cossack +infantry, the executioner, Froloff, in his red shirt and his plush +trousers tucked into his boots, and, beside him, a pale, black-robed +priest. + +"Who the devil is such an idiot as to relate such things in the +newspapers?" he growled. + +And in terror he imagined he could hear the sheriff read the sentence, +see the priest present the cross to the condemned men, and Froloff, +before putting on the black caps, degrade the gentlemen by breaking their +swords over their heads. + +Then, half suffocated, Vogotzine flung the paper on the floor; and, with +eyes distended with horror, drawing the caraffe of kummel toward him, he +half emptied it, drinking glass after glass to recover his self-control. +It seemed to him that Froloff was there behind him, and that the branches +of the candelabra, stretching over his heated head, were the arms of +gibbets ready to seize him. To reassure himself, and be certain that he +was miles and miles from Russia, he was obliged to make sure of the +presence of the waiters and guests in the gay and gilded restaurant. + +"The devil take the newspapers!" he muttered. + +"They are cursed stupid! I will never read another! All that stuff is +absurd! Absurd! A fine aid to digestion, truly!" + +And, paying his bill, he rose to go, passing his hand over his head as if +his sword had been broken upon it and left a contusion, and glancing +timidly into the mirrors, as if he feared to discover the image of +Froloff there. + +It was at this moment that he discovered Prince Zilah, and rushed up to +him with the joyful cry of a child discovering a protector. + +The Prince noticed that poor Vogotzine, who sat heavily down by his side, +was not entirely sober. The enormous quantity of kummel he had absorbed, +together with the terror produced by the article he had read, had proved +too much for the good man: his face was fiery, and he constantly +moistened his dry lips. + +"I suppose it astonishes you to see me here?" he said, as if he had +forgotten all that had taken place. "I--I am astonished to see myself +here! But I am so bored down there at Maisons, and I rust, rust, as +little--little--ah! Stephanie said to me once at Odessa. So I came to +breathe the air of Paris. A miserable idea! Oh, if you knew! When I +think that that might happen to me!" + +"What?" asked Andras, mechanically. + +"What?" gasped the General, staring at him with dilated eyes. "Why, +Froloff, of course! Froloff! The sword broken over your head! The +gallows! Ach! I am not a nihilist--heaven forbid!--but I have +displeased the Czar. And to displease the Czar--Brr! Imagine the open +square-Odessa-No, no, don't let us talk of it any more!" glancing +suddenly about him, as if he feared the platoon of Cossacks were there, +in the restaurant, come to drag him away in the name of the Emperor. +"Oh! by the way, Prince," he exclaimed abruptly. "why don't you ever +come to Maisons-Lafitte?" + +He must, indeed, have been drunk to address such a question to the +Prince. + +Zilah looked him full in the face; but Vogotzine's eyes blinked stupidly, +and his head fell partially forward on his breast. Satisfied that he was +not responsible for what he was saying, Andras rose to leave the +restaurant, and the General with difficulty stumbled to his feet, and +instinctively grasped Andras's arm, the latter making no resistance, the +mention of Maisons-Lafitte interesting him, even from the lips of this +intoxicated old idiot. + +"Do you know," stuttered Vogotzine, "I, myself, should be glad--very +glad--if you would come there. I am bored-bored to death! Closed +shutters--not the least noise. The creaking of a door--the slightest bit +of light-makes her ill. The days drag--they drag--yes, they do. No one +speaks. Most of the time I dine alone. Shall I tell you?--no--yes, I +will. Marsa, yes, well! Marsa, she is good, very good--thinks only of +the poor-the poor, you know! But whatever Doctor Fargeas may say about +it, she is mad! You can't deceive me! She is insane!--still insane!" + +"Insane?" said Andras, striving to control his emotion. + +The General, who was now staggering violently, clung desperately to the +Prince. They had reached the boulevard, and Andras, hailing a cab, made +Vogotzine get in, and instructed the coachman to drive to the Bois. + +"I assure you that she is insane," proceeded the General, throwing his +head back on the cushions. "Yes, insane. She does not eat anything; she +never rests. Upon my word, I don't know how she lives. Once--her dogs-- +she took walks. Now, I go with them into the park--good beasts--very +gentle. Sometimes, all that she says, is: 'Listen! Isn't that Duna or +Bundas barking?' Ah! if I wasn't afraid of Froloffyes, Froloff--how soon +I should return to Russia! The life of Paris--the life of Paris wearies +me. You see, I come here today, I take up a newspaper, and I see what? +Froloff! Besides, the life of Paris--at Maisons-Lafitte--between four +walls, it is absurd! Now, acknowledge, old man, isn't it absurd? Do you +know what I should like to do? I should like to send a petition to the +Czar. What did I do, after all, I should like to know? It wasn't +anything so horrible. I stayed, against the Emperor's orders, five days +too long at Odessa--that was all--yes, you see, a little French actress +who was there, who sang operettas; oh, how she did sing operettas! +Offenbach, you know;" and the General tried to hum a bar or two of the +'Dites lui', with ludicrous effect. "Charming! To leave her, ah! I +found that very hard. I remained five days: that wasn't much, eh, Zilah? +five days? But the devil! There was a Grand Duke--well--humph! younger +than I, of course--and--and--the Grand Duke was jealous. Oh! there was +at that time a conspiracy at Odessa! I was accused of spending my time +at the theatre, instead of watching the conspirators. They even said I +was in the conspiracy! Oh, Lord! Odessa! The gallows! Froloff! Well, +it was Stephanie Gavaud who was the cause of it. Don't tell that to +Marsa! Ah! that little Stephanie! 'J'ai vu le vieux Bacchus sur sa +roche fertile!' Tautin--no, Tautin couldn't sing like that little +Stephanie! Well," continued Vogotzine, hiccoughing violently, "because +all that happened then, I now lead here the life of an oyster! Yes, the +life of an oyster, of a turtle, of a clam! alone with a woman sad as +Mid-Lent, who doesn't speak, doesn't sing, does nothing but weep, weep, +weep! It is crushing! I say just what I think! Crushing, then, +whatever my niece may be--cr-r-rushing! And--ah--really, my dear fellow, +I should be glad if you would come. Why did you go away? Yes, yes, that +is your affair, and I don't ask any questions. Only--only you would do +well to come--" + +"Why?" interrupted Andras, turning quickly to Vogotzine. + +"Ah! why? Because!" said the General, trying to give to his heavy face +an expression of shrewd, dignified gravity. + +"What has happened?" asked the Prince. "Is she suffering again? Ill?" + +"Oh, insane, I tell you! absolutely insane! mad as a March hare! +Two days ago, you see--" + +"Well, what? two days ago?" + +"Because, two days ago!--" + +"Well, what? What is it? Speak, Vogotzine!" + +"The despatch," stammered the General. + +"What despatch?" + +"The des--despatch from Florence." + +"She has received a despatch from Florence?" + +"A telegram--blue paper--she read it before me; upon my word, I thought +it was from you! She said--no; those miserable bits of paper, it is +astonishing how they alarm you. There are telegrams which have given me +a fit of indigestion, I assure you--and I haven't the heart of a +chicken!" + +"Go on! Marsa? This despatch? Whom was it from? What did Marsa say?" + +"She turned white as a sheet; she began to tremble--an attack of the +nerves--and she said: 'Well, in two days I shall know, at last, whether I +am to live!' Queer, wasn't it? I don't know what she meant! But it is +certain--yes, certain, my dear fellow--that she expects, this evening, +some one who is coming--or who is not coming, from Florence--that +depends." + +"Who is it? Who?" cried Andras. "Michel Menko?" + +"I don't know," faltered Vogotzine in alarm, wondering whether it were +Froloff's hand that had seized him by the collar of his coat. + +"It is Menko, is it not?" demanded Andras; while the terrified General +gasped out something unintelligible, his intoxication increasing every +yard the carriage advanced in the Bois. + +Andras was almost beside himself with pain and suspense. What did it +mean? Who had sent that despatch? Why had it caused Marsa such emotion? +"In two days I shall know, at last, whether I am to live!" Who could +make her utter such a cry? Who, if not Michel Menko, was so intimately +connected with her life as to trouble her so, to drive her insane, as +Vogotzine said? + +"It is Menko, is it not? it is Menko?" repeated Andras again. + +And Vogotzine gasped: + +"Perhaps! anything is possible!" + +But he stopped suddenly, as if he comprehended, despite his inebriety, +that he was in danger of going too far and doing some harm. + +"Come, Vogotzine, come, you have told me too much not to tell me all!" + +"That is true; yes, I have said too much! Ah! The devil! this is not +my affair!--Well, yes, Count Menko is in Florence or near Florence-- +I don't know where. Marsa told me that--without meaning to. She was +excited--very excited--talked to herself. I did not ask her anything-- +but--she is insane, you see, mad, mad! She first wrote a despatch to +Italy--then she tore it up like this, saying: 'No, what is to happen, +will happen!' There! I don't know anything but that. I don't know +anything!" + +"Ah! she is expecting him!" cried Andras. "When?" + +"I don't know!" + +"You told me it was to be this evening. This evening, is it not?" + +The old General felt as ill at ease as if he had been before a military +commission or in the hands of Froloff. + +"Yes, this evening." + +"At Maisons-Lafitte?" + +"At Maisons," responded Vogotzine, mechanically. "And all this wearies +me--wearies me. Was it for this I decided to come to Paris? A fine +idea! At least, there are no Russian days at Maisons!" + +Andras made no reply. + +He stopped the carriage, got out, and, saluting the General with a brief +"Thank you!" walked rapidly away, leaving Vogotzine in blank amazement, +murmuring, as he made an effort to sit up straight: + +"Well, well, are you going to leave me here, old man? All alone? This +isn't right!" + +And, like a forsaken child, the old General, with comic twitchings of his +eyebrows and nostrils, felt a strong desire to weep. + +"Where shall I drive you, Monsieur?" asked the coachman. + +"Wherever you like, my friend," responded Vogotzine, modestly, with an +appealing look at the man. "You, at least, must not leave me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE VALE OF VIOLETS + +In the Prince's mind the whole affair seemed clear as day, and he +explained the vague anxiety with which he had been afflicted for several +days as a mysterious premonition of a new sorrow. Menko was at Florence! +Menko, for it could be no other than he, had telegraphed to Marsa, +arranging a meeting with her. That very evening he was to be in the +house of Marsa Laszlo--Marsa who bore, in spite of all, the title and +name of the Zilahs. Was it possible? After the marriage, after this +woman's vows and tears, these two beings, separated for a time, were to +be united again. And he, Andras, had almost felt pity for her! He had +listened to Varhely, an honest man; drawing a parallel between a +vanquished soldier and this fallen girl--Varhely, the rough, implacable +Varhely, who had also been the dupe of the Tzigana, and one evening at +Sainte-Adresse had even counselled the deceived husband to pardon her. + +In a state bordering on frenzy, Zilah returned to his hotel, thinking: + +"He will be with her this evening!" + +This was worse than all the rest. How could he punish her? + +Punish her? + +Why not? Was not Marsa Laszlo his wife? That villa of Maisons-Lafitte, +where she thought herself so safe, was his by law. He, the husband, had +a right to enter there at any hour and demand of his wife an account of +his honor. + +"She wished this name of Zilah! Well! she shall know at least what it +costs and what it imposes upon her!" he hissed through his clenched +teeth. He walked nervously to and fro in the library of his hotel, his +excitement increasing at every step. + +"She is Princess Zilah! She--a princess! Nothing can wrest from her +that title which she has stolen! Princess be it, then; but the Prince +has the right to deal out life or death to his wife--to his wife and to +the lover of his wife!" with a spasmodic burst of laughter. "Her lover +is to be there; Menko is to be there, and I complain! The man whom I +have sought in vain will be before me. I shall hold him at my mercy, +and I do not thank the kind fate which gives me that joy! This evening! +He will be at her house this evening! Good! Justice shall be done!" + +Every moment added to his fever. He would have given ten years of his +life if it were already evening. He waited impatiently for the hour to +come when he could go and surprise them. He even thought of meeting +Menko at the railway station on his arrival from Italy: but what would be +the use? Menko would be at Maisons; and he would kill him before her +face, in a duel if Menko would fight, or like a thief caught in the act +if he attempted to fly. That would be better. Yes, he would kill him +like a dog, if the other--but no! The Hungarian, struck in the presence +of the Tzigana, would certainly not recoil before a pistol. Marsa should +be the sole witness of the duel, and the blood of the Prince or of Menko +should spatter her face--a crimson stain upon her pale cheek should be +her punishment. + +Early in the evening Andras left the hotel, after slipping into the +pocket of his overcoat a pair of loaded pistols: one of them he would +cast at Menko's feet. It was not assassination he wished, but justice. + +He took the train to Maisons, and, on his arrival there, crossed the +railway bridge, and found himself almost alone in the broad avenue which +runs through the park. As he walked on through the rapidly darkening +shadows, he began to feel a strange sensation, as if nothing had +happened, and as if he were shaking off, little by little, a hideous +nightmare. In a sort of voluntary hallucination, he imagined that he was +going, as in former days, to Marsa's house; and that she was awaiting him +in one of those white frocks which became her so well, with her silver +belt clasped with the agraffe of opals. As he advanced, a host of +memories overwhelmed him. He had walked with Marsa under these great +lindens forming an arch overhead like that of a cathedral. He remembered +conversations they had had in the evening, when a slight mist silvered +the majestic park, and the white villa loomed vaguely before them like +some phantom palace of fairyland. With the Tzigana clinging to his arm, +he had seen those fountains, with their singing waters, that broad lawn +between the two long lines of trees, those winding paths through the +shrubbery; and, in the emotion aroused by these well-remembered places, +there was a sensation of bitter pain at the thought of the happiness that +might have been his had fate fulfilled her promises, which increased, +rather than appeased, the Prince's anger. + +As his steps led him mechanically nearer and nearer to the house where +she lived, all the details of his wedding-day rose in his memory, and he +turned aside to see again the little church, the threshold of which they +had crossed together--she exquisitely lovely in her white draperies, and +he overflowing with happiness. + +The square in front of the sanctuary was now deserted and the leaves were +beginning to fall from the trees. A man was lying asleep upon the steps +before the bolted door. Zilah stood gazing at the Gothic portal, with a +statue of the Virgin Mother above it, and wondered whether it were he who +had once led there a lovely girl, about to become his wife; and the sad, +closed church produced upon him the effect of a tomb. + +He dragged himself away from the contemplation of the stone threshold, +where slept the tired man--drunk perhaps, at all events happier than the +Prince--and proceeded on his way through the woods to the abode of Marsa +Laszlo. + +There was, Zilah remembered well, quite near there, a sort of narrow +valley (where the Mayor of Maisons was said to have royally entertained +Louis XIV and his courtiers, as they were returning from Marly), a lovely +spot, surrounded by grassy slopes covered with violets, a little shady, +Virgilian wood, where he and Marsa had dreamed away many happy hours. +They had christened it The Vale o f Violets. How many memories were in +that sweet name, each one of which stabbed and exasperated Zilah, rising +before him like so many spectres. + +He hastened his steps, repeating: + +"He is there! She is waiting for him! Her lover is there!" + +At the end of the road, before the villa, closed and silent like the old +church, he stopped. He had reached his destination; but what was he +about to do, he who--who up to this time had protected his name from the +poisonous breath of scandal? + +He was about to kill Menko, or to be killed himself. A duel! But what +was the need of proposing a duel, when, exercising his rights as a +husband, he could punish both the man and the woman? + +He did not hesitate long, however, but advanced to the gate, saying, +aloud: + +"I have a right to enter my own house." + +The ringing of the bell was answered by the barking of Duna, Bundas, and +Ortog, who tore furiously at their iron chains. + +A man presently appeared on the other side of the gate. It was a +domestic whom Andras did not know and had never seen. + +"Whom do you wish to see?" asked the man. + +"The Princess Zilah!" + +"Who are you?" demanded the man, his hand upon the inner bolt of the +gate. + +"Prince Zilah!" + +The other stood stock-still in amazement, trying to see, through the +darkness, the Prince's face. + +"Do you hear me?" demanded Andras. + +And, as the domestic opened the gate, as if to observe the appearance of +the visitor, the Prince gave it a nervous push, which threw the servant +backward; and, once within the garden, he came close to him, and said: + +"Look well at me, in order that you may recognize me again. I am master +here." + +Zilah's clear eye and imperious manner awed the man, and he bowed humbly, +not daring to speak. + +Andras turned on his heel, mounted the steps, and entered the house; then +he stopped and listened. + +She was with him. Yes, a man was there, and the man was speaking, +speaking to Marsa, speaking doubtless of love. + +Menko, with his twisted moustache, his pretty smile and his delicate +profile, was there, behind that door. A red streak of light from the +salon where Marsa was showed beneath the door, which the Prince longed to +burst open with his foot. With anger and bitterness filling his heart, +he felt capable of entering there, and striking savagely, madly, at his +rival. + +How these two beings had played with him; the woman who had lied to him, +and the coward who had sent him those letters. + +Suddenly Marsa's voice fell upon his ear, that rich, contralto voice he +knew so well, speaking in accents of love or joy. + +What was he waiting for? His hot, feverish hand sought the handle of his +pistol, and, striding forward, he threw open the door of the room. + +The light from an opal-tinted lamp fell full upon his face. He stood +erect upon the threshold, while two other faces were turned toward him, +two pale faces, Marsa's and another's. + +Andras paused in amazement. + +He had sought Menko; he found--Varhely! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE DUEL + +"Yanski!" + +Marsa recoiled in fear at hearing this cry and the sudden appearance of +the Prince; and, trembling like a leaf, with her face still turned toward +that threshold where Andras stood, she murmured, in a voice choked with +emotion: + +"Who is there? Who is it?" + +Yanski Varhely, unable to believe his eyes, advanced, as if to make sure. + +"Zilah!" he exclaimed, in his turn. + +He could not understand; and Zilah himself wondered whether he were not +the victim of some illusion, and where Menko could be, that Menko whom +Marsa had expected, and whom he, the husband, had come to chastise. + +But the most bewildered, in her mute amazement, was Marsa, her lips +trembling, her face ashen, her eyes fixed upon the Prince, as she leaned +against the marble of the mantelpiece to prevent herself from falling, +but longing to throw herself on her knees before this man who had +suddenly appeared, and who was master of her destiny. + +"You here?" said Varhely at last. "You followed me, then?" + +"No," said Andras. "The one whom I expected to find here was not you." + +"Who was it, then?" + +"Michel Menko!" + +Yanski Varhely turned toward Marsa. + +She did not stir; she was looking at the Prince. + +"Michel Menko is dead," responded Varhely, shortly. "It was to announce +that to the Princess Zilah that I am here." + +Andras gazed alternately upon the old Hungarian, and upon Marsa, who +stood there petrified, her whole soul burning in her eyes. + +"Dead?" repeated Zilah, coldly. + +"I fought and killed him," returned Varhely. + +Andras struggled against the emotion which seized hold of him. Pale as +death, he turned from Varhely to the Tzigana, with an instinctive desire +to know what her feelings might be. + +The news of this death, repeated thus before the man whom she regarded as +the master of her existence, had, apparently, made no impression upon +her, her thoughts being no longer there, but her whole heart being +concentrated upon the being who had despised her, hated her, fled from +her, and who appeared there before her as in one of her painful dreams in +which he returned again to that very house where he had cursed her. + +"There was," continued Varhely, slowly, "a martyr who could not raise her +head, who could not live, so long as that man breathed. First of all, +I came to her to tell her that she was delivered from a detested past. +Tomorrow I should have informed a man whose honor is my own, that the one +who injured and insulted him has paid his debt." + +With lips white as his moustache, Varhely spoke these words like a judge +delivering a solemn sentence. + +A strange expression passed over Zilah's face. He felt as if some +horrible weight had been lifted from his heart. + +Menko dead! + +Yet there was a time when he had loved this Michel Menko: and, of the +three beings present in the little salon, the man who had been injured by +him was perhaps the one who gave a pitying thought to the dead, the old +soldier remaining as impassive as an executioner, and the Tzigana +remembering only the hatred she had felt for the one who had been her +ruin. + +Menko dead! + +Varhely took from the mantelpiece the despatch he had sent from Florence, +three days before, to the Princess Zilah, the one of which Vogotzine had +spoken to Andras. + +He handed it to the Prince, and Andras read as follows: + +"I am about to risk my life for you. Tuesday evening either I shall be +at Maisons-Lafitte, or I shall be dead. I fight tomorrow with Count M. +If you do not see me again, pray for the soul of Varhely." + +Count Varhely had sent this despatch before going to keep his appointment +with Michel Menko. + + ................... + +It had been arranged that they were to fight in a field near Pistoja. + +Some peasant women, who were braiding straw hats, laughed as they saw the +men pass by. + +One of them called out, gayly: + +"Do you wish to find your sweethearts, signori? That isn't the way!" + +A little farther, Varhely and his adversary encountered a monk with a +cowl drawn over his head so that only his eyes could be seen, who, +holding out a zinc money-box, demanded 'elemosina', alms for the sick in +hospitals. + +Menko opened his pocketbook, and dropped in the box a dozen pieces of +gold. + +"Mille grazie, signor!" + +"It is of no consequence." + +They arrived on the ground, and the seconds loaded the pistols. + +Michel asked permission of Yanski to say two words to him. + +"Speak!" said Varhely. + +The old Hungarian stood at his post with folded arms and lowered eyes, +while Michel approached him, and said: + +"Count Varhely, I repeat to you that I wished to prevent this marriage, +but not to insult the Prince. I give you my word of honor that this is +true. If you survive me, will you promise to repeat this to him?" + +"I promise." + +"I thank you." + +They took their positions. + +Angelo Valla was to give the signal to fire. + +He stood holding a white handkerchief in his outstretched hand, and with +his eyes fixed upon the two adversaries, who were placed opposite each +other, with their coats buttoned up to the chin, and their pistols held +rigidly by their side. + +Varhely was as motionless as if made of granite. Menko smiled. + +"One! Two!" counted Valla. + +He paused as if to take breath: then-- + +"Three!" he exclaimed, in the tone of a man pronouncing a death- +sentence; and the handkerchief fell. + +There were two reports in quick succession. + +Varhely stood erect in his position; Menko's ball had cut a branch above +his head, and the green leaves fell fluttering to the ground. + +Michel staggered back, his hand pressed to his left side. + +His seconds hastened toward him, seized him under the arms, and tried to +raise him. + +"It is useless," he said. "It was well aimed!" + +And, turning to Varhely, he cried, in a voice which he strove to render +firm: + +"Remember your promise!" + +They opened his coat. The ball had entered his breast just above the +heart. + +They seated him upon the grass, with his back against a tree. + +He remained there, with fixed eyes, gazing, perhaps, into the infinite, +which was now close at hand. + +His lips murmured inarticulate names, confused words: "Pardon-- +punishment--Marsa--" + +As Yanski Varhely, with his two seconds, again passed the straw-workers, +the girls saluted them with: + +"Well, where are your other friends? Have they found their sweethearts?" + +And while their laughter rang out upon the air, the gay, foolish laughter +of youth and health, over yonder they were bearing away the dead body of +Michel Menko. + + .................... + +Andras Zilah, with a supreme effort at self-control, listened to his old +friend relate this tale; and, while Varhely spoke, he was thinking: + +It was not a lover, it was not Menko, whom Marsa expected. Between the +Tzigana and himself there was now nothing, nothing but a phantom. The +other had paid his debt with his life. The Prince's anger disappeared as +suddenly in proportion as his exasperation had been violent. + +He contemplated Marsa, thin and pale, but beautiful still. The very +fixedness of her great eyes gave her a strange and powerful attraction; +and, in the manner in which Andras regarded her, Count Varhely, with his +rough insight, saw that there were pity, astonishment, and almost fear. + +He pulled his moustache a moment in reflection, and then made a step +toward the door. + +Marsa saw that he was about to leave the room; and, moving away from the +marble against which she had been leaning, with a smile radiant with the +joy of a recovered pride, she held out her hand to Yanski, and, in a +voice in which there was an accent of almost terrible gratitude for the +act of justice which had been accomplished, she said, firmly: + +"I thank you, Varhely!" + +Varhely made no reply, but passed out of the room, closing the door +behind him. + +The husband and wife, after months of torture, anguish, and despair, were +alone, face to face with each other. + +Andras's first movement was one of flight. He was afraid of himself. +Of his own anger? Perhaps. Perhaps of his own pity. + +He did not look at Marsa, and in two steps he was at the door. + +Then, with a start, as one drowning catches at a straw, as one condemned +to death makes a last appeal for mercy, with a feeble, despairing cry +like that of a child, a strange contrast to the almost savage thanks +given to Varhely, she exclaimed: + +"Ah! I implore you, listen to me!" + +Andras stopped. + +"What have you to say to me?" he asked. + +"Nothing--nothing but this: Forgive! ah, forgive! I have seen you once +more; forgive me, and let me disappear; but, at least, carrying away with +me a word from you which is not a condemnation." + +"I might forgive," said Andras; "but I could not forget." + +"I do not ask you to forget, I do not ask you that! Does one ever +forget? And yet--yes, one does forget, one does forget, I know it. You +are the only thing in all my existence, I know only you, I think only of +you. I have loved only you!" + +Andras shivered, no longer able to fly, moved to the depths of his being +by the tones of this adored voice, so long unheard. + +"There was no need of bloodshed to destroy that odious past," continued +Marsa. "Ah! I have atoned for it! There is no one on earth who has +suffered as I have. I, who came across your path only to ruin your life! +Your life, my God, yours!" + +She looked at him with worshipping eyes, as believers regard their god. + +"You have not suffered so much as the one you stabbed, Marsa. He had +never had but one love in the world, and that love was you. If you had +told him of your sufferings, and confessed your secret, he would have +been capable of pardoning you. You deceived him. There was something +worse than the crime itself--the lie." + +"Ah!" she cried, "if you knew how I hated that lie! Would to heaven +that some one would tear out my tongue for having deceived you!" + +There was an accent of truth in this wild outburst of the Tzigana; and +upon the lips of this daughter of the puszta, Hungarian and Russian at +once, the cry seemed the very symbol of her exceptional nature. + +"What is it you wish that I should do?" she said. "Die? yes, I would +willingly, gladly die for you, interposing my breast between you and a +bullet. Ah! I swear to you, I should be thankful to die like one of +those who bore your name. But, there is no fighting now, and I can not +shed my blood for you. I will sacrifice my life in another manner, +obscurely, in the shadows of a cloister. I shall have had neither lover +nor husband, I shall be nothing, a recluse, a prisoner. It will be well! +yes, for me, the prison, the cell, death in a life slowly dragged out! +Ah! I deserve that punishment, and I wish my sentence to come from you; +I wish you to tell me that I am free to disappear, and that you order me +to do so--but, at the same time, tell me, oh, tell me, that you have +forgiven me!" + +"I!" said Andras. + +In Marsa's eyes was a sort of wild excitement, a longing for sacrifice, a +thirst for martyrdom. + +"Do I understand that you wish to enter a convent?" asked Andras, +slowly. + +"Yes, the strictest and gloomiest. And into that tomb I shall carry, +with your condemnation and farewell, the bitter regret of my love, the +weight of my remorse!" + +The convent! The thought of such a fate for the woman he loved filled +Andras Zilah with horror. He imagined the terrible scene of Marsa's +separation from the world; he could hear the voice of the officiating +bishop casting the cruel words upon the living, like earth upon the dead; +he could almost see the gleam of the scissors as they cut through her +beautiful dark hair. + +Kneeling before him, her eyes wet with tears, Marsa was as lovely in her +sorrow as a Mater Dolorosa. All his love surged up in his heart, and a +wild temptation assailed him to keep her beauty, and dispute with the +convent this penitent absolved by remorse. + +She knelt there repentant, weeping, wringing her hands, asking nothing +but pardon--a word, a single word of pity--and the permission to bury +herself forever from the world. + +"So," he said, abruptly, "the convent cell, the prison, does not terrify +you?" + +"Nothing terrifies me except your contempt." + +"You would live far from Paris, far from the world, far from everything?" + +"In a kennel of dogs, under the lash of a slavedriver; breaking stones, +begging my bread, if you said to me: 'Do that, it is atonement!'" + +"Well!" cried Andras, passionately, his lips trembling, his blood +surging through his veins. "Live buried in our Hungary, forgetting, +forgotten, hidden, unknown, away from all, away from Paris, away from +the noise of the world, in a life with me, which will be a new life! +Will you?" + +She looked at him with staring, terrified eyes, believing his words to be +some cruel jest. + +"Will you?" he said again, raising her from the floor, and straining her +to his breast, his burning lips seeking the icy ones of the Tzigana. +"Answer me, Marsa. Will you?" + +Like a sigh, the word fell on the air: "Yes." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A NEW LIFE + +The following day, with tender ardor, he took her away to his old +Hungarian castle, with its red towers still bearing marks of the ravages +of the cannon--the castle which he never had beheld since Austria had +confiscated it, and then, after long years, restored it to its rightful +owner. He fled from Paris, seeking a pure existence, and returned to his +Hungary, to the country of his youth, the land of the vast plains. He +saw again the Danube and the golden Tisza. In the Magyar costume, his +heart beating more proudly under the national attila, he passed before +the eyes of the peasants who had known him when a child, and had fought +under his orders; and he spoke to them by name, recognizing many of his +old companions in these poor people with cheeks tanned by the sun, and +heads whitened by age. + +He led Marsa, trembling and happy, to the door of the castle, where they +offered him the wine of honor, drank from the 'tschouttora', +the Hungarian drinking-vessel, the 'notis' and cakes made of maize +cooked in cream. + +Upon the lawns about the castle, the 'tschiko' shepherds, who had come on +horseback to greet the Prince, drank plum brandy, and drank with their +red wine the 'kadostas' and the bacon of Temesvar. They had come from +their farms, from their distant pusztas, peasant horsemen, like soldiers, +with their national caps; and they joyously celebrated the return of +Zilah Andras, the son of those Zilahs whose glorious history they all +knew. The dances began, the bright copper heels clinked together, the +blue jackets, embroidered with yellow, red, or gold, swung in the wind, +and it seemed that the land of Hungary blossomed with flowers and rang +with songs to do honor to the coming of Prince Andras and his Princess. + +Then Andras entered with Marsa the abode of his ancestors. And, in the +great halls hung with tapestry and filled with pictures which the +conquerors had respected, before those portraits of magnates superb in +their robes of red or green velvet edged with fur, curved sabres by their +sides and aigrettes upon their heads, all reproducing a common trait of +rough frankness, with their long moustaches, their armor and their hussar +uniforms--Marsa Laszlo, who knew them well, these heroes of her country, +these Zilah princes who had fallen upon the field of battle, said to the +last of them all, to Andras Zilah, before Ferency Zilah, before Sandor, +before the Princesses Zilah who had long slept in "dull, cold marble," +and who had been no prouder than she of the great name they bore: + +"Do you know the reason why, equal to these in devotion and courage, you +are superior to them all! It is because you are good, as good as they +were brave. + +To their virtues, you, who forgive, add this virtue, which is your own: +pity!" + +She looked at him humbly, raising to his face her beautiful dark eyes, as +if to let him read her heart, in which was only his image and his name. +She pressed closely to his side, with an uneasy, timid tenderness, as if +she were a stranger in the presence of his great ancestors, who seemed to +demand whether the newcomer were one of the family; and he, putting his +arm about her, and pressing to his beating heart the Tzigana, whose eyes +were dim with tears, said: "No, I am not better than these. It is not +pity which is my virtue, Marsa: it is my love. For--I love you!" + +Yes, he loved her, and with all the strength of a first and only love. +He loved her so that he forgot everything, so that he did not see that in +Marsa's smile there was a look of the other side of the great, eternal +river. He loved her so that he thought only of this woman, of her +beauty, of the delight of her caresses, of his dream of love realized in +the air of the adored fatherland. He loved her so that he left without +answers the charming letters which Baroness Dinati wrote him from Paris, +so far away now, and the more serious missives which he received from his +compatriots, wishing him to utilize for his country, now that he had +returned to it, his superior intelligence, as he had formerly utilized +his courage. + +"The hour is critical," wrote his old friends. "An attempt is being made +to awaken in Hungary, against the Russians, whom we like, memories of +combats and extinct hatreds, and that to the profit of a German alliance, +which is repugnant to our race. Bring the support of your name and your +valor to our cause. Enter the Diet of Hungary. Your place is marked out +for you there in the first rank, as it was in the old days upon the +battlefield." + +Andras only smiled. + +"If I were ambitious!" he said to Marsa. Then he added: "But I am +ambitious only for your happiness." + +Marsa's happiness! It was deep, calm, and clear as a lake. It seemed to +the Tzigana that she was dreaming a dream, a beautiful dream, a dream +peaceful, sweet, and restful. She abandoned herself to her profound +happiness with the trustfulness of a child. She was all the more happy +because she had the exquisite sensation that her dream would have no +awakening. It would end in all the charm of its poetry. + +She was sure that she could not survive the immense joy which destiny had +accorded her; and she did not rebel against this decree. It seemed to +her right and just. She had never desired any other ending to her love +than to die beloved, to die with Andras's kiss of forgiveness upon her +lips, with his arms about her, and to sink with a smile into the eternal +sleep. What more beautiful thing could she, the Tzigana, have wished? + +When the Prince's people saluted her by that title of "Princess" which +was hers, she trembled as if she had usurped it; she wished to be Marsa +to the Prince, Marsa, his devoted slave, who looked at him with her great +eyes full of gratitude and love. And she wished to be only that. It +seemed to her that, in the ancient home of the Zilahs, the birthplace of +soldiers, the eyrie of eagles, she was a sort of stranger; but, at the +same time, she thought, with a smile: + +"What matters it? It is for so short a time." + +One day Prince Zilah received from Vienna a large sealed envelope. +Minister Ladany earnestly entreated him to come to the Austrian capital +and present, in the salons of Vienna and at the imperial court, Princess +Zilah, of whose beauty the Austrian colony of Paris raved. + +Marsa asked the Prince what the letter contained. + +"Nothing. An invitation to leave our solitude. We are too happy here." + +Marsa questioned him no further; but she resolved that she would never +allow the Prince to take her to that court which claimed his presence. +In her eyes, she was always the Tzigana; and, although Menko was dead, +she would never permit Zilah to present her to people who might have +known Count Michel. + +No, no, let them remain in the dear old castle, he living only for her, +she breathing only for him; and let the world go, with its fascinations +and its pleasures, its false joys and its false friendships! Let them +ask of life only what truth it possesses; an hour of rest between two +ordeals, a smile between two sobs, and--the right to love each other. +To love each other until that fatal separation which she felt was coming, +until that end which was fast advancing; her poor, frail body being now +only the diaphanous prison of her soul. She did not complain, as she +felt the hour gently approach when, with a last kiss, a last sigh, she +must say to Andras, Adieu! + +He, seeing her each day more pale, each day more feeble, was alarmed; +but he hoped, that, when the winter, which was very severe there, was +over, Marsa would regain her strength. He summoned to the castle a +physician from Vienna, who battled obstinately and skilfully against the +malady from which the Tzigana was suffering. Her weakness and languor +kept Marsa, during the cold months, for whole days before the lofty, +sculptured chimney-piece, in which burned enormous logs of oak. As the +flames gave a rosy tinge to her cheeks and made her beautiful eyes +sparkle, Andras said to herself, as he watched her, that she would live, +live and be happy with him. + +The spring came, with the green leaflets and the white blossoms at the +ends of the branches. The buds opened and the odors of the rejuvenated +earth mounted subtly into the soft air. + +At her window, regarding the young grass and the masses of tender verdure +in which clusters of pale gold or silvery white gleamed like aigrettes, +Marsa said to Andras: + +"It must be lovely at Maisons, in the Vale of Violets!" but she added, +quickly: + +"We are better here, much better! And it even seems to me that I have +always, always lived here in this beautiful castle, where you have +sheltered me, like a swallow beaten by the wind." + +There was, beneath the window, stretching out like a ribbon of silver, a +road, which the mica dust caused, at times, in the sunlight to resemble a +river. Marsa often looked out on this road, imagining that she saw again +the massive dam upon the Seine, or wondering whether a band of Tzigani +would not appear there with the April days. + +"I should like," she said one day to Andras, "to hear again the airs my +people used to play." + +She found that, with the returning spring, she was more feeble than she +had ever been. The first warmth in the air entered her veins like a +sweet intoxication. Her head felt heavy, and in her whole body she felt +a pleasant languor. She had wished to sink thus to rest, as nature was +awakening. + +The doctor seemed very uneasy at this languidness, of which Marsa said: + +"It is delicious!" + +He whispered one evening to Andras: + +"It is grave!" + +Another sorrow was to come into the life of the Prince, who had known so +many. + +A few days after, with a sort of presentiment, he wrote to Yanski Varhely +to come and spend a few months with him. He felt the need of his old +friend; and the Count hastened to obey the summons. + +Varhely was astonished to see the change which so short a time had +produced in Marsa. In seven months her face, although still beautiful, +had become emaciated, and had a transparent look. The little hand, white +as snow, which she gave to Varhely, burned him; the skin was dry and hot. + +"Well, my dear Count," said Marsa, as she lay extended in a reclining- +chair, "what news of General Vogotzine?" + +"The General is well. He hopes to return to Russia. The Czar has been +appealed to, and he does not say no." + +"Ah! that is good news," she said. "He must be greatly bored at +Maisons; poor Vogotzine!" + +"He smokes, drinks, takes the dogs out--" + +The dogs! Marsa started. Those hounds would survive Menko, herself, +the love which she now tasted as the one joy of her life! Mechanically +her lips murmured, too low to be heard: "Ortog! Bundas!" + +Then she said, aloud: + +"I shall be very, glad if the poor General can return to St. Petersburg +or Odessa. One is best off at home, in one's own country. If you only +knew, Varhely, how happy I am, happy to be in Hungary. At home!" + +She was very weak. The doctor made a sign to Andras to leave her for a +moment. + +"Well," asked the Prince anxiously of Varhely, "how do you think she is?" + +"What does the doctor say?" replied Yanski. "Does he hope to save her?" + +Zilah made no response. Varhely's question was the most terrible of +answers. + +Ensconced in an armchair, the Prince then laid bare his heart to old +Varhely, sitting near him. She was about to die, then! Solitude! Was +that to be the end of his life? After so many trials, it was all to end +in this: an open grave, in which his hopes were to be buried. What +remained to him now? At the age when one has no recourse against fate, +love, the one love of his life, was to be taken away from him. Varhely +had administered justice, and Zilah had pardoned--for what? To watch +together a silent tomb; yes, yes, what remained to him now? + +"What remains to you if she dies?" said old Yanski, slowly. "There +remains to you what you had at twenty years, that which never dies. +There remains to you what was the love and the passion of all the Zilah +princes who lie yonder, and who experienced the same suffering, the same +torture, the same despair, as you. There remains to you our first love, +my dear Andras, the fatherland!" + +The next day some Tzigana musicians, whom the Prince had sent for, +arrived at the castle. Marsa felt invigorated when she heard the +czimbalom and the piercing notes of the czardas. She had been longing +for those harmonies and songs which lay so near her heart. She listened, +with her hand clasped in that of Andras, and through the open window came +the "March of Rakoczy," the same strains which long ago had been played +in Paris, upon the boat which bore them down the Seine that July morning. + +An heroic air, a song of triumph, a battle-cry, the gallop of horses, a +chant of victory. It was the air which had saluted their betrothal like +a fanfare. It was the chant which the Tzigani had played that sad night +when Andras's father had been laid in the earth of Attila. + +"I would like," said Marsa, when the music had ceased, "to go to the +little village where my mother rests. She was a Tzigana also! Like +them, like me! Can I do so, doctor?" + +The doctor shook his head. + +"Oh, Princess, not yet! Later, when the warm sun comes." + +"Is not that the sun?" said Marsa, pointing to the April rays entering +the old feudal hall and making the bits of dust dance like sparks of +gold. + +"It is the April sun, and it is sometimes dangerous for--" + +The doctor paused; and, as he did not finish, Marsa said gently, with a +smile which had something more than resignation in it--happiness: + +"For the dying?" + +Andras shuddered; but Marsa's hand, which held his, did not even tremble. + +Old Varhely's eyes were dim with tears. + +She knew that she was about to die. She knew it, and smiled at kindly +death. It would take away all shame. Her memory would be to Andras the +sacred one of the woman he adored. She would die without being held to +keep that oath she had made not to survive her dreamed-of happiness, the +union she had desired and accepted. Yes, it was sweet and welcome, this +death, which taking her from Andras's love, washed away all stain. + +She whispered in his ear the oft-repeated avowal: + +"I love you! I love you! I love you! And I die content, for I feel +that you will love me always. Think a moment! Could I live? Would +there not be a spectre between you and your Marsa?" + +She threw her arms about him as he leaned over the couch upon which she +lay, and he made a gesture of denial, unable to speak, for each word +would have been a sob. + +"Oh, do not deny it!" she said. "Now, no. But later, who knows? +On the other hand, you see, there will be no other phantom near you but +mine, no other image but mine. I feel that I shall be always near you, +yes, always, eternally, my beloved! Dear death! blessed death! which +renders our love infinite, yes, infinite. Ah, I love you! I love you!" + +She wished to see once more, through the open window, the sunny woods and +the new blossoms. Behind those woods, a few leagues away, was the place +where Tisza was buried. + +"I should like to rest by her side," said the Tzigana. "I am not of your +family, you see. A princess, I? your wife? I have been only your +sweetheart, my Andras." + +Andras, whiter than the dying girl, seemed petrified by the approach of +the inevitable grief. + +Now, as they went slowly down the white road, the Tzigani played the +plaintive melancholy air of Janos Nemeth, that air impregnated with +tears, that air which she used so often to play herself-- +"The World holds but One Fair Maiden!" + +And this time, bursting into tears, he said to her, with his heart +breaking in his breast: + +"Yes, there is but thee, Marsa! but thee, my beloved, thee, thee alone ! +Do not leave me! Stay with me! Stay with me, Marsa, my only love!" + +Then, as she listened, over the lovely face of the Tzigana passed an +expression of absolute, perfect happiness, as if, in Zilah's tears, she +read all his forgiveness, all his love, all his devotion. She raised +herself, her little hands resting upon the window-sill, her head heavy +with sleep--the deep, dreamless sleep-and held up her sweet lips to him: +when she felt Andras's kiss, she whispered, so that he barely heard it: + +"Do not forget me! Never forget me, my darling!" Then her head drooped +slowly, and fell upon the Prince's shoulder, like that of a tired child, +with a calm sweet smile upon her flower-like face. + +Like the salute they had once given to Prince Sandor, the Tzigani began +proudly the heroic march of free Hungary, their music sending a fast +farewell to the dead as the sun gave her its last kiss. + +Then, as the hymn died slowly away in the distance, soft as a sigh, with +one last, low, heart-breaking note, Andras Zilah laid the light form of +the Tzigana upon the couch; and, winding his arms about her, with his +head pillowed upon her breast, he murmured, in a voice broken with sobs: +"I will love only, now, what you loved so much, my poor Tzigana. I will +love only the land where you lie asleep." + + + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +An hour of rest between two ordeals, a smile between two sobs +Anonymous, that velvet mask of scandal-mongers +At every step the reality splashes you with mud +Bullets are not necessarily on the side of the right +Does one ever forget? +History is written, not made. +"I might forgive," said Andras; "but I could not forget +If well-informed people are to be believe +Insanity is, perhaps, simply the ideal realized +It is so good to know nothing, nothing, nothing +Let the dead past bury its dead! +Man who expects nothing of life except its ending +Not only his last love, but his only love +Pessimism of to-day sneering at his confidence of yesterday +Sufferer becomes, as it were, enamored of his own agony +Taken the times as they are +Unable to speak, for each word would have been a sob +What matters it how much we suffer +Why should I read the newspapers? +Willingly seek a new sorrow + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Zilah, v3 +by Jules Claretie + + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE SET: + +A man's life belongs to his duty, and not to his happiness +All defeats have their geneses +An hour of rest between two ordeals, a smile between two sobs +Anonymous, that velvet mask of scandal-mongers +At every step the reality splashes you with mud +Bullets are not necessarily on the side of the right +Does one ever forget? +Foreigners are more Parisian than the Parisians themselves +History is written, not made. +"I might forgive," said Andras; "but I could not forget" +If well-informed people are to be believe +Insanity is, perhaps, simply the ideal realized +It is so good to know nothing, nothing, nothing +Let the dead past bury its dead! +Life is a tempest +Man who expects nothing of life except its ending +Nervous natures, as prompt to hope as to despair +No answer to make to one who has no right to question me +Not only his last love, but his only love +Nothing ever astonishes me +One of those beings who die, as they have lived, children +Pessimism of to-day sneering at his confidence of yesterday +Playing checkers, that mimic warfare of old men +Poverty brings wrinkles +Sufferer becomes, as it were, enamored of his own agony +Superstition which forbids one to proclaim his happiness +Taken the times as they are +The Hungarian was created on horseback +There were too many discussions, and not enough action +Unable to speak, for each word would have been a sob +What matters it how much we suffer +Why should I read the newspapers? +Willingly seek a new sorrow +Would not be astonished at anything +You suffer? Is fate so just as that + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Prince Zilah, entire +by Jules Claretie + |