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diff --git a/old/64456-h/64456-h.htm b/old/64456-h/64456-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 2281cb1..0000000 --- a/old/64456-h/64456-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4657 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> -<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Strange Friend of Tito Gil, by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón</title> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> -<style type="text/css"> - -a { - text-decoration: none; -} - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -h1,h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -h2.nobreak { - page-break-before: avoid; -} - -hr { - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb { - width: 45%; - margin-left: 27.5%; - margin-right: 27.5%; -} - -hr.chap { - width: 65%; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; -} - -div.chapter { - page-break-before: always; -} - -p { - margin-top: 0.5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - -p.dropcap { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -img.dropcap { - float: left; - margin: -1em 0.35em 0 0; -} - -p.dropcap:first-letter { - color: transparent; - visibility: hidden; - margin-left: -0.9em; -} - -table { - margin: 1em auto 1em auto; - max-width: 40em; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -td { - padding-left: 2.25em; - padding-right: 0.25em; - vertical-align: top; - text-indent: -2em; -} - -.tdpg { - vertical-align: bottom; - text-align: right; -} - -.center { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.gothic { - font-family: 'Old English Text MT', 'Old English', serif; - font-size: 110%; -} - -.larger { - font-size: 150%; -} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; -} - -.smaller { - font-size: 80%; -} - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; -} - -.titlepage { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 3em; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -@media handheld { - -img { - max-width: 100%; - width: auto; - height: auto; -} - -img.dropcap { - display: none; -} - -p.dropcap:first-letter { - color: inherit; - visibility: visible; - margin-left: 0; -} -} - - - h1.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 190%; - margin-top: 0em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - line-height: 1; } - h2.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 135%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - page-break-before: avoid; - line-height: 1; } - h3.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 110%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - line-height: 1; } - h4.pgx { text-align: center; - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: 100%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - word-spacing: 0em; - letter-spacing: 0em; - line-height: 1; } - hr.pgx { width: 100%; - margin-top: 3em; - margin-bottom: 0em; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - height: 4px; - border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ - border-style: solid; - border-color: #000000; - clear: both; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<h1 class="pgx" title="">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Strange Friend of Tito Gil, by Pedro -Antonio de Alarcón, Translated by Lizzie S. Darr</h1> -<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States -and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no -restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: The Strange Friend of Tito Gil</p> -<p>Author: Pedro Antonio de Alarcón</p> -<p>Release Date: February 4, 2021 [eBook #64456]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE FRIEND OF TITO GIL***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4 class="pgx" title="">E-text prepared by Tim Lindell<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (https://www.pgdp.net)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (https://archive.org)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff; max-width: 80%; margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/strangefriendoft00alar - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;" id="illus1"> -<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="475" height="700" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="smaller">THE</span><br /> -<span class="gothic">Strange Friend</span><br /> -<span class="smaller">OF</span><br /> -<span class="gothic">Tito Gil</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -PEDRO A. de ALARCÓN</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smaller">TRANSLATED FROM<br /> -THE SPANISH<br /> -BY</span><br /> -MRS. FRANCIS J. A. DARR</p> - -<p class="titlepage">ILLUSTRATED</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">NEW YORK</span><br /> -A. LOVELL & CO.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1890<br /> -By LIZZIE S. DARR.</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> - -</div> - -<table summary="List of illustrations"> - <tr> - <td>“Friend! Wait!”</td> - <td class="tdpg" colspan="2"><a href="#illus1"><span class="smcap">Frontispiece.</span></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Tito and Elena meet at the cathedral</td> - <td class="center">Page</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus2">13</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>“Thou art forgiven.”</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus3">97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>“What city is this?”</td> - <td class="center">”</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus4">113</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span></p> - -<h1>THE STRANGE FRIEND<br /> -<span class="smaller">OF</span><br /> -TITO GIL.</h1> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br /> -<span class="smaller">REWARDS AND SERVICES.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Tito Gil was a poor boy, tall, thin and -sallow, with great black eyes, and a -frank, open face; badly dressed and -awkward, but possessed of a bright happy -disposition.</p> - -<p>At the time our story opens, he was -about nineteen years of age; the son, nephew, -grand-nephew, cousin and Heaven knows what -more, to the best of the old Court shoemakers.</p> - -<p>His mother, Crispina Lopez, died in giving -him birth, and her husband, Juan Gil, did not -regard the child with much affection until he -learned that he might be left a widower, from -which it may be inferred that the poor shoemaker<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> -and Crispina Lopez were an example of -brief but bad marriages.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, and judging only from appearances -Crispina Lopez deserved to be more sincerely -mourned by her husband; for when she -left the paternal roof, she brought him as -“dot,” an almost exceptional beauty, abundance -of clothes and house-linen and,—a very -wealthy customer, nothing less than a Count, -the Count of Rionuevo, who for some months -had had the extraordinary caprice of covering -his small delicate feet with the good Juan’s -rough work.</p> - -<p>This naturally caused gossip, which however -at present has nothing to do with my story; -but what is important for us to know is, that -at the age of fourteen, on discovering Tito to -be a good cobbler, the noble Count of Rionuevo, -either pitying his orphanhood, or attracted -by his winning ways (no one really -understood exactly why), brought him to his -own palace as page after much opposition on -the part of the Countess, who had heard of the -child born to Crispina Lopez.</p> - -<p>Tito had received some instruction in reading,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span> -writing, arithmetic and Christian doctrine, -so that he was soon able to commence the -study of Latin under a friar who was a frequent -visitor at the Count’s home.</p> - -<p>It may truly be said that these years were -the happiest of his life, not because he lacked -troubles (for the Countess took pains to remind -him constantly of the shoemaker’s awl -and strap), but because he accompanied his -protector every evening to the palace of the -aged Duke of Monteclaro, whose daughter, -sole heiress to all his vast possessions, was -extremely beautiful, although the child of a -very ugly and ungainly father.</p> - -<p>Elena had seen but twelve summers when -she first met Tito; and as the poor page passed -for the son of a noble, but ruined family (pitiful -lie of Count Rionuevo), the aristocratic girl -did not disdain to engage in childish games -with him, playfully calling him “fiancé,” and -perhaps sometimes allowing an embrace, when -her twelve years had changed to fourteen, and -his fourteen to sixteen.</p> - -<p>So passed three years. The shoemaker’s -son lived in an atmosphere of luxury and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> -pleasure; went to Court, conversed with the -nobility, acquired an elegant manner, delighted -in a smattering of French (then very fashionable), -and in fact learned to ride, to dance, to -fence, something of chess and a little of necromancy.</p> - -<p>Then came death for the third time, but -now with less pity than before, to dash the -poor boy’s future to the ground. The Count -of Rionuevo died intestate, and the widowed -Countess, cordially hating his “protégé,” -hastened to tell him, with tears of feigned sorrow -in her eyes, and hidden venom in her -heart, that he must leave the palace without -delay, as his presence only saddened her by -reminding her of her husband.</p> - -<p>Feeling as though waking from a beautiful -dream, or as if the victim of a horrible nightmare, -Tito, weeping bitterly, gathered together -what clothes were left him, and abandoned the -no longer hospitable roof. Poor, without -family, and no home to shelter him, he suddenly -remembered that in a certain alley of -the Vistillas quarter, he owned a cobbler’s -stall, and some shoemaker’s tools, which had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span> -been left in charge of an old woman of the -neighborhood, in whose humble home he had -found a tender welcome and even sweet-meats, -during the life of the virtuous Juan -Gil.</p> - -<p>He went there; the old woman still lived; -the tools were in good condition, and during -those years, the rent of the stall had brought -in some seven doubloons: these the good -woman gave him, not without having -previously moistened them with tears of -joy.</p> - -<p>Tito decided to remain there, to devote -himself to his trade, to forget completely the -riding, the fencing, the dancing and the -chess, but by no means Elena de Monteclaro. -This last would have been impossible, -although he fully appreciated that he was -dead to her, or that she was to him; but before -drawing the funeral veil of hopelessness -over that inextinguishable love, he wished to -say a last “adieu,” to her who had been for so -long the very soul of his soul. One evening -therefore he dressed himself carefully, and set -out for the Duke’s palace.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span></p> - -<p>A travelling coach, drawn by four mules, -was before the door. Elena, followed by her -father, entered it.</p> - -<p>“Tito!”—she exclaimed, sweetly, on seeing -him.</p> - -<p>“Drive on!”—shouted the Duke to the -coachman, without hearing Elena, or seeing -Rionuevo’s former page.</p> - -<p>The mules dashed off.</p> - -<p>The unhappy boy extended his arms -towards his love without having a chance to -even say “good-bye.”</p> - -<p>“Good night!” growled the porter—“I -must close the doors!”</p> - -<p>“Are they going away?”—asked Tito, recovering -from his bewilderment.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,—to France,”—replied the porter -dryly, shutting the door in his face.</p> - -<p>The ex-page went home, more downhearted -than ever, took off and carefully laid away his -fine clothes, donned the worst he had, cut off -his long curls, and shaved a youthful mustache -that had just commenced to appear. -The next day he took possession of the rickety -chair which Juan Gil had occupied for forty<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> -years, surrounded by lasts, scissors, straps and -wax.</p> - -<p>Thus we find him at the beginning of this -tale, which, as I have already said, is called, -“The Strange Friend of Tito Gil.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br /> -<span class="smaller">MORE SERVICES AND REWARDS.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The month of June, 1724, was drawing -to a close. Tito had been a shoemaker -two years; but it must not be -imagined that he was resigned to his -fate. He was obliged to work night -and day to gain a living, and regretted -hourly the consequent injury to his hands. -When he lacked customers, he spent his time -reading, never by any chance throughout the -entire week, crossing the threshold of his -secluded retreat. There he lived alone, taciturn, -hypochondriacal, without other diversion -than that of hearing his old friend praise the -beauty of Crispina Lopez, or the generosity of -the Count of Rionuevo.</p> - -<p>On Sundays, however, his life completely -changed. He would then dress in his old -costume of page (carefully laid away during -the rest of the week), and go to the steps of -the cathedral of San Millán, close by the -palace of Monteclaro, where in former days -his loved Elena attended mass.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;" id="illus2"> -<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="475" height="700" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span></p> - -<p>He persevered in this for two years without -seeing her. Instead, he met students and -pages whom he had known as a child, who -now kept him posted in regard to all affairs of -the higher circles which he no longer frequented. -From them he learned that Elena -was still in France. Of course none of them -suspected that at home Tito was a cobbler. -All believed him to be the beneficiary of a -legacy from the Count of Rionuevo, who had -manifested too much affection for him in life, -for them to suppose that he had neglected to -provide for his future.</p> - -<p>So time passed, and one feast day, on the -date mentioned at the beginning of the -chapter, he was waiting at the door of the cathedral. -He saw two elegantly dressed ladies -arrive with a grand retinue of servants, who -passed so close to him, that in one of them he -was able to recognize his bitter enemy, the -Countess of Rionuevo. He was about to conceal -himself in the crowd of spectators, when<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> -her companion raised her veil, and—oh happiness!—he -recognized his beloved Elena, the -sweet cause of his bitter sorrows. The poor -boy approached her, uttering a frantic cry of -joy.</p> - -<p>Elena, recognizing him at once, exclaimed -with the same tenderness as of old:</p> - -<p>“Tito!”</p> - -<p>But the Countess, grasping her arm, turned -toward Tito, and said in a low voice, “I told -you that I was satisfied with my present shoemaker. -Leave me in peace!”</p> - -<p>Tito, turning deathly white, fell senseless to -the stone floor, as Elena and the Countess -entered the church.</p> - -<p>Two or three students who had witnessed -the scene, laughed uproariously, without thoroughly -understanding it.</p> - -<p>He was carried home, there to suffer another -blow; his old friend, who constituted -his entire family, had died of old age during -his absence. He was seized with an attack of -brain fever which brought him to the very -jaws of death. When he returned to consciousness, -he found that a neighbor, poorer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -even than himself, had taken entire charge of -him during his long illness; but had been -obliged to sell his furniture, his tools, his -books, his home, and even his holiday attire, -to pay for his medicines and physician.</p> - -<p>At the end of two months, covered with -rags, hungry, weakened by illness, penniless, -and without family or friends, without even -that old friend who had loved him as a -mother, and, worse than all, without the hope -of ever approaching his dreamed of and -blessed Elena, Tito abandoned his home (already -the property of another shoemaker), and -took by chance the first road, without knowing -where he was going, what to do, to whom -to apply, how to work or how to live.</p> - -<p>It was raining: one of those gloomy afternoons, -when even the sad ringing of bells -seems to give warning of the approach of -death; when the sky is covered with clouds -and the earth with mud; when the damp and -piercing air smothers all hope in the human -breast; when the poor are hungry, the orphans -cold, and the unhappy envious of those -already dead.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span></p> - -<p>Night fell, and Tito, who still had some -fever, crouched down in the corner of a dark -doorway, giving way to bitter tears.... -The idea of death then presented itself to his -fevered imagination, not as a horror or fearful -possibility, but pleasantly, as something welcome -and longed for.</p> - -<p>The unfortunate boy folded his arms across -his breast, as if to guard that sweet image -which brought him so much rest, consolation -and happiness; and in making this movement, -his hand touched some hard object in the -pocket of his miserable coat.</p> - -<p>The reaction was quick; the idea of life, and -of its preservation, was now uppermost in his -brain; he grasped with all his strength that -unexpected succor which came to him on the -very brink of the grave.</p> - -<p>Hope breathed in his ear a thousand seductive -promises, which induced him to wonder if -that hard thing he touched could be money, -an enormous precious stone, or a talisman; -something, in fact, which might bring him life, -fortune, happiness and fame (all of which to -him meant the love of Elena de Monteclaro);<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span> -and putting his hand in his pocket he whispered -to death:—“Wait!”</p> - -<p>But ah! that hard thing was nothing but a -vial of vitriol with which he had mixed blacking, -the last that remained to him of his shoemaker’s -outfit, which by some inexplicable -accident had found its way to his pocket.</p> - -<p>Consequently when he believed that he had -discovered a means of salvation, the unhappy -boy found in his hand a poison, and one of the -most deadly.</p> - -<p>“There is no hope!” said he, raising the -vial to his lips. But a hand, cold as ice, was -placed upon his shoulder, and a voice, sweet, -tender and divine, murmured these words:</p> - -<p>“Friend! Wait!”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br /> -<span class="smaller">HOW TITO ACQUIRED A KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICINE IN ONE HOUR.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-n.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">No words could have astonished him -more than those he had just -heard.</p> - -<p>“Friend! Wait!”</p> - -<p>He had no friends.</p> - -<p>But what astounded him more was the -horrible feeling of cold that the hand of -that shadow gave him; and even the tone of -its voice chilled him like a polar wind, to the -very marrow of his bones.</p> - -<p>The night being dark, the poor orphan -could not distinguish the features of the newly -arrived being, though he did discern his black, -flowing robes, which did not resemble those -worn by either sex.</p> - -<p>Full of doubts, mysterious fears and even a -lively curiosity, Tito rose from the doorway -where he had crouched, and murmured in a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> -faint voice, broken by the chattering of his -teeth:—“What do you wish?”</p> - -<p>“That I ask thee!” responded the unknown -being, linking his arm in Tito’s with affectionate -familiarity.</p> - -<p>“Who are you?” asked the poor shoemaker, -who felt himself dying from the cold contact -of that arm.</p> - -<p>“I am he whom thou seekest.”</p> - -<p>“Who?—I?—I seek nobody,” replied Tito, -endeavoring to disengage himself.</p> - -<p>“Then why didst thou call me?” replied -the other, grasping his arm with more force.</p> - -<p>“Ah! Leave me!”</p> - -<p>“Calm thyself, Tito. I mean thee no -harm,” added the mysterious being. “Come! -Thou tremblest with hunger and cold! Yonder -is an open tavern in which I have something -to do to-night. Let us enter and refresh -ourselves.”</p> - -<p>“Well! but who are you?” asked Tito -anew, his curiosity commencing to overcome -his other feelings.</p> - -<p>“I told thee when we met. We are friends—and -observe that thou art the only one upon<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> -this earth to whom I give this name. Remorse -binds me to thee. I have been the cause of -all thy misfortunes.”</p> - -<p>“But I do not know you,” replied the -shoemaker.</p> - -<p>“Nevertheless I have entered thy house -many times. Through me thou wert left -motherless the day of thy birth. I was the -cause of the apoplexy that killed Juan -Gil; I hurled thee from the palace of -Rionuevo; removed thy housekeeper, and -finally put this bottle of vitriol within thy -reach.”</p> - -<p>Tito shook with fear; his hair stood on end; -he felt as if his contracted muscles were giving -way.</p> - -<p>“You are the Devil!” he exclaimed, with -undisguised terror.</p> - -<p>“Boy!” answered the black robed stranger -in a tone of gentle reproof, “why dost thou -think that? I am something more and better -than the wretched being thou namest.”</p> - -<p>“Who are you then?”</p> - -<p>“Let us enter the inn and thou wilt -know.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span></p> - -<p>Tito entered quickly, and placing the unknown -being before the dim lamp looked at -him with intense earnestness.</p> - -<p>He appeared to be about thirty-three years -of age, tall, pale, and beautiful, dressed in a -long tunic, and black, flowing mantle; his -long hair concealed by a peculiarly shaped -black cap. He was beardless, but nevertheless -not effeminate in appearance; and notwithstanding -the strength and vigor of his -countenance, he did not resemble a man. He -appeared to be a human being without sex, a -body without soul, or, more properly speaking, -a soul without visible mortal body. One -would call him a negative personality. His -eyes were without brilliancy. They reminded -one of the darkness of night; they were -ghostly; eyes of sorrow, of death; but so gentle, -so inoffensive, so profound in their dumbness -that one could not withdraw his gaze. -They attracted like the sea; fascinated like a -deep abyss; consoled like forgetfulness. -Scarcely had Tito fixed his eyes on those -inanimate ones, when he felt as though a black -veil enveloped him, that all was turning to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> -chaos, and that the noise of the world was like -that of a cyclone.</p> - -<p>The strange being then uttered these -words:—</p> - -<p>“I am Death, my friend—I am Death, and -God has sent me—God, who has reserved for -thee a glorious place in heaven. Five times -I have caused thee misery, but at last, I, the -implacable deity, have had compassion on -thee. When He ordered me to bring thy godless -soul before the Tribunal, I prayed to Him -to confide thy existence to me, and allow me -to remain awhile at thy side, promising in the -end to deliver thy spirit cleansed of sin and -worthy of His glory. Heaven has not been -deaf to my prayer. Thou art then the first -mortal whom I ever approached whose body -did not turn to cold ashes. Thou art my only -friend. Listen, now, and learn the path to -happiness and eternal salvation.”</p> - -<p>When Death had finished speaking Tito -murmured an inaudible word.</p> - -<p>“I understand thee,” replied Death, “thou -speakest of Elena de Monteclaro.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered the boy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span></p> - -<p>“I swear to thee that no other arm than -thine or mine shall ever enfold her. And, besides, -I promise to give thee the felicity of this -world and of the other. With that thou hast -all. I, my friend, am not the Omnipotent,—my -power is very limited, very sad. I do not -create. My province is to destroy. Nevertheless -it lies in my hands to give thee strength, -power and greater riches than that of princes -and emperors. I will make thee a physician; -but <em>a physician! my friend</em>, who will know, -will see, and be able to speak to me. Dost -thou divine the rest?”</p> - -<p>Tito was amazed.</p> - -<p>“Can it be possible?” he exclaimed, as -though struggling with a nightmare.</p> - -<p>“Yes, and something more which I will tell -thee, but now I need only to advise thee -that thou art not the son of Juan Gil. I -hear the confessions of the dying, and I know -that thou art the natural child of a more noble -parent.”</p> - -<p>“Hush!” exclaimed the poor boy, hiding -his face in his hands. Then, inspired by a sudden -idea, he said with indescribable horror:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span></p> - -<p>“With which some day you intend to kill -Elena?”</p> - -<p>“Compose thyself,” answered the divinity. -“Thou wilt never cause Elena’s death. Therefore, -answer! Dost thou, or dost thou not, -wish to be my friend?”</p> - -<p>Tito answered with another question.</p> - -<p>“Will you give me Elena in exchange?”</p> - -<p>“I have told thee, yes.”</p> - -<p>“Then here is my hand,” said the boy, offering -it to Death. But at that moment a -thought more horrible than the first assailed -him.</p> - -<p>“With these hands that clasp mine you -killed my poor mother!”</p> - -<p>“’Tis true, thy mother died,” answered -Death. “Understand, however, that I did -not cause her a single pain. I make no one -suffer. He who torments thee to the last, -is my rival Life; that Life that so many -love.”</p> - -<p>For answer the boy threw himself into the -arms of Death.</p> - -<p>“Come, then,” said the strange being.</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span></p> - -<p>“To the Granja palace, to commence thy -practice as a physician.”</p> - -<p>“But whom do we go to see there?”</p> - -<p>“The ex-king, Philip V.”</p> - -<p>“What! Is Philip to die?”</p> - -<p>“Not yet; he must return, and reign again; -and thou goest to offer him the crown.”</p> - -<p>Tito bowed his head, crushed beneath the -weight of so many new ideas.</p> - -<p>Death took his arm and led him from the -inn. They had not reached the door when -they heard cries and lamentations behind -them.</p> - -<p>The proprietor of the house was dead.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">DIGRESSION, WHICH BEARS LITTLE ON THE STORY.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">After leaving the inn, Tito began to -observe such a change in himself, -and in his whole nature, that had it -not been for the support of an arm -as strong as that of Death, he would -undoubtedly have fallen lifeless to the -ground. He felt that which no other man -has ever experienced—the double motion of -the Earth around the Sun, and that about its -own axis! But with all this he did not feel -the beating of his own heart. Any one who -could have examined the young shoemaker’s -countenance, illumined by the Moon’s bright -light, would have seen at a glance that its melancholy -beauty, which had always made him -noticeable, was enhanced to an extraordinary -degree. His eyes, of a velvety blackness, -now reflected that mysterious peace that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> -reigned in those of the personification of -Death. His long silky locks, black as the -raven’s wing, adorned a physiognomy as pale -as alabaster, at once radiant and opaque, as -though within there burned a funeral light -which glimmered softly through its pores. -His countenance, his bearing, his manner, all -had changed, causing him to assume a peculiarly -statuesque and spiritual air, entirely foreign -to our human nature, and rendering him -superior to the coldest woman, the proudest -potentates, the bravest warriors.</p> - -<p>The two friends walked toward the mountains, -sometimes following the road and sometimes -leaving it; and whenever they passed -through towns or villages, the slow, sad tolling -of bells warned the boy that Death lost no opportunities; -that his power was felt on every -side; and not only did he feel it on his own -heart as a mountain of ice, but he also knew -that it was scattering desolation and mourning -over the face of the entire earth.</p> - -<p>Death disclosed many strange and wonderful -things to him. The enemy of history, he -took pleasure in uttering sarcasms regarding<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> -his pretended usefulness; and to demonstrate -it, he presented facts as they happened, and -not as monuments and chronicles recount -them.</p> - -<p>The mysteries of the past were unfolded before -Tito’s bewildered imagination, revealing -many important truths concerning the fate of -empires, and humanity in general. The great -mystery of the origin of life was unveiled to -him, and the astounding grandeur of the end -to which we mis-named mortals are approaching, -causing him finally to comprehend the -genius of that high philosophy the laws of -which govern the evolution of cosmic matter. -Its multitudinous manifestations in those -ephemerous and transitory forms called minerals, -plants, animals, stars, constellations, -nebulæ and worlds, together with physiology, -geology, chemistry, botany, were all made -clear to the ex-shoemaker’s astonished understanding, -giving him a thorough conception of -the mysterious causes of life, movement, reproduction, -passion, sentiment, idea, conscience, -thought, memory, will, desire. God -alone remained veiled, in the depths of those<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> -seas of knowledge. God alone was stranger -to life and death; independent of the laws of -the universe; the one Supreme Being; alone -in substance, independent, free, and all-powerful -in action!</p> - -<p>Death did not attempt to envelop the -Creator in his infinite shadow. He alone <em>was</em>! -His eternity, His immutability, His impenetrability, -dazzled Tito, who bowed his head, -adored and believed, remaining plunged in -more profound ignorance than before descending -into the abyss of death.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br /> -<span class="smaller">DOUBT DISPELLED.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-i.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">It was ten o’clock on the morning of -the thirtieth of August, 1724, when -Tito, thoroughly instructed by that -negative Power, entered the palace -of San Ildefonso, and asked -audience of Philip V., of whose position -at that time we wish to remind the -reader.</p> - -<p>First Bourbon of Spain, nephew of Louis -XIV., of France, he accepted the Spanish -crown only when he had found it impossible -to secure that of France. But princes were -dying, uncles and cousins of his, who separated -him from the throne of his native land; therefore, -in order to place himself in readiness to -occupy it, should his nephew, Louis XV., die -(at that time very ill and but fourteen years of -age), he abdicated, in favor of his son Louis -I., and retired to San Ildefonso. At this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> -stage the health of Louis XV. greatly improved, -and Louis I. was suddenly taken so -ill, that grave fears were entertained for his -life. Couriers were kept in constant service -between the Granja palace and Madrid, bringing -Philip hourly bulletins concerning the -condition of his son. The ambitious father, -incited further by his celebrated second wife, -Isabel Farnesio (much more ambitious than -he), did not know what part to take in this -hopeless and serious conflict. Would the -throne of Spain be vacant before that of -France? Should he declare his intention of -reigning anew in Madrid, preparing himself -to seize the heritage of his son? But should -Louis I. not die? Would it not be a blunder -to expose the depth of his perfidy to all -Europe? Would not such action render useless -his seven months of solitude? And would -it not be to renounce forever the sweet hope -of seating himself on the coveted throne of -Saint Louis? What should he do? To hope, -was only wasting precious time! He was -hated by the Assembly, and denied all influence -in affairs of State. To take but one step,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> -might compromise his life’s ambition, and his -name to posterity.</p> - -<p>False Philip V! The temptations of the -world assailed him in the desert, and he paid -very dearly in those hours of doubt for the -hypocrisy of his abdication!</p> - -<p>Such was the condition of affairs when Tito -presented himself before the scheming Philip -as a courier bearing important tidings.</p> - -<p>“What do you wish?” asked the king, without -turning, when he heard him enter the -chamber.</p> - -<p>“Look at me, your majesty,” answered -Tito, unabashed. “Do not fear that I may -read your thoughts; they are no mystery to -me.”</p> - -<p>Philip turned quickly towards that man, -whose voice, dry and cold as the truth it revealed, -had frozen his heart’s blood; but his -anger melted before the funereal smile of the -Friend of Death.</p> - -<p>He felt a superstitious terror on fixing his -eyes on Tito’s; and raising a tremulous hand -to the bell beside him, repeated his first question.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span></p> - -<p>“What do you wish?”</p> - -<p>“Sire, I am a physician,” answered Tito, -quietly, “and I have such confidence in my -science, that I dare tell your majesty the day, -hour and instant when Louis I. will die.”</p> - -<p>Philip looked with more attention at the -ragged boy, whose countenance was as supernatural -as beautiful.</p> - -<p>“Speak!” said the king.</p> - -<p>“Ah, no!” replied Tito, with a degree of -sarcasm; “we must first arrange the price.”</p> - -<p>The king started on hearing these words as -if waking from a dream; he saw the matter in -another light, and was almost ashamed of having -tolerated it.</p> - -<p>“Here!” said he, touching the bell, “arrest -this man!”</p> - -<p>A captain of guards appeared, and placed -his hand on Tito’s shoulder. The boy remained -perfectly quiet.</p> - -<p>The king, returning to his first superstition, -cast a side glance at the strange physician, -then rising with difficulty (for the weakness he -had suffered for some years had lately augmented), -said to the officer: “Leave us alone.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span></p> - -<p>Planting himself finally in front of Tito, as -if to banish his fear, he asked him with feigned -calmness,</p> - -<p>“Well, owl-face! who the devil are you?”</p> - -<p>“I am the Friend of Death,” answered Tito, -with a steady, quiet look.</p> - -<p>“Who is the friend of all sinners,” gayly -added the king, as if to ward off his puerile -fear. “And what have you to say of our -son?”</p> - -<p>“I say,” said Tito, taking a step toward the -king, who involuntarily retreated, “that I -bring you a crown; I do not say whether it is -that of Spain or of France, as that is the secret -for which you must pay me. I also say that -we are losing precious time, and that consequently -I must speak to you soon and clearly. -Listen to me, therefore, with attention. -Louis I. is dying. Nevertheless his sickness -is not incurable. Your Majesty is the dog in -the manger.”</p> - -<p>Philip interrupted him.</p> - -<p>“Speak! Say what you wish; I desire to -hear it all. In any case I propose to have you -hanged.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span></p> - -<p>The Friend of Death, shrugging his shoulders, -continued:</p> - -<p>“I likened your Majesty to the dog in the -manger. You had the crown of Spain upon -your head: you dropped it, to seize that of -France, and it fell upon the cradle of your -son; Louis XV. secured his own and now you -are left with neither.”</p> - -<p>“It is true!” exclaimed Philip, as much in -looks as in words.</p> - -<p>“To-day,” continued Tito, observing the -king’s expression, “to-day that you are nearer -to the throne of France than that of Spain, -you are about to expose yourself to the same -disappointment. The two infant kings, Louis -I. and Louis XV., are ill; you might be able to -succeed both; but it is necessary for you to -know a few hours in advance which of the two -will die first. Louis I. is in the greater danger, -but the crown of France is the more beautiful. -Here lies your difficulty. You appreciate the -situation. You dare not stretch your hand -toward the sceptre of Ferdinand, apprehensive -that your son may live, that your French partisans -might abandon you, and that history<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> -would ridicule you. In fact you dare not drop -the bit that you hold between your teeth, fearful -that the other may be a mere shadow or illusion.”</p> - -<p>“Speak! speak!” said Philip, eagerly, fearing -that Tito had concluded. “Say what you -have to say, for from here you go direct to a -dungeon, where only the walls will hear you. -Speak! I should like to hear what the world -has to say regarding my thoughts.”</p> - -<p>The ex-shoemaker smiled derisively.</p> - -<p>“Dungeon! Gallows!” he exclaimed. “I -know all that kings can do, still I am not -alarmed. Listen a little longer; I am about -to conclude. Sire, I must be appointed Physician -to the Court, obtain the title of Duke, -with thirty thousand dollars, this very day. -Your Majesty laughs; but I need all this as -much as your Majesty needs to know whether -Louis I. will succumb to his illness.”</p> - -<p>“And you know that?” asked the king in a -low voice, unable to overcome the terror which -the boy caused him.</p> - -<p>“I shall know it to-night.”</p> - -<p>“How?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span></p> - -<p>“I have already told you that I am the -Friend of Death.”</p> - -<p>“And what is that? Tell me!”</p> - -<p>“Of that I was also ignorant; but take me -to the palace in Madrid, let me see the reigning -king, and I will tell you the sentence which -the Eternal One has written upon his brow.”</p> - -<p>“And if you mistake?” said Philip of -Anjou, drawing nearer to Tito.</p> - -<p>“You may hang me, or hold me prisoner at -your will.”</p> - -<p>“You are a wizard then!” exclaimed Philip, -attempting in a measure to justify the faith he -placed in Tito’s words.</p> - -<p>“Sire,” he answered, “there are no wizards -nowadays. The last one was Louis XIV., -and the last bewitched was Charles II. The -crown of Spain that we sent to you in Paris, -twenty-five years ago, wrapped in the will of -an idiot, redeemed us from the captivity of the -Devil, in which we had lived since the abdication -of Charles V. You know that better -than any one.”</p> - -<p>“Physician to the Court! Duke! And -thirty thousand dollars,” murmured the king.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span></p> - -<p>“For a crown worth more than you imagine,” -added Tito.</p> - -<p>“You have my royal word,” replied Philip, -solemnly, overpowered by that voice, that -face, that mysterious bearing.</p> - -<p>“You swear it, your Majesty?”</p> - -<p>“I promise it,” responded the king. “I -promise it, if you prove to me beforehand that -you are something more than man.”</p> - -<p>“Elena, you will be mine,” murmured Tito.</p> - -<p>The king, calling the captain, gave him some -orders.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said he, “while they arrange your -trip to Madrid, tell me your history and explain -your science.”</p> - -<p>“I desire to please you, Sire, but I fear that -you would understand neither the one nor the -other.”</p> - -<p>An hour later the Captain was travelling -post haste to Madrid with our hero, who for -the time being had discarded his rags, and was -dressed in a magnificent costume of black velvet -and lace, a plumed hat, and a sword at his -side.</p> - -<p>Philip had supplied him with money and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -these clothes, after concluding his strange contract -with Death.</p> - -<p>We will follow the good Tito, notwithstanding -his haste, for he may meet his idolized -Elena or the odious Countess of Rionuevo in -the queen’s chamber, and we do not wish to -be ignorant of the slightest details of such interesting -encounters.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">PRELIMINARY CONFERENCE.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-i.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">It was about seven in the evening, when -Tito and the Captain dismounted at -the doors of the palace.</p> - -<p>The news of the king’s danger had -spread, and an immense crowd filled the -court-yard.</p> - -<p>As our young friend entered, he found himself -face to face with Death, who was hastily -leaving.</p> - -<p>“Already?” asked Tito, anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Not yet,” answered the sinister deity.</p> - -<p>The physician breathed more easily.</p> - -<p>“When, then?” he asked, after a pause.</p> - -<p>“I cannot tell thee.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! speak! If you but knew what Philip -has promised me!”</p> - -<p>“I can imagine.”</p> - -<p>“But I must know if Louis I. is to die.”</p> - -<p>“Thou wilt know it at the proper time.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> -Pass on. The Captain has already entered -the king’s chamber. He brings instructions -from the royal parent. At this moment thou -art announced as the first physician of the -world. The people crowd the stairway to see -thee arrive. Thou art about to meet Elena -and the Countess of Rionuevo.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! what happiness!” exclaimed Tito.</p> - -<p>“Quarter past seven!” continued Death, -consulting his pulse, which was his only and -infallible timepiece. “They await thee. I -must go.”</p> - -<p>“But tell me—”</p> - -<p>“True, I had forgotten! Listen:—If I am -in the chamber when thou seest the king, thou -wilt know that his illness has no cure.”</p> - -<p>“And will you be there? Did you not say -you were going away?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know yet. I am ubiquitous, and -should I receive <em>Superior</em> orders, there thou -wilt see me, as in any other place where He -may require my presence.”</p> - -<p>“What have you been doing here?”</p> - -<p>“I have killed a horse.”</p> - -<p>Tito recoiled with horror.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span></p> - -<p>“What!” he exclaimed, “you deal also -with irrational beings?”</p> - -<p>“What meanest thou by irrational? Has -only man true reason? Reason stands alone; -one does not see it from the earth.”</p> - -<p>“But tell me,” said Tito, “animals, brutes, -those which we call irrational, have they -souls?”</p> - -<p>“Yes and no. They have a spirit without -free-will, and are irresponsible. But, to the -devil with thee! What a questioner thou art -to-day! Farewell—I go to a noble house to -do thee another favor.”</p> - -<p>“A favor! Me? Tell it me! What is its -nature?”</p> - -<p>“To prevent a certain wedding.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” exclaimed Tito, overwhelmed by a -horrible suspicion, “is it possible...?”</p> - -<p>“I can tell thee nothing more,” answered -Death. “Enter, it grows late.”</p> - -<p>“You distract me.”</p> - -<p>“Quiet thyself; all will be well. I have -promised thee supreme happiness.”</p> - -<p>“Then we are friends? You do not intend -to kill me or Elena?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span></p> - -<p>“Do not worry,” replied Death, with a sadness -and solemnity, a tenderness and gayety, -with so many and different tones of voice, that -Tito gave up at once the hope of understanding -him.</p> - -<p>“Wait!” he said, finally, seeing that the -shrouded being was moving away. “Repeat -the hours, once more, to me, that I may make -no mistake. If you are in the sick chamber, -and do not look at the patient, it signifies that -he will die of the disease.”</p> - -<p>“Certainly; but should I face him, he dies -during the day. If I lie in the same bed, he -has three hours of life. If thou seest him in -my arms, only one hour remains; but when -thou seest me kiss his brow, say a prayer for -his soul.”</p> - -<p>“And you will not speak one word to me?”</p> - -<p>“Not one. I lack permission to reveal in -that manner the intentions of the Eternal One. -Thy advantage over other men, consists only -in thy ability to see me. Good night! Forget -me not!” So saying, he disappeared in -space.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE ROYAL CHAMBER.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Tito entered the regal abode, neither -regretting nor content with having -established relations with Death. -But as he ascended the stairs of the -palace, and remembered that he was to -see his idolized Elena, all lugubrious -ideas disappeared, like night birds at the break -of day.</p> - -<p>With a brilliant escort of courtiers, and other -personages of rank, he passed through galleries -and salons toward the royal bed-chamber, -whilst all admired the wonderful beauty and -tender youth of the famous physician, -whom Philip had sent from the Granja palace, -as the last hope of human aid, to save the life -of his son.</p> - -<p>The two Courts were there, that of Louis -and that of Philip. There were, so to speak, -two rival powers, who for a week had lived in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> -constant warfare: there were the old servants -of the first Bourbon branch, and the new ones -whom the Regent of France (Philip of Orleans, -the Generous), had grouped around the throne -of Spain to prevent the ambitious ex-Duke of -Anjou from seizing that of his grandfather; -there were, in fact, the courtiers of the gentle, -dying child, and those of his beautiful wife, the -powerful daughter of the Regent, the renowned -Duchess of Montpensier. The allies -of Isabella Farnesio, stepmother of Louis I., -desired his death, in order that the sons of the -second marriage of Philip V. might be nearer -the throne of St. Ferdinand.</p> - -<p>The partisans of the young queen wished -the sick monarch to live, not from any love of -the quarrelsome pair, but from hate of Philip -V. whom they did not wish to see again -upon the throne.</p> - -<p>The friends of the unfortunate Louis trembled -at the idea of his death; for, having induced -him to shake off the restraint which the -hermit of the Granja exercised over him, they -well knew that if the latter returned to power, -his first act would be to exile or imprison them.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> -The palace therefore was a labyrinth of opposed -interests, various ambitions, intrigues, -suspicions, hopes and fears.</p> - -<p>Tito entered the chamber, searching in all -directions for one face—that of his beloved -Elena. Close to the king’s bed he saw her -father, the Duke of Monteclaro, the close friend -of the late Count of Rionuevo. He was -speaking with the Archbishops of Santiago and -Toledo, the Marquis de Mirabal, and Don -Miguel de Guerra, the four most deadly enemies -of Philip V. The Duke did not recognize -the former page and youthful companion of -his charming daughter. Across the room, and -not without a certain feeling of fear, the Friend -of Death recognized among the ladies who surrounded -the young and beautiful Louisa Isabel -of Orleans, the Countess of Rionuevo, his implacable -and bitter enemy. Although he -almost touched her, as he passed to kiss the -queen’s hand, she did not recognize her husband’s -son. Against a piece of tapestry, behind -this group of ladies, he saw, among two or -three others whom he did not know, a tall, -pale, beautiful woman.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span></p> - -<p>It was Elena de Monteclaro!</p> - -<p>Tito gazed at her intently, while the young -girl trembled at the sight of that beautiful and -funereal face, as though looking upon the countenance -of a dead lover; as if she saw, not Tito, -but his ghost enveloped in a shroud; as -if, in fact, she saw a being of the other -world.</p> - -<p>Tito in the Court, consoling the queen! -that proud and haughty princess who treated -all with disdain! Tito in that elegant dress, -admired and respected by all the nobility! -Ah! it must be a dream!... thought the -charming Elena.</p> - -<p>“Come, Doctor!” said the Marquis of -Mirabal. “His Majesty has awakened.”</p> - -<p>Tito made a painful effort to shake off the -ecstasy which seized his whole being, on finding -himself before his loved one, and approached -that bed of disease.</p> - -<p>The second Bourbon of Spain was a rickety -youth of seventeen years, tall and thin, like a -plant that grows in the shade.</p> - -<p>His countenance (which did not lack a certain -fineness of expression despite its irregularity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> -of feature), was now frightfully swollen, -and covered with ash-colored pustules. He -appeared a coarse, clay imitation of a sculptured -marble.</p> - -<p>He directed an anxious look at the other -youth who was approaching his bed, and encountering -his dull and lustreless eyes, fathomless -as the mystery of eternity, gave a shrill -cry and hid his face beneath the sheets. Tito -in the mean time looked about to discover -Death. But Death was not there!</p> - -<p>“Will he live?” asked several courtiers in -a low voice, who believed they read hope in -Tito’s expression.</p> - -<p>He was about to say, “Yes,” (forgetting that -his opinion was to be given only to Philip V.), -when he felt someone touch his arm.</p> - -<p>Turning, he saw standing near him at the -head of the bed, a person dressed entirely in -black.</p> - -<p>It was Death.</p> - -<p>“He will die of this illness, but not to-day,” -thought Tito.</p> - -<p>“How does he appear to you?” asked the -Archbishop of Toledo, feeling as all did that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -involuntary respect inspired by the youth’s -supernatural appearance.</p> - -<p>“Pardon me,” replied the ex-shoemaker, -“my opinion is reserved for him who sent -me.”</p> - -<p>“But,” added the Marquis of Mirabal, “you -who are so young, cannot have acquired so -much scientific skill; undoubtedly God or the -Devil has inspired you. You may be a saint -who works miracles, or a magician, a friend of -witches.”</p> - -<p>“As you please,” responded Tito; “at any -rate, I read the future of the king who lies in -this bed; a secret of value to you, as it would -enable you to solve the doubt whether to-morrow -you will be the favorite of Louis I., or -the prisoner of Philip V.”</p> - -<p>“What!” stammered Mirabal, pale with -anger, but smiling blandly.</p> - -<p>At this moment Tito observed that Death, -not content with having approached the monarch, -took advantage of his visit to the royal -chamber to seat himself beside a lady, almost -in the same chair, and was regarding her -fixedly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span></p> - -<p>The doomed victim was the Countess of -Rionuevo.</p> - -<p>“Three hours!” thought Tito.</p> - -<p>“I must speak to you,” continued Mirabal, -to whom had occurred the idea of purchasing -the young physician’s secret.</p> - -<p>But a glance and smile from Tito, who had -divined his thoughts, so disconcerted him that -he drew back.</p> - -<p>The look and smile were the same which -that morning had conquered Philip V.</p> - -<p>During Mirabal’s confusion, Tito made a -great step in his career, and established his -reputation at Court.</p> - -<p>“Sir,” said he to the Archbishop of Toledo, -“the Countess of Rionuevo, whom you see -seated alone in that corner” (we already know -that Death was visible only to Tito), “will die -in the course of three hours. Advise her to -prepare for her last moments.”</p> - -<p>The Archbishop recoiled with horror.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” asked Don Miguel de -Guerra.</p> - -<p>The prelate related Tito’s prophecy to various -persons, and all eyes were at once fixed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> -upon the Countess, who actually began to -grow deathly pale.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Tito approached Elena, who -was standing in the middle of the room, silent -and immovable as a statue; charmed, overcome, -possessed of a terror and of a happiness -that she could not herself define, she followed -every movement of the friend of her childhood.</p> - -<p>“Elena!” murmured the youth, as he -reached her side.</p> - -<p>“Tito!” she answered, mechanically, “is -it indeed you?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied Tito, fondly, “’tis I; fear -nothing.” And he left the apartment.</p> - -<p>The Captain was awaiting him in the antechamber.</p> - -<p>Tito wrote some words on paper, and said to -Philip’s faithful retainer: “Take this to the -Granja. Do not lose a moment.”</p> - -<p>“And you,” replied the Captain, “I cannot -leave you. You are a prisoner in my custody.”</p> - -<p>“I place myself on parole,” proudly replied -Tito, “for I cannot follow you.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span></p> - -<p>“But—the king!”</p> - -<p>“The king will approve your conduct.”</p> - -<p>“Impossible!”</p> - -<p>“Listen! and you will see that I am right.”</p> - -<p>At this moment they heard a great commotion -in the royal chamber.</p> - -<p>“The physician! the physician!” cried -several persons, running from the room.</p> - -<p>“What has happened?” asked Tito.</p> - -<p>“The Countess of Rionuevo is dying,” -said Don Miguel de Guerra. “Come this -way, they have placed her in the queen’s bed-chamber.”</p> - -<p>“Go, Captain!” said Tito, “I insist.”</p> - -<p>And he accompanied these words with such -a glance and gesture that the soldier departed -without a word. Tito followed De Guerra -into the queen’s chamber.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">REVELATIONS.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-l.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“Listen!” said a voice to Tito, as he -was walking toward the bed on -which the Countess lay.</p> - -<p>“Ah! ’tis you,” exclaimed the -youth, recognizing Death.</p> - -<p>“Has she already expired?”</p> - -<p>“Who?”</p> - -<p>“The Countess.”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“Then, why do you leave her?”</p> - -<p>“I do not leave her, my friend; I have -already told thee I am everywhere, at all -times, and under many different forms.”</p> - -<p>“Well! what do you wish of me?” asked -Tito, with a certain aversion on hearing these -words.</p> - -<p>“I am here to do thee another favor.”</p> - -<p>“Well! speak.”</p> - -<p>“Dost thou know that thou art lacking in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -respect to me?” said Death, with forced -gravity.</p> - -<p>“It is natural,” answered Tito. “Our intimacy, -the complicity—”</p> - -<p>“What meanest thou by complicity?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing. I simply allude to a painting I -saw when a child. It represented Medicine. -Two persons were lying in one bed, or, to -speak more clearly, a man and his illness. -The physician entered the room blindfolded, -and armed with a club. Upon nearing the -bed he commenced beating the patient and -his illness unmercifully. I do not remember -which was the first victim of the punishment, -but I believe it was the invalid.”</p> - -<p>“Pleasing allegory! But we must to business!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, let us go. All seem astonished to see -me standing here, apparently alone, in the -middle of the room.”</p> - -<p>“They will imagine that thou art meditating, -or awaiting inspiration. Listen to me a -moment. Thou knowest that the past is -mine by right, and that I can narrate it to -thee. Not so the future.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span></p> - -<p>“Proceed.”</p> - -<p>“A little patience, please. Thou art about -to speak, for the last time, with the Countess -of Rionuevo, and it is my duty to recount a -certain history to thee.”</p> - -<p>“It is useless; I forgive that woman.”</p> - -<p>“It concerns Elena,” quietly observed -Death.</p> - -<p>“How?”</p> - -<p>“It refers to your nobility, and marriage to -her.”</p> - -<p>“Noble! I—? It is true, the king has -made me a duke.”</p> - -<p>“Monteclaro would not be content with an -adventurer. Thou hast need of ancestors.”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?”</p> - -<p>“I come to tell thee that thou art the last -branch of the Rionuevos.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but adulterous.”</p> - -<p>“You are mistaken: natural, and very natural.”</p> - -<p>“That may be, but who is to prove it?”</p> - -<p>“Precisely what I am about to tell thee.”</p> - -<p>“Speak!”</p> - -<p>“Listen, and do not interrupt me. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> -Countess is the stumbling-block in thy existence.”</p> - -<p>“I know it.”</p> - -<p>“She holds thy happiness in her hands.”</p> - -<p>“I know that, also.”</p> - -<p>“Well, the time has come to wrest it from -her.”</p> - -<p>“How? In what manner?”</p> - -<p>“Thou wilt see. As thy father loved thee -so dearly—”</p> - -<p>“Ah! he loved me much!” exclaimed Tito.</p> - -<p>“I have told thee not to interrupt. As thy -father loved thee so dearly, he did not leave -this world without thinking very seriously of -thy future.”</p> - -<p>“What! did the Count not die intestate?”</p> - -<p>“Where did’st thou get that idea?”</p> - -<p>“It is so understood by everybody.”</p> - -<p>“Pure invention of the Countess, to secure -the Count’s money, and make a favorite -nephew her heir.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!”</p> - -<p>“Calm thyself; all can be arranged. Thy -father had in his possession, a declaration of -Crispina Lopez and Juan Gil, a duly certified<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> -authority, which stated clearly that thou wert -the natural son of the Count of Rionuevo and -Crispina Lopez. This same circumstance thy -father confessed at the hour of his death, -before a priest and a notary, whom I saw there -and whom I know perfectly well. Certainly -the priest ... but hold! this I cannot tell -thee. The fact is, the Count named thee his -sole and only heir; which was all the easier, as -he had not a single relative, near or remote. -Nor did that good father’s solicitude rest here. -He commenced the foundation of thy future -happiness on the very brink of the grave.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! my father!” murmured Tito.</p> - -<p>“Listen. Thou knowest the great friendship -which united the honored Count and the -Duke of Monteclaro for so many years. They -were companions in arms during the War of -Succession.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then,” continued Death, “thy father, -divining the love thou felt’st for the charming -Elena, addressed a long and tender letter to -the Duke, a few moments before he expired, -in which he told him all, asking the hand of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> -his daughter for thee, and reminding him of -the many and signal proofs of friendship that -had passed between them.”</p> - -<p>“And that letter?” asked Tito, vehemently.</p> - -<p>“That letter alone would have convinced -the Duke, and thou would’st have been his son -many years ago.”</p> - -<p>“What has become of it?” again asked -Tito, tremulous with love and anger.</p> - -<p>“That letter might have prevented thee -from entering into relations with me,” continued -Death.</p> - -<p>“Oh! do not be cruel. Tell me that it -exists!”</p> - -<p>“That is the truth.”</p> - -<p>“What! that it exists?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“Who has it?”</p> - -<p>“The same person who intercepted it.”</p> - -<p>“The Countess?”</p> - -<p>“The Countess.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” exclaimed the youth, taking a step -toward the death-bed.</p> - -<p>“Wait,” said Death, “I have not finished -yet.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span></p> - -<p>“The Countess has preserved her husband’s -will, which she almost snatched from my -hands.”</p> - -<p>“From yours?”</p> - -<p>“I say from mine, because the Count was -already half dead. With regard to the priest -and the notary, I will tell thee where they -live and I believe they will declare the -truth.”</p> - -<p>Tito thought a moment; then, looking fixedly -at the funereal personage, exclaimed:—</p> - -<p>“That is to say, that if I succeed in getting -possession of these documents....”</p> - -<p>“To-morrow thou wilt marry Elena.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, God!” murmured the boy, taking -another step toward the bed.</p> - -<p>Then he turned again towards Death.</p> - -<p>The courtiers did not comprehend what was -passing in Tito’s heart. They all believed -him to be alone, or communing with the -miraculous being to whom he owed his science; -but such was the terror with which he had -already inspired them, that no one dared to -interrupt him.</p> - -<p>“Tell me,” added the ex-shoemaker, addressing<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -his fearful companion, “why it is -that the Countess has not burned those -papers?”</p> - -<p>“Because the Countess like all criminals is -superstitious; because she fears some day -she may repent; because she conjectures -that those papers will be, so to speak, her -passport to eternity; for it is a well-known fact -that no sinner blots out the tracks of his -crimes, fearful of forgetting them at the hour -of death, and of not being able to retrace his -steps to find the path of virtue. I tell thee -then, that those papers exist.”</p> - -<p>“So, then, by obtaining them, Elena will be -mine,” insisted Tito, still doubting Death’s -ability to procure that happiness for him.</p> - -<p>“There would yet be another obstacle to -overcome,” responded Death.</p> - -<p>“What?”</p> - -<p>“Elena has been promised by her father to -the nephew of the Countess, the Viscount de -Daimiel.”</p> - -<p>“What! she loves him?”</p> - -<p>“No; but they were betrothed two months -ago.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh! then all is hopeless!” exclaimed Tito, -in despair.</p> - -<p>“It would have been without me,” replied -Death, “but I told thee, at the doors of this -palace, that I was about to prevent a wedding.”</p> - -<p>“How! have you killed the Count?”</p> - -<p>“I!” exclaimed Death, with sarcasm, “God -forbid! I have not killed him,—he died.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!”</p> - -<p>“Hush! No one knows it yet. At this -moment his family believe that the poor youth -is simply napping. Therefore ... be careful -how you act! Elena, the Countess and -the Duke are but two steps from thee. Now -or never!” So saying, Death approached the -sick woman’s couch.</p> - -<p>Tito followed in his footsteps. Many of the -people who were there in the room, among -them the Duke of Monteclaro, knew of Tito’s -prediction, that the Countess would die within -three hours. They saw it almost fulfilled; the -happy, beautiful woman of a few hours before, -had suddenly become an almost inanimate -body, shaken at intervals by violent convulsions.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> -Thus it was that all commenced to -regard our hero with superstitious awe and -fanatical reverence. The Countess, for her -part, not well distinguishing Tito, stretched -toward him a tremulous and supplicating hand, -while indicating with the other that they -should be left alone.</p> - -<p>All retired, and Tito seated himself beside -the dying woman.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE SOUL.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Although the Countess of Rionuevo, -Tito’s terrible enemy, plays -so odious a part in our story, she -was not an old and ugly woman, as -many will perhaps have imagined. -Physical nature is also sometimes deceptive.</p> - -<p>This illustrious woman was, at this time, but -thirty-five years of age, and in the fulness of -a magnificent beauty—tall, active and well -formed; her eyes, blue and treacherous as the -sea, concealed great depths under a languid -and suave manner. The frankness of her -mouth, the soft tint of her skin, and the -queenly grace of her bearing, proved that -neither sorrow nor passion had perceptibly -diminished her incomparable beauty. Thus it -was that on seeing her now, stricken and suffering, -overcome by terror, and racked with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span> -pain, the least compassionate would have experienced -a peculiar pity, closely akin to horror -or fear. Though Tito thoroughly hated -the woman, he could not avoid this inexplicable -feeling of sympathy and dread, and, mechanically -taking the beautiful hand which -she tendered him he whispered with more sorrow -than resentment,</p> - -<p>“Do you know me, Countess?”</p> - -<p>“Save me!” replied the dying woman, not -heeding his question.</p> - -<p>At this moment another person emerged -noiselessly from behind the curtains, and -joined the two speakers, half reclining on the -pillow and supporting his head on his hand.</p> - -<p>It was Death!</p> - -<p>“Save me!” repeated the Countess, who -felt intuitively that our hero hated her; -“they say you are a magician, that you commune -with Death. Save me!”</p> - -<p>“You fear death greatly, Countess!” responded -the youth with indifference, at the -same time releasing her hand.</p> - -<p>That stupid cowardice, that animal terror, -which left no room for any other thought or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> -sensation, disgusted Tito profoundly, for it -showed him the wretchedly selfish spirit of the -author of all his troubles.</p> - -<p>“Countess!” he then exclaimed, “think of -your past and of your future! Think of God -and of your neighbor! Try to save the soul, -since the body is no longer yours.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! I am going to die,” exclaimed the -Countess.</p> - -<p>“No, you are not.”</p> - -<p>“Not to die!” shrieked the poor woman, -with savage joy.</p> - -<p>The youth continued with severity:</p> - -<p>“No! because you have never lived. On -the contrary, you are to enter the soul-life, -which for you will be endless suffering, as for -the just it is eternal happiness.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! then I am to die,” murmured the -patient anew, shedding tears for the first time -in her life.</p> - -<p>“Countess, you will not die,” again replied -the physician, with indescribable majesty.</p> - -<p>“Have pity on me,” said the poor woman, -regaining hope.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span></p> - -<p>“You will not die,” continued the youth, -“because you weep. The soul never dies, and -repentance can open to us the doors of eternal -life.”</p> - -<p>“My God! my God!” cried the Countess, -distracted by that cruel uncertainty.</p> - -<p>“You do well to appeal to Him. Save the -soul! I repeat, save the soul! Your beautiful -body (that earthly idol), and your sacrilegious -existence have ended forever. This temporal -life, these earthly joys, that prosperity and -beauty, that luxury and fortune which you -have striven so hard to preserve, the riches you -have usurped, the air, the sun, the world you -have known till now, all are lost to you, they -have even now disappeared. To-morrow -nothing will remain but dust and darkness, -vanity and corruption, solitude and oblivion; -the soul alone survives, Countess. Think of -your soul.”</p> - -<p>“Who are you?” softly asked the dying -woman, gazing at him in astonishment. “I -have known you before now. You hate me, -it is you who kill me. Ah!”</p> - -<p>At this instant Death placed his white hand<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -upon her head, and said:—“Finish, Tito, the -last hour approaches.”</p> - -<p>“I do not wish her to die,” replied Tito, -“even yet she may amend; even yet remedy -all the evil she has done. Save her body, and -I will answer for her soul.”</p> - -<p>“Conclude, Tito! conclude; the last hour is -about to strike.”</p> - -<p>“Poor woman!” murmured the youth, -looking at her with compassion.</p> - -<p>“You pity me,” said the dying woman -with ineffable tenderness. “I who never -acknowledged you, never loved you. Never -have I felt as now for you. Pity me. Tell -me. My heart softens at the sound of your -sad voice.”</p> - -<p>And it was true.</p> - -<p>The Countess exalted by the terror of that -supreme moment, suffering remorse, fearing -punishment, and deprived of all that constituted -her pride and pleasure upon earth, commenced -to feel the first breathings of a soul, -which until now had remained lost and silent -in the depths of her iniquity; a soul always -insulted, but full of patience and heroism; a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> -soul, in fact, to be compared to the sad -daughter of criminal parents, who, quiet and -silent, shrinks from sight and weeps alone, -until one day, when at the first sign of repentance -that she observes, recovers her spirit, -rushes to their arms and lets them hear her -pure, sweet voice—song of the lark, music of -heaven, which appears to welcome the dawn -of virtue after the darkness of sin.</p> - -<p>“You ask me who I am?” responded Tito, -comprehending all this. “I scarcely know -myself. I was your mortal enemy, but now I -do not hate you. You have heard the voice -of truth, the voice of death, and you have responded, -God be praised! I came to this bed -of sorrow to ask from you the happiness of my -life; but now I can leave, content without it, -for I believe I have brought about your redemption, -that I have saved your soul. -Heavenly Jesus! in that I have pardoned -my injuries and done good to my enemy, I am -satisfied; I am happy; I ask no more.”</p> - -<p>“Who are you, mysterious and sublime -boy? Who are you? so good and so beautiful, -who come like an angel to my death-bed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span> -to make my last moments so sweet?” asked -the Countess, eagerly, taking Tito’s hand.</p> - -<p>“I am the Friend of Death,” replied the -youth; “do not be surprised then that I quiet -your heart. I speak to you in his name, therefore -you have believed me. I am delegated -to come to you by that compassionate divinity -who is the peace of the earth, the truth of -the worlds, the redeemer of the spirit, the -messenger of God; who is all but forgetfulness. -Forgetfulness is in life, Countess, not in -death. Remember, and you will know me.”</p> - -<p>“Tito!” exclaimed the Countess, losing -consciousness.</p> - -<p>“She is dead?” the physician asked Death.</p> - -<p>“No, there still remains a half an hour.”</p> - -<p>“But will she speak again?”</p> - -<p>“Tito,” sighed the dying woman.</p> - -<p>“Finish,” added Death.</p> - -<p>The youth bent over the Countess, o’er -whose beautiful countenance there shone a -new and divine beauty; and from those eyes -where the fire of life melted in languishing and -melancholy glances, from that gasping and -half-opened mouth, flushed with fever, from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -those soft warm hands, and that white throat -turned toward him in infinite anguish, he met -such an eloquent expression of repentance and -tenderness, such loving caresses and earnest -entreaties, so infinite and solemn a promise, -that without hesitating an instant he left the -bed, called the Duke of Monteclaro, the Archbishop -and three of the other nobles who were -in the apartment, and said to them: “Listen -to the public confession of a soul which returns -to God.” Those persons approached -the dying woman, induced more by his inspired -face than by his words.</p> - -<p>“Duke,” murmured the Countess, on seeing -Monteclaro, “my confessor has a key—Sire,” -she continued, turning toward the Archbishop, -“ask him for it—. This boy, this physician, -this angel, is natural and acknowledged son of -the Count of Rionuevo, my late husband, who -when dying, wrote you a letter, Duke, asking -Elena’s hand for him. With this key—in my -bedroom—all the papers—I pray you—I command -you.”</p> - -<p>At these words she fell back upon the -pillow, the light gone from her eyes, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> -breath from her lips, the color from her -face.</p> - -<p>“She is dying!” exclaimed Tito. “Remain -with her, Sire,” he added, addressing the -Archbishop. “And you, Duke, listen to me.”</p> - -<p>“Wait,” said Death, as he heard the youth.</p> - -<p>“What more?” he replied.</p> - -<p>“Thou hast not forgiven her.”</p> - -<p>“Tito!—your forgiveness!”—murmured the -dying woman.</p> - -<p>“Tito!” exclaimed the Duke of Monteclaro, -“is it you?”</p> - -<p>“Countess, may God pardon you as I do. -Die in peace,” said the son of Crispina Lopez, -with religious fervor.</p> - -<p>At this moment Death bent over the Countess, -and pressed his lips to her brow.</p> - -<p>That kiss resounded in the throat of a corpse.</p> - -<p>One cold, tremulous tear coursed down the -dead woman’s cheek.</p> - -<p>Tito wiped away his own, and turned to -answer Monteclaro. “Yes, Duke, it is I.”</p> - -<p>As the Archbishop read the funeral prayers, -Death disappeared. It was midnight.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br /> -<span class="smaller">UNTIL TO-MORROW.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-s.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“Search for those papers, Duke,” -said Tito to Monteclaro, “and do -me the kindness to speak to Elena.”</p> - -<p>“Come! Doctor, come! The -king is dying!” exclaimed Don Miguel -de Guerra, interrupting him.</p> - -<p>“Follow me, Duke,” said the youth, -with great respect, “it has struck twelve, and -I can give you some very important news, I -do not know whether good or bad. It is this; -I can tell you whether or not Louis I. will die -to-day.”</p> - -<p>The morning of the thirty-first of August -had dawned, when Louis I. was to deliver up -his spirit to his Creator.</p> - -<p>Tito discovered the certainty of it by seeing -Death standing in the middle of the room with -his eyes fixed on the sick king.</p> - -<p>“To-day the king dies,” whispered Tito, in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> -Monteclaro’s ear. “This news is the wedding -present which I make to Elena. If you know -its value, guard it in secret, and let it govern -your conduct toward Philip V.”</p> - -<p>“But Elena is promised to another,” replied -the Duke.</p> - -<p>“The nephew of the Countess of Rionuevo -died this afternoon,” interrupted Tito.</p> - -<p>“Oh! what has befallen us!” exclaimed -the Duke. “Who are you—you whom I -knew as a child, and who now terrify me with -such power and science?”</p> - -<p>“The queen calls,” said a lady at this moment -to the Duke of Monteclaro, who seemed -stupefied.</p> - -<p>The lady was Elena.</p> - -<p>The Duke approached the queen, leaving -the two lovers alone in the middle of the -room. Not alone, for Death was but three -steps off.</p> - -<p>The two stood mutely gazing at each other -as if bewildered, and fearful that their mutual -presence might be a dream which would pass -away should they move a hand or utter the -lightest breath.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span></p> - -<p>On meeting, a few hours before in that same -place, both had experienced, mingled with an -ineffable happiness, a certain secret anguish, -like that which two friends feel, after a long -separation, on recognizing each other in a -prison, on the morning of execution, unconscious -accomplices of a fatal crime, and victims -of the same persecution. One might also say -that the sad joy with which Tito and Elena -recognized each other, was equal to the bitter -pleasure which the corpse of a jealous husband -would experience (if corpses feel) in the tomb, -on hearing the door of the cemetery open -at night, knowing that it is his wife whom they -are bringing to inter. “So you are here!” -the poor corpse would say; “it is now four -years that I have been alone, thinking of what -you were doing in the world, you, so beautiful, -so unloving, that you discarded your mourning -the very year of my death. You have -waited long; but you are here, and if love is -no longer possible between us, neither is infidelity -or forgetfulness. We belong to each -other negatively. Although nothing unites -us, we are united, because nothing can separate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> -us. For the jealousies, uncertainties, anxieties -of life, you have substituted an eternity of -love and remembrance. I pardon you all.”</p> - -<p>These impressions, softened in the gentle -characters of Tito and Elena, by her innocence, -by his lofty intelligence, and by the exalted -virtue of both, shone like funeral torches in -the souls of the two lovers, by whose light -they saw an illimitable future of peaceful love, -which nothing could disturb or destroy, unless -all that then passed was but a fugitive dream.</p> - -<p>They gazed at each other for a long time -with fervent idolatry. Elena’s blue eyes lost -themselves in the dark orbs of Tito, as the -high heaven her brightness in the utter darkness -of our nights; whilst his melted in the -fathomless transparency of the pure celestial -blue of hers, lost, as are sight, idea, and even -sentiment, when attempting to measure infinite -space.</p> - -<p>So, perhaps they would have remained for -eternity, had not Death attracted Tito’s attention.</p> - -<p>“What do you wish?” asked the youth.</p> - -<p>“That thou lookest upon her no longer.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span></p> - -<p>“Ah! you love her!” exclaimed Tito, -with indescribable anguish.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Death, gently.</p> - -<p>“You think of robbing me of her?”</p> - -<p>“No! I think of uniting thee.”</p> - -<p>“You told me once that no other arms than -yours or mine should ever enfold her,” murmured -Tito, with desperation. “Whose is she -to be first—yours or mine? Tell me!”</p> - -<p>“Thou art jealous of me?”</p> - -<p>“Horribly so.”</p> - -<p>“Thou art wrong,” replied Death.</p> - -<p>“Whose is she to be first?” repeated the -youth, seizing the cold hands of his friend.</p> - -<p>“I cannot answer thee. God, thou and I -dispute her; but we three are not incompatible.”</p> - -<p>“Tell me that you do not intend to kill her. -Tell me that you will unite us in this world.”</p> - -<p>“<em>In this world!</em>” repeated Death, ironically. -“Yes, it will be in this world, I promise thee.”</p> - -<p>“And afterwards?”</p> - -<p>“Afterwards belongs to God.”</p> - -<p>“And yours? When?”</p> - -<p>“Mine, she has already been.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span></p> - -<p>“You madden me! Elena lives!”</p> - -<p>“As thou dost,” replied Death.</p> - -<p>“But, do I live?”</p> - -<p>“More than ever.”</p> - -<p>“Speak, for pity’s sake!”</p> - -<p>“I have nothing to tell thee. Thou wouldst -not be able to understand me yet. What is -death? Perhaps thou knowest. What is -life? Have I ever explained it to thee? If -thou art ignorant of these conditions, why -dost thou ask if thou art dead or alive?”</p> - -<p>“Well, shall I comprehend them some day?” -exclaimed Tito, desperately.</p> - -<p>“Yes, to-morrow,” answered Death.</p> - -<p>“To-morrow! I do not understand you.”</p> - -<p>“To-morrow thou wilt be wedded to -Elena.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!”</p> - -<p>“And I will be thy protector,” continued -Death.</p> - -<p>“You! you then intend to kill us?”</p> - -<p>“Not at all. To-morrow thou wilt be rich, -noble, powerful, happy. To-morrow also -thou wilt know all.”</p> - -<p>“You love me, then!” exclaimed Tito.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, I love thee,” replied Death. “Ungrateful -boy, why dost thou doubt it?”</p> - -<p>“Then good-bye <em>until to-morrow</em>,” said Tito, -giving his hand to the terrible divinity.</p> - -<p>Elena continued standing before her lover.</p> - -<p>“<em>Until to-morrow</em>,” she responded, as if she -had heard the phrase—as if answering another -secret voice—as if divining the youth’s -thoughts;—and slowly turning she left the -royal chamber.</p> - -<p>Tito approached the king’s bed.</p> - -<p>The Duke of Monteclaro placed himself -at his side, and said to him in a low voice:—</p> - -<p>“If the king dies, you will celebrate your -marriage with my daughter to-morrow; the -queen has just informed me of the death of -the Viscount of Rionuevo. I have announced -your wedding with Elena, and she congratulates -you both with all her heart. To-morrow -you will be the first person of the Court, if -Louis really passes to the tomb to-day.”</p> - -<p>“But do not doubt it, Sire,” responded Tito, -with sepulchral accent.</p> - -<p>“Then farewell <em>until to-morrow</em>,” said -Monteclaro, solemnly.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">IN WHICH TITO IS AGAIN HAPPY, AND THE FIRST -PART OF THIS STORY IS COMPLETED.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">The following day, the first of September, -1724, at nine in the morning, -Tito was pacing the halls of the palace -of Rionuevo.</p> - -<p>That palace belonged to him. He -was now the acknowledged Count, by -virtue of the will and other papers of his -father, which the Duke of Monteclaro and the -Archbishop of Toledo had found in the place -indicated by the Countess. Besides, the night -before, a messenger had delivered to him from -Philip V., who had finally decided to return to -the throne of St. Ferdinand, $30,000 in gold, -and the title of Duke of Verity, Physician -to the Court; and the next day he was to -celebrate his marriage with Elena. With -regard to Death, Tito had completely lost -sight of him since the previous morning,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> -when he left the palace with the soul of -Louis I.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, the youth remembered that -the implacable deity had promised to protect -him in his marriage; and you will now observe -the reason why he walks so thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>“Here am I,” said he, “noble, rich, powerful, -and possessed of the woman I love; still I -am not content. Last night, at sight of Elena, -and again in my last conversation with Death, -I suspected, I know not what terrible mysteries. -I must sever relations with this sinister -deity. It seems ungrateful, but it must be. -He will have occasion in the future to avenge -himself. No, no! I do not wish to see Death -again, I am so happy.”</p> - -<p>The new Duke commenced to plan how to -avoid Death, until his last moments should -arrive.</p> - -<p>“It is a fact,” thought he, “that I shall not -die until God wills it. Death himself can do -me no harm. It is not in his power to hasten -Elena’s death or mine. The question therefore -is, how not to see, how not to hear him at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> -all hours. His voice alarms me; his revelations -afflict me; his conversations inspire me -with a disregard for life and all I hold most -dear. What shall I do to prevent his continuing -to be my nightmare? Ah! an idea! -He never appears except when he has something -to kill. Living in the country—never -seeing any one—alone with Elena—my enemy -would leave me in peace, until that time, when -by the decree of the Almighty, he should be -directed to search for one or both of us. In -the mean time, and in order not to see him in -Madrid either, I will live with my eyes blindfolded.”</p> - -<p>Encouraged by this last thought, the youth -beamed with happiness, as though, having just -arisen from a long illness, he believed himself -assured of remaining upon earth for all time.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>At seven on the following evening, Tito and -Elena were married at a beautiful country-house -belonging to the new Count and Duke, -at the mouth of the Guadarrama River.</p> - -<p>At half-past seven the guests returned to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> -Madrid, and the newly wedded couple were -left alone in the midst of a luxuriant garden.</p> - -<p>Tito had not again seen Death, and I might -terminate this history here; but just at this -point it commences to be interesting and lucid.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE SUN IN THE WEST.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Tito and Elena, loving each other, belonging -to one another, were at last -free and alone.</p> - -<p>The remembrances of their infancy, -the desires of their hearts, the will of -their parents, fortune, birth, the blessing -of God, all aided in uniting them; and those -two forever inseparable souls, lost at last, in -this solemn and mystical hour, their sad and -solitary individuality, and merged themselves -into an endless, happy future, as two rivers, -rising in the same mountain, and separated -from each other in their tortuous courses, reunite -and identify themselves in the infinite -solitude of the ocean.</p> - -<p>It was evening. It did not seem like the -evening of a single day, but as of that of the -world’s existence, the evening of all Time since -creation. The sun sank slowly in the west, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> -splendid lights gilding the front of the villa, -and penetrating through the tender green -foliage of a spreading vine, a sort of canopy -which sheltered the newly wedded pair.</p> - -<p>The still, soft air, the last flowers of the -year, the birds, immovable in the branches of -the trees, all nature in fact assisted, mute and -fearful, at the death of that day. It seemed -as if it might be the last that humanity would -see. As if the Astral King might not return -the following day as generous, happy, and as -full of life and youth, as he had presented himself -for so many mornings during so many -thousands of centuries.</p> - -<p>One would have said that at that point, -Time had stopped; that the hours, overcome -by their continual dance, had seated themselves -on the grass to rest, and were telling -each other pathetic stories of love and death, -like young school girls, who, fatigued with -play, draw aside in the garden of a convent to -relate to one another their childish adventures -and youthful joys.</p> - -<p>One would have said that a period in the -history of the world was drawing to a close;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span> -that all creation was bidding an eternal farewell. -The bird to his nest, the zephyr to the -flowers, the trees to the river, the sun to the -mountain; that the intimate union in which -all had lived, lending mutual color or fragrance, -and losing themselves in the same palpitation -of universal existence, had been broken and interrupted -forever, and that in the future each -one of those elements would be governed by -new laws and influences.</p> - -<p>One would have said, in fact, that on that -evening the mysterious association constituting -the unity and harmony of the spheres was -about to dissolve; an association which makes -impossible the loss of the most insignificant of -created things; which transforms and continually -resuscitates matter, and which from nothing, -identifies, renews and embellishes all.</p> - -<p>More than any one or anything, possessed of -this supreme intuition, this strange hallucination, -Tito and Elena with clasped hands, immovable -and silent, watched the majestic -tragedy of the death of that day, the last of -their misfortunes. They looked at each -other with deep anxiety, and blind idolatry,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span> -not knowing of what they thought, forgetful -of the entire universe, ecstatic and entranced. -They might have believed themselves alone -upon the earth, abandoned.</p> - -<p>After the departure of the wedding guests, -and the sound of the last footsteps had ceased -in the distance, it seemed as though the world -had entirely left them.</p> - -<p>Nothing had been said—nothing!—so absorbed -were they in beholding each other.</p> - -<p>There they were, seated on a bank of turf, -surrounded with flowers and verdure, an infinite -sky before their eyes, as free and alone -as two sea birds resting in mid ocean on a -wreck rocked by the waves; and with the cup -of happiness in his hand, Tito dared not press -it to his lips, fearful that all might be a -dream, and not coveting greater felicity, -through fear of losing that which they already -possessed.</p> - -<p>There they were, as innocent, beautiful and -immortal as Adam and Eve in Paradise before -the Fall. The maiden of nineteen years was -in all the splendor of her wonderful beauty; -in that transitory moment of youthful womanhood,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> -when, possessed of all her fascinations, -judge of her own nature, full of blessings, and -promises of happiness from Heaven, she is -capable of feeling all, yet has felt nothing; -woman and child in one. As a rose, half-opened -to the generous influence of the sun, -that has already displayed all its leaves, shown -all its charms, and received the caresses of -the zephyr, still preserves that form, color -and perfume that alone adorn the modest -bud.</p> - -<p>Elena was tall and statuesque, artistic and -seductive—her lovely head, crowned with -auburn hair, of a golden hue at the temples, -and changing by degrees to chestnut shades, -was poised upon a white throat moulded like -that of Juno. Her blue eyes seemed to reflect -the infinity of uncreated thought. There -was something of heaven in them besides -their color and purity. There was in their -glance a light as of eternity, of pure spirituality, -of immortal passion, that did not belong to -earth. Her complexion, white and pallid as -water at twilight, was transparent as mother -of pearl. It did not reflect the warmth of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> -blood; some delicate vein of heavenly blue -alone broke that still, serene whiteness. One -would have said she was of marble. Her -angelic countenance had, however, a woman’s -mouth, vermilion as the blossom of the pomegranate, -moist and brilliant as a bed of pearls. -It was, if one might so say, submerged in the -warm and voluptuous vapor of the sigh which -held it half apart.</p> - -<p>One might compare Elena to the statue -carved by Pygmalion, when for the first time -and in order to return the sculptor’s kiss, she -moved those bewitching lips. Her dress was -white, which greatly increased the dazzling -brilliancy of her beauty; but she was one of -those women from whom ornaments do not -detract.</p> - -<p>With her, as with the noble pagan Minervas, -one was not left to divine the pure form of -her Olympic beauty, which revealed itself in -all its splendor, though covered by silk and -lace.</p> - -<p>It seemed as though the pure beauty of her -exquisite form shone through the folds of her -white gown, as those of the Naiads and sea-nymphs<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> -illumine, with their polished limbs, -the depths of the waves.</p> - -<p>Such was Elena on her wedding night, and -such she appeared to Tito.</p> - -<p>She was his own!</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Ah! yes: the youth beheld her as -the blind behold the sun, who see -not the luminary planet, but feel its -warmth in their dead pupils.</p> - -<p>After so many years of solitude and -trouble, after so many hours of mournful -dreams, he, the Friend of Death, found -himself engulfed in an ocean of life, in a world -of light, of hope, of felicity.</p> - -<p>What was he to say, what was he to think, -if he could not believe that he existed; that -that woman was Elena, his wife, that both -had escaped the clutches of death?</p> - -<p>“Speak, my Elena, tell me all,” murmured -Tito at last, when the sun had set, and the -birds had broken the silence. “Speak, my -darling.”</p> - -<p>Elena then told him of all her thoughts and -feelings during those three last years: her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> -sorrow when she ceased to see him, her despair -at going to France, how her father had -opposed this love, of which the Countess of -Rionuevo had informed him; how happy she -was at meeting him again in the porch of San -Millán, and how she suffered at seeing him -fall, wounded by the Countess’ harsh words.</p> - -<p>She told him all, because it had increased -her love instead of diminishing it.</p> - -<p>The night fell and the darkness increased, -but the secret anguish which disturbed Tito’s -happiness was calmed. “Oh!” thought the -youth, pressing Elena to his heart. “Death -has forgotten my face and knows not where to -find me. He will not come here. Ah! no. -Our undying love would be able to put him to -flight. What could he have to do at our side? -Come, come, dark night, and envelop us in -thy black veil! Come, even if thou must remain -forever. Come, even though to-morrow -should never dawn.”</p> - -<p>“You tremble, Tito,” murmured Elena, -“you weep.”</p> - -<p>“My wife,” murmured the youth, “my -own, my heaven, I weep for joy.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span></p> - -<p>So saying, he took his young wife’s bewitching -head between his hands and fixed in her -eyes an intense, delirious gaze.</p> - -<p>A deep and burning sigh, a cry of wild passion -met between their lips.</p> - -<p>“My love!” they murmured in the delirium -of that first kiss, at whose tender sound the -invisible spirits of solitude trembled.</p> - -<p>At this moment the moon suddenly rose, -full, splendid, and magnificent.</p> - -<p>Its strange, unexpected light startled the -two lovers, who, turning their heads at the -same moment towards the east, separated -from one another through some mysterious -instinct, though still retaining each other’s -trembling, clinging hands, cold at that moment -as the alabaster of the tomb.</p> - -<p>“It is the moon,” murmured the two in -hoarse accents, and turning to gaze at one -another ecstatically. Tito extended his arms -towards Elena with indefinable tenderness, and -with as much love as despair.</p> - -<p>But Elena was as pale as a ghost.</p> - -<p>Tito trembled.</p> - -<p>“Elena, what is it?” he whispered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh! Tito,” responded the girl, “you are -so white.”</p> - -<p>At this moment the moon was eclipsed; it -was as if a cloud had interposed itself between -her and the two lovers.</p> - -<p>But, ah! it was not a cloud. It was a long -black shadow, that appeared to Tito, from the -bank on which he reclined, as if touching the -skies and the earth, draping the entire horizon -in mourning. It was a colossal figure, but -increased by his imagination; a terrible being -enveloped in a long, dark mantle. It stood -at his side, immovable and silent, covering -them both with its shadow.</p> - -<p>Tito knew <em>who</em> it was.</p> - -<p>Elena did not see the lugubrious personage. -She continued gazing at the moon.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">PHYSICIAN, AT LAST!</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-t.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">Tito was between love and death, or -rather between death and life. Yes, -because that dismal shadow which -had come between him and the -moon, clouding the splendor of passion -in Elena’s countenance, was the divinity -of darkness, our hero’s faithful companion -ever since his first thought of suicide.</p> - -<p>“How art thou, friend?” said he.</p> - -<p>“Ah! hush!” murmured Tito, covering his -face with his hands.</p> - -<p>“What is it, my love?” questioned Elena, -observing her husband’s anguish.</p> - -<p>“Elena! Elena! do not leave me!” exclaimed -the youth in despair, winding his left -arm about her neck.</p> - -<p>“I must speak to thee,” added Death, taking -Tito’s right hand and drawing him gently -towards him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span></p> - -<p>“Come, let us enter,” said the youth to -Elena, retreating from Death toward the -villa.</p> - -<p>“No! come with me; we must go,” said -Death, pointing toward the garden gate.</p> - -<p>Elena neither saw nor heard him; this sad -privilege was reserved for the Duke of Verity -alone.</p> - -<p>“Tito, I await thee,” added the sinister personage.</p> - -<p>The unfortunate boy shivered to the marrow -of his bones. Copious tears fell from his -eyes, which Elena gently brushed away. He -disengaged himself from her arms and ran -wildly through the garden, exclaiming between -heart-rending sobs:—</p> - -<p>“To die! to die now!”</p> - -<p>Elena wished to follow him, but doubtless, -on account of the state into which the condition -of her husband had thrown her, at the -first step she fell senseless to the ground.</p> - -<p>“To die! to die!” exclaimed the youth -again with desperation.</p> - -<p>“Fear not,” replied Death, approaching him -gently. “It is useless for thee to fly from me.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span> -It has been decreed that we should meet, and -I do not intend to abandon thee as thou -wishest.”</p> - -<p>“But why have you come here?” exclaimed -Tito, furiously, wiping away his tears, as if -relinquishing supplication and perhaps prudence, -and addressing Death defiantly. “Why -have you come here? Answer!” and he -glanced about angrily as if seeking some -weapon. Near to him was a large garden axe. -He grasped it convulsively, and raised it in the -air, as if it were a weak reed (for despair had -doubled his strength), and repeated for the -third time and with more fury than ever:—“Why -have you come here?”</p> - -<p>Death burst into a loud, cynical laugh, the -echo of which resounded for a long time. It -reverberated in the four corners of the garden, -imitating with its strident sound the rattling -of a skeleton’s bones when knocking against -each other. “Thou wishest to kill me!” exclaimed -the black spectre. “So, Life opposes -itself to Death! This <em>is</em> interesting. Let us -fight, then.” Saying this he threw back his -long black cape, exposing an arm which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> -grasped a weapon resembling a scythe, and put -himself on guard, in front of Tito.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;" id="illus3"> -<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="475" height="700" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p>The moon assumed a yellow, waxy color; a -cold wind blew, which made the fruit-laden -trees groan with sorrow; one heard the distant -barking of many dogs, or they seemed rather -long howls of funereal omen; and one even -seemed to hear, high up in the region of the -clouds, the jangling sound of many bells that -tolled of death.</p> - -<p>Tito, noting all these things, fell upon his -knees before his antagonist.</p> - -<p>“Pity! pardon!” he cried, with indescribable -anguish.</p> - -<p>“Thou art forgiven,” gently responded -Death, hiding his weapon; and as if all that -funereal pomp of nature might have arisen from -the fury of the black divinity, no sooner had -a smile appeared on his lips, than the atmosphere -calmed, the bells ceased, the dogs -stopped howling, and the moon shone as -brightly as at the commencement of the night.</p> - -<p>“Thou hast pretended to fight with me,” -exclaimed Death with good humor. “Physician, -at last! Arise unhappy one, and give me<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -thy hand. I have said that thou hast nothing -to fear for this night.”</p> - -<p>“But why do you come here?” repeated the -youth with increasing anxiety. “For what -have you come? Why do I find you in my -house? You enter only where you have someone -to kill. Whom do you seek?”</p> - -<p>“I will tell thee all. Let us be seated a -moment,” said Death, caressing Tito’s icy -hands.</p> - -<p>“But, Elena!” whispered the youth.</p> - -<p>“Let her rest. She is <em>sleeping</em> now. I -watch for her; therefore let us arrange our -affairs. Tito, thou art an ingrate! but thou -art like <em>all</em> others; once upon the summit, they -kick the ladder by which they rose. Oh! thy -conduct towards me deserves no pardon from -God. How much thou hast made me suffer in -these last days! how much! how much!”</p> - -<p>“Ah! but I adore her,” cried Tito.</p> - -<p>“Thou adorest her, that is it; but thou hadst -lost her forever; thou wert a miserable shoemaker, -and she was about to marry a person of -rank; I intervened, I made thee rich, noble, -famous; I freed thee of thy rival; I reconciled<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> -thee with thine enemy and carried her to the -other world. Finally I gave thee Elena’s -hand; and here, at this moment, thou turnest -thy back upon me, triest to forget me, and -coverest thine eyes so as not to see me. Thou -art as stupid as the rest of men. They who -should always see me in their thoughts, blind -themselves with the vanities of this world, and -live without devoting one thought to me, until -I come to claim them. My lot is a very unfortunate -one. I do not remember of ever -approaching one mortal, without having surprised -and frightened him as though he had -never expected me. Even those of five score -years believe that they can do without me. -Thou, for thy part, who hast the privilege of -actually seeing me, and who art not able to -forget me as thou wouldst, placed before thine -eyes, the other day, a means of forgetfulness, a -bandage of cloth; and to-day thou hidest in a -lonely garden, imagining thyself secure from -me forever. Fool! Ingrate! False friend! -<em>Man!!</em> And that tells all!”</p> - -<p>“Well,” stammered Tito, whose confusion -and shame had not quieted his suspicious curiosity,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> -“for what reason do you come to my -house?”</p> - -<p>“I come to complete the mission, which the -Eternal One has charged me with, concerning -thee.”</p> - -<p>“But you do not come to kill us?”</p> - -<p>“By no means.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! Then—,”</p> - -<p>“But now that I do see thee, or, rather, -that thou seest me, I must take precaution -to prevent thee from forgetting me -again.”</p> - -<p>“And what are these precautions?” said -Tito, trembling more than ever.</p> - -<p>“I must also make thee several important -revelations.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! return to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>“No! impossible; our meeting to-night is -providential.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, my friend!” exclaimed the poor -youth.</p> - -<p>“And because I am thy friend, thou must -follow me,” responded Death.</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“To my house.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span></p> - -<p>“To your house! Then you <em>have</em> come to -kill me! Ah, cruel! And this is your friendship! -Frightful sarcasm! You give me happiness -and then snatch it from me. Why did -you not let me die that night?”</p> - -<p>“Hush, unfortunate boy!” replied Death, -with solemn sadness. “Thou sayest that thou -knowest happiness. How thou dost deceive -thyself! This I ask thee. How dost thou -know it?”</p> - -<p>“Elena is my happiness, I renounce all -else.”</p> - -<p>“To-morrow thou wilt see more clearly.”</p> - -<p>“Kill me, then!” shrieked Tito, with desperation.</p> - -<p>“It would be useless.”</p> - -<p>“Kill <em>her</em> then! Kill us both!”</p> - -<p>“Thou ravest!”</p> - -<p>“To go to your house! my God!”</p> - -<p>“Tito, compose thyself.”</p> - -<p>“Let me at least take leave of her. Let me -bid her farewell!”</p> - -<p>“I accede to that. Awake, Elena, awake! -I command thee to come. Behold! she is -there.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span></p> - -<p>“What shall I say to her? At what hour -to-night may I return?”</p> - -<p>“Tell her that at daylight she will see -thee.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no! I do not wish to stay with you -so many hours. To-day I have more fear than -ever.</p> - -<p>“Be careful!”</p> - -<p>“Do not be angry!” exclaimed the unhappy -bridegroom. “Do not be angry, but -tell me the truth. We will see each other -truly at daybreak, Elena and I?”</p> - -<p>Death solemnly raised his right hand, and -looking up to heaven, his sad voice -answered:—</p> - -<p>“I swear it!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Tito! what is this?” exclaimed Elena, -advancing through the trees, pale, graceful and -luminous as a mythological personification of -the moon.</p> - -<p>Tito, ghastly pale also, his hair dishevelled, -his gaze stern, his heart troubled, kissed -Elena’s forehead, saying with hoarse accent:—</p> - -<p>“Farewell until to-morrow. My life! await -me!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span></p> - -<p>“His life!” repeated Death, with deep compassion.</p> - -<p>Elena raised her eyes to heaven, bathed in -sad tears, and overcome with a mysterious anguish, -she clasped her hands, and repeated in a -voice not of this world, “Until to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>Tito and Death disappeared, and she was -left standing there among the trees, her hands -clasped in front of her body. Immovable, -magnificent, in the full light of the moon, she -looked like some noble statue without a pedestal, -forgotten, in the midst of the garden.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br /> -<span class="smaller">THE REVERSE OF TIME.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-w.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">“We have far to go,” said Death to our -friend, as soon as they had left the -villa. “I will order my chariot.” -He tapped the ground with his -foot, and a rumbling noise, like that -which precedes an earthquake resounded -beneath the ground.</p> - -<p>The two friends were soon enveloped in an -ash-colored vapor, in the midst of which there -appeared a sort of ivory coach, in the style of -those we see in the bas-reliefs of pagan times. -The most casual observer would have seen at -a glance that the chariot was not of ivory, -but of human bones, cleansed and joined with -exquisite workmanship, but without having -lost their original form.</p> - -<p>Death gave his hand to Tito, and they -entered the carriage, which rose in the air -with the lightness of a balloon, the single<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> -difference being that it was guided by the -will of the occupants.</p> - -<p>“Although we have far to go,” continued -Death, “we have more than enough time; for -this chariot will fly as rapidly as I desire, and -as quickly as the imagination; we can go alternately -fast and slow, making the circuit of the -globe in the three hours at our disposal. It -is now nine o’clock at night in Madrid. We -will travel toward the northeast, and so avoid -meeting the sunlight immediately.”</p> - -<p>Tito remained silent.</p> - -<p>“Magnificent! Thou art determined to -maintain silence,” continued Death, “then I -alone must talk. But all that thou art about -to contemplate will distract, and soon make -thee break that silence. Onward!”</p> - -<p>The chariot, which had oscillated in the air, -without direction, from the time our travellers -had entered it, then put itself in motion, just -grazing the earth with an indescribable velocity.</p> - -<p>Tito saw at his feet, mountains, trees, ruins, -precipices, plains, all in quick succession.</p> - -<p>From time to time some bonfire revealed a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -simple shepherd’s hut; but more frequently -the carriage passed rather slowly over the tops -of great rocky masses, piled up in rectangular -forms, between which, great shadows crossed, -preceded by a light; and at the same time -they heard the ringing of bells, tolling for -death or striking the hour (which is about the -same), and the song of the watchman who -repeated it. Death then laughed, and the -carriage again flew extremely fast. As they -advanced toward the east, the darkness was -more intense, the quietness of the cities -more profound, and the silence of nature -greater.</p> - -<p>The moon flew toward the west like a -frightened dove, while the stars changed their -places in the sky, like a dispersing army.</p> - -<p>“Where are we?” asked Tito.</p> - -<p>“In France,” responded Death. “We have -already crossed the greater part of the two -bellicose nations which fought so furiously at -the beginning of this century; we have seen -the whole theatre of the War of Succession. -Conquerors and conquered rest at this moment. -My apprentice, Sleep, reigns over those heroes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span> -who did not die in battle, nor afterwards of -sickness or old age.</p> - -<p>“I cannot see why all men are not friends -below. The identity of your weaknesses and -misfortunes, the need that you have one for -another, the shortness of your lives, the spectacle -of the infinite greatness of the spheres, -and the comparison of these with your own -littleness, all ought to unite you fraternally, as -voyagers threatened with shipwreck. There—there -is no love, hate, ambition; no one is -creditor or debtor; no one great or small; no -one happy or unhappy. The same danger -surrounds you, and <em>my presence</em> levels you all. -Therefore what is the earth, seen from this -altitude, but a boat that is about to sink, a -city threatened with a pest or conflagration.”</p> - -<p>“What fatuous lights are those I see shining -in some parts of the earthly globe, since -the moon has gone down?” asked the youth.</p> - -<p>“They are cemeteries. We are over Paris. -At the side of every living city, town, or -hamlet, there is always a dead city or town, -as the shadow is always beside the body. -Geography, therefore, is always double, although<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -you speak only of that which appears -most agreeable. To make a map of all the -cemeteries upon earth would suffice to explain -the political geography of thy world: nevertheless -it would be an equivocation, for the -dead cities are much more populous than the -living. In the latter, there are hardly three -generations, while in the former, one finds at -times hundreds, accumulated. With regard to -those lights which thou seest shining, they are -phosphorescences of corpses, or, more clearly, -the last sparks of a thousand vanished existences. -They are twilights of love, ambition, -anger, genius, charity. They are, in fact, the -last flashes of the light of the individuality -which disappears—of a being, which returns its -substance to Mother-earth. They are, (and now -I find the true phrase) the froth which the river -forms on meeting the ocean.” Death paused.</p> - -<p>At that moment Tito heard a fearful clamor -beneath his feet, like the rolling of a thousand -carriages over a long wooden bridge. He -looked toward the earth but did not see it. In -its place he saw a species of movable sky -which seemed to surround them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span></p> - -<p>“What is this?” he asked, terrified.</p> - -<p>“It is the ocean,” said Death. “We have -just crossed Germany and are entering the -North Sea.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, no!” said Tito, overcome with instinctive -terror. “Take me in another direction. -I would like to see the Sun.”</p> - -<p>“I will take thee to see the Sun, although -we must go backward for it. Thus thou wilt -see the curious spectacle of time turning backwards.”</p> - -<p>He turned the chariot in space, and they -commenced to run to the southwest.</p> - -<p>A moment afterward Tito heard the sound -of waves.</p> - -<p>“We are in the Mediterranean,” said Death. -“Now we cross the Strait of Gibraltar. Here -is the Atlantic Ocean.”</p> - -<p>“The Atlantic!” exclaimed Tito, with respect. -He saw nothing but sky and water, or, -more properly speaking, sky alone.</p> - -<p>The chariot appeared to wander about in -space, beyond the terrestrial atmosphere.</p> - -<p>The stars shone in every direction round -about him wherever he fixed his gaze.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span></p> - -<p>So passed another moment.</p> - -<p>At the end of it he perceived in the distance -a purple line which separated those two -heavens, the one floating the other immovable.</p> - -<p>This purple line turned to red, and then to -orange; afterwards it became brilliant as gold, -illuminating the surface of the waters. The -stars disappeared by degrees, and one would -have said that day was about to dawn. All at -once the moon again appeared, but it had -hardly shone a moment when the light of the -horizon eclipsed it in brilliancy.</p> - -<p>“It is the dawn,” said Tito.</p> - -<p>“On the contrary,” responded Death. “It -is twilight, only that as we travel behind the -sun, and much faster, the west appears to be -the aurora, and the aurora the west. Here are -the beautiful Azores!”</p> - -<p>In truth a lovely group of islands appeared -in the midst of the ocean.</p> - -<p>The sad, evening light, breaking through -the clouds and penetrating the mist of the -rivers, gave an enchanting aspect to the archipelago.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span></p> - -<p>Tito and Death passed over that oasis in -the marine desert without stopping a moment.</p> - -<p>In ten minutes more the sun appeared from -the bosom of the waves, and rose a little on the -horizon.</p> - -<p>But Death stopped the chariot and the sun -again sank.</p> - -<p>They moved again and the sun rose. There -were two twilights in one.</p> - -<p>All this astonished Tito greatly.</p> - -<p>They drove further and further, engulfing -themselves in the day and ocean. Nevertheless -Tito’s watch indicated quarter past nine -at night.</p> - -<p>A few moments afterward North America -appeared in the seas. Tito saw in passing, the -eagerness of men; how they tilled the fields, -bustled in the streets of cities, and skirted the -coast in vessels.</p> - -<p>In one part he distinguished a great cloud -of dust. It was a battle. In another direction, -Death indicated to him a grand religious -ceremony, dedicated to a tree, the idol of that -town. Farther off he showed him two young<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span> -savages alone in a wood, gazing with love upon -each other.</p> - -<p>Very soon the earth again disappeared, and -they entered the Pacific Ocean.</p> - -<p>Thousands of other islands appeared before -their eyes in all directions. In each one of -these were different religions and customs. -And what a variety of costumes, occupations -and ceremonies!</p> - -<p>So they reached China where the day was -breaking.</p> - -<p>This daylight was twilight for our travellers.</p> - -<p>Other stars, different from those which they -had seen before, ornamented the celestial -dome.</p> - -<p>The moon commenced to shine in the east, -but soon hid herself.</p> - -<p>They continued flying with greater rapidity -than the earth turns upon its axis.</p> - -<p>They had crossed Asia when it was night; -to the left was the chain of the Himalayas, -whose eternal snows glistened beneath the -morning stars. They passed the shores of the -Caspian Sea, turned a little toward the left, -and rose above a hill at the side of a certain -city. At that moment the midnight bell -sounded.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;" id="illus4"> -<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="475" height="700" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span></p> - -<p>“What city is this?” asked Tito.</p> - -<p>“We are in Jerusalem,” answered Death.</p> - -<p>“Already?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, we lack but little of having made the -circuit of the world. I stop here because it is -midnight, at which hour I never fail to bend -the knee.”</p> - -<p>“Why?’</p> - -<p>“To worship the Creator of the universe;” -whereupon the chariot descended.</p> - -<p>“I also desire to see the city of God and -meditate among its ruins,” responded Tito, -kneeling at Death’s side and crossing his -hands with fervent piety.</p> - -<p>When both had finished their prayers, Death -recovered his loquacity and joyfulness; and -preceded by Tito again entered the chariot, -saying:—</p> - -<p>“That hamlet that thou seest yonder on a -mountain is Gethsemane. There, was the -orchard of olives. On this other side thou -wilt distinguish an eminence, crowned by a -temple which stands out against a field of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> -stars: that is Golgotha. There I passed the -great day of my life. I thought to have conquered -God; and conquer I did, for many -hours. But, ah! it was in this mountain, one -Sunday morning at daybreak, three days afterwards, -that I saw myself disarmed and powerless. -Jesus had risen! These sites witnessed -also, on that same occasion, my great personal -combat with Nature. Here, our duel took -place: that terrible duel. It was three in the -afternoon, I remember it perfectly, when -Nature, who saw me brandish the sword of -Longinus against the breast of the Redeemer, -commenced to hurl stones at me, to open the -cemeteries and resuscitate the dead. What -could I think? I believed that she had lost -her reason.” Death reflected a moment; then, -raising his head with a more serious expression -of countenance, added:</p> - -<p>“It is the hour! Midnight has passed. -We will go to my house and finish what we -have to say.”</p> - -<p>“Where do you live?” asked Tito, timidly.</p> - -<p>“At the North Pole, amid snows and ice as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span> -old as the world,” responded Death, “where -never has, nor never will tread human foot.”</p> - -<p>So saying, Death changed his course to the -north, and the chariot flew more rapidly than -ever. Asia Minor, the Black Sea, Russia and -Spitzbergen, passed like fantastic visions beneath -its wheels.</p> - -<p>The horizon was soon illuminated with delicate -flames, reflected by a landscape of rock -crystal. All upon the earth was white and -silent.</p> - -<p>The rest of the heaven was of a dark purple -color, dotted with almost imperceptible stars,—the -Aurora Borealis and the ice, all that -there was of life in that wonderful region.</p> - -<p>“We have arrived,” said Death. “This is -the Pole.”</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br /> -<span class="smaller">DEATH AGAIN BECOMES SERIOUS.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-i.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">If Tito had not already seen so much -that was wonderful, during his aerial -voyage; if his remembrance of Elena -had not so completely absorbed his -imagination, and if the desire to know -where Death was taking him had not -disturbed his saddened spirit, the position in -which he found himself, would, at least, have -been a very enviable one in which to study, -and solve, the greatest of geographical problems—the -form and position of the poles of -the earth. The mysterious limits of the continents, -and of the Polar sea, lost in eternal ice; -the protrusion or depression which, according -to different opinions, must mark the position -of the true axis upon which our globe turns; -the appearance of the celestial dome, in which -one could distinguish all the stars that light -the skies of the northern hemisphere; the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> -fiery centre of the Aurora Borealis, and in fact -so many other phenomena which science has -vainly investigated for centuries at the cost of -thousands of illustrious navigators who have -perished in those perilous regions, would have -been as clear and manifest to our hero as the -light of day, and we would have been able to -explain them to our readers.</p> - -<p>But as Tito made no such observations, -neither will we be able to consider anything -which bears no relation to the story. The -human race must remain in its ignorance regarding -the pole, and we will continue this narrative.</p> - -<p>In reminding our readers that the season -was that of the first days of September, they -will comprehend that the sun still shone in that -heaven, where there had been no night for five -months.</p> - -<p>By its pale and oblique light our travellers -descended from the chariot, and Death, taking -Tito by the hand, said to him with gracious -courtesy:</p> - -<p>“This is thy house. Let us enter.”</p> - -<p>A colossal mountain of ice rose before his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span> -eyes, in the middle of which, frozen in snows -as old as the world, was a sort of long, narrow -opening which scarcely permitted a man to -pass.</p> - -<p>“I will show thee the way,” said Death, -passing before.</p> - -<p>The Duke of Verity stopped, not daring to -follow his companion. But what could he -do? Where fly in that infinite desert? What -direction take, in those interminable, icy -plains?</p> - -<p>“Tito, art thou not coming?” asked Death.</p> - -<p>He cast one last and hopeless glance toward -the pale sun, and entered the ice.</p> - -<p>A winding stairway, carved in the same congealed -material, conducted him by tortuous -turns to a vast, square room, without furniture -or ornaments; all of ice. It reminded -one of the great salt mines of Polonia, or the -marble rooms of the baths of Ispahan and -Medina.</p> - -<p>Death had muffled himself up and was sitting -down in Oriental fashion in a corner.</p> - -<p>“Come hither, sit at my side and we will -talk,” said he to Tito.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span></p> - -<p>The youth obeyed, mechanically.</p> - -<p>So profound a silence reigned that one could -have heard the breathing of a microscopical insect, -if in that region there might exist anything -which did not rely upon the protection -of Death.</p> - -<p>Words could not express that terrible cold.</p> - -<p>Imagine a total absence of heat; a complete -annihilation of life; the absolute cessation of -all motion; death, as a form of being; and -even then you could not conceive an idea of -that dead world, or more than dead, as it -neither corrupted, transformed nor gave pasture -to the worms, manure to the plants, elements -to the minerals, nor gases to the atmosphere.</p> - -<p>It was chaos.</p> - -<p>It was <em>nothing</em>, under the appearance of -everlasting snows.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, Tito endured it, thanks to the -protection of Death.</p> - -<p>“Tito,” exclaimed he, in quiet and majestic -accent, “the hour has arrived in which truth -shines before thine eyes in all its magnificent -nudity: I will review in a few words the history<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span> -of our relations and reveal to thee the -mystery of thy destiny.”</p> - -<p>“Speak!” murmured Tito, resolutely.</p> - -<p>“It is undeniable that thou wishest to live; -that all my power, all my arguments, and all -that I reveal to thee each moment are useless -to extinguish the love of life in thy heart.”</p> - -<p>“The love of Elena, you mean,” interrupted -the youth.</p> - -<p>“Love! love!” replied Death. “Love is -life and life is love. Do not mistake that. -And if not, think of a thing which thou mayst -have comprehended perfectly in thy glorious -career as a physician, and during the voyage -that we have just made. What is man? -Thou hast seen him sleep from sun to sun, and -dream, sleeping. In the intervals of this -dream he possessed twelve or fourteen hours -of wakefulness which he knew not how to employ. -On one side, thou foundest him in arms -against his fellow-creatures; on the other, -thou hast seen him crossing the seas to exchange -products. There are those who toil to -dress themselves in this or that color; and -those who pierce the earth to extract metals<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span> -with which to adorn themselves. Here hanging -one; there blindly obeying another. On -one side, virtue and justice consist in such and -such a thing; while on the other, they consist -in the reverse. These judge as truth, what -those hold to be error. The same beauty will -appear to thee conventional and imaginary, according -as thou art Caucasian, Mongolian, -African or Indian. It will be apparent to thee -also, that science is a shallow experiment to -obtain the nearest results, or an illogical conjecture -of the most recondite causes; and that -glory is an empty name, attached by accident -(nothing but accident) to the name of this or -that corpse.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps thou wilt have comprehended that -all which man does is mere child’s-play with -which to pass the time; that his greatness and -his miseries are relative; that his civilization, -social organization and most serious interests, -lack common-sense; that fashions, customs, -hierarchies, are powder, smoke, vanity of -vanities. But what do I say? vanity! less, -even! They are playthings with which thou -entertainest the leisure of life; the deliriums<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> -of fever; the hallucinations of a maniac. -Children, the aged, nobles, plebeians, wise, ignorant, -beautiful, deformed, kings, slaves, rich -and poor, all are the same to me: handfuls of -dust, which dust, my breath unmakes. And -still thou clamorest for life! And still thou -tellest me thou desirest to remain in the world; -still thou lovest that perishable creation.”</p> - -<p>“I love Elena,” replied Tito.</p> - -<p>“Ah, yes,” continued Death; “life is love, -life is desire. But the ideal of this love, and -of this desire, should not be a thing of mortal -clay. It is the deluded who mistake the near -for the remote. Life is love; life is sentiment; -but the great, the noble, that which reveals -life, is the tear of sadness which courses -down the cheek of the newly born and of the -dying; the melancholy complaint of the human -heart, which feels the desire of life and pain of -existence; and the sweet hope of another life, -or the pathetic remembrance of another world. -The worry and unhappiness, the doubt and the -anxiety of those great souls who are not satisfied -with the vanities of the earth, are but presentiments -of another world, of a higher<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span> -mission than that of science and power; of -something, in fact, more infinite than the temporal -greatness of men and the transitory -graces of women. We will confine ourselves, -however, to thee and to thy history, which -thou dost not know. We will enter into the -mystery of thy anomalous existence, and explain -the reasons of our friendship.</p> - -<p>“Tito, thou hast said, that of all the supposed -felicities which life offers, thou desirest one -alone—the possession of one woman. I have -therefore gained great victories in thy soul. -Neither power nor riches, honor nor glory, -nothing, tempts thy imagination. Thou art, -then, a consummate philosopher, a perfect -Christian, and to this point I have desired -to lead thee. Now tell me, if this woman -were dead, wouldst thou feel her loss?”</p> - -<p>Tito rose, uttering a frightened cry.</p> - -<p>“What! Elena?”</p> - -<p>“Calm thyself,” continued Death, “thou -wilt find Elena as thou leftst her. We speak -in hypotheses—so answer me.”</p> - -<p>“Before killing Elena, take <em>my</em> life! You -have my answer.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span></p> - -<p>“Magnificent!” replied Death, “and tell -me: if thou knewest that Elena was in heaven -awaiting thee, wouldst thou not die tranquil, -content, blessing God, and dedicating thy soul -to Him?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes! death would then be resurrection.”</p> - -<p>“So, that with Elena at thy side,” continued -the terrible personage, “thou wouldst ask -nothing more?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then, know all. In the Christian -world this is not the second of September, -1724, as perhaps thou mayst imagine. -Thou and I have been friends many more -years.”</p> - -<p>“Heavens! what do you tell me? In what -year am I then?”</p> - -<p>“The eighteenth century has passed, the -nineteenth, twentieth and even more. To-day -is the feast of San Antonio, the year 2316.”</p> - -<p>“Then I am dead.”</p> - -<p>“As thou hast been for nearly six hundred -years.”</p> - -<p>“And Elena?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span></p> - -<p>“Died when thou didst, and thou didst die -the night we met.”</p> - -<p>“What? I drank the vitriol?”</p> - -<p>“To the last drop, and Elena died of grief -when she heard of thy unhappy end. She and -thou have been in my power for seven centuries.”</p> - -<p>“Impossible!” exclaimed Tito.</p> - -<p>“Listen,” replied Death, “and thou wilt -know all that I have done in thy favor. Thou -and Elena died on the day I said; Elena, -destined on the Day of Judgment to ascend to -the angels; and thou, meriting all the punishments -of Hell. She, for her innocence and -purity; thou, for having lived forgetful of -God and entertaining vile ambitions. To-morrow -the Day of Judgment commences, -when three in the afternoon shall have struck -at Rome.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, my God! It is then the end of the -world,” exclaimed Tito.</p> - -<p>“It is time,” replied the formidable being. -“Finally I may rest.”</p> - -<p>“The end of the world!” muttered Tito, -with indescribable fear.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span></p> - -<p>“It is of no consequence to thee. Thou -hast nothing to lose. So listen. Knowing -that the Day of Judgment was approaching, I, -who have always cared for thee, as I told thee -the first time we met, and Elena, who loves -thee as much in heaven as she did on earth, -prayed to the Eternal that thy soul might be -saved.”</p> - -<p>“I should do nothing for the suicide,” -answered the Creator; “but I will confide his -spirit to thee for one hour. Improve it if thou -canst.”</p> - -<p>“Save him,” said Elena to me.</p> - -<p>“I promised, and went down into the -sepulchre to find thee, where thou hadst slept -six centuries. I sat there at the head of thy -coffin making thee dream of life. Our meeting, -thy visit to Philip V., thy adventures at -the Court of Louis I., thy marriage with Elena, -all was a dream in the tomb. <em>Thou believedst -that three days of life passed in one hour, as six -centuries of death elapsed in a single instant.</em>”</p> - -<p>“Ah, no! it was not a dream!” exclaimed -Tito.</p> - -<p>“I understand thy astonishment,” replied<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span> -Death. “It appeared as existence to thee.... -But such is life, the dreams are realities -and the realities dreams. Elena and I have -triumphed. Science, experience and philosophy -have purified thy heart, have ennobled -thy spirit, have made thee see the magnificence -of earthly grandeur in all its repugnant vanity; -that fleeing from death, as thou didst yesterday, -thou fledst only from the world; and that -begging for eternal love as thou dost to-day, -thou askest for immortality. Thou art redeemed!”</p> - -<p>“But Elena,” murmured Tito.</p> - -<p>“She prays with God. Think not of her; -she does not nor ever has really existed. -Elena was Beauty! the reflection of immortality. -To-day, when the heavenly light of -truth and justice resumes its splendor, Elena -will be part of Him forever. To Him, -then, thou shouldst address thy supplications!”</p> - -<p>“It has been a dream!” exclaimed the -youth with inexpressible anguish.</p> - -<p>“And such will be the world in a few hours; -a dream of the Creator.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span></p> - -<p>So saying, Death rose, uncovered his head -and raised his eyes to heaven.</p> - -<p>“Thou wilt awake in Rome!” he murmured. -“The last day begins—Tito, farewell -forever.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! do not abandon me!” cried the -unhappy boy.</p> - -<p>“‘Do not abandon me!’ thou sayest to -Death, and yesterday thou fledst from me.”</p> - -<p>“Do not leave me here alone in this forsaken -region. This is a tomb.”</p> - -<p>“What!” said the black divinity, ironically, -“hast thou fared so badly here, these past six -hundred years?”</p> - -<p>“What! have I lived here?”</p> - -<p>“Lived! call it what thou pleasest. Here -thou hast slept all that time.”</p> - -<p>“Then this is my sepulchre?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, my friend, and as soon as I disappear -thou wilt be convinced. Then, alone, thou -wilt feel the cold of this house.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! I shall die instantly!” exclaimed -Tito; “I am at the North Pole.”</p> - -<p>“Thou wilt not die, because thou art -already dead; but thou wilt sleep until three<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span> -in the afternoon, then thou wilt wake with all -past generations.”</p> - -<p>“My friend!” exclaimed Tito, with indescribable -bitterness, “do not leave me; or -let me continue dreaming. I do not wish to -sleep. This dreaming frightens me. This -sepulchre suffocates me. Return me to the -villa on the Guadarrama, where I imagined I -saw Elena, and let the destruction of the universe -surprise me there. I believe in God. -I revere his justice, and I appeal to his mercy, -but take me back to Elena!”</p> - -<p>“What supreme love!” said the deity. “It -has triumphed over life, and it is about to -triumph over death. It scorned the earth -and it will scorn heaven. It shall be as thou -desirest, Tito; but do not forget thy soul.”</p> - -<p>“Oh! my friend, I thank you! I see that -you will carry me to Elena’s side.”</p> - -<p>“No, I will not carry thee to her. Elena -sleeps in her sepulchre. I will have her come -to thee, that she may sleep the last hours of -death by thy side.”</p> - -<p>“We will one day be interred together! -Ah! it is too much happiness! I may see<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> -her; hear her say that she loves me; know -that she will remain forever at my side, on -earth or in heaven, and the darkness of the -tomb will be as nothing to me.”</p> - -<p>“Come, then, Elena! I command it!” said -Death, with cavernous accent, tapping on the -floor with his foot.</p> - -<p>Elena, to all appearances the same as when -we left her in the garden of Guadarrama -enshrouded in her white robes, but pale as -alabaster, appeared in that room of ice, in -which this scene had occurred.</p> - -<p>Tito received her kneeling, his face wet -with tears, his hands clasped. Turning, he -cast a look of profound gratitude on the gentle -countenance of Death.</p> - -<p>“Good-bye, my friend,” exclaimed Death.</p> - -<p>“Your hand, Elena!” whispered Tito.</p> - -<p>“My love!” murmured the maiden, kneeling -at her husband’s side.</p> - -<p>And with clasped hands and eyes raised to -heaven they sadly answered Death’s farewell.</p> - -<p>Slowly, the black deity retired.</p> - -<p>“Forever!” murmured the Friend of Man -in the distance.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span></p> - -<p>“Mine, forever!” exclaimed Elena, clasping -Tito’s hands between her own. “God has -pardoned thee and we may live together in -heaven—”</p> - -<p>“Forever,” replied the youth, with ineffable -happiness.</p> - -<p>Death disappeared.</p> - -<p>A terrible cold invaded the apartment.—Tito -and Elena, on their knees, their hands -clasped, their eyes raised to Heaven, were -instantly petrified, immovable in that religious -attitude, like two magnificent mortuary -statues.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONCLUSION">CONCLUSION.</h2> - -</div> - -<div> -<img class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-a.jpg" width="100" height="225" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="dropcap">A few hours afterward the earth burst -like a shell. The stars nearest it, -attracted fragments of the destroyed -mass, and assimilated with them, not -however without causing tremendous -cataclysms, such as deluges, and breakings -away from its axis.</p> - -<p>The moon, almost intact, became a satellite -of either Venus or Mercury. In the mean time -the Day of Judgment for the family of Adam -and Eve had come to pass, and the souls of -the wicked were transported to other planets, -there to commence a new life.</p> - -<p>What greater punishment!</p> - -<p>Those who purified themselves in this second -existence obtained the glory of returning to -the bosom of God, when those planets disappeared.</p> - -<p>But those who did not so purify themselves -passed on to perhaps a hundred other worlds, -where they wandered as we, in ours.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span></p> - -<p>That afternoon, the spirits of Tito and -Elena entered the Promised Land hand in -hand, free, forever, from sorrow and penitence; -saved and redeemed; reconciled with God, -participants in His beatitude, heirs to his -glory....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For the rest, I can end my story as is the -custom with old people, saying: “I went, and -I came but they told me nothing.”</p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="pgx" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STRANGE FRIEND OF TITO GIL***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 64456-h.htm or 64456-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/4/4/5/64456">http://www.gutenberg.org/6/4/4/5/64456</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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